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hawkins-losers · 2 years

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She wears short skirts, I wear tee shirts | Robin Buckley x Reader

Summary: Robin has a crush on a cheerleader

Pairing: Robin Buckley x Reader

Word count: 2.3k

A/N: I wrote this in Robin’s pov without realizing...oops. Also, this has been in my drafts since the day I binged season 4 part 1. Sorry it took so long to post/finish

Robin Buckley, the girl who liked to be out of the box, had fallen for a high school cliché with lip gloss, a bouncy ponytail and a mini skirt. A fucking cheerleader.

When she told Steve about her little crush on you, he thought it was a joke and laughed…which earned him a smack on the shoulder. Robin was serious. She really did have a crush on you, and it was the worst thing that could happen to her. Actually, getting outed would take the cherry, but her crush on you was next in line.

You weren't a bad person - you were very sweet actually -, but to Robin's eyes, there was no possibility that you could reciprocate her feelings and that’s why it was so terrible. You were at the top of the pyramid, and she was playing trumpet in the school’s band.

While driving to school on Friday morning, Steve was ranting about girls, like always, and Robin was trying to apply mascara without stabbing herself in the eye. A blind person can play the trumpet, but it’s better with two functioning eyes.

‘’Robin! Are you listening?’’ Steve asked, taking his eyes off the road.

‘’Yes. Yes, I am. I-’’

It was false. She was only half listening, concentrated on coating her bottom lashes with mascara.

‘’What did I say?’’

‘’You said something about sex with…Linda.’’

‘’No!’’ Once again, Steve took his eyes off the road. ‘’I’m talking about Heidi.’’

Heidi or Linda, Robin could never remember who was who other than one of them was a blonde and the other a brunette. Which was which? That she did not know the answer.

‘’Cut me some slack, please. Your love life is a labyrinth complexity and it’s seven in the morning and I have to do this stupid pep rally and I woke up looking like a total corpse.’’

‘’You’re worried about a basketball pep rally?’’ Steve raised an eyebrow. ‘’You expect me to believe that?’’

‘’Yeah.’’

Steve scoffed. He wasn’t always the brightest crayon of the box and sometimes made questionable decisions, but he wasn’t that stupid. The basketball pep rally was not why Robin was so stressed and panicked over. It was something else - someone else.

‘’No. We both know what this is about, okay? I’m not buying that bullshit. This is about Y/N.’’

A little smirk curled at the corner of Steve’s lips, seeing the defense mode kick on Robin’s face at the mention of you. Bullseye.

‘’Absolutely not.’’

‘’Yes it is, and I think that you should stop pretending to be someone else when you’re around her. You just gotta be yourself.’’

Robin reached into her bag for her lip balm and applied some with her finger. ‘’Are you really quoting my own advices?’’

‘’They worked. Maybe you should listen to yourself more. Look at me, I listened to you and now, boom, I’m back in business.’’

‘’It’s not the same thing,’’ Robin argued.

In a way, it was the same, but in another, it was very different.

She continued. ‘’You ask a girl and she says no, no big deal. Nothing happens. Maybe your ego is a little bruised but I ask out the wrong girl, bam, I'm a town pariah.’’

Although Steve was not in Robin’s shoes sexuality wise, he understood her point of view. Being gay - lesbian, in Robin’s case - was not persued well by the majority of people. It was seen as disgusting and wrong.

‘’Yeah, I buy that, except Y/N is definitely not the wrong girl.’’

‘’She’s a cheerleader. She couldn’t be straighter.’’

‘’She comes to Family Video every Saturday - even when it rains - and only goes to you to check her out. Oh, and remember two weeks ago when I switched shifts with you so I could go on a date with Heidi? Y/N came to rent a movie and asked if you were around while I checked her out. You should’ve seen the disappointment on her face when I told her you weren’t working. She likes you.’’

‘’You’re full of shit.’’

In the school’s gymnasium, the band's music echoed while the cheerleading team did their choreography, twirling, spinning, jumping and dancing with their pom-poms.

Standing in line with the band in the stands, Robin tried balancing her attention between playing her trumpet and watching from afar the bright smile on your face and the Tigers green eye shadow on your eyes.

The band stopped as the choreography came to an end, and everyone clapped and cheered.

Then, the cheerleaders vacated the spot and sat by the stands as the headmaster called in the Tigers. Another round of cheers and clapping echoed as the paper was ripped and in came the team, with Jason at the front.

During fourth period, Robin’s eyes wandered to you while Mr. Scotts talked about protons and electrons. She should probably be paying attention to the lesson, all this information will likely be asked in the next test, but you were sitting two rows before her and your glossy lips and smooth-soft looking skin were much more interesting. Sorry, Mr. Scotts.

A quiet sigh left Robin's lips. She wished she wasn’t such a hopeless disaster and had the courage to go up to you and talk to you. So far, your exchanges have been limited to ‘did you find everything you wanted?’ and ‘that will be 3.50$’.

It was pathetic.

The bell rang, forcing Robin to break her staring.

Mr. Scotts cut the lesson and everyone gathered their things and left.

After shoving everything in her backpack, Robin was about to leave the classroom when she spotted a white knit cardigan with Tigers green edges on the back-rest of a chair. Your chair. She took the cardigan, a little smile curling at the corner of her lips as she read your embroidered name on the right side, and went after you in the hallway. This was the perfect excuse to talk to you.

She could’ve called your name and you would’ve turned around. It would’ve been easy and not weird, but Robin wasn’t thinking and ended up following you to the bathroom.

‘’Y/N!’’ she called, walking in the girls’ bathroom.

You turned around, pulling your eyebrows together. ‘’Robin? Where you...following me?’’

‘’Yes! No!‘’ she quickly corrected, realizing how it must've sounded. ‘’I mean, yes, but not in a creepy way. Eh...you left your cardigan in class and I saw it on your chair so I took it and followed you to give it back.’’

Your eyes trailed down to the cardigan in Robin’s hand.

You thanked her with a kind smile. ‘’That’s very nice of you. Most people would’ve just left it there.’’

‘’Well, I'm not most people, and I didn't want you to get cold.‘’

Robin wanted to sap herself for saying something so dumb.

You took the cardigan from her, your fingers brushing for a few seconds during the exchange, sending butterflies to Robin's stomach. ‘’Thanks.’’

The next day at Family Video, Steve had to listen to Robin’s rant about her short exchange with you while they stocked the shelves with the returned tapes. Well, Steve was stocking the shelves. Robin had been following him around with the same two movies in her hand for the past ten minutes, completely absorbed in her story.

‘’-forgot her cardigan and our fingers touched and-’’

The bell above the door ding-ed and Robin paused her story. She turned her head at the new customer and her throat went dry, seeing you walking in in a mini skirt and a blouse with a funky print.

‘’Hi! Welcome to Family Videos,’’ Steve greeted, his voice echoing through the store and pulling Robin from her trance. ‘’You looking for a movie in particular?’’

He wasn’t always this nice with every customer - unless he was flirting -, but he was trying to help his friend get the girl she was crushing on.

‘’Eh, no. Not really,’’ you replied, brushing him off and walking away to the comedy aisle.

Steve turned his head back to Robin. ''Go talk to her,'' he mouthed over the shelf, his back turned to you.

She shook her head, panic rushing to her eyes. ‘’I can’t.’’

One thing about Robin was that she had no filter and talked a lot when under stress or was nervous. Most people found it pretty annoying and she didn’t want to annoy you by turning into an unstoppable tornado of word vomit.

‘’Just go ask her if she needs any help finding a movie.’’

‘’Why? She already said she didn’t know what she was looking for.’’

‘’Because I asked her. She didn’t want my help,’’ Steve explained.

His theory was ridiculous and Robin wanted to prove to him that he was wrong so she walked up to you. ‘’Do you need any help finding a movie?’’

Your eyes flickered to Robin’s and, much to her surprise, you accepted her help. ‘’Do you have a copy of Ferris Bueller's day off?’’ you asked. ‘’I believe it was released this week, but I can’t seem to find it.’’

Without needing to check in the computer, Robin knew that there was one copy left in the store. And she knew exactly where it was.

‘’We do. It’s at the register though. I was saving it for myself, but I’ll let you have it just because it’s you.’’

She wanted you to see her gesture as her being nice to you - and perhaps a little flirty -, because it really was that. You didn’t need to know that it was actually store policy to give the customers the movies you saved if they asked for them.

‘’Oh, thank you, but you don’t have to do that. I can pick another movie-’’

‘’It’s fine.’’ Robin tried not to look too disappointed. ‘’I’ll watch it another day.’’

You and Robin went to the front of the store to retrieve the movie and check you out. ‘’I feel bad for taking your movie. Do you…would you want to watch it with me?’’

‘’With you? As in, at your house?’’ Robin asked, wanting to make sure she got your offer right.

You nodded, a glint in your eyes. ‘’Yeah. I don't have anyone else to watch it with. My friends are more of the Footloose and Pretty in Pink type.’’

Just as Robin was about to scan the movie into the computer, there was a loud bang outside, which spooked you both. Thunder. Then, it began pouring heavily.

‘‘What the hell? It was sunny five minutes ago,’‘ you said.

‘‘It’s Hawkins. Unexpected downpours happen all the time,’’ Robin explained, the town in itself being good enough of an explanation.

They’re usually followed by not so pleasing supernatural surprises, but she didn’t need to add that.

Robin scanned the VHS and you paid your weekly 3.50$. Then, she added, ‘‘You can stay here, you know. Until the rain calms down. You’re gonna get soaked within five seconds if you go out in that rain.’‘

Once again, Robin was just being nice by offering you shelter, but she also didn’t want you to go yet.

‘’What if the rain doesn't stop? Sometimes, it goes on for hours.’’ Your eyes flickered to Robin’s blue ones and held her gaze.

Another clap of thunder echoed, making the lights flicker.

‘‘Looks like we might lose power,’‘ Steve said, louder than necessary. ‘‘I’m gonna go in the backroom and fetch some flashlights, in case the power go out.’‘

‘‘Don’t forget to check if there’s batteries in them!’‘ Robin called out after him.

She knew it was an excuse to give you some alone time with her crush and she was grateful for the help.

Shortly after Steve disappeared, the power went out, plunging the store in the dark. Across the street, you could see that there was power so this must be Steve's doing. Robin was praying you wouldn't notice.

‘’I hate when the power goes out,’’ you said, beginning to feel anxious in the dark.

‘’You can hold my hand if you want, I won’t tell,’’ Robin boldly blurted, the absence of light giving her a boost of confidence. She reached across the counter and you took her hand, tangling your fingers together as butterflies bubbled in Robin’s stomach because she was holding your hand.

A loud clap of thunder hit and you squeezed Robin’s hand. ‘’Sorry. I got a little spooked,’’ you explained with a nervous giggle.

‘’It’s okay.’’

Robin shifted on his feet, trying to fill the silence. What do you do when you’re in the dark with your crush? You ramble facts about thunderstorms.

‘‘Did you know that for every five seconds between the lightning flash and the clap of thunder, the thunderstorm that produced the lightning is one mile away? If the time is decreasing, the storm is moving toward you. If it is increasing, the storm is moving farther away.’’

You shook your head. ‘‘I did not know that.’‘

‘‘My father taught me this when I was little. I used to be scared of thunder so he made it a game for me. We’d sit on the porch and count the seconds together.’‘

‘’That’s sweet. My father taught me how to drive. I dented the car when backing in our driveway and ruined my mother’s flowers. He never let me sit in the driver seat again. I think it's best for everyone's safety.’’

Robin laughed at your anecdote. ‘’Don’t worry. I can’t drive either. I haven’t tried, but it took me six months longer to learn to walk as a baby and I still can't run right, so I’d rather not find out how I drive.’’

Suddenly, the power returned, lighting the store with its bright neon lights. You let go of Robin's hand, making the latter pout at the loss.

‘‘See you later, Robin.’‘ You picked the VHS from the counter and, just before pushing the door open, you paused. ‘‘We still have a movie to watch, remember?’‘

Taglist: @broadway-or-noway @violetsleftfist @thelaststraw3 @cursedandromedablack @Slashersimpfor @savagejane1 @wh0reforbucknasty @eddiemunson-slut @slvdsjjk @hehehehannahthings @dreamdancers-world @grace-loux @iamharrystyleslover @matildavol6 @Original_babababoo @eddiemunsonbby @notbeforelong @lexi-2004 @violetrainbow412-blog @tatespillows @alwayslexii @lilygreennn @milkiane @imahomeslice @bunnygrl16 @cwritesforfun @marauders3rawh0re @your-mom21 @parkersmyth @voguesir @milkiane @andrewgarfields-girlfriend @lilygreennn @alexxavicry @charlie-chick @wandamaximoffs-deadchild @horrorstreet @rmeddar123 @Pastel-abyss-x @lil-tracys @lanalanabanana

Robin Buckley taglist: @uhidklol-26 @prettyplant0 @ran-rap @eddiemvunsongf @batorchids222 @scarlet-kazuha @saphmoth @uhidklol-26 @you-makeme-crazier-blog @spongebob-in-the-upsidedown @swiftbyul @xenon54xe @tribute-101 @starstruckspring @whyamihere2673 @moonlight-imagines @p40l44 @moonlight-imagines @ofherscarlettwitchways @pastelbabygirl19 @eddiemunsonbby @bitterbyfletcher @i-could-be-lonely-with-you @chrisxevans-seb @robinbuckleyluvr @lol-lol—idk @satinselenite @missmaxmayfield @soph69420world

#robin buckley #robin buckley x reader #robin buckley imagine #robin buckley x oc #robin buckley x you #robin buckley x y/n #stranger things #stranger things imagine #stranger things s4

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marvelslut16 · 2 years

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Oh baby

Prompt number: 18 "I don't think this is your problem."

Fandom: IT

Pairing: Richie Tozier x reader (aged up to 17 or 18)

Rating: 18+

Word count: 3.4k

Warnings: Swearing. Teen pregnancy. Mentions of attempted forced abortions. Some angst. Abusive parents. Fluffy in the end.

A/N: This has literally been in my drafts since 2020, and I finally finished it for fictober this year. It is my baby, please be kind to it, I love it so much. The main reason I haven't finished it till now was I was scared people would hate it. The only adulty looking gifs I could find of Finn were from season 4 of ST, whoops. Also, Richie would totally have that hair.

Richie Tozier was undoubtedly the love of your life, the problem being that you two are only in a friends with benefits relationship. It all started one night when the losers were getting drunk in the barrens in celebration of all of you passing your junior year finals, Richie and you snuck out to see the stars and one thing led to another. And the next thing you knew you were pressed up against a tree, denim shorts and cotton undies discarded a foot away, and Richie was thrusting into you. Your drunk inhibitions had been so addicting that you’ve fucked multiple times a week almost every week for the past year. You’ve kept it a secret from you friends, but the looks Bev gives you two makes it fairly obvious that she’s caught on.

Your friends with benefits relationship had been going great up until recently, when you made the worst mistake of your life. In the heat of the moment you told him those three words you had kept bottled up since that summer with Pennywise, I love you. If Richie understood what you said right away, he didn’t show it. It took him until after he was done for your words to register in his brain, and he immediately got dressed and left in an awkward huff. There was the occasional cuddle afterwards, but usually you’d just go to the living room and play your Atari, or go play street fighters at the arcade. But this time he left with a non comitial ‘see you later,’ and you immediately knew you fucked up.

