REASONS WHY HAVING SOME RDR2 CHARACTERS AS YOUR PASSENGER IN YOUR CAR SUCKS:
Charles: Only talks to points out every single animal he sees. Other than that, it’s just silence unless you start the conversation or you’re Arthur. Oh but trust me, he wants the AUX. He’s just not gunna ask.
John: Either demands the AUX cord or just connects it anyway, then proceeds to be musically inconsiderate with what he plays. You despise this song with every ounce of your being? Too bad. This song reminds you of your lowest point? Suck it up buttercup. This was playing in the car when you crashed and killed the person in the passenger seat? Womp womp.
Dutch: Seems to think it’s his car. In fact, he feels completely free to change the music, turns up the heat as much as he pleases, winds the windows up and down, moves his seat constantly etc etc.
Reverend Swanson and Mary-Beth: Car sick. So very car sick. Your two options when driving them anywhere is the sound of heavy breathing with the sounds of the highway being blasted in through the open window, or bags rustling with the sound of puking and groaning. Trust me, they’d rather have walked as well.
Javier: Awful navigator. It’s fine when you know where you’re going, but absolutely awful when you need navigation. Half the time, you look over and he’s gone off the navigation app and is playing subway surfers and texting. The other half of the time, he’s misreading the directions then yelling at YOU. Not to mention it’s completely unsurprising to wonder why you’ve been driving for so long then find he’s clicked on the entire wrong destination without a second thought.
Sean: Acts like he’s never eaten before in his life as soon as he gets into the car. Sees a Wendy’s? He’s suddenly starving. Burger King? He hasn’t eaten in three days. KFC? He’ll pay you back, he swears! In fact, the man has absolutely no problem being late for anything if you stop for food. You could be on the way to Davey’s funeral, already running late and suddenly pull into the Krispy Kreme carpark and you would not hear a single protest from him.
Micah: Yaps a whole lot of waffle about how he’s all this n all that to the point you don’t even know what he’s saying anymore and neither does he. Also enjoys flipping random people off and yelling shit out of the window. Expect to be chased by an angry driver for at least 12 miles.
Bill: Eats and then just throws his trash on the floor without a single second thought. If you ask him to pick it up, he will, but not without angrily grumbling and snatching it up. Is in a bad mood for about 2 minutes before he realises he wants to yap so does.
Karen, Uncle, Abigail and Sean: Distracts the driver. Whether it’s with yapping or loud videos or drinking or messing with the music volume, they somehow keep it up from the start of the drive right to the end.
Hosea: Puts his feet up and puts his seat back like he’s in bed. Just won’t sit normally. Will give you a ‘look’ when you ask him to put them down.
Lenny: Makes things awkward, because the first thing he does is comment on the dirtiness of your car then looks extremely shocked and uncomfortable at himself for saying that for about 7 seconds before pulling out his phone and facetiming Sean for the whole drive and giving you the same looks Hosea does when you try to speak to him. When not on the phone, he tends to respond with shrugs and “Okay then,” while folding him arms and staring out of the window. Seems to be in an awful mood until he’s out of the car. He hates car rides if it’s not with his favourite people.
Molly: Acts like you can’t drive. Struggling to see what’s right in front of you? Molly’s got your back! Seriously, she will yell at you to stop at the red light you had already seen 7 seconds ago and started to slow for. Old woman crossing (while you’re already stopped)? She will yell at you not to go so loud you debate kicking her out and making her get her own car, since she knows so much.
Tilly and Strauss: Tries to get you to speed. It’s like they’ve never heard of laws before, and will insist you ‘go faster’ even though your way is blocked by other cars. It’s painfully obvious they both can’t drive and have never had to pay for gas money.
Miss Grimshaw: Absolutely disgusted by your car and wants to make that very clear. It wouldn’t be surprising if halfway through, she started to clean it herself.
Jack: Really really really wants to press that horn. You’d find it cute at first, but so goddamn annoying when your car starts honking in the middle of a busy crossing. It’s like a constant slap-fight except you’re pushing his hands away every-time they come for the horn.
Arthur: Constantly asking to pull over. He’ll casually say “stop here” as if you’re a taxi, not to mention you’re in the middle of nowhere on the highway and you really don’t understand what a stranger mission means. Commonly, you have to explain things like how you’re already an hour late and you literally do not have the room to drive that family of five that’s broken down anywhere, nor can you stop at an empty warehouse and potentially get arrested for trespassing because he wants to explore.
Kieran: Terrified when you go slightly over the speed limit. He acts like he’s in an F1 race with no seatbelt being hung out of the window.
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Hello! About the fake dating!au, I was wondering how the episode Niagara brawls would play out if Alenoaheather was happening. Would Alejandro and heather still be paired up or would one of them be paired up with Noah?
Well, to be entirely honest, I haven't really thought too much on it yet. Mostly because it's still kind of up-in-the-air as to when Noah's elimination would take place in this AU. I think we've sort of settled on post-merge, so he would be present in the Niagara Falls challenges, but the timeline's still really vague so I personally haven't really invested any time in figuring out the semantics of how each episode would play out.
But since you asked, I might as well toss my hat into the ring! I'll just type out my thoughts as they come, so please excuse this response if it's a little all-over-the-place or formatted weirdly.
Off the bat, it's been fairly well established that the canon final four remains unchanged, so at the very least both Sierra and Cody are still present in this challenge; this is important, since in canon the only reason Heather ends up partnered with Alejandro is because Sierra is the one who rejects him as a husband first. I don't really see a reason to change the canonical play of events here, unless a brainstorming session later on down the line necessitates Noah being paired with either Heather or Alejandro for whatever reason. Mostly just because keeping as many "pre-written" plot points as possible lessens the workload on our shoulders (us, of course, being me and @perpetualexistence, and occasionally @ur-local-brown-multifandomist).
But that does leave the question of who Noah would be paired with.
And again, this would be super dependant on who's left in the competition at this point; since Noah's made it to the merge, we know someone has to have taken his place in the London elimination- just that small change could have potential consequences on all of the subsequent eliminations afterwards, so the merge cast might look almost completely different to World Tour's "official" line-up.
And this is also super dependant on whether or not it's Blaineley who wins the Aftermayhem challenge- I'm not sure if any of the others intend to swap her out for a more interesting/plot relevant contestant (which, as much as I do love Blaineley, she's just find of there with no real relevance to the story) like perhaps Lindsay, Leshawna or maybe even Beth- I assume it'd have to be a girl, since the show itself works to even out it's gender ratios, but it could hypothetically be anyone.
So Noah's partner could be... literally anyone, save for the Final Four (Alejandro, Heather, Sierra and Cody).
...Unless?
Now, don't judge me here, but I do kind of like the idea of Noah ending up with Heather as his partner. Maybe it's the vast potential of how their (entirely self-constructed, and self-indulgent) character dynamic could play out in this scenario, or maybe I just want the opportunity to write Noah trying and failing to pick up Heather, eventually leading to her being the one to carry him across the Falls tightrope like a pathetic, soggy kitten. Or maybe I'm just getting my Noaheather on- who knows?
All I'm saying is, they'd be giving a lot of Connecticut Clark and Malfina vibes and I'm so here for it.
And maybe I just want to see something new; there's so many explorations of how an Alenoah Niagara Brawls challenge would play out (and they're all wonderful, don't get me wrong!) so it's time to give some other pairings the spotlight!
Plus, this particular scenario would not only allow the contestants to see Heather and Noah acting like the "fake" couple they're supposed to be, but Alejandro could also play it as either a double-breach of his trust (since he's also supposed to be "fake" dating Noah, at least, and he has his whole romantic rivalry with Heather) or take advantage of his position and try to charm whoever he's partnered up with and either secure a valuable ally for later on down the road, or beguile his next elimination target into a false sense of security- since a huge part of Alejandro's character is his conniving flirtatiousness, and I don't want to completely negate that.
Now that I'm thinking about it, Alejandro's flirty nature could be a conflict point between himself and his partners. That's a thought for another time, though.
But, again, it's still very up-in-the-air and I don't really think I can give a definitive answer until a proper elimination order has been established- or, at the very least, the elimination order pre-merge. So, uh, sorry for the lack of a definitive answer!
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👋
Hello new Arsenal W.F.C. Fan. Wondering if you could give me a guide on the team and girls?
Well, hello new fan, i don't know who bullied you into making this choice but at least you're not alone. Our slogan is, "it's the hope that gets you, be prepared to suffer".
Arsenal is basically the best team in the world who never wins anything, but we always remain positive cause we have a doggie on staff (Win).
Let's do some quick facts
our coach is intense and we kinda love him
most of our players are gay or on the way to getting there
except for Kim Little, who is team mom (under protest) for the sole reason of being able to resist chaos
we got 4 ACL's going strong at the moment (look at the slogan)
viv and beth are currently the only confirmed couple on the team which if you had told any of us that 2 years ago we would have killed ourselves (and you).
Laura and Vic are legally adopted by above mentioned couple
if you see any Arsenal player go down in a game expect them to be out for a minimum of 200 business days unless it's Katie in which case she is fine to play on.
Manu is my secret crush
Our new central defender is the current topscorer for Sweden
Cait and Lia used to date, we don't know what happened but there is a 137% chance Lia hit Cait with her BBQ tongs at least once
LGBeattie is our everything and her forehead is to be kissed when you meet her.
Steffy is an honorary gay and a positive light in our darkest days
Frida and Stina are our two northern giants
Lina is hot. We don't know much about her other than that but she is our boyband captain
Leah and Jordan (honorary ex-gunner) used to date. We have no clue what happened there but they still live in my heart. Leah is now gaying it up with someone else and she deserves that cause she is our queen (along with Lia).
Arsenal is a family who fight on Christmas eve, make up on Christmas day, fuck on boxing day and move in together before new years.
Blogs i like and you can follow if you want, there are more but it's like 2am here so my mind is not sharp.
@liawaelti @feefianamediema @meademagic @feistypuppythatwantstowatchball @leahwilliamsxn @meadosawfc @incorrectarsenalwfc @vivstenius @vandearsenal @freigangs @miedema-fc
Hardtchill cannot be held responsible for any harm, damage and/or legal consequences that become you after associating with above mentioned blogs.
