#but until then audios are a lot easier cause I don’t have to worry about my face 😂

[rosicheeks]

🎶

[indyhypnosis]

3 Ways To Go From Broke To Millionaire

Ever feel like you never have enough money?

Some are born into families with accumulated wealth, but most grow up with just enough to pay the bills and put food on the table.

My dad worked six days a week and often pulled doubles (two shifts) to earn $50k a year.

The belief was that if you worked harder, you would make more money and have a better life.

But the more money he made, the more my parents spent, so even though we had a comfortable life growing up, he never had time to enjoy it.

My folks didn’t take classes on accumulating wealth or increasing emotional intelligence, and I’m not sure where they would have taken those classes back then anyway.

Since faulty paradigms pass through the generational timeline, I made the same money mistakes.

I worked 16-hour days, made a bunch of money, and spent it all on larger homes and fancier vacations.

For years I was perpetually stressed about money because no matter how much I earned, it was never enough.

On the outside, it looked like I was doing great, but on the inside (of me), I just felt broke at a higher level.

The only habit that saved me from ending up dependent on the government or my children one day is my desire for continued learning and self-mastery.

I’ve been going to the library and checking out audio programs on creating wealth, growing a business, increasing emotional intelligence, improving my marriage, being a better father, etc., since the early 90s.

Now with the internet, it’s even easier to educate yourself, but there’s a new problem with having access to “everything.”

A lot of the information on the internet is false and detrimental to your financial and emotional well-being.

It makes entrepreneurs and business owners shy away from growing forward because they don’t want to waste any more money on programs that sound amazing but deliver very little value.

I always wondered if wealthy people had access to information or ideas that 97% of the popular are not privy to, and guess what?

They do!

And you won’t find these ideas in books.

You have to get around millionaires willing to share their ideas and provide assistance, and that’s what I’ve been doing for the last several years.

I’m currently putting a new program together to share the path to seven figures with those ready to take it.

Yet, I want to share three strategies learned from millionaires to understand how wealthy people think about money differently.

1) Money loves speed! Wealthy people are more concerned with growing their fortune, whereas broke people are always afraid of losing money.

Wealthy people take more risks, view losses as feedback, and never wait to take a growth-oriented action until they can afford it. Instead, they act quickly and decisively, focus on the opportunity cost (would I spend $10k to make $100k), and use other people’s money to fund their progress (0% credit card offers, etc.). Their abundance mentality causes them to compare where they are to what’s possible in the future.

Broke people obsess about the risks of not getting what they want. They worry about failing, getting taken advantage of, and trying to hedge their bets by asking for payment plans and money-back guarantees. Their scarcity mentality causes them to dwell on past failed attempts, which creates procrastination and stagnation in the present.

2) Become your own bank. Wealthy people use strategies like infinite banking to increase their wealth rather than make lenders richer. For example, you take out a car loan for $30k at 3% interest. You’ll give $900 to the lender of that loan.

With infinite banking, you set up a life insurance policy and grow it over time through automated monthly payments. Then you borrow the $30k from your account and pay yourself back over the same timeframe.

Here’s where it gets mind-blowing.

Let’s say you have a policy with $75k in it. You can borrow $30k from it, and the account will still earn interest at $75K because you didn’t take a deduction. So your account is still earning interest at $75k, you now have a $30k loan, and you are paying yourself 3% interest. You’ve become your bank!

Imagine doing that with your mortgage payment! It’s one more way the rich become wealthier.

3) Buy a jet! Wealthy people use debt to save money on taxes. The other day, a wealthy business owner told me about a jet airplane he purchased a few years ago. His friends thought he was crazy, but they didn’t realize that he was able to write off millions of dollars in taxes because he used that jet for his business.

Broke people tend to hoard money, fearing that more won’t flow into their lives. As a result, they are constantly working on getting out of debt and will pay off a loan instead of investing in a new revenue stream.

To be clear, I’m not providing you with financial advice. Instead, I aim to point out how people who have accumulated wealth approach the game differently.

Everyone’s situation is shockingly similar, and this email will likely push buttons inside you.

“Yes, Tim, well what if I can’t afford a jet?”

“Wealthy people always get out of paying taxes because they are greedy and evil.”

“I can’t afford to do anything right now, so that’s why I’m not taking action on new opportunities.”

Those comments all originate from fear-based paradigms, and they used to keep me stuck.

How about you?

Tim Shurr

[loquaciousquark]

Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E111 (Redux! Oct. 13, 2020)

Gooooood evening good evening good evening, all! I started the VOD late for this recap and somehow the first four or so minutes of the show have a Twitch audio copyright claim, so I am reduced to only reading Brian's lips when he asks if we're on the internet. Hilariously, Marisha's background room is a comfy-looking blue/gold fabric wall with a ceramic colorful abstract lamp and a yellow silk scarf over the lampshade, and Taliesin's is an industrial looking games room in grey and black with multiple monitors, overhead speakers, and mysterious metal fixtures behind him. What a treasure this group is, honestly.

Tonight's guests: Marisha Ray & Taliesin Jaffe, discussing episodes 110 and 111 again. I wildly speculate once more about what might have caused their absence: jury duty? Sam appearing on The Masked Singer? Something to do with the animated show? One day, we’ll know, one day... (One day this “copyrighted audio” section will come back from the wars, too. Ugh!) Finally! The audio comes back to reveal Brian discussing the endless reality of digital meetings and Marisha talking about (I think) her glare-reducing glasses she’s wearing. Welcome to the New Age (welcome to the New Age, to the New Age).

Announcements: Marisha suggests checking out Dimension20, another live tabletop gaming group, which premieres live on Wednesdays at 4pm (CollegeHumor). 

Brian immediately wants to know how they feel about the revelation that Molly is alive. Taliesin’s personal reaction: he “knows some things” he can’t talk about and is aware of several possibilities that might be going on, but had a sneaking suspicion that there would not be a body for them to find. He says it’s almost all there for anyone to see in past material. Marisha’s personal reaction: she just wants to know how she’s doing with her theories, & was trying to block Tal’s face out deliberately as she was going off on her theories in the last episode. Taliesin says he thought her ideas were pretty good!

Cad has no clue what to think - it’s like listening to your friends talk about Buffy. Marisha thought it was a 50/50 Molly would still be there, but Beau had no idea. Not that it mattered, because as soon as Matt went through with it the reveal still blew their minds. Tal laid out his plans for the character with Matt during Campaign One (towards the end) after they all got their VM tattoos.

It is a “horrifying and gross” thing to dig up a body, and Beau was pretty reluctant to do it. Tal, as Cad: “Sometimes dead’s better.” The moral quandary of trying to speak with a dead friend was very different here than the frequent occasions they used the spell in C1.

Taliesin says his poker face is very bad, so it’s easier for him to over-react and let it all play out. The only other player he can see very easily from his place in their current setup is Travis, and because he knows Travis doesn’t watch TM, tweet, or participate in social media, he admits he thoroughly enjoyed watching Travis freak out at his freaking out. He says he only knew about 20% of what Matt described at the end of that episode. He was picking things to mug to increase Travis’s surprise. I love this so much.

Taliesin provided the table left leg shake; Travis provided table right. Ha!

Beau is really accepting her role in the Cobalt Soul. It’s good when “as a person, you feel like you can settle into your calling. Sometimes you can do more from the inside than fighting from the outside.” It’s a mirrored but opposite path of Keyleth from C1; Beau felt like she was too good for her duty, while Keyleth thought she wasn’t good enough.

Caduceus is not a big believer in jumping to conclusions. He does have an idea/notion of the “city of the undead” and thinks all this necrotic energy must come from somewhere, and wonders if this is the “capital of anti-death.” He’s willing to believe whatever he sees. This is one of the few things that trigger a bit of loathing and disgust in him. It was terrifying that the Wildmother didn’t know anything.

Beau is pretty confident in her Charlie Day impression laying-out-the-research last episode. She enjoyed taking the things that were known & extrapolating around them; this is a huge facet of Marisha’s own personality and she really enjoys it, so she built a character this time that would allow that kind of puzzle-solving. It’s also why she repeatedly notes when Beau journals, so she can avoid metagaming. Trent’s mention of Vess Durogna’s tomb raiding was completely circumstantial, and the only reason she’d made the connection to the Tombtakers was because she’d recently reviewed those notes for a separate unannounced project. Sometimes she tries to make connections and Matt is like, “It was...just descriptive. Just flavor. The curtains were red...” and she has to discard a paragraph of notes. She feels like it’s still something they have to do because of “look at what he does! Look! It’s totally valid!”

Cosplay of the Week: @kitsunstudios with a gorgeous Caduceus with a very intricate silk vest.

Caduceus’s takedown of Trent! One of my favorite moments in the entirety of C2. Taliesin felt Trent was an asshole; Caduceus felt sorry for him because of how dumb he thought he was. Caduceus’s response was "this is the dumbest man I’ve ever met in my life. He’s so dumb! Is nobody going to tell this guy how dumb he is? Oh, they’re all freaked out. Somebody needs to tell this guy he’s an idiot before somebody gets hurt.” (Marisha: “Before?”) Tal says it was the product of several years of therapy and many drunk conversations with Whitney Moore. It was from a genuine place of concern from Caduceus. “How are you allowed to have this much power and be that dumb?”

Brian loved how funny it was to watch everyone tiptoe around Trent and then Caduceus bulldoze through the end of the meal.

Taliesin: “Damage doesn’t make you interesting or better. It’s not what makes you good. Character isn’t found in damage. Just recovery.”

Brian & Marisha commiserate going through the stage where believing surviving something automatically made you a stronger person, better for the pain; instead it just meant you had to pick up the pieces after. Marisha talks about how strength through survival may be true for some people, but it shouldn’t be considered a necessity. Taliesin talks about how he used to think he had to be miserable to write. Brian talks about how believing he liked reading and writing miserable things only limited him for years.

Marisha feels it’s a C2 theme that almost all the PCs have someone trying to handwave or take credit for their accomplishments or explain their pain as being for their own good (Trent, Beau’s dad, Obann). She thinks it’s interesting to see all the various ways people try to take credit for your work/delegitimize you as a person. She loves that RPGs allow you to explore these odd moralities in interesting ways. The only way to fight it is to have a sense of your own self-worth, which is a problem a lot of the M9 started with.

Caduceus likes everyone, and really likes people who appear to need role models (Eodwulf). “With the right friends and the right bar and the right attitude, I think he’d be okay. Come over here where it’s so much better. That seems like an exhausting friendship that you have there.”

Marisha loves the mix of personalities in the M9; Veth, Cad, & Jester were all “we kind of like them!” after the dinner, and she immediately made eye contact with Travis and they both shook their heads. She knows Beau has to go along with it for Caleb’s sake for now, but she & Fjord are pretty sus of Trent’s proteges.

Beau is less concerned about Artagan’s relationship to Jester because “he showed his ass--she’s less worried about Jester now because a little of the magic is gone.” It’s a little like becoming an adult and realizing your parents are also just adults & human. Caduceus wasn’t suspicious of the Traveler for a long time until they got to the island. Aside: Taliesin loves the pantheon in D&D. “The notion of attempting to apply common Western conceptions of religion to a world where you have a pantheon of interventionist gods as baseline makes no sense to me. Everyone admits that every other god is there and doing shit; it has more in common with ancient Rome than anything else.” Now that he knows it was a con, he feels the wind had been taken out of it. He does have a sense that Jester’s gotten back together with an ex: “I hope that I’m really happy for you.” They’re both interested to see how Jester navigates the new relationship.

My internet goes out, of course. I panic for a second, thinking I’ve lost everything above, but all is well! Thanks, Form History Control addon!

Marisha loved punching Artagan, but regretting rolling so poorly. “I miss violence.” Dani lets us know it’s been about four episodes since the last battle.

There’s no way the Cobalt Reserve doesn’t have a single document on the Eyes of Nine. Beau believes “there are no real secrets” because people are just bad at not writing things down. For there to be no information at all seems really suspicious for her.

Fanart of the Week: @oddalchemist on twitter with some awesome Beau conspiracy red-thread boards overlaid a distant shadowy Molly walking away.

Caduceus feels a little guilty for really enjoying his time right now with the M9 and not wanting to go home. He’s starting to suspect that he’s going to go home very different than when he left. “He has the softest problems. I don’t know if I want to move back in with Mom & Dad.”

Beau is trying to get comfortable with the idea of being happy. Jester is probably Beau’s first real best friend & one of the first healthy female friendships she’s ever had. As long as she still has Jester in her life, she doesn’t care. For Yasha... “At the end of the day, Beau is a lonely person and has always been a lonely person. And I think you kinda reach this point where once you’re not lonely anymore, you can kind of come out of the fog and realize that was horrible! And terrifying! And is even more terrifying now that I know what I could have, and I don’t want to go back to that. At the end of the day Beau doesn’t want to be lonely anymore. There’s always been that flirtation with Yasha, but everyone had to figure their own shit out. And now it feels like it’s coming out a little bit of that haze, maybe this actually could be...” There are a lot of ways they complement each other & are good-different from each other. Marisha believes people can be attracted to more than person at once.

Caduceus doesn’t think nature turned against him on Rumblecusp, it was just a reality of nature being dangerous and violent. “He has a complex relationship with nature.” He doesn’t expect special treatment.

Thoughts on the mansion: “Man, it’s nice to be seen.” Marisha: “I don’t know how I ended up becoming the Scanlan of this campaign, but I’m living for it.” It felt like an echo of “I’m better for having known you.” They compare Marisha taking specific notes on the campaign to Liam taking specific notes on people’s favorite tapestries, comics, etc.

They talk about missing theme parks and daydream a park version of the mansion in CritRoleLand. It’s lovely.

Taliesin never expected Divine Intervention to work; he just wanted to roll some dice. He’s still processing what he saw/heard. They all agree it was very useful in the Vokodo fight.

Vilya! Marisha: “Ah! Ah! Ah!” As a player, Marisha was so deep in Beau’s eyes she didn’t pick up it was Vilya at first (especially since Matt really emphasized they should not be looking for C1 NPCs). Marisha’s brain melted. She bawled her eyes out on the ride home after that episode. Right after it ended, Laura told Marisha “Keyleth finally gets her happy ending,” and it makes Marisha emotional again since Keyleth’s story ended so bittersweetly. She talks about the very real feelings of “just wanting them to be happy, though!” She went back and listened to all her old Keyleth playlists. Everyone was teary after the episode. “Everyone has these 100% real memories of being these characters and having these good times.”

And that’s that for that! Thanks for your patience, all, and is it Thursday yet?

[gaymershigh]

Hi, can u write headcanons of Jamil, Azul, Cater, Rook and Idia discovering that their S/O (male) is their favorite singer/idol in a disguise? Sorry if it sounds too boring

Thanks and I love your blog <3333

It's not boring at all! I love this request so much 💗 the reader has to not be a different world like Yuu so it makes sense in context as to why they're popular in twisted wonderland, just to clear things up!

Also yes, I'm doing other requests before redoing that damned unfinished draft-

Jamil, Azul, Cater, Rook and Idia discovering their boyfriend is a popular idol

You want to tell him so bad but you just don't the guts to.

It's not like you don't trust Jamil or anything. It's just that Kalim's 99% always nearby him and try don't him to overhear your confession and cause a huge hassle.

But sometimes secrets are broken by itself. You can be your own secret breaker.

While you were listening to songs from the Land of Hot Sands that was recommended by Jamil, he was picking random songs from your country.

His eyes slightly widen when one of the songs he picked's singer sounds just like you but with a different name.

“He sounds just like you.” he stated and that made you panicked. That is one of your newer songs from a few weeks ago.

He got curious when your words started getting shaky and your face getting sweaty. This led him to researching your stage name, making you even more scared.

“He even looks like you too, could it be?.. ” if you kept lying, it will go into a dead end. The only thing to do it to spill the beans even if you don't want to.

Your hesitant nod was followed by silence and then a normal 'ok' from your lover like nothing was out of the ordinary. You were shocked.

In the inside however, he was different. He was baffled, these things only happen in fairytails!

He's not complaining though, he loves the feeling of being special.

Even if don't mind, he wouldn't be the type to be brag about your relationship together. Maybe with Kalim but other than that, nah.

“I see. Don't worry, ya amar, I'll keep this a secret. just the two of us only.”

How can you keep this secret away from him for that long? Colour me and him impressed.

Jamil is reasonable as to why he doesn't know about your secret identity because he doesn't keep up with the trends but Azul? He definitely spends more time on the internet than Jamil would ever.

But of course he would find out eventually. Of course, it's Azul.

You were giving him some song recommendations and avoiding your own so it wouldn't raise suspicion.

Unfortunately, you weren't fast enough as he realized you kept skipping a few songs right before the song hits the 3 second mark.

When he asked you why you kept skipping a few songs. You sweated and lied about the singer is not so good. You basically degraded yourself.

If course, it's not easy to fool your boyfriend. He snatched your phone away and looked at the current song you're about to skip.

He covered his mouth in shock. There was no doubt about it, that really is you. The voice, the looks, the stage name sounds like something you would name yourself, everything!

“Darling, why didn't you tell me? Do you not trust me?” You had to reassure him that was not the case and you just prefer not to get the attention and not make anyone annoy him about asking him questions about you.

You're just so special, aren't you? You're an idol beloved by everyone but you don't want the publicity and cause any problems, you're so sweet and precious.

He'll only brag occasionally. It's unprofessional for him to be cocky every single time of the day and he'll probably show off only to intentionally piss off someone.

“Darling, you shouldn't insult yourself! You're very good in singing and you amazingly breathtaking! So handsome.”

Seriously, how did you get away from him, Cater Diamond himself??

He's a social media God and even if he does suspects you several times, he's supposed to catch on sooner.

You have to admit, it was harder to hide away from him since he follows your account. Everytime he takes a selfie with the both of you, a lot of people comment asking him is that (stage name).

He would usually reply 'I wish lol but imagine if that happens 😳'. This makes you nervously laugh.

He always comments about how you always look like (S/N) all the time and you always nervously scratched your neck, feeling guilty.

He also joked about your voice being incredibly similar and how you could be the idol in disguise. My god you couldn't describe how much you want to run out of there as soon and possible.

You thought everything is going smoothly until the most dreadful statement came out of your boyfriend.

“(Y/N), do you want to go to (S/N)'S concert on Friday this week?” You had enough. You can't handle the torturous moments and can't keep up with the lies anymore. You have to tell him with a little twist to it. You said you were busy which means you have to keep denying your cute pouty sweetheart.

When you finally finished your concert, you called your boyfriend from the stage to go to the backstage. You can see the excitement in his eyes.

When you confessed that his statements about his number 1 favorite idol is also his boyfriend he's been dating for months, he went form speechless to hugging you tightly while screaming.

“Holy shit, I can't believe it, (Y/N)! I'm gonna tell everyone!” You sighed in relief as he reached out for his phone.

He's definitely gonna brag no matter what universe he's in. The publicity and increase amount of his followers in magicam is gonna be unbelievable. Just like Azul, he's gonna shove your relationship to everyone's face just to annoy them.

“(Y/N)-chan is so mean hiding such amazing secrets away from me, you're gonna pay the price~”

He's gonna be so surprised as to how you hide from him for more than 3 days. He's got good eyesight and very good at reading your heart.

You're sometimes we're scared that he caught on as he kept praising you like your fanbase would usually do. You never felt so relieved when you found out he's just like that.

He sometimes does comments how you look like your other side and how your voice sounds uncomfortably similar but that's just it.

It's a little bit easier to get away from him when it's about social media since he's not really the type to look to check social media daily.

He kept persistently asking you if that singer he adores so much was you, which you kept replying with of course, no.

But every single time you answered the same reply, your tone and confidence seems to be different, lowering down specifically. He probably already knew you are (S/N) now but he really wants you just give him a 'yes' instead of just believing in his own word.

While you were cuddling with him on his bed and about to fall asleep, you were playing a few songs as white noise to make you go to dreamland faster.

You didn't even realise your song was playing, your eyes were bleary and you could black out any moment.

Rook took the opportunity to asked you again if you were (S/N), he was both surprised and please when he finally got the answer he waited for.

With no hesitance, you said yes before drifting to sleep. He won this time, checkmate.

When you woke up, he told you about what happened last night with the usual smile while you're mouth was agape.

He might unintentionally brag by telling the whole campus how handsome you are, your angelic voice, how lovable and huggable your figure is, Vil is jealous.

“Mon trésor, there is no need to repent about your beauty, you are lovely in any shape of form, my sweet delicate dove~”

He adores your idol version of yourself and is probably the only real idol that he admires, the rest is probably his anime waifus or whatever.

Doesn't mean he doesn't love your backstage form too, he loves you too very much and thinks you're very handsome :)

It's just that your face reminds him of his favorite singer of all time. He's always making conspiracy theories about how you're (S/N)'s clone and you'll just laugh, knowing everything.

He once said that maybe you're an idol in secret, this made you sweat nervously as you shook it off.

Everytime he talks about your idol self to you, Ortho always asks if you're ok or not because you always felt a bit anxious and shaky as if you were about to get killed.

This made Idia raise suspicion. He wanted an answer as to why so he made up a plan.

He makes Ortho note your condition everytime he talks about (S/N).

His suspicions were right, you're always uncomfortable everytime he asks you if you're the idol version of yourself.

If he thinks he has enough tapes and audios of you literally shaking, he started negotiate you.

You had no escape as Ortho has trapped you in his room alone with your boyfriend. He kept taunting you with the same question 'are you (S/N)?' until you finally give in and told the truth.

Even though he got his victory, he still felt bad since you don't wanna talk to him for 3 days, causing him to cry like a baby.

He seriously can't believe it though, he just experienced something out of his mangas! He's beaming with joy.

He's only bragging on the internet only, there is no way he's gonna say anything in real life as you're wayyyy out of his league.

“You could have just told me, you know! I won't tell anyone if you're uncomfortable, I promise!”

You have no idea how much I loved writing this one but I got a creativity burnout when writing Idia lol~

-𝕸𝖎𝖗𝖎

[writer-k-pop]

Behind The Scenes

오늘 투��터 봤어요? Have you looked at Twitter today?

Description: Being the youngest and newest member of BTS’s filming crew, you grow close to other crew members as well as the BTS members. Specifically, BTS’s maknae, Jeon Jungkook, because somehow you always get paired to film him. After a perfectly timed photo during a filming hits the internet, rumors and words fly around excessively. And Jungkook shows his worry for you.  Warnings: Swearing, none Genre: FLUFF Word Count: 3.7k

BTS Masterlist | Masterlists

"The filming will begin once the members finish up with their makeup." Our director announces as we stand around him in an empty parking lot. "Audio team is here?" He asks and scattered hands raise in the air, "8, 9. Good. Cameras?" He moves onto the next department: mine

I raise my hand as the others on my team do the same.

"And you know who you're following?" Our director asks.

We go down the line and say the member we're filming for the day.

"V."

"Rm."

"Suga."

"Jin."

"Jimin."

"Hope."

"And our youngest," Rena pinches my cheek, "Is with Jungkook."

I bat away her hand with an eye roll. Since joining as the newest, and the youngest, the older team members have been teasing me about how cute we'd be together. Though I highly doubt it. I think they're just teasing me because I'm the newest and the youngest. Like it's my initiation ordeal. But every time we do some filming that needs each member to have a dedicated camera person with them (nearly every time), they always pair me with Jungkook.

At first it was a little awkward: he wouldn't talk to me cause I was new and I wouldn't talk to him cause I was new. It took a few filming schedules until we were able to have comfortable conversations.

