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tobesoquiet · 2 years

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The Great War Song Analysis

Below you will find my 2k+ word analysis of the first 3am track on Taylor Swift’s most recent album Midnights (3am edition). I did utilize Genius, but most of this stuff was just from my own mind and Genius happened to have the same info, lol.

“My knuckles were bruised like violets” This opening line seems to be a clear callback to Lavender haze, a song all about the honeymoon phase of a relationship where there is little to no conflict. But, as we will learn, The Great War is somewhat the antithesis of Lavender Haze as it tells the story of Taylor and her partner’s first colossal fight and how it almost ended their relationship. Personally, I like the symbolism of Lavender Haze being the first track while The Great War is the first of the 3am tracks.

“Sucker-punching walls, cursed you as I sleep-talked” Taylor mentions dreams and nightmares several times across this album and in her previous work. Instances of this in other Midnights tracks specifically would be in Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve, and Anti-Hero where she sings “I can’t let this go, I fight with you in my sleep”, and “I wake up screaming from dreaming one day I’ll watch as you’re leaving”. She also mentions sleep talking specifically in Long Story Short; “Misery, like the war of words I shouted in my sleep”.

“Spineless in my tomb of silence” This lyric reminds me of the line “I lived like an island, punished you with silence, went off like sirens, just crying” from Afterglow, a song that could very well have been written about the same fight Taylor and her partner had. It sounds like she’s depicting herself shutting down emotionally during this fight.

“Tore your banners down, took the battle underground” Appears to be a straightforward reference to Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve where there’s a lyric quite similar; “Years of tearing down our banners, you and I”. I feel as though this could represent Taylor trying, or at least wanting to end the relationship this song is about.

“And maybe it was ego swinging, maybe it was her” In any argument, egos can get bruised. It becomes an issue when the reason you’re still arguing is that you don’t want to admit your faults or wrongdoing and thus the fight continues. As for who “her” is, we aren’t privy to that information, however, I do wonder if this woman could be the character in the Anti-Hero music video who represents Taylor’s self-loathing thoughts and actively tries to sabotage her, and in this case, her relationship.

“Flashes of the battle come back to me in a blur” It’s not unusual for veterans to suffer from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), and for those who do have it, flashbacks of their trauma isn’t uncommon. Taylor could be experiencing flashbacks of this nuclear argument, or “battle”, with her partner during current fights.

“All that bloodshed, crimson clover” In 1986, Tommy James and the Shondells released a song called Crimson and Clover. The song is about the narrator seeing a woman and instantly falling for her and thinking there’s a possibility he could love her. In the context of this song, though, I feel like this could be a reference to the amount of figurative blood that was spilled, hence the ground, and the clover growing there, being stained a crimson red.

“Uh-huh sweet dream was over” The honeymoon phase that Taylor sang about in Lavender Haze has most definitely ended. This also reminds me of the line “Flying in a dream, stars by the pocketful” from Snow On The Beach, where she’s singing about falling for someone and being shocked that they like her back.

“My hand was the one you reached for, all throughout the Great War” Taylor is saying that despite how tumultuous her relationship was at the time, her partner was still setting it aside and comforting them both. As for the term “the Great War”, before WWII, WWI was referred to as the Great War. The use of this term is Taylor trying to express how volatile this fight was for both parties involved.

“Always remember, uh-huh tears on the letter” “Always remember, never forget” Is a phrase usually used in reference to a significant tragedy that will go down in history. Thus, in the context of this song and how Taylor is using the metaphor of war to describe this period of her relationship, she is expressing that the fight was so monumental that it will go down in the history of their romance.

“I vowed not to cry anymore, if we survived the Great War” This reminds me of how in some of our more desperate moments, we pray to a god we may or may not believe in with the promise of “If you get me out of this situation/help me in some way, I promise I’ll never do x bad thing again”. Taylor is saying that if by some miracle she and her partner make it through this, she’ll be so grateful that she’ll never allow herself to show her unhappiness again.

“You drew up some good faith treaties” “Good faith” is considered to be one’s honor and integrity when drawing up an agreement between more than one party and how they conduct themselves after said agreement. This hints at Taylor’s partner being very active in trying to come up with solutions and/or compromises to their problem.

“I drew curtains closed, drank my poison all alone” As I said, Taylor is isolating herself, which she expressed having a problem within the #TSAntiHeroChallenge video she posted, as well as drowning her sorrows in what could be alcohol, which is sometimes referred to as poison. It reminds me of the saying “holding a grudge is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die”.

“You said I have to trust more freely” There have been multiple instances in this era alone where Taylor has hinted towards her trust issues, such as in the Anti-Hero music video where the character who acts as a manifestation of her self-loathing and intrusive thoughts is shown giving her a lesson in a school like setting where “Everyone will betray you” is written on the blackboard in large lettering. She also does this in Dear Reader with the lines “Dear reader, you don’t have to answer just ‘cause they asked you” and “Dear reader, the greatest of luxuries is your secrets”. It should also be noted that songs from Reputation, such as Look What You Made Me Do and This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things, both touch on a betrayal she’s faced.

“But diesel is desire, you were playing with fire” A very clear (to me) parallel to the Ivy bridge where she also sings about fire and war in the context of a relationship; “So yeah, it’s a fire, it’s a goddamn blaze in the dark, and you started it. So yeah, it’s a war, it’s the goddamn fight of my life and you started it”.

“And maybe it’s the past that’s talking, screaming from the crypt” Taylor has used the imagery of death to describe her ended relationships in her previous work and in another song on Midnights. In All Too Well (Ten Minute Version) (Taylor’s version) she sings “He’s gonna say it’s ‘love’, you never called it what it was. ‘Til we were dead and gone and buried, check the pulse and come back swearing. It’s the same, after three months in the grave.” and in Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve “If clarity’s in death, then why won’t this die?” as well as “The tomb won’t close, I miss who I used to be”. Both relationships seem to have greatly impacted her and there’s a strong possibility that the toll they took on her affects how she handles relationships to this day.

“Telling me to punish you for things you never did, so I justified it” Another lyric that reminds me of Afterglow, specifically the lyrics “I blew things out of proportion, now you’re blue. Put you in jail for something you didn’t do. I pinned your hands behind your back, oh. Thought I had reason to attack, no.” and “Hey, it’s all me, in my head. I’m the one who burned us down, but it’s not what I meant. I’m sorry that I hurt you.”

“It turned into something bigger” An argument that might have started smaller and about something that wasn’t super important, but now it’d been blown out of proportion and Taylor is possibly realizing that this really could end their relationship.

“Somewhere in the haze, got a sense I’d been betrayed” Perhaps another callback to Lavender Haze, which as we know was written about the blissful honeymoon phase. It sounds, to me, like the metaphorical bubble of peace and calm has been burst by her momentarily thinking that her partner has done something unforgivable. Betrayal isn’t an uncommon theme during times of war, in fact, American general Benedict Arnold became synonymous with the word after he betrayed America during the Revolutionary War.

