#I need to set aside some time to watch this whole video cause it's nearly an hour long

[kenobion]

Andrew Garfield at RSIFF 2023

[elysianslove]

Hiii! I loved your Iwa fluff headcanons and was wondering if you could do one with Suna? thanks <3

yesyesyes i would love to!!! iwaizumi’s version. 

↬ when suna was younger, he really, really wanted a pet bunny. like he really, really loved bunnies, and would beg his parents day and night for one. he even made a really badly edited powerpoint on bunnies and why he deserves one (aside the editing, it was a very persuasive powerpoint. they filmed him while he presented it and the video haunts him to this day). his parents were relentless, though, and didn’t get him his bunny. instead, though, they surprised him with a cat. a cat isn’t as high maintenance since they’re very independent creatures, but can also be very fun. they figured any pet would make him happy. they were wrong. suna hated her so much and would never interact with her. like to the point where he nicknamed her “bitch” and now she mainly answers to that instead of her name. but all that only worked against him, and the cat just kept getting more and more attached to him.

↬ suna now loves her so much, and she’s just as attached to him. like he would kill for her, honestly. it’s his cat >>> everyone else. he has an album on his phone dedicated to pictures and videos of only her, and her bed is in his room because she always ends up sleeping there anyways. he realized later on when he grew older that a cat was the perfect animal for him, and he’s not sure if it’s a parents thing and they really knew or they were just winging it and hoping for the best, but she’s his favorite ever and he would risk it all for her.

↬ his favorite sleeping position with her would be when he’s casually laying on his back scrolling through his phone and she comes and crawls along him to lay on his chest. the warmth he feels within his chest like he just gets so giddy.

↬ suna is crazy obsessed with serial killer documentaries, horror movies, unsolved mysteries, everything like that. his favorite pastime is watching and reading these things, but honestly, it’s not even a like, “wow that’s so cool,” and more of a, “suna what is wrong with you???” type of thing, because he’s the type to have like insidious 2 in the background as he does his homework or gets ready or something. it’s kind of scary how unfazed he is with things like that.

↬ but! yeah he’s extremely brave when it comes to horror movies, borderline unhinged, but his biggest fear? his phobia, if you will? spiders. insects in general, really. he will scream like a sixth grader that’s yet to hit puberty if he sees a spider crawling near him. once he was peeing in the miya twins’ bathroom and some kind of cockroach crawling on the wall and nearly fainted. thank god he was already peeing because he would’ve pissed his pants either way. it’s so embarrassing for him, so he’s so good at hiding it. he just freezes impossibly when he notices an insect and doesn’t take his eye off of it until someone else notices it and kills it. there was this instance when they were at a training camp and he kept feeling as if something was crawling on him, but assumed it was just really hot and his skin was tingling from that. something was crawling on him, though, and it was not just really hot. Top 10 Most Traumatic Moments of his life, especially because atsumu’s first instinct was to record the whole thing.

↬ suna is extremely, and i mean extremely, touch-starved. physical touch has always made him uncomfortable for a reason unknown to him, so he never really accepted hugs or kisses from his family, and would feel so icky if he was roped into a group hug b by his teammates. so when he met you, he thought you’d be so against the fact that he’s uncomfortable with it, because who would want a partner that doesn’t wanna touch or be touched? turns out he actually craves it, and needs it badly, he just needed to take his own time and pace approaching it, and with how understanding you were, he doubted he could ever figure this out without you. he just took it slow, you know? but the more he touched you — held your hand, pinched your cheek, rested his head on your shoulder, pecked your lips for a few seconds longer than last time — the more he wanted you.

↬ when suna became comfortable with the thought and idea that yeah, he actually craves physical touch so damn bad, he wouldn’t stop touching you every second he could. he became insanely clingy, no matter if you were in public or alone. just always has a hand on you at all times. when he’s alone with you, he’s always trying to cuddle with you. you wanna sit and chill on your phone and not really talk? sure, just come do it with your head on his chest. you wanna watch a movie and munch on some popcorn and possibly share a drink? of course he’d love to! just come sit between his legs with your popcorn on your lap so he can steal some and also offer you some sips from the drink. you don’t wanna hug him after a game cause he’s too sweaty? that’s too bad, he wasn’t asking for permission. so you see, suna is a clingy mf. like latches onto you like a koala clingy <3

↬ suna’s music taste is very diverse. his favorite genre is alternative and rock, like the neighborhood, arctic monkeys, etc, but he also loves, loves loves glitchcore music, but also will un-ironically listen to kpop, and rap, and hannah montana’s old music too because why not. he just doesn’t care. if a song is good, it’s good. so what if it caters to a bunch of 12 year olds and not him? who decides that anyways?

↬ suna is very good at hair. like so good. as his sister started to get older, and her hair grew longer, she would sometimes ask him to do it for her before school. at first he was terrible at it, except maybe ponytails cause his hair was long enough at some point to push back into a ponytail, but everything else like parting her hair for pigtails or doing braids or a bun… he was just awful. so, in response, he’d just practice. he’d watch videos as he’s doing his little sister’s hair and be so focused, with his tongue sticking out a little and his eyes squinting as he tries to get it accurate. eventually, he becomes a master at it! you find this out when one day, as you’re just over at his house, his sister comes into his room with a hair tie and a brush and he just carries her up onto his lap and braids her hair as he chats with you and it was so endearing and so impressive and you genuinely believe that was the moment you realized you were in love with him.

↬ he offers to do your hair for you all the time now!! especially if you’ve just showered and are too lazy to brush it and tie it in some way, so he does it for you. he’s actually so, very gentle when brushing your hair, you don’t even feel a thing. if anything, it makes you really sleepy.

↬ when he joined the national team and started to become more and more of a public figure, he’d send you really explicit fan art of him and other teammates he was shipped with just to piss you off. if he was feeling really bold, he’d send you smut written about him. he says he wants to make you jealous. he just wants to provoke you in every way possible, really. one time someone made an edit plot twisting you and him to him and like atsumu so he downloaded video star and made such a bad edit of you and him and posted it on his twitter and instagram and it went viral. like it was one of those edits of just pictures flipping and hearts flashing and lights spasming all over the screen it was so bad it made you cry with laughter. that was his way of telling the world, no one but this person for me, right here <3

↬ i think he’d be very good at doing chores and cleaning and all that, despite how lazy he is. i just think it’s a habit kind of thing, where he grew up doing laundry and making his bed and cleaning his room and washing the dishes that he genuinely doesn’t mind doing it cause it’s natural for him. and he’s learnt to enjoy it.

↬ suna’s favorite color was deep, deep purple at some point, but now it’s between green and black.

↬ he’s caught up with all seasons of keeping up with the kardashians. please don’t ask him why, he doesn’t even know.

↬ once when you were out with him you just gave him a rock that was on the floor and he’s kept that rock with him ever since. like it’s in the drawer next to his bed and sometimes he just takes it out and holds it in his hand while he’s doing homework or scrolling through his phone.

↬ he spams you a lot. like at any time time of the day he just sends you a million videos of him doing the most mundane things; he sends you a video of him eating some almonds and at the end it’s just him going, “i’s good,” or him lip-syncing a song you sent him to listen to, or him trying to do eyeliner because why not. or maybe it’s pictures of him and it’s always ridiculous: him exaggerating him thinking, and then captioning it “thinking,” or just a picture of him on the roof with a peace sign and a pretty smile, or a close up photo of his face saying, “miss u.”

↬ he also spams you with memes all the time. and there’s no set type, it’s just all kinds. really corny memes and really cursed memes, wholesome memes and also memes that bully you. it’s all about the versatility.

↬ suna loves to sleep, he really does, but before meeting you, the only place where he could properly fall into a deep sleep was his bed. after meeting you, anywhere where you were next to him was the perfect place to sleep. if he had your presence near him he could sleep, it didn’t matter, especially if he was resting on your lap or shoulder or gripping onto your hand or resting his legs on your lap. he just wants you close to him, you know? like he feels so safe and comfortable when you’re around, it kind of scares him if he’s honest.

[intheticklecloset]

Some Kind of Way (My Hero Academia)

ShinDeku AU

Summary: Shinsou begins to realize he may have feelings for Deku, and it makes him act so out of the ordinary that his crush decides the best way to help him relax is the very thing that kickstarted his feelings in the first place.

A/N: I am so unbelievably excited to finally share this with you! This one has been waiting in the wings for quite a while! Welcome to the first fic in my official ShinDeku AU! This story takes place after the events of "Say Mercy" and creates an entirely new storyline. While these two remain good friends in the Primary Universe, in this AU, things go a little differently.

I will admit this is pretty self-indulgent, but I know I'll want to keep writing for these boys, and what better excuse than to create an alternate reality in which they get together? Cute boyfriends and lots of tickling - what more could you want? I hope you enjoy! <3 <3

