#Anyway yes this is about the fact that they announced a US tour literally hours before tickets go on sale

[greed-the-dorkalicious]

I love how Babymetal’s music and theme is about like empowering young girls and women or whatever but then the way their agency interacts with fans is like ��if you’re not a 28yo man with a job in tech and a fuckton of disposable income we hope you die”

[edge-oftheworld]

no but i can't get over how actually well done the last few days were. announce a surprise and not 48 hours later we find out that 1) tour movie, the same thing taylor swift did a few months ago and now everyone wants plus we know it's a show they worked super hard on, 2) it's free, excellent for anyone who couldn't afford to go etc (we've all been there) and out literally right now on a (mostly) free platform (the very same one that they got started on but anyway) and perhaps most notably, 3) it's free with the hopes that you might instead of paying for it donate to gaza, and the links are right there.

like they could've charged us $20 each for the show and sent all their profits there themselves (with the hope that we believe they're being honest that it's 100%, for them of course we would but i know others have lied about similar). but instead they gave us autonomy over our donation just like. encouraged it. like cmon who wouldn't listen when ashton tells us to donate to something if we can? (also did anyone else say so, i'm not the best at keeping up with social media so lmk if there's more of them to give credit to here). anyway we gotta talk about it more. how perfectly this was done: we get a gift!! be it for christmas if you celebrate or just in general, that we expected we'd have to pay for. now we get asked, hey, if you have any money could you send it to these people who Really Need It So Badly if you can? I know not all of you do so we won't stop you from watching the movie if you don't but

also this is a really clever way to show their support for gaza. like they are (deliberately i think) trying not to be leaders in an area that they aren't experts in, and there has been a lot of misinformation around, a lot of misunderstanding, like yes they did stand up for ukraine last year but the media was a lot more black and white for that one (or should i say blue and yellow) but when it comes down to it they're not stupid and they're not fooled by whatever the country they currently live in is pushing and they've actually taken their time to not say shit to save face prematurely but actually do something that's, even if not big or dramatic, gonna be impactful? they've not put themselves out there campaigning for a ceasefire, yes, but they've posted links that are. they've not guilted us into donating but please tell me you're not at least feeling some obligation to. it's simple, it's actionable, it's right there in the caption and takes like 20 seconds. and if any of us in the fandom (global family or whatever they're building) are leading in the ceasefire decolonisation space we have our little encouragement to see that yes, these musicians we love aren't gonna sit there and do nothing. it's not monumental, but it's something.

and tbh i wouldn't be surprised if this was all planned like a week ago in a zoom call between australia and the usa when ryan texted to say that the film was done. like it was in their random spontanous lightheated style. i also think we can learn something from the fact that it's okay to not jump on everything the minute it comes out but actually every lasting impact is a long-haul effort that you've gotta sustain yourself for by doing what you love as well. and also sometimes the right opportunity to do something about what we care about comes and you just take it, don't think too hard, don't wait either if you don't need to, if there is a cause that needs your effort whenever you get an opportunity to give it will always be the right time. hopefully they've set a precedent for something--i have no idea if any artist has done similar but i'm really proud of them.

and that's why i don't get the fact that we've been talking about how horrific this genocide is and then going right to which songs they cut or kept. like i would like a live version of you don't go to parties! but i would like an entire fandom to donate to aid for gaza even more and be thinking about why we need a ceasefire and maybe doing something about it even more. i've been unwell yes and under financial and other stress yes but i'm not starving or freezing to death and so i'll take that L and i won't go home. i won't stop talking about what's important. i'm starting to find my voice again and this has been a big inspiration for it between all the discouragement.

have we not figured it out? they're not just dumbasses sometimes they do something towards a cause we really care about so let's give them credit for that. heck they even filmed bad omens in ukraine in 2022 have we forgotten about that? they don't put themselves out there as influential figures in any way but that's sometimes the best way to humanise the people we care about (and i think honestly they just do this naturally because when you're not chasing clout and you're trained to recognise talent and potential talent in even the worst situations, you'll automatically think like that). it's small in the face of everything going on, yes. so am i! and if i learned anything over the last 24 hours it's that small things can be meaningful. this has been to me and i don't doubt to the recipients of the donations of (i hope) an entire fandom.

(also if you don't mind the tag @littledrummerangie i know you were talking along a similar vein a few weeks back and i'm keen to hear if you want to, if you found this as satisfying as me)

[anigerrrr]

Girl’s Talk

Natasha Romanoff x Carol Danvers

Word count: 1.5k

Summary: Kamala is introduced to Yelena, and she’s also the biggest fan of her sister’s ship- CarolNat.

Warning: Fluff, Protective Yelena, Kamala ships CarolNat, Slight Thor/Loki(mentioned)

a/n: Just random pieces written after having my covid vaccine yesterday lol I’m not sure how will Marvel deal with Kamala’s superpower in the upcoming series so I only mention a bit of it. Enjoy!

/

“Ok, can anyone tell me why we always have a new kid in the compound?”

Yelena puffed as she entered the compound a bit later than usual, and she saw her sister, Carol and an unfamiliar teenager already standing there.

She came over to join them, gazing at the new girl with distrust.

“Yelena, did you just call yourself in the third person?” Carol teased, and she shrugged suggestively to the redhead who actually couldn’t hold her laugh back for this moment.

“Ha, is it some kind of 90’s joke?” Yelena retaliated. Apparently the younger blonde didn’t get enough sleep hours last night, it always resulted in her grumpy reactions to anybody. “If so, Captain, you really need to update your comedy list on Netflix.”

“Hey,” Natasha chuckled amusedly between the two blonde women as Carol protested, “just because I aged slowly, it didn’t mean I’m out of date.”

“In case you wanna know,” Natasha raised one brow and showed her support to the blonde Captain- “She actually likes to watch The Tonight Show during our dinner time.”

-by telling their sort-of secret aloud. It’s not gonna harm the redhead spy herself, though.

“What?” Kamala finally had a chance to let out her voice, “you can’t tell me the mighty Captain Marvel, my idol, watches late-night talk shows when having some spaghetti. It’s simply out of character.”

Carol frowned, “excuse me?”

“Ugh, ok.” Yelena opened her mouth with hesitation. “No, not ok, I don’t get it. Did you just call her- ” her head was pointing to the other blonde woman, “- your idol ?”

“Am I supposed to feel offended?” Carol mumbled nearby Natasha’s ear, lowering her voice to avoid any foreseeable conflict for now.

“Um, yeah.” Kamala rolled her eyes to the much taller woman standing right in front of her, and her voice sounded genuinely fearless. “Can’t you see that? She’s Carol Danvers!”

Natasha grinned back at the blonde woman, and only teased quietly, “see, someone really has a crush on you.”

Carol blushed in the tiniest way, opening her mouth slightly but had no idea what to argue. Our Captain couldn’t even tell if the redhead was seriously jealous. Fantastic.

“So you like the name or the glowing part?” Yelena hummed, and tried to hide the little noises from her stomach out of hunger.

“All of them, I guess?”

“Oh, I got it now.” The younger widow turned to her sister, and was not surprised that Natasha had been checking on her already. “We’re having a superhero fan tour here.”

Yelena wanted to get her breakfast as soon as possible, so she tried to be nice and not to get involved in this duty. “Enjoy your day then, just don’t touch any fluffy things around here. The cat can literally swallow people, and the raccoon will shoot you in the head.”

“What? No!” The brown haired girl shouted, “I’m not here for a tour.”

“Yelena, she’s a new member in the team- ” Agent Romanoff finally introduced, and took a quick glance at Carol with a playful smile. “- another one with super power, yes.”

“…wait, what?”

“Not that kind of power to control thunder like Thor or to trick like Loki- by the way, aren’t they a lovely couple?” Kamala explained a little bit, and suddenly changed the subject triggered by her interest.

“Ugh, it’s not officially announced.” Natasha was surprised to hear the little girl’s words, a status that not many people had learned about- even in the avengers’ team.

Impressed. Yelena stared at the kid and thought, still needed her breakfast, though.

“New kids.” Carol shrugged, “we’re actually talking about tomorrow’s mission.”

The redhead immediately started glaring at the blonde Captain.

“You’re leaving for days? Tomorrow?” And Yelena tiled her head to her older sister. She’d better not be the last person to know this.

Clearly someone had forgotten their domestic plan for tomorrow.

“Well, not ‘for days’,  I’ll be back before you know it. At least that was the plan.” Natasha looked a bit…nervous, but not speechless. By her side, the Captain who’s in charge of the mission seemed to be awkward for a minute, and they shared a look of silent communication.

“Yelena, you’re welcomed to- ”

“Uh- uh, no. I’m not interested in being the third wheel in your mission date. Besides, I’ve got my own thing to deal with as well. Just remember to pick me up at 8, and feed Fanny before you leave the house, it’s your turn.” Yelena shook her head quickly like nothing’s gonna convince her, and the other young superhero goggled upon hearing some keywords.

“Wait, you two are dating? ” Kamala asked in excitement, “oh my god, CarolNat is real.”

“Well, it’s- we’re…” the blonde Captain suddenly stuttered, “we’re close, yes. That’s true.”

Natasha rolled her eyes back to show her feedback towards Carol’s explanation, and refused to make any eye contact with her sister who just accidentally sold their privacy to the newest avenger.

“Oh, I thought that was your superpower.” Yelena shrugged to the two older women, kind of feeling sorry for the coming out declaration she made for them. “Like, telling the lovebirds in a group of people.”

Kamala gave her a ‘seriously?’ look, “nobody owns a superpower like that.”

“You never can tell.”

“Ok, things got a little tense here.” Carol tried to calm them both down before they made a wrong impression on each other. “It’s time for breakfast, how about I make you guys some really nice omelette?”

“Oh God.” Natasha sighed exaggeratedly, but she didn’t deny the purpose. When Carol turned, she just pushed her sister’s shoulder and forced the younger blonde to follow. “C’mon Yelena, you love eggs.”

“I never said that.”

“Wow, Captain Marvel is making me an omelette…am I dreaming?”

“Never had a nightmare before?”

“Yelena!”

*

“So…”

A half hour later, Yelena was staring at her plate and trying to figure out why it’s not like a normal ‘omelette’ she had seen on television. “In what universe an omelette looks like this?”

“Well, it’s not that bad.” Natasha took a bite of hers, perfectly ignoring the fact that it resembled more scrambled eggs rather than an omelette.

“Stop being rude- ”As they both saw Carol and Kamala on their way to the table, Natasha squeezed her sister’s hand and ordered softly, “and tomorrow I promise to buy you the expensive tweed coat you always stare at in the display window.”

“Huh, it’s exactly why I really can’t stand to undergo a mission with you two. Deal.” Yelena sounded mockingly but she didn’t mean to embarrass her anyway. “You turned weak, Natasha. You knew it, right?”

Natasha only hummed in russian as a response (something like ‘you’d know that when we spar’ ), and grinned when Carol sat next to her as usual. The blonde Captain was finally done with cooking everyone’s breakfast and Kamala had surprisingly finished hers, only sipping a glass of apple juice.

“So, how did you meet?” Said Kamala, aka the newest avenger with extraordinary attention to the secret pairs around the base, “how long have you been dating- I wanna know the whole story.”

“Here we go.” This was the best reaction for Yelena to ‘stop being rude’.

“Well, first of all, I won’t deny or admit any statement of it…” Natasha cleaned her throat and started, her sweet butter sandwich was left on the plate.

“We’re apparently colleagues.” Carol promptly interrupted with a shrug, which made the redhead widen her green eyes in disbelief.

“I met her after the snap, and during the five years, the feelings just kinda grew on us.” The blonde smiled gently as she took Natasha’s hand, “after the end of the war, we started hanging out once a month like normal people, later on it began to be once a week as my main works in space were separated to the new-trained protectors and the Guardians. That’s it.”

Kamala was literally speechless, looking like she just got the best Christmas gift for this year.

“If you kiss her like those cliched soap operas now, I’m gonna kill you both.” Yelena did like the eggs, but obviously she wouldn’t say it. Instead, she ate it up and mumbled her statement after hearing the shorter version of their romance.

“Yelena.” Natasha raised one of her brows, reminding her who’s in charge on this table. And their deals .

“Alright, just kidding.”

“Can I take a picture when you do that?” Kamala immediately stood up and asked Carol, it seemed no one actually cared about the debriefing of tomorrow’s mission anymore. “-when you kiss Black Widow.”

Her Captain was flushed, “w-what?”

To save her partner from the short circus situation, Natasha rolled her eyes and pulled Carol’s arm all in a sudden. All Kamala could do was open her mouth widely in amazement, and tried hard not to scream like a fan who was completely out of control.

Natasha left a rough kiss on the corner of Carol’s lips, her blood red lipstick stained slightly on it.

“Satisfied?” She said with an impeccable grin, leaving the flummoxed blonde behind her.

“This place is harmful for my heart.” - the newest superhero from Jersey City claimed.

“You’re gonna get used to it, kid.” - and the former widow from the red room finally agreed with her.

“I should have stopped leaking the key information.” - the blonde Captain knew it deeply that Natasha’s not gonna take it easy on her tonight.

[tomtenadia]

Island dreams

Ok, I had a moment of inspiration and i started planning a long fic... a Rowaelin Modern AU... set in Scotland. I am from Scotland so I am biased and also i love, adore the Outer Hebrides which is the location of the fic. They are amazing, incredible islands on the west of Scotland that stole my heart a few years ago.

Also, in my head in Modern AU Rowan is Scottish. There is nothing that will change my mind to do that.

Anyway... I haven’t written a long in a very long time and it’s a terrifying idea. but it just popped in my head and I had a feeling that I had to write it.

On the islands Gaelic is stilll spoken and I will use it from time to time in the fic. I hope it’s grammatically correct. It’s been year since I studied it and I am rusty. I will add a translation.

So here’s the story

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

Aelin is a successful doctor in London but her life in the last year has started to take an unhappy turn and she feels overwhelmed. So one day she decides to take a break from her life, book a plane to Scotland and head off to the islands in search of peace and herself as well.

Rowan has a bookstore in Stornoway, the main town in the Isle of Lewis.

Aelin is a bookworm and her first mission once in Stornoway is to find a bookstore.

Have fun reading it....

Chapter 1

Aelin was on the deck of the ferry. The frigid wind was savage against her cheeks. She tugged closer her jacket and a shiver ran down her spine. She was freezing but she had no intentions to get back inside the ferry. She had left Ullapool early that morning on her way to Stornoway on the isle of Lewis.

She needed a getaway. An escape from the busy life in London and from the bad turn her life had taken. 

Without thinking, she went to grab the ring that was at her fourth finger on her left hand to then quickly realise it was not there anymore. And then remembered the reason why the band was missing. The nasty divorce she just had to go through was another reason, if not the main one, for the fact the she had now been on a ferry for almost two hours and a half.

The landscape had been breathtaking, other reason for why she was braving the cold. Once departed Ullapool, all around her there were mountains and the raw wilderness of the landscape tugged at something hidden in her. She was born and bred in London and skyscrapers, traffic and noise was all she knew. She realised she craved this: the stillness, the peace, the silence, nature.

In front of her the sea stretched peacefully and she was glad the sailing had been smooth that day. It seemed like the west of Scotland was welcoming her with a beautiful sunny day, apparently something quite unusual according to some of the people she heard speaking. The Minch, that was the name of the stretch of sea that separated mainland Scotland from the Outer Hebrides.

At the horizon she noticed land appear timidly and a big smile spread on her face. She was almost there. Her new adventure was about to start. She had taken a sabbatical from work and from her life and decided to go away. She had always been fascinated by Scotland but never had the chance to visit, albeit from London it was only an hour away by plane. So, one day she booked a one way plane ticket to Glasgow, rented a car at the airport and slowly and leisurely started to make her way north.

She had taken her time and the journey took her a week and she was already in love with the West coast of Scotland.

While in London she had bought a guide to Scotland and started doing some research and she had been fascinated by the chapter about the Western Isles or Outer Hebrides. Now she was dying to get off the boat and start exploring and living the island life. 

Over the tannoy she heard the crew announcing they were approaching land. She grabbed her rucksack and made her way down below and waited in queue near the stairs to get to the car deck. She felt giddy. She hasn’t been this giddy in… she couldn’t even remember last time she had felt like this, or if she ever that way at all.

The boat was finally berthed and all tucked in at the pier and a crew member advised the car drivers that they could now access the car deck.

She went to her car and looking ahead she noticed the bow slowly opening to let the cars out. It was her first time on a ferry and even the mere disembarkation process was fascinating. 

One by one all the cars in front of her were directed by the car deck crew to exit and once she was out she took her phone and set up her GPS. She had rented a place for a while and according to the landlord’s directions, once out of the terminal she had to turn right and at the junction turn right again. Her place was one of the many small detached houses along the bay. She fell in love with the house almost immediately when she saw the pictures on the ad online. It had an amazing view of the marina from the bedroom window according to the images and the description. She drove for 5 minutes and the voice told her she had arrived. She parked in the driveway and got off the car and stared at her new place for the time being. The house was painted a very light blue, a small garden at the front and a lovely blue door as a final touch. She grabbed the keys from the secret place she was told and made her way inside the building.

The house was modern and cozy. The owner clearly looked after the property and it actually felt like home. The living room had a big sofa and against the walls a couple of bookcases filled with books. She made a mental note to browse the titles later on. She wanted to explore the house first.

She moved to the next room and found the kitchen. A wonderful wooden and rustic kitchen with a big window that made the light filter in the room. In the middle a wooden table and a couple of chairs. The whole placed smelled like a forest. Her tour took her upstairs to the bedroom and the connected bathroom. The room was quite huge and had a nice king size bed again all made of wood. Childishly she let herself fall on the bed and it was amazing. The bathroom had a big shower room and again was quite modern with wood finish everywhere. The owner definitely loved the rustic style and she was not complaining. It was perfection and she already felt at home.

Her telephone rang breaking the peace and she smiled when she noticed it was her best friend Lysandra. She had been giving her a day to day account of her adventure with a massive amount of photos as well.

“I love it.” She exclaimed excited, sitting on the comfy chair at the opposite side of the bed.

“What?” Asked the woman on the other side of the line. 

“This place. I just got into the house I rented and Lys, this place is marvellous. And the town… I have only seen the marina but I can so, see myself staying here.”

“And abandon London forever?” The woman sounded quite sad.

“You are the only person I would really miss, you know that.”

“Gee, I am touched.”

“Lys… the last year… well you know.” Aelin took a deep breath and lounged deeper on the chair.

“I know darling, I know. I didn’t mean that. I miss you. But I know that you needed this. You haven’t been yourself in a while.” Lysandra replied with a loving tone.

She and Lysandra had been best friends since uni. They went through med school and did their internship together and after they finished they were lucky enough to get to work in the same hospital. They both had raised the ranks pretty quickly and Lysandra had become a kickass orthopaedic surgeon and Aelin had ventured into cardio thoracic surgery. She was good at her job and loved it deeply but the last year had been literally hell for her.

She had been robbed of the chance of becoming head of the department because they gave the position to the son of the current head of the department. And that’s when she started to loose the will to do her job. She kept going on for the patients.

Then Chaol happened and their nasty divorce. Married five years and then months spent battling for divorce and papers and courts and lawyers. He told her she loved her job more than him. They fought. He told her she had changed and she was not anymore the person he married. Then he left her for another woman. As a present she had served him with divorce papers.

She heard Lysandra’s voice and realised she was woolgathering.

“What?”

“I was saying that your ex was in the A&E yesterday, with his new woman.”

“What did he do?”

“Looks like he was horse riding with her and he took a bad fall. His right leg was a big mess and I need to fix it now.” Lysandra paused for a moment “I hope it’s ok.”

“Of course Lys. He is a patient.” Aelin admitted quickly. She hated him but not to the point that she wished him to be denied care.

“He…” Lysandra was hesitant “He asked me about you.” Then she heard her friend laugh “I told her that you were off, taking a break gallivanting around Scotland and making legions of scotsmen fall in love and at you feet professing their undying love to you.”

Aelin laughed out loud at the joke.

“Leave some for me by the way…”

“What about Aedion? I thought you had the hots for him.” Aelin stood and walked to the window and opened it to let the sea breeze come in.

“I do, but I can’t be always the one to make the first move. I gave him a few very clear hints. Now it’s his turn.”

“Poor man.”

“Poor me.”

Aelin heard in the background the sound of a pager.

“Is that yours?”

“Damn yes, Ae, I gotta go. Send me loads of pictures. Love you.”

Lysandra hung up and Aelin stared at the window. The bay was peaceful, with sounds of seagulls and people going about their lives. She smiled and decided it was time to explore and most of all grab some food. She was starving. On the map she spotted a big Tesco nearby perfect for grocery shopping.

She took her backpack and left on foot. No car needed for now, she wanted to see the centre of the town.

She followed the same road she came from the terminal and saw on the corner an interesting building with huge windows and she walked toward it. She arrived and noticed it was called An Lanntair, apparently a community and arts centre with a cinema as well. She entered the place and straight in front of her she noticed a corner selling books and souvenirs. She rushed to the books. Some of them were in the other language spoken on the islands which she had learned was called Gaelic and that still quite a few people spoke. The books were interesting but not enough. She moved to one of the ladies at the counter.

“Hi, I am new here. I arrived this morning and I am out exploring. Do you happen to have a bookshop around here?”

The lady smiled warmly at her “Aye, lass…  just go out here and then right on Cromwell st. and then right again. Rowan has a lovely bookshop. He is quite good and always has interesting titles. Down the road we also have a public library if you are moving here. Not as good as Rowan’s place but still worth visiting.”

“Thank you.” Aelin greeted the woman and left, curious to visit this bookstore.

She followed the directions and there it was. In front of her stood the bookstore. It had three windows, she moved closer and noticed that the main window and it had a very lovely display of children’s books with all the stories from Roald Dahl. She smiled. She loved Roald Dahl. She looked up and noticed the name of the shop “Aislingean pàipeir”. It must have been in Gaelic because she had no idea what it meant. A good excuse to chat with the owner.

She entered the shop and the doorbell rang alerting the owner of her presence. She reached the counter but no one was there. “Hello?” She called out looking around for a sign of life.

“Hi, anyone here? The door was open.”

“Tha mi a ’tighinn a-nis” said a deep voice from a corner of the shop.

The man, Rowan she assumed appeared and she almost forgot how to breathe.

He was tall. A good 1.80m, silver hair and short and eyes of the deepest green. His skin looked tanned and he had a nice healthy build. He was one of the most gorgeous man she had ever seen.

“You must be Rowan.”

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

Gaelic:

Tha mi a ’tighinn a-nis - I am coming now

Aislingean pàipeir - paper dreams. ( I know the name of the shop is probably lousy...sorry...)

[slitherofgold]

I loathe you Pt 1- Sam Fender Imagine

Standing before the mirror, you were impressed with the reflection. You had made an effort with your appearance (for once) and the result wasn’t too bad. You were looking forward to tonight, finally getting the chance to catch up with the boys who had been on tour for months. You had missed them, in fact your home town didn’t feel the same without them. The plan was drinks at your local pub- the Low Lights Tavern- just so you could catch up and see how everyone was doing. Well, not everyone. Thankfully, Drew had convinced Sam not to come for your sake. It wasn’t as if you hated the guy, but he always seemed to kill the mood with his sulky attitude and blunt remarks. It was almost as if he despised you and just couldn’t stand your company, so you kindly asked Drew not to invite Sam. 

You hopped in the taxi and headed towards the tavern, getting more eager by the second to see your friends. The pub was your guys spot, whenever someone needed to celebrate, whenever someone was sad, whenever someone needed to let off a little steam, you’d always meet at this spot. 