The next day at school Richie pretty much ignored you, unless he had to make conversation with you to hide that anything was out of the ordinary to the losers; gone were the flirty comments he would send your way during lunch, and the arm wrapped around your shoulder as you walked from class to class. When Richie went as far as to flirt with a girl in history class you felt a sickness wash over you, it was so intense that you had to rush out of the class and through the halls to make it to the girls bathroom before your lunch came rushing out of you. Your teacher had sent Bev to come collect you, since you had left without a pass, but instead she took you to the nurse and you had to go home early.

You and your parents had brushed it off as some bad cafeteria food, nothing to worry about. But when you woke up the next morning to the smell of bacon and your stomach started to churn, you knew something more serious was wrong. You spent that day and the rest of the weekend barely leaving your bed, and getting fairly used to the churning in your gut from certain smells. All of a sudden your favorite foods smelled down right nauseating, but you chalked it up to a change in your tastes. Or at least that’s what you told yourself. And when you missed your period two weeks later you told yourself it was just stress from your upcoming graduation and the fall out with Richie.

Your mother figured out your missing periods after your second month. She had come into your bathroom to check your pad supply while making a list of things the maid needed to pick up at the store, at first she was confused that the package of pads was still unopened; but your peckish eating, on and off nausea, and being in a constant state of irritation started to click into place as she realized you were pregnant. You weren’t expecting her to be understanding when she learned the news, but you didn’t expect her to rip you a new asshole.

“What were you thinking?” your mom storms into your room, unopened box of pads in hand.

“What are you talking about?” you feign ignorance, subconsciously moving a pillow to rest on your lap to hide your still unshowing belly.

“You’re irritated, you don’t want to eat what’s for dinner, instead wanting weird concoctions of food, and your pads from two months ago are still unopened!” she throws the box to her right, it smashes into your wall, box opening and pads come tumbling out. “You got yourself knocked up! God, (Y/N), I didn’t think you were this fucking stupid!”

“I’m just stressed!” you feel anxious tears start to pool in your eyes, you just need to get through the next month and you can leave Derry. Then you can have the kid in New York and your parents would be none the wiser.

“Bullshit! You stopped drinking coffee,” your mom laughs humorlessly. “I should have known then. What the fuck were you thinking?”

“I wasn’t!” you cry out, letting the tears you had been holding in for the past two months finally spill.

“You’re right, you weren’t thinking! Just wait till your father hears about this-” your heart rate spikes at the mention of your father.

“We don’t have to tell him,” you scramble off the bed and rush to your mother's side, grabbing her hand to try and get her to empathize with you.

“Don’t tell him?” she lets out a manic laugh, ripping her hand from yours like you’ll taint her somehow. “He’s the goddamn mayor, this will kill his reelection campaign. You’re so fucking niave and self centered (Y/N).”

“I’ll be in New York soon, no one has to know!” your voice goes up an octave, voice rising higher as your desperation grows.

“You really think I trust you enough to go to New York? Now?” she cocks her head to the side, giving you a calculating look. “You’re not leaving this house until we get this taken care of, and after graduation you’ll be staying in Derry so I can keep my eye on my perfect, innocent, daughter.”

“You can’t do that!” you cry out, taking steps away from your mother. “I’m an adult, I can decide what I do!”

“And look where that got you, knocked up by some deadbeat at eighteen,” your mom gestures to the empty space beside you. “He’s not here right now, he won’t help you take care of a baby. You’ll thank me one day.”

She slams the door to your room behind her as she leaves, you can hear the lock sliding into place. Your parents hadn’t used the lock since you were a child. They used to lock you in your room if the Governor was visiting, or if you got in trouble and your mother had to keep you contained until your father returned home. Walking to the window you assess the distance between your second floor window and the ground below. Coming to the conclusion that it is, in fact, not worth possibly hurting your baby in order to get away from your parents.

The polaroids of you and Richie tacked to the wall above your desk seem to mock you. Your mom's right, no matter how many plans you made of leaving Derry together, he doesn’t want you. And he sure as hell won’t want the responsibility of the baby growing inside of you. Your eyes land on a picture you took of Richie right after you had made some joke about Eddie’s mom; Richie’s head is thrown back, mouth wide open in laughter, and curls blowing in the wind. Richie may not want you nor your baby, but you aren’t going to deprive the world of another Tozier, a tiny little Richie.

You're so engrossed in studying the picture of Richie that you don’t hear your door being thrown open until it’s too late to block it. There in your doorway is your father; panting, red faced, and steam practically coming out of his ears. If only the people of Derry could see their precious Mayor now, ready to attack his pregnant daughter because it’s bad for his image. He storms up to you, grabbing your arm gruffly, and pushing you into the wall behind you.

“Who’s the fucker that got my idiot daughter knocked up?” he screams, his face so close to yours that his spit is landing on yours. When you don’t respond to his question, he moves his hand from your wrist and grabs both of your shoulders, pulling you forward just to slam you back into the wall. “Answer me you ungrateful bitch!”

“No!” you scream back, kicking your father in the shin as hard as you can.

“You’re going to fucking regret that,” he shoves you one last time before slightly limping out of the room.

As soon as he’s gone, you slide down the wall and curl into a fetal position on the ground. Laying in front of you is a polaroid that Bev took of you and Richie one day at the quarry last summer; it was shortly after the two of you had stared hooking up, Richie’s standing behind you, arms wrapped around you, he’s sopping wet from just getting out of the water and you’re almost completely dry, having arrived late from some political lunchin, your white sundress turning transparent from his wet body. Life was a hell of a lot simpler then, and then you had Richie to talk to when your parents were being grade A assholes.

You spent hours curled up on the floor, or at least that’s what you think because the sun had gone from shining into your room to below the horizon. Your parents never came and got you for dinner, leaving you locked up in your room as they ate the food the chef had prepared. You wait until you hear your father leave his study and head to your parents room before you move from your spot. Immediately moving to your red landline sitting atop your desk, sighing in relief when you hear the dial tone. You start to dial Richie’s number out of habit, before catching yourself and switching to Bev’s. You mutter pleas for her to answer the phone as you type in the extension to the phone in her room.

“Hello?” Bev sounds half asleep, you probably woke her after she fell asleep doing her homework again.

“Bev,” your voice cracks as a sob starts to bubble in your chest.

“(Y/N),” you can hear her shuffling to a seated position, adjusting upon hearing the desperation and fear in your voice. “What happened? What’s wrong?”

“I'm pregnant, Bev” you rush out, glad that you’re finally getting it off your chest to someone you trust.

“Oh my God,” she murmurs. “Is the father who I think it is?”

“Yes,” you sigh, knowing she means Richie. “My parents found out today, they’re trying to force me to get rid of the baby as soon as possible.”

“I won’t let anything happen to either of you,” she promises, and you wish you could believe her.

“I have to go,” you whisper, footsteps getting close to your door. You quickly and quietly hang up the phone, hiding it beneath your desk, hopefully your parents forgot you have your own line. You quickly hop in bed, covering your body to your chin and pretending to be asleep. Light from the hall floods in as your father opens the door, but you make an effort to keep up your sleeping ruse.

“Don’t worry, everything will be fixed tomorrow morning,” he quietly shuts the door behind him. Tears start to fall as soon as he shuts the door, how can he force you to do this when it isn’t what you want?

You don’t remember falling asleep, you must have cried yourself to the brink of exhaustion. So you’re more than startled to wake up to yelling downstairs, the voices are muffled but you can clearly make out your father’s voice yelling at someone to get out of his house. You jump out of bed and immediately run to the window to see if there’s a car on the driveway, and there is. You know it’s Richie’s with one glance, the 1975 Mustang Cobra that you helped him rebuild a few summers ago, and leaning against his car is Bev who is looking straight up at your window.

You run for the door the moment you hear a crash downstairs, hoping that your father forgot to lock the door the last time he checked on you. Luckily he didn’t, so you pull the door open and run down the stairs two at a time. At the bottom of the stairs are shards of what used to be the priceless glass vase that was atop the hutch next to where your father is standing.

“Let me see (Y/N),” Richie’s voice is far more demanding and forceful than he’s ever used with your father, knowing he was the one adult that could really get him in trouble.

“She’s not here, she was throwing up all yesterday so we took her to the hospital last night,” your father lies effortlessly, using the same inflection that he does when he promises the people of Derry changes he can never provide. “She was dehydrated so they kept her overnight, she should be back in a day or two.”

“I don’t believe a god damn word that comes out of your mouth,” Richie seethes, his anger only continuing to grow when he catches sight of you on the stairs. “(Y/N), go pack a bag, we’re getting out of here.”

“I don’t think this is your problem, kid,” your fathers voice is cold and calculating, and you're frozen on the bottom step. you want to listen to Richie and follow him like you’ve always dreamed of, the future could be your oyster, but you also know that your dad has the sheriff in his pocket and could make sure Richie is arrested and sent away for a long time. “Leave while you still can.”

“Like hell it isn’t my problem!” Richie shouts, his Chuck’s crushing the glass into a fine powder as he walks over to you. “She’s pregnant with my child!”

“You fucker!” spit flies out of your fathers mouth as he screams at Richie, he’s taking large menacing steps towards your lover, so you do the only logical thing, grab Richie’s arm and yank him up onto the stairs, standing in front of him so he doesn’t get punched. “You did this to her?”

“Stop it!” you scream, as your father tries to reach around you to grab Richie.

Egged on by your father, Richie tries to step around you to throw a punch, turning him around, you push him up the stairs and towards your room. You slam the door behind you, pulling your gaudy pink suitcase- which is covered in stickers from all the places you’ve visited with your parents- out of your closet and start stuffing it with clothes, knick knacks from your dead grandmother, and the polaroids of your friends that adorn your wall. You're closing the suitcase and Richie is shoving more shit in your backpack when your father throws your bedroom door open, his face scrunched up in anger and you can practically see steam billowing out of his ears.

“You aren’t going anywhere,” he grabs your wrist, nails digging sharply into your skin and creating crescent shaped indents.

“I’ll tell everyone,” you level with him, it’s a low blow but you know it’ll work. “My indiscretion will hinder your chances of winning reelection, why would people vote for a Mayor who can’t even control his own kid? It’s blasphemous.”

“What do you want?” he asks through gritted teeth, it’s his way of giving into your demands without openly admitting it.

“Let us go. I’ll stay with Bev or Richie until we graduate, you’ll show up to graduation like the good father you pretend to be. And then I’ll be out of Derry, out of Maine, by the end of summer, long before anyone could notice my pregnancy.”

He doesn’t respond, not with words at least, instead he steps out of my doorway and lets Richie and I walk past and down the stairs. Neither he nor your mother say anything as you open the front door, not that you’re all that surprised because you're a disgrace in their eyes. They just let the door shut behind you and Richie, and you damn well that you’ll never see them again after graduation. Your heart hurts that they’ll never meet their grandchild, but you're also thankful that your child will never know the conniving abusive ways of your parents.

Bev runs up to you as you walk down the stone steps of the Mayor’s house, the only home you’ve ever known, and immediately pulls you into a gentle hug. The moment her arms wrap around you you break down, your parents really let you leave, they really don’t care about you, and you have nowhere to go. She keeps her arms wrapped around you as she directs you towards Richie’s stang, she notices your parents matching glares from the living room window. Richie takes your bags and shoves them into the trunk, while Bev climbs into the back of the car, and you begrudgingly take the seat next to Richie.

The drive to Bev’s is awkwardly silent, except for your occasional sniffles. None of you knows what to say, the last thing any of you ever thought would happen just did; the Mayor’s perfect little Angel got knocked up by the town’s trashmouth, and consequently kicked out. Or as close to being kicked out as one can get. Upon arriving at Bev’s apartment, Richie gets out and lets her climb out that way, with one last encouraging smile she leaves you alone with the father to your child- you’re former friend and fuck buddy.

“Where am I supposed to go?” you finally ask after fifteen minutes of him driving around in circles.

“Back home with me,” you can practically hear the duh he added in his head.

“You don’t have to do that,” you sigh, imagining what his parents' reaction would be to your current situation. “Could you just drive me to Augusta? I’ll find a woman’s shelter there or something.”

“No!” Richie slams on the breaks, pulling onto the shoulder. Dirt flying everywhere at the force of his abrupt break. “Like I’m gonna fuking let you go anywhere without me toots.”

“Why wouldn’t you?” you bite back, months of anger finally being able to be taken out on the one who’s been causing you all of your hurt. “You don’t give a shit about me, you made that very clear.”

“OH for fuck’s sak, of course I give a shit about you,” he grabs your face with both of his hands, turning it to look at him. “I got scared, so damn scared. I didn’t want to fuck it up with you and lose you. Then you told me you loved me and I got scared, cause I’m a fuck up and I didn’t want to drag you down with me.”

“You aren’t a fuck up, Richie,” you sigh, your anger dissapating at the genuine emotion swimming in his eyes. “But what you did hurt me. You left me high and dry, and pregnant. I didn’t know what to do, I was so scared and the only person I wanted to talk to was ignoring me.”

“I’m so sorry,” he leans forward, resting his forehead on yours. “I wish I had worked up the nerve to tell you I love you that day, instead of running away like some damn pansy. ‘Cause I fuckin’ love you toots.”

“You do?” your hormones forcing a sob out of you at his confession.

“I do, and I can’t wait to have this baby with you,” his right hand lets go of your face, moving to gently touch your belly. “I just hope they have your eyesight.”

“I hope they have your gorgeous brown eyes and your big ol’ lips,” you giggle, and Richie can’t help but bark out a laugh. “I love you Richie, with all my heart.”

“Not half as much as I love you,” his left hand moves from your cheek to the back of your head, pulling you in for a long awaited kiss. When his lips slot perfectly with yours, you really feel like the two of you can make this work.

#Fictober #day 3 #fictober22 #richie tozier x reader #richie tozier #richie tozier x you #richie tozier fic #IT #it imagine #it fanfiction #richie tozier imagine

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takaraphoenix · 3 months

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My Ranking of D20 Campaigns

So I actually managed to watch all of them (or all that are out so far; not counting the still ongoing Junior Year yet) and since I like making lists, I drafted this post early on to keep track of which I love the most and how that love changed whenever I started watching a new campaign.

A Starstruck Odyssey

The Seven

A Court of Fey and Flowers

The Unsleeping City: Chapter II

The Unsleeping City

Mice and Murder

Burrow’s End

Fantasy High: Sophomore Year

A Crown of Candy

Pirates of Leviathan

Escape From the Bloodkeep

Coffin Run

Dungeons and Drag Queens

Mentopolis

Misfits and Magic

Fantasy High

Ravening War

Tiny Heist

Neverafter

Shriek Week

This was actually really, really hard, because the recency bias usually has me go “this is SO SO GOOD”.

I started watching D20 back in April last year, Misfits and Magic was the first campaign I watched - and The Seven was, I think, maybe the fifth or so? And it was my number one for the longest time. I love the girls, both the characters and the players, I love the plot, I love everything about that campaign. It is so heart-wrecking with the emotions it goes through for them all.

But then I watched A Starstruck Odyssey and it just hit all the right spots - the found family crew of a spaceship having wacky space-adventures is just something I deeply, deeply love and these characters were so much fun - and has the benefit of being longer and giving me more to fall in love with, I suppose. Still though, the difference between first and second is very narrow.

And I consider 4 and 5 a tie, to be honest. The Unsleeping City is one story, to me, I know the seasons are very distinct, but the flow of it and also my love for both is near equal. This campaign has the highest concentration of favorite PCs for me, like, when I made a list of my favorite Intrepid Heroes characters, their TUC characters all came in as either first or second place. Sophia Lee is the best Emily character ever, I will fight for her.

