#and they’ll hopefully do it again this season

[imperatorrrrr]

the two longest serving active players on the New Jersey Devils

[robiinurheart33]

Haha wouldn’t it be so weird if when soap was taken and brainwashed he was constantly being compared to this soldier named “ghost” haha

Anyways explicit descriptions of psychological torture and violent intrusive thoughts under the cut

He would be beaten and berated constantly. why wasn’t he stronger than ghost, why wasn’t he faster, more skilled, better, stealthier, healthier.

Ghost could’ve done better in worse conditions.

Ghost has done better in worse conditions.

Why was soap not better even after all this?

It drove him up the wall, the way he would wonder who he was, seething and bleeding by the lip. After all that he’s gone though, all that he’s endured, everything.

Why wasn’t be better? Why can he never, ever be better?

They drove his sanity to the ground, spat and kicked at it until there was nothing but a shell of who he once was, and rebuilt it to fit their ideals. Soap couldn’t remember who he was before this, before the experiments. He couldn’t think, do, say anything without being ordered to do so by someone else.

Some days, soap would pull on the thin stripe down his scalp, eager to find some semblance of control over himself, even if it were pain. He would always get punished.

“It was the only thing he can and will recognise him by.”

“Ghost likes that on you.”

It made him hate the Mohawk even more.

He hates Ghost. He was sick of it. He was done waiting. He was done being compared to. He was done with being second to him. He wanted to pull him apart limb from limb, feel the hot blood spill over his teeth and he rips his throat apart, hear the sickening crunch of his neck being twisted, feel the smooth muscle of his skin ripple and tremble in fear of the one that he was supposedly supposed to be stronger than. Soap will never, ever get anything else in his life but the pure, white-hot rage of revenge. He maybe thinks this had lingered on since he was younger, before everything. It felt like an old friend, more so than his other emotions.

His first mission.

He will be better. He will be better. He will be the best. He will be good. This might be his only shot. This is. He will be the best. He will succeed. He will not fail. He will not fail. He will not fail. He will not fail. He will not fail. He will not fail.

He runs into ghost.

At first, he didn’t know who he was. Soap was in a room with a few others, guns up and masks drawn, ready to shoot anyone who tries to come into the room. They had been infiltrated, and soap wasn’t told more than that. He didn’t really need to know more. Shoot the hostiles, keep people safe. Suddenly, bullets start to rain from outside the door, and soon enough, more and more bodies start hitting the floor. Soap does not panic. He hides behind a bookshelf, waiting.

A big ass motherfucker in a skull mask walks into the room and it looks like the shadows are warping to his presence. Soap does not panic. He reaches for the knife strapped to his thigh, flicking it up and holding it ready. He waits patiently until he stalks near the bookshelf, tightening his grip on the knife. They make eye contact, and through the skull mask stained with blood, he can see jet black eyes staring at him in shock. Death incarnate. Soap does not panic.

“Joh-”

Soap quickly slips out of his hiding spot, wrapping a forearm over his neck and attempting to jab the knife right into his socket. He feels a hand grip tightly onto his forearm, and he goes weightless. All the air escapes his lungs as his back slams against the floor, his head spinning. He screams at himself to get up, fight, be better, before he hears the familiar crackle of a radio.

“Ghost, how copy?”

Ghost.

This is Ghost.

Ghost just fucking flipped him.

Soap does not panic. He does not panic but he feels a chill go down his spine as he sees red, scrambling back up onto his feet. The adrenaline starts to kick in now, and he lunges at him, ripping the radio off his vest and slamming it on the floor. He’s not completely sure why he did that, but in all fairness soap feels like he’s losing his goddamn mind, if his captors haven’t done so already. He punches Ghost, wincing slightly as his knuckle hit the cheekbone corner of his stupid skull mask. Soap starts to reach for his gun before Ghost punches back, hitting the mask clean off his face, pushing his back to the floor, one hand on his wrists. Soap starts to get really agitated now. After everything that he’s gone through, he’s still not good enough to beat ghost. He still hasn’t improved. He hasn’t gone anywhere. He makes eye contact with Ghost and is slightly taken aback when he is reflected with an equally crazed stare.

“Johnny.”

What the fuck?

Soap doesn’t say anything. Ghost’s eyes are brown, not black. Why hasn’t be killed him yet? Why isn’t Soap struggling? Ghost has blonde eyelashes.

“Where have you been?” To soap’s absolute horror, those brown eyes start to become glossy. He flinches back as if he’s been hit, and grits his teeth. No shit, he’s been here the whole time, where else is he supposed to be?

Soap surges forward and headbutts him in hopes of him letting go. He doesn’t, and it makes soap all the more dizzier, more frustrated. Why isn’t he fucking dead already? He squeezes his eyes shut, trying to get his mind right.

“Johnny. Johnny.” Can he just shut the fuck up? It’s getting increasingly hard to concentrate for some reason. Shit. He feels overly exposed without the mask, feeling his body temperature rising steadily.

“Stop calling me that!” he growls out, twisting out of his grip and punching his across the face. The twisted skull mask looks almost comical out of place, but he can still see those eyes. Ghost’s hand comes to cup his cheek, and soap flinches back. His eyes look like Soap just mauled his puppy right in front of him. It makes him freeze in place, head awkwardly hovering between the floor and Ghost.

Images of blood spilling and needles, dirt and coffins fill his head, the sound of a neck snapping, gagging, screams and whimpers. Hands on him, eyes on him, never letting go. Stay. Soap snaps back into place, grabbing the mask and twisting it up, covering Ghost’s eyes. He quickly gets his other hand free and pushes ghost off him, sprinting out of the room.

“Wait-!” Is all he hears before flying down the corridor, back to safety, back to where it’s familiar, where he always is, where he always will be.

Loyalty has always been Soap’s best trait.

[sirenascelestiales]

Honestly, considering the show/writers never acknowledged Daphne’s marital rape of her husband, and they only had a slight acknowledgment of Edwina’s feelings on Kate x Anthony, like I don’t think there will be a satisfactory resolution to Pen’s betrayal of the Bridgertons (Marina/Colin and Eloise/Theo) or of Eloise’s “friendship” with Cressida (and anything else she might do as “revenge”).

I think they’ll blow over the latter “I said I’d rather die than be her friend and I still mean it” and hugs all around or some other scene like that (which I know is simple and that’s my point). And Pen will apologize and confess that cause she’s so in love with Colin and she wanted to be noticed and she’ll be forgiven without much else from Colin. And maybe a little more for Eloise, if that.

(Spoiler’s for the books in case people care about that).

They forgive her for Whistledown in the books, Colin is worried more about her being revealed as Whistledown than her writing shit about him (tho nothing she writes is like Marina/Colin is not in the books. Daphne basically forgives her for anything she wrote about that but tbh she doesn’t seem to mind anyway). And, they like sorta acknowledge it as “wtf” thing, but it’s blown over quickly imo. “Oh well that’s nice dear” sorta reaction. And Eloise does have even more of a backbone than in the books but idk I just don’t see why and what people seem to want out of Bridgerton.

Eloise is going to somehow befriend and fall in love with Crane! You’re telling me the girl running around with Theo and “radicals” will suddenly fall for the guy boring the fuck out of Marina?

Like, I’m sorry but Bridgerton is pretty people hooking up with a regency background. They will not “do right” by most people’s standards of how the characters should act and how to apologize (Daphne and Simon make up after professing deep love in the rain! Anthony is shocked into confessing for real cause Kate fell of a horse! It’s for DRAMA, and then it’s resolved kinda easily?)

I’ve seen some more of nuanced takes against Pen, at least these people aren’t reducing her to a fat villain (cause when they did that I could not take them seriously 😒). And honestly a lot of it is fair, that’s good! The writers don’t care.

But now I keep seeing people hating Eloise to the point that they want a comeuppance that is not proportional to her “revenge”…and like… it won’t be as serious as y’all are making it to be. This “revenge”. Like please, the writers aren’t going to suddenly take this world seriously. See above and those are just 1 example for each season!

If they wanted to acknowledge all the hurt Pen put people through and make her work to become a better person, they could! I just don’t think they will because it’s 8 episodes per season and in this season they’re trying to find a way to get Colin and Pen together and Eloise and Pen as friends again by end of season. I don’t think they’ll extend a conflict into Ben’s season (I actually hope they don’t, I like Ben and Sophie’s story for the most part and while I love Anthony and Kate they shouldn’t be the focus either).

Idk what people expect I guess. if you’re watching it for Pen to be taken down a notch… might not be the season for you. If you’re hate watching I guess tag it with “anti” whatever and not the regular tags?

I’m sorry if you think she does not deserve an happy ending, I don’t necessarily disagree that she’s undeserving of some crow eating for what she’s done. However, I don’t think the writers care to make her go through that. And I don’t watch Bridgerton for brilliant character development that I think some of y’all want.

That being said I’m curious about how they’ll manage LW post Colin x Penelope marriage. In the books it basically disappears, and maybe they can use that to have a build up to Pen! However that means to me making their relationship last longer than as season and I do not want that for any of the couples.

[gotham--fc]

Rivals - A Jessie Fleming Imagine

Request: Jessie and R both play at UCLA but R plays for the US national team and the media invents a rivalry between them, both Jessie and R get annoyed at being constantly asked about their 'rivalry', they both talk to each other about it and confess their feelings

A/N: I will probably even less active than I am now (if that's possible) I just started school again and I'm very stressed and booked n busy

“So Jessie,” The reporter began. Jessie looked over to where she heard him speak. “You’re about to start at UCLA after these Olympics, and I’m sure you know, but American player Y/N Y/L/N committed to UCLA as well. Do you think your rivalry with her will effect team dynamics at UCLA?”

Jessie really hated media. She was an introvert at heart and if she had it her way, the media wouldn’t be allowed with 500 feet of the team after a game. They weren’t even scheduled to play the US this tournament unless they both made the finals. Still, all they want to ask is about Jessie’s ‘rivalry’ with Y/N. Jessie doesn’t have a rivalry with anyone, and she hasn’t met Y/N off the field even once. They don’t even really interact on the field when they do play, so Jessie has no idea where the ‘rivalry’ theory came from. Except that they’re both the youngest members of their teams, the same age, both midfielders.

“I don’t think that’s going to effect the team at all,” Jessie says, “I have nothing but respect for her as a player and I think she’s a really strong midfielder and she’s very skilled, so I’m confident that we’re both going to play important roles at UCLA and I’m just excited to get started.”

“You might end up facing the US in the finals, the US obviously are the reigning gold medalists, is that something you and the team are thinking about?”

“Not really,” Jessie said honestly, “That’s not our focus right now because nothing is guaranteed, so our focus right now is on our next game. We put ourselves in a good spot coming out of the group stage, uh, in first place, so we’re just focused on the quarterfinal games.”

***

“Y/N, your focus is obviously on winning gold, but can I ask how you’re feeling about joining UCLA this fall?”

“Yeah,” Y/N says, “I’m thrilled to be joining UCLA and I’m excited to further my development as a player and hopefully help the team win a championship.”

Y/N doesn’t really understand why they always ask her to do media. She doesn’t believe anyone really wants to hear from her over some of the vets. But still, here she is, trying not to pull her hair out at these stupid questions.

“Jessie Fleming is also joining UCLA this year, have you spoken to her at all? We know you two have a sort of on field rivalry, have you spoken to her about the both of you joining UCLA?”

“No, we’ve never really crossed paths outside the field, so I haven’t spoken to her. She’s a great player, though, and I think she’ll be an important part of the team at UCLA.”

***

A lot of the players at UCLA are roommates. Even the freshman in their dorms tend to get paired up with someone from the team.  Jessie ends up rooming with Teagan Micah, a keeper from Australia. Jessie likes her, she’s funny, and she’s pretty outgoing, so she drags Jessie along to frosh week activities and Jessie knows if she was left alone she would’ve spent the entirety of her first weeks at school either in class, at practice, or at home.

They have their first practice pretty soon after they move in, since the season starts up right away. The first practice is mostly getting to know each other and the coaches and the style of play they want. It’s different than how Canada plays, so it takes Jessie a second to adjust.

After practice, one of the senior girls calls the team over. She invites everyone to a team bonding night at her place that night.

Jessie gets ready in her dorm with Teagan. Jessie wants to leave so they’ll arrive a bit early, but Teagan just laughs at her, and tells her if a party starts at 8pm, people won’t arrive until 9pm. Jessie wants to say it’s not a party, it’s just for the team to get to know each other, but she doesn’t.

Turns out, it’s a party.

Not only is the soccer team there, but so is the basketball team, the football team, teams that Jessie can’t recognize. She stays near Teagan most of the night, not feeling the most comfortable with the loud music, the drinking, the number of people crammed in a tiny living room. Jessie loses track of Teagan after someone bumps into her, then someone steps in between her and Teagan. Instead of continuing to struggle through people to find Teagan, Jessie goes into the kitchen which is mercifully less full.

Jessie grabs a clean cup and fills it with water from the sink. She hears a commotion and turns, seeing Y/N with a small group enter the kitchen. They make eye contact, and Jessie waves. Y/N nods in acknowledgement. The group begins yelling about shots, and Jessie takes that as her cue to leave. She tries to find Teagan, but it’s impossible, and instead she finds Hallie Mace.

“Hallie!” Jessie yells over the music, “Can you tell Teagan I left? In case she wonders where I went?”

“Yeah, sure Jessie,” Hallie says, “Are you having fun?”

