#everyone had their asses out in the 90s it seems yet I don’t remember this as a child

[consceleratuswrites]

Completely unrelated. But at this rate with my persistent 90s futurist fashion research I’m going to end up designing a Infinite Empire battle thong.

[cherrychapstick54]

Amnesia Was Her Name

Chapter Six: North

Title from “Amnesia Was Her Name” by Lemon Demon

Synopsis: Tommy finally goes home, but meets someone new along the way. She’s nice and all, but…she’s also kinda a bitch…

This chapter was written by @genderlessbleach and edited by me.

Trigger warnings: Suicidal ideations, mentions of gore/blood, attempting suicide, and asking to be murdered

Tommy finally feels himself snap back into reality, but still feels as if he was unconscious, as he was earlier, and he forces himself out of the bed he doesn’t remember making. Though, he can’t remember much of anything so it doesn’t make a big difference anyway.

Tommy works his way slowly out of the poorly constructed shelter he made, trying to figure out where his home would be from his current spot. Knowing it would be generally north of where he was, he looks up at the sky, searching for the sun, easily finding which direction North was. Now all he needs is a boat. The Brit sighs at the realization, not wanting to do all of this work while in pain.

"Psst! Hey you, Blondie!" A voice had called out to Tommy, making the boy's head spin trying to figure out where the voice had come from. "In the tree dumbass!"

Tommy cranks his neck backward to look up at the feminine voice, nearly falling from the whiplash he feels. There is a young feminine person in the trees, wearing a long green dress with messy patchwork and sleeves that fall off their shoulders, a brown cloak that just covers their bare shoulders and head, and lastly, a mask with a '; )' engraved in it. The mask seems familiar, yet Tommy can’t tell if it’s in a good or bad way. The mask seems friendly enough. It even has small blush marks etched into it.

The girl drops down from the tree and seems to almost float onto the snowy floor of the tundra. The Brit takes a closer look at them. They have a belt snug around their waist to probably keep the items hanging off of it in check, and they have a satchel slung over their shoulder, but it doesn’t hold arrows. In fact, the quiver was empty.

"Tommy, right? I'm Drista! I'm the girl sent to your rescue. I'm gonna get your amnesia-having-ass out of this freezing place!" The way Drista speaks sounds young and happy, like if anything bad or traumatic was to happen to her, it would roll right off, like a raincoat. Tommy finds that strange. Anyone can experience bad situations–surely she has at some point in her life–but something about her vibrant voice and eccentric body language makes it seem like she may not even be alive. Tommy shakes his head at the idea. He has no reason to assume that this person isn’t just happy–but really, who’s that happy??

"How do you know my name?" Tommy questions the young girl.

"Red and white shirt and messy blond hair, everyone knows your name!" The girl states, as if it was obvious. Tommy just stares at her in disbelief. How did everyone know who he is? What has he done that made everyone know him? "When you could remember shit, you were the star of the whole SMP, y’know." Tommy just blinks in disbelief. Is she reading his mind? "Yeah, so what?"

Tommy’s eyes widen and he screams out, "WHAT THE FUCK?!" The girl just laughs at him, far more than amused by Tommy’s reaction. “You can’t just fuckin’ say that shit!”

“Sorry man, but you're so confused, it’s actually kind of funny.” The girl giggles at him, “But, what do you need, Blondie?”

“I need to get back home and to know who I fucking am.” Tommy pauses for a moment before turning to face the girl. “But, if you really want to help, I think it would be easier for the both of us if you just killed me.” He looks at her, his blue eyes riddled with exhaustion and sadness, dark bags underneath them, showing proof of his lack of quality sleep recently. Drista actually feels a little bad for the kid. He’s already been through a lot for being a teenager. “If you could just put me out of this hell, please. I don’t even know how I got here, but I’m like 90% sure that it was not by my own means; I don’t think I’m supposed to be alive right now. So, just fix it, please?”

The girl only looks at him in disappointment and sadness. “Tommy, this is your second chance at life. I’m here to guide you, not kill you.” The girl floats upwards into the sky, taking a look at their surroundings. “Do you want to do this the easy way or the hard way?”

The girl floats elegantly, her dress floating around her, revealing some pants with more items stuffed in the pockets. This girl is clearly some type of deity, but she doesn’t seem to be as mature as one would think an all powerful being would be. She seems more relaxed and like she’s just here to have fun and mess around. Wait, Tommy just yelled at a Deity. Oh shit, he’s actually fucked.

