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#we have no idea if she was a boy or a girl
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get it off your chest , get it off my desk // theodore nott x fem ravenclaw reader
playlist: lavender haze - taylor swift , cruel summer - taylor swift
summary: theodore nott always tormented you , teased you. you never knew why and until now you didnt care , even harboring a small secret crush on him- but when his whole demeanor switches to that of affection and love notes. your confusion and anger becomes overwhelming.
y/n used , ravenclaw reader , fluff , comedy/cringey , bullying , theos annoying , swearing , not proofread
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"got your nose in a book again y/n, shakespeare poems? wow a romantic. its sad yknow, no wonder you dont have any friends." theodore nott smirked as he slapped the book in your hands out of them and onto the floor.
"fuck off nott she does have friends , im literally right here." your best friend - lisa turpin - sneered at the boy , throwing him the deadliest of glares.
"ah turpin didnt spot you there. not surprised i didnt spot you considering youre so irrelevant, youre practically see through." theodore looked at her coldly , his foot stomping on your book on the floor to stop you from retrieving it.
"nott , get your foot off my book!" you exclaimed , theo turning to you with a overdramatic shock.
"so she does speak! i thought you were mute or something little y/n" he laughed , all of his friends hollering behind him. it really wasnt that funny.
"we talk practically everyday because all you do is fucking harrass me!" you fumed.
"hey hey hey! dont swear sweetheart , its so unlady like!" he pretended to be offended , his smug smile betraying him.
"fuck off nott and just leave me alone, its been 5 years and im truly wonder when you will LEAVE ME ALONE!!" you emphasised the last few words , screaming at him before grabbing lisas hand and storming down the corridor.
theodore could only stare after your figure with a satisfied smile. it was obvious that theo had never been one to express his feelings well , so when he fully fell head over heals for you in first year - his immediate reaction was to bully you. ridiculous right? all of his friends think so but all of them are too afraid to tell him....well asides from pansy parkinson.
"theodore nott when will you grow a fucking pair and ask the girl out rather than tormenting her!" pansy finally snapped , for the first time in 5 years of theodores pathetic pining , she finally stood up to him and took one for the team.
upon hearing her words , theodores laughing ceased automatically , the group of slytherins behind him falling into a dead silence.
"w-....what?" theodore stuttered quietly , staring at pansy like a deer in headlights.
"you heard me nott , everyone is sick of your little big bad theodore act you put on around that poor girl! its not her fault that you cant comprehend your fucking feelings!"pansys loud shouts making the boy snap out of his daze , unforgiving anger cascading over his once shocked face.
"who the fuck do you think you are parkinson!" theodore shouted back , stepping towards the girl before blaise grabbed his arm harshly.
"yeah you're definitely not going any closer to her." blaise said sternly , squeezing harsh on theos arm , "everyone agrees with pansy mate. shes just a quiet ravenclaw- either leave her alone or man up."
"bullying her isnt doing anything nott but making the girl despise you." lorenzo said angrily before running after you and calling out your name.
this only added fuel to theodores bright flame. you and lorenzo were extremely close and he had no idea why. he hated it. and watching you stop and give lorenzo a soft smile as he wrapped his arm around you , almost made theo throw up.
"theres no point in being jealous mate. that could be you if you were just a bit nicer to her." mattheo said plainly , not very interested in theodores love life but sick of the tensions growing between lorenzo and theo because of said love life.
"youre one to talk you are horrible to all of your little toys!" theodore argued back , glaring at mattheo who only shrugged.
"yeah and im not madly in love with 'my little toys'." mattheo chuckled as theodore clenched his fist tightly.
"so what do you all suggest i do then?! ive tried leaving her alone before but it just meant she paid no attention to me-" theodore was cut off by a sarcastic draco.
"God forbid the girl youve bullied for years pays no attention to you when you finally stop bullying her."
"fuck off malfoy i dont bully her i just...tease her."
"if thats teasing then whats your definition of bullying." mattheo laughed to himself.
"can you all just piss off! help me!" theodore exclaimed in desperation , seeking the advice of his bored friends.
"start flirting with her. throw in a love note or two, girls love that mate." blaise said.
"or! how about something oh so simple - start being nice?!" pansy let out with confusion having heard the boys overcomplicate something so simple.
----
so thats exactly what theodore nott did.
the next door you stayed alert as you walked through the corridors to breakfast , preparing for water or frogs to rain down on you at any second.
so when they didnt come down and theodore nott didnt run past you cackling loudly , a small skip was put in your step and a soft smile plastered on your brightening face.
"someone bubbly today!" lorenzo said with a grin as he came up ro walk besides you , an arm wrapping around your shoulder and pulling you in close.
"sure am! im dry! like actually dry!" you grinned happily as lorenzo admired the once in a life time joy that your face held.
"what do you mean - you sound crazy?" lorenzo laughed as you only shrugged with the same smile.
"nott has usually soaked me in water or some kind of spell by now , but im actually fine! the spawn of satan is nowhere to be seen!" you left lorenzos arm to skip through the door of the great hall , the fluffy haired boy laughing behind you.
"hi everyoneee~!" you sang out softly as you sat down on the wooden bench across from lisa , luna and cho , sitting besides padma.
they all stared at you oddly , confusion laying on the furrow of their brows , "are you okay?..." chos thick accent rang out in your ears.
"im absolutely perfect, have you guys noticed anything?" you asked joyfully.
"well it certainly feels like we should have-" luna started softly before you cut her off.
"im dry! and i dont have green hair , or purple eyes and im not crying!" you beamed brightly , hugging padmas side as she hesitantly patted your back , exchanging looks of shock with the other girls.
"thats great y/n - but im confused-" lisa said as you stopped her by grabbing her hand and squeezing it excitedly.
"theodore nott has left me alone!" you shouted with happiness , gaining some judging looks from those around you, not that you cared right.
all of the girls faces relaxed with realisation letting out soft 'ooh!'s and gasps , before grinning just like you.
"this is amazing news , no more nott!" lisa cheered happily as you all laughed.
"this calls for celebration." luna stated softly , reaching into her pocket and pulling out a chocolate bar , "its muggle chocolate harry gave me. no better occasion than now to have it."
you all smiled and thanked the blonde girl as she passed out some chocolate to each out you.
you let yourself release a small sigh of contentment before a small piece of parchment landed on your empty plate.
all of you fell into an eery silence as you stared at the piece of paper , every one of you recognising the cursive writing to be theodore notts.
you gulped harshly as padma gasped , all of you silently processing the dreaded appearance of the note.
slowly and reluctantly , you grabbed the note , unfolding it in your hands.
' Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date; Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm'd; But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st; Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:    So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,    So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. - T.N '
you released the note from your hard clutch as the words sunk in. EW!! EW EW EW. you had never gotten such a feeling of ickyness before. theodore nott has written down a shakespeare sonnet and addressed it to you?!
"i feel sick!" you let out loudly as your friends scrambled to grab the note and read it , padma rubbing your back in comfort having already read it over your shoulder.
"its not that bad y/n its...romantic.." padma said with hesitation.
"romantic?! padma , im going to throw up and ive not even had the luxury of eating my breakfast yet!!" you let out in horror.
cho , luna and lisa across from you put the paper down on the table , exchanging glances and holding back loud laughs.
"i mean...atleast its not a bucket of cold water?" cho tried to reason quietly.
----
ever since the note hit your plate , your day had been consumed by pure terror. your face pale and your eyes dazed as you soullessly walked the halls to your last lesson of the day , potions with the slytherins.
"y/n, it truly isnt so bad , ive never been sent a love note before.." padma tried to reason and leve your disgusted and angered state.
"thats great for you, i really wish i could say the same!" you shivered as you remembered the words on the parchment.
lisa and padma laughed lightly as you bit back your own laughed , standing in front of the potions door with hesitation, "got to face the devil guys, theodore nott."
"the devil that wrote down a sonnet and gave it to you!" lisa teased as your whole face twisted with disgust , shivers running through your body.
"lets get this over with." you sighed as the other two girls nodded sadly and opened the girls, both of them walking over to your usual group of tables.
you went to greet lorenzo, your usual potions partner , and pull out your chair before seeing mattheo riddle sitting in it.
"well hello summer!" he said with a teasing grin.
"my name isnt summer-" you asked with confusion before realising his reference to the sonnet, "shut up riddle and get out of my seat!"
him and lorenzo laughed before mattheo shook his head with a smug smile , "im afraid i cant do that summer , but would you look at that! theres a free seat besides theo!"
your eyes darted around the room , searching for a better alternative , but there wasnt one , the only seat was besides theo and snape could be heard storming down the hallways towards the room. snape would go off if you werent sat down upon is entry , so you simply ran to the seat besides theodore and sat down just in time.
"hi-" theo started happily before being cut off by snapes monotone voice.
"open your textbooks to page 509 , if you dont have your textbook, detention." snape stated simply as mattheo sighed , knowing he didnt have his textbook.
the whole lesson had gone on painfully slow , theodore seeming to get closer to you every minutes , his arm touching yours and his knee brushing yours under the table. you were desperate to leave this room.
so when 50 minutes later snape said how disappointed he is in your class' work and stormed out of the room , you jumped from your chair and began to pack your bag along with everyone else.
your actions were cut short , when a now standing theodore placed a note on your side of the table.
you stared at it in silence , the same cursive words spelling your name and folded parchment as this morning.
".....get this off my desk nott!" you seethed, catching the attention of lots of your remaining classmates.
"why? i wrote it for you so read it." he said , with a light blush , avoiding your eyes by packing his bag.
"either get it off your chest right here , right now - or leave me be! i dont want your stupid love notes!!" you shouted at him , the boys jaw clenching.
he swiftly turned around , so quickly and so close to you that you stumbled a few steps back , "i love you!"
the whole room fell into a deep silence , the tension thick and the harsh stares blinding.
"w.....what?!-" you asked in pure surprise , frozen and feet glued to the ground.
"i love you and i have done for ages , im just shit at showing it! blaise told me girls like love notes and i was stupid enough to believe him!" theodore let out quickly , his nervous state echoing through his rushed words.
"dont blame me-" blaise muttered before being smacked on the arm by a completely invested pansy.
"you...dont joke about stuff like that nott i knew you were horrible but this? this is fucking cruel!" you shouted at him , tears building in your eyes as you grabbed your bag and stormed out.
theodore watched in horror as you walked out , crying silently , he ran out after you abandoning his bag and leaving your fellow potions students in shock.
"that was better than the movies!" mattheo laughed loudly , breaking the silence in the room.
---
"y/n!" theo shouted after you as you stomped through the empty dungeons, desperately trying to escape to the comfort of your dorm.
"y/n!" theo shouted again, both of you beginning to fully sprint down the corridor.
"fuck off nott!" your voice broke as you shouted and ran.
though none of it was worth it as the boy grabbed your hand and pushed you to the wall in the most gentle way possible , using his hands besides your head and his body to cage you.
"let me go!" you screeched ,as the boy simply stared down at you.
"y/n whats wrong-"
"whats wrong?! WHATS WRONG?!" you screamed as he winced , "you bullied me for 5 years and now one sudden day , you love me?! and you think im going to be okay with that! who told you?!"
your last words caught the boy off guard , as he looked up from the floor and gaped at you , confused , "what do you mean who told me?-"
"that i used to have some stupid crush on you - thats why right?!" you seethed with anger as theos jaw dropped to the floor , staring at you.
"you have a crush on me-?"
"had! had a crush on you!" you said bitterly as he broke out into a grin.
"i- i dont know what to say , i had no idea." he said as your face paled.
you had just told theodore that you had a crush on him....definitely just had.
"i-...haha , i was just joking ha ha!" you forced out a fake laugh as he grinned at you , grabbing your face softly.
"im so sorry for everything i ever did to you i just...i just wanted your attention." he said quietly , looking down ashamed.
"i dont know if i can forgive you, youve made me miserable for years theodore." his eyes glassed over at your works , "but maybe i could give you a chance to change..."
he beamed with a smile reminiscent to the one you had this morning as he hugged you happily.
"i promise , ill only ever make you smile summer."
you cringed at his use of the nickname and pushed the happy boy off you , "dont get ahead of yourself , im simply giving you a second chance and - dont ever call me summer again."
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professor-beaker · 1 day
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(Warning: very long rant about growing up religious and aroace. Might delete this in an hour. Idk)
Dear mom and dad,
Do you remember when i was 14, and had my first kiss? You probably dont- for you, it was just another sunday. He was one of my only church friends, and he pulled me, alone, into one of the music rooms after sacrament meeting. You encouraged me to go with him, because you could read the signs i couldnt. He was very polite, but when we kissed and he grabbed my hand on the way out, it felt more wrong than anything id experienced before. I ran back to you, crying, and you walked me through rejecting him. You basically told me that i was just too young, that it would get better, but it certainly didnt feel that way at the time. Every time youve reminisced on it since, it was only to laugh at my expense. At my naievety.
I tried to take your words to heart. I tried to listen each time our church would preach about how essential families were and each time you told me how happy you two were. It didnt work.
Do you remember when i was 15, and i told you, mom, that adopting sounded way better than having biological kids? You got so offended, and i had no idea why. I still dont. You told me it was a natural part of life, that we were supposed to bring children into this world. I tried to explain my reasoning- why would i want my own children when there are those who are suffering on their own? When the thought of procreation made me sick?- but you dismissed it. It was just another day.
Do you remember the brief period when i was 15, when i dated a girl? I assume you dont, because you never found out. I lived in constant fear, because the comments you would make at the dinner table described lgbtq+ as an affront to God, as unnatural. I had thought that men were the problem, and she was my first real partner. But nothing changed, it still felt wrong, and we fell back into only being friends. I hadnt told you about that until today, because i knew exactly what youd say about it. I knew exactly what youd say about me.
Do you remember the boy i met when i was 16? The one with the curly hair and the kind smile. You were always pushing me toward him, because you saw how he looked at me (i saw, too- and i didnt like it). He took me to homecoming, and prom, and danced too close to me for my liking. You always asked if we were a thing yet- and when i said no, you smiled knowingly. I hated that smile. And you smiled that smile for years.
I reconnected with him when i was home over winter break. We hung out once, i told him my sexuality, and he barely reacted. When you asked how it went, i told you i rejected him romantically, but we were still friends. Do you remember what you said, mom? You said, "so you broke his heart and left." I cried that night.
Do you remember when you found my aroace pins a month ago? Im at college in a different state- a religious college you wanted me to go to- and you still made it your priority to berate me for it. I dont know if you could tell how angry i was over the phone, but when you said "asexual and things are just looking for attention", it broke my heart.
Because i figured it out when i was 17. Because it took me two years to finally accept it in a religion that very strongly emphasized the family unit. Because i finally felt accepted, i felt heard, i wasnt being dismissed at every corner. Because i had something to explain why i was like this.
Because i finally didnt feel broken.
I never doubted that you loved me- not once, ever, in my life. Not until you started degrading me for something i couldnt control. Not until you started pressuring me to date people i would much rather be friends with. If youre not going to love all of me, then do you even love me at all?
I hope you know that i still love you, despite everything. But i hate the way you talk to me now, the way you talk to others about me. And i hope that one day, you, too, will realize that im not broken, or affronting God, or unnatural. I hope you realize that im still your child.
I hope you realize im still human.
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2kmps · 19 hours
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ROACH KING
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trust-fund baby!gojō satoru x tabloid journalist!reader | 1,046 words
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summary; you're a tabloid journalist on the brink of finally reaching the spotlight after an unsuccessful career. gojō is a self-serving trust-fund baby with nothing better to do than to see you crash and burn. it doesn't go well.
warnings; mc punches gojō in the face, gojō is a super shitty trust-fund baby, mc is a plagiarist, unwanted kiss, implications of manipulation on both sides, brief mention of blood at the end, not proofread.
thank u @stellamancer for the request!! 💙
a/n: my header for gojo needed to be as annoying as possible. I hate him. reblog this if u think it's cool ig.
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“You're a goddamn roach, Gojō.”
The Usurper King sat at his throne in perfect leisure, reclined in an ergonomic chair swathed in supple violet leather, long legs propped at an angle so anyone walking through the door would see his gleaming black oxfords—one new purchase among many others, and a white smile with elegant, symmetrical teeth. He had witnessed you enter his new office with a grin; a self-assured, imperturbable one that was immediately meant to put you in your place once you saw it.
It was rare that anyone saw his eyes as they were oftentimes hidden by a pair of blackout sunglasses. Gossip was a common topic at a tabloid firm, even more so internally than what was fabricated and published for soft-brained readers to chew on and shake around like a dog with a toy that cried when it’d get mean enough.