I am so madly, deeply in love with A Court of Fey and Flowers, which features my favorite PC romance so far, plus an impeccable cousin dynamic between Lou and Emily, also... there’s no fighting. While most fights are somewhat entertaining in DnD, I still remain Just Not An Action Gal and could skip on those in favor of more roleplaying scenes of character development and relationship exploration. And this campaign absolutely hit that spot just right. Plus, the fantasy fairy setting, and Aabria’s wonderful storytelling (how is this woman so talented? She was my first introduction to DnD as a DM, and then I got to see her as a player in the Seven and Pirates of Leviathan and she makes such great choices as a player too).

This list was ridiculously hard to make, because I look at it and I see Mice and Murder only on 6th place even though that definitely was the campaign where I had the hardest time to stop watching, I pulled an all nighter to watch half of it because it had the greatest grip on me, but then I look at the ones I placed higher than it and I can’t find it in me to move any of them lower either.

Recency bias definitely made placing Burrow’s End very hard. Not to repeat myself, but I am madly, deeply in love with Aabria’s storytelling. Combined with talking animals, the family focus, Brennan playing a mom as a PC (moms are my favorite Brennan characters), I have a lot of love for this campaign and I hope so badly that we’ll get a second part.

And here’s the reason why I couldn’t count TUC as one. Because Fantasy High: Sophomore Year ranks so much higher than the first FH for me. This was such a fun, ridiculous story, and it introduced my two favorite NPCs of all campaigns; Ayda and Garthy. It set the bar for FH3 really high and I am looking at Brennan to keep up the great work.

A Crown of Candy is well-placed in the middle. I am not the biggest fan of tragedies and definitely not into character death, but the characters and the world, are so very compelling still, even if I prefer the ones that died over the replacement characters - and that’s what puts it in the middle. Good, but could have been better.

Pirates of Leviathan was short but the characters, the players. Aabria is so so so good in this, it kills me. And she’s not alone. Bob is one of the greatest PCs of Dimension 20, to me, and that is vastly due to Krystina’s talent.

Escape From the Bloodkeep is one of the most surprising campaigns for me. This is a LotR parody that turned out to be way too heartfelt and much more found family than expected and it is great.

And Coffin Run is honestly one of the funniest D20 campaigns and I am wildly in love with about every single decision Izzy Roland made in this campaign. I am also entirely and absolutely gay for every decision Erika Ishii made.

Dungeons and Drag Queens was a very... standard adventure, but the players were so much fun to see. This would honestly be such a good campaign to start your D20 journey with, because the way Brennan eases them in and explains everything is so wonderful, and the excitement and joy of everything new they’re trying is contagious.

Mentopolis was cute, though I’m not big on noir and detective stories so that factors into why it ranks relatively low for me, even though the players and the characters were amazing. Dan Fucks is brilliant, absolutely brilliant.

And though the very first campaign I watched, Misfits and Magic didn’t make it too high. Some of it is the bytaste of HP, which I have come to just... not be able to stand anymore even though I am well aware that it’s a parody of it, and the other factor is the length. It’s hard to compete with 10 to 12 episode campaigns, that had so much more time to flesh out dynamics, worlds and characters and make me fall in love with them all, and that’s not really a reflection of the quality of this campaign.

I remain not much of a fan of the first Fantasy High. Maybe because I watched The Seven before this so when I watched FH, it gave me more of a feeling of “why is there a prequel spin-off about Zelda’s boyfriend who never had a proper appearance anyway? My girls should have bigger roles in this??”, but I largely feel that FH1 was more set-up, and the Bad Kids and their story really took off for me in the sequel, which I greatly enjoyed.

While I enjoyed the characters and the players’ dynamic in Ravening War, I am just... I guess I’m generally not much into “and it’s all futile anyway because I know how the story continues and these guys are not in it”? Matter of taste, I guess, but if that has to compete with others, it will lose.

Honestly, I enjoyed Tiny Heist when I watched it and I don’t dislike it, but it’s just so short and didn’t have anything that incredibly stood out to me in a manner that gripped me, so it had a hard time competing with other campaigns that gave me something I deeply fell in love with.

I don’t like Neverafter, it had some good characters in it but on the overall this absolutely did not vibe with me. Which is a huge disappointment for me as a lover of fairy tale crossovers, but the dark horror approach does not work for me at all.

The only thing that was easy was the bottom of this list, honestly. Shriek Week was, hands down, the only campaign I absolutely did not enjoy. The storytelling was a mess, even before watching the Adventuring Party for it, it was clear that the whole ~villain plot~ was improvised and I still wish it had just... not... been in there.

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qat-fort · 1 year

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The Tale Of Brainpulp, the Defender and Madman of Stinkfinger

So, I've been working on a volcano fort called Stinkfinger, and a dwarf named Sazir has been the most interesting dwarf there with 0 doubt in my mind. I don't have any images of when he originally migrated to Stinkfinger, but here's what he looks like now:

He migrated to Stinkfinger in the year 102, where he was immediately drafted into the army, which at the time was only 3 dwarves. He excelled at this, and before he even became a Expert Macedwarf, he managed to single handedly stop a goblin attack, almost entirely by himself.

I decided that he deserved to become leader of the militia after this. Granted, it was a very small raid (only 4 or 5 goblins), but considering that my other 2 mace dwarves didn't even contribute in the battle, I figured it was a fair promotion. He served me well as Stinkfinger grew, until a goblin raid in the year 103 had resulted in him having motor and sensory nerve damage so severe he could no longer walk, not even with a crutch. I didn't want to take him off the now royal guard because he was technically one of my most knowledgeable dwarves, so I had to settle with demoting him. He couldn't walk and had to crawl around on the ground, but he could at least pass on what he knew about the art of the mace to new recruits. Understandably, this major injury was upsetting to him.

Despite this, he still worked and trained hard, and actually became a Grandmaster Macedwarf, which was his dream! (sort of)

After he achieved his dream, he became sort of lost and didn't know what he wanted to do with his life. This plus the already large mental toll of his injuries, and the trauma that came with those injuries, overwhelmed him, and he started to show signs of madness by the year 107. He'd crawl around the halls, babbling nonsense. At this point I knew I had to do something, so I I checked his needs and his top need was that he wanted to make something. So I decided that I'd make a room just for him to make some rock crafts as a pass time. It seemed to of worked, somewhat, and after getting a few more Grandmaster mace dwarves, i figured it was for the best for him to retire. I ordered him to return his gear in the and to live a life of making rock figures so he could artistically work through his trauma.

Sazir thought this was a stupid idea, and expressed this by throwing a tantrum and giving a bard a DIY LOBOTOMY WITH HIS FUCKING FIST.

Despite committing this crime in broad daylight, no civilians reported this crime to the royal guard. Why? I have no clue. If I had to guess they didn't want Sazir to come for them next for snitching. I was upset by this, but since nobody reported him, I couldn't have him convicted. I could of done some cheesing to get him unofficially jailed, but I wanted to see how this would play out. I donned the nickname of "Brainpulp" to Sazir. Now a season or so later, Brainpulp did strike again, killing the exact same way he had before. This time however, someone reported it. Just as I was about to have him arrested however:

The largest goblin siege we've ever had came upon us. After deliberating, I decided it was fate that they had arrived when they did. Sazir could die doing the same thing that had made him so important; defending Stinkfinger. The goblins wanted to have parley, so they didn't mind waiting for Sazir to crawl around the fort to gather up his old equipment. I stationed him across from the goblin horde, alone. He would go down in a blaze of glory, gore, and goblins.

I thought that would be the end for Sazir Brainpulp, but he did the last thing i expected.

He ran.

He had literally nothing left to live for.

He had achieved his dreams, watched Stinkfinger grow from being a hole in the ground to the capital of our dwarven civilization, and had trained a fine royal guard. I figured the reason he had become so angry and hateful was because he was succumbing to the madness of having no real purpose anymore. I thought he knew that his stone crafts were simply a thing i told him to do as a way to distract him from that fact. I thought he was killing people because he was tricking himself into believing those dwarves were a threat to our home, much like the original siege goblins he had fought years prior to now. So I decided to give him one last final purpose and that was to sacrifice himself for the glory of our fortress.

I thought this was what he wanted.

I was wrong.

He crawled all the way back up the mountain to the entrance to Stinkfinger, and despite having clear orders to attack those goblins, he crawled deep into the fort, as far away as he could from the goblins marching upon us.

Fortunately, with our trained royal guard of macedwarves, we made quick work of this attack, despite it being the largest yet. When the last goblin had fallen, I checked to see where Sazir was, and he was sleeping in his room. Hiding from a honorable death.

He didn't want to retire and live out his days making stone crafts, and he didn't want to sacrifice himself in battle for our fort. So I'm not sure what he wanted. But whatever it was I couldn't provide it to him. The only thing I provided was a conviction. I convicted him for the murder of the dwarf he had killed earlier, and i ALSO convicted him of a artifact that someone else had stolen. There was no way we would ever catch the person who had done that particular crime, it was a cold case, so I figured that would be a substitute for the crime that is his cowardice.

So now lets fast forward to now, year 108. Brainpulp, now known as the local mad man, is still in his cell. You can usually hear him babbling if you happen to walk past near the doorway to the dungeon. At some point, in a fit of rage, he ripped all his clothes off and is now completely naked. His days are a cycle of insanity, brief gratuity when the poor carpenter Zuglar comes to gives him some water, then spiraling back into insanity.

Aside from Zuglar the only person he even remembers anymore is Rakust, one of his old students. Even that memory is hazy though, Sazir doesn't even remember what he looks like. The only other person Sazir claims to know aside from those two dwarves is god.

The once proud macedwarf is a hollow shell of what he once was, deteriorating after after being in confinement for so long. His prior injuries have become infected, no doubt after the poor bastard tore out his stiches.

His voice is raspy and hoarse after screaming about repentance for days on end, and his eyes have sunken into their sockets after months of guilt.

Despite his crimes and cowardice, I was starting to feel remorse for Sazir. Sazir as this fellow dwarves knew him had died in that cell ages ago, leaving behind something that could only be described as feral. I decided to see when his sentence was up, surely it would be soon, right? It had almost been a year, a i've never seen dwarve be jailed much longer than a year even for the harshest of crimes.

I checked his convition sheet and was stunned to see this:

Legally, he should of been let out ages ago most likely. Nobody has done it though. I guess the dwarves of Stinkfinger have come to fear Brainpulp, and have decided that he wouldn't be safe to release. I can't say I disagree with that.

Normally this is where his story ends, however when I built my dungeon, I built it in a very special way. I built it above a pool of magma, with levers hooked up to the grates outside of the cells. If for some reason i desired, I could pull the lever to a specific cell and have the convict in that cell killed instantly in the burning magma.

I could put him out of his misery. I'm not sure if I will yet, because theres the chance that, someday, one of my dwarves will free him, and he can leave Stinkfinger and try to find purpose for his broken life. If something important happens to Sazir, I'll be sure to let you guys know.

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed this little mini story from my fort. If this proves to be popular I may do more of these.

#dwarf fortress #DF #dwarf fortress steam #dwarf fortress stories #qatfortshorts

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munsonxmayhem · 2 years

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It’s me again, I can’t get this idea out of my head. I loved what you did with Fuck What You’ve Heard. A Joseph Quinn x ST actress/singer. They had been secretly dating throughout filming and extra secretive after Season 4 came out and the world fell in love with Joseph Quinn. Noah or Gaten post a tiktok from their drafts of a “day on set” and someone notices you and Joseph in the background in one of the trailers taking a nap together in between filming and the world kinda loses their mine in a good way.

Cat’s out of the Bag..

Joseph Quinn x Actress!Fem!Reader

Warnings; Angst, Fluff

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Physical touch; a love language. It’s something both you and your boyfriend Joseph have in common. The constant touching is seemingly an amazing gift, but not when you’re trying to keep your relationship private.

You two had been pretty under the radar at the start of your relationship since it started during the filming of Stranger Things season 4. At that point in time, Joseph wasn’t as under the public microscope as he is now, after the release of the season.

After the season aired Joseph had gained a lot of traction in the media’s eye. The constant paparazzi, and crazed fans that swarm him at random times. It’s gotten a bit harder to hide your relationship; but not impossible.

Now, you’re sat on the couch, legs flung over Joseph’s as he flips through movies on the TV. You hear your phone buzzing, “Joe, can you grab that for me?” You reach towards the other side of the couch, he grabs the phone off the stand; glancing at you. “It’s Noah.” He states, handing you the phone.

“Hello?” You say mindlessly.

“(Y/N)! I’m so sorry! Is Joe there?”

“Noah. What’s going on? Yes, he’s here.” The panic sets in as you slide your legs off of his lap, sitting correctly on the couch. Joseph looks over nervously, nodding at the phone. You wave to him, “Hold on, I’ll put you on speaker.” You set the phone down on your leg, listening to a very panicked Noah.

“I swear I didn’t know! I didn’t see it!” He exclaims through the phone.

“What are you talking about? See what?” You urge, frantically.

“My TikTok! I posted a random behind-the-scenes video I’d filmed during season 4, and my followers spotted you and Joseph in the back…” He rambles on like crazy.

Joseph is wide-eyed staring between the phone and you, clearly nervous.

“Noah, did you take the video down?” Joe asks remaining calm.

“Yeah! I did, but by then people had already shared, saved, a-and… It just spread like crazy! I’m so so so sorry” He sounds so defeated on the other end of the phone, pulling at your heartstrings.

“Noah. Noah, hey… it’s okay, alright? It’s not your fault.” You do your best to comfort him as Joe pulls out his phone to find the video.

“Yeah, Noah. It’s alright, man. You didn’t know, don’t stress it alright?” Joe chimes in on the comfort, Noah sighing in defeat.

“Okay... Again, though. I am so so sorry.” He finishes, and both of you hang up the phone.

Joe scrolls through his phone, clicking on the newest video to pop up. Sure enough, in the background of Noah’s ‘BTS’ video, there’s you and Joseph; cuddled up on a small couch in the back, seemingly during one of the many naps you’d taken together on set.

You couldn’t help but smile at the sight, it was just so cute to see the two of you wrapped up, purely candid.

What you didn’t expect, however, was the amount of love the two of you were receiving online. The reason you’d kept it private was that you both were scared of the backlash after he’d become a worldwide sensation. These comments were the exact opposite, nothing but love and adoration for the co-stars.

‘Oh my god! I can’t believe it! I’m so so happy.’

‘A dream come true, I’ve always shipped them!’

‘They’re so cute! I love them so much.’

And so many more beautiful comments. You smile down at the phone as you scroll the phone further in Joseph’s hands, a smile growing on his face.

He sets the phone down, turning his head to look at you. He beams at you as you smile at him, his eyes full of love and happiness. “Wasn’t what I expected.” You say softly. He shakes his head, “Me either, love.”

He presses his lips to yours softly, smiling against your lips. “I’ve got an idea.” He whispers, breaking the kiss. You raise an eyebrow as he switches to his camera, facing it towards yourselves. You lean up into the frame, face next to his and smiling. He turns, kissing your cheek as he takes the picture. The cutest picture.

He gets onto his Instagram, pulling the picture up onto his story. You smile as you watch his fingers typing out, “Cat’s out of the bag.”

The first picture to ever be posted by you two, a confirmation of your guys’ relationship. Your heart skipped a beat at this new chapter. You go onto Instagram, reposting the picture he’d posted to his story onto yours. The comments rolled in, all of them so happy and adoring of your guys’ newly exposed relationship.

You glance over at your smiling boyfriend, and you couldn’t be happier.

