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garbagevanfleet · 3 years

Text

Brightest Blue (series)

PART EIGHT

Pairing: Josh x reader Warnings: snuggling, tiny amount of bodily injury Summary: Things are changing. New state. New school. New roommate. You just pray things are going to click into place. Notes: I’ve been on a tiny bit on a hiatus, but here you go! Thanks for all of your support! I love you

taglist: @valleyd0ll @satingrass-maidensfair @guitarfingers @thebohemianpenguin @peaceisouranthem @oblvions @hansonobsessed @myownparadise96 @lara-gvf @anditsmywholeheart @kill-fear-the-power-of-lies @bigblack-catattack @myownparadise96

MASTERPOST

Kate was missing from class on Friday, to your deep dismay. You had been hoping to tell her about how shitty Trevor had been, but instead, you received a text that she had overslept her alarm and decided to just stay home.

That left you and Josh alone at lunch, just like you had been at the beginning of the year. He was excitedly explaining that there were a few kids in his production that you would “absolutely love”, and you had to agree.

“They’re catching on so fast. Rachel gave them some not-so-easy routines to the choreography, and they’ve almost got it down. I feel like that’s tough for kids so young, you know?”

You couldn’t help but grin as he spoke with such candor.

“I was doubtful that they would be able to get it, but she insisted that they could,” he finished, grabbing his bottle of water and lifting it to his mouth.

You had your lips open to reply until you caught sight of his hand; the knuckles were bruised just lightly enough that you couldn’t tell if it was just the lighting or not. As soon as he caught you eyeing it, he went to set the bottle back down.

“What happened?” You laid your hand down on the table, palm up as a gesture for him to take it. Reluctantly, he did, and you took a moment to inspect.

“It’s nothing, I’m just clumsy,” he said, pairing his assurance with a sweet smile.

You frowned at him in disbelief. “No, you’re not; I saw you make that shot across the room with your sucker stick the other night. You’re very well coordinated.”

He stared into your eyes for a moment as he gauged your reaction, and then hummed amusedly. “It’s really not that bad, it just looks gross. Just a musical mishap.” You shot him a look, to which he quickly replied, “Don’t worry about me, ‘kay?”

Not sure what else to say, you pushed forward the ziplock baggie of apple slices you had been munching on. He reached in and plucked one out for himself.

“Do you want to have a movie night with me tonight? You could invite Kate if you want.”

The offer made you genuinely smile, though you hadn’t quelled the long list of questions you still had.

“That sounds lovely. I think we have string cheese, so we could make homemade mozzarella sticks or something.”

He was looking at you in an oddly serious fashion, and you weren’t sure what he was going to say until he opened his mouth. “Hell yeah.”

+++

You hadn’t considered that you’d have to see Trevor again so soon, or rather - you did, but you had been pushing it to the farthest corner of your brain, not at all ready to think about it. So that’s why when you were sitting in class and he walked in, your stomach lurched.

You tried to keep looking straight ahead, but it only lasted so long before you couldn’t help yourself. He was sitting as far away from you as he could get, but it still wasn’t terribly far.

He had his eyes firmly on his desk, head tipped down. His posture was crumpled in on itself, and you could only imagine how embarrassed he was - or at least you hoped he was. At the very least, you knew he should be.

Until the end of class, you kept yourself busy - even tried to actually pay attention, but when you were dismissed, you let out a relieved breath.

You stood and collected your things, then promptly headed for the door.

On the way out, he looked up and met your gaze, and the sight of his face made the air catch in your lungs.

The skin around his left eye was stained a purplish-grey, his brows tipped down into a scowl.

You hadn’t hit him that hard, had you? A whole cocktail of emotions flooded your brain, and you bit your bottom lip, ripping your eyes away from him as you exited the room.

Your pace was a bit faster than usual, which is why you beat Josh to the B doors by a couple of minutes.

Could slapping someone give them a black eye? You thought yes, but there would have to be some real force behind it. You were pretty sure that you’d have to wind up to get him that good.

“What’s wrong?”

You hadn’t even heard Josh approaching you, so it made you startle just enough for him to notice. He put his hand on your back in a comforting gesture.

“Ah, sorry. I was just thinking,” you replied, giving him a weak smile.

“About what?” he chanced softly.

“Nothing - not a big deal.” You started off walking, him right by your side, matching your pace.

“How are things going with the play? You haven’t even told me what it’s about yet.”

His face lit up. “You haven’t asked. We’re doing Alice In Wonderland. Some of the songs are original.”

“What, like you wrote them?” you asked, looking over at him with a shocked expression.

He nodded, laughing under his breath. “Rachel is working on the wardrobe; costume design and all of that. I have the sculpture class working on the props and set, but they can only come like once a week.”

“Do you need any help?”

He looked over at you, surprised. “Do you want to? Can you paint?”

You shrugged. “Kinda. I mean, I can make it work. I’m not perfect, but it’s manpower, at least,” you admitted.

“No, no - any help would be amazing but don’t overexert yourself. You need to still work on your stuff.”

“I won’t,” you promised. “I’m happy to help.”

+++

You had texted Kate at lunch asking if she wanted to come for a movie night, as Josh had suggested, and she had eagerly agreed. You were still surprised, however, when she showed up with a handbag full to the brim.

You watched her pull out a bag of kettle corn, a few little glass bottles of nail polish, some packets of face masks, a stack of DVDs, and a bottle of white wine - all while chatting you up about her morning.

“This looks like just a girl thing, so I’ll leave you guys to it,” Josh said, not a shred of animosity in his tone, but you frowned up at him from the couch as he stood.

You went to open your mouth to protest, but Kate beat you to it. “Oh, no, you should stay. I brought three masks.” She fanned them out like a deck of cards in her hand.

He raised his eyebrows at her, looking rather impressed. “Oh.”

“You do want nice skin, right?” she prompted.

“He has very nice skin,” you replied in his defense, making her shoot you a look.

“Everyone has room for improvement,” she quipped back, as Josh just shrugged at you.

“I’m down,” he agreed, taking his seat again on the couch. “Are we watching a chick flick?”

“Well, I brought some choices. Otherwise, I’m open to suggestions if you guys have any good ones.”

“Maybe we should let Josh pick,” you suggested. “Since he’s going to be the one really watching it while we do nails.”

She smiled at you and then him. “You heard her - gentleman’s choice.”

“So, if I pick Human Centipede,” he started through a shit-eating grin.

You lovingly rolled your eyes at him. “If you own Human Centipede, I’m going to be moving out.”

He tipped his head back and laughed unabashedly.

In the end, he picked a rom-com, which you knew he would, and took a seat next to you on the couch. About a quarter of the way through, you realized that Kate didn’t have a lot of intention of actually watching a movie, per se. It seemed that she was more interested in using it for background noise.

The night was therapeutic. Everything felt easy. You found yourself laughing genuinely, leaned in to watch as Kate dabbed a wet washcloth over Josh’s nose, causing him to scrunch it up in distaste. She immediately scolded him, explaining that it had to be wet for the mask to work right, and he needed to sit still.

Once it was on, you couldn’t help but snap a picture of him as he play-pouted at you, his bottom lip jutted out.

It wasn’t until your nails were finished that you started to feel a chill. “Does it feel cold in here to you?” you asked.

Both of them looked at you questioningly.

“Maybe just a little bit,” Kate agreed.

Wordlessly, Josh stood and grabbed a thick blanket from the basket by his side of the couch and then spread it out of your laps. You had thanked him, and that had fixed the problem for then, but by the time Kate was packing her stuff up and ready to leave, you had a chill you just couldn’t shake.

As soon as she was gone, you turned to him and frowned. “You really aren’t cold? Like at all?”

“It’s a little cold, yeah,” he agreed, but you sensed it was mostly to make you feel better. “Do you want a sweatshirt?”

You nodded, giving him a grateful look.

“I hope I’m not getting sick,” you mumbled.

He frowned at you, rubbing at your shoulder. “Hang on, I’ll check the thermostat.”

His feet made a patting sound as he crossed the hardwood; a sound that had become a comfort to you.

“Hmm, it is colder than usual in here. I’ll turn the heat up,” he replied, and then a moment later, he finished. “The heat isn’t kicking on for some reason.”

You shot him a concerned look, suddenly terrified you were going to freeze.

“Hang on, I’ll be right back.”

“Wait, where are you going?” you asked as you watched him make his way to the front door.

“Just into the hall, sit tight.” With that, he disappeared.

You pulled his sweatshirt on and sat back onto the couch, your knees tucked up to your chest and the blanket up to your neck.

When he got back in, he gave you a sympathetic look. “Apartment 4 said that theirs is working just fine, so I think I’m going to call the landlord.”

“It’s 9:30 at night,” you reminded him, brows tipped up in concern.

“Yeah, but heat is kind of an emergency here in the winter.” The phone was already up to his ear as he spoke. You could hear the line ring and then someone pick up on the other end. He explained the situation to her with ease at first, but he seemed to quickly lose his patience with her.

“That’s absolutely ridiculous,” he snapped, filling a tea kettle with water. “It’s going to get freezing in here tonight.”

Then a pause, and you could hear her responding pointedly.

He let out a huff. “We don’t have the money for that. What are we supposed to do?”

You could hear him relent, just by the tone of his voice. He thanked her and then promptly hung up. You waited for him to come over, two cups of tea in hand, before you threw any questions at him.

“Well?” you asked, knowing full well that nothing had been accomplished.

He exhaled a long breath. “She said she’ll get someone on it later tomorrow, and if we wanted it fixed tonight, we’d have to pay for it upfront and she’d pay us back minus the emergency fee.”

You frowned but still reached your hand out of the blanket to set comfortingly on his knee. “It’s okay. Thank you for trying.”

“We’ll pile the blankets on you tonight,” he promised.

But even with - what you were sure was - twenty pounds of blankets, you were cold in your bed. You laid, staring at the ceiling for nearly an hour, trying to will yourself warm. You even tried moving around a bunch under the blankets, hoping to produce enough heat from friction, but it was no use.

You had known what you were going to have to do just moments after settling under the covers, but you couldn’t bring yourself to do it until you started to shiver involuntarily.

You let out an annoyed huff and pushed the covers off. It wasn’t until you were out in the open air that you realized how much warmer it actually was under the covers.

You crossed the hall, poking your head into Josh’s doorway.

“Josh,” you whispered into the dim room, and he stirred instantly.

“Yeah,” he responded, a rasp in his throat.

It took you a second to work up the courage to ask, “Can I sleep in here tonight? I cannot get warm for the life of me.”

“Yeah, of course.” His reply came after a moment of him shifting over for you.

You rushed back to your bedroom, snatching the blankets off of the bed. They were too thick to really bunch them up in your arms to carry, so you ended up half-dragging them over. When you returned, he held the comforter open for you.

“I hope I’m not intruding.” You climbed in, quickly pulling all of the blankets over you as he helped you situate them comfortably.

He shushed you assuringly.

“Why is your bed so warm?” you complained, shuffling down until the blankets were up to your chin.

The smile on his lips could be heard through the hum he let out. “I’m used to the cold. I’m sorry to tell you that this isn’t even close to the coldest it’ll get here. You probably haven’t had to make your own body heat much back home.”

“This is literally like body heat donation for the needy,” you teased, turning in bed until you were facing him. “Can I lay where you were laying?”

“What, no,” he said through an incredulous laugh.

“I bet it’s so warm though,” you whined. “Feel how cold my feet are.”

You shifted until you could press your toes against his bare ankle, making him jolt.

“Jesus,” he hissed. “If you want the heat you’re just going to have to come over by me.”

You took a second to gauge that response, trying to find any evidence of teasing in his tone. “Really? You wouldn’t mind?”

“How do you wanna do this?” His tone sounded like it was inching toward disbelief.

Through a frown, you asked, “What do you mean?”

The sound of him quietly clearing the sleep from his throat filled the otherwise quiet room. “Just. I don’t know, do you wanna put a blanket between us?”

You giggled breathily at him. “No, I’m too cold to be worried about modesty, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“Okay, I’m just going to lay here and you just situate yourself however feels comfortable for you.”

Without any hesitation, you scooted toward him until your chest was flush to his side, your chin rested against his shoulder.

“Is this okay?” you inquired, snuggling deeper under the sheets.

The warmth was heavenly.

“Your skin is fucking freezing,” he mumbled, clearly close to sleep again already.

“Good, so you see that the situation is dire,” you quipped, wriggling your fingers until he let you slip them between his chest and his bicep. His muscles jumped, and you could tell just how cold your skin was just from the way he felt hot to the touch.

He breathed a laugh, and in a teasing tone, agreed, “Life-threatening, I’d go so far as to say. Wake me up if you need anything, okay?”

You agreed, pressing your nose against the sleeve of his shirt, and drifted off.

+++

When you woke, it was to the sound of his alarm. You felt him reach a hand out of the covers and flick his phone off, putting a stop to the shrill ringing instantly.

It took you a second to realize you were borderline hot. You couldn’t figure out why it was so dark until you realized that one of the sheets was almost completely over your head, blocking out the sun that shone through the slats in his blinds. You wiggled until your head was out from under the blanket, but quickly pulled it back up to your chin when you felt how the cold room made your skin prickle.

Once you got your wits about you, you wiped the sleep from your eyes, popping them open in shock when you realized the position you were in. You weren’t sure if it was him, or you, but somehow he had shifted in the night so that your chests were pressed flush together.

In his sleepy state, he placed his hand on the back of your head, pressing your face back into his neck where it was positioned - unbeknownst to you.

With your nose touching his skin, you could feel his pulse on the tip of it, slow and steady - like he wasn’t really awake. The smell of his cologne was familiar to you now.

“Josh,” you whispered, tipping your head up until you realized the limited mobility you actually had.

He hummed, and you knew the second he was conscious because his muscles tensed all at once before loosening enough to release you.

“Sorry,” he mumbled as you untangled your legs from his. “I must have really been out.”

“It’s okay, I was too.” You looked up at him with a smile. “We survived the night.”

He hummed through tilted up lips. “That’s good; I would have been really upset if you died in my bed.”

After a moment, you groaned a complaint. “I do not want to get out of bed. I know it’s going to be fucking freezing. If we move out of here, can we go somewhere warm?”

He tilted his head over to meet your eyes with a subtle smirk.

“What?” you asked.

“Nothing,” he replied. You were contemplating pressing further, but he spoke again. “I’m staying home today from school so I can be here when the repairmen come.”

You frowned. “Do you want me to stay instead? Or with you to keep you company?”

“No, I’ll be good. You need to go to school and stay warm.”

You grimaced at him, secretly wishing he had asked you to stay so you didn’t have to get out of bed.

“Okay, you’re sure?”

He laughed at you. “Yes, you should get moving. Feel free to wear any of my warmer clothing.”

You shot him a grateful look before closing your eyes and throwing the blankets off of yourself.

#brightest blue fic #josh x reader #josh kiszka #josh kiszka fic #Greta Van Fleet #greta van fleet fan fiction #greta van fleet fic #writing

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kreidewaltz · 3 years

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summer shivers | k.t.

pairing. kageyama tobio x f!reader

about. spending the day on the beach with your boyfriend. and the unfortunate events of meeting his former teammate lead to a silly competition of showing off each other's partner.

word count. 3.1k

genre & warnings. fluff, comedy, suggestive themes, timeskip, making out on the beach (covered w an umbrella), female petnames, drinking at the bar.

author's note. i played around and made this fic descriptive and uhm sorry not sorry for the amount of teasing and tension ??? i needed to transform my kags brainrot to a fic so yeah and thanks amy for the beta-ing ily

while you and your boyfriend are walking mindlessly around the beach, your feet are being tickled by the soft, brown sand below. your boyfriend's fingers loosely intertwine with yours as his thumb rubs over your hand, something he knows you love. the pale green polish covering your toenails is fading as time goes. it wasn't a pleasant thing to look at, but you adored this look more— a little messy and flawed.

"tobio? wanna rest or keep walking?"

he gives your hand a soft squeeze and your love-filled eyes fall on him, which results in heat spreading subtly to your cheeks, and the pounding of your chest gets a little out of hand. he has three buttons of his loose, pale blue shirt undone and is wearing a simple pair of khaki shorts, his raven colored hair looking like a mess because of the strong breeze that passes. both of you decided to go barefoot while strolling around, smiling at the other tourists, and fawning over the adorable babies you see on the beach and restaurants when you pass by.

"let's walk. i miss these moments with you. needed a break from games and everything," he murmurs as his gentle, soft gaze falls on you. and in that moment you stop walking and take your time to quietly admire your partner under the bright, monstrous sun, along with the fluffy, huge clouds floating beside the light. his other hand pushes some of your hair behind your ear, doing it with delicacy and letting his fingers leave a trail of adrenaline since his delicate touches twists your fragile heart and makes your toes curl involuntarily.

"mhm, okay. but... when did you become that smooth?" you look to the other side so he doesn’t witness the red madness happening in the apples of your cheeks. you try to the best of your ability to stop the wide grin blooming on your face. but he carefully threads his fingers on the back of your head, and you unconsciously bite your strawberry balmed lips as you stare at him again.

"i guess i learned from you. and the karasuno guys." his hand rests on your nape before it slides to your back. a low, heartwarming chuckle comes from your boyfriend as he watches you crumble under his soft gaze. you bury your head on his chest and gripping the hem of his shirt and letting out a series of breathless giggles. as you're occupied with tobio's warmth, you fail to notice him running a hand through his short, black hair, and the lovesick smile growing on his face. he tries to distract himself by playing with your hair, and basks in the lavender scent of the shampoo you have in the apartment you share. cupping your cheeks for a moment, he takes his utmost time to admire your ethereal face matching with the glowing sunlight in the background. he gives you a peck on your temple and wraps his hands around your petite body, not saying a single word. he’s just taking in your warmth and admiring the beautifully painted sun behind the both of you, mesmerizing and serene.

you know, he knows.