“Your finger on my hairpin triggers” She’s on the brink of losing it/exploding in a way and how her partner acts will determine her reaction and whether or not she does, in fact, lose it.

“Soldier down on that icy ground” “Soldier down” or “man down” is a phrase meant to signify that a soldier on the battlefield/in action has been injured or taken down, most likely by a bullet or other weapon. In this case, the soldier is Taylor's partner who might have been emotionally wounded by her words or actions. The use of “icy ground” could be a reference back to The Lakes, where Taylor sings, “A red rose grew up out of ice frozen ground, with no one around to tweet it”, and while The Lakes might not be a fully autobiographical song, it gives me the imagery of the one sacred space Taylor and her partner had, being marred due to being turned into the battlefield of this metaphorical war.

“Looked up at me with honor and truth, broken and blue, so I called off the troops” Describing her partner as having honor and being truthful is very reminiscent of the lyrics “your integrity makes me seem small” and “it’s like I’m wasting your honor” from Peace. The lyric about them being broken and bruised reminds me of two other lines from two different songs, both from Lover. “I blew things out of proportion, now you’re blue” from Afterglow and “My heart’s been borrowed and yours has been blue, alls well that ends well to end up with you” from the song Lover. Taylor saying she’s calling off the troops is her coming to her senses and waving the white flag after seeing how hurt her partner is, but also how they are still the person she fell in love with.

“That was the night I nearly lost you, I really thought I’d lost you” In the context of the war metaphor, Taylor is using “lost you” as a metaphor of her partner succumbing to their injuries and dying, another casualty of war, but in all actuality she means she thought they’d left her and ended their relationship.

“We can plant a memory garden, say a solemn prayer, place a poppy in my hair” Memory gardens, or memorial gardens, are places often created to remember and honor the tragedy/death of a person(s). As for the reference to poppies, they are seen as a remembrance of WWI. they were most common on the western front, and they actually thrived in the conditions due to the soil that was turned up as a result of the combat taking place. There’s also a poem titled “In Flanders Fields” by John Mccrae, published in 1915 about war, specifically, the death caused by it, that references poppies twice. In a poem written by Moina Michael (a humanitarian) in 1918, which was a response to Mccrae’s poem, poppies are also heavily mentioned. Moina then campaigned for poppies to be a symbol of remembrance.

“There’s no morning glory, it was war it wasn’t fair” Could just be me, but this very much reminds me of the saying “all is fair in love and war” with the lyric kind of being the antithesis of that. In reality, war isn’t at all fair.

“Always remember, uh-huh, we’re burned for better” Reminds me of the lyric, “and if I get burned, at least we were electrified” from Reputation’s Dress. The implication is that despite the fact that they went through this hardship and very difficult period, they’ll be able to use what they learned in future arguments which will also better themselves as people.

“I vowed I will always be yours, ‘cause we survived the Great War” While this does have the tone of wedding vows/marriage, I think it’s important to keep in mind that relationships don’t need to the title of marriage in order to make them just as serious as a couple who is married. I think this could reference a more personal promise/covenant that Taylor made to herself and to her partner.

#taylor swift #music #midnights #song analysis #the great war #3am tracks #swifties

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the-redeemed-anon · 3 years

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Villains vs Antagonists, what each word means because this fandom uses them as synonyms when they are not

Oh boi, who would’ve thought that this was my debut analysis post on Tumblr for this fandom? Hi, it is I, Redemption Anon from @kateis-cakeis’ blog. This isn’t the post I promised to post first, but this topic has bugged me, especially in the current events. It is time to talk about villains and antagonists, DSMPblr.

Disclaimer before I get into it: I am what would be considered an old dog in this fandom, I’ve watched in a weird way Season 1 while it was still going down, and I officially started lurking on Tumblr through anons on a couple of blogs right at the start of Season 2. It’s just that now I felt the need to make a blog where I analyse stuff. So, I feel like I have some knowledge, albeit imperfect, of characters and events, across the story. Also, I am talking about the characters here, not the CCs. If I mention a CC, their name will be labeled accordingly.

With that out of the way, let’s jump into it.

Now, you may see the words “villain” and “antagonist” being used a lot when discussing the DSMP and other media in general, but the thing is, they are not synonyms, and I feel like a lot of people fail to grasp that, because oftentimes, we have characters that are both at the same time, making the line blurry. Well, let me try to explain my take on these terms.

An antagonist is a person who opposes the protagonist, it’s the rival of the main character, the anchor of the POV that is followed in the story. This usually means that an antagonist can be paired up with the villain role, and the protagonist with the hero role, but it’s not always the case. There are stories where the protagonist is the villain, and the antagonist is the hero (for example, the Genocide Run of Undertale). And even then, there are antagonists that aren’t the villain in the grand scheme of things (for example, you wouldn’t call Gary from Pokemon a villain, would you?) Basically, antagonists are very much POV-centric. In the DSMP, the best example I can give is the BA versus Techno. From Techno’s POV, the BA was his antagonists, while from the BA POV, Techno was the antagonist. Bear in mind, neither party was a villain, or a hero.

A villain is very much a person that serves an evil purpose, the opposing force to the hero of the story, whose actions point to a good purpose. While the hero is the person you are supposed to root for, the villain is the one who is supposed to lose, to not cause a bad ending to your story. The villain and the hero depend a lot on morality. Villains can have downright evil goals, like say, destroying the planet or something repulsive enough to make most people root against them, or morally-grey goals, where they intend to do evil for what they think is the greater good. The last one works well with sympathetic villains or protagonist villains, because you get to see them from another angle. In the DSMP I think it’s safe to say we have two true villains, that being Dream and the Egg, because almost everyone agrees that if these two got their way, it would be bad. I am going to talk just about one of them, however.

Okay, now that we made those two terms clear, let me repeat: antagonists depend on the POV that is observed, while villains depend on morality. On the DSMP these two factors make saying the categories characters belong to tricky, especially when some self-assign or are assigned by other characters or even the fandom into archetypes. In this analysis I want to analyse Wilbur, Puffy (the characters that self-assigned themselves as villains at one point in their arcs) Tommy (who I saw people assigning him as a villain recently) and Dream (one of the true villains of this story, and not only that, he fits the classic combo of antagonist and villain).

The Self-Appointed

Welp, time to talk about my favorite character, Wilbur, and sympathise with Puffy fans, because they’re going right through what we, Wilbur fans, went through since “Then let’s be the bad guys” was uttered.

So, Wilbur and Puffy self-appointed themselves as villains. That makes them villains, right? Not quite. See, the thing with villains is that they are dependant on morals. The audience isn’t the only one that has a moral code, characters have one too. And, in my opinion, in this case we have to talk about the moral codes of these two.

Both Wilbur and Puffy have, or, had, moral codes that revolved around peace, not killing, and the like. Moral codes that you would generally label under “morally good”. What happened to these two, then, for them to go and call themselves villains? Well, it’s quite simple actually.

