#but just know for now this is gonna end happily

[smoozie]

Did not just watch a full episode of Wild Life in which both of Grian's teammates desperately try to get kills and both end up on red despite (and often because of) their effort, for you guys to keep saying Scar and Jimmy are getting eliminated next episode.

Jimmy has five fucking kills man. He's doing GREAT!! I know that people are attached to the canary curse, and this is Wild Life so I understand anything can happen, but come on. I will admit I don't have high hopes for Jimmy, but I really think people are selling him short this season.

Yeah Scar failed like eight traps this session, but he's still doing well. Ya know why? Because he's good at taking advantage of a situation. That man has six kills on Etho alone for a reason. Do none of you remember last season when Gem attacked Scar early on during the boogeyman apocalypse because she thought he would be an easy kill, and she had to RETREAT because he did too much damage on her?!?

The worst part is that no one is even claiming Jimmy and Scar are in danger for reasonable things, like the fact that Grian (who has the HIGHEST kill count in the series) has just declared them his number one enemies. Everyone is acting like they're both just going to throw themselves off cliffs three times next episode. Like yeah they can both be reckless players but they aren't stupid. They know to stay safe on red. Scar especially performs well on red. (He is a LOT like Joel)

Speaking of which! The Bamboozlers have happily made an alliance with the Family. Two of the strongest pvp players on the server. "But Jimmy killed Joel" yeah and Joel congratulated him because he thought it was a good kill. Scar and Lizzie have had alliances with the Family for a while, now that Jimmy's green there's no bad blood between them. And while I don't think Gem or Joel are gonna die saving any Bamboozlers (well, Joel might for Lizzie), having them on their side may slightly deter Grian's posse considering their desperate attempts on the Family's lives this episode.

POINT BEING: The Bamboozlers are ALL in a really good place at the end of this episode. Their whole team is green, they've secured an alliance with the Family, and they're all competent players. Y'all should be really worried about Mumbo right now. I'm worried about Mumbo.

[deliciousnecks]

I never shipped Nandermo, but this thing with the Guide???

Like why are the writers doing this?

You don't want to make Nandermo canon, ok fine.

But this doesn't make sense for the guide..

Idk, the show has always been a chaotic,fun show.

This season, I'm just watching to see how it ends. I'm beginning to think of last season as the actual finale

Trust the process.

Honestly, I'm not even worried about this. This whole Nandor & The Guide is not coming out of nowhere. I'm like 90% sure there's something cooking in the background, and it's not as obvious as Nandor and The Guide ending up together. Listen, I'm sure simms and all the writers are cackling as they watch people lose their heads over this.

i believe the writers are not that stupid as to throw all these years of a good show down the drain. plus, nothing is adding up. i'm sure that if they were serious about this, if they wanted to sell this to people, they would have added the guide to more episodes and for more time. but so far we have seen her for less than 2 minutes. they are honestly doing 0 shit to sell this "ship" just nandor being as hee always has been "in love" and rushing into things. also, can we take into consideration the guide? even if nandor was so in love with her, she's not? she said this herself.

there's something going on with nandor, and it happened on that hypnosis episode, and if not, something tells me that this "love" his feeling is gonna be something that moves the plot of this season, because this show has always been like that. they hide the little things things that are important for the plot among all the chaos that is happening and brush them aside like they are nothing, only for these bits to come up later in other episodes and be like SURPRISE!

as i said. the story is hiding something and is not as simple nor as obvious as Nandor and The Guide ending in happily ever after. As i said, the writers are not that stupid (or so i choose to believe). Rushing this relationship, magically make it appear out of nowhere, not only yes, would be a big "fuck you" to all those years they had the majority of their audience invested in the "will they or will they not" between nandor and guillermo (even if they were to become canon or not), but it will also make everyone hate this season so much because it would just feel so "?????", that i'm sure that's not what they want. especially this season focusing on nandor realizing how important guillermo is actually to him, but let's move on from that now.

can i be wrong? yes. can the writers also be this stupid? yes. but come on, we know that the writers even ship guillermo and nandor, i mean, the guys have been trying to get a kiss in there for who knows how long. so, honestly? i'm just not even gonna think too hard about this. i'm just gonna enjoy the show and see how things develop... and then maybe get annoyed after. not gonna lose my head over this right now.

[balkanradfem]

So, if you all remember the broken-bones lady and the horrible male, I still visit them pretty often! The woman is still recovering, and there's a lot of chores she can't do, I come by to do her shopping, cleaning, moving things around, and sometimes meal prep.

However, a week ago when I went I had ended up in an argument with the horrible male. I wanted to write about it, but the subject was so controversial I got scared that half of you would get mad at me, so I gave up on sharing it. But during that argument, I crossed the line of what a woman is allowed to say to a male, and I said something that then let him know I find myself smarter than him (which I do), and this shocked and infuriated him. He started to openly despise me.

Since then he couldn't look at me or talk to me, he would avert his eyes away from me, and sometimes criticize me on completely inane stuff (you're making too much noise putting the dishes away). I didn't mind that he finally openly hates me, because at least that's honest.

However today I went over to clean, and things took a different turn. I happened to miss a spot while cleaning, and the woman told me he demanded for me to come back and clean it – and I did, happily, saying something like 'oh I didn't see that!' while being perfectly friendly and happy to fix it. I was alone in the room with him. He started on me then. He told me I was being careless, doing worse job every time. That this was only one of my many mistakes and she, his wife, was just too polite to call me out on it. But he would call me out on it every time.

