#i really hate when a series with so much potential is wasted like this

[angnimations]

You see, I've been thinking

HOW PHINABELLA COULD'VE BEEN!

We all know how Phineas and Ferb was extended long by its expiration date, but I mean, the expiration date of that summer. We still could've had so much content about the other summers, all through their highschool graduation!

And we all know by now that well, Isabella left the friends group in highschool and inconveniently enough, that's when Phineas develop his crush.

I've always thought that episode was so rushed, their friendship and romantic dynamic had so much to explore that just by 1 episode it couldn't be enough.

You mean to tell me Phineas never reach out in highschool, at least to invite all the scout girls (or ex scout girls, idk how it works lol) to some crazy adventure?

You mean to tell me Isabella never missed Phineas so much that she could settle for a friendship in highschool if it meant to see him?

You REALLY telling me that!?

So, I the crew could've done a better job by dividing their season on multiple summers instead of just one. And make the story have more continuity that way, grow their characters, develop them while they navigate multiple adventures in each summer and while they are going through their teenage years.

COME ON! THAT WOULD'VE BEEN SO COOL!

It could've teached us about growing up and so many lessons that come while your becoming a teenager and young adult (that's right, the last episode of this could-have-been-P&F ends in them going to college >:] )

I think we could've had this phinabella arc, though several episode ofc, in highschool summer season (or seasons?)

> Unfortunately, Isabella left the group in highschool like in the episode. So the summer where that happened we are introduced to this girl in Phineas class, she's a total nerd like him, but really shy. It's stablished she has a crush on someone and Phineas teases her and tries to guess, but never finds out how it is.

This girl is lesbian, but doesn't tell anyone out of fear because, well we all know the world is sadly not normally kind to LGBTQ+ people.

> Isabella finds out through the (ex?) girl scouts that Phineas has this new girl in his backyard helping him and the guys in their adventures.

> At first she tries to play it off, as if she doesn't care what he does anymore because she "is past him".

> Meanwhile, we get to know how they met. Maybe it's something cheesy like Phineas was drawing Isabella and the girl noticed it lol. Or maybe... he was making multiple sketches of what invention he would do to impress Isabella on her birthday as to have an excuse to talk to her, and the girl noticed it and pointed it out. Phineas, flustered, just said it was for an old friend of his and the girl offered to help him if he teaches him all about inventions and how to make them, because she also has something in mind to give to a "special someone".

> Isabella tries to figure out her feelings of jealously and "betrayal", and the scout girls are trying to tell her to just go to his place. She doesn't want to get hurt of he sees them together, or if Phineas didn't even missed her, all the if's keeping her from talking to him.

> Meanwhile, the guys keep on making their respective inventions for their special someone's. Phineas has run out of classmates names to ask her about, and she straight up tells him it's not someone from school, rather someone who lives in the same apartment complex she does. Phineas resorts to just ask her how they look, "Do they have brown hair? Do they have blond hair? Are they tall? Short? What do they like?" Meanwhile he also teases him "Are they from school? From this neighborhood? Are they blonde?..." The list goes on. They enjoy helping each other and talking about this mysterious persons they like, and which they don't disclose the name- but how they look, act, and what they like about them. They also are total nerds so expect multiple geek and science talk- Phineas and Ferb practically adopted her as their little sister now lol.

> Going back to Isabella, we also get to see why she has been pretty busy too. Perhaps she's making some charity work, helping her mother around, things like that. She keeps telling herself she can't go and see Phineas cause she has "XYZ thing to do", and she's running out of excuses, while her longing just grows and grows.

The one of the girl scouts (her bff I can't remember sorry) tells her that at least she should go and talk to him as a friend, that if she lets time pass and doesn't talk to him, they'll grow apart till she can't recognize him, as friend or lover. "Are you willing to lose your friendship with Phineas?".

The girl scout even asks her if she knows what invention he's up to lately, and Isabella is like "Of course! He's up to... Uh..." Isabella can't even remember the last invention he showed her.

This realization- that even she is forgetting things, shocks her and saddens her. "I don't want to lose him. I want him in my life, any way he wants...". She runs to his house to talk to him after so many months and half summer.

> Phineas has to leave for some reason (props the place where he wants to give Isabella her happy birthday invention) and the girl and Ferb are left in charge with the 2 inventions (Phineas' and the girl's). Ferb goes to the house to get them something to drink, and the girl keeps working.

> "HEY PHINEAS WHATCHA- doing...? Hi I'm Isabella, you must be _____" (yeah haven't thought of her name). The girl greets her and identifies her.

"Oh, you are Isabella, Phineas neighbor, the super cool pretty and intelligent girl scout, right?" Isabella is obviously flustered at this description. "Oh, you know me? How so?" The girl, not wanting to blow the Phineas cover, makes some dumb excuse and says that Ferb described her like that. Just as he comes with the lemonade- and awkward funny moment ensues lol. Ferb just downright leaves the backyard back for some "cookies".

> The girl talks to Isabella, and they soon start bonding over Phineas adventures and crazy inventions. She tells her Phineas is a super helpful guide, and has been helping her with this gift she wants to give to someone special, but the girl seems hesitant "It's not even that cool of a gift, really, I'm not good at this. I just hope it doesn't break in h... their hands right as give it, even if I do give it to them..." Isabella sees the cute invention, it's a sort of small robot that seems to analyze the soil, help planting seeds, keeping up with plants needs. Surely, someone that loves gardening would love a gift like that.

"I bet that she'll love it." Says Isabella. The girl is flustered, but happy, and gains some confidence now that she sees how she has such a lovely friend group. "Yeah. Maybe she will. She lives in an apartment, so she doesn't have a gardening space of her own. but since she volunteers on community services aimed to gardening, I thought this could help her. She is a bit forgetful, so this could help her keep track of every garden she takes care of."

> Isabella is really impressed by the girls skills and courage- she feels she has little courage, ignoring and evading Phineas this whole summer, breaking their friendship bit by bit. A sad look shows in her face. "You are really brave, I don't even have the guts to see the person I like in the eyes lately". The girl questions, and Isabella admits "He's really inteligent, and kind, and helpful, a total cute nerd that has the biggest heart ever. I miss him". The girl smiles as she starts guessing- but as clueless as her mentor, she doesn't get who she could be referencing (she would bet it's between Phineas and Ferb lol).

> "I'm sure he misses you too, is it...? Oh hi Phineas!" Phineas arrived "Hi ____, so look I checked with the mayor, he says he can get us both the park free for... Isabella? Long time no see! Hi!!" Clearly shocked and happy, he hurries to their side.

> "Yeah, long time no see. Watcha doing Phineas? Something in the park? What about?" Phineas, a but flustered tries to change the topic "oh is nothing, it's uh- a thing _____ wanted me to go check for her... I mean sure is for us both- I mean, I'm going to use it too, but uh... it's a surprise... How have you been?" The girl chuckles, now fully aware who Phineas has a crush on, and Isabella talks about all her adventures in her part of summer. Ferb comes with the cookies, and they all sit and enjoy the sunset while talking and getting to know what the other has been up to.

...

SO THAT COULD BE SOMETHING! Aw man, it would've been so cool if P&F was like that. Imagine growing with them, seeing how they mature and they finally getting together.

Maaaaaan it could've been so cool hadn't they beat to death the only summer we watched.

Anyways, yeah, that's my small idea. Anyone, feel free to write it better than I did and maybe even making a series of what P&F could've been like if the showed had some sense of continuity and growth.

Thanks for reading! Sorry for the typos, English is not my native language.

#phinabella #phineas and ferb #isabella garcia shapiro #what phineas and ferb coulve been like man #i really hate when a series with so much potential is wasted like this #p&f imagine #p&f headcanons #idk if it goes on those categories sure hope it does #kinda new on this whole making content but i just HAD TO #also had to put some representation while i was at it

[bonebabbles]

I remember when I was reading DOTC when I was around 10, and ever since Misty died I had been waiting for the moment where Birch and Alder learned about her murder, how everyone in their lives has kept it a secret. And then it just didn't happen.

I also remember obsessively re-reading the part where Quiet Rain blows up at Clear Sky.

Birch and Alder are two characters that are just so...

I WANT to say they were forgotten about, but that word doesn't feel right for how they're constantly showing up on the screen. Clear Sky occasionally feels guilty about how he murdered their mother, but for the vast majority of the time, that's described in passive voice. So you're not reminded of just HOW cruel he was, and still very much is.

It's like they're not allowed to be characters.

Like, how does Alder feel about Clear Sky, who seemed to be acting as an adoptive father until he beat her as a child? How did Birch respond later, when Clear Sky was so busy thrashing his sister that he was threatened by a dog? How do they feel about the man who took their mother away from them?

They keep getting cited as "Good Examples Of Non-Campborn Cats," dodging around the fact they were stolen and raised by Petal. Like a lot of the other "adoptions" in the series, she quietly stops mattering to them. But even this fact... like, they're being OTHERED when they were functionally raised SkyClan.

How do they feel about THAT? That their earliest memory is SkyClan, and yet, they'll never be considered truly, fully "clanborn."

Their whole life taken from them, by Clear Sky's cruelty, their formative years spent in his violent shadow, and the narrative is just not interested in that.

#birch wc #alder wc #I see a lot of people calling this arc So Very Interesting #Begging for more of it #but like... the more I think about this arc the more I hate it. #Both reading it and the deep dissatisfaction that settles over me thinking about how much potential it wasted #All sacrificed on the altar of Sweet Brother Love or whatever was going on there #Even people who go 'oh it was so exciting' like... when. did we read the same series #the entire thing is clear sky causing problems and then no one is allowed to react violently to them #because that makes us Just As Bad #what was interesting about 3 books of the moor cats doing NOTHING as clear makes the plot happen #And another 3 books of Clear just being a bastard and everyone feels bad about hating his guts #And here's Birch and Alder who have never really been explored ever #because it would require them to fucking hate the guy who ruined their lives #it doesn't JIVE with his exoneration arc. so it cant happen

[bibibbon]

MHA chapter 416 (rambles)

Ok so this was like mainly a conclusion chapter for many characters and I guess I like that we are getting clarity on what's going on with some of the characters.

This chapter definitely gives me some very mixed feelings I feel like it's one of the best chapters horikoshi has produced in a long time if we exclude whatever is going on with Izuku and shigaraki.

There are still some things I definitely do dislike in this chapter which are:

The overall dismissal of izuku in general by other characters. Like no offense but I feel like we should of seen more people being worried for izuku instead of dismissing their worry and being like oh Iam not putting my faith in him or something because what do you mean you're not worrying for a 16 year old who has to fight an insane psychopath killer?!?? I still hate how momo dismissed this like wasn't 1A's whole objective when it came to getting Izuku back in the vigilante arc was because they were worried and scared for him?!?!? What happend now it makes no sense?!?!? Also i still hate momos atrocious hero costume

Ochako and Toga's character conclusions?!?! Like excuse me what's going on where is toga how is she not in the picture at all if the whole point was that she sacrificed herself for ochako and layed their dying next to her now she is nowhere to be?!?! People just accept it and are like oh well she has been defeated no need to worry but you do realise that she can probably cause damage if she wanted to right?!?? Also Ausi deserves better because what's going on with her she was so out of place and somewhat irrelevant when it came to this arc like seriously hori did her dirty. Also who is next to ochako in that plane ?!?! Am I speaking to early and that could be toga or someone else

Monoma deserved better. Oh did monoma deserve more screentime to shine and actually do more instead he got injured and knocked out offscreen which is such a shame. I really wanted to see more of him

Lady nagant's take on izuku?!?? No offense but Iam sick and tired of characters having some wild takes of izuku. One minute it's oh he sees the good in everyone and he is a saint to the next which is oh he is a puppet who follows instructions to a letter and does more than he should. I still don't like kudo and his views whenever it concerns midoriya it seriously infuriates me. However, now that kudo is gone guess it's lady nagant's turn to take some of the role because hey is she saying that his pain is a good thing and that izuku has a morally grey view of villains which I cannot lie hasn't been proven at all. Don't get me wrong I love that idea but I think like everything in MHA it just has a horrible execution and I can't bring myself to like it. Lady nagant deserves better characterisation then this

This chapter was a 50/50 when it came to the character if Eri. I absolutely adored her interaction with Kota and I find them absolutely adorable also at least ectoplasm is doing something and didn't let the girl run into the battlefield which is good enough (bare minimum). However, it still feels all icky that the heroes used her or well tried to utilise her anyway even if it's with good intentions or whatever the fact that they tried to make her heal aizawa but she lacked energy so she couldn't or whatever. Her lacking energy also feels like somewhat of a horribly introduced plot point because wasn't the whole problem she had when she came to UA was that she had a lot of her quirk built up and shouldn't the power in her horn be enough rewind aizawa into a week back in time like ?!?!! She couldn't be lacking that much energy it makes absolutely no sense to me. Also dam it's sad that Eri is out here being the only one worrying for izuku. They deserve better

Hawks and tokoyami. They deserve their win section I love them and their dynamic just wish the series could of given us more when it came to them seriously the wasted potential the wasted dynamic and tensions get me

The ending of the chapter?!?! Why is izuku in his uniform what happend?!?! I still don't get how they're merging into one person or one entity with different and same memories. Also why is this all about shigaraki like they're sharing memories so why aren't we seeing Izuku's memories this feels iffy to me. The dfo truthers have risen but tbh I don't see how this can benefit izuku in anyway and why does izuku have to watch the shimura family murder. Also if izuku is in his uniform does that mean he has become part of the memory did they do some space jumbo thing where they time travel and now they're changing fate and reality or some shenanigans like that?!??? The kotaro and tenko parallel hit tho that was good but other than that this whole Izuku's Nd shigaraki fight falls flat it's really such a disappointment and disaster to me.

I LOVE THE CONTRAST BETWEEN THESE TWO IZUKU'S. I also adore his relationship with eri I wish we got more of them!!!

#mha critical #bnha critical #mha #hori is a bad writer #horikoshi critical #izuku deserves better #bhna critical #bnha #midoriya izuku #shigaraki deserves better #shigaraki tomura #mha 416 #bnha 416

[mono-moonchilds]

What if hobi was your professor who wants to sleep with ya?

⤑ series: what if...??

⤑ pairing: professor!hoseok x fem!reader

⤑ genre: smut!!

⤑ rating: explicit (18+)

⤑ word count: 1.9k i got carried away

⤑ warnings: oral sex fem receiving, dry humping, touching, he keeps touching her thigh, idk how to word it but he's in a position of power, big!dick hoseok of course, facial, cum eating, a lil overstimulation, he calls her slut like once, I'm not sure whether or not to tag this dub!con, he is her professor / in a position of power so it blurs the lines but also they are both attracted to one another, in the spirit of not potentially leaving out a tag that could be relevant ill also just tag it dubcon

⤑ A/N: my first request in a long time 😅 I hope you like it. this has not been proof read fr. excuse any mistakes

⤑ summary: what if... your professor wanted to sleep with you

a soft sigh fell from your lips as professor jung slid the paper over to you. “still not getting it, huh?” he questioned. shaking your head, you grabbed the sheet stuffing it back into your binder. it was 4:15 and you’d already wasted so much of his time. 

“no, but I’ll just work on it some more once I get back to my dorm.” you said pushing on a smile. “thank you so much for your time, professor jung.” 

“y/n,” he reached out stopping you in your tracks. “how are you gonna work on something you don't even understand yet?” your eyes fell back onto the glossy wooden desk as you shrugged. “exactly. so what’s the rush?”

you attempted to shrug again but professor jung stopped you with a low tsk. “words. use your words.” the older man softly demanded. 

“I don’t wanna waste your time. It’s already been an hour. I’d hate to take up more.”

“you're such a sweet girl,” professor jung cooed a pretty smile filling his face as he looked at you. “you could never waste my time.  you’re one of my favorite students.” 

“oh..uhm,” proper words eluded you. your face feeling hot as you took in both of the sudden compliments. you were one of his favorites? until today you had never even said two words except for the occasional good afternoon when you got to class. “really? didn’t think you ever noticed me. I hardly ever talk.”

“you don’t need words to stand out. trust me.” 

it was embarrassing how big the smile was that’d formed on your face. letting out a low chuckle, professor jung motioned you over. “come over to the whiteboard with me.” getting up from your seat you followed him. as he reached over handing you a marker you got another waft of his signature cologne. the girls always talked about it. how good he smelled. how well he dressed. They were right. Of course, you’d noticed before but right now you couldn’t help but really notice. 

“y/n,” 

“huh?” Your eyes quickly flickered back up. 

a hint of a smirk covered his face. “I said write the equation out for me.” 

“of course, sir. I’m sorry.”

“such a polite girl too. It’s almost like your perfect.” laughing at your obviously flustered face, professor jung easily moved on and began to read the problem out for you. “so what’s the first step?” he asked once you were finished. 

you stared at the board in complete silence. it was just one problem, a problem he’d worked out three different times since you came to his office but you were still so lost. “you’re problem is you thinking too hard about it.” walking up behind you professor jung walked up behind you guiding your hand to the board. his body so close you barely wanted to breathe. “It’s simple,” his warm breath fanned across your neck. “tell me what you instinctively think to do when you first see this.” 

“bring this down,” you pointed with your other hand.

“exactly. now what?”

 pulling your bottom lip between your teeth you thought long and hard. hesitantly you pointed to the middle of the equation. “I think we can start solving for this.” much to your surprise professor jung hummed in agreement. 