Most speculation was that he came to work high on something since he never liked to mingle among the peons on the main floor, a testament to his role in life as a trust-fund baby living the lavish lifestyle with the kind of time to put shit up his nose and in his veins. However, you'd seen the blues and whites of his eyes on occasion—pristine, but always a little dry from Japan’s seasonal agitators, so you knew that it wasn't the case.
It was simply that it fed into the perceptions he wanted people to have of him. Mysterious. Handsome. Rich. Those instead of the qualities you truly knew him for being: A lowlife, a roach, a fucking thief who’d never have to worry about the consequences of anything in life because he had money and half of the Japanese government on his side. It wouldn't do for the idolized poster boy for the country to fall into something so obscene such as a scandal or jail.
“You stole my article,” you said, leaning back against the door once you had it shut and locked behind you. “How dare you. That article was going to be my big break. But, instead you steal it and publish it. Why did you get Ichiji fired? He was the best editor-in-chief we had ever had. Did you do it to make yourself feel big, Gojō? Is this some double-whammy for getting back at me because I wouldn't sleep with you?”
That wasn't the case because Gojō hadn't slept with anyone, despite all the rumors proposing otherwise. The only reason you knew that was after an entirely too intimate dinner where he'd drank too much wine and not enough of his meal. He had confided that truth to you in the same manner as you had when you revealed to him that the article you were going to publish—your singular spotlight moment—had been someone else's idea.
A nobody. A new girl fresh out of graduate school who was bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and brimmed with audacity to try to stand apart from the other tabloid journalists.
Miwa had wanted to change the trajectory of gossip; focus it on full-truths rather than the convoluted circuit of half-truths and exaggerations. She aimed for gossip to be pure and honest, extinguish those vapid fires of tried and true to experiment with something fresh.
She was intending to derail you before you'd even had your chance to reach the top. That was just something you couldn't have, so you pulled a few strings, finagled some things and ultimately ended up with her article in your lap instead, your name ready to be printed instead of hers.
Unfortunately, your repertoire of qualities lacked stealth and common sense, as Gojō had intercepted this early on and had decided that this would be easy entertainment to beat all the usual mundanity.
“Why are you getting mad at me?” Gojō slipped his feet off the desk and got out of his chair, posture slouched in a way equally cool and sloven. “You're the one who stole the article. I just gave it back to that girl you took it from. Don't you feel just a little ashamed?”
You lifted your chin as he got closer, tried stacking your spine as tall as it could go just short of standing on your toes to match up with him. “Don’t you feel bad that you kicked out an innocent, hard working man because you were bored and wanted to see how my life would explode?”
“This ain't about you, y’know?” Gojō was inches away now, black sunglasses tucked away in his chest pocket so he could see you uninhibited through those stellar blue eyes. You hated how he looked at you with fascination, a little thing he wanted to keep and bat around with his hands. “You're pretty self-centered, but I think you know that.”
You flattened to the door, feeling the slippery varnish against your fingertips as you tried to think of what to do with your hands while he studied you, leaning in closer.
Since this entire thing had begun, from the moment he injected himself into your life, you'd never known a moment of peace and be made sure you didn't. In a way, you thought this was God’s retribution for sacrificing every principle and ethics in favor of recognition in a career you'd never been particularly good at. What better way to smite than with a force veritably worse than you?
Gojō leaned into a stilted, passionless kiss, one completely different from others you had shared. But, those had come before you knew what he had planned to do to you, that his plan had been to steal away the glory that awaited all because he wanted to see how things unraveled.
You waited until he got his fill or was dissuaded, whichever came first, before winding up your arm and launching the peaks of your knuckles straight into the right side of his jaw. A slap wouldn't have sufficed, not with how pissed off you were, not for this asshole. So, you threw as much of your momentum and weight into that punch as you could, enough to catch him off-guard and send him crashing to the floor in a clamorous heap.
You licked your lips where he kissed you, where you saw blood trickle from the corner of his mouth when he looked up at you, for the first time ever, in pure shock.
“I'm gonna get fired anyway,” you said, flinging out of your hand and flexing each finger. “Might as well have made it count.”
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Hell Was The Journey But It Brought Me Heaven
Part Five of Time, Wondrous Time
Cooper Howard/The Ghoul x F!Reader
Main Masterlist | Cooper Howard Masterlist | AO3
Series summary: You’re California Crest Studios’ newest production assistant, getting the opportunity to work on the hit movie, The Man From Deadhorse. But when you meet the movie’s lead, Cooper Howard, you fall head-first into a secret affair. Enter a war, a cryogenic freezer, and a two-hundred-year time jump. And yet despite all that, you just might run into him again.
Author’s note: Stay tuned until the end for a special announcement! 👀
Chapter summary: A rude awakening that ends with the sweetest reunion.
Word count: 3.7k
Warnings: reader is able-bodied, made up fallout lore (I made up my own vault ok), angst, canon typical violence, restraints, blood, fingering, vaginal sex, irradiated creampie, pet names (sweetheart, good girl), praise kink, fluffy ending, use of RadAway, no use of y/n
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“Are you sure this is safe?”
“Of course. I wouldn’t put my best friend in an unsafe situation,” Reina says, unlocking the gate to the vault. 
“Right…”
“You just have to change into one of Vault-Tec’s jumpsuits beforehand.”
“Why?”
“It’s what everyone will wear in the vaults, frozen or not. We want to test how they hold up being frozen, how they react to the oils on our skin. That type of thing.”
“…I see.”
Something in your gut tells you this is a bad idea. You could turn back now and tell her that you changed your mind. But her hopefulness stops you from saying no, the desire to not want to disappoint your friend. She’s been working on this for months and she seems so proud of it, so sure that it’ll be vital to saving the world in the face of war. 
“So you’ll be compensated for your time after the trial is over,” she says as you descend lower into the vault. 
“Got it.” 
“And like I said before, you’ll be guaranteed a spot in the vaults should we ever need to use them… But I’d get you in one anyway, of course.”
“Thanks, Reina.”
She leads you into a bleak room, with copious racks of blue and yellow Vault-Tec jumpsuits. On the back of the suits, there’s a large zero in yellow writing. There’s a shelf of boots in the back of the room, along with a wall of lockers. 
“Find one that fits and then you can place all your stuff in one of the lockers. And make sure you grab a Pip Boy, okay? It goes on your left wrist.”
“What’s a Pip Boy again?”
You vaguely remember seeing an ad where they were mentioned but don’t remember any details. 
“They’re on the shelf next to the boots. We just want to test how they hold up when frozen.”
…She didn’t answer your question but okay. 
“Alright. Thanks,” you nod, starting to get undressed as she opens the door. 
You slip on the suit and find that it’s slightly uncomfortable. But at least you’ll be unconscious the entire time you have to wear it. You find a pair of boots in your size and slide a Pip Boy on your wrist. You still don’t really understand what it is. From what you can tell, it’s just a thick silver cuff with a black and green display on the screen. It asks you to register your information so you do so, figuring it’ll be important for the trial. 
But once you’ve changed, you meet her in the hallway, anxiously walking through the vault. She brings you to a room full of large silver cylinders, a large glass panel in the middle of each of them. She opens the door to the first one, helping you get situated inside. Your nerves are shot, adrenaline coursing through your body. It’ll be painless, that’s for sure. But who’s to say you won’t come from this experience a changed person?
It doesn’t matter. It’s for the greater good. 
Now or never. 
“See you on the other side,” she smiles, sealing you inside. 
You do breathing exercises until everything fades to black. 
-
You’re ripped from your chamber, the sleepiness still settled in your limbs. Before your eyes can adjust to the light you’re thrown onto the floor, scrambling upright. Why would Reina or another Vault-Tec employee for that matter wake you up like this? 
You blink a few times and look at who’s standing before you– two men and a woman, dirty, wearing ragged, worn clothing. The two men grab you by your upper arms and force you to stand up. 
“Do you work for Vault-Tec?” you ask, utterly confused. 
They share a laugh, exchanging menacing smiles with each other. 
“I don’t understand. I’m part of an experiment for Vault-Tec. I was just supposed to be frozen for a few days for a thousand dollars cash and a guaranteed spot in the vault.” 
“Oh, you got a spot in the vault alright. Bring her to the surface, boys,” the woman says. 
“Who are you people? Where’s Reina?”
“If you don’t stop yapping, we’ll gag you,” the woman says, rolling her eyes as you’re forced to head up to the surface. 
As you walk through the vault you notice the place is trashed. Blood is smeared on the floor, all over the walls. Dead bodies litter the place, all donning the same jumpsuit you’re wearing. The fear surges through your body, your legs threatening to give out underneath you. If it weren’t for the men holding you upright you would’ve collapsed by now, the fear and shock finally settling it. 
How long were you frozen? Where’s Reina? Who are these people and where are they taking you? Why is this place full of dead bodies?
The harsh sunlight on the surface stings your eyes. You glance around once your eyes get adjusted and find that the surface is… different to say the least. It’s a barren wasteland, void of any life, except for the group of people standing near the prisoners. A band of people, similar in appearance to the ones escorting you; rugged attire, faces affected by the harsh climate, and dirty. But as for the prisoners, they’re dressed like you; blue and yellow jumpsuits, boots, a Pip Boy on their wrists, a big zero on their backs. 
You’re forced to your knees, in front of the group of prisoners. Your wrists are bound together with rope. You look around you, hoping to recognize someone. But it isn’t until they bring up the last prisoner that you see a familiar face; Reina. 
She’s placed beside you, staring straight ahead of her and not daring to glance in your direction. The group of… raiders stand before you, arms folded, menacing smiles on their faces, and covered head to toe in weapons. They outnumber you. They’re a group of at least ten compared to your group of five. A woman who seems to be their leader starts speaking first. 
“I’m sure you’re all feeling lost right now… Let me summarize the past two hundred years for you.”
A pit forms in your stomach. The weight of reality threatens to come crashing down on you. You want to scream. You want to cry. You want to run. But for the sake of learning what’s been going on for the past… two hundred years, you listen to the strange woman. 
“Those of you who signed up to be a part of Vault-Tec’s little experiment… They failed you. They forgot about you long before the bombs dropped, before the war even started.” 
She paces back and forth, hands behind her back as she continues. 
“And now thanks to us, you've awoken from your eternal slumber. So, to repay us, you’ll be living as our servants.”
You feel like you’re gonna be sick, nausea washes over you as the wind whips your face. The weight of reality threatens to crush you, an overwhelming sense of hopelessness on the brink of swallowing you whole. Your ears start ringing and everything around you turns to white noise. You’re forced upright and placed into a single file line. The group of raiders surround you, guns drawn to prevent anyone from trying to break away. Reina’s in front of you. You have to ask her for more clarity. But maybe once your anxiety subsides. 
Your mind is swirling with questions. 
War. Bombs. Vaults. Your family. Your friends. 
Cooper. 
You can't process that it’s been two hundred years since that fateful night Reina locked you in the freezer. Your mind refuses to accept it. But as you walk through the wasteland, you slowly work up the courage to confront her. 
“Did you know?” you say suddenly. 
“Did I know what?”
“That they were just going to forget about me for two hundred plus years.”
“…Yes.”
“Quiet!” one of the male raiders shouts. 
But you don’t listen. 
“I should’ve known better. Cooper always talked about how shady Vault-Tec was,” you mutter to yourself. 
“Cooper?”
Fuck. 
“Do you mean Cooper Howard?”
“Uhh…”
“I said quiet!” the raider shouts again. 
“If I’m telling the truth right now then so are you.”
“He would just tell me about how his wife worked there and how the company seemed to have suspicious motives.”
“That’s not what I’m asking.”
“Then what are you asking?” you retort, scoffing at her audacity to even be demanding answers from you right now. You fucked a married man. She locked her best friend in a freezer for two hundred years and yet she’s the one acting like you committed a heinous crime.
“Under what circumstances did he tell you all this?”
“After we slept together,” you say smugly. 
You expect to get yelled at again but instead, another raider chimes in. 
“You slept with The Man From Deadhorse?”
“How long?” Reina asks. 
“Not that it’s anybody's business, but from when I started on the film up until the day of the premiere.” You wanted to rub it in her face. She had been single at the time, bemoaning the fact to you whenever you hung out.
“So you were sleeping with him until about two days before you entered the vault?”
“Yeah, but that’s beside the fucking point. You need to tell me everything you know now.”
“Vault Zero was originally an experiment to see how long the body could last in a cryogenic freezer.”
“You told me it would be a couple of days.”
“I lied.”
“But… why? We were friends. Why would you do this to me?” 
“They were pressuring me to find test subjects.”
“What made you ask me? Did I just mean nothing to you?”
She doesn’t answer, continuing forward but you press further. 
“What about you? How did you get thrown in there?”
“Against my will. They were short on test subjects and threw me in there a few days before the war started.”
“When did the war start?”
“…October.”
Ten months. Ten months before the war had even started, you were locked in that vault. 
Ten. Months.
Two hundred years and ten months.
You fight the urge to cry, instead opening your mouth to fire a retort back at her. But the raider walking beside you shoves you with the barrel of his gun. 
“Gossip time is over,” he grunts. 
But now that you think about it, you don’t have anything to say to her. 
-
You walk for what feels like hours upon hours. The rope on your wrists irritates your skin and you want nothing more than to rip it off you and run as fast as you can. But on second thought, you know you wouldn’t last an hour in the wild on your own. There’s so much you have to learn about the world again. It’s overwhelming, thinking about what’s changed over the past two centuries. You’re left wondering what became of your home, what became of your family and friends, what became of Cooper. 
But for that, you feel fucking stupid. Your affair ended months before the war started. Who knows what has transpired in life since then? He could’ve patched things up with Barb. He could’ve moved on and forgotten all about you. He could’ve found another young production assistant to spend his nights with. 
Maybe he thought about you in your absence. Maybe he asked Emil about where you went. Maybe he stayed up late at night, thinking about what could’ve been. 
Probably not. 
Suddenly you wish you were never pulled from the freezer. 
-
After what feels like forever, you arrive at the raider's base camp; a shanty town of tents and old cars. The place is littered with rubble, piles of old machinery, and oil drums. The raiders force you and the others on your knees again in a single-file row. The same woman as before paces back and forth before the group, hands behind her back like always, getting ready to tell you what’s expected of you as their new “slaves”. 
But then she stops, looking past the group and out into the distance. She draws her gun and points behind you in the distance. 
“Get outta here, you fucking shuffler.”
You try to look behind you but all you can see is the silhouette of a man, wearing a hat and a long ragged coat. 
“Not goin’ anywhere until I get what I’m after.” 
That voice. 
You hear the sound of a piece of paper unfolding, prompting the woman to say, “That’s not me.”
“Sure looks a whole lot like you.” You can tell by his voice that he’s smirking. 
Could it be? 
“You’re outta your mind if you think I’m going anywhere with you… At least not without a fight.”
She shoots at the mysterious man. The crackle of the gunshot rings through your ears, making you flinch. You try to crouch down lower to miss getting caught in the crossfire and shield one of your ears with your shoulder at least. But you expect him to be dead now, falling to the ground with blood pooling around him. 
But instead, he laughs. 
“Well… I was afraid you’d say that.”
Another gunshot. But not from the woman, from the man. 
She falls to the ground, gurgling blood in her throat and trying desperately to yell, “After him!”
The other raiders open fire, bullets flying all around you. Some of the new prisoners try to run, seizing the opportunity to make a mad dash. Some of them succeed, running far away into the wastelands. But some fail, getting hit by stray bullets and collapsing to the ground. You stay low, inching farther away and taking cover behind an oil drum. You listen as the gunfire rages on, people screaming and crying out in pain. 
You’re at war with yourself, part of you screaming, run far away from here. But the other part of you tells you to wait it out, let them all shoot each other to death, and loot their supplies after. You decide to listen to the latter voice instead. 
You peek out from behind the oil drum, watching as the man reloads his gun. You haven’t seen the front of him yet but you’re dying to see his face. That voice… God, it sounded so familiar. 
You return to center and close your eyes, hoping everything will stop soon. You’re not sure where Reina is, if she ran off, if she’s dead or alive. But to be honest, you don’t care. You’ve quickly learned one rule of the wasteland so far– do this shit alone. 
But eventually, the gunfire and the screams stop. You don’t open your eyes yet, listening intently for any signs of life. Footsteps creep near you and you freeze, hoping no one looks behind the oil drum. But it’s too late. 
“What do we have here?” 
That voice. 
You open your eyes and look at the strange man standing before you– rugged skin, no nose, no hair, tattered clothing, and hazel eyes. You’ve seen those eyes before. 
The man crouches down and reaches into his pocket for a switchblade. You flinch for a moment but realize he’s just cutting the rope around your wrists. Once your hands are free you soothe the irritated skin on your wrists, looking up at the man again. His gaze softens. And now that he’s closer to you, you can confirm that you’ve definitely seen those eyes before. 
