#I could say the same thing about smalltown boy | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

vivelegalite · 8 months ago

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dear dead boy detective (especially paynland) enjoyers: have you yet heard of the biggest gift bestowed upon the fandom so far, aka jayden's charles playlist? the one he mentioned in interviews? well, he dropped it on twitter at 19th of may. and man, do i have stuff to say about it.

there's a lot of 80's bangers, for sure, great to get into the mood and character, but some of the choices...

i'm gonna focus on a few of my favourites, songs that made me go insane when i saw them. honorable mentions: - category 1 (so devoted the lines blur): ain't no mountain high enough by marvin gaye and tammi terrell, there is a light that never goes out by the smiths, inkpot gods by the amazing devil - category 2 (family life): family line and summer child by conan gray, seventeen going under by sam fender, matilda by harry styles, father by the front bottoms - category 3 (being queer in the 80s): smalltown boy by bronski beat, boys don't cry by the cure - category 4 (there's no heterosexual explanation for this one): good luck, babe! by chappel roan, yellow by coldplay, fight or flight by conan gray (is this about monty? the cat king? i need answers!), the prophecy by taylor swift, arms tonite by mother mother, sweet by cigarettes after sex, head over heels by tears for fears

this list is by no means complete or comprehensive!

and now, the songs that made me go the craziest: (they're predominantly in charles' pov as it's his playlist)

found heaven by conan gray

the only reason this song made it into the list and not the honorable mentions instead of smalltown boy is that it makes almost the same point, just so much more explicitly. i don't think i have to say much about it, it's a story of a young person griping with their queerness, being forced to leave home, a common theme of the playlist. "you're in love, you found heaven" when he chose edwin over his own afterlife, heavily implied to be heaven, and built his heaven with him on the mortal plane? ouch! (and we see this same notion repeated in another bop from the playlist, heaven is a place on earth by belinda carlisle).

2. like real people do by hozier

"i miss kissing" charles rowland, 202X romantic meaning aside, the verses show a sort of a common understanding the boys have around the manner of their deaths and their lives before it. we already know from the show they don't really talk about it, with edwin not knowing about the severity of the abuse charles suffered. it feels like one of them saying "let the past be past, we're together now, yeah?". but also, jayden: can there ever be a platonic explanation for this? ghosts can't touch, can't feel, so they wish they could just kiss like "real" (alive?) people do?

3. flaws by bastille

not the most romantic song, but i absolutely love how well it fits their dynamic. despite his edwardian brand of repression, edwin truly is the one that's more open about his feelings (recognising of course that in this case, the bar is so low it's in hell. haha, get it). edwin has worn his flaws upon his sleeve, and charles has held them buried - eg. bottling up all of his anger and resentment towards his family and his own death. the song presents a very sweet outlook, in which their flaws are brought up to the surface (for example, charles' outburst against the night nurse in episode 4), but they learn to accept them as they are, an extension of themselves.

4. a pearl by mitski

you know it's gonna get intense if there's a mitski song in the mix.

the song is about a person who finds love in their partner, someone who treats them way better than they've ever been treated - and yet they cannot bring themselves to reciprocate the affection ("it's not that i don't want you, sorry i can't take your touch") despite reciprocating the feelings themselves because of the trauma. charles is known to bottle things up ("you're growing tired of me and all the things i don't talk about"). the person in the song recognises the love the other person holds for them ("you love me so hard and i still can't sleep"), which reminds me of charles' response to edwin's confession. not a "no", but a "maybe, as time passes".

5. fair by the amazing devil

this one made me genuinely gasp when i first delved into the lyrics. it's simply so sweet, such a genuine and domestic portrayal of love. at first i thought it was way too open about being a love song (normal text instead of the subtext i'd be used to) for jayden to choose it with edwin in mind, but... there's no one else it can really be about. it's far too domestic, too "established" to refer to crystal. refers to a relationship that's laster for a longer while.

the narrator in the first verse is a person deeply in love with the other person, someone who loves to make his lover laugh and simply drinks in their presence. the "he" in the song i believe is charles, while the "she" refers to edwin. edwin promises to fight off anyone - or any feelings pulling charles down (we can see this in the first episode: "you ever think... what if death did catch us? she'd force us to go to the afterlife and split up" "i will make sure this never happens."). charles feels left behind by the world (seeing as he clings to crystal at first, refering to her as "someone their age who's still alive") and believes edwin to be so much stronger than he's ever been. i'm not going to break down the song verse by verse, but if you read it yourself while subbing out "he" for charles and "she" for edwin you'll see just how sweet (and... strangely very in character?) the song is.

6. work song by hozier

if the previous song made me gasp when i saw the lyrics, this one made me go "NO WAY" out loud when i saw the title. the first one verse is just pure toothrotting sweetness, but the chorus is what i want to draw attention to:

when my time comes around lay me gently in the cold, dark earth no grave can hold my body down i'll crawl home to her

HELLO? charles, who keeps escaping death and afterlife to be able to stay with edwin? charles, as he literally takes his last breath with edwin right there, choosing to be by his side rather than move on? charles, who keeps choosing him despite night nurse's promises and threats? charles, who literally crawled through hell for him?

verse 2, to me, can be interpreted as referring to when charles died. edwin found him at his worst, and he "woke" up with his presence comforting him. he was shivering due to hypothermia and his injuries. edwin didn't ask him about what happened or pushed him, he simply listened. the lines "i didn't care much how long i lived, but I swear, i thought i dreamed her" are pretty self explanatory.

in verse 3 we still see the same attitude of "damn the afterlife, at least we have each other" as charles portrays througout the series. they're free, and heaven and hell are simply words to him.

7. orpheus by vincent lima

i literally have no words for this one. it fits too well. if you want commentary for this one, just... i don't know, rewatch the staircase scene.

8. francesca by hozier

(cracks knuckles) this is the big one. the album francesca is from, unreal unearth, is based on dante alighieri's divine comedy, a fourteenth century poem about a man venturing into hell, purgatory and eventually heaven. the eponymous francesca is one francesca di rimini, a woman who was politically married off to a man older than her, called giovanni malatesta. francesca didn't love him, and eventually fell deep in love with giovanni's younger brother, paolo. the two carried on with the affair for years, before being murdered by giovanni upon his finding out. francesca and paolo are mentioned in canto v of the first book, inferno, as two souls damned in the second circle of hell, lust. their punishment is to be permanently locked in a hurricane, swept away by the winds the moment they manage to get close enough to touch one another.

as opposed to their portrayal in the poem, the song is from the perspective of paolo, explaining that no matter the punishment, he wouldn't change anything about his life because he got to know, and love, francesca.

the first verse brings to mind the scenes in hell, especially on the staircase ("do you think I'd give up? that this might've shook the love from me? or that I was on the brink? how could you think, darlin', i'd scare so easily?" as an echo of charles' "sorry. no version of this where i didn't come get you"). "my life was a storm since i was born, how could i fear any hurricane?" could relate to charles' tumultuous family life, an assurance that nothing he has to deal with while by edwin's side will faze him given the things he's lived through. no, despite everything he's suffered through, charles wouldn't do anything differently - because his (admittedly shitty) life led him to edwin ("i'd tell them, put me back in"). we already know charles would choose him over heaven, willingly sacrificing his own afterlife to stay with a boy he's known for hours, someone kind enough to keep him company as he drew his final breath. all of it - his father's abuse, his schoolmates' bigotry, the pain of his own death, as well as everything he's gone through since - he'd do it all again, for edwin.

"for all that was said of where we'd end up at the end of it" could be taken as an allusion to the fate the boys would meet at "at the end of it", when they're finally caught by death and separated, or as more of a general "if you sin, you will go to hell when you die" (up to you to decide what the sin itself would be - an interpretation that would work with other songs on the playlist is that one such sin would be same sex attraction). then their hearts ceased, they never knew "peace", nor did they want to find it in death. their deaths were too soon, them being ripped away from life, but even though it would break his heart: charles would ask to do it all again.

the outro, i think, beautifully pulls it all together: heaven is not fit to house a love like theirs.

to wrap it all up:

jayden, what were you cooking in there? what do you know??

#please interact w me please please please i need dbd moots <3 #dbda #dead boy detectives #dead boy detective agency #paynland #payneland #painland #paineland #chedwin #charles rowland #edwin paine #edwin payne #dead boy detectives agency #dead boy detectives analysis #aough jayden your mind #my art #<- my umbrella trashcan tag

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bylertruth3r · 1 year ago

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Mike and Will literally share shoes (and Will might be sleeping in Mike's room) and might not be dating yet when they start dating they're gonna share a whole closet and flirt with each other about how good they look in each other's clothes and just being obnoxious (I will rewatch those scenes so many times) what if they're sharing/swapping shoes because it's the 80's and they're in a really homophobic and conservative town and if they want to give little hints that they're dating and want to openly show it (to at least their friends) they have to be subtle about it? and maybe when they're at home they share clothes without feeling like they have to be careful with how they act around each other and can be openly affectionate (like them in s2)

Thank you for pointing it out @cler1csfink

you can read my twitter thread about Mike being gay and in love with Will here

blue sky account here

tik tok account here

Finn's gay Mike playlist here (STurn)

Mike had an unrequited gay puppy crush on Eddie

"Mike was always super protective of Will and Will always leaned on him, and you could never really tell if it was something romantic or just a really special friendship"

Finn said that they costume made the jacket so them putting a triangle on Mike's jacket was intentional (triangles are a queer symbol), the costume designer said that they put triangles on Robin's shirt to represent her queerness (she's a lesbian), Mike is gay

Mike is wearing Will's shoes in s5 and they're sharing clothes which is a thing couples do

Confirmation that they're the same shoes and they're both size 10 so yeah they're sharing shoes

and Mike brought these shoes from Hawkins which means the puma suede belong to Will

and in a leaked footage El and Mike broke up/ were already broken up because Mike says "we'll still be friends" and "i wanted to tell you first" which makes me think he might have came out to her (and in that video he was literally wearing his boyfriend's shoes)

video from @nowmemoriees

in s1 during that scene on the train tracks they're friends and in the leaked video they were wearing similar clothes to what they were wearing in that s1 scene where they were friends and could trust each other. i think Mike's gonna come out to her (as gay) there which would explain why El was crying, and why Mike said "i wanted to talk to you first", in s1 Mike said "friends tell the truth" to El and in s5 it's Mike's turn to be honest about himself and maybe he'll tell her he's in love with Will or maybe he'll tell her that he's dating Will

it's the same song that played when Robin came out to Steve, obviously Steve had a crush on Robin but she's a lesbian and can only love him platonically while even though Mike tried to love El romantically he couldn't do it because he's gay and he didn't even bother to close his eyes and kiss her back

plus in a deleted script it says he was mad at himself

and the song playing when Mike and El were kissing in s3 "can't fight this feeling" is about someone being in love with their friend and not knowing what to do about it while already being in a relationship with someone else so it's about Mike being in love with Will and not knowing what to do so he represses it and pushes him away to get over him but then realizing it's not working (which is something he realized at the end of s3) and he's gay and he want on a double date with Will and Lumax after that

and Mike in s4 was trying to be normal and might be into new things (men, because dnd is not new)

and

and in s4 "in the closet at rink o mania" started playing Mike took what Will said "and us?" as romantic and felt the need to clarify that they're friends and Will said they used to be best friends and the camera panned back to Mike plus synth music is his thing since he has "Smalltown Boy" (gay song) as his first song on his spotify playlist, it's a song about a gay man leaving his homophobic town to start a new life and Finn said he wants Mike to leave Hawkins

and he has a "one way" sign pointing to his closet because he's gay and closeted and in his room he has a poster of a shirtless man while the others (Steve, B*lly, and Lucas' "friends") all have women posters because they like women, Mike has all the things he loves the most in his room, a wizard (Will) and buff men <33, and a buff male dragon for some reasons and he has Will's drawings in his room

Mike being obsessed with Superman? and him having a poster of a shirtless man while Steve, B*lly and the tigers all had posters of women in bikinis (because they like girls) Will has a skinny pink panther poster in his room which symbolizes his type in men (Mike) Mike has a shirtless man poster and a buff male dragon poster which symbolizes his type in men (Will) (he's not really buff but he's stronger than Mike) they're each other's type and love each other plus you can see Mike looking at Will's arms during some scenes

also in s3 he was happy about Dustin having a gf and asked him about her but then in s4 when he "finds out" Will has a crush on a "girl" he doesn't ask him about "her" and acts distant (he was pretending he didn't care but he was jealous) and he asked Will about the painting because he was hoping it was for him (it was)

and he realized Will loves him back in the van scene, Mike wants to feel needed and Will needs him, Mike felt lost without Will, Will felt lost without Mike, Will loves him, Mike loves him back, they both think the other doesn't love them, they will prove each other wrong in s5 when Mike finds out Will lied about the painting and loves him back, they love each other the way they want to be loved

and he was so happy to see Will drew a heart on his shield

which is literally an engagement ring, no hands because they'll be more than friends in s5

they've been filming a lot at that farm.. and Ross and his wife said that they enjoyed eyewitness

and Lukas and Mike both have internalized homophobia (Lukas was dating a girl to be normal and then he breaks up with his gf and starts dating Philip,his male best friend)

and if this leak is actually correct there would be another parallel. the episode 2 of s5 is called "the vanishing of ***** Wheeler and if Holly goes missing then Mike and Will are gonna go looking for her in the upside down and maybe they'll kiss there (maybe that's where Mike's gonna get injured)

because in eyewitness Lukas gets injured and his boyfriend stays with him and he kisses his forehead, Lukas' dad sees it (he's ok with it)

and in s2 Mike stayed with Will at the hospital so now it's Will's turn

they've been filming a lot at that farm.. and Ross and his wife said that they enjoyed eyewitness and they filmed at like 3 or 4 different farms (one of them has swings) and they're literally filming at one right now

more s5 leaks and Mike and El staying friends after the break up and Mike being worried for Will <33 and Mike and Robin bonding over their partners being in danger

Will is wearing one of Mike's shirts in s5, Mike wore something similar in s3 it's a gap shirt and Eddie said Mike wears gap shirts and Will has never worn something like this in the previous seasons and he didn't bring that many clothes back to Hawkins so he's gonna have to wear Mike's if he's staying at Mike's (the Wheelers added 2 chairs to their breakfast table and Will's tiger plushie is in Mike's room, it makes me think that they're already dating in the scene because Will is wearing blue yellow and green which are Byler's colors

Noah liking another byler edit? fork found in the kitchen. pic from @iamforbyler from here . there are hints that Mike and Will's first kiss will be in s5 episode 7 (during Jopper's first kiss there were boxes that said MW705, Mike and Will s5 episode 7) they definitely told him to promote Byler again to introduce Byler as boyfriends to the GA and Millie is not promoting mlvn anymore and when they asked her what her favorite pop culture couple was she said the couple from twlight instead of mlvn

Will's wearing Mike's black jeans, the blue shirt looks like something s2 Mike would wear but the undershirt looks like Will's in s4. he's just stealing his boyfriend's clothes atp because Will has never worn black jeans before and he's wearing blue (Mike's color) and Mike's the only one in the party who has worn black jeans and Will might be staying at Mike's because his tiger plushie was in Mike's room and the Wheelers added 2 chairs to their breakfast table plus Will has to stay at Mike's since he doesn't have a house in Hawkins and the cabin is too small for all the Byers to live in.

maybe he's wearing Mike's black jeans from s5 instead of the s4 ones but either way they're still Mike's jeans since Will has never worn black jeans before s5 and Mike has, Will is stealing his boyfriend's clothes, plus Mike is wearing Will's shoes in s5 <33

Byler is so obviously gonna happen even without all those proofs because they gave mlvn the stancy storyline of Nancy not being able to say "I love you" to Steve because she's in love with Jonathan and they didn't give that storyline to Jopper, Lumax and Jancy or even Duzie which are healthy couples who don't lie about who they are to each other and never felt unloved by their partners, and Mike wants to feel needed and Will needs him and El doesn't and Millie said El realized she's her own superhero and that she's gonna figure out who she is without Mike and Millie is not promoting mlvn anymore

Mike and Will spent s3 acting like they were the exes because in s2 Mike was overly affectionate with Will but he stopped doing that when he got a gf because he saw what he did as romantic so in his mind being affectionate with Will even just hugging him or just holding his hand like he did in s2 would be cheating because he's in love with Will and he's gay

Mike becomes less and less interested in El the more feminine she becomes, it becomes more difficult for him to pretend he's straight i mean he "fell in love" with her when she looked like a boy and people kept calling her a boy..

Mike probably thought she was a boy at first, everyone kept calling El the boy with the buzzcut at first in s1 and Mike said "that's not Will" instead of "that's a girl" and interesting thing is the more feminine El becomes the less interested in her Mike becomes, he probably thought El was a boy at first and she was wearing a yellow shirt (Will's color) maybe she reminded him of Will?

I mean Mike being gay aside who would you rather for him to be with?

A, with someone who doesn't understand him and he feels like he has to change himself to be with and who makes him feel insicure?

