#and now I want a deleted scene where he flips out

[thelastunicornflipouts]

Was that scene when Lìr passive-aggressively insults Schmendrick really necessary? It feels like Lìr has suddenly remembered that he has to catch up with the rest of the cast and delivers yet another kick to the butt of Schmendrick’s self-esteem.

I mean, it adds nothing. Up to this point Lìr and Schmendrick have never directly interact on screen. It has already been well established that Schmendrick usually comes across as a hack to most of the people he meets and does not get much respect; viewers might find perfectly plausible that Lìr has the same opinion on him, adding yet more abuse seems quite superfluous. 

[kittyball23]

Hi kittyball, did you read the trolls band together junior novelization? Does it include deleted scenes from the movie? I heard there was a scene cut with velvet and veneer buying yachts 😆 and another scene with velvet spraying veneer with troll without warning him.

Hi, I sure did! I do remember that there were scenes and/or little details that differentiated from what was seen in the actual movie, and I’d be happy to share them:

John Dory in the beginning was being a little more critical of Clay’s dance moves

“C’mon, Clay,” John Dory said. “They’re Funderdrawers! Underwear, but seventy-six percent more fun! Now let’s see those dance moves!”

“Fine,” Clay said with a sigh. He did a quick series of dance steps, naming them while executing them perfectly. “Rusty robot into a wiggle worm, and end on caliente puppet.”

“Not bad,” John Dory said, stroking his chin. “But your robot could be rustier. And your worm wigglier.”

Clay looked annoyed. “Don’t you want my puppet caliente-er?”

“I wasn’t going to say it,” John Dory said, “but yeah. Definitely.”

‘Bro-Time’ happened in both the beginning and the end, each brother doing a hands-in-the-middle thing

Beginning:

“If we can’t hit the Perfect Family Harmony, we aren’t perfect,” John Dory insisted. “And if we aren’t perfect, we’re NOTHING! Being nothing is definitely not an option. So just follow my lead.” He stuck his hand out, palm down. “Let’s do this!”

Each of his brothers piled their hands on top of his. Together, John Dory, Spruce, Clay, Floyd, and Baby Branch shouted, “IT’S BRO TIME!”

End:

Smiling wistfully, Floyd said, “I can’t believe we almost missed out on all this.” It had been a long time.

“We shouldn’t have let our differences break up our family,” Clay put in, joining them.

John Dory walked up. “That’s right. Because we don’t have to be perfect to be in harmony. We just have to be together.”

Branch started to point out that he had told them exactly that, but he changed his mind. “You’re right,” he said. “Good point, bro.”

Standing in a circle, the brothers each put a hand in. “On three,” Branch said. “One… two… three!”

“IT’S BRO TIME!” they all said in unison, lifting their hands.

Baby Branch was supposed to make his entrance suspended on a wire

“And making his first live appearance, the Baby!” Glitter burst over the stage, revealing Branch suspended on a wire.

“Awwww!” the whole audience said, charmed by the adorable sight.

BroZone rolled right into their first song. Cool, calm, and collected, John Dory danced up a storm. Spruce blew another kiss, and the fans went wild. Clay added a little goofy touches to the dance steps, getting lots of laughs. Floyd shed a single tear as he sang. And Branch flipped down off his wire, sticking the landing perfectly, nailing every move and every note as the five brothers came together.

As the Family Harmony started to happen, glass broke and a lightbulb shattered

The five brothers hit a chord and held it. Offstage, a water glass broke. KSHHH! Overhead, a light bulb shattered. SHHINK! The brothers looked at each other. It was happening! They were achieving the PERFECT FAMILY HARMONY!

Smead, Gristle’s Aunt, was supposed to be the officiate instead of Miss Maxine for Bridget and Gristle’s wedding

Gristle’s Aunt Smead, a tall Bergen with goggles and hair that stood straight up, was in charge of leading the happy couple through their wedding vows. She leaned over and joked, “Hey, Bridget, you still have time to run for it!”

Poppy and JD went through with the whole hug, fist-bump, and wave thing she suggested when meeting him

Poppy rushed over and introduced herself to John Dory. “Oh my gosh, I was being so rude! I’ve never met anyone from Branch’s family before. I’m Poppy. Branch’s girlfriend. Should we hug? Fist-bump? Smile and wave for now and see where the night takes us?”

“All of the above!” John Dory said, hugging her, bumping her fist with his and waving and smiling.

Crimp was supposed to be shown cleaning up the chair before Velvet and Veneer made their entrance on the Mount Rageous show ‘The Bop on Top’

In a TV studio, the pop duo’s put-upon assistant Crimp swept off a chair, making sure it was immaculate before one of her bosses sat on it. Crimp resembled the head of a straw broom, with green eyes, white glasses, and a purple hair bow scrunching a bun of papery hair on top of her head. She was much shorter than Velvet and Veneer, but was still at least three times the size of the average Troll.

Ignoring their assistant, Velvet launched herself onto the chair, squashing Crimp. FWUNK! “So,” Velvet said to Kid Ritz, “what do you wanna know? I’m an open book.”

You are correct, Velvet did spray Floyd’s essence at Veneer without him expecting it lol

Grabbing the perfume bottle, she squeezed the bulb, giving herself a big spray of Troll talent. SHHFFT! Floyd groaned as the energy was sucked out of him. Velvet tested the results, opening her mouth to sing. She let loose an impressive cascade of notes. Satisfied, she smiled and aimed the bottle’s nozzle at her brother’s mouth. SSSHHFFT! “Your turn, Veneer.”

Veneer coughed. “Ack! You’re supposed to say it before you spray it, remember?”

There’s a quick moment where Floyd sympathizes with Crimp

Rolling her eyes, Velvet said, “Ugh. I’m exhausted by this drama. Do you wanna go buy a yacht?”

“Oh, good idea!” Veneer said, clapping his hands together. “Let’s buy matching yachts!” They left the dressing room without another word.

"Can I come out of the corner yet?” Crimp asked.

Floyd looked at her with pity in his big violet eyes. “Girl, you need a new job. I should be the saddest one in this room.”

A small moment where Bruce and JD hug

Seeing an opportunity, Poppy decided to give Bruce a little encouragement. “Prove it. Prove it,” she started chanting. Bruce’s kids all joined in, balling their fists and pumping their arms in time with the chant. “PROVE IT! PROVE IT!”

Bruce took up the challenge. “Oh, I’ll prove it,” he said confidently. “I’ll prove it right now.” He took a deep breath and let it out. Then he hopped up onto the stage and stood next to John Dory.

“Yes!” John Dory cheered. “Bring it in, brother!” They hugged.

More of Velvet being a jerk

A stage manager popped her head through the dressing room door. “Knock, knock, knock – it’s ‘we’re ready for you’ o’clock!”

Velvet faked a super-sweet manner. “Look at you, making your job fun. Good for you! Just give us five minutes. We’re still working on our routine. Okay, doll?” She closed the door and muttered, “Loser.” Then she picked up Floyd’s bottle, planning to take in another spray of his Troll talent before the day’s singing began.

Veneer making a reference to a meme

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Floyd cried, holding his hands up against the inside of the diamond bottle. “Come on, it’s just dress rehearsal. You don’t need me for a dress rehearsal!”

Ignoring his protests, Velvet grabbed the golden spray bulb between her fingers and pointed the nozzle at her mouth, ready to spritz her vocal cords. Her brother spoke up. “Wait. Maybe he’s got a point. Do we even need a dress rehearsal?”

“Obviously,” Velvet said, making a face. “That’s why we’re getting dressed.”

“I’m just saying he doesn’t look so great,” Veneer pointed out. “He has, like, sad Troll face.”

Velvet shrugged it off. “He’s fine.”

Velvet’s suggestions for how to make Floyd better

But Velvet wasn’t overly concerned about Floyd’s see-through hand and overall paleness. “Oh, he just needs some blush,” she suggested. “Or is there a mini tanning bed we can jam into the bottle with him?”

More back and forth with Velvet and Veneer

Veneer paced the dressing room floor, clutching his head. “What are we going to do? We obviously can’t even rely on the Troll to get us through this dress rehearsal, let alone the Rage Dome show!”

Looking annoyed, Velvet said, “How come I always have to come up with something?”

“Because you’re the mean one!” Veneer told her.

“I’m not mean – I’m ambitious!”

Floyd having been conscious while Velvet was shaking the bottle

Picking up Floyd’s diamond prison, she said, “Maybe we should just try shaking the bottle.” She shook it. Floyd ricocheted around inside, banging against the hard surface.

“Ow! Ouch! Ooh, my knee! My other knee!” he cried.

Lonely People having been sung later on in the movie, after Floyd makes a ‘philosophical’ statement

Floyd looked at his body, becoming more see-through by the minute. “Well,” he said philosophically. “I lived, I loved, I lost.”

To the accompaniment of gentle ukulele music, he sang quietly to himself. He looked and saw that it was Crimp who was playing the ukulele.

Bruce’s response to learning about Velvet and Veneer’s song

On an empty road that night, Bruce steered Rhonda, listening to Velvet and Veneer sing one of their pop hits on the radio. “My kids love these guys!” he said. “We’re a total Veneer household.”

“They’re the ones who are holding Floyd prisoner,” John Dory called from the back of the van.

Bruce looked shocked. “Wow, everyone’s getting canceled these days.”

A little more Clay and Viva friendship displayed

Viva put an arm around Clay’s shoulder. “Yeah, I’m the face of the operation, and Mr. Clay takes care of the boring stuff!”

“Guilty!” Clay admitted. He and Viva tapped elbows and laughed. 

Branch and Poppy having a short exchange after leaving Putt Putt Village

Heartbroken, Poppy watched as the gate closed. She leaned her scrapbook against it for Viva. Branch ran up behind her. “You were right, Branch,” Poppy said. “Family is… complicated.”

Velvet and Veneer having labeled bottles for the rest of the brothers

In Velvet and Veneer’s Rage Dome dressing room, Floyd’s diamond bottle sat on a shelf next to four empty bottles labeled Heartthrob, Fun Boy, Old One, and Baby. Floyd’s bottle was now labeled Almost Dead One.

Branch’s line about the diaper slightly differing

They tried singing one of their old songs, but John Dory soon cut them off. “Stop! Stop! Time-out. Let’s take it from the top. Spruce, I want some smolder in those eyes. Clay, you’re being too stiff. We need some sillier robot moves. Branch, maybe a smaller diaper.”

“Or some clothes not from the toddler section,” Branch grumbled.

Clay’s line about his CPA position replaced with this:

Bruce got right in his brother’s face. “This isn’t going to work if you keep being the same old John Dory.”

“Yeah,” Clay agreed. “We’ve all changed. Bruce settled down. Branch is slightly taller with zero glasses. And I’m not the guy who shoots milk out his nose and smiles through the burn!”

“Yup,” Poppy said to herself, remembering past milk blasts through her nose. “Been there.”

Crimp also confronting Velvet and Veneer when Poppy and Branch do on the red carpet

“You’re stealing BroZone’s talent because you have none of your own, you big PHONIES!” Poppy said, pointing her own accusing finger at them.

Crimp popped up out of the van. “They’re MEAN!” she shouted. “And I was their assistant, so I KNOW!”

The fans, listening to this exchange, started whispering to each other. Could what the little Trolls and the papery mop with glasses were saying possibly be true?

An extra line JD said when the talent was being sucked out of the four brothers

Velvet lowered herself back down through the sunroof and punched a button on the car’s dashboard. The roof folded back, clearing the way for a metal arm to rise out of the car, holding an entire round stage. Velvet and Veneer both hit the buttons on their shoulder pads and inhaled big whiffs of Troll talent. The four brothers winced in pain.

“Floyd, why didn’t you warn us about how uncomfortable that is?” John Dory asked.

Slightly different lines when Poppy, Branch, and Viva arrived at the yacht

When she saw Branch, Poppy, and Viva on the deck of the boat, Velvet wasn’t dismayed. On the contrary, she was delighted! “More Trolls!” she exclaimed happily. “This will last us a lifetime!”