Word Count: 2,275

~~~

Midoriya: Video games at my place! Kaminari and Todoroki are coming – do you wanna join??

Shinsou stared at his phone screen for so long it went dark on him three times. He’d nearly forgotten that at some point he and Deku had exchanged numbers. Their spring break had just started; today was Monday, which meant that Deku’s mom was probably at work right now, as it was just after ten in the morning.

It really shouldn’t have been this hard to reply to a text. Yet here he sat, struggling to do just that.

It’s video games, Shinsou berated himself. You’ve played video games with him before. That’s what you were doing the last time you hung out. Just answer his text!

Shinsou: Yes. I don’t know where you live, though.

Midoriya: I’ll send you the details! Can’t wait!! :D

Shinsou set his phone aside, heart racing. This is ridiculous. What’s happening to me? He rubbed his eyes tiredly, his mind flashing back to the last time he’d hung out with Deku. They’d gotten into a tickle fight, which he’d ultimately won, but there had been a…a moment. When he’d pinned Deku for the last time and ordered him to beg for mercy. The way Deku had screamed the word over and over through hysterical fits of laughter…

He swallowed. It had been so satisfying, but more than that, it had been…cute. No, adorable. Completely, utterly adorable. Deku was adorable. And for the first time, Shinsou was noticing.

He tried not to think about it as he gathered up his things and walked out the door, heading to the destination the green-haired boy had provided him with.

*

Seeing him in person was so much worse.

Deku opened up the door with a bright smile and an invitation to come inside. It was the first time Shinsou had seen him without his school uniform or hero costume on. He wore a bright yellow All Might t-shirt and blue shorts, and he was barefoot. Shinsou awkwardly took his own shoes off in the entryway and followed him into the small living room, where Todoroki was already seated on the floor.

The icy-hot hero raised a hand in greeting. Shinsou nodded at him, then took a seat as well.

“Kaminari should be here any minute,” Deku said, pulling out his phone to check for a text from the blonde. “It’s so cool to finally have friends over at my place! Make yourselves at home. We’ve got juice and soda in the fridge if you want some, and later we can have lunch together, too.” Deku smiled so brightly it lit up the whole block. “Plus I’ll get to introduce you to a racing game that’s not Mario Kart for once!”

Shinsou couldn’t take his eyes off of him. He found himself noticing things more and more. The particular shade of green that his eyes were. The spattering of freckles across his face and arms. How scarred his right arm was. How muscular he was despite his smaller stature. Shinsou noticed all of it, and it made his heart beat faster and faster. Crap, crap, crap, he thought frantically. I…I’ve got a—

Someone knocked on the door, Deku hurried to answer it, and the spell was broken. Shinsou blinked several times. Seriously, what was happening to him?

“Heyyy, it’s my man Shinsou!” Kaminari greeted enthusiastically, slapping him on the back. “And Todoroki, of course. Ready to lose some video games?”

Shinsou let out a sigh of relief, then smirked up at him. “The joke’s on you, Kaminari. Midoriya says we’re not playing Mario Kart.”

“Dude, what?” Kaminari whipped around to face Deku. It was so much easier to look at him with Kaminari in the room as well. “You can’t take my crown away like that!”

Deku grinned. “I’m introducing you to a different racing game. Kacchan and I play it sometimes – Team Sonic Racing!”

“Sonic has a racing game?” Kaminari asked, then hummed. “Well, he is a speedy little guy. I guess it makes sense.”

“Team racing?” Todoroki asked. “What does that mean?”

Deku lit up at the question, then launched into a long, rambling explanation of all the ways it differed from Mario Kart, and why it was superior, as well. After a little while they finally got to the actual playing part of it, and before they knew it, the morning hours were long gone.

*

Getting lost in the world of Team Sonic Racing did wonders for Shinsou’s mind. He was able to focus on something that wasn’t Deku, for once – even if Deku’s character of choice did cause him a lot of trouble during the races. It gave him a chance to calm down, clear his head, and get back to his normal self. At least, until a couple of hours later when it was lunchtime.

Kaminari had announced early on that he had lunch plans with some others from their class, so it was expected that he’d leave after a couple of hours. But it was a surprise to both Shinsou and Deku when Todoroki announced he was also leaving.

“My apologies,” he said, “but I got a text from my sister that asked me to meet her downtown for lunch with her and my brother. I’m…trying to get back in touch with them, as it were. I can’t really do that while I’m at the dorms.”

“That’s okay,” Deku said, sounding sincere. “I understand. Go have fun with your family.” Then he turned to Shinsou. “Do you want to stay, or do you have somewhere to be?”

Shinsou’s heart was racing again. He was about to be alone with Midoriya again.

“I…I can stay,” he said, nodding. “If that’s all right with you.”

“Of course!”

After bidding farewell to their other friends, Deku led Shinsou back into the kitchen and opened up the fridge, pulling out various things they could use to make sandwiches. Shinsou got the bread out of the pantry (after struggling for a few moments to even find the pantry), and soon they were both at work making lunch for themselves.

“How’s your spring break so far?” Deku asked.

“It’s…fine,” Shinsou murmured. He didn’t really have anything exciting to report on. “You?”

“Great! I kind of took it easy this weekend because All Might insisted I actually rest, but we trained together this morning before I invited you over for video games. We’ll train again tomorrow, too.”

Shinsou glanced at him. “It’s spring break.”

“I know, but I don’t want to stop training. I’ve got to work as hard as I can to get even stronger.”

“Rest is important, too, you know.”

Deku smiled. “You sound just like everyone else.”

“Because we’re right.”

“I’m resting more than I’m training this week. Don’t worry, Shinsou. I won’t burn myself out.”

Shinsou nodded. “Good.”

“So,” Deku continued, expertly changing the topic as he finished up his sandwich, “want to play some more after lunch? Or we could watch a movie or something instead. What do you want to do?”

“Um…” Shinsou hesitated. Again that image of Deku laughing and begging entered his mind. He shoved it away. “I…I don’t know. Midoriya,” he added quickly, before he lost his nerve, “why do you want to hang out with me so much?”

Deku went silent for a moment. “Because you’re my friend? And you’re really cool! I think it’s so awesome that you want to join the hero course, and your quirk is so useful, especially with that voice changer thing you have now, and—”

“Useful?” Shinsou turned to look at him, surprised. “No one’s ever called my quirk useful before.”

“Then no one’s really known you before,” Deku replied confidently, taking his first bite of his lunch. “Mmm, this is good! What’d you make?”

Shinsou glanced down at his half-finished sandwich and reached for some lunch meat. “To be determined.”

*

When they’d finished eating and cleaned up the kitchen, Shinsou and Deku went back into the living room, where Team Sonic Racing sat waiting for them on the screen, should they continue to play it.

“Are you okay, Shinsou?” Deku asked, his voice gentler now. “You seem bothered about something.”

Dear god, was he really so easy to read? Shinsou cleared his throat. “No, I’m fine. I’m just…” He searched for the words. How could he explain to Deku that he was pretty sure he had a crush…on Deku? “I’m just…I don’t know. Fine.”

“You know, if you’re not up for video games anymore, we could play a different game,” Deku said. Shinsou glanced up at him, hearing the teasing tone in his voice, and his eyes widened when he saw the green-haired boy wiggling his fingers and smiling wide.

Instant. Blush.

“Uh, I-I mean…I mean, i-if you…want to, then…” Shinsou stammered, hating every word he tripped over. It had never been difficult for him to speak to Midoriya before. Why was it suddenly the hardest thing he’d ever done?

“Actually, maybe we shouldn’t have a tickle fight,” Deku announced even as he lunged for Shinsou and tackled him to the floor. “Maybe I should just tickle you! You really need to relax, Shinsou. You act like I’m about to bite you or something.”

“I d-dohohohohon’t – I cahahahahan’t help it!” he giggled, the light pinches along his sides and ribs enough to help him loosen up a little, but not enough to really make him panic just yet. He fell onto his back on the floor, letting Deku tickle all over his torso, drawing giggle after much-needed giggle out of him.

“You don’t have to be nervous around me,” Deku continued, oblivious to Shinsou’s struggle. “We’re friends! If you want to talk about something, I’m happy to listen.”

Crap, crap, crap! Shinsou brought his hands up to cover his face, growing really, truly flustered now. “I’m sohohohohohohorry, I cahahahahan’t – I cahahahaHAHAHAHAN’T!! NAHAHAHAHAHA!!” The violet-haired boy shot his arms down to try and shove Deku away when he reached his hips, squeezing with a wicked smirk on his face. “AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA NOHOHOHOHO!! MIDORYA!!”

“Relax, Shinsou~” Deku teased, swinging a leg over to straddle his friend and pin him more firmly in place, still squeezing his hips. “Sometimes it’s best to just laugh it all out, right?”

“AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! GOD, MIHIHIHIHIDORIYA!! NOT THEHEHEHEHERE!!” Shinsou cackled, twisting and writhing on the ground. “YOU KNOHOHOHOHOHOW IT’S BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAD THEHEHEHERE!!”

“Why do you think I’m tickling you there?” Deku laughed, too, finding his hip bones and pressing in deeply. “Tickle, tickle, tickle~”

“DOHOHOHOHOHOHOHON’T!!” Shinsou cried, flustered and embarrassed but also having a lot of fun despite himself. He let out a loud shriek and kicked his legs when Deku focused on that one spot that drove him absolutely crazy. “NAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! MIDORIYAHAHAHAHA!!”

Deku chuckled. “Feeling better? Feeling relaxed yet, Shinsou?”

Shinsou squealed, prying his eyes open just enough to see Deku’s huge smile, his bright eyes, his looming form over him, and the boy from 1-C simply could not take it anymore. “PLEHEHEHEASE!! STAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAP IT!! MIDORIYA, PLEHEHEHEHEASE!! MERCY!! MERCY MERCY MERCYEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE!!”

Deku stopped, but didn’t climb off of him. Shinsou gasped for breath and looked up at him, still giggling, surprised to see a tiny blush on the boy’s freckled cheeks. He blinked a few times. “M-Midoriya?”

“I…I’m s-sorry, I, uh…” Deku stammered, blinking as well. His cheeks got even pinker. “Oh! I’ll let you go—”

Shinsou reached up faster than either of them could think and grabbed onto Deku’s arms, stopping him from climbing off just yet. He forced himself to make eye contact with the smaller boy, and when he did, what he saw there gave him the encouragement he needed to finally get this off of his chest.

“Midoriya,” he said quietly, “I think I need to tell you something.”

Deku swallowed. He suddenly seemed nervous, too. “Y-Yeah?”

Shinsou’s heart was pounding against his ribcage. “I…I kind of…like you. Like…you know. That way.”

Deku let out a little gasp in response, but he never broke eye contact. His cheeks went from pink to red. “I…I t-think I like you, too, Shinsou…”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

Shinsou finally moved to sit up, wrapping an arm around Deku’s back to keep him from falling over as he did so, and when he was upright again the two of them were face-to-face. Shinsou’s eyes flicked all over Deku’s blushing features, from his shining eyes down to his lips and back up again. Then he brought his free hand up to scribble against the smaller boy’s side.

Deku immediately smiled wide, giggling slightly, and Shinsou’s suspicions were confirmed. “Ugh, you’re adorable,” he muttered, pulling him into a bear hug and burying his face in his shoulder. “You know that? Adorable, Midoriya.”

“I-I think you’re cute, too,” Deku stammered, sounding incredibly flustered.

“Only cute?” Shinsou teased, digging his fingertips into the boy’s ribs, feeling him jolt in his arms but holding him tightly all the same. “Wow, and after I just poured my heart out to you.”

“Ahahahahaha nohohohohohoho! I’m sohohohohohorry!” Deku squealed, giggling and squirming but unable to go anywhere or protect himself. He tossed his head back and laughed freely. “You’re adohohohohohorable, too! Plehehehehehease, Shinsou!”

“Too late, Midoriya,” Shinsou replied, grinning into his shoulder, feeling more confident now. He slid one tickling hand down to Deku’s hip and laughed with him when he spasmed so hard they both fell to the floor. “You said I was just cute. Now you’ll have to face the wrath of the tickle monster!”

“Nohohohohohohohoho!” Deku cried, giggling hysterically, but it was obvious to both of them that he didn’t really want any of this to stop, and neither did Shinsou.

So it didn’t.

[ms-moonlight-inn]

Movies for Writers, Part 1/?

Shutting Your Brain Off

(I've been sitting on this post forever, deciding whether I should post it or not. Ultimately, I settled on posting it 'cause someone somewhere might find it useful. Or, it'll just sit ignored. 🤷🏻‍♀️😊 Either way, I hope y'all enjoy...)

***

Occasionally, I come across a movie that speaks to me as a writer for various reasons. Sometimes it's the cinematography, sometimes it's the dialogue, sometimes it's the fact that the movie is actually about writing, itself.

Such as the case with this, first movie: Spalding Gray's "Monster in a Box."

***

Here's the IMDB summary:

"Monologuist Spalding Gray talks about the great difficulties he experienced while attempting to write his first novel, a nearly 2,000-page autobiographical tome concerning the death of his mother. Among his many asides, Gray discusses his problems in dealing with the Hollywood film industry, recounts the trips he took around the world in order to avoid dealing with his writer's block and describes his ambivalence about acting as stage manager for a Broadway production of 'Our Town.'"

***

Here the whole dang thing on YouTube:

Monster in the Box

(please let me know if the video comes down, I'll do my best to replace it)

***

Why is this an important watch?

Three main reasons:

Spalding Gray is a brilliant storyteller. Pay attention to the way he phrases things. How & when he decides to drop bits of exposition. This is a monologue, so it's all the power of his words, and his words alone. There is very little production here.

Even with the small amount of production, there is some camera & sound work here. When does he integrate that? How much & why? You can use that in your own writing. When should you add sensory details? When is it best to leave your prose sparse?

Most importantly, the topic of this monologue is writer's block. The dreaded writer's block that we are all faced with at one point or another. There are some valuable lessons to learn here. Spald suffers deeply from his writer's block, so much so that it leads him to several self-discoveries.

***

The first time I watched this was way back in the day as a college student. I'd actually forgotten most of it, but I remember being in awe of his writing talent at the time. Having recently re-watched it (and now that I've been writing more actively) I'm still just as awestruck, but also a lot sad.

Spalding was often plagued by self doubt. That's hit me in all the tender bits on & off lately. This past winter I had a major meltdown over my writing, so watching this was both timely and reassuring for me. I mean, if an individual of Spaulding's caliber can speak openly about his anxieties as a writer, as well as his own battles with writers block, then certainly there is hope for the rest of us. Right? (Goodness, I hope so.)

Ok, I admit it, this might sound like an overly optimistic view of "Monster in a Box," we are talking about the one work that nearly derailed his entire career; however, there's a lesson in how he navigated the disaster.

He set it aside.

He let it breathe.

He turned it into something else!

He let "Monster" be the thing that it needed to be, that it was supposed to be all along. I think that is the biggest lesson I took from my re-watch:

Sometimes your story knows more about itself than you do.

Let that sink it.

Sometimes, it's best to just shut your brain off and write.

✒️✏️💻

I'm currently working on taking Spald's advice.

[junicai]

infinite.

| summary | When Aria's with her boys, it feels like the sky's the limit.

| word count | 2.3k

| warnings | none

| era | circa. June 2021, filming for Hello, Future music video

The grass in the empty stadium had been liberally covered in fake flower petals - the healthy green of regularly watered grass slowly becoming overshadowed by the light pink and yellow that settled lightly atop it. 

The white corduroy overalls that Aria donned were splashed with colour in fake paint splotches to compliment the petals - yellows and greens and pinks mixed with blues and oranges in a jumble of streaks that were stark against the otherwise plain material. The Doc Martens that all eight of the members had been fitted for were all padded at the toe and the heel - lest the hard rubber break away skin and cause them to bleed during filming.

Aria crunched several petals underfoot in the heavy boots as she wandered over to the other boys who had been released from hair and makeup a handful of minutes before her. 

The sun was just reaching it’s highest point in the sky, the heat bearing down onto her exposed midriff and almost entirely cancelling out the cool breeze that threatened to rise goosebumps on her stomach. The floaty, bell-sleeved crop top was, in Aria’s opinion, absolutely gorgeous. She had already planned out the best way to corner Heejin unnie - one of the stylists that had an especially soft spot for Aria and her pout, when used effectively. 

Shaking her freshly dyed blue hair out of her eyes, Aria broke out into a light jog to catch up to Renjun, swinging an arm around the boy’s shoulders. 

“Hi!” She smiled brightly. 

Renjun wrinkled his nose at her playfully. “Hey. You done in makeup?”

Nodding, Aria replied, “Yeah. They wanted to touch up the colour in my hair and stick a couple more tattoos around.” She pointed to the new daisy sitting underneath her eye, and the Make Peace, Not War written in differing fonts along her left forearm. 

He aah’d exaggeratedly, patting his own upside-down HELLO on his arm absent-mindedly, before frowning lightly. “Is your colour coming out already? I thought they only dyed it a couple days ago.” Lifting up a hand, Renjun brushed away the strands in Aria’s fringe that were falling into her eyes, cringing lightly when they came away covered in blue residue. 

Aria pulled away from his fingers, shaking her fringe back into place. “They didn’t have any dye left, so it’s hair chalk.” She explained. 

Renjun made another noise of understanding, looking at his smurf coloured fingertips thoughtfully. When his eyes flickered up to meet Aria’s, they had a mischievous glint in them, and she barely had the chance to turn on her heel and break out into a run before Renjun was giving chase hot on her heels. 

“No!” 

“Yes!” 

Her boots were beginning to rub the skin around her ankle raw, still not broken in enough to stand the test of a sprint through a football field, but Renjun was behind her - holding up his hand threateningly - and that was enough to keep her powering through the burn.

“Stop it!” Aria panted, laughter beginning to soil her already failing lung capacity. Her pace was lagging, but much to her relief; so was Renjun’s. With a final burst of energy at seeing the ground she’d gained on him, Aria made her escape attempt-

Only to be captured by Jeno, strong arms wrapping around her waist and swinging her around in a circle to be plopped right back down in front of a now jogging Renjun, an evil smile on his face. 

“Lee Jeno!” Aria protested, wriggling against the arms that had yet to release her. “Let me goo!” 

He deigned not to respond, but Aria could see the matching glint in his eye, and she resigned herself to her fate. He shared a nod of understanding with Renjun who was advancing slowly now that his victim was immobile. 

“Renjun.”

A small smirk tugged at the corner of his lips. 

“Renjun, I’m sorry.”

His smurf-hand raised threateningly again. 

“I’ll do your dishes for a week.” 

With a final step, Renjun was now within a half-arms distance from Aria. 

“Jenooo-” Aria cut herself off with a squeak, as Renjun dragged his fingers over the bridge of her nose, leaving behind a trail of the blue hair chalk. Aria flailed in Jeno’s grip, but he held her fast, even going so far as to tug her down into his lap on the ground to hold her steady. 

Now entirely stuck, Aria resorted to flailing her limbs as much as she could, which really wasn’t a lot when Jeno tucked her legs beneath his knees, trapping her with all four of his limbs as Renjun rubbed the rest of the hair chalk off of his fingertips and onto Aria’s nose and cheeks. 

Revenge enacted, her attacker eventually settled back onto his heels, fingers now chalk free - having spread most of it over Aria’s face as a replacement for blush. 

Aria let out a small sneeze when the loose dust tickled her nose, blinking harshly in surprise. 

With her eyes closed, she couldn’t see the hand Renjun held to his heart, or the pout that Jeno’s lips formed at the cute sound. The two men peered up at each other, silently agreeing that: Yes, it was unfair that she looked so tiny and cute with blue blush. Sometimes, life wasn’t fair, and it was coming for Renjun and Jeno’s heart in the form of a very tiny girl with a blueberry nose. 

With a pat on the arm from Renjun, Jeno released Aria from his grip who promptly turned around and rained a series of light smacks onto his chest, only stopping when her rings snagged in the necklace he wore. He made no effort to help her, asides from holding her up when he accidentally leaned back and nearly took her down with him. 

“Traitor!” She declared once she had untangled the jewelry. For her own revenge, she ran a finger through her hair to collect the chalk and smudged the colour onto Jeno’s cheek in a bright smear. 

The shocked look in his wide eyes was enough to have Renjun coughing out a laugh, the other two soon following. The patch of grass they had settled onto was far enough away from the filming location that there were no petals to hinder Aria’s plans of laying down onto her back, hands splayed over her stomach as she laughed along with the boys. 

“Guys!” It was Mark’s call that drew their attention away from the coloured chalk - although Renjun did let out another snicker at the light blue cloud that Aria’s hair left on the grass where she had been laying - and together the trio made their way back over to the other five members. 

When Jeno and Renjun got distracted in comparing the temporary tattoos they had both been decorated with, Aria slowed her pace enough to let the two wander ahead without her. 

She slid her focus away from the duo and towards the group that had settled in between the flower-covered goalposts, some standing, some sitting.

The bright colours of this concept was a nice change, Aria thought. She loved doing sexier concepts - don’t get her wrong, she loved the empowerment that came with it, and the twitter reactions were always fun to scroll through - but she’d missed this kind of bubble pop. Songs that made something uncurl up in your chest, complemented and encouraged by all the bright colours and messages. 

When Aria had read through the lyrics the first time, she’d never felt like she’d loved a song more without hearing it. They meant something, especially to her. 

Hello, Future; and all that.

And the costuming was always so fun. Short skirts were never the most ideal things to dance in, and the heeled shoes were the bane of her existence (no matter how good she looked in them) so the sturdy boots and durable overalls was a welcome switch-out. 

Her boys looked happy with it as well.

With Hot Sauce, there was an infinite amount pressure to get it right. It was the first full album that NCT Dream was going to release, and it was 8DREAM. They had Mark back. They were all adults at that point. There were expectations to meet. They couldn’t pass things off as being children anymore; they had millions of eyes watching them, and it was like having someone breathing down your neck. 

The pressure just kept mounting and mounting until it loomed over them all like dark clouds that you could just know held heavy rain. It was like they were debuting all over again. Re-debuting as eight again. Aria doesn’t think she remembers a single thing from the set at all. The whole thing is just a blur in her memory. 

Hello, Future, this time around, is different. The members had gathered in the living room around Donghyuck’s laptop when the Hot Sauce music video aired, watching as the views racked up and positive comment after positive comment poured in. They’d read through each and every one, Mark and Aria translating the English ones that the others couldn’t read. 

If Aria cried, one arm wrapped tightly around Jaemin, with the other held Mark’s right hand in his lap, then no one commented on it. It could be, because they had tears of their own in their eyes - but no one can say for sure.

They ended up sleeping on the floor that night, laptop discarded on the couch that was stripped bare of pillows and throw blankets. Curled around each other - this time with her head on Renjun’s chest and her stomach monopolized by both Chenle and Jisung lying horizontal from each other, Aria felt the tension and the fear that had been teeming underneath her shoulders for the last two months abate. 

The terror that if the album had flopped, then they’d be facing disbandment like so many kneitzens wanted. 

Or worse: Dream would keep going, but they’d lose Mark again. 

Even the thought made something horrible curl up in the pit of Aria’s stomach. 

No. 

Never again. 

The odd sleeping arrangements were not something that were uncommon in the Dreamies dorm (Honestly, Aria can’t remember the last time she had slept alone in a room, let alone a bed. They had a system worked out for when someone genuinely needed time alone, but otherwise, most bedroom doors remained open all night.)

This time, Mark was forcibly settled into the middle, everyone clamoring that he’d missed out on nearly three years of them - and he wasn’t getting ride of them that easily again. 

To his credit, Mark went without much argument, although that probably falls down due to the fact that god, he had missed them too. 

Over the weeks of practicing together, re-working the choreography for the songs that had been released when Dream was seven members only, they found their rhythm again. The one that they had lost in 2019, the one that Mark had taken with him when he’d graduated from the group.

