#but like. this time last week i did not have a single bit of footage. didn’t have anything until tuesday night and that was only one part of

[fappellmoan]

sending another rough version to this lady so she doesn’t kill me with her mind i guess idfk

[sweatervest-obsessed]

okay so i'm thinking post!prison reid and reader break up bc he's not ready to be in a relationship after everything that happened in prison. they just don't get back together bc when spence is finally ready it's been a while and they both think it's too late and no one makes a move and they remain as friends UNTIL jj's love confession brings some feelings back onto the surface - reader finds out about it and (cue jeid and their weird, longing glances🥲) has a whole it's all really over moment and then there's distance between her and spencer until there's a confrontation about it and BAM a love confession and second chances😁😁

THIS IS SUCH A MESS but i hope you get my point</33

Um yeah so, absolutely. Some angst for you indeed. I love a convoluted and angsty fight, especially whenever someone is arguing in circles with someone else because they're both just so passionate but angry, anyways, heheh, enjoy!!

WC: 1.5k

TW: Arguing, mentions of violence, mentions of prison, mentions of guns, honestly if you watched CM then that is your TW.

“I just want to know why you’ve been so distant lately. I mean, this is the first time I’m speaking with you one on one in over a week, and it’s because I manage to catch you in the office at nine fucking pm Y/n.”

"So what do you want me to say, Spence? What could I possibly have to say to you? I'm pretty sure Jennifer said everything there is to say."

This caused Spencer to lose all of the oxygen in his body. It froze up. You weren’t supposed to know what JJ had said, no one was supposed to know what JJ had said. 

You and Spencer were in the bullpen of the BAU. Luckily for both of you, since it was so late, no one else was there. Neither of you were extremely public when it came to your relationship, which meant neither of you would have chosen to have this conversation fight in a public place, but no one else was around.

I want you to say something you're afraid to say. Something you'd never tell anybody. And you better make it good. Cause if it's not, it's going to be the last thing you ever say. What's it gonna be?

“How did you know about that?” He whispered. 

“JJ asked Garcia to go through the footage, apparently she wanted to make sure no one could ever access the audio from it.”

"Y/n I--" Spencer closed his eyes, his jaw set. He didn’t even know what to say at this point. You had both clearly made up your minds about this, yet neither of you wanted to see the carnage, the outcome of it all. So, instead, you chose to stand in the middle of the bullpen, fighting against one another.

Fighting for one another.

"I just don't understand why you're so upset about this."

“Spencer–you didn’t even tell me about it, I had to find out about it from Penelope, and who knows who else she told. You were afraid to tell me, yet that giant genius brain of yours can’t, oh I don't know, comprehend just a teeny tiny little bit why this makes me upset?" For the millionth time this evening, you scoffed. 

Something you would never say aloud, not even to your partner. Your deepest, darkest secret. Impress me, or I'll kill him.

"Y/n--"

Spence, I've always loved you. I was just too scared to say it before, and now things are really just too complicated to say it now. I'm sorry, but you should know.

"Fuck Spencer I have been in love with you since I first fucking joined this team." You gasped out. The air around your head got thinner and felt dizzying like you were floating through the air now that this was off your chest. "And I loved you when you asked me on a date. I loved you through Emily's death. I loved you when you asked me to move in with you. I loved you through when Morgan left the team. I loved you through Hotch leaving. I loved you through fucking Cat Adams. I loved you even after I came home one night and you were making out with her against our fucking door. I loved you through every single case and every single flaw. I loved you when you fucking relapsed a few years ago. I even loved you when you went MIA for weeks and then found out you were in a fucking Prison. And I still fucking love you now. But, instead of being together, you asked for a break."

"That's not fair..." He whispered.

"What? Respecting you and your boundaries? Knowing that you needed time to readjust after you had been released, and believing in your promise that once you felt ready to try a relationship again you'd come to me and talk to me about it? And then watching as you fall for JJ all fucking over again? With your stupid fucking glances. This isn't a goddamn tv show Reid, I can see when you both stare at one another across the room, I can see it."

"We don't.."

"You do. You both do. And then, you tell me that Jennifer fucking Jareau is willing to make her last words the fact that she has always loved you and has always been in love with you, and you---" Your voice froze, the sound cutting out. You looked straight at Spencer, not caring about the tears running down your cheeks. You watched as his hand twitched up. When the two of you were dating, Spencer used to wipe away every single of your tears. But now he wouldn't even lift his hand.

"I--what."

You took another breath, trying to calm down, and really think through your words. "This woman who has been your best friend for over a decade just fucking confessed her love for you, in a life-or-death situation, and you're telling me, that she just fucking made it up, pulled it out of her ass, or at least is telling you that she did and now the two of you are going to act like everything is normal and okay?"

"Y/n..."

"You were in love with her for years Spencer. And now, all of a sudden she confesses her love to you, and that changes nothing?"

"No, Y/n, it doesn't. It changes nothing. Does it hurt a bit? Yes. Does it change the fact that I love you? No." Spencer was trying to keep his voice level, hoping you'll continue to match his volume since he didn't want anyone to potentially stumble by and hear your argument. His hand reached for your wrist, but you couldn't bear to feel his skin against yours.

This caused you to let out a water laugh, tears sliding into your mouth, ugly but pouring down your cheeks. A waterfall of grief in all of its rawest forms.

"You still love me."

"Why-Why is that funny."

"I have been waiting to hear those words since you walked out of that fucking prison and the first time I hear it in years, it's because you're trying to justify loving someone else."

"That's not true."

Make it a million and one, you scoffed.

"I have loved you since the moment you first walked through those doors. You were in a pale blue pair of pants, and a black sweater--I remember it because Emily complimented the pants. I spend my whole life loving you and manage to never fully give you every single piece of love I have because there's simply not enough time in the world. I would kill for you. I would go to prison all over again if it meant you would be okay in this world." Spencer ran a hand through his hair, his voice strained. But his eyes never left yours. "Last week, when that unsub had his gun against your head, I fired before he even spoke, not because I assessed it was the right time or whatever fucking excuse I gave to Emily. I fired that bullet because if you died in front of me, I'd......The only thing I was thinking about the entire fucking time JJ and I were stuck in that room was how the fuck I was going to be able to tell you I love you one last time because I wasn't fucking smart enough to take my chance and say it to you every single day."

Your chest was heaving, but you didn't move towards him. It didn't feel right, it didn't feel real.

Spencer was able to take your hand in his, enclosing it between both of his, trying to get you to look at him. "I should have told you the moment I was ready to try a relationship again, but I thought you...I thought you had moved on because I wasn't worth waiting for."

This caused you to laugh again, eyes red from crying. "Don't fucking start with that shit Spencer.''

"I'm telling the god's honest truth."

"I waited for you throughout all of Prison. I waited for you through Maeve. I am still pathetically standing right fucking in front of you, waiting for you to hopefully realize that you still love me."

He kissed your hand. "And I don't deserve you at all for it."

"Do you still love her?"

"Y/n."

"Answer the question, Spencer. Or I'm done. I-I can't do this any longer, watching you....the way she looks at you just--"

Spencer pulled you into his arms, enclosing your body in his arms and kissing the side of your head. "I have always, and will always, love you Y/n Y/l/n. And I want to spend the rest of our lives proving to you that I would choose you, I want you, over and over again."

“That’s not an answer Spencer.” You whispered, rigid in his arms.

“I-I.” He closed his eyes. “I did. And I still do love her, but not like that. I haven’t been i-in love with her since the moment you walked through those doors.”

Spencer felt the weight of your head against his shoulder as you finally conceded and hugged him back, tightly. “Let's go home.” He muttered into your head, waiting patiently for you to hum in agreement. 

Neither of you moved though. You both stood there, locked eternally in the other’s embrace, enjoying the peace you felt for the moment, even though tomorrow was a new day, where you would have to sort through how you really felt about all of this. 

But tonight, you stood with your arms around your love, forever.

[mettywiththenotes]

I know the general conclusion people are coming to is "wow so nothing has changed the civilians haven't changed their minds nothing has changed in society" but. how many chapters has it been since the end of the war. actually a better question would be how many days/weeks has it been since the end of the war. because idk man things aren't going to change as quickly as that

You have to factor in how no one outside of Izuku, Shouto and Ochako knew about them wanting to save the villains. When the footage of the final war is inevitably shared around, the first thought probably isn't "wow they saved those bad guys" but likely just the fact that they stopped them from doing more damage meaning they can put them in jail or whatever

Even when you put that aside, society is unlikely to change in a short space of time anyway because there was the general idea that the heroes winning meant bringing things back to how they were. And bringing things back to how they were means a society that favors the good quirks and good victims over the people who are ignored and those who slip through the cracks. If they get that back, then of course things aren't going to change immediately

And in the end, they did get it back. The villains have been stopped. The heroes prevailed. Society is rebuilding as fast as possible like nothing happened. But we've been shown that the idea "things are going back to normal" is usually accompanied by the implication it may seem like that but really things will change in an inevitable way

The saviour squad as a whole (Izuku, Shouto, Ochako, Hawks) all have the potential to speak up about their experiences, prove the world/country wrong about their surface-level view of villains. Shouto and Ochako could relay their thoughts, what their intentions were, what their conclusions are now. Izuku could choose to tell everyone what he saw in Tomura, the crying child. More than that, he could do some introspection, think over his time with Tomura (USJ, mall scene, war arc and so on) and talk about his thoughts too. Hawks being one of the first of the heroes who tried and failed to save his villain is an interesting parallel to Izuku, and also shows that he could have a personal account on this too

With all this in consideration, I believe that it's not going to be a random relaying of these experiences in bits and pieces over the remaining chapters, but rather a single united action together - like their own televised interview or something. It's not like Hawks wouldn't have the power to organize it, the HC literally has the authority to put what they want in the media. Though whether that happens or not remains to be seen

But the point I'm trying to make is that this is going to take time. The whole of society isn't just going to wake up and realize the error of their ways after all of that. There has to be a beginning, a starting line, to the conclusion that maybe villains deserve something better

I say that this is going to take time, while knowing that we have only 3 chapters of the story left... and while it frustrates a lot of people, it's looking to me like this is going to be an open ending. I imagine the very last chapter will show the starting line of change. Personally I'm okay with that, I think it would be compelling. Depending on how it is set out, I don't think it would be a bad ending

Idk how exactly to end this post but... it just seems like people think that all hope is lost because the civilians didn't all collectively wake up the day after the war and change their minds, and I don't think it works that way. It will take time. I believe Hori may give the story an open ending so we are shown the starting line and in the end it will be up to us how things change specifically

[the-technicolor-whiscash]

me reading your posts about astronaut history (i literally do not know anything at all but am drawn in by your thoughts and read all the posts all the way through)

Thank you lmao I know too much about the early astronauts and have no one to subject to my knowledge so I bring it here. I cannot deny i definitely have a little bit of a parasocial thing going on there but unlike many who blindly deify these men I at least acknowledge that many of them were extremely flawed (which speaks to why so many of them got divorced because they were workaholics riding death machines for a living) and while i greatly enjoy learning about them and poking fun at them, I will be the first to admit that some of them should not be admired for anything other than the work they did. Alan Shepard was a total dog who cheated on his wife obsessively (and he was also kind of a bitch if you didn't play his game right), Buzz Aldrin's a notorious shithead who was a raging alcoholic and even the other astronauts couldnt stand being around him, Jim Irwin was an abusive husband before having a religious experience on the moon and becoming an evangelical, and several of them went on to become republican politicians. These guys were a product of their time and their upbringing. Nearly all of them were former military test pilots. None of them were good at expressing human emotions except for maybe Alan Bean (whose artistic spirit caused him issues in the astronaut office but resulted in some of the most beautiful space artwork) because they effectively had the emotions beat out of them by the nature of being a test pilot and watching up to 50% of your coworkers get turned into ground beef.

The early astronauts were an interesting crowd in a totally unique time in human history. That's why I like learning about them, learning about their dynamics, their personalities. Do I think I'd be capable of being friends with many of them? Absolutely not. Truth be told I get on pretty well with former military folks but what I can't stand is an ego. These sons of bitches had egoes that stretched up to the moon and back. And part of the issue is that the astronaut selection process back then was looking for the all-american boy (preferably with a degree in engineering) who just so happened to have a personality capable of being stapled into a capsule with as many as two other dudes for a week or two with no private toilet. I am extremely glad that we've moved beyond that in our astronaut criteria and have gone on to hire people who can express human emotions. And also gay people shoutout to Sally Ride for being the first known queer person to fly in space (even though she wasn't out at the time she flew). We may not have gotten the first man in space but we did beat the Russians on gay people in space so I'd consider that a space race victory.

