#andy oliver imagine

[holding-on-to-smoke]

Zesty Andy is my favorite Andy.

[positivexcellence]

@U24_gov_ua: Robert De Niro, Viggo Mortensen, Catherine Deneuve, Imagine Dragons, Bono, Hilary Swank, Emma Thompson, Stephen Fry — over 30 celebrities and U24 ambassadors have addressed Ukrainians with words of support. Thank you to everyone who has been with🇺🇦during these 2 years. #StandWithUkraine

[laz-kay]

I’ve just realised that each of the Pesto kids have shortened names, so you’ve actually got James, Andrew and Oliver. And Pesto isn’t even their real surname! So it’s really James Poplopovich Jr, Andrew Poplopovich and Oliver Poplopovich. That’s on their birth certificates. The Pop kids🥹

[arcanewonder]

a soft epilogue

[its-just-hyper]

@th3ratk1ng

Two lovers have reincarnated throughout history, destined to find each other and fall in love all over again. There’s also this third guy that reincarnates alongside them… we don’t really know what he does.

[gogandmagog]

Thinking of the repeating themes in Walter Blythe’s life, as I sit here skimming the beginning of Anne of Ingleside, and pretty much how Walter’s long walk from the Parkers to Ingleside rather effectively discloses his entire arc, fully until his WWI journey end.

When Walter is at Lowbridge, staying with the Parkers, he is quite harrowingly teased by all the other kids (save Alice), and despite obviously not liking it, flatly fails to stick up for himself. However, when a little tussle breaks out between Billy and Andy, and Alice is crying, he throws himself in between the two fighting boys, and demands that they stop. For Alice. Billy and Andy are both surprised by this, and admit to Walter’s “spunk”. This is super reminiscent to Walter’s later actual fight with Dan Reese (and all it implies) in Rainbow Valley. He’s bullied still, and doesn’t stick up for himself at school… not until Dan says something about his mother and Faith.

As the next chapter of Ingleside progresses, Walter, thinking Anne (his mother, where then contemporary Canadians would call England their ‘mother’) dire and really, also thinking of the threat of a changed home and home life with such a loss, faces his fears and decides to walk the six miles home, alone and in the dark. Walter tells himself he’ll simply manipulate his own mind, and just pretend he isn’t scared, which greatly suggests Jem’s later saying, “Do you know, Walter was never frightened after he got to the front. Realities never scared him—only his imagination could do that.”

Then, when little Walter is on the Glen road, deep in the small hours of morning, and is finally nearing Ingleside, the text tells us, “A star fell in the sky before him, scattering sparks of flame. Walter remembered hearing old Aunt Kitty say that when a star fell someone died.” Later, when Walter does die, the text gives us another earthly omen in, “[Rilla] remembered that Miss Oliver said once, when they were coming home in the darkness and heard a dog howl, ‘When a dog cries like that the Angel of Death is passing’…” But his last letter to Rilla also implies its own near homecoming, when he confesses to her that he felt ‘strangely near to Ingleside’ that night.

[bipanicoverthegravessiblings]

An AU headcanons where Andrew, Ashley, Andrea, and Asher are all siblings in the same universe?

Ooohhhhh, cool AU idea:

Andrew and Andrea are twins (22)

Ashley and Ashton are a year apart (Ashley is 20 while Ashton is 19)

Andrew and Andrea were such easy kids that Mr and Mrs Graves decided to have Ashley

They didn’t want to have anymore kids, but protection seemed to be an afterthought, so Ashton was born

Ashton and Ashley were constantly confused for one another growing up

They don’t really get along, but can’t deny that 80% of the time they’re on the same wavelength in terms of impulsivity

Nicknames include: Andy (Andrew), Rea (Andrea), Tony (Ashton), and LeyLey (Ashley)

Andrea is a lot more done-with shit than her twin- somehow.

100% planned on moving out and ditching town, but then the quarantine hit

Food depleted a lot faster with 4 people as opposed to 2

Ashton started suggesting using his slingshot to shoot birds that land on the balcony for food, which Andrew objected to

Andrea let him sit there for hours trying to catch something just to mess with him

Andrew and Andrea have very different coping mechanisms due to being forced to parent their younger siblings. Andrew’s growing into the codependency we know and hate/love, while Andrea is more like the Older Sister!Reader

She doesn’t hate her siblings to that much of an extent, but they’re adults and not her problem anymore

Andrea is the most mentally stable one and that’s not saying a lot to be honest

Ashley feels even more ostracized from her family

Her fear of abandonment, Ashton lowkey hating her, Andrea’s willingness to leave, and everything she has going on with Andrew- poor girl isn’t doing okay.

I imagine she’s still closest with Andrew, with Andrea being a close second

Ashton winds up taking the gun from the warden instead of Ashley

Andrew was the last one they needed to get on board with killing their parents

Both Ashton and Andrea get scenes with them

Ashton venting about how he was so forgetful to them that they confused him for Ashley so many times- and if they didn’t need to do the ritual he would’ve shot them by now

And Andrea actually denying their olive branch because she overheard their deal with Andrew- and just wants to be done with all of this

Andrea knows about the Nina incident, but didn’t help at all with it

Ashton doesn’t know anything and when he finds out he’s gonna be mad no one told him

[lastweeksshirttonight]

I also cannot remember a context where Rob Riggle calling John a "slack-jawed French piece of shit" would have come up naturally, but this is 100% in the wheelhouse of things I adore. God I love Rob and John's friendship and its absurdities.

Also this post is an amazing best-of roundup. Please watch Meerkats' documentary on John slowly losing his mind as he covers Sarah Palin, it's fantastic.

Well, I’ve done it. Finished the Bugle back catalogue. Original run was 295 full episodes, 217 hours. Reboot is currently up to 267 episodes. That’s a lot of Andy Zaltzman. I have heard a lot of Andy Zaltzman, in the last year and a bit. Arguably more Andy Zaltzman than is recommended for your mental health.

