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ice-dancers-and-chill · 2 years

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Consolation Prize

Summary: Jacques' super great plan to cheer up Josée after their TDRR loss.

Rating: K+

Warning: Mild cursing

AN: I've been meaning to write this for YEARS, but alas… a funny, evil hah-hah drabble. Wrote on Docs on mobile 😵‍💫

—

Everyone cheered with congratulations as confetti and sparkles rained down onto the stage—everyone, except for the Ice Dancers. Jacques and Josée both sneered at the Cadets, who were living it up by throwing their newly acquired million dollars into the air to mix in with the confetti.

Jacques hated them. He hated the Surfers. He hated Don. He hated all of the stupide, ugly people here. The only person here that he didn't hate, was Josée. His eyes drifted to the side to check on his partner again, but she was too busy glowering at the back of MacArthur's head to notice.

Stupide MacArthur who saved her life not even a day earlier.

What did she want for it, a medal? It didn't matter that they would have been guaranteed fourth place without her help, it didn't matter that Josée could have… died, without her help. It was still a competition, and she didn't have any right to be all mad at Josée for playing the game as soon as the moment was over.

Jacques huffed. Maybe he was just bitter. This whole damn race was a huge waste of time and a fantastic pain in the butt. He and Josee were so close to total reconciliation back in Montreal, and then they participated in this dumb race. They'd been pushed to their limits, had their absolute worst brought out, and fought with each other so much. And then that fiasco in the Bahamas… Ugh…

"Yes, throw all your money on the ground, very smart." Don chided the Cadets with a host-appropriately peppy side-comment.

Jacques looked to Don, then back to the Cadets two rows ahead of them. Stupide pompous pigs, stupide…

His eyes settled lower, specifically onto the ground between the vegan Mile's sandal-clad feet in front of him. Along with the colorful confetti and some loose bills, a fairly thick clip of hundreds laid there innocently on the floor. Jacques eyebrows raised, mouth dipped low.

Don just finished giving the season outro, and everyone yelled again, save for himself and Josée. No one was looking at him. No one was looking at anything besides the camera at the end of the stage.

Jacques did his best to not smile as he stepped his sneaker on top of the bills, a plan already forming in his bitter, handsome head.

—

"Jacques, hurry up." Josée called back to him, but her voice had lost all of its bite.

Jacques lugged their matching pink duffle bags, one on each arm, as he walked to keep up with her. They didn't have to wear their uniforms anymore, and the straps from their bags kept pulling at his undone jacket every few steps. He stopped at the end of the line beside Josée, and stuck his lip out in thought while he looked over her tired face. Even after a night to sleep off their loss in one of the JFK Memorial Airport's hotels, Josée still looked worn out. His poor Josée, he was sure she must have a lot on her mind.

"Mon chou, why don't you go and sit by the TSA booth? I'll get our tickets and luggage taken care of." Jacques offered sweetly.

Josée looked up at him questioningly, a little miffed by his relaxed attitude after such a horrible finish yesterday. But she turned her head to the very, very long line ahead of them, and figured there was no reason that both of them needed to suffer through it.

"Fine, sure." Josée answered, still annoyed sounding.

Jacques watched her go with a sneaky smile. He felt a little bad for not letting her in on his plan—seeing as she was so put out—but the surprise would be worth it. He felt like he needed something big to boost her spirits, and a surprise like this was a great way to do it.

—

"A'kay! All ready to go." Jacques smiled and offered her ticket to her.

Josée took it from him and got up from her seat, trailing behind him as he walked them to TSA. As they waited in line, Josée looked over her ticket absent-mindedly, only to lose her bored expression to shock. Jacques did his best to look off, as though he hadn't been waiting for her to notice.

"Jacques!" Josée yelled up at him, and he turned nonchalantly to her.

"What is the mat—"

"—You got us the wrong tickets!" Josée berated him, smacking the little paper against his arm. Honestly, was this so hard? Did she need to hover over him for even the simplest things? He knew she was in no mood for little screw-ups like this!

"I diiid?" Jacques asked, feigning ignorance. He took a look at his own ticket. "Ah! Sill-y me, I accidentally booked two first-class tickets for Honolulu!"

Josée's mouth slumped to the side at his moronic grin.

"How do you even mess that up!" She steamed. "Go back over there and fix it, and make sure you get a refund! Do you know how much first-class tickets to Hawaii cost?"

"Ah, oui, I do." Jacques smiled at her smugly.

"...So go!!" Josée threw her arms to the side, in the direction of the ticket counter, but Jacques didn't make any movement to do as he was told. Josée felt like she was going to burst a blood vessel—was she going insane? He looked so damn smug, despite sounding dumber than a bag of bronze right now.

Just when he was sure Josée might actually pop if he pushed her buttons any longer, Jacques raised his hands and patted Josée's shoulders, smoothing out her anger along with the fabric of her blouse.

"Ah ah, Josée! Not to worry, we are not paying for it." Jacques assured her. His smile morphed into something more mischievous when she shot him a confused squint.

"Those pigs are picking up the tab." He smirked, and pulled his jacket to the side just enough to reveal a neat clip of hundred dollar bills tucked into the inside pocket.

Josée stared at the money in surprise, then back up to Jacques as he closed his jacket again. It took her a moment to realize what he was getting at, and she smiled apprehensively.

"Jacques…" Her smile grew a bit. "...where did you get that?"

"Ahh, I cannot remember!" Jacques replied, hand laid against his temple. "It was so confusing yesterday, you know, with everyone yelling, and them throwing their money all around…"

He winked at her and Josée squealed quietly. She threw her arms around his neck in a hug, and Jacques wrapped his arms across her back, his eyebrows bowed up contently. He hadn't heard her laugh at all since yesterday.

"Jacques, that is so underhanded!" Josée pulled back, smiling wide.

"Psh! They don't need it. They probably won't even notice." He rolled his eyes and set a hand onto her back as they walked to move with the line. "But we need a vacation, non?"

Josée looked up at him giddily, just like she had in Argentina. It felt like forever ago, for both of them.

"Oui, I think we do." Josée affirmed, and hugged onto his arm as… professionally as possible.

Jacques beamed with pride.

They hadn't suffered so many losses so close together in years, and then placing third in the finale stung like bullet ant bites. But this was not ice dancing, and this was not for any medal or trophy, so he could convince himself (and then maybe Josée later) that these losses didn't matter. What mattered was that after all the losses and fighting and threats, that they were still together, side by side, arm-in-arm, and always would be. If Vancouver couldn't break them, nothing could.

He snuck a peak at Josée, who was still smiling brightly at nothing in particular. Jacques' lips curved up in admiration. Returning that smile to her face was worth more than the million ever would be.

(But a free trip to Honolulu wasn't bad, either.)

—

AN: Hawaii was special to them, and now it's tainted by cursed lava rock memories. They need some new ones! ;)

#fanfic #jacques is huge brain #mine

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fakeikemen · 3 years

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After seeing this gifset of Mo Xuanyu something has awoken in me and now I must rant about it.

Here's what I think: Jin Guangyao lied about Mo Xuanyu harassing him.

Not really gonna comment on whether he was actually queer or not because that is completely up in the air. And the things in the story that do point to mxy being queer (all in a negative light) can be disproved. This is speculative yes, but in the same way we speculate about jgy killing Jin Rusong. Jgy kept this entire incident hidden from Lan Xichen. And that’s a little weird because making himself look like a burdened suffering soul in front of lxc was one of his priorities. I don’t see why he wouldn’t weaponize this. Not saying that he has to tell everyone about how he was sexually harassed or that he is obligated to tell it to the people close to him. But lxc was a frequent guest at Lanling. And everyone and their mother at Lanling knows about the fiasco and they don’t try to hide their knowledge of it. Word had spread far enough for rogue cultivators to know. So its a little weird that Lan Xichen has no idea who Mo Xuanyu even is.

Following further in the vein of even lxc not even catching a whiff of mxy; jgy possibly isolated him from the others. Assuming that mxy was in Lanling for a year atleast and that he was brought there to make him the primary choice for succeeding Jin Guangshan it becomes just much more weirder that lxc doesn’t know him. If he had been someone who was indeed flaunting his attraction to men, (like many believe) he’d have been known.

But mxy was 14 when he was called to Lanling. He had to leave his home and go to a completely foreign place where he would be definitely looked down upon. The Mo family already had a bad public opinion. Mxy’s mother was the daughter of a servant of the Mo family. His social status might have been a bit better than jgy but not by much. I am pretty sure that mxy felt like he was walking on eggshells the whole time. It would have been way too easy for jgy to win over his trust and to isolate him from the others as someone who had a nice and reassuring presence and was also from the lower strata of society and wasn’t looking down at him. Lanling’s hostile environment would’ve definitely helped jgy with this.

And after cutting off mxy from all the other people, how easy would it have been for jgy to turn around and lie about mxy to everyone else? Jgy may not have been highly regarded by his “family” but he was keeping everything working and talking and making "connections" with other people for years now. Other people noticed and appreciated him (including Wei Wuxian in his first life time.). Jgy can also put on a good show. People would listen to him and believe him. We also know that jgy was already wary of jgs bringing in other illegitimate sons to prevent him from becoming the heir. Jgy would have definitely planned to drive mxy away since the moment he set foot in Carp tower. Mxy probably never stood a chance.

And mxy would have no one to support him or to clear his name. Because he would have only been around jgy (more reason for people to believe that he was into jgy). There was no way for people to believe that mxy was innocent.

But going back to the speculations about mxy being open/loud about being into men being the factor that makes people believe jgy; it's not possible.

The society in MDZS is homophobic. Let’s leave aside historical accuracy because MXTX clearly mentioned in the author’s note that MDZS wasn’t supposed to be historically accurate. Even Wangxian, who seem to be completely unbothered by the homophobia around them, elope and get married. As one does when their marriage is likely forbidden. Not to mention that they are both powerful individuals with immense popularity and are revered or feared by so many and no one would dare oppose them, except close family. (No but fr imagine walking up to the inventor of modao and being “eww u like guys??” and thinking that you can survive that given the reputation that the Yiling Lazhou has. And I think its pretty self explanatory by the way that no one questions Lan Wangji when he drags “mxy” around that no one dares to bring it up.) And later they are shown being apprehensive about the acceptance of their marriage. The banquet extra shows that their marriage is accepted by Gusu Lan because Wei Wuxian sits beside Lan Wangji in it, but before that lwj was called in by Lan Qiren and most probably given another earful along with the grudging acceptance and neither do the other people at the banquet look very happy about wwx’s presence there. Yes, there is also the possibility that all of this was because wwx is the “big bad” who invented modao (and this definitely contributed to the Lan clan being against the marriage as well) but if it was only that, then the prime objective should have been clearing wwx’s name and making people believe that he’s changed for the better, or something idk. But the way wangxian deal with the unacceptance of their relationship seems like the more dominant issue is homophobia.

We also have wwx using the cover of being gay to act up based on the misguided opinions that other people have about queer people (queer people being pervy predators, etc) to make others feel disgusted and make them stay away from him so that he can avoid suspicion. And it works! Because the people are homophobic.

Anyway, that leaves no room for someone from mxy’s hierarchy to walk around freely proclaiming that he likes men without being shunned. It would cut his ticket to the throne real quick as well. Whatever he was doing at Lanling, he wasn’t doing that. (Sidenote: no one in Mo village calls mxy slurs or talks about him being a predator they all seem to be preoccupied with his lunacy and not his sexuality. Which is certainly interesting to note.)

(Also there is a very neat irony in jgy lying about his half brother harassing him while he’s the one who is married to his own half sister. So yeah.)

#mo xuanyu #mdzs meta #jin guangyao #mdzs #mo dao zu shi #grandmaster of demonic cultivation #actually i like overthinking about mxy more than i'd like to admit #ira's posts

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princessofprocrastination · 4 years

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I Messed Up, Didn’t I? (Dream)

MASTERLIST

PART ONE!

pairing : dreamwastaken x singer!reader

summary : after the breakup, he sees that you’re growing as a singer, while he’s suffering alone, but you don’t think that about him, seeing he’s growing on youtube. (PART TWO)

a/n : aaannnddd here’s the final part!

a full year passes.

you thought the pain in your chest would leave after a while. but maybe it doesn’t work that way since clay and you were together for a couple years.

you were kept busy with the voice each week, every weekday, you were told to keep working on a new album.

but whenever you had time alone in your house, you couldn’t help but think about it all.

the cuddles on his gaming chair whenever you felt lonely at times while he played his games.

or when you’d care for him whenever he would get sick since he would act like a baby.

or that time when you both went to get fast food at 4am in the morning because you craved something that would be bad for you.

or the little banters or debates you two would have about politics.

or when he’d dive on the bed on top of you when he was in need of cuddles.

it all comes back to the reason you broke up.

you didn’t blame him. you didn’t blame yourself.

you didn’t know who to blame. you couldn’t blame the internet since you got your job from it too.

you were glad that you found a job that was your hobby. whenever you were mad or sad, you’d write it down, and send it to your team, and suddenly, it would become a song.

you are glad that you have such supportive team and found yourself amazing friends.

speaking of friends, you bought tickets for your two bestfriends to come see you and live with you for a while.

you told them that you needed the companion and that your house has too many empty guest bedrooms that are waiting for people to sleep in.

they accepted the invite and offered to buy their own tickets since you were already giving them a place to stay, but you told them you had already bought them tickets and that they didn’t have to worry about it.

you knew they could afford it, they were just too humble to say it to their fans, but you knew better.

hours before you had to pick them up from the airport, you made sure their rooms were fully ready. you picked the bedrooms most closest to yours because why not right?

what those two didn’t know was that you had bought full gaming sets for them, monitors, keyboards, a pretty nice gaming chair. it was a pretty nice gaming set up, if you say so yourself.

you bought them because you knew that those two cannot live a day without playing games or streaming.

at first, they were hesitant on coming since you told them to stay for a couple months. they both knew they had to stream and post on their channels. it’s their jobs, after all.

but you assured them that you’d find a way and to not worry about anything, and just worry about getting on that plane on time.

you saw the time, took a photo of the gaming set up as you took a photo of sapnap’s earlier and walked out of george’s room, grabbing your car keys and leaving for the airport.

you parked your car in the airport carpark and quickly went to the arrival hall to find those two crackheads.

you were almost jumping at how excited you were. you couldn’t believe that this was going to be your first time meeting them ever.

you waited at the side, making sure you still had a view of the automatic sliding doors of the arrival hall.

you heard someone calling your name from behind you. as you turn your head, you saw a masked man holding a camera that was pointed at you.

paparazzi’s can be annoying at times but you actually knew this guy pretty well and he is definitely not annoying.

“what are you doing here?” the man asked you.

“what do i look like i’m doing in front of the arrival hall, hm?” you sassed him a little, laughing towards the end of your sentence.

“okay, who are you waiting for then?” he asked again.

your phone pinged a notification from the groupchat of you, george and sapnap.

