#i think she’d have reason to be even MEANER actually. that reaction of hers was completely reasonable. and honestly it must’ve hurt seeing

[boltgunkiller-archive]

i find it damn near impossible to get mad at santana’s behavior in 3x06 and 3x07 because i genuinely do think she had the right to be lashing out at everybody. sue me idk

#idgaf if she was mean to kurt and blaine when they were “trying to help” in IKAG #they were the first performance & santana was put under the spotlight by the guy who fully outed her to the ENTIRE STATE OF OHIO & now she #-was expected to be just happy and jolly about some bullshit lady music week to celebrate women as if that has anything to do with wtf just #-happened to her by finn’s hands & of course she was upset because she was only back in the new directions because finn basically #-blackmailed her into rejoining like hello!!! so of course she was snippy with them… and tbh i don’t even think she was being that mean. #i think she’d have reason to be even MEANER actually. that reaction of hers was completely reasonable. and honestly it must’ve hurt seeing #-two people who are meant to Get what it’s like.. participate in that? especially when the last thing she wants is her sexuality that she’s #-still very insecure with Being broadcasted. to the whole damn club. it’s already about to be shown to all of ohio with names addresses #-details about her whole personal life etc like she really didn’t need that spotlight right then she needed to have space and love and #-support… none of which she got. #also the glee writers tend to make a character do a bad thing and then have another character do an INFINITELY WORSE THING #and then they’re like “oh but. the first character was being so mean. this absolutely deplorable and wayyyy too far reaction is definitely #-justified now because that was just so mean of the first character ugh!” and basically spins what happened into showing the first characte #-as the most evil person alive??? as if that’s even remotely true.??? and yes this is about santana cause they do this w her #and quinn. a LOTTTT. like a LOT. rn i’m talking ab santana though so i won’t cover quinn sorry fabrayers… one day! #like yes santana was being mean sure whatever. but finn didn’t have an excuse IDGAF what the hell anybody says about the body shaming stuff #it was mean. yes that’s true. but i don’t think you understand how different those two things are #they’re both bad but the outing is infinitely more despicable and personal and filled with malice and it’s so much more endangering in a wa #-that can’t even be compared to the dangers of body shaming you know. like they’re completely different and the outing thing is just too #-personal and Wrong like. idk. just get that through ur head they’re both so different and finn went way too far and personal. he could’ve #-just mocked her looks if he really wanted to get back at her. mocked ANYTHING else. but he chose the worst thing you could do to somebody #who is scared and in the closet and hurting #also yes santana’s written to be rude a lot of the time but her degree of rudeness in those episodes was Overplayed and def not in characte #like it didn’t feel much like santana’s brand of meanness it was 100% the writers trying to justify finn more because they continued to #-paint finn as the good guy who chose the high road… when that couldn’t be further from the truth thanks. he didn’t choose the high road he #-completely blackmailed santana and used her to make him look good basically. so you can’t change my mind on that Def being a writer issue #and just them Hating Women. especially santana. thanks. #also this is all coming from somebody who loves finn. so. 🤣 #i fuckingggg hate seeing people say santana was mean and had no right to be doing all of that in those eps.. BITCH YES SHE DID #like in other eps sure (<- nuanced topic/take) but this one? No. she was justified IDGAF. should’ve been meaner

[lokislytherin]

ghosted - an original

i’m sure some of you have seen me post about these ocs before or vent about not having a story to give them? well now they’ve escaped into the world! if you’re interested in murder mysteries crossed over with kpop with a drop of magic, romance and crack 👀

LINK TO INCOMPLETE NOVEL HERE!

i tried to draw my ocs but unfortunately im still working on learning how to draw so i kind of took the picrews as a base? the chibis were based off genshin stickers if they look a little familiar

anyway character introductions!

SONG JUNHEE

he’s a singer who sacrifices his memory to a mysterious grim reaper in exchange for surviving a car crash, and he’s gotta solve the mystery of his own death and an ensuing idol serial killing in six months before all hell breaks loose! honestly his chibi is so cute i want to use it as an actual reaction sticker- yeah he is the Pretty Boy character (because hello? faceclaim doyoung from nct is 🥺🥺🥺) tbh but hey! he can fight with his drumsticks and he’s meaner than he looks

AHN MINJI

best girl!! detective!! smug as hell when she’s right, awkward as hell when she’s wrong because she expects herself to always be right. she’s a karen fighter and will not hesitate to speak her mind even if it gets her into trouble. yes i know i originally cast her as rosé bc i feel like she’d be more gentle but she’s a bit of a cheeky one and her personality ran away from me so all she’s got now is rosie’s signature hair color. she’s fun tho and i like her a lot

SON DAEHYUK

sunshine boy! baby! golden retriever bf type of character! unfortunately 1) he’s dead 2) he likes to think of junhee as sunshine and himself as sunshine protector bc he’s junhee’s biggest fan and will fight haters but he’s also an idol and junhee’s hoobae so let’s face it he’s the baby of the cast and junhee is like his responsible older brother LMAO honestly he wasn’t really meant to be a major character but i’ve been told i have oneechan vibes (even tho i have no siblings) so i basically adopted him. junhee move aside he’s My baby now

HYUNJUN

real name unknown, real age unknown, all we know is that he’s an idol who’s always disappearing for Unknown Reasons and he’s been junhee’s bff for the past decade. who knows, maybe he’s got more hidden under his sleeve than just cards... he was not meant to exist actually. but he popped into my head and chewed through my train of thought and now we’re here

if you’re interested pls feel free to give this a read! i’m trying to use this site called royal road bc i heard it’s better than wattpad in some ways but at the same time using it feels kind of discouraging because the site literally wants you to publish every day but i’m a uni student who doesn’t have time for that rip

updates are on my ig rinarchive52 for anyone who’s interested!

#original characters #ocs #original content #original writing #original novel #oc art #aaaaa #i am Trying to art #im learning #it's a slow progress #writer #writer problems

[bellatrixobsessed1]

Okay so tumblr did something super weird with the formatting and I couldn’t fix it; for some reason it had the page cut under the ask itself (as if the ask itself had the page cut in it) so I literally couldn’t edit it out and re-format it right. So I just took a screencap of the ask and I’ll respond via a standard textpost.

Gonna give a little warning because I’m gonna be talking about child abuse a bit.

Glad to hear it, anon. :) I try to keep an open mind with these discussions.

Tbh, I kinda get uncomfortable with some of the stuff I've seen in her tag regarding Zuko especially. I've seen a handful of people kind of dismissing him as being whiny or sensitive, and I just don't really vibe with that. I don't have anything against any of the people I've seen posting it, but I just don't vibe with.

I'm also gonna take the opportunity to try to break some of the misconceptions about the Azula fandom by saying that I don't feel afraid or intimidated to kinda go against a good portion of the fandom in a sense. And that's because, fellow Azula fans have never really outcast me or tried to fight me for saying that I think that Azula's a bit of an abuser. The Azula fandom imo, isn't full of bullies and hateful people; everyone I have talked to has been very open to a nice discussion. I think that it just depends how you approach them with your arguments.

All of that said, Imma get back on topic here; It’s a little tough to talk about Azula's flaws sometimes because I feel like (though, thankfully this hasn’t happened on tumblr to me yet) that some people take pointing out flaws in your faves as bashing them or posting hate.

But honestly this is really cool to hear because back when I first opened up this blog I used to do that thing where I’d justify everything that my faves did, which was a bit of a problem because my faves are all antagonists! xD So there has been a lot of progress made.

I think that there are three main reasons that people have a hard time admitting that she’s an abuser too.

I think that the biggest one is that a lot of Azula fans lately have been massively on the defensive. There has been quite a bit of hate in her tag, there have been things said by the writers (taken the wrong way or not), there have been a lot of generalizations, and so on. And all of it kind of puts fans on the defensive. I see so many posts about how Azula is irredeemable and just the worst, most evil character in the show and so people kind of swing hardcore the other way (Azula did nothing wrong) to make up for all of the demonizing she gets. One extreme usually leads to another. Seeing Azula get so much shit, like being called a killer and a sadist, provokes the Azula is a cinnamon roll reaction. Basically when a fandom gets put on blast for being 'the crazy' or 'mean' side of the fandom, I feel like it creates a cycle where that part of the fandom starts to actually act meaner because they feel backed into a corner. The more they are called 'delusional' for seeing good in Azula the more radically they will start to defend that belief until the shades of grey start disappearing, if that makes sense.

But this is just a theory of course.

The second reason I think that people tend to dismiss the things she does do wrong is that there's this association with criticism and hate. And this goes beyond the Avatar fandom. In general I feel like people find it hard to say bad things about their favorite characters because they feel like they're bashing their character and/or they don't want people to think that they are being negative. Plus it's just kinda hard to say bad things about something you like/love. Speaking as someone who used to do this; I always felt really weird about or like I was being negative when admitting that things I like have flaws. I'm not exactly sure why I used to feel like this because it wasn't an, 'I seem myself in this character, so insulting them is like insulting me' thing because I usually have almost nothing in common with my faves. Idk, it's just always been way easier for me to find things I like in a character I hate than it is for me to find things I don't like in a character that I do. On a personal level, it might just be because I'd rather focus on liking things that I like than hating things that I hate?

I guess that I think that it's just easy to forget that 'I don't like xyz aspect of Azula' is not the same as 'I don't like Azula at all'. I think that it's possible to love a character but not love everything about them, just like real people; you can love your mom to death but there will always be those things about her that drive you nuts.

And really, imo, I think that fans who are able to see flaws with their faves are the ones who understand them the best. I'm definitely not saying that the people who don't see/acknowledge their fave's flaws don't understand their fave. But I think that they are missing out on very crucial aspects of their favorite character. If you like a character you should like them for what they are in canon, not what you want them to be or what they could be.

I see a lot of potential for growth in Azula. I see potential for a redemption arc and I do love what her character can be. But I also love her character as is. Currently in canon, she's manipulative and goal driven to the point where she has a disregard for people. Currently she's an antagonist and I love her for that. Because antagonist, unredeemed Azula is the character I liked in the beginning. I don't condone her being manipulative and I don't like that as a personality trait. But I do love it as far as, she is a fantastically written antagonist. And those cold, manipulative, abusive traits add to her complexity when juxtaposed against her own abuse, insecurities, and need to be loved.

And that's kind of what I mean when I say that, if you like Azula, you should like her despite the flaws.  If that makes sense. I feel like people who say that she isn't an abuser (at least to some degree) kind of have a misunderstanding of her character. I think that one of the points of her character is to show that some abused kids don't come out okay. It's a tragic reality.

But with Azula I think that there's still room for her to change and start to break that cycle. I feel like she'd have a much harder time doing it than Zuko, because she has been subjected to his mental abuse in close range for much longer than he has. And I think that it would be something she'd struggle with her whole life, but I see good in her.

That said, I think that the third reason people have trouble seeing her as an abuse is because it is just really hard to see abuse victims become the abuser. I've mentioned before, but I come from a family where the chain ended with one of my parents. Said parent has told me many times how hard it was to fight that kind of upbringing. That's the real tragedy of abuse, it just goes on and on until you're mentally strong enough to fight yourself and break that chain. And the sad thing is, that some people just can't seem to do that. And I think that when discussing Azula, this comes into play a bit; it's just hard to look at even a fictional abuse victim and knowledge that they've become the abuser because it is all that they have known.

It's just a really hard topic and  that's why it's so easy for discourse like this to get heated; a lot of people have an Azula in their lives or relate to her in some way.

Thanks for the ask, sorry it took so long to reply! I wanted to make it thoughtful and word everything the best that I can.

As always, everyone is welcomed to chime in and give their own opinions.

EDIT: There are a few things that I don’t think I was clear enough on with the initial post lol. First and foremost, I’m definitely not saying that these three reasons are the only reasons people don’t talk about Azula’s flaws. @wingsfreedom​ made a good point about differing ways of interpreting scenes. That’s another biggy. 

The other thing I want to clarify is that I don’t think that Azula is a full on abuser. I think that she displays tendencies and does some abusive things. But I also don’t put her on the same level as Ozai. I feel like she’s a bit more merciful than him. Like Ozai is pretty much too far gone; he’s an abuser and his mind is set there. Azula, I think still has the capacity to break the chain. She’s not a lost cause. I also feel like she can be reasoned with more than Ozai. Ozai is all about power; Azula is motivated more by desperation (be it for her father’s love, to keep the last bit of control she has, and to keep her friends). It still leads to that harmful behavior, but I don’t think that she’s a lost cause like Ozai. Like, she has some abusive tendencies now, but I can also see her being able to break the chain under the right conditions.  If that makes sense. 

#Avatar The Last Airbender #Azula #Azula Discourse #Discourse #Zuko #Fandom Discourse

[oveliagirlhaditright]

When I couldn’t sleep last night, I thought of what I would do with a Kingdom Hearts Pilot for some reason.

I think I’d start it with some of the stuff in the Ansem’s Reports. 

Like, I’d show Xehanort overhearing the conversation between Ansem the Wise and Mickey about the Keyblade, Doors that appear, and all that jazz. But I’d stage it in a way where you maybe don’t see Ansem and could believe that Mickey was just talking to Xehanort--like Xehanort is standing behind Ansem (so that’s the direction Mickey’s looking, to give the illusion he’s talking to Xehanort when he’s not. And Ansem is cut out of the shot). Then we’d see people in pods with Heartless approaching them and more Heartless appearing after that. But you wouldn’t see most of this shot--because you have to keep it kid friendly, so mostly imply what’s happening (that Xehanort is using these people to see how the Heartless react to them, and they’re stealing their hearts and making more Heartless this way). But since we’re still giving the guise that Ansem-Xehanort, who has now replaced him, is a good and peaceful leader... the audience wouldn’t completely understand what was happening here. Like, the pod wouldn’t be closed (so it doesn’t look like Xehanort is trapping them). Perhaps it would look like an open doorway that the people could easily escape through... but they don’t. And by the angle, you’re not sure if they turned into Heartless themselves (they did) or if more Heartless just came to join the party... and maybe if you looked closely, you could see a pink glow when the new Heartless appeared--maybe--but you don’t know what that means yet. And this section ends with the Door that Xehanort sees and opens. But I should point out through all of this... he never looks evil: just curious/astonished, that sort of thing (which are reasonable reactions via the circumstances). But later we’d come back to these scenes and show the truth (that Xehanort is an imposter and Mickey was talking to Ansem... that Xehanort was a mad scientist who gladly caused all of this. Yada yada ya).