To commemorate the end of this era, I thought I'd post a few things I have saved in my Bugle folder. Because it's always fun to go through that. This isn't exactly the same as posting the best moments of The Bugle. I heard plenty of fantastically funny moments that I never cut out and saved. This is just a small selection of Bugle moments that, for whatever reason, I decided to save to my hard drive. Probably so I could put them in a post or something (going with ones from the original Bugle only here, stuff from the reboot could be another post).

An old one, from June 2009, that I saved just because it made me laugh so hard. The time a listener remixed John Oliver’s impression of Delonte West going on a date. Beginning of the era of listeners making weird remixes of The Bugle and sometimes having it played on the podcast.

@lastweeksshirttonight, this one's entirely for you (I don't remember why I first cut it out, but quite probably I did that for you in the first place), the time when John Oliver played a phone message on The Bugle in which his Daily Show colleague Rob Riggle called him a "piece of French garbage" while threatening to murder him.

From late 2014: they found a news story in which the Chinese government tried to ban puns, Andy Zaltzman responds with a nuclear-grade Chinese-themed pun run.

John Oliver: I think we're all aware that they're waving a red flag at a very excitable bull, with you, with this story. And, just before you say anything else... just, over-responding, Andy, would that not be what the Chinese government wants? Are they provoking you into action, and is not the really strong thing here to do to show restraint?

Andy Zaltzman: Uh, no.

Andy Zaltzman's idea for a football chant at a funeral - it's up there with the hardest The Bugle has ever made me laugh. I was on a bus when I first heard it. It was a problem.

The time Andy Zaltzman tried to tell a regular "walks into a bar" joke. About the Queen Victoria. As a way to explain why he has so many stories about people hating him when he tried to perform in comedy clubs.

John Oliver trying to get through his prepared material on the band Pussy Riot, Andy Zaltzman keeps interrupting and making John Oliver laugh, I cut this one out so I could use it to illustrate how well their double act works, based on the fact that they find each other so genuinely funny.

Episode 61 of The Bugle, from January 2009 - Andy Zaltzman missed Obama's inauguration because it happened on a Tuesday so he spent that time playing comedians' football, but did interview some of the other players (Lee Mack, Russell Howard, Daniel Kitson) about the inaguration they'd all missed, and played the interviews on The Bugle.

I didn't have the clip saved, but found it on YouTube because I need to include Andy Zaltzman's iconic dog-themed pun run, featuring the memorable "bored her colleagues" (border collie) and "cold and wet weaver" (golden retriever).

Tumblr won’t let me upload any more audio files here, but I can still add a Google Drive link, and I need to also mention the clip from Bugle episode 112, from April 2010, when it was John Oliver’s birthday and he’d just taken the job of voice acting in the Smurfs and he was so excited to announce that, because it’s the cutest shit I’ve ever heard.

While I’m at this, I’d like to end with a couple of Bugle compilations I made last year. I actually made a few of those, but here are my favourites. One is the one that got wildly, unstoppably, incredibly out of hand. It was meant to be just a short collection of audio clips from a few different Bugle episodes, like my other compilations were. Then I added some pictures. Then a Daily Show clip. Then another Daily Show clip. Then some more pictures. Then some video footage. Then there was more and more of it. And basically, I accidentally made a feature film. It's 74 minutes long.

It features all the aspects you want in a good feature film. Tension, suspense, one man’s descent into darkness, tasteful nudity, explorations of the human capacity for anger and confusion, a battle for the soul of a nation, a tumultuous relationship between two opposing figures at the centre, increasing conflict but a note of hope at the end. At once point, Andy Zaltzman, in his role as one of the main character’s best friends, compares it to a romcom like Groundhog Day. I referenced that in the title. Because I had to give it a title. Because it’s a feature film.

…It’s just a bunch of Bugle and Daily Show clips, in chronological order, taking us through the journey of John Oliver having to cover the career of Sarah Palin. He didn’t enjoy it. He really, really didn’t enjoy it.

Some of the audio clips are overlaid with pictures and videos of the stuff they were talking about. One of those pictures took me several hours to locate, I finally got it by putting the Daily Mail into Wayback Machine, and then going through ages of their archives. But I think it was worth the effort.

And finally, the one thing I’ve made that I actually put on YouTube, because it took me a large number of hours and a lot of work and I was actually quite pleased with the result. The story of the time, in 2011, that John Oliver and Andy Zaltzman talked a lot of shit about everyone involved in the News International phone hacking scandal, even though The Bugle was funded by Timesonline which was owned by Rupert Murdoch, and quite soon after that, they were dropped by The Times.

At the time, they both said this was not a political decision, it wasn’t because of their comments, it was just that they didn’t bring in enough money. Which is probably at least partially true, decisions can be about more than one thing. John Oliver said a couple of things that at least kind of implied it might have been retaliatory, but Andy Zaltzman was more careful, insisting they were parting amicably (even though they clearly weren’t). I suspect the difference in reactions is because John Oliver had a lot of shit going on outside The Bugle so could afford to mess around, while Andy Zaltzman had… in the episode where they announced this, he used the words “Jack K. shit” to describe what else he had going on, and may have been too invested in keeping The Bugle going to say anything that would risk alienating potential funding sources (they succeeded, of course, managing to fund it via listener donations).

In a very recent episode that I just listened to this weekend, from May 2023, the topic of Rupert Murdoch came up on The Bugle, and Andy Zaltzman briefly told the story of how they used to be funded by his company, but were then dropped by that company, “suspiciously shortly” after they talked a lot of shit about Rupert Murdoch and everyone who worked with him. That’s the first time I’ve ever heard Andy Zaltzman acknowledge that there may be a connection between those two things. So that’s a cool sign. Twelve years later, and Andy Zaltzman has finally attained enough success and job security so he can say what he likes as well.

[cruelsummer-ficfest]

Hey Kids—Reading is Fun!

Dear Readers,

Your mods (@femme--de--lettres and @greyeyedmonster-18) are beside themselves with how many of you have participated in Cruel Summer Fic Fest: The Eras Tour this year.

From full novel-length fics to poetry, from microfics to multi-chaptered works and everything in between, we've been blown away—enchanted, even—by this year's submissions. This fest started as a labor of love for both of us as avid Swifties and HP fic authors and we couldn't have imagined in our wildest dreams the way you've embraced it with open arms.