I just laughed him off and said something along the lines of 'Yeah the older I am the more I suck at this! :) you can tell me if I do something wrong sure!' because I refuse to be unnerved by the bullshit criticism, I didn't particularly care if I did a bad job because missing a spot on the floor is so non-consequential – and I immediately fixed it.

But I was starting to feel uncomfortable in there, and I noticed he waited to be alone in a room with me in order to start on me, and I thought, I'm gonna snitch on him. I'm gonna subtly tell his wife what he did. And I went to her with a smile saying 'Hey your husband is mad at me because I do such a bad job! He told me I'm getting worse and making so many mistakes, and you're just too polite to say so.' and she was stunned and then told me the part I didn't know – he intentionally left some trash in the corner under the curtain where I wouldn't see it, in order for me to miss it, so he could call me out on it! And I'm realizing then, that this was a setup, he wanted to get a chance to berate me, and knew I would miss that spot – because it's a place where vacuum cleaner can't reach, so I only clean it every other time, and this time I didn't.

She then told me that it's not about me, he's lately short and difficult with everyone, even she is having problems with him. She explained to me that it's not his fault, it's just that he's sick and she doesn't know what to do. She begged me not to be mad at him.

And I reassured her not to worry, stroked her back as she told me teary eyed about how she struggles to deal with him almost every day. I was pained by the fact that this woman is in an abusive marriage right now and the only thing she's worried about is the opinion of outsiders, of me. It was more serious than I thought, I thought he just hated me, but he hated her too. And she was heartbroken. She insisted he used to be a good m*n, that this was not 'the real him'.

I decided to be more cautious, and to consult with her before saying anything to him at any point, because if I set him off, it's likely she'll be paying the price for it. This became a hostage situation so fast! A moment earlier I was just annoyed that he's hateful to me, but now I have to worry about what he's going to do to his own wife if I dare to argue with him.

I'm again, so tired of the world males have built where they can just do this, and I can't do anything to stop it, or to even say what I want to say without worrying what's going to happen next. That's an insane way to be expected to live! I want to move away from this city and live in nature so badly right now, where I don't have to be involved in this kind of horror. Death to all males who take their shit out on their wives.

[katyawriteswhump]

the freak in the penthouse: the end!

E-rated (for sexual content), accidental millionaire eddie/sex-worker steve. On tumblr: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3.1 Part 3.2 Part 4.1 Part 4.2 Part 5.1 Part 5.2 Part 6.1 Part 6.2 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 Part 15 Part 16 Part 17 or search #thefreakinthepenthouse :) On AO3

Chapter 18: Epilogue (2/2) and Happily Ever After

They passed through the hotel lobby, grinning like lovestruck morons, lost in each other’s eyes.

Odd couple didn’t even faintly capture it. Eddie was, of course, wearing a thrash metal t-shirt and a bellhop hat, while Steve sported a thousand-dollar designer suit. If they got any judgmental looks, Eddie didn’t notice any more than he cared. To these high society jerks, he might look like a flat-broke stoner. Joke on them was that the credit card Eddie had slammed on the counter was well in the black.

Vecna’s Doom Quest II had been a blockbuster hit. While he’d paid all his early royalties back to Dustin, Suzie and their charitable trusts, he and Steve had plenty of cash left over for them to live a lifestyle that… wasn’t beyond their wildest dreams, actually. So far, and with the exception of the harrowing court cases, it’d been quiet and domestic and just kinda nice.

When they approached the revolving door, Steve reached out and squeezed Eddie’s hand. Steve was always super-vigilant, looking out for him, when they were out and about in crowded places. Occasionally, Eddie also worried they were getting too responsible and middle-aged before their time.

Or maybe not.  

When they finally got back to their rented apartment, there were six messages on the answerphone:

“Dude, pick up!” Gareth whined, on the full-to-bursting tape. “Jeff’s van’s totally busted, so we’re gonna fly down and practice on your gear at the apartment. You better be ready, man.”

Ooookay. Quiet domesticity was about to be shattered.

Eddie had finally persuaded Corroded Coffin to get back together. While he army-crawled his way toward the challenge of performing live again, they’d recorded a demo and scattered-gunned it all over LA. Next week they’d gotten their first actual audition, with a lowkey Indie label.

Now, Eddie grimaced, while Steve made a beeline for the galley kitchen. While Eddie was pumped for the audition, he’d hoped they’d have a day or so more to themselves.

“Better order several crates of beer in,” muttered Steve, pausing to kick a stray drumstick out of his path. He dumped a paper bag of snaffled pastries from the hotel kitchen. “I got first dibs on the leftover cinnamon buns, before your crew eat us out of house and fucking home.”

“Look, I know you said you were fine with the band crashing here,” said Eddie, pursuing Steve across the barely visible linoleum, “you sure about that?”

“I do technically own a hotel for a few more hours.” Steve chugged back some Diet Coke then shrugged. “This place is already cluttered with your shit. I can rarely find middle C on my keyboard, so I don’t see what difference a few more sweaty bodies is gonna make, and… I get it, Eddie. If you guys wanna be real again, or whatever, capture the right vibes, you need to get back to those grass roots.”

As long as nobody smokes grass in my Babe’s apartment. Eddie wasn’t going to say that out loud, because Steve would bristle. Eddie would quietly enforce it anyway.

“Okay, feel free to change your mind,” he said. “They piss us off, I’m sure Robin can store them in your old linen closet, or something.”