They broke their own moral codes. I’ll start with Wilbur because I am more familiar with him, and I can use the quotes provided by kateis-cakeis here (thank you my dude for your hard work collecting these!).

So, we all know that at the beginning, Wilbur had a very peace-oriented mindset, wanting to use words over weapons in conflict [“We don’t win wars with battles and with armour. We win wars with our words, Tommy. We’re starting a revolution, not a war.” - (Wilbur’s The Wall: 4:54, 29th July)], and, as such, he saw himself as a good guy [“It was Dream, he’s kinda the bad guy. Yeah, we’re the good guys, we’re the good guys here.” - (Wilbur’s Niki joins L'Manberg: 22:28, 6th Aug)]. What changed? Well, for starters, Wilbur underwent a spiral from paranoia that started from the Independence war. We can see his opinions change thanks to the flashback to the Election era [“And power isn’t gaining from diplomacy, and bureaucracy, and giant courthouses suspended in the sky, blah blah blah. It’s gained from swords, Quackity. It’s gained from blades, it’s gained from steel, iron.” - (Quackity’s Killing My Enemies: 1:06:19, 12th Apr)]. Of course, his spiral worsened after the Election, but we can assume he still thought of himself as a good guy.

That is, until the infamous scene. You know the one: [“Tommy, I’ve got a question for you, right. Because this festival, this is a good idea, this doesn’t seem like a bad like, this doesn’t seem evil. You know? This seems like a nice friendly thing Schlatt’s doing. Tommy, are we the bad guys?” - (Wilbur’s who are you go away: 1:08:14, 8th Oct)]. Oh yes, here, after about two weeks of being in a high stress situation, high paranoia and Schlatt seemingly doing a good thing for his nation, Wilbur starts to question himself. He starts to question if this is the moral thing to do, the right thing to do. And, logically, if you’re not in the right, you’re in the wrong, so the conclusion he reaches, is this: [“Tommy, am I, am I a bad, am I a villain of this story. Am I the villain in your history?” - (Wilbur’s who are you go away: 1:08:59, 8th Oct)]. He self-appoints himself as a villain, and then embraces the role, as well know. As Season 1 progresses, Wilbur doubles down more and more on this idea that he is the villain, and his story ends tragically. Even his ghost thinks of him as a villain, and compares Phil to Saint George, a hero, for killing him (I will get back to this).

So, was Wilbur an antagonist? Yes, definitely, especially from his POV, I would argue, because if he thought he was in the right, he would have never uttered the infamous “Then let’s be the bad guys.” Hell, other Wilbur analysts have pointed out that Wilbur may have wanted to be stopped from pressing the button. Even from his POV, you could argue he’s against the protagonists of the arc. The fact he had some potent self-hatred just helps cement that he was an antagonist, someone who must be stopped.

Was he a villain? I would say no. Look, I don’t see Wilbur as a villain, even if he tried to place himself into this archetype. In Season 1, I think the villain was Schlatt, followed by Dream, starting at the end of the Season. Wilbur strikes me more as a fallen hero, as a man who was okay, who would be cherished and loved and looked up to by others, but at one point took a wrong turn, didn’t find his way back, and continued down the path that doomed him, while his loved ones turned away from him, because they didn’t know how to help and he distanced himself from them by lashing out. It’s a tragic story arc.

“But Redemption Anon!” I hear you say, “CC!Wilbur’s DnD Alignment Chart classifies him as Neutral Evil, bordering on Chaotic Evil!” The DnD Alignment Chart is a chart that while it helps to get the vibe of a character, it can be often arbitrary or can be blurred because characters fit in with characteristics of more than one alignment (see the debate from around that time surrounding Techno’s assigned alignment). Plus, if we look at Wilbur from the POV of most, if not all, characters, without reading into his reasonings, yeah, he looked evil. Even to himself, we see it from quotes like these: [“Here’s the thing, I genuinely think, if it weren’t for me and you dying right, the server would be in shambles. I know for a fact that if I come back, or if I’m brought back to life in some way it’s definitely gonna just go [shit again]” - (Tommy’s am i dead?: 10:10, 4th March)], [“I know what I’m like, that’s the issue.” - (Tommy’s am i dead?: 10:29, 4th March)]. Was he evil, though? I would say not, more misguided than anything. That doesn’t mean he was a saint, nor was he the devil. Of course, he did some wrongs, and me denying that would be weird, because that’s why I say he should get a redemption arc, if he had a clean record, he wouldn’t be in need of one. He’s hurt people, intentionally or not, and he has to make up for those actions, if he is to be redeemed, but that doesn’t make him evil or a villain.

“But Redemption Anon!” I hear you say again, “Ghostbur considers him a villain and the quote from Ghostbur says he was a villain that wasn’t convinced to be a hero!” Yes, true, but we’re forgetting here two things:

1. Ghostbur is biased against Alivebur because he remembers his death as a good thing, and people don’t like him, therefore he rationalises it as Alivebur being the villain of the story and Phil being the hero, pulling out a Christian story that blatantly, hard-line shows us who is the villain and who is the hero: [“I- I- I’ve read the history books, Phil. I’ve read the history books. You- You- You slayed the dragon, you slayed Alivebur. You were the- You- You are the St George of the Dream SMP. We understand, everyone understands that, Phil.” - Wilbur’s First Time Ghostbur Live: 17:58, 6th Jan)]. Honestly, if I was in his shoes and I was everyone hating my past self and I didn’t remember my actions, I would assume I was evil too, because that is easier to comprehend than the fact that they are hating a mentally ill person that didn’t get the help, support and guidance they needed while they had a paranoia-fueled spiral.

2. Ghostbur, when he said: [“But a villain is just a- Sometimes the line’s a little blurry, you could say, a little blurry. It’s a tiny bit. It’s like, a villain, a villain is just a hero you haven’t convinced yet.” - (Tommy’s The Plan To Kill Dream: 1:01:31, 14th Mar)] he was talking to people who considered Wilbur a villain, and he tried to make them consider another side. This context matters, if he dismissed that Wilbur was a villain, there was a risk of his point being dismissed completely. Tommy and Tubbo, while they knew Alivebur from the beginning, his later actions tainted their view of him, and he has caused them hurt, and Ranboo has never met him, only knows of him from word of mouth. It’s hard to make these three consider him from the angle that he was not a villain. The line is still very good, but, again, context matters.