“just wait and see, they’ll come soon.” you told him, winking at the camera.

you saw the two walk out of the automatic doors and you jumped slightly on your feet, waiting for them to come closer before you could give them the biggest hug.

it didn’t take them long to spot you. you attracted a lot of attention, with the man with a very large camera next to you.

as they came closer with their noticeably large luggage, you couldn’t wait anymore, running towards them to give them a bear hug.

as you crashed into the two, they fell slightly back from the impact.

you could hear the loud camera shutters as you hug two of your bestfriends.

you three hugged for a while more before you moved off to answer some questions from the line of paparazzi’s.

you felt bad for attracting the crowd. people must be so confused on what’s happening.

you three answered some questions, until you couldn’t wait anymore, you were excited to show them their room. the anticipation was killing you.

“sorry, i think we need to go. i can’t wait to show them their rooms.” you told the line of paparazzi’s in front of you.

a string of questions came out, asking what rooms and where and why was i so excited.

“you’ll see soon, stay tuned on our social medias!” you told them before pulling your two bestfriends’ hands to walk out the airport to your car.

they said their goodbyes and walked by you to your car, confused on why you had been so excited.

george sat at the front with you, sapnap at the backseat.

“dude, you own such a cool car.” sapnap said, admiring the details of your car.

“close the door and you’ll see something cooler.” you told him.

to which he closed his side of the door and waited. he looked up onto the car roof to see that there are stars on them. they light up as the car doors were closing.

“holy shit damn.” george said, looking up as well.

as you drove back home, you three caught up with each other’s lives.

you found out that they still had been anxious about not posting anything for a couple months, but they’re happy to see you and stay with you. you smiled to yourself knowing how happy they’d be later.

“i just can’t wait to see your house, honestly.” george said, from beside you.

sapnap let out a big laugh, you and george soon following after.

you parked in front of your house’ front door while the two stared in awe that their bestfriend lives in such a house. they’d often forget that they’re friends with such a rich singer. they only saw you as their friend, not someone famous.

you laughed at the two, before exiting your car, to get their luggage from the back of the car.

while they were still looking at your house, you took their bags out one by one, carrying some into the house.

“you wanna come in or not?” you asked the two.

they snapped out of their trance, taking their bags before following you to inside the house.

“what the fuck.” “holy shit this is amazing.” were what the two said when they walked in.

“so since we’re here, let’s put your bags into your rooms before we go get food. you guys can go shower too if you want, there are bathrooms in your rooms.” you told them, excited to see their reactions of the rooms.

“there are bathrooms in our bedrooms? dude game over i’m moving in.” sapnap told you, still in awe of the house.

you lead them to one of their room, telling them which room was which behind closed doors, not opening the door yet. you told them that your room was between theirs and if they needed anything, to ask you.

you stopped at sapnap’s room, on the left of your room, and told them to wait.

“before i open this door, i just wanted to say that i appreciate you guys dropping everything to come here. so here’s a little something for you two, i definitely didn’t forget about your jobs.” you explained to the two before opening the door.

as you opened it slowly, you saw that they were confused. they still had no clue. good.

sapnap’s gaming setup lit up as you opened the door, making the room look like a tiktok room.

“holy- no way. you didn’t” sapnap said, turning to you, still in shock.

“uh yeah i did, and there’s one of george in his room too.” you told them.

“WHAT? no you didn’t.” george screamed in your ear.

“go look in your room. i’m not lying.” you told him.

he runs to open his room door, leaving his bags in front of sapnap’s room. sapnap and you followed to see his room.

as george opened his door, his room too, lit up, just like sapnap’s.

“NO FREAKING WAY.” george jumped at his position in his room, staring at his set up in awe.

“i had to, you guys dropped everything to be here. you still need to make videos. tell me what’s missing and it’ll come tomorrow.” you told the two boys, who were still in shock.

“WHAT’S MISSING?, this is more than enough, thank you!” the two said in unison before running to you to give you the biggest hug.

after that whole fiasco, the two boys got right into work with setting it up. you left them for the moment as you went to the kitchen to get dinner going.

you thought since they just reached california after a long flight, they might not have the energy to drive all the way out to get dinner, so you just settled with making them dinner.

while waiting for your pasta to cook and chicken to fry, you went on your phone.

you weren’t surprise to see people shocked to see that sapnap and george flew to meet you. your feed was filled with photos and videos of your interactions in the airport.

you smiled seeing the cute photos, screenshotting a few to post on your own instagram.

you remembered the gaming setup photos that you took. you opened instagram to post them o your instagram story, along with videos of their reactions of seeing them. only in a matter of seconds, your tagged photos sky rocketed.

now they knew that the two boys would definitely stay for longer.

dream knew what was going on. he was tagged in a lot of the photos. your fans thought he was there too, for some reason. some knew dream wasn’t there but asked why he wasn’t there.

dream was happy to see that his friends are happy with you. they might as well move in with you.

dream knows that you hated staying at home alone. maybe that’s why you called the two over to stay with you.

with the gaming setups, dream knew the two boys would stay for a while. he felt a pang in his chest.

he wanted to meet you. he wanted to make things right again. not because he saw you happy without him, not because he saw how successful you have become, not because he saw how happy you were with his friends but not him, but because he felt alone without you. he needed you.

you could hear george and sapnap screaming. you smiled, knowing that they were probably streaming or recording something, along with dream since you heard them scream “dream” a ton of times.

they had to eat lunch so you brought it upstairs to their room, knowing they won’t end their gaming anytime soon.

you knocked on sapnap’s door first. seeing as he’s not using his facecam, you walked in and put his plate of food next to his keyboard, along with a bottle of his favourite drink.

he thanked you as he told his chat what was going on. you ruffled his hair as you walk out his room, to george’s.

you didn’t bother knocking his door since you knew he was too deaf to hear it anyways. you slowly opened the door, not wanting to interrupt his stream and nicks.

he notices you coming in. “hi! come here!” he told you.

you smiled at him, walking towards his desk, with the plate of food and bottled drink in your hands.

“i just came to gave you lunch cause i know you too well.” you told him, almost sarcastically.

“awh, oh my god thank you, this looks so good.” he thanked you just like nick did.

“my chat wants to say hi.” he tells you.

knowing he has his facecam turned on, you walked to him to stand behind his chair to wave at the camera.

“so this is my favourite person in the world.” george said to his chat, pointing to you.

you blushed and put your hand up to cover your mouth at how cute that was. roll in the ship comments.

“i’m leaving you with the ship comments, gogy.” you told him as you walked to the door.

a couple more weeks go by, and the two idiots are still living with you. they actually are thinking about staying here for good. to which they asked you if that’s okay.

obviously you would let them stay here for good, you loved the company.

they were your distraction to everything going on. the heartbreak, the hurt that never left your chest. they were all still there and you didn’t know how to get rid of them. but for now, your two bestfriends were there for you.

lately you have been getting flower and chocolate arrangements to your doorstep. at first you thought it might be the boys trying to do something nice but they had told you that they wouldn’t have even thought about being that romantic.

you laughed it off and set it aside. the flowers did look good in your living room, after all. unless it was from a stalker fan, you didn’t mind it. you found it a little romantic.

george and sapnap knew exactly what they were doing. the moment they found out your address, they sent it to dream. they knew clay deserved everything that has happened to him. but at the end of the day, he is still their friend, and they can’t abandon him.

everyday of the week. flowers arrangements came. you asked george multiple times if he knew what was going on.

he was the only recent person you remember telling your obsession of flower arrangements to.

at first, he told you he didn’t have a clue, and soon enough, he cracked. he told you he knew, but it was your task to find out who.

the first couple days of knowing that, you tried brushing it off, making yourself busy with music or cooking for the two boys. but soon enough, you couldn’t run away from it anymore. you were curious.

a full month after your first flower arrangement came to your doorstep, you heard a knock on your door. since you thought maybe you had a package, you didn’t think much of it.

you were surprised to see the person in front of your front door.

dream.

it was your ex boyfriend.

what was he doing here? you haven’t seen him in so long, that seeing him felt weird. he was on the internet but his face wasn’t plastered on his profiles.

“what are-” your question was cut off by him.

“just please listen to me first. i swear i will give you all the time in the world to talk later but please, for now, just listen to me.”

your actions stopped. it was as if your brain stopped functioning.

you hesitantly nodded to him, signaling him to continue.

“i’ve waited so long for this. i’ve stayed in that house we first shared alone while you moved here, to pursue your passion. i saw you all over the billboards, all over my phone, my computer, even the flyers outside my house had your face on it.” you laughed at the end.

“but i chose not to do anything just yet, i wanted to see you happy, happy with your career, even if it meant me not being by your side to support you. i am incredibly proud to see that you’ve grown into such an amazing and successful woman.” you goes again.

“but i don’t think i can wait any longer. everyone thinks i’ve been happy with my own life, but how can i be happy, when i still live with the guilt of taking advantage of your kindness, taking you for granted. how can i live happily with the guilt of letting you go that day?” he continues again. you try to keep your face emotionless, trying not to cry.

“i know it feels so sudden, me coming here. but i can’t live anymore not having you anymore. please, take me back?” he finishes, tears going down him cheeks.

you started to tear up, almost sobbing.

“why did it have to take this long, stupid?” you whined, running to hug him.

he moved back slightly from the impact, not expecting you to talk to him, yet touch him .

you two heard your two bestfriends come down the stairs, laughing and faking their vomits from behind your backs.

“i fucking knew it. you two are so sneaky.” you rolled your eyes.

time flies by fast. a whole year has passed. one whole year since dream knocked on your door. one whole year since he has moved in with you and the other two boys.

yes, living with three boys can be super chaotic, but you liked it. you absolutely love the joy it brings you, even if they often steal your snacks from the pantry.

oh yeah, you had to get a full gaming set up for dream too, for making him jealous with george.

#dream imagines #dream imagine #dream x reader #dreamwastaken #dream fanfic #dream team

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strawberryfics · 2 years

Note

Hii is your acc open for request? If so can you do oikawa with a med student partner hihi 👉👈 if not you can ignore this<3

Gender Neutral

Oikawa x Med Student

REQUESTS ARE OPEN

I didn't proof read either so pls help if there's misspellings

Oikawa literally got into school to play volleyball for them

I think he would consider being a med student as a plan b in case volleyball doesn’t take off

He definitely wasn’t expecting to met another cute med student

He would accidentally bump into you not only in class but around campus

If he heard you we’re going to the library then so was he you’re going to a party so is he and so on

He would secretly ask the Professor to put you two together for any group project

Even if it wasn’t just the two of you, he wanted to be near you and enjoy your company

He would study extra hard if you missed a day or for projects to make sure you got good grades too

He would suggest studying together or having lunch together INTERNING TOGETHER

After hanging out a couple of times he would start inviting you to his volleyball games even go as far to buy your ticket to make sure you come

While doing all these he would be his snarky self

After a study session at the library, he would work up the courage to ask you on a real date

He asked to take you for dinner or lunch or breakfast literally whatever you wanted

Oikawa would be ecstatic to take you somewhere he would obviously wait till there aren’t any tests coming and then snatch you up

He would plan an all-day date. Starting with Breakfast at a dinner and ending with Carnival

Oikawa would also make gifts for you that are doctor themed like oddly doctor themed

He definitely has thought of getting you a coat that says “Dr. Oikawa” because he wants you to have his last name

“It is 9:02 IN THE MORNING OIKAWA!”

“sooooooo we have an ALL DAY date to start so get up” “Oikawa it's my day ooooffff” “exactly!”

He practically drags you out of bed for these. Oikawa has to have more than 10 hours for these “all day dates” He would pick out clothes for you while you take a shower so things move along faster and by 10:30 you and Oikawa are out of the apartment heading to a small family-owned dinner for breakfast. I think Oikawa would love the idea of a family-owned restaurant he likes the homie ness of it. would never admit it tho He would try feeding you until syrup from his pancakes gets on your shirt and he scrambles to clean it. After your Breakfast fiasco, he holds your hand and walks you to a park he thinks parks can be relaxing and likes to walk around them and might even take a break to push you on the swing. Lunch would be handmade by Oikawa himself and it would be a picnic he would try to feed you again but the stain on your shirt makes him back away after he would take you to your town’s carnival it only here twice a year so he tries to make it special from scarring you in the haunted house to walking into himself in the mirror house. If you wanted to get on all the rides he’ll come too and if not he’ll try his best to win you a prize even if it took his whole wallet. After your long day he would take you back to your apartment a little sad he has to let you go for the night “Pleaseee we can go get a milkshake OR OR or icecream” he’s got his puppy dog eyes out when you turn to look at him “don’t leave yet it’s only 1 am we can go till 2 plesseeee” you finally give it to his mess “just stay the night Oikawa.” and for him, that was better than ice cream. He got to stay with you.

#oikawa x reader #oikawa x y/n #hq oikawa #oikawa torū #oikawa tōru #oikawa fanfiction #haikyuu oikawa #oikawa toru #haikyuu!!#haikyū!!#haikyuu x reader #haikyuu #haikyuu fanart #fanfiction #fanfic #imagines

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heliopauseentertainments · 3 years

Text

The Unlucky Marriage of Drift & Ratchet

This is unfinished, just the first chapter, but is based on a prompt from @decepti-thots.

On AO3 (where the rest will be posted when/if finished because Tumblr is not built for chapter work).

Continuity: IDW1

Relationships: Drift/Ratchet, Drift & Rodimus, Megatron & Rodimus, implied past Drift/Rodimus, some background/minor relationships, ambiguous relationships

Characters: Drift, Ratchet, Rodimus, Megatron, Chromedome, Rewind (so far)

Warnings: Alcohol use

Summary: In which a captain's duty to officiate bonding ceremonies is a problem.

—

“Rodimus, what is this?”

The datapad was dangled in front of Megatron’s face by a speedster that had dramatically draped himself over a shoulder, likely with the express purpose of being annoying. At least since he was seated at his desk, Rodimus hadn’t had to jump this time to clear the distance. Unfortunately, this method of document delivery also meant the datapad wasn’t being held completely still. That made reading it next to impossible.

“Some stuff.”

“I can see that, yes.” He reached out and took the datapad from Rodimus’ grasp before holding it closer to his optics. He probably should have put on his spectacles, but this worked just as well. “But what is it specifically?”

“A conjunxual license application.”

Megatron sputtered, nearly dropping the damn datapad. Oh no.

“A what? For whom?”

“Calm down. Not for you.”

Oh, thank Primus.

“It says right there!” Rodimus, still using his co-captain as furniture, reached over and poked the document with the tip of his index finger. “Use your optics! I know you’re not blind yet.”

Indeed, upon closer inspection, it did seem to be as Rodimus had said.

A conjunxual license application.

For Drift and Ratchet.

“Oh, finally.”

“Finally‽” Now it was Rodimus’ turn to sputter, wriggling on his perch and slapping Megatron in the back of the head with the fin of his spoiler for the fifth time today. “What do you mean ‘finally’?”