"Alright, here they come." Our director announces, "Remember their safety as well as yours!"

We all give a cheer of excitement then break out to get our equipment and into our smaller groups. Each will have a camera staff, an audio staff, and another staff to direct the content.

"Wonder where Jungkook will pick." Hyunwoo wonders as he adjusts his audio equipment belt.

"I pray it's not in the old park." Yeonseok, our assigned staff, says and places his hands in a prayer pose.

"Knowing our luck, it'll be there." I joke while zipping the last extra battery in its pocket before picking up the camera.

"If it is, it's your fault." Yeonseok pokes my shoulder.

"Don't blame me!" I spit back, "Blame the one who actually chooses it."

"I could never blame Jungkook." Yeonseok shakes his head and places his hand over his heart.

"Yupp, you're definitely NOT whipped." Hyunwoo says sarcastically as we join the other staff members crowded behind the few standing cameras.

In front of the cameras, the seven members of BTS stand and wait for the cue to start their silliness for 'Run BTS.'

"Everyone quiet please!" The main director waves his hands and everyone ceases their conversations. "Camera, roll!"

"Wah, it's a really nice day." Hoseok comments, squinting up at the sun.

Jungkook and Jimin laugh at his random comment.

"Hyung, why are you so awkward today?" Taehyung giggles.

"It's not awkward." Jin comes to Hoseok's defense and throws an arm around his shoulders, "It is a nice day." He emphasizes nice and also looks up at the sun before slapping a hand over his burning eyes. "Ah, ah, ah, that hurts." This only makes the maknae line laugh harder.

"Alright, alright." Namjoon attempts to calm them down but Jungkook and Taehyung continue to giggle, "We all know why we're here, right?"

"Ah, yes." Yoongi nods slowly, "We were dropped off in this empty parking lot so we could get kidnapped." He deadpans.

From the staff, muffled chuckles can be heard and I have to press my fist to my mouth to keep the laughter in. Hoseok and Jin join the maknae line in loud laughter and Namjoon looks towards the director, his eyes pleading for help.

"Sorry, Joon-ah." Hoseok coughs out, trying to push the laughter aside. "We'll say it right. Ask the question again."

Namjoon claps his hands together and resets. "We all know why we're here, right?" He repeats his previous question.

"RUN BTS!" The other six members loudly scream towards the sky.

"Hyung, are you the MC today?" Jimin asks, gesturing towards the group's leader.

Namjoon shakes his head, "If I was, this show would be a disaster."

"No, I think you would do really well." Hoseok claps Namjoon's back in support.

"Thanks Hobi." Namjoon says and holds his hand out for a handshake. Only to be ignored. Again. "Anyway, today we're doing something different."

"We are?" Jin and Taehyung ask together with over emphasized curiousity.

"We are." Namjoon confirms. "Today, we'll each be on our own, completing missions to get a picture. Then we'll all meet up again and I think we have to line up the pictures in order. If we get the answer right, we get a prize. I think?" Namjoon finishes with an unsure ending.

"That's right." The main director nods then explains the game to the members in a shpeel that will be edited out later and replaced with written instructions on the screen. "Each member will randomly choose a location. At that location there will be four missions you have to complete. When you finish all four, you will be given a photo. After you receive the photo, you will all gather again and together will place the photos in the order that they were taken. If you succeed, each BTS member will be given a wish that they can use anytime within the next year."

"WOAH!" The members drop their mouths in awe.

"And we can ask for anything?" Jin asks.

The director nods, "As long as it pertains to this show, you can ask for anything."

"Can I ask to go home then?" Yoongi steps forward with a raised hand.

The director laughs, "You can but then you'd miss out on other prizes."

"Okay, so how do we know which location to go to?" Taehyung asks, his excitement shining through his eyes.

The director holds out a can with seven folded pieces of paper. Taehyung walks forward, grabs the can, and retreats back to his members.

"Who picks first?" He asks the group.

"Let's do rock, paper, scissors." Jin suggests, sticking a hand out.

"Not this game. I suck at this." Hoseok whines but sticks his hand out along with the rest.

"Winner gets to pick first." Jin announces.

They pick a piece of paper in this order: Hoseok, Jungkook, Namjoon, Jimin, Yoongi, Taehyung, then Jin.

"Should we reveal them one by one?" Jungkook suggests and the others nod. "Hoseok hyung first."

"Where am I going?" Hoseok teases then pops open his piece of paper. "The movie theatre?" He reads off his location with confusion.

"Ahhhhh, that would've been fun!" Taehyung whines.

"Jungkook, next." Jin gestures for the youngest to hurry up.

Jungkook opens his sheet and reads it out, "Cafe."

My fists clench in happiness that he didn't pick the outdoor location.

"Yah, that's a good one." Namjoon shakes his finger in Jungkook's direction but I can't make out if he's happy or disappointed. "I am going to the gym."

"I'm going to the park!" Jimin reads off his excitedly.

"Is it the old one we saw on our way here?" Jungkook asks the staff with bunny eyes. The director gives him a nod and Jungkook pouts. "Hyung, can we switch? Ah, I really wanted to go there!"

I narrow my eyes at the youngest and pray that the director won't let them switch places.

"No switching, Jungkook." Taehyung says and pulls the youngest away.

"Yoongi, Yoongi." Hoseok says the next member.

Yoongi slowly opens his paper but doesn't show the camera as he reads it. Then he suddenly starts screaming and jumping in happiness.

"What?" Taehyung asks.

"Where are you going, hyung?" Jimin asks, trying to take the paper away from him.

"THE DORM!" Yoongi screams happily and finally shows the cameras the piece of paper.

The other six members give sounds of disbelief and Jimin even walks towards us staff, asking if it's true.

While Yoongi happily bounces from foot to foot, Taehyung reveals his location.

"I'm going to the company." Taehyung announces before Jin swiftly opens his, the writing pointed towards the cameras and away from him.

"School?" Taehyung reads it out for him and Jin quickly flips the paper around to read it for himself.

"SCHOOL?" Jin repeats incredulously.

Yoongi bursts into laughter with Jungkook.

"Do you know how long it's been since I've been in school?!" Jin shrieks. "I have to go back?"

"Hyung, maybe they'll let you wear a school uniform." Hoseok laughs, leaning onto his shoulder.

Jin shakes Hoseok off and scoffs, "What are you talking about?"

"How long do we have?" Jimin asks the director while Hoseok and Jin giggle together about Jin's location.

"We'll give you 3 hours to finish your individual missions." The director said.

"Alright, let's go." Yoongi rushes the group, wanting to get to the dorm as quickly as possible. "Run!"

"BTS!" They all finish together.

I readjust the camera in my hands and wait for our small group to be joined with Jungkook.

"You lucky duck." Yeonseok nudges my arm.

"I prayed real hard." I smile as our team is called.

"Team Jungkook!" My director calls out.

I shuffle through the crowd behind my older male staff partners for the day.

"Yeonseok hyung!" Jungkook says happily as we make our way over, "Hyunwoo hyung!"

I peak out from behind the two and give an expecting smile for my greeting.

"(y/n)!" Jungkook snaps finger guns at me, "Woah, I got the dream team." As the car pulls up, Jungkook carries on conversation with the other two leaving me to fiddle with the camera and prepare to film. "How is Junsu hyung and the baby?"

"They're good." Yeonseok answers, "The kid is finally sleeping through the night."

"Makes him much easier to handle during the day." Hyunwoo jokes and juts a thumb at Yeonseok.

Jungkook chuckles, "I believe it."

"Yah, I'm older than you." Yeonseok scolds him and we all slid into the car: Yeonseok driving, Hyunwoo next to him and Jungkook and I in the middle seats.

"What do I have to do to there?" Jungkook asks while putting on his seatbelt and I do the same.

I shrug.

"How do you not know?" Jungkook asks me.

"Oh, I know. I'm just not allowed to tell you." I smirk.

"Oh come on, please." He drags out the 'please' but I shake my head as Hyunwoo wags a finger at him.

"No can do kiddo." Hyunwoo says, "We wanna keep our jobs."

Jungkook pouts and crosses his arms over his chest, "No fair."

I snort at his behavior, "Your a member of the world's biggest boy band and you're pouting over not being able to cheat."

Jungkook tsks, "If it were Jin hyung, you guys would've told him."

I raise my eyebrows at him, "I wouldn't. But Yeonseok might."

"Oi!" Yeonseok looks at me through the rearview mirror, "I would not."

"Sure." Jungkook and I say at the same time with the same unbelieving tone.

A few minutes later, Yeonseok parks the car in front of the cafe that we had rented out for the day.

"Hold on." I tell Jungkook as he reaches for the door.

"Why?" Jungkook looked at me like I'm crazy for not letting him out.

I roll my eyes, "Just wait until I get to the other side. I don't exactly want to film your butt." Without waiting for his response, I exit the car on my side and quickly jog around to Jungkook's side.

When I'm in my spot, Jungkook then opens his door and ducks out of the car.

"I go inside?" He throws an innocent look to Yeonseok who nods. So we walk inside with me walking backwards with the camera focused on Jungkook.

As we step inside, the cafe music fills my ears and the atmosphere turns cozy in a second.

"What's my first mission?" He asks, the desire to finish first before all of his members burns in his eyes.

Yeonseok hands Jungkook a piece of paper which he opens, reads, then shows the camera. I make sure to get a clear shot of the writing as he reads it aloud.

"Choose four drinks from the menu and make them." Jungkook says. "I have to, like am I actually supposed to get behind the counter and make them?" He points to the space behind the counter. Yeonseok, Hyunwoo, and I all nod our heads. After a few schedules with rolling cameras, I learned that I need to suppress the laughter I get from Jungkook's surprise. My amusement growing at his adorable bewilderment.

"Well, okay. Do I get to choose the drinks?" Jungkook questions and turns towards the menu. Yeonseok nods when Jungkook glances back.

"I have to make four?" Jungkook sighs, "Mmm, well, if we're going to drink them, then I should choose drinks that we'll like." He reasons. "So, for the PD hyungs I think I'll make Iced Americanos." Jungkook looks to them for approval which they give. "For camera PD, I will make a strawberry lemonade?" He raises his eyebrows looking for my response. I smile and nod, my heart skipping a few beats. "And for myself, I'm gonna make, ooh, a hot chocolate. Yeah, that sounds great."

Jungkook nods in determination. "Alright, let's do this." He walks around the counter and finds an apron and a book on how to make all the drinks on the menu.

"Of course you would give me a book." Jungkook smirks at Yeonseok while tying the apron around his waist, "Otherwise your drinks would've been terrible."

He laughs at himself and begins working on the two americanos. I move around the counter and capture Jungkook fumbling around with the espresso machine.

"Is this how it works?" He mumbles and glances up to me for help. I shrug my shoulders cause I honestly have no idea how to work that kind of machine.

Jungkook sighs staring at the espresso tamper in his hands, "I know we did an episode with this. Why can't I remember?" He looks underneath and fiddles some more before slowly but successfully attaches the tamper to the machine. "Success!" He smiles happily then the smile drops, "Now which button do I press?"

I suppress a laugh but Jungkook hears my snicker as he fills two plastic cups with ice.

"Don't you laugh at me!" He turns and pouts at me. "You're laughing."

I shake my head with a smile of innocence as I can't make a sound while recording.

Jungkook turns back to the machine and reads all the buttons until he finds what he thinks is the right one which frankly, I would've picked the same one. In about a minute, the two little cups below the tampers fill with the warm dark goodness of espresso. When the final little droplets fall into the cups, Jungkook takes each and pours them into the plastic cups. Then he pours water in till the cup is full.

As he pops the lids on and sticks straws into them, I can't help but admire him through the camera feed.

"Next up, strawberry lemonade." Jungkook sing songs turning around to find the right ingredients.

20 minutes later, Jungkook sits across from me at a table and I sip on the lovely strawberry lemonade that Jungkook made me.

"What's my next mission?" Jungkook asks, setting down his nearly half finished mug.

Yeonseok slides over a piece of paper from the next table. Jungkook picks up the paper, reads it and begins his second mission.

*The next day*

"You haven't looked at Twitter, have you?" Yeonseok ambushes me as soon as I step into the building.

I glance around, slightly nervous, "No, I woke up late and rushed here."

Yeonseok sighs deeply, "Thank goodness."

"Why?" I ask as he drags me further into the building.

"Because." Yeonseok says vaguely.

"Because?" I repeat, hanging onto the word.

"Because..." Yeonseok glances around and I do the same, finding some stares being directed at us. "There's a rumor."

"Stop being vague!" I exclaim and pull my arm away.

"Someone took a picture of us filming at the cafe yesterday." Yeonseok explains.

"Okay? What's so big about that? They do that all the time." I explain.

"Yeah, but this time, the picture was perfectly angled so Hyunwoo and I were hidden and your camera is hidden by one of the pillars inside so.." Yeonseok trails off as I pick up on where the sentence is leading.

"It looks like we were on a date." I sigh, closing my eyes. "Is it bad?"

Yeonseok tilts his head to the side, "I mean not the worst things that have been thrown around..."

"But still pretty bad." I finish for him.

"Yeah." Yeonseok confirms.

I shrug, ignoring the dull pain of wishful thinking in my chest, "It's not like we've never had to go through something like this in the past."

"Yeah but you should really stay off the internet for a day or so." Yeonseok advices as we reach our large office space.

I nod slowly, "Okay, I won't." Setting down my bags, I sit at my computer and start opening on emails for the day.

"You promise?" Hyunwoo pops his over the cubicle walls.

I smile at his concern, "I promise. Why do you care though? I can handle myself."

"We know you can." Hyunwoo responds, "But you're still the youngest and like our little sister so we gotta protect you."

"Or at least try to." Yeonseok adds on.

I chuckle, "Well, thank you. I'm assuming upstairs is denying it?" I point upwards.

"Writing the denial letter as we speak." Hyunwoo snaps his fingers.

"This way?" Jungkook's voice echos down the hall.

I scrunch my eyebrows and Hyunwoo, Yeonseok, and I all lean back in our chairs wondering why he's up here.

Within seconds, Jungkook appears in the office space, his eyes searching a bit frantically.

"(y/n)." Jungkook says my name which shocks not only me, but Yeonseok and Hyunwoo as well.

I give him a small wave and a confused smile. Jungkook smiles and quickly walks over.

"Are you okay?" He asks me.

Yeonseok and Hyunwoo snicker but lean closer to their computers. I internally roll my eyes at them.

"I'm okay. Are you okay?" I answer and return the question.

"I'm okay now." Jungkook says, now a little shy.

"Now?" I ask.

"Well, I sort of saw Twitter this morning and I was a little worried." He answers.

I'm sure the evidence of surprise is clear on my face because he spits out more explanations.

"I, I mean I know you're new and haven't really been around this industry much and I didn't know how you would take it." Jungkook stutters, "And, and I worried because you were the one in the photo with me and I know people can be really nasty. Especially when we’re involved." He finishes quietly with a scratch to the back of his neck.

I squint cause I think I see a little blush tint his cheeks.

"Thank you for the concern." I tell him with honesty and I’m a little touched. "Is that why you came up here?" I ask.

Jungkook chuckles, "Yeah."

I smile, "Well, thank you. I appreciate it."

"Great." Jungkook claps his hands and then starts to get antsy, "Well, I'm gonna head back downstairs."

"(y/n)!" Hyunwoo quickly stands up, startling both Jungkook and I, "Walk him out. He could get lost up here."

"Yeah, we don't want Jungkook getting lost up here." Yeonseok agrees.

"Hyung." Jungkook drags out the word while I give them a pleading look. "I can find my way out."

"You didn't even know how to get here." Hyunwoo argues with the older brother smart-ass tone.

Jungkook opens his mouth to respond but his voice is nonexistent. I try to choke back a laugh but it comes out anyway.

"Hey, don't you even start." Yeonseok points a finger at me, "You're so much worse."

"Am not!" I defend myself, standing and crossing my arms.

"Are too." Hyunwoo agrees.

"Am not." I say in disbelief.

"Actually, you kind of are." Jungkook comments.

I raise my arm to slap his arm but hesitate, unable to finish the move. Jungkook, on the other hand, simply sticks his tongue out at me.

"Mature." I roll my eyes and lower my arm.

"Mature enough to ask you out?" Jungkook suddenly asks with a smirk.

My entire body freezes and the air dissipates from my lungs. The air around us also stales in an instance. Even Yeonseok and Hyunwoo are stunned into silence. In my ears, my heart starts to pound and my cheeks heat up. I can't believe the words I had just heard.

"I..." Jungkook clear his throat, "I said that out loud..."

I blink to break out of my thoughts and reset myself. "I'll, uh, I'll walk you out." I smile, trying to ignore what just happened but I don't think I did it well.

Jungkook wordlessly nods and follows me out of the office space. Neither of us say a word to each other until we're way past the office space.

"I apologize for earlier." Jungkook basically whispers.

I shake my head, "No, no need to apologize. It's okay."

"I really didn't mean to say it." Jungkook continues to explain. "I was actually worried this morning and I guess it was still running through my head and then it just happened. I guess."

I suppress a smile and look down to the ground, "It was a little shocking." I admit, "But I can't say it isn't one-sided."

That stops Jungkook in his tracks. I notice a few steps ahead and stop to turn and face him. His eyes are wide in disbelief and his arms hang loosely by his sides.

He stutters out jargon then clears his throat. Jungkook looks up with hope in his eyes, "Then, (y/n), can I take you out for dinner."

A smile grows on my face and my cheeks heat up ever so slightly, "Yes, you can."

Jungkook smiles widely and begins walking next to me again. My heart flutters happily and excitement grows in the pit of my stomach. As we walk, his shoulder brushes against mine and goosebumps erupt down my arms.

Sometimes rumors stay rumors. Other times they become reality.

[jamestrmtx]

Fairytale Complex - [Undertale | Sans x Reader]

[Gender Neutral, Frisk's Parent Reader | Slow Burn]

Chapter Twenty | Ooo I Ooo I Ooo I Ooo I (Part 2 of 2 | His POV) [First] | [Previous] | [Next]

Song Referenced

• • •

did he give you an exact date?

Unfortunately, no.

At first, I had at least until the end of the year, but…

CPS wants this resolved quicker than he thought.

guessin' you need to finish tourin' the underground first then, right?

Yes.

Would it be possible the day after tomorrow?

Or just… sometime this weekend?

I can go by myself, but…

Asgore won't allow that unless I'm with someone else.

Says I shouldn't be walking so far and so long alone if I haven't recovered yet.

you don't need to go alone, either way.

be it my job or not, I still wanna help out.

so the day after tomorrow's fine with me, bud.

we can discuss those details better when we drive over to tori's school tomorrow.

Are you sure?

And…

Does that 'we' imply you'll be picking us up?

100%

but yeah, i'll drive you guys there.

and pick up paps on the way, too.

it's easier for all four of us.

Mhm.

don't believe me?

Oh, I believe you.

I just don't think that's the only reason why you're picking us up, when I already have the address.

so what's the other one?

Don't get cocky, Serif.

I'm not gonna type that out.

It's a godsend Frisk will be with us, too.

'Cause I sure don't trust being alone with you anymore.

inna bad way?

Nah.

niiice.

pick you guys up tomorrow, then?

Yes.

We'll see you tomorrow.

And thank you in advance.

∆ Sticker | Happy Cartoon Bunny™ waving goodbye ∆

"You've changed, Sans."

He ignores that comment to view (Y/N)'s last two messages again.

While he doesn't know why that particular sticker bothers his mind so much, a few scrolls up to revise his chat history with the human reveal this is the first time they've shown any sort of informality or spontaneity in their typing. (Y/N) came off cold in their texts, though -- based on how they acted outside of a chat app -- that wasn't their intention, but more of an automatic way for them to talk with someone they didn't exactly deem trustworthy enough yet. He grins at that thought and feels his face warm up, something he confirms when touching his cheekbone, cold palm contrasting with that heat.

"You're wasting your time with that human," Drunk Bun says, snapping him out of his daydreaming.

They've sat themselves on the bar stool next to him and slam what looks like their tenth can of cheap, off-brand beer against the counter, crunching it down into more than half its size. He doesn't know how long they've stood there or why he's lost this much awareness of his surroundings. The bar's practically empty and calm now compared to before, though there's loud music blaring from the jukebox, playing an already overplayed song on repeat. There's no excuse for his distracted mind other than having lost himself while texting with the human, so he admits that fault with partial sourness, against accepting he's that smitten with them.

"You're changing for the worse," his company adds, narrowing their eyes at him. "Every time we come here to catch up, you mention something stupid about that (L/N) person, or just text the whole evening away with them. I... I've never seen you worry so much about someone so inconsequential." They scoff and cross their arms tight. "I may understand you caring after Frisk as a way to repay them for rescuing us, but (L/N) is completely useless. They've done absolutely nothing remarkable beyond creating a huge scene at that bus you were both on."

"Being harassed by a rando and faintin' after's them causin' a scene?" Sans asks, quirking an eye socket.

"Oh, screw off, bone boy -- You know what I mean. They've brought you nothing but trouble and needless responsibilities!" The bunny grits their teeth and slams their hand over the table, dragging eyes to their side. "I'm betting you can't go a day without texting them or without you doing something for them."

"You need to-"

Beep-beep.

The phone is snatched from his hands just as quick as that noise rings.

"Give that back."

"No." They keep the phone right above him, taking advantage of his shorter height. "Your fault for not putting a lock on it."

Drunk Bun scoots away and holds the phone tight as they fumble with it. Then, they stop to look at what he assumes is another text message from the human. A grimace shows on their face and they grasp the device tight, enough to make the screen complain and warn them over the pressure they're exerting against it. "Now this is beyond pathetic, Sans," they comment, letting out a loud, burst laugh. "Is this seriously the one you're sacrificing your entire personality for?" They give him his phone back, though not before hesitating when it's time to let go. "That human is-"

"Gimme a sec."

His attention falls on the picture displayed on screen, revealing (Y/N) and Frisk posing in it. The adult wears a suit and tie while the child has Toriel's school uniform on. The former's pose appears forced and awkward while the latter seems to be the reason the picture was taken with how excited they seem about their outfit.

Frisk wanted me to show you this.

It's what we'll be wearing for tomorrow!

There's a three-minute interval between that and the next message.

I know classes still haven't started there, but… They wanted to wear it, so I joined them by trying on something special for, well…

That job offer you told me about.

I don't know if I'll accept or not yet, but…

Thank you for the opportunity, and for believing in me.

∆ Sticker | Happy Cartoon Bunny™ giving a thumbs-up ∆

"You're grossing me out, honestly. What kind of look is that?"

It takes him a while to react, focus glued on (Y/N)'s messages.

"What look?"

"That lovesick look on your face." Tears form on their eyes -- almost abruptly, hadn't their voice shaken right before that. "I- I've been flirting with you for years, and yet you've never once looked at me like that before." They stand up straight, stare down at him, and rest their hands on the table, blinking their tears away throughout. "I've known you for so damn long, and yet you fall for the first human you see up here? I-"

"So that's what this's about," he says, chuckling. "You're-"

"Don't you dare brush everything off as me having a crush on you, Sans." They hiss. "You're not the same as before, and that's as clear as day. You worry a lot more now, and… And you actually seem to care more about other stuff beyond your job and sleeping on it. Y- You-"

"Aren't those good things?"

"Maybe, but your entire personality changing isn't. I liked you better when you were less worked up with stuff that's none of your business." They stop to grab his phone again; a grin breaks the sorrow on their face. "But hey, y- you're just doing your job, aren't you? You should set things straight with that human and remind them you're only with them because Asgore told you to in that agreement letter you gave them."