Velvet trying to sing after she and Veneer came out of the river that they had fallen into, and Crimp calling the two out again

The yacht came to a stop, wedged diagonally across a narrow passage in the river. Velvet climbed out of the water, turned the camera on herself, and tried to sing.

She sounded awful.

The crowd gasped. “Hey, what happened to your voice?” a fan shouted.

Veneer decided it was time to come clean. “Okay, fine,” he said. “Listen up, Mount Rageous. We are FRAUDS! And we’ve been literally torturing little Trolls!”

The fans were horrified. One yelled, “My illusion of celebrity has been shattered!”

Crimp stepped in front of the pop duo. “It’s true,” she confirmed. And they’re mean. Not ambitious, but just plain MEAN!”

Veneer having put the handcuffs on Velvet instead of Crimp

“Oh, give it up, sis,” Veneer told her. He faced the cameras. “We just wanted to be famous. Honestly, my sister wanted to be famous, and truly, I was too afraid to stand up to her.”

Disgusted by her brother’s admission, Velvet said, “It’s like I don’t even know who you are.”

“Yeah, you do,” Veneer said firmly. “And you asked me to change anyway. Which isn’t okay, family or not.” He snapped a pair of handcuffs onto her slender wrists. She held them up, asking, “Veneer, what have you done?” Then she admired the shiny cuffs, saying, “Oooh, are these real silver?”

And the ending scene, in which Kismet is not mentioned, and Branch and Poppy have one last exchange

Over the loudspeaker, Crimp announced, “Ladies and gentlemen, you know ‘em, you love ‘em – give it up for the Trolls Kingdom’s very own… BROZONE!” She opened the curtains revealing the five brothers in sparkling new costumes. The crowd went wild!

In the front row, Poppy cheered along with them. Branch offered her his hand. “Poppy,” he said. “I have a small proposal. Will you – “

“Join the band?” she interrupted, bursting with excitement. “Of COURSE, I will! I thought you’d never ask!”

“You know me too well,” Branch said, grinning. “Now get up here and sing with us!”

“AAAAHH!” she squealed, leaping onto the stage. She extended a hand to her sister in the front row. “Viva! Viva, get up here! We’re in the band!”

“This is my dream life!” Viva cried, joining her and whipping out a pair of castanets.

The seven Trolls joyfully sang and danced together, and the audience absolutely loved it. The concert turned into an epic dance party. Fireworks exploded, lighting up the night sky.

Poppy turned to Branch. “I love you, Branch!”

“And I love you, Poppy!” Branch told her.

“Would it be weird if I fainted?” Poppy said. “Oh, I’m gonna faint right now.”

And she did. But Branch caught her. He would always be there to catch her when she fell, and she would do the same for him, no matter what.

Those were a majority of the main differences I could find in the junior novel. I think most of it stayed true to the movie, but some little details I would’ve liked to have made the final cut (the Cliva friendship stuff, the extra Broppy exchange and, while I understand the purpose of NSYNC’s cameo, I think the movie would’ve worked just fine without it)

[justallihere]

opened my document of sitq scrapped scenes for reasons i've now forgotten, but there's a couple things there i really liked that never fit in what i published, and it's been a while since i've shared any of these, so here you go! these are all entirely unedited and cut off in weird places, so don't take it too seriously. enjoy!

a deleted scene between vi, ridoc, and sawyer from the planning stages of the journal heist (also, proof that the idea of malek and his consort was in my head for a long time before i ever wrote it):

“He’s fucking useless,” Violet muttered to herself, channeling her restless energy into straightening the papers and books on her desk until everything sat in neat piles. 

“No, he’s terrified of your husband carving him up into tiny pieces,” Ridoc corrected. 

“I still can’t believe you broke into your mom’s office without me,” Sawyer said for the third time. He’d been understandably upset when he found out about the late-night adventure he’d missed out on the week prior, but Violet hadn’t apologized. 

Neither had Ridoc, who’d quickly grown bored with Sawyer’s complaints. He scoffed. “You would rather knock out infantry and sneak into the admin building because Violet got that look on her face than go down on your girlfriend?” 

Sawyer blushed. “Okay, look—“

“No one’s blaming you,” Violet said, flipping open the front cover of The Unabridged History of the First Six. Jesinia had found her this morning to pass the book off after her unproductive conversation with Cam yesterday. She’d skimmed most of it already and hadn’t found anything particularly useful. “Jesinia gave a glowing review. Good for you.” 

Despite the color in his cheeks, Sawyer persisted. “I’m just saying, if you’re going to pull off a fucking heist, you could warn me. Or at least not wait almost a week to tell me.” 

“I’m just saying,” Ridoc retorted, “that if you want to be included then you could try celibacy like the rest of us.“ 

“You spent the night with that third-year from First Wing two nights ago,” Sawyer pointed out. “And Rhiannon and Tara aren’t quiet. Violet’s the only celibate person in this squad.” 

“Let’s not talk about my sex life,” Violet interrupted. 

“You don’t have one,” Ridoc said with a charming grin. “But when you do, I expect to hear all about it.” 

She glared and changed the subject back to their initial discussion. “We’ll try to make our breaking and entering schedules align better next time.” Because there would almost certainly be a next time. 

“That’s all I ask,” Sawyer said with a pointed look at Ridoc. 

The three of them were alone in Violet’s room. Rhiannon was in a leadership meeting, and Liam was taking a shower and likely to join them at any moment. Violet hid the book on the First Six beneath another history text and tucked them both into the bottom drawer of her desk. It was where she kept Brennan’s journal and The Fables of the Barren. With the conversation from this past weekend and Brennan’s request still fresh on her mind, she pulled out the Fables and set the book on her desk. 

“There’s nothing useful in the book Jesinia gave you, Vi?” Ridoc asked. 

“It’s a very abridged version to be unabridged,” she said dryly, flipping open the worn leather cover. “I don’t know what to try next. Jesinia says there isn’t much else in the Archives, about the Six or the wards in general. Nothing useful, at least—it’s all about expanding, not creating.” 

“It’d be nice if we had their journals,” he said. “Maybe that’s one of the things your dad was after.” 

The first several fables were about the gods—the very first one was about Malek and his consort, and Violet had always liked that one best. She ran her hands over the illustrations of the god of the dead and the shadowy figure at his side. “Whose journals?” she said absently. 

“Warrick and Lyra.” 

Violet paused, let the words settle, and finally turned slowly to look at Ridoc after a beat too long. “Warrick and Lyra,” she echoed dumbly. 

“Two of the First Six riders,” he confirmed. 

“I know who Warrick and Lyra are,” Violet said, too sharply. “Why do you think they have personal journals?” 

“Because they’re in the Archives.” Ridoc was staring at her like she’d lost her head. Sawyer looked between the two of them, openly curious. Violet’s jaw dropped open. “When we broke into your mom’s office last year for Squad Battle, she had a ledger that listed them as being stored in a sublevel vault. I flipped through it while you were stealing the map.” 

It was an effort to close her mouth. “We don’t have sublevel vaults.” But even as she said it, it felt wrong. Why wouldn’t they? Why wouldn’t the scribes store information in spaces even more secure than the general Archives, spaces that the average cadet or citizen had no idea about? 

History changes depending on who’s writing it, Cam had said. Did he know about the journals? Was that why he was here—looking for actual first-hand accounts of the history he seemed to be so interested in? 

Ridoc shrugged. “According to the paperwork in General Sorrengail’s office, we do,” was all he said. 

“Markham would have told me. My dad would have told me,” Violet whispered, pulling her desk chair out to sit down heavily. 

His expression slipped into something a bit more sympathetic. “You already know he was keeping secrets about his work before he died,” he reminded her gently. “I’m not saying he did it to hurt you, but it’s likely he was keeping a lot of things from you. If your mom knows, doesn’t it make sense that he would have known, too? He was the scribe, after all. He spent a lot of time in the Archives, didn’t he?” 

Violet only shook her head. Not in a real form of disagreement—she just didn’t want to believe it. Didn’t want there to be even more secrets to uncover. 

“Maybe he didn’t know,” Sawyer offered gently. 

She shook her head again. “He probably did,” she said, and it hurt to admit, but it felt like the truth. She turned back to the book still open, the only piece of her father she had left. She flipped through the pages again, unseeing, and made herself shake off the crushing feeling of disappointment and hurt. “What are we missing?” she asked Sawyer and Ridoc. 

“Clearance,” Ridoc said dryly. 

She threw him a glare over her shoulder. “In terms of information.” 

“Clearance,” Sawyer said, and earned the same dark look. He held up his hands. “Look, Vi, I know you want to know everything, but whatever this is, we don’t have the rank to find out, and I don’t think this is something you can stubborn your way into if Riorson isn’t going to just tell you himself. How do you expect to get in a sublevel vault of the Archives? Your mom’s apartment where you grew up is one thing, but breaking into probably the most secure place in Basgiath that we didn’t even know existed five minutes ago? That’s extreme, even for you.” 

She sighed and leaned back in her chair, scrubbing her hands over her face. “If it’s something so bad that Navarre has hidden it or erased it from their history entirely—“ Then what? She didn’t know. She didn’t have a plan for that. But that was what Cam had implied inadvertently, and it seemed to be what they were doing with her father—erasing him and his work. What could he have possibly known that was so dangerous Navarre didn’t even want a reference to it existing after his death? 

“We might never figure it out,” Sawyer said. 

“No,” Violet said firmly. She didn’t believe that; she couldn’t.

“Even if it’s not written down, people know. We just have to find the right one to tell us the truth.” 

“If not Riorson, then who?” Ridoc asked. 

That was the part Violet was still deciding. Cam was the most obvious choice, and he seemed to want her to know whatever it was—unlike Xaden and Brennan and her mother, who were actively hiding things and not dropping so much as a cryptic hint. Liam was a possibility, but she was fairly certain his loyalty to Xaden and his desire to keep her safe would win out over any desire to tell Violet the truth. 

“I don’t know,” she admitted. 

“Helpful,” Ridoc drawled. 

She rubbed her eyes again. “Xaden will be here tomorrow. Maybe I can—“ 

She cut herself off when a knock came on the door. Violet was closest, and when she opened it, Liam was waiting, damp-haired and holding a physics textbook. “Please help me,” he said, holding up a half finished assignment, and Violet waved him in. 

She nudged The Fables of the Barren out of the way as he took a seat at her desk, her perusal of it forgotten in favor of his homework.

***

a funny little moment between sloane and violet about dain:

“Enjoying the view?” 

Sloane jumped at Violet’s approach. “I’m not staring,” she said quickly. 

“What do you call it, then?” Violet asked, amused. 

“Watching for technique.” 

Violet laughed. Dain and Ridoc were sparring, both of them shirtless and sweaty. On the mat next to them, Rhiannon was working with Tessa, patiently walking her through several offensive moves. She was much better than she had been three months ago; she looked stronger, had better posture, moved more smoothly. 

“Which one are you watching?” Violet asked. 

“Both,” said Sloane imperiously, lifting her chin. 

“Well, they’re both trouble, so good luck.” 

“I thought Aetos was all straight-laced.” Sloane rolled her eyes. “That’s what Liam says, at least. Told me to avoid him.” 

“Dain has a strict sense of morals,” Violet said carefully. “But he’s a good man, or he wouldn’t be here.” 

Sloane turned a critical eye her way. “Were you two ever. . .” 

“No,” Violet said. Sloane raised an eyebrow, and Violet smiled indulgently. “He kissed me once. It was nothing.” 

Sloane’s mouth dropped open. “You’re lying,” she hissed. 

“I am not.” 

“Does Xaden know?” she whispered, like it was some sort of dirty secret. 

“I’m sure he’s guessed.” 

