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absolutebl · 2 months

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Top 10 Best BLs on Gagaoolala

My Beautiful Man AKA Utsukushii Kare

Japan 2021

One of the most Japanese BLs to release in the last decade, as weird and as messed up as any 2000s yaoi: emo af and hella warped, entirely true to itself with no attempt made to modify its POV for modern sensibilities or current BL fandom. It used seriously old school problematic and kinky tropes, like whipping boy, for a truly uncompromising piece that also manages to hit up themes of communication, consent, and self acceptance. It’s a wonderful BL but uniquely dirty and harsh, in the best possible way - Japanese cinema, uncompromising.

I lost my ever loving mind over the ending. This show won the Grand Prix “My Best TV Award” at the 16th Galaxy Awards.

Minato's Laundromat AKA Minato Shouji Coin Laundry

Japan 2022

A classic age gap romance where a high school student pursues the man of his dreams (who runs a laundromat). This BL is so steeped in yaoi nostalgia, not to mention a classic romance arc, that it will overload some, but those of us who love this genre for its DNA will adore it. It made me very happy because it did everything I want a BL to do - there’s not much more I could ask of a show than this. It’s the closest Japan has come to perfect live action yaoi since Seven Days (and I never make that comparison lightly).

Squee watch-along here.

My Ride

Thai 2022

Thai BL grew up with this pulp (the first ever to make my end of year top 10). It’s a truly lovely and special little show featuring the extremely rare pairing of sunshine/sunshine (AKA a cinnamon roll couple) plus mature explorations of relationships using one of the softest, sweetest, and most innocent friends to lovers vehicles. Kindly, overworked doctor meets broken-hearted motorcycle taxi driver in an “other side of the tracks” slow burn romance. The support cast is excellent, making for great friendship groups and family dynamics. With honest queer rep that adds to, but doesn’t impede, the story, and genuine conversation about the nature of class, wealth, and classism, not to mention communication, honesty, and respect for boundaries, you can’t go wrong with this show. In other news, I am a sucker for a single dimple.

Takara & Amagi AKA Takara-kun to Amagi-kun

Japan 2022 I gnawed on my knuckles and squealed a lot with this BL. Reserved cool kid who must learn to communicate to keep the tiny disaster nugget he’s madly in love with. It is beyond charming: soft and gentle, packed with cuteness and high school angst, thirst, & yearning. Was there plot? Not really. Was it emotionally tense and paced well enough for me not to notice? Absolutely. Did I enjoy the hell out of it? Oh yes.

Kiseki: Dear to Me

Taiwan 2023

The plot is totally ridiculous and slightly unhinged, but that’s normal for Taiwan. It involves all the tropes under a very casual framework of gay mafia gangs + food = love. Absolutely every character is queer. There’s a gum-ball machine of cameos, elder gay rep, great chemistry from all pairs, and a KILLER side couple. As a result Kiseki is a poster child for Taiwanese BL, and I happen to love Taiwanese BL. Bonus? They also managed to END IT WELL, which we cannot expect from Taiwan.

My Personal Weatherman AKA Taikan Yoho

Japan 2023

This style of live action yaoi really only works from Japan. Basically: boys who fell in love in college end up living together but both are so repressed they actually don't realize they're in love. It's higher heat than we usually get from Japan's HEA stuff, and that part is also very well done, but it leaned into the "why don't they just talk for fuck's sake?" trope which is only exacerbated into undiluted frustration by the fact that they're already fucking. It's great, but watching requires more patience than usual, even for Japan.

Our Dining Table AKA Bokura no Shokutaku

Japan 2023

A lonely salaryman and talented cook gets accidentally adopted by a college kid and his little brother. I was always gonna love this show if they stuck to the manga (which is very dear to my heart). And they did, paralleling it almost exactly. It’s a quiet & cozy little parable of found family alleviating loneliness. Possibly too slow for some but definitely high up there for me as the best of what Japan can do with softness (like Restart After Come Back Home). It’s only flaw (if I dare say such a thing) is that it is not really “romantic.” Lovely & sweet but the romance beats are being used to build a family relationship, not just couple intimacy, but that's OK with me. This is a very safe show for anyone to watch.

Step By Step

Thai 2023

This was Thailand’s answer to The New Employee, and everything I loved about that show I loved about this one. This office romance between a stern boss and sweet subordinate felt more authentic to cubical work than previous Thai BLs of this ilk. That authenticity added tension to the narrative and its characters development (how novel). I also really enjoyed the charming side characters and the brothers' relationship to each other (although I could have done without that brother's side BL).

Long Time No See

Korea (Strongberry) 2017

Catfishing assassins on either side of a turf war who fall in love not knowing they are on opposite sides. Or do they? Suspenseful plot, good fight sequences, mature characters, hot sexitimes and even hotter beating the shit out of each other and kissing while covered in blog (this came from KOREA?), plus an HEA. One of the hidden gems of the BL genre.

About Youth

Taiwan 2022

A truly lovely little coming of age high school BL with a classic YA low drama but high angst and an earnest depth. I didn’t even mind the singing, and that’s saying a lot. A weak seme/uke dynamic but tons of BL tropes (both rare in a high school setting but common for Taiwan) makes this one feel both sweet and colored by real world authenticity and grit.

Some of these shows ALSO appeared on Viki or iQIYI, but these BLs will appear only once on these round up posts (here for Gaga), not on the other platforms top 10.

(source)

This list updated Spring 2024, not responsible for cool stuff that aired on Gaga (or was taken off the platform) after that date.

This is part of a series more here:

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rainbow-femme · 3 months

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Rewatching the animated Beauty and the Beast

-Right off the bat the thing in the opening that gets me is not the possible age implication but the fact that this prince is opening his own doors and to people he’s not expecting. You’re lucky it was just an enchantress looking to test the purity of your heart and not an assassin. Just power posing with the door fully open, no guards, going “Oh hey it’s someone I don’t know! I’m going to have a conversation with them alone” before god and everybody. Of course you got cursed, your guards should have rugby tackled her before she could get her wand out

-I never liked Maurice as a kid and I still don’t. Like he’s not bad he’s just annoying to me every time he’s on screen. The wind blows and he’s dying on the side of a cliff somewhere

-It is never not funny to me that Belle promises to stay in the castle forever and then just leaves three hours later

-I love Gaston having his whole “I’m going to get Belle’s father locked up so she marries me” scheme and then she’s fully just not remotely near the town. He’s living in a high stakes drama and she’s clapping along to dancing tea cups

-Hey when Maurice goes to look for Belle he grabs a bunch of rolled up pieces of paper and protractor. Is the idea that he’s just gonna invent and build something while actively walking? Sir you spent 6 hours in a dungeon and nearly died of being in a dungeon disease, you can’t help yourself out of a wet paper bag much less get your daughter out of anywhere with an invention you made out of rocks and sticks while clawing your way through the woods because you’re dying again

-But it is funny to imagine this revolving door of Maurice and Belle trading themselves for the other until the beast is just like “hey if I let you both leave will you promise to never come back”

-Belle is such a dick at the beginning it’s so funny. “Oh there’s one place in this giant castle I can’t go? I bet he’s hiding all the really cool stuff in there and I’m going to ignore his wishes and that of the staff. Oh no, consequences, the guy who said not to come here is upset I came here! Who could have foreseen this!”

-Like it’s not bad writing, it’s her character arc that she was mainly focused on herself and her interests and pretty judgemental of people who weren’t like her, so her disrespecting someone’s boundaries because she want to sets up something she grows from, and she learns to connect with someone else on their level even if that person is different from her and she learns that people are more than their surface appearance and even an angry beast has depths if you actually get to know them and see their view of the world, and connecting with people who are different from you enriches your life. Which is why when the townsfolk later try to kill the beast because he’s different we see she’s now understood the danger of that way of thinking and is horrified

-But that’s such a funny thing to do just immediately upon entering a castle owned by a big scary beast. Day one hour one she’s like “oh boy I know where I wanna go!”

-I don’t want to be a CinemaSins and point out how improbable it is that Belle got a giant unconscious beast onto her horse when he would be hundreds of pounds. But I do want to see the scene of her doing it. I’m picturing the horse sorta laying down and the beast is on the ground like a sack of potatoes and Belle has her back against him and is pushing with her legs to try and roll him over. Or she’s got her shoulder against him and is trying to push that way but her feet keep slipping in the snow

-Oh my god I forgot they told her about the library before the beast “gives” it to her. She was already allowed to go in there and knew it existed, “giving” someone a room they had full knowledge of and access to is very funny

-But you know what if he’s the kind of guy who thinks that will work and she’s the kind of girl it works on then they’re perfect for each other. Just two people with zero social skills bumbling around a castle together, making weird decisions and the other is like “wow they’re so cute and normal”

-I love the sweeping faux crane shot during the ballroom dance. Over 30 years later and that shit still slaps, more animated movies need to act like they’re being shot and edited like live action

-Maurice really can find a way to immediately die in any situation. When he’s at home he’s fine but the second he leaves the town border he develops tuberculosis and begins losing all function in his limbs

-I’m going to be honest with you guys, I’ve seen various versions of Beauty and the Beast and every time it’s the letting Belle go scene I have the same thought: I absolutely would not have read that social interaction correctly, I would have been fully under the impression we were all aware I was running an errand and coming back later. Because if I’m Belle, and I can live in the cool castle with a friend and people who are nice to me or a town I specifically stated not liking filled with a guy who is pushy and makes me uncomfortable and people who are mean to me and zero friends, I would not have been like “oh thank god I can finally go back!”

-“You should go to him. I release you, you are no longer my prisoner” See to me that reads “We are friends and I am removing this technicality between us so you can go run out and do something that is clearly important to you.” I would not have picked up on everyone in the castle thinking I was leaving forever. I’d just show up two hours later like “boy, it’s been a day, huh?” and the beast is just laying face down on the floor in his room listening to a sad boy playlist

-But the beast is clearly part dog so I guess it’s a normal reaction for him to have

-I don’t want to victim blame, but if you have a sick dad and are equidistant between “castle where everyone likes you” and “town where everyone is mean to you” and your dying father can be cured by a nap, I feel like it’s a bit on you if bad things continue to happen in the Bad Things Happen To Me town

-Not saying she should have anticipated a mob coming to incarcerate her father but I do feel like it would be expected that the people who have been mean to you and your dad would continue to be mean to you and your dad in the Everyone Is Mean To You and Your Dad town

-Because if the forced incarceration hadn’t been an issue, they would have gone to town the next day and someone would go “Hey Belle, your dad said you were kidnapped by a beast.” And everyone would point and laugh and he’d start waving his arms and going “It was the biggest beast you ever saw! 18 feet tall and claws bigger than my head!” and people would probably suggest that the guy they all call Crazy Old Maurice may be crazy and Belle would need to prove he wasn’t. I just don’t think we would have ended up with much of a different situation in any timeline that involves going back to the town

-Ok. So. If I live in a town. And I find out there is a beast within walking distance that is sentient enough to take villagers prisoner. And this guy is like “yeah he took me and my daughter prisoner, he’s terrifying!” I’m not saying I would have been part of the mob but I do think I would be worried about there being a beast and two people he previously kept prisoner living next door. And her saying “no he’s actually very sweet” would sound like those people with exotic pets who get their faces eaten by their pet tiger. Like yes they’re wrong but Belle also thought he was scary and violent until she’d been there a number of hours. I feel like if instead of giving herself up she went to town and asked for help and they created a mob to get her father back she would not have been against the idea so it’s not wholly their fault for having the same idea

-“Is it dangerous?” “No, no, he’d never hurt anyone” Every owner of a dog who wants to bite you so so bad

-So when Belle and her father are alone she is clearly telling him that the beast let her go and is kind. When asked about the beast by the town, Maurice starts yelling about how he’s the most terrifying monster in the world. Belle has to show the beast to back up her father’s claims to try and save him for the second? third? time. And then they’re locked up and she says “this is all my fault” and this man does not for a second contradict her or take blame at all. “Yeah I can’t believe you specifically caused this mess.”

