#I KNOW HE GOT A LEGENDARY COSTUME THAT ONE TIME BUT IT WAS BARELY A FIRE UPDATE

[legendary-cookies]

(Source)

FIRE UPDATE FIRE UPDATE FIRE UPDATE FIRE UPDATE FIRE UPDATE FIRE UPD

[marzipanandminutiae]

I have a question, where would gnc/trans people get their clotges in the days before the selling of premade clothes? I assume some was stealing from relatives, and that soem of them did know how to make clothes, but that doesn't seem at all likely to be the most common method

That is an amazing question!

Unfortunately for a lot of people, we don't really know- many trans folks flew under the radar and as such details of their lives are unclear. Legendary stagecoach driver Charley Parkhurst, for example, left no sort of record as to where he got his clothes (especially since he lived in a cabin in the middle of nowhere for many years of his life). And figures like Mary Jones, a Black trans sex worker from the early 19th century, flit into and out of the pages of history so quickly that there's barely enough info to get their vital statistics, let alone shopping habits.

However, my guesses would be as follows:

Secondhand shops. These have existed for a very long time, and if you already have at least one outfit that makes you read as the correct gender, nobody would question you going through that section of the store/market/whatever.

Sympathetic conventional tailors or dressmakers. This is almost certainly where middle- and upper-class GNC or trans people got their clothing- one can hardly imagine legendary writer George Sand buying her suits secondhand, after all. And since humans have always been human, and Let People Dress How They Please; They Aren't Hurting Anyone is a sentiment I've seen at least as far back as the 19th century, I suspect there were far more of these than many people might think.

Clothing workshops catering to the demimonde- that is, to theatrical companies for costumes, or to sex workers. Certainly this is where drag performers got their stage gear, and one imagines people for whom gender variance crossed the line from performance to identity- like Fanny Park and Stella Boulton -might have turned to their costumers for everyday attire, too. And catering to sex workers probably got all sorts of requests that were seen as outre for the time (in a roleplay capacity- most sex workers dressed conventionally while not actively Doing Sex), but their money was as good as anyone else's.

Friends and relatives. Some families knowingly supported their crossdressing or trans loved ones. Even partners who married the person in question as the binary opposite gender could fall into this category- Lili Elbe (though she lived after premade dresses began to rise in popularity) first experimented with feminine attire in dresses and jewelry loaned by her enthusiastically supportive wife Gerta Gottlieb. In fact, Gottlieb was bisexual, and their marriage was only annulled because Lili was a woman now and same-gender marriage was illegal in Denmark at the time.

Also yes stealing from your relatives was also an option, of course. if they were less than sympathetic

The king of France???? this is the wildcard, and my absolute favorite: the Chevaliere d'Eon, when she transitioned in the 1770s, got the king to not only formally state that she had been assigned female at birth (there had been speculation about her physical sex for years at this point) but to pay for her new wardrobe of gowns. Absolute Queen.

"but didn't her mantua-makers notice Some Physical Things?" she's believed to have had some form of gynecomastia, based on her autopsy, and they'd never have cause to see her in less than her calf-length chemise. if they did see anything, they kept their mouths shut, and rightly so.

[kiss-me-muchoo]

𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 || 𝐉𝐨𝐞𝐥 𝐌𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐫 𝐱 𝐫𝐞𝐝!𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫

part one: i think i’m finally clean || part two: HERE

summary_ after a failed desperate attempt from Joel to get you back, you go missing while doing patrol, which leads to the Millers having to go and find you.

warnings_ age gap! (not specified tho), angst, fluff, ANGST, emotionally constipated Joel!, lots of apologies, mostly Joel’s POV

notes_this was supposed to be 1989 related like part one but I love Suki’s new album so much and it’s so Joel Miller coded, Legendary is all I played while creating this.

✰ 𝙄𝙉𝘿𝙀𝙓 (𝙈𝙖𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙩 𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚)

♪ ♫ 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙨𝙩 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙮𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙩 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙋𝙚𝙙𝙧𝙤 𝙃𝙀𝙍𝙀

…

How could there be a disco ball in the room? Who found it? And where?

You weren’t expecting much from the Halloween party in Jackson to be honest. But turned out to be full of people with mid-costumes made by the first thing they could come up with. At a long table, you could spot a jar of fruit punch, some simple pastries, and snacks.

Some music was playing as many couples danced on the improvised dance floor. You only stared as you drank some alcohol your friend Lia sneaked in.

“Hey, love your outfit,” Sally says, a friend of yours who also worked in the gardening business of Jackson with you.

“Thanks, Sally. I also love yours” She has a crimson dress with her old usual boots and some fake blood everywhere, made with berries and pomegranate juice. You know because you helped her out with that.

“It’s been ages since I saw so many people gathered. Not even on Christmas” You nod, although you hadn’t lived in Jackson long enough like her.

“I guess Halloween really is that time of the year” she laughs and offers you a gentle smile.

“Hey… I’ve heard Joel has been trying to talk to you”

“I’m not in the mood to handle him or his bratty little girl right now…” Sally laughs even harder at your words. But you’re being serious. For a whole night, you don’t want to think about Joel and Ellie. They are around, you saw once the man talking with Tommy, helping him to drag some trash cans. The girl on the other hand was barely talking with a girl who looked around her age.

“Perhaps… but it’s so hot of him to keep trying with you,” she says and you scoff shrugging.

“You made it sound like he wants to seduce me”

“He may be…”

“No. Oh my God, no, Sally.” You say crossing your arms. Completely missing the pair of eyes that were fixated on you.

“You spent months with him and Ellie in the wild. I swore you were a family when you arrived here the first time”

“I used to think we were a family too. But that’s long forgotten. I’m good right now. Without them…”

Sally doesn’t push it anymore. But she thinks you’re trying to ignore your emotions. And she can’t judge you, she saw how Joel treated you the day of the vegetables.

“Let’s just forget about it, I’m in the mood to dance.” You add, dragging her and improvising some lame dancing along the 90s music playing.

…

Your vision is spinning. The lights that made the party feel like a real disco now seem to be violent faded dots. But you don’t feel sick, you feel light.

It’s nearly past midnight. And there’s still a lot of people in the party. All of the kids of Jackson have been long ago finished with the trick or treating. Sally found a guy to spend the night with and you told her to enjoy but also be careful.

And so you’re also ready to call it a day. You got dressed for Halloween ever since the outbreak. You witnessed a big party, you kissed two guys for fun and you were drunk as hell.

You couldn’t recall another day as happy as that Halloween.

When you almost trip when going down the stairs of the dining hall, you have to sit on them, laughing.

For some seconds, you can see the blurred image of the bright yellow moon. It’s a cold night, but nothing near freezing.

“…y/n?” You hear a male voice calling you.

It was Joel.

“Not tonight, Joel.”

“You’re drunk.”

“I don’t give a shit, I can stand and make it home,” you say calmly. Although you’re drunk, you still feel very conscious.

“I’m takin’ you home” Joel barely grabs your arms when you squirm away from him, standing up immediately.

“For fucks sake, Joel. I want you away from me. A-W-A-Y… GET AWAY FROM ME!” He was taken aback. And there was nowhere to hide his feelings. Joel had been painfully hurt by your words. Even when he had heard the same hours ago, this time hurt even more.

“All of your friends say you keep avoiding the way you feel. Why can’t you just let me speak then you can ignore me the rest of your life?” He shouldn’t be arguing back when you’re drunk. He really shouldn’t.

“Because I’m not interested in whatever shit you will say. You never gave me the chance to speak back then… Remember?…” you say dragging every word with a vague look that only confirms how drunk you are.

“I don’t think I’ll ever stop saying I’m sorry. To Ellie, to me… you are family.”

Your eyes prickle with tears.

Suddenly you’re sober. Your brain works perfectly fine. So you cry.

Joel sees the first tears rolling down and he sighs. He couldn’t comprehend your side of the story because you were excluding him and Ellie. But he wanted to be in your life again. He was a man who had changed so much after Salt Lake.

Joel was open to being vulnerable, just for you.

His body moves closely, attempting to embrace you in a hug. Or at least touch you.

But you move away.

“I need time…” you say before walking away with weak steps but a confident pace.

You don’t dare to look back. The way home is more quiet than silence itself. You block every thought regarding Joel while you wash your hair in the shower. And you are even scared to think about it as you light the candle on your nightstand.

…

Two weeks without any contact with the little Miller family pass by. Ellie sees you in the garden and picking vegetables to send to the kitchen and the rest for livestock or as fertilizer. She also saw you once in the dining hall with your friends laughing and gossiping. And the young girl couldn’t help but think she hadn’t seen you laugh like that. Not ever since you and Joel used to mess with Ellie about the dirty tee shirt she always wore.

Joel goes to your house one night and spots you outside, taking care of your plants, humming some songs, and wearing pajamas. He stood there in the shadows like a creep for more minutes. He looked carefully at how you sat on a patio couch you had near your door and got into the book you pulled out.

Joel reminisced the night Ellie and he had a hateful dinner. They recalled the moment they met you some miles away from Boston. And by the end of the memory, when you told them you were staying in Jackson instead of going with them to the Fireflies in Salt Lake, Ellie snapped. The girl and Joel briefly argued, blaming each other for treating you so bad. But soon Ellie made Joel say three precious words.

He loved you.

And seeing you alone, in your home, almost a year after taking separate ways, only made Joel desperate to feel worthy of your affection.

…

The Miller brothers carried heavy piles of carved wood for a new library the men had built during the summer. Joel and Tommy never lost their contractor’s touch. They beautifully worked so well that ended up giving advice to the younger ones. It was a normal day. That morning a group left to patrol as usual. Others prepared the food of the day. Others refurbished the town. The kids went to school. Everything was normal. Joel was pulling splinters out of his left hand, ready to go home. Ellie discovered the new guitar Joel got, so she seemed curious about the instrument.

His home smelled like cedar and burnt wood. Joel rolled his eyes, watching how Ellie forgot to wash the dishes again. But he was tired, he went straight to take a shower and soon landed on his couch. His muscles relaxed and he closed his eyes for a minute.

Which turned into two hours.

“JOEL!” Ellie yells on his face, waking him up.

“What the fuck, kid?”

“Tommy is here, y/n didn’t come back with her patrol group.” His eyes opened wide as soon as he heard the girl.

“What?”

“She’s missing…” Ellie sounded scared, even anxious. Joel immediately got the chills. He sighed and quickly stood up, ignoring the way his back cracked.

In the kitchen, Tommy sat, looking stressed out.

“What happened?” Joel crosses his arms, already losing his patience.

“Patrol was coming back when some raiders attacked them. It was y/n who gained time for the group, and said she would follow soon, but she didn’t” Joel sighed once again.

“How long ago?” Ellie asked timidly.

“Almost three hours ago…” Joel huffs. Angered at his brother, he gave the table a slight slap.

“Why you didn’t tell me sooner?” Tommy tried to calm him down. The whole reason why he avoided his older brother was because he would get stressed. He had hoped that the other groups that went out to find you would come back with great news.

“The group is almost back but now news so far…”

“I’ll go to find her…”

“I said we’ve already sent people around the area…” Tommy says, but Joel rolls his eyes, putting on his boots. Unbeknownst to Tommy, his last resource was Joel. And deep down, he disapproved of the age gap between you two, but he wanted nothing but your happiness and Joel’s.

“Tommy. I’ll go find her.”

“I’m coming too” Ellie quickly says.

“No. You stay here.”

“Joel. I won’t be able to sleep knowing you could be out there alone. Even worse if she’s hurt or…”

“Don’t say it…” Tommy pleads with the girl, so she nods.

Joel’s heart pounds in his ribcage. He is scared, to be honest. And he wants nothing but to grow wings so he can quickly find you.

“Is there any place you haven’t checked?” Joel asks, putting on his jacket. Ellie opens the closet near the entrance and grabs her and Joel’s emergency backpacks.

“There’s a cabin only Maria, the meds, and council know about…” Tommy reveals.

“And y/n too…”

“Yes, Ellie. It’s only for emergencies, hidden near a cliff, where the bushes grow wilder and perfect to disguise raiders and infected.”

“Where is the cabin exactly?” loading his rifle and grabbing more bullets, Joel asks to his brother.

“About an hour away from here. If you go now, you’ll make it before the night falls. I’ll check it in a map…” the man grabs the paper from his pocket, marking a red circle around the green area.

“There’s a lot of apple trees near the area. We collect from there every fall, once you start seeing rotten apples in the way, you’ll know you’re very close” Tommy says.

“Remember. We have a periwinkle ribbon hidden in the bushes. That’s the entrance. Be careful, Joel. And good luck, to the three of you…”

At that moment, Joel realized he would find you in a bad position or a terrible one he didn’t even want to imagine it.

But he was full of fate.

“She’s alive. Right, Joel?” Ellie asks once the gates of Jackson opened and the pair left in two horses.

“Of course she’s alive…” he confidently replies. But the pounding of his heart made him conscious of the anxiety he was feeling.

…

The woods howl with every sound of the wind pushing dry leaves around. So far Joel hadn’t used a single bullet. The way was clear. Only the fainted sounds of the waterfalls and the eco of the cliffs.

There were indeed a lot of apple trees. With the sun almost gone, the burgundy spheres hanging from the trees looked even more majestic.

“I guess we’re here…” Joel announced, putting his feet on the ground.

“Look for the periwinkle ribbon, Joel” the man nodded.

Sneaking his hands through the bushes, he could feel some thorns. At first glance, those bushes looked very intimidating. As if poison would suddenly leak from their tiny white flowers.

“Found it!” Joel didn’t get it, but when he tried to pull the ribbon, he lifted a whole branch attached to it.

“Holy shit!” Ellie gasped surprised to see that the bushes were actually very light.

“The horses can make it inside too. You go first…” Ellie nods, taking the lead.

Then followed Joel, leading his horse inside the property and then making sure the ribbon was completely hidden.

The Cabin was small, rustic, and surrounded by the same bushes and big rocks. It was strategically positioned where the pines and apple trees could disguise it.

“She’s here. Look…” Ellie says, pointing at your backpack and a rifle thrown on the stairs of the cabin.

“Stay back…” he indicated, firmly holding his rifle in case of anything.

Both went up the stairs and were notified the door was barely closed as if they had been in a rush. Joel opened the door slowly and when the view was granted, he saw you on the floor pointing at him with a small pistol.

“It’s okay, it’s just me and Ellie,” he said dropping and rifle and literally running towards you.

“Joel?” You ask looking at his barely distinguishable silhouette.

“I told you once. Don’t go where I can’t follow, darlin’…” he says, but you can’t hear him.

Ellie finally saw you and noticed you were sweating so much, panting for air. The skin of your neck looked between pink and lilac. For some seconds, she thought you had been bitten.

“You can’t breathe,” Joel noticed when you literally dropped your head against the wooden floor.

“J-Joel… My- ribs. It hurts…” you barely spoke and tears streamed down your cheeks. Your hand grasped his and didn’t want to let go.

“Shh… we’re here. I’m gonna take care of you”

Respectfully, Joel tore your long-sleeved top. You had a silk bra that looked very vintage but that wasn’t capturing all of Joel’s attention.

You had indeed swollen ribs. Your right side looked awful in comparison to the left one. There was also a small cut in your shoulder, but your ribs were painted in shades of red, purple, and blue.

The man turned to see the girl standing at the door. Ellie couldn’t hide it, she seemed scared, her eyes slightly teary.

“No tears, she’s gonna be okay. Now help me with the remedies and medicine we have” she nodded.

By the time Joel had finished putting ointments and giving a local spraying of anesthesia, you had completely fallen asleep. Ellie helped him to put a bandage around your ribs and the man carried you to a room that had a bed.

Joel took a brief glance at you and sighed in relief. You were alive, and your chances of survival were big. He just had to take care of you. Like he should have since the first time.

…

You wake up violently, quickly trying to sit down because you can’t remember anything. Your last memory was the raiders shooting and hitting you with his rifle, throwing you off of your horse.

“Hey, easy there!” you immediately stop, encountering Ellie beside you.

One thing was for sure; you felt amazing compared to the day before.

“What are you doing here?” She sighed.

“Patrol came back and you were missing. Since nobody could find you, Tommy suspected you were here. So Joel and I came…” your eyes closed in embarrassment. Blurred memories of them stepping inside the cabin, you pointing at them, telling Joel how bad you were in pain, and Ellie helping him to bandage you.

“Thank you.” She nods, but her lips get sealed, like she wants to say more but she’s unsure.

“I’m sorry.”

“You were the closest thing I had like family and Joel and I fucked up everything,” Ellie says looking away.

“When we’re grieving the past, we get so scared to mess up our present. Which makes us mad and terrified.” You tell her with a little smile.

And you also talk to yourself, because you were so hurt by how they treated you that it made you feel scared of getting hurt again by them.

“Joel said you needed time. But do you think you already have an answer about us being friends ever again?”

You can’t make a teenager beg for your forgiveness. Every single person you know has suffered. All have sacrificed something. And you didn’t want to grow old alone.

“Come here…” you tell her and in less than a second you have Ellie hugging you tightly.

“Wait… my ribs” she breaks off the contact, looking scared.

“Shit, I’m sorry. I-“

“Ellie, it’s okay…” you smile at her and she reciprocates it.

“Where’s Joel?”

“Patrolling around. She already signaled to Tommy we were fine. He also went to get something to eat. There’s nothing of food besides the bread and water we brought.”

“Oh…”

“Joel can be an asshole. After all, we both know him so well. But… give him a chance, please” Your smile grows. It makes you blush because Ellie sounds like she’s implying Joel had feelings for you.

Ever since you met him, you developed a crush on him. But he was a grumpy old man, he never showed any sign of romantic attraction towards you.

“I could give him a chance, but I think everyone has misinterpreted the way he feels for me,” you say, remembering how Sally implied the same time during the Halloween party.

“You know how Tommy looks at Maria?” You nod at her.

“That’s the same way Joel looks at you. And I’ve never experienced it, but I know that must be love”

Was the girl in the correct?

…

It’s already late when the need to get out of bed gets stronger. You took a very careful shower, and with every droplet of cold water that washed you, you also repeated every word Ellie said. You could easily admit you loved Joel. Even after everything. Because was there in the harder days out in the wild. You were a stranger he also carried wherever he was going. And always reminded you how strong you were.

“Ellie!” The girl appeared with her hair also wet.

“Can you help me go downstairs?. I want to help you with dinner” you said.

Ellie carefully grabbed your hands to help you stand from the bed. As soon as she opened the door, the smell of apples and cinnamon hit you.

“What are you cooking?” You asked her.

“Just apples with honey and cinnamon…”

“Smells really good, Ellie” she thanks you, paying extra attention as you walk down the stairs.

Just when you make it safely. The front door opened. Joel came in with a dead rabbit in his hands.

“You’re awake…” he said surprised.

“I am…” you reply feeling your face burn in red.

“How are you feeling?” He asks scratching the back of his head.

“Better. Thanks to both of you”

“It’s nothing”

Ellie can’t stop looking between you and the man. She has a little dorky smile and her heart beats in hopes you two can solve your problems.

“Can I skin that rabbit?” You ask him shyly. He looks down at the rabbit and then back at you.

“Let me do that. But if you feel okay, you can cook it” You nod, offering him a brief smile that takes him aback.

“Okay. I’ll wait for Ellie in the kitchen.”

Joel is shocked. Ellie has to go and pinch his ribs to take him down to earth again.

“Don’t mess it up.” She says.

“What?”

“I think we’re okay now. Talk to her tonight, please” he sighs but nods.

“Joel?” The girl asks.

“Hmm?”

“I think y/n feels the same way about you. But she doesn’t think you do.”

His heart beats softly but hurriedly. Joel has to hide his smile as Ellie walks away into the kitchen.

…

Dinner was quiet. Some words were exchanged. Mainly about your accident. You explained how the raiders ambushed you and your group. After gaining time for your partners to leave, there was nobody left to save you. A man hit your head with his rifle, then your ribs. You fell from your horse and barely noticed when the raiders left. Your body dragged itself towards the cabin, where all of your energy disappeared and your Brian processed the pain.

Thankfully, you had two saviors. Joel and Ellie appeared and saved your life.

The plan was to go back to Jackson the following morning. You agreed as long as your health lets you. Ellie helped you go upstairs again as Joel cleaned the dishes. You said good night to the girl and went to brush your teeth. By fortune, you always carried first necessity items in your backpack.

There is no electricity in the upper rooms. But there are tons of bottles of wine, soda, and old glasses with half-melted candles. It made it a little harder while showering. But after feeling clean, relaxed, and lonely, it brings a sense of peacefulness.

In the mirror, you encounter a woman whose body is tired but her mind is starting to feel at peace. You have decided that if Joel came knocking at the door, you would let the past go and you would focus on the present.

But your hopes die a little when an hour passes and you are still alone in the room.

And just when you’re about to give up, you hear it.

A knock on your door.

You encounter Joel with the same clothes he arrived with. However, his hair is slicked back and wet from the shower he took. You remain silent as he stares closely at you.

“Can we talk?” The man asks.

“Okay…”

You let him step inside. Joel sits on the little couch that faces the bed, and both of you stare in silence. There’s a distant howling from coyotes or jackals near the area. But then, you only pay attention to Joel. He continuously moved his hands and tried to speak up but couldn’t.

“Ellie said you and her are okay,” he says and you nod, avoiding his gaze. You hear him sigh.

“If I had accepted sooner how important you are to me, I would’ve given you the whole night to tell me why you couldn’t come with Ellie and me to Salt Lake” he starts, bringing you back to the night where the doctor of Jackson told you your body was full of anemia. That if you went out to the wild again, you’d likely suffer a breakdown.

“I would’ve understood, I would’ve told you I’d be back. But I didn’t because… I guess I got scared, I was convinced you were abandoning Ellie. But mostly me… I got used to having you in my life. And thought you wanted to take separate ways as soon as you discovered you could have a better life in Jackson”

“I started to feel dizzy that day. If I hadn’t felt anything, I wouldn’t visited the doctor and I would have gone with you and Ellie” you admit looking at the melting candles.

Joel feels a little worse. But it only makes him even more eager to stand up and walk towards you.

You witness how he goes down to his knees with difficulty, knowing his bones are tired. It takes you aback when he grabs your hands and gives you the softest look.

“I’m sorry. For everything. When I saw you were back, so full of life and willing to keep explaining to us what happened, I kept acting like an asshole. That’s not what a man does to the woman he’s in love with…”

You quickly look at his eyes again, trying to see if what he said was true or not. He briefly smiled, tender to see the way you reacted.

“I probably won’t stop saying I’m sorry until I have you by my side every morning and every night. ‘Cause if want thing has thought me, Ellie, is that I have to express my feelings. So I’ll do it, I’m in love with you and I’m sorry”

You are near tears when he says that, Joel only squeezes your hands softly, but you break the contact only to pull him towards you in a big hug.

“The moment I saw you came with Ellie through the door of this cabin, I knew I didn’t want to lose my little family. I’ve been trying to be strong but the truth is that I need you, Joel” his cheek touches yours and you feel the warmth of his skin. Any trace of uncertainty is gone. Only he could have taken and brought back your happiness.

“I need you too, darlin’”

He kisses you, so soft, so simple. You barely pay attention to the rain that suddenly started pouring. Joel slowly stands up and you lean back on the bed. His kisses were addicting even when you just met them seconds ago. But you take the lead by moving your lips down south, marking traces on his chin, towards his jaw. It is there when Joel lets out the first moan. But he suddenly stops

“Wait, y/n, I don’t want to hurt you. Your ribs aren’t completely healed. And-“

“Joel… If I kept going, it’s because I can. And because I want to…” you say before capturing his lips in another kiss.