***

and finally, an alternate take on xaden and violet's first kiss, taking place at athebyne immediately after xaden woke up from his injuries during the fight:

“Violet—“

She lurched forward, cutting off whatever else he might be about to say by covering his mouth with her own. He caught her, his hands bracketing her waist, but he was otherwise still beneath her touch. She waited, pressing closer, and finally he responded, his mouth slackening as he parted his lips to kiss her back. 

“Violet.” It was a groan this time, and he pulled her closer, hungry, urgent, impatient. Wanting. She kissed him again, again, tasting blood on his tongue. He lifted a hand to cup her face, his thumb pressing into her chin beneath her lower lip, and he drew back. “Violet.” Now it was cautious. 

“Xaden.” She waited for the rest of the sentence. 

“You never answered my question earlier.” He paused, and the silence stretched for a beat too long. 

She brushed their lips together again. “You technically never asked me a question,” she pointed out. “But in case it wasn’t clear, this is my answer.” 

“I want you to say it,” Xaden whispered.

Violet tipped forward until their foreheads touched, and she stayed there for a moment, sharing air. “I love you.” 

He swore, low like he couldn’t quite believe it, and kissed her like he’d never get to do it again. His hands tightened on her, one hand sliding from her waist to her hip, the other tilting her face so he could kiss her deeper, nipping at her lower lip. It wasn’t hard enough to hurt, but she felt the sensation all over her body. She wound her hands into his hair and shuffled closer. His hands slid down from her hips, gripping her ass to pull her body flush against his. He broke the kiss, tugging her lip between his teeth as he drew back. “Say it again,” he ordered in a rough voice, and she shuddered. 

“I love you.” She found his mouth again, unsure how to be separate from him now that they’d started this. Between gasps for air, she murmured, “I love you. Tell me you love me.” 

He groaned. “I love you.” He gripped her thigh, pulling her knee up and over so it was braced on the bed against his hip, straddling his thighs. “More than anything.” She pushed forward until Xaden leaned back against the bed and she was half-kneeling above him, still trying to memorize the taste of him. “More than everything.” 

She licked into his mouth, shivering when he dug his fingers hard into her skin and pulled her up higher so she sat atop his stomach to reach his mouth easier. Her hands roamed, sliding from his hair, down across his neck and shoulders and broad chest. She reached the hem of his shirt and was sliding her hands beneath the material to touch his bare skin when the door opened. 

Violet jerked back, startled, but Xaden only followed her, levering himself upright to try to kiss her again—until he looked over her shoulder and glowered. 

“Go the fuck away,” he ordered, wrapping both arms around her waist to pull her close, like whoever had entered might try to steal her away from him. He kissed the curve of her jaw, and Violet tried again to squirm away, but he held her too tightly. 

The person at the door made a low sound of disgust. “I wanted to check on you, but I see you’re doing fine,” Brennan said. 

Violet jolted again. It would have been bad enough if it was Bodhi or Garrick, but for her big brother to see her plastered against Xaden like this—she’d never hear the end of it. 

Xaden didn’t seem to agree, or to care. “You’re going to see a lot more that you don’t want to see if you don’t leave now.” 

“Xaden,” Violet hissed. 

He only tipped her chin up and brushed his lips over hers. “You tell him to go away,” he murmured. 

“Brennan,” Violet said firmly. “Leave.” 

[ohanny]

so fun fact, i've been feeling like crap and spiked a fever and literally dreamt this so from my actual delusions to you...

give kim something to do and get these three fraternizing:

basically, there was a deleted scene where pete hears about kim roaming free and he's like “oh, how did he escape?” and his henchmen informants (or way) are like “he didn't, rumour has it kenta let him go” and pete is like “... interesting.” because kenta serves tony’s interests. kenta doesn't disobey. kenta does not argue, ever. so the fact that he even at bare minimum dared to start giving tony suggestions on what to do? mmh.

so pete calls kim like “hey, we gotta talk? like i need to know what you said or did to kenta to make him let you go. come over, boo, let's chat” and let's be real, it's not like kim has anything better to do so he's like “sure” and arrives to the scene (which in my head took place in pete’s office, shh) just as kenta is about to kebab skewer pete.

and kim is like “KENTA NO!” using the same voice i use when i see my dog have something she definitely should not have in her mouth. and he grabs kenta’s shoulder and shoves him back and kenta just… goes. and pete is like “... interesting.”

kenta has scampered up and points the knife at kim, asking him to just “please leave, this has nothing to do with you, you got out so just GO!” but kimberly of justice is like “nah, kenta, we can't just shish kebab people” and starts walking towards kenta, pissed off, all “huh, whatcha gonna do? stab me too?” and the second his chest is about to touch the knife kenta yanks his arm back because yeah, no way is his knife getting anywhere close to hurting kim as seen before. and pete just lays there like “.... INTERESTING INTENSIFIED”

kim squares up with kenta going “you know what, you can stab pete if you want to but you have to go through me first.” and kenta is already at the breaking point and he keeps saying “please” as if he repeats it enough, kim will just step aside but no. kim is all “you helped me so let me help you” and kenta is all “i don't -” and kim rolls his eyes like “yeah, you really don't deserve it right now, look at you, but you can change. you can do better. you can earn it. you're nothing to tony. aren't you tired of just being his tool? don't you want to be a person again?”

kenta lets out this strangled scream of “i don't know how!” and kim is like “for starters you're gonna give me that knife and sit the fuck down so we can talk instead of stabbing each other” and pete - who in the midst of being INTERESTED has slowly inched his way back up to his feet - says “i'm sorry i didn't do more for you then. i should've just knocked you out and dragged you out with me but let me do it right this time.”

and when kenta turns to look at pete, kim grabs his wrist and twists the knife out of his grasp and as the knife falls, it's like all of kenta’s strings have been cut. kim catches him, saying “it's okay, i got you” and kenta basically just blue screens and passes out and then kim is like “oof, pete? little help here?” and then pete sweeps kenta up from kim’s arms and lays him down on the couch so kim can fuss over him, put a pillow under his head and straighten his clothes.

pete’s looks at kim all “yeah, that's why i wanted to talk to you. what did you do to him?” and kim huffs, offended, with a flip of his perfect fluffy fringe, “absolutely nothing. who do you think i am? i'm not part of your freaky little super squad.” and pete is like INTERESTING.

[ambrossart]

Post Prom - “The Morning After”

Summary: A deleted scene from the epilogue of Dancing with Myself. This is unpolished and unedited. I just wanted to share it because I love Wayne. 🥺 Warnings: language Word count: 1,573

Morning arrived a lot faster than you expected, the events of last night fading away like a pleasant dream. You woke up with a slight headache and smelled bacon sizzling on the stove. 

Oh no, you thought, and felt your stomach churn with dread. You sat up on your elbow, expecting to find yourself trapped inside the painted walls of your own bedroom. Instead, you found yourself staring right into the piercing eyes of a frightening, fleshless monster, grinning at you with a mouth full of teeth. A quiet laugh escaped you and you smiled back. It wasn’t a dream. You were in Eddie’s house, in his room, in his bed, wearing his Megadeth shirt. You looked down at it and blushed. Then you felt a warm weight next to you and your blush deepened.

Shyly, you peeked over your shoulder and saw Eddie lying on his side, snoring softly with his face half hidden behind his forearm. He was still wearing the chain on his wrist, but his rings were resting on the nightstand beside him, all but one. He must have forgotten to take that one off. 

A look of wonder consumed your face as you stared at him, your cheeks still burning with excitement. Admittedly, you felt a little silly getting all flustered over something as simple as this. Hours ago, you had this guy’s tongue in your mouth, but this—this totally innocent moment—had you blushing like a schoolgirl flipping through her anatomy book. 

Silly as it was, somehow waking up next to him felt more intimate than anything you did last night. Honestly, you weren’t sure you would ever get used to it. 

Outside, the clatter of dishes brought you crashing back to reality. You were in Eddie’s house, in his room, in his bed, wearing his Megadeth shirt… and his uncle was cooking breakfast for himself in the kitchen!

You slapped your hand over your mouth, smothering a yelp of panic. What were you supposed to do? How were you supposed to face him like this? Good morning, sir, I’m the floozy that went home with your nephew last night. Pleased to make your acquaintance. I drank your beer and made a mess of your kitchen. Also, I might’ve ruined your jacket.

Oh shit. Yeah, that definitely wasn’t an option. 

So now the only way out of this mess was through that porch door. It was well within reach, less than ten feet away. If you were really stealthy and really lucky, you could sneak out the door without him noticing you.

Quiet as a thief, as Elaria Quint, your old D&D character (who ironically enough was terrible at sneaking—yeah, her stats were absolute shit), you crept out of bed and searched for your clothes. You found your prom dress draped on the back of Eddie’s desk chair, but your shoes were nowhere to be found. Where had you taken off your shoes? You had them on when you left The Hideout. You had contemplated taking them off when you entered the house, but then you saw that Eddie had kept his on, so you left yours on too because you didn’t want to seem weird. Then they stayed on for most of the night even though they made your feet hurt, until… 

until things got a little heated and you two decided to move to the bedroom. Yeah, that’s when you had taken them off. You had tripped on your heels because you were a little tipsy from the beer (Wow, one can of beer made me tipsy. Damn, I’m such a lightweight), so you slipped them off and tossed them to the side, where they were now: 

on top of the washing machine, 

in the kitchen, 

where Wayne Munson was currently making himself breakfast. 

Fuck it, you thought. I’ll just go barefoot. Yeah, I’ll run out of here like Barney Rubble, I don’t give a shit. Yabba-dabba-no, fuck that, I’m not doing this right now. I’m not taking that walk of shame. No way!

You tip-toed to the door, took a deep breath, and poked your head out into the hallway. The coast was clear. The door was right there. A couple quick steps, a twist and a push, and you were out of there. 

You inched forward, stuck your hand out and… paused. 

What would Eddie think when he woke up and saw his bed empty? Would he think you left because you regretted staying? Would he think you were having second thoughts about him, about your relationship? Would he think you were being flighty and running away again?

He would. You knew he would. And it would absolutely break his heart. 

Oh shit, you thought. You couldn’t do that to him. Well, okay… This is how much I love you, Eddie. I’m taking the hit for you, just like in D&D. And you better save me when you wake up because I am not facing your uncle alone. 

You drew your hand back and—

“You don’t have to sneak around,” Wayne said from the kitchen. “I already know you’re there.” 

You sucked in a startled breath and felt your back straighten in surprise. 

“Oh,” you said. Well, great, I just had a moral debate for nothing. 

You shuffled down the hallway timidly while combing out your bedhair with your fingers. Eddie’s shirt went a little past your hips and his boxers stopped at the middle of your thighs. In hindsight, you should have changed back into your prom dress before leaving his room, but at this point, the jig was already up, wasn’t it? You could’ve been wearing a nun’s habit and he still would’ve made the same assumption about you. 

“Hi,” you said with a nervous tremble in your voice, “I’m Y/N…” 

“Hello,” Wayne replied with a deep drawl. He was standing in front of the counter in his work clothes, his eyes dull and tired. As soon as they met yours, you blurted out, “Nothing happened!” and he just nodded his head and grunted, “Mhm,” completely unfazed. 

“I noticed you’ve got a lot of mugs,” you said, gesturing toward them with your hand. “You must drink a lotta coffee.” 

“Mhm,” Wayne said, and raised his eyebrows knowingly. “Bit of a smartass, aren’t you?” 

“Only sometimes,” you said under your breath. 

Wayne’s eyes narrowed as you stepped closer. “I know you.” 

“I don’t think so,” you said. “Pretty sure I just have one of those faces.” 

“No, I do. You were yelling outside my house—pretty loud, too.” 

“Oh,” you said. “Yeah, that was me.” 

“You woke me up.” 

You cringed. “Yeah, sorry about that… Your nephew was being very stubborn.” 

“He does that,” Wayne said. Then he dropped his head and scratched the back of his neck for a few seconds. “Well, are ya hungry? I’ve got some bacon left, and I can cook you up some eggs, if you’d like.” 