“We won’t rest until he’s good and deceased.” I know there are only so many words that rhyme with beast but that’s such a funny line in a bloodlust song. I will not rest until this animal has been declared legally dead by the state

-“We will fight even though the danger just increased” I’m obsessed with all the words they had to use to rhyme with beast

-It’s so funny that this is canonically France and he is canonically a prince. They didn’t make him a duke or a lord he is directly related to the royal family and in the line of succession. Likely not the dauphin because they wouldn’t have sent him to run a castle in the countryside away from the center of politics so probably a younger son but still, this guy is part of the royal family. They didn’t have to explicitly state this is France but they do, and they reference the baroque period so it’s after the construction of Versailles. The beast is actively being stabbed to death while sentient furniture watches and at the same time his family are canonically pissing on the walls and floors of their own home

-Oh my god the beast is brooding on a chaise. Did he drag it over to the window just so he could dramatically sit on his chaise and stare longingly out at the rain? Absolute break up mood

-He’s also in a different outfit that isn’t the fancy one or his every day one, he went and changed into a breakup outfit. Important to note the breakup outfit includes a cape and what he was previously wearing did not. He chose to put on a cape as part of his breakup outfit

-So Gaston points his arrow at the beast. The beast acknowledges it then looks away. Gaston then fires and hits him and he reacts all surprised and angry that it hurt like my dude you let him shoot you with an arrow, what did you think that experience would be

-It is so wild that Gaston assumes the beast is in love with Belle. Like yeah he’s right but what a wild assumption to make when you’re not even sure this thing comprehends human speech. Again my thought would be he’s attached to her like a dog is attached to its owner, I would not see a big furry animal and be like “this thing is fully sentient and feels romantic attraction to human women”. Yeah he’s wearing clothes but still that feels like a leap. Pointing at a dog in a sweater following its owner and yelling “You’re in love with her, aren’t you?”

-The beast’s arc is partly him controlling his temper, and we see him want to kill Gaston but controls himself and lets him go, immediately resulting in his own death. Gotta be honest I feel like less self control would have been helpful in that specific scenario

-I didn’t remember the blood spray after the beast is stabbed followed by the stab wound bleeding a good amount of blood. Are there other Disney princess movies with onscreen blood? I think in Mulan we see blood oozing out through clothes from an injury but that’s the only other one I can think of. Eugene gets pretty bloodlessly stabbed

-Best scene in the movie: The beast floats up in the air, actively transforms into a human in front of Belle, stands up, says “Belle, it’s me!” She then squints at him, touches his hair a bit, squints at his face, and when she recognizes his eyes she goes “It is you!” Ma’am what the hell else did you think was happening. If you didn’t recognize his eyes would you have just been like “Hmmm I dunno…”

-Ok so at the end there is an entire royal court watching them dance. Again I don’t want to be a CinemaSins I just want to see the missing scene. Like did he explain what happened to him? If yes then again I want to see that conversation of him explaining to his family how he was literally transformed into a literal beast for the last ten years and they had no idea this was happening to their family member. If no, imagine just going back to being a prince after 10 years as a beast and you just have to pretend like everything has been normal this whole time. I want a sequel that’s just the human beast reintegrating not only back into society but French royal society, which was notorious for having some of the most intricate and complicated social etiquette in all of Europe

-The final shot is a stained glass window of them with a prominent rose. Now in the original he had a whole rose garden he was very attached to, so that makes sense. But I feel like this beast specifically would have only negative connotations with roses and that window would probably be seen as a little tasteless given the circumstances. “It’s a rose! You know, the physical manifestation of a curse that was clearly quite upsetting for you for nine years and roughly 360 days, reminding you daily of your flaws! Isn’t that fun?”

“Original score by Alan Menken” Look up his IMDB, if you live in at least the US this man has written the score to your entire life

#long post #I’ve been called out for being long winded so here is your warning #beauty and the beast #disney

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tossawary · 4 months

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Overall, in the live-action "One Piece", I liked the way that they did Mihawk visiting the Baratie. I still prefer the manga/anime (Zoro SEES Mihawk fuck up an armada and this wonderful idiot is like, "Yeah, I'm gonna fight him next,"), but I understand why they shifted the Don Kriegs around in order to fit the arc they had created for their limited number of episodes for the East Blue Arc, and I think it was probably the right choice even if it changing the Don Kriegs does give us less of the Baratie crew. All of the arcs were filed down and I can just go back to the manga to see all the East Blue minor characters properly.

I like the fact that OPLA has such a different feel. I think it's fun when adaptations embrace the fact that they're inherently different. I really liked Nami and Zoro's little drinking and questions game. And I thought Usopp getting super drunk at the bar and Mihawk being RIGHT THERE listening to him talk was SO FUNNY. Like, yeah, that gives off the vibe that this warlord does just casually visit bars as he travels, in between fighting armies for funsies, and now I get to also imagine Mihawk casually shopping at specialty goth clothing stores and buying bottles of wine to go as he travels. (And now I have to wonder what would have happened if Zoro had run into Mihawk somewhere like Funky Bar (the bar he mentions to Kuro, which yeah, they did kind of make it sound like a gay bar).)

I like Usopp/Kaya, but now I also like to imagine for a second that Usopp could have accidentally (or on purpose! If you're not going for Usopp/Kaya) HIT ON Mihawk at the Baratie. Maybe he was just trying to compliment the guy's fit or remark on his beautiful eyes or something, because Mihawk definitely has an aesthetic going on, and these words came out a little too flirty? Maybe it was a random bout of drunken courage sure to collapse quickly?

And, in this silly OPLA AU, I like to imagine Mihawk leaning into this at least for intelligence-gathering, like, "Let me buy you a drink. Tell me more." (Side note: Mihawk doesn't really seem like a bar hookup guy to me, like, in general, but counterpoint: SHANKS sure does!)

So, Nami, across the bar, can be like, "Whoa, Usopp's actually pulling some guy." (Mentally, she is evaluating Mihawk as, like, a sugar daddy robbery target. It's like second nature to her at this point. Are they going to have to interfere? Usopp is REALLY drunk. Can she swipe Mihawk's wallet if they interfere?) And Zoro turns around to look and he pauses for a really long time before saying, "...That's Dracule Mihawk, the World's Greatest Swordsman."

So, things proceed pretty much the same way from there, Zoro challenges a warlord and nearly dies, but now Nami and Zoro can hold "flirting with a warlord at a bar" over Usopp's head as an embarrassing story FOREVER. (I think if Usopp tried to own this misunderstanding to lessen the embarrassment, his lying would take over, and this would somehow lead to widespread rumors that someone on the Strawhats is secretly MARRIED to Mihawk or something, because Usopp's luck is terrible. The Navy has to reach out to Mihawk like, "ARE YOU IN LEAGUE WITH THE STRAWHATS THROUGH MARRIAGE?! CONFIRM OR DENY." And Mihawk thinks it's so fucking stupid that he refuses to answer at all.)

After the timeskip, the first thing that Zoro ends up saying to Usopp after 2 years is something like: "Mihawk says hey."

Usopp: (⁠･⁠o⁠･⁠;⁠)

Did Mihawk really say hey? Does he remember Usopp at all? Is Zoro just fucking with Usopp? Usopp will never know. (Maybe Mihawk said something like, "My regards to your crew," but Zoro is totally just fucking with Usopp.)

#tossawary one piece #usopp #roronoa zoro #dracule mihawk #fic ideas #spoilers

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andypantsx3 · 11 months

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something in the water | 2 | shouto x reader

pairing: Todoroki Shouto / Fem Reader

length: 5.2k | 2nd of 6 chapters

summary: As a future marine biologist, you’ve scored big on your final internship: a summer in the tropics, researching the waters off the coast of a lush, sunny island. But what you thought would be all beach days and piña coladas turns out to be the revelation of a lifetime when you haul in a handsome merprince, and discover not everything in these waters is quite as it seems.

tags/warnings: mermaid au, interspecies relationships, mating rituals/courting behavior, (sort of) case fic, aged up characters, eventual smut, fem pronouns/afab reader

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You stared at the man in the water, your mouth falling open.

The snorkel mouthpiece dropped right out of it, leaving a wet streak down your chin. You quickly tore your goggles back off, convinced the glass was somehow distorting your vision.

The man in the water blinked back at you. His eyes darted over your body quickly, twin flashes of color, as if assessing a threat. You could see his left eye was the vibrant turquoise blue of the surrounding waters, the right a dark stormy gray, like the clouds of a tropical storm. His hair was as evenly-split as his eye color, snowy white on the right and a fiery red on the left, slicked back from his face with ocean water.

And his face. His face.

He was easily the most beautiful man you had ever seen, and you felt the breath punch out of your lungs just looking at him. His mouth was so soft and sensuous, his nose high-bridged and sweet, at complete odds with the strong, masculine sweep of his jawline. A pink scar circled his left eye, somehow intensifying its color.

Every single one of his features were so precise, so symmetrical that a shiver went up your spine, and something about the way they all fit together had all the lights in your brain flickering out, one by one.

And then his perfect, plush mouth moved, shifting suddenly into a vicious snarl. He let out a hiss, the likes of which you’d never heard before, and your vision seized on a set of very sharp canines set into the sides of his mouth. Incredibly, inhumanly sharp canines, that was.

“Holy shit,” you said, your focus snapping away from his mouth as a long-fingered hand came up to grasp the net over him—a hand tinted a deep crimson red, tipped with pointed claws. Your heartbeat kicked into your throat, and your gaze traveled under the water, down a powerful chest and across a long, sinuous, red-and-white flecked thing that was most assuredly not a pair of legs.

And that’s when you realized.

This man was not a man.

“Oh my god, oh my god,” you breathed, stumbling back from the edge of the boat. Your foot caught on the upturned plate, sending you sprawling over the back seat to land hard on your ass.

A snarling hiss sounded over the side of the boat, accompanied by a slapping sound, and another wave of water arced up over the side.

The slap of water to your face helped you return to your senses, and you realized he—or, it—the thing in the water with the human face was caught in your net, and you had no idea what that meant for him. Some species needed to swim to keep oxygen-rich water flowing over their gills.

And just because this guy–er, creature–had a human face and hands didn’t mean that’s where he breathed from. As you thought this, the sounds of his thrashing grew even more panicked.

You grabbed the seat you’d fallen over, hauling yourself upright, and crept to the edge of the boat, receiving another wave of water in the chest for your troubles.

You unhooked one of the emergency oars along the side, shoving it out to draw part of the net back towards you. The creature in the water hissed again, eyes snapping to the movement of your oar, and he seemed to try to retreat from it as far as the netting would allow.

“I’m not gonna hurt you, I’m not gonna hurt you,” you chanted in a squeaky, panicked tone that you were sure did nothing to calm him. “Oh my god please don’t hurt me back. I’m gonna get the net off you,” you promised him.

He thrashed harder, those blood-red claws swiping at the oar as you managed to hook it through one of the holes in the net, and quickly drew it back towards you.

“Oh my god, oh my god,” you moaned as a claw raked a deep gouge into the top of the oar.

You wondered for a wild moment, if you shouldn’t just leave him, run back to the wheel and start the boat as fast as you could. You wanted to be as far away from those claws as possible once this dude had been freed.

But another look at the panic in his eyes as he thrashed about told you you couldn’t. Not if it meant this creature would potentially drown. You carefully reached out a hand, grabbing the net off the end of the oar.

“Okay, I’m just gonna pull this up until it comes untangled,” you said, though it didn’t look like he was hearing you at all. He leveled another snarling hiss in your direction.

A lightning bolt of adrenaline shot through you, numbing your hands, tingling down your spine. “Oh my god come off of it, asshole,” you said, in a wild moment of insane bravery. “I’m just gonna let you out and then I’m gonna drive away and literally never, ever come back here.”

He cast a long look at you, blinking, seeming to calm for a second. Then he made a motion towards you, those claws reaching out again, and you bit off a scream.

“If you try to take my hand off, I will use this oar on you,” you promised him darkly. “I will knock all those sharp teeth right out of your mouth, do not try me.”

The creature paused, blinking again, those heterochromatic eyes flashing up to yours.

You watched him in mutual shock, your hands shaking on the net.

“Uh, okay yeah. Can you understand me? Probably not but, uh, good. Calm,” you said, trying to sound coaxing. “I’m not gonna hurt you, uh, unless you hurt me. Right? Totally no reason for anyone to do any hurting out here.”

The creature’s tail beat, but he made no other movements, even as you raised your hands again, drawing the net upwards so that it started to separate. It tipped him over a little bit, and he spun in the water like a burrito coming unrolled.