——————————————————————————

#joseph quinn #stranger things #joseph quinn x reader #eddie munson #joseph quinn x fem!reader #joseph quinn x y/n

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heyclickadee · 1 year

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I've had this sitting in my drafts for a few days and just forgot to post it. Anyway! Thoughts on "Entombed" (sorry, this got long):

1. There's an ancient mechanical creature hidden under a mountain on an uncharted world activated by a mysterious crystal and implied to have razed its entire planet. Why? How does this technology work? Is the mechanical creature alive or sentient in some way? What is it about the crystal that activates the creature? Is this just technology, or is it force weirdness, or both? Why did somebody (potentially the Zeffo) build a planet destroying giraffe of terror? Why was it in the mountain? Did someone hide it there? Did the engineer who designed it base its appearance off of a real animal? Did it hide itself? I have questions.

2. I had to watch this one twice to decide what I thought. I enjoyed it the first time, but I was so thrown by how completely different it was than what I was expecting that I had to give it another shot. Second time around? I loved it. Sometimes Star Wars is profound and serious. Sometimes it's silly Indiana Jones shenanigans in space, and I love it for that.

3. I'll talk about the whole "filler" discussion lower down, but one of the throughlines that's been carried through to this episode from the very beginning of the season is the idea of these characters exploring life outside Kamino, the army, and even the "hunker down and survive" mode they were all in last season, along with the choices they are or could be making as individuals regarding what kind of lives they want to live. Echo, for example, wants to go back to being a soldier, but this time in a fight against the empire; Crosshair is still choosing to be a soldier (for now), and he's miserable about it but having to live with the choice he made to stay; Tech's gotten to explore a bit of what he wants and likes through the riot racing episode but, more than that, he's being presented with the idea that the galaxy is broader and deeper than he considered and that he maybe has more to offer it than just what he was designed to offer; Wrecker...honestly needs an episode where he's in focus because he seems to be the most content of any of them and I'm not sure what Wrecker wants, besides being with the people he loves; and then this week was Omega's (and sort of but not quite) Hunter's turn. I'm an adult, so I tend to focus on the adult characters, but Omega's such a good character and it's great that she's also getting a chance to explore what kind of person she wants to be. This is the second episode we've seen that really focuses on her being a bit of an adrenaline junky with an interest in treasure hunting. And given what Romar said to her about how happiness is worth all the treasure in the galaxy, that's probably going to be a theme for her this season, and I'm curious to see where it goes.

4. Theres. An inexplicable megazord. Just. Out there. On a dead planet.

5. Hunter's...Hunter's not okay. And not even in just a "tired dad" sense, I mean that Hunter's probably been crying under his helmet since "Aftermath" and that he's getting to the point where he can't hide how bone-tired and sad he actually is. It's almost shocking going back and watching the first half of season one and comparing Hunter there to how he's been in his season so far, because he was so much more open back then. He was exploring options, asking questions, trying to find a new life for all of them, and came across as pretty confident in his decisions, but after the one-two-three punch of encountering Crosshair on Bracca, getting shot by Cad Bane, and losing Omega? The man shuts down. And he only shut down more after what happened with Crosshair on Kamino. I actually suspect that Hunter agrees more with Echo about what they should be doing than he lets on, even taking his opinion that Omega shouldn't be forced into become a soldier the way they were into account. He's not happy about what they're doing, he doesn't like going on dangerous missions for someone else, and he really only got involved with Cid because they were broke and desperate and because she kind of blackmailed them into doing it, but he keeps digging his heels in and refusing to move. It seems like he feels like he's a failure as a leader, a brother, and maybe even as a father, because he hasn't really been proactively leading the group since episode nine of last season. He isn't really making decisions about what they should or shouldn't do--he's mostly letting other people decide on their missions and then letting them guilt, blackmail, or push him into it because he's so scared of making a decision that get's another one of them hurt or results in them losing another person the way they lost Crosshair (or worse) that he's mentally and emotionally paralyzed AND emotionally isolating himself from everyone else. And that paralysis is starting--more than starting--to cause friction on the team, and I'm curious to see how that's going to affect the story moving forward.

6. Seriously, someone get this beautiful bandana man some therapy.

7. Likewise, the vibe between Echo and Hunter this episode was interesting. As much as they're (at least outwardly) disagreeing on what their next steps should be, there doesn't seem to be any animosity between them, at least not yet. All those silently exchanged glances? They disagree, but they trust each other, and I kind of think they both think that they other one is going to come around to their point of view. Eventually.

8. Omega is me if someone sets me loose on a scavanger hunt.

9. They gave me the space archaeology (kind of) and I am VIBRATING

10. I WISH archaeology was this fun. I spent an entire season walking surveys up in Wyoming, and did I ever come across a map to an ancient mecha-beast? No. No I did not. (I kid, real life archaeology is very fun and I have absolutely cried about lithic debitage and fingerprints on potsherds because someone it means someone lived and breathed and died and that stuff might seem boring but it's evidence of a human life and that's beautiful.)

11. Phee! All hail our pirate queen!

12. Phee is fun and her fashion sense is impeccable. And she has a sword. She's got a vibro-cutlass. Or something like unto a sword. But in space. And regardless of how anyone interprets them, I really liked the scenes with her and Tech at the beginning (characters being a bit snarky towards each other? I'm going to have fun), and Omega imprinting on her like a little baby duck was adorable. It's similar to the vibe Ezra had with Hondo, but where Ezra was a bit of a little shit (and I mean that affectionately) with a tendency to give Hondo chances he knew Hondo didn't deserve because he thought Hondo was a fun dude to have around (and maybe because he saw in Hondo a lot of the kind of person he would have turned into if the ghost crew hadn't picked him up and given him a chance), Omega's just all starry eyes with Phee. Is Phee trustworthy? Probably not. Is she fun for now? Oh yeah.

13. It would be hilarious if Phee turned out to be a former jedi who worked in the archives but left the order well before the war or order 66 because she wanted to go treasure hunting. This is the crackiest of crack theories and I do not expect it to happen. But it would be funny.

14. I loved how into the treasure hunt Tech started to get. Asking questions? About the puzzles? Doing his own investigation on the age of the site? Yes.

15. "I suspect that this is not, in fact, a treasure vault," as the aforementioned inexplicable megazord shambles to life once again proving that Tech, with his deadpan one-liners, is the funniest damn character on this show.

16. Not much Echo this episode, which was a little disappointing, but I liked what little we got. Hopefully there's more in the next one!

17. There's a MAP to an TECHNOLOGICAL MONSTER that PREDATES THE REPUBLIC just OUT in SPACE and I am HERE FOR IT.

18. I didn't think it was possible to make something that vaguely resembles an ankylosaur look scary. I've been corrected. I'm glad Wrecker was able to throw the ankylosaur from hell out the window. (But also I feel a little sorry for it).

19. Mel??? Running from the death ray??? And not making it??? Corbett and Rau I AM IN YOUR WALLS WHAT THE HELL??? But no, actually, that was a pretty good way to up tension without taking out one of the regular characters.

20. So...I'm not saying that spite is low-key a good motivator, but spite might low-key be a good motivator. I'll just leave it at that.

21. No one calls the clone characters by their names. I didn't think this was anything at first, but the more of this season I see, the more I think it definitely is. No one who isn't a clone addresses a clone by their name. And it's not just the villianous or morally ambiguous non-clone characters, no one does it. Not Phee, who has a couple different nicknames for everyone in the batch (including Tech, even though she asked what his name was), not Cid, not Rampart, not even Romar, and Romar was definitely a good guy. The only exception was the announcer and the crowd using Tech's name in "Faster," because that's the name he gave when he signed up (and there's a pretty good chance no one suspected he was a clone) and even then the announcer had to comment on how weird it was and questioned whether or not that was even a name. It's an interesting trend and is probably playing into the idea of how clones were viewed by most of the galaxy during the war--basically as non-people--but I also want to see where it goes before I come down on any hard conclusions. Apart from the overall trend, I do think that every character we're meeting is doing it for a different reason. Rampart pointedly calls clones by their CT numbers as a sign of disrespect. They are not people to him and he doesn't care if they know that. Cid? I think it's so she doesn't get attached. She doesn't want to like them too much. It might be the same for Phee, buuuuuut I'm not sure. And then with Romar...I kind of wonder if he kept calling Tech "Ace" partly because he didn't realize that Tech's name was Tech. Same with the announcer in "Faster" scratching his head over "Tech" being a name. Romar could have thought that "Tech" was a codename or a squad designation, because...I mean...clone names are unusual. Even within the galaxy far far away with the exceedingly silly names, clone names are often etymologically weird. And every person in the batch is named after their job. It'd be like going to the store and finding out that the person loading the shelves is just named "Stocker." And--hey, sad thought about clones--I kind of wonder if most people in the galaxy just assumed that clones didn't have names. After all, they're manufactured people, people who didn't--from what people could tell from the outside--have families. Who would name them? is probably what a lot of people who didn't know the clones would ask. The only people who called the clones by their names were the jedi and other clones; now the jedi are gone and most of the clones aren't in a position to even use their own names right now.

22. I just made myself sad about clones.

23. I LOVED the look of...well, of everything in this episode. It honestly felt like half the purpose of this one was to allow the art and effects teams to flex and flex they did.

24. This whole episode is like if someone decided that Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Castle in the Sky, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, and Godzilla: King of Monsters were the same movie, and I appreciate that energy.

25. I love that the batch's reaction at the end was basically just, "Well. That just happened." I need Crosshair to come back so they can tell him this story. Them just saying, "While you were off with the Empire we were awakening the ancient horrors," and him jokingly threatening to leave again because there's no way he's believing that this happened.

26. What is the kingdom of Elweys? I need it. I need to know. (For real, though, I'm actually glad that none of the crazy ancient technology stuff in this episode was explained. It gives the GFFA a bit of temporal depth that it doesn't always have and I'm here for it.)

27. Regarding the filler discussion: Not every story has to be serialized. It's okay for some shows to just be a series of putting characters in different combinations and scenarios and seeing what they do. In fact, that used to be the norm. For decades. That was how television worked. It's only in the last decade or so that serialized television has become more of a regular thing.

Furthermore, there's a spectrum of ways to serialize something. On one end of that spectrum you have your eight-hour movies--things like Kenobi and Moon Knight, where pretty much every episode begins where the previous episode ended, and where no episode is complete without the overall structure of the entire show. On the other end of that spectrum you have your tentpole episode shows--think something like the first season of the Ducktales reboot--where you can mostly watch the episodes in any order you want because most of the episodes are the characters getting into various shenanigans while most of the plot is reserved for big event episodes, usually mid-season or season finales. And then elsewhere on that spectrum you'll have shows that are written a little more like a novel. Every single episode or chapter will have its own story, its own miniature inciting incident, rising action, climax, falling action, and its own mix of plot, character development, and worldbuilding (sometimes focusing a little more on one than the others), but the successive episodes or chapters build up to an overarching story and overall structure, and it can be hard to see how or what that overarching story is until you get to the end of the whole story. That's what The Bad Batch is. It's that kind of serialized story.

And--just a last thought--if we're going to say that an episode is filler and doesn't contribute to the plot, we've got to one, consider that maybe story is more than plot, and two, ask ourselves what the "plot" actually is. Anyway, this is just me being a little bit salty, but the unending "filler" discourse whenever The Bad Batch isn't Crosshair's Agony Half-Hour got old last season, and this will probably be the last thing I say about it. (Also, this is just me and my two cents, so take it with a grain of salt).

28. Jumping off of that, this kind of episode does make me suspect that we are getting at least a third season, because it feels like the writers are taking their time taking us we're they're going. I am more than okay with this.

29. DID I MENTION THE INEXPLICABLE MEGAZORD???

#the bad batch #tbbspoilers #tbb spoilers #the bad batch season two #the bad batch spoilers #omega bad batch #hunter bad batch #tech bad batch #phee genoa #wrecker bad batch #echo bad batch #this episode was fun

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laylajeffany · 3 months

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Thank you for always answering our questions, and since you said you have lots of free time here’s some more ;)

1) How did you come up with the idea for The Black Menagerie? As I’ve said before, it’s delightfully weird in the best way, I don’t think I’ve ever read an AU fic with a plot like this. I’m very much enjoying it though and look forward to the next chapter.

2) When you’re writing longer fics, how do you stop yourself from rushing the plot? If I try to write linear stories I always end up rushing to the part I’m looking forward to.

3) Do you think we could have a sneak peek at a page or two of the holy scriptures? Of stuff that you’ve already written, of course, just so we can see how the outline looks.

4) Do you have any other tv shows outside of Wednesday that you enjoy at the moment?

5) Who was your favourite character in the Wednesday series? Outside of your fic lmao.

6) Do you have any little rituals for when you write? Like a specific place or drinking coffee idk.

7) Not really a question in itself, but I have LOTS of questions about teaching and I’m deeply considering going into the education world. Do you think you could send me a private message so I can ask the questions there instead of pestering all your followers inbox? If you’re uncomfortable you don’t have to :)

Thanks again!

1 - The Black Menagerie is in part inspired by this print I’ve had in my house forever, Morgan Adams’ vlog on YouTube where she has had issue after issue with contractors trying to renovate her own house, and the first little beginning arc is inspired by real life in a big city - I live in one of the “top rattiest” cities in the US according to the 2023 Orkin data. It’s a daily occurrence to run into some sort of vermin here. This was an average day in my classroom last year:

They are not afraid of the kids, but they are afraid of loud music. The children requested Ozzy Osbourne and I’d turn the speaker at them and they’d go back in the pipes where they came from. (We have a new custodian this year and we have significantly fewer pests but I did have a cockroach go crawling over a kid having a meltdown already in the cozy corner in my classroom on Tuesday - that did not help the meltdown.) Rats are a huge problem on our playground and one day I heard bickering under the slide only to discover the children were fighting over who was going to get the ‘magic powers’ from a disembodied rat paw they found. I put it in the compost and still I’m waiting for it to come back to me in some way - I just don’t feel like I’ve seen the end of it.

But largely I just wanted to write something cute and different! Chapter two (just finished this morning) has some surprises so I won't give that away yet, but a little bit just inspired by the idea of local drama and tapping into Enid's vlogger side. AND ALSO - the Amy Adams and Emily Blunt 2008 movie "Sunshine Cleaning" ;) you'll see.

2 - I love to torture the reader first and foremost because it’s fun and I enjoy it, but also I LOVE building constant rising action and climax and then back to rising action. To me, character development is key and I can’t rush them through situations. That said, as I write my stories out of order I do often write the first draft of a scene that I’m looking forward to in order to get it out of my system, then I know what I need to do to ‘get them to that point.’

3 - Absolutely not lmfao my handwriting is atrocious and I’m not showing it off lol.

4 - Spirit High on Netflix was cool and I’m looking forward to the second season, I just finished Harley Quinn S4 on HBO, and I’m re-watching House, M.D. at the moment, and I often put on the OG Addams Family before I go to bed, it’s a 24/7 channel on Amazon Prime’s free TV service. I really don’t actually watch much TV ordinarily I have a hard time focusing on it if it’s not something I already have seen, I usually need to watch with Tracey to enjoy something new.

5 - I hadn’t related to a character as much as I did to this interpretation of Wednesday in a long time (hence the 1.4 million word exploration of what was next for her) haha. I thought Eugene was cute. Hated what they did with Moritica, which again - is the resulting 1.4 million word story to fix that. Morticia is usually my favorite part of the franchise.