Jessie smiles and nods, and she knows it looks forced, but it satisfies Hallie, who Jessie figures is a little tipsy.

Jessie makes her way outside and walks home, the cool air a relief after how hot it was inside.

Jessie is asleep by the time Teagan comes home, and either Teagan was really quiet, or Jessie was really asleep, because Jessie didn’t hear her come in. The only sign that Teagan did come home is Teagan sleeping in her bed in the clothes she wore last night, hair sticking up in all directions. Jessie sets some Gatorade and Advil on the nightstand for her before she leaves for class.

***

It’s not that Y/N is intentionally avoiding Jessie.

There is truly no bad blood or actual rivalry or whatever people want to believe. It’s just that there’s not much overlap between them except on the field. They’re not in the same program, so they don’t share classes together, they don’t really share the same friends, outside the team. Y/N is friends with the people in her class, other student athletes, and Jessie is friends with people from her classes, and the soccer team. Y/N doesn’t even really notice it, until the online comments start.

It starts with a clip from one of their games. Jessie and Y/N were both on the bench, after being subbed out, and Jessie sat after grabbing water and her pinny, and Y/N stayed standing.

omg they haaate each other

they won’t even sit together its so over

LMAO Y/N really can’t stand Canadians there’s miles of space on that bench to sit and she STANDS???

Y/N frowns when she sees it. It wasn’t intentional, she wasn’t not sitting because she didn’t want to sit with Jessie. She prefers standing for a bit after she’s subbed out. It’s a mini cool down, and she likes bringing her heartrate down before she sits and fully relaxes.

Then it’s the clip from the Olympics, when Y/N said she doesn’t talk to Jessie. All Y/N meant by that is that they hadn’t crossed paths, through no fault of theirs, it’s just how things happened. Of course, everyone decided she meant that she refuses to talk to Jessie.

There’s rumours on campus about a bad fight the two had, about how they played against each other with their national teams and after they got into it off the field. Another lie, because they’ve truly never encountered each other after a game. Still, some of Y/N’s new friends ask her about it, ask her what Jessie did, what really went down. Y/N tells them the same thing each time, nothing happened, there’s no hatred or rivalry, they’re simply two people whose lives don’t really overlap and that’s all there is.

***

USA and Canada don’t even play each other at the next FIFA window. The US plays in the SheBelieves Cup and Canada plays in the Algarve Cup. All Jessie wants to do is focus on the games. She can’t, however, because the first media appearance she does, the first question is about Y/N.

“She’s a great player,” Jessie says, “She brings a lot to the team and I’m happy that for most of the time she’s on my team and not playing against me.”

It doesn’t help that her teammates bother her about it too.

“How is it really?” Janine asks, “Does the team have to build a barrier between you guys?”

“Janine,” Jessie sighs, “We don’t hate each other. We’re literally normal teammates.”

“Oh, come on, you won’t even tell me the juicy details?” Janine whines, “I’m your best friend!”

“Beckie, leave her alone,” Sophie Schmidt says. Jessie almost thanks Sophie, then Sophie keeps talking. “Jessie doesn’t want to spend her rare time away from her enemy thinking about her.”

“She’s not my enemy!” Jessie snaps, “You guys suck.”

***

“Sooooo…” Kelley slides in next to Y/N at the lunch table. “How are things at school?”

“Good?” Y/N says, “Why?”

“I’m just wondering!” Kelley says, “I want to make sure you’re handling things, you know, balancing school with soccer, all those things.”

“Yeah, it’s good. I’m good.”

“Aaand the team is good?”

“Why are you being so weird?” Y/N says.

“I’m not! Alex, am I being weird?” Kelley yells over at Alex across the room.

“You usually are,” Alex comes over and joins them at the table, “What are you being weird about now Kel?”

“I’m just asking her how school is!” Kelley insists. Alex rolls her eyes.

“Kelley wants to ask how Jessie Fleming is, but she’s trying to be subtle about it.”

“Alex!”

“Jessie is fine,” Y/N interrupts before the two can start bickering.

“Do you guys get along?” Kelley asks.

“Yeah, we’re fine,” Y/N sighs, “Are you seriously talking about that stupid rivalry thing? That’s just a bunch of BS.”

“Do you guys hang out? Are you friends?”

“Oh my god,” Y/N groans, “Can’t I eat without everyone bringing up Jessie? They’re not even in the same tournament as us, can I not get a fucking break?”

Kelley and Alex share a look.

***

It only gets worse from there. As Canada and the US start playing each other more, and the longer Jessie and Y/N play together at UCLA, and seemingly don’t get along, the more they get asked about it, the more comments are made online, the more frustrated Y/N gets.

Y/N sludges through the mud on her way to practice. It’s been unexpectedly rainy the past few days. Y/N thought LA was supposed to be hot and sunny all year round, and she thought she would spend her days basking in the sun, wearing suntan lotion and getting tan, not stepping in mud and puddles. When she gets to the field, she’s surprised the only other person there is Jessie.

“Am I really late or really early?” Y/N asks.

“I was asking myself the same thing,” Jessie says, “I’m always early but usually the coaches are already here.”

Y/N sets her bag down on the least muddy spot, and shakes her head.

“I thought LA was supposed to be sunny,” Y/N says. Jessie laughs.

“The rain is actually a relief for me,” Jessie says, “There’s not this much sun in Canada, I’m not used to it.”

Y/N laughs. Of course the Canadian likes the rain.

“I’m not surprised no one else showed up,” Y/N says, “The field is a bit waterlogged.” Y/N points down at her feet, her cleats sunk an inch into the mud.

“You can leave if you want,” Jessie says, “I’m gonna stay and run around for a bit, but you don’t have to stay if you’d rather get out of the mud.”

Y/N considers it. She would really like to go back to her dorm and take a hot shower. But she thinks of Jessie, here all alone, and she can’t leave.

“No, I’ll stay, might as well get some work in for the game this weekend.”

Y/N thinks Jessie means she’s going to stay and run drills, so Y/N waits for her to be ready to warm up. She’s too focused on the way her cleats are getting caked in mud to notice the mischievous smile on Jessie’s face. Y/N gasps and jumps back as a wad of mud hits her chest. She looks at Jessie who’s laughing.

“Oh, it’s on.”

Y/N pounces before Jessie can run, tackling her into the mud. They roll around until they’re both covered in mud and laughing so hard their sides hurt. They run around, trying to push each other into puddles. After a bit, Y/N suggests they play 1 on 1 against each other to ‘see who’s really the better midfielder’. They go back and forth a bit, and the score remains even, both equally matched. It goes until Jessie’s up by one, having stripped the ball from Y/N on defense. Jessie dribbles up to Y/N and Y/N knows immediately that she made a mistake, committing too far one way and Jessie easily goes the other. She does it without thinking, one second watching Jessie cut the other way and the next she has her arms around Jessie’s waist, pulling her back until the two of them are tripping backwards into the mud.

Jessie sputters, mouth gaping open.

“That’s a foul! That’s a red!”

“There’s no refs!” Y/N says, “No refs, no rules! We’re tied again, you didn’t get past me.”

“We are not tied! That doesn’t count!” Jessie says, “I had you beat! I fooled you so bad you had to foul me to stop me!”

“What foul? I didn’t hear a foul call,” Y/N knows she’s being annoying, but she refuses to concede the point. “The rules were you had to get past me, and you didn’t get past me. You lost the ball, therefore, my point.”

“You little…”

Before Y/N can react, Jessie is up and running to the ball. She starts dribbling it away from Y/N.

“There! I recovered the ball and got past you! My point!”

“Get back here!” Y/N chases after her.

Y/N runs after Jessie, yelling the whole time, with Jessie yelling back at her. Y/N almost has her, has her fingers in Jessie’s jersey, ready to give it a tug back, and she startles to a stop when a voice rings out.

“You know practice was canceled today, right?” Teagan stands on the edge of the field.

“We sort of figured that,” Y/N says, out of breath.

“Are the two of you going to clean up before team dinner, or is being covered in the mud the new style?”

“I forgot about dinner,” Jessie says, “We should go shower. It’s going to take a while to get all this mud off.”

“And who’s fault is that?” Y/N yells after them as they walk away.

***

They don’t necessarily start hanging out after that. They still exist in different circles, but it’s more like they partner up in practice, or sit together at team meals, or Y/N plops into the seat behind Jessie on the bus.

Comments start to swirl again after one of their games against USC. USC is one of their biggest rivals and the stands are always packed, each team fighting for a win. UCLA pulled out the win, thanks to a goal from Jessie. Jessie gets pulled into an on field interview after the game and Y/N sneaks up behind her and dumps her almost full Gatorade on Jessie’s head.

“I’ll get you back for that!” Jessie yells, before clearly remembering she’s in the middle of an interview. “Sorry,” Jessie says, “What was the question?”

The clip circulates, people asking if they’ve squashed their beef, if it’s all for show, or if they’re really friends. Y/N rolls her eyes at all the comments.

They end up playing against each other with their national teams in a friendly. While in the tunnel waiting to head out on the field, Y/N finds where Jessie’s standing in line.

“Psst, Fleming,” Y/N gets her attention, “Can I get your jersey after the game?”

“Sure,” Jessie says, “But I don’t want yours. I’d rather die than wear American colours.”

Y/N sticks her tongue out at Jessie, but smiles when Jessie has to turn away to keep from laughing. She catches Kelley staring at her, raising her eyebrows. What? Y/N mouths at her. Kelley raises her arms in surrender and focuses back at the front.

After the game Y/N and Jessie meet in the middle of the field. Y/N already has her jersey off. She holds it out to Jessie.

“The whole point of a jersey swap is the swapping of jerseys, now give.”

Jessie rolls her eyes and pulls off her jersey, handing it to Y/N. They put on the others jersey and Jessie makes a face.

“This feels illegal.”

“Let’s take a photo,” Y/N drags Jessie over to the nearest photographer. She’s more than happy to get one of the two of them in each other’s jerseys and promises to send it to both of them.

***

After the game, a lot of the teams plan to meet up since a lot of them are friends and teammates on their club teams. Jessie isn’t 21 yet, and she really doesn’t know anyone on the US team very well, so she stays behind. She should probably do some homework anyway.

Jessie’s finished showering and doing her post game routine and about to pull out her textbooks, when there’s a knock at the door.

“Hey,” Y/N says when Jessie opens the door, “Everyone’s out drinking, except us it seems. Wanna hang?”

Y/N doesn’t wait for an answer before she pushes into the room and flops on the closest bed.

“That’s Janine’s bed,” Jessie says as she closes the door. Y/N groans and moves to the other bed.

“It’s so lame being under 21,” Y/N says, “Everyone ditches us to go to bars and stuff.”

“I don’t like bars anyway,” Jessie says, “I’d rather stay in.”

“I don’t mind staying in, I guess, I like hanging out with you, I’ll skip the bar if you’re here.”

Jessie doesn’t answer, looking away before Y/N can see how her cheeks grow red.

“Did you see this?” Y/N turns her phone to Jessie, “People are going crazy over the picture of us from the game. They’re trying to prove it’s a PR stunt since we tooootally hate each other.”

“All that rivalry stuff is pretty stupid. There was never anything to it.”

“You know everyone wants to create drama when there isn’t any.”

“I never…” Jessie turns to look at the wall, talking quietly, “I never had any problem with you, even before we became friends. I hated the rivalry crap. I always thought… I thought you were cool and I wanted to talk to you, but I thought you might’ve really hated me.”

“I didn’t hate you,” Y/N says, “Jess.” Jessie hears Y/N shifting on the bed and Y/N gently grabs Jessie’s shoulder and turns Jessie to face her. “I didn’t hate you, I thought you were cool too. You’re such a good player and everyone liked you so much. I didn’t know what to say to you.”

“I don’t think I’m that cool,” Jessie mutters.

“You’re way cool!” Y/N says, “You’re one of the best midfielders in the world and you’re still in college! And your photography stuff is really good, and everyone likes you, and, I think you’re really awesome Jess.”

Jessie feels like she might cry, and she doesn’t want to. She doesn’t want Y/N to see her cry, she doesn’t want to try to explain why a few nice words from Y/N are making her cry. She panics, because she can feel the tears coming and she doesn’t know how to stop it. Y/N is looking at her intently, and Jessie stops thinking. Before she knows it, her lips are on Y/N’s. She pulls back almost as quickly as she leaned in.

“I’m so sorry,” Jessie says. She feels like she might cry even more now.

“Oh,” Y/N breathes, “Oh. I didn’t realize…”

“I’m so sorry. I get it if you don’t want hang out with me anymore. I’m so sorry.”

Jessie keeps apologizing, not able to do anything else. She’s expecting Y/N to slap her, or to just walk out of the room and never talk to her again. She wonders how easy it is to transfer schools, she doesn’t want to leave UCLA, but she doesn’t know if she can face Y/N again. Lost in her thoughts, she freezes when Y/N kisses her again.

“Sorry,” Y/N says, “But I didn’t know how else to get to you to stop apologizing. I’m not mad, I like you too. I didn’t think you liked me back, so I didn’t say anything. I like you, Jess.”

“Really?” Jessie asks, “You… you like me?” Y/N nods. “I-I like you too,” Jessie says shyly.