We then get Sora’s Dive to the Heart after an “X many years later” text... because since the intro subtly set up the villain and that problem, this next part shows you who’s going to be the hero who will stop it. There also may be more hints that Mickey is the Voice that Sora hears--telling him what to do--if we’re still going with that. Maybe.

Sora wakes up on the Island to Kairi--as per usual--and that whole scene plays out... but I think I’m going to combine the two races into one for time. The race that Kairi suggests they run here, turns into the one where Riku goes “whoever wins, gets to share the paopu with Kairi, gets to be captain of the raft and name it” etc. (Kairi doesn’t hear the part about sharing the paopu with her) and Sora loses to set up that underdog narrative of his.

After this, we can have Sora go into the Secret Place and draw himself giving Kairi a paopu, because he thinks this is the only way he’ll ever be able to. He also unknowingly meets Xehanort here.

We get the scene where Sora, Riku, and Kairi talk about seeing other worlds and all of that jazz... I don’t think anything changes with this scene at all. But Sora’s eye roll when Riku’s flirting with Kairi perhaps make more sense now, since Sora’s already irritated about the race thing and all of that... and it somewhat makes Riku giving him that paopu fruit to “try with Kairi” even meaner spirited. Also, maybe give Kairi a bit more dialogue in this scene.

We cut away to what’s going on at Disney Castle with Donald, Goofy, Minnie, Daisey, and the missing King, as per usual, as the kids go home for the night.

Day 2 is just the kids working on the raft, since I probably cut a lot of that in day 1, in order to reorder things. And they’re desperate to get things finalized for their trip the next day. There could also be flashbacks in this section, perhaps, showing Sora, Riku, and Kairi’s younger days, and how they all met and became friends (or maybe I’d show how they met Kairi when Sora, Riku, and her were talking about her home world the previous night). But we definitely want to show some stuff of when Sora and Riku were actually good friends, before their rivalry became the forefront of their relationship.

And to show that Riku’s not completely terrible--and is still just an innocent kid and can/will be redeemed--he goes home early that night, because he wants to make sure that everything’s packed for his adventure (think the scene of Sora in the manga, but with Riku). Sora and Kairi maybe tease him about this--good-naturedly.

Sora and Kairi have their moment on the docks, where she tries to see if he’s noticed something off about Riku--and jokes about just the two of them taking the raft--before talking about how she only wants to see the other worlds if they can always return home, tells Sora not to change, etc.... and it cuts away to Sora really thinking over her words in his room (as he looks at dolls he put in a toy boat to represent them), and then noticing the storm that he thinks will destroy the raft... and he bolts, just as his mother calls him down for dinner.

The things we see in that second look at Disney Castle happens here.

If one wants, we could maybe get the Riku and Kairi scene here that happens in the novels... and that was teased in the beta trailer for the game... that I think consisted of Riku saying cryptic things to Kairi and trying to get her to come with him--and her being worried about him, and also wondering why he doesn’t want to bring Sora with them anymore--and Riku getting jealous over her “being all about Sora, and Sora being all about her” and leaving... and perhaps going to open the Door on Destiny Islands? This happens because Kairi stayed on the Islands, I guess, and Riku ended up coming back to open the Door.

Kairi goes into the Secret Place to try and shut the Door--and if we want some DDD stuff in here, we can get some cryptic voice (seemingly from nowhere) saying that they knew she’d come there, and in doing so lure Sora there. Kairi tries to question them, but then falls ill.

Sora rows back to the Island and notices that Riku and Kairi’s boats are also there... and notices that Heartless from his dream (though he doesn’t know that’s what they are) are on the Island.

Sora confronts Riku and tries to reach him, as in canon, and Riku is pulled in by the darkness as Sora gets the Keyblade... and yes, it does whisper its name to him. Because I, personally, might go with a more “Keyblades are really sentient” angle with this TV show.

Sora then goes to look for Kairi, and we have the moment where she loses her heart and it enters him (but the audience won’t know that for some time, of course). There may even be a pink light here when their chests touch.

Sora fights the Darkside (that he saw earlier, in his Dive to the Heart) and gets swept away to Traverse Town, as Destiny Islands is destroyed. But I don’t want Sora to be some ninja or ace fighter as he attacks the thing (because this is his first real battle). Have him really scraping to get by... maybe doing some of the things the manga did with it. IDK.

We see Donald and Goofy witnessing the star going out, as Mickey wrote about, and them looking for the bearer of the Keyblade (no “some sort of key” stuff. Donald and Goofy clearly know what the Keyblade is). Pluto almost leads them right to Sora--and Goofy even suspects this--but Donald waves the notion off, and they don’t meet Sora for now.

Pluto wakes Sora up... and at first he thinks he’s dreaming, but soon realizes he isn’t. The episode probably ends with him getting out of the alley and having a better look at Traverse Town as he says, “This is totally crazy. I’m in another world!”

...Tbh, I don’t know if all of this could fit in a half-an-hour episode--probably not--unless it was a longer special. Maybe the flashback stuff would have to be cut and saved for later, but meh.

[full-course-identity]

gonna split this between canon character ships and oc-sprinkled ships. we'll start with canon (i also know most of these answer but eh): jeremy/rich, mr. heere/mr. reyes, michael/chloe, jake/rich, squip/michael, squip/brooke, brooke/madeline (STILL COUNTS, SHE'S TECHNICALLY A CANON CHARACTER), squip/rich's squip (in general fanon 'rich's squip isn't mo' situations--i'mma ask about OUR r!squip in the next ask)

HI SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG

Warning: Some of this goes into darkfic territory, and is lightly NSFW/NSFT.

Jeremy/Rich

vomit / don’t ship / okay / cute / adorable / perfect / beyond flawless / hot damn / screaming and crying / i will ship them in hell (when this option is italized, it means OTP feelings, not Shipping Them As Problematique)

THIS IS MY FAVORITE ALWAYS-FLUFFY (or the comfort portion of hurt/comfort, or tragic lovers, etc) SHIP. It makes me SO VERY INCREDIBLY happy; Rich and Jeremy have this magnetic chemistry in the musical and in fandom--Hell, I even genuinely enjoy most fanon interpretations of the ship, which is really rare for me (still don’t read much fanfiction besides yours though... >u>; )

Also? Hot. Very hot.

... that was not meant to be a pun but I think it probably is...

Mr. Heere/Mr. Reyes

vomit / don’t ship / okay / cute / adorable / perfect / beyond flawless / hot damn / screaming and crying / i will ship them in hell (bolding this one means it is/can be Problematique, obvs)

Platonic H/R? Nahhh. I think portraying both of them as queer is a good idea (Reyes gay and aro, Heere bisexual with a strong preference for women and femme enbys), but it just feels like Mr. Heere would want something else tbh. I mean, Mr. Reyes is pretty openly anti-children during the play, and Mr. Heere really loves his son and his son’s friend. I just can’t imagine they’d have much chemistry if they tried dating

Oh but what if... they were predators bonding over their mutual love of abusing the vulnerable people in their lives... haha jk... unless?

Michael/Chloe

vomit / don’t ship / okay / cute / adorable / perfect / beyond flawless / hot damn / screaming and crying / i will ship them in hell

This... is fascinating. I’m getting more into bisexual Michael for the sake of variety, and this would be... a very fun ship, actually. Especially if it was the two of them targetting Jeremy together... or, oh, actually, this would be a FANTASTIC companion to a Jeremy/Brooke story, w/ Michael and Chloe playing the villains... hm...

(I just really like playing around w/ evil Michael)

Jake/Rich

vomit / don’t ship / okay / cute / adorable / perfect / beyond flawless / hot damn / screaming and crying / i will ship them in hell

I’m so torn on this one. I really dislike most Jake/Rich in large, large part to just... the fandom around it... but I can also picture it being really fucking good in NSFW art, portrayed in particular ways (especially if it doesn’t act as a companion to boyfs), or like, if you did it? IT COULD GENUINELY WORK, but I haven’t seen it done in a way I particularly enjoyed.

Evil!Jake on good!Rich is fun, though I’m not suuuuuper into it--it’s a VERY nice change of pace with us, I like it in AUs, but I prefer Jake to just not be involved or else a small blip/one-off mention... or as the metaphorical sugar daddy to shenanigans gfnbhjvgfdfvdjnjvhfk

Squip/Michael

vomit / don’t ship / okay / cute / adorable / perfect / beyond flawless / hot damn / screaming and crying / i will ship them in hell

... I’m sorry friends, I’m just not interested. I see why it’s intriguing, I can see that it has what-if potential, but I just can’t care. Not even in an OT3 with Jeremy (though Jeremy being in a relationship with both of them separately would actually be pretty cool). 

tbh, if I have to ship the Squip with a human that isn’t Jeremy, I reaaaaaally like your growing interest in his and Rich’s relationship. 

Oh, and...

Squip/Brooke

vomit / don’t ship / okay / cute / adorable / perfect / beyond flawless / hot damn / screaming and crying / i will ship them in hell

Much as I think Squip is generally boy and nb masc-attracted attracted, Squip/Brooke would be genuinely, extremely, incredibly fucking adorable. I wouldn’t do much with it personally, but this is the sorta thing I’d love to see shippy art and/or an ask blog for if that makes sense?

Fuck dude, Jeremy watching his Squip come back in a body just to fuck his ex is the funniest shit ever tho, he’d be so disgruntled.

Brooke/Madeline

vomit / don’t ship / okay / cute / adorable / perfect / beyond flawless / hot damn / screaming and crying / i will ship them in hell

[insert heart eyes emoji]

Even though we’ve generally portrayed Mads as het-but-fools-around-a-little, this is probably my other Really Good Brooke Endgame Ship right next to Brooke/Jenna. I just feel that like... their chemistry, both how we portray it plus the canon stuff (“implied sluttiness” and the way Brooke thinks she’s so cool and tries to model herself off her) is. Mmm. Mmmmmm. 

Plus, not to be all My Autism Makes Me Hyperfocus On Other Character’s Autism, but like... their autistic peculiarities would line up fantastically? Imagine them cuddling and like... touching each other to stim...

squip/rich's squip

vomit / don’t ship / okay / cute / adorable / perfect / beyond flawless / hot damn / screaming and crying / i will ship them in hell / additional category: I’m genuinely unsure because I’ve only seen hints of how other people portray Rich’s Squip

So the thing about Rich’s Squip in the fandom is that like... outside the occasional character design making a brief appearance in larger prints, nobody really talks about them?

I mean. Okay, granted, I haven’t read enough fanfic yet (... God I really want to eventually, I’d just like a Handy Guide for Who Is And Isn’t An Anti and also I keep going “okay but x character would never be like that” even though that’s wroooong and I don’t seem to have that issue in visual media and....... you get the picture), but after... 2017? After the fandom’s first explosion died down, people rarely talked about R!S. 

I think this was a direct reaction of the Anti movement finally making the solid change to fandom landscape it’d wanted to, unfortunately; this found a swift and sudden tidal wave of backlash to most Squip (primarily shipping) related anything, seemingly killing ALL Squip content that was not sufficiently “briefly used for boyfs or JakeRich angst” enough for a good long while.

Eventually, the growing rise of a sub-fandom around Squip thirsting and Squip redemptions (attempting to be ~untainted by gross shippers~, usually) started around the time badlydrawnBMC started to really pick up steam along with a few selfshippers, inspiring people to Squip-ship in an “acceptable manner”.

The problem is, none of this has affected Rich’s Squip--at least, not yet. The kinda people scared of (or that are) antis have “no good reason” to redeem Rich’s, since “she” (he/they at the beginning of BMC fanon, widely-used she now) did or caused stuff way more egregious, IE the fire, making Rich a bully, and stifling his bisexuality. As a result, there’s a very subtle, unspoken pressure not to really... use her much. 

Jokes are... mostly okay, but there’s a huge preference for Kermit!Rich!Squip if you do.

Anyway.

From the little bit we hear of her in actual canon, Rich’s own words and her brief voice and stuff... I could see her being much colder, possibly meaner then Jeremy’s Squip, probably. They probably have a dom!bottom/sub!top abusive slave relationship. She makes Rich fuck her while mocking everything he does, and then seduces him and promises a little bit of love when he tries to refuse. He would be hopelessly devoted to her, desperate for her approval, and she’d string him step by step. By the time he realizes how well and truly fucked he is, it’s too late; the last stand happens, they fight in front of everyone, and it all goes up in smoke.

Thanks for the question! Hopefully the next doesn’t take this long @_@

#bmc #be more chill #jeremy heere #rich goranski #the squip #flightysquip

[rorykillmore]

okay i’m actually gonna try to post these before i leave Just in case i can’t get the wifi to work at the place i’m staying

so this first gift fic is for @jougletmann who requested something with camille and amma, specifically related to the night amma actually spent on denny when jay yolo’d her! while writing this i actually realized it was really my first time, not only writing in earnest for this very complicated dynamic, but writing something so intense for camille (despite the fact that i’ve rped her for awhile) so i actually really loved the opportunity to do that? for a little while i felt bad because the other two christmas fics i have done are so. fluffy and christmas-y. and then you have this, which got pretty Real towards the end. but jay just knowing how much you loved sharp objects, i hope you’ll love it anyways

anyway... jay, for two years in a row now my mom has asked us some of the best things that have happened to us in the past year, and i’ve like, immediately thought of meeting you and spear. i’m just so grateful to have you in my life and i always want to make sure you know that because i know that sometimes your kindness and generosity have been taken advantage of. so thank you for being so caring and thoughtful and always knowing how to make me laugh. merry christmas!!

(jay probs doesn’t need these warnings but for anyone else, cw for like, discussions of abuse and references to self-harm)

All we can do is try, Amma. You want a little bit of control when your life has gone to absolute shit – it helps to say you’ve tried.

When they get home (not home, it’s just the easiest way to refer to the apartment Camille’s renting in Metropolis) it’s much later than Adora would have ever let Amma stay out. Not that Camille takes that to mean that this is the latest Amma has ever stayed out – she’s not that naive. She’s been a teenager under Adora’s roof herself, after all. And she knows Amma.

(Maybe now with more clarity than she’d like.)

“I have a spare bedroom you can have,” she tells Amma once they’re inside. “It’s not really made up or anything, but I’m sure I can find you some spare pillows and blankets for tonight.”

Once, Amma might have sulked at that, or worse asked to sleep with Camille – but maybe all their time spent living together has weaned her off that, or maybe she knows that the prospect would have left Camille just the slightest bit chilled. She feels a twinge of guilt at that. She doesn’t want to be afraid of her own sister.

“We don’t have to go to sleep right now, though, do we?” Amma asks instead, pulling Camille out of her thoughts.

“It’s late, Amma.”  She glances at the digital clock on the table, which reads 1:46 AM.