Finding it again felt easier than breathing. 

Aria thought she’d never get to see her boys smile so brightly as they did together again, giving the colourful flowers lining the grass a run for their money. 

From her position a ways away from the group, she watched as Chenle immediately launched himself at Jeno as soon as he was close enough, tackling the older boy onto the ground where they both landed with a thud, Chenle’s head whipping backwards with the force.

She watched as Jeno - ever careful - had tucked a hand behind Chenle’s head to catch him even before they started to fall, his hand taking all the impact as they came into contact with the ground.

Jisung was quick to clamber up, eager to pull Renjun over to Jaemin and show him what they had been doing. She watched as Jaemin held up a small crown made of the fake petals, held together loosely by the short strands of confetti that were scattered around the goalposts. 

Mark was leaning his back against the post, head tilted down onto Donghyuck’s shoulder. Donghyuck was watching Jeno and Chenle wrestle with each other - cheering for one or the other, depending on who was winning at that exact moment. 

Aria watched as Donghyuck slowly slipped into silence, tilting his head down to look at Mark’s peaceful expression as the eldest seemed to almost doze off on his shoulder. 

And, she watched as Donghyuck lifted his eyes, flickering from each of the members. His eyebrows furrowed, scanning the group again before he craned his neck towards the rest of the field.

When his eyes locked onto Aria’s, he raised an eyebrow, but deigned to stay quiet - choosing against startling Mark with a yell. His expression was enough, though. 

Donghyuck understood Aria on a certain level that she thought not a lot of people could. She had a unique bond with each member of Dream, but Donghyuck sometimes knew what was going on in her head before she even did. 

Which is why, instead of teasing her for being an introvert, or running away; when Aria strolled up to join the group he just extended the arm that wasn’t wrapped around Mark’s waist, beckoning to her.

After being firmly tucked into his other side, Aria curled into his chest with a sigh, shivering lightly when the sun slid behind a cloud for a brief second and the air felt cooler than it had all day.

Feeling her shudder, Donghyuck tilted his head down to look at her the same way he’d looked at Mark a moment ago, before pressing a kiss to the top of her head. 

“You okay?” 

Aria nodded. “M’okay.” 

(Donghyuck didn’t realize that his lips were blue from the chalk until Jisung pointed it out, some thirty minutes later.)

[onlydreamofmysoul]

Headlines

A fun cubs come out fic!

Characters and their world by @lumosinlove

@im-oknutzy-trash - here you go!

(Just one last note - there is one scene with a little spicy quip but it doesn’t get in any way explicit :))

“I’m home!” Finn called as he came through the door to their apartment, duffle bag falling off his shoulder and crashing into the door.

“Wow.” Logan commented, coming over to help him. “Home for less than a minute and you’re already trying to wreck the place.”

“Oh hush.” Finn said, dropping his bags and pulling Logan in by the waist. “Hello to you too.”

Logan grinned and went soft, leaning into Finn’s kiss. “How was Alex?”

They moved away from the door to the couch, Logan setting Finn’s bag aside to be dealt with later. 

“Good, Kase and Nat are going out to see him in a few days so he was all excited.” 

Logan laughed, kicking off his shoes to curl his feet under him. “Now that I get.”

Finn smiled and glanced around. “Where’s Leo?”

“He just had to pop out to the shop. We’re out of milk. He should be back soon though.”

Finn nodded, looking down at his hands, fiddling with his fingernails. “Hey Lo?”

“Yeah?”

“I was thinking about… well what if… So like, you know Cap and Loops, right?”

Logan raised an eyebrow. “Our teammates? Yeah I think I’m vaguely familiar with them.”

Finn huffed, rolling his eyes. “Wow sassy. You know that’s not what I meant.”

Logan tilted his head to the side in acquiescence, letting Finn continue. 

“I want to be like them.” Finn said quickly. “Can we be like them?”

He watched Logan frown for a moment, trying to figure out the difference between Remus and Cap and them. “Wait,” He murmured, eyes meeting Finn’s. “Do you mean?”

Finn nodded. “Yeah. I think maybe we’re ready?”

Logan opened his mouth to respond, but was interrupted by Leo coming in. 

“Hey Lo!” He said, without even looking around yet. “I got milk and that bread you like. Did Finn message you yet, he definitely should have landed by now.”

Leo reached the counter, putting the milk in the fridge before turning around and finally noticing the two boys in the room.

“I think his flight landed.” Logan said dryly, watching Leo take in Finn’s presence. 

“Hi baby.” Finn said, with a smile, truly grinning when Leo left the shopping bag half-empty and came over to kiss him hello instead. 

“Hi.” Leo said, slipping into the gap between his two boys. “I missed you.” 

Finn heard himself make a pleased noise as he leaned in to kiss Leo again. “Missed you too.”

“So,” Leo said as he pulled away, pulling Logan’s feet onto his lap. “What’re we talking about?”

Finn met Logan’s green eyes, pausing for a moment. “Um, I uh…”

Logan kicked his foot forward to nudge it against Finn’s thigh. “I got it Harzy.” He then turned to Leo. “We were thinking, maybe it’s time for us to come out? It’d be nice I think, not having to hide.”

Finn watched Leo carefully as the younger boy blinked in surprise before a small smile took over his face. 

“Yeah,” He breathed, looking between Logan and Finn. “Yeah that would be nice.” He bit his lip, looking smug and mischievous and Finn thought he might be falling in love all over again. “But I think we should have some fun first.”

****

Logan stumbled off the bus wearily - that four hour bus ride had just seemed to go on forever. Reporters stood outside the door to the hotel, despite the cold and the late hour but Logan leaned into Leo’s side anyways, Leo’s arm around his shoulder, Logan’s hand beneath his jacket. Photographers went wild, cameras shuttering quickly and Logan hid his smile in Leo’s jacket. This was going to be a whole lot of fun. 

****

Leo looked up as Marlene entered the locker room, glancing around to see who might be ready and available for an interview. Leo caught her eye and waved her over. 

“Hey Leo, how about a quick video for social media? I won’t keep you longer than five minutes.”

Leo smiled, he didn’t mind, this was all a part of their plan, the team and the rest of the staff had been made somewhat aware. Plus, he liked Marlene so he never had a problem with the interviews. “Sure.”

“Okay great!” She gave him a thumbs up as she started recording. “So, just last night, pictures of you and Logan Tremblay were released as you got off the bus - have you anything to say about them?”

Leo nodded, grinning. “Don’t forget James photobombing in the background. I think he was going for a ‘bunny ears’ effect but it ended up looking like he was doing it to Kasey instead. I think I need to get a copy framed.”

Marlene laughed, moving on. “So you and Logan are close then?”

Leo looked around the room comically. “What? You mean right now? Cause He’s in the PT room so a lot of the guys are closer.”

Marlene bit her lip, her eyes sparkling. “How do you feel about this game then?”

Leo sat back, finally going to answer a question honestly. “I’m feeling good. We’ve had a great start this season and I’m pretty confident.”

Marlene gave him another thumbs up and headed off to go chat to some of the other guys. A few stalls over, Finn met Leo’s eyes and blew him a kiss. 

*******

“The media seems to have calmed down a bit.” Logan commented as they all sat at home watching a movie. “Think it’s time for our next one?”

“Ooh, yes!” Finn enthused. “I call being in this one.”

Logan laughed and pulled out of the way so he could take a picture of Finn kissing Leo’s cheek, Leo’s face all scrunched up in a smile. 

“There you go, post it.”

Finn grinned, going to Instagram and putting up the picture with the caption ‘Days like this’ before tagging Leo for good measure. 

“That should entertain them for a couple of days.” He said, satisfied as he tossed his phone to another chair and leaned back into Logan’s warmth, kissing the spot just below his ear. 

“You and me next baby,”

****

Leo Knut and Finn O’Hara?

More than one couple in the Lion’s Den?

Knut cheating on Tremblay?

Logan laughed as he scrolled through the headlines and posts from fan accounts, taking screenshots of some of the art of them that had already begun to bubble up. Thomas was on the other side of him, watching a video of a fan analysing the teams interactions, trying to figure out who was actually in a relationship, laughing every few minutes. 

“Knutty,” Logan called, summoning Leo. “Look at this one.”

Leo took his phone and read the caption out loud. “Knut’s betrayal making Tremblay tremble?” He looked up and met Logan’s eyes, his face blank. “I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.”

“I do!” Finn interrupted, coming up behind Logan and wrapping his arms around his boyfriend’s waist. “Okay Lo, you hold up the article, now someone take our picture please!”

Logan ginned and relaxed into Finn as James snapped them together before posting it to his own account. ‘Doesn’t seem to be trembling to me.”

****

“I’m gonna go get some coffee, do you guys wanna come?” Leo said, the three of them still lying in bed. Finn shook his head, still mostly asleep, but Logan perked up.

“From the café down the street?”

Leo nodded, laughing when Logan was up like a shot, pulling on his clothes. 

“We’ll bring you back some, okay sweetheart?” Leo said as he leaned over the bed once more to kiss Finn goodbye. Finn just nodded and burrowed deeper into the duvet. 

“Love you.” He mumbled and the two boys left him to his dreams, slipping out of the room quietly. 

They walked down the street, hand in hand, going mostly unnoticed by the public. It was still early and a Sunday, so there weren’t too many people up and about, but even those that were paid them very little attention. It was easy to forget, in moments like this, that they had entire fan pages dedicated to them and many days they weren’t even recognised on the street. 

They got their coffee and drank it there, holding hands over the table outside the front door, watching the people passing by and chatting idly. Leo thought he spotted someone taking a not-so-discreet picture of them, but they didn’t care. Logan went inside to grab Finn’s cup to go and Leo lounged in the sunshine for a moment, breathing in the cool, sharp air. 

He opened his eyes to find Logan standing over him, looking down amusedly. “D’accord, mon choupinet?"

Leo smiled and stood up, stretching lazily. “Oui.”

They came back home to Finn still in bed, and joined him under the covers while he sipped his coffee.

“Oh, look we’re back in the headlines.” Leo commented as he angled his phone for them both to see. A photo of Leo and Logan from just a half hour ago stared back at them, Logan laughing at something Leo had said. 

“That’s such a cute picture,” Finn noted, putting on his glasses to take a closer look. “You should save that.”

Knut and Tremblay reunited? No news yet on how O’Hara is taking this latest blow.

“O’Hara would be doing fantastic if he had another kind of blow.” Finn grumbled, then blushed when he realised he had spoken out loud. “I mean-”

“Oh, we know what you meant.” Logan said, taking the nearly empty coffee cup from Finn and setting it on the nightstand as Leo eased Finn back, slipping under the covers as Logan captured his lips. “And that can be arranged.”

****

“So when do you guys think you’ll let them know what’s actually happening?” Remus asked Leo as he helped the blond boy with his stretching. 

Leo bit his lip as he thought. “I don't know? Soon maybe though, because this is fun and all but I’m tired of being analysed all the time now. At least if we tell them the truth, they’ll be chasing after us for a couple of weeks but then it’ll all settle down and be nice and quiet again, you know?”

Remus nodded, smirking when Leo took a sharp intake of breath as he pushed his legs a little further apart. “Yeah for sure. It’ll be pure chaos for a bit, but then they’ll quickly move onto the next big thing, I promise.”

Leo nodded, a little lost in thought. “Yeah, I’m ready to have a bit of privacy again. I think I’ll say it to the boys tonight.”

Remus nodded and pushed Leo a little further, laughing when Leo cursed under his breath.

“Fuck, if I’m alive after all this that is.”

****

“Alright, we’re doing this so?” Logan confirmed, making sure everyone was in agreement. 

“Yup.” Leo said, popping the ‘p’.

“It’s time.” Finn confirmed as they all pulled up the same picture they had chosen to post - a photo of the three of them taken at a party at Dumo’s. Logan sitting in Leo’s lap, head tilted up as he kissed Finn who was handing them their drinks. 

“Captions ready?” Finn asked and the other two nodded.  “Okay. Three,”

“Two,” Leo said.

“One.” Logan breathed and they all clicked ‘post’ at the same time. 

The next day, all the headlines were their Instagram captions-

Leo and Logan.

Finn and Leo.

Logan and Finn.

(Three’s not a crowd).

[dukeofonions]

The Problem With Asides

Before I get into anything I want to clarify that this is not going to be a criticism of the two Asides episodes we’ve gotten so far. This is a critique of the concept of Sanders Asides as a separate series from the original Sanders Sides. A second note I want to make is that this is, just as all my other posts are, a personal opinion. This is not meant to be an attack on anyone, just a general criticism from a confused writer and viewer of the show. 

And final disclaimer: A lot of what I’m going to say is based on information that I no longer have available. It’ll mostly be me recalling things I heard and if I at any point get something wrong please feel free to let me know. 

That being said, let’s get into this, shall we? 

(Fair warning this post is very long hence why I’ve divided it into parts so feel free to read then come back as you wish)

Part One: The Concept of Asides

Some time ago last year, I believe shortly after Dealing With Intrusive Thoughts came out, was when the idea for Sanders Asides was first announced. The basic concept of it being shorter, more lighthearted videos focusing on the Sides outside of the main storyline. This format would allow them to give us more Sides content in between the long waits for the main series since those episodes were beginning to take more time to produce. 

Of course, everyone was eager for more Sides, so the majority of people were excited. Not only that but due to the main series tackling heavier themes, the episodes were becoming more angsty with less time for the characters to just relax and goof off with each other. The idea of having episodes reminiscent of the low stakes, sillier, happier content of season one was a welcome break from the more complex episodes and would be a nice return to form for the series. 

We were also informed that these episodes would be much simpler than their main series counterparts and wouldn’t disrupt the work being done on Sanders Sides, which meant we didn’t have to worry about long gaps between the main story episodes, right? 

(Another disclaimer: I am perfectly aware of the main reason why we were not given as much content last year and am not blaming Thomas or the team for doing what was necessary to keep themselves safe and hope they continue to do so as this continues into the new year)

Jump to November 22, 2019, where we got our first official episode of Sanders Asides, roughly five months after DWIT came out. Which, for this fandom, was record time to get more content and I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly they were able to get this out. Though at the same time, I wondered why it took five months to make what was meant to be a short, simple episode. 

So imagine my surprise when I went to watch the episode and saw it was nearly 20 minutes long. Which, okay, isn’t that bad when you compare it to the lengths of the more recent Sanders Sides episodes. But at the time, I was under the impression that the Asides would be, well, much shorter. The longest I expected would be maybe 15 minutes, but you know what? It’s the first episode and it has been a while since we’ve had Sides content, so maybe they wanted to give us a little extra due to the long wait. 

I started the episode and at first, I was overjoyed when I saw the first shot of all the Sides sitting in the living room in their onesies about to have a movie night. This was exactly what I’d been hoping to see from this series! It’s pretty much a staple thing in the fandom for the Sides to have movie nights together, and now it was happening in canon! 

At the moment, I had high hopes for this series and was filled with joy. 

Then that hope and joy were immediately crushed when I realized this was yet just another Virgil-centric angst episode. In fact, this entire episode was, well, exactly like a regular Sanders Sides episode. Sure, there were some jokes here and there, but the tone of the episode was no lighter than the last Sanders Sides episode. If anything DWIT felt lighter in comparison to this one. 

Which leads me to ask, what the heck happened? 

Part Two: Literally the Same Show

At this point in time, we’ve only had two episodes of Asides. Usually, I try to hold off my judgment of a series until I’ve had at least one other episode to see if my original criticisms still stand. 

To be fair, I did think Flirting With Social Anxiety was a step in the right direction. More comedy, a lighter tone, yes. Perfect. But again, just like with Are There Healthy Distractions? This episode quickly dove right back into the angst pool, and just like ATHD it was a pretty long episode, clocking in at almost 25 minutes. 

Not only that but again, both FWSA and ATHD don’t feel any different from the episodes we’ve been getting in Sanders Sides. 

1. They’re just as angsty.

2. Roughly the same length as Sanders Sides episodes.

3. Take about just as long to produce.

4. Contain a lesson to be learned. 

Which, okay, you can have lessons in lighter shows too, but we’re already getting that in Sanders Sides and Sanders Asides was described as, well, being less plot heavy. Yet so far both episodes are still tied in with the main plot. 

ATHD deals with the aftermath of DWIT, not directly but it’s pretty obvious that the whole thing with Virgil’s reveal at the end of that episode is being addressed in the background. Which, kind of takes away the impact of that ending, but I’ll get to that later. 

Then FWSA takes place after Putting Others First and again, is dealing with things from that episode in the background. Again though, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It makes sense to see the characters dealing with things from past events.

So why is it a problem here? Because, again, Sanders Asides is meant to be a separate series, and all the subtext brought on from the episodes in Sanders Sides makes the plots in these two episodes confusing. 

For example, I was perplexed during my first watch of FWSA because I couldn’t understand why the focus of the conflict was lying. I didn’t understand why Virgil and Roman came to the conclusion that Thomas’ reason for being unable to approach Nico was because he was lying to himself, when both the title of the episode and what we were shown points more to, well, social anxiety being the problem. 

(Quick note: One could argue that this was done purposefully to have Virgil putting the blame on Janus since he doesn’t like him and wouldn’t want to admit that he was the one responsible, but this series has had a bad habit of favoring Virgil in the past so until we get more answers I’m gonna leave this on the backburner) 

It didn’t help that I had no idea when this episode was meant to take place in the timeline, and I originally thought it could take place a bit after season two since Roman and Virgil seemed to be doing better, but more on them later.

All of this bugged me until I found out that FWSA takes place after POF, and after watching the live stream that followed and getting some more context, the lying thing made a bit more sense, but the fact that I was as confused as I was just caused more frustration to build up. And I wasn’t the only one who got thrown off by the “Lying is wrong” message of FWSA so I had to ask again, why was this episode a Sanders Asides when apparently, you need information from the last Sanders Sides episode in order to understand it?

So you’re telling me, that the second episode in what is supposed to be a separate series that isn’t meant to be a part of the main plot, is now integral to the plot of the main story you’re telling in what is, as you have said, a separate show? How does that make any sense? 

Okay, one could argue that Thomas getting a love interest doesn’t really fit with the current storyline that’s going on in Sanders Sides, and that is a fair point. The problem with that is, FWSA takes place right after Putting Others First. 

You all remember what happened at the end of that episode, right?

Part Three: Intrusive Plots

At this point we’ve all become rather accustomed to the long waits in between videos, it’s nothing new to us, and for the most part they haven’t done anything to harm the current plot of Sanders Sides. Sure, the length of time between videos can cause people to lose interest, but for the most part the tone of the last three episodes of Sanders Sides hasn’t differed much and the story flow is still going along smoothly. 

Let’s start with Selfishness vs Selflessness, which is the episode that sets up the big climax for season two. It’s still got its jokes and funny moments, but the overall tone is far more serious than previous episodes have been. This carries on into DWIT where Thomas has been so stressed out lately that he’s begun to have trouble with his intrusive thoughts. 

Virgil even gives a pretty good summary of Thomas’ current mental state: “He recently realized he’s a bigger liar than he thought he was, he doesn’t understand himself, he’s committed to skipping a big callback, and he’s sleep-deprived. So yeah, he feels like a piece of dirt who has no control over his life.”

And all that was a direct result of the ending of SVS, despite DWIT not being the direct follow up to that episode the two are still intertwined. Remember that for later.

DWIT ends with the long awaited reveal of Virgil having been a “Dark Side.” Even though the majority of the fandom had figured it out by as early as Can Lying Be Good? That didn’t take away from the emotional gut punch that this scene was and it’s one of my favorite moments from the series. I may have to make a whole post breaking that scene down but what matters is that this scene was a turning point for Virgil’s character.

We’ve seen him trying to hide the truth from Thomas ever since Janus and Remus started popping up, and there were close calls with both of them nearly revealing it themselves and continuously dropping hints to Thomas. Only for Virgil to admit it to Thomas himself, and leave before Thomas can even say a word. 

We don’t know for sure how Thomas is feeling in this moment, but it’s clear he’s been shaken by this. He doesn’t really have a lot of time to process it before he remembers to acknowledge the audience and close out the video. 

This comes up again once we finally get to the monster of an episode that is POF, the follow up to SVS that everyone had been waiting over a year for. Right away we see that Patton and Roman will be at the forefront of this discussion with Logan popping up every now and then, but who doesn’t show up in this episode despite having played a role in SVS? 

Virgil. 

He’s nowhere to be seen and his absence is definitely felt. Why wouldn’t he be part of this discussion? He was there in SVS and had a lot to say on the matter, he was even part of the decision to choose the wedding over the callback! So why wasn’t he there? 

Well, just look at the ending of DWIT and there’s your answer. Of course he isn’t about to show his face after that. Not when Thomas is already under so much stress already and he isn’t sure how Thomas will react to seeing him-

*insert random voice whispering off to the side*

 Wait, Virgil has seen Thomas since DWIT? When? 

*whispers continue*

Oh, right, they interacted in Sanders Asides. How did that go again? 

*whispers explain*

Huh? Thomas said he’s cool with Virgil despite revealing that he’s been hiding something from him this whole time? That “something” being the fact that Virgil was once considered part of the others that were currently making Thomas’ life miserable?

*whispers confirm*

Really? They’re both okay with each other now? Well, good for them. 

So wait, then why didn’t Virgil show up in POF? He was there during the first discussion and honestly he’d have more of a reason to show up than Logan who wasn’t really present at all in SVS. 

*whispers explain* 

He just wasn’t need there? Hm, alright. Guess that makes sense… 

Well okay, Virgil and Thomas are on good terms once POF rolls around, Virgil isn’t present during the conversation because he isn’t needed and I suppose his presence would make things worse. Especially once Janus revealed himself, he wouldn’t allow him to get a word in. Even though Janus could probably silence him but I digress. 

Fast forward towards the ending of POF, remember when I said to remember how SVS and DWIT were connected? Well DWIT is just as important to POF, acting as a bit of bridge between to the two episodes. 

Janus brings up Remus (both directly and indirectly) twice in this episode.

First here:

 Notice how Roman’s breakdown is already being foreshadowed here, the camera focusing on him while “Logan” says this isn’t an accident. 

The second time Remus is brought up is at the very end after Janus has revealed his name:

“Oh, Roman thank God you don’t have a mustache. Otherwise between you and Remus, I wouldn’t know who the evil twin is.” 

(No I am not posting screenshots of this scene I already got emotional over the last one)

As we saw at the end of DWIT, Roman does not have a good relationship with is brother. So much so that when Thomas refers to Remus as such, Roman creates a different analogy that compares Remus to a mirror, reflecting everything Roman doesn’t want to be. 

Roman desperately wants to distance himself from Remus, not wanting anything to do with him. We’ve only gotten a glimpse of just how far this loathing goes, and part of that comes from Roman finally breaking down after being told by Janus that if it wasn’t for a mustache there’d be no difference between him and Remus.

This shook Roman more than anything else in the show has so far, moreso than him being the one to decide that Thomas should give up the callback. He was the one that pushed Thomas to make that decision, believing it was the noble thing to do, only for it to only make Thomas feel worse and then be told by Janus that his “noble sacrifice” was all for nothing. 