“Now Magnus will stop writing them tickets for unlawful fraternization and I don’t have to void them for being unenforceable.” Come to think of it, Megatron thought, that was probably why they were bothering to file the paperwork anyway. He set the datapad down on the desk in front of him, reaching out with his left hand to grab a light-pen from the little desk tidy that Minimus had given him for his creation day. Very handy.

“Hey, hey, what are you doing?”

“What does it look like? Signing it, of course.” What else could he be doing with it? Drift and Ratchet were their—well, Rodimus’ friends. The least they, as the captains, could do is assist the crew in their happiness. Sure, it was really only a formality given that, to their knowledge, there were no other Cybertronians in this universe and the ship’s command crew was the closest thing to a government they had. “I see no reason to deny the application.”

“But—“

“But what?” The light-pen was put back in the desk tidy. “Don’t tell me you have some sort of objection.”

Why would he? Sure, Rodimus had told him about the whole fiasco with Overlord and Drift, but that was long behind them now. This universe was about a fresh start, not dwelling on the past, even if was something everyone on board the Lost Light struggled with.

“Well, no, but….” Rodimus trailed off, but Megatron only looked at him out of the corner of his optic, a silent indication that he would relatively patiently wait for an answer.

“But as the captain I would have to officiate and that’d be kind of… awkward.”

Megatron breathed a resigned sigh. At least this time Rodimus didn’t say “mad awk.” While he didn’t know the details of the history between the speedsters and the medic—he would, in fact, prefer to keep it that way—he could accept that it would probably be the most comfortable for everyone involved if Rodimus did not participate in any official capacity.

“Luckily for you, I’m here. I’ll do it.” Look at that little problem just solve itself. Teamwork. He reached over to pat his co-captain on the arm, at least as much as he could reach with the odd angle.

Besides, it ought to be straightforward, no matter the strange history between everyone aboard.

All four Acts would be done by the pair in private—that’s their business and he really did not want to know—and Megatron would just sign the paperwork at the party, shake their hands, and leave. That was how it had worked when he commanded the Nemesis and whenever he had happened to be present at a Decepticon base when someone there filed an application. Should be no different here, he thought. He knew he was what Rodimus would call a “buzzkill,” but those celebrations weren’t for him. He’d always been uncomfortable at such… personal functions.

“You?”

“Yes. Now get off of me.” Wait. “Please.”

—

“Drift, are you sure this is what you want?” Ratchet had left the door to his washrack open when he had gone inside to get cleaned up for the “big day” so they could keep talking. It was as though the medic had sensed something was off in Drift’s manner today. Frankly, he wasn’t sure how he felt about being… perceived like this.

“Of course, why….” Drift paused as he sat with a mirror in hand to touch up the paint under his optics, his voice trailing off in a moment of doubt. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“Well, for one thing, you’ve been painting over the same spot for the past several minutes without even letting it dry.”

Damp, partially dried red paint clung, coagulating, to the end of the brush in his hand.

Red.

He could practically hear Rodimus’ voice. Talking about revenge while being repainted, red and gold disappearing under purple and black.

When Drift didn’t reply, Ratchet continued, perhaps a little louder than necessary to be heard over the spray of solvent in the shower.

“We don’t have to do this, you know. It’s just a formality.”

That was true. It was just a formality. It wouldn’t have changed how they lived except for a few bits of paperwork. And no more tickets for fraternization. That was probably the only reason Ratchet had originally suggested just marrying and being done with it.

“I know, I know,” Drift said, unsure if he could even be heard over the roar of solvent. “I… I still want to.”

—

“Rewind,” Chromedome started, settling down in a chair in the back of Swerve’s bar while the minibot fiddled with the camera on the side of his head. “What are you doing?”

“Getting ready for the circus.”

It looked like he was swapping out for a different lens, but Chromedome couldn’t figure out why. The regular one was perfectly fine for most purposes.

“Circus? It’s just a wedding.” Sure, it was the first one to happen since they had left their home universe, but it wasn’t particularly special. It was a long-time coming and really was only to formalize something that had already been the de facto situation. It was still a good excuse to have an occasion though.

“Yes, it is, but there is one thing that you’re forgetting, Domey.”

“Which is?”

“Guess who’s officiating.”

Oh.

“No, you can’t mean—“ That would explain why Rodimus had taken a seat at the bar and was slumped over what looked like at least three half-empty cups of high-grade. Actually, no, Chromedome thought, even if this captain were officiating, there was a chance that would have happened anyway.

“Oh, yes, I do. This is going in my cringe compilation.”

#dratchet #driftrod #drift #ratchet #rodimus #megatron #maccadam #fic #chapter fic #idw1 #fic unlucky marriage

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zeppelin-and-unicorns · 3 years

Note

“You believe me, don’t you?”

Eric and Jackie friendship :)

Eric rested his head on Hyde's old beat-up pillow and closed his eyes. He stood in the airport for over three hours, trying to decide whether or not he would take the flight to Africa, and in the end, he decided not to. But by then, there was no one at the airport waiting for him, so he used the rest of his cash to pay for a cab.

When he finally arrived home, it was almost 2 in the morning. Everyone was probably asleep, so he sneaked inside through the basement, hoping to be able to take a nap in Hyde's room before having to face his father's wrath when he shows up for breakfast in the morning.

He just hoped that his mom's joy of having him back would prevent his father from actually killing him this time.

His eyelids were getting heavy, and he was about to succumb to sleep when he heard frantic footsteps in the basement. He sat up in the cot and prepared himself for what was sure to be a long talk.

When the door to Hyde's room opened, he was surprised to find out that the person on the other side wasn't his dad, his mother, or Hyde.

"Jackie, what are you doing here?!" Eric asked, startled at the girl's presence. Her eyes were swollen, her face was tear-stained, and she seemed just as startled as he was for a few seconds. Then he saw her shaking the shock off, and she looked at him with panic in her eyes.

"Where's Steven? Please tell me he's here!" She said frantically

"No, the last I've heard from Hyde, he was going to see you in Chicago," Eric said, "Jackie, what happened? Why aren't you in Chicago?"

Seeing the concern in Eric's eyes made Jackie collapse in sobs, and Eric quickly got up from the bed and guided her to sit next to him. She buried her head on his bony shoulders and let it all out.

Eric wrapped his arms around Jackie's tiny frame and tried to console her the best he could. He always criticized Hyde for doing everything Jackie wants when she cries, but now he gets it, Jackie's cries are enough to break the hardest men.

"Jackie... What's going on?" Eric asked

Jackie wiped her face and took a deep breath. She just hoped Eric wouldn't judge her and would believe her.

"Steven went to see me in Chicago, and Michael showed up in a towel talking about us 'doing it'." Jackie said, and Eric's eyes widened

"What?!"

"Nothing happened! Nothing was going to happen! Michael was just being his stupid self, I swear!" Jackie put her hands up defensively "I don't know what goes on inside his pea-sized brain, but I think he was either trying to mess with Steven, or seduce me. I really don't give a shit at this point. Michael might as well explode for all I care"

"How did you get here?" Eric asked "From what I heard, Kelso had to drive you there because you didn't have your car"

"I used the rest of my money and bought a last-minute bus ticket"

"What about your job?" Eric asked

"I don't care about my job," Jackie said "I care about my relationship with Steven. I need to talk to him, he needs to know..."

"I know..." Eric said, gently rubbing his hand up and down her arm to comfort her

"You really haven't seen him?" She asked, her eyes filling with tears again

"I'm sorry, Jackie. I really haven't seen him" Eric replied honestly.

Jackie nodded and rested her head on his shoulder again, sniffling softly as tears rolled down her cheeks.

"Why are you here?" Jackie asked after a few minutes, her voice cracking "Weren't you supposed to be on a plane to Africa right now?"

"I chickened out" He answered "My dad's going to kill me"

Jackie raised her head and looked at him "Yeah, but from what is worth... I'm really glad you didn't go to Africa, and I'm sure Donna and your mom will be glad too. It was the best decision"

He smiled softly at her "Thanks"

"Don't need to thank me for telling the truth, Eric" Jackie said, moving her head back to his shoulder "Thank you for helping me"

"You're welcome, devil" Eric replied, gently running his hand through her hair.

They stayed in that position for a few minutes, each of them lost in their own thoughts.

"Nothing was going to happen with Michael, Eric." Jackie said, breaking the silence "You believe me, don't you?"

"I do" Eric replied without hesitation, and Jackie breathed relieved "Of course I believe you, Jackie. Kelso's an idiot"

"The last time something like this happened, Steven slept with that nurse" Jackie blurted, finally letting her fears out "And Michael was dressed then. Eric, I'm really scared of what he's going to do now"

"Jackie, Hyde is not the kind of guy who'd make the same mistake twice," Eric said honestly "I remember how crushed he was after that whole nurse fiasco. He wouldn't put you or himself through that again"

"You haven't seen his face, Eric... He looked... I've never seen that look on his face before, it killed me" Jackie confessed, letting out a small, tortured sob.

"Hey, hey..." Eric said, turning around to face her and placing his hands on her face "Stop crying, everything will be fine. Hyde will be back soon, and you guys are going to be all happy and disgusting again, like you should"

"What if he did something stupid?" Jackie asked, sounding smaller than he'd ever seen. At this moment, for the first time in his life, Eric felt like kicking his oldest friend's ass.

"If he did something stupid -- which I don't think he did, I'm going to kick his ass for you"

Jackie raised an eyebrow at him, and Eric sighed.

"I'm going to get Donna and my dad to kick his ass for you"

Eric wiped some of Jackie's tears and she chuckled. Without any warning, she pulled him into a tight hug.

"Thank you, Eric. Really"

He hugged her back "Anytime, devil. Things are going to be okay, I promise"

She nodded against his chest, and prayed that he was right.

Okay, since reality can be anything I want it to be, Eric was right. Hyde came back in the next morning, hungover, but from a night of bitching about his love life in bars, not from a night of sex with strangers.

He arrived before Jackie was up (she slept in his room and Eric slept on the basement's couch), so Eric had a serious talk with Hyde before he had the chance to see her. Hyde immediately felt like trash after hearing Eric of all people lecturing him, and said he wouldn't mess things up anymore.

He woke Jackie up and they fixed things between them. He drove her back to Chicago, but he took his stuff with him because they decided to live there together.

And Eric got the "foot in the ass" lecture of a lifetime from Red, but Donna and Kitty were ecstatic that he was back.

The end.

#ask #prompt game 2.0 #ficlet #jackie and eric #jackie burkhart #eric forman #steven hyde

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eberles · 4 years

Text

Forgotten

Matthew Tkachuk

Request: 8. “You’re looking at me like.. you’re disgusted. What did I do? Just tell me what I did, please!” 11. “Your bed head is really cute.” 23. “Wait, don’t pull away… Not yet.”

A/N: first time writing for him, please let me know what you think! i combined 2 separate requests and turned into this!! enjoy! 🥰

Warnings: angst with a fluffy ending

Tonight was the night. It was supposed to be the night. The night your boyfriend of almost a year was to finally meet your parents, but of course he forgot and you didn’t want to be as disappointed as you were but damn he was making it really hard. Your parents were only in town for 2 days, dinner tonight had been planned for months and Matty couldn’t be bothered to show up. Or even call you and tell you he wasn’t going to be there which was beyond embarrassing for you to have to show up for a family dinner, alone. At least for you, your parents were understanding when you gave them some lame excuse about Matty having some team event you both completely forgot about. You hated lying to them and all you wanted was to show them how great of a boyfriend and person Matty was and you weren’t sure when you’d have that opportunity again. You made the most out of dinner with your parents, enjoying being able to see them for the first time in so long since you moved to a new city.

When you arrived home you were happy to see that Matty wasn’t just sitting on the couch doing dirt nothing when he should’ve been out with you. Quite honestly, you didn’t want to see him for the rest of the night anyways, but you knew once he did come home you’d have to face the music. You weren’t going to make it easy for him though, hopefully Matty knows how to use his context clues to figure out how he fucked up this time.

i’ll be home in 20

You scoffed at the text tossing your phone on the couch next to you. Did I ask? You debated leaving just so you didn't have to look at his face when he comes home, you knew seeing his pretty eyes and curly hair was going to make it hard for you to give him the cold shoulder. You stayed on the couch, a cliche hallmark movie on the screen in front of you and a fuzzy blanket thrown over your legs when he arrived.

“Hey baby, how was your night?” Matty came through the door, a smile on his face excited to see you. He walked closer to you, leaning down to give you a peck on the lips, but you kept your face neutral while turning slightly to the left so his lips brushed your cheek. “Is everything alright?”

Matty noticed your cold expression and the way your body tensed when he got closer to you, he noticed how you didn't answer either of his questions, just simply shrugging when he asked if you were okay. He knew he was in trouble, he just didn't know what for. He thought about everything that could've made you upset today, but he hasn't seen you since early this morning and everything was fine then. Matty decided to take a few moments to think about what could be causing you to be upset so he went up to your bedroom and changed into a pair of sweats before returning back down stairs. You refused to look at him, you couldn’t give in just yet, he needs to work for it.

“Sweetheart, what’s wrong?” Matty sat next to you on the couch, rubbing your thigh in a comforting manor, looking at your face trying to see if there are any readable emotions showing through. You took Matty’s hand off your lap and moved it onto his own before looking over at him with a hard expression on your face, your eyebrow raised a little and lips pursed. “You’re looking at me like.. you’re disgusted. What did I do? Just tell me what I did, please!”

“Think about it.” You sighed, watching Matty’s happy-go-lucky eyes turn puppy-like and sad, your expression softening the slightest bit. You stood up from the couch, putting your wine glass in the dishwasher, before retreating to your bedroom for the night. It was late, but you knew you wouldn't be able to sleep without talking to Matty first. You turned on the same silly hallmark movie and sat against the headboard, contemplating whether or not you should just give in to Matty so you guys can argue about it and make up. It didn’t take long for Matty to follow you up to the bedroom, his shoulders were slumped and he looked like someone kicked his puppy and your heart broke for him.

“Figure it out Matthew, I should not have to spell it out for you. What was tonight?” Your voice broke a bit as you spoke and your tone was quiet, you could see the wheels spinning in Matty’s head as he sat on the edge of the bed. Anniversary? No. Birthday? No.

“Love, i’m sorry, I-” Matty gasped, mid sentence whipping around to look at you. His face had the look of pure shock written all over it and you knew he figured it out. “Tonight, tonight was dinner with your parents.”

“Yup.” you said, making sure to pop the p. Matty was immediately at your side, apologizing profusely and assuring you he “was going to fix this.” When you neglected to respond to his pleads, Matty stood up walking out of the room and rushing out of your shared home. You heard the front door shut and stood up in shock, moving the curtains to look out the window to see that he indeed did just leave. You weren’t sure how long Matty was gone for eventually crying yourself into a deep sleep, but when you woke up he was awake in bed next to you. You were ready to jump out of bed and give Matty a piece of your mind for the way he left last night when he held your arm holding you in bed.