Jessie covers her face and falls back on the bed. Y/N laughs and follows her. When Jessie uncovers her face, Y/N is facing her, looking at her with a soft smile on her face. Jessie takes a deep breath and works up her nerve. She reaches a hand out and slides her hand over Y/N’s. Y/N grins and laces their fingers together. Hours later, they fall asleep like that, hands clasped between them, and Jessie wakes up to the sound of a camera shutter.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to wake you,” Janine whispers, “I felt like we needed photo evidence of this moment.”

“Please don’t post that anywhere,” Jessie says, and she rolls over and falls back asleep.

[anpanman95]

JACK AND JOKER: Sacrificing Love against Tragic Love | Old Love vs New Love

They did it again.

Well, they’ve been showing us these contrasting parallels ever since the beginning.

Showing us that Jack and Joke’s new love is all about (self) sacrifice, and Hope and Save’s old love is all about tragedy.

I already knew this, but it hit me hard towards the end of episode 11 with this moment:

First of all this whole scene was an absolute masterpiece. I’m a music composer for the media, I write, study and analyze music for a living, and let me tell you this scene might be one of my top 3 moments of this show just because how the music was treated here. (The music actually adds on to the point I’ll make in a bit, by the way)

First, we have our self-sacrificing lovers. Jack and Joke’s love has been all about self sacrifice since the very beginning, starting with Joke turning himself to the police to set Jack free

and coming to a full circle moment when he gives the ring to Boss in exchange for Jack’s freedom, once more.

Joke has sacrificed himself, their love, and their happiness for the sake of others (in this case, Jack) twice.

They fight for the world. Their love is new love. They have a lot they need to go through to put themselves first, to put their wants and desires first.

Then, we have our tragic lovers. Their love is old love. They’ve been fighting against the world for each other, to finally be together and free, for a long time (even if it isn’t explicitly said, it’s evident when you see the lengths they’ll go for each other)

They don’t sacrifice their love, they sacrifice the world. And it has nothing to do with their personalities, or that they are bad people. It’s just they are so damn tired of everything they only have each other to rely on. They only have each other.

But where does that lead them?

To more tragedy.

[the music on this scene was impecable]

Jack and Joke’s new love still has room to grow, which is why they can sacrifice it. They let the world come in between them for the sake of others, while still loving each other dearly.

But again, their love is new. Fresh, still technically untouched and unharmed by outside things out of their control. Yes, the world is against them, but their reluctance to choose each other relies solely on their own fears and sense of responsibility to the world and their loved ones.

Hope and Save do not have that luxury, and don’t even want to have it. Their love comes first, because God knows how long they’ve been fighting for it. Old love that certainly already went through everything you can imagine.

It’s true we don’t get much of their backstory, but through their actions we can tell why they won’t sacrifice their love for anything.

Can you imagine what they might have gone through? What their love has faced?

Of course, they choose each other above all things, they had enough.

Jack and Joke will choose each other in the end, but they still have a long way to go (season 2? haha yes i’m delusional)

This doesn’t mean Jack and Joke don’t love each other enough. But even though they’ve known each other for a long time, they haven’t loved each other for that long.

Their feelings appeared five years ago in a little spark of life but it was so short lived they simply didn’t get the chance to even acknowledge it before the world came in between them full force.

The spark was only re-born and ready to be noticed when they finally had a moment to breathe, a moment of peace with no other worries coming in between.

Hope and Save have already gone through all that, have truly gone to hell and back.

Hopefully they’ll get their heaven soon.

Honestly I did not feel so much for them in the beginning. Their scenes felt underwhelming, and I wasn’t keen on them. But this episode left me absolutely in pieces. My opinion on them did a full 180.

They broke my heart.

I do hope they get their happy ending. They deserve it as much as our main couple.

Thanks for reading! Leave your thoughts, I love reading them❣️

[wlntrsldler]

i feel may would get whiplash the first time he sees luke interacting with five stars because as much as she knows he is a cutie who loves with his entire heart she's never seen him in love (specially because she is used to see him with women drunk in the news)

“i dont wanna go yet.”

luke’s entire body weight was currently resting on top of your body. the sounds of the movers the poisoned mercury team hired were making a ruckus outside of your room, hauling and tossing the random items the boys accumulated over the summer. the boys’ bags were packed, outside the cabin’s door, waiting to be thrown into the back of their tour bus.

you chuckled, running your fingers through his mess of curls, which proved to be the wrong move as it made luke bury his head even deeper into your neck. you placed a soft kiss on his head, “c’mon, pretty boy. you gotta get up.”

“can i just hide in here? maybe they won’t notice im not in the bus and i can stay here a little longer.”

you snorted, feeling a sense of longing erupt in your chest. you were feeling the same way as luke. you didn’t want him to go. you didn’t want to go. “i think they’ll notice the lead isn’t in the bus, luke.”

"luke? where are you?"

luke's head perked up at the sound of his mom's voice echoing through the cabin. he groaned, placing a quick kiss on your lips before he got up. he knew that his time was up and he would have to get on the tour bus soon. he'd see you soon, hopefully. he didn't know the band's schedule yet and you still haven't gotten word on whether or not you were playing this season, so the next time the two of you would see each other was still up in the air.

you froze as you heard may's voice. you'd been so caught up in wanting to treasure the last few moments you had with luke that you completely forgot that you'd have to see may and explain what this was. you'd met her before, sure, but it was a brief introduction and it was before you became luke's girlfriend. it seemed like she liked you enough, but now that the circumstances have changed, you weren't so sure.

"babe?" luke asked, tilting his head in question as he placed his hand on the doorknob of your door to open it. "you coming?"

"does your mom know about us?"

he blushed, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand, "yeah, i kinda told her. are you mad?"

you quickly shook your head, "no, no. i'm just--uh, nervous, i guess?"

luke walked back to your bed, grabbing your head in his hands as he peppered kisses all over your face, "nervous? for what?"

"what if she doesn't like me?"

luke let out a loud laugh, a goofy grin appearing on his lips, "you're funny. come on, five star. i only got a few more minutes with you and you're not leaving my side 'til then."

reluctantly, you got up from your bed and accepted luke's outstretched hand. he laced your fingers together, giving your hand a light squeeze as he opened the door to greet his mom. luke smiled widely when he saw his mom poking her head into luke's bedroom, trying to look for him. "mama!"

may turned around, smiling at the sound of her son's voice, then her eyes immediately darted down to your intertwined hands and the sheepish look on your face. her eyebrows shot up in surprise and walked over to the two of you, "there you are, been looking everywhere for you. the boys are already in the bus."

luke let go of your hand for a moment to give his mom a hug, then quickly returned to your side to wrap an arm around your waist. he looked down at you, eyes twinkling with fondness, "mama, you know y/n."

you rubbed the sweat off your palm on the fabric of your jeans, "nice to see you again, mrs. castellan."

"oh, don't do that," she rolled her eyes, pulling you in for a hug, "mama c is fine, or may, whatever you prefer."

"oh, uh, okay," you chuckled, awkwardly, feeling strangely welcomed by her simple act of kindness. may castellan's hugs felt like home. no wonder the boys adored her so much. "nice to see you again, mama c."

"so i reckon this is why we've been waiting for you for ten minutes?" she turned to luke, an eyebrow raised. she had a teasing smile on her face and it was a familiar look. luke got his smile from his mother.

"yeah," luke flushed, "sorry, don't wanna leave yet."

"mhm," may hummed. she turned to you, smiling at you in a way that made your heart hammer in your chest. there was no judgment in her eyes but she was still your boyfriend's mom and your mind was thinking of all the things she could point out about you that would have you spiraling. "he treating you right?"

you blinked, not expecting those words from her. you looked at luke for some guidance on what is the appropriate response, but he was unhelpful. he just looked at you with a dopey smile, a small part of him enjoying watching you all flustered around his mom. luke pressed a kiss to your temple.

"come on, mom. you know i do. you raised me well."

may laughed, "damn straight."

"five star here, was nervous to see you again," luke said, making your eyes widen and involuntarily hit him lightly on his bicep. you received a fake 'ow' in return.

"no need to be nervous, y/n," may replied, casting away any doubts you had in your head with a hand on your shoulder. "this one doesn't shut up about you and it's all good things."

you turned to luke, scrunching your face up in glee, "you talk about me?"

he rolled his eyes playfully, "mom, you're embarrassing me."

"that's my job, kid," may shrugged, turning to you again. "he just goes on and on about you sometimes."

"okay, that's enough," he groaned. the band's publicist was calling him over so he muttered a quick "be right back" in your ear before he left you with his mom. luke turned around as he was walking away, "mom, please don't say anything else while i'm gone."

"no promises!" she called back, chuckling as luke shook his head, accepting defeat. may motioned for you to sit on the couch with her for a second while luke chatted with their publicist about their upcoming schedule. she sat across from you, "he's real happy, you know."

you blushed, playing with the throw pillow on the couch, "yeah, camp had a good effect on him."

"not camp," she shook her head, "you did."

when you looked back at her face, you were almost overwhelmed by the sincerity in her eyes. she continued, "i haven't seen him like this since well, ever. it looks good on him, don't you think?"

you agreed, "it does."

"i hope i'm not overstepping here when i tell you this, but when he first told me about you, it felt different," she explained, pausing for a moment as she tried to conjure up the right words to say next, "as a parent, you can feel it when something shifts with your kid. i felt it when his dad left. i felt it when he got the call about the record deal. i felt it when they played their first sold-out show. i felt it when the fame started getting to him. and i felt it when he called me to tell me about this girl who gave him such a hard time at camp."

"yeah, sorry about that," you cringed.

may laughed, placing a hand on yours again, "no, y/n. don't ever apologize for that. something clicked in my head when he first told me about you and it's a feeling i didn't think i'd ever feel when it came to luke. he's the sweetest kid, but he hasn't made the best decisions when it comes to dating."

"having this much freedom and access to the world at his age will do that to someone, i suppose. but when he started talking about you, i don't know. i knew it was different."

"for what it's worth, i feel the same way about him," you said, eyes finding luke's. he gave you a small smile.

"good," she squeezed your hand and got up, "it was nice to see you again. i hope i get to see you at a few shows soon."

"i hope so too."

may gave you one last hug before she made her way out of the cabin, "tell my kid he gets ten more minutes then he has to haul his ass to the tour bus, okay?"

you chuckled, "got it. bye, mama c."

[atticsandwich]

SPOILERS FOR THE NEWER LESSONS IN NIGHTBRINGER - careful fellow followers of this blog <3

i love the current lessons so much actually because there is honestly so much underlying angst / potential for it! i doubt the devs will go that deeply into that direction and i don’t think it would translate well within the game anyway but just imagine mc getting more and more concerned about their own powers that also shape their relationship with everyone else… sure everyone loves mc but dia/barb and solomon have entire realms to protect and therefore wish to have mc on their side if push comes to shove (which has been a recurring topic in nb)… mc getting increasingly insecure / afraid that they’ll be seen as a tool / weapon first instead of a friend… i mean especially after being used as bait??? solomon showing his shady side again??? AAAH!!! THINK OF ALL THE POSSIBILITIES!!!

Yes yes YESSSS

also i love that we're given the option to be mad that the people mc loves are being used as "bait" to draw out their power. obey me has been very passive about how mc responds to situations sometimes that them being mad is a great thing!!

re: angst, yeah, i get you, they haven't really hit the mark on really leaning into angst yet, and although i doubt they'll hit this one, i still have high hopes about how it's going to conclude or how they'll handle the situation (the fact that they got teleported to babel + michael's texts to simeon makes me think raphael is FINALLY going to burst and let out all the emotions he's been bottling for literal millenia)

SPEAKING OF RAPHAEL. again, i love that tlhe's the side character focus on a season with the underlying fact of simeon's transformation to a demon - his reactions and avoidance of the situation, even though he's already made aware of it by michael, coupled with the fact that he still has hidden guilt over what happened during the celestial war....... MANNNNN IM SOO EXCITED FOR RAPHAEL DEVELOPMENT AND EXPOSITION..... hopefully this means mephisto and thirteen will also have their own time in the spotlight soon regarding glimpses of their backstories and developing realtionship with the cast (and mc in particular)

ON A SIDE NOTE. anyone else catch how barb reacts after solomon and mc chooses to keep the reason for mc's growing power a secret??? yeahhhhh he defo knows. dude raised solomon and is the demon of time, of course he'd know. knowing him, he probably just wants to see how it plays out, considering he's powerful enough to mitigate any real catastrophe from actually happening (hellooo he was literally contingency plan number 1 from the sf final) love the thought of him just going. heh. this'll be fun to watch :>

ANYWAYSSSSSS im gonna stop yapping now thank u for asking anon and for anyone reading my thoughts. granted i know a lot of these are very tip of the iceberg but i would rather not do a full dissertation on tumblr. knock knock tumblr staff can u add voice notes. no relation to me wanting to yap whatsoever................) (<- says the guy who made and posted an essay about celestial realm parallels to irl catholicism and power structure. WHATEVER!!!!!)

[sublimecatgalaxy]

Read It and Weep- Part 3

Pairing: NFL!Player!Rafe Cameron x Journalist!Reader

Summary: After a game following a win against their rivals, Sports journalist Y/n is resting out in the tunnel, planning an interview when the team exits from the locker room, Rafe immediately spots her and sparks up a conversation that ends with a phone number and something that makes the team go crazy.

Word Count: 1.7k

Warnings: Swearing, sexual tension, slow burn guys, stay focused.

Song: "All American Bitch" by Olivia Rodrigo

A/n: I'm back and it's returned! Please go get caught up on parts 1 and 2 that are in my Rafe masterlist. Now that NFL season is started back up again, I'm so so so interested in writing this again.

