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babyleostuff · 2 months

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when you call them your husband | ot13

❥ seungcheol

goes through five stages of a mental breakdown, because what did you just call him??? if you ever called him your husband in front of people, cheol would turn into a stuttering mess with cheeks as red as a tomato. if you did it when you were by yourselves he’d start whining like a bitch, getting shy as hell, because why are you messing with his heart like that? on rare days, though, he’d embrace the husband figure and start calling you “wife” and make you shy

❥ jeonghan

so smug - no one would be able to wipe that studpid ass smirk off of his face. it does mess with him a bit, though, because come on - calling him your husband??? but he’d try his best to act unaffected, because it’s jeonghan, and he needs to be cool :))) (i’m going to repeat this so many times throughout this headcanon, but all of them would start to freak out a bit thinking about a day when this won’t be a joke anymore, hannie included)

❥ joshua

is he really surprised when you call him your husband? not really. he knows he’s a husband material, and you often make jokes about him being your husband anyways. that doesn’t mean he isn’t freaking about it on the inside, though, because no matter how many times you call him that as a silly little joke, it still makes him so incredibly happy that one day, he’ll really be your husband, and you won’t be calling him that as a joke anymore

❥ jun

one of the “turns into a shy, blushy, and a stuttering mess” squad. he’d malfunction at first, point at himself, and melt into a puddle of fluff, and love. one - how dare you call him your literal husband as a joke??? second - give him all the kisses, and hugs, because his first instincts is to run away, and break out in tears from all the love. he doesn’t really know what to do with himself after you say that word, but you can be sure it’ll be in his head for the rest of the day

❥ hoshi

soonyoung would be confused for a second, because “wait, are you talking about me?” and when he’d finally understand that, yes - you were talking about him (because who else would you be talking about), he’d get so smiley and giggly and shy, and just turn into the cutest bean. he’d immediately cling to you, wrapping his arms around you and trapping you in a warm hug, giggling like a maniac

❥ wonwoo

cue shy wonwoo with his lil cat smile. he can’t help the butterflies fluttering in his tummy, and as much as he’d want to tease you for calling him your husband, he’d be too shy to actually do it. you calling him that would make him so happy for some reason, even though he knows that you mainly do it as a prank or a joke to mess with him. don’t do it in front of people, though, or he’ll run away

❥ woozi

“anything for you, baby.” woozi always indulges in all of your silly antics and jokes, and this time it’d be no different. he’d try to act as unaffected as he could, but his acting skills are not always the best, so you’d still be able to catch a glimpse of a small smile and blushy cheeks. he isn't the type to think about marriage, kids, and your domestic future together, he prefers to focus on what you have now, but hearing that word coming from you, would make his heart flutter a bit faster

❥ dk

“yes, i am.” smiles cutely at you, and gives you a bone crushing hug, while freaking the fuck out on the inside. he won’t comment on it too much in the moment, but the way he’d be extra clingy throughout the day, giving you ten times more kisses, and hugs, and pouts, and any physical affection. the thought of becoming your husband some day is so??? because it will happen someday, and that’s kind of crazy

❥ mingyu

cue mingoo giggles, because that man would not be able to behave himself after hearing the word husband from you. will whine, smile, laugh, hug you, pick you up and spin you around like a lovesick teenager, and when he finally calms down, he’d give you the biggest smooch. even though you had marriage talks plenty of times before - you both knew you’d get married some time in the feature, hearing it from you - saying it so casually, messed with his heart so much

❥ minghao

as someone who has mentioned a couple of times before that he wants to get married, hearing the word “husband” coming from you would make him so so happy and giddy, to the point where he’d just stand there with a lovesick smile on his face, and the urge to hug and kiss the life out of you (he wouldn’t though, he has to keep his composure) (but don’t worry, he’d kiss your forehead and tell you how much he loves you) (all with an adorable blush covering his cheeks)

❥ seungkwan

turns into a shy and blushy mess. seungkwan’s first instinct is to hide his face in his hands or your neck, so you wouldn’t see the effect that the word had on him (even though you could clearly see how it affected him). then he’d probably proceed to yell at you (lovingly) for making such mean jokes (he wants to be your husband now, boyfriend is not enough)

❥ vernon

at first he would think that he had misheard you, so you’d have to repeat the word two or three more times, because why would you ever call him your husband? and when you’d clarify that, yes - you did say the word “husband”, and yes - it was directed to him, vernon would just stare at you with big eyes but no thoughts. you’d laugh at him immediately, because the lack of his reaction was even funnier than if he’d react. then he’d say “thank you” and proceed with the rest of his day with the word “husband” floating around his head

❥ chan

leechan.exe has stopped working. looks at you with the biggest puppy eyes, pointing at himself, as if he was asking if you were really talking about him. it’s so crazy to him that you’d call him that even as a joke, because hearing the word “husband” coming from you is??? hello??? and the fact that someday he’ll really be your husband??? you can expect chan to be a bit more clingy than he usually is (a bit more pouty too, because what do you mean you called him that as a joke?)

taglist (if you want to be added, check my masterlist): @jeonghansshitester @soul-is-a-strange-kid @weird-bookworm @sea-moon-star @hanniehaee @wonwooz1 @byprettymar @edgaralienpoe @staranghae @itza-meee @eightlightstar @immabecreepin @whatsgyud @hyneyedfiz @honestlydopetree @vicehectic @dkswife @uniq-tastic @marisblogg @aaniag @daegutowns @carlesscat-thinklogic23 @embrace-themagic @ohmyhuenings @nidda13 @hrts4hanniehae @k-drama-adict @isabellah29 @f4iryjjosh @bangantokchy @mrswonwooo @bangtancultsposts @lllucere @athanasiasakura @chillseo @onlyyjeonghan @haecien @caramyisabitchforsvtandbts @hannahhbahng @valgracia @ohmygodwhyareallusernamestaken @mirxzii @hhusbuds @wonranghaeee @rosiesauriostuff @gyuguys @aaasia111 @tomodachiii @veryfabday @lilmochiandsuga @asasilentreader @mrsnervous @bewoyewo @sharonxdevi @wondipity @gyuguys @raginghellfire @treehouse-mouse @waldau

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hellfirenacht · 4 months

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Wing Man Part 7

Fic Summary: Steve 'the Hair' Harrington is your best friend, and is constantly striking out. Sick of this, you two make a deal; you'll wing man for each other. Hooking Steve up with dates is easy, but he finds himself struggling to find you a date. At least, until Dustin starts talking about his new cool friend Eddie.

(1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9)

Chapter Summary: Dustin spills the beans, and Wayne gives some advice.

5k words

Chapter Summary: Dustin spills the beans, and Wayne gives some advice.

A/N: Happy New Year! I ran out of steam there for a while but I am bursting with new inspiration and have a billion ideas for new and old fics! Thank you for your patience and support 💜

The next night after dropping you off at home, there was a storm the likes of which Hawkins had never seen. Lightning lit up the sky through the night like a shitty rave, knocking out the power for Forest Hills Trailer Park for the better part of two days. It wasn’t until Saturday, when Eddie attempted to check in on Ronnie again, that he realized that their worn out phone had been completely fried. Shit.

Getting a new one was easier said than done, Eddie and Wayne had to pinch pennies this week after his uncle had been out of work a few days because of a cold, and having to replace a good chunk of groceries that had gone bad sitting in the dead fridge.

Sure, Bev had been nice enough to give Eddie a few extra shifts at the Hideout to help cover but that was a paycheck that wasn’t going to be in for another week. There was always his dealings, but he’d been keeping his head down after nearly having his stash blown by an over enthusiastic K-9 unit that, thankfully, was more interested in the jerky that Eddie had in his jacket.

For a week, he’d been without a phone now. Normally it wasn’t a huge loss, not many people actually bothered trying to call him anyway, and Wayne didn’t really socialize much working the night shift. But he missed Ronnie, and he really was stressing each day that went by that he didn’t call you. Eddie knew that whatever this was, he was probably already blowing it.

Tuesday rolled around again, and he hoped that you’d show back up to the Hideout. Jeff had even agreed to give most of the band a ride if Eddie agreed to haul their equipment and do all of the breakdown in case you needed another ride home. No such luck though, unbeknownst to him Keith had come down with the same cold that his Uncle Wayne had the week before, meaning you had to work a double.

It was now Friday, over a week since you’d written your name in the most stubborn permanent marker he’d ever come across. Your name still stained his skin in a faint and ugly shade of pea green. Eddie could now say your number by memory, despite never having punched in the digits once. If anyone at school had noticed that Eddie ‘the Freak’ Munson had a girl's name on his arm, they didn’t say anything.

“Whose number is that?” Mike asked in the middle of a time out while Zach and Gareth were pouring over the rule book over the legality of a move that Eddie was sure was bullshit. So much for that.

Eddie’s head snapped over to the freshman while those in Corroded Coffin snickered and suddenly lost interest in the rules for the moment. With the candles and stage lights on, it was always warm in the Hellfire room, and Eddie had stripped his jacket giving his arms a chance to breathe while he guided the party on their next adventure.

It had also meant that the faded remains of your number was still visible, which he hadn’t thought much of until Mike had pointed it out.

“Yeah, Eddie, whose number is it?” Jeff snickered, which earned a hard look from Eddie that under any other circumstances would have shut Jeff up but in this case only made him laugh harder.

For a moment he debated internally about putting his jacket on, and telling them all to shove it. It was tempting, very tempting, but Eddie wasn’t a teen anymore. Hell, he had a good two to three years on most of the members in this club. Why should he be embarrassed because a cute girl had some sort of interest in him?

Because you’re blowing it by not being able to call her. He told himself.

Eddie then told the table about how you’d given him your number right before he dropped you off. How you’d been a perfect gentleman and hadn’t taken advantage of him or made any untowards moves to him. (Even if he had thought you almost did, but he kept that part to himself).

To his surprise, the ribbing was kept to a minimal. Without Eddie fighting against it, the group became less interested. Eddie’s love life was only of interest when it meant that the sheep could finally have some fun with the shepard.

That was going to be the end of it. Jeff had conceded that the rule they were looking up had been an old house rule from his middle school group that he had never questioned as not actually being accurate, and they were ready to move on. Eddie opened his mouth to guide the party to the next encounter-

“I thought you said you weren’t interested in her.” Dustin suddenly said. Eddie had thought that the shrimp had been suspiciously quiet for the past few minutes.

“If that was him not interested then I’m quitting Hellfire to be a cheerleader.” laughed Gareth.

“No one wants to see you in a miniskirt, man.” said Mike.

“They have guy cheerleaders!” protested Gareth. “I’d wear the pants.”

“That’d be a first.” ribbed Zack.

“Don’t you have to be crazy strong to be a cheerleader? Gareth, your strength stat sucks.”

“I haul my own drumset every week!”

“Can we get back to the game?”

“Eddie,” Dustin spoke up again. His brows were furrowed and he was messing with his pencil, the same way he did when someone in the party was about to do something that didn’t make any sense. “You did say you weren’t interested.”

So much for Eddie’s love life being of no interest, he now had a herd of sheep looking at him expectantly, no longer talking about Gareth possibly changing after school activities. He should ignore it, get everyone back on track, and lead them back into the Forbidden Caves where he was not tempted to throw a mimic in for messing with the flow of the game.

He should... but Dustin’s comment bugged him for some reason.

“I never said that.” Eddie said, looking at the kid.

“What? Yeah you did!” Dustin looked as shocked as Eddie felt. When had he ever said he wasn’t interested in you?

“Oh yeah, when?” Eddie crossed his arms and leaned back in his throne, his eyes narrowing.

“At the arcade!” Dustin sounded frustrated. “You told me that you didn’t want me introducing you to anyone when we were doing Hellfire related shit, and that you weren’t interested anyway.”

The warmth from the candles and stage lights were nothing compared to the heat of everyone’s eyes on him. What the fuck was Henderson even talking about?

Oh. Oh what the fuck?!

“Excuse me?” Eddie said slowly as that thirty second conversation started to play in his mind.

“Yeah, I remember that.” Mike added, in an attempt to back up his friend. “We just assumed she wasn’t your type.”

Eddie hadn’t been looking to be anyone’s boyfriend. He was never looking to be dating anyone, the few times he’d found himself in the good graces of a girl who’d shown interest in him it had always blown up in his face.

That had never stopped him from trying though.

“Are- wait. Back up.” Eddie stood up and made his way over to the opposite end of the table where the freshmen were suddenly looking very nervous. He grabbed them by the shoulders, as he’d done so many times in the past and hauled them up while the rest of the table watched on in amusement. Normally, Eddie would never pause the game but, fuck it. This kid had something to do with you, and he was going to figure out what.