B, with someone who he feels like he can fully be himself with and who understands him and who puts him on the first place and makes him feel loved? B right? with Will

Jancy had their "we're just friends" moment and they kissed in 2 and Jopper had their "it's just 2 friends getting together for a nice dinner" moment and they kissed in s4 , Lumax had their "she's not my girlfriend" moment and they kissed in s2 and Byler had their "we're friends, we're friends" moment (started by Mike who doesn't know Will is gay) and they'll kiss in s5, there were no moments like these between Dustin and Lucas because they're not in love with each other

Byler's first cameo in a book and they're kissing and holding hands<33 it's about Alina wanting to ask a guy out and she catches the guy (Ben) kissing his boyfriend (Janos), there's carved "W+M" on the tree and a "byler" sign in the second pic, they probably asked permission to Netflix and people who worked on st to add them which makes Byler already canon? the author of the book reversed the arrow on Mike's pocket to point at Will.. and it's close to his heart.. that's adorable

pic from here @sususu34

originally El was supposed to die in s1 (I'm glad they didn't kill her) and they were already planning to make Will in love with Mike since s1? plus if they wanted to make Will move on they would've given him a bf in the previous seasons like with Dustin and Suzie because Max didn't like Dustin back. So basically Mike and Will are gonna get together in s5

JEALOUS MIKE WHEELER WELCOME BACK, Will getting his own love triangle as he should, or maybe it's just Mike since it says "a love interest" not "a new love interest".. I kinda want to see Mike being in pain for a bit tho since I had to witness Will being in pain for 4 seasons, I kinda want a guy to flirt with Will and Will tries to get to know the character to move on from Mike and Mike gets mad and jealous about it, although they did say there were no new characters in it.. and the only new boy is Derek who's Holly's age so maybe the love interest is just Mike, and Mike is gonna be Will's boyfriend, they literally just confirmed Byler because they said Will is getting a boyfriend and they said they won't add any major characters in s5 so that means Mike is gonna be Will's boyfriend

they literally just confirmed Byler is endgame because they said Will is getting a boyfriend and the Duffers said they won't add any major characters in s5 so Mike's gonna be Will's boyfriend since the only new characters are a woman a boy who's 10 and a family with 2 little kids and the Duffers said that Will's emotional arc (his relationship with Mike) is gonna tie up the whole season, if they wanted to give Will another boyfriend they would've done it in the previous seasons (like how they handled Dustin's unrequited love for Max in s2 and gave him a gf in s3) instead of making Will in love with Mike for 4 seasons

Mike is gonna be Will's love interest and boyfriend and they know it that's why they only allowed their subscribers to see this tweet to avoid a lawsuit, leak here, this leaker is really reliable and from Reddit

There's a leak about how Mike and Will are gonna clean each other's wounds in s5 episode 2 like Jancy did in s1, maybe Mike is gonna get hurt while protecting Will from something and Will is probably gonna be there scolding him while cleaning Mike's wounds and Mike is just staring at Will's face and not listening to a single word and blushing

this leaker has a source that was an extra for 2 weeks, take everything as a grain of salt, nothing is confirmed, Mike's gonna kiss Will first (and it's gonna be angsty) after he finds out Will lied about the painting and loves him back, the kiss is gonna happen halfway through the season or later

So according to a leak Mike has finally accepted that he's gay and he's not trying to be normal (straight) anymore, and he's discovering things about himself, he's gonna kiss Will first

So Finn's new st playlist (for s5) is really interesting.. Mike is gay, "it's a passing phase" "give it a hundred years, it won't go away' (from "angst in my pants")"I don't want to be the one whose coming out first" (it's from "don't ask me to explain) Mike wants Will to come out first and to confess first, and "should you need a love that's true, it's me" (from "what you're doing), Will needs Mike and Mike knows it, Mike and Will both have "just what I needed" as the last song in their playlists because they need each other, Mike also has a song about dreaming and thinking about a person they know they're not supposed to, it's his POV of Byler

This is the playlist (STurn), Finn makes playlists for characters he plays for inspiration

Mike tried to lie to himself and pretend that he could love El but he can't (because he's gay and in love with Will), there's a song called "don't ask me anything" in his playlist and the lyrics are "it's so easy to lie to myself and pretend i could love you but i can't" the last lyrics are about a failed relationship with a girl

in s5 episode 4 there will be a flashback with 8 yo Mike and Will and 13 yo Jonathan, the fact that they're spending so much time on Byler (and even giving us Miwi flashbacks) and that we already got confirmation that Will's gonna have a boyfriend (it's Mike) should tell y'all everything (they're gonna get together), they spent s2 and s4 together and they're gonna be a team (jopper parallel) in s5 and spend most of s5 together, they're gonna film the scene in early July, Mike's the only one with lines so the scene is gonna be shot from his POV of Byler

Mike and Will are gonna spend most of s5 together because they're gonna be a team (jopper parallel) and they're gonna have scenes with Rovickie where they're gonna be a group, Mike's obviously gay because otherwise they wouldn't have put him with other queer people, plus El's gonna have a separate arc from Mike (because they're gonna break up and she's gonna be more independent)

we're gonna get a scene of Byler riding a bike with Holly, Holly's gonna have to thirdwheel Mike and Will, good luck to her, Will's gonna spend most of S5 with Mike and they're gonna be a team (jopper parallel) and if Will's boyfriend was gonna be another boy they would've made Will spend most of S5 with that guy so basically Mike's gonna be Will's boyfriend

Pics here

Will's staying at Mike's which would explain the Wheelers adding 2 chairs and it would explain Mike and Will sharing clothes/items and it would explain Will hanging out with Holly, plus the Byers don't have their old house anymore

Now that we know that Will's staying at Mike's house we're gonna get so much domestic content like them sharing clothes/shoes, them sharing Mike's bed, them taking care of Holly together, them kissing, them going to school together .. They're so married

the mlvn make out scene people are talking about is just a kiss at the beginning of s5 which is gonna be their last kiss (a break up kiss?) which is gonna parallel stancy's last kiss in episode 1 s2 before they broke up and Nancy got with Jonathan ,I think they're doing that to compare Byler's first kiss (which is gonna be passionate and desperate) to mlvn's last kiss, also more confirmation that the painting is gonna be really important in both Mike and Will's storylines, a byler got these things confirmed by 2 sources but they said to not worry because this is not bad for Byler, it's actually good for us, production is also trying to keep Byler hidden (they're gonna get together),

Pics here

They're trying to keep Byler hidden because they're gonna date and the painting is gonna be really important to their storylines because that's how they're gonna get together

happy 2 years anniversary to the most obvious foreshadowing ever (making willelmike walk in their love triangle formation and making El walk away from them and picking up the same dead flowers Mike gave her at the airport because their relationship is dead and making Mike stay with Will and putting Byler with other couples and putting them in the center because the're gonna focus on that relationship in s5 and making them breath in sync while the other couples were holding hands, and they made the music pick up while they showed us the couples, Mike and Will are gonna get together in s5)

video of the scene here

so from what we know so far: a guy is gonna hit on Will and Will won't reciprocate, Jonathan hates that guy for hitting on Will and Mike and Will's relationship is gonna be extremely important in s5 and they're gonna be a team, it's kinda obvious what's gonna happen (Mike and Will are gonna get together), what if Will starts dating Chance and starts hanging out with him more to get over Mike and Mike gets mad and jealous about it and they fight about it and then we have another Byler rain fight but this time Mike's the jealous one? btw Jonathan HATES Chance for hitting on Will, he's a Byler shipper fr, pics of the leak here

Mike said he's the only one that CARES about Will because he's in love with him and he said he cares about El because he's trying (and failing) to love her the way he loves Will but when El called him out on him not loving her anymore he got defensive because he's not in love with her ,he's in love with Will and he's gay

Mike only said those things because he thinks El commissioned the painting and he felt like he owed it to El and you can tell that because he only started saying those things after Will said "you're the heart" and they called the soundtrack of the scene "you're the heart" because Mike now thinks the things Will said in the van were from El, in this scene Mike was trying to recreate the shed scene but the difference is no one pushed Mike into saying those things to Will and he didn't repeat any word he heard from others when he spoke to Will, in s5 he's gonna realize Will loves him back and that he lied about the painting and he's gonna kiss him, Mike likes to plagiarize things, pics here

THE OG PARTY IS BACK and so is the Byler height difference <33, Mike and Will being the IT couple in high school <33, Will is sitting in front of Mike during lunch <33 they're gonna be such a cute couple i just know it, they're gonna be the couple who plays footsies under the table, Holly has a gay thing in her room, maybe to support Mike being gay?

only the couples said to each other or about each other that they were "friends" while the actual platonic friends (Dustin and Lucas) never said it because they never felt the need to, and Mike said it about Will while not even knowing that Will is gay and in love with him.. he said it because he was thinking of Will romantically so he said "we're friends, we're friends" to convince himself not Will

the Duffers called Mike and El their E.T and Elliot (which are platonic friends) and the dead flowers El picked up at the end of s4 were the same flowers Mike gave her at the airport, dead flowers represent a dead relationship, hopefully after the break up they'll be able to communicate more and to actually get to know each other and rhat they'll be actual friends, Mike does love El but he loves her platonically even though he's been tryng to force himself into loving her romantically but he can't because he's gay and in love with Will, parallels here

Byler, Jancy and Lumax all held hands in the same episode in s2

Byler's parallels with Jancy: Nancy couldn't love Steve because she's in love with Jonathan, Mike can't love El because he's gay and in love with Will, Nancy talked to Jonathan about Steve on a car after the break up, Mike talked to Will about El on a car after the fight, Jonathan lied and said Steve asked him to bring Nancy home, Will lied about El commissioning the painting, Nancy yelled Jonathan's name in the upside down and he went to save her, Will yelled Mike's name in the upside down and Mike snapped Will out of his episodes

Byler's parallels with Lumax: Mike stayed with Will in the lab, Lucas stayed with Max in the hospital, Will yelled Mike's name during his episode and Mike snapped him out of his episode, Max yelled Lucas' name and Lucas was there for her, they played a song used in a s2 Lumax scene (on the bus) during Mike and Will's heart to heart and used the interruption trope (a romantic trope) in both scenes

Fun fact: they used "heroes" in s3 again but they cut the "and we kissed as though nothing could fall" lyrics that they used in s1 when Mike was hugging his mom and thinking about Will, those lyrics are reserved to Byler and I think they're gonna use this song again during Byler's first kiss, Acid (a leaker) said that Mike's arc in s5 is about self-discovery (which could be Mike understanding who he belongs with, Will) and that he's not gonna try to be normal (straight, Finn said that Mike was trying to be normal in s3 and s4) in s5, plus I think Mike and Will are gonna have another rain fight before the kiss since Shawn Levy hinted at another Byler rain fight, plus s5 is gonna be Will centric and Mike and Will's relationship is gonna be really important in s5

In the first picture Mike is looking at Will (the boy he's in love with) and in the second picture Trevor is looking at Lucky (the girl he has a crush on), Netflix posted this on Instagram

Mike and Will are gonna spend s5 together as a team (Jopper parallel) and their relationship is gonna be really important in s5, also Will is definitely staying at Mike's since he's hanging out with Mike and Holly so much

Mike is filming a lot of scenes with Robin (canon lesbian character) because he's gay, Will is gonna clean his boyfriend's wounds <33, is Robin gonna be Mike and Will's gay mentor and help them get together? i would love that, Mike and Will are sharing two pair of jeans and sharing stuff is a thing for couples

He called El a weapon in s1 and he wanted to send her back to the lab and only changed his mind when he realized she knew where Will was and that she could help him find him, he absolutely DID NOT fall in love with her her at first sight, if he actually loved her he would've chosen a moment where he actually showed that he was in love with her, plus he's gay and in love with Will, He said he fell for El at first sight because he saw Argyle say something similar about Eden and he tried to copy him, he got caught for plagiarizing something at school so it wouldn't be the first time for him doing that, plus he copied what Eddie said about Dustin and said it to El, plus the Duffers said that they don't believe in love at first sight and the first thing Mike said/thought when he first saw El was "that's not Will", he was trying to recreate the shed scene except that in s2 they won and no one lied to him and his words to Will were genuine and sincere while in s4 Will lied to him and made him think El commissioned the painting (which is why he said those things, he didn't know what to say before Will said "you're the heart") and they lost

The actress who plays Suzie ships Byler, Noah and Finn also ship Byler and Brett also ships Byler and Millie ships Byler and the actor who plays younger Henry ships Byler

why did they make Mike say he loved El in s3 and then made him say he forgot he said it and then in s4 he couldn't say it anymore? it makes no sense because he knows El heard him and he just could've just said it again to her face in s3 instead of acting dumb, also in s4 he put the blame on other people instead of on himself and instead of trying to comfort El and he was all defensive and stuff like Nancy when she broke up with Steve, Mike meant it platonically and he's gay

CALEB SAID THEY MADE PLAYLISTS FOR THEIR CHARACTERS, SO STURN (Finn made this playlist) IS ABOUT MIKE AND HE'S GAY (it has lyrics like "it's so easy to lie to myself and pretend that I could love you but I can't" which is about mlvn and "besides I don't want to be the one whose coming out first") which is about Mike wanting Will to come out as gay first because he's scared and it has a song about a milkshake and about how a relationship wasn't built to last (which is also about mlvn since they had milkshakes in s4), and he could also be referring to Mike's bassment beats, which has smalltown boy on it and that song is a gay song about a gay man leaving his homophobic town to find a new life and Finn said he wants Mike to leave Hawkins, or maybe it's the Wheeel playlist, Mike (Wheel)er, Finn made it for Mike, you use the wheel to drive and he put a song called "gay thoughts" in it because Mike is gay

Noah liked a byler edit yesterday (he already knows how the show ends since he's read the last episode script and he knows the endgames, so Mike and Will are gonna date)

Lukas from eyewitness is gay and has internalized homophobia and dated a girl to try and be normal, Mike is gay and has internalized homophobia and he's doing the same thing with El and Lukas has some parallels with Mike

these colors represent El, Will and Mike (i love how Mike is next to his boyfriend instead of in the middle) also i love that Mike wears make up (i have no idea what that thing does), Will is Mike's favorite <33

Will's love interest and boyfriend, they're gonna spend s5 together I can't wait, Mike and Will are still filming together and they're filming the final episodes, they're gonna be a team

Mike thinks he's unlovable but Will loves him like breathing <33, and he makes Mike feel loved instead of insicure and he understands him like no one else could and loves him the way Mike wants to be loved

Mike is wearing Will's clothes again, sharing clothes is a thing for couples

"Mike was always super protective of Will and Will always leaned on him, and you could never really tell if it was something romantic or just a really special friendship, and as it goes on you kinda realize that Will does.. am i allowed to say this?" we already know that Will is in love with Mike, why couldn't he say it? Why is it a spoiler? Because Mike loves him back and he confirmed that Will is still in love with Mike and he's not moving on, reminder that Noah has read the script of the last episode and he knows all the endgames (including Byler)

Mike's monologue made El angry and she knows he was lying to her, does she also know that Mike is gay? She knows Mike doesn't love her in a romantic way even if he tried to in s4

well now that we know that Will is still in love with Mike and that he's not moving on from him.. this leaker basically confirmed that Mike is gonna be Will's boyfriend (they made Will spell "lover" in the words game in the s5 bts pic)

So basically Mike is gonna go on a journey of self-discovery in s5 (accepting that he's gay and in love with Will)

Noah and Finn cried during the final table read , the Duffers said that they put a lot of time in the show to have a proper pay off and the fact that Finn said that the van scene will pay off in the end??

Noah saying: "Mike was always super protective of Will and Will always leaned on him, and you could never really tell if it was something romantic or just a really special friendship" Cara Buono saying: "Mike goes on his journey in s5" (self discovery, accepting that he's gay and in love with Wll), Millie dodging the monologue question, her becoming a byler after reading the s5 scripts, Noah and Finn both crying at the final table read, Finn saying that the van scene will pay off in the end (the Duffers told him that), the Duffers saying that they put a lot of time in the show to have a proper pay off, Mike and Will sharing clothes and Will's shoes in s5, Finn making that STurn gay playlist about Mike and Caleb confirming that they made s5 playlists for their characters

"Mike was always super protective of Will and Will always leaned on him, and you could never really tell if it was something romantic or just a really special friendship"

"bye Will, see you Will🥰"

THIS MIKE WAS ALREADY IN LOVE WITH WILL :(

THIS Mike realized he was in love with Will, this part of the letter matches with Mike's thoughts so well, he wants things to go back to how they were in s2 when things weren't awkward and he didn't know he was in love with Will

THEY'RE IN LOVE

"only love makes you that crazy sweetheart"

"crazy together"

THIS Mike was already in love with Will and he thought he lost him forever without being able to confess to him :(

"Mike was always super protective of Will and Will always leaned on him, and you could never really tell if it was something romantic or just a really special friendship" this scene was always supposed to have romantic undertones because they're in love with each other

them playing "every smile you fake" while Will was faking a smile while dancing with a girl (he's canonically in love with Mike) them playing "and we kissed as though nothing could fall" while Mike hugging his mom while thinking about Will (because he's in love with Will), them using these lyrics was intentional

Karen Wheeler wanted to read lines for Joyce's play with Patty so she could kiss her, she's bisexual, she's queer like Mike

Byler looking at each other's lips <33 also Mike noticed something was wrong with Will before Will touched his neck because he was already looking at Will instead of watching the movie <33 i love the Byler and Lumax double date sm and Mike being a protective and worried boyfriend over Will

happy 7 years of this scene which was basically a love confession <33 in "st the first shadow" Henry was possessed by the Mindflayer (like Will) and Patty used the "power of love" (like Mike) to help Henry, and Will used the hand Mike held to communicate to the others to close the gate so basically gay love saved Hawkins <33

Mike has all the things he loves the most in his room, a wizard (Will) and buff men <33, and a buff male dragon for some reasons and he has Will's drawings in his room

the Duffers put "the Birdcage" on the s4 DNA board which is about a GAY MAN pretending to be straight in the same season where Finn said that Mike was trying to be as NORMAL as possible and where he was acting awkward around Will and in the season where he kept staring at Will's lips and where they played a song called "in the closet at rink o mania" when the camera panned to Mike and he started talking again", the closet is thin air atp, he's so gay

in s5 Mike is gonna go on a journey of self-discovery (accepting that he's gay and in love with Will),and he's not gonna try to be normal anymore Finn said that Mike was trying to be normal in s3 and s4 (he was trying to be straight), "he might be into some new things" (men), dnd is not new for him so the Hellfire Club was not new for him, the word "normal" has only been associated to the queer characters of st

the fact that Mike was trying to make things less gay but he made it gayer by acting weird around his "best friend" who he has "no feelings" for... like all Will wanted was a hug from his best friend of a decade.. homotron 7000 can't even hug his "best friend" anymore who may i remind you has NO IDEA WIll is gay and literally thought Will had a crush on a girl and made the painting for her and Mike got jealous and petty about it... oh and in s2 and s3 he had no problems with hugging Will or being physical with him..

if it was because they drifted away they would've made Will act awkward around Mike too but they didn't, It was confirmed by Finn twice that Mike has no idea Will is gay and he thought Will had a crush on a girl so why was he acting like that? Cuz he was jealous of the girl and gay panicking about Will's glow up

Mike uses his Will voice in Dustin's book and he's afraid of losing Will (and El), Dustin mentions all the things in his healthy relationship with Suzie (like having things in common and being honest with each other) and Mike can't relate to that (they spent s3 and s4 lying to each other) and he doesn't know what to talk to El about, this book was made by a professional writer who's a Byler shipper

in s2 in the shed scene they showed Byler while the lyrics said "if you say that you are mine" "i'll be here till the end of time" , they're the only fully romantic lyrics in the song

THIS was Mike's pov not Will's which is why Will is blurred out but after this Mike turns to Will and he looks happy but then Mike looks back at El and he looks sad and i think there are 2 reasons for that

1 he was scared of how El would react to the truth (he's gay and in love with Will)