“I told you it was simple. you just gotta take these things slowly.” Much to your dismay professor jung stepped back taking the warmth of his body with him. you wanted to whine but of course, you didn’t. “now finish the rest of it for me.”

it took you far more time than it’d taken him. when you looked back at the clock thirty minutes had passed. “I’m done,” You squeaked nervously. 

professor jung was quiet at first. his hawk-like eyes studying the board carefully as he went back through each in every step in his head. when he finally looked back over to you his face was blank at first. with a huff, your shoulders fell in disappointment. 

“good job.”

what?

“I got it right?” your head popped up in surprise. 

he nodded. “like I told you. you just gotta take your time. It may seem intimidating but you gotta go slow.” lifting his hand professor jung gave you a high five. “I think you're going to ace this next test y/n.”

you shook your head with a laugh. “it was only one question.” 

“one question that somebody else is still probably struggling with. be proud of yourself.” 

you were. honestly. professor jung was right even though it was only one problem it was still something. 

“do you want to continue working on the rest of them?”

“oh—no. you don’t have to. if I get stuck I’ll just rewatch the lecture videos. I would hate to take up more of your time.” 

“y/n,” professor jung stopped you once again, his fingers lingering on your skin. “I already told you it’s no bother. I want you to do well.”

his voice was like a trap immediately drawing you in so within seconds you were nodding. “words.” He reminded. 

“okay—I mean yes. thank you so much, professor jung.”

“hoseok,” 

“what?”

“my name. my name is hoseok.” 

hoseok. you liked it.  It was pretty just like him. 

“move your seat over here.” professor jung, no—hoseok directed. “so it’s easier for me to help you.”

you didn’t need to be told twice. 

grabbing your chair you pulled it over to hoseok’s desk before settling back down carefully into the seat making sure your skirt was still neat. “so do you know where you want to start? what problems do you find the most trouble with?” 

looking at the paper the answer was easy. all of them. ever since the class had moved on to this unit you’d been lost. 

“uhh–” You stalled making hoseok raise his eyebrow in anticipation. it was embarrassing to say out loud. math had never been your strong suit in general and now statistics was slowly but surely whooping your ass. the only reason you’d been able to keep the high C you had currently was because of all of the extra credit opportunities he constantly gave out. 

“there's no shame in not understanding something,” 

“all of it. I’ve kind of been struggling since we moved onto this unit.” 

lifitng your chin up hoseok gave you a comforting smile. “and that's completely okay.” your heart fluttered. letting his hand fall down to your leg, hoseok gave your bare thigh a gentle squeeze. “lets get started, okay?” 

even though you nodded you were far from paying attention. you couldn’t. not with how close hoseok was and how when he talked his fingers softly caressed your skin. he made your head spin. in a good way, in a perfect way. you never wanted today to end. 

“how about you try this one y/n?”

fuck. 

“were you paying attention?”

“I’m sorry.” you quickly apologized.

“what's got you so distracted?” instead of saying anything you just looked down. preparing to move his hand Hoseok apologized but you stopped him keeping it right there. 

“It’s okay. I–I liked it.” 

“really ?” hoseok lifted a brow. 

you began to nod but quickly corrected yourself. “yes.” You vocalized. 

a pleased grin filled Hoseok’s face.  “how about we try something different, hmm?”

“okay.” 

interlocking your fingers hoseok got up guiding you over to the couch that was pushed against a near wall. siting down on the leather he pulled you onto his lap, spreading both of your thighs on each side of his body. “you still okay?” 

“yes,” You were more than okay. 

running his hands up your thighs all the way up to your ass, hoseok squeezed pulling you down deeper into him. “shit–” he groaned. “you're so fucking wet. I can feel you leaking through my pants. why didn’t you say something baby?” 

“I’m sorry, Sir.” you moaned out. his hard-on was pressing right into your clit. hoseok was huge. you didn’t even have to see it to know.

reaching down hoseok pushed your panties to the side so that now your clit was in bare contact with the roughness of his slacks. It felt so good. new sensations rushing your body as you swiveled your hips back and forth. 

lifitng your sweater and bra up hoseok let your breasts fall free. wasting no time he leaned forward latching onto the hardening pebble. alternating between licking and suckling on one breast hoseok twisted and pulled at the other one. 

“oh–oh my..” a whine escaped you as your head lulled to the side. you wanted more–needed more. “muh-more..” you breathed out. 

letting go of your nipple with a low pop hoseok stared up at you. “you ever had sex before?”

you nodded. something of a disappointed look flashed across his face. “on–only once though.” you quickly added. 

settling you on the cushion next to him, hoseok slid to his knees spreading your thighs back open. you were so exposed, the cool air of the room hitting your cunt as he stared looking as if he’d just won a million-dollar prize. as if it was even possible your face felt hotter. 

“don't be embarrassed,” hoseok tsked. “you have such a pretty pussy.” 

gripping the globes of your ass hoseok pulled you closer to the edge of the couch. swiping his tongue across your clit, a deep chuckle left his mouth as he pulled away. “so fucking reactive,” he whispered. 

leaning back forward he latched himself to your sensitive button. flicking his tongue back and forth, hoseok toys with it pulling low moans from you. you’d never had anyone do this before. “feels so guh-good, professor jung.”

gripping his hair you pulled him closer. his eyes fluttering closed as his tongue dipped into your whole fucking it in and out. sliding one hand up hoseok's fingers found its way back to your nipple. his eyes were closed–his eyebrows furrowed in deep concentration as deep groans escaped as if he was being pleasured himself. 

pulling his hair tighter your back arches in pleasure. “professor—hoseok!” you cry out squeezing your eyes shut. “oh..oh,” you gasp, feeling the pressure rising in your stomach. 

as your mouth falls open you pray everyone else that worked in the hall was gone. loud moans fill the room as you cum hard on his tongue. hosoek doesn’t stop. his tongue flicked faster as he suckles harder on your clit, milking you for all you had. 

“professor jung,” you mewl begging for him to give you a minute. of course, he doesn't though. hejust continues greedily suckling making your eyes roll back. when he finally does pull away you let out a moan of relief, your body beginning to fall to the side before hoseok stops you with a firm grip on your hair. 

unbuttoning his slacks, hoseok shoves down his pants letting his cock spring free. just like you’d thought it was huge. at least seven inches with a pretty brown tip. telling you to hold out your tongue Hoseok tapped his head on it. his hand massaged the rest of the length as he swiped it along your pink muscle. 

“such a good fucking girl,” he grunted moving his hand faster. “next time I’m going to fuck that little pussy. you’d like the, wouldn’t you? fucking slut.” With a deep groan, hoseok nutted all over your face. his hips stuttering as a never-ending flow of cum spurts out. 

letting go of the iron-clad grip he had on your hair hoseok falls back onto the couch. wiping away the cum that was on your eyelids, hoseok pushed his fingers into your mouth to which you happily obliged. 

a pleased smirk filled his face. “I’m gonna have so much fun with you.”

#bts smut #bts fic #hoseok smut #bts fanfic #hoseok x reader #hoseok fanfic #jhope smut

[ladyluscinia]

Izzy, Bottles, and Apologies

Izzy's arc in S2 has been a wild ride.

The S1 Izzy enjoyers are feeling vindicated as hell, many people are fully revising their opinion of him, and the people still hating him have a new criticism or off the wall theory daily. David Jenkins LOVES Izzy and is having the time of his life trying to make sure everyone else does too. They had Con O'Neill sing in drag!

And naturally I have thoughts.

This is gonna be a two part post, I think. First, as much as people are celebrating Izzy having realized his arc and come into his own - from the singing to the apparent BlackBonnet shipping - there are some threads they could pull on that might reveal more arc to come. And I am really hoping they pull them, so I'm gonna tell you why you should too!

And second, I have some minor points I dislike and concerns that this might be the end of the arc. Which would be disappointing but I think I get why, so I'm gonna discuss that too.

To start...

---

"How are you handling all this so well?"

Here's the thing about S2 Izzy - while I need to be clear his behavior is not OOC or inconsistent with S1, it is happening rather fast. I'm pretty sure that has a lot to do with out of universe reasons I'll get into later, but in-universe it stands out. Now, he's hardly the only one operating on an accelerated schedule - the timeline for this season is an insanely fast not-even-two-weeks - but Izzy's defining struggle in S1 was fear of change. That was the cause of his friction with Edward, and what made him an antagonist in the first place.

In S2 he's gone through a lot of trauma, yes, but that fear is noticeably less present than I would expect.

Izzy in 2x06 has been cleaned up from his sobbing mess phase for just over 48 hours and he faces Edward with a joke, and then that night sings a moving French serenade to the crew. The next morning he's teasing them about finally hooking up and spends the day offering both Stede and Edward relationship advice.

He's a newly realized man... shedding repression and embracing who he could be. Accepting his breakup with Edward and trying to openly support the relationship that's better for him.

It's fun!

It's also, potentially, a bit of a flag. Maybe not a red one, not yet, but... pink-ish? A bit orange?

Let's look a little closer at those frayed edges.

---

"Well, you see, I have a system..."

There's an exchange from right at the start of the Pilot episode that has echoed through the entire series so far:

"Bottle it up?" -> "No, Frenchie! No, that's the worst thing you could do!"

Not talking to other people, not addressing your traumas... that's the kind of shit that just builds and builds inside you. When the cork eventually pops, the resulting damage can be a lot. Look at the finale of S1, where all of Stede's bottled up guilt and insecurities laid waste to his relationship with Edward, and then inadvertently became the first domino in the Kraken.

S2 is quick to bring this scene back into the forefront. The first time we see the Breakup Boat crew talking in 2x01, Frenchie reveals that "Bottle it up?" wasn't just a random comment he made, but a philosophy of his:

"Ah - well, you see, I have a system for dealing with all the terrible things I've seen. There's a box, in my mind, and I put the things in the box, I lock the box, and then I don't open it again. Works like a charm."

Apparently, Frenchie is the only one it actually seems to be working for.

Now, the show has been drawing some interesting lines between Frenchie and Izzy. From both serving as Blackbeard's First Mate to being frequently shown as a duo - tormenting Navy guys together on Sunday's raid, Frenchie holding Izzy's hand, Frenchie leaning on Izzy's leg in the cell, Frenchie behind him raising the flag in 2x05 - it's fitting that Izzy echoes Frenchie's preferred coping method. First he frames the non-acknowledgement of harm from Edward as just... part of piracy. He's a pirate, so he's fine with it.

And then we get Izzy's little whittled shark reveal and the conversation with Lucius about his leg:

"I don't know what you're talking about. Shark did this... dangling my legs over the side of the ship. Served me right, too."

Lucius calls him out on the unhealthy behavior, and Izzy concedes his point:

"O-kay, that seems healthy. Using a bit of fiction to help cover up your trauma." -> "Yeah, well... not moving on is worse. Twatty."

And to give him credit, he's right in his advice to Lucius. Filling his sketchbook with pages and pages of Blackbeard trauma is Lucius's form of bottling it up - thinking in endless recursive circles about his tumble off the ship and everything that followed. We already know chasing revenge instead of living is bad - Jim and Spanish Jackie established it last season, and Pete just echoed them. When Izzy advises Lucius to move on, that's what Lucius does.

But what Izzy is doing with the shark? That's not the same thing at all. He's lost a leg, grazed a bullet off his own head, and was snarling drunken accusations at himself in the mirror... he's not moving on from that. He's bottling it up with a nice dose of self-blame.

Cutting the legs off the unicorn for not doing it's job right and saying "served me right" about his fictional shark? There's a real dark knot of emotions there.

(Recall, too, that Edward deflected his hurt from Stede's abandonment into a "fictional character" during his chats with Lucius, and that delayed the explosion but couldn't stop it.)

So... Izzy's definitely coping with trauma in a way the show does not advise and often circles back to. Can we see any signs in 2x06 and 2x07?

---

The Weight of Things Unsaid

At the very start of 2x06, Izzy gets the thing he spent all of 2x05 mentally bracing himself to never hear - an apology from Edward for his leg. He walks up to initiate conversation and begins talking like nothing has changed. Edward is back in his leathers. Appropriate, given that his penance onesie was nothing genuine, just "how long do I have to wear this fucking thing for?" And Izzy is ready for them not to address the obvious hurt, to just smooth over a few jabs and go back to normal... but even Edward's mumbled little "Sorry about your leg" is so significant and difficult he flees as soon as he gets it out, leaving Izzy to sit, incredulous, with the acknowledgement.

It's still almost definitely not enough.

There was so much between them in 2x01 - 2x03. The writers literally did BlackHands love confessions on both sides. An apology from Edward Teach - a man who historically does not apologize - is a huge first step but still only the first step. The real things unsaid are so much bigger than a leg.

We get something else, too... Edward commenting on Izzy's drinking.

"Jesus. Really putting that away, aren't ya?"

Izzy has had booze a lot this season. He lost a leg and pain meds aren't really an option, so not surprising, but notable. Edward, advocating for substance abuse to deal with bad feelings, calls him a lightweight in 2x01. When they are found with the dead seabird in 2x03, Izzy takes a pointed drink from his bottle, and then 2x04 he spends the entire episode completely plastered. He seemingly sobered up for 2x05 - probably to focus on sword training and his whittling project - but now the bottle is back again before Izzy disappears for several hours.

And a little liquid courage might explain his going all in for the Calypso's Birthday performance.

I do appreciate that the performance on it's face is something completely unexpected for Izzy, but when thinking about it... it does make sense.

We already know music and performance were available on Blackbeard's ship even before Stede. Edward learned to play shanties on the piano somewhere, and singing is a common and encouraged part of sailing culture. Izzy's choice of song to perform is something a lot more emotional, but this is probably not his first performance for a crew.

Makeup, too, is in fashion for men and women at this time, and OFMD has shown it as such before. Izzy has never worn fashion makeup, or tried to be beautiful, but the concept wouldn't be alien to him. Wee John's description of a dramatic party look might even have intrigued him specifically because Izzy has actually done "looks" before - of the terrifying "theatre of fear" kind. The Kraken did have his whole crew in makeup for their raids. Taking the opportunity to embody something a bit more vulnerable and try to bring joy to this crew that took care of him is meaningful as fuck.

And it's still a drag performance!

It's a good pair of moments - before and after Ned. Proof that all this isn't just coping method - that's not what I'm arguing here - and even if Izzy's still bottling up a lot of feelings he's not doing the same full pressure bomb thing as he did in S1. There's been growth!

(This is why the flags are only pink-ish / orange-ish right now.)

Episode 2x07 though... I'm not so sure he's doing good as much as pretending it's all good.

Showing up to make his joke in the morning is a fun moment. I especially enjoy Edward's little "fuck off" with no bite to it 🤣🤣🤣 Reminder they do live together on a ship, so this is likely not even close to the first morning-after that Izzy has gotten front row seats to. But, at least to me, there's also a very performative feeling about it. Izzy being very Look how normal I can be about you fucking your boyfriend, Ed - and Edward picks up on it too. That's why he turns to Stede and whispers "He's jealous" as Izzy walks away.

Izzy continues to make jokes and give advice through the day to our main couple, but he's... subdued. I think his fake chill also disguises that he and Edward aren't on the same page about what they discuss at the docks, hence his poor advice to "listen to it" when the "it" in question is Edward's immediate desire to run away from Stede and become a fisherman. They are talking again, but haven't resumed communicating.

I also think it's relevant that Izzy goes to try and support Stede after Edward dumps him, because we're still waiting for Stede to stop bottling things up. He doesn't talk about Badminton or feelings of inadequacy or even the babiest little olive branch to Edward about "hey my dad kinda sucked too." Edward's two exes are sitting in the bar corner together, thinking about all the shit they won't talk to him about until it kills all three of them. Exciting!

The pressure is building. It has to circle back to Stede in S3. I'm hoping at the same time, it circles back to Izzy, too.

Hoping we get to explore some of his anxiety, and his internalizing negative self-image and blame. At the moment, I think Izzy might have less gotten over his anxieties and more just let go of the wheel of his life entirely, and fortunately had people around to steer him in okay directions. It would be really interesting to explore that more.

(Even if I have some concerns they may not.)

---

Subtle as a Cannonball to the Face

Izzy's character arc was always going to be a long journey - not because he was somehow morally worse than everyone else, or required particularly painstaking growth, or even because there was going to be some great need to "hold him accountable" for S1. No, it was going to be a long journey from an antagonist start for the same reason I mentioned earlier: Izzy's core struggle is fear of change.

OFMD opens with two protagonists recklessly pursuing change in ways that harm themselves, their relationships, and others, and a primary onscreen antagonist resisting change in a way that harms himself, his relationships, and others. There's no easy morality here - they all fuck up. And they all require the entire show to actually figure out the correct balance of change and growth and facing the past.

"I think the three of them are on an arc together that's pretty inseparable." - David Jenkins (Source, 9 Oct 2023)

So... why is there a chance that everything I've mentioned above is going absolutely nowhere and Izzy's arc has been wrapped up with a bow in S2?

Well.

It's late March 2022, the fandom's age is still only countable in weeks, I personally haven't even watched the pilot yet, had only even heard of the show 3 days before... and one of David Jenkins first post-finale statements is telling people to pay attention to Izzy's POV and his and Edward's love story on rewatches (Source, 25 Mar 2022), and then soon after comparing Stede to a homewrecker in Edward and Izzy's toxic marriage (Source, 15 Apr 2022). Lots of links because this stuff was available to the fandom from the start.

