#i'm just really really really annoying about canon and i kind of assume people follow me for that reason
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how do you feel about march eridan?
Ok disclaimer before I get into it, trolls wearing dresses = great and fantastic; in fact, given that the gender differences in troll culture are so much less significant, ALL the male trolls should own some femme-ass clothes, even if it's as simple as just having a skirt version of their pants, and it's a little lame that we didn't get that.
That said, March Eridan specifically kind of annoys me because it has 0 basis in canon (aside from some shoutouts in things like ministrife sprites) but has taken over Eridan discussions so wholly that it's become widely accepted as part of his character that he's really into femme stuff when the opposite is true, and he's got some pretty major characterization tied up in the fact that he does lean so masc, and what specific type of masc he tends to present as.
So first of all, Eridan dresses up to emulate Dualscar, and this is very obvious and straightforward; if you've read the big essay I have pinned to my blog, you know that this is all a part of his basic "I have to be a big bad sea dweller or Something Bad Will Happen" suite of issues.
Thus, we can ALSO assume that the choices he made that aren't made to emulate Dualscar are reflective of his ACTUAL taste in clothing. For example, blue pants instead of purple and black - I believe that this is because Eridan likes to dress up in the blood colors of his dates; he wears a lot of blue because he's hatedating Vriska (and never quite seems to get 100% over her), and we also see this in the rings on his fingers - half of which are fuchsia, for Feferi.
So that leaves us with the glasses, shoes, and scarf. And we know why he dresses like that! It's because he's a hipster. (The scarf has an added benefit of being associated with harry potter-style wizards).
CCG: PAST YOU, PRESENT YOU, FUTURE YOU
CCG: AND ABOVE ALL, UGLY SCARFNECKED DOUCHEBAG HIPSTER YOU
CCG: WAIT I FORGOT, ALL OF THE YOUS ARE THAT YOU
And very specifically, a masc hipster from the era - the glasses and the ugly-ass shoes are dead giveaways. The slicked-back hair is reminiscent of that fashion style, too. He is also a douchebag. This too is important. He draws from character archetypes of the time that were generally agreed upon to be the most punchable people in existence; his introduction calls him "KIND OF A TOOL" and he consistently acts according to that. Like, I mean, just LOOK at those shades. Those are not the shades of somebody you want to be trapped in a conversation with.
A fairly accurate Eridan fashion board would look something like this:
And, like, it kind of matters that he dresses like this specific breed of pretentious male douchebag; on a meta level, that's the impression he's supposed to give the audience, and on a diegetic level, he CHOOSES to look like this because he has these kinds of interests, but is relegating them to secondary accessories.
We never hear him talk about liking hipster shit; we have to hear it from Karkat and glean it from his design. This is because, as I've talked about before, he actively distances himself from things that make him happy, things that he'd enjoy. The constant push-pull between his ACTUAL interests, and the ones he thinks he has to have because he's supposed to be a big nasty sea dweller, is a huge part of his characterization - for example, the way he keeps claiming that magic and wizards are fake and shitty, but has no less than 6 wizard statues in his respiteblock alone, and cared about his crappy wands enough to bring them onto the meteor.
So that's one of my other issues with March Eridan and the general fanon that he'd be really into femme clothes (and, by extension, fashion) - he wouldn't be forthcoming about it, even if it was true. He has a deep sense of shame and insecurity surrounding what few interests he actually has, because they feel stupid, ridiculous, and frivolous, next to the intense anxiety he has about playing the role society gave him. He's got a very strong sense of duty that makes it very difficult for him to relax and actually enjoy something. Which, you know, probably feeds into his hipster-ness - a movement often defined more by what it doesn't approve of than what it does.
Canon Eridan, when he has a choice of what to wear, overwhelmingly chooses masculine clothing with hipster connotations. And this matters, it's part of his characterization, it says something about him, the same way that it's important that Karkat dresses very simply and baggily (we all know how many insecurities Karkat has about his body) or that Sollux's bifurcation is shown in his clothes. So please please please don't misunderstand my dislike of March Eridan as me saying I don't want him in dresses; I purely dislike it because it's usually SUCH a misread of his character.
And to prove it, here's my other gripe with March Eridan stuff: all the dresses shown in the not-canon "official" artworks don't even flatter his bodytype. Why do his custom mannequins in Pesterquest have CURVES when his Pesterquest sprite doesn't?????
Please, I'm begging you, there are guides for dressing this body type, and even historical fashions that deliberately try to emulate this body type, please if you're going to dress him femme and HC that he enjoys fashion, please put him in clothes that flatter him please
I think Eridan should own some femme clothes, because on Alternia, there are very few differences between the genders, he's rich enough to afford it, and he clearly has more of an interest in fashion in general - but I think the fact that he has a clear canon preference for masculine styles is significant, and I'm really annoying, so it kind of does bothers me that this is a controversial opinion. That being said, I don't want to tell people what they Should and Should Not do, because that's lame. Who cares. He's a fictional character, let people draw him in dresses. Would be very happy if this post causes people to draw him in different styles of dresses though :pray:
#I'm not going to tag this#because also people playing around with putting Eridan in dresses is 100% harmless#and i'm not going to ruin the fun by going But The Canon Says -#i'm just really really really annoying about canon and i kind of assume people follow me for that reason#but please dont let my annoyingness hamper your fun#if you enjoy putting eridan in dresses then by all means keep doing it#peace and love and rise above
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For Court of Owls! Batfam Au, how do the rest of the family fit in this au?
Kate Kane and Tim Drake are wealthy enough to be apart of it.
Stephanie,Cass and Duke, I'm not sure,but Barbara and Commissioner Gordon, Alfred (since he isn't mentioned I assume he disagreed and left) might be involved unless otherwise.
Damian might be a lovechild of two courts between League of Assasins, that feels he'd inherit his Dad's legacy but acts like the old court,maybe at first at least.
Tim Drake’s involvement was covered in a previous ask! As to Kate, I admit I know next to nothing about her so I’ll have to skip that for now >.>
But there’s no reason to believe the way the get introduced to the family is going to be wildly different than canon!
Alfred is still Bruce‘s loyal butler (I think I mentioned him tangentially once or twice) and knows Bruce is trying to do good. He‘s 100 percent got his back.
Steph meets Tim first after our little stalker establishes himself as the eyes and ears of the court. (Even Cobb is unnerved by how good the kid can blend in). She never becomes part of the Court or Robin (mostly because she wants nothing to do with the Owls) but she does accept the gear they provide her with. It‘s kind of a love-hate relationship between them all, but Bruce still includes her in the list of his children when anybody asks. Steph is very annoyed by this. (And also a little touched.)
Cass is sent to assassinate Bruce (without knowing he’s the Voice) and gets intercepted by a furious Cobb. She‘s still only a teenager at this point, something that makes Bruce stop Cobb from killing her and… well. (Cobb knows how this goes as soon as it comes to light the girl cannot even talk. He wonders if Talons can retire. He cannot deal with another traumatized child that needs babysitting. He deals with another traumtaized child that needs babysitting.)
That leaves Duke, whom I headcanon Bruce came across on accident while working on cleaning up the foster system. He‘s just another child right up until the moment that Bruce happens to quite literally run into him while he’s out alone in Gotham (having slipped away from the Talon once again). Duke notices Bruce is being followed by some shady looking people and helps him escape. And, well, “no good deed goes unpunished”, right? And the manor’s got a lot of spare rooms still. (Cobb would like to put himself in cryo and not come out until Bruce has managed to get a grip on his adoption problems.)
Damian is… tricky. There would be a very short window of time in this AU where him and Talia could have met that would result in Damian being conceived in a consensual way. I haven’t really made up my mind about this yet.
And Bruce is still working together with Jim to help Gotham. He’s still operating as “Batman”, after all. Just not usually in an armored suit. 🦇
#court family#batfamily#batfam#bruce wayne#William Cobb#Cassandra Cain#duke thomas#stephanie brown#Tim drake#court of owls talons#the court of owls
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potential AU with fun facts (haha funny story this is actually an AU i'm writing I need ideas lol)
BOM!Keith runs into Lance, Hunk and Pidge who are searching for a supposed superweapon in an attempt to defend themselves from Alteans and Galrans that are trying to find the colony that humans fled to after Earth was destroyed
Keith thinks to himself "wow these guys are annoying and weird I sure do hope I never see them again" before the Blades immediately order him to find the Lions to keep it out of human, Altean and Galran hands
AHLSKDGOUSDJGLKSDHG THATS SO REAL. im actually SO fascinated by this concept i would love for u to tell me about it sometime 👀👀
but the things that immediately come to mind for ME are as follows:
i'm assuming keith is still half human, so maybe there'd be a part of him that is curious/fascinated by these other humans right up until the point where lance opens his mouth. and then keith is like hmm no thank u
so i'm taking a wild shoot-in-the-dark guess and saying (at least for the purposes of answering this, idk what u have in mind for this) that instead of being destroyed the alteans fought back and so the war is mostly between altea and the galra ? and earth was caught in the crossfire ?? in which case if I was doing something like this i would want a lot of focus on both sides of the conflict because something about me is that i LOOOVE political intrigue. if allura is the leader of the alteans, how long has she been leading? what mindsets and attitudes does she have as someone who is leading her people in war? if she's searching for voltron to try and beat the galra to it, but she didn't spent 10,000 years in a cryopod and thus doesn't have the connection to the lions that she has in canon, how is she going about the search? are there breakoff groups of alteans, similar to the blade of marmora? etc etc. this isn't really a Fact per se it is just things my worldbuilding brain is immediately jumping to when presented with some of these concepts. i am genuinely obsessed with this i NEEEEEEED to know more about this au ,, pleas ,,
so if this au is kind of humans vs alteans vs galra, i imagine things would be.....interesting once team voltron (comprised of all three) got together. especially if the garrison trio now have personal stakes in the war (their planet was destroyed and their people are being hunted) because i think they would be much more serious about it right off the bat. there could be a Lot of struggling to trust each other shenanigans afoot
i can already SEEEE the klance arguing scenarios. if keith (doesn't want to be there) is forced to spend lots of time in close proximity with lance (planet was destroyed by this guy's race) it would be SO DELICIOUS..........i love their rivals to lovers thing but if its more like enemies starting out ??? incredible fantastic no notes
if keith grew up in the bom (one of my FAVORITE aus to mess with btw) then if it were me doing an au like this i would put soooo much bom culture in it. i love alien cultures i love worldbuilding and most importantly i love crying about it. xox
send me a potential au and i'll tell you 5 things i would do!!
#THIS CONCEPT IS SO FASCINATING IM SO INTRIGUED#i would love nothing more than to hear a ramble on this if you want to give one. i would read 600k of this in fact#graphx#voltron
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For TOH ask game. 2. Ramble about your favorite character of all time as much as you want. We're listening
Questions
I really really waffled on which character to talk about, but then I remembered I already called Collector my all time fave so Collector it is!
So, like everyone else in the fic space when the Collector was first introduced, I assumed they primarily spoke in rhymes. Or at, as much as they could. Or maybe as much as it could be funny?
But then it was revealed they can talk normal most of the time? Which is really a mood of all time, tbh. What better way to pass time while trapped in a globe than to annoy the everything out of Philip with incessant rhyming?
It's firmly my belief (headcanon) that the Collector–and by extension the Archivists–is capable of possessing people with his powers. Call me a fool if you wish, I guess it's that little part of me that wishes Collector!Luz was a thing, if only so I could call them 'Cruz'.
I wish we had gotten more Collector in Season 3, but I also recognize that without the shortening we wouldn't have gotten the Collector at all. At best, we'd have the owl beast's backstory Archivist, but they're not really a full character.
Now that I think about it though, people are always making the Archivists all grown up and stuff, but honestly from canon it seems like they just bigger than the Collector, but just as immature.
I mean, come on, they trick their sibling into going to play with some things they presumably know can kill their kind (or at least interfere with their magic), then left after setting the whole planet on fire without stopping to see if their sibling was still there.
Like, imagine going to the park with your older siblings and they start causing trouble with the other kids while you're playing. But then you get chewed out by one of the parents for the things your siblings did. AND THEN they set something on fire and run off laughing, not bothering to see if you are still following them.
Okay, I think I'm rambled out. I just really like the Collector and I kinda wish they had stuck around for the epilogue, but I also understand why they left. Ultimately, I think I want to see them be a kid (with infinite cosmic power). Maybe that's why I like Moonshadow so much.
Okay, now I'm rambled out. Thanks for the question!
#lyle's musings#lyle answers#long post#it's just that infinite lifespan characters are so interesting in the short time frames we see them in#there's one manga I've been reading about a thousand year old elf venturing out of the forest to experience the world#it's pretty good
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I'm feeling rather validated seeing other people getting soured over Ladybugout AU. I used to enjoy that AU, but while I did agree with some of it's initial stances on Adrien and Alya, I started to get put off the more the narrative doubles down on their flaws while letting Marinette unlearn her worst traits with little prompting. They all had screw ups, but it wasn't fair that Marinette got off with a light slap on the wrist while Adrien and Alya get to lose everything and weren't allowed to learn their lessons. The longer it went, the more apparent it became that the au has no intents on really fixing anything. Its just a hatefilled satire that strives to paint Adrien and Alya at their worst while molding Marinette into this unrealistically mature and souless shell of herself. Ironically, it got me to seriously hate Marinette for a while. It took me some time to differenciate the mary sue saltinette from canon marinette. She's a much kinder, more forgiving person in canon than the salt fics present her. I had to relearn to like this flawed little queen again.
Yeah, I know what you mean. I could never stomach that AU - Adrien's been my favorite from the get-go, so my tolerance for anything that demonized him was always very low - but a lot of discourse and fics were passing around during 2019 that used the language of social justice to target the two of them.
Because I mean, it's not like they don't have flaws. Adrien tends to keep on asking again after getting rejected in some way, because that's what he has to do with his father in order to get any parental love. He also enjoys playfully annoying Ladybug, though he never wants to seriously upset or hurt her - we saw that demonstrated well in Glaciator 2.
As for Alya... she does have an issue that's popped up a few times, with her ambition and desire for recognition causing conflicts, such as her being reckless around akumas, being tempted to keep the Fox Miraculous, posting the photo she took of Ladynoir kissing, and being tempted to show off her new Rena Furtive form. That being said, when push comes to shove, Alya will always prioritize other people over her own ambitions.
The Chameleon salt I always thought was unfair and barking up the wrong tree, especially for Alya. But the first few months I was in the fandom, I assumed that the fics being written about Alya and the class turning on Marinette, while Chloe became Marinette's new best friend and one of the only ones who saw through Lila's lies, was simply based on following through some of the plot threads the show appeared to have laid down: the idea of Lila turning Marinette's friends, who had already shown a susceptibility to Lila's lies, against her, the lack of presence of Chloe in Chameleon leaving open the possibility that she might not be fooled by Lila, Lila most likely not targeting her for manipulation since Chloe isn't one of Marinette's friends, and a widespread belief that Chloe had entered a redemption arc.
But then the demonization of everyone involved kept getting worse and worse, the concept was thoroughly explored in the fandom and kept on popping up anyway, and most notably, "Ladybug" came out, which both disproved a lot of the salt and dealt with the loose threads from Chameleon.
And it still didn't stop.
I've had the same problem, with starting to hate Marinette because of Saltinette. And knowing the whole time that it's unfair, and still wanting to read lots of things with Marinette in them, but getting to the point where I kept on flinching every time I opened up something that might have even a small chance of a Saltinette appearance. During the Season 3 to Season 4 hiatus, I kept on having to rewatch episodes of the show, just to remind myself that I actually do LIKE Marinette, that she's nothing like Saltinette. I was on the verge of tears rewatching Reverser, because Marinette's really kind and understanding towards Marc and Nathaniel, even when they were upset at her over a misunderstanding, and she's really gentle with Chat after he becomes a scaredy-cat.