2 he was trying to make Will jealous (cuz he knew Will was in love with him during that moment) but then he noticed that it didn't work and he got sad about it, at the airport he was also trying to make Will jealous by kissing El's cheek after he learned that Angela would be at rink o mania (and he thought Will had a crush on Angela), the parallels with Rovickie were intentional cuz we're gonna have 2 queer couples instead of one

they called the van scene the most heartfelt scene in s4? heartfelt means: from the heart, sincere, genuine, which means Mike lied during the monologue cuz they could've called that scene the most heartfelt scene of s4 but they didn't

Holly is gonna go missing but at least Mike and Will are gonna look for her together in the upside down <33 (and maybe that's where they're gonna confess and kiss?), they posted Byler, Jancy and Jopper for st day (and Robin and Vickie's chairs)

maybe we'll get a Byler rain kiss? because in August Noah posted a picture of Byler and a bts picture of him sitting on a chair wrapped in a towel and Shawn acknowledged a post that said that they wanted another angsty Byler scene like the s3 rain fight, hopefully they'll play heroes during Byler's first kiss

Mike said "I didn't know what to say" about his fight with El as if she wasn't literally begging him to say the words "I love you" AND Mike relating and nodding to Will saying "what if they don't like the truth?" Why wouldn't El like Mike "loving" her? She literally heard Mike saying it in s3 and she liked it, so why was Mike so scared of the truth? Because he's gay and in love with Will and he has abandonment issues AND internalized homophobia and he's depressed, the El scene has another meaning behind it: Nina waiting for her lover to come back but he doesn't come back and Nina leaving the station= Mike not being able to love El the way she wants to be loved and her breaking up with Mike in s5 (tho i think it will be a mutual break up)

in s4 Mike bit his lip while checking Will out, because he's gay and in love with Will

Mike listened to his boyfriend's heart in s1, he was so happy to see Will<3, I hope we'll get a scene where Will listens to Mike's heart instead, maybe while they're cuddling in s5?

all the s5 couples were next to each other at the end of s4 <33 (Byler, Rovickie, Jancy, Lumax and Jopper)

Mike used his Will voice a lot in s2, the Will voice is a softer voice he only uses with Will/ when something is about Will

Mike was trying to love El the way he loves Will (romantically) but it didn't work cuz he's gay and then he got all defensive cuz he's not actually in love with her but he's in love with Will, like with the "crazy together" thing and the "blank makes you crazy" and the shed monologue (which actually worked) and the s4 monologue (which didn't work)

the leaker (my time to shine hello) who said that Mike is gonna be Will's love interest got a thing right from Agatha all along that they said would happen (Billy dressing up as Maleficent) so this leaker is reliable and Mike is gonna be Will's love interest and boyfriend

one of the guys Mike was looking at had a rainbow flag on his book, just a funny little detail, and the clock was ticking (Vecna detail?), maybe the fact that he only likes boys will be what gets him Vecna'd?, Mike has been associated with rainbows before (and Will has drawns a rainbow spaceship when he was younger, he's canonically gay)

Mike caressing Will's drawings was so gay, new headcanon: Mike caresses Will's drawings while imagining it's Will's face, oh and i NEED to see people use this scene to transition to Mike stroking Will's cheek in s5 after/before the kiss

"I love you on your bad days" no he doesn't..

*cuts to Mike not even trying to comfort El at rink o mania and sitting close to Will even after they had a fight*

*cuts to all three of them looking upset in the van and Mike only looking at Will while El was crying*

*cuts to Mike comforting Will while he was possessed in s2, him taking care of Will, him being super protective of Will, him literally saying they'd go crazy together, him staying overnight with Will at the lab to make sure he was ok, him acting and talking softer around Will*

*Mike telling El he was already in love with her in the woods*

*cuts to Mike saying "that's not Will" in the trailer when he first sees El* (which is what he was thinking in the show)

*cuts to El listening to Mike wanting to send her back to the lab in s1 (and only changed his mind when he realized she knew where Will was), Mike calling El a weapon and saying "we're no use to Will if we're dead"*

*cuts to s4 Mike saying meeting El was simple dumb luck*

"I love you without your powers"

*cuts to Mike only focusing on her powers and calling her a superhero (superman) has he ever complimented something about her that weren't her powers or her looks? No, why? Because they don't communicate and aren't honest with each other*

like he was literally lying to her face bffr, stfu gay boy in denial, what a hypocrite..

Not to mention that Finn made a face he makes when his character lies before saying "i love you"

Imagine Will teaching Mike how to use a gun in st5 and their faces are really close to each other and he notices that Will's voice has really gone deeper over the years and he starts blushing and gay panicking about it (I want this to happen before they start dating), and then they start leaning in and they're about to kiss but Jonathan interrupts them and we have a Byler almost kiss before their first kiss and imagine Will trying to get closer the guy who hits on him in s5 and he starts bringing him to their party hang outs and the guy starts getting protective of Will and Mike starts getting jealous about it so they have a fight in the rain and Mike says "what? You don't need me anymore?" And that's how it's revealed that Mike knows Will lied about the painting and then Mike kisses Will and Will is shocked and at first he doesn't kiss him back so Mike panics and says he's sorry and has soon as he's about to leave Will grabs his arm and pulls him into a passionate kiss and imagine Will changing in Mike's room and Mike walks in on shirtless Will and he blushes and starts gay panicking about it, imagine this.. st5 starts and we get a Byler kiss but then it turns out it was just a dream but then we see Mike suddenly wake up and he sits up and he's sweating cuz he was the one who has dreaming of that and then Will asks if he's ok and we find out that Will is next to him in bed and we get a parallel to the s2 Miwi scene

#let Mike see his boyfriend's muscles, because Mike likes muscly men or men who are stronger than him (Will)

imagine this.. st5 starts and we get a Byler kiss but then it turns out it was just a dream but then we see Mike suddenly wake up and he sits up and he's sweating cuz he was the one who has dreaming of that and then Will asks if he's ok and we find out that Will is next to him in bed and we get a parallel to the s2 Miwi scene

Ted was cheating on Karen in the play, Karen was emotionally cheating on Ted with Billy, Nancy was emotionally cheating on Steve with Jonathan, Mike is emotionally cheating on El with Will

It runs in the family

The Wheelers are a family of cheaters/emotiona cheaters and Karen and Ted don't like each other and in the play they were just making out and didn't communicate at all (like mlvn)

i do think Murray was talking about Mike and Will but i think he meant it like experiment in a gay way (romantically) like Mike kissing Will, and it's so funny how he clocked them being gay within a second, he mentioned playing nintendo and Will in the van said he wanted to play nintendo with Mike

does this count as Byler getting Murray'd?

El's words "i think there is someone he likes cuz he has been acting weird" relate more to Mike cuz he was the one acting weird around Will while Will was just happy his best friend was there with him and this scene parallels Hermione acting weird around Ron cuz she likes him and they're an endgame couple, "Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets" was on the s4 inspiration board

the pineapple pizza scene was so queercoded for both Mike and El like Mike calling fruit on pizza blasphemous (against God) and not wanting to try it because he grew up in a homophobic and conservative town and he has internalized homophobia and prejudice but then when he tried it he said it was good (while the camera was on Will) while El grew up in a lab and obviously she doesn't have any prejudice or bias against things so she just tried it without complaining because Max told her that to understand what you like you have to try things on and she said it was good and they already used food to indicate queerness like Vickie with peanut butter (putting peanut butter on both slices of bread and called it a peanu butter monstrosity and she had a boyfriend who broke up with her and she likes Robin and will be her girlfriend in s5 and Mike's been paralleled to her and he's in love with Will) and she's bisexual, so basically Mike's gonna kiss Will first (and Will's gonna kiss him back), i also think Max is bisexual because she said "there's more to life than stupid boys" while Will said "a day free of girls" because he's gay and Mike said "i have an idea, boys only" because he's gay, they already used food for symbolism, Mike wants to feel needed, Will needs him and El doesn't

Noah's switch up is crazy cuz now he knows that Mike and Will are gonna get together since he's read the final s5 script "you guys are gonna get me in trouble" "am i allowed to say this?" and he used to say things like "BYLERBYLERBYLER" on Tik Tok and "yes, something went right for him" (for Will) he was definitely talking about Mike loving Will back

can we talk about Finn saying "yeah i'm super excited to see my gf in California but deep down there's some trauma but that doesn't came out"? why would having a gf give Mike trauma? and it's the same season where he said Mike was trying to be as normal as possible.. (he's gay and in love with Will)

when Joyce said "you're not gonna think it's gross when you fall in love" she meant " when you find a bf" but she didn't want Will to realize that she knows that he's gay and when Will said this he meant "i'm not gonna find a bf" (Will's boyfriend is gonna be Mike), if Byler wasn't gonna be a thing they would've given Will a boyfriend in s2 since Will was already in love with Mike in s1 but they didn't, while with Dustin they gave him a gf in s3 cuz Max liked Lucas instead of him and they made him move on from Max, they didn't do this with Will cuz Mike loves him back, Will's character arc is about getting romantic love even though he thinks he doesn't deserve it cuz he's gay andh he's gonna get proved wrong in s5

"and the guns shot above our heads and we kissed as though nothing could fall" they're SO gonna use heroes during Byler's first kiss in s5 (hopefully Bowie's version?), also Mike being protective of Will. he loves him so much <33 they played these lyrics while Mike was thinking about Will in s1 and when they used this song again in s3 they didn't use these lyrics cuz they're reserved to Byler

this video by teambyler explains Mike and Will's relationship really well

AIDS mentions in the show/ in the bts (mentioned in scenes with Mike and Will who are gay)

MIKE AND WILL ARE GONNA GRADUATE TOGETHER AS A TEAM (COUPLE) <33, this means that they're not gonna die and they're getting their happy ending together btw and Noah and Finn said that Will is getting his happy ending (which includes his boyfriend's being alive) and the Duffers said that they won't kill Mike because it would be too sad, Mike and Will are gonna leave Hawkins together after the graduation and Smalltown Boy is gonna play during that scene #trust (Finn said he wants Mike to leave Hawkins), hopefully we'll see Byler together at senior prom? obviously they can't dance together but i would love to see them go there as a secret couple or idk maybe they could go dance in a classroom just the two of them? Like the two boys dancing in a classroom she sees (it's from Rebel Robin), according to Rebel Robin Byler is gonna be the second gay couple she's ever seen <33 i hope they'll come out to her because they're gonna have scenes together, i hope her gaydar works

purple is a gay color (this is about s5 Mike wearing purple, he's gay), Will's also gonna survive in 1989 and Will's costume was purple in s3, he's also gay)

David Harbour talks about Stranger Things 5: “There are a lot of relationships that they (the Duffer Brothers) know they need to tie up, and I think they're doing a very good job at that. I think you'll be very satisfied when you watch it.” same season where Finn said that Mike being clueless about Will's feelings in the van scene will pay off in the end and Noah said that "Mike was always super protective of Will and Will always leaned on him, and you could never really tell if it was something romantic or just a really special friendship" btw, reminder that the Ross Duffer said that Will's emotional arc is what ties up the whole series and s5 is centered around Will (and his relationship with Mike), and Finn said that the painting will pay off in s5 and Noah said that you can't tell if Byler is romantic or platonic, and Will's emotional arc is based on romantic love and him thinking he doesn't deserve it cuz he's gay (he's gonna get proved wrong in s5 when he starts dating Mike)

This post was very sweet it was a draft that he was supposed to post when he actually wraps up and that's why he deleted it and didn't post it again, not all the s5 Will Byers scenes have been filmed yet, he's scheduled in Atlanta until December 20th, what if he was talking about Byler when he mentioned the Duffers? "creative progress takes time, and it's ok to be meticulous about creating perfect moments " Byler is a slow burn that took 5 seasons and he's a Byler

really funny that Mike wore converse in s4 (which are really gay shoes) because he thought Eddie (his unrequited gay puppy crush) would wear them (the costume designer said it), before y'all start saying stuff i'm just gonna say that Dustin had a puppy crush on Nancy in s1 and Max checked Steve out in s4, also Mike was looking at Eddie like this and fever was playing in the background and the costume designer said that Mike was influenced by Eddie in s4 and i think Mike grew his hair out because of Eddie and he was staring at Jake (he didn't know he was a bully) and accidentally said "El" instead of "Jane" because he was distracted ,isn't it funny that they showed Mike showing attraction for multiple boys (Will, Eddie and Jake) but they only showed Mike having "attraction" for only one girl while he was disgusted by all the other girls? Dustin and Lucas (who are straight) have shown attraction to multiple girls

in the script it says that El was supposed to draw on the map but they changed it in the show to foreshadow Mike and Will getting together and El being happy about it and they made Milie draw the figures multiple times to allign them with Mike and Will

i think Mike is gonna say "let's start a new party, you and me" to Will as a way of asking him out after he tells him about the Hellfire Club cuz yk they're nerds and maybe he's gonna say to Will "you know what? no more joining other parties (double meaning: relationships), let's start a new party, you and me" (a relationship with Will), because Mike said "what if you wanna join another party?" and Will said "not possible" and on the cover of that book there are a paladin and a cleric (Mike and Will's dnd characters)

1987 Byler riding bikes with Holly, 1987 Byler on a field together, 1989 Byler graduating together and going to college together and maybe living together, 90's Byler going to a bar together, now all we need is 90's Byler at a gay bar together and dancing with each other

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teambyler · 3 months ago

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Top 10 moments to freak out over in Season 5 if you're a Byler

If any of these things happen I'll be jumping up and down screaming at my screen:

Will wakes up... in Mike’s house

Mike has Will’s painting framed on his wall

Mike and Will play D&D together (extra angst points if, in-game, one of them sacrifices himself or takes a risk for the party)

Robin has a scene with Will and/or Mike

Mike and El take a break in their relationship, or El has to leave town

Will is listening to "Heroes" on his Walkman

Mike and Will go on a mission together, ALONE

Mike gets hurt and Will dresses the wound...

Will OR Mike gets targeted by Vecna who confronts him on his sexuality (or we get our flashback to young Mike and Will which heck could be the same thing)

"Hey, about that painting..."

Here's some more!

The deleted scene from Season 2 of Mike riding home on his bike crying after they found the fake body (@milkvanissonothappening)

“Smalltown boy” is playing when Mike is in the scene (@frogsdontcry)

Mike and Will are alone in the Upside Down (@frogsdontcry)

Nancy and Mike have a Moment alone to chat (@frogsdontcry)

Mike or Will is snapping the other out of a Vecna trance (@nerdytacollama , who also says one of them is holding the other when he wakes up but my head will already have exploded lol)

Will gets gay-bashed and Mike has to deal with the fact that he helped defend Will (or didn't!) (me)

"so, el didn't say any of what you told me? why would you make something like that up?" OR literally any scene they could have in the wheeler garage. (@wistfulenchantress)

Jonathan gives Mike the "stink eye" since he knows about Will's feelings for him 😂 And maybe Jonathan talking to Mike and giving him the "if you ever hurt my baby brother" talk (@nerdytacollama)

Will is looking through Mike's things and sees a partially-written letter, and Mike panics and takes it away (me)

The first scene really IS a young Will in the Upside Down singing "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" Meaning that everything is centered on Will this season (me)

Got any more?

-teambyler

#byler #byler speculation #season 5 #stranger things #st5 #will byers #mike wheeler #top 10

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deadcactuswalking · 7 months ago

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REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 01/06/2024 (Central Cee & Lil Baby, Bring Me the Horizon's POST HUMAN: NEX GEN, Zach Bryan)

Sabrina Carpenter’s still dominant on the UK Singles Chart as “Espresso” spends a fifth week at the top - welcome back to REVIEWING THE CHARTS!

content warning: language, discussions of death, trauma, drug addiction

Rundown

As always, we start with our notable dropouts, songs exiting the UK Top 75 - which is what I cover - after five weeks in the region or a peak in the top 40. This week, we bid adios to Eurovision tracks like “Europapa” by Joost and “The Code” by Nemo, as well as “Family Matters” by Drake (telling that these three couldn’t make five weeks), “Outside of Love” by Becky Hill, “Jump” by Tyla, Gunna and Skilibeng, “Home” by Good Neighbours (Good riddance) and finally, “Back to Black” by the late Amy Winehouse.

We see one big return with Katy Perry’s catalogue streams rising thanks to some American Idol news or something - I don’t care, I imagine the catalogue sales for her biggest records are high enough anyway. This does mean “Teenage Dream” - the title track - is back at #72. It peaked and debuted at #2 for two weeks in 2010, being blocked by Olly Murs’ “Please Don’t Let Me Go” and Alexandra Burke’s “Start Without You” respectively, though I think we can agree which one of these three have actually managed to pass the test of time. To be thorough, the Glee cover peaked at #36 the next year. As for our gains, we have a small but notable batch of boosts for “Never Lose Me” by Flo Milli at #61, “Right Here” by Becky Hill at #60, “Smalltown Boy” by Bronski Beat at #55, “Miles on It” by Kane Brown and Marshmello at #47, “The Man Who Can’t be Moved” by The Script at #38, “The Door” by Teddy Swims at #35 and finally, all the way up in the top 10 for the first time, Myles Smith with “Stargazing” at #9.

The UK Singles Chart’s top five this week consists of Billie Eilish’s “BIRDS OF A FEATHER” spiking off of the debut up to #5, whilst Central Cee and Lil Baby debut right at #4 with their new track “BAND4BAND”. Following them up is the top three staying the same as last week’s: Shaboozey at #3 with “A Bar Song (Tipsy)”, Eilish again with “LUNCH” at #2 and of course, “Espresso” at #1. Now for what ended up debuting in the lower realms of the chart this week.

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#73 - “Fall Back” - Lithe

Produced by Lithe

Do I pronounce this “life” or “live”? It doesn’t matter, this is a blog. However you pronounce it, Lithe is from Melbourne and this is his viral breakout hit for an otherwise underground artist who seems to have produced and released this all by himself. This may explain why it’s garbage. Lithe strikes me as the kind of person who would make for a great additional vocalist on a maximalist project by, say, a Travis Scott type, because his vocals, which are very Travis as well, lure you into a mumbling Auto-Tuned atmosphere very effortlessly due to the layering of murmured ad-libs. The problem here is the utter shit production, consisting of rote trap presets in such a static and typical pattern that it almost stands out how frozen and dull trap beats can be because of one weird snare choice that sounds way too loud and mechanical. I know this is very nit-picky but there’s so little to this song, which relies entirely on Lithe for its melodic element considering the blank grey synths that practically could be completely absent under the looming trap dirge. Don’t ask about the lyrics, it’s bottom-of-the-barrel flexing, but at least this song is very uniquely terrible. It uses basic trap tropes, for sure, but Lithe is taking his own approach to things and creates a bad song that is bad in ways more established artists probably couldn’t pull off. That’s a compliment, genuinely.