By the first half of May 2022 (while poor Mr. Jenkins is still anxiously trying to get his series renewed for S2, since the confirmation won't come until June 1) the takes on Izzy have soured a lot. It's not a "homophobic gay" joke anymore. Now it's "Izzy is the embodiment of colonialism who enforces a racist and homophobic ideal of Blackbeard on Edward" and "pretending Izzy could be canonically gay is homophobic" and "Izzy bought Edward as a slave from the British". Harassing anons have already started on tumblr. No first hand experience with Twitter but I've heard horror stories. These takes are spreading like wildfire through the fandom, with a heavy backing of white fans accepting and spreading anything that sounds vaguely racially-conscious as something they just missed in their privilege and need to listen to POC about. Or listen to other white fans that say they've been listening to POC.

The anchor hoist in 1x09 (that was a complete directing coincidence, as the crew confirmed in late May) is being taken as incontrovertible proof that Izzy is a violent racist, and the relatively small Izzy fandom pushing back against any of these reads is being likened to toxic fangirls declaring Kylo Ren a poor widdle victim because they think violent white guys are so hot their brains fall out. This is happening loudly and in the public forums of social media.

Can you imagine being David Jenkins right then?

This is one of your favorite little guys, who you wrote a silly little homoerotic pirate jealousy arc for. He's kinda cringefail and tends to be a dick, but you cast a guy who you think embodies him with so much sympathy and genuine emotion. You're so excited to explore his direct relationship to the main couple of your series even more. Unfortunately, you and a lot of the cast and crew are also engaging maybe a bit too much in fandom spaces, which very few of you have much familiarity with navigating as creators. AND there's still renewal stress!

If I were him, I too would consider that perhaps my intended Izzy arc was a bit too nuanced and drawn out, and maybe I needed to clear up some misconceptions as soon as I got the opportunity.

Enter S2.

MAX reduced the budget for the season significantly and it shows - particularly in the whole thing having to squeeze into 8 episodes - and I wouldn't be surprised at all if worries over a S3 renewal / S3 budget impacted S2 writing as well. Character arcs got pinched, goals had to be prioritized... and from the looks of the season, "make sure everyone knows Izzy is not a homophobic villain tormenting Edward as fast as possible" came out as a big goal.

I mean they open with a dream sequence that literally mocks the idea of a heroic Stede rescuing Edward from the dastardly Izzy. It's not subtle.

And the lack of subtlety is kind of what's concerning me.

Izzy's arc is (I think) leaving enough threads that they can extend it into S3 with the reveal he's not actually fine and done developing, but they also seem to want his S2 arc to end in a place where maybe he is. Lots of giant signs pointing to him and saying "Look! Everyone likes him!" or "Look! He's also gay!" at the expense of some of his cringefail or dickish charm. My guy had anxiety he dealt with poorly in S1, and I do think they are trying to frontload or adjust the arc so he's basically (or at least seemingly) over that before the next hiatus.

The best way I've seen it described is that the show no longer trusts the audience to pick up what they are putting down, and so they feel the need to really hammer it in. Not necessarily OOC, but definitely de-emphasizing any of his rough edges that were originally just written to not be any worse than the other characters.

This is why Izzy gets shot by Edward in the very first episode for a bunch of complicated reasons that are really good character work and not super hard to discern, but then later they have Izzy point out to Stede why he got shot twice. It's all very "look into the camera and say the themes", because to some degree they are afraid everyone is going to get easily convinced Edward shot him for calling him a namby-pamby that one time.

It makes me worried they are too afraid of misinterpretation to commit to the arc they originally conceived of, even with the finish line in sight in S3.

And, again, I get it, Mr. Jenkins. In October 2022 he made a funny quip and a boner joke on a tweet about Edward's blanket fort and the hordes descended to scream victoriously about how he was cutting down the Izzy stans for their racist infantilization crimes of thinking Izzy would *checks notes* help hold up a blanket. It's a very reasonable conclusion that this fandom cannot read and needs to be spoonfed Izzy's arc.

It just sucks that a toxic section of fandom's misinterpretations appear to have undercut a strong - and, honestly, not that complicated - character arc so much that S2's BlackBonnet arc can be about fuck ups and backsliding, but Izzy needs at least the illusion of having no flaws left come hiatus time.

#our flag means death #ofmd s2 #ofmd s2 spoilers #ofmd meta #my meta #izzy hands ofmd #izzy hands #character arcs #ofmd 2x06 #ofmd 2x07 #and here's my associated izzy meta because i love to talk about both my blorbos lol #ladyluscinia #david jenkins

[highladyofterrasen7]

Ok nesta and feysand and the pregnancy plot:

The whole point of the pregnancy was for it to advance nesta’s “redemption arc” (you can’t argue with me on this)

Like when nesta told feyre that nyx’s wings would kill her it was so she knew she’d gone too far and (surprise surprise) your actions and hateful words can affect people

Now this wouldn’t’ve worked if feyre knew- aka if Rhys had told her- so maas HAD to write it like this and villainise rhys for nesta to make her look better (like some sort of saviour almost) so that it would kickstart her “changing for the better” the whole thing wouldn’t’ve worked otherwise. So while I recognise rhys wasn’t completely innocent in the secret, it’s still more of a reflection on sjm

Which effectively spilt the fandom in half and- in the eyes of some- “ruined feysand”- and in the eyes of the others- made us hate the book (and sjm) bc of the wasted potential and the way those characters were portrayed

With the final scene in which feyre and Nyx die (like give them a rest) again maas HAD to write it like that to effectively “mend the bridge” between feyre and nesta, without nesta actually being held accountable for her actions (which is not cool because she said some fucked up shit)

I have a theory that Bloomsbury wanted Maas to make more books in such a successful series as a money grab (which is why it was “finished”) and in order to do that maas felt like she needed to make nesta worse so she could make nesta better (probably because she was stuck because like with the end of a series, the loose ends were tied up), but she had no clue how to actually do it (when she could’ve focused more on a relationship and actually thinking about a better plot or… written another feysand book)

Therefore she made something that should have been so joyous for the couple (and fans) into an extremely traumatising and controversial experience

Again I remain adamant that the pregnancy could’ve been an interesting plot for a novella where it actually told Rhys’ pov and what he was thinking and cleared up any misconceptions about the book (and shut up his antis instead of giving them fuel for the fire) and showed them like racing against the clock to save feyre. And have a way to save them without nesta losing her powers. Also for some action they could’ve been trying to find bryaxis.

I still find it really strange she wrote rhys like that, a character she has explicitly mentioned to be one of her favourites, so either she didn’t think about his actions when writing, or just thought we would ignore it (we’re trying)

The redemption arc didn’t even fully work because there are a lot of people who still dislike nesta

The fact is that if maas had’ve thought out the plot and the effect it would have on fans and had a different way of making nesta more likeable, the book would’ve been so much better and not been a lost cause

Feel free to add some more points

#sarah j maas #acotar #sjm critical #rhysand #feyre archeron #feysand #acosf #anti acosf #a court of silver flames #nesta archeron #pro rhysand #pro feyre

[pinkandpurple360]

If Stolitz is endgame 🥺 why is it so incredibly hostile to its protagonists verbalised feelings and his entire carefully crafted identity. The ship has been eroding the fabric of the series down to changing its whole genre to a melodrama because that’s what it takes to shift a villain to a pitiable malewife. Stolas makes Blitz a more violent, sadistic, and self hating person, he belittles and mocks his dreams in life too.

This was basically how Stolas handled Blitz telling him he’s sick of always being forced into sex, (rape) to keep his job alive, and Stolas pretending it can be the start of a relationship is fucking sick.

Haha. Yeah it was funny I suppose. When you come over next time you can verbally degrade me back daddy 🥰

I don’t like Stolitz pairing because I care about the happiness of the character Blitz. This pairing does not care about his happiness. It is punishing him for not giving into someone he doesn’t want, never wanted, and breaking down his integrity bit by bit each episode until he’s a shell who just smiles and cuddles and kisses with Stolas or makes cute baby eyes at his human form. It’s been this image since he was a tiny scared little boy being told a Goetia wants to buy him to be his playmate.

It is the equivalent of “yeah sure you say you don’t want it but what does your body say, why don’t you just stop pathetically resisting and submit to stolas”

The narrative ignores his constant, constant, verbalised protests and visible discomfort. Stolas makes him feel less than and everyone says “it’s all in his head because of his insecure inferiority complex”even though it’s fucking NOT ALL IN HIS HEAD. The plot sees his lack of consent as just a challenge. It’s ignoring what he apparently “really” wants ‘deep somewhere in his subconscious’ maybe and it is deadset on making every last episode a guilt trip about stolas being so lonely and oh so fucking sad. He needs blitz to be happy again. He deserves blitz to be happy again. He misses blitz so much he loves blitz. He’s so mean for not answering his every last call, why didn’t he come running? stolas is so helpless without his hero blitz. HE WILL DIE IF BLITZ DOESNT TEXT BACK!!!! oh sorry too much? No, not for this show.

No character ever, once, listens, acknowledges, or cares about the fact that Blitz doesn’t want this. Except for a deeply wasted vilified character called Striker, and potentially Asmodeus. Stolas abuses and demeans him as a lesser being holding his job over his head then Millie calls him his “boyfriend” 😍While he is explaining to someone he actually feels attraction to, that this is a very fucked up contract he’s forced into. But he’s not being coy or creating acover up story, this is literally.what.it.is. Moxie and Millie are winking and nudging in the back. Guys. Stolas put a cigarette out on Blitzs body, calls him an infantilising nickname, and calls him itty bitty. He speaks to him in baby voice because he’s an imp. Blitz is always fucking communicating this and I’m supposed to laugh, it’s ignored and he’s forced to anyways. Or implied “he does want this but just doesn’t want to admit it.” Even though he is always so open about who he finds hot and can never hide that fact. He fucking says ‘Ew’ as a child and ‘Ew’ as an adult.

Ohh He’s just pretending he finds Stolas ugly and creepy as fuck and that he always has been. He doesn’t desire stolas that way. Or any way. When hes told he’s bought out to be his friend he says “Ew”, when Stolas assumes he wants to ravish him, tells Blitz what he thinks his own feelings are he says “Ew” then fakes it. His father forced him to be around Stolas, despite his protests. He was under threat, to be his friend. His clown act is a performance, his friendship is a performance, his sex is a performance. He needed to do all of these things to fucking.survive.

#helluva boss #stolitz critical #mentions of SA #HBoss romanticising SA as a kink

[fanfic-lover-girl]

Harry Potter characters that I like

In response to a Romione fan who thought I hated every HP character and hated everything about the series because I don't stan certain characters and ships, I want to mention here the few characters I like.

For me, I like a character usually if:

they have an interesting personality and background

I feel sorry for how they are generally misunderstood or bashed by fandom (sometimes I take great pleasure in being a contrarian haha) or treated by the author.

their wins feel earned in the narrative and I feel inspired

So here is my list!

Draco Malfoy + Malfoy family

I love Draco so much. I admit that I was drawn in mostly through fanon but as I explored the books more, I really enjoyed his book character a lot. He has a vibrant and entertaining personality and I like how meta he can be sometimes. Every time he proclaims how bad Hagrid is as a teacher or how Hogwarts sucks as a school, I just want to hug him so badly. I also like his parents and their interactions as a family later in the books. Narcissa is my fav mom, no contest. I just think that JKR wasted his potential. Draco is the most developed Slytherin kid and his character should have represented hope for a better future. But of course, JKR only cares about her lions (and Snape who she tried to retcon as a lion too lol) so screw Slytherins. And the NPC houses.

Black family

Gosh, I absolutely ADORE the Black family. The Black family is the most intriguing set of characters JKR ever wrote in HP. The Black family lore, the constellation theme, the dark history, the tragedy. Chef's kiss! Screw making a marauders' prequel!!! Give me a Black Family series! You shouldn't be surprised that Sirius Black is my favourite marauder. Compared to Sirius, James Potter is an utter bore.

Neville Longbottom

I often wish Neville was the chosen one instead of Harry. I think Neville's story is more tragic than Harry's. It must be torture to have your parents alive but practically dead. And Neville just feels more heroic to me. A lot of times, I hate Harry's hero's journey because JKR keeps letting Harry win due to deu ex Machina. It was nice seeing Neville gradually grow into the man he was at the end. And Neville's rage at Bellatrix just felt more visceral compared to Harry's with Moldy Voldy. I just like Neville, he's so sweet and he deserves better friends.

Percy Weasley

On the surface, I don't care much about Percy but I do feel sorry for him. Ron and the twins treated him like trash. His family just had a hate boner for him. Poor Percy. I can vibe with a family black sheep character. I don't like how people paint him as the bad guy for walking out on his family. And I appreciate how distinguished he is as a Weasley. He is the only Weasley member not to bow down and kiss Dumbles' backside like a brainless puppet. It's a shame it backfired on him but I admire his logic.

Luna Lovegood

To be honest, Luna was a nothing character to me until I began reading Druna fanfiction and I realized how adorable her character is in the books. She makes me smile and I like how she used to talk back to the trio in the beginning. So funny when Luna told Harry that people thought Hagrid was a bad teacher lol! I think Luna is the only HP girl I like...also maybe because I really like picturing her with Draco. No shame!

Severus Snape

What a beautiful and tragic character. Like Draco, Snape is such a pleasure to read. The man is pure entertainment in written form. I don't love Snape the way I do Draco, but I like picturing him with a better life. 'Snape drops out of Hogwarts' is one of my favourite AO3 tags. I love how he dedicated his life to good even though life was cruel to him and gave him a bad hand. Everything about Snape is so intriguing and I like learning more about him. Definitely one of JKR's best characters.

Ron Weasley

I hate the golden trio but I find Ron the most tolerable and the most interesting. It's a shame I found myself disliking the guy in the epilogue. People complain about the movies ruining Ron but JKR was ruining Ron in the books too. Ron started out as so intelligent but gradually JKR made him slobbier and dumber. I like how Ron was the common sense guy. Once again, Ron had to be the one to tell Harry what a complete trash disaster Hagrid was. Lord, I hate that man! Shame Hagrid's spiders didn't kill him!!! I wish JKR expanded on Ron's chess ability. Ron showed promise as being a leader of the trio (Lord knows Harry was a disaster) and Ron being strategic would fit with his chess skills...but JKR never followed through. My fellow HP critic, chicory, mentioned this passage:

‘Hmm,’ said a small voice in his ear. ‘Difficult. Very difficult. Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind, either. There’s talent, oh my goodness, yes – and a nice thirst to prove yourself, now that’s interesting … So where shall I put you?’

applies more to Ron than Harry and I have to agree with her.

There are also several instances of Ron just being a sweet friend to Harry and Hermione and I wish he had better friends. I don't care what Romione/Hermione fans say. Hermione does not deserve a guy like Ron. Never did and never will. I don't even think Harry deserves Ron either. Ron does so much more for Harry than Harry ever did for him. I would have preferred if the Luna friendship was developed more for Ron. Ron has his infuriating moments but his great moments offset them. Out of the trio, I think Ron is the best character and sometimes I wish he was the protag instead of Harry.

Well, let me end it at 7, the perfect number! I can't fully word why I like or love some of these characters but this is a gist.

Of course, there may be other characters that I enjoy for what they are in the story (the Death Eaters, Dumbledore etc) but I don't care about them enough to mention them. Blessings!

#hp characters i like #ron weasley #draco malfoy #percy weasley #neville longbottom #luna lovegood #malfoy family #black family #sirius black #anti golden trio #anti romione #severus snape #anti jkr #pro draco malfoy #pro ron weasley #anti rubeus hagrid #of course I cant miss a shot at cursing that buffoon #pro snape

[storiesofsung]

Obey Me Rewrite - the Passion Project

Note: spoilers below the cut

I’ve always been in love with the game obey me and been super passionate about it as a long time fan however the game itself is kind of lacking.

Obviously it does what it does well, it’s a dating simulator about demons from hell but what I mean is it lacks potential.

I love the characters and their relationships with each other and the overall concept, that is what made me fall in love with it in the first place however I do have my own issues with the game not as a dating simulation but as a story.

To give you more context:

Characterization

- characters are given great potential with interesting backstories and fun personalities however the direction the game takes them completely wastes any sort of progression as interesting 3 dimensional characters

Example: Satan - he is shown to show personal struggle with a sort of inferiority complex with the way he was brought into this world (or hell) by people only viewing him as an extension of Lucifer and only as wrath, not as an individual living being. He works hard to create a name for himself and he prides himself on wisdom. He has a strong character and one of the best self restraint in terms of anger I dare say (he did attack mc but honestly from the way he was acting in Nightbringer it is progression) plus he is calm and collected and obviously by now a respected demon. Though he knowledgeable in itself, he still has issues to work with, one being working out his difficulties with Lucifer, (maybe) coming to terms with the way he was born and the trauma he went through when Lilith fell (he technically felt Lucifer’s pain). Instead as the series progressed we only saw him a soft cat boy, cmon 😀.

There are much more examples of this in fact all of them have such wasted potential, I’m not going to go in depth (unless someone asks me to hehe) but a very notable mention I would also like to make is

Example 2: MC - I’m not going to comment on how they are dull or has no personality because actually they can be very sassy depending on which options you choose. Also the mc is supposed to just be a self insert so I understand that enough. Anyways what I would like to give note to is the fact that mc forgave belphie right away after he I don’t know KILLED US? Or should I say, more accurately, the game forced us to forgive him so we would have the belphie lovey dovey options (no hate to belphie stans I’m just saying). What I mean to say is that we shouldn’t have not forgiven him you know, honestly it’s more of pacing. We COULD have forgiven him and actually that would be interesting development and a look into their backstory as angels, however there was no real progression towards forgiveness or us even being remotely scared of him (I may be wrong on this but I remember belphie and mc becoming besties real quick with no hard feelings) like the snappy mc incorrect quotes I think would actually fit well into the story as well as proper talk and real progression towards forgiveness.