Steve snickered, but genuinely seemed chill about it. In fact, his smirk segued into a grin, one hand snaking around to find that strategically placed rip in Eddie’s jeans—so yeah, basically groping Eddie’s butt-cheek. “We better make the most of our privacy, right?” he purred.

Eddie stalled only to plop back on the bellhop hat, which he’d still gotten clutched in one sweaty paw: “Your wish is my command.”

“Jesus, will you drop that shit?” Steve’s grip on Eddie’s ass tightened, and he smacked his lips to Eddie’s in an inarguably hungry kiss.

…

Steve couldn’t ever get enough of kissing Eddie. He couldn’t ever get enough of their life together.

Today, Eddie tasted of coffee and almond pastries and of… yeah, that uniquely awesome taste of Eddie. Kissing him set off the sappiest lyrics wailing in Steve’s ears. He was only sorry, as he backed Eddie out of the kitchen and toward the bedroom, that they’d not gotten Corroded Coffin’s ‘Fire Shroud’ demo blasting from the beatbox. Steve, basically, had Bryan Adams on a hell-loop: ‘You know it's truuuue, Everything I dooooo, I do it for yooooou!’

On the other hand, it was so good to have music as his happy place again.

Before, he’d hardly been able to endure songs he once loved. The feelings that they’d triggered, and the avalanche of memories, had been too overwhelming. Once he’d learned the truth about his parents, he’d been able to grieve at last. To finally move on, knowing they’d done their best to look out for him after all. It wasn’t their fault—nor his, really—that he’d been conned.

He even conceded that Extreme cover of ‘Love of my Life’ was passable. But only after he made Eddie sing the original Queen harmonies—as many as one guy could—while he was belting it out on his other new beloved, his Yamaha keyboard.

One matter between them remained slightly off-key, though.

Eddie was still hyper-conscious about how things had started out, how he’d hired Steve as a hooker. Steve was eternally telling him that he didn’t need to ‘make amends,’ that they’d rarely been out-of-kilter in the bedroom. Eddie still needed reassurance sometimes.

Which Steve was more than willing to give.

Now, when they broke for air, Steve wedged his fingers under the chin strap of the bellhop cap. He swung Eddie around with it before shoving him down flat on their entirely normal-sized double bed. Who needed Emperor-size when you sleep best entangled in each other? Eddie didn’t snore so bad since he quit, while Steve’s asthma was pretty much under control.

Though not as much as he had a demonically grinning Eddie completely under his control. He straddled Eddie’s torso, playfully pinning Eddie’s arms either side of his head.

“I can ask for anything, right?” Steve arched over Eddie, nibbling his lips down the curve of Eddie’s throat.

“Hell, yeeeeeah,” Eddie was saying, his voice pitching toward a squeak. Steve nuzzled his thrumming voice-box and undulated on top of him, bumping and grinding against his groin.

“Let’s start with getting rid of that dumb hat.”  It was flung across the room in an instant. “Seeing as I’m gonna spend the next week being your groupie”—Steve paused to scrub his tongue up the shallow stubble on Eddie’s throat— “I want you to get totally metal on my ass. I mean, Jesus, Munson! It’s been a traumatic day. I’m not in the mood for heavy lifting.”

Then he slammed back down for another kiss, rolling and grappling and hugging and laughing, till Eddie rolled on top, pinning him instead.

“Fuuuuuck, Stevie!” Eddie now sucked Steve’s earlobe, nibbling the line of his jaw. Eddie’s hands slid down his arms, thumbing the super-sensitive arc of Steve’s elbow—Christ, when he was with Eddie, every part of his skin turned into an erogenous zone. They helped each other out of their shirts—not quite sending buttons flying nor seams ripping. Eddie really loved that Exodus t-shirt, which was limited edition and pretty much irreplaceable, while Steve had only sunk money into one premium-brand court day outfit.

“God, I love you so much,” whispered Eddie. “Have I ever told you how beautiful your body is?”

“Yeah. Every day. Never gets old… Shit, yeah… Lower… Gnng!” Eddie’s breaths blazed over Steve’s tightly sucked-in belly, while Steve gyrated up against him. Then Eddie hooked his fingers in Steve’s tailored waistband and peeled Steve’s pants down—a relief, because Steve’s erection was definitely straining plenty of stitches around there. He forgot that the instant he was freed, the pants tossed aside. Eddie took Steve’s dick in his mouth and pure liquid ecstasy overtook him.

Steve rested his head back on the feather-soft pillow, otherwise floating on thin air, all his awareness confined to the blowjob. Eddie suckled briefly, then licked his length, before seeking out that tender patch round the back of Steve’s dick that Eddie knew he loved. Like he loved when Eddie’s rough knuckles kneaded and toyed at the base of his balls. He loved how they knew each other’s desires so damn well.

“Yes, there… Christ!” Steve literally went cross-eyed with need. Nevertheless, while he knew Eddie would happily blow him and swallow every last drop of jizz, that wasn’t what Steve wanted right now:

“Hey, groupie wants his ass played with.”

“Demanding brat, aren’t you, groupie?”

Steve grinned, tightened his fist in Eddie’s hair. “Always.”

Steve rolled onto his belly, and luxuriated in Eddie’s skilled hands, playing him like a goddamn musical instrument. Okay, cliché alert, but who fucking cared? Eddie worked Steve open, slicked fingers strumming inside him, and Steve leaked precum everywhere. They’d need to change the sheets before the band arrived, or there was gonna be some real grungy stains around.