Janus, the one who had been supporting Roman throughout SVS, buttering him up and encouraging him to go after his dream, told him that his sacrifice was worthless. Then to top it all off Janus admits what he did and brushes it off as a joke. He doesn’t apologize to Roman, leaving him in the dust, then when Roman responds by laughing at his name he’s shot down even lower. 

And when he looks to Thomas and Patton for help, for answers, anything.

They stay silent.

Patton tries to reassure him, telling Roman that they love him, but he doesn’t believe it. He sinks out, and that’s the last we see of him.

Selfishness vs Selflessness, Dealing With Intrusive Thoughts, and Putting Others First are three of the biggest (and dare I say most important) episodes in the series. The three almost act like a trilogy, with POF leading to something bigger, the season finale. Which will be culmination of all three of these episodes. 

We’ll be seeing Virgil’s reaction to Janus having been accepted by Patton and facing his own past as a “Dark Side.” Then we’ll find out what has become of Roman after he disappeared at the end of POF, and how it now affects his relationship with Thomas.

*whispers return and begin to whisper*

I’m sorry what?

*whispers repeat*

Virgil already knows about Janus getting somewhat accepted? Well okay I guess he would, wish we could have seen his reaction to that but oh well, no big deal. At least we got the Roman and Thomas confrontation to look forward to. 

*whispers whisper*

Roman has already interacted with Thomas since POF? When?!

*whisper* 

In FWSA? Oh yeah, how did that go again? It was super awkward right? Since Roman doesn’t really trust that Thomas loves or values him?

*whisperly whisper*

They get along just fine as if nothing happened? 

*whispersty*

It looks like he might still be upset with him since he’s being a bit passive aggressive? 

*whisper* 

Can’t really tell because the three are too busy trying to talk to a cute guy at the mall? 

Okay, I guess that all makes sense… 

Looks like Roman and Virgil still aren’t on the best terms with Thomas but are able to push that aside to help him talk to this handsome stranger, and hey, it worked! Thomas now has a boyfriend! Just look at Roman and Virgil at the end, they’re both so happy with Thomas! 

Looks like now they can focus on this new chapter in their life and leave the events of POF behind them. I mean, now that Roman and Virgil seem pretty cool with Thomas it would just feel weird to suddenly have them angry with him again, wouldn’t it?

Part Four: The Problem

Sanders Asides was originally described as being a series separate from the main storyline of Sanders Sides. Promising us shorter, less complicated episodes to give us a little something in between the longer, heavier episodes in Sanders Sides. This was a great idea that ended up falling apart the moment it began. 

When I was going through SVS, DWIT, and POF I mentioned that the three of them felt like a trilogy. All three of them link together to tell one bigger story, and on their own they get the job done. They set up the season finale perfectly to the point where you have an idea of what to expect and what to look forward to. 

The main things being the aftermath of Virgil’s reveal and Roman’s breakdown, which would most likely cultivate in them teaming up against Janus. This would also involve Virgil coming to terms with his past and Roman having to face Remus. 

Of course, none of this has been officially confirmed, but given everything we’ve seen up to this point it just makes sense. 

The story for season two is nearly complete, all we’re missing is the conclusion. 

Then Sanders Asides showed up and threw everything off course. What was supposed to be its own thing crept into a story that was already (for all we knew) set up and being put into place. 

We were told that the Asides wouldn’t do anything to disrupt the flow of Sanders Sides, yet it’s been confirmed that there will be one or two more episodes of Asides before we get the season finale. 

Why? Why are these episodes necessary when everything was set to move forward after POF? If these episodes are that important that they absolutely have to be made before the finale then why are they simply not part of the main series? 

You could say “Well they’re not directly tied to the main plot, that’s why.” But need I remind you that Asides as a concept was just intriduced after DWIT came out? These episodes were written specifcally for Asides, which unless I’m wrong means that they were just added into the main story with no planning whatsoever. 

FWSA honestly feels like it should have been the start of season three, something that should have waited to be introduced after season two wrapped up because it’s just too much. 

We already have so much to unpack from SVS, DWIT, and POF now we also have a new love interest on top of that? 

Virgil and Thomas’ resolution doesn’t even feel all that special because it wasn’t talked about directly between them. Thomas was indirectly letting Virgil know they were still okay, so what does that leave for us? All that build up about Virgil being a “Dark Side” only for it to be brushed over like it was nothing, and this happened in an Asides episode, not even in the main series. 

It also makes Virgil’s absence in POF confusing when they had already set up the perfect reason for him to be absent in DWIT, but according to the first episode of ATHD Virgil and Thomas are okay with each other. Sure, Virgil being there might have made things worse but at that point everyone was making things worse. 

We no longer have a confrontation between Thomas and Roman to look forward to because in FWSA we see them interacting as normal. Even the passive agressiveness isn’t anything new to Roman and really, it all just sounds super petty which he had been known to behave like that even when nothing is seriously wrong. Not only that Roman is overjoyed at the end, having finally gotten something he desperately wanted, the happy ending he deserved.

All that’s left for him is to fave his feelings towards Remus, but what would even happen there?

The problem with Asides isn’t the quality of the episodes, FWSA is actually one of my favorite episodes. The problem with Asides is that the team is taking what should have been something small and turning it into a far too elaborate for what its original purpose was: To give us more lighthearted content to enjoy in between the waits for the heavier episodes.

Instead it just feels like they’re adding onto something that really didn’t need adding on to, creating more work for themselves when it just isn’t necessary, and that worries me.

Final Thoughts

Honestly, it’s hard for me to make all these judgments when no one has any idea what the finale is going to be like. And usually, the team is able to excede my expectations and create something amazing. 

But with all these new Asides episodes that feel like they’re just being crammed in at the last second, it makes me wonder how the rest of the series will go if they continue down this road. 

Season two started September 1st, 2017, it is now January 3rd, 2021. Throughout season two the production of episodes became more elaborate, and there have been complications that arose from trying to make these videos as a result that sent production screeching to a halt. And on top of that, these Sanders Asides have been added to create even more work for Thomas and the team.

I don’t understand why they’d do this to themselves when it’s already become more difficult than ever to make videos in general, not just Sanders Sides. 

We were offered something simple that would have satisfied everyone during the difficult times, only to be given something that honestly, wasn’t even needed. I do appreciate Thomas trying to get us more content, but I don’t think he or the team realizes just how content we’d all be with just a five minute video of the characters we love just doing something as simple as hanging out and having fun, especially with how dark things have become all around us. 

We don’t always have to be watching these characters struggle, sometimes we just need to see them be genuinely happy.

(Thanks to everyone who took time to read this monster of a post, I did not mean for it to get this long but it’s been dwelling on my mind for a while and I wanted to make sure I got out everything I wanted to say. Again, this is all just a personal opinions and you are not obligated to agree with me. If you have an objecting opinion I would not mind hearing it but please keep any discussions civil.)

[timetroublingtrickster]

Tech Trick(s) 

Right after watching the 3rd Loki Episode I was about to come here and post:

If that hasn´t all been a ruse I´m going to RIOT!  

Now I´m at the point where I´m absolutely unwilling to believe Loki would get recklessly drunk (excuse me “very full”) during an apocalypse and neglectfully destroy their only option of escape and I´m more occupied with the question just WHEN and HOW Loki Laufeyson took over!  

I´m inclined to believe that at least (A) the broken TemPad was an illusion that Loki showed Sylvie Laufeydottir. Why?  > To get information about Sylvie & gain influence on the overall situation  Getting them “fake” stranded puts Loki in a position where he can have a conversation with her, judge her character, try to find out what her plans are and probably get her on his side or make her think he is on hers. Not only would he have time to work his “silver tongue” and get to know her and/or get to her with his conversation skills but additionally the way Sylvie would act within a possibly deadly apocalypse scenario surely would tell Loki a lot about her.   > To maybe portray himself as a bit more naive than he is?  Having a party with the people in the train would then have been part of setting the broken TemPad illusion up. “I just sat on it and it broke” would probably be hard to believe, but it also paints Loki in a certain light. Sylvie calls Loki a “clown”, “not a serious man”. This kind of hedonistic Loki is someone whom you would need to keep an eye on or else his irresponsibility could cause you trouble but this kind of “clown” is not someone from whom you would expect some serious scheming and plans.   I think Loki might be in the midst of trying to portray himself as someone Sylvie might underestimate.  [On a Sidenote: This would fit well with how they talk about plans in the episode. Sylvie is obviously invested in her “years in the making” plan, a comment Loki seems to wave aside a bit, just saying yes to placate her. Later Sylvie informs Loki that his getting in the train plan “wasn't even a plan.” and that “Plans have multiple steps.” This again paints Loki as simpler than he is. There´s more plan talk but I leave it at that.]  This would however still mean that they are dependent on the power source of the Ark (which I´m reluctant to believe see below) hence why I am having the suspicion that the “Trick” started earlier and (B) the TemPad was never truly “outta juice” 

“You don't know how to Recharge it.” “Of course I do. You're not the only tech savvy Loki.” I´m inclined to take his word there. Although he played it as masking his lack of knowledge, I do think that he actually might be tech savvy here. My current headcanon is that Loki, aside from beating time, actually has watched those TVA propaganda  training videos and absorbed all the information. Knowing what he is dealing with and how things work surely must be a key to whatever ambition he is following.  You got to know how things work to mess them up, you have to see the order to unravel it and create chaos.  

I´m betting Loki knows about the limits and capabilities of the TemPad and that one that seemingly needs recharging buys him some time with Sylvie and opportunities. Maybe Loki truly drained the TemPad of the energy to hand Sylvie a device that actually was not working, so she couldn´t see any trickery. Maybe he pulls out some battery device last minute, has had temporarily held the energy though some magic and has already put it back in a concealed TemPad. Or there was magic at play and the whole uncharged device was faked.  Wouldn´t Sylvie have noticed any magical tampering?  Thor needed to throw things at “Loki” to reveal his magic. While Sylvie didn´t touch the broken remnants of the TemPad she held the “outta juice” one and she could have more insight as magic user but the episode established that they both are not necessarily entirely familiar with each other´s magic.  >> It´s difficult to say just how much Sylvie know´s about Loki´s skills, but she does recognize them as not unremarkable and not something she can just act against. This seems to be proven by her action of not trying to just take the TemPad from Loki.  >> Loki´s familiarity with Sylvie´s skills is a bit trickier. When the first explosion hits he asks “Is that one of your powers?“, maybe genuinely wondering, maybe not. Mostly this episode is about one particular skill: Enchantment is not among the faves Loki lists to the TVA in his lecture mode. (On a side note: The “But you already knew that” (1x2) is so clever in that moment, it´s played as humble, as Loki coming out of lecture mode and “realizing” this, but it also tells us that he didn´t reveal any new information to the TVA or didn´t clarify any complex matter for them. Technically they should know everything anyway but I´m wondering if the show will show us something up Loki´s sleeves that they didn´t.) But later he remarks: “Enchantment is a clever trick. Cowardly, a bit amateurish, but clever” (1x2) It seems he is implying that he´s well versed in it but above it. However in 1x3 Loki asks how Sylvie´s Enchantment works. Which does not necessarily mean he is not familiar and skilled in Enchantement himself, but he might indeed not quite know just how Sylvie in particular works with it.  When Sylvie tries to enchant him, Loki points that out and says it won´t work, not because of him being a “magician” but because his “mind is too strong.” (1) Later he brings the power up again (2), not straight up asking how it works, but going for a more unassuming question of where she learned it.  “So, where'd you learn to do the... You know, the... Whatever it is?“ He shows himself impressed that she´s an autodidact.  Then he shifts to “how it works” and offers a quite simple thought “You just go into their minds and project some sort of illusion?“   The topic is dropped after Sylvie offers to just show him by enchanting him.  Later Loki tries another angle (3) he again is offering a faulty (!) presumption of how the Enchantment works. “Here's an idea. What if you enchanted me and you could walk for both of us? Or I take a nap in my subconscious, and then you could just wake me when we arrive.“ Sylvie points out that his is in fact not how it works. After some remarks about “tactical advantage” she actually starts to explain to Loki!  To which Loki says “And you call me a magician.“ again putting himself in the position of the lesser skilled one in this area. And I do think this might have been calculated and on purpose? I´m kind of talking myself into believing that Loki might know quite well how Enchantment works  &  I´m super surprised that Sylvie with all that inquiry about her skill never said something like: “Why would you want to know more about a cowardly, amateurish thing?!” Mirroring Lokis words from 1x2. 

Moreover I´m wondering if there was an additional motive of “actually” trying their luck with the Ark. “Never had us on it” Loki says, implying they could change things and make the escape vessel leave. Which could have an element of caring about the people?  Loki couldn´t act in Pompei, maybe he can here. Loki laments the fate of the woman that shot at them. “A pity the old woman chose to die, don't you think?” Then again he might just bring that up to gauge Sylvies reaction to it. He also made no attempt to help or ask her to come along. Then again that might not be a sign of not caring, but recognizing someone made their choice and respecting it.  Going for the Ark could also have an element of gauging his influence on the course of time? Pompei is long past for this Loki, this scenario is not and there is no TVA currently present. So far Loki already “uncovered a huge hole” in TVA security (1x2) and he knows that the TVA is pruning divergent paths, but he is also in the midst of seeing that they aren´t infallible and this might be a chance to just test things a bit. Maybe he has an interest in seeing if he (now) can have an impact in “hijacking the ark and making sure it gets off this moon”. Maybe it´s also to see how the TVA would deal with these new variant survivors and if they are currently even capable to do so. This could be a moment to reassure himself that his actions have an impact and an opportunity to find out more about how the TVA works. 

I do not think Loki would rely on hijacking the ark as a plan to get them to safety? If it is true that he does not know about this apocalypse, which is just given how many there are, likely, then the information Sylvie gave him is just not nearly enough to make a call like that. The Ark could have been stopped from leaving due to so many reasons and plenty far beyond their control and influence. Just like it happened. That would be an irresponsibly risky move.  [Loki s1ep03 “Lamentis”] What do you think? 

[inkykeiji]

(Anon who sent the music ask)

OOOO ok, ok so I definitely listen to «All I want is you» like all the time so when I saw it I was yelling “omg RIGHT??”

My favorite from your list has to be «All I need» cause wow?? That’s reader??? 100%?? And also cause it’s a bop

I also have some songs that remind me of their relationship such as:

False Sympathy by Mondo Grosso

Banana Brain by Die Antwoord

Hole-Dwelling by Kikuo

Girl of My Dreams by Guti

And a special mention is Russian Roulette by Red Velvet because even tho the lyrics are cute the video tells a different side of the song haha, Kinda like False Sympathy!

But thank you for answering my ask! You were so nice idk why I was scared- and also if you don’t mind, may I be 🎧 anon? HAHA I don’t know how this works-

I hope you have a nice day/night!! <33

hehehe hello again!!! <33

AAAAH literally i flippin love that song SO much!!! it is also an extremely 'dari' song for me (dari = dabi + clari HAHA) so it's like,,,, extra special hehehe <333

yes yes yes!!! all that i need is like, quite literally the embodiment of part one and part two of my touya-nii main series in one song HAHAHA like verse one = i can take you there but baby you won't make it back and verse two = all she want is payback for the way i always play that shit ehehe <33 and then the chorus is literally 100% reader like u said!!!

oooooh okay so big apologies that it took me a moment to get to your ask!! i wanted to make sure i had set aside enough time to sit down and thoroughly listen to the recs u gave me & give you my thoughts!! <3

false sympathy:

literally SO GOOD!!! i absolutely love the mood/vibe of the song as a whole and the lyrics are spot on!! i can't even pick out a specific verse or a handful of lines because literally the entire song is perfect for their relationship!!

banana brains:

again i 100% agree with you hehehe my favourite bits are 'baby boy, you so cool, how can i stay mad at you? i love you and that's the truth. you so silly, you so stupid, you the best, i never want you to stress' and 'baby girl, you been there for me, through thick and thin with cool energy, you cared for me, yeah, defended me, helped me defeat my enemies, life is weird, it keeps testing me, no other girl in the world impressing me' AND 'you're like a little angel won't ever pressure me' <333333 as a whole it reminds me a LOT of just the whole mood and vibe of their relationship by the end of my snowman & me!!!

hole-dwelling:

AH I HAVE HEARD THIS BEFORE HEHEHE yes!!!!!! i'm 100% sure i've heard this song in an edit before hahaha but AAAAAAAAAAH anon!!!!!!!! i am so IN LOVE with this holy fuck i can't even find the words to describe the way this song makes me feel like my whole heart is bursting with !!!!!!!! love and obsession and infatuation and god i nearly broke my finger in my haste to add this to my playlist i swear to god everything about this song is perfect <333

girl of my dreams:

waaaaah okay i'm kind of entirely in love with this guy's voice oh my gosh hehe but eeeee (this is probably extremely obvious but) i genuinely love the concept of love being so insatiable, so ravenous, so all-consuming that it's an addiction, and that's definitely one of the big themes within my touya-nii series as a whole, so the chorus here really hit perfectly <3 overall the vibes of the song are perfect, and it reminds me so much of part two!!!!

omg i've never seen the music video so i went to watch it and !!!!! AH literally in love with the aesthetic so much!!!! i have a serious obsession with things that are cute but also like,,,, unsettling????? so i fell in love with this instantly ehehehe <33

thank you so very much for sharing these with me anon bb, they're all literally fantastic and they fit the vibe of my fic/AU extremely well!!! i love love love finding new music and i am always on the hunt so please, PLEASE always feel free to share music with me!!! <333 i actually have another song to share with YOU that mari (@/somberlys) sent to me a week ago and it's gibson girl by ethel cain!! mari sent it to me & said it had total touya-nii vibes and i agree one million percent!!! i was even like 'omg i have to tell headphones anon about this' hehe <33

of course i don't mind!!! welcome to the anon club, sweet headphones anon!!!! 🥳🥳🥳 <33 super happy to have u here!! i hope your weekend is going swell bb <3

[somedayonbroadway]

hii it’s me again and im obsessed with the nerve au- i was wondering if you could do a sprace version, please?

Hi, love! Of course I can! Sorry, this is so late :)

Characters

Racetrack Higgins (@racer) — Vee

Spot Conlon (@kingofbrooklyn) — Ian

Jack Kelly — Tommy

Albert DaSilva (@redhotal) — Sydney

Kid Blink (@ublinked) — Ty

JoJo De La Guerra — Wes

Crutchie Morris — Liv

Oscar Morris — JP

Katherine Pulitzer — Hacker Kween

Okay so…

Race is a foster kid. For most of his life, the poor boy did his best to fade into the background, to be the perfect, adoptable child. He avoids risks, he keeps to himself and the few friends he has. He doesn’t want to lose a spot at the table. He doesn’t want to put himself out there. After all, his parents were everything he wasn’t. They’d had him young. They took risks. They went on adventures. And one day, they never came back.

Even after Race is placed in a good foster home, even after he meets his foster brothers and mother and feels like he’s part of a family, he’s still scared to step outside of his bubble of comfort even though his brothers were a bit more social. Race was adopted right before he started high school. He was fourteen. Jack was fifteen and Specs was seventeen.

Three years later, they were hit by a drunk driver. Specs didn’t make it.

Race’s senior year wasn’t quite the same after that.

Race wants to travel. He wants to go to culinary school in Italy. So he applies. And he gets in. But he doesn’t accept the application. He’s terrified to leave Medda and Jack alone without Spencer. The pain hasn’t quite faded yet.

After seeing the acceptance letter, Race sets it aside before school and goes online instead, stalking a boy online that he’s had a crush on for years. Oscar Delancey. Jack thinks he’s a jerk. Race thinks he’s misunderstood.

That’s when his best friend FaceTimes him. Albert DaSilva has been Race’s best friend since he was first taken into Medda’s place and he is always looking for some extra attention. Race doesn’t mind so much, but sometimes it can get exhausting.

Albert tells Race to stop stalking Oscar on Instagram and, instead, sign up to watch Albert play Nerve, an online game where people get dared and have to perform those dares for their “watchers” for money and fame. Race scoffs at the game and tells Albert that it sounds ridiculous before he leaves for school.

Jack drives him. Race tries to tell him about Italy, but he chickens out. Instead, he goes to school where Albert gets his first dare.

Race’s other friends, Crutchie and JoJo record Albert on his own phone as he runs across the football field during a rally, buck naked. To no one's surprise Albert is suspended later that day. Despite this, while out for milkshakes after school, Albert informs Race that he will still be playing Nerve in hopes of becoming famous.

Jack, who meets the other kids at the restaurant, tells Albert he’s being ridiculous. This causes Albert to turn the tables on Race and tell him he could never be a player on Nerve and then all of his friends vote on a date for him with Jack being the only no. They dare him to talk to Oscar, a simple task that will just push him slightly out of his comfort zone. Race chickens out.

So Albert does it for him, only for Oscar to tell him that he’s not interested in Race. Race stands and storms out and Jack stops Albert from following him, telling him that he just hurt his little brother and better think about what he’s doing next time before Jack decides to punch in the nose.

Race rushes back home where he finds that he never closed the Nerve window on his computer. He watches the video on his screen where he finds out the rules of the game. There’s only three:

1. all dares must be recorded on the player's phone

2. any earned money will be revoked if a player fails or bails on a dare

3. "snitches get stitches."

It’s sketchy as hell but Race has a point to prove. When the question comes up “Watcher or Player,” against all of the boy’s instincts, he makes a decision. Player.

Race is running down the stairs when Jack gets home. He has his first dare. He needs Jack to drive him to Jacobi’s Diner. Jack does, because Race asked him to. That doesn’t stop Jack from giving Race a lecture on how stupid he’s being. Still, Race is determined to prove he isn’t a coward.

His dare is to kiss a stranger for five seconds. Jack records it for him as they eventually find someone reading a book that Specs had read to him once when he was going through an insomnia spell. To The Lighthouse. Race kisses the other boy for a lot longer than he had to and eventually stumbles away says “thank you!” and runs back to Jack.

Jack tells him that he needs to quit now after Race gets one hundred dollars for playing the game. Race almost concedes before he hears someone singing. The boy he’d just kissed walks over to him and sings to him, asking him to run away with him.

Jack realizes it’s a dare and tries to pull Race up and out of the diner, but the boy sits with them and tells him that some kid brought him that book and told him to sit and wait. Jack comments that it sounds like he responds well to puppy commands and starts calling him Spot. Spot doesn’t correct him.

Another dare comes. The watchers want Race and Spot to run away together, run away to the center of the city. Jack tries to stop them. But Race didn’t know how much he was longing for an adventure until that moment.