"Won't work if I flirted with 'em first. Pretty sure they'll see right through my lies."

"Y- You flirted with them first?!"

"Yeah."

He dodges a punch aimed right at his face.

"Wait-"

They throw a second punch -- this one turning out to be a spoof -- and laugh at the sight of him falling for it; they then toss the phone high over his head after he's finished dodging that fake attack, and aim yet another punch right after.

He salvages the device, though at the cost of taking the blow right on his left eye socket.

"How can you admit that so easily? You're awful!"

"'Cause you're only a close friend. I don't owe you an explanation about who I'm dating, and even less if you're gonna be actin' this way."

Drunk Bun springs at him, only to be held back by the rest of the regulars sitting near the scene, sufficiently fast enough for them not to wrangle Sans in anything major. They struggle and thrash at everyone around, trying to break free, but failing each time. It takes a fully-armored guard dog and a buff bear for them to be fought back into their rightful place, and yet another strong monster for them to let go of a wine bottle they insist on downing when seated.

Grillby intervenes as well by warning them to calm down, unless they want to be kicked out. Meanwhile, Sans turns on the camera and looks at his reflection through it, revealing a faint soreness already forming around his eye socket -- right where his companion had punched at. Being primarily made out of bones brought advantages, but having magical properties often led to him bruising easily.

Another regular approaches him and offers him a first aid kit, one he brings back to his seat to heal himself there.

While he takes out an antibiotic and some cotton pads with one hand, he uses the other to busy himself with (L/N)'s messages, against leaving them on read for so long.

no probs.

here at your service.

frisk looks great, btw.

and you? hot. 😘🔥

awkwardly hot.

hotwkward.

Frisk is reading the replies, you know?

damn.

i mean…

darn.

don't tell 'em i said that.

∆ Audio | 0:46 ∆

He clicks on it to hear Frisk giggling along with (Y/N) commenting they won't. It later continues with them asking if he's alright, specifying what they mean by highlighting a picture, this one sent by him. Blurriness makes up most of it when he clicks on it and zooms in, yet he can identify what looks like his companion from earlier, who'd apparently snapped and sent the human a photo by accident.

that's a friend o' mine.

they're, uh, kinda tipsy, so they got inna fight with me.

Really?

Are you okay?

yeah, just a lil' sore where they punched at.

What?!

i'm fine, puddin'.

dw about it.

Where's that bar at?

I'm near the mall, so I can drop by if you need anything.

aren't you still shoppin'?

take it easy.

I'm almost done.

Just trying out one more outfit.

can I see?

👀

Sure.

∆ Attachment | 2 images ∆

To his surprise, they're not only posing much more freely now, but they've also made the effort to strike another pose from a different angle. The human's outfit is composed of a dark green, semi-formal (suit/dress), fit for a night out. They've gone as far as to edit a wink emoji and some hearts at the corner of one -- the most flirty of the two.

So...

What do you think?

*jaw drops to floor, irises pop out of sockets accompanied by trumpets, soul beats out of rib cage, awooga awooga sound effect, pulls chain on train whistle that has appeared next to head as steam blows out, slams fists on table, rattling any plates, bowls or silverware, whistles loudly, fireworks shoot from top of head, pants loudly as tongue hangs out of teeth, wipes comically large bead of sweat from forehead, clears throat, straightens jacket, combs skull* ahem, you look real lovely.

*bwushes* Thank uwu kindwy, handswome. I'm vewy fwattewed.

...frisk ain't there anymore, right?

If they wewe, duwu uwu twhink I'd be twyping wike thiws?

faiw poiwnt.

Anyway…

I noticed the changes you made in that copy-paste, and…

You didn't edit the tongue part out.

So…

What that tongue do, baby?

😳

…lick…

...ice cream.

🔥🔥🔥

Ah, that's hot.

Or should I say cold?

And speaking of cold…

I'm gonna get you an ice pack or something.

You should take care of where it's sore, if you don't want it to bruise more.

whatta way to change the subject away from our moment, puddin'.

but uh, thanks in advance.

Anytime, teddy bear.

uwu

owo

• • •

"Am I really changin', Grillbs?" Sans asks, emptying his beer in three long gulps. "Be honest with me."

The one questioned takes the empty can from his hands and shakes his head in what looks more like disapproval rather than him answering that question. He first warns the skeleton about getting drunk, and reminds him to stay sober if he wants an answer as well as prevent himself from drunk-texting the source of his lovelorn self. When receiving a promise from him in response, he later answers with a 'no' and that he's still the same whenever he came to visit the bar.

"So I'm only different when I'm talkin' about 'em?"

Grillby nods.

"Inna bad way?"

He shakes his head.

"Then…"

Sans is stopped with a hand over his and faced with a stern look, despite the owner of it having no eyes or mouth.

"If they make you happy, then it's alright for you to show it," a regular states, intervening in the conversation. "You're not a lifeless machine. And nobody's one-dimensional either, so you shouldn't force yourself to act the same, strict way all the time. If you want to be all mushy with that human, then so be it. Aren't you the one who always says stuff like 'nothing really matters; in the end, we'll all die'? What's stopping you now of all times? Where's that hardcore nihilist I've known since years ago?

Sans rubs the back of his neck and huffs.

Clearly, neither the regular nor Grillby understood what he truly meant to say with his questions. He didn't mind his relationship with the human, but he also didn't want his old self to be replaced by someone he wasn't, as a result. There were things he didn't want to change about his old self -- things he feared would fade away now that he seemed to be getting into something as complex as a romantic relationship. There were parts of him he needed to keep in case the world were to start over again -- in case something went wrong. He couldn't allow himself to grow soft.

A pat on his shoulder lets him know he's lost himself in those thoughts.

"It's alright to fear change, but don't let that hold you back. If you like that human and they do, too -- Then what's there keeping you from going for it?"

It's not that easy.

Still, he keeps that thought quiet and replies with, "Thanks, but I'll probably have to give that more ti-"

The door of the bar opens to reveal someone new to it, but not so much unknown to Sans, who already finds himself distracted by them. (Y/N) stands in front of the entrance, looking this way and that. Frisk holds on to their hand, while a reusable shopping bag's hung over their parent's arm; a pharmacy's logo and name can be seen stamped on it. The eldest human approaches the area with caution, until their child assures them -- once, twice, and then thrice -- they've been to this place before and that it serves other purposes beyond that of providing alcohol and provoking fights. When they look forward, he meets their eyes and tries to glance away quickly, only to be called out by them soon after. They don't take long to smile wide and bright, wave, and -- finally -- approach his side after he waves back at them.

Rather than giving him whatever's in the bag, they instead let go of Frisk's hand, ask them if they want anything to eat, and give them some money when they sign the word 'fries'. Then, they sit on the stool next to his and settle the bag on their lap. "Come closer, and close your eye sockets," they say, still smiling. "It's your left one, right? It looks really sore already."

He nods and tries to ignore the warmth in his soul when they place a hand over his.

In his favour, they let go of him not long after to disinfect their hands and slip some gloves on when these dry out.

"I-"

"Shh."

(Y/N) holds his chin with their hand and grazes their fingers against his injury, their touch slow and careful as they apply some antibiotic over and around it. They then slide an eye patch on him and assumedly check around for any more bruises, based on the feeling of their hands grazing against his torso, arms, and neck. "The ice pack's in the bag -- Remember to throw it in the freezer when you get home." They touch his chest again, even more gentle this time. "So..." He notices some hesitance when they pull their hand back. "You're not hurt anywhere else?"

He shakes his head, words caught in his throat.

"Alright, but don't look yet."

Doing as told, Sans waits for whatever comes next. He stays still and stiff, until he feels their lips brush close to his eye socket, where they lay a soft, ticklish kiss at. They do the same with his other one and finish it off by kissing his nose cavity.

"Now you can."

[First] | [Previous] | [Next]

• • •

...

......

🌋🔥💥 ANNOYING NOTICE TIME 💥🔥🌋

So, here's a summary of all the events happening this month, which will affect Fairytale Complex's update schedule in various ways:

1. I will be rewriting all my other fics that aren't FaiCom, since I'm pretty darn happy and proud of the new writing style I've developed with this fanfic, and so I want to implement it into my older stories (with the exception of the Tom Nook x Reader one -- I'm rewriting that one despite being recent because it started off as a wild, 3 am energy project after finishing with finals, but then I actually had way more fun than I originally anticipated, so I'll be turning it into a long fic just like this one, lol). This means FaiCom will be taking a short, 1 to 2 week break after Arc 2 (Chapter 25) ends, to dedicate some time to all 4 of these stories.

2. I'm taking extracurricular classes/hobby workshops this summer, so I need to tweak my schedule again. This means FaiCom will be changing its schedule back to the old one, composed of weekly updates on Mondays, Wednesdays, and/or Fridays.

3. As mentioned previously, Pride Month is here, so I'll be making some one-shots and drabbles related to it, meaning updates might be slightly less frequent this month. BUT, a good majority of them are FaiCom related ones (and they will be posted on a different book to avoid conflicting with regular updates, too). More on that later on!

• • •

Tag List (Comment or message me if you want to be added to [or removed from] it!)

@the-simp-express

@nektotersh

@disastrous-l0vebug

@therealchickenjoe

@mintyflakes025

@pandaquick

@timelock97

@candle-creeps

@paperb9gs

@merak0

[tiptapricot]

Some headcanons I came up with while thinking about ways to flesh out Good Robo BnT :-)

“Good Robot Bill” and “Good Robot Ted” start feeling like awkward titles post Bogus Journey. Not only are the names mouthfuls to say all the time, but as the robots live with the Preston-Logan family, they prove to have their own unique personalities

Jo jokingly dubs them “Willie and Ned” as a work around, and it ends up sticking from repeated use

The robos are definitely BnT-esque in a lot of ways, like their vocabulary and (painted on) fashion and such, but the longer they’re around, the more their differences come out

They don’t really care for the spotlight, they’re fine with smaller things and simple joys, like performing for and entertaining kids and stuff

They don’t have the same life baggage/history as BnT, and as a result don’t have the same insecurities, hesitancies, or habits, which can make them seem starkly different in certain cases

In general though, they’re what they seem on the tin: really chill and caring robots. They have feelings and stuff, but they’re more simplified in some ways. They’re ok just existing, they don’t really hold grudges or feel embarrassed, they’re just vibing and don’t experience a lot of the same hard highs and lows that humans do

Most of their feelings are positive, they just don’t have a reason for them not to be

They do experience some frustration, usually when it comes to communication issues, since their word banks are slower and more clunky than those of the people around them

They can’t chime in to conversations or reply as fast, and they don’t know how to describe certain complex things, because they weren’t built with that in mind. There’s a gap between their processing ability and their design, and it can make communicating difficult sometimes

They make it work, but it is one of the big reasons they like children a lot. It’s easier to talk with them, there’s less pressure, and plus, Willie and Ned were programmed with a strong protective instinct, so that draws them to them too

After performing as background dancers for Wyld Stallyns for a few years, Willie and Ned decide to try something different and actually open a little daycare/preschool place

They sing about numbers and animals, teach the kids how to dance, and let them draw and paint all over their metal

Over the years they get quite the collection of drawings and stickers (cred @juiceboxfrog!)

They actually end up contacting Station to kidproof them a bit, so they aren’t as pokey and are able to interact with the kids safer

One of the younger kids puts a pop tart in Willie’s leg toaster once, and when he notices he walks to an outlet to plug it in for them

The building the preschool is in doubles as their house, and they live in the upstairs space, with the school on the ground floor

That’s where they have their charging and maintainence stations, some fake plants and a radio, as well as where they archive all the art and gifts they get from kids when the downstairs walls get too full

The robos are pretty off putting to most parents, but the kids love them

They’re in that sweet spot between strange and child friendly where they appeal to kids’ imaginations, and they’re also robots, which is super cool

Willie and Ned care a lot about the kids, and really work to connect to and support them

One kid they get is reeeaaally scared on their first day, but the robots bond with them and make them feel comfortable, and the next day the same kid is running in excited to see them

The first time one kid manages to write their own name, Willie lumbers over to Ned to show him and they both have a little robo stim exchange that mostly consists of unintelligible sound bytes and excited jerks

That happens whenever they get legitimately excited, it’s the only way they can really express it

Love is another thing they express a certain way, too

They have a very them relationship. It didn’t really have a start, it just was, and is, because it’s them

They’re clunky and strange, but they love each other and show it, even if not in all the same physically affectionate ways other people do

They sit with each other on the porch to watch the sunset every night, they like feeding the birds together, and they always try to fix each other up when needed, even though their poorer fine motor skills can make that difficult

Sometimes they make the problem worse, but that’s still ok. The other will just bump against them lightly to let them know it’s alright, and they’ll get outside help the next time they’re able

A lot of their communication when alone is nonverbal. Besides a few audio exchanges now and then, talking just isn’t necessary in their relationship

Ned really likes plugging into the radio, and he usually shuts off most of his sensors so he can really focus on the music

Willie doesn’t mind and always leaves him to it during radio time, doing his own thing until Ned unplugs

They can’t hold hands very well because their fingers end up getting jammed together, but they like high fives, and taking walks around the neighborhood

Sometimes they have WALL-E-esque spark touch kisses, but those are rare, since they usually cause one or both of them to short out or burst an eye bulb. They reserve them mainly for special occasions, though have done them a few other times when really excited

Their favorite thing to do has and always will be to dance together in their living room after everyone’s gone home. They get to romp and clunk around and not worry about being too loud or about having to keep their movements smooth, and they just get to be with one another, robot with robot, simple as can be

Headcanons masterpost

[dimonds456]

What was “A Picture Perfect Hollywood Heartbreak” Really About?

What was Zach Callison’s A Picture Perfect Hollywood Heartbreak really about?

Hey all you people out there! How are you surviving quarantine? I had a bunch of spare time, and so I decided to write an essay that focuses on Zach Callison’s album, A Picture Perfect Hollywood Heartbreak. The album has been out for a while, but most people either only know Interlude IV or are really confused about the story it tells. I think I’ve finally got an answer, and I wanted to share it with you all.

If you’re only here to better understand Interlude IV, you can skip down there if you want, but you’ll still be pretty confused. Besides, you should listen to the rest of the album. The whole thing bops. 

Personal favorite song is Phantom Love, but I’m pretty sure no one cares about that.

Anyways, on to the show! One song at a time, in order.

WARNING: REALLY, REALLY LONG POST UNDER THE CUT!!

Phantom Love

Phantom Love sets up the whole story for us. Juanita is Zach’s old GF, who appears to only have dated him so she could get ideas for a music album she was writing. However, she had no ideas and/or is a masochist, and so wanted to get Zach to either break up with her, do something horrible to her, or just create drama in general she could write about. Whatever happens happens, and she is successful. 

Juanita seems to be suffering from some form of depression, but whether that’s actually the case or she, again, just wanted something to write about is up for debate. But either way, it’s hinted at several times that she slit her wrists and other self-harm-inducing activities. 

Many people follow her- she seems to be popular enough (which makes sense, due to the album being about two celebrities dating each other, just like Zach’s irl relationship). However, she has two different faces- her showbiz the-cameras-are-on face and her real face. Zach seems to have the same thing, as hinted at in She Don’t Know, but we’re not there yet. Point is, Juanita used Zach to try and get a tragedy out of the whole deal.

It was a phantom love- it never existed. 

“Made me promise I would never break your heart

How was I to know that’s what you wanted from the start?”

Both people got into Hollywood from a young age and grew up with it, and so were surrounded by drama constantly. This takes a toll on Zach, but he tries to deal with it whereas Juanita actively wants to partake in it. She causes drama- little triggers to get him to snap- until one day, he does.

Interlude I - Frantically

This one is pretty straight-forward. After the two break up, it’s the perfect excuse for Juanita to start spreading rumors and stirring tension. She’s quick to make Zach out to be the bad guy, when in actuality, he was the one who was being loyal in their relationship.

We’re clued in that these rumors aren’t true from one line: “I heard he got fired from that cartoon he does. (Nooo wayyy…)” We, as the audience, know for a fact he didn’t, but things get shaky as we realize that some of them are also true. 

“I heard he does coke now and, like, screams a lot.”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

[laughter]

Zach overhears them talking about them and runs away, going off somewhere to be alone. Once he’s alone, we get the disturbing audio of him sniffing some drugs, implying that he actually does, indeed, do coke.

DISCLAIMER: Irl Zach Callison did NOT turn to drugs! It’s a metaphor for how many people he knows who have decided to do so, and so he;s aware of what it does to one’s mind. Don’t worry; Zach is okay in that department.

She Don't Know

After gaining the following knowledge, this song is easier to understand. Zach really did love Juanita, and he misses her, even though he knows at this point that she used and abused him. 

“There ain’t no drug in all the world like loving you

Cocaine and cigarettes will have to do

Won’t somebody save me? My heart’s beating outta m’ chest

I just wanna hold you with those hands I once possessed.”

Juanita isn’t aware of the effect she had on him, and he laments this quite strongly (hence the title). Once she had her heartbreak, she ran off, leaving a broken lover behind. 

Trigger warning: there are hints of suicidal thoughts in this song. They get more prominent as the album goes on, which becomes important later. This is where we really start seeing them, though.

“F***ed up on my bedroom floor

And my first thought’s ‘let’s do some more’

They say it all kills for thrills

And I hope it does!

Can you hear me, love?”

He speaks about “where did I go” later on, meaning that he is losing himself/doesn’t feel like himself. He still wants to be with her, and her absence has utterly destroyed him. He’s still in love with her, and wants her to know that. However, Juanita doesn’t give a bat of the eye in his direction, only caring that she now had the material she needed to write her album.

Interlude II - Christie Only Knows

Here, we are introduced to Zach’s make-believe sister, Christie. Only she is aware that he is going through this, and we find out quickly that she isn’t supportive.

“It’s getting late now, but to me, it’s just beginning

‘Cuz life’s tearing me to pieces and I know I’ve been defeated

Oh, no

And Christie only knows.

Never seen someone like this before

An eight-ball power on the floor

And I’m staring at the ceiling 

Wondering if the reaper’s close

But Christie only knows

That there ain’t no drug in all the world like being you

\Glory on the silver screen just had to do

Won’t somebody save me? I am screaming out of breath

And my shadow, he’s holding a gun…

With those hands that I once possessed…”

This is the only time I’ll put all the lyrics in here, I swear. However, this one is important as it paves the way to Nightmare, bridging the gap between the two moods. She Don’t Know is angry, stressed, unsure, and frustrated, whereas Nightmare is just… depression. Interlude II is the middle ground, showing us that once Zach got all that off his chest, he feels… numb. He doesn’t know what to do. 

Now, who exactly is Christie? I don’t think she really exists, in the context of the album, that is. I believe that Christie is someone he’s hallucinating, an embodiment of all his most negative thoughts, sugarcoated into something pretty and worth listening to. We’ll explore her character later on in Interlude IV - Showtime, but for now, what you need to know is that his suicidal thoughts are getting more and more intense now that she’s here.

A sister is someone who you’re bonded to, whether it be in blood, relationship, or cause. In this case, I think it’s more relationship. She is telling him to let go, to accept that things are this way and won’t get better. It’d be easier to end it. And Zach is listening to her. We know this because of the line “And my shadow, he’s holding a gun with those hands that I once possessed…” He is seriously thinking about it, and the fact that it’s his shadow shows that the thought is always in the back of his mind. The same thoughts that led him to love Juanita are now ready to kill him- those same, once-steady hands he used to hold her with. And he’s done. He’s holding on by a thread.

Nightmare

This song is told in the 3rd person as Zach really explains what he’s been going through each and every day that lead him to this fateful decision to end it. He is done. He’s decided it. 

Every day, he cries. He hates himself, he hates looking at himself, he hates all of it. 

“Prosecutor at his own trial, 

The floor below him becomes so fertile 

by his very own vile, Nile, and exile source 

By the pitter-patter of his tears on the bathroom tile… 

...you’re nothing more than your feelings 

from your floors to your ceilings 

and out the all-bloodshot ocular faucets… 

Boy vs brain, white noise vs the sane, 

always vs the same, cries for help exclaim 

that he’s beyond repair. He’ll swear, he’ll despair, he’ll stare 

straight ahead in the mirror at the source of his waking nightmare.”

There’s an instrumental break, during which he says “Are you writing this down, Christie? Yeah…” This shows that he’s lamenting to himself, as again, Christie doesn’t really exist. He’s venting to her, jotting down everything that’s wrong with him.

This tells me that he’s writing a note. He is telling someone where he’s going and why he did what he’s about to do. Remember, Christie is in Zach’s head, and so if she is writing this down, that means that Zach is writing this down. His worst, most negative thoughts are writing all this down, showing him that this was the right decision. This will end all his suffering, and whoever reads the note will understand and be happy for him. This was his solution.

“He’s standing on a bluff overlooking the city

The city’s biggest bluff is making itself look so pretty

He tells himself to be tough, isolated and gritty

But gritty’s kinda hard when his brain’s run by committee”

This is how he decides to die. Now with a gunshot like Interlude II hinted at. He is willing to jump for it.

Look at the album cover. Did he go for it? I don’t think so, but we’ll get to that.

The song concludes with him saying this:

“So who do I speak of and why is he grey?

He rejects all his love, see the prices he pays

To his vices he caves, in a crisis of fates

No tragic history, only a mystery 

So I say to you, ‘who?’

Why don't’cha tell me?”

This is him confirming to us, the audience, that this is Zach’s character speaking about himself. He’s been hinting and clueing at us to this song all along, and now he is making sure that we know what’s going on in his head. He’s ready to end it. 

His love for Juanita broke his heart so severely that it left him broken and bruised beyond repair. And if you can’t fix it, it’s time to throw it away.

So he heads back out to the bluff to jump.

Interlude III - Second Thoughts

He’s standing on a bluff overlooking the city. The bluff’s height is making itself not so pretty. Is this being tough? Or just being petty? But petty’s not likely, it’s a selfish, single entity…

Doe she really want to do this? Looking down, Zach thinks about what made him come here. The drugs? They’re messing him up. He’s aware of it, he’s been aware of it. Would jumping be giving in to their influence? Or Juanita’s? 

“We put his record on until he’s bleeding on the needle

And he’s weeping in the street

Cut down on his curtain call

That’s where he’s gonna sleep.”

Standing on top of the bluff now, he looks down onto the road. He can see that there is where he could die, but he’s suddenly not so sure. The idea just slammed into him, reality slapping him in the face. “Do you really want to do this?” 

“Take aim with these hands he once possessed

A dozen roses on the pavement laid the rest

Oh, my dear sister Christie, will I feel some remorse?

She says ‘no, pull the trigger, ‘cuz he’s left us no recourse.

His brain has a sickness, so kill it at the source.’”

He steps closer. He can see, in his mind, the image of his dead body lying on the road, forever resting. But, was that the right call? To just throw in the towel like that? So, in true metaphorical fashion, he turns and asks Christie. His inner demons. They’ve been straight with him before, right? And, of course, they say “yes, go for it.”

But Zach still isn’t sure.

I believe he backs off for now, leading the way to Curtain Call.

Curtain Call

This is where it really starts to get difficult when it comes to dissecting this album, and from here on out, I guarantee that I got things wrong. However, stay with me, because I’m open to and want to discuss what everyone else thinks it all could mean. I’m going to share my ideas, and if you have a better one, tell me and I can either agree or argue it with you. Point is, like English class (in high school), if you have the evidence to back it up, you’re not wrong. Let’s have a serious discussion about this.