With that said, we're pleased to offer the below list of this year's love stories. Due to tumblr restrictions on tagging, we weren't able to tag all of the individual author tumblr accounts (something something look what you made us do something something) so we've tried to link to ao3 as much as possible, but if you like a fic—check out that author's ao3! We've tried to connect you as directly to the mainstream of what each author writes in that respect, so if you happen to find a new fave, you can show them more love on the rest of their works!

To make a long story short, the majority of these works can be found in the Cruel Summer Fic Fest: The Eras Tour collection on ao3—with a catalogue of over 100 works, there's something for everybody, and we hope you'll take a peek at this year's truly incredible works.

We've had the time of our life fighting dragons with you, but sometimes, you know in your soul when it's time to go.

Thanks for making this cruel summer another one for the books.

Until Next Time,

Your Mods (Grey and Andie)

Cruel Summer Fic Fest: The Eras Tour

(all fics are followed by the character, relationship, or pairing that each work focused on. for the purposes of our list, both "x" and "/" indicate some level of romantic relationship, while "&" entails a platonic or otherwise friendly one)

Era One (Debut/Midnights)

Stay Beautiful (Regulus x James)

Sweet Nothing (Ted Tonks x Andromeda Black)

Midnight Rain (Sirius x Remus)

A Perfectly Good Heart (Harry/Fred/George)

Bigger Than the Whole Sky (Lavender x Pansy)

Anti-Hero (Sirius x Remus)

Tim McGraw (James x Lily)

Invisible  (Harry x Ginny)

Should've Said No (Ron x Hermione)

Dear Reader (Draco x Astoria, Part 1 of 6)

Glitch (Bellatrix Black x Voldemort)

The Outside (Ron x Hermione)

Bejeweled (Ron x Hermione)

Maroon  (Ron x Hermione)

Teardrops on My Guitar (Ron x Hermione)

Mastermind (Ron x Hermione)

Era Two (1989/Evermore)

Wonderland (Snape x Trelawney)

Dorothea (Sirius x Remus)

New Romantics (Regulus x Lily)

You Are In Love (James x Lily)

Wildest Dreams (Sirius x James)

Long Story Short (Draco x Harry)

This Love  (Pandora x Lily)

All You Had to Do Was Stay (Hermione x Pansy)

Shake It Off (Draco x Harry)

I Wish You Would (James x Lily)

Blank Space   (Ron x Hermione)

I Know Places (Draco x Hermione)

Gold Rush (Ron x Hermione)

Welcome to New York  (Sirius x Remus)

Style (Bellatrix x Voldemort)

Happiness (Narcissa Black x Emmeline Vance)

Tis the Damn Season (Harry x Bill Weasley)

It's Time to Go (Teddy x Victoire)

Cowboy Like Me (Astoria x Hermione)

Champagne Problems (Draco x Astoria, Part 2 of 6)

Era Three (Red/Lover)

The Moment I Knew (Ron x Hermione)

You Need to Calm Down  (Draco x Harry)

Sad Beautiful Tragic  (Draco x Astoria)

Nothing New (ft. Phoebe Bridgers) (Ron x Hermione)

All of the Girls You Loved Before (Sirius x Remus)

State of Grace (James x Lily)

Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince Draco x Astoria, Part 3 of 6)

We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together (Harry x Tom Riddle) 

The Last Time (ft. Gary Lightbody) (Ron x Hermione)

All Too Well (Ron x Hermione)

The Archer  (Pandora Lovegood x Lily Evans)

Babe  (Ron x Hermione)

Run (ft. Ed Sheeran) (Narcissa x Lily)

Cornelia Street (Percy Weasley x Oliver Wood)

Everything Has Changed (ft. Ed Sheeran) (Sirius x Remus)

The Very First Night (Ron x Hermione)

Girl at Home (Alecto Carrow x Narcissa Black)

Forever Winter (Draco x Astoria)

Afterglow (Ron x Hermione)

Holy Ground (Romione)

Stay Stay Stay (Blaise Zabini x Daphne Greengrass)

False God (Bellatrix x Voldemort)

Era Four (Fearless/Reputation)

Come in With the Rain (Ginny & Hermione)

Look What You Made Me Do (Ron x Hermione)

That's When (ft. Keith Urban) (James x Lily)

Fifteen (James x Lily)

Tell Me Why (Harry x Charlie Weasley)

The Best Day (Percy x Oliver Wood)

Call It What You Want (Ron x Hermione)

You Belong With Me (Ron x Hermione)

Untouchable (Narcissa x Lily)

Change (Ron x Hermione)

Superstar (Draco x Hermione)

Forever and Always (Piano Version) (Draco x Astoria)

King of My Heart (Ron x Hermione)

This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things (James x Lily)

Fearless (Ron x Hermione)

The Way I Loved You (James x Lily)

Gorgeous (Ron x Hermione)

Bye Bye Baby (Ron x Hermione)

White Horse  (James x Lily) 

…Ready for It? (Blaise Zabini x Daphne Greengrass)

Don’t You (Ron x Hermione)

I Did Something Bad (Draco x Astoria, Part 4 of 6)

The Other Side of the Door (Sirius x Remus)

Era Five (Speak Now/Folklore)

Haunted (Bellatrix x Lily)

Enchanted (Ron x Hermione)

Innocent (Draco & Narcissa Malfoy) 

Back to December (Ron x Hermione)

The 1 (Ron x Hermione)

Exile (ft Bon Iver) (Ron x Hermione)

Mad Woman (Draco x Harry)

Invisible String (Sirius x Remus)

Cardigan (Ron x Hermione)

Epiphany (Padma Patil x Theodore Nott)

Mirrorball (Draco x Harry)

Mine (Harry/Fred/George)

Mean (Ron x Hermione)

This Is Me Trying (Marcus Flint x Percy Weasley)

Timeless (Ron x Hermione)

My Tears Ricochet (Ron x Hermione)

Seven (Sirius x Remus)

I Can See You (Sirius x Remus)

Foolish One (Angelina Johnson x George Weasley)