“Wait, let me explain.” you nodded your head yes, sitting up in bed so you could be at eye level with your boyfriend, ready for what better be the best excuse ever. “I went to your parents hotel last night and I convinced them to stay for the rest of the week. I explained what really happened last night and they were not too pleased with me, but I want to show them how sorry I am to you and them and prove how much I love you.”

“I don’t- what?” you were flabbergasted, utterly confused. The reason your parents were not staying longer was because they worked for what they had and couldn’t handle taking a whole week off of work. “How did you get them to stay?”

“Well, i’m paying for the hotel and the new plane tickets and it took a lot of begging, but they gave in pretty easily.” Matty explained, and you honestly couldn’t believe what you were hearing. Your boyfriend went out on a limb and met your parents on his own, without you. It might not have been much considering he should have met them with you, but the gesture was huge for you.

“I’m not mad anymore.” you cried, scooting closer to matty letting him place his hands on your waist and lift you onto his lap. “I’m sorry I was so harsh, this was the nicest thing anyone's ever done for me.”

“I love you and i’m so sorry. I will never forget another important event again.” Matty smiled and you chuckled, the two of you slouching down in bed so you could lay together and make up for the lack of cuddling the night before.

“I love you and your bed head is really cute.” you pushed your hand back through Matty’s curls, playing with the ends of his hair, before feeling Matty shift out from under you, attempting to escape from your death grip on him. “Wait, don’t pull away… Not yet.”

Matty moved back under you holding you close to him, both of you feeling safe in each other's arms. The rest of the week went by splendidly, your parents did not ever bring up the fiasco and you were extremely grateful for that. The four of you had the best week, the dinner you were supposed to have and lots of sight-seeing for your parents in the city they've never been to. You were extremely thankful to Matty for giving you this extra time with your parents and he promised you all would be able to do this again.

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

tagging bc hockey but don’t feel obligated: @bestestbenn @shelbsays @starkeyseguin @vincecdunn @jamiedrysdales @storiesbymads @obx-saltlife

#matthew tkachuk #matthew tkachuk imagine #matty tkachuk imagine #matty tkachuk #calgary flames #nhl writing

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arashikitten · 4 years

Text

Why has no one made a Yu Yu Hakusho x Danny Phantom crossover yet?

?I mean, honestly, look at these two shows! Look at them! How is it that no one (that I know of) has made a crossover with them yet? There’s so much potential! I mean honestly! Both are about a 14-year-old who died in or before the first episode, came back to life through some sort of shenanigans, and ended up with supernatural abilities as a result. Both Danny and Yusuke have a very close knit friend group comprised of people who know about said supernatural abilities and help them fight all form of malicious supernatural entities (Danny fights ghosts, Yusuke fights demons). Both Yusuke and Danny have a rival/arch-nemesis who, at the start of the series, is leagues above the protagonists in terms of power, but ends up being surpassed by the main protagonist sometime during the second season of their respective show. Both Vlad and Toguro serve as foils to Danny and Yusuke respectively, and while they may feel some sort of kinship with them for some reason or other, they tend to see the young protagonist as someone who is below them in terms of power, intelligence, and skills (even after that is no longer the case). Both Danny and Yusuke are snarky and seem like delinquents to all but their closest friends, but secretly they have a heart of absolute gold. Both would (and have) died for any one of their friends, and they likely have a metric fuck ton of trauma from the many, many, many times they almost watched their friends and family die right in front of them. And of course, both Danny and Yusuke are likely to become kings of their own supernatural realm (if you disregard DP’s canon in favor of the fanon like I do).

So then the question becomes this: how would a crossover between the two shows go?

Here’s how I see it playing out:

Sometime after the last episode of Yu Yu Hakusho, and right after the events of Reign Storm, Yusuke (who I would say is about 18-19 years old now) gets a call from Koenma for the first time in almost 4 years. Koenma tells Yusuke that he needs him to come back for one final case: investigate a small town in Northeastern America for recent spikes in spiritual and demonic activity.

When Yusuke asks why Koenma wants him to look into what is seemingly a tourist trap town, Koenma tells him that the town was recently encased under a dome of spirit energy, disappeared for almost 24 hours, and then suddenly reappeared again, and Koenma suspects that someone- or something- from spirit world might be responsible.

Three calls and four plane tickets later, Yusuke and the gang land in Illinois and make their way to Amity Park. Kuwabara takes one (1) step into the town and immediately freezes. He’s always been the most spirit-sensitive of the group, and this town is setting off all of his proverbial alarms. Kurama, Hiei, and Yusuke also notice something off about the town, like everyone here has way higher spirit energy than normal.

The four make their way through town, noticing more and more as they continue. They notice the massive craters that litter the streets. They notice the constant smell of spirit and demon energy that drenches the town like a fog, covering everything and everyone. They notice the small, silvery-grey and green devices that almost everyone seems to have on their wrist, and Yusuke can’t help but think about how similar they look to the spirit-detecting gadgets he used to have back during the beginning of his detective career. They notice the metal panels that every store seems to have hanging above their windows, waiting to come down and defend from some unknown beast.

They notice how, whenever they appear in an area, everyone in the vicinity goes silent. Tense. Wary of them. Like they know three demons just appeared, even if all of them look human.

Yusuke and his team split up to search through the town and cover more ground, agreeing to meet by the local highschool in two hours. Things just get even weirder from there.

Kurama finds a patch of wild blood blossoms growing near the forest, despite the fact that they were declared extinct more than 200 years ago. Hiei sees a pair of burly men wearing all white suits and dark sunglasses dragging a young man with white hair and sunglasses away for questioning. Kuwabara is surprised when a small, glowing green puppy appears in front of him, only to vanish when he leans down to pet it.

Yusuke finds a massive stone brick building with what almost looks like a UFO perched on top, and huge neon sign with the words FentonWorks on it. Here, the spirit energy is almost suffocating, and it feels like molasses, thick and heavy and dense on Yusuke’s senses. He feels something else though, something that just barely manages to break through the thick ambient spirit energy that swamps this entire block: a ghost. And a powerful one at that.

By the time the group reconvenes at the high school, everyone is tense. They’re sure that there’s something sketchy in this town, but none of them have gotten any concrete leads on what caused the town’s sudden disappearance and reappearance. Almost none of the townsfolk give them any answers, and the few that do are vague and confusing, or outright lies. Kuwabara firmly believes that this town is haunted by ghosts, and that they’re what caused the sudden disappearance, but Yusuke, having been a ghost himself at one point, is less inclined to believe that. Yusuke is convinced that the house with the weird UFO thing and abnormal spirit energy has something to do with it, and the gang agrees that would be the best place to start.

Before they can do that though, they all suddenly sense a MASSIVE spike in spirit energy, coming from the center of town. Yusuke and the gang book it to where the spike is, hoping to get some sort of lead.

Meanwhile, Danny is having a fight with Skulker, made slightly more difficult than normal due to the fact that he’s still recovering from the whole Pariah Dark fiasco. He’s been on edge all day, ever since he sensed that weird ectosignature near his house. He’d felt the typical chill of his ghost sense, but the typical puff of blueish smoke wasn’t present like it usually was. On top of that, he’d felt a small jolt of electricity, too big to be chalked up to static electricity and carrying with it a hint of... something. Something not entirely human.

But when Danny had tried to investigate, he’d come up empty handed. Which as you can guess, made Danny My-friends-and-family-have-all-almost-been-killed-by-a-ghost-disguised-as-a-human-at-least-once Fenton more than a little nervous.

So Danny’s fighting Skulker when he feels that not-quite ghost sense again, except this time it’s even stronger than before and waaaay the hell closer. And now Danny goes from nervous to flat out terrified, because whoever or whatever is triggering his not-quite ghost sense is really fucking strong, and oh fuck are there four of them?! Are they getting closer?!?! Whatever it is is really strong, like almost stronger than Pariah Dark and Danny was barely able to take him down at 100% strength with the enhanced suit, and he no longer has the suit and he still has not fully recovered since then, so how in the fresh hell is he gonna fight four beings who are at least on par with Pariah?

Skulker notices the sudden power spike as well and immediately bounces, leaving Danny to panic over these four insanely powerful entities.

Yusuke and the gang make it just in time to see Skulker leave while Danny hovers in the air, looking like he’s about to blow a gasket. Kurama takes one look at the panicking ghost kid floating above him, notices the weird spirit energy around the kid, and immediately puts two and two together and realizes the kid is a ghost, and a really powerful one. Yusuke, who if you remember spent about a week as a ghost at the age of 14, is confused because I thought ghosts couldn’t be seen by living people? But these bystanders are clearly seeing this kid?

And then Yusuke senses that strange spirit energy he felt when he went by FentonWorks, and he’s like “You were the reason for the weird spirit signature!” at Danny, who panics and flies off because now he thinks these super powerful guys are working for the GiW, and he’d rather not spend the rest of his afterlife on an examination table.

So Danny flies off, hoping to lose Yusuke and his gang, but Yusuke I-used-to-fight-demons-who-could-move-at-the-speed-of-sound-for-fun Urameshi and Hiei have absolutely no problem keeping up with the panicking halfa, and they end up fighting. Yusuke and Hiei want answers, Danny is terrified of being caught by what are possibly government agents, and finally Kurama manages to trap the halfa with ghostly vines.

Unfortunately for Danny, these vines are phase-proof, meaning he can’t escape, and he’s already hurt and exhausted and he doesn’t know how much longer he can hold his ghost form.

Yusuke picks up on the ghost’s nervousness immediately, and again assumes that this ghost is the culprit for Amity’s sudden disappearance, demanding to know why he abducted an entire town.

Danny is confused, because what the hell are these people talking about? He never abducted the town? He’s not nearly that powerful?? Before he realizes that oh, these people are trying to figure out why the town disappeared for 24 hours because literally no one outside of Amity Park has any idea why.

So Danny starts to explain what really happened, when his time finally runs out and he detransforms.

Right in front of what he believes to be four government officials.

There are five different reactions.

Hiei goes still. He’s completely silent. This shouldn’t be possible. He wants to believe that this is all a trick, but he can hear that fifth heartbeat that wasn’t there ten seconds ago and he smells that fear scent that only humans have and glamour can only do so much.

Kurama has the calmest reaction. He leans back a little, eyes wide, and lets out a soft “oh”. Yes, this is a surprise to him, but then again, Kurama himself is a demon hiding as a human, with a human family, so he immediately sympathizes with Danny a bit.

Danny is panicking. He’s just revealed his biggest secret to four complete strangers, all of whom are absolutely powerful enough to take him out on their own, and he is terrified that they’ll turn him in to the government. He’s about five seconds from a full-blown panic attack.

Kuwabara freaks out. He’s trying to wrap his mind around this whole thing, because he is 100% sure this kid was a ghost, that he was dead, but now he’s not sensing much of anything and how the hell is this possible???? How can someone be a ghost and a human at the same time???? WHAT????? He’s pulling at his hair as he tries to put the logistics of it together, pacing back and forth.

Yusuke freezes. Suddenly he’s 14 again, floating as he watches his body get carted off as he tries to come to terms with the fact that he’s dead. Then he’s in the temple of the four saint beasts, fighting with everything he has as he watches the love of his life get attacked by monstrous zombies. Then kneeling next to Genkai’s broken and bleeding body, begging her not to go even as she draws her last breath because he couldn’t bear to lose the woman that he’s come to see as family, as the closest thing he’d ever have to a grandmother. Then he’s watching Toguro plunge his hand into Kuwabara’s heart, watching as his best freind gasps for breath because Yusuke wasn’t good enough, he wasn’t strong enough, and he just lost Genkai he can’t loose Kuwabara too-.

And when he looks down at this small, skinny teenager with deep shadows under his eyes and knuckles covered in scars from god-knows haw many fights, he sees himself as he was in the beginning: Just a kid who was thrust into the world of the supernatural without any warning, desperately trying to stay alive and protect the human world despite the fact that he’s only a teenager, and he shouldn’t have to be fighting for his life against these ancient and powerful demons because he’s a kid, dammit!

Yusuke kneels down to get to eye level with the kid. He can’t help the painful twinge in his chest when the kid looks up at him with wide, icy blue eyes, and quietly begs him not to tell anyone, because this kid can’t be much older than he was when he started out as a spirit detective and he sounds absolutely terrified, and Yusuke can’t help but wonder why he sounds so scared of people learning about the whole ghost thing.

“Listen, kid. We’re not going to hurt you. We were sent here to investigate something, and we were hoping you might know something. Can you tell us your name?”

“Danny. D-Danny Fenton.”

“Ok, cool. Don’t worry, none of here are going to tell anyone about... about whatever this is. We just want to know about something that happened here a week ago, and we were hoping you could give us some answers.”

Danny agrees, and Kurama frees him from the vines. After a couple of moments, Danny calms down as he realizes that no, these guys won’t rat him out to the government, and he agrees to answer some of their questions.

The group make their way to the outskirts of the forest, and Danny tells them about his status as a half-ghost: he tells them about his parents, how they were building a portal to the ghost zone (Everyone is more than a little freaked out at that, because now there’s a permanent portal to spirit world that Koenma doesn’t know about), how he’d gone inside to see if he could figure out why it wasn’t working, how it’d turned on while he was inside (Yusuke clenches his fists hard enough to draw blood. Both of the times he’d died had been excruciatingly painful, but at least they’d been quick. Getting electrocuted to death would be beyond agonizing, and getting caught in a portal like that...). He tells them about how his parents despise ghosts, believing them to be cruel, malicious, and emotionless, incapable of feeling pain. He tells them about how he’s TERRIFIED of telling his parents the truth, of telling them that he’s Danny Phantom because that seems to be the ghost they want to capture the most, and he’s seen what they do to the ghosts they capture (Kurama and Yusuke feel sick at that. No wonder the kid was so adamant about keeping this a secret.).

“Does anyone else know? Anyone at all?”

Yusuke breathes a small sigh of relief when Danny tells them that his sister and his two best friends know. That sigh of relief is rescinded when the kid tells them that oh yeah, all the ghosts that are constantly attacking the town? Yeah, they know my secret identity too.

Yusuke has to force himself to move on from that last tidbit because he’s about five seconds from adopting this kid despite being only five years older.

“Ok, neat. That’s... that’s ok. Moving on to why we’re here. We were hoping that you would have some information regarding the sudden disappearance and reappearance of Amity Park a week ago? Do you know why or how it happened?”