“Cooper?”
“How’d you know it was me?”
“Cooper Howard, I’d recognize that voice anywhere,” you say, brushing your thumb over his textured cheek. “And those eyes.”
He closes his eyes and melts at your touch, placing a gloved hand over yours. 
“I didn’t think I’d ever see you again,” he whispers. 
“Me either… But I’m glad you found me.”
An overwhelming emotion washes over you and you can’t help but pull him into you, clutching onto him for dear life. You’re breaking down, letting the hot tears roll down your cheeks. 
“Cooper, I’m so scared.”
“I know, sweetheart. I know,” he says, rubbing your back. “Let’s get you out of here,” he whispers, warm breath tickling the shell of your ear. 
He helps you stand upright, snaking an arm around your waist as he leads you into the colony of tents. He brings you to one messily labeled “med” with spray paint. Inside there are a few stretchers and copious amounts of medical supplies lining the perimeter of the tent. He sets you down on a stretcher and kneels before you, inspecting you for any injuries. 
“Are you hurt?”
You shake your head no.
“I promise I’ll explain everything to you, okay?”
“What happened to you?”
“Exposed to radiation, sweetheart.”
“And it turned you into-”
“A ghoul.”
A ghoul… You’re not sure what that means. Everything’s so confusing and overwhelming. 
He gets up and grabs a canteen of water, handing it to you as he sits on the stretcher beside you. 
“Are you… alone out here?” You ask after you take a sip. 
“...I am.”
“Can I tell you something?”
“Of course.”
“I still want you.”
“Sweetheart… trust me, you don’t.”
“But I do.”
“You don’t want to wake up next to this mug every morning.”
“Cooper, I’m still attracted to you now like I was back then. I’ve always loved you for more than your appearance. Plus… it was hot watching you kill all those bad guys,” you say, turning towards him. 
“Oh yeah?”
“Mhm.” 
You lean forward and kiss him. It feels different but also the same simultaneously, caressing the face of your man, the new version of him. His hands roam your body, running along your outline in the jumpsuit. He pulls back and murmurs, “Let’s get you out of this fuckin’ suit.”
He moves off the stretcher and works to undress you, starting with your boots and working his way up. He unzips the top of your jumpsuit, helping you up so you can shimmy out of it, tossing the Pip Boy to the ground. And once your bra and underwear are off, you’re completely bare. 
You lie back down on the cot, legs spread apart as he gets situated in between your thighs. He tugs off his glove and spits into his hand, playing with your entrance. A shiver of anticipation runs down your spine. He inserts one finger inside you, curling it painstakingly slowly against your soft walls. His other hand gravitates to your breast, caressing the outline before traveling to your nipple. Your breath hitches as he takes it between his fingertips, working into a stiff peak before moving to the next one. 
“All these years later and you’re still just as desperate for me,” he teases.
“Shut up,” you shoot back with a shaky breath. “It’s only been like a couple of days for me.”
“You know I’m only teasin’, sweetheart. Love gettin’ you all worked up like this,” he says, adding a second finger. 
He makes a come here motion with his two fingers, curling them against your g-spot as you writhe against the stretcher. 
“Gonna cum, pretty girl?”
“Mhm,” you respond, voice high-pitched and dripping with arousal.
“Let me feel it,” he commands. 
With one last motion of his fingers, you cum around them, clenching and releasing them erratically. Your moans and the wet, squelching sounds of your cunt fill the tent, looking directly into his eyes as you cum. You roll your hips into his hand, riding out the remainder of your high. He pulls his hand from you when you’re done and brings it to his mouth, tasting your spend. 
“My good girl. So sweet,” he praises. 
He pulls his cock out of his pants and hovers above you, gathering more of your spend with his hand and spreading it on his cock. Another shiver of anticipation runs down your spine. God, you needed him. 
“Ready for me, sweetheart?” 
You nod and it’s then that he finally enters you, splitting you apart with his cock. Your moan gets caught in your throat as you get adjusted to his size, staring directly into his eyes again. He places his hands by either side of your head, thrusting in and out of you repeatedly. 
“Still feels just as good,” he says, jaw going slack as he watches your squirm underneath him. 
You’re past sentences, only responding in the form of whimpers. Your moans grow incessant as your pleasure builds, thanks to his cock sliding in and out of you. He slams his hips into you one final time and with that, you finally cum. Your cunt convulses as the muscles in your core contract and release, waves of pleasure surging through your body. Your moans are like music to his ears, a familiar sound he’ll never get sick of. He curses under his breath and before you know it he’s coming inside you. His cum paints your insides as his thrusts grow sloppy. You finish riding out your highs together, feeling like you’re on cloud nine. Eventually, his hips slow to a stop and he remains inside you, looking down at you with all of the love and admiration in the world. 
Maybe it’s the rush of hormones. Maybe it’s the past twenty-four hours making you emotional. Maybe it’s the weight of being reunited. But you’re reminded of how much you love him. And now that he’s finally yours you’re not afraid to say it.
“Cooper?”
“Hm?”
“I love you,” you blurt out, studying his face for his reaction. 
But he just smiles and says, “I love you, too.”
He leans down and kisses you, soft and gentle before trailing kisses down your jawline. 
You feel his cum leak out of you and remember he came inside you for once. 
“I can’t believe you actually came inside me.”
“Speaking of that,” he groans, sliding off the stretcher and rummaging through the medical supplies. He grabs a clear bag filled with a brownish liquid, labeled with the word RadAway and an IV.
“You’re gonna need this, though.”
“What’s this?”
“Gets rid of the radiation I just released inside ya.”
You sigh and lean back on the stretcher, letting him hook you up to the medicine.
“What about like… pregnancy?”
“Ghouls are sterile,” he chuckles. “You got a lot to learn about the world, sweetheart.”
“I know… But at least I get to do it with you.”
“Wouldn’t want it any other way.”
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End note: I would say that we reached the end for these two but that’s not entirely true! I’ve decided to write a series of one off stories about Cooper showing the Reader the ways of the wasteland! The new loose fit series will be called With You By My Side! I just want to thank @clawdee for being my rock throughout this series, for beta reading these chapters at an incredible rate for y’all, and always being there to bounce around ideas with me! And I want to thank all of you for reading, commenting, and reblogging. I feel so lucky I get to share this story with y’all! I hope you’ll catch up with these two in With You By My Side 🤍
If you like my work, consider supporting me on Ko-fi 🤍
Check out the series playlist! 🎶
Fic notifs: @beskarandblastersfics
Dividers: @saradika-graphics
Tag list: @widowmakerow @bisasterbisexual @wowitsem @vegetarianvamp @celestial-vomit @ghoulsimper @anyzandy @justfoxymuffins @hobnob2020 @fallout-girl219 @ipostwhtifeel @awhoresjourney @chiyo13 @valkyreally @ivyinthesun
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bethanydelleman · 2 days
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do you have any theories on why wickham turned out the way he did? his background sounds humble but not dirt poor as i know steward was a really valued job at the time. and as the elder mr. darcy liked him, he probably had a better life than plenty of boys. correct me if i'm wrong but i don't recall any mention of a mom or siblings, so darcy was probably his main childhood companion. it's just horrible to think that over the years he went from seeing darcy as a friend to someone he could ruin. and he was prepared to ruin georgiana's life, not just take all her money but cause a scandal so she might not ever get married again. and if darcy hadn't found lydia he'd probably just leave her where she was with no way of getting home and destroyed the bennets. like why? everyone was nothing but nice to him his whole life and all he does is hurt them and enjoy doing it. when you think about it kind of sounds evil.
From what I understand, Wickham was a failure of a system whereby a rich person would choose someone poorer to patronize. We can see other examples of this in Emma (Jane Fairfax & Harriet Smith) and especially Mansfield Park (Fanny & William Price).
The idea was that the rich would find someone worthy of improvement, sponsor their education, and give them the ability to raise into the gentry class. This sounds like what Mr. Darcy Sr. tried with Wickham, but in this case it was a failure. What ended up happening isn't that Wickham was grateful, but he ended up feeling entitled to the life of a Darcy. The novel's implication is that Wickham had a bad character, which education could not improve, and that Mr. Darcy Sr. was deceived in because Wickham had a veneer of decency.
From Darcy's Letter:
Mr. Wickham is the son of a very respectable man, who had for many years the management of all the Pemberley estates, and whose good conduct in the discharge of his trust naturally inclined my father to be of service to him; and on George Wickham, who was his godson, his kindness was therefore liberally bestowed. My father supported him at school, and afterwards at Cambridge; most important assistance, as his own father, always poor from the extravagance of his wife, would have been unable to give him a gentleman’s education. My father was not only fond of this young man’s society, whose manners were always engaging, he had also the highest opinion of him, and hoping the church would be his profession, intended to provide for him in it. As for myself, it is many, many years since I first began to think of him in a very different manner. The vicious propensities, the want of principle, which he was careful to guard from the knowledge of his best friend, could not escape the observation of a young man of nearly the same age with himself, and who had opportunities of seeing him in unguarded moments, which Mr. Darcy could not have.
Wickham's account:
“We were born in the same parish, within the same park; the greatest part of our youth was passed together: inmates of the same house, sharing the same amusements, objects of the same parental care."
In Mansfield Park, Sir Thomas talks about how difficult it will be to maintain the distinction between his daughters and Fanny, their adopted niece, and when I think about how Wickham turned out, I think this is meant to be taken seriously (even though Sir Thomas and Mrs. Norris screwed up massively):
“There will be some difficulty in our way, Mrs. Norris,” observed Sir Thomas, “as to the distinction proper to be made between the girls as they grow up: how to preserve in the minds of my daughters the consciousness of what they are, without making them think too lowly of their cousin; and how, without depressing her spirits too far, to make her remember that she is not a Miss Bertram. I should wish to see them very good friends, and would, on no account, authorise in my girls the smallest degree of arrogance towards their relation; but still they cannot be equals. Their rank, fortune, rights, and expectations will always be different. It is a point of great delicacy, and you must assist us in our endeavours to choose exactly the right line of conduct.”
Fanny feels grateful for what the Bertrams give her, even though it's scraps of a real education. Wickham ends up feeling entitled, even though he is "liberally bestowed" and that may have been the problem. He was treated too similarly to Darcy and felt that he was a Darcy, only to find out the patronage didn't go as far as he wanted.
Wickham comes off to me as one of those people who is ALWAYS innocent in his own mind, someone else is always the cause of his misfortunes (he's like Willoughby in that respect). So when he tells Elizabeth about how he lost his inheritance, I think he believes what he is saying. He does think Darcy cheated him somehow even though he was in the wrong. Darcy becomes the tyrant because Wickham refuses to be the villain of his own story.
In addition, I don't know if he would have seen Darcy as a friend. Darcy is one of the few people who can see through Wickham and a con man would hate that. Wickham's dislike of Darcy may well have started because he hates that Darcy can perceive and judge the real him.
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funtheysaid · 2 days
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IWTV 2x02 Initial Thoughts (Stream Of Consciousness)
- ooh the title card changed! I’ve been wanting to see the Eiffel Tower as a “fang” since season two was announced. WE IN PARIS BABY!
- ayooo three-way (interview) incoming
- Daniel’s “Paris sucks” aka “Paris is where my ex-bf is from and he sucks (dick), but not mine anymore, and no, I’m not bitter abt that, his city just fucking stinks (literally)”
- not two minutes in and Devil’s Minion is already flirting bickering
- ALICE MENTION alice!armand truthers are gon love that shit i just know
- “I’ll tell you what a woman is” That’s my sapphic-coded queen!!! 🕯️ pls S2 give me claudeleine 🕯️
- “Gauche” well, yes.
- Loumand: 🥰🥰 Daniel: 🙄 he‘s so second-hand embarrassed for them I can’t
- I mean, it’s crazy. What? We finish each other’s- I WAS WITH HIM FOR LONGER THAN LESTAT WAS WITH HIM WRITE THAT DOWN WRITE THAT DOWN DANIEL PUT IT ON RECORD WEVE BEEN FUCKING FOR LIKE DOUBLE THE TIME …that’s what i…was….gonna say?
- Louis would be that faux-intellectual hipster who has his own darkroom full of overexposed and blurry, unfocused photos that are his “art” bc he took them on film (affectionate)
- Not claudia calling him out on it in the next scene “let me think I’m deeper than I am” okay honey you do you
- “She’s miserable but she doesn’t want to fuck with your too delusional left bank dilettante vibes” ahh the narrative foils are foiling, I see
- The show: Alice was pregnant, My dumb ass: OMEGAVERSE DEVILS MINION !?!?
- “joyfully joyless” MOOD.
- Claudia looking at Madeleine like “I don’t know if I want to be her or be with her” Dw babe it’s a rite of passage for all of us you’ll figure it out
- “Your French is ugly” 🥹👉👈 weally?
- “the dress for my body” LOOK I know what she meant, but I can’t help it that my mind is perverted
- LMFAO NOT GLORYHOLE PARK
- okay why Loumand playing with my heart “I will never harm you. And I never have” wtf wtf wtf
-Oh no the ole business card trick! we all know that’s Louis’ kryptonite he loves a man with credentials
- i like girls, but why is santiago kinda…
- Woah the Annika scene was really hard to watch which I think was the point but goddamn idk if I’ll be able to rewatch that part
- Estelle is my self-insert. I’m claiming her.
- “You both fucked Lestat!?!” HOW DID THEY KNOW WE WANTED HIM TO SAY THAT!?
- “He tasted of vermouth and annihilation” We both know you have no earthly idea what that man tastes like, Armand. Be so fucking fr right now.
- Did Armand just casually drop that he had a threesome with a father and son? I’m sorry, sir????
- “Now I know what two blood fat cocks slapping hands feel like” When I tell you my spirit left my body
- oh shit here we go. I’m a caged animal and it’s time for my weekly enrichment. give me my loustat.
- there’s a letter !?!? Wait wait I wasn’t ready for something like this wait stop stop please
- “all my love belongs to you. you are its keeper” just take me out back and shoot me at this point
- “it is a thin veil” fucking fuck why was that so romantic??
- the blood tears welling up in Lestat’s eyes I’m-
- “Rebound of my life” and in that moment, he spoke for the people
- WHAT IS HAPPENING???? Jesus Christ, they were talking about Alice and then it cuts to FUCKING ARMAND!?! This is not a drill. Everyone to your stations, this is not a drill.
- “You sold your Dad’s playboy magazines at recess” Hmmm? You’re telling me a “straight” teenage boy sold porno mags instead of keeping them for himself??? Yeah, I call gay on that one
- “she wanted to say yes” you motherfuckers.
- Oh shit Louis is pissy tonight rawr kitty got claws
- Devils minion girlies are thriving, skin glowing, hair silky, breath minty, pillow cold, stomach full, dreams sweet, and by Jove, we fucking deserve it !!!!
- daniel’s shaky “um- gulp” …….guys this is gonna sound crazy but i think there might actually be a god
- ooh the camera/photography being like a divide or barrier between Louis and his present situation. Like he wants to capture the moments, but only as if an onlooker and not a participant… interesting!
- “Who?” will never not be funny
- “Mon ami” in the same episode as “Mon Cher” FUCK ME GENTLY WITH A CHAINSAW
- “Armand for you” nah nah nah i changed my mind, you can do like Leatherface and shove that chainsaw in rough and hard
- Close up on Louis’ conflicted face, fire blazing behind him…. That’s not foreboding in any way. I’m sure they’ll all live happily ever after from now on :D
What a ride! Until next week! 🧛‍♂️🩸
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harrysbelovedd · 1 day
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mine [rafe cameron]
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pairing - rafe cameron x reader
summary - when reader goes to hang out with kiara and sarah, rafe gives her no choice as he tags along. he doesn’t trust kiara’s pogue friends around reader, and his protective side gets the best of him.
warnings - protective!rafe, fighting, violence, blood, cursing, talks of death, angst, hurt/comfort, lowkey unpacking rafe’s trauma 😭
﹒⪩⪨﹒ ﹒⪩⪨﹒ ﹒⪩⪨﹒﹒⪩⪨﹒ ﹒⪩⪨﹒ ﹒⪩⪨﹒ ﹒⪩⪨﹒
Tonight was the bonfire. An annual, summer bonfire that the pogues throw every year. Normally, kooks are never invited. But, Sarah and I are the only exceptions as Kiara’s best friends. Sarah has been integrated into their group even more so, now that she’s with John B.
But as for me, they still—even after almost ten years of being Kiara’s friend—hold distain toward me. It only got worse when I started dating the kook prince, Rafe Cameron.
John B, JJ, and Pope always have something to say about me and dating Rafe only added fuel to their fire.