[codename-mango]

My guesses for All Stars: 2 boys and 2 girls from the first 6 seasons because I don't think they'll bring back anyone more recent and I don't care about anything past that

Season 1: Rohan; Miles; Allegra; Jen

Season 2: Rocco; Gary; Priya; Shannon

Season 3: Seb (please); Rafi; Iona; Genevieve (honestly imagine hanging with your ex in the Villa and people expect drama but yall are chill)

Season 4: Oliver; Kobi; Thabi; Valentina

Season 5: Eddie; Suresh (clown on him constantly please); Dana; Kat (please I need Kat and Leggy to exist in the same space)

Season 6: Andy; Marshall (I need Aly's ex husband and current bf in the same Villa please); Bella; Grace

[schrijverr]

Russia, Huh?

s02e06: Keep Your Enemies Closer. After rescuing Lyla from the Gulag, Diggle and Felicity learn that Diggle isn’t the only one who had a connection to Lyla, but that Oliver also knows her already. Combined with Anatoli being in the car as well, some Oliver lore gets dropped on them.

On AO3.

Ships: minor Diggle/Lyla

Warnings: none

~~~

They’re all in the bought police car, driving away from where they have left Deadshot at the side of the road. Diggle’s head is still reeling from the information he’s been given about Andy, so he’s just sitting next to Lyla staring into space.

He gets pulled out of his thoughts when Oliver leans forward, brushing a few strands of Lyla’s hair out of her face to check her black eye. “You okay?”

Lyla smiles at him and for a second Diggle feels a stab of annoyance at the Queen charm that seems to work on everyone. Until Lyla answers: “You know me, Oliver. I’m always good.”

Oliver looks at her critically for a moment, then nods, before he smiles: “Russia, huh?”

That makes Lyla snort, much to Diggle’s dismayed confusion. She agrees: “Yup, Russia.”

“It’s good to see you again.” He puts his hand on her shoulder, turning a more genuine as she pats his hand for a second.

It hits Diggle then that it’s not the Queen charm at all, but that Lyla and Oliver know each other already. “Wait, you two’ve met?” he asks with a frown, unsure why neither of them have ever mentioned that before.

“Yes, we’ve worked together,” Lyla says, sounding as confused as Diggle feels that he doesn’t know that.

With that, Diggle turns his look on Oliver, who just looks at him innocently as if it is totally normal that he hasn’t mentioned he knows Diggle’s ex-wife. He shrugs: “She was my handler after my old one quit.”

“Handler?” Felicity speaks up. “As in being responsible for handling you on missions secret agent style handler?”

Oliver nods, confirming: “I worked for A.R.G.U.S. for a while.”

“When?” Diggle asks, able to make a guess to the period, but needing to know if Oliver worked with Lyla when they were still married. If she kept that from him.

He can understand why she would have, but after witnessing first hand the damage Oliver’s supposed death did to both him and his family these past two years, he can’t imagine her working on this and not showing a singular thing about it at home.

Oliver luckily disregards him of that notion: “It was 2010 that I met Lyla, but I started working with A.R.G.U.S. in 2009. She took over supervising a low contact mission and oversaw my release from service.”

“How did you end up working for A.R.G.U.S. for three years?” Felicity asks. “Aren’t they government? Why didn’t you go home?”

“I only worked for them for two years,” Oliver says.

Diggle can do the math, that means Oliver’s service ended a year before he returned home. He was found on Lian Yu. How did he get there? Did A.R.G.U.S. leave him there? Did Lyla? Did he get into another shipwreck and end up there only that last year?

“Two years?” Felicity is the one that asks the question.

“Da,” Anatoli suddenly mixes himself up in the conversation. “Was in Russia last year. Dropped him back on Lian Yu myself and bribed fishermen.”

“I always wondered how you ended back on Lian Yu after we extracted you from there and why you wanted to go to Russia,” Lyla says. “Can’t say I imagined…” she pauses for a second, looking at Anatoli “…this.”

“It wasn’t the plan, it happened,” Oliver shrugs, giving them as little as possible. Diggle recognizes the attitude from all the other times he was forced to share something from his time away. Sharing is not something that comes easily to Oliver Queen.

Though, it appears that Anatoli has no such inhibitions, happily sharing: “His plan involved ending up tied to chair with bullet nearly in brain.”

“And I am glad you saved me from that,” Oliver sighs fondly. It’s strange to see him interact with Anatoli. There is a camaraderie there that he doesn’t have with Lyla and that he is only just starting to form with Diggle himself. It makes him curious about Oliver’s time in Russia.

Since Anatoli seems to be in the sharing mood, Diggle asks: “Yeah, how’d he end up in that situation?”

“Ah, ah, brothers do not talk,” Anatoli says jovially. “Even to second favorite American.”

“Thank you, Anatoli,” Oliver says with a small grin, obviously feeling comfortable around the man. Then he turns to Diggle and says: “It’s a long story that I might tell… one day.”

“Even if we instate what happens in Russia, stays in Russia?” Felicity asks in a tone that makes Diggle think he missed a conversation.

Anatoli lets out a loud laugh: “Ha! What happens in Russia, stays in Russia. I will remember that.”

Oliver seems less amused by the comment, tersely saying: “No, Felicity, even if we reinstate that, I am keeping it to myself for now.”

“But Lyla mentioned extracting you from Lian Yu, but you were working with A.R.G.U.S. before that, but you’ve mentioned first getting to Lian Yu before, so you must have been there. So, did you complete missions for them there? Or did you get shipwrecked there twice? You know I can’t do mysteries,” Felicity says.

Diggle watches as Oliver sighs, before giving in, because he has never been able to say no to Felicity. Sometimes it is really frustrating to be their friend, but Diggle is too tired to make a comment right now. Oliver says: “They got me off Lian Yu to do a mission, then dropped me back on Lian Yu to do the last mission.”

“Very rudely I might add,” Anatoli says.

Next to Diggle, Lyla cringes and agrees: “Not our finest moment.”

“Okay, kind of worried if the Russian mob boss and the American secret agent are agreeing,” Felicity voices an opinion Diggle shares.

Both Anatoli and Lyla turn to Oliver, neither want to say something without his approval. It is strange to see Oliver interact with those he’s worked with before. Diggle is used to him and Felicity being the two in a room who know the most about Oliver, the ones that are closest to him. It’s a strange thought that Oliver is capable of working together with people other than them.