“Jesus, Eddie-” Mike said, wincing at the grip. “I don’t have anything to do with this, it was all Dustin and Steve!”

This was getting more and more confusing by the moment. Eddie shoved the two boys to face them, leaning over them. Even with Mike’s growth spurt over the past few months, somehow Eddie still seemed to tower over them.

“Steve?” Eddie’s voice was slow, trying to understand why that name was even being spoken in the private sanctuary away from jocks.

“Yes, Steve! They’re like, best friends or something! Ask Dustin!” Mike said, throwing his friend under the bus.

“What’s the big deal?!” Dustin asked, looking between Mike and Eddie with a look of bewilderment.

“Henderson, you have thirty seconds to explain what the actual Hell is going on before your character becomes Quasit food.” Eddie said, releasing his grip on both of the freshmen.

“Okay, okay!” Dustin held his hand up in surrender, looking nervous as everyone watched the scene unfold. “So, you know how her and Steve work together? Well, they had a deal going on where they’d help get each other dates.”

Eddie’s head tilted down slightly, but his eyes stayed firmly focused on Dustin. This was making less and less sense by the minute. Steve needed help getting dates? King Steve of Hawkins High who had the pick of any girl in school before he graduated? That Steve Harrington couldn’t get a date and so had recruited you into helping him?

And you, you with the everything about you couldn’t get a date either? Hadn’t you mentioned something about that before, at the Hideout?

“I help him and he uh... he helps me get out of the house.”

You’d said that, and he hadn’t thought much of it until now. All this time, Eddie had thought the arcade incident had been Dustin trying to have his two older male friends meet and be friends, but it had been you that he was supposed to meet?

“So you’re telling me that you, Dustin Henderson and Steve Harrington were trying to set me up on a date?” Eddie looked over at the rest of the table that looked just as bewildered as he did. This was a prank, right? He’d been tossed into some sort of alternate dimension where a freshman and a jock had any sort of interest in his love life, in any part of his life. He’d sooner believe that he’d run a drug deal with Chrissy Cunningham than this.

“Well, technically we were trying to set her up on a date and you seemed like a good fit?” Dustin’s answer came out as more of a question, leaving Eddie’s mind reeling. Behind him, he could hear the growing snickers of the party.

Eddie was ready for this to start making sense any time now.

“So she was helping Steve get dates and he wanted to set her up with me?” Nope, even after thinking it a half dozen times it still wasn’t clicking.

“That part was my idea actually!” Dustin said, showing off a smile filled with metal. “She’s pretty weird and Steve said she was picky-”

“Can’t be that picky if she was interested in Eddie.” muttered Gareth, earning another round of laughter at the table.

Eddie didn’t even have it in him to shoot another look at the table as he continued to try and piece together what was going on.

You and Steve had a deal to try and get each other dates. You were picky and so Dustin suggested Eddie. Steve then brought you to the arcade to force a meeting and-

“Wait, did she know that she was supposed to meet me?” Eddie asked suddenly.

“Oh yeah, she knew the whole time in the arcade.” Dustin nodded, hoping that Eddie wasn’t about to blow a fuse over this. “Well, she figured it out at least. See she was just supposed to be tagging along with Steve to find guys to flirt with but then uh... she realized she was supposed to meet you.”

“And she didn’t know who I was?” Eddie clarified, thinking back to the way you’d tried to talk to him about Hellfire, Chris Morrison, anything to try and start a conversation. How the hell was it that he could remember every time you two met so clearly, but you didn’t know who he actually was?

Because it wasn’t about you, Eddie. He had to remind himself.

Dustin shrugged. “I guess not? She’s never mentioned you before that night.”

Guess not everyone paid attention to the Freak. He hated that it bugged him that you didn’t remember him but could he blame you? He probably wouldn’t remember him either, just a Munson fuck up who everyone was waiting to end up dead in a ditch somewhere.

Eddie pushed Dustin back down into his seat, done interrogating the poor freshman. Everyone watched as he made his way back to his side of the table, behind the DM screen. He had a lot to think about, but he wasn’t about to start processing that in front of the rest of Hellfire.

“You all wander deeper into the cave, the only light coming from the torch carried by-”

“I have dark vision!”

Broke and bored, Eddie haunted the trailer for the rest of the weekend. He did have practice with Corroded Coffin for a generous two hours on Saturday, and then a long shift that night at the Hideout where one old drunk had slipped him a $10 tip for making sure he always had a cold beer in hand. But those few hours were just a minor reprieve from the information that Dustin had given him the previous day.

When he wasn’t distracted by work or practice he was practicing guitar, working on lyrics, prepping for the next Hellfire session.

He tried to think about you, but ended up feeling confused. When he was trying to think about anything else, all he could see was the way you had flirted with him at the Hideout.

Despite popular opinion, Eddie wasn’t stupid when it came to girls. He could tell when a girl was interested in him, and you had made it clear that you had at least some interest in him. You had told him point blank that you were not with Harrington, and had no interest as well. He’d seen the way you looked at him while watching them play, that excitement in your eyes. Your head had bobbed to the rhythm of their songs watching them with as much enthusiasm as if you’d been a fan for years.

Paige had watched with similar eyes, right? She’d seen something in them that no one else had before-

No. Not them. Not Corroded Coffin. Just Eddie.

It felt pathetic that he kept comparing you to Paige. He didn’t want to, he really didn’t want to. It wasn’t like he was still hung up on Paige, not really. She’d just been a turning point in who he was as a person. She’d been the first (and last) girl to really look at him as a person. If his dating prospects had been small before, they had completely dried up over the past two years.

Date the freak? Yeah, right. There had been the odd girl who’d hit on him as if daring themselves to get with him but he was done with that. A few mediocre dates that he’d agreed to out of boredom or loneliness had only added to the idea in Hawkins High that he was undesirable. Adding to that, the older he got, the younger his underclassmen became and the idea of dating someone younger was... well he didn’t need to add ‘creep’ to the long list of rumors about him. It didn’t matter to him most of the time, instead focusing on his friends, his band, his club, his business, himself. God knows he’d never be able to hold down a relationship unless he got his shit together and earned everyone’s trust again.

“Graduate and get laid, Munson.” Ronnie’s voice echoed in the back of his mind and he groaned as his face warmed. It was the middle of the week, just over two weeks since the night at the Hideout. Eddie was laying on the old couch face down, his homework on the counter half finished and the blue glow of the tv doing little to distract him.

The sound of the door opening didn’t even phase him enough to look up, even as Wayne grunted out a hello before setting something down on the counter next to his forgotten schoolbooks.

“Did you eat?” Wayne asked, which earned a shrug from Eddie. How could he think about eating when he was stuck thinking about everything else?

“Are you gonna tell me why you’ve been moping around for the past few weeks?” Wayne tried again in an attempt to be a good guardian. When that didn’t work either he sighed and said “Might as well step outside with me and have a smoke.”

It was better than doing whatever the hell else Eddie was doing now, and so he rolled off the couch less than gracefully and followed his uncle out onto the porch to sit on the outdoor couch. Wayne offered him the smoke and for a moment it was peaceful. Wayne wasn’t one to push Eddie to talk about anything, but he did have a way to make him think even if it did piss him off occasionally.

Eddie took a long drag of the cigarette and released it slowly as he stared up at the sky. It was a dark night, a million tiny dots illuminating the trailer park, even if the moon wasn’t out. He scanned the stars, looking for the three that he knew were Orion’s belt. That’s about where his astrology knowledge began and ended, but it was something to look for at least.

“I think a girl likes me.” He finally said as he spotted what he assumed was the constellation he was looking for.

“Yeah?” Wayne asked, his own eyes gazing upwards as well, giving Eddie the space to talk more.

“Yeah.”

It was silent again for a few minutes as they smoked, the only other sound for a while was that of Wayne cracking open a beer. That’s what Eddie appreciated about Wayne, he didn’t need to fill the silence like his dad did, and Eddie didn’t need to either. He could just... exist.

“I don’t know what to do about it.” Eddie finally said a while later. “She only has an interest because her and some jock are trying to get each other dates.”

“Is that right?” Coming from anyone else that question would have been dismissive, a filler phrase to show that they were paying minimal attention. Eddie knew better though, which caused a knot of frustration in his gut.

“I guess.” he shrugged.

“How many dates has she gone on?” Wayne passed the beer to Eddie, who took a grateful sip.

“Don’t know. It didn’t sound like she’d been on many. Henderson said she’s picky.”

“But she likes you.”

“Yeah.”

Another long stretch of silence as Eddie stewed over the question. He hated how Wayne could break down his problems into simple questions.

“Don’t see why you’re moping around if she likes you.” Wayne glanced over at Eddie. “Are you sweet on her?”

Eddie snorted at the term, taking another drag from the cigarette and flicking the ashes off the porch. “She’s cute.” he said, thinking about how you’d looked the last few times he’d seen you. He might have been distracted that first night at the arcade, but not so distracted that he didn’t notice that at least. “Smart too. She got the guys to listen to her last time we hung out.”

Wayne raised an eyebrow. “She got Gareth to pay attention? That’s a damn miracle.”

“They liked her too.”

“More than the California girl?”

The question caught Eddie off guard and he looked up at Wayne who was still looking off in the distance. Eddie had never explained exactly to Wayne what had happened that first senior year, most of the details going to what happened with Al when Officer Morris was shot. They never talked about how Eddie was so damn close to packing everything up and running away to California.

Thinking about everything that happened that year still stung. Eddie had tried hard not to think about what could have been if CJ and Toby had just shown up one or two days later. Would Eddie have made it to the audition? Would they have really liked him? Maybe in another life he’d be signed and he’d be working on an album or on tour and him and Paige...

It didn’t matter, that ship had long since sailed. Eddie was no rock hero, and never would be. He tried to tell himself it was better this way, if anything it meant that his relationship with Al was over and done with which was a hollow victory if he was being honest.

“Definitely more than her.” Eddie finally agreed. You weren’t asking him to ditch the band and run away with you, so that had to give you some points for them, and for him. Dustin vouched for you, and even Mike, but he wasn’t sure how much that counted for yet. After all Dustin still seemed to worship Steve, and you were friends with Steve-

But did that actually matter? If you and Steve were close enough friends to help each other like this, and Steve was willing to vouch for Eddie, despite never having any real conversation just because Dustin said something-

“She gonna ask you to run away?” Wayne was now looking at Eddie again.

Sometimes he wondered if his uncle could secretly read minds.

“Doubt it.” Eddie said, “She works at the video store. I don’t know much about her, honestly.”

“So ask her on a date.”

“What?”

“She likes you, you want to get to know her. Ask her on a date. It’s not that complicated, Eddie.” Wayne dropped the cigarette on the porch and crushed it under his boot. “You always did think too much, always sucked up in your own world. You’ll be happier in the long run if you open up a bit.”

Easier said than done for a 20 year old still in high school that the whole town considered a satanic cult leader. Then again, when was the last time he’d really opened up to anyone other than Ronnie or Wayne? Right, his dad in the weeks before the heist.

“I think I fucked this up before I could even start.” Eddie sighed, snuffing out his own half finished cigarette. “She gave me her number and I never called.”

“Could’a grabbed a quarter from the change jar and used a pay phone.”

Eddie pressed his hands against his face and dragged them down slowly. Why did good advice always come too late for him?

“Well, I guess it’s a good thing I brought back a new phone for the kitchen today.”

Eddie’s head snapped up so fast he should have snapped something, his eyes widening.

“Don’t get too excited. It’s a new used phone. Guy down the line from me offered it up and it’s better than nothing.”

Eddie didn’t care if it was a rotary phone, he’d take anything at this point if it meant that he could try to call you.

He wanted to call you.

He wanted to call you. Eddie didn’t care if you remembered that first time you met, did it even really matter? You had an interest in him, Eddie Munson, now.

“Thanks, Wayne.” Eddie stood up and hurried inside, seeing the new old phone that was sitting on the counter. It took a few minutes of making sure it wouldn’t fall off the wall before he plugged it in and heard that sweet dial tone sound.

Eddie grabbed his copy of Lord of the Rings from his bedside table and pulled out the paper flower, looking at the number scribbled in his own chicken scratch. He didn’t trust himself to punch in the number without checking, no matter how many times he read the ten digits over the past two weeks.

It rang once.

Twice.

Six times.

No response.

“It’s late, she might be asleep.” Wayne said, grabbing a box of pasta from the cabinet.

It wasn’t that late, not even 8:30 yet. Eddie sighed and hung up the phone, crossing his arms as he thought about his next move. He’d always had tunnel vision when he got an idea into his head, from Corroded Coffin, to his campaigns, to a book that he wanted to read, it was hard to shake the urge when he got one.