2. Concepts and storylines

This is slightly less of an issue but I do take slight to the way the game handles storylines. Season 1 was the best (in my opinion) because it was less of “uwu mc marry me” content and more of demons being demons.

Alright so this really bugged me but I don’t like how MC is a a descendant of Lilith, like I know the brothers and Lilith are not blood related and are honestly more found family and that MC and Lilith and so far related (in terms of how many generations were between them) that they barely share dna I believe (in terms of physical dna and all that good stuff not the angelic powers) but I’ve always found it kind of gross but I guess that’s just a me problem…

I’m going to take the next part of my issues with concepts and storyline as general as possible but it’s really long but… hell doesn’t feel like hell, or should I say devildom doesn’t sound like hell

There is technology in other depictions of hell (like Hazbin hotel) but that’s done better because it’s not so emphasized (I know DDD is part of the game but I think they drive the technology bit overboard) it’s a lot less subtle and hell just feels like an abridged human world with slight magic involved.

The demons don’t even act like demons or look like demons, as hot as their demon forms are they look like emo teenagers that just discovered hot topic like girl bye 😭. They don’t act remotely demonic like sometimes, and everything just seems like a cosplay is the best way I can describe it. I know it’s 12+ and not 18+ but I really enjoy the more gorey fanfic versions of obey me concepts because that feels like hell, it brings out emotions in me of shocked scared and surprised which is what Dre me into the game in the first place, not a bunch of boys going to play dress up and harass the MC.

I have much more problems with the game( I still love so obviously I’m gonna play it) but this is more of a rant and I just played Nightbringer so I hope there is more lore that resolves some of my issues but yeah!

I’m not that skilled of a writer or anything but I would really like to try and rewrite obey me as a kind of “real hell” as a passion project, obviouslt no characters, or anything trademarked belong to me this is more of for fun. Again I’m not that experienced so if anyone would like to give me tips on how to write or would lousy like to chat about obey me, about this rant and other issues or just obey me in general feel free to dm me I’m always looking for more obey me stuff hehe but yeah, or actually honestly I just want your opinion on this.

I know it’s not that deep it’s a game about horny demons but it still means a lot to me and I hope you guys understand where I’m coming from. Thank you.

#obey me #obey me one master to rule them all #obey me fandom #obey me fanfic #obey me mammon #obey me lucifer #obey me leviathan #obey me brothers #obey me satan #obey me asmodeus #obey me beelzebub #obey me belphegor #obey me belphie #rant post #obey me rant #obey me undateables #obey me nightbringer

[xerith-42]

What do you think of the handling for Aaron and aphmaus romance? I know a lot of people who hate it and a lot who love it

Take everything I say here with a grain of salt as my feelings on their romance are bound to change once I actually get to Season 2 in my rewatch/breakdown. I'm mostly speaking from memory here.

As it is now, I'm very disappointed by their romance. While there is wasted potential left and right in Minecraft Diaries, never is it more egregious to me than when looking at Aaron. His introduction into the series in episode 67 is great because it's so fucking vague that the creators can take him literally anywhere they want. And in episode 91 my beloved he gets reintroduced and has it slapped onto his character in equally vague terms that he has beef with Zane.

And even though he doesn't get much else in Season 1, hell he's barely graduated from being a "hot mysterious stranger" as the description of episode 92 describes him, I like where they can take his character. Who knows what atrocities Zane has committed to make him willing to fight Zane to the extent that he is. The problems start when we find out the truth as to why Aaron wants to kill Zane.

Aaron is given so much potential with his backstory and deep connection to the conflict with Zane, but it never really goes... Anywhere. And that's because of the vector in which both Aphmau and the viewer are shown his backstory. In Season 2 episode 42 Aphmau just gets shown Aaron's back story because something something Irene's relic, and it is NEVER EXPLAINED. Because the creators don't actually want to explain it, or even care beyond something something Irene's relic. It doesn't matter how, just that she did.

And this takes away a lot of potential from Aaron because he isn't given the choice to open up about what happened in Falcon Claw on his own. He doesn't get to tearfully tell Aphmau in gory detail what Zane took away from him. There's nothing but his anger that she knows after she's already seen it. And this sucks, because we really could have had a moment of the two bonding here, of Aaron opening up about something he's been understandably cagey about, of Aphmau showing him love and empathy in his time of grief.

I know a lot of people parrot the phrase "Show don't tell" but god dammit sometimes it's best to tell. Sometimes it's worse to be shown. This is one of those moments where Aaron should have been allowed to just be standing in the ruins of Falcon Claw, heard Aphmau come up behind him, and try to push her away. Tell her it's just an old village he found in the woods. And Aphmau can then very calmly and tenderly ask "Then why do you sound like you're about to cry?"

This could have lead to Aphmau comforting Aaron during a difficult moment and solidly establishing a real palpable connection between the two. But instead Aphmau is just shown Aaron's tragic backstory, and then they start romancing each other right after. I don't object to this romance happening, I just would've liked for them to have a little more to go off of. I would've liked Aaron willingly opening himself up to Aphmau and that being the vector for their eventual romance.

And obviously I want this romance to happen NOT at the expense of Garroth and Laurance's characters. I want this romance to happen unexpectedly for everyone, but for Aphmau to be able to actually explain why she and Aaron love each other, especially after his death. Aphmau is a character who has never been allowed to explain her romantic feelings, which is fine if you never plan on pairing her with anyone, but having her ship teased with two people and then enter an explicit romance with another and still NEVER go into details about it is just bad writing.

TLDR: Aarmau angers me because I can see where it could have been a good couple but Jesson had to do a Jesson and be bad at writing.

#minecraft diaries #text post #aphblr #aphmau #mcd aphmau #mcd aaron #mcd #aaron lycan #aarmau #answering asks

[samantha-and-her-chaotic-desires]

The hazbin hatedom is getting out of hand for me it's really cringe. Your thoughts

I have mixed opinions on this. So beforehand, I am going to say that this is a longer post from me, and I appreciate the anonymous message! <3 I will be talking about this specific question, as well as my interpretation, thoughts, and overall feelings on this matter. Please feel free to reblog, like, and comment your opinions and keep it civil. I want to have a friendly discussion, no matter how brash I seem: this is brutal honesty coming from my heart.

For those who have ZERO clue: Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss are dark "comedy" shows for an adult audience, created by Vivienne "Vivziepop" Medrano, originally airing on YouTube. Helluva Boss is currently in its second season, while we have yet to find out anything else on Hazbin Hotel, as it is now a part of A24 and BentoBox. They center on the same setting, Hell, but have two different plot lines.

Hazbin Hotel is redemption focused, led by Princess Charlie Morningstar, the daughter of Lucifer. She wants to help the sinners in Hell become good and go up to heaven to avoid the yearly Exterminartion, aka a Purge. Helluva Boss, however, is about a murdering business called I.M.P., with Blitz, Millie, Moxxie, and Loona, going up to Earth with a grimoire that is provided by Stolas of the Ars Goetia, a prince. So here we go, into the Depths and reasoning of this post: the Hatedom. So lo and behold, my answer below.

On one hand, yes. The Hazbin Hatedom is a bit over the top. Yes, people are assholes. However, the Vivziepop stans who don't want to admit their precious senpai Vivziepop has done some pretty fucked up shit in the past. The hate can be unnecessary, but you know what else can be unnecessary? The toxic stans. I follow #vivziepop for certain analysis portrayals and criticism, or just general news. Sometimes people are tiresome. This is no exception.

I am falling out of the fandom because it can be toxic. I enjoy most of the characters, but other than that? Helluva Boss's current writing is NOT good. At all. The latest episode irked me to no end. I'm unimpressed with Seeing Stars. I am not very happy that they are forcing Stolitz down our throats as an "uwu pwease wove us" type of bullshit ship. I would much rather prefer Blitz and Stolas to be friends. I wished Stolas had his pilot personality and not the "uwu im a gay, tragic prince with a shitty wife, feel bad for me" bird we know in the series.

Moxxie in the latest episode is bitchy. He got on my nerves and was pissed at Millie being happy. This girl deserves more screentime (and I'm glad she got some of it) but seriously...Millie is always there for Moxxie, and Moxxie needs to reciprocate.

They made Stella seem stupid, when in reality, and if written properly, she can be a cunning and calculating villain with her brother. We've yet to see how Octavia and Stella interact, but I'm unsure.

I have definitely tried to keep my mouth shut as much as I could on this matter, because when I finally openly admit how I feel, it's not a pretty thing, especially with something that I'm so passionate about. Animation takes time, writing takes time, scripting, acting, everything takes so much time, and this is wasted potential. We can have so much better than just a fan-ficcy type rom-com, dark humor, sexual humor schtick. It's getting annoying, and I fear the worst when it comes to Hazbin Hotel.

Criticism is welcome here! Let me know what I left out. I'm willing to hear other opinions, so long as they're nice. If anons start flooding my inbox and getting mad, anons are off. Anon is a privilege, not a right.

#y'all this is the first time i really sat down to contemplate this #vivziepop #hazbin hotel #helluva boss #helluva boss critical #hazbin hotel critical #vivziepop critical #critisism #original post

[mdhwrites]

Thought you might want to know, but all of Season 2A was written without knowledge of the shortening. Dana Terrace says this at the 16 minute mark of the April 28th Post Hoot.

Thank you! It's neat to know and kind of the assumption I'd had for a long time. In production and being written should be two different phases for a show after all. For the Amphibia outline I did earlier today, it'd mean losing an episode which.... *sigh* But yeah, I've effectively always treated it mostly like S2A was unaffected by the shortening and there are some plotlines I'm sympathetic about with that... But not by much.

Again, I've gone harder into this in the past but S2B had to mostly be the way it was for the sake of S3, full or shortened, unless S3 was DRASTICALLY different than what we got. Hunter needed to be an ally enough to go with them all into the portal so Sport in a Storm, Hollow Mind and Labyrinth Runners would have still happened. You do need to explore Belos and prepare for King's Tide with him so Hollow Mind bare minimum still needs to exist but also for Luz's angst arc, Elsewhere Elsewhen needs to exist. King being a titan needs to be confirmed so Edge of the World needs to exist. We also need to make King the most patient, kind, wisest person to exist so Titan, Where Art Thou needs to happen. And Clouds on the Horizon leads directly into the finale so while a lot of the A plot of that episode is pretty wasteful and lacks payoffs, you definitely still need to include it for where everyone is for the finale unless you alter the finale a lot. And Falls and Follies is a good recap of position and sets the stakes for Raine but... It'd pretty questionable too.

This makes the only episodes who's main plots could really be altered to a drastic degree be:

Reaching Out: Amity's relationship with her father barely pays off and frankly it'd have been almost just as jarring to have King do his conversation during Clouds on the Horizon even without this episode. Otherwise, it shoots the worldbuilding in the head and harms Lumity for the sake of double daddy issues. You also have the confirmation for Eda that The Day of Unity is bad news but no one who lives at The Owl House does anything with that. So let's of setup for effectively no payoff.

Them's the Breaks: I hate that I cannot justify this episode because it is EASILY the most of S2B but... It damages Raine's character, only really shows a potential reason why Eda gave up on the covens but the only story part is the last two minutes. You could have done ANYTHING else, like I dunno, an episode actually about Darius and Hunter/the rebel coven heads, and ended it with the Raine reveal.

That is two episodes. The fact that there are two episodes even is... OOPH, especially when Reaching Out at least has arguments but Them's the Breaks is just Dana gushing about the fanfic she wants to write for her own series. The fact that there are only two, with maybe being able to cut one of Hunter's episodes for his arc, is not good. Not unless the Day of Unity wasn't supposed to be the S2 finale.

And if it wasn't... What the fuck was the original plan?

This is a lot of why I talk about not wanting three seasons. It wanted WAY MORE. I think Dana assumed it'd be so popular and big as to have five or more. There are PLENTY of issues with that conceptually (again, S3 could never have been great) but it is the vibe the story gives. It is too redundant and too slow to be otherwise. TOH's biggest argument against being claimed as having a lot of filler is mostly in that a lot of episodes get a LITTLE done in way or another but it takes very few leaps. When it could do that, actually have a big payoff and move along, it cuts it off at the knees for the sake of 'realism'. This happened with Willow... and also fucking happened with ALADOR. IN SEASON 2B. WHY!? Why would you make a plot point specifically say more work and time will be needed when you DON'T HAVE TIME!?

Even S3 has this. In a season with THREE. EPISODES. Luz has THREE finishes to her arc. In Thanks to Them, she gets reassured by quite literally everyone that she did nothing wrong and should feel confident about her choices before she confidently prepares to head into the demon realm! Then... In show it's like five, ten minutes tops when Luz is self hating and self martyring herself again until the end of the episode has her confidently state that she wants to be understood! And with her friends and new palisman by her side, she will face the Collector!

Only to start the next episode with a dream sequence where she believes everyone fucking hates her, doesn't understand her and that she deserves to be hated. This only gets resolved when the FUCKING GOD of the show tells her she's A-Okay and she has nothing to fear. She's just too gosh darn good in order to have any reason to every doubt herself!

I'm not going to even ask why this happened. I can actually tell you mostly why because Luz is the only character besides Hunter with any character payoffs left to do. So if you want each episode to have a big character moment, Hunter can only replace one of those. They still tried to have Willow do one anyways by dredging up something that hadn't been a thing for TWO. SEASONS. But Luz was still given three different endings.

No, the bigger question to me just fucking HOW!? this sort of thing happens. This has fuck all to do with the shortening after all. Wasted time at this point, moments that mean literally and do nothing, are their choice. They are still the writers who decided to waste all this time despite claiming how much they wanted more time.

It makes it look like any potential S3 would have just been... Well, more of this. More repetition that dilutes its themes and doesn't really go anywhere. After all, if they couldn't fill three hours with actual story and pushing forward the narrative and themes... Why should we assume eight hours would have been suddenly so much better?

I didn't mean to go so hard on this. Sigh. But yeah, there's a lot of reasons why the shortening is not the excuse that people think it is. Why it honestly feels so much like a blessing to the show because people just have this go to statement to try and shut people or shut their own brains up from any issues they might have, even if those issues are self contained to a single episode.

TOH was never perfect and has flaws that run incredibly deep and start early on. No excuse will ever change those facts.

======+++++======

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

#the owl house criticism #toh critical #toh #the owl house

[jo-harrington]

The Gospel According to Mary Victoria (An As Above, So Below Story) - Book 1

Book 1 - Book 2 - Book 3

Word Count: 4.2k

Pairing: Steve Harrington/Fem!OC (Told in 1st Person POV)

Warnings/Themes: Van Helsing AU, Strangers to Lovers, Religious Themes, Criticism of Religion/Catholicism, Fate vs. Free Will, Supernatural Encounters, Angst, Biblical and Other Literary/Media References

Note: Hello and welcome to another offshoot of the AASB series. First off, thank you to @pastel-pillows @storiesbyrhi and @munson-blurbs for doing a little beta read and helping me get some confidence back. Second, this is sort of my gift to @big-ope-vibes as she is my partner in crime, my fandom ride or die, and asked for the sidekick character in AASB to get some D, so this will eventually be that.

Mary Victoria is the nun sidekick character that follows along on the adventure, similar to Carl the Friar from Van Helsing. Comic relief but ultimately someone who finds themselves and comes into their own during the course of the main storyline. She, much like the Knight, has an ambiguous background although it is touched on a little bit in the main story and will be elaborated more here. MV is the name she chose for herself when she became a nun, and she can truly be anyone reading. No physical descriptors will be mentioned.

This trilogy is, for all intents and purposes, her diary and more insight into her place in this universe.

This series will not be for the faint of heart, nor is it something that was written with a general audience in mind. Please check the above warnings and ask yourself if you are in the correct headspace to proceed. I am happy to answer any questions via PM or Ask.

You can find my masterlist here.

Please do not interact if you are not 18+.

Enjoy!

"And it seems such a waste of time, but that's what it's all about. Mama if that's movin' up then I'm movin' out." - Movin' Out (Anthony's Song), Billy Joel (1977)

1987. The year my life changed.

Ew, I hate that.

It's cliche, isn't it? But all stories are.

And that's what we all are in the end, aren't we? Stories.

So this is mine.

Pieced together from dumb shit written on gas station napkins and this...shitty journal from Claire's that I found in a pile of rubble near the ruins of StarCourt Mall, and my spotty memory.

My story.

From a farm, to Hollywood, to a convent, to a cursed suburb in Indiana.

And his.

But he's just a guy, and sort of unremarkable as most just-a-guy's are, so we can talk about him later.

And hers.

Let's talk about her now.

The Knight.

She kind of sucked.

But she was my friend.

And in order to understand my place in her story, you have to understand her place in mine.

I'd met her before everything started.

Even during my days as a novice, I was never really...convinced. Belief and devotion are two different things; I was devout, sure, because I needed something to believe in and I wanted to believe in it so badly. But the act of belief was often a stretch; I convinced myself to do it because I needed some kind of divine reasoning for my life going the way that it was.

Turns out I didn't really need it.

I'd always been interested in the Holy Order though. Big mysterious organization, filled with severe looking...saints...is that what they were? Still, they were curious and mysterious and no one would tell me anything; obviously I had to know more. The Knight was no different.

From that first day I met her, I saw something inside of her that I always secretly hoped someone might see in me.