With everyone’s eyes on him, it seems that even Oliver isn’t entirely immune to peer pressure (or he knows Felicity is going to bug him and he will crack so he’s saving himself the embarrassment), because he says: “Waller cornered me in a bar, spiked my drink and I woke up on a plane over Lian Yu where they forced me to jump out at gun point.”

“What?” Diggle chokes out in shock. He knows best of all what that island has done to Oliver and he can’t imagine A.R.G.U.S. not knowing after a year of employing him, the fact that they drugged and threatened him to force him back there is proof of that.

Instinctively his eyes go to Lyla, again questioning if she was involved in that and where her morals lie. He’s so relieved to see her alive, wanting to keep her close and ensure himself she is okay, but these moments remind him of why they divorced.

“Lyla got involved later on,” Oliver says, as if he can read Diggle’s mind and wants to assure him – a kind of emotional awareness Diggle didn’t realize he was capable off. “She was the one who debriefed me and got me out of there. It was appreciated.”

“I’m glad,” she smiles at him, seeming relieved that he said it.

Diggle immediately feels guilty for doubting her. She’s just been through hell and is now stuck in this car getting judged by him. He pulls her to his side, insides fluttering in a familiar way when she snuggles in closer.

The conversation has come to an end by now. Oliver has already answered more questions than he ever has before – no matter how many new ones have arisen – and neither Anatoli nor Lyla comment more. So Diggle and Felicity drop it as they say their goodbyes to Anatoli and spend their last night in Moscow before flying back, Lyla hiding out so Isabel won’t spot her.

In fact, it doesn’t come up until after their first night back on American soil. The fear of nearly losing the other and being back in fighting conditions, not to mention what led to Lyla being in Russia in the first place, all boiling over together into them falling into bed together.

As they’re lying in the afterglow, Diggle suddenly asks: “Would you’ve ever told me about working with Oliver if he hadn’t acknowledged it first?”

Lyla thinks about it for a second, then apologetically shakes her head. “You know us A.R.G.U.S. agents, we close ranks around our own. And Amanda can be particular about what secrets she wants to be kept. I don’t know what kind of brief Oliver got from her about it. We try not to jeopardize someone’s mission or orders.”

Now it’s Diggle’s turn to consider her words. In a way he can see and understand why she’d do that, has even seen it mirrored in Oliver with how he keeps his secrets.

He now wonders if Oliver wanted to come and help rescue Lyla because A.R.G.U.S. closes ranks around their own, or because he wanted to help Diggle. Then he decides it doesn’t matter. Oliver showed up when he didn’t have to and he opened up about his history with Lyla, when he knew that keeping it to himself was an option with the way A.R.G.U.S. operates.

So, he just tugs Lyla close again and says: “I get that,” reveling in the way she smiles back at him.

~~

A/N:

This started as wouldn’t it be funny if Lyla and Oliver already knew each other and Diggle is going ?? bc neither of them ever mentioned it and then I realized Anatoli is also in the episode where they officially met and it spiraled into Oliver dropping Lian Yu lore, bc I live for that.

[lastweeksshirttonight]

Hear me out: The Department reunion on Taskmaster.

-contains screaming-

[gayhoediaz]

not any of my business AT ALL but noticed you said buck was too young for you at 6 years older and then I got curious....what is your type? (obvs feel free to ignore)

it’s absolutely your business my daddy issues is my favorite topic. just. imagine me tucking my feet up under myself 🥰

no read more link i'm making this everyone's business <3

(we're doing this mainly based off of looks just to make it easy. i'm also someone who values physical attraction greatly, so it makes sense to me. personally. i'll talk a little bit about just general personality and vibes at the end, though!)

get in losers, we're objectifying men! (with respect, and the acknowledgment that just like women, they are all real people, and have a lot more to offer, even the characters, they're played by real people. and i'm sure they're all wonderful people until i'm proven otherwise.)

okay. so.

i’m a pretty introspective person and i’ve actually been thinking about this lately because my taste is. relatively. unpredictable.

i did indeed say that buck would be too young for me at roughly 6 years older and i stand by that because here’s the thing: i feel like when people think of daddy issues in terms of age, they think of. people being interested in people who are. a little bit older. my personal daddy issues run so deep, i need them older. (we’re specifically talking about men. i like women too - but that’s neither here nor there and i have a good relationship with my mom, so that’s not what we’re talking abt rn.) i’m into men that like. if i told you they were my dad, you would not fucking blink.

and it’s not just the age. being an objectively attractive man roughly 20 years my senior? that’s not necessarily enough. we’re going off of celebrities and fictional characters right now cause it’s just an easy way to explain things but there are plenty of men who are very objectively attractive and are twenty years older than me, but who just. don’t look it. and i absolutely see why people thirst after them but they’re just. not for me. like. okay.

manny montana? very pretty. i love looking at him. and he is much older than me. and yet, not my type.

same with like. andy samberg. so. very. pretty. and roughly a couple decades older than me. my type? nope.

now - tony dalton?

yeah. yeah.

^^^ and it’s not just “lalo’s hot” no no no no no my ass is in the discord server at 3am losing it over pictures like this:

(^^^ he's not btw. not to me.)

when i tell y’all i’m hopeless i am HOPELESS

anyway moving onto someone else i’m feral about: billy burke but ONLY when he’s scruffy okay?

this? i mean i wouldn’t… not let hit, but

when i say im feral abt billy burke i’m talking about charlie swan and i’m talking abt this:

honorable mention i am also feral as fuck abt robert knepper

and now, i can hear you saying "oh nie, i get it, so you're not attracted to men who have like chronic boy face, i get it!!! you're into like. the jeffrey dean morgan, joe manganiello types!"

nope. i am not the slightest bit attracted to either of those men. like. *vanessa hudgens voice* i get it. i respect it.

not for me tho.

NOW. there is a little bit of a gray area when we talk about men who like... have chronic boy face and everything else about them is just... not that energy.

like. raul castillo for example.

(he looks a lot like a young version of my maternal grandpa, but that's just. something we're not gonna touch rn.) first of all? my immediate reaction is not "let me hit" my first reaction is very similar to manny montana in the sense that like. so. pretty.