Grabbing the keys from the counter he called over to Wayne “I’ll be back later.” which was responded to with a confirmation that he’d save some pasta for Eddie in the fridge.

There weren’t many places he could think of where you could be tonight. You hadn’t shown back up at the Hideout, and the arcade was closed this late on a weeknight. You could be at home, but Eddie didn’t remember where you lived and showing up to your place after two weeks of radio silence would definitely get him in trouble.

So he drove to Family Video.

If you were there he’d do.. something. If you weren’t he’d call you after school tomorrow. Eddie winced internally at the thought. He’d been trudging through school and dragging his feet for the past six years to graduate, and now was the time he felt childish about it. You could legally buy him a beer, and he could illegally sneak you a drink in the Hideout.

At a stoplight he swapped out the Black Sabbath tape for W.A.S.P., remembering that you had mentioned liking them. How did he continue to remember these small details about you?

Because she’s treated you like a human each time you’ve talked. It was startling how something so basic was such a big deal to him.

The lights were still on at Family Video, and the open sign was still lit up. He could see movement inside the store, and he caught sight of someone wearing the signature green vest that the employees wore.

He’d walk in, and if you were there he’d- fuck what the hell was he supposed to do? Eddie stared at the door from inside his van for a few minutes. It was past nine now, and he could have sworn that they should be closed now but that stupid sign was still on. That had to be a good sign right? Eddie wasn’t one to believe in stuff like that but maybe he’d be stupid to ignore a literal neon sign hanging in the door.

Okay, now or never. Eddie had never really been one to hesitate before and he wasn’t about to start now.

He made his way to the entrance and opened the door before he could think about what he was actually wanting to do. Eddie could improvise, it was one of the more useful skills that came from years of running Hellfire.

“Who didn’t lock the door?!” Your voice was a welcome sound, sealing the determination inside of him. No going back now.

“It was Steve’s job to-” your co-worker said. She looked familiar, but he couldn’t place a name to the face.

“Oh, shit. Hi.” Steve was the first to actually notice Eddie as he walked in, looking as if he was expecting literally anyone else.

Turning on the Freak, Eddie smirked at Steve. “Cursing in front of customers, Harrington? Now that’s not very professional of you.”

“Well, we’re closed. You can’t be a customer if you can’t pay.” Steve said, putting his hands on his hips in a way that reminded Eddie of a mother hen. Steve did have a point, and so he decided to cut through any bullshit and looked over at you. You looked like you’d had a long shift, but the way you were looking at him... there was still the same shock that was on Steve’s face, but while his shock was laced with confusion yours was excited. As if you couldn’t believe that The Freak was here and that was a good thing.

“Do you want to get out of here?” Eddie blurted out the request before he could think. He had no idea where you two would go or what you would do but he had to do something.

Your coworker nudged you in the ribs, and your expression changed to a more professional one.

“I- uh. I have to finish closing.” you said, looking at Steve for a split second.

“Steve and I can handle the rest of closing!” Eddie made a mental note to learn this girls name and send her a fucking gift basket one day.

“Guys, I’m literally in charge of you both. I can’t leave before you.” You said, reaching down to grab something from below the counter- your bag. Eddie felt himself growing more excited, his heart pounding as you tossed your work vest and keys over to them. They were basically shoving you out the door to spend time with him.

“We can handle it!” Steve said.

“And I can handle Steve!” Robin added. “We close without you and Keith all the time, remember?”

You stepped out from behind the counter, looking up at him. The color of your eyes under the fluorescent lights reminded him of the stars he had been looking at earlier this evening. Eddie found himself smiling at you as you opened the door for him.

Someone was quick to lock the door and turn the OPEN sign off.

Eddie opens his van door for you, trying his best to make a good impression for whatever was about to happen. You hopped into the passenger seat and he thought that he might enjoy seeing you sitting next to him like this in his van more often.

---

Next Chapter

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#Nacht fic #eddie munson x reader #wing man

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wen-kexing-apologist · 19 days

Text

Unknown, Ep 10: Qian and Yuan

I’ve had a few people ask if I was going to do a breakdown post for the final scene between Qian and Yuan. Admittedly, I was not planning on doing so, but I like the attention 😈 so I will!

Last we left off, Qian and San Pang were having a very difficult conversation, San Pang forced Qian to think about the future and was kicked out as a result.

We start with a moment with each character to themselves. Qian closes the door behind San Pang and we see him hand at the door for a second, head hung in a way that feels very tired. He walks away from the door back to the couch to grab his glasses and wrap up the evening, when the camera cuts to Yuan sitting on the staircase, just out of sight of Qian.

We see Yuan look up at the ceiling, take a deep breath, and then slowly move his eyes back to center. He is processing everything that he just heard from San Pang and Qian. Yuan is trying to keep himself composed here, he knows that Qian will be heading up the stairs eventually and so he stays seated because he wants Qian to know that he heard everything. Because Yuan is fucking mad.

Qian heads up the stairs and we get, what could not be a more perfect little deer in headlights look from Qian as he processes that Yuan has heard everything. And I do love what this show does in how it portrays its characters because Yuan is still Qian’s little brother, and his face in the camera looks like that of an upset little kid. “Xiao Yuan,” Qian says as Yuan stands up and rushes down the stairs. In such a quick moment, Chris rolls his eyes, looks up, and then down like Qian is annoyed at Yuan’s behavior while knowing that he is absolutely going to have to be the one to handle it.

Yuan brushes past him, but Qian immediately turns and follows after him, calls after him, tells him to wait. But Yuan keeps walking. Where he’s going? I have no fucking clue, but it is clear that Qian’s words aren’t going to cut it. Yuan has heard everything that Qian told San Pang. He’s heard about Qian’s wish for their happiness, he’s heard San Pang tell Qian that they love each other, that they have tried everything to make them not love each other, and what he hasn’t heard is an answer to San Pang’s question:

“Do you want him to have a future without you?”

I don’t know exactly what (if any) part of the conversation acted as the tipping point for Yuan, but he has been pissed the entire episode about Qian hiding his medical stuff from him. So I can imagine that not hearing an answer from Qian about wanting to be in Yuan’s future might serve as a last straw kind of deal.

And it marks a very important change in Qian that he runs after Yuan this time, that he physically puts himself in front of Yuan to stop him. Because he doesn’t want Yuan to go somewhere to cool off the way he did during Yuan’s first confession four years prior. He doesn’t want to just wait it out. He actually wants to talk to Yuan about where his head is at. That is huge progress from Mr. Hit First Talk Later.

“Ge.” Yuan says, and then lets out a very big breath, like he’s trying to temper his feelings, but the frustration still bleeds out of him “It was never your fault,”

Ah, here we go. What set Yuan off is Qian talking with San Pang about the Russian Roulette, reading between the lines there and understanding that Qian is scared of giving in to his feelings for Yuan because he blames himself for how deeply, how steadfastly Yuan loves him. Yuan is willing to die for him, and Qian has never had that before. He’s scared of giving in to his feelings for Yuan because he is scared of losing Yuan, and he is scared that Yuan’s love for him means Yuan will be lost because of him.

“It was never your fault,” Yuan said and he put his hands on Qian’s shoulders.

I do not even know how to describe the look Qian gives Yuan when he heard those words, nor can I really tell you what emotion(s) Qian is feeling in that moment, but I can tell you that I am obsessed with that look on his face. It’s like his breath catches in his throat and there is an ambiguity there, just like there was a bit of ambiguity in the head nod he gave San Pang, because he’s out of breath from running after Yuan, but there is also this chance that the pause in his breathing there is because of what Yuan said. Anyway:

“Even though I know that in the end you might not want all that I’ve given-”

Yuan says, while Qian looks down in the direction of his shoulders, where Yuan’s hands were just a moment ago. They made excellent casting choices here, I actually think for this scene it is really important that Kurt is taller than Chris, because it adds some extra power to Yuan’s position for me here. The way Yuan looks down at Qian makes him seem even more pissed off about the entire situation, almost like he’s belittling Qian. He wants to dig a knife in here, and he’s being successful at it

“Hearing it first hand still hurts a little,”

And we are back in our original confession dynamic. Qian is not looking at Yuan, Yuan refuses to look away from Qian. Qian looks kind of out of it, I would say he is dissociating a little bit, but I actually think what is happening here is that Qian is getting hit with the full force of Yuan’s words. I think he is absorbing and processing everything that is being said and understanding how not making a decision is hurting Yuan. Mostly because of how quick his reaction time is to trying to stop Yuan from walking away immediately after he says it hurts.

“I’ll be fine. I just need some time.” Yuan says, and I do think he means it. I think when Yuan came back from the States he had reached a point where he could live without Qian changing their relationship status, even if he didn’t want to.

But as Yuan tries to walk away, Qian stops him.

“I didn’t mean it that way,” look at him using his words! Qian looks so fucking exhausted when he does. The world has weighed heavy on him for so long, he’s been fighting an internal battle with himself about his feelings for Yuan for ages. It’s a lot, and the way Chris holds Qian here makes it feel like a lot. But, Yuan finally settles, because Qian is willing to engage in conversation. He is trying to clarify a misunderstanding, he is not outright rejecting Yuan here, he is not running away from talking about his feelings for Yuan. And so Yuan can stay, because there is some hope left there for him to hold on to.

He releases another huge breath, he stretches for just a second, grounding himself. He looks back at Qian “Then what do you mean?”

Qian stares in to the void, then rolls his eyes upwards, closes his eyes, and sighs. Chris shakes his head a little, like Qian is giving up. Because he is giving up. Because Qian is about to say the words. He is about to admit that his feelings for Yuan aren’t clear cut. Yuan looks away from Qian in this moment, where Qian is getting himself together.

gifs by @wanderlust-in-my-soul

“I can’t really figure out if it is love or something else that my feelings for you are.” And at the end of this, he isn’t running from the words anymore, because he looks at Yuan and Yuan is looking back at him. When Yuan first admitted his feelings, his suffering caused Qian to avoid eye contact. When Yuan returned, Qian couldn’t stop looking at Yuan. When listening to Yuan once again speak to his feelings and tell Qian he was hurting, Qian started in his comfort zone, in the old habits of looking away. But when he is actually admitting his feelings to Yuan, he does turn to look him in the eye. He isn’t avoiding it anymore.

“Is it the love of a brother? Can we really turn it into romantic love? I don’t know.” Qian is finally having the conversation he has needed to have with Yuan. This is confusing, how do you separate your feelings out? How do you know? What happens if things don’t go well? How much are you set to lose if things devolve?”

Yuan is capable of holding, understanding, and pushing that nuance, we’ve seen him do it before at the river. “This thing between us, is it because you don’t want or you don’t dare?”

“Yes.” Qian says “All I know is I can’t live without you.”

Yuan has seen that, San Pang and Lili have seen that, we have seen that. Qian wants to be careful with how he proceeds along this path, and he is right to do so. Because it is hard to determine, when you have known someone so long, when you have raised them, when you have seen them as a brother, when you have not had love outside of the family before, when that love has existed the entire time, and has been different the entire time, and how do you recognize that when you are in it?

There is a pause.

“Four years later, you came back.”

There is another pause.

I love these pauses. I love Qian putting space between these thoughts, whether he is scrambling internally for what to say, or whether he is hesitant to voice them, I do not know. I just know that I love love love when directors allow for breathing room.

“I saw your letter of last words.”

Qian stops looking at Yuan here. Another little pause.

“That’s when I started to feel scared.”

The camera cuts to a wide shot, where both Qian and Yuan are visible. And we can see Yuan reacting to what Qian is saying. Yuan also is not making eye contact, he is fidgeting a little. But he is listening intently to Qian’s words. The blocking of this shot is interesting to me too, because the way that Chris is standing has Qian facing Yuan, but we don’t see enough of Chris’ eyes here, so while it looks like Qian is looking at Yuan, that is not necessarily the case. We have seen him look away multiple times and his head barely moves.

Qian is talking in to the void, and Yuan is picking up the signal. Another pause, and right before Qian continues talking, Yuan turns to look at him with this look of surprise on his face. His mouth is slightly agape, his eyes look soft staring at Qian.

“I’m terrified,” Qian says. “What if you had no chance to come back? I don’t know what I would do.”

Yuan looks at Qian, looks away, looks up like he is trying to decide how to feel. What type of treatment he should be giving to Qian at this moment. Should he be bitter, should he be harsh, should he be soft?

“Wei Qian.” Yuan says

AND I WILL ONCE AGAIN SHAKE MY FIST AT THE SUBTITLES FOR TRANSLATING GE AS QIAN BECAUSE IT SO SEVERELY CUTS THE IMPORTANCE OF MOMENTS LIKE THIS ONE.