Steve, still squirming and simmering, peeped back to watch Eddie lubing his so-fucking-ready dick.  Steve was in the mood for doggy, so he pushed himself up onto his forearms and knees, keening with relief when he felt Eddie’s cock nudge along his crack. His whole frame tautened to breaking point, tight springs coiling in the base of his dick and sacs. Then he unleashed a comfortable sigh and pressed backward, the same instant Eddie jerked his hips forward and breached him.

He kinda happy sobbed, eyes watering. Oh wow. That moment of total connection… that stretching, searing, almost-too-much yumminess.

“Yes… wow… so good,” he panted.

“Damn, you feel sweet, groupie,” cooed Eddie, an arm bracing Steve’s middle, kissing Steve’s nape. Steve’s shoulders loosened a little and he adjusted to the penetration.

“Not so bad yourself, rockstar.”

Steve snatched a tight breath then exhaled again, long and hard, his body softening toward a puddle of pleasure. Apart from his dick, which was obviously screamingly hard. Screw houses with swimming pools—as far as Steve was concerned, this was Eddie’s forever home. He twisted his head to nip Eddie’s ludicrously soft, lush lips with a wet kiss.

“Metal on my ass, right?”

“Whatever you desire, my Liege.”

Eddie began to move, and so did Steve. Despite what he’d said earlier, Steve found himself totally pepped for a workout. He thrust back against Eddie, setting the rhythm at that perfect pace—fast enough to set his teeth lightly rattling, but slow enough for the drag against his prostate to absolutely set him on fire. He was just reaching for his needy dick, when Eddie beat him to it, chivalrously pumping Steve to the rhythm of their lovemaking.

Steve grinned into the pillow and let the pleasure build and crash through him. They’d melded as one, like waves on the fucking sun-kissed seashore. As Eddie surged into him, Steve crashed back.

“Stevie,” sighed Eddie, voice wavering on pained. “Dammit… Fuck, fuck… how does this just keep getting better?”

“Fuuuuck!” wailed Steve, so not in the headspace for existential discussions. He was caught between wanting this to continue forever, and the sensations getting a touch too much. His climax built in those mad waves, then rushed upon him. As he started to come, Eddie did too, deep inside him, in a series of joyful, juddering thrusts.

…

They floated happily, tangled together, through their shared post-coital high.

Steve wound up dozing with his nose buried courageously close to Eddie’s sweaty armpit. Eddie, on the other hand, wasn’t quite in the mood for a nap. He stretched out and grabbed a music mag from a pile on the bedside cabinet, causing a minor avalanche.

He leafed through, until his attention zoned in on an advertisement that made his blood jump: “Yikes.”

“What?” Steve’s muffled voice resonated through Eddie’s chest.

“Check this out, Babe. The actual owners of Jimi Hendrix’s guitar are putting it up for auction.”

“Oh. Wow.” Steve’s chin dug into Eddie’s pec as he slid his face up to see what Eddie was on about, and Eddie helped by brushing his hair from his eyes. “Well, if you reckon it’s gonna help you in the audition, maybe you should—”

“Naaaah,” said Eddie, the word blending into an unbothered yawn. He chucked the magazine to the floor and curled both arms around Steve, cuddling him a little tighter. “It’s gonna be me and my two true sweethearts against the world from now on.”

“You can battle all you like with your beloved guitar, man. I’m looking forward to not having the world fight back for a change.” Steve sounded invigoratingly bitchy.

Eddie pressed a kiss to his hair. They curled up beneath the covers to enjoy being naked together… till the arrival of Corroded Coffin sent their lives spiralling off into a new kind of chaos, this time entirely of their own choosing.

The End

🐰💕🐰💕🐰💕🐰💕 🐰💕🐰💕🐰💕🐰💕 🐰💕🐰💕🐰💕

perma-tag for the best inspiration friend ever: @wheneverfeasible (who has kindly put together a playlist for this fic, which I will get up on my tumblr over the next few days hopefully, after a few final additions 😊)

Thank you for reading to the end and I really hope you enjoyed the fic. Likes, re-blogs, comments and follows are always very much appreciated and will help feed the bunnies for possible future fic, though I've a feeling this will be my last long fic, at least for now, though I do intend to finish all my WIPs, including 'power of love' over the next few weeks, if possible🐰💕🐰💕🐰💕🐰💕

On tumblr: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3.1 Part 3.2 Part 4.1 Part 4.2 Part 5.1 Part 5.2 Part 6.1 Part 6.2 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 Part 15 Part 16 Part 17 or search #thefreakinthepenthouse :)

On AO3 All my ST stuff on AO3

[rafyki]

The point is that I know the show is gonna end well, that Jack and Joke will be together, that they're gonna get married and adopt Toi Ting and live happily ever after. I'm like 99.99% sure we're gonna have this happy ending (both bc well, YinWar said they made this show for their fans and I'm sure they know the fans want a happy ending, and also bc thematically speaking if the show ended badly it would ruin everything and send a pretty horrible message)

So like, I'm really not afraid one of them will die or anything

But I'm still so fucking scared of what's gonna happen 😭 everything could go wrong and they could fix it in the last episode I DONT KNOW the writing in this show has been fenomenale up until now, but there are some things that Thai dramas like to do a lot and that I hate (like the fucking time skip in the last episode)

Anyway yeah, I'm not afraid that we won't have a happy ending, I'm just scared of how we'll get there

[randomprose]

a series of texts/letters/notes that mo guan shan has written for he tian but will never send

note: he tian left after high school

—

xx/xx/xx to: chicken dick [unsent]

are you at wherever the fuck you should be at now? hope your flight was as shitty as your goodbye was

—

xx/xx/xx

Decided to give the old college experience a try after all. The high school teachers did say my grades were good enough to apply to some. Thanks for that I guess by the way. Studying wasn’t so bad when you have help.