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rdr2 as teachers
Dutch van der Linde: teaches social studies and sometimes history, goes on weird rants about his ideologies, he grades on a whim, students have a love hate relationship with him, is the principal but he really shouldn't be
Hosea Matthews: chill geography teacher that used to also teach physics, is generally good but his homeworks are usually hard to understand, you will get a good grade if you show effort and talk to him, leads an afternoon drama club and was a principal for several years
Arthur Morgan: teaches english literature but also pe and also sometimes physics? He also taught math for a year when times were rough. Everyone knows him and he knows everyone, thinks he's not a good teacher but students act good and get good grades with him (they're intimidated), sometimes hangs around in afternoon art clubs
John Marston: math teacher on an art school (yes this specific), none of his students will ever study math so why should he try, let's everyone pass as long as they're not acting up, usually late to class but no one cares
Javier Esquella: music teacher and an extra for spanish classes, his students only sing in his class, no work unless you make him mad, is known for talking shit about other teachers in spanish
Bill Williamson: PE teacher who yells at his students too damn much BUT is actually ok to meet outside of school, will get drunk with his (of age) students on field trips
Micah Bell: the teacher that got kicked out for students complaining, still shows up on some school actions because Dutch always asks him to help with making sure they act right
Charles Smith: really smart chemistry and biology teacher, actually explains it well, strict but students love him type,leadss the longest routes on field trips with Arthur, they usually make them even longer
Sean Macquire: Teacher assistant, no one knows what exactly he studied, just hangs around, will trashtalk teachers without asking, tells students the curent drama happening between staff
Lenny Summers: Teacher assistant finishing up his studies to become history teacher, popular with the students, has lots of energy, sometimes takes over classes when teachers are sick or tired
Sadie Adler: PE teacher who goes hard but also will force you to not participate after you get hurt ("I DO NOT CARE YOU JUST GOT HIT AND YOU BARELY STOPPED THAT NOSEBLEED SIT DOWN."), no one knew that she had a husband until he one day randomly picked her up from school, once got drunk on a prom and finally told her students about her life
Karen Jones: Chemistry teacher who breaks all lab rules, mainly shows them the fun stuff, the rumor is that she knows how to make alcohol very easily, also leads the afternoon drama club with Hosea
Tilly Jackson: Works in the office, helps students with paperwork or with anything they need to, is one of the reasons the school is still running because she fixes Dutchs paperwork mistakes
Mary-Beth Gaskill: english-literature and english language teacher, is the one to help rewrite the plays for the drama clubs, overall helps them a lot, has an after school reading club, they read mainly female and lesserknown authors
Uncle: janitor, doesn't do shit, just hangs around the school, will yell at you for walking inside in outside shoes, no one takes him seriously, some students have a habit to say "I didn't do my homework, I have lumbago!" because of him, mainly in Johns class
Abigail Roberts: Also works in the office, taught math for a year (that's how she got to know John), refuses to fix Dutchs mistakes, small Jack hangs around in the school sometimes, students like him and play with him
Susan Grimshaw: The main lady in the office and also the vice-principal, students thought she and Dutch were maried LMAOO, she shot down those rumors real fast, students either love her or hate her
Pearson: school cook who also has an afternoon cooking class, sometimes forces his students to answer yes chef, smells weird and tells weird stories
Leopold Strauss: German teacher who also takes care of the school money and makes lectures once a year about finance world, the students don't like him but some respect him in a sense that he knows how money works and teaches them real stuff
Josiah Trelawny: randomly shows up and gives lectures about whatever, no one knows if he actually works here or not, does he even have a title? does he have any idea how to teach? The students find him hilarious, also ALWAYS shows up for students proms and somehow knows who your parents and siblings are
Orville Swanson: Teaches social studies with focus on religion, nearly got kicked out several times for going to school drunk, did cry once in class
Kieran Duffy: Biology teacher, half of the students ignore him, the other half pity him, hangs around the book club because of Mary-Beth, the students ship it, once ranted for an entire class about horses
Molly O'Shea: Dutch hired her just because she's pretty, she teaches music and art mainly, eventhough she studied literature, but Susan refuses to give her other classes (she was mad at Dutch for bringing her to school), she is the teacher students have a crush on
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me rambling about the Puppetmaster Rick is currently hunting Evil Morty theory
1. It's been implied (although never confirmed) that Rick C-137 became motivated enough to invent portal travel when Rick Prime killed his wife. In the same vein, wouldn't Puppetmaster Rick also be motivated enough to re-invent or fix portal travel for himself after Evil Morty broke it? (so let's watch out for any Ricks with different colored portal fluids)
2. When this happened:
I can see two ways it may have played out for clone Mortys:
...either they were sent to the dimension of the original they were a copy of (but... what about any clone Mortys that are a blend of more than one naturally occurring Mortys? If such a thing is a thing, of course)...
...or all clone Mortys who had ever been created in the Citadel, dead or alive, teleported right back in the Morty factory, their excess numbers vastly exceeding its capacity (as it was created for hosting a finite number of Mortys at any given time and then every Morty ever manufactured there teleported back in), until it became a massive pit of clone Mortys long dead, clone Mortys who recently died in the Citadel's ruins, and alive clone Mortys (who were lucky enough not to be in the Citadel at the time of its destruction, and then unlucky enough to be teleported back and crushed to death by the weight of their peers' remains), until the WHOLE MORTY FACTORY looked like this:
Doesn't this mean that (unless he somehow managed to halt his resetting) Evil Morty probably was among the Mortys teleported there and narrowly avoided getting crushed to death, maybe by willingly teleporting himself back in the Citadel moments before the resetting took effect (therefore "resetting" himself before everyone else) and then again immediately teleporting himself away?
Any excess clone Mortys who were alive in the Citadel's Mortyburg (that Rick C-137 had used to escape) were probably exempt from the resetting and remained there, surviving for a while.
In addition, a small number of clone Mortys might have also survived being crushed to death in the Morty factory.
All those few surviving Mortys probably starved to death... (and might I say, it seems like Space Beth, Rick C-137 and Morty Prime abandoned all the surviving excess Mortys in Mortyburg, we never saw them transporting any...?)
...Unless they were kidnapped and trafficked by scavengers (which... might be a thing, considering Ricks are still around and Mortys suddenly became a rare commodity.)
3. So IF Puppetmaster Rick is alive and well and trying to find traces of the Morty who trapped him in a fate worse than death, wouldn't he eventually find a way to visit the Citadel, searching for traces of his old sidekick? (So let's keep an eye out for any traces that someone has been tampering with the Citadel's ruins; such as security footage missing, indications that someone temporarily powered up the Citadel's servers to access records, etc)
Wouldn't he run through all the Morty corpses, scanning each and every one of them for cables and other identifying characteristics, before discarding them? (which for some reason is an extremely unsettling imagery to me)
If any Mortys survived in the Citadel's remains and were taken by traffickers, wouldn't Puppetmaster Rick try to locate each and every one of them, in case one of them was Evil Morty?
Wouldn't he also simultaneously search the multiverse for traces of Evil Morty? Like, maybe he has a sub-basement level like this one:
...only instead of a monitor of Rick Prime's stupid smug face he'd have a monitor of Evil Morty's bloodied and tear-stained face...?
(or, you know, maybe he's doing none of the above. Maybe he was so messed up from the worse-than-death fate that he had been confined in for so long, that he did not have the presence of mind for any schemes for a long time)
4. If the above described clone Morty massacre is what really occurred, it probably was the best shield Evil Morty could ever have. Since the remains of dead portal travelers were also reset, what would seem more likely to Puppetmaster Rick:
that his old sidekick kicked the bucket e.g. in the blender dimension and his remains were teleported by the resetting but are no longer identifiable
or that somehow his old sidekick miraculously escaped almost certain death during a time portal travel was broken and is currently hiding extremely well?
So Evil Morty may not be too worried about being discovered, because the likeliest scenario is that Puppermaster Rick is not looking for him too hard.
5. Now me tying my two theories (Puppetmaster Rick hunting Evil Morty down & Evil Morty being a clone of Morty Prime) together:
So maybe, after Evil Morty returned outside the Curve, he scanned for his own brainwave/dimensional signature and, after filtering for probability stasis (which seems to discard the copies from the search result and retain only the original) located the dimension where his original Morty is: the Par-mee-zee-an dimension. Okay cool. Whatever. He already knew he was someone's copy, doesn't really matter whose. And since portal travel was still broken (the Smiths had to go to through the Rift to reach the Parmeezeean dimension) he had no reason not to assume his original Morty was Parmeezeean Morty (lol).
So he plopped himself down on the edge of the Parmeezeean dimension and built his home there. This way, in case Puppetmaster Rick scans for him, the two signals will be blended. Great.
...Provided, of course, that Parmeezeean Morty doesn't switch dimensions (how could he, given that portal travel is broken?) and that Evil Morty minimizes his stay away from the Curve, just as a precaution.
And this theory gives a different interpretation for this scene:
'Cause I thought of a couple of explanations yet none of them sat right with me:
Evil Morty did not seem upset while Rick was dragging Morty Prime with him through the portal, his expression only changed after they came to the other side (possibly explained because it was only then that he was safe enough to afford to be upset about anything).
He never seemed to even glance at Rick, Morty was the object of his attention.
I don't want anyone's decisions or reactions (including Evil Morty's) to be influenced by who is a copy of whom. It shouldn't matter. A lot of the clone Mortys in the Citadel probably originated from the same naturally occurring Morty that he did, and Evil Morty killed them anyway, so it's not like he has a soft spot for other Mortys simply because they had the same DNA and memories that he does. Plus I want his relationship with Rick C-137 to be defined over the actual interactions that they have (in which Rick is genuinely more respectful of him than any other Rick has probably ever been, but of course there is still zero affection. And while Rick C-137 obviously loves Morty Prime, he's still a toxic, fickle individual and Evil Morty has given up on the hope of a good relationship with a Rick for a long time now. I'm not sure he'd really feel jealous of Morty Prime's relationship with Rick C-137. Even if he's different than the other Ricks, it's only by a small amount. Plus he can't actually know if Morty Prime's loving memories of Rick -that were implanted in Evil Morty- were of Rick C-137 specifically; in theory, another Rick could have been living with Morty Prime originally) rather than implanted memories of someone else's interactions.
So. The other possible interpretation of Evil Morty's reaction that I can come up with is that, as soon as Evil Morty crossed the threshold of the portal that would bring them all to safety (that he had obviously no idea where it would lead because it was Rick who fired the joined portal guns), he received a notification on his eyepatch that he was now on the "home" dimension; the Parmeezeean dimension.
So he reaches the obvious conclusion, and glares at Morty Prime, because: "IT WAS F****** YOU?!"
...and then he gets over it because it doesn't really matter who is a clone of whom.
Points against this hypothesis:
Evil Morty never looks surprised as he passes through the portal. He goes straight from nervous to angry. I would have thought that he'd look surprised in between, as he reads the eyepatch's notification, but he... doesn't (possibly explained if the idea had crossed his head before and he just got confirmation).
Evil Morty is really cautious, wouldn't he be a lot more careful about the naturally occurring Morty he's using as a shield? Like, wouldn't he constantly and automatically check to make sure that his original Morty is still in the Parmeezeean dimension? Did Morty Prime not leave the Parmeezeean at all before the Prime Fight? (maybe... maybe he didn't! Even the spaghetti planet was not on a different dimension, it was on a different planet, which I felt was weird at the time. Naah, Rick did take Morty to Boob World once he fixed portal travel.)
We don't really know enough about how searching for another person's brainwaves/dimensional signature works. Would a search for Evil Morty and/or Morty Prime return data on the dimension they're currently in, without returning data on their dimension of origin as well?
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The Art of Redemption
(part 7)
previous // next // story index
__________
The Brindleton Bay Arena is the second-largest arena in the city. It's designated as a multi-sport facility, and that's technically accurate, but it's most commonly known for being the home of the Brindleton Bay Skating Club. It has three ice surfaces; a large main rink with seating for just over four thousand spectators, and two other regulation-sized ice surfaces with enough bench seating around them for about three hundred people each. The main rink is used for minor hockey and for public recreational skating as well as for figure skating, but the two smaller rinks are usually reserved for group skating classes and for the competitive skaters to practice on.
The only arena in town that's larger and more well known than this one is Seaport Place, where the Brindleton Bay Mariners hockey team practices and plays. Nikolai likes hockey. He enjoys attending Mariners home games whenever he can, and he likes the huge, bright and modern environment of Seaport Place. He's even competed there a few times, in events that anticipated far more spectators than the Brindleton Bay Arena could accommodate. He recalls the year Skate Canada was hosted there. That had been a proud moment for the city, and Nikolai had loved performing for the hometown crowd.
But, as beautiful and prestigious as Seaport Place is, it doesn't hold space in Nikolai’s heart like the old Brindleton Bay Arena does. This building is practically a second home to him.
At least it was.
Stepping through the doors of the arena with Beth-Anne doesn’t feel like the homecoming he imagined. It’s awkward and strange, and he thinks the sentiment is similar to that of two old friends who’ve drifted apart, inadvertently meeting on the street one day and realizing just how much each of them has changed. It’s true he hasn’t been away from the rink that long, only slightly more than a month, but being here now feels like he’s crossed into a parallel dimension. It’s as if the pocket universe inside the arena has altered itself just enough so that he’s no longer included in its timeline, as if he'd never existed here as a skater at all.
He feels like he's trespassing. He can’t come in here without his skates and without a scheduled ice time. He needs a reason, a purpose.
He stops walking, but he’s unaware of it until Beth-Anne is several strides ahead. She pauses, and looks over her shoulder at him.
"Nikolai, are you okay?" she asks.
He feels sick, and he almost tells her he wants to leave, but he scrapes together the shreds of his courage and says, "I'm okay."
"Are you sure?" Beth-Anne returns to his side and rests her hand on his forearm. "We're doing this at your pace, remember."
He swallows several times. It's one of his nervous habits, and he knows Beth-Anne will recognize it, but nevertheless he repeats, "No, I'm okay. It's just... weird. Coming here feels weird."
"I know," she says. "The first time I came here after I stopped competing felt weird to me too. Probably an understatement to say it was weird, actually. I never darkened the doorway of this place for over four years, and I had no intention of ever coming back, but Stan talked me into it. You know how he is when he gets onto an idea."
Nikolai manages a little smile. "Yeah. People don't really say no to Uncle Stan, do they?"
"Not if they know what's good for them," Beth-Anne says. She grins at him. "Or unless they're you. You're the reason he called me, you know."
"Really?"
"Yeah. He couldn't handle you. Said you walked all over him."
"He likes me," Nikolai says. "I don't think it was so much that I said no to him, but that he couldn't bring himself to say no to me."