Defiance and fire and potential for more.

She had seen it in me.

She, however, had this...deep pit of sadness, this yearning for something she lost. It stuck with me for years until we met again.

And in hindsight, I truly believe that she'd seen those things in me as well. That's why she came back for me.

She'd never truly been happy in the time that I'd known her, though.

Where I could laugh and shake things off and hope everything would get better, she was stuck.

There was an old copy of Tuck Everlasting that I found in the things she'd left behind; the passage about the wheel of life and how the Tucks had fallen off it...it had been highlighted and underlined over and over. The Knight was stuck like that. Forced into some life that was removed from everyone else's. Cursed. Banished.

Something she never chose for herself.

But somehow she fought to choose everything else.

She chose me.

She saw all of those things in me, those things that she might not have realized she had herself in one way or another. Just like I didn't recognize I had until she helped me bring them to light.

And she chose me.

I thought fate had guided me to the church, despite my trouble with belief and devotion. Seems, though, fate had just led me to her.

A sheep with no shepherd and a shepherd with no flock; both of them interchangeable with the either of us at any given time.

I left the flock I had reluctantly joined and grown comfort in, and took my place by her side. Took the permission she gave me to be myself again, took my future back. Devotion to no one and nothing unless I chose to devote myself, not because I felt like I had to.

Not even devotion to her.

She only ever asked that I consider the devotion I owed to myself.

It took a while, but I got there.

Thus..

Huh...who says thus?

...I was no longer Mary Victoria, the novice. I was Mare, adventurer and slayer of evil in my own right. Apostle or disciple or asshole who liked to write things down because of my aforementioned shit memory. Following a path she brought me along until it was time to forge one for myself.

And I got everything I ever wanted.

But in order to gain it, I had to lose everything first. We all did.

Fate.

Faith.

They're both integral to this story.

And they're both bullshit.

"So who is she again?"

This asshole.

"And who are you?"

I looked up from my oatmeal with a dead stare.

The urge to punch him was almost unbearable, but I was hungry, so that was probably the reason.

Nothing like starting the morning off with a fight.

"Who are you?" I countered, shoveling a spoonful of breakfast into my mouth with an inquisitive lift of my brow.

"I'm Steve, remember? We met yesterday," he greeted in a seemingly genuine tone.

Alright, so I probably was just in a mood. But, something about him made me nervous.

For someone as nice as I was, I really hated seemingly nice guys.

Ok hate is a strong word. I was suspicious of nice guys. Especially cute nice guys.

The morning had already started off pretty tense, though, and the Knight left me alone to fend for myself and keep making friends while she got intel from that Dustin kid. Meanwhile I was left at the breakfast table as everyone else dispersed for the day.

Alone except for him.

Steve McQueen Harrington, our gracious host and one of the heads of the Hawkins Clean Up and Defense Brigade. Along with his trusty sidekick...the nail-covered baseball bat.

He had been kind to us, one of the only ones in Hawkins so far, which was why I was trying to ignore the alarm bells that rang in the back of my head. I knew I needed to try and not be my usual, effervescent self and alienate him.

But...gah...never trust a cute face, no matter how strong the urge to do so is.

Even if he was maybe flirting with me a little bit.

I was out of practice staving off the attention of men, and it'd been a while since I got to see anyone who could be considered attractive; abstinence and all in account, I was an easy target to woo and get information out of.

But two could play at that game.

I scooped another spoonful of oatmeal into my mouth and blinked at him. Silence always made untrustworthy people squirm.

"At the risk of sounding repetitive," he cleared his throat awkwardly, falling right into my trap. "Why...are you guys here? Why is she back?"

I'd heard all about the Knight's heroics a few years ago--the destruction in the tunnels beneath Hawkins--when we arrived.

"I think she feels like she owes it to the town," I shrugged. "Cuz of her boyfriend Eddie? He died. She couldn't save him."

Steve got tense and his eyes darted away from mine.

Bingo.

"Did you know him?"

"Yeah," he nodded stiffly, hand immediately rubbing at his side. "He was a...friend, I guess."

He got silent and pensive, his gaze became distant, and his fingers twitched.

That...was odd. Not exactly the bingo I was hoping for but I could use it to my advantage.

"Hmm..."

"What?"

"Sensing some sexual tension."

"Huh?"

"Yearning. Did you have a crush on Eddie or something?"

His cheeks got flush and he tripped over his words with a lot of no, but's... and I...he was... and he's Dustin's friend.

I only said what I said because it made the most sense. The Knight really didn't say much about Eddie because it was painful for her, brought up a lot of emotion. So it would stand to reason that Steve might feel and do the same if he had a crush on Eddie and then Eddie died.

"Unrequited love," I sighed. "It really sucks."

"It was not unrequited love," Steve insisted. "There's just...a lot you don't understand about what's been happening in Hawkins. And with Eddie...there's a lot there. It's a long story."

"Then tell me." I shrugged; what was there to lose. "We're here to help. I'm here to help. And how can I if you keep secrets?"

"It's not a secret."

"Ok, not keeping secrets, you just omit critical information."

He sighed and patted his hands against the table in contemplation.

And somehow I knew, thanks to some innate empathic sense that was coming to light with this new development in my life, or my uncanny ability to sense some shit, that what he was about to say would not give me any peace.

It would just make everything worse.

"You can help," he started. "But we just...need to move past it. It's better for everyone if things just...stay buried. Don't speak ill of the dead and all that."

See, the thing was that I was nosy.

I liked knowing everything and I especially didn't like it when secrets were kept from me.

And despite Steve's insistence that we need to move past it, I knew that this wasn't just privacy or moving on...

He was hiding something.

So I pried more.

It started out with little things, asking people simple questions while volunteering in the town square. Questions about Vecna, about the Upside Down, about their involvement. The loved ones they lost. Used empathy to lure them into some sense of trust and security with me.

And I got some good tidbits--and I mean good tidbits--that I started to string together like a puzzle. But nothing big; I couldn't see the big picture yet.

So I knew I needed to get down to business, and the best person to ask would be Steve.

"I have a question."

"Yeah?"

But I really stuck my foot in it.

"I want to know if you guys meant to get Barb killed and turned into a vampire or if you're just negligent."

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Steve stopped his digging to look at me with wild, wide eyes.

And I might have pissed him off.

In my defense...who else could I ask? Nancy? Fat fucking chance.

"No because it just doesn't make sense," I tried to backtrack. "How do all of these people end up dead and then...turned into vampires. Did you have some kind of...lottery system of who ends up as bait for Kas or..."

But ok maybe I really fucked up a little. Learning curve, the Knight said. So interrogation tactics were a 200-level course.

"...it just seems a little convenient that so many people die and have been brought back. What did you say? Chrissy and Fred and Patrick...all of Vecna's victims? Who else got killed in the Upside Down?"

But I'd been trying to reconcile it all in my head, especially as it connected to Eddie.

Somehow he was connected to all of this, his name on the tips of everyone's tongues when I asked them. Murderer, leader of some satanic cult--even though I'd also heard through the grapevine that it was actually not a cult.

There was something about him that...didn't sit right with me.

And I certainly couldn't bring it up to her until I had a better idea about how this all connected to him.

The last thing the Knight needed was for her long lost love to appear, mindless and murderous, in a flurry of wings and fangs.

I know she wanted to keep me safe but I needed to keep her safe as well.

Who else would?

And I know I could have just asked her about him. In hindsight, I sort of wish I had. I just...didn't know that I could.

So I asked Steve, even if it was in some...roundabout way.

"Oh Jesus I'm not doing this right now." Steve ran a hand through his hair. "Didn't we just go over this? Are you seriously asking...I don't even know how to...Rob!"

"Yeah?"

Robin approached from a ways away and immediately she and Steve ducked their heads together to talk in hushed tones, his one hand gestured wildly towards me.

I liked Robin. She was nice to us when we arrived at the Harringtons last night, tried to make some jokes during the tense dinner. Whether that was because she was actually trying to be friendly or she was just awkward in awkward situations...which...that definitely had been the textbook example of one.

Despite Steve's obvious complaints about me, she was patient enough when they swapped tasks and she took up Steve's shovel beside me.

"There's kind of a Rite of Passage to these things Mary," she explained after a few minutes of tense digging. "You can't just come in demanding answers; you either fall into this whole...Upside Down nonsense by chance, or you need to prove yourself if you're entering the fray by choice. I did it, Steve did it. We all did."

That made it sound like there was some weird blood oath to join a monster hunting brotherhood. I was already trying to get my foot in the door with one, I didn't need to do that with another, more...ragtag one.

Especially not after what I had witnessed yesterday.

"I think we more than proved ourselves," I argued. "We're here to help. We want to fight these vampires and creatures and all of that. And we need to understand where they came from first."

"I think you don't understand; this isn't just a fight anymore."

She got tense and then closed her eyes and cursed under her breath.

"What do you mean?" I narrowed my eyes in suspicion. "Not a fight? I sincerely think this is still a fight if monsters are attacking the town. If Kas is attacking the town."

"Ok, monsters," she began in agreement. "Yeah we still need to fight the monsters if they're killing people."

"Why do I sense there's a 'but.'"

"But...the days they don't? We just leave them alone. And they leave us alone too."

"Well what happens in a month? In two months? What happens when you run out of food?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it."

"Meanwhile they have an endless supply of blood." I elaborated, voicing something that I had been thinking all night, one of the million invasive thoughts. "Blood. Meat. Yours. Fresh carcasses for their feast."

With each word I felt a fire build up inside of me, an impatience. Defiance. It was all so easy for everyone to give passive answers; think about it tomorrow. I already had to face my mortality once in the past 24 hours, I was sure I would again, and the people of Hawkins had to do it any number of times. Why was it so easy for them to put these things off?

I wanted a clear cut answer. And I wasn't getting it.

I wouldn't know until later that it wasn't as clear cut as I had hoped.

But with each word, my aggression grew and my shovel struck the rubble over...and over...until it split the ground below.

A crack formed in the dirt, a fissure; it got wider and deeper and swallowed the bits of rubble into it until it stopped and revealed a glowing membrane not unlike the nearby gates. Robin started rambling and shouting for others, she went on and on about the Upside Down.

"Is he getting stronger? Did he do this? What's going on? Oh shit, oh shit."

But I couldn't be bothered, because I knew that had nothing to do with Kas or the Upside Down.

It was me.

And how could I just...experience that and not immediately go into my own spiral.

Now, the thing was...I wasn't strong. Not stronger than the average person...or...actually, I was probably weaker, given my...mostly sedentary lifestyle as a nun. Couldn't unscrew a jar of pickles to save my life. In that moment, however, something within me was unleashed. A spark of power, an energy surge, from the moment the shovel penetrated the dirt and stone.

So excuse me if I didn't care about the commotion that these simple-minded, fearful townies were building. My questions turned from Hawkins and the Upside Down and Kas...to myself.

I was like Luke Skywalker in the Wampa cave.

And I desperately wished that my Obi-Wan was there to guide me.

Unfortunately, I had to keep it all to myself.

Not that I wanted to. I just had to.

It's weird when you're someone's sidekick and suddenly on your own journey of self-discovery.

I knew that the Knight said that she would train me. Guide me. I also knew the importance--both personal and otherwise--of her journey here, and, you know, it had been drilled in my head to be selfless for quite a few years now.

I just...ok it wasn't weird. It sucked.

I had questions.

How could I bring my sudden development of unexplained strength organically when my mentor was...oh I don't know...getting in trouble for breaking curfew and reading a kid's mind? Or how about rallying the troops to go hunt down monsters so she could kill Kas singlehandedly?

I certainly couldn't bring it up when she disappeared for several hours during said hunt, leaving me, Robin, Dustin, and Steve to wonder where the fuck she went?

And it was definitely out of the question when she suddenly reappeared, dragging the body of a man who had, apparently, been dead for several years and had clawed his way out of a grave.

And not just any grave.

Eddie Munson's grave.

It was getting really hard to ignore all the bright red blaring signals and not just grab her by the shoulders, shake her, and say "I need you to not freak out right now but Eddie is Kas, you idiot. Can you please do something about this? And also can you maybe help me because I split the earth in two the other day and sometimes when I touch things I'm able to see what they saw."

Yeah that was a new development. Hit me like a freight train when I went to use the bathroom and I was suddenly thrust into the past watching one Mrs. Harrington wax her...

Well...

No one wants or needs to hear about that.

But I had to keep it all buried inside of me. Push it down and down and down until I didn't risk it all bubbling to the surface subconsciously. Little did I know, it would all reach some kind of critical mass like Chernobyl at some point.

And that point was when we suddenly needed to keep this Billy guy's resurrection a secret.

It was easy, I lied to myself at first. I simply had to do what I had always done, for my entire life.

I used happiness, positivity, and humor to cope. To make sure everyone else coped.

And it seemed to help for a while.

We kept Billy in the garage, the Knight and I made sure he was fed three times a day, everyone went about their different volunteer schedules, and it all seemed to be alright. Everyone seemed to be in a better mood.

It was going to be alright.

Until it wasn't.

Remember what I said about bad memory? It all comes and goes in flashes sometimes. There's screaming and crying--I think I was the one crying--and there's blood and dirt and Claudia looking so...disappointed.

In all of us.

And taillights leaving me behind.

That's when I reached a breaking point.

As soon as the bumper of that old, busted Marquis turned the corner at the end of the Harrington's street, I broke.

The clouds churned, there was a strange gust of wind that rumbled along with the uneasiness in my stomach, and my hands shook.

"You see what you did," I muttered upwards into the stark, overcast sky. Upwards to Heaven, to God, if He was real...as though that asshole was going to do anything about it even if he heard me. "You better make sure she's alright."

"You good Mare?" There was a hand on my shoulder and I shrugged it away. "Come on, come inside."

"No, I have beef with God right now," I snapped.

"I think we all do," Steve sighed.

"No!" I rounded on him now.

In hindsight, as I slowly deteriorated under the weight of...fuck, you know...just...everything, I was a little unfair to him.

But it was hard to be left behind again, even if it was only for the night. Hard to try and protect someone, and they get hurt regardless. Hard to try to come to terms with things happening to you that are fully out of your control.

And it was hard to see past my own nose and recognize that I was not actually alone after all.

"I'm done with all of your secrets," my words thundered. "I want to know why you lied."

"Lied?"

"You never told us that Eddie Munson was Kas." He blanched. "Listen I know you think it's this big secret you've kept from us but it's not that hard to figure out, Jesus Christ."

"But--" He pointed out to the street.

"You don't know her," I shook my head. "Fuck, I don't even know her. But it's not hard to tell that she's grieving and in denial."

"That's, uh...that's what Dustin said," he sighed and scratched at his neck. "I'm...we wanted to say something from the beginning. Nancy--"

"Fuck Nancy," I spat.

Thunder rolled overhead.

"Ok I wanted to tell you guys from the beginning," he corrected himself. "How's that? I wanted to tell you both the truth. But Dustin's a good kid, he wants to protect everyone. As soon as your friend told him she used to date Eddie...he didn't want her to think of him like that. Like a monster."

"Well she's gonna find out one way or another, and then what'll happen? You're gonna get chewed out," I grumbled and stomped my feet in irritation. "God, no one in this town thinks of the future. And this is coming from me who, if you didn't know now you do, never plans ahead for the future and is generally a disaster. You're literally facing life and death out here and you can't look past the end of the day.

"I get it, you don't even know if you're gonna make it to the end of the day but news-fucking-flash asshole: a plan is gonna help you survive. It didn't take me long to learn that fucking lesson. And you've been doing this for how many years now?"

I suddenly felt some sad, suffocating realization overcome me. This...they've been doing this for years. The knight doing this for years. Facing creatures, evading dangers, barely surviving. People hadn't survived. People came back to life as monsters, as something else only to hunt and kill their loved ones.

How had they done it? How had they all coped? It was easier to think about in theory, how strong they'd all been. But I'd been doing it for a week and I felt overwhelmed.

I looked around again, at Steve, up at the rumbling sky, down at myself. At my body and at my hands.

I was there. I was in the thick of it. I was changing to be something that could withstand being in the thick of it. They might have all looked whole on the outside but how shattered were they all just under the surface.

How long would it come for me before I got to be that way too?

"Are you ok?" Steve asked as my breathing got heavier, as I closed my eyes and felt all of the changes happening within me, shifting within me to accommodate this new world I was in. "What's wrong?"

"I don't want this," I whispered, begged some greater power. "I'll stay, I'll help, but I don't want this."

There was a resounding boom of thunder close by and the sky opened up to rain down on us. Steve flinched as the droplets hit him and he motioned for me to follow inside but I stood my ground.

"Come on, you're gonna catch a cold or something!" Steve shouted over the din of the shower.

"Just let me do this," I bit out. "Are you, like, the least fucking romantic person, you see a girl with her face turned up towards the sky in the rain and you're like let's go inside you're gonna catch a cold."

"I'm not trying to be romantic, you're trying to be stupid."

"I'm not going in," I insisted.

A war sparked within me.

I thought...hoped that this was a cleansing rain. That all of this new power would be shed if I only stayed out here long enough. The Lord Giveth, and the Lord Taketh away and all that. I could even feel it, feel the power drain from me the longer I stood there. It made me shiver, made my hair stand on end.

On the other hand, there was fear.

Thinking of it now, after the fact, I should have listened to that second part. I should have been afraid. Should have shut up and gone inside with Steve and just accepted my fate.

I should have read the obvious signs.

But I was dumb.