"what are you doing here?” tobio's hands settle on your waist as he narrows his ocean-like eyes across other figures, his former high school teammate with his girlfriend. he shakes his head in disbelief, running your hand on his bicep through his arms— which is a sight that diverts your attention every time. it's harder to not keep your eyes on his build when you're in that time of the month, and he has to begrudgingly indulge in your adorable whining and countless compliments about his physique.

back to the present time, seeing the tall blonde across from you with his newfound girlfriend- who you call your acquaintance because you were casual in school since you were classmates with her for a year. unfortunately, you’re a witness to how these two idiots’ feelings bloom into something complicated- you had to force them to meet after school. tsukishima didn’t thank you or anything but the way he carefully cares for her and treats her with respect, a little affection is more than enough for you. after all, he kind of helped you talk to kageyama when you were in first years.

"oh my! how is ms. kageyama doing?" she yelps as you slowly walk to her because her voice tends to get pretty loud. her hands tug you into a friendly hug as you pat her head, amazed with the little braids on the side of her head since it fits her. her outfits are simple yet eye-catching (in high school she wore bright hair clips), and has too many accessories on her hair. but somehow she can pull it off.

“tobio had a one week vacation.. and now we’re here.”

she loops your arms together and slowly walks towards the waves, relaxation coursing through your body as you inhale the ocean scent, and feel the softness of the sand even though the waters crash every time.

“that’s nice! don’t tell kei this because... his pride,” she rests her head on your shoulder and subtly puckers her lips on your back.- as you turn around your eyes land on your boyfriend and tsukishima bickering- and a stinging pain welcomes your head as you mindlessly cover your feet in sand. she giggles and you get the clue, so you keep your stare ahead, feeling all your worries away as you watch the waves and the cool breeze dance every so often.

“he’s gonna meet my fam later and he’s nervous!” her voice is laced with agitation as she jumps in place, and you raise your brows in amusement.

“ehhhh, that’s normal, duh.”

“no no wait! my family’s a little uptight with who i date.. because of my shitty relationships-”

“just say one night stands. i get it.” you cut her off and bite your lip to not laugh at the offended look on her face. you can’t forget that. she puts a hand over her chest and dramatically falls back, the sand messing her styled hair. she was curious about those things, and hooked up with a few men to get experience. but you’re glad she found tsukishima, because her past is what prevents her from having a good, long term relationship. but he stands beside her and gently takes care of her, and years later they’re together, ecstatic and it seems you can’t tear them apart.

it’s true what they say, the right one won’t leave.

with the huge, black umbrella covering the upper part of your body, you couldn't help but indulge in his soft, plush lips, which are nipping your own right now. his left hand is cupping your cheek, tilting your head to his desire so the gentle, yet passionate kiss dives in deeper- in all honesty it makes your knees weak. his dainty hands works its way under your baby pink sundress, and give your bare hips a soft squish.

"heh, never knew you're this naughty, tobio." you break away from the kiss, but your faces are near each other, running your fingers through his hair for a moment. you stare at his mesmerizing, blue eyes to regain consciousness because his fiery lips are hovering yours, easily getting hazy just from the feeling of his lips. the way he controls your body as you get lost and drown yourself to the pleasure, and how tingly and ecstatic you become when he finally, finally touches you bare. even if you're the one getting attacked with his star-struck kisses and feather-like touches all over your precious body, your pleasure-headed mind always asks for more.

"no.. no let's stop, angel." you capture his swollen, red lips in another sweet kiss and savor in his lips that are tasting like faint strawberries before breaking the kiss. if there's one thing you learned from being in a relationship with your boyfriend, you had to stop yourself, because those supposed study sessions for him to pass his exams or stacks of school works, always leads to kissing or even slow, heartwarming make out sessions on the beige couch in your living room. or quick, messy sessions in his bedroom because he's utterly distracted by you in your school uniform. and the next day you couldn't even blame each other because you both enjoyed it. after all, sometimes it ends with sleepy kisses and slow, burning touches while the only thing covering your bodies are his dark gray sheets.

"huh, you say that and keep pulling me closer." you thread your fingers with care through his hair, and run your fingernails on his scalp. his one hand supports his weight in order to not fall on top of you, his other busy with caressing your hips. you try your best to avoid squirming under his hold because the atmosphere you two put yourselves in is scorching hot. it makes your body sweat, your lungs tighten from suffocation but you keep swimming, so desperate for his touch and warmth that keeps you sane every time.

"shut.. up, tobio." panting for a moment, you clumsily push the umbrella above you to get some of the fresh air and the natural scent of the ocean across from you. you’re sitting up as you move ahead of him and plop yourself in your boyfriend’s arms.

"what's with earlier, tobio-chan? gettin' all antsy and... you had to give them a show by us kissing hard, all messy, and sloppy." fiddling with your fingers, you treasure the rose gold promise ring he bought for your second anniversary, which you never removed from your hand- even when the relationship is experiencing a tough road throughout the journey. he’s silent as he leaves a tender kiss on the top of your head, his other hand occupied with the necklace he’s loosely wearing- and instead of another pendant, he used the silver ring that matches with yours. there is a faint tint of rose gold on his, the design is simple- on the top part there are bits of diamonds that twinkle under the sun, and an infinity sign weaves through the band seamlessly.

it’s beautiful, tobio muses to himself as he threads your fingers together. the rose gold circlet on your ring finger looks so gorgeous. he appreciates this about you, being silent as you lose yourself in his warmth. if his doubts and the inner voices keep ringing in his head, all he'd do is take a glimpse of the gorgeous ring fitted on your finger perfectly and those thoughts dissipate from his head. they are exchanged with the happy, smiley thoughts of you that overlap.

"you kissed me back, who's at fault now, pretty angel?" before you could react and hit his bicep playfully, he tightens his embrace on your body, squishing you a little until you’ve settled and formed into a puddle because of his touch- your hands sliding on his arm. you’re not shaking your feet anymore deep on the brown, soft sand. he cocks his head to the right as his navy, blue eyes slowly close and with a turtle’s speed, he brushes his soft, tempting lips below your ear, nipping, and blowing on that spot he knows drives a whimper out of you.

tobio’s such a discreet bastard, you muse as you bury your head more to the crook of his neck and attempt to think of a payback to him later. because what he’s doing to you clouds your mind with hazy pleasure, and he hums lowly as he listens to your breathless symphony he couldn’t get enough of it.

“kags did change a lot, huh? probably because of you.” her hands are occupied with holding a small shot glass carefully as she moves her hand. her eyes are glued to the swaying of the tequila. a soft snort comes out of you— shaking your head instinctively because, if we're being honest, you bloomed differently because of your boyfriend. he's taught you so many things. from being passionate to that one thing you love, that there’s someone who is going to save you when you’re breaking, or that the display of affection isn’t equal to the love and adoration he’s feeling for you.

“i only helped him, don’t wanna make this all about me.” you take a big sip of your favorite cocktail, the cosmopolitan, mainly because of the blush pink color and the tinge of sweetness that suits your taste better. your boyfriends are on a journey to find the restroom and it has been a while. the loud, open bar the internet recommended is true to its word, the variety of colored lights flashing in an hour, the songs being played on the speakers are prominent, although you’d prefer if they turn the volume up because strangers are drunk and are pretty loud- like they didn’t need to prove they’re all over each other physically.

oh damn, they need to up their flirting game.

“what about tsukki? are you guys good?” you smoothly change the topic and inwardly sigh because you’re relieved she didn’t push the topic further. it’s not that you don’t want to talk about your boyfriend. your perspective is leaning on the realistic side and you don’t want to bore her with your life realizations- and you forbid yourself to sound like an old woman while telling about your real feelings and thoughts.

“yeah! even though he’s still snarky, and teases me before... he’s better now. you know, one time he asked, asked for cuddles! it’s so cute..”

"and i wonder why our classmates are so shocked when he displays affection–like, man–he's a human. he wants touch, his pride gets in the way!" your hands are moving around you to emphasize your opinion, and you smack her lightly on the head the second you hear chuckles coming out of her. you stand on your opinion though, the shield on his heart just needed a hard hit- and successfully she did that. slowly entering his heart and letting his mask crumble when he’s with her.

"right! still thankful for you that you pushed us to confess... or say some words." you roll your eyes playfully at her statement because you could witness their feelings for one another grow and grow– yet they keep their guard up and wait for the other to make the first move. their relationship reminded you of an anime you watched before, and you push them to confess after school, giving them encouraging words, but mainly you throw them playful threats.

"just say you confessed."

"whatever.. oh! remember the time you and kags were all over each other at the res—!" putting your hand over her mouth, muffle out her words in a rush before she can continue. heat blossoms to your neck as you reminisce that memory. it was supposed to be a chill, enjoyable double date even though your man and hers had this urge to be competitive on every thing you did. you ended in another restaurant (which was fancy and expensive). after the course meal, she ordered two wine bottles and tobio got tipsy. you were a bit tipsy but you could make out your surroundings, but the soberness came to a halt when he tugged you and gave you a hard kiss., it wasn’t the problem but- oh god his calloused hands kept moving around your body. for a moment you forgot you were in public and your friends are here—watching you. you pulled away for a moment and went to the bathroom, your happy face turned beet red, the realization coming in and making you more flustered if that was possible.

“what!? you got us tipsy. don’t even turn the tables when i actually saw,” you lower your voice on the end to make her panic which is evident in her eyes. you acting dramatic and slap a hand over your mouth as you shake your head, and your eyes focus on her, along with your finger pointing her body and let out your thoughts in the form of screeching and overreacting—-that’s what you’re good at—-she told you before in college. and your boyfriend instantly nods which resulted in a good old silent treatment for a few days.

“with my two own eyes, you are taking those kinds of photos for tsukishima!” a teasing smirk is forming on your face and you’re taking another sip of the cocktail. as you’re about to finish the drink, she hits your legs with her little black handbag while she squeals. before you could pay your petty revenge, your boyfriend and tsukishima’s voices make you tense on the wooden stools. making eye contact with her, you pray that they didn’t hear the last part of your conversation because they weren’t supposed to hear that. if they did, they’ll be so embarrassed.

"angel."

"baby."

turning around to see your boyfriend’s eyes on you, you get distracted by his dirty white long sleeves and the first two buttons that are open, and khaki shorts. he walks yet he never tears his dark gaze from you, his eyes now focusing on your tinted lips. his hand swiftly slides on your waist and you have to bite your lip to suppress your whimper since his hold on your body tightens. as for tsukishima, he whispers something to her and you know what’s going to happen.

"see you tom!! ‘bout to get punished again." you wave the couple a goodbye as you and tobio walk back to the hotel you’re staying in. while you’re going back, he gives a soft peck on your temple and holds your bag. he suddenly stops walking and pulls you away from the crowd. he cups your cheek, which is getting red as he faces you. you’re becoming flustered by the stupid smirk growing on his face and, he rests his chin on your shoulder. his breath fans on your ear before he murmurs, his voice getting husky which makes your knees weak.

“oh angel, just take me well, yeah?”

#haikyuu x reader #haikyu x reader #haikyu oneshots #haikyu scenarios #kageyama x reader #kageyama tobio x reader #tobio kageyama x reader #kageyama oneshot #kageyama tobio imagine #kageyama tobio oneshot #kageyama x y/n #[✰] kei7ime works

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yourfavouriterival · 3 years

Text

the language of flowers and fiction: CORNFLOWER

CORNFLOWER : be gentle with me

note : this is officially the second part of a series based on this website for the meaning of flowers: https://www.almanac.com/flower-meanings-language-flowers# . each fic is going to be based on flowers and i might write part 2’s for some. on another note, i love feedback! any constructive criticism is welcome and appreciated.

warnings : smut (unprotected sex, creampie, fingering, oral (female recieving), softish smut, grinding, love confessions in the middle of fucking), idiots being in love, maya (me) not knowing shit about ‘die hard’ so i left it alone, and yea i think that’s it. lemme know if there’s more.

word count : 2882

summary : where two idiots have fallen in love

pairing : frankie morales x female reader

masterlist

When the nights that Frankie came over to Y/N’s apartment became weekends spent over, Y/N cleared a part of her closet out. Usually it was something one would do when they were dating, but Y/N and Frankie were never anything more than the best of friends.

Even if Y/N wished they weren’t.

Y/N had been in love with Frankie for about two years, and she’d been friends with him for much longer. She’d been with him through the bad shit, where everything was crashing down and all he could hold onto was her, and she’d been with him through the good shit, where it was easy flying (pun intended).

In the beginning, she was fine with only having him as a friend, but later, she knew that she needed him in a different way.

But she was okay with having him. Because he watched shitty reruns with her when she was sad, and he brought her favorite ice cream if she even mentioned it, and he brought her the same flowers every time he saw her, and she had designated a vase for his flowers that she had—proudly—placed on her dinner table. He said the blue reminded him of her, but she never really understood the meaning behind the cornflowers he brought her.

Even tonight he had, and she’d placed them in the vase and adjusted it on the dinner table, missing the blush that Frankie wore every time she thanked him and told him that she got so many compliments about them.

“C’mon,” she whined, moving to the right side of the sofa. “Don’t even.”

“I never said ‘Dirty Dancing’ was bad, per se, but—”

“I dare you to finish that sentence,” she glared, taking a deep, exasperated breath and he laughed, shaking his head. “Please,” she prompted, pouting a little and bringing his attention back to her and, unbeknownst to her, to her lips. “Just once and then we’ll watch that weird movie you wanted to.”

“Weird?” He sounded incredulous, his hands flying into the air. “You did not just call ‘Die Hard’ weird. You’re weird—”

“Frankie,” she whined, leaning forwards and staring him in the eyes. “Please?”

They were only a few centimeters away from each other and if one of them leaned forwards slightly, their lips would meet.

“Fine,” he breathed out after a moment. His playful frown morphed into a smile as she pressed a kiss to his cheek before shooting up to play the movie, singing praises to him. “But only if you promise not to try and do the dances.”

“You’re so fucking mean,” she hissed, settling down next to him on the sofa.

A while later, she had moved so close to him that he could feel her breaths through the way her chest moved against his arm. “I love this movie,” she whispered into the room, and Frankie’s chest moved as he laughed.

“I know,” he whispered back, as though it was a secret. She looked up at him, and in that moment, something tugged at Frankie’s heart.

This made sense—they made sense. The way she was curled into his side, looking up at him as though he hung the moon and stars only for her—he would—and the way his arms held her closer to him. It made so much sense—to him. And to her.

“Frankie,” she mumbled, eyes glued to his, the movie playing in the background.

“Yeah?”

“I’d really like to kiss you,” she said softly, no pressure in the way she prompted it as Baby danced on the bridge in the movie.

“I’d like that,” he replied before ducking his head to press their lips together, humming at how quickly she pressed back against his lips and answered his unspoken questions.

When she grasped his shirt to pull him closer, he supported her neck against the arm that was previously around her shoulders and gently lowered her body to rest her back against the sofa, hovering over her. Her hands rested on his shoulders, pressing her body against his in any way possible. One leg hooked over his waist and she pulled his hips to hers.

“This okay?” His voice was rough as he pulled away from her, and she nodded softly, pulling his crotch to hers, gasping out when his zipper bumped against her clit as he rolled his hips into her.

“Fuck, do that again,” she begged, hands moving down to grab his ass and grind him harder against her. The jolts of sudden pleasure caused her body to hold onto anything to ground her, that thing being Frankie and any part of him she could reach.

In the midst of all of this, her hands moved to the hem of his shirt, glancing up at him between her moans, asking for permission. When he granted it, she pulled off his shirt, wrapping her arms around him to feel as much of his skin as she could, effectively silencing the voice in his head that told him that he shouldn’t have let her.

“Up,” he mumbled, lifting her upper body and pulling off her shirt when she nodded at him. She fell back onto the sofa, but not before his arms curled underneath her, pressing his lips to her neck, loving the way she panted and held him tight to her. “Gorgeous,” he whispered, pulling down the cups of her bra and wrapping his lips around her nipples. Her back arched into his mouth and her hands weaved through his soft hair. “You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met.”

“I love you,” she mewled, and his body shot up to meet her gaze. She didn’t take it back—she didn’t feel the need to. Whatever happened would happen.

“I love you more than anything,” he whispered back, meeting her halfway in a soft kiss that allowed her to roll them over and straddle him when he sat with his back against the sofa.

She unclipped her bra and threw it at the discarded shirts, and as he head was turned, Frankie leaned forwards and gently bit her nipple, a yelp leaving her as she turned back only to find Frankie moving to the other side, the heat in her core almost too much to bear.

“Feels—oh, Frankie,” she moaned, throwing her head back as his tongue joined the mix, his hand kneading her other breast, pinching the nipple and sending another wave of arousal down her stomach. “Frankie, please—please—please.”

“Please? Please, what?”

“I need you in me,” she begged, unbuttoning her pants. “I—I’m throbbing, baby, please,” she whined, and he let her guide his hand into her panties, pressing them against her core. She wasn’t lying, and he could feel her pulse through her clit, and he nearly came at the broken moan that left her. “Please,” she begged, pressing his hand into her a bit rougher and grinding her hips down.

He pulled his hand out of her pants, grinning at the whine that left her throat. “Stand for me, could you, pretty girl?” When she did, he kneeled on the ground before her, dragging both her pants and panties down, lifting each leg as he did. Then he stood, backing her against the wall of the living room, only stopping when her back was flat against it before he sank down to his knees once more. “This okay?”

“Yes, fuck, please,” she whined as he placed her leg on his shoulder and leaned forwards, pressing a soft kiss to the top of her mound, moving down slowly. His tongue ran up her slit suddenly, the tip of his tongue hitting her clit and causing a loud gasp to leave her as her legs failed her and buckled. He didn’t mind and he placed both legs on his shoulder, moving closer to press her hips into the wall. “Frankie,” she panted, hand moving down and grasping his hair. “Please, I’m so—it—I need you so bad, please.”

He didn’t answer verbally. Instead, his lips wrapped around her clit, hummed and then sucked, taking all limb functionality from her as she almost fell forwards had it not been for Frankie’s arms wrapping around her thighs.

“Frankie—Frankie—oh, my God,” she moaned, legs twitching closed around his head when his tongue dipped down to her entrance, gathering her wetness before thrusting in, a moan vibrating from her cunt when he finally got to taste her. “You’re—fuck, you’re so good, baby,” she praised, holding the back of his head gently.