"A little of Column A and a little of Column B, I think," says Beth-Anne. "Anyway, he said you needed someone who'd love you and let you have fun, but who'd encourage you to focus and who wouldn't let you get away with your usual shit. For some reason, he thought of me, and he pretty much just told me to show up at a certain day and time."
'I remember that day."
"Me too. I felt like I was going to puke my guts out the second I came through the door, I was that nervous.”
"You didn't seem nervous."
"Because I'm good at bullshitting my way through situations," she says. “But, you know what? I’m glad I showed up, even though I was scared as hell. That was one of the best risks I ever took, and look what came out of it. Stan said you were special, and he wasn’t wrong.”
“Stan said I was special?”
“He did.”
“He never told me that. He usually said I was a huge pain in the ass.”
“Those aren’t mutually exclusive states of being.” She arches an eyebrow, amused. “You are a huge pain in the ass sometimes, but I love you and you’re worth the trouble. And you are special.”
“Thanks,” he says. “I love you too, but you probably already know that.”
“Yeah, but what do I always say? Never miss an opportunity to tell someone you love them.”
“Right.”
“Anyway, just so you know, I calmed down once I was here for a while on that first day. Being with people I love and doing something that makes me happy made a difference." She gives his arm a light, reassuring squeeze. "It does get easier, I promise."
"I trust you," he says, because he does. It's hard to believe it'll get easier, but if Beth-Anne says it will, then he can at least accept the possibility.
"You're not alone. You don't have to do any of this by yourself."
"I know," he says. "Thanks for that."
"You're welcome. Now, do you think you're ready to keep going?"
He's not entirely certain he's ready, but he nods his affirmation. "Yeah. Let's do this."
He follows her through the foyer and down the corridor that leads to one of the practice ice surfaces. Part of the wall is constructed of shatterproof glass, and he can see three small children already on the ice and several adults seated on the benches.
Preschool group class.
He was part of a preschool group class once himself, although he only has the vaguest recollection of it. His most solid early memories of skating are from when he was about nine years old, practising at his old club and competing in local pre-Novice events. He hadn't done very well, and his teacher at the time had told his parents that he probably wouldn't still be skating past the age of ten or eleven.
His parents had taken that pronouncement at face value, and his father had broken it to him as delicately as he was able. Nikolai, however, was not ready to give up on his dream. He remembers running to his grandfather and sobbing in his arms while trying to relate the awful news.
Grandpa had understood the problem.
"Kolya, I want to tell you two very important things," he'd said. "The first is that not everyone can be good at the things they love, and I want you to understand, that's okay. But, the second thing is that no one should ever quit doing what they love just because someone else thinks they should. If you want to be a skater, then you should keep skating. Maybe you won't be good at it or maybe you'll be a world champion some day, but if you stop now, you'll never know."
"But, what about Papa and Mama?" he'd asked. "Papa said—"
"Never mind what he said. I'll talk to your parents," Grandpa had assured him. "And never mind that teacher, either. We'll look for someone who knows what they’re talking about. Someone who knows whether you've got real potential or not."
Making good on his word, Grandpa had more or less taken over supervising Nikolai's skating career after that. He found another coach, one who did indeed give an honest answer about Nikolai's potential. She was of the view that Nikolai wasn't doing well because he didn't get the individual attention he needed in group classes and was essentially being held back by everybody else. She agreed to take him on as an individual student, and by the time he entered the Novice division the following year and started competing seriously, he surprised everyone by winning a silver medal in his very first competition.
That was the day Grandpa gave him Champion the teddy bear. He'd tapped the little plastic gold medal around the bear's neck and told him, "Some day you'll have a real one of these, Kolya. A real gold medal, and I'm going to be right there to see it happen."
And he was. Grandpa was there for every competition for his entire time in Novice, travelling with him and Allison, his coach, to various parts of the country. He'd seen quite a lot of Nikolai's Junior division competitions too.
Then, when Nikolai was sixteen, the whole family had moved here to Brindleton Bay. The move was ostensibly for Grandpa's work, but it wasn't lost on Nikolai that Grandpa had made contact with the one and only Stanislav Kovac and somehow convinced him to be Nikolai's coach. Stan coached him for a year, and then Beth-Anne came along.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Maybe, he tells himself, it'll be the same with coaching as it was with his competitive career. He doesn't know if coaching is what he wants to do long-term or if he'll have any aptitude for teaching, but he won't have the answer to either of those questions until he makes the attempt. And Beth-Anne will be with him, just like always. Grandpa too, he realizes, and suddenly finds he can hardly wait to tell his grandfather about this latest development, as undefined as it is.
He's going to watch those preschoolers with all the attention he can muster.
Nikolai is busy coming up with basic skills he might look for in the little skaters as he and Beth-Anne approach the the entrance to the practice rink. They're only half a dozen steps away when the door swings open and someone dashes through it with a shout of, "Nikolai Pavlenko!"
The young woman runs straight toward Nikolai and flings herself at him so forcefully that Nikolai has to drop his crutches in order to catch her. He lets out an inelegant grunt as he's forced to put weight on his injured leg, but he stays upright, and that's something.
"Nikolai! Oh my God!" the girl exclaims. "You're okay! Uncle Stan said you were in the hospital, and we were all literally freaking out. I'm so happy you're all right and..." she interrupts herself with a squeal of joy, and squishes him in an exuberant embrace. "I missed you!"
It's difficult not to respond to such an enthusiastic welcome, and he smiles. "Hi, Mariah. I missed you too."
Beside him, Beth-Anne doesn't seem quite so pleased. She makes an exasperated huffing noise. "Mariah! For fuck's sake! Did you not see the crutches?"
"Oh! Sorry!" Mariah says, but she's not contrite. She releases Nikolai and then scrambles to collect his crutches for him. As she's helping him get situated with them again, she glances over at Beth-Anne. "My mom says you say the F-word too much, you know."
"Typical teenager," Beth-Anne grumbles. "Always making trouble."
"Yup," says Mariah, unfazed. Nikolai knows Beth-Anne isn't really angry, and Mariah clearly knows it too. "That's me, Mariah Torres. Making trouble since 1995."
Nikolai wants to laugh, and momentarily forgets that he's supposed to be anxious. He adores Mariah. The sixteen year old kind of reminds him of himself and Ginger at that age, full of energy and affection and harmless silliness. In hindsight, it's no wonder Stan hadn't been able to handle the two of them together.
"Shouldn't you be at school?" Beth-Anne is asking Mariah. "Your ice time isn't until three-thirty."
"I know," Mariah says. "My dad's away on business and my mom had to take my sisters to the dentist this morning, so like, somebody had to make sure my baby brother made it here for his ice time. But, don't worry," she adds. "Me and Gabriel have dentist appointments too, so once his class is over we're gonna go there, and then I'll go to school for the afternoon."
"Your little brother's in the preschool class?" Nikolai asks, intrigued.
"Uh-huh," says Mariah. "And he's awesome. I mean, not that anybody's actually good when they're four years old, but like, Gabriel hardly ever falls down, and he can skate on one foot a little bit."
"I'll keep an eye out for that."
"You're going to watch the class?"
"I'm going to be observing all morning," he says.
"Cool," says Mariah. "Come on. You can sit with me, and we'll observe together. We can pretend we're assistant coaches and make notes."'
Nikolai doesn't tell her that he's not going to be pretending. He and Mariah find a spot where they're able to see everything, and they settle in to watch what Gabriel and his friends are learning.
There are five kids in the class altogether, and it turns out that little Gabriel Torres really is the best of the bunch. Just as his sister claimed, he can skate on one leg, and he zips around the orange safety cones without falling down once. He can even skate backwards, although he does land on his bum several times while trying that. The only other child who comes close to him in skills is a little girl who has backward skating down to an art, but who can't seem to stop unless she crashes into something.
By the time the class ends, Nikolai can barely believe half an hour has already gone by. He’s getting more comfortable with l being here and he thinks he might even dare to say he's having a good time.
He says goodbye to Mariah and Gabriel, and tells Mariah he might see her later that day. She gives him a high-five before skipping off with her little brother in tow.
After the group class, Stan and Ginger show up for Ginger's ice time. Ginger greets Nikolai with just as much enthusiasm as Mariah had, but unlike her younger counterpart, she's careful of his leg and waits until he's sitting down again before she tackle-hugs him. She fusses over him for several minutes until Stan yells at her to quit her nonsense and get moving. Laughing, she pulls off her skate guards and hands them to Nikolai before making her way to the gate and stepping onto the ice.
Beth-Anne comes to sit with him, and they watch together as Ginger rehearses her programs for Worlds. Beth-Anne suggests things for Nikolai to pay attention to, and he does his best to follow everything Ginger is doing. He's watched hundreds of videos of himself and other skaters over the years that he's had to study, but he could pause those whenever he wanted and rewind as many times as necessary. Analyzing someone's routine in real time is a lot more challenging than he expected. He can't say he dislikes it, though. It's fascinating, and just as Beth-Anne predicted, it does change his perspective.
After Ginger's practice, they all have time for a break. Stan and Beth-Anne go off somewhere together, presumably to discuss something coaching-related, while Nikolai and Ginger make their way out to the vending machines in the foyer. Ginger digs around in her bag for some change, and then gets a bottle of orange Gatorade and a bag of pretzels, which they share. Beth-Anne would be horrified to see them drinking from the same bottle, but neither Nikolai nor Ginger is particularly worried. This isn't the first time they've shared a drink, and it most likely won't be the last.
They chat for a while about inconsequential things and make plans to go bowling once Nikolai no longer needs his crutches. She should know better than to challenge him to a bowling match, he says. She's terrible at it and he invariably wins.
"Hope springs eternal and all that," she says airily. She doesn't care if she doesn't win. She just wants to be with him, to laugh and eat pizza and listen to the bowling alley's old-timey soundtrack.
He tells her he'd like that. He's happy whenever he gets to be with her, and a best friend date with greasy bowling alley pizza and old time rock 'n roll sounds fantastic to him.
When the pretzels and Gatorade are gone, Ginger checks the time on her fitness tracker and says she has to run. She has a massage therapy appointment and then a session at the dance studio afterwards. She kisses him on the cheek before she leaves, and says she hopes he enjoys the rest of his day.
Now that he's feeling more at ease, he fully intends to enjoy the rest of his day. It's all going so well — much better than he feared it might, in fact — and he has to admit he’s surprised by that.
He gathers his crutches and makes his way back to the practice rink. Beth-Anne isn't back yet, and nobody else is there.
Nikolai reclaims the seat he'd occupied for most of the morning and waits. It's nearly eleven o'clock, which Beth-Anne had said was Brett's scheduled ice time and also when Nikolai's first tentative assistant coaching assignment would begin. He's looking forward to studying Brett's performance. The junior skater is obviously very good, and Nikolai wants to see exactly what it is that earned him a qualification for the World Junior Figure Skating Championship.
He doesn't have to wait long for Brett to appear. The wooden bench has barely warmed beneath him when Brett Eriksson enters through the door from the men's locker room. The fourteen year old is small, but Nikolai can tell from the way he moves that there's nothing fragile or weak about him. He's clad in grey athletic pants and a form-hugging blue top, with a blue toque pulled down over his mass of white-blond curls. His expression is grim, incongruous with his cherubic features.
Brett skates around the perimeter of the ice surface in long, slow, fluid strides. He doesn't seem to realize Nikolai is there at first, but when he finally does notice, he slides to an abrupt halt, sending a small shower of snow over his skates and the surrounding ice.
There's no other way to describe it; Brett glares at him.
"You," he says. "What the fuck are you doing here?"
"Watch your language," Nikolai says. It's the first thing that springs into his mind, and he doesn't have the willpower to filter it.
Brett glides up to the boards and then just stands there for several seconds, still glaring at Nikolai. He folds his slender arms over his narrow chest and demands. "Where's Beth-Anne? Or am I skating alone again today?"
"She's here," Nikolai says.
"With you."
"What does that have to do with anything? Beth-Anne's here. You're going to get your ice time with her."
"Am I?" says Brett. "I missed three days because of you. Because Beth-Anne thinks you're more important than the rest of us, apparently. Your career's fucking done, and she still pays more attention to you than she does to me."
That's not—" Nikolai begins, but trails off because it's pointless to deny that Beth-Anne has been devoting her time exclusively to him for the past several days. Brett can't possibly know everything that's transpired, but Nikolai can still see his point of view. No doubt he'd feel ignored and he'd be angry too, if his and Brett's roles were reversed. Still, nothing that's happened is Nikolai's fault, and he thinks it's unfair for Brett to blame him.