Oh also don't take my word as gospel here much of my knowledge comes from firsthand sources which have a certain degree of bias from whichever astronaut has chosen to write a memoir to capitalize off of the last successful thing he did in his life because he figured it could net him a little cash (Buzz has done this many times, Fred Haise has done it most recently albeit with a fair bit of success because at least his book is pretty funny) and every single one of these guys has a different description of events depending on the angle he's coming at it from so while I try to read as many different perspectives as I can, outside of video/audio footage, official documentation, and mission transcripts you are never going to get 100% of the story from just a personal account. That's part of why i read the transcripts I didn't even know about the piss tube problems on Apollo 7 because as far as I can remember Wally didn't even mention it in his memoir but it takes a prime seat in the transcripts. But that's also a point of view you should take to all historical research there is never just one perspective and each perspective outside of the genuine technical facts has biases and opinions one way or another.

Anyway this got long but I'm glad you enjoy my carefully curated astrodrama

[averageartistamber]

It's Ultraman Day!

Y'know, I first heard about Ultraman through the Godzilla fandom, and honestly, I kinda slept on it until very recently. Ended up getting into it when I heard about the upcoming release of Rising and found out that a decent chunk of content is accessible on YouTube. Okay, gotta admit those "Ultraman Without Context" videos were also a huge thing that sold me on the series, as a thorough enjoyer of Wacky Shit.

So, for Ultraman Day I'm gonna start briefly yapping about the Ultraman Stuff I've seen so far. It's almost entirely the newer stuff, but I might check out some of the older shows.

Let's start with the first series I checked out, Ultraman Blazar (as it was the most recent at the time).

Note there will be some spoilers here and there.

Blazar

-The series I started with, and it's pretty different to typical Ultraman faire. Has this...Not really darkness but I guess kind of a grounded sort of...moodiness? Dunno if that's the right word. The whole V99 Conspiracy plot gave it a distinct flavour that I haven't seen so far in the other shows.

-The fight scenes are pretty fire, as Blazar himself is an incredibly fun character to watch. The whole "feral" shtick took me a bit off guard at first, but it makes him really unique. The spear/javelin main weapon that transforms into different things is such a ccool concept for a "base" power.

-The dynamic that Captain Gento has with Blazar where the latter occasionally takes control is really neat, even when he's just doing it to observe. Gives the Funny Caveman an interesting bit of depth.

-I quite like SKaRD as an attack team, even if they never really score a single W for the entire series. Emi in particular is one of the best Human characters I've seen so far, probably since she essentially gets a whole side plot attached to her (The after mentioned conspiracy and wanting to find out what happened to her dad.

-I honestly did not expect to end up liking Earth Garon in particular as much as I did, even if he just gets his ass kicked constantly. I think the scene that truly sold me on him was in the episode where he's given his AI, therefore a real voice and personality. The scene where Emi is freaking out after being hit with the Monster of the Week's Fear Ray and Earthy tries to calm her down. Did not think he'd be chill like that honestly it was a pleasant suprise.

-One of the big highlights of the show was definitely the monsters (which I thing all of them bar Red King, Guigass and Demaaga are new?). Pretty much all of them have creative and memorable designs. I will go Blazar levels of feral if they ever reuse Dorgo, Nigikagachi, Molgusion, Deltandos or Zangill (If he counts) again.

-Speaking of Zangill, his episode is probably my favourite on its premise alone: Guy shows up to ask for assistance with collecting the wandering souls of all the Monsters of The Week that the heroes had slain. Including one who's Real Fuckin' Mad and tries to get revenge. It's so freaking cool. Makes you wonder about literally every other MotW show actually...

-At first I found Big Bad a bit anti-climatic. I think I walked into my first Ultraman series expecting some big badass final boss with an EEEEEEvil Alien Overlord or something. But instead, the main villain of Blazar is basically just Some Old Guy (who is fiercely determined to cover his crimes, fatal consequences be damned).

Honestly, from the other shows, he's currently tied with Rising's Dr. Onda for the best Ultraman Big Bad. I've been a little disappointed with the others I've seen so far, which I think I'll explain further when we get to them.

-Last thing, the opening song makes me feel like that Spongebob Ascending Meme. It's awesome (I especially like how they show the monsters, starting with a newspaper then going to TV camera footage and satellite images.)

Overall 8.5 WHOOOYS! out 10

Next time I'll probably yap about either Z or Decker (or maybe Rising?) when I get around to/ remember to do it.

[sholtiscapstone]

No. 4 Progress Update!

Hey, everyone! (LONG UPDATE!)

For this update, I wanted to say that my production went well on the 11th of March, and since then I’ve been in post-production. Post has been the most difficult process of this project, but I’ll save that for my next update, as I’m planning to send my cuts to Sharla in the coming days for her approval. 

This update, however, is about how my production went… it was HORRIBLE!

Now, that’s a bit of an exaggeration but it definitely felt like an accurate word on the day. On the Monday of filming, only a few hours before my interviewees and I were meant to meet, a person I had confirmed since January backed out. It was really hard to deal with that as one of Sharla’s biggest pushes for me with this project was to have a wide age range, and this person who backed out would have been a branch for my other two interviewees, and it’s hard to get someone in a similar age range on a random Monday at the last minute. This person canceling also caused me to miss my bus to campus so that was a whole other issue haha. 

Either way, this cancellation turned all of my plans upside down. The time I had set aside to prepare for my questions and rehearse what I was going to say was thrown out the window. Instead, my time went to contacting every single woman I knew and could rely on, asking them if they could come to film my project for a few hours. It sucked that every single person turned me down, but obviously understandable, though it did mess my morale a bit. 

Thankfully, I had asked for two of my best friends’ help behind-the-scenes that day, and had to sacrifice one of them to be on camera. This threw off things for my other friend as she had to now be in charge of monitoring cameras and checking sound, when I had hoped one could be in charge of each. It also threw off how much time we had for filming itself, as my friend who I put on camera at the last second didn’t have the same time to prepare that I gave my other interviewees, as I had asked them to come with things already prepped. I almost had another person able to take over in the stead of the one who dropped, but they couldn’t make it to campus in time for us to get useful footage. 

As for setting up, Jeff from ACM was the best as he showed my friends and I everything that needed to be done. Also, Lauren from our class was a help with showing us where to go and answering my questions over and over again haha, so thank you very much to them. Going back to Jeff, due to his patience the setup for our production was awesome. We had a lot of issues with the sound cutting in and out once we actually began filming though we got that solved ASAP. 

Now, for the actual discussion part, my interviewees were amazing. Jalen and Professor Sam killed it, and Sophie, who agreed to join only hours before, was amazing. Aubrey, my friend behind the camera, also came through controlling 3 separate cameras along with listening to our sound to make sure we were okay. Things still cut out through the filming but she got that patched in a couple of seconds each time. I do wish that people hadn’t kept coming in and out of the room, though, as my interviewees confessed afterward it distracted them, and the door is also heard on the sound, but at least that’s the least of our issues. 

Either way, I think that filming went well considering I was even able to do it. I’m grateful to have the friends and support system I do to have gotten this done. I had wanted to do a vlog to show you all my prep for that day but my entire plan got shot down due to unforeseen circumstances, but because of my support system I still was able to get things done. 

Below are some images from the set we did so you guys can all see how it turned out, and how it compares to my inspo! Anyway, I'll be posting another update in a few days about the transition from production to post, so I'll see you guys then. You should all be seeing footage by the end of this week too, so yay!

Best of luck to everyone else for these coming weeks. Almost there!! I know it's stressful but it's not as bad as it seems, really. Also, feel free to reach out to me if you need help or anything, I'm always down to support :)

[copper-wasps]

-Entry #3-

The screen blinks to life, lines and squares of red and green breaking apart the image with a dull drone of static. It doesn’t last long, the picture piecing itself back together into something blurry, slowly focusing into a clear view.

Once again the recording shows a bland, simplistic motel room, but not the same one from before. This one is different- faded green paint and ratty blinds that look like they’ve seen better days. A set of twin beds with matching brown sheets, a single nightstand between them with an old twin bell alarm clock. There’s a little lamp mounted into the wall above it, but there’s enough light peeking through the blinds that its kept off.

The camera is settled on the far side of the room, presumably propped up on a stand as there’s no surface to be seen beneath it on the edge of the frame. It captures a wide view of the small room, and while the beds are empty, the room itself is not.

Adelaide paces back and forth in front of the twin beds, arms crossed over her chest, right hand raised to her lips to gnaw at the nail of her thumb. She looks confused and frantic, frustrated and overwhelmed, perhaps even slightly manic. Her hair is held back in the twin braids from before, a bit loose but otherwise held together, still in the same dirt covered clothes- lacking the ruined jean jacket.

The little time stamp in the bottom corner of the screen logs nearly nine full minutes of pacing before she finally drops herself to sit on the edge of the bed furthest from the window, pushing her choppy bangs back from her face with a long suffering sigh.

“Okay…I guess I should give some sort of recap…or uh, an explanation?” She mutters, dropping her arms across her lap as she looks to the camera, pale blue eyes alight with an anxious flare, “I uploaded the last entry after I…came back…and was able to view the footage the camera captured. I don’t know where I went that night…but I was gone for four days.”

Adelaide falls silent for a moment, still seemingly struggling to process that bit of information herself, before she eventually continues her explanation, “I woke back up in that motel room last night, and after watching the footage to find out what happened I left immediately. I’m in the next town over now, I got to this motel at around three in the morning, uploaded the last entry…I tried to get some sleep, but that hasn’t really worked out for me. I just…”

She hesitates then, worrying her lower lip between her teeth, before dropping her head into her hands with a frustrated groan, “When I first watched those tapes I thought it was crazy how much they all lost track of time like that…days, weeks, even months without any memory of what happened…but now its happening to me too and I’m just as clueless as I was at the start…”

She takes a moment to recollect herself, rubbing at her temples with a deep sigh that does nothing to relieve any of the tension along her shoulders. Finally she drops her hands back to her lap, absentmindedly picking at her nails now as she raises her gaze to meet the camera once again.

She still looks frantic and lost, but there’s a glint of determination to her eyes now, a harder edge to her voice, “I still don’t have a lot to go on, I’m still figuring things out, but I’m not going to let this thing drive me crazy like it did my dad. I’m going to lay low for a little bit, try to come up with a plan…and then I’m going back out to Rosswood to try and find the others.”

Adelaide gets up from the bed as she finishes speaking, crossing the room to where the camera stands- and cuts off the recording with a quiet click.

[pixiemage]

Storytime!

So two years ago, when quarantine was still being upheld in schools, my brother was hired to edit a high school production of Beauty and the Beast. Every student recorded their videos and vocals at home, and his job was to splice it together into one cohesive show. (Granted, that's hard to do when every single person is filming with a bad camera and awful acoustics and different lighting and - anyway. It was rough but it worked.)

ANYWAY the problem arose when he had a week left to finish it, and a bunch of students still hadn't sent in their videos. He was down to the wire and he didn't have the footage he needed to finish the damn thing until like four days prior to its air date.

Well I used to be a film major and I know my way around an editing program, so I volunteered to help. (My brother was living at home at the time bc quarantine so he was literally down the hall.) I fished out my bro's laptop and edited smaller scenes for him while he did the big stuff. We had three days and we pulled two all-nighters in a row to get this shit done (and actually, he might have pulled three, because by the last day the poor dude was hallucinating). I took two hour-and-a-half naps to get enough shut-eye to keep going, he crashed once or twice himself, and our mom kept coming upstairs to load us up with food, water, caffeine, and the occasional energy drink.

BUT THE POINT OF THE STORY

At some point on Day 1, my brother showed me this video, which I somehow had never seen. And I was already giggly because we'd been in a bit of a silly mood for half the night. And that little YTP just sent me. And for the next few days in our slowly degrading states of exhaustion and lack of sleep, every so often one of us would pull it back up, and we'd just devolve into uncontrollable laughter. It was a hell of a mood-lifter!

I'm fairly certain I crashed for like 10 HOURS afterward when all was said and done, but like - for how much we laughed, and for the chance to jump into an editing project, and for some quality time with my brother? Damn. It was worth every sleepless hour we spent in that room.

i keep seeing the gif set so here’s the video clip

[thisisthemostoriginalname]

Missing

A fem!reader-insert 'Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.' story.