And at the end of the day I was still a nun, after all. I had faith that He would save me from this path I had started down. And because of that, I stood there basking in my beliefs and the Glory of God.

But then the Lord took a look at me, as pathetic as I was, and said, "go fuck yourself Mary Victoria."

The next thing I knew, I got struck by lightning.

Cool. Praise be to God. The fucking asshole.

"With great power comes great responsibility." - Stan Lee, Spider-man/Amazing Fantasy #15 (1962)

#as above so below #aasb #Steve harrington fic #Steve harrington x oc #stranger things fic

[mha-grievances]

Alright, I’m bored, so I’m gonna tell you my opinions of the various MHA villains. This isn’t a dee analysis on any of them. Just my vague thoughts on them. I won’t be tackling any of the Nomu (including Kurogiri), spin-off villains, or movie villains:

AFO: He’s just there for me. For a Big Bad he’s kinda lackluster. He lacks the charisma of the archetype that he’s trying to be a part of when compared to other members of his archetype (giant looming threat) such as Darkseid and Thanos.

Tomura: Meh. I know people didn’t like him initially when he showed up cause he was a man-child, but I didn’t mind that. However he’s not really interesting to me. Sure his backstory’s sad, but his grand plan is to just disintegrate everything… just cause? While this is nothing new, it was kinda lackluster seeing as the narrative was putting Tomura down the path of being the next biggest villain. Like I get it, fuck society, but what does destroying everything accomplish? I dunno, his story feels weak to me.

Dabi: He’s definitely overrated by the fandom, but I like his character. He’s also got a kickass design and quirk. Dabi’s motives are a bit more than “fuck the world, let me destroy it” as his beef is with his abusive father. I can buy into this more-so than Tomura’s motives

Himiko: Definitely one of my top villains in the series, but I feel like she wasn’t explored as well as she should’ve been. Himiko’s definition of love is to literally become someone else, which can serve as a metaphor of people who aren’t able to accept who they are and aim to change everything about themselves. You compare this to Ochako’s experience with love which fuels her to be the best possible version of herself. I also would’ve loved to see more of her relationship with her quirk, how it has dominated every portion of her life. Finally, I do agree with those who say she’s often fetishized.

Spinner: I like him, but he’s been severely underutilized. His arc about mutant quirk discrimination was quickly wrapped up in like one issue and that’s it.

Mr. Compress: One of my favorite MHA villains. I love his quirk, his personality, and design. However, he struggles with a clear lack of motives, his only boiling down to the fact his ancestor was one of the greatest villains to ever exist. Why did Mr. Compress choose to follow his footsteps? Was it for fame? Because he agreed with his ancestor? Or maybe for another reason? At most we can say he hates society like the rest of the villains, but that doesn’t really give us much insight to his character.

Twice: My favorite MHA villain. If there’s anything from MHA that can be considered great, it’s the writing of Twice’s character. Twice is someone anyone can relate to, a person cast aside by the world and is willing to do anything to make friends. His quirk has caused him great anguish and he constantly grapples with his self identity. Out of all the LoV members, he has the biggest heart, but easily the most fragile one, and that’s why he’s a villain. It’s why he refused Hawks’s hand when told he could be a good guy. He saw his friends, the people who accepted him for who he was, and chose to fight besides them even if what they were doing was wrong. Twice is without a doubt the best character to come out of MHA and I will die on this hill.

Dr. Garaki: one of my favorite villains concept wise. A man who is canonically smarter than Nezu (who has an intelligence enhancing quirk) who makes Frankenstein like monsters could’ve been a super cool idea for a main antagonist. He could’ve served as a parallel to Izuku as Dr. Garaki’s quirk provides no offense utility. He’s essentially a quirkless person who lives longer. He is kinda a walking plot device though.

Magne: As many people would agree, she was wasted potential. A trans character who could’ve helped with MHA’s world building. I do wanna know why she chose to be a villain, but unfortunately after the Overhaul Arc she’s never brought up again.

Mustard: I like Mustard a lot but he’s yet another character with wasted potential. A kid as young as 1-A who hates heroes, a lot could’ve been done with that.

Moonfish: Unpopular opinion but I really like Moonfish. Why? Cause of his design. It’s very Lovecraftian like and I’m a sucker for those sorta things. Moonfish isn’t a deep character but he doesn’t need to be. He’s just evil and that’s fine. His creepy factor more than makes up for a lack of character.

Muscular: Serves as a physical obstacle Izuku has to overcome. Does his job well in that regard. Unlike Moonfish his appearance or quirk doesn’t make him stand out to me.

The Eight Bullets: Categorizing them all together. I like them. I can empathize with their struggles and how they wish to be needed despite being social outcasts. Obviously I wish more detail was put into them, but that’s pretty much it. I will say Rappa kinda doesn’t belong in there cause unlike the others, his motive is just that he wants to fight Overhaul, but that’s not to say I dislike him. I just feel he should’ve swapped places with one of the other Yakuza who weren’t the Eight Bullets.

Overhaul: In terms of presentation, design, and quirk, he absolutely is one of my favorite characters. His motives suck though. Man is in possession of one of the strongest quirks in the series and his motive is “ew, quirks are cooties”. Wanting to create quirk erasure bullets to cripple heroes so that the Yakuza can rise again is more than a fine motive for him. The “quirks are a disease” thing comes off as dumb. Maybe if he actually had a quirk that affected this behavior, this motive would’ve made a lot more sense.

Re-Destro: Boring. He could’ve been a neat Magneto type character but he’s immediately thrown to the side despite somehow having a city’s worth of members and spies layered throughout Japan.

The rest of the MLA: Couldn’t care for any of them, except for Geten, but that’s only because he has a cool design and quirk. The girl who can place mines had a cool quirk and design, but she got on my nerves.

Giran: Sometimes I forget he exists 😂. He’s basically a walking plot device.

Edit: I forgot someone 😭

Stain: I felt his message was extremely important to the themes of MHA and I like his design. However I feel that they neutered his message by having him target any heroes who weren’t All Might. There are other heroes, like Tensei, who are great heroes, just not at the caliber as All Might in terms of fame. Doesn’t mean they’re any less of a good hero. Imo he should’ve been more selective with his targets.

Edit 2: Forgot about another person 😭

La Brava: I like her. I think she’s cute and her relationship with Gentle is both genuine and well written. Her being a hacker’s really cool.

Edit 3: Forgot yet another person 😭

Gentle: thought he was cool too. A more human villain compared to the others we’ve gotten, and while not evil, is still someone who fits the bill of a villain.

#bnha critical #mha critical #tomura shiragaki #himiko toga #twice mha #spinner #bnha dabi #league of villains #meta liberation army #eight bullets #overhaul #dr garaki #all for one #stain mha

[sanccharine]

04 | potential, promises, and plotting

hogwarts au

pairing: hufflepuff!tzuyu x slytherin!reader genre: fluff, slice of life word count: 5.1k

warnings: none that i can think of :]

summary: whether on the field or during class, you never shied away from trouble. and in your sixth year, trouble seemed to follow you like a shadow, though you couldn’t complain. especially when that series of misfortunes led you to the transfiguration prodigy, chou tzuyu. includes: red velvet's yeri, ateez's yeosang, san, wooyoung and jongho; viviz's sinb; txt's yeonjun; loona's olivia; le sserafim's yunjin; dreamcatcher's gahyeon

status: ongoing a/n: back to post once in a blue moon :D theres quite a few people in this one huh O_O

masterlist | chapter 3 | chapter 5

The Dark Arts assignment felt like a fluke. 

Well, it was a fluke. 

You wouldn’t have gotten the grade that you got without the help of Tzuyu. 

After that assignment, they seemed to keep piling on top. Playing Quidditch seemed to be up for debate again. Though you know somewhere deep in your mind you were playing this year. Still, you couldn’t catch a break from your studies. 

Often, you found yourself in the secluded corner of the library, the place had become yours. If you weren’t hunched up over a textbook there, you were in the Great Hall. Always scribbling away on parchment, writing and rewriting your notes. Transfiguration theory made no sense at all. 

Professor Lee’s words from earlier in the day returned to you. 

She asked you to stay behind after class much like the many times she had before. You readied yourself for a scolding. A lecture about how you could do better, how your grades were slipping, and how you aren’t achieving your full potential. 

You never understood what she saw in you. 

“What are you doing?” Professor Lee asked, her eyes not lifting away from the book in front of her. 

“I don’t understand—”

“I asked what are you doing in my class?” 

Your heart stopped beating. 

“I don’t know, Professor. I'm not sure as well... I don’t know what I’m doing in your class. I don’t know how I passed and I definitely don't know how—” you stopped your rambling. You should’ve put this together sooner. How could you be so stupid? “Did my parents—?”

Finally, Professor Lee looked at you. 

"No." Her gaze was scathing. 

She held your stare. A lifetime seemed to pass. You don’t if you should be relieved or terrified of this revelation. 

It seemed unreal. 

There was no way you were in this class without your parents pulling some—

“You are more than aware of my standards. Especially to enter my N.E.W.Ts class,” Lee straightened as she watched you freeze in real-time. Then her gaze softened, only ever so slightly. “The only reason you are in my class is because of your merit. You have potential.”

What potential is she going on about?

“Nothing else,” Professor Lee paused, her eyes steely as she finished. “And no one else.” 

“I understand,” you didn’t attempt to repeat what you say every year. You really did understand, you couldn’t let her down. You didn't want to let her down. Changes meant the most these next two years. So, you will work hard this year, and unlock whatever potential she sees in you. 

“Now, get out. You’re wasting my class time,” and she was back. 

With a salute, you let in the quiet first years who had lined up outside. You didn’t catch the little boy waving at you. 

The conversation kept playing in your mind. It brought a new sense of motivation you fear you’ve never felt… at least not for anything apart from Quidditch. It also brought up an immense amount of stress. You were playing this year, you were studying hard this year. Will you be able to win the cup again? Will you be able to pass next year? Only weeks passed and already your control was slipping. You hated that feeling with every fibre of your being. 

Every sound in the hall seemed to unnerve you, clawing and climbing its way up your back until you couldn’t even hear your own ragged breathing. Couldn’t notice that you were grinding your teeth, jaw locked and aching. Worst of all, you didn’t realise your grip had pushed the quill in and torn the parchment. A gaping hole where words should be. You were so tightly wound up, all the tension caught in the back of your neck.

Which is why when someone tapped your shoulder, you sneered much like a rabid dog. “What?”

The regret was immediate when you saw familiar glassy eyes staring back. The apology is ready on your lips but... 

What was his name again?

“Minwoo just wanted to say hello. You missed us by the Transfiguration class,” the diligent girl from the feast! What was her name? She was quick to step in front of Minwoo, completely blocking him from your view. That strikes you as odd, you couldn’t place why. “He was wondering about joining Quidditch, we both were… I’m Jooyeon, by the way.”

Busted by an eleven-year-old. This had to be a new low for you. 

“Right, sorry for that. I’ve been so busy with assignments and it just didn't—never mind, that doesn’t matter!” you said sheepishly and pushed aside your parchment and turned to face them. When Minwoo didn’t look up, you sighed. “I’m sorry for snapping at you, Minwoo. I shouldn’t have done that, please forgive me.”

Finally, the boy looked up from behind Jooyeon’s shoulder. Were those tears in his eyes?

“Listen, are you—” you started but then caught yourself. From Jooyeon’s protective stance to Minwoo’s tears, you surmised this wasn’t about you. Something else was at play here. You just didn’t have enough information… yet. You dropped the line of question and put on the best smile you could muster. “What do you want to know about Quidditch?” 

“We want to try out.”

Quidditch season was finally beginning. Eunbi pushed back tryouts in favour of her studies. Though, you knew she was plotting something. Especially with open positions. You don’t know what that meant for you, but you trusted her. 

When you arrived on the field, most of your teammates were already there, geared up and gathering equipment. Eunbi stood to the side, frowning at the piece of parchment in her hand. In front of her were the potential recruits, they were thrumming with anxiety. It was easy to discern what years they were from their little groups and behaviour. 

Minwoo and Jooyeon stood to the far left. Separated even from the other gawking first years who would no doubt be rejected. First years rarely made substitutes, let alone the team. But you understood their enthusiasm, you had been in the same place a few years back. In fact, a large number of second and third years weren’t going to be happy with Eunbi’s decisions either. 

A smile graced your face as you patted your pockets with your free hand to find something. 

“Good to see you two here,” you sidled up to Minwoo and he nearly shot a meter into the air. Why is this kid so jumpy around you? That will have to be amended. You smiled at his friend and said, “Hello Jooyeon.”

“Weird,” you muttered and leaned forward to catch Minwoo’s frog before it could leap away from him. “You’re supposed to eat these, not let them get away.”

Excited wouldn’t be the word you’d use. Minwoo couldn’t seem to look you in the eyes. Even worse, he kept glancing back at the crowd of Slytherins, shaking a bit. 

Sighing, you began, “I understand if you’re nervous, it’s only natural. That’s why I brought you guys something.”

At that, both of them looked up at you, eyes shining. 

“How do we feel about chocolate frogs?” you asked, as you fetched two from your pockets and handed one to each. 

“I saw these on the train,” Minwoo smiled, finally. It relieved you. “Thank you!”

“I want to know who you got, open them, go on!” You folded your arms as their nervousness seemed to dissipate. 

“Headmistress Boa,” Jooyeon said, reading the card while holding the frog in one hand. 

“I got her too!” Minwoo said as he giggled at the frog jumping up his arm. 

“Weird,” you muttered and leaned forward to catch Minwoo’s frog before it could leap away from him. “You’re supposed to eat these, not let them get away.”

“But it’s alive—”

“We’re about to start,” Yeri shouted with a clap. That was your cue to leave. 

“We good?” you raised your fist to Minwoo. 

“Yeah, we’re good,” Minwoo grinned and bumped your fist. “Thanks again for the chocolates.” 

You aimed your fist at Jooyeon and she reciprocated as well. With a proud nod, you sauntered over to your team. 

Yeonjun quickly made his way to your side and bumped his shoulder into yours. Smiling, you glanced around. This team carried you through many wins throughout the last two years. You were a precise, well-oiled machine led by Eunbi. What you lacked, your teammates covered with their strengths. The only missing spot was your Keeper, who graduated last year. 

Plus, next year Eunbi will graduate. Followed right after by you, Yeri, San, and Yeonjun which leaves Olivia to fend alone. The thought was mortifying. You understood why talks of a new captain and tryouts seemed so important. 

Eunbi scanned the crowd in front of her and nodded. “Quidditch is not easy. It’s brutal.” 

You couldn’t help but smile at the familiar start. A spiel you have heard so many times you could probably announce it yourself. 

“Without proper practice and dedication, you’ll be living in the Hospital Wing,” you couldn't help but snicker as you rolled your left wrist. Beside you, Yeonjun grabbed his right shoulder and sighed. Everyone landed in the wing at least once and that was being generous. “Forget positions, they don’t matter. What’s important is flight, speed and endurance.”

Gasps already erupted at Eunbi’s dismissal of the roles in the team. The next part should be fun.

“Five minutes,” Eunbi held up her palm. “That’s how much time I want you flying laps around the field and at the fastest speed you can manage—”

Now, the juniors seemed to pale as the senior students only groaned. This was nothing. They’d endure much worse in a proper game, a grim thought but it was true. 

“—I need you to push yourselves. Those who don’t fly as soon as I say start, who fall behind, and who fail to complete all five minutes will be instantly cut.” Eunbi was merciless. “Line up! First years at the front, and each year following right behind.” 

You smirked at how quickly your juniors fell into lines. Your teammates and senior students strolled up behind them. Olivia was up ahead, glaring holes into other fourth year students. Some sixth years lined up just ahead of you. It was hard not to follow in Olivia’s footsteps and glare holes into a familiar mop of hair. Fortunately, Yeonjun and Yeri’s bickering brought you back to the present. 

Your line consisted of the pair and San. You didn’t have to interject to know that this race would earn you some money. San shook his head as he lowered himself on his Nimbus, already at an advantage. When you glanced at him, his usual easy-going smile was nowhere to be found. 

The second Eunbi yelled the four of you were in the air. It was too easy. 

San was speeding through the crowd of students, deftly avoiding any stragglers and leading the lap. The things you would do to get a hand on that broom of his. You didn’t need to look back to know that some juniors struggled with the initial take-off. Yeonjun soon followed San, quick to catch up with him. Yeri, however, had seemed to completely give up on the bet and joined you, instead. She zig-zagged through the crowd as if it were a leisurely flight and not an ordered task. 

One look at her and you knew what was in her mind. Shaking your head, you steered beneath the crowd. With a grin, you completely flipped yourself around as Yeri mirrored you. You began rotating and increasing your speed. If strings were attached to your brooms, it would look like a helix. This is what happens when you don’t do your regular midnight flights. Eunbi was going to chew you out for this stunt but it meant all the same when you caught Yeri’s laughter against the wind. 

Dizzy, you righted yourself just as someone zoomed past you. 

Olivia. 

She passed Yeonjun and San just as another person flashed by you. They caught up easily to your youngest Chaser, her ponytail just as black as Olivia’s. 

Not having the heart to jostle Olivia when she was determined, you joined your friends. All four of you watched Olivia and her rival keep trying to one-up each other, even though it was futile. They were matched in skill. You assumed it was the fourth year she was glaring at. 

Unsurprisingly, Olivia and the fourth year were the first to land when the five minutes were over. Both of them were panting and shaking, yet still managed to glare daggers at each other. Eunbi squinted at the two of them as you landed easily beside her. 

That was not the case for a lot of students. 