Danny talks about how, one week ago, ghosts started pouring out of the portal in unprecedented numbers. How they were terrified, running from something in the ghost zone. How Fright Knight had appeared, declaring the reign of Pariah Dark (Kurama and Hiei suck in a breath. Had... had this kid seriously fought against the fabled ghost king?), and the massive green dome had appeared over the town. How he’d tried to fight Fright Knight off, how another ghost by the name of Vlad Plasmius had shown up and admitted that he was the reason for Pariah Dark’s temporary freedom, how Plasmius had decided to have a temporary truce with Danny in order to defeat Pariah, how Danny had pulled Fright Knight’s sword from the ground and accidentally teleported Amity Park into the Ghost zone, how the entire town had gone under lock down. How he’d stolen the power suit from his parent’s lab to go and face Pariah on his own, and bring Amity back to Earth. How he’d just barely been able to shove Pariah back in the sarcophagus of Forever Sleep, how the power suit had almost completely drained his life energy, how the town had been back on earth when he’d woken up (Again, Yusuke has a flashback to the Temple of the Four Saint Beasts. What is it with the powers that be and sending kids to do life-threatening missions like that?).

Kurama records the entire thing before sending it to Koenma.

When Danny is finally done, he notices that everyone is staring at him. Yusuke is the first one to speak.

“Damn kid, you really fought the king of the Ghost Zone, huh?” Danny stutters for a moment, because this guy is saying it like Danny fought a god or something. Like yeah, it was difficult, but it can’t be that big a deal right?

Then Kurama speaks up. “Danny, I don’t think you understand. There are two ways to crown a king of the Ghost Zone: either the ghost zone itself must choose someone, or the current ghost king must be defeated in battle. You defeated Pariah Dark in battle. Meaning....”

Everyone goes silent for a moment, processing.

Then several things happen at once. Danny, who at this point still hasn’t fully processed that oh yeah, I defeated one of the most powerful ghosts in existence, freaks the hell out because I barely have time to protect one (1) town, how am I going to rule an entire dimension? Kuwabara is flipping his shit again, Hiei is contemplating, and Yusuke.... Yusuke decides screw it, I’m having an apprentice now, and after calming Danny down, he offers to help train him up a bit (Somewhere in spirit world, Genkai starts quietly laughing).

Danny agrees after a moment of deliberation. Yusuke hangs out in Amity for a bit to help Danny. His first interaction with Sam and Tucker is.... interesting. Yusuke snuck up on Sam and Tucker, and Sam promptly punched him in the face and almost broke his nose. But after a bit they start to warm up to him, and eventually Yusuke starts teaching Sam some hand to hand along with Danny.

Vlad makes one appearance while Yusuke is there. He sensed some sort of foreign presence in Amity and wanted to see if he could exploit it, only for Yusuke I-haven’t-slept-in-a-week-and-I-refuse-to-start-now Urameshi to wipe the floor with him. When he asks Danny who the new ghost is, he is surprised to learn that no, Danny is not the only half-ghost in existence, and also that guy is a famous millionaire and also knows my secret identity so maybe let’s not break into his mansion to fight him please? (Yusuke agrees not to after a very lengthy argument. Still, the whole situation reminds him a little too much of Toguro and the Dark tournament, and he quietly asks Koenma to open an investigation into this Vlad Plasmius guy.)

Yusuke’s introduction to Danny’s parents goes... surprisingly well, actually. Aside from one small incident where one of the Fenton ghost detectors lock on to Yusuke’s signature, everything goes fairly well. Jack and Maddie take a shine to him almost immediately, when they see him curb stomp Skulker with a practiced ease that only a professional should have, and within the week Yusuke is an honorary member of the Fenton family.

There’s a lot more, but this post is waaaay too long as it is. Feel free to add on!

#Danny Phantom #yu yu hakusho #yusuke urameshi #danny fenton #Danny phantom crossover #Seriously tho why has no one done this one yet?#It would be so interesting #ESPECIALLY if Yusuke is older here #The dynamic between Yusuke and Danny would be so damn fun #I imagine it's similar to Genkai and Yusuke's relationship #Speaking of Genkai #The MOMENT she finds out that yusuke is training someone #She busts her way out of spirit world so she can find out who it is #she wants to know who her grandkid is teaching dammit!#she takes one look at Danny and is just like #Looks like I'm adopting yet another snarky half dead fourteen year-old #Also Danny can totally see her #and it throws her for one hell of a loop #Danny floats up to her and is like yo what's up?#and Genkai's chill abt it on the outside #on the inside tho #she's like #*surprised pikachu face*#Hiei #Kurama #yyh kuwabara #koenma #i will pay whoever writes this 50 dollars #jk i don't have any money #but like

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wrestlingisfake · 3 years

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The CM Punk Saga

It's almost time for AEW's "The First Dance" show, and everybody's still prefacing their hype with "if CM Punk isn't there it'll be a huge disaster, but..."

I'll be in the building. They could've booked CP Munk and I'd still be there. But obviously the Punk tease makes this special. If he's there, it'll be historic to witness the reaction in person. And hell, if he's not there, it'll be historic to witness the fiasco in person. I find that kind of funny--after all these years, it's not the man that sold me a ticket, it's the drama surrounding the man.

Punk had wrestling fans in the palm of his hand after the 2011 "pipebomb" promo, in which WWE allowed him to air his real grievances with the company to build tension for a world title match with John Cena. I get the impression WWE expected it to cast him as a whiny heel. But Punk tapped into the fans' frustrations with WWE, and they embraced him as someone who would fight to change what they resented about the company. He was "the voice of the voiceless."

The problem with that kind of role in WWE is that you can only "fight the power" as far as Vince McMahon lets you on his TV show, and then he'll book his side to win the argument. Within a couple of months a lot of the edge was taken off the storyline. Fans still wanted to believe in him as a rising force for change, but the product didn't reflect that. That dissonance came to a head at the 2014 Royal Rumble, which happened to be the day before Punk quit WWE.

In hindsight, Punk's departure had nothing to do with the fans' frustration with the Daniel Bryan vs. The Authority storyline. But at the time nobody knew what Punk's problem was, and neither side was talking. So the two issues sort of got blended together--Bryan's crusade against kayfabe management and Punk's beef with the real thing. I'm sure a lot of fans figured, if Bryan wasn't going to defeat the Authority at Wrestlemania, then Punk was the logical alternative, and WWE must've screwed that up too. Unless...maybe it was all a work, a storyline to make things seem hopless for Punk and Bryan before slamming them into key Wrestlemania matches.

The buildup to the March 3, 2014, episode of Raw was surreal. Stop me if you've heard this one: The show was booked in Chicago, weeks away from a big pay-per-view, and CM Punk wasn't advertised, but it felt like the perfect opportunity for him to make a surprise return, so the live crowd was ready to go apeshit if he didn't appear. When he didn't appear, I think fandom truly started to accept that he was gone for good. But the saga shambled on.

When it was clear Punk wouldn't be fighting for their cause in WWE, fans nevertheless clung to him as a symbol of resistance. The "CM Punk" chant became a potent and controversial tool for disruption. If you just boo at the show, WWE can play that off like you're mad at the bad guys, but if you chant the name of the guy that walked out on their bullshit, there's no good way for the company to spin that.

A lot of people came to hate the Punk chants, but here's the thing: They mainly happen during an absolute dogshit Raw segment. If you listen to your audience and keep them entertained, then they're easier to control, and it's less of an issue. WWE instead prefers to control the audience by telling the them how to be entertained and refusing to listen if they dissent; the Punk chant puts the lie to that approach.

Punk's next move outside of WWE was a huge topic in 2014. Again, fans wanted to believe he'd continue to fight for them somehow. Remember, this was back when Global Force and Lucha Underground had just been announced, and before Impact had gotten thrown off Spike TV. It felt like it wouldn't take much for a serious alternative to WWE to emerge, and give Punk a way to quit WWE without quitting wrestling.

Months of silence led to increasingly wild speculation. A friend of Punk's wrote an editorial about how fans were hanging around outside his home waiting for him to throw out the trash. I'm pretty sure I know what they wanted to ask when they met him. His appearance on Colt Cabana's podcast and his UFC run helped clear the air, but not enough. Fans never gave up trying to find out when he'd come back to save pro wrestling. Punk's comments on the matter were rare, and never seemed to be enough to get people to leave him alone about it. He'd gone from wrestling's Che Guevara to wrestling's JD Salinger.

The rise of NXT and the ROH/New Japan alliance in the mid-2010s seemed to almost be enough to distract fans from their CM Punk fantasies. But then in 2018 Cody Rhodes and the Young Bucks decided to run their own indie supercard, and picked Chicago as the location. You could almost hear the Punk in fans' heads saying, "At last, a non-WWE US show big enough to be worthy of my star power. This is what I have been waiting for!" Punk denied that he would be there; of course, to wrestling fans that just means he's swerving us and he will be there. And he wasn't there.

But this is the turning point in the story. I was at All In. I heard like one guy try to get a Punk chant going, more out of ironic self-awareness than anything. Nobody was into it. They'd have been glad to see Punk on the show, but they were there to see the Young Bucks, Kenny Omega, Cody Rhodes, Kazuchika Okada, Kota Ibushi, etc. That's probably when it hit me: Everyone had been waiting for Punk to lead the revolution, because they thought no one else could, but these guys had gone ahead and done it without him.

As All In led into AEW, speculation about Punk remained high. But then another funny thing happened, when Jon Moxley dramatically exited WWE in 2019. Moxley didn't immediately announce his future plans, and lots of people figured Moxley must be done with wrestling. The Punk saga had clearly taught fans to manage their expectations. Rumors about both Punk and Mox appearing at Double or Nothing were all over the place, but were generally dismissed as wishful thinking. Then, out of nowhere, Moxley ran in at the end of the show. Then he was announced for a run in New Japan. Fuck, I thought, who needs CM Punk?

And so, I've spent the past few years being over this whole thing. I'd given up trying to figure out CM Punk, or what it would take to bring him back to wrestling. I had a whole array of big names trying to play the part everyone wanted him to play, in a promotion that I thought would never exist without him. Let him enjoy his retirement, and I'll enjoy AEW. So of course he'd decide now is the time to come back. Allegedly.

I'm excited about the possibility of seeing Punk blow the roof off the United Center. It'd be fascinating to see some satisfying closure to this whole thing. And yet, I have no idea what CM Punk means to pro wrestling in 2021. What does "the voice of the voiceless" do in a company full of people listening to their audience? Will fans be into him when they realize he can't/won't be exactly like they remember him from seven years ago? At 42 years old, will he need to play a bitter old heel to stay relevant? How will fans respond when they realize this isn't the big comeback they always dreamed of?

It's those questions that are the real draw for me, regardless of whether The First Dance lives up to expectations. And it's strange to think that's the main attraction to Punk, as if we're talking about an Ultimate Warrior comeback or something. Seven years ago I just wanted him to return to wrestling so I could see him wrestle. Now I kinda just want to see if he looks totally different from the last time I saw his picture.

#aew #cm punk #the first dance

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adultswim2021 · 3 years

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Stroker and Hoop #10: “I Saw Stroker Killing Santa Claus (a.k.a. A Cold, Dead, White Christmas)” | December 4, 2005 – 11:30PM | S01E10

I can't believe I'm telling you this, but I straight up liked this episode. Stroker and Hoop thwart a mysterious criminal's attempt on the life of a mall Santa, who turns out to be the real Santa, putting Stroker and Hoop in the SANTA IS REAL canon of TV and movies, just like Miracle on 34th Street and Home Improvement episode S01E12 before it. But Santa isn't out of the woods yet: he's been injected with poison by said criminal, and there's no antidote. Worse yet, Stroker picked up a winning lottery ticket from the hooded criminal and has no interest in solving the case, opting instead to use his lottery winnings going skiing and picking up sluts. It eventually becomes a riff on A Christmas Carol because of course it does.

Honestly, the humor of this one is still pretty Stroker-and-Hoop-esque, which hasn't been a terribly good thing for the last 9 episodes. Maybe the sanctity of Christmas, a holiday we should all respect and cherish, being used a backdrop for the Stroker's sleazy gags helps give it something of an edge. I found the plot twists to be fairly clever, and there were a handful of really funny gags that I truly and honestly appreciated. The absolute best bit was when Stroker and Hoop were singing “Deck the Halls” together and Stroker winces and hums the line that includes the phrase “gay apparel” like he's homophobically avoiding singing it. That is such a hilarious character moment. Fuck. It's so funny. It honestly pisses me off. I LIKE THIS ONE. SO SUE ME!

MAIL BAG:

Here’s a mail bag I shoulda put on last night’s post! It’s referring to Perfect Hair Forever episode 2!

Fun fact! According to a bump from 2017 when the network was going this thing called History of Adult Swim, that song Brendon Small did for episode 2 of Perfect Hair Forever was one of the earliest seeds planted for what would later become Metalocalypse. Also I think The Animation Show was a cool event, considering the whole "Rejected was promoted in 2002 but ended up not airing" fiasco

I definitely respect it. They should have called it “Respected” lol, like Rejected. Also: I just wanted to share this random thing I remember about Metalocalypse being announced, which was that I remember most people thought it was going to be exactly like Home Movies, and basically be a show about Dwayne. Like, not literally a spin-off, just like a King of the Hill style almost-spin-off to Beavis and Butt-head (children who do not know this: Hank Hill is basically B&B’s Tom Anderson but different).

#adult swim #adultswim2021 #stroker and hoop

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fanfic-me-up · 4 years

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okay so i kinda got carried away with this one??? i just really love this idea and how freaking fluffy it is! so thank you for submitting it @peachy-yabbay! 😊 also lowkey im sorta falling in love with kaminari?? like he’s so fun to write and i had a smile the entire time. anyway i rlly hope you enjoy!

Feel free to request more here. I write fics, drabbles, and headcanons 💖

Also, I have a yoga fic already posted with bakugou x fem!reader so if this doesn’t satisfy your need of bakugou being a flexible pretzel and failing you can read more here 😂

Bakugou Katsuki

THE STRUGGLE IS REAL

like Bakugou prides himself on going to the gym everyday, but he focuses on strength training and muscle building

the art of flexibility takes time, effort, and perseverance

he gets super frustrated when he can't get the splits in 2.5 seconds

“Careful or you might pull something.”

he ignores you ofc bc for some reason he thinks he’s gonna get the splits if he just - forces himself???

“seriously, Bakugou, don’t push so much-”

“Shut up I know what I’m - OW SHIT FUCKING HELL”

poor bby is on the ground cradling his thigh bc he pulled his hamstring

And lemme tell you THAT SHIT HURTS 😭

he’s literally screaming bloody murder

-like he’s faced a lot of pain from hero training but pulling your hamstring is just so. much. worse???

you grab an icyhot pack (aka you grab Todoroki lol) but Bakugou’s just like “hell no fuck off half n half”

“Must be bad. I heard you crying from downstairs-”

“I SAID FUCK OFF” Todoroki shrugs and leaves.

you roll your eyes at Bakugou’s stubbornness and grab some muscle balm instead

“Tch. I can do it myself” but you ignore him and rub the balm on his thigh, he doesn’t fight it

after that whole fiasco he finally listens to your warnings when you tell him that's enough

he’s in the splits in a little over a month!

“Oh my god, Bakugou, you’re doing it!”

“Tch. I know.”

you don’t miss the small smile on his face

he goes up to you later and shoves something in your hands

“Um. What’s this?”