Your face broke into a smile. “Sure.” 

“Have a seat,” Wayne said as he went to the fridge and pulled out a carton of eggs. You sat down at the table and made yourself comfortable. 

No words were exchanged as Eddie’s uncle fried up some eggs on the hot plate. You sat in your chair and nibbled on crispy slices of bacon. Wayne had his back to you the whole time, letting the pan do the talking for him. The kitchen was silent apart from the quiet sizzle and crackling of hot butter, but not awkwardly so. In fact, it felt rather pleasant… homey, almost. You settled into it and let out a tiny, happy sigh. Then Wayne set down your plate, poured you a hot cup of coffee, and sat down across from you. 

“Thank you,” you said, and broke the sunny yolk with your fork. 

You were halfway through your breakfast when Eddie finally emerged from his bedroom, rubbing his face tiredly, his hair half as messy as yours. 

“G’morning,” he said to his uncle; then he looked at you and said it again, his tone warm and soft. He grabbed a slice of bacon off the table, swiped it through your egg yolk, and ate it while leaning against the counter. 

“I tried to call you last night,” Wayne said to him. “I wanted to see how your night went.”

Eddie’s eyes widened. “Oh…”  

“You told me to fuck off,” Wayne said, and you blew a huge bubble into your coffee and almost started choking. Wayne looked at you briefly, then went on talking: “Then I tried to call again and you unplugged the damn phone.” 

“Yeah,” Eddie said. “I"m very sorry.”

“Mhm,” Wayne said. “Don’t ever do that again, m'kay? What if there was an emergency?” 

You brought the coffee mug back to your lips, simpering. “So irresponsible, Eddie…” and he shot you a playful glare. 

“I take it you had a good night,” Wayne went on, looking at the both of you. 

“Yeah,” Eddie said with a small smile. “Yeah, it wasn’t half bad…” 

“Well, I’m glad,” Wayne said. Then he leaned back and folded his arms over his chest, took a single deep breath. “Now, would you care to explain how my jacket got so damn dirty?” 

You winced and shot Eddie a secret, pleading look. 

“Yes,” Eddie said. “Yes, I can explain everything…” 

As he turned to you, his lips curled into a loving yet vengeful smile. 

“She did it.” 

DWM MASTERPOST

FANFICTION MASTERLIST

[jadelynlace]

"All the Time"⎮ Ink Drinker Deleted Scene⎮Modern Vikings AU [Ivar x F!Reader]

read more of Ink Drinker here.

Author's Note: Yeah, it's the super smutty piece I warned you all about. In hindsight, maybe it's not all that raunchy? I don't know. You can tell me. Also, fun fact! While I wrote this, my captain sat across the table from me, completely oblivious (he figured I was writing my care reports, and I was. Kinda). I literally have the best poker face.

Word Count: Just under 2,000 words (of porn)

Conversation falls around you. In the cool air of the evening you’ve grown comfortable with your legs thrown over Ivar’s thighs, sitting at an angle as his hand hooks around your shoulder. Drowning out the words around you as you scroll on your phone to decompress your social battery, bombarded with videos from Hvitserk as he thinks that’s a successful way to use his energy during his over time shift. And, quite frankly, he’s right.

“But where are people finding the time?” A voice says. “I work a full time job, I go to the gym, and I’m trying to get a full 8 hours of sleep and cook for myself—where do people find the time to date? To even hook up?” The voice continues.

“Ivar and I fuck all the time,” You say, and you don’t even really realize that you said it out loud until Ivar’s hand is over your mouth.

“That’s really all the input you have for the conversation?” Another voice says. You’re quick to lick Ivar’s palm as he lets out an estranged noise, wiping your salvia on your back.

“I’d have more of an input if we were actually having a conversation,” You mutter back.

“Why on earth would you lick my fucking palm?” Ivar says, shooting you a look. You lean into his ear closely before speaking:

“You don’t seem to be too upset when I lick the other things you put near my mouth,” 

There’s a low rumble from Ivar’s chest as he registers what you’re saying and you smile.

“What can we use as an excuse to leave?” He whispers to you.

“The fact that I work in the morning?” You try and Ivar just nods at that.

You climb off of him, standing with a stretch and you feel eyes on you.

“Leaving already?” Someone whines.

“Well, as riveting as this conversation is regarding your ability to not adapt to being adult,  I do have to work in the morning. So I am going to get those 8 hours of sleep you keep talking about,” You say.

“Well then, why are you leaving, Ivar?” 

“Uh, because I don’t want to wake her up in the middle of the night when I come home from the bar?” Ivar answers, as if it’s the most obvious thing.

“You can spend the night with me!” Aiden teases. 

“You have one bed,” Ivar tells him. 

“Exactly,” Aiden smirks.

“Do you…do you want to spend the night with him?” You tease. 

“No, no I do not,”

“Alright, why don’t you kiss him goodbye then,” You add, patting Ivar’s chest and Ivar shakes his head.

Aiden offers him a kiss through the air, and a wave, but Ivar only flips him off, rounding the corner to leave. Not a second passes before Ivar turns back around, looking at Aiden and returning that kiss through the air. 

*

You’re all but tossed onto the bed, a quick display in both Ivar’s strength and his dominance has you landing suddenly against the pillows before her’s climbing over you. Wasting no time as he comes to cover your body with his, mouth seeking yours. 

“Oh, so you really weren’t that mad at my comment,” You try, seeing if it’ll fuel his fight. Ivar doesn’t say anything as his mouth travels past the shell of your ear, meeting he nape of your neck and his teeth nip at your flesh. “Because revealing to them that we have “sex all the time” was not necessarily a lie,”

“Stop,” Ivar says suddenly, his blue eyes coming to catch yours. They flash with a quick display of anger, momentarily muting your brain and making you refocus on him. And how he’s in charge right now. 

“Stopping,” You peep back. 

“Good girl,” Ivar groans, mouth catching yours for a kiss that is all tongue. He would smile to himself at how well he knows you, but his lips are occupied. 

The last articles of his clothing are flung across the room as Ivar moves again, pushing his knee to divide your legs as they instinctively part for him. You can feel his hardness against your cunt throbbing, as Ivar’s hands come on each side of your head, pressing his weight through them while you both catch your breath. Hungry eyes trace you, and the wisps of the ends of his hair tickle your chest as his head tips to watch the space where you two are about to be connected. 

A low grumbles comes from Ivar’s chest as your hand reaches down, spreading your lips for him to see you. The same hand reaches up, grabbing Ivar’s chin as you pull his mouth towards yours again. 

“Are you waiting for something?” You tease him. 

Settling his legs over you, Ivar pulls away, shifting his weight as his hand grabs his length, The other rungs through his hair, pushing it from his view before tapping himself against you. Meeting your teasing with his own, the head of his cock finds your bundle of nerves, pressing ever so slightly as he hears you gasp. Your eyes flutter shut, bunching the sheets at your sides as his cock glides through your wetness. 

Ivar suddenly stops, a slow string of spit coming from his lips as it lands against your mouth. His fingers collect it, pressing them towards your clit before he takes them down his shaft. 

Pushing your hips into him, Ivar responds by slowing his motions, biting his bottom lip as his cock sinks into you, bottoming out until he’s flush against you. A deep moan climbs from his chest while he savors you fluttering around him. 

You reach at him, pulling him over you as his arms plant on each side of your head, moving before digging his fingers into your hair while his hips start up. Quickly they take force, slamming into you as the bed rocks against the walls. You hardly have a moment to grasp the sensation of how he feels inside of you, before he gets faster, moaning in your ear.

“Ivar,” You squeak. “Slow—” You grit out. “Slower,” You say and he stops, nuzzling against your head as his hips come to a halt. “Give a woman a chance to breath before you take away my ability to walk,” You mumble to him as you shift your body and Ivar only snickers from somewhere over you. 

Pulling back, Ivar lets go of your hair, smoothing it out slightly as he seeks out your lips again, humming into the kiss as your hands dance along his back. His hips roll lazily, your wetness collecting between you two and you offer him a sweet moan. 

“There are much better ways to take me if you want to go that fast,” You whisper to him. Ivar feels you push at him before his climbs back to let you move. Watching you crawl onto your stomach he pulls at your hips himself, positioning himself behind you while you nuzzle against the bed. His cock presses into you again, his chest coming over your back as the warmth radiates from him. Jutting the two of you up the bed, Ivar’s hips move as he wraps an arm around your waist, his free hand finding yours. 

Ivar’s thrusts are met with you pushing against him, chasing his cock in the brief moments it’s away from you while you hear the moans coming from his mouth. With your thighs shaking under him, you can’t help but moan his name, egging him on. 

As he chases his release, Ivar’s mind empties as he moves, your walls quivering around him with his arm attempting to pull you closer, even with no additional space. Through each grunt, each sweet sound you sing to him, Ivar’s muscles tense, the ache in his balls nearing an end before he pulls out of you suddenly. Moving away before he flips you in one quick display of his strength. 

Ivar moves again with his orgasm taking over his body. You feel the string of seed against your skin, watching him before you. Abs quivers as he breathes quickly, the final drops dribble from his flushed head, throbbing as it slides down his shaft. Only then is it collected as his fist moves to grab himself, and tap again against your cunt, swirling his essence against your mound. 

After a whisper of a moment, his fingers slide through your slit and press into you, curling them right against your sweet spot. Ivar leans over, lips hungrily against yours. As he feels your nails in his back, your teeth sink into his bottom lip while he pumps his fingers. 

Your mouth opens to moan and Ivar pushes his forehead against yours.

“Give it to me, Goddess,” Ivar whispers, “Come for me,” 

You can only whine in response, breathing deeply as Ivars fingers move, his eyes on yours and you can’t look away. His thumb comes against your clit, pressing in circles and you hum as the pleasure takes over your body. Your lashes flutter, a heat low in your belly as the coil tightens, as Ivar growls for you to open your eyes again.

“Look at me when you come,” Ivar tells you. Your eyes open as a blush covers your cheeks, the band finally snapping as you moan. Sinking your nails into his back before they move, grabbing his hair in an attempt to ground yourself as your orgasm rushes through your body. You grab his face again, pulling it back towards you to regain some control, as your mouth seeks his. 

Ivar slows his fingers as his breathing matches yours, lips lazily tackling one another as a satisfied groan comes from him. Moving, Ivar settles back over you, placing his weight carefully to cover you as you latch around him. Your hands take their turns from tracing his spine, to scratching his head as the man deflates above you, nuzzling into your cheek and you can’t help but smile. 

Moving again and putting his weight on his elbows, Ivar looks down at you, bumping your nose with his.

“Hi,” He says quietly.

“Hi, handsome,” You say back, a smile on your face. 

“You don’t…you don’t even work in the morning,” Ivar finally realizes. 

“I know,” You giggle and Ivar huffs, collapsing back over you. 

Tags:

@smileysam13579  @dreamtherapy @angelofthenightposts @unbetaedimagines  @readsalot73 @queen-sarang   @anastasiaskarsgard @andmyannabellee @peachyboneless @heavenly1927 @prettyinpayne @quantumlocked310 @mighty-ragnarssons @alexhandersen-marcoilsoe-fandom @queen-of-upshur @nanahachikyuu @fandomlifeandeverythingelse @fatedwithmbc  @hashimily @youbloodymadgenius @love-all-things-writing  @theanxietyqueen17b@trip2themoon @tgrrose @synnersaint @kataphine @prepare4trouble @abbiii72 @not-another-viking-fanfic-blog @93xdiagonxalley @ivarisms @nordicshieldmadien @ironynoticony  @ivarsgard @cosmicmerbabe @smears-and-spotsb@kaybee87 @t4medicroe @noway4u @southernbe @anakindoesntlikesand @mymindfuckery @noonespecial90 @hypocrtic-trash-baby @tessakate @ivarlover

*please message me to let me know if you would like to be added or removed from my tag list. specifications for series/etc. are also welcomed, as well as feedback.*

full masterlist can be found here.