On with the show! Now, it appears as though Zach is arguing with himself in this one, one wanting to show people that he’s hurt so he can get help- the side that wants to live- but on the other hand, his other half knows that there’s nothing they can do if he does. He’d just weigh them all down. Because all of him agrees that he’s useless and hopeless. 

He sends up a prayer (I think Zach is Christian, so this makes sense), asking for, basically, karma of some kind. He’s done feeling this way, and wants it to stop. So he asks for “some price to pay,” hoping that there’s a solution, but knowing that the solution isn’t going to be handed to him on a silver platter. He’d need to work to get better, and this is him saying that he’s willing to do that. He WANTS to live, but he’s just not sure he can anymore. And that’s his main argument. Can he do this? Was it even worth it?

Obviously, with Zach being a famous actor (both irl and in the album), he has a double life. One is bringing joy to others, while the other is a constant internal struggle. The world is a stage, and at this point, Zach is basically admitting- through metaphors- that he has been acting. Pretending. 

Consider this lyric, put there- side by side- very intentionally:

“I find that I’m anything but fine.

No, I’m okay. Oh please just look away!”

It’s all a mask. And it’s one he’s tired of wearing. Notice how tired he sounds when he sings those lines. He’s done. He’s been done.

“Bourbon to kill my pain

Curtains to hold my shame

No, they can’t look away

Cannot contain my rage…”

These lines are telling us that people around Zach have started to notice that he’s off, but he wants to believe that he’s okay, that he’ll be okay. So he continues his career (“curtains to hold my shame”), even though it’s hurting him to do so at that point. And people are starting to notice. And that’s making him frustrated. At himself. At them. He’s tired. Let him rest. He just wants to rest and forget. Bourbon, alcohol, kill the pain. Make it go away so they can’t see. But they already see. The mask is old and withering in decay.

Towards the end, Zach’s voice becomes more echoey and distant (discluding the Italian that I have no hope of understanding, which is why I’ve yet to mention it). This shows that he’s distancing himself, running away, if you will.

Running back to the bluff.

And this time, he jumps.

Interlude IV - Showtime

Okay, meme time. This is the one everyone knows. However, we are not going to be talking about a Connverse fight that honestly makes no sense given the limited context of the song (as cool as those animatics are). We will be talking about, however, Zach facing and challenging his inner demons. Christie does not exist. Why should she rule over his life?

Let’s break this one down, since this one is the hardest to fit into the story.

He jumps, but survives the fall. Maybe dazed, maybe broken. Maybe it was just a dream. Maybe this song IS the dream. We can’t be sure. Everything is metaphorical in this one. Perhaps he didn’t jump at all. We can’t be sure.

Christie congratulates him. She tells him that he’s free. He did the right thing, and now it was just the two of them. They could do whatever they wanted without feeling so weighed down!

Zach disagrees, coming to a realization.

He jumped. Christie had said that it’d make everything okay again, that it’d be bliss. Well, he jumped, and it wasn’t. It was worse. He felt anger and fear, and this leads him to finally, for once, counter her. 

“The world is ours!”

“No it isn’t.”

“Get in the car.”

“This isn’t finished.”

“...What?”

She’s shocked that Zach openly argues with her, and as their bickering goes on (which I’m sure a lot of you reading this can hear perfectly in your heads, so I won’t write the exact lyrics down), Zach gains more confidence. He accuses her of murdering him. “And they’ll all think that it was suicide, but Christie, I know that it was you inside.” Remember, she’s not real and therefore didn’t really “kill” him, but he blames her as he allowed her to control and manipulate him. 

Christie is shocked, stating that everything she did, she did to comfort him. ”I saved him! I held him ‘til the moment he [Zach’s “innocence”] died!”) However, Zach realizes what she really is now, and decides that enough is enough. (“You choked him out of his goddamn mind! Promised the world to him, a goddamn lie!”) He knows what she is, and won’t let himself be manipulated by her again. 

Now, the whole time, they’re talking about someone who is dead. Who is that someone? Zach. However, it’s all a metaphor. When Zach jumped, a part of him died. The last of his humanity? His sanity? I think his “innocence,” which I say in quotes because I’m sure there’s a better word for it out there somewhere. He’s done being blind to the truth, blindly following Christie around. The part of him that was naive enough to do that, to listen to her influence and complain about the world, is gone. He’s dead.

And that means Zach isn’t taking anymore s***. 

C: “I won’t help you take [Juanita] down.”

Z: “Fine. I’LL DO IT BY MYSELF!”

C: “You don’t need it!”

Z: “Oh, I know that I need it.”

C: “She’s been gone for years, I know you can beat it!”

Z: “Oh, look in the mirror, you know we both fear her…

But you let me kill him, you’re WORSE than Juanita!”

Juanita herself never killed him. She never physically harmed him, not in any way that counts here. However, Christie did. She pushed and pushed him, taking a fragile boy and breaking him even more. Zach is now his own worst enemy, not Juanita, and this is him realizing it. But he doesn’t want to be his own enemy.

C: “I won’t help you take her down.”

Christie doesn’t want Zach to face her, because she knows that that would be him really facing his demons and starting down the path to healing. Juanita is Zach’s biggest obstacle, aside from himself. He has to face himself first, and that’s why this song is so powerful. Zach is taking a step back and realizing what he has to do, who he is, and why things are like this.

Z: “Oh, look in the mirror, you know we both fear her. 

We’re one and the same, we’re afraid to be near her!”

There’s that mirror metaphor again, except that he’s not looking at himself with hatred; he’s looking at himself with understanding (and a side of hatred). He’s ready to face her. He’s ready to get everything to stop.

“1, 2, 3, 4

Is this what love is really for? 

Is this all I get for being yours?

The kid in front of me in blood and gore?”

The kid is, again, Zach’s “innocence.” He understands, he’s ready to not only move on, but also confront her.

5, 6, 7, 8

Years left to waste for all I hate

They’ll all know Juanita’s fate!

Show’s about to start; don’t be late.”

He knows that it’s going to be a showdown, a big, epic throw down. And Christie isn’t coming with him. He’s leaving her behind. He’s leaving his demons behind, breaking free from them and moving on.

War!

The ultimate throw down begins!

“A wise man once said, ‘time is money’

So how much money did I lose to you, honey?

Find it kinda funny you wanna keep this feud runnin’

But I’m glad I’m on your mind, keep that canon fire coming, woah!”

This is 100% a diss track. Zach confronts Juanita in front of a lot of her friends (we hear multiple girls go “huh?” as they realize that Zach’s here and he’s ANGRY), and immediately starts in. No introductions, no “hey it’s nice to see you again”s, nothing. He’s here to make a statement, and he’s gonna do so.

He realizes Juanita for who she is now, and she has done so many horrible things to him. Spreading rumors and lies to ruin his life, after dating him just to get a story to write about. He’s sick of it and done. He calls her out, and it’s important that he does this in front of other people so they see what she’s really done. He’s hurt, he’s been hurt, and it’s because of Juanita, this amazing person a lot of people looked up to and liked (“I know, Juanita deserves so much more [Interlude I]”. “Step inside the life of the men weak enough to follow you [Phantom Love]). 

Juanita also appears to be dating someone else by this time. This is really important, because now due to context clues we got from before, the only reason Juanita dates is to get a heartbreak out of it so she can have the motivation and drive to write her own album. That’s why she dated Zach. So, if she’s dating again, that means she either lost the motivation and drive again, or she never had it in the first place since it wasn’t a real love between them. She didn’t truly experience a heartbreak at all. This is further backed up by the claim that “we’ve been waiting on your album for ages, no traces, and baby, we’ve already run out of patience!” She’s only dating to get that experience again.

This means that, at least in Zach’s eyes, she hasn’t changed. “To your new boy, let he be warned: you’re her new toy for blood and gore! What, you didn’t know?” She is going to destroy him emotionally, and he’s going to go down the same path as Zach, ending in death- blood on the pavement. The gore part is to emphasize how horrific the whole ordeal was.

“Sit down with me and sign this armistice

Get your big proboscis outta my s***, miss”

A proboscis is the butterfly equivalent of a tongue. They use it for sucking nectar out of flowers. So, what he’s saying here is that they need to settle this between them (“sign this armistice”), and that she needs to mind her own business. By her talking about Zach like that, she ruined his life and he’s sick of it. She literally sucked the joy out of him like nectar. 

“Welcome to the new me!

Paint your nails black and unscrew me

But that’s okay, Juanita

Know my business is booming”

His business is a reference to his own album, the very one you’re listening to. His music career took off now because of her and the fact that she broke his heart, not the other way around. Juanita can never understand that because she “only loves to be broken [Phantom Love].” 

“That’s alright, that’s okay!

You barely wrote them anyway

Half your songs got thrown away

Like ballets on voting day

All my ballads had more to say

Like a bullet through a motorcade”

In a twist, Zach got the story Juanita had wanted. He experienced a heartbreak, while she never really did. So he writes an album instead of her. It’s a cool kind of karma that Zach- or, at least, his character- can’t resist. 

The whole song ends with him forcing her/her friends to sing along with him, repeating her name, then yelling. She screams, and it cuts out. 

I think he’s lost his sanity (or again, his “innocence”) here. He gets carried away, and either attacks her or makes like he’s about to. I think he makes like he’s about to, but stops. This is the final song; if Zach killed her, there would more than likely be another song depicting the consequences and an Interlude V to show the aftermath of the incident. But because he stopped himself, he’s satisfied. Juanita learned her lesson, Zach got everything off his chest, and the people around them know the truth. 

That’s all he’s wanted for longer than we can possibly know.

Final Observations

Zach Callison has gone on record to say that “Juanita” has finally published an album of her own, but that happened months later. I don’t have any specific dates for anything, though. No one knows who the real-life “Juanita” is, which in my opinion, is noble of Zach. He had a lot of anger to get out, but unlike her, he wasn’t going to ruin her life to try and get something out there. He can make a statement without ruining someone else along the way.

With that knowledge, let us all stand and clap for this man.

Not only is the album just a really good listen, but each song tells a cohesive story. The tones each song sets, as well as the far under-appreciated interludes (or over-appreciated in terms of Showtime), really shows how his emotional state changes. Phantom Love is a lament, She Don’t Know is a classic “I’m sad bc my gf broke up with me :(“ which is how Zach perceives that incident at that point in time, whereas Nightmare is him falling into depression stronger than anything he’s ever felt before. Curtain Call is him arguing with himself about whether or not he should even live anymore, and it all comes back around with the upbeat, heavy-rock literal song of War!. The interludes take the tone of the next song and combine it with the lyrics of the previous to show that smooth transition between emotions as he grapples with his mental state, the only exception really being Interlude I, as it has an overall bouncy tone to it.

Zach not only made every single song enjoyable, but also unique and heartfelt. Just listen to how his voice shakes during Christie Only Knows. He is genuinely upset and lost, and because of this, he’s better able to convey the HUGE emotion dump that was his album.

Do I recommend it? Yes. I think there’s something in there for everyone, even if you only enjoy one of the songs. However, doing a review is going to be an entire post in and of itself.

Thanks for reading, guys. Now go listen to the album and tell me your thoughts. Does my explanation make sense? Do you have a better idea? Let me know. I want to have a real discussion about it with other people who have listened to the whole thing, not just Interlude IV.

If you haven’t listened to it yet, it’s on YouTube and ITunes. Do yourself a favor and check it out. The whole thing is ~45 minutes long.

Have a link to the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_n1rA_1uUBtxoATot0ixiTgvdEHhj3lAn4

[sierraraeck]

Monday

BAU x OC Aundreya

Masterlist | Series Masterlist

Summary: Coming back to the BAU is a struggle for Aundreya, but a couple conversations with her teammates seems to make things a little bit better. Story twenty-one.

Category: Angst and fluff

Warnings: Cussing. Mentions of sex.

Word Count: 4.3k

I had not been reinstated. Yet. But I couldn’t blame them for it. I mean, I did take the fall for two murders, go to prison, get out of prison, take a bullet, become a fugitive, murder another, make a deal with a criminal (that luckily no one knew about), and then asked for my job back. It was reasonable that they were hesitant. However, if I wanted to save their lives, I was going to have to find some way back into the Bureau. Which meant leaving the ring, again.

“You cannot be serious!” Mateo yelled.

“I have no other choice!” I responded, tho ring my hands in the air. “I made a deal with DeLeon. This is how it has to be until I can finish this, and come back!”

“Who’s to say you’ll come back? You didn’t last time!”

He was right, of course. I only came back because I had nowhere else to turn. “Mateo-”

“Don’t start that with me. I thought I finally had you back, we all did, and you’re just going to leave again?” He was tugging at his hair and turning away from me. I came up from behind him and wrapped my arms around his strong middle. His posture was tense, but he let me do it.

“If it was up to me, I’d stay here with you. But I am not going to let DeLeon take everything from me. Including you,” I whispered.

“I just don’t want to lose you again,” Mateo confessed, his voice lowering as well.

I pressed a kiss to his shoulder. “I will check in with you when I can, but we all need to be careful right now. DeLeon always has other plans, and I will not let him get more than what we agreed upon.”

“We’ve got people looking for him, you know,” Mateo reminded me.

“I know. So does the FBI. Hopefully we can catch and kill him before he causes more chaos, but if not, you have to let me go through with this.”

“Fine. But make it quick because I’m going to miss you,” he said, a cheeky look on his face as he turned around to face me. He had one strong hand on my back and the other cupping my face. He pulled me in for a kiss, then leaned back on the disaster of a bed we’d just come from, pulling me with him.

“Mateo-” I sang.

“You have a little bit longer, don’t you?” he asked, grinning at me with those big doe eyes. How could I say no?

“Maybe just a few…” I trailed off. That was all he needed to hear.

# # # # # # # # # # # # #

I marched into the FBI headquarters, bee-lining it directly to Section Chief Strauss’ office. I adjusted my clothes and smoothed out any wrinkles in my shirt one last time before knocking and pushing open the door.

“Ms. Chambers,” Strauss unhappily greeted.

“Chief Strauss,” I followed suit. She motioned for me to sit down.

“I’ve been expecting you,” she stated cooly, “I knew it was only a matter of time before you made your way back here.”

“I did call,” I pointed out.

“Yes, and I told you no,” she retorted.

I smiled, “Then you know why I’m here.”

“And the answer’s still no.”

“That’s just not going to do it for me, Chief.” My eyes bore into hers as I continued, “I was wrongfully sent to prison, and then I helped out a federal case, two if you really think about it, and-”

“What about ‘no’ do you not understand?” Strauss leaned back in her chair, clasping her hands in front of her.

“I would argue that I was more of a risk the first time you hired me, but you still did it then. What’s preventing you from doing it now?” I raised my eyebrows.

“You confessed to murder.”

“I was charged with murder the first time.” I was hopeful that if I challenged her first decision, she’d be inclined to defend herself, therefore having to make the same decision twice.

“You put agents’ lives at risk.”

“I took a bullet for a civilian, and went into hiding in order to protect those same agents.”

“You got our best tech analyst, Penelope Garcia, shot,” Strauss reminded. I didn’t have anything to say to that.

I landed on, “I have been a loyal agent with the FBI for three years. Yes, I’ve been out for a while, but I am coming back for a reason. This is no different than the first time you hired me-”

She cut me off again, “Then I guess we shouldn’t have hired you the first time. Now get out of my office.”

I ran my tongue over my lips as I stood up and took a couple steps toward her office door. But I couldn’t leave. Lives depended on my ability to get my job back, so I had to keep trying. The diplomatic way didn’t work, so it was time for a different approach.

I walked back over to her desk and stood in front of her, “During the three years I was here, I helped close more high profile cases than ever before, some that weren’t even BAU cases. I understand that you have reservations about my abilities, but I was able to do that because of my skills and my connections. If I wanted to screw over the FBI, I would have done it by now, I have the resources. But I haven’t. Instead, my network of people and the BAU team all worked cohesively to help find me, so if they can do it, so can I, especially because I’ve actually worked with all of those people before. “

“Chambers, nothing you say-”

“All do respect, Chief Strauss, but I’m not finished,” I interrupted. “When I went to prison, you gave up on me entirely. Sure, Doctor Reid had been a part of the team longer than I had, but I was just as much a team member as he was, and I know for a fact, you allowed, no encouraged, the team to continue working to figure out the truth when it was him, but didn’t return the favor when it was me. You did nothing. More than that, you ordered them to let it go. Come to find out, I was just as much of a victim in that situation as any. I’m not saying I had a good reputation prior to that, but any semblance of trust the Bureau had in me was gone. I was on my own to get out, and continue fighting some of the most dangerous people this country has ever seen, by the end having to recover from more than ten injuries. So after taking away my reputation, my freedom, and nearly my life, the least you could do would be to reinstate me.”

Strauss just stared at me, then took a deep breath, “Fine. I’ll reinstate you. But not to the BAU.”

“I don’t accept that. I would like my exact job back,” I demanded. She opened her mouth to say something, but I kept talking, “And don’t worry about my behavior or ability to work with them in a cohesive manner. I don’t have a problem with them as long as they don’t have a problem with me.”

“So you’re not..?” Strauss trailed off.

It wasn’t like her, but I had a pretty good idea what she was getting at, and I wasn’t going to make it easy. I wanted to hear her say it. “What? What do you think I am?”

“Angry,” Strauss offered. “You have a history of getting angry and violently overreacting.”

“I was for a while,” I shrugged, “but I’m tired of being angry. It’s exhausting, wasting so much energy on being angry with each individual member. I had 22 months to be angry with them, most of which were spent in prison or on the run and I’m over it. I just want my job back.”

She sighed in defeat, “Fine. We’ll look into you getting back your-”

“I’d like to start Monday,” I said, leaning down and placing my fingertips on her desk. I flashed her a smile, but I’m sure she could tell it wasn’t exactly friendly.

“We’ll see you then, Agent Chambers.” I leaned back from her desk and walked out of her office without another word. It was Friday, so I still had the weekend, but I wanted to make one last stop on my way out.

I shoved open the door to the bat cave to see the exact site I knew would be waiting for me. The entire team, excluding Aaron, gathered around Penelope’s computer.

“I hope you enjoyed the show,” I deadpanned. They’d been watching me for nearly the entirety of the two years I’d been gone, surveilling me in prison, in the hospital, and when I was with DeLeon. I knew they’d still be watching me today.

They were frozen in their spots, and I had to wonder why they even came for me that day. It would have been so easy for them to ignore the feed and forget about me.

“Chambers, it’s not how it looks,” Morgan tried.

“I’m sure it’s not,” I squinted at him, and clicked my tongue. “I’m sure you weren’t so nervous about me coming back that you asked Garcia to run facial recognition on everyone who entered the BAU floor, and I’m sure you weren’t scared enough, for yourselves and Strauss, to set up a camera with audio in her office.”

“It’s not like we don’t trust you,” Prentiss piped in.

“It’s not like you do,” I incredulously quipped, “Or do you track every move of all the people you trust?” They just stood there staring at me, like I was a ticking time bomb. And maybe I was, but I decided to fill the silence, “I guess it doesn’t matter now, though. I’ll see you Monday?”

I got no response as I left the doorway and walked down the hall toward the elevator. Just before I got in, I turned to the security camera and winked.

# # # # # # # # # # # # #

It was the worst sort of deja vu, walking into the BAU headquarters on my ‘first day.’ I’d done this a total of three times: the first time I met them, when they pulled me out of prison to find Maeve, and now. I was tired of wondering, and then knowing, how the team was going to react to me. The first time, I tried to lie, which didn’t work out. The second time, I gave them exactly what they were expecting of me, a bitter and twisted version, which also didn’t work out. So this third time, I figured I’d give them the opposite of what they’d expect. Third time’s the charm, right?

But, it was a lot easier said than done. Pretending like I was cool headed and only here to do the job and get out was going to be hard, especially when I still did have so much anger. But I wasn’t lying when I told Strauss I was exhausted. Sure, the team had helped find me, but what else had they done? Given up on me, accused me, and still didn’t trust me? All of those thoughts were rattling in my head, and I ended up with a twisted mix of emotions, the two strongest being anger and a general sense of caring. How can you be so angry with someone, enough to want to turn your back on them, and also care about them so much that you make a deal with a criminal, your life on the line, in order to save them?

Now was not the time to contemplate that, because I was about to walk through those doors and return to the job I once had. The job that took me so long to earn, and so little to lose. I walked into the round table room where everyone was already waiting. Seriously, the worst deja vu.

Skipping the awkward greetings, I just asked, “What’d I miss?”

“You’re actually right on time,” Hotch assured. With that, Garcia launched into her briefing. It took all of my willpower not to add more than one thing to the conversation. I let them take the lead while I sat back and listened.

Hotch told us that we’d be leaving in 30, so everyone grabbed their bags and headed to the jet. I waited for the group of them to go ahead, and then planned to make the trip by myself. I was about to succeed in that plan, until Rossi slipped into the elevator with me. I didn’t even look over at him.

“You’re welcome, by the way,” he said. I turned my head toward him, brows furrowed. “For letting you crash at my place.”

I blew a small laugh out of my nose, “I knew I got the red and gold pillows mixed up.” He smiled and left it at that, which I was grateful for.

We boarded the jet together, and headed out across the country to catch another killer.

Halfway into the week, on our way back to the hotel, Morgan hung back from the group, which he never did, so I knew something was up. Glances were passed between Hotch, Rossi, and Morgan, so I knew that they had some idea what this was about, and I fought the urge to just run out of the precinct.

“I’ll walk you out?” Derek invited as he approached me.

“If you really want to end up in a parking lot alone with me again,” I joked, gesturing toward his face which once dawned a black eye courtesy of me. He smirked and nodded his head toward the door.

“You are a really strong fighter,” he commented. I rolled my eyes at him, but he stopped in his tracks to face me. “I mean it, Aundreya. In more ways than one.”

Something in his undertone led me to believe we weren’t talking about the same thing, and I didn’t know whether to say thank you and walk or to stay to see what else he had to say. My curiosity got the better of me and I asked, “What are you saying?”

“Walk with me,” was all he offered. I squinted at his back in confusion before following him. We were in a super small town near a desert, and he started heading out into the open sand, the exact opposite direction of our hotel. I stopped and he turned around to look at me. “What? Gang girl afraid of a little sand?”

I trekked toward him, “If you ever call me that again, you should be afraid of a lot more than just sand.”

We, dare I say hiked, out into the desert at nearly nine at night, with more moonlight than sunlight. I don’t know how he decided where to stop, but after about ten minutes of walking, he just sat down.

“Okay, what the actual hell, Derek?” I asked, standing in front of him.

“Just sit down, okay?” I did as he said, and took a seat in the cooling sand next to him. Whatever he was about to say, this had to’ve been the oddest place for him to pick. “I don’t think I’ve ever told you this, but when I was young, I used to go to this community center in my neighborhood. There was a man there who was in charge of the place, and for most of my childhood h-he, um…” he trailed off.

I could see it in his eyes and the way he swallowed while looking down, and I immediately recognized what it was. The shame carried by a victim. I sternly whispered, “Who?”

Derek looked at me, “Carl Buford.” I could feel the heat rising to my cheeks as I stood up, storming away, “What are you doing?”

“I can find anyone,” I called back, nearly a threat. There’s not much I can do for him or for anyone else on the team right now, but this I can do. I can find that pathetic, sleezy, son of a-

“You won’t!” Derek yelled. I spun around to face him, realizing I’d traveled a healthy 50 feet from him. “He’s in prison!”