You had to stifle something between a horrified sob and a laugh. You kept up a stream of inane commentary in the lowest, calmest tone you could manage, which wasn’t very calm or low at all. “Okay, looking good. Just a little bit more. And we’re definitely not going to attack each other when this is over. I’m just some random biologist and you’re just some random, uh, sea guy…Which is very cool and normal…”

To your surprise, however, he let himself be rolled gently, until finally the net came free, and you quickly hauled it back over the side of the boat. He whipped back around to face you, and you took a startled step back, fumbling for your oar.

“No, do not come over here. Your face is very handsome and I would hate to break every single bone in it,” you said, waving the oar at him threateningly.

He just watched you, floating there in the water, staring weirdly.

You observed him, waiting for any sign of movement, the both of you entered in some strange marine standoff. But he made no further moves, and you thought if you booked it, you might just be able to get out of there without getting your eyes clawed out.

You hurriedly dropped your oar and clambered for the front of the boat, throwing yourself at the throttle and gunning the engine. The motor rumbled to life again, completely deafening, and you quickly steered the boat back the way you’d come from. Water sprayed out behind you, leaving a thick white bubbling trail, under which you lost sight of the man in the water.

He didn’t seem to follow you, however. You hightailed it all the way back to the main port, barely managing the appropriate docking knots with your shaking fingers. You threw yourself back onto the dock and raced ashore, your heartbeat only kicking back down once you’d made it safely onto the main street, where groups of tourists were poking through gift shops, queueing outside the various food and juice vendors, and chattering at the tables outside the open air restaurants.

You stumbled all the way back to the inn, a journey roughly fifteen minutes longer on foot than by jeep. Yu caught you on your way in, coming back from the office with a cup of iced coffee in hand, and she frowned as she looked you over.

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost, kid,” she said, pulling down her sunglasses. You watched her brow furrow in thought.

“No!” you said quickly, though why you rushed to deny it was beyond you. “No, nothing like that just—one of the nets was shredded and I didn’t think to bring a spare.”

Yu’s frown deepened. “Shredded?”

You nodded. “Yeah like something—uh, or someone—cut through it. It was totally done for.”

Her gaze sharpened over the tops of her lenses. “Someone?”

You swallowed, the memory of heterochromatic eyes and claw-tipped fingers flashing before your eyes. “Um. Yeah maybe. It didn’t look to be um, a shark or anything. It was torn too cleanly in too many places.”

For some reason Yu looked excited. “Like a diving knife? You think it could be Sunfish?”

After glimpsing those wicked claws yourself, you had absolutely no doubt what had been at work on that net. But after a moment’s hesitation you nodded, saying vaguely, “Uh, could be. Maybe.”

Yu hummed to herself, tossing a blonde lock over her shoulder as she gestured you back inside her bungalow. She drew you up your usual chair by the observation equipment, slurping loudly from her iced coffee. “We’ll have to keep an eye on them,” she said, a touch of relish in her voice that you did not like at all. You were learning that Takeyama Yu always enjoyed a good fight.

You gulped, settling down uneasily in the chair. You hoped she did not mean for you to go back to the reef too soon—though if that creature was smart he would have cleared out by now.

But you couldn’t bring yourself to say anything. You watched blankly as she clicked back into her monitoring windows, and nodded on auto-pilot as pointed out a couple things she’d noticed while you were gone. Your mind was elsewhere, back on the reef, replaying the events that had just occurred.

You couldn’t make sense of anything, didn’t know what to think.

All you could say was that you thought you might have, possibly, unbelievably, encountered a real life merman. You didn’t know what to make of that.

—

The next few days did not clear things up.

In fact, they seemed to make everything worse.

You went through your daily tasks, monitoring observation stations, maintaining equipment and carting things back and forth between all the professionals on your team. Yu loaned you out to Kamui for testing and you spent an afternoon hunched over a microscope, comparing slides of microbes, endlessly piping and staining. You prepped batches of slides to be mailed back to the main lab for more extensive testing, and learned more about water acidity than you ever had in any of your university lectures.

But over all of this activity loomed the shadow of the thing you’d seen in the water. Every time you took the boat out to rebait a station or resample the water, you couldn’t help but look over your shoulder. Even worse than the reef shark, you thought every shadow was the merman in waiting, every slash of red the merman’s clawed hands reaching towards you, every movement in the corner of your eye the last thing you might ever see. You eventually made it back to the reef and deployed a new net, and you thought your heart was going to punch straight through your chest, it was pounding so hard.

You never caught sight of the man in the water again, but somehow, some way, you felt like you were still being watched.

Although maybe that was just paranoia.

Almost worse than your daily heart attacks though, was the data you were gathering. The results of Kamui’s testing and Yu’s observations weren’t lining up with the initial reports that had prompted your presence in the first place. A sample sent with the report had showed incredibly high levels of chemical pollution, and though you were finding some thinning of expected populations and slight microbial unhealthiness, none of it was lining up with the expected levels given in the whistleblower report.

The report had been anonymous, so there was no telling where the sample had come from.

But you couldn’t help but wonder if somehow you were monitoring the wrong places.

Remembering Izuku’s friendly chatter from the day you arrived, you eventually dug out your phone again, clicking into the address for Kacchan that Izuku had provided. You wondered if, as a local gatherer, he might have a better read on where things were, and where you were going wrong.

A quick follow up conversation with Izuku in the main office revealed that Kacchan’s real name was Bakugou Katsuki, and that he had the day off today, to Izuku’s knowledge. Armed with that information, you followed directions back out of the dirt drive onto the main lane, following it for a few hundred feet until it pulled off again into another dirt path. You made your way down it through the thick tropical growth, until it spat you out into another cleared drive on which a jeep was parked.

There was a small, whitewashed house behind it, almost right up against the sand of the beach. A row boat was pulled up onto the sand, and further out into the water you could see a motorboat anchored. It had been painted a dark grey, at odds with the tropical surroundings, and you could just make out vibrant orange lettering spelling out the boat’s name—the Fuyumi.

You could see a man on the beach, padding across the sand to the rowboat, several waterproof bags and boxes in hand. He was blonde and just as well-muscled as Izuku had been, his skin littered with the same workman’s scars.

“Um, hello!” you called. The man whipped around, a red-eyed glare meeting your curious gaze.

“Who the fuck are you?” he demanded, his voice a low growl.

You blinked, slightly unnerved by this greeting. “I’m, um, Y/N. I’m a marine biologist.” The man’s glare didn’t waver. “Um, well, intern.”

“And?” he asked in the most impatient tones you’d ever heard.

You tried to push down a sudden annoyance. You needed details from this man. It wouldn’t do to flip on him straight away.

“Izuku said you work as a chef at the resort. He says you collect a lot of local ingredients?”

Bakugou scowled. “What of it.”

It wasn’t phrased as a question, but you answered anyway. “I’m with a team who’s looking into the possibilities of over-fishing and wastewater pollution in local waters. I was just curious where you collect plants, where you fish, and if you’ve noticed any particular changes over the past couple of months?”

For a brief second, you thought the harsh line of Bakugou’s mouth softened, and he blinked. But moments more and it was gone, replaced by a distrustful look. “Sunfish’re scum but I don’t have any info. All my plants and shit are fine. Fish too, if maybe thinned a little.”

You quickly drew out your phone again, clicking into the notes app. “You’ve noticed a population decline then? For any particular species?”

Bakugou let down his waterproof containers to cross those intimidating arms over his chest. “I fish for barramundi.”

You quickly noted that down. “Can you describe what you’ve noticed in terms of decline?”

Bakugou scowled again. “The fuck is there to describe? They’re harder to catch because there are less of them.”

You suppressed an eyeroll. “Okay. Anything else you can tell me?”

Bakugou’s mouth thinned. “No.”

You sighed, then tucked your phone away in your pocket again. “Alright. Last thing. Just—is there a particular spot you usually fish for them?”

Bakugou looked like the last thing he wanted to do was tell you, but he finally pronounced, “By the reef on the north side.”

Your skin prickled with the memory of the creature you’d encountered at the reef. You wondered, wildly, if that creature—that merman—had anything to do with the fish populations thinning. Maybe he was an invasive species—an over-hunter. Maybe it was nothing to do with Sunfish LLC at all…

That would explain why you were finding less significant microbial change than you had expected, even if the native species’ populations were declining.

You nodded in understanding. “Okay. Thanks for the details.”

Bakugou said nothing, seeming to wait for you to leave.

You cast another eye out over the beach, to the rowboat he’d been heading towards and back out to the motorboat anchored offshore. Even from this distance you could tell it was a much nicer model than the ones your team had rented out, and judging by the meticulous, clearly-custom paint job, it was well loved. Your gaze wandered over the vibrant orange script again.

“Who is Fuyumi?” you wondered.

Suddenly every fiber in Bakugou’s body went stiff—even more impossibly angry than before. “Get the fuck off of my property right the fuck now,” he said.

Your eyes darted back to his. His crimson gaze was somehow intensified even more, and you got the sense that if you did not find your own way out, he’d very well show you the hard way.

You gulped. “Right. Okay. Thanks for your time. I’ll, um, just be going.”

Bakugou grunted, his arms crossing tighter over his chest.

You turned on your heel, edging into a quick trot back up the dirt drive. Bakugou watched you the entire way, and you met his crimson glare as you looked over your shoulder just before you made it back into the dense tropical foliage. You followed the path back out onto the main road, ruminating on your encounter.

For the little help that he’d provided, you got the distinct sense that there was something Bakugou hadn’t told you, something he was deliberately withholding from you. But there was no telling what that might be, and there was no way you were going to be able to pry it out of a guy like that.

You sighed as you followed the driveway back to the inn, waving at Izuku at the front desk as you passed, and made your way back into Yu’s bungalow to report what you’d gotten out of Bakugou. She decided you’d take a trip back out to the reef tomorrow to have a more careful look around—a directive that sent a swarm of shivers down your spine. You really, really hoped that merman had moved on by now.

You spent the rest of the day re-reviewing old footage with particular focus on barramundi, trying to annotate where in the footage you’d seen some and how many members were in their school.

When work finally wrapped up you trekked back to the port to have dinner and drinks with the entire crew, catching the team up on the interview you’d had with Bakugou, and listening to their updates in turn. Kamui had apparently had no further luck in testing, Masaki had nothing conclusive in terms of counting yet, and Death Arms was still locked in some sort of political stalemate with Sunfish LLC over when you’d be able to get onto the premises to inspect the property itself.

Dinner wasn’t a total wash though. You managed a pina colada, pleased at the stereotypical tropicality of the choice, and spent most of the evening entertained, watching Kamui defend his plate from Yu’s wandering utensils and listening to Masaki recount previous field operations he’d taken part in. Before the internship, you’d sort of assumed you’d always work out of a lab, but you were growing enamored with the idea of field work, especially when it might take you to another place like Yuuei.

The team went their separate ways after dinner, retreating to your individual bungalows. The sun was still setting by the time you made it back inside, though—and still fuzzy with good food and your pina colada, you thought it was high time you spent some time on the beach, especially with a view like this one.

You made your way down onto the sand and plopped down at the edge of the water to watch the evening deepen. The beach’s view was mostly southern, but the color of the setting sun spilled generously across the horizon like watercolor, and you still appreciated the effect on the slice of sky you could see. The water was darker, a deep indigo in the oncoming twilight, and the waves lapped gently at the shore. It was so unbelievably beautiful, and you thought again that field work might be your calling.

You made a note to ask Masaki how he’d gotten into his line of work, and options for you to do the same.

You were absently tracing out a note to that effect in the soft sand when the sound of splashing roused you from your trance. You just managed to jerk your head up in time as something warm and wet closed around your ankle.

Before you could even scream, you were being dragged into the shallows. The water closed above your head, filling your mouth, gargling your panicked shout.

You struggled for a moment, kicking out, splashing water everywhere. Your eyes had closed instinctively, so you didn’t see whoever grabbed you, but suddenly you were being righted, your face guided back above the surface by a strong hand. The grip of another stayed clamped, vicelike, around your left ankle.

You spluttered and coughed, blinking your eyes open against the seawater. The water stung your eyes and at the back of your throat, and then the inside of your nose as you inhaled sharply at the sight of the handsome face peering back at you.

It was the merman from the reef.

He was poised over you, his handsome face only inches away from yours, his mouth a serious slash. Little droplets of water beaded on his skin and collected on the tips of his long lashes. You could see the careful tension in the line of one well-muscled arm, feel it in the clawed fingers that were still clamped around your chin, keeping your head above water.

