#:((((( I’m glad the muppets are staying at least

[diamondangelkitten]

Vierapril Day 11: Midnight

“Linea, I love your island, I do, but why did you bring us out here to wake us up at MIDNIGHT?!?!” “I thought you didn’t sleep much anyway and used to stay up late?” “Yes, but now Sibbie likes staying up, so if I want any sleep, I have to go to bed early with her.” “I believe this is what Alira would normally say is a “You problem”,” Aurora teases from up ahead. “Who are you and what have you done with my Aurora?” Laughter springs up from the group as they make their way down to one of the beaches on Alinea’s island.

Annabeth stretches her neck around, making note of all the flora and fauna. “You really have cultivated the land well.” “Thanks! It’s honestly mostly the mammets, but it’s nice to get away.” “Yes, once again, all well and good, but why are we here right now?” Alinea sighs before pushing Alira and Annabeth ahead of her. “Aurora already knows, so just follow her and keep your gabs shut.” “Hmph.” Annabeth links her arm in Alira’s, “Come on, you know Ali loves her sleep, so it has to be somewhat worthwhile.” “I guess.” 

They eventually come to a stop when Aurora pauses and gestures to the little set up, “Tada! We made a little pavilion with towels, bean bags, and some snacks.” Alira perks up, “It is cute! I’ll grant you that.” She moves to sit down, but Annabeth yanks her back before she can leave, “Hey!” “Do you see that?” “What?” “Look at the ocean muppet!” Sighing, Alira casts her gaze out to the sea. At first she sees nothing, but then the sea starts changing and the brightest light starts to emerge. Aurora laughs, “It’s bioluminescent algae. It follows certain tidal patterns and is strongest tonight.” Alinea comes up besides Alira and Annabeth who are gobsmacked at the beautiful display in front of them. “Well, is this worth it?” Alira nods and Annabeth starts to move forward, but pauses, asking. “Is it safe to swim in?” Alinea nods and Aurora takes of her top showing that she already had her swimsuit underneath. “Last one in has to take down the pavilion!” she yells racing towards the water. “Cheater!” Alinea yells, while taking off her shorts and also showing her swimsuit. “Oh yea, we packed your bathing suits in the little bin over there. Have fun being the fastest!” Alira and Annabeth take a glance at each other before sprinting. 

Having decided it was just better that they both help pack away the pavilion after almost causing a few bruises on each other, the viera are busy floating with the others in the waves. “Oh! I forgot! We can have a better view underneath right?” Alinea considers this, “I think it’s best from up here, but we can at least take a look.” The girls dive underneath, grateful for the Kojin’s blessing. They swim around a few minutes before acknowledging that up above was the best view. As they pop their heads up, Alira gives a shout of joy, causing the others to turn in her direction. There on the beach are their loved ones, decked in swim costumes and entering the water to join them. After spending some time together they go back to the pavilion, which Alira attempts to duplicate with her magic and which kinda works. Everyone is just too kind to point out that some of the wood really shouldn’t look that wobbly, but the bean bags and towels work fine, which is most important. They build a fire and roast marshmallows, all enjoying the peaceful night together. “Hey Alinea?” “Yea Li?” “I’m sorry for earlier. This was worth it.” All the others hum in agreement. “I’m glad you liked it. Sorry I wanted to surprise you and not give you warning.” Alira laughs, “No, all the more better like this.”

[imagine-that-100]

Good Boy

Description: Matty Healy x Reader (Female) | You get your period just before you’re due to go to an award show with the boys. Whilst the pain never dulls when you’re there, your fiancé’s affection certainly eases it and so do his cuddles when he drags you back home. 

Word Count: 3.2k

A/N: This was requested by @ghostlightqueen​. Hope you enjoy it and I hope the rest of you do to. This is pretty fluffy and it was so cute to write up. Likes and Reblog are appreciated and as always thank you so much for reading x

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“You feeling any better?” Adam asks, after giving you a hug as he joins you back at the table.

You were currently at an award show with the boys that Matty had pleaded with you to come to. You’d not been to one of these events in years and you’d planned not to go to one again.

But this one was a smaller one than the others you’d been to. You weren’t all put on TV at this one and you weren’t in the O2, so you agreed you’d come.

Initially when you got up this morning and saw how excited Matty was to get ready for these awards, you yourself were looking forward to it. You were excited to wear your new teal pant suit that Matty had then designed his own outfit around and you were excited to see your fiancé perform again, even if it was just for one song.

You’d been swamped with work, so you’d unfortunately only made it to one show this tour. But now it was the end of them touring and you had your boys back around you, you were excited to see them up on stage again.

But then an hour before you were due to head off to the awards, your fucking period started.

You sort of knew it was coming because you had that icky feeling in your stomach all day, but you were hoping it was just the sensations you sometimes felt the day before it arrived.

But that was not to be.

You felt awful as the first few days of your period typically left you feeling. The fact you had to go out and wear heels and be nice to people you didn’t know didn’t make the feeling of your insides being scrambled, as you described it to Matty, any easier.

After assuring him you’d be fine after the painkillers had kicked in, you all headed off to the awards. And despite the painkillers barely helping you, you’d had a good night.

You got to see some lovely people you hadn’t seen for a while like the Pale Waves gang and Rome and Bea. You’d become quite good friends with Heather over the years so you always loved seeing her.

And of course, you got to spend the evening with your boys.

They won the award they were up for and they even got an award they didn’t know they were up for, for the Drive Like I Do album. And you had always adored seeing them perform.

Matty had truly grown into the role of a frontman and the way he worked an audience truly astounded you. The way the fans responded to him back when the first album came out astounded you, but the fact the audiences were still just as thirsty for him now made you laugh.

And you knew he loved it and played it to his advantage.

So, after the two songs they were asked to perform were done they slowly but surely made their way back over to you.

“A little, thanks Ad” You smile before sitting back down in your seat.

You weren’t feeling any better at all though, despite taking more painkillers about an hour ago. But thankfully the awards had nearly finished, and you had another lot of painkillers with you to take at the after party.

You knew Matty was excited to go to it as it had been a while since he’d attended one of these events. Especially with all of his friends being invited to come as well.

So, for him, you didn’t mind grin and bearing the pain. Even more so because he dressed himself to match you.

You were in a darker teal pantsuit and you had an orange low cut blouse on underneath it, with a matching pair of orange heels. Believe it or not, the colours did go really well together and immediately when Matty saw you in it he whipped out his casual orange suit, or as casual as an orange suit can get.

He borrowed a teal shirt and he somehow made it work. You probably both looked like muppets with his short mohican and your hair left to naturally fall around your shoulders.

But you both looked fit so you couldn’t care less. He could pull any combination off and always look incredible; you were envious of him in that respect.

But at least you could call him yours.

“How you feeling Sweetheart?” Matty asks coming straight back over to you when he escapes his conversation.

When he caught you routing for painkillers before you changed into your teal suit earlier, he could tell straight away that you didn’t feel well. And he knew exactly the reason why from how you carried yourself.

He was gutted for you because he knew you were excited to dress up for the first time in ages. Matty didn’t mind you not coming, and he said you didn’t have to, but you shot that down straight away.

You knew how much he wanted you there despite him acting like he didn’t. And he was your fiancé so you were going.

“Yeah okay, thank you” You smile and lean in for a quick kiss. “Well done, you were amazing”

He retakes his seat and says, with a concerned look in his eye, “Thank you… Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Promise I’m fine” You lie.

You felt like you were that Mortal Kombat character that had that worm thing bursting out of its chest. But instead of whatever it was bursting out of your chest it was trying to murder your uterus.

Uncomfortable was an understatement and the fact you weren’t drinking was worse. You told Matty you didn’t mind driving tonight as you knew he liked to have a few glasses of wine at these things.

You sort of wish you had the alcohol to dull your pain a bit more but you’d rather Matty have a good time. You’d take Matty’s alcohol induced affection as a distraction over alcohol every single time though.

You adored him so much. You were so glad you were going to marry him.

The day really couldn’t come soon enough.

The fact you were marrying him though was another reason that you didn’t want to ruin his night. Not because you didn’t want to upset him but because you didn’t want to burden him with thinking you wanted to leave when you actually didn’t.

So that was why you kept how you were feeling under wraps. And you managed that into the afterparty but of course when you excused yourself Matty wanted to find you not 2 minutes after you left his side.

He was certain he saw you head out the front. Matty assumed to answer a phone call as you didn’t smoke anymore, and the toilets were in the opposite direction.

So Matty tipsily headed out that way into the foyer of the venue you were in. And he spotted you in that stunning teal suit straight away.

But instead of being stood on your phone looking like an amazingly sassy businesswoman, you were crouched down leaning against a nearby wall with your head in your hands. And that shocked and scared Matty to his core.

He rushed over to you immediately and asked, “Sweetheart, what’s wrong?”

You head flew up immediately hearing Matty’s voice and Matty managed to take a breath of relief seeing you weren’t crying. You looked fine which confused Matty as he didn’t know why you were leaning against the wall looking like you were in pain.

Oh.

You were in pain.

“Hey” You smile and stand yourself back up on your orange heels. Before he can ask when he gets closer you assure him, ”I’m fine, I’m fine”

“No, you’re not” Matty shakes his head, looking at you with sad eyes.

You nod, trying to persuade him, “I am, I swear”

But Matty knows you better than that.

“What’s wrong?” Matty asks seeing if you’d be honest.

“Nothing’s wrong”

So Matty asks again, “What’s wrong?”

“My stomach is just cramping but I’m fine” You assure him, fixing he lapels on his orange blazer.

“You’re not”

“I am”

“You’re in pain, yes or no?”

“Matty” You sigh.

“Yes or no?”

You give in, “Yes but-“

“Then we'll leave. Just you and me” Matt says taking your hand and pulling you towards the exit.

You pull back against him, “Matty no. It's fine… You wanted to stay with Bea, Rome, Heather... I don’t mind staying.”

“Sweetheart, I literally just caught you crouched on the ground in pain” Matty chuckles, shaking his head at your blatant lie.

“I wasn’t in pain, I was seeing how my suit would fix itself” You tell him and gesture down at the teal material, “Looks pretty good”

“You always look pretty good but I’m not as fucking thick as you think I am.” Matty grins shaking his head at you before pulling you into a hug. “You used to be such a better liar”

“I’ve not got any secrets from you anymore.” You chuckle a little.

“You didn’t need to have any from me anyway.” Matty pulls you into a hug, and he presses a kiss to your head before he says, “You know I’ve adored you since we met, could tell me you buried a body and I’d of kept my mouth shut”

“Speaking of... I might need help moving the body later” You grin, pulling back a little so you're still standing close, your arms hanging loose around his neck.

“See I may believe you, but you’ve got mad period pain so I think we‘ll move the body next week” Matty chuckles, playing along.

You giggle at that and you move away from him so you can both head back towards the party. But Matty grabs your hand, “Where are you going?”

“Back in there” You point back to the doors that the party was hiding behind.

“No we're going home, come on” Matty pulls you back.

“Matty it’s fine, I know you wanna stay” You say genuinely.

You truly didn’t mind staying. You’d certainly had worse period pain and gone about normally.

You didn’t need to leave a party early.

“I want my stunning wife to be, to get into her pyjamas and be comfortable as her ‘insides are scrambling’, as you so poetically put it.” Matty tells you with a cheeky grin, “And I want to make her feel better in any way I can. ”

You tell him honestly, with the most genuine look, “Matty, I don't mind staying.”

“I literally want to go home.” Matty tells you, his eyebrows raised to emphasise his point.

You grin when you quote his lyrics at him, “Do you wanna leave at the same time?”

“Right, that's literally about dying... And I know you’re not that dramatic” Matty says pulling you back into his arms and you half hug half dance your way down the hall towards the car park.

When you get back home you immediately change into your pyjamas per Matty’s instructions. He brought you a drink and painkillers up to your bedroom and once he watched you take them, he went and got himself ready for bed.

After showering and quickly drying his hair he came back into your bedroom to find you lay in the centre of your large bed. You’d left room for him either side of you as you, but you looked so comfy Matty was almost hesitant to join you.

“You look like you feel better” Matty grins seeing you looking a bit better in yourself.

You smile at him, “Definitely feel better now I’m lay down”

“That’s good”

“Think I’d feel even better if I got a cuddle” You suggest with a cheeky grin and raised eyebrows.

“Lucky I’m available to give you that, isn’t it?” Matty chuckles, pulling the covers back to get into bed.

You raise your arms to him, so he knows to come to you. You wanted him close and you wanted to hold him.

If that meant you being used as a body pillow, then so be it.

Matty slotted himself right beside you and he lay his head on the top of your chest, so his head was tucked just under your chin. An immediate surge of warmth came over you when he settled himself in your embrace.

Your arms instantly went around his bare back and as you kept one on his smooth skin, your other instinctively travelled to his hair. It was still warm to touch from the hairdryer he used on his now short locks, and his body was still toasty from the heat of his shower.

It really helped dull the last ache that your period brought to you. Matty was like your personal hot water bottle.

You hum as you close your eyes and hug him a little tighter. “You’re really warm”

“That‘s unusual for me so enjoy it whilst it lasts” Matty hugs you a little tighter then.

You giggle knowing it was true and you do, you even tuck the duvet higher up his back, so he stayed toasty warm above you.

“Matty” You say, still repeatedly running your fingers through his short hair at the top of his head.

You feel Matty hum against your chest, “Yes Sweetheart?”

“Will you do me a favour please?” You smile, your eyes still closed, enjoying the closeness.

“Course.” Your fiancé says, picking his head up from your chest to look up at your gorgeous face, “Do you need me to go get you some chocolate? A McDonalds maybe, I know the twenty nuggets is sort of your comfort food these days”

You grin at him then, “You're adorable, but no.” You shake your head, “You don't need to go anywhere for anything”

“Then what can I do for you?” Matty asks, tilting his head to the side and his gorgeous brown eyes shined curiously.

“Can you stop shaving your curls off please?” You plead with a smile tugging at your lips, “I really miss my curly”

Matty grins feeling you still running your fingers through what locks he has left. “I’m right here, I'm no different because they’re gone”

“I know…” You grin, and you guide his head back down to resting on your chest so he’s as comfy as you, “Just miss messing with your longer hair sometimes”

“I miss you messing with it too.” Matty says lovingly, placing a kiss to your skin “I'll grow it back out for you, I promise”

You giggle a little then as each time he’d cut his hair over the years you’d scorned him for it and he’d taken no notice. You weren't expecting him to actually agree with you now but you were certainly glad he had.

“Thank you, my lovely” You grin. “And thanks for tonight”

“What do you mean? I’ve not done anything?” Matty asks, a little confused.

Your voice slows as you tell him, “Thank you for our cute matching outfits, that was really adorable. And for taking me with you, I'm really glad you won, and you know I love watching you perform. And for coming home and looking after me, you really didn't have to, but I really appreciate it”

“You know I’d do anything for you Sweetheart... And I'd rather you feel better and be in bed with you than stick around at an after party anyway” Matty tells you grabbing your hand that wasn't messing with his hair and he placed a kiss to the back of it.

“You’re far too good for me” You grin before you quickly lean down and place a kiss to the start of his head.

“You’re right, I did just win another award” Matty jokes and he only starts laughing when you hit him over the head playfully.

“I’m joking” He giggles, “I love you”

“I love you more Matty” You say and reach up above your head to flick the light switch off.

After a minute of just silently enjoying the other's closeness, Matty asks you quietly, “What time do you want to go and pick up our child from my Mum‘s tomorrow?”

You giggle at that question and say, “You know I was talking about our child to Y/B/F and she stopped me and questioned it thinking she’d gone into a coma for a year or something and missed us having a kid”

“Has she not heard us call Mayhem our kid since the day we went and got him?” Matty asks a little shocked.

Matty remembered the day you got him, and he’d fully said he was a practice child for you both in the future.

“Apparently not” You giggle, still messing with your fiancé’s hair.

Y/B/F has definitely been living under a rock.

Matty’s chuckles settle after a moment and he says, “Bed’s a little comfier without him laying on me if I'm honest”

“I’d say I’d agree but I'm practically in the same situation” You grin to yourself, still practically stroking his head.

“Aw that's nasty” Matty all but pouts.

“Or is it? He’s cute, you’re cute. He’s fluffy and you’re fluffy when you have more hair” You’re smiling like an idiot as you list all these things off, “You like biscuits, he likes biscuits. You cuddle up to me in bed and so does Mayhem. And you both give me good morning kisses”

Matty picks his head up and looks at you through the darkness, asking, “Is this the part where you say you’re marrying our dog instead of me?”

“I would but the invitations have already been printed and that would be a lot of money to change and update everyone” You joke, and you can see in the dim light that shines through your curtains that his jaw drops.

He gasps, “Nasty bitch”

“Mayhem’s a boy, he can’t be a bitch” You joke, thinking you’re funny.

Matty chuckles, kissing the side of your neck, “I meant you”

“That’s no way to speak to your fiancé Healy” You grin, liking the gentle kiss he placed on your neck. “Especially when she’s on her period”

Matty hums against your neck then and you hear him say, “Don’t cry on me now”

You roll your eyes at that. It wasn’t often you cried over a conversation with Matty when you were on your period, so you knew he was being dramatic. But you knew your man, you could play on the drama and he’d eat it up.

“I might do you know” You sniffle as if you’re getting upset.

Matty giggles into your neck a little then and you're smiling, still playing with his hair. Matty coos, despite knowing you’re joking, “Don’t do that”

You fake another shaky inhale, “I’ll try”

“Awwww” Matty pouts before pecking his way back down your collarbone and onto the top of your chest before resting his head there again.

You play the victim and press on, “What do you say to your poor wife to be who didn’t deserve that”

“Sorry Sweetheart” Matty chuckles before placing another kiss onto your skin.

You just can't stop grinning like an idiot. He literally was just putting in your hands and you loved him for being so soft with you.

“That's right… Such a good boy” You continue with your final dog similarity joke and pat his head.

Both you and Matty just lie there in bed giggling away like fools in love.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

You can add yourself to my Taglists in my Masterlist x

[cherrywrites626]

WNGTI Chapter 3 Sneak Peek

Just as before, I wrote this literally in the last 20-or-so minutes so there was something to tantalize and intrigue everyone with like I so love to do with all my fics.  Which means all the many changes I’ll end up making if I realize it’s wonky later on will be due to my lack of preparedness.

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“I just don’t understand why you canceled all of your dates after everything.”

Steve crossed his arms over his chest and heaved yet another long-suffering sigh, turning to lean back into the counter as he finally leveled his friend with a flat stare.

Robin was nothing if not spurred on by his show of displeasure for the sudden shift back into the same bleak conversation he should have anticipated but was too distracted by saving a girl’s life to fully prepare for, having brought the matter up no less than six different times since they’d switched the sign on the door over to ‘open’ some hours passed.  

“It’s just—Steve, you complained and bitched and moaned to me for days about wanting to figure out who was the better choice between Brenda or Linda or Missy or Heather, or whatever the other one’s name was again—”

“—Heidi.”

“Not the important bit, but glad at least one of us can keep them all straight—and now suddenly you don’t give a hoot about seeing any of them again?  Make it make sense.”

“I—I don’t know, I’m just not feeling it anymore, Rob,” he replied with a shrug, walking the fine line between the truth he was allowed to share and the parts he needed to keep hidden forever.  “None of them are really ‘it’ for me, you know?  My priorities have changed.”

It was the best he had to offer.  How could he go about explaining the months of fatigue that had yet to happen to him?  The dead-end dates and loss of passion and reoccurring boredom with going through the motions time and again only for his effort to end in catastrophic failure?  

Even if the outcome could be different somehow, the will was no longer there to try.  There were more important things for him to worry about than dating.  But he couldn’t articulate that sentiment without letting something damning slip.  He knew he couldn’t.