“The easy way, kill me.” He sticks to his word, which seems to annoy the goddess.

“Tommy, Tommy, I don’t think you understand, you wanting me to kill you is the hard way. The easy way is me giving you a boat and moving the tide with you, but it appears you’d rather fight with me about this.” The young deity floats down so she’s able to look the Brit in the eyes. “So do you want the hard way or the easy way?”

The blond glares at her. “Kill me, fucking do it! I don’t want to live like this, so just do it, kill me! Put me out of my misery like a sick dog! Shoot me in the head, stab me in the gut, slit my neck! Please, do anything, please, please!” He’s crying–not a cry of grief, but rather a cry of anguish and greed. Drista thinks for a second that maybe she should just put the poor boy out of his misery, but she’ll be damned if she’s not someone who sticks to their word.

So, Drista still doesn’t kill him.

A small sigh falls from the girl's mouth; she isn’t giving in. “Tommy, I’m not killing you, but I will bring you back home, even if I have to drag you there myself.” She grabs the boy by his shirt collar and flies them up over the water, getting tired of his attempts at death. “So I’ll say it again, Tommy. Do you want the hard way or the easy way.”

The Brit is too stubborn to listen to her, struggling, trying to shake from her grip so he can at least die here, but the deity isn’t going to let that slide, lassoing him to her like he is some pig she decided to keep as a pet.

“Let me go!” Tommy screams at her, desperate to die in the moment. “Drop me! Kill me! I don’t deserve to live. Can you not fucking see, bitch! Let me die! For XD’s sake, kill me!” He’s screaming like he’s being murdered, when it’s entirely the opposite.

“My brother wouldn’t care. Quite frankly, he didn’t take a liking to you, Tommy. He much prefers the brunet mushroom boy to all of his people.” She speaks calmly, dragging the struggling boy over the vast freezing ocean. “So shut up, and let me save you for your mother’s sake.”

“I don’t have a mother, you fucking idiot!” Tommy is aware she most likely knows more than him, but he doesn’t remember having a mother, so he should be right compared to this prick who's dragging him by a rope over an ocean.

“Tommy, shut up or I’m knocking you out.” In Tommy’s mind, the girl seems to care about him, just not so much as a friend, but more so like she wants something from him, or maybe she was forced to help him from someone else. She doesn’t seem to actually want to help him. Whenever Tommy tries to ask for the sweet release of death, she just looks at him in pity and disappointment.

Tommy finds himself just screaming at the goddess, much to her dismay, so she hits him over the head and knocks him out.

-Timeset sunset-

Tommy wakes up in his bed, groaning from a raging headache. “What the fuck happened?”

“I knocked you out cause you were being an annoying bitch when I was doing you a favor.” a voice spoke from across the room, causing Tommy to scream. The girl only sighs at his stupidity and rolls her eyes. “I’ll say it again if you need me to, Tommy. I’m Drista and you have amnesia. We’ve already met, so please shut up for the sake of my ears.”

“Why would you do that!?” Tommy sputters out, shocked that that could even happen.

“Like I said, you were annoying me, so I shut you up by knocking you out!” The girl just smiles at him sweetly. “But that’s the least of our worries right now, m’kay? Let's just get you out of this shack and get to know each other!” The masked girl's energy quickly changes from serious to playful.

“Why should I? I don’t…” Tommy pauses, remembering the girl's entrance from earlier that day. “I barely know you.”

“I got you off that island. It’s the least you could do for lil’ ol’ me, Tommy.” The girl, Drista or was it Amnesia? flashes him a playful smile. “So come on! Let’s go!” The goddess grabs his arm firmly before flying them out of the house.

Tommy shrieks from being flown out of the house by the young girl. “YOU’RE FLYING TOO LOW!” He tries to pull himself up more, wrapping his arms around her in a panic so he doesn’t scrape up his knees more. “Not everyone is as short as you bitch!” The comment only causes the girl to get lower to the ground.

“Don’t insult my height, Blondie. I’m trying to have fun with you!” She flashes him a mischievous smile before launching them straight up into the air. The blond screams loudly from the sudden speed of her movements while she laughs at him. “I’m not going to drop you Tommy, don’t get your panties in a bunch!” She finds herself laughing more.

“Oi, you fuckin’ cunt, I’m not scared of you dropping me,” He looks down at the clouds, finding himself gripping a little harder onto her. “I was just shocked at how fast you fucking brought us up here, you little shit!” Tommy feels them lowering to the ground slowly.