Race rides with Spot on his motorcycle to a very expensive store in the center of Manhattan where Spot goes in before him and Race is dared to try on a very expensive suit that he looked very good in. He changes on camera. Jack watches him, terrified to look away as he tries to follow him and stop him from getting himself killed. Apparently some kid died in Santa Fe playing Nerve.

Race doesn’t listen to his warnings and continues to take dares with Spot until they are dared to leave the store after their clothes have been stolen. Race says he won’t shoplift, but Spot is insistent. So Race comes up with a compromise.

They run out of the store in nothing but their underwear. Their watchers get a kick out of it. One of them even buys them the clothes they tried on, letting them keep them.

Jack decides he’s watched for long enough and calls someone for help. A dear friend of his. Okay, it’s his girlfriend, and maybe she’s a little older than him, but hey, who’s keeping track? He asks her for access to the dark web and she reluctantly gives it to him. When he has access, he finds all he can on Spot, previously known as Sean Conlon, a kid who played the game in Santa Fe.

He doesn’t seem like an upstanding citizen.

Albert is trying his best to get into the top ten, to win the whole game, but his watchers won’t give him any real dares. He’s out with Crutchie and JoJo when they find out that Race is playing the game. Albert is shocked and a bit jealous at how fast Race is moving up in the game.

Becoming a pair in this game, Race is dared to get a tattoo of Spot’s choosing and, though terrified of getting a tattoo at the wrath of his mother, accepts the dare and lets Spot calm him down with some music while he gets the thing, to later find out that it’s a lighthouse, for To The Lighthouse. After Race manages to complete this dare, the watchers move forward with a dare for Spot. He has to get to sixty miles per hour on his motorcycle while blindfolded.

Race almost bails on him because of it, because he’s terrified, but Spot manages to convince him to help and Race guides him while they get to sixty in five minutes. They barely make it and then they almost crash, and then they kiss, feeling invincible.

Jack can hardly watch, fearing his little brother might die and then his mother calls, asking why the hell money is being deposited into Race’s account and where it’s coming from, so Jack has to deal with that while he’s still trying to look for his brother.

Spot takes Race to a carousel. They mess around on it while Race tells Spot about Specs, about how Specs was fearless, about how Specs pushed him to do things he would’ve never done otherwise. Spot tells him it’s a shame he never met him. He thinks they would’ve gotten along. Race agrees with him before Albert tries calling him.

Albert has been at a party with the rest of their friends. They’re all watching Race play Nerve live on a big screen. He sees Race reject his call. He hears Race call him annoying, frustrating, attention demanding. It hurts. And everyone else gets to hear it too.

Spot suggests they go to the party that Albert’s at to show everyone that he’s not who they thought, to show people that he got a tattoo and his own opinions. However, when they get there, they find that Albert has bailed on a dare after the watchers found out he was scared of heights. He nearly fell from a ladder suspended above ten stories.

He’s pissed that his best friend wasn’t there to talk him out of it. This sparks an argument between Race and Albert. Race eventually tells Albert to sign up and watch him from now on if he wants to know where he is. Then he accepts his next dare, to finish Albert’s. He walks across the ladder only to be met with his big brother who tells him that Spot set him up, that he took a dare to get him to the party to fight with Albert. Race shoves him away and finds Spot, demanding to know if that’s true.

Spot pulls him into the elevator and tries to explain. But Race won’t let him. He’s had enough. He runs out of the building. He finds a cop and tries to tell him about Nerve. He needs someone to shut it down. But he gets distracted by a call from his mother, telling him that everything they had was gone, that their savings had been drained and photos were showing up on her and Jack’s social media page that shouldn’t be. Before Race can respond, he’s knocked out cold by a player who has been around the whole time, someone Race suspected Spot knew.

When he wakes up, he finds himself in a metal cage with the words “Snitches get Stitches” scrawled out on the walls. A computer lights up and tells Race that he is now their prisoner. A prisoner of the game. A flash of Jack comes across the screen. Then one of Albert. Terrified, Race tries to break out only for Spot to show up and pick the lock for him.

Spot explains to Race that he’s a prisoner of Nerve too and that the watchers control his whole life, and not just that, they control his family’s life. His sisters and his mother too. The only money they get is money the watchers give them after they messed with his mom’s job and his sisters’ futures have been destroyed. He explains that they’re going to give Race an impossible dare and that they sent Spot here after him to finish it for him if he can’t.

Down the hall, muffled voices are heard and Race walks into a new room to find Jack and Albert tied up and gagged on chairs and a gun sitting in between them. He’s dared to choose who lives and who dies.

Race is obviously scared and refuses to choose, trying to bail, but Spot stops him, telling him that if he bails, he’ll be a prisoner until the game comes around again. He has to win to get out. So Race takes the gun and aims it at his own head, causing the watchers to tell him to stop. They need someone to control. So Race stops and Spot unties the other boys and helps them out finding a secluded parking lot to drop them off before he rushes off to complete his next dare, trying to make sure he was the one in the finals with Race instead of Blink, the other boy who he was made prisoner with after going to the cops when their friend died playing the game.

Spot takes the same dare that got his friend killed, hanging one handed from a construction crane. He manages to do it, putting himself in the finals.

Jack, Race and Albert pull together and form a plan, calling some backup in and going to The Cloud, a place Katherine often hangs out. He asks her and her hacker friends to try and gain control of the boys controlling the game and she does. Jack takes Albert there after Albert makes a call at a pay phone. They try to hack the game while Jack gets a call from his panicking mother whom he tells to meet him at The Cloud.

Race goes to the finals and is given another gun. When he sees Spot across this mysterious arena, he tries to run to him, having fallen for him over the course of all of these insane events, but the watchers tell them to stop and take their marks. The first to shoot their opponent wins.

Spot tells Race to shoot him in the shoulder. Race almost complies, but shoots the ground, telling him that he can’t do this. He tries to walk away but someone from the crowd says that he’ll take the challenge instead.

Blink jumps into the arena.

Medda gets to The Cloud just in time to watch the whole thing.

The watchers vote for Blink to shoot Race. And he does.

Medda can’t fathom the fact that she’s lost another child.

But Jack just tells Katherine to blow it up as Race falls into Spot’s arms.

Spot begs him to wake up as the anonymous players phones reveal their real names and tell them their accessories to murder. Everyone begins to sign off.

Spot cries over Race, completely horrified and tries to shoot Blink before Race shoots up in his arms, telling him that he was alright, that it was all fake. So Spot hugs him and begs him to never do that again.

But he’s so happy that he’s finally free.

Race immediately calls Jack and Medda and they cry together. So Spot takes him to them.

Jack and Medda encourage Race to go to Italy and Spot and him end up in a committed relationship. Albert and Race makeup and Jack is still overprotective as ever and they heal from the loss of Specs and are able to actually love on.

For more Mood Boards and AUs, click here!

[artificialqueens]

Private Show (Biadore) - Sarcastacnt

Roy has been watching Danny’s live streams maybe a little too intently. What happens when Danny finds out? Takes place way back in 2015 during BOTS.

A/n this sat for about 2 weeks cause I could not for the life of me come up with a title. This was also started as me wanting to practice writing smut. Yup. Not sorry about it.

~*~

2015

Battle of the Seasons Tour

London, England

Roy wasn’t sure when it started, not really. He knew that by the time the reunion was filmed he had developed a crush on one of his best friends. The only reason he remembered having feelings for Danny at the reunion was because of that fucking crush question. When Adore had answered in the negative, Roy felt disappointed and called on Bianca to come up with a joke to save face.

Thankfully Roy was good at hiding his feelings and now, a full year after the reunion he still managed to keep them to himself. Well, he’d told Shane a year ago but he had been very drunk at the time. Shane had rolled his eyes and said something about kangaroos jumping good.

At some point over the last year Danny had begun doing these live video chats with his fans. Roy had watched a few with mild interest, Danny chatting about whatever was on his mind was nothing new. It was just how Danny was, he had no filter and he very rarely thought before he spoke. Roy had almost stopped watching them until one night someone had asked Danny to dance. Maybe Danny had been a little more intoxicated than normal. Or maybe he had smoked too much weed. Whatever the case, not only had he danced but he had stripped down to just a black thong. Roy had watched with eyes wide, jaw slack and pants rapidly tightening. He was loathe to admit it, but when the stream ended Roy had been left sitting in his computer chair with his cock in hand and cum dripping all over his fist.

Since that first dancing video, Roy made a point to watch every single stream Danny put out. Any time he danced or stripped, Roy ended up getting off. Some nights when Danny was really feeling himself, the dances would take on a far more sexual energy then normal. Once Roy had  managed to get off twice over the course of one particularly hot thirty minute stream (something he hadn’t been able to do since his 20’s). All it had taken was Danny slowly sucking one, then two and finally started choking himself with three of his long fingers. Danny moaned when his fingers hit the back of his throat and made him gag. The moan he let out, that incredibly arousing moan was now seared into Roy’s mind.

Roy knew it wasn’t a great idea to use his best friend’s live streams as though they were his personal porn. It was hard to resist though, those streams turned Roy on more then anything pornhub had to offer. Maybe it was the fact that Roy knew Danny personally that made it so arousing, or maybe it was because of the crush he had on his best friend (probably the later). Whatever the case, it made sharing a bed way too exciting for Roy to sleep well if he slept at all. Since they were currently touring together for Battle of the Seasons, they ended up sharing a bed frequently.

They were all given their own hotel rooms on those glorious nights they didn’t have to sleep on the bus. Though that didn’t stop Danny from climbing into Roy’s bed every chance he got. It had started when Danny claimed whoever was in the room next to his was having a screaming match. He had looked at Roy with those big green eyes and Roy had been helpless to do anything other then sigh and open the door. Since that first night, Danny’s excuses had gotten  weaker but Roy always let him in. Danny would grin from ear to ear, strip down to his boxers and dive into bed. Having Danny’s nearly naked body pressed up against him at night was costing Roy more sleep then he could afford to lose.

The first time Roy had woken up as the little spoon with Danny’s morning erection poking his ass, he had been more then a little tempted to roll over and suck Danny off. All he could think about was how Danny had happily choked himself with his fingers and how badly Roy wanted to shove his cock into Danny’s mouth. He wanted to hear, not to mention feel Danny moan around a mouthful of his cock. He managed to control himself however, settling for grinding his ass ever so slightly against Danny’s cock. Roy thought he was busted when Danny clutched his hip and started moving against Roy. He risked a glance over his shoulder only to find Danny still asleep. Allowing himself to enjoy the faux fucking for a few moments,  Roy eventually moved away from Danny and went to finish himself off in the shower.

Danny discovering just what Roy was doing during his live streams was Roy’s biggest fear. He just had no idea how Danny would react if he found out. Danny was pretty (very) comfortable with his body so he probably wouldn’t be embarrassed but he might find the whole thing gross. Maybe even gross enough to either block Roy from joining any future streams or just flat out be done with Roy all together. The possibility of Danny no longer being a part of his life was something Roy wasn’t sure he could handle. So, Roy kept his new habit very much to himself. Not being good at all things technological (social media aside) he figured that as long as he remained silent in the chat, Danny wouldn’t even notice that he had been watching.

Maybe Roy just needed to get laid. He should go out with Shane and actually bring back trade one night. The worry that he would end up saying Danny’s name at some point had kept Roy returning to his room alone for weeks. Besides, none of the other men could hold a candle to Danny and Roy wasn’t interested in fucking some random man when he could be cuddling in bed with the real thing.

That had to be what was going on, right? Just a need to get laid, combined with Danny’s strip teases. He just needed to get off and Danny’s streams were a convenient source of arousing material. He refused to believe that he was allowing this crush to interfere with his life. In reality Roy’s behaviour had made his crush very apparent to every other queen on the tour, Danny included.

~*~

Just because he played dumb when in drag did not mean that Danny was stupid. Far from it, he was far brighter then most people gave him credit for and was especially gifted when it came to reading people’s energy. He had known since at least the reunion that Roy had a crush on him. That was why he had hesitated before answering, he hadn’t wanted to hurt Roy. The truth was that at that moment he wasn’t sure how he felt. He had noticed right away how attractive Roy was and loved every part of him, even the 6am with no coffee part and that bitch was hateful.

Now Danny knew he absolutely liked Roy in a way that went beyond friendship. He had been hesitant to do anything about it because of how much he liked hooking up. At 25 he was growing tired of sleeping with people he didn’t know and would probably never see again. He hadn’t wanted to be with Roy if he couldn’t give the older man his whole self. As frightening as it sounded, Danny was ready to commit.

Danny, who was good with technology, always knew when Roy was watching one of his streams. He made a point to look for Roy’s name in the chat. The older queen never participated in the chat though, not even to throw shade. The little bubble with Bianca’s face in it let Danny know that Roy was watching. Whenever Danny knew Roy was there, he made sure to put on a show. The first time he had stripped down to his thong, his eyes had remained on that tiny icon of Roy’s face. As soon as he had logged off that night, Danny had gotten himself off while imagining that Roy had been in the same room as him. That the strip tease had been a private show, just for Roy. In Danny’s fantasy, Roy hadn’t been able to contain himself and had jumped Danny as soon as his thong hit the floor.

That was how his evenings went almost every time he recorded a stream. Getting off to whatever images of Roy his brain could come up with. It was getting so bad in fact, that Danny never really watched porn anymore. All he wanted was to get off to thoughts of Roy. Danny knew he should probably feel guilty but he was almost positive that Roy was using his streams to get off. One night Danny had rushed to Roy’s room after a stream and found his friend flushed and slightly out of breath. Despite Roy’s baggy sweat pants, Danny hadn’t missed the older man’s semi hard cock or the look of pure want when he saw Danny.

Danny wasn’t sure when his crush on Roy had begun but now that crush was turning into more. It was so silly! Both he and Roy were avoiding discussing their mutual attraction. Ducking around this fire that burned hotter and hotter every time they interacted.

Danny knew there was something there, all he had to do was get Roy to admit it. He snorted, easier said than done.  He racked his brain, trying to come up with a way to force Roy into admitting  what was going on between them.  Or rather what had the potential to go on. A prank video he had seen recently popped into his head. They had used a simple app that had looked like Instagram but was really a two way call. Danny shivered at the thought of catching Roy in the act. He thought about watching Roy as he touched himself for Danny, because of Danny. The thought made Danny shiver and his pants tighten. He knew he had to make that happen and all he needed was five minutes with Roy’s laptop. With a smirk on his face, Danny jumped to his feet and nearly ran all the way to Roy’s hotel room. It was happening tonight, Danny was done with the teasing and the nights alone.

~*~

“Hey B, can I borrow your laptop please? Mine’s acting up.” Danny asked, after knocking and being allowed into Roy’s room.

“Yeah of course, you know the password?” Roy asked as he handed Danny the computer.

Danny nodded, “Yep!” he took the laptop, climbed onto Roy’s bed and quickly set his plan in motion. Thankfully this hotel had decent wifi so downloading the app wouldn’t take long. His tongue poked out the corner of his mouth as he worked.

The absent minded gesture caught Roy’s eye. He pulled his gaze from his phone and focused on Danny. Fuck did he ever look hot. His face was a study in concentration, hands moving over the keyboard so surely that Roy couldn’t help but wish Danny was touching him instead. Quickly shoving that thought aside, Roy wondered if Danny was planning on another stream tonight.

“You gonna strip for your mermaids again tonight?” Roy asked, somehow managing to keep his tone flat, as though he wasn’t overly interested in the answer. Which was most assuredly not the case.

Danny looked up at Roy and shut the laptop. He climbed to his feet and walked to the desk where Roy was watching him.  Danny set the computer on the table and dropped a hand to Roy’s shoulder. “I’m putting on a special show in about an hour. You should watch.”

Roy shook his head, “Not tonight chola. I still have a tone of work to do.” He had emails to answer, planning his own show was a lot of work.

Danny lay his other hand on Roy’s shoulder and leaned forward until his mouth was beside Roy’s left ear. “Please B?” he whispered. “I promise it’ll be worth your time.” His breath was tickling Roy’s neck and the older queen squirmed in his seat. Danny was squirming as well, he felt almost drunk on everything that was Roy. The smell of his aftershave, the feel of his skin, the hitch in his breathing and the tiny noises Roy was making all working together to drive Danny insane.

“Adore…” Roy grimaced when his voice didn’t come out as stern as he’d hoped.

Danny gently kissed Roy’s ear, followed by his neck. Danny thought for sure that Roy would have pushed him away by now but no, for some reason Roy seemed perfectly content to let Danny not only hug him but kiss him as well. Deciding to see just how far he could push his luck, Danny licked a hot stripe from the base of Roy’s neck up to his ear. Then he took the ear lobe in his mouth and nipped at it before soothing the reddened skin with his tongue. He started flicking his tongue behind Roy’s ear, searching for any sensitive spots. He must have found one, Roy let out a low groan and his eyes slid shut.

Roy shivered as Danny continued kissing his neck. The soft brush of his lips was forcing Roy to think about other places on his body he would very much like to feel Danny’s lips. “I just have a lot of work to do. Maybe next time?” Somehow he managed to keep his voice even, which was surprising considering how fast his heart was beating. Danny was now caressing his shoulders, chest and arms, all the while running slow, gentle kisses up and down his neck.

“It would mean so much to me.” Danny let his tongue flick the soft skin behind Roy’s left ear. “Please? I’ll make it up to you.” He paused for a second before a mischievous grin spread across his face. “Oooh, is this one of those times when you want me to beg for it? Maybe call you daddy? Cause I can do that.”

Roy’s entire face went red. There was no way he would be able to control himself if Danny started calling him that. He sighed in defeat and gave in. “Fine. I’ll watch.”

Danny squealed and hugged Roy tightly, pressing a kiss to his cheek. “Yay! Thank you! You’re the best B!”

Roy squirmed in Danny’s tight embrace, “Yeah, yeah, now get out. I gotta finish this if I’m gonna have time to watch.”

Danny nodded, “I gotta go get ready anyway! See you soon!” with a wave and a wink, Danny was gone. Roy let out a sigh,  he really needed to learn how to say no to that silly chola.

~*~

One hour later, Roy sat in bed with his back up against the headboard and laptop open. He was in an old tee-shirt and boxers, since Danny had promised a ‘special’ show, Roy figured he’d be dancing. Hence the loose boxers and bottle of lube on the night stand.

Roy frowned and cocked his head to the side as he saw the “Instagram” app, the colours were just slightly off. He examined the app closely and noticed that the letters a and g were both backwards. Curiosity got the better of him and Roy quickly googled the app that was definitely not Instagram.

MIS COLOURED INSTAGRAM ICON

Suggested: Would you like to learn to type like a normal human person?

Roy narrowed his eyes at his surprisingly shady laptop. Below that unhelpful suggestion was the information Roy needed.

“Sneaky bastard.” He chucked to himself. Danny had switched the app with a two way calling one that was designed to look very similar to Instagram. If you weren’t looking closely it was easy to miss the differences.  Roy wondered what Danny had planned that he only wanted Roy to see. He glanced over at the bottle of lube, debating if he should put it away. No, Danny had been flirting with him earlier, whatever this ‘special show was there was little doubt in Roy’s mind that he would need the lube. He decided to let Danny believe that the switch had worked, he would keep it to himself that he was aware of Danny’s plan.

With a few clicks, Roy had the app open and saw Danny was already online. As soon as Danny’s image came into focus, Roy’s mouth went dry and his cock twitched.

Danny was kneeling on the bed, dressed in an old Pink Floyd tee-shirt and black thong. His dark brown hair was long enough to brush his shoulders now and Danny was running his hands through it while he licked his lips.

“Why do you guys always wanna see me dance?” Danny chuckled as he started looking for a song.

“Maybe cause they’re a bunch of thirsty bastards and you’re too sexy for your own good.” Roy mumbled, trying not to laugh as Danny addressed the nonexistent chat.

Danny snorted with laughter and his face went a little red. While he looked for a song to dance to, Danny chanced a glance at Roy. His heart skipped a beat when he saw Roy sitting in bed with the lube next to him. Danny bit his lip as he considered the implication of that tiny bottle. Fuccckk, how did Roy turn him on so much by just sitting in bed?

“Oh! This one! I haven’t heard this in forever!” Danny exclaimed as he clicked something on his laptop.

‘Ava Adore’ by The Smashing Pumpkins began to play and Danny started to dance. He was still kneeling on the bed as he began to roll his hips. Danny smirked at the camera as he dragged his hands from his waist to tangle in his hair and back down again. With a wink he pulled up the bottom of his tee-shirt just a little, teasing Roy with a brief glimpse of the pale smooth skin covered with a light dusting of hair.

Roy groaned. Fuck, not even a minute in and he was ready to rip his boxers off and start masturbating. He couldn’t remember wanting anyone as badly as he wanted Danny. His desire had moved beyond simple want, he needed Danny, had to have him, to feel that ass when he was buried inside it, to feel those lips working his cock before painting Danny’s pretty face with cum.

Danny noticed Roy’s wandering attention and frowned. He felt almost offended that Roy wasn’t giving his strip tease the attention Danny felt it deserved. Arching one eyebrow, Danny addressed the camera; “What could be more exciting than me?”

Roy snorted and tried not to laugh at Danny’s absolutely adorable frown. Poor Danny looked very serious but all Roy wanted to do was ruffle his hair or maybe pinch one of his cheeks. Roy shook his head and turned his attention back to the image of his best friend. “Not much chola, I’m already fucking hard.”

“Good.” Danny said and he pulled off his shirt and smirked when Roy did the same. A low moan escaped Danny as he raked his eyes over Roy’s chest. With the shirt out of the way, Danny could now see the obvious tenting of Roy’s boxers. His mouth fell open and his tongue poked out the side mindlessly as he thought about tearing off those boring gray boxers and licking every last millimeter of Roy’s cock. Danny closed his eyes and shuddered, he wanted to taste Roy so fucking bad.

Roy could almost feel Danny’s gaze burning his skin as the chola took in his shirtless form. He saw Danny’s cock twitch in his thong and groaned when he realised that it was all for him. Just taking his shirt off had Danny moaning and licking his lips. Fuck, Danny’s face was the personification of desire right now. Knowing now that Danny wanted him filled Roy with both pride and lust. “You’re so fucking gorgeous.” Roy gasped as he squeezed himself through his boxers.

Danny grinned and felt himself blush at the compliment. He eyed Roy’s hand with envy, from what Danny could see it appeared all those jokes about being a ‘big top’ were true. With a groan Danny began to thrust his hips as he moved to the music. “Mmm, are you as turned on as I am?”

Roy could only nod as he continued to stroke himself over top of his boxers. He groaned as he watched Danny move. Why the hell did the stupid chola have to be so fucking sexy?

Danny ran his hands up to his chest and began to play with his nipples. “I wish you were here with me. Wish my hands were yours. I need you daddy.” Danny closed his eyes and bit his lower lip as he pinched his nipples harder.

“Fuck…” Roy breathed, his eyes fluttered shut for a moment. When he opened them again he watched Danny continue to play with his nipples. “Me too chola. I bet I could make you beg just by playing with your nipples.” Roy moved his hands to his own chest and gave a thorough demonstration of what he would like to do to Danny. “Fuck baby boy, I don’t  know if you’ve ever looked better. All hard and begging, only for me.”