He shakes his head and admonishes himself, Brett's just a kid. Don't get yourself into a stupid argument with a kid.
Taking a deep breath, he tries again. "Brett, I'm sorry you lost a few training days, but that's not something I had any control over."
"Like hell it isn't!" Brett retorts. "You've got Beth-Anne wrapped around your finger so tight, she'd come running if you had a fucking paper cut. And don't try to say that's not true, 'cause we all know it is. So, you whine about some dumb little thing and she up and leaves us to fend for ourselves. You think that's something you can't control?"
"It wasn't a paper cut. I was in the hospital."
"So what? You've got a mom and dad and a wife. They're the ones who're supposed to be taking care of you, not your coach. Our coach. She knows I have a big competition in a few weeks, and yet she's still putting you ahead of me, and that's literally fucking wrong."
"Maybe, but it's still not my fault," Nikolai says. He tries to keep his tone steady, but he's starting to feel panicky again and he's scared his self-control will slip. "If you have a problem with how Beth-Anne is managing your training, she's the one you should be talking to about it, not me."
"Oh, yeah? Talk to her about it and hear what, exactly?" He pitches his voice in a high, mocking tone. "Nikolai needs me. Blah... blah..."
That... that is not fair! You—"
"No!" Brett cuts him off. "You know what's not fair? You barging into my practice session is not fair. You think Beth-Anne is going to waste even half a brain cell on me with you sitting right there?”
“She’ll give you all her attention. This is your practice time.”
“Yeah, my practice time,” Brett echoes fiercely. “You don't belong here, Nikolai. Not in my practice session and not anywhere in this whole damn arena! You're not a skater any more, and we all know it, so why don't you quit taking up space around here and just leave already?"
For what feels like an eternity, Nikolai is unable to move or speak. He has no response in any case, even if he could find his voice. The edges of his vision darken and his heart hammers so hard and fast inside his chest that he can barely breathe.
Not now, he pleads, but hot tears fill his eyes despite his silent begging to whatever powers control such things.
On the ice, Brett is laughing. He shouts something unmistakably mocking and derogatory, but Nikolai’s brain can’t process the individual words.
Nikolai jumps up from the bench. Forgetting that he's supposed to be on crutches, he tries to run and then gasps in pain when his bad leg takes his full body weight. He can’t see clearly through his tears, but he can make out the shape of his crutches and he knows where the exit is. He scoops up his crutches from where they're leaning against the bench, gets them positioned, and then hobbles toward the door as fast as he’s able.
He doesn't see Beth-Anne coming and nearly collides with her on the way out. She squeaks in surprise, and says, "Nikolai! What's going on?"
He doesn't answer her. He just keeps limping along the corridor, head down, concentrating on every agonizing step.
"Where are you going?" Beth-Anne calls after him.
"Home," he says. It comes out quiet and strained, and he doesn't know if she hears him or not. "I... I need to go home."
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Episode 48 Notes-
THE BEETLES MY BELOVED <3333333333333333333
This makes me so happy
I’m in science listening to this
The shade witch my beloved
TeenFact: Taylor has once constructed for himself a bow and arrow. So he used a red wood tree instead (which was illegal) and then it snapped immediately. He’s an ecoterrorist (JUST LIKE THE REAL ONE). He found the oldest tree in the world
The kattttttt
“You can’t just throw things and just expect the cat to find it!!”
TeenFact: Lincoln added laxatives to the other kids that joined the homeschooling group with Marco.
TeenFact: Normal has no recollection of his small arms training he apparently learned at daddies hq. BUT he’s always had a very very good trigger discipline
Basically he should just come live near me I genuinely don’t think I know a single person who hasn’t shot a gun
THEY CHEERED FKR SCARYYYYY INSTEAD OF GASPED AHHHH
TeenFact: Hermie’s funeral was the first funeral she’s ever been to, unless you count some AI robots funeral thing
If Beth writes a scifi novela I will absolutely read it and I hate almost every scifi
Anthony Fact: if you live in Canada he was in a charity show called the takeback
Fuckable Henry Oak Garcia
I fucking love how many things are now ranger things now he’s a rouge
Mae Hailes mention!!!!!!
Ewwwwwwwwwwww this is such a good description holy shit
I fucking hate time shenanigans
SPARROW’S DOING CODE PURPLE HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT ITS SPARROW
The whale 😭
LEGO LINC :D !!!!!!!
Nat one noooooooooo Beth!!!!!!!!
He can’t play soccer without knees :ccccc
Nat twenty yayyyyyyyy Beth!!!!!!
SCARY HOLY SHIT THAT WOILD BE SO GOOD FOR YOUUUU
A notnat one noooooooo Will!!!!!!
:cccc poor Normal the ring 😭
The bracelet reminds me of the bracelets on the dragon (I can’t think of his name 😭)
He’s mid. I love that
Stepping on Legos really does suck 😭
PUMP UP THE JAM
Sparrow is such a liarrrrrr omg
NO JEZZ BALL 😭
IVE BEEN PLAYING JEZZ BALL SO MUCH LATELY
I fucking love jezz ball
TAYLORS FUCKING EX IM DYING HOLY SHIT
The body pillow 💀
Sparrow omg
TEL THAT TO WALTER
I SCREAMED I GENUKNELY SCREAMED AHAHJAJAJSJAJAJSJSKSJDNSKJAHAJSNS
HES THE REASON ALL OF THIS HAPPENED
(If we don’t go meta and blame Matt)
WALTER THEY FUCKING DOOMED WALTER BECAUSE OF A GRUDGE THAT WAS ABOUT PROTECTINV HIM
“I love you son but I will never forgive you for this”
“I know you did the best that you could but you needed to be much better”
Sobbing
Dang the guilt given to normal from this mannnnnn
Poor dood omg
LINC IS STILL A LEGO GUY I LOVE THIS
The disassociation from Linc is so sad
I love him so much
Scary in this episode is immaculate. Beth May my beloved
NORMAL NOOOOOO DONT LEAVE HIS FRIENDSSSS
“that’s all my family ever does”
Sobbing
“WE’RE ALL JUST KIDS!”
Scary this is amazing
Scary you better fucking listen to your own advice
This reminds me of a rp I did a while ago with Scary and Taylor hmmmm
“Two world for me. And he doesn’t even like me”
Normal is so fucking Adaine coded it’s insane
The firefighters!!! I forgot about them
“And that’s why I don’t even like myself that much”
Normallll
“That sounds like a him problem”
“I didn’t grow up into someone he can be proud of”
Some banger lines today
“Norm we’re proud of you”
“You’re the glue norm” !!!!!!!!!
“Your dad still hasn’t grown up into someone you should be proud of”
Damnnnn Linc that’s good
“At least you feel things”
LINC ARE UOU GOING DOWN GRANTS OATH NO NO NO
Scary is so Fig Faeth coded I adore herrrrrrrrrrrr
I love how protective they are of Norm ahhhhh
The love wolf is bad at talking about feeling :c
HOLY SHOT
HOLY SHIT
HOLY SHIT
THE MUSIC
CHANGED
AHHHH
IM SO SCATED
WILLY
WILLY
THE COLAR
ON DOOD
SHIT
OMG
OMG
This music is banger though
Wow Willy’s dc is low
GET HIS ASS LINC
69 nice
Cause why not
I fucking love Taylor and Freddie
Where was sparrow this whole time!!????? Shitttttttt
“Normal thanks, this was all you”
FUCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK
Vibing to the music
HELLO ESTER THIS IS NEW
Huhhhh that does make sense about the elevators
That was certainly an episode
Surprisingly didn’t make me sad 🤷
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SPOILERS FOR RICK AND MORTY SEASON 6 EPISODE 2, "RICK: A MORT WELL LIVED"
---
it's interesting (and also kinda fucked up) that rick essentially lobotomized morty in this episode, but also didn't really have a choice. he obviously left marta behind, but also keep in mind that literally every other aspect of morty's personality was convinced to go with rick by marta.
however she convinced them, either by threatening that they are ultimately insignificant if they don't go with rick, or by playing up how great rick is/how good morty's relationship with him is, or however the fuck she did it, she is ultimately implementing the same idea into every aspect of morty's personality: rick can be trusted, and whatever he says is correct.
this means that EVERY aspect of morty now fully trusts rick and basically idolize him since he had an almost godlike presence in their roy lives (rick says it's not a religion, but they obviously all see it that way). any capacity for critical thought against rick has now been completely terminated.
what's worse, rick basically had no choice in doing this since convincing them to come with him was really the only viable way for the roy mortys to rejoin morty's personality. hence the whole "we don't have 5 billion chloroform rags" bit. all aspects of morty were essentially brainwashed into submission and devotion, and any that weren't (i.e. marta) stayed behind. it's like how every rick on the citadel either abandoned their beth or had their beth die, because any rick who had a living family he cared about wouldn't have discovered interdimensional travel. hence why there are seemingly no dianes on the citadel.
it's also worth noting that this isn't really a "reset" of morty's development. even s1 morty didn't completely trust and often disliked or even went against rick (not killing morty jr, insisting on continuing the adventure, asking for the love potion and demanding he fix the results, demanding he be treated better after learning about the brainwave thing, etc.) but new morty seems incapable of any of that. he isn't really shy or nervous like s1 morty either, he seems like a rick-obeying robot.
idk where exactly the story goes from here, but i don't think the writers are just going to drop any of this. marta is certainly coming back at some point, and and total lobotomy/conversion therapy combos (done on a SYNAPTICAL LEVEL!) aren't easily undone. i'd be willing to bet that this pisses off the family as well. maybe rick prime uses marta to try and turn morty against rick c137? who knows.
as for the independence arc reset thing, i get the feeling that they had to reverse some of morty's development, but i do think it's necessary. mory's arc felt way too rushed, what the hell could they have done with his character for the next 5 seasons? plus, his development kind of erased his most iconic traits (nervousness, moral compass, stuff like that) and didn't replace them with anything.
who is season 1/2 morty? easy, he's a nervous, awkward boy who gets bossed around by rick. under all the acne and stuttering, however, he has a strict moral compass and is willing to go against rick if he feels it's right.
who is season 4/5 morty? uh, he's kind of awkward. sometimes. sometimes he just acts normal though. he goes along with what rick says, unless... well sometimes he just doesn't, and there's not really a clear reason why. he's totally fine with killing innocents, though. he's just kind of... nothing? his character is really inconsistent. the only identifiable arc he has is the corruption of his ethics, which might be interesting if the show could bother to explore it beyond 2 second throwaway gags.
who is season 6 morty? who knows! morty is a blank slate, and the writers now have complete freedom to (hopefully) redo his arc in a more satisfying way.
idk, i don't think new lobotomy morty is a bad thing. it's better to just admit you were wrong than let one of your main characters remain completely static for half the show.
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Back to How Rest In Peace Ended
@wdway
With all our talk last week about the possibilities of Maggie, or Daryl and Maggie going back to the farm just brought back that naggingness (totally a word) I had about how RIP ended. I have harped on the one year jump a million times, so I went back and rewatched that part, yet again.
I was also inspired with how we had talked about the short DD's spinoff preview of him coming out of the ocean and then the longer preview of him getting off a boat, how these previews are not necessarily in sequence.
We don't know what episode we'll see these scenes, especially the long preview. We played around with several scenarios of Daryl leaving at the end of RIP. Daryl getting kidnapped and ending up in Paris or if he left, went somewhere else, then came back to the Commonwealth. This was all on my mind as I watched.
My newest speculation is that what we see is not in the right sequence. I'm going to lay it out in a new order. As always we won't know until we know. I will pick up right after the scene of Rosita's death.
Carol: it's a beautiful day to head out. Daryl: yeah. I wish you were coming with me. Carol: I know. But this is gonna be good for you, for me. Daryl: I'm proud of you. No, I am. You took Hornsby's job and you made it your own. Made everything better. For you, for the kids. You'll keep making it better. Carol: You will, too. Daryl: it's not like we're never going to see each other again. Carol: I'm allowed to be a little sad. You are my best friend. Daryl: Come here. (Hugs Carol)
I hope you can make heads or tails as far as the sequence goes. After Rosita's death I think it would actually pick up with Maggie sending for Daryl, Carol, Lydia and Elijah. Maggie speaks to Daryl about finding out what's out there. She's giving him a mission.
