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reminiscingtonight · 1 year

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Break With Me

Leah Williamson x Reader

Word Count: 756

A/N: Based on the song by Shy Martin.

[WOSO Masterlist]

“Hey.”

It’s quiet out. Dark. It’s quite nearly midnight so you’re not sure what else you expected.

Leah’s leaning against her door, face half hidden by the night’s shadows.

“Hey.”

It’s only one word. But both of you can feel the weight hanging there.

There’s a lump in the back of your throat, and no method of swallowing can get it to go away. You weakly lift your arm, showing the bottle in your grasp.

“I brought a bottle of red.”

Shuffling a bit to the side, Leah lets you slip through the door. It’s only through pure painstaking will that you stop yourself from turning just the slightest, from pressing a soft kiss against Leah’s cheek. You pretend not to notice the way she bites at her lips, obviously thinking the same thing.

Sitting on the couch, close enough that you can feel her body heat but far enough where you aren’t touching, you can’t help but wonder how it’s become like this.

Your time here in England has been amazing. Playing overseas was never in your plans but when you got the opportunity to do so, you took it without a second thought. Arsenal was everything you dreamed of and more. Leah was everything you dreamed of and more.

Leah wasn’t someone you were expecting, but from the moment you met, it was like something just clicked. The two of you fell and fell hard.

Sometimes you wish you could go back to what it was like in the beginning. To the days where nothing else seemed to exist but the two of you.

Three years. That’s how long you had to delude yourself into thinking everything was going to work out for the better. That’s how long you had to delude yourself into thinking you’ve found your home.

It started as whispers. Your contract was up in the air, everyone knew that. You went into the new season not particularly aiming to get your contract renewed, but knowing your own worth to the team, it was always in the back of your mind.

It angered your girlfriend. “Why would you want to go? I’m here. I should be reason enough to stay.”

You didn’t know how to voice your thoughts. Leah was enough to stay for. You just didn’t know if you could hedge your bets on Arsenal thinking the same.

It started as whispers, the rumors that Arsenal wasn’t going to resign you.

The fighting instantly turned into nervous reassurances. Leah didn’t want you to worry. She tried to convince you out of looking around at other clubs. “Arsenal would be a fool to let you go.”

In the end it didn’t matter what you or Leah wanted.

It started as whispers and turned into a horrifying reality.

“Our time together has been great. But you’re just not what we’re looking for.”

Arsenal doesn’t offer you another contract.

And you have no choice but to go.

“I wanted you to stick around.”

It feels like a shot to the heart. You can hear the raw emotions in Leah’s voice.

You swallow. “I know.”

Leah wipes at her eyes. You pretend not to see the tears.

“I hate how this hurts.”

“I know,” you whisper.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. It wasn’t supposed to end like this. You and Leah, the two of you were supposed to be one of those great love stories. One of those couples where everything goes right and everyone lives happily ever after.

You knew it. She knew it. Everyone around you knew it.

So yeah, it hurts. And god does it hurt.

“Can you just-- can you hold me?”

A part of you wants to say no. The two of you have already hurt each other enough. Doing this would only hurt each other more.

But the other part of you knows you could never deny her anything.

Leah’s quick to burrow herself against you when you open your arms. It feels like home, how perfectly she fits there.

You shut your eyes, trying to commit all of this to memory. The feel of her breath puffing gently against your cheek. The feel of her presence calming your heart. The feel of how much you love her.

The feel of everything you ever wanted slipping through your fingertips.

And when the morning comes, you’re on your way to the airport. Back across the ocean. Back to a house that’ll never feel like home. Back to the life you had before you ever knew Leah.

#leah williamson x reader #leah williamson imagine #uswnt x reader #uswnt imagine #woso x reader #woso imagine #Ace writes

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gentlebeardsbarngrill · 5 months

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01/23/2024 Daily Recap

Hey all! It's been another long day, but we've got lots of new resources on how to help and things have been very busy!

=Renew As A Crew Updates=

Sources: Tumblr / Twitter / Instagram

So it sounds like some of the silence going on is related to RaaC adhering to the Global Strike with Social Media going on for Palestine this week. Please visit the sources above for more information, they also go over how to interact with each platform we're trying to woo (I didn't include that here because it's already in the Daily Renewal List)

=Cast & Crew Sightings=

As every day has been lately, the star of today was chaos dad himself, David Jenkins with that article that was mentioned last night from popverse.

Also for that matter, he's excited about being close to 80K

Dad wasn't the only one trolling max today, the Crew got deep into it to the point that caseybloys blocked quite a few of them and then they got the hashtag "#OhBloysHeMad" trending. Here are some highlights because I feel like all the tumblr folk need to know how hard twitter went today.

=== How to Help ===

As usual, please refer to the Renewal Task List for daily updates, but great news, we now have a Renewal Task List for our friends outside the US as well. Apparently there are different effort in different countries, so we split them up. Please let me know if there's anything additional / more countries you'd like to see!

Renewal Daily Task List - US

Renewal Daily Task List - Outside US

The Crew also got super creative and put up some awesome new resources for folks to use. I've added quite a few to the Renewal Daily Checklists, but if I missed any please let me know! Here's some examples:

UK Our Flag Means Death Updates

News from the UK Thank you to @lamentus1 and @libbyroseitm for the updates!

Here’s our report from the UK News from the UK As you probably know the second season of OFMD is yet to air in the UK. Today we had an email saying that an announcement about when it will be on TV and iPlayer here will happen “Incredibly soon”. We love the use of the word incredibly! In response to how helpful our contact has been with replies we sent a single email with lots of names on it thanking them. Our best predictions for when OFMD2 might air in the UK is late February or early March. Once Season 2 starts to air in the UK we think we will see a significant increase in interest in Our Flag Means Death. We are currently looking into ways to harness this energy! (Obviously we hope that we’ll be adopted before season 2 aires here, but if not…) One idea is to hold another watch party to coincide with the arrival of season 2 here. Another idea is to hold a flash mob. Possibly at the Cutty Sark in London. TBC. We’re working on ideas and would love to hear people’s thoughts! Please reach out to @lamentus1 with ideas!

= Pirate Omens Watch =

Pirate Omens Watch happened today on Twitter and will continue tomorrow through friday. For more details please reference below - I caught the second half and was a lot of fun! Lot's of parallels and great opportunities to tweet at @pricevideo about them!

== Articles ==

Max Delivered the Final Blow to the Horny, Quirky Comedy

Hungarian News: Ritkán látott összefogás egy elkaszált sorozatért

== COOL ANALYTICS ==

So something else that I found super cool was this post on twitter by @havethisonelife

Anyway, I just love that kinda thing, and seeing that come from articles about OFMD is just super cool.

===================================

Okay I think that's everything. As usual, if I missed anything drastic please let me know! There wasn't a whole lot going on on IG today, seemed like twitter was the show horse.

===================================

Evening Message of LOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE

You thought you were rid of me sending love-- but you were wrong!

Did you know you're fucking phenomenal? Like seriously. I read through all these tumblr threads, twitter, instagram, and all I fucking see is amazing people being fucking awesome to each other (and politely shitty to max which is also amazing).

People are posting in various places and saying they had a rough day, or they're sick (that was me!) and you kind buggers are reaching out and giving support and love and I'm so damn proud to be a part of this amazing crew. You are legit the best people I've ever met! (IRL or Internet).

Everyday you continue to impress me and every one of us with your creativity, kindness, ambition, and wonder. You make me laugh, I've cried a bit from some of the posts too (not a bad thing!) and in general just fucking make the world a better place. I can't wait to see all of you continue to shine, which reminds me of this quote:

"Nothing can dim the light that shines from within" - Maya Angelou

==================================

Alright, enough of the mushy stuff-- onto the Rhys and Taika eye-porn. (Is Rhys getting some head from Taika? Badummmshhhh, ok I'll leave now). Gnight!

#ofmd daily recap #our flag means death #our flag means us #ofmd #save ofmd #hoist the ads #renew as a crew #be a lighthouse #renew our flag means death #save our flag means death #adopt our crew #did you know if you put in too many tags and then you want to search on those tags it wont fuckingwork if they arent in the first couple?#Yeah thats what happened to me yesterday #tumblr wtf #anyway

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dragon-cookies · 4 months

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Episode 7, here goes nothing

You are literally too perfect for this show sir

Why does Alastor have more screentime in Charlie's room than her literal girlfriend

WHY DO THEY LITERALLY SHARE A BED BEFORE WE SEE CHARLIE AND VAGGIE DO

He's so fucking happy listening to her trauma dump I hate him /pos

Oh yeah the whole "angels can be killed" was a plot point wasn't it lol

Damn Charlie why so bitter about Vaggie being an angel. Like I understand being upset she kept such a big secret from you but it's not like she didn't have her reasons? Vaggie probably just figured it'd be safest to pretend to be a demon since she couldn't return to Heaven

"Come now Alastor she's much too young for you" S T O P

OH SHIT actual verbal confirmation Alastor's ace?? I was NOT expecting that

Cannibal Town is lovely design-wise but the characters dressed in red on a background is getting hard to look at

Rosie's design is pretty nice too, her design isn't too overly complicated

Carmilla: *makes it clear she doesn't want to help Vaggie fight angels* Also Carmilla: *immediately starts teaching Vaggie how to fight angels* Make it make sense ma'am

"It's not like you've ever failed to inspire before" Al I don't think Charlie's managed to inspire anyone once but okay

Susan.

I also just realized, wouldn't you think Vaggie would know something about how to kill an angel since she is one? Or at the very least know their weak points?

Oh okay so Vaggie didn't even know she herself could be harmed, fair enough I suppose

Wait so the angels' main weakness is their own weapons? And no one has figured this out until just now???

Carmilla's design looks way better with her hair down imo

It is honestly a crime Vaggie has such little screentime as she does, because the more I see of her the more I like her. It's also so frustrating Charlie basically just cut her off the second she found out she was an angel when her whole goal is redeeming people?? Charlie why are you fine with every other character calling you a bitch and Alastor literally owning peoples' souls but completely shun your own girlfriend because she (understandably imo) kept a secret from you??

And even after Charlie shunned her Vaggie is STILL 100% dedicated to supporting her cause and is willing to fight to keep her safe. Vaggie you deserve so much better

Aw Al giving Charlie his mic is sweet, what can I say. Characters trusting another character with a prized possession of theirs gets me

Hmmmm Al and Rosie's duet sounds a little sus. Sounds like Al wants to shape Charlie into something specific. Maybe in order to take over Hell or something??

Charlie why you making that face about your girlfriend's wings, what are you thinking about

Also really kinda wish these two actually sat down and had a talk together, but we already know this show has zero down time, so onto the finale I guess. So, so much of this show's pacing could be fixed if these characters just sat down and talked to each other. Charlie specifically should be spending more time with all the characters she claims to care about, but I'd be willing to bet money she's not Viv's favorite character lmao

I feel like this show was really scared it wasn't going to get another season, so they just crammed as much stuff as they could into 8 episodes. Which, now that it's been renewed for another season, what exactly are they planning on doing going forward? Ease up on the lightning-fast pacing or just keep the same momentum? If it gets more than two seasons I honestly have no clue what they're going to do story-wise because pretty much everything is being wrapped up neatly. Ah well, I guess time can only tell

#hazbin hotel critical #dc watches hazbin hotel #dc talks

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blogger360ncislarules · 1 month

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It’s become somewhat of a tradition for CBS’ Ghosts to end on a cliffhanger.

And Season 3 was no different. While audiences are going to be left waiting anxiously to know what, exactly, is going to happen to Isaac (Brandon Scott Jones), showrunners Joe Port and Joe Wiseman are delighting in the latest pickle they’ve gotten their characters into.

Not only has Isaac decided not to get married to Nigel (John Hartman), he’s now in the clutches of Patience the Puritan ghost, who struck up a friendship with Flower (Sheila Carrasco) while she was stuck in the well and has a bone to pick with Isaac since he let go of her hand while they were escaping from their own hole on the grounds a few hundred years ago.

“We really just enjoyed the possibilities of Patience,” Port said. “She’s become sort of a favorite in the writers room as we discussed what she could be like. So we just decided to have that be a turn that happens at the end of the of the season finale. I think it was just such a big part of the prior episode that we found it enticing to bring her back and finally meet her.”

Having already been renewed, the Season 4 writers room is officially open. The first order of business is “how we get him back,” Port said.

No doubt, there will also be some retribution for the basement ghosts, who were somewhat culpable in Isaac’s kidnapping. Although, Wiseman is quick to come to their defense. After all, the upstairs ghosts do treat them pretty awful — and they never intended for Isaac to really get hurt.

“We thought it was too far if they knew that Isaac was going to be kidnapped, but I don’t think they would have literally lured him into such a precarious situation,” he said. “You could argue that they had a right to be upset. They weren’t invited to a very big event in the house. They’re very much treated as second class citizens all the time. But we wanted to make sure that they didn’t know it was going to be so crazy. So we’ll see if they come clean next season or not.”

Among those relieved to hear that the writers plan to bring Isaac back to Woodstone Mansion is Brandon Scott Jones, the man behind the character.

“That means I still have a job,” he joked. “I have no idea how they’re gonna play it out. I don’t know if we’ll ever see Patience. But I think it’s a cool way to expand the world and remind people that there are so many more ghosts on this property than we’ve even seen just yet.”

Jones did have some ideas about where Isaac’s story could go in Season 4, now that he’s single once again and (probably) escapes the clutches of Patience the Puritan. He discusses all that and more in the interview below.