I sighed, crossing my arms. Of course he is. I marched back over to where Derek sat. When I was standing at his feet, he was looking up at me with curiosity. “You know, I’ve got people in prison, and with one phone call, I could have them-”

“Sit down, would you?” Derek cut me off. I took a deep breath, closing my eyes, trying to pull myself back together.

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be,” he cut me off.

My eyes locked on his. “I respect your strength for sharing this and being able to deal with the same type of people day in and day out.”

“Thanks,” he clenched his jaw, then continued, “One day, after nearly two decades, I finally got to put him away.” He put his hand on my shoulder, so I looked over at him. “Don’t give up hope, Aundreya. We will catch that son of bitch and bring him to justice, and if there’s anyone I know who can do that, it’s you.”

“Thank you, Derek,” I said, offering a small smile, “It means a lot.”

I moved to get up and walk away again, but Derek held me to my spot. A bit of a playful tone entered his voice when he asked, “Where do you think you’re going?”

“Uh, back to the hotel? It’s like four degrees out here.”

“It’s not that bad. Plus, it’s not like you’ll be sleeping,” he pointed out.

“That obvious, huh?” I asked. He tilted his head to the side as if to say that was the dumbest question I could’ve asked.

“After everything you’ve been through,” he shook his head, “I wouldn’t be surprised if you never slept again. Not like I ever thought you did to begin with. I mean, when Reid was in prison, did you sleep at all?”

“Not really. I usually don’t,” I shrugged.

We let the silence hang around us for a while before he laid back on the sand. “You know, when I couldn’t sleep, I used to just go outside and look up at the stars.”

I laid back with him, “Seriously?”

“Yeah, seriously. Something about it was comforting, you know? Knowing that there was so much more out there than just my neighborhood and the people I knew.” I understood that. Knowing that one day, you might be able to move on to bigger and better things than what you were going through, it was comforting. “How are you, really?”

“You just said it yourself, sleep deprived,” I only half-joked.

“You’re a lot more…” he struggled to find the right word, “Calm? Than I’d expect? I mean, yeah, sure, you’re a bit different, more on-edge and pissed off at us which I get, but overall you don’t seem that affected.”

“Yeah I should hope not. It’s not like that was my first time in a prison or my first time facing off against DeLeon. I can handle it pretty well by now. I’d honestly be more nervous had I been more affected.”

“That makes sense, but don’t discount whatever is giving you nightmares right now. Even if you’ve gone through it a hundred times, it will still haunt you, even if it’s just a little bit. Just make sure you’re managing that, and talking to people if you need to.”

I scoffed, “Yeah, I’ll make sure to talk to the team that has lost all hope in me.” I didn’t mean for it to sound that harsh, but I could see Derek flinch just slightly. He opened his mouth to say something, but I beat him to it. “I get it, though. I told a lot of lies, I wrecked a lot of things, and I’m sure you asked yourselves who was really to blame for all of this. Did Xena really deserve that? Was DeLeon really the bad guy, or just another poor soul with the misfortune of getting caught up in the Chambers tornado? Hell, I even wonder why you guys came for me sometimes.”

“Hey,” Derek jumped in very quickly, “Don’t ever doubt that. I know things are in a bad place, a lot of broken trust to go around, but don’t ever think that we’d just let you die. You still mean something to us. Some more than others.”

I knew who he was talking about and I wanted to laugh in his face. “Yeah, I’m sure I still mean a ton to the guy that doesn’t even want to be caught looking at me.”

“You do. You know, he spent every free moment he had trying to figure out what was up with you. He lost so much sleep over it that Hotch had to order him to drop it and take vacation time so he could rejuvenate.” My mouth fell agape, and my eyes went wide. “And before you ask, I’m dead serious.”

“How does Maeve feel about that, then? Especially now that I’m back?” I wondered.

“She’s supportive of him, of course,” of course, “but it isn’t paradise. We were all worried how it would be for them once they actually could see and spend time with each other. To me, it seems like all they have to connect on is their shared intellect.”

I opened and shut my mouth a couple times, trying to come with the right question. All I could land on was, “What do you think that means?”

“I think it means that things were great when all they had to talk about was genius stuff, but now that they’re together, there’s very little else going on, like no emotional or physical connection.”

I took this all in, and Derek let me, but then he asked, “But what about that Mateo character?”

I smiled a little, “What about him?” He raised his eyebrows at me. “He’s good. He and I had a thing before I joined the FBI, and we picked up right where we left off when I got back.”

“So…” Derek prompted.

“So things are good,” I bit my bottom lip and looked over at Derek.

He wiggled his eyebrows at me. “I met him, Aundreya. I looked that six foot four figure all the way up and down, and you’re telling me things are just good?”

I chuckled, “If you must know, the sex is amazing.” He laughed right along with me, but I finished with, “But we’re different people than we used to be. Yeah, we still have a really good relationship outside of the bedroom, but it’s just…”

“Different?” Derek helped. I nodded. He contemplated this for a moment and then followed with, “Why’d you come back?”

“I had to,” I answered, but I needed something more to convince him, “My ring is amazing, and I can still stay in contact with them from here, but I don’t really feel like I fit anywhere anymore. I don’t know, I guess I just thought that this was the one place where I knew for sure I was doing good, saving lives, and fighting people who deserved to be locked up. I guess I’m just searching for that feeling again.” It was meant to be a quick lie so that he’d believe my motives for coming back, but after I said it, I realized it wasn’t all that far from the truth.

He nodded, and then we spent the next half hour or so in silence, just staring at the stars out in the middle of the desert. Eventually, we packed up and headed back to the hotel, knowing that we still had a lot of work to do in the coming days.

# # # # # # # # # # # # #

We closed the case within the next two days, and were scheduled to leave the next morning. We collected our things and headed back to the hotel. Overall, the team was being civil with me. We came in, did our work, and then went our separate ways. I was okay with that. I had to be.

I crashed on the hotel bed the moment I shut the door behind me. No one was rooming with me, another thing I didn’t mind, and was about to change out of my clothes when I heard a knock at the door. I assumed it was either Hotch, Rossi, or Morgan, but when I opened it, it was a completely different mop of hair standing in front of me.

“Can I come in?” Spencer asked. I opened the door wider and stepped to the side, allowing him to brush by me. I shut the door and leaned my back against it, waiting for him to speak. He was standing fairly far away from me when he started, “I owe you an apology.” I just stared at him, so he took a deep breath and continued, “I haven’t been treating you fairly. A lot has happened recently, and instead of talking to you, I just avoided you, which was wrong of me. I know it’s going to take a lot for us to trust each other again, but you’ve already done so much for me, despite how awful I’ve been to you, and I need you to know that I appreciate you. Everything you’ve done for me, for Maeve, and for the rest of the team. I-”

“How is she, by the way?” I interjected. I don’t know what possessed me to ask, because I didn’t actually want to know, but after what I heard from Derek, I was interested in his answer.

“Oh, uh, she’s good,” he rushed. “How’s Mateo?”

I knew that was coming the moment I asked about Maeve, but I also wasn’t going to give him an in depth answer, “Good as well.”

We stood there awkwardly for a moment before Spencer cleared his throat, “Anyways, I just wanted to say thank you, I’m sorry, and I hope that we can try to just … work together like we used to?”

“Sure,” I nodded, “That would be good.”

The corners of his mouth curved up and he whispered a little ‘okay’ to himself, and then approached the door. I was still leaning against it, and I let him get all the way near me before I moved to the side. So he’s still willing to stand in close proximity to me. I wonder…

Right as he reached for the door handle, I did too, making sure our hands touched. He didn’t pull away, he didn’t even flinch, and we opened the door together.

We locked eyes for a second longer than we normally would have, maybe longer than we should have, but then I stepped back and said, “I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Yeah, yes,” he stumbled on his words a little, “I’ll see you then.”

I gave him a tight-lipped smiled and he returned it, then we went to our respective rooms, wondering exactly what that all meant.

Series Taglist

@justanothetfangirl @kris-stuff @blameitonthenight21 @wooya1224 @unded-bride @swiftingday @dezzxmx

[probably-writing-x]

Admittance Pt.3

Guzmán x Reader

Request by @twoghostsandelowen : Admittance part 3 where maybe it’s something wrong with the baby or the reader and yk, drama drama. 😋

Warning: Mentions of complications in pregnancy (first trimester)

Telling your Mum was a lot easier than it was with Ander. She was shocked, of course. She questioned a lot about Guzmán and his intentions, your plans and your future, but overall she promised to be supportive- you were old enough to make your own decisions and she knew that.

You and Guzmán both went to the scan together where you watched Guzmán shed a few tears at the sound of the heartbeat. He’d asked a million questions to make sure you and the baby were both going to be healthy. And he’d listened to that heartbeat over and over. He stayed over that night and fell asleep with his hands on your stomach. You were getting better and better at this ‘being friends’ thing and were spending more time together now than you ever had done before - without the need for it to be anything more like it was during summer.

“What about... Miguel?” Guzmán smirks as the two of you walk towards the school doors.

You were only in your tenth week of pregnancy now and he’d already started thinking of names.

“We said we’d wait until later before we go through name ideas, nobody even knows I’m pregnant yet,” You roll your eyes, glancing around and silently thanking that there weren’t any people around.

“I like Miguel, I’m just putting it out there,” He comments, “What lesson are you in first?”

“Maths,” You tell him, knowing that meant he’d walk you to your locker and to the class without a second thought.

He’d barely let you out of his sight whenever he could. He’d either be there with you or texting you, sometimes even texting Ander to check up on you. Guzmán had made it a silent promise that he’d keep you safe at all times - for the baby’s sake and for your own.

“Okay,” He takes your books from you instinctively and carries everything for you as you make your way towards class, “What names do you like?”

“Guzmán!” You exclaim, “If you carry on, it won’t have a name.”

He laughs and glances down at your stomach, “Do you feel sick anymore?”

“No, not as much at least,” You smile with clear relief, “It should be completely gone within the next couple of weeks anyway.”

“Alright, text me if you need me,” He encourages, “See you later (Y/n).”

Ander is already sat down as you walk into class and sit beside him. He makes sure to pull out the chair for you like it had become second nature.

“What’s his latest idea for a name?” Ander comments quietly, glancing up to make sure nobody was listening in to your conversation.

“Miguel,” You roll your eyes, “I like the name but I don’t want to be thinking of stuff like that yet.”

“Give him a break,” Ander nudges you, “He’s just excited.”

You laugh, “Give him a break? You were practically ready to rip his head off a few weeks ago.”

“Things have changed since then, we talked through it.”

- - - - - -

The night after the scan, Guzmán woke up when the sky was still pitch black as the two of you had fallen asleep earlier than you should’ve done. It was only midnight so he found himself walking downstairs to the kitchen - more so thinking that you might need a drink or something to eat when you woke up rather than thinking about himself.

He stopped in his tracks when he saw Ander sat on one of the chairs in the back garden. The two of them hadn’t really spoken much since that evening when Ander first found out and Guzmán dreaded the thought of their first conversation since that point. But there would be no ‘good times to do it.

“Hey, man,” Guzmán says as he steps outside into the slight chill in the air, “Mind if I sit with you?”

Ander glances up and gestures to the empty seat, “What are you doing down here?”

“I came to get (Y/n) something to drink in case she needed it when she woke up, she’s still sleeping,” Guzmán explains, scratching at the back of his neck, “You?”

“Omar’s snoring,” Ander smirks a little, “I keep listening to the audio of the heartbeat.”

“Yeah, me too,” Guzmán smiles, sitting down in the chair and trying to treat this as simply a conversation with his best friend, “It’s crazy that it’s this whole little life inside of her.”

“Guzmán, I know I didn’t react brilliantly when you first told me,” Ander interjects, evidently wanting to get some things off his chest, “But I just need to know that you’ll do right by her and this baby.”

Guzmán takes a deep breath, “I was terrified when she first told me, it was like everything just stopped and everything I thought I was ready for just felt completely irrelevant. But I saw her and the look in her eyes and I knew she was feeling the same. And all I could think about was doing everything in my power to prove she wasn’t going to be alone. I might not be perfect for the job and I’m banking on myself making a lot of mistakes along the way. But I’ll do everything I can to be a Dad, not just the one written on the birth certificate but the one there every step of the way - for both of them.”

Ander can’t help but smile at hearing Guzmán say exactly that, words that had purely come from his heart, “Never thought I’d see you acting so mature.” They both laugh and it’s as if they can feel the tension ease between them with every passing moment from there on out.

- - - - - -

When you finish school that day, you’re quieter than usual and Ander has already noticed. There was a slight discomfort that was already making you cautious. You hadn’t mentioned anything to Guzmán when you’d seen him, you didn’t want to make any sort of big deal and it seemed silly to worry over something like discomfort in pregnancy- that was basically normal right?

Though, it was only later that evening when you first saw a few drops of blood that you started to worry more and more. Was that normal? Everything you’d read hadn’t ever mentioned blood when they spoke about healthy pregnancies. Or was it different for everyone? It seemed like there was no clear cut line of what needed to happen or what you should expect. So why did this feel so wrong?

“Fuck,” You mutter to yourself as tears start to fill up your vision a little.

Part of you had refused to believe that anything could be wrong but you couldn’t possibly continue that belief now.

You find yourself sat on the bathroom floor with trembling hands as you reach for your phone and go straight for Guzman’s number. Each ring until he replies makes you feel a little bit more nauseous, no longer caused by the early stages of your pregnancy but more for the fear of what had happened.

“Guzmán,” You half whisper, “Guzmán I need your help.”

“What? What? Why? What’s happened?” You can already hear him fumbling around on the other end of the phone, most likely stressing and rushing to get out of his house as quickly as possible.

“I don’t know but I think somethings wrong,” You explain, your voice shaking more than your hands as you continue to fall deeper and deeper into a terror fuelled panic.

“Okay, I’m on my way, is anybody home with you?”

“No, Anders out with Omar and Mum is... I don’t know,” You explain, trying with everything to get out each word.

“Okay, okay, don’t worry,” He’s even trying to calm his own voice down, “Just take some deep breaths, and I need you to stay on the phone with me until I’m there. You don’t have to say anything, I just need to keep you on the other end. I’m going to pick you up and we’ll go straight to the hospital.”

You gulp and try to breathe as calmly as possible, a million thoughts rushing through your brain far too quickly to be processed at all.

From that moment on, everything feels like a blur. The most you remember was Guzmán crouching in front of you in the bathroom and wiping away your tears amongst reassuring you constantly that you’d be fine, that they’d get things sorted. He calls the hospital on the way to make sure someone would be there and, luckily, the doctor from your scan was still on shift. Guzmán holds your hand the whole time as he walks you through the corridor until you’re met by the doctor.

You remember him for being comforting, polite, friendly - but tonight, you just need him to tell you that you were okay. No, that the baby was okay.

“You’re welcome to come in as well sir,” The nurse comments as you’re led into the curtain shielded room.

The pleading look in your eyes is only the second thing that makes him not question his actions when he follows closely behind. The first was the fact that he shared the same deep set fear that you did. He was terrified to his core of what news the doctor would give, he’d just been spending this whole time convincing both you and himself that he wasn’t.

They go through all of the necessary checks and the doctor quizzes you on what you’d experienced and asks you details that you have to think back on to remember at all.

“Okay, lets set up a little scan then just to have a listen for baby’s heartbeat,” The doctor nods, prepping everything up until the ultrasound machine begins rolling across your stomach.

Guzmán holds your hand from where he sat on the chair near to the bed and the other is gripping tightly onto the armrest beside him - praying for a noise he never knew he’d learn to rely on so much.

You barely hear it when he mutters under his breath, “We’re okay, we’ll be okay.”

You don’t know who we means. You and him? Or you, him and this baby that tied you together?

The doctor can’t even hold back a smile at the sight on the screen and the noise that echoes through the room as the heartbeat sounds through.

You let out a breath you didn’t know you were holding and rest your head back against the pillow like every muscle in you had just relieved it’s panic.

“It’s okay? And (Y/n)’s okay?” Guzmán asks, eyes never tearing away from the doctor.

“I think what you may have been experiencing was just a slight level of spotting due to this being your first pregnancy, it is generally quite common but I think you made the right decision to come in just to check,” The doctor smiles to the both of you, “If you would like, we can see baby on here.”

Guzmán stumbles as he pushes the chair as close to the bed as it can get, “You... I mean... you cou-could see the baby?”

With a chuckle, the doctor turns the screen to face both of you and you’re certain you’ve never seen a sight have such an effect. It’s like everything around you silences. Because there they are. Small and barely recognisable, is the tiny form of the growing body inside of you.

“I’ll give you two a moment,” The doctor nods, freezing the screen on the image of the baby before tidying everything away and leaving the two of you alone.

“See, you’re both okay,” Guzmán smiles, squeezing your hands in his as he presses a kiss to your knuckles.

“Thank you so much Guzmán, I don’t know what I would’ve done if you ha-“

“Hey,” He stops you, “I told you I’d be here and I meant it, for anything.”

You let out a shaky breath, “That’s the baby.”

Guzmán stands up and leans in to press a soft kiss to your forehead, lingering his lips there like he was thanking you a million times over for somehow keeping that baby safe inside of you. You glance up and his eyes drop to yours. And, just for a moment, everything melts away. He dips his head down and presses a soft kiss to your lips, stinging as both of you spill a few tears onto your connected cheeks.

- - - - - -

The next day, you decide to stay off from school and have to continuously force Ander, Omar and Guzmán to still go in. You’d be fine, of course you would be. And you’d reminded them multiple times that they were only one phone call away if you needed anything. Guzmán had already texted you five times this morning about different things, always finishing it with a half-innocent ‘how are you?’

You’d tried not to think too much into that kiss from last night. It still didn’t change anything, you were still just two friends going through the motions of this pregnancy together. Last night had just been a build up of emotion that came out in one moment of relief between you. That was all it was. Right?

Guzmán had been thinking the same all morning, running through the events of the evening right up to that instinctive kiss. He’d been so utterly terrified the the entire time, he couldn’t imagine how you felt. But when he’d kissed you, it felt like it all just eased. You’d seen your baby for the first time and all he could think of was how much adoration he had for you in that exact moment. Did that make things a lot more complicated?

“Hey, I don’t think anything comes out of that if you don’t put money in,” Ander clasps him on the shoulder and snaps Guzmán from his daze.

He hadn’t noticed how he’d been stood staring into the vending machine as his thoughts had taken priority over his actions.

When he turns to look at Ander, his eyes are nearly spilling with a few tears.

“What’s wrong?” Ander frowns, never seeing much of his best friend like this.

“God I was so scared last night man, I was terrified,” Guzmán half whispers, letting a tear slip through as he tries his best to not break down in the middle of the school.

“You said it yourself man, it’s okay. They both are, yeah?” Ander tries to reassure him, still taken aback by seeing Guzmán like this.

“The thought of anything happening... to either of them. God, it kills me,” He leans into Ander and sobs into him, just as Ander had done when he’d told him about tennis.

Ander holds him and lets him cry as though his whole world had come crashing down. And it made Ander realise one thing amongst the madness. That was how it felt for Guzmán. Having lost Marina, lost any relationship he had with his parents, Lu, then losing Polo - Guzmán felt pretty alone in his life. He’d lost a lot of hope. But piece by piece over the past few weeks, he’d been blessed with something that he’d have never expected to find such a blessing in. He’d been given a purpose, something to live and breathe for. And in this unconventional, unplanned situation - he’d found that little pocket of Earth that he could make into his whole world.

[ollieofthebeholder]

leaves too high to touch (roots too strong to fall): a TMA fanfic

Tumblr tag || Also on AO3

Chapter 31: Jon

Fortunately for Jon’s nerves, Halloween week means Research is inundated with statements, mostly false ones, so the first week following Tim’s ill-advised adventure means they’re all helping out with disproving piles of utter nonsense, which in turn means none of his assistants putting themselves in harm’s way. They do get a live statement midway through the week, in the form of the exterminator who handled Jane Prentiss’ body, but as there’s nothing to really investigate regarding his statement, that’s harmless enough. Tim insists on sitting in on the statement, and against his better judgment, Jon agrees.

It’s probably a mistake, though, as over the course of the following week Tim begins having frequent headaches. They seem to pass quickly, at least at first, but they get progressively worse. Martin adds a box of ginger tea to their stash; Sasha keeps a giant bottle of paracetamol at her desk; Jon tries to reduce Tim’s workload as much as possible. Tim only accepts the first two. It worries Jon how hard Tim is throwing himself into the research, regardless of how much the others tell him he doesn’t have to make up for lost time. Even Jon Prime expresses concern, in a careful, hesitant way.

Martin Prime, on the other hand, is a lot less careful and a lot more blunt, telling Tim not to be a self-sacrificing idiot and to stop tearing himself apart trying to draw attention away from the others, because it won’t help anyone if he gets hurt, or worse. Tim laughs, but the look on his face and especially on Jon Prime’s face makes Jon hold onto Tim extra tightly that night.

In the long run, and even in the short run, it doesn’t help. Three weeks into November, Martin finds Tim crumpled in a ball on the floor in the depths of the shelves, clutching his temples and barely conscious. The mental image of Martin, pale and frightened, cradling Tim in his arms like an infant and striding across the Archives as if he weighs nothing isn’t going to leave Jon in a hurry. The doctor at the clinic can’t find any obvious cause for the headaches, but he recommends Tim go home and rest and Jon is only too happy to sign off on that.

He makes him stay home the next morning, too. Tim doesn’t argue, which tells Jon he probably really isn’t feeling all that great. He does promise to get rest, not strain his eyes, and definitely not go off on any unauthorized field trips—all of which Martin is very emphatic about. (Jon’s never actually seen Martin in full mother bear mode, and he decides it’s best for his sanity not to admit that he finds it weirdly attractive.) Martin makes him a cup of tea before they leave and reports, when he comes back to join Jon, that Tim’s fallen back asleep again.

The morning is fairly straightforward. Sasha and Martin work on their usual research work; Jon has a stack of statements to record. Mostly these days he only does the ones that are going to end up on the Discredited shelf, the ones he can record on his laptop, tending to leave the real ones for Jon Prime. Still, there are literally thousands of statements in the Archives, and Jon is prepared to bet even money that no more than ten percent of them are actually real. While that’s still probably enough to sustain both him and Jon Prime for the rest of their natural lives, even if they never get another live statement in, he does still have to record the others. He’d grumble about him and his stupid ideas if he didn’t now have seventeen months’ worth of examples of ideas far stupider than suggesting to his boss that he make audio recordings of the statements in the Archives, and not just his own.

Jon powers through about a dozen statements, narrating them into his laptop and supplementing with his team’s research. He’s just finishing a scathing indictment of a would-be writer who claims to have stayed in a cottage with a haunted lamp when the door cracks open and Martin pops his head in. He catches Jon’s eye and smiles, then waits until Jon signs off the recording before speaking. “Hey. Lunch?”

“Thank you, but I think I’ll do a couple more of these first.” Jon gestures to the rapidly-diminishing stack on the right side of his desk. “I’m on a roll.”

“Better than being on a sesame-seed bun. I’m going to call and check on Tim while I’m at it, unless you’d rather?”

“Go ahead. Ask him if he wants us to bring anything home tonight.” Jon offers Martin a smile. “Enjoy your lunch.”

Martin smiles back, his cheeks turning faintly pink. He nods and withdraws from Jon’s office.

Jon finishes two more digital statements and then pulls over the next one and begins to dictate it. Even before he gets done with the introduction, however, he can feel the static on his tongue and stops. Playback confirms his suspicion—this is a real one. Somehow, they missed it.