Completing the exercise was one thing but landing afterwards was another task altogether. Some landings were disastrous, the fatigue and nausea couldn’t have helped. And those who did manage to land somewhat decently, instantly crumpled to the ground from vertigo. Eunbi scrutinised them unflinchingly before considering her parchment. 

You searched for Minwoo and Jooyeon only to find them both sitting on the ground. Jooyeon was in much better shape than Minwoo, they landed safely and that was all that mattered. It was hard not to miss the way Hyukwoo stood proudly when you scanned the crowd. He didn’t seem fazed at all. The idea of playing by his side made you nauseous. 

It couldn’t be helped though. 

Your teammates and previous substitutes were called up. Hyukwoo threw a smirk at you and your hands twitched. 

Some new faces were called. Huh Yunjin. That was the name of the fourth year that competed with Olivia.

However, the majority was rejected. Granted, as Eunbi mentioned, some people would be instantly cut and cut they were. 

“That is all,” Eunbi said with no hint of remorse. 

“That’s all? We’re done already?” Someone in the back whined and you bristled. “We just flew around the field, that doesn’t measure our skill. Plus, we had to use these stupid school brooms.”

The silent but agreeing crowd parted for a girl. Possibly a first year, definitely a pureblood. The school broom frayed and splintered, landed with a whimper when she threw it at Eunbi’s feet. The sight was familiar. 

Eunbi only stared at the broom, not saying a word. You were about to speak up when she inhaled deeply. 

“You’re right, the school brooms suck.” The girl’s head perked up to hear the Captain agreeing with her. “Unfortunately for you, that’s not a good enough excuse.”

You couldn’t help but glance at Hyukwoo, only to find he was already staring at you. His expression was unreadable. 

Eunbi called your name, followed by Yeonjun and Yeri. As if controlled by puppet strings, the three of you stepped forward at the same time, heads held high. 

“These three became substitutes in their first year with those ‘stupid’ school brooms.”

“So did Eunbi,” Yeri said with a smirk before you could. Even her smile didn’t reduce the tense atmosphere. 

“It’s not a good enough excuse,” Eunbi repeated. “Try next year with your own broom then.” 

The student scowled, ready to whine but her friends dragged her away. With that, the others began to leave as well. Eunbi began shouting orders but you quickly excused yourself to catch up with Minwoo and Jooyeon. 

“Sorry, you guys didn’t make the team.”

“It wasn’t realistic anyway,” Jooyeon shrugged but Minwoo’s disappointment was clear on his face. He stared at the pureblood girl who was yelling at her friends as she walked out. He then turned to you, disappointment morphed into caution as he said the next four words.

“Are you a pureblood?” 

Jooyeon shot him a look, clearly startled by his question. Every interaction with this kid only seemed to confuse you more. 

“Um, yeah,” there was no better way to put it. 

“So you’re a full wizard?” 

Jooyeon hissed his name and you stood there, perplexed. 

“Full wizard? Minwoo, you’re a wizard too,” you said, indignant at the claim. Then it clicked. “Hold on, did someone say—!”

“Yes, but both your parents are wizards, right?” You couldn’t help but bristle at the mention of your parents. “You’re a full wizard? Both my parents are muggles so I’m a—”

“Listen, that doesn’t matter,” that was a blatant lie but you had to stop him. Jooyeon had the same idea as she nudged his side. Minwoo was unbothered by his friend and unconvinced by you. “At least, not anymore.” 

That wasn’t a lie… but it wasn’t the truth either. 

You had to tackle this delicately.

“You’re here at Hogwarts, yeah?” you asked and waited for an answer. 

“Yes.”

"Did a wand choose you?"

"Yes."

“Can you do magic?”

“Yes.” 

“Then you’re a wizard, simple,” comfort didn’t come easy, you barely believed yourself. There was a strange tension in your voice but it was difficult to ignore the implication of Minwoo’s words. “Minwoo—both of you—if someone is bothering you, you come let me know, alright? Promise me that!” 

For some reason, you guessed who would be putting these thoughts into these kids. Harassing first years had to be a whole new low, even for him. 

When Minwoo didn’t answer, Jooyeon did. “We will, we promise. Thank you!” 

She raised her fist and your lips twitched up at the action. You bumped yours with hers before moving it in front of Minwoo. Both you and Jooyeon waited with bated breath. Minwoo left but not before brushing his fist against yours and mumbling goodbye. 

Jooyeon grumbled an apology on his behalf before running after Minwoo.

Are you a pureblood? So you’re a full wizard?

This was not how you wanted tryouts to go. For the most part, you were out of it, fortunately not enough for Eunbi to notice. Granted, she had her hands full. 

You could only think about Minwoo. 

Eunbi, in the time you'd spent with first years, had split up the recruits into small groups. There were also workshops so every new member could get a feel of each role. Everyone was assigned their usual roles except for Yeonjun and Oliivia. The former took up the Keeper’s role while the latter shadowed Eunbi, the pair conversing seriously. 

You walked over to the chest where the Bludger rattled in its cage, Yeri sidled up as you sighed.

“You alright?” she asked, motioning to the recruits assigned to the two of you. 

“Yeah, I'm fine—no,” you changed when you caught Yeri’s stare, “I’ll tell you later.”

She nodded, dropping the topic altogether before speaking to the new teammates. You recognized one of them quickly, yet you forgot her name already. 

“Huh Yunjin,” Yeri whispered beside you as you picked your bat, sarcasm dripping with every word. “Olivia’s best friend.”

“Do you know why?”

“Jealousy. Possible threat. Youngest privileges lost,” Yeri stopped to look at you. “Do you want me to keep listing more reasons? Or… ?”

You rolled your eyes at your friend and rounded up the pair, gesturing at them to take off into the air. 

“They’re fourth years, what did you expect?” Yeri yelled after you, no shame in admitting what she was whispering about. 

Shaking your head, you began to explain the basics of your role. Though you’re sure they were already well aware of that, so you made sure to emphasize just how dangerous being a Beater could be. Right on time, a resounding crack echoed through the field. 

The act was involuntary, muscle memory alone carried the task for you. The Bludger zoomed past the two recruits and with another resounding crack was sent back straight for Yeri. Flawless aim and deadly strength. You couldn’t help but smirk at yourself. 

The new students looked terrified, to say the least, but they were poised to whack the Bludger. When Yeri sent the ball back, it lacked its usual vigour, her hit purposely pulled back. Yunjin took the initiative putting herself in the ball's way before taking a swing. 

She managed to hit the ball back in Yeri’s general direction with quite a bit of strength, she showed promise. However, she did slightly stumble to the side of her broom, almost losing balance but she was quick to catch herself. Yunjin turned to you with a proud smile, awaiting praise. You couldn’t deny her that. 

“Well done, that was a good shot,” she straightened as you turned to the other recruit. “Your turn.”

The colour seemed to have completely drained from the kid’s face. If he wasn’t already terrified about facing a Bludger, the fact that Yunjin had managed to hit it almost perfectly couldn't help. Trusting your gut, you readied yourself in case something went south. 

A thunderous crack filled the stadium, his strength was paramount. 

Now if only he hadn’t smacked the Bludger backwards. Heading straight for the stands. 

You swore enough to lose a solid amount of points from your house. Good thing you were ready because you were flying at a speed you normally saved for your games. Your best friend has the same idea because Yeri was right by your side in a second. 

Ignoring the shrieks from the audience, the pair of you managed to surpass the Bludger with just enough space to spare. Without sharing a glance, you raised your batting hand and striked the Bludger. So had Yeri. 

With double the power of notorious Beaters, the Bludger soared high above the field and over the other end of the audience. Yeri only grumbled before speeding away after the ball. Leaving you to deal with the students whose lives you put at risk.

When you turned, the first person you see is Chou Tzuyu.

Like a magnet, your gaze seemed to land on her first. Her steely stare renders you speechless for a moment. Her knuckles were white from clutching a textbook you didn’t recognise. You wondered whether the pages were cutting into her skin. 

“Listen, I’m so sorry, Tzuyu,” you may have joked about how you were always apologising to her if someone hadn’t interrupted you by clearing their throat. Aggressively. 

Finally, you noticed the three other people seated next to Tzuyu. You couldn’t put names on two of them, one of which was clutching their heart as they whispered to the girl next to them. Her eyes were in crescents as she let out a chuckle, blushing to her ears. But, you did recognise Yeosang, Wooyoung’s best bud! 

Or so that's what Wooyoung claimed. You’ve never heard Yeosang confirm it. For that very reason, you doubted the Ravenclaw had a glowing impression of you. 

“Yeosang, buddy—”

“No.” He stood up, his eyes rolling back into his skull as he dragged the Hufflepuff next to him. They whined and made quite a scene as they were pulled away, the girl beside Tzuyu only giggled at their antics. You didn’t miss the wink they sent her before turning your attention back to Tzuyu. 

Her eyes were glassy as she stared. You’ve seen her smile, you know how she can light up a room. Yet, she managed to place such a cruel unfeeling mask over herself. 

“I really am sorry,” you said as the girl, having come down from giggles, shook her head. “Try-outs can be… rough.” 

You turned to Tzuyu again, hoping you salvaged something of your friendship. Not even, just merely the beginning of it. Her features were still steely, which wasn't good. When her friend’s hand came to rest atop hers, she softened. That was incorrect, her eyes didn't soften, she just lost her glare. 

“This is Gahyeon,” Tzuyu said, sentence clipped. “My friend.” 

Gahyeon smiled widely, extending her hand. Before you could even say your name she did it for you. 

“I know who you are,” Tzuyu shot her a strange glare but Gahyeon ignored it, unfazed by Tzuyu’s behaviour. “We’re all good, we knew you and Yeri had it covered. Hope the rest goes better than this!”

With a sad smile, you lowered your head again to apologize. You glimpsed at Tzuyu. Her features were still clouded with distaste, and maybe curiosity, but shifted to her aloof self as soon as she noticed you staring. Bidding them an awkward farewell, you turned to fly back to the third year.

Yunjin was to a side, her prideful demeanour nowhere to be found because she knew what was coming. The third year at fault was shaking on his broom but that didn’t deter you. 

With more vitriol than necessary, you said, “You better be good at some other position because you’re not a Beater!” He tried to say something but you were quick. “There’s no point if you’re all strength, you could’ve hurt someone—”

Yeri's voice came from somewhere to your side, but you decided to continue, baseless anger slipping past tightly shut gates. But your best friend placed a hand on your shoulder and pulled you back, forcing you to face her. 

The look on her face said everything you needed to hear. You can’t berate a kid for something they can’t control and no one was hurt… Tzuyu wasn’t hurt. 

“Get the next pair,” Yeri ordered and all you could do was nod. As you flew down, you could hear Yeri console the third year who was reeling from your words. 

Apart from that incident, practice went quite smoothly. The tasks were easy enough to follow, you and Yeri made sure to inform the recruits to consider aim and strength before swinging the bat wildly. Although, you didn’t allow room for anything to go wrong. Especially with the feeling of someone watching your back. 

After discussing with her teammates, Eunbi assigned substitute positions to the recruits. Though, everyone anticipated who would be the lucky person to fill up the Keeper position. Hyukwoo seemed all too smug, no doubt expecting the position to be his. Which is why it was all the more satisfying to see his expression sour when Yunjin was picked. 

Introductory ice-breakers. Short warm-up. Flight exercises. Two hours seemed to pass by in a blur before Eunbi decided it was time to play a few mock games. 

It was supposed to be harmless but everyone seemed to take it seriously. That was understandable under Eunbi’s unyielding watch. 

The intensity increased tenfold when the captain herself joined, taking her position as the Seeker. The small crowd lounging around the stadium cheered and it almost felt like a real game. Though, you and Yeri were grinning ear to ear, exhilarated just to play together again. 

Once the match ended, Eunbi asked everyone to relax but not before reminding the team to meet at the changing rooms later. Some of the younger recruits were not so eager to do nothing, they began rounding up equipment for the arriving Hufflepuff team. 

Eunbi was long gone and you waved away your friend's call to play catch in the air. Instead, you finally took the time to do what you loved; fly unperturbed. You missed the feeling of the winter chills crawling up your sleeves, cooling down the sweat on your forehead. Soon your mindless rounds came to a slow drive, almost floating in place, suspended in the air as you smiled at no one in particular. To even have considered not playing this year was a fool’s thought. 

A blur hurtled past before turning to stop in front of you. The shiver that ran down your spine was difficult to shake off. 

“So it’s real then?” Wooyoung’s voice squeaked at the end. You hoped he wasn’t insinuating what you think he was. “You and Chou Tzuyu?”

“What are you on about… ” the question died on your lips when Wooyoung looked to his left and you followed his gaze.

Not even a few meters away, Tzuyu was seated exactly where you’d left her an hour ago. Her friend, Gahyeon, if you remember correctly, was reading the prefect's textbook. Tzuyu’s attention, however, was completely on you. 

Apparently, in your daze, you had been flying near her. And in return, she’d been watching you. 

Fortunately, your best friend had immaculate timing. 

But none of the decorum. 

Yeri saved you from the paralysing staring concert by crashing right into you. 

Being the professional that she is, Yeri pivoted at the right moment, parking herself beside Wooyoung. You weren’t so graceful. The groan you emitted was ugly and pained, but at least you didn’t topple off your broom and plummet to your death. The most you experienced was disorientation from the blood rushing to your head. Oh, and the insurmountable amount of embarrassment. Why was Tzuyu looking at you?

Blinking away the white spots, you scowled at your so-called friends who cackled at your misery. “Was that necessary?” 

“Wouldn’t have been if you hurried instead of ogling Hufflepuffs,” Yeri offered an unapologetic smile. She was right, none of your teammates were anywhere to be seen on the field. 

“And it wasn’t even me?” Wooyoung pouted, his voice pitched higher. Both you and Yeri groaned at that. “I’m heartbroken.”

“Alright, we’re done here,” you said as you turned away from Wooyoung’s unbearable expression. 

“No, don’t leave me—” Wooyoung groaned instead of finishing the sentence. No doubt, Yeri shoved him too. 

“Good luck with practice, Woo,” you called out as you descended. Yeri was quick to pass you, shaking her head with a smile as she did. 

You didn’t leave the field without sparing one last glance at Chou Tzuyu. 

Her eyes had never left you.

“We’re focusing on scoring this year,” Eunbi said just as you entered the changing rooms. “This means Beaters, I need you to prioritize Chaser’s protection over mine.” 

You hadn’t even gotten the chance to seat yourself before you were shooting up. 

“What?” you squawked along with Yeri. The team was quick to follow with their outcries. 

Being a Seeker was no walk in the park. The title alone was an automatic target on your back. It didn’t help that there was a running joke of a guaranteed win if Eunbi was eliminated first. Of course, that has never happened. Eliminating Eunbi that is. Not with you carelessly taking Bludgers for her with your head instead of your bat. All ten fingers and ten toes wouldn’t be enough to count how many fouls you and Yeri have intercepted. It was only natural that one of the Beaters was always floating around Eunbi. 

So to ask for no protection seems ill-advised. 

Undeterred, Eunbi continued. 

“This is especially important for our opening game with Gryffindor. Jongho did a damn good job of blocking most of our goals last year,” Olivia scowled at the mention of the Keeper. He hadn’t let her score a single goal. “Focusing on scoring means not only prioritizing our Chasers, but the opposing team’s Chasers as well. If you can keep the Bludgers and their Beaters concentrated on them, then I will be fine.” 

“That’s a big if.” Yeri stated, not necessarily rejecting Eunbi’s unconventional strategy. 

“You are more than capable of pulling it off. I just need you to do it,” Eunbi said, her eyes glossing over the entire team. “All of you.” 

any feedback is much appreciated.

a/n: i feel like this fic is more about studying and sports than tzuyu HKSDFGJKDS like i know it seems like a slow burn, but the original draft didn't even have romance in it HJFKSDGF (i still don't know what type of relationship these two will have) it was me messing around and just dragging shit around for fun so we'll see how this one goes. as for sport, idc for it and if the stuff i say makes no sense, you've come this far i'm sure you can suspend your disbelief just a bit more :D anyways,,,see you next month-ish ? maybe ? who knows ? hope everyone is doing well and have a good day/night !

taglist: @someone-who-likes-broccoli @tatliegilim

send an ask to be added !

#mishaps gone right #mala's collection #sanccharine #tzuyu x reader #twice x reader #twice fluff #tzuyu fluff #jype twice #twice imagines #tzuyu imagines

[legends-of-apex]

‘Only If For a Night’ ch. 6 | Tangerine x Reader

{Click here for series masterlist}

Rating: M for swearing, mentions of injury and blood, violence

Word count: 4,000

Summary: Tangerine is forced into self-reflection when you tell him how you ended up in this mess in the first place. Reader is gender neutral 

Note: Hey everyone, sorry for the late update! Things have been insane me for irl recently lol so I've not had too much time to write! Anyways I hope you enjoy and please feel free to let me know what you thought <3 your comments keep me writing this honestly, you're all so sweet 

Tangerine's observational skills were inconsistent. Sometimes he picked up on every little detail, like Lemon's tie hanging lopsided or a crease in one of his paperbacks' pages. But other times misplacements simply passed him by like a breeze.

For instance, he hadn't noticed the deep slashes in their car's tires despite being bent down on one knee to change the license plates. He certainly hadn't noticed the pair of binoculars zoned in on him from just outside the hotel parking lot's edge. He was too busy thinking about you, then the job and then how quiet the city seemed now there was no construction work to hammer through his eardrums. They must have stopped for dinner, he thought.