DEADLINE: When did you find out that Isaac and Nigel weren’t actually going to get married?

BRANDON SCOTT JONES: Somewhere towards the end of the season. I can’t remember where, but I think Joe Port and Joe Wiseman came to me and they said that they were thinking about breaking Isaac and Nigel up. Things change, so I knew that there was a chance before we even got the script that it was going to happen. But when I got the script, I just didn’t know what the machinations were going to be. I think even as we were filming it, it went back and forth a little bit between who left who at the altar, so I was a little bit…unsure of which way it was going to go, which kind of made it a little fun. I’m sad to see the relationship end, but I think it’s probably the best thing for both characters.

DEADLINE: Joe Port and Joe Wiseman mentioned to me they felt that maybe Isaac and Nigel rushed into their engagement. Did you feel the same?

JONES: Yeah, I always felt that, when he proposed to Nigel, it was a little bit of like a panic proposal. Isaac spent 250 years not really being himself, so he finally gets this opportunity and he kind of admits to at least the other ghosts, who he really is as he’s exploring that. He immediately finds himself in this relationship with Nigel, and I think it’s funny because it’s almost like he decided to go right back into the traditional steps of a relationship rather than exploring any other new thing. He just kind of felt like, ‘Alright, well, I guess I’m now gay, but I’m still going to propose to this person and live with this person and do all the necessary things.’ But I don’t know if he’s doing it because he wanted to or just because he felt like he had to because of the traditions of his era. When the stripper comes, it was definitely one of those things where I think it started to open up his eyes of like, ‘Oh my god, could I even find myself attracted to somebody else?’

DEADLINE: The stripper-turned-DJ being Isaac’s moment of awakening is quite funny and somewhat touching. It seems like he’d never considered there was anything else out there for him.

JONES Yeah, I think so. I think he probably has comfort in tradition. The idea of deviating away from any of that…it’s probably the reason he stayed in the closet for so long, even after he died. And I think the idea that this guy opens up his eyes, but also Pete really opens up his eyes too. He has this awesome story, which I think poses a really great question. What do you have to live for if you are already dead? What really, to me, made it cool it was that how they connected those two storylines and the wheels started to turn for Isaac.

DEADLINE: I thought it was quite beautiful how the other ghosts were reassuring him that there have been so many ways that they’ve met knew people and ghosts they never knew existed, and there is still so much for Isaac even though he’s dead.

JONES: Right. All these ghosts are stuck in purgatory. I think in Episode 3 of the entire series, they mentioned how their dream is to move on from this existence, no matter what. I think, as an actor, that’s sort of like your supreme motivation in almost anything you do on this show. This might be an opportunity where Isaac’s finally starting to wake up and realize, ‘Oh, I don’t have to just check boxes. Maybe the reason I’m stuck here is something a little bit larger that I have to go out and seek and find.’

DEADLINE: Do you think this is really the end for Isaac and Nigel? They do still have to exist on the same property basically forever.

JONES: It doesn’t sound too fun to be trapped in the same space as the person who left you at the altar. If there is a path forward for the two of them, I can imagine it’s not going to necessarily be smooth sailing. But then again, I also don’t know. Maybe it’s good that they spend time apart and if they never get back together again, that’s okay. But hopefully they’re both better because of this relationship, and they can find some common ground somewhere, either quickly or down the road.

DEADLINE: Isaac has to come back first, though. That cliffhanger at the end. What did you think of it?

JONES: The easiest way to describe it is that it feels like Isaac gets what he deserves, because he left this woman literally in the dirt. Then he recently left this man at the altar. He was, even in this episode, just a little persnickety with Sam the entire time. He’s a messy, messy dude that has a lot to figure out. Anytime he’s called out on his bullsh*t, or he has to pay the price for some of the things that he does, I think it’s a good moment because it’s funny, hopefully. But also, hopefully, he’ll be able to either learn or at least figure something else out. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I have no idea where this is gonna go, but I hope he does have to atone for something.

DEADLINE: Did they tell you they were going to do this to Isaac?

JONES: No, no, I didn’t get a heads up on that. I read that in, I think at the table read. It was definitely right before we were filming. I wasn’t sure if that was going to stay or not. But yeah, we filmed it and it’s in there. I’m excited because I think it’s gonna be a cool opportunity.

DEADLINE: Isaac is now the third ghost to ‘disappear’ in some way from the property this season. What do you think that means for the rest of the ghosts?

JONES: I don’t envy the job our writers have of sort of being like, ‘Well, these people can’t live or die, or hold anything. They can’t touch anything. They can’t talk to people that aren’t also dead.’ How do you tell the stories? But they always find a way to do that. I love any opportunity that we can to just deepen the mythology of the show. It is funny you actually pointed that out. I hadn’t noticed that, but yeah, this is the third person to go missing.

DEADLINE: Since the show has been renewed, what are you hoping is in store for Isaac once he’s back?

JONES: I try not to think too far ahead because the writers always keep us guessing. But I guess I hope this experience of leaving your fiancé at the altar, getting dragged into the dirt by a woman you left for essentially dead — if you can leave a ghost for dead. I hope that it sends Isaac on a new path of self discovery. There’s something really, really funny to me about somebody really trying to make a hard right turn into being a better person. That could be really interesting.

DEADLINE: I do think Isaac trying to be a nicer person would be a hilarious story.

JONES: Exactly. It’s really coming to terms with the atonement of all the bad things that he’s done. Like he killed so many people when he was alive. I would love to see him start to really try to figure things out and see how difficult it really is to change in the afterlife.

#ghosts cbs

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londonspirit · 8 months

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When Our Flag Means Death first premiered, the pirate comedy series — a novel genre mashup in and of itself — didn't necessarily make a big splash in the streaming landscape. It didn't take long, however, for positive word of mouth and a slowly growing fanbase to lead to impressive viewing numbers, with the first season becoming the biggest new series in the U.S. across all platforms — and its popularity has only grown since. Now, on the precipice of the series' return, over a year after it was finally renewed for a second season, viewers are eagerly preparing to tune in to find out what will happen to Stede Bonnet (Rhys Darby), Edward Teach/Blackbeard (Taika Waititi), and the rest of the Revenge's crew now that everyone has been divided into two separated groups.

Ahead of the Season 2 premiere, Collider had the opportunity to speak to creator David Jenkins for a spoiler-free conversation (if you've checked out some of those trailers already, that is!) about what fans can expect. Over the course of the interview, which you can read below, Jenkins discusses when he found out the show would be renewed, the unprecedented response to Season 1, and why he enjoys engaging with the OFMD fandom online. He also digs into discussing why Season 2 takes a somewhat darker tone, the importance of adding more female characters to the cast, his envisioned story for the show's planned three seasons, and more.

COLLIDER: You made a whole season between now and the last time we spoke!

DAVID JENKINS: It was a long time ago. Here we are!

And I know it was a bit before we even knew that Season 2 was going to be a possibility. How long was that wait on your end?

JENKINS: Yeah, I blocked it out, if I'm honest. [Laughs] It was a minute. We're really lucky that they picked us up, and they've been really wonderful to us at Max. They're just very fun to make this show with. There was a minute where I would call it kind of a slow-burn fandom, and the show just seemed to grow and grow and grow. I think we became more and more viable as the weeks went by after the finale, and thank god we got to do it again.

With the response to Season 1, it felt like week after week, even once the whole season was out, there was just this exponential growth. What was your reaction to that? Has that ever happened to you before, in your experience?

JENKINS: Oh, it’s never happened to me. I don't know if it's happened to other shows. Somehow, I feel like the streaming of it makes this unusual, and then the fact that it is actually a romantic relationship between these two characters. Audiences didn't want to get burned again, and then saw that they weren't going to be, and celebrated it. It just really moved me, actually. I thought that they'd kiss, and people would be like, “Oh, cool, cool!” I kind of thought people would know a little bit more [about] where we were going, but then in hindsight, no, people have been hurt and burned on so many other shows and then made to feel silly. So it was very gratifying to see the show embraced — to see every element of the creative embraced, every element of the production design, every department get their due in attention, was just overwhelming. It's the honor of my professional life. I don't think this happens very often, so I'm just savoring it.

You don't always see creators who are willing to engage with the fandom online, or they try to keep a distance, but it feels like you're getting in there occasionally and interacting with fans. How do you feel about that particular response, the fandom and their passion?

JENKINS: It's an honor. If it were a different circumstance or a different property or something else that maybe had a different tone that brought in a more dyspeptic, less gracious [fandom]... Everyone's been lovely. When people are being nice and normal, easy to be around, yeah, I wanna be at that party. Are you kidding me? And then you're gonna celebrate all the work that we did when we didn't know if the show would be good? Because when you're making these things, you're like, “Well, I know this is just my weird thing. Maybe people like it, maybe they won't.” When people are this gracious and effusive and not weird about it, it's like, “Yeah, let's talk. This is great. You're a fan of the stuff that we were a fan of. We're not different.” So that's really rare.

In terms of the overall tone of Season 2, there's definitely a darkness that it starts with. Was it more of a conscious decision to embrace that side, or did it really inherently come from picking up with these characters after where we left off with them in Season 1?

JENKINS: It's picking up with where the arc is in the story. We're post-breakup, and they're trying to fix it. One of these characters is very, very damaged and has never made himself vulnerable in this way before, and I don't think [he] would react very well to having his heart broken in this way. I don't think it would be cute, and I don't think it would be funny. I think it would be scary as hell to watch a very damaged guy that we've established in Ed, who killed his dad and thinks he's not capable of being loved, deal with rejection and see that Stede really hurt him. It's important to do that, to give him stakes because Rhys [Darby] is adorable, and Taika [Waititi] can be adorable, and sometimes when they're being adorable, they become invulnerable. I want to see a love story between two people who are very vulnerable, for better and for worse. So you have to pick up in a place where there's been damage done and there's a price to pay, and then it's like, “Can they come back from it?”

That's not to say that there aren't moments of levity and comedy. Stede, from his perspective, is this more pining figure writing letters, but he's definitely not in the same mental or emotional space as Ed is at this point because he doesn't realize how hurt Ed is.

JENKINS: The lovely thing about Rhys and about Stede is Stede’s cluelessness. He eventually does the right thing, but he doesn't know his own strength, and that's his problem. Then he does damage, and then he has to repair that damage, and that's the growth of that character. Ed is a guy where you're like, “Wait a minute, you're invulnerable. You’re Blackbeard,” but then you see he's hurt, he's not getting up. To me, those are the natural journeys for those two characters. Then you see Ed come back, and he has to wear a bell around his neck, and he's gonna fix a lock on this door, and he's gonna learn to fish and just be a three-dimensional human as opposed to just a scary drawing. Those are the tensions of those guys, and that's why Rhys has dog energy, and Taika has cat, and that seems to go along with both of those arcs.

I wanted to ask you about one of the things that feels like a really nice addition to Season 2, which is just the number of female characters that we get for the crew to bounce off of.

JENKINS: Good, I’m glad you feel that way.

Leslie [Jones] is back, we get Minnie Driver, and there's a new female pirate captain who shifts the power dynamic, among others. Did that feel like a natural way to expand the cast, or was that a change that you really wanted to make after Season 1?

JENKINS: It felt like both. Watching Season 1 is like, “Oof, there’s a lot of dudes.” We do go into Jim's experience as a non-binary crew member and Jim's relationship with their mentor and mother figure. In Season 2, it felt important and also the most logical way to build the world out. So it was fun to add these characters, even one-offs like Hell-Cat Maggie, and be like, “There are so many different perspectives to bring into this show.” It just felt natural to do that.

What's your favorite needle drop that the show has used so far in Season 1, and which one are you excited for fans to get to in Season 2?

JENKINS: Season 2 is built around [Kate Bush's] “This Woman's Work,” and that was very early on. That was a little bit like [Fleetwood Mac's] “The Chain.” I knew I wanted to use that, clear it, script where it should go in the season. There's a couple of those where it takes a minute to get that song, and there's a lot of back and forth, and if you don't get it, there's not a real good replacement for it. In that first season, “The Chain” really worked. We could have found a different song, but “The Chain,” that really works there. Also, [Cat Stevens'] “Miles from Nowhere” at the end of the first season felt like the Stede Bonnet song with that version of “Miles from Nowhere.”

Season 2, Nina Simone makes a couple of appearances, and I just love the size and grandeur of what she's doing. She seems to fit with a really large fantasy show — obviously, she's Nina Simone — and what she's talking about and how she's expressing it up against this world is really exciting to me. I don't know why it works for me as much as it does, but it really moves me. She comes back at the end of the season with a different track, and I just love having her music up against these pictures.

I've seen quotes from you recently where you talked about how—fingers crossed—if there's a renewal, Season 3 would be the planned final ending for this show. Was that something that you always envisioned, that it would be three-and-done?

JENKINS: I think so. When Taika expressed interest in doing it, I was surprised. “Are you sure?” He was like, “Yeah, man. Yeah, I wanna do it.” I was like, “Okay, but it’s not limited. Can you do it for three seasons?” “Yeah.” “Really? Really, you'll do it for three seasons?” “Yeah, man. Yeah.” So my expectation was we're only gonna get Taika for three seasons. But beyond that, three is good for this show. The first season is about two emotionally underdeveloped men who are at about 14, 15, 16, emotionally. Season 2 is about them getting older and maybe, in terms of the relationship, being around 25 to maybe 30 by the end of the season. And then I think there's one more story to tell, and it's how does a relationship evolve? Where do we find them again in the third season? What are they dealing with? That's very interesting to me, and there is a big story that I'd like to tell there.