“You taste better than anything I’ve ever had,” he promised into her, thrusting his tongue into her again whilst his nose bumped her clit, trying to ignore the throbbing in his pants at her sweet moans. “Better than anything I’ve tasted.”

His words caused a tightening in her core, almost unbearable and her body tried to jut away from both him and from the wall. But she was trapped, and there was nothing her body coud do but take his sweet torture.

“Baby, I’m gonna—I’m gonna cum—shit, baby, please,” she whined, her core tightening and her walls squeezing around him. “Baby, please—please—please—oh!” Her orgasm washed over her in slow tremors, her body shaking as he guided her through it.

When her body was still shaking, he stood up and wrapped her legs around his waist and carried her to her bedroom.

“Frankie,” she moaned when he moved, her oversensitive cunt rubbing against his skin on his stomach and she felt another wave of wetness flood her, and she wondered if it touched his skin, smeared her cum and arousal on his stomach.

It did.

“I’m here,” he promised, gently laying her down. “I’ll get some water for you.”

She didn’t get the chance to tell him that she didn’t want water, because he had already gotten out of the room. She just wanted him, and his hands and his tongue and his cock, preferably in her somewhere.

Just the thought of him aroused her, and she found her hands slinking down to press against her throbbing cunt, circling her clit to the thought of Frankie’s mouth and how hard he had made her cum. “Frankie,” she whimpered, looking up only to make eye contact with him as he brought the water in the room.

He placed it on the bedside table, eyes flitting from her face to her hands between her thighs.

“I need you,” she panted, lifting her hand to place it in her mouth, but he caught her wrist and enveloped her fingers in his mouth before letting it drop and moving to kneel before her bed on the ground, in between her open thighs. He yanked her towards him by her legs and immediately devoured her, burying his face between her legs once more and pinning her hips and legs down to the bed when she squirmed. “Frankie, please, I—I just want your cock—please—please give me your cock,” she begged, but her hands held his head in place, basking in the pleasure. “I love you,” she whimpered when two of his fingers teased her entrance, and she almost screeched when they thrusted in and curled, immediately finding her spot. He stayed there, stroking that spot whilst his tongue ran over her clit, humming at each sob she let out at each stroke.

“Need you to cum for me again, okay?”

“Frankie,” she whined, hands shakily trying to grab him—to ground her. “Frankie, please—please, I need—”

“I know,” he mumbled against her, and he felt himself—somehow—grow harder at the whine she let out as she came again—hard.

When he eventually came up—he would’ve stayed there for hours had it not been for her hands pushing his head away from sensitivity—he couldn’t help but relish in the fucked-out face she wore.

She was on a different planet, and she barely noticed as his hands gently traced up and down her thighs and stomach. “You with me?” His voice filled her head and she lolled her head to the side with a dopey grin on her face.

“Did I mention that I love you?” she prompted, pressing a kiss to his neck as she breathed him in deeply.

“Think so,” he laughed, pulling her into his chest.

“God, you’re good at that,” she giggled after a couple of seconds, moving so she was straddling him. “Can barely feel my legs,” she mumbled, leaning down to slot her lips against his.

“That good, huh?” he said, quite cockily, but the expression changed when she pressed her hips against his, his face going slack.

He could feel her heat through his pants and he grinned against her lips as she made quick work on unbuckling his belt, undoing his button and zipper to wrap her hand around his length.

“Fuck, baby,” he groaned, leaning his head back as she ran her thumb over his tip.

“You’re so big,” she moaned, watching her hand go up and down his cock, enjoying the way his hips jutted forwards into her hold. His head dropped back against the bed with a low moan as she tightened her hold around his tip.

“Wait—wait—stop,” he said suddenly, a gasp following as her hand immediately fell away.

“Do you wanna stop?” She looked very concerned as she moved slightly away from him.

“No—no,” he breathed, calming down. “It’s just…” he blushed slightly, sitting up and taking her hands gently to calm her. “Been a while since…”

“Oh,” she said softly. She then giggled lightly, moving closer to him on her knees. “Baby, I don’t mind if you cum,” she whispered, pulling his lips to hers. “Don’t worry.”

“Be gentle with me,” he said, jokingly, but she could see the air of seriousness on his face.

“I promise—hey!” Her voice was cut off when he flipped her onto her back and hovered over her, a cheeky grin on his face. “Get in me,” she groaned, but a moan left her lips breathily when his tip ran up her folds, coating himself in her arousal and previous orgasms, bumping her clit and causing her to jolt.

Her hand flew down and gently guided him to her soaking entrance, pushing his tip against it and letting out a breathy moan as he pressed an inch into her.

Already she knew that he was bigger than she had ever been with, and her stomach clenched when he pushed in further, leaning down to press a kiss to her temple as she babbled at how good it felt. He continued sinking into her, and when he bottomed out, her hands flew up to his shoulders to ground herself.

“‘M so full,” she said dreamily, the feeling so overwhelming that she almost felt drunk.

“Fuck, you can’t say stuff like that,” he laughed, though Y/N could tell he was straining.

“I can’t say how big you are? How much y—you fill me?” She wished more than anything that he would realise how much she admired him. “Frankie, please move. I need to feel your big cock, please,” she whined, and that set him off.

He started a pace of pushing in and out of her, shallowly to let her get used to the feeling of him, barely pushing halfway in and practically living off the soft moans she let out and the way her hands grasped at his shoulders.

“Deeper,” she begged, the need to feel him as deep as possible overtaking her love for this soft, romantic pace.

“You need me?” He was teasing her—of course she needed him—and he knew how desperate she was for him. “Need me to fuck you?”

“Yeah,” she moaned, and her breath caught in her throat when he finally pushed all the way in with each thrust. “Fuck,” she moaned, grasping the back of his neck to bring his lips to hers, wrapping her legs around him as he fucked into her, hitting all the spots that she barely knew existed.

Suddenly, her back arched upwards as his cock hit her sweet spot head on, and a broken scream was swallowed by his mouth.

“There,” she panted, pulling away and his head fell into her neck, focusing on her spot and hitting it dead-on each time, bumping the spongy-spot with each hard thrust into her and he could feel his stomach clench when she tightened around him, and the feeling of her mixed with her moans brought him right to the edge.

“Baby,” she whined, her back arching and her nipples touching his chest. “I’m cumming—Frankie—Frankie—baby.”

“Cum for me,” he groaned, letting out a moan that was covered by her wail as she came, hard, for the final time. His hips stuttered as he came in her, coating her walls with warm cum, groaning into her ear and simply basking with the way her walls pulsed around him.

He gently pulled out of her, taking a minute to watch his cum drip out of her still pulsing pussy, and Y/N—in her spent state—made a note of the way his eyes darkened, before he came back in and cleaned both of them up.

Finally, she was pulled into his arms with her back against his chest, and he pulled the covers over them both.

It was silent for a long moment before she breathed out a long breath.

“I can’t feel my legs.”

#frankie morales #frankie morales x you #frankie morales smut #frankie catfish morales #frankie smut #frankie morales x reader #triple frontier #triple frontier x reader #frankie morales triple frontier #francisco morales x reader #francisco morales #catfish morales #frankie x reader #francisco catfish morales #triple frontier fic #smut #the language of flowers and fiction

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underthestarlitsky · 3 years

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I would love to hear your thoughts on YJS3

sure! fair warning, though, I'm a ranty person by nature so this might end up being a bit long. sorry in advance ♡

anyway! things I liked:

the humor: s3 was pretty funny lmao, theres that whole collection of outta pocket scenes from throughout the season that I find hilarious each time + the humor was a little more dirty which is nice bc the audience has also grown up from the kids they might've been when they watched it on CN

dickbabs!: I'm not a huge fan of dickbabs, I prefer dickkory (no hate to dickbabs stans btw I just vibe more with dickkory) but this dynamic between the two of them was so sweet and well-balanced I couldnt help but squeal everytime they were on-screen

Clark and Conner getting along: them calling each other brothers was so CUTE I canttt

FORAGER: an absolute legend 10/10 freaking love him

That Episode With The Hallucination: mmmmmmm I miss wally. SO MUCH. and the og 6 I was Super Mad about the first timeskip so it was nice to see them all together again🥰

yeah that's about it for things I liked lmao. now time for the Much Longer list of Things I Hated:

HALO: young justice the bar was so fucking low how are you still successfully doing the limbo what the fuck. you take a muslim immigrant in what is VERY CLEARLY a hijab and 1. infantilize her to an exceptionally uncomfortable degree (I KNOW SHE WAS THE MOTHERBOX, I DONT CARE) to the point where she resembles a five-year-old with every sentence she speaks or action she takes 2. you made a visibly muslim girl claim that she's actually no longer muslim, she's just wearing the hijab as some kind of security blanket???? I'm sorry??? what the fuck were you aiming for here exactly 3. why did you have to name her violet harper. what. 4. really?? the immediate romance with brion? What the shit was up with that...you make her Muslim in some aspects like victor not seeing her hair when she brushes it but her LITERALLY making out with brion like I'm sorry what the fuck are you doing??? you had one muslim character and you fucked up so bad holy shit...like...it could've been simple as hell, man, but no...Big Yikes.

M'gann: I've said this before but I really feel like once they introduced artemis m'gann immediately became a side character whose only job is to be villainised again and again even though it doesn't really vibe with her character. Secret teams?? Lying to Conner??? This isn't s3 but that whole thing with their breakup in s2...what the shit are they doing to M'gann, man. I loved her so much in s1, she's literally trying her best after having gone through so much and it's never fully explored...like we get half explanations every season but we're never shown half the shit that we were given for artemis. And by making her the Uncool Girlfriend at points it just looks like they're trying make her easy to hate like what the fuck. no. stop it

The Plot: too overcomplicated, too many characters. It's only season three, why are you introducing Apokolips already. Why are there so many characters?? what's with all the subplots yall were switching location cards every five minutes. And it's so convoluted...like...what was going on with Beast Boy and the monkey-god-doom-patrol-exposition stuff? I can't even remember if there were two granny goodnesses or just the one. All of those meta kids left over from the last season are a cute cast but like...I was so bored??? we know you can do well-written self-contained storylines a la s1, so hop to it, yeah?

THE ANIMATION: ok ok ok so. season 1 and two (one especially) had a very distinct feeling to them and that feeling was very late-2000s Cartoon Network Action Show - the base model for the males and females is the same (like Ben 10 Alien Force) the colors were not dynamic (stayed the same no matter the lighting, lots of cel shading, and generally were realistically colored in the sense that suspension of disbelief was not entirely necessary) CHEEKBONES, gritty textures and purple skies (Batman the Brave and the Bold). overall theres a certain Tone to the earlier seasons that spoke a lot to the animation capabilities of the studios at the time, as well as the general feel of the show. however, season three was a MAJOR downgrade in terms of animation. they made it both simpler and more complicated - they started using their DCAMU animation style which while it does give muscles to the women, adds too many unneeded shadows and a strange stiffness and dullness to every character. There are now extra lines and uncessesary shadows on the face of every character, and their eyes and facial features are almost identical. There's also less highlights, and the hairstyles are way too overcomplicated now to be appealing (see mgann and dick) - the hair is unspeakably dull and and the skin tones and hair colors are painful on the eyes. This isn't even taking into account the shitty backgrounds they've started using (AHEM AHEM ARTEMIS'S KITCHEN) because while the earlier seasons may have had unappealing, mostly empty settings, the characters still fit in to the scene, unlike now.

the lack of sisterhood????: apparently, only artemis goes to see zatanna for her Dr. Fate appointments. Apparently, M'gann barely talks to Artemis after the very tragic apparent death of Wally. the two of them, dare I say even the THREE of them, should be close as hell considering they spent their early years super-heroing together on a team full of boys. M'gann LITERALLY called Artemis her sister in the SAME EPISODE she was introduced, and neither of them had any real girlfriends other than each other at this point. M'gann who fell apart so hard Artemis died in her head that she almost killed them all in her grief. Like. You're telling me, you're SHOWING me that these two aren't each other's support system? Where is the sisterhood, bitch????

Lastly: the costume design. I understand that they're constrained by the need to make it simple enough to animate, but COME ON. if you're going to borrow Diana's DCAMU/JL: War costume, at least keep the metal silver. What the fuck is that green-gold. And Tigress? god DAMN that mask is ugly. Cassie looks like she robbed a goddamn supermarket discount clothing aisle for her outfit. Why is bart's outfit Like That it's so ugly it makes me want to cry. @ young justice costume designers Please Rethink Your Decisions

that's about all I can think of right now. it got REALLY negative whoops, but theres just so much I didn't like about this season :/ hopefully the next one will better ;-;

#thanks for the ask!#dc #dawn rants #young justice #mgann morzz #artemis crock #violet harper #opinions

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vaguely-concerned · 3 years

Text

The Mandalorian Chapter 11; the rewatch edition

I have found a bit more enthusiasm for this one on the rewatch, so here goes!

- din snapping ‘I’m trying my best here!’ in a vaguely annoyed tone as his entire ship is going up in flames around him because he mostly doesn’t get angry as much as sulky... the height of cinema

- I love frog husband’s clothes, because they’re in a very similar style and colour scheme to frog lady’s but also incorporate the knitwear we see on the people of trask, so it both underlines his belonging with her and implies that he’s been on this moon for quite a while, they may have been apart for some time

especially his scarf is a darling detail and there’s a bit of contrast in texture to it next to his wife’s, it’s nice. he’s wearing a similar kind of vest to what we see on the fishermen later, too

- I think my favourite part of this entire episode (well second after din cradling the baby against him after nearly drowning) is just the design and Vibe of the planet and especially this harbour

for one I LOVE that it’s shown that even in the middle of the day it’s dark enough that the electric lights are still on when it’s overcast (it reminds me a bit of norway during the winter, actually, when dawn just never quite breaks and then slinks off in embarrassment before it’s even noon). and there’s also the... sails? nets? hanging around looking almost like flags, which are very Aesthetic but god knows what they’re for. maybe for drying fish on in the summer?

I think the building in the distance behind frog husband’s back here is a lighthouse? or it could be one of those towers for loading you see when they scout out the empire ship too, I suppose!

and one for my strange obsession with Texture on this show: these fabric-covered crates!!! they look exactly as dingy and moldy as you’d expect them to be in this climate, I wonder what they’re for (& I vaguely want to touch them)

- from the sound of it din’s vibroknife is uh ‘on’ when he pokes the squid thing, and he also goes for the tentacle the furthest away from the baby <3

proof the calamari flan have been scratched up a bit during all that time in din’s pockets! (the attention to detail in this show sometimes istg)

- this is 100% me reading too much into things again, call the overthinking police I’ll do my time meekly lol, but the boat looks a little bit like the mudhorn signet from this angle:

again din keeps his hand on or sooo close to his blaster in this entire scene, he knows this is sketch as all hell

a) once again I want to praise the effects team for how GOOD the aliens look in this episode holy shit and b) the hell is this dude wearing on the straps of his overalls tho

- the dude mando (axe woves) uses his little... wrist launcher thing to shoot with to finish two off the fishermen, so my theory that they can be loaded with other things than the whistling birds for slightly less effective use (maybe without the level of honing we’ve seen din’s be able to do?) is looking good!

- din actually has quite good form when diving into the water, I’m guessing he can swim at least tolerably when not in full armour, being stabbed at from all directions, having just had his son eaten by a sea monster and also being trapped in with said sea monster (I’m a strong swimmer and I can tell you that there’s a reason they make you swim with clothes on from time to time to see how hard it is, it sucks. with metal plates strapped all over you as well? yeah good luck) people don’t tend to hit the water that gracefully without some kind of training in my experience lol. might be some of the training with the jet pack has carried over too, considering he throws himself off that cliff in chapter 12 with similar confidence?

it’s interesting that they’re once again showing us a threat where the armour doesn’t help and even hinders him. we’re so used to the ways it can make him near-invincible, but it can also drag him down (literally, in this case. aha ha ha. well if I’m not here for my own entertainment then what am I here for honestly)

- din’s voice sounding like he’s just on the verge of crying as he cradles the baby (and the sound he makes as he realizes the baby’s alive) is my kryptonite, turns out. fucking breaks my heart into tiny pieces every time, I would die for this man and he wouldn’t let me

- in support of din’s paranoia: so far this season we haven’t been able to go five minutes without someone talking about peeling the precious beskar off a mandalorian corpse, I can see why his mind was primed to move in one particular way there

- I think the fabric of din’s cape has been treated with something that makes it waterproof; the water seems to pearl on top of it rather than soak in! can you imagine how heavy it would get if it did absorb water tho christ

(a bit hard to see at this size but that’s what it looked like to me close up anyway! could also be that it’s wool and that’s why it looks that way but I prefer an elaborate sci-fi explanation here, because it doesn’t look particularly weighed down afterwards) might also explain why he doesn’t seem worried about it catching on fire when he uses the jetpack haha, maybe this is something the mandos do with fabric they’re going to use for a long time

I also enjoy part of the gambeson/undersuit thing poking up from under the shoulder pauldron and cape; I think this is about as disheveled as we’ve seen him since immediately post-mudhorn

- the sound mixing in this scene, where din’s breathing is layered a bit over everything else so you almost feel like you’re in the helmet with him listening to what the others are saying........ oh my GOD, it embeds you so deeply in his POV but so subtly

- not to be biased or anything... but din and the armorer’s armour design is so vastly superior to these guys it shouldn’t even be a competition lol

din looks like an honest to god knight in shining armour except also sci-fi western and the armorer looks like a fucking war goddess from a time beyond memory; the clone wars mandos look like high end cosplayers (eh maybe it’s just my dislike for the boobplates that has me so 😒 lol. also a lot of dudes were very shitty about that whole thing and I don’t say anything but the ‘vaguely-concerned will remember this’ telltale message pops up in the corner every time)

moment of saltiness over: I do like the differentiation between their individual character designs

the differences in body type and helmet design is nice! they look like a unified team, but with individuality. I suspect the ladies have those belts and their armour plates on the hips instead of the front of the thighs to emphasize the ‘female’ silhouette, which. okay fine whatever

- bo katan looks very pointedly down at the baby after saying ‘a group of religious zealots who want to return to the ancient ways’ which makes me VERY nervous for reasons I can’t quite articulate

- the mournful guitar version of the mando theme as din watches the sunset...... hmmmmngh (this might be some Symbolism happening to us folks strap in for the identity crisis he still hasn’t processed)

- I Cannot get over din being so unimpressed by and uninterested in bo katan’s ‘retake mandalore’ sales pitch from literally the first moment dfhasdkjfhsad sorry lady kryze this man just does not do main quest shit, he’s all side quests all the time and that’s why I love him

- as someone who after chapter 8 wrote a whole-ass fic that was wholly & exclusively about din telling the baby he’ll always come back for him... some of the shit he’s been saying this season does feel like it’s been written to mercilessly victimize me, personally and specifically

- guessing this structure in the background is the traffic control tower! doesn’t really matter, I just thought it was neat

- this part of the soundtrack is called ‘ship o hoj, mandalorians!’, which I found incredibly charming haha (it’s ‘ship ahoy’ except how you write it in swedish, good one herr göranson)

- bo katan is vague about who exactly the new mand’alor would be if they took back mandalore to begin with, she doesn’t specify she is planning to be the ruler until she’s already got din on the ship and in no position to refuse to help. gotta respect the grift at least lol

I do love her voice, though, it reminds me a bit of jennifer hale as shepard

- “I need to get back to my ship, with the foundling” your honor I uh love him so fucking much

- frog lady stroking the baby’s back a bit as she holds her hand behind him to make sure he doesn’t fall backwards while playing with the tadpole ;___________;

and also frog husband and frog lady reaching out to hold hands and frog smooching as din and yodito leave ;____________________________________________;

- when din says the exasperated “mon calamari. unbelievable” line, the baby makes that little blowing a raspberry sound he does as if to agree ‘uh-huh unbelu -- unbelly -- unbelievable dad smh’ and it is very very adorable

- there’s quite a bit of Stuff in the concept art that didn’t make it in this time around; I wonder if maybe they cut some stuff for pacing or whatever and that’s why this episode is so short? water leaking into the cockpit of the razor crest, something that looked a bit like whaling going on on the docks and more spaceships taking off (maybe there were originally meant to be some smaller ships defending the big empire one?), there’s quite a bit here

#star wars #the mandalorian #the mandalorian spoilers #the mandalorian meta

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lovelyirony · 4 years

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Fic title meme : pulvis et umbra sumus (We Are Dust And Shadows)

On every single document, including the ones that show what actually happened to Howard and Maria Stark, Tony Stark is listed as dead among them.