You let out a weird gurgling noise, freezing in his hold.

“Holy shit don’t kill me,” you said.

Those heterochromatic eyes blinked, then traced over your features slowly, consideringly.

“I swear I did not say a thing about you,” you babbled, horrified. “Literally nothing. I was so quiet, like nuclear launch code levels of tight lipped, okay? I was so mum about everything so there’s no reason to get revenge, right?”

The man’s eyes dipped to your mouth as you spoke, as if mystified by your human babble. You instantly quieted, not wanting to irritate him further.

And then he opened his mouth. And out came an unnervingly human set of words.

“You let me go.”

He spoke in a low tone, smooth and soft, like the quiet rumble of waves at a distance. But there was something behind it too, something you felt like you could feel behind your teeth, a bioelectric hum somewhere in the depths of your brain. A shiver went down your spine.

Your mouth fell open against his claws. “You can talk?”

You watched his mouth shift minutely, pursing, like he was annoyed with the way you’d phrased this.

“As can you,” he said blandly.

Well of course you could talk! You were a person using person words!!! But he was—he was—

“But you’re a….sea….dude.”

His mouth quirked on one side, just barely perceptible. “A merman is the term, as far as I am aware.”

You didn’t dare ask how he was aware of anything people called him. But it certainly implied that you were not the first human this guy had come across.

But if other humans had come across this merman before, you didn’t doubt you would have heard about it by now. The existence of merpeople was not exactly a topic to keep quiet on. Which meant—which meant—

“Are you about to kill me?” you asked fearfully, becoming all-to-aware again of the prick of claws at your chin and ankle. Claws that had shredded the net at the reef like it was nothing, that had gouged deep welts in the oar you’d used to free him.

The merman looked perturbed. “Not if you answer my questions.”

You gulped. “Okay yes—yes I am an open book! Whatever you want to ask me, I will tell you! I am so open, you will not believe how open—”

A claw against your mouth silenced you, and that little shiver went up your spine again. Your eyes darted back up to the merman’s. Up close, you could see that he had a scar around his left eye, the skin a deep, dusky pink. It made the electric blue of his iris stand out that much more.

“Why did you let me go?” he asked, a white eyebrow raising.

You opened your mouth carefully, and he removed his fingers. “Is there…a reason I wouldn’t let you go?”

Those heterochromatic eyes narrowed on you. “Humans are dangerous.”

You couldn’t help the way your eyes trailed down to his claws again, then flicked back up to those sharp canines. You didn’t think you were the dangerous one in this scenario. Plus, you were a good person. What the hell were you supposed to do with a captured merman? Put him in a zoo?

“Yeah that’s why I grabbed you and pulled you out into the shallows,” you said, slightly offended by the implication.

Both his eyebrows went up, and he leaned a little further into you. You splashed backwards, as far as his grip on you would allow, which wasn’t much.

“You threw a net on me,” he said, his tone accusatory.

“Not on purpose,” you said. “I didn’t even know you were there. I was doing my job.”

“Which is?” he prompted.

“I’m a marine biologist. Uh, intern. We’re monitoring Yuuei coastal waters for adverse effects from, um, a cannery.”

“Sunfish,” he said.

You blinked, surprised. “Oh, you know it?”

A frown marred that perfect mouth. “Yes. They are not to be trusted.” As he said it, there was a scraping feeling behind your teeth, attached to that weird bioelectric tingle that his every word left curling in your brain. You could quite literally sense his dislike.

A strange feeling crept over you, and you remembered Bakugou implying something similar not hours ago. What exactly was it that everyone seemed to know except you? And how would a merman of all people know?

“Then, they are doing something bad out here?” you asked, curious.

“Their nets are dangerous for my kind, and they are growing ever more present,” the merman’s eyes flickered up and down your face again, like you might be at fault for the proliferation of nets instead.

“Hey, we’re just testing different environments,” you held your hands up. “We’re catching and releasing, we just want to take a look at a couple different species, count them, and see how they’re doing. We’ll be gone in just a few weeks.”

The merman looked you over for a long moment, as if assessing the veracity of this claim. His gaze slowly trailed down your body and you fought down a strange wave of embarrassment. His fingers flexed on your ankle, those claws rasping sweetly, dangerously over the thin skin there, and he pulled your leg out a little bit, like he was inspecting it.

“How strange,” he murmured, his tone going soft with the subject change.

You didn’t know what to think, just stared at him as his gaze roved over the bare skin of your leg in your sea-soaked shorts.

“I thought you–uh, have met people before,” you said, face flushing. “It’s just–that’s just my leg.”

Those heterochromatic eyes cut back to yours, startlingly intent. “I have. But Katsuki would sooner kick me than let me look closely, and Izuku finds it uncomfortable. And yours are…..more interesting…”

Well of course Izuku would find it uncomfortable! The swell of your embarrassment about your leg being more interesting momentarily choked off all thought—but then it hit you what this merman had just said.

“Katsuki like Bakugou Katsuki?” you demanded. “And Izuku like Midoriya Izuku?”

The merman hummed, staring at your leg again like he was uninterested in this conversation. “Yes. You’ve met them. I can smell them on you.”

You jerked back, startled by this assertion. He could smell that you’d been near them? What the fuck. You were floored. And had this been what Bakugou might have been hiding when he’d all but chased you off his property?

“But you—how can you—? Just who the hell are you?” you demanded, as the merman petted a careful finger across the hollow behind your ankle bone.

You shivered as he looked back at you, a little amused indent at the corner of his mouth.

“I am called Todoroki Shouto.”

He stared at you expectantly, as though he expected some reply, and you quickly scraped together your manners, though you never imagined you’d need to use them on a merman.

“I’m Y/N,” you offered, carefully reaching out a hand to shake, wondering if Shouto was as familiar with human customs as he was with words.

He accepted your hand carefully in his own clap-tipped fingers, eyes glittering. “So you are not here hunting my kind,” he said, sounding more like he was coming to a conclusion than asking a question.

You nodded hurriedly, aware of how small and fragile your own hand felt in his much larger one. “I didn’t even know you existed until I accidentally netted you. And we’re trying to stabilize this environment, not kill things in it,” you told him. “With any luck we’ll be getting rid of Sunfish and you won’t have to worry about them anymore either.”

Shouto’s claws pricked gently over your wrist as he released you, and he leaned in again, his handsome face serious. “Then we will be friends,” he said, with all the sober certainty of a child declaring the kid they’d just met five seconds ago was their new bestie.

With Shouto’s hard form looming close and his taloned fingers still clutched around one of your legs, you rather thought there was little room for disagreement. But you were fascinated by him nevertheless, and thought you might not have wanted to deny him anyway. Here would be the opportunity to observe and interact with a merman, something no outsider to these waters might ever get to do again.

You nodded, and a small smile tugged at the corner of Shouto’s mouth, clearly pleased. His fingers tightened where they still gripped your ankle, and your stomach fluttered with nerves.

And that’s when you knew there was so much more to these waters than you’d initially understood—and things were about to get even weirder.

#todoroki shouto x reader #shouto todoroki x reader #shouto x you #shouto x y/n #shouto x reader #todoroki x you #todoroki x reader #todoroki x y/n #shoto todoroki x you #bnha x reader #bnha x you

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iwozlegit · 1 year

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|| 🍍• I’m probably not the first to say it, but imma gonna say it anyway…

…we were robbed with the Orion Pax arc in Transformers: Prime.

The fact that the 3 episodes supposedly spanned over a time period of months, is crazy.

Did Megatron make a conscious effort to actually “catch-up” with Orion when he said there’d be “plenty of time” for it?

If they did, what did they talk about? Was it awkward and short? Was it lighthearted and whimsical? Did it bizarrely feel as though the war had never been? Did Megatron lose himself in the illusion of a former friend?

If they didn’t, did Orion attempt to pursue a catch-up with the former gladiator, himself?

Did Orion forget to call Megatron his name, instead uttering Megatronus? How did the tyrant react to this? Was he insulted? Did he not mind in the privacy of their off-shifts?

What had been Orion’s final memory?

Did Orion ever inquire about Alpha Trion?

What did Orion get up to on his off-shift hours aboard the warship?

Did he have his rations in the company of others, or did Orion eat alone? Did he eat with Megatron?

Did Orion ever ask to venture to the Earth’s surface to see its beauty up close? Did Megatron go with him if permitted and show him?

Did Orion, inquisitive as ever, inquire why everyone looked so different - why Soundwave appeared so thin, why he, himself, felt so heavy, why Megatron seemed so distant and cold and angry?

What were his other interactions with Knock Out like, if there were any? Did he and Breakdown steer clear of him like the others? Or did Breakdown’s un-Decepticon and odd consideration for others spread and extend itself to the timid clerk with ease? Would Knock Out follow suit given his coy interest in the mech Orion became, or because of his partner’s kinder spark? Did Knock Out ever offer Orion a cool new paint touch-up?

What had Megatron worried Starscream would do or say to Orion when the warlord said “he did not…do or say anything troubling to you?” …despite the obvious, obviously. Why was Megatron so determined to live a lie?

Did Soundwave privately raise his concerns of allowing the amnesiac Prime so close to Megatron again, to the Decepticon leader himself? How would Megatron have reacted to it?

Did any of the rest of the crew hint at their concerns of having an amnesiac Prime aboard?

What unfolded after Orion slipped away?

What were Megatron’s real intentions of having Orion on board if Soundwave was capable enough to do the same thing?

Did Megatron think Orion, if provided another chance, would still want to be beside him after everything he’d done? Is that why the mistruths he told were so elaborate that he ended up getting caught in them and when Orion stirred to see their error, Megatron resorted to violence knowing that he could not save his fantasy???

…you know…just a few thoughts really :)

Ideas/headcanons ®️of @legitconcrusher

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onchyart · 8 months

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lets explore “is Hannibal in love with me?” and its significance to Will's character progression Short version: Will seeks stability from the place of "normalcy", eventually fails to create it with Hannibal. Then tries again, but this time using "unorthodox" methods, aka "verbally revealing himself as a person who cares, if the convicted serial killer cannibal has feelings for him". Will commits to this new-found truth, and Hannibal is out in like two weeks, finalizing Will's arc as a guy who says who he is, instead of constantly imagining to be somebody else. Long version:

Will is used to feel threatened by possible replacements

Will is acting like that in relation to Hannibal quite often . Hannibal is special to him, but he is afraid it's not mutual

Will compromises his morals, kills a rival and eventually met with Bedelia, who changed her mind, "took his place", got in and out consequences-free. His worst nightmare came true, he got replaced

This signals, that he is Hannibal’s favorite scratching pole, but not enough to settle down with, find stability together. Dogs, for example, are loyal to the point of going against their instincts, their self-preservation sometimes, it's what Will wants. So it's not gonna work as long as Hannibal refuses to commit to the relationship

So Hannibal commits

Will, sees this act as some kind of spiteful retaliation against his wishes (maybe his rejection was a deliberate ploy to see Hannibal behind bars, it's up to interpretation) and moves on

Will finds family to hide in, imperfect replica

Jack arrives, Molly takes his side (cause she doesn't know Will enough to not to do it), Will seeks out Hannibal as his support system

After FBI discovers that Hannibal is communicating with the Dragon, Will incorrectly assumes he is Hannibal's former patient (like with Randall)

Hannibal sends Francis after Will's family. Will sees it as an act of stirring competition between him and the Dragon. In the past, Will was never sure if Hannibal actually wanted him, or he is just a willful idiot, an attack dog, something to be amused by. No clarity was ever given

Until now. Hannibal quotes Faust at Will. In its full form, in this particular context, it boils down to "There are two parts of me, one wants power, the other wants to experience the world and it's beauty. You are the latter, let's run away."

And then, Hannibal sells out Francis, his inner turmoils. The Red Dragon is freedom to him, Will is freedom to Hannibal

Will finds the whole situation very flattering. Hannibal's actions are taking the form of his words, aligning with Will in the center

but he has one last person, who was in a competition with him

And asks he asks “is Hannibal in love with me?” that Bedelia paraphrasing to be about hunger and says yes

Let me paraphrase as well: “Can Hannibal survive on the thought of Will and Will alone? Even if before he was all over the place?” Yeah, congratulations

Will loses the last pretence of giving a shit

Hannibal is out in like two weeks

#hannibal #hannibal analysis #hannibal meta

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inamindfarfaraway · 20 days

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I can’t wait to see Ezran’s reaction to Callum wanting to free Runaan, and then Runaan himself. We all know that he’s a kind, wise kid. He strives for peace, sees the best in people, prefers diplomacy over combat and applies respect and compassion to everyone he meets. He'd rather show mercy than take prisoners. He wants to avoid his father's mistakes of pursuing hatred and escalating conflict. His power is literally enhanced communication. Compared to the much more ruthless Prince Callum "Stab, stab, bye-bye, bad guy!" of Katolis, he seems pretty 'pure of heart'.