Our Flag Means Death Season 2 premieres with its first three episodes October 5 on Max, with two episodes dropping weekly thereafter leading up to the season finale on October 26.

#our flag means death season 2 #ofmd s2 #ofmd s2 spoilers #spoiler #our flag means death #ofmd #david jenkins #interview #collider article

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lumaxramblings · 1 year

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stranger things daemon au (part 1: the party)

mike and sophronia

as i dont really think about mike much, i haven't really thought about it much, but i feel like she'd settle somewhere during the events of s1, possibly after. most of the daemons, especially the kids' daemons, settled due to trauma. but considering mike's relationship with his himself, i feel like she'd have struggle settling. if any of you have a better idea for what his daemon would be, i'd love to hear why and i might implement it in a fic or two :)

will and althea

no, he's not a raven! he's a pheonix, but when her and will aren't... yk, dying, or when althea isn't regaining her feathers from dying, she's black. his daemon would 100% settle during the upside down. another option i had on the table was the dudu deer. i thought a pheonix would fit more as they stand for renewal and rebirth, but i deers would also be symbolic for will, especially how they're considered feminine, so it could be even more reason for the town to think he's gay. i prefer pheonix but they're both good picks!

dustin and syretia

(syretia pronounced sigh-ree-sha)

syretia flits from form to form, changing a lot just as dustin does. during season 1, while in school, she usually stays in small forms to avoid getting targeted by bullies, forms that can fit in his pocket, usually some kind of mouse. while with the party, she usually goes into a monkey form because they're tinkerers and like having the extra hands. and while at home, she usually stays as either a beagle or switches between domestic cat breeds. in season 2, she's slightly overcome her fear of getting bullied, starting to perch on his shoulder as a bird or follow his heels as a cat. when fighting, she changes into the biggest form she can manage - a jackal, somewhat imitating steve's delmira. in season 3, she's much more comfortable in larger forms, usually monkeys or even a few different lizards. in season 4, she goes back into smaller forms, but still sticks with something bigger. when eddie dies, however, she finally settles. she's a raccoon, and doesn't speak as much as she used to, even though she always said she'd boast whenever they would settle.

lucas and fidelia

a groove billed ani for lucas. i have a feeling he'd settle second earliest of the boys, after will. fidelia had been gravitating towards bird forms for a while, and then they saw this bird while researching what daemon forms mean in a school project, and the form just... stuck. he got a lot of flack for it, especially as he's already bullied for being black. lucas takes it better than he probably would've done before he found out about the upside down, but he still wishes that fidelia had changed into something that didn't look so much like a crow or raven, both with bad reputations. she likes matching with will after althea regains her feathers, though.

el and amias

el and amias's relationship is a little complicated. taken and immediately seperated at birth, amias is locked in the cells where the other kids' daemons are, and she doesn't find out what a daemon even is until she meets mike, dustin and lucas. she only manages to reconnect with amias - who'd been named K, the eleventh letter - at the end of season 2, when she returns to the lab to close the gate, and is named by hopper's daemon. i feel like amias wouldn't settle for a LONG time, especially as people's expectations of her keep on changing. amias settles after max's death and subsequent revival, but even though everyone says you're supposed to understand yourself more after you settle, el just feels more lost.

max and hercules

in my version of the au, hercules has heterochromia (because it looks cool) and a torn ear (because of billy) no matter which form he takes. he's always liked furry forms max can curl up with because they're both deprived of warmth so often, but before he settled, he used to sometimes turn into a bird to match fidelia, or a dog to chase syretia, or a maine coon to annoy sophronia. but as they ran into the main part of the mall, only to freeze at the sight of billy and ulysses fighting back against the monster, hercules shifts into the small cat form, cowering against max's legs. when ulysses, whose powerful jaw has bitten him and whose large claws have given him scars, falls to the ground, hercules can't bring himself to get close to her, opting to stay cowered to the ground, trembling and scared. this is what hercules and max feel most guilty about, that they weren't able to 'comfort his soul' at the last moment, despite how much they've both tormented them over the years. their relationship grows slightly more rocky as the months pass, and by s4, they don't talk as much as they used to, and max often digs her nails into hercules's fur, of course hurting herself too, although she tries to stop this because she doesn't like hurting him, even though he feels like he deserves this.

will do the teens next, i love them <3

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shakapuffin · 1 year

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Review of Alert 1x09 “Brianna” and 1x10 “Max

okay everyone… we made it! it’s been about 8 weeks but we got through all of season 1, 10 episodes, of Alert! Here are my opinions from last nights 2 hour season/series(?) finale! this might be a long one btw! if you haven’t seen the last episode then i’d skip this review. Spoilers ahead!

- okay so to start off we got the Brianna case, honestly, i thought it was kinda weird. like it was realistic up to a certain point, i mean ya there are crazy people out there but still. that whole thing was just a bit far-fetched for me, the wife wanting to kill brianna, like come on! i thought mike took an interesting lead in this case since Nikki and Jason were tied up with the keith case.

- i gotta say ever since the last episode where we found out that the body in the lake wasn’t “keith” i was pretty sure they were gonna go along with keith actually being keith. obviously, i had hoped for the opposite and that’s exactly what we got! in 1x09 i really believed keith for a while, his case made sense, mostly except for a few questions here and there. i think i knew something was up when the rest of the boys that Beth kidnapped were homeless, it wouldn’t make sense for keith to be kidnapped by her. i’ll give the show that, i was surprised they actually went through and decided to not have keith be keith, i feel like we all knew it in the back of our minds, but i’m happy the show didn’t play safe.

- mike was right about nikki and jason getting in trouble or having the case put on the back burner because of their personal involvement and honestly if everything worked out, that could’ve cost them the case. but then when nikki gets taken, mike tells jason to use any means necessary. so where does mike lie? he seems to bend the rules for himself/the people he cares about but not for others. interesting character flaw that should be delved into more.

-I wasn't a huge fan when Nikki got kidnapped. Like what did that add to the story, ya the main character just got taken, it'll bring in more views but that whole plot line added nothing. Mistake me if I'm wrong but max could've gotten out on his own without Nikki but he just didn't? she literally was instructing him on how to escape from a few feet away, she did nothing. Also Nikki could've very easily escaped after max left, she didn't have to stay to check on Beth's dead son, didn't she already know that he was dead? correct me if I'm wrong tho, I might be misremembering. idk it was just a bit too extra for me but it was a good way for the show to bring in views,

- I feel like there was too much happening in the last 10-20 mins. First of all, Keith got taken again! have they learned nothing! I mean ya, the biological mom probably would've kidnapped him someday anyway. Also, at first, I thought he was just getting kidnapped again but that would be too perfect. Did anyone else notice that there was no amber alert for Keith when he got kidnapped that second time? A bit odd, they had the incense plate, they easily could've put some sort of alert out there. the whole entire missing persons unit was in that house.

-how did everyone feel about the very ending with Keith actually being Lucas and faking the whole time? Like, I feel like we all knew that wasn't the real Keith but it all happened too fast. I wanted a bit longer with that, also how did he get away from the bio mother for so long without her calling the police on him or just forcibly going in and telling Nikki and Jason the truth?

-I do like how we now know that Keith isn't actually Keith. It just wouldn't make any sense if they left it as it was in the previous episode with Keith being their son. However, I didn't like how they just killed him, I feel like if they left him alive, there could've been much more conflict as well as possible storylines for next season (if they get renewed). maybe they could've dealt with him in their lives to get away from the abuse from his birth mother or just go more into depth on everything. I feel like it was just a cop-out on actually going deeper into that situation. they just killed him instead. I will say, I liked how they showed all of the pieces being put together by Lucas while he was living with Nikki and Jason and how he became Keith. idk, how do you all feel about it?

-I actually liked the pacing of the finale until the very end. That being said, we got nothing! Nothing! There was no long tender moment that really went into depth on how Nikki and Jason felt, ya we got that scene on the couch but come on, I thought they were gonna get back together for sure, that doesn't count. I wanted a scene where they just talked; the kid who they thought was their son not only revealed that he has been lying to them for months but also just died in front of them and nothing?! no dramatic reaction!? at least Nikki shed some tears but absolutely nothing after that. but really Jason? nothing? this is one of the main problems with this show, it lacks tender, slow, quiet moments that the audience desperately needs. we need to see and experience scenes with an emotional impact. We also needed a closure scene, not with the whole team, but with Nikki and Jason who seemed completely fine after the entire incident and even moved on? also, it basically just confirmed that their real son is dead at the bottom of the lake and we don't know how they feel about it. idk that just didn't sit right with me, I wanted more at the end! more real-life emotions please.

-poor Sidney... poor poor Sidney. she tried telling her parents so many times, but her feelings were put to the side. there wasn't even an apology from Jason nor Nikki. I didn't like how she had maybe 10 lines in the whole 2 hour finale, that was her supposed brother, she deserved to be heard or have some sort of emotional reaction. I felt bad for Fivel Stewart. Nothing for nor from her, I bet she wanted more character development but we got nada. We don't even know how she feels that he died! She lived across the hall from that kid for weeks if not months and she's supposedly fine by the end of the episode. they messed up her storyline.

-that season finale felt an awful lot like a series finale to me. did anyone else feel that way? most, if not all, of the storylines were closed by the end of the season. there are a few stragglers like June (what the actual hell happened to her? did she fall off the face of the earth because there hasn't even been one freaking mention about her! is she still alive? what?), and kemi's whole kidnapping/father storyline (which I'll assume they'll happily dive into if there's another season). but idk it almost feels like a miniseries, there was no cliffhanger at the end like most other tv shows. that doesn't bring much hope for a season 2, sorry to say. and then to have a 2 hour season finale might be a send-off for good, idk? like I've never seen a tv show season finale with this many finished storylines when they're supposedly hoping for another season. the viewers/ratings weren't horrible for Fox but compared to the rest of television on Monday nights, it's not very impressive, but then again it's Fox. I read that the finale got around 2.4 million viewers which is high for this show, but less than the premiere, it was better than how it performed week to week tho.

-I guess we'll have to see if there's another season. a part of me hopes there's another season and a part of me doesn't want one. I want to see Scott on my television every week, I felt so spoiled watching Scott on tv every week again since we haven't seen him in so long. But then again, the entire show itself is just bad... sorry it's just bad; the writing, and some of the acting most notably. I really want to see Scott in something good that has creative value and integrity because he's so much better than this show. after reading a lot of the reviews, I determined that most people tuned in and stayed for Scott, they thought he was the best thing about the show, which I agree with. That being said, a lot of hard work from not only the actors but also from all of the behind-the-scenes crew was put into this show.

anyways, I've rambled on long enough lol! those are my opinions about the finale. here's a little recap; I'm happy it ended with Keith not being Keith but I didn't like the Lucas death, it would've been interesting with him still in the mix. Good pacing until the end, we needed tender emotional moments. I give it a B-, maybe a B if I'm feeling generous lol!

Well, it's been an interesting 8 weeks, to say the least, sad to not be reviewing episodes anymore... what will I rant about now? haha. maybe we'll get a season 2, maybe not? I hate to say but hopefully not. we'll find out at the Fox upfronts in May.

let me know what y'all think, I'm really interested to see if people liked the ending and what they would change about it. Until next time...

#scott caan #hawaii five 0 #hawaii five o #dania ramirez #danno williams #ryan broussard #alert on fox #alert #fox tv #tv review #review #fivel stewart #graham verchere #adeola role

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sissytobitch10seconds · 2 years

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Safe and Sound

Fandom: Stranger Things Summary: Will has been through a lot, as has his pack. The Party makes sure to take of him and each other once they get the chance. Warnings: A/B/O dynamics, mentions of sickness, mentions of death, PTSD, trauma, and mentions of kidnapping/imprisonment Word Count: 2,103 Ship(s): Will Byers & Lucas Sinclair & Mike Wheeler & Dustin Henderson

Archive link!

A/N: So this is the first Stranger Things fanfiction I have ever written. I actually got back into Stranger Things completely by accident because I stumbled across an "I didn't know I was pregnant" style fanfic while looking for something in a completely different fandom. I didn't even know that it was being renewed for another season, lol. I thought that I would move this up on my upload schedule because of the fourth season, though. I'm not super happy with this fic since it's a bit of a character study and less of a sweet fluff scene like I wanted it to be. I hope that it still reads well and that you all enjoy it. Thank you all for even checking this out! Stay sissy and bitchy everyone <3

Everyone that saw them always said that they were too young to really be in a pack, but their families were well aware that they were. In the eyes of the law and the general public, they were still pups that would be members of their parents’ packs until they finished going through puberty. Despite that, they were still as close as a pack and had already developed a hierarchy. Mike was the pack leader, with Lucas and Dustin almost always snapping at each other to try and figure out who was the second. Will was happy with being the bottom of the pack because he was able to get affection from the rest of the pack without having to do all the work of keeping them from arguing. The Party spent a lot of time together already as they played DnD and did basically everything else with each other, so it wasn't uncommon to find them curled up in a big nest in the basement after a campaign. When asked, they said that they did it so that they could make up for hurt feelings and get some much needed sleep.