“Fine, I’ll let you down–”

“That’s not what I–” He cuts himself off with a scream as they’re now rapidly falling.

“Gotcha, bitch!” The girl screams over him as she adjusts the way they’re flying so she can land them safely, or that’s what she thinks before they land on a poor bystander. “OH FUCK!” She drops Tommy and goes to check on the person they just hit. Tommy lies dazed on the floor by the other dazed person Drista is checking on. “Are you alright dude? I didn’t see you there!”

Tommy sits up to look at the person they hit. They’re rather weird looking with half-black and half-white skin and hair. The darker skin tone reminds Tommy of an enderman, along with the strangely shaped mouth and abnormally long limbs.

“I’m-I’m alright just uh confused, like…” The poor dude is shaking while trying to form a sentence. “Wh-Who are you, um, p-people?”

Drista speaks up for the both of them. “I’m Drista and this fuck is Tommy.”

“WHAT THE FUCK MAN?!” His screaming scares the other dude and causes Drista to burst out laughing.

The anxious boy speaks shakily, “I’m-I’m, um, Ran-Ranboo.”

“Well, Ranboo, you must be new around here cause I know everyone, and I’ve never heard of you!” Drista speaks confidently, standing up to help the other two up. Tommy, once stood up, stares upwards at Ranboo, just taking in his existence. Ranboo looks away from Tommy, avoiding eye contact. Tommy feels himself growing curious on who this new guy was, causing him to look over Ranboo’s entire body, looking at their belongings. Tommy notices a book Ranboo is holding close to his chest. It appears to be important to the tall man.

“What’s that?” the Brit asks as he points to the book.

Ranboo looks at the book, then at Tommy, speaking yet again with a shaking voice. “It’s, uh, my…well, diary? I just write important things in it, I guess…”

The taller person's words spark an idea in Tommy’s mind. A book he can write in. Maybe he can keep his own. If his memory ever gets worse, he can look back on it! With the new idea fresh in his head, Tommy runs home to go and make himself a book.

“D-Did I scare him?”

“Nah, he’s just an idiot.”

- Divider credits to @issysh3ll -

[prinzrupprecht]

funny thing is, Manjiro is born in 1990 and I’m born in 2005(guess you could say he ‘groomed’ me going by some of these peoples logic 🤣) turned 18 recently and I’ve had loved him and many characters in the series, since starting it in 2021, yet somehow I’m a nonce for thinking they’re hot 😂 make it make sense. If you look at some official arts you’ll see the fan-service on them. Heck Yuzuha had her panties out in that one panel. The word pedophile doesn’t mean shit on this website or on Twitter because it’s been watered down by idiots. Cyber tip it, get the police involved or go to the station if you came across that type of material so that minor can be saved but they won’t cause even they know deep down it’s all bullshit and just want the attention and praise, going after someone who causes real harm is too much effort so the best they got is to go after people liking anime characters. So dumb, sorry for the long ask op, just annoyed 😒.

People listen, Megumi will not thank you, Bakugou will not thank you, Yuuta will not thank you, Manjiro will not thank you, Yuji will not thank you, Nagi will not thank you…why? Because they’re not real, you could draw them dead for all I care and they’d still be just fine, why? Cause they ain’t real! They can come back from whatever shit someone draws and/or writes about them, shit I might not like myself, human being such as myself can’t.

But you still want to save the fictional anime characters? Then use this link below ⬇️

To report an incident involving the possession, distribution, receipt, or production of child exploitation file a report on the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC)'s website at http://cybertipline.com, or call 1-800-843-5678.

again, my apologies for popping of on your blog again, but I just find this whole thing absurd and a waste of time. Also, why now? Why does everyone care about the anime character being sexualised now? I remember being told shit when I was back in high school and college, still am by the way, that ‘he’s not real’ ‘the anime boy won’t date you’ ‘that’s cringe go speak to real boy’s’ compared to nowadays🤔 I just don’t get it, now they’re real? And not to mention, Yuji and Megumi are born in 2002 and Yuta in 2001, they’re 3-4 years older than me and yet I’m a weirdo for them hot?! I’ll just say these boys ‘groomed’ me going by this silly logic and the police can arrest their fictional asses, it’s just so dumb 😂🤣

This is the most truest thing I’ve read all day. Beautiful, I’m in tears. I guess people will still find ways to connect reality with fiction constantly. When all it is, is just fantasies. I find 90% of the men in JJK hot asf, from Yuji all the way to Higuruma. I can’t help myself with the way Gege draws his male characters super hot. Had to limit replies, seems like all I’m getting is L takes on my argument. There’s a lot of smut with these characters, I couldn’t care less since they’re fictional. 😭💀

[everygame]

Battle City (NES)

Developed/Published by: Namco Released: 9/9/1985 Completed: 20/11/2022 Completion: Beat all 35 unique levels. Version Played: Switch Online Trophies / Achievements: n/a

[Apologies for interrupting, but before we get to the article I’d like to mention that you can pre-order a copy of exp. 2600, my brand new zine, right now and get more of–and help support–writing like what you’re about to read.]