But he has anger inside him. He resents the pain and injustice he's experienced and holds grudges, like Harrow before him. He admits to his people that he is learning to forgive and move forward alongside them. And it isn’t easy.

"We are angry! I am angry. I have been hurt. ...We all want peace and we all want love, but violence tests us. In a twisted way, it converts us to its cause. Because pain and loss feel so terrible inside, you want to hate, you want to hurt someone else."

Callum would kill to save his loved ones, but not to avenge them. One of the first things he does in the show is condemn the self-perpetuating cycle of revenge as irrational, unhelpful and needlessly destructive. He forgives Rayla and Soren. He jumps on board with liberating Runaan, his father's killer, because it's what Rayla wants, even though she's actually willing to put it aside for now. When she steals Runaan's bow he used to commit the crime, he exhibits no hard feelings.

But when Ezran finds the arrow Runaan fired to inform the Dragon Queen of Harrow's death, he breaks it out of rage and spite.

So when he discovers that his dear brother is trying to free the man who murdered their father and stole his childhood, to allow him to experience life and be with his loved ones when Harrow can't? He's not gonna like it.

This arc seems wonderfully plausible in Season Six becaues this franchise adores its parallels and foil dynamics, and Claudia's most likely motivation in Season Six is "The heroes killed my dad and I'm going to make it everyone's problem!" It's telling that his speech about the cycle of pain, bitterness and vengeance I quoted is layered over Claudia fighting in the name of her own murdered father.

The beautiful symbolism of Ezran having his crown forged from the steel of Harrow’s sword... on one hand, he's destroyed a weapon because he never wants to use it. He's choosing a narrative of love over a narrative of violent strength. But on the other hand, he carries the weight of his murdered father's weapon, which did spill blood and take lives, with him all the time as a symbol of his identity, specifically his identity as a powerful authority figure and Harrow’s successor. You see how that’s a little troubling, right? In a show so concerned with generational trauma and history repeating? Ezran? Are you okay?

#he is NOT and i want to see him be messy about it #tdp ezran #king ezran #the dragon prince #tdp #tdp meta

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minniiaa · 3 months

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Thank fucking god one piece tumblr is mostly a safe space because holy shit twitter is hell. These people bitching and moaning about Luffy laughing and being happy in G5 (AGAIN) saying it “ruins the story”

DO YOU MOTHERFUCKERS EVEN READ THE STORY? HE IS JOY. BOY. HE BRINGS JOY AND LAUGHTER TO THE PEOPLE THROUGH FREEDOM. DO YOU THINK HES JUST GONNA POP OFF ALL SERIOUS IN THIS FORM?

Luffy it at his freest in G5. He is overflowing with happiness as he uses his abilities to save and protect people. Why wouldn’t he be happy? We already had many arcs where Luffy was serious and even distraught when he couldn’t protect those he cared about. Those days are over and he now has the strength he always wanted. Let him be fucking happy. If you want to be miserable go read pre-TS and cry.

Now let’s be real. If you had all the powers in the world wouldn’t you do some wacky shit? I would be causing chaos and fucking around with anyone I could because it’s FUN. The Kaido fight had me smiling at my tv like a stupid idiot. I felt like I was a kid again watching Looney Tunes again (which I grew up on and loved dearly) Maybe these zoomer fucks have just never watched a cartoon in their life because their heads are too buried in their ipads or playing fortnite . Or flip side these people are just sad, lonely millennials and genx who are so dead inside they forgot what it’s like to be silly and joyful.

Also, the final island is called LAUGHtale. Rodger, King of the Pirates LAUGHED when he found the one piece. This whole beautiful decades spanning tale is ground in LAUGHTER. Don’t try to sully that just because you haven’t laughed in years and you hate your family and dead end job. Let others be happy. Try and be happy yourself. Go ahead, just laugh until you cry. You will be amazed at how good it makes you feel.

Yes I am mean, no I do not care. I am in my high tower of happiness and laughter enjoying life and my favorite series. If you want to be miserable and serious go watch/read jjk and don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out. We don’t need you and Oda doesn’t either ✌🏼

me laughing at the haters:

#every new chapter I mean to make this post #bc I’m going insane at this negativity #need Luffy to g5 these idiots into space so the vacumn can suck the life out of them #I’ll be the one laughing then #one piece #luffy #gear 5 #op #one piece rant #negativity #twitter #one piece memes

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adoreeenina · 3 months

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I wanna be yours - Ch. 13

(Recom! Miles Quaritch x Sully! Reader x Recom! Lyle Wainfleet)