“But Redemption Anon!” I hear you yet again, “Wilbur is even worse in the Void and Dream will be killed to prevent him from being ressurected!” Okay so I don’t think we can speak about the Void here, in this context. You see, all we got out of the Void was a 5 minute conversation that sounded more like snippets out of a longer conversation, or even multiple conversations, that took place over what Tommy perceived as 2 months. From that conversation, all we got is that Wilbur’s self-loathing worsened, he thinks he, and by projection, Tommy, are better off dead for the good of the server, he knows when the Universe will end and he plays solitaire. The rest of the information we got about him was from Tommy, who is, sadly, an unreliable source, because he is not disclosing what Wilbur told him he’d do, beside a general “it will be bad and we have to stop it”. Tommy was also dealing with the trauma of being brought back, and let’s not forget that the Void didn’t give him peace, he was essentially tortured constantly for what he felt were 2 months. To me, it feels like it’s an intentional lack of detail and information, with a lot of discrepancies (like, if Wilbur scared Tommy so much, it’s interesting he refused to talk to MD when offered the chance, and Schlatt mentioned both Wilbur and Tommy being together at the gym) to throw us off. For all we know, Wilbur could be planning the end of the world if he is resurrected, or, he could’ve been making empty threats, or, he was rambling with no thought of it being taken seriously, or, he intentionally scared Tommy into not bringing him back, because he wants to stay dead. All of those could be what happened, and we may not know until he gets resurrected. Until then, I can’t call him a villain, or evil, even if he thinks of himself as a hazard to others, or Tommy’s motive to kill Dream.

Also, don’t be surprised Wilbur’s mental health seemingly went downhill ever since he’s been there. It’s possible the feeling of being constantly pulled apart isn’t just a Tommy thing, Wilbur may feel it too, and he’s been in there for what he may feel as being 10 to 15 years. Add the fact he’s been in Schlatt’s presence for that time, don’t act surprised he’s gotten worse. He didn’t have the conditions to plateau, let’s not even talk about getting better.

I think I defended Wilbur’s honor long enough lol, now onto Puffy.

I am not as familiar with Puffy as I am with Wilbur, but I will try to present her side as best as I can. We all know that post-Doomsday, Puffy took on the knightly goal of protecting people, especially the minors of the server. Puffy had the misfortune, however, that her closest friends and allies turned to be at least antagonists and at most villains, their actions leaving her feeling hurt and betrayed.

If she tried her best to try to help Bad and Ant, her friends, with the Egg problem, the Banquet shattered the remaining trust she had in them because they killed Foolish, and whether her belief that they killed him first to hurt her is true or not, they did hurt her. She felt betrayed, and accusing her of being the reason her son was dead didn’t help.

The moment she got the axe from Quackity Ant’s fate was sealed, because in that moment of grief and anger, Puffy sought out a retribution, a revenge that went against her moral code. We can see this clearly affect her, because once she leaves the Banquet’s hall, she mourns the death of Foolish and the fact that she killed her best friend, when she swore to protect lives. The Banquet, overall, is a highly traumatic event for her.

No wonder that the next day, her outlook on things changed. She branded herself a villain. She started making vague references to what she can do as a villain, because no one would expect it from her, even name-dropping Doomsday, one of the worst events she witnessed, and the one that turned her to her knightly arc. For me it’s clear that what she said was out of trauma, out of shock and out of desperation.

If you think about it, the world of the DSMP is very bleak, canonical minors have heavy trauma and continue to pay for wrongs they did long ago or suffer because people think they need to learn something or because they are used by others. Puffy noted it herself, Doomsday came and went and the perpetrators were never punished for it. While Techno and Phil aren’t villains per se, they are antagonists in this situation, aiding the villain, Dream, neither of them has suffered any consequence for destroying L’Manberg. No, getting locked into Pandora does not count, because Dream was imprisoned just because he had the Revive Book and he was too dangerous to let loose. It would seem that you can perform evil acts without care or consequence half the time, so why not turn to what you perceive as villainy to exact your justice on those who wronged you?

As of me writing this, all Puffy has done so far is say that she will be a villain, yet I have seen some takes that treat her as if she has been pulling the strings all along. I have seen people claim she has the Nuke, that she, for some reason, controls Ranboo’s enderwalk and even that she will break out Dream. I think this is ridiculous, not only because some of those things happened before she even considered calling herself a villain, but also because she has yet to take action. This is another “Then let’s be the bad guys” situation, because we have a character, that, after getting their moral code flipped on them, in a moment of vulnerability, they see themselves as a villain, and being the villain is the way to resolve their problems.

With that said, is Puffy an antagonist? Surprisingly, I say she was one already. If you look at the story from the Eggpire’s perspective, she is an antagonist, because she wants to stop the Egg. From other POVs, she’s not, and she hasn’t done anything to cement her as an antagonist with bad intentions so far.

Is she a villain? No, and I think that call is too soon to make, regardless of what she says. Remember, she feels herself as a villain, she is an unreliable narrator for herself in this situation. All she did was make a promise, with no action or plan. She also doesn’t seem to want to cause mass harm on the server, rather concentrating on the Eggpire. Another thing to note, she sees her killing Ant still something bad she did, even if she doesn’t regret it, because she is open to receiving consequences for the kill.

Truly it’s a matter of time to see where Puffy will go with this promise, and I hope she doesn’t go down the same path Wilbur went, not only because of story purposes, but also meta purposes.

The Fandom-Appointed

Ah, Tommy, one of the most misunderstood characters on the DSMP. So, why am I discussing Tommy here? Because I saw an influx of people calling him a villain after the last lore stream, and I want to set the record straight, because, just like how the reaction to Puffy’s “I’m a villain now” moment are ridiculous, so are the reaction to Tommy’s… especially because Tommy didn’t have an “I’m a villain now” moment.

I have to say, since Season 2 started the parallels between Tommy and Wilbur and Tubbo and Schlatt, people, at the beginning of Exile, were rooting for “VillainInnit”. People seemingly wanted him to follow Wilbur’s path, but he didn’t. He saved himself and went to Techno’s. While at Techno’s, while he was attempting to heal from Exile, due to wanting to feel accepted and gain Techno’s friendship, he started making actions of violence, that painted him in an antagonistic light. He even quoted Wilbur, which, as I remember, sent the fandom in a panic, because people found this as confirmation for Tommy turning to villainy, history repeating itself.

… But it never happened, because Tommy realised at the Green Festival that what he’s doing is wrong, and set off to make up for his actions. Yet since then people have been dogpilling him and calling him a villain, for following his moral compass, finding his way back and trying to make things better. Every mistake he makes or flaw he has is highly scrutinized to a ridiculous level. At this point blaming Tommy for all the wars is a meme.

It’s funny, actually, that Tommy gets pushed into the hero archetype by the people on the server, and the moment he makes a wrong step, by accident or because he was messing around, he’s at best an antagonist and at worse a villain, proving a point I always make when talking about the archetype of the hero, in any media: the title of hero puts the character on a tiny pedestal, and if they make the smallest misstep, they will fall into the pit of being branded evil and a villain. And that pit, story-wise, is hard to climb, because characters forget easy the good someone does, and often remember the bad they did, because it’s easier to see someone in a black-and-white perspective. They did bad? Then, they must have always been bad. Tommy doesn’t even want to be a hero or a villain, he just wants to vibe, but external forces do not let him have peace, forcing him to act, for his and the server’s sake.

Now, I have seen people condemn Tommy and already trying to push the narrative that he’s bad for wanting to kill Dream. Let’s look at Tommy’s morals: he, before he visited Dream for a second time, told Sam that he believes no one deserves to die, not even Dream. We can say that this is a core part of his moral code, not killing people.