Part 2 of the Agent Wildcard series

Word count: 2.281

Spoilers: S1x04 of 'Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'

Warnings: Car crash, Night-Night Pistols

"You're telling me she's gone?" The man was silhouetted against the bright screen before him. Displayed on it was the security footage from the night before. Grainy imaging of three people who had stormed the premises, and later when four of them had left. The fourth lay limp in the seconds arms, the first looking strangely familiar to the man and the third rounding up the back.

"Well, yes, but-" the tinny voice from his old phone replied, stumbling over his words.

"Do you think that I have the time to track her down?"

"Well, no, sir, but I think this might help her - help the project, I mean."

The man raised an eyebrow. "Oh? How so?"

"Well, she might get more freedom, and as we've seen before, that can lead to more codes."

The man sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. He rewinded the footage. "Are you hearing yourself? S.H.I.E.L.D. could get the codes, and then we lose our upper hand. Stop being ridiculous and just do your job like I pay you to."

"Yea, but-"

"No buts. You have 24 hours to find her, or I'll send someone after you instead."

"You want me to retrieve her?"

"No. I just want her location. I'll send someone else after her, since you don't know how to finish the job." The man then ended the call, watching the screen. 

“See you soon, Coulson.”

You leaned your elbows against Fitz's workbench, twisting a nut around a bolt back and forth as Fitz worked on a gun beside you and Simmons was inspecting a couple samples under the microscope.

"What are you thinking about, Gills?" Fitz glanced over at you, polishing the pistol absentmindedly.

You sighed, squeezing your eyes shut. "I don't know," you mumbled and you opened your eyes again. Were you getting a headache again? You weren’t sure. The fog that had settled over your brain was still thick, but you felt as if it was thinning over time. 

Alas, the previous week had felt long. You’d barely gotten to do anything, and Simmons had kept asking you questions. She wasn’t being annoying. Not at all. She was just concerned, and you felt so helpless about it. 

On the contrary, though, they’d both let you help out with them. Simmons had let you look through the microscope at her samples, explaining to you what you’d see, and Fitz would have you help out with putting gadgets together. They’d been quick to take you under their wing when Coulson had announced you’d be staying longer (much to Ward’s protest).

You'd made up with Fitz last week the day after you'd annoyed him to insanity.

"Hey... Fitz." You were seated on the cot again, your back leaning against the wall, an open robotics book on your lap.

"What do you want?" He didn't look up at you, eyes on the blue hologram displayed before him. It looked like the shell of a gun.

Why was this so difficult?

"To say sorry..." you muttered through your teeth.

Fitz looked over at you for a moment. "...Really?"

You avoided his eyes. Why did you always do that? Why were eyes so intimidating? "I, uh… I wasn't the kindest yesterday. I don't know what came over me."

Fitz looked at you for a moment longer before turning back to the hologram. "Well, I don't know either."

Silence followed. Absolute, dead silence. The silence that makes you crazy. Made you crazy. Was that an acceptance of your apology, or a denial? Or had yesterday not bothered him? It sure looked like it had rattled him. 

You let out a heavy exhale, mustering up every bit of courage in your bones, before standing up and walking over to Fitz. "Start anew?"

Fitz turned his head towards you, before smiling. "Yeah." He held his hand out to you.

"Fitz."

You took his hand, giving it a firm shake. "Nice to meet you."

"Still can't remember your name?" Fitz asked, holding your hand a moment longer, denoting his hope. Your hope.

There was a single word that came to mind every time you tried to remember. It sounded like a stupid name, but there wasn’t another candidate as of now.

"Gills... It's Gills."

It wasn't. You knew for sure that that wasn't your name. But what was, and why was Gills the only word you kept finding every time you dug deeper?

"Earth to Gills?"

You jumped, blinking rapidly. "Oh, yeah, sorry..." You held out the bolt and nut to him. Fitz looked back at you, frowning.

"When did I ask you for the nut?"

You looked at him for a moment before brushing it off. "Oh, no, I wasn't going to give you the nut, I was just, uh..."

Fitz just rolled his eyes, grinning.

Ward, who must have entered earlier when you were thinking, picked up one of the small dendrotoxin cylinders laying on the bench, holding it up to the light. "I only get one shot, and I have to knock a person back, as well as out." He turned away from the light as Fitz held up the Night-Night Pistol he'd been working on earlier. It looked a lot more polished than before. When did that happen?

"Which is why we're perfecting this little beauty. 45 caliber cartridges..."

At that point you zoned out again. He'd told you that over a million times now, explained what each thing meant and why it was important. You, for some reason, couldn't wrap your head around it. As long as it could shoot and the person couldn’t shoot you back, it was fine, right?

"... contains eight rounds of dendrotoxin-"

"In case you miss!" Simmons turned around from her work, the toxin having been her idea. Ward glared over at her, and her face faltered, but she quickly recovered. "Or, you have multiple assailants."

Ward turned his head back to face Fitz, holding his hand out for the gun. But, Fitz pulled back quickly, almost knocking his elbow against your face. You pushed it away though before he could manage a hit.

"Careful, we'll have the Night-Night pistol running in no time." Fitz grumbled, wiping the gun down again. What’s his deal with grime anyway?

Ward sighed. "Great. One thing, though. We're not calling it that."

As he walked away, Simmons cleared her throat, a smug look on her face. "Told you two."

"It's two against two now, Sim.” You said, stocking your tongue out at her. “ Actually, no, scrap that. My vote counts for three, so, that's your two to our four." You say, pushing yourself up from the bench as Fitz goes to put the gun away. You pointed little finger guns at her, and Jemma shook her head with a smile. 

"Night-Night pistol for the win."

The boot of the white van you'd retreated into was dark. It felt nice. No light, no super loud sounds and no cold silence. Only you, the nut and bolt, and the old iPod with music Skye had given you. She'd told you she didn't need it anymore but could never find it in herself to throw it away. 

The music wasn't amazing, but it wasn't terrible either. You liked the way it drowned your thoughts out, how it pushed down the strings of numbers that kept surfacing the fog. 

Maybe you should write them down sometime. Maybe they meant something important.

The van lurched into motion, causing you to slide backwards and slam against the back doors. How thankful you were that you had closed them after entering, or you would have fallen out. 

You pulled one of the earbuds out of your ear, hearing the soft purr of the motor. You must have missed when it came to life, or when someone had gotten in. Maybe you should turn the music down.

Once you got your bearings and the vehicle stopped accelerating, you crawled over to the front of the boot, popping your head up just enough to look through the small window into the cabin. FitzSimmons and Skye sat in the back, with Coulson in the passenger seat and Ward behind the wheel-

Shit.

You ducked. You weren't sure if he'd seen you through the rearview mirror. It was dark in the back, the back windows covered in a black paint. No doubt to keep whatever cargo is in the back out of sight. But that meant that there was no reason for him to look in the mirror. So why had he?

But, the van kept on chugging along, and you eventually went to sit against the wall between the cabin and the boot. You put the earbud back into your ear, although you’d turned the music down a little. You’d let your guard down. 

Until the van stopped. You tumbled into the back doors, hard. The wind was knocked out of you, and the sound was loud. Your spine ached.

The van didn't pick up again. Why had we stopped? Was something wrong?

Without warning, the door behind you gave way, and you fell backwards towards the street. Before you could hit your head on the road, though, a hand gripped the front of your shirt, stopping you from falling further. Ward's hand, to be specific.

"Hey..." You grinned sheepishly up at him, his face upside down in your vision. Somehow, that made his glare even more intimidating.

"What are you doing here? I thought you were back on the Bus." That was Coulson, who stood to Ward's left. He was frowning, and he did not look ecstatic at all.

"Technically I wasn't planning on coming along…"

Ward heaved you up to your feet outside the van and you let out a startled noise. "Technically, you snuck onto the van in the first place,"

"Technically, I was here first," you say as Ward slides the back door open. FitzSimmons and Skye look at you, all three dumbfounded.

"I'm sure you can squeeze in somewhere," he mumbles as he closes the door behind you. You took a seat behind Skye, and once Couson and Ward got back in the car, he started it back up and you were on your way again. It was a tight fit, but it worked. This bus wasn’t meant to hold six, that much was clear.

“May, we’ve found the kid,” Coulson said into the radio once you were settled.

White noise rang through the cabin. “Where was she?”

“The sneak was in the boot,” Coulson replied, glancing back at you.

A simple ‘huh’ was all they got back, and Coulson turned the radio back down so that the white noise wasn’t deafening.

"How did you even get in here?" Fitz asked, clutching his metal briefcase to his chest.

"I, uh… I just opened the back door, and got in, and closed the back door." You were still holding Skye's iPod, one of the earbuds in your ear, playing 'bury a friend', which you'd probably played a million times over the last week. A long crack ran down the silver surface. You’d have to take a look at it some time later.

"Real clever, Gills," Skye looked over the back of her seat, grinning at you. "You'd make a good spy."

"If you don't make such a racket," Simmons said. "We'd have never known you were there - you could have gotten hurt."

"Well, she didn't. And Skye has a point - if you were older I'd have recruited you myself." Coulson turned his head around to look at you.

"Really?"

Coulson gave you one of his amused smiles. "Maybe, yeah. If you can keep down the racket next time."

Ward had parked the car in a secluded area, and he and Coulson had left for Zloda while the rest of you stayed behind. You'd taken the passenger seat so that the back wasn't as crowded, iPod now tucked in your pocket. The bud in your ear was now playing 'Something Blue', the tinny music making your head bop along every now and then. You were turned in your seat so you could see the others as they worked to find... What was her name again?

"You lot getting anything?" You craned your neck over to look over at Skye's screen.

"Nothing," Skye said, eyes focused on her screen and reading through anything and everything that appeared on it.

"Wait, wait, isn't that something?" Simmons asked as she pointed over at the screen.

"Maybe..." Skye mumbled as she began to decrypt the signal. Once she'd done so, a video appeared on the screen. It seemed like a heat signature, four figures clear in the frame, in a van. Wait…

Fitz seemed to be on the same frequency. "What the..." He stood, waving his arms. 

The figure on the video did the same.

"That's us!" Simmons says, her voice hinted with panic as she turns to look at the window.

You're quick to your feet. Before you’ve had a moment to think, your body is already moving, and you don’t stop it. 

As the three of them look through the window to spot where the filmer is, you're already taking a seat behind the wheel. You could hear the roar of the truck to your left as it revved to life, advancing. You turned the ignition switch, shifted the gear off of P and dug your foot into the gas pedal.

You felt the van lurch forward, then topple unexpectedly onto its side, and you went flying out of your seat, hitting your head. Your ears were ringing. Someone was screaming. Maybe two, maybe three, maybe four.

Your efforts had been in vain.

And your head hurt like crazy.

[galaxofmuses]

It had been a week, just about, since the odd encounter at the Cafe, with the woman and her little folder.

But now it seems something has come full circle.

A report comes in, having found a secret lab location that had been working on BOW's for the black market. But it had already been raided and taken down, all that remained was destruction. The place barely intact, but just enough for exploration. The scouts who had gone in, and brought back their details, reported that there had been almost no security footage. Everything wiped clean, save for files from before the destruction.

No ideas who, or what, did it.

And a neat little safe, left out to be found specifically. Filled with files, hard drives, and details of everyone who worked there, who had been buying from them, and the exact infections or monsters they had been making once upon a time. All the foot work paper trail work done, and left out like a present.

With but a single note brought back to the DSO, written in purple ink.

'I said I would handle it, and I did. Take a vacation.'

Leon stare at the note as he gathers his thoughts of what or who could have done this. Everything is taken and cleaned up and neatly packaged all for him. Knowing the reality that these items would have been in a disarray and leading to frustration of where and what these information could be. Then on the back of his mind has an inkling of who could have done this. Yet, his memory is so fuzzy from those vacation days of movie watching, drinking and spending time with his dog.

With his work schedule always coming back around the corner and dealing with these bioweapons. Saving people. Hearing the praises from his workplace. It's always the same day, same pay, yet he keeps protecting the ones he cares about, but for how long? He never takes a chance to breathe until his coworkers really push him out from his workaholic cycle.

This situation turned upside down since now this issue has been taken care of and well....possibly go and relax for once. The thought really unsettles his mind.

"......Another vacation huh?" muttering to himself softy. Oh he can hear his coworkers tease him that a secret admirer is watching up for him. Taking the deep breath to take another sip of take out coffee and well. Aside reporting what's in that safe, there's really not much he can do.

'Hey! Maybe your secret admirer is gonna take you a nice beach vacation!'

the two people broke into fits of laughter until Leon gives them a dark stare which of course shuts them up for once. Oh he is so close to break into a proud smile.

"I'll take care of the last bit of the report. It's the least I can do."