I don’t care though. Kiara and Sarah are my best friends and these boys that make up this stupid kooks vs. pogues rivalry aren’t getting in the way of that.
I was excited for tonight, picking out my outfit as I stepped out of the steaming bathroom in my towel. That was until my boyfriend made an utterly insane suggestion.
“What time are we leaving?” Rafe asks nonchalantly as he steps into the room, flopping down onto my bed, and staring at the ceiling.
I pause, spinning around, holding a top in my hand, “We?” He props himself up on his elbows, furrowing his eyebrows at me.
“Yeah, we. What you think I’d just be unbothered by you hanging out with those pogues? It’s not like I’m going to stop you from going, that’s your choice, and I have no problems with Kiara. I know you’re best friends. It’s her pogue friends I don’t trust. I’m not gonna sit here on my ass while you’re at the bonfire with JJ fucking you with his eyes from across the beach.” He states, like it was plainly obvious.
I sigh, sitting down next to him on the bed. “Babe, I love you, but is it really the best idea for you to go? You hate them. I don’t want to start anything.”
“Oh, I won’t,” he assures. “Trust me, I’ll keep to myself, sitting next to you, drinking a beer, minding my business. As long as JJ doesn’t try anything.” He shrugs.
“What do you mean? JJ won’t do anything what’re you—“
“Every time we’re around Kiara, he’s there. And his eyes are on you. Or he says something rude to you. I don’t like it. Only I get to look at you like that, you’re my girl. If he so much as looks in your direction, I’ll make sure he knows you’re mine, that’s all.” Rafe explains, leaning down to slip his shoes on.
“Okay fine. But please, Rafe. I’m begging, don’t do anything stupid. I don’t want this night to be ruined, I just wanna hang out with my friends.” I say, nervous about how Rafe’s behavior easily gets out of hand, especially around JJ.
Rafe sits up, putting his hand on my thigh, and looking right in my eyes. “I know—I know I can get carried away sometimes. And I’m sorry, I just—I need to protect what’s mine, okay? They already took my sister from me, there’s no shot I’d ever let them take you from me too. I don’t trust they won’t hurt you, okay? I just need to be there. Just in case, okay?”
I press my lips together, “Okay. Just promise me, don’t start anything.”
He pauses, contemplating, “Unless he does?”
I roll my eyes, “Fine unless he does.”
Rafe smiles, satisfied, “Then, yes. I promise.” He places a kiss on my cheek.
I get up and walk back to the closet, throwing a pair of denim shorts on the bed and two tops, “Which top?” I turn around and look at Rafe.
He inspects both of them. One being a white tube top with pink lily flowers on it, the other being a crochet multi-colored tube top.
“Mhmm, the flower one.”
I smile at him, grabbing the outfit and changing. I slip on my adidas sambas and grab my purse. “Ready?” I ask him. He says nothing, just staring at me.
I step closer to him, waving my hand in front of his face. “Helloooo??” He just chuckles, pushing my hand down, his hands landing on my hips, and pulling me closer.
“Do we have to go?”
I smile, brushing my hands over his buzzed hair, “Yes, Rafe. C’mon, let’s go.”
He groans, resting his head on my stomach. He places small kisses along my stomach, “But if we stay here,” his hand slides back toward my ass. “I could entertain you.”
My cheeks turn pink as I almost give in, but shake back to reality. “No, c’mon. I promised Kie.” I pat my hand on his back as I step away. “Let’s go.”
He groans, standing and coming to my side. He grabs my hand and walks out the bedroom with me, “Fine.”
I chuckle and lean up, placing a kiss on his shoulder as we walk down the stairs. He opens the front door for me and we head to my drive away. He opens the door of his truck and buckles me in before rounding to the drivers side. My music automatically connects every time we get into his car and it always makes me smile.
-
Rafe parks the car as we arrive at the beach, and I spot Kiara and all her friends by the shore, sitting around the fire while the beach is packed with everyone from the cut.
Rafe opens my door for me, grabbing my hand as I hop out of his truck. He shuts the door and rests his hands on my shoulders, looking out to the beach, and letting out a long sigh. “Oh, stop. It’ll be fine, okay, just try to have fun. For me?”
He rolls his eyes, playfully. “Yeah, yeah. Let’s just get this over with so I can have you back at Tannyhill tonight all to myself.”
I chuckle, grabbing onto his hand and pulling him down toward the beach. I go to the bonfire, where Kie sits with Sarah.
“Kie!”
She turns around, grinning. She gets up and runs over to me, embracing in a hug. “Oh my god,” she gushes, grabbing onto my shoulders. “It’s been forever.”
Her gaze moves to my right where Rafe stands, rigid and unmoving like some kind of guard dog. “And Rafe,” she grumbles.
“Hello to you too Kie,” He smiles condescendingly.
To try to lessen the tension, I turn to Rafe. “Could you go get me a drink, please?” I widen my eyes at him.
He sighs, nodding before walking off.
“Why is he here?” Sarah asks as I go to sit with her and Kie.
“Trust me, I thought it was a bad idea too, but there was no stopping him.” I shrug. “He won’t start anything, trust me.”
Rafe walks back over to us, handing me my drink. He looks over at Sarah, rolling his eyes. “The pogue princess.”
Sarah scoffs, “Oh shut up.”
Rafe opens his mouth to say something again, but when I shoot him a look, he groans but keeps his words to himself.
As the night goes on, Rafe does exactly as promised. I sit with Kie and Sarah, catching up. While Rafe sits beside me, holding one of my hands in his lap as he fidgets with my rings and bracelets, just counting the seconds till he could take me home.
“Well, y’know John B and I got.. married.”
I whip my head around, “What?! Oh my god?”
She chuckles, “Yeah.. kinda of spur of the moment type thing. Not much thought into it—I’m honestly not sure it’s actually legal either but, yeah.”
“Congra—“ I begin before getting cut off by the one person I was praying would not come over here tonight.
“Y/n, what a surprise.” JJ exclaims, walking over to where we were. “And Cameron. Of course,” he says sarcastically.
I feel Rafe tense next to me, his grip on my hand getting stronger. “Can’t say I’m thrilled to see you either, Maybank.”
“You’re the one on the cut. This is a pogue bonfire. Why the fuck are you even here? And with miss kook princess, over here?” JJ looks over at me, then back at Rafe.
“Rafe,” I warn, looking at him as his jaw clenches and he lets go of my hand.
Rafe stands, facing JJ. “I was willing to leave you alone, as long as you left her alone but clearly, that’s not possible for you.” Rafe pushes at JJ’s chest.
“Stop, Rafe.” Sarah shouts, standing and trying to push JJ away. When her attempts don’t work, she waves over John B.
“Rafe, let’s just go,” I stand, tugging at his hand.
“Yeah,” JJ agrees. “Listen to your bitch and go.”
“What the hell, JJ?” Kie stands, even her agreeing her best friend is being an asshole.
Rafe chuckles, his tongue poking at his cheek as he pulls his hand from my grasp, grabbing onto the collar of his shirt. “The fuck did you just say?”
“I said take your bitch and go.” JJ spits.
Rafe pushes JJ down and he falls onto the sand, Rafe straddling him as he lands punch after punch. “You always gotta start shit,” Rafe says, blood coating his shirt and knuckles.
“JJ he’s not worth it!” John B shouts, finally making his way over. John B attempts to grab Rafe’s shoulders and pull him off but Rafe pushes John B, causing him to stumble back.
“Rafe, what the hell!” Sarah shouts, going to John B’s side.
I go to grab Rafe’s arm, causing him to stop punching JJ, not wanting to accidentally hurt me. When Rafe pauses, JJ takes the chance and flips Rafe over, landing a punch square to his jaw. “Y/n needs to come around without you sometimes. She’s pretty hot for a kook,” JJ chuckles.
At this, Rafe gets his strength and punches JJ in the jaw so hard, JJ falls off of Rafe, landing on his back in the sand. Kiara goes to JJ and I grab Rafe, trying to pull him away as fast as possible. Rafe shakes from my grip one last time and goes to stand over JJ.
“Stop! Let’s just go, c’mon!” I groan, everyone on the beach now circling the bonfire watching this unfold.
“Listen to her Rafe! Get out of here before the cops get here, just leave!” Sarah shouts, her brows furrowed in anger.
“Talk about her again, Maybank. You won’t live to see the next fucking day.” Rafe spits, standing up and walking over to me. He goes to grab my hand but I refuse, walking past him to the truck.
“Y/n!” He shouts, following after me. I lean against the passenger door, waiting for him.
He walks over, slumped over, feeling defeated even though he technically won the fight, he knows he made me upset. He stands in front of me, unlocking the truck with his keys and I turn around, getting in before he could open the door for me, and shutting it without a word.
When he rounds the car and gets in on the drivers side, I turn on the overhead light and grab his jaw, inspecting his face.
His lips is busted open, a bruise already forming around his cheekbone. Blood splattered across his cheek, neck, and shirt. “I’m sorry,” he whispers. “But I couldn’t stand there while he said that shit about you.”
“You could’ve let it go and we could’ve just left. I just wanted a normal night to hang out with Kie and now they just have more reason to hate you. And you’re hurt.” I sigh, my thumb gently brushing along his cheekbone.
“No, I couldn’t have. You can be mad at me forever, I don’t care—I’ll always defend you. Even if that means you hate me. I’ll always protect you.” He replies, putting his keys in the engine and starting the car.
I sigh, and lean back, looking out the window. There’s nothing more I could say. When Rafe had his mind set on something, you couldn’t change it. Especially when it came to protecting the people he loved. He’s a naturally protective and territorial person. Nothing can get through his mind when he’s in that violent state, just wanting to protect the people he loves.
After a very silent ride, we arrive back at Tannyhill. Rafe parks in the driveway, pausing before getting out. “Do you want to be here? I can take you home if you don’t want to be around me, I understand—“
“What?” I ask, turning to face him.
“You’re upset. I went too far. I figured you didn’t want to be with me right now.”
“No, Rafe, no,” I sigh, my hand coming to rest on his thigh. “I’m upset at everything that happened but, I’m not mad at you. I think there might’ve been a better way to handle it, but I’m not mad. Let’s just go inside okay? And talk?”
Rafe nods, stepping out of the car and coming to my side, opening the door. My hand finds his as he helps me out and we make our way to the front door.
Quietly, he opens the door to the very empty, quiet, home. Ever since Ward died, I stay over at Rafe’s almost every night. Rafe said he feels lonely at home. Even though Rose and Wheezie still live there, it’s not the same. And tonight, Rose was away on the mainland and Wheezie was staying over at a friend’s house.
Rafe guides me up the stairs, the stairs I’ve walked up countless times. To the familiar route of his room, but I pull him off into the bathroom next to his room.
“What’re you—“
“Shh,” I shush him, patting the counter, indicating him to sit. He sighs, but follows, sitting on the counter patiently.
I reach into the medicine cabinet, pulling out the first aid kit. I grab a wipe, taking away the excess blood so I can clearly see where he’s hurt. I treat his busted lip, Rafe flinching as I put disinfectant on his lips.
“Is it because of your mom?” I ask softly.
He stiffens, and asks, “What do you mean?”
He knows what I mean.
“The overprotectiveness. Is it because of what happened to your mom?” I question.
He sighs, shrugging. “Sort of, I guess. When I was younger I felt like her death was my fault. Ever since then I’ve always wanted to protect what’s mine, everyone close to me. But, it got so.. intensified when we got together. I never protected anyone as strongly as I do with you.”
I nod, staying silent as I inspect his hands. I didn’t speak because, I had a feeling he wasn’t done. Like he had so much more to say. He’s not very good at expressing his emotions. So when he does, I try to give him all the room to vent.
“Does it bother you? Or scare you? I don’t mean to. I just can’t help it. I could never forgive myself if something happened to you and I wasn’t there to defend you. Just like I couldn’t defend my mom, I guess.”
I press my lips together, grabbing the wrap from the kit. “It doesn’t scare me in the way you think. I just don’t want you to go too far one day and do something you’ll regret. Or hurt yourself beyond repair. That’s what scares me.”
He doesn’t say anything, watching silently as I wrap his bruises knuckles. “I just hate him. All of them. They took everything from me. I won’t let them take you. I hate the way they look at you. The way he looks at you. The things they say.” His jaw clenches just thinking about it.
“They don’t know you. They don’t understand how truly selfless and kind you are. They don’t know shit. I hate the way they talk about you. Some friend Kiara is for not fucking defending you either—“ His voice begins to raise.
“Hey, hey. It’s okay.” I sigh, finishing bandaging his hand. “Look let’s just go to bed, okay? It’s been a long night.” I pat his knee and move from between his legs. He slips off the counter and I gently put my hand in his.
He follows me like a lost puppy to his own bedroom.
His room is the polar opposite of mine and it always makes me smile. When he’s in my room, seeing him curled up on my fluffy pink bed, and me in his cold, plain room in my frilly pink pajamas I keep in his dresser. Rafe goes in his closet and finds some clothes to change into while I change into pajamas from my designated drawer in his room.
I sit on his bed as I wait for him, closing my eyes. I hear his footsteps and look over at him, he’s shirtless, in only some basketball shorts. He flicks off his bedside light and gets under the covers.
I scoot closer, resting my head in the crook of his neck. His hand runs gently, up and down my back, the room falling quiet with just our breathing.
“I’m sorry. I’ll try to be better,” He confesses, causing my heart to shatter into a million pieces.
I sigh, looking up at him. I place a kiss on his jaw, smiling into his neck. “It’s okay. I understand now why you do it. You just need to talk to me, yeah? But maybe just try to not beat people up so terribly.” I chuckle, pointing at his bruises.
“Hey, you should see the other guy,” He jokes, grinning down at me.
I smile softly, pressing a kiss to his lips. “Goodnight.”
Rafe smiles, his fingers brushing through my hair. “Goodnight, pretty girl.”
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rilakeila · 21 hours
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intro: we challenge you!
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host club au! jjk x reader x ohshc
gojo satoru is the head of jujutsu academy's elite high school host club with his friends: geto suguru, nanami kento, itadori sukuna, shoko ieiri, haibara yu, and of course, their princess manager. what happens when they go up against another elite host club on an exchange event with different schools? let's find out!
a/n: incredibly self-indulgent. i cant decide to do an entire series or collection of one-shots. however, even if i do a series, i'm always open to do an au within au !! lmk if y'all have any ideas and hope you enjoy this one! also it's def ouran vibes with how the scenes work out like nonsensical manners with the petal entrances and random objects appearing out of nowhere
(y/n) was already tired.
she knew the exchange event would triple her work as manager for her dear beloved buffoons and their work as hosts, but she foolishly accepted their offer to go anyway. between scheduling their events, accepting payments for various fan meetings, and then coordinating with both schools to confirm times and clothing - she was ready to retire. pension required and isolation from known society appreciated. at least distance away from the menaces called gojo satoru and itadori sukuna.
for once, to their credit, they weren't fighting each other. damages would be at minimal cost. good for her and jujutsu academy's reputation. although these two were never very concerned about the school's reputation.
and that's why they were about to duke it out with an intensely frivolous blonde-haired second year and what looked to be a very feral set of twins in their first year.
"they look so hot but so scary," murmurs surrounded the two groups.
(y/n) couldn't help but sigh, attention always seemed to follow them as they go. satoru naturally reeled in the girls, which would lead into the rest of the boys and shoko being noticed, ultimately turning it into a free fan-meeting for new potential customers. she wondered how she came to this predicament anyways.
"well, i'll be back. i just need to confirm some things with the head of the event," (y/n) flipped through her clipboard of papers, signing some things off.
"do you need me to come with you?" kento questioned, adjusting his uniform.
she shook her head, "no, i'll be okay. what i need you to do is watch over these buffoons."
both looked at the buffoons in question. haibara and shoko were already taking pictures in front of the flowers. these two that were least likely needed to be watched.
"this place looks so old," satoru complained a little too loud, earning a head shake of disapproval from nanami and (y/n).
"not too loud, satoru. you really should be more polite and humble, even if it looks garish," geto stretched his arms out before placing it behind his head.
"there's no places for shade," sukuna grumbled.
(y/n) pressed her lips together, pulled a parasol out and covered the pink-haired host, "okay, i'll be back. no funny business, kento is in charge."
"who put you in charge? do you have no respect for your president?" satoru seated his head on the top of (y/n)'s head, arms wrapped around her. she can practically see and feel the pout on his face, rolling her eyes.
she grabbed sukuna's free hand, placing the parasol in his hand to hold ("hmph."). she charged her head up, injuring the prince's chin to free herself from his grasp, "well, mr. president, i suppose you would like to go over some paperwork for the event."
"mommaaa, she hit me," he cried to suguru, who just hit the backside of his head.