Amma slumps herself down on the couch.  “I’m not tired.”

“Well, you should try and sleep anyway. Tomorrow’ll be a long day, with getting you settled, and everything.”

Clearly the prospect doesn’t interest Amma, because she doesn’t move or say anything. Instead she spends a few moments sizing up the room they’re in.  “Kinda sparse, compared to your old place.”

“I haven’t been here very long,” Camille points out.  “Honestly, I’ve never been very good at… decorating. Everything from back home was just kinda clutter.”

Amma smiles a sly smile.  “Mama hated clutter.”

Camille thinks she really ought to be over these kinds of reactions by now, but it does make her inadvertently freeze, just for a moment. Amma’s watching her closely, and she thinks it might have been the reaction Amma wanted. Or else Amma was hoping for A reaction, anyway.

It used to bother Camille, back when they were still getting to know each other, the way Amma pokes and prods pulls things from people. Often times a little too hard, a little too cruelly. Now, though, she at least understands the why of it: Amma tugs at other people’s boundaries because Adora gave her too many and too few at the same time. Amma had to pry things out of her mother to receive the bare minimum of attention and affection when she wasn’t sick, so now she tries to pry things out of everyone. It’s how she learned control.

For all that she’s standing around psychoanalyzing her sister, Camille’s not sure she knows what to do to curb Amma’s meaner tendencies. She thought for a while that just a safer, more stable environment would make things better, but then –

Well.

“Amma,” Camille says, slowly sitting down next to her on the couch.  “About Mama –”

It’s subtle, especially because she’s only watching Amma out of the corner of her eye - as if looking at Amma directly might make her feel cornered, or something - but Amma goes a little tense. It’s enough to cause Camille to trip herself up, because honestly, she doesn’t really know what she’s doing. Doesn’t know how to talk about this, even when ignoring it feels impossible and irrational.

“What do you have in your kitchen?”  Amma asks abruptly in her usual brand of deflection.  “We should make something.”

It’s pretty transparent, and Camille thinks that a more responsible person might have called Amma on it. But all she hears herself say is, “Make something?” Which she supposes about lines up with the general amount (or lack of) resolve she approached the situation with.

“Yeah. Like cookies, or cupcakes, or… something. You know how to bake?”

Camille considers that. She certainly wouldn’t have learned from Adora, or even Jackie, well-meaning as she’d always been when Camille was a child, but she used to sneak around helping Gayla out in the kitchen when she could sneak away from her mother’s prying eyes long enough. She wonders if she can remember any of those old recipes, let alone scrounge something together from whatever bare bones stuff she’s got in the kitchen.

“I know how to try to bake,” she settles on finally. Amma grins. “But seriously, wouldn’t you rather just go to bed? You’ve gotta be exhausted.”  If Amma won’t talk to her, really talk to her, then the least Camille can do is make sure she takes care of herself.

Predictably, though, Amma shakes her head stubbornly. “If you make me go to bed, all that’ll happen is I’ll lie awake for hours with just my own thoughts. I’d much rather have you for company.”

That’s a little manipulative of her, but it’s also probably objectively true. Camille thinks her own thoughts and feelings are a little too tangled up for any good decision-making tonight, so after another brief hesitation, she rises. “Well, I’m tired,” she says just for good measure. When isn’t she. “So if I pass out, don’t let the apartment burn down.”

Amma beams and bounces up with more energy than Camille thinks is reasonable. She loops her arm around Camille’s and holds on all the way to the kitchen, and Camille bits back that familiar, dangerous feeling of being tempted to lower her guard completely just because of that sisterly affection she’s been missing since Marian. She pries herself loose once they’ve reached their destination and starts checking the cupboards.

“Alright, let’s try chocolate chip cookies. Mostly ‘cause I know I bought chocolate chips the other week.”  She’s pretty sure there’s some flour under the sink, too. And sugar, because she puts it in her coffee every morning.  “Get some eggs out of the fridge.”

Amma zips off like she’s on a mission, and then gets out a mixing bowl and a pan while Camille gathers the rest of the ingredients a little more slowly. It turns out that they do have just enough to make some - very basic - chocolate chip cookies.

“These are not gonna be as good as Gayla’s,” she warns Amma ahead of time.

Amma just shrugs. “At least we can say we made ‘em.”

Camille preheats the oven and then, sleeves rolled up, they make the dough. It’s about as messy a process as she expects it to be, but Amma seems to enjoy it – especially the part where she delights in flicking flour at Camille. Camille flicks some back, and soon they’re both covered in it and it’s going to be a hell of a cleanup, but Camille can’t remember the last time she actually had a reason to laugh like this. She even lets Amma add extra chocolate chips to the dough, because they’re already on a roll.

“How long do they have to bake for?” Amma asks.

Camille - who has long since given up following this recipe from memory - checks her phone to consult the one she found online.  “Just ten minutes. Quick and easy.”

Amma smiles and slides the tray into the oven very carefully. And then they’re both left to wait.

Camille wonders if Amma realizes as soon as she does that the elephant in the room feels a lot heavier with so much waiting to do. But Amma’s still smiling at her like she always does whenever Camille’s done something to make her happy.

“I never thought that anything would ever be like this,” she confesses at length. “Like, I never really thought about other worlds existing. Not even stuff like Heaven or Hell.”

Camille wonders what kind of light that puts the blood on Amma’s hands in – or whether she ever wondered herself where she might go, because Marian always wondered about death and what happened afterwards, like she knew it was coming. Is Amma telling the truth when she says she hasn’t thought about it at all?

But she can’t linger on it for long, because Amma continues, “But I’m glad we’re here. A whole different world away from everyone else. Just me and you. It’s perfect.”

Camille feels that strange chill again, but this time it mingles with concern. She’s conscious now more than ever how much Amma has latched onto her, and how little Amma feels she needs anyone else.

“There’s a lot to do here,” she ventures carefully. “Like I was saying back at that building in New York, Amma. You could do plenty of things here you never got a chance to do before.”

Amma’s expression doesn’t shift much. “Like what?”

“Like… I dunno. See things. Meet people. There’s a whole world outside of Wind Gap.”

Is it dangerous to even offer Amma the chance? And how can she do anything but?

Amma says silent for a few moments, and Camille can’t be sure what she’s thinking.  “Are you still writing?” she asks suddenly at length.

Camille nods. “I’m working for the Daily Planet now. It’s this paper in Metropolis.”

“Metropolis,” Amma repeats, half curious and half disdainful.  “What a weird name for a city.”

“Mm. Maybe I’ll take you to see it for yourself, sometime.”

“Really?” Amma beams at her just for the offer, and Camille can’t help but smile back faintly. “Then I’ll get to see where you work! And all those stories you’re probably working on.”

“I’m not… working on much, at the moment.” Camille shrugs, downplaying on instinct. “I’ve only been here a few weeks, so. It’s gonna take awhile for things to get interesting.”

Amma goes strangely quiet at that. She looks away and watches the timer on the oven count down for a few seconds. “I bet you’ll find something good,” she says finally, and Camille wonders for a moment why she suddenly seems so subdued. Then Amma continues, “You’ll find a way to tell a story that helps people. Just like you did back home.”

In the first place, that’s a matter of opinion. For all the secrets she uncovered back in Wind Gap, most of them were revealed too late, and Camille’s not really sure who she helped in the end. But even that aside, there’s something more concerning about this:  it’s the first time she’s heard Amma refer to what happened with the girls she killed, even indirectly.

Camille knows she’s most likely not going to get a better opportunity to approach this. She watches Amma for awhile, her heart thumping in her chest, and then she says, “Amma. We’ve really gotta talk about that.”

It takes a couple of slow seconds for Amma to turn back to face her. “I really don’t want to talk about it,” she counters, calm but on the verge of petulant.

But Camille thinks there must be some deeply buried part of Amma that does, or she wouldn’t have alluded to what she had just now. “What do you expect me to do, forget it ever happened? You know I can’t do that. Especially not if you’re living with me.”

“So send me away again,” Amma suggests suddenly, and stares at her. A challenge.

Camille shuts her mouth, feeling like her jaw’s suddenly been tightly wired. “That wasn’t my choice.”

“Yes it was,” Amma insists, her composure starting to crack just a little. “You’re the one who turned me in.”

It’s irrational to feel guilty over the accusation, but Camille supposes she’s never been good at particularly rational feelings. “I had to, Amma. You killed Mae. Just like you killed Ann and Natalie.”

Something about finally saying it aloud, laying it all out, feels like it causes everything in the room to still. Amma glares at her, and Camille’s a little stunned to see that she looks like she’s on the verge of tears.

“You’re my sister,” she seethes finally.  “You’re supposed to choose me over them.”

“Amma, that’s not –”

“But you didn’t! You got me locked up just like you got Mama locked up!”

It’s a gutpunch she wasn’t expecting, and Camille finds herself speechless, almost breathless. She stares at Amma, and Amma stares back, and both of them just stay sort of frozen for a moment.

“Amma,” Camille says slowly but with a kind of understated urgency. “She was making you sick.”

Amma sort of shudders, but Camille can’t tell whether it’s in revulsion or defiance. “Only ‘cause I let her.”

“No, Amma, it only felt like you had a choice. She was making you sick, and if someone hadn’t stopped her, she would’ve killed you just like she killed Marian.”

Camille has talked about this before – not with Amma, but with several of the therapists she tried to get Amma help with when they’d moved back to her apartment together. They had all told her some variation of the same thing: Amma has trouble processing what happened to her because she still loves Adora, or because Adora’s abuse entailed a dynamic where Amma felt she had control, and admitting her victimhood relinquishes that control. Probably, realistically, some combination of both.

Those same doctors, likely sensing Camille’s loathing of her mother and inability to understand Amma’s continued desire for contact with her, have always warned against this kind of direct confrontation. But in this moment, it suddenly seems desperately important that Amma understand all the ways Adora had been hurting her.

But then Amma actually starts to cry in earnest, and Camille feels immediate regret well up inside her. The oven goes off, and she vaguely registers that it’s been ten minutes, but she can’t bring herself to tear her attention away from her sister.

And for all that Camille has been grappling with the part of her that’s now afraid of Amma all evening, she doesn’t hesitate. It’s instinct to go and take her sister in her arms and hold her close.

Amma fights it a little at first, and Camille is reminded fleetingly of that stupid ‘therapy technique’ they used to do - I love you, I love you, I love you - and just holds on even tighter until Amma relents and slumps against her and cries.

“I’m fucked up,” Amma chokes out, though Camille can barely make it out between the sobs. “I’m so fucked up, and I’m never gonna get better.”

Camille shushes her and strokes her hair, silently grateful that at least Amma isn’t in any state to notice the tears in Camille’s eyes that don’t quite fall. She wonders if she’s just forgotten how to cry, at this point. If this and everything she’s been through up ‘til now doesn’t get her, she can’t picture anything else in her life pushing her over the edge.

“Hey,” she says finally, after a few minutes of just letting Amma cry.  She pulls away and makes Amma look at her, still stroking her hair.  “You know what, I’ve – I’ve said the same thing to myself. A lot.”

Amma stares at her, a more numb kind of shock settling over her features, and Camille tries for a very shaky smile.  “C’mon, it can’t be that surprising.”

“You’ve never killed anybody,” Amma points out in a quiet, more hoarse voice.

Camille has to concede Amma’s point - and the fact that she doesn’t really know how to pull someone back from something like that - but she doesn’t falter. “I’ve done a lot of bad things. To other people, and to myself. You think if I showed people all the things I carved into myself they’d think there was any putting me back together?”

She thinks of Richard, the way he’d looked at her once he’d seen all the scars. The way he’d looked at her every time since.

There’s silence. Maybe Amma doesn’t know what to say to that, or she just doesn’t want to answer. Camille has to steady herself with a slow breath, because she knows she’s not good at this, but why stop now?

“But I haven’t – I haven’t done that in awhile. And a few years ago I never thought I’d be able to say that. And I can now. That’s something.”

She watches Amma closely. Amma seems to waver a little, licking her lips, looking uncertainty at Camille and then anywhere but. And then she stills.  “Something’s burning.”

– Oh.  

She’s right, Camille realizes, and then remembers why a second later.

“Shit. The cookies,” she mutters, grabbing one of the over mitts they set out and hurrying over to pull the tray out of the oven. The cookies look like some of them might still be edible, but many of them are charred around the edges. Camille tries not to wince visibly. Couldn’t even have one nice thing.  She spends a few seconds inspecting them, mostly because she doesn’t know how to dive back into that conversation with Amma after the fragility of the moment was broken.

“If I can’t be better,” Amma says suddenly to break the silence, and Camille stops what she’s doing. “If I can’t, then – won’t it just be worse than if I never tried at all?”

Camille wants to tell Amma that she can. Amma is so young, and it seems like there’s still so much time. She’s not sure what she’d peg the cut off age for not being a lost cause at, but she’s pretty sure it’s not thirteen.

But maybe that’d just be too much pressure too soon. So instead, she says, “All we can do is try, Amma. You want a little bit of control when your life has gone to absolute shit – it helps to say you’ve tried.” Camille turns around to face her again.  “And if you promise not to hurt anyone else… I won’t leave you, this time.”

It’s not a promise she can technically guarantee, thanks to the way the rifts work – but then again, it’s not like they’re not going back to the same world. Even if things might be about a hundred times more difficult there.

Slowly, Amma wipes the wetness from her cheeks and starts to pull herself together the way she is so strangely capable of. She still looks oddly fragile to Camille, in a different way than she did when she’d been sitting at that dinner table in a haze of sickness and Camille’d had to feign weakness to draw Adora’s attention away.

“If I believed you… then what would we do next?”

Camille exhales slowly. “Well. I guess the cookies might be a lost cause.” The joke feels hollow, but Amma’s lips twitch briefly anyway as she gives the tray a belated side glance. “So apart from that, I – I’m not really sure what to do either. Except take it one day at a time. We can do that.”

Amma considers that very carefully, and then nods. Camille bites back a dozen apologies that probably won’t do much good, and might not even make that much sense, and focuses on a small sliver of hope.

The women in their family have a long legacy of being broken, so it seems. But maybe not always beyond repair.

#christmas gifts #fic #jougletmann

[mosylufanfic]

All-Nighter

Reaction for a throwaway line and something I felt was missing in Run Iris Run

ETA: I don’t know what’s happening with the quotation marks, I swear when you click thru to the whole thing it’s normal. *glares at Tumblr*

All-Nighter

It being five in the AM, Cisco thought he'd be the first one in. But when he swung into the cortex, the light in Caitlin's lab was on. Her terrible hunched-over position and scowl of concentration told him she was ears-deep in something complicated and frustrating, and there was a fifty-fifty chance she would snarl like a bobcat if he interrupted her.