[chorusfm]

Liner Notes (June 1st, 2024)

The first great pop-punk album of summer 2024 is here. Plus, some other random thoughts on other things. This week’s supporter Q&A post can be found here. If you’d like this newsletter delivered to your inbox each week (it’s free and available to everyone), you can sign up here. A Few Things * I liked this article in the Washington Post that looked at the data behind when people think America was “great.” The answer? It’s not an era; it’s an age: “The good old days when America was “great” aren’t the 1950s. They’re whatever decade you were 11, your parents knew the correct answer to any question, and you’d never heard of war crimes tribunals, microplastics or improvised explosive devices. Or when you were 15 and athletes and musicians still played hard and hadn’t sold out.” * All the AI fails from Google have been getting the headlines lately, but the story I think has still been underreported is the fact that Google search kind of sucks now. The core product has been suffering for a while, and the recent leaks show the company has been pretty shady as well. Usually, when that happens, it’s a steep line down. As an owner of a small blog, I’ve seen this reflected in our traffic for years; I stopped even trying to get ranked and don’t pay attention to our search traffic. But every time I Google a recipe and have to handle three fourths of a page of SEO slop, I am reminded of it. It’s too bad that Google and Facebook basically murdered the online ad business, and right now, does either offer much value? Instagram? For me, it’s probably Gmail. However, that only powers my email backend and I use Mimestream as the client. These companies are so big and dominant that it’s hard to see competition even getting a foothold to disrupt them, but damn. In Case You Missed It * Rare 1997 Footage of Blink-182 Live * The Black Keys Cancel Arena Tour * Spotify to Discontinue Car Thing * Liner Notes (May 25th, 2024) * Best Case – “Heavy Seas” (Video Premiere) * Bert McCracken Announces Solo Project * Balance and Composure Announce New Album * Four Year Strong Announce New Album * The Menzingers Announce Deluxe Album * Albums in Stores – May 31st, 2024 Music Thoughts * In this house, summer begins when the first new pop-punk album drops that makes me feel like sunshine is pumping through my veins. This year, it’s officially Super American’s awesome Gangster of Love—just a ridiculously fun, energetic, creative, and all around blast of an album. There’s a lot of classic pop-punk here, but I also love the quirkiness and what feels like a little Relient K and Motion City Soundtrack influence in their style. This is going to absolutely dominate my next few months, and the only complaint I have is the album cover is preventing me from wanting to purchase it on vinyl. (Their previous album is also a lot of fun, but this one is exploring some new things that elevate their sound to the next level.) * Happy 25th anniversary to Blink-182’s Enema of the State. No album in history has had a bigger impact on my life. * Arrows in Action’s new single “Hello Sunlight” is another solid tune, and Neon Trees are finally giving us new album information next week. Their run of singles has me anticipating this one quite a bit. * Ben Platt’s latest didn’t stick with me on first listen the way his last did. It has a nice breezy feel that maybe I’ll come back to one of these summer nights and connect with, but my first listen had me checking how many songs were left multiple times. Not usually a good sign. * Days Away’s Mapping an Invisible World is still one of the most underrated albums ever. I listened to it twice this week and still marvel at how modern it sounds. Someone press this to vinyl, please. * Super American got me back on a Relient K kick, and every single one of their albums puts a smile on my face. * Cassadee Pope’s upcoming “return to pop-punk” album is interesting. She has obvious vocal chops, but the album doesn’t have the hooks I… https://chorus.fm/features/articles/liner-notes-june-1st-2024/

[nothingunrealistic]

review roundup: billions 7x06 “the man in the olive drab t-shirt”

a return to disappointing form! what did reviewers think?

New York Times: ‘Billions’ Season 7, Episode 6 Recap: From Russia With Love

At any rate, by the time the closing credits roll, neither one has tried to body slam the other, figuratively or otherwise. That’s the best thing about Chuck and Bobby’s big reunion, actually: the lack of fireworks.

i would have said the best part was that it didn’t stretch out for more than five minutes, but to each their own, i guess.

He allows the menacing robber baron to threaten to throw Krakow off a rooftop unless he puts the kibosh on the divorce filing and stops shtupping Grigor’s ex-wife.

untrue. he threatened to throw krakow out a window. totally different.

Everyone’s a winner! The same cannot be said for the participants in the Mike Prince story line. Like a trio of plotters straight out of Shakespeare, Wendy, Wags and Taylor are constantly kibitzing in hopes of taking their dreaded boss down before he can win the White House.

get their asses!

At this point in its run, “Billions” feels a bit like a spinning top starting to wobble — but I mean this as a compliment. There are only so many times the schemes of one of the show’s preposterously competent main characters can go right before they start to go disastrously wrong. Each meticulously plotted episode moves us incrementally closer to that tipping point.

i wouldn’t say wags & wendy’s schemes have been going “right” so far, per se, but they have avoided ending in disaster, so point taken.

“When did I become Lex Luthor?” Mike asks Wendy plaintively. I dunno, Mike, probably when you decided to run for president as a bald billionaire, something the comic-book villain did over two decades ago. He won, too, if you can somehow imagine a United States of America willing to elect a wealthy megalomaniac as president. Try not to strain yourself.

truly one of the top lines of the episode. look in the mirror, prince! literally!

Yes, that was President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine talking to Axe, but if you thought he might have better things to do than make a cameo on “Billions,” you would be correct. A Showtime spokesperson confirmed that the show edited existing footage of him into the episode.

i’d definitely wondered about that myself. billions pulls some pretty high-profile celebrities for cameos, but that seemed a bit too tall an order to be done just for the show. (though i still wonder what kind of permission, if any, they needed in order to do that.)

Vulture: Billions Recap: Double Turn

each of vulture’s billions episode recaps (and presumably its recaps of other shows) includes an episode rating out of five stars. this episode received four stars — the first after a long string of three-star ratings. would you like to guess what the last episode of billions to receive four stars from vulture was? go ahead, guess. i’ll give you some time to think about it.

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

that’s right! it was 6x10 johnny favorite! that episode of billions that everyone loved so much because it was so well-written!!! 🙃🙃🙃

I’m conflicted over “The Man in the Olive Drab T-Shirt.” In many ways, it’s Billions’ best episode of the season yet because it brought back everything the show has been lacking since Axe skipped the country. But it’s also one of the series’ worst episodes on account of how much was crammed into a single hour of television. By overstuffing “The Man in the Olive Drab T-Shirt,” most of the important plot points were diluted.

THEN WHY DID YOU GIVE IT FOUR STARS?

Oh, and remember what I said last week about Billions not spending enough time on Kate Sacker? I continue to be appalled by how major developments in her story line are shoehorned into already overflowing episodes like this one. In short, Wags plants seeds of doubt in Kate’s head about sacrificing her congressional ambitions for the sake of Prince’s presidential campaign (yay!). But after one dinner with her media-mogul father, who reminds her that connections are more powerful than political smarts (he’s right, dammit!), Kate decides to remain at MPC and eventually run as an independent on Prince’s ticket. She’s a political animal, all right.

it was truly baffling how sacker seemed to just bounce back and forth among what everyone else in this episode was telling her without ever having a thought of her own. shouldn’t she at least suspect that wags is messing with her head?

In an exposition-heavy dialogue between Malkovich and Damian Lewis — their superb acting is the only thing that makes this tedious scene bearable — Andolov makes it clear that he’s not letting bygones be bygones yet.

was it bearable? i didn’t notice.

“When did I become Lex Luthor?” Prince moans to Wendy. (This is hands down the funniest line of the season so far. Look in the mirror, pal!)

i must have plagiarized this exact sentiment when reacting to that line being mentioned in the nyt recap. oops! still true though.

Right before Prince goes live, Wendy tells him she knew he would put himself back together, only for Andy to snidely remark that she put him back together — and that she knows Wendy was the one who tore him apart in the first place. It looks like Andy may be the most monumental challenge for the Fifth Column yet because Prince’s speech does gangbusters.

i’m interested to see whether andy becomes a significant player in the battle against prince or if she’s just kind of lingering on the sidelines resenting the influence wendy has on prince. i’d expect her to be showing up in more episodes if it’s the former.

And let’s be honest, we all needed Danny Strong’s exposition so badly here because even I didn’t initially understand how Andolov’s arrest and deportation was going to benefit the oligarch: Andolov agreed to say he was trying to steal American military secrets, which would make him a hero in Russia, thus killing any “rumors” that he was secretly funding Ukraine.

i think him saying “i am a citizen of the greatest nation in the history of the world, led by the greatest leader, so fuck you and fuck america” into news cameras while wearing a t-shirt saying RUSSIA under a hammer & sickle and putin riding a bear also helped out.

Can Wendy, Wags, and Taylor please stop conducting Fifth Column meetings IN THE OFFICE DURING THE WORKDAY? MPC is an open-floor plan. There is no way their machinations will remain a secret for long.

HONESTLY. at least they had the sense to hold their second meeting in wendy’s apartment, but huddling up to discuss their schemes in their extremely high-visibility workplace with all their coworkers around is amateur shit! sacker could have overheard them and ruined everything if she’d approached just a little more stealthily!

As insane as the entire double-turn sequence was, it was worth it just to watch John Malkovich don a USSR-era T-shirt and scream “Fuck America!” in his creepy Russian accent.

not really USSR-era, given the “putin riding a bear” detail, but that was indeed the highlight of that sequence.

Fan Fun with Damian Lewis (Damianista): Billions on Showtime, Season 7 Episode 6: The Man in the Olive Drab T-Shirt

As Grigor Andolov rightly points out one should avadversary is the one that knows about your abilities the most.

PLEASE get an editor. hell, i’ll do it if you want.

We actually kind of knew that it is Grigor Andolov that Axe partnered with to provide weapons for Ukraine.

honestly, lol. even if we hadn’t seen grigor in the trailer, axe’s line of “i got a guy you would not expect to deliver weapons to ukraine” in 7x01 would have immediately set me up to expect that it was grigor.

Once the other oligarchs leave the room, Grigor sits next to Axe. He is very straightforward with his demands and threats. A number of oligarchs who are against Putin’s policies are dead (and the people Andolov mentions were all found dead in apparent suicides! Read about Menlikov and Protosenya here.)

i did not realize that the dead oligarchs grigor listed off were the names of real people. damn.

And knowing that Chuck may not want to do this personal favor for him, Axe talks about the “old combatants’ code” in the example of Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, one of the biggest rivalries in the sports history. And remember Axe and Chuck likened their rivalry to that of Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier in Season 5 Episode 12 No Direction Home.

i did remember that, but didn’t realize that “smokin’ joe” referred to joe frazier.

I have read comments on different social media platforms where some viewers do not understand why several characters are against Prince running as a presidential candidate. This shows me that, unfortunately, some undemocratic tendencies and practices have been normalized in American democracy. Mike Prince quoted from Hitler’s 1929 Munich speech in Episode 1 Tower of London. Mike Prince told Wendy that the founding fathers never intended to establish a democracy but a constitutional republic, and that politics in the US went downhill when politicians decided they had to listen to people in Episode 2 Original Sin. Mike Prince promised his Taiwanese business partner special trade privileges as soon as he is in the Oval office in Episode 4 Hurricane Rosie. If you think this kind of person can be the POTUS, then vote for him. I would never vote for someone that has a clear authoritarian agenda.

THANK YOU. not only have i seen this sentiment, i’ve seen a few people suggest that the Real threat to democracy is “a few elitists” (meaning wendy, wags, and taylor) trying to keep prince from the presidency and therefore depriving the american public of the chance to decide whether or not to vote for him. please be serious. (though i must correct you to point out that prince’s points about the founding fathers and politicians were also in 7x01, not 7x02.)

Kate basically buys ads on major TV networks in a way that if another candidate wants to buy TV time like Prince within a week, they cannot because there is no time left! I know I am repeating myself but this is something we should all think about as citizens: Money holds politics hostage in this country.

*turns on a big blinking neon sign that says ↑THEME↑*

The survey obviously does not work when they do it survey with Prince and Bradford in the room since the employees naturally see this as some kind of “loyalty test.” Answers vary from Tuk’s “I don’t deserve you” (Tuk) to Dollar Bill’s “Mike, you’re a combination of Benjamin Graham and fucking Hal from Space Odyssey” to Rian’s FREE PASS. If this was Axe, he would tell his employees that his cholesterol is high enough that they should stop buttering up his ass – like he did in Season 1 Episode 1: The Pilot. But Prince who genuinely believes he is LOVED is very happy with the survey result that Wendy needs to intervene.

one of the strongest axe-prince comparisons ever made. axe fully expects that his employees will talk shit about him! he knows how the world works and how people see him!