"we'll make sure to behave, princess. come back safe," suguru waved her off. (y/n) looked at kento who just nodded, knowing that he was the only one she could fully trust. both throwing a thumbs up to each other.
after (y/n) leaving, the rest of the host club wandered around the grounds of ouran. there were multitude of yellow dresses and blue blazers directing other schools and vendors. kento was leading the group, watching yu and ieiri to ensure that they didn't get lost as they indulged in the small events that the ouran students were hosting. he trusted sukuna would keep suguru and satoru in check, mostly satoru.
kento paused in his tracks, hearing squeals behind him, 'there goes the president again.'
"he's so hot!"
"take your glasses off!"
"alright, alright, ladies. there's enough of me to go around," the dramatic movement just to take his glasses off was enough for kento to sweatdrop. the squealing increased tenfold. typically, suguru would line up the girls at their school for uniformity for their president. however, it looked he was preoccupied with his own set of girls. then, sukuna. and there is yet another group of girls.
"honestly, that took a lot longer than i thought," yu said, standing next to kento.
"that was inevitable, girls always fall for them, somehow, someway," shoko twirled her hair around her finger.
"hmm... as long as they aren't causing too much of a ruckus. we should be fine," kento huffed, shaking his head when yu offered him the snack bag that the ouran students were handing out as "freebies." what a word to have.
though, their heads snapped to a sharp gasp next to them.
a blonde with his jaw snapped wide open fainting backwards, only for a pair of orange-haired twins to catch him as he fell back. "boss!"
other than the blonde and the twins, there seemed to be a middle schooler and a taller man. another had glasses, and well, one looked ambigious, feminine-leaning perhaps.
"doesn't the blonde remind you of someone?" yu whispered to them.
"yeah, someone that we know... can't seem to think of who it is" ieiri questioned with yu, thought bubbles practically seen above their heads as they thought long and hard.
"what happened to him, kyoya-senpai?" the feminine-looking one asked.
"it may be due to the fact that his customers have been stolen," the glasses one answered. kento recognized him, kyoya ootori, as his parents frequently invited the ootori family to the quarterly nanami galas as a thanks to the partnership of two families.
"my princesses! how dare they look at another man," the blonde immediately rose from the ground in a familiar way to kento, yu, and ieiri. a dramatic point was directed to satoru, "you, white haired student! have you come to steal my customers?"
"that should be our cue to go to them," kento lightly tapped ieiri and yu's shoulders, signalling them to head towards their members.
the chattering from the female ouran students silenced. it was also as if the red sea parted, a direct showdown line between the two groups.
this is how (y/n) ended up, almost crossing down the half. luckily, she looked up in time to stand with her club, sweatdropping in between. she eyed kento with a 'i thought you had it controlled,' which was responded with a head shake and shrug.
"customers? you called these beautiful ladies customers? what a shame. would never think that you were their prince. who might you be?" satoru pushed his sunglasses back onto his face, causing "aww's" of disappointment from the crowd.
"excuse you, i'm tamaki, the prince of the finest club of this school. the ouran host club, of course," he offered his princely smile and a rose to one of the female student bystander, who squealed and seemed to almost pass out.
"i got it, they're one of the same," (y/n) perked her ears up to ieiri and haibara whispering to each other, raising an eyebrow.
"host club? must have fooled me, there's an entire child in your group," suguru laughed as he directed the attention to the small child with the bunny in his arms, only to raise an eyebrow once he saw the taller one behind him straighten up.
"i assumed these ladies wanted someone mature, refined," sukuna showed his signature smirk to the ladies to his left, some fainting and some reaching for him.
"we are refined, right? men?" tamaki questioned with certainty in his voice.
"well, we offer brotherly love and boy lolita, i'm not too sure if that exactly counts as refined and mature, senpai," the feminine-looking one said.
"additionally, we have female hosts to those who are interested," it felt like lights highlighted (y/n) and ieiri when suguru mentioned their female host services.
"well, we technically also-" the twins' mouth seemed to be tied up by tamaki with a sheepish smile.
"so, really, what is the point of this? we have a whiny prince on our hands that can't accept the fact his ladies are talking to actual elite people, well in terms of taste," sukuna scoffed.
"you're right, kuna, why waste time with this nonsense of a host club when we can entertain the ladies here on the way to our next activity. manager princess, lead the way to where we have to go," satoru winked at the ouran host club before allowing (y/n) to take the reigns as she normally does.
she was too far lost other than knowing if ouran's host club is anything like the one she is in, their pride was certainly on the line. the last thing she saw before she turned around was a defeated tamaki with the twins fanning him, where had she seen that scene before?
"wait, we'll challenge you during this exchange event with sports, academics, whatever there is to offer to see who's the better host club," tamaki called out to them, still kneeling on the ground
gasps were heard from their audience. the jujutsu academy host club (more so the guys, ieiri and (y/n) could careless about a hurt pride) turned and eyed each other, reaching a consensus.
"hmm.. we never back down from a challenge. when and where can we discuss the terms?"
"music room #3, 3 p.m. sharp."
"we'll see you there."
(y/n) surely didn't know what she was getting herself into during this exchange event. everyday was already interesting enough with her own club. though, let's see what happens.
till next time !
intro completed.
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Note
Hey darling! Can I request the Damon Salvatore x Fem!Reader? So maybe where the reader is the reincarnation or rebirth of Damon's old love, and Damon meets the reader's reincarnation like Elena in season 3, episode 22?
I love this idea so much!!
I spent hours writing this last night only for it not to save, so here is another attempt.
Plot: Damon thought his first love was dead and buried, so imagine his surprise when someone turns up in Beacon Hills wearing her exact face
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Katherine Peirce loved her boys - more importantly she loved how she had them wrapped around her little finger. Which meant of course, she could get whatever she wanted.
The three of them were sat outside in the gardens, enjoying the sunshine in the summer weather. Kathrine, Damon and Stefan all laughing amongst themselves like old friends.
"Your friend is coming today is she not?" Stefan asked.
Kathrine nodded, looking towards the road as if expecting a carriage to pull up at any minute.
"We're grateful you could offer us both shelter," she replied simply.
"Well if she's anything like you, how could we refuse?" Damon asked, a grin forming on his face.
Kathrine smiled up at him "She's exactly like me,"
This was a lie. Although Kathrine would never admit it, she often mimicked her friend's personality to get people to like her. Y/N was softer than Kathrine was, her heart not frozen from the years of pain they had both endured.
"What did you say her name was again?" Stefan asked.
"Y/N," Kathrine responded, "And it looks like she's here,"
A black carriage was pulling up, and a footman appeared to open the door. Kathrine was quick to race towards her friend, whilst the brothers hung back to watch the scene play out.
They watched as Y/N stepped out of the carriage, adorned in a soft green dress. She embraced her friend, a wide smile on her face as she chatted excitedly. Katherine drew her to where the Salvatore brothers stood, and Y/N shrunk slightly, stepping behind Katherine ever so slightly.
"Salvatore's, this is Y/N L/N, you'll forgive her if she's a little shy," Katherine smiled down at her friend.
Damon was the first to respond, taking her hand and pulling it up to his lips. "Damon Salvatore," he said, pressing a quick kiss to her hand.
Y/N curtseyed in response "A pleasure to meet you Mr Salvatore,"
Stefan was next, offering her a small bow "Stefan Salvatore, we hope you enjoy your stay here,"
Y/N smiled, looking between the two bothers "Thank you for having me, Kathrine tells me you have been most generous hosts,"
Kathrine clicked her tongue "Forgive me Salvatore's, but I believe I will be showing her around her new home,"
The brothers gave a small wave towards the girl in green, who gave a shy smile in response.
"What do you think?" Stefan asked his brother. Damon eyed the retreating figures of the two girls with curiosity.
"Well Kathrine says she's like her, but I don't think I've ever met someone so different,"
Neither Stefan nor Damon saw much of Y/N from that moment on, she would never be teasing them the way Katherine did, nor would she seek them out. They'd catch glimpses of her reading, or writing beneath one of the trees in the garden occasionally, but neither of them even thought of saying something.
They were too captivated by Katherine.
But then came the day of the Founder's ball. Damon was in a foul mood, since Katherine had decided to attend the ball with Stefan, and found himself wandering he halls of his own home, unable to escape the nagging feeling in his chest.
So he went to where he always went too when his thoughts became too much; the library.
It was a large place, with books lining the walls like leaves on the trees. But it was cosy also, with three large chairs huddled round the grand fireplace.
To his surprise however, there was already somebody there.
"Miss Y/N," he remarked, a surprised frown on his face "I thought you'd be at the party,"
It was true, as she was adorned in a beautiful purple dress, that looked to be one of Katherine's. Her hair was done in an elegant updo, but still she sat on the chair, a heavy book in her lap.
She blinked up at him, her fingers fiddling with the pages.
"I've never been one for crowds, that was always more of Katherine's thing," she said softly.
Katherine. The name felt bitter on Damon's tongue. He wondered though, if Y/N was like Katherine in other ways, in ways that had to be kept a secret from the rest of the family.
"Mind if I join you?" Damon asked, and Y/N shook her head.
"Not at all,"
There was a brief silence between them as Damon stared at the girl. She paid him little attention, her eyes darting across the pages of the book as if feasting off the words it gave her.
"You like to read," he observed, and Y/N jumped, forgetting he was there.
"I like to write," she corrected "But reading is the next best thing if I have nothing to write in,"
There was another silence, and Damon debated saying something else, but she didn't seem like the type to want to talk much, and he felt he should be careful where he tread. But to his surprise it was her who started the next conversation.
"What brings you out of the party?" Y/N asked, closing her book and setting it to the side.
Damon sighed, he couldn't tell her the real reason, for Katherine was her friend and he was not. But similarly he couldn't think of a lie, something about her made him feel guilty for even thinking about lying to her.
Y/N grimaced slightly, taking pity on the fallen expression of the man. "I see she chose your heart to break," she said softly.
"What?" Damon asked, taken by surprise.
Y/N sighed "You think you're the first two men that Katherine has set against each other? I love her dearly, but she does like her games,"
Damon shrugged "The price I pay for falling for the act in the first place,"
"If I may," Y/N said cautiously "If you want to win her affection's you needn't show it to her so much. Katherine likes to chase,"
Damon's eyes flickered slightly 2What are you suggesting?" he asked.
"Take someone else to the next founders ball," Y/N suggested, picking up another book from the table. "You're a handsome man Mr Salvatore I'm sure you'll have little trouble finding somebody who takes an interest,"
Damon sat back a little, before glancing at the time. The founders ball still had a couple of hours before it was over.
"Why wait?" he asked, a mischievous smile on his face. "I could get a date right now,"
"That's the spirit," Y/N said, not looking up from her book.
"So Y/N, would you do me the honour of attending the founders ball with me?"
Y/N's mouth dropped open as she looked up at Damon, who was now standing with his arm outstretched towards ger.
"I - I can't!" she said with wide eyes "I'm terrible with crowds, and I don't know anybody, and god forbid they try and talk with me-"
Damon cocked his head slightly as she spoke, sensing the panic in her voice.
"I'll stay with you, and if anyone speaks to us, I will be the one to answer, if that is what you wish. So what do you say - one dance?"
Y/N hesitated, before slowing accepting his hand and letting him pull her up. "Don't make me regret this Mr Salvatore," she warned.
He laughed, guiding her hand to he crook of his arm. "Please call me Damon,"
Y/N sighed, trying desperately to swallow the nerves about walking into a room full of people she didn't know.
In the hall, Katherine and Stefan were dancing gracefully, successfully ignoring the stares of the room.
"I do hope your brother isn't too offended by my choice of Salvatore," Katherine mused, earning a chuckle from Stefan.
"I do believe he'll get over it - or he already has,"
"What?" asked Katherine, but Stefan just nodded towards the other side of the room, where Damon had just entered, Y/N on his arm.
Katherine's eyes narrowed as Damon shot a smirk her way, before leaning down to whisper in Y/N's ear.
"Just follow my lead, you'll be fine,"
Y/N tried not to shiver as his breath hit her ear, and allowed herself to be led across the dancefloor.
"I never thought you'd be the dancing type," she admitted, looking up into his blue eyes.
"And why is that?" Damon asked a slight smirk playing on his face.
"I don't know," Y/N bit her lip slightly to stop herself from smiling "You seemed much too arrogant to bore yourself with something as frivolous as a party,"
Damon's eyebrows raised as he realised her teasing tone "I never thought you'd be so cheeky, I thought that was something that belonged to Katherine,"
Y/N shook her head slightly, a laugh falling from her lips "Katherine was always so serious, even when we were children. I suppose you Salvatore's have shown her a thing or two,"
Children, they knew each other when they were children, so Y/N must at least know what Katherine was, if she wasn't one herself.
"She's staring at us," Damon commented, realising that Katherine had stopped dancing with his brother, and was shooting curious looks to the other pair.
"Told you," Y/N shrugged, her voice lowering to a whisper "Nobody Knows Katherine like I do - perhaps now would be a good time to talk to her?"
Damon hesitated, he knew that part of him wanted to but the other part -
"We're having far too much fun dancing, don't you think?"
And it was true, Damon did enjoy Y/N's company. With her shyness beginning to ease, he enjoyed the small jests she'd make at him, and thoughts of Katherine began fading away.
The pair danced, and chatted until the early hours of the morning when the founders ball finally came to an end, and the last of the guests were leaving.
Y/N let out a yawn, and Damon caught her as she stumbled slightly.
"I think it's time I retire," she said sleepily "It's been a pleasure dancing with you Mr Salv - Damon,"
Damon brought her hand up to his lips, pressing a firm kiss on the back of it. "The pleasure was all mine, goodnight Y/N,"
He watched as she left, a slight smile playing on his lips.
"Careful, she'll fall in love with you," came a sly voice to the right of him. He didn't need to look to know it was Katherine. "her heart is far too soft to survive a Salvatore brother,"
"You were wrong before, she is nothing like you," Damon commented "Enjoy my brother,"
And with that he walked off, feeling triumphant that he had been able resist the urge to fall right back into Katherine's arms, but he couldn't shake the Y/N from his mind either.
The next morning, Damon found himself outside the door of Y/N's bedroom, his hand ready to knock when she opened to door herself.
She jumped slightly "Oh - Damon?" she asked her eyes wide.
His lips parted in shock slightly, the encounter catching him off guard and all the rehearsed words in his head disappearing.
"Are you alright, you look like you've seen a ghost?" she asked, frowning slightly.
Damon cleared his throat, presenting a small brown parcel with his other hand.
"A thankyou gift, for coming with me to the dance last night," he said.
Y/N blinked slightly, gingerly taking the package from his hands, and carefully untying the string.
"You didn't have to -" she began, before trailing off as she revealed the leather bound notebook he had bought for her.
"You mentioned you loved writing, I figured this would help you out a bit," he said slightly nervously "Do you like it?"
Y/N looked up at him, her eyes wide and shining with unshed tears. "Thankyou so much Damon, this - it means the world," she said sincerely, clutching the book to her chest as if it may run away.
Damon's worried expression broke into a grin. Another difference between Y/N and Katherine, Y/N was sincere, was genuine.
He didn't even see Katherine glaring at the two from behind the pillar.
Katherine watched with resentment over the next couple of weeks, watching as Damon started pining after Y/N instead of her. Of course, anyone else she would have gotten rid of immediately, but Y/N was her friend, and she didn't have many of those.
Even Stefan noticed her change in behaviour towards the other girl, but decided it was not in his best interest to question it.
But Damon was oblivious, too wrapped up in wanting the attention of the shy girl he had met, yet seemingly unable to show his affections towards her.
Y/N carried on with her life, desperately trying to ignore the flutters in her stomach whenever the older brother entered the room, concealing her blushing cheeks with her hair whenever he spoke. Nobody noticed, besides Katherine, as the girl often hid herself behind her hair when people spoke to her, but not quite in the same way.
"I see you fell in love with him too," Katherine commented, walking in unannounced to her friends bedroom.
Y/N sighed nervously, she knew that Katherine got whatever she wanted, and mostly she allowed it which is why the pair were such good friends.
Katherine stepped closer. "What do you think he'll think of you when you tell him what you are?" she asked, eyebrows raised.
Y/N shook her head "I don't need to tell him," she said hoarsely, "I'm not like you Katherine,"
Katherine chuckled "You may not be a vampire, but you can't go around pretending to be human,"
Y/N glared at her friend through the reflection of the mirror, but didn't say anything to protest and Katherine smiled.
"I'm just saving you the pain of losing him," she said, before turning on her heal and waltzing out the door, no doubt to find the Salvatore brother herself.