Qian cannot figure out his feelings! He can’t figure out if he loves Yuan like a brother or something more! So Yuan cuts the brother out of it. He calls Qian by his name. He calls him Wei Qian, he puts the separation up for Qian. Is this the love of a brother? That’s an easier question to answer when you aren’t being called ‘brother’. How do you feel when you aren’t being reminded of your connection?

I do not have the ability to describe the way Kurt’s mouth moves here, but I love the expression he gives Yuan as he finishes saying Wei Qian. He’s clearly going for a soft approach. Qian’s mouth, which hangs open just slightly, closes shut.

“I’ve told you. I can sum up my life in two words: Wei Qian.” A smile starts to creep up his face. That’s love, bitch! Yuan was pissed, but now that Qian has stopped him, not that Qian has voices his hesitations, now that Qian has admitted that he can’t live without Yuan, even if he doesn’t know what his feelings for Yuan are, the love Yuan has for Qian melts the anger and lets the love bleed through. “But I’m not making you take responsibility for me.”

This is a very important character trait of Yuan’s. One of the first things we saw of teenage Yuan was him grabbing one of the household bills. Yuan has been working side hustles while in school. He’s been helping pay the bills. He’s been as helpful as he possibly can be at all times, because this was a home he was given, not a home he was born in to.

GOD DAMMIT CHRIS IS SO GOOD. ALL HE DID WAS MOVE HIS EYEBALLS LIKE…TWO CENTIMETERS AND THAT WAS ENOUGH TO KILL ME.

Yuan is saying all the things that Qian needs to hear. Yuan can sum his life up with Qian, Qian fed him, Qian kept him warm, Qian gave him a home, Qian gave him love. Qian has seen Yuan as his responsibility since they were kids, but Yuan has wanted nothing but to be a support system for Qian. I said it before, that Yuan is the only person who continuously helps Qian to whom Qian is not beholden. Qian owes San Pang and his family, Qian owes Le and the gang, Qian owes Xiong. Qian does not owe Yuan. Qian does not see Yuan as someone that owes him.

That small little eye motion are some gears clicking in to place in Qian’s head. That small little eye motion is Qian well and truly listening to what Yuan is saying.

And here comes the parallel:

gif by @wanderlust-in-my-soul

“Did you come after me because you feel guilty, or because you care?” (this thing between us, is it because you don’t want or you don’t dare?)

A genuine question that Yuan is using to try to push Qian in to allowing himself finally see his feelings through to the end. Qian is standing here before Yuan telling him that he does not know what his feelings for Yuan are. Even though those In The Know (Yuan and San Pang) can see the truth in Qian clear as day, Qian himself has not admitted it.

So Yuan gives him a test.

Qian pauses for a moment, starts to shake his head, blinks.

gif by @wanderlust-in-my-soul

“I really don’t know,” he says

Qian has failed the test.

Yuan’s soft smile has a hint of sadness in it now.

“You don’t need to know.” Yuan leans back against the wall, looking up at the sky. Qian is looking straight ahead, once again not making eye contact with Yuan “It’s always been my problem. Going home with you.”

gif by @wanderlust-in-my-soul

The weight of what Yuan is saying hits. Qian looks at the ground. Complete opposite direction as Yuan.

“Getting attached to you. Falling for you.”

Qian closes his eyes and sighs, pulling his head up from where it was pointed. It’s like he can’t get used to hearing Yuan confess. Like it hits him every time Yuan says he’s in love with Qian and has been forever.

“Wanting you all my life.”

gif by @wanderlust-in-my-soul

That is too much for Qian. Even with his eyes closed, even though he can’t see Yuan right now, he has to face away.

“It was never your fault.” Yuan says, and Qian’s eyes open ever so slightly.

And I just have to say that it is really really important to me that with all of Qian’s trauma, with everything he has suffered, with the stuff he went through with his mother, that he finally has someone tell him that it wasn’t his fault. There is naturally a lot of hesitation in changing the way you see someone you have raised, someone you have looked at and treated as a brother, and suddenly see them as someone to be romantically interested in.

gif by @wanderlust-in-my-soul

So it is important to me that Yuan tells Qian he did nothing wrong. That Yuan’s feelings here are entirely his own, borne of his own mind and body, and that there is no aspect of Yuan’s feelings for him that Qian pressured him in to. That Yuan will be fine, eventually, if Qian does not reciprocate his feelings. Qian is not being forced in to anything here, and neither is Yuan. And I am so so so glad that Qian got to hear that. Twice!

Anyway, Qian’s eyes open ever so slightly right as Yuan starts walking away, shoulder checking Qian on his way out.

“Wait.” Qian grabs Yuan by the wrist “Wei Zhiyuan.”

gifs by @wanderlust-in-my-soul

Yuan’s eyes are locked on to Qian’s hand around his wrist. He once again looks surprised that Qian would be brave enough to stop him from leaving. We get a shot of their hands (😈) and Yuan ever, ever so slowly raises his eyes to look at Qian.

Qian has passed the test at the last second.

#here you go for the people who asked if I was going to write the staircase scene #got this in right under the wire before tomorrow becomes all episode 11 stuff #unknown #unknown the series #unknown the series analysis #unknown the series meta #unknown the series episode 10 #chris chiu #kurt huang #taiwanese bl #wka long post

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savnofilter · 7 months

Text

In His Arms | h. sero (ver.)

Pro Hero!Hanta Sero x [GN]Reader

CONTENT WARNING(S): sfw, angst, fluff, comforting!Sero, panick attack, mentions of nightmares, slight mentions of past emotional trauma but nothing serious, established relationship.

COUNT: .9k words.

I/B: in his arms by me.

READ MORE: masterlist + [students masterlist]

A/N: i love this picture. 🥹 was gonna use a different one but i decided to go digging to find more sero pics. sero is undoubtedly so underrated it's sickening... ALSO TJIS IS EO LATE I AM SO SORRY. didnt want to make a copycat of the ojiro one yet i hadnt even reviewed what i wrote for it haha. anyways, hope y'all like it! thank you, (crairo) anon!

The room was too bright and it felt as though everything was caving in.

Laying in bed offered you no real comfort as your labored breaths made you feel suffocated, your eyes now starting to well with tears as anxiety rose within you. You wrapped your arms around yourself and curled into a ball, a small sob coming from you as you feebly attempted to soothe yourself. Usually, you had the comfort of your boyfriend next to you to ground you, but today you were by yourself.

The cool air taunting you synonymous with the cold sheets served as a reminder that you were all alone. That the fears and anxieties from your nightmare didn't stop once you woke up, it instead followed you as you awoke.

You felt an uncomfortable shiver rack through your body as your eyes desperately tried to adjust to the bright lights in the room. You would think waking up out of a nightmare during the daytime would ease you, but you were wrong. It felt overwhelmingly stimulating and your brain and body were desperately trying to find something to ease the panic that it was experiencing.

In your shivers you're able to peek at the clock on your nightstand, the digital tool letting you know that it is soon to be afternoon, hopefully in time for your boyfriend to come get you. You couldn't coax it out of yourself to physically reach out for your phone and shut your eyes in hopes that he would arrive sooner than later. As you closed your eyes, luckily the images of what you had experienced didn't stick but the interconnectedness of the dream clung to you deeply. There wasn't a moment where your body wasn't paralyzed in discomfort.

Heavy buzzing on your nightstand tickles the back of your brain, the static-like noise in your busy mind going completely ignored. It wasn't until you realized that it had been going on for a few minutes that you realized that it was your phone making that disturbance. You open back up your glossy eyes and curl further within yourself, not ready to confront anything that could mess with your already sensitive emotions.

After a while, the jittering had stopped and you were left with the silence of yourself. Still, as you came down from your breakdown tears left your eyes although dry. You refused to move from your spot to help anchor yourself. You no longer felt cold in the embrace of your sheets, now covered in a layer of sweat and feeling hotter than ever. The switch in sensations added on to your already difficult challenge of balancing your senses.

Distantly, you hear the front door to your apartment unlock and soon enough strong and hurried footsteps quickly pad their way to your shared bedroom door; it now opens with a wild swing.

"Y/N?!" Sero, your long-time boyfriend called out in fear.

You whimper at the sound of him and don't bother to move, a sniffle sounding from you alerting him of what state you were in.

Sero softly coos at the fetus positioned lump under the sheets and gently kneels next to your bed as he takes you in.

"Another bad dream?"

You nod looking away from him, feeling embarrassed at how susceptible you were to these things. He gives your forehead a comforting kiss before standing up and pulling you up for a hug, the manhandling you were used to since it was the only way you were able to move in moments like this. As you welcomed his warm and gentle embrace, another shocked sob ran through your body as you found immense comfort in his hold.

He whispered sweet reassurance in your ear, hand rubbing your arm soothingly as if handling a baby who was shaken up. At least that's what you felt like. You had always been like this as a child and only a few people understood that the only way you could come down from your awful night terrors was by coddling like this. In many relationships, you were left humiliated because of the lack of understanding but Sero never left you hanging. Whatever you needed, he was always ready to drop everything and take care of you.

"I thought something went wrong; I called your phone like a million times." Sero jokingly mumbles against your temple, his hands and arms giving you another squeeze before allowing you to slowly untangle yourself from his hold.

"Am sorry…" You pout and wipe your tears, his hands are more than happy to replace yours and wipe the excess himself.

"Don't worry about it, 'kay?" He gives you his signature, warm smile, and holds your hands in his as he places his forehead against yours. There's an urge to laugh at the comical angle he provides you. "You still up for that picnic? I was thinking of getting us boba on the way there."

If you were by yourself you would've stayed the whole day in your apartment, drained. But thanks to him, he always knew how to make your life easier.

#bnha x reader #mha x reader #bnha fluff #mha fluff #sero hanta x reader #sero x reader #pro hero!sero hanta x reader #pro hero!sero x reader #bnha scenarios #mha scenarios #bnha imagines #mha imagines #sfw #sav's sfwin'

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cellarspider · 2 months

Text

13/?? Science interlude!

(Previous) | (Index) | (Next)

⛬

We return to Prometheus, where I am taking a break to ramble about my job. A thing that I love. It will be a nice change. Also: weird blood!

I have been informed that some methods of accessing tumblr do not play well with long alt text rambles. To keep the flow between the main text and alt text separate, I’ll be copying the longest ones below the main text and citations. Captions that I think are going to be long enough to need this treatment will be marked with “Overflow Ramble [number]”, so they’ll be slightly easier to find. It’s not a perfect system, but Tumblr is not a perfect website.

And I am going to need the overflow space this time, because we’re getting into genetics!

After electrocuting a decapitated alien head until it exploded into a shower of green gore, the creatures that claim to be scientists stuck a bit of the goop in some sort of very science-y DNA machine, leading to this:

“Let's have a look at its DNA. Isolate the strand. Okay. Compare it to the gene sample?”

“[Overlay… Processing… Processing… DNA MATCH.]”

“Oh, my God. It's us.”

I want this preserved for posterity, because this made me absolutely hoot. They avoided fake science technobabble by going so far in the other direction that it becomes equally meaningless.

What the scene is trying to say is “this alien shares the vast majority of its genetic material with humans, indicating that they are in fact related.”

I will get to how one would actually determine that, but first: The head turned into green goop. Green goop. Humans are notably not prone to turning into green goop. Otherwise Nickelodeon would’ve probably been shut down within a week.

(Image credit: Rich Fury/KCA2021/Getty Images for Nickelodeon)

This annoyed me so much that years later, I dug up a possible explanation that backfills this with cool biology.

Humans, and almost all vertebrates have hemoglobin-filled blood. And on a tangent that I must follow: The only vertebrate that doesn’t is the icefish Channichthyidae family, commonly known as the white-blooded fish.

You’ll never guess what’s special about them.

Yes, somehow these fish manage to live without hemoglobin, their blood only having 10% of the oxygen carrying capacity of their red-blooded cousins. Hell, most of them also lack myoglobin, which stores oxygen in muscle. The loss of myoglobin isn’t just a one-off event either, genetic studies have shown that these icefish have seen four distinct branches of their family tree lose myoglobin independently of each other. They have a wild series of adaptations to permit this, but basically they were already in such cold-oxygen rich water and moving so slow that they didn’t need all that extra oxygen-having stuff. They lost it, kept going, got bigger hearts, weirder muscles, and just kept going. They’ve actually expanded their range in the past 30 million years or so!

I love them! Evolution is wild. You know what’s also wild? There’s green-blooded vertebrates. Yes. You read that right. Yes, they still have hemoglobin. What they also have are staggering levels of biliverdin, which human bodies only produce when breaking down hemoglobin–when a bruise takes on a greenish hue, it’s because the dismantling of the blood under your skin has created biliverdin. While it’s generally been thought of as just a breakdown product, some research suggests that it also has protective effects against a number of diseases. In moderation, though. If you have enough of it to actually turn a bit green, you’ve got jaundice, which is not a thing you want to have.