Tuition costs are gonna be a bitch though so I’ll have to look for scholarship and shit.

I’m keeping my promise and trying my best to be better.

—

xx-xx 01:09 PM to: chicken dick [unsent]

[photo attached: a black puppy]

ma got a new dog. the mutt followed her from the market after she shooed some bigger dogs picking on it. 

xx-xx 01:10 PM to: chicken dick [unsent]

now it switched to following me around it’s fucking annoying. i have to look where i walk or i’ll step on it and then it’ll cry non-stop. stupid mutt. 

xx-xx 01:10 PM to: chicken dick [unsent]

told ma not to name it or it’ll get attached.

—

xx-xx 10:34 AM to: chicken dick [unsent]

[photo attached: a black puppy with an orange collar]

named him tian-tian

—

xx/xx/xx

Got accepted to a university in Shanghai. Food science and tech. It feels so fucking surreal.

Ma cried when we got the acceptance letter. I legit thought it was another rejection but the envelope was different. She opened the letter because my hands were shaking. It came with a fucking scholarship. She’s on the phone now telling all our relatives about it. We’re gonna see Pa tomorrow to tell him.

I wish you were here to open the letter with me too, chicken dick.

—

xx-xx 02:38 AM to: chicken dick [unsent]

ma said there’s a chance pa could get out on parole. they’re hopeful but i don’t wanna get my hopes up. 

xx-xx 02:40 AM to: chicken dick [unsent]

sorry. idk who else to tell this to.

—

xx/xx/xx

I applied for an athletic scholarship too. Track and field. The one the school gave was just for basic tuition. This one will cover the rest. It helped that I won a couple of track meets in high school. Guess all that running from gang’s in middle school paid off, huh?

Did you ever imagine I’ll be in college with not one but two scholarship? ‘Cause I sure as hell fuckin’ didn’t. Holy fucking shit.

Still gotta work part time though. Living expenses in Shanghai is no joke. Fuck. Do you know how much cong you bing costs here? Don’t even get me started on how much a bowl of noodle is here. Unbefuckinglievable. 

It wasn’t even as good as the one we used to eat at after school. I miss eating xiaomian with you.

—

xx-xx 11:21 AM to: chicken dick [unsent]

shanghai is fucking big and confusing. and busy. 

xx-xx 11:30 AM to: chicken dick [unsent]

i missed a station and messed up my train switch.

xx-xx 01:19 PM to: chicken dick [unsent]

it’s fine. i still made it to the campus. lots of rich boys here like you btw. you would’ve fit right in.

—

xx/xx/xx

First years have to live on campus and the dorming system fucking sucks ass. And my roommate was an even bigger dick than you but at least he wasn’t a slob. No one will top you in that department I guess.

Rented a cheaper apartment off campus this year. It’s a shitty studio type, a bit cramped, but I like the privacy. It’s also closer to my part-time job and there’s this elderly couple who lives below me. I help them around sometimes and they give me food. The old landlady is a bit of a hardass though but…I think you would’ve charmed and won her over too, you smarmy ass shithead.

Rent isn’t cheap but it’s not too expensive either. If you were here, we could’ve shared an apartment. A regular one, not the high-end one you used to live in. Better for costs and splitting chores—not that you were any good at them, but you would’ve gotten better if you stayed. I wasn’t gonna tolerate your rich boy ass in college.

I know you had to leave but I wish you stayed instead. Would’ve been less lonely here.

—

xx/xx/xx

Finals exams are coming up and it’s kicking my fucking ass. Between classes and my part-time job I hardly have time to study. It’s a good thing sports training and extra-curricular activities are on pause now. But holy fucking shit why is it so hard to study?? It’s like I’m back in middle school and nothing is going in my head. How did I make it through high school?!

Yeah, yeah. I know. You were there. You tutored me and shit. Whatever, you dick. I don’t know why but it was just easier to focus with you around…but also not. It’s…you’re a distraction, but also you help me focus. Does that makes sense?

I guess what I’m trying to say is…you being around made me want to do better. 

It’s selfish but I wish it was just Jian Yi. I wish I got to keep you here with me.

—

xx/xx/xx

Exams are finally fucking done ended. I think I passed all of them. I have to pass all of them. I wanna graduate next year already. I can't be delayed. I’m so exhausted I feel like my brain is running on fumes. Bet you’ll be all smug and shit because you know you aced all your exams, you fucking smart ass. If you were here I mean. Fuck. I’m hungry but I’m too tired to get up. I want those sandwiches you used to make. If you were here would you make them for me? Would you pat my head and tell me I did a good job? When are you coming back? I miss your stupid smugass face. I miss y—

—

xx/xx/xx

I smoked a cigarette tonight. Just one. I was at a party and someone somehow had real cigarettes instead of a vape or those fancy e-cigarette shit. Does your rich boy ass use those? Or do you still prefer real nicotine? Bet you still smoke sticks you fucking edgelord.

I smoked in the balcony while my friends talked shit. Yeah, I have friends, dick head. You pick a few of those up when you do the college experience apparently. The owner of the house and the host is also my friend. Never imagined my punk ass self to hang out with college kids and get invited to honest to god normal college parties, but, fuck it. Here I am.