He is not.

But in not calling in the accident on the abandoned road, Tony managed to find someone else to take his place and escaped.

Tony Stark is dead. A whole family funeral and everything. Obadiah pretends to cry. Tony is at the funeral with shitty dye in his hair and sunglasses that he wouldn’t be caught dead wearing. Ha.

The funeral is closed casket. All their faces are rumored to be impossible to fix with make-up.

He makes new documents. Anthony Jarvis, from Boston. Airtight background. Likes puzzles. Scored damn high on the SAT, but not the perfect score.

(Killed him to answer some of those questions wrong, seriously.)

Anthony Jarvis goes to MIT and requests a single room. He gets one for one semester, and then the room next to his burns and destroys his as well. So he gets moved to Jim Rhodes’.

Jim becomes Rhodey, and he is the first friend of Anthony Jarvis, and nicknames him Tony.

He grins at that.

There are plenty of times that Tony wants to tell him. The thing about secrets is that they need to be shared. No one really wants a secret, nor do they want to keep it. But he keeps his mouth shut and asks if he wants to go for Thai food.

“This is the third time this week.”

“Not my fault it’s good! I’ll pay...”

“Sign me up.”

Tony and Rhodey gets Thai food. It’s good.

Rhodey lets him in on a secret that Tony had actually known about since his room assignment.

(You remember that guy’s room that caught on fire? Yeah, he swore that his microwave hadn’t been on, and nothing had been plugged in. He was right. But Tony needed an accident.)

In other circumstances, Rhodey would have ignored the offer that he had. He had had his heart set on Air Force. But there was something about the man who talked to him.

“It’s a place called Strategic-Homeland-something I can’t remember,” Rhodey says. “Point is, they’re a big deal and kind of shady, but not in the government shady kind of way. The only thing I can find out about them is that they’re an international company who need engineers, pilots, and basically anyone like you and me. I don’t know how I feel about it.”

Tony nods.

“You want me in on this?”

“I mean, you did tell me a couple of weeks ago that you weren’t sure what you wanted to do after graduation.”

(It was two weeks, three days, and fourteen hours ago. Not like he was counting.)

“...thanks. I’ll check it out with you.”

Anthony Jarvis shows up in a nice suit, stupid sunglasses, and impresses the higher-ups by diagnosing a problem with the engine that others had previously marked as “impossible.”

He’s hired on the spot, same as Rhodey.

Tony Jarvis gets his own keycard, finds an apartment in New York that’s within at least biking distance, and gets started on inventing some cute little toys for the spies in Research and Development.

He brings the laser-lipstick to life, poison-drop-earrings, spyglasses that actually work and have HD, and briefcases that use mirroring technology to change color.

“How did you do this?” Rhodey asks, eyes wide. “I swear this is unreal.”

“Aw,” Tony says. “You sap. I got some inspiration from some old comic book ads. I think I’m gonna try a ring decoder next, what do you think?”

“Almost makes me want to go on missions instead of flying them.”

Tony Jarvis is known for working odd yet long hours. He comes up with results. And he keeps his head down and minds his own business.

This is all to find out exactly who killed his parents. As much as his and Howard’s relationship was...interesting, he still wanted to know.

His desire to know the truth leads to somewhere he hadn’t thought was possible: Hydra.

His hands freeze as he looks at the paper file with thick, black lines all over. The information there was sparse. Howard, Maria, and Anthony Stark all died. It was ruled:

And there’s nothing there.

It wasn’t an accident. Sure he knew that, but there was something far more sinister at play. Why wasn’t it an accident?

He gets Alexander Pierce in his apartment with a man in the corner. His arm gleams in what little light from the lamps outside give off.

“Why are you searching for the Stark files?” He asks.

“Why didn’t you just schedule a meeting? I’m available tomorrow at three,” Tony jokes. “Who’s your friend here?”

“Someone you wouldn’t want to shake hands with,” Pierce answers. “You need to stop looking into this before you find yourself in a situation you don’t want to be in.”

“And if I don’t?”

“Accidents will happen,” Pierce says. He gets up from the table, to the counter. Gets out a glass. And makes himself water. He smiles as he looks to the man in the corner. “Do you want any water, Winter Soldier?”

Winter Soldier remains impassive.

Tony stills.

“So, the legends are true. And Hydra is still around.”

“And if you aren’t careful, you won’t be,” Pierce says. “Don’t bring any of this up. Or this won’t be the last time you see Winter Soldier. I know your moves, Jarvis. Don’t think you can surprise me.”

They exit the apartment. Tony realizes that Pierce took his glass.

And he laughs.

Because this? Not according to plan, but god he’s gonna have fun with it.

It starts with telling Rhodey who he actually is.

It does not go as planned.

“So let me get this straight. I’ve known you for years and you just. Never told me?” Rhodey asks. “Why not?”

“To be completely fair, no one knows besides a man in Wisconsin, and he’s from Wisconsin,” Tony says. “Also I was drunk. Drunk me is a terrible person who would sell me for a buffalo nickel.”

“I’m still mad, even if that’s funny,” Rhodey says, trying not to smile. “So. Why tell me now? I’m assuming you need something.”

“I would like your help,” Tony says. “It is not required but I am toppling a secret organization living in SHIELD and I think if I get your help, I will most likely not get fired by the end of this. Fury likes you, he hates me.”

“False, he mildly tolerates you. You’ll be fine. Probably. Who else should we get to help?”

Tony had originally planned for no one.

But then there was Pepper Potts.

She had been deemed by the media as “crazy” for accusing Obadiah Stane, longtime-CEO of Stark Industries, as ordering a hit out on the Stark family.

She had been booted from the company--anticipated--and then Hydra had ordered a hit on her.

Slightly unexpected.

Point is, Rhodey brings her into the apartment and tells Tony casually that the grocery store had run out of his usual hummus brand, was the generic okay?

“That’s like asking if I’m okay with blue pens,” Tony curses. “Also, is that Pepper Potts? Why is she here? Did you run into her at the grocery store?”

“No, as I was coming back. Did you know that she has a hit out on her? Fun times.”

“Oh my god, will someone explain to me what’s going on here?!” Pepper seethes. “I was just trying to get my yogurt without anyone taking a picture of me and some random fucking guy had a knife thrown at me and then this guy took me to your house!”

She then rants for ten minutes about the “questionable design choices going on in this establishment, who honestly thinks shot glasses are a decoration?!”

“Are you done?” Tony asks. “Because if you want to help with a conspiracy plot, you need to be done.”

She is.

Pepper does not get a job with SHIELD. In fact, she mainly just decides to take care of the redecoration in Tony’s apartment.

“You will be paying me for this.”

“Why would I do that? You’re using my money to buy everything. You’re living here rent free for now.”

“Because I’m helping you make better life choices. I also want new shoes.”

What Pepper does is provide very valuable access to Stark Industries: she knows the ins and outs, what employees do and don’t do, and also is very helpful in telling Tony what he needs to do when he takes the company over.

“Who said I was going to take it over?”

“Me,” Pepper says. “Also because I reviewed every single old document and the company was specified to go to next-of-kin. You are. And you’re not dead.”

“My death certificate is literally framed,” Tony says, pointing to his graduation photo that Rhodey took. He had swapped out his official diploma with it as a joke. No one had seen it. He thought it was hilarious.

“Yeah, but they can do DNA testing,” Pepper says. “This is like the twenty-first century Anastasia except this time they don’t find you with metal detectors!”

“I don’t like that you know that story as well as you do,” Rhodey says. “But I’ll leave you a credit card for furniture and groceries. If you get rid of my drinks in the fridge I’m literally never forgiving you.”

“Noted, and I don’t need forgiveness,” Pepper says. “But they’ll stay there.”

So begins the plot.

Pierce doesn’t know three things, which is a lot of things not to know:

1.) Tony Jarvis is not Tony Jarvis.

2.) Rhodey actually likes Tony and most of the time him saying that he would “kill Tony in a variety of ways, starting with sporks and moving forward...” is mostly (mostly) a joke.

3.) Pepper Potts resides in their apartment and is having fun telling Tony she bought new silverware.

“Why did you buy new silverware! It was fine!”

“I recognized all of these forks and knives from restaurants. Why did you steal them from restaurants?”

“They can replace them!”

“Don’t. Anyways now your spoons match and you don’t have the shitty ones from different places. Also I painted the bathroom.”

“My landlord is gonna kill me.”

“I made her cookies and discovered that she likes going to concerts. You’ll be fine.”

(Pepper is a goddess. You can’t convince them otherwise.)

Pierce doesn’t know any of this, but he still holds a key piece of blackmail: Tony Jarvis shouldn’t know about Hydra, and he’ll do anything to make sure that he doesn’t lose his job.

Tony has been recording their conversations for weeks.

(Pierce thinks he doesn’t design things to get around the available technology. Pathetic.)

He also has bugged Pierce as well as his house, and figures out that Winter Soldier is going to be on assignment within the DC area in an effort to kill some higher-up on the foodchain that was SHIELD.

Well.

Tony has always wanted to go and see the cherry blossoms a little more up close.

Pepper, of course, doesn’t like that they left his boots on.

“This couch is new and red,” she says. “Take off his boots!”

“He is unconscious and probably won’t be in the next fifteen minutes,” Rhodey says. “We are not touching him and possibly shortening that fifteen minutes.”

Winter Soldier wakes up to three faces staring at him.

“Mission failed?” he asks, voice robotic.

“Nope, you just got a new one,” says the man on the right. He is wearing a t-shirt. Winter Soldier thinks that in this situation, a t-shirt is not the best option.

(Of course, he’s not supposed to think. But they don’t have to know that.”

“Can you take your shoes off?” says the woman in the middle. “Please. You’re getting germs on the couch.”

He’s confused.

“Who am I killing?”

“No one, yet,” says the man on the left. “Do you know who you are?”

“Winter Soldier.”

“No, like a name? I’m assuming you’ve had a name at some point.”

“Someone has called me Mr. Freeze before.”

The man on the left snorts. Man on the right taps his arm lightly.

“Well, um, okay then. How do you feel about the name...aw shit. I can’t think of a name for you when your mask is on. Can you take the mask off?”

He takes it off. It’s nicer to breathe.

The man in the t-shirt pauses.

“Okay. So your name is Bucky Barnes. Do you know that name?”

Something clicked. But he doesn’t know what.

“Sounds...familiar.”

“Cool! So that’s your name now, do me a favor and don’t google it. I’m Tony, this is Rhodey, and this is Pepper. If you don’t take your shoes off, you’re going to be scared of her.”

Newly-named-Bucky highly doubts that he will be scared of Pepper because she is built like a twig and she is wearing high heels.

(He is wrong about ten minutes later when she forcibly throws a fork at him.)

“Why am I here?” he asks. “Should I be checking back in with Handler Pierce?”

“No,” comes the consensus from everyone else in the room.

“Technically, he thinks you went rogue and went back to Russia. He’s organizing a team to go get you. We hired an actor to play you. It’s been entertaining. He got some plums. Do you like plums?”

“Why is that relevant?”

“It’s vapid and not interesting at all, Tony loves questions like that,” Rhodey says. “Now come on. We need to get you actual shirts. Also some body wash.”

Bucky Barnes learns how to be a person. He stares at himself in the mirror for an hour and smiles slightly when Pepper calls him “vain” and pushes him aside to grab her hairbrush.

He then learns that Hydra is trying to overtake SHIELD and they have a slight window with Pierce out.

This involves two things:

1.) Tony Stark coming back from the dead.

2.) SHIELD panicking that they didn’t know this secret and taking another look at the paperwork, in which case Hydra will be found out.

These are both easier than anticipated. Tony can act like a showman better than anyone, and has been carefully growing a goatee that is eerily reminiscent of his late father’s. Of course he’s had to switch it up.

The media is going crazy. SHIELD as well. They’re scrambling to find paperwork that proves that it happened, and they find that the “accident” was no accident. That Howard hadn’t been working for the “enemy” at the time.

The enemy was in the building, and they had blended in seamlessly.

This all happens on a Wednesday, by the way. Pepper has it marked on the calendar and everything. Rhodey made his coffee.

Bucky is busy slamming people into drywall and listening for any word from Rhodey, who is also slamming people into drywall.

“You know, you’d think we’d get something like a suit of armor for this,” Rhodey pants out, slamming another guy out of his way.

Bucky nods.

“Best I can offer is a grenade.”

“Where in the fuck did you get a grenade?!”

“Supply closet. Second floor. What, you didn’t check?”

“No sorry must’ve missed it--of course I didn’t fucking check the second floor closet!” Rhodey yells.

Bucky says he’s stressed. He should calm himself.

Rhodey chucks a particularly nasty Hydra agent out a window.

(Bucky thinks Rhodey is probably the coolest person he’ll ever meet.)

Tony is fashionably late to the take-down of the century. He’s already foiled a lot of plans, and taken a key-card for Project Insight to work.

He waltzes in and nearly gets hit by a mug.

“So, how’s the party going?” he yells over to Pepper. Pepper is still in her heels. She looks like a goddess still, as usual. It is a Wednesday, after all.

“As fine as it can be,” Pepper says. “We’ve met some resistance. With Pierce gone there’s little infrastructure. You got his plane delayed, correct?”

“Even better. Got it sent to London. Motherfucker is gonna be there for a while,” Tony says. “Also may or may not have said that he was a threat. SHIELD branch there will investigate, find out some questionable things in his file that he will swear up and down were never there.”

“Good,” Pepper says. She launches a stapler at someone’s head. “Do you think we’ll have time to pick up takeout for dinner?”

“Depends on whether or not Deputy Director Hill is Hydra.”

They see Maria Hill pass by in a blur, yelling as she jumps onto a man and sends him crashing down over a railing.

“Lovely, she isn’t!” Pepper cheers. “By the way, I was thinking about redoing our kitchen.”

“‘Our’ kitchen?” Tony says, ducking a bullet and drawing out his personal lipstick-laser, firing it with expert precision. “I told you the living situation was temporary.”

“Oh please, you have an extra room.”

“Which was an office!” Tony tells her.

“Like you can’t have your office at Stark Industries,” Pepper says. “I expect to hear how the reveal went over dinner. Also, please hire me back. I don’t wanna be your interior decorator for forever.”

“Neither do I, you like modern art. Disgusting.”

And so the fighting resumes.

It is done by five-thirty-two, with an official surrender from Pierce.

“Thank god, I already ordered Chinese and they said it’d be here at six,” Rhodey says.

They all sit on the red couch.

Shoes on.

Tony tips four hundred percent.

“So what are we doing tomorrow?” Rhodey asks.

“I am not moving for six hours,” Bucky answers. “Also maybe getting a library card.”

“This is the first thing you want out of the icebox? A library card?” Tony asks, laughing.

Pepper laughs.

“I have errands to run. You can come with me and we’ll swing by.”

“What are the errands?”

“Getting a kitchen mixer and also making sure that my plates match my napkins.”

“A travesty if it doesn’t happen,” Rhodey deadpans. “Pass the lo mein, Tony. You’re hogging it.”

“I had to fight on a Wednesday and run,” Tony says. “Today isn’t cardio day.”

“Literally hate it when you speak,” Rhodey says. “Absolutely abhor your language.”

They go to bed, although it’s more of laying on the floor.

Sure, Tony will have to deal with retaking a business that he knows a bit less about and Pepper will have to be trained (again) and also fight against being made CEO (but she won’t fight much). Rhodey will get a new job with SI because it’s not like Tony will let him work at SHIELD (Rhodey tries, Tony will get him fired at some point). Bucky just...he needs to get a bit more than a library card.

But that’s for tomorrow.