Y/N sighed, her had laying on the book that Damon had gotten her, piled on top of all the other books she had written in over the years. Even if she didn't like it, Katherine was correct. Though her curse wasn't quite as visible as the older girl's, it was a curse nevertheless, and all curses had consequences.
"What did she mean?"
Y/N froze, the sound of the man's voice like ice in her heart. She spun round and came face to face with Damon, who was standing in front of the door he had just closed.
He took a step closer, his eyes searching her stricken and panicked face. Another way she was different to Katherine, she wore her heard and emotions on her sleeve, there was no having to interpret or guess with her, she was an open book whether she liked it or not.
"You don't have to be scared, I didn't tell Katherine's secret and I won't tell yours," he reassured her, stepping closer to take her hand.
"I'm not a vampire," Y/N said defiantly.
Damon shook his head "You don't have to lie to me," he promised, his blue eyes searching her nervous ones.
"I'm not!" she stressed, before breaking away from Damon's grasp and sitting on the bed "It's more complicated than that,"
Damon sank to his knees before her, looking up at her with wide and trusting eyes "Then let me help you,"
"I'm cursed," Y/N said quietly after a beat. "They call it the Phoenix curse. Every time I die, I get reborn from my ashes as my old body burns, forgetting everything from my previous life."
Damon frowned "But if you forget everything, how do you know you've died before?"
Y/N smiled slightly, raising her hand to brush the hair from his eyes. "I didn't at first. But I am always reborn at the age of sixteen, and people tend to notice when you're almost an adult and have no memories to show it. Katherine found me, and she had this made for me,"
Y/N drew out a necklace that was tucked away in her bodice. It was golden, and dainty, with a red gemstone in the middle of it.
"It allows me to keep the memories even after I have been reborn,"
Damon let out a breath he didn't even know he was holding.
"Well that's certainly a raw deal on your behalf, at least Vampires get the added speed and strength,"
Y/N laughed, shaking her head slightly as she stood up.
"The books in your father's library say that I have wings, and that I can fly, but that remains a mystery to me, and I am immune to compulsion" she said with a smile.
Damon hesitated, a question on the tip of his tongue but unsure whether or not to ask it.
"Well it seems to me, that as long as I don't let anyone kill you, there doesn't seem to be much of a curse," he commented with a quick smile.
Y/N raised her eyebrows "Surely it is Katherine you would want to be around, speaking of which, how are you and her?" she asked
Damon shrugged "I found someone else that seemed far more appealing,"
Y/N turned to face him, her breath catching in her throat slightly as she realised just how close they actually were.
"Who?" she asked, unable to hide her blushing cheeks with her hair this time.
"You,"
Y/N's eyes widened, her brows drawing up slightly as she looked at him. Her lips parted as if wanting to say something, but no words came out, her heart pounding against her chest, the tightness of her corset making it difficult to breathe.
"Damon - Katherine," was all she could let out, but he shook his head.
"I don't want her, not since I met you. I no longer want to be chasing after a game, but I would chase after you for the rest of my life if that is what it took. I would tell a hundred jokes just to hear you laugh, and run a thousand miles to catch up to you,"
Y/N let him grab her hands in his own, but tugged away slightly "Damon you don't understand, Katherine wants you. And Katherine always gets what she wants,"
But Damon didn't relent "But I don't want Katherine, I want you," he said, the desperation leaking into his voice "But if you truly do not want me, then that is fine, but I need to hear you say it. I need to hear your say you do not want me if I am to go,"
Y/N shook her head, her gaze downwards "I can not lie to you Damon," she said quietly "I can not say I do not want you, when you are all I want,"
Damon breathed a sigh of relief, a slight laugh falling from his lips as he embraced her in a tight hug, pulling away only to cup her face in his hands, his blue eyes memorising every detail of it as if would disappear if he looked away.
"Meet me outside, near the village. You go out of the left gate at the gardens then follow the road until you meet the village square, I'll meet you there - I've got a surprise for you," he said, the smile never leaving his face.
"I will try, but I'm terrible with directions," Y/N teased "You may have to find me if I get lost."
Damon kissed her cheek, tucking her stray hair behind her ear "I will always find you," he promised.
Behind the door, Katherine watched the two lovers, a dark expression on her face. As much as she adored her, Y/N would have to go.
So as Damon waited at the village square, and the minutes ticked by, it occurred to him only too late that something terrible had happened to his new love.
That Y/N had disappeared without a trace.
2009
Y/N sighed with a heavy heart, as she lugged her suitcase behind her. She was grateful to have a suitcase, many of the children she was with in the foster home before had their stuff in plastic bin bags as they moved from house to house.
But Y/N had been adopted.
She found it odd that somebody wanted to adopt her, especially since she was three weeks away from turning eighteen, but it meant she no longer had to fend for herself once she aged out of the system, so she had to be grateful.
Rudy Hopkins
Y/N hadn't even met him, yet here he was willing to adopt the strange girl without a second thought.
That's if Y/N could find the damn house.
Mystic falls was a mystery to her, especially since she had never been there before - or so she thought.
"Y/N?" came a voice.
She spun round, and came face to face with a man she could only describe as beautiful. His eyes were wide, and blue, looking at her with a mixture of shock and disbelief.
"Er, I'm sorry do I know you?" she asked with a frown, stepping backwards nervously as the man stepped closer to her.
He froze, his eyes glinting downwards to her neck, where not one bit of jewellery rested.
"Sorry, I thought you were someone I knew - Damon Salvatore," he introduced himself, but his blue eyes were still piercing her own, scanning her as if she were an odd puzzle piece he couldn't quite place.
"Y/N L/N," she responded, a slight frown evident on her face "Are you alright, you look like you've seen a ghost,"
Damon hesitated, her words echoing in his head, the same words she had spoken to him all those years before, yet she truly had no recollection of him.
He nodded "Sorry for bothering you," he said quickly, turning to walk away.
"Wait!" she called out, grabbing her suitcase "You don't know where Rudy Hopkins lives do you? He's my adoptive parent, but he didn't show up to the meeting point, he just text that I'll meet him at home,"
Damon's eyes widened, Rudy Hopkins was the father of Bonnie Bennet, there was no way this was a coincidence.
"Follow the road back down until you - " he paused, looking at her confused and slightly panicked expression, and he felt his heart tug slightly as he remembered her all those years ago wearing exactly the same face as she was now.
"I'll take you," he reassured "Something tells me that you're not very good with directions,"
Y/N breathed a sigh of relief "You aren't going to turn out to be some serial killer are you?"
Damon snorted "Bit late to ask that isn't it? But no, I can promise I am not a serial killer,"
Y/N smiled up at him as he walked next to her, and he found himself having to concentrate on not looking at her. She was exactly the same as she was all those years before, but with no memory of him whatsoever.
He was almost sorry as he left her on her doorstep, wanting to spend every moment with her, to see if it really was her, or just some cruel trick the world was trying to play on him.
She turned to thank him, but he was was already gone.
Damon had darted back to the Salvatore household, his head and heart both reeling from the encounter.
He burst into the living room, where both Stefan and Elena was sat cozied up in-front of the fire,
"Stefan," he said urgently, causing the two others to look up sharply. Stefan frowned at his brothers expression, Damon had many emotions, anger, hatred you name them, but never vulnrable.
Not until now.
"Stefan she's here - Y/N's here,"
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deathlessathanasia · 2 days
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Do we know anything about the relationship between Hera and Medea, apart from the fact that she made her fall in love with Jason?
In Euripides' Medea (1378–1383), she says that she will bury her children in the sanctuary of Hera Akraia and that holy rites will be held in payment for their murder.
A similar idea appears in sources where Medea doesn't herself kill the children, or at least not on purpose. Apparently in the Corinthiaca of Eumelos Medea buried them in Hera's temple in an attempt to make them immortal: „Through her [Medea] Jason was king in Corinth, and Medea, as her children were born, carried each to the sanctuary of Hera and concealed them, doing so in the belief that so they would be immortal. At last she learned that her hopes were vain, and at the same time she was detected by Jason. When she begged for pardon he refused it, and sailed away to Iolcus. For these reasons Medea too departed, and handed over the kingdom to Sisyphus.” (Pausanias, Description of Greece 2.3.11)
„According to Parmeniskos, when Medeia became queen of Corinth, she was despised by the other Corinthian women for being a barbarian and an enchantress, with the result that her children, seven boys and seven girls, were all killed by them in the shrine of Hera Akraia, where they tried to find refuge. Because of this act of sacrilege a plague befell the city and many Corinthians died. The oracle prophesied that, in order to cleanse the city from this pollution, the Corinthians need to select seven boys and seven girls and have them spend a whole year inside Hera's precinct, as well as offer sacrifices to appease the goddess' anger.” (Christos K. Tsagalis, Early Greek Epic Fragments I: Antiquarian and Genealogical Epic)
Similarly, Pseudo-Apollodoros (Library 1.9.28) mentions an account in which Medea left her children in the temple of Hera Akraia where they were killed by the Corinthians: „Another tradition is that on her flight she left behind her children, who were still infants, setting them as suppliants on the altar of Hera of the Height; but the Corinthians removed them and wounded them to death.”
Finally a variant that brings Hera and Medea even closer is attested in a scholion to Pindar (Olympian 13.74g). According to this source, Zeus took an erotic interest in Medea but she refused to have anything to do with him out of respect or fear of Hera, whereupon Hera promised to make Medea's children immortal. She didn't keep her promise for whatever reason, however, and the children died anyways.
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aphoticfirefly · 7 hours
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the spirits of the forest have been speaking. They desire me as a sacrifice, but inkblade headcanons will save me. Will you please help??
Oh dear spirits of the forest please extend your kindness and spare my friend for i have brought you these humble offerings of inkblade headcanons for your liking and possibly, entertainment. 🙏 Okay first of all, ive had too many that it is now like a separate (canon to ME) timeline from the actual show but!!!
first and foremost we all think this: oisin hakinvar is a lover boy. truly the most, down bad i-will-worship-the-land-you-walk-in lover boy. adaine would talk about wanting to pummel him (rage crystaled oisin) in the face for what he did and he'd be okay with that. only if its her.
he is also, lovingly, a boy failure. he'd be the type to work himself up into that cool persona we saw him at the first seacaster party.
i had this one canon complicit idea that adaine would actually pursue him post party in the way that, as a person who has always put herself aside for everything, for her family, for her friends, she'd let herself have this one time to actually want something, someone. and i trust that adaine is a freaking vault that nobody would actually know until its too late. ⛈️(this is supported by the fact that we only saw adaine's full devastation once that sending spell came. our girl was holding out hope for him even after knowing he was a rat grinder and all the other allegations to their name)
on a lighter note, oisin would definitely text her out of nowhere at night "what type of ice cream flavor do you like?" while he's out at a convenience store. he'd definitely cast fly on himself to be able to deliver the goodies up on her wizard tower :)
following a mutual on twt's headcanon of adaine picking up embroidering, id think she'd definitely be lowkey in confessing or more so admitting how she feels. like perhaps, fixing a spot in oisin's clothes by embroidering a flower of love (purple lilacs, they mean first love)
id love for adaine and oisin to get matching wizarding tattoos once they get together, the type where they get an even extra buff if they're within a certain proximity to each other!! would literally be so cool!!
thinking of adaine playfully punching oisin after hearing his cringey joke by going "what, no furious fists this time?"
its canon to me that oisin in his public social media will barely post while having his priv (with only ivy in it) to react to adaine's public selfies (loser)
oh and oisin's feelings for adaine (that in rage crystal mode got warped into obsession) is definitely definitely connected to dragonborns having traits deeply rooted to honor and how at the pursuit of excellence it only takes another more talented strong wizard for oisin to take notice of our girl.
i totally word vomited this is a lot and i dont think i have said everything but i dont know how else to say anything i hope this helped free you anon! stay away from the spirits of the forest next time!!
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thisapplepielife · 1 day
Text
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Written for a @astrangersummer.
You Hear That?
Week #4 Prompt: Camping | Word Count: 3850 | Rating: T | POV: Robin | Pairings: Platonic Stobin, Pre-Steddie | Characters: Robin, Steve, Eddie, Corroded Coffin, The Party, Nancy & Jonathan | CW: Language, Recreational Drug Use, Underage Drinking | Tags: S3, Reluctant Camping, Unexpected Crossing of Paths, Platonic Stobin, Corroded Coffin Boys, Pre-Steddie, Flirting
This is set during the S3 finale. Happening between Starcourt and the "three months later" time jump.
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"Camping. Capital camp. Lowercase…ing," Steve says, trailing off at the end, his forehead wrinkling up in confusion as he clearly tries to think through the dumb thing he just said.
"Well, that kinda fell apart on you, didn't it, dingus?" Robin asks, arching her eyebrow in his direction.
"Shut up. You know what I mean. Camping! Fun!" Steve shouts, far too close to her face.
"Back off, Boogaloo. And I beg to differ. Camping is not fun. Camping is torture, and I'm not signing up to be tortured with you again. One and done, at least per summer, that's my official policy."
Steve gives her the eyes, but they aren't gonna work. She's immune to his wiles. The Harrington Charm doesn't do anything to her loins, unfortunately for him.
"No," she says, and that's that. End of discussion.
Three hours later, here she stands, right in the middle of Hunting & Camping, a store in town she never thought she'd ever have to step foot into.
"Steve, you know what lives in those woods. Do you have a death wish?"
"C'mon! There's been nothing, nada, since Starcourt. It's done. Over with. Gone. We can live our lives, go camping, anything we choose."
"Great. But we do not choose camping," Robin insists, "We aren't camping people, are we? There's no haircare in the woods, Steve. Think about that. Long and hard."
"Fine. You stay here. I'll go camping alone," Steve says, crossing his arms across his chest.
"You're not going camping alone!" she screeches, because he'll be killed for sure.
"You're right, I'm not. The kids are demanding to come along. So, it's me and Jonathan."
"Well, that sounds fun for the both of you. Who will come home with a black eye? History says-"
Steve interrupts, "Yeah, yeah. Exactly. So, you have to go. You and Nance. So the girls can come along. Joyce will allow El to go, but only if you ladies go, too."
"Chief Hopper will roll over in his grave if El goes camping with Mike Wheeler present. You and I both know that."
"Well, good thing he'll never know, I guess," Steve says, defiant. "C'mon, Buckley. Are you with me or not?" 
She's always with him, now. That's just how it's gonna be, maybe forever. Or at least until they get eaten in the woods they have no damn business traipsing into.
"Fine, I'm with you. But mark me down as a hostage." 
"Great, love to hear it," Steve says, a big smile on his face, and she reluctantly smiles back. It's contagious, even if she knows this is a terrible idea for many, many reasons.
The trek out to Skull Rock is pretty shitty, but she keeps up. Walking alongside the not so prissy Nancy Wheeler, Erica, El and Max. She should have worn better shoes. Steve should have told her to wear better shoes. Nancy is in hiking boots and Robin is not at all surprised that she's prepared for life in ways Robin will probably never be. 
Up ahead, the boys are arguing, causing a ruckus, and Steve is clearly regretting this decision. Good. He should. This was a terrible idea of, like, epic proportions. Maybe worse than working in a mall with a Russian secret lair underneath it.
"How did you even get to come?" Robin asks Erica. Because she didn't expect her to be standing there on the curb with Lucas, her My Little Pony sleeping bag under her arm.
"Tina is covering for me, duh, so I can hang out with you nerds. Don't know why I even want to though," she says, snippy, and Robin grins. She's funny.
"Maybe we should have invited Tina," Robin says.
"And risk her seeing I even know you nerds? Absolutely not," Erica says, like she's totally disgusted, and Robin laughs. 
"Okay, hot shot," she answers, watching as Nancy stops behind Steve and the boys, as they scout out a spot that might work.
"Here?" Jonathan asks, and Steve nods, agreeing.
Steve is finishing putting up the tents, all of them, because nobody is helping him, not even Nancy. He kind of had this coming, it was all his terrible idea.
"You hear that?" Steve asks, head turned towards the sky, like he's a damn dog. 
"Hear what?" Robin asks. She doesn't hear anything. "Is it a monster? A bear? It better not be a bear, I swear-"
"It's not a bear. It's a guitar," Steve says, driving the last of the tent poles into the ground.
"A guitar? In the woods?" Who the hell would be playing a guitar in the woods. Probably some sort of demented fairy, destined to murder them all, given the opportunity. 
"I hear what I hear, Buckley. I'm gonna investigate," Steve says.
"Well, it was good knowing you, Harrington," Robin answers, because everybody knows you don't go blundering into the woods, especially if it sounds like you're being lured there, for fuck's sake.
Steve would definitely be the first to die in a horror movie.
Except, she knows that's not true. He's more capable than she ever could have expected, especially for being such a big dingus.
Steve just waves her off, and starts stomping off into the underbrush. Heading towards the sound she definitely doesn't hear.