You walked in and instantly looked towards your usual booth.You would’ve been happy to be reminded of your friends faces, but unfortunately to your dismay, Mr Sam Fender was sat with them, blatant of your arrival. You were tempted to walk back out, to come up with some petty excuse for you to leave, but it was too late, the gang had noticed you. “Y/n!”, Dean waved you over, obviously happy to see you. You quickly plastered on a smile and strutted in their direction. You were not going to let Sam ruin tonight.

“Hey guys, long time no see.” Dean squeezed up, allowing room for you to sit. Within an instant it was like they had never left. They told you stories from on tour (like Sam threatening to break into a Greggs after a particularly messy night out) and they had asked about what you had been up to too. 

“So y/n you seeing anyone”, Drew asked, whilst side-glancing towards Sam. Great, you were going to be reminded YET AGAIN that you were still single, and you were certain that Sam basked in your sad, single loneliness. 

“Yep obviously. I think I just defer guys with my presence.”

“Obviously”, Sam muttered under his breath. You pretended to ignore him but you couldn’t help but notice the sharp glance Drew gave him from across the table. He quickly attempted to assure you. “Nah that’s not true, I knew a bunch of guys who had a crush on you at school.”

“Yeah, like who?” You raised your brow out of curiosity.

“Sorry that’s classified information. I promised I’d never tell.”

“Drew, school was nine years ago.” You folded your arms across the table, waiting for an answer. 

“Yeah but it was a pinky promise and you know how sacred they are.”

“Sure, now I’m gonna go get us some more drinks before you bore everyone with my non-existent love life.” You left the table and headed towards the bar, hoping they’d change the topic by the time you’d get back. It wasn’t as if your love life was non-existent it was just very much unsuccessful. For some reason you had a certain type for dickheads, the kind who loved to walk all over you and cheat whenever they felt like it. In a way you were grateful for your chain of ex-lovers, they had made you tougher to a certain extent, and boys knew it too. In fact, most of the time, the boys refused to meet whoever you were dating. It was almost as if they could see right through each and every bloke, and decided that any guy would never be good enough for you or their time. “6 pints please.”

“That’s a lot of pints for a small thing like you.” You hadn’t even looked at the bartender, but his voice seemed to pull you out of a trance. You quickly realised how good-looking he was. He was roughly in his late 20s, dirty blonde hair and kind brown eyes. He was charming in some sort of way and he had even kinder smile. Shit, you were still staring. He must think I’ve got something wrong with me. 

“I wish they were, but I’m pretty sure you’d have to roll me out of here if I even attempted to down all six.” He laughed and started pouring out glasses, locking eyes with you every so often. “So are you new? I haven’t seen you around here before.” God, you were cringing so bad. You knew you were a bit rusty but this ‘flirting’ was just a shit-show.

“Kinda, some of my relatives live down here but I don’t live too far either. I take it you’re local?”

“Sadly, yes. Hopefully I can get out soon if my job picks up.” You were hopeful, but it was the truth. Although you loved Shields, you didn’t wanna stay here forever. 

“It’s not too bad around here, where would you wanna go, when you do get out?”

“I’ve not thought that far ahead yet, maybe down South or maybe even somewhere else in Europe.”

“I’ll have to tag along if you don’t mind.” He folded his arms across the bar and leaned down to your eye level. God, talking to this guy was so easy, you could stare into those eyes for hours. You hadn’t even realised that he’d poured all six drinks! 

“Sure, I could use the company.” You played along, silently hoping he’d take you up on the offer. 

“Isn’t your boyfriend good company then?” 

“My boyfriend?!” You gave him an unsure glance, you were certain that you were single. 

“Yeah, the guy giving me the evils.” You turned to look. “Don’t look!” He lightly grabbed your arm stopping you from turning. “God, don’t make it too obvious”, he laughed. “The guy in the white-shirt sat with you and your friends, blondish hair?”

“Ohhhhh, that’s Sam”, you laughed. “We’re not together.” 

“He’s been giving me the evils ever since you strutted on over, I took a guess thought you and him were a thing or something.”

You snorted, “Sam basically hates me, he treats me like shit or ignores me half the time.”

“Trust me, coming from a guy, he’s definitely feeling something other than hate for you.” 

“And trust me, knowing Sam for nearly 10 years, basically makes him my brother.” You couldn’t put anymore emphasis on that, you and Sam were not a thing. Period. 

“Well if you’re adamant that there’s nothing going on between you, I’d love to take your number?” You blushed but willingly took the guys phone and dialled in your number. 

“Y/n by the way.”

“Archie, lovely to meet you y/n.” He smiled and you and you smiled back effortlessly. God, his smile really was something. 

“You too, now I’d better get back to my friends before they start screaming for their beer.” You walked on ever to the group, careful not to spill the drinks. 

“Oi oi, look at you gettin’ ya flirt on”, Dean whistled. You blushed again, knowing full well that Archie could hear. 

“See told ya guys fancied you, you just can’t see it half the time.” You instantly thought back to Sam and glanced in his direction. Sure enough, he was sulking as usual. 

“I’m going for a ciggy”, Sam announced, and with that he stood up and stalked on outside- ruining the mood once more. 

“Think I might join him”, Drew said and quickly left after him. You shrugged and sat down next to Dean once more. Dean started talking about the good old days, laughing about the stupid things you guys did when you were young. 

“Remember that one time you hit by the swing playing chicken, and Sam felt so bad he pedalled home to go get you a plaster.”

“Omg and by the time he got back, I had stopped crying and we had started a new round.” 

“He was so mad, I remember he wanted you to sit out to rest your “injured” knee. It was literally the smallest cut ever!” You both laughed at the memory. You remembered that you had argued with Sam that day, you refused to sit and watch whilst the boys had all the fun. “I miss those days man”, Dean continued, “when we didn’t have to worry about anything other than going to the park after school.”

“Yeah but you enjoy tour life right? You’re travelling, meeting new people. I’m sure you got girls throwing themselves at your feet as well.” 

“That’s one bonus, I get homesick though. Actually, Sam was saying how you should come with us when we go on tour next.”

“He did?!” The news took you by surprise. He wanted to spend time with you. 

“Yeah, he said you could be our own personal groupie”, Dean chuckled. You? A groupie for Sam? You loved there music, there was no doubt about it but you weren’t sure how you felt about him as a person. You’d known him for a while but you didn’t really KNOW him that well. He was a difficult person. 

“Yeah sounds good. I missed you guys whilst you were away.”

“We all missed you too, especially Sam. It was kind of annoying actually, he complained about you not being there with us A LOT”. God, Sam just seem to escape the conversation tonight. Everything just sounded so unlike him. It never acted like this around you, and he certainly hadn’t said anything nice about you to your face. It was definitely a shock. 

“Speaking of the buggers, I’m going to see what’s taking them so long.” You needed some air anyway, it was so stuffy inside. As you reached the door you heard a quiet a conversation. You wouldn’t usually snoop but you recognised the voices. It sounded like a very important conversation. Their voices were tense yet quiet, ensuring that no one would be able to hear. No one but you obviously. 

“Drew leave it. Nothings ever going to happen between us. We wouldn’t work. We’re two VERY different people who have VERY different lives.” Sam. You wondered who he was on about, was he seeing someone? Why did you care?

“Mate you’ve had a crush on her since we were 12. I know you still like her, and you can’t deny it.”

“Yeah and so what. We date. It goes wrong. It fucks up our whole gang. Things become awkward. The end. That’s what will happen. End of.”

“Well, you’ll never know until you try. All I’m saying is that you better man up quick, otherwise someones gonna beat you to it.”

 Wait, known since 12, fuck up whole gang, that only narrows it down to one person. Me, Sam likes me, you thought, and with that, you heard the boys stomping out their fags ready to re-enter the tavern and face you once more.

[softboywriting]

Christmas Together | Shawn Mendes

Summary: When you and Shawn head home for Christmas, you end up stuck in a snowstorm in a small town in the middle of the united states. With all flights grounded until further notice, the two of you will have to spend Christmas together at a bed and breakfast. This blizzard may just be the push that brings the two of you together with the help of a little Christmas magic. [fluff] [Christmas themed] [personal assistant to lovers au] [non au shawn]

Word Count: 6k

|Masterlist In Bio|

Traveling with Shawn for the holidays is never easy. He is possibly the busiest man you've ever worked for but you don’t mind because being with Shawn is just like being with someone you love, because, well, you do love him. Thanksgiving came and went, yours in the states not his, you don't go home for that holiday anyways. It's not a big deal for your family back home. Christmas is though and traveling three days before Christmas is a nightmare.

Things were going smoothly, you had a plan to get home before christmas. Things were going perfectly until the last minute. You had somehow gotten two tickets on a fully booked flight from Brazil to Canada. The plan is for you to fly straight to the Toronto airport, no layovers and from there you'll catch a cab home to New York. You're about an hour into the flight and you can feel some turbulence coming on. No big deal. Until the pilot announced an emergency landing somewhere in Iowa.

"Oh no...no no shit." You look out the window and see nothing but clouds. No doubt about it, you’ve flown directly into a storm system.

"What? It's fine, we're just going to be a little delayed." Shawn rubs your shoulder. "It's no big deal."

"No, it is." You lean your head back against the headrest. "My sister is having a baby today and I promised I'd be there. My whole family is going to be there for Christmas. She's the first of us to have a kid."

"Oh. You didn't tell me that."

You look over and Shawn looks concerned. He always has such a big heart for everyone, it’s one of the many reasons why you love him so much. "I didn't think you needed to know. It's not work related."

"Well yeah but I still care about you. I know I'm your job but like, I'm still a person who cares about you."

"I know...I know I usually tell you everything it's just been...I've been-"

Shawn lays his hand on yours and you look down at it, heart racing. "I've been difficult lately. I know and I'm sorry. Traveling and shows have been hectic the last few weeks. It's totally my fault you’re overwhelmed."

"No, Shawn it's fine. My job is to take care of all that stuff. I'm not- I shouldn't complain about it."

"So what's stressing you out if it's not me?"

"Everything about the christmas season. My sister having a kid, obviously but...mostly it’s that christmas sucks when you're single okay?"

Shawn's eyebrows shoot up. "Why?"

"Because every year I go home and my siblings all have their girlfriends and boyfriends or fiance's and shit and I'm the odd one out. Every year I become the center of attention at dinner, the butt of the joke during gift opening. It's just a pain in the ass being branded as the forever alone child in the family."

"Why is your family so mean?"

"They aren't. They don't mean their comments venmously, it's just little things that bug me. Little indirect jabs that remind everyone I'm single and I have been for a long time."

"Why are you single?"

You give him a blank stare. He couldn't be serious. He doesn't understand that he's the reason you can't be in a relationship? That your job of tailing him everywhere and managing his schedule and life is just as stressful on a relationship with someone for you as it is for him. "Shawn, I'm constantly traveling. When am I supposed to date? When am I supposed to meet someone?"

"Fuck." He groans and scrubs a hand over his face. "You're in the same boat as me. I didn’t even think of it like that."

"Yeah except I can't fly somewhere every time I have a few days off to see someone and make an attempt at one."

He shakes his head. "I've doomed you to be single. I'm putting you through the same stress I put myself through and it's not fair."

"It's not. But it's my job, and you have yours."

Shawn grabs your arm as the plan drops and shakes. "I'll make it up to you, I swear." His voice falters as the plane jerks violently.

You squeeze your eyes shut and he threads his fingers between yours, palm a little sweaty. "I don't see how but okay."

"If we make it through this I will do everything I can to get you a date."

"You're crazy Mendes."

"Yeah but you already knew that."

_____________________

The plane lands in one piece despite feeling like it was going to tear in half at any moment. As soon as you get to the airline club lounge you find out the flight is not just delayed but all flights are grounded for the next forty eight hours at least. Two days. You are definitely going to miss your sister's baby and you're possibly going to miss Christmas. As much as you don't want to deal with your family for the holiday, you're still going to miss them and you’re upset you might not be there.

"What're we going to do?" You ask as you slump into a chair beside Shawn. He looks over from his phone and you raise your eyebrows. "What are you doing?"

"I got a place to stay until we can get another flight."

"What? How? That's my job."

He chuckles and pockets his phone. "I can book a place. I know how to use the internet."

"Well yeah but- how? There was a hotel with rooms free this close to Christmas and during a storm?"

"Kind of. Every hotel I looked at was full but there is a bed and breakfast about half an hour from the airport that had a room."

You stand up and grab your bag and suitcase. "I'll call a car or taxi or something for us and-"

Shawn lays his hand on your shoulder. "I did that too. I got an Uber."

"Oh."

"You do absolutely everything for me. I figured I could return the favor since right now is really stressful for you."

"But it's my job...it's not a favor."

Shawn shakes his head and grabs his bags. "Come on, you need to relax. I read that this b'nb is super nice and the rooms have huge tubs. I know you like baths."

"What? How do you know that?"

"You travel with mini bath bombs in your shower bag and you always seek out the hot tub when we book a really nice hotel on tour." Shawn looks back and you jog to catch up to him. "I guess I’m a little observant?"

"What else have you observed?" You ask nervously, hoping he hasn’t caught on to the fact you have very real feelings for him. You’ve done your best to hide them for a long time.

Shawn holds open the door to the pick up lanes for you as you step out into the icy wind blowing snow everywhere. "Your favorite color is red."

"Why's that?"

"You rarely wear it but when you do, you are always more confident and you seem more comfortable. You always pick red when given a choice of things and your eyes always light up whenever I wear my red button down, so I know you must like the color at least."

"Maybe that's because it looks so good on you."

He smirks. "Oh yeah?"

"Mmhmm."

"Good to know." Shawn steps out into the snow and approaches a black car. "Come on, this is our ride."

_____________________

The bed and breakfast looks like a winter wonderland. It's decked out in decorated trees, wreaths, lights, the whole nine yards when the Uber driver pulls up. It has a little sign in the front that says Dover Inn. How Shawn found this place you have no idea. A short walk up to the front and you and Shawn are pushing your way through a heavy door into a small foyer that's been converted into a check in area.

"Hello!" An older woman with long dark hair says as she comes out of a back area. Her name tag says Judy. "Do you have reservations?"

"Yes, Mendes. We booked online." Shawn shakes snow off his hat by the door. "The first name is Peter."

"Ah, yes, here you are." Judy says, squinting at her laptop on the old wood countertop. "Let me go see that the room is ready. I'll be right back."

"Peter?" You ask, dusting your coat off. "Why'd you use your middle name?"

"I didn't want to draw attention to myself. You know how fans are, they always somehow find out where I'm staying."

"True. Smart, actually. But we're in the middle of nowhere Iowa in a town of probably a few thousand people during a snowstorm. I'm pretty sure that no fans are going to bum rush you out here."

"I wasn't taking the risk." Shawn pulls his hat back on and you shake your head at him.

"Mr. Mendes?" Judy says from the stairs behind the check in desk.

"Yes?"

"You booked a double room correct?"

"Yes."

The woman walks forward to the desk and types something into her laptop, chewing on her lower lip. "There is an error with room numbers on the site, the room you booked is a single room suite with a queen bed. We can refund you if you like. I'm so sorry."

"No," you lay your hand on Shawn's arm before he can say anything. "It's fine. We will take it."

Shawn gives you a look, silently asking if you're sure.

"You're sure?" The host asks, looking between you and Shawn. "I can at least give you a discount for the mistake."

"That will be fine, thank you." Shawn says softly and the host grabs your room keys.

On the way up the stairs you notice how beautiful this place really is. It's old, a historic building if you were to guess. A large manor like house of sorts at some time, but now converted to a bed and breakfast. Everything is decked out in Christmas, literally everything. Judy leads you to your room at the end of the hall and opens the door.

"We have pillows and blankets in the closet. There are heated blankets available on request. Breakfast is served at eight until nine every morning. If you need anything you can call the front desk by dialing star five five. Feel free to explore the inn, we have a large living room and the kitchen open to guests after ten in the morning. Can I get you anything right now?"

"No, thank you." You smile as you look around the gorgeous room. It's huge and spacious. There is a fireplace in the center of the far wall, lounge chairs flanking it with a small tree decorated in the corner. A large queen-size bed with a huge bed frame and two dark wood dressers sit against the opposite wall. There is a door on the left of the entrance for the bathroom and the right for the closet. It's incredible.

Shawn drops his bag on the floor by the closet and pushes his suitcase and guitar case up against it. "You're fine with sharing a bed?"

"Yeah? Should I not be?"

"Well I mean isn’t it a little...intimate?"

You laugh. "Shawn, I've been your assistant for almost two years now. I'm pretty sure that I can survive sharing a bed for two nights with you. It's just like sharing your bed with your best friend when they sleep over." You drop your own bag by the closet. "Don't worry about it." You say this, but honestly you’re not sure how you’re going to fare. Being close to Shawn is one thing, but sharing a bed is a special kind of intimate, whether sexual or not, you worry about how you’ll be able to keep your cool.

Shawn takes off his coat and flops down on the bed. "I'm sorry you're missing your sister's baby."

You hang your own coat and flop down beside him. "There's nothing that can be done now."

"What if we can't get home for Christmas?"

You look over and he turns his head to look at you. "We have each other?"

"Yeah, we do." Shawn smiles softly. "I'm glad I'm stuck here with you."

"I'm glad it's you too."

____________________

Sleeping with Shawn is better than you expected. To start, you thought he would be a bed hog like he is on the tour bus, sprawled out all over his bed at the back of the bus, but he isn't. The two of you put on pajamas and crawled in on your respective sides. It was a little awkward at first, both of you unsure if it was okay to move or curl up or anything really. You decided to break that barrier though, push the button and make a move because the tension was absolutely eating you alive.

You scoot over from the very edge of the bed where you are laying uncomfortably still. You turn on your side and face Shawn who looks uncomfortable as hell too. "Hey, you look like you're petrified."

"I don't know what to do."

"How do you usually sleep with other people in your bed?"

Shawn rolls onto his side and props his head up on his hand. "Well, usually I spoon them because it's someone I'm very interested in and have usually just been intimate with. Other than that I usually sleep alone."

"Uh huh. So is it the lack of intimacy before hand that's stopping you?"

His cheeks turn dark pink in the soft glow of the white lights on the tree in the corner. "I-I don't know. Maybe?"

"If you need to spoon me so you can sleep, you can. I don't mind." You lay on your back and roll so your back is to him. You pat your side, inviting him to cuddle up. It’s the worst idea you’ve ever had and your heart is threatening to burst out of your chest at the sheer thought of Shawn being pressed against you. But how else will you ever get to experience a Shawn cuddle? You would rather know and live with that knowledge for the rest of your life while you pine in silence until you find someone to settle down with, than never know and always wonder just what you may have missed. "I trust you Shawn."

The bed shifts and you can feel the heat from his body as he scoots closer, but not quite touching. "You don't think it's weird?"

"We've been in much more intimate situations I’m sure. I've seen you naked a few dozen times. This isn't a big deal. I sleep better with someone close and you do too it seems. Just cuddle me and stop being so nervous about it."

Shawn's hand rests tentatively on your hip. "You're sure you don’t mind?"

"Shawn. I swear, it's fine." You chew on your lip, voice surprisingly convincing despite your nerves.

Finally Shawn takes the plunge, wrapping his arm around you and pulling you back against his warm body. Instantly you melt, body completely turning to mush. It’s everything you imagined it would be and more. He’s just right, bigger than you, warmer, soft but not too soft. You let out a sigh and he presses his nose to your hair.

"You smell really good,” Shawn says quietly.

"Thanks."

"You're welcome, and thank you for letting me cuddle you. I hope you don't think I'm weird."

You put your hand over his against your chest. "I always think you're weird, but not because of this."

"I miss it."

"Hmm? Miss what?"

"Being affectionate like this." He adjusts himself so he is fully pressed against the length of your body, feet covering yours between the blankets.. "It's been a long time."

You close your eyes, nervous to say what you really want to. Worried he will know you're falling for him. Well...that you’ve already fallen for him. You did that a long time ago. "I don't mind if you want to do this. I mean...like, again?"

Shawn presses his hand against your chest gently, holding you back against him as if giving you a hug. "I just might have to take you up on that offer sometime."

_____________________

Morning finds you warm and cozy. There is a fire in the fireplace when you sit up and look around the otherwise empty room. Shawn isn't there, but the smell of his body wash wafts in from the bathroom that's open but dark. You look to the clock over the fireplace and it's just after eight thirty. You check your phone and you have no signal, of course.  

You stretch as you get up and go to the big windows on the far wall. It's snowing still. You doubt it has ever stopped. You grab the complimentary robe from the dresser on your side of the room and wrap up in it before heading downstairs.

In the dining area that's set up like a small restaurant would be with it's tables and chairs scattered around with families and couples sat in eating, you find Shawn alone by the fireplace sipping coffee and reading something on his phone.

"Morning," you say softly as you take a seat with your back to the fireplace. "How'd you sleep?"

"Like a baby. You?"

"Same."

Shawn puts his phone down and offers you his cup. "Coffee?"

"That's yours though?"

"Yeah but you can have some while we wait for the hostess to come by again." Shawn scoots the mug toward you. "I know you aren't sick or something."

You wrap your hands around the mug and lift it up to take a sip. Straight black coffee with a hint of sweetener. It's strong as hell and you swear you can feel it wake your senses up immediately. "This is horrible. How do you enjoy this?"

He laughs. "It's good?"

"No cream or something? It's like engine oil."

"Nuh uh." Shawn plucks his mug from your hands and takes a drink. "It's great. Oh, here comes the hostess."

You order some eggs, bacon and orange juice. Shawn asks for just some bacon and toast. You look out the window to see the snow reaching the bottom of it, drifted up from the wind no doubt. It has snowed so much you're seriously worried you may not get home for a while.

"What's wrong?"

"The snow. It keeps falling."

"Yep." Shawn turns and looks outside. "I told my parents I would be spending Christmas here. If I'm wrong, it'll be a surprise when I get home. If I'm right, they're not worried about me."

"You have signal?"

"Yeah. You don't?"

"No. Can I call my parents?"

Shawn hands you his phone and you excuse yourself to the living room where it's a little quieter. You dial your dad's cell number and lean against the wall near a tree.

"Dad? Hey it's me."

"Kiddo! Where are you? We thought you were coming home last night?"

"We had to land in Iowa. We're grounded for at least two days, but it might be longer. It's hasn't stopped snowing since last night. Did Penny have her baby?"

"Not yet. They said it could be any day now, I guess she wasn't ready."

"That's great! Well, not for Penny but I didn't miss it. Is she worried about me? Did she think I forgot?"

"No no, we figured you might have been delayed. Whose number are you calling from by the way? I didn't recognize it."

"It's Sh- the hotel's number. I'm using a landline."

"It's an out of country number? I thought you were in Iowa?"

You scrub a hand over your face and mentally kick yourself. You don't want to tell your dad it's Shawn's cell number but your lie doesn't make sense. "It's Shawn's phone. Promise me you won't give this number out."

"Shawn? You're traveling home with him?"

"Yeah, well, no."

"Honey!" You dad calls for your mom and you hear her respond in the background. "Our daughter is bringing home a guest for Christmas!"

"Dad! No! We aren't going to make it!"

"What's that dear? You're breaking up, I can barely make out your voice."

"Dad, we probably aren't going to make it for Christmas and I'm not bringing Shawn home. Dad, can you hear me?"

"You're bringing Shawn? That's okay! We'll see you soon!"

"Dad no! We aren't-" The line goes dead and you pull the phone away from your ear. The signal bars drop from three to none and you groan. Perfect...just perfect.

______________________

After breakfast you find Shawn in the living room with his guitar sitting with a little girl who has a cat piano that meows instead of playing regular piano notes. The girl is maybe five or six and you're pretty sure her grandma is the woman sitting a few feet away on her iPad. You lean against the archway that leads to the dining area and smile as Shawn let's the girl pluck a few strings on the guitar.