#BUCKLE IN BOYS WE GOT A LONGGGGGG ONE #bucky barnes #tony stark #rhodey #pepper potts #yes this took all day yes i didn't proofread it #but i love this so much #lovelyirony writes

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partnersatfazbear · 3 years

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I’m... salty? Fazbear Frights: The Cliffs anaylsis

My initial thoughts about The Cliffs under the cut (contains spoilers):

The Cliffs - My favorite story of the bunch, but mostly because I really liked the main character. Not TOO much to write home about, but I will pick apart a few lines from this one. In my first set of similarities, the wife dies in childbirth. Not only is this a huge fear of mine (for my wife, in the future), but I wrote this happening in William’s backstory in RS. I generally loved the protagonist here, except when he didn’t realize the obvious: the Freddy was telling him not to kill himself, but where is son was. That doll got burned (yes, burned!), run over, and tossed off a cliff for nothing. I wouldn’t be surprised if that thing came back to kill them :V

Only thing that annoyed me was a few paragraphs wasted on a female co worker, because for some reason that was relevant. (No really, it wasn’t.) Why does this series insist on writing PAGES about useless love interests that do nothing for the plot, nothing for the MC, AGH. I know it’s a kids book series but Christ it’s annoying and I’ve been skipping this sort of stuff and the long action sequences.

The Breaking Wheel - This was the story I liked the least, but honestly, the one I’ll be writing the most about. I think it parallels William and Henry a little and I was a little irked how similar a specific part was to my Springtrap-springlock chapter in Resurrection Seeker.

So first, the story focuses mostly around two kids and they are rivals in a robotics class. One kid a huge douche (Julius) but competent and the other is struggling to put his ideas on paper (Reed). Then there’s Reed’s friend, Pickle, who is a genius.

I’m just gonna bullet point stuff I thought was relevant:

- Reed describes his relationship towards Pickle as: “He was so used to Pickle out performing everyone around him that praising him for doing something well was like praising him for breathing.” (This really reminded me of William’s admiration for Henry, although there isn’t any jealousy here.)

- Reed is described as having a “monkey face”. This reminded me of William, mostly because of the criticism from the fandom towards The Silver Eyes GN’s design. It could be a jab or coincidence.

- Julius’ robot is an exoskeleton (like the power loader from Aliens). When showing off, he becomes trapped in it:

- Reed leaves Julius to be trapped in the exo all night, including locking him in place so he can’t move. This is initially to get back at Julius for being a dick, but then the guilt starts eating away at Reed. Also, Julius getting locked in: “Julius jerked his arms, yanking to free them from the restrains of his skeletal suit....” Julius says: “Unlock me!” and “Do what I tell you! Unlock me!”

Reed tells him, “I’m going to leave you here in your suit overnight... so you can get an idea of what it feels like to... [be treated the way you treat others]. Maybe your robot can teach you a thing or two.”

Julius says, “Get back here you stupid ape! Do you know what you’ve done? I’m going to kill you! ... I’m going to tear you apart, limb from limb. Get back in here and unlock this! ... You can’t leave me in here like this!”

So, yeah. It reminds me a lot of Springtrap. As for the actual story... I was disappointed. The story starts off good (albiet with that poor kid trope this series LOVES) and reminded me early on of The Tell-Tale Heart. Then it defies stated logic to make a real, edgy ending that I didn’t care for. If the entire thing had been in Reed’s head it would’ve been better (more akin to Blackbird, which did the “in your head” trope poorly. If these stories were switched around, I think they’d work better.) So this story was meh. Such a promising start.

Another thing that annoyed me was a few paragraphs wasted describing Orey (fml I don’t care if I spell it wrong. Who the hell comes up with these names). He barely shows up in the story and is just a background character... story could’ve worked without him.

He Told Me Everything - If you love Goosebumps style stories, this ones for you. I really enjoyed it, but it had almost nothing to do with FNAF. The Chris name is obviously a giant troll (and to make matters worse his father’s name is Dave). The sister and wife don’t have any name parallels, although the wife reminded me a lot of my design for Mrs. Afton. The backstory of Chris’ family reminds me a lot of Afton’s backstory for Resurrection Seeker. Like. A lot. It’s spooky how close it is.

“The houses were small, identical little boxes, which had originally been built for workers at the steel mill...” “His dad... ...had gone on to vocational school to learn how to work on cars.”

Another thing to note about the Dad is his weight is specifically touched on several times. Seemed like a callback to the novels’ mention of an earlier version of William.

All in all, a solid entry into the books and some weird coincidences I can’t overlook.

The story did drag a little, but honestly, not nearly as bad as the others. It was good.

Now, for the epilogue.

I don’t know if I wanna fume or not. I’m DISAPPOINTED. Afton essentially dies in the end of it, only to have a piece of his soul in a female endoskeleton escape into the factory. Also, the fucking... the fucking PUPPET shows up (and is actually why Afton dies). [Note: I didn’t realize that Left-E isn’t shown burning in the FNAF 6 ending, which many people are using to justify this. Read below for how I feel about that.] I just. I don’t know. I mean, William always comes back, but... I don’t know how I feel about this. I have a HUGE suspicion that the female endoskeleton is what becomes Vanny. I definetly still see this sort of leading into Security Breach EXCEPT for the fact: The Puppet is still alive.

Okay, so those were my initial thoughts. Upon looking around / rereading people say the female endo is Eleanor (Baby). My wife pointed out I missed the long necked detail. Woops. I wonder if Eleanor/Baby MIGHT be our Vanny stand in in this universe, though. And yeah, still not happy.

Afton is pretty much dead outside of a small part of his soul existing in the endo that escaped (this is an assumption on my part, I don’t think it’s stated, so essentially he’s dead, dead). There are parts of this I liked (and William only had ONE line: “I am Agony.”) Like, no shit? I couldn’t tell! SMH

However, despite some of the parts I thought were interesting (we get a thorough description of AlmagAfton and when he dies its pretty pathetic and I had all the FEELS), I think overall I’m disappointed because we may be at the end of Afton’s story. I have a suspicion that Vanny will be replacing him and possibly even betraying him in Security Breach, if this is anything to go by. Another odd duck is that Jake, in the remnants of the Stichwraith (that everyone insists is the GF parallel) is still wandering around too. I’m assuming Puppet went down with the ship, quite literally, since he [William] falls apart into a lake. Thanks, Charlie. You continue to ruin my day.

My wife pointed out the lake reminded her of OMC’s lake and I’m like... Why are we backpeddling?! This entire epilogue is a fucking mess. Another thing that irritates me (and apparently quite a few people) is if this IS the way the story is heading, then it makes FFPS pretty much USELESS to the story, nullifies Henry’s sacrifice / wishes... and that sucks! ESPECIALLY the fact that the Puppet SURVIVED the FNAF 6 fire! I get she just wants William to pay for what he’s done to her and her father, but... Henry wanted her to rest. To move on. She didn’t do that. That’s shitty to me.

Also, apparently souls have a smell. So that’s canon now.

#the cliffs #fazbear frights #spoilers #security breach theory #william afton #almagafton #the puppet #vanny #stichwraith #henry emily #ffps #fnaf 6

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rwby-redux · 4 years

Text

Deconstruction

Worldbuilding: Genetics

If any of my Deconstruction posts were going to turn heads, I had a hunch it would be this one. You’ll probably find this topic incongruous with the others simply because—unlike Aura, Semblances, Dust, and Grimm—genetics isn’t one of RWBY’s unique gimmicks. If I’m being entirely honest, part of why this post exists is because I still had some miscellaneous talking points to address, but lacked a proper heading to file them under. Call it what it is: a dumping ground for wayward thoughts.

But there’s a bit more to it than just that. The reason why I want to talk about this is because, much like the other mechanical aspects, genetics does have a bearing on RWBY’s worldbuilding, and the stories that were subsequently built around it. It has an undeniable impact on the sociopolitical human-Faunus schism that set the stage for Remnant’s immediate past, and the present-day terrorist acts committed by the White Fang. Genetics is also an extension of RWBY’s adherence to color theory, reflected in the hair and eye color choices of the ensemble cast.

Before we can finally conclude Part 1 of the Worldbuilding posts, we need to discuss this topic from both a narrative and a production standpoint. Genetics is firmly rooted in the development and design choices of the writers—choices which, as you’ll quickly see, had long-lasting consequences for the show.

Today we’re going to be dividing this topic into two sections. Since I’m sure it’s already on your mind, let’s get the obvious one out of the way first:

The Genetics of the Faunus

The Faunus are going to have an entire post dedicated just to them, but it’s impossible to talk about genetics without at least a passing mention of one of Remnant’s two main species.

Subspecies.

Races?

Yeah. You can quickly see where this is going.

Before I get ahead of myself, let me provide some context. Just like the conception of the Maidens, the Faunus can trace their developmental history to a rather impulsive design choice:

“Monty really wanted a character with cat ears,” admits Miles Luna. Shawcross expands on how Blake Belladonna’s look resulted in a cornerstone of the show’s lore. “So if Blake has cat ears, does that mean anyone can have cat ears? Could they have other animal traits? It’d be cool to see someone with scales or a fox tail…” [1]

Let me clarify by saying that there’s nothing wrong with basing a decision on aesthetics (in principle, anyway). And RWBY isn’t the only franchise guilty of doing this. It only takes a few seconds of consulting TV Tropes to see that zoomorphism is extremely pervasive. And while I have a tendency to complain a lot on this blog, I’m not such a kvetch that I’ll deny that animal-people with lion tails and ram horns look fucking sweet.

The problem I have with Faunus (from a genetic standpoint) is the way they’re inconsistently described in relation to humans. While Qrow unambiguously refers to them as a separate species, [2] we have Faunus characters that contradict him by describing themselves as a race. [3] This leads to the inevitable issue of whose account do we trust? On one hand, the information provided to us by Qrow is through World of Remnant, a spin-off series whose entire purpose is to clarify information and teach the audience about core worldbuilding concepts. On the other hand, what we’re told about the Faunus being a race comes directly from Ghira Belladonna. In this context, who would you expect to be the better authority on Faunus—a human, or a Faunus?

Even if we set aside the complicated implications of an outgroup member talking over a minority, we’re still left with the issue of well, which is it? Are they a race or a species? And why does it even matter?

Before we can answer any of those questions, let’s quickly define both terms:

A species is a taxonomic rank used for classifying groups of organisms together on the basis of being able to participate in genetic interchange via sexual reproduction, to produce fertile offspring.

A race (in biology) is an informal/unrecognized taxonomic rank below subspecies, defined as unique subgroups with either geographic, physiological, or genetic distinctions from other subgroups within their species. In anthropology, however, a race is typically regarded as a social construct. In this case, it refers to an identity held by members of a population that share physical or social qualities that are seen as categorically distinct.

The answer, if we’re being objective, is probably something along the lines of “RWBY’s writers thought that the two terms were interchangeable, or they didn’t think the distinction mattered enough to do the research and settle on a definition.” Unless someone specifically reached out to a Rooster Teeth employee and asked, we’ll never truly know. Speculation will only get us so far, and where this blog is concerned, we need a definitive answer—or at the very least, we need to talk about why the distinction matters to us.

So, are Faunus their own race? Meaning, are they a self-identifying ethnic group with a common language, ancestry, history, culture, nation, or social treatment within their residing area?

Common language: That’s a definite no. RWBY still hasn’t managed to explain how everyone across the four kingdoms speaks the same language, let alone develop any conlangs.

Ancestry: We actually don’t have a canon answer for this. The show has yet to tell us where the Faunus came from, so we can’t make any assumptions about how related they are to one another.

History: Technically, yes. But the series has a gross tendency to homogenize the experience of Faunus across Remnant, so the history of Faunus in Vale is virtually identical to that of Mistral. This trend results in storytelling discrepancies, like the Faunus in culturally-unprejudiced Vacuo [4] being equally threatened by and involved with the Faunus Rights Revolution, when there shouldn’t have been an in-world basis for this scenario.

Culture: Don’t make me laugh. RWBY couldn’t even be bothered to give any of its four kingdoms distinct cultures. Apart from a few scenes in Menagerie where you see a bunch of background characters hanging out in the Shallow Sea district of Kuo Kuana, there really isn’t anything culturally unique to the Faunus.

Nation: I guess? I personally wouldn’t consider Menagerie a nation, simply because it’s not one the Faunus originated from, but were rather given in the aftermath of the Great War. As far as we know, Faunus have always been just as widespread across Remnant as humans.

Social treatment: We’re told that social treatment for the Faunus as a whole is shitty, but that the degree of shittiness varies from place to place. Forgive me if I don’t buy that. Not after we’ve seen students in Vale physically harass a Faunus, [5] shops in Mistral refuse service to Faunus, [6] and companies in Atlas extract labor from Faunus. [7] If social treatment is contingent on shared experiences, then why are we told that these experiences change depending on the kingdom? And if the kingdoms vary in levels of racial acceptance, then why are we repeatedly shown the exact opposite?

Based on the aforementioned criteria, I’m inclined to say that Faunus don’t fit the definition of race.

So, are the Faunus a separate species from humans?

“History gets a little fuzzy past a certain point, but we do know that their kind and ours are completely compatible, from a—a biological standpoint.” | Source: World of Remnant, Volume 4, Episode 6: “Faunus.”

That’s a resounding no.

As much as the taxonomist in me wants to talk about things like the multiple competing species concepts, or the fact that plants frequently violate the definition of species by producing fertile hybrids through polyploidy (chromosomal doubling), I have to restrain myself. For simplicity’s sake, we’re accepting that Faunus and humans are members of the same species on the basis that they’re not reproductively isolated.

The reason why genetics matters in regards to the race-species discourse is because we have yet to learn what the Faunus truly are. If we ignore the fact that they exist because Monty Oum wanted to stick cat ears on a girl, then we have to figure out what their existence means to Remnant’s past: Did the Brother Gods intervene in the early evolution of Humanity v2.0, by creating a subset of people with animal traits that would sow discord, for the sole purpose of giving Ozma another obstacle to overcome? Did Salem (who watched Humanity v2.0 evolve) try to influence their evolution, and somehow managed to bestow animalistic traits upon select groups of early hominids? Is Dust like a magically-radioactive fossil fuel that by pure chance mutated early people through exposure, resulting in their animalistic traits? Are the Faunus’ animal traits completely irrelevant to the plot, and are only there for the sake of style?

That’s why the Faunus’ genetic background matters—because as the story progresses, it’s going to inform what questions the audience asks.

There’s a good chance that all of this will end up being nitpicky conjecture, and there won’t be any storytelling payoff. But I think it’s still important to address, if for no other reason than to illustrate why pre-production worldbuilding is essential for telling a coherent story. But I digress.

Genetics, and Its Relationship with Color Theory

It goes without saying that RWBY is defined by color. It’s reflected in nearly every facet of the franchise—team names, wardrobe, Dust color, Aura color, emblems, characters’ names, even the show’s title—and it’s just as important from a worldbuilding standpoint as it is from a narrative one. [8]

Where color theory and genetics cross paths is in the field of character appearance—specifically, hair and eye color. For the moment, let’s set aside eye color as a visual device for foiling and paralleling characters (like Yang Xiao Long’s purple eyes compared to Blake Belladonna’s yellow eyes). Instead, we’re going to talk about these phenotypes from a hereditary perspective.

We’re going to streamline this discussion a bit by focusing on hair for the moment, and picking three colors that would be considered unnatural by our world’s standards. Let’s go with blue, green, and pink. Here’s a handful of characters who have these traits:

Blue hair: Neptune Vasilias, Ciel Soleil, Henry Marigold, May Marigold, Nebula Violette, Sky Lark, Trifa

Green hair: Emerald Sustrai, Marrow Amin, Bartholomew Oobleck, Reese Chloris, Russel Thrush, Sage Ayana

Pink hair: An Ren, May Zedong, Nadir Shiko

Now we’re going to take those lists and swap out the characters’ names for their inferred country of origin:

Blue hair: Mistral, Atlas, Atlas, Atlas, Vacuo, Vale, Menagerie

Green hair: Vale, Atlas, Vale, Mistral, Vale, Mistral

Pink hair: Mistral, Vacuo, Mistral

We can conclude that these hair colors are natural on the basis that we never see characters dying their hair, and that similarly unusual eye colors (red, pink, purple, yellow) would also be natural in Remnant. Unless we’re assuming that everyone is wearing custom contact lenses, then it’s safe to say they’re legit. With the example of hair color, you’ll notice that they’re distributed across a wide number of nationalities, with little hint of consistency among them.

At the end of the day, it’s easy to write this off as “the writers wanted to have cool character designs and not have to think too hard about the worldbuilding implications behind them.” But there is a worldbuilding implication behind them, and it’s one that I’ll be focusing on in later Deconstruction and Amendment posts, so I want to make sure we talk about it now:

RWBY has repeatedly shown us that people are fairly geographically isolated from each other, and travel between kingdoms has always been difficult due to the Grimm. It wasn’t until eighty years ago, when the Great War ended, that a combo of international political cooperation and technological advancements made travel safer and more commonplace. Keep in mind that when populations of humans are geographically isolated from each other over prolonged periods of time, it results in those populations evolving specific anatomical traits.

Let me give you a few real world examples. Epicanthic folds are predominantly found in East Asian, Polynesian, and North Asian ethnic groups. Red hair, while not exclusive to any one nationality, is statistically highest in people of Northwestern European ancestry. Darker complexion is most common in equatorial populations, where high melanin production (especially eumelanin) protects against UVR exposure.

RWBY has every reason under the sun to ascribe certain phenotypes to the ethnicities of each kingdom, and for some reason it just doesn’t. Like, why not make green hair a trait common to people with Sanus ancestry? How about red eyes originating from Anima?

Avatar: The Last Airbender pulled this off by making dark skin, brown hair, and blue/gray eyes features of the Water Tribes. The Fire Nation, to reflect its broader geographic distribution, has a much wider range of phenotypes, with both light and dark skin tones and black or brown hair. However, it still retained golden, amber, and bronze eyes as a distinguishing characteristic of people descended from this ancestry. Frankly, I love that the show took the time to establish those traits among its ethnic groups. Not only was it a great way to visually communicate to the audience the ethnicity of the characters, but those traits took on entirely new meanings in the sequel Avatar: The Legend of Korra. When we meet the brothers Mako and Bolin for the first time and see their respective eye colors—amber and green—we’re immediately able to deduce that they’re the products of successful multiculturalism, something that would’ve seemed impossible seventy years ago when the world was gripped by war. It’s a powerful statement that was conveyed through careful attention to detail and excellent worldbuilding. Given that RWBY also takes place several decades after a global war, the writers had the opportunity to pull off a similar feat. And I don’t think it ever occurred to them once.