but also? tummyyyyyyy so nvm let me hit yk what i mean?

(for some reason jon bernthal also goes in this category. they don't look anything alike but. same vibes to me in terms of how attracted i am, personally. where it's like. sure. yknow?)

i am also forever a mustache warrior, okay, shave off a mustache? doesn't usually necessarily ruin it for me, but grow one? it's better. immediately. actually, while oliver, just like buck, is too young to be my type, the only picture in existence where i am even the slightest bit attracted to oliver is the one from that photoshoot where the lighting accidentally made it look like he had one:

that's it. that's the only one.

(while we're on the topic of 9-1-1 cast: ryan also is too young for me, but i am very attracted to him when he has long hair. the second it's gone, he's just a silly little guy to me. i'm not really attracted to peter, although i wouldn't... say no. i'm here for kenny, though. absolutely. anytime.)

now so i feel less bad about objectifying every single man mentioned in this post, let's talk personalities (not specifically the ones mentioned, because i don't know them. this is just abt me and just general vibes that i'm drawn to) i need the vibe to be like. relaxed, which i think loops right back around to daddy issues, of course - it's not that i would be turned off if i'm with a man and he needs to cry on my shoulder 'cause something happened, that's fine - but generally there needs to be a feeling of just. not a lot of stress, not a lot of anxiety, things are handled, things will work out - you know. and usually, you tend to get that from people who are. a lot older. even people in their 30s don't usually have their shit together like that. (which is fine!!) but it's just so. just. easy to breathe when someone's like "eh, i'll fix it" (and yes, my love language is indeed acts of service)

as i put it in another post at some point: [billy burke in twilight] awakened the innermost parts of me that yearn to be railed by scruffy, mustached men old enough to be my father who look like they smell like a campfire and taste like tobacco and like i would tell them i wanted dick and they would nod once and say "yes ma'am"

the end <3

[marinerainbow]

Tagging: @slashingdisneypasta

Nobody asked, I just felt like posting this.

WFRR Characters as humans

Please note, I am not great at physical descriptions. This would be so much easier if I could draw xD I'm trying to be as descriptive as I can without dragging on too long. I hope I'm successful.

Roger Rogers (Roger Rabbit)

Yes, he has and will joke about his last name. He stands at about 5'1, and was born 1921 (26 years old in the events of the film), and is a lanky man with the flexibility of a wacky inflatable tube man. Roger still sticks to more loose, casual clothes similar to his toon counterpart. His nose is round and a little red, looking almost like a button ^^ though he is white (not overly pale. Might even have a slight tan. I'm not too sure). And yes, he still has his buck tooth, along with a head of fluffy orange hair. And I'm giving him freckles.

Jessica Rogers (Jessica Rabbit)

Honestly, Jessica looks pretty much the same as her toon self. With more realistic proportions, of course. She is 6'1 and was born in 1917 (30 years old). And above all, she still adores her short king, and feels loved by him everyday ^^

(I feel bad for not giving Jessica so much of a description, but she's the only adult humanoid looking toon, and I can't imagine her looking any other way as a human)

Herman 'Babyface' Douglas (Baby Herman)

A short, pudgy man. His exact height is 4'11, and was born 1897 (50 years old). Though he'll claim he's younger than he is. His skin care routine does help him look younger though, hence his nickname (don't expect him to tell you his secrets though), and how he can get roles usually reserved for younger actors. His hair is a bright strawberry blonde, but thinning, so he tries to style it in ways that make it look fuller. His eyes are still a bright blue. Herman prefers dressing in more expensive suits and coats (bro literally had a thick fur coat in one short), to show off his wealth and trying to make himself look better than everyone else.

Benjamin 'Benny' Brown (Benny the Cab)

(His initials are BBB like the now bankrupt store-)

I actually imagine Benny as an African American. He is 5'10 and was born in 1891 (56 years old. He said he was a cab for 37 years in the film, so that would mean he would've started, at most, when he was 19 in the human AU). He has short, kind of choppy black hair and dark brown eyes. He also has a scruffy goatee. Benny possesses a more muscular build, though it's mostly hidden by his jacket, so he just looks like a generally big guy (yes, he does perform his own maintenance on his car).

Anderson 'Andy' Winston (Smartass Weasel)

(If this guy was in the modern era, he'd get so sick of all the Toy Story jokes)

Standing at exactly 5'0, this New Yorker was born in 1912 (35 in the events of the film). He has a skinny frame, though broad shoulders, and is fairly strong for his size (he literally punched Eddie so hard he twisted around and doubled over the bar counter. Smarty has to have some strength, right??). He has olive skin, chestnut brown eyes, and actually has a bit of red in his hair. It's not too noticeable unless you're really looking, so he's not a red head like Jessica is. Also has a tooth gap! He cant grow facial hair though, even though he wants to (he wants a nice mustache. But can't grow one)

Miguel Rodriguez (Greasy Weasel)

His height is 5'9, and he was born 1909 (38 years old). He's got skinny arms and hands, which only makes his wandering hands feel just a bit more creepy on your skin (look at his hand/arm when he rolls his sleeve up! Not to mention how his sleeves hang off of him. Somebody put meat on those arms), though he's got a more curvy body with a bit of a belly too. I also imagine he's got a darker skin tone, and can grow scruffy facial hair if he forgets to shave. And he applies hair oil partially because his black hair is actually really curly (the tips curl up despite the hair oil? That's got to be some serious curl strength there). His eyes are a really dark brown, almost black, but in the light you can see the color.

Francis Green (Wheezy Weasel)

Yes, his last name is meant to be ironic. His height is 6'2, and he was born right at 1900 (47 years old). Kind of skinny, but you can see the sinewy muscle as well, hinting to his own strength. He looks pretty sickly, and has blemishes all over his body (he was a picker before becoming a smoker). His eyes are a slate blue, and he has ash blonde hair. Unlike Greasy, he rarely shaves, so he's got a rough, scratchy beard too, and yellow teeth from his smoking habit. I also see him having a more crooked nose shape.

(Honestly just imagine Bill Moseley and you'd get what I imagine human Wheezy would look like).