Danny traced the outline of his erection through the thong, teasing himself. Hearing Roy call him ‘baby boy’ made him groan. Roy couldn’t possibly know that yes, all of it was for him and him alone. Danny wanted to scream as he locked his eyes on Roy’s still contained cock. Even through the lap top camera, Danny could see the wet mark where pre cum was leaking from the tip. He shoved two fingers in his mouth and began thrusting them in and out until they were drenched, before trailing them down his body.

“Mmm, your hands feel so good.” He said, imagining his hands were Roy’s. “I want you so badly.” He was staring right into Roy’s eyes now, wondering how long it would take before Roy figured out what was really going on. “Please daddy…” he whimpered as he squeezed his erection.

Roy couldn’t stop the noise that escaped him. “Fuck…Danny…” he groaned as he caressed himself through his boxers.

Danny let out a little moan as he saw Roy touch himself. “Will you touch yourself for me?” his voice was low and sounded like pure sin.

“Fuck me…”

Danny chucked, “Don’t I wish babe. Now do it, pull it out and touch yourself for me.” Danny commanded, as he began to toy with the waist band of his thong.

Roy didn’t immediately respond to Danny’s order, he wanted to take his time tonight. He’d fooled around over Skype before but this was so fucking different, so fucking good.

When he saw Roy wasn’t playing along, Danny frowned. He didn’t like it when he didn’t get his way. “I’m not gonna keep going until you do as you’re told.”

The harsh tone of his voice was doing something to Roy. His cock twitched, begging for attention. Roy gave in, he set his laptop aside and pulled off his boxers before setting the computer back on his thighs.

Danny’s mouth went dry as he got a look at Roy’s erection. Sure, he had heard the rumors and Roy’s own jokes but the reality was something else. He wanted nothing more in that moment then to rush down the hall and wrap his lips around it.

“Mmm, you’re so big baby, so hard just for me.” Danny paused for a minute before deciding to really push his luck. “What would you do to me if you were here? Tell me.”

“Fuck…” Roy breathed. He ran through a list of fantasies in his mind before settling on the one that had consumed his mind the most often.

“Fuck baby boy, I’d bend you over and fuck you hard. Make you call me daddy.”

Danny closed his eyes briefly at Roy’s words. Oh he’d call the older man daddy all he wanted.  “Would you make me beg for it daddy? Or just give me what I want?”

Roy groaned at the use of ‘daddy’. “Depends on whether or not you’re a good boy for me. Hun chola? What would you be?”

“I wish you were here daddy, I’d be so good for you. Let you do anything you wanted to me.”

Roy watched Danny’s hand as he gripped himself with an expression of open jealousy on his face. Roy would have done terrible things in that moment to replace Danny’s hand with his. He looked back up into Danny’s eyes and groaned seeing how wide his pupils were blown. Danny’s long brown hair was a mess and his face was flushed. He looked fucking divine. Roy watched as Danny caressed his erection.

“Anything hun? Hmm, in that case I’d start by sucking your cock until you fucking beg for more.”

Danny groaned as Roy spoke. If this night didn’t end with Roy plowing Danny into the mattress he wasn’t sure he’d get over it. If Danny did end up alone tonight, Roy sucking his cock until he begged was what Danny would think about while he jerked off. Listening to Roy actually tell Danny what he wanted to do to him made him seriously consider the possibility of cumming from Roy’s voice alone. The arousal was obvious in his voice, which was deeper than Danny had ever heard it and it made Danny’s cock throb.

“I’d set you on the bed on all fours and eat your ass while fingering you until you were ready to take my cock. Then I’d make you suck my cock, force you to take all of it while I spank you. Listening to you gag while I pull your hair.” Roy kept his eyes on Danny.

The images Roy was providing Danny with were making him tremble. Danny absolutely loved rough oral sex, both giving and receiving. He looked at Roy’s hands and pictured them gripping his hair tightly while thrusting into Danny’s more then willing mouth. Between what Roy was saying and the way Danny was touching himself, he was getting close to his release. It really wouldn’t take much to finish but when he came tonight, he wanted it to be on Roy’s cock. So Danny decided to end the game or bring it to the next level, depending on how Roy took the reveal. He looked right at Roy and pulled off his thong, grasping his erection.

Roy’s eyes went wide in shock at what Danny was doing. It occurred to Roy that Danny knew he was watching, Danny must want him to watch as he touched himself. Roy felt a possessive feeling over take him.

“Mmm please don’t stop Roy, let me watch you fuck yourself for me. Fuck, I need you so badly.” Danny closed his eyes and threw his head back as he stroked himself slowly. He opened his eyes again and made contact with those warm amber eyes he loved so much. “Please Roy, please I need you here. I want you so badly. Please come fuck me, I’ll be so good for you. I’ll let you do anything you want to me. Let me show you how good it could be. Please daddy.”

Suddenly he was faced with the possibility of getting to touch Danny the way he’d wanted to for months. Hell, forget possibility, Danny was literally begging for Roy to come fuck him. Roy kept turning Danny’s words over in his mind, ‘please Roy. I’ll be so good for you. Please daddy’. Fuck. Roy gripped his erection a little tighter, fuck.

“No one else was watching, don’t worry, it was a private call. I need you Roy, please I’m so ready for you. If you want to finish this in person, you know where to find me.” With that Danny ended the call, leaving Roy alone with his fist still wrapped around his erection.

“Fuck.” Roy cursed as he got to his feet and pulled on a pair of fluffy sweatpants. He picked up his tee-shirt and thought for a minute while he pulled it on. Danny was his best friend, maybe this was a bad idea. Before he could talk himself out of meeting up with Danny, the memory of the younger man masturbating and moaning Roy’s name came crashing back. Roy’s cock twitched hopefully.

“Fuck it.” Roy grumbled. If Danny wanted to get fucked that badly, who was he to refuse?

~*~

Roy knocked on Danny’s door less than five minutes later. When Danny opened the door, Roy’s mouth went dry. Danny was standing there in just a towel slung low on his hips. The various patches of ink on Danny’s skin stood out against the pale flesh. Between the tattoos and long shaggy hair, Danny looked like the bad boy who was just looking for redemption in some shitty movie. Roy walked into the room, deliberately crowding Danny and forcing him to take a few steps back.

“So, looks like your laptop is working just fine chola.”

Danny had the grace to blush, knowing he’d been caught. Before he could say anything, Roy turned the deadbolt, locking them both in.

The sound of the deadbolt engaging made Danny squirm. If Roy was locking the door behind him, it had to mean he was here for one reason. Danny had been half expecting Roy to show up and start yelling, enraged by Danny’s trick. Instead Roy was advancing on him like a predator, the kind Danny didn’t want to escape.

Danny stood his ground, eyes locked on Roy’s face. As soon as the younger man was within arm’s reach, Roy wrapped one hand around the back of Danny’s head and the other grabbed Danny’s right hip. Roy hauled Danny  to him until they were flush against each other. They stayed that way for a moment or two, gazes locked, faces centimeters apart and their breathing becoming ragged. Both could feel the other’s erection as Roy moved his hand from Danny’s hip to his ass and ground against him. Danny gasped and wrapped his arms around Roy’s neck before pulling his face the rest of the way to his. A groan escaped Danny as their lips crashed together.

Finally.

After months, if not years of hidden feelings and private fantasies, they were wrapped up in each other’s arms. Lips moved together as hands began exploring.

Danny moaned as Roy’s tongue came out to lick at his lips. Roy pulled Danny’s lower lip into his mouth, nipping and sucking it in turn. He couldn’t get enough, Danny was fucking addicting. The taste of him was driving Roy crazy, the feel of him compelled Roy to lower his hands and grab Danny’s ass. Roy groaned loudly as he uses his grip on Danny’s ass to bring them even closer.

Danny lowered his arms before wrapping both around Roy’s waist, lowering one hand to squeeze the older man’s ass. He gasped against Roy’s lips when Roy raised the hand holding Danny’s ass to deliver a good smack. Determined not to be out done, Danny began rolling his hips against Roy’s, both men moaning at the friction.

Eventually, Roy pulled their lips apart and began to kiss Danny’s neck. Danny threaded his fingers through Roy’s hair, holding the older man against him as Roy moved down his neck, towards his chest.

Remembering the way Danny had moaned as he played with his nipples. Roy decided he needed to see for himself just how sensitive they were.

Reluctantly releasing Danny’s ass, Roy started by lightly brushing his fingers over the raised nubs gently. Danny moaned and thrust against Roy, grinding his erection against Roy’s hip. Encouraged by Danny’s response, Roy pinched the younger man’s nipples just on the right side of rough. Danny gasped and his eyes shot open, he shivered and Roy smirked when he felt it.

“You’re so fucking sensitive baby boy, I could do this for hours. Want to see how close I could get you without ever touching your cock.”

Danny groaned and shook his head. “Please Roy! I need you! I need you to fill me until I scream! Oh, please daddy!”

Roy disregarded those tempting pleas (difficult as it was) and resumed his worship of Danny’s body.  Dropping to his knees, Roy peeled off the towel and wasted no time before taking Danny’s erection into the slick heat of his mouth. As Roy ran his tongue all around Danny’s cock. The younger man let out a mess of curses and praise. He was so turned on he knew he wouldn’t last long. With great reluctance Danny spoke: “You need to stop B, I’m getting so close..!”

Roy looked up at him, “How do you want to cum love?”

Danny didn’t have to think about it. “On your cock. Please Roy? Let me cum on your cock tonight.”

Roy got to his feet and took in the man before him. “You’re so fucking beautiful, I’ve been wanting to fuck you for so long. Wanted to fill you with my cock ever since you started dancing in those live streams.” He said as he grasped Danny’s hips.

Danny nodded, groaning at Roy’s words. “I know baby. The streams when I danced were the only times you stayed online until the end. I used to get off afterwards, thinking about you touching yourself for me. It was so fucking hot knowing that you were getting off to me while I danced.”

Roy went a little red in the face but looked relieved. “I was so afraid you’d be angry about it, or just disgusted by the thought of what I had been doing. I felt so guilty but you’re so fucking gorgeous and I wanted you- I want you so badly, I couldn’t stop myself.”

Danny grinned, “I’m glad you didn’t stop.” He ran his hands down Roy’s chest, giving both nipples a pinch before he grabbed Roy’s cock in one hand and cupped his balls with the order. “Now, can we please stop talking about this and get to the part where you spank me and fuck me into the mattress?”

Roy chuckled, “Impatient, aren’t you?” A moan escaped him as Danny jerked him off a little faster.

Danny nodded and gave Roy a look that silently asked him how he wasn’t feeling the same way. “I’m so fucking ready for you B. I’ve been wanting you to fuck me since you laced me into that corset back on Drag Race. I remember hoping you’d used the laces to tie my hands behind my back.”

“I wanted to.” Roy confessed. “So badly. I remember having to talk myself out of bending you over that tiny table. Every chance I got back in the werkroom, I was staring at your ass. Imagining how good it would feel to fuck you the way you need to be fucked.” He reached down and grabbed Danny’s ass, giving it a slap just to hear Danny moan.

“Then do it, fuck me. I’m all yours.”  Danny purred as he arched his back when another slap made him bite his lip in an attempt to muffle his cry of pleasure.

Roy moved to kiss Danny’s neck. “Don’t hold back, let me hear how much you want me baby boy. How absolutely desperate you are for me to touch you.”

Danny groaned loudly,  “Get on the fucking bed Roy. I’m done waiting.”

Managing to keep a straight face, Roy climbed onto the bed and lay down on his back, head among the half dozen pillows. He crossed his arms behind his head and watched as Danny climbed on the bed and began crawling towards him.

Danny kept crawling until he was straddling Roy, his hands planted near Roy’s face. Danny looked down at Roy and smiled brightly before dropping his head down to kiss him.

They kissed for a while, taking the time to explore each other’s mouths. Roy paid special attention to Danny’s bottom lip, making Danny whimper in pleasure when he gently bit down.

It wasn’t long before Roy wanted more. He wrapped his arms around Danny’s waist and rolled them so he was now on top. He looked down at the beautiful man below him and began to kiss his way down Danny’s body. When Roy threw Danny’s legs over his shoulders, Danny let his head fall back and his eyes drift shut.

They flew open again when instead of Roy sucking his cock, he felt a tongue circling his entrance. “Oh holy shit!” Danny  cried out, his hands gripping the sheets tightly as he arched his back.

Roy pulled back for a moment to let Danny get himself together before he began licking him with abandon. He pushed the tip of his tongue past the tight muscle and wiggled it before withdrawing to circle Danny’s entrance once more. Danny was thrashing and moaning as Roy repeatedly tongue fucked him. After some unknown amount of time passed, Roy snatched the lube off the night stand and coated his fingers. When Danny’s moans became incoherent noises, Roy reluctantly pulled his mouth from Danny and slowly inserted a finger instead.

“Roy…” Danny gasped as Roy slowly started finger fucking him. Even with just one finger inside him, Danny felt amazing. “God yes Roy!”

Roy watched the younger man’s face, Danny’s eyes were shut tight and his mouth was hanging open. His cheeks were flushed and he looked like he was in ecstasy. Roy couldn’t help feel a little pride at what he had managed to reduce Danny to with just one finger.

“More…give me more. “

Roy kissed Danny’s left thigh, “That’s not how we ask for things Daniel.” Roy gently sunk his teeth into Danny’s inner thigh. All the while moving his finger slowly in and out of Danny. The tip of his finger just barely hitting Danny’s prostate.

“Please! I need more, please Roy!” Danny begged as he looked down and caught Roy’s gaze. He reached down and cupped Roy’s cheek, “please daddy.” Danny said softly, his eyes filled with affectionate lust.

The way Danny was looking at him made something in Roy’s chest tighten. He climbed back up Danny and brought their foreheads together as he slid another finger into Danny and began making a scissoring motion.

Somehow Danny managed to keep his eyes open as Roy fucked him. Their gazes locked together and Danny’s arms around Roy’s shoulders. He couldn’t take it anymore, fuck he needed Roy.

“Please Willow, I can’t take anymore,” Danny said with all sincerity.

Roy nodded and grabbed the lube once more before positioning himself between Danny’s widely spread legs. As tempting as it was to flip Danny onto all fours and fuck him into the mattress, Roy needed to see his face. Wanted to watch as he came apart under Roy’s touch. Roy grasped his erection and teased the head against Danny’s entrance for a moment or two before slowly pushing inside.

Two almost identical long, low moans filled the room as Roy bottomed out. Roy grasped Danny’s hips tightly as he tried to get himself under control. Danny was so tight, so beautiful and Roy knew if he didn’t find a way to control himself, he wouldn’t last and this was one experience that he wanted to savour. “Fuck baby, you’re so tight, so hot, you feel so good.”

Danny pulled Roy’s face down to his and kissed him soundly. By the time they broke apart, Danny was ready. He began moving his hips up off the bed to meet Roy’s.  “Fuck B, you’re so big, stretching me so good. Fuck!” Danny exclaimed as Roy began to move.

Slowly at first and gradually picking up the pace, Roy fucked Danny. He altered the angle just a little and when Danny let a high pitched whimper escape his mouth, Roy knew he had hit the spot. He concentrated his thrusts there, watching Danny writhe beneath him.

“Good boy, moan for me. Let me hear you.” Roy encouraged as he started to thrust harder. The whole bed was shaking, headboard bouncing off the wall with the force of his movements. Danny was squirming and moaning, his hips raising to meet Roy’s thrusts.

“So fucking good B… fucking me so good…” Danny said as he reached down to grab Roy’s ass. His finger nails digging into the soft flesh before he lifted one hand and slapped Roy.

Roy groaned when Danny’s hand crashed down on him. He buried his face in Danny’s neck and bit him. “Do it again.” Roy demanded, spanking was something he was normally on the doing side of. Feeling Danny spank him however, while he was buried inside the younger man was making Roy reconsider his thoughts on the subject.

Danny couldn’t stop a smirk from gracing his face as he slapped Roy a little harder this time. When Roy moaned, Danny did it again.

With every strike of Danny’s palm, Roy’s thrusting became more forceful and wild. Gone were the slow, controlled movements. Replaced by a frantic pace as Roy began to chase his release.

As Roy fucked into him harder, Danny moved his hands to grab Roy’s shoulders. Unable to keep up with his movements, Danny was now just barely holding on. His hands kept slipping due to the sweat that made their bodies slick.

Roy reached between them and grabbed Danny’s cock, stroking him frantically. He was close and was trying to bring Danny with him.

Danny felt his whole body start to shake, “B I’m gonna-!” he was cut off as Roy pressed their lips back together. Danny was the one to break the kiss as the tight coil of pleasure deep within him finally snapped. He arched under Roy as his orgasm washed over him, spots of light flashing behind his tightly shut eyelids. Danny moaned against Roy’s lips as the older man followed Danny over the edge. Filling Danny as he came.

It took several minutes before their heart rates slowed back to normal. Roy moved his mouth back to Danny’s, kissing him lazily as he pulled out.

Danny groaned at the loss, squirming a little as he felt a combination of lube and cum dripping out of him.

“Don’t move.” Roy said as he went to the washroom to grab a towel.

After they were both more or less clean, they were laying in bed, Danny with his head on Roy’s chest. Roy was idly playing with Danny’s hair.

“That was really fuckin’ hot B.” Danny said with a laugh, “Like really, really fuckin’ hot.”

Roy chuckled and wrapped the arm around Danny’s torso a little tighter. “I’m glad you enjoyed it.”

Danny sat up and turned to look at Roy,  “Didn’t you?”

Roy pushed some hair away from Danny’s face, “Of course I did chola. I was worried for a minute there that googled the wrong app and you had whipped your dick you in front of hundreds of people.”

Danny snorted, “Wouldn’t be the first time.”

They both laughed and chatted until they could no longer keep their eyes open. Just before he closed his eyes, Roy noticed that Danny’s laptop was still open. The screen was dark however, so he didn’t bother to mention it as he curled himself around Danny and fell asleep.

~*~

30 minutes ago…

Back in Roy’s hotel room, the Brians were sitting on the bed watching the show while munching on popcorn.  No one was sure where they had found the giant red and white stripped bucket of popcorn and they didn’t volunteer the information. They also managed to dodge the question of just how they managed to get into Roy’s room. Although Katya was probably the one who got them in.

“You owe me 50$ Tracy Martel.” Katya said around a mouthful of popcorn.

Trixie huffed dramatically and crossed her arms under her over stuffed bra. “I never thought in a million years that Bianca would relax enough to finally fuck Adore.”

“But she did mother.”

“AAAHH! Not Maureen!!”

The End

[amythecinnabunny]

71 and 100 Julie and Luke

71. Twenty-Four Hours to Live  

100. Accidentally Saving the Day   

You really would like to kill the fandom and me wouldn't you???? I tried so hard to make it jukebox specific but the whole band + Willie are so closely entwined with each other its nearly impossible akxbjsbsbs

So I'm thinking canon-verse? But a year later or less. I think more than a year would get a little awkward as Julie would surpass 17 in a year's time.

All our current problems and issues are resolved by this point. Ray, Carlos and Tia Victoria have met the band. Possibly Carrie too. The Bobby/Trevor debacle is dealt with. Caleb is deslth with (he's not dead(er) he's just keeping to the HGC). Julie and Carrie have since mended their friendship. Jukebox and Williex are official now. Possibly Flarrie too, maybe Kaylie. Maybe Nick/Flynn. Maybe Carricklynn. Maybe Nick/Reggie. Who knows, anything is possible. Julie can see but not touch Willie -- but he others can't see him at all.

The band has made it big by now. They're the latest and greatest. Almost everyone is talking about Julie and the Phantoms. By now, articles and posts refer to them as legends.

Julie's looking at colleges now and it's kinda settling in that Julie's growing up. In a year, she'll be done with high school and going off to college, something the boys never even had the change to do. So that angsty conversation's gonna happen.

But then things start to get weird. Sometimes, Julie will pass through the boys but they won't immediately notice. Or they'll be talking to someone other that Julie and they'll sort of flicker. Not physically or anything its just that to the other person, they're flickering.

Oh yeah, for this, I'm gonna go with the more they play with Julie, the more human-like they get and by the end of the year gap, they're visible full-time, just not always tangible to people other than Julie. They can still do their gimmick cause the whole visible thing is on command. So you can bet your ass Luke vanished on the spot when Ray asked about jukebox.

The strange thing is . . . It's happening with Willie too. Sometimes Willie's hand will go right through Alex's. Sometimes he and Reggie are playing video games with Carlos and then both of them see Reggie flickering and Reggie, of course, doesn't notice

One evening, after a late night gig, Julie and the boys gather on one couch to watch the local 24/7 news together and see them hit the highlights on a recap. The newscaster??? newsreader??? wtf do you call em? anyway the presenter brings them up near midnight and calls them Los Angeles' most beloved legends.

Midnight on the dot, the boys get these circles on their wrists. Like tattoos. A stamp. Just a thick black ring. They're all confused about it and they check Julie's wrist for a ring -- maybe it's a magic band thing? -- but Julie's wrists are free of any black circles.

They're so confused, they spend all night thinking about it. Julie doesn't even sleep. She calls Flynn about it. She calls Carrie about it. She even talks to Carlos until he gets tired. Alex brings Willie over to talk about it. They're all so baffled that they don't notice it changing until dawn-ish.

Willie's the one to notice Alex's. A quarter of the ring is missing. Julie grabs Luke's wrist and compares it to Reggie's before scrambling over each other to put their wrists next to Alex's. All still identical, with about a quarter of it missing.

"It looks like a countdown."

"What happens when it counts down to the end?"

Silence

Willie says he'll ask around the HGC. Yes, Caleb is safe to visit. His ass has been kicked and it's mostly embarrassment that keeps him holed up when he's not performing or practicing.

Reggie shrugs it off, saying he and Carlos have a date with Destiny. Destiny 2, to be specific. Alex also shrugs it aside, he has a Dirty Candy rehearsal to crash and he's not about to miss it. (The running lie is that the boys visit Julie after every gig. Maybe Kayla knows the truth too. Idk it's small details, up to the author that would like to decimate me by writing this)

That leaves Luke and Julie alone together. Julie can't get it out of her mind. If it's a countdown, what's it counting down to? What happens at the end?

Luke tries to take her mind off it with some songwriting after she gets breakfast, maybe practicing a little together. They even write a little bit of a duet together. Luke keeps Julie entertained for a full four hours, amid which Alex returned and chose to go and watch Reggie and Carlos completely lose track of time.

Julie takes an hour-long nap, leaving Luke to stare at the ring on his wrist and wonder why it's nearly a half circle now.

Willie pops into the studio in a frenzied panic, Reggie and Alex in tow. Luke is so startled, he nearly drops the acoustic. The clatter wakes Julie. Willie looks almost apologetic when he notices her.

Julie asks him what he found out as Luke sits next to her and helps her move her hair from her face. Willie struggles to explain. He's half hoping that maybe, if he doesn't say it aloud, it won't be true. He says it's a clock. It's twenty four hours.

Reggie is the one who asks what happens at the final hour. Willie doesn't answer for a long while. He just holds Alex's hand tight.

At the same time, Willie's hand drops as if he hadn't been holding on to anything and Luke's arm passes right through Julie. The boys flicker before Julie and Willie and it lasts nearly ten seconds.

It slowly dawns on them. No one wants to say it.

"They cross over," Julie whispers when the silence gets heavier than the revelation. Willie only nods. The silence in the garage weighs on them almost visibly.

They look at their wrists, almost half circles.

"So we have about twelve hours left," Alex says. "Maybe we can figure out a way to stop it."

Willie reaches for Alex's hand again. "I asked. There's no way to stop it. Once your unfinished business is complete, you have twenty four hours before you're gone from here. Gone for good."

Luke is adamant there's a way to stop it. His arm tightens around Julie, like she's the one leaving. He hates the defeated look in Willie's eyes. He hates that even in the back of his own mind, there's a voice telling him to get his affairs in order before he dies for the second time.

By the time Reggie determinedly states that there has to be a way to stop it and that they will figure it out, the marks have become perfect half-circles. There are only twelve hours left.

I don't wanna think too hard about it because I don't need to cry at 10pm, but there will be a lot of sad but sweet jukebox moments in between it all.