"You like music huh? What's your favorite?"

"I like the music from Frozen and Moana." The girl says and presses a key on her piano that makes a deep cat meowing sound. "I like Moana the best."

"Me too." Shawn smiles, playing a few chords. "I know the song How Far I’ll Go pretty well."

You shake your head as he smiles to himself. Of course he knows the song, it's one of Alessia's. Shawn looks up and sees you. He says something to the girl really quick and gets up, leaving his guitar on the floor.

"Hey, did you get to call your parents back after it dropped?"

"No, the signal keeps fading. I sent a few texts, hopefully they'll get them."

"Ah. Well...did you know you're standing under the mistletoe?"

"Huh?" You look up and sure enough there is a little sprig of green with holly berries attached to the archway. "No, I think you're under the mistletoe."

"No, it's definitely you and you know what that means."

"You're gonna kiss me?"

"Yep." Shawn leans in and kisses your cheek gently as you back up. "You're free to go now."

You roll your eyes and giggle as he steps forward and leans against the archway. "Oh no, looks like you're definitely under it now."

"Ah crap."

You stand on your tiptoes and kiss his cheek. "Looks like I was right all along."

Shawn laughs and turns away to go back into the living room. "I'll get you back for that, you lured me in."

"Uh huh. Sure you will." You head upstairs to find a movie on tv to kill time. May as well get used to it. You're going to be here a while longer.

_____________________

A little after noon Shawn finds you in the room curled up on the bed watching TV. You just got a text back from your dad saying that Penny had her baby. A boy named Lucas, eight pounds. You couldn't help but cry, disappointed you weren't there but happy that Penny had her baby okay. It sucks.

"What's wrong?" Shawn asks, sitting beside you on the bed. "Your eyes are red like you were upset."

"Penny had her baby."

"Oh! That's great, is she okay? Is the baby okay?"

You nod. "I'm just sad I couldn't be there for her. She's the first of my siblings and I to have a kid and I guess...I guess I sort of live vicariously through her."

"Oh."

"It's fine." You wipe your eyes. "Everyone is healthy. I'll get to meet the baby a little later. It's alright."

Shawn opens his arms and motions for you to come to him. You do, leaning forward until you're crawling into his arms. He holds you tight, rubbing up and down your back with his big soft hands. "Its okay to be upset. I understand if you're emotional about missing something clearly important to you."

You rub your nose on his shoulder. "Thank you. I'm sorry I'm crying so much."

"No, shh, you don't have to be sorry."

"But-"

Shawn squeezes you. "No buts, let it all out. You're always there for me on my bad days, I'm gonna be here for you."

_____________________

"Can I take you to dinner?"

You look up from your laptop. The inn has WiFi but it's not the best. You've just been updating schedules and trying to get any flight out of Iowa. So far everything is still grounded until the storms blow over. "Dinner?"

"Yeah. I was talking with some people in the living room earlier and they said that there is a place not too far from here that serves dinner through Christmas Eve. I thought maybe it'd get your mind off of everything."

"Sure." You close your laptop and get up to put on your coat. "Are we walking?"

"Yes. Wear your boots."

"Mmm and what are you going to wear?" You glance at his well loved chelsea boots in the corner. They're the only shoes he has with him aside from some tennis shoes made of breathable mesh.

Shawn grabs his boots and looks down at his feet, wiggling his toes in his socks. "I'll wear extra socks?"

"Mmhmm." You sit down and pull on your black leather boots that are possibly the best shoes you own. "Y'know you're a millionaire right? You can afford new boots just like those that aren't worn thin."

"I know. But these are comfortable, they're my boots."

"Right."

He groans as he sinks into the bed beside you to put on an extra pair of socks. "I promise I'll get new boots okay? But I won't get rid of these."

"Shawn, they're old."

"They're my favorite." He zips the side and stomps his foot down to adjust to the extra socks bulk. "Don't judge me."

"Alright, alright," you giggle. "I'll stop bullying you into getting new shoes. If they make you happy, that's what matters."

"They do." Shawn gets up and grabs his coat, tossing you his sweater he wore yesterday. "You might want that."

"I have a sweater?"

"The thin one that you wore yesterday? That's hardly a sweater."

"I didn't plan on being trapped in a snowglobe after leaving Brazil, a very non sweater climate. So sorry I didn't pack for a blizzard."

Shawn narrows his eyes and you narrow yours back. "I'm not going to take a human popsicle to dinner."

"Oh whatever." You snatch his sweater off the bed laughing as you pull it on. It's a little big and it smells like cinnamon and his cologne. So basically, Shawn. You used to wonder why he smelled like cinnamon, then you found out one of his primary vitamin supplements has cinnamon in it. It's supposed to help with metabolism or something. All you know is it makes him smell slightly spicy when he gets warm.

The walk to the restaurant is fairly short. It's just two blocks up from the inn. The snow is a pain to walk through and it's easier to walk in the street than it is to try and use the sidewalk. There are absolutely no cars out and about so you're pretty safe. There are a few other people in the restaurant when you step in, grateful to get out of the cold wind. You're glad you wore Shawn's sweater.

"So, if we are stuck here for Christmas, what do you want to do?" Shawn asks as soon as you're seated by the waitress.

"We're going to find a way home."

"I know you're trying but-"

You shake your head. "No, I'm going to find a way home. I missed Penny's baby. I'm not missing Christmas."

Shawn sighs softly. "Alright. We're going to find a way home. I'll get you home one way or another."

"We'll get us both home."

"Right. Enough about that though, we're supposed to be enjoying dinner and not thinking about all that." Shawn says, lifting his menu. "Look, they have a Christmas dinner option. Ham, potatoes and all the fixings. Sounds good."

You nod and try to focus on the menu. It's hard. You can't help but feel nervous as the day comes to a close. One day until Christmas. At least you're not alone.

_____________________

Just after two in the morning you wake up to a severe weather alert on your phone. The signal must have connected enough for you to get one. Shawn's phone goes off too, loudly buzzing on his dresser.

"What's going on?" Shawn asks sleepily, arm falling to your waist as you sit up.

"It's a severe weather alert." You read the message on your phone. "Blizzard warning. High winds may cause power outages across the state. Below freezing temperatures are in effect, be advised if going outdoors."

"Shit." Shawn mumbles.

"Shit is right. We're not leaving this place."

He pushes you back down and you curl up facing the windows away from him. "We'll be alright."

"This sucks."

"Mmm. I promise I'll make it up to you. It's my fault we're out here because I didn't want to leave Brazil until the last minute. I ruined Christmas." He sighs.

"Shawn, stop. You didn't ruin anything."

He cuddles you against him and presses his nose into your hair. "I'm sorry."

"You didn't do anything."

"I still feel guilty."

You grab his hand and he threads his fingers between yours. "Can I ask you something?"

"Anything, but I'm not very awake."

"Do you think we were meant to be here, together for Christmas?"

"Hmm?"

"Like...never mind."

Shawn yawns and doesn't press the subject. He relaxes into you, his weight comfortable against your back. You close your eyes, really enjoying this moment despite the impending knowledge of being stuck here for the holiday. You and Shawn fit together perfectly, maybe a little too perfectly.

_____________________

Shawn is gone again when you wake up in the morning. It's after eight and you know you should get up and go get breakfast, but you aren't hungry. It's Christmas Eve. You don't want to get up.

The bedroom door opens and Shawn walks in, bundled up and carrying a bag full of wrapped gifts. "Good morning."

"Morning. What's that?" You point to the gifts and Shawn grins sheepishly.

"Presents."

"For?"

"You?"

You raise your eyebrows. "Why do you have presents for me?"

Shawn sets the bag down by the tree and unwraps his scarf from around his face. "Everyone deserves gifts on Christmas day. And since we're going to be stuck here, I figured we should make our own Christmas."

"You're not sad you can't get home?"

"I was, but I talked to my dad this morning. He said that Christmas is what you make it, whether that be with family, friends or your pets. He said that they will miss me, but he doesn't want me to fret over it. We can do Christmas whenever I get home." Shawn hangs his coat and kicks off his boots. "I'm lucky, because I have you and I'm not alone."

"I guess you're right. We are together in the same boat."

"Yep. So let's make the best of it."

"I suppose I should get up and go shop for you now huh?"

"You could. But let's have some breakfast first." Shawn holds his hand out for you. "Come on, there is cinnamon roll pancakes with your name on them."

"There is?"

"Mmm. I talked to the kitchen staff this morning. They said they would make them special since we're some of the few guests left at the inn." Shawn bites his lip. "I know they're your favorite."

"You're sweet." You curl your fingers around his hand and he lifts you up out of bed. "Too sweet."

Shawn hugs you tight. "You deserve it."

_____________________

Breakfast is amazing. The kitchen crew out did themselves with the cinnamon pancakes with sweet icing for you. Shawn ordered just eggs and bacon but they're also super good. Even the coffee is better than before.

Shawn reaches out and swipes some icing off your lip with his thumb. "Do you like me?"

"What? Of course." Your heart sinks, stomach churning. You know he doesn’t mean in a general way. "Why?"

"I mean, as more than your friend or job...whatever. I've just been thinking. The last few days have been some of the best I've had and-" He looks away, flushed. "And you and I have been kind of flirting a lot? Unless I've been reading this completely wrong."

"You like me?"

"Of course I like you." He looks back and fidgets with his fork. "You and I have had a vibe since you joined the team. I think I've been too nervous to admit it before now. I was too scared to shoot my shot."

You grab Shawn's hand and make him stop tapping his fork on the table. "Calm down. I like you a lot. A whole lot."

"Yeah?" He grins, chewing on his lip.

"Yes."

"Good, because I don't want to stop sharing a bed with you any time soon. You’ve spoiled me the last few days. I don't think I've slept this well since before the tour started." He chuckles to himself. "Remember when I promised you on the plane that as soon as we landed I'd find you a date?"

You giggle and he lines his hand up with yours on the table, palms together, his fingers curling over the top of yours slightly. "Yes?"

"Do you want to go out with me tonight?"

"But there is a blizzard warning."

Shawn looks around the dining room. "We can stay here, I can get hot cocoa and cookies from the kitchen. We can watch a movie or something." His fingers slot between yours and you squeeze his hand. "We can stay up until midnight like kids on Christmas."

"Alright." You smile softly and he looks back just as soft. "Let's do it."

_____________________

At midnight you and Shawn exchange gifts, not all of them, just one each. You had gone out and shopped at a small store in town that had all sorts of things for the holidays. You picked out a few things for Shawn, just little memorable trinkets. One is a keychain so you never forget this holiday and it says first Christmas, Iowa. It's cheesy but you don't care. The next gift you grabbed was a paracord bracelet the store had by the registers. It's black with a red stripe down the middle. You couldn't pass it up. Shawn loves his accessories and especially if they mean something or are a gift.

Shawn hands you a small box wrapped in brown paper first. "Merry Christmas."

You turn it over and give him a look. "What is this?"

"Open it and see."

You tear off the brown paper and open up the box. Inside is a little sparkly rose charm on a gold chain. "This is so cute." You lift it out and it is so ornate and delicate. "Where did you get this?"

"It's a secret." He smirks.

"Mmhmm. You did not buy this here.”

“You can’t prove that.”

“Oh yeah? I have access to your bank account remember? I swore I wouldn’t use it for ill intent but...and you told me you’d never lie to me when we first met.”

“Fine, I did promise you that. I got it before we left Brazil. I was going to give it to you at the airport.”

“Thank you.” You curl your hand around it and smile. “Your turn." You hand him a tiny bag with the bracelet in it.

Shawn opens it and slips it on. "I love it."

"I thought you might. I didn’t get you something cool in Brazil....and I know it's not much but-"

Shawn leans forward and kisses you, hand resting against your neck. Your eyes go wide and he pulls back.

"W-what was that about?"

"Look up."

You tilt your head back and see there is mistletoe hanging over the area in front of the fireplace where you're sat with Shawn. It was definitely not there earlier. "When did that happen?"

"I told you I'd get you back." He smirks and it dawns on you. The other day in the living room, the mistletoe.  

"You put that there." You laugh and he cups your cheek. "You...you put that there?"

"I did." He leans in and you take a deep breath. "And I did it because I needed some Christmas magic to give me the courage to do this." He presses his lips to yours once more and you slide your hand into his hair.

"Merry Christmas Shawn."

"Merry Christmas."

End

______________________

Thank you for reading! Please reblog if you enjoyed this and reblog to support and encourage myself and fellow writers. - A

*****Note: none of my works should be posted anywhere outside of my linked accounts. I do not give permission to repost with or without credit to my accounts. Please notify me of any reposted fics.*****

[sincerelyreidburke]

got hitched

Quick ficlet for my Bencole people. Featuring domestic Quindo. Cross-posted to the ao3 cricket ficlet collection.

//

eight years after graduation | august

 Sebastián is completely unsuspecting, when the Snapchat comes in.

The house is quiet, and he and Quinn are in bed. He figures they’ll actually go to sleep soon, or at least soonish, but for now, they sit up against their pillows, with the light still on. It’s long past Violet’s bedtime; Quinn put her down at least an hour and a half ago, and after sitting out on the patio with him for a bit, Sebastián carried his husband to bed for little to no reason other than he just felt like carrying him.

He’s watching a Coyotes preseason weekly recap on his phone, and next to him, Quinn is knitting. His yarn is royal blue and bright red; he’s working on a scarf he keeps swearing he’s going to mail up to Remy to wear to games when his season starts. To celebrate his contract , Quinn said, when he told Sebastián what he’d be doing, all self-satisfied smiles. I think he could use something new in Montreal colors, don’t you?

His needles clack together every now and then, and the audio on Sebastián’s phone is low, but it’s not like Quinn would be bothered by that anyway, seeing as he took his hearing aids out for the night hours ago. Their house, Sebastián is happily aware, is a safe zone for Quinn, has been since the day they bought it to build their life in together.

A notification buzzes his phone, and the banner at the top tells him he has a Snapchat from Ben. Which isn’t weird, until it is— because what time is it in France right now? It has to be, like, kind of early in the morning, right? In what world is Ben up early on vacation?

He opens Snapchat to investigate. The Snap has been sent into a group chat, but not a new one; it’s one containing himself, Ben, and Quinn, and has to have existed since college even though it hasn’t been used in a short while.

He opens the Snap. It loads. As it loads, he wonders if this is a leftover message from Cole’s show last night. That was, after all, the whole reason Ben crossed the Atlantic Ocean for vacation in the first place. It’s Cole’s first tour outside the US, and Ben and Remy created this whole scheme for Ben to surprise him, which Remy was on board with because he will use literally any excuse to travel to Europe, especially France, and Sebastián has heard about this over several elaborate text exchanges, phone calls, Snapchats, et cetera—

The Snap loads.

Sebastián looks at it.

Wait. Wait . WHAT?

It expires before he can fully process, but he knows what he saw. He scrambles to replay it, leaning forward and off the pillow.

It’s a picture, a selfie, of Ben in bed with Cole wrapped up in his arm. They’re both, like, clothed and everything, and they look all soft and in love, but that’s not the main point of interest.

Because Ben is holding both of their hands up to the camera, and although Cole has had his black engagement ring for upwards of two years, Ben… is also wearing a ring. And Cole is holding a piece of paper. A certificate.

The caption Ben has typed reads: got hitched

Cole is holding a marriage certificate .

Sebastián screenshots the picture before it can disappear again, and then immediately starts tapping-slash-whacking Quinn in the thigh to get his attention. He’s gentle about it, but he still feels bad when Quinn startles and shoots daggers up at him. He drops his needles and signs. What’s wrong?

In lieu of signing a response, he turns the phone to Quinn, because it’s easier than attempting to convey via sign his current stream of consciousness (Ben got married is he kidding how did he just get married in the middle of Paris on a whim oh my God he is going to bust his ass so much but also he’s pissed because he wanted to go to his actual wedding and Ben Shaley Is Actually Fucking Married he can’t believe it like yeah he knew this was coming because he’s been engaged for two years but like— Rho got married !!!!!!!?!??!????!!?!).

Quinn studies the photo, then his eyes widen with realization. In a moment, he shifts from his complete bedtime serenity to animated, excited confusion. He looks up to Sebastián, then back to the phone, then up to him again, and signs, in quick and snappy motions, They eloped? , and then, immediately, Call Ben.

Sebastián nods, as Quinn lunges to the bedside table and grabs his hearing aids. He opens the phone app, and picks Ben out of his favorites, and as it rings, he just sits there vibrating. He can’t believe it. He actually can’t believe it. Ben just went and got married. Like— okay, that’s admittedly the most Ben way he could possibly think to get married, but— is this real life?

Ben picks up on the second ring, as Sebastián is putting the call on speaker. “Helloooooo!” His voice is singsong, like he knows exactly what he did. Which, like, obviously he knows what he did. But Sebastián is still shook —

“ Dude !” he cries, half-laughing, as Quinn leans back over to him and scoots closer on the mattress. “How could you just send that out of context?”

Ben laughs. “In my defense,” he remarks, his voice the picture of chill, “it really doesn’t require that much context, right?”

Quinn fiddles with his ears, and then he must get them turned on, because he chooses that exact moment to cry, “Benjamin Shaley.”

“Mini!” The joy in Ben's voice is indescribable. “I knew you’d bitch me out for this!”

“I cannot believe you,” Quinn says. “You did not elope last night.”

“Oh, but I did,” Ben remarks, every bit the wise-ass he’s always been, and he sounds so happy , and Sebastián is, like, so fucking happy for him right now—

“Rho— congratulations , holy shit,” he tells him. “Did you plan this?”

“No,” Ben laughs. “Not even a little. And I think that’s maybe the best part. Hold on.” There’s rustling and mumbling on his end for a second, and then a fourth voice enters the conversation.

“Good morning, guys.” Cole’s voice is super raspy, like he just woke up. Sebastián tries to do some quick math, but all he can determine about time zones is that it has to be early over there. “Sorry we didn’t tell you.”

“Cole, I can’t believe this,” Quinn says. “How could you let his chaos influence you?”

“Mm.” Cole pauses, contemplatively, and then yawns. “I’ll actually be letting his chaos influence me for the rest of my life, now.”

Quinn takes a deep, therapeutic breath. Sebastián wraps an arm around his shoulders. He has, many times, seen his husband get simultaneously pissed and excited; it’s a hilarious thing to witness. “I love you both,” Quinn says, in a slightly less sharp voice. “And I’m so very happy for you. But words cannot describe how much I wanted to actually attend your wedding.”

“We’re gonna have a party, Q,” Ben replies, like he was ready for this question. “When we get home. Well. Like. Not right when we get home. But we’re gonna start planning it when we get home.”

Quinn pauses, like he’s contemplating this, and in the silence, Cole adds, “It was a spur-of-the-moment decision.”

“Well, I’ll say,” Quinn says. Sebastián thumbs at his shoulder, to soothe the good-natured rage. “My goodness , you two. I should have known you’d get married some crazy way.”

“Tell us the story!” Sebastián adds, because he is extremely eager to know.

Cole lets out a soft laugh. “It’s not a long story,” he says.

“We were at dinner,” Ben explains. “Last night, after the show, with Remy. And Cole just… out of nowhere. He was like, we should get married.”

“ Cole Kolinsky ,” Quinn gasps. “Your mother is going to kill you.”

“She knows!” Cole cries. “She knows. I promise. She’s the only person who knew before you. Her and Remy.”

“Was Rem with you?” Sebastián asks.

“He was with us when we decided to do it,” Ben says. “But not at the town hall.”

“That little shit,” Sebastián cries. “Where is he now?”

“Out galavanting in the streets, I bet,” Ben mutters, and Cole laughs at him.

“I’m sure Remy is asleep,” Cole amends. “We were out so late last night.”

Quinn rubs his temple, leans into Sebastián’s embrace, and whispers, “I cannot believe you two.”

“Oh, you love us, Quinny,” Ben says. “Don’t even try to hide it.”

“Of course I do,” Quinn replies, in that tone so characteristic of him , where he’s firm and kind at the exact same time. “My goodness,” he says. “You’re entirely too much for me.”

Cole laughs again. “I promise, Quinn,” he says, “it’ll be a really good party.”

“Oh, it best be.” The grin on Quinn’s face is so cute, Sebastián could combust. “I have very high standards.”

“Ah, yes,” Ben says, in a posh accent, “nothing but the best for the esteemed Quinny Cooper��”

“ Ben ,” Cole mumbles, and Ben laughs so loud.

“I’m so—” The initial shock has sort of worn off, but Sebastián still feels like he’s processing several things at once. “I’m so happy for you guys, jeez ! Why are you awake so early, anyway? It’s your honeymoon morning!”

“I have to—” Cole breaks his sentence with a yawn, like talking about being up early is making him more tired. “I have to be on my tour bus at eight-thirty.”

“Oh, Cole ,” Quinn whispers. “That’s a real wrench in your morning, huh?”

“Is what it is,” Cole replies.

“Wait, so… what time is it now?” As soon as he mentioned the fact that it’s their honeymoon morning, it started occurring to Sebastián that he and Quinn are… keeping them on the phone. On their first morning as a married couple. He loves his friends to death, but nobody interrupted him and Quinn the morning after they got married. It was just the two of them; even Vi was at Mama’s house for a sleepover. The only thing they had to do was bask in that fresh joy.

“It’s seven,” Ben announces. “Seven-oh-nine.”

“Okay, so,” he says, “I’m gonna, like, hang up the phone now.”

“ Nanny ,” Ben says, with a snort. “We knew you’d want to talk.”

“Yeah, but we talked,” he replies, “and now I’m hanging up so you guys don’t have to, like, talk to us until Cole leaves.”

“Hm.” Ben pauses, and then, in his peak wise-ass tone, remarks, “What if I hang up first?”

“Oh, goodness , you two,” Quinn mumbles, into Sebastián’s shoulder, “don’t get into one of these arguments.”

“Bro, you hang up first.”

“No, you hang up first—”

5,000 miles away, in a hotel bed in Paris, Ben Kolinsky hangs up the phone. He rolls over in bed and grins at his husband. “How did I do?”

Next to him under the nice white sheets, Cole is the best thing he has ever seen. He laughs, with his hand over his face, before he reaches for him. When they meet in the middle of the mattress, Cole presses a kiss to his lips. “You are an idiot,” he whispers.

“Mmm.” Ben kisses him again, and Cole wraps around him, and he thinks there’s absolutely no way heaven could be any better than this. “That’s a title I’ll proudly own, but only with an amendment.”

Cole tangles his fingers in Ben’s hair, long and now sort of messy from sleep, but who gives one single fuck what their hair looks like when they just got married to the love of their life last night. “What’s the amendment?” he asks, between kisses.

“That I’m your idiot.”

“ Oh .” Cole laughs. His eyes wrinkle shut, and Ben is going to be gone on him for the rest of his days. “You’re definitely my idiot.”

“Perfect,” Ben says, and kisses him again, and he doesn’t need anything else.

[royallyprincesslilly]

Title: Rumor Has It {3}

Chris Evans x Famous Reader Uriah “Riah” Tyler

Warning: Nah.

Word Count: 4.5K

Summary: Inspired by a video seen of Chris and his co-star Ana De Armas on their press tour for Knives Out at TIFF where she kept touching his chest and face standing about five inches apart.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I think my marriage is done.”

    Zora and Kizzy looked to each other then back at you. They didn’t speak; it was like they were waiting for something else from you. “Hello, bitches! Did you hear me?”

    “Hold up, don’t go calling us out our name because you’re going through stuff,” Kizzy snapped. You rolled your eyes. She was right. You were high strung. It had been seven hours since your conversation with Chris. He hadn’t called you back, didn’t text, nothing. You were hurt and still pissed.

    “Is this because of the video?” You nodded.