But for a number of fish species, bush frogs, and skinks, they have way more biliverdin.

(Austin, C. C., & Jessing, K. W. (1994). Green-blood pigmentation in lizards. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part A: Physiology, 109(3), 619-626.)

Humans usually don’t have much circulating biliverdin at all, so the table above compares someone with untreated jaundice to a number of other species–fish with two to fourteen times that amount, and the green-blooded skinks have twenty-two times as much! These creatures have green blood and turquoise-colored bones, and we still don’t know why. Maybe it’s protection against diseases, maybe it’s protection against parasites like malaria, maybe it’s to make them really blend in with foliage. Could be all of those at once, could be none of them, we don’t know! What we do know is that, as with the icefish, the green-blooded skinks in particular have independently evolved this feature four different times. (Rodriguez, Z. B., Perkins, S. L., & Austin, C. C. (2018). Multiple origins of green blood in New Guinea lizards. Science Advances, 4(5), eaao5017.)

(https://australian.museum/blog-archive/amri-news/amri-three-tiny-green-blooded-frogs-sing-like-birds/)

(https://web.archive.org/web/20180619143048/https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2013/09/30/why-do-mysterious-lizards-have-green-blood/)

We have no mammals identified with biliverdin-filled green blood, you would need a lot of tweaks to how our bodies function to make this work. But it’s not literally impossible, like I thought in the theater! I’m quite sure the prop department didn’t do this level of research on the subject, but think about it!

I love biology! It’s! So! Weird!

And because I love biology, you’re not getting rid of me yet. My chosen field is genetics. This movie has presented me with a laughable sci-fi depiction of what we do.

So! What do we actually do, when we want to find out how related we are to another species?

I’m going to get into excruciating detail, so here’s the top-line summary: We extract the DNA, mash it up into readable little chunks, use some wicked cool machines to do the actual reading, and then we compare the target DNA with our DNA, and do some cooler stuff the movie isn’t aware of. A competent analysis would not only be able to tell you how much overlap two genomes have, but also be able to estimate how long the two species have been genetically distinct.

Is this way more than the movie needed for this plot point? Yes. But they didn’t actually have to do this at all, they could’ve just said the truth that science fiction usually ignores for budgetary reasons: “there’s no way these beings independently evolved to look so much like us, we have to be related.”

(Although even Star Trek, despite being the classic example of “putting a rubber thing on an actor’s forehead to make them an alien”, actually does acknowledge this. Precisely once. TNG s6e20, “The Chase”. It has never been mentioned again in the main line series, possibly because Rick Berman didn’t like it.)

Now. Time for me to take you all on a grand tour of DNA sequencing and phylogenetic analysis. You are all getting into the Willy Wonka boat with me. You have no choice.

So! You have a sample you’ve taken from a non-human mammal, one that’s never been genetically analyzed before. You are very lucky. You get to do fun stuff.

But before you get to sequencing, you have to purify any DNA in the sample. Your sample is full of all sorts of other biochemical gunk, and when cells are happy, DNA is packed away in the nucleus–you need to crack those open to get at the DNA.

Next, you need to break the DNA into chunks, that’s #1 on the diagram above. For most of the past twenty years, this has meant chunking DNA down into pieces 25-50 letters long–just enough to probably get something unique over most of the genome, though you will have some areas that look identical at that tiny scale. In recent times, we’ve been getting better and better at what’s called “long read sequencing”, which at this point means fragments of several thousand DNA letters in length–though that’s still pretty short, compared to human chromosomes though: the average length of a human chromosome is 134 million letters long.

Depending on the sequencing technology and its needs, the sample may also need “amplification”: getting copied over and over using a protein originally harvested from hotspring-loving bacteria (#2). I always love that bit just as a concept: it’s one of many places where the modern study of genetics uses the microscopic, biological machinery of proteins for our own use!

After everything’s prepared, Then the sequencing itself can occur. That too is wild–the most common versions these days use tiny little fluorescent proteins to tag each letter of the DNA and read the sequence of lights (#3!). Some use infinitesimally tiny electrical modulations as DNA passes by a microscopic reader. There’s loads of different ways, anything works, so long as it can be read by a computer.

All this takes place in machines that are either small enough to fit on a countertop, or big enough to look like a fridge, and come in Apple White or Cheap Plastic Appliance.

Because you have a new species, you’re building what we call a reference genome. This tries to capture as much of the entire genome sequence as possible. Here’s an interesting wrinkle, though–A lot of samples won’t be just DNA from your target species! You might be picking up microbial DNA along the way as well. That can be really interesting and worth knowing about, though! Some people spend their whole careers studying the genomes of microbes found on people’s skin, or in their bodies. You’ll be computationally sorting out which sequences are in contiguous, mammalian chromosomes, which are from mitochondrial DNA (those cute little powerhouses have their own genomes!), and which come from microbes.

At the end of it, you have sequenced an entire genome. Because you want to find out how related it is to humans, you compare it to our reference genome–The human reference genomes we use is an assembly made from multiple individuals.* We use the reference genome as a common point of comparison that we refer to when studying genetic variation.

*Though if you’re working with data form the Genome Reference Consortium as is usually standard, one anonymous African-European donor, RP11, is still the backbone of the reference, accounting for 70% of the latest assembly.

(https://mk.bcgsc.ca/telomere-to-telomere-human-genome-assembly/posters.mhtml)

So, we’d compare this new mammalian genome to our own–how much overlap would we find? A lot. How you define our similarities and differences from other species can change the answer, but you’ll expect a lot of overlap. Some areas of the genome diverge faster than others, others are highly conserved–generally the more stable it is, the more important it is for our function.

Through many, many, many studies and corroboration with the archaeological record, we’ve worked out how to estimate how long ago two species diverged from each other. Actually, you’d rarely be comparing between just two species at this stage–get out all the other relevant reference genomes you’ve got! Compare them all! Build a phylogenetic tree–the modern version of that “tree of life” idea that Darwin popularized. Then you’ll have a more accurate sense of how your mystery species relates to everything.

(https://www.embl.org/news/science/a-new-tree-of-life-allows-a-closer-look-at-the-origin-of-species/)

I’m going to go off on a tangent to end this post, because that’s just the start, taking the entire genome of a single individual. This is what most people think is what we always do. But no! That’s expensive overkill for most experiments. Once you’re familiar with a species, and you’ve sequenced DNA from many individuals, you can identify areas where lots of them have sequence variants. These can be completely benign, differences that make us all unique, or make an individual more susceptible to disease. This allows us to target what we want out of DNA sequencing: Are we trying to diagnose an illness? Identify a person from a tissue sample? Or are we doing something more exploratory?

Depending on what you want, you select anywhere from a handful of locations, up to tens of thousands. The closest many people have gotten to this stuff is through ancestry services like 23andMe, which uses this kind of sequencing.

But that’s not all! There’s so many different targets to choose from, depending on what you want to do! So many techniques to get DNA in different ways! And we still haven’t gotten to the part that I actually work on.

I’m a computational geneticist. I get all the gigabytes of data that comes out of these experiments and I get to dig into the details, the patterns that emerge between genetic code and the details of the organisms we study, the connections between genome sequence and other, wilder things we can collect data on, the dizzying complexities of what goes on every microsecond of every day in every cell in your body.

I love my job.

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Citations for alt-text rambles:

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_YuTMDkWfI 2. https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.116129 note: this source lists the image as credit to “J.M.B.”, which is not how I’m used to seeing images credited. Those are the initials of one of the authors, but I thought it meant “Journal of Molecular Biology”, so I went on a half hour wander around the internet trying to find where the hell this fish blood came from. 3. https://www.thebhs.org/publications/the-herpetological-journal/volume-13-number-4-october-2003/1729-01-hyperbiliverdinemia-in-the-shingleback-lizard-tiliqua-rugosa 4. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1439-0264.2009.00952.x 5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandrill#Characteristics 6. https://www.vogue.com/article/dune-part-two-costumes-jacqueline-west-interview 7. http://dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.29564.08327 8. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/357946568_New_approaches_and_concepts_to_study_complex_microbial_communities 9. https://karobben.github.io/2023/10/30/Bioinfor/PacBio/

Overflow Ramble 1

the fuckin “DNA MATCH” machine. I already wrote a 380-word alt-text about this thing last time. I’m not doing it again. I’m going to talk about things I like instead. Such as Dune: Part Two! Yes! I mentioned it last week and then didn’t ramble about it after seeing it. Well, NOW I WILL. tl;dr it’s good, go see it. I only vaguely remember the book, but I liked the changes they made to center the fact that no, Paul becoming Lisan al-Gaib is not actually a good thing.

Man, it’s nice to see a movie where the costumers and set designers got good time to work on their craft. (cite 6) Even the generic Harkonnen soldiers looked great–reminded me a lot of my beloved Warframe, probably because the costume designer was using H.R. Giger for inspiration there. Everything felt real. Even the stuff that definitely wasn’t–the gigantic spice harvesters and ships felt like living, physically present beings. The sand worms looked great. The movie did a fantastic job visually communicating the massive size of so many things. Especially because the camera remains restrained: no weightless zipping around, the camera itself follows paths and finds locations that make sense.

Chakobsa continues to be a fantastic conlang, now the work of both David and Jesse Peterson. It’s heard a lot more in this movie, and there are some great flourishes with it. While there isn’t as much Arabic vocabulary in it as in the original books, I remember from DJP’s work streams that he definitely was using the grammar of Arabic as one of his touchstones. Most key words remain Arabic though–jihad was removed, but it made me double-take in the theater when Stilgar referred to Paul as the Mahdi.

I’m of two minds about lowering the Arab influences on the Fremen–on the one hand, missing representation, which included some explicit ties to real world anti-imperial struggles in North Africa and the Middle East. On the other, these first two movies are about how the Fremen are manipulated by a colonial power, using their adherence to a faith that was manipulated by a different colonial power. They become both hapless victims and also perpetrators of colonial violence, with only Chani seeing through it.

I think the general decisionmaking process on cultural changes was motivated by a desire to remove some of Frank Herbert’s bad ideas–particularly around the Harkonnens, thank fuck. That seems to have been the thinking around altering the Fremen a bit as well. Did it succeed? Not my place to say. On all other notes, I have no reservations recommending the movie. It’s a very earnest attempt to bring that world to life, and I think it succeeds.

Overflow Ramble 2

A figure showing the basic steps of the standard Illumina sequencing method (cite 7). It is broken into four sub-figures:

Library Preparation. The genome is snipped into small fragments, then adapters are attached (“ligated”) to stabilize the molecule and make it behave. This creates a “library” of DNA that will be read from.

DNA library bridge amplification. The adapters on DNA fragments stick to a prepared plate, which is covered in little clusters of molecules that specially attach to those adapters. Biochemical processes are then carried out in repeated cycles to duplicate (or “amplify”) those fragments in such a way that the clusters on the plate are all filled with copies of just one DNA fragment.

DNA library sequencing. The DNA is modified so that the four letters it’s made out of all glow a specific color, with each DNA letter shining in sequence. This is pure awesome and I love it.

Alignment and data analysis. Because of some details on how step 1 is done, you have lots of fragments that create an overlapping patchwork of sequences. This allows (most of) the genome to be pasted back together by looking for overlaps (“contiguous sequences”, or “contigs” for short).

Congratulations! You have just attended an abridged graduate-level introductory lecture on Illumina sequencing.

Overflow Ramble 3

A diagram of PacBio Systems’ sequencing technology, Single Molecule, Real-Time Sequencing, or SMRT Sequencing, because scientists love acronyms. Pretty much every step is different from how Illumina does it. I cannot find a diagram that’s both brief and also good at explaining what it’s showing, so this is the best I could find. It’s split into four parts with attendant text, which I’ll try and explain as well.

“SMRTbell template. Two hairpin adapters allow continuous circular sequencing.”

Library preparation basically involves taking a longer chunk of DNA and splitting it in half lengthwise, in such a way that the two strands of DNA will form a single-stranded loop. This is called a SMRTbell library. Why? I have no idea!

“ZMW wells. Sites where sequencing takes place.”

Then, these are fed into SMRT Cells, which contain zero-mode waveguides (ZMWs). I was once told what this means, and I have completely forgotten, but it sounds like something from Gundam.

“Modified polymerase. As a nucleotide is incorporated by the polymerase, a camera records the emitted light.”

What I do understand is that at the bottom of each of these little holes, they stick a molecule which the DNA sticks to. This molecule, a polymerase, has precisely one job: make more DNA, an exact copy of what it’s latched onto. So you give it this loop of DNA, feed it a soup of free DNA letters, and it starts cranking out a new strand.