Zhengxi was there too. We go to the same university. Don’t think I ever mentioned that before, have I? I’m not sure what he’s taking. I think it was business? Something with a lot of math. I don’t fucking know. He’s…he’s been better. He was a fucking hot mess after Jian Yi left but now he’s…still a mess. Sometimes. I am too. After you left. But he’s trying. I am too. And some days are harder than others.

I don’t really smoke. Just felt like it tonight. Maybe it’s the alcohol (no, I’m not drunk, I barely drank) or the company. Maybe I just missed you and thought this is what you’ll do if you were here.

It was menthol. The cig I smoked. It fell cool in my lungs, calming almost, and I kind of understand why you're addicted to this shit I guess. If I didn’t hate the taste of smoke and the aftertaste maybe I’ll be too.

I didn’t hate it when you were blowing it in my mouth though.

The air in the balcony was cold. The smoke from the cig reminded me how you’d sometimes forget you still have a lighted stick between your fingers and just watch the smoke float up. I finished the stick and stubbed it twice on the ash tray before twisting it. Just like how you put it out.

—

xx/xx/xx

‘will he be sad if i leave?’ you wrote that down in your notebook. Before. In middle school. It was scratched over by ballpoint but the ink was blue and the words were written in black. It’s like you didn’t want to erase it after all. Did you want me to read it, you fuck?

Will I be sad if you leave? Guess what, dick head? I’m fucking devastated. Not really. 🖕

[belliesandburps]

Interactive - Favorite Burp Scenario

I need something to take my mind off the fact that we are home to the dumbest, most bigoted fucking assholes on this planet, and I feel like a lot of you probably feel the same way right now. So, how about another interactive game? Send me character requests via my askbox here and I will respond with my favorite burp scenario to imagine for them. (Note, ideally, keep it to characters I know or that you think I may know)

[jq37]

Descendants: The Rise of Red is kind of a bizarre movie to talk about critically because, imo, it almost doesn't make sense to talk about it in the usual terms of good vs bad or enjoyable vs not enjoyable when the way more obvious tension is finished vs unfinished.

Because, more than any other movie I've ever seen, it does *not* read as a full movie. And I don't mean in a "this movie has a cliffhanger" kind of way. The Empire Strikes Back and Across the Spiderverse fit that description. They end on big dramatic cliffhangers that point to a resolution in the third installment.

But Rise of Red just sets all this stuff up and then...ends without concluding anything. It doesn't feel like the first movie in a trilogy (or duology). It feels like the first act of a two-act musical. It very specifically reminds me of the end of the first act of Into the Woods where all the main characters sing the song Ever After about how they all fixed their problems with magic and nothing bad will ever happen to them again and then the narrator ominously says "To be continued" before the curtain drops. But in Into the Woods you know there's a second act and this movie wasn't sold as the first act of a bigger story. Like sure, it has the, "You didn't think this was the end" tag at the end like all the other movies, but those movies were complete, self-contained stories even though they had sequels. This was NOT a full story. It's half of one story.

Like, if we're supposed to take this as a full story, there are so many bizarre choices:

Why did they make sure to mention that Cinderella and Charming fell in love at the ball at the top if it wasn't meant to set up Back to the Future style, "Oh no, I accidentally got my mom banned from the ball so she's not gonna fall in love with Dad and I won't be born" shenanigans?

Why did Maddox very pointedly have that bit about "you could lose your mom completely" if that was never going to come into play? Red never did anything to endanger Bridget or endanger her own birth so it doesn't make sense as a warning in that way.

Why was there all this focus on this Carrie on prom night moment for Bridget if we LITERALLY NEVER SAW CASTLECOMING? Why dance around this moment and talk about it all cloak and dagger with no specificity if they weren't building up to some big reveal that it wasn't as straightforward as it seemed? And like, they leaned in HARD with making Bridget the nicest, sweetest, cotton candy princess as a teen so I need WAY more than, "She got pranked by known bullies she's been enduring with a smile very handily up to this point" to buy that she went from that to "murderous dictator". And even if she did become murderous, I find it insanely hard to believe that she'd include her best and only friend on the list of people she wants to suffer unless there was a betrayal. I find it INSANE that there wasn't a falling out scene at any point in this movie with how thickly they were laying on the admiration and camaraderie.

(Note: And adult Cinderella def has guilty vibes re: the Queen at orientation. Which I know I'm not imagining because it's literally spelled out in the Jr Novelization!)

Before the time travel element of the movie started, I thought they were going for something like they go to the past and realize that Bridget was bullied not by the VKs but by the spoiled royals, and Ella ends up joining in the bullying once she gets with Charming, betraying Bridget and justifying her whole "Love Ain't It" philosophy. Or Ella ditching her at the last minute to be with Charming meaning she has to deal with the monster prank alone and it was the being alone rather than the prank itself that hurt her (though that is NOT a good enough reason to go all off with their heads on your subjects). The fact that, as far as we know right now, it literally was just a relatively mild and reversible prank that caused all of this is just, such flat storytelling, you know?