This belief, as far as I remember, has been contradicted twice, once when he was killing Dream in the Season 2 Finale, and now, as he plans to kill Dream. Tommy himself recognises that this isn’t the right thing to do, but it’s the only thing to do. Why isn’t he a villain or an antagonist then? Because the context of why he did and does this is important.

Dream was planning to kill his best friend right in front of him, lock him up in Pandora and use the attachments of everyone on the server to control them. Tommy, and everyone on the server, realised Dream was a serious threat then, someone too dangerous to wonder around. Tommy took to killing Dream as a necessity to protect himself and everyone else. The only reason Dream was put in Pandora is because he revealed he knows how to revive the dead, thus they can’t kill him without dooming everyone to being dead, forever. Pandora was the only solution they found to keep Dream alive while keeping him powerless.

Second, Dream killed him, and brought him back, telling him he can send him back and declaring himself a God. Whatever Tommy and Wilbur spoke about in the Void clearly marked him, because he was willing to forgive Dream, if he is to not bring Wilbur back. Dream refused, and Tommy realised Dream is too dangerous for everyone on the server to be kept alive, especially to the people that came to the Vault, thus, for everyone’s safety, he must kill him.

This is not an evil, villainous or antagonistic goal, it is quite stereotypically good, protagonistic and heroic (ironically it’s what Aang was advised to do in ATLA, kill Ozai for the good of the world, even if he betrays his pacifist beliefs). Tommy has been pushed in the role of a reluctant hero, and even if he fails his goal and Dream escapes, that will not make him a villain or evil.

At the same time, as I said, antagonists are POV-centric, so, of course, Tommy is an antagonist in certain POVs. The Egg dislikes him, Jack wants him dead, Dream and Tommy at the point are sworn enemies and Techno doesn’t like him. He is an antagonist with good intentions, and that is the final nail in the coffin that I do not see him as a villain. He never saw himself as in the right doing bad things, never tried to justify them as being the right thing, and has apologised for his actions. He’s not a saint, but he’s not the devil either, and neither is he evil or a villain.

The True One (Story-Appointed)

Okay, now we are talking business. Dream, flat out, is a both an antagonist and a villain. The classic combo people think of when they think of a bad guy in a story. I’ll be honest I like him as a villain. You know you wrote and acted a good villain when you cheer as they hit rock bottom, and you love to hate them. That’s exactly what Dream is.

What in my mind separates Dream from the rest of the characters I have discussed in this analysis so far is intent and moral code. Make no mistake, all the characters I mentioned up until now know they’ve done something bad, whether they doubled down, plan to, or made up for their actions. And all of them, Dream included, started out from the same slate: characters with intentions and goals that are neutral to good on the general morality scale. Yeah, that’s right, I don’t consider Dream to have been evil from the start. At the beginning and middle of Season 1, I would have put him in the trickster category because he seemed to vibe with whoever he wanted, as long as he came on top, but without too much malice. He fanned the flames (like lavacasting Sapnap’s Eiffel Tower and giving Tommy Mars) but nothing big enough to make him a definite villain.

It was at the end of Season 1 that I could see him slowly shaping up as the definite villain we will witness from Season 2 to possibly the end of the DSMP. Allying with Schlatt over the Revive Book, telling Eret he plans to bring every faction under him, the traitor deal and him cheering for L’Manberg’s death all pointed to him becoming the next big threat. Then Season 2 happened, Exile happened, and this cemented him as the villain of the DSMP.

Doomsday came and we finally got a window to see why Dream did what he did: “You’re too fun”. People may wonder why I don’t consider Techno and Phil as villains for participating in Doomsday. This is why. While Techno and Phil had reasons that, while controversial, could be understood as valid motives to do what they did, Phil saying they were sending a message when talking to Ghostbur, Dream did all of that, all of that destruction, because he found it fun. He found it fun to torment and tear down a nation, because it was standing in his way, and it was something Tommy cared about.

The Vault scene also shows that Dream was planning to backstab everyone, by stealing their pets or their valuable items, or, in Bad’s case, cage an entire sentient being, Skeppy, in a cell smaller than an animal’s pen. Not even Techno, a guy that owes him a favor, was going to be spared. Let’s not even talk about him wanting to kill Tubbo just so he can make Tommy a hero by giving him a tragic backstory. All of these, plus killing Tommy and threatening to send him back to the Void for more info and declaring himself a God, point to Dream being a villain.

And then we have the morality side. In the last visit, Dream told Tommy that everyone thinks they are in the right from their perspective, which Tommy immediately denied. Both Dream’s line and the reply he got are very important. Dream’s line establishes that, as far as we know, Dream sees himself as in the right. Everything he did, Exile, abusing Tommy to the point of the latter considering ending his life, Doomsday, the Vault, almost killing Tubbo? All of that seems to have been not bad or evil actions in his mind. He sees himself as in the right, and that makes him a great villain. Tommy’s reply, well, him denying it, I always saw it with double meaning. On a surface level, Tommy’s obviously talking about himself, he has said time and time again that he’s done wrong and he needs to right it. On a deeper level, however, I saw him referring to Wilbur with this line, too. Because, as established before, Wilbur chose to do bad, even if he knew it was bad. He wouldn’t have said “Then let’s be the bad guys” if he thought they were in the right, and that is the fundamental difference between Wilbur, Puffy, Tommy and Dream. The former three, as shown in the previous sections, know that they did bad things, even from their moral perspectives, while Dream thinks he is in the right.

This is why Dream is the villain, while the others are antagonists at best and conflicted, broken and forced to walk a certain path, at worst.

#dream smp #dsmp #wilbur soot #dsmp wilbur #captain puffy #dsmp puffy #tommyinnit #dsmp tommy #dreamwastaken #dsmp dream #dream smp analysis #dsmp analysis

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uglypastels · 4 years

Text

Appropriate Action // Tom Holland

(a/n) this goes out to @captainpeggy40 for sending me that gif set of Tom smoking in TDATT. I seriously have a problem, but hey, we wouldn’t have this wihout it so... also damn, i haven’t written a oneshot in ages and its so much easier oof. this was fun.

word count: 4500 (italicized means flashback)

warning: “bad boy”!Tom, smoking, some guys being pigs, tattoos, mention of drinking, (mention of) violence, (mention of) soft drug use. little bit of angst, but it is mostly fluff

hope you all enjoy xxx

“If we see you smoking we will assume you are on fire and take appropriate action.” - Douglas Adams

The car’s engine roared as Tom waited in front of the building. The new paint job was just the perfect touch that his vintage chevy needed. Tom leaned his arm out the window, the other hanging over the sizeable front seat. He stared out ahead of him, looking at the empty road. In a second, groups of students would fill his vision, all gawking at the gorgeous black car. He preferred the attention to be on the vehicle he spent so much time in than himself.