“PacBio output. A camera records the changing colours from all ZMWs; each colour change corresponds to one base.”

Each one of the DNA letters given to the polymerase has a special modifier, on it which flashes a color when the polymerase slots it into the new strand it’s making. A camera picks up this flash. And, because the DNA is a circle, the polymerase doesn’t know where to stop–it just keeps going and going until something breaks or it runs out of letters to work with. This means that even if the camera misses a flash the first time, it will have more chances to see it, and confirm what it already saw.

Wait what in the fuck this figure was from somebody’s thesis (cite 8), but that wasn’t what actually got this into search results. What got it there was a github page with a vtuber avatar sitting in the corner?? What??? (cite 9)

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#Prometheus 2012 #Prometheus (2012)#I go rogue and refuse to talk about the movie #or rather I spend 4600 words talking about a quarter of a scene as a springboard to talk about my job and how cool it is #I kind of envy people who work on wild population genetics #but also their sample sizes are tiny and bad for my particular specialty #so I'm giving a broad overview on how reference genome assembly works and I've only ever done phylogenetics on intraspecific variants #yes this is how much I talk about bits of my job that aren't even directly my job #because working in genetics is SO COOL #tomorrow we'll be back to analyzing inexplicable characters and androids poisoning people don't worry

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onelovegreasers · 5 months

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Headcanons I can fully imagine being real #2

Once at Ponyboy's birthday party, he snuck out with Two-Bit to the neighbor's pool to see a girl he liked and got caught. That was when he was 11. He still brags about it being the 'toughest thing he's ever done'.

Sodapop once got brave and smacked Darry in the face after Darry dumped his clothes on the floor because he wouldn't put them away. Soda still cries to Darry apologizing about it to this day.

When the Curtis' parents first died, Darry swore up and down that there were gonna be 'no bad vibes' around Pony and Soda. Anything that was remotely negative or a bad word or anything inbetween was not allowed. That lasted about a week.

Steve's actually sensitive. Not Johnny or Pony sensitive but still sensitive, especially when it comes to his girl. It's not uncommon for Soda to be talking to him and trying to calm him down if Evie doesn't answer the phone for too long.

Two-Bit was once arrested on Halloween for being publicly drunk at like 10 AM and getting in several fights with randos on the street.

Johnny's geniunely fun to be around and is funny asf, he'll do pretty much anything with you. (Saying this because in every fanfic/headcanon I see of him he's always schizy as shit and too shy to do LITERALLY ANYTHING).

Whenever Dallas hears about Pony REALLY disrespecting Darry he takes him aside and goes off on him about how much Darry does for him and Soda, how much cool shit he has that not many kids in their town get to have, how ungrateful he is, etc. Dally might be hard but he is NOT gonna stand for Ponyboy being disrespectful to the one person who gave up his whole life for him.

Darry's tight with pretty much the whole neighborhood and has neighbors over for dinner every Sunday. It's to the point where his lil 'neighbor night' is an inside joke within the gang.

Pony goes to Catholic school, as did Soda before dropping out.

Dally had a whole mental breakdown in front of the gang once, like throwing up and smacking himself and bawling type breakdown. The only one who didn't look at him any different after was Johnny (obviously).

#ponyboy curtis #sodapop curtis #darry curtis #steve randle #two bit mathews #johnny cade #dallas winston #dally winston #the outsiders #stay gold #onelovegreasers #headcanon #headcanons #fanfic #imagines

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ackrmvvn-levi · 1 year

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Memories || R.B.

Word count: 2.5k

Warnings: Cussing, no happy ending, it’s basically Reiner just having one long breakdown

Reiner was laying awake in his bed, eyes trained on the ceiling above him. His forward was moist, drips of sweat traveling across his skin. His head moved to the side, eyes instead staring at the empty space beside him.

He was sure he’d moved on, he told his comrades that he was fine. After four years, he thought he moved on.

But there you were, in his dreams again. The same face, the same smile. That damn voice, he was sure he’d never get the sound out of his mind. You were gonna haunt him forever.

Reiner had built up a mountain of regrets, but this one, you, he was sure would crush him entirely.

He stood silently, shuffling into the kitchen. A cup of tea seemed like just the thing right now. He quickly poured a cup before sitting down, allowing the beverage time to cool. As it did, his thoughts slowly drifted to your first meeting.

——————

Reiner’s eyes fell on your form as you exited the mess hall, your body moving to lean on the railing in front of you. It was late evening, dusk settling over the training grounds. You hadn’t spoken to each other yet, neither of you introduced yourselves to the commandant earlier that day.

“So how you feeling about the cadet corps so far?”

Your voice snapped him out of his daze, and he felt himself startle slightly. Your lips lifted into an awkward, shy grin. “Huh?” He asked, looking back at you.

“Cadet corps? What do you think so far?” You asked with an awkward chuckle, watching his eyes trail out to the scenery.

“Uh, it’s only the first day, but so far I don’t have any complaints,” Reiner mumbled. You nodded knowingly, a small smile spreading across your features. “What about you?”

You scoffed in response, shaking your head lightly. “As fun as the fields sound, I’ve been waiting for this for a long time,” you admitted, chuckling softly. Reiner’s face softened slightly when you looked back at him, your face flushed in embarrassment.

“Sorry, I don’t think I caught your name,” you asked, meeting his golden orbs, tilting your head curiously.

“Reiner Braun.”

“Y/N Y/L/N.”

You smiled, holding out your hand. He took it gently in his own larger, callused hands, and shook it firmly. “It’s nice to meet you, Reiner.”

——————

When Reiner finally snapped himself out of his own head, his tea had grown cold. His cheeks burned from the sudden recollection of the moment, but it seemed to ease him some to remember the relaxed expression upon your face. You were beautiful from the moment he’d set his eyes on you.

His eyes still stared at his cup, not wanting to look at the clock. He knew it was late, the middle of the night, but insomnia had been a big problem of his since he’d returned to Marley.

He didn’t know what was worse—being unable to sleep or the fact that he couldn’t shake off his memories from Paradis.

He heard another loud sigh escape from his lungs, before he let his hand drop, leaning his head on top of his arms.

“This is so stupid.” Reiner whispered. “Why can’t I ever just forget?”

His finally met the clock. 2:25 am. Reiner still didn’t feel the least bit tired, but he knew if he didn’t try again he’d be up all night.

“Fuck, Y/N. How can you still have this much of an effect on me?” He mumbled as he stood, slowly making his way back to the empty bed.

By some miracle, after what felt like hours of tossing and turning, his eyes closed and sleep overtook his body.

——————

“Shouldn’t you be asleep?” Your voice made him jump, and he looked at you through the darkness, a smile stretching across your face.

The battle of trost had taken a lot out of all the cadets, both physically and mentally. Most had fallen asleep as soon as they could, but Reiner couldn’t get Marco’s face out of his head.

“Probably, but you should be too,” he shot back, a small smile pulling at the corner of his lips. You nodded in response, moving to sit next to the blonde. A comfortable silence took over the two, eyes trained up at the night sky above.

“I couldn’t sleep,” you quietly admitted, now fiddling with your fingers as you stared at your lap. “I’ve wanted to be a scout for what feels like my entire life, and I never thought I’d second guess that choice. But after today…after watching so many of our friends die, I guess I just wasn’t as prepared as I thought I was.”

Reiner turned to stare at you. His heart ached at the sadness in your eyes, the regret written on every inch of your face. He’d never seen this side of you, he’d never seen you look so vulnerable. He hated it.

“No one is prepared for this. But you can’t look at it like that. The only thing you can do is your best. You keep pushing forward, no matter what. It’s normal to feel sad for the people we lost, but they gave their lives for a noble cause. You can’t use that as an excuse to call it quits. You’re stronger than that, Y/N. We all know it.”

You looked at him, and Reiner was surprised at how sincere your gaze was. “Thank you, Reiner,” you said softly, moving to set your head against his shoulder. “I’m glad you made it out.”

Your words were quiet, but they sent a jolt of nerves through his body. The warmth radiating from your body, your hair softly brushing against his jaw. It took his mind a minute to snap back into reality.

“Yeah…me too.”

——————

It took a few minutes for Reiner to notice the tears collecting in his eyes when he woke up again.

This time, it was light outside, the sun illuminating his room through the curtains he’d forgotten to close last night.

His wiped away the wetness from his orbs before pushing himself into a sitting position. His body protested, his muscles stiff from the countless days without proper rest.

He forced the memory of his most recent dream, as well as the wave of emotions it brought with it, into the back of his head. He didn’t have time to dwell on your previous relationship at the moment. Instead, he focused on getting ready for the day ahead.

——————

Reiner sat outside the training barracks, eyes watching the warrior candidates during their training. They weren’t doing much more than basic drills today, this visit home was meant to be a bit of a resting period after all.

He jumped when Zeke’s hand landed on his shoulder, the older man moving to stand next to him.

“Afternoon, Reiner. How are the candidates doing?” Zeke asked, a friendly smile taking over his face. “Kinda reminds you of us back then, huh?”

Reiner spared him a glance, barely giving the man a nod in response. “They seem alright today.” Zeke hummed in reply, his eyes drifting towards the recruits.

“And what about you? Still having trouble sleeping?”

Reiner stiffened at that. He’d mentioned in passing his restless nights, but he hoped Zeke just assumed it was a product of the war. He couldn’t risk anyone finding out he was still hung up on you. Someone he was supposed to hate.

“Yeah, it hasn’t gotten much better.” He managed to stammer out, keeping his gaze fixed on the kids, rather than meeting Zeke’s eyes.

The old fighter gave him a sympathetic smile before dropping the subject, seemingly satisfied by Reiner’s answer. He was thankful Zeke hadn’t pressed further into it.

“Looks like they’re finishing up, I’ll see you later, Reiner,” Zeke stated, quickly disappearing once again. Reiner waved a goodbye to his friend before returning his attention back towards the soldiers.

He stayed for another few minutes before turning and walking off, deciding he’d been out the house enough today.

He had to hide his groan when Gabi grabbed his wrist, effectively stopping him from going anywhere.

“Reiner! I saw you watching! I’m pretty good, aren’t I?” She spoke excitedly, making Reiner wish he had her energy. He forced a smile onto his lips as he looked down at his cousin.

“Yeah, Gabi. You’re doing great.” Her features brightened up even more, opening her mouth and rambling on some more about how impressive she was.

Reiner tried to hold of his impatience and listen to the girl, but his body felt like it weighed a ton. He wanted nothing more than to lay down, but he knew his cousin well. The girl could talk for hours without getting tired.

“Gabi, I’m gonna go lay down for a bit-“ She cut him off.

“But it’s the middle of the afternoon, you’ll have time to sleep later.” She insisted, looking at him with pleading eyes. Reiner shook his head.

“I’m feeling pretty out of it-“ He, once again, didn’t get to finish his sentence.

“Come on, Reiner! Let’s walk around for a while. We never get to-“

“Gabi!” He yelled before he could stop himself. “I just want to lay down, please!”

He watched as she fell silent, her face falling slightly. The guilt washed over him like a wave, he hated that look on her face, knowing he was the one who caused it.

“Sorry, Gabi. I didn’t mean to yell,” he mumbled, not meeting her eyes.

“Sure, Reiner. I’m gonna go find Falco.” She turned and walked off without another word, leaving Reiner to sigh to himself.

He ran his hands over his face, trying to clear his thoughts. Maybe going to lie down would help, maybe it wouldn't, but either way he had to try.

——————

“Reiner? What’s going on?” Your voice reached his ear, making every muscle in his body stiffen. He hadn’t even heard you walk up behind him, this wasn’t a conversation he wanted you to hear.

He glanced over his shoulder at you, trying to hide his nervous expression.

“Nothing, Y/N.” His tone came across colder than he intended it to, but maybe that was for the best.

“You’re just tired, that’s it, right? Your nerves and shot, you don’t know what you’re saying,” Eren spoke up, placing a hand on Reiner’s shoulders.

Reiner could still feel your eyes burning holes into his back, a sick feeling swirling in his stomach. This isn’t how he wanted you to find out. He didn’t want you to find out period, but he knew he wasn’t lucky enough for that.

“Yeah, it’s the battle fatigue talking,” Bertholdt spoke up quickly, trying his best to hide the nerves in his voice.

Eren pulled his hand away from Reiner, glancing between the two friends. “It’s okay. You’re okay. If you really were the armored titan, what’s the end game here? We wouldn’t be having this conversation in the first place. What’d you expect me to do? Say yes, let myself be kidnapped just because you asked politely?”

Reiner almost forgot you were standing behind him, listening to the whole conversation. His eyes bored into Eren’s, his mind racing for a way out of this.

“Right. I’m not thinking straight, am I? I barely know what I’m saying here. Must’ve gone off the deep end.”