6 - I write best in quiet, honestly “silence would be appreciated” - not even instrumental music playing in the background (though I’ve gotten better at tolerating that on the green music application). I also prefer to write in my bed against my skull reading pillow thing. And of course I need my Toasted Graham coffee from that awful “Seattle based-brand” I’m sure I’m supposed to be boycotting with just a splash of unsweetened oat milk in it in a 20 oz black Yeti rambler (NO HANDLE). I’m very exciting and…ritualistic haha. Honestly I /can/ write anywhere, I managed to write in my childhood bedroom that has since been painted a putrid shade of blue while my parents were arguing about how much money to pay the pastor for a funeral this morning.

7 - Maybe, reply to this with an honest answer if you are 18+ (not that I’m asking for verification but I’d feel better lol).

#layla answers fic questions #little layla things

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multipandombabe · 2 years

Text

A Fezco Blurb

A/N: If you’ve been following me for a while you’ll know that this shit has been sitting in my drafts since the season 2 premiere and this bitch is STILL not done but it has some good scenes in it that I really want to share and this is one of them...so....enjoy :)

I feel like I should also mention that this about halfway through the fic so a bit of info for more context: the reader is Rue’s older sister (by a year). Because I can never tell when my writer’s block is going to strike just know im going to be posting the whole fic but just in blurbs!

Anyways

Warnings: drug use, alcohol use, crude language

POV

“I—damn, I’m so…” She hiccuped, “Embarrassed.”

Fez immediately interjected, hands waving her off and everything, “Nah nah nah, none of that.”

Through the blur of her vision she watched as he moved from her flank to the sink across the floor, his hand grabbing at the drying towel on the hook before he turned the faucet on.

“Did you drink?”

In her mind the answer came to her instantly: hell yeah she drank, she had to have been up 4 shots by the time Fezco even showed up, and then the extra 5 that followed to build confidence. But when she tried to say it, to will the simple fucking word off her tongue it just wouldn’t come out. Instead what did follow was a deep gulp because now she was sitting thinking about what an idiot she was to mix brown and clear liquor and it wasn’t the best reminder to her stomach.

“Imma take that as a yeah.” He called back but it seemed to be more of a mumble to himself, still busying about with the sink.

Y/N nodded slowly, so as to not make her even more dizzy, before resting her head against the wall beside the toilet. She was fucked, she was so fucking fucked up.

The sound of the same pair of feet coming back towards her brought a sliver of comfort, even with her eyes closed, she was happy to know (or at least the part of her that was sober) that despite her current predicament it wasn’t scaring Fez off.

Bending down slowly the red head raised the now cold and damp towel to her forehead, pressing it against her clammy skin as gently as possible. She smiled

“Feels.. nice.”

“I know B.” He whispered, lowering the cloth down the side of her face to the crook of her neck, creating rhythmic movements of patting and rubbing. “Aye, but you gotta tell me all the shit you did tonight.”

Y/N groaned, pressing her head even further into the cold tile. Sober Y/N knew this information was important and that she needed to communicate it because she had never been in this scenario before but Fez clearly had and he wanted to help. On the other hand, fucked up Y/N was this close to vomiting again and it was definitely preventing her from wanting to open her mouth.

But Fezco was insistent.

“C’mon Ma, you not gon get no better if I can’t help you.” He mumbled back, pulling the towel off her neck and setting it at his side which only earned another whine from Y/N.

With a shaky hand placed over her eyes so as to think (and block out the bright ass light), the other one pushed her from the wall to sit up straight against the tub behind her. Doing her best to ignore the way her body rocked back and forth she sucked in a deep breath and contemplated.

“I…yeah, I smoked. C-Couple blunts with, friends.” It was a slow paced pack of words but Fez seemed to follow fine, his whole attention still wrapped up in her and only her.

“What else?”

“……Coke, did lines with…, Chrissy and M-Maria.” She breathed, the folds in her forehead rooted up high in her state of deep thinking.

Fezco nodded, “How many lines y’all do?”

It was at this point that she could feel all the energy in her body hitting the 5%-0% range, all of the talking and the thinking running her down almost instantaneously. So with what little strength she had left she slowly raised her hand to reveal two digits, praying that that would be enough.

“Okay okay, well you gon be fine but yo ass is definitely crossed right now.” Raising his hand he nonchalantly moved the loose strand of hair in front of her face and tucked it behind her ear, the heat of his fingertips lingering around the edge of her jawline as he seemed to..hover in that place for just a moment. Until he pulled back.

Sober Y/N made a note to remember that to the very best of her ability.

“You got the spins too and that shits not gon go away until you either finish yo business here in the bathroom and knock or if we sober you up.” He explained, finally sitting down on the floor across from her. “But imma be real with you, you not gon like either option. ‘Specially if this yo first time.”

“Wanna go home.” She whispered, head lulling over to rest on the cold porcelain of the bathtub, the only thing keeping her from slipping straight on her back to the floor. Though at this point that sounded a bit better, probably would feel even better against her damn clammy skin.

Though eyes nearly shut Y/N could see the way the amber hair angel watched her. There was pity in his eyes-- but not the kind that could tie a person’s guts into a knot from embarrassment, no, this was the kind of pity that showed concern, worry, care.

Fezco seemed to be contemplating as well, eyes going slightly blank as thoughts quite obviously ran behind them, even taking a moment to rub at the stubble of his beard.

“You want me to take you?”

“Yes.”

Probably the most coherent statement she had made in the past hour or so but there was nothing in her that needed any time to ponder over any other sort of options. She didn’t give a fuck about this party anymore, her insides felt like they were burning, the room was beginning to vibrate, and now she had the only person she wanted to show up to this shitshow tending to her.

Silence seemed to evade the bathroom in its entirety, and it was warm--comfy, a golden hue tinging the sound in a way that wasn’t describable but so familiar, as if they had sat and stared at each other a million times before..whether in this lifetime or maybe a previous one.

And as Y/N peered at him, holding the eye contact for just one moment more--like she wasn’t fucked up, like she wasn’t clutching every physical thing in her reach to stabilize her, like she wasn’t sweating not because of the alcohol but because the man before her might just be the most goddamn gorgeous person she’s ever seen, she swore, he smiled.

“Alright I gotchu.” Fez nodded slowly before tossing the wet rag into the sink above them and tucking his phone into his back pocket.

---------------------

A/N: hope you enjoyed!

#fezco x reader #fez x you #fezco blurb #fezco euphoria #euphoria blurb #euphoria imagine #fezco x black!reader

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andrebearakovsky · 7 months

Note

(cont. ask) first of all NOOO don't apologize i was looking for a long post, this is why i came here! i've been lurking way back! i remembered your blog name! 2. wow??? this is such a comprehensive answer!!! 😍😍😍😍😍😍🤗😳 thank you so much! 3. any content you want to post i am here for! 4. i can't believe there are so many new guys, like yes of course, but i can't believe it! 5. Oh yeah the details of the Holtby thing are coming back to me, i seem to have repressed it.🙈

Aw that's so sweet of you! A longtime viewer! (Viewer? What am I, a YouTuber? Calm down.) It's sweet of you to remember me and I'm delighted that I am apparently famous and evidently famous for making long/extensive posts lol. Which I'm about to do again.

I talked about Strome, Milano, Sandin, and alllll those young guys on my last post, as well as Darcy and TvR. [And Dowd but you already knew him.] The rest of the guys currently on the team I haven't really touched on yet that joined post-Holtby era are Nicolas Aube-Kubel, Anthony Mantha, and Charlie Lindgren. I'll get into them in a bit, but I gotta get into some other things first.

You said you haven't really watched since the Holtby era, so I'm going to assume you know everything that happened/all the people we had up til that final season, and that you know little/nothing of what has happened since then. So I'm gonna give a quick recap of some of the big things that have happened in that time:

You missed the ENTIRETY of the Sammy and Vitek goaltending era, which was kinda turbulent. Sammy was gonna be the starter with Henrik Lundqvist as the backup, but then it turned out Lundqvist had a heart condition and had to retire and never played a game for the Caps. This forced Vitek into action, and we had 2 years of the Sammy and Vitek goaltending duo. I, personally, loved it. Some people did not. I still hold that they were BOTH GOOD!! They split time, neither one ever TRULY grasped the starting reigns. There was also when Vitek got taken by the Kraken in the expansion draft and then immediately traded him back to us. Also they were besties, which started when they were a duo down in Hershey. It's also why my blog is titled "goalie best friend tandem," though it also currently applies to Darcy and Chuck who are besties. You can search the "goalie best friends" tag on my blog for cute Sammy and Vitek content. Neither of them are here anymore, but they're still friends - I remember seeing a quote Vitek gave to some Devils people talking about him and about still being friends and such.

Players you knew back from the Holtby era who are no longer with us: Lars Eller, Richard Panik (useless), Jonas Siegenthaler, Travis Boyd, Christian Djoos, Michal Kempny, Radko Gudas, Garnet Hathaway, Dmitry Orlov [don't talk to me about these last two I'm sad]

Players that played with us for multiple seasons after the Holtby era who are no longer with us this year: Justin Schultz, Conor Sheary, Daniel Sprong, Matt Irwin

COVID robbed us of our time with Brenden Dillon and I'm sad about it

We had Zdeno Chara for 1 year, and he straightup fixed Nick Jensen. Jensen was abysmal before that, then Chara was his defense partner for the whole year, and Jensen is good now. I no longer dread every time he touches the puck, I trust him. Also he has a personality now! Idk what kind of dark magic Chara used, but I will be forever thankful to him for it. 1 year of Chara absolutely 1000% worth it just for fixing Nick Jensen

We got Marcus Johansson back! :) And then we traded him again

We traded Jakub Vrana for Anthony Mantha, who is useless and unfortunately still here. He never fit in with the team vibe of "sexy idiots," he's not loud enough or slutty enough.

In March 2022 Carl Hagelin suffered a really bad eye injury during practice. I think the butt end of someone's stick got into his eye? (We were never told whose stick it was, I'm sure they have to feel absolutely terrible about it.) He's lucky he didn't lose his eye. He tried to come back, but he never played a game again after that. He was technically on the roster all of last season, but he never got into any games, and he just announced his retirement this summer. A really sad end, tbh. And RIP to the 4th line of dreams.

We were GONNA have Connor Brown for the 2022-23 season, and he was gonna play with Dylan Strome whom he's friends with and played in juniors with. But he played for like 2 games and then got hurt and was out for the season and never played for us again. I think he's in Edmonton now.

You know about goal songs, right?? I think the last year of Holtby was the first year of goal songs. I have a Spotify playlist of goal songs if you wanna check it out

There have been SO many injuries the last 3 years. 2021-22 was what I like to call the year of babies. I don't even remember who exactly was injured but there were so many injuries it necessitated the callup of SO many rookies. TWELVE rookies played that season: Martin Fehervary, Connor McMichael, Beck Malenstyn, Garrett Pilon, Hendrix Lapierre, Brett Leason, Aliaksei Protas, Axel Jonsson-Fjallby, Zach Fucale, Joe Snively, Alex Alexeyev, and Lucas Johansen. All of whom made their NHL debuts that season except for Fehervary, McMichael, Malenstyn, and Pilon. Of those rookies, Fehervary and McMichael were the only ones who were really supposed to make the team that season; they stuck around the whole season, while Leason and Protas played 30+ games, AJF played 20+, Snively and Malenstyn played more than 10 each, and the rest had 6 or less. It was truly the year of babies. Some of those guys aren't in the organization anymore, but I think this is the year the rest of them finally make the leap and are true full-timers. [Except for Fehervary, who already is]

More injury news: Nicky and Tom were injured for like the first half of last season. And in December, John Carlson broke his fucking face. He got hit in the face with a puck and it broke his entire face, like it was really bad, and he hardly played again. I think he came back for like the last few weeks, but tbh his injury was when the season went downhill. [I say "broke his face" but the official reports are he had a fractured skull and severed temporal artery. Yikes! He's fine now though]

Ovi just keeps breaking goal records. He got 800 goals and then passed Gordie Howe last season!!! He is now number 2 all-time in goals!! He currently has 822. Watch out, Gretzky, he's comin' for ya

Oh yeah the Hershey Bears won the Calder Cup this year!! It was absolutely epic. They played the Coachella Valley Firebirds (Kraken AHL team) in the finals, and it was an awesome finals. It went to Game 7 overtime. GAME SEVEN OVERTIME!!!!! Do you know how rare that is? It's only the 2nd time the Calder Cup Finals has gone to overtime in Game 7, with the first time being in 1953. In the NHL, it has only ever happened in the Stanley Cup Finals TWICE. EVER! By the Wings in 1950 and 1954. So the Bears won the Calder Cup in Game 7 overtime and it was exciting as FUCK. And a lot of guys who might make the Caps roster this year were on that Cup-winning team: Snively, Protas, McMichael, Malenstyn, Johansen, as well as top prospects Lapierre and Iorio. They're the oldest franchise in the AHL, and that was their 12th Calder Cup, which is the most in AHL history.

And you said to feel free to post some content so I am going to POST some CONTENT. Starting with:

✨Darcy Kuemper✨

I fucking love Darcy, so much. I've already said that I've liked him for a long time, and I'm absolutely elated to have him on the team. He won the Cup with the Avs in 2022. He is also very tall, he's 6'5", one time he hugged TJ and it made TJ look like a child. He's so sweet, and he's so dumb. He's like a giant labrador. Some of my favorite assorted Darcy things and moments include:

In one of his first interviews after signing he said he was gonna visit every museum in DC, and I'm like no you're not, Darcy, that's not possible. Our first sign that he was a big dummy

One time suplexed Matthew Tkachuk into the ice

Got a shot on goal during a game last year

The time he tried to "interview" Nick Jensen at the outdoor game practice while giggling incessantly

Here's him at NHL media day last year, featuring him kicking a soccer ball like you see in my profile pic :)

Says one of his life goals is to bring back the dinosaurs. Please see this post for the full story on that one

Is absolute BESTIES with Charlie Lindgren, the backup goalie. Like, so much so that they and their wives constantly take their dogs on walks together, the dogs are reportedly besties as well, and the Kuempers dog-sat Chuck's dog over Christmas. They also kind of have matching dogs, I'll include a picture below. Chuck also called himself and Darcy two of the "more normal goalies in the league" which is an absolute lie after the dinosaurs thing, so clearly Chuck doesn't have that many brain cells rolling around up there either. They also did THIS at media day this year. Their friendship is just so pure. You can read more about it in this article. And like, they didn't know each other before signing here. According to the article, evidently after they signed, they texted each other and then literally the scene from stepbrothers happened

And then TvR 🥰 Mine own love TvR. I adore Trevor van Riemsdyk so much. He's just got incredibly good vibes. I also have a bit more of a personal attachment to him, because he and I have the same birthday (July 24). He's a bit soft-spoken, especially compared to some of the other freaks on this team. Possibly one of the only ones with any semblance of a brain cell. He's not flashy; he's a steady-eddy defenseman, almost always on the third pair barring injuries. He's not gonna score a bunch of points, but he plays hard defensively every game (one of the reasons goalies love him), he's reliable, and he blocks SO many shots. He's also one of THE guys on the penalty kill. The penalty kill is TvR, Jensen, Fehervary, and Dowd, those are the main guys. We also officially claimed him as our own. As of this year, he will have played more years with the Caps than with anyone else, he currently has more goals, assists, and points with us than with anyone else, and after about 40 more games he will have played more games with us than with anyone else.

