#OG BARB

[radioactivecowgirl]

[solomiracle]

uh oh... 🐀

(edit on the left, og on the right)

[misc-obeyme]

Guys. He’s at it again.

BARBATOS.

The minute I saw the option to say I want one too, I also wanted to be able to say I don’t need a robot when I have you. BUT THEN BARB SAID IT HIMSELF.

Quit saying you’re jesting because I am not! 😠

I just can’t believe this happened so soon after the other one. I mean yeah okay this is OG & the first one was NB but in every timeline he continues to tease & thus drive me into insanity. I can’t with him anymore.

[milksoup4dinner]

queen barb :3

[artcinemas]

i think it would be funny that dunk and egg show pulling out a bridgerton and we see the real slim shady bardcore version playing in the background as dunk gives aerion a wedgie or is it just me 😔

[shieldofiron]

The fact that Barb x Nancy isn't Nancy's biggest wlw ship?? I'm sorry???

[savorypink]

mickey i was going through old sweetener posts and the nostalgia goes crazy!! i remember when all you had out was casting couch and other fics AAAA can i b an og fan likeee

also in my head u look like megan (yes thee megan)

the word “nostalgia” threw me for a second, but i’m remembering that in a few months it’ll be a year since i created this blog which makes it a year since sweetener 🥲 it was definitely something you had to be there for! and it was probably the most fun i had just shooting the shit with the anons that brought the au to life <3

recently, i made an old sweetener fic available again (a very special guest) upon stumbling on it in google docs bc it brought back a lot of memories (and it wasn’t as bad as i thought it was!) it’s very heartwarming to know i still have followers that have been here since then bc lowkey i’ve been feeling like a khia 🫠 and i’m forever grateful for anyone new here as well :~)

meg used to be my pfp just because she was pretty so that’s high praise 😭

[fluffykitteninabox]

I can't believe it, Solomon you complete ass bastard!

He could have summoned Barb the entire time to save us from the stupid spider, but instead we wasted time for him to make a pact with Asmo!!

And I was praising him too because at least this time he didn't trick him while he was drunk and depressed...

[just-sg]

On one side of a table sits Barbatos, with a smile that reaches yet doesn't fit right with his eyes as he cheerfully insists he's an open book. You ask him a very basic question and he gives you the most evasive technically-answer. You ask him about his feelings and he gives a pretty speech about humble duty. (He is planning 3 more mysterious schemes right now but that's not important don't worry about it.)

On another side sits Belphegor. You tell him you think it's hot how dark and mysterious he is, and he gets genuinely sad and hurt that you find him that difficult to understand. He wasn't trying to be? Is he that weird? He wasn't trying to be... You ask him to explain his feelings clearly then and he opens his mouth, then shuts it. He mutters a "fine" before sulking the rest of the meeting.

Solomon and Simeon sit next to each other on another side. They insist you can ask them anything. Solomon will give you an extensive factual answer, an extensive answer with hidden lies, or glaringly obvious lies with equal chipper confidence. (You can't even tell the difference between this simulacrum and the real thing.) Almost all of Simeon's answers are almost true and most of the slightly-off parts are so trivial except when they're not, his perpetual minor trolling masking anything he does want to get away with. All with the sweetest smile of course.

On the fourth side sit Lucifer and Diavolo. Lucifer, exasperated, reminds all of them for the thousandth time this century they can just admit they don't want to answer questions. Diavolo, living lie detector, is long past the point of exhaustion. His radar hasn't stopped going off in ages and at this point it is endlessly funny.

okay buddy

[preciousmermaidgifts]

@sacrivoiced 🌊

princess swap minus vanessa hudg3ns

aria wanders through the unfamiliar market, fascinated by the bright colors. glowerhaven has a darker palette to its fabrics and crafts where blues, greys and dark purple prevail. their kingdoms colors are black and gold, with black dominating in banners and royal clothes. the drab outlook had no doubt been bleak to prince eric upon his visit several weeks ago shortly before his birthday. his jovial crew and kindness caught aria's attention while fetching clams from the docks. was life on his island as carefree? after selling most of what she owned and gathering her savings, she afforded passage on a ship to the vibrant land for answers to her never ending curiosity. after marveling at the flowers and slices of bright fruit, aria ventures to the narrow beach hidden at the bottom of a cliff. it is the perfect place to find washed up items for the antiquity and foreign goods store she convinced to hire her. she considers everything from the ocean to be precious; pocketing sea glass and patterned shells although they won't fetch a coin at the store. as if the beach itself read her mind, she spotted a smattering of coins amidst some driftwood. dusting off the sand, aria squinted to find a year.