It’s almost as if he took as much time away from the game, during the game, as he possibly could. He’d score a touchdown and make his way over to me in the endzone, checking in on me, making sure ‘no other attractive football players took me down since the last time we spoke’, his words, not mine. He’d fling his helmet down and toss me a wink from across the field which caused the other reporters around me to start asking pestering and invasive questions about my possible love life- a love life that didn’t concern them in the slightest yet they acted as if they were entitled to my whole life story just because of my sudden closeness with Rafe.

They won the game, it was a no-brainer from the beginning, with Greg and Rafe working like a well-oiled machine and knocking out touchdown after touchdown while our defense held back the offensive side from the other team. We killed it- they killed it collectively and beat the opposing team 30 to 0 without mercy. 

My goal was to interview some of the more quiet members of our team today following their celebration in the locker room, needing their opinions on the game and how they feel about their winning season. I know that it’s not what I’m supposed to do, I’m supposed to be gaining the attention of the two star players, Greg and Rafe, and how they feel but since everyone twists every piece I do on Rafe, it’s nearly impossible for me to write about him and actually be taken seriously. 

My eyes linger from my bag and my notes in my lap, catching  Rafe and Greg out of the corner of my eyes, along with the rest of the players that spill out of the locker room to my right with a cheer, cigars tipped off their lips as their happy smiles shine. This game was important to them beyond belief, with it being against of NFL rivals of this season, one that we just kept losing to but today was finally a comeback for our underdog team. I imagine that they’ll all go out to the strip clubs tonight and get overly hammered like they usually do. 

Except for the men that are married, they go home to their wives and kids.

Hopefully. 

Rafe sees me almost immediately as he turns his head and spots me sitting in a pile of my own notes and I watch as his nimble fingers pull the cigar from his smile as smoke billows out from between his lips, his feet carrying him towards me in slow, nervous steps. 

I try to act busy, to bury myself in my bag as I shove my equipment back into the mesh but I can’t keep my eyes off of him for long, watching the way the fabric of his t-shirt stretches around his biceps, sweat lining the collar around his neck. He looks so happy, eyes so eager as he finds himself right before me, towering over me with confidence as he reaches out to help me stand up from the ground.

“Hi.” He says sweetly, eyes raking up and down my figure, briefly catching on my bare legs.

“Hi.” I breathe, soothing my hands down my thighs in an attempt to seem put together but with the wind blowing through the tunnel, I nearly blow over but Rafe’s quick to steady me by the waist. “Nice game. How does it feel to be America’s sweetheart?” He grins at my question, eyes flickering away from me and back at the team momentarily to catch them ogling us with bright smiles and the attention makes my cheeks warm.

“Pretty damn good.” He sucks in a breath, eyes flickering towards the end of the tunnel at the reporters lined up like wild animals, calling out his name in a desperate attempt to get his attention. If I listen hard enough, I hear my name too after his own and it makes my heart stop. 

“Are you going out to celebrate?” I ask, blue eyes beaming down at me as he gives me a simple shrug and a nod, chuckling at the whooping behind him from the boys calling his name, urging him to hurry up but his eyes are on me.

“Yeah. Wanna join?” He asks with a hopeful look but my shoulders fall, the stinging in my temples reminding me that I have much-needed duties to attend to in the form of self-care and maybe a bottle of Pedialyte.

“I’m really excited just to go home and rest, honestly. I’ve got a pounding headache.” I frown, tapping a finger against my forehead as another zap of pain shoots up the back of my head, pulling a worried look from the wide receiver in front of me, his brows furrowing and lips fanning out into a thin line as I pout.

“Are you okay?” He asks, eyes flickering back and forth between mine and I give him a half-assed nod, trying to convince him well enough to leave it alone. “You sure?” He sounds so soft and so concerned at the tone of his voice makes me fold, my hand reaching out to rest on his bicep, giving it a gentle squeeze and pulling his concerned eyes away from my face, to my small hand that rests on his skin.

“Promise, Rafe.”

“Well, look who is it-” An annoying voice from behind Rafe has me pulling my hand away from him and Rafe lets out a dramatic groan, reaching behind him and grabbing Greg by the shoulders, pushing him away with a decent amount of force, enough force to have Greg stumbling backward.

“Bye, Greg!” Rafe calls out with an eye-roll and turns back to me with a frown, muttering a small ‘sorry’ under his breath and I just shrug, knowing that Greg’s main goal is to annoy the living shit out of his best friend. 

“Ouch,” Greg mutters and rubs his shoulder with a huff. “Don’t injure my throwing arm.” He holds his arms up in surrender and backs away from us with a pout and I bite back a much-needed giggle, almost relieved that he went away and left the two of us alone.

“You’re getting good at that.” I chuckle and he nods with tired eyes.

“Yeah, I’m busy- he should know that by now.” He says, his voice dripping with something more meaningful and I feel my stomach flip, my eyes widening briefly before I remind myself to be cool and to not completely fawn over every attractive word that escapes his plump lips.

 “Fans are starting to claim the only reason you’re coming to the endzone is to see me.” I flirt with a devilish smirk, fighting the urge to reach up and start twirling my hair because that would make me look like every other bimbo who throws themselves at him. But what can I say, I’m not that much different at this point.

“May or may not be one of the driving factors.” He shrugs sheepishly and I feel my cheeks warm.

“Yeah?” I pause, biting at my lip as his blue-green eyes stare down at me, a heavy, heated pause between us, one that makes my toes curl and head spin as we stare at each other.  “It was nice to see you so often. Four whole touchdowns in one game?”   

“What can I say, my motives are motivating.” He reaches out, brushing his hand against mine before locking his pinky with my own and I laugh breathlessly, now definitely making a fool out of myself with how heavy I’m breathing.

“You’re sweet.” I’m flushing I’m sure, I can feel it, the heat crawling up the back of my neck as I slip my hand out of his and check the time on my wrist, not wanting to leave but knowing that it’s time to go and with how the boys are yelling at him to come on, he has to go too. “I have to go but I’ll catch you later?” I smile, going to walk away from him but he reaches out to grab my upper arm.

“Hey wait.” He fishes for something in his pocket and pulls out a small piece of paper, slipping it into my hands without warning before pressing a simple and surprising kiss to my cheek. “It was nice seeing you again, Y/n.” The boys are screaming down the tunnel from us and he laughs coyly, backing up slowly and leaving me in a puddle. “Text me.”

-

Tucking myself into bed, I stare at my phone that sits on the nightstand beside me with my lip between my teeth, thinking about texting him and the consequences that could come from bridging that gap. I could just go to sleep, ignore the pounding in my skull and the nausea sitting at the back of my throat, but instead, all my brain wants me to do is pick up my phone and ask Rafe how his celebration went. 

I could text him just a simple hi, turn my phone off, go to bed, and hopefully wake up to a message from him. Or I could text him and get a ‘who’s this’ response and cry myself to sleep out of pure embarrassment. Who’s to say that he doesn’t do this often? Maybe he just wants to get in my pants so desperately that he would flirt with me and make a huge spectacle over it just to gain media attention and publicity. Maybe all I am to him is attention. 

Saying fuck it, I grab my phone, log in and find Rafe’s contact without hesitation, pressing the new message button with butterflies in my stomach. My fingers are shaking as I type something out, hesitating before pressing send with an excited squeal. Me: Having fun and getting into trouble without me?

[crowleysgirl56]

It’s been more than a month now since the pause was announced (yet why does it feel like 6000 years?).

I’ve seen a lot of people wondering why it’s taking so long, and I suppose the reason why is because Prime needs to figure out how best to untangle the show from NG.

Don’t forget he’s involved in three separate capacities: writer, executive producer and show runner.

As the writer, not much can be done here. The scripts are done so there’s likely no way that gets reversed or amended. If anything there’s always a possibility someone else comes on board to do on the fly edits during filming. If the scripts weren’t fully polished this may also be what is taking time. NG may also have not been able to complete them, either through Prime telling him to stop editing, or he’s decided to just not do it because of everything that’s happened the last 3 months. This could potentially throw a spanner in the works. It’s also the part I’m having the toughest time reconciling with. As much as I want to see season 3, as much as I want to separate the art and the artist, it’s still kind of hard to accept they’re going to be his words that we see.

As executive producer, frankly that’s probably the easiest to fix. He steps down from that role and someone else fills in. He wasn’t the only executive producer on the first two seasons. Surely there is someone else that could easily step into that role (cough Michael executive produced Masters of Sex cough).

Personally I think it’s the show runner aspect that is likely causing the most delay. Being the show runner means you’re there on set being immersed with the players and the director and the editors ensuring the integrity of the story. It’s an incredibly full on and hands on job. It’s also incredibly difficult because you also tend to be the conduit between the production and the audience, ensuring the final product is what the audience wants. You listen to any interview with a Doctor Who show runner and they’ll tell you how incredibly tough, difficult and stressful that job is. So if Prime were to replace NG with a different show runner not only would they have to find someone who is available to do it (incredibly difficult given most competent people would already be tied up with other productions ready to commence next year), but they would also need to find someone who is willing to do it, AND someone who knows and understands the show, the story, and the characters intimately. That is a really tough gig. So two possibilities: they are either trying to find the best suited person to step in as show runner, or they’re keeping NG on but trying to work out the best way to keep him on whilst maintaining the best interest of cast and crew. Hopefully that means trying to heavily negotiate just how much physical interaction he gets to have with the production. One would hope he’s bloody bared from set altogether, but just how practical can that be when filming a TV series? Especially when he’s the source of knowledge for how things are to be interpreted. Again, something that I’m having trouble more and more with lately.

These are of course all just connection and my own thoughts on what might be happening. I know as much as everyone else.

Ideally, I want to see him removed as executive producer and show runner, and someone new brought in as a script doctor. Whether that’s what happens is yet to be made clear.

We unfortunately just need to wait patiently and hope an announcement is made soon.

[hellinhawkins]

please reblog this with some of your stranger things 5 theories (this can be for the plot, relationships, anything! I’m curious :)

some of mine below the cut!

these aren’t really theories more than just a brief outline of how I’m sort of thinking everything will go down, but I needed to share some thoughts

I wouldn’t be surprised if the show ends on a hint that the upside down is still alive (a demobat flying, lightning in the red sky, a demodog in a trashcan or something along those lines)

honestly I’m sure that holly is being used as bait. that script maya leaked months ago (did we ever decide that was real?) mentioned kids a few times- given the many many ways vecna is compared to freddy krueger, I’m almost sure that he’s luring her (and possibly others) as bait or for strength

as far as byler goes I’m sure that they’re going to be an important topic this season (I also know that the duffers will try and keep things obvious).

I don’t think mileven will split up in a chill and non-heated argument (they clearly aren’t on speaking terms and el is mad. they’re not on the same page AT ALL. and this could just be me but if I were el, whether I loved him like that or not, to find out he didn’t at all and knew it? yeah, I’d definitely be pissed. I’m sure that they’re going to argue. bad.

will and mike are going to hopefully have some sweet scenes! they always have the emotional ones while mileven has the rushed confessions that you can hardly enjoy. I think it’ll become more obvious to the ga (the ones with media literacy) around episode five, give or take. close to the end they’ll get together. probably through an argument.

(I could talk about this all day but to keep it simple I imagine they’re going to argue and someone will say ‘why do you care so much’ ‘because I love you!’ and right then vecna will strike or something will happen and it won’t be addressed again until the end)

I’ll end that there, if anyone wants to hear some more please send an ask ❤️

[hughesybear]

That was an absolutely wild game. Defensive breakdowns, three rush goals for, and multiple star players out for varying reasons? Experience Canucks hockey!

Canucks thoughts 11/19/2024:

With three of the Canucks’ best players out, the focus was always going to be on their compete level, work rate, and process for generating offence 5v5, and they did a great job on all those fronts. It’s tough to compensate for what J.T. brings on and off the ice, and I think the Canucks did well despite the loss of the team’s heart.

Quinn Hughes and Elias Pettersson definitely stepped up this game. Quinn opened the scoring 34 seconds into the game with a beautiful backhand from the slot, and he had the time and space to execute that because Pettersson drove to the side of the crease and drew two defenders with him. Sherwood continues to be electrifying on Pettersson’s line, which was the Canucks’ best line again. The chemistry between DeBrusk-Pettersson-Sherwood continues to build with every game, highlighted by a shift where they got three scoring chances in the slot in quick succession. Petey when the speedy winger elevated to his line actually has the hands to make a play: 🤯

The Pettersson line was also hard matched against the Zibanejad line and used against the Trochek line, and Pettersson won those minutes through the first two periods. He’s expressed his desire to play against the best competition, and I think his expected role with Miller out will bring the best out of him.

Šilovs continues to rebound from his rough start to the season - he actually had a higher SV% than Shesterkin this game (and also a wild blockerless save???) There’s not much he could do about the shot differential, and he’s improved at a lot of things that were plaguing him, such as tracking long shots through traffic. There’s definitely still flaws in his game, such as some overaggressiveness in lateral positioning, but he’s proven to be such a quick learner that I think he’ll only keep improving with every game. Apparently Demko’s coming back soon, which will help Šilovs get much more development time in Abby!