When the couple arrives at the studio for Prince’s talk, Prince is grateful to Wendy for putting him back together while Andy says that she, Andy, collected the pieces Wendy kicked across the floor and put him back together. Hmmm. Well, I remember Lara did not like Wendy much, either 🙂

i sure thought about that as well! but wendy’s dynamic with prince definitely shouldn’t worry andy for the reasons that wendy’s dynamic with axe worried lara. as the scripture says:

One storyline that has not been compelling for me this week is that of Kate’s. And this hints that the story is way more complex than it seems. When Wendy says they need to get rid of Kate since she is very effective in helping Prince, Wags takes on the responsibility to convince Kate that it staying at MPC would not work in her favor if she still planned to run for Congress. Since Mike is running as an independent candidate, why would the two major parties nominate Kate, someone so close to Prince? Kate is not naive. And she is smart as hell. There is NO WAY Kate has not thought about this or other potential scenarios. And if she is still staying, she has a plan. And here is what I believe Kate’s plan is: Kate already knows about Prince and his shady ways, his untaxed billions in crypto, and I think her plan is to take down Prince as a presidential candidate, become a public hero, and both parties knocking on her door to ask her to be their nominee for Congress. Yet, Kate does not know about Wendy, Wags and Taylor plotting to take down Prince and so she chooses to play dumb with Wags and brings in a list of attorneys as her replacement to Prince and Scooter. She also talks to her dad for them to go over her plans which I believe her dad is involved in. Mr. Sacker tells Kate about Donna Summer who made him go broke as a music manager but also made everyone answer his calls because he was working with Donna. And when he tells Kate to stay at MPC, I don’t think he tries to tell her that she will win if she stayed close to Prince but she will win if she stick to her plan: Both parties will be after her if Kate takes down Prince as a presidential candidate. I am now convinced Kate will be an essential character in taking down Prince and I think she may recruit Bryan to help her.

um. i strongly doubt that this is the case. i think it’s plausible that sacker will turn on prince eventually, but i really don’t think that's what she’s planning at the moment.

Food for thought: I keep going back to Wendy telling Wags at the end of Episode 4 that they have to do it like in Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express. I love the book and the original movie. In Murder on the Orient Express, 12 people coordinate to murder a man who hurt so many people in the past. And since every word and reference used in Billions has a purpose, I am wondering whether 12 people will coordinate to take down Prince in the series finale. So let us count: Wendy, Wags, Taylor, Chuck, Ira, Dave make 6. Axe will join them so we have 7. Kate, and if she recruits Bryan for the cause, we have 9. As a bond forming between them, I would not be surprised if Wendy did have Bradford Luke as an ally at some point and it makes 10. And more importantly, one of the dozen murderers in Murder on the Orient Express is the victim’s right-hand man! So, ladies and gentlemen, it could actually be Scooter who can join the ranks to take down Prince as well. Scooter’s face spoke volumes when Prince came to his office to say he could not allow him to conduct the NY Philharmonic in Episode 4 Hurricane Rosie. And I am positive this is not the first time Prince disappointed Scooter. And if Philip joins his uncle, we have 12 right there to take down Prince. What say you?

i don’t think it’s out of the question for brian & david to go the extra mile in fulfilling the reference by arraying twelve against prince, but i think you’re leaning too heavily on hoping that prince’s inner circle will turn against him and too readily ignoring the possibility of rank-and-file prince cappers, or characters currently outside the spheres of the law and mpc, to join the fight. here’s my thinking:

wendy, wags, and taylor are givens, and chuck and axe will join them eventually. it’s possible one or more of these characters will switch sides at the last minute, for The Ultimate Twist, but i expect this to be the core of the fight against prince from episode 10 on.

ira makes sense as an ally to chuck. dave is certainly trying to take down prince as well, but she might insist on doing it her own way.

luke’s first loyalty here is to prince. sure, he might be torn over his growing attachment to wendy, but i don’t think he’d choose her over prince.

sacker and scooter’s first loyalties are also to prince, but he’s done more to undercut or diminish them than he has to luke, and sacker might still feel some attachment to chuck. i could see either of them switching sides at the last moment, but i don’t consider it likely. nor do i expect connerty to come back again.

in my opinion, philip is the real wild card in prince’s inner circle. he came aboard for prince, yes, but he’s been chafing under prince's rule almost as much as taylor has, and his love for scooter might mean he takes prince’s treatment of scooter as enough of an insult to justify working against prince. plus whatever prince does in 7x07 to put philip in “a tough position” will probably only embitter him more against prince. (of course i’m also hopeful that however philip feels about taylor will be a factor in him switching sides. but i’m trying to be Objective and Reasonable here.)

looking at characters outside mpc: based on dan soder’s recent-ish appearance on brian koppelman’s podcast, mafee will appear in one or two more episodes, and if so, him siding with axe et al is far more likely than him siding with mpc. god knows if winston will ever show up again, and whether he’d take a stance on this fight other than “i hope you all kill each other,” but if he does pick a side, i’d bet on him picking taylor’s side.

as for the rank-and-file prince cappers: i’d love it if ben and tuk found it within themselves to fight against prince from the inside (or even the outside), but i doubt they will. dollar bill and victor might be torn between “axe my man axe” and “guy i’m currently making money working for,” but i don’t care enough about them to puzzle out which way they’d lean. rian seems most likely to both want to turn against prince from inside and actually do it, but as we’ve learned, the first rule of predicting rian’s behavior is that you can’t predict rian’s behavior.

Entertainment Weekly: Billions recap: Prince for president

you’re seven episodes too late to have that as your headline!

Axe says that he needs Chuck to arrange safe passage to the United States for none other than Grigor Andolov (John Malkovich), the Russian oligarch that Chuck ran out of the country a few seasons ago. Axe and Grigor became buddies when they came together to help get military reinforcements to Ukraine, but now Grigor is seen as a traitor to his country and asks (or threatens) Axe to get him out of the country.  Chuck isn't eager to let Andolov back into the country, but Axe tells him he'll return the favor at some point and Chuck knows that having Axe in his back pocket is too valuable to pass up.

do you realize that you’re using “the country” / “his country” to refer to three different countries, without clarification, across three sentences? what do you have against proper nouns?

Meanwhile, Kate (Dola Rashad) briefly considers leaving Michael Prince Capital to run for congress within one of the big parties but decides to come back to Prince and run as an independent alongside him. 

squashing sacker’s whole subplot into one vague sentence, without naming any of the other parties involved, and failing to capitalize “Congress” while you’re at it! you really do hate proper nouns!

While I'm not sure this final season of Billions is amounting to much of anything as a whole, this is the kind of episode that still entertains. The storylines are fun and loose without being overly serious, and the performances are great. While the season in general doesn't have much left in the tank and the Prince run for president is mostly dull, it's nice to know that Billions may still have a few good moments and episodes left before it goes off the air. 

peak “half-hearted high school book report” prose right here.

Fan Fun with Damian Lewis (Gingersnap): The Unbeatable, Unstoppable, Unparalleled MVPs from Billions Season 7 Episode 6, “The Man in the Olive Drab T-Shirt”

Gingersnap […] Food For Thought: Love when Axe and Chuck banter different names at each other. On the tarmac Chuck says, “I’ll need a name, Robert.” We know Bobby, we know Axe; but Robert on the other hand is Chuck’s formal way of chastising. Like when you were a kid and you knew you were in trouble when one of your parents yelled your first, middle and last name at you from another room. But this isn’t the first time Chuck has called Axe out of his name. Back in season 1, episode 12 The Conversation, Chuck pronounces, “Because you’re a criminal…BOB!!”

see also: axe showing up at chuck & wendy’s house in 3x12 elmsley count.

CHUCK: ‘lo, Bob. AXE: Charles. CHUCK: You know, Wendy asked, and I said: Mm, you know, I’m no longer the U.S. Attorney. So there’s no conflict. And I have nothing against the guy. Not anymore. AXE: I said much the same. CHUCK: So come on in. Join us. AXE: Love to.

though i think chuck calling axe “robert” is a first.

Damianista […] First Rate Hypocrite – Dollar Bill Bill before the MPC employee survey: “I’m calling bullshit on this whole exercise, and I sure as fuck won’t suck up.” Bill at the MPC employee survey: “Mike, you’re like a combination of Benjamin Graham and fucking Hal from Space Odyssey. Everywhere all at once… Processing, prodding me to make better trades.”

get his ass!

TheTailThatWagsTheDog Best Duo – Bobby and Chuck  – this has always been the best part of this show.

[CROWD BOOING]

Chuck Sr May Have Delivered the Line But We Know Who Wrote Them – Chuck is all anti-religion huh? And quite vociferously at that. That seems a bit over the top. I wouldn’t be surprised if we looked back at some Chuck Sr scenes in the first six seasons and found him proclaiming to some deity along the way. But this fits their M.O. The writers are obviously not fans of the Christian right and so this is their way of mocking them. Weak sauce.

you seriously think chuck senior is a mouthpiece for the writers’ opinions? have you even watched this show? at any given moment he’s far more likely to say something the writers obviously disagree with! including in this very episode when he’s ranting about how he Has to control his wife and child and Had to apply a firm hand to chuck to make him turn out right!

There is plenty to critique in organized religion, but this is not the way to make a convincing statement. (Full disclosure, I am a cradle Catholic).

of COURSE you are. fucking hilarious.

Fan Fun with Damian Lewis (Lady Trader): From the Trader’s Desk

i don’t believe lady trader is doing a review of 7x06, as she mentioned she was going on vacation in her 7x05 review. if she does publish a review for 7x06, i’ll update this post accordingly.

[dzpenumbra]

4/29/23

Late night, got caught up watching RP again. It's not the end of the world, I had planned to do something nice for myself today because of how difficult things have been the past week, so having a nice chill day was a good break.

I finished the desire path project. I think. Big projects never feel done-done, you know? It feels like music, there's always more you can add. That's something one of my mentors, my sculpture teacher in college, taught me that really stuck with me and helped me a ton with my creative process. "Art is never 'finished', only stopped." You can always do more, you can always edit, you can always refine, you can always release a 2.0. So... things can often never feel "done", because... "done" doesn't really exist. But the flip side of that is... you can always come back and work on it more! You lose accomplishment feeling of finality, but you also lose the "I can do better" of finality.

So yeah, I finalized the editing... actually most of it I did after my journal last night. Until really late. Impulse decision, but it got done quick. Today, I put together an outro graphic with my Instagram and my Patreon and exported. And it looks good. I think. That's the thing with video editing - in addition to animation, good lord - you stare at the same footage day-in and day-out, over and over, and you just get saturated in it. Music is the best example of this because of the short form. If you're working on a really complex piece and you are listening to the same song over and over and over for days and days, you just start to see every single blemish in it. Especially if you made it yourself. And sometimes, you start to think it's lame, or it just flat out annoys you. It happens. There are lines in the voiceover that I feel sound... forced. There are pauses that are unnecessary. There's some phrasing that I would reword, like saying... hiking "truly" has had a big role in my life or something. Like... I rarely say "truly" conversationally. Shit like that. To me, after listening to it over and over and over, it's grating. But I have to remind myself, someone viewing this for the first time will not pick up on that. And even if they do, they won't have the same reaction.

So yeah, that piece is done. And honestly, that was basically my day. I decided to just chill today. I've been doing a lot of work. A lot of drawing, music, busting ass on this project. So, I did a little Risk of Rain, but mostly just watched Twitch and hung out.

Still struggling with sleep. Idk what the deal with the earplugs is, I'm trying to give them a few days for me to get used to them, and I'm falling asleep okay which is great, but I keep waking up every few hours... and I don't know what's doing it. It just kills the restfulness of the sleep I'm getting, I feel. Idk.

So yeah, no big profound deep-dive on the meaning of life tonight. Just triple-checking the project to make sure it's where I like it, then planning to upload to YouTube and figure out some kind of promo something for Instagram to go with it. Hard to really do that when, you know, you can't link shit on Instagram... so... I have no clue how to get people from Insta to actually watch my YouTube video... And if I post it on Insta... then why would people go over to YouTube to watch it again? Does that even matter? Do people even watch 12 minute videos on Instagram? Do they have the attention span for it? I don't know shit about this. Ugh.

You know what, I've had this idea bouncing around in my head the past few days. I should set up shop over here. With my art shit. I can cross-link YT videos here. I can embed Instagram posts here, I'm sure. I'm comfortable here, it feels like there's a lot of art here. I've been floating the idea for a while, I just... this journal is a bit of an... experiment. Aka a project. And part of its purpose is to stay disconnected and under its own alias. So... I'm still figuring that part out, I guess.