Also the ENTIRE team is absolutely fucking OBSESSED with him. There aren't like that many big specific things I can point to, it's just how I've noticed them treating him over the years, and how they talk about/to him and the general energy. They all love to shout "REEEEEEEEEEEEMERRRRRRRR" at any and every opportunity. And like you can just tell that every single one of them is deeply in love with him. They are all constantly tripping over themselves to give him the player of the game award in the locker room, even when other guys have a bunch of points in the game and it feels like they're the obvious choice but no they all want to give a love letter to their collective crush. The goalies especially love him. (Here's Chuck giving him the POTG, Nicky giving him the POTG, and a recounting of Sammy's love affair with him two seasons ago). The coaches also love him, sometimes too much for their own good - there have been times in the last few years when they've put TvR on the power play and in the shootout (??) when he had no business being there lol. And like I don't blame them lmao. He's grown to become a leader on the team (and occasionally gets As on his chest during preseason games and when a bunch of dudes are injured - another thing that confirms to me they're all in love with him, he got real high up on the chain of command real quick), he's super consistent (there was one game last year when there were so many injuries on D that the defense was quite literally just TvR plus a bunch of rookies - I said that day that the defense was "TvR and a dream"), and he will absolutely never put his mouthguard in his mouth. So as the year goes on, and as you watch games and social media content, just keep your eyes peeled, watch TvR, and you'll see that the entire team is so fucking horny for TvR specifically. I made this meme awhile back, which is exactly how the Caps feel about TvR:

Other miscellaneous fun facts about the team and players that I think you should know:

Our backup goalie is Charlie Lindgren, but we all call him Chuck. It suits him better, especially with his mustache. He also catches right-handed, which is different than practically every other goalie in the league. So like if you look, he and Darcy wear their catching gloves on different hands.

There are a LOT of NHL brothers on this team. Dylan Strome's older brother Ryan plays for the Ducks, and his younger brother Matt actually plays for the Hershey Bears. Trevor van Riemsdyk is also the middle child of three hockey-playing brothers: his older brother James plays for the Bruins, and younger brother Brendan doesn't play in the NHL but played college hockey. And Charlie Lindgren is the oldest of 3 hockey brothers: Andrew played college hockey but never made the NHL, and youngest brother Ryan plays for the Rangers.

Kuzy has been doing some wacky shit in the shootout the last few years, just go look it up on YouTube

Here's a video of the mentors trip this year so you can see Sonny Milano's father who is simply exactly who I envisioned him to be in my head

Nicolas Aube-Kubel (NAK), a French-Canadian fourth line winger that the Caps picked up on waivers in November last year, is Sergei Ovechkin's (Ovi's son) favorite player. We learn this in a video feature with Ovi's wife and kids (I'm including the link to this gifset from the lovely @thornescratch which is where I first saw this). The producer asks who Sergei's favorite player is, and Sergei immediately answers "Aube-Kubel." Not only is Aube-Kubel his "guy" according to Nastya, but then we also see that a selfie of Sergei and Aube-Kubel is the lock screen of Sergei's iPad. And Sergei calls Aube-Kubel his "best friend." Learning this information is such a curveball, because it's like the last person you'd expect Sergei's favorite to be. It's not somebody Russian or even European, it's not somebody old or someone who's been on the team a long time, it's not one of his dad's closer friends, and it's not even one of the stars of the team, it's a young Canadian dude who plays fourth line if he's in. Aube-Kubel must be REALLY friendly, otherwise why else would he be Sergei's favorite? You know it has to be absolutely devastating to Tom Wilson to not be Sergei's favorite lol. [I'm also convinced this is why they re-signed NAK so quick in the offseason, you HAVE to bring back Sergei's favorite player!!]

Speaking of NAK: remember how I said Beck Malenstyn was Nic Dowd's chosen winger? NAK is his OTHER chosen winger. Those two are twin shitstarters and Dowd loves them and I know he absolutely wants both of them on his line this season. They're gonna be a great 4th line. I could talk all day about Dowd and his 4th line duties, and you can ask me to do that if you want but I'm not gonna do it here

I also know everyone's zodiac sign because I'm a freak. I can also get more into that in a separate post if you want

There's probably more stuff, but this is all I can think of for now. Please feel free to ask me more stuff, I love diving into things. Stuff about the team, players, my favorites, whatever. I hope this is both informative and entertaining!

#anon #asks #washington capitals #long post #darcy kuemper #trevor van riemsdyk #charlie lindgren #evgeny kuznetsov #dylan strome #sonny milano #nicolas aube-kubel #nastya ovechkina #nastya shubskaya #john carlson #alex ovechkin #i could probably tag more guys but i'm not gonna #these are the big ones

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megaboy335 · 8 months

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WSJ Serialization Round - September 2023

It's Jump serialization season so I decided to write short reviews of each new title and give final thoughts on the series ending. I'll update the post with my thoughts on the other two new series and whatever ends next week. Discussion about Fabricant 100, Tenmaku Cinema, and the new series MamaYuyu below Edit: Added thoughts for Do Retry and Kagurabachi Edit 2: Added thoughts for Two on Ice and Ayakashi Triangle

Ending Series 1. Fabricant 100 - 37 chapters (Score 4/10) The Golden Future Cup winner curse strikes again. Fabricant 100 was the 2021 winner and it comes from an assistant of Yusei Matsui. I saw red flags right away with the concept. Why is the most powerful fabricant paired with the most valuable human? They're basically invincible when combined together. Sure enough the early opponents didn't put up much of a challenge (the later opponents weren't much better either). The main character Ashibi and #100 join an organization and the series is forever locked into the battle manga angle. Shortly afterwards, Fabricant 100 pivots into exploring the meaning of life and questioning how to become the ideal human. These can be deep questions that perhaps could have been explored if the series wasn't so dead set on being a battle manga. These two sides of the series were always at odds with itself. Some of the Fabricants showed they could coexist with humans... until they couldn't due to internal instincts to steal body parts. The powers steadily had to become edgier to make the life commentary look smart. The art was rarely anything worth mentioning. I would say it peaked early and the story meandered around for a majority of its run. Instead of having 100 Fabricants, there should have been 10-20 who each lived with humans under unique circumstances. That could have shaken Ashibi's morale resolve at every turn. In the end, the series gave reasons for how Fabricants came into existence and #100 made a selfish yet selfless choice for the first time ever. I hope the author has a more straightforward vision for their work next time. If only we lived in a timeline where Red Hood survived 36 weeks. 2. Tenmaku Cinema - 21 chapters (Score 7/10) At the end of last year, the duo behind Shokugeki no Souma returned with a new series about film making. It focused on the process, tools, and management of creating an amateur film. The story begins with the main character Shinichi finding himself possessed by the ghost of a screenwriter named Tenmaku. The ghost character sees the talented young actress Hinaki and immediately becomes inspired to draft a film based on his perception of her life titled "The Shore". Hinaki reads the script and wants to help as much as possible. Her decision comes from 1) the relatability of the story to her own life (without ever knowing its technically based on her) and 2) the desire to have fun with her school peers for once. From this point the series remains squarely focused on bringing this film to life. We see the ups and downs to film production such as sound, prop setting, music, and location scouting. I wished the series devoted a chapter to simply showing The Shore, but I also think it ultimately didn't matter because Hinaki is the film's protagonist in the literally sense. Between walking home, going to the beach, school, or accepting her mom, those are all moments she can bring out organically from her own experiences and desires. The art was amazing and well detailed as you would expect from Tosh. I thought giving Shinichi a spirit partner was kind of an old school throwback since that's a common troupe of the late 90s/2000s era. Its shame Tenmaku and Shinichi got very little time to interact outside of film making. The biggest weakness is while the manga comes off fairly complete, its also shallow. They only made a single movie, so not a lot actually happened over the 21 chapter run. I think the reason it failed is simple: Oshi no Ko, Chainsaw Man, and Sakamoto Days easily fill the void of movie inspired series. Unfortunately there was no place for a series like Tenmaku Cinama to explore the creation process at a ground level in the current manga climate. At least Tosh and Tsukada will be back with a one shot next spring. We haven't seen the last of them. 3. Do Retry - 19 Chapters (Score 4/10)

I've had my eye on Jun Kirarazaka since Bone Collection. That was a bad series with the art in particular being its weakest point, but I thought the characters had some charm. It was like a modern day Urusei Yatsura with an exorcist series skin. Afterwards they did assistant work under the famous Yusei Matsui and here they are again with an historical boxing series.

Right away its obvious his artwork had improved substantially. There is more detail, better composition, and it had a good handle on portraying the setting. I was very impressed with the first chapter. However, problems quickly began to crop up. As the popularity tanked and art deteriorated, it looked more and more like a Yusei series. Kirarazaka doesn't have the imagination to make it compliment what he's drawing to convey. This could be seen most in the opponents our main character faced. There was a guy with a big arm and another with super slates eyes. Its exactly like the exaggerated features you would expect in a Matsui series, who is able to normalize those features with unique panel compositions. The designs in Do Retry came off ugly and out of place for this setting.

The story itself was fine with enough runtime to have 3 main opponents. As a cancelled title, Kirarazaka had to rush through the final arc scenario. Its not hard to imagine how a long term plot of slowly piecing together a mystery about the missing father would have unfolded. I liked the overarching theme of pushing forward despite adversity. The final chapter time skipped to present and we got to see the main character through the pov of his grandson. That is one of the more clever cancelled final chapters I've seen in awhile.

Honestly, the final chapter saved the series somewhat for me. Kirarazaka dropped the Matsui-ness and got to be himself again. It was like the return to form that I wanted since the beginning. I still think this mangaka can land a hit someday. He needs to figure out how to balance his character writing with his newly developed art skills. Do Retry is a respectable attempt, but this wasn't it. I hope he can keep improving and find a style that works for him. 4. Ayakashi Triangle (AyaTri) - 144 Chapters (Score 8/10) Kentaro Yabuki is a prolific manga artist whose career dates back to the late 90s with his debut series Yamato Gensouki at age 19. Since then he's become known for pushing the boundaries of shonen ecchi series to their upper extreme limited. In 2020, Yabuki returned to the weekly magazine with a new ecchi battle series titled Ayakashi Triangle. The most apparent thing right away was that it had a heavier emphasis on the characters and less on making ecchi scenes. It eventually became even clearer how this series was a soft reboot/continuation of Yamato Gensouki which was cancelled in 2 volumes. While the original has very little lore impact on Ayatri, the biggest connection is original Ayakashi Medium is the previous protagonist Iyo. In retrospect, when Male Matsuri split off I should have considered that it might kick off the end game scenario. At the time I thought it was just another subplot to mess with Suzu. The series was more daily life centric in the WSJ days, and more plot focused after it transferred to Jump+. The publication didn't come with any substantial change in content. Though Ayatri was already too spicy for Viz. It was a miracle they kept it as long as they did. I think the series landed in a good place. In fact Shirogane and Suzu acknowledged my long held idea that she might be able to control Matsuri's gender at will. The daily lives of the characters will continue onwards with hijinks always happening. Yet, I also feel unsatisfied because the final boss battle was against a remote controlled puppet. It makes sense within the series for the Goyosen to be the manifestation grudges from Iyo's time, but its underwhelming as an action climax sequence. However for completing a few ideas from Yamato Gensouki, I think it worked in that area. Yabuki has always been a creative artist. He specializes in minimal panel layouts with dynamic action that is easy to follow. It's a style he perfected over the years and still be seen all over Ayatri. As a weekly series, I would say his art and color pages weren't as good compared to the monthly Darkness years. The weekly color pages on Jump+ weren't particularly memorable for the most part, but his compositions are still way ahead of his peers. Regardless, its been a treat to experience a Yabuki series on a weekly schedule. I think Ayatri will be remembered as the series that didn't introduce anything ground breaking, and yet connects Yabuki's carrer from the start to present. He's an artist you read because the content is sweet comfort food. Yabuki often doesn't often stay gone for long, so I'm sure he'll back before we know it. I look forward to whatever he cooks up next.

New Series #1 - MamaYuyu Weekly Shonen Jump has been a save heaven from the plague of fantasy isekai that has consumed the industry, so I was worried when the preview material talked about heroes and the demon lord. Thankfully that doesn't appear to be the case. We're introduced to a hero from a different world where the demon lord is far from defeated. The main character Corleo gets to learn what it means to be a hero through watching his actions. However, the hero sacrifices his life to save this town from the demon lord of his world. Chapter 1 was a long winded prologue to our hero's origin story. I think it could have been streamlined to get the point without beating readers over the head with the conflicted thoughts of Corleo. It also went overboard on defining a Hero. The paneling was unusual, but not necessarily off putting. I hope the author can handle it better with shorter chapters. I would say this is a middle of the road chapter 1. It's hard to pinpoint the exact direction of the story at this stage. My guess is what it will become a battle manga and the mom demon and hero will have to travel together. We already know there are other worlds so the framework is there for a long journey. Time will tell how receptive readers are to this concept.

New Series #2 - Kagurabachi I feel like I don't have much to say about this new series. Its a sword themed with sorcery like you would see in Demon Slayer/Jujutsu Kaisen. The first chapter played out a little differently than the usual Ch.1 template. It was a prologue in the first half and then the real chapter in the back half. You can feel the dad's passion for his craft and the child's desire to match that someday. The dialogue was a little dry, but I thought it worked well with the art style. In the back half, the art got shaper to convey the change in tone. Usually a chapter 1 would show a character like the dad getting killed and then the incident would create a lifelong motivation for the protagonist. Choosing to pause that story and leave it a mystery is an interesting approach. Overall, I think the minimal exposition gives it a stronger than usual first chapter. It gives room for the characters to be the center of attention. The time skip leaves you wondering what exactly happened and how far the main character will go in enacting revenge. The strongest point of the debut is easily the art. I'll be going forward to seeing how the story unfolds in the coming weeks. New Series #3 - Two on Ice Two on Ice isn't a bad series, in fact I would say it has some solid potential. The first chapter is a prologue story about how the protagonist meet the main heroine and became inspired to take figure skating seriously. Several years later, they meet up once again and he's given the chance to be her partner on the ice rink. It's a solid start for character writing with clear motivations and paths for the story to take. The weaker aspect is the art work. There are places were I thought its not good enough to convey what the manga artist hopes. I think these are pretty minor nitpicks in the grand scheme because the love for Figure Skating can clearly be felt. I'm not sure if this kind of topic can succeed in Jump, but I wish them the best of luck.

#Weekly Shonen Jump

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angel-ixily · 2 years

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Essence of Forever

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Pt. 2 to Epitome of Love!

Pt. 1 is found here - Epitome of Love

~~~

Pairing: Jason carver x female!Reader

Pronouns: She/Her

Pov: First Person

Fandom: Stranger Things

Warnings: Mentions of saliva, SPOILERS for season 4 volume 2 of stranger things, death, Vecna, broken bones, fighting, guns, violence, cults, satanism, blood, anxiety, trauma

Summary: During the events with Lucas and Jason in season 4 volume 2 of stranger things, destressed girlfriend of Jason Carver, Y/N L/N, is trying to stop all of the violence from happening.

A/N: I am SO, SO sorry to some of the people who were expecting Heartstopper Fics! I promise I'm writing them up as this is posted, I just lost interest of the show for a while, and then I completely forgot that those fics were in my drafts! I promise they'll be out as soon as you requested them! Thanks for the patience, but for now, enjoy some Jason Carver!

SPOILER ALERT - Jason didn't deserve to die! I am forever a Jason apologist, but only for the right reasons. I see that he was kinda racist, and what he did was terrible. But because of my “I can change them” complex, I see some good in him, but he used that good for all the wrong reasons. Forgive me if I’m wrong ❤️

Enjoy part 2!!!

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~~~ -Y/N's POV-

~~~

Gunshot after gunshot, Jason shot all of the blood red targets in the head. I flinched with every single one of them. I breathed heavily to calm down my heartbeat, staring him up and down.