(Warning: Polyamorous relationship. Angst. Enemies to Lovers. Slow burn. Falling in love. Redemption arc. Canon deaths (but not really). Romance. Smut. Jealousy. Threesome. Anal(both F & M receiving). Mention of suicide, self harm, depression, anxiety. PTSD. Feelings being revealed. Jake and Neytiri not being good parents to reader. Reader being a motherly figure to spider.)

~~~~~~

Lyle peace was disturbed by his earpiece crackling and hearing the voice of Miles to check on them, seeing as you’ve been gone for a while. With a groan Lyle woke you up from your short slumber.

You lead Lyle to the river to wash off the stench of each other. Lyle of course didn’t like that, not one bit, he liked that you smell of him and wished you didn’t have to wash it off but he knows it’s for the best. He didn’t need the others to know what happened between the two of you.

Lyle being a gentleman, helps you in the water and massage your thighs and hips.

It’s been so long he has been with a woman, even as a human he hasn’t been with one. Since arriving to Pandora from Earth, he never once had the time to sleep around and it wasn’t because he didn’t want to, more like his Colonel had him do the randomest assignments, him being second in command couldn’t say no.

Not to mention the rule they had to not sleep with your coworkers.

Spending so much time together could lead a lot of sexual tension and feelings you didn’t know would have.

Especially when alcohol is involved, one thing lead to another, they both wake up in the same bed. Lyle remembers he tried to avoid Miles any chance he could, but it was hard when he was your boss.

Surprisingly it was Miles who made the first move and looked for Lyle. And when he managed to find him, he asked Lyle out to dinner at his chambers. Feelings were long overdue between the two of them.

Lyle guess they had a perk for them both being men and not worry about an accidental pregnancy.

Too bad Miles broke that rule first before having a committed relationship with Lyle.

“Was I too rough?” He ask. Not taking his eyes off the apex of your thighs.

“No. I’m just sore” you respond as you use the Yursyulang, gripping the flower and stroking it softly over his muscular chest and shoulders.

“Why didn’t you want to do that bond thing with me?” He ask. You pause your movement and look up at Lyle, hearing the obvious insecurity in his voice.

“Lyle.” You sigh, already pulling yourself away from him, Lyle panics thinking he offended you.

“Hey!” He whispers as he holds onto your hips a little tighter, not letting you have the chance to step away from him. “I’m not gonna get offended or anything. I just want you to be honest with me”

“It’s best if we don’t, atleast for now” you gently caress his jaw, “Besides where I’m from you’re still considered a child” you tease.

“Excuse me? Do I look like a child to you?” You had to bite your lip to stop yourself from laughing when you hear the obvious offensive tone in his voice.

“Lyle, I didn’t mean it that way. Back at home, you’ll still be considered a child untill you complete your Uniltaron. Dream hunt. After that you’re considered an adult”

There was a short moment of silence between you. Lyle just watches you as you continue scrubbing the flower all over his body.

He can get used to this. It feels so modernistic to him, so right. You look so beautiful in all your glory. To him you’re one of a kind. You look just like a dream. The prettiest girl he’d ever seen

He wish he could’ve had something like this when he was human but then he remembers he did. With Miles, till it all went down hill.

He wonders what could’ve happened if Socorro didn’t get pregnant, would Miles and him still be together? Would they be back on earth, possibly married? but soon as the thought appears, it instantly went away when the image of Spider appears in his mind.

Lyle adores Spider, of course human Lyle tried to raise him as his own before he got himself killed during the war.

Spider has gotten close with him and Miles. Something human Lyle always wanted.

If only Miles wasn’t a prick, things would’ve turned out differently, but if they had… would Lyle be with you like this? Would he have met you at all? What about Spider?

“You did the Dream hunt yourself?” Lyle breaks the silence. Wanting a break from his thoughts.

“Yes.” You answer. You cups your hand in the water and pours it over the oily residue left by the flower petals.

“So if I do it, I’m considered an adult?”

“Yes, that’s right”

“What happens during it?” His ears stand at attention, waiting for your explanation. He never heard of this, than again his human self didn’t care much of the Navi culture or traditions.

“During the ceremony, you will be stung by an Arachnoid then you will swallow a glow worm. Once that is done. You will be one of the people” you smile up at him.

“just like that? That sounds easy enough” that comment makes you frown, if only he knew.

“It isn’t. You will be in excruciating pain and often experience near-death. Often times Na’vi do not make it”

“Shit” he breathes out anxiously.

“My grandmother told me my father almost didn’t make it during his dream hunt”

“Seriously?” Lyle eyes widen in surprise.

“Mhmm. His heart stopped beating for a while” you reply as you take your turn with the flower. Rubbing the petals over your skin.

After a short while, Lyle grabs your wrist, stopping your movements. In confusion, you look up at Lyle seeing him with the most shit eating from you had ever seen. You groan already knowing what coming.

“My heart stops beating every time I look at you” he cheekily says, he leans down and presses his lips to yours briefly and smiles tenderly.

“Lyle! That’s so cringy” You blow out an exasperated breath as you pull your face away when he tries to kiss your lips again, only to kiss your cheek instead.

“C’mon that was a good one” he grunts when you avoid his lips. He lets go of your wrist and possessively wraps his arms around your waist, pulling you against his chest.

“It’s really not” you jest.

“C’mere baby” Lyle cooes, threading his fingers through your braid and pulling your face closer to his.

“No, get away from me” you grin, turn your face away to avoid his attempts, teasing him.

“C’mere” Lyle lips move on to kiss along the shell of your ear. A shudder courses through you when he tugs the sensitive lobe between his sharp teeth.

Pushing you against the edge with his hands on your hips. He spins your body around to have your back to him, and bends you over slightly on the edge of the river.

A shiver runs down your spine as the hand stays light, and gentle - tracing the length of your arms, and slowly gliding down the curve of your back.

Your breath catches, and you're laden with anticipation as Lyle’s touches stay grazing. You nearly hold your breath as his hands finally reach round your hips, climbing slowly back up your body until they're once more on your shoulders, pulling you gently back into his large, firm chest.

"Fuuck." He growled out, burying his nose in your hair on the side of your head, his hot breath fanning past your ear as he breathed heavily.

It’s no secret that Lyle adores you, but you’ve learned over the course of your “capture” that he is particularly fond of the way you smell. Your natural essence of spiced, sugared vanilla draws him in like a moth to a flame.

Your scent is like a drug. It calls to him – like a siren’s song – demanding that his primal instincts give in and help himself to his next hit.

Leaning back you can feel Lyle’s erection pressing into you from behind, but you ignore it for now, enjoying the feeling of his slick body against yours as his hands slide down your shoulders, and to your breasts.

Your thighs clench of their own accord, your empty walls clenching around nothing. Apparently your body was just as hungry for him as he was for you.

"Lyle, we don’t have time. We have to go back with the others," you say breathlessly as Lyle begins to knead them in his palms, gently rolling your nipples between the pads of his fingers.

Fuck that feels so good!

"They can wait," Lyle whispers huskily, kissing your neck. "I want to take advantage of the time we have now"

A smile spreads across your face as two strong hands turn your body around and warm lips find yours, sending tingles down your spine.

Lyle’s tongue parts your lips and finds your own tongue, beginning a dance much more skillful than the first your mouths had shared.

You let out a low, involuntary moan and Lyle swallows it entirely - rewarding you by sucking you bottom lip between his teeth and giving it a tug.

His hips rock into yours as your hands find his chest, running over his tight pectorals and rippling abs. You relish the feeling of his muscles beneath your finger tips, and pull your lips from Lyle’s, desperate to really look at the body you hold in your hands.

As you push Lyle away, you allow the glow from the plants surrounding shine of the water on Lyle’s skin to highlight to contours of his lean figure. You stare in awe at the beauty before you, and search for any signs of the hardships he has endured. But where you expect to find traces of a war-bitten body, you find nothing but cerulean. A flawless finish.

Lyle cups the side of your face, traces his thumb across your cheek as he admires your beauty. He can never get enough of it. He looks deeply into your eyes, he adores your eyes, he could never get enough of them. A sky full of stars and he was staring at you. He pulls your face against his to connect your lips.

The moment your mouths meet, Lyle shatters.

You can feel his heart race beneath the hand you have pressed against his chest, and a breathy moan escapes his lips as he lifts a single leg around his waist, spreading you open as his cock nudges your entrance.

Your tail wraps around his left thigh, it tightens its grip, subconsciously tugging him closer.

“Lyle” you gasp as the head of his cock presses against your opening. "Fuck," you choke out, breath catching as your pussy clenches, desperately seeking to be filled. Neither of you pay attention your surroundings or the sound of footsteps coming your way.

“What are you guys tak-HOLY SHIT!” Lopez cried, covering his eyes. “LYLE, WHAT THE FUCK!”

“LOPEZ!” Lyle scrambles to pull the head of him out of you. On instinct, Lyle pulls you behind him to cover your modesty. He doesn’t like the idea of anyone seeing what’s his. Especially since Lopez has being shamelessly eyeing you from

Lopez looks at you and Lyle with wide eyes, clearly surprised to see your state of affairs.

“Turn around, Lopez!” you shout over Lyle’s shoulder.

With an eyeroll, Lopez turns his back to the both of you. Lyle quickly jumps out of the water and helps you up. He puts on his boxers first before he tries to help you tie on your top and loincloth.

“If I knew this was going to happen, I would’ve volunteered to come instead” Lopez shouts over his shoulder. Lyle growls clearly unamused by Lopez idiocy.

You give a gentle squeeze of assurance on Lyle’s forearm, one look at your gentle eyes, his shoulders sags from being tense by Lopez comment.

Once you and Lyle finished dressing, Lopez turns back around with a shit eating grin.

“Keep dreaming!” You growl, your face flush from embarrassment. With a glare his way, you cross your arms across your chest.

“I will! For the rest of my life. You’re the finest woman I ever met” Lopez unfazed by your penetrating glare, kept his gaze on you as they fall on your hips, seeing the clear finger print marks bruising your blue skin

“Lopez! Do you ever shut up, man!” Lyle pinches the bridge of his nose, clearly annoyed.

“Not when I just walked into something like that. Is this why you two took an hour here?” Lopez ask as he points at the two of you. Lyle sighs before looking at you.

What the fuck is he going to do?

“Lopez, can you keep this to yourself?” Lyle ask, it’s stupid of him to even ask since Lopez does have a big mouth but what other choice does he have.

He can’t have the other know and be reported back to Ardmore. You and Spider are his top priority right now.

Lopez looks at Lyle in surprise. Lopez doesn’t do well with secrets, he never has, he doesn’t like the pressure of it.

“What? You want me to keep this a secret? Aww man! Lyle, you know I don’t do well with secrets” poor Lopez is stressing.

“Well you should’ve thought of that before coming out here” Lyle retorts through clench teeth, his tail sways agitatingly behind him.

“Hey! No seas mamon, güey! Tell that to the Colonel, he ordered me to come find your ass and look what that got me!” Lopez defends himself.

“Shit!” Lyle curses under his breath.

“Atleast it wasn’t Spider. He almost volunteered to come if it wasn’t for Quaritch sending me instead” Lopez shrugs. Your eyes widen at that.

It would’ve been the end of the world for you if it was Spider who walked in on you instead of Lopez.

“Just keep your mouth shut about this, alright? I don’t need the others to know our business”

Lopez groans before agreeing, “fine, I got you” you watch silently as they both fist bump each other.

“C’mon baby” Lyle beacons you closer, “we’re heading back” Lyle bends over and grabs his vest. He slides it over his head as the three of you starts making your way back.

You walk ahead of them, Lopez and Lyle a few feet behind you as they look around, admiring the flora. Quietly talking among themselves.

“Are you fucking loco in the head, Lyle?” Lopez whispers. Lyle mentally cringe, he knew he probably shouldn’t have acted on his impulse. But he had to have you, one or another, he just had to. If it wasn’t for you pushing his hand away from your queue, he probably would’ve connected his kuru with yours.

“Lopez, this ain’t none of your business, man” Lyle sigh tiredly.

“None of my business?” Lopez is in disbelief at his Corporal, “dude I just walked in on you almost fucking our “prisoner”” Lopez does air quotes with his fingers.

Lyle frowns, “first off, don’t call her that..”

“Wha-“

“Second…” Lyle cuts Lopez off, “We weren’t “almost” fucking” Lyle sighed, scratching an eyebrow with his thumb, getting annoyed with his fucking ass-hat of a friend.

“The fuck does that mean?” Lyle sighs, Lopez doesn’t take his gaze away from Lyle’s side profile till it clicked. Lyle cringed when Lopez stops walking and looks at him with wide eyes.

“Oh. My. God. Lyle, tell me you didn’t” Lyle side glares Lopez for his accusations.

Lyle glances at you, walking ahead of them, before looking at Lopez, clearly wanting this conversation to end.

“Lopez-“

“No, Lyle. Tell me. Did you or did you not mate with her?” Lopez brows furrowed. He’s not asking cause he’s mad, he’s asking cause he’s worried for the well being of his friend and you, the Navi woman he has grown quite close to. Yes he has joked about having a crush on you but that’s just it. A crush.

“No, Lopez. We didn’t” Lopez hears the dejected tone in his voice and it makes him exhale a groan.

“What about Miles?” Lyle raises his with a raised brow at Lopez

“What about him?”

“Man…” Lopez shakes his head in disbelief, “you really are a fucking knucklehead.” He smiles at Lyle’s jumbled face, “The team and I aren’t as naive as you and the Colonel think” Lopez jokingly punch Lyle’s shoulder.

“Que rabiosa” Lopez shouts at you, noticing your weird walk, and it made him laugh historically.

You look behind you seeing Lyle glaring at Lopez and shoves his shoulder.

“Lopez! Shut up, man!”

“Alright, alright, jeez. I see you’re frustrated, is it because you didn’t cum?”

“Lopez, keep moving before I beat the shit out of you”

——

“Took you long enough” says Miles as he watches the three of you come into view, his eyebrow raise when he sees you wince when you sat down on a fallen log, “what’s wrong, darlin?”

“Nothing” you wave him off, Lyle sits next to you and offers you some fish, you take it with a smile. Lopez sits the other side of you.

Spider watches the interaction between you and Lyle as he eats. He found it odd when just this morning, you were ignoring him and now you two… Spider eyes widen in a realization, causing him to choke on his food.

“Spider” Miles lightly scolds him as he gently pat on Spider’s back, “we talked about you scarfing down your food too fast”

Both you and Lyle turn to look at Spider in worrisome. Spider waves off everyone’s concern, making eye contact with you. He gives you that look that you know all to well.

Oh shit! He knows!

“Where you going?” You ask Spider when you see him stand up.

“I’m tired. I’m going to sleep” he answers with a yawn, you see him grab the hammock from Miles bag.

“Let me set it up” you say with a wince when you try to stand.

“Baby, let me. You sit down and eat” Lyle grabs you by the wrist to gently guide you back down. Lyle stands up and dust his pants before following Spider up a tree to set up the hammock.

But before Spider could climb the tree, Spider gives you a look, that look, telling you, you better follow him and tell him everything. You gulp nervously. He was fake yawning.

Oh eywa, please help me and not let Spider kill me!

“Amor is very beautiful, ain’t it mami?” Lopez teases you as he bumps his shoulder against yours.

“What?” You blink at him.

“Love. Not only do you have one man but you have two” Lopez emphasizes by holding up two fingers. You frown.

“Lopez, where are you going with this? I don’t have two men” You glance around and feel grateful when no one seems to be listening on the nonsense Lopez is spilling. Two men? What the hell is he talking about?