“Heyyyy,” he said, because he liked to live dangerously. “You're here early. When did you go home last night?” She'd still been working when he'd left.

She lifted her head. “Hmm?”

“Uh,” he said, taking in her Star Labs sweatshirt and yoga pants, swapped from Iris last night, the raccoon-smudginess of her eye makeup, and the four mugs scattered around her lab with varying levels of stone-cold coffee. “No. I'm wrong. You're here way too fucking late. You didn't go home at all, did you?”

“Time'zit,” she mumbled.

“Time for Cait to go to sleep,” he said, going over and trying to pull her up by her elbows.

"Noooooo," she muttered, resisting. "I've got to keep going, I -"

"Need sleep," he said.

"Coffee," she said, looking around. "I just - coffee. I'll be good."

He shifted his morning latte out of her reach. "No. Coffee will prolong the altered state of consciousness that's killing your brain cells one by one. Sleep will be good."

She looked up at him. Her lip trembled. "Nothing works," she said piteously. "I keep trying different things, modeling them in the computer, and I can't figure out how to replicate what Melting Point did or-or-or how to reverse it - "

He hugged her around her shoulders. "You'll figure it out," he said, grabbing the back of her chair and steering her away from her computer. "After you sleep. You want to sleep up here or use Ralph's sweaty futon?"

She made a face. "Disgusting. Up here, please."

"Okay." He wheeled her chair next to the hospital bed. While she kicked off her shoes and pulled herself up into the bed, he pulled the curtains and sang under his breath. "Rock-a-bye Caitlin, in the med lab - "

She snorted, and he turned to see her burrito'd up in the blankets. "You're very sneaky," she informed him.

"Me? I am nothing but open and honest at all times."

"Sneaky," she yawned. "Pretending like it was already a foregone conclusion and I just had to choose which way to do it. The nurses used that technique when I did a rotation in pediatrics."

"Act like a toddler who doesn't want to go to bed . . . "

She growled into the pillow, yawned again, and snuggled further into the blankets. "Wake me up in two hours."

"What was that you said? Four hours? I'm thinking more like six."

"Two hours!" she yelled after him as he shut the door behind him.

He wasn't planning to go in and wake her up, but he also wasn't surprised when the door to the lab clicked open exactly two hours later and she padded out in bare feet, hair a frizzy mess and eyes heavy. They'd seen each other in worse states, so he just double-checked that Ralph was at the other end of the building and didn't know Caitlin was about to get in the shower.

Killer Frost would probably freeze Ralph's gonads if he tried to "accidentally" walk in on Caitlin, but they didn't have time to kick his rubbery ass today. They all had shit to do.

She came back in twenty minutes, in one of the spare Star Labs sweatpants and shirt from the locker by the showers, with her hair all wrapped up in a towel. For a moment, he hoped she was planning to get some more sleep, but she said, "Is that coffee for me?"

"No, they just put your name on it for some reason," he said, passing it over. It was hot enough to toast his fingertips through the cup. When he'd walked in and said, "I need Caitlin's usual, the biggest size you have," the barista had rung him up for a giant latte with two shots of hazelnut without even having to think about it. There were advantages to being such regulars.

"Thank you so much," she said, sinking into his extra chair. She took a deep drink, closing her eyes and visibly letting the caffeine seep through her veins. Without makeup, she looked even more tired and worn down.

He turned back to his project on the screen. "Hey, I had a look at what you were working on last night." It had been in her open server, which meant it was fine if he looky-looed.

"Any thoughts?"

"We have a deal," he said, making some adjustments to his design and considering the effect. "When it gets into high level DNA and whatnot, my main contribution is fixing your centrifuge. But it looks like you're exploring a bunch of options."

She sighed and took another deep drink of coffee. "I don't think I can do it," she said, staring at the lid, flicking her nail across the little notch in the lid.

"You just need some more - " Time. Data. Miracles.

"I was running ideas through the modeling software all night. Nothing. I can't do it. I can't reverse it." Her hand clenched around the coffee cup, her nails digging into the cardboard sleeve. "I said I could and I can't."

He leaned back in his chair. "Are you going to start howling and throwing things and calling yourself too stupid to live because you couldn't replicate a DNA swapping meta's powers overnight?"

She gave him a long, cool look. "No."

"Good. Because we put up with enough of that nonsense from Harry."

She set her cup down. "True." She eyed him. "Although two heads are better than one, and yours is the best one I know, so if you were to help Harry - "

"Flattery will get you everywhere except there," he said. "Not happening. I've told you this."

"Then maybe I should help."

"Are you out of your mind?" She was working herself to the bone trying to figure out Melting Point's powers, and she wanted to add more on top? No way. Not on his watch.

Plus, Cisco could handle the sneering, condescending way Harry talked in the lab, because he'd refined the art of snapping back. Caitlin acted like she could take it, but it got to her. He knew it did.

She still looked like she was about to go downstairs and offer her help, so he said, "You've been working your ass off this year to prove you're a good little teammate and you're valuable enough to keep around even with Killer Frost in the mix. Stop it. You don't need to prove anything."

Her jaw worked. This was the closest they'd ever come  to acknowledging the load of guilt she carried around with her. Her suspicion that nobody had really forgiven her for last May, not really. Her conviction that they were all just waiting for her to betray them, or disagree with someone too vehemently, or simply not pull twice her weight for a split second, and she would be out, gone, booted from Star Labs.

Cisco waited for her to respond.

"I need more information," she said. "More data points. Is Frye in Iron Heights? If I study his DNA and compare it with Barry's - "

Okay. They weren't going to do it today.

"Or," he said. "We could find Matthew Kim and ask him to swap them back himself."

"Do you think he can?"

"If he can't, you'll still have him here to study."

"That's true," she said, but she still looked doubtful. "Cisco . . . "

"Mmm."

"What if he can't? And I can't. And this swap is permanent?"

The idea fell down between them like a stone - an irreversible change to the fabric of Star Labs. To who pushed and who pulled, who ran out into danger and who stayed behind, keeping a cool head and considering the big picture.

It had been weird yesterday, with Barry here during a situation. Cisco didn't know whether that was a weirdness he could get used to or not.

"I don't know," he said, fiddling with a few details. "Iris seems to be doing okay. She trained hard and she jumped into the field even if she wobbled some." He changed a panel's shape, looked at it, changed it back. "Did she say anything to you when you were patching her up?"

"We talked," Caitlin acknowledged. "She was pretty shaken by what happened up there. I think she's enjoying the speed in some ways, but sort of like a vacation, you know? Something new and novel. I don't know if she'd want to do it forever."

"Poor Barry," Cisco said, thinking of Barry's face as he watched Iris run, purple lightning crackling around her. "Sucks to be him right now."

"Yes, it must be hard," Caitlin said. "Disorienting."

He considered her, remembering that the few times she'd pushed back or said no this year had mostly been related to letting Killer Frost out. "Hey," he said. "If we get Kim in here - would you want him to take Frost off your hands?"

"No," she said immediately, without hesitation.

He blinked. "Really."

"You thought I'd say yes?"

"Frosting up still isn't your favorite thing ever, you have to admit that." She was stepping up more easily these days, but he still saw her setting her jaw as she did.

She turned her cup on the table. "First of all," she said carefully, "Killer Frost has never worked quite like any other meta. So I don't know if Melting Point's powers would even work on me. Her. Whatever."

"Okay, say they did."

"Then the issue is different. It's not like the powers dissolve or something when Melting Point takes them away," she said. "They get transferred to the next person he touches. What if you suddenly got an evil alter ego? Or Harry?"

Reverb, Cisco thought, and pushed that away. "Alter-ego Meta Harry might actually be nice."

"Or even meaner." She sipped her coffee again and shook her head. "No," she said. "I don't like having her here, exactly. But I'm learning how to handle her." She grimaced. "And getting to this point has been bad enough. Someone else would start right at the beginning. So no. I wouldn't want Melting Point to give Killer Frost to someone else."

Interesting way of putting it, he thought, but said aloud, "Fair. Very fair."

"What are you working on?" she said.

Subject: changed. "So I got to thinking this morning. Iris is going to need a suit of her own if this keeps up for very long."

She made a mournful face. "My sweater was trashed, it's true. All smokey and torn - Iris felt so bad."

"Yep. So I pulled up Jesse’s basic Flash suit, made a few adjustments and - " He turned his monitor so she could see.

"Purple!" Caitlin exclaimed.

"Cuz of the color of her lightning," Cisco said. "You like?"

"Yes," she said. "Oh. That's a great color on Iris."

"It'll do for a Version 1.0," he said, sending some of the components to the 3-D printer and hitting a few buttons to whip up some dye for the suit material.

She tipped up her coffee and drank the last few drops. "Okay," she said. "I need to do my hair and makeup, and then get back to work."

He leaned down and grabbed a plastic bag. "Hey, I grabbed you an outfit."

"From where?" she asked, taking it. "I've worn all the extra outfits I have stored here."

"Your place. You remember when you gave me your key so I could water your plants?"

"Did you really use the key?"

"No," he said. "But I figured it was carte blanche to breach in when you needed something. Was that okay?"

She wrinkled her nose at him. "I'll answer that when I gauge the cuteness of the outfit you picked."

"I think it's very cute," he said cheerfully. "But hey, you could hang around all day in Star Labs sweats if you want." He started to reach for the bag.

She clutched it to herself. "I'll make it work," she said, and headed for the bathroom. "Thank you!" she shouted over her shoulder.

"Anytime!" he yelled back, already pulling out the suit material and his faithful dress form.

As he pinned and tacked the Iris suit together, he wondered what Caitlin would do if there was ever a chance to lose her Killer Frost side for good.

FINIS

#Cisco Ramon #Caitlin Snow #Killervibe #fanfiction #mosylufanfic lives up to her damn name #Caitlin needs someone to take care of her sometimes #Cisco is the only one who's allowed #the flash

[fallen029]

Mirajane Overview

Mirajane is probably my favorite Fairy Tail character and definitely my favorite out of the group. Because of that, she’s probably been written the most in my stories and, overtime, has reaped the affects of this. Whenever I broach new fandoms, the characters I write are normally pretty close to their centers, but drift overtime. While I don’t think that Mira’s too different in my stories, I have added more little touches to her characteristics than the others.

My first Fairy Tail fic was about Mirajane and her relationship with Laxus. Early on, I liked to play up to the idea that Laxus, though resistant to her originally, was slowly broken down by Mirajane, bit by bit. Mira was light and aloof and still possessed that quick to cry trigger that she’s portrayed as having in the source. These things remain as time goes on, but I slowly started to get the feeling that there’s more to Mirajane and therefore there’s more to these reactions and characteristics. She might be emotional and a bit of a crybaby, but anyone who knows Mirajane knows that there’s more to her and, by proxy, how she behaves.  

The most recent example of this was All Fall Down where it’s mentioned early on that Mirajane’s not just a dimwitted airhead...until Freed presses her on a few things and then muses that perhaps he’s wrong and she actually is dimwitted and an airhead. This sorta observation is made in reference to Mirajane a lot in my stories and more a showing of just how committed and convincing she is to the role. I’ve written her so many times, but cannot think of a single time that she was truly called out on this ‘act’, but can think of a few different instances in which Mirajane, to herself, felt as if she’d fooled everyone with this veneer. It’s never expressed properly, probably, but for me, the reason behind this is simply the enjoyment Mirajane gets out of being someone new.

Her entire magic is based off this, honestly. When she was a child, she had to play the role of mother early to her siblings and, later, a dark soul that wanted to be left alone. But I don’t think Mirajane ever really wanted that, as much as she convinced herself she did. Then, once Lisanna passed, she saw what it was to truly be alone. And partially, I’ve hinted over time that the biggest act Mira plays is her happiness. Even once Lisanna’s returned. Mira in my stories often feels a bit underappreciated and distant at times. To me, there was always something hollow to the change that Mirajane experienced after Lisanna’s death. It wasn’t so much to me that she couldn’t have found a way to be happy in the sadness, but rather that she had a kind of fake it till you make it attitude and it just took.

This isn’t to say that she’s never happy in my stories. Because she definitely is, in certain places. I think the happiest she is during most of the stories is at the start of her relationship with Laxus. It’s not necessarily him that makes her happy, either, but rather the flow things take when this happens. Usually, within a few years of them dating, the others will have all gotten together and they have this family unit that Mira’s always wanted. To me, out of all the others, Mirajane almost needs others around to care for and, being in an even closer knit group than the already pretty tight ‘inner circle’ within Fairy Tail gives her plenty of options to do this. As time goes on though, of all the people who get miserable with their lives, I typically paint Mirajane as the most.

I’m not really sure where this comes from, as it’s pretty obvious I’m a fan of Miraxus. But as they age, I think it’s pretty obvious that I have their relationship sour a bit. This was most noticeable in the Remember Me series, but that relied more on my old portrayal of Laxus, which was as a much meaner, distant type of husband. But even in my story where Laxus is probably the best all around person, Last Month, they still suffer in the end, this time mostly from Laxus filtering all his attention into their child and very little into his marriage. I think Parenthood has the most central characterization of all and, in it, Mira’s probably happier. Laxus is the right amount of distant and Mira’s the right amount too busy with other things to notice. Still, they kind of drift slowly, but honestly, I don’t think this is a flaw, but rather how things go. It might just be my personal interpretation of relationships having a hand in this, but there’s just something more real and honest when dealing with such things. I can’t think of a single person that’s particularly happy at any singular point in their lives, in my stories, but I think that’s less because it’s impossible, but rather we view the stories through the eyes of all the characters, as I tend to use omniscient story-telling and, in your head, there’s usually a lot bubbling under the surface. You can be happy over something and still dread another thing. It’s practically a standard.

Mirajane’s typically upfront with Laxus in these moments, but it’s rarely needing stating to him. He’s usually aware of their divide and even, at times, ponders it for himself. Neither really ever take steps to fix it, however, save rare moments and I think, on Mirajane’s part, this has a lot to do with how I have her describe marriage. She loves the idea of marriage and frequently pressures Laxus into this (probably more often than not), but is usually reserved once in the marriage. In the backstory that I designed for her and her siblings, marriage was a very important factor to their early childhood. She saw her parents as a unit and reminisces on it sometimes, to Laxus, about how they were able to forge a life for themselves. She gets upset, even, in one one-shot, when he implies that, given their rather poor backgrounds, that her parents never truly wed and rather just become something like common law. This would ruin the entire identity that Mira has build up around her dead parents.