Charlie Renfield (Psycho Weasel)

(his last name may or may not be a reference to a certain Dracula character)

Psycho here is 5'3, and was born 1919 (28 years old). He has a skinny, angular build. No curves to be seen. Similar to Wheezy, he's got a sickly pale skin tone, and has scars and blemishes along his body from being careless and actively picking and scratching at himself. His most prominent scars are two on the corners of his lips from the times he's carried his razor in his mouth (he actually did do that in the movie. He's so lucky he's a toon). He's got a big head of fluffy, dark brown hair. Not curly necessarily, just... Poof. Also, he has split heterochromia; his right eye is blue, and his left eye is yellow (I know partial heterochromia would be more accurate to his swirly eyes, but I like the complete split more).

Thomas 'Tommy' Winston (Stupid Weasel)

This big lug is 6'4, and was born 1922 (25 years old). He is pretty chubby and has a round face, though don't let the plushness deceive you; that isn't just fat that makes him huge. He's got pretty big hands, especially (even as a weasel, he had huge hands! You guys saw his hand when he flipped the switch to the DIP machine too, right?). He also has olive skin, though it's more tanned as well, and he has freckles ^^ also has a deeper red hair color than Andy does, and it is more wavy than his too. I'm debating on whether or not he'd have brown or green eyes (everyone else has brown, blue, or yellow eyes. Green would complete the set). His buck tooth is still here, though smaller because human teeth.

Bonus! Sophie O'Brian (Poppy O'Hare)

(Yes, my OC. Technically I already made a post for Poppy, but I didn't really like how I wrote it. So this is take two. Hopefully I feel better with this one 😅)

Pops is the shortest of all, standing at 4'10. And was born 1920 (27 years old). She has pale, porcelain skin- though has developed some worry lines along her eyes- and big, bright brown eyes. I'm still having trouble deciding whether or not she has glasses, even for her toon self. But for her human self, I'm gonna say she only needs glasses when reading; any other time, you won't see her with a pair. She has a thinner, but still feminine build that she prefers to keep hidden under her clothes. Her hair is wavy and black, and reaches just under her chin.

(Hm... Honestly, when thinking of actors for human Poppy to look like, I keep thinking of Anya Taylor Joy. I'm not too sure about it though).

I hope you guys liked reading this ^^

[alitgblog]

litg characters I'd cast in romcoms

When Harry Met Sally: Seb as Harry!! Then Genevieve as his ex, Tom as MC's (Sally's) ex, Nicky as Seb's best friend, Elladine as MC's best friend

I actually have this all sorted how this would work out but my post got deleted 😭

Notting Hill: Jin as Hugh Grant's character (forgot his name lol) because in my head he's history nerd so like just imagine him in cozy sweaters okay. He's got that wacky roommate whose name I have also forgotten and naturally if we had to pick from S8, Liam, but I also think Jamal would be a fun pick (make the roommate less wacky and more just fun and wild though). The other version of this is Jake as as the main character with his roommate Tim.

Legally Blonde (and I'm going based off the musical): Literally only here because I know I can cast the lawyers, like clearly Suresh as Warner (and oh lean heavily on the implication that he cheated on MC while they were dating) and Blake or Marisol as Vivienne (I like her being cut throat but still looking for love). I'd really like Hari as Emmett because they have a backstory of working hard for their dream and would have a fun banter with the main character without being overly cheery and also is very competitive when needs to be although may be an underdog, but lowkey could also be anyone that has the very grounded boy next door vibe so like Tyler, Rohan, Jake, James, and Lewie are also good picks imo. The other sorority girls needs to include Chelsea, Thabi, basically any of MC's besties (...minus Amelia). It's hard to think of anyone as Paulette because she's an older character and everyone in the game is pretty young but we can further my Angie x Cora agenda and have it be Angie talking about her lost love and then in comes the hot deliverywoman, Cora. She also has like sage advice vibes when she's in the villa sometimes so I think that works.

She's All That: Gary as the main guy. Eddie as his shitty best friend. I don't know why but this came so quickly to me I'm not sure I'd even have to explain but like Gary gives off cool guy / player vibes but I'd also see him absolutely get into or at least support whatever weird artsy stuff his girlfriend is into and have a character arc and all that.

While You Were Sleeping: the OG "I fell in love with your brother while you were away" story, so clearly Ozzy as Peter, Marshall as the brother, Grace as the girl Ozzy's actually dating

How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days: Because I've already said Gary for a different romcom, I'm inclined to have the suave ladies man esque character be Will or Youcef. I also think an evolved Suresh or Finn or Mason or Levi could work. Often I forget about her but I think Lulu would be a fun whatever Kathryn Hahn's character's name is.

A Cinderella Story (the Hilary Duff version): I think the fandom's go to "I don't wanna do what my dad says" character may be Lucas but I want to give Oliver a chance as the sweet lead even though I remember nothing about his backstory in game. MC's best friend can be someone a little dorky and the only person coming to mind right now is Felix.

Ten Things I Hate About You: Again, a reformed Finn could've been so good. Instead, we're going for mysterious and brooding so I think Joyo is a good choice for Patrick. Then to continue the streak of me remembering S7 characters, I think Raf could be a good Cameron because he's got that innocence and silliness that works. Then we need the friend that gives Raf an explanation of how things work and I could see that going to Andy because he's a little silly and dorky but mostly pretty confident (slightly different vibe from the character but that's fine). Other option, Bruno. In the movie, I believe he also ends up with Kat's best friend, who I just remember being very confident and alternative vibes so I think Najuma, Cora, Bella, or Lottie for her. We also need Kat's sister Bianca, and that could be easy and I say it's Amelia, or we could pick a tolerable option like Bea. There's also the guy Bianca initially has a crush on, and dare I say we pick Toby?? Just a character that's full of nothing. Or it could just be someone pretty like Levi or someone rich and an asshole like Miles or Jasper. All I remember about Bianca's bestie is that she backstabs her at the end and since fusebox hates women that could be a number of characters but my pick is Sophie or Erikah.