I think she gives Lydia and Elijah the mission of letter carriers between the known communities. Something that they have not had before. They’re at the original Hilltop, we know by the water tower. I think she might have told of her own plans of starting another Hilltop, this time going further north. I think Carol has made the decision to stay in the Commonwealth for several reasons, one of them being Ezekiel, also because knowing that that's the only way Daryl would go on his mission.
She also understands that he would never leave the kids unless it was with someone that he totally trusted. She'll watch over the kids. Apparently, no one remembers Carol's history with watching kids, only kidding. Kind of.
You're probably wondering why I put it in this order. The Maggie mission part probably makes sense. The reason I grouped the Maggie scene, Daryl and Carol by the pond, the goodbyes with the kids all tied together because of what Carol is wearing. She has on a long black or very dark coat.
They don't give us very many shots of the others while Maggie is making her pitch to Daryl but when they do walk up you can see that Lydia and Elijah are wearing different clothes, tptb are very sneaky with the subtle changes in the clothes.
Judith's jacket is kind of a brownish red color, and the difference is that the jacket she has on in the Hilltop scene and where she is saying goodbye to Daryl has no hood, whereas her jacket at Commonwealth and at Alexandria has a hood.
Plus, Lydia and Elijah have their mail bags going into Alexandria where Lydia gives FG the package. No bags at Hilltop. The clothes change that really caught my attention was the very well-tailored, very light-colored jacket that Carol has on at Alexandria and then has the long black coat at Hilltop. It was a noticeable contrast between the two.
My speculation is that Daryl heads westward because that's the direction Georgie was headed, and Daryl had talked about New Mexico in s10. He could go southwest through the Carolinas and Georgia. All kinds of routes we could speculate about. At some place (Grady) he finds something that makes him believe that Beth did not die at Grady, she did not turn. That there were experiments.
And somehow he gets a message or something to Carol and she joins him. This part is so up in the air, I have no idea how to work that out, but my theory is that Carol joins him and it's them that has been away for a year. When we see Daryl at Alexandria there's no sign of Carol, there's no mention of Carol in Ezekiel's speech. I think they came back together but we don't see them together as part of tptb misleading us in the belief that only Daryl had been gone.
The first time we see Carol is at Alexandria. She and Daryl looking at the names on the wall.
I remember thinking that Coco, Rosita's little girl looked more than just a year older than when we last saw her. She looks closer to a 2 to 3 year old to me. The year count started not after Rosie died, but probably months later.
I guess why I think this might be important is how it relates to the back and forth storyline of Daryl, Carol parting, coming together, parting again type of storyline from s10 Diverged.
Something else I wanted to share with you guys that occurred to me earlier today, another way Maggie could have gotten the photographs other than going back to the farm. She could have gotten them from her grandmother's beach house. I much prefer the thought of the farmhouse but in reality I had to tell you about the other option.
Also the package that Negan sent to Judith that Lydia and Elijah deliver to her at Alexandria. I wonder if he was already in New Babylon. Since we know that Ginny had come originally from Oceanside I'm thinking that he must have met her there, that's where Annie was probably send originally after the Commonwealth was brought down.
@galadrieljones
I just rewatched this and yo wtf is going on with the outfits
It’s like one minute Carol is wearing that weird gray space suit and then we seen Maggie and apparently there was another time jump?
The first time is when Daryl comes back and Connie greets him. Then they greet Maggie whose like “Time to see what’s out there,” and then Daryl and Carol say goodbye. I don’t think I realized this at first. Also sorry for the incredulity like I feel like I’m seeing this for the first time lol.
Really interesting theory that Carol has not been there, that she was with Daryl.
This is very weird I agree. All of it is perfectly missable but if you look closely all of these things are true. Weirdly, it makes me think about that one episode with all the time jumps and time stamps. The one with Toby and Aaron and Maggie, etc., and the weird scenes and distances that seem impossible. I always wondered if that was teaching us to watch closely for stuff like this but who knows. That episode still doesn’t sit right with me, and also, this series of scenes is also extremely odd.
I like the idea of him going back west, stopping in Georgia, and calling for Carol. Then they return and he has to go east by himself.
Or maybe it’s not east, maybe north, who knows? Also, what is the reason for Carol being unable or unwilling to go with him? Does she want to stay behind for Ezekiel? Does she need to figure something else out on her own without Daryl? She says, “This is gonna be good for you, for me.” Maybe she means, I need to work on my relationship and you need to go get yours. Daryl also says “It’s not like we’re never gonna see each other again.” So maybe they have a plan? Just adding to your speculation.
@wdway
This is all speculation, so spec away, haha. Like I said above, I believe there's several reasons that Carol initially stays behind. First of all Melissa at this point had backed out of France and they didn't know if she would be joining Norman for the second season of DD spin-off, so they left it open. That way they never have to come back and rework it, but if they needed to come back and worked the groundwork is there, story wise. I believe she was staying for Ezekiel but it's also about Carol breaking her pattern of running away and putting down roots. And lastly she's staying for the kids, because Daryl would not leave the kids with just anyone. By the time Carol joins Daryl I think it will be with Ezekiel's blessing and Daryl will be okay with knowing Ezekiel will care for the kids with his life.
I think that the year is from the time Daryl leaves and then returns to the CW. We don't see Daryl's reunion with the kids but we do see his reunion with connie. And we get the impression that people knew where he had been. Which means he wasn't kidnapped and taken to France, at least not yet.
@twdmusicboxmystery
Really love all this, Gals! Great catch on the outfits for the final episode. I’m sure you’re right about the chronological order of things. It’s super interesting that they were showing it to us in the wrong order. Great observations about everything!
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11/22/2022 - Food
TW - (eating disorder, self-harm)
Today was a better day. I think...
I wasn't able to eat my breakfast. I may have had 5 spoonfulls of cereal, and I had not even two of Greek yogurt. I had a banana for lunch, and half of a bun and roast beef for dinner. I could barely get down my pre-workout
And I am still not hungry.
I just have no appetite.
I am still depressed as shit, maybe this could be the reason for it. I just stare at the food, and it is almost like a switch goes up and my stomach tells my brain, "I'm full now". It's actually rather frustrating for me, as going to the gym requires me to have a high caloric intake. I should be eating about 3200 calories a day with how I exercise. I bet you today I barely hit 1000. I just don't understand what is wrong with me.
I think I caught some people looking at the welts on my wrist. They are healing, but they are in that itching phase when they become scabbed over. They are still noticeable however, and my gym friend Beth came up and looked as though she was going to say something to me about it. I hadn't thought she noticed the other day, but she must have, because a lot like my other two friends, she was glancing repetitively at my wrist. It honestly, doesn't make me mad, unless I don't know you. I know my friends wouldn't judge me, but I feel like the old creepy white guys at the gym would. Infact, one made eye contact with me today, and I could also tell that he looked quite bashfully in the direction of my hand. They must think I am some kind of psycho, that I belong in a mental ward and Ratched would be my nurse.
I think one of my tinder matches likes me a lot, and it is kind of annoying. He pesters me every five seconds on snapchat, and I regret giving it to him. I thought he was honestly closer and better looking than the snaps he sent me. It's quite frustrating, as I have swiped left on nearly every guy in this half of the state. I feel like I can't just find the one and I am stuck on Jacob. I really like him, but I don't have the guts to tell him how I really feel about him. Plus, I don't even know if he is gay, and I really like having him as a friend at least.
I have only been on two other dates with guys from tinder, both were very cute. One was a frat boy who was on the rather short side, which I didn't mind. We shall call him Chris. Chris had a typical white boy haircut. He had blond hair and blue eyes, and a decent smile. He really didn't have a personality outside of being a frat boy. He stood me up when we were supposed to meet first, and then after we met for real, he said that I looked nothing like my pictures in tinder. Now you may say I am a hypocrite, but I had sent him pictures over snap where he called me cute. Then he recanted his previous statement and said we didn't vibe. He also said he wasn't out really. This was frustrating as I thought he was cute, however there wasn't much of anything happening between the ears, so I guess this was ok.
The second guy, call him Drake, I met off of tinder lived an hour and a half from me. He was super tall, 6'5, brown hair, curly in the front, and blue eyes, and beautiful smile. He had a darker white complexion, which made him look like a bronze statue in the sunlight. He was very muscular. Did I mention that he was unbelievably attractive and out of my league yet? Anyways, we met for the first time, and before he left, we made out in my car. That was one of the best experiences I had ever had in my life. This caused me to be a little clingy, and I probably annoyed him. Despite this, I really tried to play it cool, and I told him that I would love to see him again. I have just never really dated before, and I told him that. I really wasn't sure how to act around a boy I like. We ended up going out a second time, but he wouldn't let me kiss him after the date had ended. I figured he wasn't into me after that. The next day he said he 'wasn't feeling a vibe'. This broke my heart, as I was absolutely head over heels for this man. I feel stupid for letting my emotions get to me, but he really made it seem like he was looking for someone.
Now I am also talking to someone off of tinder, but they aren't as annoying as the other guy. He is quite nice; I will call him Will. Will is a super friendly guy, but I think he wants something more. I warned him about my litany of mental anguishes; despite this we are possibly meeting up tomorrow. Will though, really isn't my type and I only swiped right because I recognized him as the cousin of one of my friends from high school. We got to talking, but I didn't want to disappoint him, and added him on snapchat. He is really nice, and to be honest, I view him more as a friend instead of as a potential partner. I am really looking for my future husband here, and not just some casual hookups. I just find that to be few and far between.
I really like talking to guys from overseas too on tinder. They are usually super-duper hot. It is actually hilarious, because it must be the lack of fluoride over in Europe to make them more attractive. I would love to date a guy with an accent. My ranking of European/European decent guys is as follows:
Dutch guys - not only they super tall, but they have a beautiful accent, and know how to treat a guy
Swedish (also Norwegian and Finnish) guys - need I say more? Almost as tall as Dutch guys, but they all tend to be a little pastier. But they have beautiful blond locks.
French guys - obviously the language is super hot. And a lot of them have cute names.
Irish guys - Probably the best accent on the list, but relatively short. I have a thing for ginger guys.
English/Australian/New Zealanders/Canadians - Probably some of the cutest accents, especially if you get one talking in RP, ugh the best. But they can be a mixed bag looks wise.
Italians/Portuguese/Spanish guys - beautiful skin tone, sexy accents, but fail to find an attractive one on tinder as to date.
Slavic guys - best language to swear in, but I haven't found one yet that is conventionally attractive to me.
German guys - they are basically Dutch guys without the frills, kind of lack luster in terms of looks.
Baltic guys - they are kind of a mix of the Slavic and German guy archetype to me.
Greek guys - not very friendly interactions with many Greek guys.
Turkish guys - same as for the greeks, but even less nice.
Now this is all a generalization based on my interactions, so don't get your panties in a bunch. Obviously, there are outliers in each case. I have run in to Dutch boys that were not Hitler's wet dream, and I have run in to Turkish guys who are super nice too!
I digress.
For the rest of the night, I may draw a little more. I may use Alice Oseman's sketches as a template to get a little better at her style. I really like her style, and I want to be able to draw the characters from heartstopper liker her. I really hope her mental health improves. We all love the comics and want her to be in a good place before she writes them. I am really excited to see where Charlie and Nick's relationship goes. As someone who has body issues, and especially when it comes to sex, it is very relatable. I really wish I had seen these comics when I was in high school. I feel like I would have been in a different place now.
Signing off
~ Finn
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Ok...do people really think there is a genuine possibility that something is going to happen between Nick and Beth??? Like is this something people are for real worried about??
I mean besides the fact that there has been nothing hinting towards that and we’ve gotten five seconds of Nick screen time and we had one interview that said something about a “love triangle” ... BETH IS STILL MARRIED! like actually, genuinely married. I realize she’s cheated on Dean and had a relationship of sorts with Rio but do people really think the writers would have her start ANOTHER relationship with another man and not only any man but someone RELATED to Rio!??? I know these writers have done some crazy ass things but I would be SHOCKED if this happened.
Maybe I’m the crazy one to think there’s no way? This is a real possibility.