So yeah, we'll see what tomorrow brings, I'll try to crack that nut when I wake up.

[stratossphere]

late nights. | j.k

you know what he wants if he’s texting you this late at night.

word count: 4.3k

warnings: smut, oral (fem. receiving), protected sex, Johnny calling himself daddy (once), overstimulation, Johnny Knoxville’s Dirty Mouth, slight mention of exhibitionism

— —

Finally, you were getting a night off. After filming for Jackass nonstop for the past two months, you finally had time to yourself where you didn’t have to do a single thing. You’d been doing nothing but smoking and watching TV all day, and for once, it was actually shaping up to be a decently relaxing night of nothing but silence. That was, of course, until your phone buzzed on the coffee table.

Knox: Hey gorgeous

You had flipped open your phone at the very second that you heard his familiar ringtone echo throughout your otherwise quiet apartment, and you rolled your eyes because you knew exactly what Johnny was texting you for if he was hitting you up this late.

You: What do you need?

Knox: I miss you too.

You: You’re up past your bedtime

Knox: What are you wearing ;)

You: You around?

Knox: Pretty close to your area

You: Just ask, PJ

Knox: Can I come over? I got something for ya

You: Can’t wait

Of course, to no surprise, there was a knock at your door no less than a minute after his last response, and then Johnny Knoxville himself was opening your front door before you could even get towards the door to let him in.

“Please. Come right in.” You said dryly as you walked into the kitchen, stepping around the counter to give him a kiss. “Well? What’d you bring me?”

“For milady.” He presented you with a box of condoms, a cheeky grin on his face as he did so like he was handing over a gold necklace. You bit back a grin as you took the box and set it on the counter. What a sweetheart, in his own special way.

“You stopped at a gas station on the way here?” You assumed aloud as you watched him kick off his shoes, leaving them neatly on your rug in the sea of your unkempt pairs of shoes that surrounded it.

“Just for you.” He winked as he followed you out of the kitchen and into the living room, his sunglasses coming off on the way and clattering their way onto the coffee table when he dropped them out of his hand. He then collapsed down on the couch next to you, giving you less than an inch of space between the two of you as he did so.

“You know, if you keep bringing me things, I’m going to start thinking that you like me.” You teased as he threw his arm over your shoulders, leaning into his side. You hadn’t seen him for almost a week due to his scheduled filming for the movie that he was currently working on, and you had missed his smell.

“Shit. Guess you got me.” He sighed in content, leaning down and giving you another, longer kiss. “You’re gonna have to be on set tomorrow. Jeff wants to get more footage than they have with you right now.”

“I was supposed to have three days off.” You whined as you tucked your chin against his shoulder, slipping your hand up under his shirt to feel the warm skin of his abdomen out of habit. He let out a laugh that sounded a little shaky due to your hand placement, stretching out his back slightly as he readjusted closer to you on the couch.

“Duty calls, doll. Plus, I came over here for a reason, and I’m not straying from it.” He said very seriously, smacking your ass as he reclined into the pillows that were against the couch arm. You frowned at him, rolling slightly so that you were reclined against his chest and in his personal space as much as possible.

“What reason is so vitally important that you had to come over?” You asked skeptically, pressing a lazy kiss to his lips and pushing his slowly flattening hair back up while dragging your nails against his scalp. He grinned, his hand coming to rest over yours on his head.

“I’m supposed to make sure you get a good night’s sleep so that you’re up and running for a good ol’ 15 hour work day tomorrow.” He explained, letting out a soft sigh into your hair as he pushed his knees up to enclose them around your legs.

“So, this meeting is strictly business?” You pretended to sound offended, lifting yourself up slightly and pushing your chest forward where you were wearing a low-cut top to show him that’s exactly what you didn’t want. If he was going to barge into your place so late at night, the least he could do was feel you up a little bit.

“Stop pouting.” He mumbled, his fingers slipping down your back to hook into the hem of your shirt and pull up slightly. You mentally thanked god that he had decided to gift you with a pack of condoms, because you’d together ran through an entire pack in the past three weeks, and you definitely weren’t on birth control. Johnny pulled his bottom lip between his teeth. “Haven’t seen you in forever. Tell me about your week and I’ll eat you out.”

This is exactly what made you love Johnny Knoxville so much. Such a fucking gentleman.

“You really know how to make a girl happy, you know that?” You said with a grin on your face as he sat up and lifted you off of him like you weighed nothing, feeling like you were made of paper as he laid you gently on your back. You really didn’t like being treated like you were helpless, but something about the way he so effortlessly rag-dolled you really made you throw pet-peeves out the window.

“I aim to please, sweetheart.” His fingers nimbly found the tie of the flannel pajama pants that you’d stolen from him months ago, and he worked it open without much issue before he was discarding you of both pants and underwear so that you were bare besides your thin top. “God, it’s like you dress to kill me.”

“Gimme a kiss.” You requested, threading your fingers into his hair and reveling in the softness of his strands. He must’ve just showered, which was nice because it meant that there was no gel that stuck to your fingers. He obliged your request, moving his head from where his chin had been level with your drawn-up knees and pressing his lips sloppily to yours, tongue and all.

“I missed you.” He mumbled against your mouth, his hand slipping between your legs to press his palm flat against your pussy. You gasped softly, lips parting in want as he broke away from the kiss to re-position his head between your legs.

“Missed you too. Thought about you a lot.” You breathed, biting the inside of your cheek when you felt the scratch of his five o’clock shadow brushing against your inner thigh. You then let out a soft gasp when he touched his tongue to your clit for the first time in over a week, your legs immediately pulling open a bit more as you gave him all the access that you could.

His tongue was soft in the way it swirled in slow circles, as if he had no cares and all the time in the world. He had asked you to tell him about your day, but all you could do was forget how to breathe as you rolled your hips up against his mouth, reveling in the soft waves of pleasure that came with every swipe of his tongue.

“C’mon, sweetheart. You heard what I asked you.” However, he was apparently hellbent on hearing about your day, or probably just hearing the shake in your voice when you tried speaking, because he paused, raising one eyebrow as he looked up at you expectantly. You nodded, taking a deep breath and then fighting the burning urge to push his face back down to your pussy.

“It was–good.” Your voice cut off in your throat as he resumed his ministrations as soon as you began to speak, hips jolting as his tongue attacked your clit with a newfound fervor. “Bought new…underwear…to–to replace the ones you…tore.”

“Fuck, can’t wait to see ‘em.” He hummed in content, clearly enjoying the stutter of your voice. And then, to make things worse, he changed his circling tongue to instead mouth wet, open-mouthed, sloppy kisses to your clit, hands gripping your thighs so tightly that you were starting to feel your skin ache. You whined again, one hand shooting down into his hair and pulling a generous amount. He groaned at the feeling, keening into the touch.

“Fuck, PJ. I can’t even–” Your voice died in your throat as you moaned, taken by surprise when his lips wrapped around your lips and began to suck strongly along with his tongue. “–feels so fucking good. Just like that.”

He didn’t stop, holding you down with his palms pressed into your upper thighs as he switched back and forth between sucking and licking softly and then sucking harshly with no remorse. Your voice was beyond your control by that point, and all you could do was pull at his hair and arch your back up from the couch as he pulled you closer and closer to your climax.

You couldn’t even give him a warning when you came, instead resorting to pulling his hair a lot harsher than what was probably enjoyable for him as you moaned like a fucking pornstar. His mouthed continued his assault on your clit throughout the entire thing, not letting up until your moans sounded more like screams and your legs were starting to shake with overstimulation.

There was such a smug look on his face when he finally leaned back to look up that you had half a mind to pull his hair one more time just for the hell of it. His mouth was wet as he pressed kisses up the expanse of your thigh until he reached your knee and stopped with his cheek resting against it.

“You taste so fuckin’ good. Wish I could do that all damn day.” He mumbled, his scruff tickling your skin as his mouth moved. You pulled him back up so that he was back on top of you, his weight supported with a hand on either side of your hips as he dipped down to kiss you with spit and cum slick lips.

Your legs were wrapped loosely around his hips, but even then you could feel his hard-on pressing into you. His lips trailed their way down your throat, his tongue soothing your skin with every nip of his teeth at your sensitive skin. Fingers found the hem of your shirt once again, and then he was pulling it over your head, peeling off the last item of clothing you had one whilst still being completely clothed himself. After a while, he started to slowly move off of you, keeping his hand on you despite the distance he was putting between the two of you as he kept his eyes on you.

“Come sit in my lap, babydoll.” He pulled you gently by the hand that had made its way into yours, not having to tell you twice as you moved towards sliding into one of your favorite seats in the world. However, you paused before actually doing so.

“You’re still dressed.” You pouted, dragging a single finger over his knee against the material of his dark blue Dickies. He had a bad habit of managing to get you completely naked and then ignoring himself until the very last second when you were getting desperate and close to begging. He stared at you for a moment, a hint of an amused grin tugging at his lips.

“Go get a condom.” He said softly, motioning towards where the box was still sitting on the counter as his fingers found the buckle of his belt. An eager smile formed on your face, and you immediately shot off the couch, making it to the counter and starting to attempt getting the condom box open.

However, you were still coming down from an orgasm, so your hands were extremely shaky, and you found yourself giving up in frustration after trying for a good minute to get the box peeled open.

“I can’t get it.” You came back to Johnny, who was just shedding his shirt with nothing else on, before holding the box out to him as you stared at his naked form. He chuckled slightly as he stepped in front of me and took the box, arching his back to stretch as he easily got the box open. Sometimes, you wondered if he had any idea how hot he was. Especially when he was naked and hard, and you were horny.

“You need my cock so much that you’re shaking this bad?” He teased as he reached in and took a condom out of the box before sticking it right between your parted lips. When you reached up to grab the condom, he scooped you up in his arms before you could even get halfway, lifting you off the ground and shoving his face into your neck. “Don’t worry. Daddy’s gonna give you what you want, nice and hard just like you like it.”

“PJ. Stop it.” You groaned as you finally pulled the condom out of your mouth, feeling cringe twinge through you. One of Johnny’s favorite things was to call himself Daddy (as a joke or in seriousness, you honestly didn’t quite know), but after seeing him do so while coercing his friends with a muscle stimulator, it had really lost its appeal. He, however, thought it was hilarious, cackling as he sat down on the couch with you in his lap and kissed you slow and lazy.

“Someday you’re just gonna have to accept it.” He sang as his lips parted at the way your hands ran up his shoulders, his eyes partially closing in content as you felt his warm skin. You rolled your eyes, kissing him again and slowly biting at his bottom lip as his hands cemented themselves at your hips. He then pushed slightly. “Turn around for me, sweetheart.”

“I wanna see your face.” You pouted, one hand sliding up his arm to stop him from turning you around before you were ready and then cupping his cheek. His lips were shiny and there was already a hint of a fucked-out smile on his face, and you didn’t want to miss it knowing it was only going to get worse once you began to ride him.

He pressed a kiss to your palm, biting the skin slightly before shushing you. The condom that he had since taken out of your hand was then unopened, and you listened as he groaned softly when you rolled it onto his hard, dripping cock.

“God, your hands always feel so good.” He kissed down your jaw, his hands sliding down to your ass and then squeezing slightly. “Turn around for me and let me see this pretty ass.”

Despite the fact that you preferred to see his face, you didn’t need much convincing; soon turned around in his lap while you let his hands guide you by the hips until you were hovering over his cock with your legs spread on either side of his hips. He then reached down with one hand to position his cock, pressing a kiss to the back of your shoulder as he brushed his tip against your clit before you slowly sank down on him.

“Shit.” He breathed, his arms coming to wrap around your waist as he pulled you back to rest against his chest. You whimpered as you started to grind your hips down on him, the feeling of his cock stretching you out after not seeing him for what felt like forever making your entire body thrum in a deliciously overwhelming way. Your apartment was soon filled with moans and gasps echoing loudly off the walls, already proving to you that you were going to have a neighbor complaining again by the end of the night. Johnny’s visits always seemed to trigger noise complaints.

You began to pick up the pace of your hips as one of his hands came up to your tit, his fingers brushing and pinching at your nipple as he moaned into your ear. You breathed his name, your hand moving to rest over where his other one was resting on your inner thigh.

“Love watching the way my cock looks inside you, baby. Riding me so well.” Johnny murmured in your ear, his chin tucked over your shoulder as his hips began to push up to meet where your hips were still grinding down on him. You whined, taking his hand from where it was resting on your thigh and pushing it down between your legs.