But! All of this makes way more sense if this is meant to be the first act of a single contained story. And I don't wanna be all "Pepe Silvia, secret good 4th episode of Sherlock" about this but I did see this picture:

Which seems to indicate that this was written as a Part One. Which, if so, idk why they wouldn't advertise it that way but whatever. The point is, if that's the case then it means that we're potentially in bad pacing territory rather than straight up bad storytelling territory. Because this isn't a bad place to be halfway through your story:

The heroes, warned that time travel is dangerous, have gone back in time to change the heart of a brutal tyrant before she can stage a coup. They seemingly succeed in their mission and when they come home, everything is great! But then, the side effects of time travel start to catch up with them. Chloe realizes that, in breaking the vase, she prevented her mother from going to the ball and falling in love with her dad (who was conspicuously absent from the final scene btw) which means she's starting to be forgotten and erased from the timeline. And Red realizes that though this new version of her mom is as sweet and kind as the teen she once met, she's a complete stranger to her (fulfilling the Hatter's warning that she could lose her mom completely). So they have to go back in time once more to make sure the Ella and Charming fall in love again, perhaps at the cost of whatever bad thing that happened to Bridget happening again and bringing back the original version of her future self. But, now with more context of how her mom became that way, Red can now talk to her mother and persuade her to give people another chance.

Boom, that gives us time to go back and hit everything we haven't yet hit. We can pay off the time travel tropes that were set up but not explored. We can go to Castlecoming which feels so obviously set up to be the centerpiece of this story (like, come on, Back to the Future literally does the school dance thing. This is Time Travel Storytelling 101). We can actually get info about what the prank was and why it affected Bridget so completely.

(Note: This is a side thing but it really strikes me as so crazy that Bridget would so SUCH a big 180 here. Like, I know the Queen of Hearts is a silly, goofy, campy villain, but she straight up murders people and there's no way to get around that if we're taking her out of the surreal story she comes from and putting her in a (comparatively) grounded story. If I wasn't doing a betrayal plot, I would make the twist that the spell that turned Bridget into a "monster" didn't just have a physical effect, it had a mental effect and it magically twisted her personality to be the way it is now. So they broke the physical half of the curse, but neglected the other half and it's been festering the whole time, turning her as evil as she was sweet. Because like, a simple physical transformation isn't that big of a deal to have such heavy security--Bridget made cupcakes with a transformative effect and that was totally fine. I'm not saying that that's what's gonna be the case. I just think it would be an explanation that makes sense for why she changed so crazy much that makes more sense than a simple prank or even a betrayal. Her mom wasn't even evil! How did she go from zero to murder without even an evil mom to push her onto the path? But I'm super digressing right now.)

(Note #2: OK, one last thing. The trap on the book presumably would have hit the VK's and trapped them in Merlin's office regardless of what Chloe and Red did, right? That's like, net zero influence on the timeline. I genuinely can't tell if that's a straight up plot hole or set up to be like, "Oh no. Actually when she said that she was turned into a monster in front of everyone it was meant in a less literal way." Like she was just made to look bad and that was the real thing that pushed her over the edge. Like idk. It really feels like the only thing they really did that would change the timeline was get Ella banned from the dance and presumably out of the way where she couldn't hurt Bridget. OK NOW I'm done.)

Anyway, my point is that this is not how I would have structured my movie and I think this was a super weird way to go into the second era of Descendants movies, but they can still tell a complete story if that's their plan. I'm genuinely really curious to see if this pans out to be a fairly competently told story that just happens to be split over two movies or a complete fumbling of the narrative bag because it could really be either at this point and it's fascinating to me.

[buffaluff]

Buck is pointing up at one of the fossils, Eddie leaning in close to him, their shoulders pressed together. Their heads are tilted together, too, but here’s the thing: it could easily be totally platonic. Especially since Eddie and Buck have a well-documented history of being touchy with each other. But…it’s a really cute picture, one that Buck is considering framing, because he is disgustingly sentimental like that. He just wants to keep it to himself.

OKAY SO once upon a time, @onward--upward wrote a buddie hockey au that completely altered my brain chemistry and i yelled emphatically about it every time it updated until we became friends. so i had to include the tiniest homage to that lovely fanfic in their holiday card and now that it’s arrived i can throw it to the wolves you lovely people. so here’s buck and eddie on their denver museum of nature and science date team outing 🥰

in conclusion please read steppin’ into fate and give q lots of love. (she needs it, she’s a leafs fan 😘)

[marypsue]

I'd love to hear your thoughts on S1 of ST being a tragedy! No main character dies, so I never thought of it that way before

I mean, nobody has to die for a story to be a tragedy (at least, in the modern definition. I'm pretty sure '(almost) everybody dies' is a requirement of Greek tragedies and Renaissance revenge tragedies). But also, no main character dies in season one...if you take season one as part of a series. Which it wasn't originally conceived as.

I am not going looking for copies of the original pitch bible, because I am lazy, and also I only saw them floating around this webbed site. But the show changed a lot from the initial pitch (Joyce had a Long Island accent! Lucas' parents were divorcing! Murray was there and named Terry Ives! Most of what ended up in Hopper's character originally belonged to Mr. Clarke! The original pitch bible is fascinating). And part of the original pitch was a proposal for possible sequels.

The Duffers' proposal for a possible sequel was "It's ten years later, and Eleven is dead".

So that's the setup. Everything that came after season one was made up wholecloth after season one was a hit and people wanted more, but also people loved the adorable little psychic murder child (cue the Duffers shockedpikachu.jpg) and Netflix obviously recognised it would be a bad call to make a new season without her in it. So it makes sense to take season one as a unit, as a self-contained story on its own. You can also take it as part of a whole, but it makes sense to read it first as a complete story. Especially given the thematic drift of later seasons and the way they are...I'm just going to say it, each new season is very much added-on to what came before rather than being built on foundation that the earlier season(s) laid. It is very clear there was never a planned five-season story arc from the beginning. (This isn't necessarily always a bad thing, when it comes to sequels, but it does mean it makes sense to 'read' each season as its own thing.)