By the time there's only a third of the ring left, they've started losing hope. They haven't found a single ghost who has any idea how to help. The internet has been very unhelpful. There was a group of wiccans who tried to help but they suggested a spell that didn't look very authentic and it also involved sacrificing a goat at midnight and well, they didn't have until midnight. Still, the wiccans were very sympathetic and wished them well.

They didn't know how to tell the rest about this and they didn't have any idea how to say goodbye to each other. It felt like they were trying to say goodbye to a piece of themselves, the the most important part of themselves.

At the three-quarter mark, Reggie quietly tells Alex and Luke that they ought to spend some time alone with Willie and Julie. If Reggie/Nick or Reggie/Flynn is a thing for this, then Reggie would spend some time alone with them. If not, probably Ray and Carlos.

Cue the most heartwrenching conversation you have ever read in your life, ending with the worlds most grief-filled kiss. I'd get into it but like I said up there, I cannot afford to start crying now.

It's a thin black strip when they get together in the studio. Reggie's partner would be there too if he has one. If not, it's just the band + Willie.

Willie hasn't let go of Alex for over an hour, but now, when the mark is a nearly invisible line, he nudges Alex forward, towards Julie and Luke.

"Band circle?" Luke tries to joke. It only makes their tears fall faster.

Reminiscent of the hug they shared when Caleb's stamp lifted, the four of them try as hard as they can to hug each other as tightly as possible. Willie thinks to himself that he feels strange not being the last person to hold Alex, but it feels like for his band to be the last people to hold him.

None of them are very co-ordinated outside of music related things and just like the night a year ago, they tumble to the ground when someone stands on someone's foot and someone leans a little too much in one direction.

Willie can't help the laugh. It's just so them to be so undignified even in their last moments. He can't even see any of their marks anymore. The only reason he knows it must still be there is because the boys are this there. They knock the radio down and it starts playing the last inserted CD. Willie joins them on the ground and lays his head on Alex's chest as Now or Never fills the studio. --like we'll live forever, but live it like it's now or never

Julie, from between Luke and Reggie, reaches over to grab Alex's hoodie, just so she can be holding on to all of them when it happens. "I love you guys so much."

Luke kisses her forehead. There is a chorus of, "I love you too, Julie." Willie and Alex quietly share another set of "I love you"s.

Julie has long since gotten used to laying her head on Luke's chest and hearing nothing, but the silence behind the old song is nearly deafening. It just serves as a reminder than this is the last time she will ever see or touch Luke or Alex or Reggie again. She wraps her other arm around Reggie. It's uncomfortable and is probably bruising some part of her body, but she needs to be able to hold them all before they go.

Julie shuts her eyes and holds tightly to her boys, wishing with all her heart that there was some way to save her boys again. Some way to bring them back properly this time, so they could grow up with her. Some way to make sure Alex and Willie could stay together, that one of then won't ever have to say goodbye.

It only registers that something feels a little strange after the song abruptly cuts. The CD scratches, trying to play the rest of it but there's just a steady clicking sound. It clicks on a steady count. Like a steady drum beat. In time to a pulsing beat.

Like startled stoats, Willie and Julie shoot up and lock eyes over Alex and Luke.

The boys are, rightfully, confused.

Julie and Willie spiderman-meme point at each other, sputtering like an old car on a frozen winter morning.

Still confused and expecting to be long gone, they boys sit up and search their wrists for any traces of the mark, even the thinnest of lines.

Finally, Julie gets a coherent word out. "Heartbeat!"

"Heartbeat!" Willie echoes, nodding vigorously.

They're still jabbing their fingers at each other, having a full conversation with their sputtering sounds.

"Heartbeat?" Reggie echoes, baffled.

Julie and Willie yell at Luke and Alex, "Heartbeat!" It seems to be the only word they can get out. Clicking her tongue, Julie grabs Luke's hand and presses it to his own chest.

Reggie screams suddenly. He's standing suddenly and he's got his fingers at his neck. "P-p-p-pulse!"

He looks at Julie and Willie. "Heartbeat," he says slowly, understanding.

Alex screams. Willie only realises Alex had been holding his wrist when he lets go.

"What?"

Alex reaches out for Willie, as if to cue his face, but instead places his fingers just under Willie's jaw. He screams again, startling Willie, who never expected his boyfriend to look him in the eye and shout like he'd seen a demon. So Willie screams. Which startles Alex. Who screams again.

Luke finally registers what's going on. He screams. Right in Julie's ear. She gets startled. She screams. Startling Luke. Who screams again.

Reggie is still screaming with each place he puts his fingers and feels a steady beat.

There is so much screaming going on in the studio that Ray and Carlos make their way down too. Carri and Flynn, who wanted to be there for Julie after, come barreling in after. The four of them stand there, perplexed, as Julie, Alex, Reggie, Willie and Luke, all standing now, point at each other and scream.

Its pandemonium, honestly. A miracle none of the neighbors have come over to check.

And Julie drops her first curse in front of her dad as she stares at Luke, Reggie and Alex. "WHAT THE FUCK, YOU GUYS????"

Willie, who's never had any qualms cursing when no living adult could ever hear him, stares at Juliie like she's grown a second head. "NO! NO NO NO! NOT THEM WHAT THE FUCK! ME WHAT THE FUCK!!! ME!!!!"

Julie squints at Willie. "What??"

Alex holds up Willie's wrist. "PULSE!!"

Julie's eyebrows shoot up. "PULSE???? WHAT DO YOU MEAN PULSE?!"

"I mean pulse! What do you think??"

"What the hell is going on in here?" Carrie finally mutters.

As one, they all turn to the perplexed group in the doorway. Julie grabs Luke and drags him up to Carrie. She almost throws him at Carrie with the amount of force she uses to thrust his arm at her. "Pulse," she says, pointing to Luke's wrist.

Carrie sighs. "You know you're the only one that can--" Carrie screams when Julie slaps her arm with Luke's hand. Carrie screaming startles Flynn, who let's out a short screech.

"NO MORE SCREAMING!" Ray yells. In the silence, the clicking radio seems to get louder. Not trusting any of the screaming teenagers, Ray turns to his son. "Carlos, can you turn that off, please?"

Carlos rights the radio and presses the pause button. He presses it again. Sunset Curve fills the studio for a second -- dreaming like we'll live forever -- before Carlos manages to get it off.

Later, after they've explained everything and are still trying to wrap their heads around it, Julie crawls onto the couch beside Luke and lays her head on his chest. It's incredibly strange to hear a steady beat where there was once nothing but she can't deny that she loves the sound of it.

"That demo has more magic in it than the entire Hollywood Ghost Club," Alex mutters from the armchair he and Willie are squished into.

"I wonder what'll happen if I listen to any of the other tracks on the demo," Julie jokes.

"We'll probably grow wings," Reggie mutters from under Carlos, who had been so thrilled that Reggie wasn't leaving anytime soon, he had fallen asleep hugging Reggie.

Alex and Luke laugh, sharing an inside joke.

"You think you guys would still be here if Reggie didn't knock the radio over?" Willie asks.

"All hail, my mighty inability to watch where I'm going."

This time, Julie and Willie laugh too.

Julie curls up against Luke and sighs contentedly, listening to Luke's heart pound against his ribcage. In that moment, she can't think if anywhere else she'd rather be, anything else she'd rather listen to.

For the first time since they died, when Julie finally falls asleep, they doze off too.

Willie feels strange. When he yawns, he realizes he hasn't been tired since he first woke up as a ghost. It's nightly inconvenient and annoying, but he hasn't felt this alive since Alex first kissed him. As Willie dozes off, he makes a mental reminder to figure out what included him in the whole thing. He'll forget when he wakes up and they spend the day celebrating their mere alive-ness.

Things get even more interesting when Julie and the Phantoms perform again and Jullie accidentally walks through Luke, but that's a whole other story.

[botwstoriesandsuch]

casual anon checkup how you doin

Let’s see, well we just breached 4am, and the sense of urgency to complete some school work has finally kicked in. I got my laptop propped up on the kitchen counter, and I just finished making some houseblend coffee that I loaded with milo powder for “health” purposes. Gotta finish up this AP Stat quiz while pretending I have some semblance of what the hell is going on in the class that I don’t pay attention to. I got my fancy bluetooth headphones that I connect with the wire anyway because I don’t like using up the battery, and I’ve had this acoustic cover of Solitary Warrior Revali looped for a few minutes now--I need those soft vibes to distract me from my thoughts about how the only reason I’ve been so sluggish with my work overall is probably due to years of ingrained perfectionism and inability to adapt my standards to the currently circumstances of the world along with my slightly declining mental health so you know--music’s nice. 

Oh! And my dad got me this electric coaster (as pretentious as that sounds, I know. Leave me and my not-cold drinks alone ok) for the holidays and it matches with my favourite mug that I’m drinking from right now so, it’s the little things :3 Plus, not to derail myself from my school life intentionally, I’ve been working on this sheet music for one of my songs for a few weeks now and it’s starting to actually sounds pretty decent so yaay!! Probably won’t share it for a long time though...I’ve really been only working on it on and off again when I have “free time” [which may or may not just be my online class gym period hey you can’t prove anything to the cops]

Uhhh what else can I shove in here...”How you doin” pfft, I don’t really know how to make this ask funny or entertaining. Well I’ve nearly finished up this zine piece about the Royal Tech Lab so that’s fun (shameless plug for the Memorabillia Zine) aaand, I’m picking my kalimba again to learn Mipha’s theme. About time, cause I have to record shit for the [REDACTED] project I’m working on >:) heh. Oh fucking SHIT now that I think about it I have like three different secret projects I’m working on huh...haven’t even finish the script for that damn au...OK what it, right, “how am I doing” well, I’m doing everything and nothing currently, if that makes any sense. Your possible regrets about sending this to me aside, it feels good to just lay everything on a plate, shit out a post, and then never talk or acknowledge it ever again. It’s like birds, you know how they just take a ten pound shit in the mourning and never look back? (That way they don’t need to go during the rest of the day) That’s what this is, just a giant load of bullshit that I’m gonna set out at 5am and then never look at again. 

You know as unhealthy as it sounds I really do dedicate a lot of time to this blog and this fandom. I mean sure not all of it (arguably any of it) is productive, but hey it’s something. The fuck else am I gonna do with my time...you wake up, you slam your keyboard awake to show up to online class, you take a nap, you spend a few hours keeping up the cishetallo gifted student appearance to your parents and then spend the rest of your time finding enough serotonin on the internet to make your brain work. Hell if I’ve talked to another human being in real life all year. Even my parents just kinda talk about the news and “how was class” during dinner which lasts like 10 minutes. My dad just kinda pisses off to work as soon as breakfast is made, and my mom just kinda stays in her office until everyone’s back and she makes dinner. Wait, that’s a lie, she does talk to me on Sunday mornings when she informs me of how I’ve ruined her day before church. So you know I do prefer it that way anyhow, why the hell would I want to talk with them when I got perfectly entertaining internet companions. What’s a “what scholarship programs are you doing?” to a *checks notifications*, “why are Rito fingers like that if they molt to they just lose the ability to--” god fucking dammit...

So! What were we saying--how am I doing? Welp. Guess it’s up for interpretation cause I sure as hell don’t know the answer to that. The hell would you do with the answer anyway. Pity points, praise points? I don’t particularly care for either. God I just realized you introduced yourself as “casual anon,” HA....apologies this is the opposite of casual isn’t it. Or, well maybe it isn’t. I’m the one just having a nice little chitchat with myself as I sip through my mug o’ caffeine. I might have to add a keep reading bar to this so I don’t blog up the dash, but also that would be ironically humorous to see for such a stupidly small question huh. Idk, contrary to popular belief I don’t have a spine so I’m probably not gonna unload all this shit on my followers like that out of the blue. Hell I’d be surprised if I actually posted this. Then again...5am and vibin with bad decision making.....plus the sentiment of putting something out to be seen is always nice.

You ever watch Bojack Horseman? Fantastic show, it’s just on a whole ‘nother level when it comes to writing. And yeah, I probably should have been watching it in the first place, BUT.............yeah ok there’s real excuse I probably shouldn’t be watching it/have watched it. But there’s this one episode in Season 4 I think? It’s where Bojack gives a eulogy for his mother’s funeral and the entire episode is just that, it’s just this giant monologue of him giving his eulogy. And that episode always facinated me because it is probably the most interesting episode in the entire show and one of my favourites, and like...how did they do that?? How did they make twenty minutes of talking so engaging and entertaining? I mean, yeah, I could probably analyze the pacing and structure to find the answer, and hell if I’ve watch my share of youtube video essays on the subject. But like, just the entire concept that someone had the idea to make 20 minutes of talking an entire episode....that’s just insane (forgive the language). 

It’s one thing to want to talk about yourself for a long time and be interesting, but to pour all kinds of energy to make some made-up fictional character talk about THEMselves for a long period of time...is that sad? Or maybe it’s respectable. /to make an audience care more about something that’s not real rather than you. Well, perhaps that’s selfish thinking. 

Oh! You know what, I just got this super nice message from someone the other day about a Raybands giveaway. Obviously, I’m not in the need for sunglasses during this day and age so I kindly declined and ignore the offer, but it got me thinking: how liked to you have to be in order to sway someone to clicking a random link. Like I’m talking about your friends or something, but like, if you opened your door oneday and Mr. Rogers was there selling clementines, would you buy them? Or if Lin Manuel Miranda offered you a vaccum, would you buy it? What’s the standard of known niceness that constitutes to you complying with what they’re asking? I sure would like to know....not for manipulation purposes but just for...idk, just having that tangibility of something. 

Ah well, fuck me gently with a chainsaw how am i doing. Well I’ll tell you what I’m doing, I’m procrastinating. Procrastinating on work and wips and conversations and dilemmas. You don’t fail all the shots you don’t take afterall *wink wink* aaand for legal reasons that was a joke. Idk, you tell me how I’m doing, fuck if I know. According to this empty mug, I’m doing well, but I also will be doing a piss in the bathroom probably.

[curiosi-tea-writes]

Coffee

Pairing: Din Djarin / Cobb Vanth

Setting: Modern AU

Summary: Most of Din and Cobb’s date nights consist of them going out to dinner, a museum, or possibly a movie. But Din comes home one date night to the extreme scent of coffee filling the house. It’s decided that sometimes they can stay in and do something different for a change.

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

The smell of coffee hit Din the second he opened the door. He had just gotten back from dropping Grogu off at Peli’s for the night, excited for his and Cobb’s one night off a month to relax and focus on each other while Grogu gets absolutely spoiled by his aunt.

He entered the kitchen and stopped in the doorway. Spread out on the counter was every type of coffee they owned, each open, Cobb scooping coffee grinds out from one of the bags. 

“What are you doing?” was all Din could manage to get out. 

Cobb’s gaze snapped up with a large smile. “I’m combining all of our coffees together to make one franken-coffee.” He was far too excited about this idea and Din could scoffed out a laugh and shook his head. “I had texted you saying I was going to do it,” Cobb defended, turning back to the ludicrous amount of coffee before him.

Din pulled out his phone and checked his messages for the first time in hours. Sure enough, Cobb had sent him a link to a YouTube video of someone combining all of her teas together with the message, ‘This but with all of our coffees?’ Din chuckled and put his phone away again. He walked up behind Cobb and wrapped his arms around his waist. “Is this how we’re spending our night off?” He rested his chin on Cobb’s shoulder. 

The spoon in Cobb’s hand fell back into the bag of coffee. He turned as best he could without forcing himself fully out of Din’s embrace. “It’s our night off,” he sighed. He had completely forgotten what day it was. In a split second he was already beginning to close up the bags of coffee. “I’ll just clean up and we can go out and do something I just-”

“Hey,” Din spoke softly, pulling Cobb back towards him. He placed his hand gently over Cobb’s and moved them away from the bags. “I didn’t mean it in a bad way, I was just asking. We don’t have to go out, we can,” Din glanced over at the bags on the counter and gave a laugh, not believing the words he was about to speak, “make a franken-coffee.”

Cobb’s heart skipped as Din spoke, the way it always did when he remembered just how much Din loves him. He threw his arms around Din’s neck like a little kid and laughed. He pressed his cold nose to Din’s neck, smiling at the warmth. “Have I mentioned recently how much I love you?” he whispered.

Din hummed and tightened his hold on Cobb. “Every single day,” he chuckled, “but I never mind hearing it again.” 

With a roll of his eyes, Cobb stepped away and turned back towards the counter. “Are you going to try this with me?” 

“Do I have a choice?” Din asked as he picked up a chocolate coffee bag and brought it up to his nose. He hadn’t seen half of these coffees in months because they just keep buying more. The chocolate one had always been Din’s favorite though. He let his eyes fall closed as he breathed in the scent and smiled. He opened them to see Cobb’s face bright and happy and it made Din’s heart squeeze and all he could do was stare.

Cobb lifted his gaze to ask Din a question but the words died on his lips. If it were possible for a person to have literal heart eyes, that’s how he’d say Din was looking at him in that moment. It gave him butterflies in his stomach just as it had the first time he caught Din staring like that. “What?” he mumbled, suddenly extremely self conscious. 

“Nothing,” Din whispered back, a soft smile playing on his lips. “You just look so perfect when you’re happy.”

Cobb was grateful that he hadn’t had a spoonful of coffee in his hand at that moment because he likely would have dropped it. He both hated and loved that Din could make him weak-kneed so easily. He shook his head and tried to brush off the heat in his face with a chuckle, turning back to his project. 

Din closed the distance between them again and wrapped his arms around him from behind as he had earlier. “I take immense pride in knowing that after three years of a relationship, I still manage to make you blush.” His words were warm against Cobb’s ear, causing chills to run down Cobb’s spine. 

“Who said you make me blush?” Cobb attempted to defend. “Maybe it’s just warm in here.”

Din tightened his arms and laughed. “Right, I’m sure.” He let go quickly and stepped away. His smile widened as he watched Cobb lean back, chasing the embrace. “Alright,” he spoke clearly, breaking their soft moment. “How many coffees do you have left?” 

Cobb barely contained the near growl bubbling in his chest as he felt the warmth of Din’s body part from his. He cleared his throat and straightened his shoulders. He gestured to four bags separated from the others’. “Just these four,” he managed to get out before having to attempt to clear his throat again. 

With a smirk, Din reached around Cobb and took the spoon out of his hand. He scooped coffee from one of the bags and put it into the strainer. He moved that bag aside with the others that had been done and reached for another. 

“Thank you,” Cobb said softly, leaning his arms on the counter. 

Din looked up and furrowed his brows. “For what?” There was a hint of a laugh in his words that made Cobb believe he didn’t actually know.

“Everything,” he sighed. “Agreeing to stay in tonight so I could do this, helping me do it.” His smile grew brighter with each word, willing the adoration he felt to show through. “Loving me unconditionally.” 

Din set the spoon back down and crossed the distance again. His hand was cold on the back of Cobb’s neck as he pulled him in for a gentle kiss. They parted, their lips ghosting against each others. “I just like to see you happy,” he whispered against Cobb’s lips. 

“You make me happy,” Cobb replied, closing the small distance to connect their lips again. 

Din smiled into the kiss, basking in the pure bliss of the moment. He adored Cobb so much and lived for these soft moments between them. When Cobb pulled away, he chased his lips for a moment before straightening his shoulders again. 

Cobb turned excitedly and finished preparing the coffee. Din leaned against the counter and watched with a light smile and bright eyes as Cobb waited very impatiently for the pot to be done. 

“You do realize how much caffeine you just put into one cup of coffee, right?” Din laughed as Cobb poured the extremely dark coffee into a large mug. 

“I couldn’t care less,” Cobb admitted with a smile as he held the mug out to Din. Their hands brushed as Din took the mug and Cobb wished he could convince his heart not to flutter every time they did as if it was the first. He watched with an anxious gaze as Din brought the mug to his lips and took the smallest sip. His expression changed to one of pure joy as Din’s nose scrunched up. “No good?”

“It’s uhm....” Din paused and took another sip, his reaction not as dramatic this time. “It’s not horrible.” He took another sip. “It’s growing on me. It’s extremely bitter.” He went to take another sip but Cobb’s hands on the mug stopped him. 

“Okay, okay,” Cobb laughed. “Don’t drink all my coffee.” He took the mug out of his hands and brought it up to his nose to breathe in the scent before taking his own sip.

Din scoffed. “There’s a whole pot of it,” he defended, prompting Cobb to nearly choke on the drink. “What’re you going to do? Drink the whole pot?”

“Perhaps,” Cobb mumbled into the mug. 

“You are so chaotic.” Din shook his head and moved around Cobb to the cupboard. He found himself a smaller mug and poured some coffee in it for himself.

Cobb leaned against the counter and smiled brightly as Din took a sip from his own mug. “It’s why you love me.”

“One of the reasons, yeah,” Din admitted. 

They took a quiet moment, just admiring one another. Standing a handful of feet apart in their small kitchen, warm mugs of strange coffee in their hands, both minds filled with, “Goodness he’s perfect.” Both could feel the warmth of their drinks fill their bodies with every sip; so much so they were unsure where the warmth of the drink stopped and where the warmth from the love began. Neither truly cared, though. To them, they were one in the same. 

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

Hours later, Din’s brain continued to spin from the one cup of coffee he had. He knew full well that having a cup so late in the day would result in very little sleep but he couldn’t complain. 

Despite having three cups, Cobb had promptly crashed halfway through their movie. He laid spread across the sofa, his head in Din’s lap. Din mindlessly let his fingers run gently through his hair, lulling Cobb to sleep as the movie played on. It wasn’t until the end credits began to roll that Din noticed his position and that there was little chance of them making it to the bedroom that night. 

Din shifted slightly to turn off the tv. Letting his head fall back against the sofa, he stared up at the ceiling in the now dark living room. He couldn’t think of a more perfect way to end their evening off. Maybe it wasn’t the same as their other evenings, but it was perfect. They didn’t need to have a fancy dinner or find a museum to go to. Sometimes the best date nights were ones where they stayed home and Cobb made an insane amount of coffee. 

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

Din tiptoed quietly out of the living room after slipping out from underneath Cobb once the sun began to shine through the window. He tried not to make too much noise as he began preparing pancakes for him and Cobb. That is, until he was moving a pan out of the way and promptly dropped it with an echoing crash. He winced, scrunching up his nose as he heard Cobb make his way to the kitchen.

“Sorry,” Din laughed half-heartedly. Cobb gave his own weak laugh before groaning and rubbing his eyes. “How do you feel?” he asked, picking up the pan.

“Like I have a hangover without any of the fun of drinking,” Cobb grunted.

Din smirked, already trying not to laugh at his next comment. “Would you like some coffee?”

Cobb grabbed a towel off of the counter and threw it at him with a laugh. Din doubled over laughing. He loved making Cobb bitter sometimes and Cobb had to admit that he enjoyed it too. Cobb shook his head and rolled his eyes, finally letting himself laugh along. “I don’t think I will be drinking coffee for a long while.”

“That is a blatant lie and you know it,” Din laughed, turning back to the food.

“Yeah, you’re right,” he admitted with a nod. “I will not be recreating that creation again though.”

Din turned and jokingly glared at him over his shoulder. “Yes you will.”

“Yeah, I probably will.” 

[beevean]

Sonic and speed: are we misunderstanding them?