Loved seeing Garland step up in J.T.’s absence, especially when he’s going to be a new dad soon. Dak to Garland game-tying goal, I know that’s right!! I’d love to see the 4th line get the puck on net more - Höglander in particular feels like he’s trying to do too much with the puck every time he’s in the offensive zone, and while he has the hands to make plays, a lot of the time it’s just better to simplify and play a more direct game in order to push the pace. Hopefully he figures it out soon (if he gets traded I will be devastated).

Defence pairs are an issue again, what else is new. There was still lots to be proud of this game. Hopefully they’ll continue improving their road record on the upcoming 6-game road trip!

[zegrasdrysdale]

[ i’ll be home for christmas ] m. mctavish

day ten of malia’s christmas fic marathon

paring : Mason McTavish x fem!reader

summary : Mason brings new girlfriend (Y/N) to dinner at his parents’ house for Christmas

warning(s) : none

author’s note : first time writing for mason so i hope it isn’t terrible

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The idea of going to Canada with Mason was exciting.

Now it’s just terrifying now that it’s reality.

They’ve only been dating for a handful of months but he has been wanting to introduce (Y/N) to his parents since they made everything official. It was a four month talking phase slash situationship then in September when he came back to Anaheim for the season, things were made official.

That’s how she ended up in a town near Ottawa on Christmas Day.

She currently sits in front of Mason’s childhood home. It’s the house the McTavish family moved into when they moved to Canada from Switzerland when Mason was eight. Her eyes are on the house as Mason turns the car off.

“What if they don’t like me?” she questions as she turns to look at her boyfriend. “Do they even know about me?”

Mason looks over at her when she asks the second question. “Yeah, they know about you,” he replies. “My brother knows too. He’s the one that let it slip to our parents that I was bringing you home for Christmas. I can tell you that they’re excited to meet you.”

She isn’t convinced.

(Y/N) knows she isn’t like the other girls that Mason has brought home. She knows she isn’t even like the girls he has dated in the past. She isn’t even a blonde haired, blue eyed Instagram model. She doesn’t have some cool job and she lives in a shoebox apartment that had a very small closet for a bedroom.

His parents aren’t going to think she’s right for him. Hell, they might even think she’s trying to use him for money.

She didn’t go through a four month situationship just for money.

“I just don’t think they’ll like me, Mase,” she repeats. She decides to voice her concerns. “I barely have enough money to survive. I’m not as beautiful as the other girls you’ve probably brought to dinner to meet them. I doubt they’ll think I’m right for you. They’ll hate me.”

Mason shakes his head and leans on the center console. Their eyes meet and Mason’s are soft, sincere. “I know you know that I don’t care about how much you make as a bartender,” he tells her. “You know I don’t care what your job is. You’re more gorgeous than any other girl I’ve brought home. Once they see how happy you make me and how in love with you I am, they’ll think you’re perfect for me.”

A pout forms on her lips and Mason traces her bottom lip when he reaches across the console. “I still don’t believe that,” she admits.

“If you feel uncomfortable at all, then let me know,” he says. “We’ll leave and go back to my apartment, okay?”

She nods. “Okay.”

He smiles and kisses her pout. “Ready to meet my parents and brother?” he asks.

“No, but let’s go,” she replies. “Hopefully they drink wine because that’s the only gift I brought for them.”

Mason laughs, “I promise they like wine. They’ve always liked wine. It’s okay.”

Again, she isn’t convinced.

Ready or not, (Y/N) grabs the gift bag that contains the bottle of red wine that she bought for Mason’s parents and gets out of the car. She walks around the car and grabs her boyfriend’s hand with her free hand.

Together, they walk up to the front door. The cold wind hits her in the face and whips through her brown hair. It’s so cold and there’s snow on the ground. Two things that an Anaheim born girl is not used to. She’s very much out of her comfort zone right now.

Mason knocks a few times on the door before he opens it. He walks inside and pulls his girlfriend in behind him.

“Hello?” he calls out. “We’re here.”

Mason’s older brother comes running into the foyer from the living room as they take their coats off. “Oh my God,” he gasps. “She’s real. I didn’t think she was real.”

A couple comes into the foyer right after his brother says something. Definitely Mason’s parents. The four of them all look so similar. “Mason,” his mother says. “It’s about time we got to meet her. She’s beautiful.”

“Hi,” (Y/N) says. “I, um, have a gift for you. Mason told me you guys really like wine so here’s a bottle. I’m not sure what kind of wine but it’s I’m a red wine drinker so I got you guys my favorite.”

Mrs. McTavish smiles and takes the bag from her. “That is so sweet of you,” she says when the bag is in her hand. “Thank you. You didn’t have to.”

(Y/N) takes a step back and stands against Mason’s side. “It felt weird to not bring something,” she admits. “Hope you like it.”

“Come in,” Mr. McTavish says. “Get comfortable. I’ll pour us glasses of wine while dinner finishes up in the oven.”

Mason’s parents walk into the kitchen. His brother follows them while Mason guides (Y/N) into the living room.

They take a seat on the couch and Mason scoots closer to his girlfriend. He drapes an arm around her shoulders. She looks up at him and settles against his side. “Feel any better yet?” he asks.

“A little,” she sighs. “Ask me when we leave.”

Mason’s family walk into the living room. (Y/N) is handed a glass of wine, and so is Mason. She forgets that he only needs to be 18 to drink in Canada so his parents are okay with their 20-year-old son drinking a glass of wine in the house.

His brother sits with them on the couch while his parents sit adjacent to them on the loveseat. “So, how did you meet Mason?” Mrs. McTavish asks.

“His friends introduced us earlier this year at the end of the season,” she tells them. “We became friends then a few months ago when he came back to Anaheim for this season, he asked me to be his girlfriend and the rest is history.”

“So you’re from Anaheim then?” Mason’s dad questions.

She sips her wine and nods in response until she swallows the sip. “Born and raised,” she tells them. “I’ve lived there all 21 years I’ve been alive. Went to school at UCLA too. I’ve lived in California my whole life.”

His parents get into how Mason was born in Switzerland and how they moved back to Canada when he was eight. She pretends to listen because she heard all of this from Mason himself when they started talking in May. Mason even chimes in a couple of times.

Dinner is ready soon after, followed by dessert. (Y/N) tells them about her life and what she does for work at the moment. She tells them about her future plans to go into education one day and teach at a middle school or high school.

They seem very impressed.

“Glad to see you found a girl who knows what she wants, Mason,” his mother says to him. “Goals are a great thing to have. I hope you can go into education, (Y/N).”

She smiles and looks up at Mason.

Maybe she’s convinced now that his parents like her.

Her nerves got the best of her, and a past of dating multiple guys whose parents didn’t like her. She’s glad that Mason’s parents actually like her though. She sees Mason in her life until she dies.

She isn’t like the other girls Mason’s brought home, but that doesn’t mean that his parents wouldn’t like her. They absolutely do.

“Thank you both for coming,” Mr. McTavish says while (Y/N) and Mason gather their things to head back to his apartment a few miles away. “(Y/N), you’re welcome here any time.”

“Thank you for having me, Mr. and Mrs. McTavish,” she replies.

His mother pulls her into a hug. “That’s Dale and Christine to you,” she tells (Y/N) with a laugh. “Maybe we‘ll come see you and Mason down in Anaheim one day.”

“We’d really like that,” Mason says. “Maybe we’ll come by in the morning before we head back to California.”

“Of course,” Dale says. “See you both soon.”

They head back to Mason’s car and (Y/N) is giddy with happiness. Mason notices because he asks, “Good visit?”

She looks at him and wraps her arms around his shoulders. She might be slightly tipsy from the wine she has consumed over the last few hours. “Best visit,” she replies. “I love your family.”

“They love you too,” he tells her. “My mom was so happy to talk to you. My dad was so interested in how you became a hockey fan. They adore you, (Y/N). Just like I said they would.”

“Can we come home for Christmas every year?” she asks as she gets into the car. “I mean, your home. Canada.”

Mason smiles and says, “We can come home for Christmas every year.”

Home. Canada might be her second home at this point. She better get used to the snow and cold wind.

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[genericartist27]

Hazbin Hotel Rewrite Outline

Ok, I think it's I actually do something about the multi paged document in my Google Drive: I think its time to show you a (very early draft) of how I would rewrite Hazbin Hotel of I was given only the confirmation of four seasons with five and six up in the air. Again this is a very early draft of this and a lot has changed in the full on Six season rewrite, and there's some details missing since I was saving that for the character descriptions, but since that's taking me so long I may as well just post the outline I have in my Google Doc, since having it out there might help my motivation to get the characters done. So hope you enjoy this very rough outline!

NOTE: I just wanted to put this here before everything starts: VALENTINO IS NO LONGER A R*PIST, I just feel like making him one just makes it uncomfortable when fans and staff members like him, I'm not saying it's bad to like him as long as you don't like his actions or him as a person. I'm just saying you just feel guilty for liking him when he's done something so Horrid, so I'm removing that and making Angel's abuser a previous friend who he killed years ago. Also Religious critique (more specifically of Christianity) will be present, not much in this exact outline but more in future more refined versions of this project, I'm not Religious however I have heard stories about people's trauma with Christianity, and I thought it would be fun to explore.

Also put feedback/critique in the comments I’d love to hear it!

Anyway, here we go:

Premise:

An angel attempts to redeem a 1940s mafia drag queen and a 1880s inventor to prove redemption is possible to stop the exterminations for good, with the help of a 1910s scientist turned bartender, a 1950s housewife, and a 1950s TV host, maybe they’ll be able to prove the first man and leader of the extermination Adam wrong.

Length:

Part 1 (Season 1 and 2): 16 episodes (8 each)

Part 2 (Season 3 and 4): 16 episodes (8 each)

Part 3 (Season 5 and 6): 16 episodes (8 each) 

Outline: 

Season 1.

The Pilot would be a half-episodic/half-character episode where we follow ‘Sir Pentious’ and his struggle with his Bisexuality and him trying (and failing) to prove how ‘straight’ he is (I know it's cringe but trust me I’d write it better hopefully), shenanigans insure. Afterwards ‘Sir Pentious’ would have a heart to heart with ‘Emily’/‘Angel Dust’ about his trauma of being Bisexual in a time that discriminated against Homosexuality/Bisexuality and ‘Emily’/‘Angel Dust’ would assure him that being LGBTQIA+ doesn’t get you into Hell, and that they’ll help him redeem himself.

‘Emily’ would be in the same position as St Peter was in the original show, welcoming ‘Winners’ into Heaven and discussing their lives. However, she then  learns about the exterminations and makes it her mission to redeem the redeemable Sinners in Hell.

She speaks to and convinces Lucifer to give her a rundown hotel and a meeting with Satan. After some cleaning up, she recruits ‘Angel Dust’ to be redeemed at the Hotel.

‘Emily’ is able to get an interview with ‘Katie Killjoy’ and ‘Tom Trench’, therefore she leaves ‘Angel Dust’ at the Hotel. In the interview she pitches the Hotel, saying that while there are a lot of Sinners/Contractors who don’t deserve Redemption, there are some Sinners/Contractors who don’t deserve Hell’s Suffering, but it is then followed by a broadcast of ‘Angel Dust’ and his mother protecting their territory, interrupted by Arackniss. After the meeting, ‘Vox’ comes to the Hotel to invest and help ‘Emily’ with her mission and hires ‘Baxter’ and ‘Niffty’ to be staff for the Hotel.

We would get introduced to ‘Cherri Bomb’ and her friendship with ‘Angel Dust’, we get a battle scene of them fighting an Inventor called ‘Sir Pentious’. ‘Emily’ then invites him into the Hotel. The rest of the episode would focus on ‘Sir Pentious’ and setting up his character and development.

The next few episodes will be fun episodic adventures that will introduce ‘Val’, ‘Alastor’ and ‘Velvette’, and will also introduce concepts such as ‘Vox’’s and ‘Alastor’’s rivalry, ‘Val’ and ‘Angel’’s dynamic (because ‘Val’ is no longer a R*pist), ‘Cherri Bomb’’s guilt with not being able to do anything to stop ‘Angel’’s abuser, ‘Velvette’’s spellbook, Respawning, Angelic weapons, Reincarnation, Hellish Curses/Punishments, and probably more. Also tackles bigotry and how it negatively affects people (Lol no this would be in a hypothetical pilot).

It’s revealed that ‘Vox’’s curse is that he has amnesia about his life on earth. When ‘Emily’ asks how they are going to redeem him, ‘Vox’ says that he’s not here to be redeemed, only to invest. Afterwards, ‘Baxter’ has a conversation with ‘Vox’ about the fact that ‘Vox’ didn’t tell ‘Baxter’ about his (‘Vox’) amnesia despite him being the one that people tell their secrets to. ‘Vox’ just tells him that he doesn’t own his secrets, making ‘Baxter’ cower a bit and rethink.

Season 1 would end with ‘Emily’ meeting Satan in Purgatory, and she asks what got the Hotel Patrons into Hell (since only Satan knows what gets someone into Heaven or Hell). Satan explains that ‘Sir Pentious’ was filled with Envy for others around him and destroyed the lives of the rich inventors in the name of helping poor inventors, ‘Angel Dust’ was in the Mafia and he sold his soul to the OG Asmodeus, ‘Baxter’ killed people with his experiments, ‘Vox’ went to Hell because of his deadly and abnormal Obsession with the people around him, and Satan reveals that he actually sent ‘Niffty’ to Heaven. With this information, ‘Emily’ theories that if a Sinner is able to confront and repent their sins, they will be able to go into Heaven.