#66 - “The Craving” - Twenty One Pilots

Produced by Tyler Joseph and Paul Meany

I think it’s somewhat telling that Bring Me the Horizon nabbed three debuts this week, but the usually more accessible Twenty One Pilots, with a higher-peaking album at #2, could only snatch one at #66. I usually care at least a little to check out these guys’ records but the lore aspect has always somewhat bothered me in that I know without fully emerging into it, I’ll never get the full intended effect and relationship with the music that they intend. This week’s effort, Clancy, was one I just straight-up didn’t bother listening to, especially on the grounds of not liking those singles at all. I was thinking that hopefully this could give me some reason to check it out, and, well, there is something to this one.

“The Craving” is available in two versions, with the version on the album being subtitled “(Jenna’s Version)”, referring to his wife Jenna and… yeah, the stripped-back, ukulele rendition on the record is pretty devastating. Starting with a static that obscures Jenna’s voice lamenting the fact their relationship may be deteroriating or stalling out as she grows older, the song is a ballad expressing Tyler’s inability to communicate and express the simple gestures that he loves her. It’s a pretty simple song compositionally but that makes complete sense as it feels like a song he can only sing improvisationally in her presence, but not with her listening. This may be a stretch, but I’m imagining “(Jenna’s version)” refers here not to dedicating the song and playing it to her but her being the muse for this version, which sounds like it could have been written very quickly in a night where he can’t fall asleep thinking about the subject matter whilst she’s fast asleep. The song explains that he can’t communicate this to her, and the visual it gives is Tyler playing the song quietly to himself as to not wake her up but knowing fully that he won’t be able to sleep for the rest of the night without it being expressed. The final chorus ends with an utmost declaration of his dedication to the marriage, complete with a voice crack, but that outro simply writes it off: once she’s awake, the promises mean nothing, and he can’t bring himself to all he promised: the simple act of reminding her that she’s loved. I will be 100% honest: this song kind of fucking broke me, and the imagery surrounding those choruses being one of waiting until demise, wherein the “she” who looks for Tyler as he lays down and tries to sleep could be both Jenna and God, made this a very affecting listen for me, or rather, several listens. I never know exactly what to expect from TOP, but I didn’t expect to be crying.

The single remix, co-produced with Spencer Stewart, is much lighter and breezier with its folk-pop production that’s reverbed to Hell and back and covers some of Tyler’s vocal faults with harmonies and whistling that makes it a bit too saccharine for my taste. I still think it’s a brilliant song but as a performance and production, not so much, and this puts me in a weird position because as far as OCC is concerned, these are both the charting song, I just happen to prefer the very slightly less streamed acoustic version a lot more. Personally, I think adding drums to “The Craving” may be an inspired touch because it takes that fear of death and adds a frolicking carpe diem feel to it but it also touches my soul a bit less by detaching Tyler further from reality: the problem isn’t that he’s separated from his wife, it’s nearly the opposite, with her continued presence acting as both why the song exists and why the emotion is so palpable. Regardless, if more of the album is this personal and honest, less lore-focused as the lead single really scared me off with, maybe I’ll find more to like on it because this acoustic version is genuinely shattering, might be their best song ever.

#57 - “LiMOusIne” - Bring Me the Horizon featuring AURORA

Produced by Zakk Cervini, Oli Sykes and Dan Lancaster

Another week, another album debuting three songs that I haven’t heard. I’ll be fair and say I probably should have listened to Billie’s record before the chart week, and I have since heard and greatly enjoyed her album, but for this one, can you blame me? Firstly, look at the way the tracks are stylised, secondly: whilst I did like the first edition of this POST HUMAN series from 2020, the incessant delay and consistent flow of really mediocre singles that leads to an album that seems a bit bloated compared to the last one’s conciseness because I guess all of them needed to be included. Thirdly, they lost their keyboardist Jordan Fish, also a major songwriting contributor to the band, who now has just a few more lyrical credits on this record than BloodPop, I’m genuinely quite weary that this’ll be another disappointing mess from Bring Me the Horizon. Regardless, I’ll give them this: they always experiment, and these three next songs are going to be interesting and weird, at least in comparison to what usually charts, so it’s good we have them all lined up consecutively. BMTH’s latest, POST HUMAN: NEX GEN, debuted at #5 on the albums chart and naturally, we have three debuts as that’s all OCC’ll allow.

The first to chart, “Limousine” (I’m not doing this, guys) features Norwegian singer AURORA, who had some viral success with “Runaway” a few years back, a song I never really liked and I honestly haven’t heard much else, so maybe I’m missing something by not checking her out - I’m definitely going to be missing something with these songs given the added context of understanding the album’s theme and narrative is pretty important for what seems like a loose concept album, though BMTH records can be so eclectic that it flies out of the window. See amo for a clear demonstration. This particular track takes us into the easy and quick blast frontman Oli Sykes gets from doing hard drugs and the power, authority he feels when he’s off them, hence the “Limousine” - it’s a luxury car you’re in the back of, drugged and being driven around, but you still feel in control. It does this through grinding metal riffs and some of the most strained vocals I’ve heard from Sykes, not in the sense that he hits any insane notes or belts but more so because he stretches out these melodies beyond their need, especially in the pre-chorus, with pitch correction not doing that great of a job to cover it. That sounds like an insult, but it’s really not: when he’s refuting the need for closure and the chorus starts with a stuttered glitching of the song’s last section out of existence, his slow luxury chauffer ride to death feels particularly potent and fittingly gruelling. There’s a seductive and sinister nature to some of the lyrics, AURORA kind of blends into the background which is perfect for this as Sykes’ streams drowning out the clearer, beautiful voice of reason is thematically perfect, that bridge with the keyboards is genuinely moving before everything crashes into shit in the screeching breakdown. That breakdown, however, demonstrates the one time this song succeeds in the mixing department for me, as there’s a muddiness to everything here and an unnecessary vocal focus that seems to push the heavier and cathartic elements back, which does not serve a track like this very well, when the progression into chaos should come from something that is genuinely unnerving and inescapable. A more immersive mix could have done wonders to what is structurally a very sound track that has great performances.

#50 - “YOUtopia” - Bring Me the Horizon

Produced by Zakk Cervini, Oli Sykes, Dan Lancaster and Lee Malia

We can actually split this episode quite nicely into the two songs below the Horizon, the two songs above them, and the Horizon itself. It works out quite nicely too because according to Sykes, “Youtopia” acts as a counterpart to “Limousine”, and I can definitely tell that from the lyrics, wherein Sykes begs for the ability to give his partner the best version of himself, a “youtopia” so to speak. He desperately wants to connect himself and his partner to that utopian setting, but can’t bring himself to do the self-improvement that would enable that kind of perfect relationship, one that you can kind of tell from the imagery either doesn’t exist or has been buried so far deep into obscurity by the constant perpetuance of negativity in everyday life. To be completely honest, I was worried that Bring Me the Horizon’s lyrics would turn as basic as some of the structural songwriting had been on the singles so I’m glad I can still both get a lot out of analysis and resonate pretty heavily with their notions, it’s the most frustrating feeling wanting to be something that no-one but your own insecurity expects you to live up to, so it just seems fruitless to achieve.

As for how it sounds, well, that basic songwriting is there for sure, but oh, my God, this is an insanely nostalgic sound for me. That late-2000s early-2010s Kerrang! TV post-hardcore sound combining fuzzy electronics with the lackadaisical guitars of 2000s emo-pop and often Auto-Tuned vocals - both the clean and unclean vocals, sometimes - as well as just killer hooks and chasm-esque mixing that makes the drums go so hard once they pound into full relentless chorus mode. Of course, BMTH take it into further electronicore territory with the sampled-sounding female vocals, tiny little vocalised riff in the first verse that’s an adorable touch, the birdsong passages of ambiance that mesh so well with the cleaner guitar build, and the hip hop drums in the second verse that actually go for a 2000s R&B groove instead of the typical trap skitter, which I commend them for doing - trap metal feels way too easy and wouldn’t have fit a longing song like this. The harmonies from Sykes and the filtered Dan Lancaster in the bridge are excellent, and whilst the guitar solo is in what I like to call Weezer-meter (very obviously and shamelessly just repeating the chorus lead melody), it’s oddly brief and inessential to the song, as the final post-chorus kind of takes its place with the string swell and incredible drumming from Matt Nicholls that winds down in an industrial squirt for the outro. Apart from once again some mixing that acts as a disservice - when there’s this much going on, I understand the difficulty in making it sound that dynamic, and thematically, sometimes it just wouldn’t make sense to - this is pretty much something I’d inject to my veins any day. I know I say this every time BMTH show up because they’re the country’s biggest left-field rock act currently, but something like this charting in the top 50 in 2024 never fails to put at least a smile on my face.

#41 - “Top 10 staTues tHat CriEd bloOd” - Bring Me the Horizon

Produced by Zakk Cervini, Oli Sykes and Dan Lancaster

This final song is titled like a WatchMojo video, and is a very clear single - the lyrics and songwriting are pretty basic woes, wound up in generic metaphors that Sykes and the lads have sung before. It’s got a pessimistic chorus and a vaguely motivational bridge, and so many lyrics that vaguely allude to prior singles that I can’t tell if these are purposeful references or they’re just that far into their careers that their attempt at being an “average” BMTH track is an amalgamation of all of their other obvious singles. Those lyrical allusions definitely make it a bit more obvious and distracting that this is the case, but musically, it’s in similar territory. They have a brief, cutesy electronic intro, this time slightly hyperpop-esque, before crashing into a catchy alt-metal riff and, yeah, it’s just obvious that this is pulling the tricks of their own trade in a very typical way. Sykes performs incredibly well as he pretty much always does, you can’t take away his passion, but the screaming and sound effects may be a bit much in that second verse. They even have a stop-and-start rhythm built into the chorus melody which feels very Bring Me the Horizon to do: stopping and starting is basically their motif and songwriting approach if we boil it down to borderline offensive essentials. They have an aggressive breakdown with rapid drumming and video game samples, a trap drum pattern in the final pre-chorus, a stuttered vocal, it’s all very by-the-numbers and that’s fine. We can’t all be zingers, sometimes we need to write something accessible and given the album is assumingly a mess (all BMTH albums kind of are, it’s by nature), something like this could be particularly refreshing within its context, and they did care enough to place an atmospheric ambient outro that may contextualise it even further. This is a perfectly cromulent Bring Me the Horizon song, but a bit underwhelming to end on here.

#31 - “Pink Skies” - Zach Bryan

Produced by Zach Bryan

Country star Zach Bryan is back, presumably, he’s got a 30-song album on the way and this is his lead single. As always with Mr. Bryan, it feels wise to discuss the lyrics here in some detail, as this paints a vivid picture of the life that a mother has left for her children at the time of her funeral. The kids who came from that small town are back there to celebrate their late mother’s life, and reflecting on those lessons they learned from the mundane outskirts: appreciating the “pink skies” as a sign of youthful vitality and peace and cleaning the old house as if it were never populated (which feels stereotypical but is very much true for how parents can behave), though with the caveat that those memories remain physically as what appear to be faults in the house but are unavoidable reminders of the life lived within it. The second verse and especially the chorus sing a pretty funny ode: she’d be proud of where her kids are but would still lightheartedly mock them as “yuppies”, and he even has the snark to comment that God probably heard her coming, which I assume she means that she never shut up. For a parent, that’s a great thing to have the ability to do, and it’s reassuring to think that in the afterlife, she still cares too much about her kids’ well-being. This hits particularly close to home for me, and the fact that this song makes great use of my favourite instrument, the harmonica, does not exactly help this from not being a bit of a personal tearjerker for me. Bryan’s smoky drawl comes with his typical homegrown organic instrumentation - though with a higher focus both lyrically and instrumentally on choppier rhythm which I find interesting - and the light female vocals panned into the left channel. Sonically, you could argue it’s a bit safe or easy for Bryan to come out with something that sounds like this, but think of the content: why shouldn’t he be back at home, and invite you into that warm, comforting place as openly as his mother would have? This guy already put out some of my favourite songs of last year, some of the art that emotionally resonated with me the most from that year, and it doesn’t seem like he’s stopping this year either. I adore this.

#4 - “BAND4BAND” - Central Cee and Lil Baby

Produced by Ghana Beats, Geenero and Aasis Beats

This is just such a neat week. We begin near the very bottom with pop-trap from the Anglosphere outside of the US and book-end it near the very top with a UK rapper, whilst sandwiched in the middle are rock and alternative acts, two of which are personal ballads by slightly more mainstream and lighter in sound, closer to more accessible genres they emerged from before developing their sound, and both on either side of three Bring Me the Horizon tracks from the same album. Thiss week just makes sense systematically, damn it, and I love to see it. Also, Central Cee and Lil Baby, I guess, the song’s fine. It’s a bit undercooked because - I repeat, Central Cee and Lil Baby - but the basic rising synth loop, even if very obviously just a basic and lazy implementation of a loop, has enough tension to make way for the heavy-hitting drill rhythm, which is a lot cleaner than some other drill tracks, but also uses much louder, mechanical hats - again, something it has in common with Lithe, and the grey cover arts are just furthering it all - that give an industrial and intense feel to this beat. As for our rappers, this is much more typical: Cench’s complaining about people not being real Muslims, talking about his Lambos, using rhyme schemes that prominently implement acronyms, being distracted by big booties and most importantly, going “Alllright”. It’s almost like “Top 10 Statues that Cried Blood” because Cench feels like an amalgamation of himself on here, though this isn’t a bad thing, he still has more energy than many other rappers and it was cute for him to exchange bars with Lil Baby. Lil Baby then continues to take the song over entirely, as the beat switches up slightly with that crawling trap skitter and Baby goes for his typical frog-throat, running-off-on-the-beat flow that goes insanely hard, bizarrely, without drums, as it builds into a very well-done beat drop. He’s similarly being an amalgamation of himself and his running themes, but there’s some cold wordplay with the birthday lyric and there’s always been something compelling about his relentless approach to just going on and on regardless of what the beat actually asks of him. Overall, I know I’ve sounded nit-picky but this is good, probably great even when taking it outside of the larger context and just treating it as a banger reaching across the Atlantic. There’s a real intensity and hunger to this that there hasn’t been for either in these guys in a while, and it’s refreshing to know that those efforts paid off for a very high and very deserved top five debut.

Conclusion

Considering this is a week mostly consisting of rock acts, it makes complete sense that it’s one of the best weeks for me. Hey, I listen to everything, but some genres will hit closer to home than others. As for the Best of the Week, it is genuinely an incredibly difficult decision, but unsurprisingly, Zach Bryan takes it for “Pink Skies” and the only reason that happened is because of the second single edit of “The Craving” by Twenty One Pilots that I do not care for, because Jenna’s version would run away with Best of the Week, it’s heartbreaking from the first vocal sample of Jenna herself to that final line. Unfortunately, due to the double billing, it’ll have to take Honourable Mention, and on any other week, I would easily be giving all of this praise to a song like “YOUtopia”, which I still love, or Hell, even “BAND4BAND”. Lithe takes Worst of the Week for “Fall Back”, obviously, and I hope the next batch of songs is either just as good as this one or gives me a lot less to talk about because sheesh, this is one of our shorter weeks and I’m still maxxing this word count out. For now, thank you for reading, rest in peace to Charlie Colin, and I’ll see you next week!

#uk singles chart #pop music #song review #bring me the horizon #post human: nex gen #twenty one pilots #zach bryan #lil baby #central cee #band4band #lithe #aurora

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i-will-sing-no-requiem · 2 years ago

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@cocohook38 I was your @csgiftexchange gifter!

I went with the cursed!killian prompt and decided to write a season 1 au where killian is one of the curse victims.

It's turning out to be a lot longer than I had initially planned, i think it's going to go through at least the entire season, but here's the first chapter!

Emma has no idea what she’s doing in this town.

One minute she’s in Boston, blowing out a birthday candle alone, and the next she’s drinking hot cocoa at the smalltown diner-slash-B&B in Storybrooke, Maine, where she’s just finished talking with her son who she gave up for adoption ten years ago about how everyone there was actually secretly a fairytale character under an evil curse. Completely insane.

As she gets up to pay and leave, someone catches her eye. A man sitting alone at the bar. He is hunched over eating breakfast by himself. She’s not sure what it is, but something about him catches her interest. Maybe it’s the faraway look in his eye that she connects with. And he’s handsome too, with dark hair and piercing blue eyes, but she has a strict policy about men, no dating, no letting your guard down, and absolutely NO falling in love.

Despite all of that, she somehow finds herself walking up to him.

Telling herself she’s just waiting to pay for her food (even though she could have stood anywhere while waiting for a waitress to be ready for her), and glances over at the stranger one more time. He catches her eye and smiles at her. “Hey.”

“Hi.” she responds.

There’s a pause, and then…

“So. You’re Henry Mills’ mother.”

Emma’s startled by this, probably more than she should be. She did come into town in the middle of the night with the mayor’s runaway kid, and then get arrested for drunk driving. That’s the kind of thing that would spark rumours, especially in a place like this.

“What would you know about that?”

“It’s a small town,” he acknowledges with a raise of his eyebrows, “people talk.”

He still hasn’t gotten up, or even turned in his stool, but he’s watching her intently as she listens, and he can see the confliction on her face. She can’t get a read on this guy, and it’s making her feel at the same time on edge and jumpy, and intrigued.

Ultimately, her curiosity wins out, and she asks, “And what exactly are they saying? About me.”

He shrugs a shoulder, “The people of this town will say any number of things. That the boy rode a bus all the way to Boston to find you. That you were just a teenager when you gave him up,” he pauses. Then, “That you’re a conwoman who’s only here to try to steal Henry away.”

“Well,” Emma says cooly, her eyes flashing “you shouldn’t believe everything you hear.”

Finally turning in his seat to face her, they lock eyes as he holds her stare. “Aye love, perhaps I shouldn’t”

Emma feels a shiver run down her spine as he turns to go.

“Wait. I didn’t catch your name.”

He looks back at her. “Killian Jones, at your service.”

He tips his head slightly in a mock bow.

“And you?”

“What? All these rumours flying and the people don’t even know my name?”

“I guess that information never reached me.”

She smiles slightly and shakes her head. “It’s Emma. Emma Swan.”

“Swan.” He smiles. “Well, I’ll see you around, Swan.”

“Uh… yeah” she says, taken aback by his assumption that he would be seeing her again.