There are iconic NES games–Super Mario Bros. and that. And then there are iconic NES pirate cart games. Battle City is the latter. 

I have a funny history with NES piracy, actually. As most people know, the NES wasn’t really a thing in the UK for most people (I certainly didn’t know anyone with one as a child) and by the time I reached the age where my family were spending more time in Malaysia, I was already an avowed PC gamer. So even though I have so many memories of department stores with rows of pirate carts and knock off Famicoms… I wasn’t interested at all, and instead filled my boots with copied floppies (seeking out the stalls with the best reproductions of manuals and that sort of thing.)

In some respects, I regret this–so much of the video game culture of South East Asia in the 90s seems to be lost forever (see tweets) and now all I really have is snatches of memories–usually a gaggle of kids crowded round a pirate cart version of Street Fighter II in a Jaya Jusco–but I also know that games like Battle City squandered the chance to get me lugging a Malaysian famiclone home with a couple of 150-in-1 carts.

Let’s remember here I’m not yet a teenager and I’ve just discovered the glory of things like Wolfenstein 3D’s vibrant ultraviolence and Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis’ cinematic narrative. And while in Malaysia I’m putting the exchange-rate equivalent of pennies into big fancy sit down/ride cabinets of the likes of Suzuka 8 Hours or Rad Mobile. So when an uncle digs out a faimclone and a pirate cart and you boot it up to find you can play 30 versions of the dustiest-ass tank game for babies you’d ever seen…

(And what was the deal with every single pirate cart massively over-inflating the number of games anyway? Was anyone fooled when they selected “Fancy Excitebike” in the list and just got Excitebike again??? I have one of those snatches of memory of standing in a wee store with my dad, him saying “you can get another game for the house!” and me, unable to tell which cart offered any value at all–after all, 80 of the games would probably be the same ones on the cart we already had–going home empty handed! Empty handed! When do kids ever do that???)

Anyway. When I think of pirate carts, I think of Battle City. Maybe it isn’t iconic to everyone, maybe it’s only iconic to me because it was on the cart I had for one summer at least… but it’s such a pirate cart game that it almost feels weird to play it in an “official” way.

And I suppose, this many years later, it’s kind of weird that I put a bunch of time into it?

I’ll say this. It’s not surprising that at the time I gave it short shrift. It’s got horrible sound (a constant buzzing of engines) and feels extremely simplistic and limiting as you awkwardly move your tank around sans diagonals. It was, after all, based on a game from 1980 with a bit of a graphical touch-up–contemporary with the timeless Pac-Man, sure, but this ain’t Pac-Man. I’ll admit the tank movement feels better than I remember it (smooth, and perfect speed) but the game sort of doesn’t really feel like anything.

Look at it this way. The game has you as a tank trying to defend one poorly walled-in base, always at the bottom center of the screen, from being shot by enemy tanks. There’s some terrain, but it’s mostly brick walls that can be shot through. Enemies spawn from the same three spawn points at the top of the level, and there’s some variation between them (some fast tanks, some tanks that take a bunch of hits). None of the enemies have any real AI–they don’t seek you, or really seek the base, either. Sometimes there are power-ups; you can improve your gun to destroy steel walls; there’s an occasional smart bomb or time-stop which are must-grabs. Shoot 20 tanks to get to the next level.

It’s, you know… fine. It’s an alright game design. But when you actually sit down and play it, the game very quickly devolves into getting your tank as far up the screen as you can manage where you are able to shoot clearly to both the left and right boundaries without being shot from a tank spawning above, and then just… firing constantly left or right based on which side tanks are traveling down from most urgently.

There are a few levels where this is not simple to do (a total bastard of a level mostly with tree coverage, making tanks near-impossible to see) and you can’t consider this tactic a total slam dunk because if a tank does slip past, they’ll often destroy your base before you can get to them, leading to an instant game over (no matter how many lives you have!) which can be infuriating. But it’s not like there’s better tactics; on a level by level basis you’ll do your best to shoot your enemies straight paths to your base, so you kind of just have to accept the variance.