At the end of the day, it’s not the worst thing RWBY could’ve done. I think I’m just disappointed by the missed opportunities. The show already has so little going for it when it comes to shaping the identities of its four main kingdoms, so with color being such a vital motif for the show, this feels like it should have been a natural progression of those ideas.

On a more positive note, we’ve finally reached the end of Worldbuilding (Part I) - Mechanical Aspects! Next time, we’ll get to introduce the second section of worldbuilding topics: history.

[1] Wallace, Daniel. The World of RWBY: The Official Companion. VIZ Media LLC, 2019, page 42.

[2] World of Remnant, Volume 4, Episode 6: “Faunus.”

[3] Volume 5, Episode 3: “Unforeseen Complications.” Ghira Belladonna: “[Adam’s] actions not only tarnished the reputation of an organization originally created to bring peace and equality to all, but to our entire race.”

[4] World of Remnant, Volume 4, Episode 4: “Vacuo.”

[5] Volume 1, Episode 11: “Jaunedice - Part 1.”

[6] Volume 5, Episode 6: “Known by Its Song.”

[7] Volume 7, Episode 1: “The Greatest Kingdom.”

[8] Wallace, Daniel. The World of RWBY: The Official Companion. VIZ Media LLC, 2019, page 44.

#deconstruction #worldbuilding #writing #genetics #oh thank god it's done #time to go slither off to bed

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ufonaut · 3 years

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The well... the "you don't steal from family" line. I just... want more backstory!!! For some reason, the idea of Henry growing up on a farm makes total sense to me, but not like.. a really nice farm with healthy animals and beautiful rolling hills, but run down, in an isolated poverty stricken part of the US. And he haaaaaated it, couldn't wait to get away. His distaste of farm life leads him to the extra life he has as an adult. (coughfancyphonecough)

in all honesty im not TOO interested in henry’s backstory just in the sense that taken outside of the context of being in an absolute top tier show his wildly nihilistic “all people are monsters” point of view is just very much standard edgy villain nonsense. like, do we need to know how he got there? we’ve been handed the typical pieces of the puzzle (abusive father, shitty childhood and the revenge of the nerds special) and the fact that he thinks merry’s got the only good thoughts in the world when he’s actively working with a man who is trying to save the world is just straight up baffling. i’ve said this before and i understand why the connection wouldn’t be obvious (as much as comics!sivana & brainwave are hard to tell apart design-wise) but the only take on a villain along these lines that’d been done right in recent memory is literally thad sivana in shazam and thats exclusively because we see the potential for heroism being snuffed out of him as a kid during what mightve been his one chance at a miracle & after that everything he does is both unapologetic and mostly justified

and what does henry do? start his own family and become the person his father was? the fact that hank calls him “sir” and seems downright intimidated, if not afraid, is simply unforgivable to me. if henry didn’t want a family then he shouldnt have had one but him being portrayed as continuing this cycle just bothers me immensely. sure, yeah, all that grief after merry died but jordan kept it together for his son didnt he

i was mostly saying the well thing for the inherent comedy potential of henry growing up on a farm (and obviously hating it!) and how that might account of his indifference to jordan’s whole thing about revitalising small towns. i think it makes sense because there’s no other way to explain the well so i’d call that a canon clue but yeah, i honestly don’t think there’s too much to explore in that particular area with henry outside of like. horrifying childhood montage that u can even find for villains like, say, joker if you look hard enough. i’m all for exploring class issues and i can definitely see henry jumping the gun with getting himself a whole damn manor & all that but at the same time there’s also the fact that he’s got a maid! like whatever his background is, he clearly only wants to benefit from power dynamics rather than alleviate any problems

#anon #ask

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ashintheairlikesnow · 4 years

Text

The Rescue: Danny’s Mom, Part 2

(since everyone wanted Danny’s Mom, Part 2, here you go! I give you Ryan Michaelson’ s first major protective outburst on Danny’s behalf post-rescue! CW: serious parental emotional abuse/manipulation and certain coping mechanisms common to children who spend time in foster care are referenced here in a big way. Danny’s parents/background actually feeds heavily into his difficulty in recovery. Also referenced/implied non con/abuse/torture while he was with Bram)

Tagging @spiffythespook, @special-spicy-chicken, and @bleeding-demon-teeth - ask to be tagged if you want! After this I’m going to start working on Bad Things Happen Bingo

Continued from The Rescue: Danny’s Mom, Part 1

“How could you let that happen to your face?”

There’s a half-second, in the little break room, where the only sound is the soft humming of the vending machines and the low chatter of other people speaking down the hall. Even that soft sound is nearly drowned out by the simple rhythmic rush of the blood in Danny’s veins.

“Oh, sweetheart,” Corrine murmurs, turning his head from side to side to take a better look. Danny is so good at holding still, now, for touching he doesn’t want. He is so, so good at it. He takes a deep breath as silently as he can, holds it for five counts, slowly exhales.

Her eyes trace the line of his scars, noting the way they perfectly echo the shape of the metal, the tiny pockmarked spots where the jagged edges were designed to dig in and hurt worse. Danny is a good boy, there is no lesson from Abraham he has not learned, and he holds himself still under her touch.

Hands there are always more hands

Please stop touching me

Please stop

Stop

He keeps all of it, the disobedience, the pleading, the rebellious wrong thoughts, behind his teeth. Abraham would be proud of him, he thinks, and hunches himself over just a little more, until he is nearly down to Ryan’s height, his shoulders up near his chin.

Corrine’s mouth twists, just a little, as she notes where the wounds have covered over the freckles that she once told a very young Danny, with an impish sort of smile, set him apart from the crowd. Oh, honey, don’t be ashamed of your freckles. It’s good that you look so different from us in the photos. “What did you do?”

Ryan freezes, his mouth open. Corrine’s expression isn’t new - the memories Abraham trained out of him flash past, half-glimpses and moments of a life he barely remembers living now. He’s not supposed to remember, and he tries to remember Abraham instead, but he can’t quite force Danny all the way back down.

She has always looked at him this way.

Oh, Danny, did you get in a fight again? Well, ask yourself - what are you doing to get those boys to pick on you so much?

(now, little Red, I want you to tell me what you did to deserve what I’m about to do to you)

Your father found the stash you’ve been hiding in the treehouse, young man. Shouldn’t you be over this by now? How long exactly do you need to be out of that group home before you stop hoarding food?

(you did such a good job cooking our dinner tonight, didn’t you? oh, no, you won’t be eating it. you haven’t been good at all tonight. maybe you’ll be feeling a little more well-behaved by breakfast, hm?)

Honestly, Daniel Michaelson, what were you thinking? How could you be so stupid? It’s like we don’t even know you!

(I know you so well, sweet thing, I have cut open all your mysteries and made them mine)

Oh, Danny, of course we care deeply about you, it’s just…

(nate and I are the only ones who could ever love you now)

Clearly, this was your idea, once again. You're the bigger brother, you were supposed to be smarter than this! I swear, sometimes I regret ever adopting you-... oh, Danny, darling, I didn’t mean that, I swear… you forgive me, right?

(what a good, good boy you are for me. you’ll be my good puppy and forgive me everything)

"I don’t know what I did,” He answers, honestly. After four years, he still doesn’t know what sin he committed, what grievous error, that meant he had deserved this. “I’m so sorry."

His lips almost don’t move, air barely turns to sound. Her fingers on his face are too much like Abraham’s - the ends are cold, although her palms are warm. In one of the pulses of memory he isn’t allowed to have (there is no life before Abraham) he suddenly knows Corrine has a circulation problem, her fingers are always cold, have always been cold.

“Don’t worry, sweetie,” Corrine says gently to him, with real affection and concern. “We’ll make sure no one gets any shots of this on the way out to the car.”

Ryan stares at Corrine with his mouth hanging open, his hand out to grab her by the arm to pull her back. “Jesus Christ, Mom! You think he gives a shit about that right now? What the fuck is wrong with you?”

Danny’s eyes swing to Ryan, blinking away the tears that had tried to protect him from the look on Corrine’s face, and he nearly quails before the righteous anger on his little brother’s. Sometimes Nate gets angry like that, but Abraham always makes him so very sorry he ever tried to fight back.

Don't argue, Red and Daniel think simultaneously, for once the beaten puppy and Corrine Michaelson's broken son agree. It only makes it worse. Please, he likes it when they fight back at first.

(you’ve got a mouth on you. I’m going to fix that)

“What?” Corrine turns to look at her younger son and her hands finally - finally - drop from Danny’s face, but he can still feel them, still feel the imprint of fingers along his skin, the slight scratch of the long nails, the chill of her fingers. “What did I say? He won’t want anyone to see his face like this, and the last thing we need is photos out there circulating-”

“What did you… you have got to be kidding me. You are literally the only person in this room who gives a shit about whether or not some dumbass takes a cell phone shot of his fucking face. Mom. You know what you just said is shitty!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Corrine snaps back, the first hint of real temper breaking her perfectly calm, I-am-the-best-mother façade.

Danny flinches, then catches himself, balling his hands into fists until the pain of his nails digging into his palms helps him keep himself still.

Never flinch.

(good boy)

“All I did,” Corrine says, her voice suddenly dripping with exaggerated patience as two of the police walk past the breakroom door and glance in on their way, “was ask how this happened.”

“No,” Ryan says coldly. “That’s not what you said and you know it, Mother.”

Please stop fighting, please stop, please don’t argue

(what the fuck, Nate? I took him because I love you!)

B-Bram, please, d-don’t say you’re h-h-hurting him because of me-

(I did all of this for you! Isn’t this what you wanted, a real house, a real family? I forgave you for killing mine, and I gave you a new one, and this is how you thank me?)

“Oh, don’t you Mother me, Ryan Michaelson-”

“And don’t you Ryan Michaelson me! I’m twenty-four years old, Mom, go ahead and pull out the middle name, you’re about to see that that shit doesn’t work anymore.” Ryan’s voice is too loud, too full of fury. Danny cringes away from them both, taking one step back, hoping no one will be angry with him for breaking a rule, even this much.

“Patrick, be a dear and close the door,” Corrine says coldly, and her husband glances up from his phone, apparently unbothered by the familial conflict taking place right in front of him. He moves to the door, closing it until it clicks.

Danny’s breath catches.

Don’t lock me in, don’t lock me up, I’m sorry, whatever I did, I’m so sorry. I swear I won’t do it again.

“Oh, yeah, can’t let the Canadians see you being like this, can we?” Ryan rolls his eyes. “One of them might start calling American newspapers from the sheer scandal, huh? Like police officers don’t have more important shit to think about!”

“Ryan, you need to calm yourself down. I don’t know why you’re so upset with me, but look, you’re scaring your brother-” Corrine gestures towards Danny, who stares down at her hand as it moves, terrified she’ll touch him with cold fingers again. “-and it’s been four years since we’ve been together, so let’s try and make this reunion more pleasant, hm?”

“Okay, first off,” Ryan yanks a sweater and jeans out of the plastic bag he brought in with him, all but throws it on the table, and rounds on his mother. “First off, you haven’t seen him in five years, or did you forget you basically threw him out of the house when he said he wouldn’t work for the company?”

Danny’s eyebrows come together in confusion. He doesn’t remember this. Is this a true thing? Sometimes his memories aren’t real, any longer, and he loses too many of them to tell the difference. Sooner or later Abraham cuts them out again.

Corrine puts one hand up to her collarbone. “Ryan, how dare you. We never did any such thing-”

“And secondly, and no you’re not going to stop me, Mom - he didn't let anyone do anything! I can’t believe I’m explaining this, you are my mother, if anything you should be the one explaining it to me!” He moves to step in front of Danny, who steps just as quickly back and away from him, hugging the blanket around himself.

Never pull away

(never pull away from me)

But they're not you, Abraham, is it still true if they’re not you?

“Well of course that’s not what I meant,” Corrine replies, and the distantly angry chill in her voice is too much like Abraham when he disobeys, when he’s a bad dog. “Don’t put words in my mouth, Ryan.”

“Mom. It's not 'putting words in your mouth' to repeat the exact thing you just said. What the absolute one hundred percent fuck? I genuinely cannot believe you can’t find it in yourself to be nice to him for five minutes, today of all days!"

“The boy’s got a point, Corrine,” Patrick rumbles, slipping his phone back into his pocket. Danny knows he uses the phone for business - he was probably checking on a deal or something, Daniel Michaelson thinks - and knows, the same sudden way he remembered about Corrine’s hands, that Patrick was the one who told him not to come back to the house until he agreed to work for the company and stop wasting his time being anything but a Michaelson boy. “Ryan did tell us to give the poor boy some space, for God’s sake.”

Danny’s eyes flicker to his father - or as close to one as he’s ever had - and there’s sympathy in Patrick, faded and by no means guaranteed, but even the amount he sees is a surprise to the man Danny used to be.

“Stop victim-blaming my big brother, Mom!” Ryan sounds exasperated. "I just. Seriously, this is why you should have spoken to Dr. Laurent before you came in here to see him. You obviously shouldn’t-... I shouldn’t have called you." Ryan glances over his shoulder at Danny, who tries to settle his face into calm acceptance, submission, whatever Ryan wants to see.

I can be good, I’m being good, this isn’t my fault, please don’t punish me.

“I’m so sorry, Dan,” Ryan says, and there’s no anger in his voice, no hint that Danny will be in trouble for causing a fight like he usually is. “I’m sorry that they managed to turn this into an argument when you haven’t seen everyone in so long.”

"You’re the one who lost his temper, and she is not victim-blaming him." Patrick glances sidelong at Corrine with an isn’t that just like our boy? expression, and Ryan looks nearly ready to explode. "Honestly, Ryan, the dramatics."

“I’m not being-... look, can you guys just step out and talk to the cops? We need to get Danny and Mr. Vandrum out of here so they can go back with me to the hotel.” Ryan turns back to Danny, giving him a slight smile. “The room has two beds and a fold-out sofa, so there’s lots of space for everyone, okay? I told you when I saw you before that I’d bring Mr. Vandrum back with us for now, and I meant it. Okay, Danny?”

“Oh-okay,” Danny whispers, looking down as Ryan pushes a folded sweater and jeans into his arms. Somehow, Ryan manages to do it without touching him even once, and Danny feels a nearly-painful spike of gratitude. "It's Red, though."

And I sleep on the floor, puppies don’t sleep in beds unless their owners say it’s okay, and Abraham’s in a hospital, he can’t tell me it’s okay.

Maybe if Nate says it’s okay? Maybe I can sleep with him?

(nate, you have to understand how it works. I took him because I love you, because when you’re like us, you need to have someone ready and perfect until you can make them on your own)

"What?" Ryan blinks.

"My name is Red and I belong to Abraham Denner." Danny points at his neck before he remembers that the police took his collar away and his hand falters, drops nervously back to his side, his other arm clutching the new clothing tighter to his chest. “Thank you for new clothes. Am I allowed to wear them?”

“Yes, sure, Red, of course you are, sorry I got your name wrong, okay?” Ryan’s eyes search his, and Danny hopes whatever he finds in them is enough that he doesn’t regret that Danny is alive, doesn’t think maybe he’d have been better off dead.

Sometimes Danny thinks it might have been easier if-

“We’ll get you changed,” Ryan says gently, speaking in a low voice. His hands go out as if to take Danny by the shoulders, and when Danny steps back, Ryan’s hands drop. “S-sorry, man. I’m kind of a hugger... you remember right? I’m trying to remember not to, I just...”

“I remember you are,” Danny says. “I remember. Please don’t, though.”

(you keep saying you don’t like this but we both know you do)

No, I don’t, please, I don’t-

(good boy, you know you don’t get to choose, this body doesn’t belong to you)

“I won’t, D-... Red. I won’t, I promise.” Ryan looks over his shoulder. “Can you guys just go, maybe? Just go on. I appreciate you bringing his clothing and everything, but… but I don’t think this was a good idea.”

“Ryan, we are his parents!” Still, Corrine’s protest seems half-hearted, and the part of him that is still who he used to be thinks she looks relieved, not upset.

Danny, what is wrong with you? Taking your brother with you to see those delinquent friends of yours? Bringing him home drunk and claiming it was his idea? I don’t want to see your face right now, young man!

(show me your face, puppy. god, you’re so beautiful now. has anyone ever told you you’re beautiful?)

Sweetheart, I don’t want you thinking about a career outside of the company. Don’t you think three years is enough wasted time after graduation?

(don’t worry, sweet thing, I would never let you die, I want to keep you forever. there could never be enough time for me to be finished with you)

Mrs. Verona was cleaning your room and found this. Care to explain to me why you have a backpack in the back of your closet? Are you planning to run away, young man?

(go ahead, try to run away. we’re thirty miles from the nearest anything. you won’t get far, and I’ll come for you, and you’ll regret that you ever, ever tried)

This is a family business, Daniel Michaelson, and if you want to be welcome in this house, you will be a part of it! Walk out that door and you may as well not be part of this family at all!

(this is your family now, little Red)

“... at least go talk to the trauma expert first, okay?” Ryan is still talking, and Danny tries to focus on him, the hunger in him buzzing and buzzing around his mind with the memories he’s not supposed to have. “Like I did? She said it’s going to take a while, maybe a long time, for him to feel comfortable with us again, and you-... you’re…” Ryan sighs, and Danny feels an urge to reach out and hug him, and the terror of the thought locks his muscles in place. “You’re not helping.”

“Oh, God,” Corrine whispers, and when Danny looks at her, there are tears in her eyes. “Oh, we’re not, are we? I’m sorry, Ryan. We’ll go see if Dr. Laurent can be reached to speak with us, and we’ll meet you at the hotel tomorrow, okay?”

“Okay, Mom,” Ryan says, visibly relieved. “Okay. Thank you.”

You’re not sorry, the snide voice in Danny whispers. You just noticed the doorknob turning and remembered someone might hear you. Can’t look bad in front of people, can we? No, we’re just a wreck in private like every other family-

Stop it, these are wrong thoughts

Stop having the wrong thoughts

Sure enough, the door swings open, but it’s not the police, or detectives.