The past couple days had been rather tumultuous to say the least. Thinking that the heart of their pack, their only omega member, had died was absolutely devastating. It was made worse by the fact that they hadn't had their regular pack time to cuddle in the nest because they had to play for so long, and the new sort-of addition to their pack in the form of El. Adding a new member to a pack was always awkward and difficult, but for them it was multiplied based purely on the fact that she was also an alpha in a pack with two other alphas. There had been a moment of relief when they discovered that the heart of their pack was still alive, but it was diminished when they realized that he was suffering. The fighting and scrabbling to get him back that ensued just served to distress them more. After that, they had to deal with their parents desperately wanting them to stay at home where they could be safe while each of them fought to get to sit in the waiting room so they could be there for Will when he woke up.

It was almost two weeks after they had found him in the Upside Down before Joyce felt comfortable letting her son out of her sight. Mrs. Wheeler had to promise a thousand times over that she could keep a close eye on the pack while they were over there, and eventually the omega conceded because she could see how much her son needed it. The Party didn't even bother trying to play a campaign, not that Mike had set one up in the first place. Will was the last to arrive and head down into the basement, since everyone else's parents weren't aware of what really transpired that night.

"Guys?" the omega called out as he took the stairs one at a time to descend into the basement.

"Will!" Mike beamed as he turned to face the omega. "C'mere, we've got some things ready."

The youngest member of their pack hurried down the rest of the way so that he was standing in the frigid air of the basement. "Are we nesting?"

"Do you want to nest? You're the best at it," Dustin said. Betas only naturally got the urge to nest when they were pregnant, and alphas only got the urge to nest when they were the sole caregivers of pups. Omegas nested every time they went into heat, when they were pregnant, and when they or their pack was in need of comfort.

"Yeah!" Will hurried over to them. He picked up the blanket that was on the top of the messy stack. He brought it up to his nose and smiled as he could pick out each of his three other packmates. He missed them so much that he couldn't describe it. They may not have officially been a pack (their pack glands were completely unbroken), but they were bonded to each other in a way that none of the other kids their age were. "Do any of you want to help me?"

"If you want us to help then we will. You’re the best at this so you’re the boss," Mike shrugged. Lucas nodded in agreement next to him. None of them could stop their smiles as the omega began to work on preparing their pack nest.

He started with some of the huge thick blankets that were specifically used just for the base of a nest. Once he had them in a vague circle, getting Dustin to help him weave the two massive, heavy blankets together so that it was large enough to fit all four of them, he began to layer other blankets over the top. He made sure that every bit of the rough base was completely covered. Will carefully chose the blankets that he used for the covering, pausing to feel each one against his pack gland and a few on his more sensitive mating gland. After he had covered the base blankets, he began to spread the pillows around the ground since they weren't on a mattress or anything remotely soft underneath the nest. After that, he began to pile the softer blankets around so that everything was perfect and smelled exactly like their pack.

Will then turned around so that he was looking at their pack leader. "I know we don't have anything that really smells like El since your mom washed the fort, but I hope this is still good," he fidgeted nervously as he spoke.

"Will, I know that you didn't meet her. She couldn't even really be a part of our pack without all of us being here and figuring out the dynamic and stuff," Mike soothed as he reached out and touched the omega's shoulder reassuringly. "Why don't we get into the nest and really relax?"

The omega calmed a little bit. He climbed over the edge of the nest and then reached for Dustin to climb in as well. The beta went quickly, laying down so that he was in the middle of the nest. Will laughed before he turned around so that his head was resting on Dustin's shoulder. Mike got in and laid down on the other side of Dustin so that his legs were bent over the edge of the nest and his head was resting on the beta's stomach. Lucas was the last person to get into the nest and it took him a moment to settle down with his left side pressed with Will's right.

"I missed this," Mike sighed. "I'm glad that we can do it again."

"I promise I'll never go missing again," Will joked. He let out a small frown as the pack went quiet instead of laughing like he was expecting him to. They moved slightly so that they were pressed tighter to him like someone was going to steal him away if they didn't. "Sorry," he whispered.

Lucas placed his forehead on the back of the younger boy's head. "It's not your fault. We just really want to make sure that you never have to go through something like that again. We're a pack, and we have to stick together."

Dustin and Mike let out small noises of affirmation. After a little while they were able to calm down so that they were cuddling like they had been before everything had gone down. There were a couple of arguments about people's arms being in the wrong spot or a blanket that someone wanted over another, but nothing that meant they got out of the nest. Despite the fight that Mike and Lucas had, despite everything Will had gone through, despite the fifth member that was almost added to their pack, it was almost like the before. They were able to fall into their old patters in such a way that Will felt well and truly safe.

It had been about two hours when Mike spoke up, "Do you guys want something to eat? My mom left some french toast from the morning in the fridge that I could bring down."

Will opened his mouth to say something but he was interrupted by his stomach growling loudly for him. The rest of the Party laughed while their leader got up and carefully exited the nest. Dustin and Lucas shifted a little bit so that they could keep their omega warm without the other member of their pack. Will had been so cold for so long when he was in the Upside Down that he couldn't stand it now.

Mike walked up the stairs as quickly as he could. He had kind of made up the offer to go get something so that he could get a break from his pack. He loved them all to death, so much that he would do incredibly stupid things for each of them, but he was struggling with some emotions that he couldn't quite place. He opened the fridge and began to dig around to find the food he had offered to get.

"Hey dork," Nancy said, knocking her foot against the doorframe into the kitchen so that he knew she was there. The older alpha peaked into the fridge and then took out the plastic bag containing the french toast out. "This what you looking for?"

"Yeah, thanks Nancy," he smiled. They hadn't gotten along well before the incident because they were both alphas and he was beginning to come into his instincts as puberty began. Nancy had also been fighting with her nuclear family pack while she tried to find people to fill her own. After realizing that they both could have died, they had gotten a lot closer and not fought with each other the normal amount for siblings. Mike paused, opening his mouth to say something before he let it close. Nancy grabbed a drink from the fridge before she let it shut and made a move to leave the kitchen. "Nancy?"

"Yeah?" she asked as she turned to look at him.

"Am I a bad pack leader?" he looked up from the bag in his hands.

"Oh, Mike," she whispered. She set the soda down on the counter and then gave his arm a reassuring squeeze. "You're an amazing pack leader and you guys haven't even pack bonded yet. Why would you think that you aren't?"

"Because I let Will get stolen. Lucas and I got into a fight and even though I know the rules of the party and he knows the rules of the hierarchy we still refused to make up with each other. And then El got… I don't know. She's gone too. I didn't even really get to bring her into my pack and I promised that I would protect her and make sure that she was okay. I wasn't able to," he scowled.

"Sometimes you just can't," Nancy shrugged. "You did your best to make sure that you got Will back, and you did all that work to find his favorite nesting blankets today. You're even getting them food. You're a wonderful pack leader and you take good care of your pack."

He took a deep breath to calm himself. "Thanks," he wrapped his arms around her in a brief hug.

"Of course, dork. Now go enjoy your pack," she shoved him towards the basement.

He let out a small laugh before he hurried down. Mike was unable to stop the smile that formed on his face when he smelled them. He was met by cheers once they were finally able to see him coming down into the basement. They all moved around so that they were able to fit him while they doled out their snack. He may have not felt completely confident about his abilities to lead the pack and keep them all safe, but he felt a bit more confident than he had before he spoke with his sister.

"I wish that we could just stay together forever," Will yawned.

"You have a nest at home, don't you?" Lucas asked, his mouth full.

The omega whined and leaned into Dustin's side while he tried not to fall asleep. "It's not the same. This one is better because it has you guys. I like spending time with you guys."

Mike felt his heart swell in his chest and a proud scent leaked from him immediately. He had made his pack happy and comfortable.

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fuck-off-im-ace · 2 years

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Hey really like reading your thoughts on WN :)

Im sorry to intrude but I’m wondering how did you watch season2? Did you watch it without knowing anything or you got spoilers from tumblr about the kiss? I really tried my best to stay off tumblr for 2-3 days lol and it’s freaking hard!!!

The team were really hyping it up on their social media about the ‘will they won’t they’ with so much hints for the canon avatrice!! but i was really not expected to see the kiss in e8!!! We learned to have low expectations so that we don’t disappoint. But man oh man I was so happy already in ep5 with that moment of Ava’s near/ death and they share that eye-gaze like in s1 my heart melted. Then the kiss came my heart exploded!!! Everything leading up to that scene was so beautiful!

I wish that this show is something that got ordered for 4-5 seasons in advance so the writers get more room to give us more slow burn. But let’s hope for renewal of season3.

I wish that Mary would have come back (sister Dora entrance wouldve been perfectly if it was Mary!!! I was watching it on my small screen phone so I couldn’t see clearly at first if it was Mary I was happy for a few seconds :( only to be disappointed when she said she’s sister Dora). And they kinda did dirty on Lilith. Make it a complete waste of her redemption at the end of s1!!!

Anyways thanks for reading sorry again

Hi @justanotheruntitled04!

First off, you're not intruding at all, always very happy to talk about warrior nun with people!!

I watched the show completly spoiler free! I blocked all the tags i could think of (it was a big ass list) just to be sure, and watched it on thursday during the afternoon, so not a lot of people had the time to watch and post about it. Feeling very lucky for that one, i was glad to be spoiler free!

And i have no idea why, but i knew they were gonna kiss. They built it enough in social media, and i have watched and read a bit of interview of the crew, they know what they're doing. They didnt come to mess around with queer people. They wanted to do good. So when they started hyping up Avatrice, and Kristina talked about knowing which episode would be the fan favorite, i knew we were getting a kiss. But i think that just made the watch even more interesting, cause for the whole show i was just waiting for it to happen!! When they're dancing in the bar, when they're talking in their appartement, when they were just staring at each other tenderly, i was Screaming at my screen for them to kiss.

And same, i think the show is well made for a 3 seasons arc, so i hope we do get another one. They set it up real well with that "there is a divine war coming", and i hope we get to see that!

I know what you mean for Mary, she was one of my favorite characters. I don't know what happened, know she wasnt in s2 for personnal reason so they had to work around what they already had. One thing i love is that we had no body, and no real confirmation of it? Vincent said it to Lilith, but if she wanted to come back for a third season, it would be super easy to write her in! Maybe she was in hiding, maybe Adriel kept her prisonner, maybe some random person found her and for all of s2 she was slowly healing, for real it would be super easy to just figure out something, so i am keeping hope for that, even tho i probably shouldnt.

As for the Lilith storyline, i have so many thoughts. I am currently working on a post, cause there is A Lot to unpack (and by working on it i mean i have been thinking about making one) and i, personnally, really like where they are taking her. I was disapointed at first, cause i love a (morally) good demon, but i think i know what they wanna do with her and yeah anyway i have thoughts that i will eventually share, maybe, if i get around to actually do it and people have an interest in that.

And no need to apologise for writing! I would keep my ask closed if i had a problem with it, i think its a real fun way to bounce thoughts off each other and developp a thought process and a fandom! So yeah, thanks for the ask!

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boricuacherry-blog · 2 years

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Whitney Houston was born in Newark, New Jersey. At the age of four though, she and her family moved to East Orange, where she grew up.

After Houston's second album, fans and critics accused her of selling out to white audiences. Although the album was a success, the criticism wasn't quelled.

It all culminated in a cruel incident at the 1989 Soul Train Awards, where she was up for an award. When the presenter read her name aloud, many in the audience loudly booed her.

It was at this same awards show that she met Bobby Brown, who had a much different and dark past. He'd been involved with gangs, had once been shot, and had already had three kids by the time he was 22.

And Houston didn't know it, but when she was dating Brown, he was still in a relationship. Her name was Kim Ward and she was the mother of one of his children. Ward was two months pregnant with another one of his kids when she looked at the news one day and got the shock of a lifetime -

Brown and Houston were engaged. Ward had no idea. The two broke up soon after, leaving Brown free to continue his relationship with Houston.

Just before she got married to Brown, Eddie Murphy called Houston and begged her not to go through with it - but she ignored him and went ahead with the marriage.

She had a miscarriage during the The Bodyguard World Tour, which she told Barbara Walters was "very painful." She also spoke of how the media was the one to break the news, and how that hurt her.

What Whitney didn't know though, was that her father, John Houston, had leaked the story to the tabloids, which the paper confirmed after Whitney's death.

A year after the miscarriage, she was pregnant with Bobbi Kristina.

It was after the Bodyguard, Whitney said, that she became heavily involved with drugs. She felt her star was overshadowing Brown's, and tension ensued as a result in their marriage.

"Something happens to a man when a woman has that much fame," Whitney said.

Growing up in a deeply religious household and involved with her church growing up, she took her vows of marriage seriously. And she was determined to prove the public wrong about their odd pairing. She fell into trying to please Brown to the point where she lost herself and who she was -

Even while Brown was having affairs throughout their marriage. There was also domestic abuse their daughter Bobbi Kristina witnessed growing up around her dysfunctional parents.

In 1996, Houston became pregnant again, and spoke to People magazine, saying that she dreaded another miscarriage.

"My greatest fear is I'll lose this baby and be told I can never get pregnant again," Whitney said. "I have nightmares about it."

Sadly, just weeks after she gave the interview to People, Houston's darkest fears came true. She had yet another miscarriage.

In 2003, law enforcement responded to a 9-1-1 call where they found Houston with a bruised cheek and cut lip. Brown was charged with misdemeanor battery.

In 2005, Brown shopped for a reality show about him and his life, but execs would only agree to it if Whitney would appear. Although Whitney didn't want to be on camera, she agreed to help her husband. The show however, which critics called a "trainwreck" was not renewed for a second season after Whitney refused to appear for it.