I've always binged insane amounts of fanfics, especially for Miraculous, so it mostly had me just binging a ton of ML fics where people were actually somewhat in-character - especially Lovesquare fics, since well, I love the pairing, it's super common, and Saltinette is relatively uncommon in it compared to most of Marinette's other major ships.
Anyway, yeah, at a certain point it became clear to me as well that most of the saltfics weren't aiming to "fix" anything - or rather, that their "fixes" were worse than anything that the show would or could possibly give us. I eventually had the last of my patience snap with them around Spring of 2020, which is when I wrote Divergent Points: ML Salt - basically my "salt is woefully OOC and the characters would be horrified and disgusted by what happens in it" ventfic, with Alya, Adrien, Marinette, and Nino all experiencing different salt worlds and getting to comfort each other. I actually made Saltinette a separate character, and the Big Bad of the story, for the other characters - especially Marinette herself - to call out. I really needed something to help separate Marinette and Saltinette into two separate entities in my head, and writing that fic helped me do that, at least a little. Dammit, Marinette would hate seeing someone with her face treating her friends like that, to see her friends being warped out of recognition for her own sake.
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regarding your refined crossover dr. do you have like the future "plot" of it scripted? and if so, would you feel comfortable to share it?
i am so glad you asked
i am so sorry in advance for the absolute infodump coming your way. this is the part of our shifting journey where you find out i'm batshit crazy
so when i first shift, i'm gonna be about 15, and each season (except 3, which... well, you'll see) takes place over the course of about a year. you'll already see some immense canon divergence with the hexside houses and with hogwarts/demigods/shadowhunters existing and stuff, but there's also a school in the ribs of the titan that specializes in emperor's coven recruits- it's called "the house of the isles" but most people just call it the house. i can never remember if i've already posted about it or not lol
anyways, i work there as the silver soldier (i know i'm not original i know 💀) alongside hunter, or the golden guard. he's the head tutor there, and gives the kids general knowledge lessons while i do fighting lessons. this is where we meet micah and cass- they become important later.
i also attend missions with the golden guard when i'm not busy at hexside. i'm sort of like the cat of the emperor's coven- i come and go as i please and i don't love to do as i'm told. i stress hunter out a lot, but he recognizes me as an asset and eventually takes a liking to me. no one in the coven knows how old i am, including belos, who has never seen my face.
luz still has all her main character moment stuff, but because she and i are friends, i get in a lot of shit breaking people out of prison. including eda. many, many times. season one isn't really that special for me, i become friends with luz after she and amity become friends. i don't attend grom that year, so nothing happens there. things don't really pick up until after eda gets taken. i have no idea anything has happened until i waltz into work on friday and everything's gone to shit. i free eda, but she doesn't understand why, because literally no one knows i'm the silver soldier except hunter (which is a recent development) and my dad. the protest never happens because the petrification gets "called off" (eda escaped lol).
sometime between then and seperate tides, luz finds out it was me that freed eda. i explain i'm only in the coven at all for hunter's sake. she's like "what" and i explain that he's much, much younger than she thinks he is, and he needs protecting. she thinks i'm batshit crazy, but she keeps my secret.
i'm largely uninvolved in the plot again until any sport in a storm, where i join willow's flyer derby team. i recognize hunter and i call him out privately. he says he's on a mission for my dad and assumes i'm here for the same reason. i try my best not to sigh, because i sort of have an inkling that my dad is just keeping hunter busy (keep in mind they don't have a bad relationship in my DR prior to this, my dad just thinks hunter's kind of annoying lol). i don't say shit though because hunter will be like "you are sabatoging my mission!! treason!!" and it'll be a whole thing. besides, i know nothing bad will happen anyway, so i just kinda chill. hunter turns out to be a good player, and then he kidnaps everyone (me included for some reason? probably to conceal my identity).
everyone is highkey freaking out, but i know that my dad is literally just coming to pick us up, and most of my teammates will recognize my dad when he comes, so i'm super chill. hunter eventually calls me out and is like "i bet you're excited for the coven, huh?" and this is definitely how he finds out that i don't have a sigil. it's also how the entire flyer derby team finds out i'm a coven soldier 🤡
they're all pissed as hell at first, but i eventually explain the hunter situation and im like "yeah he thought he was gonna get murked if he didnt follow orders" and they're all appropriately horrified. they're still kinda miffed about me being a coven soldier but they'll get over it pretty fast (especially since willow is already talking to hunter online by the end of the night- they're just friends in my DR though, not dating). they also immediately bully me for being in love with hunter, which i deny like a lying liar who lies.
ah. hollow mind. i'm there for this one because i was hanging out with (read: babysitting) luz at the night market. i get sucked into the mindscape with hunter and luz and i witness all the TraumaTM. this is where the divergence starts- instead of hunter running off into the woods, i try to convince him to stay with me. he ends up at the owl house for a while (i stand by mom!eda and son!hunter but that's me pushing my own agenda) but over a long stretch of time he eventually gives in and does move in with me. my dad is fond of him, and my siblings get along with him, so everything's good anyway (also i was trying to get him to move in forever ago but i will DIE before admitting that). anyways the reason he moves in is because we start dating. not sure how i want that to happen yet. maybe i'll let it happen organically... 👀 probably not tho lol
y'all i'm gonna have to make a part two i got too excited 💀
#sorry this post was DEEPLY unhinged#shifting asks#ask hale <3#shifting#reality shifting#shifting community#shifting realities#reality shift#shifting antis dni#shifters#desired reality#shift#shiftblr
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Have you ever thought of an enemies to lovers au between chat noir and ladybug where chat noir is part of the bad guy team with the whole ' I'm hawkmoth son, my step mom is Mayura, I'm very happy being a villain, I can't be inlove with ladybug' drama, but Adrien still falls for ladybug/ Marinette anyway because he can't resist her in any universe
You might be better off looking for an answer from someone who focuses more on the Lovesquare than me because I'm getting distracted by OK, so assuming if Mayura actually is his stepmother then why/what are the villains fighting for?
It's possible maybe that everyone involved still wants to revive Emilie even it's no longer romantic devotion on Gabriel's part. Or maybe Nathalie's still ill and they want to heal her? Or maybe it's something to do with Adrien himself if we're going down a sentimonster origin for him- that the Peacock Miraculous can't produce perfect life. Or is it just for power, but then what does Gabriel need he can't already get by virtues of being rich and connected?
lol Nathalie used to be a famous thief stealing from museums who met Gabriel when they went after the same magical item he wanted for his collection of magical curiosities.
If Adrien's happy in that position at first then...he's happy with his family? Things with him and Gabriel are better?
I mean this version of his father apparently confides in him instead of hiding things from him which in itself suggests it is.
Is this Nathalie's influence?
She did encourage Gabriel to tell Adrien he was Hawk Moth in canon after all, and clearly wants Adrien to enjoy himself more and have a better relationship with his father while still being accepting enough of dodging parenting choices Gabriel makes that I can almost see how letting Adrien fight with them seems acceptable to her.
Funnily enough I'm almost thinking of this now as a AU of Nobody's Perfect where Gabriel finds out Adrien is a senti before becoming Hawk Moth, and Adrien argues his case to be able to fight for himself (which...generally Gabriel would not respond well to but every so often he seems impressed by someone standing up to him and indulges them...)
But anyway to get onto the kids all I'm saying is consider....Adrien falls for Marinette first. Hmm, maybe even a full reverse Lovesquare.
Adrien follows his parents' example and doesn't really understand why what they do is so bad when Ladybug fixes anything. Until Nathalie convinces Gabriel to let him go to school and Adrien starts to see how the attacks effect the people he starts to befriend.
He develops a crush on Marinette but doesn't ask her out because he tells himself can't involve her in his Dangerous Life that deeply until his Quest is Over because otherwise that would be unfair.
Unfortunately, his attempts to hide his crush on Marinette comes from the Gabriel Agreste School of Emotional Repression and she thinks he likes her less than the others because he's often cold and stand-offish.
Despite this he can't help but listen when she talks about the villains and what they're doing the city as well as smaller scale injustices in class with Lila, Chloé.
Ladybug on the other hand he finds kind of annoying because she keeps defeating him but on the other hand he does find it kind of fun to joke with and fluster her and essentially well...pull her pigtails.
Marinette meanwhile has...misunderstood some words from Tikki about Chat Noir being meant to be her partner and convinced herself that he's her Fated Lover and it's her responsibility to bring her to the light. It doesn't hurt that he's very cute, they've had some moments of connection (maybe an Oblivio type situation, and helping each other against something else) and unlike Adrien he seems to respect her and almost enjoy being around her despite being her enemy.
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Chapter 8 is finished. It was a wild ride. I'm still not over those events. The further I went the harder it was to gather my thoughts but here they are.
As if the scene with Daniela wasn't already enough to kill me with its sweetness THEN THERE'S ONE WITH BELA my god.
Naur pls the Cass/Bela scene was already so funny with how dramatic Cass acted and then she got Daniela to join her in annoying their sis. I lost it when she grabbed Bela's arm and went Bela, Bela, Bela 😭
I love their little sibling interactions so much. Adding it to my mental list of fav scenes.
I really think that's how they'd be with each other in canon.
"Our human" awww <3
But yhm yeah that's it for Bela's self control. It left the chat.
"She sees you. It’s over, isn’t it?"
The horror
Bela's kinda (very) hot when she's feral.
Reader out there thinking about boobs while their life is under threat of being taken😭😭😭
THE CASS SCENE after the blackout absjswjjsjsj *inaudible noises and screaming*
I had to take a break to recollect myself HOW DO YOU WANT ME TO SURVIVE TILL THE END OF THE CHAPTER WHEN YOU'RE THROWING SUCH THINGS AT ME CONSTANLY FROM THE VERY BEGINNING.
NOT LADY D TOO, GIMME A BREAK.
Yhm yhm I got a break, coz here comes the angst
"You desperately hope this isn’t some hallucination Donna put you through, that you’re not just making a massive fool of yourself in the real world."
Haha
HAHA
HA HA
THE WAY IT WAS ACTUALLY MUCH WORSE
OH. MY. GOD
Honestly, I can't even be sad and heartbroken from the girls' death because for the whole time I was too amazed and mind blown at how it all just made sense instantly. How you described each of their death. And that through the chapters we could hear pieces of their lines, trying to reach to the Reader pls. But Reader was living those silly memories thinking it was the reality, while destroying everything they love in true real world. AMAZING.
Idk what else to say here it's just wow WOW chef kiss. There was no reason to be scared of how this chapter went, it was all done so well. I can just picture the flashbacks of the events from before as everything settles in place, the horror coz it starts to make sense and it HURTS.
Especially that Reader said they won't/don't want to hurt anyone.
Just sweet pain, sweet pain, it hurts so beautifully.
So just let me tell you, let me summarise my experience so far as we reached this important moment (idk how hard it was for you but regardless) I admire and I am impressed how you managed to pull it off, with the plot in general with its mystery behind the events.
But also with the characters. I think you gave them a fair amount of time to let them shine in their own unique ways. To show their personality and how they interact with the fictional world around them.
And I like how it's said on many occasions that Dimitrescus do bad things, they're dangerous and literally eat people, but it's not all they are. They care for each other, can care for other people too, and show other side of them. Because people are complex and so are they.
It was so exciting, trying to collect the hints and put them together to understand something. I had SO MUCH FUN trying to solve the mystery and waiting for the big reveal. Nice I wasn't completely lost haha.
I'm definitely not planning on dropping the story, I'd like to follow our dear poor Reader till the end and see them being happy if that's possible :(
This is definitely my favourite RE8 fic, one of my favs in general. Hell, if it was a real book it'd be in my favs too.
I love your style, your way with words and how you operate with the language, especially that you keep any feature (besides the eyes) of the Reader up to imagination which I assume requires more effort.
This story completely captured my heart, I love your mind, I just wanna... kith your brain for allowing you to create it, this piece of art, a masterpiece.
And sharing my thoughts on your work with you brings me so much joy too🥺 You seem like a kind and beautiful soul
can i just say that i genuinely almost started crying while reading this :’)
OKAY BUT ONTO THE POINTS!! very glad you got through chapter eight, because it was one of the more difficult ones (i think 13&14 are also difficult to get through because of plot??)
*im just out here trying to kill y’all with these scenes of the girls HEHEHE
*PLEASE BAHA, i ADORE writing them just like regular siblings that love but annoy the hell out of each other 😭 Cass has a flair for the dramatics and Dani just likes joining in on the chaos
*listen Cass just saying things (like “our human”) without thinking about the implications is so <333
*the one thing coming true that you’ve been fighting so hard to stop :’)
*i was so worried the feral scene with Bela was gonna come across as SA-y but i’m so glad it hasn’t been received that way 😭 like homegirl was genuinely about to kill them but in the most mocking/teasing way
*listen boobs are just priority B)
*PLEASE I LOVE CASS BAHAHA, she’s so just… *her*
*i simply must destroy the sapphics’ minds with my powers of gay >:)
*THE DELVE INTO THE ANGST WAS SO FUNNY IM SORRY, going from this sweet, tender moment to just “oh my god. oh my GOD”
OKAY BUT!! i am genuinely so happy you liked the chapter and that everything made sense in the end, at least in some way. it was really fun tying events together and having slips of reality, moments where things don’t seem quite right, but i’m glad to know the anticipation of what’s been going on was worth all the pain and wait
the really heartbreaking thing i tried so much to add onto the already confusing plot was that you could definitely hear them trying so hard to reach Reader, even if they were completely lost and couldn’t understand what was being said to them :(
the thought that Bela never gave up on them, that Daniela never thought they couldn’t be saved or redeemed… i love writing these murderous, sadistic, cannibalistic women as people who genuinely care and are just PEOPLE. seeing them try so hard to reach someone so far gone hurts so well imo
but i’m really glad you did like it and it makes me so happy that you admire all the work i’ve put into it :’) like that’s honestly one of the sweetest things i’ve heard recently
i did try to be pretty fair with each Dimitrescu and sometimes give them their own designated chapter, just so we could really bond with them and see them as more than just what the rumors about them say or as who they pretend to be. Bela is a nerd that enjoys music, Cassandra loves science and art, Daniela loves getting lost in her romance novels, and Alcina is a wine loving mom who adores her daughters above all else
honestly, i think it was your chapter seven ask?? you were INSANELY close to what was going on and i was like oh my GOD she’s figured it out. i genuinely don’t think many people actually guessed what was going on, but it was so interesting seeing how you saw things through your own eyes and how each hint connected in your brain :D
i can say for certain Reader will most likely get a happy ending, even if we have to wade through a mountain ton of angst to get there. with long stories like this one, i dislike leaving things angsty and with an unhappy ending, but also because of all the shit they’ve gone through (and will continue to go through). happy endings after going through a LOT of traumatic shit are simply superior
GRRR KNOWING IT’S ONE OF YOUR FAVORITES MAKES ME SO HAPPY, i will actually cry. pls thats so sweet omfg
i honestly highly dislike fics where it’s supposed to be like x reader but it’s just an OC?? i do try my best to keep everything inclusive, save for the eye color, and i do sometimes have to change scenes to fit that but still keep the vibe 😭
but god, i will literally never live this down. this ask is going to be ingrained in my memories for months to come and it’s going to be what i look back on when i’m feeling down about my writing
thank you so so SO much for sharing your thoughts with me <33 i do look forward to hearing what else you’ll say or come up with in future chapters, since there are still plot points and antagonists we have to work through before our dear Reader can be happy for once :’) <3333
#asks#pls i read this while in the car with my parents and i just#literally almost started crying#pls#this is literally so sweet#chapter eight was a RIDE but i’m glad you like it <333#my whole idea was that it was supposed to be a ‘oh. OHHH’ chapter skdbsjd#god i’m just#at a loss for words#idk what else to say#i want to just spam hearts because fksndksndksbdnss
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I've read that you like the concept of Immortal Dream and Time Traveller Karl, and I have an Au similar to this concept.