[radioactive-earthshine]

trick or treat

🎃A TREAT! But some people might say this is a TRICK 🦇

Here's more of that deleted scene from Within the Rubble and Harvest where Kon meets up with Young Justice, and deals with a giant sea creature.

Enjoy! cw: slime

🐙

“Superboy! Uff! Get your head in the game!” Cassie says as I watch her dodge a wad of green goo. 

“It’s not like I left it back in Kansas! I’m right- ON YOUR LEFT ROB!” I don’t wait for Tim to see what I am talking about and I race down and snatch him from a falling tentacle. I nearly smack into another one when the giant tentacle monster from someone’s sink undulates. I manage to drop down and avoid it, using my TTK to shield both of us from a backwash of bright green snotty… whatever it is. I try not to think about it and fly us both out of lashing and splashing range. 

Tim looks like he wants to barf but he keeps his lunch down. “Thanks SB. Wonder Girl, this technique isn’t working!” 

“So much for gently trying to lure it away from the city!” Cassie lassos one gnarly tentacle and hangs on for only a few brief moments before it slips right off. “Yuck! Okay, I’m open for suggestions!” 

For the first time since we started on this mission I can see Bart. “Hey, what if-” 

“Maybe we could dry it out?” Interrupts Ray, I had almost forgotten he was even here. “I can heat the area, might make him more willing to leave it unless it wants to fry!” 

Cassie shakes her head. “It might be disgusting, but it’s still just an animal. That’s cruel.” 

“I don’t know about that, hey Superboy, you like calamari, right?!” Ray banters and I flip him off. 

“Ha-Ha! Jerk!” 

“Seriously guys, we need some real options!” says Cassie and we’re all back on the defensive when the thing suddenly yowls and starts thrashing, flinging mucus in all directions and I am not embarrassed when I shriek and cover myself with my TTK barrier. 

I forget all about Tim but he finds shelter behind an abandoned van. The rain of snot and exploding pus is over instantly and I am never more grateful for my TTK as I fling it away from me.

I try not to laugh when I see Ray coated like he just got [Gacked] on like on that Nickelodeon show. 

Cassie looks pretty good with green hair though. “Ugh! Okay! Ideas! Now!”

[ficyorick]

[BE] deleted scenes clean-up :) - ch3

i always put scenes im cutting out into a separate file, just in case i get to reuse them but these r definitely goners so i can share

Originally, the trip back from Pennsylvania to the cabin was a bit longer. I sort of cannibalized that moment to make the transition from Billy's being mad at Kessler to Billy taking it out on HL more of a punchy moment:

"Get the fuck out of my car." Billy turned towards the road and flipped the headlight control, switching to low beam. 

"I'm not in your car, buckaroo. I'm inside you." Kessler smiled his wide grin.

"Where were you taking me?" Butcher didn't acknowledge anything his dying brain was saying to him. "Where are we?" 

Kessler sighed like a parent who knew they just weren't getting through to their moody teen. He closed the glove compartment with a click, but not before dropping a pack of wet wipes on Butcher's knees. "On the way back. Figured you needed a distraction. We just got on 219, keep going straight and we'll be out of Pennsylvania soon."  

Butcher reached into the packet he himself dropped in his lap. He wordlessly wiped at his face and his hands, getting most of the already crusting blood off. The rest would have to wait till the cabin. Slowly, he released the handbrake and let the van start properly. Kessler leaned back in his seat, getting comfortable. 

"I could drive for you." He offered casually.

"No. I need to think." Butcher squeezed the gas pedal, eyes glued to the road. 

Kessler made a doubting noise in response but didn't press. 

It took them another day to get back where the cabin was. At some point, Butcher had to pull over and catch some shuteye in the back of the van. Kessler stayed in the passenger's seat while Billy changed his clothes to slightly less bloody and rolled a makeshift pillow from his jacket. He closed his eyes and saw only red, the bright red of the bunker corridor and the dark red of the blood from the Supes he ripped apart. Supes and whoever else was down there. 

Becca. Becca was down there too. 

Was she hoping to stop him? Stop Kessler? It was way too late now, she had to have known that. And even though she also was just a byproduct of his neurons dying off one by one, Butcher was mad that it was Kessler who got to see her. She wasn't real, she wasn't his Becca, she was just a hallucination. She was just him. Like Kessler. 

But he still wanted to hear her voice again.

When Billy woke up, he was in the driver's seat again and it was night already. This time, the control was given to him carefully, sensation by sensation, not all at once like after the bunker. 

"Oi, you twat." Butcher gripped the steering wheel again, feeling his hands as his again. 

Kessler was sitting back in the passenger's seat. "We're almost at the cabin. You're welcome." 

"I said I wanted to drive." Billy very quickly realized they were about to arrive at the very familiar driveway into the forest. He added more gas as soon as the surroundings began to make sense. 

"No, I know what you want." Kessler said and didn't elaborate, but the way Butcher sped up was enough of an answer for both of them. "You’ve been thinking about it ever since that gas station."

___________________

and if ur still reading... the original ending to the ch3 looked like this. before the very painstaking edit process the whole HL-on-Butchers-lap scene was WAY more... you know. more handsy. i decided to downplay it considerably bc I felt i was jumping the gun too early and im glad i did, i prefer butcher more tortured about the whole thing. this ending is like. its rly good but its basically the same moment from ch5 when homelander leans into the touch and calls butcher scared. i had to choose which one of these moments i get to keep and i went with the one in ch5 bc its one of the first scenes i ever wrote for this fic haha:

Homelander convulsed a few more times underneath his palm, groaning and half-sobbing violently. Butcher managed to start and flick away another cigarette before the body underneath his palm finally grew still. He realized he still hadn't taken his hand away. Homelander made another pathetic noise and spat loudly into the bowl, before shakily lifting himself away. He could barely hold his head up and had to immediately rest it on the toilet seat, pressing his cheek against it. His face was red, completely exhausted. Skin covered in sweat, both his eyes and his nose leaking fluids, a thread of drool on his lips. He looked completely devoid of coherent thoughts in his head, just complete blankness. Until he finally regained some focus in those wet, blue eyes. Homelander sluggishly blinked at Butcher. His eyes squinted, flicking downwards. And suddenly Homelander was smiling at him. A small, sleepy smile. 

"Are you hard right now?" He asked him, already knowing the answer.

Butcher looked down. And stormed out of the bathroom.

[1lostsoul0fishbowl]

stepping stones: a deleted scene from next time i fall (895 wc)

for @strngerpairs valentines event: greatmage (gareth x eleven)

“Look, Bear.” El handed Gareth a smooth stone she’d just picked up by the edge of the lake. “This one is so pretty.”

“Yeah, it is.” He traced one finger along the small vein of purple threaded through the gray rock, then hefted it experimentally to feel its weight. “Would make a perfect skipping stone.”

She immediately caught his hand in hers. “No, please do not throw it! I want to keep it for my collection.” The moment the words were out, though, she regretted them. Was it weird to collect pretty rocks? Would he laugh? Their relationship was still fairly new, and Gareth seemed to adore every new facet of her personality he discovered, but that couldn’t possibly last, could it?

El was still trying to determine where his line was. The irrevocable line everyone drew between cute and weirdo. The line she was bound to stumble over one day soon, completely by accident; never sure just what it was she’d said or done to cross it, only knowing with a terrible certainty, as others’ smiles went from friendly to pitying or patronizing, that she had.

But Gareth didn’t laugh. “You have a rock collection?” he asked, handing back the stone. “That’s so cool. What are your favorite types?”

She shrugged, not meeting his eyes. “I do not know what they are. I just keep the ones I think are pretty.” Stuffing the stone into her pocket, she braced herself for whatever comments might be coming her way.

When he didn’t say anything, though, she finally dared to glance up. He wasn’t giving her the look she’d been dreading— wasn’t even looking at her at all. He’d crouched down at the water’s edge and was closely examining the rocks there. Plucking one from the water, he rubbed it dry on his jeans and held it out to her with a grin.

“Look at that one. It’s kinda sparkly.” His eyes were sparkly, too, shining up at her, and El’s heart did a funny little flip in her chest. “You want it?”

“Yes, please.” She returned his grin with a beaming smile of her own. “It is very pretty. You do not think it is weird, to keep pretty rocks?”

He shrugged. “Nope. Lots of people collect stuff they think is cool.” He picked up another rock, inspected it, then made a face and dropped it back where it had been. “I love that little things like pretty rocks make you happy.”

“You— you do?” El felt her eyes filling with tears. He did that all the time now, just casually mentioned something he loved about her, and it thrilled her every time. He was so generous, so free with his affection; not at all like Mike, who could barely bring himself to utter the word ‘love’ to her. Gareth not only said I love you easily, but he could make her feel it too, with nothing more than a smile or a touch of his hand. She doubted herself often, but he left no room for second-guessing the way he felt about her.

His cheeks flushed pink. “I thought it was obvious that I love pretty much everything about you. Even the stuff you think is weird.” He got to his feet and took both her hands in his, sparkly rock and all. “If you’re waiting for me to change my mind about you,” he added softly, “it’s not gonna happen, Janie.”

She gave him what, to herself, she called an Eddie-look; head tilted down, eyebrows raised in disbelief. “‘Pretty much’ everything?” she echoed, and he burst out in a loud delightful laugh, just exactly as she’d hoped he would. She loved to make him laugh, loved knowing he wanted to laugh with her and not at her. “What do you not love?”

He grinned mischievously. “I don’t love how you always steal all the purple Skittles.”

Now it was her turn to crack up laughing. “But they are the best ones!”

“I know! And you never leave me any!” He swept her up in his arms, lifting her feet completely off the ground as he spun her in circles, both of them giggling like crazy. “Just once, you could eat all the green ones—”

“I do not like the green ones.”

“What about orange, then? Hmm? Nooo, you’re single-minded in your grape thievery.” It was such a silly conversation— Max would’ve called them ‘dorks’ for sure if she’d heard it— but they were laughing so hard they could barely breathe, and El could literally feel his happiness, bright and unequivocal. Just like her own. She let her forehead drop to his shoulder as she came down, breathing him in, vital as the sunshine.

He touched her chin, gently lifting her face to his. “But, other than your complete disregard for candy sharing etiquette”— she couldn’t help it, another little giggle escaped her— “other than that, baby, I really do love everything about you.” His knuckles softly brushed her cheek. “You know that, don’t you?”

“Even the weird stuff?” She leaned into his hand, savored the comforting touch. “I know I am a weirdo.”

“You’re my weirdo. Yes, even the weird stuff. Everything, Janie.”

“You promise?”

“I promise.”

A promise like that ought to be sealed with a kiss, she thought, tilting her face up to his; he was only too happy to oblige.

[emiliotheemu]

scene from ch

Like every night, I went back to my room right after dinner. Since Sera told me about where I came from at dinner, I decided to look through the library. I looked high and low and found a book with weird symbols written on the cover. Somehow I knew what it was, though. "CLANAE." That was it; just one word.

I started reading through it. It was in that language of weird symbols, but I knew what they all meant. It detailed the events of a species called Clanae, like Sera said, and they had long, pointy ears with spikes on the bottom, like Sera said.

There were drawings of this fire-looking magic and the Clanae and their homes. As I read through it, I came to a chapter, if you could call it that, about the magic. Suddenly, a purple fire was coming out of my palm. I stumbled back, dropping the book. I looked it over and turned my hand, only for it to roll with my hand, now on the back of it. I turned my hand back over and wondered if it would come from my fingers as well.

As soon as I had that thought, it went out and came up from my index finger. I played around with it a bit, controlling it and rolling it around on my hand. Then I heard the clicking of the door opening. "Icarus!" A familiar voice yelled, "What is that?!" It was Jace. As I turned around to face him, I saw he had stumbled to the floor and was staring at me in horror. The fire puffed out with a bit of smoke.