This also hearkens back to another thing that is sparingly mentioned attribute I give her which is Mirajane’s religious side. It’s annoying, at times, to her siblings and constantly to Laxus’ whenever it is mentioned, but overall, it’s treated as a rather minor detail. It only has one major one-shot and I don’t think it’s necessarily significant to the way I write Mirajane, but it is something that I mostly silently recall me as giving her. Her obsession with being sure she and Laxus, eventually, do marry would align with this well.

Mirajane, like most of my renditions, has a bit of a darker feel to her overall though. In some stories it’s more obvious than others, but throughout, she kind of gets more tired of things as the years go on. She loves the guild too much to leave it and the bar too much to ever become a full time mage again and also finds the actions repetitive eventually. She works herself to death though, to the complaints of Makarov when he’s serving as guild master, and Laxus later, when I go that route. It’s almost a sense of obsession, I think, where she’s not sure what to do with herself when she’s away from it. A bad relationship, maybe, is also accurate. Mira’s unhappy with where she is, but fears if she takes a step in a direction away from it, everything will blow up. In most stories, even, she fears for what will happen to Makarov if she slacks in any way.

Their relationship in Fairy Tail as a whole isn’t nearly as exaggerated as I make it out to be. I think it’s clear that Makarov respects Mirajane and, while he does act like an old perv to her at times, also frets over her a bit, maybe. Rather than just leave it at this though, I add a bit of an extra layer there. In New Position, I focus the idea of Mirajane’s reformation and returning to the guildhall following her sister’s passing on Makarov’s interference. When she shows up to leave the guild, he thwarts this and instead has her stay on as barmaid, which is a definite backstory for all my incarnations of Mirajane. From there, she and the Master’s relationship only blossoms. She loves him in the same way the others all do, but has to also see him as not only saving her life as a young teenager, but also following her sister’s death. It’s because of him that she sticks around which, later, leads to her finding her sister once more.

This alone would be a big relationship cementer, I think, but it goes a step further as time progresses. When my stories pick up, Makarov is typically become a bit more feeble and, thus, needed to rely on someone to help him out around the guildhall more. This falls on the shoulders of Mirajane mostly because she is, no doubt, the one around most often. She cares for him more in his time of need than the others. This, again, is probably due to her availability, but that doesn’t change the sentiment any. I like the idea of Mirajane being so reverent of Makarov towards the end and it shows through frequently. All the former kids of Fairy Tail see him as a grandfather figure, but with all he helped Mirajane through,. I think this is even more true for her.

Another relationship that I’ve changed the dynamic of a bit is the one that she has with her sister. Lisanna and Mirajane, following Edolas, are shown as mostly getting along in that way background characters do. There’s no real reason for them ever to not. There’s not a specific filler relating to just Mira and Lisanna so we really only see their relationship through the eyes of others.

But, I mean, they’ve already got some weird stuff going on, the Strauss siblings in general. The girls typically just boss Elfman around and allow him to go about his life, but the two of them are tangled into one another fiercely. Mirajane already had a motherly vibe towards her siblings before everything got all fucked up with Lisanna’s ‘death’ and this is the source of a lot of their problems in my stories. Lisanna wants more freedom than Mirajane is willing to give her. She acknowledges that Lisanna is grown and an adult and should be able to live her own life, but often struggles with implementing this.

Not that Lisanna helps in this. At all. Rather than flat out telling her sister to butt out, Lisanna finds life kind of nice in the Strauss household. She works some, up at the bar with her sister, and takes jobs some, with her brother, but mostly just hangs around. There’s almost a lack of urgency to Lisanna’s work ethic as she finds focus in other pressing matters; like goofing off with Natsu and Happy or, when this is relevant, Bickslow. That leaves her in the weird place of not necessarily being under Mirajane’s dominion, but also establishing no clear path in life for herself. Though Mira rejects this lifestyle and typically tries to intervene in it, she’s never quite sure how to. This isn’t helped by Laxus, who seems to fund all of Lisanna’s outlandish lifestyles when her sister refuses.

Mostly, Lisanna and Mirajane appear at a standstill in my stories. They rarely address their conflicts, save a major one like Wedding Wars, where Lisanna is purposely attempting to rile her sister up. Even that, however, does little to alleviate any of their long standing problems, but rather just bandages over the immediate. Mira will never be able to really stay out of Lisanna’s life and Lisanna will never dislike it enough to do anything about it. It’s more just bickering between the two of them than any ill-will. It’s the kind of sister relationship that has to come from these sort of things, I think. The more time spent with another person, the more chances for these sorts of things to arise.

Her and Elfman are the opposite though. Mirajane lets Elfman live his life for the most part and when they’re usually directly interacting in my stories, it’s typically lighthearted. This could be attributed to a lot of different things, honestly. For one, I don’t care for Elfman much and, therefore, don’t want to write him too often. Another part of it is though that Elfman’s journey is kind of complete, you know? He’s got a plan in life and is on his way to doing it. All he wants is to successfully be a mage and it’s happening. Lisanna’s a bit more lost in her approach though and therefore requires more attention. Elfman’s big turmoil is vanquished when Lisanna returns and, even before that, Mirajane helps him see through his demons. Lisanna’s are more complex, in some ways, as they have less to do with a singular, terrible actions, but rather are unresolved personal flaws and traits that plague her. Elfman doesn’t have any real conflict canonically after resolving his issue with Lisanna’s death other than his struggles to get stronger and interactions with Evergreen.

I don’t even think that that’s really a point of contention for Mirajane either. In the show, she muses about her brother and Evergreen, but no one ever seems to give it much real thought. This is mostly true in my fics as well. Evergreen and Elfman are probably the most consistent relationship overall, but short of Bickslow’s teasing, they hardly ever get any acknowledgment. Mirajane usually sees herself focused on more important (or at least perceived importance) and other than the few times that Elfman goes to her for advice (or to bitch about Evergreen), she doesn’t refer to either of them in any way at all.

Her lack of approval or disapproval, however, probably also plays into the subdued nature of her relationship with Evergreen. As far as the source goes, they have none, but in my fics, it’s normally a bit contentious. Evergreen is jealous of Mirajane and doesn’t attempt to hide it too well. Whether it’s from Mirajane’s status with Laxus, her close relationship with her brother, or even just the fact that Evergreen seems to be the jealous type in general, she detests the other woman. Mira, however, in return is quite the opposite. A lot of times it comes off as if she’s oblivious towards Evergreen’s aggression, but there’s rare moments where she lets on that this isn’t at all true with either a snide remark towards the woman or and rebuttal to Ever’s rude comments. Mira rarely shows any sort of ill-will towards another (save Laxus at times and Lisanna at others), but she’s definitely not passive and, when pushed, lets this loose.

The Thunder Legion member that she probably should have the most contention with is Bickslow. He’s, arguably, part of the reason Lisanna falls off the wagon so often. He mostly exists and offers up nothing much when he isn’t out on a job and, the more time that Lisanna and Bickslow spend together, the less frequent this is. However, whether or not Mirajane attributes him as a bad influence is never really definitive one way or another. Mostly, Mira finds Bickslow a bit worrisome, at first, but overtime finds him to be goofy and harmless. She doesn’t necessarily support the relationship constantly, but as with Elfman, does little to intervene on it (most of the time).

In Hard to Do, Bickslow questions Mirajane’s friendship and calls the idea of it a facade. Mira takes a bit of offense to this and rebukes his claims that, should he and Lisanna fall out, that she wouldn’t care about him at all. Mira, above all the others, takes the family that she feels they’ve formed, even in short periods of time, are strong enough to stand alone. She honestly takes the Thunder Strauss Tribe to heart, unlike the others who seem to realize it, inevitably, has a time limit.

This is most true with Freed. I think, canon wise, they have the mostly likely friendship of all the minor characters we don’t know much about. Mira and Freed share far too many commonalities to not, at least, be friendly with one another. We’re not entirely certain of Freed’s past, but knowing how the others all wound up at Fairy Tail and his lack of mentioning family, save the Thunder God Tribe, would leave one inclined to think that it wasn’t a pleasant upbringing. I’m sure, in a lot of ways, it mirrors Mirajane and her siblings. Some sort of tragedy at home led to him fleeing at a young age and then finding his way to Fairy Tail (I imagine through the help of Laxus, but that’s just my opinion). This added in with the way that both he and Mirajane had to overcome their own inner demons, figuratively and literally, in order to truly come to love Fairy Tail is quite powerful. The fact that Mira’s own experience in the ordeal helped Freed turn over a new leaf is hardly anything to bat at either.

From there, writing their relationship towards one another isn’t too difficult. Freed is usually apprehensive whenever he’s first acquainted to the idea of Laxus and Mirajane dating (but I imagine him to be apprehensive and skeptical about most things, until he gets his bearings about them), but is rarely that way for long. Mira usually is the one to seek out friendship with them and, from there, it kind of naturally develops.

Of all the non romantic relationships that form in the little group, I think Lisanna and Laxus’ is my favorite, but I really like the dynamic that Freed and Mirajane have. At times their friendship seems staked purely in their equal love and respect for Laxus’ and, perhaps, Freed merely goes along with her perceived view of friendship with him because of his veneration of the man, but I don’t think this is the case. Or if it was, it wouldn’t be for long. Freed is kind of bemused by Marianne, in most situations, and a more reserved person typically needs an energetic, outgoing person to pal around with. Bickslow fills this need most of the time, but there’s other times when Mira would be more suitable.

The biggest relationship Mirajane has throughout my stories though, of course, is the one she has with Laxus. I think, over time, it’s differed in someways, how I write them and feel out how things would be. Originally, I wrote Mirajane as a bit aloof to Laxus and his own desires. This was when I wrote her as aloof in general though and gave hardly any backing to her. As time went on though and I expanded my version and view of Mirajane, their relationship changed a bit. Mira’s less of a somewhat cute, somewhat bossy girlfriend of Laxus, but rather someone who can, and at times does, exist without him. Their relationship is less Mira conning Laxus through the steps of being in one and more them equally deciding things along the way.

Laxus is still an ass, but he’s rounded out a bit and less on edge. Mira’s still zany and, at times, overbearing towards Laxus, but she also respects that he’s his own person in some ways that she didn’t before. I had her invade his privacy a lot in the beginning and, though Mira still is a bit of a snoop and gossip, she’s not prying directly in his face constantly for information. They’re less on edge with one another and not so prone to snapping.

He also treats her better, too, in a lot of ways now. I think this is more due to my changing stance on how I write Laxus. I still stand by the closer to his original personality in the manga still being present and only bubbling under the surface, but he’s also more relaxed in ways too.

One of my more favorite concepts is when the two of them aren’t together. I’ve written it more than once, but the best showing of this was no doubt Timing. Mira and Laxus come to some realizations in that fic that, while they want to be together, they don’t have to be together. And that some time away from one another was the best thing for their relationship. This shows Mira’s desire for more, job and life wise, as well too.

Mirajane sees Laxus as, of course, one of the stronger mages in the guild which she finds attractive (on top of him just in general being so), but there’s also something cute in his personality to her. She finds his anger laughable, at times, but also develops systems for him to control it. She finds his relationship with his grandfather to be sad and, many times, urges him to strengthen it, going as far as having the man move in with them in both the Parenthood series and the story Closure. Mira, having lost her own parents, understands Laxus’ problems in some ways on that front, but frequently bends towards him having it far worse than her. She sees the happy few years she had with her parents as superior to Laxus’ slow realization that his father never loved him and, at certain points, his mother didn’t either. She helps him cut down on his drinking and forces him to be more openly loving towards his friends. In Parenthood, Mira forces Laxus to take responsibility with his child (not hers, for those who haven’t read it) as well as in A Dragon’s Love (that one is theirs, together).

Mostly Mira tries to improve Laxus’ life in both little and big ways. She’s not trying to change him, necessarily, but make him realize that he could be living a much better life than he does. I think this is an important characteristic that Mira has in general towards those she views as friends and would no doubt take into a serious relationship.

Outside of that though, I like to think that Mira and Laxus are friends in general. Canonically they are, at the very least, that. A lot of my stories with them revolves around their faults or any drama they have, but in group centric stories, their less tense moments are shown. Laxus waits impatiently for Mira to arrive, always, and she enjoys his company above the others in the room. They can hang out and joke with one another and, at times, Laxus is shown to sit up around the bar watching her close the place up, just to be around the woman. Even when they start off a bit rocky, like in In with the New,  we see them interact in both elements. They butt heads, but find something in one another that they can’t get passed. During a prequel of sorts, Trials and Posers, I have Laxus muse (fume?) about how Mira once had a chance of joining the Thunder Legion and the sort of friendship they made before that went south, as I imagine most of teenage Laxus’ attempts at friendships went. Mira’s as well.

I don’t really think that my Mirajane’s too different at all from what we see in Fairy Tail. I think that, overall, she’s still the giddy, go-lucky barmaid that is ready to help her friends, but I add a second substance to her that isn’t in contention with this version of her, but rather hovers over the surface. In Rips and Tears, Mira reveals most all of her vulnerabilities to Laxus and these are all included. Upon losing Lisanna, Mirajane had to reinvent herself. There was nothing else she could do. In Fairy Tail, whenever this transition is made with any evolving character, we’re kind of just told, hey, they’re different now, and that’s all there is to it. I don’t like this assessment though. Mirajane wouldn’t suddenly stop feeling so poorly about life and sour over things, but rather just learned to hide it better. Fake it till you make it. When she’s alone though, she doesn’t have to play up this assumed persona. Maybe she really is happier and more upbeat and has a better outlook on life. Certainly after the re-entrance of Lisanna to it. But the idea that this is all she is can’t be true. People are deeper than that. Mira certainly is. I try to make this show through, but probably fail a bit in some ways, as it’s not very easy to parallel in each and every one-shot.

Now this is way too long and out of hand, so I guess that’s all, really. Of all the characters I could talk about forever, Mira’s probably one of them. I probably didn’t cover everything, but I covered enough, surely. Bickslow next, anyways, but maybe another fic between now and then? I dunno, but maybe. I’ve been working on some shit, at least.

#Mira #Mirajane #Mira Strauss #Mirajane Strauss #Fairy Tail #Overview? Overview

[elane-in-the-shadows]

Red Queen Fan Fiction - Blood Curse part 10

Find this on wattpad

chapter 1

chapter 2

chapter 3

chapter 4

chapter 5

chapter 6

chapter 7

chapter 8

chapter 9

chapter 10

chapter 11

chapter 12

chapter 13

chapter 14

chapter 15

chapter 16

chapter 17

chapter 18

chapter 19

chapter 20

chapter 21

chapter 22

chapter 23

chapter 24

chapter 25

chapter 26

chapter 27

chapter 28

chapter 29

Final chapter

A/N: This was such fun to write. Hope you’ll enjoy it as well … ;-)

Evangeline POV

Ridge House presents itself at its best to receive its royal family back at their residence. Magnetrons in immaculate uniforms, both Samos cousins and commoners, line the way with utmost respect and drill. Their shiny guns are held in firm grips, each one is custom-made by its owner’s magnetron ability. As are the numerous blades, some of the larger ones lifted up in the air when our arrival is announced.