Houston's daughter was witness to some of her mother's worst years of substance abuse.

A family member recalls visiting the family, and having a preteen Bobbi Kristina answer the door, advising that Bobby Brown had to put Whitney to bed. The room was covered in dirty clothes and dishes, and the family source could only describe it as "the bedroom of a junkie."

Whitney talked to Oprah of an incident in which Brown spit in her face, in front of their daughter.

"He spit on me. And my daughter was coming down the stairs and she saw it. I didn't understand why that occurred - why he had such a hate for me, because I loved him so much. Bobbi Kris asked me, 'mommy did he just spit on you?' I said 'yes, baby, but it's ok.' She looked me in my eyes and said, 'no mommy, no its not ok.'"

A turning point came when her mother, Cissy Houston, gave her an ultimatum and practically forced her hand to go to rehab. She eventually found the strength in her to leave the relationship, and not look back.

"He was my drug. I didn't do anything without him. I wasn't getting high by myself. It was me and him together. We were partners," she explained.

Sadly, Whitney's voice was never the same after those years. She was developing emphysema, as her toxicology reports showed at her passing.

#whitney houston #bobby brown #bobbi kristina

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eliza1911o1 · 2 years

Text

At this point HBO has to be just playing with us right because even from a data perspective ofmd is insanely good

Everyone else see the interview that came out this week where David and Taika pretty much said s1 ended in a place where a s2 was meant to begin?

Well, beside the fact that the show runners clearly intend for a second season, here are some factual reasons (I’m not going to go into sociological or artistic reasons because that’s a whole other essay) why Our Flag Means Death needs to be renewed:

Demand tripled by the time the finale aired and has grown into a huge fandom presence even after its ending

Became the most in-demand show in the last 100 days (dethroning Boba Fett by quite a bit)

No. 11 in US/World, despite having limited exposure

(as a note for when I say it’s been sort of exclusive to the US, I just mean that some people have found it difficult to watch in their native countries, though they might have had access through other services (as I talk about later, OFMD is exclusive to HBO Max, which is different from even HBO, meaning it has limited streaming even in the US). The international popularity wasn’t necessarily intentional unlike some of their other shows and, most importantly, I unfortunately can’t find specifics on country-to-country streaming (because HBO Europe and Asia can be different than HBO US) and any data I reference is related to what I can find for the US. But if you’ve found it hard to find in your country or it’s been easy/recently added, feel free to comment)

Here are some graphs showing the demand/ratings for the show as well if you want something more visual (cred@221Bcrow on twt and Parrot Analytics because I had trouble finding the original data and they’re nice graphs and I’m sorry if they’re blurry just know the top line is OFMD)

Not only are those numbers good, but this has been done with (from what I can tell) average to below-average marketing from HBO

If you want specifics, I included some data I gathered on the show’s promotions vs. ratings based on its rate of occurrence on the HBO Instagram accounts (I’m sorry I couldn’t do Twitter it was too much work) and ratings on popular sites like Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb. I compared OFMD to Winning Time, which acts as a representative of other current HBO shows, since it had a similar start date, is one of their most advertised series, and has already been renewed (even though the final figures aren’t out yet for WT). I did NOT choose it to garner any hatred towards the show, which I think is important to point out since it is also a well-produced series from what I know and the creators deserve respect. Anyway, here’s the data:

Release

OFMD: March 3rd, 2022 - March 24, 2022 (10 episodes)

WT: March 6th, 2022 - present (6 episodes)

Ratings

OFMD:

90% critics score (top critics and average critics score were the same) on RT

95% audience score on RT

8/10 on IMDb (out of 11,660 reviews)

WT:

84% average critics score (72% top critics score) on RT

82% audience score on RT

8.5/10 on IMDb (out of 5,464 reviews)

(just for reference, CODA, which won Best Picture at the Oscars this year, has RT scores of 94% (critics) and 91% (audience) and an IMDb score of 8.1/10, though obviously from a much larger sample)

Promotions

(for this, I literally went through the main and HBO Max Instagram accounts and documented how many times a post related to either show appeared (rate of occurrence); there is probably a margin of error of +/- 1 post, but seeing as the numbers are pretty different this shouldn’t impact the conclusion; you can count it yourself too if you like lol)

[HBO Max Instagram]

(Started at posts dating back to March 1st, 2022; the total number of posts is 321)

OFMD: 21 times (6.54%)

WT: 31 times (9.66%)

[HBO Instagram]

(Started at posts dating back to February 9th, 2022; the total number of posts is 252)

OFMD: 0 times

WT: 32 times (12.70%)

(in case you didn’t know, HBO and HBO Max are actually two different services. HBO is a cable network, which still comes with TV bundles and can be bought through services such as Hulu, but HBO Max is HBO’s streaming platform that hosts extra content. HBO Max shows are not really mentioned through HBO the channel since they don’t air on it, as shown by the official HBO media accounts not including any mention of OFMD but heavily promoting WT)

IN CONCLUSION

Even from my non-HBO-professional pov OFMD is a very special show and the facts reflect that. I don’t even have all that much included here. As opposed to WT, one of HBO’s frontline series right now that has already been renewed, OFMD was not streamed or promoted through HBO’s main channel and had average SNS marketing (similar to Minx, another ongoing show that had a 5.30% rate of occurrence on the HBO Max account but a smaller presence overall). It has not just produced extremely positive ratings and gathered an extremely large audience (not to mention all the inclusivity and happiness it has also brought), but has done so with little conscious help from HBO. Honestly, a lot of the promotion for OFMD probably came from people randomly posting about it through tumblr and twt in addition to the casts’s/staff’s wonderful interviews, which is crazy to think about. I don’t personally enjoy Euphoria, but knowing the show’s extremely popularity, I think the fact alone that OFMD was able to top its ratings despite the mitigating factors should be a huge indication the show requires a second season immediately (and maybe a third too?)

The petitions have already begun for good reason and if you need more evidence past it being one of the purest romances ever to support the show’s renewal, then here are some fancy numbers for you

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timelesslords · 3 years

Text

I’ve Got This Fever

Read on AO3

In which Annabeth catches the flu, and domestic fluff ensues

Annabeth woke up in pain.

This wasn’t exactly an unusual occurrence. Being a demigod, Annabeth was no stranger to pain. She’d had broken bones, burns, cuts, stab wounds…. you name an injury, Annabeth Chase had probably experienced it.

But this was a different kind of hurt, a hurt Annabeth hadn’t felt in a long time. Her head was pounding. Her mouth was drier than the Sahara desert. Her muscles ached, and even the soft sheets and pajamas she was wearing felt like knives on her skin. Despite being under a mountain of covers, she was shivering, bitterly cold.

There was no doubt about it. Annabeth was sick.

Annabeth never got sick.

She groaned, sitting up. That turned out to be a bad idea as a wave of nausea rolled over her, and she lowered herself back onto her pillows, falling the last half of the distance. She felt Percy shift beside her, woken from her movement.

“Hey,” he said, the smile fading quickly from his face as he saw her own expression, which was probably nothing short of miserable. “What’s wrong?”

“I feel like crap.”

She surprised even herself with how horrible her voice sounded, raspy and dry. Percy frowned, reaching out and touching her forehead. He normally ran hot, but now his fingers felt cool against her skin, almost painfully so.

“You’re burning up.” he said, frown deepening.

“I’m freezing.” Annabeth croaked. As if to prove her point, she shivered involuntarily.

“That’s the fever talking.” Percy said grimly, “Hold on.”

He climbed out of bed. His warmth left with him, and Annabeth was left just that much colder, trembling under the covers. Percy couldn’t have been gone more than two minutes, but it felt like an eternity.

When he returned he was holding a thermometer and a glass of water.

“Temperature first. The water might mess with the reading.” He said, apologetic. She wanted to hate him for that because she was so thirsty she thought she might die, but she knew he was right.

Annabeth sat up slowly. Thankfully this time she just felt a little dizzy and not nauseous. The thermometer was cold and uncomfortable under her tongue, but Percy kept a steadying hand on her back, rubbing small circles into her shoulder with his thumb. With her oversensitive skin it almost hurt, but she leaned into the contact anyways.

When the thermometer beeped, Percy traded it for the glass of water. Annabeth nearly downed the entire glass in one gulp.

“A hundred and one.” he announced, flipping the display so she could see. The number was lit up in red, signaling that she did, in fact, have a fever.

“I can’t be sick. I have class.” Annabeth said. Her voice was a little improved by the water, but she still sounded kind of terrible.

“Just email your professors and tell them you can’t make it.” Percy said, as if this were the easiest thing in the world.

For him it probably was. He did his best with school, but he also wasn’t opposed to ditching class every once in a while and blaming it on a fabricated stomach bug, something Annabeth found absolutely abhorrent. She hadn’t missed one class in her entire college career, and she wasn’t about to start now.

“It’s fine. I’ll just take some tylenol and I’ll be good to go.” Annabeth said. Percy gave her an exasperated look.

“Beth. You probably have the flu, you can’t go to class like this.”

“It’s just a little fever.” Annabeth protested. Really, she was already starting to feel better. It was just waking up that had been the hard part, and some ibuprofen would knock her headache and high temperature right out. Percy didn’t look so convinced, but what did he know.

“If you say so.” Percy said, crossing his arms over his chest. Annabeth looked at him suspiciously.

“You’re not going to fight me on this?” she asked. Percy just gave a shrug, though his expression was a stubborn one.

“Nope. You can go right ahead.” Percy said, gesturing his hand off the bed. There was no way he should be giving up this easily, but if he wasn’t going to argue with her, Annabeth wasn’t going to be the one to start it.

She swung her legs carefully over the edge of the bed, glancing again at Percy. He gave her a go ahead look, so she did. The second she tried to put weight on her feet, her vision blacked out and her knees buckled. She would have fallen flat on her face if Percy hadn’t been waiting there to catch her. Her headache immediately doubled in intensity, and Annabeth groaned.

“Still wanna go to class?” Percy asked. He at least had the decency to sound sorry for her, even though making fun of her would have been just as deserved.

“That was mean.” Annabeth complained. Percy lowered her back into bed, gently pushing her shoulder so she would lie down again. Annabeth didn’t need so much convincing this time.

“It was the fastest way.” Percy said apologetically, brushing some hair out of her eyes “You would have fought me on it all day, otherwise.”

Annabeth sighed, but didn’t deny it. She probably would have been unbearable. She probably still was going to be unbearable.

“How am I sick? I never get sick. I’ve never had the flu in my life.” Annabeth said. She glanced upwards at Percy, who was looking very much like he was trying to not say something.

“What?” she asked.

“Nothing.” he said quickly, but Annabeth knew his expressions better than her own, and she knew when he was holding back.

“You’re thinking something.” Annabeth said accusingly. A smile cracked through his holding-back face.

“Should I not be?” he asked.

“You know what I mean.” Annabeth grumbled.

“Okay. I mean, I’m sure your immune system is very high-quality. I mean, it's yours, how could it not be?”

“Stop trying to butter me up.” Annabeth said, but she couldn't keep a smile all the way off her face.

“Who said I was buttering you up? I was complimenting your robust immune response” Percy said innocently, still grinning.

“Now you’re trying to distract me, but it won’t work.”

This was a complete lie. If he tried a little harder, it probably would work, and he knew it as well as she did. He caved anyways, which meant he probably did actually want to tell her what he was thinking.

“Okay, fine.” Percy said, “I was just going to say, you spent most of your winters at camp, which is totally isolated from the outside world, which means you haven’t really had a real flu season since you were like seven.”

“I went to boarding school.” Annabeth reminded him.

“Yeah, and you spent winter breaks at camp, or at your dad’s.”

He neglected to mention that she had spent one such break kidnapped by Luke and forced to carry the weight of the sky, which would have proved his point further, but Percy was not so ruthless during little discussions like these that he needed to bring up every last piece of evidence. Annabeth envied that restraint sometimes.

“Are you trying to tell me that my immune system probably actually sucks because it hasn’t been exposed to anything real since I was eight?” Annabeth asked. Percy bit his bottom lip.

“You said it, not me.” he said, with an apologetic shrug. Annabeth groaned again, rolling onto her stomach and shoving her face in her pillow. The sudden movement did nothing to relieve her headache; in fact it started pounding away with renewed vigor.

“But I got my flu shot and everything.” Annabeth complained, “I wash my hands all the time.”

“If you hadn’t gotten your shot you’d be feeling twice as bad right now, believe me.” Percy said. Between his ADHD-induced forgetfulness and his living in the city during flu season, Annabeth was inclined to trust him on that one.

“What do I do?” she asked, turning her face halfway off the pillow so she could look at him again. The sympathetic look he was giving her did not make her optimistic for his answer.

“Drink a lot of water and wait for it to pass.”

“That’s it?” Annabeth asked in disbelief.

“And keep an eye on your temperature.” Percy amended, “If it goes over a hundred and three I’m taking you to the ER.”

“Modern medicine is a sham.” Annabeth said. That elicited a laugh from him, at least.

“Go back to sleep. You can send your emails later.” he said, brushing a few stray curls behind her ear.

“I don’t know if I can.” Annabeth said, and it wasn’t even a lie or her being stubborn. She was still freezing somehow, shivering even though she was under blankets again.

In response, Percy crawled back under the covers, wrapping his arms around her. She snuggled into his chest, stealing his warmth, even though she knew she shouldn’t.

“You have class.” Annabeth protested. She felt his laugh, a sturdy vibration in his chest, more than she heard it.