As he’d assumed, Robin refused to accept his piss-poor excuse as an answer to the one-eighty flip from ‘normal’ Steve Harrington behavior, eyes rolling in exasperation as she shook her head with an incredulous snort.  “Now I’ve heard everything.  In the span of a twenty-four-hour period you’ve grown enough self-awareness to realize your endless string of bad dates might just be a sign it’s time to take a break and reassess what it is you want out of a relationship.”

“I did say I can’t keep doing the ‘all sex no substance’ thing,” he offered weakly, as if it would somehow win the girl over and get her to lay off his lackluster love life for good.  A thought occurred to him, and he latched onto it like a lifeline or sorts, remembering the way their conversation had once gone when he hadn’t accidentally done something so out of character it obliterated it from his friend’s brain.  “Wait, didn’t I see you and Vickie whispering about something during that comical rendition of our National Anthem?”

Like a lightswitch had been flicked, the color in her cheeks darkened exponentially, blue eyes going glassy as she recounted the moment with a dreamy smile tugging her mouth.  “She thought my muppet joke was funny.”

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As always, check out the last chapter here and stay tuned for this one whenever its finished because I’m somehow nicer to this fandom than any of the others thus far.

[make-me-imagine]

Red Roses: “I Love You” - Bruce Banner Ending

Valentines Special: Day Nine

Day One: Morning Glories  //  Day Two: Blue Salvias Day Three: Sunflowers  //  Day Four: Pink Camellias Day Five: Yellow Tulips   // Day Six: Violets Day Seven: Lisianthus  //  Day Eight: Daffodils (Post with rest of the character endings)

Plot: It’s finally Valentines Day, the day the reader will finally learn who it is that had been leaving them flowers and notes expressing their secret feelings.

Pairing: Gen!Neutral Reader x Bruce Banner

Note: Thank you @trashywritestrash​ for helping me out with this ending when I ran out of ideas! <3 Also, since this technically takes place after End Game and such, in this, Bruce is still Bruce, and is not combined with the Hulk.

Triggers: None        Words: 1,573

Requested Taglist: @aquariuslavenderhoney​, @thebookbakery​, @fablesrose​, @kitkatd7​, @thefallenbibliophilequote​, @beksib​, @destynelseclipsa​, @criminaly-supernatural​, @tammythompson-singslikea-muppet, @belloangelus​, @snarky--starky​, @saintbootlegloras​, @wecallhimbrowneyess​, @empath-bunny​, @okkulta​, @katinthemoon,  @ravennight41​, @youcancallme-rae , @radhumandragonclam, @unfortunateidiotinadilemma, @past3l-w1ngs​ ,  @goinggoinggonzo​, @mxxnmocha​, @hulkswitch​, @groovyfluxie​

February 14th

As you walked through the tower, you watched as various decorators and caterers bustled around working to finish for the party this evening. Your anxiety grew as you thought more about what was to come. 

You knew that today was the day you would learn who it was leaving you the beautiful messages and flowers. But you still didn’t know when exactly they would do it. You only assumed it would be during the party but it really could be at any moment. 

Because of this exact reason, any time one of the others spoke to you, or even approached you, your heart about burst out of your chest, waiting for the moment they might say “Its me.” But it didn’t happen. Not when you saw Natasha and Clint. Not when you passed Bucky in the hall. Not when Thor showed up, copious amount of coffee and pastries in hand. 

And each time you found that you were relieved in a way. You only felt real disappointment, when you went and saw Bruce in his lab. 

You greeted him with coffee and a danish courtesy of Thor, offered to help him with any work, and even sat and talked to him for about an hour as you helped him run some tests. And the entire time, you were hoping that he might hint, or just admit that it was him behind the flowers and the notes. But after two hours of nothing but idle conversation, you gave up. Maybe it wasn’t him. No matter how much you wanted it to be.

Finally leaving him and going about your day, you found yourself avoiding the others. And now you sat in your room, thinking of who it could be and what you would do. You convinced yourself that, no matter who it was, you already knew them and loved them in some way. So maybe, you could fall for them the same way they fell for you. 

- - -

You had managed to avoid the others the rest of the day, staying in your room most of the time. You distracted yourself as much as you could by doing some work on your computer. When you glanced at the clock and saw that it was an hour until the party, you felt confident, that no matter who it would turn out to be, you would give them and yourself a chance.

You gradually got ready over the next hour, psyching yourself up the entire time. And as you made your way down to the party, you felt your confidence slowly diminish as it was replaced with the now familiar anxiety. 

Walking into the main room, you looked over the crowd that had arrived early or just on time, seeing various Avengers littered throughout the room. Seeing Sam and Rhodey talking in the corner you approached them. Two people you knew weren’t involved in the flowers. At least you could have a conversation with them without panicking the whole time. 

As the night went on, you seemed to develop a sense of excitement as you began to accept the inevitable and thought more about the positives. Now, whenever someone spoke to you, you were waiting impatiently for the moment when it would happen. 

But then an hour passed, and then another, and nothing happened. And you feared that maybe they changed their mind all together. Or maybe the whole thing was a joke? You leaned against the wall at the back of the crown, wondering if it was all for nothing. 

Your eye caught on someone walking around the crowd Bruce. You watched him closely, seeing that he seemed overwhelmed. You straightened up a bit as you watched him fiddling with his hands. Did something happened? Was this all to stressful? Was hulk getting restless?

Seeing him exit the room, you followed. You needed to make sure he was okay, that he wasn’t losing control. Following into the hallway, you saw that he was gone. You walked down the hallway checking the doors, and finding them all locked. Finally, when you walked a little further, you saw that he had went out onto and empty balcony. 

You cautiously opened the door, gaining his attention. “Bruce? Are you alright?”

When he saw that you had followed him, that you were checking on him, Bruce felt a sense of relief and comfort wash over him followed closely by anxiety. Out of all the others, you knew best how to calm him down. But at this moment, you were the exact reason he was feeling overwhelmed. But he knew you didn’t know that.

“Hey Y/n.” he greeted as you slowly approached him “I’m alright, uh, it’s just, there’s a lot of people in there, asking questions, I don’t even know any of them.” he chuckled, though those were not helping with his emotions, it was mostly a lie. 

You smiled at him as you stopped beside him “I get it. And I’m sure Tony would understand if you wanted to leave.”

Bruce nodded but remained silent, he couldn’t leave. He needed to tell you. he could have earlier, when you were alone in his lab. God why didn’t he? He couldn’t stop overthinking it, he did earlier and he was now. He brought his hand to his chest, feeling the rose he had placed in his jacket pocket. 

“Do you want me to get you anything?”

He smiled at you, you were always so caring towards him. “No, no I think I just need a minute, you can stay, how are you? Are you alright?” 

You leaned against the railing “I’m...fine.” you smiled at him. 

“That didn’t seem very confident.”

You opened your mouth to talk but closed it, unsure of what to say “I just...tonight, whoever it was leaving me the notes and the flowers said they would tell me who they were today. But...the night’s almost gone, and...nothing’s happened. I just, I think they may have changed their mind.” 

As Bruce was listening he felt a pang of guilt. All this time he was thinking about his own anxiety tonight, he forgot to think how you must feel. And now you were thinking that he wasn’t going to tell you at all. “No.” 

You looked over at him “No?” 

He took a breath before he reached into his pocket “I didn’t change my mind.” you watched as he pulled out a red rose and turned fully towards you “I was just lost in my thoughts, and couldn’t find the courage to tell you, that, it’s me.” You stood and turned towards him as he started to talk again “I just, I felt more confident with the note and the flowers, and I thought it would be easier to to, uh, tell you how I felt, but I just, I got scared the more I thought about talking to you about it face to face, thinking that maybe you, wouldn’t want it to be me, and I-”

Bruce was caught off guard as you threw your arms around him in a hug “It’s alright Bruce.” he began to prepare himself for your rejection “I did want it to be you, more than anyone.”

He felt his breath hitch in his throat for a moment “Y-you did?”.

You pulled away from him and smiled at him, letting out a small chuckle “Yes, I did.”

He felt a grin spread across his face as he stared at you, his hear hammering in his chest. “Oh, here” he handed you the rose, which you took with a smile that made his heart almost stop. 

“I loved all of the flowers, and the notes. I uh, I began pressing them, so I could save them.” you admitted, suddenly feeling much more bashful. 

Bruce let out a small chuckle “You’ve always been a sentimental person.”

You shrugged and smiled “I can’t help it.”

“I’m glad. It’s one of the many things I..love about you.” 

You stared at each other for a moment before you cleared your throat “Uh, out of curiosity. Was it Vision that delivered the flowers that day I received the Camellias? I went in and asked him and he denied it.” 

“Uh, yeah, I asked him to since you were staying in your room for so long. He felt bad about lying but understood why I asked him too.”

You nodded before smiling at him, moving just a bit closer to him “You know, your a much better liar than I gave you credit. Or at least, much better at hiding things.” 

He chuckled “Well, it was really hard. I uh, really hate lying to you.” 

“Well it was definitely the best and most creative...confession, I’ve ever received.” 

He rubbed the back of his neck as he chuckled again “Yeah, I uh, I always wanted to be a romantic.” 

“It was definitely that.” 

He met your eyes for a few moments before taking a deep breath “Can I kiss you? I really want to kiss you.” he blurted out.

You laughed at this before you nodded your head “Yes Bruce, you can kiss me.”

Almost immediately he took a step closer to you, wrapping one arm around your waist, and bringing one hand to the back of your head as he met you in a slow kiss. Both of your hearts were beating heavily in your chest, your mutual anxiety about tonight being replaced by simple and pure happiness. 

xx xx xx xx xx

Hope you liked this ending! I always like writing for Bruce, he is so cute lol. I know he doesn’t straight up say “I love you” but I like the way this came out it seemed a bit more “him” 

If you liked it please consider reblogging, and checking out the other endings!~ :)

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

Thoughts on Taskmaster s11e02, written as I watched it:

- Okay, the fact that Lee only got two points for the Simon Cowell mug is sort of bullshit. But I’m glad, because he was unfairly given points in the first episode. I’d say he was robbed of at least a couple of points here, so we’re close to being even and if he wins the whole thing it’ll be fair.

- Last week, I gave Mike Wozniak credit for the amount of commitment to a bit that it takes to not only claim you can just barely carry a tune, but to then prove it by singing an entire weird song to an audience-less studio. This week, he whittled Greg’s face and the TM logo into a spoon. Commitment is what I want to see out of a Taskmaster contestant, and commitment is what Mike Wozniak delivers.

- During the entirety of Lee and Charlotte’s attempts at the first task, I was shouting at the screen, “Go inside! If you let go of the balloon outside it’ll float away! Go somewhere with a ceiling low enough so you can still get it!” But I figured I must be missing something, because doing that was so obvious that it couldn’t be that I thought of it and they didn’t; it must be that they had though of something I hadn’t that meant staying outside was fine.

Then they were both surprised when their balloons floated away. Couple of Muppets.

- After last week’s episode, I said I’m going to come out of this season either loving Sarah Kendall or finding her quite annoying. I think her sneer while hovering the balloon has just won me over to love.

- Mike Wozniak is being shown by himself at the end after the other four were shown in pairs. This also happened in the plate-carrying task in episode 1. I feel like Mike doing something different enough to be shown on his own is likely to become a theme throughout this season.

- Okay. After episode 1, I thought I’d enjoyed Mike Wozniak on there, but I wasn’t quite on board with the social media reaction of saying we love this guy and he’s going to go down in Taskmaster history as a fan favourite. The animal song was certainly good, but not overwhelmingly good.

I’ve just paused the video after watching him retrieve the balloon in the first task. Lose it, watch it float away, then go fucking get it and still complete the task. Legions of people who are obsessed with Mike Wozniak now, I apologize for doubting you initially. I am now entirely on board.

- Charlotte having to count on her fingers to work out that “hand” is four letters. Mike refreshing his mind and only coming up with “duck”. Jamali and Sarah setting themselves the challenge of figuring out how to retrieve the task before Charlotte actually got there; Jamali going so far as to take the laces out of his shoes in pursuit of this cause. You know a task is going to be good when there’s that much fun stuff just in the initial bit where they show you the people reading the task.

- Sarah’s comment that the Lee versus Mike argument was better than some plays was unironically accurate. I’m reminded of the Simon Amstell stand-up bit in which he complained about having to go see his artsy friends do weird artsy things, and said, “Never go see anything if it’s called a ‘piece’.” I have seen theatre pieces that were less good than that argument.

- Oh nice, the haunted house task. I saw that task get read out in one of the trailers and thought it looked like such a great idea for a task. Looking forward to this. Also, I haven’t seen BBC Ghosts (yet, it is now on my list to get to quite soon), but it’s my understanding that Charlotte Richie is in a show that should give her a fair bit of experience with how to make a house seem haunted. That almost seems unfair, like the time Claudia Winkleman was on a Big Fat Quiz and there was a question about Strictly Come Dancing.

- I legitimately jumped and gasped when the camera revealed two Sarah Kendalls standing there like horror movie twins. I often lean towards thinking things people accomplish with computer editing is less impressive and therefore should be scored lower than things people actually make happen in real life (for example, I still think Noel got too many points for that time when he made himself appear inside a bowl of fruit), but that was genuinely impressive. Damn.

- Okay, similar credit to Mike for his horror movie, even if it did also involve editing. He actually didn’t need the rest of it; he could have just shown that shot of his legs and dead-looking torso/head on different parts of the ground and that would have been creepy enough.

- Alex almost never breaks character during the filmed tasks. That little moment when he had to cover his mouth to hide a laugh when Lee started using the Ouija board was great.

- Holy fuck that woman coming out of the cupboard in Lee’s task was genuinely fucking terrifying. I’ve paused the video right after the task ended so I don’t know how they discussed or scored it, but I think that should absolutely win. Unless someone points out that he technically made the caravan haunted when the task said to make the house haunted, which would be a fair criticism. But that was good enough so I don’t care. I’m genuinely creeped out now.

- Lee has now been robbed of one more point, by getting four points for the haunted house task when he deserved five. Yeah Sarah’s movie was great, but Lee managed to be even creepier than her and he did it without computer editing. Okay, I think we can now say we’ve made up for the disaster of him getting too many points for his feast-under-the-table task in episode 1.

- On the studio task:

1) I didn’t realize Lee had gone vegan. Maybe that was part of his whole I Can’t Believe It’s Not Buddha thing. You know, his weird “trying to live a mentally and physically healthy life and be a good person” thing. Him and Jon Richardson have both gone vegan now, my two favourites among the British comedians. And Simon Amstell and Sara Pascoe, who are also up there for me. My views on veganism are that I fully acknowledge that anyone who adheres to it is being a very good person by doing so, for lots of different reasons. But also, I really like eating meat and do not intend to stop. So I like it when the people I admire also eat meat, so I don’t have to feel guilty for being a worse person than them. It’s all very Elanor Shellstrop from The Good Place. Anyway, that is why I find Lee’s veganism slightly disappointing. Good for him though.

2) Lee mentioned at times in his autobiography that he doesn’t think of himself as all that famous, and it does seem like he meant that at least a bit, though I’m sure there was also some curated modesty in there. But in this case, his assessment of his own popularity was a way to earn points on a competition that he actually wants to win, so he was incentivized to be completely honest about it. And he still put himself middle of the pack despite clearly being the most famous contestant. That’s kind of sweet.

3) Charlotte has won me over even more with her “cleans towels twelve times per month” fact. Nice.

4) The fucking intensity of Jamili and Lee both holding up number 1 for the “who can hold the most eggs” question. Amazing. This is what makes Taskmaster the show that it is. This is what the fans turn up for. And Lee beating Jamili by 17 eggs to 12. Holy fuck, how fucking big are Lee’s hands? I could make a dick joke here but I assume you can imagine your own just fine.

Actually, I’m sorry, I do have to point this out. I have to point out that whatever else happens for the rest of the season in the rapidly developing competitive situation between Lee and Jamili, we can always come back to the fact that in episode 2, Alex Horne scientifically proved that Lee Mack’s dick is 29% bigger than Jamili Maddix’s.

- Well deserved episode win for Mike Wozniak. It would have been just unfair for an episode that started with him whittling a spoon and retrieving a helium balloon to end any other way. Not to mention that masterpiece of an argument.

[platypanthewriter]

Blue Clues

Harringrove April prompt Day 9, Blue.  Steve returns home stoned after a day with Robin, finds mysterious traces, and tries to use his Detective Skills to find his True Love.

Steve staggered up the driveway after Robin walked him home—he was more stoned, he thought, somehow, without her, trying to lean on the space where she wasn’t.  He waved to her back, tottered into a tree, and hugged it, giggling, before he saw the blue smear on the grass where Billy had parked.  He stumbled over to drop to his hands and knees, glowering down at it like a detective.  

He wished he had a fedora, he thought, sadly, and a trenchcoat.  Detectives never solved mysteries without them, and he probably couldn’t either.  

The blue-ness was wet, and sticky, and Steve sniggered, wondering whether Billy had backed over a Smurf.  He sat back on his heels, considering the possibilities—it didn’t seem likely Billy had been kidnapped by Smurfs, since his car was still there.  Steve couldn’t imagine Billy going anywhere without his Camaro, and he narrowed his eyes, nodding wisely.

Maybe Billy had fought them off, and run inside, Steve thought, snickering, and stumbling to his feet.  He only just remembered to wipe the blue off on his pants before he braced himself on Billy’s car, so Billy didn’t run him over for getting blue gunk on the Camaro, leaving only a Steve Harrington-shaped smear in the driveway.  

The driveway wasn’t quite where he expected it to be, or his feet weren’t going where he told them to go, but his keen detective instincts spotted more blue going into the garage, and so he scrambled at the bottom of the bottom of the garage door, like a cat trying to get inside.  He finally wedged his fingers underneath, lifting it just enough to roll underneath like a ninja, stagger to his feet, and see two bags of marshmallows on a shelf by the kitchen door.  He lunged and tore one open, holding a handful over his face to let marshmallows rain into his mouth.  

Chewing, he sat on the floor of the garage and frowned around—assessing his surroundings, like a detective—and couldn’t see any more blue.  He sighed.  “A false lead,” he said, in a deep voice, and  lifted the garage door again, tucking and rolling around the marshmallows.  He didn’t make it quite under the garage door—it landed on his leg, and he had to yank hard, and spilled some marshmallows.  

They tasted fine, even blue, so he sat and ate them, thinking about how every great detective had the scene where they returned to their office and drank.  “O-only Steve Harrington, Private Eye, knew something.  Something had happened to Billy Hargrove,” he narrated, trying to enunciate clearly around a brain full of marijuana.  The thought of something happening to Billy and nobody knowing was awful, and Steve set his jaw in determination.

The blue he was kneeling in stuck to his pants as he crawled through, then scuttled around Billy’s car to see blue drips on the straggly plants outside the door.  He leaned very close, rubbing the blue between his fingers, and determined it was the same blue.  It even tasted just as plasticky.  He wiped it off on his shirt, and stuffed another handful of marshmallows in his mouth.  

Maybe Billy had killed some Smurfs and he was using them for something, Steve thought.  Like...food coloring.  Squeezing them out to dye eggs.  Blue cake, maybe.  “Maybe the murder Steve Harrington was investigating,” he muttered, “—was really the murder of Smurfs.”  There was a blue smear on the doorknob, and Steve crouched to inspect it slowly, listing a little into the door.  He leaned close and licked the doorknob, then his lips, thoughtfully.

Maybe Billy’d been kidnapped by Muppets, he thought, his eyes widening.  There were a lot of blue Muppets, and Steve had stared in horror as a kid, watching the Cookie Monster eat a typewriter.  Steve threw the door open, spilling a good third of the bag of tiny marshmallows, tried not to step on them, and tripped.  He sat sadly in the entryway, wishing Billy hadn’t been kidnapped, and then heard a noise.  A soft thump, and a mutter, like if Billy was tied up upstairs, and Steve scrambled to his feet, so relieved his eyes started watering.  

“The villains had tied his love to the railroad track,” Steve mumbled, carefully navigating around the piles of shoes.  “He had to hurry.”