“Is Ellie asleep?” You add. Joel chuckles.

“You know she snores loudly. Listen…” Both of you remain quiet and the distant snores of the girl can be heard, which makes you giggle.

First, he undresses you and makes sure to heavenly explore your most intimate areas with his tongue. Then he takes off his clothes and worships your body in the most perfect way he could possibly do it.

“I love you, Joel” it spills out of your lips with honesty. Between thrusts and gasps for air, he makes time to answer you.

“I love you too.”

For the rest of the night, his hands are in your body. And until the morning, remain there…

….

The rays of the sun wake you up by directly targeting your eyes. But when you open them, they’re gone. Is a cloudy morning, and there’s a big pair of warm hands securely around your stomach.

The need to stretch is suddenly gone when you remember what happened last night. How good Joel made it clear you were the woman he wanted, his caresses, kisses, and everything. You can’t help but smile and snuggle closer to him.

“Mornin’…” Joel says with a raspy voice, without you noticing he had woken up.

“Hey…” you reply deciding to face him.

It feels odd to see an unworried Joel after months of being witness to his sleep deprivation, his inability to eat because he preferred to make sure you and Ellie did first, etc.

“Is there anything on my face? Or what’s with the starin’, sweetheart?” Your face goes hot, but there is no point in hiding your thoughts.

“I just… I never thought we would end up in this position. We were practically strangers once…”

“You said it, y/n. Once…” he replies, pulling you closer.

“I guess I’m just not used to this side of you…” Joel smirks, then chuckles. To be fair, he isn’t used to seeing you in such an intimate way. He knows there are many things left to learn from each other, but he knows nothing will change the way he feels.

“Look, after saying out loud how I feel about you… there’s nothin’ else to run away from, baby. I’m an old man who’s tired but feels like a teenager when it comes to you” Your heart melts from tenderness. You can’t help but kiss his chin.

“I’ll make sure to take care of you. There’s literally a whole life waiting for you, Joel. You’re not that old, dear” he smiles, nodding before resting one arm behind his head and the other snaking around you.

“Are we gonna tell Ellie?” You add, stretching on the bed.

“Let’s be real, she already knew before us.” Both of you laugh, smiling at each other like two idiots. The girl had constantly shared silly comments about you two being too close while dinner in the middle of nowhere, or how needy Joel looked about asking you to share a sleeping bag with him.

“She seemed excited about us talking…” Joel nods, sitting on the bed, stretching and making his bones crack a little.

“Glad we did more than talk” you gently push the man, making him chuckle a little.

“We should start heading towards Jackson by now…” you say looking that the sun was coming out again.

“Right. But… let’s say it one more time, please. So it’s… officially real” There was the insecure man you knew.

A little smile perks in your mouth as you crawl back towards him.

“We’re together now, wherever the tides take us…” he kisses you abruptly.

It was real. Coming back to Jackson meant closing a chapter, and starting a new one. And both of you knew it was going to be happier. And possibly… forever.

_______________________________________

Thank u to all the humans that waited almost A YEAR for this second part :)

Taglist:

@o-sacra-virgo-laudes-tibi

@orcasoul

@liciafonseca

@wanniiieeee

@joelmillersblog

[cheynovak]

A Soldier's past

Soldier boy x F/Reader  

Warnings:  none I guess

Side note: English isn’t my first language.   

*Does not follow the boys timeline* 

--

Y/N is a museum clerk at the old Vought Museum on the edge of town. The only and old exhibition about Soldier Boy standing will end in a few weeks, Vought found a new purpose for the museum. Meaning the exhibition will end and Y/N will need to search for a new job. 

She takes one last tour around the museum before locking it down, seeing a man in the shadows.  

-- 

Y/N sighed as she gazed around the dimly lit museum hall.  

The old exhibition about soldier boy came to an end, marking the end of an era for the museum and for her. She had spent countless hours organizing artifacts, answering questions from curious visitors, and preserving the stories of brave men who had fought in the war.  

She started as a college student but became more and more invested in Soldier Boys past. Getting to know the man behind the mask. When she eventually got her degree Vought offered her a fulltime managers function. Which she accepted with pride.  

As the clock struck midnight, signalling the end of a long last day, Y/N decided to open the museum till now, hoping some last costumers would step in to say goodbye. But per usual, the rooms were empty part from one high school tour in the morning.  

She had known this was to happen, fewer and fewer people came to see him, schools went to see the new museum where all of Vought's greatest heroes were presented.  

With a heavy heart she takes one last tour of the exhibition before locking up for the night. The soft glow of the display lights cast yellow shadows on the walls, giving the room an otherworldly feel.  

She loved to walk around after closing time. As she walked among the relics of battles gone by, Y/N couldn't shake the feeling of melancholy that hung heavy in the air. These artifacts told stories of courage and sacrifice, but they also held memories of loss and pain. 

Lost in thought, Y/N almost didn't notice the figure lurking in the shadows near the back of the hall. It was a man, tall and imposing, his features obscured by darkness. Instinctively, Y/N's hand went to the panic button on her belt, but something stopped her. 

"Hello? Sir... are you okay?" she called out, her voice echoing in the empty hall. 

The figure stirred, stepping forward into the light. 

He stood tall, his muscular frame evident even beneath the fabric of his green jacket. Broad shoulders tapered down to a trim waist, giving him an aura of strength and athleticism. 

The dim light of the exhibition hall cast shadows across his rugged face, accentuating the sharp angles of his jawline. His eyes, green, once bright with determination, now held a world of pain and regret, their intensity piercing through the darkness. 

Y/N's breath caught in her throat as she recognized him, how could she not... It was Soldier Boy, the legendary hero whose exploits were immortalized in the exhibition. 

As their eyes met across the silent expanse of the exhibition hall.  

"I'm fine," he muttered, his voice heavy with sorrow. "Just needed a place to... forget." 

Y/N found herself drawn towards Soldier Boy, her footsteps echoing softly against the polished marble floors. With each step, the distance between them narrowed, until finally, they stood mere inches apart. "Forget what?" 

"Forget everything," he replied turning back to his statue, his voice barely above a whisper. "The battles, the bloodshed, the lives lost... the pain I've had over the years.”  

As his heavy words lingered in the stillness of the exhibition hall, a sudden interruption broke the fragile silence. The ringing of the phone echoed through the room, its shrill tones startling Y/N, her heart racing as she realized she had neglected her duties.  

"I'm sorry," she said softly, her voice tinged with regret. "I need to answer that. I should make sure the doors are locked too. Soldier Boy nodded in understanding, a flicker of disappointment crossing his features. "Of course," he replied, his tone resigned. 

Y/N offered him a reassuring smile saying he was welcome to stay as long as he needed, before hurrying towards the reception desk, her footsteps echoing against the polished marble floors again. With trembling hands, she picked up the receiver, her heart pounding in her chest. 

"Hello?" she said, her voice barely above a whisper. 

On the other end of the line, a familiar voice greeted her, its warmth a welcome balm to her nerves. It was her colleague, Sarah, calling to check in before the end of her last shift. 

Y/N quickly assured her that everything was fine, offering a brief explanation for her delayed response. After confirming that the doors were securely locked and the museum was empty, she bid Sarah farewell. 

As she hung up the phone, Y/N felt a sense of relief wash over her. With the doors secured and her duties fulfilled, she could finally devote her full attention to Soldier Boy, the mysterious stranger who had stumbled into her life on this fateful night 

Y/N's heart skipped a beat with worry as she returned to the exhibition hall, only to find it empty. Panic in her mind, hoping he didn’t leave, as she scanned the dimly lit room, searching for any sign of him, her eyes darting from one shadowy corner to the next. And then, amidst the flickering glow of the display lights, she saw him. 

Soldier Boy stood before a massive painting, his gaze fixed upon the canvas with a mixture of reverence and regret. The painting, his team, Payback, frozen in time like ghosts from another era. 

Y/N approached cautiously, her heart heavy with concern for the troubled hero. She could sense the weight of his memories pressing down upon him, threatening to consume him in their relentless grip. 

"Soldier Boy," she called out softly, her voice a gentle whisper in the stillness of the night. Y/N stepped closer, her hand reaching out instinctively to touch his arm. "Are you alright?" she asked, her voice filled with genuine concern. 

“Hm” was all he reacted, she saw his emotions in his eyes. Piercing at the painting. "What happened in 1983?" She asked him. 

Soldier Boy's gaze flickered with a mixture of emotions as he turned to face her. There was a haunted look in his eyes, a sadness that seemed to stretch on for eternity. Anger blazing through those beautiful green eyes.  

“These fuckers betrayed me. Vought betrayed me. Made me a fucking lap rat for the Russians. After all I did for those fuckers.” He turned back at the painting. She could see the pain etched into every line of his face, the weight of his regrets pressing down upon him like a heavy burden. 

"Is that why you're here?" she asked gently, her voice filled with compassion. "To confront the ghosts of your past?" Soldier Boy nodded solemnly, his gaze still on the painting of his team. "I thought coming here would help me find closure," he admitted. 

Y/N reached out a comforting hand, her fingers brushing against his arm. "Sometimes, confronting our past is the only way to find peace," she offered softly.  

“What are you doing here?” He asks stern. Y/N took a moment to gather her thoughts before responding, her gaze meeting Soldier Boy's. She gestured towards the surrounding exhibition hall, the artifacts and relics of wars long past serving as a testament to her words. 

"This museum holds a special place in my heart," she continued, her tone turning more serious. "It's a sanctuary of sorts, a place where the echoes of history can still be heard if you listen closely enough." 

He rolls his eyes. “This are pieces of shit and dirt. Half of it isn’t even real.” His words made her feel a sting in her chest, a sense of pride swelling within her. "I like to think it is of import," she replied, her smile widening.  

"Every artifact, every story... they all have a part to play in shaping our understanding of the world and our place in it." “Is that why they are shutting it down.” It wasn’t even a question. 

"Let me give you a grand tour," Y/N offered with a warm smile, gesturing toward the museum's exhibits. Soldier Boy chuckled softly, his eyes twinkling with a hint of mischief. "I know my history, doll," he replied, a touch of playful arrogance in his tone. 

Y/N arched an eyebrow, her lips curving into a teasing grin. "Fine then, let me tell you what I see when I tell your story," she countered, her voice tinged with a challenge. 

And so, they went on a journey through time, with Y/N serving as the guide and Soldier Boy as the reluctant but intrigued traveller. With each artifact they encountered and every story they uncovered, Y/N wove a tapestry of Soldier Boy's past, painting a vivid portrait of his journey through the ages. 

She spoke of his triumphs and his failures, his moments of heroism and his moments of weakness. She delved into the depths of his soul, exploring the complexities of his character and the struggles he faced along the way. 

As they walked, Soldier Boy listened intently, his gaze fixed upon Y/N with a newfound sense of appreciation. He found himself increasingly captivated by Y/N's passion for this place. 

 He saw himself reflected in her words, not just as a larger-than-life hero, but as a flawed and vulnerable human being searching for meaning in a world fraught with uncertainty. 

Her enthusiasm was infectious, igniting a spark within him that he hadn't felt in years. He watched in awe as she spoke, her eyes alight with excitement. It was as if she breathed life into the artifacts.  

In that moment, amidst the hallowed halls of history, Soldier Boy found himself drawn to Y/N in a way he hadn't expected. Her passion, her knowledge, her unwavering dedication, it all spoke to something deep within him, stirring feelings he hadn't dared to acknowledge. 

She knew him without knowing him. The real him, and yet isn’t scared. 

And as the tour drew to a close, Y/N turned to Soldier Boy with a smile, her eyes alight with excitement. "So, what do you think?" she asked, a note of anticipation in her voice. 

Soldier Boy chuckled softly, attempting to lighten the mood with a playful remark. "Well, I must admit, you certainly know your stuff," he teased, a mischievous twinkle in his eye. "You are either a nerd or some sort of paid stalker, creepy.” 

His attempt at humour masked a deeper truth, he was afraid to let Y/N see just how much he had enjoyed listening to her. The vulnerability of opening up to someone, his emotions behind a facade of strength and stoicism. 

But as he watched Y/N's smile falter ever so slightly, a pang of regret pierced through his jest. He realized that his attempt at humour had fallen flat, and he cursed himself for his lack of tact.   

“I’m sorry. I asked too much of your time. I’ll leave you to it.” She said before making her way back to the front desk. He watched walking away.  

Soldier Boy's footsteps echoed softly in the museum as he made his way to the front desk where Y/N stood, her gaze still fixed on the ground with a hint of disappointment. 

Clearing his throat, Soldier Boy took a deep breath to steady his nerves before speaking. "I'm sorry," he began, his voice gentle yet filled with sincerity. "I didn't mean to make you feel bad.” 

Y/N looked up, her eyes meeting his with a mixture of surprise and curiosity. "You don't need to apologize," she replied softly. "I understand."  

“I realize I never asked for your name." He said still trying to meet her eye.  

Y/N's lips curved into a small smile, touched by his gesture. "It's Y/N," she answered, her voice warm. "Y/N," Soldier Boy repeated, the name rolling off his tongue like a whispered promise. "Thank you, Y/N, for everything. " 

He hung over the desk. “I’m Ben.” “I know” she said, now looking in his green eyes. 

With one last smile, Soldier Boy turned to leave but decided not to. Turning back towards Y/N, who still stood behind the front desk, he found himself unable to walk away just yet. The thought of leaving without knowing when he might see her again felt like a missed opportunity he couldn't bear. 

"What are you doing tomorrow night?" he found himself asking, the words tumbling out before he could fully process them. Y/N's eyes widened in surprise, a hint of curiosity flickering in her gaze. "Um, nothing in particular," she replied, a touch of uncertainty “It’s my last night here.” 

"Would you...” A nervous energy coursed through Soldier Boy's veins as he searched for the right words to say. “Like to grab dinner with me? 

Her eyes grew wide “Me?” He nodded slow. “You don’t have to... I mean you don’t own me or need to make up or something.” Mischief dancing in his eyes as he looked at her with a playful grin. His gaze lingered on her, taking in every detail from the way her hair fell to her soft plump lips. 

"I love your stories, doll," he said, his voice filled with genuine admiration. “I want to hear more.” Y/N couldn't help but blush at the compliment, feeling a warmth spread through her cheeks. 

“So, dinner it is?” He asks. 

“I’d love to.”  

-- 

What do you think... Do we need to continue this story? Or is the idea of having a date with Soldier boy enough?  

[adultswim2021]

The Young Person’s Guide to History: “The Duel” | April 1, 2008 - 1:00AM | S00E01

The Young Person’s Guide to History was a spin-off of Saul of the Mole Men. Why there should be a spin-off of Saul of the Mole Men is beyond me. Originally the idea was that it was going to be four 11-minute episodes, and in fact it was produced in that format. This is one of those four episodes. When the series turned up later in 2008, they cut the length in half to TWO 11-minute episodes, each episode consisting of what was originally meant to be two episodes, edited down to half the running time. Saul of the Mole Men always came off as over-long, and when I criticized them I usually observed that they could be cut down drastically. I guess when those versions debut, we’ll actually have something to base that theory on (spoilers; I remember it still being bad). 

Okay, so this is the intended series finale of the original four-episode run. At least, one would assume that it is. The plot: it’s 1804 and a bunch of guys are called to a haunted mansion to stay the night. There’s a disembodied voice on a little desktop speaker, like the kind you’d page a secretary with in the later half of the 20th Century. That’s a running thing in the series: very casual use of anachronisms. It’s not super-jokey Mel Brooks style, more like “kids making a movie and not having the resources to replicate the past accurately so they just use a car instead of a carriage” kind of thing. I like that. It’s one of the few things I truly like about this. 

Okay, haunted mansion with guys. They all get killed except Thomas Jefferson who runs out in anguish, as though he were a man possessed while committing this brutal bout of deadly violence. It turns out the house in question is the White House, and Jefferson is now the president. He asks Benjamin Franklin to help him make a vice president, so they create Aaron Burr in a boiling vat, using “science”. Aaron Burr is, uh, neurodivergent. We see a single scene of him doing vice president stuff: being asked about universal healthcare on the senate floor. He makes an imbecilic re-re noise and pees into his own open mouth. The floor cheers. 

Later, while having pizza, Jefferson gets fed up with Burr’s buffoonery and shoots him. He then puts the gun in Burr’s dead hand and uses it to shoot Alexander Hamilton, in order to frame them for each other’s death in a supposed duel, a historical event burned into the minds of a certain generation whose “Got Milk” advertisement got a nation of history buffs rolling in the aisles. Jefferson has transformed into a tyrant, like a guy in a freaking rated-R movie.

Jefferson finally shoots Ben Franklin, but not before cruelly taunting him for his legendary weakness. The voice on the little speaker congratulates Jefferson for being so mean. The voice is in the middle of calling him “Caleb Hilttrop?” or something like that? before being cut off. The significance of this completely eludes me, and I’m not sure if this is set-up in one of the other three episodes that would have aired along with this one, or if I just missed something in the opening sequence. We may never know, because I recall this bit being completely cut out of the version that did air. Jefferson switches the speaker to some rock song and screams “I’m the president!”

I do like that ending, I just wish anything that came before it was compelling enough to call it “earned”. I’d be hard-pressed to come up with much else in this episode that makes it worth watching. This is one of the unfunniest things to air on Adult Swim. It’s barely connected to Saul of the Mole Men, which isn’t a bad thing, honestly. 

There is a scene where Seth Green (who is cut from the shortened version entirely) talks about how he and Jefferson co-authored several sci-fi books about Nathaniel Baltimore’s adventures fighting various sci-fi beasts, and we see a little scene featuring Nathaniel Baltimore shooting a creature that is just them reusing the doctor costume from Saul. This seems to imply that either Saul of the Mole Men is a work of fiction featuring Nathaniel Baltimore in this world, which would explain why there’s no real continuity between this show and Saul. I believe the Jefferson episode of Saul has events in it that would contradict the existence of this series, but I”m not feeling curious enough to even re-read my own write-up to confirm this. I will link to it though, in case you are a sicko who actually is curious. 

Later in the year the truncated version of the show would air. The full-length versions were put up on Adult Swim for a short period of time. The one guy I knew of who knew how to rip from Adult Swim actually had these at one point, but deleted them because he “didn’t think anyone would want them”. Fucker. Again, if anyone knows how to get a hold of those uncut other episodes, please get in touch. 

Oh, I put the whole thing on YouTube, if you want to watch it.

EPHEMERA CORNER

[chimivx]

vegas, baby. // myg. (2)

~ part two - here is ( part ONE! ) ~

pairing: Idol!Yoongi x Female!Reader ( ot7, they're all there )

summary: After seeing Yoongi and the guys, it's time for them to get ready for the show, which leaves you time to go explore the world you used to live before your daughter was born. Meeting AMRY, buying merchandise, it's all normal... for the most part, and the show is legendary...

words: 6.5k

warnings: like none, fluff…?, a swear word here or there, does Vegas need its own warning?, barely edited i just gotta get it out, they mention sex a few times, it's heavily insinuated at the end, DAD YOONGI, baby is unnamed ( you get to pick :) )

a/n: part two finally, thank you for all of the lovely support. i am in love with this couple, i've had thoughts of starting a series. the backstory for them after writing their future just feels entirely too sweet now... thank you again for over 500 notes on part one :')... i adore you all.

*gif not mine, cred to owner*

Nerves stirred in your chest right under where you were holding your baby girl.  Following close behind the undercover security guard, Branson, you were headed out to the crowds at the Allegiant Stadium with twenty minutes until showtime.  Three team members walked around you, all of them dressed in similar, casual style so as to not draw attention to your group.  As promised, you had given Branson a new t-shirt with Jimin’s face on it, getting a laugh out of him, reminding him of old times.  He pulled it over his head with joy, having you take a funny picture of him to send to Jimin who always loved this long running joke of yours.

Behind you, a loving hand held onto your shoulder.  Turning toward her, your old friend Sunita, or Sunny, was heading out of the arena with you.

“Oh my gosh!” You gasp, seeing her now for the first time in a long time.  Sunny giggles, then pulls you into a hug, the others pausing for a second while you have your moment.

“I was cleaning up when you got here, we’ve been busier than ever doing these shows everywhere… It’s so incredible to see you,” She sighs, then rests a hand to your baby girl's head, “She’s beautiful, and getting so big.” Smiling wider than before, you thank her and offer her your daughter who’s eyes were boggling over the stunning woman before you, your long term stylist best friend who broke into the professional industry thanks to BTS.  Sunny had been struggling for years to make it big, then one summer night a simple phone call changed both of your lives forever.

“You hold onto her,” Sunny smiles her wide trademark grin, “This is your night, spend every moment with her.” Bouncing your girl, you nod, then you pout your lip.

“My arms will be tired in an hour,” You whisper, laughing with Sunny who agreed to take her from you when you needed a break.  Branson waved a hand, egging the two of you on to continue your reunion as you toured the stadium.

There were five in your group, not counting your mini.  Branson led you guys around the ‘long way’, he called it, so you weren’t seen coming out of a backstage area.  

The moment you saw members of ARMY come into view was the moment tears began to well in your eyes.  Sunny noticed, snaking a hand underneath one of your arms to hold you close, walking directly side by side with the woman who was half a foot taller than you.  From your front, your girl coo’s happily, finally satisfied with some visual stimulation she was being deprived of in the plain halls.  There were bright lights, there were concessions, shops, bars, and signs with the guys' handsome faces on them.  The further you walked inside the thicker the crowd had gotten, but it wasn’t making you nervous… It was oddly comforting.  The chatter and excitement was fueling your own, and seeing ARMY’s smiling faces got you smiling, knowing that that was the boy's only wish.  Their ARMY’s happiness.

Admiring the creative outfits and costumes the fans pulled together, you and Sunny reminisce together with a look, not needing to say too much, but remembering the days you’d spend hours planning concert outfits together.

“Anything you have planned to do?” Branson asks without an ounce of impatience.  His smile is small, just happy to have you back around to get him away from the chaos the guys liked to cause backstage.  The five of you have come to a stop beside a shop of merchandise that was flooded with young fans reaching left and right, and up and down, for their bias’s merch.

“Dada!” Your girl shouted, looking in the same direction as you, “Daaa, daaa, dadada…” The group begins to laugh as she continues to babble the syllables she struggled with for forever, but suddenly now loved to say.

“Well,” You remain calm, “You heard the girl.” Joining in the laughter you nod toward the shop and the posters decorated with her daddy’s face.

“You don’t know this yet, but it’s a secret,” You whisper to her for no one else to hear, “You have the coolest dad ever… but nobody knows.” 

“DADA!” She shouts once more.  Excellent secret keeper.

Inside the shop there were BTS songs playing that some fans were singing along to, and you believe your girl may have recognized it because she started to kick her legs to the beat.  

The first time she reacted to music you thought Yoongi was going to cry actual tears.  You were at home in the living room playing an unheard track from ‘D-3’, that still has no release date, with your daughter in your arms, her back pressed to your belly as you swayed side to side to the beat.  Yoongi was on the couch, critiquing himself quietly as he would tend to do, but still smiling at his girls that were enjoying his music.

“She likes it,” His eyes were big, full of love.

“She’s just happy it's finished,” You start to tease, “She’s been hearing this beat since the womb.” He cracks a laugh and shakes his head, getting your girl to laugh, too.