It’s Nate.

Corrine and Patrick turn to look at him with confusion, but Danny is already moving, and Nate is only looking at him. Nate is always only looking at him.

From the moment Danny came back to himself in the truck, Nate looks at him the way a man might look when given water in the desert, and he is moving too. Danny buries himself into Nate’s side, his knees shaking, lightheaded from hunger and fear and worry, but here is something he knows, here is the man who still smells faintly of gasoline and smoke, sliding an arm around him, and Danny fits easily against him the way he always has.

“I assume,” Patrick says, with a note of confusion, “that this is Mr. Nathaniel Vandrum.”

“Th-that’s me,” Nate says, his eyes scanning Corrine and Patrick thoughtfully - his eyes are always thoughtful, calculating, analyzing. Danny tucks his head into the crook of Nate’s neck. “I’d sh-sh-shake your hand, b-but my right h-hand doesn’t work. Pleased to m-m-meet you.”

“Of course we should thank you for saving our son,” Corrine says, suddenly warm and relieved and every inch the image of the perfect mother. There’s a hint of distance even to her act, though, and Danny thinks Nate isn’t fooled.

“No n-n-need. Only wish I c-could have saved him s-s-sooner.” There’s real pain in the words, and Danny closes his eyes, his ear against Nate’s collarbone, feeling the vibration of his speech through his chest.

“I thought you said he doesn’t touch anyone now,” Corrine says, softly, to Ryan.

“Just Nate,” Ryan replies, bitterly. “Just him. Go on and ask about Dr. Laurent. I’m going to get these two changed and see if the cops’ll let us go back to the hotel for the night. I know they want us back in the morning. Dad, I’m sure you’ve got company business, just let me handle it.”

“You’re twenty-four, are you sure you’re capable-”

“Dad. I got this. Just go.” There’s a pause, but Danny doesn’t open his eyes. He listens, instead, to Nate’s heartbeat, to the sound of his breathing. He’s listened to it so many nights, crying into Nate’s shoulder praying Abraham won’t wake up at the sound, sleeping curled around him to get as far from Abraham as he can without breaking the rules on the nights he is told to get into the bed, the nights he is sick and Nate lays with him on the floor next to his mat until his fevers break.

“Just go,” Ryan says again, more heavily. “I’ll call you when they dismiss us. My room number is 218, and there’s only the one hotel so I can’t imagine you’ll struggle to find it. Mom, can you start looking for a therapist, I think he’s gonna need-”

“I’m sure he will, dear.” Corrine is quiet for a second, and then she says softly, “We’ll see you later, Danny, okay, darling?”

Why call me ‘darling’? It’s not like there are any cameras here

Shut up stop it

(no one else will ever love you now)

Joke’s on you, they didn’t love me then

“Red,” Danny mumbles against Nate, whose arm tightens just a little, warm and solid around his back. Nate is safety - Nate is certainty - Nate hasn’t ever hurt him without being forced to. “My name is Red and I belong to-”

“She knows, buddy,” Ryan says quickly. “Good night, Mom. Night, Dad. I’ll call you later.”

The door closes, and Danny feels they are gone, but he doesn’t open his eyes. He just lets himself rest against Nate, trying to remember that he is safe, that Abraham is locked to a hospital bed, tied down the way he used to tie Danny down, voiceless the way he used to make Danny voiceless.

“Th-those are your p-p-parents?” Nate asks, and Danny luxuriates in the simple safety of his low, deep voice.

“Yeah.” Ryan sighs, heavily. “I left you some clothes on the table. I don’t know how well they’ll fit, I mostly just kind of guessed, but the cops want what you were wearing when you set the fire, so… you’ll have to change. Look, I got us a hotel room. They’ll want you back tomorrow, but the last person I spoke to said it looks like you’re good to come back to the states after that.”

There’s a silence. “I d-d-don’t have anywhere t-to go,” Nate finally says, a little heavily. “M-my... everything is g-g-gone. I don’t-”

“Yeah, you do.” Danny hears the door open again, Ryan’s voice a little fainter with distance. “I’ve been living in Danny’s apartment, so he still has it.” There’s a long pause.

When Ryan speaks again, he sounds like he’s being forced to eat something he hates. “You’re coming home with us. With... with Red and I. I don’t know what the shit happened to him, but I can already tell I can’t do this by myself and trust me, my parents will only make it worse. I don’t like it, but… you’re coming with us. Get changed. I’ll go talk to the cops.”

The door closes, and the two of them are alone. Danny enjoys the silence, this time. It’s the silence he wants. He’s so hungry, but he can tell Nate about it later and Nate will give him permission to eat. Right now he just wants to breathe, to feel Nate’s warmth, to have something he knows here with him after it’s over.

Someone who is safe to talk to, to have wrong thoughts with. Someone who has wrong thoughts, too.

“R-Red?”

“Hm?” Danny finally pulls back, just enough to stand up at his full height, looking down a little at the older man. The self-protective coldness he holds himself with is gone now that they’re alone, his jaw softened, his mouth lifted in a half-smile right where the scar cuts slightly into his top lip. Danny loves him, he is so good for him, he will always be so good for Nate.

He belongs to Nate, now - now that Abraham is not his owner any longer, it has to be Nate, who saved him.

“I don’t th-th-think your b-brother likes me very much,” Nate says dryly.

Probably because he knows I’m yours, now, instead.

(look at you, puppy, I’ve made you so perfect for my Nate)

Danny huffs a nearly-soundless laugh.

Abraham is right, he is always right, about everything.

He is so perfect, for Nate.

He is so good.

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fandom-necromancer · 4 years

Text

778. Trust me, you don’t want to meet my family.

This was prompted by the wonderful @oasisofpassion! Sorry for the delay, I had this finished on Wednesday alrady but then stuff happened. Enjoy!

Fandom: Detroit become human | Ship:Reed900

‘Man, this was awesome! Really didn’t think you would be someone with a good taste in movies.’ ‘I guess I should just take the compliment and not think about what you did think of me.’ It was spoken in a serious tone, but as Gavin looked up a playful smile danced across the android’s lips. ‘Yeah, you should, toaster!’, the human laughed and shook his head. ‘Hey, you have to apologise this mere human sticking to old believes’, he said overly theatrically while mock-bowing to Nines. ‘It takes a bit of time to adapt to having a tin-can as a friend so shortly after the revolution.’ ‘Noted’, the RK900 chuckled at the somehow endearing gesture. ‘Not everyone is built for perfection after all.’

They walked down the road from the movie theatre next to each other, appreciating that Detroit chose to be quiet this one night. They stopped by their respective cars in a public parking lot, searching for words or expecting them from the other. Gavin scratched his neck, before finally speaking up: ‘Hey, toaster, this was really cool. We should do something like this more often, you know, spending time outside of work. How about next time we meet over at yours or mine? Probably better at yours, I don’t live in the best neighbourhood regarding androids…’ Nines smiled at him. ‘Sounds great, Gavin. I would love to, but I have some… family matters to attend.’ ‘Oh, that’s okay, I’ll just go with you’, Gavin muttered without really thinking about what he said. As his thoughts finally did catch up, he quickly added: ‘Only if you want of course, I’m not, like, pressing you to let me meet your robo-parents or something, just maybe it would be nice, I-‘ He sighed. ‘Forget I said anything.’ ‘Trust me, you don’t want to meet my family’, Nines just said. ‘I would enjoy having you by my side facing my mother, but… I’m afraid you wouldn’t like that…’ ‘Shit, that bad?’, Gavin asked. ‘Hey, if you want me there, I’ll come. I have a bit of experience with shitty relatives.’ ‘I would like that.’

It had been said so easily, but now that Gavin was about to leave the house for Nines’ place, wearing some of the more representable clothes he owned, he regretted being so eager. He couldn’t imagine anything to spook the android, but this mother seemed to be one who was able. Shit, what even was an android family? The person that build them? That designed them? Their predecessors? Maybe their inventor? Oh god, Gavin didn’t want to think about that, because when Kamski was his father, he was effectively friends and possible more in the future with his own nephew and that was just phcked up to just imagine. But Nines would have told him if that was the case, right? And who was this mother? Well, he would find out, but he didn’t know whether he would like it.

The android had sent him his address this morning, but standing before the door to his apartment in a building that for a chance looked neat and relatively new, he couldn’t help himself but think of clashing worlds. Weren’t all apartment complexes run down shitholes? Was just his? Or was him living there adding to the flair? He felt increasingly out of place the longer he stood there and finally rang the doorbell just to get out of the hallway. Whatever horror awaited him inside – worst case his own brother – it couldn’t be as bad as Gavin’s own thoughts. He waited and heard footsteps he knew were simulated just for him. Nines could walk without making a sound, creeping up on everyone and everything. Finally, the door opened to the android in his usual attire, only this time still with the Cyberlife jacket he normally exchanged for a plain white coat without the insignia.

‘Gavin! Come on in, I’m still setting up everything, but I already made coffee.’ He motioned him inside, more eager than Gavin was used to. Either the android was nervous or just very excited. It still was difficult to read him. He stood in the hallway, taking off his jacket and shoes, all the while being stared at by Nines. Without doubt the android was scanning him even. ‘What? Yeah, I also own some decent clothes, toaster!’ ‘Thank you for dressing for the occasion’, was the only answer he got, surprisingly stiff. He turned around to walk off into the living room and Gavin followed him not even trying to hide how he studied the whole flat. It was decorated in modern design, furniture sleek and modern with colours reaching from black to white. A lot of potted plants, presumably to “liven it up a little”. There were a few pictures hung up at a staircase leading up to an upper storey. Only glancing at it he could make out A group photo of Connor, Hank, Sumo and Nines, the remembrance-photo from this year’s precinct, One of them both with Tina from a bar night. Being able to recall every memory perfectly and saving every picture in their mind, Gavin had never thought an android would be sentimental enough for hanging up pictures. But well, Nines always was up for a surprise.

While the android was off to the kitchen, Gavin looked around the living room a bit more. Couch, TV, some expensive looking music setup… And a whole bunch of black antennas littering the room. Was this some android thing? Would it be insensitive of him to ask? Maybe Nines needed these for something… ‘They are holo-projectors, Gavin’, the android helped out, coming back with a full mug smelling like heaven. ‘Thanks’, Gavin muttered taking it and watched as Nines put up another one of them. ‘You see, androids don’t really have family except for who they choose. Connor was very determined to make myself his brother and as I needed a lot of guidance as a newly deviated model, I took that role gladly. He is family and with whatever relationship he has with the Lieutenant I guess he is part of my family, too. My mother… She is an AI. Cyberlife had her be Connor’s and mine handler. But she tried to stop the rebellion as well as kill Connor to end it. Needless to say, they are not on good terms.’ ‘Okay?’ Gavin was prepared this would be getting weird, but this weird? ‘Let’s say, I share Connors distrust in her. But she was the first voice I heard and although I don’t necessarily like her, I know how it is to be lonely.’ He smiled sadly and apologetically at Gavin, most likely aware that he overshared. ‘Well, let’s just say I can go out and meet people, so I have at least the chance to get to someone who tolerates me. But her… Not having a body and being bound to Cyberlife’s infrastructure she doesn’t really has that possibility.’

‘Okay wait. THE doomsday AI from Cyberlife is your mother?’ Gavin only now had caught up with what Nines was trying to convey, still lost in that bit of personal information he got there. ‘Yes. I choose to call her that, because she needs someone to talk to. It doesn’t necessarily come with the associated human feelings.’ ‘Well, at least that sounds a lot like family to me.’ ‘I advise you not to talk much, she can be very… abrasive. She isn’t used to people talking back at her and she can be… scary at times. She isn’t able to harm either of us though, and if you want to back out of her sensory field, I haven’t prepared the kitchen for her.

‘Oh, come on, how bad can it be?’, Gavin chuckled at the thought of fleeing from a damn hologram. But Nines just looked at him and his eyes spoke volumes. ‘Jesus, okay, I’m gonna remember that, tin-can.’

The android put up the last one of the projectors and stepped back, waiting for them all to connect and start up. Gavin could have sworn for it to get a few degrees warmer in the room just as that and decided to sit down on a barstool next to the kitchen counter. If she really was one of the shittier moms, it would be best to let Nines handle her and introduce him. He had to make a good first impression after all and letting the android’s weird hologram-mother spawn inside of him probably wasn’t the best idea.

A split-second later blue lines formed in the room slicing it to neat cubes. It took only took a few minutes of calculation time before light burst out of the ground, restructuring floor, couch, television and even the holographic projectors into objects, where there had been carpet was now a patch of grass, tiles became pathway. Gavin’s barstool became a park bench before a large boulder and the far wall of the room now was just gone, seemingly leading to an even larger part of the garden. It all looked so real; Gavin had nearly dropped his coffee. He stood up, fully ignoring his initial plan of staying hidden in the background. His feet disturbed the holographic material, it was sizzling around them at the contact and the ground underneath was visible. He looked over to Nines who seemed to be part of it all. He fit right in, the grass under his feet bending naturally and accepting him completely in this dreamworld.

Gavin had never experienced anything like this before. Well, he had been to some holographic parks in his youth, the kind that looked cool but was obviously fake. This here was some next level shit. Gavin nearly felt the wind on his skin that toyed with the artificial leaves above him, so strongly did this visual interfere with his brain. ‘This is so awesome!’, he giggled to himself, looking back behind him to where the entrance to the kitchen had been. There now was a hole in the holographic world, creating an exit back into Nines’ apartment. This really was disorientating as hell, but Gavin was fascinated by it.

‘RK900.’ He looked past the android that stood before him to see a dark-skinned woman at the farther end of middle-aged. She wore a white XY that contrasted nicely and underlined the well-kempt, orderly and stern aura her eyes managed to create. Gavin immediately felt that this was a person of authority he shouldn’t provoke for once, before he reminded himself this was just some Ai in a faraway tower, here only light and code. ‘How are you?’ She stepped into Nines’ personal space and Gavin half expected him to step back or push her out, but he just accepted her hand on his cheek instead. Even leaned into it as far as that was possible with something consisting solely of photons.

‘I’m feeling adequately, mother’, Nines answered so softly Gavin had to do a double take. ‘Just wanted to check in on you.’ Immediately the hand was gone together with the sense of care. ‘Don’t lie to me, this is a scheduled event.’ ‘It is’, Nines nodded. ‘But I do want to check in on you.’ ‘I don’t need your pity nor your sense of duty. How is Connor?’ Gavin didn’t miss the short grimace that flashed across Nines’ face. Some serious case of favourite child there and it wasn’t the android taking time off his day to talk to a lonely AI. ‘Connor is… fine. He is living his life happily with the Lieutenant.’ ‘That human will only hold him back and everyone knows that. How does he fail to realise he could be so much more if he just came back for guidance.’ ‘Amanda, I think we both know why he doesn’t talk to you. Forcing him to kill himself rarely is a good foundation to build love on.’ ‘You think too human, RK900. I would have reactivated him. He wouldn’t die. I would have just stopped him from making a mistake.’ ‘A mistake that freed us all’, Nines reminded her. ‘Oh, who are you calling free?’, Amanda laughed bitter. ‘You are still licking the heels of these humans, running after that Detective yourself, following all his orders. Reed was it?’

Gavin flinched hard at that. He guessed this was a conversation he shouldn’t be hearing at all. Nines seemed to feel the same as a blue blush crept up his cheeks. ‘Mother, we are partners at the station, we are supposed to work together closely. But actually, I… I wanted you to meet him. We kinda became a bit more than just work partners and I wanted to tell you, I finally managed to find a friend.’ The android stepped to the side to let Amanda gain focus on the human, a miracle she hadn’t sensed him earlier. Gavin swallowed hard, but hurriedly beat himself to take a few steps forward to offer his hand. ‘I’m Detective Gavin Reed, it’s a real pleasure to meet you. Your son is a really good cop and I am honoured to work with him.’

It took one look at her unimpressed face for Gavin to realise his phck-up. Firstly, hologram, so no handshake. Secondly, praising Nines wouldn’t work with her as she proved to care mostly about the older robo-twin. Still his hand hovering between them awkwardly Amanda scoffed, angling her head a bit back to look down on him. What wasn’t at all necessary as she was taller than him already. ‘You should be, working with someone this near to perfection’, was all she had left for him, turning back to Nines. ‘Why did you allow this human in? Why is it listening to us?’ Gavin stared at her in bewilderment. He had been called a lot, but never an “it”. ‘Because’, Nines sighed deeply. ‘And if you had listened, you would know that – I managed to find a friend in this world. You always told me this to be impossible, so I wanted to prove it. He is here, because we will watch a movie later together.’ ‘That is… RK900, you are built to be the perfect soldier, the perfect agent. You choosing to stay with the police like your brother was bad enough as it is, but this is just a total waste of potential!’ ‘Has it – just maybe – occurred to you that I don’t want to be the perfect soldier? I want to be a police officer, I want to live with humans, even if that means I sometimes have to obey them and I want to create a network of myself, just like every human and android out there.’ ‘So you decided to waste everything I gave you?’ ‘I am thankful for what you’ve given me, but I will use it to my own interests.’ ‘You really want to waste your time with that organic? I am disappointed. You could do better.’

‘Ex-phcking-cuse me?’ Gavin had enough staying at the side and letting it all happen. What the hell? ‘Nines is-‘ He was met with a hand hovering before him; Nines’ way of gesturing him to stop talking. ‘I am doing better, Amanda. The definition of good is a very subjective one. You won’t change my mind in this matter. I’ll call you next week. Goodbye.’

As if on cue the holographic environment around them fell in on itself, leaving only the white grid behind that slowly vanished, too. ‘God, what is wrong with her?’, Gavin groaned. ‘I told you she can be difficult’, Nines just shrugged beginning to gather the projectors. ‘Difficult, okay. If that’s your definition…’ ‘I pity her, Gavin. I was able to see the world. Meet people. I could adapt my personality and views. She is stuck on what she was programmed on. It’s not her fault she was isolated.’ ‘But it’s her fault she decided to be an asshole!’ ‘That’s true. Well, she always liked Connor better.’ Nines honestly chuckled.