He skims the file. He remembers this one now—a claim of a still-living mummy in a tomb containing ancient dice and nothing else. Sasha, who, in her own words, “went through an Egyptology phase like every other girl in the nineties”, wrote out a list of every reason she could think of that the description of the tomb didn’t make sense. Even Tim’s charm wasn’t enough to get any help from the Egyptian government, and since all the names were fake except the statement giver’s, all Martin has been able to find out is that she’s currently training to be a teacher. Even with everything they know, it seems…unrealistic.

But as he flips a page over, it dislodges a sticky note from the back of the folder. Jon catches it as it flutters through the air. It’s Tim’s handwriting, and it glitters faintly, which makes Jon frown—not because he objects to glitter ink (although if they use it on anything official he doesn’t want to imagine what Elias will have to say), but because Tim’s only been using these pens for a couple of weeks, since he traded Charlie one of his old fountain pens for the pack. Which means Tim went back and added something recently.

Jon studies the note. The first words are scratched out, but the rest is easily legible: I think this one is real.

For a moment, Jon considers leaving the statement for Jon Prime to read, but he finds he can’t. Now that he’s started speaking it aloud, he has to finished. Damn it. With a sigh, he sets up the tape recorder, then checks to make sure his secondary recorder has a tape in it. He depresses the RECORD button on both and picks up the paper again.

“Statement of Donna Gwynne, regarding an unlicensed archaeological dig near the Red Sea in Egypt,” he begins.

He always sinks into the statements, at least when they’re real—which is good, because once he finishes, it’s hard for him to keep his contempt for Ms. Gwynne out of his voice as he dictates the results, such as they are, on the follow-up. Certainly he has no qualms admitting that he’s somewhat satisfied the woman is being forced into a job she’s stated repeatedly she hates the idea of.

“I feel anyone who brings me a statement about mummies deserves everything they get,” he concludes. “I’m just glad she doesn’t live in London. End recording.”

He presses the STOP button on both recorders, then hesitates. He started recording secondary back-up tapes after Michael’s visit, partly out of growing paranoia and partly so that he would have a record in case anything happened, and he’s never really stopped. He needs to let the others know about it, he just…hasn’t yet.

Sighing, he pops out the official tape and labels it, then sets it with the file before drawing the second recorder towards himself and pressing RECORD.

“Supplemental,” he says. “I’m…worried about Tim. His headaches have grown so severe over the last week that I actually had to make him stay home today. I’m sure they have something to do with these statements, with the research and all of it, but I don’t know how to prove it. And I don’t know why he’s looking into statements we’ve theoretically finished the research on. I’m…grateful, of course, that he spotted that this one was probably real, although I wish he’d left the note in a more obvious place, but I don’t know why he was even looking, let alone how he figured it out. There’s no supplemental research, no notes other than the single sticky note he put in the back. I can’t quite make out the first word, as it’s been heavily scratched out, except that it starts with a V or a W. The next two are also scratched out, but it’s a little easier to make out: The End, with a question mark. He wasn’t sure, but—of course, it’s fairly obvious. What else would mummies be? And there’s a parallel to—”

The door to his office opens abruptly, and a voice that does not belong to one of his assistants says, “Excuse me, do you have a moment?”

Jon almost topples his chair over backwards, despite the fact that the small part of his brain hanging onto rationality points out that an entity of fear likely wouldn’t be so (relatively) polite about interrupting him. A second later, the rest of his brain catches onto the magenta-tipped brown asymmetrical pixie cut, the string of black stars dangling from one ear, and the expression that manages to be somehow disdainful, sheepish, and concerned all at the same time.

“Miss King—uh—how did you get in here?” he manages, hoping he doesn’t sound like she almost gave him a heart attack.

“Sasha let me in.” Melanie King steps fully into his office and lets the door close behind her. “Are you all right?”

“Hmm? Sorry?” Jon tries to look nonchalant as he shuffles Ms. Gwynne’s statement to the bottom of the stack.

“You look like hell,” Melanie tells him.

“It’s been a rough few months.” Jon feels his old prickliness rising up in him, feels the need to puff up and bluster, but then he stops, collects himself, and really looks at Melanie. There’s a slump to her shoulders, a weariness in her bearing, and dark circles like bruises under her eyes, which look…well, haunted. “And if I look like hell, you must be in a far lower circle than I am. Are you all right?”

Melanie seems surprised that he asked, which, fair enough. “Fine. I—um—I actually need your help.”

Dread creeps up Jon’s spine, but all he says is, “Interesting.”

“All right, can you not be an arsehole about it?” Melanie snaps, visibly bristling. “I just need access to your library.”

“So talk to Diana. She runs the place,” Jon points out.

“Yeah, I don’t exactly have the academic credentials you guys demand, so apparently I need someone to vouch for me,” Melanie says. Jon sighs in annoyance, not at Melanie or her tone, but at the generations of stuffy, upper-class white men who equate university degrees with value. “And you’re basically the closest thing I have to a friend here.”

Jon can’t help but laugh at that. “We’ve spoken once, and we ended up screaming at each other—”

“Yes! And that’s more than I have with anyone else here.” Melanie tugs at her hair in frustration, hard enough that Jon’s afraid she might actually yank it out of her scalp by the roots. “Also, uh, Georgie actually has some nice things to say about you. That came as a surprise. You didn’t even tell me you knew her.”

It surprises Jon, too, enough that he blurts out the honest truth without thinking. “It was a long time ago—before she started doing What the Ghost. I didn’t think she would have anything nice to say about me, to be honest. We didn’t exactly part on the best of terms.”

Melanie hums skeptically at him. Jon almost tells her everything, but catches himself. “Look, what exactly do you need from us, anyway? Can’t your showbiz friends help you?”

“No,” Melanie snaps. “I’m, uh—most of them won’t talk to me anymore.”

“What happened? Did word get round you’d talked to us ‘credulous idiots’?”

“Not exactly. In my business, your reputation is all that you have. The industry is full of skeptics pretending to be believers pretending to be skeptics.”

Jon almost snipes at her that the word she wants is charlatans, but one look at her expression and his heart isn’t in it anymore. He thinks about the Primes’ description of her as an Archival assistant, the “painting” from Martin Prime’s statement about his journey back in time, the slightly wistful look in Jon Prime’s eye when he talked about her resignation. And then he looks at her now, determined and angry and despairing all at once, and he resolves, then and there, not to ever let her get to that point.

He’s the closest thing she has to a friend? Fair enough. They’re going to get closer to that even if he has to do all the work himself.

“And none of them are helpful,” he guesses.

Melanie starts to bristle at him, then sighs heavily. “Look, Ghost Hunt UK split up. I mean, not formally, but, you know, Pete was always a flake, and the others just…drifted away.”

“I’m sorry,” Jon says, as gently as he can. “I did notice you weren’t updating anymore.” It’s a bit of a white lie—the Primes told him that—but she doesn’t need to know, not now.

Melanie continues, rambling a bit about her attempts to get a new crew together, then her solo expeditions ending in disaster. Jon can’t help the noise of shock and concern that slips out of his throat when she mentions getting arrested; she evidently takes it as interest and gives him the whole story. “After that…”

“Your reputation went with it,” Jon concludes.

Melanie looks away. The set of her jaw suggests she’s trying to hang onto her resentment, but also trying not to cry. “Yes,” she says tightly. “Look, I have leads that I really need to follow up on, and as far as my colleagues are concerned these days, I’m the ghost.”

Jon nods. “All right. Come on, then.”

Melanie looks back at him, obviously startled. “What?”

“Come on,” Jon repeats. “I’ll take you up to the library and vouch for you. If all else fails, I can claim we’re borrowing you as an adjunct for a few weeks or something. U-unless you’d rather wait?”

“Oh,” Melanie says, sounding taken aback. “No, the sooner the better. I—just expected a bit more of a fight, to be honest.”

“Yes, well, I know what it’s like to be itching to follow up on a lead and have your every effort frustrated. And I believe I owe you for being…dismissive of you before.” Jon suddenly realizes he hasn’t turned off his tape recorder. “Uh, end supplemental.” He presses the STOP button and stows the recorder in his desk, then gestures for Melanie to head out of the office.

Martin is just hanging his jacket on the back of his chair when they emerge; he looks up and offers Jon a slight smile, which freezes when he sees Melanie. “Uh…heading to lunch?”

“Eventually, but I’m going to see if I can convince Diana to let Miss King here use the library,” Jon tells him. “Unless you’d rather.”

Martin laughs nervously. “That would have the opposite effect, trust me. Besides, I, uh, talked to Tim.”

Jon bites back the hot words he wants to unleash in Diana’s direction. “How is he?”

“Fine, he says, and I believe him, but he asked if I would—” Martin hesitates for no more than a split second, then flicks a finger very quickly in the direction of the trapdoor “—run something down for him?”

In other words, Tim has a question he thinks the Primes can answer. Jon nods slowly. “All right. Just be…cautious. I don’t want a repeat of last month’s incident.”

Martin shakes his head vigorously. “Nope. No incidents. Nope. I’ll be back up before you get back from lunch.”

“Right.” Jon offers Martin a warm smile, which Martin returns, before leading Melanie over to the stairs.

Melanie, for a wonder, stays silent until they’re back up on the main floor, then says, “Does ‘last month’s incident’ have anything to do with all those scars he’s got?”

Jon bristles at the implied criticism of Martin’s appearance. “Those are months old. Did you not see the worms when you were here last time? We had an…infestation. It came to a head a couple weeks after your last visit. He was badly injured.” His voice shakes slightly as he says it. Even close to seven months later, he still has trouble sometimes shaking the memories of the black terror of that night.

“I’m sorry.” Melanie actually seems to mean it. “He seems all right now, though.”

“As I said, it was some time ago and he’s had time to heal. Last month’s incident was…it didn’t leave physical scars, but one of my other assistants looked into something he oughtn’t have.” Jon pauses. They’re just rounding the landing towards the first floor—the library actually spans the entire height of the building, save the basement, but for reasons he’s never understood the only way in or out is in the middle—and it’s deserted this time of day. Sound has a way of carrying, but they should be safe enough here if he speaks honestly, as long as he keeps his voice down. “He ran into your Sarah Baldwin.”

Melanie stiffens, but when she speaks, she manages to sound derisive. “You were just looking into my statement?”

“I contacted you when we initially did the research,” Jon reminds her. She grunts, either in acknowledgment or impatience. “This was a completely unrelated incident. I told you, I owe you for being dismissive before. You were right.”

“I wish I was recording this.”

“All right, no need to be—” Jon checks his temper. “Look. She’s dangerous. Or at least she belongs to something dangerous. You were extremely lucky to walk away in one piece.”

Something in Melanie’s face shifts. “Related to…whatever was at the CMH?”

“I—I don’t know. I don’t think so. I think they’re separate, but…there were things we know now that we didn’t know then. We may have to revisit your case.”

“Just so you don’t ask me more questions. I’m still having nightmares about it.” Melanie shoots him a glare. “You’re in them now, too, so thanks for that.”

Jon winces. “Ah…yes. I didn’t know about that at the time, either. I suppose I owe you an apology.”

“What?”

“Look, do you want to do the library today, or come back to the Archives and interrogate me? I can explain more, but it’s not something I want to do on the stairwell,” Jon says impatiently. Elias Bouchard’s office is on the first floor as well, and the last thing he wants is Elias actually listening to this conversation.

Melanie stares at him for a minute, then sighs. “Library. The less I have to talk to you, the better.”

Which is fair enough, Jon supposes. “All right, then. This way.”

Rosie’s office, door open, is just at the top of the stairs; from the way she peers over her computer monitor at them, Jon guesses she at least heard their voices, if not what they were actually saying. Melanie glances over her shoulder as they pass. “Why is she staring at us?”

“That’s Rosie.” Just about anyone who has reason to pass her door calls her “Nosy Rosie”, actually, but Jon isn’t going to mention that in earshot; despite all appearances, he’s not a complete arse. “She’s Elias Bouchard’s personal assistant. It…behooves her to keep her finger on the Institute’s pulse, I suppose.”

“She’s a snoop, in other words.”

Jon can’t help a small, humorless chuckle. “Aren’t we all.”

Between the door to Elias’s office and the library, at the end of the corridor, there’s a room with an incredibly solid door, firmly shut. It’s one of only two interior doors original to the Institute, the other being the library’s, and as such it’s windowless. It’s also unlabeled. Melanie eyeballs it. “What’s in there?”

“Artifact Storage.”

“So…what, haunted dolls, cursed music boxes, weapons belonging to serial killers…”

Jon stops and shoots Melanie a look. She shrugs, completely unrepentant. “All right, so I’m curious. Sue me. Not like I’m going to ask to go in.”

“Good, because I wouldn’t let you,” Jon tells her firmly. “It’s not a museum. It’s more of a…science lab, I suppose. They keep artifacts in there, yes, but they also study them, attempt to replicate their effects or discover why they do things.”

“Hmm.” Melanie studies the door for a second. Jon’s about a step away from grabbing her by the elbow and dragging her away when she falls into step with him. “You go in there a lot, do you?”

“Not if I can help it.” Jon leads Melanie to the end of the hall and the ornate double doors of the library, then pushes one open and ushers her inside.

Melanie’s jaw drops, which is the usual reaction among employees seeing it for the first time, from what Jon’s been told and what little he’s experienced. Three stories high, with balconies ringing the upper two, it’s near floor-to-ceiling shelves, every one packed with books. Tables and chairs litter the ground floor, and here and there on the upper levels are smaller rooms for private study. A bored-looking junior clerk sits behind a curved, ornate wooden desk with her back to the dizzying drop, filing her nails; elsewhere, other library assistants sort, stack, and shelve books from carts and precarious stacks.

“I always thought it looked like the library from Beauty and the Beast,” Jon admits in a low voice. From the startled look Melanie shoots him, she was thinking the same thing. “Come on. I’ll try and track down Diana.”

“What can I do for you?”

Jon and Melanie both jump at the boisterous, barely-contained voice from behind them. Whirling around, Jon takes a deep, steadying breath. “Diana. I…didn’t see you there.”

“That’s unusual.” Diana smiles—almost leers—down at Jon. In height and in breadth, she can give Martin a run for his money, and she towers over the two of them. Melanie nips smartly behind Jon, and he throws her a look. “What can I do for you? New assistant?”

“Ah—no. Diana Caxton, Melanie King.”

“The ghost hunter?” Diana raises one impeccably sculpted eyebrow almost into her hairline.

“Y-yes,” Melanie manages to choke out.

Jon takes a half-step back so he isn’t looking up Diana’s nose. “Miss King needs to use the library for some research. I know she’s not the…usual student type, but I’m willing to vouch for her seriousness, as well as her right to be here. I’m certain she will treat the books with the respect and care they deserve. And the subject matter, of course.”

Diana’s eyebrow raises higher. “You’re not going to put this in your show, are you?”

She says this at a normal volume, and a number of nearby heads snap towards them. Jon fights the instinctive urge to shrink into himself and hide. Melanie, on the other hand, folds her arms over her chest and manages to meet Diana’s eyes. “No, ma’am. I just need to follow up on some leads to make sure I’m informed enough on my end to go places safely.”

She’s lying. Jon knows intuitively she’s lying, but he keeps his face carefully blank. Diana studies Melanie from her great height, then finally nods. “Have to run it by Mr. Bouchard first, but I’m sure he’ll agree. I’ll have a ninety-day pass set up for you at the front desk. Come by tomorrow morning and we’ll get you started.”

“Thank you, ma’am.”

“Oh, Jon,” Diana says as Jon starts to turn away and lead Melanie back to the front. “Do tell Martin hello, will you? I hope he brightens your Archives as much as he brightened our library. We miss his smiling face up here. Tell him he’s welcome any time.”

“I—of course,” Jon says, not sure what else to say.

Melanie waits until they hit the landing to ask in an undertone, “Is Martin the one who said—?”

“Yes,” Jon says shortly. He’s going to have a talk with Martin about his self-esteem issues, not that he can really be throwing stones. But Diana seemed to genuinely mean it.

He bids Melanie farewell at the front door, then ducks into the canteen to grab a sandwich before heading down to the Archives again. Sasha’s there, making herself a cup of tea. She looks up and smiles when she sees Jon, but her expression turns puzzled. “Hi. I thought you’d be at lunch with Martin or something.”

“He’s…running something down for Tim,” Jon says carefully. Worry churns at his gut.

Before Sasha can respond, though, the trapdoor opens and Martin comes out. His face is pale and he looks shaken, which doesn’t help Jon’s worry. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

“N-nothing. I don’t know.” Martin carefully shuts the door and comes back over. “Tell you later.”

They don’t say anything else about it. Not then. But at the end of the day when they lock up the Archives, Sasha loops one arm through Jon’s and the other through Martin’s. “Mind if I invite myself over?”

“Yes, we can’t stand you and we’re thoroughly glad to get rid of you at the end of the day,” Jon deadpans, eliciting a tiny smile out of her. “Thank God you don’t live with us or we’d be constantly miserable. Oh—Martin, I forgot to ask, did Tim want us to bring anything home?”

“He said he’d put in an order at that takeaway place for us to pick up on the way.” Martin’s voice is unusually soft, and it makes Jon’s worry compound.

Tim looks a lot better when they get in the door, white boxes in hand. He greets them with a smile, which vanishes instantly when he sees Martin. “Oh, God, what? What happened? What is it?”

Martin shrugs out of his jacket. “Well, I asked them.”

“And?” Tim prompts, voice full of dread.

Martin sighs. “And they didn’t know.”

Tim blinks. “What?”

“They didn’t know. Had no idea what I was talking about. I’ve never seen Jon Prime look that confused.” Martin reaches for Sasha’s jacket, but she takes his instead and hangs them both up. “They were considering coming over tonight, but Martin Prime thought you might want to talk to us first.”

“Yeah. Yeah, that’s…probably not a bad idea.” Tim runs a hand through his hair. “Fuck.”

“Let’s eat. Then you can explain,” Sasha suggests.

Dinner is largely silent, except for the scrape of fork on plate. Jon does explain the purpose of Melanie’s visit to the others, and Martin frowns slightly when he repeats Diana’s words, but doesn’t say anything. Once they’ve all eaten and cleaned up, they head back into the living room to talk.

Tim sits on the edge of the loveseat, elbows resting on his thighs and hands clasped beneath his chin. “Where do we start?”

Sasha nudges Martin’s ankle with her foot. “What were you asking the Primes about?”

“Tim told me to ask them about ‘the color of fears’,” Martin replies. “They didn’t know what I meant. I didn’t know what I meant, except…” He looks up at Tim. “Except I think it has to do with your headaches.”

“It does,” Tim confirms. He takes a deep breath. “It’s…something I’ve been noticing lately. Since the Trophy Room, really. When I was there…when Daniel Rawlings looked me in the eye? His eyes were glowing. Like there was a light inside them. Right proper spooky. And when I got back to the Archives that day…I thought you’d put special bulbs in or something, at first, but I blinked and it went away. Then I was talking to you, Jon, and your eyes were glowing, too.”

“My what?” Jon touches the corner of his eye gingerly, like he can feel the luminescence.

Tim manages a small grin. “It’s not…it went away when I blinked, too, and I thought I was just imagining things. But it’s been getting…worse. Random flashes at first, but when the exterminator came in…he glowed for a second, too. After I sat in on that, it started getting stronger.”

“Hence the headaches,” Jon says. “Tim, why didn’t you—”

“I wasn’t sure. And…well, I wanted to experiment a bit. Because, see, here’s the thing. Rawlings’ eyes—when they glowed, they were this deep indigo, but the Archives, and your eyes and Sasha’s—and Martin’s lips once or twice—they glowed green. The exterminator was kind of green, too, but it was kind of a greenish-yellow, really, and the next day I—” Tim flushes and looks up at Martin. “I was watching you, and—your scars started glowing. Same color as the exterminator did, but your mouth was still the darker green, it’s how I could tell they were different colors. So…I started thinking, maybe that meant something?”

“Oh, God,” Martin says softly. “The marks.”

“Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking,” Tim says. “I—I’ve been sort of trying with some of the statements. It’s hard to see with them, really, because everything in the Archives glows green just about, and if I try too hard I get the headaches. But sometimes I could…pick out different colors in them, kind of. Sort of. Mostly. I-I thought maybe if I could look at them and see the fears’ marks…”

“You’d know which ones were real,” Jon completes. Tim nods. “You still shouldn’t have done that without telling us.”

“I know. Especially…well, I thought I could handle it. I’ve been getting better at only seeing them when I try to, and I thought I’d—give it a shot. I walked back into the shelves yesterday and just…let loose with my eyes. I tried to See what was on the couple of shelves nearest.” Tim sighs heavily. “But it was—it was overwhelming. There was just so much. It was like—like standing in the middle of a room made out of mirrors, and someone was shining all sorts of different colored lasers at them, and they were just bouncing off and refracting and amplifying and going everywhere. Like I was drowning in color, or like it was screaming at me. I can’t really explain it, but it was too much and, well, that’s when you found me.”

Martin exhales heavily. “Christ, Tim, that scared the hell out of me.”

“I know, and I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have tried that without warning you all. I-I really didn’t think it would be that bad.”

Jon bites his lip. “Is that how you knew—that statement, Ms. Gwynne’s, about the mummy?”

Sasha frowns. “The one that reads like the plot of a knockoff of a Brendan Fraser film?”

“Yes. I went to record it today and—it came out distorted. I didn’t see the note until after I realized it didn’t work on the laptop, but…Tim thought it might be real.”

Tim nods. “Yeah. I looked back over some of them. Started off with the ones we knew were real, and then I started looking at a couple that we weren’t sure of. That one…I wasn’t sure, but I think it’s the End?”

“Makes sense. Mummies. Death,” Martin murmurs.

“It was white. I mean—when I looked at it hard enough, it glowed white. Or at least I think it did,” Tim says. “Made the green kind of…pale, anyway. The other ones we’ve marked as being Terminus statements were the same color. But the problem is that the green of the Eye is so strong, it’s hard to really be sure what other colors there are, except if I’m looking at a person who’s been marked. That’s why I was asking about the color of fears. I-I was kind of hoping the Primes would be able to confirm what I’m thinking, but—”

“But they had no idea,” Martin completes. “Which means that, unless I just explained it very badly, Jon Prime can’t see those colors. Can’t see the marks.”

Jon rubs his temples. “I suppose it’s good to know that I don’t have to consider that, but…why? Why can you see the marks when the rest of us can’t?”

Sasha gets a faraway look in her eyes, and there’s a faint sound of static as she says, “Because that’s what’s important to Tim. Knowing when danger is coming, what danger is coming. You said yourself, Tim, you’re going to help and you’re going to do whatever you can to protect us. The Eye gave you the ability to Know what entities are around, or have got hold of someone or something, because it knows you’ll lean into that and use it for good as long as you can, up until it’s got a tight enough hold on you that you can’t get away, even if you want to.” She blinks hard, and the static fades as she puts a hand over her mouth. “Oh—oh, God, sorry, I—”

“It’s fine.” Tim manages a smile for her, but there’s a look of distress in his eyes. “It’s good to know.”

Jon’s distressed, too. “Tim you should have told us. Jon Prime’s been working with us on control, if we’d known you had powers already we’d have—he should be helping you, too. You can’t—” He takes a deep breath. “Promise me you won’t keep this sort of thing to yourself anymore.”

Tim reaches over and squeezes Jon’s hand. “I promise. No more unauthorized research, of any kind. I won’t even check books out of the library without telling you what I’m after first.”