“You look beautiful,” He says, his voice hushed.  Pausing your movement, your eyes go crazy, glancing down at your estranged fit, then back to Yoongi who was still smiling.  It was the evening time and you were still dressed in your pajamas, well, all three of you were.  Your hair was tied up, exactly how you woke up that morning, toppling to the side in the scrunchy that was hanging on to the edge of glory.  Shorter pieces of hair had fallen out of the back and were laying on your shoulders that were also adorned with slobber art, courtesy of the little one in your arms.  To be fair, Yoongi wore the same art on his shoulders, and his hair was just as disheveled.

“I look beau-“ The song changed, and your daughter in your arms started to kick her legs to the beat, the exact beat.  Not in the cutesy way a baby would typically kick, she was hitting every accent.  Yoongi launched himself forward, jaw falling open in shock, cutting off your sentence.

“Yes!” He nearly shouts.  Looking down at her you smile, then start to sway your body again to which she begins to kick even harder.  Resting a hand over his lips, Yoongi takes a long deep breath before standing to join you, taking his little one's hands with two of his fingers.  His eyes were sparkling with absolute joy as he watched his baby bounce to his music.

“I knew it’d be mine that would get you moving,” He says to her, then kisses her head before kissing you, the three of you spending most of the night here finishing the album together.

“Put her right there,” Sunny points below a Jungkook doll, directing you where to hold your daughter so you could take a picture of her nestled in the plushies of the guys.  She was a little bit bigger than the dolls, so it made for the cutest scene.  Strategically holding her under her bum and behind her back, you balanced her between Yoongi and Hoseok, who’s plushies were right beside one another.  You wondered if that was done on purpose.

“PERFECT!” Sunny shouts, gathering the attention of a group of teenagers walking into the shop behind her.  All at once a chorus of ‘Aw’s’ and ‘she’s so cute’ broke out amongst them.  Your girl giggles, and Sunny snaps the shot that you knew would make it to your Instagram later.

Propping her on your hip, your daughter stares at the girls wearing masks, some wearing sunglasses and others wearing bucket hats.  From their clothes alone, you could already tell who’s bias was who’s.  The tall, short brown haired girl dressed in black cargo pants with a black crop top, big boots and a bucket hat on belonged to Jungkook.  80’s style, colorful trash bag pants belonged to Hobi, curvy, sleekly styled mini skirt belonged to Jin and the shortest one on the end with a fuzzy purple sweater on was Jimin’s.  You guessed they took your daughter looking at them as an invitation to come over to you.

“How old is she?” Hobi’s asked, crouching down a bit to coo at her.

“She’s sooo adorable!” Jin’s sung, leaning against Jungkook’s.

“About halfway to eight months, and thank you,” You smile beneath your mask, avoiding the eye contact, keeping your eyes pointed at your girl who was resting her cheek on your arm, “She gets a little shy sometimes,” You poke her nose gently hoping to make her smile, but she simply turns her head away from the teens.  Of course now she catches onto the secret.

“She likes BTS? Or do you?” Jimin’s asks you.

“Oh, she loves BTS,” You roll your head a bit to emphasize, “Just a few minutes ago she was dancing away to My Time in here.”

“No way, that played?! We missed it?!” Jungkook’s whined, stomping her feet a bit as she looked to her friends.

“Jungkook bias?” You ask with a raised eyebrow, and her friends answer for her with a groan.

“Insufferable,” Jimin’s rolls her eyes.

“It is not my fault he is insanely handsomely beautiful,” Jungkook’s states, holding up a finger.  You note to remind Jungkook how ‘insanely handsomely beautiful’ he was later, “Now I’m done talking about him before I throw up because I’m so nervous to see him in person… Do you have a bias?” Every head turns to look at you, it felt as if everyone in the store had come to a standstill, heat rising in your chest as the teens eyed you.  Branson was on the other end of the shop with the other two stylists taking in the sight of the place littered with ARMY, all while keeping a close eye on you.  You glance there for a second, and he assumes a strong stance, questioning you with an eyebrow.  Reassuring him with a smile, you nod and look at the girls.

“I do,” You say happily, knowing Sunny was shaking in her boots, “Totally Suga,” You beam, using his stage name hoping it’d throw off the instance that you could possibly be personal with him, though you knew ARMY used their full names regardless.  The girls giggle with you.

“He’s so hot!” Jin’s says, bouncing up and down.  Blushing beneath your mask, you nod again, having learned that you’ll hear this about your boyfriend from other people for the rest of your life.

“He really is,” You sigh.

“Does… sheeee have a bias?” They ask about your daughter who has now turned back to the teens who got closer to you in conversation.  You all laugh after the question is asked, knowing it’s a little inappropriate, but you honestly had an answer.

“You know, I thought it was Jungkook,” You bob your head, holding onto one of her hands to shake, “But… it happens to the best of us… I think this lady has fallen for V.” The girls absolutely lose it, tossing their heads back in awe, and shouting a couple things.  Your daughter finally laughs, making the girls react even bigger.

“Well, you guys have taste,” Jimin’s pops a hip and points to you and your girl.

“Yeah, you guys are cool,” Hobi’s smiles, then the girl's attention gets stolen by the oodles of merchandise in the shop.  They say goodbye and hurry off to grab favorites of their favorites.  Sunny ends up back at your side and shows off photos she took while you were mid conversation with the group of girls.  The very last one being all of you laughing, including your baby who crystal clearly resembled her father.

“The sweetest,” You say softly, “Look at her, that’s fucking Yoongi,” You whisper sarcastically annoyed, you and Sunny laughing.

“Yeah, I’m sorry, it is,” She agrees to your dismay, making you laugh harder.

“You’re supposed to be on my side!  I grew her!” You tease, bumping her with your hip.

“Yes, yes you did,” Sunny assures, then smirks, “But he put her in you.” Throwing your head back you cackle, the two of you causing a scene in the corner of this shop.  Your daughter watches you happily, content in her mothers arms.  Branson and the others made their back over to you, asking if you were ready to move on or if you wanted to stay here for a while longer.  Glancing around the shop at the merchandise, you ponder the thought of purchasing something, at least something for your girl.

“He’ll kill you if you buy something,” Branson reads your mind, watching your eyes search the store.  Frowning, you bounce your baby a bit. 

“Uh, well, there’s too many people around for me to just take it,” You say, and Sunny snickers.

“What do you want?  I have my ID, I’ll talk to them up front and get it for you,” Branson says.  Your daughter had a hand stretched out behind you toward the wall of plush dolls.  Turning around so she could see them better, you gasp when you see that she has her hand on Taehyung’s doll.

“You are down bad, baby,” You joke to yourself, picking up the doll to give to Branson.  The buff man barely glances at it, but looks at you with a puzzled expression.

“Tae?” He asks you as if you didn’t examine the shelves properly enough.  Sighing, you shrug and press your lips together.

“It’s her first crush, I gotta get it for her,” You mutter, half serious.  Branson quizzes you with his eyes again, then decides to not ask anymore questions and just get the doll for you.

“Don’t blame her, man is a snack,” Sunny says beside you, “Whoa!” She exclaims, your daughter having latched onto one of her fingers with her tiny iron fist.

“Oh, she’s got a death grip,” You warn a few seconds too late, your eyes wandering down to the low hanging silver chain with diamonds on it around her neck, “Watch out for that necklace, she’ll want that next.”  Sunny lifts a hand to it and starts to joke with your girl about it, getting her to smile and coo a bit.

From the front of the shop, Branson was getting the doll, and behind him in line was the girl in the purple sweater, the Jimin bias who was talking to you a couple of minutes ago.  Your eyes met, hers seeming like they were watching you for a little while now.  The young girl looks at Branson, watches as he pulls out his wallet with no cash, flashes his ID, then gets handed V’s doll in a bag that he didn’t pay for.  Her dark brown eyes find you again, her eyebrows low now.  It was as if you could see the wheels turning in her head.  Taking in Sunny, and your daughter, you tuck your girl's face against your chest, which she didn’t like, she started to whine, but this young girl was getting suspicious.  You’ve seen this look before, just not this serious.  Ever.  Branson was almost back to you guys, then you could hurry out of here before things escalated- unfortunately, the bad secret keeper had a mind of her own.

“Dada… dadada…” She started babbling on and on when you allowed her to look around again.  The young girl's eyes started to grow wider.  Pulling her mask to her chin you saw that her lips were parted in subtle shock.  You stood this way for a minute, even after Branson asked if you were ready to go.  This girl didn’t move, the shop line moved around her.  She didn’t shout, she didn’t cry, she didn’t make a scene, she didn’t take any pictures, she didn’t get angry… It seemed strange.  If something like this were to happen, everyone on the team was prepared for the third world war, but right now it didn’t seem like such a huge deal.

The girl still seemed like she was questioning it, her expression telling you just how skeptical she still was, so you pull your own mask down and give her a small smile- not that she knew your face, you just wanted her to know that you appreciated her for who she was, of course, now that she’s partially got you figured out.  She tried to smile back, then you sent her the final message that sealed the deal.  You lift a finger to your lips, in this moment fully telling her that everything she was thinking was true, and that she needed to keep her mouth absolutely shut.  The second your finger touched your lips her jaw snapped shut, and her eyes went extra wide.  She gave you a slight nod and turned her back to your group, allowing you to release a heavy breath.  You didn’t realize how long you were almost holding it for, now feeling anxious.

“We can go,” You mutter, tucking your daughter close to you again, leading the group out of the shop.

“Hey, you okay?” Branson asks, hurrying to your side as you flee the scene, “What happened?” His voice was stern, but not with you.  Slowing your stride so he wasn’t running after you, you sigh.

“There was… just a lot of people,” You say, “It’s been a while, I thought I’d be able to handle this.” Sunny catches up, placing a hand to the back of your neck to give it a gentle squeeze.

“Uh, my opinion may not matter, but I think you’re doing great,” Branson half smiles, shrugging with his hands.  Sunny's brows turn in as she looks at you, confused.

“What’s wrong, love?” Her voice is low, soft, and comforting.  Turning to face her, she sees it in your eyes and quickly wraps her arms around your shoulders, sheltering you and your mini, kissing the top of your head.

“You’re doing so good,” She whispers, giving you a small rock side to side, “Tiny is having a blast.  She is such a good baby… You know how many little ones I hear screaming at these shows?  You have an angel.” Chuckling into her shoulder, you sniffle, a few unnoticed tears slipping down your cheek.

“She’s her father,” You say, “And thank God for that, remember how I used to get at these things?” Lifting your head you shoot her a crazy eyed look and she lets out a cackle to which your little one giggles.

“Do I? After the first two shows you were impossible to find!  You were… rearranging furniture and shit… stuff! Stuff… sorry,” She ends with a whisper to your daughter, making you smile.  Empty dressing rooms just used to hit different on the road.

“You hungry?” Sunny asks, and you shake your head, “Want to go grab our spots then? The show starts soon.” The thought of watching Yoongi letting it all go onstage brought you back to the moment, the excitement beginning to come back.  Your favorite part of this, hearing him live, and of course watching him dance.  

Since his surgery he’s never looked so free as he does now when he moves, and it struck your heart in a way that got you weepy.

He was in his accident before you had met him, and you didn’t learn about his injury until a little bit into your relationship.  It caused a lot of problems for him through his career, which then had you causing problems for his management because you were so utterly pissed off that he wasn’t able to get the proper care he needed… It was a topic you could go off about for hours, and how unfair it was to have him suffer for so long.  Going through the journey of the surgery with him, to see him dance now really got to you.  No more wincing in pain, no more trying to rotate it into place, and no more unimportant doctor visits where they’d tell you the same thing again and again.

Watching the livestream of Permission to Dance LA, and seeing the way he was acting did actually have you shedding tears of happiness.  It’s been plenty of time since his procedure, so he’s been recovered for a while, but he still tends to wrap it up from time to time to take care of it and to prevent future injury.

Looking at Sunny, you start to smile.

“Let’s go watch my man shake his ass like he’s on a corner,” You say, taking her by surprise.

“Y/N!” She gasps with a grin, hooking an arm under one of yours as you start to follow Branson and the other girls, “But… he really does shake his ass like he’s on a corner…” She leans in to giggle with you.

“Permission to Dance, I dunno what it does to him,” You simply smile.

Round, purple headphones covered your baby's ears as she laid in your lap on her back, comfortably resting on your thighs where she was free to kick her legs as much as she wanted.  Her eyes were open wide, taking in everything around her from the people, to the lights that were shining bright. The ARMY Bombs mesmerized her, one catching her eye every couple seconds.

“How quiet do you think those make this for her?” Sunny asks from the chair next to you, tapping the black band of the headphones.  Your group of five had seats on the floor, just off to the side of the big square stage in the middle of the arena that descended off of the main one.

“I have no idea,” You puzzled, tilting your head curiously as your daughter smiles at you, “You’re so happy!” You coo, squishing her cheeks a couple times between two fingers, “Can you hear Mama?” She giggles, and you lean over to kiss her nose, rubbing yours to hers before doing so.  Scooping her up from underneath her arms, you tried to get her to stand on your knees, but her little legs wanted to kick instead.

“Want to bet they’re all having a meltdown back there?” Sunny smizes, nodding toward the stage, knowing they were all standing behind the screen waiting to come out.  There were unfortunate technical difficulties with the screen, the concert was supposed to begin twenty minutes ago.  This was the guys worst nightmare, you just knew they were anxious ARMY would be disappointed. 

Out in the crowd however, everyone couldn’t look happier.  The sense of community in these seats was unlike any other… besides the few comments you heard and chose to ignore about you and your baby getting seats on the floor.  Sunny and Branson were quick to reassure you, telling you that you deserved to be sitting where you were.  It was another surprise to hear Sunny say that she’d be staying in the crowd the whole show with you, usually she’d have to leave to go help with the boys, but tonight she was able to stay with you making it feel like three years ago all over again.

“I feel like I can hear Jimin whining from here,” You snicker, blowing raspberries to your girl's cheek making her laugh.

Suddenly, the room goes dark and screams erupt from every square inch of the vicinity.  A spark ignites in your heart, feeling swallowed by the sound of love for your man and his best friends.  Jumping to your feet, you turn your girl around, holding her back against your belly as you watch the square ‘We Don’t Need Permission’ screen, that was blinking like crazy, rise slowly to reveal a prison-like cage full of dancers.  

The opening notes of ON began to play, and your stomach twisted into knots, heart beating a mile a minute.  As the smoke dissipated, they appeared.  A tear you didn’t notice that was welling in your eyes rolled down your cheek as you smiled, releasing a breath heavily.

Once the cage had risen and was out of the way, the dancers barreled forward, putting on the performance of their life, the choreography just as good as the first time you’d seen it way back when in rehearsal before the world blew up.  It was genius to open with ON, having been sitting on it for a year without live performances.

“JIMIN!” Sunny shouts, rocking to the beat as the boy with the always ethereal voice finally emerged from the performers.  From your front you felt your girl bouncing, her legs happily going as she found her fingers to munch on.  Looking down at her, you lift her higher to your chest so she’d have a better view, though you were unsure she could put together anything that's happening right now.  All you knew is that she felt the music, and that she was going to lose it when the guys made their way down to this stage.

Taehyung swaggered his way through his verse, Namjoon the next to emerge to absolutely rock his part, standing out amongst the dancers being dressed in red.  Then came Jungkook, his eyes scanning the crowd slyly as he searched for you while bobbing along to the music, and as the song slid into the chorus- there he finally was.  Yoongi jumped into place, determination written in his stage presence as he started to rip the choreography apart, moving smooth and free.  ON wasn’t easy, none of their dances were, but ON was demanding especially on his shoulder.  Watching him tear it up, another tear seemed to fall.  

He moved effortlessly beside Hobi and Taehyung as the next verse began, your heart knotting up because you knew what was coming next.

The world seemed to stop as his voice rang out in the stadium, the screams erupting once again as he stood solo in front of the dancers, the guys hurrying behind them to join in the choreography.  Your daughter stopped bouncing, her head looking curiously side to side at the sound of her fathers voice that she was all too familiar with.

“Girl!” Sunny called to you, reaching her hands around your shoulders to hug you tight as you cried happy tears.  She wiped beneath your eyes for you and held you for the rest of the song, singing every word with you.

“Holy shit!” You shout turning toward her, laughing as the lights go out and the crowd goes nuts.  Sunny smiles at you sweetly.

“I’m so happy you’re here,” She says, and before you could say anything back, Fire began.

“No FUCKING WAY!” You shout, mouth agape as if this was the first time you’ve heard this setlist, but this was your song.  You and Yoongi, this was your song.

The music was bumping, pyrotechnics shooting off, and this was when they finally made their way down the stage, half of them running to the end.  Yoongi seemed to take his time, searching for you in the sea of beautiful faces as he joined his members in the center of the square.  Your girl was babbling away at the sight of them coming closer, but not loud enough to be heard over the catchy melody.  You and Sunny each lifted a hand to sway to the beat, and Jungkook spotted you first, slapping a silly grin on his face.  He didn’t stick around too long to keep it cool, but also to do his job.  

The choreography for Fire was just as sick as any other.  When the song came to an end, Yoongi was placed in the front to hit his signature, then Dope began and they dispersed, Jungkook running through them after saying, “To the left,” behind Yoongi.  He wandered forward at first, giving his attention to ARMY that they utmost deserved, some coming a long way and doing the most just to see them here tonight.  Finally he turned toward your side, and your heart started to race.  You felt like a teenager watching her Idol, waiting for him to notice her in the crowd and live happily ever after… The way your breath hitched in your throat as he came closer, and your hands felt shaky… He looked so good, and nothing got you going more than seeing him sweat it out onstage.

“Yoongi!” You couldn’t help but shout, hoping it’d help him spot you.  It did.  Sunny cheered, throwing his hands in the air as a cheeky smile grew on his lips, a hint of relief washing over him.  A shriek came from your daughter and he laughed, starting to rap along to the song, jumping up and down as she started to kick her legs again.

As fast as he appeared, he had to run away, but from that moment on his entire demeanor changed.  He bounced around the stage, and even messed around with the cameras with Hobi during their verses getting ARMY to melt.

The rest of the show was invigorating.  Eventually all seven of them found you, making sure to come over from time to time to give you a smile or funny face, courtesy of Uncle Kookie.  Yoongi stood in front of you at one point, gazing at his girl that was cuddled up in your chest sleepily.  It was about halfway through the show, he was dressed in the blue overalls he looked disgustingly adorable in.  The sight of his little one curled up in your arms as you rocked her to the beat of So What was incredibly endearing.  He laughed at first, seeing her eyes shut, but he knew after fifteen minutes she’d be back up ready to party, and he was right because as soon as Home started her head popped up.  She munched on a couple snacks at that point, a few puffs to keep her satisfied before she got her bottle to put her to sleep on the car ride back to the hotel after the show.  Yoongi was going to be coming back with you, and you were over the moon about it.

His team got you conjoined rooms, connected by a door so that you could have a room separate from your daughter in her adorably spacious crib that you traveled with.  She slept in your bedroom as an infant, but has been in her own bedroom since she was old enough to be alone.  Last night that door stayed open however, her first night in the new crib, and it would stay open tonight as well, no matter what.

The show closed with Permission to Dance, you and Sunny giggling like crazy at that one move in the choreography with Yoongi shaking his hips like his life depended on it.  Your daughter loved this song and was bouncing along, jumping slightly at the confetti that shot out toward the end.  Her tiny hands reached out for it as it fell all around you.  Sunny scooped some up and blew it out of her hands onto her, a giant smile growing on her face.  Bouncing a couple times she watched Sunny, waiting for her to do it again, and when she did, your girl screeched louder than she ever had before, one of the dancers turning her head to look over to where the sound came from.

Yoongi ran your way as the song faded out, and everyone started to clear the stage.  He chased after one of the big white balloons and kicked it, smiling down at you as he chased it to kick it again.  Blowing a quick kiss with just his lips, he hurried back up toward the main stage with his friends.

They took one last look at ARMY, and that screen started to come down around them as they waved and blew kisses and bowed.  Then, they were gone.

“I have to post to Weverse about it, I’m very upset,” Namjoon paced back and forth in front of the couches you and Sunny were lounging on.  Your best friend had a glass of champagne in her hand that she had offered to you as well, but you let her know you weren’t drinking while your little one was around, who was currently giggling up a storm in Jungkook's arms as he and Taehyung played with her.

“Joon, I’m telling you, they didn’t care.  If anything the wait made them more excited to see you,” You say to help calm his nerves.  Giving you a look that told you he was going to post about the technical issues anyway, you smile, sigh and wave him away.  On the couch across from you, Jimin was chugging a bottle of water before he had a swig of champagne, putting that glass down for the rest of the night.

“I thought it was great,” He says with a shrug, “It was fun seeing you two out there again.” He sends a smile to you and Sunny who returns it with a wink, making the It Boy blush and giggle.  Yoongi came into the dressing room, still wearing his last outfit, the long white sleeved shirt with the blue jeans, and his hair was pushed back messily.  The disheveled, after show look that usually had you jumping his bones and kicking your friends out of the room, if they didn’t leave voluntarily first.  Eating up his appearance, Sunny caught you undressing him with your eyes and laughed, slapping your leg.

“I’m not leaving,” Jimin says quietly without remorse, resting back against the couch cushions, propping his feet up on the table that sat between you guys.  Shooting him a hilarious glare for assuming you’d regress back to your old days, he just smiles and shakes his head.

“Can’t believe you slept through Idol!” Jungkook teases your daughter, Yoongi joining them in making her smile, “Want to see your dad?” Jungkook lifts her toward Yoongi, who holds out grabby hands.  She grins and babbles, but then tilts her head backward to look at Jungkook and decides to stay with him.

“Whatever,” Yoongi playfully rolls his eyes at her, “At least your mom wants to hang out with me.” Watching that whole moment pan out, you hold open your arms as he hurries over to you, diving into your lap, tossing his arms around your waist.  You laugh out loud, his actions taking you by surprise as he flips you over to place you on his lap.  Planting a thousand kisses on your face, he then sighs, catching his breath, his eyes glued to yours.

“You’re sweaty,” You whisper, running a hand through his hair.  He couldn’t wipe his smile away if he tried.

“I love you,” He says, ignoring the teasing that broke out amongst the rest of them.  Leaning forward to wrap your arms around his shoulders to kiss him, you smile into it.

“I love you more,” You say quietly.  A whine from your girl stood out through the chatter of everyone in the room, catching your attention, finally breaking the two of you away from one another.  Your chins turned at the same time, laughing as Jungkook pulled a funny face struggling to keep your writhing baby still in his arms.

“Hungry?” Yoongi asks you, and you nod.

“I was going to feed her on the way back to the hotel so she’d sleep for a while…” You say, hoping he’d catch onto your hint without having to actually say it aloud in this room of people who knew you both all too well.

“Think she’ll go down for the night?” Yoongi’s eyebrows launch to the sky, a familiar feeling stirring in your belly.  Kissing his cheek, you whisper in his ear.

“She’ll be out for hours.”

“We have to go,” Yoongi jumps up, placing you on your feet, “Give me my baby, we’re leaving.” He parades over to his friends, saying goodbye and taking his girl as you hug Sunny and Jimin.

“Hey,” Jungkook eyes him before handing over your daughter, “She’s your reminder,” He moves her in a little circle in front of Yoongi who just rolls his eyes, “Wrap it, my friend.”

“You mean you don’t want one for each arm?” Yoongi teases, making you and Sunny whip around at lightning speed, cutting off your goodbye.