There was more blue on the bottom stair, clearer this time, and Steve’s detective brain thought of a new theory of the crime.  He wondered, suddenly, picking up marshmallows off the floor and popping them into his mouth, whether Billy had missed the ocean so much he’d...stolen some, or...ordered it, at the store.  

Steve wasn’t sure how you brought large amounts of ocean home, but the blue on the stair was definitely watery, and he stared at it for a long time, and hoped Billy knew how to take care of fish.  The watery trail led up the stairs, and Steve tiptoed after it, stumbling, before finding a whole blue handprint on the railing.  He held his hand up to it, thinking about the size of Billy’s hands, warm and calloused, sliding around his waist and up his spine.  

It looked like the right size, and Steve was suddenly, heart-stoppingly grateful when he registered that Billy had made it upstairs, that he’d run to the safety of Steve’s room, and it wasn’t a tiny Smurf handprint, or fuzzy with Muppet fur.  Steve sniffled, and wiped his eyes, and then realized Billy had needed help and he hadn’t been there—Billy’d gone looking for help after stealing the ocean from the Muppets, probably, and Steve was off somewhere getting high.

He ran the last few feet to see blue on the doorknob to his room, and his lungs gave a pained wheeze at the thought of Billy needing him.  He pushed the door, heard a soft yelp, and shoved hard, scrambling inside to find Billy falling off a stepladder, and requiring a princess catch.  

Steve sort of caught him, or at least, slowed his fall to the floor, and held him close.  There was blue everywhere—more, after the bucket Billy was holding smacked Steve across the head—and Steve squeezed him, listening to him swear and laugh.  “...I’m so glad the Muppets didn’t drown you in your stolen ocean,” Steve mumbled, truthfully, and Billy said, “What.”

Steve explained about the creepy handprints, and the watery blue fluids, and Billy rubbed his face, sighing, then leaned in and kissed Steve, and stole his bag of marshmallows.  

“How come you taste like paint,” Billy asked, making a face.  “You’ve got more paint on you than I do,” he said, and Steve frowned down to see the blue he’d crawled through out of the garage all over his knees, and the paint he’d inspected on the grass and shrubs rubbed on his sleeves, and then the paint that had hit him in the head from Billy’s paint can dripped off his hair and down his neck.  He frowned down, then around, and realized something.

“...it’s blue in here,” Steve whispered, staggering with surprise, and probably a bit because he was still just a little bit stoned.  “Is...is this my house?” he asked, doubtfully, narrowing his eyes at the lack of plaid.

Billy grabbed him by the front of his shirt and yanked him into another kiss.  “I’m painting your room,” he said slowly.

“That’s what the Smurfs were for,” Steve sighed, nodding, and let his legs give way, sitting down on the plastic sheeting.

“Don’t sit in the paint—” Billy growled, then sighed, rubbing his face.  He returned the marshmallows.  “Stay there, jesus.”

“You’re murdering the plaid,” Steve said, wide-eyed.  “You’re making my room blue!”

“Yeah, you like this blue, remember, I showed it to you—”

“I like this blue,” Steve agreed, elated.  “I love you.”  Billy stopped painting again to laugh, shaking his head.  “I love you so much,” Steve told him, around a mouthful of marshmallows.  

“You’re blue all over,” Billy laughed, his ears red as he stretched with the roller, exposing his stomach.  “Glad you dressed up.”

Steve sighed loudly at the view up Billy’s shirt, letting himself tip onto his side for a better angle.  “I’m your blue,” he pointed out, nonsensically, but Billy laughed again, shooting him a grin.  “I can take you to the ocean,” Steve offered.  “Buy a ticket.  If you need more blue.”

“I’m okay,” Billy told him, smiling down at the paint can, his skin flushing, and Steve wanted to touch it, but he remembered Billy had told him to stay there, and sat on his hands.

“Fight a Smurf for you,” Steve suggested, appreciating Billy’s ass in his old, holey painting jeans.  “Or—or a Muppet.  Fight ‘em.”

“Okay,” Billy said, nodding, and looking like he was trying not to grin quite so wide as he was.  “Me too, your majesty.  Me too.”

“Paint the walls with the blood of our children’s show enemies,” Steve muttered defiantly, tipping the last of the bag of marshmallows into his mouth, and Billy snickered harder.  Steve crawled over to grab a brush, and Billy told him to sit the fuck down and look pretty.  “Okay,” Steve told him, looking at his blue-covered hands and arms, and then peeling out of his paint-covered clothes.  

Billy frowned over, saw him naked and smeared, lounging in a pool of spilled blue paint, and nearly fell off his ladder laughing.

The other Harringrove April prompts I’ve done

[creativeskullcreations]

Outside chapter 18: Confrontation in the Street

Getting to the end of the fic soon. But we've still got some stuff to wrap up, first. ;) After all, it's not like Stacy and Scout made a clean getaway...

Stacy groaned as she stared at the computer monitor, lines of numbers and symbols filling the screen. "This was just working, like, five seconds ago..." She rubbed at her forehead, trying to spot where she had screwed up the code, comparing it to her handwritten notes, as well as the copy on her phone. It al matched, and none of it was working. She let her head fall against the desk.

"Why did I decide to be a programmer?" She bemoaned. Her desk-mate, Chell, reached over and patted her back in sympathy. Stacy then sat back up and went back to combing over the code, searching out and fixing all the little mistakes. By the time lunch came around, she had managed to get it to work better, but not to where it needed to be.

Grabbing her lunch from her bag, she dug into the sandwich while some others in the office left to go somewhere else. With the office sufficiently emptied, Scout climbed out of the bag and onto the desk in order to grab some food.

Chell watched this with some small fascination, while Stacy kept one eye on her mute coworker. As far as she could tell, the other woman thought Scout was some sort of an advanced V-Pet or something, and she wasn't looking to dissuade that notion.

Chell tapped her flesh arm. "It's taking your chips." She signed when Stacy turned to look at her.

"Yeah, she does that." She replied, not even looking as Scout climbed back down into the the bag, mouth full of chips. "At least she doesn't leave crumbs."

"It's weird that you let it do that." She frowned. "Is it not possible to leave it home?"

"Nope, not possible." She turned back to her computer, shoving the rest of her food in her mouth so she could type. Chell turned back to her own monitor, taking the action to mean the conversation was over. At least she tried.

The time after lunch was spent fixing up more of her code, comparing it against Chell's to make sure they would work well together. They did not, which meant more tweaking until they did.  Codes saved, with a promise to test them together again tomorrow, and they were soon able to pack up and go home.

On her way out to her truck, Stacy spotted an unmarked white van with tinted windows sitting across the street. She stared at it for a second, wondering why it looked familiar. She was sure that she'd seen it somewhere...

She shrugged the feeling off and got in her truck, starting the drive back home. It probably just hung out in front of the building a lot, and that's why it looked familiar. She'd ask Scout or Chell about if they'd seen it later.

Unnoticed, the white van followed at a distance.

---------

Setting up for DnD night was always tough, and Stacy preferred when it wasn't at her house for that reason. But they were on a rotation, so she had to deal with getting out the wine glasses, soda, cooking the pizza, and making sure the table was set up. Well, Will did the table part, after she accidentally crushed a plate with her prosthetic.

Scout balanced on her Host's head, flopped over and peering down as she pulled the pizza from the oven. The others were already gathered around the table, setting up character sheets and maps. She could hear them talking in there, chatting and having fun as Mason and Will tried to initiate a fight between their characters.

Stacy could feel it as Scout turned to watch them, glancing between the group and her closet-room. It was obvious she wanted to join them, though Stacy wasn't sure why. It was usually a loud affair, and Scout didn't like loud events, unless it was a TV show or video-game.

"You can stay and watch, you know." She told the Puppet, who startled. "Nobody would mind it really."

"Hmm." More looking, and then the weight on her head disappeared, and Stacy sighed.

'Maybe it's a good thing she doesn't want to join. It'll keep the questions down at least.' She sliced up the pizza and turned off the oven, plating some up for herself. "Okay everyone, pizza's done! Come get some before it all disappears!"

The three other adults rushed into the kitchen, piling up as much pizza as they could onto their plates. They all chattered excitedly about the session as they went back to the table. Stacy turned just in time to see Scout grabbing a slice, crawling away with it in her mouth like some sort of tiny cryptid. It was adorably hilarious, and she wished she could've gotten it on video.

They all got settled in, and Lisa started going over her notes while Stacy looked back over her character sheet. She needed a refresher from the last session she was a part of, as she'd had to skip a couple due to work.

"Okay, so the party is heading through a giant Dwarven fortress, deep underground." Lisa told them. "Marigold's been carried around by Nutbuster-"

"The Nutbuster." Mason corrected. He'd worked too hard on her character for Lisa to ignore part of her title.

"Right..." She sighed. "So she's been carrying Marigold around, and protecting her during her hibernation."

"Cool." Stacy put the sheet down and put her figure with the others. She was glad that her character hadn't died, at least.

"Okay, so..."

Lisa described the ancient Dwarven ruin they were in, searching for an orb that could tell the future for the King. He needed it to find out where the dragons that kept roasting his kingdom were, and when and where they would strike next. If they could get it without dying, of course.

As they delved deep inside the ruin, avoiding traps and defeating enemies, Scout watched from the doorway. It looked like just one big game of pretend, and from how Stacy had described it that's basically what it was. As Scout watched them, she felt she preferred video-games better. Much less imagination needed for those.

A noise at the backdoor made her pause, however. The Hosts didn't seem to have heard it, so with a sigh Scout decided to go check it out. 'Maybe one of the guys downstairs got loose.'  She figured she could just call the others for help, as she Jumped to the kitchen. Looking around, everything was where it had been before, and the basement door was still closed.

The backdoor was ajar, though.

Scout just sighed, Jumping over to close it back up. "Creepy old house..." She muttered. She turned around to go back

-----

A door slammed in the kitchen, making everyone look up from their game. "Did Scout just fail to sneak outside again?" Will asked, looking around for the wayward Puppet.

"She'd better not have." Stacy muttered, then blinked. "I think she's unconscious actually."

A pause, and then the couple raced to the windows. Mason and Lisa looked on in confusion and growing worry. They stood up and followed as Stacy paled, then raced outside and towards a white van.

"You!" She growled out as the two caught up to her, Mason grabbing her flesh arm to hold her back. For a moment, the dark clothed figure didn't move, staying still halfway in the van. Slowly the figure leaned back out, pulling along with them Riley, of all Puppets, holding an unconscious Scout in her grasp.

"I wouldn't get any closer if I were you." She told them, as Stacy struggled to pull away from Mason. "Or you won't like what I'll do."

"You let her go right now! Or I'll punch you into next week you Muppet reject! I'm gonna-!" She shut up when Riley's Host pulled a pistol out and aimed it at her. A second later, it aimed the gun at Scout.  instead as Riley grinned under her mask.

"I'd watch that mouth if you want to remain among the living. I shoot her and you'll be the one dying." Riley warned her, and Stacy felt her mouth go dry.

'Oh... I never considered who's life was tied to who's...' "What do you want?" She ground out. 'Keep her talking. Will just needs a few more minutes...'

"Why, both of you, or course. You're coming with me, for better or for worse." Her Host took a step back, and Riley gestured to the vehicle with her free hand. "So be a good Host and get into the van. And don't try to escape, there's no way that you can."

Stacy didn't know what to do, and had no real plan. But, she still yanked her arm out of Mason's grip and took a step towards the Puppet scientist. A second later a gunshot rang out and the Host dropped to one knee, blood splattering out from the leg. A look behind them showed Will on the porch, rifle to his shoulder as he glared at the Puppet.

"Don't hit Scout!" Stacy yelled as Riley yanked her Host to it's feet and dove into the van. Stacy made a run for it but Riley closed the door as another Puppet in the driver's seat floored it, peeling out of their street. Stacy barely managed to dive out of the way as it raced past her, ending up on the ground.

She stared after the vehicle as it vanished around a corner, tears gathering in her eyes as the others approached to make sure she was okay. She buried her face in her arms, and choked back a sob. 'Please no! I don't want to go back!'

----

The group gathered in the living, sitting silent. Stacy couldn't keep her eyes off the window, staring down the road Riley's van had gone as though that might make it reappear. Will, meanwhile, was gathering supplies.

"We need a plan!" He announced, slapping down a notebook and some pens. "Stacy, what do you know about that studio?"

"Uh." She blinked several times, wiping at her face as she tried to remember. "Uh, it was almost burnt down a while back, but there wasn't any sign of fire damage inside."

"Fire! Excellent weapon!" He scribbled 'Burn place DOWN! bring gas' "Anything else?"

"Um..." She thought back to what she'd seen. "No other Host was ever... awake. All of them were just puppeteered around by the Puppets."

"So nobody on the inside that could help us..." Lisa sighed.

"No, probably not..."

"By the way, you never told us how you... "woke up". How did that happen, anyways?" Mason asked, leaning forward in his chair.

"I... don't really know." She shrugged. "I took some Xanax before I went inside, and then did what I guess everyone else who goes in there did, and then I woke up a while later to Scout panicking about it."

"Took some... how long did it take before you woke up?" Will asked.

"I don't know, actually. It was afternoon when I went inside, but nighttime by the time we got out."

"Xanax has a sort of sedative function to it." Will muttered. "It probably circumvented the effects of the spell, tricking it into think that was the normal state of your mind."

"And then when it wore off, the spell broke." Stacy thought about it. 'But wouldn't that have also worked for Anthony? Unless Mortimer's just stronger than Scout is...'

"Okay, but how does that help us? Do we just pump weed or coke into the building?" Lisa asked.

"No, we take it ourselves and break in!" Will explained, and everyone looked shocked.

"Dude, I love ya, you're my best friend, but I don't love you that much." Mason told him. "I'm not looking to get my soul sucked. Could hurt my chances for the afterlife."

"Okay wow, first of all fuck you." Will deadpanned. "Second of all, Stacy's life and soul are already at stake!" He gestured towards his girlfriend, who looked like she was trying very hard to not look distraught.

"Is it really though? That Puppet could have been lying when she said Stacy would die if Scout did." Lisa pointed out. "Also, we don't even know if brain altering chemicals will actually work against the spell. Maybe it didn't work on her cause her great grandma was into voodoo."

"Rude. But also true." Stacy admitted, still sounding on the verge of tears. "I really don't know why I didn't stay a zombie. Maybe it was just luck."

"But we really don't have any other ideas." Will said. "Unless you think we can just storm the place?"

"Not... not really, no." She admitted. "They may just be puppets, but there's a lot of them. We'd be overwhelmed in an instant."

Silence, and then Mason sighed and stood up, taking the notebook from Will. "Okay then. Here's the plan..."

[unconsciouscelestial]

Just Fresh Friends...

as per request by @immalaneee       I hope you like it!! Fresh was a little bit of a challenge to write, but super fun. 

           You had no idea what you were going to do. Your best friend was getting married to this awful drag of a person- Tahira. Just thinking of the name made you cringe. She was always bitching or bragging about one thing or another, and would put you down often. You had tried to talk to your friend about it once, but they brushed it off and defended her. Their rose tinted glasses just couldn’t see her in a wrong light and you just couldn’t bring yourself to try and ruin it. To make matters worse, you had snapped at the wedding shower. Tahira had been going off about pairing you with one of her awful brothers at the wedding and you couldn’t stand the thought of spending that time with someone like her. You had retorted that you had a perfectly fine date lined up, and all her bridesmaids laughed, clearly unbelieving. So now you found yourself creating a profile on a dating app, requesting a friend only experience for a date to this wedding. You sat on your couch, letting The Fresh Prince of Bel Air reruns calm your nerves as you waited to see if anyone would reply. Every notification ding had you jumping to check, and then groaning in response. A couple people had replied, but you’re pretty sure they were expecting something else. You got ready for bed and mentally counting the days you had left (five), you groaned in trepidation. As you snuggled up into bed, you set your alarm to play the radio. As you drifted off to sleep, you realized you’d forgotten to turn off your tv.

       You awoke to Waterfalls by TLC softly playing on the radio. You smiled wide and remembered your crazy weird dreams about skeletons and frisbees, and you could have sworn there was fuzzy dice floating around somewhere? Checking your phone, there was two notifications. One was a non savoury picture of someone’s eggplant, and another was a totally obscure (but adorable!) response.

[Fresh: ‘Sup dudette? Thats one totally bunk situation, I’d be down to help make those haters jelly my radical brah]

You checked his profile and almost rolled off the bed laughing at this skeleton monster. It was like he walked straight out of a late 80’s early 90’s music video. You thought about it for a moment of malicious glee, what would Tahira think? She probably wouldn’t be jealous like he thought, but it would definitely make her swallow her words. And he sounds like he’d be fun to hangout with. Decision made you messaged him back.

 [you: Hey!! I appreciate that, everyone else on this dang app keeps sending me gross pictures or won’t get the hint that I’m looking for a friend only.]

 The reply was quick.

 [Fresh: Word! We’ll make those unradical muppets eat their shorts. Wanna get some grindage sometime before the shindig?]

 [You: grindage? ]

 [Fresh: good grub, eats, foodstuff ]

 [you: ohhhh! Like lunch or something? The wedding is in five days, so sure?]

 [Fresh: wicked. I’ll text ya later]

        The rest of your week went really well, you met up with Fresh and he took you to an arcade. You two spent the day getting to know each other a little and planned coordinating outfits. Thankfully you weren’t in the wedding party as they kept to family only. You had told Fresh where you lived, and when to pick you up. The day of the wedding arrived and you had just finished getting ready when your doorbell rang. Double checking your reflection, you felt amazing. You wore a beautiful purple knee length dress dotted with yellow flowers along the hem. Actually excited, you locked up behind you and flew down the stairs. Fresh was there on your apartment steps holding a bouquet of bright multicoloured gerbera daisies. He was wearing a bright neon purple tuxedo with a yellow waistcoat, and a bright pink bow. You grabbed one of the yellow Gerbera daisies and tucked it into Fresh’s breast pocket, patting it gently.

   “You look absolutely stellar, Fresh!”

   “Ditto dudette, you lookin hecka Fresh. Totally bangin’, my brah!” He returned the compliment, and his glasses read wowa and stuck out his arm for you to take before announcing “Radical! Let’s bounce!”

        You arrived at the venue and walked in arm in arm with Fresh. You were seated. As the wedding progressed you were willing to say your friend looked awesome, but Tahira looked... well, let’s go with not nice. You were again glad that you weren’t in the wedding party. Fresh made jokes under his breath the entire time during the ceremony, and it was all you could do to just stay quiet and not die laughing. You’re pretty sure the two of you got a lot of dirty looks but honestly you didn’t care at this point. You came to have fun and celebrate your friend, and having Fresh there as a new friend and backup felt invigorating.

        At the reception, it was pretty telling what Tahira had thought of you, as you and Fresh had been placed at the one of the “extras” tables, but at least everyone at the table was nice. They complimented both you and Fresh multiple times. After the meal the music started up, and the married couple had their first dance. You smiled the entire time at your friend, they looked so happy! When they finished You excused yourself to go to the washroom. Tahira and her bridesmaids had singled you out, and followed you in.

   “What the heck are you and your date even wearing? Purple and yellow? Bleh! And what’s with your date? He looks like he stepped out of the early 90’s!” They cackled at you. You balled your fists and got ready to retort, when a voice echoed from the doorway.

   “Yo, y/n, you straight?” Fresh had come to check on you. Relief flooded you, and gave you nerve. You ignored Tahira and left the washroom, almost bumping into Fresh.

   “So my brah, what’s the dealio with those totally unfresh dudettes?”

   “Gah! I don’t know. Tahira has just always been a {beeotch} to me, and her friends just join in...did I just get censored?? What the {heck}?” You looked around you for an answer, but Fresh started chuckling.

   “Brah, using that harsh lingo ain’t gonna fly around me!” He grinned, his glasses reading WORD. You sat down on a nearby bench and he sat down next to you, watching you intently.

   “Ohhh! I’m sorry, I’ll try to watch it... anyway yah she’s just had it out for me for a long while. Ever since she starting dating my friend.”