Season 2.

This Season would focus on ‘Angel Dust’ and ‘Sir Pentious’ and the start of their development, also it would set up everyone’s problems and development.

Explores ‘Angel’’s mafia background, life, and the fact that he sold his soul to the OG Asmodeus so he wouldn’t get cursed in Hell.

Angel’s trauma relating to the abuser he killed 5 years ago, and the fact that ‘Val’ neglected his responsibilities as the ‘Overlord’ of Lust. Something ‘Val’ is trying to improve on.

‘Sir Pentious’ is revealed to be a ‘WereSerpent’ which is why he wasn’t at the Hotel most nights. However, ‘Baxter’ reveals that it’s actually his true demon form and concludes that his Hellish Curse is that he can’t control his true demon form, and it could take him over completely if he’s not careful, like his envy. It’s implied that his extreme growth in his envy and true demon form’s uncontrollability might be connected to his rivalry with ‘Cherri Bomb’.

‘Baxter’ reveals that he used to be a ‘mad’ scientist who experimented and tortured people, who quit being a scientist to bartender in Hell since he felt guilty about what he did on earth, also it would be revealed that he’s a trans male and died by drowning on the Titanic (because it’s a neet Baxter theory).

We would get to see ‘Niffty’’s backstory. Her being a depressed housewife, being sexualised by her husband, and her accidentally killing her husband in self defence, and being shot in the head by the Police. 

‘Cherri Bomb’ comes to the Hotel to take ‘Angel Dust’ and the others (except for ‘Sir Pentious’) for a night out after a stressful time with his family. ‘Emily’, God and Adam meet together in Heaven to discuss the progress. ‘Emily’ says that the Hotel residents are doing great, only for Heaven to eavesdrop on the residents and get shown a fight between ‘Sir Pentious’’ true demon form and the rest of the gang, since ‘Cherri Bomb’ convinced ‘Angel Dust’ that they could take on the ‘Rouge Demon’ (since ‘Sir Pentious’ Curse makes it so no one can recognise him until they either see him transform into the demon form or see him transform out of the demon form). After the battle, Adam and ‘Emily’ get into an argument about if there’s a difference between ‘redeemable’ and ‘irredeemable’ sinners, with Adam trying to justify his actions in the exterminations, ‘Emily’ will also bring up how the people she’s trying to help were people who were marginalised people in life, how they wouldn’t have committed the Sins they did if society wasn’t so discriminatory (though that would justify their actions it just explains them), and how people on Earth have been doing horrible things in their name. God brings the meeting to a close, being distressed by the conversation (he would be an omnibenevolent God who hates how people use his name to do terrible things like Bigotry), and tells ‘Emily’ if she’s able to redeem a Sinner by the next extermination, he’ll order Adam to end the exterminations for good. 

After the meeting, everyone (including ‘Sir Pentious’, ‘Emily’ and ‘Cherri Bomb’) is walking back to the hotel. ‘Sir Pentious’ tries to apologise and wishes he could control and stop his true demon form, but ‘Niffty’ blows up at him and calls out the fact he’s done nothing about his problems and has done nothing to improve himself at the Hotel. ‘Angel Dust’ tries to defend him from ‘Niffty’, but she ends up calling him out for also not improving much at the Hotel and doing nothing about his own familial problems, and the fact he could have left the Mafia like his sister but he didn’t and just wallowed in his troubles (that doesn’t count his trauma from his abuser since that wasn’t his fault and it would be f*cked up to make him ‘get over it’ instead of letting him heal naturally from it). ‘Niffty’ then says to them that if they actually care about improving and redeeming themselves, they should start actually doing it. ‘Niffty’ finally says to ‘Cherri Bomb’ if she actually cares about ‘Angel Dust’, she would actually help him improve instead of roping him into situations that nearly get him killed. ‘Emily’ confronts ‘Niffty’ about it and tells her that you can’t just tell people to start changing, you have to understand why they haven’t changed and why they have and wallow in their problems.

The next episode would open with ‘Sir Pentious’ and ‘Angel Dust’ in the Sloth Library looking for books. ‘Angel Dust’ laments about how ‘Niffty’ was right about them not actually improving themselves and not confronting their problems. ‘Sir Pentious’ questions if he could actually change himself and worries about the fact it might be too late for him to change since his true demon form has taken over his life so much, and questions if he should just give up. ‘Angel Dust’ refutes him by saying he’s not too far gone yet, and he still has time, and encourages him to continue, which ‘Sir Pentious’ agrees to. Meanwhile, ‘Velvette’ is able to make a potion that is able to get rid of a Hellish Curse that can only be made every 100 years. However, instead of using it on himself, ‘Alastor’ plans to use it on ‘Vox’ because his morbid curiosity about ‘Vox’’s past life has turned him insane. He succeeds and the episode would end with the TV’s in Hell turning as they begin to display his past life.

Season 2 would end by showing ‘Vox’’s past life, his traumatic childhood in a cult, his job as a TV host’s assistant with his superior stealing credit from him, him being quite obsessive with the people around, and ‘Vox’ being killed by a falling TV falling on his head in front of a crowd, hence the amnesia. At first ‘Alastor’ is thrilled to finally have the answers about his rival’s past life, however, seeing ‘Vox’’s distraught face, he starts to regret it, but before ‘Alastor’ can apologise ‘Vox’ disappears. The Season would end with a news broadcast that the extermination will be happening in 3 months. Which leaves everyone shocked.

Season 3 and 4.

‘Angel Dust’ and ‘Sir Pentious’’ development would speed up quite a bit.

‘Angel Dust’ confronts his past with the mafia and his crime family. We will be shown flashbacks of his life and a scene where ‘Molly’ leaves the crime family in life due to wanting to live an honest life. ‘Angel Dust’ would resolve these issues in the Season 4 Finale.

‘Sir Pentious’ confronts his envy for ‘Cherri Bomb’’s power, and tries to control his true demon form. This would complete itself in the Season 4 Finale. 

‘Cherri Bomb’ shares her backstory of being in a traditional household, running from home when they found out she was a Lesbian, becoming a punk rebel arsonist, selling her soul to the OG Moloch, and blowing herself up with fireworks, killing her. She would also be able to let go of her guilt of not being able to stop 'Angel Dust''s abuser.

We would see throughout Season 3 and 4 ‘Vox’ having nightmares and suffering an identity crisis with ‘being a fraud’ and not even knowing it. ‘Baxter’ and ‘Emily’ would comfort him about it and he would be able to be in a Season 4 Finale.

In the Finale of Season 3, ‘Val’ would get stuck in ‘Angel’’s mind. He then witnesses ‘Angel’’s abuser metaphorically Assaulting him. This would completely warp ‘Val’’s perspective on the situation.

Also in the Season 3 Finale, ‘Velvette’ finally out how to make Angelic steel that could permanently kill an angel with ‘Niffty’’s blood, and the recipe to make it, and it’s revealed that ‘Niffty’ is an ex-angel-executioner.

We get to see ‘Val’’s backstory of being emotionally neglected, selling his soul to the OG Asmodeus so he can be as Pan as he wants and do as many drugs as he wants, and how he dies of a drug overdose. He apologises to ‘Angel’ for not understanding and not being there sooner, and rips up ‘Angel’’s contract afterwards. (Note here: I'd try and make 'Val' a commentary on the Cycle of Abuse, but I toned it down into just neglect/neglecting of responsibilities).

‘Baxter’ would go through a small arc where he realises that he doesn’t own anyone’s secrets and people want to keep some secrets to themselves. (maybe this will be scrapped IDK).

‘Velvette’ reveals her discovery of angelic steel that can permanently kill an Angel. She also reveals that ‘Niffty’ was an exorcist Angel.

We finds out that ‘Niffty’ became a fallen Angel when she questioned Adam’s view on sinners and actions and Adam sent her down to Hell by accident. At first ‘Emily’ would be mad at the fact she didn’t tell her, but would forgive her quickly. (this may be out of character for ‘Emily’ so this also might be scrapped).

At the end of Season 4, the cast would defend Hell from the extermination and Adam would lose and be forced to retreat. After the battle, ‘Sir Pentious’ and ‘Angel Dust’ would be redeemed and allowed into Heaven, proving that redemption is possible to ‘Emily’ and Heaven.

Season 5 and 6.

These would be clean up seasons, it would complete ‘Baxter’ and ‘Vox’’s character arcs. Show ‘Sir Pentious’ and ‘Angel Dust’ afterlives in Heaven, and Adam’s redemption arc. Also, it would complete ‘SirDust’ as a relationship (because yes it would’ve been trying to happen I was just focused on other things and Yes I ship ‘SirDust’ it’s better than ‘HuskerDust’ because both ‘Sir Pentious’ and ‘Angel Dust’ would have masks to hide their true selves and traumas and they could help each other with that).

‘Emily’ would help ‘Baxter’ confront his past as a ‘mad’ scientist.

‘Vox’ would learn to let go of his feelings for ‘Alastor’ and move on.

Adam would reassess his views on sinners and we’d see his backstory of being let into Heaven and redeeming himself, as a result feeling guilt and regret for how behaved on Earth. Also he would see his two sons kill each other in an extermination. As a result he gained a hatred for Sinners and would always try to justify his actions against Sinners.

Season 5 would end with seeing ‘Sir Pentious’ and ‘Angel Dust’’s afterlives in Heaven, and would end with them confessing their feelings to each other and finally kissing.

Season 6 will end with ‘Alastor’ going insane and the gang has to fight him. ‘Alastor’ and ‘Vox’ reconcile with each other and ‘Baxter’ finally overcomes his past, and they’re able to redeem themselves and go to Heaven. Afterwards, Adam apologises to ‘Emily’ and has learned some Sinners can be redeemed, ‘Emily’ forgives him, they hug. THE END.

The Outline is Finally out! Again, there's a lot of things missing or different now. In the current Six Seasons version I completely changed Sir Pentious' curse, I'll be making Niffty a Sinner again and give the Angel reveal to someone else since I realised none of the Women get redeemed which I didn't intend it just happened and I want to fix it, I might make Cherri Bomb and Patron and make Vox the more distant one (since in my brain storming Cherri Bomb is a lot more fun to write than Vox), I will swap Adam with Eve, since she could open up a lot of interesting story potential since she was the one who gave humanity free will and went through pain to keep the human race going, so it could make an interesting dynamic, and also might be giving Angel's trauma to Val since Angel's could focus on the mafia thing and maybe learning to truly understand people, there wouldn't be a fear of victim blaming Angel for something that wasn't his fault, and I wouldn't feel bad for sexualising Angel since he wouldn't be a abuse survivor anymore.

Edit: there would also be a lot more scenes of the characters lives on earth and explaining why they got into Hell, I just didn’t put a lot them in this outline.

There's probably more but I'll put edits in if it comes to mind, but I need to go to bed now. Hope you enjoy this while I get the character descriptions/rambles done.

[sterekbros]

the wolf and the renaissance fair (1596 words) by Winchesterek Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski Characters: Derek Hale, Stiles Stilinski, Original Children of Derek Hale and Stiles Stilinski, Eli Hale (Teen Wolf) Additional Tags: Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski are Eli Hale's Parents, Mates Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Omegaverse Omega Stiles Stilinski, True Alpha Derek Hale, Pack Alpha Derek Hale, Good Pack Alpha Derek Hale, Omegaverse Alpha Derek Hale, Established Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski, Derek Hale Deserves Nice Things, Derek Hale is a Softie, Married Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski, Derek Hale Loves Stiles Stilinski, POV Stiles Stilinski, Stiles Stilinski is a Nice Thing, Slice of Life, Kid Fic, Fluff, Family Fluff, Parents Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski, Family Feels, Renaissance Faires, Carnival, Games For @sterekweekly hilarious, @sterekfests road trip, @warmandfluffybingocards won you a carnival prize, @sterekbingo country fair.

Stiles turned around to look into the back seat where Eli was reading a book and Ava was, thankfully, sleeping. He smiled at his little family, his heart filled with overwhelming love. Sometimes it hit him during quiet moments like this, which rarely happened when they were driving. But it was nice, especially since they’d been on the road for a little while and that was like an eternity for his kids.

He reached out to take Derek’s hand, threading their fingers together. “I love you,” he told him quietly and Derek cast him one of those smiles reserved only for Stiles. 

“I love you too,” Derek replied softly and gave Stiles’ hand a squeeze. “We should be there soon. I hope the kids enjoy it. It was always fun when my parents used to take us as kids.”

“I don't think I’ve ever been to a Renaissance fair.” Stiles had checked out the place online and it looked like people really went all out for it. It was seasonal and they had shows and games with prizes and a market that Stiles really wanted to check out if they had enough time. Not only did they have themed shops but the farmers market looked great in the photograph he’d seen on Instagram.

“Maybe if we come next season we can dress up? Elijah will be a little older and Ava would probably be able to fit into a small costume.”

“Only if you dress up too,” Stiles teased. “Tights and all.” Derek laughed. “I’m not going to wear tights. I’ll be a knight and wear britches and armor.” 

“Well hopefully it’s not during the summertime then because you might just boil up in all that armor,” Stiles teased and laughed, imagining Derek dressed up. He couldn’t say that he wouldn’t think Derek was all hot dressed like a knight. It had Stiles thinking about Derek sweeping him off his feet and straight into their bed.