“A movie ticket” you stare at it blankly, he rolls his eyes

“I’m taking you to the movies tonight, dumbass.”

“Like a date?” you stare up with hopeful eyes

“The fuck? No! As payment.”

you blink, clearly confused

“You know… for helping me with my stretches.”

Oh.

you blush in embarrassment at the misunderstanding

“I’ll meet you out front at 7. Don’t be late.” he walks off, but before he reaches the corner he stops-

“Ugh fine! It’s a date! Happy!?”

you erupt in the biggest smile

he wants to be the only one to make you smile like that from now on

Todoroki Shouto

Todoroki is impressed with how flexible you are, and you’re quite surprised when he asks you to help him

the most aloof - and handsome - guy in your class you’ve barely spoken TWO words to has come to you for help??? is this a dream? someone pinch you 👀

but there you are, the next day in his dorm, gently pushing his hips down

Todoroki’s working on his warrior/scorpion pose (ya’ll there's so many names for this pose jfc the one where you’re standing on one leg, back arched, and you’re holding the other leg above your head)

he’s sweating and breathing heavily, and when you go to steady him, you actually burn your hand on his bicep.

“Ouch!”

“Are you okay?”

he’s hovering over you the next second, you show him your hand, a blister already forming

“Damn it. I still have trouble controlling my left side,” he looks away from you, clenching his fists, “I’m sorry, Y/N.”

“Hey, it’s okay,” you blow cool air on the wound to stop the tingling, “all better,” you smile up at him

“Here, let me,” he pulls his shirt up to reveal his stomach and places your hand on the right side. You sigh in relief as your hand is instantly cooled.

Uh oh.

you realize where your hand is currently pressed against 😳

you’re so tempted to trace along the hard contours of his abs

“Y/N? You’re burning up.” he touches your cheek, your heart doing somersaults at the closeness

“Oh-kay, that’s enough for today!” you squeak, running away from a thoroughly confused Todoroki

Todoroki shows excellent progress in just a couple weeks. He says it’s because he has a great teacher, but you know it's his work ethic and how he listens to your advice and applies it flawlessly.

He’s even gotten better at controlling his left side since he’s constantly relaxing his muscles to get deeper in the stretch.

it happens during warm-ups before training

Class 1-A goes into some stretches when you see Todoroki go into a perfect scorpion. His back perfectly arched and his leg reaching above his head.

“Oh my god, Todoroki, you’re doing it!” you clap your hands in excitement

“Am I?”

...is this boy for real? lol

“YES” you laugh at his stoic expression

“I see.” He softly comments before going into another stretch.

your shoulders deflate, disappointed at the lack of enthusiasm

“I couldn’t have done it without you,” he cracks a small smile and your breath is taken away by the simple gesture. It’s rare to see him with such a soft expression, and the fact that you’re the reason for it sends your heart aflutter.

AND bc he’s totally oblivious to your current state, he goes up to you and whispers, “you’re an amazing teacher, Y/N”

“It was n-nothing re-really it was a-all you!” you laugh awkwardly, unable to meet his eyes.

“How can I thank you?”

“It-it’s really n-not necessary!”

“Hmm…” he walks away deep in thought and you’re just standing there like the stuttering mess you are bc how dare he walk away like nothing!?

Mina’s got your back tho bc frankly it's quite sad how awkward you are and how oblivious Todoroki is that she NEEDS to become the captain of this ship stat

She “casually” suggests to Todoroki that he should take you out to eat as a thank you for helping him.

and when he walks you to your door that night he says, “I hope you enjoyed our date”

“D-date?” cue the butterflies in your stomach

“Was it not a date?” You’re pinned by his intense gaze, but you manage to squeak out a “yes!” in your confused daze. He chuckles at your nervousness

“Have a good night, Y/N.” he kisses your cheek

and when you give Mina the details of your date there’s a bunch of squealing from her end and you’re just like 😳 the entire night

Kaminari Denki

“Woah, Y/N, you’re really flexible. Can you put your foot over your head?”

You show him and he’s totally amazed. “Cool! Can you teach me? I wanna put BOTH legs over my head!”

first day of stretching with Kaminari is… def a day you remember

“Ow ow! Y/N, don’t break me!”

“Denki, I’m not even touching you!”

He looks up where your hands are on your hips

“oh... heh” he gives you a sheepish smile

You roll your eyes. How you’re gonna get this boy flexible enough to put his foot over his head is beyond you, but you’re happy it’s going to take a while - it means more time spent with your crush

You spend an hour with Kaminari each day to perfect his stretching routine (It should only take about 20 minutes, but the boy’s got the attention span of a newborn puppy)

“Woah check out that cloud, Y/N.” Kaminari looks in awe at the sky. You sigh, not again

“Denki, we’re not done, get back in the stretch”

“Look Y/N,” he points, “doesn’t it look exactly like baby yoda?” He lies down on the grass to gaze at the clouds

“Oh my god, Denki, I’m gonna kill - oh wow…” you gaze up in awe at the cloud, “baby yoda…”

You and Kaminari spend the rest of the hour cloud gazing

After literal MONTHS of getting on Kaminari’s ass he can FINALLY put his legs over his head.

He calls out to you during a training exercise, “Y/N LOOK I DID IT!”

“NOT ONE BUT TWO!” he points at both of his legs with a huge smile

You feel a rush of happiness because even after how frustrated you were with him at times, you would do it a million times over if it meant getting to see such a pure smile.

“Congrats!” you say, “Now, stand up so I can give you a hug!”

“Um…” he sheepishly looks up at you, “I’m kinda... stuck?”

You roll your eyes affectionately, “the things I do for you.”

You’re about to help Kaminari when Bakugou shoves him backwards giving everyone in class a clear view of his ass in the air 😂

“Hah, dumbass.”

Kaminari waddles helplessly side to side

“Y/N?” he squeaks, “a little help here?”

Later that week he tells you he found a yoga class for both of you to take and you’re surprised. He still wants to spend time with you?

But then he says, “Are you crazy? Why wouldn’t I wanna spend time with the coolest person I know?”

You choke on your tea, in disbelief at his words - that was a huge compliment and you know Kaminari is a very open person so you just brush it off with an “Oh stop it…”

“No I’m serious, Y/N, you’re awesome. Like super awesome,” he gives an awkward laugh while rubbing the back of his neck

“I’ve been thinking… maybe after yoga, we can, i don't know... hit up the arcade or something? Or it doesn’t have to be the arcade, it could be anything really!”

You’ve never seen Kaminari this flustered before. He’s the type to brush off his mistakes with a laugh, always moving on to the next moment.

“No, the arcade sounds fun!”

You reassure him and the confident light in his eyes returns

“Oh and Denki?”

“Yeah?”

“Prepare to get rekt in mario kart”

This starts a whole ass play fight about who’s gonna get dunked on when racing down rainbow road

#bakugou x reader #todoroki x reader #kaminari x reader #bakugou katsuki x reader #todoroki shouto x reader #kaminari denki x reader #bnha x reader #mha x reader #bnha #mha #bnha headcanon #katsuki bakugou x reader #shouto todoroki x reader #denki kaminari x reader #bnha fluff #fanfic-me-up #fanfic-me-up request

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florrickandassociates · 3 years

Text

TGF Thoughts: 5x09-- And the end was violent...

It’s been a busy week, but I didn’t want to wait until after 5x10 aired to write this. This recap may be a bit rushed (read: I am going to make an effort to just skip over scenes I don’t care about; we’ll see how many of those there actually are). I didn’t love this episode overall, but I thought it was a huge improvement over 5x08’s parking ticket fiasco and wish it had immediately followed 5x07.

Bless these episodes for not being overly long

Oooh, the opening sequence is long and I have nothing to say about it! Thanks for making my life easier, writers!

The point of this opening is to show that there are lots of problems with the official court system—inefficiencies, inconveniences like broken elevators, overcrowding in prisons (though, uh, I don’t think the actual problem there is that there’s not room to incarcerate more people)-- that might make cops open to an alternative like Wackner’s court.

I know the cop thread kind of started with last week’s parking nonsense, but surely there was a way other than the parking nonsense to bridge the gap between 5x07’s prison system and 5x09’s focus on Wackner’s court suddenly being a replacement for criminal court, too.

(Y’all, I have SO MANY questions about how Wackner can POSSIBLY judge criminal cases, but they’re all just variations on... UH, GUYS, ISN’T THIS ILLEGAL? LIKE SUPER DUPER ILLEGAL?)

I see that there is a filming notice when the cops bring a dude into Wackner’s court, and that the notice says that by entering on the premises you consent to being on film. I do not think that this sign being displayed would hold up as evidence of anyone consenting to be sentenced to a private prison on criminal charges.

New question: How did Wackner Rules get on the air so fast? And are they just filming endless episodes in real time? They just film anyone who walks in?

I think there is supposed to be a subplot about Marissa liking fame and attention; it is almost a little too subtle to be meaningful. I see a through line from her sleeping with that editor dude last week to her smiling at the flowers in this scene to her scenes with Carmen later this episode. Unfortunately, I need a lot more for this to work.

I don’t need Marissa to be a hero who constantly does the right thing and calls out Wackner on crossing the line, but I’m really sad that this is what they’re using Marissa for when we were due for Marissa calling Wackner out (in a meaningful, lasting way) like two episodes ago. It’s felt odd to me that she just sticks around and assists Wackner and Del when they’re doing things like putting people in private prisons and comparing the show they’re making to The Apprentice. Any subtle shift in Wackner’s decisions that has signaled to me that he’s gone too far is something that I can say with certainty would signal the same to Marissa. Marissa’s outspoken and passionate, and we have seen enough reaction shots to know she knows things are going bad, fast. Am I really meant to believe that because she likes Wackner and she likes fame, she’s not going to do anything more substantial than look upset from time to time? Not only does that feel out of character, it’s also just boring.

And, it speaks to another problem I’m starting to have with the arc: they needed to get to the point faster. Once Wackner said “David Cord’s private prison,” this stopped being fun. It would’ve stopped being fun for Marissa and it stopped being fun for viewers (seriously though, the change in tone on Reddit between 5x07 and 5x08/5x09 is VERY noticeable). So why did we follow that up with some repetitive filler bullshit about parking spaces and then start getting back to the point in this episode? I’m sure they’re going somewhere big in 5x10, but you can’t follow an explosive reveal with more status quo.

(Also, lol, I think the parking space thing was meant to be a fun silly absurd little way of entering into themes about authority and Wackner trying to legitimize his court, but it was about an issue so relatable and illogical that I think it feels even harder to believe than the, like, whole concept of a secret court in a Copy Coop.)

Time for Marissa to look concerned again! She’s confused about if the case is real or not, and when Wackner says it’s real, she says it’s not for their court and it’s crossing a line. She is absolutely correct. Wackner’s like, let me know if you think I’m crossing a line after I rule, and then he makes a silly flailing gesture that Marissa can use as a signal.

I actually don’t hate that scene; it is a good scene. I am only snarking on it because it feels like familiar territory and it belonged in an earlier episode.

Am I correctly understanding that these cops wanted to be filmed bringing a man against his will to a fake court with a private prison? And that they wanted this to air on television? Okay.

I will say that I believe the motivations of everyone involved except Marissa. Wackner thinks he’s doing good for the world. Del is getting good TV (I mean, I still think that Wackner Rules title sequence is shit and the show Del seems to be making is terrible, but that’s besides the point). Cord has so much money he’s untouchable and this is fun for him. The cops just don’t want to deal with bureaucracy when it comes to someone who they basically caught in the act.

Court! Stuff! Happens!

Wackner sentences the guy to one year in “David Cord’s private prison.” Again, I know they have to say this for exposition/storytelling reasons, but I continue to find it hilarious that David Cord would want his name to be used in this way (because he like, absolutely would not want his name to be used this way).

The cops like Wackner’s verdict so they tell all their friends to also take their cases to Wackner. What could possibly go wrong!

Like, yeah, there are problems with the criminal justice system—and some of them are even the ones these cops are mad about—but this is ABSOLUTELY not the answer!!! You cannot just take people off the streets and place them in private prisons because they were forced to enter a filming zone for a TV show what the actual fuck

Love David Lee still having candy on his desk. Some things never change.

Allegra, who was welcomed by the partners of RL last week, is interviewing for a job with David Lee. I don’t understand. Doesn’t David Lee have to approve new partners at RL?

Please don’t mention real estate on Mars, Allegra. You’ve made me think of Jason and how bad season seven was.

Allegra is feeling a bit different from Elsbeth this episode, though she very much still has some Elsbeth energy. She is very strategic and blunt in a way Elsbeth isn’t, and she seems a little more focused and intense.

“I notice, in a partisan world, the person in the middle controls the agenda,” Allegra says of her alliances with both Liz and Diane. This is interesting. What are Allegra’s goals here? Just to have power? Does she have a vision for RL? Is it just a good paycheck?

(My guess is it’s about power and money for her. I don’t think she is going to be the ally Madeline wants. I don’t think anyone who voluntarily signs up to be a name partner at a firm owned by corporate overlords is a natural ally for Madeline though, tbh.)

(I really hoped this arc would explore that just a tiny bit more. The longer this conflict drags on the more convinced I become that the whole question of if it’s appropriate for Diane to lead a black firm is moot. It’s an interesting and complicated question, but with some distance from the plot, it becomes pretty clear that in this particular situation, RL isn’t a black firm. It’s a subsidiary of a large multinational corporation.)

(The show seems very aware of this and keeps having plot points like Diane using David Lee to keep her job and having Madeline call out all the awful clients they have... but it needs to go somewhere.)

(This also may be why I’m more down on the end of the season—in the middle of the season, nods at the things I’ve been thinking are appreciated references. At the end, they’re more like plotholes or reminders of the questions we should actually be spending time on.)

“Are you shitting me?” David Lee storms into the room as Liz and Diane are working. “David, we are shitting you about so many things, you’re gonna have to be more specific,” Liz responds. God, funny!Liz is maybe my favorite part of season 5?

Liz calls David out on his power, noting that he also reports to STR Laurie. So it seems like Liz and Diane can make decisions on their own, and STR Laurie can overrule them, but not stop them in advance?

This little ad about an ice cream chain is like, 15 seconds too long.

Carmen is back!!!! She’s helping Rivi sign a deal with an ice cream chain so that they’ll turn into a distributor of weed.

Why do we have to watch a SECOND commercial?

The farm wants Rivi to stop dealing other drugs if they’re going to enter into this deal.

Allegra, another character who seemingly has no qualms about representing drug kingpins, quickly impresses Rivi.

I understand why there is an interpreter for Rivi’s wife. I do not understand why the interpreter interprets conversations BETWEEN Rivi and his wife. And then he’s translating the sign language into Spanish? But also Rivi speaks fluent English in half of these scenes? WHAT is happening?

Allegra is also different from Elsbeth in that with clients, you’re NEVER going to underestimate her. You might not follow her at first, but she’ll get to the point clearly and concisely and without telling you how much she likes your lipstick.