“Not anymore. I’m probably just as contagious as you at this point.”

Annabeth tried again.

“I’m going to get you sick.”

“Maybe.” Percy said, not sounding particularly bothered by it either way.

“But…” Annabeth trailed off. She didn’t want him to leave, but it also didn’t feel fair to keep him here, knowing she was probably condemning him to the same misery she was feeling now.

“Don’t worry about me.” Percy said, reading her thoughts, “I used to ride the subway everyday, I think I’ve had every strain of the flu known to man. And if you think I’m just going to leave you here shivering, you’re crazy.”

“I guess I’ll allow it.” Annabeth mumbled, scooting a little closer to him. The shakes were finally starting to dissipate, driven off by Percy’s warmth.

“Oh, you’ll allow it?” he asked. She could hear the smile in his voice, even if she couldn’t see it.

“For now.” Annabeth said, though she had absolutely no intention of changing her mind, and he knew it better than she did.

“Go back to sleep, Wise Girl.” Percy said, kissing the top of her head.

“Fine.” she said, too tired to think of a good retort. “Seaweed Brain.” she added sleepily, for good measure. She felt him laugh again.

It took a while, but eventually she managed to drift off to sleep again, curled up against his chest.

#i had a shitty day at work so have some tooth-rotting fluff #percabeth #percabeth fic #percabeth fanfic #percabeth fluff #percabeth angst #pjo #pjo fic #pjo fanfic #pjo one shot #percabeth oneshot #Percy Jackson #Percy Jackson fanfic #percy x annabeth

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hogwartsfirebolt · 3 years

Text

cw: wizarding war, and the violence it ensues.

The year bled.

It bled great gouts of wizards, beacons of hope shining bright red at the tip of their wands. Led them to their deaths, in the battlefront that had taken their friends and family, yet remained unsatisfied.

The year took his Hagrid, took his Ron, the year flung a sword into Harry’s survival instincts and turned them inside out — backwards, all wrong. He lived and breathed for his days on the front, inhabited the outermost trench for longer than anyone was allowed, his wand glowing green more often than red.

Voldemort’s tooth — sharp, a snake’s poisonous incisive — hung on a thread, rested against Harry’s throat, had for the better part of the season. Yet the war raged on.

There’d been a time when things had been simpler.

“Will you be resting this fortnight?” Hermione had asked him when she’d served, a few days earlier. She was at a safe-house, now, replenishing her core, drawing energy from the underground streams that pulsed with golden magic so she would be ready to return to the fight. It was was everyone did, every couple of weeks, what their warlord had ordered.

Harry’d not been to a safe-house in three months. He’d not known anything but carnage in all those days, was beginning to suspect that the inexhaustible nature of his core didn’t extend to his body, definitely didn’t extend to his mind.

“Where are they getting this strength? These numbers?” Ron had asked, the night before a Death Eater had torn his head right off his neck.

They still did not know the answer. It happened everyday, at the strike of dawn: dozens of Death Eaters arrived at the front, and it didn’t matter that Harry sliced right through their ranks like a sword, there were dozens more the next morning. And they still did not know the answer.

It was not simple. Nothing was simple.

“They must have found a way to clone their soldiers. It can be done — they have Voldemort’s knowledge on soul-splitting.” Kingsley had written, in the letter Harry had received two days earlier. “Soon enough they will press at their advantage. I trust you will know what to do. Do not fail me.”

There was no “soon enough”. The advantage was already being pressed, every waking second, on multiple fronts. Harry spent his days blocking them with his magic, with his body, and his nights fighting against their secret weapon, they one they seemed to reserve for him only — the mind games.

“They impersonate us?” Arthur had asked, when he’d brought health potions the previous week.

“They show up as you, or Molly, Gin, R-Ron. I’m not sure what they want, they seem to be trying to extract information, but not on our lines, not on our manpower. I don’t know what I have that they want.”

“Don’t trust anyone.”

The days cut him, and the nights suffocated him. He got approached by group after group of imposters, wearing a different face every night. People Harry loved and hadn't seen in months. Those ones didn't hurt as much. Not like it hurt when it was people he had loved and lost.

Arthur had told him not to trust anyone. Some nights, he didn’t even trust himself.

He was going mad, sending away whoever it was that wore Cedric’s body, that showed up in his mother’s face, that slipped into Sirius’ limbs like they would into a coat. People he trusted, people he loved, and whose memory would forever be tainted by this, in his mind.

The night Draco Malfoy showed up, Harry thought it was another mind trick. Then, he realized that it broke the pattern. He’d never trusted, never loved, never even tolerated Draco Malfoy.

But there he was. He showed up, nose bleeding, broken arm cradled against his chest, miserable, everything Harry raged against. His tears shone bright silver over his cheekbones, down his jaw, carrying magical energy, draining him.

“Please,” he said. “Please, I don’t know where else to go.”

Harry didn’t trust him, he shouldn’t help him. But he did. He mended the fractured bones, cut his own palm with a knife and gave him some of his magical energy, poured it right into his gaping mouth. Saved his life.

Malfoy stayed.

Something like guilt, if he was still capable of that, draped itself across Harry’s shoulders as he fed him their food, let him drink from their goblets, gave him their healing potions.

He didn’t trust him. He didn’t trust himself.

Malfoy talked, at least, which was useful.

“Portraits.” He coughed, shivery from the core-loss. “They all have hundreds of them, their magical energy split. Not their souls, that’s not sustainable, it’s their magical energy. And they take them out, give them life. There’s an energy source, and an ancient spell, a rune ... I wasn’t told, but I saw, she performed it in front of me. Please, I’ll tell you. I ran. I need your help.”

Harry didn’t need to ask who she was.

“I can fight. I can help. Please. Please, they killed my mother.”

And there were the tears again, but crystal clear, no longer carrying Malfoy’s power. Harry had successfully stopped the drainage.

“I shouldn’t.”

“Please. Write to your general, I’ll say anything, I hate her.”

There had been a time in which Malfoy’s desperation would have made him feel at an advantage, would have made him laugh, prod at the wound. But that time was long gone, desperation was the only thing he knew now, as well, and there was no winning. It was a winless fight. Malfoy was too human, too scared, not an instrument of war.

“No. We don’t know he’s telling the truth, I forbid you from sheltering him.” Kingsley’s letter said.

There’d been a time when things had been simpler.

But the war raged, the weeks blended into each other, and the pain, renewed as it was every single day, numbed him.

Harry was human. Harry was scared. Harry was an instrument of war.

He sheltered him anyway.

“One wrong move, and you’re out. You have one chance.”

Malfoy nodded, weeping right there in the trench, in his blood-stained clothes. Harry couldn’t afford to distrust him, was too busy staying alive.

And Malfoy did not fail him. In the morning light, dozens of Death Eaters Harry had killed a million times marched into the battlefield, and Malfoy fought next to him. Harry’d not had anyone watch his back in months, and it made for a nice change.

At night, they fended off the imposters, and Harry fed him his own magical energy, watched him grow stronger with it. His core was inexhaustible, he knew. He didn’t have to send Malfoy away to regain strength, he gave it to him, every single night.

It was forbidden, but it was also the only thing that seemed right in the vortex of destruction he’d been living in.

“She keeps an artifact at the Manor. It looks like a prophecy, is kept under lock and key inside her chambers. I saw it, she made me clean it once. I think it’s the source of all this. I think if you destroy it, this will be over.” Malfoy said, three weeks after they’d been fighting side by side. He looked stronger, energized, and if Harry closed his eyes, he could feel his own magic inside Draco’s corestream, like an extension of himself.

“How?”

He felt Draco prodding back, felt him extending his energy so it circled back to Harry, so it flowed freely between them.

“There’s no time to look. Burn down the manor.”

The discovery that they could access each other’s magic should have been monumental, yet felt like nothing at all. They’d known, they’d experienced it every night for weeks. An intimacy unlike any other, between enemies, between allies.

“I thought I forbid you from taking him in.” Kingsley’s letter said, when Harry proposed the idea. It didn’t feel like a reprimand. It felt like a father, telling a child off for keeping a stray kitten. “I have sent reinforcements to the front, come to headquarters. Both of you. We’re burning the house this week.”

The plan was to march off to Malfoy Manor the morning after they arrived at headquarters. Instead, they slept for three days straight.

They were in different rooms, but Harry only had to close his eyes to trace his energy back to Draco, and it soothed him.

They’d been enemies. They were human, they were scared. Now, they were allies. Now, they were one, more than they were two.

“I think we can read each other’s minds.” Malfoy said when they woke up, except he wasn’t anywhere in the room. The voice had come from Harry’s head.

“So it seems.”

They found each other in the kitchen, had breakfast, made vague conversation, not a single word spoken out loud.

“Is the war ending?”

“Once they stop multiplying like crazy, we can beat them, and stop fighting. Live our lives, maybe. But I don’t think the war will ever end, Draco.”

He wanted to explain that he felt like he would carry it forever, but he didn’t have to. In the space between thinking it and wanting to communicate it, he already had.

“I know.”

For the first time in months, when Harry searched inside himself, he didn’t feel empty. There was energy, magic, there was someone else with him, in the space that had existed between his anger and his grief.

“Also, I can do wandless now," Draco added.

“Yeah, that’s on me.”

“Do you think this means we are …?”

“Yeah.”

They showered.

After, they apparated to Malfoy Manor, didn’t even have to touch to do it together, the crack of the spell going off in unison, turning heads once they arrived. The entire Order was there, and, in front of them, the house aflame.

The Manor bled. It bled tendrils of black magic that dissipated into thin air, screamed, called to the tooth hanging at Harry’s neck. He wrapped his fingers around it and held it tight — his trophy, his burden.

All that was left of the enemy army were twenty wizards that scuttled out of the blazing house like fleeing rats. She wasn’t amongst them. Somehow, Harry knew she’d died trying to protect her energy source. He knew that he would have, and soldiers weren't so different.

He and Draco took care of the survivors, both their powers pulled into a single explosion of green.

“Wow.” Hermione said, standing next to Harry.

“We think it’s over.”

“You two are …”

“Yeah.”

“Permanently.”

“Yeah.”

“You know that’s forbidden.”

“Yeah.”

“Okay.”

The year had bled, had been an open wound. Then it had been cleaned and stitched, messily, but closed. It ached. It bore the name of the friend Harry had loved the most, his other half. It would never go away, it would scar.

But it was healing.

Harry reached out with his magic, and felt Draco meet him halfway.

Written for @drarrymicrofic prompt "forbidden"

#drarry #drarry microfic #drarrymicrofic #mine #drarry fic #draco malfoy #harry potter #mywriting

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halloweenhoneylover · 3 years

Text

the window

summary: reader gives spencer a really cute holiday gift, and he really, really appreciates it (spencer reid x gn!reader)

word count: 2.7k

author’s note: this was supposed to be a blurb lmao. also anon, u did not specify gender, so this is gender neutral!!! also, this is for the holiday season and isn’t specific to christmas (aside from mentions of secret santa gift exchange). also also, spencer knits canonically.

I KNOW WHAT YOU DID.

Rolling your eyes, you closed the seemingly menacing pop-up on your screen and continued to finish up your paperwork. A few seconds passed before a second pop-up appeared.

DO NOT CLOSE MY MESSAGES!!!

You heaved a sigh and stood, making your way to Garcia’s lair. Pushing the door open, you skipped a greeting entirely and chided, “Dude, you gotta stop sending scary pop-ups to my computer. People are gonna start thinking that unsubs are hacking the FBI and threatening agents.”

From beneath her horn-rimmed glasses, Penelope tutted and chewed the end of her pen. “You are no fun. Besides, you are forgetting my immensely cool and mysterious origin story. ‘The Black Queen’ was not one of the good guys!”

“That’s true,” you admitted, “but you’re one of us now, so that means no more suspicious messages unless you want to be fired.”

She gave you a contemptuous glare, “Not gonna happen. Also, I’m really shocked that you thought you could distract me from the matter at hand.”

Furrowing your brow, you replied, “I don’t even know what the matter at hand is.”

Garcia’s smirk curled devilishly. “You and Reid.”

Further confusion ensued. “And what about us?”

She groaned and threw her head back, “Oh my god, you really are dragging this out. I know that you did not get him for Secret Santa, but you still got him a present.” The quirking of her eyebrows was enough to indicate that she meant more than what she was saying, and you were hesitant to explore the implications.

“Okay, first of all, it is illegal to look at my credit card history, and secondly, he is my best friend, so yes, I got him a present. Is that a crime?”

“Certainly not...but this does solidify the fact that you’re in love with him.”

“Dear god, Garcia, I am not in love with Spencer Reid.”

The look she gave you was one of utter incredulity. Her disbelief was so strong in fact that she did not deign your statement worthy of verbal response. Instead, she sat there. Staring. And under her rather unnerving gaze, you began to fidget, your resolve slowly dissolving. Squeezing your eyes shut, you relented.

“Okay, maybe I am the littlest, tiniest bit in love with Spencer Reid.”

“Well, duh, but what I really need to know is when you’re gonna tell him.”

“When? Garcia, this is not a ‘when’ question. Actually, it’s not a question at all because never in a million years would I ever tell him.”

“Why not?” she exclaimed, gesturing with her pen still in hand. “You spend almost all of your time together, at work and at home! You guys go to bookstores and museums and cafes. He talks about his silly little statistics, and you listen, and you make your silly little jokes, and he laughs; you’re a match made in heaven! And he’s so obviously into you! That boy writes the definition of heart eyes every time he looks at you.”