Ever since we had left that community meeting, there had been something different about Jason. His eyes were bloodshot, he had a crazy look in his once kind baby blue irises, he wasn't thinking straight. He was thinking one thing and one thing only.

Where was Eddie Munson?

I couldn't blame him. He had seen Patrick die. He wanted revenge for Patrick's and my best friend Chrissy's deaths. He wanted to find Eddie. Only in my heart did I plead for Jason's revenge to not involve murdering Eddie. But somewhere deep, deep down... I knew what Jason was planning to do. Why else had he bought the gun?

For once in my life, I hesitated to touch Jason. I closed my eyes to stop some tears that had threatened to drop, and I placed a hand on his shoulder. I opened my eyes slowly, expecting him to look at me angrily and coldly. He slowly turned around, grabbing my hand, and kissing it ever so lightly.

"What's wrong baby?" He asked me lowly. His eyes were still red. I wondered when he had last slept. I opened my mouth, but no words came out. I closed my mouth and swallowed some saliva. A lump had appeared in my dry throat. I had never been so nervous to speak in my life. Jason just stared at me before he finally moved. My breath hitched as he wrapped his arms around my waist, hugging me. I let some of the tears fall.

"Am I scaring you?" He asked. I wanted to say yes. Oh god, I wanted to say yes so badly, but I couldn't bring myself to say it. Instead, I let out a quiet, "no." Jason sighed and buried his head into my shoulder, kissing up my neck, to my jaw, to my tear-stained cheek, and finally to my lips. I kissed back. No matter how scared I was, I couldn't help but find comfort in his lips. They were soft and he was so gentle. I hoped that with this single kiss, it would sink all of his worries away as it had mine.

He pulled away, his lips still dragging across mine as he spoke. "I would never hurt you. You're everything to me. You're my life." He caressed the spots where my tears continued to fall, trying to dry the spots up. "I love you." He finished gently. I nodded.

"I love you more." I spoke, my voice cracking. He looked relieved to hear me say that. He pulled me in for another hug. After a second, he kissed my cheek.

"Oh my gosh I love you so, so much." Once more, he pulled away. "I need you to know that. I love you so much. I know everything is crazy right now, but I promise once I find Eddie, once I- once I get our revenge, everything will go back to the way it was before, is that okay sweetheart?" He sounded rushed and panicky. It's as if he felt bad for everything that was happening. I knew Jason wanted to fix it, but he should have known that hunting Eddie and getting "our revenge" wasn't going to fix anything. At the end of the day, it wasn't going to do anything but make problems worse. You get your revenge, someone else will get their revenge on you. It's something that would only cause more indefinite problems. A rat will kill a mouse, a cat will kill a rat, Cayotes will kill a cat, a Golden Eagle will kill a cayote, and so on and so forth. Revenge is nothing but an infinite source of revenge and pain. It won't only cause you pain, but everyone else around you until you're the one they want revenge on.

I tried explaining that to Jason before, but he wouldn't listen. There was no convincing him after he saw how heartbroken I was about Chrissy's death. And there was no talking him out of it after he saw what Eddie apparently did to Patrick. So, with the biggest smile I could manage, all I could say was, "Okay. Promise?"

He stroked my cheek, returning the smile. "I promise." Our moment together didn't last forever, though. Andy came out with news stating that he might have known where Eddie was. Jason told him to go send Ryan, but Andy was pretty convinced that Eddie was at the old Creel house, hiding. Jason thought to check it out.

And we did. We got in the car and went to check it out.

Jason was driving, I was in the passenger seat, and Andy was in the back. Jason kept a hand on my thigh. I had a hand placed atop of his. He would occasionally look over to me, take a breath, and give me the loving smile that I adored.

I hoped that at this location, nobody was there, and Andy had just heard fake news. But when I had seen Erica Sinclair on top of some rocket ship-like stand on the playground, my heart had almost stopped beating.

"You see her?" Andy asked quickly, leaning into the front. Jason stared directly at her, hatred and spite in his eyes. "Yeah, I see her." He spoke. There was pure venom in his voice. My heart began to quicken again, and my breathing fastened. I had never heard Jason speak like that. Not even during games. Hell, I had never seen Jason like this! This was getting way too out of hand.

Erica had noticed that we were pulling up at the speed of lightning, and she quickly jumped off of the playset, running into the woods. Jason immediately stopped the car next to a merry-go-round and he and Andy leaped out of the car. Jason headed towards the house, while Andy followed after Erica. Now I came at a crossroads.

Do I follow after Jason and risk getting killed?

Or do I follow after Andy who might kill a middle schooler?

After a second, I went with the safer option. Follow after Andy. I bolted out of the car and ran into the direction he ran to. At first, I couldn't see them until I came into a clearing and saw him on top of her. She was pinned face down and he was looming over her, holding her hands behind her back.

"What the hell is wrong with you!" I screamed, coming up behind him and kicking him in the balls. He groaned, falling to the side, clutching on his man parts. I helped Erica up. She looked at me with confusion and fear. I looked her up and down.

"Are you okay, sweetheart?" I asked, concerned. She looked at me judgmentally.

"I could have handled that myself, thank you very much. Just because he pinned me down doesn't mean he won!" My eyes widened. Both Lucas and Jason had told me that she was sassy, but I didn't know she was this sassy. I would have given her a high five, but she continued to speak. "Besides, I'd be more worried about what your dumb blonde boyfriend would be doing to my brother," Erica looked back towards the house, nervous. "Whatever he sees, it can't be good." I looked back to the house and then back to Andy.

"You keep your ass right there." I scolded him, pointing a finger at him. He nodded quickly. I began to run back to the house.

~~~

-Jason's POV-

~~~

I kicked the door down, not even bothering to open it. I saw Sinclair's little sister out there, so I knew what I'd find inside.

The freak and his little cult.

I went throughout the house, from room to room, checking every little crevice and detail. I didn't only look for any sign of life, but also for satanic or cultist shit. The Hellfire Club had probably used this place for their little rituals or meetings. The Creel house, with its history, was the perfect place to do so.

To my surprise, I had found nothing. My best guess was that they were using the old druggies house as a meeting spot before we had found Eddie on the boat. Maybe we should have searched that place more.

After finding nothing on the first and second floors, I made my way to the attic. If I didn't have any luck on those floors, I wasn't expecting anything on the 3rd.

But that's until I walked in the doorway, and I saw Sinclair pointing a flashlight at me.

"Shit..." He whispered. I continued to walk in slowly, looking at him and then to a girl with pigtails sitting in front of a table with a bunch of freaky shit on it. "Jason, you can't be here right now man." I ignored him, still looking at the girl. My heart rate began to increase.

"What the hell have you done?" I asked, my voice harsh and low. I stood next to the girl, her eyes straining from looking up. It seemed as if she was in some trance. I became worried for her. It's a good thing that I had gotten here in time before she had gotten hurt.

"Jason. You need to leave." Sinclair warned, walking towards me slowly. I continued to look at the girl.

"Is this what you did to Chrissy?" I asked, walking closer to her and placing a hand on her back lightly, I waved my hand in front of her eyes. I hoped that it would wake her up. I hoped that she'd fall out of whatever trance Sinclair put her in, and she'd be okay. I couldn't let another person die. Sinclair continued to speak, worry in his voice. I didn't hear him, though.

"Hi. Can you hear me?" I asked her, waving my hands and rubbing her back. She just sat there, her eyes continuing to do the weird blinking and moving thing. I tried again. "Hey. Hey, can you hear me?" I asked her. Sinclair had taken one more step when I had noticed he was right in front of me.

"Hey! Hey back up! Back up!" I warned, taking out my gun and pointing it at him. Sinclair put his hands up. "Don't take another step." I threatened. I didn't want to shoot him. I didn't want to kill him. I never wanted to kill anybody, but this was getting way too out of hand.

First Chrissy, then some other kid, then Patrick, and now this girl? I wasn't having this. If there was any way I could save her, I wouldn't take the risk of getting this freak anywhere near her.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, we don't have to do this. We don't have to do this man." I fiddled with the gun between my fingers.

"Yeah, I hope you're right. Is there anyone else in the house?" I didn't know why I asked that question because I had just searched the house, but who knew what Sinclair was hiding. Who knew about what bodies were in the house or which other cult members were here?

"No. No." Sinclair told me, his voice shaking. I quickly glanced at him up and down. I was all sweaty and my mind was jumbled, my breathing was uneven, and my heart was racing. I felt as if I were having a heart attack right now. Everything in my body hurt. My head hurt with a stinging headache, my legs hurt from standing all day, my hands hurt from shooting all day, my body hurt for whatever reason, but most importantly, my heart hurt. My heart hurt for Patrick, my heart hurt for this girl next to me, my heart hurt for Chrissy, for that boy that died in the streets. My heart hurt for Y/N. She was scared of me. She had been scared and nervous around me. She didn't get to say goodbye to Chrissy or Patrick. I wanted to cry, but instead, I moved the gun.

"Turn around." I ordered Sinclair. He looked at me with confusion.

"What?" He asked. I didn't spare him another moment to speak.

"TURN AROUND!!" I screamed. Sinclair flinched.

"Okay, okay. Relax." He spoke quickly. I looked at the flashlight in his hands.

"And put down your flashlight!" I added. Sinclair leaned down and placed it to the floor. He stood back up. "And empty your pockets." I told him. He didn't move. "EMPTY YOUR POCKETS!!" I yelled, repeating myself. Sinclair continued to put his hands in his pockets, turning them inside out. Random shit flew out of them and landed on the floor, making sounds as they hit the wood. He placed his hands back up.

"Okay..." I said with relief. "Now this is what's gonna happen." I let myself catch my breath for a second. "I'm gonna back away to the top of the stairs, there. And I'm gonna watch as you wake her up from whatever the hell this is." I made a deal with him. Again, I didn't want to shoot him. I didn't want to hurt or kill him. I just wanted the girl to be safe and okay. I couldn't risk another death at my behalf.

"I can't!" I glared harder at Sinclair as he turned around. "Jason, if I wake her too soon...we all die." I fumbled with my gun again, getting angrier. My heart, no matter how much I tried to control my breathing, wouldn't slow down. I was seeing red at this point.

I was right. Sinclair was apart of some cult shit. This trance that he had kept her in, was all apart to her soon-to-be death. I wasn't having that. The gun shook in my hands as my anger and nervousness grew.

"If you don't wake her up right now, you die Sinclair." I cocked the gun, something my heart sunk when I did. "Just you." I threatened. Lucas just stared at me. His breath came out shaking.

"We call him Vecna. He lives in another dimension. That's why you can't see him." My brain hurt more with the words he told me. Vecna? Other dimensions? What the hell was he talking about?

"And Eddie Munson and his...his Hellfire acolytes, what? You all summoned this Vecna?" I asked. It was the only thing that made sense at this point.

"No, no, you're not listening! Just listen, there...there's no cult! There never was!" I cut Sinclair off before he could say another word.

"You expect me to believe that?" I asked. Chrissy was led to Eddie's, and she died. Eddie did some satanic mumbo jumbo while on that boat, and he killed Patrick. He probably came across that boy in the streets and killed him as well. Now, he was sending one of his cult members to kill a girl for him, so he didn't have to do the dirty work.

"It's the truth!" Sinclair tried to excuse himself.

"Then why was Chrissy at Eddie's trailer?" I asked him, my heart pumping with hatred and adrenaline.

"She was buying drugs!" Sinclair fought back. The red darkened.

"Liar!" I yelled, cocking the gun again. Sinclair felt threatened by this and whispered an "okay".

"Chrissy, she was seeing things. Terrible things. Things Vecna forced her to see. She was scared." Sinclair's voice broke, but I could see through his manipulation. It was probably the same manipulation that forced Chrissy into her potential murder.

"No..." I mumbled.

"She just needed help." Sinclair finished. I shook my head.

"See that's how I know you're lying. If Chrissy was scared, if...if Chrissy wanted help, SHE WOULD'VE COME TO Y/N!" NOT EDDIE! NOT THAT FREAK! NEVER!" I yelled. Y/N and Chrissy were like sisters. If one needed the other, they would be there in a heartbeat. They told each other everything.

"You're wrong about Eddie." I tried not to laugh.

"No. But I was wrong about you. I never should've let you in the door." I recalled the memory of the first Basketball meet. The boys and I were practicing hoops while the cheerleaders were in the background, practicing their cheer. Y/N and Chrissy were laughing at Patrick and I hitting Chance with the balls. Y/N told us to stop and not to hurt him. That's when we heard a knock on the Gym doors. I walked over and there was Sinclair. He wanted to try out for the team, and I just smiled at him, pat him on the back, and led him in the doors. I introduced him to everyone there. It pained me to be in this situation with him.

"And I never should have knocked," Sinclair paused. Even though my face clearly didn't show nothing but pure hatred, my heart stung. I cared about Sinclair. I thought we would be close friends, even brothers at some point. His words stung more then they flew over my shoulder. He continued. "I thought I wanted to be like you. Popular. Normal. But it turns out, normal's just a raging psychopath." I couldn't take it.

"You have five seconds to wake her up." Lucas stood there without a movement. "Four." Lucas didn't move. He just stared with stubbornness. My fingers played with the gun. More sweat began beading down my forehead. My heart had begun to beat faster than before. "Three." I spoke. In a quick movement, Sinclair ran into me, tackling me. I pressed the trigger, and a loud bang ran through my ears. They began to ring.

I was backed into a pillar, the gun flying out of my hands.

~~~

-Y/N's POV-

~~~

I had almost been to the front door when I had heard the shot. I immediately stopped running. Nothing but Jason or Lucas's safety in my mind.

"NO!!" I screamed, running faster than before. I ran through the doorway and up the stairs. I tripped on the last step up to the second floor, landing on my chin. I heard a crack in my hand, but the adrenaline pumping through my veins told me to ignore everything but what was going on in the attic.

I got back to my feet and ran down the second-floor hall to the stairs. Once more, I climbed my way to the third floor. I saw the attic doorway and jumped over the last two stairs, almost falling backwards, and falling down the stairs. I held my balance on the doorframe. I looked up just in time to see Jason flipping Lucas.

Lucas fought back, punching Jason in the chest. My heart quickened. "JASON!!' I screamed. Jason had been leaning over a table when his head jerked up and he looked over to me. His eyes softened, but his hand felt around the table until he picked up a vase, turned around, and bashed it on Lucas's head. Lucas fell to the floor.

"Jason stop!!" I yelled, running to Lucas's aide. I was right in front of Lucas when Jason came from behind me, and punched me in the mouth. I landed on the ground beside Lucas. I hit the floor with a grunt. Jason gasped from behind me.

"Y/N!" He yelled, coming beside me to check if I was okay. He cradled me into his arms. I saw some tears come into his eyes. "Baby I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to do that, I'm so, so sorry." He let a few tears fall. I tried my best to smile at him.

"You...you're okay." I forgave him. He leaned his head forward to mine, placing his forehead on my own. A few of his tears fell onto my face. I slowly began to cry as well. After a moment, he leaned away and caressed my face. He felt around where he punched me.

"I busted your lip...oh baby I'm so sorry...I'm so sorry..." He was sobbing now, his face full of sorrow and pain. He held me tighter, pulling me closer to his chest. He was drenched in sweat and in desperate need of a shower.

Somewhere downstairs, I heard Erica shouting for Lucas. I heard her footsteps grow closer before I heard her banging on the door. I tried to get up to open it for her, but Jason wouldn't let me go.

"I love you..." He whispered.

"Jason...Jason let me go. Let me...let me go." I begged. I felt him shake his head. I began to cry harder. "Jason let me go! Please! let me go!" I yelled. He held on tighter. I cried into his shoulder. He just held me.