Karl and Dream, alongside Mamacita, XD and Drista, are siblings that were created by the Goddesses of Life and Time. While XD, Drista and Mamacita are Gods of something else (Fate, Chaos and Love respectively), Karl and Dream are the Future Gods of Time (Karl Time Travel) and Life (the Revival Book is just Dream using his magic), for when their moms will retire/die.
Karl and Dream are really close, but it all changes when, during the Manburg vs Pogtopia war, they both sense a glitch in the SMP, so they go and found it, but they don't ask for help and straight up fight it, loosing. So, at the end, Karl looses his memories and Dream gets possessed by the Glitch
What do you think, and for you how would the other members react when the truth is revealed?
yo yo yo yo that sounds really cool!!! I especially like the idea of them being like- heirs; successors to godship. Dream and Karl are just vibing like 'yeah, i'm gonna be the god later, no big deal :)' I love that for them.
With that upbringing, makes sense that they'd be confident enough to tackle some mysterious threat underprepared and straight up losing. That's fun :D Karl forgets he's not Just a Dude™, and I assume Dream goes on his chaos arc or something?
As for how others would react, if I were writing it? Hmm. I imagine their siblings would be pretty alarmed and would want to get that fixed as soon as they learned about it. Like this Glitch being able to defeat these two would come across almost like an insult to their station. "How dare you harm our kind?" Except how are they gonna find out it even happened, right? If Karl doesn't know them anymore, and Dream has gone off to do whatever. Might take a bit~
As for mortal characters, I guess it depends on who you care to involve. I could see a lot of people being freaked out, that these two important figures were taken down, even if they don't have full god powers. Maybe some would see this Glitch as a Stronger Force to worship. Maybe possessed!Dream would get wrapped up in starting a cult. But I would also want to avoid too many egg arc similarities, if only just to separate this from that. It'd be funny if people just started following him around, trying to protect themselves by gaining favor, and he gets annoyed lol
hmm. yeah. hard to say too much without knowing how different this au is, in regards to mortals relationship to gods. If the gods are more involved and noticeable than in canon, then I think there's a lot of fun things you can do there depending on the individual. Fictional religions are my jam, but my thoughts on them are rarely organized or coherent :')
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❗WARNING❗: This is a rant post, you are not obligated to read this but just know that if you do I am not responsible for the feelings you get from it.
Okay, so can we just take a moment to talk about fanfics and their character/ oc development? Today I looked at a fanfic and I saw an oc character sheet, yknow the normal stuff you see when you start reading someone's story. Now this this what ticked me off, it said in the abilities section of the bio "Able to control air and oxygen and any water around him. " now if that wasn't bad enough in the weakness portion of the chapter it said "There's not really a weakness to their abilities". I don't know about you but your dear old pal here HATES overpowered characters with a ridiculous stat ratio. Now this is where the rant starts so excuse anything offensive I say because I'm mad as hell. EXCUSE ME? I'm sorry but if your damn character has the abilities of a whole god and their drawback is a HEADACHE then your oc is just bad. No I'm not kidding, I'm 100% certain on what I'm saying and listen to me when I tell you this, your oc has to have character development and having an op ability set just takes away the whole purpose of that and leaves no room for anything interesting to happen in your fanfic. Have you ever thought of why you lost motivation if your fanfic? Or maybe it hasn't gotten the spice you want in it? IT'S PROBABLY BECAUSE YOUR OC HAS A TRASHY PERSONALITY WITH THE LEG ROOM OF A DAMN OCTOPUS. I'm not gonna sit here and read your story when your oc is all like "Everything is so boring, everyone is so stupid for not seeing that attack coming. You guys are so annoying and I'm better than y'all. I'm just not gonna say anything or contribute to the plot because I know everything already 😩" FUCK OUTTA HERE WITH THAT🤡 I wanna cry so bad because I just can't believe these people really looked at their oc, approved it, then had the nerve to say "He's rude but is really kind" I'M SORRY? Kind???! W H E R E??? PLEASE I BEG OF Y'ALL BALANCE YOUR OCS OUT!!
Okay but seriously if you want some advice here's what's I actually recommend for this type of stuff:
Take a moment and stop what you're writing. I know you have a lot of ideas of what you want in your story but just stop worrying about the plot and think about the oc's your inserting there.
Study your character, think about anime references or other anime characters you want to base your oc off of and get inspiration from that
Next I would recommend to really think about what type of person you want your oc to be and think to yourself "what would I do (or how would I react, ) if I came across this type of person irl?" because to you this character might seem cool but if you look at it at a realistic standpoint they're probably a really horrible/ toxic person.
When you think about your oc's backstory I want you to think about your fandoms universe. What are the basic things that apply to this fandom? What is okay and reasonable enough to fit in this fandom? How would this tie into your fandoms lore? (this also really important because if your fandom is about a highschool anime and your oc is "the demon lord from hell" it wouldn't fit and it just disregards the structure of the anime.) I really want y'all the do some research on the fandom you're inserting your oc into, don't just go in blind.
Another thing would your oc's appearance, face claims are okay. I'm fine with that. But if you don't use face claims and your description of your oc is "black hair, yellow (left) and blue (right) eyes, scars everywhere, bandages everywhere" I'm going to assume your oc is an emo wannabe with an attention problem. Sorry not sorry, hehe~ 😜
Oh, another thing I want y'all to take into consideration is your oc's abilities. I really want you guys to know that it is okay if your oc is "normal". You don't have to give them the backstory of a broken king, you don't have to give them trauma and you don't have to make them "special". Your character is the mc for being themselves, they don't need all of that fancy stuff because even if they're bland they stand out against the original protagonist of the anime. You don't have to make them super edgy or super important because there's a thing called character development. The abilities your oc has (in my opinion at least) must start small. Then as the story continues and as the oc makes more important relationships between themselves and the people around them it gives them time to think about certain things in a new light and that pushes them to want to work hard. (1)
Let's say I have an oc named Oscar or something and they're an insert to the anime My Hero Academia. By me giving them the ability to see the future (please don't take any ideas from this istg) it also means they see the USJ attack and if they predict that very important plot point and inform the main characters about it that basically means that attack wouldn't happen the way it does in the anime. Now there are a lot of factors to be considered in this such as, lida doesn't run to get the pro heroes, All Might doesn't save class 1-A, and Izuku doesn't get the determination he gets to work more on OFA because he doesn't have to worry about All Might being pushed to his limit as severally as he does in canon. Please, I advise you to think about these things. (2)
Thank you for taking your time to read my whole post and let's hope I don't lose followers for this, these types of things need to be thought about and I feel like no one actually takes their time to and just throws whatever character they can come up with in a story. Um... Have a cool pic I guess...
#anime / manga#x male reader#male reader insert#male reader#mha#my hero acadamy#jujutsu kaisen#sk8 the infinity#obey me#haikyuu!!#haikyū!!#genshin impact#gender neutral reader#gn reader#nb reader#non binary reader
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Go ahead and tell about the followers/recruits! I'll admit i'm mostly interested in Fallen-From-Grace, but give me the entire list! (You should draw her at some point.)
X D i might consider that!
so im putting this under read more for length
Morte: he's an automatic follower and its best to keep him, especially if you're not statted up as a combat monster, because Morte, despite his appearances, IS. He's a fighter in terms of class and he's actually got some fairly high stats. You need to do some side quests (such as one gained from helping a woman in Sigil named Ingress; you recieved a bag of teeth tat level up with Morte, and are INCREDIBLY useful since you're most likely to keep him throughout the game.) Incidentally, a thing to keep in mind is that Morte IS a chronic liar, but he is the only explicitly Good party member for a reason and while you probably can't trust him to give a straight answer, you CAN trust him with your life. Note, however, that his claims to be a mimir are highly suspect, as they're non-sapient constructs made of metal, and he's rather more similar to the namesake, Mimir of Norse mythology.
Dak'kon: He's a fighter/mage and a really strong one at that. He's probably the most straightforward combat monster in the party in a normal playthrough, and he gets even stronger when you complete his personal quest by going through the dialogue concerning his religion and backstory, which opens up as you learn from it. He's easy enough to get, too, by talking to him at thE smouldering corpse bar. He's also noteworthy in that he retroactively influenced his entire species; prior to this game they were chaotic beings, but afterwards, they were reworked to match his stoic, Zen vibe.
Annah: She automatically joins your party after a certain point in the story, and she's the main thief in the game. You can get trainign to become a thief, and she can help you spec into being a thief if you change class. (She is EXTREMELY tsundere.)
Fall-From-Grace: Again, its actually pretty easy to recruit her, and is almost story mandated; she is in fact the game's primary healer. Eventually you will go to her Brothel of Slaking INtellectual Lusts (a combination of a woman's educational college of sorts, and a debate club that invites people to different kinds of intellectual discourse; FFG has a strange sense of humor). You can recruit her, i think, fairly easily by engaging her in social discourse and doing a side quest; if you have high INT and WIS, though, you can recruit her on the spot.
Nordam: He's actually pretty easy to miss. You have to buy a specific item from a dealer in strange curios in Sigil (in roughly the same area where you can meet FFG); a modron cube, which you can play with like an action figure to annoy Morte, but you can also use it to open a portal to what is essentially a parody of dungeon delving. Torment is unique in otherwise not having much of that kind of gameplay, and it was created by modrons (mechanical spirit creatures from the plane of Order, Mechanacus) to understand adventuring. Eventually you should gain the option to make it more difficult and Nordom is hanging out in a room in the Hard difficulty; its a pretty dangerous area and can take a LONG time to navigate, so be cautious! Nordom's a weird robot guy but is also shaped like a friend. "I think, therefore I am," he says. "...I THINK."
These guys are the assumed default party; the ones most conducive to a Good playthrough, and generally assumed ot be the canon party. There are also two other party members, but you would have to choose not to take oneo f the above to bring them with you:
Ignus: The sMouldering Corpse bar has a perpetually burning body within it, seemingly delighted at its own constant agony. This is Ignus, whom you might have heard as the guy who killed an entire district in Sigil, burning everyone in it alive just to see it burn. If you find a certain item in the catacombs beneath Sigil, during a story-mandated exploration, you can use it on him to wake him up, and you can choose to recruit him. Note that while he isn't evil (and is explicitly of the Chaotic neutral 'force of nature, incapable of understanding the harm he's doing') he is still most approprirate towards an evil playthrough, and he's very unpredictable and prone to lashing out when upset.
Vhailor: Oh man, this guy. You can find him during the latter part of the game, nearly towards the end, imprisoned in a prison beneath a city called Curst. It's actually impossible to miss him, i think; he's a big spiky suit of armor and you HAVE to walk by him to progress. He is a living suit of armor, previosuly the most fanatical Mercykiller in existence, and remains so commited towards the ideal of Justice that it empowers him, even in death, and he's not actually aware that he IS dead. He is able to see the crimes of others, and gain the power to punish it, and gets along poorly with you and your party members. If you're unable to pick the right dialogue options, he may attempt to kill you. As a rule, he's Lawful Neutral, NOT Good. His sect is dedicated to the idea of murdering the concept of mercy and compassion, and he is dangerously obsessive and strict even by their standards. He is cruel, heartless and without remorse, and gets along VERY poorly with Fall-From-Grace, whom he calls 'Mercy's whore'. (For her part, she's adept enough in philosophy to essentially back him into a corner and force him to concede that point.) Its not hard to say that he and Ignus are mutually opposed to one another. I've never seen what happens if they meet, but its probably not pretty.
On the other hand, he's ALSO so ludicrously strong he can solo the final boss entirely on his own. And he's voiced by Keith David.
Generally speaking, my advice is to not recruit Ignus or Vhailor; you CAN talk to them without recruiting them, i think. Alternatively, if you can't find Nordam, pick one of these guys as your final party member, though Nordam is ultimately the best choice. If not in terms of combat ability, at least in character. He's a sweet, confused robot cube who talks to his crossbows. Better that than an omnicidal pyromaniac or a guy who is a living embodiment of how NOT to do a Justice.
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Title: Being So Normal
Part: One
Pairing: Black!Reader/Bucky Barnes
Summary: Neither of them are very good at being normal. Good thing the spectrum of normalcy these days is anything but the definition of the word. In other words: two broken people mend together.
Warnings: typical canon level violence, mentions of past abuse both physical and emotional, alcohol abuse and mentions of, drug abuse and mentions of.
Chapter Theme: Being So Normal, Peach Pit
Notes: Just a little self-indulgent series that's been sitting in the back of my brain that I have finally decided to work on after kinda scraping the previous one.
Sort of a Neighbors's AU mixed with a Coffee Shop Au. Lots of character introspection for the reader, and Bucky, and some fun and drama along the way. This will no doubt be a slow slow burn.
Hope yall enjoy and feel free to leave any comments or hit me with questions! Oh, mood board slapped together by me! Also, no Beta. Tbh I'm lazy and impatient so excuse any mistakes.
Saturday: 11:30pm
Sam was the one who convinced him to come---or maybe forced would be the better word. Life has been returning to somewhat normal for the two of them; Sam shouldering his mantle as Captain America, and James slowly easing into his role as Sergeant Barnes rather than The Winter Soldier. But, it’s not all easy, at least not for James. Normalcy is not his strong suit, not when the urgency of survival had been drilled into his skull for the past hundred years or so. Sure, he was comfortable, but not necessarily happy. James is lost, and no one can tell that more than Sam.
And that is how he’s found himself in this crowded club with flashing lights and a bass beat that he can feel in the pit of his stomach. It’s not that the environment is too much---it’s just that he feels so...odd out. After all, Jame’s idea of a night out used to be something more akin to a jazz bar and dancing. Not whatever gyrations and wiggling around the kids called dancing was these days.
God, he really is old.
“You gotta loosen up man, you’re killing my vibe.” Sam, as if on cue, shoulders into him. James scowls, making sure to keep a tight grip on his beer---if you could even call it that. The brewery it was from managed to pack so many damn spices and fruit in it that it tasted more like a cocktail than any beer he’s come to like.
“You’ve got a weird vibe then, Sam.” the other man laughs, elbows resting against the bar top behind them while he scopes out the scene. It’s a typical New York club; fashion being the forefront of it all, the entire reason anyone is out right now is to be seen and admired. Among other things.
“That cutie over there keeps tossing you looks, you should go say hi.” James follows Sam’s gaze across the bar. A gaggle of young women crowds around a booth, all of them eyeing them and whispering to one another. He rolls his eyes and takes a long swig of his beer.
“I think you mean they’re looking at you, Sam.” The super soldier turns back toward the bar to push his empty glass to the bartender who only nods his way and produces a refill without another word.
“Eyes up, Sergeant, they’re coming over.”
James doesn’t pay any mind to the coming onslaught; it’s always the same really. Sam is descended on by a group of gals excited to meet the new Captain America and even more enthralled when they realize he’s pretty damn charming. Not that he’s jealous in any way. Annoyed? Sure. See, he just isn’t one for new people---especially the kind that Sam tends to attract sometimes. The airheads, the young ones just waiting to hook up and never talk again. He just can’t vibe with it, can’t grasp it. Maybe he is too old for this modern age of love and romance.
James just turns his attention to the muted TV over the bar, his back facing the chatty group of women behind him while they flock to Sam like vultures starving for a meal. The news flashes between stories from all over; follow-ups on the last of the Flag Smashers, some weird disturbances in a tiny town somewhere far off, and a local story on a stray cat that is just “too cute to not have a home.” He snorts, lips smacking from the twang of his beer.
“Sorry about them.” The tiny voice from his left nearly makes him jump, and James can only blame the blaring music for his lack of attention.