Steeling your jaw, you rebutted, “That’s just not true.” Your voice faltered. “Sure, I’ve noticed a certain...affection, but he does not love me in the same way I love him.” You let out a shaky breath before deciding to continue. “Did you know that in all of our years of friendship he’s never touched me? I mean sure, it’s happened once or twice in the field, but that was always an accident. And yeah, I know he has his thing with germs, but don’t you think if he liked me as anything more than a friend, he would have done something by now? A pinky promise, a teasing elbow jab—I don’t know—something?”

Penelope’s face softened, and she tried to recover your confidence. “He’s like that with everyone! He likes his space. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him initiate contact with anyone on the team.”

“But isn’t that the point, Garcia? I’m just like everyone else to him. He wants space from me.” Bitterness roiled in your stomach and dripped from your tongue. “Not very romantic, huh?”

Trying to piece together a counterargument, she stumbled slightly, “No, I will give you that.” She paused. “But I think he’s just scared. Not of germs, not of you, but of his feelings for you. He’s not the most well-adjusted person I know.”

You chuckled lightly, gradually resuming your normally light-hearted disposition, “I would agree.”

“Well, I hope he likes his present.”

The semblance of a tired smile graced your face. “Yeah, me too.”

You turned to walk out and had almost made it out the door when her voice stopped you. “Also, I will stop sending suspicious pop-ups to your computer.”

Peeking back through the doorway, you grinned.“I think it’d be for the best. Texting does exist for a reason.”

———

It had been a really good day. It wasn’t often where an entire day in the bullpen passed only with friends and laughter and love and light, but today was one of them. Snow fell silently outside the windows, but everything inside felt warm like laughing so hard that your cheeks ache and your stomach hurts.

By now, a sort of daze had befallen the team as the giddiness wore on and the alcohol set in, fuzzing eyes and minds. Most everyone had paired off after the gift exchange a few minutes prior, but no one had drifted too far. (Maybe it was the team instinct: never stray too far from the pack, but it was also likely that everyone just enjoyed the proximity to their loved ones, their family.) Garcia seemed to be in heaven, tucked into Morgan’s side on a couch that had been dragged haphazardly into the bullpen, and murmured conversation stretched on with intermittent peals of laughter. Predictably, Hotch and Rossi had sequestered themselves to a nearby desk, their scotch glasses never dry and grins never fading. (Hotch during the holidays was something special. His often frigid demeanor thawed, and out from the ice peeked his former self who wasn’t so serious. (His rare giggles were quite the surprise though.)) Emily and JJ sat on the latter’s desk, discussing anything and everything (except for psychopathic murderers), while you had pulled your chair up to sit beside Spencer at his desk.

“So are you pleased about your gift from Rossi?” you asked, a faint grin playing at your lips.

“I am,” he replied, clearly enthused. “But I don’t think I’ll ever understand how he managed to get an authentic TARDIS key.” His finger traced the edge of the authenticity certificate Rossi had bestowed on him that sat on his desk; the key was already hanging around his neck.

You raised your eyebrows and nodded. “Well, money is a powerful thing.”

“True,” he mused before furrowing his brow. “But that’s another thing, the expense limit is not a suggestion, but he always treats it like it is. Puts all the rest of us to shame.”

“There’s no shame in an inexpensive gift!” you argued. “As long as time or thought was put in, it doesn’t matter.”

“Penelope surely didn’t skimp on time spent for yours,” he said, pointing to the homemade knitted hat and glove set on the desk beside you.

“No, I did not!” she yelled from her spot on the couch, somehow having managed to pick up on your conversation, and you laughed. “Lots and lots of time and love was poured into those!” Her speech was slightly slurred as her eggnog intake began to infringe on her lucidity.

“I know this, and I love you for it,” you beamed at her.

“I love you too.” She proceeded to bury her face in Derek’s shoulder who could only chuckle at her antics.

You picked up a glove and inspected it. “I truly cannot comprehend how she made these. Circular knitting needles are my living hell.”

Sitting up with renewed interest, Spencer said, “If you need help with them, I could lend a hand. I knit my mom a sweater this year, and I think I finally understand how they work if you ever wanted me to show you.”

“I’d love that.” Hopefully, the flush of your cheeks could be blamed on the wine you had had. “Speaking of your mom, how is she? Are you excited to see her?”

The corners of his mouth turned up, and he nodded. “She’s good; her nurse said she’s been doing really well lately. She’s less paranoid, more alert, so I’m really excited. I think this will be a good trip.”

“I’m so glad!” You sat there with a dumb smile for a moment, your mind lagging for a moment (damn wine) before realization crashed onto you. “Wait, speaking of your mom, I have something for you!” He cocked his head to the side as you stood up and went to your desk, rifling through one of the drawers. Pulling out a neatly wrapped gift, you trotted back over and offered it to him. “This is for you.”

He took it, running a hand over the wrapping paper (it was the one with cowboys wearing Santa hats that you had found when shopping together a couple weeks before, his favorite). “(Y/N), you didn’t have to get me anything.”

Shrugging lightly, you said, “Yeah, I know we did the whole gift exchange thing, but I saw it, and I thought of you and had to get it.” And you definitely did not actively seek this out for him in the search for his perfect present. Which is something somebody who is definitely not in love with him would do.

He looked up at you, eyes already glassy and searching your face for something. You weren’t sure what he was looking for, but then he met your gaze with unwavering certainty. “Thank you, (Y/N/N).”

“No problem, ya big sap, now open it already.”

Ever the cautious one, he opened it carefully, sliding a finger under the edge of the paper and gently easing the tape up. The small action of unwrapping a present so attentively was just so Spencer your heart swelled as you suppressed the growing grin. From the paper emerged a book.

“‘A Collection of Poems by Geoffrey Chaucer,’” he murmured, smoothing a hand over the cover.

When he didn’t immediately react, seemingly frozen, nerves crept up the back of your neck, and you sputtered out some sort of reasoning. “I know your mom used to read Chaucer to you; you mentioned ‘The Parliament of Fowls’ when we worked the Fisher King case, and it’s in this collection, and I thought it’d be fun for you to take it to Vegas and read it together and—”

Your explanation came to an abrupt halt as Spencer threw his arms around you, enveloping you in a bone-crushing hug. Immediately melting into it, you embraced him with a similar intensity and buried your face in his neck. Something in his touch allowed you to let go, and it felt like the moment you could finally exhale.

A breath you’d been holding for longer than you could remember.

You could smell the cologne that he wore for ‘special occasions’ and his shampoo and something so faint but so undeniably him, and his hand slid up to the back of your head, cradling it in the most tender fashion, and you felt like you could cry. So you pulled him closer, and he did the same.

The hug definitely lasted longer than what most people would find comfortable, but neither of you could be convinced to retreat until you became aware of the silence that had settled over the bullpen. You felt the many pairs of eyes on you, and it pained you to pry yourself off of Spencer. Breathless, you looked around at the shocked faces of your co-workers who sat with mouths agape and eyes wide. You coughed slightly to try to ease the tension and then for some reason beyond your knowledge, you decided to wave at them in the most awkward fashion. Sitting back down, you could feel stares lingering as conversation resumed, and you looked up at Reid who looked like a deer in headlights. You laughed quietly, tugging his sleeve until he received the memo and sat down again.

He cleared his throat and avoided eye contact, glancing at his present. “Thank you for the book, (Y/N/N).”

“You’re welcome,” you replied, your tone earnest as ever. Still reeling from the hug, you faintly became aware of the speed of your heartbeat and unconsciously brought a hand to your chest. You attempted fruitlessly to sort through your raging thoughts, while across from you, Spencer tried to think of something, anything to say now.

He couldn’t really believe he’d done it. His germaphobia remained everpresent, but somehow the emotion welling in his chest at your sincerity and benevolence had overridden it, and he felt helpless in stopping himself. His heart had lurched in his chest as if it was suddenly struck with the need to be in your hands, propelling him forward. But it wasn’t like he hadn’t wanted to. He had wanted to for so long, but he’d never mustered the courage before. There was something so special, so intimate about touch, and so many people gave it so freely, and he just didn’t understand how they could allow themselves the indulgence. The absolute luxury of giving and receiving love. Spencer often felt like he sat by a window, watching his life pass by outside of it, and he had always wanted to open it, to really experience all the joy and all the grief and all the love that was waiting for him, but it was scary to open himself up to those feelings and the hurt that could ensue. So, he usually sat discontented by his window. But today, it was like he’d grabbed a hammer and smashed the glass completely and stepped through to be able to return the love you had offered him.

It felt so good.

But now, he had no idea what to do. He stood there in the midst of the shattered glass, and deep down, he knew had to take the last couple steps to get to you, but he didn’t know how.

His fingers fidgeted in his lap as he analyzed your blank face, trying to find something to give him the next direction when a realization hit him. “I didn’t get you anything!”

Drawn back from the depths of whatever thought you had been stuck in, you met his gaze and shook your head. “Seriously, don’t worry about it. I broke the gift exchange rules to get you something, so you had no way of knowing.”

“But I feel terrible.” His eyebrows drew together, and he frantically tried to think of some way to repay you. “You get me an incredibly lovely and wonderfully thoughtful gift, and I’m the loser who didn’t get his best friend a present!”

“Spencer—”

“Wait!” he interrupted, a revelation arriving. (He knew how to take the last steps.) “When I get back after the holidays, do you want to get dinner with me? Then, we can go to the bookstore on 10th that you love, and you can pick out a book, and I’ll pay.”

Your eyes widened further than you thought possible, and your heart which had only partially recovered was off to the races once again. You decided to take the plunge and ask the burning question. “Do you—um, do you mean like a date?”

“Yeah,” he answered, beaming so brightly. “Yes. Like a date. If you want to.”

You held each other’s gaze, and the warmth that had filled the bullpen all day filled your chests, and you smiled so hard your faces hurt.

So silly, you thought, to have wasted all this time boarding up my affection and keeping it tucked away, safe and useless.

So ridiculous, he thought, to have sat by that stupid window for so many years when the real thing feels so sweet.

“I think I’d like that a lot.”

#spencer reid x reader #spencer reid x you #spencer reid fluff #spencer reid fanfic #spencer reid #anon i hope u enjoy!!!!#this was only written between the hours of 1 and 3 am so if that impacts the quality i am terribly sorry #but i like some of the end of it so we'll see #:)#<3 #also am i legally allowed to post a fic that doesn't have a bsf garcia scene? no #all the homies liking this at 3:26 am? i love u

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kim-ruzek · 3 years

Text

Messy, chaotic perfection

Summary: Family isn't just who is blood, but who is in your corner, who makes you feel loved and cared for, who is safe and who is home.

Season 8 au, goes off if Kim never miscarried, Burzek are together, and season eight still went somewhat how it did.

Warnings: mentions of canon events (shooting, foster situations).

Word Count: 3.5k

Read on AO3

Notes: This is a Feel Better fic for the amazing, incredible and so, so strong and brave Cíara (@fighterkimburgess ). Cíara I love you, you deserve the world, and you deserve to know that I (and all of us in this fandom) have your back and wish you all the best in your life ♥️

Life can be unpredictable, events that you never expect to happen can occur and feel like that was always meant to happen all along. This is a lesson Kim has learnt over and over throughout her life, but one she’s only finally beginning to fully understand it, that it’s always going to happen in ways you don’t expect.

Like today.

Today, when she woke up, Kim thought she’d have a tiring day at work with all the racists that Kevin, and by extension them since Kevin is their family, is having to deal with but that it would be relatively drama free and she and her boyfriend—which is a word, that no matter how juvenile it sounds, makes her feel all giggly inside at—would come home and have a nice relaxing evening with their daughter.

She didn’t expect Patrol to not show up when they called and she definitely did not expect Adam to get shot. But that is life, as Kim has kept learning recently.

“Careful, let me grab the door.” Kim quickly darts in front of a very impatient and unfussed Adam, moving so she can unlock and open their front door before he can. Adam sighs.

“Kim, I’m not an invalid.” He grumbles and she flashes him a glare before she opens up the door.

“Adam, you were shot.” She holds up her hand. “And no I don’t care if it’s was in the vest. You were shot and you were lying there and I thought you were dead. And now you’ve got a bruise on your chest and Will said that you have to take it easy—it could affect your lungs if you overwork yourself.”

Kim already knows that she’s probably going to spend the next few weeks seeing Adam lying there on the grass whenever she shuts her eyes. Just like she knows that Adam gets why she’s being so fussy, even if he’s being his typical bad patient self.

“I can still open doors. You know I like opening our door for you,” At that, Kim turns away from the door, facing Adam. She closes what little distance they had between them, resting her hands gently on his chest.

“I know, but you’re injured. Let me look after you. And—we’ve only just found our way back together again, I don’t want to loose you, and I don’t want our daughter to loose you.” Adam’s eyes soften and he gently kisses her forehead.

“Yeah. I’m sorry, darlin’. I’m just stubborn.”

If this had happened years ago, this probably would’ve ended up making an even bigger dent in their relationship, and god knows if they’d be able to communicate—and truly understand each other back then. But they’re not those young people now, they’ve grown and learnt so much, and are completely dedicated to making this work.

Especially because they’re parents.

“Hey, Ally!” Adam is immediately greeting their six month old as soon as they enter the flat, Kim not far behind, the two parents cooing over her instantly.