He inhaled deeply, filling his lungs with smoke. That bitter, euphoric taste of nicotine was finally taking over. Even though he had only woken up a short while ago, he felt like he had been up for hours. His head was pounding, and he just wished to be back in his small apartment, cut off from the world, just him and something cold to drink.

Tom took the cigarette from his lips, flicking the burned and shrivelled butt out the window, and quickly put it back in his mouth to take another long drag. The cigarette was almost burned up, and he hoped he could finish it before-

Right then, something caught his attention in the corner of his eye. From a distance, it only looked like a colourful blur nearing him, but he knew immediately what- or better said, who it was. He turned his head, cigarette still dangling from between his lips, to look at you walking down the path to the car. Like always, your head was down, and your pace was quick. He swiftly threw the cigarette out the window. Right then you looked up and gave him a small, tight-lipped smile, which he returned to you. All this time, music was playing, so he reached for the volume to lower it a little.

“Hey,” you got in, eyes locked on the dashboard. Tom knew what this meant.

“What did they do?” He looked out through the window behind you, already with two distinct faces in mind to keep an eye out for.

“Nothing, Tom. Let’s just go.” You almost begged him, but he wouldn’t have it.

“Darling, you know I won’t allow those two assholes to be near you, just tell me what they did and I’ll handle it.” He gripped the steering wheel tightly. All you did was pick at the loose name tag on one of your books on your lap.

“You don’t have to do anything, Tommy.” Usually, he hated it when people called him that, but for some reason, when the word came out of your mouth. It made him feel fantastic, better than any cigarette or drink could.

You didn’t know why you were so determined not to get Tom involved in your campus problems. Probably because you knew that he could beat anyone (really, anyone) to a pulp if he wanted to, which meant he would get in trouble. And it just didn’t feel like you were worth that. You didn’t feel like you were worth it for him to get into trouble. Besides, nothing happened. All those frat guys did was look at you and make comments… nasty, disgusting comments, but most the time you didn’t even hear them. You learned to zone it out. There was nothing for Tom to worry about.

You hoped Tom would have started driving, but when you looked up, he was still staring out the window on your side, jaw clenched. You took your hand and placed it on top of his.

“Just drive, please.”

His eyes fell to you for a second, looking straight into your pleading eyes. He could never say no to that face of yours. There was just so much innocence in you. He loved it about you that no matter how much you tried to get out of your shell, there was always this kind of purity and shyness about you.

With a disagreeing sigh, he changed gears and stepped on the gas, leaving the school building behind in the dust. Only the one small cigarette butt on the floor as the only sign that you Tom had ever been there.

You leaned in against his shoulder, but after one inhale of air, you pulled away.

“You smell like a chimney,” you said teasingly. Tom rolled his eyes, but you could see the twitch in the corner of his mouth. All you did, however, was pout. “You said you’d stop.”

“I’m sorry.” He kept on smiling, finding it so cute how hard you tried to get him to stop smoking. But you both knew it was hard to teach an old dog new tricks. “But you have to realise, dove, that this is a losing battle you’re fighting. It’s just simply too good.” To put extra salt on the wound, he reached out for a cigarette in the open pack in the cupholder. He put the little stick between his lips and looked at you with a face that you could only describe as Zoolander-like.

“Besides, look how cool it makes me.” He said before putting the cigarette back in the pack. How much you hated smoking, you had to admit; he looked darn good doing it. The window on his side of the car was still open, softly blowing the wind into his hair. He had let it grow since you met but could always remember how he looked like the first time you saw him.

That was already over a year ago. You stood outside of a tattoo shop for what felt like an eternity. It was a small studio, and it was organising a walk-in sessions afternoon that day. You thought this would be the perfect time to do it.

Finally, you walked inside. Some punk music was playing you didn’t recognise. The walls were plastered with gorgeous artwork, and the shelves were stacked with obscure little items that might have just as well belonged in a witch coven. It looked fantastic.

Still, the place was relatively empty. Only one chair was occupied, but that one machine was enough to fill the room with the buzzing sound. A girl with bright blue hair and several piercings was sitting at the counter, looking bored. Her spirits however perked up when she saw you walk in.

“Hiya, how can I help you?” she smiled.

“I’m here for a walk-in if that’s alright.” It was so evident that you had no idea what you were doing. Still, the girl didn’t say anything about it—the idea of having someone get their first tattoo excited her.

“Alrighty then, do you have any ideas of what you want to get?”

“Uhmm, no. Not really.” your cheeks were heating up, and you were starting to think that you had not thought this through at all.

“That’s alright,” she reassured you. “We got a few folders with ideas over there. Look through them for an idea, and then we can come up with something.” She winked and pointed over to the corner of the room, where antique armchairs were standing. Between them, indeed, a large folder filled with small tattoo designs. You sat down and started going through the pages. It all looked pretty, and it was quite overwhelming actually to pick something.

Eventually, you halted at something that caught your eye. It was a rose with a few petals falling off.

“I hooked up with a girl once that had kind of tattoo,” a voice next to you said, making you jump up. You looked up and saw a guy about your age sitting in a chair, ready to get a tattoo himself. You hadn’t even realised how close the waiting corner was to the actual tattooing station. And now you were wondering how long the man had been sitting there, watching you.

“Excuse me?” you asked, not understanding the need of the comment he had made.

“The rose tattoo, don’t get it.” He simply said. You looked at him a bit better. He was wearing a white t-shirt, which revealed a few gorgeous tattoos slipping out of the sleeves. He had short cut hair, but you noticed that on the right side, it was completely shaved off, giving you a good idea of where he was getting his next tattoo.

“Why not? It looks pretty.” You weren’t thinking about getting it, but it did look nice, which was the big reason you were looking at it. Before this, all the designs were fairly minimalistic. This was the first one with some good detail in it.

“Nothing against the artist, but the design… it’s kind of basic. Nothing against it if you’re into that kind of things, but I wouldn’t recommend it as a first tattoo. Not to mention, it’s a big piece. I would go for something smaller, easier.”

You had not expected a whole essay to come from his mouth, so you stared at him with a slightly open mouth. His chuckle unfroze you again.

“Well, lucky for you I guess, I wasn’t thinking of getting it. But thanks for your input.”

“No problem.” He was about to turn away, but the helpless and lost little child in you cried out for help.

“So what would you recommend?”

He came back around and grabbed the folder from your hand. He flipped through the pages, a bit mindlessly. Eventually, he got to the last page without saying anything and closed it.

“I don’t think you should get one.” He said as he put the catalogue on the small coffee table. You stared at him. You had no response to it.

“Not right now, at least.”

“Why do you think that?” You finally managed to get out.

“Well… why do you want to get a tattoo?” You were about to answer with a half-lie, but he was quicker, “To anger your parents?”

All you did was scoff at his suggestion, but it was enough to prove his theory right. “Hey, I don’t judge. And if there is something deeper going on in that pretty head of yours, go ahead, but don’t go through hours of pain because of them. Do it because YOU want it.”