“Huh?” He peers down to see an average height woman; with big brown eyes and skin a deep tan and sunkissed. By all accounts, she is stunning---and looks nearly as out of place in this massive club as he does.
“My friends---” her head jerks towards the group of women still fawning over Sam, who no doubt is loving all of the attention. “I tried to explain to them that you guys are just normal people too," she thinks they're normal? "but the alcohol made them all braver than they normally are.” The woman rolls her eyes but by the soft smile she wears he can tell she means no malice.
“And what about you?” James leans his full weight on the bar top now all the while inching closer to the woman. He can read the confusion on her face. “Are you feeling braver than normal?” she flushes at his clarification, and an easy shrug rolls from the shoulder.
“I’m just the mom friend trying to make sure my friends don’t end up dead, in jail, or worse.” James can’t help but laugh at that.
“A mom friend, huh?” gloved fingers pluck the pint glass from the bar and neither of them breaks eye contact while he swallows nearly half the glass.
“Yeah, kind of how I’ve always been; just an eighty-year-old woman at heart I guess.” James gives her a crooked grin: he could understand that.
“You’re too young to talk like that.” he elbows her gently, suddenly so comfortable with her presence that he can feel himself loosening up a bit.
“Then what’s your excuse?”
Brows cock high, that twisted little grin never once wavering from his face. He likes her---the idle and quiet wit, the way she matches his quips with equal stride.
“What’s your---” but before he can finish the group of girls are flagging her down, yanking her arm in one direction while they all gossip about how someone managed to snag Captain America’s number. James watches while she shoots him an apologetic smile while she is all but dragged back to their booth across the dance floor. Before he knows it, her face is lost in a sea of people.
“You would pick up the prettiest one.” Sam’s voice yanks James from his thoughts, and he looks up with narrowed eyes. “Don’t think I didn’t see that little flirt session. You get her number?”
“I’m going home.” James slaps a crisp bill on the bar top and Sam laughs, all loud and boisterous.
“You didn’t even get her name, did you, man?”
“Good night, Sam!” with hands shoved deep in his pockets, James turns heels and heads home.
Sunday: 8:am
The mornings were his favorite time to jog. Consider it a coping mechanism---not that he necessarily needed to go for mile-long runs or work out, what with the serum, but it was the only time his mind was truly quiet. So, James kept to a strict schedule of an hour or so run every morning followed up by a tall dark roast. Only today, he is late by nearly an hour to get to his usual coffee spot; which wouldn’t be terrible but James lives for routines. Without one, his entire day is skewed.
It’s eight in the morning when he strolls into the coffee shop, a tiny little place sat precariously on the corner of two streets only a couple blocks from his apartment. Clad in joggers and a simple black t-shirt, he strides up to the counter; eyes glued to the menu board for any new sweets that may catch his eye.
“Well hi again.” brows grow taught at their center---he knows that voice. James looks down to see the same woman from the night before. Black hair is piled high on her head and rather than the slim little dress from the night before she sports simple leggings and a graphic shirt of which the reference he is utterly lost on.
“Oh. Hi...uh....” blue eyes look for a name tag, and he finds none. Damn it.
“Y/N” she smiles wide at him, much like she had in the club only this time, with better lighting, he can make out the dimples that crease each of her cheeks.
“Y/N.” he repeats her name back slowly. “Uh, nice to meet you, or see you again. I guess.” he points to himself, “I’m Bucky.” said so lamely, so simply, he really can’t blame her for laughing at him.
“I know. What can I get for you, James?”
James.
That throws him; tosses him so off-kilter the man can hardly remember his order. Sure a couple people call him James, well really only his mother and his therapist when he’s in deep shit but…. To hear a name nearly forgotten to himself, and from her? Well, it turns his brain to static.
“Just a large black coffee and one of those brownies please.” She nods and starts to prep his order, all the while he stands there like an idiot with a ten-dollar bill in his hand and his heart in his throat. Finally, he finds a safe landing back on earth.
“How was the rest of your night with your friends?” Y/N groans while she pours him a fresh cup of coffee.
“Catty. I finally got the last one home around three in the morning. Got home just in time for a nap before I came in here.”
“That sounds---awful.” James trades her the coffee for the ten, and watches while she works the register.
“Wasn’t so bad. I don’t sleep much these days anyway.” Y/N offers the change back to James but only nods his head toward the tip jar.
“Sounds like you earned it. Did you just start working here?" he's never seen her working here before, and per his routine, James is here around this time at least five times a week.
"Covering for a friend, I usually work the closing shift if I'm not teaching." Teaching? James would assume she'd be on the younger side to teach.
"I'll have to come more often around that time then." he watches while round cheeks twitch, and flush.
“Deal. I’ll uh...see you around, James?”
“Y-yeah. See you around, Y/N”
#james bucky barnes#james barnes#reader insert#bucky/reader#bucky/you#james bucky barnes/reader#james bucky barnes/you#mcu fic#mcu reader insert#reblogs more than welcome#actually encouraged#thank
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Following an advice given by my friend @flamaflavio I've decided to dedicate a series of posts on Northern Italy(because there's a serious lack of them in the fandom:(),whether they might be about culture,history,folklore,stereotypes(could be an interesting addition to characterization)or misconceptions*? Maybe even cuisine ahah
In this post I'll expain what we intend for North Italy, why it doesn't line up perfectly with canon and most importantly why Feli gets called "Italy" way more often than Mano.
Let's start by stating that in our country by North Italy we mean the regions of: Aosta Valley (Valle d'Aosta), Emilia-Romagna, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Liguria(the region your girl's from), Lombardy(Lombardia), Piedmont (Piemonte), Veneto and Trentino Alto-Adige.
So you might ask me, why is it that in Hetalia Chibitalia has been shown as Florence as well??? Is it a mistake made by Hima?? Yes.. But actually no ahah! In this post I'll cover how we came to such a perception of the North in our country and why Tuscany and the rest of Central Italy, isn't included in it and doesn't consider themselves part of it :D
I won't talk about all history until nowadays of course (I'll definitely make future historical posts) I'll simply give you basic information based on early history to have an understanding of how us italians divide our country and why in canon other nations refer to Feliciano as Italy more commonly than they do with Romano(it is indeed based in history, it's not mean spirited!!).
So during the centuries prior to romanization North Italy was inhabited by a different bunch of cultures, among them the long haired Ligures(whose origin is unsure,Celtic?? Or simply celtified by their neighbors uhmm?? Talking about them in detail would take a whole ass post) the Veneti who were known for their commerce of amber and horse breeding, the Etruscans who, coming from Tuscany, colonised parts of the North and founded cities such as Bologna and in a later period a swarm of Gaulish tribes(generally referred to as the Celts).
The latter(most likely the Insubres) founded Milan in 590 BC, naming it Medhelan(the place in the middle of the plain, or among rivers) or Mediolanum as the Roman would call it later(Meśiolano as a Celtic engraving informs us) keep Milan in mind we'll come back to her later. Their domain extended from the Alps to the Adriatic sea.
This would be stopped by roman conquest that would culminate in 194 BC in the foundation of a province under the name of Gallia Cisalpina**,Cisalpine Gaul, id est Gaul on the hither side of the Alps(from the Romans point of view) that pretty much contained the regions which nowadays we consider North Italy.
The area became one of the most influential and rich provinces in the empire and it's strategic role is emphasized by the fact that in 286 the capital of the Western Roman Empire is moved from Rome to,guess where, Milan the main city in Gallia Cisalpina(and later on in Ravenna from 402 to the fall).
Is this why Grandpa is shown to leave poor Romano behind in canon in favour of his little brother??? Most likely!!! Btw if you're interested in the subject you should totally check out jjblue's Italia Annonaria (baby Feli) and Italia Suburbicaria (baby Mano) profiles on DA.
It's really unfair that the other characters call only Feliciano Italy:/ It's actually not true, as my friend flama has talked about in one her posts both Germany and America have called him Italy in the past. The fact that this behavior hurts Romano is long lasting misunderstanding in the fandom: he really doesn't care.
What annoys him it's that he's often referred to as "Italy's older brother" but not because he's Italy as well, but because that takes away his individuality: he's peeved by the fact he's only considered in relation to his brother, he's Romano besides being Feliciano's older brother ahah.
If his identity as Italy truly mattered to him he would have some kind of reaction out of being called Italy, especially by someone he has a bad relationship with like Germany, but he was left completely indifferent by that. I've often seen fanfictions where he's moved to tears by such action by it actually seems like he doesn't mind. He just wants people to understand he has a persona outside being Feli's big brother ahah.
There's actually a reason why Feli is "Italy" and it has been actually brought up recently in the fandom. Let's go back to history ahah.
A germanic general named Odoacer overthrew the last Roman Emperor, whose name for some reason I always found funnee, Romulus Augustulus.
Now the Eastern Roman Empire was having none of that and decided to invite Theodoric the Great of the Ostrogoths to rule over Italy under their approval(btw if you'll ever visit Ravenna do check out Sant'Apollinare Nuovo and Theodoric's Mausoleum). Ostrogothic rule was short lived (lasted pretty much Theodoric's reign) but greatly improved the economy and the arts. . . Too good to be true of course, because Justinian I(Eastern Roman emperor)decided he wanted to revive the glory ™ of the empire and this brings us to Gothic Wars.
Italy, especially the North, was left devastated by them, as they brought death(duh),poverty and were accompanied by a good dose of famine and plague. Byzantine rule wouldn't last long as a Germanic tribe***, the Lombards, took advantage of their weakness and took over italy and gave birth to a reign, which had Pavia as capital.
Said reign was called Langobardia, in particular North and Central Italy were named Langobardia Maior(The great Langobardia), which is the name under which North italy would be known as for a good part of the middle age and that gives the name to the modern region Milan and Pavia are located, Lombardia/Lombardy.
For example Boccaccio in his Decameron(in particular in the first novella) uses Lombards when referring to Italian merchants because that's the name they were given even if most of them came from Piedmont and Tuscany.
Lombard language and culture slowly was assimilated into the previous one and that can be seen in names, words and laws created in that period. This came to an end in 774 when Charles the Great, king of the Franks(and future Holy Roman Emperor), conquered Pavia and annexed the Lombard kingdom... Under the name of Kingdom of Italy!
So in other words the reason why our boy is the one who's called Italy the most is because he's simply been "Italy" for longer or more specifically for more than once(as I explain in the notes:)!!). Mano on the other hand would have most likely known as Kingdom of Sicily, Kingdom of Naples or Kingdom of the two Sicilies :). And I'm very much sure he would have been proud of such identity.
But what about central Italy??? You see the Papal States forged a document the Donation of Constantine, according to which Emperor Constantine assured Pope Silvester I(in 321) and his successors the exclusive domain over the city of Rome(btw Rome isn't part of southern Italy!!the fact South Italy is called Romano is really weird and so is North Italy as Veneziano ngl). This gave the Church access to "temporal power",id est material power and with it came territorial power. And so little by little (with the exception of Tuscany that flourished on it's own) it ate up the whole of Central Italy, which would develop a linguistic group, a culture and history of its own.
And that's pretty much what you need to know to understand Hetalia's confusing lore ahah. It's not everything I could go on explaining the era of the Commons and the Renaissance and go all through medieval and modern history to make you fully grasp it but I think it's enough for today:D let me know if you want me to talk about the subjects I mentioned in detail and if you want me to go on. Read the notes :)!!!
*I've often seen Feli wearing tarantella clothes, because it's probably assumed as the italian™ traditional dance and the music is misused in videos about Italy(all of Italy!!)when it's really characteristic of the South:)! Would be nice to see more fan arts of Mano in those garments lol really nice
**Napoleon would found in the 18th century the Cisalpine Republic in North Italy, a sister republic of France, that would later become known as the Italian Republic and then the (napoleonic!!!)Kingdom of Italy:) not to be confused with the Kingdom of Italy that would be born on the 17th of March 1861,ring a bell ahah???Read Hetalia's Risorgimento strips if you want to know about that:)))Milan djdbdb was once again the capital of all these.
***considering Romano is stated to have Arabic blood which is definitely brought by the moorish occupation, I'd assume Feli's Germanic one has to do with daddy Lombards. The longobards ruled over the South as well so ehhh, but hey it's Hima we're talking about. Genetics work in a weird way in hetalia, they're like acquired??? Hima explains that Canada, America and Seychelles don't have England's bushy eyebrows because of France's influence. Wtf. Oh btw if you might be interested in the Lombards' origin in Historia Langobardorum Paulus Diaconus informs us they came from Scania(a region in Sweden) and the settled in "Scoringa".
#I've been feeling down lately and needed a distraction#hope y'all will like it#in any case i enjoyed doing this :)#aph north italy#hws north italy#aph italy#hws italy#aph south italy#hws south italy
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Destiel Chronicles
Vol. XCVI
It was a love story from the very beginning.
The Destiel Reunion and the Cowboys Date
(13x06)
Hello my dears! We are finally here, in TOMBSTONE fanfiction 🤣
And of course, a whole unique volume for this delicious episode.
Dean is happy now
The reunion between Cas and Dean was really very beautiful. First of all we have Dean incredulous face, he can't believe what his eyes are seeing, he can't believe Cas is alive and in front of him.
DEAN: Cas, is that really you?
SAM: No. You're – you're dead.
CASTIEL: Yeah, I was. But then I… annoyed an ancient cosmic being so much that he sent me back.
Dean is hopes, Sam reality in this dialogue. Every inch of Dean wished Cas to come back. Now that he has him there, his eyes can't believe, but he really wants. And Sam brings back the fact that Cas was definitely dead.
SAM: I don't even know what to say.
DEAN: I do. Welcome home, pal.
(Gif set credit @gabrielokun )
This hug is beautiful, Sam is still surprised, but Dean react with a hug, he missed his angel so much, he is the one "running towards him" at first. The emotion in his eyes, and the relieved and happiness to have him back. The love of his life is back, after so much suffering.
CASTIEL: How long was I gone?
DEAN: Too damn long.
(Gif set credit @shirtlesssammy )
And here we have the difference between Family Love and Romantic Love:
When Mary Winchester comes back in 12x01, she makes the same question Castiel did. But Dean's answer is different. He can calculate the exacting days and years his mother had been dead. But with Cas is different, Cas represents the love of his life, his hopes, he was suicidale after he was gone, so... That time Cas wasn't there with him, it felt like eternal. That's why he didn't calculated, Because it was TOO DAMN LONG.
And he says it with the painful remembrance in his eyes, red because he wasn't sleeping well, and because he maybe had crying so many times.
After this angsty scene, we have a huge change in Dean. He is happy now, so happy, that he can't hide it. He is shinning again. Smiling. Hopeful. And in addition, he has a cowboy adventure, even when the data they have from Dodge City isn't that clear, he drags the whole team to it.
And just like in season 5, he rewrites TFW now 2.0, describing each member enthusiastically.
DEAN: Yeah, but we should probably check it out.
CASTIEL: Wait. Really?
DEAN: Yeah, we've done more on less. Besides Dodge City's kind of, uh, kind of awesome. All right, well… two salty hunters, one half-angel kid, and a dude who just came back from the dead. Again. Team Free Will 2.0. Here we go.
Before continuing with this happy Dean, let's check a mystery, that had been solved in season 15. Why Jack had power on the Empty or how is that Cas woke up. Of course it was Jack's power over the Empty, because he will be new god, but also, it was the Profound Bond, the deep love these men feels for each other the path Jack used to find Castiel. Is so freaking romantic I just can't...
Okay, coming back now with happy Dean...
And how Sam was trying to make him confess... Something else. Noticing the change in his brother, knowing what was the cause of it, it was so blatant, that the smart little brother confirms here Dean's true feelings for the angel...
SAM: Still can't believe you brought your own hat.
DEAN: Well, I can't believe you didn't.
SAM: You're in a good mood, huh?