As he walks away, she feels a strange mix of emotions. She doesn’t know really anything about him. Doesn’t know if she trusts, or even likes him that much. But as she watches him leave, she can’t help but feel like she wants to talk to him again.

#cs gift exchange #cs gift exchange 20222 #otp: you traded your ship for me #emma swan #killian jones #captain hook ouat #captain swan #captainswan #cs #ouat #once upon a time #fanfic #fic #fic exchange

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oceanic-sunsets · 2 years ago

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an analysis on Mike's feelings progression, and the Love Confession Epiphany trope

i've read many, many analyses about mike, his feelings [for will, and in general] and whether he's aware of them or not, and one very common, popular interpretation is that he's always had feelings for will, making byler fall into the "it's always been you" trope. and while i LOVE this interpretation, i want to offer my own perspective.

s1-s2 mike

i think at the beginning of the show, mike is truthful when he says they're all his best friends. they're all unique, and different from each other. mike has different dynamics with all of them, but they're all his best friends.

then, with will's disappearance and his later possession, mike realizes something: Will is special, and he IS different from the rest of his friends. we can see how he's aware of it by his shed monologue when he tells possessed will that asking to be his friend was the best thing he's done.

and, honestly? i STILL think that up to this point, all mike feels towards will is a VERY strong friendship, but, of course, people grow up and nothing ever stays the same.

s3 mike

oh, this is a complex one. we know mike spends most of his time with el, and we can interpret his behavior in a lot of different ways. there's ONE thing i know for sure: he's not doing it for "romance" or because he's so in love. We have to look at the events that took place in the previous seasons: in s1, el "died" saving everyone, and in s2 mike felt so, so guilty, so he spent so much time thinking about her and calling her. he wanted her to be safe, he began considering her one of his friends (a friend is someone you'd do anything for), and also, the fact that he was a 12 year old boy who just saw a girl sacrifice herself and vanish.

s3 mike, now going through puberty and entering his teenage years, is glued to el's side and he's doing it for two reasons:

he's scared to lose her again. as simple as that. she is his friend, who he thought he lost before, and he wants to make sure she is safe (sounds familiar?). one of mike's character traits is that he feels the need to protect other people, and this, of course, includes el.

it's what he's supposed to do: isn't it the natural progression of the story? el is the first girl mike has befriended. everyone around him started assuming he liked her simply because he was nice to her and cared. they started teasing him. and mike thought "yeah, it makes sense", because why wouldn't it?? it's what they see in the movies, tv, and comics all the time. However, i dont think by this point he's aware he's following societal's expectations. Mike genuinely enjoys spending time with el. they have fun together, find comfort in each other (mike gets a reminder that el is there, safe, not in danger anymore, and el has the company of one of the first people that showed her kindness and friendship) this is really undeniable. he doesn't particularly like kissing, but he doesn't dislike it either: he's a teenager, kissing is fun, makes you seem cool, and hey, if you run out of conversation topics you can just kiss and problem solved! i dont think he spends time with her out of pity, as a cover, or anything like that. he's just unaware he's hurting and sidelining his friends in the process, too. the context here matters, of course, because this isnt the modern world. this is the 80's, a time where being gay in a smalltown could be extremely dangerous, and the media spread misinformation about the aid's epidemic. so i dont think mike is aware of anything, but i can see this easily being one of his fears*: he and his friends (specially will) have been bullied by homophobic kids, the people in household doesnt seem particularly accepting, and it's a common experience for lgbt+ kids to feel this feeling of guilt, wrongness, not 'normal' from a young age and not understanding why.

...but then, of course, stuff happened, and said stuff involved one of the most important (see: s1-s2 mike) people in his life: will.

Will, hurt because it seems like his friends don't want to spend time together like they used to, tells mike he's ruining the party. so mike projects his fears* onto will:

and mike immediately regrets it, realizing he's wrong. he gets, again, this feeling of guilt he's felt before, but a thousand times worse because it's his best friend he's talking to. and it's unfair, that's why he rushes to try to fix things.

next thing we know, mike is telling the entire room he loves el and that he can't lose her again. Sounds familiar? yeah, we went through this before, which is why i dont think it was a lie: of course he loves el and doesnt want to lose her. she's his friend and he has lost her before. this interaction here is what leads me to believe mike is STILL unaware, still fully believing that what he feels for el is romantic love..

up until the famous s3 finale, at least.

this, this is when confusion starts to kick in. when he starts questioning things. El, his girlfriend, just told him she loved him and kissed him. But he's confused, as we can confirm by the script. because isn't he supposed to feel.... happier? more excited?? by his girlfriend telling him i love you? is this really how being in love feels?

and this right here is where the path towards his character grow REALLY begins. mike is sad, and confused because nothing is turning out how it's supposed to. his best friend, who he spent so little time with thanks to his desire to grow up and trying to be who he was supposed to, is moving away. his girlfriend, who just told him 'i love you' (and isn't he supposed to be happier?) is moving away too, and he has no opportunity to try to discover what all of this means because they're moving away.

so he enters this phase of repression, bottling up his feelings and isolation. and mike ends s3 AWARE that things arent as it seem, that there's something that hasn't clicked yet, because despite his awareness, he doesnt understand why. after all, he did everything he was supposed to, didnt he??

enter: mike and s4. by this point, i'm convinced mike is starting to realize a couple of things: he can't say i love you to el, and will DEFINITELY falls into a different category than the rest of his friends. his absence wights on him more than ever: hawkins isn't the same without will.

he's also hyper-aware of this difference and doesnt even want to THINK about it, so he falls into his perfect boyfriend persona again (failing). This is what gives us the awkward airport hug and the rink-o-mania fight: mike is trying really hard to ignore his feelings, but by ignoring them, they start becoming more and more obvious.

he tried to reach out to will but it didnt work. will didnt reach out. He's hurt, because will, who is special to him is apparently ignoring him, and suddenly will is in front of him asking "what about us?" and mike panics, because that is too close to his fears* and the list of things he doesn't understand and are better left alone, untouched.

and this is also one of the reasons he feels so self-deprecating and insecure: despite trying so hard, he can't be the person who he wished he was: a better, more loving boyfriend who can say i love you and truly mean it. a better friend, who doesn't get confusing feelings and cares maybe a bit too much, someone who doesn't overcompensate and ends up coming across as emotionally detached.

but hey, apparently there's a light at the end of the tunnel, because suddenly will is delivering his endearing, loving speech about all these feelings El has for him and it's exactly what he needed to hear, and for the first time in a long time, he feels loved, special, wanted.

and isnt it amazing?? he's finally hit by such intense emotions: this is how you're supposed to feel about your girlfriend!

but, hey, wait a second. why is el ignoring him after his big love confession? why does it not feel right, despite how he felt back in the van?

these are thoughts he can revisit later, tho, as there are more important matters at hand: the end of the world is about to begin.

so mike ends s4: A) aware he cares too much about will, thinking that maybe more than will cares about him (because he didnt reach out), so he should pretend he cares less...? but wait, no, he still wants his best friend back, despite everything. B) even more confused. why did he felt so loved by el back in the van? but why is she ignoring him now? shouldn't his speech bring them closer??

i believe mike has all the puzzle pieces right in front of him, he just hasnt put them together yet. But. But. That's why Will's lie, his painting, exists. It's the key, it's finding out the truth about the painting what mike needs to understand himself and what those around him have been feeling.

when mike started developing feelings for will is up to interpretation. Personally, i believe there were hints that there might be something else by the end of s3, but they didn't fully develop until s4, because a glimpse of a feeling is easier to ignore when the person involved is across the country. And despite projecting his fears* onto will in s3, it's only in s4 that he starts acting different towards Will, behaving awkwardly. it's s4 when he feels undeniably loved by someone. it's s4 when he admits Will is different from the rest of his friends, to the point of not considering Hawkins home because Will is not there. It's s4 when we REALLY start seeing their friendship change into a more intimate, yet tense dynamic.

So, yeah, Will has always been it for Mike, but his feelings weren't always romantic, and that's the beautiful thing about it. We watched him develop feelings for will on screen. we watched their friendship change, evolve, and slowly grow into something else.

One of the reasons why i think mike is not fully aware yet, despite NOW HAVING romantic feelings for will, is the simple fact that he has NEVER considered it. Finn wolfhard himself said mike is clueless. he's unaware. He doesn't even see it as an option, but once he learns the truth, it'll become one.

This is where the Love Revelation Epiphany trope comes in:

The Truth about the painting is Mike's Love Revelation Epiphany. He already had feelings for will, he has had them for a while, but for Mike, it was something confusing, something he couldn't understand. It's only the truth about the painting and the meaning behind it that makes him realize them. It'll be his clarity, the moment where it starts making sense.

When, where, and how is something i don't know and i wont try to predict. But Will's painting isnt only about him. It doesn't only portray his truth, it's also a representation of Mike's truth, the culmination of his character arc, the progression of his feelings throughout the show, and the key piece we need to understand both of them and their actions.

#mike wheeler #will byers #byler #stranger things #analysis #mike wheeler analysis #st analysis #i cant believe i wrote a 2k mike wheeler character analysis #i was such a mike anti back when s3 aired #look at me now #if you read ALL of this: ily and im so sorry i hope it made sense #let me know what you think please #and i'd appreciate reblogs A LOT #i spent an embarrassing amount of time on this

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hawkinsschoolcounselor · 3 years ago

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Hi there. May I ask what exactly changed your opinions on Byler? I’m feeling a bit discouraged as well. I hope you’re well btw x

I am not well, but I will be. This isn't the first time I've been disappointed. It's just the first time I've made matters worse by reading into things.

Quite simply, we deluded ourselves. We made assumptions about the writing that don't align with what the Duffers are actually trying to do. I, for example, tried to apply psychology to the situation, but it was ridiculous in retrospect considering the Duffers have no background in psychology. These characters aren't intricately developed, except maybe El. A ton of it is made up as they go along in the process of creating the story they want. This is why characterizations can seem so inconsistent. What worked one season doesn't necessarily work the next.

We also based a lot of theories off of things that were essentially marketing gimmicks and merchandise. The Duffers have absolutely no input into any of this. We never should have put any stock into any of it. The fact that we did is just testament to how desperate we were.

Mike having Smalltown Boy on his "official" soundtrack? It's because he's literally a small town boy, nothing more. The people making those playlists weren't doing deep dives into the lyrics and themes of songs to make matches, and they certainly didn't know about future story arcs.

StrangerWriters saying that they don't believe in love at first sight? Just the opinion of the person running the account as they try to engage with fans.

"Let's start a new party, you and me"? Same situation, it was just the account engaging with fans.

When all is said and done, we can really only trust what the show portrays. Unfortunately, they've decided to go with Mike and El being in love. We see it as a relationship with terrible development, but most people don't agree with that, unfortunately. Will's love, meanwhile, is being used to not only benefit El's story, but also set up his own. Will is going to likely be victimized by Vecna, and his rejection by Mike is likely going to be how he succeeds. Will is going to lose all his fight when Vecna exploits those feelings.

Right now the biggest hope I see people clinging to is how horrible of an ending it would be for Will if he doesn't end up with Mike. I agree. However, the Duffers, and the majority of the audience, don't.

I also see people bringing up the fact that there won't be any new characters introduced. People are assuming this must mean that Will gets with Mike because the Duffers wouldn't just let him be the only character without a relationship. Again, another assumption based on something only this small part of the fandom even thinks. The best thing we could hope for with Will is that he gets a shallow, undeveloped love interest. That's what they're doing with Robin, after all. Do you guys really expect to see much of Vickie in season 5? I don't expect her to even be there.

Will is being set up to be yet another addition to the tragic gay character trope. His journey exists to allow a mostly straight audience to sympathize with him because of his pain, but without risk of alienating that audience by giving him what he wants. Honestly? I'd be surprised if he even survives.

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freddie-mercury-rising · 2 years ago

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Day 23: Tenement Funster from Sheer Heart Attack

Rogah Taylah!

Okay, I have to say, this could very well be in my top two of Roger Taylor songs. Well, we’ll see as we go along, but this one just is so freaking good.

This is, in my opinion, but what do I know, very autobiographical of our lovely blond drummer. Who is he if not THE tenement funster. He was the little charming shithead of the neighborhood who could charm the pants off of people but also worry the balls off of them in the process. He was the doe-eyed, blond cherub who had a sharp mind and fiery wit. His poor mother!

This song starts so freaking good, too, and it gives some sort of dark, or rebellious tone from the jump. Roger’s lyrics start, daring you to say anything about it. This is where the charming little ‘tenement funster’ is now an adolescent and he’s having lots of thoughts and challenging authority for the first time.

“My new purple shoes, been amazing the people next door. And my rock and roll 45s been enraging the folks on the lower floor.”

This is youth in rebellion. This is ‘we are young, the world is ours, watch out.’

“I got a way with the girls on my block, try my best be a real individual.”

He’s popular with the ladies, and it’s easy for him…but he’s craving more that his small town, or his small tenement, can offer.

“Give me a good guitar. And you can say that my hair’s a disgrace. Oh, just find me an old car. I’ll make the speed of light out of this place.”

This guy will take your bullshit, as long as you let him rock. He’ll take it only so long, though…until he’s able to get the fuck out. Then, you’ll never hear from him again.

“I like the good things in life. But most of the best things ain’t free.”

Hey, we can relate to dreaming of all the best things…but knowing that your current situation ain’t gonna provide you with those things…it’s a daunting feeling.

“It’s the same situation, just cuts like a knife, when you’re young and you’re poor and you’re crazy…” (young and you’re crazzyyy)

Here’s that hopelessness of being an adolescent with hormones raging, your heart pounding, and your soul restless, living in a small town with no power, no currency (either monetarily or otherwise) and feeling like you’re the only one who has ever felt that way in the world. Ah, the glorious turmoil of youth.

This is a brilliant song, and I think it shows just how much Roger is still getting used to the band and the sort of fame it can offer. They were still brand new rock babies at this point, just on the cusp of worldwide recognition, so he was probably still a little bit in his old headspace of being that smalltown boy. I think he carried a lot of that his whole life, tbh.

ANYWAY, enough of my two cent interpretation of Roger’s lyrics that could be utterly and totally wrong. The song itself is really a jam, and it’s got lots of unique elements and rocking riffs. Roger’s raspy voice is perfect for rock and roll, and what I love about Queen is that we get to have three very unique voices for the songs.

#Queen a day #queen #queen band #music review #Tenement Funster #Tenement Funster song #Roger Taylor #Sheer Heart attack #sheer heart attack album #Spotify

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chirpsythismorning · 2 years ago

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Wow... 1 year filming. We are legit screwed but at least we might get new content or leaks, idk. Like idk abt you guys but i cannot wait another 2 years.

For me the first year of hiatus flew by. Vol 1 came out already about a year ago approx.? I feel like the same is going to apply to the next year.

And by that point filming will be wrapping up and s5 promo will finally start getting more ramped up. We could have a few tiny cryptic teasers by then, some episode titles. And who knows about the set/costume leak prospects...

I talked about this already, but the months leading up to it are filled with content dropping and it grows exponentially over time.

This time around will be unmatched too bc I think fans actually have a lot to go off of, more than we ever have with previous seasons. With s2-4 we were shooting in the dark. But now with s5 there's so much from s4 unaddressed that it's guaranteed to be re-addressed and so much was foreshadowed that fans have very likely predicted at least a few of the surprises (*cough* byler *cough*).

And so imagine promo that is proving/disproving a bunch of iconic theories, and experiencing that real time. Imagine smalltown boy or like lettergate being confirmed in a mere 10 second sneak peak? Cryptic instances like that along the way are the best!

We're going to be getting a lot of validation too during this time bc the Duffers will definitely want fans to go back and rewatch to be capable of appreciating whats to come for what it truly is, despite misunderstanding up to this point. I think as we get closer, they won't outright say things for certain, however, they are most definitely going to start blatantly alluding to the fact that they are smart and everything is in fact intentional. And so if we doubted them, that's our own fault, since the answers are right in front of us. Did you see all the s2 references we put in s4? Do you really think we forgot Will's birthday? type vibes without them outright saying that though.

Technically even though it could be premiering in early 2025, it's gonna feel like it's premiering in summer/fall 2024 regardless bc promo will be so fucking hot at that point that it might as well be out already. It'll a long festivity for sure. Right now we're in early hiatus, which sucks when you're in it. What we get to hope for within the next year is hints from the writers and if we get another dna board with upwards of 100 films, we might have a lot of work on our hands anyways. These ppl are out here giving us reading assignments and we are gladly going along with it. But that's not for everyone necissarily so if some people want to bow out for a year or so, I wouldn't blame them regardless.

Late hiatus right before release is where it's at, and that's honestly a lot closer than we think! It will start getting more serious next summer, so get hyped bc that's just as exciting to look forward to as the end itself!

#byler #stranger things #ask #st5 filming #st5 promo #st5 speculation #i can't wait for the dna board #i will be sat #also what if we get other stuff that is totally new and we aren't prepared for!?!?!#there are so many possibilities #any aspect of our theories being humored subtly would make the tag go crazy #we're gonna miss these times that are about to hit so i'm just trying to make the best of it before it's over forever

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darkficsyouneveraskedfor · 4 years ago

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Little Bones 6

Warnings: non-consent sex and rape, anger, humiliation, control.

This is dark! (biker) Thor x chubby!reader and explicit. 18+ only. Your media consumption is your own responsibility. Warnings have been given. DO NOT PROCEED if these matters upset you.

Series Synopsis: You’re a city girl stuck in a small town, but Birch isn’t as sleepy as it seems.

Sister series to Smalltown Bringdown and When the Weight Comes Down

Note: This is likely the second to last chapter in this series! I’m excited to have another Birch series finished in the near future! And then I can work on Loki’s installment because you all are so dang convincing.

Thanks to everyone for their patience and feedback. :)

I really hope you enjoy. 💋

<3 Let me know what you think with a like or reblog or reply or an ask! Love ya!

MASTERLIST

Chapter 6: I can cry, beg and whine

Thor was insatiable. That was the only word you could think to describe him but it didn’t feel strong enough. His hunger, his persistence, his complete control over you was indescribable. He held your apartment, your job, your very existence in his grip.

You woke up to him beside you in your double bed, too small for both of you but it only gave him a reason to be on top of you. You went to work late more days than not that week. And even when you didn’t go home to find him on your couch, he wasn’t long behind.

There was no hiding from him in Birch and there was no way out. It was a truth you denied for too long because you weren’t from there. But it wasn’t about the town, it wasn’t the town that trapped you. It was the people, it was the attitude. It was those bikers.