Okay, now that we've established all of that. Season one has one very clear goal, one very clear stake for the characters: save Will Byers from the Upside Down. (I like this. It makes the stakes both extremely high and extremely personal, it makes it very easy to understand each character's motivation, it also keeps the stakes grounded in reality. I like this a lot.) And by the end of the season, that goal is accomplished. So at first blush, you're right, season one doesn't look like a tragedy.

But when you start to unpack it a little, you start to see just how many important things were lost along the way. It's most glaringly obvious with Mike and El, with Nancy and Barb. The whole Wheeler family is fractured down the middle, with Mike and Nancy on one side and Ted, Karen, and Holly on the other, and Karen, who's been trying so hard the whole time to be part of her children's lives and understand what's going on with them, is aware of the ever-expanding gulf between them but will never be able to cross it, and will never fully know why. Hopper's finally managed to snatch a kid out of the jaws of death, save a woman he obviously cares about from the pain of losing a child, and Joyce has finally had someone believe her, support her, trust her. But it became blindingly obvious to me on my fourth rewatch that Hopper's plan, from the moment he went to leave the middle school gym, was always to trade El for Will. And that decision (and the fact that Joyce obviously understands that he did something to get the lab to let them go after Will, but she obviously doesn't dare press him on what) has broken her trust in him, and left him with what looks like an equally heavy burden of guilt as what he was carrying before. The lab stays open. The government gets away with everything. No one will ever know the true extent of the hurt they've caused.

And in the end, none of it even saved Will. He's back. He's alive. But he's spitting slugs in the sink. He's permanently marked by the Upside Down, and by trying to hide it from his family, he's putting a crack down the centre of them, as well. They're losing Will, just as surely as they had when they thought he was dead, just without him going anywhere.

And there's still a hole in the world.

The fragile bonds of community, the things that people share in common, the way catastrophe can bring people together and bring out the very best in them, are the major thematic threads woven through season one. Human connection is the only thing that can change what seems inevitable, the only thing that can bring back what's seemingly lost forever.

And it's still not enough to protect anyone from the random tragedy of the world.

The love was there. The love mattered. The love bent the entire course of the world around itself.

And it still wasn't quite enough.

If that's not a tragedy, then I don't know what is.

[ghostbeam]

I have a question: do u guys have any fics that u feel like the reader and whatever character u were writing for don’t end up together after the fic is over🎤🎤🎤

[areyouwho-ithinkyouare]

me internally when i’m trying to respect and recognise that my dad has unaddressed autism that impacts the way he handles social interractions while also trying to not just excuse the shitty insensitive behaviour that has absolutely contributed to my mental health issues

[alagaisia]

This is something I learned at one of the pre-op visits for my breast reduction! My surgeon was basically I think an independent surgeon (as I guess I would imagine is common for “cosmetic”/plastic surgeons?) and she was telling us a little bit about what to do for talking to insurance about the surgery and stuff, and she mentioned that for us going through insurance it would be at a particular hospital, but she also often did surgeries where people didn’t use there insurance, and she did those at some other place, and the price she charged up front was much lower, because that was the actual cost of the surgery (and equipment and everyone’s salaries etc.) and she had to raise the ticket price significantly when people would go through insurance, because the insurance company would negotiate that price down, and then keep some of the money. (Obviously for us and many others it still worked out to be cheaper for us out of pocket to go through insurance, but the amount she made was roughly the same even though it would look like she charged thousands more for my breast reduction than for someone not using insurance)

So, when you get those bills from your insurance after a doctors visit, and there’s that little table that tells you, this is the cost of the visit, this is the discount we got you, this is how much we paid, this is how much you still have to pay?

That line about “we got you this discount” is misleading. They actually caused the provider to raise the initial cost of your care by that amount, or more, in anticipation of the insurance company refusing to pay the full amount so that they could tell you they got you a discount.

"Why does a 15-minute visit with a doctor cost 150 bucks in America???" you're gonna want to read Money-Driven Medicine, by Maggie Mahar, and probably also The Social Transformation of American Medicine, to answer that question. It is not because your doctor is a greedy bastard; your doctor does not see most of that money. It is because the system is broken to a level that is truly impressive in its dedication to making a shit ton of money for insurance company executives and shareholders.

[triglycercule]

swapinverse posting again tell me why crash is like. a rebound for error after he totally fucked things up for swap in askerror. why am i writing these guys in vice.ser's lore to have error compare crash to swap ALL THE TIME and say he's lowkeyBETTER than the dumb berry,,,,, bro,,,,,, swap come get your mans the error version of cross is STEALING HIM. oh shit wait you're in the omega timeline living your best life while your ex friend is sulking over his guilt my bad king keep grinding ‼️

even in another multiverse cross remains the most perfect shippable man im afraid. i already got lowkey crink in this what's next crerror??? i havent made the muse twins meet crash yet but if they did it would be cream and crossmare (but better because melpomene's not a total cunt compared to nightmare)

[bulldagger-bait]

actively live laugh loving through a crisis of sexuality except its not in the fun way (the fun way is: oh my! am i gay? i should find a hot dyke to experiment with)

im twenty three years old i cannot seriously be wondering whether or not i like boys. i already did this shit in middle school like can we not

[keeps-ache]

It Is Time (i want to draw but i don't know what lol)