“Yeah, let’s not do that. Hopefully they’ll have one in the fall or closer to the winter time. Wouldn’t want to have a heat stroke dressed up as a knight. I don't know how some of them do it.” Derek laughed and squeezed Sties’ hand. “Thank you for coming and bringing the kids. I know it’s something new.”

“Well, I like doing new things with you. We’ve been together so long, it’s good that we can still find things to do that we’ve never done before. Life’s an adventure.” Stiles’ head rested back against the headrest, rolled in Derek’s direction as he watched his mate, a warmth filling his chest. 

Sometimes it was hard to believe that they were together after everything they’d been through, but Stiles loved Derek more than anything. Well, except their kids. No matter how much they got on his nerves sometimes. It was just part of being a parent.

“I know Ava is only a few months old… but whenever my heat comes again, I want to try for another baby.” He knew it was a sudden change of topic, but he needed Derek to know.

Derek took a deep breath and nodded. “Okay… you know I won't say no to another baby. We waited years between Elijah and Ava, but if you are ready now, then we can try again.”

“It might not even happen right away… You know sometimes it can take a while after I give birth, but I just wanted to talk to you about it before it happened.” Stiles didn't think Derek would tell him no, so he wasn't sure why he was suddenly nervous over the whole thing.

As if sensing his feelings, Derek gave Stiles’ hand another squeeze. “Stiles. I love you. I love our family. Another child, it would only fill our house with more love…”

That calmed Stiles’ nerves and he smiled at Derek before glancing into the backseat. Ava was still asleep (and still human, thankfully) and Elijah was still engrossed in his book, oblivious to their conversation.

“Thank you,” Stiles said as his gaze returned to Derek’s. 

“I should be thanking you for everything you’ve given me.”

“We’ve given each other a lot of things… there’s no keeping score,” Stiles assured him and leaned over to kiss him on the cheek.

They fell into a comfortable silence as Derek drove them the rest of the way to the Renaissance fair.

Once they were there, Stiles took care of Ava, changed her, and had her ready for the fair in no time while Derek got Elijah situated. They carted the kids off to buy tickets and get them through the gates as they thankfully beat the crowds.

The atmosphere changed the second they were inside, where there were tents, tables, stables, and signs that stated they had wares. They walked by a shop that said they made handmade books and Stiles was intrigued. They’d have to stop by on their way out to see what they had inside. 

He rubbed Ava’s back as he carried her in her wrap against his chest, Derek walking next to him with Elijah on his shoulders. Elijah’s eyes were big and he was excited about everything babbling and pointing and giggling. Thankfully Derek had a strong grip on him, so Stiles wasn't afraid that Elijah would topple off of Derek’s shoulders the second he saw something else he was excited about.

They watched a jousting tournament and the knights as they fought during the sword fights. The knights were given their prizes and they were off to check the market. Stiles was especially excited to see what they had at the farmers market, despite all the cool things they also had for sale there.

After buying a basket full of strawberries, they headed in the direction that stated they had more traditional fair games on the map.

“So which one do you want to play?” Derek asked Elijah as he jiggled him on his shoulders. Elijah looked thoughtful at all of the games. 

“Hmmm,” Elijah said, putting his finger up to his face and studying each game more thoroughly as if he knew what each one was.

Stiles knew that he was really checking out the prizes.

“That one!” Elijah shouted and pointed. “It has a big wolf!”

Stiles laughed. He knew their son. It was all about the prizes for him. Stiles couldn’t deny that he liked the prizes too. He remembered the first time Derek took him to a fair, early in their courting. They’d gone home with several prizes that night, but the best prize was Derek. He knew it was cheesy, but Stiles loved him so damn much.

“Whoa! That’s a huge wolf!” Stiles exaggerated and smiled when Derek looked over at him.

“That one looks good, bud. Did you want me to play all the rounds or did you want to try?” Derek asked as he tapped Elijah on the thigh.

Elijah looked thoughtful again like this was serious business. Finally, he said excitedly, “I want you to do it! So you can get me the big wolf!”

Stiles laughed, smoothing his hand along Ava’s back as she stirred in her baby wrap. “Well, then let’s go win us a giant stuffed wolf. I’m not sure where we’re going to put it at home, but we’ll figure it out.”

“It will go in my room!” Elijah countered like it was law.

“Of course it will,” Derek chuckled, glancing over at Stiles and then motioning with his head as they started over to the game tent.

When they got there, they paid the attendant and they gave Derek three balls to throw at a stack of bottles. Derek missed the first two with greatly exaggerated terrible accuracy, which had Elijah laughing next to him as he waited. Stiles thought it was adorable and yes, he made sure he was recording it on his phone so he could tease Derek about it later. 

He was such a great dad. An amazing mate.

When Derek threw the last ball, he knocked all of the jars down and Elijah screamed in excitement. Stiles chuckled and watched as Derek picked Elijah up and put him on his shoulders. They talked to the attendant and Elijah pointed eagerly at the giant stuffed wolf. When it was handed over, Elijah had a hard time holding onto it so it smacked Derek in the face, but he didn't complain. Stiles managed not to laugh despite how hilarious the whole situation was, with the stuffed wolf dwarfing them.

Derek helped Elijah hold onto the wolf off to the side of his shoulder instead of in front. “Hold on tight, Elijah! You don't want to drop him.”

“I won't!” Elijah promised, but Stiles wasn't so sure about that as the stuffed wolf swung as Derek walked with Elijah still on his shoulders.

“Ready to go home?” Derek asked, stopping in front of Stiles.

The stuffed wolf bumped into Stiles as Elijah moved on Derek’s shoulder and he laughed softly. “I love you,” he said softly, leaning in to give Derek a kiss. “Yeah, let’s go home. We have to find somewhere for that stuffed wolf to live anyway.”

Derek chuckled and kissed Stiles’ temple, one arm wrapping around him as they walked, his other holding Elijah steady on his shoulders. 

Stiles couldn't wait for the next time they came to the fair as he leaned against Derek while they walked back to the car. They’d had a perfect family day and Stiles was warm with happiness and the promise of more in their future.

[autumnwhistles]

Introducing Last Life SMP: The Unofficial Musical

“There is an old, old tale to be told

Of green like the spruce, of crimson and gold.”

[Full song list and links under the cut]

NOTE: AUDITIONS ARE OPEN UNTIL NOV 20TH!!!! If you're interested, please check out the #auditions and #info tags for more information.

Those are the first lines sung (...kind of) in a musical adaption of the Last Life SMP I’ve decided to talk myself to write, for... some reason. Please note this is not an actual play and never will be (rights and crediting issues, for one thing, the CCs deserve to take credit for the storyline they’ve made), but I will record, put it together, and upload songs to Youtube in a playlist. Most of the plot is from Last Life itself, and is stated in the songs, so it should be easy enough to follow. There will also be the relevant plot in the description of each song.

My aim is to tell a coherent story through songs (which, because I can’t hold myself back, I’ve planned 45 of...), meaning that I can’t just jump perspectives continuously and chronicle events. This means that some of the CC’s characters are going to have a bigger role than others, though I do want to honour everyone involved, so I’d appreciate any ideas on doing this (especially for Tango and Skizz). However, so far:

It mainly follows Martyn (especially due to his lore, he had the easiest storyline to adapt into a narrative setting, and to me at least was the main character of that season), partially following Scott as the winner as well. They do foil each other quite well this season, which is a bonus – though I am going to be stretching this for the sake of Cohesion^TM.

Important events and important exposition are given to us by the Chorus, keeping the storyline in tact while shifting focuses (Joel going Red, for example). The Chorus are actually Watchers observing the events, which is hinted in the opening song (they sing a lot of references to Martyn’s Last Life teaser, for instance).

This means that Watchers and Listeners are technically canon (especially since we’re following Martyn’s lore), but the names aren’t going to be stated so things can be interpreted differently for people who don’t keep track of/aren’t fans of that. 

Memories of 3rd Life are also canon, as they are in the series.

This follows the headcanon (and out-of-universe truth) that 3rd Life took place in Spring and Last Life in Autumn, so if there are references to that in songs (which they are), that’s why.

Also, though I’ve tried to keep everything as faithful to the events of Last Life as possible (except one confrontation/song that doesn’t happen, to resolve various things), but I do tweak some minor chronological aspects (eg when alliances were established) and omit some things  again for cohesion, and also to help establish information early on.

Progress-wise first song is nearly finished, though I do still need to record it. I have pretty concrete ideas for others, and some I don’t really know yet, but hopefully they’ll be coming out at a steady, if slow, pace. I am somewhat a novice at music production (as in recording and putting tracks together) though, so help with that would be appreciated.

*if you’re not convinced, watch the start of his session 8 until 1:57, he canonically hallucinates his friends and this is due to a sinister entity only he can hear speaking to him and commanding him to follow it even somewhat despite his will, manipulated by promises of bringing back these dead friends. And all this is in his episodes. Main character behaviour, guys. Main character behaviour.

Full song list:

Part 1:

1. Overture/Middle of Nowhere: We’re introduced to the Last Life world by the Chorus as players spawn in. Martyn seems to hear something, but brushes it off.

2. Corners of the World: Through Martyn’s perspective we’re introduced to players and their alliances. He meets Scott and Pearl and chats to them for a while, before heading with them to spawn.

3. “Tales: Record 13″/”The Boogeyman”: At spawn, Grian narrates his experience with BDubs’ Boogeyman curse, and all around the map the players express what they’ve heard about the Boogeyman curse themselves.

4. “A(ha)lliances”: The Southlands ally, making a-ha jokes, and Pearl and Scott solidify their alliance via Pearl gifting Scott a life.

5. “The Table Song 1″: Now some time into the series, the Chorus updates us on the alliances that have formed: the Fairy Fort, Team BEST, Magical Mountain, Scott and Pearl, and the Southlands. It also chronicles the journey of the Enchanting Table, now in Magical Mountain, and the Southlands’ trip to enchant which ends with Scar’s Boogeyman kill.

6. “Our Will Be Done (Precursor 1)”: Martyn hears a mysterious voice speaking to him for the first time, telling him to give Ren some Nether Wart. He does so.

7. “Debts (potentially an instrumental)”: Martyn extinguishes Ren’s burning tower and Ren tells him of his alliance and pledge to Lizzie, reminding him of his time in 3rd Life.

8. “In Spring We Met”: After returning to the Southlands, Martyn thinks about the conflicting loyalties he feels between the Southlands and the remaining ties he feels to Ren, despite it being a new life. As he falls asleep, the voice whispers to him about betraying the Southlands and forming an alliance with Ren to suit its own goals.

9. “Green, Crimson, Gold”: Joel is now Red after an unlucky session, and news of a Red name spreads throughout the server.

10. “The Table Song 2″*: The journey of the Enchanting Table is further chronicled, coming into Scott and Pearl’s possession, who then sell it to Lizzie for a life each, putting Scott up to the same number of lives as Martyn, 4.

11. “Their Dubious Game”: Scott wonders about how trustworthy the rules of the game actually are, prompted by the forced isolation of Red names this time due to their nature contradicting his experiences in 3rd Life with Jimmy, while Martyn, breaching the border with the Southlands, hesitantly wonders the same thing. 

12. “Northern Lament”: Below Magical Mountain, Joel fumes at being distrusted by everyone and isolated purely due to his Red name. Above, Scar muses about being isolated and distrusted for the opposite reason, because of how many lives he has.

13. “A(ha)alliances (Reprise)”: Time passes, and Martyn grows closer to the Southlands. However, he’s still meeting up with Ren who offers to introduce him to Lizzie and the rest of the Fairy Fort, potentially considering a betrayal. The Voice prompts him to accept this, as they can be useful in its plan.

14. “unnamed Wither theme (Instrumental)”: Grian informs the Southlands that Scott and Pearl are in possession of a Wither Skull, expressing his desire to retrieve it. Martyn, Impulse and Mumbo go, Martyn however intending to eventually destroy it because of how unprepared everyone is for a Wither fight.

15. Unnamed Song: After they’re found out by Scott and Impulse and Mumbo flee, Scott informs Martyn that Grian also has a Wither Skull, Martyn immediately gives the skull back, and the two talk about their distrust of Grian and his desire to bring complete chaos to the server. However, that night (post-song) the Voice informs him that its goal is to watch the server burn.

16. “The Table Song 3″: The Chorus further chronicles the Enchanting Table’s journey, now in the Fairy Fort, where two members – Ren and BigB – are chosen as the Boogeyman. Team BEST visits and Bdubs gives a life to Lizzie in exchange, giving enchanting to everyone free of charge. Ren manages to kill a member of Team BEST, Skizz, but BigB has not gotten a kill yet, and the session is nearly over. He catches sight of his closest ally Cleo by the side of Ren’s pit trap.

17. “Green, Crimson, Gold (Reprise)”: Cleo, now Yellow, arrives at Scott and Pearl’s base informing them of BigB’s Boogeyman kill on her, wanting to cut TIES. Scott and Pearl accept (song intro). Meanwhile, Joel is getting desperate for allies, now hunting for Yellows to convert to Red with him. Hearing about Grian’s wither skull, he goes to the Nether, where Grian and Mumbo are building a Ghost farm, and shoots Grian off the edge, turning him Red. BDubs, fighting in the Nether, falls and turns Red too. When heading to Scott and Pearl’s base, a Yellow Cleo is killed by Joel’s trap. 