“No!” Sunny, Jimin AND Jungkook all shout.  Looking at Yoongi, he glances at you and smirks.  Getting playful back, you lift your left hand and wiggle your ring finger.

“There better be something here first before number two comes out,” You giggle, and a chorus of ‘Ooo’s’ erupts, turning Yoongi’s cheeks pink as he squeezes his eyes shut with a big, cheesy, smile.  Even your daughter caught onto the sound and repeated it after everyone, laughter the next sound to fill the air.

“We’re leaving!” Yoongi, still grinning, glares at you and hurries for the door.  Sunny tosses her arms around you one more time.

“That look on his face,” You say quietly to her, “He has something planned, doesn’t he.” Pulling away from you, Sunny pretends to zip her lips shut and toss the key behind her.

“Baby, let’s go!” Yoongi shouts from down the hall.  Sunny pushes your shoulder gently.

“Go make some love with that fine piece of man,” She winks, watching you walk away with a smile on your face, “But love only! No babies!” It was your turn for your cheeks to turn pink, the guys throwing a couple jokes your way as you waved sheepishly to them.

“MAMA!” Rung out down the hall, your daughter shrieking thanks to her father.

“I’m coming!” You shout, turning out the door to find them at the end by the exit.

“Yes, you will be,” Yoongi shouts back.  Groaning as you laugh, you ignore his comment and hope the stage hands in the hall did as well.  Catching up to him, he holds around the back of your neck with his open arm, and he places a delicate kiss on your lips.

“This was my favorite show,” He says, “Nothing will top this.  I love you… so much.” Kissing him again, you hum against his lips and smile.

“I love you more,” You whisper, and he laughs quietly, shaking his head.

“Impossible.”

thank you for reading, I hope you’ve enjoyed this piece! 

feedback is always greatly appreciated & helps artists immensely. we also all love messages & the audience’s input, opinions, and ideas.

leave me some here! <3

[feferipeixes]

2012 (tautober #31)

(AO3 link)

Right on schedule, Dipper appeared in the space next to Mabel.

“Hey bro-bro!” she said, grinning. “You made it! How’d the summons go?”

“It was okay.” He was busy dusting himself off, paying attention to some strange white chunks that were stuck to his outfit. When he looked up, Mabel saw three bloody lines cut into his cheek, and they twisted up when he returned her smile. “I’m still getting used to the whole ‘negotiation’ thing. But on the bright side, the power that I got from the deal should be enough to keep me physical for an hour or two.”

Mabel squealed and did a little dance. “Awesome! Nothing can stop the Mystery Twins from taking on their first Halloween as technically teens! Especially since I’m Ducktective! If there’s a candy thief to be found, I’ll track them down and then ka-pow them right in the noodle!”

Dipper snorted. “Could Ducktective even punch anyone? I mean he is a duck.”

“Yeah? Well... I’ve got this big magnifying glass. I bet it’d leave a nasty mark if I threw it at their head!” Mabel crossed her arms and looked her brother up and down. “Besides, I don’t see you wearing a costume. Where’s your holiday spirit? Cmon, we gotta play the twins angle if we want to get as much candy as possible!”

“Oh, I’ve got a costume!” Dipper replied, with visible excitement. He stuck his arms out in a T-pose and began to spin. For a minute, he was only a blur, and when he slowed down again he was in a bright red trench coat with a matching fedora, and long black boots. He put his hands on his hips in a triumphant pose, and beamed at Mabel expectantly.

She frowned, nonplussed. “Are you, like, evil Inspector Gadget? I don’t think that works with our theme.”

“Noooooooo!” Dipper cried, throwing his arms up. “I’m Carmen Sandiego! Remember that show from when we were kids? She would go around the world stealing treasure and everyone was always trying to track her down and she was so cool??” He glared at her with the most spectacular scowl on his face, and a waft of steam rose out of his hat.

"Oh yeah!” She giggled and bopped him on the head -- recoiling a bit when she found him to be scalding hot to the touch, but even that proved to be hilarious to her. “It seemed like no one could crack the case of the missing Faberge eggs, until the legendary DUCKTECTIVE tracked down Carmen Sandiego and brought her to justice!”

Dipper’s mouth stretched wide and he bared his teeth at her. “You’ll never bring me to justice! I stole these fangs from the most well-funded museums in Europe, and I’m not afraid to use them!”

The twins stared at each other, and then broke into a fit of laughter. They looped their arms around one another and marched on toward their first house, talking about their days and swapping Halloween jokes the whole way.

“You know, this is probably the last year we can do this,” Dipper said, eventually.

Mabel’s grin faltered, and she cut off in the middle of singing Spooky Scary Skeletons. “Oh, come on bro-bro, I don’t wanna hear any of this we’re getting too old stuff. Halloween is a state of mind, it’s a way of life, it’s -”

“No no no,” he broke in. “That’s not it. I mean, we are getting older, but I know there’s no force in the universe that can stop you from going trick-or-treating. Me, on the other hand...”

“You?” Mabel stopped walking, nearly causing Dipper to topple over. “Whaddaya mean?”

He sighed, and looked up at the sky. “Well. I got summoned twice today. And I only get summoned like once a month, so I don’t think it’s a coincidence that two different people chose today to invite a demon into their home.”

Dipper’s grip on her hand tightened, and she felt the prick of claws pressing gently into her skin. “I think the only reason I don’t get summoned very often right now is because I’m kind of unknown. But as time goes on, that’s going to change, and that means more people are going to want to summon me, and that means more people are going to want to summon me on Halloween.”

“Oh,” Mabel said.

The pressure on her hand eased up as he withdrew into his coat. Mabel sniffed. Held her hand up and examined the little lines he’d left behind. She looked past it to where her brother was staring forlornly into the night, as if it were moments away from swallowing him up.

“Well, I’ll just have to summon you myself, then.”

“What?” he exclaimed, doing a double-take.

Mabel took his arm again and elbowed him in the side. “I’ll just summon you myself! If random losers in their parents’ basement can do it, why can’t I? A summons from a sister has gotta be better than that, right?”

Dipper’s lip wobbled. “Technically, but it’s complicated...”

“Well, if that doesn’t work, we’ll figure something out, alright?” Mabel grabbed her magnifying glass and held it up like a staff. “I won’t give up on this case! I bet I can ask Grunkle Ford if there’s anything in his research about demon summoning. And there’s always Summerween! No one outside of Gravity Falls has ever even heard of it so I don’t think you have to worry about being summoned then!”

“That is true,” he admitted. “But...”

She tugged on his arm and pointed up the driveway they were standing in front of. “So for now, let’s just have fun, okay? I want to see how much candy I can eat before I see into the future!”

Dipper stuck his tongue out at her. “Alright, but I’m not cleaning up after you. Not even if you pay me,” (he saw her open her mouth and he sped up) “not even if you pay me with candy.”

Mabel shrugged. “We’ll see about that, Mr. Dreambender.”

She knocked on the door, and an old woman stepped out of the house holding a bag of candy.

“Well, hello dears,” she said. “My, what lovely costumes! Am I correct in guessing that you’re Sherlock Holmes?”

“Ducktective!” Mabel replied. “Quack quack!”

“Oh, of course! And, hmm...” She bent down to get a closer look at Dipper -- observing his fancy outfit, black-and-yellow eyes, pointy ears -- and he gave her a toothy smile. “I bet you’re some kind of gay vampire, right?”

Dipper’s face went as red as his costume, as every muscle in his body tensed up at once and steam began to rise from his head again. “I’m- no- I’M- !”

Mabel cackled, watching her brother crumple to the floor dramatically. “Wow, congrats, Mrs. Jenkle! I think that’s the scariest thing he’s heard all day! Happy Halloween, bro-bro!”

[chxrrysangel]

Stark Tea Time

Summary || Morgan Stark drags Bucky to one of her legendary tea parties, Sam leaving him to drown in pink fluff and glitter.

Warnings || Bucky actually smiles

You do not have permission to post my work anywhere else

“Lay up Cyborg, live a little. It’s not like I’m gonna di—”

“Look! Sam, I drew something for you!”

The two men’s attention is diverted from their conversation as little Morgan Stark comes barreling down the hallway, paper flapping in one hand and an assortment of crayons in the other. Her hair is covered in little butterfly clips, strands adorned with a wide array of colors from the chalk dye strewn across her cherry wood floors. She’s wearing a massive tutu, dressing to the 9s in a blue ballerina costume.

Sam smiles at the little girl, always excited to see what she has to offer. Ever since Tony passed, all of the Avengers men have taken on a father-like role towards the child, always making sure she feels loved and cared for. It’s the least they can do.

He bends down to her eye level, giving her his full attention. The smile on Sam’s face is in complete contrast to the grimace adorning Bucky’s features.

“What’s up sweetheart? Whatcha got?”

The little Stark giggles in excitement, overjoyed to see her two favorite Avengers come to see her again. They’re always quite busy, saving the world and everything. So each visit is quite meaningful to her. They’ll never replace Tony, but they ensure that his memory and love for Morgan is something she’ll never lack. They’d all die before that happens, and she knows that.

She takes the drawing from behind her back and lays it out for both of them to see. It resembles some sort of bird-like figure, Sam thinks to himself. Next to it is a robot-type figure, not failing to notice the frown etched into his features with a Crayola marker. Shaking with excitement, the little Stark looks at the two men expectantly.

“What is it?”

Morgan sighs loudly, annoyed by their stupidity and lack of “artistic vision”. The two men have yet to figure out where she learned such a concept.

“It’s you guys! Duh!” Their mouthes form into an ‘o’ shape in understanding.

“Well it’s stunning. It’s absolutely beautiful Morg. You know, I might have frame this one actually. When you become a famous painter, this is gonna be worth so much money!” Morgan squeals, jumping around excitedly as Sam praises her.

“I think it’s kind of ugl—” Sam cuts him off by sending a small electrical current to Bucky’s arm, causing him to hunch over in pain as he’s being electrocuted.

“What he was trying to say is that it’s very avant-garde, meaning unique in the art world. Don’t worry little Stark, it’s a good thing.” Sam smiles at her encouragingly, hoping Terminator’s harsh words back there wash over her. She nods in understanding, James’s words already long forgotten.

The two men attempt to continue their conversation from before, discussing details about their next mission. There’s a hostage situation in the Palace of Westminster, the perpetrators threatening to blow the whole thing up with everyone in it. But before they can really strategize how to scope out the place, Sam feels a tap on his leg.

“Yes princess?”

“Can you guys come to my tea party?”

“Actually Morgan, we have to go so—” Bucky starts to say before being rudely cut off my bird-man to his left. Sam shoot daggers in his partner’s direction and the words die in his throat.

“Actually, I have to go take care of something really quickly. But Bucky can join you.” At those words, Bucky’s head jolts in his direction, giving Sam one of the meanest looks he’s probably ever seen. But the big man is all bark and no bite, so Sam just laughs in his face. Bucky’s fists tighten at his sides, thinking of all the ways he plans to torture and murder Sam when they leave the Stark house.

Morgan, on the other hand, is practically bursting at the seams. Bucky doesn’t know this, but he’s her favorite of all the Avengers, especially because his titanium arm reminds her of her dad’s suit. She feels closer to him when she’s with Bucky. Plus, they’re both kinda stoic, but it’s only an act in her eyes. She knows that deep down, he has a heart of gold.

Morgan takes Bucky by the hand, dragging him down the hallway back to her room. Meanwhile, Bucky looks back at Sam, pleading for some kind of mercy or aid. Sam, of course, provides no such thing and only cackles at his best friend’s misfortune. He says goodbye to Pepper, promising to be back once he finishes talking to Torres.

Meanwhile in a certain Stark’s bedroom…

Morgan bounced from corner to corner of her large bedroom, capturing all of the items she needs for this special occasion. It’s not often she has a guest for her weekly tea parties, let along James Buchanan Barnes of all people. She has to make a good impression if he’s ever going to come back.

Standing like a dark looming giant,surrounded by tiny chairs and more pink and purple than he’s ever seen, Bucky is clearly out of his element. At 6’0 tall, he stands taller than anything in this room, standing neck and neck with the canopy bed in the middle. Morgan doesn’t take notice of his discomfort however, she’s just happy to have him. She whips around him, gathering her stuffed animals at the table and setting up the placemats for each guest.

Almost as if having an epiphany, the mini Stark girl gasps and runs out the bedroom, yelling that she’ll be right back. Bucky wanders around the room, taking notice of all the little trinkets and toys that he, along with the rest of the team, gifted to her over time. His lips contort into a ghost of a smile, reminiscing all the times Morgan screamed for joy every time they came bearing gifts. The gifts didn’t really matter to her, though. It was just their presence that set her heart into cardiac arrest and her cheeks aflame. They were her family.

Not soon after, Morgan returns dragging a more normal sized chair into her room. Bucky is surprised at this action, as the small girl is barely breaking a sweat. That is, until he noticed the two small gadgets attached the back of the chair, marked with Tony’s insignia. So little Stark is smart, just like her dad.

Morgan sets the chair down next to her own pink, fluffy and bedazzled throne at the head of the table. She sits down, motioning Bucky to take a seat and calls the tea party into session. Bucky’s eyes wander over the pristinely white tabletop, taking in the wide assortment of snacks. From shortbread, frosted oatmeal cookies, to cheeseburgers and mini sandwiches, you name it and she’s got it. The baked goods are Pepper’s doing of course, courtesy of her daily afternoon attempts to become the next Martha Stewart. Morgan doesn’t mind at all, eager to indulge in a daily sugar high as the designated guinea pig.

“Tea?,” the child offers, “it’s raspberry, your favorite.” James can’t help but blush as her consideration of his tastes. For a kid, she’s a pretty decent host. He quickly covers up his blush by coughing and nods firmly.

After filling up the China tea cups lined up around the table, Morgan moves towards introductions. “Bucky, these are my friends. There’s Mr.Whiskers, Genevieve, Fae, Natasha, Tony, and James. They’re very happy to have you here with us. They think you look quite nice today.”

James? As in… Bucky can’t help but blush again, honored that Morgan named one of her beloved stuffed animals after him. He smiles shyly, staring at the lavender Elephant across the table. The girl doesn’t fail to notice his smile, happy that he’s happy.