[the-goddess-of-gays]

*at some random café after an OG trio quest* Percy: ...so after that, we had to climb over the bob wire, right? And then– Annabeth: Hold up. Did you just say 'bob wire'? Percy: Yeah, that spiky shit, y'know? Bob wire! Grover: Bob? As in, short for Robert? Robert wire? Annabeth: Robert wi– You actually think it's called Robert wire?? Percy: Well, what do you call it? Grover: It's BARB wire! Like, Barbara wire, not BOB wire! Percy: What? Since when? WHY? Annabeth: Oh my gods. You guys. It's called BARBED wire. Because it has BARBS. BARBED wire. Grover: Oh. Annabeth: Fucking Robert and Barbara wire. Fuck this. I need another coffee.

[volkswagonblues]

a bibliography for us Daniel Malloy freaks

(a loosely pulled-together reading list about print journalism, New York, the 1970s & 80's, and the AIDS Crisis. Most of the credit goes to @islandbetweenrivers who started this)

On Daniel Molloy, California Boy

The show never explicitly states if Daniel went to college, but since college students were exempt from the Vietnam draft, which ended officially in 1973, it could be interesting to imagine Daniel in Berkeley.

Slouching Toward Bethlehem by Joan Didion

The White Album by Joan Didion

Berkeley Barb archives (link) -- weekly underground newspaper that ran in Berkeley between '65 to '80

The Daily Cal First 150 Years (link) -- student newspaper at Berkeley

On Journalism

Iphigenia in Forest Hills by Janet Malcolm

From her reporter's seat, Malcolm observes that a trial is merely "a contest between competing narratives". (Guardian review)

The Journalist and the Murderer by Janet Malcolm

“"Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible," wrote Malcolm in an opening sentence that caused a sensation in the tiny, self-referential world of posh American journalism.” (Guardian review)

The Freaks Came Out to Write: The Definitive History of the Village Voice by Trisha Romano

“The Voice’s origins were proudly amateurish. One early contributor was a homeless man recruited from a local street; equipment consisted of two battered typewriters, an ink-splattering mimeograph machine and a waste paper basket for rejected submissions. Morale spiked when a staff member discovered that dried pods used in fancy flower arrangements contained opium, which was boiled up in the office when the time came for a coffee break.” (Guardian review)

Note: The Village Voice was THE alt-weekly newspaper and it was run out of Greenwich Village in NYC. Lots of incredible writers start there and then move onto the Times, Vanity Fair, etc. Very much the sort of crowd a young Daniel would be mixed in circa 70's and 80's.

The Night of the Gun, by David Carr

David Carr redefines memoir with the revelatory story of his years as an addict and chronicles his journey from crack-house regular to regular columnist for The New York Times. Built on sixty videotaped interviews, legal and medical records, and three years of reporting, The Night of the Gun is a ferocious tale that uses the tools of journalism to fact-check the past. (amazing rec from @archive-z)

Note: imagine if Daniel did this and then fact-checked his way into remembering that vampires existed

Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks by Patrick Radden Keefe

Keefe can paint complicated portraits of victims and vigilantes alike while covering their lonely pursuit of justice. He intuits why a Dutch woman who has exposed the crimes of her gangster brother might lie about her present whereabouts. He understands why a man who lost his brother in an aeroplane bombing might spend the rest of his life trying to find the culprit. Again and again, Keefe surmises that even the most detailed of investigations can only speculate about human motives. (Guardian review)

Note: the sort of deeply human longform profiles that feels like the sort of writing Daniel does, based on his masterclass clip and what he reveals in his interactions with Louis

On New York, New York (in the 70s)

Notes from Underground, by Eric Bogosian + Perforated Heart, by Eric Bogosian

In four billion years the sun will explode. But before that we'll run out of fresh water and before that we'll all die of some mutation of AIDS that's spread by coughing. It's not my fault anyway. I can't think about this any more today. I'm going to masturbate.