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i actually have no strong feelings on the topic i just thought it'd make more sense if sierra was gone first but also "please vote me off" "if it's sierra we can just–" "paris?!" "fine." this would have almost zero relevance since the fic would probably start at niagara falls anyway but. cody in jamaica, sierra in area 51, noah in sweden?
now that i think about it owen getting eliminated is marginally less likely if heather gets paired with him. so heather/duncan, gwen/owen, and then the votes play out: owen - alejandro, tyler, heather, lindsay (since lindsay refuses to vote off tyler right now and heather wants to keep the love triangle around that's their only real option), heather - owen, not sure who the other three would vote for but it doesnt totally matter.
thinking about keeping duncan around longer for the gag of him mockingly calling lindsay "princess" because she still has the tiara from niagara falls (can you tell i only do things for the bit yet). but now that i write this out i think him doing it in front of courtney is better. so maybe gwen in china, duncan in africa, and courtney on easter island? "fine, you want to leave? leave!" *sticks him in a cage with feral zeke*
that is indeed why i went with tyler eliminated. i think heather and lindsay doing the tiebreaker and after she wins she feels like she has the upper hand for once. it stops when alejandro gets closer to the volcano but she. somehow pulls out the win at the last second.
but if the lyric is tyler who would be the one wedged in the hole? unless it's lindsay and her argument is "if you leave me wedged in a hole tyler is not going to like you anymore"
alejandro's helpers ... i mean if tyler is still knocked out i don't think he has a lot of options at this point but also having katie and sadie is lame. lindsay's helpers? one of them has gotta be beth because i have an entire scene of her thinking about what if beth won the aftermath challenge instead.
unless i make it so that tyler doesn't get knocked out, gets picked as alejandro's helper despite his many, many doubts, and turns against him last-minute? that's. certainly an idea.
Lindsay being in the hole makes the most sense thematically, and Alejandro would eventually concede to letting her out of the whole for a reason similar to why he lets Heather out in canon; it wouldn't be a satisfactory end to their rivalry. Leaving Lindsay in the hole would be synonymous with Alejandro admitting that he sees her as Too Big A Threat to face head-on, and he's far too prideful to turn down a challenge like that. (Lindsay would communicate this in a less Wordy way, of course, but the point still gets across.) The only difference here is that there isn't a romantic undertone to the song, instead Lindsay's hatred only grows.
Having Lindsay beat Heather in the tiebreaker is also pretty symbolic of her cutting ties with Heather entirely; she doesn't need her anymore, and she's not tethered to Heather's influence anymore either- she's free from the shackles of her Island-self. Like beating a Miniboss before the Final Boss.
And of course Beth's one of her helpers, they're best friends. I'd love to go the full mile and say she has a marginally rehabilitated Ezekiel as her second helper (their trio dynamic in TDDDDI lives on in my heart, like most of the dynamics in that special do) but honestly she'd probably end up with Heather, who volunteers NOT to help Lindsay but to have a part in taking Alejandro down.
Alejandro, on the other hand, doesn't really have anyone on his side. Katie and Sadie would be the most realistic option for volunteers, but even they probably aren't as enamoured with Alejandro as canon thanks to his whole 'stealing Lindsay's boyfriend' thing- they've got standards. In the end, I think Chris would incentivise being a helper for Alejandro either by offering the helpers a cut of the million should he win (which Alejandro protests, to deaf ears)or some other means. Justin would volunteer at that point- he respects the hustle of using your looks and charm to dominate the competition, and he loves money. He also hasn't been directly wronged by Alejandro, so that helps. As for the second? I'm leaning either Owen or DJ; Owen because Alejandro never outright wronged him directly, and he still thinks of the two as friends (despite Alejandro hating him), or DJ because Alejandro didn't wrong him either in this AU and he'd feel guilty for leaving Alejandro stranded at the finish line, even if Alejandro would deserve it.
As for Tyler. That's up to you, really. Depending on where his feelings lie at this point in the story, he could volunteer himself for either person regardless of his injuries (and promptly be told to Sit Down because he's supposed to be healing, not participating) or be caught up in his own indecisiveness and neglect to volunteer himself. 🤷♀️
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At The Club
The Falcon and The Winter Soldier
Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Female!Reader
Request from anon
Prompts: “The only way you're getting off is on my thigh.” & “I'm not going to touch you unless you beg.”
Summary: Bucky has you ride yourself on his thigh at the club.
Word Count: 945
Warnings: NSFW, 18+, minors DNI, public, thigh riding, sir!kink, praise!kink, mention of being high and drunk, cursing, language, mention of bodily fluids.
Authors Note: Sorry if there are mistakes! Enjoy loves <3
Main Masterlist || Bucky Barnes Masterlist
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Credit @ pedropcl for the wonderful gif
The thumping of the bass in the crowded club had your ears ringing. The alcohol in your system made you that much more touchy with your boyfriend as your hands roamed the entirety of him as the two of you sat at the dark VIP table.
The short dress you were wearing gave Bucky the access he needed for his hand to be placed inside your thigh. His thumb teasing the skin close to your core.
The couple of friends you had arrived with were occupying the dancefloor as they danced the night away, not paying attention to you and Bucky getting handsy with one another.
Out of nowhere, his strength lifted you onto him to straddle his jean-clad thigh. The feel of the rough material against the flimsy thong covering your core had you groan out on his ear, much to his amusement as the darkness of the club masked his smirk.
His lips were touching the shell of your ear. The breath of him fanning the side of your face had goosebumps and tingles travel down your spine.
“Since you seem so needy, kitten, why don’t you ride my thigh? Get the relief you so desperately crave, baby girl.”
You may have been a bit drunk, but your sanity was still present. “He-here? Won’t people see?” Eyes were dilated at his sinful proposal as you looked around.
“Don’t worry, doll. People are either too drunk or too high even to pay attention.”
He was right. People were too lost in their own word to pay attention, and besides, the constant pressure on your clit given by his thigh only increased your need to feel more.
Your hand sought out his to bring it down south into your panties, so he could touch you like only he knew how to, but that wasn’t part of his plan. His arms went behind him to rest on the back of the round sofa you two were sat at.
“No, no. The only way you’re getting off is on my thigh.”
Fuck. This man would be the death of you one of these days; you swear by it.
Wanting to feel some form of pleasure, you began with a steady pace over his jeans. The friction created by each drag of yourself on him felt amazing on your throbbing clit. It was even more enhanced with the liquor running through your veins and the atmosphere of the club: the colorful flashing lights now and again, the music, the powerful bass, and the darkness.
Fuck, this was so hot and exhilarating. To ride his thigh like the needed whore you were for everyone to see if they wanted.
You were quick to nuzzle your face into the crook of his neck. Moans and mewls were sounded against it as you were floating on cloud nine.
He wanted to watch as you fell apart before him. So he brought your face into his eyesight again before his arms returned to their place where they rested just a second ago.
“I want to watch you, kitten. Don’t hide from me. Holy fuck, you’re so beautiful like this, baby.”
The bite of his bottom lip indicated that he was enjoying his private show to the fullest. His needy little girl getting herself off on him in public. He looked so hot as he sat and watched you grind on him, like the dominant and powerful man he was.
“Please, Bucky. Please just touch me.” You begged as your hands played with the hair at the back of his neck. You just needed to feel his hands on you. If it was your breasts, your hips, grabbing your ass, or around your throat, it didn’t matter. All you just needed was his hands on you in some type of way.
“No. I’m not going to touch you unless you beg for me, sweet girl.”
He would let you touch him. Have your hands all over him if that’s what you desired. But him touching you? Not a chance. You would have to be good and do it all on your own until he felt like you deserved his touch. Until then, he would just watch and enjoy this little intimate show you were putting on for him.
The rapid pace of you riding his thigh had your orgasm just around the corner. But you needed his touch to let go. So you had no other choice than to beg for him.
“Please, Bucky. Please just touch me. Anything. Anywhere. I just need to feel your hands on me. Please, Sir.”
That what he needed to hear, his hands took a possessive grip on your thigh, increasing the pace of you on him, as the word Sir left your lips. A groan emitted from him at the name he had learned to love escaping from you.
“Cum for me. Now on my thigh, and then I’ll take you home to fuck your brains out.”
That was the only thing you needed, his words and his touch, to let yourself go on his jeans. You spasm on top of him as you came on his thigh in the crowded club. Your clit was throbbing, and it felt so sensitive but still good as you kept on riding him to extend the high. Moans and whimpers were heard only by him as the music was much too loud around.
You collapsed on top of him after having used up all your energy. His hand was caressing your back. A sign of praise that you did so well. “Good job, baby. C'mon. Let’s get you home, kitten. I’ll take care of you now as I promised.”
Credit @ firefly-graphics for the wonderful divider
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You Are My Light (Rio x Reader)
Hey, so I'm super excited for this cause I haven't written for Rio in so long. Enjoy!
Rio was a tough cookie, a man of crime which only meant he was surrounded but those types of people. When he had met Beth back in the day he was intrigued because her life was so different from his, so... Colorless and grim, a life of routines and packed sandwiches. For a while it was fun to shake up her life, until she became like all the others in his cycle, greedy for power and sneaky, now she was "his girl" which meant she was his fall person, gave her the keys and put her name so if anything goes wrong she can be the one to take the blow.
"Alright little man today is mother's day, you gotta pick the best flowers for mama"
Rio said to his son as they stood in the flower shop, Marcus was going all around the shop, dragging the man that worked there with him so he can point out which flowers he wanted.
"Your son has a great eye for arranging a bouquet"
"He's a momma's boy that's why"
At that the phone rang. The man went to pick it up and it seemed to be important, he covered the phone and yelled a name, then she came out. A girl with hair falling on her face and wearing an apron
"Yes"
"Can you fix the bouquet for the gentleman? I need to take this"
"Umm o-ok"
Rio was interested as soon as he saw her, her soft spoken voice was barely above a whisper as she approached the counter top and clearly tried to avoid eye contact. Her hands were not that steady but she seemed to know what she was doing, rio thought that she was acting like this because she wasn't comfortable doing it in front of a crowd. As she was finishing up she finally looked up to him but only for a quick second as she bit the inside of her cheek to look back down.
"It's ummm 30$ s-sir"
Rio smiled at her shy demeanor it felt like a century had passed from the last time he had met somebody so timid, it was mesmerizing to him. He gave her the money and then passed the bouquet to Marcus who seemed super excited for this purchase and the creation he had made
"Excuse me miss, may I ask your name?"
"(Y-y/n)... Sir"
"Call me Rio, I'll see you around sweetheart"
-
After that Rio came to the flower shop every day to buy a single white Rose and every day (y/n) found one waiting on her cars windshield with a note that always said "you looked beautiful today. To say she was flattered was an understatement, one side of hers was thrilled that such a handsome man was showing interest in her, the other was surprised that a man as confident and as determined as he was had decided to take the time and pursue her in such romantic way. After two weeks of roses he had waited to give her the rose in person along with the proposal of a date.
That's when he found out she wasn't comfortable with anyone in general, it wasn't about his presence that made her shy, she was like that with everyone. After a while he felt the need to be the one to take care of her, protect her in any way, even if that was making an order for her at the restaurant while she scooted closer to him and held the him of his shirt to feel secure.
"I'm going to the bathroom"
"Ok mama"
Rio said as (y/n) left him at the bar, it was Rios birthday so they had gone to a bar to celebrate. She finally had a reason to wear the midi white satin dress Rio had bought her, she had to admit it looked beautiful and she slowly came to the realization that Rio had connected her with the color white. As she reached out her arm to open the bathroom door a man grabbed her arm to stop her
"Hello gorgeous"
She felt like somebody threw cold water at her, she froze on her spot while the man smiled at her in a way she could tell was not just friendly. (Y/n) immediately looked down as she took a step back to get some distance from the man.
"Did I scare you? I'm sorry I just wanted to know who you are"
"I-i"
"She is taken"
Her head shot at the direction her boyfriends voice came. She didn't even realize that she was walking to him and then proceeded to stand behind him, hiding away from the man that had scared her. She grabbed his shirt and leaned in to him as she tried to stop her legs from shaking.
"I didn't know she was mute"
"She is not, she just talks to people that respect her personal space"
Rio thankfully had seen the scene go down and in a blink of an eye and out of pure instinct he had shot out of his chair and basically ran to (y/n). The man wasn't already laying at the ground for disrespecting her because he knew how upset (y/n) would get. She hated any type of fighting and even after dating for so long (y/n) didn't really know what Rio's occupation was, he didn't want her to be scared of him.
"I don't want no trouble man"
"Yet you tried to put your hands on a woman, see where I'm from that means you are asking for trouble"
Rio stood proudly in front of his woman as he could feel (y/n)s shaky breath on his neck. The man looked uncomfortable and a little bit scared, just how she felt before Rio stepped in. All Rio could think about was how this scene might have played if he wasn't there and that angered him even more. He might be a man of the night and balls deep into illegal things but he respected two rules "you don't touch women and you don't touch children" unless you trynna see God.
"(Y/n) go back to our spot please"
"I-"
"(Y/n)!.... I'm sorry, go and wait for me ok baby?"