But like at 13:44 Rivi signs something to his wife, and when she signs back the interpreter tells him what she’s saying. This is so so so clearly for the audience but I wish it had just been captions because it makes NO SENSE that the interpreter is in on this private conversation between two people who both know sign language!?

Rivi and Isabel now LOVE Allegra. Diane and Liz are like, okay!

Cop stuff happens.

Credits!!! If you haven’t already, be sure to check out indiewire’s piece on the making of the credits—it's fascinating.

Brooke directed 😀

Marissa the celebrity is signing autographs in Wackner’s court when the cops bring in some young men affiliated with Rivi.

NO, GOD NO, NOT THIS DEVIL’S ADVOCATE FUCKERY. The problem I have with the Devil’s Advocate, in addition to it being fucking annoying, is that it is also the exact opposite of what Wackner’s court is all about. Wackner is about facts and really hearing people out, and from what we’ve seen, Devil’s Advocate is about... stereotypes and pop sociology so bad it’s essentially just racism?

“These young men are the victims of a system that arbitrarily declares some drugs illegal, and others, like alcohol, not. They should be released. To hold them is to perpetuate an unfair system,” Devil’s Advocate says. Good lord, a 7th grader could write a more persuasive speech than this bullshit.

WHY IS DAVID CORD PROSECUTING THIS, WHY IS THE TRIAL ABOUT WHETHER OR NOT DRUGS HARM COMMUNITIES, WHY IS THE DEVIL’S ADVOCATE SOUNDING LIKE A WHITE BOY IN AN INTRO TO SOCIOLOGY CLASS WITH HIS REFERENCES TO THE WIRE, WHY IS ANY OF THIS HAPPENING OMG MAKE IT STOP HOLY FUCKING SHIT THIS IS BAD

Why is Marissa the court clerk being called upon to be defense, WHY IS THE DEVIL’S ADVOCATE JUST SCREAMING “DEFUND THE POLICE” WHAT THE FUCK

I’m sorry, I am going to rant about this more, I truly cannot get over how fucking stupid the Devil’s Advocate is. He just starts screaming “defund the police”??? To what end?! Why does Wackner want this in his court?!

I revise what I said earlier. Devil’s Advocate isn’t just sounding a white boy in an intro to sociology class. He is sounding like a white boy who showed up to an intro to sociology class absolutely hammered.

Marissa, correctly, argues that the arrestees should be taken to Cook County. Then she hears that they work for Rivi and she knows this is bad.

Cord calling Marissa out for her firm representing Rivi: Another thing that would NEVER air on Wackner Rules.

David Lee seems surprised Liz and Diane did not get rid of Allegra. I don’t know why he is surprised, I think they made it very clear they don’t see him as an authority figure.

STR Laurie is now demanding (another) 10% in cuts to pay for Allegra. Liz says they’ll pay for her with the money that used to be for Adrian and Diane notes that Allegra has more stature than Adrian. Interesting.

David Lee then decides to be both sexist and racist for really no reason at all. Pleasant!

Showing Carmen as competent but not yet as strategic as Allegra is a really nice way to underline that Carmen is still a first year even if she is very very good.

Liz, Diane, and Allegra talk about cost cutting. Allegra is like, no, we need to spend more, which makes sense, both for the reasons she outlines and because when you bring on a powerful name partner, your need for lower level support does not DECREASE, it INCREASES.

I know this scene is meant to show Allegra thinking outside the box, but I am a bit surprised that (1) Neither Liz nor Diane push back on the 10% cut and (2) When Allegra suggests hiring back all the associates and then some, Diane seems to think Allegra doesn’t understand they’re talking about cuts? Like, obviously she knows the topic of conversation, Diane.

“We don’t run our own business. We work for a global conglomerate,” Liz notes. Yup. Right point, wrong context lol.

Diane and Liz are just too smart and strategic to have to be told ALL of this by Allegra... especially Diane, who is not only smart but also used to dealing with management.

And worse... Liz and Diane think they made a mistake with Allegra because of this? I mean, I guess if your goal is to permanently work for a big corporation that will slowly chip away at your budget because they can and to never make any waves because that might disrupt the status quo, sure, Allegra isn’t who you want! But do Diane and Liz REALLY want the status quo?

I hope they find a way out from under STR Laurie next year, as much as I hate the firm switching, because it’s just such a boring dead-end when Diane and Liz don’t actually have power or control.

OOOH I like Del asking Liz what SHE wants wrt the whole Diane situation. She says she wants to “stop fighting” and for Diane to “stop using her racist clients to keep her job” and for “the firm to be led in the right way by the right people.” So sounds like she wants to work with Diane, then? That last one is as vague as can be, but I think we can infer at this point that Liz is more concerned with stability and a work environment she likes than idealism.

God, Liz and Alicia would’ve gotten along so well as adults lmao.

Del tells Liz that “women at work always want to be thought of as nice. Women always want consensus. But you know what, baby, sometimes you just gotta say, ‘Fuck you, and you and you and you. Alright? This is my business and it’s my decision.’” I see where he’s coming from (even though this sounds like something my nemesis the Devil’s Advocate would say) but I am not sure I agree that’s Liz’s problem here.

Actually, maybe I do agree with Del. I think Del’s saying to say FU to Diane, but what Liz clearly actually wants to do is say FU to Madeline lol

Liz asks him to change the topic. Where ARE they? Is this a restaurant or an incredibly nice backyard?

Del changes the topic to how his boss wants him to come back to LA, but he wants to get Liz’s thoughts on their future. Liz asks him to start since men are better at saying what they mean (ha, love her giving him shit for that).

He basically tells her he wants to stay and she says he should stay. Aww.

Rivi’s house is... certainly something.

Isabel is concerned because three of their boys have disappeared. She, naturally, suspects they’re at police blacksites.

I’m sorry, did Marissa not elevate the Rivi case in Wackner’s court to the partners’ attention!? Rivi blames the dairy company, even though this does not... make that much sense?

This escalates into the murder of cows?? What... the fuck.

Now Marissa finds Carmen and loops her in! But only now that she knows Rivi’s looking for them and Rivi’s about to, like, kill Christian Borle’s character whose name I’ve forgotten.

Marissa’s position on this is that Wackner will just let the boys go so Rivi shouldn’t know about any of this. Rivi would just kill Wackner. And Carmen is like, Rivi will just kill Christian Borle if we don’t tell. Fair point.

Carmen, being an actual adult (sorry Marissa, I usually love you), is willing to admit when she’s in over her head, so she walks off to go get Liz for help. Yay!

Rivi is not impressed with Wackner’s court or Marissa. He and Isabel want either Carmen or Allegra. Liz says Carmen will do it, I think meaning Marissa will do it but Carmen will be client facing.

I love it when we get to see Liz just be super competent. It’s not a rare occurrence, but it’s just very, very clear in this scene how much better Liz is at handling this situation than Carmen or Marissa would’ve been and I like it when the show makes time to emphasize that even on a show full of hypercompetent people, some people are more skilled than others at handling some situations.

Liz, Diane, and David meet with STRL over Zoom. Allegra somehow pops up on the meeting but also joins as a cat because you know what the cat lawyer on Zoom needed? To be parodied on TGF. Ugh

OH MY GOD I DIDN’T PUT THIS TOGETHER SOONER BUT IT’S A CAT LAWYER YOU GUYS. This will mean NOTHING to any of you because it’s about an inside joke I have with the friend who got me into TGW, but indulge me in a little nostalgia here, ‘kay? So in like 2012, there was a trend on Tumblr where everyone would photoshop cat ears onto their favorite TV characters and my friend and I were like, why would I want to put cat ears on my favorite character, idgi. So then we started photoshopping cat ears on to the most unlikely characters and we landed on David Lee. We referred to David Lee as a cat for a really long time. Like, if we were to talk about David Lee today we would probably still call him Cat! David Lee.

Allegra starts trying to work her magic on STRL. Diane literally runs down the stairs to try to stop Allegra. I am not sure why Diane and Liz are so anti-Allegra during this conversation which is only happening so they can have the funds to keep her on board!

Allegra tries to share a burrito with Diane and Liz and says she stands by her strategy. Liz finally says she’s not sure this will work. Allegra is understanding.

I respect that. Allegra may as well go all out and see if she can make this workable.

(That said, this is pretty much the opposite of her whole staying neutral thing from earlier!)

No one is in the audience at Wackner’s court when Carmen shows up, yet the musician who I like only very slightly more than Devil’s Advocate is still on call. Just STOP.

Overall I’ve liked the Wackner arc and I’m excited to see it wrap up tomorrow, but lemme tell you: it had better wrap up tomorrow. I am NOT open to dealing with this for another season.

The musician takes orders from Cord? The cameras are rolling? Rivi is there? WHAT?

I know that NONE of this makes sense, but some things make exceptionally little sense and I just can’t.

Guys, remember the parking tickets?!

Oh, excuse me, the ice cream company is actually a yogurt company.

Rivi notes that there are three boys missing. Wackner only has two.

I am a little surprised Rivi has managed to be successful with that temper. Idk what skill set you need to be a top drug dealer, but he attacks people like three times an episode and that seems like a really good way to not build trust and to also get yourself killed?

Liz and Del talk about what happened in Wackner’s court. Liz asks how they deal with liability. I guess she isn’t Del’s lawyer, then. Del says they have releases and people want to be on TV. Liz says what I’ve been saying, which is that Rivi doesn’t want to be on TV. Del says there are ways around that and references the show Cops as though that’s enough to make this question go completely away.

Liz references The Apprentice, for those of us who didn’t catch the reference last week and/or for those of us (me!) who wanted to pretend that Wackner wasn’t somehow a commentary on Trump and star power. Ugh.

(I don’t necessarily think it’s a bad point, I just am not sure that I think it is the most interesting point about the Wackner plot.)

“Remember how we all watched and laughed and thought it was funny when they fired people?” Liz says. “We? No, no. Hmm, you... you never watched The Apprentice,” Del responds. She did not. Hahahahahaha I love this exchange. It feels very real.

Liz seems less concerned with Wackner and more concerned with Del’s eagerness to turn Wackner into a larger than life personality with a devoted following, which, yes, thank you, Liz, this is actually a much better and more interesting point!

“That came out of nowhere,” Del says. “No, it didn’t,” Liz responds, correctly.

Del talks about how Liz represents Wackner, along with murderers, rapists, drug dealers, and yet she wants to draw the line at reality show producer who makes people famous? He’s got a point, even if I’d argue that choosing a romantic partner is not the same as running a business.

“Would your firm turn down [the producer of The Apprentice] if he wanted to join the roster?” Del asks. “Good point,” Liz sighs, resigned. She’s not happy he’s right, but she knows he is.

Sigh. I already said some variation of this, but this season seems to have all the right ideas floating around, it’s just choosing the wrong ones to explore deeply and the wrong moments to mention other ones. Things like Liz worrying that someone she’s considering starting a serious relationship with might have some personality traits she doesn’t love can be done through throwaway lines that quickly come back to being about work/plot (that’s what happens in this scene, basically) and I love that. But the existence of STRL and the influence it has over whether or not RL is a black firm at some point can’t be dealt with through references. Wackner becoming increasingly off the rails can’t be turned down to a simmer after reaching boiling point. RL’s unsavory client’s can’t just come up in moments like this; they have to play into a central conflict.

Like, what good is it to constantly remind the audience that RL represents a ton of “bad guys” if you’re not going to go anywhere with that other than making Liz and Diane occasionally be like, “hmm, good point.” when called out on their client list? This could be a really, really good piece of a larger puzzle about the culture at RL, and instead it feels like it’s a card they play whenever they need some moral complexity. Just... go somewhere with it, please. Either stop pretending that RL are the good guys or have them seriously deal with their client list.

Anyway, then Liz and Del talk about his possible LA move. It’s kinda inconclusive; they talk about work just being work.

Outside of court, Carmen doesn’t believe that Wackner only has two of Rivi’s boys.

“I don’t know why you’ve been wasting so much time with this joke court, because it’s not gonna magically turn you into a real lawyer, Marissa,” Carmen lashes out. Oooo. Now this is interesting, can I have an extended version of this scene and also all the other Carmen/Marissa scenes that we should’ve gotten in the episodes Carmen was barely in?

I understand Carmen’s frustration, especially since I imagine she worked pretty damn hard to get into/get through law school. And, as fun and smart as Marissa can be, she does get bored easily, try to skip over the dull moments, and moves on and still always lands on her feet. I can see how that would rub Carmen the wrong way, especially during a stressful moment.

Carmen isn’t exactly a rule follower, but I’d say she is someone who is very conscious of the rules, and, I think someone who values structure more than she lets on (I especially see this in her decision to stay at RL instead of work independently/with Lester).

Marissa calls Jay for help!

Allegra talks to David Lee, with Liz and Diane in the background. Allegra makes her argument to David Lee again and it goes over well. I think the writers think there’s more suspense in this plot than there is; it’s pretty obvious from the start that Allegra is correct and Diane and Liz are only correct if the goal is to avoid all conflict.

What is David Lee’s role at STRL? Is there anything else in that office besides awful HR and RL? He talks like he is more RL than STRL and that doesn’t track with what we saw of STRL last year.

Marissa spots a flyer that leads her and Jay to where the missing boy is: another fake court. This was inevitable—I think one of the very first things I said was that Wackner himself seemed fine and decent, but what happens when someone else decides they, too, want to be a judge because they said so—and I’m glad to see the writers go this direction. I actually think this would’ve been an effective build after 5x07 and would’ve kept turning up the tension, so again, most of my issues with this arc lie in 5x08’s momentum killing bullshit. It’s hard to get back into this plot when they lost me last week.

Shocker: Wackner having a reality show inspired more copy cats who take cues from the show and think Marissa is a celebrity.

Vinetta, the judge of the second court, puts people in “time-out” (read: imprisons them in her basement) and... yeah, I don’t care how kind she is to them, this is not okay! The solution to the prison system is not for people to turn their basements into prisons!

I don’t know that the writers are TRYING to comment on this here, but there is definitely something to be said about communities that the legal system repeatedly fails finding alternative measures of justice.

Vinetta is nice and seems reasonable as a judge, but she also has a basement prison her judgments are influenced by her religious believes so, uh, yeah, not good!!!

Wackner, however, thinks Vinetta’s court is GREAT! He wants to go see it, because “it’s finally happening.” What’s happening? “Justice,” he says. Uhhhhhhh, no. This is just so dangerous, even if everyone involved so far seems to mean well.

I’m very curious to see how this little thought experiment wraps up (again: I say wraps up because I cannot deal with the thought of this being more than a one season arc).

One thing I love about the Wackner arc—my 5x08 issues aside—is its slow burn. The writers did a phenomenal job of getting me to take Wackner seriously at first, then slowly started to take all the things that seemed great and reasonable about Wackner’s court to their extremes (while still making his judgment on any individual topic* sound). It’s a very fun and entertaining thought experiment, and I think that’s why this arc has largely succeeded for me, even though it’s so far removed from reality.