Eren turned away from the blonde. “Come on, let’s go.”

Everything felt silent, the wind picking up, setting an eere mood on top of the wall. Reiner didn’t respond when he felt your hand on his arm, your voice trying to get his attention.

When he turned to face you, his gaze met yours, the intense look in his eyes making you take a step away from the man.

“Please, tell me what’s going on,” you spoke in soft tone, desperately trying to keep yourself together. He didn’t answer, averting his gaze once more.

The sound of the nearby flag snapping off its post and falling down the walls made you jump, stepping even further away from Reiner.

“I’m sorry, Y/N. I’ve been here too long for my own good. 3 years of this madness, surrounded by idiots. We were kids. What did we know about anything? Why did there have to be people like this? Why? Why did I let myself desolve? How did I let myself fall in love with one of them?”

He saw Eren pull you back behind him and Mikasa out of the corner of his eye, but it took a moment before Reiner realised you were staring at him intently, tears in your eyes.

He should've known better. No matter how much he'd been trying, no matter how hard he tried to avoid it, he knew it would come to this. He could only hide his true intentions for so long.

He quickly shook off his guilt, his regret, turning away from you.

“It’s too late now. Damned if I know what’s right anymore.” His hands gripped the makeshift sling he wore, ripping it from his shoulders and beginning to unwrap the bandages.

“Who cares? It is what it is. No choice but to face what I’ve done.” He held his arm up, letting everyone see the smoke rising from his arm as his wound healed. “As a warrior, no road left but the road that leads to the end!”

“Reiner, how could you?!” You yelled, trying to push past Mikasa, her hands keeps you in place. Reiner stared you down, silently begging you to leave. He couldn’t look at you now. Not anymore. “This isn’t you! Please, tell me you’re lying!”

“I can’t! Don’t you see?! This is who I am! I have to finish what I came here to do!” He ignored your cries for him to stop, ignoring how shitty he felt in that moment. He choked down his negative feelings, forcing himself to speak the sentence he would always regret.

“It’s time for me to stop wasting my time with a devil like you.”

He swore he could see your heart shatter through your eyes, the pain visible on your features. He couldn’t afford to let it get in the way. No matter how much he wished he could stay there with you, with everyone, he had a mission to complete.

——————

Reiner shot up from the mattress, his chest tight as he fought for breath. He hardly registered the tears pooling down his cheeks, his entire being drowning in the darkness of his mind.

How could he do that to you? The only women he’d ever truly loved, and he practically ripped your heart out and stomped on it. He could never be happy like he thought he might have been. He’d rather die fighting than live without you by his side.

He’d never forgive himself, not fully. He was a monster, a liar, someone with no redeemable traits. He was everything Marley had claimed the Eldian people were. A murderer, a coward, a traitor. He never deserved you to begin with.

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lizablee · 10 months

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I'm so happy about Imogen and Laudna but I can't help but feel sad about FCG, and I think I've worked out why.

When we compare what Imogen and Laudna have with FCG and FRIDA, it makes it clear the difference between a long and true love built on friendship and a romance built on infatuation. These two automatons finally met someone they had a bunch in common with and immediately fell in love, Romeo and Juliet style. As in stupid love. Romeo and Juliet were young, dumb and full of daggers. FCG only has a few years of memories and has been blown away by this more put-together version of themself. Suddenly, they were ready to attach all their self worth to this person, to the point where just a bit of attention from FRIDA is enough to distract FCG from their impending breakdown.

And now FRIDA is gone, and they know they have a job to do and need to be fine. They can't afford to let themselves feel abandoned or lonely. They try to downplay their own feelings, try to minimise their pain. That's what they need to do to be useful. Suddenly they are back in the company of the people they care about most in the world, but it's a little colder. Nobody cares about FCG the way FRIDA does. Except, maybe...

Ashton and FCG FINALLY have a one-on-one chat with each other, but while most people seem to be celebrating them supporting each other and being happy for each other, I'm looking at it like

Because Ashton is having a manic episode. I've been there. They are there calling themself worthless, calling themself ineffective. They are trashing themself and swearing to turn over a new leaf, be useful and heroic. They are on a mission, moving so quickly and purposefully that everyone around them seems to be slowing down. Suddenly they are frustrated and disgusted by the same self destructive behaviour that has always been woven into their character. And hating it in themself, they start to hate it reflected in others. Especially FCG, who deserves better, and they've always thought so. But success! FCG is in a loving relationship now. It's different from their weird, co-dependent friendship. Because of course it is. Now surely FCG has a reason to live. And Ashton can finally relax and stop trying to save FCG. They can stop focusing on themselves and focus on the goal. After all, they both feel better now, right?

Right.

FCG, on the other hand, is hearing Ashton go off and feeling happy for them! Because FCG is just as brain broke as Ashton. FCG thinks it's cool and normal to throw yourself into a new lifestyle because you don't like or trust yourself. They just committed themself to the worship of a goddess they barely know! And also the Changebringer!

"I am so tired of saving you from yourself."

What a thing to say to FCG, who is constantly trying to save everyone else. Ashton doesn't mean it in a bad way, they are just not seeing the full picture. They think FCG's slef destructive problems are kinda solved now. FCG has a boyfriend after all.

To be clear, FCG isn't offended either. They would be tired of saving themself too. They are already pretty convinced of their own lack of value, beyond their utility to others. In the future, I think they'll hesitate to tell Ashton when they're not doing well. Because Ashton was so happy when he thought he didn't need to save FCG any more.

They're still close to snapping. They will probably snap soon. We will just need to wait and see what happens when they do.

But what do I know, it's fuckin Sam Riegel, he will probably have FCG double down and become a full blown Gods squad religious nut and still make us cry somehow.

#fcg #critical role spoilers #cr 65 #critical role #cr fcg #cr frida #cr spoilers #ashton greymoore #cr ashton #imogen temult #cr imogen #laudna #cr laudna #imaudna #sam riegel

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let-them-eat-rakes · 1 month

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third semester persona 5 royal is so the mind electric coded (some of these are my headcanons for akira's feelings) (also long post)

"resident minor, how do you plead? we'll need your testimony on the stand. solemnly swear to tell the whole truth; so help you, son, now raise your right hand." maruki's multiple ultimatums

"i've a good heart, albeit insane." if akira or akechi tried to explain the situation to anyone they would come across as bat shit crazy

"condemn him to the infirmary." 2/2 vibes. akira has to choose between letting akechi go out on his own terms or condemning him to maruki's reality

"all mine towers crumble down, the flowers gasping under rubble." akira wakes up to find everything he worked for had disappeared, and has a small mental breakdown as his world crumbles around him when he sees his friends

"shrieking in the hall of lull, thy genius sates a thirst for trouble." maruki seeing the engine room scene, akira screaming for akechi to still be alive

"scattering sparks of thought energy, deliver me and carry me away." maruki manipulating the phantom thieves' cognition to blind them to the truth, but he believes he is doing good, carrying them away from pain

"here in my kingdom, i am your lord; i order you to cower and pray." maruki's god complex, that he is somewhat unaware of / ignoring

"nuns commence encanting, as the lightning strikes my temples thus." akira going around, breaking the thieves from the illusion, clearing their minds

"spiralling down thy majesty, i beg of thee, have mercy on me. i was just a boy, you see; i plead of thee, have sympathy for me!" the thoughts going through akira's head in the seconds before the phantom thieves arrive

"see how the serfs work the ground. (see how they fall) and they give it all they've got (fall) - and they give it all they've got (fall) - and you give it all you've got, till you're down. (ha! ha! ha! ha!)" i imagined a cool scene about this part when just randomly listening to the song, and it's kinda what inspired this entire post: at some point before 2/2 (like maybe 1/30 or something) akira secretly goes to maruki's palace, and basically just asks 'why. why are you doing this, what's your game here.' and maruki brings him up to a balcony overlooking the city. he says the lyrics (i know cheesy, but imagine he's using it as a metaphor or something) and the parts in parentheses are his savior complex/azathoth/adam kadmon.

"see how the brain plays around; and you fall inside a hole you couldn't see. and you fall inside a hole, inside a-" maruki truly believing that he is in the right, as he sees how (for lack of a better word) damaged the thieves (especially the royal trio) are mentally

"SOMEONE HELP ME" once again, the royal trio and maruki. sumire needing help to be who she truly is, and it's interesting to imagine her just suddenly yelling it during her boss fight. akira needing help to be able to finish things, and a bit of a headcanon: he has so many personas that his original self (pre metaverse) is buried so deep that he can barely access it. akechi needing help to finally do something that he chooses to do for once, and go out on his own terms. maruki believing himself to be the help that they need, but in actuality he also needs help

"doctor, i can't tell if i'm not me." i think that each of the royal trio has identity issues. kasumi/sumire is obvious, akechi is split between his facades, and the previous headcanon that akira has so many personas that he doesn't know who he is anymore. also, if anyone wants to make an animatic or something, this line can be sumire and akira actually saying this to maruki back at shujin, and akechi pondering it to himself during the events of the game

"when it grows light, the particles start to marvel, having made it through the night. never they ponder, whether electric, calming if you look at it right." maruki lying on the platform after the fistfight, accepting that he was wrong and deciding not to try to stay alive when the platform collapses

#let them eat rakes #posted from a pile of leaves #persona 5 #persona 5 akechi #persona 5 royal #the mind electric #p5r #p5r spoilers #akira kurusu #akechi goro #sumire yoshizawa #takuto maruki #royal trio

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reimenaashelyee · 1 year

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The World in Deeper Inspection UPDATE Read: (Chapter 1: Pages 1 to 4)

About the comic

TWIDI IS BACK! To celebrate its 10th anniversary since launch, I'm remaking the first chapter and posting pages every Friday, accompanied by my thoughts on the original pages and a breakdown of what I've changed or improved.

Analysis under the cut.

PAGE 1 and 2

It’s March 31st, 2023… exactly 10 years since I posted the very first page of TWIDI!! I haven’t done much to celebrate TWIDI’s anniversaries the past few years (due to general Busyness – yes, yes, check out the forever “TWIDI isn’t dead” sign up on the front page), but the official 10th anniversary is a special unignorable event.

Initially I wanted to make a simple remaster of Chapter 1 – better copyediting, fixing egregious lettering and art errors, alongside a retrospective author’s note… then long-time reader Caracan suggested, why not do a full remake? That’d be fun to see. And I agree – it would be fun to see! I’ve grown my craft and sensibility as comics artist since TWIDI’s debut, and I was so curious to see how 28 Year Old Me would interpret the material that 18 Year Old me produced.

So yep!

This first page used to be so cool-looking to my 18 Year Old eyes… I can definitely see what I was trying to go for, but wasn’t quite able to reach then.

A thumbnail from 2013, with notes to myself regarding the composition. In my mind I wanted the wolves to have a James Jeanesque rendering – I was really into his Fables covers back then (still am tbh).

For the remake, I leaned further into the graphic-designiness of the composition: every element had to sweep the reader’s gaze down onto our protagonist. The wolves are expanded to actually take up half the spread and simplified down to only white lines. The trees and sky are shaped like teeth pointing down to Grimsley. The intent was to evoke a sense of claustrophobia, of the wolves catching up to Grims and driving him into a corner.

Small improvements: the energy and line of action are clearer with the new running pose. Definitely a better silhouette. And a lot more angularity with the limbs which adds to the sense of movement.

PAGE 3 and 4

This spread is one of the most drastic rehauls in the remake. Here’s the original for comparison

It’s not very good! (Sorry @ 18 Year Old Me) I remember struggling real hard with the dynamicism required out of this sequence…

Fortunately after 1000s of double-page compositions and 10 years of practice, I’ve finally cracked this once-difficult composition.

This new page does away with the concept of grids or caring about whether anything is read linearly. The sequence is supposed to evoke chaos and panic as everything is happening everywhere all at once, so it doesn’t really matter if everything can be read or arranged in a neat grid. That was the problem with the original spread: it was too beholden to the grid.

(You can see how in the original, each page was (top row: left to right; bottom row: left to right))

The new page is like this:

The page is horizontally railroaded. The main action sweeps from top left to bottom right.

The AWOOO sfx is the anchor which leads the eye from left to right. As the eye travels it may glance up or down at the panels – there’s no real need to pay attention to them; hopefully the improved clarity of Grimsley’s emotional and body acting + me actually depicting the wolf biting his neck + the spiky graphic design elements instantly conveys that he’s in trouble without much or any processing.

The newest panel – the pink grass and canine paws – is a call back for later when we catch up to this in media res.