He didn't mean to yell at her, he just wanted to shield her from seeing his ugly side. So he turned around and placed and gentle kiss on the top of her head before (y/n) walked away, as soon as her back was turned and she had made a few steps he pulled the guy into the man's bathroom and slammed his back against the wall.
"What's your name?"
"Jason Adams"
"Now you listen here, by an hour I will know every detail about you. If I find out you ain't keeping your hands to yourself again... You won't even hear the knock on the door. Got it?"
"Ok"
At that Rio let him go, the guy let out a huff and turned to the sink to splash some water on his face. As Rio turned to leave, (y/n) came to his mind, how scared she was and the sound of her breath as she hid behind him.
"On another thought"
Rio said and grabbed the guys head, with one swift powerful movement his forehead got smashed to the sink, the sound was deafening and after that the guy was unconscious, Rio knew he wasn't dead so he just fixed his collared shirt and walked out of the bathroom.
(Y/n) was sitting down looking at something on her phone, Rio knew she would pull out her phone went she was alone as a defense machenism to hide from the world. As he approached he gave her a big hug that she very much needed. She felt her muscles relax as she took in his cologne, she closed her eyes to fully let go of her worries and feel safe once again as her man was here. She looked up and smiled at him, feeling the warm sensation of serenity taking over her.
"Thank you"
"Don't ever thank me for protecting you, I am here for that"
She smiled even brighter as Rio leaned in to give her a gentle, intimate kiss on her painted lips. She was his source of purity in this love, this warm light that showed him what it feels like to surrender to love, to fully know that the person next you could never harm you or anyone else.
"You are my light"
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you’re still a traitor (Hotch x Fem!Reader) — one shot
This is all angst because my brain wanted to write something based off “traitor” by Olivia Rodrigo 🤭🤭🤭
Warnings: angst, mentions of sex, mentions of excessive drinking as a coping mechanism, no happy ending (and no there won’t be a part 2 soz)
Hotch Masterlist || Main Masterlist
brown guilty eyes and little white lies
i played dumb but i always knew
Your relationship with Hotch wasn’t even a real relationship. Not in hindsight, at least. At the heart of it, though, as it was happening, it felt real. It felt more real than anything you had ever experienced.
Nothing was glorified, over-exaggerated, or unnecessary. You’ve always been a straight-to-the-point person, and so has he, so it struck neither of you by surprise when you began spending nights together on cases.
The tension between the two of you had always been high from the day you started at the BAU. He blames it on the skirt you wore to the interview. You blame it on the way he looked you up and down every chance he got.
No wonder he didn’t look surprised to find you on the other side of his hotel room door.
That first night you had said something stupid, something about the girls being lame and going to bed early. But the truth was that they were raiding the minibar, and as much as you wanted to join them, you wanted to see Hotch more.
You knew he didn’t sleep much. It wasn’t hard to conclude, not with his recent divorce, late hours, entire pots of coffee to himself, and dark circles under his eyes.
Not to mention, of course, the small throw pillow and blanket that magically appeared on the couch in his office one day.
You weren’t surprised when he opened the hotel room door, still fully dressed, minus his jacket. You were barely a fourth of a way through your explanation for turning up at his door when he pulled you inside, lips bruising yours and hands gripping your skirt.
To him, it was always the damn skirt.
That night was the first of many. No one knew. No one knows now. Hotch continued to book you a room of your own, and you continued to spend your nights in his bed.
You mastered the art of sneaking to his room after everyone was in, and sneaking back to yours before anyone woke up.
Occasionally, you’d stay back at the BAU until everyone had left, just to spend a moment more with Hotch.
loved you at your worst
but that didn’t matter
No one knows this, but you’re the reason his dark circles left. The reason he didn’t stay as late anymore. Because you always coaxed him away, wanting dinner, or even just company as you walked to your car (where you’d then ask for dinner, or rightfully point out that he’s already at the parking garage, so he might as well go home).
Dinner one night turned into almost every night, except when he had Jack. Sleeping in his bed once became almost every night, except when Jack wanted to spend the night.
A label was never spoken about, but you never felt the need to speak about it. As far as you were concerned, you were the only one he was sleeping with and vice versa. Why did a label matter?
That’s what you told yourself, at least. Labels didn’t matter to you. Exclusivity is all that mattered, and you had that. You thought.
You had suspected Hotch started seeing someone else. But all you had was a gut feeling, and a feeling isn’t enough evidence.
i kept quiet
so i could keep you
Soon it wasn’t just a feeling. Soon Hotch didn’t want to go to dinner anymore because he was leaving earlier than you — earlier than anyone else. Soon he started actually leaving for lunch on his lunch hour, and that’s when the rumors started swarming.
“Okay,” Garcia ushered everyone over in the bullpen. “Is. Hotch. Dating?”
Rossi chuckled. “I. Don’t. Know.”
Morgan shook his head. “Nah, that sounds like he knows something.”
“Not really,” you shrugged. “Why do we think he’s dating someone?”
“Are you kidding me?” Garcia gasped. “He just left the building on his lunch hour! I’ve never seen him leave for lunch the entire time I’ve been here.”
“Me either,” JJ agreed, to your horror.
“Maybe it’s just something with Jack,” you shrugged again, not even aware of your defensive tone.
Prentiss narrowed her eyes. “Do you know something?”
“What?” You blurted, eyes wide. “No? Am I supposed to?”
“Answering a question with a question,” Reid pointed out lowly.
“Thank you, Captain Obvious,” you said. You grimace, thinking about it now, but you didn’t have any energy then to know it was rude. Or to care.
You were paranoid. Horrified. You were in Hotch’s bed two nights ago, and now he was leaving on his lunch hour, and you had no idea what for. All signs pointed right where the rest of the team was thinking, but the thought made you sick.
So sick that the next night, when you found yourself once again in Hotch’s bed, you brought it up.
You tried to be nonchalant. You don’t know where it went wrong.
ain’t it funny?
remember i brought her up
and you told me i was paranoid
“How was lunch yesterday?”
His eyebrows furrowed. Something you used to gaze at in awe, but in that moment it made you panic. “Lunch?”
“Yeah,” you murmured. “You left for lunch and the whole team thought something was up.”
He merely hummed. Hummed. That was his reply.
“Emily thought I knew where you went,” you continued, tracing circles on your arm. Normally, you’d trace circles on his chest, but that felt wrong all of the sudden. “I told them I didn’t and they didn’t believe me.”
He chuckled quietly. “I went to lunch. That’s all.”
“With who?” You asked, far too quickly. Maybe that was your mistake. You were too accusatory too fast.
“Did it have to be with someone?” He retaliated, and looking back now, you see this moment here, this was the downfall.
“I mean,” you paused. “You normally stay in your office if you’re eating alone. I figured if you left then you were going to meet someone.”
“Oh.”
You hesitated. “Did you?”
“Yes,” he finally said, ripping the Band-Aid off once and for all. “Her name is Beth. But we’re just friends.”
You nodded. “You sure?”
He turned on his side then, facing you with his head propped on his arm. “Why are you asking?”
“Because I’m curious.”
“You’re never curious.”
“You never leave the office to meet someone for lunch.” Especially not a woman, unless for whatever reason, Haley wants to have lunch and brings Jack, but the last time that happened was seven months ago, back when they were still trying to be friends after the divorce.
“I’m allowed to meet friends for lunch.”
“I didn’t say you weren’t,” you replied, probably too harshly. “I just meant...I don’t know what I meant.”
you gave me your word
but that didn’t matter
Weeks passed by and you watched Hotch leave every now and again to have lunch with Beth. He never explicitly told you that it was Beth he was meeting every single time, but you knew. You always knew.
Because the look he’d give you as he’d close his office door, phone in hand no doubt to send a text to her, letting her know he was on his way. The look he’d give you said it all.
You knew the end was coming. Truthfully, you knew the end of the two of you was coming from the first day he met her for lunch.
You had never seen him as happy as he looked when he came back. And with every lunch date, it got worse.
Yet, for some reason, he still invited you over. And for some reason, you still agreed without hesitation.
February came and your heart broke with it.
You knocked on Hotch’s office door, bag in hand, the question of dinner on your hopeful lips.
“Can we talk?” He asked, speaking before you had a second to breathe.
You nodded, stepped inside to your demise, not even bothering to sit down. You knew it wouldn’t take long, and it didn’t.
Two sentences. That’s all it took.
“I don’t think what we’re doing is something I want long-term — for me or for you. I think it’s best if we go our separate ways.”
For me or for you. He was always thinking of your well-being. It always annoyed you.
“Okay,” you had said, cracking a small smile to hide the pain. “Fun while it lasted, right?”
“Right,” he agreed. “Well, have a good night. See you tomorrow.”
You couldn’t hold the tears in and they flowed freely before you were even out of the bullpen. You were thankful everyone had left. Imagine the explanation you would’ve had to conjure up. The web of lies he would’ve forced you to spin in five seconds.
Instead, you had to spin an entirely new web. All to explain why you weren’t sleeping, why you were drinking more, why you looked like you had cried all night the next day (you said it was allergies and insomnia; Morgan was the only skeptical one, but he let it go).
it took you two weeks
to go off and date her
The real ending came when Valentine’s Day arrived. You were foolish to think he’d spend it with you, but you still did.
The jet landed back in Virginia after a long case, and you thought for sure Hotch would tap you on the way off of the jet, ask you to dinner, then back to his place, just like you did last year.
But he had made plans. With Beth.
You were delusional to think otherwise, but still, his smile cut right through you when he told Rossi he had plans.
guess you didn’t cheat
but you’re still a traitor
Derek, Emily, and Penelope wanted to go out for drinks and you were the first to agree, ready to forget the past year of your life.
Thankfully, you didn’t spill any secrets while drunk. You did confess to going through a breakup, but not with Hotch. No one will ever know it was Hotch. The “he” in question will forever remain a mystery to them.
Meanwhile, you watched Hotch fall deeper and deeper in love. He decided to run a triathlon, and he trained every morning -- with her. He left for lunch almost every day to go eat -- with her. He never stayed late, he always had plans -- with her.
He hardly ever spoke to you anymore. And you never spoke to him.
It became an unspoken agreement for you to leave finished paperwork on his desk without a word (if he was in there) or better yet, to drop it off while he’s at lunch.
You sleep in the hotel room furthest from his every case.
The seats next to him on the jet are off-limits and you’ve even gone to make a shitty cup of shitty coffee before to avoid him (and everyone knows you hate the coffee on the jet).
You somehow managed to never meet or hear about Beth until the triathlon — and you were apparently the only one who hadn’t met her yet.
Jack hugged her immediately that day. He had already warmed up to her and it made you want to claw your heart out.
Beth is nice. Beth is an angel. Beth is older, prettier, everything you knew Hotch wanted and wasn’t getting from you.
She shook your hand with a smile, none the wiser to the fact that you’ve slept with Hotch more times than you can remember. That your heart belongs to him even though you don’t want it to. Even though you want it back.
now you bring her around
just to shut me down
show her off like she’s a new trophy
Once you met Beth, it seemed like she was everywhere. Visiting the office, bringing Hotch lunch, bringing Jack in to visit, having coffee with Hotch in the cafe you used to frequent, at Rossi’s for family dinner nights. Everywhere.
Worst of all, at JJ and Will’s wedding.
You weren’t the only one to show up without a date, yet you felt like it. Especially when Hotch arrived with Beth on his arm, glowing like always, with Jack holding onto his hand.
You avoided Hotch all night — Beth too, but mostly him — yet he somehow managed to find you alone in the kitchen.
The wine was your saving grace of the night, and he happened to walk in as you were pouring another.
“I can hear your liver screaming from here.”
A poor attempt at a joke, really. Maybe it was funny. But you didn’t laugh. “I’ll survive” was your dry reply before downing half the glass.
His face looked softer, but you know now it was the wine in your system.
“You look good,” he had said. “How are you doing?”
You stared at him. “Fine. Thanks.”
You don’t know why he kept trying to have a conversation with you. You felt insufferable and you see now that you were, but it’s all his fault.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
You chuckled dryly. “Not with you.” You paused. “How’s Beth?” Paused again, this time to bring the wine glass to your lips. “How’s a real relationship working out for you?”
Hotch’s face fell. “What we had was real. You know that.”
“I know it was,” you replied. “But do you? Do you really?”
He didn’t answer. His silence was all you needed.
and i know if you were true
there’s no damn way that you
could fall in love with somebody that quickly
You left him standing there in the kitchen without another word. You had nothing left to say to him, and he clearly ran out of words for you.