    “What did Chris have to say?” Rolling your eyes, they knew the answer to that. You didn’t have siblings; your cousins were your siblings, and your best friend was your family. They’d been with you through everything, childhood, road to fame, big break, they were even there when you’d met Chris in France. You told them everything. “That great huh,” Zora continued.

“It was like he refused to see my side, he refused to say he’d set boundaries, refused to care.” You tried not to get emotional again. You hated crying.

    “Was this a productive conversation Riah or were you the pissed off wife throwing accusations?” Your jaw dropped at her insinuation. You knew they were on your side, but sometimes you just didn’t know.

    “I didn’t insinuate anything. Yes, I as the pissed off wife because I am pissed off. If he ever expresses he is uncomfortable with something I make a note to change it. It was whatever to be this way when he was single, but he asked me to marry him, it wasn’t the other way around. If it was what he wanted, he should move away from that behavior,” you ranted.

    “We hear you and agree. We just want to make sure you understand part of a marriage is also proper communication. You can’t press his buttons and disrespect him verbally.” Raising your eyebrow, you looked between them wondering if they’d talked to him. There had been plenty times he sought them out for advice on how to handle you. Yes, you could be a handful, but you had standards and refused to lower them even being married.

    “Did you guys talk to him?”

    “No. We know you Riah, we know your fighting style,” Zora explained.

    “Nothing will ever get resolved unless both of you actually listen to each other.” You listened to them carefully; you knew what they said was true, but you listened to Chris; he was the one who always had selective hearing. Then when he spoke, it was always to reply to something. He didn’t listen. Sometimes you wondered if he knew you at all.

    “Anyway, I have some days free. What do you say we hit up MIA and unwind?” Again, Zora and Kizzy looked between each other. They expected this. Whenever you and Chris argued you both disappeared for a few days. He disappeared with communication, and you actually disappeared preferring to get out of dodge.

    “You can’t run away from your husband Riah,” Kizzy informed.

   “I’m not running from anything. I just want to enjoy my few days free on the beach in Miami. Are y’all coming or not?”

    You knew they’d come. Slowly they smiled, and you knew you had em. You finished dinner taking heed to stay away from any of your drama and listening to theirs instead. When you left, you were bombarded by paps shouting questions at you. “Uriah, any comment on the footage of Chris with his costar?” “Uriah, is there trouble in your storybook romance?” “Do you and Chris have an open marriage?” You and yours pushed through the paps to your valeted car.

Before you got in one more photog shouted a question; “Any message you want to send to Ana De Armas?” That one tripped you up. Your slick ass mouth almost went off and said “back the fuck up off my man and find your own you thirsty bitch” but thankfully you caught yourself. Keeping a smile plastered to your face, you climbed into the driver’s side and drove off. You refused to play the jealous, territorial wife that was not the part you auditioned for.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~

Twelve hours later, you were in Miami being shown to your penthouse. When the three of you walked inside, you marveled at the interior decoration; it screamed South Beach. You smiled and walked out to the private pool and closed your eyes with your head tilted to the sky. It was beautiful weather, and you intended to take advantage of it. You felt your phone vibrate in your pocket. It made your heartbeat pick up thinking it was Chris. Glancing down at the screen you sighed out seeing it wasn’t him. It was his sister Carly. Sighing you put it back in your pocket. It’s not that you didn’t want to talk to her you just didn’t want to think about him, or anything related to him. You’d already failed your self-given challenge with a simple thing like a ringing phone.

    He didn’t call last night or text. It’s not that you expected him to, you didn’t—well part of you didn’t. You’d be lying if you said you hadn’t hoped he’d call and apologize and say everything you wanted him to but you learned long ago individuals were their own people, no matter how much you hoped and wished for them to do something or be a way they probably wouldn’t because you couldn’t control them. It was a hard lesson to learn and an even harder one to stomach in a marriage.

    Last night you’d gone over everything minuscule detail of the conversation with him, and you didn’t think you’d been irrational. You were actually surprised you hadn’t gone bat shit crazy on him. in the four years you’d been married you could remember worse arguments. Yes, you did say a few things with a disrespectful tone, and yes you may have pushed his buttons with some things just because, and yes the comment about kids was a low blow that could have gone unsaid, but besides that, it was a rational, calm discussion. “Fuck,” you mumbled realizing you’d let the kid comment slip and it would lead to an even bigger argument.

    “Ready to get some grub?” Kizzy’s voice snapped you out your thoughts, and you pasted the same smile you’d worn for the last twelve hours.

    “Yeah, let’s go. I’m hungry.”

    “You’re always hungry,” Zora responded. She wasn’t lying. You could always eat. It was one of the reasons Chris said he fell in love with you.

    A few minutes later you were in a car on your way to one of the best restaurants in the area. With one ear you listened to Kizzy and Zo talk about some guy they’d met on set. You put the rest of your attention on social media. You scrolled through Instagram first not looking for anything in particular just a past time from point A to point B. you came across a picture of Chris signing autographs, it was the first in a series. You sideswiped to the ones that followed and knew they were from his current engagement in Toronto. The last picture he was posed by himself, but he wasn’t smiling, his jaw looked tight, and his stance looked tense. It didn’t come across like his usual self. Part of you felt a tinge of guilt that maybe it was because of you, but as soon as it washed over you, it faded.

    The driver announcing your arrival brought you to close the app and slide out the car. You were grateful there were no paparazzi. When you sat down and skimmed the menu, you quickly found what you were going to eat and wasted no time ordering. “Shopping next or beach?”

    “Definitely shopping, we can hit the beach tomorrow and make it an all-day event,” Kizzy responded.

  When your food came, the three of you joked like always. You were relieved that even with everything going on, they hadn’t switched up. You’d lost friends on this road they called fame. Some you’d lost because of your rising star, some you’d lost because of drifting apart, and some you’ve even lost because they thought your husband was a challenge to see who he’d sleep with.

    When you made it back to the penthouse, the sun was setting, and you really didn’t want to be left with your thoughts. So, you suggested a night of fun--fun you desperately needed. The three of you showered and changed. When you were finished you assessed Kizzy’s work in the mirror, she really was the best make up artist around, and she was all yours.

  Pulling up to the club, you could hear the music from the outside and see the long line wrapping around the sidewalk. Everyone knew this was the hottest club in Miami. As the three of you approached the security at the front, you knew when they recognized you. The two burly men nodded to you as they opened the door for you. Once inside the music became even louder. You looped arms with Kizzy and Zo and walked through the red-tinted corridor. At the end, you were met by one of the girls who worked there, she was dressed in a short, tight white dress and held a bottle in one of her hands. The closer you got you made out her face, she was pretty.

    “Mrs. Evans,” she began. Raising your hand to stop her before she continued you corrected her.

    “Uriah is fine.” She smiled, then held out the bottle she carried. Taking it, you read it — Ace of Spades, the good stuff.

    “Tino, the owner, wanted you to know how glad he is that you’re in the house.” You didn’t know how he knew you were in the house, you literally just walked in. “Follow me; I’ll take you to VIP.” You nodded and followed behind her as she took a path that was close to all the other patrons but not close enough where they could grab you. Some recognized you as you passed and called your name. You smiled and waved while forcing the awkward feeling down. This was never something you’d gotten used to. You never got the draw of being fascinated with celebs. The fact Chris was a celebrity was one of the reasons you ignored the hell out of him and disappeared from the street festival you’d met at.

    When you got to VIP the three of you situated and popped open the bottle, the first round you guzzled, as you did the second. By the time you were on your third glass, you were standing up dancing to the music and beginning to have a good time. With every Nikki Minaj song, and Drake anthem and Reggae bop that came on you drank more and more and twerked your ass faster and faster. By the time Beyonce came on, you were sure you mouth every lyric of “Don’t Hurt Yourself,” a special request by Zo. All of your problems drifted, and the only thing you cared about was what your next drink was going to be, tequila, bourbon, vodka, or maybe something that really fucked someone up; rum.

    By the time you staggered out the club, the paps were there to snap your less than ladylike exit. You knew you’d had too much to drink and there they were to catch all of your disgracefulness. They shouted questions, none of which you clearly heard. As you, Kizzy and Zo shuffled into the waiting car you did make out one question “What do you think Chris will say about your party girl days coming back and you not wearing your wedding ring?” Groaning you dropped your head back on the headrest, you knew he’d hate it.

    The next day was torture. It was a day you remembered why you’d slowed down on your party days when you got married. You were hungover. What’s more, you got text messages from your team showing headlines of you across many internet blogs. Somehow they’d gotten pictures of you and your friends in VIP drinking, laughing and dancing. There were even pictures of your brief conversation with the owner; Tino. The pics looked suggestive, but the attention was purely one-sided—his side. Then to top it off they got picture of you exiting the club and close-ups of your hand sans wedding ring.

    There were so many comments and people who wanted to have their piece of the conversation. Much of it was from your fans and supporters agreeing with your actions. Comments ranged from women who were saying you should live your best life and teach Chris a lesson, to offering to put “the homewrecker”  in her place, and even those telling you to go off and do some straight-up messed up shit. There were even comments from men saying you were acting like an immature girl trying to one-up Chris. Some were saying you should respect your husband and work it out between each other and not over social media. There were even a few who went above and beyond to say you deserved this treatment because you went out without your wedding ring which shows the woman you are. It was all overwhelming.  

    Your team wanted you to do damage control and release a statement that explained you going wedding ring free and appease the masses by assuring your marriage was fine. You felt that was bullshit. Why should you have to explain shit? You actually did nothing wrong. So, you told your team to back off and let the chips fall where they may. While you lied down you began to wonder if he’d seen any of the headlines, or if he was pissed or if he cared at all. You hadn’t gone out with the intent to get back at him you just wanted to cut loose and forget some things. You knew to him it would look like one of your subliminal messages. He hated your sometimes passive aggressive messages. You tried to work on it, but sometimes you did revert.

    Your head was killing you, so you spent the majority of the daylight hours in bed nursing it. The only thing you could do was watch TV and wish you felt better. It was brutal, something you’d forgotten about. As you laid in the bed feeling absolutely sick to your stomach, you began to miss him. You missed him a lot. You usually would talk several times a day and text all throughout. He would tell you all about his day, and you’d do the same. Usually every night you were separated it ended with Facetime sex. It was one of the personal vows you’d made to each other on your wedding night when you had a second more private vow ceremony. It had been two nights now that hadn’t happened, two days you hadn’t talked or texted, and you hated it.

    You were so close to caving in and calling him, so close to just giving in to your feelings but every time your finger hovered over the green phone button you hesitated. You wanted to hear his voice more than almost anything, but you also knew you weren’t wrong for thinking what you did or feeling like your husband was being a dick about it. When you remembered all of that, you tossed the phone away and tried to get some sleep.

    When you awoke, it was night, and Kizzy busted in the room squealing. “Oh god Kiz, the volume.” She jumped on the bed sending everything on it flying into the air before it dropped back down. You had no idea why she was so chipper. She drank even more than you or did you drink the most. You couldn’t remember exactly. “Guess who got an invite to the white party tonight!” smiling and jutted her thumbs to herself with a self-satisfying grin across her face. “Zo and I went for a swim in the rooftop pool on the other side of the hotel and bumped into Christina White, oh my god she is so beautiful. Anyway she recognized me, can you believe that Riah? Then we got to talking, a few glasses of champagne and a couple dozen compliments later she invites me to the party tonight. The hottest party and we got an invite.”

    You didn’t want to burst her bubble by telling her you’d already been invited and had opted to stay in bed for the night. Instead, you smiled. “Of course, she invited you, and of course she recognized you. You’re the hottest makeup artist in the game Kiz. It’s long overdue they started to put some respect on your name, and it’s only a matter of time before you’re too big for me.” She smiled then rolled her eyes. “Whatever. I’ll always give you the best rate.” You laughed together as Zo dropped herself on the bed as well.

    “So, we’re going right. How can we pass on The White Party, come on?” Zo’s voice was pleading. You’d been invited for the last eight years and for the last four years you passed. The last one, you and Chris, planned to go together but something came up with work for the both of you, so it never happened. You took up your phone and checked your messages. There were more messages from your team, some from you mom no doubt having seen and heard all the hoopla and wanting to check to see if her favorite son in law was being treated well. The only name evidently missing was Chris’. He still had yet to call or text. It hurt yes, but it also made you angry all over again.