I could go on forever so I must I choose to stop now before I get carried away 🤣

[brotherofmercy]

once again thinking about The Worlds End and Pokemon. This time I talk A LOT about it

So if it's like in the original TV series (aka Indigo League), then I imagine all the kids who want pokemon first get them near the end of primary school, with the choice of the pokemon depending on the whatever the Pokemon Organization TM has decided are the 3 starters for the year. Since the lads grew up in the 80s I say their choices were the og Charmander, Squirtle, Bulbasaur trio

Andy:

I think he would've chosen Charmander. Andy was a feisty boy back in the day and I think he'd be interested in raising a fire pokemon. He would've been very responsible with it and trained it super well. However, that man is so Tauros coded to me---look at the way he charges at shit. I think Andy eventually added a Tauros to his team and came to see it as his main pokemon, maybe he even traded his well-raised Charmander for a good Tauros.

During his Miserable Business Man era, Andy would've made less time for Pokemon. I imagine he donates or sells most of his, and the ones he has a sentimental attachment to he lets stay at home or with a relative or something. That said, I can very much picture him getting rid of the Tauros because it's too feisty and impractical, but then secretly thinking of how sad it looked and regretting it forever. (As Andy is wont to do!)

Steven:

That man is incredibly main character coded, I'm saying he chose Charmander. Because fire is cool. I can imagine that he really thought he'd be a professional trainer at some point, but that he gradually gave up on that dream. However, I don't think he'd be able to emotionally detach from his pokemon very easily. I imagine that he has a small team and puts a reasonable amount of free time into to keeping them entertained, the same way a dog owner in the city takes their dog to the park and buys it toys. I can picture him training them so he can bring them to work when he's on a construction site, like training a Sandshrew to stay out of the way and play in the dirt piles, or training his Charizard to help the workers by flying beams around.

Peter:

I really like the idea of Peter choosing Squirtle. Number 1, shy Peter would've related to the pokemon that can hide in its shell, Number 2 it would've loved playing in his pool. I think Peter would be less invested in training it for combat and instead see it as a friend. I imagine that both he and his parents hoped the Squirtle would, on instinct, evolve fast and help protect him from bullies....but that it instead took after Peter's personality and became more of an emotional-support Squirtle than a protective one.

He'd keep it around as an adult. Since he works in his dad's company, he doesn't have to justify having it there, so he could bring it in all the time. I also imagine it as very well-behaved. Even tho Blastoise looks aggressive AF, Peter's is just a big loaf that's content to doze and watch Peter work. (That said, it would be really cute if Pete had Blastoise use its water cannons to help keep the cars extra clean.)

Oliver:

I say he picks Bulbasaur as his starter because 1) what with his early-model cell phone and fancy suit, I think he liked to seem ~different~ and ~more mature~ than his peers. Picking a plant type over a fire or water type fits this vibe, imo 2) I pictured Oliver watering and manicuring the Bulbasaur's plants like a hedge and I cant unsee it.

Like Peter, I think he'd be uninterested in pokemon fighting, but for Oliver it's because he's already based his personality on becoming a businessman. He wouldn't train his Bulbasaur to fight, but he'd be super meticulous with it. He'd totally try to show off how well he's raising/evolving it.

I can imagine him showing houses and asking Venusaur to stand in certain spots to demonstrate what the place would look like with decor (Venusaur would take this job very seriously). Maybe Oliver would get other Pokemon, too, but only so they can help him with his work---like a Ditto that transforms into whatever pokemon the clients own, so it can demonstrate how comfortable their pokemon would be in the house.

Gary:

I like to imagine that, like Ash does in the anime, Gary shows up late on the day Pokemon are given out and is stuck with whatever pokemon are left. I've also gotten really attached to the idea of Gary having a Psyduck. In most of the games, the Pokedex says that Psyduck uses its "strange powers" when it gets overwhelmed by its constant headaches. Some of the Pokedex entries imply that Psyduck has little to no control over these outbursts. This reminds me of Gary's underlying mental distress, as it occasionally leads him to lash out and is (in some ways) the root of the ""cool"" behaviours his peers admired him for in secondary school.

I like to imagine that Gary was super frustrated with getting one of the most difficult Pokemon to train/evolve. He wanted to trade it, but since he wasn't training the Psyduck well (if at all), no one wanted it. From here, I imagine that he kind of left it behind, keeping it in a pokeball and gradually feeling guiltier and guiltier until he hid the ball out of sight so he didn't have to think about it anymore. He'd try to get other Pokemon, but I think he'd be mostly interested in the aesthetics and never get very good at training, so he never kept a pokemon very long before trading it for a new one.

During his lonely era (after secondary when he's lost contact with all his friends), I think Gary would get more invested in building relationships with his pokemon. I like to imagine he finds a Zorua with shitty stats that kept trying to trick trainers into keeping it by imitating their pokemon. Gary would pick the Zorua because he relates to it, number one, but also because its eagerness to please makes it easy to train. Also, Gary would definitely want to use its transformation powers for deception, theft, and other mischief. I also like to imagine that he gets his hands on a Zebstrika, which he wants 1) for the aesthetic, and 2) to have a getaway method when he's not with his car. I really want the Zebstrika to be as impulsive and high-energy as Gary is, so he's forced to become a more patient trainer. (I want the Zebstrika to remain a bit fucked up tho, still occasionally zapping him or throwing him off even after he trains it)

Eventually he returns to his Psyduck, finally taking it out of the pokeball and feeling really bad about having locked it up for so long. I have a million fluff headcanons about him learning to make the Psyduck happy, like giving it things to cover its eyes and ears with so it doesn't get overstimulated as often. My favorite idea is that it loves to hang out in his car (The sound of the road, the closeness of the space, etc etc... it also makes Gary play its favorite songs over and over, which he enjoys doing)