“Need you to touch me. Please.” You had no qualms with begging him. His hand immediately came back up until his fingers were brushing against your lips, which were parted in a silent moan, and you took the hint to open your mouth so that he could press his middle and index finger against your tongue. You sucked softly as you swirled your hips on his cock, almost choking on his fingers and on your own spit when he thrusted his hips up at the same time and suddenly hit that sweet spot inside of you. He chuckled.

“Right there, huh?” He cooed in your ear, pulling his fingers from your mouth just as you ran your tongue around each one to make sure that they were both evenly coated in your spit. He thrusted up again just as he pressed his fingers to your clit, shooting a whole new level of intense pleasure through you as he began to circle his fingers slowly.

“Yeah, baby. Just like that.” You moaned as your head fell back completely against his shoulder, your cheeks brushing each other’s as you tried to keep up with him while every swirl of your hips became weaker with every swipe of his fingers on your clit.

“I’ve been fuckin’ my hand to the thought of this every night since I fucked you last.” Johnny continued to make your head spin with his filthy words, the hand on your tit squeezing in a way that you knew was going to leave fingerprints as the roughness of his thrusts began to pick up. You couldn’t have responded to him if you’d tried. “I miss this pussy every second I’m not in it, gorgeous.”

“PJ.” There were tears in your eyes from the pleasure, and your fingers shadowed over his on your tit to force him to lace his fingers together with yours as you found the strength to continue pushing your hips down on his cock in an effort to chase your own orgasm. “M’ gonna cum.”

“That’s it, sweetheart. Cum on my cock.” He encouraged, squeezing your hand tightly as he pressed your legs open a little wider with his knees. Your muscles ached and you felt like you couldn’t breathe, but you couldn’t even attempt to care. Moans were falling from your lips in a steady stream now, and Johnny wasn’t far behind. He grunted and gasped with every thrust of his hips, and you could feel him starting to get sloppy as he approached his own climax.

One more, long, embarrassing moan from your lips and you were cumming, legs spasming around his and knees going impossibly shaky as you pressed back against his chest. Your voice only got louder as he continued to slam his cock into you, his own breathing going sharp and high-pitched as he took his fingers from your clit to wrap his arm tightly around your waist to hold you still as he thrusted into you over and over again.

Your moans turned into empty cries as you began to ache in overstimulation, your knees now weakened completely and shaking embarrassingly hard as you clawed at his arm for some semblance of control. You were leaving scratch marks on his skin, but you could barely form thoughts at that moment. When Johnny was stone-cold sober, which wasn’t often, his stamina was ridiculous.

Before you could even register what was happening, suddenly white, blinding pleasure was shooting through you once again, forcing your head back against his with your eyes slamming shut as you came for the second time due to the overstimulation of his cock inside of you well past your first orgasm. Your walls were squeezing his cock tightly due to how hard your orgasm hit you, and then Johnny was cumming too, his voice going gravelly in his throat as he moaned into your ear.

His hips slowed to a stop soon after that, and you crumbled completely against him, your breath ragged and uneven in your chest as you came down from what had been two mind-numbing orgasms in less than four minutes. Just as you were coming back down to earth, you startled at the sound of banging on the wall directly behind the both of you, and Johnny broke into a fit of laughter at the realization that, once again, the neighbors had overheard your escapades. Well enough to pound on the wall so hard that the frame above your heads shook against the drywall.

“I love when we have an audience.” He hummed in amusement, his lips pressing to your sweaty cheek and then down to your shoulder. You could even respond, too focused on trying to catch the breath that just couldn’t seem to come back to you. He nipped to your skin gently. “I didn’t kill ya, did I?”

“This is gonna hurt so bad tomorrow.” You mumbled, wincing as he relaxed his knees where he’d been holding your legs open. You could already feel the ache in your ass. Johnny laughed as he helped you slide off of his softening cock, both of you letting out a mix of a gasp and a wince at the feeling. Giving you a quick kiss, he laid you down on the couch before getting up to most likely get rid of his condom and get something to clean you up, humming as he did so.

You spent the time he was walking around the kitchen admiring his ass in all its glory, a grin forming on your face as he went far enough as to get you a glass of water and some of the items of clothing that you had discarded around the living room, along with…your kitchen towel.

“PJ. Seriously?” You groaned as he knelt down in front of you to clean you up with the towel that everyone was supposed to be able to use to dry off their hands. He gave you a defiant look as he finished what he was doing, promptly throwing the towel back on the counter before coming back with your underwear and his shirt.

“What? You have a washing machine.” He defended himself as he motioned for you to sit up. You gave him a dirty look as you did as he requested, unable to keep it on your face for long when he pulled your underwear on for you. His shirt came next, and you were immediately enveloped in his smell. He patted your knee when he was finished. “Mm. Shaky legs. Love to see it.”

“Shut up.” You just shook your head in exasperation as you took a long drink of the water that he had brought you, soothing your hoarse throat while you watched him pull his blue boxers back on. “I can’t believe I came three times and you only came once. It’s unfair.”

“Really? That was my favorite part.” He cajoled as he circled around the coffee table and dropped down onto the couch next to you, stretching his arm out across the back and motioning for you to close the distance between the two of you. You barely had enough strength to lie down so that your head was in his lap, humming in content as he reached out throw the blanket that had been resting on the back of the couch over you. You then pulled the couch pillow under your head, sighing happily as his fingers threaded themselves into your no doubt destroyed hair as you heard the TV click on.

“Ooh! Reno 911!” Johnny’s energy level, despite just going hard into one of the most intense fuck sessions the two of you had had in a while, seemed to have returned completely, and you couldn’t help but laugh at the level of interest in his voice as you watched him drop the TV remote back on the coffee table. You were barely able to function, and he was tapping his free hand on the couch the way he did when he was buzzing with too much energy. You would never be able to understand him.

“Ugh. I think you bruised my cervix.” You groaned into the pillow after a little while, eyes closing slightly at the feeling of his fingernails against your scalp as you wriggled slightly on your side. You could feel your left leg shaking involuntarily, and a deep ache was already setting into your entire body. It was a good ache, but Jesus. He really knew how to leave you close to incapacitated in less than 30 minutes.

“Want me to kiss it better?” He offered coyly, hand hand moving our of your hair and down to your back, where he continued to scratch his nails absentmindedly. He was going to put you right to sleep if he wasn’t careful.

“Hilarious.” If it was possible, you probably would’ve said yes. Johnny didn’t even look down at you after that, eyes glued to the TV screen as an amused grin played on his lips.

“Alright. Quiet time, honey. I’m trying to watch the show.”

[crsssie]

Gamer girl bathwater

Word Count: 2.7k

Summary: It's just water for a video. Right?

You grin at the camera. "Hey!! So, today I'm going to react to some streamers! It's been a long time request by the majority of you, and since I'm a decently sized account, I think it could be beneficial to both sides!"

The video plays, and you go through all of the footage.

You stare at the screen.

"So," You hum, watching yourself click onto Twitch. "I heard one of the really popular streamers was streaming right now, so I wanted to check it out."

Clicking into Komaeda's account, you blink at the chat. He's... really pretty.

"Hey... does he have merch?" You click around on his account, and you pause. "HE'S SELLING BATHWATER??? Wait."

The stream screams at you, and you grin evilly. "Okay. I am an adult who makes adult money, who makes reasonable adult purchases. Having said that, this is content for a video. I'm buying the bathwater."

The chat yells, and you tip a hundred dollars to Komaeda's stream. You lean on your face onto your palm on the facecam, and you press six zeros after the one.

jackielope: ?????? A MILLION???

"No." You retype the number. "I'll donate a million if he agrees to sell the gamer girl bathwater."

coffeeandsalt: They've done it. They've gone insane.

You grin at the camera, and the stream watches as you donate a million dollars to the streamer.

Komaeda blinks at the number that flashes on his screen. What.

user 600613S donated four dollars to user K0M43D4.

"Thank you... user 600613S for the donation," Komaeda blinks, registering the number in his mind. "... Is this enough for an actual basin of gamer girl water?"

Komaeda purses his lips and smiles in amusement. "I don't think so. How much are you going to pay? You think 4 dollars is enough?"

You donate another four dollars with a message. "I'll wire you 1 mil if you ship it over to me."

Komaeda blinks wordlessly. "..."

Your stream yells at you in the chat, and you grin.

"And how do I know you're not lying?"

"I'll take you in pms right now. I'll message you on discord," You type in chat, and Komaeda pauses. "1 mil."

Your chat explodes as you actually manage to dm him successfully, and you hide your discord. You watch yourself log off of the stream quickly, and you watch yourself type through the chat with him. Nagito Komaeda had sold you his bathwater for 40 bucks.

You laugh as you edit the footage, and you finally finish after four long hours of sitting with your back hunched like snow white's stepmother. Opening the camera to record the last bit, you grin.

"So," You shake a bottle in your hand. "I finally got the bathwater. You guys watched me actually do this on stream earlier, but I did end up wiring him a lot of money and getting the bathwater. In the process, I also found his onlyfans, but that doesn't matter as much. What matters is that you all get a video in two to three weeks of me doing something with this."

You finish editing, and you upload the video, crashing into bed, ignoring how much shit you've just stirred up from a single video.

Komaeda sits in his room, cheeks red, fanning his face with his hand. There is no way you. you were buying his bathwater. What would you even be doing with it? His favorite streamer? The one who inspired him to stream? The Youtuber who seemed to have more fans than possible? You asked for his bathwater? God. What were you planning to do with it? He's kind of scared. He's also kind of turned on...

You wake up two days later, staring at your ceiling, completely out of it.

"Right. I need to make a video before the water goes bad." You pull yourself from bed, grabbing your camera. "We're going to make a cocktail."

You set up the camera, and you grin as it starts recording.

"Hi! So," You hold the package up, all of the addresses crossed off. "I got the water as stated in my last video. I did buy it. Yes. He didn't let me pay him a million dollars, but I did end up paying him much more than he requested. We're going to purify this water because I don't want a tapeworm, and then we're going to have a little fun with it."

You bring out a Brita, pour the water into the pitcher, and leave it out to filter. You flip through your phone, and you laugh at your comments. The malicious ones are amusing, but the idea of your entire fanbase losing their minds at you offering a million dollars for a random streamer's bathwater was funnier. The comments are losing their minds over you.

kisskiss69: You know, I thought they were already pretty cracked, but offering a million dollars to an egirl-based streamer is taking me out.

sonyar: ONLYFANS??? Don't be shy 👀 drop the link ♥

You laugh, closing your phone.

The Brita finishes filtering, and you turn the camera back on.

"Alright," You shake the pitcher. "We're making a beverage. I have a shot glass; I have half a pitcher of water; I am going to drink all of this like regular water. If you're new here and wondering if there's something wrong with me, please know there are a lot of issues. Please be more specific when asking. Alright, cheers."

You hold the shot glass up, and you grin. Placing it on the counter, you bite on it, throwing your head back to take it. Gotta give the fans what they want.

Pulling the glass from your lips, you swallow.

"There was no taste... However, I do NOT want any of you guys doing the stupid things I do. Do not drink bathwater. It's HIGHLY unsanitary, even if you filter it through like I did," You remind. "I'm going to drink the rest of this and then go on stream. Stream will not know I was drinking bathwater the entire time. They will notice it's a different mug from what I usually drink out of, though."

The stream runs smoothly, and you press the water to your lips.

blatantsing: What happened to the bathwater?

You purse your lips. "The video comes out in like three days! Ah, right. Since I remember, I'm going to Anicon this year. I'm cosplaying, so... if you want a pic, come hunt me down in the crowd like you always do."

fluffypillow69: Ooh! Who are you cosplaying as?

You grin. "You're going to have to guess. It's a new cosplay, so it's none of the one's I've previously done."

You finish the last of the water, and you grin at the chat. "I'm going to finish stream here. I have to edit, and you'll see the video soon."

When you post the video, the internet breaks. You gain 20k subscribers overnight, and suddenly Twitter is trying to cancel you. You aren't even bothered, laughing your ass off. You were free today. You wanted to watch the male stream. He's so pretty.

"So," Komaeda fiddles with his fingers on stream. "I'm going to be reacting to that one video where the Youtuber drank my bathwater. Please... do not come for me. I haven't watched it yet, and I wanted you all to watch me die on the inside. I'm a huge fan of theirs... so this was very conflicting."

The comments flood, asking why.

"I..." He hides his face in his hands. "Don't know whether to be disturbed or turned on."