   “Oh snap, that’s way unradical dudette, she needs to chillax from that mad salt.”

   “Tell me about it,” You sighed. The music was really going now, sounded like a fun song to dance too. Fresh grinned and held out his hand to you, “Well my radical brah, that jam is my vibe. Let’s get jiggy”

      You placed your hand in his, blushing furiously, and he swept you up off your feet and into the middle of the dance floor. The two of you killed it, everyone was clapping. Even Tahira was totally staring at the two of you with obvious jealousy. Fresh waggled his glasses at you, and took your hands in his for a slow dance. You blushed furiously, and realized that you were now crushing hard on this totes rad skeleton.

Fresh belongs to @loverofpiggies

[popculturebuffet]

Reviewcaps: Amphibia: Swamp and Sensibility / Wax Museum

This week Anne tries to treat life like a ABCFamily Original Movie with predictable results while Kermit the frog cameos and the rest of the family wonder into a few possible Jordan Peele Movies. Then Anne stumbles into a Gravity Falls Homage and Frog Stan nearly murders her because that’s our boy. That’s our boy right there. Be warb under the cut. 

Wooo hoo! While this one’s a little wait both due to work on another review for a certain episode, this was a decent episode to cap off our long road trip. We’re now one week away from Marcy debuting and also Keith motherfucking David. 

I have no idea what enlisted is or what the hell is going on here but it’s keith david casually laying on a bicyle in full uniform. How could I not? 

Before we get to this week here’s last week’s recap, as tumblr ate it for reasons..  as you can also see if you click on my blog I tided up my subpages, so amphibia reviews can now be found in the general disney section along with ducktales and star vs. Now that’s out of the way our last episodes before marcy and keith, i’m a day behind, let’s a go. 

Swamp and Sensiblility

I”m also going to try going a bit looser.. still recapping what happens but not beat for beat as it’s gotten tiring and I sometimes strain for jokes especially when tired. So this week The Plantars find themselves stranded in Ribbiton, the most expensive city in amphibia after betsy breaks her reigns and, not having any other options are forced to stay with Hop Pop trying to keep the kids from getting distracted by the luxury. Thankfully they find an old friend: It’s One Eyed Wally!

Actually got an outside gif to work! Also hooray! But I did really like wally after his spotlight episode last season and his insane plan with the explosives that wound up paying off.. that’s some Wolverine level thinking.. no really he once cut the wires open in a sewer during a rainstorm so when the water inevitibly hit them it’d cause a blackout and hopefully help the x-men when it did if things had gone sideways.. which by the time it did, it did and they had. So good on you guys.  Anyways turns out Wally’s a rich boy but he’s gone too far because he know it don’t matter anyway.. and has been hiding his true self from his family, so the plantars showing up really dosen’t help. Thankfully he’s able tos top them from talking or correcting his father assuming their the help and our family takes lord rich asshole up on his offer to stay the night at their mansion, which in what I assume is a nod to gravity falls has peacocks on the lawn, though this being Amphibia their giant and deadly and you shouldn’t look right at them. 

Once in their fancy guest room, Anne wonders...

Wally explains, as I did he’s hiding himself. Anne sees parallels with a movie she was watching at the start of the episode from point to pop and lock which looks like my own personal hell.. aka an abc family original movie back before it became freeform, which is a more fitting name for what the network horrifcally mutated into over time so fair enough. It’s better than say keeping the names MTV or TLC long after either of those acronyms is at all accurate.. and at least with MTV they have almost 40 years of brand recognition to justify it with. But yeah it’s about a ballerina who wants to hip hop dance, you’ve seen the story a million time.. and a plot repeated here about a kid wanting to live their dreams but worrying their family won’t accept them or knowing they won’t, with wally, while not carrying for the money, not wanting to loose his family or his beloved bug... which reminds me of that Pokemon episode with James and his growlithe only without a carbon copy of jesse trying to use bdsm to make james obey which is not how that works Jessebelle. That’s not how any of that works. What.. what even was that episode.. I mean somehow it was really good and makes me question why Jesse and James never hooked up but still, what WAS that. 

Anyways, while Anne decides to interfere, the Plantars get a great montage of wondering into various creepy shit with toad saunas, rich people smashing things, and one frog in a peacock outfit among actual peacocks.. just.. yeah.. real Jordan Peele/Blumhouse “Rich white people are fucking terrifying” shit.. which is accurate. Thankfully instead of getting trapped in their own bodies or forced to star in the boy, our heroes make it back to Anne.  At dinner Anne outs wally as a frigging weirdo with predictable results. Yeah the one flaw I can find with this episode is it’s REALLY predictable up to this point: Anne watches a movie, is obviously going to encounter someone with similar problems, then tries using that movie as real life, it fails but then somehow workso ut in the end or dosen’t but the person is happy anyway. What does spice it up though is the final act, as Wally decides fuck it , he’s going to take control of his own life and issues a family challenge against his dad to do so, something Anne, and me honeslty, had forgotten about from last season as that was 30 years ago and one of the less memorable episodes. Still nice bit of continuity. But with wally lacking a mount because his dad’s a prick, Anne pitches in to fix her screw up and we get a decently shot sequence, and amontage, as Anne and Wally play rich polo against wally’s dad. Oh and of course the more notable part of this, Kermit the Frog here, if sadly the minty fresh matt vogel one instead of the sadly fired Steve Whitmire.. still not over that but oddly Vogel does a better job here than on muppets now as I genuinely could not tell it was him so it works. But yeah, it’s not Vogel doing a voice but Kermit DOING voicework for amphibia, because Muppets get wonderfully meta and Disney wanted to keep this gimmick going. yes going, as last year Fozzy did voice acting for Big City Greens... I fucking love this and hope disney keeps doing it for all their shows. Do Owl House next. 

Anywho Kermit commentates and it’s okay, they don’t do much with him but the sheer novelty of Kermit playing a thinly veiled copy of himself that still looks like a muppet still kinda works. Anyways wally ends up winning via hair accordion (”How long has that been in there?” “At least a full season”) and his dad dosen’t want Wally to leave the family.. which neither does he, he just wants to be accepted, his father accepts him, reveals he also likes music, happy end.  Final Thoughts: As you can tell I kinda breezed through this one but unlike other just okay episodes lately i’ts not half bad and while using a stock plot, it does use it cleverly, and to help flesh out a character we like.. it’s still very by thenumbers but the neat setting of the rich people mansion, the plantars journey through it’s creepy bowels and kermit the frog cameoing all really help boost what otherwise would’ve just be “the episdoe before the gravity falls homage” it still was but it was enjoyable enough. It’s just in a day where disney said gay rights and i’ts sister episode is again an homage to one of Disney’s greatst shows in it’s storied animated television history, it’s also easy to forget. If nothing else it was nice to have Wally back. I do think that helped. As you can probably also tell these road episodes have been wearing on me.. while their not BAD, and some are infact quite excellent, a few like this one, quarallers pass, and the acting and western episodes, are just.. eh. The character flaws they bring up are only one episode and they don’t really felsh out the charcters enough. Even here while it’s nice to get more dimension to wally i’ts not really by much. They just feel fairly stock in a show that while using some stock plots usually can do so creatively. I think that’s the core problem: it’s not that these are TERRIBLE it’s just I expect better form the show in a typical episode, and from the interesting setups the road brings, especially since it DOES deliver on them in other episodes and i’m kinda glad this stretch is finished next week. That being said it does go out on one hell of a note.. 

Wax Museum So after weeks of anticipation, our road trip ends on an episode that was hyped up before the season even began.. a weird move given this is week 5 and i’d of saved the interviews for closer like Disney does with ducktales, but regardless, this one was worth the wait.  First my quick, since I tend to go overboard on my thoughts on shows, thoughts on Gravity Falls: It’s fucking excellent. I stand by calling it one of disney channels best shows and while certaint hings could’ve used more time, like Dipcifica seriously I have no idea why tease that and then do nothing with it when they still had plenty of time left int he series even with Ford. But yeah a few minor quibbles aside the series was really good, left us wanting more which after seeing other shows sputter into flames at the end, hello Star Vs, I can live with. So yeah I was hyped for this one, especially since Amphibia creator Matt Braley not only worked on Gravity Falls but got Gravity Falls creator Alex Hirsch’s blessing.. and of course, Alex being a peach of a guy, just yesterday he proudly cooed over the fact Dana Terrance actually got Disney to have a bisexual lead character after he struggled to get anything remotley LBGTQ into gravity falls. He’s a good guy. And a weirdo but he’s my kind of weirdo. But being so nice, he naturally agreed to return as stan expy the curator and frog soos. While that is all we get, I do get not wanting to shohorn 80 refrences to the show in or get a ton of voice actors to come back for a cameo, nor try and include the twins due to the plot of this episode really not working with them around, thougH I WOULD have appricated frog mcgucket, but eh, you can’t get everything you want.  Said plot is again simple but really intresting: The Plantars stop in a small town and are dead broke, but Anne casually taking off her hood and being reminded she’s seen as a freak ends up as a lucrative buisness opprotunity as naturally small town yokels are fine with gawking. So with the plantars now having actual money to see the sighs Anne settles on the curosity hut, our mystery shack for the evening. The rest of the plantars, especially Polly who sees some eyes move, are utterly unverved byt he place and by it’s owner, the curator, our stan pines.. or stan ponds if you will. I mean if the series has a chuck and other normal names here an there, including Polly, then it’s not a stretch to say his first name stayed the same. Anyways, Stan shows the family around, including Air Mantis, because hell yes and some gnomes and other callbacks to gravity falls.. but I like how theirs only a handful to gravity falls monsters. There’s plenty of refrences but the episode wisely goes more for the FEEL of Gravity Falls: The creepy setting, weirder monsters (even if amphibia dosen’t shy away from weird , last episode had sheep bugs and all), and spooky vibe from the curosity hut all feel like the tone Gravity Falls went for, which is similar enough to amphibia the two mesh well. Plus the curator is basically a SLIGHTLY more evil stan pines... SLIGHTLY., and Braly naturally having worked on the show nails the character in writing while Hirsch steps back into the roll like it was just yesterday. It feels like a love letter to what the show was rather than just “hey remember this cool thing from it”, with still plenty of nice nods here and there. 

Anyways back to the actual plot, the rest of the Plantars decides to leave because this place gives them the creeps as does Stan, but once htey leave Anne finds something: A skipman! Which is a great name for a portable cd player.. seriously I had one of those early in high school, the skipping really was constant hell. If anyone ever complains about mp3s, smack em. I do not miss that era. Have a bit of nostalgia for it sure, but I do not actually MISS it. 

Anyways, yeah this is a big deal and it’s nice that even in the homage to it’s parent show, we get a rather big plot point: something else came from Earth and given Anne dosen’t recognize it as Marcies, though It still could be but I highly doubt it, it didn’t come with the three of them, meaning there were humans BEFORE.. possibly centuries in amphibia time given what we’ve seen so far. After all a great calamity had happened, it somehow invovles the box that brought anne here... no one says time travel can’t be involved. And it’ll raise even more in a minute. But first Stan offers a million coppers for it. not being made of money Anne instead bargins on her weirdness: One day of performance in exchange for the discman. Sounds good Stan. He certainly doesn’t have any evil plans. Wink... he’s telling you he’s winking because one eye’s under an eyepatch. Naturally Stan has less than good intetions and ominously plots to frog soos.. which I absolutley love how they just call him frog soos, who postulates on multiverse theroy because he’s apparently been licking himself agian. Oh that soos... I always knew he was on something. Also while he dosen’t get a high from it I don’t doubt human soos also licks himself for unrelated reasons. 

Anyways the rest of the family are skpetical of Anne meeting stan at night.. which is fair. I wouldn’t want my nieces or nephews, and one of the nephews is around anne’s age, around stan alone for any length of time. I mean he’s fine with his own family but I know i’d find them in a child size armadillo suit having been fed questionable canned meats after having to dance for gawking yokels. Plus stan has resting “Call the police fan” so HOp Pop wants to just discuss it in the morning first before remotley trusting this guy. But anne impulsively decides to just sneak out when their asleep. More on that in a bit.  Naturally trusting the strange man she just met who presumibly traffics ladypugs in this reality and constnatly looks like he wants your wallet goes poorly as Stan traps Anne and plans to incase her in wax like the other exibits. The plantars realize anne is missing and rush in with Polly trying to face her fear and ending up freeing ah orrifying monster “This is way worse’ indeed. Meanwhile Stan is annoying anne who’s praying for the wax to get her in one of the best bits of the episode.. because of COURSE stan would talk inncoently to someone he’s kdinapped while eating canned beef. To me it’s another nice touch: While the caretaker IS more of a villian than stan, for obvious reasons, given he’s put a random person behind glass just for not buying things, dressed his own grandson up in a humilating wolf suit and had soos use a fucking boiler for his employee break room, it’s not a hgue stretch to say a pre-character development, i.e. pre dipper and mabel to convince him to be slightly better, Stan would kidnap a bunch of freaky wax creatures. It’s also why i’m okay Jason Ritter and Krystin Schall didn’t return. Their great and I woul’dve loved to have dipper and mabel back.. but the episode just dosen’t work with them in it even as a cameo, and they could easily show up in a followup later if they choose to bring this character back. Probably not but hey stranger things have happend.  Stan does however reveal something important: He got the discman from newtopia.. where a bunch of OTHER artifacts are. Thankfully before that information becomes useless to Anne, Sprig and Hop Pop show up to the rescue and Stan fights them thinking their cops as he dosen’t want to go back to frog jail. And even once he finds out their not, he still wants a new attraction because this is stan and again, as good as he is by series end, or at least marginally better, I still wouldn’t put it past him to put sentient creatures in wax. This however backfires as once Polly frees the creature above sprig and hop pop free the rest, and the giant throng of monsters drags Stan off, with blood popping up.. though he assures us it’s just wax so he could show up again. Probably not. He also offers htem 10 perecent, and goes up to 11.5 but that’s as far as we go. Goodbye again stan. I’ll miss you buddy. Seriously I absolutley loved the character and even with a shifter copy it was really nice to have him back for an episode.  The family carts Anne off and back at the campsight Anne bemoans not getting the skipman.. luckily Sprig grabbed it on their way out, because h’es a good friend, but Hop Pop and Pollly are annoyed at anne for once again recklesly endangering herself without considering them and forcing them to save her (As polly pefectly puts it I”m tired of facing my fears anne) And that’s why I saved that: this episode deconsturcts anne’s tendency to act before she reallyt hinks or consult anyone else and actually has the family confront her on it, though she does genuinely apologize so hopefully it’ll stick. But yeah now newtopia offers even more promise and anne offers hop pop an accidental laser to the eye vai the skipman to close out the episode.  Final Thoughts: As you can probably tell If reaking loved this one. Instead of just apping gravity falls, as I pointed it out i more felt like a gravity falls episode in miniture, mixed with Amphibia to still feel like it belonged in amphibia, and with Stan back just slightly more evil. Slightly. Alex Hirsch was as always a massive delight and it was a treat to have him back, and it was a really damn good note to close the road trip out on after some middling episodes, toadcatcher excluded. Not much else to say, it was really damn good, easily the seasno’s second best after toadcatcher.  Next Time:  MARCY. KEITH DAVID. Ants? Good times. Until then you can find more disney reviews under the disney tab on my blog including the entire season of amphibia thus far and season 3 of ducktales thus far. Until we meet again, courage. 

[hithisischris]

Soft kisses. DDxReader

AN// I said I’d write smut and here I am! Enjoy.

When the Vlog Squad had shown up at the bar at 2 in the morning you thought nothing of it, honestly you were just excited that you had met them in their glory after they had gotten you through many tough times without even knowing it. When David put his camera down to have a face to face conversation with you, you’d become nervous in the .5 seconds that he had done that. After a night of him getting to know you and you getting to know the real side of him, the one that the camera didn’t see. you exchanged phone numbers, all the nerves that had been there disappeared while talking to him, you’d become very comfortable with him in the last hour you guys talked for.

It took both you and David four days to actually text one another, David really wanted to but he was nervous that maybe you’d just laugh his intentions off. that night when they had gotten home from their bar adventures he wouldn’t stop smiling. Natalie looked at everyone who sat on their couch “who slipped him a beer knowing damm well he will get drunk with one” David caught Natalies words and did his muppet dip Corrina and Zane laughing at her words too. “No. I met someone” as the words came out of his mouth every one looked at him with a small smile and a hint of worry and curiousity, “we were with you the whole night Dave, who was it” Carly asked Dave. He looked at his friends “well I don’t want to jinx it by telling you her name” he said softly with a smile playing at his lips. They laughed softly but weren’t going to push him to tell them who the mystery girl was. As they all either fell asleep on the couch or went to their homes David got into bed and looked at his phone with your number on it nervous to text you just as nervous as he was when he asked for your number.

“Y/n, maybe he is busy I’m sure he’ll text” said Melanie, your longtime friend and roommate “maybe. I dont know. What if he’s just not that into me like I thought he was” Melanie shook her head “no don’t think that way because you also have his number and could text him” you glanced at your friend and huffed with a nod. “Yeah yeah okay you’re right” you answered back in a low voice “order for y/n and Melanie” as they got their food y/n took out her phone and searched for his name to pop up “looking at it won’t make him text you” y/n glanced at her again and sighed opening her message app to send him a text, ‘hey, it’s y/n we met on Saturday night’ “there I sent it if he doesn’t answer then at least I know I gave it a try.”

After your text he had answered and asked you out, he took you to a place with a bunch on food trucks to pick from and afterwards took you to a secluded place where you sat on the hood of his car and ate, talked and looked at the stars. Four dates after that he reintroduced you to all his friends and watched you fan at them for like ten minutes “holy shit I’m so nervous, what if they don’t like me?” You had said that night “I like you so they’ll have to too” “David that’s cheesy, it’s your leo side that spoke right there right?” He laughed at her and opened the door to his house. He was right, they had loved you he was happy you were getting just fine with his friends. That night when he drove you back to your apartment he asked you to be his girlfriend, when the words came out he almost choked on them as he was absolutely nervous of meeting a new girl ever since Liza but when he felt your lips on his he felt warmth all the way to his finger tips. He drove back home smiling and happily.

You and David has been dating for the past three months. Your relationship with him had been slow paced which to you was nice because it was a different things from your exes, it was still the honeymoon phase for you guys and you didn’t mind sucking it all up. Dave asked you to sleepover this weekend and when he asked he was all blushes and stutters but you just nodded and smiled at his adorable antics. So here you were after everyone in the vlog squad had gone to their homes and Natalie went to bed. You were cuddled up to David while silently watching a Disney movie, you’d sometimes feel David’s eyes on you it’d been a while since it stopped making you nervous but right now as you realized it would be the first night sleeping over you’d become nervous “hey maybe I should just go home.” David’s eyes widened and shook his head a pout on his lips “why? Don’t want your other boyfriend to miss you?” His joke making the moment lighter “the nonexistent one because your the only boyfriend I have.” They giggled softly and they looked at eachother silently “I like it when you say that word” he said playing with her hand “it’s nice hearing come out of my mouth” you smiled at him. He leaned in to kiss you softly soon it became a soft make out session both of you needy for one another.

“Maybe we should go to bed” you said to which he nodded and turned off the TV as you led him into his room. “Is it weird I’m nervous? Like it’s been a while, what if you don’t like it?” You sat David on his bed smiling down at him while your hands were wrapped around his neck “no it’s not weird, this is our first time. I’m sure I’ll love it, it’s a moment of discovery Dave” he nodded and you kissed his lips he pulled your shirt off your body and looked at you to remember every nook and cranny of your chest you’d begin to feel shy under his glaze and pulled your hands up to your chest with a soft giggle “take a picture it’ll last longer Dobrik” he became aware of his staring and laughed softly pulling you on top of him. “While I would love that idea, I’m frightened at the thought of someone find it” you looked at him and laughed he laughed a long with you. He caught your lips after a while and kissed your softly while he tried slipping out of his jeans and you out of yours. He paused to slip out of his shirt to which his head got stuck on and needed assistance taking it off “you know for someone who is really cocky I didn’t expect you to be this awkward during this moment, nor did the 1,000 of fans on tumblr who imagine what sex is like with you” you had said while helping him out “ohhh y/n did you just reveal to me that you were part of those 1,000 of fans? And you’d be nervous too if it were you having sex with yourself” y/n freed him from his shirt and passed her hand through his hair “I revealed no such thing” they stayed that way for a couple of seconds till y/n leaned down to his lips and from that moment it was no longer giggles or comments.