“You heard me, mami” the man grins, scooching over and leaning forward to look at your face, “not only do you have Lyle wrapped around your finger but you also have our fearless Colonel” he hummed suggestively and you lean back a bit.

“I think you’re seeing things, Lopez” you suggest with an eyeroll.

“I’m seeing the way you look at them” he hums and voice turning gentle.

“Lopez-“

“Anyone with eyes could see that. We could also see the way they look at you” Lopez smiles softly and your eyes darted around, landing on the ground.

“Don’t you have someone else to bother?” At that Lopez laughs loudly and you drew your lips into a thin line in embarrassment.

“Lopez, has your mother not teach you not to bother a lady?” Lyle grumbles with a raised brow as he walks towards the two of you, glaring at Lopez.

“Oh you mean your lady?” The Latino wiggles his brows and Lyle furrowed his, drawing his lips into a thin line as he walked over and kicked Lopez in the chest, throwing him backwards off the log.

"Ow, pinche baboso!" He called out, scrambling to his knees to look at Lyle in offense.

"Go bother someone else” was Lyle’s reply, dismissing the man on the ground as he instead slung his leg over the log to your right, sitting down sideways so he could face you.

"Protective much.." Lopez grumbles in a murmur as he gets up, dusting himself off before hopping back over the log to continue to bother someone else, poor Mansk, but not before sending you a wink.

“That asshole” Lyle mumbles, you giggle at him before looking around the small group.

They all seem to be talking among themselves about thing you don’t understand. Miles seems to be the only one that looks distracted.

He seems to be deep in thought, and it worries you.

“Is he okay?” You whisper to Lyle. Lyle picks up his head to look around then back at you with a confused expression.

“Who?”

“Miles” you answer. At your verification, Lyle instantly look at Miles. You see the flicker of anxiousness on his face.

“You’re his friend, why don’t you go talk to him” you suggest.

Lyle sighs heavily, “Baby-“

“It’s okay.” You cut him off. It’s obvious he is worried about Miles, but he’s apprehensive about leaving you on your own. Which you appreciate. “You go. I’m exhausted anyways. I’m going to head to the hammock with Spider” you place the leaf down beside you.

“I tired you out, baby?” Lyle asks and looks with a mischievous smirk up at you. You shake your head, with a quiet whimper, you manage to get up on your own. Lyle subtly reach his hand in case you stumble or fall.

“Don’t let it go to your head, oeyä tìyawn” (my love) you shove his head playfully with a small smile. Lyle sways slightly backwards to exaggerate you pushing him.

“Wait…” Lyle blinks, “what does that mean?”

You shrug your shoulders with a small grin. You step over the log to make your way to the tree.

“Baby, wait- what does it mean?!” Lyle shouts at you.

“Goodnight Lyle” you wave your hand, not looking behind you. You giggle when you hear Lyle groan in frustration.

He should’ve paid attention during your lessons, instead of gawking at you.

With a grunt, you hoist yourself on a brunch and start climbing towards your shared hammock. Right when you’re about to reach, Spider jumps out.

“What the fuck did you two do?!”

You shriek, almost falling backwards. Grabbing your bearings, you catch your balance. You take a deep breath of relief before glaring at Spider for almost falling to your possible death.

“Darlin? You alright up there?”

You turn your glare away from Spider and look over the branch to gaze down at Miles. Miles is looking up at you with his hands on his hips with his regular scowl but the flick of his tail gives him away. your gaze soften.

“Yeah, I’m okay, Colonel” you shout back.

His gaze seems to linger on you, eyes flickering over your face and tail flicking erratically behind him. His lips seem to twitch up just slightly at the corners. Eventually, Quaritch nods in acquiescence before moving toward the group.

“Alright, sweetheart.”

You watch as Miles makes his way to sit down next to Lyle who seems to be deep in conversation with him.

“Ahem”

Hearing Spider, you almost forgot why you’re up there in the first place. You look at Spider with deadpan expression, almost glaring.

“Spider, what the fuck. I almost feel, nga vonvä’” (you asshole) you sneer down at Spider, who seems unfazed which annoys you. A lot. You sit down criss cross on the branch closest to the hammock.

“Tell. Me . Everything.” You throw your head back with a groan, it’s embarrassing enough that Lopez caught you in the act, now Spider wants you to tell him.

“There’s nothing to tell, Spider” you avoid the topic.

“Really? So you being gone for almost and hour has nothing to do with the bruises on your hips, which by the way looks like the size of Lyle’s hand, is nothing?”

You stare at him harshly for a moment longer before sighing and shake your head in acquiescence. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t something all that serious anyways. Kind of. Atleast to you.

Spider inhales deeply when he looks away from you. You almost feel like you disappointed him, but why do you feel such a way?

But Spider doesn’t feel that way, he’s worried, scared even. If it were in a different situation, he would’ve been happy for you.

“Did you mate with him?” You tug your bottom lip in apprehension, you don’t blame Spider for asking, but it doesn’t make you feel less embarrassed.

You sigh, knowing this conversation was going to happen soon. "No. But I think he wanted to." You say, knowing he wasn't going to accept that.

“What do you mean?”

You absentmindedly play with your songcord to keep your hands busy.

“When we ~ahem~ about to… you know” you wave your hand around dismissively.

Spider took a minute till it hit him what you meant. His face scrunch up in disgusted and groan.

“Ew”

“Spider!” You shout offensively before pouting.

“Okay. Okay.” Spider dramatically takes a deep breath, shaking his head to clear out the image he did not what to think about, “I’m sorry, continue”

You roll your before continuing, “he grabbed my queue, I saw the look in his eyes, he wanted to connect our kurus but I stopped him”

“Why?”

“Cause he’s not considered as an adult to the people”

“Bullshit” He says.

You let your songcord fall on your thigh and take a deep breath. “What do you want me to say, Spider?”

“The truth. Don’t give that bullshit”

“Like what? Tell you that I’m in love with Lyle? That I fell for him?” You frown, “Yes Spider, I did.” Your fingered twitch, “Yes we’ve… gotten intimate, I wanted to officially mate but…” you close your eyes

Spider waits, watching you think before speaking, “But what?”

“It didn’t feel right, okay?” You look down at your palms.

“Why not?”

You shrug, “I don’t know”

Spider leans back on the tree and crosses his arms across his chest. "You’re in love with my dad too. Aren’t you.” He says, and it's not a question.

“Yeah”

“You fell for them, knowing they’re here to kill Jake and take over Pandora”

“I know” you say as you continue to play with your songcord.

“You know this won’t end well”

“I know” you say again.

“And yet you fell for them”

“Yes” you sigh.

“I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”

Your head spins towards him and this odd shift in tone. “What?" I say with a confused chuckle.

He smiles at you. “I know the story, Y/n. Neytiri was forced to teach Jake the way of the people. And along the way they both fell for each other. You’re somewhat in a similar situation… that has to tell you something”

You chuckle, “yeah, that I’m an idiot like my mom”

Spider brings his hand up and smacks the side your head.

“Hey!” You say, recoiling from him.

“No, you Skxáwng. Maybe history will repeat itself, and they’ll change their ways. Like Jake did.” he says, and you’re honestly just relieved that he isn't upset with you.

Change their ways? If only. But… you have seen the dramatic change in every single one of them. Lyle did say he doesn’t care about the mission. But do the rest feel that way too?

Then you remember… the Atokirina.

You lean closer to Spider, lowering your voice, “The great mother gave me a sign”

Spider eyes widen, “what?”

You bite you bottom lip, anxiously, “an Atokirina landed on both Lyle and Miles.”

“Eywa sees them” Spider gasp, awestruck.

“Look, I would never question the great mother’s doing. But I have yet to understand what she sees in them”

“Didn’t you just said Lyle doesn’t care about the mission anymore?”

“Yes but-“

“If you made Lyle change, who to say you don’t make the others change too?”

You stare at him in disbelief, waiting for his expression to crack. But he is clearly serious.

“Spider, that isn’t up to me, it’s up to them if they…”

“You don’t see it? Do you? They’re all in a constant turmoil in their minds.”

“But…”

“Eywa holds all her children in her heart. And that includes them. Whether they see it or not. They do. I see how much they’re starting to see the beauty of Pandora”

Your eyes cast downwards, not knowing how to respond to that. But you do know to you feel.

You’re scared.

Oh how your parents would kill you for being in this situation. Oh your poor grandmother. First her daughter mates with a demon and now you… falling for two demons. What would she think.

Spider reach for your hand, your head snaps up, “I know you’re scared. So am I. But if the Eywa touch them…” Spider cringe at the word, making you giggle, “wait no, I- that sounds wrong. Let me try again,” he clears his throat, “IF Eywa approves of them, then she knows” he assures you.

You didn’t even realize you were crying till you felt tears drop to your thighs. Spider sees and gently pulls on your wrist. You lean down and he wraps his arms around your shoulders, comforting you. It was an arkward angle but it was comforting none the less.

“So… Lopez knows… doesn’t he”

“Yeah” you laugh. Spider gives you a tight squeeze before letting you go, “he walked in on us”

Spider eyes widen, “good thing my dad denied me going. I didn’t need to see that” Spider shakes his head.

“Yeah” you laugh, “Lyle made him promise he won’t say anything.”

“You think he won’t?”

“I really hope so” you exasperates. You and Spider laughs.

“I’m actually tired so, I’m going to sleep for reals” you jokingly push Spiderto give you room on the hammock.

“Fine.” Spider moves before looking at you seriously, “did you atleast bathe first before coming here? I do not need you smelling like sex”

“Spider!” You blush, smacking his harm, Spider laughs.

(I’m sorry again for my absence. I do feel guilty on leaving like that. I feel like this is more like a filler, if you know what I mean. I promise the next chapter would be better I promise. Also please comment and let me know. You guys know I love to hear what you think☺️❤️)

Taglist: @alexandra-001 @commanderrivercc-3628 @henhouse-horrors @certainkittenpeach @multi-fandom-rando @zzedah @mrstargayen09 @loaksulluyswife @averagehorrorgirl @baybaybear1 @deathlypink @ratchetprime211

#i wanna be yours #miles quaritch x reader #lyle wainfleet x reader #recom lyle wainfleet #recom miles quaritch #polyamarous #avatar the way of water #spider x reader #miles quaritch #polyamory

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loveyourownsmiilee · 1 year

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Talking Buddie Language: Ep 6.14

I’m gonna start off by saying I really enjoyed tonight’s episode even though we didn’t get much Buddie scenes together. We have been so well fed this half of the season so I knew it was coming soon. However, I really do think we got a wonderful Eddie centric episode that is possible to set up his next character arc. And most of that arc, in my opinion, will be coming to terms with who he is as a person and figuring out who he wants as a romantic partner. I think he’s afraid to let himself think of that partner because of the deep rooted fear he has of being left alone. I got to say, there’s a lot more gifs than actual analysis this time around but they’re all important to the meta. So I hope you all enjoy 💜

Meddling Tia Pepa

I was really looking forward to Tia Pepa’s return but because my foolish, naive heart thought she knew about the Buddie of it all. Boy was I wrong because she was back with one goal in mind and that was to set up Eddie on a blind date. She literally called him over under the false pretenses of needing his help, thus blindsiding him with a girl she wanted to set him up with. I will say, I have missed the Diaz family and it was nice to see her back.

The moment Eddie turns around and sees the girl, Vanessa, he immediately freaks out. That entire scene at Tia Pepa’s house was very queercoded and I’ll get into my reasoning as to why.

E: What did you do Tia?

P: What has to be done.

E: You tricked me…into a blind date?

He is actively freaking out the moment he sees her and you can tell by the way he scratches his head. He turns around and wants do make a run for it. When he questions Pepa, his eyes are wide and he is in complete disbelief because he didn’t think she would do something like this. What man would act like this upon walking in and seeing a beautiful girl who is someone they could very well date? Oh yes a queer one.

Pepa isn’t having any of Eddie’s questioning and counter questions him into confessing what else he has planned for the day, only to prove her point.

P: What were you doing right before I called?

E: I was… at home. Christopher spent the night at a friends house. I-I didn’t have time to figure my day out. It’s Saturday!

The way he immediately avoids any and all eye contact, and looks to the side indicates he is trying to come up with some explanation that is very clearly a lie. He hesitates, and has to gather his thoughts to come up with a plausible answer, and that is what gives it away that he’s lying. Pepa also catches on to the fact that he lied to her. Now we can all speculate all we want but something tells me he wasn’t just at home doing nothing. We know, especially in recent episodes, that any time he’s not with his son, he is often found hanging out with Buck. So I found it really weird how he had to actually lie to his aunt about his whereabouts.

P: Aye Edmundo, it breaks my heart to see you alone. It’s been too long. You need to do something or you’re gonna be alone forever.

E: Tia, I can’t marry someone just cause you say so.

Literally who the hell is talking about marriage here?!? It’s so interesting to see the way Eddie’s mind works when it comes to relationships and dating. This almost confirms that he’s never really dated anyone just to date them. You can kind of infer from this moment that he probably had to marry Shannon because of outside forces and they didn’t really get to date. And he was most likely with Ana because he believed, once again due to outside forces *Bobby*, that he needed to marry the perfect woman on paper. Because she would’ve been a wonderful mother to Christopher and his son loved her. It seems as though Eddie has not dated somebody who he himself wanted to date. And he sure as hell didn’t date anyone without the impression of it becoming a legitimately serious thing. So I think this opens the door for him to really question what dating means to him and who he wants to choose as the person he does date. It also indicates that he is looking to marry someone eventually. And some thing about this scene just made me think that he has possibly considered getting married again and possibly even gone as far as to say he might know who he wants to marry, but doesn’t think it’s an actuality. These are just some thoughts I had after watching this whole scene with his Tia. There’s definitely something under the surface for sure, and I think this episode is slowly hinting at it.

The 118 Have Opinions About Eddie’s Blind Date

I love when we get to see the firefam discussing literally anything about their personal lives. It really just drives home the idea that they’re an actual family and that they all found each other and built this family together.

C: So how'd you leave it?

E: We were gonna text each other to meet up.

B: I mean you could always conveniently forget to text her.

C: He's not gonna ghost her Buck.

E: Yeah, she already texted me.

I really love how last episode we got to see Eddie acting jealous over Buck mentioning all the women he has slept with. I have mentioned it many times on my blog how Eddie is very overtly obvious when he is jealous. Buck, on the other hand, is subtle with his jealousy. This entire time they're talking about Vanessa, the only thing he contributes is suggesting Eddie ghosts her. I mean is that how a best friend would act if they were genuinely supportive of their best friend dating again? Even the way he sits down and looks all petty at Eddie indicates pure jealousy over this topic of conversation.

E: Now I gotta figure out how to let her down easy.

B: Ooh, you're not good at that.

E: No, I'm not.

One thing I love about this specific moment is that even in the episodes where we do not get a lot of Buddie moments, they will throw in something that makes us remember just how close these two are with each other. This was a direct callback to Eddie breaking up with Ana by telling her to just go home. There is no way Eddie didn't end up confiding in Buck, his literal go to confidant, about that whole mess. So Buck mentioning that little fact just drives home the fact that these two are very close and tell each other almost everything. Which then begs the question, why isn't Eddie just discussing this with only Buck. Makes one question the real reasoning behind the fact that we never see them talking about their possible romantic partners unless it is to get advice when it is falling apart.