18. “Friends”: The Southlands are informed of Grian’s death, and, now Red, Grian is to be exiled from the Southlands. He desperately tries to kill Mumbo as Impulse and Jimmy arrive, asking if they can still be friends, while Scott and Pearl mourn the loss of a friendship with Cleo, and Martyn is introduced to the rest of the Shadow Alliance under the gaze of the Moon, giving Ren a life.

Part 2:

1. “Walls”: Grian has been exiled from the Southlands, the stone wall he built separating them. In the Snow Fort, Etho and BDubs build a wall to keep them separate until he can gain a life again. Cleo, wanting vengeance on BigB, meets Scott on the other side of his wall, Scott giving her some sugarcane. Post-song, Grian, Joel and Cleo express their desire to gain lives back from Scar. 

2. “Their Will”: Martyn relays the aims of the Voice, which he now interprets as the Moon, to the rest of the Shadow Alliance, who agree with it.

3. “Die For Me”: In a Shadow Alliance meeting, Martyn asks if there’s anything recent he should know about the Fairy Fort. They tell him the Fairy Fort has burned down at the hands of Cleo, relaying the tale as a flashback (with mainly Cleo singing). 

4. “Promises”/“Coal Mine”: Martyn chases Jimmy, who’s stolen his life in the Southlands life-passing ritual, spurred on by the Voice. He lies to Jimmy, telling him they can run away from the Southlands together if he gives him back his life. Jimmy expresses his worry about potentially being the first out again in the process, as this has happened before and he is very vulnerable as a Yellow, and agrees. Martyn runs back with his life straight after.

5. “The Table Song 4”: Since there are only three of them now, the three remaining Southlanders spend the day together, including sneaking around Team BEST’s snow fort looking for the Enchanting Table and finding a secret entrance. They are caught but let go due to some lies of Martyn’s about their aim, telling them he was simply looking for Ender Pearls.

6. “Unnamed Wither Theme (Song: Precursor)”: During the day, the Southlanders meet Scott, Martyn bringing up the danger of Grian’s Wither Skull as he’s now Red, and they decide to look for it. As Martyn is called away to a Shadow Alliance Meeting, Impulse manages to find it, and entrusts it to Scott. Scott gives it to the Fairy Fort for safekeeping.

7. Unnamed Song: Cleo, now Yellow again, visits Scott and officially joins their alliance. Scott expresses his desire to simply protect his allies and simply live a quiet life in these games, though violence is necessary as a means to this end as he knows the chaos that will ensue.

8. “Tales: The Wizard On The Mountain”: a Yellow Grian rejoins the Southlands, telling them (especially Martyn, as he did not know when this happened due to his absences) how he got a life back from Scar, who’s now Yellow himself. (And yes Grian gets songs where he’s relaying events to others instead of ones of them happening to him because he’s a Watcher hehe, he’s not involved in the action songs he watches)

9. “The Trial of Timmy”: The Southlands hold a trial for Jimmy about whether he should be exiled or stay in. They will anonymously vote their verdict in a book, Grian campaigning for Jimmy to leave, while the others, minus Martyn, campaign for him to stay. When it is time for them to vote, Martyn votes him in.

10. “Our Will Be Done (Precursor 2)”: The Voice is angry at Martyn, asking him why he’s still attached to the Southlands when he wishes to join the Shadow, appearing to him and telling him a demonstration is in order... “Lights extinguish/Begin the Slaughter/Our Will Be Done!”

11. “Unnamed Wither Theme (Instrumental 2)”: Grian manages to gather the three Wither Skulls he needs with the help of Impulse, who wants to stay loyal to his allies and feels regret for taking it with Scott. Martyn, though not active, does not try to stop him, and distracts Team BEST while the other two take it. 

12. “Red, Crimson, Gold (Reprise 2)”: As Grian is distracted by this aim, the other members of the South fall to boogeymen, of which there are six of this session, due to the Voice’s promise. Impulse falls to Yellow at Scott’s hands, and Mumbo and Jimmy both become Red, along with many other players on the server, including Lizzie and once more, Joel.

13. “Friends (Reprise)”: Returning to the Southlands after their mission, Grian, Martyn and Impulse find the South blown up by Mumbo: mourning the loss of the alliance, they mournfully burn the walls in commemoration. Grian and Martyn muse on each other’s untrustworthiness, Impulse remaining loyal to both, as the allyship between Scott, Pearl and Cleo strengthens. Far away, Etho, with Bdubs once again on the other side of the wall, discovers the missing Wither Skull, suspecting the Southlands.

14. Unnamed Song: Martyn and Grian, now the last two Southland members after Impulse is shot by Mumbo in the Nether and becomes Red, mentally comment about their distrust of the other person and about there being something off about them, Martyn due to the Voice’s seeming hatred of Grian and Grian’s apparent apathy to everything apart from causing bloodshed, Grian because he senses something around Martyn (Watcher powers heh) and his relative absence from the Southlands when they were still around, though he does express a wish to protect their last remaining threads of alliance. They express none of this aloud. 

15. “When Will You Learn?, Parts 1 and 2”: Heading back to the Southlands, Grian and Martyn meet Jimmy and Mumbo, who attack them. Grian kills them both, to Martyn’s shock, and shocked himself, tries to defend these actions. All of a sudden, the Voice appears again and a Boogeyman curse strikes Martyn. Prompted by the Voice (seeming to have a specific hatred of Grian) and by vengeance for Mumbo and Jimmy, Martyn immediately moves to kill Grian. He succeeds, but the kill is attributed to Joel, who has sniped him. Exhausted, Martyn managed to kill Tango. When called to another Shadow meeting, he returns to his empty Southlands tower instead.

16. “Unnamed Wither Song (Proper)”: The Wither is raised by Grian and Impulse in Team BEST’s base. Etho wants to run, but Bdubs attacks it, giving him the courage to attack too – however, Bdubs loses a life to it, turning Red once more. The remaining Greens and Yellows flock to fight it as the Reds join in, trying to kill the other players. The Wither is defeated by Etho; Impulse falls to Scott’s hand, dying permanently; Bdubs takes Lizzie’s final life as he was promised a life in exchange for killing a Red; he is shot by Grian as he runs to Etho to inform him of this.

17. Unnamed Song: In the aftermath, Etho mourns BDubs’ death, while Ren mourns his failure to protect his Shadow Queen, even if she was Red.

18. Unnamed Song (and the only one not following ‘canon’ events): With Impulse’s death as a catalyst, Martyn seeks out a Red Grian, proposing a temporary truce for him to explain what's going on. They confront each other about their various actions against the Southlands, and their apparent detachment from it, and talk about their suspicions that the other person knows more than they seem about the nature of the games – as the Voice tries to stop Martyn from inquiring further. Grian says he experiences this alongside his friends as a decision when prompted by Martyn stating he never cared in the first place. He wonders if Martyn would understand the situation due to his position; however, he does not know what Grian is talking about and distrusts him. Angry, Grian leaves, calling Martyn nothing but a follower. Angry, the voices swell around Martyn and he falls asleep.

19. “Our Will Be Done”: Waking up all alone, Martyn hallucinates his friends, before they are revealed as fake, the Voice in their places. He snaps at it, finally asking why they’re doing this. Why are they speaking to him? Why are they hell-bent on killing Grian? What did he mean? Why does he have to follow it when he wants to do the opposite of what they tell him? Who are they – why should he do anything they say? However, they pacify him, promising that if he does what they say, they will bring Impulse, Mumbo and Jimmy back. Martyn concedes.

20. “Scott’s Elegy”: Scott, cursed as the Boogeyman once more makes a decision to surrender himself to the curse instead, as he doesn’t want to kill any more allies with so few lives left in the game.

21. Unnamed Sad Martyn Song: Martyn thinks on Scott’s decision, thinking about what he’d once wanted, everything that’s now impossible as he’s pushed around by the Voices with not enough willpower to say no: he wishes to make choices but cannot, and thinks about Grian’s words. 

22. “Our Will Be Done (Reprise)”: In a meeting of the Greens and Yellows, the Voice tells Martyn to place an End Crystal in the centre as a test for Scott: if he blows it up, he passes, if he doesn’t, he fails. Scott chooses not to, and as Scott turns Red, the voices talking to Martyn become loud and angry, commanding him to kill Scott for disobeying them, yet again promising him the Southlands back if he does. While walking around, Martyn loses his first life to a trap at Grian’s hands.

23. “Boogie Boogie On The Dance Floor”: The Chorus informs us that it is the last day. Pearl is chosen as the Boogeyman, rigging a TNT trap on a disco floor, turning Ren’s red. The others quickly fall to the Reds, including Cleo.

24. “Martyn’s Stand”: Now left as the last Yellow, Martyn decides he is tired of hiding, deciding make a last stand against everyone. At first humming the start of “In Spring We Met” as a comfort, he heads to a mountain and pouring lava down the sides as a beacon for the Reds. However, though he puts up a good fight, he doesn’t manage to take any of them down before dying himself, marking the server entirely Red. 

25. “Battle Royale”: With the Reds having turned on each other, the four survivors – Pearl, Scott, Ren and Martyn – agree to a Battle Royale to decide the victor. Pearl dies early on, prompting Scott to grieve and resolve to win this fight, no matter what it takes. Martyn eventually falls to his own End Crystal. Only Scott and Ren are left, and they fight to the voices of dead players telling them to play the game. After a long fight, Scott manages to kill Ren, partially due to a zombie which he interprets as the world maybe doing something after all for his defiance. He is crowned the winner. However, the Voice does not like this, the Chorus supporting this, and Scott is stricken dead with heavenly lightning.

26. “Plainly Spoken [Epilogue]”: All is silence, and yet Martyn opens his eyes once more, to the Voice and the Chorus, now joined as they are the same entity, informing him how disappointed they are in him, and that he is heading closer and closer to the light. As he asks questions, he is cut off, and they say he will forget all that has happened with them as he and everyone else moves into the next game. Up above, the land is now in the state it was at the start of “Middle of Nowhere”, and they are revealed to be those that run the death loop. 

*This may be later excluded due to not adding much at the moment.

[withonly-sweetheart]

threads of carmine red - leon ending...

a/n: so this is the horny side of me coming out three minutes after hating myself so YEAH! haha enjoy nsfw/suggestive warning

@clitorphosis <- eva this one goes out to you. thank you fam for being there, also idk why im taggin you it just reminded me of you <3

wc: 687

Leon. His hand is strong, firm and solid, as he lugs you up, tossing a smug smirk to his partner before returning his gaze to you with what seems like a grimace. His lips only purse at your barrage of questions, unwilling to answer.

He leads you through a maze of hallways, tunnels built to twist your mind and drive you mad, you’re sure. You can’t remember when you started walking, and he won’t tell you when you’ll stop.

His grim expression only twists even darker as he opens a door. Nice, you think drily, at least I’ll get some fresh air before I die.

“I didn’t bring you out here to kill you,” he mumbles, shrugging his cloak off. The cold air immediately pricks daggers at your skin, spawning gooseflesh at its icy, ghost-like touch. You accept it gratefully, tugging it around your shoulders and pulling it taut at your waist.

Leon watches you before gesturing for you to follow him, through the snow-ridden land, brown grass poking out in certain areas, waving in hello, hopefully not goodbye. He trudges further on, boots leaving imprints for you to easily step in after him.

You’re about to question his actions for what feels like the three hundred thousandth time when he spins around, flits his eyes side to side just to confirm what you both already know, and pushes you against a tree.

The sudden impact takes your breath away, not in the way that his next movements do. He steps closer, raising a knee to rest in between your thighs, and his eyes are angry but his touch gentle as he presses his lips to yours.

Quick, rushed, a lifetime’s worth of yearning locked between you, all that time waiting conveyed perfectly through his insistence, the way he keeps pulling you back, and at first you blink in confusion, wanting to push this strange man away.

But he’s so goddamn attractive that you seem to lose yourself in his eyes, which are rapt and brightly glowing, two magnets from the corners of the Earth with the strangest waves of force, attraction clashing between your lips over and over again.

Leon’s knee doesn’t stop moving either, and only when he pulls away for just a split second does the first moan spill past your lips, following strings of profanities as his lips rest on your neck, pecking the area softly, simply lapping.

You wonder why he won’t bite, dumbly. 

As if hearing your thoughts, which might’ve been what happened, his fangs pierce the sensitive skin of your shoulder. The pain layers itself with pleasure, insurmountable against the soft fingers of his that tug the shirt off your shoulder, exposing more of you to the bare winter air.

“Been thinking about you ever since I set my eyes on you,” he huffs against your skin, only stopping to lick long, broad stripes up your skin, sending ripples of shudders through your body. His tongue swirls until the blood stops flowing, and he pulls away.

Leon reaches out and curls a hand on your chin, cradling your cheek fondly. “I shouldn’t have done that.”

“Wait-”

“You need to leave,” he says, more urgently. “They’ll come looking for you. There is no game. I…” Leon looks away, bashful, flushing a light tint of pink, and you get the feeling it's not from the seasonal change in temperature. 

“You…?” you prompt.

“I might’ve taken a liking to you. No matter. You must leave,” he echoes, clasping your hands in his, entwining your fingers with his. “It’s for your own safety.”

“Will I see you again?” you ask hopefully, and yet his response comes in a weary sigh and a grim expression, accompanied with a subtle shake of his head.

“I should hope not.” Leon offers a small smile.

And in what you can see before he turns around and stalks back the way you both came, you catch his teeth, scanning for his canines, wanting to see their points. But that is not what you see. You see liquid ruby aligned in curved lines along his teeth.

Threads of carmine red.