But after a little hesitation, she follows. He can't go alone. She knows what could happen if he does.
"I knew you'd come," he crows, pleased with himself.
"Shut up, dingus," she mutters, and the further they walk, the more she thinks Steve was right. There is the faint sound of a guitar.
And laughing. 
Steve pushes apart the branches of a bush, just enough for them to see through it, together. Spying. 
It feels familiar.
And there's the culprit, Eddie Munson from band, sitting around a fire with some other boys, playing his guitar. Jeff Williams, Jackie's older brother, is one of them, she's pretty sure. 
They have a case of beer, and she's pretty certain that's the faint stench of weed hanging in the air.
"It's just Eddie Munson," Steve whispers, like she isn't aware of that. 
"Yeah, I have eyes, I can see that it's Eddie and his cronies."
Steve lets the branches go, and she is sure they're gonna turn around and leave, but they aren't that lucky. Honestly, they'd have no luck at all if they didn't have bad luck.
"Hey! Who the fuck is there?" Eddie yells, the guitar playing ceasing.
Steve rolls his eyes, pushing forward, out into the open, "It's just me, Munson, cool your jets."
"What the fuck are you doing out here, Harrington?" Eddie asks, then clearly catches a glimpse of Robin, "Oh. I see."
"Ew, no, you see nothing," Robin says, feeling the urge to clear up that misunderstanding right away. 
"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize band geek Robin Buckley was too good for King Steve Harrington."
"Way too good," she snarks, and Eddie laughs, really laughs, and Steve doesn't, but she can tell he's amused and not mad.
"If you're not out here to fuck, then what brings you two into our neck of the woods?" Eddie asks, slouching over towards them.
"Your neck of the woods? I'm the one that popularized this spot, I'll have you know," Steve snaps, bitchy, arms crossed.
Robin smiles.
"Is that so?" Eddie asks, tilting his head, offering Steve a big, predatory smile.
"Definitely sure that's so," Steve answers, not backing down.
"That's not how I've heard it," one of the other guys shouts from near the fire they've lit, and Robin isn't sure who he is. 
"And you are? The forest authority?" Robin asks, challenging him.
"Yep. That's me," he snaps back, but doesn't offer up his name.
"That's just Gareth," Eddie says, "don't mind him."
Oh, no way. Gareth Jones? The goofy kid she had to deal with at her job at The Hawk last summer that drove her insane? His mother dropped him off nearly every afternoon, money in hand, and he always made a fucking mess with his popcorn and Reese's Pieces. He might be the number one reason she took the job at Scoops this summer, instead of going back to theater. Looking at him now, he's sure changed. Growth spurts are a bitch, she supposes. 
"Nice hair," she snarks at him, looking at his poodle-looking head. He's clearly trying to grow it out, probably to be more like Eddie, but it just isn't there yet, and his curls definitely aren't making things easy on him.
"What are you doing out here, anyway? Dirty freak orgy?" Steve asks, and Robin doesn't know how she got so lucky to have such a bitchy boy as a best friend, but she loves her good fortune. 
Eddie laughs, and she sees Steve smile at him.
"Why? You wanna join?" Eddie asks, leering, taking a lazy, sauntering step closer to Steve, assuming he'll back down. Eddie's hands are framing his belt buckle, drawing the eye, even her eye, and it's so gross but she's also very intrigued to see how this pans out. 
Eddie's not gonna scare Steve with the fear of the queer, and she was right, Steve doesn't back down, like she knew he wouldn't.
"Maybe I do," Steve says, rubbing his lips together, tongue wetting them in a gross taunting way, and Robin wants to spray him with a garden hose, but doesn't have that option, so instead she just watches as Eddie's eyes flick down to Steve's slick, glossy lips. 
Gross. Fuck her whole life. She takes back all the stuff about loving her good fortune. This is bad fortune. Like, empty fortune cookie levels of bad luck. Russians under the ice cream shop you work in, rotten luck. Honestly.
But Steve wins this round, because Eddie is the one that retreats, but he's laughing as he does it, waving his hand for them to follow. They're not gonna do that, right?
Wrong. Steve follows, so she trails behind.
"Gareth, you've met," Eddie says, "Jeff. Goodie. We didn't know we were encroaching on King Steve's territory, but we're just hanging out, camping, if that's alright with you two."
"I guess," Steve says, teasing, fucking flirting if she's not mistaken. Can't he ever turn it off? Ugh. "We're camping down there. With the kids I babysit. I heard your guitar, wanted to make sure you weren't straight out of Deliverance, or, like, ax murderers."
"Well, I am that, or haven't you heard?" Eddie asks, dimple showing up in the firelight. And Robin doesn't know how she's here right now. She should have stayed with Nancy and Jonathan and just let Steve be eaten by bears or monsters. Or Eddie Munson. Whatever.
"Heard what?" Steve asks.
"Hellfire Club!" Eddie shouts, waving his arms in an animated way, and Robin doesn't know what that is, and clearly Steve doesn't either.
"Sorry, man. Is that your band?" Steve asks, looking as confused as she feels.
"No, that's Corroded Coffin!" Gareth snaps, popping off, all pissy from the log he's sitting on.
"Sorry, my bad," Steve says.
"We play at The Hideout on Tuesdays," Gareth says, eyes narrowed.
"You play in a bar. You?" Robin asks, not believing a word of this. Not possible.
Gareth starts to answer, but Eddie holds up his hand and cuts him off.
"I'm channeling Satan. And I'm offended you don't know that, Harrington," Eddie says, and Steve's face is pure confusion, and Eddie laughs, taking pity on him, "It's the D&D club I run," Eddie adds, and Robin sees the light bulb pop on over Steve's head, like he's in a goddamn cartoon.
"Oh! The kids play that," Steve says.
"Do they now?" Eddie asks, not believing him, clearly.
"Unfortunately."
"And how old are these kids?" Eddie asks.
"Freshman, in the fall-" Steve says.
"Fresh blood," one of the guys says, cackling under his breath, as Steve keeps talking.
"-but I think Will is moving," Steve finishes.
"Will Byers, the zombie boy?" Eddie asks.
"Ssshh!" Steve hisses, "Don't call him that, okay?"
Eddie holds up his hands, backing off.
"Okay, okay, Harrington, don't get so worked up. I was just kidding," Eddie says, and the other boys all laugh.
"Well, it's not funny," Steve says, softly, "just. Don't. Okay?"
"Okay," Eddie concedes. 
"Thank you, he's been through a lot," Steve says, looking back over his shoulder, like the kids might all be snooping right behind them. Which, fair enough. They would totally do that, given half a chance.
"Well, since you're here, you want a beer or…?"
And Steve's nodding, like an idiot. 
Robin snags his arm, "Nancy will kill you." 
And Eddie takes a step back, hands going up, "Well, we wouldn't want the girlfriend mad." 
"She's not my girlfriend," Steve says, looking at Robin, "and Nancy can handle the kids for a bit, yeah? She's got Jonathan."
Robin is sure this is a bad idea. Nancy will be pissed about being left, and probably be pissed at Steve for having a beer or a toke, or whatever he has planned, while he's supposed to be in charge of the kids. 
"You're camping with your ex-girlfriend, her new boyfriend and...Robin from band? Oh, how the mighty have fallen." 
Steve doesn't take the bait, just pushes forward and sits down on the fallen log, right next to Gareth, who squawks in protest. 
Eddie follows, and hands Steve a beer, and then offers one to Robin. She shakes her head no, one of them needs to keep their sanity, she thinks, and then she watches as Eddie lights up a joint. Great. 
They pass it around, and she's not sure what they're doing here. These guys don't like them, and they definitely don't like these guys. 
Every time Eddie came into Scoops, as soon as he was gone, Steve would say something about Eddie "The Freak" Munson. And now he's just hanging out with him, like that's a normal thing to do? 
It's not a normal thing to do. Not at all.
"So, you're babysitting tonight?" Eddie asks.
"Unfortunately," Steve answers.
"Shame, I'd like to get The King all fucked up," Eddie says, leaning forward, elbows on his knees, hands cupping his face.
"Don't call me that. High school is over. Steve is fine," Steve says, and the other boys all laugh, and Eddie throws up another hand and they all stop.
Toadies. The toadiest of the toadies.
"Steve," Eddie says, and it's positively lewd. 
"Thank you," Steve says, taking a long drag, holding it in his lungs, showing off, slowly killing himself in the process, she's sure of it. Idiot.
Robin shakes her head.
Then she feels something brushing her shin, and jumps, expecting a snake, or something worse, but it's just the boy she doesn't know, toeing at her with his shoe, offering her a can of Coke, cold and dripping with ice water from the cooler at his side.
She takes it, "Thanks. I'm Robin."
"Goodie," he says, like he isn't at all interested.
"Goodie?" she asks, and makes eye contact with Jeff Williams.
"It's a nickname," Jeff explains, like she might have thought otherwise? 
But she just nods.
"I'm in your class," Goodie says dryly, and are they? She swore they were a year younger.
"Sorry, we must not have classes together very often, if ever," she says.
"Of course we don't, you were always in all those smart classes," Goodie snaps, and she laughs. Mrs. Click's history class with Steve Harrington was not the smart class, even if she was a year ahead of where she was supposed to be. 
"Eddie, though…"
"Hey!" Eddie snaps, having heard it, somehow, despite talking to Steve at the same time. 
Robin knows Eddie is headed into his third senior year, this time with her class. The rumor mill had been running wild at the end of last year, and it seems to be true, she guesses.
"Well, third time's the charm?" she asks, because what the fuck do you say to that? Sorry you flunked high school, again.
"Here's to hoping," Eddie answers, then turns his attention back to Steve.
Nancy really is gonna kill them if they don't head back, and soon. 
"Steve, Nancy…"
"I know," Steve answers, "let me finish this beer and we're gone."
She nods, because unless she wants to stomp back through the woods all by herself, she doesn't have much choice in the matter. 
Gareth hands her a stick with a marshmallow stuck in the end, and she takes it. She could have a s'more if she has to wait. It's the least they could do, she supposes, and she pokes it into the fire, starting to toast it up.
"Have you ever had one with a Reese's cup?" Gareth asks, holding up the package, an offer.
She hasn't, but now she wants to, for sure, and takes it from his hand, nodding in thanks. 
"You used to work at the theater, right?" he asks.
"Unfortunately," she says.
"I went there a lot," he says.
"Oh, I'm well aware," Robin says, snarky.
And Goodie and Jeff both laugh, and it really wasn't that funny, she doesn't think.
"Haha, she knew you had a crush on her!" Goodie says, poking at Gareth with his roasting stick, as Gareth tries to bat it away.
"How embarrassing for you," Jeff adds, smirking, catching Robin's eye.
He did what now?
"I did not!" Gareth screeches in a way that says he probably, definitely did. 
"I'm sure he didn't," she says, though, cutting him some slack, "If he did, he surely wouldn't have made such a gross mess for me to clean up everyday he was in there, right?"
"See? I was gross," Gareth clings to the accusation, like that's an improvement. Whatever helps him sleep at night.
"Okay, Pig-Pen," Jeff says, and Gareth is flushed. Probably from the embarrassment, but if he's not stupid, he'll play it off as the heat rolling off the sure to be illegal campfire.
Goodie laughs at the taunting, and she is so distracted that she almost burns her marshmallow, but she pulls it out and blows the flame out, just leaving a nice char. Sweet. Just how she likes them.
She puts the peanut butter cup on the graham cracker, and places the warm marshmallow on top, covers it with the other cookie, and is just squeezing it all together into a gooey mess when Steve leans over her shoulder and plucks it right out of her hand, taking a bite.
"Bad dingus, no!" she snaps, but just starts the process to toast another marshmallow. It'll be much easier to do that than fight for her original one from Steve's mouth. And she knows where that mouth has been, so no thank you.
"Thanks, Rob," Steve says, and she grumbles in response, but Gareth, Jeff and Goodie all laugh. Eddie is too busy plucking away at his guitar again, and he really doesn't sound half-bad.
She makes her second s'more, they say their thank yous and goodbyes, and start walking back towards their own campsite.
"So, what was that?" she asks, looking over at Steve, but it's really too dark now to see any of his features.
"What was what?" he asks, and it sounds like he honestly doesn't know.
"Whatever that was with Eddie?"
"What was? He's Eddie "The Freak" Munson, it was nothing," he says, and it doesn't sound like he's lying. Is he unaware he was flirting? Is that even possible?
She weighs her options. She's really gonna need more data. Maybe they'll cross paths again with Eddie Munson, and she'll be able to suss it out better.
"Nothing, I guess," she answers, and he just nods like he's not the least bit curious about what she meant.
Nancy and Jonathan are waiting at the edge of the campsite, and Nancy has a flashlight in hand. When she sees them approaching, she shines it right into their eyes.
"Jeez, Nance, put that thing down," Steve says, shielding his eyes from the onslaught of light, as Robin does the same over her own eyes.
"Where the hell have you two been?" Nancy asks, hands on her hips and she looks just like Steve, like that. It makes Robin smile.
"Bears. Checking for bears," Steve says.
"Well, either those bears threw shit at you in self-defense, or you have chocolate smeared all over your faces," Nancy declares, oh so dryly.
They both reach up to wipe at their faces, licking their lips.
"That's what I thought," Nancy accuses.
"Steve heard a guitar, it was Eddie Munson and his friends. They had s'mores," Robin caves, admitting to everything. Well, almost everything. 
"You ate s'mores? From Eddie Munson?" Jonathan asks, then mumbles under his breath, "Wonder what those were laced with?"
Robin stills, she doesn't want to be drugged again, no way, but then laughs. She'd opened the candy herself, and unless Eddie had the forethought to lace the marshmallows or graham crackers, it seems unlikely.
And she's pretty sure Eddie's reputation is more bark than bite, anyway.
The kids must hear them talking, because they cause a commotion coming over, Dustin getting right into Steve's face.
"Back off, Henderson," Steve says, holding him by both shoulders, pushing him away.
"I smell beer! Steve's been drinking beer while in charge of us!" Dustin screams, and the other kids just look at him like he's lost his mind.
"So?" Lucas asks.
"Can I have one?" Mike tries, and Nancy and Steve both snap no at the same time, and he turns sullen.
"I had one beer, to be nice. To be friendly. Just to make sure we won't be, you know, messed with, or any of that dumb shit," Steve argues, hands waving.
"Sure, sounds likely," Dustin says, like the sarcastic little shit that he is. 
"Well, that's what happened," Steve says, not rising to Dustin's bait, at least not yet.
"And just who did you have this beer with?" Dustin demands to know, hands on his hips. Have they all picked up this gesture from Steve? It's looking likely, at this point, and Robin worries for herself that she might be doing it without realizing. The horror.
"Eddie Munson," Steve says.
"Eddie Munson!" Dustin screeches, "He runs the Hellfire Club at the high school!"
"Yeah, yeah, I've heard," Steve says, resting his hand on the top of Dustin's head, ruffling his hair through his hat, "I put in a good word for you guys."
"No way, did you really?" Dustin asks, looking up at Steve, awed.
"I did, I told him to look for you in the fall. Now leave me be, you little dickhead, and don't make me take it back," Steve answers, and Dustin rushes back towards the other boys, suddenly excited about the prospect of maybe having an in to get into Hellfire Club.
Whatever floats his boat, she supposes.
Robin looks at the tents, and the small, very contained fire Nancy and Jonathan built while they were gone. 
Looking at it now, camping might actually be fun. 
At least for one night, anyway.