DEAN: Yeah. And?
Sam was waiting some time alone to ask this to him. Imagine you saw your brother in so bad shape a day ago, suicidal, not having faith or hopes in life... An now, he's happy, shining. Smiling. Laughing. What could happen? Of course, CAS is back... But is Dean ready to confess what he feels for him to his brother? Or even, to recognize his own feelings for the angel?
(Gif set credit @deansplushy )
Dean recognize Castiel is not just the win he needed, but the BIG WIN he wanted in his heart. And he stops there. He can't say more, but is not necessary to say it. Sam is an insightful person, and he gets it. He understands and confirms Dean loves Castiel in that special way. But he is not ready to "come out from the closet" . And the scene that comes after this one, is Sammy, smiling crookedly and tilting his head, Because he knows the message behind those words. He turns back and closes a closet. Pure Symbolism.
Cowboys Adventures
Let's jump now to the "angry bear" scene.
What it means? Simply and perfectly, that scene means CASTIEL WATCHING DEAN SLEEPING OR EVEN TRYING TO WAKE HIM UP. Both of it reveals CASTIEL IN DEAN'S ROOM. INTIMACY. First hint of scene we've never seen. But indirectly pointing at a canon fact. And we love it.
Also, bossy, grumpy Dean that needs his coffee to function. And Castiel just submissively obeying his angry bear and sitting back in the coach... Damm these two... Their dynamic had always been like that, but we didn't have enough of it. We didn't have enough of domestic destiel.
Then, once in the car, Castiel is wearing a cowboy hat. So, it means they had to go to buy it somewhere. Just Imagine Dean looking for a cowboy hat to fit in Cas' head.
He fixes his boyfriend, because he wants him to look even more good.
DEAN: All right, listen, these Dodge City cops aren't likely to trust big city folks, so we're gonna have to blend.
CASTIEL: Which is why you're making me wear this absurd hat.
DEAN: It's not that bad. Well, actually, yeah, it kind of is. Hang on. [Dean reaches over and removes the hat band and tosses it in the back seat] All right. That's better.
CASTIEL: Is it?
(Gif credit @grumpycas )
This scene shows us again their intimacy and how Castiel just accepts to be part of his fantasies. He is willing to play Dean's cowboys game. Because he loves him. And this means to share a good time with him. But, CAS worries about how he looks. And he peeks into the rear viewer mirror, and if you look at Dean's facial expressions, I think he's having a heart attack for Cas' proximity. Hahahahss. Oh, Dean you're so in love in this date.
DEAN: [sighs] Yeah. Look, just act like you're from Tombstone, okay?
CASTIEL: The city?
DEAN: The movie. With Kurt Russell? I made you watch it.
CASTIEL: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. The one with the guns and tuberculosis. [in a deep cowboy voice] "I'm your Huckleberry."
DEAN: Yeah, exactly. Well, it's good to have you back, Cas. All right, follow my lead. We'll fit right in.
Gif credit @agusvedder
Okay i really think here is when Dean had a heart attack, an stroke and a bonner, at the same time, I will elaborate hahahaha
Another hint of their INTIMACY, is the fact that they watch movies together! Not just that, but Dean made CAS watch Tombstone, and who know how many other movies! (More domestic Destiel)
And then... Cas goes for it, because he knows how Dean loves cowboys, and because he is a sexy, hot, angel that knows how to seduce him, not just with eye fucking... But... Using the link over Dean.
And it works... Because the hunter closes his eyes, swallows and tries not to faint right there of arousal. And then, shamelessly, he just says IT'S GOOD TO HAVE YOU BACK, CAS.
And then, is so funny to watch Cas trying to follow Dean's lead. Oh gosh... Hilarious. Rom com.
Symbolism of the rest of the episode
Dean's bisexuality
Dave and Athena were a representation of Dean's bisexuality, just as in the Rocky's bar in 14x10.
In this episode we have Toxic!Dean mirrored by the monster, Dave and Innocent/Healing!Dean mirrored by Athena.
The dynamics between them was similar to te dynamics in the Rocky's bar, in which Dean's toxicity and AU!Michael, the monster, tried to keep Dean locked inside his emotional toxic prison.
DAVE: Athena, don't you think we have a good thing here? Why do you wanna go mess it up?
ATHENA: Whatever. I have to work.
Athena wanted to improve his life, to go to school and move to a bigger city. To be better. She had dreams. Innocent, is the best part of Dean.
Another important fact is Dave wearing another's man face, a very known bandit, adding to one of the topics of this season: masks, fake identity, as a foreshadow of Dean's possession.
So Dave is Toxic!Dean, his own monsters, trying to keep him in the darkness.
The visual narrative adds to this symbolism the red ascot I'm both characters, Dave and Athena, to point out again at Dean.
Jack and Dean
We will have Jack killing an innocent man because he couldn't control his powers. As a foreshadow of when he will kill Mary not controlling his powers again.
Jack carries with a green backpack, green is Dean's color, and the backpacks means guilts.
Here is when Jack starts feeling guilt for killing a man. TFW will connect with him trying to explain that's part of the job.
All the dead people and killing the monster
When Dave comes back with Athena, she discovers he is a monster, and rejects him. Because he killed someone. This is very symbolic because in Dean's head, he sees himself as a monster, a murderer, and he hates that part of him.
So, at the end of the episode, Dean says alone, helps the sheriff, the righteous man, saves him and saves the girl, his innocence, killing the monster, his toxicity.
This episode showed us the future inner battle Dean will have to win. And it will be successful.
To Conclude:
This was a very Destiel episode, they showed us hints of how intimate Dean and CAS are with each other. And how much Dean is in love with CAS.
The happiness after Castiel's returning alive, gives Sam almost a confirmation of Dean's true feeling for Castiel, assuming he is not ready yet to get out from the closet.
There was a foreshadow of AUMichael possessing Dean, and the inner battle of 14x10.
Dave and Athena represented Dean's bisexuality and part of his personality. Keeping in mind Athena is the greek goddess of wisdom, war strategy, is the good part of Dean and innocence.
Hope you like this meta, see you in the next one!
Tagging @magnificent-winged-beast @emblue-sparks @weird-dorky-little-d @michyribeiro @whyjm @legendary-destiel @a-bit-of-influence @thatwitchydestielfan @misha-moose-dean-burger-lover @lykanyouko @evvvissticante @savannadarkbaby @dea-stiel @poorreputation @bre95611 @thewolfathedoor @charlottemanchmal @neii3n @deathswaywardson @followyourenergy @dean-is-bi-till-i-die @hekatelilith-blog @avidbkwrm @anarchiana @dickpuncher365 @vampyrosa @authorsararayne @mybonsai1976 @love-neve-dies @dustythewind @wayward-winchester67 @angelwithashotgunandtrenchcoat @trashblackrainbow @deeutdutdutdoh @destiel-shipper-11 @larrem88 @charmedbycastiel @ran-savant @little-crazy-misha-minion @samoosetheshipper
@shadows-and-padlocked-hearts @mishtho @dancingtuesdaymorning @nerditoutwithbooks @mikennacac73 @justmeand-myinsight @idontwantpeopletoknowmyname @teddybeardoctor @pepevons @helevetica @isthisdestiel @dizzypinwheel @jawnlockwinchester @horsez2 @qanelyytha
@destielle @spnsmile @shippsblog @robot-feels @superlock-in-the-tardis @superduckbatrebel @2musiclover2 @madronasky @anon-non2 @cea1996 @lisafu02 @asphodelesauvage @destiels-canonahhhhhhhhhh
If you want to be added or removed from this list just let me know.
If you wanna read the previous metas from this season here you have the links:
Vol. XCIII, XCIV, XCV.
Buenos Aires January 17 2021 02:31 PM
#destiel#destiel chronicles#destiel meta#Supernatural meta#season 13 meta#13x06 meta#tfw 2.0#dean winchester#castiel#jack kline#sam winchester#cowboys#tombstone#domestic destiel
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I'm ~indecisive~ so either parkner, parksborn, or ot3 (Peter/harley/harry), OR just something Harley centric pleeaassee love you hope you're doing well 😊💗💗
wasteland, baby by hozier
be still, my indelible friend
you are unbreaking
though quaking
though crazy
that's just wasteland, baby
[send me a character/ship/dynamic/etc. and i’ll put my music on shuffle and write a drabble/one shot based on the first song that plays!]
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i have literally no clue what happened with this, literally i saw the song and was like wow yes hozier song for a harley centric ot3 one shot? perfect! and then it just. devolved? evolved? developed. somehow. into this gay panic lonely tennessee boy meeting two dumb fucked up and traumatized boys on a road trip before they start college and ??? i have no fucking clue tbh
tw: internalized homophobia, classic southern rose hill homophobia, a much thicker version of southern accent typing than i usually do, vague mentions/hints of toxic/abusive home life via one mr harry osborn, basically just canon based trauma but only talked about in passing
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Harley feels life like a pressure pushing down on his chest.
It isn’t heavy, per se, but it isn’t light, either - rather a constant weight, comfortable at times, overwhelming at others. He will carry it down the street like a backpack strapped around his shoulders and pressed into the dimples at the base of his spine and he may wince and he may want to whine, but he’ll just smile with the warmth of sunshine radiating from his skin like he is the sun itself, and he will nod his head in greeting at any lonesome soul he passes.
Lonesome as him, at least. Lonesome as lonesome could ever really get.
He’s got his Mama, is the thing—and he loves his Mama with all he’s got, feels it seize up in his chest sometimes, his heart palpitating rapidly as it tries to process just how much love he holds in his chest like a secret he can’t quite share. Got his Mama and his sister, Annabelle, and her missing teeth that she loves to show off with every dimple cheeked grin that she flashes them, a nine year old girl who loves to have her hair braided back and resting between her shoulder blades like a signature, something that is solely hers. Harley can’t see braids without thinking of Belle and her crinkly nose and the laugh lines around her eyes when she can’t stop the chortles that rise from her chest. Belle and their Mama are all that he’s really got, and he wouldn’t trade them for the world.
But he wonders if there’s anyone out there who would really understand what he means when he says, “Life just feels a bit heavy today.” His Mama tries to, but she doesn’t get it, feels the pressures and the struggles of life differently than he does, because he knows she feels the aches and pains just as much as him, if not more so, but she has an energy that he doesn’t seem to have access to, an ability to chime a laugh without feeling like it’s too heavy in her poor lungs to make much of a sound. Belle doesn’t show any of the signs that Harley did when he was her age of any sort of weight pushing down her shoulders, because he felt it early, early, early—far too early than any child ever deserves, but he saw his father walk out that door with a half-assed smile and an unconvincing promise to return and that weight appeared like a lump in his throat and a stinging of tears behind his eyes and it’s only grown and shifted and intensified since then, really, but Belle doesn’t seem to have that weight, or any weight at all, and Harley hopes to the heavens above (that scare him shitless on a good day, really) that she never has to feel like him.
Because he is horribly, terrifyingly alone, sometimes. Sitting on the sofa with his Mama sitting to his right, his sister curled up in between them, letting out endearing little snorts when something funny happens in whatever show they’re watching, and his Mama could be brushing back his hair like she did when he was a kid, Belle could be snuggled in his lap and laughing into his chest, he could be surrounded by the two most important people in his life, the only two people in his life, and he could still stare at that television screen and feel a gaping wound in his chest that nothing can fill. There’s weight, pressure, heaviness--and an emptiness, in the center of it all. A vacancy that may never be filled. Like the eye of a hurricane that never seems to rest.
Then a far too fancy looking car rolls up in Rose Hill, parks itself in the dirt lot of the only motel in town, and everything seems to shift.
“I’m Harry,” one of the oddities tells him, when Harley stops by Rita’s Diner because his Mama is taking Belle to a doctor’s appointment in the next town over but wanted him to pick up her paycheck for her. The guy looks nothing like anyone in Rose Hill ever has, a sleek black blazer over a white shirt with a slogan that Harley can’t read from where he’s standing, dark blue skinny jeans and a fancy kind of tennis shoes that don’t have a smudge of dirt on them, his hand extended towards Harley, head tilted to the side, eyes green and piercing as they scan over Harley in some kind of intrigue.
Harley’s been born and raised to be polite, so he shakes the guys hand and says, “Harley Keener. Nice t’meet you, Harry...?”
The ends of Harry’s lips curve, twist. “Lyman,” he fills in, brow quirking. There’s a quiet snort that fills in the gap of silence that follows, and then Harry is turning, hand still clutching Harley’s in an almost hand shake, looking at the guy sitting beside him and reading the menu with amusement on his features. “What?”
“Nothing,” the guy says, glancing towards Harry before immediately looking away and having to smother a laugh in his palm. Harley takes a moment to examine this guy, too - sticking out just as much as Harry is with his beige skinny jeans (kind of like khaki’s, but nothing like them, at the same time) and a dark grey hoodie, looking far too thick for the sunny day outside. His hair is swooped across his forehead in wisps of curls, brown eyes glimmering. “Nothing,” he says again, more insistent, though it doesn’t sound convincing as he giggles more.
Harry rolls his eyes, turning back to Harley with a grimace, though his eyes shine in a way that makes it obvious that he isn’t actually annoyed. “Don’t mind him,” he says, gaze flickering down to where Harley is still clasping his hand. Harley pulls back as soon as he notices, yanks his hand away a little too fast. It makes Harry’s nose crinkle, for a second, and then smooth. “That’s Peter.”
Giggles waves a hand vaguely in Harley’s direction, then looks away. Harley isn’t sure what to make of that. “What’s he laughing at?”
“Nothing important,” Harry assures with a shrug. “You’re from here, I’m guessing?” Then, with his newly freed hand, he gestures towards Harley’s clothes, the smudge of dirt on his cheek, the slight sunburn on the bridge of his nose and the freckles dotting his skin. “I don’t mean to assume, you just look a lot like a local.”
“Well, I’d bet I do, since you definitely don’t,” Harley muses, brow quirking, resting a hip on the edge of the counter and crossing his arms over his chest. “I don’t mean to assume either, but neither of you are from ‘round here, huh?”
Harry’s smile widens while Peter flips a fork round and round between his nimble looking fingers. If Harley looks closer, he thinks he can see those fingers shaking, yet it doesn’t seem to hinder Peter’s ability to spin the fork with a flawless sort of ease. It makes him intrigued. Confused, too. A bit unsure. He doesn’t get the chance to voice any of it, though.
Julianna, the manager that’s working today, brings Harley his mama’s paycheck, wrapped up in a neat white envelope with Keener scrawled across the front in scratchy script. Harley tips his head in parting when he leaves, and he catches a glimpse of Peter leaning towards Harry with something forming through a whisper of his lips, so close that he brushes against Harry’s ear as he speaks.
He thinks of them the rest of the day. He isn’t quite sure why, but he does.
(Maybe it was the hand in his, or the way Peter couldn’t stop giggling under his breath like there was a joke that no one else knew but him. Maybe the curiosity that Harley felt bubbling in his chest had, for even just a fraction of a moment, filled that cavern the slightest bit.)
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“You seem distracted, honeybun,” Margaret Keener says over dinner that night, swooping blonde bangs out of her eyes as she glances towards her eldest child, her eighteen year old son with his shoulders hunched down on himself as he uses his fork to push his food around his plate. Maggie keeps her eyes on Harley, but turns her head to address Belle as she says, “Doesn’t he look distracted, Tinker Bell? Looks a little lost in his head, don’t he?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Annabelle responds, nodding her head politely before shoveling a bite of broccoli salad into her mouth. She speaks around her food, using her own fork to gesture towards her brother, and tells their mama, “Candy Jones was tellin’ me that her daddy saw Harley talkin’ to those city boys stayin’ at the inn.”
Harley shoots his sister a sharp glare while a flicker of understanding sparks in their mama’s eyes. “I see,” she drawls, setting her fork down to prop her chin in her hand, resting in the curve of her palm as she smiles at her son.