You double over in laughter, watching Komaeda pull up the video and start it. He has a stuffed animal in his arms, and you laugh whenever he has to pause to laugh or hide his face in embarrassment. He's cute. He's adorable. You're literally in love with him. You don't expect him to like you, though. You did make a video of drinking his bathwater.

Komaeda finishes the video, and he places his hands together, leaning on his fingers. "I'm going to. That was one rollercoaster of a video, but that was way funnier than I thought it would be. I... do not know what possessed me to send them my bathwater, but it was a funny result. I hope none of you decide to buy my bathwater. That thing is already taken down from my website."

You fall off your chair in hysterics. That was hilarious.

You keep his stream running in the background as you style your wig. Komaeda plays Minecraft, the sounds of the rain and pigs filling your room. You'd usually style your wig on stream, but you suppose styling it while doing something else works too. You were excited to finally get to lie to everyone about your height. It was a joke. You had to stick to platforms to even want to achieve the character's height.

You wonder who Komaeda's going as.

Typing with your free hand, you ask him who he's going as.

"I'm going as Servant!" Komaeda smiles. "He already looks eerily similar to me, so I thought I might be able to pull it off."

You freeze in the adjustment of your wig.

The black wig in your hand suddenly feels so much heavier.

Oh, you're going to have the time of your life at Anicon.

The day of the convention itself arrives, and you've never been so glad to have not booked a table. It smells like shit here. The sweat and perfume coming from everyone's body is a whole mess. You almost want to throw up, yet you continue through the crowd. You were going to find Komaeda. You were going to find the gamer boy who sold you his bathwater and was in love with you. You were going to die on this hill if it's that what took you. You were going to hunt down servant even if it took you a lifetime.

You finally find him, head sticking out from the crowd, and you cough and get into character.

"I've been looking for you," You step next to him, reaching for his chain.

Komaeda's eyes glimmer as he sees you, and he smiles. "Kamukura-san!"

"Meshi," You hum flatly. "Did you get lost?"

Komaeda's fans crowd around the two of you, and they stare at you.

"They look kind of familiar."

"I don't know how, but they're... I'm jealous of their gender."

"Give it to me."

You stare at Komaeda, and you hum. "Alright, I'm breaking character. Can I get a photo?" You laugh, and Komaeda freezes, eyes wide. He recognizes that laugh. You were cosplaying as Kamukura? You were cosplaying as... his crush? His master? Oh. oh. That's surprising. You... did you plan it? Is his luck speaking? Did you plan this? No. There's no way you'd plan something as silly as matching with him for a cosplay.

"Hm? Komaeda?"

"Yes!" He stumbles over his words. "You can. I'm so sorry. I spaced out. Your cosplay is really nice."

"Thank you," You beam, and one of the fans takes a photo of the two of you.

"Can... I get them from you later? You can send them to me," He mumbles as he lowers himself to his knees, the chain still in your hand.

"Yeah," You get into character, dropping your expression and hardening your eyes. The fan has you step on Komaeda's crotch, and your eyes widen.

"Excuse me???" You stare at the fan, and they grin at you.

"Please?"

"I'll step on his thigh, but I don't know about... his crotch."

"I'm fine with it," Komaeda mumbles. "For the picture. The effect."

You furrow your brows at him, yet you don't argue with it. You're careful to not press too hard, and you tilt your head, mimicking a sneer. A larger crowd forms around the two of you, and you hear people whisper about the whole situation. You wonder if you're going to get canceled a second time. Komaeda stares at you with madness in his eyes, and the fan finishes, handing you your phone back.

"Thank you!" You grin. "Are you okay? I'm so sorry. Did it hurt? Please get off of your knees. I'm going to get flamed for having you kneel-"

"Please marry me," Komaeda mumbles as you help him up.

"What."

"A-ah, I mean," Komaeda rambles and looks for an excuse, and you purse your lips. "I'm sorry. I blurted it out in character before I even had the chance to think."

"It's fine," You smile. "enjoy the rest of con!"

Komaeda watches you leave, hearts in his eyes. Ah. He likes you. A lot.

The two of you wake up to your cosplay photos trending the next morning.

"GOOD MORNING STREAM," You yawn, holding your head up with your hand. "I'm so tired. I did not sleep well yesterday at all. No, user 420tits, it was not because I slept with someone. It was because I couldn't get the stupid image of Meshi out of my brain."

K0M43D4 joined the stream.

You blink at the screen.

K0M43D4: We're trending on twitter

"Huh?" You click open your Twitter, scrolling through your feed. "Wait... this isn't. OH, shit. This is my stan account. Let's pretend that we didn't just see me try and find myself on my stan account."

jackielope: was that... a Komaeda stan account?

"No," You shoot the user down quickly, neck growing warm. "Ah, we are trending. Really hard. Why is there a twitter headline for us. HUh??"

K0M43D4: I'm sorry you have to trend with trash like me...

"Komaeda, in unfiltered honesty, I'd jump your bones if given the chance. Don't say that about yourself."

The stream chat spams, and you read Komaeda's live tweets about him panicking. You stare dead into the camera, forgetting that Komaeda's on stream. "I want to fuck that man so bad."

kisskiss69: KOMAEDA'S STILL ON STREAM.

You stare into the camera, your heart visibly dropping, and you panic. "ALRIGHT!! I'm logging off for the day. I think I need to sleep before anything else. See you all when I recover from telling Komaeda I'd smash."

You toss your phone to the side. You need time to mentally recover from that. You don't want to see yourself get flamed for telling Komaeda you'd smash. You... you don't know. You'll sleep it off, hopefully.

You did not, in fact, sleep it off. You wake up to 30k more followers on Twitter, and you stare at your notifications, scrolling through. You pause at Komaeda tagging you in his tweet. Do... do you want to see this? Is this a smart decision?

Holy shit, Komaeda wants to fuck you too.

You quote retweet it, joking when Komaeda was free. You never thought you'd live to the day that you get laid because you bought bathwater off of someone else.

Komaeda on the other hand? He's in stream when he receives the notification. It's already hard enough streaming with his face flushed from embarrassment. He pauses his game and hides his face in the plush in his hands. Half of your subs are logged on in his stream, and the chat goes wild.

"I'm getting laid because I sold my bathwater, oh my god." Komaeda's ears burn hard, and his eyes widen in realization.

cr2ssie: Komaeda, if you don't fuck them, I will.

"NO!" Komaeda yelps a little too loud. "I'll respond. I... I'll do it. I... oh my god. Do you think they'll let me post it on onlyfans if I give them half of the profits?"

The stream says yes.

"I'll... is that too quick? Oh, my. I'm going to. I'll figure it out. I promise." Komaeda stumbles over his words. "I can't believe they want to sleep with trash like me..."

Komaeda jumps on the opportunity to message you back. You're almost caught off guard at how quick Komaeda responds to you. You have to take a moment to breathe.

kmda: If the offer is still available..?

Fuck yes.

A new feeling of excitement bubbles in your throat, and you chew on your bottom lip.

600613S: Always.

[blu-joons]

Newlywed Routine ~ Kim Minseok

Your smile instinctively grew as you headed in the direction of the kitchen to find Minseok already in there. He was busy scrolling through his phone, unaware that you had made your way down the stairs until your hands rested against his shoulders, peering over the top of his left one.

A soft kiss was placed to his cheek by you before stepping away from him, moving around the table across to where two mugs were waiting for you.

“What do you fancy this morning?” Minseok asked you as he stood up from his chair, “remember that cooking isn’t my strong point before answering.”

“Something simple is alright,” you smiled, pressing down for the kettle to boil, “I’ll let you decide, you know what your limits up.”

Minseok nodded as he reached into the cupboard and pulled down two bowls. “In that case, how does cereal sound to you?” He joked, grabbing the boxes from the top of the fridge.

Your head nodded with a laugh as Minseok placed the cereal boxes down that you had before grabbing the milk from the fridge, the perfect, and easiest of the breakfasts.

As he did so, you grabbed the coffee from the tin just beside the kettle, filling up the two mugs that Minseok had already gotten out. A giggle escaped from you as you looked at what mugs he had gotten out, turning to face him.

“How much use are you going to get out of these Mr and Mrs mugs you?” You asked him.

A shrug of the shoulders came from Minseok as he glanced at the two mugs that were in your hands to show him. He couldn’t get enough of seeing them, the perfect wedding gift from Sehun that somehow seemed to fit in perfectly in your kitchen too.

“I reckon until it sinks in that the two of us are married,” Minseok informed you as the kettle pinged behind you. “That day will probably never come though.”

“We’ve only been married just over a week,” you laughed, “I’d hope the novelty doesn’t wear off for a long time yet.”

Minseok nodded back at you as you turned back around to finish off your drinks, joining him at the table as soon you as you were done.

“Doesn’t this feel like the breakfasts we used to eat when I was a trainee?”

“I feel like I’m a student again, cereal and coffee, it’s a long way off what we ate last week.”

You had somewhat gotten used to being able to eat whatever you wanted over the past week on your honeymoon, but now you were back in the real world. You had no one making breakfast for you, no self-serve to fill yourself up on either, it was all on you too.

A hum came from Minseok as he poured out his cereal, “I really don’t want to go back to work.”

“You can tell everyone about the honeymoon though Min.”

His head nodded as he passed the cereal box across to you. “None of them will want to hear about the honeymoon Y/N, they’re all miserable and single.”

“What about the wedding them?” You tried to suggest instead.

Another hum escaped Minseok, “how about if I sit them down and tell them all of the embarrassing things that they did during the reception?”

“I’m pretty sure I’ve got some videos lying around,” you informed him.

“Send them,” Minseok quickly instructed you. “I want every bit of evidence that you have against the boys that I can use against them today.”

Your head nodded as you placed the cereal back down. “You sound as if you’re going to blackmail them with this footage or something?”

“A little,” Minseok admitted in a whisper, “I’m not going to talk about the wedding all day, but I at least want half an hour on it.”

You could hear in his voice straight away just how serious Minseok was, he wanted to talk about the wedding to anyone that would listen. Even as you simply picked up your Mrs cup to take a sip out of it, it made Minseok’s stomach knot with excitement.

“I could weirdly get used to this,” he commented, placing the milk away once you were both done, “there’s a simplicity about coffee and cereal in the morning.”

“It feels like a married couple who’ve given up,” you joked in reply.

Minseok’s eyes rolled as you picked up your spoon to start eating, finding yourself somehow looking forward to your simple breakfast. You had had enough fancy food whilst getting married and holidaying, it felt nice to be normal again.

“I can’t believe I have to go to work now though,” Minseok sniggered, “this sort of meal just calls for a day on the sofa with loads of movies.”

“You know we’ve got the rest of our lives to do that now,” you smirked.

Minseok’s head nodded back at you, reminding himself of all the time you had ahead of you. Even after a week he found himself needing to be pinched to make sure that what had happened really was real and not some sort of dream for him.

“It feels weird thinking I’m going to work as a husband,” Minseok suddenly told you.

“You’re just going into work like usual though?”

His head shook as you spoke, “I’m going to have so many people wanting to hear about the honeymoon or compliment me on the wedding. I have a feeling that today is going to be all about me at the studio.”

Your eyes rolled at the wide grin that was on Minseok’s face, “it’s not just you that gets all the attention when it’s about our wedding.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll tell everyone about you too,” Minseok assured you, “mainly I’ll tell them just how incredible you looked throughout the whole wedding.”

Your smile turned up as Minseok managed to charm his way out of digging himself a hole. “I think I married you because you know all the right things to say.”

“That’s what the boys keep saying,” Minseok groaned, “they keep telling me that I must have talked you into marrying me because they still think I’m punching.”

“Ignore them,” you assured Minseok with a chuckle, nudging gently against your arm. “Just think of them all sat in their apartments having breakfast all by themselves this morning whilst you get to be at home with me.”

Minseok hummed in agreement with you, knowing that one day the others would all get to live through the fun that he was having. Just having you there was perfect, but knowing what was to come was even better for him.

“We should do this more often,” Minseok told you as the conversation seemed to quieten down again.

Your eyebrows knitted together in reply, “you mean sit at the table and stuff our faces with cereal?” You asked him.

“No, I mean sit down and eat and drink out of these mugs,” Minseok told you, “that way we can remind ourselves that we really are stuck with one another for the rest of our lives, no turning back.”

“You make being married to me sound like a chore,” you joked, “you’re not stuck with me, you’re supposed to enjoy being with me.”

“I’m only messing,” he laughed, “you know that there is nothing more that I want than to spend the rest of my time with you.”

“I know, you said so I think about a thousand times on our wedding day.”

“I just wanted to make sure you knew.”

---

Masterlist