David looked down at y/n’s body still trying to take a picture of her with his mind, he really wanted to remember this moment. He got a condom and slipped it on he peppered you with kisses from your neck down to your core where he started slowly and nervously but that didn’t matter to you because it made you feel good either way, you wrapped your hands around his soft curls pushing his face into your warmth feeling his kisses and his lips soft moans leaving your own. After of couple minutes David started kissing your body until he reached your lips and he slipped inside of you making you moan and himself groan softly. A soft rhythm had started between your hips and his. Your eyes closed softly and your hands were wrapped on his curls while he kissed your neck and whispered in your ear how good you felt. Your moans had gotten faster and you felt the bundle of release in your stomach pulling David’s hair to which he groaned. His hips became sloppier and he felt himself twitch as he came undone in the condom he kept a small pace to keep your own high from lasting, with a soft moan you came and he slipped out of you. As he went to throw out the condom he came back to find you sleeping soundly.

The next morning you were wrapped in his arms and a blanket his soft snores filling the room. You smiled up at him while he slept and had been so glad that you met him at two in the morning on a Saturday night.

AN///okay this may be a little bad I am still learning. It’s a whole lot of fluff I really hope this is enough vanilla for those who wanted to see it.

[softlass27]

❛❛ so … do i get a goodnight kiss? ❜❜ 

Here we are, anon!

ao3 link here

“I’m dying.”

Despite the misery of the current situation, Aaron’s mouth twitched. “You’re not dying."

“I am.” Robert rested his head on the edge of the toilet seat and squeezed his eyes shut. “There’s no way I can feel this bad and still be alive. This is worse than the carbon monoxide pois – ”

Aaron winced when Robert was cut off by another wave of nausea and lurched forwards to throw up again, practically burying his head in the toilet as he choked and heaved.

They’d been sat on the floor on their ensuite for a good hour now, Robert hunched over the toilet bowl and Aaron crouched behind him, rubbing his back and sweeping hair away from his face. His knees were killing him, but he didn’t have the right to complain, he wasn’t the one with food poisoning.

Robert gasped for breath and let out a long groan, which echoed loudly in the bathroom.

“This is fucking awful.”

“Just let it out,” Aaron murmured soothingly, rubbing a hand up and down Robert’s clammy arm. He tried very hard not to listen to the sound of vomit hitting the bowl.

“God, please jus’ make it stop.” Robert knuckles were clutching the sides so tightly they’d turned white.

“I’m sorry, I would if I could. But it can’t be much longer now – I don’t think there can be anything left.”

When that round had finally subsided, Robert shakily pushed himself up, spitting once more into the bowl and wiping his mouth.

“C’mere,” Aaron reached to pull Robert away from the toilet and let him sag his chest, stroking the back of his neck with his thumb. “I’ve got you.”

From his position under Aaron’s chin, Robert let out a whine that might have been funny if it wasn’t so pitiful.

“I’m never, ever eating at the Woolpack when fuckin’… fuckin’ Luke Posner is on shift again,” he mumbled, his voice raspy.

“Okay.” Aaron couldn’t blame him; he was beyond glad he’d gone for the risotto instead of the chicken.

“I don’ care if he’s dating my sister; tell your mum I want him fired.”

“Think she’ll be glad of the excuse if I’m honest, he’s bloody useless.”

“An’ – an’ if she doesn’t, I’m gettin’ a shovel.”

“It is… way too soon to joke about that.”

“M’not joking, I – ow.” Robert cut himself off when a particularly severe cramp hit him, curling in on himself and fisting a hand in Aaron’s t-shirt.

Aaron removed his hand from Robert’s neck to gently stroke small circles on his stomach.

“Fuck me, this hurts.”

“I know,” Aaron said against his temple.

When the cramp passed, they sat in silence for a few moments. Robert tugged his sweat-soaked t-shirt away from his skin, grimacing as he did so.

“I feel disgusting.”

“Well, you’ve looked worse.”

“Wow. Thanks for that.”

“Sorry, I dunno why I thought that’d make you feel better.”

Whatever retort Robert was about to offer was lost when he pulled a face and scrambled for the toilet. Aaron barely had enough time to release him and help him get there before he was retching painfully once again.

After another hour dragged by, Aaron checked his phone and noticed that Robert hadn’t thrown up for a good fifteen minutes. He nudged him softly.

“Rob?”

Robert hummed from where he was dozing on Aaron’s shoulder.

“You’ve not been sick for a while now, how’re you feelin’?”

“Like shit.”

“But not dying anymore?”

“I guess not… ”

“You think you could come back to bed? Try and get some rest?”

Robert slowly pulled himself up, scrubbing a hand over his bloodshot eyes.

“I don’t wanna risk it. You go back though, m’fine here.”

“Don’t be daft, I’m staying if you are. But I really think you should try and get some proper sleep; we can always put a bucket by the bed just incase.”

Robert sighed, before nodding slightly. “I need to clean my teeth, though, feels like something died in my mouth.”

Aaron pressed a kiss to his forehead and slowly pulled him up to stand and lean against the sink.

“Toothbrush and toothpaste, mouthwash, wet flannel, glass of water.” He gestured to the items he’d pulled out at some point during their first hour in the ensuite, ready for when Robert would need them. “You get yourself sorted, I’ll fetch you a bucket and some fresh pjs, alright?”

“Can I have some of yours?”

“Course you can. I won’t be long.”

Aaron nipped downstairs and grabbed a bucket from where they kept the cleaning supplies, before returning to the bedroom and pulling out the most threadbare – and therefore softest – set of pyjamas he owned.

Robert stumbled out of the bathroom, flicking off the light as he went. He looked well and truly done in, but his face had a little more colour in it after he’d given it a wash.

“Arms up.” Aaron peeled Robert’s sticky t-shirt over his head and his bottoms down his legs, throwing them in the direction of the laundry basket with a grimace. Robert was entirely pliant in Aaron’s arms as he helped him into his fresh pyjamas and steered him towards the bed.

“Well, you make this a lot easier than Seb does.”

“Oh shit, Seb,” said Robert, looking dismayed. “Do you think he heard?”

“Eh, I doubt it, but I’ll check on him just incase,” said Aaron as he pulled the quilt over him. “Right, water’s on the table, bucket’s on the floor next to you, anything else you need?”

“Well I’ve given my teeth a good brush so… do I get a goodnight kiss?” Robert titled his head up, a doe-eyed look on his face.

“Oh, Rob... ” Aaron smiled and sat down next to him, raking a hand through his hair. "There is no way my mouth is going anywhere near yours right now. Not a chance in hell.” He snorted at Robert’s offended expression.

“I will give you one on the cheek though.” And he did, pressing a soft peck to the side of his face. It seemed to do the trick, Robert’s frown replaced with a pleased smile.

“Jimmy texted earlier.” Aaron held his phone up.

“Mm?”

“Yeah, apparently Nicola’s sick as a dog, too. She had the chicken as well, so it definitely must’ve been that. He asked after you.”

“Fucking Luke,” Robert grumbled.

“At least we know it wasn’t personal, eh?”

“No, he tried to poison me. I’m gonna sue him. Him and his psycho mum.”

“Okay.”

“That witch probably had something to do with it.”

“Okay.”

“Stop patronising me.”

“Okay.” Aaron stood up and held in a laugh when Robert shot him a glare.

“I’ll just go check on Seb then I’ll come to bed, alright? I’ll even let you be the little spoon.”

“Hmm, lucky me.” Robert snuggled down further into the pillows. “Aaron?” He called out just before Aaron left the room.

“Yeah?”

“Thanks… for lookin’ after me.” He looked slightly bashful all of a sudden.

“You don’t have to thank me, you muppet. You’re my husband, it’s my job. It’s literally in our vows, ‘sickness and health’, and all that.”

“I know, just… still not used to it, sometimes,” Robert mumbled, eyes beginning to flutter.

And God, if that didn’t make Aaron feel things that it was too late at night for him to really dwell on.

“Just close your eyes, I’ll be back soon.”

By the time Aaron returned from checking on Seb (as he’d suspected, their son had slept through the whole thing, oblivious to the noise that had been coming from their room), Robert was already fast asleep.

[sinsiriuslyemo]

If you get a chance could you do like a oneshot of the squad dragging barba roller skating? Doesn't have to be a ship thing but can be if you want. I just think barba complaining about it and most likely falling at some point would be funny lol

“She specifically asked if you would be there, Barba,” Amanda said as she stood behind Rafael’s chair, staring at the back of his head as he fussed with files on his desk. “You cannot disappoint my four year old, I will never let you forget it.”

“You don’t know that she was asking for me, she could’ve been saying bottle. Lots of babies say baba when they mean bottle. Bottle, not Barba,” he replied without a glance in her direction.

Amanda rolled her eyes and took a step to put her beside his chair, laying a hand over the file in front of him. "As much as I hate sayin' it, she's not a baby anymore and she said, and I quote, will Wafa be there?"

"So maybe she was asking if there's going to be waffles," he said, looking up at her.

"Come on, Barba, the rest of the squad is going, too. Why can't you just suck it up and make an appearance for an hour?" she asked again. "Please? For me?"

Rafael sighed heavily as he leaned back in his chair, tipping it slightly. "I don't skate. I haven't skated since I was twelve and do you know why?"

She opened her mouth to answer, but he didn't allow for a single syllable to escape her lips.

"Because the last time I wore a pair of skates, I fell on my face and slid into the barrier so hard that the soda cup that someone had left on top of it fell on me. Only the cup wasn't filled with soda, it was filled with brown spit because some idiot had been using it as a chewing tobacco spit cup. Oh, and the fall also broke my nose, all of which happened in front of the girl I liked. So pardon me if I'm not eager to have a similar incident, where I could very well hurt myself worse."

"Okay, so you don't have to skate this time, just come to the party. No skating for you, I get it," Amanda replied. "I doubt Fin will wanna skate either, somehow he doesn't strike me as the skating type. Just come. Please?"

Rolling his eyes, Rafael pinched the bridge of his nose briefly before shifting his eyes back to the blonde detective. "You're not going to stop until I say yes, are you?"

Amanda grinned sweetly. "You know me so well, Wafa."

"Ugh, fine. Fine. But I'll only stay long enough to see her blow out her candles," he replied, pointing a finger at her and fixing her with his stare.

She held up her hands in mock surrender. "Fine."

"I suppose I'll need to stop and get her a gift, what does she like these days?"

"She's been obsessed with The Muppets lately," she offered with a smile.

Rafael couldn't help the smirk that came to his lips. "She has good taste."

"I know it," Amanda replied as she reached the door. "Who knows, you might even have fun."

"I wouldn't count on it," he replied with a smirk. 

She smiled back. "Be there at noon and don't be late."

He narrowed his eyes. As if he had ever been late to anything in his life. Rolling his eyes, he took out his phone to put a reminder in for himself to get Jessie a present on his way home. 

                                                       ☆☆☆☆

Walking into RollerJam USA, where dozens of kids of all ages were running around like lunatics, Rafael looked around for a familiar face. Any familiar face. Finally spotting Amanda and Liv on the opposite side of the rink, he sighed to himself and started to make his way over, gift bag in hand. He stopped walking just in time to avoid two teenagers, running with skates on adjacent to the direction he was going. Clearly they either hadn't seen him or didn't care who they ran over as long as they got to the massive, enclosed tan floor where people were skating to the music blaring from the speakers in the ceiling.

Rolling his eyes, he continued his journey around the perimeter of the rink. He had almost reached his colleagues when a young lady, who couldn't have been more than sixteen crashed into him, her cup containing a chocolate milkshake getting crushed between their forms. Rafael held his hands out on either side of him, staring down at the thick, freezing, light-brown slush that was splattered all over the front of his shirt. When he looked up, he became even more irritated to find that the girl didn't have a drop on her.

"Oops," she said, wincing as she looked from his shirt to his eyes. "My bad."

Rafael clenched his jaw and glared until she scurried away from him, and rolling his eyes again, he charged towards Rollins and Benson.

"Oh God," Liv said as she caught sight of him. 

Rollins turned around to follow her boss' gaze and her eyes widened when they fell on the chocolate-covered ADA. "What happened to you?"

"Teenagers," he growled through clenched teeth.

"Let me see if I can find you another shirt," Liv said, walking away as Rollins stepped closer to him, trying to fight off a laugh.

"Are you okay?" she asked as he handed her the gift he'd brought for Jessie.

"Just peachy," he growled.

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize it was gonna be so busy this early," Amanda replied as Liv came back with a clean, white tshirt, handing it to Amanda. "Would you keep an eye on Jessie for me? I'm gonna take him back to the party room so he can change."

"Yeah, of course," Liv answered, giving Rafael an apologetic look. 

Amanda took him by one elbow. "Come on, it's this way, you can change in there. Everyone's out on the rink, you'll have privacy."

He sighed and let her lead him towards the back of the establishment, into a private room that was decorated with muppet characters and streamers. In the center was a long table with a throne-like chair on one end and balloons tied to each arm. On one wall was a huge TV, playing a baseball game.

"Here, come on let's get this off you," Amanda said, reaching for his buttons. 

He swatted her hands away. "I can do it myself."

She held up her hands and took a step back. "Just trying to help."

"Who knew that coming into an establishment that fills kids with sugar and then gives them roller skates would end with me getting chocolate all over my Brooks Brothers shirt," he snarked as he unbuttoned his shirt

"I'll get it dry-cleaned for you, Barba," Amanda replied, handing him the clean shirt once he'd gotten his soiled one off.

He snatched the t shirt out of her hand and pulled it on. It was a snug fit to say the least, but he was thankful that he was at least in decent shape. It wasn't until he looked down at the front of his fresh shirt that his annoyance emerged anew. He glared up at Amanda, who had one hand over her mouth as she stared at him. 

On the front of the shirt was a Unicorn with a long, lavish purple tail, standing on it's hind legs, it's head turned and mouth open, a rainbow of colors coming out. Beneath the design was the phrase, Get to Skatin', Don't be Hatin'.

"You have got to be kidding me," he groaned.

"It makes your arms look sexy," she offered with a slight bob of her shoulders. 

"I look. Like a complete. Idiot."

"Come on, it could be worse, Barba," she said just as Carisi poked his head into the room. 

"Hey, Rollins, Jessie was wanting a milkshake. S'it okay if I get her a small one?" he asked before his eyes fell on Rafael and Carisi grinned. "Oh hey, Counselor, glad to see you could make it." He looked down at Rafael's shirt. "Hey, that's a great shirt, I thought for sure you'd show up in Brooks Brothers."

"Carisi, yeah, that's fine, she can have a shake. Can you give us a minute?" Amanda asked.

"Oh yeah, sure no problem. Hey, either of you guys want one? Barba?" he asked, looking from Amanda to Rafael.

The ADA clenched his jaw as Amanda put a hand against his chest before she addressed Sonny.

"No. Thanks, Carisi. We'll be right out," she said.

Sonny nodded and left them alone. 

"You know, I'm not typically one for violence but his stupid face looked like it could use a good punch," Rafael mumbled.

"Oh stop it, you know he's like a big kid a lot of the time," Amanda replied, looking down at his shirt again and straightening the hem.

"And someone gave him a badge and a gun?" he quipped.

"Look, just please make the best of the situation. At least until Jessie can see that you came for her," Amanda replied.

Looking up at her with gentle eyes, Rafael reached his hand to tangle his fingers with hers, thumb carefully stroking the skin between her first and second knuckles.

"I didn't just come for her, you know," he replied, taking a careful step closer.

She met his eyes, her fingers closing around his naturally as she gently shook her head, a smile creeping onto her lips. "We said we weren't gonna do this again."

Before he could answer, the door opened again and their hands pulled apart as all the kids, along with the party host came bounding inside.

"Okay, everyone have a seat so we can start passing out the pizza!" the host said with a big smile.

"WAFA!!" Jessie bellowed, running into Rafael to hug his waist.

"Hey birthday girl," he replied, not missing a beat and picking her up into his arms. "Are you having fun?"

"Yeah!" the little girl answered with a grin.

"Good, that's what I want to hear," he replied, setting her down and watching her run to her seat at the table. Turning back to Amanda, he sighed heavily before he moved to step around her. "I meant what I said, I'll stay till the cake and then I'm leaving."

"Okay," Amanda replied, nodding.

"Hey, Barba, nice shirt. Is it laundry day?" he heard from behind him and turned to see Fin grinning at him while Liv rolled her eyes.

"Fin..." Amanda shook her head.

"Alright, I was just messing around," Fin replied in a chuckle.

Rafael rolled his eyes and went to stand beside Liv as she settled Noah into a chair. The curly-haired boy grinned up at him. "Hi uncle Rafa!"

"Hey kiddo," Rafael replied, ruffling the boy's hair.

"I'm glad you decided to come," Liv said, smiling at him. "I'm sure Jessie is, too."

"Yeah, well...I couldn't exactly justify not showing up on her birthday," he replied, folding his arms over the ridiculous shirt he'd been forced to wear. At least he wasn't cold and sticky anymore.

"Kids remember the little things," Liv said. "When she gets older, she'll remember you as one of the strong males in her life."

Inhaling through his nose and all but oblivious to what Olivia was saying, Rafael watched Amanda help Jessie fold her pizza, like a proper New Yorker. He smirked when he remembered the time he had been the one teaching Amanda how New Yorkers ate pizza.

"I never thought you, of all people, would be showing me how to fold a pizza," she said in a laugh.

He smirked. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I mean that you don't look like the type to eat pizza," she answered. "Why do you do this again?" She crinkled her nose as blue eyes met his.

She had just witnessed him allow a defendant to choke him with his own belt earlier that day and after he had talked to the press outside the courthouse, she had worked up the courage to ask him if he cared for a celebratory drink. Having noticed her accent, he had recommended getting pizza instead. He hadn't yet eaten and there was a shop not too far from the courthouse. 

Amanda wasn't usually one to date ADAs, but this one...this one, after watching his prowess in the courtroom and the way he stalked in front of the witness box as though he had full control over the mind of anyone who sat in it was enough for her to make an exception. Besides, it was one case that he had been working with them. It wasn't as though he would transfer from Brooklyn--she barely knew him, but he seemed more than content there.

"It's just easier. New York pizza slices are simply too wide to hold it flat. Folding it ensures you don't lose any of it to gravity," he replied, placing his index finger in the center of the crust and using it to press down while his thumb and remaining fingers folded the slice in half, holding up the slice in front of her. "See? And now you get equal parts dough and topping with every bite."

Corner of her mouth curling upward, Amanda rocked forward and took a bite, making sure to allow her bottom lip to brush against his thumb. "Hm," she hummed, chewing the perfectly greased pepperoni pizza. "That's good pizza."

"Hey Counselor!" Rafael blinked, turning towards the sound of Carisi's voice. "You want some pizza?"

The ADA glanced at Amanda and could swear he saw a brief smile stretch her lips as a barely-noticeable pink hue came to her cheeks.

"Sure, thanks, Carisi." 

After everyone had had their fill of pizza, the host brought out the cake, turning off the light and allowing the candles to guide her way towards the birthday girl while everyone else sang happy birthday. Rafael couldn't help the way his heart melted at the look of pure joy on Jessie's face as she looked around the room at everyone. Taking a big, deep breath, she puffed out her little cheeks and blew out the candles, which was followed by a round of soft clapping as the party goers cheered for her.

"Okay, you guys can go back out to skate if you'd like while we cut the cake," the host said, clearly an expert at hosting children's parties.