You didn’t reply, just thought for a second. Then, without saying a word to the handsome stranger, got up and walked over to the counter where the girl was patiently waiting (and most likely listening in to every word of that strange conversation).

“I got an idea,” You quickly went into your phone’s gallery and scrolled through the pictures until you found what you were looking for. “Could you maybe make this like a, what’s it called, like minimal line art. You know, just one continuous line.

The girl looked at the picture, and a giant smile beamed across her face. “Absolutely! If you can send it to my email, I’ll go and trace it for ya real quick.” She scribbled down her email address, and with a few clicks, you shared the image with her. She told you that it would probably take a few minutes so you could sit back down. Right, next to your anonymous helper.

His artist had come back from wherever he had been and was preparing the ink and machine. The helpful man, however, sat in the chair, frozen like you had left him. Clearly, he didn’t expect you do go and get a design done.

You sat down opposite of him, quite proud of yourself.

“Well… I didn’t exactly expect that, but I hope you’re happy with your tattoo.”

“Thanks, I am.” You nodded, “I hope you are with yours. And that it won’t hurt too much.” You winced at the idea of getting your head tattoed. You head heard that places closer to the bone hurt more.

“You can watch if you want.”

“I’m alright, thanks.” You declined his offer.

“Aight, Tom, take a seat, mate.” The tattoo artist told the man. Tom gave you one last smile before laying down and facing away from you, giving the tattooist proper access to his momentary canvas. You watched him place the stencil carefully. You couldn’t see what it was exactly, but it looked big. Definitely, one of those designs you would not be ready for at this moment. And the girl called you to get your own stencil on.

And the rest, as people say, was history. You got your tattoo done much quicker than Tom did. Of course, he realised this and immediately grabbed the chance to call you over to him so he could speak to you again before you left his life forever. You sat next to him, watching him get his tattoo, and talked. It was strange. It was as if you had known each other for much longer than just that afternoon. And the afternoon ended with him asking you for your phone number, which you gladly gave.

Things stayed just as smooth and comfortable between the two of you for all those months. His hair had grown and was now long enough for you to brush your fingers trough. He might have not said it out loud, but you knew that was a big reason for him to let his hair grow out. It did mean that the tattoo that started it all was completely covered. It was like a little secret between both of you.

You felt safe with him, but almost more importantly, you felt like yourself. He never made you do anything. He was the only person in your life that did ask anything from you, never made you do anything. But at the same time, he introduced you to this entire new side of you that you didn’t even know existed. You began to worry less about what other people thought of you, you were less scared of trying new things, even if it meant getting into a little bit of trouble now and then. It felt great.

Tom drove you to his apartment like he did every Friday. With no other plans for the day or the upcoming weekend, you were free to do whatever you wanted. Even if it meant staying in bed for the entirety of three days, eating ice cream and watching dumb movies.

Tom’s flat was the last place your parents would have wanted you to be. It was… grungy. It was large enough for him and your occasional sleepovers. The theme he was going for with his decor was most likely a “strange second-hand store” with his mismatching, half-broken furniture. He had an extensive collection of vinyl records, the most significant part of it containing artists you had never heard of before. He kept his little coffee table quite empty, except for the tall glass bong standing in the middle (that may or may not have been a birthday present from you). And he had bookshelves filled with everything in the range of classic horror novels, to comic books. It was your favourite place in the world.

Yet, when you were only a few blocks away from the building, you made him stop the car.

“What’s up?” He asked after parking the car on the side of the road.

“Let’s go to the park,” you suggested. It had been lovely weather the entire day, and you longed for stretching your legs and finally enjoy the sun. Tom wasn’t much of a park person, but he did enjoy going on walks with you. He was about to start up the car again but then stopped. Before you could ask if something was wrong, he leaned to the side to you and kissed you deeply. With his hand on your cheek, it heated up your entire body, and you grabbed his shirt, needing something to hold on to. You could taste that cigarette he had smoked before you got into the car.

“Hmmm, just a second,” you said after pulling out. You opened your bag and searched for a second until you found the box of breath mints. Tom, already well aware of the procedure, rolled his eyes and held out his hand flat open. You tipped over the container, spilling three large mints into his hand.

“C’mon, these taste like shit,” he groaned. You just looked at him until he put them in his mouth.

“You wouldn’t have to eat ‘em if you didn’t smell like cigarettes.” You shrugged, putting the mints back in your bag. Tom still didn’t seem convinced about your method, but he didn’t say anything more. He stepped on the gas again, and you were finally off to the park.

You were glad he had the window open because it was apparent he had smoked in the car recently. Fortunately, with every minute passing by driving, the smell got less prominent. Before you knew it, you had arrived at your destination and could step out. You hopped out of the car and made your way to the other side to meet Tom. He brushed his fingers through his hair as he stepped out. You could tell how cool he thought doing so, and you could agree. He looked mesmerising. In his old denim jacket, covered in DIY patches, his grey shirt and old, slightly warn through jeans, he almost looked like he could replace Patrick Swayze in the Outsiders.

Somehow, it all worked for him just fine.

He grabbed you by the waist and pulled you in for another kiss. You were just glad the mints were doing their job, but no matter that, just the feeling of his soft lips against yours made you melt any time.

But you also wanted to enjoy the weather in the lovely surroundings. Hence, you unclasped yourself from hid grasp and manoeuvred around him to hold his hand. That didn’t seem like enough to Tom, so, still holding your hand, he pulled you in closer to drape his arm over your shoulders.

Because that was the thing about Tom. He was intimidating to most. Dark, mysterious, brooding. A real loner. There were barely any people who he opened up to. One of the few, if not the only one, is you. And that was why you knew how soft he really was. He loved to have you near him, preferably holding you or at least your hand. He loved those moments on the days you were with him, where you ate breakfast in bed and told each other about the dream you had the night before. He loved having you around, and he loved being yours.

Ever since he remembered, he always denied the question of what his biggest fear was. First, because he simply didn’t know, but know it was just too hard to admit that he was afraid of something terrible happening to you. So when he picked you up from class and saw the speed at which you walked at to the car, never looking up to chat with friends. He saw the need at which you wanted to get out of there, meaning that there was something in that building you needed to get away from. It was definitely a someone.

He wished you would just tell him what the problem was. He would do anything for you. Which was most likely the reason you didn’t tell him. Because you knew he would do anything. Even if it meant he’d be in danger. It wouldn’t matter to him.

But while his fear was losing you, yours was losing him.

That was nothing to think about at that moment, though. You were in a lovely park, holding each other close. There were a lot of families around with the same idea as you, to enjoy the pleasant weather outside in the shade of the large trees.

You walked around the park, his arm hung over your shoulders. At one point you had wandered off to small open field between the trees. It was a perfect spot to sit down. The grass had clearly just been cut because the fresh smell was overwhelming. Tom lay down with his hands behind his head, and you used his stomach as a pillow. You looked up at the blue sky, pointing out the different shaped clouds.