Derek found you halfway to the dance floor.
“Woah, I don’t like that look,” he said, taking the wine from you. “What’s going through that pretty head of yours?”
“Nothing,” you lied. “Let’s dance instead. Come on.”
You drug him away, meeting Penelope and Emily for the next song. You danced, you cried, you blamed the tears on the alcohol in your system. You slow danced with Emily, Derek, Rossi, narrowly avoided Hotch by swinging into Spencer’s fumbling arms.
No one knew. No one would ever know.
you betrayed me
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Can u pls write a percabeth fic where Percy and Rachel are dating and percabeth are best friends and they end up spending the night together and it's been a week and they don't know how to tell Rachel and Rachel being bitter ?? Pls
This was kind of out of my comfort zone in terms of what I usually write lol but I tried my best!! I imagine this as like a mortal college AU :)
send me a prompt!
“Beth, you can’t walk home like this,” Percy said, exasperated.
“I’m fine! I’m hardly even drunk,” Annabeth said, trying (and failing) to quash the butterflies in her stomach when he called her Beth. Percy, having been her best friend for almost a decade, was the only person in the whole world who was allowed to call her that. He only pulled it out in rare situations, and every time he did Annabeth would swear her heart skipped five consecutive beats.
Not that he could ever know that, of course. Now felt like a more precarious situation than most-- she’d come over to his dorm so they could watch a movie together, and had ended up curled up together on his bed around his laptop. In fairness, his dorm was tiny and there was nowhere else to sit besides his bed, but if Annabeth imagined really hard she could pretend that it had all been completely intentional, and he was sitting this close to her because he wanted to.
“Hardly?” Percy asked, raising an eyebrow. And, fine. Annabeth had had… an amount to drink. A non-zero amount, some might say. More than Percy, and she had a way lower tolerance than him. She was buzzed, sure, but not buzzed enough to walk back across campus to her own dorm.
“I’m fine. It’s barely twenty minutes,” Annabeth protested. She started to stand up, but Percy gently tugged her back into the bed. She should have put up more resistance than she did, but, well. Who could blame her.
“It’s also three in the morning and you’re drunk,” Percy said, “Come on, just stay the night.”
“Stay where? Grover’s bed?” Annabeth asked, repressing giggles at the thought. It wasn’t really that funny a thought, but, well, she was tipsy.
Percy’s roommate was gone for the night to visit his girlfriend, leaving his bed empty. Grover was a cool guy, but he also had a weird tendency to leave soda cans just about everywhere, including in his bed.
Percy just rolled his eyes. “No, here.”
It took Annabeth a few seconds to realize exactly what he was saying.
“In your bed?” Annabeth asked, hesitantly.
“We’ve been sitting on it together all night,” Percy pointed out.
“Yeah, but…” Annabeth trailed off.
It was different. She knew it was different. And frankly, any other time she’d be absolutely delighted that Percy was offering that difference, but there was also the issue of Percy’s girlfriend. Percy’s girlfriend, who he’d met their freshman year and hit it off with despite the fact that Annabeth had been in love with him since she knew what love was. Percy’s girlfriend, who was in another dorm on campus not ten minutes away, not here but also not not here.
“But what?” Percy asked. There was the tiniest bit of a smirk on his face, and Annabeth shoved his shoulder, rolling her eyes.
“You know what,” she said. Maybe it came off a little more seriously than she’d meant, but he didn’t seem to care.
“It’s not like we’d be doing anything,” Percy said. Annabeth tried not to feel hurt at how foreign the concept of “doing anything” seemed to him in relation to him and her. But she didn’t have any right to feel any type of way about that, because she and Percy were just friends and Percy had a girlfriend who was not going to be happy about Annabeth spending the night in his bed, regardless of which activities did or did not take place there.
“Yeah, I know, but its just… I don’t know, don’t you think Rachel will be mad?”
“You’re staying here because you need a place to crash. She can’t be mad about that.”
“I’m pretty sure she could find something to be mad about,” Annabeth muttered, mostly to herself. Percy heard her though. They were sitting so close their shoulders were touching, so it would have been a miracle if he didn’t.
“Fine, I’ll sleep on the floor. She can’t be mad about that,” Percy said, actually making to get up like he was about to lie down right there and then. It was Annabeth’s turn to pull him back onto the mattress.
“Don’t be stupid, you’re not sleeping on the floor in your own dorm room,” Annabeth said, “Besides, she’d just say I kicked you off your bed.”
Maybe Annabeth should’ve kept that last bit to herself, but she’d never been very good at hiding her feelings about Rachel. Percy sighed, knowing she was right but not wanting to admit it.
“Well I’m not letting you sleep on the floor,” he said stubbornly, despite the fact that Annabeth hadn’t even suggested it. She had to bite back a laugh at the indignant look on his face.
“Percy, I was never going to sleep on your floor. I was going to go home,” she reminded him.
“Well I’m not letting you do that either,” he said, “So I guess you’re stuck in bed with me, unless you want me to spend the night on concrete.”
“You’re so goddamn annoying,” Annabeth grumbled.
“Does that mean you’re staying?” he asked. His expression brightened considerably at the prospect, and Annabeth had to physically force herself to calm her heart rate down.
“Well apparently I don’t have a choice,” Annabeth said, rolling her eyes, praying to every god in the universe that she wasn’t blushing.
“Right,” Percy said, putting on some exaggerated confidence, “Obviously. So am I taking the floor or the bed?”
Annabeth knew he would sleep on the floor in a heartbeat. If she told him that she was uncomfortable being in his bed with him, he would gladly spend the night on cold concrete in the middle of winter in a dorm that had, frankly, terrible heating.
But she wasn’t about to make him do that. And if she was honest with herself, being in bed with him was the opposite of uncomfortable.
“The bed,” she sighed. Percy grinned triumphantly.
“I knew you wouldn’t make me sleep on the floor,” he said, and Annabeth finally let herself laugh.
“Yeah, because I told you so twice.”
“I think it’s because I know you so well, actually,” he said, finally closing his laptop that had been playing the movie earlier, and setting it on his bedside table. They’d turned the lights off earlier, and without the soft glow of the computer screen the only lights in the room were the faint street lights outside.
The bed was just a regular old twin, with not much space for either of them. That was why they were touching so much, Annabeth reminded herself. Just that. No other reason. He just put his arm around her shoulders because it was more comfortable that way, that was all.
It was late, and Annabeth was drunk, so falling asleep was easy. But she’d be lying if she said Percy didn’t help with that too.
***
It’d been a week since Annabeth had spent the night at Percy’s dorm, and they hadn’t talked about it at all.
She’d woken up the next morning completely hungover, and also with her and Percy’s limbs completely tangled together. The bed they’d shared was small, but it wasn’t that small.
Percy, of course, had acted like it was nothing. He’d teased her about her bed head and she’d half-heartedly teased him back about his morning breath, and then she’d packed her stuff from the night before and made her walk of shame back to her dorm. Except it wasn’t even a proper walk of shame, because they hadn’t actually done anything.
He hadn’t brought it up since, like it had been no big deal at all. Annabeth wished she could be so lowkey about it, but it was the only thing she’d been thinking about that entire week.
They’d already planned to meet up at the end of the week again, only this time in a group setting. A group setting meant Rachel was going to be there, and Percy might think their little sleepover hadn’t been a big deal, but Rachel was definitely not going to share that opinion. Annabeth was honestly dreading facing her so much that she considered bailing at least ten times. In the end, she decided that she had to just suck it up— she was going to have to face Rachel at some point, it might as well have been now.
All that to say Annabeth was a little surprised when she showed up at the party, only to find Rachel acting completely normal towards her. She was irritated towards Annabeth, but that wasn’t unusual. Rachel was always irritated towards Annabeth, and Annabeth was always irritated towards Rachel. But Rachel wasn’t pissed at her like Annabeth expected her to be. She wasn’t even not pissed, she was downright cordial.
All it took was one look at Percy for Annabeth to confirm what she already knew. He hadn’t told her.
“I need to talk to you,” she said, grabbing Percy’s arm and pulling him down the hallway. Rachel was going to be pissed at her for that, but Annabeth didn’t care. Percy followed along without complaint, not even bothering to shoot Rachel an apologetic look.
The hallway was empty, or as empty as a hallway at a college party could be. The music was loud enough to cover up their conversation, anyway.
“Did you not tell her?” Annabeth asked, keeping her voice barely above a whisper. Percy immediately looked guilty.
“You don’t know that,” he said, as if everything about both of their demeanors hadn’t given it away instantly.
“Of course I do, she wasn’t absolutely furious with me,” Annabeth hissed. Percy looked, if possible, more guilty than before.
“Okay, fine, I didn’t,” he admitted, “But what’s the big deal? It’s not like we did anything.”
And there it was again, those two little words and the way he said them, as if anything happening between the two of them was an impossibility. It felt like a dagger straight to the heart, but Annabeth ignored it.
“I dunno,” Annabeth said, “I mean if I was your girlfriend, I think I would want to know.”
Percy had choked on his drink halfway through her statement, and was already coughing before she could finish it.
“Are you okay?” Annabeth asked, alarmed. Percy just shook his head.
“Fine,” Percy managed to choke out, “I’m fine.”
“Am I going to have to heimlich you again?”
“Hey, you promised you would never bring that up again,” Percy said, pointing an accusing finger at her as he coughed again, clearing his throat a few times for good measure, “Besides, I don’t think it works for soda.”
“Fair. But don’t change the subject.”
“You changed the subject first,” Percy accused, in a not subtle attempt to change the subject once again.
“Because I thought you were choking, dumbass. You have to tell her.”
“Why?” Percy practically whined.
“Because the fact that you don’t want to means you know she’s going to be mad about it,” Annabeth said.
Percy groaned, letting his head fall back against the wall.
“Why are you so smart?” he asked. It sounded like a complaint, even though she knew he didn’t mean it that way. It sure felt that way, though.
“‘Cause one of us has to be,” Annabeth sighed.
If Annabeth were smarter, she would’ve never agreed to spend the night to begin with. But it was way too late for that now.
They went back and joined the group, but Annabeth knew Rachel was staring (bordering on glaring) at her the entire rest of the night. She couldn’t even really blame her. She was going to be a hell of a lot more mad at Annabeth once she found out the reason Annabeth had pulled Percy away to begin with.
The very next day Annabeth was in her dorm room, trying to finish a project for her architecture class. It was due on Monday, but she’d been so distracted the entire week that she’d barely even made a dent in it at all. It wasn’t coming together the way she wanted to and Annabeth was three seconds away from snapping her pencil in half and throwing the whole draft away. Before she could, there was a sharp knock at the door.
Annabeth glanced down at her phone, but she didn’t see any texts. Maybe it was the RA doing an inspection, or maybe Piper had forgotten her key again.
But when Annabeth opened the door, she found Percy standing in the doorway. He spoke before Annabeth could even open her mouth.
“So, I told her,” Percy said, with absolutely no context. He knew she didn’t need it. Annabeth found herself gripping the door so tightly she thought her fingers might break.
“You did? What happened?” Annabeth asked, trying not to sound frantic. Why was he here? Why didn’t he just call her? What if Rachel had made him swear to never talk to her again and he was just here to say goodb--
“She asked me to tell her with 100% certainty that I didn’t have feelings for you,” Percy said, impossibly calm.
If Rachel had asked him that, why was he standing in Annabeth’s doorway?
“And?” Annabeth said, voice small. Her heart was practically pounding out of her chest, but Percy just shrugged.
“And, I couldn’t.”
“You couldn’t?” Annabeth repeated, just to make sure she had heard him correctly.
“Nope,” he said, easily, too easily, “To be honest, I couldn’t even give her like, 1% certainty, but that would’ve felt a little rude to say.”
“So…” Annabeth trailed off. She couldn’t quite believe what she was hearing. It didn’t make sense in her brain. Percy had feelings for her. And he’d broken up with Rachel, which meant— which meant—
“I think now is the part where you tell me if you like me back,” Percy said, interrupting her thoughts. He was smiling though, like he already knew the answer.
Annabeth did not currently have the mental wherewithal to form words. Thankfully her feet did the thinking for her, closing the already small distance between them and kissing him like she’d wanted to do for years.
“So I take it that’s a yes?” he said with a grin, when they finally broke apart. Annabeth was pleased to see he was a little breathless, at least.
“Shut up,” she laughed.
“Gladly,” he said, leaning down to kiss her again.
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