"Uhh—! Well, I was reading about Clanae Magic and this just… happened!" I stammered, "I don't know, Jace!" "Wait… you can read that stuff?" Jace asked, getting up. He came over and picked up the book and flipped through the pages. "You can read this?" He pointed at one line of text. "Yeah. 'Us Clanae live thousands of years, through hundreds of Celvin lifetimes.' That's what it says."

Jace scoffed a bit and stared at the book in confusion. He then mumbled, "Wait, what are Celvin?" "I haven't gotten to read that yet." I shrugged and took the book back, slipping it onto the shelf again. "But why'd you come in here?"

"Oh. Uhh.. no reason. Just wanted to check on my good pal, yeah?" Jace chuckled a bit and playfully punched my shoulder and straightened his clothing.

── ✎ᝰ⋆.ೃ࿔*.ᐟ⋆⑅˚₊.ᯓᡣ𐭩⋆✴︎˚｡⋆☆⋅⋆ ──

Can you tell it's gay?

A scene from my book I'm writing! Please feel free to give constructive criticism, bullying will be deleted

[liampaynemysteriousdeath]

This may not mean anything but in the 911 phonecall, Estaban (?) states no police and is adamant about that. In Maya's book (no I didn't pay for it, I wouldn't spend my money on her, downloaded free Pdf) - Mallory is also adamant about not involving the police when these same things that "happened" to Liam happened in her book. I don't know if that makes sense but pay attention to the small details as much if not more than the larger ones. Side note, Omg this girl loves herself. She can do no wrong. Don't buy, download

hmm interesting thanks for that...

I mentioned a little bit of mayas analysis here.

https://www.tumblr.com/liampaynemysteriousdeath/767390054336315392/maya-book-analysis?source=share

Yeah I heard from somewhere can't remember where that she's never been told "no" before so she flipped out once liam ended things. I can't remember if it was scandalous media video about her where it mentions she once again victimized herself for sympathy. Apparently liam didn't even cheat on her. The public timeline was off thanks to her and no one bothered digging further. They had broken up in private but it wasn't announced publicly til liam was with that new chic.

The video also mentioms her dad has ties to syco. Some other interesting stuff as well.

Also how her mom was there the first time she met liam *eyeroll*. That lady was around the whole relationship...

Speaking of her family, rumor is that maya/her family hired the two bouncers to beat him up while maya was laughing standing right next to him.

Wax unfiltered on yt has also been covering liam case. Some tiktkk lady analyzed her cover. Everyone says the Chinese symbol means pretend, but imo I personally think it might mean sheep. Aka leading a sheep to the slaughter. Aka the dead end sign.

Plus idk if you saw that maya low key copied liam for her book logo. He had lonely bug productions wjth a firefly and maya put a bee on her publishing company. Idk if she was trolling him.

I also found her website was created in January. She had been planning for a while.

Besides her wanting 100% of profits, I think no professional publishjng house wanted to touch her book because it had claims of abuse in it. And idk if a publishing company would want to take a chance on that.

I havery screenshots of most of this stuff scattered around on the blog somewhere. Or if you don'tbelieve me do a dns search or whois search on her website. I was looking at her website, and she used stock photos haha. Aka just basic photos, no creativity.

Her website is meant to look like a legit publishing house with "please send us your ideas" and then when you go to the social media pages of her publishing house they are both blank haha.

Also I posted on the blog somewhere of someone who claimed from years ago they were talking about maya and maya found the persons mom, and told them to stop posting about her lol.

Also, certain ppl in the investigation like that one tiktok lady who had the theory of maya roger business deal behind the scenes and him being in debt and taking her proposal. Supposedly a British person told her to stop posting,

Amd the el tribune article that talked about her and also rogers past is deleted.

Idk if you're new but also the family has been trying to buy fame for a while now. "Acclaimed tennis champion" and she played in like 2 matches somewhere haha. And their reality show. Anyways I'm talking too much again haha.

[taybatwo2]

Draculaura Vampire Heart Review Part 1

I preordered her on Amazon when she first quickly blipped up after that now deleted Monster High Instagram post (such a sucky rollout Mattel, why must you bungle EVERY Skullector drop?!). She ended up being 90 bucks and she’s the best 90 bucks I have spent in awhile and my favorite Skullector doll EVER.

Her box is decorated with little hearts, hearts with vampire teeth, bat-winged hearts, the Vampire’s Heart, and filigree. The filigree on the box is really pretty and metallic and I love that it has a lot of bat wing motifs, but it’s not distracting.

I even like how they made the Monster High logo the same light pink that is present in her hair.

There are even little bats on the side of her box and a nice ombré effect.

I also love her box art. It looks like she is descending the grand stairs and bats are escaping on both sides of her. It’s just all so lovely. It’s not overt complicated but not too simple either….

The back of her box sadly doesn’t have any artwork on it, but instead a flipped close up (her heart is on the wrong side, haha) and the back of her doll.

Close up of her doll photos. BACKWARDS FACE!

The description on her box: “In another time…Draculaura is the Vampire Queen. As the Vampire’s Heart begins to glow, Draculaura can hear the stirring melody of a string quartet. ‘But how?’ She wonders, her dark eyes peering down into the ballroom as dancers swirl in a ghostly scene. Candles flicker with an ominous glow as the clock strikes midnight and Draculaura approaches the grand staircase. The crowd grows quiet as they watch the haunting beauty descend in a romantic and regal cage skirt ball gown. Her dark hair pulled back by and elaborate bat wing headpiece, the Vampire Heart glitters at the center and brings the crowd to a respectful bow. Draculaura has arrived and is ready to stake her claim as the new Vampire Queen.”

The description gives me similar vibes of the Ever After High SDCC releases, in which the dolls’ were experiencing their darkest timelines/endings. It’s like we had a dark ending to “Fright, Camera, Action” where Draculaura takes up Lord Stoker’s offer to be the next Vampire Queen and becomes his pawn.

She really came in perfect condition (with tissue paper and her own cardboard box). I was really worried on how she would come in after seeing/reading everyone’s horror stories of their’s getting smashed and mangled. I have never been so tempted to leave a doll in her box before….

…..anyways out of the box she comes!! The rest is under the cut.

Here are some close-up of her without the plastic front. No glare!

A better look at the front plastic’s decorations.

Found her stand and card in the bottom of her box.

Here is here authentication card. You know what would be a great addition to what was under here too? A diary!! I need my lore dang it!! Draculaura’s original collector doll’s diary is one of the best ones I had read in G1. It was chock full of new information on Draculaura.

She has a clear (very lightweight) saddle stand that works as well as any other Monster High saddle stand…so not the best…but I like how it is clear so it doesn’t show under her dress.

Luckily she can mostly balance on her own.

Her box’s background.

Her skullete is featured on both the carpet and mosaic windows. Her earrings are also hanging under the chandelier.

Her staircase even makes a heart.

Her headdress on a table.

A pink plush chair and wait!!! ZOOM IN!!!

A drawing of Vampire Heart Draculaura!!! Maybe some concept art?? Why wasn’t this on the back of the box?? She’s even doing Draculaura’s signature standing position.

I wanted to compare her box to the original 50 dollar Amazon Exclusive: collector Draculaura from 2015.

It’s background is a lot simpler, but I love that they shaped it like a coffin.

I love the rock-marble details, along with the “handles.”

The top of the box. Her new box uses many of these little guys too.

She got lovely artwork of the doll on the back of her box….

And her description (that was elaborated more in her included diary….): “She is a hopeless romantic with the soul of a poet. A gentle hearted friend who is kind and loyal to a fault. Her favorite accent color is pink and she loves the warmth and light of a sunny day. You almost wouldn’t know that she’s a vampire except that she is. Draculaura; student, Fear Squad member, friend of werewolves, fan of days at the beach, daughter of Dracula himself, and in all the ways heir to his legacy save for one. She is a riddle, wrapped in sweetness, inside an infectious laugh. This is Draculaura like you have never seen her before, resplendent in a satin and lace embodied dress. Every detail painstakingly crafted to represent the height of Victorian vampire fashion in the late 19th Century. Take a stroll with her through the foggy streets of Old Londoom and rediscover an old friend or make a new one.”

And I ran out pictures. Continued in my next post.

[bbcphile]

More Ask Memes Answered!

Thanks, @fealiniel, for asking for #29 from this list:

29. Share a bit from a fic you’ll never post OR from a scene that was cut from an already posted fic.

I sadly don't have any other deleted scenes I can share for MLC stuff, but maybe you'll accept the opening of my abandoned modern AU (summer music camp edition) for The Untamed?

Cw/tw: allusions to physical abuse

**

“Wei Ying, I swear to God, if you play one more note on that fucking thing, I’m chucking it out the window,” Jiang Cheng growled, gripping the steering wheel like he wanted to wring its non-existent neck.

“You’d have to catch it first,” Wei Ying laughed, flinging himself as far from his brother as the seatbelt of the front passenger seat would allow, and clutching his bright red slide whistle to his chest.

“A-Ying, no antagonizing the driver,” Jiang Yanli laughed from the backseat.

“But A-Cheng’s being mean, jiejie! He’s not appreciating my skills!” Wei Ying whined.

“You can’t be skilled at slide whistle, idiot,” Jiang Cheng snapped. “It’s not a real instrument.”

“Don’t listen to the cruel man, babe,” Wei Ying cooed at the slide whistle while stroking it gently, barely avoiding calling it ‘my precious.’ “He’s just jealous of what you and I can do together.”

“No one could be jealous of that racket. It makes me want to claw my eardrums out. What are you trying to do, raise the dead?”

“It’s not a racket! It’s “Flight of the Bumblebee!”” A piece Wei Ying happened to have one or two pretty fucking fantastic memories of from a summer orchestra camp not too unlike the summer festival they were headed to, as it happened. “And anyway, I’d like to see you try to play it.”

“Hand it over and I’ll show you what I can do--”

“--by tossing it out the window? Yeah, no thanks.”

“Boys,” Jiang Yanli said, laughing and leaning forward from the backseat to put a hand on each of their shoulders. “Enough. A-Ying, it’s very impressive but also very loud and probably distracting for A-Cheng. If you want to play, why don’t you get out your flute and go through the fingering for your audition pieces?”

“Jiejieeee,” Wei Ying whined, then flipped the reclining switch for the seat and flopped back until he was practically lying down and staring up at his sister where she was sitting behind their brother. “I’ve already practiced the fingering for each piece twice AND listened to them each on my headphones. I can’t do it again. I will literally die of boredom. And then fucking Su She will get all my solos—

“—They’re not your solos, jackass! You haven’t done your seating audition yet.”

“—No, but they will be, because I’m better than he is.”

“Ugh. You are so full of yourself!” 

“I am not! I’m just being realistic. Anyway, as I was saying: if I die of boredom, then Su She will get my—yes, MY—solos, and that can just never happen. It would be so wrong it would destroy the universe.”

Jiang Yanli smiled and shook her head. “So the fate of the universe depends on your playing slide whistle, then?”

“Exactly. Jiejie’s so smart. Why can’t you be more like her, A-Cheng?” He reached out and lightly bopped Jiang Cheng’s leg with his knee. 

“No hitting the driver!” his brother yelled.

Wei Ying stifled a giggle. It wasn’t very successful. “Now, see, that’s louder than my slide whistle playing. I really think there’s an unfair double standard here, and--”

“--Will you shut the fuck up?” Jiang Cheng bellowed. “I’m trying to pay attention to the goddamn road”

“Ok, ok! Man, someone’s grouchy. Why—Oh!“ Wei Ying’s mind ran ahead of his mouth for a change, supplying him the answer to the question before he could even ask it. He popped his seat back to an upright position and whipped around to look at his brother. “Is it because you’re nervous about doing the conductor program this summer?”

“Of course I’m not nervous,” Jiang Cheng snapped, his fingers tightening on the steering wheel until his knuckles turned white.