That's when I saw the girl lift up from the sitting position she was in, and she began to float. I couldn't breathe. Not because Jason was holding me tightly, but because I couldn't control my breathing to begin with. The only thing I could do was scream.

Worried, Jason lifted his head away from my shoulder to check on me. When he saw I wasn't looking at him, he turned around to look at the girl. His eyebrows furrowed. I guess Lucas saw this too, because he immediately got up.

Jason quickly put me down softly, and he got up after Lucas. In a rush, Lucas pushed Jason's head into the window, and began punching him immediately and hardly. I screamed again, getting up and trying to pull Jason away from Lucas. One last hard punch came to Jason, and he collapsed on top of me. I held him in my arms as Lucas ran to the girl. I lifted Jason so his head was in my lap.

Jason looked like he was about to pass out. I was crying. I put a hand in his hair, playing with his blonde strands. He lazily turned his head to look at me. He had bruises forming on his cheeks and the underneath of his eye was beginning to swell. He tried to lift an arm and failed the first time. After a second, he tried to lift it again, placing it on my cheek and wiping away the tears.

"I don't like it when you cry. You look beautiful no matter what you do, but when you cry it's just painful..." He mumbled loud enough for me to hear. I smiled through my tears. I lifted my hand away from his hair and I cradled his hand on my face, kissing his palm lightly. He smiled weakly.

With Jason's other hand, he tried to interlock his fingers with my other hand, but I winced in pain. Jason, through his dazed state, grew concerned. With some remaining strength, he lifted up my hand to look at it.

"What happened to your hand? Are you okay?" He asked. He examined it, softly twisting it around. I gasped in pain and tore it away, causing more pain. I took a breath.

"I'm okay. I just fell on the way to save your sorry ass. I'll be fine. But you, on the other hand, just got beaten the absolute shit out of." I replied, rubbing his arm soothingly. He just stared at me. This was the most love I had seen in his eyes since after the rally. I sobbed harder thinking about it.

No matter how crazy the revenge Jason wanted had made him, he had never stopped loving me. He had never stopped caring, protecting, and being with me. He had never stopped staring at me the way that he had always stared at me to begin with.

"I love you so much Jason Carver..." I whispered, some of my tears falling on his cheek. They trailed to the wooden floor underneath us. He smiled.

"I love you so much more, Y/N L/N." I leaned down to kiss him, although, the taste of blood from both of our busted lips made us pull away almost immediately.

"Maybe we should save that kiss until after we get out of here..." Jason assured. I laughed, nodding my head. My non-broken hand went to his cheek, caressing it softly. I made sure not to hurt him where he had been punched.

Even though Lucas and the girl were here, it felt like it was just us. Finally, after all the chaos, it was just us. I heard some cracking and a thud before I heard Lucas's scream. I looked up immediately, my eyes widened. Jason whipped his head to look.

The girl was cradled in Lucas's arms. Erica came bursting into the room. Lucas yelled for her to call an ambulance. Erica ran back out. Lucas looked back to the girl. She was moving now. She began to whisper something rushed to him that Jason nor I could hear. I could tell that she was scared. Lucas was crying and pleading. I couldn't help but spare a few tears for her as well.

The girl's name was Max.

I cried for Max. I cried for Fred. I cried for Billy, Barb, Hopper, Heather, Benny, Chrissy... I cried for everyone. There had been so many losses and here was another one. Right in front of us.

I heard a crack and then the floor began to open right in front of us. Some orange glowing stuff was showing beneath the cracks. In a last effort, I was thrown across the floor by Jason. I gasped as I landed on my broken hand, but I looked back over to Jason, who was being tied down by some weird vines.

The crack was coming right towards him. He looked over to me. "I love you." He told me. I tried to get to him, but the cracking floor made me continuously fall. I looked back up to Jason, screaming and crying.

The crack had reached him, and he began to dissolve in half.

"Y/N!!!" He yelled.

I lifted my body up, sweat drenching all over. "JASON!!" I screamed. Tears were falling down my cheeks. I was in a room. It looked like a bedroom. There was a vanity and a mirror across from where I was sitting. In the mirror, I saw a reflection of Jason. I looked over, and there he was.

He looked concerned, his breathing heavy. He had a hand on my arm, which was hurting due to me laying on it a weird way. I cried harder. "Jason!" I gasped, holding him. I wrapped my arms around him while I buried my face into his bare chest. He wrapped his arms around me protectively. I sobbed and sobbed.

It was just a dream. No. Not a dream. A nightmare.

"You're okay...you're okay. I promise you're okay. I'm right here. Sh sh shhh...I'm right here..." He soothed, rubbing my back.

"You died. A crack came through the floor, and you died saving me..." I whimpered into his chest. He just held me tighter.

"I promise I'm right here. I'm not dead. I'll always be right here..." He reassured. He kissed the top of my head before laying his head atop of mine. "It was just a nightmare, sweetheart. It was all a nightmare. You're okay." He comforted.

We stayed like that for a while. He just held me while I cried. My tears were a mixture from the pain I had felt from that nightmare, and the relief that I had felt knowing it was a nightmare and that he was right next to me. Still alive.

It took me a while to recollect myself. Once I did, I pulled away and Jason leaned over to the bedside table to grab me a few tissues.

"Thank you..." I choked out, blowing my nose and wiping away the remaining tears. He kept his hands on my waist.

"I was trying to wake you for 6 minutes. You were screaming my name and yelling for me to let you go. I know that it's impossible, but I became worried that...that thing had gotten you..." He let a tear of his own slip out of his eye. I leaned over and wiped it away with a part of the tissue that was dry. I leaned my forehead on his.

We had permanently killed Vecna around 4 months ago. Every now and then I'd have a nightmare about it. Around 2 months ago, Jason and I had moved out of Hawkins and into Indianapolis, as it was closer to our college. I hadn't been happier, but I'd still have nightmares from the traumatic experience. I had been the one to take the final shot at Vecna. I had stabbed him right in the chest with a broken bottle that we had used for Molotov. I stared right into the freaks eyes as he had died. Before I had stabbed him, he had tried killing Jason. Every nightmare I had since then was about Jason's death.

Jason leaned his lips against mine and rested them there for a moment, before he had slowly began kissing me. As always, his lips were soft against mine. He was gentle as he pulled me closer to him and lifted one of his hands to cup my face. My hands wrapped around his neck.

I pulled away from him. He leaned his lips closer to mine, wanting more. I smiled.

"I love you so much Jason Carver." I stated. He looked into my eyes lovingly.

"I love you so much more Y/Y L/N."

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robbyykeene · 8 months

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Do you think the storyline of Cobra Kai is irredeemable?

If so, when would you say it became irredeemable, and which storylines made it that way the most?

If not, is there something they are likely to do this season that would ruin it for you?

(Sorry if this is too negative)

Anon i am SO sorry it took me so long to answer this. Just found an entire essay of a response saved to my drafts that I somehow never published. So without further ado here’s the answer to your question that I answered BEFORE season 5 ever came out:

I mean, irredeemable is a big word. For me it’s not so much the storylines themselves as it is the general trajectory of the characters and the underlying narrative framing of it all. I got invested in this show because underneath all the karate soap opera absurdism, there was a really genuine and earnest story about the cyclical nature of abuse and toxic masculinity and radicalization. But it was still all through this lens of teenage karate gang warfare which was undeniably hilarious! But tbh what they had to say about that in season 4 was just…..not it for me at all. It feels like the show has moved away from saying something as basic as “toxic masculinity is bad” to saying nothing meaningful about it at all.

As for individual storylines, I’ve definitely not hidden how disappointed I was in Johnny and Robby’s storyline this season. I’ve ranted about this endlessly already but like. If the writers want to put the brunt of the blame of Robby and Johnny’s fractured relationship on Robby himself, what was actually the point of his character at all? Like genuinely. If Robby doesn’t exist to be a manifestation of Johnny’s own parental/parental figure trauma, then what’s the point? And it’s not about like. The believability of a kid in Robby’s position seeking out his deadbeat dad in a moment of emotional turmoil like that. Because people are complicated and they do complicated things and yeah if robby were a real life person, it could make sense he sought out his dad in that moment. It could make sense that robby would forgive him without any real effort being made to earn it, that he’d shoulder the brunt of the blame himself in the name of moving forward. But he’s not a person! He’s a character, just a tool created to tell a story, and the story they’ve decided to tell with him since s4 is something I am not interested in watching at all.

And relatedly, I am so not looking forward to Miguel going to Mexico to search for his dad. For starters, it’s absolutely going to be rife with racist stereotypes. But I remember reading an interview or something with Xolo a few years ago and he said something along the lines of “yeah I hope we never meet Miguel’s dad in the show. He’s irrelevant to the story we’re telling. And some kids just don’t know their dad and that’s okay.” And he was right! Miguel’s dad is irrelevant. And again is it believable that a real life kid like Miguel would, after everything he’s been through, run off to Mexico? Sure! But I care more about narratively meaningful storytelling than I do the hypothetical believability that someone like Miguel would do that.

Which is also why I hate with every fiber of my being that they’re going to redeem Kreese. And people can say it’s unfair of me to criticize the show based on speculation, but we all know it’s coming. And yeah, maybe it won’t be a redemption redemption. It’ll be him siding with Johnny and Daniel momentarily to further his own interests. Or some similar bullshit. But I don’t care. God, I just don’t care. The entire story was about the impact of Kreese’s abuse on Johnny. How it’s completely shattered his ability to function as a human being even decades later. How just when Johnny was finally getting his life on track, Kreese comes slithering back in, and Johnny, knowing what its like to want—to need a second chance from your son—he forgives him. He let’s Kreese back in. And it ruins his life completely. So to what, just undo all of that by having him and Johnny work together again for the sake of some meaningless avengers endgame type team up? It’s just a joke lol.

…….OKAY now for my updated post season 5 answer:

So I’m not certain Kreesedemption will happen anymore, but I do have absolutely zero confidence in their ability to wrap up the Johnny/Kreese storyline in any meaningful way at all. And I’ve made my opinion on season 5 as a whole pretty clear by this point lol. I guess in a way I do find it “irredeemable” at this point, although I’m not sure that’s the best descriptor. I’m happy for everyone who is enjoying this show, genuinely. I guess I’ve just so completely lost interest in anything that’s actually happening, and anything that could possibly happen, at this point. If I’m being honest with myself, I will watch s6 whenever it comes out, but it’s really just because I still enjoy being in this fandom and making memes and interacting with all the wonderful wonderful people I’ve met.

#anyway once again anon. sorry it took me literally over a year to respond to this 😭 i have a bad habit of burying asks in my drafts #also its not too negative youre good! i appreciate the question!#ck negativity #anonymous #asks

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earthmoonlotus · 2 years

Text

Bear with me, this post has been in draft states for a little under a month. (I've needed to make it for longer, but now is better than never.)

Hey so...uhhh...I'm really trapped in capitalism right now. There are so many things I could do if I just had money, but I don't (and I've been essentially without it since August, after being laid off from a seasonal job in July), and I've been applying for a bunch of jobs that say they're hiring but not hearing anything back. I was fortunately able to secure one job where I get 4-6 hours on Wednesday evenings - for which I got my first paycheck last Friday, it was $163 -, but that's not gonna be nearly enough hours; I'm trying to get a second or possibly even third job, and I've applied to several places over the last few weeks, but so far no luck.

It doesn't help that I don't have a car and am now living in a rural and super car-dependent place, where it's more than an hour walk to the nearest bus stop, and a trip that takes less than half an hour by car would take over an hour by bus, not even counting the extra hour it would take for me to walk from my house to the bus stop. My mom and I have arranged that she can drop me off in the nearest town that really has stuff going on (and where I've been dropping of my resume in places that are or might be hiring) on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, but if possible I would like to be able to work more days than that, but I haven't found anyone who can regularly get me to the nearby town in the late morning or early afternoon on any other day. Only being able to work 3 days a week means that even a cheap used car is gonna take me close to half a year to save up for (and that's if I get another job where I can actually *work* all 3 of those days, on top of the Wednesday evening job I already have, and if I don't spend *any* of the money I earn during that time, and it's not even counting gas and insurance and stuff), and if not for car dependency I would wanna be saving for better music equipment instead, since I'd like to be a video-game composer. But without a car I'm basically trapped at home for most of the week, and there's not really much I can do about it - not even work to get myself the money for a better situation.

On top of all this, my fiancee Serenity has been in *serious* financial need for a while now. Fae has been in need of a lawyer for some time because the government has basically put faer in a catch-22 with getting permanent residence (requiring certain documents from the provincial government by a deadline that's sooner than the amount of time it would take the provincial government to get the documents for faer, among other things), but there hasn't even been the remote chance of faer being able to afford a lawyer, considering that fae is living on disability and can barely even afford groceries after the bills are paid. On top of this, fae was unceremoniously dropped from receiving the service from a nonprofit that had supposedly been helping faer with legal stuff; they said it was because fae was aging out of the demographic they serve, but fae had already been over that age when the serious legal help had begun (and the nonprofit people knew this), and the switch from offering help to saying "actually you're too old and we can't help you at all" was very sudden and came without warning. It was only recently that fae was able to even get faer legal documents back from the hands of the nonprofit, even though they dropped faer months ago. We've found a lawyer who specializes in immigration and will likely actually get stuff done (unlike the fickleness of nonprofit help), but she charges over $200CAD for a consultation, which neither of us are even close to having and being able to spend. (And that won't even cover further services.)

Not only that, but since fae hit faer head and got a concussion in June, which lead to fainting and further concussions soon after (which fae is still recovering from), fae has been unable to adequately take care of faerself and needing to rely more heavily on things like food delivery and uber, and it's put faer into a lot of debt. Fae is still having a lot of trouble cooking for faerself, and though fae's been eating a lot of cereal and drinking a lot of protien shakes, it's still resulted in increased food-related expenses compared to what would be ideal or normal. Serenity could also really use a new shower curtain (and this has been the case for like a year at this point), but hasn't been able to afford one. In addition, faer dryer hasn't been usable for some time, but finances have been a barrier to getting maintenance done on it, so we're stuck with mildew-y clothes and towels hung on racks (which we don't have enough of, or enough space for) whenever I visit. Last time I showered at faer place I honestly didn't really feel comfortable using any of the towels, since the "cleanest" one was all crusty from not having gotten dried properly. It's been hard for me to tolerate while visiting, so I can only imagine how hard it is for faer to deal with 24/7.

Fae gets only about $1100 Canadian per month (that's only like $860 in US dollars), and is only able to keep less than $200CAD per month after rent and bills. And that's not even counting the recent credit card debt, or cat-care-related expenses which have also been a lot; we were at the vetrenarian back in August to pick up meds and food for faer cat Buyunga, and it all added up to like $180 CAD which unfortunately had to go to the credit card. (And Buyunga's needs are ongoing; her meds should be picked up every couple weeks, but Serenity hasn't been able to adequately provide them to her because of all these financial issues, and fae's been forced to stretch the doses. The last time fae picked up Buyunga's medicine was over a week ago so she'll be due for it again really soon, even at the current rate of stretched doses.)

Any form of chipping in would be appreciated - both to help me get on my feet (and ideally be able to get a car, which will allow me to work more than just 3 days a week), and to help Serenity out of the hole that fae has been forced into. You can send Serenity money directly under paypal.me/LunaFleur. You can send stuff to me on paypal (paypal.me/forAurora), cashapp (#earthmoonlotus), or venmo (feel free to ask for my venmo). Thanks so much. <3

#op #help #mutual aid

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