(Gifs by @matan4il)

E: Well she seems nice. She already picked the place.

B: Ah.

E: I just hate being forced to a date. Feels like I have to perform.

Once again, the fact that the frame focuses on Buck, with his arms crossed, closed off and keeping him safe and away from being hurt in this instance, to simply nodding his head in a very jealous way is definitely something. He is the only one who seems to be that interested in Eddie's plans with Vanessa and it goes to show once more that he is not really being as supportive as he could be. These men both do this all the time when there is another woman involved. He is definitely not happy about Eddie going on this date and I don't blame him considering he was dressing up nicely just one episode ago to go out with Eddie.

I also really love Buck's reaction when Eddie says that he feels like he has to perform. He is confused but he smirks because he can't believe Eddie just said something like that in front of everyone. He basically laid all his cards out in front of him. What he said, about having to perform is also very queercoded, because it indicates him having to put on a facade to be able to date a woman, when he doesn't really want to. Almost as if he really isn't all that straight and knows he has to force himself to be in the right mindset to make everyone else around him happy. Buck seems to be questioning what Eddie could possibly mean and you see that with the downturn of his lips here.

Then Hen, or as Chimney so lovingly says, Tia number 3, comes in and questions Eddie. The camera also panned to her when Eddie said the bit about having to perform and I find it interesting that her reaction was very "I know what you are."

H: Or maybe you're anxious about said performance.

E: Anxious? Who's anxious?

H: It's ok to feel nervous. Vanessa's probably at work right now, panicking too.

E: I do not panic.

No, no, of course you don't Edmundo. You also totally didn't end up in the hospital because of a panic attack at the idea of being married to a woman. He is so silly and I really want to bring back mirroring because he is mirroring Buck here. We all know Buck always talks with his mouth full and I don't believe we have seen Eddie talking with his mouth full before. Either way, when you hang out with someone too much, you start adapting all their habits and mannerisms, the good, the bad and the ugly. Here he has definitely adapted Buck's bad habit of speaking with his mouth full and it really makes me giggle because it's such a small thing but it shows how similar these two have become.

This entire scene also was very Eddie being somewhat repressed and in denial about it. Him telling Hen he does not panic, when we all know he had panicked with Ana is definitely important and I believe it's going to play a key factor in his upcoming character arc.

The Fake Date

Ok I got to say how it was such a deliberate choice in having this date come after the poker game from last week because the differences are insane to me. Not only did Eddie channel Buck from the poker game with his outfit, but he didn't put the same level of effort in this date with Vanessa as he did when he went out with Buck. He's just wearing a simple suit and he doesn't really seem to be into the date from the beginning. Whereas last week, we had him in that plaid blue suit, with the turtleneck and his fancy gold watch. He also could not stop looking at Buck, whereas he barely even looked at Vanessa in the beginning of their date.

Not only that, but he literally was there to let her down easy, which he started to explain when he said, "Full disclosure," but was cut off before we can find out the reason why.

Some key takeaways from this date that really convinced me that it was not special and nothing important for the future were the following:

— He was being friendly with her, as he is with every other female friend we have seen him interacting with.

— He was understanding when she explained to him about her ex-fiance and how she is definitely not ready for anything serious

— His little "I do" moment was very much like that moment in 4.05 when he told Buck, "I know you did." The same softness sure, but this lacked the fondness and love his eyes hold anytime he's talking to Buck.

— He took out his phone to take notes. Literally what successful date includes note taking?

— He didn't seem mesmerized by her at all. He didn't have that twinkle in his eyes when looking at her. She was fun and sassy and he smiled at her, but it was nothing that would rival his special Buck smile.

— When she leaves, the biggest thing is that he does not turn his head to look after her. If he had truly been interested (or straight) he would have watched her walk away. BUT he did not. Instead, he kind of smiled and shook his head in disbelief that she bested him before he could. He also let out a breath of relief, because the man really did not want to be on that date. He didn't seem upset or heartbroken in any way. The only look I can describe this as would be possible bafflement at how his night went down considering he came in with one thing on his mind and that was taken from him when she ended it on her own.

Eddie's Date Review? No Sorry Performance Review

I found it hilarious how Eddie was really thinking about how Vanessa pulled a fast one on him.

E: Sorry uh, it's a lot to process.

BN: Didn't expect the brush off huh?

I don't know why but this moment reminds me so much fo the moment between Buck and Eddie in 5.02 in the bunk area when they're discussing Ana. The way Eddie avoids looking at Buck and tells him "Just feels like a lot man."

E: Not gonna lie, it's probably the worst one yet.

BN: Wait, you didn't even want this date.

E: Yeah so it shouldn't be bothering me right?

Well the reason this is bothering Eddie very much is because he is the guy who likes to have his control. The things that he cannot control are the things that end up bothering him the most. So here he isn't really thinking of a missed opportunity. No he is thinking about how he had a plan to go in there and tell Vanessa that she is a nice girl but he was not ready for a date. He probably had something else he wanted to say but that opportunity was taken from him when she didn't let him finish what he had to say. So of course this is on his mind and of course it will be bothering him for a while. Because Eddie Diaz likes his tight grasp on things he can control and when that's taken from him, he starts to spiral.

E: Maybe Hen's right. Maybe, maybe I'm anxious about not performing.

Again, this man is thinking about the fact that he has to perform. He cannot date a woman and be himself because he does not want to date women. This reminds me of that moment between Buck and him in 5.11, where Buck tells him, "You don't have to pretend with me." That's is isn't it? When Eddie is with Buck, there is no need to put on an act or have anxiety over it. He simply exists and is who he always has been. There is no need for a performance or to pretend to be someone he is not because Buck knows him and he accepts and loves him for who Eddie is entirely. And that is what they are showcasing here. How Eddie may need to perform with women, but when he is with his right partner, he can be who he is and know that he will love him anyway.

I love how Bobby gives Eddie the kiss of death AGAIN. Any time this man gives anyone relationship advice, they are immediately doomed. We saw it with Eddie and Ana in s4. So this only sets the curse for whatever other dates Eddie may eventually go on and that makes me laugh.

BN: Maybe it's time to find the right work/life balance.

E: Feel like I have that. Me, Christopher, we're a good team.

BN: You're a great father. But there's more to life that I think even Christopher would agree. The sooner you realize that, the sooner you get back out there.

This is the second time they allude to the fact that Eddie is alone in raising Christopher. First Pepa said it in the beginning of the episode. Now Eddie mentions how it is just him and Chris. The weird thing with this is that we had 3 episodes before this that showed how intertwined the Diaz boys are with Buck. They showed what a family unit they three are and how Buck can be viewed as a wonderful partner and coparent to Eddie. Christopher begging Buck to come back home when he was in a coma was like any child begging their parent to come back to them. Eddie crying like the grieving widow he was did not indicate him being alone in this world. Not only that but just the episode before this they gave us heavy family feels with Buck and Eddie helping Chris with his homework and then Buck baking cookies for Christopher's class. So this begs the question, why the incessant need to mention that Eddie is alone when we all can see that he is not.

A part of me believes that maybe it's possible that outside to the Buckley Diaz trio, not a lot of people are aware of how close they are to each other. I made a post about how it's very possible people do not even know about Eddie's will because of what it can very well symbolize. Maybe Eddie does not want people to know how important Buck is to him because then he has to answer questions about that. Questions that he may not be fully prepared to respond to. Maybe this is his way of keeping his heart safe by not acknowledging the importance of Buck in his life just yet.

E: I feel like I haven't had a chance to really uh, collect my thoughts. So let me go out there and do some collections.

It's funny how he mentions this to Bobby before he heads out because from every thing we have seen up to this point, it is Eddie not really thinking about certain things in his life. He has not really collected his thoughts and come to the conclusion as to why he is so content with how his life currently is and why he does not need to date anyone. I think this foreshadows Eddie really taking some time throughout the next few episodes to reflect on his current life and think about things and choices he's made. I hope we get to see some of those thoughts and the conclusions they bring forth.

Buck, The Nepo Prince of The 118

I love love loved the cute little father/son performance review moment we got. I got to say, it definitely felt weird to see Buck have such little lines but I was also glad for it considering so many of the recent episodes were all Buck centric.

B: My PT scores are not right there. They're low and you marked me outstanding.

BN: Yes, considering...

B: Considering what, that I uh had an accident on the job, but I recovered.

BN: Buck, you died.

B: Yeah, so what, you're just gonna take it easy on me forever?

BN: Buck, I don't think that's entirely inappropriate.

The fact that we have had someone tell Buck he has died every single episode since he work up is very interesting and a little morbid. It is clear as day that man has not fully recovered or made his peace with the fact that he died. He keeps making light of it and avoiding talking about his feelings about it. The only time we saw him be somewhat truthful was with Eddie in his kitchen in 6.12. And given what we know about the next episode and him being intrigued by a death doula, I can see why they keep mentioning it to him. They are setting up the storyline to turn into him getting some actual help about his death and eventually making his peace with it.

Tia Pepa Comes Clean

I love how Eddie could not even fully remember the lie they came up with about the fake date. He immediately slips up and Tia Pepa catches onto his lie before he even has a chance to go any further. He told her that the date went "great" and that they decided to stay friends.

E: She was...very nice.

P: You're never gonna see her again.

E: I'm sorry Tia. I'm not ready.

Once again this goes to prove that any time Eddie has dated someone, it has been at the persistence of someone else. He only went along with it to appease his aunt and even then, he did it knowing his heart was not in it. He needs to learn to make these choices for himself and only himself. If something is not broke, there is no need to fix it. If Eddie is not ready to date and he is completely content with how he is living his life, it is not up to his Tia or anyone else to meddle into it and tell him how he should be living it. This scene once more further shows how queercoded Eddie is because there is something he is just, unable to say out loud to her in this moment.

When Pepa comes clean about her first marriage and how it took her 6 years to get over it, Eddie is visibly upset and can't believe this was kept from him. Now, why would he be upset at some family secret that’s been kept from him? Well given his reaction, I’d say it was important to his own history, which is why he was taken aback by the news. Eddie was also married and he seems to come from a very clean cut traditional family where divorce is not an option. So considering Shannon not only left him, but came back only to ask him for a divorce, really affected him for a long time. He felt like a failure and was mad at a dead person for a while there. Now, finding out that Pepa was also divorced and then found the love of her life, it connects him to her even more. There’s another Diaz who had a failed marriage but was still able to move on and find their right partner in the end. It almost gives Eddie hope and you can see that with the final moment he shares with his Tia.

P: I was getting set in my ways, and the longer you are alone, the easier it is. I don’t want that for you.

E: Me either.

Eddie has tears in his eyes and he really understands where his Tia is coming from. He knows she means well and he resonates with her. But this also leaves the door open as to yes, maybe he is open to finding the right partner, but how he plans on achieving that is where things get tricky. I really do feel like it’s possible that they are going to further develop. His character arc into him dating some people, and realizing why things are not working out with each person. Because deep inside, he has to know that he has already found that person. I just feel like he is very afraid to allow himself to feel the things that he does, and to want the person he does. But I think this episode really opens the door for him realizing he’s ready and he needs to go on this journey to find his perfect partner (we all know he’s found him. Now only he needs to figure it out himself.)

Ravi Comes Home

The reason I want to mention Ravi is because he said something that really made me think of Buck and Eddie. When he was telling Chimney about what happened with the accident, he says something about how, “But what haunts me isn’t the one that I lost. It’s the one I saved.”

Now why the hell would this remind me of Buddie? Well let’s take a look at Eddie and his partners shall we. When Shannon, his wife and mother of his child was in an accident, he could not save her. He had to sit there and watch her die. And that did affect him for a long time, and he was traumatized by it.

But then his work partner and other coparent was struck by lightning and literally died for 3 minutes and 17 seconds. Now who was the one that got his heart beating again?? Eddie. Eddie was able to save Buck. But he stood there for days and mourned because he didn’t want to live a life without Buck. He couldn’t look at him, he was crying and dressed like an actual widow. Not just that, he clearly has unresolved feelings about that whole thing because we saw him mention it to Buck in 6.12 about how he died and he’s allowed to have feelings about that. And he was quick to correct Chief Williams when she mistakenly mentioned how Buck was dead for 3 minutes. Eddie knows how long, down to the second he was dead for because in those 3 minutes and 17 seconds, he had to live his worst fear. And I feel like the fact that he did end up saving Buck haunts him every day.

It was so nice to see Ravi back with the team. Eddie and Buck hugging him like he’s their little brother was so wholesome. Buck lifting Ravi up while Eddie looked on with a big smile on his face was what we all needed. The final glimpse of Buck and Eddie in the background all blurry was wonderful. They’re clearly close as ever, considering they once again, do not know what personal space is. I also love the fact that you can see Buck in his blurry form, leaning his head on Eddie’s shoulder.

(Gif by @whosoldherout)

I personally can’t wait to see where their storylines go from here. I’m being optimistic and still think it’s really inevitable that they don’t get together romantically. I’m excited for this ride and can’t wait to see what the read is the season brings us.

Once again, thank you to @aa-lionheart for all the lovely gifs. I adore you tremendously. And thank you to each and every one of you who reads this through. I appreciate you all more than you’ll ever know 💜

#Buddie #evan buckley #eddie diaz #ravi panikkar #bobby nash #pepa diaz #911 spoilers #911 speculation #911 meta #911 on fox #buddie meta #buddie language meta

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