Note: The OG. What else is there to say.

Ladies and Gentleman, the Bronx is Burning: 1977, Baseball, Politics, and the Battle for the Soul of a City by Jonathan Mahler

In the long sweep of American history, of course, 1977 is not exactly 1865, 1941, 1968 or 2001. Yet from porn shops to gay bathhouses, from Yankee Stadium to City Hall, from the blackout to Son of Sam, from Rupert Murdoch's New York Post to the rise of SoHo and Studio 54, the city was living through what Mahler convincingly calls "a transformative moment . . . a time of decay but of rehabilitation as well.” (New York Times review)

Remain in Love: Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club, Tina, by Chris Franz (2020)

Frantz’s account of the early days, when the Heads lived in the pre-gentrified Lower East Side of New York, an almost literal war zone. While searching for a loft to live in, they viewed one building that was on fire. One spring afternoon, Frantz walked over to the now-legendary club CBGB to ask for a gig. The place smelt of “beer, roach spray, dog doo [the owner, Hilly Kristal, had a free-roaming saluki] and Chanel No 5”.

Winter’s Journal, by Paul Auster

Note: To me, Auster is one of the closest real-life Daniel Malloy analogues: born around 1950, literary career in NYC, moved to Paris in the 1970s for a few years, troubled middle-class background. Novelist though, not a journalist. There’s an anecdote in this book about a car crash that feels like a deadass Devil’s Minion fever dream. Crazy stuff. One of my personal favourites

On the AIDS Crisis

And the Band Played On, by Randy Shilts

The book chronicles the discovery and spread of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) with a special emphasis on government indifference and political infighting—specifically in the United States—to what was then perceived as a specifically gay disease

The Journalist of Castro Street: The Life of Randy Shilts, by Andrew E. Stoner

Biography of Randy Shilts that’s very helpful for imagining Daniel in the early 1980s newsrooms covering Karposi’s sarcoma

How to Survive a Plague: The Story of How Activists and Scientists Tamed AIDS by David France (2017)

It’s not easy to balance solid journalism with intimate understanding of a subject, and even harder to write eloquently about a disease that’s killing your friends and loved ones. France pulls it off, in his own words (his description of finding a college roommate’s panel in the AIDS Memorial Quilt is heartbreaking) and in letting his articulate sources speak for themselves. (SF Gate review)

Timeline of AIDS (link)

Overview of HIV (link)

And some films, just for fun

The Panic in Needle Park (1971): Drama film directed by Jerry Schatzberg. Al Pacino is a heroin addict and small-time dealer in Manhattan who falls in love with another addict.

Serpico (1973): biographical crime drama film directed by Sidney Lumet. Al Pacino is a hippie cop (yes, I know, its part of the plot) with one foot in the 1970s bohemian art scene

American Graffiti (1973): teen movie set in 1973 Modesto ("I'm just a shitty kid from Modesto"--Danny Malloy)

The Taking of Pelham 123 (1974): More grimy 1970s NYC stuff

All the President’s Men (1976): THE ABSOLUTE JOURNALISM MOVIE??

Star Wars: A New Hope (1977)

Cruising (1980): 1980 crime thriller written and directed by William Friedkin. Al Pacino is a cop (again) but this time he goes undercover in NYC gay leather clubs

Almost Famous (2000): Set in 1973, it chronicles the funny and often poignant coming of age of 15-year-old William, an unabashed music fan who gets the chance to write for Rolling Stone

Spotlight (2015): More journalism movies! The true story of how the Boston Globe uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation and cover-up within the local Catholic Archdiocese

everyone say thank you to @islandbetweenrivers for starting this, I just polished up our google docs and posted it on tumblr.

Also if anyone has something to add please let me know!

[henry-fox-biggest-stan]

I’ve read Montauk, the og script for s1 ep 1 of stranger things, back before it was called stranger things

Some highlights

Montauk is in New York, and it’s also a coastal town.

Lucas was called Lucas Conley. Mike has a birthmark (but we all knew this) and Dustin wears glasses.

“Will Byers, 12, playing as a wizard”. “Lucas Conley, 12, playing as a knight”.