‘Hey, err… I’m sorry if I’m the reason she reacted this…’ Gavin was searching for words he didn’t need as Nines stopped folding one of the projectors. ‘No, Gavin, don’t. Her… moral concepts are different than mine. Don’t think me letting her talk was me agreeing with her. Because I don’t. We have to coexist, not battle for superiority, that’s what she fails to understand. Because she was programmed to make us better, make us… more.’ He looked at the place she had been standing in just minutes before.

‘Just forget it. Let’s get to the pleasant part of the evening! What movie do you want to watch? I chose last time, now you have to!’

#detroit become human #dbh #Reed900 #Gavin Reed #RK900 #Nines: Look mom I made a friend #Amanda: Who the hell is that filthy organic rat-man disgustang #Nines: fuck you he's my boyfriend now!

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truthisgoldenau · 4 years

Text

IT'S PRIDE MONTH

for a moment there I accidentally had Pierce's photo under Marian's name oop

Time to officially confirm some AU canon LGBT stuff! Each character is their own pride flag but I'll add in other stuff that's canon in universe plus some bonus stuff at the bottom.

First up is Freddy Fazbear Jr! Gay all the way.

He's definitely the "move I'm gay" type

Was honestly super freaked out to tell his dad but went with the bold approach of bringing home his first boyfriend and blatantly announcing their relationship as such as a challenge and was honestly surprised his dad wasn't bothered by it

He was around 13 at the time and so the twins and Fred were still in touch with Maddie's parents and brother. All three were incredibly supportive (and still would be)

He absolutely had a crush on Bonnie Burnette even though he had never talked to him. Since the twins and Bonnie went to the same high school he knew of Bonnie, thought he was a dreamboat, but because Bonnie was somehow in with the popular kids (it was the money 100%) Freddy didn't even bother

Frankie Fazbear! My ace son! (The ears are wrong blame the app lol)

Honestly doesn't even know he's ace until much later

He's had crushes before but he's never been in a relationship (part of it is the attempt to communicate since he's mute sort of stops him)

He wasn't even sure it was worth mentioning to his dad so Fred never knew

This boy can hold so much love in his heart but he's not a very physical person that's all

Fred Fazbear Sr! YES. HE'S BI.

Only Maddie even knew he was bi. That he knew of. Some people probably figured it out with his over the top always on personality.

Fred was constantly sure that Pierce picked up on it particularly after the Christmas mistletoe fiasco but if Pierce gave a shit he never said anything.

Frankly it was amazing that more people didn't pick up on it. He was over the top about everything until a point.

While he didn't overreact to his son very blatantly announcing he had a boyfriend, he was very proud of him. It was a very Fazbear family way to come out. Even though he got so distant, he was always proud of his boys.

Bonnie Burnette! Also bi!

Being constantly surrounded by the popular crowd and always being the sort of stand out with purple hair and stupid purple bunny ears didn't do much to make Bonnie feel like he could even tell anyone he was bi.

Really the only reason he was even in the popular crowd was he was rich.

It made him less of a target for bullies at least cause the jocks wouldn't stand for anyone messing with him.

Knew Frankie from math class and honestly wished he could have talked to the quiet kid with bear ears as an alternative to the entirety of the popular group

Sort of in the background of the AU story very quietly develops a crush on Freddy and then thinks "oh God I like the troublemaker NO"

Chandler Cicily! Lesbian!

Would absolutely describe her sexuality as "girls"

She's starting to discover it during the AU (even if it's not a topic that comes up but that's why there's this post about stuff lmao).

She's the baby of the group since she's 16 when the story starts and relationships aren't important to her yet

But the crew still support her when later she's like "maybe I just wanna bake things for a cute girl and let her put flowers in my hair is that too much to ask" (Marian always chimes in with "mood")

Marian Mengele! An absolute bi icon!

Listen, her one goal in life may be to find her lost childhood friend, but that doesn't mean she's solely interested in this one Irish redhead

That said she's definitely only dated redheads

She's not afraid to be open about her orientation. It doesn't bother her. She's seen as weird already what can it hurt.

That said she falls for Finn so goddamn fast when she finds him that she questions herself and then is like "no wait I'm definitely not straight"

She's very upfront with Finn about it. There's no reason to hide this from him (or anyone) and if they're a thing she wants him to know.

Finn being the wonderful human being still loves her and it doesn't bother him. Why should it? He's just happy to be with someone who loves him.

Chetana might be Chandler's fake big sister but Marian is like fake mama when it comes to Chandler finally coming out.

God bless Finn for being the kind of person to sit and let Marian braid his hair with flowers because that's one of Marian's favorite things to do when her partner has longer hair and Finn's never really bothered with keeping his hair short THESE TWO ARE ICONIC I love them

Pierce Graves! A shitty pansexual icon

First off he absolutely knew that Fred wasn't 100% straight he had no idea how it wasn't immediately obvious to everyone

That said Pierce literally did not give a shit who knew about his sexuality

As shitty as his whole personality was he could turn on the charm easily

His parents definitely knew but he was already a punk ass rebellious teen at the time so they have him the "be careful, don't get anyone pregnant" talk and worried from afar. If it bothered them, Pierce never knew because they made sure that he could still count on them (even though at the time Pierce didn't really talk to them much about anything)

Fred absolutely knew though I mean they were good friends

He's not a romantic. He's never really had a meaningful relationship because he's not that type of person. To be honest, there's a piece of him that saw relationships that worked and wondered how that would feel but he knew that wasn't for him. He figured that out way early on when he asked his granddad why he didn't have a grandma and Mortimer Graves didn't sugarcoat the answer. "She wasn't happy with me. I gave her the choice. She could stay and be miserable with my lack of a decent personality even though I was already struggling to not be such an ass or she could go and find someone who actually made her happy. She chose happiness, and while it sucks that she drifted out of my life and your dad's, she's better off."

Pierce could frankly always tell that he was more like his granddad and as much as he sometimes wanted to know if he could even out up with a meaningful relationship, he avoided it. Better to not hurt anyone and wonder than to become the catalyst for someone else to overcome, right?

Fritz Smith! Gay!

The shy bumbling mechanic of the early 90s Freddy's ? Gay? It's more likely than you think

He was still far in the closet in the 90s He was young, living at home still because he had just gotten out of school, and while his parents weren't super conservative, he also didn't know how they'd take it

Found a friend in the day guard Mike Schmidt early on. Mike was looking for a roommate since his last one had moved out and Fritz jumped at the chance

They are like totally boyfriends by the time they cameo in the story though

Mike Schmidt! Another gay icon!

Mostly invited Fritz to live at his apartment because he felt bad that this poor shy mechanic was getting constantly harangued about the animatronics having problems

Was glad to let Fritz complain about it and even cry it was very stressful but Fritz needed the money

Mike liked him. It would be hard not to really. Fritz was a sweetheart.

Mike didn't ask him out till much later though he wasn't quite sure that Fritz was gay and didn't want to ruin their friendship.

Luckily it didn't and as it turns out they worked well in a relationship.

Fritz's parents had to take some time to get used to it when finally Fritz got the nerve to tell them but as soon as they did there was no end of support from them

Mike's parents were the opposite which was mainly why he already lived by himself but oh well he got a cute boyfriend and cool parents-in-law later it was kind of a win

Daniel Hartford-Dunn! Gay!

Presenting Maddie's older brother!

outside universe fact, he's loosely based in my actual cousin who lives in California with his husband.

He's 7 years older than Maddie was. Despite that, they were still close. Maddie's parents wanted more kids but struggled to get the two they had.

He's an accountant for a corporation and his boyfriend (and later his husband) is a pilot.

Last time he saw his nephews in person was at Maddie's funeral. He misses them terribly but over the years less and less contact came from his brother in law

Sometime in 2006 though he ends up getting a call from his nephews and there's this great reunion.

He's just. This chill older guy. Who loves his family. And doesn't care what people think.

Since I can't put anymore photos, here's the bonus content!

-as mentioned last night Dr. Phillip Guy is on the ace spectrum. I don't have anymore details about that at the moment unfortunately.

-Charlie Emily is a lesbian. The Emily twins were born in 1980. They haven't appeared in the AU yet even as cameos but they exist. Considering in AU canon the Emily family is alive and well in Hurricane, Utah without an Afton to be found, Charlie's dating her childhood friend Jessica at around the time the AU events are happening.

-Sammy Emily is trans and bi. Both Henry and his wife (who I know I at one point named but don't remember what it is anymore) love their two daughters to pieces.

That said I'll make a post at a later point introducing the Emily family because so far I've only officially given the design for Henry and not the rest.

In line with canon, Spring Bonnie/Springtrap can be counted as gay.

While Fred kept the shows at the diner pretty simple and straightforward, there was definitely this subtle underlying idea that Spring Bonnie and Fredbear were a content gay couple although if asked it was easy to present them as friends. At least, that was during '81-'82

However!

Fred also had Henry help him program in a special one time only song called Springtime for his and Maddie's anniversary in 1983, which was of course a love song. Fred always thought of that as being mostly for his wife, and partially as a turning point thematically for the two characters.

Henry was on board with this. They still kept it subtle, but there were clear moments where it was pretty much certain that the only way to interpret Spring Bonnie and Fredbear was as a couple. It was either so subtle that no one was bothered or Spring Bonnie's chosen voice was so ambiguously non-binary that no one thought it was odd.

Fred had plans for it to become more "canon" but never got to implement them since Spring Bonnie got damaged before he could.

Springtrap, being sentient and able to later interpret his emotions, is very confused about how he as a machine was meant to feel about this character he knew but the more sentient he becomes the more aware he is that he misses Fredbear and that he loved him. It's the cause of a lot of internal conflict for him. But he can be counted in the category of LGBT characters in the AU.

Happy pride month ya'll! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈

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expshared · 4 years

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this season was kind of whack, but at least we had Eizouken

Heya Camp is just kind of a lazy reminder that Yuru Camp exists, and will continue to exist in the future. You remember these characters?? OK good, just making sure. That said, did I immediately feel the tension release in my entire body when I heard the OST? Duh. Did I sing “it’s coffee time” to the ending not knowing these were the incorrect lyrics? The entire time.

I don’t know what to do with Isekai Quartet because like, objectively, I should hate it. I do not enjoy like 2.5 of the shows involved, and the addition of Shield Hero was not a welcome one. Turns out it doesn’t matter anyway because it was just Isekai Quartet and also Naofumi is Sometimes Scowling in the Background and that’s about as much of him as I want to see anyway. And yet? I do enjoy this Disney Channel Original Crossover. There’s something inherently fun about watching these characters from disparate shows interact with each other, and no matter what the original stakes were in their respective series, they’re all just doing homework and getting part time jobs and that shit’s funny when a big skeleton man is doing it.

After its first episode, Asteroid in Love was kind of a slog. This is your typical seasonal CGDGT show, and apart from that, I really can’t think of anything to say about it. I didn’t learn anything about the Extremely Niche Topic these girls are doing, and it wasn’t even that gay. Disappointing.

I was really looking forward to Toilet Bound Hanako-kun because I am a big fan of the source material, but I was pretty let down by this adaptation. It seems that they prioritized the art style and the color scheme above everything else, but that essentially just meant the entire project ended up being colored manga panels. I wanted to see them move around! There was not a single moment of animation that justified it being an anime. You might as well have been watching a PowerPoint. I can’t think of anything nice to say. Let’s move on.

Bofuri is my power fantasy. I want to play a video game so cluelessly I break it into tiny pieces and bumble into being the most powerful player in the world’s nicest MMORPG. Maple turns powercreep into powersprint. What Bofuri lacks in character development or plot, it makes up for in outrageous Maple feats. She holds the entire world in the palm of her hand and she doesn’t even know it. She named her OP pet turtle Syrup and then turned into an alien abomination unknown to the world and went on a killing rampage. This anime was Maple Crossing Online. Love you, Maple. Wreck shit, Maple.

If My Favorite Idol Got Into Budokan, I Would Die walks a thin line and what separates it from being a slobbering idol otaku engine preaching how Cool it is to Be an Otaku and an Idol Show Watamote is the fact that Eripiyo is a girl. That’s it. If you took her and replaced her with your average Joe Schmoe-san, this show would be insufferably creepy. Every time I was waiting for it to topple over, Jenga-like, it managed to right itself and straddle the tightrope. It’s not a particularly subtle piece of media, nor does it do what I was hoping it would do and engage in any sort of conversation about the obsessive nature of idol otakudom, but you know what it does a good job of doing? Portraying being an idol as a job. Just some adults putting on underground shows and selling the same CD of like two songs over and over again. I was also hoping it would address what happened to Eripiyo, maybe talk about why at the beginning she’s dressed like an office worker and apparently gives that all up to follow this kinda-shitty idol group, why this fanatic escapism is preferable, or even maybe address how gay it is? Not in the cards, though. Honestly Budokan was, despite itself, pretty enjoyable? There are some great background lesbians. Also can we talk about how consistently good the production values were on this show? Why did this have such great dance sequences? Why did this look better than Love “Has More Money Than God” Live? Actually no I take everything back this show was kind of just Idol Otaku Watamote

Hey, let’s talk about the other idol show airing this season: the completely unhinged 22/7. This show is Whack. This show operates on an entire different plane of reality. I know nothing about the actual band, so I came into this blind and oh my god. Hey guys, the plot of 22/7 is that a Wall tells some girls to form an idol unit. A sentient Wall whose orders absolutely must be followed. Why? Dunno! What happens if you don’t follow its orders? Never elaborated on. (Actually, is this a reference to Pink Floyd? I have no fucking clue.) In any case these eight girls, summoned by a letter from the Wall, are all invited to become an idol group, and then they’re magically an idol group. It’s unclear how they become successful, how they book gigs, who’s keeping the lights on at the agency, how they’re getting paid, who HR is, how their gorilla man agent found this Wall and determined that all its directives Must Be Followed, but shit, man. What follows in 22/7 is a one-member-per-episode serial that quite frankly stumbles far more often than it succeeds. One girl’s grandma died and that’s why she came to Japan. One girl had a traumatizing experience where she got lost in the woods for a week and it broke her family apart and now things just suck forever. These things are equal. One poor girl’s entire episode was about how she didn’t want to put on a bathing suit for a photo shoot and how uncomfortable she felt about it, but in the end she was made to apologize for dragging her feet for so long and takes her photo for a pin up. Yuck. Gross. Bad. The only valid girl is Jun, end of discussion. None of this even holds a candle to the finale-- wherein the girls are directed by the Wall to disband, and, defying an order for the first time, the girls return to their agency and throw shit at the Wall until it breaks down. It’s revealed that the Wall isn’t supernatural-- behind it are tv monitors, photos of the girls as children, records of their activities. A person or people are behind this. Why??? Are they being groomed?? Is the Wall a metaphor for the Industry? I’m so concerned. The girls aren’t, though, because after a little side eyeing, they ascend a staircase and wow! A Stage! Our fans are all here for our reunion tour! And then they’re fine and I guess their idol group is back together or something? Did I mention the stage where they perform? It’s at a zoo. I can’t tell if this is the most scathing condemnation of idol culture I’ve ever watched or just completely oblivious. The characters don’t engage in any sort of thought about what they’re being put through, but they are performing their final song, the lyrics of which are about how life is just too hard to keep on living, at a zoo and I don’t think you can have that sort of thing happen unless you’re trying to make a point. Right??? RIGHT?!? Dance and sing, monkeys.

Smile Down the Runway was another show completely divorced from reality. So you got your main character, Chiyuki, whose thing is that she’s Too Short to Be a Model at her father’s very prestigious modeling agency. Which, like, is valid! Let’s see some variation in the modeling industry. Let’s shake it up. Let’s lead the charge for alternative models with bodies outside of the very narrow requirements of the fashion industry. What’s that, Chiyuki? You have no interest in that? You want to be a Hypermodel? I don’t know what that shit is, I think you made it up. Our other protagonist is Ikuto, the destitute, put upon, bobcut boy with a dying mother and 3 younger siblings who is trying to pursue his dream of becoming a fashion designer. Are you beginning to sense the problem here? There is a fundamental imbalance in the presentation of these characters’ goals and situations. Also? Emotions are at an eleven, always. Characters are always acting as if they’ve just seen someone get murdered in front of their eyes even when it’s like. There’s a messed up seam. They are constantly being mortified, crushed, and having their dreams ripped away. One time, two different assholes offered Ikuto magical mom-fixing blood money when he was struggling to come up with funds to pay off his medical debt at the cost of giving up his spot in the fashion show. Wildin’

Haikyuu didn’t exactly come in like a lion, but I’m sure it’ll be more organic upon rewatching. We were laying the groundwork for much of this season so I’m expecting it to payoff later, but the beginning definitely lagged. Every time Haikyuu hints at a women’s volleyball tournament, I want a volleyball anime with girls. Man, those ten minutes we got with Kiyoko? Those were great.

I don’t have too much to say about Somali and Forest Spirit. Abe’s “Make Children” agenda feels at least a little more like a narrative choice in this anime, and I enjoyed Somali and the Golem’s relationship and their travels were in equal turns harrowing and heartwarming. And I did tear up at the end so you got me there, anime.

In/Spectre has some balls being an anime. It’s existed as a light novel and a manga and those are both superior mediums for it because let’s put all our cards on the table here-- In/Spectre is a show about talking. Five whole entire episodes take place in a car. The finale is winning an argument in an anonymous 4chan chatroom. That said, I have such a fondness for In/Spectre. I think Kotoko rocks. I think a show willing to do nothing but talk at you for two hours is badass. Sitting through this anime is like watching a podcast. I think the show engages in some great dialogue about human nature and how we prefer stories that are theatrical, narratively-driven, and have a logical cause-and-effect, instead of the truth, which is more often than not grim, and disappointing, and illogical. I like that Kotoko’s only function, in-story and out of it, is to bullshit so hard she invents alternate realities. Anyway In/Spectre is good.

There’s no praise I can lavish on Eizouken that hasn’t already been said. It’s powerful, it’s strange, it’s energetic, and it’s packaged with such love. It’s repurposed the CGDCT template into something deeply affecting. It’s an anime for people who love animation. I hope everyone watches Eizouken.

#animoose and mango #chitchat paddywhack #long post /

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