"Alright! Let's go kids, last one out on the rink is a rotten egg!" Carisi cheered with a grin, looking back at Rafael. "Hey, Counselor, you coming?"

"No, I don't skate," the ADA answered.

This seemed to offend the birthday girl, who pouted as she looked at him. "Wafa, please? Will you skate with me?" 

"Aw, honey, Rafa can't," Amanda said, stroking her daughter's hair. "But mommy'll skate with you."

"I want Wafa, too," Jessie whined, her little eyes filling to the brim with tears as she directed her expression back to the prosecutor.

Rafael narrowed his eyes, though couldn't help the smirk that planted itself on his lips. 

"Please, pleaaasseee," Jessie begged, bouncing in place. 

The ADA rolled his eyes as he exchanged a glance with Amanda, who was looking at him apologetically. "Okay, fine. Once around the rink and that's it, okay?"

"Yaay!!! Jessie screamed at the top of her lungs, running to go put her skates back on. 

Amanda stepped closer to murmur in his ear, "You don't have to."

He bobbed his shoulders. "It's her birthday."

She smirked and nodded once, turning her face away from his. "Well, let me come out with you guys to make sure she doesn't try to go too fast."

"You, in skates?" he asked with an arched brow as they walked to the booth where they could procure skates.

"Sure," she answered with a smile. "All you gotta do is remember what it's like to be young again "

"Oh, is that all?" 

"Yeah, think you can remember back that far?" she teased.

"Very funny," he mumbled around a smirk as they reached the booth and asked for skates in their respective sizes. "If I break my nose again, I will never let you forget about it."

"You'll be fine," she replied.

"WAFA!! MOMMY!! HURRY UP!!!"

"Sounds like she's ready to get this party started," Amanda mused, looking over at Rafael as she tied her laces and stood. "You ready, Counselor?"

He sighed heavily, looking out at the tanned, glossy floors as though they were a tightrope over a fifty foot drop. "I guess." Carefully, he stood, Amanda keeping her hands held out towards him in case he needed her to steady himself. 

"Okay, now just carefully--"

"--I know how to skate."

"If I remember correctly you also know how to fall on skates," she replied, eyebrows raised above her eyes.

"That was low," he replied, about halfway to being upright.

"Just take my hand."

He arched a brow. "Why? So I can bring you down with me if I do fall?"

"MOMMY!!"

"We're coming, Jessie!" Amanda hollered back. Finally Rafael stood straight and he let out a silent breath before he and Amanda slowly skated to Jessie.

The three of them stepped into the rink, Jessie in the middle, holding each of their hands and giggling at Rafael, who was using his other hand to grip the rails of the rink. They were moving at a snail's pace, but to him it was better than the risk of falling over. At least when he was twelve, he had his youth and healed from the bad tumble in just a few short weeks, but if he had a similar fall now, he was all but sure than he would sustain permanent damage. The wheels of his skates rolled on their own accord, causing his feet to scissor back and forth clumsily and he couldn't figure out whether to lean forward or slightly back.

Still, Jessie was clearly having a ball, and really that was all that mattered to him...that is until he noticed the break in the wall, where there was a second area for skaters to get in and out of the rink. He'd promised the birthday girl a full lap around and the opening they were approaching would only be the halfway point. Shifting his eyes to Amanda, he tried to communicate his panic without alarming Jessie. No use in giving the young girl a complex about something that she was obviously enjoying.

Amanda seemed to anticipate the words he was holding in, and she smiled down at her daughter. "Let's just keep going slow, okay, sweet girl?"

"I wanna go faster!" Jessie exclaimed, unaware of Rafael's anxiety.

"Why don't you guys go ahead and I'll catch up," Rafael offered. If he could just be able to push himself gently from one corner to the other of the opening, he would once again have the safety net of the wall for the rest of the lap. It would be much easier not to mention safer to accomplish if he had the use of both hands. 

"Don't wet go my hand Wafa!" Jessie replied. "Two hands!"

That was precisely my thoughts. Rafael sighed, looking to Amanda for help. The opening was less than a couple of awkward rolls away. There was no time!

"Jessie, I got you, baby. Let Rafa skate on his own for a minute."

"NO!" Jessie hollered, her little face scrunching in her attempt to produce tears. Just as they reached the first corner, the little girl yanked at his hand with all her might, trying to keep him close to both her and her mother.

And that was enough for his feet to lose what little jurisdiction they had over the skates. Though it likely only took a matter of seconds, Rafael felt as though he was in slow motion as his hand instinctively came off of the wall to help balance himself, right foot rolling out from under him. The hard thump against the glossed floors shot pain from his ass to his lower back, and Jessie followed him down, landing on top of his torso and knocking the wind out of him. Amanda, however, managed to right herself by some small miracle and reached to pull her daughter off the ADA.

"Move it! We're trying to get in!" The bark came from a teenager at the entrance, holding hands with milkshake girl from earlier and Rafael was about to answer when he heard Amanda's motherly growl.

"Hey! Where's the fire?!" Her eyes had snapped up to glare at the two teens, who seemed to take a step back in surprise. "Can't you see I'm trying to help them up? Use the other entrance," she demanded, putting her attention back on her two fallen skate partners. "Come on, baby, let's get you up."

She was able to get Jessie up and off the floor, onto the carpet before turning back to Rafael, who was attempting to get up on his own to no avail. Every time he would attempt to plant his foot, the wheels would make their desire to see him on the tanned rink floor known.

"Barba, hang on a sec, I'm coming," Amanda said in a titter.

"Is this funny to you?" Rafael heard himself ask as he continued to try and get himself up.

"A little, you're gonna really hurt yourself. Just let me help," she said, stepping back into the rink to reach a hand out to him while keeping an eye on her daughter just outside the entrance. "Stay there, baby, okay?"

Jessie nodded, pouting and rubbing her elbow.

"Come on, Barba," Amanda mumbled, wrapping one arm under his shoulder while the opposite hand held onto the corner of the wall. "I gotcha, come on, stand up."

Crawling the short distance to the entrance, Rafael reached for the corner of the wall, pulling himself upright and onto the carpet. 

"Think that's enough skating for me today," Rafael said.

“Least you didn’t break your nose,” Amanda offered with a tentative smile.

He sat on a bench and began to take his skates off. “No, but I think I did a real number on my ass.”

“Well, you’ve got plenty’a cushion back there,” Amanda answered.

“You would know,” he mumbled to himself as he took off his skates and stood up again.

"You okay?" Amanda asked, blindly taking Jessie's hand.

"Yeah, just my pride," he answered as Carisi skated by and stopped to grin at them. 

"Hey, guys, everybody's wondering where the birthday girl is. They're all done cutting the cake."

"I'm wight heor!" Jessie exclaimed, raising the hand that wasn't linked with her mother.

Amanda smirked over at Rafael and winked. "You did say, you'd stay for cake."

[sciendere]

What’s This?

Snowdeke fluff, post S7 in my self indulgent headcanon where everyone gets a happy ending and absolutely nothing bad happens to anyone. 

Summary: The holidays can  be stressful, especially when it’s your first Terran Christmas and you’re still learning how to properly people. Deke is trying to help Snowflake navigate the holidays through the help of movies, and she finds herself relating in particular to the misadventures of one Jack Skellington. A series of scenes of Snowflake discovering and trying to understand Yuletide, as set to the lyrics of What’s This? from The Nightmare Before Christmas. Inspired by my Snowflake Christmas headcanon post.  Just tumblr now, this is the first fic I’ve completed in literal years and I’ve lost my AO3 login information because I’ve never really had anything to put there until tonight. Enjoy my odd little story please!

~

Adjusting to new cultures is never an easy thing. At least that’s what Deke kept repeating to himself under his breath as he tried, with his limited modern-day Earth knowledge, to help Snowflake acclimate herself to Terran life. She’d managed a basic grasp of most mundane daily situations- be friendly, be polite, and knives stay in your pocket- but special occasions, holidays in particular, were still a bit foreign to her. Routine was so much easier, especially when for years it was literally the only constant in her life. Something he even understood, so when words failed him, he had a secret weapon- passwords to every streaming service he had. Television and movies were his teacher, and now they were hers. December had come before they knew it, and as she watched the Thanksgiving Day parade, confused and bewildered by the strange-to-her things on display, he realized the time had come to teach her about the winter holidays, Christmas in particular. Christmas meant parties, parties meant company, and company meant the fiancee needed to be on her best and least embarrassing behavior. This was already a bit of a tall order for Snow, and for the most part, Deke let her eccentricities slide as long as there were no injuries or casualties, but he also didn’t want her to feel left out. “So,” he said one day, handing her the remote to the TV like a proud father handing his child the keys to their first car, “Christmas is coming. You need to learn about it.”

“Ooh, is it binge-watching time again?” she asked. Her eyes lit up. “I love binge-watching!”

“It’s binge-watching time,” Deke replied. “Your mission: gather as much intel on the Terran celebration of Christmas as you can. Preferably in the next week or so. Parties start early, yo.” “Mission accepted!” she squealed. She snuggled into the beat up couch in their apartment’s living room, making herself comfortable. “Great, have fun,” he said. “You want me to order pizza or anything?” “You know my regular order.” Deke rolled his eyes. Engaged life had its ups and downs, and one of them was having to recognize your woman, as much as you might have in common with her, will always disagree with you on extremely important topics. He sighed. “Pepperoni, canadian bacon, and pineapple,” he said, disgusted and horrified but still a supportive man to the very end.

“That’s my boy,” she said.

~ A few hours later, stacks of pizza had been devoured by both of them during that evening’s Christmas movie marathon, and Deke had dozed off beside Snow on the couch. They’d worked their way through several of the classics- Elf, Muppet Christmas Carol, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Miracle on 34th Street, and A Christmas Story- and Snow clicked her way lazily through the titles on the screen, looking for one that really caught her eye without Deke’s helpful advice to guide her. She’d come to understand the holiday a bit from them, but it was still so foreign. The movies were good, but she just didn’t grasp entirely the sentiments behind them.  One in particular truly stood out to her, one that from the poster art didn’t even look like much of a Christmas movie at all, but instead, bore a smiling dapper cartoon skeleton man. “The Nightmare Before Christmas?” she read off the screen. It was certainly different from the other titles she’d seen. “Awesome.” She hit play on the menu and watched as the stop-motion puppets filled her screen, already in love with the morbid imagery. Finally, a movie that spoke to her soul. Deke woke up about half way into the movie, to find Snow beside him paying rapt attention to it. “Huh what’s this… oh Nightmare Before Christmas? Always watched it at Halloween myself but I guess it’ll do too.” “This movie is amazing! Jack’s just like me.. He just wants to learn and figure out Christmas and he sang a whole song and he’s just trying to make Christmas for everyone!” Snow pointed to the screen, where Jack was puzzling over the secret to Christmas. “See? That’s me now,” she said. Deke just smiled, happy his woman was happy. Maybe she’d figure out this Christmas thing in time… ~

Nightmare became a favorite for her over the next few days. Though she still puzzled over Christmas, Deke had begun to walk her through the holiday by explaining it to her the best he could, but late at night she’d return to Halloweentown, feeling a little less alone in Jack’s bewilderment at a world he loved but also didn’t totally understand. Of all the songs, “What’s This?” captured her feelings best, she thought, not just about Christmas, but getting used to another world entirely.

~ What's this? What's this?

There's color everywhere

What's this?

There's white things in the air

What's this? “So.. the white ornaments on the trees are-”

Snowflake had never cut Deke off faster, and she was used to him saying several stupid things a day. “I swear to gods, Deke, if you even try to explain the concept of snowflakes and snow to me. Like I don’t know what my own damn name means. It’s the one thing I DO get about the holidays.” She smiled, but it was one of her smiles laced in venom and dried blood on the blade of a dagger, one where you were reminded, and fast, she’d spent years as the galaxy’s deadliest assassin, and she could go back to that life anytime if she really wanted.

He chuckled nervously but knew she meant business, even if she was joking. And God help him if he ever wound up on her bad side. “Yes’m,” he said. 

“False advertising, though, there’s none out here right now even though it’s winter. I feel like it’s just a tease to throw those picturesque landscapes at you when we don’t know what the weather on the 25th will be at all just yet. This is a planet with varying climates, is it not?” “Well, yes…”

“Then why is it being advertised like we’re on a frozen planet?” “Snow, honey, it’s stylistic, just don’t overthink it. Don’t overthink most of it. In fact, thinking? Highly overrated in general.” “First time you’ve made sense all day. You know, though,” she said, “it’s not hard to pretend half the songs on the radio right now are actually about me. Because everyone here just loves me that much.” “You were wanted for murder and larceny in five states before I bribed Daisy into hacking their law enforcement’s networks to clear your name.” And it was expensive as hell too,  he thought to himself. “Let it Snow. Is about me.” “Right, right,” Deke said. “You’re right.”  

~

What's this?

There are people singing songs

What's this?

The streets are lined with

Little creatures laughing

Everybody seems so happy

“So you’re just telling me people go out in big groups and sing in public places, not even for money, and no one really cares? And they’re called… Curlers?” Swing and a miss, Deke thought, but he gave her points for genuinely trying. The two were on a park bench listening to a choir sing in the city park. “Carolers. Curlers play a weird ice sport with brooms and a rock.” “Who’s Carol? What’s she got to do with it? Should I know about her? Is she the lady statue over there?” Snowflake pointed to a nearby church’s Nativity scene and Deke quickly pushed her hand down, praying the awkward stares from passerby stayed at a minimum.

“It’s just another word for song, they just.. They sing. To make people happy, make them remember stuff. It’s fun.” She still struggled at the idea of being a street performer just for the enjoyment of it, not sure why anyone would do anything like that without it getting them money, but it was simultaneously the most adorable thing she’d ever heard. “I’m glad they’re doing it. Their singing is pretty.” ~ Oh, look

What's this?

They're hanging mistletoe, they kiss

Why that looks so unique, inspired

It was the afternoon and Snow couldn’t help but notice the weird little bit of twigs hanging over the doorway of the kitchen. “Deke, there’s plants on the doorframe! What have you been up to this time?” “Decorating?”

She reached for the leaves the best she could with her tiny frame and sniffed up into the air. “Mistletoe,” she said. “We had this on my planet. Leaves and berries are poisonous. Really good for if you want to take someone out without a lot of mess- is this a present? For me? Who do you need-” “Wait wait wait- Snowflake NO, no one is getting poisoned.” 

She frowned. “Waste of good mistletoe if you ask me. What is it for, then?” “So… you hang mistletoe from doorways, and if you and your love walk under it… you kiss.” “We kiss under the poisonous, parasitic bush?” She was confused but intrigued by this strange custom. “Look, it’s tradition, don’t ask questions, I don’t know either.” “And I thought Terrans were soft… that’s the most badass thing I’ve ever heard of in my life. Kiss me under the poison.” “You really don’t need to put it like that-” Deke said, but before he could finish, Snow had pulled him in for a kiss. One he happily returned. He wasn’t about to waste some good mistletoe, after all. ~ They're gathering around to hear a story

Roasting chestnuts on a fire

Snow threw a copy of The Night Before Christmas across the bedroom. “No, I’ve tried to understand so much of this holiday, most of it I’m coming around to, but this? This is where I draw the line.”

“Sweetie, it’s a kid’s book, it’s not that big a deal-” “No, I’m not upset about a book,” she said, “This… this Santa? No sense at all,” she said. “The sleigh is just magic, like any other kid’s story, you really don’t have to try that hard to understand it.” “Oh no,” she replied, “the sleigh makes perfect sense to me. Santa knows what’s up, you put in your coordinates, fiddle with a few things, the ley lines get you to the nearest destination. Easy, basic dimensional travel, even if it might be a bit more efficient if he didn’t insist on using reindeer. Makes all the sense in the world to me, the rest of you all just need to get on our level. But everything else about the big man… No.”

“I’m going to hear about your problems with him whether I want to or not, aren’t I?” Deke asked. “Bingo,” she said. “You people are just okay with a man in a red suit breaking and entering? To leave presents for children? A man in velvet and fur does that, it’s holiday spirit, I do that, and it’s ‘creepy’ and ‘wrong’ and ‘next time, Snowflake, just knock’” “I warned you Nana and Bobo have been Terran all their lives and they were going to take your ‘extreme baby surprise’ a bit differently than you thought they would.” “And I told you it’s good for the little brat, keeps them on their toes and gives them a bit of exciting mystery in life. So I get why the Terran children love this story so much, even if I think it’s a case of double standards. But the man’s clothes are simply not stealthy or tactical. You can’t sneak in red, especially on your mythical white Christmases, you’re going to stick out from a mile away! And don’t get me started on the chimney… what happens if you don’t have one. We don’t have one, would Santa just climb in through the window? Lockpick?”

Deke nodded. She made several points, even if it was a bit much for her to approach Santa through the perspective of her area of expertise. “I got nothing on those last two points.”

“He goes to all that work… for snack food,” Snow said. “At least you lot could tip your home invaders a bit better. I’d expect at least large sums of money, in small unmarked bills, for that kind of performance.” Deke nodded. Milk and cookies really did seem like an unfair trade-off for overnight delivery. “I hear what you’re saying but that’s just the Christmas spirit for you, he’s grateful just for the snacks. He does it to be giving. At least, I think that’s supposed to be the point of it all.” 

His reply took her aback. She would rather lose her right hand than admit Deke was right in this conversation, easily, but at the same time, she could see the little nugget of truth in what he had to say. One that made her stop and think. Snow pulled herself out of bed and walked across the room to pick the book up. “But all that aside, it’s a lovely story,” she said quickly. “Even if nothing about it makes sense.” “You never make sense. Like. In general.” “I know. Get used to it, because we don’t do sense in this household.” “Wouldn’t have you any other way.” ~ What's this?

In here they've got a little tree, how queer

And who would ever think

And why?

They're covering it with tiny little things

They've got electric lights on strings

 “This one,” she said, “this is the perfect ornament for the dead tree.” Snow waved a Christmas ornament in front of Deke’s face in the packed gift shop, a kitten in a gift box holding the banner “Meowy Christmas.”

“For the last time, it’s called a Christmas tree,” Deke said. “Even if it… is… a dead tree. Technically.”

“Well the dead tree needs a festive Flerken on it,” she said, putting the bauble in his shopping basket. “They’re cats here, snowbunny,” Deke whispered, “cats.”

“Cat, Flerken, potayto potahto, isn’t that how it goes? We have to buy these too,” she said, putting a box of round glass ornaments into the basket. Deke looked in and was unsurprised to see glittering snowflakes painted on all of them. 

“These are just regular ball ornaments we have plenty of- oh,” he said. He knew despite her original misgivings about the guarantees of weather, the snowy motifs made her feel a little less alone and out of place, and had been playing along for a while with her insistence they were about her. “Of course we need them.”

“That’s how everyone will know the tree is mine,” she said proudly. 

“We have enough now,” Deke said. “Our tree isn’t that big, and we still have lights and garland for it-” “No,” she insisted, and another boxed ornament was in her hand. “Just one more?” The ornament was a ceramic retro styled semi truck, decked out in Christmas lights and wreaths. Deke looked at it, and spent a second in confusion as to why she’d want such a mundane thing on the tree, until it clicked.  Despite the hard times she’d had in her past, she still had a few fond memories of her adventures with the crew- Jaco in particular- and an occasional homesickness for her intergalactic, interdimensional home for so many years. And for all her confusion, she’d seemed to figure out part of Christmas was celebrating the past. “We.. we never had Christmas… or much of any holidays, really, it happens when you can’t really stay in one place for too long, on there… but it’d be like this, if we had,” she said. “You know.. Just in memory of the family who couldn’t make it.”

Deke nodded. He’d lost his family going back in time too, and understood how Snow felt. The tree was covered in lemons as a sort of nod to his past, and adding snowflakes and trucks to that mix just seemed right. 