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If you want to write your own, or see more entries for this challenge, pop on over to @astrangersummer and follow along with the fun! 🏕️
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dearreader · 23 hours
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hello fellow members of the tortured poets department.
apologies for my absence from meeting, was being a little to tortured and not enough poet lately 😑.
but i would like to enter into evidence the songs for the days i missed. because it is late i might combine some songs together if they’re next to each other and if the idea for both over laps.
because of that this post will be analyzing fresh out the slammer and florida!!! but specifically how these songs start to explore more about the “american dream” theme that runs throughout the album. i’ve been waiting until these two songs to fully explore it as florida!!! is well… the most obvious place for me to start.
previous days: fortnight; THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT; my boy only breaks his favorite toys; down bad; so long, london; but daddy i love him
references to america are prevalent throughout the album. this does make perfect sense actually considering taylor had set up home base in london and even wrote songs mentioning certain spots (and even liking a boy from london). so taylor choosing to focus the next album on america and coming home after being away fits very well. taylor spent years away because she was afraid of people and moved to a different country to get away. but when she was left all alone and the relationship ended (so long, london) she had to go back home.
this is what we see in fresh out the slammer. the song feels more like a transition song, ie. moving from one location to the other. the song over all is not one of my favorites on the album as while it is nice i don’t feel like it adds as much depth. though i do think it adds more details to certain things touched on. specifically with taylor personifying london as her former partner transitions a bit to this song as she refers to him as a place and what that place did to her. it’s especially interesting to me seeing her refer to it as a prison at times considering in reputation there was also those motifs too but with fame and she felt more sheltered with her then partner. but now it is shown to be also caging her. she ran from one cage to another to protect herself, which is valid, but is now realizing that instead of seeing it as a safe haven.
the main part i want to focus on the song though is how she refers to her next partner viewing her as “the girl of his american dreams”. this is an interesting line and totally not referencing the 1975 as it paints a very distinct picture. the phrase “the girl of his dreams” means the person he thinks would be the ideal partner. this is shown in the media though as negative or in a overwhelming personification with the “manic pixie dream girl” archetype. so already the phrase is on shakey ground, but there’s nothing wrong with saying a partner is “your dream” partner. it can be a compliment.
however, taylor specifically adding the “american dream” to the phrases changes it entirely. she’s now evoking the idea of the american dream that’s the pull yourself up by your boot straps and end up with a house, a car, a wife, and two kids idea. i’m not going to sit here and dissect THAT cause that’s a whole ass lecture. but taylor saying this man views her as “the girl of his american dreams” is saying that she is the ideal partner to settle down with and start a life with. to have a family and get married. which is also noted on many other tracks as something a partner did to her but never followed through. which is ironically what the american dream is. it’s a lie sold to people to keep working and they can hope for a better future. but in actuality they have to keep working and climbing relentlessly to achieve it and never can reach it.
so by taylor saying she’s the girl of his american dreams, he’s selling her a false narrative that she desperately wants and craves but he has no intention on following through and will just use her until he’s done. it’s a very interesting word choice i really like.
and how that idea connects to florida!!!
florida is probably one of the most notoriously known states in america next texas and new york. it’s a hub for weird stories and hurricanes and just all together a chaotic place. but people still love it. in fact, it’s also another part of the american dream as the idea for a lot of people is to retire in florida after they lived their life. which is why i wanted to combine these two as they flow into each other.
taylor uses florida as both a place physically but also metaphorically (and technically as a person if we view it as the “miracle move in drug”) which ties into her using london as both a place and person. florida is the “state” your in post break up and leans into the chaoticness of the actual state. she uses the wildness that everyone has of florida to describe a post break up high.
there are MANY things she uses to describe this. but let’s first look at her referring to her partner as a “hurricane with her name/i got drunk and i dared it to wash me away/barricaded in the bathroom with a bottle of wine”. hurricanes aren’t a stranger to florida and have done extensive damage to the state. but taylor refers to it as a storm with her name, ie. he was made just for her and in this state he’s out to destroy her because of how much damage their relationship did to her overall. but she acknowledges that she did tempt it, she did let it get this far and she had to drink her way through while hiding just to make it out alive.
but this florida, no one asks for questions about why you hate your ex because no one else in this state cares. in fact, they’ll help you hide the body if you help them. so taylor can throw her former lovers who she considered her home town (a reference to london boy “home is where the heart is, but that’s not where mine lives”/“but god i love the english”) but he never considered her more than a passing guest or her feeling like she was arrested there, because of her love for him and wanting to make it work or him keeping her locked away is open to interpretation. so she’s pissed, she’s running free and wanting to escape it all and is in the one state no one cares because they’re going through hell to and can’t bother to care about you.
in this case taylor is referring to florida as the clarity of post break up and running wild and free. which also does tie back into my previous days post about but daddy i love him as that plays into the classic romance piece of a forbidden love. it’s a very quintessential american idea of trucks through fences and small town elders saying to stay away from the good girl. and taylor even introduces it in fortnight by refrencing florida and “another night lost in america”. she is actively introducing the listener on page one to the idea of her longing to run away from it all and have freedom, but freedom looks different there than in florida.
bdilh->florida!!! just screams the idea of american hopes and dreams and young love. it’s wild and loud and messy and destructive and doesn’t see the future. which then later gets wrapped up somewhat in i hate it here from the anthology tracks. because taylor saying “i’d say the 1830’s but without all the racists and getting married off for the highest bid… nostalgia is a minds trick if i had been there i’d hate it” which can be her acknowledging that the idea this man sold to her and the freedom she fantasized about wasn’t what it actually was and hates it in hindsight.
this post is disjointed, and i apologize, but the idea of the american dream running through has been something i keep going back to on relistens and i wanted to introduce it to the community for discussion. thank you again for letting this be late.
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In a Miraculous X Rescue-Bots Crossover, what kind of Akumatized Villian would the Burns become? And what's a possible reason they be Akumatized?
Sorry for the long wait but I really just stopped enjoying MLB for reasons I can't list. But I did made an MLB x TFRB idea crossover with another mutual but just with who would be the holders.
For the Akumas, to be fair I don't want to say because I know that HawkMoth would give them the most horrible villain costumes... but well. Some are simple to say while others could be more of an accident.
-I like to imagine Charlie getting akumatized because of some accident that involved one of his kids (like Cody) and him falling to protect them making him feel down enough for Gabriel to take control of him. His Akuma form would probably be someone able to ¨protect¨ everyone by imprisoning them in little cages that can only be opened by the hands of Charlie, so he would be a pretty tough opponent to fight.
-Kade is kinda easy but hard as well because as much of an ego as he has, he is still on the good path. Is mostly his ego and superior views of himself that made him flawed and an annoyance to others. That being said, when everyone backs an eye on him and just decides to ignore him is what makes him angry. It was something planned by Dani and Graham just to mess with their older brother (it could also be caused by his siblings bringing the Gremlin stuff back but you can decide). If Hawkmoth sends an Akuma to Kade then he would feed the image of Kade of being an invincible superior person Kade desperately desires. His only weakness would be recognizing that he did wrong...
-For Dani is kind of a trick because just like Kade she uses ego and arrogance to hide when she is faced with something she can't handle but unlike Kade she can break much easier than the rest of his brothers and father. It is probably the feeling of being the only girl in the family and being seen as nothing but air support that would make her want others to feel the same and reveal their true colors so they stop judging her. She would still fly above and be free from the sight of others, but everyone who saw hers flying would ¨reveal¨ who they are on the inside, all the grossness and horrible thoughts that they keep in secret would surface making Dani much better off an ¨example¨ than her brothers and father.
-OOF Graham is a tricky one as well but I feel that the ep ¨Feed the Monster¨ gave us a good example of what Graham could be as an Akuma or just a villain/monster in any universe. What could trigger this is really hard to decide as he is a very chill guy, but maybe it could be just like with his father that Graham failed to protect someone and got mad at himself believing himself to be a monster more than a hero. Hawkmoth would use the weak image Graham has over him to twist it into a monster unable to control his strength.
-Now for Cody... this one gonna be easy actually as we have plenty of reasons as to why Cody would be akumatized but at the same time reasons why he would be immune to becoming an Akuma, our boy shines so much that an Akuma would disintegrate if it touches him. But, as I said we got reasons, and since the past Akumas I mentioned are related to anger and deceptions, what about we talk about kindness??? Cody just like the rest of his family sacrifices stuff, time, life, and emotions to be a hero even when he is still on the sidelines. As he keeps seeing his family being put into dangerous situations, making them sacrifice their own lives and wishes over the safety of others makes him feel something behind his brain that just... wants to be out. Something like a selfish desire could not be granted by normal means, but thanks to Gabriel Akuma's, that one thing Cody always desired could be accomplished. In Griffin Rock there would be no danger anymore, no more crazy robots or people putting themselves in danger, just tranquility and normality with the Burns family being an example of an everyday family. Thought, such an elusion could be broken easily by people who know Cody the best, the kid won't fall that easily as he knows every little dirty detail of the people on the island, and if anyone tries to break the perfect world he made for himself and his family... they will have to deal with true despair.
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The Dancer and The Rockstar Part 6 (Joe Elliott X Reader)
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Part 6 is here 🫶
The band had made their way on stage and had gotten through about four of their songs. So far the show was incredible, Y/N watched Joe move around on stage as the rest of the band played the song. They always had to have some kind of dramatic ending. The riff to the fifth song started playing, which Y/N recognized as High N’ Dry. One of her favorites currently.
The crowd’s cheers were so loud they could easily be heard over the music. Y/N stepped a little closer to see the crowd, she noticed how all the girls screamed when Joe would do one of his usual sexy movements and how he would wink at them. It made her a bit jealous. The song ended, but the boys didn’t begin playing the next song, instead Joe put his mic back on the mic stand and he took a moment to look at the crowd. 
“How are we all feeling tonight?” Once again the crowd cheered.
“What? I can’t hear you!” This time the crowd roared louder.
“This next one that we have for you tonight, is a song I wrote a long time ago before Def Leppard was even an idea. I wrote it for a girl who believed in me from the day we met in 1964 all the way till now. This is for you, Y/N.” He turned to look at her with a smile as the intro began to fill the room. 
“Mirror Mirror just watching with your eye of glass,” He turned back to the crowd, “You’re just a wheel of fortune with something that I wanna ask”
“Mirror, mirror got my fate lyin' in your hands” .The music began to get slightly louder, “you're the fool, you're the juggler, hangman and lover, you're not like no other.” Was I really like no other? Y/N thought. When Joe sang the song for her earlier that day, she was certainly not expecting much, but its sound somehow had the ability to bring her back to the dance studio, back to when she would look at the young rockstar through the mirror. The band managed to make a song that sounded like her childhood, it was incredible. 
“Take a look into my eyes,” Sang the band and Joe, “Tell me what you see,” 
She smiled at the sight in front of her, the energy the band put into this song was amazing. They had put energy into the other songs they had performed earlier, but not as much as this song. Probably because Y/N was there. 
The solo began to fill the room and Joe walked towards Y/N. He towered over her with a smile on his face. She looked up at him, but she didn’t say a word. Her lips were slightly parted as she breathed slowly. The solo slowly faded away and Joe moved the mic in front of his mouth as he began to sing once again, “You’re the fool, You’re the juggler.” He winked, “Hangman and lover, you’re like no other, so,” and then the chorus started again as Joe walked back out on stage, with his eyes on her and hers on him. 
The chorus played twice in the end and Joe turned back to the crowd for those two choruses. When the song slowly faded away in the background, Joe turned back to the dancer and both Sav and Steve smirked at each other. 
The band played about five songs before the show ended and it was incredible, it’s like each Leppard show that Y/N sees gets better each time. 
Rick and Sav came off stage first, “You boys did amazing!” 
“Thank you, love,” Sav grinned.
“Thanks,” Said Rick. Pete and Joe went out on the other side and Steve exited the stage from Y/N’s side as well. 
“Do you boys want to get a drink at the club nearby?” The boys nodded, well four of the boys did. Joe wasn’t even there. 
“Of course,” Said Steve, “Let me go find Joe and tell him.” 
Steve walked backstage assuming that Joe would be in his dressing room. When he arrived at the room, he saw that the door was closed, but there was a faint light coming from underneath the door. He lifted his fist to knock on the door.
“Joe, mate, you in there?” 
Joe did not respond, instead he just opened the door, “‘Ello Steve.” 
“Are you coming with us to the bar or..? “I don’t know,” 
“What’s wrong?” 
Joe sighed before opening his mouth to speak, “I’m nervous.” He stated.
“Are you now?” Steve said in a knowing tone, “Nervous about Y/N?” 
“Yes,” Joe put his face in his hands from embarrassment.
“Joe, you’re in love.”
“She’s the kindest, most gorgeous girl I'd ever seen, how can I not be?” Joe questioned.
“I bet you a million pounds she likes you too.” Steve claimed and motioned for Joe to follow him out of the venue. 
Y/N, Sav, Rick, and Pete began to leave the building to feel the cold breeze of the night in London. 
The club they walked in was small and old. It had a fancy, but slightly dirty carpet on the floor. The ceiling was low and there was very  little lighting in the place. There was only one person behind the bar counter and there were only about five other people sitting at the tables. It was surprising because usually at this time of day lots of people would be in places like these. 
The boys and the dancer sat at one of the more hidden tables, just so they could speak privately without fans. Leppard was still a small band, so their fan base had yet to grow.  Sav and Pete went to grab some drinks for the group and Y/N remained at the table with Rick. 
“So, Rick, how old are you?” 
“Uh, 17,” He responded.
“Wow,
“Yeah, I joined the band when I was 15,”
“You are an incredible drummer, love.” 
“Thank you.”  
The Sav and Pete made their way back to the table with the drinks and about three minutes later, Joe and Steve arrived. 
“Finally, you boys made it!” Pete said. 
“Yeah, sorry for getting here kinda late.” Steve sat next to Rick and Joe sat next to Y/N. Joe snuck a glance at the girl next to him, obviously when you like somebody you can’t help but glance over at them every now and then, Y/N glanced at him too. Surprisingly Y/N and Joe hadn’t interacted since the band played Mirror Mirror. It was a little strange. 
“It’s all good, man.” Sav smiled as he poured drinks for the boys.
“Cheers mates!” Said Joe as they all raised their glasses to celebrate another fantastic performance.
After a few drinks and stories y/n asked the boys, “Was that your first time playing Mirror Mirror for an audience?”
“Yes, it was in fact our first time playing it for an audience.” Rick responded as he drank his coke. 
“It was spectacular,” the dancer exclaimed. 
“You think so?” Joe finally said.
“Why wouldn’t I think so?” She looked into his eyes and suddenly he lost his entire train of thought, “I don’t know….”.
The entire room went quiet, every person that was in the bar just disappeared as Joe and Y/N appeared in their own little world. It was just the two of them. 
“Y/N,”
“Joe,”
“Would you be my girl?” Silence filled the room once again, “I get it if you’d never spea-” Y/N put her finger on his lips to shush him. 
“I would love to be your girl.” 
“Really?” Joe could stop himself from smiling, “are you sure?”
“Joe, I’ve never been more sure of anything in myself.” She leaned a little closer to him and allowed herself to kiss his lips, it startled Joe a bit, but then he relaxed, closed his eyes and deepened the kiss. 
When they pulled apart, they looked at each other once again. All those years ago, they were just best friends, did everyone around them know that they liked each other? Probably, but the important thing now is that they are together. 
The band paid the check and stood up. Joe and Y/N walked hand in hand to the door and then Steve walked up to Joe.
“Joe,” he turned to the blonde guitarist.
“Yes?” 
“You owe me a million pounds.” He grinned and went back to the other boys. 
“What?” Y/N asked.
“Uh Steve bet a million pounds that you liked me back and turns out he was right, and….” Joe chuckled. 
“And?” 
“I haven’t got a million pounds.” 
“I think you will. Just give it a few years.” 
“You think so?” 
“Of course, rockstar.” She winked. 
The band made it back to their tour bus and began getting ready for bed. Their next destination would be Heathrow Airport so that they could take the play to Paris, which is where their next show was. 
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taglist:
@the80srewinders @moon-fashioned @nikkisix @elliotts-personal-property @stevesfuzzypinkslippers @joes-sha-la-la-la-girl @genxrocker @steveinscarlet @armageddonviv @leppardcampbelllove @i-love-def-leppard
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elftwink · 5 months
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one of my favourite extremely clueless closeted trans person moments in my life was in like 8th grade when i started writing a novel (read: notebook filled with disjointed scenes that never ever formed a cohesive plot) with 2 main characters, one who was a girl and one who was a boy, but since i was a girl [citation needed] i was endlessly worried about the accuracy of my male character, whether or not i had correctly written the Male Perspective, like there was some Secret to writing [being] male that i was locked out of, that of course anyone who even so much as glanced at this notebook would be able to Tell i didn't know anything about being a boy, a thing i was worried about exclusively for cisgender writing reasons (of course). so i, searching for an expert opinion [peer who would have insight into Boy], went to a friend and presented my notebook and was like "is this was Boys are like?" and my friend was like. uhm. i guess. i think you're overthinking it though. and i was like oh hmm probably. perhaps it is more important to focus on character building rather than trying to rely on gender as shorthand for character traits. i shall do no more critical thinking on why it worried me in the first place because if i don't repress every gender thought related to me i'll explode with the force of 1000 suns. anyway time to get back to writing my spy novel with zero espionage
then several years went by and we both came out as transgender. i sometimes wonder if she thinks about that conversation bc while i was obviously too hysterically in my own head about gender to think about her experience (sorry i was in 8th grade. it happens to all of us), cannot imagine being a closeted 8th grader perhaps even eggmode still and have a girl come up to you and be like "you know what boys are like right?" and you have to be like yes (<- lying) and then before you graduate high school that girl ends up being a boy and shortly thereafter you announce you're a girl. what kind of comedy of errors is this
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