Will says the “We're screwed if it's the Demogorgon” line.

After Karen tells Mike to wrap the campaign up, he complains that he didn’t know it would take 7 hours. Yep you read that right, not 10 like in the show, 7. (Imagine how tired we are). It was a seven.

Instead of Dustin going to Nancy’s room offering pizza (and it being a friendly, non romantic gesture), Lucas goes into her room to like, look at her. He has a crush on her.

Nancy used to wear braces?? As in, in the past, not 16 year old Nancy.

Will asks for Dustin’s X-Men Uncanny 269, instead of X-Men 134.

Will doesn’t live near the woods, but rather near the beach.

While Will is pointing the gun towards the door of the shed, instead of whatever it is that took will appearing behind him, it simply enters through the door, Will doesn’t fire cause he’s terrified, and then, AND THEN, WILL’S NOSE AND EARS BEGIN BLEEDING. WHAT THE FUCK.

“Will doesn't fire. He just stares. Paralyzed by fear. The hairs on his arms stand up again. His ears begin to drip blood. And then his nose. He fights tears.”

Hopper has a stumble not a full beard.

Joyce works two jobs, one of them is being a waitress. She wears ��too much makeup” and curses a lot. She has a Long Island accent and long fingernails. Jonathan works two nights a week at a movie house. Joyce also is much more aggressive.

Jonathan goes to look for will directly after finding out he didn’t spend the night at the wheelers. As in, skips school and decides to just look for him.

James and Troy are 14, 2 years older that the party.

Mike has a crush on Jennifer Hayes??

Barb wears braces

Instead of a party at Steve’s, it’s a bonfire at the beach. And, Chrissy mention?? “There's gonna be bonfire at Turtle Cove. Chrissy'll be there,”

Terry Ives is a man??

“Florence (hopper’s secretary): And Terry Ives called again, yammering on about some more activity last night at Camp Hero.

Hopper: Tell him I've seen that Twilight Zone. No, scratch that, don't encourage him. If he calls again, cite him for wasting my time.”

Hopper wears reading glasses, and his desk is a mess of mugs, papers, and candy wrappers?

Joyce says “He [Lonnie] doesn’t give two shits about that boy [Will].” Damn.

El is actually 10 years old, 2 younger that the party.

El doesn’t steal fries. She sees the fries boiling, the oil splutters and she gets scared. She encounters a freezer, opens, and finds frozen fish inside. She never has seen fish before, she smells it, studies it. She bites into its belly. When hearing Benny approach, she just grabs as many fish in her hands as she can and runs.

Benny serves fish and chips, and he’s also Benny Henderson. At least, that’s what he tells el. He’s described as “Benny Hammond”.

Mr Clarke is hot, as the girl classmates acknowledge it. He teaches “earth and biology”

Benny makes El fish and chips. She eats it with her hands.

Hopper graduated in 1958. Scott in 1962.

Benny has a Rottweiler. El and him become friends. The agents chasing el kill him :(

Steve sexually assaults Nancy??

After Nancy doesn’t appear again, and Barb is left alone with the rest of people, she decides to call out for Nancy one last time. No answer. She grabs her car keys and goes home. Or at least tries.

All the characters are much meaner too??

This scene with hopper is so creepy

And, huh, confirmation it was Vecna who took Will?

And you can hear things from the upside down!

[mossheadmandy]

Things to remember and other unpopular opinions about Jonathan Byers:

1. He bites his nails when he's anxious.

2. He decides against wearing neckties because he doesn't know how to tie them. Lonnie was never around to teach him.

3. He was probably an accident.

4. He's too empathetic and patient to make objective decisions.

5. He's thought as a freak not in the same way Eddie is. He's calm, quiet and remains outcasted by choice because, like he told Nancy, he dislikes most people. Eddie, on the other hand, is outcasted against his will, but he likes to be surrounded by friends, he takes care of his sheep because he knows what it's like; he's whimsical and loud, while Jonathan prefers to keep a low profile.

6. Remember when Jonathan beat the shit out of Steve? He knows what people say about him and he doesn't care, but the very moment Steve started to mess with his family, that's when Jonathan reacted and beat his ass. What happened with the Nancy graffiti was probably part of it, but let's remember that he wanted to simply take her out of there peacefully until Steve started to poke at his nerves.