I step out of the shadows beneath the plane, laying my hand as slowly as possible on Tiberias’s arm; he stands rigid and controlled. It shall not matter. Silver royals don’t need to smile friendly at their court. The prince and I are set to go first so the kingdom of the Rift may admire their princess and the rightful king the family’s brought back from his drear exile. As if he was a prize I won when it’s a sentence for both of us. In his uniform, he looks just like a year ago, when no one doubted the crown prince’s ascension. On his side, my metal dress gleams even though I haven’t put thought into it, and only let the metal form itself into a wearable shape. Yet Mother asked me to fix a few black cloths onto it which now move slightly in the breeze and brush the bare parts of my skin. I haven’t made efforts with my hair either, now it falls down oddly straight. 

Our soldiers actually cheer at our small parade and they become louder when Mother and Father follow behind me. Back on the plane, Mother complained how much she’d prefer to have a cat of prey accompanying her but it was impossible to bring one to Corvium to begin with. Now she can’t wait to make up for it and check on her menagerie here as soon as possible while Anne, her falcon, flies behind her. The bird is right before Queen Dowager Anabel who walks alone, in front of the Silver soldiers picked to fight in the battle a month ago. Tolly would’ve walked with her, if he didn’t stay in Corvium. I miss him already while he has Wren staying with him.

I look forward to glimpse at the people expecting us right before the door. It has to be Elane. Meanwhile, Tiberias falls out of step as we walk beneath the raised swords. I’d laugh but I have to maintain the regal composure of the princess, thus I limit my amusement to a sneer. All of this magnetron show, confronting him with the new rival kingdom, must unsettle the prince: But for a Samos, the more metal is the better, however threatening we seem. Blades are as natural to us as eating.

I wish I could walk quicker but I know what’s expected of me, who’s done these performances my whole life. The rhythm is ingrained into my pulse. Even when my excitement grows the closer I move to Elane. Her smile, still small in the distance, is warmer than the sunlight. The light tickles my skin because Elane plays with it, until a beam crosses my face directly. This jester. I can’t avoid blinking and she winks at me.

She’s so beautiful that my lips twist into a smile and I forget the prince next to me. Elane wears loose black linen with a few golden decorations, the dark fabric a contrast to her otherwise glowing appearance. Her skin is tanned golden and her hair is pinned up - making me long to let it fall down again – while her crown of gold, silver and diamondglass sets it alight and creates little rainbows around her.

“The princesses of the Rift!” the steward next to her, Cristoph Samos, calls out and the feeling of being home overwhelms me.

The compulsory protocols wash over me easily when Elane is with me. I almost forgot this feeling in my former desperation but once we’re together, my fears shrink. We are the princesses of a new kingdom and we are going to rule. Whatever Tiberias or my father commands, we can’t be separated.

Elane and I escape to my room before the next round of welcoming festivities begins. Basking in the sunlight, she lays on my bed, her hair spread out on the white sheets is all fire, copper, wine and garnets.

“You’re always lounging, Elane,” I say to her.

“And you can never sit down, Eve,” she retorts. “Come to me,” she beckons, “you look terribly exhausted.”

“You’re rudely frank.” I sit down and her fingers travel over my hand. I sigh. “It’s true, I worked out for two hours before the plane left. I … might’ve trained too hard in the last month in general.”

“Eve.” My name from her mouth feels like a caress. I lie down next to her and, suddenly weary from its weight, I let my metal dress melt away and flow to the floor.

Elane stares at me with wide eyes. “That was awesome, my love.”

“Thank you.” I have to grin but my eyes are already closed. Elane kisses my brow, the tips of her hair tickling my cheeks.

“Welcome home, my beloved princess,” she whispers.

The princesses of the Rift are admired at Ridge House court and its town. The welcoming banquet has already shown how popular Elane has become, as she’s been at the Nortan court. Her easy chatting isn’t my way but as I watch her interact and notice the different way the subjects behave towards her, the truth emerges. Yesterday I was happy to lose my stress of the past weeks in Elane’s arms but the memory remains, the marriage to Tiberias still looms over me.

It wasn’t like that for Elane. She had time to practically rule the Rift in her fashion, without Mother and Father directing her every step. The idea they will soon enough terrifies me. Elane’s sworn to me she hasn’t even slept in one bed with Tolly so far and they don’t intend to for a while but how long before my parents will demand they do, to have their grandchildren and play in their schemes, as they expect of me?

“… I hope the queen dowager has brought supplies with her,” Elane says while we walk through the town. “Our kingdom … goes well enough, but it doesn’t exactly thrive. The trade died down and literally everything is very new …”

I snicker. “What a good queen you make!”

She postures immediately. “I do, and you should only address me as such.”

“As what?” After another laugh and a look around, I kiss her cheek. She’s less hesitant and kisses me back on the mouth.

“No, seriously,” she continues later. “I’m worried. We have to keep an eye on the Reds, or our country will shatter. They need to feel safe, and I as good as stopped the newsfeeds to the techies.” She sighs. “Apart from your video, of course. That one was gold, and it’s better to work with that Guard.”

I tilt my head in doubt.

“Surprised? As Tiberias said, these are times of change and we have to change with them, or we’ll lose everything. But tell me, Eve, what does Tiberias do actually?”

Indeed, what is my esteemed betrothed doing, besides brooding? The following week, he sulks at dinners, stays silent in meetings, and sticks to himself while training – when he even shows up. He doesn’t try to bond and be friendly as he was just a year ago and at night, he turns up the volume of a music maker.

“At least he likes some kind of metal,” Mother purred yesterday, about the noise he listens to. “That’s a beginning. Eve, why don’t you show him around, introduce him to the animals?”

Mother doesn’t change, her words are always both command and encouragement I must act on. I have to search for him for half an hour before I find him reclining on a patch of grass and to my rejoice, he startles when he hears me on the gravel path.

He sits up annoyingly slow. Scowling, he asks, “don’t the metal clothes all the time drag you down once in a while?”

I snort, stopping myself from biting my lip. “Says the man who’s been moping for a year now and tortures us all with that mu –, sorry, noise-pollution.”

He crosses his arms, scowling meaner. “So what? I’ve never seen you not sneering, whether you’re haughty or disgruntled.”

“Ahaha mumumu.” A laugh as fake as this betrothal. “Oh, I’m hardly a paragon of discontendedness, hisses and glares. I have fond memories of your Red commander.” I pause. “Not.”

Tiberias gets up, about to walk past me without a further glance. I call after him, “are you finally ready for a tour of the Ridge House, your – “

He turns, I stumble into him. “She has every reason to despise you. Her – she and Shade Barrow were in love, so maybe you should stop joking.” He tries to look intimidating but I hardly know anyone who doesn’t. I give nothing away so our gazes fix each other in place.

“Will you come with me?” I ask again, oozing politeness.

“Where?” It’s more a waiver than a word.

I tilt my head, returning to my assigned text. “Everyone likes animals, don’t they? I think you need a distraction, your Highness.” He shows no reaction to the wrong title although his grandmother insists we address him as his majesty. Maybe majesty would be more of a jab.

Instead he shrugs, still displaying his informal slouchiness but he comes along. Apparently, he likes the animals, unlike me who’s learned to fear them. I have to suppress this conditioning, reminding myself there’re many new beasts here who Mother’s allied relatives have brought upon arriving here, animals who aren’t her familiars. On the other hand, at least I know what Mother’s pets are up to.

Tiberias laughs at the lizards jumping and climbing spryly.

“You’re that one,” I say and point to the fire salamander.

He frowns, as I intended. “It’s so small – “

“Any complexes about size, your Highness?” I stare him dead in the eyes, no muscle in my face moving while he’s gasping.

“And over there, that raven’s Maven,” I go on.  "Annoying, screeching, too clever for his own good and“ – a dramatic pause – “always wearing black.”

This time, he can’t decide if he allowed to laugh - though he obviously wants to. He’s adamant to push down any enthusiasm, but I’m in a run. I drag him farther, making the wildest and most accurate animal comparisons. “Mother has no feeling for canines,” I explain while we’re at the wolf. “So, it only sits idly in its cage though Mother desperately wanted this noble beast. It reminds me of Princess Iris.”

“Ah, the que – ? I mean, yes, the princess, right,” Tiberias corrects himself as I glare at him.

I nod to him in approval. “The cats are more to her liking. You see the tiger over there?” I crack a smile. “Isn’t it uncannily resembling the Red commander?”

“Why, does it have a cub?”

“Excuse me?”

“Never mind,” he says. “Are you done? Or have you found Mare’s animal form too?”

“Of course,” I say sweetly. “An obvious choice, I think of the pony I rode as a child.”

He storms off in a rage, I run after him. “If all you can do is being mean, I don’t see a point in talking to you!” he shouts at me.

“So you’ll just remain lazy? How is that better? Mare Barrow would be so disappointed to see you’re giving up your claims of unifying and equality!”

He turns, literally fuming. “I don’t have to hear that from the good daughter who follows every order of her parents to its brutal letter and frequently attacked Mare on mere whims!”

I slap him.

“How unusual of you to use your own hands,” he hisses. “I expected a spike in my heart.”

“Why should I, you and I feel those spikes all the time,” I whisper, avoiding his face for the first time.

“But you don’t have to,” he replies, and silence ensues, stressing the insurmountable chasm between us.

“Maybe we should re-evaluate our positions,” I say eventually. “Elane’s got an invitation to her cousin’s wedding in Archeon, and wouldn’t you love to crash it and finish … this … for good?”

He says nothing at first. “Maybe we should re-evaluate our whole lives, princess.” He leaves, and this time, I don’t follow.

The next day, he presents his battle plans to Father and their advisors. They discuss for the rest of the week before they make a decision: While Maven is rumoured to return to his capital, we’re about to attack.

A/N 2: I really need a further fic on this where Cal tells his terrible puns and Eve makes gay jokes.

 @hannaharies @samanthaslytherin @mareshmallow @clarafarleybarrow @inopinion @lilyharvord @redqueenfandom @spookysamos @asewhj @runexandra @mikey-waysjawline @red-queen-united @redqueenforever

#red queen #red queen fan fiction #red queen fanfiction #war storm #marecal #evangeline samos #evane #evangeline x elane #tiberias vii #war storm fan fiction #blood curse #blood curse ch 10

[jessicamcrgan]

i’m nobody’s hero—         ft. jessica & justin

Where: Grady Memorial Hospital

When: Saturday, May 20th, 2017 at 2:17pm

Triggers: Abuse, mentions of shooting, gun, blood, surgery 

      “no, you don’t understand, i need that warrant.” the brunette spat out as she held the phone tightly to her ear and paced back and forth. she was frustrated beyond belief, but right now, it was the only thing keeping her afloat. the night had fallen apart at her feet and though she was nowhere near everyone when all hell broke loose at the country club, she was still dealing with her own situation. this was her one chance to take the operation down. it was simple. she got the whereabouts, she’d show up, put an end to it and that would be it. but of course, it was never that easy. there had to be something that made an easy plan fall to pieces, and now she was sorely regretting ever showing up in atlanta in the first place. “i understand i shouldn’t have been there, wilson, but i was. don’t... no, don’t give me that crap. i’ve done more for the atlanta police department in my eight months here alone, then you ever have, so don’t sit there and try to blame me for this.” though, she did blame herself. they got shot because of her. had she just been honest, then things wouldn’t have unfolded the way they have. they wouldn’t be lying a hospital bed right now with a gunshot wound to the chest. it wouldn’t have happened. and though, in a literal sense, she wasn’t at fault, jessica couldn’t help but put the weight of their pain on her own shoulders. “look, i’m not going to ask again, you get me that warrant or this entire fucking case will be shot to hell. so help me god, wilson. if you don’t get it, then he’ll talk and i’m not about to have my cover blown.” again, she spat the words through the phone, getting angrier by the second. “not your problem!? think again. if i go down, i’m dragging the entire APD with me and that includes you, captain. i may not work for you, but i sure as hell work beside you and if this case blows up, i swear to god i’ll make sure your face is the one seen on the news screen. now get me that damn warrant!” without hesitation, jess hung up the phone, not giving him any other choice than to listen to her. she had no real authority over him, so speaking to him like she had, probably wasn’t the brightest idea, but right now, jessica didn’t have a choice. her entire cover could very well be exposed for the entire world to see. thankfully, she had ties with the hospital and getting a warrant for them to keep his admission a secret was easy. they had dealt with cases like this before and so jessica didn’t really worry. what she did worry about was whether or not the person was going to tell the world what they saw happen. after all, they had every reason to and even if she had asked for them to keep it a secret, she couldn’t really wrap her head around the idea of them lying for her.

still, she was hoping it would work out in her favor, despite everything else going on within the last fifteen hours. to make matters worse, just as jess hung up the phone, someone else approached her. “a little birdy told me that you fucked up again.” the words themselves left a bad taste in jessica’s mouth, but when she turned around and caught sight of who they came from, things when from bad to worse. standing there with a smug look on his face was someone she never thought would act this way toward her. then again, what would she expect from the man who faked his death despite loving her? he wasn’t the man she knew any more and though she hadn’t really gotten a chance to move on from it, she definitely didn’t feel the same way as she had before. “risky choice coming here, don’t you think? even with the hood, someone could notice you.” she didn’t bother to give him the satisfaction of knowing she felt bad about this. “no, see, unlike you i actually know how to do my job correctly.” okay, that one stung. it was an insecurity she felt. jess had no idea if she was even good at what she did. she worked her ass off, but sometimes that wasn’t enough. even after all the time spent in the military and all the training she had under her belt, there was still a chance that jessica wasn’t cut out for something like this. not that she’d back down. if there was one thing jess was it was determined. she may have made mistakes along the way but she wasn’t going to let that stop her from doing what she was set out to do. “what are you doing here, justin? come to act like a child when something very serious is going on? that was always your forte, wasn’t it? couldn’t ever leave well enough alone, you just had to shove your nose into everything.” just after she spoke, jess walked right passed him. her arm shoving into his own as she set off toward the other direction. but before she could get anywhere, he was latching onto her, digging his nails into her arm as she tugged tightly onto her. “listen bitch, you don’t walk away from me, do you hear me?” his words were rough and bone-chilling. and as she fought back to pull her arm from him, jess caught sight of dark hues. the man behind those eyes had turned cold and ruthless. it was like he was an entirely different person. he had become so merciless, that in that moment, even she was slightly scared of him, but she refused to say anything. “i came to tell you that you’re done. this case, this town? everything you’re doing, it’s over. i’m sick of watching you fuck everything up, jessica. so why don’t you pack up your shit and let the real officers handle this, or i promise you, i will make the rest of your life working on my case, a living hell.” the scary part about that was that jess didn’t doubt him for a second. he could go through great lengths, and justin’s anger was beyond anyone she had ever known, so there was no telling what he was really capable of.