    “Of course, White Party here we come.”

  ~~~~~~~~~~

  After staring at your rings on the dresser top for almost twenty minutes, you decided to leave them there. Your fingers looked bare; you almost didn’t recognize your hand. You’d gotten so used to the accessories that you felt strange not wearing them. Brushing the feelings to the side you set out for the exclusive White Party that was hosted by none other than the White siblings.

    Christina and Christiano White were affluent royalty. They weren’t actually royalty, but they were set for life like them. They were the twins of billionaire Randy White and his third wife ex-beauty queen Mariposa De La Verde Cruz-White. Randy was so rich he made old money seem like lunch money. Instead of keeping up with the Jones’ a lot of people tried to keep up with the Whites, you weren’t one of those people though.

  When you made it to the Versace mansion where the party was being held, your jaw dropped at the outlandish display of opulence. It was like Mardi Gras, Carnival, and Crop Over all mixed in one with bling bling everywhere. “How rich are these people again,” Zo whispered to you. “So rich, they could give every American a salary of twenty grand a year.” You’d read that in some tabloid magazine. The three of you walked down the white carpet and smiled for photographers. You made sure not to stop for any questions. You knew everything they were going to ask.

    After slipping inside the three of you got a much needed drink, you decided to go slow tonight. You didn’t want to fly with a hangover tomorrow. Scanning the room, you saw most of the big names in the entertainment and fashion industry. They all were dressed to the nines in their sexiest white outfits and no doubt trying to one up each other in some way. Sipping your drink in your own sexy outfit, you and your friends gossiped about everyone’s outfits, the thirsty women there trying desperately to snag some hot star for the night and even the décor. Zo and Kizzy pointed out some cute ones they wouldn’t mind getting close to. You gave the go ahead to go shoot their shots knowing they wouldn’t voluntarily leave you.

      You watched from across the room as they each flirted and no doubt dazzled the two guys, you knew them as Aaron Blake and Quentin Porter. They were cute but not your type. You made your way back to the bar for another drink. “The beautiful lady will have a glass of Armand de Brignac Champagne, make it rose̒.” You looked to your right and saw none other than Christiano White. You smiled, then shook your head. “Still your drink of choice, right?” He leaned on the bar and smiled at you. He was still very handsome.

    “Eh, everyone seems to think so. It’s the one thing I always get sent.” Laughing he sipped his own drink, it was probably Vodka, he sure loved him so Vodka, or he did four years ago. “How are you little Dove?” you took up the glass placed before you and drank half of it down before answering him.

    “All right. How are you?” Christiano nodded his head, then finished his glass. “Better now. Didn’t know you’d be here tonight.”

    “I got invited.”

    “You’ve always been invited. You stopped coming when you decided that I wasn’t good enough to be around anymore.” You could hear the disdain in his voice. Here we go, you thought. You finished the glass and raised your finger to the bartender to request another.

    “I never said you weren’t good enough. Those words never came out of my mouth.” Christiano nodded, but he didn’t look like he agreed.

  Christiano looked around again before he looked back to you. “Sure seemed like it. What exactly was it you said then, a month before you married some actor who looks like the carbon copy of me? what was the point of that?” You rolled your eyes, not wanting to get into this.

    “He doesn’t look like you Chris,” you clarified, using the nickname everyone called him. he scoffed hearing it. “Isn’t that his name too? Sounds like a carbon copy. Miss me, little dove?” You looked over him. He was in a white linen shirt and white board shorts. His shirt was unbuttoned halfway down showing his toned chest and abs. Christiano wasn’t an ugly guy, in fact he was hot as hell, hot enough for you to have had an on and off two-year relationship.

    “I recognize that look in your eyes.” He stepped closer. Before the space was respectable of your marital situation, now it was personal, intimate. He lifted his hand and moved it toward your jaw. Before he made contact you slid back a little. “Come on Christiano, play nice.” You gave him your sweetest smile, a smile he couldn’t help but return. “Are you enjoying yourself little dove?” Looking back to your glass you nodded.

    “You always did know how to throw a party.” Before you could register it, Christiano leaned to your ear and whispered. “We could be throwing these together, as Mr. and Mrs. White.” He slowly pulled back, and your eyes met. Once upon a time you had thought about marrying him. You didn’t know Chris then, and things were good. Clearing your throat and breaking the eye contact you looked down to your exposed thigh.

  “I’m already a Mrs.” Christiano scoffed and nodded.

    “Are you sure, little dove? I’ve seen the tabloids. Trouble in paradise?” You clenched your jaw and fought off the urge to roll your eyes. “Low blow?”

    “You know anything you say could never hurt me, Chris.” He laughed and leaned closer. “That’s right; you’re bulletproof, no shots fired could ever touch you.” You’d told him that years ago and meant it. You were still the same woman, but you’d never tell him you weren’t entirely bulletproof anymore.

    “You don’t deserve that, Riah, you know that right.” You shrugged off any emotion and looked at him. “You’re still as sweet as ever.” You placed a chaste kiss to his cheek and turned back to the bar and finished the champagne.

    “Come on, say hello to everyone.” He took your hand and led you through the mansion and before you knew it, you were surrounded by your old crowd, some new and some you’d seen plenty of times over the years. Everyone greeted you with hugs, cheers and a lot of vodka. It was like old times. The music cranked, and your friends joined you.

    The rest of the night passed with drinks, laughs, and dances. You danced with Zo and Kizzy and with Christina and in a circle with other girls. You could feel Christiano’s eyes on you the entire night, and you knew it was wrong, but you didn’t mind it. You’d never take it anywhere in a million years, you’d said your vows, and you meant that shit with everything in you. That didn’t mean you couldn’t have a little fun and remind Chris that he isn’t the only hot piece of ass that people want to get on top or under. Close to two in the morning you felt bold enough to give Christiano a dance, you kept it clean, but his hands roamed as they always did. Every time they traveled anywhere but your waist, you were quick to wag your finger at him. He always laughed it off. Christiano always thought everyone was fair game. Maybe you being there was giving him those vibes. You were far from fair game.

    When the sun was coming up was when you made your way out the hidden entrance of the mansion. Christiano tried to convince you to stay with him in one of the rooms, but you heavily declined. There was no way you’d do that. When he finally got it he made sure one of his drivers were on hand to get you back to your hotel. Christiano opened the door, Kizzy, and Zo slid in the car talking amongst themselves about nothing, they were drunk as hell. You turned to Christiano and nearly lost your balance. His hand slid around you, pulled you close and held you up. Your eyes met his hazel ones, and you shared a moment—a literal moment. You found your balance and pulled away. “Thanks.” He smiled and nodded. “Don’t be a stranger little dove. My doors are always open for you.” You snorted.

    "Which doors exactly LA, Miami, Greece, Virgin Islands, Bahamas, Mexico, Brazil--.” Christiano cut you off with a roll of his eyes. “You missed quite a few, but all of them. Anytime.” You knew just what he meant. He wanted you to leave Chris and go back to him. “Uh-huh.” You slid in the car as Christiano shut the door. He waved to you while biting his bottom lip. Another lifetime maybe. In this one your heart belonged to one man. As the car drove off you began to wonder if he even deserved it anymore. You closed your eyes, sighed and decided that tomorrow you’d worry about your problems.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 242: SANTA IS REAL

Previously on BnHA: We said farewell to the League of Pliff and were finally reunited with the kids of U.A., an institution which I would just like to point out is so diametrical to the League that they literally took the polar opposite route when choosing their name, and focused only on the acronym. I’m 100% sure U.A. doesn’t even stand for anything. Anyway, so Bakugou and Todoroki went on whirlwind press tour following their ch 219 antics, and the resulting interviews were so disastrous that Aizawa decided to bring in Mt. Lady to give the whole class a crash course in PR 101. Meanwhile All Might scoured Ancestry.com for info on the past users of OFA, and Rat Principal announced that U.A. was going to resume its internship program. This is great news for Deku, who’s been taking his sweet time mastering Blackwhip. Like, we’re not even talking baby steps here so much as little tiny flea steps. Kid’s going to need all the help he can get.

Today on BnHA: Horikoshi targets all of my weak points at once. The My OT3 Academia arc gets off to an incredible, award-winning start with a Christmas party and the announcement of Internships 2: This Time, it’s Compulsory. Highlights include: (1) Kaminari and Mina forcing Bakugou to accept the spirit of Christmas into his heart and soul, (2) Iida rocking a Santa beard, (3) Eri holding a giant sword, (4) Bakugou reminiscing about his internship with Best MIA Jeanist, specifically the part where Jeanist was all “A HERO’S NAME IS REALLY IMPORTANT AND SYMBOLIC AND MEANINGFUL, SO YOU NEED TO THINK VERY CAREFULLY ABOUT IT” and oh my fucking god, and lastly (5) Todoroki inviting Bakugou and Deku to come intern with him at the Endeavor Hero Agency (known for its famous business slogan: “Got Plot?”). It’s like I wished on seventeen different falling stars and they all came true at once. I still can’t even fucking process this. kfkdslgk.

(All comments are my unspoiled reactions from my initial readthrough of the chapter. I did a quick edit for grammar and clarity immediately afterward, and added a few ETAs in the process, but aside from that there are no changes.)

I just got like three excited-seeming asks (I haven’t actually read them yet) in rapidfire succession less than an hour ago, and my dashboard is now filling up with filtered “bnha spoilers” posts, so I took this as a sign that I should read the new chapter ASAP. oh gosh

(ETA:

(1) SAMEEEEEE, and (2) YEEEEEEEEP. listen I’m not religious you guys, but I said “oh my god” so much while reading this chapter that I wouldn’t be surprised if he or she finally answers and is like, “YES!? WHAT IS IT???”)

what new state-of-the-art tomfoolery will our intrepid heroes engage in this week. what novel hijinks will they commence. what frivolous escapades will they embark on this lovely Friday morn?

HOMGAAAHHHHHH

THE TITLE IS LITERALLY MY FEELINGS RN. MERRY FUCKING CHRISTMAS TO ME. YES GOD I LOVE IT. I’LL TAKE A DOZEN

okay. so today, September 6th, is officially Christmas. you heard the man and who am I to argue

so we’re opening with a teacher’s meeting! probably about the internships. or the fact that they’re all screwed. I don’t really know what their priorities are nowadays

okay yeah it’s about the internships. also Rat Principal is nested in Aizawa’s scarf for absolutely no reason, and Aizawa is disgruntled about it. heh. tomfoolery already and it’s only the first panel

oh shit, Nezu’s saying it’s now a government requirement. I got so surprised I actually forgot to call him RP

because ain’t nothing safer than hero internships. if the Basement arc taught us nothing else. it’s that

that was sarcasm in case that’s not coming across. this is clearly a baffling decision. but what are government committees for if not for making baffling decisions I guess

and now Midnight is coming to the same conclusion I was starting to wonder at

can someone please tell me what the PSC’s goals actually are, then? is this not the same group that recently changed the rules of the provisional license exam so that an even smaller percentage of people would pass? so do you want more heroes or fewer? which is it?

how do they cope with it? does anyone even have any idea?? it seems to me like they’re just throwing them to the wolves. we have this problem that we have absolutely no idea what to do about, oh I know, let’s toss a bunch of inexperienced kids at it. and hope that none of them gets murdered I guess

anyway so The Sheriff is speculating that the League must have been involved in the Deika situation, and he’s wondering why the PSC is trying so hard to keep it on the dl

oh yeah. friendly reminder that the PSC, thanks to Hawks, probably knows exactly how powerful Tomura and the League have recently become. so they know full well how shark-infested the waters are, and they’re making it mandatory for the kids to all take swimming lessons. nice

lol back when I was brainstorming ideas for future arcs, I seriously thought Horikoshi would have to go out of his way to come up with excuses for the kids to have future encounters with the League, because the school was so concerned with their safety that they wouldn’t allow them to leave the grounds except on rare occasions. well I sure got that one wrong. though to be fair, for once it isn’t U.A. that’s doing the child endangering here

(ETA: and actually, regardless of how insane it is, I do appreciate that when shit inevitably hits the fan again, at least it won’t be U.A.’s fault this time. I’d like to be able to continue rooting for them, and that can be difficult when they keep doing reckless things that needlessly put children in danger. at least this time they’re not the ones driving the Stupid Bus to Bad Decision School.)

a message to who? the League?? “we’re not scared of you”?? did they seriously not think of all the numerous ways this could backfire?

oh shit Aizawa even went and said the d-word

well there you have it. the government is drafting teenagers to risk their lives dealing with a crisis they won’t out-and-out admit they’re actually having. on today’s episode of “Oh Hero Society, You’ve Got Problems”

anyway so RP is making the admittedly good point that “we’re fucked and everyone is in terrible danger” is hardly a new state of affairs for them these days, and so they’re all moving on. okay then. good talk. lol. gonna need my damn Christmas fluff after all of that

and also RP is mentioning some other mysterious new program to Aizawa too. I wonder what that could be

(ETA: oh yeah I almost forgot about this. thoughts??)

and now we’re cutting to “several days later” oh my god. it’s really happening. I need a moment here, I’m not even ready. gotta get all my Christmas headcanons lined up here. Satou baking cookies. Kaminari and Sero running around arm in arm singing “JINGLE BELLS, ALL MIGHT SMELLS” over and over at the top of their lungs until Bakugou screams at them to shut up. Mineta debating anyone who will listen over the merits of the song Baby It’s Cold Outside. the naturally Christmas-themed Todoroki savoring this, his time to shine

oh shit, we’re still with the fucking Rat Principal. for fuck’s sake

-- ooh but are they talking about the traitor??

will this put an end to the “Horikoshi forgot about it” rumors? several people have mentioned this to me here and there (sorry to everyone whose asks I still haven’t answered), but as far as I know, this was part of a fake interview with Horikoshi that was unfortunately circulated around as though it was the real deal. sometimes people are not cool and think it’s fun to take advantage of communities that are enthusiastic and trusting! always fact-check what you read on the internet just to be safe guys

anyway

so there definitely is one, then. got it

so the traitor is definitely a student in the hero class, then. got it

sob. I got an ask about the whole Kaminari traitor theory earlier this week, so I’m in the process of doing up a whole long post about that. but the cliff’s notes version is, it’s not him. it’s Hagakure. but I will actually go into detail in the post. it’s been a while since I’ve discussed the traitor thing in depth anyway

so RP is asking All Might if he’s coming back today, and All Might is immediately all “WHY, DID SOMETHING HAPPEN TO MY CHILD, OH GOD IS HE OKAY” which, omg. so much love for this man

and RP is like “geez relax” and OH MY GOD

[slaps on a paperboy cap and screeches at All Might in a bad cockney accent] TODAY, SIR?? WHY, IT’S CHRISTMAS DAY

OH MY GOD

I SPOT A GRINCH UP THERE AT THE TOP. SOMEONE NEEDS TO BE VISITED BY THREE GHOSTS FROM VARIOUS DIFFERENT TIME PERIODS

LITERALLY EVERY SINGLE CHILD (GREMLINS ASIDE) IS WEARING A SANTA CLAUS OUTFIT. DID U.A. JUST GIVE THESE OUT FOR FREE

AND IN THE TOP RIGHT NEXT TO SHOUJI, SATOU’S COOKIES! JUST AS THE PROPHECY FORETOLD

I SEE THEY HAVE THE REQUISITE KFC PLATTERS LIKE GOOD JAPANESE CITIZENS. WE SHOULD ADOPT THIS TRADITION HERE IN THE WEST TOO TBH

and last but not least, there are only nineteen children in this panel. it took me forever to figure out who was missing, but pretty sure it’s Iida. Iida where are you. clearly the traitor. certainly not off visiting his brother and the rest of his family, what kind of gullible fool do you take me for

looool

I love when the characters start to become self-aware that they’re the main characters in a story and that plot things keep happening to them at an unreasonable rate

oh my god they really are wearing the suits. it wasn’t just a title page gimmick like I half-wondered

ANSWER THE QUESTION, JIROU. INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW. do we even know where she did her first internship?? I suddenly desperately want to learn more about this

(ETA: she interned with Death Arms, the traffic cone-looking guy who notably chewed Deku out for trying to save Kacchan’s life in chapter one. Jirou my hope for you is that you find someone better this time around!)

also Tsuyu is observing that Momo doesn’t have a chair, and I honest-to-god was trying to count how much seating there was in the previous page. it seems to me like the common room got a lot bigger. it keeps adjusting to their needs like the room of requirement in Harry Potter

also does anyone else wish that Jirou would move her cup off of the armrest. IT’S GOING TO SPILL ffff :/ this is who I am at parties

oh shit wait, that was Iida with the beard?? I honestly thought that was Satou. well then Satou is the traitor. -- NOBODY TOUCH THOSE COOKIES!!

anyway so he’s all “well Deku not to bring up the elephant in the room but YOUR PREVIOUS MENTOR DIED A HORRIBLE DEATH so what’s your plan huh”

oh sweet god

listen, no offense to Centipeder, he seems like a really nice guy, but if I never see his repulsive face again I will count myself lucky

OH FOR FUCK’S

PLEASE GET RID OF IT IT IS CHRISTMAS!!! here I am trying to have a nice time and!!

god. and like, I feel bad, it’s not his fault he is A GIANT BUG and he has like, fucking mandibles and shit! but I can’t help the fact that my skin is trying to crawl off my body right now, and god but I can barely look at this panel long enough to read the dialogue sob why

(ETA: and now that I’ve forced myself to read it again, this doesn’t even make any sense lol. “we have too much work and not enough help, so we have to pass on you coming back to help us out. ...wait.”)

I want Iida to like. pat his lap and tell Deku in a big booming voice to cheer up and come sit and tell him what he wants for Christmas. not in a weird way you guys, come on. but just, he looks so forlorn. do you want Santa to bring you some cozy All Might socks

or wait, didn’t he want a PS Vita according to that one omake thing. what the fuck Deku. someone get this kid a Switch

anyway so Deku says that participation is mandatory this time, so the school will handle assignments if the kids aren’t able to find someone

meanwhile Kacchan is in the background accusing Mina of stalking him. I think she is trying to get him to wear his Santa outfit. doin’ god’s work

OH SHIT YOU GUYS I CLICKED TO THE NEXT PAGE, AND THIS. THIS IS MY CHRISTMAS OMFG

HORIKOSHI YOU DID GET MY LIST! BAKUGOU BEING TROLLED BY HIS SNEAKY DETERMINED FRIENDS AND MANHANDLED INTO A RIDICULOUS GETUP WHILST ANGSTING ABOUT BEST JEANIST BEING MISSING, YESSSSSS. IT’S SO SPECIFIC, I THOUGHT, “SURELY HE WON’T ACTUALLY DO IT,” BUT SANTA IS REAL, EVERYONE

HFMLSDKMGLKLKL!!!!!LKL:DSF

RED ALERT RED FUCKING ALERT PEOPLE!!! THIS IS NOT A DRILL!!! GET OUT OF THE WAY!!!!

AHHHHHHHHHH HOLY SHIT YOU GUYS

“MERRY CHRISTMAS MAKESTE HERE’S A WHOLE FUCKING CHAPTER ABOUT KACCHAN’S FUCKING HERO NAME COMPLETE WITH A BEST JEANIST META ON THE TOPIC” mother fucker I need to start reading these chapters with a goddamn life alert and a defibrillator on standby

“your name represents your wish.” ladies and gentlemen, introducing the new number one hero... Number One Hero!

heh. just kidding. “what do you want to become?” this, though. this right fucking here is why I’ve been dying to know what name he’ll actually choose. because it does reflect exactly what Jeanist is saying. whichever name he chooses will be an insight into who he is, and who he is trying to be

and this meta is making me rethink all my chapter 223 feels, and tbh now I’m back to thinking that it’s not going to be Ground Zero, unless he comes up with a cool reason for why that name ties in to the image of the person he wants to be (because right now, that particular name is tied more to the past than to the future). but oh my god, if he does choose the name Kacchan I am going to spontaneously combust. I will fucking do it. I will fucking die from being a dramatic excited bitch

(ETA: because. listen. there is one person who has always looked up to him in spite of everything and has always seen his potential. “in the end, in my mind, you’re the image of victory.” this, to me, is the meaning that the name “Kacchan” would have if he did choose it. it would symbolize him choosing to be his best self.)

don’t mind me I’m just stanning this child so fucking hard it hurts

(ETA: oh hey, and more feels on the reread because it looks like the reason he’s having this flashback is because he was planning to go back to Jeanist’s agency to do his real internship, and to show him how much he’s grown. but then The Thing happened. Hawks I just want to talk why won’t you answer my calls.)

Mina and Kaminari are the MVPs of this fucking chapter and I owe them my life omggggg. THEY’RE HERE TO SAVE CHRISTMAS

what are you thinking about there, Best Friend?

are you thinking about your daddy angst. penny for your thoughts

(ETA: “how can I cheer up my new best friend? I know, I’ll make him a lucrative job offer.” actually that’s a good way to cheer up just about anyone in this day and age, Shouto.)

okay, is there some sort of perverted context to Christmas that I’m totally missing here?? or is Mineta just really into the holiday spirit?

I feel like I missed something. eh

anyway Mr. Traitor himself is walking out now and HE’S BROUGHT THE CHRISTMAS GOOSE! or turkey! but goose sounded funnier

of all the things to be shocked about?? “SATOU CAN COOK!?!” like um yes hello you’ve been living with this guy for four months already? like the only thing more ridiculous than this would be, “TOKOYAMI IS A BIRD!?!”

(ETA: like I know baking and cooking are two different things, but in a manga they’re the same thing. fact.)

now someone is making a dramatic entrance! IS IT ERI I WILL DIE!!!! BRING IT

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

I HEREBY SWEAR FEALTY TO THIS PANEL OF AN ADORABLY AND FESTIVELY DRESSED ERI MIXING UP HOLIDAYS WHILE DADZAWA PATIENTLY CORRECTS HER. I WILL PROTECT IT WITH MY LIFE. SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME WHAT DID I DO TO DESERVE THIS CHAPTER SO THAT I CAN GO DO IT SOME MORE AGAIN, OVER AND OVER AND OVER

Ochako is me

(ETA: DEMONS OUT! DEMONS IN!! THAT’S WHAT IT’S ALL ABOUT!! YOU DO THE HOOOOOOOOKEY POKEY.)

and Kiri is out here asking the real questions, but sadly Aizawa says Mirio is spending Christmas with his own class. WELL FINE. I HOPE HE’S EXPERIENCING THE FOMO OF A LIFETIME. HOW DARE HE HAVE OTHER FRIENDS whatever I’m over it

sobbbbb

WELL HOW MANY FUCKING HOLIDAYS ARE THERE!? CAN SOMEONE HELP A GIRL OUT OR WHAT

oh my god I’m just going to reblog every single Dadzawa panel and none of you can stop me go on and try!!

impatiently waiting for fanart of Aizawa tucking Eri in and reading her A Visit from St. Nicholas. get on it, fandom

ohhhhhhhhh my goddddddd

I know it’s not a Christmas song, but I am this close to cranking up “I Gotta Feeling” by the fucking Black Eyed Peas. ya feel

do you guys see him sitting there next to Dadzawa. he finally gave in. Satou is feeding him chicken. his friends will not abandon him to be on the naughty list. motherfucker that’s it. I’m fucking doing it. fill up my cup. mazel tov

lol I don’t even want to click to any more pages because they’re all so happy and it won’t fucking last. :( noooo

good little boys and girls. noshing on that chicken. Kacchan continuing to be stalked by the Ghost of Christmas Friendship. Tokoyami what even is that. lol and is this their weird way of distributing random gifts. did Sero buy Jirou a scarf. did Deku buy Ochako a freaking All Might plush keychain!? FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, WHAT IS THAT THING AND WHY DOES ERI HAVE IT NOW AND WHY IS SHE MAKING THIS FACE

-- holy fuck, IT’S A SWORD. oh my god. THEY GAVE THE SEVEN YEAR OLD A FREAKING BUSTER SWORD AND SHE IS FEELING IT YESSSS THIS CHAPTER TRULY IS ALL MY DREAMS COME TRUE

“dad can I keep it.” Aizawa: [not even opening his eyes, all bundled up in his oogie boogie suit] “sure”

so now we’re cutting to afterwards and everyone’s cleaning up and Deku’s using his freakish super strength to lift heavy things impressively while Bakugou continues to stomp around with his hands shoved into his pockets waiting for someone to finally tell him he can go back upstairs

OH???

motherfucker. are you going to invite them to come intern with you and your dad!!?!?? I know I was all set on Bakugou interning with Miruko just last week, but I TELL YOU WHAT BITCHES, I’M FUCKING FLEXIBLE LIKE THAT

OH SHIT YOU GUYS!!!!

TODOROKI ARE YOU PLAYING THE OT3 SONG BECAUSE HONEY YOU KNOW THAT’S MY JAM, BRO

OH FUCKING SHIT YESSSSS

BAKUGOU DO YOU WANT TO INTERN WITH YOUR TWO BEST FRIENDS, EXCUSE ME, HATED ENEMIES. DEKU DO YOU WANT TO INTERN WITH YOUR TWO BEST FRIENDS. AND THE NUMBER ONE. WHO JUST SO HAPPENS TO BE BEST FRIENDS WITH THE NUMBER TWO. WHO JUST SO HAPPENS TO BE BEST FRIENDS WITH TODOROKI “I DIDN’T HAVE A FLASHBACK IN THE LAST ARC BECAUSE WE WERE SAVING IT FOR THIS ONE!” TOUYA? THAT’S RIGHT, IT’S BEST FRIENDS ALL THE WAY DOWN. OH MY GOD

it’s like Horikoshi made a long and detailed list of all of his regrets about the previous internship arc, and then said, “fuck it. do-over”

you guys. I’m all out of cans. we only have can’ts and cannots. I cannot

Christmas fluff. Dadzawa. Bakugou hero name meta. hints that the traitor plot will soon be relevant again. and the motherfucking OT3 of OT3s, MY SONS, MY THREE RESPLENDENT OFFSPRINGS, interning together at the motherfucking Endeavor Hero Agency because Todoroki is the sweetest most considerate angel, and because KNOCK KNOCK, IT’S ME THE PLOT, I’VE COME FOR YOU AGAIN AT LONG LAST AND I VOW TO NEVER LEAVE YOU ALONE AGAIN FROM THIS MOMENT ON

shit, y’all. I don’t know if it’s possible for an arc to become my favorite motherfucking arc only two chapters in, but damned if this sunnuvabitch ain’t trying

[trashynoona]

Clothes.

Imagine opening your wardrobe, for that spring cleaning you ought to have done ages ago. As you sort through your hundredth cute outfit into the ‘keep’, ‘donate’ and ‘throw’ pile, you notice a box of clothes that you haven’t seen in awhile.

The old high school tshirt you had borrowed the first time you slept over at his place. The dress shirt you picked out for a formal event. The jumper you casually claimed ownership of. The flannel that you gladly accepted when he was clearing his wardrobe. These are his clothes. No, these WERE his clothes. You sigh. These clothes were no longer just clothes, they’re memory agents; each item carrying a very vivid memory you shared with him. They used to be special, but not anymore. In fact, they have been packed away such a long time ago that you had absolutely forgotten about their existence.

Hold on, why do you still have them if you had broken up ages ago? Ah right, Kim, your best friend, had forced me to do a wardrobe clean up after you hung around your room moving around for an unhealthy extended amount of time. You could not bear to part with all his belongings, so you ended up making a deal with Kim; to throw everything, except his clothes. You smile at that memory. It was a sight to remember, ‘no no I need this, please!’ You begged Kim while snot carelessly dripped onto the tip of your lip. Kim carelessly threw every thing that he had left at your place into a black trash bag. She would never understand, she did not have access to the memory bubbles these item/ held.

You picked up the old tshirt from the box. It smelled staled, as it should be.

‘Would you... perhaps... like to stay over tonight?’ Taehyung avoided your eyes as he shyly traced squiggly lines on your palm.

It was the first week since you guys have started dating. You became acquainted with Taehyung after you guys bonded over your love for melted ice cream when you offered to share your table with him in your university’s cafeteria. It was the first time Taehyung had invited you over to his place since you became official.

‘I’d love to. But... I have nothing to wear...’ you timidly replied.

‘Oh oh don’t worry! You can wear my high school tshirt! It’s super worn in and super comfy! I promise you’d like it!!!’ Taehyung was rambling as he jumped out of the sofa and into his bedroom.

‘Here!’ He showed you his washed out tshirt with a triumphant glee.

You guys took turns to wash up in the bathroom. You fumbled around with Taehyung’s tshirt. The fabric was made out of white cotton and the fact that it has been so worn it makes it very translucent. You were not used to wearing a bra to sleep, but you did not wanted to appear to brazen. But what’s the point of putting on a bra if it’s going to come off anyway? You made your decision and headed out of the bathroom.

Tae was fidgeting at the edge of his bed when your eyes met. Placing his hand on the bed for support, Tae struggled to place his eyes.

‘Is this... too much?’ You asked.

‘NO. No. Not at all.’ Tae responded as he shot out of bed.

‘You look beautifuller than I ever will in this tshirt.’ He muttered as he closed the gap between you.

That was the first night you had spent with your new boyfriend, Tae. Subsequently, it became a no brained for you to pick up the washed out high school tshirt whenever you stay over at his place. It always had an effect on Tae, it turns him into a very horny, very helpless puppy.