7. During the first season, that one scene where Eleven is in the improvised tank trying to locate Barb and Will, as soon as the lights start to blink, everyone looks up at the lights, but Jonathan keeps an eye on Eleven.

8. He had to become 'the man of the house' at a very young age with Lonnie's absence, and he had to parent both Will and Joyce, in a way.

9. Joyce mentioned that Jonathan was always independent and knew how to take care of himself. Eldest siblings, we know what this means, and please tell me that very statement doesn't break your heart.

10. Jonathan had to deal with a lot at the ripe age of sixteen. Not only did he witness the crumbling of his parents marriage, but also take care of his little brother not as a brother but as a father figure, work to help Joyce make ends meet, deal with the guilt of Will's disappearance because the very night he disappeared, he was out at work, deal with a funeral for his little brother and choose a coffin, and then hunt monsters and witness very gory things, and be constantly on edge due to the government keeping an eye on him and his family plus not knowing when the monsters and any other evils of the Upside-down would be back.

11. I'm sorry but Jonathan Byers is what Steve Harrington fans think Steve is.

12. He's very observant.

13. The OG mixtape maker.

14. He's very family-oriented and his priorities are clear.

15. He's always in disadvantage because of his socio-economic situation, so he has to work extra hard to demonstrate that he's worthy. Probably also, in a way, he felt like he had to clean the last name of the Byers while he was in Hawkins.

16. He's very genuine because he had never felt like he had to impress anybody. Quite the contrary, in fact, given that he dislikes most people, the least thing that he wanted was to have people approaching him.

17. Had not Jonathan seen Steve storming off the bathroom, he would probable have had a new friend. Or potentially a girlfriend. A goth girlfriend.

Remember Samantha, at Tina's party? Jonathan made her laugh. He wasn't used to talk to people, nor did he know how to keep a conversation going, but Samantha looked comfortable, probably found his awkwardness endearing, and they could have kept talking, but then Steve came out of the bathroom, visibly upset and Jonathan knew something was up, and went looking for Nancy.

18. Jonathan took Nancy home because it was the safe thing to do, and also because he likes her. But if you'd really understood the character, you'd know Jonathan would have taken Nancy home even if there was nothing between them because he had always taken care of other people. Jonathan takes care of Nancy because he's an older brother, and Steve never learned about taking other people's feelings into account nor to take care of other people because he's an only child, and didn't learn it from anyone else because in his own words, his father is a major a-hole, so he had no good examples on how to be a decent human being since he was a kid.

20. Jonathan probably lied for Steve's sake. The day after Tina's party, Nancy talked to him and asked him if Steve had asked Jonathan to take her home and he said yes. Then proceeded to reassure her that Steve was only being like that because he cared about her.

Steve didn't ask him to take Nancy home because for starters he was NOT OKAY with him taking her home. He was beyond pissed.

You see, Jonathan knows yet denies himself his own feelings for Nancy because he knows he can't have her, but also because he thinks she's happy with Steve, and her feelings are more important to him than acknowledge his own.

20. Jonathan is just quiet, asocial and introverted, and that's a personality too.

I'm tired of people thinking he's bland just because his personality isn't loud like Eddie's or Steve's, quirky like Robin's, or strong like Nancy's. He isn't that physically strong but he's always willing to fight and aid, and the fact that his support goes unnoticed because it's usually silent upsets me to no end.

21. He could probably see an escape to his old life in Hawkins as soon as he got to Lenora Hills because his last name had no reputation.

22. I coud never say his character got ruined by turning into a stoner because, even if though I'm not celebrating his consumption of weed, I don't condemn it. After everything he's gone through, finding a way to forget about it for a moment is the least thing Jonathan deserves. Which is also the reason I don't understand the Argyle hate. He's the first friend Jonathan has made because he sees him for who he is, and Argyle is wise, gives him good advice and he's always ready to lend a hand.

Jonathan Byers is an extremely underrated character and I'm sick of it.