“You’re right,” he said. “We’ll buy this one more thing.” “One more? Oh no,” she said, and in her hands was a strand of lights with clear snowflakes around the bulbs. “That dead tree isn’t done until you can barely see tree under it.”

Deke smiled. She was starting to get it.

~

The smell of cakes and pies

Are absolutely everywhere

 “What’s your favorite sweet?” Deke asked, out of nowhere at breakfast on a cold December morning, a few days before Christmas. 

“Huh?”

“Nana and Bobo are coming Christmas morning. So we’ll be doing the cooking this year and having our dinner with them. I thought I’d make the actual dinner, you could maybe do the baking and something sweet for dessert? I know you love sweets.” 

Snow thought for a moment, then started listing things, counting them off on her fingers. “Cookies.. Pies.. cakes.. Bread-” She stopped suddenly. 

“What’s wrong?” Deke asked. “I thought you loved all the treats you’ve been trying this month.”

“I do, they’ve all been divine. I just thought of my options for baking and then I thought of how much Jaco would love this time of year… He taught me a few things and I can probably use that knowledge to make just about anything, but it’s just not the same without him there to give me advice.” Her blue eyes grew big with bittersweet memories and Deke could see the sparkle of tears forming in them. Her sad face always destroyed him, knowing all the pain and loss her expression held. Deke grabbed for her hands and held them tightly. 

“We have cookbooks… we can call Nana for advice, she’s a biochemist, baking is just chemistry you eat… we can watch videos if you get stuck. I know it won’t be the same, and I know nothing will ever replace what he meant to you, as a big brother.”

Snow nodded. 

“But he’s also always right there in your heart, no matter what,” Deke said. “Nana taught me that about loss, people never really leave us, as long as we remember them. So bake the most delicious Christmas treats you can, and make him proud. And as long as you do that, as long as you use what you learned from him, Jaco will be with us.” 

“You’re right,” she agreed. “I’ll do the best baking anyone’s ever tried, and it’s all going to be in his memory.” “That’s the spirit. So what are you making, then?” Deke asked her. 

“Everything!”

~

The sights, the sounds

They're everywhere and all around

I've never felt so good before

This empty place inside of me is filling up

I simply cannot get enough

 Navigating last minute shopping downtown was the last thing Deke expected to be a challenge for the two of them, but it had become one. It was a case of Snowflake’s natural, corvid-like attraction to shiny, sparkly objects- and Deke trying to stop her before her natural kleptomaniac impulses could kick in-against her lack of acclimation to so much sparkling, bright, merry surroundings. Spending a  good part of your life in a dimly lit truck was something that stuck with you for a while, and even on the most neon lit planet she’d paid a visit on her journey, nothing could top the spectacle of Earth during the Christmas season. Every surface sparkled and shone with bright lights and glitter and tinsel and foil, every storefront played happy tunes about warm feelings, and the jingle of bells was never too far, as though magic simply floated through the atmosphere at that time of year. 

It was everything Snow ever loved, but it was also so, so much, almost too much for her at times. The sensory overload tired her out and she quietly pulled on Deke’s arm, guiding him to a nearby bench. He understood immediately and followed her to sit down beside her.

“I think I’m finally starting to understand this Christmas,” Snowflake said. “It’s still strange to me in a lot of ways, but whatever, life is boring without a little strangeness, isn’t it?” 

“Guess that means as long as I’ve got you my life will never be boring, then,” Deke replied. Snow playfully punched him in the arm, even though she knew he was right.

“I’ve seen so much in my short life and so many different worlds but this is the first I’ve seen where everyone spends a month just being kind to one another, giving out of the goodness of their hearts, inviting others into their homes to share food and company and good times, just loving each other. Before I came here… we didn’t have a lot. We were poor constantly, we only really had each other, and we ate almost every meal like it was our last because we never knew when our next would be coming. It’s so different going from that… to all this.”

Deke held her tight. “But you know things are different for you now, right? You don’t have to worry anymore, you know that.”

“I do, and that’s why I understand. Because I feel like that’s what all this is about. The winter is dark and cold and long, and sometimes, people don’t have what you do, and we just have each other. So we make everything brighter and warmer and share what we have with people who might not. We remember the people we love who might not be here. And it makes that darkness just a little easier to get through, if we get through it together.”

Deke was at a loss for words. He himself had never considered Christmas that way, but what she had to say was absolutely right. The two were from such different backgrounds, but in the end, they weren’t that different, two people who were thrown from their normal into something totally new. He was proud of her for coming to that conclusion by herself, because deep inside, it sorted things out for him, too. 

“You know, I don’t understand as much as I pretend to sometimes, in fact I understand literally nothing, but I think you’re right.”

“I figured it out with your help. I’m so grateful I have you to help me learn and feel less alone, less weird, less different. You’re better than any present anyone could ever give me.”

“Really? I just do my best…”

“It’s all we really can do, isn’t it?”

~

I want it, oh, I want it

Oh, I want it for my own

I've got to know

I've got to know

What is this place that I have found?

What is this?

Christmas Town, hmm

 It was Christmas morning, and the grandparents were due, and Deke was mildly nervous about how well the future granddaughter in law would go over with them. Although it took a while to get them acclimated to their… eccentric… new family member, Fitz and Jemma, on the whole, were able to move past their initial misgivings and find aspects of her they could both admire and focus on, rather than the fact a woman they met after she tried to murder one of their found family, would soon be married into theirs. “Just… try to not horrify them too much,” he reminded her that morning. “I know in-laws can be difficult, but I think we can manage the best Christmas ever as a family, too.”

“Deke, I’ll be fine,” Snow reassured him. She was dressed for the festive occasion, wearing a knit sweater, covered, of course, in silver foil yarn snowflakes. The words LET IT SNOW filled the front of it. “It’s not like I’ve never met them before.” She reached into the oven and pulled out a tray of gingerbread people to cool. Sitting on the kitchen table was an array of the goodies she’d stayed up all night baking. After all, she needed something to do to pass the time in case Santa paid them a visit, so she could sit down with him and teach him basic stealth principles. Platters of cookies in various shapes and varieties- snickerdoodle stars,  sugar cookie snowflakes, and a small pile of shortbread butterflies- and a big basket of fluffy herbed rolls, a recipe she’d learned years ago from Jaco, covered almost every surface. “What do you think? They’re going to love it.”

Deke smiled. “It’s great but.. Where am I going to put the turkey, or just about anything else?”

“We have a whole living room,” Snow said, and Deke raised a finger and opened his mouth, ready to point out maybe that was a better place for the sweets, but he wasn’t about to be a buzzkill when she was in such an excited mood. 

“Right, right, living room turkey. Classic Christmas tradition. Right.” This was going to be a fun one to explain to Nana and Bobo… who were ringing the doorbell that very minute.

“I’ll get it-” Deke insisted, but Snowflake was already opening the door to welcome the two in. “Merry Christmas!” she squealed, in a cheerful singsong voice. Fitz tried to dodge her embrace by sidestepping her, but her well-trained reflexes were faster, and he found himself in an awkward hug from the tiny woman, sending desperate looks Jemma’s way. His wife gave him a look that said, without any words, oh no, she’s your problem now. “Bobo!”

“Pleasedon’tcallmethat,” Fitz muttered under his breath. Jemma helpfully pulled Snow off him to give her adopted future granddaughter in law a hug, only for Deke to quickly swoop in on his grandpa before he could even enjoy his newfound freedom.  Snow was surprised. She’d always had a harder time getting through to Nana, but maybe it was the holiday spirit bringing them a little closer today. Just a bit more of that magic she’d never totally understand, but that was fine.

“Oh, Snow, how have you been hanging in there?” Jemma asked her. 

“Baking!” Snow said proudly. “So many cookies in the kitchen, and more coming, please eat them so Deke doesn’t have to put the turkey in the living room!” Jemma mouthed something that looked like “what?” to Deke and he replied silently with one of his usual “don’t ask” shrugs. 

“Great, I need coffee. We grabbed the redeye flight and I wasn’t about to pay ten dollars at the airport,” Fitz said. “Bloody crooks.” 

“Also in the kitchen, unless Snow finished it in the ten minutes since I made the pot,” Deke said. He was eager to diffuse some of the awkwardness that was growing in the apartment. A little awkwardness might be part of the holidays, too, but it seemed to run more in this family than others. A little strangeness keeps life from being boring, that’s what Snow said, he reminded himself. But if he could help it, he preferred to not exhaust the entire day’s supply this early in the morning. 

~

After a delicious Christmas dinner -where the turkey, thankfully, remained on the kitchen table- the Fitzsimmons-Shaw-Snowflake family gathered in the living room to enjoy one another’s company by the fireplace. Card games were played, stories were told, and everyone just seemed to come a little closer together.

“Hey Snow,” Deke said, during a bit of a lull, as their feast began catching up to everyone and making them tired, “why don’t you put on a Christmas movie for us?” 

“I’d love to!” she said. “Deke taught me about Christmas watching these, and you know? I really love Earth more now. It’s the only planet that does all this.” She turned the TV on and from the menu, flipped over to the movie that had been making her feel like she  truly belonged over the last few weeks, the one she knew almost by heart. The soundtrack kicked in and a voiceover started. “Now, you’ve probably wondered where holidays come from… if you haven’t, I think it’s time you’ve begun-”

“Snow, are you sure you want to go with this one?” Deke asked, realizing oh god, she’s really going to play Nightmare Before Christmas for Nana and Bobo. Not Elf, not Christmas Vacation, this one. 

“Of course! It taught me so much, the least I can do is share that with your grandparents,” she said. Deke looked desperately at Jemma and Fitz, hoping for at least disapproving or bewildered expressions from them to convince Snow- well, really, him, and he knew this- that this was a bad idea, but to his surprise, they seemed okay with her offbeat choice. 

“That’s so sweet,” Jemma said. “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever seen this one, either.”

Deke shrugged. If the grandparents were happy, so was he. He poured everyone another mug of hot cocoa,  as This Is Halloween started playing in the background, 

Sometimes the best gifts at Christmas didn’t come in packages. Sometimes the best gift was the gift of family, the gift of memories, the gift of time spent with those close, and if this Christmas brought his family, new and old, closer together, then for him, it was truly a Christmas worth celebrating. 

[honeymoonjin]

enjoy your stay - chapter ten

A/N - I don’t put links in anymore so that this comes up on search, but check my masterlist linked in my bio for links to every previous/future chapter.

Word count 3k (as usual). After reading this chapter, tell me on anon (or not) who you think MC is going to end up with! Things are getting veeery complicated, and it’s only going to get more complex from here!

ENJOY YOUR STAY ↳Boss!Namjoon, Chef!Jin, Receptionist!Hoseok, Bellboy!Jimin, Bartender!Jungkook, Accountant!Yoongi, Photography student!Taehyung ↳Some inappropriate language and cursing. Later chapters have sexual content.

SUMMARY ↳Working the graveyard shift at a hotel isn’t the most exciting job in the world, but your coworkers are certainly happy to have you here.

CHAPTER TEN ↳The events of the past few days have changed things, and you struggle to remain professional at your job with the hole you’ve dug yourself into.

Seeing Jimin in the lobby or the hallways was a different experience than it used to be.

Gone were the cheeky back-and-forths, the inside jokes, the easy atmosphere.

You couldn’t help but avoid his gaze whenever you two were in the same vicinity, knowing that if you did, you wouldn’t be able to school your expression. You didn’t even know yourself how you’d react, if you would scornfully glare at him with a hateful scowl or just melancholily pine after what could’ve been.

Life had gotten infinitely more confusing within a very short space of time. It weirded you out, knowing what you two had done together, and also knowing what, or rather who, you had done almost immediately after.

Jimin obviously didn’t know, but you had no idea how long that would last. A shadow of shame was following you around in the two shifts you had worked since you and Jungkook…had gotten together. It was like all your morals and common sense had abandoned you to your foolish fuckery, and now you couldn’t stop thinking about all the things you’d do differently if you had the chance.

If Namjoon had noticed you were a little quieter, he hadn’t said anything. If he noticed how quickly you got back from checking out the lobby, and how long you seemed to spend in the bar, he was keeping his mouth shut. Hobi, however, was one wrong word away from a breakthrough, and you had to be extra careful with him.

“Jimin said you looked extra beautiful today,” Hoseok mock-whispers conspiratorially.

You fiddle with the eftpos machine he had asked you to fix and ignore him.

“Okay, he didn’t, but he’s probably thinking it. He’s been staring at you nonstop for the past two days.” He awaits your response, and huffs when there is none. “And he told me what happened between you two, so you don’t have to keep it from me.”

His overly calm and hopeful face is a dead giveaway he’s lying. “Then you don’t need to hear it again.”

“Come on, muppet! Give me something! I can’t help out my two best friends who fucked but for some reason are mad at each other if I don’t know why they’re mad at each other!”

You drop the dysfunctional machine and frown at him. “It’s none of your business, Hoseok,” you whine, “so just stay out of it! We just…want different things, that’s all,” you concede.

His eyes glimmer in sympathy. “Hey,” he soothes, “you’ll find someone who cares for you like you want. I’m sure he’s just around the corner.”

Although you know it’s just a cheesy metaphor, you think of Jungkook, who is most literally right around the corner, geographically speaking. Another wave of guilt crashes down on you. “Yeah.”

“Cheer up, buttercup. If it makes you happy, I’ll tell you what Yoongi did for me for Valentine’s day yesterday.”

You perk up. “Ooh, what did he do?”

“Nothing,” he replies flatly, “nada. Not even a text. Moral of the story is that no guy’s perfect. He might have the cock of a god and the tongue of a demon, but he’ll still ghost you on the most romantic day of the year.”

You laugh softly. “Ah, well, at least you’re getting paid. Win-win situation. If he does my taxes and doesn’t have sex with me as payment, I don’t know if I’ll feel guilty or insulted.”

“Good luck convincing him he’s not completely gay.” He hummed a little in deep contemplation. “If he does have sex with you, it’s like you’ll have indirectly fucked me. Against all biological chances, your vagina will have touched my asshole.”

You stare at him in disgust for a solid minute, waiting for the moment he realized what a fucked-up thing that was to say and take it back. He doesn’t. “You know,” you start begrudgingly, “Yoongi explicitly asked to tell you to stop talking about your sex life with him. I cannot believe I’m saying this, but I should’ve listened to him.”

“What do you mean? It’s a two-for-one deal! Would you rather have sex with me without the middle man? I think not.”

You scrunch up your eyebrows. “I’ve decided if he does my taxes and doesn’t expect sex in return, I should just be grateful I get to avoid thinking about that ever again. Maybe I should consider leaving this job and working in a monastery so that I never again have to see your face or his.”

“I think you’re overreacting.”

You spy Jimin beginning to approach the desk and frown. “I think I have to get back to work.”

True to his word, Jungkook has been treating you better than any man you’ve been with before. In the bar fridge underneath the bench, he’s stockpiled some iced coffee cartons for you, since he knows you prefer it to hot coffee, and every time you stop by, he pulls one out and gets you to sit down while the two of you chat.

Today’s no different, and you’re tucked in behind the bar with him so that he can wrap an arm around you as you speak.

“Jungkook-ah, what if Namjoon or somebody else sees? This isn’t professional,” you warn him, but he simply smiles and shakes his head.

“There’s nothing wrong with them seeing us. In fact, I kinda hope they do.” His eyes glaze over, and his smile hardens slightly. “I want every man in this building to know you’re mine now.”

You stare up at him unsurely. “I don’t think we should take things so fast, Jungkook.” He furrows his eyebrows. “We barely know each other, and you’re so young, I don’t know if I should really-”

“Hey,” he interjects, “I’ve told you before, I’m not a kid. I can make my own decisions like a big boy, okay? And I know enough about you to know that I’m completely crazy about you. I’ve never felt this way about someone before. I love you.”

You stiffen in his grasp but try not to sound like you’re patronizing him. “That’s the thing, Jungkook. You’ve never felt this way before. So how do you know it’s love? It’s probably just your garden variety crush.”

His hand tightens on your shoulder a little, but his face is still open, staring deeply into your eyes. “How did you know, then, what it was like when you fell in love.”

“To be honest, Kookie, I haven’t fallen in love before. And I’ve been in many more relationships than I’m sure you have. It’s not something that just happens on a whim.”

“So, you don’t love me, then?”

You gaze up at him and his vulnerable stare, unsure if he’s mad or upset. “I really like you, Jungkook, but I don’t know you well enough to love you.”

He’s quiet for a moment. “That’s okay,” he states after a few moments, “you don’t have to love me. I’ll just be happy if you let me love you.” He tilts his head down and gently presses a kiss to your slightly parted lips. His eyes flutter closed when the two of you connect, and although your mind is screaming to be professional and mature, you can’t help but do the same. His lips are soft but firm, and he pokes his tongue out just enough to swipe at your lips, sucking the bottom one gently into his mouth and nibbling on it.

The electricity inside you jolting south is most definitely too much for the workplace, and reluctantly you place a hand on his chest and push him off you, him chasing your mouth until the last second.

“Kookie,” you mumble softly, worried at how quickly your voice has turned low and sultry with arousal, “not here.”

He pouts a little but nods anyway. “Have a good shift, jagiya. I’ll look forward to 5am so that the two of us can go home together again. It’s become the happiest part of my day.”

He lets you out from behind the bar again, staring dreamily at you as you walk out.

As you finish typing a message to Yoongi, sending him your address after he gave you a date and time to go over your finances, a solid body comes crashing into yours.

Startled, you glance up, almost losing your balance fully, and stumble back from the tall, broad-shouldered man in front of you.

“Y/n!” You smile at him awkwardly. “It’s been ages.”

That would be from your stubborn refusal to check out the kitchen each night until you could see on the security cameras in Namjoon’s office that his car had left the carpark. “I guess it has! How have you been?”

He smiles sweetly down at you and escorts you with a hand at the small of your back down the hallway from whence he came. “Not too bad. We had bombe Alaska for dessert tonight, so I got to set things on fire again. I always love when Namjoon lets me do that. I think secretly he enjoys it too. The accountant told me he once walked in on him playing it back on the CCTV footage. He’s too scared to do it himself, you see. Anyway, that was fun.”

The two of you approach the restaurant, but instead of taking you out back into the kitchen where he usually spends his time, he sits you down at one of the booths, upholstered in dark green velvet with a black tabletop, and gets in across from you.

“I’m glad I bumped into you,” he admitted, “I’ve been wanting to talk to you for a while, actually.”

You scratch behind your ear awkwardly. “Oh, really?”

“Yeah. I’ve been feeling a lot better lately, a lot more like myself. And I realized, no wonder we never really had a chance, we went about it backwards.” He’s puffing his chest up like he’s made some astounding breakthrough.

You grin wryly. “How so? Crying into a bin of ice-cream isn’t the regular first date protocol?”

“Exactly,” he confirms enthusiastically, “you cry on the third date. They’re into you enough not to be put off completely by it, but then they know how ugly you get when you cry, and they’ll make an effort to never let you cry again.” He tilts his head to the side, pouting his lips in deep contemplation. “Although I suppose it wouldn’t really work with me. I’m a ten no matter if I’m happy or sad. Nobody rocks bloodshot eyes and snot quite like I can.”

You snort. “A man of many talents, I see.”

“Oh, absolutely. Cooking I can do in my sleep. My true calling is being professionally good-looking.”

You look up at him through your lashes and bat them flirtatiously. “I would say you’re overqualified.”

He presses a palm to his chest and turns his head to the side dramatically. “Ah, you’re so right!” He faces you again, a little less jokey this time. “See, aren’t I so different than the miserable yet dashingly attractive man crying in the kitchen? I’m much happier now, I feel like I’m me again.”

You smile at him softly and nod. “Yeah, I can see that now. It’s not like there’s anything wrong with the real you, though. I like you just the same.”

He stares at you thoughtfully. “Let’s just start from scratch,” he suggests, “we can pretend like nothing happened, and that I’ve been the comedically gifted and handsome chef this whole time and see what happens. Sound good?”