* Exceptions to this include policing, prisons, cancel culture, and, of course, parking spaces.

#the good fight #tgf thoughts

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charincharge · 4 years

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Cruel Summer, Part 4

cruel summer masterlist

AN: Sorry about last chapter’s tag list! It seems like only half of you got notified, so, if you did not read Part 3 (it was posted Sunday), go back and read that one first, and apologies for my lack of Tumblr tech skills. I think it is fixed. FINGERS CROSSED. Okay, onward.

Aelin sips her coffee and silences her phone as it buzzes continually on the kitchen table. It’s been going off for the last two days with texts from Dorian. She lied and told him she wasn’t feeling well to give herself some space. But she knows she can only fend him off for maybe one more day or so.

Park today?

His latest text reads. It’s not that she doesn’t want to spend time with Dorian. She does. She really does. But, she’s just not feeling up to going to the park yet. She knows he’ll want to spend all day there, and she’s feeling less than enthused about that. And she’s sure that has absolutely nothing to do with a tall silver-haired employee she spent the better part of Monday avoiding. Nope. Nothing at all. She replies quickly.

Still sick. In bed with a fever :(

“Liar!” Dorian calls, rounding the corner to the kitchen.

Aelin grumbles as she takes a large bite of her toaster waffle. “How’d you get in here?”

Dorian slides into the kitchen chair next to her and lays his head down on the table, looking up at her with the saddest, biggest puppy dog eyes he can manage, and innocently holds up the small gold key that usually resides under the flowerpot next to the front door. Aelin grabs it back and lays her head on the table next to him. They stare at each other, their faces a few inches apart, Dorian’s eyes wide with wondering at Aelin’s frowning.

Dorian smirks and brings his hand up to boop her nose softly. Aelin scrunches her nose, but she can’t help but crack the smallest of smiles at her best friend’s efforts.

“You’ve been in a mood since Monday. What’s the deal?” he asks. “It wouldn’t happen to have to do with the red lipstick fiasco? Don’t think I didn’t notice you went back upstairs to put it on.”

“No,” Aelin scoffs, her false bravado kicking in as she pushes herself upright. “Of course not. I just remembered I had a matte stay all day lipstick, and it went better with my outfit.”

Dorian lifts himself up and stares at Aelin, his brow furrowing as he goads her, “So not wanting to go to the park has absolutely nothing to do with the hot hot silver-haired staff member you were making eyes at all day?” Dorian sighs. “Come on, Aelin. Tell meee,” he pleads. “I already know.”

Aelin flips her hair over her shoulder as she places her mug into the sink. “I’m sorry, Dor.”

“You’re the one who’s going to be sorry,” he says. “Because if we’re not going to the park, I’m going to need full details on your hot piece. And the side dish he brought with him.”

It suddenly clicks for Dorian. “Ohhhh, you’re disappointed he brought a date?” Dorian smirks. “Aelin. Not everyone can be single at your behest.”

She crosses her arms, annoyed. This is why she wanted one more day to herself. She didn’t want to talk about Rowan and his stupid rude girlfriend with her dark hipster makeup and beautifully inked skin and brightly dyed hair. If that was Rowan’s type, she had no shot of getting his attention. Not that she hadn’t tried. With the white bathing suit, and playing rough with the boys in the deep end and overzealously clinging onto Dorian’s back. Still, he hadn’t said a damn thing to her until the party ended, and only by accident.

“No,” Aelin lies. Dorian looks at her, unblinking. “Stop that.”

“You can’t let one little staff member prevent you from going to the park. It’s Ashryver Playland, and you’re Aelin fucking Ashryer. It’s your park. Let’s go reclaim our stomping grounds. Please?” he begs again, his sapphire eyes looking up at her through his thick fringe of lashes. “I promise I’ll shield you if we see him.”

“Fine.”

Dorian’s blinding smile is almost worth it. She tells him she’ll be right back and runs upstairs to get dressed for the day. She might put a little more effort into it than she would for just Dorian, but there’s no harm in looking cute. She braids her hair into two French braids and wiggles into a hot pink crop top and her overall shorts. She dons a full face of makeup, finishing with a pink lipstick, and finally makes her way down to where an impatient Dorian is waiting.

He holds out his arm for her, smartly not commenting on her outfit, and Aelin slips her arm through, linking them together for the fifteen minute walk down the beach to the Playland.

They’re greeted at the ticket booth by Fenrys, who is working behind the counter. He blushes upon seeing the approaching pair, and it makes Aelin smile. He hasn’t been quiet about his crush on both her and Dorian, which she thinks they would both be all over if he weren’t four years their junior. He’s shockingly good-looking with deep tanned skin and shoulder-length golden hair. He flashes them a toothy smile and Aelin can’t help but grin back, her mood lightening.

“Ah, the king and queen of Playland.” He pulls out unlimited wristbands for them. “Happy Summer.”

“Hey, handsome, happy summer,” Aelin says with a wink as he tapes on her wristband.

“Aelin, when are you going to let me take you out and make me the happiest man in Terrasen?” Fenrys asks, and Dorian snorts.

“Man? You’re not even old enough to grow facial hair,” Dorian teases, rubbing his thumb against Fenry’s bare cheek. It blooms with a rare blush under Dorian’s touch.

“I just turned twenty-one, so, who knows? Maybe this year is the year,” Fenrys says as he puffs out his chest. He bursts into laughter. “Yeah, yeah. I know you’d never date a staff member anyway. No shitting where you eat and all that.”

“Sure,” Dorian smirks. “That’s the reason.”

Aelin grabs at Dorian’s hand, pulling him away and waves goodbye to Fenrys, ready for the day. Aelin leans her head on her friend’s shoulder, her heart feeling ten times lighter. She’s buoyant, actually. She skips into the park, pulling Dorian along as she makes her way toward their first ride.

They make their way toward the biggest ride in the park – the Firecoaster, a rickety wooden rollercoaster built nearly a century ago. It’s Aelin’s absolute favorite ride in the park, so they do it first every single time, despite Dorian’s constant criticism of it (it’s too shaky, it’s too old, why haven’t they replaced the cars in a literal hundred years?).

But as they arrive at the ride she sees a short crop of silver hair at the entrance, letting people onto the coaster. Naturally.

“Maybe we should come back to the coaster later,” Aelin suggests, and Dorian’s eyebrow lifts in question.

“You know I won’t go on this ride in the dark,” Dorian replies, and Aelin nods. She really wants to go on this coaster. But with Rowan letting people on, there’s absolutely no way to avoid him. “Is he up there?” Dorian whispers and tugs at one of Aelin’s pigtails.

Aelin doesn’t answer, still unsure of how she’s going to handle the whole situation. Dorian grabs her hand and pulls her into the line. With people piling in behind them, they’re immediately stuck.

“What the hell?” Aelin hisses, but Dorian simply shrugs.

“You’re taking back your ground!” he says exuberantly.

Aelin knows he’s right, but her stomach still feels like she ate a box of rocks with how heavy it is suddenly. She watches intently as Rowan performs his job, dutifully ushering everyone into the wooden coaster cars and making sure they’re safely secured before they take off. He’s not particularly friendly, Aelin notices. He's not the kind of staff member who smiles at each person with a customer service grin, but she does take note that at he makes sure to help the smaller kids in and out with one of his steadying hands.

The line moves far too quickly, and within minutes they’re at the top of the line. Aelin knows she should look away, but as she makes her way onto the platform, she keeps her eyes trained on Rowan. When he finally turns and meets her gaze, his dark green eyes widen slightly with surprise. Aelin swallows, her mouth suddenly feeling completely parched as they share a charged, wordless stare.

It’s interrupted by the last coaster coming to a stop suddenly on the tracks before them, and Rowan scrambles to attention to help the group exit the car. Dorian pushes Aelin into the first row of the empty car, and she stumbles forward, throwing her best friend a dirty glare.

Aelin straps herself into the cart, pulling the seatbelt across her lap and clicking it securely in place.

“Everyone, hands up,” Rowan says, and he starts from the back of the car, tugging at the seatbelts to ensure the passengers’ safety.

By the time Rowan reaches the front row, Aelin’s heart is pounding in her chest, and it has absolutely nothing to do with her excitement to ride the rollercoaster.

Rowan squats down and leans his torso across Aelin, his arm lightly brushing against the front of her overalls as he reaches over her to tug on Dorian’s seatbelt. Satisfied that it’s in place, Rowan pulls back slightly, his brows furrowed and his lips twisted into a thin straight line. His head is so close to hers, she can feel his breath fan across her neck as he exhales. Despite the hot sun overhead, goosebumps break out across her arms. What the hell?

“Hey, you’re Rowan, right?” Dorian pipes up, and Aelin sends him a murderous glare as the silver-haired man looks up with a suspicious frown on his face.

“Uh, yeah. I am,” Rowan says, turning his attention to Aelin’s lap.

“Aelin’s told me so much about you,” Dorian continues, ignoring his best friend’s death stare. “Maybe we could all go out soon? Since we didn’t get to meet at the party.”

Rowan looks perplexed as he adjusts his position again to check Aelin’s seatbelt. “Um, maybe? I’m kinda busy… with work.”

Aelin is going to kill Dorian. She shifts in her seat to question him, right as Rowan reaches down to tug at her seatbelt, and she accidentally throws him off balance. Rowan falls forward a tiny bit and his hand darts out to brace himself. It comes to rest on Aelin’s knee, the rough pads of his fingers clutching against her bare skin, and if Aelin weren’t restrained, she thinks she may have jumped out of the car in shock.

“Sorry!” Rowan apologizes, snatching his hand back in pain, as if she were on fire and he’d just burned himself.

“It’s fine,” Aelin says, her voice sounding breathy to her own ears. She’s positive she’s blushing all the way down to her chest, but she refuses to look.

“Sorry,” he says again, his voice filled with apology.

She’s about to reassure him again, but he’s already walking back to the controls. Aelin looks over her shoulder to get one more look at the man who literally took her breath away with a single touch, but she can’t think about it for long.

Because soon she’s flying forward. The wind rushes across Aelin’s face, swirling around her with each twist and turn of the coaster. Laughter bubbles up from her chest, and she squeals loudly as they hit the first drop. She closes her eyes and lets the ride take her up, up and away, making her heart race.

Just as quickly as it took off does it come to a halt. Aelin unclips herself quickly and runs as fast as she can on her unsteady legs, away from Rowan’s prying gaze. As soon as she’s far enough away from the ride, she whirls around and socks Dorian in the arm. Hard.

“OW!” He clutches at his shoulder.

“Maybe we could all go out soon?” Aelin parrots his words back at him. “What the fuck, Dor?! What happened to being my shield?”

Dorian rubs his arm, slowly stoking the pain out of his dead arm. “I was doing recon. Notice he didn’t say he had a girlfriend.”

“I hate you,” Aelin says, going to punch his other arm, and Dorian runs, cowering from her absurd superhuman ability to find the most painful spot to punch.

“You love me!” he shouts as he sprints toward the log flume.

The pair chase each other from ride to ride, making the most of their day in the park. Aelin only spots Rowan once more, after his shift change, taking tickets at the Skyflyer – a ride she and Dorian have sworn never to go back on after they both tried it in high school and puked their guts out afterwards. So, conveniently, she doesn’t have to deal with that whole situation again. Which is good, because it’s starting to stress Aelin out. She’s never this strung out about a guy. Ever. Especially one that isn’t single and is definitely uninterested.

By the time the sun is setting, Aelin is more than ready to go home. She could use a long soak in the bath and a good night’s sleep. But Dorian insists on one more ride. Aelin agrees, but only if Dorian promises to buy her fried dough with Nutella on it for dessert after.

Dorian’s smile lights up his face as he pulls her towards the bumper cars. Aelin might have a little too much fun crashing into his car over and over again.

With a scoop of Nutella in her mouth, Aelin sees a shock of silver hair, finally coming in for the end of his day. She watches as he crosses the field and makes his way into the employee break room, her eyes following the motion of his lithe body. God, now that she knows what he looks like without a shirt on, she can’t stop imagining the way his tattoo crept up his taut abs, over his wide shoulders, and trailing down the side of his muscular back. It’s not fair. Why did he have to be in a relationship already? She licks her lips, tasting the warm chocolatey hazelnut spread and hums in pleasure as she imagines licking it off other places…

“Elide!” Dorian shouts, calling over their friend and breaking Aelin out of her hormone-induced trance. Elide runs over with a smile on her face for the pair.

“I’m sorry I barely saw you both at the party,” Elide apologizes immediately, but Aelin and Dorian wave her off.

“You were celebrating. With Lorcan, right? Please say yes,” Aelin says with a cheerful smile and offers a bite of her dough to Elide.

“I actually spent most of the time with a friend of mine I hadn’t seen in a few years,” Elide admits as she takes the piece from Aelin. “She used to be my RA. She’s the best. I hope you met her.”

“Really?” Dorian asks. “That’s so much fun. Who?”

“Manon Blackbeak?” Elide continues, oblivious to Aelin stiffening next to her at the table. “She came with a new guy, Rowan. She’s his roommate. Isn’t that such a crazy coincidence?” Elide rambles.

Dorian looks to Aelin and mouths “roommates” with a smirk.

“Roommates?” Aelin asks, her voice tight. “Is that all they are? Because I got kind of a datey vibe from them.” Aelin tries to keep her face impassive, but can’t when Dorian snorts at her. Aelin has forgone subtlety today, apparently.

“No, that’s impossible,” Elide says resolutely with a shake of her head.

“Because roommates have never gotten together before?” Aelin asks, her voice haughty with ridicule.

“No. Because they both like women,” Elide says with a laugh. “Or at least Manon does.”

Dorian bites his lip and looks at Aelin. His eyes frantically connect with hers before looking back at Elide, who is completely unaware of the bomb she’s just dropped.

“Is that so?” Dorian asks, and Elide nods.

“Oh yeah. Manon is a gold star and proud of it.” Elide looks at her watch. “Shit, I have to clock out. But I want to catch up with both of you later, okay? Find me next time you’re in the park?”

“Yuppp,” Aelin drawls. “Bye, babe!” Aelin waves as Dorian practically drags Aelin out to the parking lot, his torso doubled over in laugher.

Aelin frowns. “It’s not that funny.”

“It’s hilarious,” he says, wiping a tear from the corner of his eye. “Here you were all worked up about your prince Charming having a girlfriend and she’s gay. What gave you the impression they were dating?”

“I don’t know. He brought a hot blonde to my house?” Aelin sighs. Rowan did introduce Manon as his friend. “Oh my god, I get it,” she squeaks.

“What?”

“She said this thing about keeping two of her nails short, and… I’m am so stupid.”

Dorian laughs at her, hard, and wraps his arms around her shoulders. “So, what now? Want help reeling in your man?”

Aelin smiles as she sees Rowan climbing into a beat up truck halfway down the parking lot. “No,” Aelin shakes her head as she links arms with Dorian again. “I think I’ve got it.”

~*~*~*~*~

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