#the world in deeper inspection #comics #webcomic #GOSH HAS IT BEEN THAT LONG #anyway yall who like reading up on process will enjoy this

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whywoulditho · 26 days

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yesterday i sat down to write fanfiction after a whole year and i almost had a breakdown

i'm 19, i just started collage. i'm studying my ass off to get into a double majoring program and also to get a good enough gpa to ensure i can do masters in my dream collage. and i've been stressing so hard about what i do with my time. even though i know in my heart that there's nothing wrong with doing things just for fun i was still subconsciously trying to leave behind "the cringe stuff". so i stopped writing fanfiction. even deleted half of my published works.

at first i felt good about it, because now i had more time to focus on my novel and i could finally become a real author or whatever but for the past year i havent been able to write more than two paragraphs for my wip all the while forbidding myself writing anything else because i had to have left fanfiction in my high school days i was a serious collage student now

BUT FUCKING NO. i've been fucking MISERABLE. because i love writing and i love thinking about my favorite characters and even though my novel is very important to me i don't think im ready to actually make progress on it yet. and why the fuck should i stop writing as a whole just because i'm not writing my novel? who the fuck am i performing this cool collage persona for?? if a friends to lovers slow burn sakuatsu is gonna heal me than that's what i should be writing.

#this is the tag i'll use for my rants #writing #fanfiction

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mihrsuri · 3 months

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Some More Fictional Universe Discord Content

@nocompromise-noregrets

Ellie - just a warning that you will probably want to strangle Armada (i had to take five minutes to scream) but she gets smacked down and also I CANNOT EVEN.

Armada: no really WHAT IS THE KARLIENE REYNOLDS SONG??

i had a name before him/i took it back/but his brand upon me/will never wash away/in the light of the sun and stars/i thought i might be holy moonlight/instead of tainted ground/an eagle collar about my neck.

RestorationistKingsLeftButtock: I DON’T KNOW BUT I HATE IT [one fear dot gif] because Thomas has been associated with the moon so much (Henry’s poetry, Anne’s - the motifs in their possessions) and Norwich’s personal coat of arms is an eagle owl.

TransCrozier: SHIT SHIT SHIT FUCK. FUCK. I am going to go and lay in the DIRT. AND EAT IT. Waiting is unbearable.

RestorationistKingsLeftButtock: Okay the watch party is over in #show-watch - it will contain spoilers, live reactions and memes. And PANICK.

PoppyMcGee: THE OPENING. THE OPENING. SHIT FUCK FUCK. Let me break this down.

the entire scene with john and thomas is horrific just horrific. the threat the menace that bruise he left.

and then thomas ripping off all the sheets and covers on his bed and that part with trying to scrub his skin i just…god that’s awful. James Frain you owe me for emotional damages.

how he knew to cover up the self harm scars and the bruises like WHAT DOES THIS MEAN (we know about his father but the scars are…that’s something else).

Armada: it must have been a really bad breakup like that is some bad blood (sorry for the taylor swift) between them to send thomas into that spiral.

TransCrozier: respectfully this is not ‘a bad breakup’ reaction and that is not someone reacting to a bad breakup related guilt. that is an abuser. Norwich is an abuser/was abusive. The way he so clearly used ‘you ruined any trace of me Antonius - when did you gain the notion that you could so ruin that which I own’ that is not romantic.

Armada: Like, I love you Rhi but no - it’s maybe not the healthiest but they were both younger then - Thomas was still early twenties and you don’t make the best decisions then and he’d come off an abusive childhood in the 16th century, I think what we are seeing is a breakdown about how he regrets how it ended/how he ended it specifically (also side note James is so pretty when he cries!)

RestorationistKingsLeftButtock:……OH SHIT ANNE. ANNE. ANNE.

PoppyMcGee: look i am not an Annewell shipper but the way she absolutely takes care of him - gives him the choice every step of the way! Tells him what she’s doing!

TransCrozier: I am a Triad OTPer as we all know (I just find Cromwich interesting as a multishipper) by now etc and just, THE LOVE. THE LOVE. THE WAY ANNE made sure to ask Thomas what coverings he didn’t want. Also I am soft for bathing scenes.

RestorationistKingsLeftButtock: AGREED RHI. AGREED SO HARD.

Armada: UGH ANNE DO WE HAVE TO SEE HER SO MUCH [Edit: I’m sorry I know the server doesn’t allow character hate but i just don’t like her or Cromannery. Or it’s not that i don’t like her but i don’t like her with Thomas].

Poppy McGee:….yeah i agree with you Essie - I want Anne to be the cool lesbian of my heart that she should be but i do love her taking care of thomas.

Armada: that bit was sweet but yeah, what poppy said. She doesn’t need men and she’s much worse for them! But what’s going on now.

RestorationistKingsLeftButtock:

“I was ten years old, my mother not long dead and my father was in need of funds and drink. Lord Norwich, as he was then offered him silver under a disguise so my father would not extort more funds out of him. I came into his household and thought myself landed somewhere better. He branded and bedded me for the first time that same day - I cut it out of me the day I took my chance and fled - five years almost to the day after.”

……I am going to be sick. I am going to be sick.

TransCrozier:

“I am but a tainted thing - he has been on and in every part of me - I could not speak of the shame, though I should have done - I should have never let you, let either of you think I was worthy of you, Your Majesty. I am so sorry.”

THOMAS BLAMES HIMSELF. HE STILL BLAMES HIMSELF I AM GOING TO RESURRECT NORWICH AND KILL HIM AGAIN MYSELF AND THEN REPEAT IT AGAIN.

RestorationistKingsLeftButtock: ANNE YOUR RESPONSE I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU. NATALIE DORMER YOU GORGEOUS GORGEOUS HUMAN BEING.

TransCrozier: AMINA YOU ARE SO CORRECT. Queen Anne you perfect glorious woman I am once again AT YOUR FEET.

RestorationistKingsLeftButtock: hi @everyone i checked the history from several reputable sources (see here, here and here) and this is real. the show did not make it up - it’s just a recent discovery. Which i did not know about :(.

TransCrozier: neither did I i went in because RUPERT and then kind of fell into adoration - like obviously we all know triad is endgame because duh, history but i knew nothing else.

PoppyMcGee: I didn’t want to believe it :(. But I checked and it’s true :(. It’s fucking true. Norwich did that and he has no remorse.

RestorationistKingsLeftButtock: also fyi to several people who I’ve had to talk to about this - no ten was very much considered a child in the 16th century. Even fifteen was not ‘fully adult’ as such. This is rape and child sexual abuse and if you spout any more denial about that I will ban you.

TransCrozier: AMINA I AM KISSING YOU ON THE MOUTH. Also the fact that Anne volunteers to tell Henry, reassures Thomas that he won’t be angry just destroyed me all over again. CANNOT WAIT FOR THE POST SHOW CONTENT TO DESTROY ME AGAIN. ALSO HENRY’S REACTION.

Armada: …okay whatever. Sorry for having opinions i guess. can i even just say that even if it is abusive the triad is equally abusive.

#lil and her ridiculous aus #ot3: political power trio #fic #tudors ot3 verse reference #i have been attempting to not spoil what i’m going to write content wise so we don’t get henry’s reaction #(i think the episode ends with anne going to tell him but i don’t know exactly how that goes)

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the-owl-house-takes · 7 months

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Okay I’m gonna go on a big long rant about why Huntlow pisses me off so much. Honestly, Mod Willow, you don’t even have to post this if you don’t want to cuz I don’t wanna start more discourse, I just need to vent. Please note this is gonna be pretty messy just cuz I have a lot to say.

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD I DO NOT SEE THE APPEAL OF THIS SHIP!! They have no chemistry on screen. It feels like watching two people be nice to each other out of politeness rather than out of actually enjoying the others company. It’s especially noticeably because Willow is naturally super affectionate/friendly, but all her interactions with Hunter feel super forced.

And don’t even get me started on the shippers. Too many of the shippers act like just cuz it’s canon, it means you HAVE to like it. When are people gonna learn that just because something is canon, doesn’t mean it’s good or well written?? The fan content might honestly be the worst part of it. 70% of Huntlow shippers, from what I’ve seen, don’t care about Willow at all. They just turn her into Hunter’s therapist or boil her down to “buff girlfriend” and it’s infuriating. It’s like they black out whenever Hunter isn’t on screen. And they even get him wrong too. So much Huntlow stuff turns Hunter is a “poor twaumatized wittle baby 🥺” and infantalize him, even though he is one of the strongest main characters there!! Yes, he is traumatized. But trauma doesn’t turn you into a helpless infant. There’s so much you could do to explore that in an interesting way, but I guess that’s too much work so let’s just infantilize him!!!!!

And the writing for it is a mess. “Of course it’s gonna be rushed/messy, the shortened season-“ THAT MAKES IT WORSE!!! They knew they had extremely limited time to finish the season, and they still wasted time on this stupid ship. The whole plot comes to a screeching halt just so they can focus on Hunter and Willow standing next to each other. For the Future is the worst example of this. That scene where Willow has her breakdown is awful and the writers should be embarrassed of it. Hunter is the worst person in the main cast to comfort her there. Literally anyone else would’ve been better. It could’ve been Amity, to finally give closure to their relationship and show that they’ve fully moved on from Amity’s past behavior (especially since Amity was one of the main people to make Willow feel like she was half-a-witch), or Gus, who also has magic-related breakdowns and was taught a coping mechanism for the BY WILLOW!! Or Luz, to show that, yes, they are indeed still friends, because I honestly forgot they were supposed to be best friends by then. They’ve had so few direct interactions for the past season and a half, it felt like they were strangers. But nooooo, it HAD to be Hunter. They literally had to keep Gus back with giant vines to keep it a huntlow moment (which is just another example of how Gus has been screwed by this series). Also, Hunter experienced one of the most horrific things to ever happen to him and lost his first friend mere hours ago, why are we already trying to push him into a relationship?? I’m not saying that traumatized people can’t be in relationships, that’s stupid. But I am saying that he needs some time to actually process what’s happened before immediately getting out into romantic scenes again. It just feels really gross.

The ship also just completely uprooted any and all of Willow’s development. Anytime she has a major moment in the series now HAS to be related to Hunter. It turned her from a character with a lot of cool potential development that seemed to actually be getting explored in season 2, into just Hunter’s Girlfriend. And I know this is a problem with Willow specifically because Hunter gets plenty of outstanding moments outside of this ship after it begins to be established. It feels like they didn’t know what else to do with her, so they just attached her to the closest male character.

And it’s just so amanormative/heteronormative. Note, this is not me calling it a straight ship, because it’s not. I know Willow is pan and Hunter is bi. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be heteronormative. Seriously, any and all moments of them even standing next to each other were taken by the fandom as “proof” it was gonna be canon. As I said before, Willow is super affectionate naturally. She loves her friends and isn’t afraid to show it. But when she does basic friend things with Hunter? They’re in love!! It’s obvious!! /sarc

Willow saves hunter from a deadly 200ft drop? True love. Willow doesn’t want to pummel hunter (or who she thinks is Hunter) to death with a giant vine? I hear wedding bells! Willow is distraught at the fact that her friend just tried to drown himself in a lake and is sad that he’s slowly dying? Could they be anymore obvious with how it’s canon?! Ignore the fact that literally everyone else there is also sad, it’s a huntlow moment!! And that hand holding scene in FTF…… literally so cringe inducing. Willow was holding hands with and celebrating with Amity five seconds ago, but now that she’s slightly touching Hunter’s hand? Canon! Undeniably canon! I can’t believe that made the cut into the final episode. It felt like watching a shitty fanfic written by a ten year old. They wasted precious time that could’ve been used to further the plot of the actual show.

I hate that you can’t go three feet into the owl house tag without seeing it, even if you block ten million tags relating to it. I’ve got ten different huntlow tags blocked and I still see it whenever I go into the tags. It’s infuriating. Just because it’s canon, doesn’t mean you don’t have to tag it anymore.

And back to the shippers, why do some of them just start throwing a tantrum every time they find out you don’t ship it? I’ve criticized the ship a little bit on my blog. Every time I do, I make sure to tag it so huntlow shippers specifically can avoid my posts, and encourage them to block me so they never have to see me ever again. And even with all that, anytime I criticize the ship even a little bit, I get an onslaught of huntlow shippers crying in my inbox/notes about how I’m missing the point, or just don’t get it, or how I should just block the tag. I do block the tag!! That is the first thing I did when I saw the ship was getting more popular!! Why don’t they take their own advice and block me? And they’re so condescending about it too. You don’t see me going onto anti-lumity or anti-raeda blogs and telling them how it’s their fault I disagree with them. Honestly, grow up.

Okay that’s all. Again, you don’t have to post this if you don’t wanna mod Willow. I just needed to rant.

#this is honestly impressive #it feels like it would be a waste to not post it #the owl house #toh #ship hate #long post #fandom takes

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