It was your faculty’s mid year formal and you’ve decided to attend as a couple. The only problem was that Tae was more of a ‘street fashion kinda guy’ as he described himself. His only white dress shirt has turned yellow and no way were you going to allow him to wear that garbage out.

You loved Tae, except when it came to shopping. Your boyfriend was the fussiest shopper ever. Too narrow, too pale, too baggy. In your eyes, it seemed like Tae was nitpicking every outfit he had tried on. By the 15th outfit, you lost it.

‘Kim Taehyung. Are you even taking this seriously?! Just tell me if you’d rather wear your yellow wash cloth. I’ve had enough!’ You half yelled as Tae came out of the dressing room in a pale lilac shirt, coupled with a deep purple suit.

‘Babe, I just want to look good for you.’ Tae pouted. Your boyfriend had that effect on you. For some reason, he looked like a five-year-old child who have just broken his favourite toy whenever he was down. How could you stay mad at him?

‘Sweetie, you look good in everything. In fact, I don’t even think I’d mind that much if you went in that washcloth of yours as long as you’re with me!’ You comforted the doe-eyed man.

‘Aw babe. I know you’d love me a little less if I had turned up in that washcloth. I actually really like this set, shall we?’ The boxy grin was back, as you marvel at your blessing for having Tae as your boyfriend.

In the end, you decided to pay for the lilac dress shirt to commemorate what you decided was your first formal event together. Your cheeky boyfriend on the other hand, announced to the world that it was a cover up to commemorate the first time you got mad at him.

In time to come, you’d realise Tae was setting you off more than you expected. You loved him, but you could not understand how could a grown man be so silly and happy-go-lucky all the time.

This leads you to the jumper. It was your first winter together and it was about 6 months into your relationship. You had just stormed off from your boyfriend’s place for a reason you can no longer recall.

Just as Tae thought you might be gone for good, he heard a little knock on the door, to the rhythm you have both came up with.

‘Babe?’ Tae muttered as he rushed to the door.

‘There’s a snow storm, I can’t leave. But I’m still mad at you!’ You push Tae aside as you invite yourself into the warm room.

Some how, Tae managed to appease you and you guys had the best make up sex that night. You had Tae’s jumper on as he licked your pussy just the way you liked it.

‘Do the Super Sonic babe’ you moaned as you grabbed a bunch of your boyfriend’s hair.

‘At your command mam.’ Tae muttered as he worked his way skilfully around your clit.

‘Super Sonic’ was a silly name Tae had invented for the technique that he knew would drive you crazy. As the name suggests, he had a mad way of moving his tongue at a high speed you could not imagine yourself. Perhaps it was the fact that he was highly skilled with the saxophone that trained his mouth muscle; but this boy can go on forever. The finale to ‘Super Sonic’ is a mind blowing orgasm that ends with you squirting all over.

‘I love you, so much , babe.’ Tae confessed for the first time as your wetness coated his face.

‘I love you too Tae.’ You said as you wiped the mixture of bodily fluid off your boyfriend‘s face.

You sigh as you picked up the last item in the box. The flannel shirt. It was the shirt that contained the most memories. It was Tae’s favourite shirt, so, it was naturally yours too.

Taehyung had worn the flannel on the day you first met and chatted over an hour. You had a tutorial to attend but you did not have the heart to interrupt the handsome stranger who was going on and on passionately about his love for melted vanilla ice cream.

The truth was, you were so busy chatting with Kim that you had forgotten to eat your ice cream. You never had a particular liking for melted ice cream but you went with it anyway, just because.

Tae wore the same flannel on your first date. The boy had planned to bring you to the carnival. Except, in typical taehyung fashion, he had forgotten to check for the weather forecast. You were actually glad that it rained, for you have acrophobia. You literally have to pop medically prescribed sleeping pills whenever you had to fly. But you went with it anyway, just because.

Tae turned up in the same flannel shirt the first time he met your family. You brought him around your childhood home for a tour when he came across a photo of you and a familiar stranger as children.

‘Babe you’ve never told me you have a brother?’ Tae asked.

‘Oh.. erm, he lives faraway and doesn’t come back often anymore.’ You answered as you hurriedly pushed Tae onwards. The truth is, your big brother had killed himself several years ago. It had taken away a part of your family, but you decided it was not time to tell your boyfriend the truth, just because.

Coincidentally, Tae was also wearing the same flannel shirt the day you guys decided to split for good. It was true that you could not stand how childish and flighty Tae could be. But Tae was the one who insisted on the break up.

‘It’s like I can never truly get to you. Do you even trust me?’ Was one of the last things you could remember Tae saying to you.

It was true, to an extent. It’s not that you could not trust Tae, but rather, you simply could not trust yourself. After the death of your dear brother, you have feared opening up to new people. You were terrified that they too, would leave.

You wish you had fought for Tae to stay. But you could not. The only thing you did was muster the courage to ask for that flannel shirt. The flannel that started it all and ended it all.

You decided to place all of taehyung’s clothes into the ‘throw’ pile, for it was just too painful to imagine somebody else wearing his clothes; unaware of the stories that came with it.

It has been over a year since Taehyung and you had broken up. You did not keep in contact since and decided perhaps it was time to casually check out his profile. Tae was looking very handsome and cheeky as usual. He was wearing a new flannel shirt with the Gucci shoulder bag that you have bought for him for your first and only one year anniversary. You smile to yourself and wondered if Tae still think of you whenever he used the bag, or perhaps, it is simply a bag to him now, a meaningless, overpriced bag. You will never know.

Just then, a notification came in and blocked your view of your ex boyfriend.

‘Heyyyy, just wanted to confirmed if we’re still on for drinks tonight?’ - Jin.

Yes, you have moved on. Memories of taehyung no longer leave you in tears and despair. You were regretful that you never found the courage to open up to taehyung but you figured, these things are not meant to be forced. Perhaps you had never found that courage because Tae was never the one to be. At one point, both Tae and you were probably convinced that you were meant to be. Unfortunately, time has proven otherwise. You are open to going on dates now. You are not sure if you will ever find the strength to break down all your walls, however, in the meantime, no harm trying you suppose.

Ps. It took forever to find Tae in a flannel, it’s almost like flannel is his fashion crux or something. Rip.

[sunshinejs]

[1] Introduction

part 1 to idiotsinlove (do let me know what you guys think of this concept!!)

————————————————————

Word count: 1.7k -ish

“Wait,” Connor cuts you off mid-sentence “You want to do a what now?”

“A YouTube channel!” You exclaimed “You know; where we do those couple challenges, vlog exciting things and stuff. Like Jess and Gabriel, remember?”

“Yeah, I know. I always see you watching their videos, honey” He chuckles in reply, slamming his laptop shut “But why do you want to do it?”

You shrugged your shoulders, “I don’t really know why but it just came to my mind and I just thought how cool it would be if we started doing those kinds of things, you know?”

“And we don’t have to post every week if we’re not up for it” You continued “It’s kind of just a fun thing to have now and look back on when we’re old and feeling nostalgic”

Connor furrowed his eyebrows “What makes you think people are going to want to watch us?” He asked.

You rolled your eyes, snickering a little “Babe, do you not realize that you have a fanbase now after that entire tour with Shawn? I’m not surprised that they love you as much as they love him so of course they’d click on any video that involves you”

“Yeah well….” Connor dragged out, reaching for your hand so your fingers were laced together “That doesn’t matter to me because the only person I love is you hooooney”

Shaking your head, you tried to hide your smile but failed “Cheeky” You noted “So, is that a go on the whole YouTube channel thing?”

You saw the smile plastered on his face and even though he hesitated for a moment, you knew he was on board with it.

xxx

“Okay, it’s set” Connor announced as he steps back from the tripod about an hour later since you proposed the idea “Baby, can you turn on the ring light so I can see if the brightness is okay?”

“Yeah, hang on!” You reached for the remote control, pressing the button to turn on the lights “How’s it looking from the camera, bubs?”

Connor takes a look at the little screen on his camera, then nodded “Brightness level looks good from the here so we’re good to go!” He commented.

He walks forward to the set and joins you at the front of the camera, taking his seat at the empty stool next to yours.

“You good?” Connor asks with concern, tilting his head to your direction.

“Yeah I’m all good, bubs” You smiled “Our first video together! This is so exciting!”

“You know I’m barely standing in front of the camera, right?” So, you’re lucky I love you” He said teasingly.

“And I love you moooore!” You chirped, holding the remote control up “Are we good? Can we start?”

Connor nods so you pressed the record button on the remote. When you see the little red light blinking on the camera, it meant the recording has already started.

“Hello and welcome to our channel!” You greeted, although your pitch came out higher than usual and that alone had Connor bursting into laughter.

“What the heck was that, babe?” Connor asks in between laughs “Why’s your voice all high and squeaky?”

“Connor!”

“You sound like a mouse, honey” 

You pouted, swatting his shoulder playfully “Stop laughing at me, bubs!” You whined “I’ve never done this before! ‘M just nervous! We’re definitely cutting this out later”

“Oh, no way” He shakes his head, his laughter starts to die down “I’m leaving everything in as bloopers!”

“Okay, okay, this is take 2!”

You clear your throat before opening your mouth to do the greeting once again.

“Hello everyone and welcome to our channel!” You said excitingly with a smile on your face “We’re the idiotsinlove!”

“I thought of the name, by the way!” Connor said proudly as he briefly waved to the camera “It took me forever to come up with it and I take full credit for it”

You turn your head towards him and mockingly said “Yes bubs, the name is very original. Thank you for coming up with it, I don’t know what I’d do without you”

Connor knew you were joking but he smugly said “Your life would be super dull, that’s for sure and you’re welcome, babe”

You rolled your eyes and snickered a little.

“Anyways, I’m y/n y/ln” You said then leaning closer to Connor, wrapping your arms around his neck; pressing your cheek against his “And this guy right here is my lovely boyfriend; Connor Brashier!”

Connor smiles cheekily to the camera and wraps an arm around your waist “Hello there! I should tell you that this is kind of weird for me” He said “I’m so used to standing behind the camera and filming other people instead”

You pulled your arms back but Connor refused to let go of the grip he has around your waist, wanting to keep you close to him, as you spoke “This is our first ever video and we basically wanted to do like a mini introduction about ourselves before posting anything else”

“We’re going to tell you some facts about ourselves and if you’re interested in getting to know us a little better, then please continue watching this video!” Connor said “We’ll love you even more if you stay throughout the entire thing… Ladies first, baby”

“Okay so, I turned 21 in August and I was born and raised in LA. I’m currently in my second year of uni; majoring in Management and Accounting at UCLA… Which is pretty stressful if I’m being completely honest” You told the camera in a disgusted voice “Uni is hell and I completely don’t know why I signed up for it”

“Despite all her complains, my girl is a smart cookie” Connor said proudly “Literally the smartest person I know. She’s thriving in her degree, no kidding”

“Connorrrr” You whined, feeling your cheeks starting to turn rosy-pink “’M not smart, babe”

“Pfft, sure you’re not”

“Anyways, there’s not much interesting things about myself. I bake and cook a little, play the guitar and just bury myself with a lot of books” You continued “Which is basically like any other women, I guess”

“That’s another lie” Connor chirped “She bakes the best cookies I’ve ever tasted and I’m not just saying that because she’s my girlfriend. That’s straight up facts. She baked 2 full containers of them for me when I left for tour then Shawn and Brian stole one of them from me. I was pissed at them for an entire week”

You burst into a laughter, feeling your whole body vibrate as you leaned on Connor’s shoulder for support.

You remembered this day so clearly. He called you on Facetime while you were in the middle of a movie; complaining that the boys took his cookies without asking him. And part of you wanted to feel bad for him but seeing that pout on his face and the tone he was speaking in made you giggle for 5 minutes straight.

“Babe, it’s not funny!” He whined, poking your side playfully “I was really upset! I had to survive with only one container for like 2 months”

Your laughter finally dies down as you wiped a tear from your eye and straighten your body position “Okay and I made it up to you didn’t I, bubs? I welcomed you home with a new batch of it so you gotta stop holding it against them, Con”

“I guess” He grumbled “Can we bake some after this?” He added hopefully.

“Yeah we can make some after this”

“Pinky promise?” Connor held his pinky out to you.

You tried to hide the smile on your face but failed miserably, nodding as you interlocked your pinkies together “Pinky promise, Con”

Your pinkies remained laced together on Connor’s lap, something you two did very often. It was just an intimate affection that grew on you ever since the beginning “Wanna tell the world about yourself now, bubs?”

“Right, well, I turned 20 in July and I was also born and raised in LA. I’ve been surfing since I was a little kid so it’s something I really love to do whenever I’ve got the time and then I got into photography later on when I was about 15-16. I was in UCLA for a bit, majoring in psychology and economics. It only lasted for a few months because then I got an email from Andrew Gertler, which was freakishly cool”

“Apparently Andrew and Shawn had seen some of my work and Shawn wanted to hire me as his videographer” Connor continued “Which was obviously an amazing opportunity to take on”

As Connor was explaining everything, you could hear the excitement lingering in his voice. He was always this way whenever he talks about it because being able to be a videographer for Shawn has been one of the best accomplishments for him so far.

And you loved how excited he gets whenever anyone asks him about it. You’d always be by his side, smiling as you listen to him; you were just so proud of him.

“And I’m so proud of you, bubs” You cooed then looked at the camera “Seriously you guys, check out his work because this man right here does magic with his work. He used to send me little previous of the documentary he filmed and I was always so blown away by them. You’re amazing, babe”

Connor blushed, leaning forward to press a kiss to your cheek “Thanks, baby and thank you for always being my number 1 supporter”

“I’m always your number 1 supporter!” You exclaim “Sorry, you can’t get rid of me any time soon” You added, poking your tongue out at him.

He smiled “Fine by me. I wasn’t planning on doing that”

“I guess this is it for today’s video!” You then said “If you’ve made it this far in this video, thank you for letting us entertain you for the past few minutes”

“And if there’s anything you would like to see us do, leave a comment down below!” Connor added.

“Aw, look at you already being a pro at this whole YouTuber thing, bubs” You said teasingly.

“You know it” He said smugly.

“Thank you and we’ll see you next time on idiotsinlove!”

————————————————————

Reblog, like or leave a comment; always appreciated!  ❤️

x rina

TAG LIST:

@hurts-like-hell-xx @connordavidscamera @r3ader @tinycertain @green-lxght @queenmxndes @turtoix

[nimbus-cloud]

Taka-Talk 2019 Review

I was lucky enough to get tickets for two out of his three sessions in Tokyo (sessions 1 and 3), and died of cute.  Full synopsis under the Read More for those who are interested!

Session 1 Even though we had tickets for the first session in Tokyo, I already felt like I was behind?  Takato did his Taka-Talk in five cities total this year, placing them conveniently as Engeki Haikyuu hopped between cities.  And since I couldn’t go to Osaka or Nagoya or Sendai or Hakata, I walked in going, what did I even misssssss???  There was a postcard with a crossword where you could fill in the keywords by attending EVERY session where the keywords were given, and then you could mail it in later for special bromide prizes.  I had no shot at winning that obviously lol.  

Anyway, session one started with him walking down the aisle toward the stage, walking past us as we did.  We had aisle seats for the first session, and he did pause for a little while to mess with my friend’s pull-out desk (the venue was a lecture hall so each chair had a pull-out desk) before going to the stage.  One girl walked in a little bit late, rushing to her seat as he got up onto the stage.  When he asked if anyone had attended other sessions in other cities, people raised their hand.  When he asked who lived the closest to this venue, several people raised their hands.  The first girl said it took her 20min by train, another said 15, and then the girl that was late said that she lived one station away.  And Takato, being the little shit that he is, just CALLED HER OUT, and was like, 

“So you live the closest and got here the latest?” 

But she explained that she got here, then realized she’d forgotten her ticket, and rushed back home to get it and came back.   That exchange probably feels a bit innocuous, but it’s kind of rare for actors at fan events to be THAT casual?  Takato often forgets to use polite forms in his Japanese, defaulting to casual forms not just with his guests but even with us, and sometimes he’ll correct himself, sometimes he doesn’t.  

He also asked who came from furthest away, and I did raise my hand but there wasn’t time to call on everyone, but there was a girl in the back who answered that she’d come from Taiwan!  And oddly, Takato heard it correctly, that she said Taiwan, but a group of fans in the front tried to correct him, because they heard her say “Hawaii.”  So he was like, “Eh? Eh?? Wait, no, say it again.”  And she answered louder, ‘Taiwan’ and he just draaaagged that section lololol.  He was like, “See!!  I was right!  You were trying to correct me, but I was right, aren’t YOU embarrassed?!!” 

Then he called out the first guest of the day, who was Ishigami Ryuuya, who is the new actor for Fukunaga from The Tokyo Battle.  My god he was so cute and shy.  He was sort of obviously very nervous, especially at first, but the more Takato talked to him and the more they got into telling stories about the tour, the more he loosened up.  

Apparently, Ryuuya calls Takato ‘oyabun’ which roughly translates to like... boss... but in like a criminal setting.  So more like ‘don.’  When Takato asked Ryuuya, “Why do you call me that again?”  And he just stammered, “W-well, y-you told me to.”  

Takato did NOT remember this lololol, but it was apparently as they were starting Engeki rehearsals.  Ryuuya, being new and inexperienced, was trying to figure out what to call him.  Nagata-san?  Takato-san?  And Takato was like nahhh just call me Takato-kun.  But Ryuuya felt really uncomfortable with that, but then he realized how even Takato-san might be too formal now.  So Takato joked that he should just call him ‘boss’ and Ryuuya latched onto it and that’s what stuck.  

The Takato film that he prepared for our session was a personal challenge to himself.  He would wait in Shibuya in Hachiko square, hoping that someone walking by would recognize him as an actor and start talking to him.  But twenty minutes apparently went by with nobody approaching him so then he decided to start approaching random groups of people to ask if they might know him.  Since his recent TV Drama is the one with the most reach, he’d start out by asking people if there were any dramas they’d been watching recently, had they watched HajiKoi maybe... then he clarified which character he played.  Unfortunately 3 out of 5 groups did not know him at all so he failed his personal challenge and had to eat bugs again.  There was one group where they did, in fact, watch the drama, but they didn’t remember who he was even so.  And another group where they said they watched the drama, and when he pointed out who he played, they were like, “Oh no way, really?!?”  

As is traditional of Taka-Talk films, there’s always a credits page where it’s just like: 

Starring: Nagata Takato Director: Nagata Takato Producer: Nagata Takato Script: Nagata Takato Editing: Nagata Takato Cinematography: Nagata Takato

More stories from Ryuuya and Takato, although a good chunk was about how much Yugioh they played in their downtime and how much time the two of them spent together.  In trying to remember all the times they played, Ryuuya said that Takato won maybe 80 times and lost 10.  He’s very good at YGO apparently.  Before Ryuuya left the stage, he did an acrobatic sequence for us and we cheered so loud, Takato got jealous and went, “That’s the loudest you guys have been!!” 

Then there’s the Takastagram portion where he walks through the crowd and we’re allowed to take photos of him (hence the photos above).  

Then he sang three songs for us (which is the reason for the penlights).  He sang a guitar ballad cover of a song he’s been liking recently, he sang “Try” again from last year’s Taka-Talk, the one that he and Kazuma wrote together, and then a more upbeat pop song that SURPRISE had 4 back-up dancers!  They were all 4 other guys from his agency, Cube, including Kanda Masakazu (who played Kunimi in The Strongest Team).  

At one point he asked them to list one thing they liked about him, and they all picked fairly shallow reasons like hair color, the color of his clothes today... Kanda was a little less shallow since he said he liked Takato’s accent/dialect.  The last of them said that he liked Takato’s black shoelaces lololol.  

To close it out, we got to give him high fives as we left, with staff pushing us along so that we didn’t linger lol.  I just told him, ‘thank you’ in English and he opened his eyes wide and said, “Thank you!” back.  It’s a bit fun for me that he’s shorter than I am.  

Session 3 So the evening session was like, almost 2 hours long, essentially double the length of the first session, but it is the last Taka-Talk of his five-city tour, so I guess the goal was to make it extra special.  This session was supposed to have a ‘secret guest’ and truthfully he had about three, although he did announce Yuushin beforehand.

The fun part was that the secret guest was originally supposed to be someone else, but his managed messed something up and they became unavailable or couldn’t make it, so the secret guest ended up a secret to even Takato!  He was like, “We had to get someone else, and even I don’t know who it is, so... I’m gonna hide over here, and you guys let me know when I can look!”   His first secret guest was a co-star from the drama HajiKoi, which I haven’t seen, so I did not shriek with the rest of the crowd when he walked in the door lololol.  It was Wakabayashi Takuya, who plays Kisa in the drama.  

Takato was just crouching on the left corner of the stage, hiding his face behind the curtains, and once Takuya ended up more or less center stage, we called out to Takato that it was fine, he could look, and he was super surprised to see him there.  Of course, because his own guest was a surprise, his emcee cards were also covered in sticky notes so that he couldn’t see what his own agenda for the session was going to be, and he kept peeling those off as the session went on to figure out what he was supposed to do lololol.  He kept whining at the staff the entire time, but he was also just having the time of his life, and he was just like, “I love surprises!  This is so fun!”  

The guest event involved playing back scenes from HajiKoi, and then beeping out certain lines and then Takato and Takuya had to guess (with their little boards and markers) what the bleeped line was.  To make it extra difficult, literally none of the bleeped lines were anything that either of their characters said.  It was always someone else’s line, so they kept getting stuck and would just start writing down nonsense answers instead.  So honestly, nobody won, but Takato was just like, “I won, right?  It was me?”  And Takuya, being a gracious guest, just conceded lol.  Takuya also kept apologizing that he wasn’t Ryusei, who’s the actor who plays the pink-haired lead in HajiKoi, since he was sure more of the girls would’ve preferred to see him, but honestly the crowd seemed pretty happy either way.  They also decided to give away the little boards they wrote their answers on, so they’d call out random seat numbers or go for whoever rose their hand first.  Just like last year, a girl sitting right behind me won one of the prizes, and she was pretty thrilled.  

And then the second secret guest was another actor from Cube, Isaka Ikumi, nicknamed Ikumin.  I actually know Ikumin from another show (Yuugeki) so I could follow the conversation a little bit better this time.  Takato was hiding again, but Ikumin decided he would go up on the stage and then just go straight to Takato and hug him from behind, so we didn’t have to give any cues before Takato looked to see who it was lol.  

Ikumin confessed that he’d always always always wanted to be a guest at Taka-Talk, so when the staff approached him about it, he was super excited and said yes immediately, but then they told him that he’d be the second secret guest of the last session and then he got super nervous about it.  But Ikumin was basically the type of guest Takato loves to have, aka, the type that extols his immense love for Takato and sings his praises to his face.  

The game that they played was truths and lies.  So they picked cards that gave them themes, and then between them, one of them would would tell us something true, and the other one would lie.  We had to decide who the liar was, and they got us good because we got it wrong both times and nobody had to play the penalty game of eating bugs lol.  

One of Ikumin’s lies though, he said that he went to go see the press preview of Engeki Haikyuu, and sat in the 8th row and got super excited when Takato looked at him at the end of the play during the last dance sequence.  That was a lie; the truth was that he sat in the 3rd row, and wanted Takato to looks his way the entire time but Takato never did.  lololololol We thought Takato was lying when he said that he’d never once lost to Shouri in playing Yugioh, but it turns out that was the truth!  And Takato is very very proud of this fact.  

Ikumin was like, “Really?”  And Takato was like, “Well Shouri’s so good at everything, ya know?  Like his athletics, his height, but you know, he could never beat me at Yugioh.  We’d start playing, and he’d put a card face down, and then I’d play a card face down, and then he’d put down a monster--” and he started rambling, and Ikumin just interrupted, “Just send that story to Takahashi Kazuki!”  Takahashi Kazuki is the YGO manga-ka.  

Then there was another video to show us the secret word for that session and it showed Takato visiting Tokyo Tower, because that’s where there is a special One Piece space, which has the One Piece Live Attraction show.  Takato made his acting debut with that show playing Luffy, so it was framed as a sort of, going-back-to-his-roots, walk-down-memory-lane type of video.  He was getting teary-eyed at certain points in the video, so it was really sweet, and the end of it had him thanking all of us for supporting him and being his fans.  

Then he came out to wrap up with the music session, and he tried to lighten the mood again by saying things like, “The staff told me to look super nostalgic while going through the One Piece areas, but I don’t actually remember half of what I touched.”  

He sang a different ballad from the first session with Yuushin, this one being an original they wrote together.  It was a song about love, but they both had the intention of writing it from a woman’s point-of-view, so that was interesting.  They’re always a wonderful duet to listen to~  After that, Takato asked Yuushin if he had any upcoming events/shows he wanted to promote or announcements to make, and Yuushin had this long pause before he was like, “Well it’ll be announced tomorrow.”  

And I was just thinking in my head, YES HELLO NEW ENNOSHITA.  I’VE SEEN THE LEAKS.  I KNOW IT’S YOU.  

A final round of high-fives, and then I went back to the goods table for ONE MORE set of bromides to try my luck, and it turned out that Takato was handing out those purchases, so he handed me my final set of purchased bromides and ughhhhhhh he really does have the most adorable smile~!!!  

Couldn’t quite get every bromide (and it was impossible because he had city-specific bromides too); they were random.  But I also have that penlight and his little tote bag.  

He did also announce that he’s doing his first birthday event this year, on Aug. 25th, and he hinted that we could bring these penlights again for that, and then there’s the C.I.A. Mission in Summer event (with nearly all the actors from Cube), and since he’s going to be in that event too, he hinted that we should bring his penlights to that too.  I’m honestly not strictly sure that it would be allowed for the CIA event, given that it’s going to have several different people, but who knows lololol.  I can only imagine how annoyed the other actors might get at him seeing Takato’s bright red penlights in the crowd.  XDDDDD

So another wonderful Taka-Talk, and four total times high-fiving Takato adding in my experiences from last year~  ^_^ 

[hmel78]

In conversation with Doogie White ...

Circa 1994, when it was announced that guitarist Ritchie Blackmore was reforming Rainbow, rumours flooded the music community regarding who might feature in the line-up, but ultimately it was a collective of relative unknowns who made it onto the new record, and the tour bus ...