Friday came and he was there waiting but he wasn’t sprawled out on your sofa as usual. He wore his colours, ready to go somewhere.

He combed his fingers through the tails of his blond hair as you unzipped your jacket and set your bag on the shoe rack. He checked himself in the mirror that hung along the entryway and planted his hand on the wall as he leaned over you.

“Put on something nice,” he purred as he grabbed your chin and tilted your face towards him, “if it wasn’t so cold, I’d say something slutty.”

You didn’t have a chance to grimace before he kissed you. You swallowed your revulsion and waited for him to let you go. As you knelt to remove your boots, he tickled along the back of your head.

“Mmm, I’m almost tempted to let you stay down there,” he taunted, “but we’re already late.”

“Late for what?” you stood and brushed past him. He followed closely and groped your ass. You were almost used to his incessant touching.

“I got business tonight,” he said.

“Your business,” you insisted as you entered the bedroom. You made no move to change and sat on the bed as you rubbed your eyes, “I have no interest in whatever it is you deal in and I’m dead tired.”

“I know I’ve been… hard on you,” he smirked as there was no true remorse in his tone, “but how am I supposed to help myself?”

You looked at him sharply and snarled. “I really don’t feel like going to the bar--”

“We’re not going down there,” he interrupted, “but the girls are expecting you.”

He went to the closest and slid open the door. You shook your head at the wall and didn’t move. You knew there was no arguing with him. It made your blood boil. You hated that feeling of helplessness. You hated his kind of men and how they used women like things, painting their desires as your own.

“This is nice,” he tossed a forgotten pair of leggings with leather strips along the side on the bed and a silver top with trumpet sleeves slit along the inside, “bet your ass looks wonderful in those.”

“Can’t I have one night--”

“It’s business. The women have their time and we have ours. Get up.” He said sternly, “though I don’t mind helping you into these.”

He lifted the leggings and stretched the high elastic waist and bit his lip. You stood and snatched them from him. He did not leave, didn’t even back away as you turned and dropped them back on the bed. You stripped off your wool pants and the striped blouse.

You wiggled into the leggings, embarrassed at how your ass jiggled and he purred in response. The top was tight across your tits and pushed them up dangerously against the neckline. You never wore it because that very reason; too much attention where you didn’t need it.

“See,” he snapped his knuckles against your ass, “sexy as hell.”

“You gonna tell me where we’re going?” you asked as you crossed your arms.

“Just a little get together,” he framed your face with his large hands, “with your Birch boys.”

He said nothing else as he latched onto your arm and turned to drag you behind him. You barely lifted your feet in your reluctance but you sensed his impatience growing. You contented yourself that in the least he would be distracted by other people long enough to leave you alone for just a few minutes.

💀

The motorcycle ripped through the early evening air and you shivered against his back. The air was still bitter but the roads were cleared of snow enough to maneuver the steel beast. He drove out of town and along the country roads, those were more treacherous than the main row.

You pulled up to the farmhouse, the old lot recently renewed as the house shone from within. Thor slowed and killed the engine. He flipped out the kickstand and nudged you. You climbed off and he followed your lead. He shoved the keys in his pocket and unstrapped his helmet as he let out a ‘brrr’.

“Come on,” he nodded to the porch steps as you undid your own helmet.

You walked up to the house and he knocked. He took your helmet from you as you waited for an answer. You heard voices and the approach of footsteps from the other side. The door opened and Steve’s girl smiled out at you and pushed open the screen door.

“Oh! You’re here!” She chimed, “I used your mother’s lemon meringue recipe. And oh,” she beamed at you, “we haven’t seen you lately.”

“Work,” you said, it wasn’t exactly a lie, “it’s nice to see you, too. I’m sorry I didn’t bring anything, I--”

“I have everything under control,” she clapped her hands, “we’re just trying to figure out the shaker. Come in.”

She backed up and Thor held the door as you passed through first. You took your boots off at the mat and she beckoned you further in. “Thor, the guys are just in the living room,” she pointed to her left, “we’re in the kitchen,” she motioned behind her, “working on dinner.”

“Mmm,” you grumbled and nodded. Before you could step forward, Thor caught you and drew you back to him. He kissed you and you bore it in simmering humiliation.

“Have fun,” he squeezed your ass and let you go as he turned to find the other men.

You huffed and turned your attention to Steve’s girl as she waited awkwardly. She rubbed her hands together as she walked with your down the hallway. “Steve’s like that, you know? Touchy feely. I get so… embarrassed…” her voice trailed off, “sorry, I shouldn’t--”

“I always wondered about you and him. You’re an odd pair,” you said.

“Well, it’s not anything I expected but, um… well, this is our house--” she gestured around her as she led you into the kitchen, “you know, he bought it for me.”

“Hey, don’t change the subject,” you said a bit too tersely, “you said Steve embarrasses you but you--”

“And Thor does it to you so… you know that’s how they are,” she squeaked.

“All of them,” Bucky’s girl said and you only noticed her as she shook the metal shaker, “it’s why we need alcohol.”

You exhaled and came up to the counter as Steve’s girl went to the stove and lifted the lid on the skillet to stir the contents, “please, don’t put a lot of gin in mine. I don’t do well with alcohol.”

You leaned on the marble as you watched the other woman pour the bright pink liquid into a finely shaped glass on a stem, “looks better than last time.” She turned and set it beside the stove for the hostess.

“So…” you frowned as you thought and she began to measure gin and all the other ingredients before her, “why are you with them--”

“Why are you with Thor?” she interrupted, “we saw how much you hate him at the bar. We felt the same but don’t act stupiid like you don’t know what’s going on. These men are given everything they want and when they aren’t they take it anyway.”

“He takes care of my ma, though--” Steve’s girl intoned.

“And that makes it all hunky dorey,” the other sneered, “she sucks at saying it out loud but she can’t stand Steve as much as we can’t stand the rest of them.”

The other woman was quiet as she replaced the lid and reached for the drink. She fidgeted and looked down at her frilly apron. She was dressed like some housewife out of the suburban fifities, although her dress was still uncomfortably short.

“What good does it do to say it?” she mumbled.

Bucky’s girl mixed another cocktail and poured it pristinely before she slid it over to you, “I’m getting the hang of this but I’m happy the men are sticking to beer. My arm’s getting tired.”

You took the glass and tasted the drink. You hummed as it surprised you. “Aren’t you a bartender?”

“Server. I open beers and believe it or not but they don’t serve margaritas down at The Asp.”

You shrugged and kept drinking as she made her own drink and turned to rest her elbow on the counter lazily.

“I should’ve warned you. Not that it would’ve helped but I could’ve,” she said.

“No, it doesn’t matter. It’s like you said. They take whatever they want. Nothing we can do, is there?”

You were silent as you all sipped. The gin warmed your chest and you let it sink into your veins. Your commiseration was grim but comforting. To think that you weren’t entirely alone was as heartening as it was saddening.

💀

The alcohol heightened your irritation as dinner ended. You were left to help clear the table in your matronly duties with the other women. You were insulted at the outdated binary of the arrangements and it felt less like a get together and more of a job.

The men, Steve, Bucky, Thor, and Loki returned to the living room and their voices threaded the air as the dishes clinked in your grasp. The blonde biker’s brother was unexpected but he seemed just unhappy to be there as you. There were a few minutes during the meal where you sympathised with him as he rolled his eyes and failed to hide any ounce of his spite for Thor.

When you finished up, Steve’s girl took several more beers to the men before she returned to grab her glass of water. You took the vodka cooler, your third drink of the night, and went along with them to the living room.

You hung back as Steve’s girl neared him and was drawn down beside him impatiently, his arm around her shoulders as he almost spilled her water. Bucky’s girl sat beside him and tolerated his arm around her waist though he was less clingy than his accomplice. Loki stood by the window and stared out into the dull snow as Thor perched in the cozy armchair.

You went to sit beside Steve’s girl but you were stopped by a tut.

“I’ve got a seat for you, kitten,” Thor slurred. The beer was thick in his voice, as potent as the liquor in your stomach. You turned to him as he rubbed his thigh.

“I’m fine, here,” you insisted and his smile fell.

“You know I wasn’t asking, kitty,” he warned, “come on and be a good girl. We’re guests. Let’s not make a scene.”

You stood in front of the couch and glared at him. You sighed softly and pushed your shoulders back. You marched over to him and turned your bottle to splash it over his front. You acted surprised at your feigned clumsiness and took a step back.

“Oops,” you uttered coyly, “how careless--”

He was up on his feet in a moment as he slammed his own bottle down on the small table beside the chair. He knocked yours from your hand entirely and the air stilled with tension. His blue eyes flared as he grabbed your wrist.

“Better help me get cleaned up,” he growled and looked over your shoulder, “excuse us.”

You resisted him for a moment but he yanked and nearly took you off your feet. He spun and kept hold of you as he forced you after him and stormed from the room. You stumbled out into the hall behind him and he flung you ahead of him.

He gripped the back of your neck and ripped open a door to his right. He shoved you inside and you hit the sink as the clasp clicked loudly. He crowded you in the half bath as you braced yourself against the porcelain, the scent of beer tingling in your nostrils. You stared at his dark shirt, stained with his drink.

“I thought I trained you better, kitten,” he snarled, “just when I thought you were starting to purr.”

“Fuck you,” you said as the alcohol thinned the filter between your thoughts and your words.

“Oh, I can make that happen,” he hissed as he lifted the hem of his shirt and tore it off. He hung it over the towel bar and felt along his damp torso, “I can’t let you bite and not give you a good swat for it.”

“Don’t be an ass. It’s a drink. You can’t just talk to me like that. I’m not some animal--”

“Shhh,” he hushed as he covered your mouth and pushed you against the sink, “I’m not listening. That’s not how this works…” he leaned in and lowered his voice, “you realise how bad this is? You challenged me in front of men; I won’t have it. We’re past niceties, kitten.”

His hands slipped over your hips and to your ass. He scooped you up and rested you atop the porcelain as he crushed his body against yours. He grabbed your chin and smothered your lips with his as he rolled his pelvis against you.

His hand fell and crawled along your throat. You turned your head away and gasped as his fingers hooked under the elastic of your leggings.

“What are you--”

“Don’t play dumb,” he nipped at your throat, “we’ve done this enough.”

“Not here,” you pushed on his shoulders, “you can’t--”

“I can do--” his other hand fell to your waist and he gripped the elastic, “whatever--” his hands snaked around you as his fingers slid between the fabric and your skin, “I want.”

He ripped your leggings down with your panties and forced them down your legs. He pulled until your legs wet bent in front of you and you were curled awkwardly atop the sink as you struggled with him.

“Stop-- I’ll be good--”

“Too late,” he shoved his hand between your legs and felt around roughly.

The fabric of your leggings trapped your thighs and kept you bent against him painfully as he hunched over you. He pulled his hand away to fumble with his fly and shifted as he pushed down his zipper. He set his feet firmly and hooked his other arm around you as he pressed his tip along your folds.

He guided himself blindly over your cunt, his beer-laced breath choked you as your head spun. He rested his forehead against yours as your head was propped up against the mirror. He lined himself up with your opening and thrust bluntly inside of you. You exclaimed in surprise as the intrusion blazed through you.

You were drunk enough that it felt good but you were aware enough of what was happening. You slapped him and his head snapped to the side. He pulled back and slammed into you even deeper. He brought his lips to yours again and kissed you sloppily as he rocked against you. The counter groaned under both of your weight as you tried to hold in your voice.

He sped up as your breath quickened in time with his. You closed your eyes as he once more descended to your through and kissed and nipped at your skin. His hips tilted into you steadily as you wriggled against him.

He pushed his hand between your bodies and pressed two fingers to your clit. He rubbed as he kept his pace and you murmured as your drunken body responded. You dug your nails into his shoulders and your feet arched as the ripple began to flow over you. Your peak rose fast and you cried out without restraint as it took you off guard.

His own grunts added the furor and he moved faster atop you. His knee hit the front of the counter and he sunk to his limit as he quaked. He stopped and held himself as deep as he could, sliding back slowly only to ease back in as he came in long strokes.

He stopped and rested his head in the crook of your neck, his blond hair falling forward as he caught his breath. You shuddered and nudged his shoulders until he stood. He slipped out of you and sent a chill up your spine. Your body fell limp and you dropped from the counter onto shaky legs.

You felt his cum trickle down your thigh as he reached for the toilet paper and wiped himself clean. Your vision hazed as you reached for some as well and kept the mess from dripping into your panties. He cleared his throat and turned to examine his wet tee shirt. You pulled up your leggings and sniffed.

It was all so sudden it was as if nothing had happened at all. You held yourself up against the wall and a knock came from the door. He opened it without pretense and greeted Steve’s girl as she peered inside nervously and glanced at you briefly.

She held a folded shirt in her hands as she blinked meekly. She knew, they all knew. You had no doubt that they’d heard it all.

“Um, hopefully this fits,” she said as she handed the tee shirt to him, “and, we… we’re just about to have dessert.”

“Great. I’ve got quite the appetite,” he replied, “we’ll be out soon.”

He closed the door and turned back to look at himself in the mirror. He brushed past you so you were flush to the wall as he pulled on the shirt. It was too tight around his thick arms and his broad chest. He tidied his hair and rolled his shoulders as he admired his reflection.

“I think now you’ll be good, kitten,” he winked and reached to touch your cheek cloyingly, “best not to get my hackles up again.”

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riverdale-retread · 3 years ago

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Riverdale S6B - Episode 112: American Psycho.

I’m surprised that the Riverdale production team managed to refrain themselves from titling this All American Psycho. Because that is what so many of their characters are both psycho (on and off) and All American! Charles looks like he could be a poster boy for milk and detergent. Same for Betty. Archie is and does all the stereotypical All American Boy things - abs, square jaw, lots of sex, sports, music, violence, dgaf about school.

Anyway!

We open with a meeting about the upcoming serial killer con among an unlikely assortment of people. Betty is surprised that Veronica could pull the whole thing together so fast. Ever gracious, Veronica demurs, turning the credit back to circumstances (a circuit of crime conventions already existed; Riverdale is an interesting town for murder fans).

First, Veronica is efficient and brilliant, yes, but we should never forget that she’s meant to be the head of a hedge fund, a master of the universe, and running the world (into the ground, inevitably because capitalism) but she’s stuck in fucking Riverdale running a little tiny casino. She is SO BORED. So that’s why this came together so fast. Lots of untapped energy there, for Veronica.

Second, women please don’t do this. If someone says that something unbelievable you achieved is actually unbelievable, then just say THANK YOU. And stop talking. The first time I saw a man do this (and by the way was he taking credit that was owed to others at the table in that same room at the time? WHY YES! HE WAS!) I was so sure that the skies would split open and smash him with a lightning bolt but nothing happening like that. He just took the credit and swallowed it and that was that. Do the same, ladies.

The people putting SlaughterCon together are hilarious. Veronica sits next to Archie, whom she has fucked, who is seated next to Betty, whom he has fucked, who is sitting next to Agent Drake, who wants to fuck her, who is finally seated next to Charles, who nobody should ever fuck. (Sorry, Charles fans.)

Veronica being the ultimate carpenter, the doer, only thinks to ask if SlaughterCon, which is a trap expressly set up to bring a known serial killer to her Murder Capital of Smalltown USA, is dangerous only after she has done all the work to set it up and bring it about.

What’s the quote from Anne Sexton about suicides?

Like carpenters they want to know which tools/ They never ask why build.

Veronica isn’t so much worried about harm to attendees or her neighbors (as Percival likes to call everyone). She just doesn’t want to do more body clean up, purely because she killed her body-clean-up guy.

Veronica. Get help.

Charles says, with a very creepy vanity, that he loves his ‘fans.’ He also deigns to speak on behalf of all serial killers which - please see above note re men having no qualms about taking credit and leadership whatsoever regardless of qualification. So, since Charles loves his fans and doesn’t like to shit where he eats, he assures everyone that TBK also loves his fans and wouln’t want to shit where he eats.

Veronica is secondarily worried about Betty (which is actually a great kindness and great progress for her, because Betty is also only tertiarily worried about Veronica. This is growth).

Betty says TBK won’t harm her, because he thinks the two of them are soulmates. She then outlines the security measures she’s put in place, including an agent outside her home to protect Alice and Charles (the ultimate redshirt lol). Agent Drake says she’ll be close by and this is when Archie comes in with the dick measuring contest. I will be too.

Dude.

Dude. Archie. Dude.

Drake is an FBI agent. You’re a - I don’t even know what you are. Can you have a little respect? Agent Drake looks very annoyed. I am not projecting my workplace meeting dynamics into this tv show. I. am. not.

I’ve never been to a con of this stripe, but actually Veronica’s program sounds pretty good and varied!

Simulated autopsy. Hybristophilia. Panels on Black Hood and the Starkweathers. G&G Tournament. 1:1 Sit down with Betty. And there will be live entertainment by Kevin! Not Sweeney Todd (were they unable to procure the rights?) but American Psycho because we need another Bret Easton Ellis reference. (RAB what is your problem with him? Was he mean to you?)

Veronica, Betty’s hidden admirer (BERONICA WHEN OMG) also dislikes Drake. Veronica is rarely directly rude to people for no reason, unlike Betty, but oh man the jealousy is very evident.

In a very dark-green-on-black room full of antiques and heavy ornate furniture, Uncle Fucking Frank and Percival discuss the need to mind control all of the workers of the construction crew because Bailey’s comet is making its 65 year return which is an essential part of Percival’s railway plan.

In a very brightly lit, simply furnished living room where almost everyone present is wearing some species of flannel check, Archie tells the striking union members that the union has approved of their strike and will send some sort of living stipend. And Tabitha, looking wonderful in her heels and tied back hair, offers to feed everyone and their families for free from Pop’s.

It’s not that I don’t want her to do this, but how is she affording this exactly?

There is a brief product placement for Smart food white cheddar pop corn of which Tabitha eats literally ONE.

Archie thanks her for the provision of the free food but doesn’t ask how she can afford it. She very discreetly hints at her stress and despair when she admits she has a strong desire to “keep busy.” That’s when Archie actually asks after Jughead.

Woah, stop the presses!

Jughead is still fighting off the cacophony of voices in his head. This is absolutely introvert hell and I feel so terrible for Jughead, a fiction maker and mythologizer who can’t control the voices of others invading his most private space. He looks catatonic in the Bunker.

Archie asks if he’s drinking again, and when assured by Tabitha that he is not, he is very relieved, and says a bunch of pablum about how strong Jughead is and how he’s going to beat it.

Meaning, I’m not going to help him.

Meaning, it’s not my problem.