Tangerine realised that the hotel sat firmly on the edge of the city but its sprawling parking lot made it look much more isolated than it actually was. If he was to walk a few minutes in either direction, he would probably find a neat little corner shop. But the parking lot was so ostentatiously large for a hotel of its size, like it was forced into artificial isolation.

The man watched Tangerine for any sign of panic or realisation that he'd slashed the tires. He'd cut the battery wires too for good measure. But Tangerine didn't notice any of that. He was far too preoccupied with trying not to tear the crude stitches in his arm as he changed the plates.

The man watched him head back inside after flicking his cigarette to the ground without bothering to stub it out. What a waste. A bellboy came through the revolving doors a moment later so the man got out of the car. He'd found his way in.

The next morning you took to your balcony to watch the city. The iron railing was cold against your palms, the metal almost iced by the morning air. The cold felt good against your skin, it felt fresh and freeing. It helped unfog your clouded mind a little.

'You'll catch your death out here if you're not careful.'

With a jolt, your eyes darted to the left to see Tangerine leaning back against the balcony of his and Lemon's room, a stone's throw away from yours. You could have probably jumped the gap between balconies if you really wanted to but to you, he may as well have been a mile away.

There he was. The reason for your fogged head in the first place. He was quickly becoming the itch you couldn't scratch, a rosebush thorn in your side you couldn't dig out. You had a feeling he knew that. Something about the way he leaned so casually made you think he realised exactly what he was doing. There was a terrible smugness to Tangerine but for whatever reason, you couldn't hate him for it.

He took the cigarette hanging from his mouth and grinned, moustache upturning with his lips. 'Sorry, love. I didn't mean to scare you. Was just stating the obvious is all.'

'Yeah? Well, I'm not going to catch pneumonia from standing outside for five minutes.' You scoffed. He adored that insolent tone in your voice, maybe a little too much.

'I'm happy to hear that. I didn't take a fucking bullet for you to just die of natural causes.'

You'd had this conversation before in the car when he'd told you that he didn't drive all this way just for you to get killed in a gas station. That was his way of expressing concern for you, framing it as it being an inconvenience for himself that you were going into a potentially dangerous place, or even that you were cold.

'You're not going to offer me your jacket again, are you?' You asked with a sleepy grin.

He nodded his head, almost impressed with you calling him out. 'Suppose I could if you're asking. Just as long as you don't bloody spill anything on it. I'm still trying to get the blood out the other one.' You smiled then and he did too. 'How'd you sleep?' He asked, his voice softer.

'Pretty good all things considered.' Considering you couldn't get him, or his searing touch, out of your head. 'This place is a lot nicer and a lot safer than the safe house.'

'That door seemed like it would have caved in if someone looked at it the wrong way.' He despised the thought of you staying there so unsafe. The fact that you'd been followed a mere hour after he and Lemon found you didn't escape him.

'I thought so too. Suddenly I understand why people sleep with knives under their pillow, if I could even sleep at all.' He admired the way you looked out at the city for a moment, like he wasn't even there. But then you gasped. 'You haven't slept yet, have you? I'm sorry to keep you.'

'Don't be.' He liked listening to you talk. 'But I did pop downstairs and get some pastries for us so you might want to help yourself before we've scoffed them.'

'Thanks. I'll go do that. Sleep well Tangerine.'

'Cheers, love. See you later.'

You left him there to finish his cigarette and then head to bed. Sleep was the very last thing on his mind right now but his body begged him for it nonetheless.

When he awoke he found you watching tv with Lemon. You both sat on one of the sweeping couches facing the sleek tv mounted on the wall. That and the fire pit were just about the only modern things in that living room. Everything else could have been torn right out of the early 1900s.

Tangerine rolled his eyes as the familiar sight of Thomas and Friends flashed across the screen. Lord knows how Lemon managed to find it. After a quick greeting to his brother, Lemon turned back to you to continue his ramblings about the show. Tangerine would have felt bad for you if you didn't seem genuinely interested. Tangerine immediately busied himself by watching your face as Lemon recounted the tale with broad and excited hand gestures to match his enthusiasm. Your patience was admirable, a virtue he could say for certain that he'd never possessed. But he liked the concentration woven into your features as you listened to his brother drone on. It endeared him to you even more.

Lemon was telling you about an episode of Thomas and Friends he watched last night before bed, even as the other one was playing right now as he spoke. Thomas was berating Gordon for the time he got stuck on some warped train track and then Thomas fell into a ditch. It was supposed to be some lesson about being kind and non-judgmental towards others and their struggles as so much of that show seemed to be.

You must have been bored as hell, Tangerine thought.

There wasn't any hotel WiFi as the staff said it was down. Even if it was working you couldn't use your phone for fear of someone using it to track your location. You couldn't even contact friends or family. You couldn't do much inside and you weren't allowed to go outside. Being on the run fucking sucked. He and his brother seemed to be making things bearable but still, he could tell you craved fresh air and the chance to stretch your legs.

Tangerine made a mental note to offer you a loan of his book later.

Dinner that night was worse than yesterday. You were still the only occupied table in the echoey restaurant. The staff unsettled you and the food was honestly pretty abysmal like the actual chef was on holiday. The staff stood around bored as though they weren't quite sure what they should be doing.

That night Tangerine couldn't sleep. He and Lemon's rotating shifts to make sure you were He swung his legs over the side of the bed and flicked his lighter to light a cigarette. The light illuminated his face in the dark as he looked out at the skyline. He'd slept with the blinds open since he was a child. He always liked waking to feel the warmth of the morning sun on his face. The air was cold that night so he slipped a nightgown over his bare shoulders and tied it firmly at his waist.

He wandered out onto the balcony and looked across at yours, finding it empty. He wasn't sure what he expected but he knew what he had hoped to find there. And in your absence, the air felt colder.

Instead, he found himself alone and for the first time in years, he felt it. Or rather it was the first time he detested the feeling. With his brother around it was difficult to feel lonely but the heart finds its way. Usually, he buried his loneliness in books. He felt safer with his nose buried between the pristine pages. The only people getting hurt were confined within the printed ink, trapped within the paper. But therein also lay the only ones experiencing the romance or adventure of which the stories sang.

He read a lot of romance and classical novels, and found himself wrapped up in the oftentimes almost trivial conflicts. They ought to have seemed small to him given his day-to-day life but they never did. He treasured the ghostly touches of forbidden lovers or kisses pressed to plush and swollen lips stolen between weeks of longing glances.

Those stories made him feel such things that he never really had the chance to aside from the occasional hook-up tainted by either party's selfish need for release.

So after flicking his cigarette down onto the street below and watching the embers fizzle out in a dark puddle on the concrete, he wandered back inside and flicked open his book. It was a compilation of some of Dostoevsky's short stories and he was just about to start his favourite. White Nights, when he heard a noise from your room.

He was on his feet in an instant, the book discarded.

'Lemon!' He half shouted upon seeing his brother's eyes closed where he sat on the couch. He was supposed to have been staying up in case you needed anything.

'Yeah, gimme like five more minutes bruv.' He mumbled. Tangerine sighed, relieved he was alright. He always slept like the dead.

He went straight for your door instead.

'Are you alright in there?' He had a gun in his hand.

'Just a second!' You called out and when you came to the door he swallowed, eyes flickering downwards and then back up to your face. He was trying to keep his eyes focused firmly on anything but the expanse of your legs peeking out beneath your pyjama shorts.

'What the fucking hell was that noise?'

'I knocked a bottle of water off my nightstand.' You noticed the gun in his hand and your eyes widened. 'Jeez.'

He wondered why you wouldn't look him in the eye but then realised his robe had come loose in his panic to get to your room, letting his torso mostly lay bare before you now. He didnt bother to tighten it either since you'd already seen his chest and stomach when sewing up his wounded arm.

'What were you doing up?' He cleared his throat in an effort to shift the tension.

'Couldn't sleep. I'm bored as hell.'

 'Fancy a wander then?' He asked.

'You're serious?'

'Yeah. Middle of the night, innit? There's not going to be anybody about.' He couldn't hide his smile at seeing the excitement shining in your eyes at his suggestion. You liked his grin, you decided.

Once you'd both thankfully pulled on some warmer clothes and left a note for Lemon, you walked to the elevator in silence. Tangerine pressed the button for the ground floor with purpose. He knew exactly where he wanted to go. The elevator smelled almost musty, old and unused.

On the fourth floor, the elevator doors opened and a bellboy came into view. Tangerine's gaze hardened as if a switch had just been flicked. It was the first time you'd looked at him and thought he looked threatening. He was on edge and lethal, a far cry away from how soft he'd been with you a few moments before.

'Going down?' He asked, stepping in before either of you could respond. His clothes were ill-fitting, messy even. He'd pulled his shirt collar up like he was trying to obscure a hickie.

'Yeah. The hell you still working at this time of night for, mate?' Tangerine asked, his eyes still steel.

'Oh the work never stops around here. You know how it is!'

The bellboy let out a laugh that you didn't like, his voice was like sandpaper.

Neither of you said anything but Tangerine sensed your discomfort, your unease. So he planted himself as a barrier between you and the bellboy, guiding you to stand between him and the elevator's wall. His hand on you felt natural, like he'd touched you a thousand times already. You wished that he had.

The move he made to shield you was obvious, deliberate but if the other man noticed then he didn't seem to care. But a flicker of your eye caught the man staring at Tangerine's hands, distracted.

The air still hung thick with anticipation of something, anything to happen.

Tangerine kept his eyes on him until the elevator eventually sang of your arrival.

'After you,' he extended a hand toward the doorway.

You felt Tangerine's hand on your back, careful not to touch your waist, as he guided you out in front of him. He stood so close to you that you could feel the heat from his chest grazing your shoulder blade. Once you'd walked a few feet he swung his neck around to see the bellhop walking in the other direction.

'What a little fucking weirdo, eh?' He whispered, 'Did you see his shoes?'

You had actually. He wore black steel-capped boots mucky they appeared almost brown at first. They looked like they belonged to a workman rather than a bellhop. You cringed at the thought of him treading that muck all over the perfect carpets throughout the hotel.

As the two of you rounded the corner, Tangerine stuck to you like glue and you were glad. It was frustrating to feel anxious about your safety in a place where you were supposed to be safe but at least Tangerine was there and he made you feel safe.

Poor Alicia was still on the front desk when you reached reception. Oil paintings encrusted with golden frames hung on the wine-dark wall behind in a crescent. Her shirt was partially undone and her eyes were stained with a ring mascara smudged from wear. She'd clearly had a long day.

'Evening, love. Is your pool open?' Tangerine asked, flashing his best smile.

She glanced at the clock on the wall and he sensed her hesitation so he produced a 50 from his wallet and slid it along the smooth counter.

'Certainly!' Her green eyes brightened as she slipped the cash beneath her sleeve. 'It's the first door on your left, sir.''

'Cheers. Enjoy your night.

The outdoor pool lay nestled in the heart of the hotel. The building wrapped around it like a blanket, funnelling the night sky down onto your heads.

'Not technically outside now are we?' He sent you a wink.

He'd come across the pool when researching for the job. He hadn't found much other information about the hotel really but the lovely outdoor pool was plastered right on the website's homepage.

Plants littered the ground, some in beds and some in heavy pots, others clambered up the sides of the building gasping gasping to be touched by the sun. A few pink petals floated along the top of the pool, fresh and unwilted.

'Bit of a shitty pool that, eh? For fuck sake, the one at my place is bigger.' Tangerine remarkef. It looked a lot bigger in the pictures.

'You have a pool?'

'Course I do. Wouldn't have bought a place without one.'

'That sounds expensive.'

'I hope so. I don't exactly do this job for the fun of it. Some jobs pay Lemon and I more than your average bloke would earn in a lifetime.' He pulled his lips downwards into a adorably comical pout, 'Half the time those are the easy ones.'

Something about Tangerine finally made sense to you. He clearly didn't come from money but the things he spent it on now were beacons of it. His golden rings were just a bit too flashy, his suit a bit too perfect to be that of a man that came from money. He'd clearly made it for himself and he wanted to show it.

You took off your shoes and rolled up your trousers, dipping one foot into the warm water. The lights shining up from the base of the pool had the water's ripples projecting onto nearly every surface. It covered your skin in coiling flickers, Tangerine's too. The water was so blue you thought it might make his eyes look dull but a glance over at him proved otherwise.

'So how did you manage to get mixed up in all this? I've read your file but I ain't buying you rubbing shoulders with Hollow Eye. You don't seem the type.'

'You're sure you want to know?' You asked and he nodded, lighting a cigarette and sinking back into the deck chair. The light caught the twinkle of his golden chain resting against his chest as he placed his hands behind his head. He hadn't bothered doing his shirt all the way up that night and you couldn't blame him.

'Only if you feel like telling.'

Part of you wanted to take this to your grave, to let it sink into the soil along with the rest of you. If you survived long enough to ever dare and get close to anyone ever again they would never learn of this. But Tangerine? Tangerine had a face that made you want to spill your every secret to him. Intentional or not, you felt so distinctly comfortable telling him things you barely wanted to admit to yourself.

'To be honest, I had no idea I was working for him until it was too late. As far as I knew I just worked the front desk at a normal spa on weekends. Normal job really. People came and went. Business people mostly, real Wall Street types. They tipped pretty well too. Can you imagine that? Being rich enough to tip a receptionist?'

It was very exclusive. No walk-ins and when people did call to make appointments it was always their secretaries rather than them. You never questioned the weird appointment hours and you never had any reason to suspect foul play. If there was ever any strange behaviour you put it down to weird rich people shit. Hollow Eye himself whose name you never knew back then only passed through the door a few days before it all happened. He'd been to see the woman, you realised.

'One night I was covering one of the weekday girl's shifts and I heard a noise from the back. So I went through to check and I found this woman all tied up and bloody. So of course, I untied her.'

 You'd found a hostage, Tangerine realised and his heart sank. All this fuss because you had the decency to help someone?

You could never forget the face of that woman no matter how hard you tried. You'd never forget the blood that caked some of her corkscrew curls as her head hung forwards, sloped shoulders sagged in defeat. She thought you were her captor but her head lifted so quickly when you asked if she was alright that she could have been gazing at the stars.

'Turns out I timed it just right because the guard who'd been watching her was taking a leak. When he came back she killed him with his own gun.'

She didn't even need to fire it, just sent the hilt into the side of his head. Despite her state, the woman struck the man like lightning and he fell like thunder. She made sure everyone else fell too. The place was teeming with Hollow Eye's men, it must have been some kind of a halfway point for them where they stopped to rest. You didn't recognise a single one of their faces before the woman put a bullet in them.

Tangerine saw the slight tremor in your shoulders, felt the pain threatening to spill from your eyes as you spoke. He felt the urge to destroy the distance between you. So with a creak of the chair beneath me he stood and then plonked himself down at your side by the shining pool's edge. He sat with his knees bent and his feet planted firmly on the tiled floor. Their colour reminded him of clotted cream.

'She killed every single person in that building except for me. Said she usually likes to make things a lot cleaner, and uses some kind of poison needles or something. But my boss, who I now know goes by Hollow Eye... she said he killed her partner...'

There was blood everywhere. It painted the walls like thrown berries from a child's hand. It covered you, it covered the woman and spread in puddles beside warm bodies in the hallways beneath flickering lights.

'The building was on fire by the time we got out of there as some kind of last message to Hollow Eye that she wasn't done with him yet, that she wouldn't be happy until she put a bullet in him too. Then she told me to run. I still don't know why she didn't just kill me too and be done with it.'

She'd thought about it. You could tell that much from the way she turned to you after kicking open the back door you never even knew existed, one of the men's guns in her hand. It would have been so easy. So simple. Just a click of trigger as the rain loud enough to drown out the sound pelted down upon you both. The blood from her broken nose mingled with sweet rain and streamed down her face, down her clothes. Her chest heaved with anger, the white fabric ran red with blood.

But she couldn't bring herself to do it.

'She said I might get a day or so head start before they realised I wasn't among the dead and that I'd had a hand in helping her. So I went home, packed a bag and ran. And I've been running ever since.'

 Now every ally and rival of Hollow Eye alike wanted a piece of you.

You. The one that set the Hornet free.

Tangerine wasn't sure what to say. It was the longest you'd ever heard him be silent. Usually, he was talking about something, the first thing that came to his mind really or humming. Even during the car ride here he was humming or pointing out the stupidest shit, anything to keep from being still and quiet.

That woman, the one you saved, must have been someone like him and Lemon. A gun for hire, an assassin, a killer, whatever anyone could ever want to call it. It was rare for him to ever hear the consequences of their actions aside from paychecks and the occasional promise of revenge that rarely reared its ugly head. Suddenly Tangerine felt guilty and that wasn't a familiar feeling to him. But more than guilt he felt the need to comfort you, to take that pain away.

Before now he'd thought his heart to be hollow, like a killer's should be, so why now did it ache for you?

'I'm so sorry, love.'

He let his hand settle over yours in gentle comfort. He wanted to offer you his arms, his entire soul for comfort. But now didn't seem like the right time.

'You don't seem like the underworld type either. You and Lemon, I mean.' You were quick to soften the fact that you'd thought about him by mentioning Lemon too. Tangerine thought it was cute.

'Hopefully we won't be for much longer,' He confessed.

'You don't want to stay in the game?'

'I'm looking for a reason not to.' He looked at you almost sadly, like he wanted nothing else in the world. You saw then the heavy look in his achingly blue eyes and recognised it as similar to the same weariness that layered your own.

'I hope you find it.'

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