In the cold light of 2022, Battle City is… a half-hour or so of near-mindless blasting that you wish had any sort of twist, or spark, or even particularly interesting level design, to make it a charming bit of classic arcade action worth score attacking.

In the early 90s it’s a dusty-ass tank game for babies that is indirectly responsible for the total lack of preservation of south-east Asian game culture history. Probably.

Will I ever play it again? Nope but I’ve got 1991’s Tank Force waiting to be played which is a baffling (and obscure) sequel that’s maybe brilliant. I mean who knows.

Final Thought: One of the most annoying things about Battle City of course is when you’re shot from the side by a tank that’s turned on a dime before you could notice, and I have to admit I’d be interested to play this exact game but with real, slow-ass tank turning. Would it be better? Would it actually be even more annoying? I’m kind of imagining these situations where you watch your tank turn, watching another tank turn, thinking “oh god, I hope I get this shot off” like you’re actually in the tank, feeling it slowly spin around… [“That’s why tanks have turrets though. So they can shoot in different directions more quickly”--Ed.] Shut up!

Support Every Game I’ve Finished on ko-fi, either via a one-off donation (pay what you like) or by joining as a supporter at just $1 a month. Supporters receive an automatic 35% discount off physical zines, like exp. 2600, which you can order now.

[mothgardens]

tysm for the tag blue <3

1. do you make your bed?

commonly in the mornings i will attempt to atleast neaten my bed so i dont have a mess to come home to after school, but i dont make it pretty and pristine.

2. what’s ur favorite number

okay :) so I have ocd, mostly concerning correct placement and numeric symmetry, which means i have safety numbers !! 3, 5, 8, and 11 are my go to’s but 3 is my favorite (which seems to be common lol)

3. what is ur job

none currently but im seeking a job in table waiting or anything in a library setting

4. if u could go back to school, would u?

still in my 11th/junior year currently so i’m not gonna have a real answer for this, but i’m thinking i will say no. sure i will sentimental about the time of my life and the memories made but tbh i dislike 90% of the people bc they say so many slurs it’s baffling and in general they’re crummy.

5. can u parallel park

yes !! proud to say i taught myself via an incredibly awkward youtube tutorial, and i am actually quite good at it, i haven’t hit a curb in ages :)

6. a job u had that would surprise people?

none </3 ive yet to work in this wee little life

7. do u think aliens are real?

in short, yes, but i don’t believe in ever contacting aliens. i believe that we aren’t alone in the universe, it is too vast and there is so much to be discovered, no way are we the only living things. i can’t imagine that we are that alone.

8. can you drive a manual car?

no </3 i am the least informed person about cars, im a good ass driver but if anything goes wrong im fucked.

9. what’s ur guilty pleasure?

certain music genres and musicians like Flo Milli and ppcocaine. i don’t like the music per say but the beats are so GOOD— please.

10. tattoos?

none, but i want to get a small shoulder one I think, like a flower or bird or something. maybe a seagull bc they were my grandma’s favorite. i want sentiment.

11. favorite color?

green !! like a jade or olive tone. but also lavender and periwinkle <3

12. favorite type of music?

EEE- im a music fiend, i lovelove 60s-80s music, but i also love bands like Car Seat Headrest and The Front Bottoms, but also Taylor Swift (music, not her) Lana Del Ray, Girl In Red, Mitski (saw her live !!), Hozier— i could keep going on for ages.

13. do u like puzzles?

i am a problem solving whore so yes, but I never do any puzzle related activities nearly enough

14. any phobias?

i have emetophobia (fear of vomiting) and a genuine case of arachnophobia (fear of spiders). like i dont just find them icky, infact i think they’re cute, but god for id one comes near me or i think about them or anything.

15. favorite childhood sport?

ultimate frisbee <3 i used to be a badass during gym when my teacher would whip the discs out

16. do u talk to urself?

constantly and consistently; i’m either mouthing my thoughts, making reactive faces which make me look insane, mumbling, or full on chit chatting myself up

17. what movies do u adore?

OKAY— highly recommend all of these btw: Super Dark Times (2017), everyone should watch Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022) at least once in their lives, Perks Of Being A Wallflower (2012), Kill Your Darlings (2013), Do Revenge (2020), Dead Poets Society (1989), and Catch Me If You Can (2002)

18. coffee or tea?

both, but they have to be iced.

