maxine

happy ten years to the best series ever written 🥺

the very first page drew me in. the world was so dark, so utterly heartbreaking and tragically sad. these characters, each of them, were so well rounded and so real, their flaws and strengths and motives. they made me cry, they made me laugh, they had my heart in ruins, but they also filled me with hope.

ruby was amazing. i loved her to bits, and her development was the best one. she inspires me every day with her strength, compassion, resilience and kindness. she is the best character EVER written.

i also love her dynamics with everyone close to her. the romance was one of my favourites (liam ily so much) but more than that i loved the friendships. the black betty gang invented the word found family?

could i ever talk about tdm without talking about cole? no. the character i'm attached to the most. no words are enough to express how much he means to me. i think the tumblr posts, edits, tweets, fanfiction, headcanons & fan art commission speak for themselves.

ruby: the best flavor sweet sweet paradise love of my life watermelon gum

liam: "classic" aka boring ugly gross actively gagging if you enjoy this don't touch me

chubs: a true classic in all the right ways you can't go wrong with spearmint

zu: my sweet beautiful girl gets the all time best gum extreme limited edition sherbet

vida: an interesting flavor but it somehow works I'd chew this and so would she

cole: I feel like I don't have to explain this

clancy: again I shouldn't have to explain

jude: minty so he doesn't have to brush his teeth and chocolate to get him to chew it I feel like jude is a mint chip boy

nico: this is a very controversial gum flavor however it's quite possibly gods only creation and if you hate this gum you hate me by default I don't have any evidence or reasoning for this nico just chews it and it makes chubs cry

Harry Stewart is not white, on page 414 of ita Ruby describes him as follows "I saw a flash of black skin, a handsome, grizzled face..."

So Claire Stewart probably wasn't white, which is what most people seem think. But thats incorrect

Yelena: Maybe you could reconsider how you’re asking.

Natasha:

Ok so this is one of the ways that I think that it would happen hehehehehe. This takes place over two parts. This part is the context. In NF. Btw in this, at the league Ruby knows about Cole’s powers because of their mission together from my other post lmao. Idk what is canon or not anymore. Definitely not this because Clancy may or may not die in this. Idk I haven’t decided yet.

Alban gives Cole his own room to practice his firebending in. Cole named it the Red Room from marvel until Ruby told him what actually happened there.

He then named it The Room of the Reds

He has Ruby come sometimes to help him practice and to watch his form

Ruby wants to beat vida in a fight and Cole and Vida have an unspoken rivalry for some reason so he offers to help train her

Eventually they spar and Ruby puts up a pretty good fight but let’s face it she can never win

So he knocks her off her feet and pins her down

She laughs it off an tries to get up

Cole: nope you’re stuck gem. I guess you will be here forever.

Ruby keeps laughing but then she is done w it and tries to wriggle out of it.

Ruby: Cmon Cole let me up

He leans in close to her face and just smirks

Ruby starts getting a little uncomfortable and snaps at him “Cole I said get off me”

Cole: Nope you have to earn it. Calm down. I’m not going to hurt you.

All of a sudden Ruby is reminded of the way Clancy said those exact words to her only a few months ago.

She starts panicking and breathing really heavily. She spasms on the ground trying to get up. Ruby: Get off me. Please get off of me. Get off of me right now. Tears start to water in her eyes because all she can see is Clancy’s face instead of Cole’s.

Cole got off of her immediately and said: Ruby, Ruby, what’s wrong. Are you ok? I’m so sorry. What’s wrong.

Once he got off of her, she scooted back to the wall and put her head between her knees with her hands on her mouth. Cole saw her sobbing but he stayed back a little bit to give her space.

Eventually he walked over to her and put his hand on her arm. Cole: hey, are you ok? I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.

She just wraps her arms around his neck and sobs into his neck. He holds her close and rubs his hand down her hair. She let all of the emotions that she had suppressed about it out, because she never had time to really process it.

She looks up at him and he wipes her eyes. Cole: Hey, Gem, did… someone touch you? She just nodded. He took a sharp breath. Cole: Do you want to tell me what happened? Was it Liam? Because if it was I swear to go-

Ruby: no, no, of course it wasn’t Liam.

Cole: I’m so sorry I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. I should have seen that you were serious. Gem I’m so sorry. Please just know that I would never ever try to hurt you. You’re like my best friend.

Ruby: He was my friend too.

Cole felt his heart drop and held his fists tight in his hands to suppress the fire that was about to explode out of him.

Ruby could barely look at him when she said: He said exactly what you said to me when u were pinning me down.

Ruby and Cole just sat there for a while in silence because Cole knew that she didn’t want to share any further.

In ITA on their way to the Ranch. This is right after Ruby made sure that Liam and them were ok after the car crash and she realized that she left Clancy alone in the truck.

Ruby sprinted to the truck and threw open the door to see Clancy without his head covering, just smirking at her.

She climbed in and checked to make sure that his hand and feet restraints were secure.

Cole appeared at the door as Clancy grabbed her hand tightly.

Ruby was already shaken up so this paralyzed her. Immediately she started trying to yank her wrist out of his fist.

All of her instincts left her mind and she started to panic. Something about him always unsettled her and made all her training leave her head.

Ruby: Let go! Let go of me!

Cole: Let go of her right now or I’ll shoot your ass in the head

Cole had no idea why Ruby was freaking out so much because usually she handled this little asswipe with ease.

Clancy laughed and made eye contact with Cole as he said to Ruby: How does it feel to no longer be the only powerful friend in the group?

Cole and Ruby stopped where they were as their stomachs dropped

Clancy: Why are you freaking out Ruby? Calm down. I’m not going to hurt you.” He simply smirked

Cole understood.

He ripped Ruby out of the car and slammed the door. She collapsed against the side of the truck and put her hands over her mouth like she was about to throw up.

He bent down and pulled her into his arms, the same way that he had in The Room of the Reds that day. He was physically shaking from rage that would not be able to be stopped.

Cole: It was him. Wasn’t it

She just nodded.

Cole: I’ll kill him

He tried to get up but she pulled him back. Ruby: No, you can’t. We need him for information and to exchange.

Cole: Not worth it

Ruby felt that his hands were getting physically hot.

Ruby: Please Cole Please, you can’t kill him. We need him alive.

He barely even heard what she said.

She got up and stood in front of him. Ruby: Cole stop.

Cole could feel that she was getting even more upset but all he could say was “fine.”

He ripped open the door and put his hands around Clancy’s throat as he whispered in his ear “I know what you did to Ruby. I would kill you right now, because keeping you alive is not worth all the information you have or even a trade for something better, but Ruby told me not to. I don’t know why she would do anything for a worthless piece of shit like you. Just know, at the first chance I get, I’m going to set you on Fire inch by inch so that you burn slowly and painfully. Then, I’m going to flay the skin off of your face and feed it to you. I will let Ruby do the honors of castrating you.” Then he knocked him out cold with one blow and got out of the car slamming the door.

Ruby had pulled herself together and said “What did you say to him?”