The album, “Stranger In Us All”, was issued under the name “Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow” in August 1995, and features Paul Morris on keyboards, Greg Smith on bass, John O’Reilly on drums, Blackmore’s Night’s Candice Night on background vocals, and fronted by Doogie White, the singer was an inspired choice; a huge fan of Ritchie’s career in both Purple and Rainbow, the singer formed a strong writing partnership with the guitarist. The album includes a reworking of The Yardbirds’ ‘Still I’m Sad’, which had been recorded for Rainbow’s debut, 20 years earlier ; Ritchie’s classical flights of fancy are truly achieved on his arrangement of Edvard Grieg’s ‘Hall Of The Mountain King’, and tracks such as ‘Wolf To the Moon’, ‘Hunting Humans (Insatiable)’ and ‘Ariel’ proved themselves to be worthy additions to the Rainbow catalogue. When it came to playing live, songs from both Rainbow and Purple were revisited, and fans are lucky enough - on the re-issue of “Stranger In Us All” -  to be presented with a unique live recording from a 1995 Swedish concert, of ‘The Temple Of The King’ - it also features a radio edit of the single ‘Ariel’, plus the song ‘Emotional Crime’ that has previously only been released in Japan.

Accompanying the extensive liner notes is a personal account from singer Doogie White, plus plenty of artwork and memorabilia from Doogie’s own Rainbow collection.

Doogie White has had a pretty extensive career as a singer / songwriter since his days with Rainbow - We caught up with him whilst on a train to Mannheim to find out more ...

HR : Having been a fan of Rainbow prior to joining them in 1994, how did it feel to suddenly have such a prominent role in the band?

Doogie White : It was a huge moment for me in every way.   There I was, a cheeky upstart who had long admired all that Ritchie did, being personally asked by him to come to America and join his band. He knew nothing about me and I thought I knew all about him. We hit it off straight away from the first notes we played together. We played old Purple and Rainbow songs and some bar band standards and jammed a few ideas just for him to see what I could do on the improvisation front.

I was only supposed to be there 4 days but he asked me to stay for a week. We discussed what kind of album we wanted to make. We played football. He did some magic tricks and we jammed for hours.

We had a good and healthy working relationship and a fine friendship. I knew my place and was happy to be part of his new adventure. He shared his hopes and fears. He trusted me.

I think we made a fine album with some good songs and a couple of real Rainbow classics. There were a couple we compromised on and we did have better ideas but we never finished them so that they could not be released as “bonus” tracks at a later date. I know how much he hated the re released Purple stuff with alternate takes.

I have hours of material but it’s in the Loft ...

HR : Despite the sudden nature of the break-up in 1997, was the overall experience of those 3 years a positive one?

DW : Yes!  Even at the very end when I decided it was here and no further,  it was all good and positive. It was sad of course as I felt there was more work to do and I had given him a tape with 6 song ideas for the next album. Some ended up on Cornerstone’s HUMAN STAIN and another on a TANK album. I treated my time in Rainbow like Ali treated the Heavyweight Crown.   It was the wrong time for the kind of music we were doing but we did it anyway.

Despite what Ritchie says, or in most cases does not say, we got on well until we did not.  His choice not mine. HR : To me it has always seemed strange that it literally ended over night - like a political coup d’etat! - Especially as You seemed to fit Ritchies criteria perfectly ; with what you contributed as both performer and writer. There are many citations which suggest that through Your input, there was a wider range of material that could be performed live, and also Ritchie stated [at the time] that Stranger In Us All was the best thing he had recorded to date - does  that reflect how You felt whilst working with him and Rainbow?  

DW : I don’t think Stranger In Us All is the best thing he did. I don’t even think it’s the best thing I have done. That’s just him promoting the album. It has its place and that is for others to judge. It was a good album though!

I just followed his lead. If he wanted to go off and jam some blues of folk or silly songs I was there as were the rest of the band (Greg Smith, John O’Reilly or Chuck Burgi, Paul Morris, and others) to back him up. He knew that we knew what was required, and also knew what I could bring to the party - he exploited that to the max some nights! He has said he does not like fun and that music is a serious business, but for anyone who saw that ‘95 tour you know that there was some serious music and some serious fun on stage! We were enjoying each other and pushing each other. He’s quite talented like that.

Then others got his ear and were feeding him negative stuff, whispering’s, designed to disrupt him, for his ears only and that was unhelpful - but it suited their agenda and just made him more suspicious, which he had never been with me before.

No one in the band was doing anything other than enjoying being in the band and RAWKin on stage every night. There were no egos just a happy band doing the best they could every night,  and those who saw it knew it was good. I did say if he had a problem with me, for him to come to me and we could sort it out - But that is not his nature and he never did. So when it came down to it he was prepared to believe what he wanted and what he was being told and have things done in his name that were quite frankly beneath the man. When his management were being obstructive I wrote directly to him and he honoured all his commitments to me and made sure that his management paid what was due at the time. That’s how it should be.

HR : And that’s where it stopped  - until now ... “Stranger In Us All” has just been re-released and given a new lease of life?

DW : Yes they have pumped out the frequencies and it really sounds lot better than the flat linear sound of the original.

We should have added some of the extra tracks I have of the demos. But there are far too many hoops to jump through and it would mean new agreements between him and I. That’s not a path he wants to walk. HR : No, understood - but going back to when the original album was released - Obviously you were unaware of the fact that it would be the only recording that Rainbow would make at the time (possibly the last ever one?)  - does it change the way that you feel about it? Do you ever listen to it?

DW : I don’t listen to it at all. I don’t listen to anything I have done other than a couple of times when I get it. Occasionally something will pop up randomly on my iTunes and and a wee nostalgic smile passes my lips. But actually with SIUA - I remember every ounce of effort ; every change of lyric, key, tempo - So it has a different flavour for me than for others. I am proud of it, yet I know that we could have done better. But I was new to the big spotlight and while I stood my ground for a bit every now and again, it was Ritchie’s band and he got to do what he wanted.  Pat [Regan] was producing it and had his instructions on how to guide me.   I was just happy to be waking up every day knowing that today was going to be a new adventure.

I had so much fun all the time. Even when the dark clouds were hovering as they kinda did for the last while. His management did go out of their way to make band, and on the road, life a little less inclusive or welcoming ... But It was that 90 mins on stage that made anything worthwhile.

From what people have told me it’s a shame he now has such a distorted view of our time together. But it’s not my business and I don’t care what he thinks about it or how he feels about me.  I have seen some of the comments attributed to him that people send me. He really does re write his own history and I always have a good giggle at some of the nonsense he comes out with.   He loved it at the time, but to be fair it was a long long time ago and perhaps NOT the most important endeavour he has done musically. I look back at it slightly differently because it was VERY important to me. It was the best of times and will never be repeated for him, or for me.

HR : Well thankfully it didn’t deter you from carrying on! You have been involved with many great artists and projects during your career - have you any particular favourite memories?

DW : My memory palace is overflowing with errr memories from my times with LA PAZ  and CORNERSTONE, YNGWIE and SCHENKER, through TANK and beyond. I have a wonderful life and I am having a wonderful career - And if I am honest, really honest, my career would have been very different had it not been for that one tape I passed to Colin Hart who passed it to Ritchie Blackmore,  who made that fateful call one Saturday night in April 1994. I am forever in his debt and do you know what? He will get no joy at all from me saying that, and that is kind of pleasing!

HR : [laughs] Now I don’t mean to offend you by comparing you to a musical nomad, but you do seem to have moved around quite a bit -  If you could have settled for any greater length of time, or even permanently with one of those bands, who would it have been?

DW : I always have plenty to do recording and writing and performing. There is no dirt on the back of my shoes.

I was with Ritchie for 3 years, Yngwie for 6, Schenker now for 5. I would have been happy to do another album with Ritchie but he had a time machine and went away to his beloved middle ages with all the comforts of the 21Century.

With Yngwie we had run our course but remain friends, if not in touch much.

With Michael I hope to continue our successful partnership. We needed time away to do other things after the 4 years of intense touring/recording - Just to get some fresh experiences and know what side the bread is buttered.

HR : That’s always a bonus! What about future plans? Any more solo work or new collaborations in the pipeline?

DW : I am doing an album with a Bulgarian metal band called John Steel. (Blaze did their first) I will be finishing it when I am back from my short run of solos shows with my band WHITE NOISE (Italian Chapter).

I am always working. Sometimes under the radar sometime soaring like an eagle. Its all good and its all fun.

HR : You always look content to be on stage, and just take it all in your rock stride! Ha! What’s the strangest gig you’ve ever played?

DW : With La Paz in the 80’s at a place called ‘Roots of Cleghorn’ run by a lad called “Chicken George”. It was farming country and George was the only black guy for 100 miles. We played to a farmer in a bunnet and his sheep dog,  and George was the door man collecting the money! HR : Haha! No way!? Well from ‘Roots Of Cleghorn’ to Stockholm Circus -  If you could take a ‘dream’ band on the road, who would be your line-up, and what songs would make it to the setlist?

DW : I would just want to be backing singer for David Bowie, and cover  anything from “Love you til Tuesday” to “Blackstar”.

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #240

end of the year one!

What did you do in 2019 that you’d never done before? Uhhhh. Wow. I honestly don't really know; not a lot. Uhhhh... oh, I was sexually involved with a girl, I worked at a deli for A WHOLE TWO HOURS!!!!, I'm still a shameful shit that being on that damn pill actually drove me to masturbating for the first time (yes, I know it's not "bad," but), OH! I very recently found myself to relate to Neo-Paganism so kinda identify as that now, I finished a full semester of college, and uhhh. It's funny, '18 and '19 kinda blur together for me, so I can't say with certainty when some certain things took place, so it doesn't even feel right putting them here? Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I didn't make one; I pretty much never do. This year, however, I just might. Like I've always thought "dude it's just another day there is literally no actual difference," but I want to focus on the actual symbolism. No, there is no physical difference, but it's the idea I want to appreciate. I want to make something about self-improvement this year, probably mostly about AvPD and its "I'm embarrassed by myself omg people think I'm weird" factor irl, because that FUUUUCKS WIIIITH MEEEEE. I want to be comfortable as me, y'know? Oh, and I should definitely work on independence. Did anyone close to you give birth? No, but my sister is pregnant. Did anyone close to you die? My dog Teddy. What countries did you visit? I didn't leave and have never left America, yaaaaay. Fun. Adventure. What would you like to have in 2020 that you lacked in 2019? An income. Let photography go somewhere or some shit, please. What date from 2019 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? November 28th, when Teddy was put down. That's something I can never forget. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Said lasting a college semester!!!! I failed my math course as I expected to, but I mean, I lasted. What was your biggest failure? To ME anyway (people have assured me otherwise from their perspectives), it would be the first "professional" wedding I shot. I put so much into that day and the DAYS of post processing, and they never bought any of the pictures. Said they were going to discuss which ones they wanted and get back to me and then poof, vanished. I was very suspicious by another person, I think family, being there taking pictures pretty much just as much as I did, even posing people, and by now I'm pretty sure they used me (or her, idk) as backup. My only guess is my pictures weren't what they wanted so they chose the route of not paying, which, TECHNICALLY, isn't against my terms of service; you just have to pay the sitting fee, you see previews w/ watermarks, and THEN you pay for each photo you actually WANT. That's a loophole I probably need to fix, because I can honestly say $20 did NOT cover my time, hyperhidrosis e x p l o s i o n, anxiety, and my previously-mentioned DAYS-long editing period. Not to mention I was and still genuinely am proud of how the pictures turned out. OKAY WOW I'm seriously ranting but yeah I'm obviously still tilted. Did you suffer illness or injury? Did I? I don't think so. At least nothing serious. I did have a fall, but the resulting bruises and twists were negligible. What was the best thing you bought? A fuckin honeybun from the school snack machine lmao. I don't have my own income, so I just get little cash from Mom if needed for when I go out or anything. Where did most of your money go? See above. So, food lol. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Sara coming on my birthday, Ozzy re-announcing his tour for next year (WITH MANSON Y'ALL!!!!!!!!!!) and Mom and I being like "um fuck yes we're going," and that's all I can think about right now. It's not common I get like, THAT excited. What song will always remind you of 2019? *shrug* None off the top of my head stand out. Compared to this time last year, are you: Happier or sadder? Older or wiser? Thinner or fatter? (I've been at a weight loss stalemate for two fucking years now, so neither.) Richer or poorer? (No personal income, and I don't know the exact financial position Mom's in compared to last year.) What do you wish you’d done more of? See Sara and Dad much more, reach out to more friends, exercise, cleaning alksdjfawei, studying. What do you wish you’d done less of? Sitting on this computer gahhhhhhhhhhhhhh- I honestly would prefer to just not dwell on this "I wish I had..." subject. How did you spend Christmas? Breakfast and gift opening with Mom and my younger sis, then we went to my older sister's house that afternoon to celebrate with her and the kids. What was your favorite TV program? I didn't watch TV. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? No. What was the best book you read? The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. What was your greatest musical discovery? Hm... I don't believe I discovered any new bands, but I got waaay more into Motionless In White. What did you want and get? Making it through my first semester in college, Teddy reaching his 13th birthday, seeing my grandmother for probably the last time, seeing Sara for my birthday, uhhh other things that aren't coming to mind. What did you want and not get? Lose more fucking weight for a change, more photography growth, new glasses, the courage to drive more and get my license, SEE SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK AS WELL AS THE LAST HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, other little things I don't wanna dwell on. What was your favorite film of this year? I do NOT get the hate of the live action The Lion King. I fucking adored it. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I don't remember other than hang out with Sara and the fam and probably eat at Olive Garden for dinner. I turned 23. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Photography reaching the level of being able to call it my *real* job. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2019? Pajamas. Just... pajamas whenever possible lmao. What kept you sane? My mom and Sara, MUSIC, gaming, Mark and the other YTers I love way too much, school getting me out of the damn house. Oh, and medication lmfao. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? The day I don't answer this with "Mark Fischbach," I IMPLORE you to commit me. What issue stirred you the most? I'm guessing you mean political? If so, the Amazon wildfires and how the fucking SA government handled it. NOTHING in the political world has ever had me that livid, heartbroken, and ashamed of the greed of the human race. Who did you miss? A good number of people, plus Teddy of course. Who was the best new person you met? Good question. Probably a teacher or adviser at school. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2019: I think more than anything, there's been a lot of focus on the fact that you can't always run at the first sign of trouble/stress. That's one of my biggest weaknesses: I flee the moment I'm under stress, but now with school, I've had to learn to fight this. It's an ongoing process, but I'm getting there. Some battles need to be fought to reach a better place.

[ask-serious-sans]

PTA Reader (Platonic!Reader and PTA Sans) Part 22

Summary: In which Linda has another one of her 'excellent' ideas.

"-And that's why I think we should have a Haunted House event at the school." "Linda, it's the middle of February." Linda ignored Sans' comment. "It's a bit short notice, I know, but I think we could decorate a few classrooms in the span of a few hours if we all work together." "What do you mean, 'short notice'?" you ask, already dreading the reply. After all, Sans was right- it was nowhere near Halloween. "I may have already printed out flyers and posted them around town." Linda replied off-handedly, as if this was completely normal. Then again, it kind of was for her. "When is this Haunted House supposed to open?" you ask, holding your forehead in your hands. "Friday," Linda replied cheerfully. "This Friday?" you inquire, tone full of disbelief. Linda nodded, smiling as if she hadn't just announced, with less than a week of notice, that the PTA was going to be hosting a Haunted House event. "Let me get this straight," one of the teachers spoke up, "you're giving us three days to put together a Haunted House. Do you even have any decorations prepared, or do we need to make those too? And how are we going to get people to act in the Haunted House? No one's going to agree to that on such short notice!" "Fortunately, that won't be a problem. I'm sure the monsters will help out." Linda replied, completely ignoring the other questions. Sans frowned. "What exactly are you expecting us monsters to help out with?" "You know, being the creepy monsters that 'haunt' the classrooms." Linda explained. "Anyway-" "They are not creepy!" you all-but-shouted, furious at the insult directed at your friends. "Whatever." Linda didn't appear particularly concerned by your outburst, just a bit annoyed at being interrupted. "As I was saying-" "What makes you think we'll agree to help you when you insult us like that?" Sans pointed out. "You and that tall, loud skeleton can be in the science classroom. Like deceased mad scientists that returned to finish their incomplete experiments or something," Linda continued, ignoring Sans completely. She also didn't seem to note Sans' expression growing especially irritated by her suggestion. You didn't know why, but it seemed her idea had struck a nerve. "We are not doing that." Sans said coldly. "Yes you are, for the good of the Haunted House-" "We are not doing that." The temperature in the room seemed to have dropped ten degrees in an instant, and Sans' generally bright eye lights were completely gone. "Or you can just be those plastic skeletons that teachers use to teach children the names of all the bones," Linda suggested hastily, looking slightly terrified. An instant later, Sans was back to normal, acting like nothing had happened. "Heh, sure. That could be humerus." This reaction appeared not to lessen Linda's fear in the slightest. "Tibia honest, I agree," you added, trying to ease the tension in the room. By now, most of the other occupants of the room had more or less relaxed, but Linda was quite obviously avoiding looking in Sans' direction. The fact she didn't even scowl at you when you made a pun spoke volumes. This was already off to a concerning start. You could only imagine how much worse preparations for this Haunted House were going to get. At least Linda had the sense not to suggest any other monsters for roles in the event for the remainder of the meeting. Instead, she spent the time organizing everyone into groups to prepare decorations and decorate classrooms. A riot almost started when Linda insisted everyone meet up the next day, since most of the members already had plans. She eventually managed to guilt almost everyone into coming, by claiming the Haunted House would reflect on the PTA as a whole so it had to be perfect. You bit back a comment on how she shouldn't have given everyone less than a week of notice if she wanted perfection, but just barely. It wasn't like it would do any good at this point, anyway. If she'd already put up the fliers, they couldn't push back the Haunted House's opening.

The monsters had been surprisingly receptive to the idea of helping out with the Haunted House- though you had a feeling Linda calling them creepy hadn't made it's way into the conversation- and many had even agreed to help the PTA set everything up. You weren't sure how Linda was going to explain to the rest of the school's staff why there were fake cobwebs strewn throughout the school in February, but that wasn't your problem. So, you, a few parents and teachers, and some of the monsters were now decorating the auditorium under Mettaton's directions. Mettaton had claimed this room as his and Napstablook's domain, not that anyone had actually tried to challenge it. Apparently, Mettaton had talked Napstablook into putting on a literal rendition of 'the Phantom of the Opera' which you doubted would be scary, but would certainly be entertaining. Muffet had offered to 'haunt' the Cafeteria and hand out spider pastries. Linda had looked like she wanted to argue, but when she realized how helpful and efficient Muffet's spider friends were at hanging decorations, she decided it was a fair price to pay for having the Haunted House ready on time. Even so, everyone was still working on Friday afternoon to put the finishing touches on the 'haunted' rooms. It wasn't until a half hour before the first opening of the Haunted House to the public that Linda finally announced everything was finished. This was a relief to the entire set-up crew, all of whom had spent many hours in the past few days being yelled at by Linda as she tried to direct them in putting the decorations up. Even you, while used to being yelled at during PTA meetings, thought she was going overboard with the shouting. Someone had jokingly suggested Linda play a role in the Haunted House as a banshee. Linda had been furious, but hadn't been able to yell at them about it since it would just prove their point, so she'd resorted to silently fuming. You had somehow been convinced to guide the children from room to room, and Linda insisted you try to make everything seem scarier, since the monsters were all quite friendly. However, you thought it would be a lot more interesting to have a friendly Haunted House than a scary one, though you didn't say that aloud, figuring Linda would just yell at you again. When everyone was in their places, Linda led a group of children over to where you waited at the school's entrance. "Hello, everyone," you told the kids, smiling. "Be scarier," Linda instructed you. "Sorry. Hello, everyone," you repeated in what you hoped was an ominous tone. Frisk, who was among the group of children, burst out laughing. "In my defense, I had no practice," you explained. "You're not supposed to tell them that! Now start the tour, and be scarier!" Linda hissed at you, though you were relatively certain all the children could hear her. "Alright," you shrugged. "Follow me," you added to the children, attempting your ominous tone again. Frisk stifled more laughter. "I know, I know, I'm not ominous at all," you laughed. "Would you like to give it a shot?" Frisk seemed to have a relatively lengthy mental debate, before smiling victoriously. A few moments later, they spoke in a tone infinitely more ominous than your own, "Follow me." Impressed, you grinned, "You should lead the tour instead of me! Then again, I'd have to ruin the mood by telling you what to say..." "Will you just get on with the tour already," Linda glared at you. "Right, come on," you agreed, leading the children down a hallway towards the first room. The first stop was the science classroom, where Sans and Papyrus were waiting, pretending to be plastic model skeletons. As you opened the door and the children filed into the classroom, you began the tale of the first room. "In a science classroom seemingly like any other, there are two model skeletons. They wait motionless during the day, but after sunset..." Here, you paused as Sans and Papyrus started making subtle movements. The children quickly noticed, a few of them shrieking in surprise. "...They awaken and begin to roam the classroom." Sans and Papyrus wandered around the classroom obligingly. "The skeletons look for living beings..." Sans began slowly approaching the group, causing a few children to stumble backwards or cower together, but Frisk actually stepped closer. As Sans ruffled Frisk's hair, you finished the story, "...Because they're actually quite bonely!" Sans chuckled while Papyrus facepalmed. "HUMAN, YOU WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO MAKE A PUN! YOU RUINED OUR ENTIRE ACT!" All the children, even those who had initially been frightened, laughed. You grinned, happy to see your idea had worked. "And now it is time to move on to the next stop," you said, and Sans and Papyrus waved as you led the children back out of the classroom. Several children waved back. Next was the auditorium, and as soon as the doors leading to it could be seen at the end of the hallway you began speaking again. "In the auditorium, it is said, that once, long ago, a performance of 'The Phantom of the Opera' was held. All was going well until one of the actors tripped onstage, breaking their leg. From that point on, the performance was cursed- anytime a group attempted to perform 'The Phantom of the Opera' on that stage, someone would trip and injure themselves. Now the only ones who attempt the performance here..." you dramatically flung the doors open before continuing, "...Are the phantoms themselves." On stage, a single spotlight shone on Mettaton. Soon, he was joined by Napstablook, although the shy ghost left most of the acting to Mettaton. Not that Mettaton seemed to mind; you had a feeling he'd intended for this to happen, and that his participation in this Haunted House had mainly just been an excuse to perform in front of an audience. When Mettaton was eventually finished, you led the children in a round of applause. While Mettaton enthusiastically thanked them for being a wonderful audience, Napstablook shyly floated backstage. Then, the children chatted excitedly about the performance while you led them to the Cafeteria, growing silent again only when you began to speak. "Now, are you all hungry for a snack?" "Yes!" the children chorused. "Excellent," you replied. "The spiders are always happy to share their food." Entering the Cafeteria revealed Muffet and an army of spiders waiting, the room literally covered in cobwebs. "Ahuhuhu~" Muffet smiled, "Welcome! We have plenty of spider pastries for you to sample~ Made by spiders, for spiders... and of spiders!" Several children glanced at you uncertainly, and you smiled and nodded encouragingly at them. Plates of spider pastries waited on the tables, in an impressive display of flavors. Frisk made a beeline towards a plate of chocolate pastries. "Ahuhuhu~ I didn't know you liked chocolate so much," Muffet said. "I'll make chocolate pastries for you more often." "Sweet! Thanks," Frisk replied, though their tone was slightly different than normal. You decided not to think much of it, and were soon distracted by the other children, who after watching Frisk eat a spider pastry without issue had determined the treats safe to consume and quickly gathered around the tables. Once everyone was ready to continue, you led them out of the Cafeteria and to the gym. Various monsters waited inside the gym, where they would be playing a game of basketball. Undyne and Alphys were the captains of the teams. "In the gym, every evening, gather two teams, cursed for eternity to face each other in a game of basketball. The two teams once faced each other during a World Cup, each certain they would be the victors. However, the game ended in a draw. The teams challenged each other to a rematch, with the same result. Now they continue these rematches, until one team wins. Both teams play with equal skill, and the games are doomed to always end in a tie. Thus, they will never be free from the endless rematches..." The monsters played a short game of basketball for the children to watch, with the game ending in a tie and all the monsters feigning exhaustion and annoyance as they left the court afterwards. To your amazement, several of the children looked like they felt bad for them. Perhaps you had made the 'backstory' too sad? Well, it was too late to change it now. "Is everyone ready for the final location on our tour?" you asked, hoping to cheer the children up or at least distract them. Nods followed your statement, and you led the children back outside of the school, over to an area of the lawn where Asgore and Toriel were tending to some plants. Asgore seemed to be trimming a bush into the shape of a skull. You hoped he had gotten permission to do that beforehand. "Two gardeners have been working at this school for centuries," you began. "They leave messages for those who see their work within the symbolism of the flowers they choose to plant, and the shapes into which they trim the bushes-" "Is... Is someone gonna die? That's a skull!" one of the children cried, pointing nervously at the bush. Asgore looked back sheepishly. "No, not at all!" you said hastily, "In fact, the skull is one of the best symbols you can find! It symbolizes happiness and peace." Hopefully their Language Arts teachers wouldn't get mad at you over this. You could just imagine the children writing something like that in an essay... Oh well, at least they all seemed happy now. "Um, where was I? Oh, right. The current flowers symbolize friendship and luck..." Once the children had a chance to examine the small garden, you led them back to the entrance of the school. Linda was waiting there impatiently. "What took so long?" she demanded when the group reached her. "Uh... What do you mean?" you asked, confused. The tour had taken less than an hour, so you weren't sure why she was complaining. "Never mind." Linda huffed irritably. "Well, was it a success?" The children all cheered loudly, most adding a comment about how cool the monsters were. This made Linda scowl, and you grin. "The monsters were supposed to scare them!" Linda told you angrily, to which you shrugged. "I bet you made the stories less scary on purpose!" Linda insinuated in a tone only slightly quieter than a yell, glaring at you. "You ruined my Haunted House!!" "Ahhh! It's a banshee!" one of the children, though you couldn't tell which, shouted. Instantly, many of the children began echoing the claim, pointing at Linda. Linda sent you a withering glare, and you couldn't help but laugh. "Did you put them up to this?" Linda shrieked at you, only adding fuel to the children's shouts. "No," you replied between bouts of laughter. Linda didn't seem to believe you, but getting to witness this was certainly worth earning her ire.