“Good. You shouldn’t be. I saw you practicing in front of the mirror last night--”

His brother turned red and glowered at the road. “--I don’t know what you’re talking about. I didn’t --”

“--Yeah you did. It was around three this morning. You were standing there, in your purple pjs in front of the mirror on the bathroom door, practicing--I’m guessing 4th movement of Dvorak’s “New World Symphony,” given the opening syncopation--”

“--why the hell were you spying on me?”

“It’s not like I meant to! I just started packing late and then I heard movement so I went to check it out, and you’d left your door open! But anyway, it was awesome. Totally professional and confident.” The energy that had been coursing through him all night until he gave up on sleep and had him bouncing his leg against the footwell of the car flared with a potential outlet. “Ooh, I’ve got an idea! Did you want to try conducting with one hand while driving and I’ll play along and try to follow your cues?”

“No, because I’m DRIVING, and because you’d be BLASTING YOUR GODDAMN FLUTE IN MY EAR. Do you have a single fucking brain cell, or did they get fried by playing too many high notes on the piccolo?”

“A-Cheng, be nice,” Jiang Yanli said. “You know how he gets before auditions.”

“Yeah, A-Cheng, be nice,” Wei Ying pouted at his brother. “You -- wait, what do you mean, ‘how I get before auditions’?”

Jiang Cheng snorted. “Like you don’t know.”

“I literally just asked. Why would I ask if I already knew?”

“To hear the sound of your own voice? Why else do you normally talk?”

“Ok, you two. That’s enough,” Jiang Yanli said. “A-Ying, I just meant that you tend to  . . . have more energy before auditions. Or concerts.”

“It’s like you revert back to you at age ten. Pre-Ritalin. You’re impossible to be around. No wonder Wen Qing isn’t coming to the summer orchestra festival this year. Probably couldn’t wait to be rid of you.”

“Very funny. You were on the text thread when she said she was doing the MGH research internship instead. It has nothing to do with her being my stand partner.”

“Keep telling yourself that.”

“Hey! Come on, she thinks I’m great!”

“She insults you in every other sentence.”

“Exactly! It’s how she shows affection.”

“That’s not a thing.”

Wei Ying laughed. “Ok, didi. If that’s how you want to play it. Anyway, if Wen Qing hated me, then why would she ask me to look after her younger brother, huh?”

Jiang Cheng jerked his head to look at Wei Ying, before scowling back at the road. “She did what?”

“It’s his first year at Tanglewood. I guess he’s kind of shy. So she asked me to introduce him to people and make sure he made friends, didn’t have too hard a time, that sort of thing.”

“Why the hell would she ask you? You’re the least responsible person there.”

“Come on, I’m a GREAT big brother,” Wei Ying said, leaning over into his brother’s space so the dyed red steak in his ink black hair flopped onto Jiang Cheng’s shoulder. “I’m gonna mentor him so hard he won’t know what hit him.”

Jiang Cheng rolled his eyes so hard it was a miracle he didn’t sprain anything. “Yeah, right.”

Something about his tone sounded off. It wasn’t the normal type of grouchiness. He was genuinely pissed at something. “What does that mean?”

“What, you don’t remember how well you mentored me, my first summer at orchestra camp?”

Wei Ying scrabbled around in his memory banks, but there was a huge blank spot where the data should be. He huffed out a nervous laugh to hide a sinking feeling worse than when Ms. Yu brought her palm back to strike with all her considerable force. Wei Ying hid a wince behind a chuckle and twirled his slide whistle between his fingers. “Um. Did it involve my pointing out the best waffle iron at the buffet and which shower runs out of hot water first?”

Jiang Cheng glared at the road so hard Wei Ying was surprised it didn’t cower in fear. “You got fucking expelled, asshole. Ringing any bells now?”

Wei Ying winced and looked out the window. Apart for some soup-related memories and a few vignettes with an uptight violinist, most of the year he’d turned 14 and the eight years before that were shut behind a door in his mind labeled “Do Not Enter” with several padlocks, deadbolts, and a retina and fingerprint scanner for good measure. Thank fuck for containment strategies and good trauma therapists. Not that he’d found a way to tell his family about the reason for the gaping holes in his threadbare memory. Well, maybe one day. Just . . . . not this one.

He peeked in the peephole of the forbidden door and reached for a memory. There was a faded one, almost in black and white, of him music dueling a kid his own age who seemed determined to win ‘stick in the mud of the year,” some snatches of him getting bored and improvising flute parts instead of observing a 50 measure-long rest, and— “Ah. Right. That was the summer conductor Lan Qiren threw a baton at me, wasn’t it?”

“Of course that’s what you remember. I still can’t believe how fucking proud of it you were. As though that were anything to be proud of. You better not try that shit here, ok? You know what Mom said.”

Wei Ying forced himself not to grip the slide whistle too tightly. Ms. Yu had said that if he made a nuisance of himself, then she and Mr. Jiang wouldn’t pay the room and board for the Berklee School of Music next year. He’d gotten full tuition covered with his music scholarship, but even the two jobs he had lined up wouldn’t cover his share of the apartment he was sharing with his brother or all of the scores he needed to buy. “Oh come on. I haven't done stuff like that in years,” he insisted.

His brother gave him a doubtful look.

“Aiya, everyone’s so suspicious. Fine, fine. I’ll be on my best behavior. Scouts honor.” He lifted three fingers up to his forehead in a mock salute.

Jiang Cheng scoffed. “You were kicked out of the boy scouts.”

“Because they didn’t like that I protested their exclusionary practices!” Wei Ying said, waving his slide whistle at his brother to punctuate each word.

“It’s not like you’re trans! Why do you have to fight other people’s battles? Can’t you just not make a mess, for once? Fuck, it’ll be a nice change to not room with you.”

Here, at least, they were on solid, familiar ground. Wei Ying had memorized the notes to this piece within a year of being taken in as a foster kid. He started twirling the slide whistle between his fingers and gave his brother his most charming expression. “Aww, Jiang Cheng, don’t be like that. Come on, admit it, you’ll miss me.”

“Bullshit. How could I miss you? Or your piles of sheet music with illegible scribbles you scatter on the floor instead of keeping them in a notebook like a reasonable person? Or practicing at 3 in the morning?”

“What else am I supposed to do? Not write down or try out the melodies when they come to me? Now who’s ridiculous.”

“Well, they better give your roommate a refund. Or at least cover his therapy bills. God knows he’ll need it after he’s done with you.”

The only evidence of Wei Ying’s wince was the sixteenth-note hesitation that interrupted the otherwise rhythmic twirling of the slide whistle. “What are you talking about? I’m a fucking delight,” he said, pasting on a bright grin.

[vikenticomeshome]

Cyberchase - Season 1 Episode 1 "Lost my Marbles" (part 1) - How It All Started

Hello, all. I want to talk about a particular episode of Cyberchase today. I don't know if I will put together discussion posts like this for every episode, but I feel like I need to put one together about this one. This was the first proper episode for Cyberchase after the pilot episode. Sure, we had the three-part prequel web comics and other promotional material. However, I bet most people who saw this episode saw it before they saw the webcomic or other promotions.

I didn't see this when it first premiered, but I did see the re-runs. That was long before I knew about the web comics. So, where do we begin?

The Hacker: Ahahahahaha!

The Hacker: At last! The moment I've been waiting for! Haha. It's absolutely perfect.

Yeah, The Hacker gets the first line of the entire series. As if he was going to let anyone else have that.

Imagine you'd never heard of Cyberchase before. Imagine this was the first episode you'd ever seen. We have this clearly villainous character flying his ship through a strange world. And now he's laughing with evil intent while remotely spying on some children at a library.

Buzz: Yeah, you're right, Boss. Cyberspace is simply enchanting.

And then the more competent (?) of the two Duncebuckets gets the second line. Delete is noticeably silent in his introduction, and he looks annoyed that Buzz is interrupting The Hacker's speech. I feel like this dynamic flipped later in the show. Delete became more prone to outbursts, and Buzz did more to tug him back in line.

The Hacker: Those Earth kids are the key to my plan.

Buzz: Oh yeah, you mean your master plan for all-out domination of Cyberspace that will allow you to spread chaos and evil from site to site?

The Hacker: Of course that plan, you robotic duncebucket!

Buzz: I thought the only way to take over Cyberspace was to get rid of that Cyberbrain that runs it, Motherboard?

The Hacker: And so we shall.

So, Buzz is a good, if somewhat clunky, vehicle for exposition. He explains The Hacker's ultimate goal, as well as the big step that he is about to take to achieve that goal. He also refers to Motherboard as a Cyber-brain. It is possible that that was some sort of slur, but I don't think Buzz is that kind of bad guy. It's largely accepted by the community that Motherboard's species is called Cyber-brain. That raises the question as to whether there are more of her out there.

During this exchange, the scene cuts to the kids on Hacker's big board. They don't have dialogue yet, but this is the very first interaction among them.

Yeah, they were on The Hacker's screen earlier, but Matt and Jackie were frozen in the place, and Inez did some sort of idle animation. However, this shot, Matt and Jackie are clearly working together to figure out how the library map screen works. Matt is poking at the screen. Then, he looks in Jackie's direction. Jackie smiles ad gestures with her hand. Matt smiles back. Calm down, shippers. They just met. Oh, and Inez is standing there with her arms folded. Her expression is neutral. She may be annoyed at how long tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum are taking to figure out how the map works. She did have a long bike ride over here, and it was stated upon her arrival that the library was closing soon. I'm not sure how much work any of them expected to get done today.

Now, we enter Control Central and see Motherboard for the first time. Digit and Dr. Marbles are working on her.

Dr. Marbles: Upgrade nearly complete, Motherboard. Stand by for reboot.

Motherboard: Hurry, Dr. Marbles. My firewall's been down long enough. It's not safe.

Digit: Not safe! C'mon! What could possibly happen?

He just had to say that, didn't he.

Motherboard: Hacker alert! Hacker alert!

Digit: Hacker's Back?!

Dr. Marbles: Impossible! We drained his power grid and exiled him eons ago.

Inez: Excuse me? You two aren't the only ones who require access to this map.

Matt: Hang on, I'm just trying to figure out how to use it, okay?

Yeah, Inez is already done with their shit, and they haven't even been properly introduced.

Jackie: Alright, you're here, see? So, just find where you want to go and touch that spot.

I love that Jackie's first words in the episode were to try to calm down Matt and Inez. Jackie also just turned key #1 of 3.

Matt: Okay. Mythology... Mythology...cool!

And so, Matt turns key #2 of 3. We can see that the map drew a line between the Lobby and the Mythology room. I'm not sure how it would have helped with navigation though, as it seems to be a straight line or a simple curve. We also don't see any step-by-step directions.

Inez: But I need to go to the research room!

I love how Inez lunges for the map to tap the still-glowing Lobby button again. Matt and Jackie make a point of stepping backwards out of her way.

And so, Inez gets her useless directional line to the research room. She also turns key #3 of 3.

Inez: *gasp*

Matt: Hey, what's up with that?

Jackie: It looks like the icons are going to crash into each other, right...

Matt, Jackie, and Inez: Here!

Dr. Marbles: Hacker has found a way to breach the system!

Motherboard: Quickly, reload my firewall!

The Hacker: Behold, my half-baked henchmen. My concoction of computerized chaos is about to... attack!

Motherboard: Hacker has launched a virus. It's coming this way.

Digit: Hurry Doc! Hurry! Close her up!

Dr. Marbles: Firewall loading! 45! 50!

Motherboard: It's too late... the virus has invaded my circuits. It's shutting me down.

Dr. Marbles: Firewall up! No further damage anticipated.

Digit: She's in bad shape, huh, Doc?

Dr. Marbles: Her Encryptor Chip has been destroyed! I can't retrieve it! I've got to locate and install a new one.

Dr. Marbles's quest goes poorly, as Hacker immediately captures him.