This article was originally written in Spanish by @latin-dr-robotnik​ on his blog - you can read it here!

Today on SHP, I’d like to bring attention to a topic that I keep noticing being discussed everywhere (especially now during quarantine), and that somehow worries me: are we misunderstanding Sonic and his characteristic speed?

During these last few weeks there has been a new, relatively unusual explosion of videos and comments on the Internet regarding Sonic and, relevant for today, what is the best game or the best level. The simplest reason has to be the lockdown we’re going through, and which is leaving us with more time to play or think about those games we want to play, or never will. On the other hand, the most cynical side of me believes that this boom of Sonic-related content is because Game Apologist’s video about S3&K and Sonic in general was so popular, it sparked the “interest” of other creators (the video itself is great, and I elaborated my opinions on it here). Whatever the case, there is a greater discussion about Sonic going on right now, and I feel like it’s not directed where it should be.

Before starting: there are a bunch of videos that helped me shape a good part of the opinions I’m going to explain today. You don’t need to watch all of them, and they’re not mandatory to fully understand this article, but if after reading it you’re left wanting for more, or you’d like to hear different options, I’d recommend you watch these:

1.     Sonic and Speed (Errant Signal)

2.     The First Levels of Sonic Games (Super Bunnyhop)

3.     SONIC the HEDGEHOG: How Level Design Can Break a Game (Broken Base Gaming)

4.     How Sonic Mania Makes a Level (RelaxAlax)

5.     City Escape is Peak Sonic Game Design (ZoomZike)

6.     Lost Valley Is Not Peak Sonic Game Design (ZoomZike)

What is the problem?

In a series as big and ever-changing as Sonic’s, there is a wide repertory of formulas and possible answers to the question “how to design a game?”. In some cases we’re still looking for an answer, in others we’re looking for alternatives (I talked not too long ago about the accessibility of Sonic Mania and 2D Sonic in general – Spanish only!), and most of the time, the answer has already been given in the past.

This looking for answers in the past has taken us in many directions, like constantly looking back to Sonic Adventure to solve the great enigma that is 3D Sonic; but I’d add that the recent retrospectives about Sonic and its first 2D games have raised some criticism and questions that, while valid, end up muddling a formula that has proven itself to be effective and crucial in the design of everything related to Sonic.

What really worried me is the criticism about Sonic’s speed and the levels that are considered “slow”, and we’re going to delve into this.

The basic Principles of Sonic

Speed. Platforming. Exploration. These are Sonic’s basic Principles and have always been, from its beginning until today. These three concepts are at the core of not just the level design, but the games themselves as well. The best levels in the series know how to balance these aspects, and the best games are those that can keep a balanced flow, preventing the game from going too fast, and losing its exciting component along the way, or from going too slow and becoming boring, causing the player to lose interest. Naturally, in these games there have to be all sorts  of levels: faster, more relaxed, more open and more labyrinthine, all coexisting in harmony and without going too far in one direction. Ignoring these Principles puts the quality of the levels at risk, and even our understanding of the character.

I would have put my own examples here, but just before starting to write this section I got some wonderful ones from Beevean. If you don’t remember her, she helped a lot with the article about the music of Classic Sonic, and I already warned her that if she kept posting examples this good, I would have had no choice but to feature her again. The discussion started from this post, and she says:

If you approach Sonic thinking its only characteristic is “gotta go fast”, the game you’re gonna get is Advance 2. The very flat, boring, “there’s no way to put normal obstacles in these levels so we’re gonna throw bottomless pits at the player until they get sick of them” Advance 2.

Some fast levels can be awful - Stardust Speedway is a disaster from a level design standpoint and the whole level seems to work against you. Some slow levels can be super fun - you rarely run in Lava Reef and you spend most of the time dodging obstables, but that doesn’t stop it from being one of the most beloved levels in S3&K. There’s no arbitrary reason that separates “good” levels from “bad” levels, it’s an amalgamation of many factors - plus of course your personal enjoyment.

And in her tags (because we both include more information in our tags than in our posts) she adds:

The levels that are widely considered bad usually put too much focus on one of the factors you mentioned.

Marble Zone is too slow and linear.

Luminous Forest is too fast and linear.

The Doom and Lost Impact are too labyrinthine.

And so on.

My personal example is Sonic Mania and its progression during the mid-game, from Flying Battery to Mirage Saloon:

Flying Battery is a long level, filled to the brim with speed and emotions, especially during Act 2. After beating the boss, the player is likely going to feeling exhausted after being thrown left and right, and so…

The following level is Press Garden. Act 1 is a relatively closed and relaxed level, but still moving at a reasonable pace. If the player is familiar with the level they can finish it quickly, but they still can take their time appreciating the view of the printing and the machinery of the zone. Act 2 enhances this, with an absolutely lovely view and an active but still relaxed flow…

Then there’s Stardust Speedway, which is divided into two completely opposite acts. Act 1 is a relatively fast level, but very relaxed and almost a Zen-like experience when the player lets himself be carried away by the starry night sky, and with a relative absence of lights or discomfort on the screen (enemies and obstacles aside). Act 2 is the other way around, a largely colorful, explosive, fast level (to the point that I, anything but a speedrunner, managed to finish the level in 31 seconds, 2:10 minutes if you include the fight with Metal Sonic), culminating in one of the longest, most intense bosses in the game that marks the halfway point of the adventure…

After such an exciting journey, the next level is Hydrocity, once again split in half with a calmer, more exploration-oriented Act 1, and an Act 2 that, similarly to the original level, is one of the most adrenaline-filled water levels in the series. The boss is intense as well, but verging on being tedious and not nearly as fast as the level itself…

And finally, Mirage Saloon. Every version of Act 1, regardless of the quality, are there to set up Act 2, a largely open, fast-paced level.

In short, the Mania experience is made of peaks and valleys of emotions and adrenaline, keeping the game to a reasonable pace and with a good dose of speed, exploration and platforming. The player can break the flow anytime to look for Giant Rings and other hidden goodies, and that doesn’t ruin the charm of the level. In the same way, the faster levels require the player to be familiar with them and to know how to platform to get the best results, without giving you free speed like it’s not worth it (looking at you, Advance 2).

Even the worst levels have the chance to redeem themselves, like for example Labyrinth Zone in the “Misfit Pack” Mania mod.

 Breaking the Principles.

When a level or a game breaks the balance for too long, it might become too easy (the infamous “hold right to win”), too boring (the most common argument against Sonic 1 because of levels like Marble Zone and Labyrinth Zone), or too obtuse (the criticism against Sonic CD). The key word is “for too long”, as Beevean already explained how levels that prioritize one thing over the others can still be considered good stages by the majority of the fandom (example: Lava Reef, and I’d add Spring Yard and Final Egg).

As I said before, Mania shows us how there are levels that prioritize certain aspects, but only for a few minutes at a time. Mirage Saloon Act 1 for Sonic and Tails may be a slow, boring level, but it’s only 3 minutes long in a game that lasts 2-4 hours. Same goes for Carnival Night Act 2, a long, tedious level, but that is still a 4-9 minutes long interval before getting back on track with Ice Cap and Launch Base.

3D Sonic is a much more complicated situation, as every game has its pros and cons. Adventure 1 is one of the games that experiments the most with the Principles in a 3D plane, but it breaks the flow of the stages with the plot and hubs worlds to explore (which are pretty divisive even to this day; for the record, on this blog we’re pro hubs). Adventure 2 gets rid of the time-wasting hubs but each character focuses on one Principle at the time: Sonic and Shadow focus almost exclusively on speed with some platforming, Tails and Eggman on action and platforming, and Knuckles and Rouge are all about exploration (and RNG…). Sonic Unleashed does pretty much the same, just reintroducing the hub worlds, while Sonic Generations is at its core a balanced mix of speed, platforming and exploring (plus a much smaller hub between levels), and… well, I think I made myself clear. 3D Sonic is a mess of ideas that orbit around the fundamental Principles, but that for some reason are never kept consistent between games.

Going back to utterly breaking the Principles, there’s one level above all that destroys every one of those extremes, never taking the middle road and without worrying at all about what players might think of it. This level is…

Eggmanland

If Sonic Mania is a clear example of a relatively balanced flow, in its mid-game at least, Eggmanland may be the biggest example of what happens when each and every one of the Principles is taken to its extremes. Let me explain:

Speed: Eggmanland can be both too fast for the player to react, between QTE and super quick jumps that may lead to your death if you’re not fast enough (and you rarely will), or too slow of a slog to navigate (the long Werehog sections).

Platforming: Eggmanland can have too much tricky precision platforming, made even harder due to a lack of a drop shade (the second Werehog section is infamous for this), or it can throw stretches where you do almost nothing but hold X and maybe go through a QTE, which if failed lead to your death once again; at worst you have to wait, which sends us back to our previous point.

Exploration: Eggmanland can be a giant, confusing labyrinth (there is no shortage of stories of player getting lost in this behemoth of a level), and at the same time it can have some long linear room to room progression, separated by doors about as fast as Big the Cat.

I should say that, despite all of this, I love Eggmanland a lot, and same goes for Beevean; but this is something that has to do with what we mentioned before, personal preference. From a technical standpoint, and according to many players, Eggmanland is an absolute nightmare.

Are we misunderstanding Sonic?

Going back to the central topic of this article, I believe that I put enough emphasis on the importance of balance in Sonic, so let’s go back to the previous question: what is the problem?

In short, I disagree with the voices that call for redirecting Sonic towards “fast”, adrenaline-filled stages. These people, with their own retrospective, are doing some sort of revisionism with Sonic levels, automatically branding levels that aren’t as fast as others as “bad”. We’re ignoring the true value of platforming and exploring the levels, and the perception of the character is at risk.

Like Beevean said, looking at Sonic just as “gotta go fast” is, plain and simple, absurd. Sonic is much more than this restless teenager that, just like that movie with the bus, if he doesn’t run at speeds higher than 90 mph his heart will stop. Yes, going fast is a big part of his initial appealing and his way of life (“My stories only end when I stop running”); but when Sonic’s speed is brought up in these discussions, the rest of what makes the character is left outside: how much he admires nature and how much he likes to take a rest every now and then before the next adventure. Sonic OVA, Sonic Adventure, Sonic X and even Sonic Lost World’s ending show that Sonic is not just speed, but also rest, curiosity, exploration. There are even cases where the journey and the friends and memories made along the way are much more important than the destiny itself (Sonic Heroes, Sonic Unleashed), and on several occasions it’s been shown as an actual weakness of the character the fact that he would act recklessly and under the influence of the fateful “gotta go fast”. This aspect of Sonic’s attitude might probably be product of the aggressive marketing campaigns this character endured (ever since the Genesis “Blast Processing”), but it doesn’t tell the whole story, and it’s unacceptable to enforce this line of thought over everything we know about the character.

And to end this long section where I was hinting at one of the most important points of one of the most thoughtful games of the series, let’s not forget that Sonic is pretty aware that everything has a beginning and an end, because that’s the Nature’s way of things and we have to live life at its fullest, for it is finite. Running at top speed is just one of many ways Sonic lives his life, and his eyes will forever be filled, not so much with speed, but with curiosity.

Conclusions

To recap this long article, let’s remember that

Speed, Platforming and Exploration are the three basic Sonic Principles. The momentum in the games comes from the interaction between these elements.

Speed is not something that’s delivered for the sake of being delivered: it usually is a reward or an incentive to keep the player interested, engaged and excited for what’s to come.

Breaking the Principles impacts the experience of the game in many aspects… unless you’re Eggmanland and you’re breaking every single Principle in one level anyway.

To narrow Sonic down to just “speed” is to ignore everything else that this character represents. “Gotta go fast” is a facet of his design and personality, but not the only one.

Starting from this, we can sit down and discuss about “good” and “bad” levels in the series all day long, but I don’t think it’s necessary. Now that we’re about to discover what’s next for the series, I believe it’s important to clarify what Sonic represents in every stage, so that with some luck we can see better consistency and quality in his future adventures.

Speaking of this last point, I just remembered The Geek Critique’s series of Sonic retrospectives, another series of videos that inspired me and I found enlightening. Do you guys remember the videos I linked to at the beginning? Well, it’s time for you to watch them :P (if you want to, of course)

(I’d like to thank Beevean again for suggesting the best examples I could have needed. Seriously, she helped much more than it looks)

What do you guys think? What is the ideal Sonic level, and why? Do you agree that Sonic is much more than a speedy blue hedgehog? In the meantime, we’re hopefully going to see each other very soon. See you next time!

I feel this theme is strangely fitting to conclude this article, lol

~

After the Spanish article was posted, I reblogged with this:

To add something more, I was chatting with a friend of mine who pointed out that, for all the talk in the fandom that we want to see less linear levels, most of the fan favorites are pretty linear - Ice Cap, Speed Highway, City Escape, Rooftop Run… I told him that yeah, linearity isn’t a synonym of bad level design because linear levels can still be enjoyable: with these particular cases, what makes them different from a random Lost Valley is that they have other elements that make them stand out (snowboarding, running down a skyscraper, skateboarding through San Francisco, climbing the Big Ben…). Plus they have something to compensate for the linearity, like fluid platforming.

In the case of Ice Cap and Speed Highway, there’s also a contrast between their halves: IC Act 1 is cramped and heavy on platforming, while Act 2 is much faster and without many obstacles, almost as a reward; Speed Highway starts out as fast and exhiliarating, with little platforming getting in the way of running, but the At Dawn section is a short open space, to let the player catch their breath, to the point that even the music and the aesthetic are much more relaxed. So, as you said, the balance is kept, and when you add a memorable setting and music, you have a great level in your hands.

Thank you @latin-dr-robotnik​ for giving me the permission to post this! I just had to translate this fascinating article to share it with everyone :>

[wolf-mask]

Why Borderlands 3 is Disappointing

Borderlands 3 is a fun game mechanically. I’ve spent almost 6 plus DAYS worth of hours playing the game. I finished every side quest and every collectible. The only thing I haven’t done is collect all the echo logs, but I’ve listened to all of them. The only complaint I have with the game is the story. I’ve ranted to my friend about this and, like they said, 

“it feels like great writers set up a world and cast with a ton of potential and plans laid out, and then halfway through a different team of writers took over and there was 0 communication between the two groups.” 

There was so much potential for Borderlands 3 to be good, but instead it came out “Meh.” and that seems to be what everyone thinks. After watching multiple reviews, there are 4 points of BL3’s story that people pick out as detrimental to the story.

If I’ve forgotten anything, or something sticks out to you that can be explained away by canon, please let me know.

More under the read more

1. The Calypso Twins

I have 2 complaints about the Calypso twins: their unexplained motivations and the writers’ choice of focus.

This is my own personal complaint, but why do the Calypso’s have these motivations? Sure, I get it. Tyreen wants to open the Great Vault because she thinks its her birthright as the daughter of the first vault hunter. But why become a God? I understand the whole wanting to be the most famous person thing but she could’ve just opened the vault to do that, look at Lilith and the other Vault Hunters. So why become a God? How did she come to that conclusion? Why build up an army? Why cause galaxy wide pandemonium when you could just become a Vault Hunter like the current and past playable characters? She even says herself they came to Pandora to be Vault Hunters! So why start a CULT? None of that is really answered by the game. Instead we’re given surface level villains with a surface level backstory. We never find out how their mother died.

The main complaint I’ve seen in these reviews is the story’s focus on the villains. Tyreen is never given screen time. We never learn more about her nor does she undergo any kind of character growth to become a good villain, yet she becomes the Final Boss. Instead, Troy gets most of the character development. Troy is the main focus out of the two villains, he gets the character growth after taking Maya’s powers. Troy is the more compelling villain out of the twins. He starts from the bottom, forced to rely on his sister to live but she sees him as nothing more than a parasite. He’s constantly forced into the background, be a follower, kept under his sister’s heel as she gets what she wants.

After taking Maya’s powers, however, he figures out he doesn’t have to depend on Tyreen. He starts crawling away from Tyreen’s shadow to stand by himself. The cultists start to worship him just as much as Tyreen, he starts hijacking the echo calls, he starts disagreeing with Tyreen’s leadership. The scene in Jakobs mansion makes it seem like Troy is scheming on his own. All of this focus, compounded with Tyreen’s comments during Troy’s boss fight, hints that TROY will become the Final Boss. But instead of having a compelling villain who’s crawled out from under his sister’s shadow, we kill Troy and we’re left with the less interesting villain. If they HAD to go with Tyreen as the main villain, they should’ve given her character growth to make her more compelling. You’d think she’d show some sort of growth after having her brother killed and killing her father, but nothing ever from that. She just stays a one dimensional character throughout the main plot.

2. Maya’s Death

Maya’s death was severely mishandled in Borderlands 3. In the context of the story, Maya had to die eventually, but that doesn’t mean her death couldn’t have been pushed back though. 

Compare Maya’s death in Borderlands 3 to Roland’s death in Borderlands 2. In BL2, Roland’s death had more impact because we spent more time with him (Over half the game to be exact, 11 out of 20 story missions), he spent most of the game guiding the player, and we got to see him interact with other characters as well as see how his death affected other characters.

With Maya we spend less than a fourth of the game with her (4 out of 23 missions. She should’ve been introduced earlier and killed off later), we barely interact with her and we don’t see her interact with any other characters aside from Ava and Lilith. One of the things I loved about BL2 was being able to see the old Vault Hunters interact with each other in Sanctuary. When Maya dies, her funeral is played off as a joke, Lilith is blamed by Ava, and that’s as far as acknowledgement goes. No one besides Ava ever acknowledges Maya’s death. It’s as if her death is totally ignored.

Did Maya have to die though? Yes, but not immediately. When Tyreen drained Lilith, Lilith didn’t die. But when Troy drained Maya, why did she die? She didn’t have to at that moment. Throughout the story, Maya’s powers are an important plot point. Her powers are what allow Troy to experience some independence for the first time in his life. When Troy drained Maya he could’ve just stolen her powers and left her alive. This would have left her the potential for character growth. 

So why did Maya have to die? Because Ava had to become a Siren eventually. I don’t mind Ava, I think she’s fine as a character, but if her purpose was to show how Siren powers are transferred, we already have Tannis for that. They practically shove in Ava to replace Maya as soon as she dies. It’s like taking a child’s favorite toy and shoving a new one in their arms, expecting them to like the new toy immediately. They should’ve let Ava become a Siren later down the line instead. 

3. Ava’s Characterization

As I previously said, I don’t mind Ava. I think she’s an alright character as she is right now. Most people don’t think that though, and I can see why. Ava is directly responsible for Maya’s death. She disobeyed Maya’s directions and came to the Promethea Vault on her own. Due to her disobeying orders, Maya is forced to put Ava’s well being above hers. Ava further escalated the situation, leading to Maya needing to save her. This ends in Maya’s death. 

Instead of taking responsibility for her actions, Ava blames Lilith for Maya’s death and claims that they need to rush in without thinking. And later on she’s praised as being right for the same thought process! When Lilith goes to sacrifice herself, she basically tells Ava she’s right. Not only that, she gives leadership of the Crimson Raiders over to a 13 year old child with no experience who got her mentor killed. At no point is she forced to face the consequences of her actions, she never goes through a character arc. Ava has the potential to be a likable character but her characterization was so botched that most people hate her now. They player should’ve been allowed to slowly learn more about Ava and watch her grow before taking over Maya’s role. Hopefully the DLC that focuses on her will do her better.

4. Ignoring the Player

The BIGGEST sin of BL3 is how it treats the player character. The achievements of the player are constantly undercut and we are consistently ignored by the narrative. 

The whole game made me feel like I was the side character to the Sirens. All the other Borderlands games have focused on the Player as the main character. In BL1 the Vault Hunters killed the Destroyer, in BL2 the six vault hunters defeated the Warrior and defeated Handsome Jack, in TPS those six beat the Sentinel and helped Jack rise to power. In BL3, it feels like none of our achievements matter. As soon as we accomplish one thing, something bigger happens and that needs to be focused on. You got to Tannis after that pain in the ass fight with the Agonizer? Welp looks like Tannis is a Siren and you practically did that shit for nothing! We defeated Tyreen the Destroyer? Welp looks like Elpis is going to crash into Pandora and now Lilith has to go stop that. The only times I really felt like I was making an impact was when I wasn’t doing missions for the Sirens. 

At the end of the game Ava is more acknowledged than the player and given command of an entire army. This should’ve gone to the player! The character who’s busted their ass off to bring the Raiders back from the brink of disbandment, who’s done all the heavy lifting! Hell, before going down to Promethea Lilith asks YOU to take over field operations while she’s powerless. 

But what ticks me off the most is how the narrative ignores the player. Unlike the cut scenes in other Borderlands games, you are ignored. Nearly all of the cut scenes are in third person and you are NOWHERE to be seen. Maya being killed by Troy, Tyreen absorbing Troy and trying to crush the other Sirens, Tyreen killing Typhon, and Lilith’s sacrifice. We’re NEVER seen in those cut scenes. Compare this to the cut scenes in previous games, which are almost always in 1st person and if they aren’t, the 3rd person view is used when the cut scene isn’t important. In BL3, almost all the cut scenes are in 3rd person. The only time the player is acknowledged is when Troy phaselocks the player in the Jakobs Mansion, which makes this issue all the more frustrating.

Conclusion

Borderlands 3 is a graveyard of missed potential. The story could have been so much better than it came out as. I love the game from a gameplay standpoint, it’s so fun to play, but the main story is a drag to get through at this point. I don’t think it’s worth re-playing at this point and I’m going to wait for DLC to come out before playing more of it. Again, if I missed anything or you think something could be can be explained by Canon, please let me know! I have other little nitpicks I might talk about later but for now these are the main things that I think are wrong with the main story of Borderlands 3.

If you’re interested, these videos helped me in pinpointing what felt so wrong about BL3. They’re good videos to watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-ws6VRYEDw&t=431s (Tina vs Ava)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nO2qmhaRmcc (Main problem with BL3)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lL0fAxjZnc (Wasting Maya)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibOPCU2adkE (Why Borderlands 3 is Disappointing)