I hate it when people say someone is ‘strong’ and then abandons them, can you tell?

Also if Jughead was drinking again, would Archie have cared more?

At Thornhill, Toni delivers the horrendous news that she’s going to be marrying Fangs right to Cheryl’s face. The tendons that stand out SO STRONG against Cheryl’s neck? THAT’S ME. The REVULSION in her face, where she has to lift all the skin of her scalp up to her crown so she can yank her lips into a smile? THAT’S ME.

Just in time, Heather, who has the longest legs ever, comes wandering in with a book. Cheryl introduces her as “my -dot dot dot - friend, Heather,” while gently caressing her elbow. Because we all do that with our ‘friends.’

When Toni stands up to take her leave, we see that Cheryl is wearing the deepest V neck cut you can wear without actually being entirely topless which is a hilarious contrast to Heather, who is buttoned up almost to her chin. Did she put this on because she knew Toni was coming or did she put this on for Heather? Both?

Toni invites Cheryl and Heather to her Bachelorette party, which will happen at the Serial Killer Convention. (“How apropos” Cheryl puts in. I love you forever, Cheryl Blossom.)

After Toni’s departure, Heather very sweetly asks Cheryl if she’s doing ok which of course, she is not. Cheryl delivers the most I Am Not All Right speech, using all the words of defense she can think of.

Next we are at Slaughter Con!

Why is Veronica dressed like Dorothy Gale? All the attendees for some reason really love the idea of a musical number (this is the most unrealistic thing ever). Veronica said Kevin promised to bring 1980s pizzazz but I think these suits that all these men are wearing are too tame. Kevin is a lovely singer, I love his singing voice, but he cannot sell choreography.

Betty sees a Black Hood in the crowd. They advance towards each other, and this Black Hood takes out a knife. He is apprehended by Betty and Archie. He turns out to be a wild eyed young man with a very Kermit the Frog voice, who says he bought the real Black Hood murder weapon from e-Slay. He wanted an autograph from Betty, because she’s practically one of them. When she doesn’t reject him outright, he actually starts to beg for her to kill him. Archie hauls him out of there as Kevin warbles, “I’m not a common man” over the proceedings like that means something.

Percival comes to the relocated Diner in order to do the mind control on everyone who is getting a free lunch there. Fangs is the first to go. You know how he was supposed to use Baby Anthony (whom he has still never, ever picked up) as the anchor? Archie using Fred as his anchor worked because even though he was an absolutely shit son through and through, Archie really did love his dad and reveres him still. The fact that Fangs cannot use Anthony as an anchor says nothing good about him. This feat of mind control on all of the workers gives Percival a nose bleed. (Nosebleed to denote extreme strain is so gross, I hate it. I’d rather people shit themselves.)

Back at SlaughterCon, Agent Drank is getting her full Jughead one. Even her presentation boards look like murder boards ©. She has the same smug, talk down delivery using overly large words as Jughead. Hybristophilia is a kink that means you are turned on by law breaking and evil doing. Innate attraction to the dark side of life, is what she says and I’m fascinated by her shirt which has stripes that look like cut outs.

Archie doesn’t understand why anyone would be drawn to ‘that kind of thing.’ Uh. Betty and Jughead and Veronica are all attracted to him, and Betty, as representative, looks very uncomfortable and lies that she doesn’t know, because that’s what Betty does.

Tabitha summons Archie to the Diner.

Kevin is visited by an irate Cheryl dressed like an actual witch, and carrying a book of dark magic.

Tabitha, Toni and Fangs are trying to figure out a way to free everyone from mind control. So the three of them decide to go and remind everyone of their tethers. Tabitha says they’re going to use music.

Cheryl and KevKev do a wedge spell, without specifying what the wedge is, against Foni. Normally I don’t like this sort of thing - bitter exes that wish ill are not cool - but I am with team Dark Magic on this one.

Tabitha, Toni and Fangs and all the families of the workers go to the worksite and sing a song and it works. Fangs breaks out of it first, which I guess deserves some sort of recognition, but his commitment to never, ever holding Baby Anthony is absolute. I don’t know if the show means for it to be a character beat or if they have an actual live baby whose mother will not let the particular actor hold her baby, but it’s so very very weird.

Back at SlaughterCon, Agent Drake is being Jughead to Betty as she talks about herself and her goals and her problems, and then she shoots her shot. “I’m attracted to you,” is what she says after making fun of Archie as “the boyfriend.”

I feel so bad for Agent Drake. “We have so much in common” is usually a great thing between two people who feel an attraction towards each other, but not if you’re Betty Cooper who absolutely despises herself and everything she comes from. She doesn’t want to fuck someone she has anything in common with.

“I’ve been picking up vibes from you,” Drake also says, and Betty looks as happy as she’s looked in ages.

We cut to Betty being woken up in glowing sunlight with a cup of coffee delivered to her by Agent Drake in a gray T shirt and nothing but. (OK, OK. Show? OK. I got it. Drake = Girl Jughead. Yes. OK?).

It turns out to be a super repressed wet dream. (Who the hell dreams about this? Also is this what’s missing from the Barchie relationship? Tenderness? Sweetness?)

Shout out to the tumblrina tha pointed out that when Betty wakes up for real, it’s in the cold, blue, depressing light of heteronormativity. Over breakfast with The Boyfriend, Betty tells Archie he doesn’t have to attend the Con, but then feels disappointed at his evident relief at not attending a thing that she finds important and fascinating.

Cheryl comes by with baked goods to the Foni apartment, to be told that Baby Anthony has colic and a fever. She becomes convinced that she is the one who gave these extremely common conditions to this baby through her magic. Cheryl, freaked out, runs back to cancel the spell, along with Kevin. Kevin says the most Kevin thing ever: This is your fault.

Veronica is seated under her own portrait when Betty tells her that Agent Drake tried to ask her out.

“She professed her love for you, like out of some romance novel?” asks Veronica, her voice dripping with contempt.

Uh. What Drake actually did was declare, I am attracted to you and I think you like me to, so how about it?

Veronica is so jealous. She has to be saying what she wishes she would do. I mean, she knows Betty, has known Betty and of course has done a romance novel thing for Betty when she was a girl: Declared that she loved Betty and then drank poison on her behalf, while they were both in ballgowns. I mean. Girl. GIRL. Get it together.

And I try. I try to stay liking Betty, but she’s kind of shit. She agrees with Veronica who wholesale slanders Drake by calling her ‘unprofessional.’ I mean. She specifically went over there to show off to Veronica that she got hit on by this cool, sexy woman.

“But it’s started to make me think,” begins Betty.

“Uh oh,” Veronica replies.

BURN. Omg. What.

Betty just glides right over that, to be an absolute shit to Veronica. She consults about her problems (this is so tiresome - does Betty literally never talk about anything other than herself and her deeply personal concerns?) with Archie to the girl who wanted to live with Archie as a tradwife just a little while ago (and all the history blah blah).

Veronica forbids Betty from pursuing things with Drake even though she has no rebuttals to statements like Betty pointing out that ‘on paper’ she and Drake are compatible, and also Betty miming with her entire face that she is in fact attracted to Drake and further that she had ‘a dream’ about the woman, which she strongly implies was sexual. She just doesn’t want it to happen. This is a weird form of control - Betty has just confessed to Veronica that she finds herself unable to achieve true intimacy (being ‘herself’) with Archie, which is exactly the problem that Veronica had with Archie, and yet Veronica’s advice to Betty is to forgo a viable, fresh option with an attractive, compatible person, to stay with Archie.

Is this like, an ex girlfriend version of the “I hope you have children just like you” curse from parents?

Veronica charges over to Drake to tell Drake that it’s not cool for Drake to have confessed her “attraction” to Betty. Which means actually then Betty DID NOT LIE about what actually transpired and it was Veronica who deeply overreacted. Veronica’s pleased smile after Drake takes a dignified leave of this unwarranted, over-stepping conversation is so sad to me. Veronica, please figure it out.

Heather undoes the dark magic that’s been placed on Baby Anthony. She seems to be Archie Coded - she’s a librarian, midwife, nightnurse on top of being a necromancer and witch. Everyone thanks her.

Can someone please tell me why Fangs never, ever touches his son?

Alice interviews Betty at the highlight of the SlaughterCon. Alice’s way of being a moderator is so cheesy. People are here to be fans of Betty Cooper. TBK gives the panel a call.

The way he says “Oh Betty” is so campy and gross and I love it. I wish I knew someone named Betty so I could call her and say “Oh Betty” with a little moan in my voice just like him.

They keep showing us Drake watching Betty so we can tell she’s not TBK.

“It ends with you and me and a kiss in the dark,” says TBK, before hanging up.

Cheryl is getting a very gentle telling off from Heather about doing magic for bad purposes. Heather and Cheryl decide to have fun with their second chance. So they decide to go to the Bachelorette party for Toni.

We get a musical number which basically is all the pretty ladies in Riverdale doing a nonsense song that is a long list of 80s designer names. Agent Drake is there, which I don’t understand, but appreciate. They’re all just so pretty! I’m so happy. I love that Heather wears glasses even when she’s dressed up. ME TOO GIRL.

It segues into a blended dance number with Kevin etc on stage so I appreciated this transition. The music goes from non-diagetic to diagetic, not seamlessly, but surreally. I love this about Riverdale.

In the melee Betty finally spots TBK! He attacks Kevin! With a plastic bag!

Betty runs to the rescue but it turns out that um Kevin was both expressing how much he hates himself and was trying to be super very classy as part of his show, by having Dr. Curdle Jr. act the part of TBK on stage for his terrible musical which nobody is paying any real attention to at this opint.

Then Betty sees the real TBK!

Briefly, we spend time with Heather and Cheryl. Heather had a wonderful time at the party. Cheryl shows Heather her very interesting art. (I kind of hate Cheryl’s art style.) Heather really likes it, calls it breathtaking. They finally kiss!!!!! It’s in a very gentle, sisterly way until they walk off further into the inner room and one of them slams the other one onto a divan. Well ok then!

Next morning, Betty tells Archie that she saw TBK. Because Kevin threw a hissy fit about his ‘vision’ being messed up, Betty is going to take over his part, and hold herself out as bait for TBK into the bargain. Archie doesn’t want her to do it, and Betty says he has to just be okay with her doing insane dangerous things.

Betty is not sure she wants picket fences or marriage or babies.

This was VERY CATHARTIC. Finally. FINALLY? Betty can stop trying to find the psychosis in babies and children and just admit, even without all the nonsense about genes and whatnot, she just doesn’t wanna do motherhood. Please?

And Archie confirms that he does in fact want these things. They defer the very important discussion until after the mission to capture TBK.

Betty immediately reports the results of this very personal, very intimate conversation with her boyfriend to her jealous never-girlfriend, Veronica. Betty is so vain, and we had another cathartic (for me ) moment, where Betty luxuriates in her favorite delusion about herself, that she is ‘too dark’ for some boy.

Veronica calmly points out that she’s killed more people. Husband and Father, and a Boyfriend accidentally. Betty’s hurried, “You don’t have to go there V” doesn’t sound like a friend trying to protect another from negative self talk. I just think Betty doesn’t like being confronted with the actual reality that she is not that special or extreme or unusual, as far as Riverdale residents go.

“We’re all dark in Riverdale, all right?”

Thank you.

Just in time, Agent Drake comes to summon them. The creepazoid Blackhood wannabe from last night is there with a confiscated gun. Drake takes out the trash. Betty is wearing a very questionable checked pattern pantsuit.

We’ve jumped forward in time. Betty and Veronica and Drake are all sad that TBK did not show up for Betty’s number. I actually like Betty’s singing voice and performance style a lot, but I am not in love with this musical (it’s noisy and tedious and tuneless) so I was for a moment very pleased that we’d be spared more songs from it, but I just don’t understand TV show editing.

Veronica takes her leave. Before she leaves Agent Drake asks a very Jughead question of Betty: “Who were you singing about? Archie or TBK?” The question hits home, so Betty refuses to answer.

While Betty sings a song that sounds very lovesick, we get a bit of the Barchie greatest hits reel, and it goes by slower than the Bughead greatest hits flashback we got a few episodes ago that assaulted Jughead like a migraine. She’s in Archie’s bedroom when she sees TBK in her bedroom!

She rushes to her mom’s house. Of course, the unnamed agent that they put on Charles-and-Alice detail is dead. TBK has tied up both Alice and Charles. Alice, instead of saying, LET’S GET OUT OF HERE when she’s unmuzzled, tells Betty where to go (the garage) and then says Don’t Go. Like Willy Wonka in the first version movie trying to prevent children from being mauled by the machines in his factory.

Betty and TBK have a long discussion about the Nature of Betty Cooper. TBK says they’re soulmates. He’s made a hideous trashbag mask for Betty to put on. He’s pretty convinced that putting the mask on will bring Betty over to the dark side. She shoots him forthwith.

When Betty comes back to her dining room to free her half brother and her mother, it’s implied that she’s been gone for a while after the gunshot, and then they show us that it’s true. She sat at the fully set dinner table and observed his corpse for a long time.

Percival is very pissed off about how badly things have gone.

Back with Archie, Betty relays the events of the evening to her boyfriend. “I fear that whatever is inside my dad [redacted] - that it’s inside me too.”

Well. This has to be why I refuse to identify with Betty Cooper. Huh. Oh my dad isn’t a serial killer or anything, just to be clear.

Betty and Archie affirm their commitment to each other. To his girlfriend that just killed a man and is super calm about it, Archie says, “TBK didn’t make you a killer. Your dad didn’t make you a killer.”

Then he conjures a memory (another one of Betty’s repressed memories) where the two of them saved and nursed a little bird back to health. (I have to ask - Is it possible Jughead was there and they both forgot him like they always have?) And this one act of childhood kindness and veterinary competence is supposed to fix everything. Betty’s very worried eyes, that stay worried even after the kiss, perhaps indicate that life in Riverdale doesn’t actually work this way at all.

#fangs fogarty never touches his baby #veronica lodge cockblocks agent drake #veronica lodge is not jealous over archie but is jealous over betty #if i can't have her nobody can #agent drake = girl jughead jones #riverdale 6.17 #riverdale ep 112 #riverdale opinion #Riverdale s6 #riverdale recap #riverdale episode recap

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swimmingleo · 3 years ago

Text

Changes: or to take the higher ground before it's too late

I'm going to be real here folks, I cry ugly tears to this song. Bad.

Changes is a song on Cam's album "The Otherside". It's country, it's folk and it's an album a bit influenced by changes in Cam's life (a change of label, personal life). She collaborated with Harry on the song Changes, as she opened for him on a venue and was already working with Tyler Johnson.

From what I gathered: Harry sent her the demo of the song, implying he made most of the writing on this one. What I'm basing this claim on is her interview for Rolling Stones (read it here):

I heard [the demo] and was just like, “Oh, this ache to outgrow something that you don’t want to outgrow!” It felt so good. I normally don’t take outside songs [...]

‼️DISCLAIMER‼️when analysing this song, I'm gonna go from the idea of it being written with a queer mindset (how surprising of me). Cam rendered the song beautifully and it is very much her own, but I believe Harry's input is consequential. After all that's his lil whistle and cute fishsona in the MV.

Sad queer analysis ahead.

Let's analyse the lyrics first:

There is a town

Somewhere down a country road

The speaker describes the town to us, from memory, from experience. "There it is, down the road, can you picture it ?"

I see it now

I take it everywhere I go

The speaker doesn't currently live in the town, they're on the move (nice throwback to the coutry road). But despite all the travelling, they realize the sedentary smalltown never leaves them. It's part of them. It left a mark on them.

The river sways, I can almost hear it now

As if to say, "You're not the only one who wants a way out"

The town is so real to the speaker they can sense it, eyes and ears. But it gets a bit dark: the river sways like it's trying to leave its bed. The river is envious of the speaker who managed to leave. The town is so toxic even nature wants to get away from it. Or the speaker resents the town so bad that they project their own resentment on the river.

So, I go

'Cause I don't wanna feel like I don't know you anymore

I memorize those roads

This is the call for the speaker to leave for good. Their motive doesn't seem to be ambitious or anything grand. They leave because they apprehend a feeling. Apprehending a feeling, something that may not even happen, is the way of an anxious person. Anxiety is the motive of their departure. However, they still memorize the roads leading to the town, just in case. Perhaps one day they'll come back.

Somewhere out in the big wild country

Someone's fallin' in love in a backseat

Givin' it away

Like their hearts won't ever break

Suddenly it's about love ! Young love, one that is lived in the small compartment of a car, somewhere hidden and safe in the big wild country. As if the countryside was unexplored and threatening.

God bless the young hearts sippin' cheap wine

Gettin' drunk with their friends for the first time

Thinkin' nothing's gonna change

'Til everything changes

The speaker looks at the youth with tenderness, wishing them the best. But once again, they're not in the town in the present time, they don't see the youngsters fooling around, they can only guess from first-hand experience. And it's very specific: falling in love, getting drunk with friends and thinking everything's gonna be easy like that forever until it's not and heartbreak ensues.

From there I hop in with the raw queer theme of those lyrics. It started by falling in love and it ended up in a heartbreak. In between, the speaker got drunk for the first time with their friends, people they trusted enough to let go a little, but in the end everything changed. Why ? Alcohol makes you forget about code of conduct, how you're supposed to behave. It makes you say or do things you might not have done sober.

We can interprete this chorus as the beginning of the end for the speaker. It's the only part of the song evocating the past, and it's fun and easy, but it's also where things started to get bad the way they are in the present. Something might have happened that first time the speaker got drunk and it marked the end of innocence and careless childhood, and it probably has to do with love as no other factor is provided apart from falling in love and heartbreak.

They never leave

They're all havin' babies now

Watchin' daytime TV

Livin' off the gossip of a cruel small town

They. With Harry, it's always You, Me, and They. They are having babies, all of them, like it's not a very difficult thing to do, it's just natural. They have the leisure of the day, not a thing to worry about, if not gossip. It's not implied anymore, the small town is downright cruel. Gossip fuels it, but on behalf of someone else, and that someone is most definitely the speaker who left and who describes its inhabitants in the most mundane way, perhaps with a hint of contempt. The speaker seems bitter.

So, I go

'Cause I don't wanna feel like you don't know me anymore

Don't recognize my face

Reprise of the pre-chorus except now, the speaker provides another reason for their departure. Not only they feared they wouldn't know the town anymore, they also feared being seen as a stranger. It's not like the speaker actually changed physically: but it might as well feel like it. Again, apprehension, anguish. As implied in the chorus, things changed to the point where the speaker feels they would seem like a whole another person to the rest of the town, a stranger, a threat to the integrity of the conservatives. So they leave before this shift in perception can happen.