“It’s nothin’, Mama,” he grumbles, shrinking in his seat under her knowing stare.
Sounding amused, Maggie says, “Doesn’t sound like nothin’, honeybun. If Annabelle can tell me about her crushes, then you can tell me about yours.”
Instantly, Harley is looking at his sister in bewilderment. “You got crushes?”
Annabelle shovels more food in her mouth. “Maybe,” she says around it all, brows raising in a way that challenges him to say something about it.
“But you’re a baby,” Harley says.
“I’m almost ten,” Belle corrects. “Mama said it was okay, Harls. Right, Mama?”
Maggie nods. “Yes I did,” she says, though her eyes are glued to her son. “’Cause there ain’t nothin’ wrong with having crushes. It’s a natural part of life. So, Harley, why don’t you tell me about these city boys?”
“There’s nothin’ to tell,” Harley insists, looking at his mama with wide eyes. “Honest, Mama. I talked to ‘em for a few minutes while I was waitin’ for Julianna to bring me your check, but nothin’ happened. We just talked. I don’t even know how y’all know that they’re from a city.”
Belle lets out a huff. “Word spreads fast in this town, Harley,” she tells him. “You’d know that if you had any friends that you could talk to.”
“Annabelle Ray Keener, you watch yourself,” Maggie scolds, turning her eyes to her daughter with lowered brows. Belle ducks her head, looks away with red creeping up the back of her neck. “You say sorry to your brother. That was uncalled for, little miss. We don’t talk to each other that way, you hear me?”
Belle sighs. “Sorry, Harls,” she murmurs.
Harley’s head is bowed, ends of his lips tugged down in a frown. “S’alright,” he mutters in response, glancing up at Maggie through his lashes and sounding like nothing but a boy rather than the fresh adult that he is. “I ain’t got nothin’ else to say, Mama. We just talked for a few minutes. They seemed weird, but nice.”
“If you say so, baby,” Maggie softly replies, smile gentle and kind.
He doesn’t say much else for the rest of dinner.
-
Only a few days later, as Harley is strolling down the streets leading from his house to the mechanic shop that he works at part time during the summers, he sees them again. It’s a particularly hot day, and the weight of life is particularly heavy, and he sees them in the only park resting near the center of Rose Hill, small and meek but all that the town really needs. Peter is siting on one of the swings on the old rickety swing set that Harley has personally had to fix dozens of times since learning how to at the age of eleven, and Harry is pushing him, the two of them looking bright and happy under the sunlight. Laughter chimes in the air when Peter says something that has Harry doubling over, and the smug sort of grin that grows on Peter’s face says that he was hoping for that reaction.
Harley stands there for a few short moments, just watches in silent curiosity, and then he walks over without a second thought. Takes his time, doesn’t want to interrupt but can’t stop himself as he approaches, until they spot him, no more than ten feet away, and they quiet quickly, watching as he slows to a stop just a short distance from them. “You’re from the city,” he says - first thing that comes to mind, and the silence makes him itch, so he throws caution to the wind. Adds, as an afterthought, “My sister heard people in town talkin’ ‘bout it. Is that true?”
There’s a short pause, where Peter looks over his shoulder and Harry meets his eyes briefly, and then they’re looking back and Peter is saying, “Yeah, it’s true.”
“Which one?” Harley questions, curious. He makes a point of raking his eyes over their outfits, which still stand out just as much as the ones that they were wearing last time did. “Doesn’t look like anywhere in Tennessee, I assume?”
“Good assumption, cowboy,” Harry grins. “We’re New York, born and raised.”
Harley tilts his head, brows raising. “Cowboy?”
Peter clicks his tongue, tilts back on the swing until he’s practically hanging upside down, hair brushing against the wood chips of the playground, and then he kicks out his legs and uses an odd sort of momentum to swing back up until he’s sitting, grin wide and toothy as he meets Harley’s eyes. “Southern people use nicknames,” he says with a light laugh. “We thought cowboy suited you.”
“It does?” Harley asks, even more confused. “Y’all were talkin’ about me?”
“Y’all,” Harry repeats, an overjoyed and amused sort of look on his face.
Peter cocks his head slightly to the side, brows quirking, just a bit. “Of course we were talking about you,” he says. “Not everyday you meet a cute cowboy, right?”
That makes Harley freeze, heart stuttering over a beat in his chest, and it feels like what he always thought a stupid high school crush should feel like, his lungs weak and his face warm as he looks away, brings up a hand to run his fingers nervously through his hair. “Oh.”
Harry yanks Peter’s ear lobe lightly and snarkily asks, “What happened to subtlety, Parker?”
“What happened to transparency, Osborn?”
Instantly, Harry is shoving Peter’s shoulder, not too harsh but not exactly kindly, either. Peter exaggerates the push and falls out of the swing dramatically, tumbling into the wood chips with a bright laugh. Harry murmurs, “You’re such a dick,” even as he rounds the swing to help pull Peter to his feet, brushing off the dirt from Peter’s shirt and shaking his head with a sigh.
“You chose me,” Peter counters, grinning.
Harry rolls his eyes, but a smile pulls at his lips, like he can’t quite fight it. “Dumbest decision I’ve ever made,” he says, pulling Peter closer to him, until they’re chest to chest. “And I let you talk me into this trip, so that says a lot, Pete.”
Peter huffs. “Play the part of the Negative Nancy,” he says, leaning in until their noses brush. “Act like I don’t know any better. As if I don’t know you better than you know yourself.”
“Cocky,” Harry grins. “Y’know, we could put some of that confidence to work if you—”
And then Peter kisses him.
Harley feels like he’s intruding on a moment that was never meant for him, standing a few feet away, feeling frozen and unsure. Part of him knows that the proper thing to do would be to walk away, to leave the situation before it can get too awkward, but there’s a pull, something in his gut that tugs and insists he stay exactly where he is. Not that he could resist that insistence even if he wanted to, because his feet are rooted to the ground like a tree that’s been growing in place for centuries, an unwavering and unmovable object.
Warmth climbs up his neck, blossoms across his cheeks as he simply watches, unable to do much else, while Harry brings up a hand to cup Peter’s jaw, as Peter rests his hands on Harry’s waist and they mould together, like they’re filling in the spaces of one another. It looks as natural as breathing, the way they lean together, the way they pull away in sync, how everything seems to be perfectly timed with one another. Harley feels it clog in his throat, that suffocating lonesome feeling he carries around so much—has to clear his throat in order to breathe around it, but the noise just draws two pairs of eyes to him.
There isn’t any surprise or embarrassment, like they had forgotten he was there—rather, there’s an equal sense of content, as if they were happy to see he hadn’t fled. He clears his throat again, looks over Harry’s shoulder to stare unseeingly at the trees behind the swingset. “I didn’t know...” he trails off, tongue tied.
“We don’t usually flaunt it,” Harry offers, hand sliding from Peter’s jaw to his shoulder, keeps it there even as they step apart. One of Peter’s hands continues to clutch the fabric of Harry’s jacket, like he simply refuses to let him go.
Harley swallows roughly. “Usually?”
A smile tugs at Peter’s lips. “Usually.”
“Huh.” Harley looks away, over his shoulder, rubs at the back of his neck. They’re intriguing, is the thing—something about them is pulling him in, making it impossible to walk away. He can’t place his finger on it. “Um, I... I heard—you said trip? That’s why y’all are here? On a trip?”
“A getaway,” Harry offers, tilting his head back and forth, nose crinkled. “Of sorts. I’m emancipated and told Pete that I was thinking about spending a few weeks away from the city, just to take a break before we start our first year at college. He thought of a road trip, and we just... we just started driving. No destination in mind, you know? Just enough shit to last a couple weeks and enough money to keep the tank full, and then we ended up here.”
Harley looks back at them suddenly, because that... he has always wanted to do that. To leave, if just for a little bit, and take a break from how empty and lonely he feels in Rose Hill. He’s always wanted to drive to the nearest city, drive out of the state, explore. But it costs so much, it takes so much time, and his mama... his sister... leaving them, even temporarily—
That’s why he stays. For them. Always.
It takes a moment for him to string together a response, struggling to remember the conversation, what he wanted to say. Eventually, he manages to ask, “Why here?”
Peter rakes his eyes over Harley, the farthest thing from subtle. “Seems interesting,” he says.
“Why not?” Harry asks, his grin wide, toothy.
Harley smiles back—slow, careful, but he does.
-
There’s an old backpack thrown over his shoulders, dusty and dingy from sitting in the hall closet for so long, but it’s stocked up with snacks, jams and jellies and crackers and a couple jars of his mama’s homemade lemonade, lids screwed up tight.
He tells himself he grabbed so much food because he knows he’s gonna spend the whole day at the pond near the edge of Mr. Samson’s property, the one that Harley helps maintain during the winter months that he’s been given permission to go swimming in whenever he wants. He tells himself that he goes to town first to grab a loaf of bread because he has the feeling he’ll be craving jam sandwiches later, too. Tells himself all these lies until he finally comes across them, sitting besides the road with ice cream cones in hand, chatting to themselves under the warm sun.
As soon as Harley sees them, he freezes, doubt creeping into his mind. None of this was for him, he knows—he packed so much and came up with excuses to wander around town in the hopes of seeing them, of inviting them, but now that they’re in front of his eyes, nerves start to crawl up his throat and lock his jaw shut. He tightens his fingers around one of the backpack straps, knuckles turning white.
Harry happens to see him while glancing around, and then he grins, featuring lighting up as if he was hoping to see Harley just as much as Harley was hoping to run into them. As soon as Harry’s posture changes, Peter spins around, scans their surroundings until he finds Harley, too, and then it isn’t a matter of Harley approaching them—rather, the two of them scramble to their feet and make their way towards him, instead. The hands that aren’t holding their ice cream cones are twisted together between them, swinging lightly.
“There’s—” Harley falters, scrapes his teeth over his lower lip and looks around anxiously. “I just... there are a lotta not-so-friendly people here. People that... frown on—on gay people, y’know? I dunno—I just... if you care, I, um—”
The sun bounces off of Harry’s emerald eyes on a way that might have been menacing, if it weren’t paired with the small smile gracing his lips. “People can think what they want,” he says with the wave of his hand. “We don’t care.”
Harley shifts his weight from one foot to the other, keeps glancing around nervously. “I don’t think you understand. They’ll get violent, if they see—if they see y’all holding hands. They’re ruthless. You could get really hurt.”
There’s something sharp and understanding in Peter’s features. “Have they hurt you?”
“I’m not—” Harley stops, bites back the instinctive denial that tries to claw it’s way out from the back of his throat. It’s been years since he told his mama and his sister, since he spit bloody globs of saliva onto the contrete and cried because the bullies weren’t just ruthless, they were right, they knew, somehow, what he refused to admit for so long. It’s why he hides it now, from everyone other than Mama and Belle. He never knows if they’ll hurt him or not. But there’s a genuine knowing reflected in both Harry and Peter’s eyes, like they could see his pain, like they’ve felt it. He doesn’t feel the need to lie to them.
That fact terrifies him endlessly.
He clenches his jaw, juts his chin up in a choppy sort of nod. “They used to,” he says. “Before I learned how’ta fight back. Still spout shit ‘bout me all god damn day, but words don’t matter. I know better ‘en to listen to ‘em. But y’all... you’re city boys, right? The guys in town, they’ll think you’re weak. They’ll start shit, and they always finish whatever shit they start.”
“I can take ‘em,” Peter assures.
Harley pauses. “Um...”
“He looks scrawny,” Harry says, “but he’s right. If anyone bugs us, he’ll win.”
Harley wants to protest that, mostly because Peter is at least three inches shorter than him and looks like he’d struggle to do a push up underneath the sweatshirts he keeps on wearing, but there’s so much confidence in both if their voices that Harley feels like it’d be stupid to disagree. Instead, he adjusts his backpack and wets his lower lip, battling internally for a moment before blurting out, “Do y’all wanna go swimming with me?”
There’s a short pause, before Harry shares a smile with Peter. “Come again, cowboy?”
Harley flushes, just a bit, and stares down at the toes of his shoes with narrowed eyes. “There’s a pond,” he says, tone almost defensive, already expecting this to go wrong somehow. “It’s a little bit out of town, but it’s nice, kept clean and looked after, y’know? And it’s never busy like the lake out past the school. I was gonna go, and it was brought to my attention that I don’t have any friends and I don’t wanna go alone, and I—I thought—”
“We’ll go,” Peter says. “Right now?”
Harley shifts the weight of his backpack again, glances up in surprise, but knows better than to question a miracle. “If y’all aren’t busy.”
Peter looks at Harry. “Are we busy?”
“Not at all,” Harry answers with a grin.
It takes a quick stop at the motel for them to change into something they can swim in and multiple stammered out reassurances that there’s plenty of food and drinks in his bag for them to share, but they eventually amble over to the pond on foot, Peter and Harry scanning over the place in appreciation while Harley sets down his backpack and starts to unload it all.
“Christ,” Harry says with a laugh when he sees just how much there is. “Were you planning on having a party or something? That’s a lot.”
Harley shakes his head, feels his face burn, just the slightest bit. “Nah, jus’ wanted to make sure there was plenty to last all day.” Then, holding out the loaf of bread, Harley asks, “Sandwich? I got blackberry jam, and raspberry, and—and some apple butter, and there’s—peanut butter and almond butter, so if either of y’all’re allergic to peanuts, I—”
Peter reaches over, settles nimble fingers around Harley’s wrist and smiles. “You packed all this food for us, didn’t you?”
“I...” Harley has to swallow the lump that forms suddenly in his throat. “I just wanted to make sure that there were plenty of options.”
“You’re so sweet,” Peter coos, bringing Harley’s hand down to rest against his chest, palm settled over his beating heart. Harley feels his own heart start to march over the contact, features burning with a bright blush that must look even more sharp under the summer sun.
Harley settles in that for a long moment, breathes in slowly, glances through his lashes to see the way Harry is watching them with intrigue and interest in his eyes. Not knowing what else to do, Harley just clears his throat and croaks out, “Y’all wanna go swimmin’ now?”
With a playful grin and something sharp shining in his eyes, Harry says, “Sure, cowboy,” and reaches down to pull his shirt off.
Harley should have thought this through.
He should have—Christ, does he feel dumber than all hell right now, looking like those idiot pre-teens that burn scarlet at the pool parties in all those stupid movies, the blush reaching the tips of his ears in seconds as he immediately turns his eyes upward to stare at the clouds, almost holding his breath until he realizes that’ll just make his face even redder than it already is. How had the fact that swimming would likely entail a lot of bare skin not crossed his mind? He could have thought of anything else, like going to a movie, or—or roller skating, at the rink a couple towns over, or—
Anything other than this, because it’s a lot harder to act like he isn’t a (mostly) closeted gay dumbass when the most attractive boys he has ever seen are standing five feet away from him, shirtless and grinning like sharks, powerful and hungry and knowing the power they hold.
At least, that’s what it feels like when one of Harry’s hands wraps ‘round Peter’s wrist while Peter’s other hand taps a knuckle lightly against Harley’s chin, a gentle gesture that encourages Harley to lower his gaze—which he does, after a few moments, having to remind himself to breathe normally as he brings his eyes down to glance between swirling chocolate’s and dazzling green’s.
“You can look,” Peter tells him, head tilted, corners of his eyes crinkled with a lovable, boyish sort of grin. “We don’t mind.”
Harley’s mouth feels dry.
Before Harley can try to string together an attempt at a response, Harry cuts in, sounds matter of fact and damn near professional when he informs Harley, “And you can like what you see. It’s okay. We like what we see, too.”
“That’s...” Harley trails off, looks away and looks back because there’s a gravitational pull that he just can’t seem to fight. “That’s... allowed?”