“Can you hold her?” Trudy gives Adam a wary eye, holding the child she, without hesitation, claimed as her granddaughter. Normally they’d have their nanny here, taking care of Ally, but given that Adam was shot and had to be looked over, Trudy had relieved their nanny instead, just in case they arrived home later than usual.

“You’re as bad as Kim, of course I can,” Adam grumbles again, mostly with good humour. Still, Trudy glances at Kim just to double check, who nods and then Trudy is helping to pass the girl to her father. Usually, Adam would scoop the girl out of her arms with ease, but—showing that he is taking Will seriously, or at least their daughter’s safety seriously—he had hesitated, waited for Trudy to help.

“You should sit down, I’ll get dinner on.” Kim tells him. She then looks at Trudy. “Are you staying or going home? You’re welcome, of course.”

“I’ll leave the three of you be. Randall has his shift in the morning.” Trudy kisses her granddaughter good-bye—leaning down to do so, Ally babbling in Adam’s arms on the sofa—and then it’s just the three of them.

If you had told her a year and a half ago that this would be her life, Kim would struggle to belief you. Adam and her felt like history, something that never had the timing it deserved and that they’d only be relegated to friends with benefits.

And being a Mom? That was so far out from the cards Kim was dealt, she didn’t think it would happen for quite a few years, and even then, it felt like a impossible and distant thought.

But she has both. A relationship with Adam that is strong and decent and a proper, communicating relationship and the beautiful daughter who made it possible.

At first, Adam and her were determined to be co parents only. More her than him, if she was honest, but he understood her side.

But then Kim hit her second trimester and with it her renewed sex drive and inability to keep her hands off him and platonic co parents got more and more unbelievable—especially as they moved in together.

The reasons why they decided to just be platonic still hung over their head, however, and so they had to have a serious conversation—several, in fact—about their relationship and what it would look like and be like. They both knew that with a child in the mix, they had to be committed and determined because their baby would be impacted.

Kim did have worries about it, about if they could keep communicating and not fall back on old habits, but by the time Ally came along, their relationship had only grown stronger. The new-born stage is a tough time for parents, and they had their moments, but that only brought them even more closer and Kim now no longer has any of those worries.

Domestic bliss is something she’s always wanted to have, alongside a fulfilling job, and there’s days Kim can’t quite believe that she’s found it.

Her life isn’t perfect, no life is. And there’s tensions at work, and with their best friend going through some horrific stuff, life doesn’t feel easy. But they have each other, and they have Ally, and Kim keeps feeling like she’s reached as close to perfection as she could have.

When she was younger, Kim imagined that having perfection would be calm, would be peaceful. And maybe for others it is, but it’s not for her. There’s always some madness in her life; she’s a cop, after all. And she’s learned to appreciate the short peaceful moments that she gets. But sometimes, sometimes life is just quiet.

It had been a few weeks of quiet that Kim had realised her life hadn’t had any madness in it. Her and Adam were just going about their routine, day in, day out, watching as Ally continued to grow and marvel them and she realised that.

And then she knew instantly that the madness was coming.

It came the next day.

Adam and her had just picked up their morning coffee from a coffee shop. It had been a while since they could, usually having to make do with the district coffee—having a baby means time is precious and money is dear—but they did this morning, the two of them in a good mood and having a ridiculous conversation about boats.

And then there was a lost six year old girl walking through the road.

Everything got a lot more busy after that, as they tracked down her family and worked out what had happened.

Being a Mom has definitely changed Kim, and she had to go into a corner—Adam joining her, wrapping his arms around her—and have a little cry in the locker room. All she could think about her daughter, her Ally, loosing her family like that and it activated the still distantly present hormones leftover from her pregnancy.

And it made her more determined to help the little girl, Makayla, especially when the girl had apparently bonded to her. Kim was told that she was the best person to talk to her, and even though she’s a mother, she had doubted her abilities. There’s a difference between her baby who’s just learning to talk and move about to a traumatized six year old but the doubts were misplaced, Kim managing to get that connection.

Makayla had wanted her to come to the safe house with her, which Kim did. Luckily Adam was by Trudy’s desk and he gave her nod, telling her that Ally and him will be okay. Still, Kim was glad that she’s already had a night away from her daughter so that she could go with Makayla, so that she didn’t have to let down this vulnerable girl who needed her just as much.

The safe house had turned out to not be so safe, and Kim’s mama bear instincts—as Adam has affectionately coined—kicked in and she instantly said she’ll be taking Makayla home, no questions.

Of course, she had glanced at Adam, silently checking with him. Adam had nodded again.

“Ally’s already with her grandparents so yes, Makayla will be staying with us.” Adam had immediately supported her, his voice just as firm and decided. Kim had already worked out Ally was with Trudy and Mouch, as he was there and they are their emergency babysitters but she felt so lucky to have a partner who was willing to not have the night with his daughter for what she wants.

Seeing Adam interact with Makayla that night had made Kim’s insides twist, and she wonders if they might end up accidentally conceiving a second baby soon with how his paternalism stirred feelings inside her.

It left her feeling sadder than Kim would’ve thought to say goodbye to Makayla after everything was sorted, an emptiness in her heart. The girl had made an impact on her and it felt wrong to end the story there.

That night, Kim had hugged Ally close to her, Adam arm wrapped around her as he cuddled up to them.

“I think I want another,” Kim had said, and Adam choked. She had laughed, then, careful not to wake the sleeping baby on her chest.

“Not now or anytime soon. One baby is enough at one time. But in the future. This—us—being a family, it feels right and as perfect as our family is, I want it to be bigger.” She had explained. She’d have been nervous, but this is Adam, possibly the only person she knows whole heartedly that she can be herself, no judgement.

“Darlin’, nothing would make me happier.” He had kissed her temple firmly then, lacing their hands together and Kim got that feeling of perfect domestic bliss again.

“I’d say let’s have another right now but, yeah, one baby is enough. Although we could practice?” He then joked and Kim rolled her eyes at him.

It isn’t that long after that they’re at social services and Kim spots that precious six year old who, if Kim is honest with herself, hadn’t left her thoughts since, every few days Kim wondering if she’s okay, if she’s settling and adjusting and if the cousin Cathy would need to call her.

“Kim!” Makayla immediately runs to her, hugging her and Kim’s heart twists and constricts, warming at the gesture but breaking that she’s here.

They’re in the middle of a turbulent case, a case that plagues Kim, but her mind is still spilt, focused on worrying about Makayla.

“Where were you?” Adam asks her when she gets back from Cathy’s. Kim knows that she should’ve told him before, that going off alone like this when in a relationship and a parent isn’t how she should be behaving but as the couple’s therapist they went to say said, sometimes Kim can have tunnel vision. It’s something she’s working on, but sometimes she reverts back, like when a six year old needs her.

“I went to see Makayla’s Cathy.” Kim then tells him, and she tells him all about it.

“What if I take her in?” The words fall out Kim’s mouth before she can really process them. It’s nothing she should say, not just for the reasons Makayla’s social worker lists. But because Kim isn’t an I anymore. She’s in a relationship and she’s a mother. This isn’t just her life, but she can’t get Makayla—or the bond they have—out of her head.

After the conversation with her social worker, Kim sees Kevin. She wonders if she should ask him about this, about his siblings and that decision, knowing that he’ll have value to add to the conversation, especially as a black man. But she stops herself, knowing that she’s getting that tunnel vision again, that she needs to discuss this with Adam before she spirals too fast.

“I want to foster Makayla.” It isn’t the most tactful conversation, or the best place for it. But Kim’s mind is in overdrive and all she can think about is how she could feel at six, feeling like only Nicole loved her, and about that precious girl, and her own daughter.

“Us. I want us to foster Makayla.” Kim quickly amends, because they’re a team. Everything they do, they do together. They’re entwined and interlinked and the only way to make the relationship successful is by accepting and respecting that.

It’s a long conversation. It’s really not the time or place but that’s something that just doesn’t matter as much as talking. Kim tells Adam all about why she does, and he talks about how he feels. That he gets it, that he would want to give her a home just as much but has she thought this through.

They work out if they want it to only be temporary, how they’ll do it with Ally, if they’re ready and if they’re only doing this because they’re adapting to being parents, parents who often felt unloved as a child.

And they grab Kevin, adding him to the discussion, getting his two cents.

And then they come to a decision—that they should take Makayla home and they’re jumping into action. Kim calling the social worker, Adam arranging for Ally to be at her grandparents for the night as they get Makayla settled.

Everything picks up after that, quiet days rarely a thing even more than before.

They get Makayla into school, sets up their home so it feels more like hers, they get her into therapy and family therapy. They introduce her to Kevin, knowing he will have to play an important role in their foster daughter’s life.

Makayla adores Ally from the first time they meet, treating her with such care and love and Ally immediately bonds to her. It fills Kim with such joy and affection, and makes her heart feel so, so soft.

Kim was worried that them having Ally already would make Makayla feel like an add on, but it has the opposite affect, making her feel more like part of the family—two weeks in, Makayla tells Kim that she always wanted a little sister, and Kim’s happy that she may not have been able to save Makayla’s family, but at least she could do something.

It’s not smooth sailing. It’s tough and it’s work. Nights were hell, Makayla waking up screaming and rousing Ally, but it gets better, especially after they get Makayla trouble dolls. It’s an adjustment, for sure, but it’s fulfilling.

For Adam too, who’s taken to calling Makayla his lil darlin’ and all three of them his girls. Kim already knew he is a great dad, but seeing him dress up and play with Makayla, and being so calm and loving through her trauma just reaffirms that over and over, making Kim feel so happy that she gave them another chance.

Makayla is family long before the adoption going through.

Mack is one of the first words Ally says, reaching for her sister as she did so. Kim—and Adam, as they discussed it later—will never forget the utterly joyful grin that had spread across Makayla’s face at that.

“Ally said my name!” Makayla had exclaimed to them happily, and proceeded to tell everyone she saw over the next week, her excitement and joy never waning.

Trudy and Mouch immediately accept Makayla as another grandchild and the rest of the family treats Makayla like she belongs. Kim never had any doubts, but it warmed her heart to see how much Makayla clearly loved and was taken by it—and how it made her feel so much more settled, knowing she’s gained so much family even after loosing so much.

Sylvie takes it upon herself to be her honorary godmother and Makayla quickly learns that Sylvie is one of the best to play princesses with. Stella comes with Sylvie one day and Makayla is immediately enamoured by her, and soon Stella decides Makayla needs two godmothers.

The Atwaters are an essential part of their family, as they help Makayla keep that connection to her black culture, helping to make sure her identity doesn’t get lost and that she doesn’t feel like she has to pick sides between her old and new life.

Makayla and Uncle Kev have a day every month, just them, doing whatever they want. It’s not even about doing anything relating to their shared skin tone, but just a routine to establish that Kevin is there for her.

Jordan takes to Makayla quickly, as well, finding her cute and endearing. He tells them that she reminds him of Vinessa at that age, and quickly starts calling her his little cousin—another thing that Kim knows helps makes her feel like part of the family.

Makayla loves her ‘big cousin', Jordan often teaching her age appropriate jokes and helping her play harmless pranks. He also teaches her some dance moves, and laughs with her when she tries to teach Adam them, who fails spectacularly.

Jordan loves Ally as well, having seen Kim as part of his family for years but Kim knows that they’ll never have the bond that Jordan and Makayla have, and it’s something that makes her feel warm and fuzzy inside—that Makayla with have things that’s just hers, that she won’t ever feel like she’s in her little sister’s shadow. It’s important, Kim thinks, and she’s glad of it. Makayla is no less her daughter than Ally and deserves to never feel like she is.

Makayla is family before she is legally, before she’s adopted into a family who barely has any blood in common anyway. But the day the adoption goes through is a joyous day for all of them.

“I love you.” Makayla has said it to them before, and more to Ally. But that day she says it and it’s louder than a shy whisper but firm and sure and Kim can’t help getting teary eyed as they hug her, assuring their daughter that they love her too, so much.

“Thank you for wanting to be my mom and dad.” Makayla says that night, so earnestly and Kim tears up again, Adam too. And nothing has ever felt so right. Kim knows she’ll never replace her mom, and she doesn’t want to, and she knows that Makayla might not ever call them mom and dad but they are and Makayla sees them as that and it feels so right.

“We’ve got two daughters.” Kim giggles against Adam’s chest that night, when everyone is asleep.

“That we do. And we got to skip the baby stage so we could get our two daughters straight away,” Adam replies, referencing their conversation from the night Makayla went home with Cathy. Kim laughs again, cuddling against her fiancé—as of a week ago.

Life is unpredictable. It’s messy and chaotic and full of madness, and Kim’s learnt and accepted that. And life is wonderful and amazing, and not despite of that, but because of that.

Two years ago, Kim would not see herself like this. In bed with Adam, her fiancé, their two daughters sleeping and feeling like she’s got the most perfect life. And it’s all because life is unpredictable.

Kim used to think that perfect meant calmness. And then she thought that can’t be her life, because she’s choose a mad and crazy life, a life not designed to be calm. But as she lies in bed that night, Adam cuddling her, Kim knows that’s wrong.

Life does mean calmness, but not because her life is quiet and calm, but because it’s messy and chaotic. It’s messy and chaotic and it’s hers. She has all what she ever wanted, fulfilled in all areas, and it doesn’t matter if it’s unpredictable because that’s the beauty of it.

There’s such a peace and calmness inside of her, an ease that has been brought on only by the messy, imperfection and unplanned events of her life—and that’s what makes everything feel perfect; perfect within the chaos.

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