He holds out a hand for you to take, but instead of a handshake, he offers up a pinky. You scoff, but wrap your pinky around his anyway, rocking your joint hands back and forth as you speak. “Well, I’m glad you’ve moved on from your days of crying pathetically into a tub of ice cream. It’s much better to bawl your eyes out into soup, that way it doubles as seasoning.”

“Bold of you to assume I don’t already use my bodily fluids when I cook.”

You frown at him. “I’m never letting you cook for me again.”

He calls out to you as you go to leave the restaurant. “Hey, wait, I didn’t say which ones! I realize now had bad that sounded, I swear I just meant sweat, where are you going?”

“Y/n, would you mind taking a seat? I just want to talk to you about something.”

Your heart seizes up and just about falls out of your chest, but you plaster on an easygoing smile, and sit down in the armchair across from Namjoon’s desk.

Whenever the ‘we need to talk’ card was played, you would always begin wildly recalling every bit of trouble you could have possibly been caught for, usually irrationally, but this time, as you wiped off the sweat gathering on your palms and tried not to look too terrified, you realized just how low your morals and sense of professionalism had fallen since working here. Whether it was helping Jin sneak off with a tub of ice-cream that the hotel had paid for or sleeping with multiple work colleagues, you really had crossed the line far too many times.

Namjoon seemed pretty stressed as usual, apparently unaware his sweater was inside-out, but he didn’t look mad. In fact, he was smiling at you like he was sucking up to the teacher.

“First of all,” he begun, “I can’t thank you enough for all the great work you’ve done so far. I know the night team can sometimes be hard to deal with, but it’s been such a great help having an extra person to help me keep up with things.” Introduction over, he clears his throat and steeples his fingers. “So, that’s why I’m asking if you would want to become a co-owner with me.”

You freeze.

He smiles hopefully at you.

You stare at him. “Sorry, what?”

Namjoon laughs nervously. “It wouldn’t be a huge change in hours for you, but it would mean a lot more responsibility when it came to running the hotel as a whole, not just during the night shift. It’s mostly more admin stuff, like the monthly reports, the payroll, that kind of thing. I just thought to myself, ‘why am I freaking out over these by myself when I have a perfectly capable young lady right here?’”

Your mind is whirring, and you don’t get the chance to compile your thoughts before he’s talking again.

“It would also mean that you would be in charge of the rest of the team, too, and you could resolve any issues yourself rather than just relaying them to me. I’d increase your pay for all this, of course. What do you say?”

You stare down at your hands, picking at the dead skin around your nails. “I’m not sure,” you admit, “I don’t think I’d feel comfortable having authority over the other guys.” You could never tell Namjoon, but if you took the job it would technically mean Jungkook was sleeping with his boss. You didn’t think your eternal soul could take the hit. “I’m friends with some of them, and, well, it might be weird hanging out with them outside of work if I’m their boss, you know?”

He sighs a little. “Of course, I understand. It’s up to you. I’ll give you, say, a week to think over it a little longer and get back to me, okay?”

You nodded, and he went to go back to the pile of reports on his desk, but you cleared your throat before he did. “Hey, Namjoon,” you said casually.

“Yeah?”

“Is it…can you…do coworkers ever date each other? At this hotel, I mean.”

His eyes flash downwards. “Sometimes,” he answers noncommittedly.

You recall Jin mentioning his history with Namjoon and realize how your question must sound to him. “And you’re okay with it?”

His forehead creases. “Well, as long as it doesn’t affect their work, I don’t see it as a problem.” He looks back up at you. “Why?”

You shrug, breaking his gaze and staring into the glow of the desk lamp. “Just curious, is all.”

He waits until you glance back up at him before responding. “You know you can come to me about anything, don’t you? No judgements, I promise. I just want my employees to feel like they can be completely honest with me.”

You can’t break away from the earnest warmth in his eyes. It’s like he’s broken down your filter, and you want to tell him everything. You can’t tell him everything, but maybe a little something would serve as an olive branch. “I…There was a thing with another employee, but it was a one-off.”

He nods slowly. “I’m glad you felt comfortable sharing that with me. Are there any problems; hurt feelings, festering resentment?”

You breathe out a quiet laugh. “No.” A whole fucking boatload of confusion, maybe, but that wasn’t exactly all Jimin’s fault.

“Then no harm done. We’re good?” You nod. “Good.” He pauses, pen hovering over a page. “Please do think seriously about that co-owner position. I really appreciate you as a worker and as a person. And you’re right; it’s hard to make friends with people when one of you is the boss of the other. I’d love to have you working with me rather than for me.” He nods to himself once resolutely and turns back to his work.

You feel as though a weight has been lifted off your chest, but unfortunately, there are three other weights that remain. Kim Seokjin, Jeon Jungkook, and Kim Taehyung.

Some secrets just weren’t ready to be shared.

TAGLIST (send me a message or an ask to be added, and you’ll get notified every time I post a new EYS chapter).

@xxqueenwxtchxx

@fandomarchive00

@cvbachacbitch

@echimozart

@thisgirlis-shy

@sweetcheeksdna (I don’t know why your tag isn’t coming up, sorry!)

@boononx

[blkbbblue]

mini musical

so, the story behind this is that, in 8th grade choir, we got a mini musical assignment as our end of course. the whole point was to take songs we learned/preformed that year and rewrite the lyrics to work with the story you were trying to tell. i, personally, was thrilled; i remember being really excited to be able to make and preform a short musical with my friends (i took it extremely seriously, though (because of course i would).

its stupid, but im just so happy that i wrote and saved this!!

(i tried to make a cute little link to make things easier for everyone, but the format was all icky, now i have to put it all here (curse you, google docs!!)

Mini Musical Project

Title: Hey, Mom, What's for Dinner?

Songs:  

September – Green Day

Me Party – Muppet Medley (from the iconic movie, “The Muppets”)

Life's A Happy Song – Muppet Medley (from the iconic movie, “The Muppets”)

Characters:    

Rice – Genesis

Chicken – Sarah

Child – Miyah

Mom – Max

Storyline:  

A strange love story, told by a mother to her hungry child, in which Chicken and Rice are stuck in an arranged marriage. At first, they despise each other, but they soon learn that they were truly meant to be together. Sadly, their love story comes to an end when a little kid gets a little hungry.

Page Break

Script:

(Mom is setting up the table with her child waiting restlessly)

Child: (In a whining tone) Hey, Mom, what's for dinner?

Mom: (Enthusiastically) I'm glad you asked, Honey! We're having chicken and rice.

Child: (Slowly speaking) Mom, do you think they LOVE each other?

Mom: What do you mean, Hon?

Child: The chicken and rice. Do they love each other?

Mom: Of course, Honey, but I guess you can say they have to. It's more of an arranged marriage, but they learn to truly love each other. Would you like to hear their story?

Child: (Nodding vigorously) Yeah, Mom! Please tell me!

Mother: (Chuckling) Okay, so here's how their story goes. One day, not too long ago, Chicken and Rice were told that they were to be married –  

Rice: (Frantic, to the mother) Are you serious? What do you mean married!

Mom: It means what it always meant!

Chicken: (Stoic) This is completely irrational, and it makes absolutely no sense!

Rice: I agree. We don’t even know each other that well.  

(Chicken and Rice scoot away angrily)

Why Should I Get Married?

(CHICKEN)

THIS DAY HAS COME AT LAST

I'VE NEVER HAD TO THAW SO FAST

(ALL)

WAKE ME UP WHEN THE WEDDING ENDS

(RICE)

ALL THIS TIME WANTING SOMEONE

I NEVER THOUGHT THEY'D BE SO DUMB

(ALL)

WAKE ME UP WHEN THE WEDDING ENDS

(CHILD)

MAMA, PLEASE TELL ME SOME MORE

TELL ME WHAT THEY HAVE IN STORE

(ALL)

WAKE ME UP WHEN THE WEDDING ENDS

(MOM)

HONEY, PLEASE GIVE ME SOME TIME

I REALLY NEED TO GO UNWIND

(ALL)

WAKE ME UP WHEN THE WEDDING ENDS

WAKE ME UP WHEN THE WEDDING ENDS

Child: Mom, please say this gets better soon : (

Mom: Hush, now, and it will. Anyways, Chicken and Rice were told by – um – Sir Spatula to get closer and more used to each other. Therefore, they went on a date.

Child: Where did they go?

Mom: (Unsure) They – hmm- went to an Egg Salad Egg-stravaganza. Yeah...  

Child: Who even does tha–

Mom: (Defensive) They do! Goodness gracious, child.

(Everyone turns to Mom)

Mom: (Frustrated) May I continue?

(Everyone nods quickly)

Mom: Thank you. So, they were at the Egg-stravaganza when Chicken said–

Chicken: (Timid at first) Oh, wow, this music is pretty good. Right, Rice?

Rice: (Ignores)

Chicken: Right!??

Rice: (Sighing) Sure, I guess it is.

I Mean, I Guess We’re Together..

(CHICKEN)

I LOOK AROUND, AND EVERYONE'S HAPPY BUT ME

I DON’T UNDERSTAND

IT'S LIKE SHE'S BLIND, SHE CAN'T SEE ME

(RICE)

THAT PIECE OF MEAT WON'T STOP THIS GRAIN FROM HAVING FUN

AT LEAST FOR NOW, LET'S WAIT UNTIL THIS PARTY IS DONE

(MOM & CHILD)

THEY'RE FEELING SO LONELY

(RICE)

THIS FEELING'S PRETTY NEW

(MOM & CHILD)

HOW SAD COULD THEY REALLY BE

(CHICKEN)

I'M FEELING A LITTLE BLUE

(MOM & CHILD)

IT'S LIKE A 'ME PARTY'

(CHICKEN & RICE)

I'M STARTING TO SEE, THAT WHEN I LOOK INTO YOUR EYES

THERE'S NO PLACE I'D RATHER BE

(MOM)

YOU KNOW, THEIR LOVE WAS IMPOSSIBLE TO DENY

IT WAS EASY TO SEE THAT THEY KEPT ON GETTING LOST IN EACH OTHER'S EYES

(CHILD)

AT TIMES LIKE THIS I WONDER IF THIS COULD HAPPEN TO ME

(MOM)

HEY, YOU'RE STILL NAÏVE, SO NOT RIGHT NOW, MISSY

(MOM & CHILD)

NOT FEELING AS LONELY

(CHICKEN)

WOULD YOU LOOK AT THE ODDS

(MOM & CHILD)

THEY'RE DANCING SO SWEETLY

(CHICKEN)

AND WHO WOULD'VE THOUGHT

(ALL)

THAT WITH AN ARRANGED MARRIAGE

LOVE WOULD BE BROUGHT

OH

(CHICKEN & RICE)

FALLING IN LOVE LIKE IT'S MEANT TO BE

WHEN IT'S REALLY FOR CONVENIENCY

Child: Wait, convenience? Isn't that, I don’t know, bad?

Mom: Not bad; convenient. Anyways, on to the story, Chicken and Rice soon found themselves on a balcony, and they looked into each other's eyes. Would you like to know what they saw?

Child: Their reflections?

Mom: No! They saw their futures.

Child: Sounds cliché.

Mom: I know, it kind of is, but Chicken began to rant–

Chicken: (Complaining) Man, it's getting really hot out here. Right, Rice?

Rice: No. It feels exactly the same as it did before.

Chicken: Are you sure? Because I'm starting to sweat a little.

Rice: Yep, I'm sure. Maybe it was all that terrible dancing you did?

Chicken: I suppose that can be a possibility.

Life Is Sweet, But You're Sweeter!

(CHICKEN)

EVERYTHING'S GREAT; EVERYTHING'S GRAND

I'VE GOT A WHOLE GRAIN OF RICE IN THE PALM OF MY HAND

(RICE)

EVERYTHING IS PERFECT; IT'S FALLING INTO PLACE

I CAN'T SEEM TO WIPE THIS GREASE OFF MY FACE

(CHICKEN & RICE)

LIFE'S A HAPPY SONG WHEN THERE'S SOMEONE BY YOUR SIDE TO SEASON ALONG

(RICE)

WHEN YOU'RE ALONE, LIFE CAN BE A LITTLE DRY

IT MAKES YOU FEEL LIKE YOU'RE UNDER-COOKED

(CHICKEN)

WHEN IT'S JUST YOU, WELL, FRYING MAKES YOU SIGH

WHEN THERE'S NO ONE THERE TO WRITE A GOOD HOOK

(ALL)

I'VE GOT EVERYTHING THAT I NEED ON THE PLATE IN FRONT OF ME

NOTHING'S STOPPING ME; NOTHING THAT I CAN'T BE WHEN YOU'RE FRYING HERE NEXT TO ME

YOU'VE GOT EVERYTHING THAT YOU NEED RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU

NOTHING'S STOPPING YOU; NOTHING THAT YOU CAN'T DO THAT THE WORLD CAN THROW AT YOU

(CHICKEN & RICE)

LIFE'S A HAPPY SONG WHEN THERE'S SOMEONE BY YOUR SIDE TO SING –

(MOM & CHILD)

LIFE'S A HAPPY SONG WHEN THERE'S SOMEONE BY YOUR SIDE TO SING –

(ALL)

LIFE'S A HAPPY SONG WHEN THERE'S SOMEONE BY YOUR SIDE TO SING ALONG

Rice: Actually, I'm starting to see what you're talking about.

Chicken: See, I told you it's too hot!

Rice: Whatev– Wait, what is that?

Chicken: What is what?

Rice: (Fearful) That metal thing in the sky.

Chicken: Oh, I'm not too sure...

Rice: Chicken, I think we should leave.

Chicken: No, I want to just stay here with you.

Rice: No, I said we have to go!

Chicken: And I said–

Rice: Chicken!

Child: Hey, Mom, this Chicken and Rice is pretty good!

Mom: Thanks, Honey, I'm glad you like it.

[breadknight-likes-things]

Spyro Reignited Trilogy Review: How To Re-Train Your Dragon

It’s 1999, i’m 7 and i’m at my friend CJ’s house, we’re passing the controller back and forth as we play the hottest new game two Playstation owning kids could want: Spyro 2 Riptos Rage.  It’s 2018, I’ve just come home from a grueling day of college classes but I’ve got it, I’ve got the hottest new game a Playstation 4 owning adult could want: Spyro 2 Riptos Rage.  The more times change the more they stay exactly the same, and thankfully in the case of the Spyro Reignited Trilogy that ends up being a good thing.

The Good:

The Fulfillment of an Imagination:  Looking back on the visuals in the original three Spyro games can be a rough time, in fact I’d say that entire generation of video games has aged incredibly poorly in the visuals department.  Spyro Reignited Trilogy however, uses the same imagination that developers asked people to tap into back in the day to create absolute wonderlands of spectacle and color that 5th gen consoles couldn’t even dream of producing.  Levels that were once unclear and painted with broad ideas and concepts are now all incredibly distinct.

For instance, in Spyro 2 the level Hurricos was always presented as this odd clifftop society, the closest thing it came to the title, obviously named as such to be close to the word “Hurricane”, was the fact it was raining.  Today though, Hurricos is a small island, locked in the middle of an endless storm and surrounded on all sides by whipping waves, with the grass being violently blown in the rain and the science loving people living their suddenly making sense for choosing this chaotic place as one in which to do research on the wind!  Every level in the trilogy has a loving amount of detail put into it, if there was something you always imagined being a part of the Spyro games but was never really there, well I have news for you, chances are it’s there right now waiting for you to see it.

The updated world designs extend beautifully to the mid level homeworlds, which all feel ripped straight out of an animated movie you get to play!

Spyro’s Just A Little Airborne, He’s Still Good!:  Last year when the Crash Bandicoot remakes came out, there was a fervor of questions raised about the originals in relation to the remakes.  Were these games always this hard or was I just really patient as a kid?  Has the “Sonics Ass” game franchise always been this linear?  I didn’t find myself asking any of those questions about Spyro.  The Spyro games gameplay were always very simple, it’s all about finding a way to glide to that far off platform or hunting down that last gem you missed in a level.

In this way Spyro has aged leaps and bounds better than Crash before it, because the mechanics were just the right kind of simple and laid back for the time that they’ve translated incredibly well to our modern era.  I was almost never stressed out playing these games again, and while you could argue they’re maybe too easy in retrospect I’d say that relaxing pace and lack of roadblocks is a feature we all always loved, even if we didn’t realize it at the time.

An Adventure Reborn:  All three of the original Spyro games are present in this collection and if you have a favorite character or moment in any of those I feel I can guarantee you that it’s here and it’s been redone in loving detail.  Spyro the Dragon has unique models for every dragon in the game, a far cry from the repeating six or seven we saw on the PS1.  Spyro 2 lovingly re-designs all the supporting cast, from Hunter the Cheetah no longer looking like a Muppet and Elora still looking exactly like a Faun you dork.  

The cast of Spyro 3 gets the same treatment, with all the new playable characters sporting looks that are clearly updated but evoke the same classic feeling they gave off in the original release(Except, unfortunately, Sheila who comes across as massively over designed).  The Homeworlds in Spyro 2 still exude a sense of peace, The Gnorcs still moon you for some reason in Spyro The Dragon and even the Skateboarding mini games in Spyro 3 have aged about a hundred times better than you’d imagine.  It’s the small details that really decide whether or not a remake team got the spirit of a game right, and i’m glad to say all of those are here in the Reignited Trilogy.

The remade Autumn Plains absolutely took my breath away, it’s always been one of my all time favorite environments in a game and with it’s new level of detail it’s going to keep that place for a long time.

Copeland Plays The Hits:  I’ll readily admit that I was worried for the music in this game, Stewart Copeland of the police turned in incredible soundtracks for the original three games.  Not only am I happy to say his tracks are here and undisturbed if you want them that way, but the remastered versions of them are incredible as well.  They all feel just like you’d want them to in these updated versions of the games that were all so driven by their tunes, with new wrinkles like a soft thump tone being added into the peaceful tracks of the Spyro 2 home world and new instrumentation adding a layer of depth to some of the first games more simplified tracks.  Honestly as it stands, it’s the choice given to you the player to listen to the new stuff, or just go back to the originals you love that puts this game over the top in regards to the music.

The Bad:

Well, for one, Jack here looks like someone used voodoo to bring a Funko Pop to life, does that count as bad?

Supercharged Past That QA Huh?:  Much like the Crash remakes last year, it’s not only clear these games were made on a very tight time frame, but that they were made sequentially and their quality decreases the further you get into the series.  Now to be fair, I encountered nothing game breaking, but I did notice that bugs, visual quality and other smaller details tended to fall by the wayside the further you get into the series.  Where the original Spyro seems to have got the most attention, Spyro 3(Ironically, much like it’s original release) had a fair amount of bugs waiting to rear their weird looking heads.  During the skateboard races, for example, the enemy A.I would sometimes just seem to switch off.  Only to reactivate at random intervals and jerk back into place, suddenly shutting down any lead you may have gained due to their non action, even if you were still playing properly while they were freaking out.  

Where levels in Spyro one and two mostly escaped this, you could see the beginnings of a reliance on re-used assets and quick production in Spyro 3.  Like Crash before it, the third game in the franchise seemed to get the least amount of attention, which is a bummer because that one has always been my second favorite.  The game was delayed once, last minute even, and I’m very glad it did, because despite what I’ve written here the game never stops functioning or is ever unplayable, if anything these bugs are just minor annoyances, but i’d have definitely hated to see what a version of Spyro 3 even more rushed out the door would have looked like.

Didn’t stop me from platinum-ing the thing!

Spyro Reignited Trilogy, despite a couple nagging issues, is a damn near perfect way to bring back our favorite purple dragon’s original three adventures.  The games not only look great with their fresh coat of paint, but have aged beautifully in both gameplay and general tone.  I’d heavily recommend The Reignited Trilogy, not just to Spyro fans, but to anyone yearning to feel like that 7 year old kid again.  Holding that dualshock and completely enraptured by the 10 or so polygons making up that little purple on the TV in front of you.  Welcome back Spyro, I hope we can look forward those wonderful words showing back up the future “An Adventure Begins”.