With his nose crinkling up, Harry laughs. “Of course it is. Why wouldn’t it be?”
Harley wets his lower lip. “‘Cause y’all’re... you’re together, yeah? And on a trip, gonna be leavin’ soon, I bet, and I’m—I’m the idiot from the close minded Southern town. And you don’t... y’all don’t know me. I don’t know you, either, really, jus’ that I—I, um—uh—”
It’s Peter that steps forward, head tilting to the side, just slightly. Almost puppy like, if it weren’t for the sharpness in his eyes. The ends of his lips pull back, until he’s sporting a soft and gentle sort of smile, but something about it feels damaged, too, in a way that Harley can’t quite put a finger on. “Give yourself some credit, cowboy,” he says. “Harry thinks you’re hot and I can’t get enough of your accent, and that’s just what we thought after three minutes of talking at that diner, alright? Sure, we don’t know you, and, fuck, you definitely don’t know shit about us, but there’s something, right?”
The thing is, Harley isn’t an articulate guy. His brain is capable of endless things, he’s smarter than anyone will ever be able to give him credit for, sure, but when he’s nervous, in a situation that’s unfamiliar and hard to maneuver, his instinct is to duck his head and change the subject. Which is why he freezes completely, even though he knows this is an opening, even though Peter and Harry just fully and openly admitted to being attracted to him, at least on a surface level, and Harley—he’s never had anyone interested in him before. None of the girls at school ever swooned over him, none of the boys tried to woo him with flowers and cheesy dates. He was just the Keener boy, with the blond waves that sometimes dry in ringlets that hang in his eyes when it rains, the sloped nose that’s just a bit crooked from breaking it a few too many times over the years (clumsy, at times; unlucky run ins with bullies, for the most part), the jean jacket that almost always has on, pulled over plain t-shirts in the summer, thick flannels in the winter, dark blue jeans that are old and ripped at the knees, but he can’t bother to replace them. He’s a graduate barely two months out of high school and his future’s already set, laid out and chosen for him.
Stay in Rose Hill. Die in Rose Hill. Maybe grow old, somewhere in between. Hopefully content, at peace, but he ain’t bettin’ money on that. Probably work at the mechanic shop full time once it becomes clear that he’ll never afford to go to college and he won’t get anywhere without a degree. Besides, Mama says that Rose Hill is home, and he says that home is wherever Mama and Belle are, so there’s no real harm in just going with the flow of things.
But it feels like being offered a taste of forbidden fruit (and, Christ, would his Catholic grandma turn over in her grave if she heard him using such a phrase, daring to reference the holy text in his sin) when gentle fingers brush across his cheek, bringing him back to reality as he sucks in a sharp breath and finds green eyes looking into his, brown ones scanning over his features just as closely, as intently.
Harry smiles, all lopsided. “Wanna swim?”
It’s an offer, an ability to ease the nervous (excited?) churning in his stomach. Harley swallows roughly, waits until his tongue no longer feels tangled up and knotted in his mouth, before saying, “Y-Yeah. Okay.”
(They’re swimming ‘round the pond like little kids until sunset, and Harley walks them back to the motel, ‘cause it’s the nice thing to do, and by the time he gets home, his hair still hanging in his eyes in damp ringlets that Harry had called cute while Peter brushed gentle fingers through them with a grin, there’s a swelling feeling of contentment in his chest.
For a moment, it makes the pressure, weight, heaviness, and that chasm of emptiness in the center of it all that so often overwhelms him, pains him so much, seem like nothing.)
-
They go to the movies the next day, and rollerskating a couple days after that, just because Harley keeps wandering around town while his Mama is at work and Belle is with her friends, going to the lake and having sleepovers because it’s summer and she’s nine and, in a place like Rose Hill, kids start to wander off on their own around the place as soon as they hit first grade. Harley’s got the occasional part time shift at the mechanics, sure, but it’s only ‘bout fifteen hours a week if he’s lucky—five hour shifts, up to three days a week, and with his Mama working so much and Belle having the kind of social life that Harley has never been capable of grasping himself, it’s safe to say there isn’t much else to do to fill up his summer days. Usually, this leaves him terribly lonely, even more so than usual, spending most of his summers in the garage with things to tinker with and a haze over his every thought.
This year, though.
It’s that gravitational pull that Harley thought of before, an otherworldly source guiding him towards these city boys like it’s where he’s supposed to be. He’s always been in the belief that there isn’t a place for him, that he’s just a floater drifting his way among those who really belong, and these two... Harry and Peter are dating—have been for over two years, now, told Harley that they started dating when they were sixteen—and with them is, logically, the last place Harley should feel the most welcome. But, it’s like there’s a space with them, somewhere for him to nestle in, and it feels like it’s purely his own. It feels like his.
Peter is the first to kiss him.
It’s after a day where he wakes up feeling heavier than usual, brain hazed just a bit, chest caving in on that void of emptiness at the center of it all. Mama has a graveyard shift tonight so she passes him in the hall when he shuffles towards the bathroom, presses a kiss to his forehead like he’s a little kid and then makes her way to her room to sleep until it’s time for her to get ready for work, which means that Belle—and her plans to go a few towns over, to go to the sorry excuse for a mall that’s over there, with a couple of her friends—becomes his responsibility to drive around. Which is something he agreed to over dinner last night, but maybe he would have fibbed a bit and said he had his own shift at work if he knew he would wake up feeling like this.
But he takes them, Belle and her two best friends, and spends hours walking ‘round the mall, making sure they’re safe and don’t get lost, holding their bags and offering to pay for all their food when they get hungry at about lunch time, just ‘cause that’s how he was raised to be. By the time he finally parks in the driveway again, all of them having been dropped off at one of the the other girls’ house for a sleepover, his arms are tired, his limbs feel like lead, everything is unclear and slow in his grogginess. He sits behind the wheel for a long time, just trying to breathe like a normal human being, before making his way inside, being greeted bu lights off and silence—Mama already left for work, then. He’s alone.
He’s lonely.
This isn’t anything new—he’s been lonely his whole life, felt it carved into the cavity of his chest like a brand—but it really resonates as he stands there in the entryway, the only light in the room being the slowly setting sun as it shines through the window, illuminates the room with a golden sort of glow. His turns his head so that it’s angled down, curls falling in front of his eyes like a curtain, but even when blocking his vision he can feel it, can hear the distinct lack of sound like a gun shot, save for the distant sound of the washer spinning a load of Mama’s comfy clothes that echoes within his school like an eerie reminder of the fact that no one else is there, and it shouldn’t matter, he’s felt this before and been just fine, but he’s been getting all these little tastes and hints of feeling like he actually belongs somewhere when he’s with Harry and Peter, and knowing what a fraction of companionship feels like...
Harley doesn’t have a cell phone, ‘cause there ain’t no signal in Rose Hill unless you’re on the main road, but that main road is where the diner is, where the bars are, and, of course, the motel. And he happens to have the numbers of two city boys staying at that motel scribbled on a napkin from the rollerskating rink that’s sitting on his nightstand, only just upstairs.
There’s barely a minute of thought before he starts moving towards the staircase, grabbing the house phone along the way, and, a mere fifteen minutes later, he isn’t alone anymore.
He gives them a quick tour of the house after letting them in, mostly because he didn’t actually think of something to do, had only been aching with the need to have someone there, and now he’s basking in the warmth of their presence while trying to figure out something to do in order to not give himself away, but Harry seems a bit more softspoken, Peter keeps brushing fingers against Harley’s shoulder’s, the small of his back, and—
(“I just...” Harley had said over the phone, completely unaware of the empty tone to his words, unable to see the way that the couple had looked at one another, concern and worry and troubled fondness in their eyes. “I’m not busy,” is what Harley had settled on saying, not a lie, but certaintly not the truth. “Are you?”
Peter had been sporting pinched brows and a slight frown. Harry had said, “Never too busy for you, cowboy. What’s the plan?”)
And they end up outside, because Harley takes them out on the backporch for a quick view of the yard and the garden that the Keener’s split responsibility to tend to, and Peter had seen the little campfire set up and insisted they get the stuff for s’mores and have a bonfire. There’s such a simplistic sort of innocent excitement that lights up his features, and it makes Harley wonder— “Have y’all had a campfire b’fore?”
Harry shakes his head. “Always wanted to,” he says. “Pete’s Uncle was actually gonna take us both camping for Pete’s fifteenth birthday, but... um—it didn’t work out, I guess.”
“He passed away,” Peter supplies, when Harley’s brows quirk just slightly, curious but unsure if he should ask. Even Harry looks mildly surprised by the admission, giving Peter a wide eyed look, to which Peter just shrugs and says, “What? I can tell when not to trust someone.” Then, back to Harley, he explains, “My parents died when I was four, so I was raised by my Aunt May and Uncle Ben, but Ben got shot when I was fourteen. I tried to slow the bleeding enough to keep him alive until the ambulance got there, but—yeah. Wasn’t able to, I guess.”
Everything else from before—the heaviness, the loneliness, the ache—it all goes away in an instant, morphing into a shocked sense of dread as he looks into the eyes of the guy he literally called giggles in his head when they met. His tongue is tangled. He has to untangle it slowly before he can ask, “You were there?”
Peter shrugs again, but he looks away.
“Christ, Darlin’,” Harley chokes out, shaking his head. “Yeah, we can have s’mores. We can—so many s’mores, as many as ya’want. Jesus.”
“Shit cards,” Peter says. “They happen.” Then, perking up like they weren’t just talking about him witnessing his uncle’s murder, he looks back to Harley and asks, “Do you maybe have some of those jumbo marshmellows?”
Harry rolls his eyes and groans, and, just like that, it’s like the heavy topic never came up. Not in a let’s just ignore that and let it fester uncomfortably below the surface sort of way, but in a that’s all that needs to be said for now so let’s just move on kind of way instead. It feels natural and comforting rather than cold and dismissive, and it makes that chasm within Harley’s chest feel a little less empty.
It’s after the sun has set, when there’s a fire that’s glowing across them and softening their features in the gentle, flickering light. Harley is sat in the middle because they always seem to want him there, the corner of his mouth sticky from melted marshmellow and the taste of chocolate on his tongue, feeling warm and full. Harry’s leaning into Harley, just a bit, but Peter is sitting a couple inches away, features a bit pinched with a thoughtful sort of expression.
Before Harley can voice his curiosity, Peter glances over at them, practically melts at the sight of Harry settling his head to rest on Harley’s shoulder, and slowly says, “Har...?”
“Mm?” Harry responds, eyes fluttering shut.
“I think—I mean, I wanna—do you think—?”
Harry huffs, one eyes squinting over to look at Peter. “Just do it, Parker. Don’t be a pussy.”
Harley barely has time to murmur a confused little, “Um,” before Peter’s brushing gentle fingertips beneath his chin and turning his head and Harley sees beautiful brown eyes getting closer and closer and—a few freckles, dotting along the bridge of Peter’s nose.
And then they’re kissing.
It’s a basic kind of kiss—lips pressed to lips in what often is only a meaningless point of skin on skin, but Harley’s heart races in his chest as soon as he realizes what’s happening, a tingle running down his spine and—warmth, so much warmth that envelopes him in somethiny soft and cozy and his, it’s his in a way that nothing ever has been, and he pushes in, presses into Peter with a hitch in his breath and kisses back like his life fucking counts on it, ‘cause it does.
Christ Almighty, it does.
(Harry kisses him next, while Harley is still dazed and blinking away the stars in his eyes, but Harry is half asleep and doesn’t do much more than hum against his lips before slumping back down, head on Harley’s shoulder, eyelashes brushing against his cheeks, and it’s so much different yet entirely just the same.)
-
He didn’t invite them to stay the night.
He also didn’t tell them to leave.
When Harley blinks awake, rising with the sun like he was raised to do, there’s hair ticking his nose and a weight pressed up against his side. It takes a moment for him to clear his eyes of grogginess and make them really focus, but when he does, he finds Harry’s head resting on his chest, curled up against him, snoring softly.
Peter is separate from them, curled up on himself on the far corner of Harley’s bed, wide awake and shivering lightly. Harley feels choked up with the moment and everything that it is, everything that it can be, but the worry clouds over that when he hears Peter’s teeth chatter.
“Cold, Darlin’?”
Instantly, Peter’s head snaps up, wide eyed and sheepish. “Um—I, uh—I’m good, I’m—”
Harley lifts the arm that Harry doesn’t have pinned beneath him, shifts the blanket that they must have fallen asleep on top of and somehow manages to maneuver it from underneath them to over them without moving too much, then keeps a corner held up as he looks to Peter. “C’mon,” he coaxes. “I’ve heard I’m like a heater. C’mere, s’alright.”
Peter hesitates, but then he’s moving, crawling under the blankets and curling into Harley with a shaky sort of sigh. “Thanks,” he murmurs.
“Dunno how you’re so cold,” Harley mutters back, because you’re welcome feels a bit too obvious. “Summertime in Rose Hill can be brutal. Surprised we’re not all dyin’ of heat.”
“M’not actually cold,” Peter tells him. “Just had a nightmare. Almost drowned, once, and I always feel cold after I dream about it.”
Christ, Harley thinks—remembers so suddenly that he doesn’t really know these guys, feels it shock him like a taser. He doesn’t particularly understand why Peter is telling him this, or why he told Harley about his parents and his uncle last night—remembers the shock on even Harry’s face when he had—but it doesn’y feel scary or overwhelming. Just a bit hard to process, feally. Peter doesn’t really act the way Harley suspects someone would after that.
But Harry also doesn’t act like he’s all that traumatized, either, yet Harley can feel the exact moment he goes tense in the shoulders and his breathing takes a hitch. Peter lets out a hum, all too knowing and sad, and reaches out a hand to comb through Harry’s hair. “There he goes,” Peter practically whispers. “Almost had a full night’s rest, too. That would’ve been a god damn miracle, but he needs it, eventually.”
“What happened to you two?” Harley founds himself asking—not maliciously, not demanding, but curious and... upset, maybe, but not at them, of course, rather at the fact that he’s only know these two for a handful of weeks—a month, almost, which is just an odd thought to linger on—and if anyone deserves to never face a bad day in their life, it’s them.
Peter puffs out a sigh as Harry really starts to struggle, brows furrowed, features pinched. “I think we’ll tell you,” he says softly. “One day.”
Harry lets out a pitiful sort of cry in his sleep, and then that’s all that matters, Peter coaxing his partner awake while Harley tries to offer a soothing presence and coo calming words.
Even now, it doesn’t feel like Harley’s an intruder. It feels like he was always supposed to be right here with them, good mornings or bad.
-
Mama comes home from work with grizzy hair that’s sticking up at random spots and finds three eighteen year old boys curled up together on the sofa with a morning children’s cartoon playing on the screen. Despite the shock and the exhaustion etched deep into her features, she only blink once in surprise before smiling wide at them. “These’re the city boys, I’m guessin’?” she asks, plopping her purse down on the coffee table as she looks them over.
“Yes, ma’am,” Peter says before Harley can do much more than nod. “I’m Peter Parker. This is Harry Os—um. Harry Lyman. It’s nice to meet you, Miss Keener. You have a lovely home.”
“Honey, you can just call me Maggie,” his Mama assures. She flickers her eyes over to Harry, who is so obviously trying to offer a smile and focus on the conversation but is still so rumpled from his rude awakening, borrowed sweatpants and Peter’s shirt askew, eyes a bit glazed over and features a little sad. Still, his Mama gives Harry a smile. “Both of you.”
Harry looks a bit unsure and grateful by that, while Peter offers a quiet, “Okay, Miss Maggie.”
Mama chuckles, looks to Harley with a soft amusement in her eyes. “Honeybun, I think you must’ve found the only polite city boys around,” she says. “You boys have any breakfast yet?”
Harley feels scolded even before he gives an answer, looks down at his lap sheepishly before telling her, “No, Mama, we haven’t eaten yet.”