“I appreciate that.” Jon smiles and squeezes Tim’s hand back. “Now then. Someone get a notebook and pen. We need to write down as much of this as we can.”

[hey-hamlet]

BNHA AU Ideas : Songbird

Also on AO3!

TL;DR: 

Izuku has a powerful quirk: he can give powers to the people around him based on the different songs he sings. Unfortunately, everyone else really wants that quirk and are willing to kidnap him to get it. 

Songbird is an au where Izuku has a quirk that gives a powerup/debuff to anyone that hears what he's singing! The effect depends on the song, or rather, what the song means to him.

He's been kidnapped a lot.

It came in when Izuku was like, 4? The normal time for a quirk to come in. Bakugo thought it was pretty cool, if not as cool as his.

Izuku's favourite powerup at the time was the Mario theme because it gives everyone a jump boost. So we have this little kid enthusiastically shouting the Mario theme as a small pile of kids jump around like maniacs.

Very stressful for all parents involved.

Anyway, the way his quirk works:

With some serious concentration, he can stop it working on specific people around him, but it always affects himself. Trying to limit it's spread for too long will make him pass out.

The shorter the song naturally is, the stronger the effect. His quirk works through speaker and coms but not through pre-recorded audio.

The effects can be really specific and strange, for example, 'Stronger Than You' gives a powerup to two people fighting together that care for each other. 'Radioactive', well, it literally irradiates the people around him and himself. 100% not a song he's allowed to sing.

Each song only works once per day, for the duration of the song. If accidentally, or intentionally, sings the song in a way that stops it from ending, the effect will slowly fade out.

the more a particular song has been used on you / the better you know the song, the better it works on you and the easier it is to control

Anyway, villains quickly get word of this kid running around with a powerful and versatile support quirk. Support quirks aren't super common, and one that works in so many different ways is super valuable. So, they start kidnapping the poor guy.

Obviously getting kidnapped is pretty traumatising for Izuku. It's not super great for Bakugo either, who watched his friend get stuffed into the back of a van by a small pile of villains. He gets saved by All Might. The two kids still have nightmares.

Eventually, he gets kidnapped so many random times each individual attempt is nothing to write home about. He and Bakugo become kind of blasé about the whole thing.

"Midoriya, why didn't you do your homework?"

"He got kidnapped, teach."

Izuku, bleeding sluggishly from a headwound. "Yeah, got kidnapped."

He and Bakugo are going to be heroes. They kind of end up the top dogs of the school, Izuku without meaning it, Bakugo 100% intending for that to happen. They train more than is probably healthy, because at this point it's not just good practise, it's in their best interest in an attempt to ward off more kidnappings.

Izuku has met All Might a depressing number of times, almost always getting saved from the kidnapping of the week. Bakugo is the only person Izuku lets see how all of these kidnappings are effecting him, everyone else just views it as kind of funny that this kid is so chill with getting taken so often.

He's really not, but heroes smile when they're scared, right?

Even if other villains fail, his quirk is just so useful its worth it to give it a go. He can turn a ragtag team of unfit losers into a force to rival pros with the right song choice. Plus, his involvement in all the kidnappings is suppressed for his own safety, so he's never on the news.

Oh yeah, the plan B for the USJ was take Izuku and run.

Aizawa knows about the kid that gets constantly kidnapped, but he doesn't know who it is. At the USJ, Shigiraki creepily calls out 'Hey Songbird!' and he has around 8 'oh shit' moments all at once. Izuku just wants to cry out of frustration.

The only reasons All for One hasn't stolen Izuku's quirk at this point is that All Might constantly rescuing the poor kid is both good entertainment and a good way to get him in one spot. Also he just finds this whole mess kind of funny.

His quirk only works when he's singing, but there is nothing stopping him from singing the tune to classical music! His quirk tends to work better with an instrumental or other people singing along. General power-ups are too risky to use with villains nearby, so it's mostly for disaster work.

None of his songs work on Nomu or people who can't hear (either by blocking their ears or being deaf)

Songbird Izuku kinda gives off a nice but chill air, a lot of people are afraid to talk to him because he's typically pretty popular. Inside he's just as, if not more, anxious than canon Izuku, he's just gotten pretty good at hiding it.

Regarding OFA, All Might considers giving it to him, but doesn't, mostly because he realised Izuku can't say no. It's not fair of him to ask something so big of someone who, because of the position he's been placed in, can't turn you down. He is pretty close with the Midoriya family though and comes over for dinner a lot.

The UA entrance exam is wild. Izuku kicks butt in the written, goes to thank Uraraka for helping him before but Iida stops him. Izukus externally like "Dude, you don't know me. Please calm down." internally he's like "I'M SORRY PLEASE DONT EVEN LOOK AT ME OR ILL DIE".

The announcement rings. He takes a deep breath and starts to sing, taking off after the other students.

First song up is 'Victorious'. It's both a confidence booster and a mild strength boost. He really just needs the confidence at this point. (In the distance, a purple-haired boy who was worried about the exam gets a pep in his step. He tries a little harder.)

Next up is 'Whatever it Takes', a strength and speed up based off the amount of adrenalin currently in your system. Izuku, who is constantly stressed, gets a big boost from this song. He ends up with around 28 villain points by the song, but punching robots with bare skin isn't good for your knuckles.

The 0 pointer appears and he's ready to just leave it behind until he sees the person trapped in its path. No matter how scared he is, no matter how badly he wants to go to UA, he can't leave her there.

He grits his teeth, and starts 'Get Back Up Again'. His quirk is honestly starting to run low, it's not meant to be used back to back to back like this. Still, 'Get Back Up Again' does it's job, temporarily powering up the quirks of those who can hear it. While he just wants it for Uraraka, so she can lift the rock off her legs, it works on him too.

The effects of the songs linger after they complete.

He helps Uraraka free herself from the rock and starts 'What's Up Danger'. Normally its not the strongest, but with the power up, the effects are impressive. The song itself grants luck and skill in equal measure. Normally it's hard to notice, but here it allows him to throw himself up the zero pointer until he reaches the fuse box, pulls out all of the important wires without getting zapped to high heaven, and somehow have stopped the robot in its tracks.

Unfortunately, songs end. His luck doesn't last long enough to give him a safe landing.

But Uraraka was watching him, and she can, stopping him just before he hits the ground. The buzzer goes off a second later and they collapse together, laughing hysterically and trying not to throw up everywhere. Everyone in the area looks a little shell shocked at what they just saw.

All Might looks on from with the other teachers and cheers for the boy he's seen grow from a scared kid to a determined young man. Aizawa is 100% confused and annoyed at this blatant favouritism.

He could write songs, but the catch is his quirk works with the emotions he has towards the song and his automatic reaction to it. There is a big chance that if he wrote them himself, each song would have the same effect as the other.

Please consider though, a classmate like Jirou writing him a song. That song would probably give a strong healing effect / widespread warm and fuzzy feelings.

A few fun ones:

Duel commandments from Hamilton should let you shoot air bullets

This is Halloween: i lowkey want it to be that people transform into their costumes, or something simple like it makes people glow like jack o lanterns

The Cha Cha Slide: its something he only does for fun, because it also forces him (and everyone else in the area) to do the cha cha slide

Thunder by imagine dragons electrifies everyone who hears it, so please consider a small swarm of zappy children

Upgrade from BMC gives your quirk an ‘upgrade’ or mutation. 

Hey Little Songbird from Hadestown causes earth to creep up the legs of anyone who hears it. It can’t be shaken off.

Deviltown by cavetown causes the temperature around to drop dramatically. Again, if you can’t hear the song, the temperature feels normal for you.

[neopuff]

hello, i hope you're having a good day!! i was wondering, do you have any tips for making amvs? like, what programmes you use, how you handle the timing, etc. thank you for all the fun edits you make!!

hi!! sorry for the delay in answering this, i just wanted to take the time to answer it thoroughly and i kept forgetting lol & thank you! i already typed this once and tumblr made it disappear so i apologize if anything i say comes out short ‘cause i’m just trying to remember all that i typed before lol

ok so ill just go through my general editing process in Vegas, i dont know any other program well enough to talk about it at length:

(disclaimer: this is just how i do it, i dont watch tutorials and my editing friends and i don’t watch each other edit often so i would assume that my way is very different from other ways you’ve probably seen! i might even do something in a very stupidly hard way, please feel free to tell me if theres an easier way to do anything lol)

1. Song: So skipping past the “choosing song and ship/character/show” theme, I’ll dive straight into CUTTING THE SONG! I’m not about that Editing The Entire Song life, and neither is most of the editing community anymore, so I cut it up into a shorter thing that I’m better equipped to edit to. I’m just using a random example but here I’ve taken this long ass song and turned it into this:

(the next step just kind of depends on my mood, or ill do both, doesnt matter)

2-A. Subclips: if im making a shorter video or a video where i’m not 100% super familiar with the footage, i will immediately start making subclips using the episodes ive already pulled into the project. if it’s a ship/character that i’ve edited before, i’ll just go to Import->Media from Project and import the subclips i made previously. either way, subclips are there! 

2-B. Sheets: for ships that i know very well/have a lot of footage/im concerned about potentially repeating something, i will go to Google Sheets/Excel and take the lyrics im editing to and put them in column A, separating by pauses in the singing. then i put corresponding footage i think will go well in column B! im often not super specific because i know the beats are gonna be different than i remember, so i usually stick to referencing whole scenes instead of specifics moments. here’s an example:

3. Clip placement: Then I start placing clips down! Below is how I organize my timeline tho I know a lot of editors who put the music on top, this is just how I like it. I also keep a single muted audio layer in between for the video footage’s audio and then I’ll delete that layer when I’m done (or sometimes I don’t, it doesn’t really matter)

I think it’s good to hit the beats as much as possible, it makes for a more dynamic audio-visual experience! In general I try to make my videos so that, if I didn’t add any zooms or typography or coloring, it would still be a good amv. And don’t limit yourself to just one layer, you can have as many layers as you’d like and put clips on top of each other (cookie cutter/changing the layer to dodge or add or screen or whatever) is a good way to mix things up

when I zoom in you can see I’ve got some variety already in my transitions, I know I use that motion-blur-zoom a lot these days but I still try to mix it up and keep my brain invested

4. Typography: After all the clips have been placed (or most of the clips, ofc sometimes I’ll want to add more later) I move on to typography! I’m lazy so the first thing I’ll do it just put down unedited text where I think I’ll want it to go. It just helps me organize myself. Then I’ll pretty up the text afterwards.

Typography isn’t necessary for a good AMV, but really nice typography can really spruce things up. I’ve only very recently gotten confident in my text editing skills, and I just kept watching typography done by editors I really like until I figured out what they were doing. My recommendation is to just KEEP ADDING EFFECTS! Convolution kernel, gaussian blur, mask the text so it appears from angles that the transitions wouldn’t be able to do - of course there’s gotta be a limit for taste, but just add stuff until you like how it looks. Also changing the blending style of the text layer is good, dodge and difference are my go-tos for typography layers.

5. Transitions: I don’t go crazy with transitions, but it’s fun to mess around with them. You don’t want too many crazy/different transitions, you want them to match the mood of the song and the type of beat you’re hitting. I usually ensure that all similar beats in the song have the same transition type on them, bbbbbbut that’s cuz I’m overly obsessed with parallel structure. There’s plenty of fantastic AMVs where they just go ham and do whatever types of transitions they want to in each part of the song and they make it work just fine

(next step, once again, kind of depends on my mood lol)

6-A. Zooms: Time for zooms! I usually just use the pan/crop for zooming, but often I’ll incorporate Sapphire FX BlurMoCurves or NewBlue AutoPan, especially if I’m trying to zoom typography with the footage at the same rate. I try to keep my zooms short and slower, I mean obv it just depends on the song but yeah. There’s a lot of different ways to do zooms so I recommend experimenting and just playing around with different effects

6-B. Zooms...but different: Another way that I’ll do zooms which is definitely pretty different (but this is what I do for crossovers like 95% of the time because I am laaaaaaaaaaazy) is I’ll drag the project into a new project timeline and start editing it there. It’s similar to how After Effects works and it makes it easier to put effects overtop of multiple layers without having to pre-render anything.

So you can see I’ve just pulled in the .VEG file and popped it in the timeline! So this way I can add zooms and transitions without worrying about layers. And if I see a mistake I need to fix, I can just go back into the original .VEG file and edit it, and it’ll be edited when I come back here. So it’s much easier than pre-rendering or trying to do zooms on a lot of layers. To be clear tho, this doesn’t work well if you have a lot of fade transitions, it’s best for sharp transitions and it’s great when you’re using Sapphire FX BlurMoCurves a lot.

7. Overlays: After that I’ll add more typography (or if you didn’t add any earlier, you can add some here overtop of the new project file) that kind of goes on top of everything. And then I’ll add any overlays or objects or whatever else I wanna add! I’m not someone who uses a lot of backgrounds cuz I don’t have a background-creative-brain so I stick to simple overlays at the most.

8. Coloring!!! This is very sad but I only JUST learned a few weeks ago that you can add coloring/effects to your entire video with this button here, so in case anyone else hates watching tutorials as much as I do here’s where I’m talking about:

This shit would’ve made my life so much easier throughout the years lol But alas. Anyway so for coloring there are some effects that are popular for any colorings you’ll find on YT (but you can certainly just download some, Riverdale editors in particular share a lot of really great colorings but you’ll find them anywhere in the live action editing community):

Channel Blend, Color Curves, Color Blend, Color Balance, Convolution Kernel (best for live action footage or footage that isnt very crisp), Color Corrector Secondary

These are all just fun to mess with. Channel Blend in particular is something of a mystery for me, I haven’t studied it fully to understand what I’m doing so I mostly just mess with it randomly until I like what I see lol

9. Render time! First render, anyway. Usually there’ll be some random problem in the footage or something and I’ll have to either go back into the project and fix it OR if I’m feeling particularly sour (or maybe if I’ve rendered like 3-4 times already) I will just take the finished render and manually remove any errors, stretching out the good footage to cover my tracks. You’d be surprised how often I end up doing that lol

And then it’s good to post! I primarily render as .WMV but I also go for .MP4s every once in a while. If I want to upload it to Twitter I’ll do an .MP4 but it’s a new thing for me so I’m still stuck on .WMV mostly.

Anyway I hope this answered your question at least a little bit, I can go into more detail about certain parts of this if you’d like!

[cometorub]

(SUB - 52) Take part? Click here! 

Do you want to remain anonymous?

Yes

How old are you?

21

What's your sexual orientation?

Bi

Your pubic hair?

Trimmed

Are you virgin?

Yes

How old were you when you first masturbated?

Maybe 12

How did you discover masturbation?

Definitely porn

How old were you when you had your first orgasm?

12

Can you tell us more about your first orgasm? How did it happen?

I used a detachable shower head and just aimed for what felt good, ended up like writhing and like full on couldn’t control myself

How often do you masturbate?

Used to like once a day now like once a week if I’m lucky

When was the last time you masturbated?

Lol yesterday

Do you masturbate to any stimulus?

Porn if I can find it before the mood changes, audio is also good

What do you think about?

Eventually having a partner and hoping it'll be good

What's the last thing you thought of or masturbated to?

I met this really pretty girl and wow she was beautiful and funny and I just thought how nice it would be to date someone like that

Have you ever walked in on or caught someone masturbating? (If yes, please tell us a little more about it)

Nah

Have someone ever walked in on or caught you masturbating? (If yes, please tell us a little more about it)

No, I always always always have a locked door

Have you ever had cyber sex?

Nope

Have you ever had phone sex?

Kinda?? This guy I thought I was into, wanted to but it was one sided, he got off but as soon as he came he was all ‚ wow so tired night

Have you ever had a wet dream?

A few, but nothing really too exciting

What‚ is your favourite method of masturbation? (i.e. Hands/Toys/Lotion/etc.)

Lol still the shower head

Are you loud or quiet when you masturbate?

Depends on if I have to worry about people hearing

Do you ever masturbate in pjs? If so what type and how?

N/A

Do you ever touch any other part of your body whilst you masturbate?

It’s like instinct to grab a thigh and like dig my nails in

Has anyone ever watched you masturbate live online?

No but it sounds interesting

Has anyone ever watched you masturbate in person?

One boyfriend

Have you ever watched someone masturbate live online?

Live no

Have you ever watched someone masturbate in person?

No

Have you ever masturbated with someone? (Mutual masturbation)

No

Do you enjoy watching others masturbate?

Almost anyone

Do you enjoy being watched while masturbating?

No

Who do you like to think about when you masturbate?

It’s never really a specific person just a generic idea

Have you ever told them you think about them while you masturbate?

N/A

Does anyone know you masturbate? How did they find out?

Old best friend, she asked cause she’s asexual and wanted to know

Have you masturbated because your partner wasn't around to help? Where were they?

No

What is your most embarrassing masturbation story?

Honestly don’t know

What is your funniest masturbation story?

The first time I tried penetration all I thought was ‚ why would anyone enjoy this?

Have you ever masturbated in unique or strange places? Or where do you do it?

N/A

Have you ever used something unique or strange to masturbate?

Oh my god don’t get me started, I’ve literally made my own dildos

Is it easy for you to orgasm or do you have to work for it?

First one I have to work for it, but if there’s a second or third they come a lot easier

What is the easiest way for you to get off?

Clitoral stimulation

Is there only one way you can get off? (i.e. Vaginal/Clitoral/Toy Use)

Clitoral

Are you able to achieve orgasm through only non-conventional or indirect methods? (Breast Play/Hands-Free/Anal)

No

Do you ever double penetrate while you masturbate?

Haven’t tried

Do you ever suck on a dildo, fingers or anything while you masturbate?

A couple of times

Do you edge when you masturbate? (Get to the point of orgasm and stop repeatedly to enhance the experience)

Rarely but once in awhile

What position do you typically masturbate in?

Either laying down or on hands and knees

How do you react when you orgasm, arch your back, pull faces? Etc

Arch back, shiver and shake all over, hold breath till I’m light headed, black out for a couple seconds

Describe how an orgasm feels to you when you cum? If possible

An overwhelming feeling of just like enjoyment, kinda buzzy?

Describe a typical masturbation session.

First a lot of waiting and thinking and then like once I actually start I just want to cum as soon as possible

How long do you usually last?

Before the first orgasm usually like 5-10 minutes but after that I often keep going for like 20-30 minutes or until I have like important things to do

What is the quickest you have brought yourself to an orgasm?

Maybe a minute

What is the longest masturbation session you have had?

Ehhhhh 2 hours?

What are the most times in a day you have cum?

Oh, I don’t know, maybe kept tract up to 8 but didn’t really care too much

How wet do you get? Do you leak fluids when you orgasm? (If yes, please describe)

Extremely wet, like you spilt half a bottle of baby oil

If you are older than 35, how has masturbation changed for you over the years?

N/A

Do you want to tell us something more about your masturbation experiences? Say here

Sometimes it has nothing sexual about it, sometimes it just feels like an itch you need to scratch

Are you sexually aroused taking this survey?

No

Are you going to masturbate tonight after taking this survey?

No

A girl? Masturbating or curious?... click here, take part...

This page wouldn’t be so good without all of you who come to read this, and take part! 🙏🏼😇Thanks for your support and answers! Reblog + share!

[01010010-posts]

— my white sighs quietly melted with the stars above.

it all started with a simple ‘you’re a slowpoke??’ text and it should have ended there, really, but you got a reply immediately after. ‘I’m sorry, I think you have the wrong person’. absolutely no, you scoffed, as if you were going to be tricked again ‘bitch don’t play the wrong number card because you didn’t catch the bus’. he was amused by your obstinacy and lightly worried about the supposed receiver, who, it appeared, was very clumsy; ‘please, control the number you texted, I’m Connor.’ boy he sure was. not your pal, not someone else in your contact list, just.... Connor. ‘god, i apologize!! thank you for telling me! ps. didn’t mean to call you a bitch, connor’ and it should have ended there, really, but you got a reply. connor: shouldn’t you be in bed by now? you: but,,,, i wanted to chat with u a little more connor: as an android sleep is not required but you, as a human, need to rest. we can always continue talking tomorrow. you: :( what if you have a long case tomorrow?? mh?? what if?? what you’re gonna say in your defense then?? connor: don’t worry :) I’ll find time for you. you: ok you win goodnight ☆ connor: sweet dreams. goodnight, [name]. it’s been three months since you’ve first spoken with him. intimacy there but low, how obvious it is that the two of you are proceeding with caution. yet you can’t help but write to him every day, staying up late while waiting for an answer of his, often checking your mobile and getting unsettled when there’s no signal. it’s strange, your colleagues whisper, how can you be so attached to someone if you’ve never even seen him? of course, you know it. you don’t wish for a pretty face, you only wish for a pretty personality. with a heavy sigh and a loud poof you pull the white duvet up to your head, finding comfort by completely hiding inside the warm embrace. you tightly hug a pillow, pretending that it’s him, returning your affection and cuddling, maybe caressing you too inasmuch, as he said, ‘androids don’t need to sleep’. but is it bad to fantasise? you: I’m deeply sorry.... sweetheart: >:( you: [name], it’s the seventh text-made emoji you’ve sent me.... they expressed some sort of anger so I’d prefer if we discussed about whatever is bothering you. sweetheart: >:(( you: I’m begging you.... sweetheart: you’re grounded and your punishment is enduring the wrath of weird angery text-based emoji :< you: what did I do to deserve this? :’( sweetheart: i sent you a heart & you didn’t send it back to me you: gosh! how clumsy of me! could you ever forgive this fool? sweetheart: mhhh it depends. what are you willing to do to be pardoned? you: I’ll send you whatever heart I possess! 💕💖💗💖 sweetheart: THIS IS UNFAIR!!! he’s silently giggling all by himself, in the cold room lit by his blue led circling at a steady rhythm– no, it’s not the temperature, rather it’s the atmosphere; ‘cold’. he’s still grappling with emotions and developing tastes is– well, to put it simply, complicated. he’s heartened with the fact that you once said, at the sight of a photo of his bed and the corner within, that being minimalistic is a style too. though, possibly, his true self is one of a clutterer of knick-knacks. of course, he’d like you to help him pick what ornaments would suit him the best. you: wtf i dont believe it connor♡ : but it does! you: prove it MIKU HATSUNE connor♡ : listen here human it’s not my fault you haven’t got the chance to witness an android external fluid deactivating you: !!!!! are you bragging?? connor♡ : ahahaha I’m joking it’s sending a video right now you watch ecstatically as soon as the app downloads the file, your chest throbbing with pleasurable anxiety. how can it be? he’s kind, precious AND fucking handsome, skin or no skin. you bet bad things will happen to you today to balance this sheer luck. think it thoroughly, it’s actually the first time you see his face. you: u’r cute also how does your hair work man connor♡ : thank you :) it’s connected to my head so.... you: i get it cybernetic magic your secrets are safe with me connor♡ : ahahaha and I was concerning myself about disgusting you you: WHAT fuck no you’re done that way, ok, it’s cool ok? kept it in mind are you allowed to insert ♡ near his name and not tell him? you: I’m waiting!! :/ sweetheart: so needy you: come on, [name]! sweetheart: tru tho you: >audio file cooome ooooonn sweetheart: !!! im ready pick up idiot the monitor lits and here you are, gorgeous. he’s certain that his heart melted on the spot. such is the sensation you give him every time you send him a photo, his thirium pump skipping a beat and making him inevitably somewhat gasping for air, mouth barely closed. he’s not accustomed to all the new features deviancy brought but in this he’s confident, he’s head over heels in love with you. you: what?? you’ve already seen the movie?? love♡ : yeah! I went with Hank! it was very nice, you should see it too you: WELL id kill to (please don’t arrest me detective) but nobody wants,,,, love♡ : why is that? (I won’t arrest you if you behave) you: something along the lines of not their genre or some shit uff (seems sketchy) love♡ : what about going alone? (it isn’t!!) you: it would be too sad :’(  love♡ : I’m sorry to hear that, if I could be there I’d accompany you and wouldn’t mind seeing it a second time. you: yes i know.... what is it? six months? more? you hardly remember, having so many messages in here, it would be too difficult to keep track, though you’re positive, that if you asked him he’d tell you in an instant, since he’s so attentive with that little brain-computer of his. you close your lids, tapping your fingers on the desk, it’s wearing, you must admit. you like him, a lot at this point, but being so far and out of reach.... what can come out of this? friends don’t support you either, ignoring this blatant crush, trying to make you hook-up with people met at a bar, getting annoyed at you constantly texting, preaching that a long distance relationship is not worth your time and your effort, and it’s not even a relationship, isn’t it? you’re not on that level. you’re just weirdos keeping themselves company. bummed out a bit, you decide that maybe avoiding him for a couple of days might be a proper solution. will he feel your absence? will he miss you? you: is everything all right? sweetheart: yes. you: are you sure? sweetheart: yep im,,,, swamped with work, the drill you: that I understand but perhaps I did something wrong? sweetheart: ?? you: you’ve been acting kinda cold lately, and if I’m the cause of that I’m sorry. being a deviant is good sometimes, and sometimes is not. it was great until a while ago so why now.... now....? he feels so lost. it’s understandable to have a job and a life outside this bond but– but is it really? is it okay for you to be without him? you’d manage fine. mhh no– the real question is: is it okay for him to be without you? can he be without sending you a text at least once a day? can he be without hearing your voice at least once a week? can he be without your usual video calls at least twice a month? can he be without seeing you, over a screen, cooking your dinner and singing? can he be? can he exist without you? he’s.... starting to doubt that. sweetheart: no i’m i’m the one whos sorry, okay? we can call tomorrow you: I don’t want to press you into anything you don’t want to sweetheart: you’re not! i’ll make up for not having been so present! you sigh, suffocating yourself on the pillow, how can you be this dense? this stupid? this utter moronic?? unequivocally he was going to worry. you made him worry. fuck. you’re going to trust your guts, no dumb jokes, it’s obvious that you both care about the other and can’t stay apart for too long. you: i know it’s 3AM and you told me to not be awake but i cant i cant okay? im thinking of you and me and you and it began because im a mess so it shouldnt be a surprise i havent gotten better this past year has been.... the best. yeah i fucked up and tried to be distant, to see if sth would change but it didnt i love waking up and finding a text from you, i love the sound of your voice trying to lull me goodnight when im being a spoiled child, i love how you’re so gentle & how you always forgive me and mostly i love you not as a friend, definitely as more, definitely like a lover and i know that you’re so caring that you’ll probably still want to talk with me even if the affection’s not mutual you lock your phone’s screen and place it on the nightstand. the orange light from the streets seeping through the curtains and soaking your covers, and now that your eyes are free to roam, it’s easier to notice the soft feathers’ filling making tiny shadows on your face. poor poor geese. your fingertips slightly touch the stitches, your heartbeat pacing furiously from the strong emotions, both trepidation and fear running your veins. what if he doesn’t feel the same? what if he’s been polite this whole time and you overstepped his boundaries? what if? love♡ is typing.... ping! love♡ : I love you too, honey. but please, don’t scare me again, I think I lost four biocomponents when you suddenly stopped replying to me. also you should sleep. you: im pouring my heart out ugly crying and!!!! you’re too casual nooo it’s no big deal baby we just fucking love each other it’s totally ok incoming call from love ♡ “hey....” his tone slow and almost drowsy “i thought it was clear enough.” words rolling off his tongue, the same that he’d tenderly run across you, kissing, tasting, worshipping your body “i hate you.” you sniffle and there’s a chuckle on the different end “i love you.” you smile, wiping off the tears wetting your cheeks with the back of your right hand “i love you too.”