“So James, how do you feel about glitter?”

~~~

The doorbell rings sometime around 7:00, just after sunset. Pepper opens the door to a smiling Sam, carrying a mysterious box by his side. He just left Torres house, the two men agreeing to scope out the place just before dawn when everyone is still sleeping. That way, they can get a good picture of what it looks like on the inside without having to use night vision technology.

“What’s in the box?”

“Lemon Merengue. For Morgan.” Lemon Merengue is Morgan’s favorite dessert. So by bringing her some, Sam hopes that she’ll forgive him for taking a rain check on one of her illustrious tea parties.

“They’re still down the hall.” Pepper points in the direction of mini Stark’s room, before returning to her baking. Tonight, she’s trying devil’s food cake.

Even from down the hall, Sam can hear the chatting of two distinct voices, a deep scratchy one and a much higher, daintier tone. He shakes his head at Morgan’s complete lack of an inside voice when she’s excited. They must be having a blast in there.

To Sam’s surprise, Bucky actually seems to be enjoying himself. He stands in the doorframe, watching the two chat back and forth while a Disney movie soundtrack plays in the background. From the distinct piano, Sam recognizes Beauty & the Beast (also one of Morgan’s favorites).

Sitting down obediently, Bucky gives Morgan his full attention as she places puffy stickers on his titanium arm and adds little doodles to his real one. He smiles as he watches her drawing a picture of the two of them with princess tiaras and feather boas, just like they are now. She babbles away, telling him the details of the movie she wants them to watch together. It’s called Tangled, he learns.

Sam decides to leave the two alone, going back to help Pepper bake in the kitchen. Although, not before snapping a picture of the two together, reminding himself to print it and put it on the fridge. He knows that Pepper isn’t exactly the kindest person to be in the kitchen with, as she is very bossy and demanding. But he’d take that over ruining this special moment in the princess-themed room down the hall.

He can still hear the faint giggles and screams of Morgan, this time begging Bucky to stop tickling her. She pleads for mercy but he refuses to budge, only making her laugh harder and her giggles to bounce off the walls like they’re in an echo chamber. And to think, he was gonna say no earlier.

[veeranger]

So you want to watch Precure!

Version 1.3

(Google Docs Vers & Changelog)

Maybe you follow people who like it, maybe you just love magical girls and never got into Precure, but there are over a dozen seasons and you don’t know how to jump in. Never fear, this masterpost is here to give you a rundown of Precure, and hopefully by the end you’ll have an idea of where you want to start. 

What Is Precure?

Precure (short for Pretty Cure) is a Toei Animation franchise started in 2004 and has been on the air nonstop since then. It’s a magical girl franchise, y’know like sailor moon or ojamajo doremi or other such shows. The main demographic is children so you don’t have to worry about any weird “fanservice” or panty shots or anything nasty like that, it’s very G rated. 

What Are The Shows About?

In a general sense, Precure is about a team of 2-6 middle school age magical girls fighting bad guys and giant monsters and saving the world on a weekly basis with pretty outfits and big flashy finishers and the power of love and friendship. Each season follows a pretty standard formula (toku fans should be pretty familiar with it for the most part), and each season is around 48-50 episodes long. 

In keeping with this toku-esque formula, most seasons will feature mid season additions to the cast, in the form of new precure heroes. For the sake of not spoiling these shows, these mid season cures will not be mentioned in our plot overviews unless they appear extremely early or something like that. Just know that almost every season will feature an additional cure joining the team later in the show. 

Additionally, every season has at least one movie, these days there’s usually two per season. Usually you’ll find the movies are a standalone self-contained romp, and a crossover movie with the preceding seasons, with a focus on the most recent 2-3 teams. These movies might as well exist in a continuity of their own, and have absolutely no bearing on the plot whatsoever, save for one except which I’ll mention when we get to that season. 

Why Should I Watch Precure?

Because it’s good. It’s a really stellar franchise with a ton of content and genuinely engaging characters and stories. Also this isn’t your mom’s magical girl show, these girls throw punches, and kicks, and big lasers. Precure is pretty well known for being extremely hands on with its combat compared to other magical girl shows, though don’t expect the same kind of fights you’d find in kamen rider or anything. Also a main draw for a lot of people is the amount of gay subtext in, frankly, every season. While there’s only one season with an explicitly confirmed gay relationship between two cures, every season has varying levels of subtext between cures, it’s pretty cool. We won’t discuss the subtext in every season overview but trust us, it’s in there. 

What Show Should I Start With?

It doesn’t actually matter which season you watch, every season is a new setting and with new characters and set in a new world (except for two sequel seasons i’ll explain later), so you’re free to watch whatever you want in any order! We’re going to spend the rest of this post talking about each season to give you, the beloved reader, a glimpse at what each season has to uniquely offer. Don’t worry, there’s no spoilers down there. 

Futari Wa Precure (We Are Pretty Cure) & Futari Wa Precure Max Heart

The original precure show that aired in 2004, and even received an english dub. Misumi Nagisa is a star lacrosse player living a normal life until one day a shooting star she wishes on turns out to be a fairy that careens right into her room, or rather, smacks her right in the face. The fairy, named Mepple, explains he comes from the Garden of Light, another world that’s been taken over by the evil Dark King and his Dark Zone in order to capture the Prism Stones, a number of heart shaped crystals that, if collected, could give Dark King the power to destroy not only the Garden of Light but also the Garden of Rainbows, Earth itself. Meanwhile, Yukishiro Honoka finds a box in her grandmother’s shed containing an item just like the one that smacked Nagisa in the face, and inside is the fairy Mipple, who explains the situation to Honoka. The two fairies, seeking to be reunited, drag Nagisa and Honoka along and the four of them end up meeting up, but are attacked by an emissary of the Dark Zone. Mepple and Mipple grant the confused duo the power to transform into the warriors of legend, Precure. As Cure Black and Cure White, Nagisa and Honoka manage to fight off their attacker and protect their new fairy partners. The girls are then more or less dragged into the battle against the Dark Zone, as the only hope for both Gardens, they fulfill their duty as legendary warriors despite their hesitations and desires to go back to being normal teenagers.

Futari Wa doesn’t exactly have any major themes to speak of, it’s just your standard magical girl vs evil bad guys kind of thing, forgive it for being the first season. What it does have to offer is the relationship between Nagisa and Honoka, as well as the action in fight scenes. The girls don’t start the season as best friends, in fact they barely even know each other’s names when they’re first flung together. It takes a few episodes and a major fight between the girls for them to really start opening up to each other, but soon enough they become inseparable and support each other in everything they do. It’s clear, especially near the end, that the girls cling to each other for support and strength in the face of the increasingly overwhelming odds they face as the Dark Zone gains strength. It’s very compelling to see their relationship deepen in the early season and see how deep their bonds truly go near the end. 

Futari Wa received a sequel show, Futari Wa Precure Max Heart, picking up the story where it left off in the first season’s finale. Honoka and Nagisa are still the main characters, and they’re still fighting the Dark Zone, but this time they’re joined by a mysterious girl named Hikari, who can transform into Shiny Luminous, not a precure but precure-ish. This time the girls are trying to recover the heart and soul of the Queen of the Garden of Light, before the Dark Zone can recover and destroy the queen in her weakened state. Also their precure costumes have changed slightly. 

The first season (that is to say, not max heart) is currently one of the few seasons available with official english subtitles on the streaming platform Crunchyroll

Futari Wa Precure Splash Star

Hyuuga Saki (Cure Bloom), a tomboy who loves playing softball, and Mishou Mai (Cure Egret), a quiet transfer student and aspiring artist, meet each other by chance one day under the Sky Tree, where they discover two creatures from the Land of Fountains named Flappy and Choppy. The two girls transform into the legendary Precure and are tasked with restoring Princess Filia and the Seven Holy Fountains, which were sapped of their power by the evil forces of Dark Fall.

Splash Star's main theme is the appreciation of nature. The main focus is on the girls rediscovering their relationships with their town and the nature and people in it. You get to meet a whole cast of characters in their community, who have a lot of heart and charm behind their writing and the show does a good job of getting you genuinely invested in their stories.

Unfortunately the romance in Splash Star isn’t much better than Futari Wa's (sorry to any Fujimura/Kazuya fans), but the main girls themselves are so engaging that it's easy to ignore. The villains are pretty goofy, but entertaining if you can accept that the show doesn’t take itself very seriously. There are two villains in the latter half of the season that really stand out, though. Without spoiling too much, I can promise you their character arcs will tear at your heartstrings in the best way.

If you've watched Futari wa Precure, Splash Star will probably feel familiar. Although it's the first "reboot" series in the franchise with completely new characters, Toei overall played it safe and Saki and Mai in many ways still feel like "Nagisa and Honoka 2.0". Splash Star is different in enough other ways to make the show stand on its own merits, but if you watch it immediately after Futari wa you might find yourself feeling some deja vu. Personally, I think it's interesting to see what Splash Star builds on and explores when compared to Futari wa, since it has many of the same themes and character archetypes but they play out quite differently.

Yes! Precure 5 & Yes! Precure 5 GoGo!

Nozomi is a cheerful, carefree girl, but she doesn’t have a dream. One day she meets a hot guy and finds a mysterious item called the Dream Collet, capable of granting any wish once all the fairies known as Pinkies are gathered inside it, in the school library. She discovers that the hot guy is actually a tanuki from Palmier Kingdom named Coco, and that the Kingdom has been destroyed by the Nightmare. Coco’s dream is to restore his kingdom using the Dream Collet, and Nozomi decides to make it hers as well. 

She’s joined by her jock friend Rin, Urara, an aspiring actress, Komachi, a writer, and the rich student council president Karen. Together they form Yes Sentai Fiveranger Yes Precure 5 and work together to prevent Nightmare from obtaining the Dream Collet before they can gather all the Pinkies. They also save Coco’s “”””””friend””””””” and fellow hot guy squirrel, Nuts, and he joins them as the second mascot/handsome love interest.

The theme of Yes is dreams and heterosexual furry romance. It pulls off the dreams part very nicely. The het furry romance is bad, mostly because Coco is Nozomi’s teacher at school and also her love interest. However, Coco and Nuts are fairly gay and if you look past the romance part they have very good dadly relationships with the rest of the team. 

Yespre, like Futari Wa, received a sequel show, Yes! Precure 5 GoGo!. After the defeat of Nightmare some time ago, a new faction called Eternal rises up and starts stealing treasures from various dimensions. When Eternal targets the Rose Pact belonging to the Cure Rose Garden, the precure are called back into action to fight against Eternal, with new cure outfits, a new fairy named Syrup, and a new cure-like teammate named Milky Rose.

Fresh Precure!

Fresh is sort of the defining series for modern Precure, introducing a lot of plot and thematic elements to the franchise that would be used repeatedly later on. 

A concert Momozono Love attends is attacked by a monster called a Nakewameke. When Love stands up to it, she is nearly killed, but is saved when she is chosen by a mysterious power to become Cure Peach. She is joined by Inori and Miki as Cure Pine and Cure Berry, and, together with the talking ferret from the Kingdom of Sweets, Tarte, they have to prevent Labyrinth, a grey world led by Mobius, from taking over the Parallel Worlds and transforming them into identical, machine-like dictatorships, and also figure out the secret behind the Magic Baby, Chiffon, that Tarte is entrusted with. 

Fresh’s themes are happiness and nature/technology and donuts. The donuts are important. Labyrinth operates by gathering misery; the Nakewameke are created from it and their function is to create more of it and fill the Sorrow Gauge. All the girls (and the mascot) have love interests and their familial relationships are explored a lot to bring out the general stakes and emphasise what they’re fighting for.

While Fresh is very strong in characters, plot, and thematics, its lack of budget is very apparent. It looks terrible. Fortunately, it isn’t that difficult to get used to the bad animation once you get into the show, although the lack of means tends to show up at inopportune moments, like new powerups.

Heartcatch Precure!

Featuring character designs and art direction from Ojamajo Doremi’s character designer Umakoshi Yoshihiko, and written by Ojamajo Doremi and Onegai My Melody writer Yamada Takashi, Heartcatch should look and feel familiar to fans of either franchise, especially Doremi.

After having a reoccurring dream about someone called Cure Moonlight being defeated trying to defend the “Great Heart Tree”, the shy and reserved Hanasaki Tsubomi moves in with her grandmother and ends up inheriting the will of Cure Moonlight and becomes the newest precure, Cure Blossom. Finding out her grandmother used to be the legendary Cure Flower, Tsubomi vows to protect the world as a precure and learn to change herself for the better. She’s joined by her new friend and the first person she saved as a precure, Kurumi Erika, a loud girl with a big heart who means well, but doesn’t hesitate to speak her mind. Erika becomes Cure Marine and the two become Heartcatch Precure, the newest precure in the long legacy of those who have stood up to the evil Dune, a mysterious invader who destroys planets and turns them into lifeless deserts. Heartcatch Precure fights against Dune’s minions: the mask wearing Professor Sabaku, his Desert Apostles, and the mysterious Dark Precure. Along the way they meet the former Cure Moonlight, now stripped of her power, and try to help her cope with her defeat.

Heartcatch Precure’s main theme is flowers and flower language. Everyone has a “heart flower” that the Desert Apostles take and use to create their monsters every week. As an interesting result of this, the monster of the week will be the main character in the plot of the week and often their big monster form will vent about their issues which will usually lead to a resolution when the precure return them to their regular bodies. Heartcatch also has a very nice backstory and lore to it. Unlike most iterations of precure, the Heartcatch girls are not the first precure to exist in their world, there are dozens maybe hundreds of precure that came before them, fighting against Dune and his forces for hundreds of years. It adds a lot to the narrative in small ways, especially later on in the season. Also the fight scenes are extremely excellent, especially when Moonlight is involved. 

Suite Precure♪

The musical paradise of Major Land falls under siege by the forces of Minor Land, led by King Mephisto. His goal is to steal the living notes of the “Melody of Happiness” and remake them into the “Melody of Sorrow”, throwing the world into a permanent depressive state. As a last resort, Queen Aphrodite scatters the notes into the human world and tasks Hummy, the cat-like fairy, and the Fairy Tones, to find the notes before the forces of Minor Lands can capture them. In the human world, Hummy meets Hojo Hibiki and Minamino Kanade, two girls who were best friends as children, but drifted apart as teenagers because of their tendency to bicker with each other. The two find themselves thrown together again by fate and transform into Cure Melody and Cure Rhythm to protect the things they hold dear. Not long after, the two rekindle their relationship and become closer than before, despite their bickering. Soon the girls run into the mysterious Cure Muse, a girl who appears to be a precure like them, but hides her face with a mask and refuses to join in their fight, claiming to be neither friend nor enemy. Melody and Rhythm battle against Minor Land and the giant Negatones they create from the notes they gather, as well as Siren, another cat-like fairy who used to be Hummy’s best friend before turning to evil and joining Minor Land. 

Suite Precure’s main theme is music, and it is a very encompassing theme. Hibiki and Kanade bond over their piano practice, the town they live in celebrates music frequently and is aesthetically music themed, and their powers take the form of musical instruments. Harmony is also a large theme for the two girls. Their precure power increases as they harmonize with each other, and the early season is very much about them learning to harmonize with each other. Suite also features several extremely well done mystery arcs, about the identity of Cure Muse, and various other things that I can’t very well talk about without risking spoiling things myself. If you manage to go into Suite not knowing anything consider yourself extremely lucky and be super sure not to get spoiled. The show staff went to great lengths to hide certain things, including leaking fake cure designs, and creating a second version of the second dance ending to further mask the identity of Cure Muse until her true reveal. 

Also something to note, usually precure movies have nothing to do with the plot of the show itself and can be watched whenever but the Suite movie is best enjoyed right after the arc revealing Cure Muse’s identity is concluded, it has a nice resolution to plot elements in that arc and sets the stage for the last few arcs of the show, so be sure to watch it then.

Smile Precure!

Written by Kamen Rider Kabuto head writer Yonemura Shoji, Smile Precure is the second season to feature a 5 girl team after Yes! Precure 5 Gogo!. Running late to her first day of school, resident happy-go-lucky klutz Hoshizora Miyuki runs face first into a small creature called Candy, a fairy from a place called Märchenland. The two are attacked by an anthropomorphic wolf named Wolfrun, and Miyuki transforms into Cure Happy to fight against Wolfrun and the big clown faced monster he summons called an Akanbe. After Candy explains that the legends say there are five precure, Miyuki recruits four new friends: the hot blooded Akane (Cure Sunny), shy artist Yayoi (Cure Peace), responsible older sister Nao (Cure March), and refined student council vice-president Reika (Cure Beauty). The five of them become Smile Precure and fight against Wolfrun and his allies in the Bad End Kingdom, who attempt to revive the slumbering Pierrot by trying to put the world in a “Bad End”. 

Smile Precure’s main theme is fairy tales, in a general sense. The Bad End trio are based off of the big bad wolf (Wolfrun), the oni from Momotaro (Akaoni), and the witch from Snow White (Majorina), and Miyuki herself is utterly captivated by fairy tales. The secondary theme is happiness, and the happy go lucky tone of the series often turns on its head during serious arcs to deliver extremely powerful emotional moments. Smile Precure is light on plot, and most episodes are an ultra happy experience, but the show knows how to get serious when it needs to and Smile is exceedingly competent at pulling off drama when the time comes. Smile knows how to get you invested in its characters and use that to pull on your heartstrings during the big moments. The last 10 episodes of the show are the absolute pinnacle of the show’s emotional drama, and each cure gets her own episode for closure before the finale sets in and emotionally destroys you. Also you get to play rock paper scissors with Cure Peace during her roll call so that’s always fun.

Doki Doki! Precure

Doki opens with Trump Kingdom’s destruction by the Selfishness as Cure Sword looks on, helpless. Switching to our world and brighter topics, we meet Aida Mana, Student Council President of Oogai Middle School, whose dream is to become the Prime Minister of Japan. Whenever Mana sees someone in trouble, she’ll help them out, so when a monster attacks the city, Mana does the obvious and tries to stop it. And when, chosen by the fairy Charuru (Charles? Cheryle? Cherry?) to become a Precure and defend the world, she meets Cure Sword, she has to befriend her and help her restore Trump Kingdom and find her happiness. 

Mana (Cure Heart) is joined by Rikka (Cure Diamond), her studious companion and supporter, and also the immeasurably powerful and rich (in that order) Alice (Cure Rosetta). Together they have to unravel the mystery of the man who gave them their transformation items, the missing princess of Trump Kingdom, the strange, evil girl called Regina, and Ai, the chaotic neutral baby who hatches out of an egg. 

Dokipre’s theme is love and selflessness. It also has Deep Lore, a lot of which is established in extra-series material. The show does try to explore concepts like past cures and manages a very nice repeating pattern effect with the plot, in terms of past and future happenings. There’s a lot of foreshadowing. Compared to most Precure seasons it’s very plot-heavy and even the filler usually ends up being plot-relevant. 

Happiness Charge Precure!

The 10th anniversary of Precure! The Phantom Empire is spreading across the world, and Precure are rising up all over the globe to fight them off. In Japan there are two active cures, Cure Fortune, strong and capable, and Cure Princess, scared and unsure of herself. As Cure Princess, Shirayuki Hime, struggles desperately to do her duty as precure, Cure Fortune refuses to work with her for reasons Hime doesn’t fully understand. Realizing her only hope is to find a partner to work with, Hime bumps into Aino Megumi, a super friendly girl who has a tendency to drop everything and help others any time she sees someone in need. Megumi becomes Cure Lovely, and bolstering Hime’s confidence, the two of them become Happiness Charge Precure, tasked with protecting Japan from Queen Mirage and her Phantom Empire. The two are joined by Cure Honey, and eventually Cure Fortune, and the four of them receive support from Blue, the God of Planet Earth. As the girls continue to fight and defend Japan, they are assaulted by Phantom, the ruthless Precure Hunter who has defeated and trapped countless Precure in his Precure Graveyard, and the Oresky Trio, the Phantom Empire generals who oversee the invasion of Japan. 

Happiness Charge Precure’s themes are romance and happiness. There are several arcs dedicated to the budding romances of the cures, and the backstory of the show is heavily tied to romance. Happiness might as well be Megumi’s middle name, she makes it her business to spread happiness to as many people as she can, and takes every chance she can to help others. Happiness Charge is also the first season to have form changes for the precure, each cure has a small selection of forms they can change to for different big attacks, and this concept would later be expanded and used as a core concept in Maho Girls Precure. Like Heartcatch before it, Happiness Charge exists in a world where multiple precure exist, but unlike Heartcatch all those precure exist at the same time in the present day. Other precure teams make cameos every so often and the concept creates a great world in which the whole planet is being protected by teenage girls with superpowers, creating a wonderful sense of scale that really makes the big victories of Happiness Charge Precure feel even bigger. 

Go! Princess Precure

The first precure series to take place at a boarding school! Years ago, a young girl named Haruno Haruka meets a very royal looking person named Kanata who gives her a Dress-Up Key, a big key shaped like a dress. A teenager now, Haruka starts attending Noble Academy, a prestigious boarding school, all the while holding tight to her dream of becoming a true princess, in a quasi-literal sense. Not long after starting the school year, Haruka meets Pafu and Aroma, two fairies from the Hope Kingdom desperate to revive the legendary precure to fight back against Dyspear and her minions who steal dreams to create their giant Zetsuborgs. Realizing what her Dress-Up Key is meant for, Haruka uses it and the Princess Perfume to become Cure Flora. Together with student council president Kaido Minami (Cure Mermaid), and Amanogawa Kirara (Cure Twinkle) a fashion model with huge aspirations, they become the new Princess Precure, tasked with learning to become true princesses along with protecting the Dress-Up Keys from Dyspear’s forces. 

Go! Princess Precure’s main themes are princesses (duh) and dreams. Dreams are a driving force behind all of the cures, and most of the plot of the week characters. Dyspear steals dreams to make monsters, and the precure fight to return those dreams. Characters follow their dreams with conviction, pride, and full commitment. This is also where the princess theme intersects, since it’s Haruka’s dream to become a true princess. One should note that princess is used sort of liberally in this series, it’s not that Haruka wants to somehow become someone of noble birth or have political power, she just wants to be strong, kind, and beautiful, the traits of a true princess in Princess Precure’s own terms. Also she wants to wear pretty dresses and such but who can blame her really. 

Mahou Tsukai Precure! (Maho Girls Precure!)

Quite literally putting the magic in magical girls for the first time in the franchise, Mahou Tsukai Precure was the first season to have its cures be actual magicians. Izumi Riko lives in the magical world, a world where magic is real and she attends a magical academy to hone her craft. She leaves the magical world to travel to the “non-magic” world, to search for a legendary item called the Linkle Stone Emerald. In the non-magic world she ends up catching the attention of another girl, Asahina Mirai, who sees her using magic. After trying to show off some magic and messing it up, Riko is attacked by Batty, a servant of the dark wizard Dokurokushe, who is seeking the Linkle Stone Emerald as well. As fate would have it, both Mirai and Riko carry stones that turn out to be the Linkle Stones Diamond, and the two of them use them to become Cure Miracle and Cure Magical, the legendary Mahou Tsukai Precure. Additionally, the power of the Linkle Stones grants life to Mirai’s lifelong companion, a teddy bear named Mofurun. Having discovered the world of magic and become a precure, Mirai is invited to spend time in the magical world learning magic alongside Riko, before the two, joined by Mofurun and a baby fairy named Ha, return to the non-magical world to search for the Emerald and protect it from Dokurokushe and his minions.

Mahou Tsukai Precure’s main themes are bonds and separation. It’s strengths lie in how it shows the relationship between Mirai and Riko. The show takes its time building their relationship in the first dozen or so episodes of their adventures in the magic world, highlighting their similarities and differences as they grow closer and learn to live with each other and fight as precure together. Well before the halfway mark it’s clear how strong their bond is and how deeply they care for each other, and the lengths they would go to for one another. Mahou Tsukai is an emotional ride in so many ways, every emotional moment hits its mark and the more you get attached to the characters the more the show will hit harder and harder with its moments, both sad and happy. Even side characters get satisfying and emotional conclusions to their storylines outside of the episodes they’re introduced in, it’s all wonderfully crafted.

KiraKira☆Precure A La Mode

Another return to the five cure format, Kirapre is also the second season to feature a sixth team member after Yes! Precure 5 Gogo!, as well as the second season to feature high school age precure after Heartcatch Precure. Usami Ichika is in her second year of middle school and loves sweets, especially making sweets. One day a hungry fairy named Pekorin finds her way into Ichika’s kitchen, and after being fed teaches Ichika about Kirakiraru, an energy source that exists in all sweets, and something that can be stolen and used for evil, leaving the sweets gray and tasteless. Utilizing the power of kirakraru in the shortcake she baked for her mother, Ichika becomes Cure Whip, one of the legendary patissiers, Precure. One by one other precure appear, the smart but shy Arisugawa Himari (Cure Custard), the rock band headliner Tategami Aoi (Cure Gelato), the fickle catlike Kotozume Yukari (Cure Macaron), and the responsible and helpful Kenjou Akira (Cure Chocolat). The five of them fight against the evils of Noir and those he has influenced: Julio, the mysterious masked boy who runs “experiments'' using kirakiraru, and Bibury, a mean spirited girl who uses her talking doll to steal kirakiraru and create monsters.