“Harley James Keener,” Maggie says—not just Mama, not with that tone of voice, sharp and sure but also exasperated and loving. “I know I raised you knowin’ how we treat our guests. C’mon, up you get, we’re cookin’ up some food before anyone starves into an early grave.”
It looks like Peter is about to protest, but he looks at Harry and bites his tongue, instead offering a grateful smile when Harley squeezes his hand lightly before getting up with a simple little, “Yes, ma’am,” and heading to the kitchen.
He’s flipping over the first of the pancakes when his Mama lets out a soft sort of sigh, glancing up from where she’s mixing together the egg wash for the french toast. Harley knows better than to voicea question just yet, waits patient and proper until she’s ready to speak up, though the last thing he expects her to say is a resigned, “You’re gonna be leavin’, huh?”
The spaltula damn near slips from his fingers in his haste to look at he. “Wh—Mama, what?”
“You were never a Rose Hill kinda boy,” she says, smile soft and sad as she looks back down at the bowl she’s mixing. “I knew it when you were just a kid, Harls. Born and raised don’t mean that it’s home, honeybun, and a small town was never gonna be your place. Too much smart in that brain of yours to stay here.”
“Mama...” Harley trails off, only looks away in order to avoid burning the pancake. “I’d never leave you and Belle here. You gotta know that.”
Maggie clicks her tongue and shakes her head, action sharp as her tone. “Harley Keener, there ain’t no way in hell that I’d let you waste your potential just to stay here with us. Rose Hill’s where I wanna be, where I fit—but it isn’t that for you and you shouldn’t make it be. Hard to tell with Tinker Bell, she could go either way, but you? Honey, the world ain’t ready for you, and you’ve been hidin’ yourself here and not usin’ up all that potential you’ve got for too long. You’re gonna leave, honeybun. Stayin’ here was never supposed to be your future.”
Harley wants to fight tooth and nail against this, but the more she speaks, the more her words start to settle over him like a blanket. He’s always wanted to leave, and he’s always felt awfully selfish for wanting it, but the way she says it... there’s not argument. He doesn’t belong here. Up until recently, he just assumed he wouldn’t belong anywhere at all.
“Besides,” Maggie adds, glancing at her son with a curl to her lips. “You’ve got two city boys sittin’ in the other room waitin’ for you.”
“I—I don’t know ‘em all that well,” Harley says.
Maggie shakes her head. “I didn’t know your Daddy all that well when I fell in love with ‘im. Of course, your Daddy changed—wasn’t the man I loved by the time he left us, but that’s not the point. Love ain’t knowin’ someone all the way, honeybun. It’s learnin’ as you go and lovin’ all those bits and pieces that you learn.”
Harley’s face is burning. “I don’t love ‘em, Ma.”
“Not yet,” Maggie says. “But you will.”
-
Two and a half weeks later, as June turns to July, Harley finds himself packing his things.
“I’ve got an apartment,” Harry says, looking far too put together to be the same guy who was damn near silent in the aftershocks of his nightmare (and the three other nightmare’s Harley has seen since). “If you think you wanna move to the city, you can just stay with me until you either find your footing or decide to come back here. Pete basically lives there, too, with how much he’s stayed over since I got emancipated and moved into their at sixteen.”
Harley looks up from the shirt he’s folding, a single brow arching. “Sixteen?” he questions. “Same year y’all started datin’, you mean?”
The ends up Harry’s lips pull up, amused beyond belief. Peter’s snorin’ on Harley’s bed, tired (couldn’t sleep super well the night befors, Harley was told) and completely unaware of the way that Harry’s eyes glimmer. “Yeah,” he says, shrugging. “Probably got away with shit we shouldn’t have in there, but May was working and doing school to get promoted at the hospital, so there weren’t any adults giving us the you’re too young talk, you know?”
“Your dad...” Harley doesn’t keep talking, mostly because he’s only gotten a slight scratch against the surface with that topic, so he doesn’t want to push. Still, Harry nods.
“He wouldn’t have done much talking,” is all that Harry offers. “That’s why I was emancipated. I’ll tell you about it, probably, when Pete is up to sharing that shit.”
Harley glances at Peter, sleeping soundly still. “Peter had problems with your dad, too?”
Harry winces. “To put it lightly, yeah.”
“Any chance I can find this guy and beat his ass?” Harley questions—mostly for the way that Harry chuckles fondly, but it’s a semi-legitimate question, as well. He doesn’t take well to assholes who treat kids like shit, even more so when it’s his—when—when it’s Harry and Pete.
“He’s not in our lives anymore,” Harry says, stalks forward and brushes a kiss to the corner of Harley’s mouth. “No worries, cowboy. ‘Sides, Pete got a good few hits in, towards the end.”
Christ. “A sight to see, I’m guessin’?”
“Don’t know. I wasn’t there for it.”
Harley shakes his head. “So many stories.”
“So much time to tell them,” Harry counters, a wide grin growing across his face.
From the bed, Peter groans. “Stop bein’ sappy,” he grumbles, words slightly slurred from sleep as he turns his face into the only one of Harley’s pillows that hasn’t been packed yet. “M’sleepin’. Can’t sleep if you’re bein’ all—all fuckin’ gay.”
A light laugh rumbles out from the center of Harley’s chest, while Harry just rolls his eyes and walks over to the bed, plopping down next to Peter with a drawn out sigh. “Dramatic asshole,” Harry grouches, even as he pulls Peter into his side and curls an arm around him, features going soft when Peter doesn’t hesitate to lean against him with a happy hum. “We’re driving back to New York in, like, five hours, Pete. You can’t just wait and sleep in the car?”
Peter cracks an eye open, looking absolutwly scandalized. “And miss out on showing our favorite cowboy all our car games?”
“I already know car games,” Harley says.
“Not ours,” Peter says. “Not yet.”
Not yet. Like his Mama said.
Harley smiles. He likes the silent, unspoken yet powerful promise that comes with not yet.
He likes it a whole lot.
#shadedrose01#parkner#parksborn#ph2#peter harley harry#harry harley peter#harry peter harley#harley peter harry#harley harry peter#peter harry harley#parksborner#my writing#HOW did this get so long omg#harley keener x harry osborn
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Okay. I passed Y6CHR45, and... I want to say that this is very bad. I mean, that... This plot twist with Merula is very illogical and obvious. I'm not a fan of Merula, but. First, why it's obvious. Because in the storyline, Merula is our rival, not our friend. How many nasty things did she do MC, etc. Well, it's too obvious that in the future they will try to make her our enemy. Second, why it's illogical. Merula has very different goals. Don't be the same as your parents, take revenge on Rakepick and kill her, become stronger and more powerful. There is not a single point in being with 'R'. Why would she want to work with someone she wants to kill? I think it would be logical if Merula joined the Death Eaters. She and her aunt had been threatened by the Death Eaters. This is what Merula said in Y5CHR28. And Andre was talking about the mark on Merula's hand in year six, when Bill taught us the Barrier Spell. Still, I think Merula was framed by someone. Merula was still ready to drink the Truth Serum. And one more thing. Won't the MC say anything about it? Not to the professors, not to Ben, not to Jacob, not to anyone about what they saw in Knockturn Alley? Hey, JC, we have a Muggle Studies class on Y7, and there will be Merula. MC will just forget about it or what? It's just stupid. I apologize, I have nobody to express this misunderstanding of the JC logic. 🤨 And one more thing. I don't think Merula is a mole. In fact, I think the mole is Penny. Because it's very logical! 'R' could have threatening and blackmailed her, like... They could steal Beatrice, or threaten to kill her, if Penny didn't follow their instructions. Penny, in her fifth year, said she would work with anyone to save Beatrice. And if you add it up in this form... I mean, Penny is the most logical option. She's the most popular girl at Hogwarts. She knows every rumor, she knows the secrets of many students. No one will even think about it! How can you think of one who is very kind, helps everyone, understands Potions, etc? This is my theory, and honestly, I still stick to it. Knowing the character of penny, for the sake of Beatrice she would betray even MC.
I don’t know, I don’t think of it as being that illogical. I suppose it was rather obvious, but in a sense, those two ideas are in conflict with each other. If a plot twist is logical, it can be predicted. If it’s not, then it won’t be, but that’s a whole different problem. In any case, this got very long, so I’m putting it under a cut.
Was it obvious?
She has been our enemy from the start, but her character arc seemed to suggest that was changing. In a way, this actually made her a less obvious suspect. At least to me. She was the primary antagonist of Year 1, but we quickly got used to her nonsense. Stopped taking her seriously. Meanwhile, the story gave her depth. Many players grew to care for her, many pitied her, but even the ones who didn’t no longer saw her as a serious threat. At the same time, the scale was gradually increasing. By Year 5, Merula wasn’t the antagonist anymore, not just because she had been deconstructed, but because the story was darkening, and the times of a school bully being the villain were long over. Hell, by Year 2 we knew about R, and by Year 4 we had Rakepick to wonder about. Year 5 not only brought Merula’s character arc to the point where she became more of a friend (but no less prickly and combative) it also fleshed out the game’s Big Bad to the point where it became clear that this was much bigger than MC, or anyone in their year. Year 5 also exonerated Ben, and later unceremoniously killed the “Rowan is R” theory by having Rowan be imperius’d like Ben was.
No one took Merula seriously anymore, people felt sorry for her, and we felt as though we understood her completely. That nothing she did could surprise us. This was capped off by the betrayal of Rakepick, compounded with her using the Cruciatus Curse on Merula. Because MC was betrayed, but not by any of the students. But by their mentor, who was always shady in the first place. Merula was put in a horrible position where even her greatest Antis surely felt a twinge of pity for her. Anyone left who suspected her probably wouldn’t have after that night. What’s more, it played into the idea that we understood Merula perfectly. Because she reacted exactly as one would expect her to. She regressed. Year 6 depicted her as someone firmly on our side, but predictably not someone who would be nice about it. From her jabs about Rowan, to her fawning over Jacob, people were annoyed with her, but no one suspected her. The game practically taunts the player, in hindsight, with the veritaserum scene. Because that’s just it - no one thought she would betray MC. They were worried she would go rogue, but no one doubted her loyalty.
Why did she do it?
As for the logic of her decision, I likewise disagree. I believe Merula had every reason to join R. I don’t think that the Cabal and the Death Eaters are so different that one would make sense for her to join, and not the other, if that makes sense. She could have gone either way, but at a guess, Merula doesn’t think very highly of the Death Eaters. She refers to Voldemort by his name without a care in the world. If they really were threatening her, I feel like she wouldn’t want to cave in, but she might be attracted to joining a rival faction that could provide her (and her aunt?) with protection. If there’s one thing we know about R - it’s that they have a history of making enticing offers to children, provoking them to “prove” themselves to be accepted into the Cabal’s ranks. The description of them being her new “family” gives me cult vibes, and it really sheds some light on why Merula might have been drawn to them. She was lonely, she was angry, she wanted power...and R came along to offer her everything she wanted at the time. Whether she wants to leave now is uncertain, but if we assume that she’s been the mole since the very beginning, it’s probably way too late for her to just walk away. R would not allow that.
As to the sequence of Rakepick torturing her, we don’t yet know what was going on in that scene. Though I am feeling somewhat vindicated in the knowledge that there was more to that scene that meets the eye, just like I was sure there had to be. Perhaps Rakepick and Merula planned that whole thing, perhaps it was staged. Which would mean that Rakepick faked the spell, and Merula pretended to be tortured, and that her entire vendetta against Rakepick has been a facade. Or maybe the curse was real, but Merula agreed to it beforehand. Or maybe she knew the betrayal was coming, but Rakepick went off-script by turning her wand on Merula. Either way, if Merula’s vendetta was real, I don’t think it’s out of character for her to want revenge. Who cares if it’s someone on her side? This is Merula we’re talking about - I don’t think that would stop her. Now, if we assume she was not yet an R mole at the time (I think she was, but for the sake of argument) then perhaps R reached out to Merula, apologized for Rakepick’s torture and promised that they did not authorize it. Promised that there would be consequences, and Merula could be the one to inflict them, if she agreed to join them. It’s a longshot, but I guess it’s possible.
The Future.
The existence of this twist doesn’t really create any holes, I don’t think, and while it may put the writers in a tricky position moving forward, that’s not the same thing as them screwing up the continuity of the past. They’ll have to find a way to make this work, and until we see the ramifications, I’m willing to wait on judging how this arc plays out. MC will have a choice to make, certainly, in how they handle this. I can’t wait to see the dialogue. What they do next remains to be seen. Do they confront Merula? Turn her in? Or...if we want to be really sneaky, what we should do, in my opinion...is act as though nothing’s changed. Spread the word to people like Moody and Ben, but...do not let Merula catch on that we know. The way to salvage this situation, from a purely tactical perspective, is to let R believe they still have a spy at Hogwarts...but begin to feed her misinformation. Lead them astray. This is quite literally a war tactic, because hey...this is a war. Now, the issue with that is that Merula will likely face punishment once R figures out that she’s being misled...but hopefully we can save Merula before that point, and to the players who despise her - or even feel like she’d deserve it for her treachery...they probably wouldn’t care anyway.
I don’t think we can really judge based on the Muggles Studies classes, or anything that we know about Year 7. I also don’t expect Jam City to consider what we “know” and in all fairness...I mean, they don’t have to. That is unreleased content. Nothing in the data-mines is, strictly speaking, canon, or part the continuity. With the way that scene ended, it suggests that Merula won’t be returning for Year 7. Maybe. The data-mines contradict this, but data-mines don’t provide the full context. They aren’t released content, and anything could change. There were once data-mines that confirmed Skye as being in MC’s year, as well as suggesting that Murphy felt embittered about his disability. Both of these things were cut. So they’re not canon. In general, I think Jam City has a terrible approach to dealing with hackers, but one thing I will say in their defense is that they aren’t required to write their scenes based on what the fandom has discovered in the data-mines. If we’re confused, well, that’s kind of our own fault. But I’m sure everything will become clear eventually. I hope.
Penny.
For meta reasons, I don’t see them pulling a double twist and revealing a second character to be the “real” mole, but it’s not impossible. And I’ve said all along that the Year 1 characters were the real suspects. MC unknowingly being the mole was my theory, mostly because Moody is shady as all hell. But Ben is shady too, it’s just that he had a rock-solid alibi in the form of Rakepick trying to kill him, since she couldn’t have known that Rowan would intervene. Setting aside Merula, since I’ve also said from the start that she isn’t a good liar...that leaves Penny. I really don’t think Penny is shady. I’ve never thought that. I’ll admit that she does essentially approach MC out of the blue to befriend them, but I mean...so does Ben. This happens on a much larger scale later on with Alanza. I can believe Penny would go to the ends of the earth to protect Beatrice, and maybe when she was imprisoned in the Portrait, R contacted Penny and strong-armed her into this deal. The issue is, Beatrice is safe and sound as of sixth year. The Black Lake incident is still a bit spotty, and perhaps that was R going after her again...but I just don’t think there are enough hints for me to believe it, personally. If this were true, why was Ben the character who insisted on coming to the Portrait Vault instead of Penny? She could have demanded to come along too, and no one would have blamed her. Everyone would have understood. Not to mention, Penny has severe tells when she’s stressed. She does not act like herself. She’s mostly back to normal in Year 6, and her behavior reflects that Beatrice is safe now, just pulling away. If Beatrice was still on the hot-seat, I feel like Penny would not be keeping it together. Finally, that raises the question of how much Beatrice is aware of all this. Does she know about this deal? Because I find it hard to believe she wouldn’t tell anyone.
#Merula Snyde#HPHM Theory#HPHM Spoilers#Patricia Rakepick#HPHM Analysis#HPHM Cabal#Penny Haywood#HPHM R#Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery#HPHM Datamines
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