“do yourself the favor, jess. you’re incapable of doing work like this. all you ever do is get those around you hurt. you’re pathetic. you think you’re some badass because you have a badge and a gun? well here’s some news for you, you’re nothing but the cheap whore who got put on this case because our captain felt sorry for you.” once those words hit, jessica could feel every bone in her body turn to fire. she was becoming furious. since justin had surfaced, the two had done nothing but fight with one another. he hadn’t told anyone about who he was yet, and become jess had blown a mission for him, he tried to stay as far away from her as possible. and now the two of them were like fire and ice. he was the oil and she was the water. they were polar opposites and it was honestly shocking to think that not long ago she was able to say she loved him. now all she felt when she looked at him was disgust. “look at you. you’re weak, jessica. always were always will be. so remove yourself from this case before you fuck up again and get another person shot because trust me, you will. and with you working on this case, all those people you’re trying to save will have no chance. you’re not a hero, jess, so stop acting like one.” it was more of a demand that a clarification. and as the words filled the air, they hit like knives. his voice had risen to new lengths and he towered over her like he was some type of god putting her in his place. but despite how guilty she felt for getting people hurt. and despite how much weight some of his words held, jess couldn’t just let him stand by and say this to her. thus, after a moment, jess forcefully pulled her hand back, feeling her skin ignite was it rubbed against his own like sandpaper. she grimaced at the slight pain, but still stood her ground before him. “let’s get one thing straight. this case doesn’t belong to you anymore. the FLPD thought you were dead, justin. on record, you’re nothing but a missing body rotting at the bottom of an ocean. you ran away from this, so don’t you dare think you can walk in and act like you have any say in this case. you were the coward who decided to kill yourself, rather than taking the mistake like the man you claim to be. so if anyone here is pathetic, it’s you. now before you try making another threat at me, hear this. i will never stand down from this case until it’s closed. it belongs to me now. you lost that chance when you decided you wanted to work alone. so i may not be a hero, but i’m definitely not weak either. so you can take everything you just said and shove it up your fucking ass.” it wasn’t like her to stand up to justin. she had years of training before the police academy, but there was something about him that made her feel smaller than she actually was. and though she could’ve said worse, could’ve been meaner, she wasn’t going to stoop to his level. granted, after she spoke, she couldn’t help the reflect reaction that came and caused her to spit in face like he was scum. ( but to be fair, he was scum. )

however, it was that action that caused him to immediately react by slapping her hard across the face. his hand had sprung forward, vibrating against her skin so forcefully and roughly that she let out a loud gasp and clung to her cheek the minute it processed in her mind. jess had only ever been hit one another time and it was by her father. apart from that, she had never been surrounded by someone who would even think about doing such a thing. which was why she was completely shock and even a little broken to know justin had that power inside him. that he was merciless enough to lay a hand on anyone else. and honestly, she wanted to fight back. however, she held it in. she was strong enough to not let herself lose control. not in a hospital, not with someone she cared about lying in a bed only a few feet away. there was so much more to worry about. so instead, she held her tongue, held onto her pride, and did her best to act like he didn’t just hit her. “we’re done here.” was the final comment before she turned her back to him and headed back into the room. people had always told her to never turn her back toward the person you were fighting, but what other choice did she have. she wasn’t about to stand there and be ridiculed for this. jessica had felt bad enough as it was. she had felt like she failed those around her. like everything she was working so hard for was a complete and total waste. it was a hard pill to swallow and though she didn’t want to take in anything justin was saying, she honestly couldn’t help it. after last night she did feel week. she felt pathetic. she felt like she was failing at being a cop. but she was so passionate about this. she wanted to make her life worth something. growing up, jess was told that she was a lady and ladies sat back and let the world stereotype them as these weak little things who stayed at home bore child. and if that was what a woman wanted, then that was fine. but it wasn’t what she wanted and she wanted to prove to herself and to everyone else that she could become something great. she wanted to take her past of fucking up and getting arrested and turn it around. she wanted her life to mean something... and as much as it hurt to admit it, in this moment, she didn’t feel like a hero. 

it was the first time in awhile where she actually felt worthless, honestly. with justin fading off into the distance, and jess walking back into the hospital room, she felt like she was stuck on this path that was going nowhere. like she didn’t belong here. it almost felt like everything she had done up until now didn’t even matter, because what good was it if she was hurting everyone around her? not just in a physical sense, either. jessica had gotten three people shot in her line of work because she wasn’t good at what she did... and she was lying to good, innocent people. people like jake, liana, connie, seth and so many others. she was keeping this entire secret from them and forming deep and meaningful connection with people who didn’t know who she was. and when it all came rushing in after reality hit the same time justin hit her, jessica felt all the guilt and all the awful emotions she tried to push back, surface. it was like waves of the ocean trying to push her under. she felt powerless and weak. she felt like everything justin had said was true. maybe she wasn’t cut out for this. maybe the girl who wanted to be something bigger than herself, who wanted to change lives and cared so much about making this world a better place, wasn’t meant to be the hero of her own story. maybe jessica was just meant to be the fuck up. the pathetic little girl that even her own mother couldn’t look at. and as jess let the idea of that sink into her mind, she fell into the seat beside the man’s bed and completely fell apart. she lifted her blood stained hands to her face, and broke down. her body felt heavy, her heart and mind was racing and for the first time in what felt like forever, jessica acknowledged the fact that she was nobody’s hero. instead, she felt like she was nothing. 

#( — i came up from darkness but everyday has been in shadows; muse. ) #( — i'm nobody's hero; self para. ) #atl.inspo #crappy self para but idk i wanted to write one #and this is trash im sorry!!! #tw blood #tw abuse #slightly #tw guns #tw shooting #idk some of these things are in it but i wanted to be safe

[nubnubblr]

Playing With Fire .2

KANGSIK

It was clear all over Sundae's face that the only thing stopping him from hitting those kids was the fact he was holding onto Lisa. The one who had hit Lisa seemed to have dropped all signs of attitude and for the first time actually looked scared, and with good reason. Sundae's eyes were fixed on them, his jaw was clenched and he didn't need to say a word for them to see what he wanted to say, or do. Lisa wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her head on her own arm whispering something to him which seemed to relax him, only slightly. No one spoke, not for a while, Sundae just stared down at the teenager's, who were growing more anxious and dare I say terrified, Woo looked between the two on the floor and Sundae, the attendant stood awkwardly until he decided to pick up one of the stands Lisa had kicked down.

"Leave that, these two can do it," Woo gave his token smile to the attendant.

"We didn't do that?" the teen that hit Lisa frowned at Woo.

"She's injured and the only thing standing between you and an assault charge, besides she was trying to kick you and if she goes and cleans it up, there's no one to control him," Woo nodded at the stone statue Sundae had become. He was starting to scare me. He's normally all jokes and smiles, he barely gets angry or sad, to see him not smile is a rare thing. 

But I guess his reaction isn't exactly a surprise either, there was nothing he wouldn't do for Lisa, I've lost count of the amount of times he's taken the blame or done her work for her to keep her out of trouble with school and her parents. But she's done things for him too, her parents sent her away to an all girls boarding school abroad a few years back, I think that might have been the most depressed I've ever seen Sundae, he pretty much isolated himself, it only lasted a month though, I'm not exactly sure what Lisa did, but she got herself expelled and somehow convinced her parents that she was better off staying with us three. Woo and I weren't delusional, we might be her friends but she did it to be with Sundae, the two are grossly codependent, it's seriously unhealthy. But it works for them I suppose.

"We've got to wait for mum and dad anyway," the quieter teen muttered.

"It's not our mess,"

"Well then maybe you should get to apologizing," Sundae spoke through clenched teeth, he practically seethed at them.

He let out a sigh standing up, Woo stood between Sundae and the teens as they made their way to the knocked over displays, picking up the racks and putting all the packets and boxes of snacks back on them. They muttered quietly amongst themselves, and a few minutes later a couple, who I assumed where one of their parents, came through the door frowned at them.

"Do you want to explain to me why I got a call to come down here?" the woman crossed her arms over her chest raising an eyebrow at them. They both physically flinched and seemed to hide behind the racks they were re-stocking.

"What happened was..." the teen that had been so full of attitude trailed off.

"Actually, don't speak. You're just going to lie to me," She seethed.

"Do you want to tell me what you and your brother have gotten yourself into?" Brother?

"Sandwich," Lisa muttered.

"We, uh, well, we were here to, uh, we were just buying, um," the quiet teen stumbled over his own words.

"I'm sorry, what kind of trouble have our kids caused?" the father finally spoke, directing his question to the attendant, he was calmer than his wife, until the attendant pointed at Lisa.

"I'm confused?" the father frowned.

"That young girl over there came in to get some snacks, you sons tried to hit on her and she declined. She may have done so a little harshly, maybe even slightly rudely. But your son grabbed her by the arm and refused to let go, he was warned and when he didn't let go, she retaliated, he let go momentarily but caught a hold of her again that's when her friends entered the store. You son tried to tell me that she was his sister and that she wasn't suppose to be out and refused to let go of her arm, some things were said and as a result, your son backhanded the young woman across the face, as you can see by the split lip," the attendant pointed, his words came out low and shy.

"I understand our friend may have said some things that were a little rude, but that doesn't justify your son hitting her," I added.

"You manhandled and hit her?" their fathers face grew cold.

"What did this girl say that made you think hitting her was warranted?" their mother fumed.

"Well, we went to say hello and she said no and..."

"You hit her because she said no?" their mother looked as though she was about to beat them up.

"But she,"

"No buts, you never, ever, under any circumstances, hit a woman. I don't care what she has said or done, it is not justified," their fathers voice boomed.

"But dad, she,"

"Shut up, I don't want to hear another word from you," he held his hand up and turned to face Lisa, his expression calmer.

"I am deeply sorry about my sons behavior, and I'm sorry to ask, but is there anyway we can work something out without involving the police?They probably deserve it but it will go on their record," he pleaded with her. She seemed a little lost for words.

"We've already agreed on an deal, we're not to press charges, our friend did hit your son after all," I stated,

"It was after he slapped our friend," Woo frowned.

"I don't blame you," their mother stated, still glaring at her sons who were quietly stacking the racks.

"So, if you're not pressing charges, what is it you've agree on?" their father asked carefully.

"A sincere apology, the condition being that if Lisa, our friend, doesn't feel as though they are genuinely sorry, we do press charges," Woo stated.

"Well, what are you two waiting for? An invitation?" their father barked.

Both boys dropped what they were holding and all but ran over to where Sundae and Woo were standing, Sundae visibly tensed up, Woo stood to his right, standing slightly in front of him, I think that was more to stop Sundae doing anything than it was to protect them. There was no way those boys were going to try anything. The quieter brother had tears steam down his face, the other looked like he was trying to hold them back. They both bent at a 90 degree angle, their apology full of honorifics.

"You call that an apology?" their father raised an eyebrow. They both looked at him as if they were deer caught in headlight.

"Floor," he barked and they dropped immediately.

WOO

We left the store after finally coming to an agreement with the teens parents, they groveled on their knees for Lisa to forgive them and once both Lisa, and their father, were happy with their apology they were allowed to stand. Their mother than made sure they finished cleaning up the mess that Lisa made, and their father insisted on paying for our snacks. After a lengthy disagreement, their father finally won, honestly I think it may have hurt his pride to know his sons had hit a woman.

"Key's," I nodded towards Sundae who was still piggybacking Lisa.

"I'll drive,"

"You sure?"

"Mm, you've covered three hours, there's not far left," he shrugged.

"We're going to Busan?" Kangsik frowned coming out of the shop holding the bags of snacks.

"Surprise?" I shrugged.

"Why did you pay for accommodation when you have estate there?"

"I didn't, I just told you that so you didn't know we were going to Busan,"

"Why are we going to Busan?" he raised an eyebrow.

"The beach, the women, the food," I shrugged again.

"You couldn't have gotten that anywhere else?"

"Are you kidding me? Going to Busan is like going to another country. Don't be stupid," I frowned at him.

"Over dramatic,"

"We still have at least an hours drive left and it's going to start getting dark soon, can you two bitch at each other in the car?" Lisa rolled her eyes.

"Let's go," Sundae gestured for us to get in the car.

"Where are my snacks peasant?"

"Peasant?" Kangsik raised an eyebrow getting in the backseat.

"Sorry, scribe?" she raised and eyebrow throwing his books that were on the passengers seat at him, it was only a text book and a few note books but the text book was pretty thick.

"And you want me to give you snacks?" Kangsik frowned, pulling a disapproving face.

"If you don't, I'll just get meaner and you know it," she stared him down. He let out a sigh and pasted her the plastic bags.

"Thanks," she smiled sweetly.

"These are yours," she threw him a bag of traditional Korean crackers with laver (seaweed).

"Woo," she handed me a box of pepero and a bag of wheat puffs over the back of the seat.

"Here," she gave Sundae a bottle of strawberry milk as he turned the car on.

"Strawberry?" he frowned.

"They only had one banana and I squirted the teen in the face with it,"

SUNDAE

We were about half an hour out of Busan, Woo was asleep, Kangsik had his headphones in while he read through his text book and made a billion and one notes, and Lisa was half falling asleep, half fiddling with the radio. She'd almost be asleep when a song she didn't like would come on so she would flick through songs on my phone, which she'd connected, until she found one she liked. After she's complained a little about how there were so many crappy songs taking up perfectly good space on my phone.

"Are we almost there?" she sighed trying to get comfortable in the seat.

"Half an hour," I nodded.

"That's so long," she whined.

"Why don't you take a nap? By the time you wake up we'll be there," I suggested.

"And leave you to drive bored? What if you get tired? I have to keep you engaged,"

"Kangsik's awake, I'm sure if I start to drive into a ditch he'll wake me up,"

"That's not funny," she frowned.

"It's a little funny," I shrugged.