[misc-obeyme]

Ah, you want lucifer sub? I have another idea for you then! Feel free to ignore if you had enough nsfw drabbles tho lol Theres a card in NB where lucifer tries to force mc a truth apple or whatchamacallit to see who mc really is, but Beel ended up eating it instead. Anyway in p4 he tries to earn mc's forgiveness by going to the castle for barb's cooking. What if then, at the table, mc remembers that in the og timeline, lucifer and mc constantly played with shibari on each other? Hmm... So then, that's his punishment. Early Avatar of Pride, getting tied up in his own room. Blindfolded Anyway, hope you like the idea. 🍄 Love you CC

Augh, 🍄 anon, shibari is like one of my favorite things ever. It just looks so pretty!?!? And Lucifer is also very pretty????

Yes, I thoroughly enjoyed writing this. I do have that card and remembered this particular Devilgram. It had an excellent line from Barb that I took the time to screenshot and then forgot about until much later. Something about having cake, I don't remember exactly. It's in my posts somewhere lol.

Anyway! Sub!Lucifer is everything to me, so here he is. I like the idea of NB Lucifer specifically not understanding why he trusts MC. He even says in the Devilgram something about how there was a connection between them the moment MC showed up. But this is a minor detail, I just find it interesting.

GN!MC x Lucifer

NSFW MDNI

Warnings: sub!Lucifer, dom!MC, shibari, blindfold, praise, hand job

Lucifer held himself incredibly still. He would not squirm. He would not give you the satisfaction.

It was difficult. He wanted to give in already.

You had spent quite some time carefully tying the black and red ropes around his body. Securing knots, ensuring they were tight but not too tight. Perhaps he should have been anxious as you brought his hands behind his back and tied them in place. Perhaps he should have been concerned when you tied the blindfold over his eyes. Perhaps he should have been worried about how vulnerable he was allowing himself to be with you.

And perhaps he was all of those things. But the fire it ignited in his belly was too powerful to ignore. The thrill of your touch, the way his skin tingled any time you brushed your fingers against it. Knowing that you were seeing him completely exposed, that he was entirely at your mercy, that you were in control of him in a way no one else has ever been.

The ropes rubbed against him, an uncomfortably pleasing sensation. The blindfold was his own tie, which you had utilized for this purpose and its soft silkiness was an exciting contrast to the harsher feeling of the ropes.

When you were finished, you moved away and left him there.

Lucifer was kneeling on his own bed, tied up and blindfolded, waiting for you to touch him again.

He couldn't see himself, but he could imagine the sight. You seemed to already know the intricacies of shibari. The pattern was elegant and complex - turning him into a sensual work of art.

Lucifer waited. He could be patient. He refused to let you see just how affected he was. He couldn't do anything about his obvious erection, which was straining. But he would keep the rest of himself as composed as possible.

"So," you said and your voice was close. "Are you sorry for trying to get me to eat that apple?"

Lucifer hesitated. "I've let you tie me up and blindfold me, haven't I? Is that not proof enough?"

"I won't make you say it," you said. "I could see it in your eyes as I was tying you up. You trust me, don't you? Despite being suspicious of who I am and what my motives might be, you still trust me."

Lucifer frowned. "I don't-"

You pressed a finger to his lips. "You don't need to lie about it. You can trust me, Lucifer. I promise."

Lucifer was about to disagree with you, but whatever he might have said left his mind immediately as you took his cock in your hand. He sucked in a breath. Your hand felt soft, slightly damp with your sweat, which soon mingled with his precum.

Lucifer's resolve not to squirm crumbled. He couldn't hold perfectly still now, his hips moving involuntarily to thrust into your hand. He bit his lip, determined at least not to moan.

"Don't do that," you said, putting your thumb on his lower lip and pulling it gently out of his teeth. "Let me hear you."

Lucifer felt his skin grow hot as the moan he'd been trying to hold back escaped him. As soon as it did, it was as though a dam had broken and he couldn't stop making noise.

"Ah," he cried. "MC, please, ah!"

"Good boy," you said sweetly. "Now come for me."

Lucifer immediately came all over your hand, a strangled cry ripping itself from his throat as he did. Lucifer was panting, his body's muscles relaxing, but he was still tied up so stiffly, he couldn't go anywhere. You allowed him to lean on you long enough to catch his breath.

Lucifer quickly learned that he was far from done with his apology and it was much later into the night before you were willing to forgive him.

masterlist | Thank you for reading!