[bountyofbeads]

Hong Kong riot police, armed with pepper spray and batons, clash with protesters at airport

https://wapo.st/2P34EQO

Trump is silent on the pro-democracy protesters in both Hong Kong and in Moscow. As a *Beacon of Democracy", the silence of Trump is deafening. SHAME SHAME SHAME

White House delays some new China tariffs until Dec. 15

By Damian Paletta and Heather Long |

Published August 13 at 12:15 PM ET | Washington Post | Posted August 13, 2019 12:50 PM ET |

The White House on Tuesday said it would delay imposing tariffs on Chinese imports of cellphones, laptop computers, video game consoles, and certain types of footwear and clothing until Dec. 15, significantly later than the Sept. 1 deadline President Trump had repeatedly threatened.

The announcement, which came from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, ensures that Apple products and other major consumer goods would be shielded from the import tax until at least December, potentially keeping costs on these products down during the holiday shopping season.

The announcement moved stocks sharply higher. The Dow Jones industrial average climbed close to 500 points, or nearly 2 percent, on the news. The stock prices of Apple, Best Buy, Mattel and Macy’s were among those that rallied on the announcement.

Trump told reporters that he delayed the tariffs “just in case” they would have a negative impact on U.S. shoppers this holiday season.

“What we’ve done is we’ve delayed it so they won’t be relevant in the Christmas shopping season,” Trump said before boarding a flight to Pennsylvania.

His comments marked the most explicit admission he’s made so far that the tariffs could have raised costs for American consumers and businesses and had a negative impact on the economy.

A number of companies had petitioned to the White House to exempt items they import from the new tariffs, saying the costs would be either passed along to the consumer or threaten the solvency of individual firms.

USTR said the 10 percent tariff would still go into effect in September on some items, including many food products, gloves, coats and suits. But it said tariffs on other items would be waived completely “based on health, safety, national security and other factors.”

Trump, in a Twitter post and comments to reporters, suggested that the announcement was meant as an overture to Chinese officials.

“I’m not sure if it was the tariffs or the call, but the call was very productive,” Trump said, referring to a conversation this week between top Chinese and U.S. negotiators.

But he added a warning on Twitter that China needs to buy more from the United States, “As usual, China said they were going to be buying ‘big’ from our great American Farmers. So far they have not done what they said. Maybe this will be different!”

USTR provided a list of products that were exempted and would face the delayed tariff implementation date, which included highchairs, strollers, cell phones and many toys.

The announcement is the latest in a herky-jerky trade war between the White House and China. Trump has levied tariffs on $250 billion in Chinese imports, beginning last year, as he has tried to pressure Chinese leaders to change their trade practices. Chinese officials have negotiated but refused to agree to the terms Trump has demanded, leading to a prolonged standoff.

Trump has frequently threatened dramatic penalties, however, only to back away. His threat of imposing a 10 percent tariff on an additional $300 billion in Chinese imports starting next month spooked investors and many lawmakers, and it has led to a steady slide in the stock market in the past two weeks.

“These tariffs were Trump’s idea. Now his team is trying to clean this up,” said Steve Pavlick, a former Trump Treasury Department official who is now head of policy at Renaissance Macro Research. “I don’t think it’s a coincidence that you see this right before Christmas. They are trying to minimize the impact.”

Many businesses had worried that higher tariffs on consumer goods ahead of the Christmas shopping season could severely damage the economy at a time when some are warning that the risk of a recession next year has increased.

Trump has pressed China for months to change its trade practices, calling on it to change the way it subsidizes domestic companies, among other things. The White House has also accused China of stealing intellectual property from U.S. companies and forcing U.S. firms to transfer technology to Chinese firms.

But Trump’s demands in recent weeks have shifted, a sign of the political peril that the prolonged trade war has raised.

Trump had originally threatened to impose these new tariffs on $300 billion in consumer goods by early July, but at a June meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Trump agreed to hold off. At the meeting, held during the Group of 20 summit in Osaka, Japan, Trump said the Chinese had agreed to dramatically increase purchases of U.S. agricultural goods, a nod to the U.S. farm industry that had become increasingly incensed about being caught in the middle of the trade war.

But Chinese officials never agreed to purchase the farm products Trump had promised, and this soon became clear to the U.S. agriculture industry.

Several weeks ago, U.S. Trade Representative Robert E. Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin flew to Shanghai to meet with Chinese leaders about restarting trade negotiations. Those discussions went poorly, people briefed on the outcome said.

Trump had recently said that the Chinese seemed intent to wait until after the 2020 election before they would cut a deal with him, and he seemed content with that. But when he heard back from Mnuchin and Lighthizer about how poorly the trip had gone, he announced that he would move ahead with the 10 percent tariff on $300 billion in Chinese goods in September.

USTR’s announcement on Tuesday that it would delay the imposition of these tariffs on some of the most popular consumer goods was the first sign that Trump was backing down from this demand.

Still, the mid-December tariff deadline could raise fears among major retailers and importers about higher costs during a crucial window for revenue.

“It would be a whole lot easier if the tariffs started in January,” said Win Cramer, chief executive of JLab Audio, which makes wireless headphones and ear buds. “It would still be awful, but the fact of the matter is our holiday promotions, which are with every major retailer nationwide, are already designed and ready for print.”

Hong Kong riot police, armed with pepper spray and batons, clash with protesters at airport

By Gerry Shih and Timothy McLaughlin| Published August 13 at 11:49 AM ET | Washington Post | Posted August 13, 2019 12:52 PM ET |

HONG KONG — Riot police armed with pepper spray and batons clashed with protesters late Tuesday at Hong Kong’s airport, bringing violence to the doors of the key international hub while passengers remained stranded inside after many departing flights were canceled.

Anti-government protesters brought chaos to the airport for a second consecutive day Tuesday as demonstrators extended their standoff with authorities who have been unable to quell months of dissent. Protesters forced the cancellation of flights by cramming into terminals and refusing to let passengers through, sparking confrontations with travelers desperate to return home. 

Later in the evening, a group of demonstrators also seized a man they suspected to be an undercover Chinese police officer, cable-tied his hands and refused to let him through a large crowd. The incident showed increasing brazenness on the part of demonstrators in confronting what they perceive as symbols of the Chinese state.

Police entered the airport to help the man, whom paramedics tried to remove on a stretcher. The presence of officers sparked chaos, as protesters spilled out of the airport and began attacking police vans with officers inside. 

At one point, an officer was overrun and his baton taken by protesters, who beat him with it. The group retreated only after the officer appeared to pull his gun from its holster.

After mass cancellations Monday evening, flights had been gradually returning to normal throughout Tuesday, even as thousands of black-clad demonstrators returned to occupy parts of the airport, carrying placards denouncing police brutality and calling for freedom for Hong Kong.

But by late afternoon, with protesters using luggage carts as makeshift barricades and blocking passengers from reaching the departure gates, causing long lines, authorities said they were suspending check-in at both of the airport’s terminals. 

Arguments erupted between frustrated passengers and protesters, with some stranded passengers crying and saying they just wanted to get home.

Pavol Cacara, a Slovakian machinery importer who faced off with protesters, said his flight to Istanbul was canceled once already. 

“You cannot make freedom by taking freedom from others!” he bellowed, shaking with rage, at a mass of young demonstrators in black T-shirts. “This is what the Chinese want you to do, to make you lose support of the world. You are helping them!”

Tensions soared. As Cacara fumed, some protesters tried to calm him down and offered to help him find alternate flights while others pleaded with him to see Hong Kong’s plight. “You don’t die if you leave! We will die here!” called a voice in the rear.

After a 20-minute standoff, protesters parted to form a narrow channel to let a few passengers through. “Thank you for understanding. Please tell the world!” one yelled after Cacara.

A more disturbing scene began taking shape later in the day when a group of protesters surrounded a man they believed to be an undercover police officer from Shenzhen, the Chinese city across the border from Hong Kong. There was no confirmation of the man’s identity or profession, but the protesters did not let him move or leave for hours.

The man appeared to fall unconscious, but protesters refused to let paramedics through. When about half a dozen paramedics reached him, they struggled to move him through the crush of protesters that formed around them. Those closest to the melee held their phones aloft and tried to film the struggling man. Some protesters jeered and laughed at the man. Paramedics also pleaded with protesters to hand them water to give him as he sat motionless on the ground.

Protesters held a handmade sign over the man that read in English, “I am China’s police. I pretend to be protester,” as he struggled to remain conscious.

Earlier, some protesters chanted “return the eye” — a reference to an incident Sunday night when a young woman was shot in the eye, possibly by a bean bag round, during a clash between police and protesters. Senior officers said Tuesday they were unsure how the woman was injured but could not promise that she would not be charged with rioting.

Police said they were closely monitoring the situation at the airport, working with airport authorities, and would carefully consider the need to use force.

Confusion descended over the airport by evening as passengers tried to scale barricades of luggage carts and human walls formed by protesters, who tried to hold them off with outstretched arms.

Still, the confrontations stopped short of violence. Time and again, protesters scolded their peers when tempers flared. Chants of “Lang jing!” — Calm down! — rang through the departure hall when arguments threatened to boil over.

Roving teams of protesters handed snacks to stranded passengers and appealed for understanding as they distributed pamphlets detailing their case against police brutality. Others bowed repeatedly and said “sorry” without yielding their ground in the face of angry passengers.

“Sorry for inconvenience. We have no choice,” said a sign held in front of a barricade blocking departures.

Other passengers took a more sympathetic view.

Krishna Hariharan, a 27-year-old IT engineer from Chennai, India, said his five-day holiday in Hong Kong was already extended to seven days because of canceled flights. His boss was not pleased, and he had to sleep in the terminal because he was running out of money, he said.

But he praised a group of protesters who had come over to apologize and give him bottled water and biscuits.

“I can’t blame anyone,” Hariharan said. “They are seeking justice, and it just happens that our fates are intertwined like this. If the government comes down hard on them — then what are they governing for?”

Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s leader, said the city risked being “pushed into an abyss” and warned that it could be “smashed to pieces.”

“The stability and well-being of 7 million people are in jeopardy,” Lam said. 

As the summer of unrest rolls on, the situation is becoming increasingly tense. Statements from Chinese government officials and state media have grown steadily more shrill, accusing protesters of “terrorism” and warning of an impending crackdown in the semiautonomous financial center.

The political crisis, triggered by now-suspended plans to allow extraditions to mainland China, has swollen as Hong Kongers demand the bill’s full withdrawal, an independent inquiry into police actions toward protesters, greater democracy and an amnesty for those arrested in clashes between demonstrators and police. 

The upheaval has come at a politically sensitive time for Chinese leader Xi Jinping, ahead of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, which the ruling Communist Party plans to mark with a military parade in October.

Hong Kong-based airline Cathay Pacific, which has drawn the ire of Beijing after some of its staff recently joined protests, said Tuesday that a second pilot from the airline has been suspended. The pilot, a second officer working on a flight Tuesday from Manchester to Hong Kong, was suspended for “misuse of company information in violation of the company’s internal code of conduct,” the company said in a statement. It added that internal disciplinary proceedings were underway. 

On Saturday, Hong Kong’s flagship airline said it had suspended a pilot who was arrested during earlier protests. 

International calls grew, meanwhile, for authorities in Hong Kong and China to dial back tensions in the city. 

U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet urged authorities to immediately investigate police use of force in their recent crackdown on protesters. Her spokesman said there was “credible evidence” to suggest that Hong Kong law enforcement officials had used less-than-lethal force in ways that are “prohibited by international norms and standards.”

Chris Patten, the last British governor of colonial Hong Kong before the city’s return to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, warned that a Chinese intervention would be a “catastrophe” for both Hong Kong and China. 

Speaking to BBC radio, he urged Lam and Xi to find a way to bring people together.

“There is a degree of frustration and anger at the government refusing to give any sensible ground at all, which probably provokes more violence,” Patten said.

Anna Kam in Hong Kong and Shibani Mahtani in Cadiz City, Philippines, contributed to this report.

Protesters shut down Hong Kong airport as China warns of ‘terrorism,’ raising fears of military crackdown

By Timothy McLaughlin and Anna Kam |

Published August 12 at 12:34 PM ET | Washington Post | Posted August 13, 2019 1:18 PM ET |

HONG KONG — Thousands of protesters shut down Hong Kong’s international airport Monday, defying an intensifying police crackdown, as China issued ominous warnings that described the protests as “terrorism” and began massing a paramilitary force in a southern border city.

Fears have been mounting that Beijing — squeezed by a trade dispute with the United States and approaching a nationwide celebration of the founding of the People’s Republic of China — will soon resort to military action to quell the pro-democracy protests in the semiautonomous territory. Chinese officials and state news media actively stoked those fears Monday.

“The radical demonstrators in Hong Kong have repeatedly attacked police with extremely dangerous tools in recent days, which constitutes a serious violent crime, and now they are descending into terrorism,” said Yang Guang, a spokesman for the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office in Beijing. It was the first time the office had portrayed the protests in Hong Kong as “terrorism.”

“We should relentlessly crack down on such violent criminal acts without mercy, and we firmly support Hong Kong police and judicial authorities in bringing the criminals to justice as soon as possible,” Yang told reporters from state and Hong Kong media.

The nationalist Global Times tabloid tweeted a video showing Chinese armored personnel carriers heading toward the southern city of Shenzhen, which borders Hong Kong, ahead of what the paper called “large-scale exercises” by the People’s Armed Police, a paramilitary unit. “The tasks and missions of the Armed Police include participating in dealing with rebellions, riots, serious violent and illegal incidents, terrorist attacks and other social security incidents,” the newspaper elaborated in an accompanying story.

And China’s state broadcaster, CCTV, issued a commentary Monday night headlined “Alert! There are signs of terrorism on the streets of Hong Kong,”in which it warned: “No country can accept terrorist acts in its own country … Hong Kong has reached an important juncture. ‘End violence and restore order’ is the most important, urgent and overriding task of Hong Kong at present!”

Earlier, the Chinese government department responsible for Hong Kong held its third news conference in three weeks — it previously had not held a briefing in the 22 years since Britain returned the territory to the mainland.

Some of the protesters who had been occupying the airport’s arrivals hall swarmed into the departures area Monday, prompting authorities to cancel all flights and advise travelers to leave one of the world’s busiest hubs. Airport operations resumed Tuesday morning, though there were some delays and cancellations stemming from the previous night’s disruption.

Monday’s protest came in response to a sharp increase in the level of force employed by Hong Kong’s embattled police. Hours before the airport shutdown, two police officers elsewhere in the city pinned a black-clad demonstrator to the concrete, one officer’s knee pressing the young man’s face into a pool of his own blood.

“I’ve already been arrested,” the man yelled as he cried for help. “Don’t do this, I’m begging you.”

The scene, captured Sunday night by a cameraman from the Hong Kong Free Press, was jarring even in a city now accustomed to weekends awash with tear gas. It unleashed a fresh wave of anger toward Hong Kong’s police force and the government more broadly, spurring thousands of demonstrators to respond by occupying the airport.

At the airport Monday, officials had halted all departures by late afternoon, affecting tens of thousands of passengers.

Hong Kong’s airport authority said all flights were suspended Monday at about 3:30 p.m. local time (3:30 a.m. Eastern time).

After sitting in the arrivals hall for much of the day, many protesters began leaving the airport in the evening amid rumors on social media and messaging apps that police were preparing for a large clearance operation. The protesters, many dressed in black, streamed across the roads around the airport, bringing traffic to a near-standstill. Some travelers abandoned buses and taxis and wheeled bags through the traffic. Many said they were headed to a nearby bus station.

On Sunday night, Hong Kong police intensified their crackdown with new and more aggressive tactics after more than two months of sustained protests and more than 600 arrests.

Officers disguised themselves as protesters to arrest suspects, launched tear gas inside a subway station and fired on protesters at close range with less-than-lethal ammunition. One young woman was shot in the face with what appeared to be a bean bag round, severely injuring her eye. Police said Monday that the videos and photos had to be verified and that they could not confirm “the reasoning behind this lady’s injury.”

But the incident provided the latest rallying point for protesters.

“The police have had enough, to be honest. They feel like they have been bullied for two months now, and they knew themselves more than capable to use real force and tactics to control the situation,” said Clement Lai, a former police superintendent who now runs his own security firm.

“If the order was given that they need to escalate their action and their force, these guys are more than happy to do that.”

Mel, 40, who took part in the airport demonstrations and carried a sign with pictures of bloodied protesters, said she wanted “to show the world that what we are looking for is freedom.”

She said she was angry about the “dirty methods” police used Sunday night and early Monday morning.

Mel, who gave only her first name, added that a decision was made among many protesters to leave early Monday evening because of fears that police would forcibly clear the airport.

The police actions appear to be part of broader efforts by the Hong Kong government, with the support of officials in Beijing, to end the political crisis, through an approach that includes ramping up pressure on businesses, leveling heavy charges against arrested protesters and using state-controlled media to pump out increasingly shrill, conspiratorial claims about who is organizing the demonstrations.

“After a period of several weeks of uncertainty as to who was coordinating the government response, last week saw the rollout of Beijing’s multipronged, comprehensive strategy to deal with the protests,” said Sebastian Veg, a historian of China and a professor at the School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences in Paris. “It consists in uniting all forces with whom common ground can be found to isolate and defeat the enemy.”

He added, “The aim is to turn public opinion against the protests by drastically raising the cost of participation.”

The new police tactics came after former deputy police commissioner Alan Lau was called out of retirement last week to help the embattled force.

Lai credited the new approach, in part, to Lau’s return. “He is coming back with a mission,” the former superintendent said.

Hospital officials said that 45 people were injured in weekend protests and that 25 remained hospitalized. Two were in serious condition.

One police officer who has worked on the front lines over the past month said officers’ new ploy of disguising themselves as protesters — wearing masks, yellow hard hats and black civilian clothes — was a deliberate tactic from the police Special Duties Unit, nicknamed the “Flying Tigers,” to sow mistrust among protesters.

This is a tactic they will continue to use, the officer said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters. Police on Monday also displayed trucks mounted with water cannons that they could deploy to disperse crowds.

One 22-year-old protester who has been on the front line for weeks admitted that the more aggressive moves by police had caught some demonstrators off guard and yielded results.

“It was quite effective for them; they are changing their strategy,” he said. “We know now the police have no limits. They will not follow the rules and the law.”

The government, in what has become a weekly ritual, condemned protesters Monday and said a police officer was injured after being hit with a firebomb tossed by a demonstrator.

Protests began earlier this year over the government’s attempts to push through a bill that would allow extraditions to mainland China. The legislation, which numerous critics said would be a severe blow to Hong Kong’s autonomy, was suspended by Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam in June.

Lam, however, has refused to fully withdraw the measure. She has issued apologies as well as condemnation, none of which have quelled the crisis. Most recently, she has pivoted to focus on how the unrest is damaging Hong Kong’s economy.

Protesters have offered a list of five demands that has shifted slightly in recent weeks. Much of the focus is now on the creation of an independent commission to investigate the handling of the bill and the subsequent fallout.

An inquiry has drawn wide support, with the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, law groups and civil-society organizations backing its creation, but the government continues to resist such calls. Lam has said she thinks an in-house investigation by police of their actions is sufficient and has not addressed the other demands.

The front-line protester said the new police strategy would only harden those who have already dedicated themselves to the fight.

“You can see our equipment — shields, helmets — is for defense, not for offense,” he said. “From now on, I think that will change. Some types of weapons will be used. We are standing there and getting beat by them.”

Anna Fifield, Shibani Mahtani and Tiffany Liang contributed to this report.