"Now I'm definitely not taking a nap,"

"Lalice, it's fine. Take a nap,"

"No, I'm not napping until we get to the house and we can nap together,"

"Has anyone ever told you how cute you are when no one but me can hear you?"

"Shut up," she slapped my arm.

"Now you're interfering with the driver, so you want me to drive into a ditch?"

"Would you stop joking about that?" she frowned, pouting.

"Okay, I'm sorry. But you're going to have to stop being so adorable or I'm not going to be able to pay attention to the road," she rolled her eyes, but smiled and turned her attention back to the phone in her hands.

She finally found a song she didn't hate and drifted off to sleep. Woo woke up the minute I pulled in the driveway, he was already out of the car and unlocking the front door when I turned the engine off. Kangsik took his time packing up is study material and followed Woo inside. Lisa was still asleep, I thought she might wake up when I opened her door, but I managed to lift her from her seat and carry her into the house, up the stairs and into the bedroom we'd be sharing this weekend. It wasn't until I turned to leave that she stirred, pulling on my hand and mumbling, 'stay'.

KANGSIK

I followed Woo into the house, the ground floor was just an entrance way with two doors and a set of stairs, up the stairs on the first floor was a bathroom, a study and two bedrooms, the study used to be a third bedroom but Woo's dad converted it for when he's working this way. We stopped on the third floor where the kitchen and living room were. Woo collapsed across the lounge, I put my books down on the kitchen counter.

      "Can you check to fridge?" Woo called over the back of the lounge.

"For?"

"Anything," he shrugged.

"There's still snacks in the car,"

"Snacks aren't going to get us through the weekend,"

"Oh, right," I nodded, making my way over to the fridge which had absolutely nothing but a water bottle in it, the cupboards were the same.

"Nothing,"

"Alright, let's go," he got back up.

"We just got here," I frowned.

"And we've got no food,"

"Like I said, there's snacks in the car,"

"I'm starving, Sundae, probably starving, and when Lisa wakes up, she'll also be starving. How are you suppose to cook for everyone if there's no food?" I smirked.

"Who said I'm cooking?"

"I'm joking, sort of," he shrugged.

"We'll go down to the store, get some food to last us the weekend, you can cook in here and I'll barbecue the meat, okay?"

"I'm driving," I frowned.

"As long as you're paying," he nodded.

"Sundae still has my keys,"

WOO

Sundae was almost asleep when I walked into their room, Lisa was curled up into his side with her head resting on his chest and her arm around his waist. He opened his eyes when he heard me walk in.

"What's up?"

"Just need the car keys,"

"Over there," he pointed to the set of draws just inside the door.

"We're just going to get some food, we'll be back,"

"Kay," he yawned pulling Lisa closer to him and closing his eyes.

"Want anything?"

"Banana milk," he muttered.

"Let's go," I nodded to Kangsik who'd been waiting outside the door.

The drive wasn't too long, Kangsik made a list of things we'd need while we drove so he was reasonably quiet, I pulled into the car space and turned the engine off. We were getting out of the car when the pink phone on the back seat started ringing.

"It's not me," Kangsik stated.

"It's Lisa's," I reached over.

"Who's Chesty?" I raised a eyebrow answering when Kangsik just shrugged.

"Hey hoe, took you long enough to answer," a female answered.

"Ah, who's this?"

"You're not Lisa, and don't sound like Sundae,"

"I'm not Sundae,"

"So who are you then?"

"I asked you first,"

"Yeah, but you're the stranger with my friends phone,"

"Lisa doesn't have any female friends," I frowned.

"How would you know?"

"Because I'm her bro,"

"Oh," she stated as if that meant something.

"What?"

"You're Woo,"

"Seriously, who are you?"

"What's the caller I.D say?"

"Chesty,"

"Huh, she changed it,"

"So, who you are?"

"I'm hurt you don't remember me, clearly I've been abroad too long,"

"Abroad?" who does Lisa know abroad?

"Wow, let Lisa know Chesty called,"

"Are you going to tell me who you are?"

"Nope, you'll have to figure it out," she stated then hung up.

***

"We don't need that," Kangsik frowned at me as I picked up triangle kimbap, putting it into the cart.

"I want it," I nodded I grabbed a few more.

"Shouldn't we get actual food, like for meals?"

"There's nothing stopping us from getting that too,"

"Except we don't need it," he stated going to put it back.

"I'm paying for it, so leave it," I slapped his hand away.

"That's a waste of money,"

"It's my money,"

"It's your dad's money,"

"Would you like to pay for it? If not, shut up and let me get my food,"

"Okay moody," he glared playfully.

"Just push the cart and follow me,"

We made our way through isles, Kangsik continued to remind me he had a stick up his butt, making comments about how something was unnecessary or that we could probably get it cheaper somewhere else. He means well, but sometimes, most of the time, he's just a pain.

We were halfway down one of the last isles when I spotted a girl reaching for something on a shelf she was never going to reach, I'll admit I did just watch her try for a minute, the further she stretched the higher her already high waisted black short shorts got. Once I was done looking, I made my way up to her, stood behind her and reached for the things she'd been trying to get. I didn't touch her by her bodies were so close nothing but a piece of paper would have fit in between.

"Uh, thank you," she blushed slightly when I handed her the box.

"No problem, I'm Woo," I held my hand out.

"Min Hee,"

LISA

I stretched out as much as I could being wrapped in Sundae's arms. We weren't in the car anymore, we were in our bed, well the bed we normally use when we stay in Busan, I wondered how long we'd been here? The sun had pretty much already gone down, Sundae stirred next to me but wasn't quite awake, I poked him softly in the side.

"Stop," he mumbled.

"Wake up," I poked him again.

"I'm warning you," he yawned, peeking at me though his slightly opened eyes.

"I'm hungry, wake up or let me go," I poked him again, a little harder this time.

"I don't like either option," he pulled me closer.

"Don't lie, you want food too,"

"We don't know there's any food here,"

"Woo came to get the keys earlier,"

"Yeah, but he's Woo, he could have found a girl and gotten side tracked,"

"My bro isn't going to let me starve," I poked him again.

"He might,"

"He'll just bring the girl back here," I poked him again.

"Alright, that's it," he grabbed a hold of my wrists and flipped me on my back so he was straddling me.

"Hi," I laughed.

"There are nicer ways to wake someone up you know?"

"Like how?"

"Like this," he lent down and kissed me.

"Ow," I winced.

"Sorry," he sighed.

"Let's get food before you get cranky," he sat up, pulling me up with him.

"Me get cranky? You eat way more than I do,"

"You're so cute when you pout," he kissed my forehead.

We made our way out of the bedroom and up the stairs to the living room, Kangsik was in the kitchen washing dishes as a few pots simmered away on the stove. I'm out sure exactly what he was cooking but the room smelt nice and my stomach made noises at me.

"Where's Woo?" Sundae asked.

"Upstairs with Min Hee,"

"Min Hee?" I raised an eyebrow.

"He found her at the store,"

"Told you he'd bring her home," I poked my tongue out at Sundae.

"He's known for bringing home strays," Kangsik commented.

"At least he can bring them home," I retorted.

"I could if I wanted too, I just have better things to focus on than flings,"

"No one said it had to be a fling?" Sundae stated.

"Could you go bother Woo? I'm busy," he frowned. "I think you need a nap," I poked my tongue out at him before turning to the stairs.

"What?" Sundae frowned at me.

"Why does this house have so many steps,"

"Come on?" Sundae laughed offering a piggy back, I jumped on him and we made our way up to the roof top terrace.

Woo was seated at the wooden table, his new play thing sitting on his lap. She was pretty, but Woo never picked up anyone who wasn't, she was wearing looser clothes than I was use to seeing on Woo's girls though, I guess she made up for the loose white shirt with how see through it was, the black bra she had on was a little tacky for my taste but it's not like she's going to be wearing any of it much longer anyway.

"Hey," Sundae greeted. Woo smiled at us, she turned her head to look at us. She smiled sweetly at Sundae but seemed to look straight through me.

"Enjoy your nap?"

"Until she woke me up," Sundae nodded.

"What makes you think he was talking to you?" I poked his side.

"I'm going to have bruises there," he scolded.

"No you won't, you can put me down now,"

"I don't want too,"

"These are my other friends, that's Sundae and Lisa. This is Min Hee,"

"You didn't mention any other friends," she looked directly at me this time.

"Is there a problem?" Woo frowned.

"No, but if I'd known I would have brought so of my friends to keep them company," she turned her sights back on Sundae.

"No need, Kangsik isn't into girls and Sundae doesn't need anyone's company but mine,"

"A little controlling are we?" she raised an eyebrow at me, but her voice was sweet as if she were making a joke, he face showed clearly that she was baiting me. I just looked at Woo who gave me a 'Please be nice' look.

"We've had a long day,"

"I can see that. What happened to your face?" she sounded concerned but she the attitude her face radiated when she said the word 'face' made me want to smack her across hers.

"Why don't we go see if Kangsik needs any help?" Sundae asked.

"He doesn't, you can put me down,"

"I don't want to,"

"Oh, your phone rang while you were asleep," Woo picked my phone up off the table.

"Who was it,"

"Caller I.D said Chesty,"

"Oh, did you answer?" I smirked.

"Yeah, but they wouldn't tell me who they were,"

"What'd they say?"

"That she disappointed I didn't remember her, that she'd been abroad to long, and to tell you she called," he shrugged.

"You didn't figure it out after she said abroad?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Kangsik said the same thing," he frowned.

"Come on Woo, I only know one person abroad and I only have one close female friend,"

"He's always away when she comes home, he probably doesn't remember her," Sundae stated finally letting me down.

"So stupid," I shook my head taking my phone from him.

"Will someone please fill me in?" Woo huffed.

"Rose," Sundae stated sitting down.

"Oh!" Woo shook his head.

"Who's Rose?" Woo's play thing asked sounding slightly bitter.

"My lesbian," I answered in the same bitter tone.

"She's Kangsik's little sister," Woo explained.

"She's not so little anymore,"

"She was never that little though was she, she was always a bit on the big side," he pulled a face tilting his head slightly.

"Not anymore she's not," I stated.

"No?" Woo asked, genuinely curious, plastic face didn't seem to like that though. I'm not sure she can even pull expressions with how much work she's had done on her face.

"The little bit of weight she had migrated to her boobs," I nodded.

"Little bit of weight?" Woo raised and eyebrow.

"Be careful, that's my lesbian you're talking about," I glared playfully.

"I'm just saying she was a little over weight," he defended.

"Yeah well, if you saw her know you'd try and jump her," I stated.

"I don't think so," Kangsik frowned.

"Relax, I'm not going to sleep with my friends sister,"

"If you didn't know she was Kangsik's little sister, you'd be all over that in a heart beat," I stated, knowing that it was irritating the fake faced bimbo sitting on Woo's lap.

"Can we not talk about Woo and my sister? It'll never happen," Kangsik scolded.

"I'm just saying, she's jumpable," I shrugged.

"The side dishes and rice are done, the soups almost done, so you might want to grill the meat," he ignored my comment.

"Feel like giving me a hand?" Woo turned to Sundae.

"Sure," he nodded hesitantly after looking between me and Fake Face.

"Are you going to sit out here with the girls?" Woo asked Kangsik who gave him an 'are-you-serious?' look.

"No, I'm going to go inside and study,"

"Awe, come on, come sit with us so we're not lonely," Fake Face pouted.

"You've got each other,"

"But there's no one here to protect us," she tried being cute.

"Lisa's here," he pointed, that's my gay.

"So?" she frowned.

"She can handle her own,"

"I can see that from her face," she stated sarcastically.

"Want me to prove it?" I raised an eyebrow, she just rolled her eyes at me.

"Come one, please?"

"Aren't you here with Woo?" I stated.

"Lalice, why don't you call Rose back?" Sundae suggested, his tone suggestive but his face was calm and held a sweet smile.

"Okay," I let out an exaggerated sigh.

"Play nice," Woo raised his eyebrow, I'd half expected him to be talking to me, but his gaze was directed at Fake Face, I couldn't help but smirk.

Kangsik made his way back inside to go study, Woo and Sundae headed off to the barbecue which was around the corner, close enough to hear me if I were to yell but far enough away to not hear me speaking normally.

"You must be quite proud of yourself," she glare at me the second the boys were gone.

"You have no idea," I smirked.

"Do you really think someone like you deserves the attention from three guys that attractive?"

"You should be nice to me," I warned.

"Why?" she pulled a disgusted face.

I just smirked and dialed Rose's number, she answered on the second ring.

"Woo or Hoe?" she asked.

"Hoe," I stated proudly.

"About time, I've been trying to reach you all day,"

"I was in the car, the signal was probably all over the place,"

"Where'd you go?"

"We're in Busan, we kidnapped your brother,"

"Put him in the trunk again?"

"Yep," I nodded knowing she couldn't see me, I heard her laughing.

"Did he figure out who I was?" she asked casually.

"No, Sundae had to tell him,"

"Oh,"

"Disappointed?" I smirked.

"What? Pfft, no, why would I be?"

"I don't know, the crush you've had on him since forever," I shrugged.

"I have a boyfriend, I don't care if Woo knows who I am,"

"No you don't,"

"Yes I do,"

"You have a friend you bone,"

"Well yeah, but we don't bone anyone else,"

"When was the last time you went on a date?"

"Today,"

"What'd you do?"

"We went shopping,"

"That's not a date,"

"It's totally a date,"

"What ever you say,"

"Why'd you change my contact name from Whore to Chesty?" she changed the subject.

"Because you are Chesty,"

"Yeah, you're right. So what are you up too?"

"I'm sitting with Woo's new one and done while I wait for the boys to grill the meat," Fake face glared at me when I referred to her as a one and done.

"Is she pretty?"

"Do you care?" I teased.

"He's Woo, of course she's pretty," she answered who own question ignoring mine.

"She's actually not that pretty, her face is definitely more artificial than natural. I'm a little worried if she goes near something that's too hot her face will melt," she was clenching her jaw glaring at me.

"Show me?"

"Face time?" I asked.

I tapped a few buttons and waited for the camera to work, a few seconds later, Roses face appeared on the phone screen.

"You're strawberry blonde," I nodded in approval.

"You said it'd look okay,"

"I'd do you,"

"What the shit happened to your lip?" she frowned.

"It looks gross right?"

"Yes," Fake Face muttered.

"Yeah well you look like that," I snapped.

#Playing With Fire #BLACKPINK #Victon #Me7name #lisa #lisa manoban #lalice #Rose #park chae young #kang seungsik #seungwoo #han seungwoo #do hanse #Lim Sejun #fanfiction #fanfic #mashup #romance #teen #drabble #lovestory #drama #relatable