Kirapre’s main motifs are sweets and animals, and it has a pretty general togetherness and happiness theme going on, the standard precure stuff, mostly viewed through the lense of sweets and sweets-making. All the precure work as patissiers for one reason or another and it’s the main way the team bonds early on. The team, as well as the people of their small town, love sweets as a part of their culture and sweets maintain an important role as the emotional tie that binds most things together in the story. Overall Kirapre is a wonderful show with a great cast on both sides of the conflict, and a lot of care has been put into the show to make sure characters have their moments to interact with each other as well as have their own stories , even on a team of six every precure gets more than enough time to shine on her own. Kirapre is at it’s best when it takes two girls and puts them together for an episode, letting each unique dynamic play out in a fun and satisfying way. Kirapre is also noteworthy for the almost inarguably canonical relationship between two of the cures. It's not exactly explicit and it does leave something to be desired, since this is a Toei children's show, but there’s not really any other way to read the evolution of their relationship or their duet song, so I’m more than satisfied calling it canon.

This season is currently one of the few seasons available with official english subtitles on the streaming platform Crunchyroll 

HUGtto! Precure

Precure’s 15th anniversary! This season is in many ways a celebration of all things Precure, bringing together a lot of familiar elements from past shows into one. Hugtto! is another five cure season whose main themes are destiny and future. Nono Hana (Cure Yell) is a thirteen-year-old girl whose dream is to be a "cool and stylish woman," although she worries that others see her as childish. One day, a hamster named Harryham Harry and a magical baby named Hugtan fall out of the sky into Hana's house. They're being chased from the future by an evil organization called Criasu Corporation, who are trying to use Hugtan's power to freeze time forever. Hana makes friends with two of her classmates: the responsible class representative Yakushiji Saaya (Cure Ange) and the reclusive ex-figure skater Kagayaki Homare (Cure Etoile), and together they fight Criasu while taking care of Hugtan and figuring out the many mysteries surrounding her. Expect some light sc-fi elements and an emphasis on modern technology/social media.

Hugtto! explores its themes primarily through the lenses of childcare and the workplace, giving us a look at how each girl comes to terms with the transition from childhood to adulthood. This season does a good job of letting each member of the team shine; you spend several episodes with each girl (or duo of girls) and there's a real sense of a complete character arc for all of them. The romance aspect is, unfortunately, pretty bad: there’s a return of hetero furry romance between Harry and Homare, and Hana’s love interest exhibits some really creepy behavior towards her. There’s uncomfortable age gaps in both of these relationships too so it’s a just a bit…. Yikes. Thankfully, it’s fairly easy to ignore like past seasons, but a warning for it nonetheless.

Something that makes this season stand out is its LGBT subtext; there's a TON of it even compared to the normal amount that Precure is known for. Without giving away too much, two of the cures this season are heavily coded as lesbians (though not with each other per se), and there's a subplot concerning a side character who is pretty explicitly (well, as explicit as Toei dares to be) a gender non-conforming man/nonbinary person in love with another man, and it's all very wholesome and presented in a positive light. Again, this is Toei, so don't expect anything too radical, but I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised with how Hugpre handles it.

Finally I'll just say that while Hugpre is a fantastic season on its own, I would personally recommend waiting to watch it after you've seen some other seasons (notably Futari wa). It's not required, but since Hugpre is an anniversary season, there are a few episodes (especially near the end) that will really hit different if you have an emotional connection to the franchise already. Ultimately though this is a fairly minor part of the show, so watching this season first won’t ruin it or anything like that, it’s just something to keep in mind.

Star☆Twinkle Precure

Precure… in space! Our protagonist, Hoshina Hikaru (Cure Star) loves space and cryptids, to the point of drawing her own constellations. One of her constellations is an adorable alien puffball, who warps into Hikaru’s room almost immediately after she draws it. The puffball quickly befriends Hikaru, who names her Fuwa. They are later joined by Prunce, the team dad friend/alien mascot, and Lala (Cure Milky), a humanoid alien who is an adult in her own culture. After our initial duo gets off to a bit of a rocky start, they are joined by the student council president, Kaguya Madoka  (Cure Selene) and a biracial upperclassman who is considered to be the “sun” of the school, Amamiya Elena (Cure Soleil). Together, they explore the universe and befriend all sorts of aliens, while also defending them from the Notraiders, who want to rid the universe of all imagination. On top of that, the universe is dying and the cures need to find the 12 astrologically themed Star Pens to save it and the 12 Star Princesses. This series is notable for attempting to break the “monster of the week” format, instead making it a “fight of the week”.

The major themes of Star Twinkle are space, imagination, and maturity. The cures have to explore the universe to find the Star Pens, and in doing so, visit a bunch of different planets. About half the series is spent on Earth, but the world still feels developed! Honestly speaking, the theme of imagination is forgotten pretty quickly and I’d refer to it more as free will. The theme of maturity is where Star Twinkle really shines. All of the cures have had to grow up too fast in some way, and the series is partially about just allowing them to goof off. Lala is considered an adult on her planet, and this plot point is treated realistically. Well, as realistically as it can be. This is one series I’d recommend avoiding spoilers like the plague for, because part of the fun is in how the plot twists are pulled off. Also Star Twinkle is notable for featuring the first ever dark skinned precure, as Elena is half-hispanic. 

Healin’ Good Precure

The currently airing Precure season, as of this writing. The Byogens seek to revive their king by inflicting viruses on Earth, the Healing Garden sends three medical interns to combat them. These interns, fairies named Rabirin, Pegitan, and Nyatoran, along with a baby fairy princess named Latte, journey to Earth to find partners to become Precure. They end up meeting Hanadera Nodoka, a kindhearted girl who was hospitalized for most of her young childhood. After Nodoka risks her life to protect Latte, Rabirin chooses her to become Cure Grace. Joined by older sister type Sawaizumi Chiyu (Cure Fontaine) and the outgoing Hiramitsu Hinata (Cure Sparkle), they form Healin’ Good Precure, and defend their friends and the Earth from the Byogen’s newest wave of attacks. 

This season is currently one of the few seasons available with official english subtitles on the streaming platform Crunchyroll.

Where To Watch Precure Online

Unfortunately for us, Precure isn’t really a thing in the west. There was a dub of Futari Wa back in the early 2000’s and Smile and Doki both got “adapted” into Glitter Force over on netflix (I don’t really recommend checking those out), but really Precure just doesn’t exist over here.

However, as mentioned above, there are currently three seasons avalible for streaming on crunchyroll. The original Futari Wa Precure, Kira Kira Precure A La Mode, and the current season, Healin’ Good Precure.

Beyond these isolated examples of official releases, you can really only watch precure online on streaming sites or through torrents. You can find precure pretty much on any major anime streaming site, kissanime, gogoanime, the works. You can also try your luck torrenting the seasons, i’ve found that pretty much every season has a working torrent you can find on sites like nyaa.si or the like. For more recent seasons you should have little difficulty getting torrents, and last time i checked every season was on one of the aforementioned streaming sites. What I’m saying really is there’s no single place to find precure, but it’s not impossible to find for sure.

Thanks for reading this post, I hope you decide to check out precure and I really hope you end up loving it.Thanks to my wonderful friend @meltorights​ for writing the sections on Yespre, Fresh, and Dokipre, to @wonderlilane​ for writing the sections on Splash Star and Huggto, and @cure-cosmo​ for writing the segment on Starpre. 

If you have questions feel free to drop me an ask I’d be happy to help. I will literally go out of my way to help you if it means getting someone new into precure so please do not hesitate by any means. 

[poirott]

This is the 2nd part of the "Riddle of the Spinx" interview with Death on the Nile cinematographer Haris Zambarloukos for British Cinematographer November 2020 issue (part 1 transcribed here). The full interview has now been released on the British Cinematographer website. I've included some of the text below!

In Part 2 Zambarloukos talks about shooting with the cast on location in Egypt and doing a particularly complex single shot of them on set, how they did the opening b&w sequence of young Poirot as a soldier, and built sets of Abu Simbel and the pyramids, the use of realtime footage projected on LED screens to make the studio sets look more realistic, what part of the Murder on the Orient Express set they recycled for Nile, etc.

Q: This was shot like Murder on the Orient Express at Longcross Studios with plates filmed on location in Egypt. Was it ever a possibility to shoot entirely on location?

Haris Zambarloukos: The issue is that 1934 Egypt barely exists today. For example, in the 1960s they moved the Abu Simbel temple 300 metres away so that the Aswan Dam wouldn't flood it. So, we built the entire four-storey high Abu Simbel at Longcross, complete with banks of water. The same with Giza and the Sphinx. In the 1930s the Nile went up to the feet of the Sphinx. Now all you see is the concrete expanse of Cairo.

Secondly, it's difficult to shoot complex shoots on a river while floating, taking all the cast down there and scheduling them, on top of ensuring everyone's safety on such a high-profile project.

Our whole design and research went into creating a set. We wanted to build a life-size boat inside and out; not to break it down into small sets but to shoot it as if we were on a boat. That’s a huge undertaking. Jim Clay built an amazing set to scale for the Karnak. It was so big we needed to build a temporary sound stage around it. We also wanted to use some real daylight when we got great sunlight in Longcross and use a little bit of water to basically film the boats carrying guests to the Karnak.

We recycled the railway from Orient and built the boat on that so we could wheel it in from outdoors to indoors. We built a very elaborate lighting rig that you could pull back and see the entire boat in one shot. You could step onto the boat and walk through all the rooms which were all lit for an analogue film f-stop. It was complicated and took most of our planning but I personally don't think you can tell the difference when we cut - even from a shot filmed outside in real sunlight juxtaposed with one in apparent sunlight on our sound stage. It's seamless because we took such great care and a detailed approach to our rig and construction.

In Orient you created some stylish direct overheads of the train carriage. You've told us of the Steadicam dance sequence in Nile. Were there other stylistic flourishes?

Inside the sound stage we went twice round the Karnak with the entire cast all choreographed for this one great reveal of a murder. It was really hard work to do. I understand why it was cut in the edit although they have kept a lot of other single long takes and there are lots of places where you see the whole cast in a single shot.

However difficult you might think setting up a long single is in terms of lighting and operating, it is equally, if not more difficult, to block a scene with multiple actors, keep the audience engaged and choreograph it in a way that is exciting and at the same time reveals things gradually. There's a lot of pressure on a lot of people in shots like that. Everyone's got to be on top of their game. Because we're all so interdependent, it's a domino effect in that the further you go in the take, the bigger the responsibility is for not getting it wrong whether that's the operator, focus puller, the actor saying the final line, the gaffer lighting a corner at just the right time. We always get excited about those shots but also very nervous.

You augmented the studio work with plates photographed on location in Egypt. Tell us about that.

We filmed on the Nile from a boat with a 14 8K Red camera array. We had a 360-degree bubble on top of the boat and two three-camera arrays pointing forwards and backwards as we travelled up and down. We specifically chose areas where modernity wasn’t present (or where it was, we removed it in post) and we also shot plates from the point of view of passengers onboard the Karnak.

VFX supervisor George Murphy edited the footage and stitched the plates together into an essentially very, very advanced virtual reality rig in which I could pan my camera. We did that before principal photography, so we never had to guess a month or so later what to put there. That’s a big help. Most shoots do their plate photography afterwards. It meant I could pretty much place the camera on any deck of the Karnak for any scene and know what the background would be.

As with Orient, did you play back footage realtime on LED screens outside the boat set?

I'd love to have done it live but on Orient we were only dealing with one wagon's windows at a time. It was still the biggest LED set-up ever done to that point, but the Karnak set is 20 time bigger than that. There aren't enough LED screens available – plus it would have been prohibitively expensive.

Instead, I went for a much larger version of a technique I'd used on Mamma Mia which was to hang back projection screens all around the boat – 200m in circumference, 15m high. We used Arri SkyPanels at a distance to create a sky or a part of the background. It could also be converted into a blue screen when we needed to. It meant that if I had a shot looking above the horizon line into the sky then it could be done in camera.

How confident were you of retaining colour and contrast from set to post?

I took stills on the recce and we used those to the create colours with this back projection for our skies. I take prints (not digital stills) so there is no misinterpretation. A still is a piece of paper that you can see. Once something is emailed across and seen by someone watching on another screen the information can get lost.

At the same time there were a lot more checks and balances put in place. We had a projector at Longcross and I watched dailies with (dailies colourist) Sam Spurgeon every lunchtime. With Kodak and Digital Orchard we have a very quick process to convert analogue filmmaking into digital by the next morning. Film is processed at night, they scan at 4am and by mid-morning those digital images are transferred to our dailies suite at Longcross. At lunch we’d watch it digitally projected, having been processed, scanned and graded at 2K.

I check that first and give notes to Sam and those get transferred onto our dailies which is what Ken, the editorial team, VFX and studio team sees. That's a major check. It's me with someone in a room, rather than me talking over the phone which is a big difference. I have a very good relationship with Goldcrest and (DI colourist) Rob Pizzey who also sees things along the way. I supervise the grade at the end. So, there's no need for anyone to interpret anything. It’s a collaboration in which we all look at the same images.

Did you shoot black and white for the opening scene or convert?

We shot colour for a couple of reasons. Although Kodak could manufacture BW 65, there is no lab in the world to processes it. Plus, there’s a certain skill to grading BW using colour negative and the added benefits are that that you can place a grey tone to a colour. For example, you could take red and decide it will look a very dark grey or a light grey, so you get very detailed tones. Ultimately, I get much more control in the DI this way. They were very monochromatic battlefield sets and costumes so it was quite limited in this case. The Germans wore grey and the Belgians wore dark blue and it’s a dark sooty gas-filled battlefield but you could manipulate the blue in the sky a little bit more and certainly manipulate the intensity of people’s eyes - especially if they had blue eyes (which Branagh does).

How did you handle sound sync?

To do sound sync work on Orient we used sound cameras that are twice as heavy as high-speed cameras, so I wanted to develop soundproof housing (blimp) for our camera on Nile. I took the problem to Stuart Heath at BGI Supplies at Longcross. They've made all sorts of props for us before, from Cinderella’s carriage to the furniture on Nile. I told him that I needed it really quickly. All my other attempts had failed. Stuart suggested using a material that they soundproof the interior of helicopters with. He brought a draper in who basically measured the camera as if making a dinner suit for it and quickly made a couple of versions for us. It was very effective and really opened up the Steadicam possibility for us. All from just wandering onto a workshop on the lot and asking a friend if he had any ideas about how to achieve something. In the old days that’s what everyone did – the answer was somewhere on the lot.

Finally, after six films and 14 years working with Ken Branagh, could you tell us what makes your relationship tick?

It is a fantastic friendship. To begin with you must be able to maintain a professional friendship with any cast and crew which is all about doing your very best and understanding where you have common aesthetics and shared thoughts about humanity. Ask what kind of world you want this to be, because that will come through in your filmmaking.

As you say, I've spent years working in close proximity to Ken and we have a mutual affection and admiration for each other otherwise we wouldn't be doing it for so long. He is relentless in pursuit of perfection and in his advancement of storytelling and is inspiring to work with. It means you have to be as relentless in your area of craft.

I think we both like making the same kinds of films. I'm a Greek Cypriot who grew up with Greek myth and tragedy. Ken's love of Shakespeare is legendary. You can easily see the lineage between Aeschylus (the ancient Greek creator of tragedy) that goes all the way to Shakespeare. Perhaps that appreciation for the human condition in its best and worst forms is the tie that binds.

Photo credit: Rob Youngson

Source: britishcinematographer.co.uk - February 4 2021

[plumeriaheart]

Cosplay Surprise [Leviathan/F!Reader]

This is the third(???) smut fic I’ve written and I still feel awkward about it rip... But also, Levi is a precious boy!!! Pls I just wanna make him flustered for days and shower him in love and affection!!!

FANDOM: Obey Me!

RATING: smut with some fluffy undertones~ 

WORD COUNT: 3.6k

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Perhaps you had been in over your head when you ordered the costume and wig from Akuzon, but when the packages arrive at your doorstep, you feel like you have to go through with it. What's the worst thing that could happen? Leviathan would call you a normie, but that's nothing new. You don't think he'd be mad at you for trying to cosplay one of his favourite idols – at least you hope he wouldn't be. As long as the cosplay doesn't look cheap, you should be fine, right? Now it's just a matter of trying the costume on and making sure you look as similar to Ruri-chan as possible.

You're happy to find that both the costume and the wig seem to be of acceptable quality; Leviathan would have your head if you dared to wear a cheap costume of his beloved Ruri-chan. The fabric envelopes you in a soft hug, complimenting your best features. You don't recognise yourself in the mirror at first, so unusual does the long blonde hair and the green outfit look on you – but you find that it doesn't look bad, per se.

Grabbing your D.D.D., you scroll through your contacts and select Leviathan, sending him a text to ask whether you could come over to his room right now. You don't expect him to reply straight away, knowing that he might be busy with one of his games, and in the meantime, you could see if you could put on some make-up to make the cosplay perfect. But before you can even grab your make-up bag, your D.D.D. rings, and upon glancing at the screen you see one text message from Leviathan.

Leviachan: Perfect timing, I could use your help with some co-op dungeons. The door's unlocked :thumbsup:

His words bring a smile to your face, imagining what kind of reactions you'd get from him. You're not against playing games with him, but if he reacts to your cosplay the way you want him to, there would be something more important to do.

You listen at the door to hear if anybody is out and about before you leave your room, quickly making your way to your boyfriend's room. You knock to signal you're there, but don't wait for a response – he did say his door was unlocked. In true Leviathan fashion, he doesn't turn around right away to greet you, mumbling a quick 'Hey' as he's executing something that looks like a complicated combat combo. You remain by the door for a couple of seconds, taking a deep breath and finally going to join the demon by his desk.

Your eyes quietly follow his character on the screen, watching as he decimates a group of goblins – he must be nearing the final boss of this dungeon, and you know better than to interrupt him during an important battle like that. It doesn't bother you, you enjoy watching him play. Watching him do something that makes him as happy and as focused as this warms your heart, and though you came to his room with less pure intentions, you don't mind waiting if he looks this into it. You may also be curious to see how long it takes for him to notice the way you look.

"This boss fight shouldn't take long. I managed to get my hands on the legendary sword of ruination – it has a drop rate of 0.1 percent! Isn't it awesome?! The cursed flame enchantment should be strong enough to one hit regular enemies, but this boss here is special! He casts a drain health curse on you when you enter his dungeon and to lift it you have to defeat him. If you can't defeat him and have to leave so you can level up first, the curse is gonna stay on you! lol I bet so many noobs got killed by this boss when it's SO easy once you think about it!"

His eyes are glued to the screen as he enters what seems to be the final stage of the dungeon, the music picking up in pace and a brief cutscene commences. Something that looks like a giant mutated version of the goblins he fought before appears, clad in spiked armour and wielding a giant axe which seems to be emitting green smoke. Before you know it, you find your own eyes glued to the screen, rooting for your boyfriend to win the challenge ahead of him. He furrows his brows as he smashes the keys more aggressively, then finally lets out a sigh of relief when the boss goes down in one final move. He's about to turn his head and show you a brilliant smile when he suddenly freezes – finally, he notices what you look like right now.

"R-Ru-Ruri-chan?!" He squeals, eyes wide open and cheeks burning red. As much as he tries to hide his blush behind his hand, it's still visible to you. His eyes flit from your hair down to your face, and finally to your outfit. He's not sure where he's supposed to look, there's so much to take in.

"Do you like it, Leviachan?" You ask in a singsong voice, putting on a sweet smile and tilting your head to the side. The demon lets out a whimper, unable to form any words. "I thought I could make you happy by cosplaying as Ruri-chan..." As you come closer, he reacts by leaning back. His eyes roam your figure, taking in every detail of your appearance and you believe you've never seen him blush so aggressively. He looks at you with a mixture of disbelief, shyness, and even lust.

Would you really do something like that for someone like him? He can't believe it, and for a few seconds, he just keeps blinking, afraid he might wake up and find his room void of you. But you're sitting in front of him, looking at him with an uncertain smile. Quick, he has to say something before you get the wrong idea!

"R-really? For… For me?" The words come out more unsteady than he wanted them to, and he curses himself mentally. But then you give him a reassuring smile, a nod, and he's over the moon. In one quick motion, he wraps his arms around your waist and pulls you close, burying his head in the crook of your neck. Leviathan can't find the words to describe how touched he is, but he's certain you can feel his heartbeat racing against your chest. Hell, he'd be surprised if you couldn't hear it at this rate.

You don't make any attempts to move, instead combing your fingers through his hair reassuringly. There is no denying that you enjoy the way he clings to you as if he had to make sure that you're real, that you're his.

"Leviachan?" You hum into his ear, taking pleasure from the way he shivers.

"Y-Yes?" His grip on you only tightens, head nuzzled further against your body.

"You can do more than just hug me, you know?" A chuckle escapes you as he looks up at you, eyes glassy from how flustered he is. Never in a million years would he have thought… Sure, there had been times where he fantasised about his favourite idol, but… Ugh, you're just too good for him! But you're here, in his arms, and the way you smile at him makes his heart flutter – a sudden wave of courage (and maybe desperate need) washes over him before his lips into yours. His kiss is clumsy, nervous and eager, but you've come to love the way his lips feel against yours. When you let your tongue caress his lower lip, he responds with an inevitable moan, allowing your tongue to meet his in a tender dance.

The kiss grows more forceful as he pulls you on his lap, and you can feel the bulge in his pants pressing against your core. Grinding your hips against his crotch, you feel his chest vibrate as he groans against your mouth, and, with one hand gently placed behind your head, he pulls you closer against him. His other hand travels down to your ass, fingers digging into the supple flesh. The sudden intensity of the kiss awakens butterflies in your stomach, your soft moans swallowed by his hungry lips.

He only breaks away to look at your face, to see your flushed cheeks and your lips parted with longing – his own face mirroring your expression perfectly.

"I'm all yours today, Levi," an almost plea falls from your lips, dripping with affection and lust. The tips of his ears tinged a dark shade of red, he nods to himself as if to calm himself down. Any attempt to calm down right now would be futile, you think, but it seems to do the job for him as his lips latch onto the soft skin of your neck, gently nibbling on it before suckling on it. A hot sensation begins to spread from the place where his lips connect with your skin, and you can tell that he'll be leaving a mark on your skin. As if only realising this now, the demon licks along your soft skin, soothing the red spot he created.

"I-Is this… okay?" Levi's voice is laced with uncertainty, and he barely allows his lips to graze your shoulder while awaiting your response.

"Of course it is, Levi – I think it's exciting, seeing you this needy." Your words are accompanied by a slight giggle, running one of your hands down his chest ever so slowly. The way your fingertips create the slightest sensation against his skin lets him crave you more, and when you begin to unzip his pants, he lets out an unholy moan.

"W-Wait..." He breathes, and you do as he says, looking at him with curiosity in your eyes. "Can you… sit on my desk?" When he raises his gaze to meet yours, you can tell how much self-control it took for him to ask this, and who are you to deny him? You meet his lips in a quick peck before you get up, hiking the skirt up at your waist as you sit down on his desk. You lean back a little, watching him get up and placing both of his hands by your hips, his face mere inches away from yours. He gulps, running his left hand over your thigh and inching closer to your core.

You loop your arms behind his neck to keep him close, eyes glued to his face as his confidence begins to grow. With an excited smile, he allows his fingers to run along your panties, and another blush rushes to his cheeks when you let out a content sigh. His fingertips begin to circle your clit through the fabric, and you can hear him take in a sharp breath when he feels your panties growing damp.

"Does… that feel good, MC?" The demon asks, trying out different pressures to see which one can coax out the sweetest reaction from you.

"Do you even have to ask? I love when you touch me, Levi – please, keep going," you whisper, shutting your eyes as you allow the pleasure to run course your body. Your words are music to his ears. With his right hand, he lifts your chin to kiss you; almost getting lost in the moment when you part your lips for him instantly. But you seem to be okay with him being more adventurous today, and so he begins to trail further kisses down your clothed body. He kneels, tugging at your panties, awkwardly fumbling with them before he manages to pull them further down. When his lips connect with your thighs, you've all but forgotten that, focusing instead on the way his mouth inches closer to your aching lips.

He doesn't waste any time and begins lapping at your pussy, allowing himself to savour your taste with every stroke of his tongue. It doesn't take long for your moans to fill his room, along with the lewd sounds of him sloppily licking your pussy. Levi shifts between your legs and before you know it, he's placed your thighs over his shoulders, hugging you closer. His tongue explores your folds with fervour, your essence coating his mouth and chin in the process. It reminds him that you're his, that no one else can taste you nor make you feel this way, and his chest swells with pride. As you tip your head back in pleasure, you run your fingers through his hair, tugging at it and urging him to go faster. Hyper-aware of your needy touches, Levi gives in to your desire.