So, let's pause for a moment and process what just happened here. The Hacker, who was apparently exiled eons ago, has returned. We know from the official prequel web comic, "How It All Started", that The Hacker attacked Valussa after he was banished, but before he infected Motherboard with the virus. That was a major event, as it led to Digit betraying The Hacker for the second time, The Hacker imprisoning Digit, and Digit escaping and defecting to Motherboard.

Assuming Digit gave Dr. Marble and Motherboard the full story of The Hacker's attack on Valussa, they had to know that The Hacker was still alive and capable of causing chaos on Cybersites in spite of his downgraded power supply. So, I don't know why Dr. Marbles is in such disbelief that The Hacker is back.

It's not clear what happened in the time period between the events of the comic "How it All Started Episode 2", where The Hacker attacked Valussa, and "Lost my Marbles". This gets murkier if we bring in The Flying Parallinis' storyline, since The Hacker was imprisoned on Mount Way-Up-There without Digit.

Maybe I was wrong in my original assessment of the Parallini's storyline. Maybe The Hacker's imprisonment on Mount Way-Up-There wasn't really a retcon. Maybe Motherboard was content to just stuff him in a pod and launch him to The Northern Frontier over the theft of The Encryptor Chip from "How It All Started Episode 1". But then, after he terrorized Valussa and Digit defected, perhaps Motherboard saw fit to put The Hacker on Mount Way-Up-There as an additional punishment. If so, there was apparently nothing there to alert Motherboard if he left the mountain. Now that I think of it, that arrangement might clear up the inconsistencies in Buzz and Delete's origin stories. We know The Hacker built them with parts from Cybersite Botopolis, but they also talk about a time when they worked in a cyber cheese factory unassociated with The Hacker. If we take Mount-Way-Up-There as a separate punishment, then perhaps Buzz and Delete lost their jobs when The Hacker went up the mountain. Then, when he came back down, he pulled them back in.

I'm not going to touch "Hacker Hugs a Tree", since that was 100% a retcon of How It All Started.

I don't think The Hacker attacked any other Cybersites between the Valussa event and the attack on Motherboard. I think he laid low while cooking up the virus. I suspect that sometime between The Hacker terrorizing Valussa and "Lost My Marbles", Motherboard, Dr. Marbles, and Digit got complacent. They figured he was just sulking in The Northern Frontier.

In addition to writing the code for the virus, The Hacker must have rigged that library map to open a breach in Motherboard's defenses. Even with her firewall down for maintenance, he couldn't launch the virus, or he would have done it. We also know that raising the firewall was able to prevent the virus from causing further damage after the initial infection. So, The Hacker needed her firewall down, and he needed the breach opened at the same time in order to pull this off.

But how did the breach work? I feel like I could make an entire separate post theorizing about that, and I probably will. I won't bog down this post with it though.

So, back in the real world...

Inez: You think we broke it?

Matt: I don't know.

Jackie: There must be some way to reboot this thing!

Motherboard: I am Motherboard.

Jackie: Uh oh.

Matt: Mother-who?

Jackie: We're in for it now! She's probably FBI!

Motherboard: I am protector of all Cyberspace.

Inez: Right, and I'm Xena, Warrior Princess.

Motherboard: When the three of you touched that map, a breach in Cyberspace allowed a nasty computer virus to reach me.

Motherboard already know their names, possibly through spying on them in the library. She pulls them into Cyberspace. This is the beginning of the next 20 years of their lives spent working to keep Cyberspace safe from The Hacker.

The old pitch documents claim that Motherboard "conducted an elaborate computer search of every being in every galaxy for the right combination of bravery, moxie and math skill", and these three actual children were the best for the job. That comes with the caveat that Motherboard had just suffered brain damage from a virus first, of course. There is a popular fan theory that she pulled them in to make amends for accidentally opening the breach.

They meet Digit.

Digit: Without Motherboard, everything and everyone in Cyberspace is doomed!

Jackie: You guys, we can't let that happen. We can't just stand by and let this Hacker guy destroy Cyberspace. We have to help! We just have to!

I love that Jackie is the first one to insist that all three of them band together to save Cyberspace. She doesn't know her new teammates, Motherboard, or the scope of the mission, but she's ready to ride or die.

Inez: Excuse me, I don't even know you guys. This is a major decision! I need time to think about it.

I love that Inez is being the rational one here, arguably more rational than Motherboard.

Matt: There isn't time to think about! We've got to act now! I'm in!

I love that, the moment Inez mentions taking time to think about it (i.e. waiting), Matt throws his hat into the ring with Jackie.

They don't get cyber-suits or virtual avatars, but they get, Sqwak Pads, funky little handheld computers for problem-solving and communication.

I'm nearing the limit for these posts, so I'll stop here. I'll make a part 2 for the rest of the episode, as there are some important scenes to high-light. I probably won't go scne-by-scene, since that will take forever. However, the scenes that I covered in this part were all very important, since they set up the premise for the show and introduce our characters.

[sankttealeaf]

this is late but any out of 14,18,22,24,27 for the writer asks? <3

this is also a late response but here we go<3 answering these fic writer asks!

14. where do you get your inspiration?

mainly when i'm laying in bed trying to go to sleep. i like to just put my guys into situations and sometimes i come up with good things. i have a lot of bad spoon days so i'm stuck in bed just thinking about things

the market scene in let sleeping dogs lie where gortash buys rue a cat figurine and she breaks it came from a week last december where i got sick and couldnt do much except lay in bed. i had that scene planned months before i would ever need to write it :')

i'm always thinking of situations!! its not a bad coping mechanism if i'm getting something out of it, right?

18. if you keep them, share a deleted sentence or paragraph from a published fic

a scene from a cut chapter where gortash takes rue to a fancy dinner to get her to kill someone for him - this got turned into the party chapter :) the gift in question are her little dagger earrings but i ended up making gortash give them to her later on as a thank u for looking after him post-cania

She rolls her eyes. “Maybe we should sleep together. That way I’ll be rid of you.” “You would miss me.” “I wouldn't. Not when you keep putting me in shitty clothes like this.” “You look divine. I think you should let me dress you up more often. You would look exquisite covered in fine jewellery and expensive fabrics. Speaking of-” He takes out a small box from the inside of his coat, the sudden loss of his hand against her leg feels odd and Rumour takes this moment to put her feet back down on the floor. Gortash hands her the box. “If you’re proposing, at least get on your knees,” she says as he laughs. “Do you think of me often on my knees?” “Yes.” She takes the box from him. “It is required to kneel before me in the temple. You could do with following that rule.” “It would take more than that to get me to kneel before you.” He sits back, waiting for her to open the box. “You, on the other hand, would look delightful on your knees in front of me.” “Think of me often like that?” she repeats, an eyebrow raised and a smirk across her face. “I’m certain that me kneeling before you has nothing to do with being a devout follower of the Gods.” “What you could do on your knees is something the Gods only wish they could do.” “I’m not getting you off, Gortash.” “You don’t have to be kneeling to do that.” He nudges his leg against hers. “Open the gift.”

22. do you ever worry about public reaction to what you’re writing? how do you get past that?

i used to! bad in the early days of sharing my durgetash stuff i was worried that people would find me weird for being on the gortash train, but as time has gone on there's a (relatively) nice community for durgetash now which has eased my worries

i also think i'm at the point in my life where i dont really care if people think what i'm writing is too much or whatever. i write for myself & share it in case anyone else wants to read it, but at the end of the day its for me. idc what people may think!!

24. how do you recharge when you’re not feeling creative?

i try and do something else completely! i also draw, so i tend to flip-flop between writer mode and artist mode a lot which is great! i also listen to a lot of music to help get me in the zone. but sometimes the best cure is to not do anything at all and wait it out !!

27. your favorite part of the writing process

daydreaming about all the ideas i have and planning them down into vaguely coherant points

and also writing the parts i really really am excited for and can visualise so clearly in my head

[morningstargirl666]

⭐️ for TBBW please and thank you!

I kinda touched on my decisions for the recent arc of tbbw in my last update but I had more to say (i totally ran out of words in the last authors note, so had to delete like two paragraphs lmao), especially on chapter 35 and 34, so here it goes. [spoilers under the cut]

Firstly, I've mentioned this before but the whole arc of Damon disappearing was not originally planned in the first plot line. Initially, I'd discarded giving any justice for Caroline because I couldn't see a way of keeping her, Klaus and her friends all in character without utter carnage following in the fallout. If anything happened to Damon, Stefan and Elena would flip out and Stefan's whole vendetta against Klaus would be re-ignited. Similarly, Caroline, in this point in time, isn't one to exactly condone cold-blooded murder or torture. And there's also the very messy and difficult art of accurately presenting Caroline's trauma respectfully when I myself have never experienced anything like it. But then I think I was writing chapter 12? Chapter 13? And suddenly I had a HUGE epiphany.

I was rewatching the end of s3 tvd to help better draft out the scenes I was currently writing and plan future chapters in more detail, and I got to the scene in 3x21 where Stefan and Damon are driving out of Mystic Falls to dump Klaus' dessicated body somewhere. In canon... Damon literally promises to leave Mystic Falls if Elena chooses Stefan (he doesn't make good on his word later - no surprise there really) and seeing that, it hit me.

It fucking hit me.

What if the Mystic Falls gang never even realised Damon was missing? What if they never even suspected Klaus when it came to his disappearance? Stefan and Damon haven't always kept in touch over their decades as vampires, would Stefan really be surprised if Damon 'left' Mystic Falls and didn't text, didn't call? Damon wasn't suspicious in canon either, when Stefan spent a summer in a safe at the bottom of the falls while he got to be with Elena. I'm not saying Damon and Stefan don't care about each other - they obviously do, to a passionate extent, but unlike the Mikaelsons dynamic, they're a lot more independent of each other and haven't spent their entire vampiric lives together, tied to the hip. They're used to not seeing or hearing from one another for long periods of time. Hell, Damon even spent years? Decades? Imprisoned by the Augustine Society and Stefan never noticed, so like, it's technically canon the two aren't great at communicating their current whereabouts. So, if they never realise Damon is missing, never even suspect Klaus... Stefan's characterisation is sorted. I can do whatever I want to Damon and it doesn't matter because Stefan won't be out of character leaving Damon to the wolves, because he doesn't even know Damon has been thrown to the wolves in the first place. Elena's characterisation is similar to Stefan in some regard as she's in love with Damon at this point, but she does still care about Caroline and her anger at Damon and guilt complex over what happened to Care would probably outweigh the niggling feeling at the back of her mind that something is wrong for the most part. Bonnie's Bonnie - she'd be down for murdering Damon lmao, so like I don't even need to find a loophole for her.

Keeping Klaus and Liz in character were harder. In a perfect world, I'd have Caroline exacting her own revenge - like that would be the perfect plot line and perhaps would work if she was freshly turned, shunned from her friends and met Klaus then. Except she didn't meet him then, her friends are still her friends and any revenge against Damon now would be OOC. Which is where Liz comes in. We've already seen in canon she's capable of taking out vampires, or at least motivated to do so. Caroline is her daughter, and like the night of Caroline's birthday, she'd do anything to protect her - even make a deal with the devil. So she approaches Klaus, plots with him to take out Damon in a cunning, quiet way...and Klaus goes along with it because although he is impulsive and has a flair for the dramatics, he's cunning too. Manipulative. Tactical. Traits that are often forgotten in the later seasons and TO.

I don't ever show what happens to Damon, except for that 'Hello Damon' and the blood decorating Klaus' socks, and that's on purpose. I wanted it to be vague. Is Damon dead? Is he alive? Is he forever locked in the Mikaelsons' basement? Is he free, but compelled with a horrific list of instructions, never allowed to lay eyes on Caroline ever again? No one knows.

It's up to you to decide.

And if, maybe, he's still alive in a hundred years - well. I'm sure Caroline wouldn't mind then exacting her own revenge. Perhaps Klaus will hand Damon over to her gifted wrapped for her 118th birthday as an anniversary present, who knows.