“Ooh, that one looks like a dragon!” you pointed at one on the left. When you glanced at Tom you realised he hadn’t even been looking, his eyes entirely focused on you.

“You’re not looking!” you playfully slapped his side to which he responded with a soft groan. This was followed with the both of you laughing for a while. Then Tom reached out into his pocket and to your horror, you saw that he pulled out a cigarette and a lighter. He put it between his lips and was about to flick open the lighter you grabbed it out of his hand. He looked at you in confusion.

Mumbling, since he still had the little stick of cancer in his mouth, he said: “Ekfcufe me?”

“No way are you smoking here.” “There’s no one here.” He sighed after pulling the cigarette out of his mouth.

“I’m here. Nature is here.” You argued.

“Nature is here?” Tom raised an eyebrow, holding in his laughter. You nodded frantically. That didn’t seem to work because he put it back in his mouth, letting it dangle from his lip. So, you reached out and grabbed that too, just like the lighter. And you put it in your own mouth. You had smoked before, just to try, and it was quite disgusting. It was another reason why you never understood Tom’s love for it.

“What are you doing?’ Tom said, some panic covering his voice. As much as he enjoyed it, he knew how bad it was for him. Out of all the things he introduced you too, he always wished you never took up smoking.

“Well, if you need to smoke so bad, I don’t want to be left out.” You flicked on the lighter and were slowly putting it closer to the cigarette. Your eyes, however, were locked on Tom’s. Was he going to call your bluff? The little flame was about to burn the-

“Alright! I won’t smoke here.” He stopped you. Once again, proud of your intervention, you gave him the cigarette and put the lighter in your own pocket.

“Now go throw that out.” You told him. “And I mean all of it.” You had seen a trashcan on the path leading to the open space, so you pointed him that way. Slowly, Tom got up and slouched his way toward to bin. Satisfied, you closed your eyes and lie down on the grass.

But that only lasted for a few seconds. You could hear footsteps and loud noises coming from the other side of the field. The voices made your blood freeze and get up quickly. It sounded like they were coming your way, and you did not want them to find you lying on the ground. The thought of that happening alone- no. You didn’t want to think about it.

You got up and were dusting yourself off from the grass, already walking in the direction Tom had went. But it was too late, they saw you.

“Well, if it isn’t our little y/n!” one of them shouted out. Jack. You didn’t turn around, just kept on walking. But they were much faster and quickly caught up to you, cutting off the path.

“Uhm, hey guys,” it was a wonder any sound came out of your mouth and that they heard it.

“Well, what are you doing here all by yourself?” asked Jack with a tone that sounded as sweet as marmite to you.

“I’m not actually,” you tried to get through, to walk away from there, “I’m with my boyfriend-”

“Oh, with your boyfriend, are ya?” Jason added with a disgusting smirk. “Out in the field, huh. Wondering what you two had been up to.” They both sniggered like the idiots they are.

“Do you think we can join ya?”

“No.” You said, determination coming up slowly in your voice. Very slowly, but it was progressing. You could see over their shoulders that Tom was making his way back, and he noticed your new company. This gave you the real confidence you needed.

“No? Awh c’mon, don’t be like that.” Jack was about to grab your hand, but you pulled it away from his reach.

“I said no. I don’t know how many fucking times you dickwads need to hear it.” And then you did something you still don’t know how it exactly happened. With a rush of adrenaline, in a quick move, you punched Jason in the face. So fast that his buddy Jack couldn’t even comprehend what happened before you kicked him in the groin.

Without wasting another second you made a run for it, meeting Tom only a few feet away. He had clearly seen what happened and stood frozen on the path to where you were.

“Were you planning on joining or?” You said as you ran by, not wanting to stop there. Tom quickly got the hint and followed you. You had to get to his car. And fast.

“Holy shit, y/n, what was that?” Tom asked in astonishment when he caught up to you, which didn’t take that long. You, however, didn’t answer. Not wanting to waste your adrenaline rush on answering a question that could just as quickly be answered somewhere safer.

You ran through the whole park, all the way to the car: passing families and pigeon-feeding elderly. Finally, you could see the car. Unluckily, it couldn’t be unlocked from a distance. Tom sprinted up and put the key in the lock. You had reached the other door right on time and slipped inside.

You were both heaving air, you clutching your chest, Tom adjusting the rear-view mirror to see if the two frat boys had followed you. Realising you were once again alone, you simultaneously erupted into laughter.

“Wow-” you breathed out, “that was-”

“Brilliant.” Tom managed to chuckle, “You were brilliant.” He reached out to pull you against his side and kiss your forehead. “Fucking brilliant.” He repeated with a whisper.

“I don’t know what came over me.” You said in disbelief, looking at your red knuckles. Tom took your hand and kissed most severely red part of your skin.

“It was those guys from school, right?” He asked. All you could do was nod. You hadn’t told him much about what they had been doing, but you knew he was clever enough to figure this out somewhat by himself. He didn’t ask any other questions.

“I’m so proud of you, babe,” he said, “Kicking that asshole like that, I’m almost scared of you.”

“Oh, almost, huh?” you questioned.

“Well yeah, you’ll always be my little dove.” Still holding your bruised hand, he leaned in to kiss you.

At that moment, both of you knew you had each other’s back. You loved each other. Everything was fine, there was nothing to fear, nothing to worry about.

The End

> thank you for reading!!

> pleae leave a comment or ask, i’d love to hear what you thought about it

>masterlist and link for taglist in bio

tagging:

@definitely-not-black-cat @artemisiaarm @nerdyhockeygirl @miraclesoflove @justasmisunderstoodasloki @thefridgeismybestie @m19friend @creative-happenings @parker-holland-osterfield @fanficparker @fanficscuziranout @peterparkoure @xxtomxo @happywolves81 @captainbuckyy @tra-gicx @qxeen-of-hearts @varshavisuu @kangaroobunny @petersunderoos96 @the-lost-fairy-tale @nerd-domland @sleepybesson @rissa067 @the-queen-procrastinator @scarletteclipze @screeching-student-unknown @tomhollanders2013 @miraclesoflove @playinonaloop @queenoflostspirits @roses-hxlland @hereiamhereigo @sunnydays0803 @averyfosterthoughts @moorehollandplz @beiroviski @you-bleed-just-toknowyouarealive @peterparkerbabyyy @multifandomlover21 @lmaotshollandd @badbitchydecisions @tikapollak @starkeybabie @awesomehritz @madzleigh01 @oh-what a beautiful-parker @taciturnspidey @quaksonhehe @mountainsforwords @harryfobter @peepeeparkerr @viagracex @ethereal-beauty-p @perspectiveparker @slytherin-chaser @worldoftom @duskholland @the-claire-bitch-project @moonysoftt @peeterparkr @wazzupmrstark

#tom holland #tom holland fic #tom holland fanfic #tom holland fanfiction #tom holland fluff #tom holland angst #th #imagine #bad boy!tom #tattoo!tom holland #fanfiction #fic #fanfic #tom holland imagine #tom holland one shot

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