When he lets out a shuddery moan, you feel it reverberate through your entire body. He goes from eagerly running his tongue along your slit to sucking on your clit, enveloping the sensitive nub with his lips. A jolt of electricity runs through you when he clumsily grazes his teeth against your swollen clit, a choked moan escaping from your lips. Searing heat grows within your body, pooling at your core, and the demon can tell by the way your hips try to buck against his face.

"L-Levi, I'm… ahh, so close," you whine in between moans, and the way you say his name, dripping with pleasure, makes him shudder once more. Spurned on by your involuntary reactions to his tongue's administrations, he finds the confidence to slip his tongue inside of your heat. You arch your back as his muscle teases your core, feeling your walls begin to clench as the unmistakable wave of your impending climax crashes over you. Your fingers curl in his hair when your orgasm crashes down on you, a string of curses falling from your lips. Even through your orgasm, Levi keeps licking at your pussy, driving you to a point of pleasure and ecstasy that makes your vision go blank for a couple of seconds. It's only when the sensation becomes too much that you attempt to clench your legs together, that he stops and looks up at you, admiring the mess that you have become thanks to him.

You are painfully aware that the only sound filling the room is your ragged breathing, but it takes you a few moments to catch your breath. When you look down at Leviathan, you notice his mesmerised gaze – and the fact that he's stroking his cock for you, now freed from the confines of his pants.

"Can… Can you keep your clothes on for… for the next part?" He asks you as he slowly gets up, crimson tingeing his cheeks. Your eyes wander from his dishevelled hair down to his glistening lips, taking note of the way he hungrily licks them, before you nod. Still dazed, he takes your hands and helps you get up, supporting your wobbly legs by swooping you up in his arms. It's easy to forget how powerful Levi really is when he shuts himself in his room most days, his shy nature not doing him many favours in that aspect. But he is the third-born for a reason, you think as you look up at his face.

Gently, he places you down on the ground before he begins grabbing pillows and blankets from the bathtub. He throws them on the ground, arranging them in a way that he believes is comfortable for you. You can't tear your eyes off of him, enthralled by his appearance. You know that he doesn't think much of his looks, belittling himself more often than not, but you think that if he could see himself through your eyes right now, he'd disagree. Such a vulgar image it is, and yet you can't think of any other word than beautiful to describe him.

"W-Why are you looking at me like that…? Do you… Do you not want to go further?" His question snaps you out of your thoughts, a flash of concern washing over his face, and you shake your head right away – you feel yourself aching for his cock to fill you up, a need throbbing deep within your core. The demon looks relieved at your response, and his abashed smile makes your heart skip a beat. Grabbing him by the collar of his hoodie, you pull him closer and your lips crash into his. You can taste your own essence as your tongue slips inside of his mouth, coaxing a muffled moan out of him.

It's all the encouragement he needs as he gently pushes you down, your own hands roaming down his chest and tugging at his hoodie. He gets your hint, he really does, but Levi doesn't seem to be able to tear himself away from you long enough to remove the hoodie. His cock is already aligned at your pussy, the tip of it prodding at your entrance, but despite his need for you, he seems to drown in your kiss instead. There's a hunger in his kiss that takes you by surprise, so unexpected from the usually submissive demon. When your fingers find his length and wrap around him, his entire body shivers. With slow motions, you begin to pump his cock, the heat of it teasing your slit. His hips move intact with your hand without entering you just yet, eliciting a deep growl from the back of his throat. Levi only breaks the kiss to look at you, eyes searching for permission.

"Take off your hoodie and you can fuck me," you say breathlessly, and with a small whimper, he complies. You let your eyes wander his pale skin, watching the way his breath catches in his chest as you work his cock faster, a red flush of passion adorning his fair skin. His gaze finds yours once more, asking for permission and when you finally nod, letting go of his cock, he buries himself inside of you with one swift motion.

The moan falling from your lips fills the entire room, followed by many more as the demon begins to thrust into you at a frantic pace. His strokes are quick and sloppy, hitting all the right spots to make you arch your back in pleasure. With every thrust inside you, you feel your mind growing hazy with lust once more, and the only thing on your mind is him. Levi's eyes remain on you as he fucks you, taking in the way your lips part, the way your tits bounce under your clothes and the way your eyes roll back when his cock hits your sweetest spots.

He's not new to the way your body reacts to him and vice versa, but seeing you in that costume is doing sinful things to him. Once more, he finds himself picking up the speed before he leans down, resting both of his hands next to your head while his face hovers above yours. Instinctively, you wrap your arms around his neck and pull him into a kiss, moaning his name against his lips.

It's enough for him to lose control of himself entirely, pounding into you as your moans grow in volume. You can feel his climax coming on by the way his thrusts become even more frantic, slamming his cock into you rougher than before, leaving your legs trembling.

His cock twitches inside of you before his hot seed floods your pussy, a surge of heat washing over you. Though his movements slow, he keeps rocking his hips into yours, panting heavily.

"Ahh, s-shit shit, s-sorry," Levi whimpers when his movements come to a halt. You're still breathing heavily, looking up at him with a questioning expression on your face. "You… You d-didn't… I-I mean, was that… was that enough?" You realise that he's apologising for coming before you could, and with how flustered and apologetic he looks, you cannot help but giggle. His eyes widen ever so slightly and he pouts a little, about to protest when you cup his cheeks in your hands.

"Levi, listen to me, okay? You're always enough for me. No one else can make me feel this good, and no one else can make my knees weak in more than just one way." Your words make him whimper again, his lips desperately pressing against yours once more until you're out of breath.

"I-I love you so… so much, MC!" Levi stammers, squeezing his eyes shut so you don't see him tearing up over his emotions.

"More than Ruri-chan?" You hum teasingly, not expecting any answer as you give him a quick kiss.

"Y-YES!" He almost shouts, only realising how loud his words were after they left his mouth. "S-Sorry," he adds, more quietly this time. How can he make such a fool out of himself when you're beneath him, looking like the epitome of beauty and passion?! Not too mention, he's still inside of you and – oh god, he's so embarrassed! The only thing stopping him from crawling into a hole to mope is the way you look at him, so much affection in your gaze that warms his heart.

"I love you, too, Leviachan~" You hum with a smile, and all his anxieties seem to wash away just like that. How…?

"I know this wasn't the type of co-op battle you had in mind when you texted me earlier, but… maybe we should go for another round – to grind some exp, you know?"

You can't just say those things without a warning! How is his heart supposed to handle you when you say those things, looking like that!?

His immediate response is a whimper before he presses his lips against yours once more. This time, he's going to complete all of the requirements for this quest.

A/N: I definitely feel like I could’ve done more with the cosplay aspect of this fic, but also, I don’t even know what Ruri rly looks like so who knows?? 

[moviewarfare]

A Review of “Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)”

Wonder Woman 1984 was one of my most anticipated DCEU movie for 2020. Due to the Coronavirus, the movie kept getting delayed but is finally here in theatres and HBO Max streaming service at the same time. The DCEU is such a frustrating cinematic universe in the early days due to how poor the movies were but then Wonder Woman came. The first Wonder Woman movie was a breath of fresh air in the DCEU because it was good and I would give it 4/5 stars. The sequels premise is "Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) lives quietly among mortals in the vibrant, sleek 1980s -- an era of excess driven by the pursuit of having it all. Though she's come into her full powers, she maintains a low profile by curating ancient artifacts, and only performing heroic acts incognito. But soon, Diana will have to muster all of her strength, wisdom and courage as she finds herself squaring off against Maxwell Lord and the Cheetah, a villainess who possesses superhuman strength and agility". Does the sequel manage to surpass the magic of the first movie or fails miserably?

Firstly, I like the direction the movie goes in. Patty Jenkins, the director, has the movie set in the 80s which isn't a setting that's common in superhero movies. They utilise this setting by having more vibrant colors compared to the grey, dim colors of the first movie. Also, the set and costumes designers do a phenomenal job in bringing the 80s to life.I also like the idea that it is kind of a reverse situation to the first movie for Wonder Woman. In the first movie, she was the fish out of water learning about the world outside Themyscira but here it's Steve Trevor instead. Due to this, we get to see a completely different Wonder Woman from the first movie and a slightly flustered Steve which was entertaining. The action scenes are also pretty fun to watch but they are nowhere near as good as the first movie to be fair. Also, Maxwell Lord (Pedro Pascal) was a surprising villain as he was more emotional and less stoic than I expected. Most supervillains in comic book movies, even the first Wonder Woman movie, are bad because they are bad and just stone-cold but Maxwell is more energetic than that which is different.

On that note, I think the actors all do a really good job. Gal Gadot feels better than previous movies now as it feels like she has got the ropes. Chris Pine is still charming and charismatic as Steve Trevor. The chemistry between the two is still there and the best moments in the movie are the scenes where Wonder Woman and Steve are together. There are some emotional moments in this movie and Gal Gadots performance is incredibly convincing. Pedro Pascal is so good as the main villain and his performance throughout the movie as Maxwell Lord becomes more insane is very convincing and enjoyable to watch. Kristen Wiig as Babara/Cheetah, the secondary villain, was a controversial casting but I think she does a great job with what is given. Kristen is great as the weird and awkward Babara in the first part of the movie but is also great as the more confident Babara in the second half of the movie.

On the other hand, the story is kind of disjointed and messy. It doesn't flow well and due to that causes some pacing issues. The movie is a whopping 151 minutes but this is fine if the movie was constantly engaging which this movie isn't. There are a fair amount of moments where the movie drags. Additionally, Wonder Woman's character arc in the movie is kind of weak. I feel like Wonder Woman from the beginning of this movie is still the same at the end of the movie. It doesn't feel like this movie was an important story to tell for her character and she even feels like a supporting character in her movie. The villains are shallow and cliche as well. Maxwell Lord has a son he loves which adds some humanity to his character but for the most part, he wants power because he just does. Babara/Cheetah motives are just so generic as she becomes villain just because she is jealous and that's it. I also disagree with the way Steve was utilised in the movie and felt the emotional moment with him could've been stronger.

I think my biggest complaint is how cheesy this movie is. I don't know if the director intended to devolve the superhero movie back to the 80s but it sure feels like it. I cringe so much in this movie even when it's meant to be serious. The movie is just laughably dumb at times and that is just kind of disappointing when compared to the serious nature of the first movie. For example, the mall action scene is just so cheesy with bad supporting actors, silly choreography and terrible lines. The movie also ends with a very cheesy message that they try to shove down the audience's throat. Instead of pushing the movie to new heights, the movie decides to embody all the cliches you can think of.

The action scenes are fun, except for the mall scene, but there are some very noticeable and shoddy CGI. You think with all the delays this movie went through that they would fix the CGI but nope it's quite bad. An example would be the truck scene with Wonder Woman running along with the car and it's so green screen or the Cheetah CGI looking like it's from Cats (2019). On that note, one of my complaints about the first Wonder Woman movie was the dumb fight near the end against a dark-coloured CGI thing at night and Wonder Woman 1984 kind of does the same thing. It's not as dark and bad but it is just her fighting some terrible CGI Cheetah.  Hans Zimmer who is a legendary composer does the score for the movie but it feels phoned in. Also, severe lack of 80s music for some reason. The score is just okay and that's not what I expect from Hans which is a shame. My last point is a nitpick but this movie is still set in the DC extended universe yet this global scale threat is barely mentioned. It just feels so weird that such a large scale event doesn't seem to be of that much importance in this universe. Honestly, I don't even understand why the director made this a global threat because it didn't need to be. Also, the movie ends with no repercussions for some reason.

Overall, this movie was kind of a disappointment. It is nowhere near as good as the first movie. The story and characters are one of the most important aspects of a movie but they are incredibly weak in this movie. It attempts to cram in too many things and not all of them land plus the movie is way too cheesy than it needs to be. It does have great Wonder Woman and Steve moments with great performances, especially from Pedro Pascal. However, it is not enough to elevate this movie to greatness. It's a shame because there are some great things in the movie but they don't quite shine through.

[beemusik]

How David Bowie Invented Ziggy Stardust

Jason Heller’s book Strange Stars: David Bowie, Pop Music, and the Decade Sci-Fi Exploded is the story of how science fiction influenced the musicians of the Seventies. Out now in hardcover via Melville House, Strange Stars also examines how space exploration, futurism and emerging technology inspired the sometimes-cosmic, sometimes-mechanistic music the decade produced. In this section, Heller delves into the creation of Bowie’s most-famous alter ego, Ziggy Stardust.

A small crowd of sixty or so music fans stood in the dance hall of the Toby Jug pub in Tolworth, a suburban neighborhood in southwest London, on the night of February 10, 1972. The backs of their hands had been freshly stamped by the doorman. A DJ played records to warm up the crowd for the main act. The hall was nothing fancy, little more than “an ordinary function room.” The two-story brick building that housed it – “a gaunt fortress of a pub on the edge of an underpass” – had played host to numerous rock acts over the past few years, including Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull, and Fleetwood Mac. Sci-fi music had even graced the otherwise earthy Toby Jug, thanks to recent headliners King Crimson and Hawkwind, and exactly one week earlier, on February 3, the band Stray performed, quite likely playing their sci-fi song “Time Machine.” The concertgoers on the tenth, however, had no idea that they would soon witness the most crucial event in the history of sci-fi music.

Most of them already knew who David Bowie was – the singer who, three years earlier, had sung “Space Oddity,” and who had appeared very seldom in public since, focusing instead on making records that barely dented the charts. His relatively low profile in recent years hadn’t helped his latest single, “Changes,” which had come out in January. Despite its soaring, anthemic sound, it failed to find immediate success in England. But the lyrics of the song seemed to signal an impending metamorphosis, hinted at again in late January when Bowie declared in a Melody Makerinterview, “I’m gay and always have been” and unabashedly predicted, “I’m going to be huge, and it’s quite frightening in a way.” Bowie clearly had a big plan up his immaculately tailored sleeve. But what could it be?

Before Bowie took the stage of the Toby Jug, an orchestral crescendo announced him. It was a recording of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, drawn from the soundtrack to A Clockwork Orange. To anyone who’d seen the film, the music carried a sinister feeling, superimposed as it was over Kubrick’s visions of grim dystopia and ultraviolence. Grandiloquence mixed with foreboding, shot through with sci-fi: it couldn’t have been a better backdrop for what the pint-clutching attendees of the Toby Jug were about to behold.

At around 9:00 p.m., the houselights were extinguished. A spotlight sliced the darkness. Bowie took the stage. But was it really him? In a strictly physical sense, it must have been. But this was Bowie as no one had seen him before. His hair – which appeared blond and flowing on the cover of Hunky Dory, released just three months earlier – was now chopped at severe angles and dyed bright orange, the color of a B-movie laser beam. His face was lavishly slathered with cosmetics. He wore a jumpsuit with a plunging neckline, revealing his delicate, bone-pale chest, and his knee-high wrestling boots were fire-engine red. Bowie had never been conservative in dress, but even for him, this was a quantum leap into the unknown.

Then he began to play. His band – dubbed the Spiders from Mars and comprising guitarist Mick Ronson, bassist Trevor Bolder, and drummer Woody Woodmansey – was lean, efficient, and powerful, clad in gleaming, metallic outfits that mimicked spacesuits, reminiscent of the costumes from the campy 1968 sci-fi romp Barbarella. The Jane Fonda vehicle had been a huge hit in England, and it became a cult film in the United States, thanks to its titillating portrayal of a future where sensuality is rediscovered after a lifetime of sterile, virtual sex.

In the same way, Bowie’s new incarnation was shocking, lurid, and supercharged with sexual energy. Combined with his recent admission of either homosexuality or bisexuality, as he was then married to his first wife, Angela, Bowie’s new persona oozed futuristic mystique, which Bowie biographer David Buckley described as “a blurring of ‘found’ symbols from science fiction – space-age high heels, glitter suits, and the like.”

But what bewitched the audience most was the music. Amid a set of established songs such as “Andy Warhol,” “Wild Eyed Boy from Freecloud,” and, naturally, “Space Oddity,” the Spiders from Mars injected a handful of new tunes, including “Hang On to Yourself” and “Suffragette City,” that had yet to appear on record. Propulsive, infectious, and awash in dizzying imagery, this was a new Bowie – cut less from the thoughtful, singer-songwriter mold and more from some new hybrid of thespian rocker and sci-fi myth. These songs bounced off the walls of the Toby Jug’s no-longer-ordinary function room. The audience, whistling and cheering, was entranced. A show eye-popping enough to dazzle an entire arena was being glimpsed in the most intimate of watering holes.

Although the crowd was sparse, people stood on tables and chairs to get the best possible view. The stage was only two feet high, but it may as well have been twenty, or two million – an elevator to outer space designed to launch Bowie into an orbit far more enduring than that of Major Tom in “Space Oddity.”

At some point, amid the swirl and spectacle of the two-hour set, Bowie announced from the stage the name of his new identity: Ziggy Stardust.

Like an artifact from some alien civilization, Bowie’s fifth album, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, was unveiled on June 16, 1972. By then, Ziggy had become a sensation. After the Toby Jug gig in February, concertgoers embraced Bowie’s new persona in music venues around the UK. Attendance swelled each night, as did a growing legion of followers who dressed themselves in homemade approximations of Bowie’s outlandish attire.

Just as the album was released, he and the Spiders appeared on the BBC’s revered Top of the Popsprogram, performing the record’s centerpiece: the song “Starman.” For many of a certain age, watching Bowie on their family’s television that evening was tantamount to the Beatles’ legendary spot on The Ed Sullivan Show in the United States eight years earlier. “He was so vivid. So luminous. So fluorescent. We had one of the first color TVs on our street, and David Bowie was the reason to have a color TV,” remembered Bono of U2, who was twelve at the time. “It was like a creature falling from the sky. Americans put a man on the moon. We had our own British guy from space.”

Musically, “Starman” was an exquisite and striking slice of pop songcraft, exactly what Bowie needed at that point in his career. Lyrically, he smuggled in a sci-fi story that centers around Ziggy Stardust, who was both Bowie’s alter ego and the fictional protagonist of the Rise and Fall concept album, as loose as it was in that regard – it is more a fugue of ideas that coalesce into a concept. Through the radio and TV, an alien announces his existence to Earth, which Bowie describes in lovingly rendered sci-fi verse: “A slow voice on a wave of phase.” The young people of the world become enchanted and hope to lure the alien down: “Look out your window, you can see his light /If we can sparkle, he may land tonight.” But that alien is reticent, and his shyness makes him all the more magnetic.

Bowie sang the song on Top of the Pops clad in a multicolored, reptilian-textured jumpsuit, which Melody Maker called, “Vogue’s idea of what the well-dressed astronaut should be wearing.” In that sense, “Starman” is a self-fulfilling prophecy: before he could truly know the impact the song would have, he used it to describe its effect on Great Britain’s young people in perfect detail. He was the starman waiting in the sky, and the kids who saw him on TV soon began to dress like him, hoping to sparkle so that he may land tonight.

If Bowie intended “Starman” to be an overt reference to [Robert A.] Heinlein’s Starman Jones, the book he loved as a kid, he never publicly confessed to it. But the admittedly sketchy story line of Rise and Fall parallels another Heinlein work: Stranger in a Strange Land, the novel that had influenced David Crosby in the ’60s and, later, many other sci-fi musicians of the ’70s. The book’s hero,Valentine Michael Smith, comes to Earth from Mars; in Rise and Fall, Mars is built into the title. And both Valentine and Ziggy become messiahs of a kind – androgynous, libertine heralds of a new age of human awareness. Bowie claimed he’d turned down offers to star in a film production of Stranger in a Strange Land and had few positive words to say about the book, calling it “staggeringly, awesomely trite.” Be that as it may, he clearly had read the book and developed a strong opinion of it – perhaps enough for some of its themes and iconography to seep into his own work.

The opening song of Rise and Fall, “Five Years,” elegiacally delivers a dystopian forecast: the world will end in five years due to a lack of resources, and society is disintegrating into a slow-motion parade of perversity and moral paralysis. It’s a countdown to doomsday, with the clock set at five years. The song’s ominous refrain, “We’ve got five years,” is sung by Bowie with increasing histrionics, his voice sounding more panicked and deranged as he repeats the phrase. “The whole thing was to try and get a mocking angle at the future,” Bowie said in 1972. “If I can mock something and deride it, one isn’t so scared of it” – with “it” being the apocalypse.

“Five Years” set a chilling tone, but Rise and Fall didn’t entirely wallow in it. The coming of an alien rock star named Ziggy Stardust is relayed in a multi-song story that’s equally melancholy and ecstatic, tragic and triumphant. On tracks such as “Moonage Daydream,” “Star,” and “Lady Stardust,” Bowie wields terms such as “ray gun” and “wild mutation.” He also claims, “I’m the space invader,” as though he were channeling the ideas of his sci-fi heroes Stanley Kubrick or William S. Burroughs, particularly the latter’s 1971 novel, The Wild Boys.

As Bowie explained, “It was a cross between [The Wild Boys] and A Clockwork Orange that really started to put together the shape and the look of what Ziggy and the Spiders were going to become. They were both powerful pieces of work, especially the marauding boy gangs of Burroughs’s Wild Boys with their bowie knives. I got straight on to that. I read everything into everything. Everything had to be infinitely symbolic.” The photos of the Spiders from Mars inside the album sleeve of Rise and Fall were even patterned after the gang of Droogs of A Clockwork Orange; Droogs are mentioned by name in the Rise and Fall song “Suffragette City.” Furthermore, Bowie posed on theback cover of the album, peering out of a phone booth – just as though he were that other cryptic British alien who regularly regenerates himself and is often seen in a phone booth (specifically a police call box), the Doctor from Doctor Who.

Bowie also drew from work of the Legendary Stardust Cowboy. Born Norman Carl Odam, the Texan rockabilly artist released a twangy, oddball 1968 single titled “I Took a Trip (On a Gemini Spaceship)” that Bowie wound up covering in 2002; it was from Odam that Bowie borrowed Ziggy’s surname. And after going on a record-buying spree while touring the United States in 1971, he bought Fun House by the Michigan proto-punk band the Stooges, whose outrageous lead singer was named Iggy Pop. He jotted down ideas on hotel stationary while traveling the States, resulting in a name that was a mash-up of Iggy Pop and the Legendary Stardust Cowboy. Ziggy Stardust was a fabricated rock star, one whose sleek facade flew in the face of the era’s reigning rock aesthetic of laid-back, unpretentious authenticity. Instead, Bowie wanted to puncture that illusion by taking rock showmanship to a previously unseen, self-referential extreme.

When it came to Bowie’s urge toward collage and deconstruction, Burroughs remained a prime inspiration. A pioneer of postmodern sci-fi pastiche as well as the literary cut-up technique, in which snippets of text were randomly rearranged to form a new syntax, Burroughs straddled both pulp sci-fi and the avant-garde, exactly the same liminal space Bowie now occupied. Rock critic Lester Bangs accused Bowie of “trying to be George Orwell and William Burroughs” while dismissing him as appearing to be “deposited onstage after seemingly being dipped in vats of green slime and pursued by Venusian crab boys” – a description that sounded like it could have been cribbed straight from a Burroughs book.

In 1973, Burroughs met Bowie in the latter’s London home. The meeting was arranged by A. Craig Copetas from Rolling Stone, and the resulting exchange was published in the magazine a few months later. In the article, Copetas observed that Bowie’s house was “decorated in a science-fiction mode,” and that Bowie greeted them “wearing three-tone NASA jodhpurs.” The ensuing conversation ranged across many topics, but it circled around science fiction – and in particular, the similarity Bowie saw between Rise and Fall and Burroughs’s 1964 novel Nova Express, a surreal sci-fi parable about mind control and the tyranny of language.

In an effort to convince Burroughs of the similarity, Bowie offered one of the most revealing analyses of Rise and Fall as a work of science fiction:

“The time is five years to go before the end of the Earth. It has been announced that the world will end because of a lack of natural resources. Ziggy is in a position where all the kids have access to things that they thought they wanted. The older people have all lost touch with reality, and the kids are left on their own to plunder anything. Ziggy was in a rock & roll band, and the kids no longer wanted to play rock & roll. There’s no electricity to play it.”

Bowie went on:

“[The environmental apocalypse] does not cause the end of the world for Ziggy. The end comes when the infinites arrive. They really are a black hole, but I’ve made them people because it would be very hard to explain a black hole onstage.”

Curiously, it took him another twenty-six years before casually revealing in an interview that a sci-fi song called “Black Hole Kids” was recorded as an outtake during the sessions for Rise and Fall. He called the song “fabulous,” adding, “I have no idea why it wasn’t on the original album. Maybe I forgot.”

But Bowie dropped the biggest revelation about Rise and Fallin the 1973 conversation with Burroughs. Ziggy Stardust, according to his creator, is not an alien himself; instead, he’s an earthling who makes contact with extra-dimensional beings, who then use him as a charismatic vessel for their own nefarious invasion plan. But like Frankenstein’s monster being erroneously called “Frankenstein” to the point where it seems senseless to quibble with that usage, Ziggy Stardust continues to be widely considered the alien entity of Rise and Fall. Considering the shifting identity and gender of Bowie’s most famous alter ego, that ambiguity may well have been his intention. Talking to Burroughs, he ultimately labels Rise and Fall “a science-fiction fantasy of today” before reiterating its similarity to Nova Express, to which Burroughs responds, “The parallels are definitely there.”

Rise and Fall has always been as fluid as Bowie’s facade itself. Michael Moorcock’s Eternal Champion cast a shadow over Ziggy Stardust, especially the glammy incarnation of the many-faced character known as Jerry Cornelius – who was adapted to the big screen in 1973 for the feature film The Final Programme. It coincided with Ziggy’s own ascendency, not to mention the New Wave of Science Fiction and its preference for fractured narratives and multiple interpretations over linear stories and pat endings.