There ain't nothing here for me anymore

They say they don't hear from me anymore

And I don't wanna hear it anymore

The town is not outwardly hostile. It's still the town that saw the speaker as a kid. The town doesn't understand why the speaker left, but the speaker won't give in and get in touch. They want to be as far away as possible, until they don't hear the questions, the river, everything. It's almost like the speaker doesn't carry the town in their heart at all. They want to forget it all, and it hurts everytime the town tries to lure them back in. The way Cam sings it is painful to me man

Somewhere out in the big wild country

I was fallin' in love in a backseat

Givin' it away

Like my heart won't ever break

Had such a young heart sippin' cheap wine

Gettin' drunk with my friends for the first time

Thinkin' nothing's gonna change

'Til everything changes

Yeah, just the confirmation of the chorus being the speaker's experience. I went ahead and assumed it was already lol but it's like a plot twist effect. It's dramatic. It's a personal song to someone.

TO MAKE IT SHORT to me this song is intense and very in touch with the queer experience. Though it describes a specific situation, it is surprisingly not that detailed or full of metaphors the way Harry often writes: this town could be literally any smalltown in the countryside. The backseat could be the one of any car, cheap wine is something any teen can afford. I like to think Harry wrote it for himself but is also aware so many people went through the same thing, and still will. I have to admit I'm heavily biased writing this, as the experience of a queer kid struggling to find their place in a well settled smalltown is familiar.

GETTING DRUNK AND QUEER IDENTITY is an analogy Harry already used in Fine Line when he sang "We'll get the drinks in so I'll get to thinking of her". To drink is to let go, to unveil the most subconscious aspects of yourself you might not want to deal with otherwise. You don't care about judgement and you get to explore those parts freely. In Changes, this is the last memory they recall before stating the changes and their departure. Perhaps getting drunk for the first time would be when they realized they're queer. Or acted upon it, causing their little world to shake. They chose to leave before it eventually wouldn't feel like a choice anymore. There is no life for people like them in a cruel smalltown.

SMALLTOWN BOY

This song reminds me an awful lot of Smalltown Boy by Bronski Beat. The song is about a queer boy having to leave the smalltown where he grew up because of persecutions and no future prospects.

Mother will never understand why you had to leave, Smalltown Boy

They say they don't hear from me anymore, Changes

But the answers you seek will never be found at home, the love that you need will never be found at home

There is nothing here for me anymore

Other people not understanding why they leave. People who can't truly empathize even when they mean no harm. They would never understand the speaker's departure, because those people get to find love and have babies and live a peaceful life in the countryside.

You were the one that they'd talk about around town as they put you down

Livin' off the gossip of a cruel small town

Yeah yeah. I really struggle with just seeing this song as nostalgia when such harsh words are being used. I do believe there is a part of fondness for that town, that countryside setting and the early days. But it's not all tender memories.

CHANGES AND ERODA

Of couuuurse we all noticed the adorable purple fish with the pearl necklace. It represents Harry, no question, as it whistles Harry's part. And of couuuuurse we all made the link with the erodian fish, and some even noticed they formed the bluegreener pair when their colors are inverted.

It makes sense for those fishes to be connected with this interpretation of Changes. Both works are about a small town, lost in the nature, where the people are watching, aware of everything that isn't normal, that is peculiar. The early life of the peculiar boy is similar in every way to the early life of the speaker in Changes. The fish in Adore You grows too big for the island and has to leave, and though Eroda makes amends with the peculiar boy, he leaves as well because his future, his fulfilment, is somewhere else. So does the speaker in Changes.

IN CONCLUSION

The more I write posts like this, the more endeared I am by Harry's world. How Harry writes for himself, but also for other people with songs like this. How nature finds its way in all that he does. How grounded he is, how he doesn't seem to forget where he came from. It really is such a rare thing to see in a mainstream popstar's writing and art. How can someone say he sold his soul to LA is beyond me

#very dear to my heart this song #was in the drafts for quite a long time too #but hey i took louis' new song as a cue lol #they do have parallels #though i feel like louis' change is way more accepting #louis' way more at peace with the idea of time passing and leaving the town behind #not saying harry still struggles or not but the story told in changes is more pain than healing to me #anyway love their brains love them muahmuah #my analysis #song analysis #harry styles

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beepboop358 · 3 years ago

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Mike and Eddie in season 4 ?

Hello anon :)

I think when we do see Mike and Eddie in s4 it will be early on in the season, because we know Mike goes to visit the Byers in California, and we know that Mike will spend most of the season with the California group (Jonathan, Argyle, Will, and El-at least until she gets kidnapped). I don’t think we will see a huge amount of Mike and Eddie moments in s4, probably just a few scenes together here and there in the first few episodes. They could also potentially interact again when the whole group reunites at the end of the season (if they even do) but no guarantees there.

I think Mike will look to Eddie as a leader in some ways, but I also think he will resent him in others. I think Mike will appreciate that there are other people who like the same things he does/share similar interests, and he will probably think it’s really cool how passionate Eddie is about it, and how Eddie doesn’t care what people think of them, which will help him feel less alone and ashamed of just in general liking what he likes and not caring what others say, which we know will translate into how he deals with his sexuality.

But Mike is used to being the “leader” of his own party, and now he isn’t. He is now in a D&D club that he does control, and in some ways I think he will have a hard time relinquishing that leadership. Mike is a very serious person so I could see him butting heads with Eddie. I don’t know how Mike will feel about Eddie selling/doing drugs. I think it’s likely Mike will not be a fan of that, but I could also see Mike being curious about it, maybe wanting to try it to cope with all of the stress and everything he is dealing with in his life, and his impulse control goes out the window whenever El/Will aren’t around, and now that they are both gone? Oh boy. I have a little fantasy in my head of Mike buying a joint from Eddie and stashing it in his room- but not even smoking it because he is too scared and his parents find it and ground him, forbidding him to go to Will’s for his birthday, so he goes anyway without their permission and then ta-da: smalltown boy moment.

Mike playing D&D again (relating to Will/sexuality):

Also- Mike going back to playing D&D at all, ESPECIALLY in a PUBLIC CLUB is huge for him. It confirms for the audience that Mike is going back to his true self, and not pretending to be something/someone he isn’t like he was last summer. It clues the audience in yet again that Mike was being fake last summer and him playing D&D again shows us that he truly missed his old self, because he went back to the things he loves- being that person again (his true, former self), and feeling like he was free to do so, was really what he wanted the whole time. He never wanted to “grow up” and “change”, he thought he had to for the sake if his own protection, because of his sexuality. Mike playing D&D again PUBLICLY, not just secretly, is big for his development in his acceptance of his sexuality and shows us he is moving in the right direction and coming to terms with who he is. D&D is also romantic symbolism for Will and Mike, so Mike playing again and going back to something he loves, does not just reference the game, but also going back to Will, and also hints towards an even more official, permanent mileven split.

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spartanguard · 4 years ago

Text

partners

summary: SVU detective Emma Swan's new partner is not what she expected. Thankfully, that's a good thing.

A/n: So I've been watching a LOT of Law & Order: SVU lately and when I got to the episodes where Stabler was partnered with Dani Beck, it just smacked with CS feels. This is just a bit of exploration of that, in honor of @optomisticgirl ‘s birthday!!

B—HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! Thank you for being the most amazing friend, and the best person to bounce crazy fic ideas off of (like this). I hope you have the most amazing day and I love you!!!!

Note: While there isn't any actual sexual violence in this story, it is an SVU AU, so it's mentioned.

rated T | 2.3k words | AO3

She met him while he was trying to arrest a perp who’d just walked.

“Are you Detective Swan?” he’d asked, and she immediately noticed his accent—the way it wrapped around her last name in a way that sent a shiver down her spine, but it was hard to tell if it was in a good way or not.

“Yeah, that’s me,” she tossed back.

“I’m your new partner. Killian Jones.”

She shook his offered hand (only later noticing he only had the one) and wondered—just what the hell were they about to get into?

[He was her second new partner in as many weeks. Graham, who she’d worked with since she joined the unit, had enough with special victims—with Boston in general—and had taken up some smalltown sheriff gig in Maine. Emma knew he’d be happier there, but it kind of left her in the lurch. They’d sent someone new over the week before, but her style didn’t gel with Mulan’s quite well enough—the woman was a damn fine detective but just...too different.]

Jones was new to special victims, transferring in on the recommendation of the captain at his previous precinct, where he’d worked in homicide. The dead victims, he was used to; the live ones—not so much.

It was pretty obvious on their first case together, when they were interviewing the young girl in the hospital. Emma—she’d seen enough of the world’s shitty side that little phazed her any more; growing up in the foster system made her uniquely suited to this line of work.

But Killian? He was visibly upset; she had to physically restrain him from running out of the hospital to start tracking down the culprit, holding him back by the sleeve of his leather jacket. They hardly had a lead on this. Something could be said for enthusiasm, but that didn’t excuse jumping ahead of themselves. That’s how you got into trouble—that was how criminals got away with murder (literally); she’d done that enough for the both of them, and had a feeling he had, too.

She felt they had a lot in common, actually; there was an obvious affinity for leather coats, but past that, there was something familiar in his eyes. Not that she’d met him before, or anything—just something in the determined set of his gaze when interviewing a suspect, in the empathetic way he handled the victim.

She still wasn’t sure if that was good or not, especially when he almost forgot protocol—almost lost them evidence—by rushing in too soon.

And she was half ready to walk into Captain Mills’ office to request a new partner (again) when she found him asleep at his desk with what could only be described as a murderboard spread out behind him. He looked younger and softer in his sleep, impossibly gorgeous with the way his long lashes rested on his cheekbones and gentle breaths from his full lips—and none of that was really pertinent, because the man had just researched his way to a solved case.

“Just who are you, Killian Jones?” she asked when she later woke him up with coffee and a bear claw (biting back a comment on the rumpled state of his usually pristine waistcoat-and-dress shirt combo).

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” he drawled, holding her gaze intently before taking a long pull from his cup.

She knew she shouldn’t, but damn, did she.

It wasn’t until a couple cases later that she began to put together the pieces of him. It had been a doozy of a kidnapping, and he’d been on edge the whole time—right until they finally tracked down the little boy who’d been abducted. Emma slapped the cuffs on the miserable excuse for a father who’d taken him and Killian pulled the boy into his arms, visibly deflating once he knew he was safe.

She dragged him to their unit’s favorite bar that night and slid a glass of rum in front of him, along with the directive to “Talk.”

He downed it in one shot, then worried his bottom lip (much to Emma’s distraction) before saying, “Have I mentioned I have a daughter?”

Her eyebrows rose in surprise, but she let him explain without interruption. Her name was Alice; she was 8. He had sole custody, and with good reason: her mother, his ex-girlfriend, had kidnapped her from his apartment when she was only a few years old. “It’s the most scared I’ve ever been,” he confessed. “And today...it’s like I was right back in that moment.”

“I don’t blame you,” she replied, then finished her own whiskey. This was probably where she should drop some of her own tragic backstory, right? Like the scumbag who left her pregnant at 17, and the baby boy she put up for adoption? “Props to you for doing it on your own. I obviously couldn't.”

“Don’t beat yourself up, love; you gave him his best chance.” He gently set his hand over hers on the bar and she froze; not because he was cold—quite the opposite, actually—but between that tiny gesture of support and the understanding in those too-blue eyes, she felt more seen than she had by anyone in ages, even Graham.

It was suddenly too much, too intimate, and she yanked her hand away and ordered another drink. “Is your ex the name on your tattoo?” she asked, trying to put some space in between them (physically and emotionally).

It worked. He sat back up and tugged his right sleeve down with his prosthesis, hiding the ink, and she could almost see the walls go back up between them. “No. That’s...another story. For another time.” He stood and tossed some cash on the counter. “Alice is with my neighbor; I better go get her. See you ‘round.” And he left hastily.

It was what she wanted to happen. He’d suddenly gotten too close. So why did she feel like such an ass about it?

She was going to apologize at their next shift, but they got thrown into another case. And then another after it. It was a different kind of intense—a different kind of intimate—than that moment in the bar; very quickly, she had to trust him, and vice versa. That was something neither were predisposed to, but were managing to do...honestly, better than she had with anyone.

After putting another rapist behind bars, Killian said with a smirk, “I don’t mean to upset you, Swan, but I think we make quite the team.” And he winked (well, tried to), and she just blushed back, like she was a teenager in love all over again. That fact that would normally send her running but, for the first time in years, she wasn’t opposed to it—except for, y’know, the fact that he was her partner and they were coworkers and HR generally looked down on that kind of thing.

She doubted he was interested, anyway. They hadn’t really done anything outside of work since that night; he was always quick to get home to Alice, and she didn’t fault him that—especially when she finally met the kid, who was clearly her father’s daughter in all the best ways.

They got a call for a case late one weeknight; Emma easily beat him to the scene, since he had to make sure his neighbor could watch Alice at such an ungodly hour. She handed him a coffee when he got there and they made their way to the ME, to get the rundown on the vic.

Emma had been paying attention, but it shifted from the examiner to Killian pretty quickly; he stiffened at the description of what had been done to the victim, then when white as the sheet covering her when it was pulled back.

“Eloise,” he whispered, like he’d seen a ghost.

“Wait—as in…?”

He nodded. “Aye. Alice’s mum.”

“Shit.”

They got what little information they could from the scene and then started to head for the precinct, but he was shaking so much, she insisted on driving.

“Are you gonna be alright?” she asked.

He let out a hollow chuckle. “No, probably not.” Then, one long breath later, “It was Gold.”

She nearly missed their turn at that. “Gold? As in, the mysterious Mr. Gold, owner of the pawn store chain?”

“One and the same,” Killian said, scrubbing a hand down his face. “It’s the same as with Milah.”

She would have asked who that was, but he was resting his prosthesis over the spot on his arm where she knew the tattoo was. And she got a sinking feeling in her stomach that this was going to be a rough case.

Once they got to the office (and she got some more coffee in him), Killian explained: Milah was his ex, his first love—but also Gold’s wife. And while Gold was well-known for being a shady individual, no one had ever been able to pin anything on him.

But Gold did find out about their affair, and Killian came home one day to find Milah—dead, attacked and killed in the same way Eloise had been hours ago. He wasn’t sure what their connection was—and he didn’t think Gold knew about his to Eloise, especially since she’d only been released from jail last week—“But I know it’s him. And I’m going to prove it this time.”

(Apparently, last time had ended with him getting into an altercation with one of Gold’s lackeys. He escaped with his life, but not with his left hand.)

Milah’s case had gone cold, but given the similarities, they were able to pull the files. It took a few weeks—several late nights, more than a few breakdowns, many tears (mostly Killian’s, but Emma’s and Alice’s as well) before they finally—finally—had the evidence to pin both murders on Gold.

Tracking him down was another thing altogether, but they finally caught up with him in his penthouse apartment. To no one’s surprise, he didn’t go willingly; a fistfight broke out between he and Killian.

She was scared she’d have to intervene, knowing how personal it was. By the end of it, Killian had a black eye and a bloody lip, but Gold was in handcuffs, tossed unceremoniously in the back of a squad car.

Killian watched the vehicle pull away, then turned to Emma, and wrapped his arms around her in a bruising hug.

In any other situation, she would have gone stiff with shock, but she didn’t hesitate to lean right into him. Her desire to comfort him after that was just as strong as his need for comfort.

But then he pulled back, cupped her cheek, and pressed his lips to hers.

That did take her by surprise.

But she was equally quick to reciprocate.

Just as fast, it was over and he was walking away, leaving her utterly confused. Logically, she knew it was probably just an emotional reaction—a one-time thing.

However: he kissed her like he meant it. She was familiar with empty kisses and single-night flings—and that...was a whole lot more.

And she couldn’t deny it any longer: she wanted that more.

She arrived at the precinct early the next morning, hoping to beat him there so they could talk about whatever that had been. She’d even gotten up an hour before she usually did so she could get them good coffee. But he was already there, filling out forms at his desk.

“Hey,” she said, suddenly feeling incredibly awkward as she put the cup on his desk. “You taking care of the reports?”

“Um, yeah,” he stammered, pointedly focusing on the paperwork and not her.

She glanced down at the desk, and that wasn’t a report—that was a transfer form. “You want to leave?” she whispered, the familiar pain of betrayal washing over her. He didn’t want to be her partner anymore?

“Emma, I can’t stay here,” he said, only somewhat apologetic. (Also, though she didn’t realize it at the moment, it was the first time he’d used her given name.) “After this last case...it just wouldn’t be good form.”

“Fuck your good form, Jones!” she cried. “How can you say that, after everything these past few months? After last night?”

Calmly, he stood up and moved into her space. “I can’t be your partner any more, Emma,” he said, reaching up to brush her hair behind her ear. “Because I want to be more than that. And last I checked, Captain Mills frowned upon inter-unit relations.”

That was true; she really did, more than most. But then the reality of what Killian was saying hit: “You...you’d give up your position for me?”

“Aye,” he answered, simply, like it wasn’t the heaviest thing anyone had ever told her.

What else was she supposed to do after a confession like that but kiss him? She rose up on her toes, gripped the lapels of his waistcoat, and found his lips with hers. He didn’t hesitate to pull her close and she was exceedingly glad no one else was in the squad room, because she’d never quite been kissed so closely to within an inch of her life as she’d been then.

(Also, it was a good thing no one was around when he pushed her onto his desk to deepen it further. If Captain Mills later noticed the forms were a bit crumpled, she didn’t say anything.)

Killian ended up transferring back to his old precinct, old job. It turned out they missed him. Emma knew exactly why; her next partner, David, was great, but no match.

Good thing she got to go home to Killian—and Alice—every night.

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

thanks for reading, and send B all the birthday love! tagging some others:

@kat2609 @thesschesthair @xpumpkindumplingx t @cocohook38 @annytecture @shireness-says @ohmightydevviepuu @profdanglaisstuff @wingedlioness @word-bug @thisonesatellite @distant-rose @wellhellotragic @welllpthisishappening @let-it-raines @pirateherokillian @its-imperator-furiosa @fergus80 @thejollyroger-writer @ineffablecolors @laschatzi @ive-always-been-a-pirate @stubblesandwich @phiralovesloki @athenascarlet @kmomof4 @ilovemesomekillianjones @whimsicallyenchantedrose @snowbellewells @idristardis @scientificapricot @searchingwardrobes @donteattheappleshook

#cs ff #cs modern au #cs detective au #happy birthday #optomisticgirl #my ff

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