[ppgang]

Column Parade vol.1 “BiStory and beyond: gang parade!”

Starting 2019 we are introducing new projects, one of them being columns written by fans! Want to write something about GANG PARADE? Perhaps a review? Send us a message and we’ll post it in our blog!!

First one is a look in the group’s history written by cal (@konchugun), admin behind the jun togawa fansite!

BiStory and beyond: gang parade!

Hello and welcome to another timeline of one of the world’s best idol groups. “Know Your BiStory” talks about BiS so this time, we’re going to talk about what a certain bald member did afterwards.

Where we last left off, the BiS tour final and their breakup. They were performing to a sold out crowd of diehard fans, Brand-new idol Society were leaving their mark. 

And when one door closes, another opens. Manager Watanabe announced the start of Watanabe Artistic Creative Kabushikigaisha (Corporation) and their first act would be an idol duo featuring Saki Kamiya, the ex-cosplayer and all around vocal powerhouse popular with both men and women~ 

Just like BiS started with Pour Lui, this new group would start with Saki.

Watanabe already had the backing of thousands of rabid idol fans who were hungry from more, and Saki was a pretty popular member! Pre BiS she already had a name for herself as a cosplayer and model, apart of the Dolly-Style (or Dolly Kei) fashion community.

So… why not combine the two things Saki’s fanbase love her for into one to maximise the profit squeeze? The fusion of idols and otaku, enter… PLANIME/PLA2ME

Dressed like schoolboys at a sporting event in the year 3000, Saki was joined in late august 2014 by her new partner Mari Mizuta!

Mari already had a small but established fanbase as she used to perform as a solo idol under the name Izukoneko. She sound was very… electronic modern style technopop. If you’re familiar with solo idols, think Yufu Terashima (shoutout to leaving BiS!) but with significantly less budget.

They debuted together with the song “Plastic 2 Mercy” at Tokyo Idol Festival, and the music video released with the single was made of footage from that day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g75uL_YApIU

A far cry from BiS or even Mari’s solo work… Pla2me’s debut was drum machine heavy but with an almost synthpop twist on power-pop. The choreography for the song involved involves a lot of physical activity, unlike BiS songs with relatively simple choreo, Paprika now withstanding. Both girls are clearly using all of their strength and using all of that stage as much as they can.

Tokyo Idol Festival is, as you can guess, an idol festival. Typically for your regular idols (since alternative idols were still peeking through into the mainstream at this time), the kind that don’t headbang or have fans who engage in lunatic behaviour. Saki and Mari RAN from the stage, jumped the barrier and finished their performance in the middle of the crowd with a circle of fans around them pumping their fists and headbanging. Surprisingly there was no huge controversy surrounding this but the organisers weren’t happy. Idols aren’t meant to stage dive and fans aren’t meant to mosh even if you are an ex member of the legendary lineup of BiS. Saki encouraging un-idol like behaviour and fan misbehaviour at TIF would land her in some hot water in the future though, but we’ll get to that later~

So, Pla2me were off to a STRONG start and they were more than living up to their name too. The girls even cosplayed together!

They even performed as Ryuko and Mako!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWKNXspDDog

And if the love of anime and nerd culture wasn’t already enough, Pla2me also appeared in a Digimon game as promo for Plastic 2 Mercy:

See that incredibly blurry poster on the right there? That’s them! the other groups are other acts on T-Palette Records (the people releasing their songs in joint with WACK).

Pla2me started in late 2014 and they had a successful last quarter of the year, closing it with the emotional video to new song “UNIT”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8s4TjEUh94

Still their fresh power-pop inspired sound, UNIT is more of an emotional ballad where they talk about never wanting to leave each other, with the video being the two of them literally being chained together and climbing a mountain. 

In early 2015 the single was released proper, just like they said there’s no meaning if this unit can’t stay together… 

Well… Guess there’s no meaning then! Mari left.

Late into March, Mari was breaking up their unit. “Creative differences” were stated, but remember this isn’t BiS. Saki isn’t Pour Lui and Mari isn’t Yufu. The problem was that Mari lived in Osaka whereas Saki lived in Tokyo and Mari had to travel from Osaka to Tokyo and sleep at Saki’s apartment whenever they performed. Made worse by the fact that Pla2me weren’t getting booked in Osaka.  Saki felt bad about things, Mari had talked about how she was struggling and Saki said on her old blog she didn’t feel like she did enough to help her. But they’re still friends so no need to worry! And she still works as an idol albeit under a different group even to this day.

So, a hunt for new members began! Can’t perform as a solo idol if you only have 4 songs and one of them is about staying together with your friend! Watanabe announced that they’d be holding auditions for both girls AND boys. No boys passed the audition though so feminism wins once again.

Meet the new lineup! from left to right we have Maya Inukai, Miki Yamamachi, Saki Kamiya, Yua Yumeno and Ao Shigusawa! Pla2me was out, POP was in. standing for “Period Of Plastic 2 mercy”

Also spoilers Maya and Ao don’t survive. But they’re here for now!

Since Pla2me never released an album and they needed more promo than just a few solo shows and music videos here and there, POP came out with a full release relatively quickly called… POP!

If you’re an anime fan you’ll recognise this art style instantly: their album cover was drawn by Studio Trigger’s own SUSHIO! Turns out he’s actually a huge wack fan! He posts fanart of Gang Parade and BiSH on twitter too!

The album release was marked with a music video for “pretty pretty good”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K07xAFm7x-Y

How many idol groups debut their album by being hoisted from a crane in the middle of the night and being forced to sing while dangling hundreds of feet off the ground? The tradition of being un-idol like idols continues onwards. And yes the uniforms for this era were actually trash bags with chains.

Saki kind of makes it work honestly.

The above picture is actually from a now infamous event… remember Tokyo Idol Festival from last year? The new unit were performing there this year, three days prior to their album release! Remember how Saki managed to piss off the management with her stage diving and encouraging the fans to mosh? Well, there are more things that are basically forbidden at what would otherwise be a pop (not our kind) festival and Saki managed both herself break and encourage fans to break every last one of them.

“Mosh pits, excessive jumping, crowd surfing, touching audience members, removing shirts and throwing objects.”

If you’ve ever been to a rock show all of this might seem… commonplace! Which let’s be real when your fanbase is made up of fans of the disbanded alt-idol group who basically just said “fuck it” and removed any sense of decorum from being an idol they could, this is going to happen at your shows. The fans not only destroyed the stage but POP, notably Saki, helped them! BiSH were playing at the same festival too and their fans did similar things, which led to both groups getting ousted. Pity the janitor who had to pick up after these wild women~

While it’s a theory that Watanabe orchestrated this, as BiSH and their leader Aina the End encouraged similar behaviour albeit on a smaller scale, Saki acted of her own accord. The fans got rowdy and Saki got rowdier while knowing the consequences of this but did it anyway.

Even if this is a post BiS group, disciplinary action was still taken. Watanabe was probably not actually furious with Saki but she was indefinitely suspended from POP. The more time went on, the more pissed off fans were getting. This was Saki’s kingdom and they demanded an audience with their queen! 

Saki spent her time while barred from performing helping behind the scenes, effectively becoming a staff member. She helped with taking chekis (polaroid selfies) with other members while being unable to take them with fans herself. Fans were getting even more and more annoyed! So, watanabe gave her an ultimatum, she could rejoin POP…

…if she could complete a 24 hour 100km marathon!

Which sounds daunting but let’s be real, Saki is a young athletic woman. The choreography for Plastic 2 Mercy basically incites violence and you need to be in shape to be a model/cosplayer. There’s also the fact that during a BiS marathon in 2013, Saki was the only one that actually finished.

Saki finished her 100km jog with two hours to spare and returned to her royal court. Just in time to conveniently release their new single! The music video and promo shots of which all contained Saki despite the fact they would have had to be filmed and shot when she was “suspended”. Makes you think!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWOPysoZI2k

“Happy Lucky Kirakira Lucky” was another fast paced aggressive techno-post-power-pop (those are all real genres I promise) bop with a sugary sweet twist. The video shows off the choreography along with… some puppets! Drop some new music Miss Piggy, POP are here.

So, we end 2015 with some destruction, an album and new single! Just as Pla2me went to POP, they also went from strength to strength.

The next major release was another single: Queen of Pop!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnkR0oIYWGk 

Another release in their trademark sound which i’m running out of adjectives for, the music video is… I don’t know. There’s morph suits and faux religious symbolism. They had fun with it though!

As was the trend so far, new year, new name! POP were now GANG PARADE. Saki and Watanabe were toying with the idea of a name change and adding new members for a while, and the words that came up the most were “gang” and “parade” so hey let’s just stick them together! Time went by and the name would become more apt but for now: the next single.

“WE ARE the IDOL”

New uniforms, new hair for Saki but… the same sound! WE ARE the IDOL was still typical of a POP era song despite the name change. The music video however was more in tune with the direction they’d be travelling in creatively: it’s very theatrical and heartfelt with some very professional camerawork and cryptic messages written in English.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFEIW0k_5u8

Shortly after, Ao’s time with Saki and friends came to a close. She had to withdraw from the group due to a lack of support from her family. We don’t know where she is now, but with or without her family’s support we can hope at least she’s having fun.

The heartbreak doesn’t end here though, Maya had to leave too for family reasons, though hers were more understandable. Her dad’s health had been declining and it was up to her to look after him. Gang Parade had her sisters, but her father needed her more.

Gang Parade as “Gang Parade” really starts here. Between the two members leaving, BiS had reformed and scouted new members. How is this relevant to Gang Parade you ask? Well, the girls who were talented but didn’t make the cut for BiS were placed into a sister group called… SiS. Creative, right? 

And of course everything went as planned and SiS to this day have a long career as BiS’ rivals and- just kidding! They disbanded after one show. They disbanded literally less than a single day after the show. Allegedly for their manager (the other manager, not Watanabe) mismanaging something or other.

The SiS girls didn’t become outright unemployed however, three of them were moved to Gang Parade (the fourth works at a clinic in Tokyo now and also entered a modelling contest. Honestly if my idol group broke up after about 12 hours i’d not want to continue as an idol either) and debuted almost right away!

But before the SiS girls were added, new girl Can Maika came along in early October. during Maika’s debut, moshing and stage diving were banned at Gang Parade lives but recording was 100% okay. If you know anything about Japanese music venues, this is genuinely incredibly rare and as a result basically every gang parade live gets posted on YouTube in about 4K HD where you can see the sweat dripping off of Saki’s head.

They also revealed that Gang Parade fans had their own name! Asobinin, which in English you could call… Players! Like a playboy but there’s no gender associated with it, so think a player of love, sleazy, likes to have fun more than they like to work, a layabout… a kind of immoral name for fans of the kind of immoral idols.

So of course now that we have a large troupe of girls, it should be time for an album right? Absolutely! Gang Parade’s “Barely Last” arrived shortly after:

Though if you can count you might notice that there’s a few girls missing… The album was recorded and the promo material all shot before the SiS girls arrived. That’s Can Maika in the orange there. She didn’t get to wear the new uniform for long because promo for the album basically started and ended in a flash, they couldn’t promo something with three of the members missing! The album didn’t even get any music videos.

If I had to describe the sound, it’s basically a stepping stone between the power-pop of POP to the chaos that would become Gang Parade’s trademark.

So a month later… Gang Parade was finally more in tune with how “Gang Parade” are now. To celebrate, they released Plastic 2 Mercy again in December of 2016 

Let’s meet the new girls! Please ignore Satan on the left there. From the left we have: dear leader Saki Kamiya (sporting the longest her haircut has been in about 3 years), the quirky and curious Yui Ga Dockson (who’s name is apart of the first thing Buddha said upon being born. “ I alone am honoured ”), the rich girl with a heart of gold: Coco Partin Coco (who’s name is a dick joke because tinco means cock), our old friend: Yua Yumeno, the gravure perfectionist who sure can: Can Maika, the adorable sea otter fanatic: Yuka “Yuyu” Terashima and squatting on the floor sporting the green highlights in her hair that haven’t left since: Miki Yamamachi! 

Plastic 2 Mercy even got another music video, featuring the girls making a nuisance of themselves in the streets and being coated in a plastic-like substance while spooning one another. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81rF2jZpB7g

So roll on 2017! Gang Parade are finally the “Gang Parade” they were destined to be and they started performing without a hitch and- just kidding again. This is a group run by an egomaniac remember.

Gang Parade were kicking off 2017 after a long period of touring (which they basically do constantly, GP are genuinely the hardest working WACK group) with a new single! “FOUL”! This also marks a period of… Dockson shaving off her eyebrows and painting new ones on with glitter. For somebody named after the Buddha talking about singularity and serenity she is certainly a deeply chaotic individual.

But chaos is fitting for Gang Parade! The song is slow but it’s heavier than they’ve done before, stepping from power-pop and fusing that with almost synth rock. The music video is a callback to “pretty pretty good”, starting in the same construction yard three of the girls were suspended from a crane in and ending with Saki shaving her hair off in a Tokyo backstreet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6NCSt3dLug

The song is also the source of the phrase “body and 7soul”, which is a huge part of Gang Parade’s identity. Well until they add more girls and they have to rerecord it and change it to “body and 9soul” but that comes later.

If you’ve read “Know Your BiStory” the next part wont come as a surprise, but as a preface 2017 is where WACK as a company starts to get a little… wacky. A temporary rental trade of members was announced! Queen Saki was leaving her kingdom once again to go back to BiS in exchange for Aya Eightprince.

Of course the fans rioted just like when Saki was absent during the POP days and demanded th-I can’t keep pulling these bait and switches. Aya was welcomed to Gang Parade with open arms by both the fans and her new sisters!

In fact, Aya loved being in Gang Parade so much she actually talked about how much she hated being in BiS because of how disrespectful and rude the leader Pour Lui was to everyone - especially her. Gang Parade felt… right for Aya - and the fans felt so too! Of course everyone missed Saki but Aya’s presence in the chaos just worked well. She started touring around with them almost instantly and after a few months, it was time for a new single

Beyond the Mountain! Gang Parade had heartfelt ballads and fast paced songs before but this is #that song. The song that pierces your chest and makes you want to scream the lyrics while crying. About broken promises and broken hearts but, despite being left alone, you should smile. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdsASPb4l4Q

And of course promo for this included new member Miss Aya. That’s her on the bar stool looking curious. 

And what was Saki doing? On a single in her traded group too but also probably kissing Kika.

During the next few months, Gang Parade and BiS went on a joint tour together where it was announced the rental trade would be extended! Then in October, more label clownery happened and the shuffle unit/supergroup “SAiNT SEX” debuted with their only song. SAiNT SEX featured Aya, Saki, Miki and Yua along with various BiS and BiSH girls.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CbRmVdd-Kk

Even while on a rental trade, the girls from both groups remained close with one another. For the time being.

After this it started to get a little more serious for Gang Parade in terms of promo: they were gearing up for a full album. Gang Parade’s first promo music video for the album was called… GANG PARADE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=100K-pSVWZM

The girls show off their new uniforms in a warehouse while dancing and well… it’s a good thing moshing was made forbidden at their shows because this song was their wildest to date. Aggressive synthy rock with a pre-chorus involving a lot of chanting which turns into an aria of screaming “GANG PARADE EVERYDAY”. Like i said, their most chaotic to date… until “IMINAI UTA” (pointless song) got a music video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQxb88zX2FA

Following in the footsteps of the last song’s harsh sound, this is that but turned up to 11. Electronic screeching mixed with nonsensical lyrics shouted at you and a music video that combines glitch art with vaporwave, their new album was destined to be their most extreme yet. And on stage? It always starts with Coco doing cartwheels.

https://i.gyazo.com/3a8932dd671668b3078ae9be69f584e7

A few days later? “GANG PARADE takes themselves higher!!” arrived

And the name was more than apt, Gang Parade had elevated themselves in sound, image and status. A far cry from the original bubbly drum heavy technopop that Pla2me started with, Gang Parade’s sound can now be described as “sheer chaos”. From Beyond the Mountain to Iminai Uta, they were here to make noise, play with their fanbase of players and just generally revel in anarchy.

They also took themselves higher with their status in the industry - Gang Parade were stepping out of the shadow of “ex BiS group led by Saki Kamiya” and were being written about just as “Gang Parade” - you can even find interviews from the time translated on the English Gang Parade fansite pretty pretty GANG (this advertisement is non-sponsored)!

At the very end of the year, the “Wack and Scrambles” album was released featuring SAiNT SEX. The album also came with voting codes so fans could vote for which members they would want to get a solo debut single. Since BiSH are the most popular wack group, Aina the End placed in first. Our favourite strange siren Yui Ga Dockson placed pretty low, in the band where members would have to eat something called “death sauce curry” - but she didn’t have to do that. Her punishment was a surprise for later~

Roll on 2018 and Gang Parade, now higher than ever, did the only thing you’d expect an idol group to do: new single and music video! Breaking the Road was here!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRP-wmdG-fA

A continuation of their aggressive synth rock sound, Breaking the Road is high energy, fast paced… Everything you’d expect at this point! The music video also contains heartfelt messages from members in a serene beach setting~

The b-side to the single also received a video: Sushi Song! No guesses as to what it’s about.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRTTvdrugQI

Meanwhile, back over in BiS, the girls were preparing for Pour Lui’s funeral graduation, marking the end of the trade between the two groups. Aya would go back to BiS, Saki would come back to Gang Parade and Lui would vanish into the ether. “WHOLE LOTTA LOVE” marked Aya’s comeback and “DiPROMiSE” heralded Saki’s departure.

So welcome home saki! The eight of clubs switched hands with the queen of hearts and gang parade continued on as their body and 7soul…

C’mon, this is a WACK timeline! Did you really think it would be that simple?

In march, the next WACK audition camp and exhibition took place. Various girls won and were placed into various groups. Gang Parade gained two new members: the gothic ice princess Usagi Tsukino and the 15 year old baby idol with a cute voice Haruna Bad Chiiiin! That’s four i’s in case you lose count!

There was also a contest which Can Maika lost so she’d have to change her stage name so! please welcome “Can GP Maika”. It’s not much of a punishment but hey, maybe cruelty can be matched with unusualness?

Just as they welcomed Aya with open arms, Tsukino and Haruna found their sisters instantly too. But not without a prank first, on their first day Dockson pretended to be an authoritarian leader with an iron fist! Sushio even drew fanart of it!

So what better way to introduce the new girls to their new fans than with a new single? A month later, “GANG 2″ dropped!

So from the bottom left we have Miki, Yuyu, Coco, Dockson, Yua, Haruna, Saki, Maika and Tsukino sitting in the bottom right.

GANG 2′s sound was closer to Beyond the Mountain than any of their more recent singles more aggressive sounds. It’s still got pounding synths and drum machines but it’s the kind of pounding that matches your heart and not your feet dancing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyaEby0Wu2U

The video depicts Saki as a holographic ghost who regains her physical form, rejoining Gang Parade after having been gone for so long.

The b-side recieved a video too: meet the slightly culturally insensitive love-letter known as “Lai Le”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JB5hx0hkioE

Next up in June we finally get to Dockson’s “punishment”. While she didn’t win the election for the solo single, she was getting one anyway! “Now how is that a punishment” you ask? Well! It’s a throwback to the 90′s era of Japan’s eurobeat inspired techno-pop but with a twist! The lyrics are about being horny and involve chanting “HUGE COCK”. Also they made her wear ganguro makeup.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CytBUpNV-k

Honestly? The song is good. It’s dancey and fun but I think it’s understandable why somebody wouldn’t want to get up on stage and hoot about getting busted in for about 4 minutes. Dockson even had to perform it live a few times, and during one special performance she bought a $1 magician’s wand off of Amazon that turns into a bouquet of flowers when you tug on it. Fans loved it and she hasn’t had to don the questionable makeup since!

The month after, more WACK clownery happened again. A new shuffle unit/supergroup debuted: The HOLY SHiTS! Thankfully the only gang parade girl they managed to torture with this was Maika. Though unluckily for her, the concept was “you have to eat fake excrement from a toilet while singing over a dance track that had a production budget of about $5″.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQpxOBB3ma4

It’s awful and we’re just going to pretend it never happened. Thanks.

August comes along, and it’s new single time once again. The anthem for going against the pain and continuing on even in bad circumstances! No, not the BiS song, Gang Parade got their own song with a similar theme: CAN’T STOP!

The music video shows our favourite body and 9soul pushing against a wall with their heads seemingly without any luck before the wall shatters and they all walk together, as friends, as one cohesive unit, as GANG PARADE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0pEQFo3y78

Gang Parade then embarked on their next tour, which ended with a tour final at Zepp Tokyo where they announced that they’d have a new album out in the first weeks of 2019: LAST GANG PARADE 

Of course, this name worried a lot of fans. Were Gang Parade breaking up? What did last mean? Was this Saki’s graduation? What was Watanabe up to? Many other fans pointed out that the “last” could be the “last” in “last night” or “last man standing” which quelled some fears, but fans continued to talk and gossip

And in-between the announcement and album release, the tour final was released as a special blu ray which included re-recordings of old songs with the current lineup. Saki took Aya’s spot on songs from “Gang Parade takes themselves higher!!” and of course the two new girls got their share too. And they finally chant “body and 9soul” instead of 7 in FOUL.

Now for a little detour… instead of Gang Parade we’re going to talk about you!

That’s right! Saki is more than aware that she has asobinin cheering from overseas! The first leader of a WACK group to acknowledge that she has English speaking fans. maybe she reads pretty pretty GANG~

However, she isn’t the first member. International asobinin managed to figure out that Coco uses a third party Twitter application to make private lists and a few lucky fans are more than likely on it, because she keeps liking tweets about her that don’t mention her by name that can be vanity searched and her tweets aren’t tweeted from a standard twitter app.  Coco even speaks a little English too! At a promotional live outside of a giant Gundam statue, Coco tried to engage with tourists by introducing Gang parade to an international audience in English. But, a member of the pretty pretty GANG fan community was there and the tourists… Were Spanish. Whoops! Thank you for thinking about us anyway Coco!

In the runup to Last Gang Parade’s release, a week of promo started with a surprise video drop: Yoru Kurai Yume (Night’s Dark Dream)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ts8KnDkrrKI&

Written by Yua and Haruna, even with composition by Haruna, the song and video reference… Edo Period prostitutes! Do Haruna’s parents know what she writes about? The video even ebbs onto the more gravure side of idol, with minimal appearances from the GP girls in lieu of some genuine working girls on their walk around a red light district. A relatively laid back sound in contrast to the high energy they’re known for, the song is a standout on the album and unlike the rest of the promo tracks to come.

Over the course of the week, fast paced aggressive bops like “Jealousy Marionette” dropped in addition to emotional heart-pounders like “Message” on Soundcloud until New Year’s Eve… the video to LAST!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y932g_4QfOE

With motifs taken from primal. by BiS, LAST was set to become Gang Parade’s trademark song next to Plastic 2 Mercy. In a similar vein to Beyond the Mountain and CAN’T STOP, LAST deals with the struggle of moving forward against it all, making it clear that the “last” in “Last Gang Parade” is about how long you’ve lasted and how proud you should be.

With the girls all lifting each other’s spirits when things go wrong and generally playing together, the video is a heartwarming playground culminating in the phrase “making a new chaos” floating above them while they run around a football pitch.

And then a few weeks later in 2019, LAST GANG PARADE finally arrives proper

Gang Parade were closer as a sisterhood than ever, going from taking themselves higher to standing tall on a peak beyond the mountain. They were at the top of their game, one of the hardest working and strongest units under WACK.

But then… the second meaning of “LAST” finally came to light…

Just kidding! Not every surprise on behalf of Watanabe has to be awful!

On the first day of the ggWACK tour, a tour celebrating all of WACK’S major groups, Gang Parade announced that they were getting a MAJOR LABEL DEBUT! A sub label under Universal Japan created just for them: Fuelled by Mentaiko! Who says when you’re at the top the only way is down? Gang Parade were continuing to go higher and higher, they can’t stop. The “last” was also their last indie label release! As a surprise and a goodbye to T-Palette Records and their manager, the album contained a hidden bonus track called “PALET”

And that’s the history of Gang Parade! From a badly behaved cosplay duo stage diving over drum machine beats to a power-pop unit who trash the stage to a ragtag band of sisters here to incite a new form of chaos, the ashes of BiS’ legendary lineup had became something new entirely. 

Gang Parade refuse to stand in the shadow of another group, they cast their own and with their first major label single coming in April, Gang Parade will keep taking themselves higher and higher and HIGHER.