During their mutual interview, Burroughs brought up the then-current rumor that Bowie might play Valentine Michael Smith in a film adaptation of Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land. Bowie again dismissed it. “It seemed a bit too flower-powery, and that made me a bit wary.” For his part, Bowie’s fellow sci-fi musician Mick Farren of the Deviants later admitted he always thought Michael Valentine Smith was a major influence on Ziggy Stardust. “I was certain someone would call him out for plagiarism,” Farren said. “Nobody did.”

Bowie may have denied his affinity for Stranger in a Strange Land by his boyhood go-to author Heinlein, but he was not shy about professing his love for one of the authors Lester Bangs compared him to: George Orwell. Almost as a footnote, Bowie told Burroughs, “Now I’m doing Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four on television.” That project would never come to pass, but it would lay the groundwork for his next, less famous sci-fi concept album – a jagged, atmospheric song cycle that plunged Bowie into the darkest extremes of dystopia.

[desdamona-evangaline]

Karma, Kayano, Nagisa and Sugino were excited. Well. Kayano, Nagisa and Sugino were exited.

“Are we really going to spend our Friday night looking at bones?” Wines Karma.

“Come on, they got a new exhibit! It’s the fourth largest bone found ever!” Said Sugino.

“”I heard it’s a dinosaur hip.” Chimed in Kayano.

“Plus,” said Nagisa “Koro-sesei said it would be a learning experience”

“Fine whatever”

Kayano leapt to her feet “Forget the bones!”

Exclamations of dismay ensued. Karma had just gotten on bored.

“No, no! Apples releasing a new iPad! And giving away free ones as a promotion! All we have to do is make a video about apples to win!”

“Come on, I want to see the museum.” Said Nagisa.

“I’ll help” said Sugino. “We’ll get Okajima to film.”

“Yes! Get ready. I feel a brainstorm coming on”

They grabbed a napkin and started drawing their heart stopping Apple based videos. This would be epic. Tales of Apple drama, costumes, lighting. This would be bigger than the Titanic!

“Didn’t that sink?”

“Shut up Karma!”

Karma laughed at their antics. Nagisa on the other hand frowned. “I wanted to go to the museum. It’s closed for repairs for a week starting Saturday.”

“We can still go”

“Um....” Nagisa mumbled vaguely. Things had been a tad... awkward since Karma had come back. They hadn’t really hung out together for long since the whole.... friendship break up. He didn’t want to be stressed all evening.

“Look, it’s fine. It’s not like... a big deal.” Pointed out Karma.

“It’s just hanging out.”

“”I guess. Sure”

Kayano popped up smiling. “Aww, like a date?”

Nagisa nearly fell off his chair. Oh God. Mortified.

“No, not a date” hissed Karma. “Just. Hanging out.”

“Have fun on your .not. date.” She cooed before running for dear life. Sugino looked at Karmas face and made a swift exit. Nagisa’s was trying to fight his blush. Oh God he was all red. Idiot!

“It’s not a date.” Karma said again, rather forcefully.

“Just. Hanging. Out”

“Got it.”

“See you at 7”

Karma casually walked away praying his face didn’t rival the colour of his hair. He was not going on a date with Nagisa. And his heart certainly wasn’t beating any harder than normal. Nagisa buried his head in his school bag. It wasn’t a date. Stop panicking! What should he wear?

It took Kayano took zero seconds to convince Okajima to film their video. The thought of an IPad with high zoom camera filled him with glee. Disturbing glee but glee all the same. Nakamura’s blackmail sences were tingling. A date? Between the two most oblivious boys in the class? She new what she was doing this evening. She grabbed Hinano. Now her sights were set on the boys she needed a new accomplice. The girl was easy to convince.

“Finally!! My OTP!!”

“Whatever, bring your binoculars.”

“Trust me. We won’t miss a single second of this legendary meet up”

After school Kayano, Sugino and Okajima asked/begged/bribed Koro-Sensei to fetch them costumes. Their grand idea? An interpretation of apples through ballet. The competition would never see it coming. Kayano wore a green tutu, Sugino a red ballet jacket and shorts. Okajima stood by with the camera. The only problem? None of them knew anything about ballet.

“Don’t you like.... stand on your toes? And sort of spin?”

“I think I can do an arabesque.”

“Jumping is involved?”

The bone museum was just as eventful as one could expect. By which it wasn’t eventful at all and Karma was going insane.

“Are we done yet? It’s a rock! It’s not like it can move”

“It’s a fossil and I want to look at it a little longer”

“It’s a grey rock. I’ll find you 20 outside, can we go now?”

“Don’t you think it’s lovely?”

“It’s almost as picturesque as you my darling little bon...”

“I will hit you with the bone if you finish that sentence”

The Apple ballet plot line was fabulous. Stupendous. Electronic. But the skills? Less so.

“Just twirl. Twirl. Kayano for the love of God TWIRL!”

“I’m basically standing on my big toe do you think this is easy!”

“Sugino, you twirl then!”

No response came from the pile of body that used to be Sugino. Arabesque’s were harder than you’d imagine. Okajima dumped the camera and leapt onto the podium they were using as a stage.

“Just go on one leg and spin like this!”

Kayano didn’t know exactly what happened. After blacking out for a moment she came to under a desk, Sugino’s knee on her head and Okajima stuck in a broken floor board. Time for the good old YouTube tutorial.

Karma kicked himself internally. What was he doing? Why did he say that? This was supposed to be a causal meet up between friends and he was ... flirting? Could you even call that flirting? What ever it was it certainly wasn’t casual. Nagisa was staring straight ahead at the bone. Stop blushing stop blushing stop blushing. Karma was just teasing. This was not. A. Date. He didn’t really mean it. Blushing harder under Karma’s grin, he fought off any unacceptable emotion. But.

He had called him lovely.

Hinano and Nakamura lurked behind a display of elderly bow ties. They came armed with a romance magazine including a stage by stage guide to love. Stage one. The Compliments. Already a solid start. Hinano screamed internally.

“Lovely?” Thought Nakumura. Interesting choice. He’d have to up the anti if he wanted to get anywhere with Nagisa. The boy was completely oblivious. Get down on one knee and he’d ask if your shoelaces were untied.

“I’m hungry.” Announced Karma, formally ending their bone viewing.

Since it wasn’t a date they didn’t plan on getting dinner anywhere fancy. What they were getting was barbaque food. From a literal hole in a brick wall. The smell alone was enough to throw romance out the window.

“It smells like..”

“Best not to think about it.”

“My leg is broken”

“Your leg is not broken”

“It’s broken!”

“Sugino your fine! Do the jump!”

“I swear to God Kayano I quit!”

“If you quit I’ll make you wish you’d never been born!”

All in all, thought Okajima to himself, letting the camera roll through out the afternoon showed scenes more entertaining than traditional ballet ever could.

“That is the most disgusting food I’ve ever seen” hissed Hinano.

This couldn’t be right. Even Karma couldn’t be idiotic enough to bring a date to this mess of a restaurant. They were sitting on the side walk for goodness sake. And the guy running the place looked like he was considering a murder. Come to think of it that’s probably where the meat came from.

“This tastes terrible Karma. Amazing job!”

“Karma laughed and took another bite of the thing that resembled a burger. See? They could hangout. No feelings. Just good friends. Nagisa was just a good friend who was illuminated by the white street light like an angel. Who’s eyes almost glowed and who was sitting close enough to Kiss...”

“OTP for life!!!” Hissed Hinano as Nakamura punched the air. 10 more inches. 5! 4, 3, 2

Nagisa’s phone made all 4 of them jump.

He answered to hear Kayano’s frantic whispers.

“We need help. Susan needs a hospital!”

“Hospital? Who’s Susan?”

“We were pirouetteing” explained Kayano as she dodged a thrown plate, “and Sugino accidentally threw me into a tree, the branch broke and I fell on a deer. Her antler broke! Her names Susan and she’s trying to kill us!”

“I don’t think girl deers have antlers”

“THAT IS NOT WHAT YOU SHOULD BE TAKING FROM THIS CONVERSATION!”

“Alright I’m on my way. Karma, we need to go save Kayano and Sugino from a distressed deer.”

“Sure” he muttered. “Why not”

Nakamura comforted Hinano. She would kill that deer with her own bare hands. Or maybe with a baseball bat.

It took a long time to get the deer into an animal hospital. He (or she) was a biter. The nurses criticised Karma’s method of transportation. In fairness it did look pretty odd when they arrived dragging a basket full of deer tied up with fairylights. But, as Karma argued, they did arrive at their destination. All they had to do now what wait as the nurses got the animal painkillers and possibly anger management therapy. Now Nagisa, Kayano, Sugino and Karma were in the waiting room recovering.

Exhausted Nagisa rested his head on Karma’s shoulder. Not in a romantic way or anything.

“Awww” cooed one lady.”Your such a cute couple”

“Oh! No.” Said Nagisa quickly lifting his head.

“We’re just friends.”

“Why?”

“Ummm”

“You’d be great together” man joined in.

Karma shook his head “no, all the dating stuff wouldn’t work out”

“If I may chime in,” Said another guy in a hat.

“Are you avoiding romance because of your fear of separation?”

“My what?” Karma looked personally insulted. “I don’t have a fear of separation”

“Listen young man” said a women behind Nagisa.

“You need to reassure that red headed fellow you will always be there for him.”

“I don’t want to talk about this” said Nagisa, mortification flooding through him.

“Perhaps that’s what’s driving you apart” said hat guy. “Your worried he won’t appreciate and except your efforts”

Sugino and Kayano took turns holding vending machine popcorn.

“No, I just don’t want to date him. Karma’s my friend”

“Is he. Or is he just putting up with you” asked some girl to the left.

“Excuse me?”

“Hey, I’m just telling you what you tell yourself buddy”

Karma stood up angrily. “Let’s stop this right there, our love life is none of your business”

“So you do have a love life?”

Two nurses restrainted Karma from attacking the hat guy.

Nakumura crashed through the door with Hinano at her heels.

“Everyone shut up! It’s time for your moment! Stage 3 happens 4 hours into the date! You have 86 seconds!”

“The hell are you talking about?” Yelled Karma as Nagisa buried his head in his hands.

“Oh God!” Screamed one women, “It’s about to get real!”

“Lady you need to chill” hissed Sugino through his popcorn. “Karma! This is your time! Tell him how you feel!” Wailed Hinata.

“What is going on?” Whispers Nagisa.

“It might be too late soon!” Called hat guy.

“Am I dead?” Whispered Nagisa.

“Do it! We support you!” Yelled the nurse.

“Am I in hell?” Nagisa asked himself.

“Take the initiative Karma! Kiss him!”

Kamra threw himself at Nakamura with the sole intent to kill.Nagisa tackled him.

“No killing Nakumura. Or me after this”

The audience gasped. Hinata cheered. Kayano clapped. Nagisa kissed. And kissed. And kissed.Silence. Staring down at Karma Nagisa waited for his fist. It never came.

“I can’t believe this was our first date. Do-over?”

The whole room cheered.

The next day Karma and Nagisa headed out for first date round two. Nakumura and Hinata spread the news. Kayano and Sugino met to discuss their aid to the Karmagisa cause. It was worth it, even though they never got an iPad.

Then Sugino frowned

“Hey, what happened to Okajima?”

Okajima bowed as he received his prize. His short film “What two mental ballerinas would do for an iPad” won him first place. Life was good.

@darlingimawitch

[stereksecretsanta]

Merry Christmas, damnfancyscotch!

For @damnfancyscotch, who liked high school AUs and soulmates, so have some rival teams and a bit of Shakespeare!

Read On AO3

*****

Not a Shakespearean Tragedy

Stiles and Scott walked to the lacrosse field after school for practice, clad in their uniforms and carrying their crosses. They passed by the basketball court, where the basketball players were practicing.

“Look, there goes the lacrosse bozos!” one of the basketball players jeered at them.

“Only bozos I see are you guys!” Stiles yelled back at them. “Did you lose your mascot costume again?”

Some of the guys started yelling back at them, some players holding others back, but the two friends just ignored them all and continued on towards the lacrosse field.

“You ever get sick of this stupid rivalry?” Stiles sighed.

“It is pretty stupid,” Scott agreed. “I always worry when they say things about how I play, though,” he added quietly.

Stiles immediately got in Scott’s path so he would stop. “Don’t you ever say that about yourself!” he said vehemently. “You’ve gotten really good over the years since your asthma went away, and next year, you’ll probably be our team captain! Don’t ever doubt yourself, bro!”

Scott smiled his adorably sweet smile that made Stiles think of puppies. “Aw, thanks, bro!”

“And I mean it, too,” Stiles added as the two got to the field.

As they waited for their coach to arrive, Stiles glanced back at the basketball court. He really was sick of the stupid squabbling between teams.

The rivalry between the basketball and lacrosse teams was legendary. It had been going on for nearly a decade. The two coaches, Coach Finstock of the lacrosse team and Coach Abernathy of the basketball team, kept trying to one-up each other, and the teams had caught their fever. There had been crazy pranks, yelling insults at the other team across the fields, even stealing the team mascot costume. Friendships between players on the other team were rare.

Which was a real shame because Stiles really wanted to be friends with Derek Hale. He was a senior while Scott and Stiles were juniors, but they shared quite a few classes. Derek was smart, especially in English, and had good things to say in class. He was actually a big fan of Shakespeare’s works, and Stiles gained an appreciation for his writing because of Derek. He would smile at Derek when he said something particularly interesting in class, and Derek would smile at him, too. But then they’d look away because they weren’t allowed to be friends, which was completely unfair.

Derek was one of the rare basketball players who didn’t insult the lacrosse team. Well, maybe he did and Stiles just wasn’t there to hear it. Stiles was no innocent angel who didn’t insult the basketball team, but he never said anything bad about Derek, either.

Navigating teen social groups was just a nightmare.

What if a basketball player and a lacrosse player were soulmates? That would be worse than a nightmare.

But Stiles often wondered. He didn’t think that he and Derek had ever touched each other’s bare skin. When soulmates touched each other’s bare skin for the first time, their vision would explode into white, and they would finally recognize each other as soulmates.

Not all soulmates find each other in high school, but many of his classmates had found theirs already. Even Scott had discovered his soulmate Allison when he handed her a pen and their hands brushed each other. Stiles really wanted to discover who was meant to be his.

“Stiles,” Scott nudged his arm. “What are you thinking about?”

Stiles sighed. “The usual,” he said.

It was far from the first time that Stiles had mentioned the unfairness of it all. But before Scott could say anything, Coach Finstock came out, his whistle around his neck. The two boys and a few other of their teammates stood at attention, but most of them were still talking amongst themselves and hadn’t noticed their coach showing up.

Coach Finstock blew his whistle. “Alright, listen up! We’re gonna practice shooting at the goal, and if you keep missing, you’re gonna be running suicides! Let’s show up that stupid Coach Abernathy! You got it?”

“Yes, Coach!” the team said in unison.

Stiles was too busy after that to think about anything but lacrosse.

**********

A few days later, Stiles had to stay after school because stupid Mr. Harris had given him detention. Scott had already gone home, so Stiles was walking through the corridors alone.

Suddenly, he walked into what felt like a brick wall. He fell on his butt, thankfully not hitting his head on anything, but it was still startling.

“Are you okay?” asked a familiar voice.

Stiles’ head flew up and he looked into Derek Hale’s beautiful eyes. “Y… yeah,” he said.

“Let me help you up,” Derek said, holding out a hand.

This was the moment that Stiles had been so curious about. He gripped onto it, and the moment he did, his vision did explode into white. And apparently, Derek’s did, too, because instead of Derek helping him up, he fell on top of Stiles instead.

“You really are my soulmate?” Stiles was in shock. They really had never touched any bit of their skin together before that very moment?

“Are you upset?” Derek looked worried, moving back off of Stiles. “We don’t have to--”

“No!” Stiles screamed, grabbing at one of Derek’s arms to stop him. “I like that we’re soulmates,” he said at a more normal volume. “I was kind of hoping that we were, actually, because you’re really kind of awesome.”

Derek looked more relaxed and a smile was blossoming on his face. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Stiles returned the smile.

Forget about the two rival teams for now, Stiles thought. For now, Derek was all that he wanted on his mind.

**********

Unfortunately, the next day, they both knew that they had to speak to their respective coaches. Stiles was not looking forward to telling Coach Finstock that Derek was his soulmate, and Derek wasn’t looking forward to telling Coach Abernathy about Stiles, either. But the two of them walked to the gym anyways. No one else was there, and the two held hands for moral support.

“Everything will be okay,” Stiles said, both to reassure Derek as well as himself.

Derek gulped. “Yeah. We’ll be able to be together and not have to hide our relationship.”

Stiles stared at him. He didn’t even consider that they might be forced into a secret relationship, forced to have clandestine meet-ups in other towns so no one else would see them. Stiles would wear a hoodie and sunglasses, while Derek would wear a scarf that covered the lower half of his face and…

“Stiles!” Derek interrupted his thoughts. “It’s not going to happen!”

Stiles looked over at Derek. He looked just as nervous as Stiles felt, but he looked determined, too. Stiles bet that that’s how Derek looked before a big basketball game. Maybe someday, Stiles would be able to go to one of his games and see for himself.

“Coach?” Stiles called, walking into his office in the gym

Coach Finstock was reading some essays from his freshman classes, but he looked up when Stiles approached. “Bilinski,” he greeted. “You needed something?”

“Um, yeah,” Stiles said. His heart was beating a mile a minute. He had the sinking feeling that this conversation could end very badly, but he needed to go through with it anyways.

“Bilinski!” Coach yelled. “Get on with it! I have papers to grade, you know! They don’t pay me to just sit here and look pretty, you know!”

“Sorry, Coach,” Stiles scratched his head. “I found my soulmate yesterday.”

“Congratulations!” Coach grinned. “But why are you telling me this? Shouldn‘t you be giggling about it with McCall or something?”

This was it. The moment that could end his days of lacrosse and Derek’s days of basketball. “It’s Derek,” he blurted out before he could lose his nerve. “Derek Hale. From the basketball team.”

Coach didn’t say anything.

“Am… am I gonna get kicked off the team?” Stiles was getting nervous, and when he was nervous, he tended to babble even more than normal. “I mean, I’m not the best player, but I’ve won you some goals. And Scotty, him and I play really good together! And Derek, he’s like one of the best players on the basketball team! He’s even the team captain!”

Finstock blew his whistle, and Stiles immediately shut up.

“Bilinski, do you really think we’d kick you off our teams because you’re soulmates?” Finstock asked. “Because that’s pretty crazy.”

Stiles’ jaw dropped. “But… the rivalry between the teams…?”

“What? Did you think this was gonna be like Romeo and Juliet?” Finstock stared at him. “Because while I have suffered greatly in my life, I’m not living in a Shakespearean tragedy! Don‘t put me through that, Bilinski!” He shook his finger at Stiles.

Stiles held his hands up. “I won’t, Coach! Promise!”

Finstock nodded in approval. “Good man. But don’t let being all lovey-dovey affect your performance on this team, or I’ll replace your starting position with Greenberg, and you know I don’t want that guy playing!”

Yeah, Stiles didn’t want Greenberg taking over his spot. “You got it!”

“Now, get out of here and let me grade my papers in peace!” Finstock said, picking up one of the essays on his desk and reading it.

Knowing when he was being dismissed, Stiles ran out of Finstock’s office and the gym. Derek was already outside, waiting for him. “How did it go for you?” he asked anxiously.

“He told me we weren’t Romeo and Juliet,” Stiles answered.

Derek raised an eyebrow. “I don’t remember ever saying we were,” he said.

“You didn’t,” Stiles said. “It was just Finstock being his weird self. But he’s all for us being together!” he added, bouncing from foot to foot in excitement. “What about you and Coach Abernathy?”

“Oh, yeah! He approved, too” Derek said, grinning so that his teeth were showing. God, he could be such a cute dork!

“Woohoo!” Stiles shouted, throwing his hands up in the air in celebration.

There was no one around to see the ensuing kiss, and Stiles was fine with some things just staying private between soulmates.

**********

At the end of the week was the next basketball game. Stiles sat in the stands and dragged Scott along with him, who dragged Allison along as well. “It’s so weird to be here,” Scott told him, looking like he would run and hide the second one of the basketball players or their coach spotted him.

Stiles shook his head. “I told you, Scotty. Everything’s okay. Remember Coach‘s speech yesterday, about how he and the basketball coach bet every year on their teams winning? That‘s how this stupid rivalry came about, so the coaches can bet each other out of money!”

Scott shrugged. “If you say so, dude.”

Allison ruffled Scott’s hair and smiled sweetly at him. “Don’t worry so much,” she said. “Let’s enjoy the game for once.”

“Hey, here they come!” Stiles shouted.

The basketball players started running out onto the court. Stiles spotted Derek immediately in the front leading the others. He spotted Stiles in the stands and waved shyly at him.

“But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?” Stiles whispered dreamily, putting a hand over his heart. “It is the east, and Derek is the sun.”

Scott and Allison laughed at him. “Dude,” Scott shook his head, grinning.

“You are so in love!” Allison beamed, her dimples showing.

“Yeah,” Stiles said, watching Derek take control of the ball and run dribbling it across the court. “I am.”

[phoenix-manga]

[DCA Event] - Six Queens Event Part 4

[Seymour - Heart of Stone]

It was Briar’s turn, the ghost makes the feeling of grief and heartbreak wash over her as her grey eyes started to glow. This part of the act was difficult for Briar, she was tested and nearly possessed because she relates so much to the third queen.

She might have stayed in the village for a good portion of the years but she always came back when told to, not because she was obedient but because deep down she still was the child who yearned for her father’s love. What she would give to at least see him smile at her. Not to be left alone.

Her expression morphs into sadness that even left the audience tearing up. Crowley was bawling and blowing into a handkerchief, Rook was dabbing the corner of his eyes with a tissue while Vil is trying so damn hard NOT to tear up and ruin his mascara. Heck, even Divus was tearing up a bit.

Kalim is sobbing into Jamil’s shoulder. But the ones who got hit the hardest? The Diasomnia guys, Lilia is silently crying it was almost like the soul of the queen was there singing about her regrets. Malleus was grasping Lilia’s hand has he was keeping his head down to not let anyone see his tears. Sebek’s stoic face would have been convincing if not for the waterfall of tears. Silver, there was a flashback to his childhood days wondering who his parents were. It was very emotional for the entire room, alright?

But the other five were slightly panicking on the inside, Briar was losing herself and they had to do something before anything goes wrong. Evonie signals the others to surround her and back her up when she was reaching the climax.

Evonie places a hand on her shoulder to make Briar look at her, to the crowd it was as if she was acting but to the six? This was an act to keep Briar from fading. 

Briar gently smiled as she realizes that she has friends who can fill the emptiness in her heart, she can feel the possession fading but not entirely. Briar’s act has ended.

[Haus of Holbein]

The mood started to lighten up when Vidya took the stage. The smoke machine activated as she explains on how the king went further west to find his next queen.

The smoke engulfed the stage where you can barely see the actresses.

The crowd was shook as the smoked cleared and the queens were wearing luminescent ruffs and glasses as the light flashed different colors and the rave music blared through out the stage.

Vidya: He enlisted the help of a legendary painter, Hans! ...

Six: H O L B E I N

Welcome to the Haus! To the Haus of Holbein! *Cue rave music and air horns*

But they started to cheer as the queens danced as if they were on crack. Kalim and Lilia started to head bang and wave their arms everytime the rave music comes up. Floyd was digging the dance and music, cause he probably dances like that, moves to the music with no care.

Those who were weirded out were Riddle, Vil, Jack, and Azul. This was a crazy song out of nowhere.

Divus was laughing... LAUGHING at how ridiculous those ruffs were and it tied the scene in a perfectly comedic way. Crowley blanked out since he’s never seen Divus laugh that loud.

Lilia can remember the times he’s worn a ruff before and it was uncomfortable. But he is thinking that he might wear it to a rave just to see the reactions.

When the song ended, the props were off and it was finally time for Vidya’s real act to start.

[Cleves - Get Down]

Vidya starts the act as the ghost makes the feeling of the need to brag wash over her as her eyes glowed red. She was the least concerned about getting taken over since she has a very strong will. 

Her sarcastic delivery made the people chuckle and snort. Jamil snorts but manages to cover it up before Kalim could notice. Jack liked this character, she didn’t let her divorce get to her, mad respect.

Vidya:  Well, I guess you already know what happened next. How I came to England, hopeful, summoned after the king saw my portrait. 

And how I, with my meager looks the way they are, didn’t live up to his expectations. I mean, It’s the usual story, isn’t it? The savvy educated young princess deemed repulsive by the wheezing, wrinkled, ulcer-riddled man twenty-four years her senior! 

Vidya: Rejection, rejection from a king! How can anyone overcome the fate as devastating than being forced to move into a resplendent palace in Richmond with more money that I could ever spend in a lifetime?! 

Let’s just say Jamil might have a bit of bitter feeling when it comes to Kalim and his riches but seeing Vidya act like this? He’s kind of glad that she was just playing a character, he didn’t think he could hang out with her if she was actually like this. But he has to admit that she was killing the role and it was something she would say. He’s been there to witness her sharp wit and words damage prides.

Vidya: And not a single man around to tell me what to do with it. I mean seriously, just… tragic.

When the lights turn red and the bass hits the crowd cheers as she saunters to a metal throne and sits leisurely on it. When she starts the chorus, “get down” and starts to dance hip hop that made the crowd cheer louder. Who knew Vidya could move like that? Kalim had his mouth agape while Jamil was baffled, those dance moves were almost the same as his.

He remembered that time when she was watching him dance for the past few weeks. So that was why she was there! It all suddenly made sense. Not bad for someone who didn’t even do street dance, get it right for the first time.

When she sang the part where the queens tug at her jacket and shorts to reveal a one piece costume covered in rubies and gold chains, it was a rich kid’s rave outfit. 

Vidya: Pull up outside of my carriage, don’t got no marriage so I have a little flirt with the foot man as he takes me fur-

*GASP*

The room was filled with whistles and cheers as her outfit sparkled under the stage lights. It got intense when she started to dance with confidence as if she was the top dog of the dance floor.

Kalim and Jamil: *When Vidya’s rave outfit was revealed*

Kalim was red because he has never seen her in that getup, he doesn’t know what to feel about it. Jamil on the other hand was contemplating if she could probably tag along with him when he goes to a street dance. Girl, that outfit’s a waste if you’re not gonna show it off!

Divus did the slow clap when the outfit was revealed, it was made to fit the person. He’s thinking on how Ella was making this outfit to impress him, the red and black outfit is his signature fave! “Well played!” he thinks to himself, he expects nothing less from a Glaciel.

Vidya was damn good at getting the crowd to feel so energetic the cheering was so loud when she sang, “No one tells me I need a rich man, DOING MY THING IN MY PALACE IN RICHMOND!”. There were people yelling, “Yas!” and “Queen!”

When the song ended, the crowd was cheering so loud and everyone was thinking on this character was going to become a crowd favorite.

[Extra]

Evonie: That doesn’t sound so hard at all...

Vidya: Oh yeah, I guess you’re right... I probably won’t win then... Oh well, back to the palace! *Drum and guitar sounds* hehe!

Lilia claps in amusement, this was his favorite queen! She didn’t take the divorce too hard and just went and wiped her tears with expensive silks. He thinks back on the time that he visited the Richmond palace and how luxurious it was at the time. Maybe he’ll visit it again to see how things are.