19. first thing you wanted to be when growing up?

an author !! i remember in like 3rd grade i would carry around a clip board and write stories and i would tell my teacher about it and everything.

—————

this was my 3rd attempt doing this lol, i kept forgetting to save my answers *thrumbs DOWN* but it’s done now and it was so fun <3

no pressure tags: @trx34ksh @thanatos-dahilias @serendipity0930

I was tagged by @hollyspn

I'll tag @beanmom @babyblue-mind @torturedpoetdean

Do you make your bed?

nopeee (living that Disabled Life TM where i'm in it more than out, so no need to bother lol)

What’s your favourite number?

3!

What is your job?

I'm an online essay writing tutor! (hit me up if you need help with anything writing related!)

If you could go back to school, would you?

I would LOVE to get like an MFA in creative writing, or just take art classes at a community college (but can't be 1. disabled & 2. broke af)

Can you parallel park?

technically? I did in the past (not well, but did it) but that was like...10 years ago lol and I am Not Able To Drive now due, again, to the fkn disabilities

A job you had that would surprise people?

not really a job, and idk if it is surprising? but I helped take care of my granny for a long while after her brain surgery

Do you think aliens are real?

yes!

Can you drive a manual car?

nopee

What's your guilty pleasure?

...destiel :D

Tattoos?

none :( but I want soooo many

Favourite colour?

yellow!

Favourite type of music?

folk punk, and whatever florence and the machine is classified as

Do you like puzzles?

sometimes

Any phobias?

SPIDERS (and really any bugs), heights, the ocean, snakes

Favourite childhood sport?

i do not like sports ball

Do you talk to yourself?

allllllll the time

What movies do you adore?

but i'm a cheerleader (it was my lesbian awakening lol), four weddings and a funeral, steel magnolias

Coffee or tea?

suuuper sweet tea (i'm from texas what do you expect)

First thing you wanted to be growing up?

I think the first thing was an artist? but I'm not sure. I had a lot of things I thought of doing, including but not limited to: baker, photographer, author (doing it!), teacher (also doing it!), and garbage man (???) (this was because I thought how they got to ride hanging off the back of the truck looked fun lol)

[marvelslut16]

The one with two Pietro’s

Pairing: Pietro x reader, Wandavision!Pietro (Peter Maximoff) x reader FORCED 

Synopsis: you find yourself in Westview living with Wanda, Vision, the boys, and your boyfriend Pietro. But happens when you start to remember your Pietro and figure out what Wanda’s doing to you and everyone else? 

Word count: 1.4k+

Warnings: Swearing I think. Angst. Fluff if you squint. Mind control. Forced relationship. Briefly mentions the idea of a forced magical pregnancy. Bullet wounds. Death. Grief I suppose. Mentions pmsing. The over use of italics. Kinda feel like I make Wanda a psychotic asshole. SPOILERS FOR WANDAVISION!

A/N: This was so much fun to write! Probably the darkest thing I’ve ever written, if you can really call it dark. Writing for Wandavision was a fun little challenge. Takes place in the 90′s so my title is a reference to friends, and so is a tv show character I use in the one shot. Pretend Evan Peters’ hair isn’t that blonde cause I will always see him with the silver he has in xmen and wrote him as such. 

"Vision, that's not my Pietro," you mutter in horror to your friend as the two of you stand in the kitchen. 

You’re not quite sure what makes you say it, but you’re glad you do when you glance at the new Pietro in the living room, he's been playing video games with Tommy and Billy for close to an hour now. He's sweet and funny, but he's just not your Pietro.

"I'm afraid not, (Y/N)," Vision's voice is sullen, but he's glad you're not in on Wanda's mind games. Unless you are, and this is just another way for Wanda to mess with him. He’s not quite sure what’s happening, but he knows from what you’ve reminisced in passing to him about Pietro on nights when Wanda isn’t in the room, that that’s not the Pietro you know and love. 

"Oh my god," you murmur, hand coming to your mouth as little bits and pieces of memories race through your head. The genuine pain, horror, and sadness that cross your face make it obvious to Vision you're being manipulated like everyone else, even if you are Wanda's oldest friend. "My Pietro, he had an accent."

Your knees buckle when you hear his native accent saying his catchphrase in your head, 'you didn't see that coming.' Vision rushes to your side to help you stand more firmly.

"His face was longer, hair a white blonde not silver, his body more toned, and he had gorgeous blue eyes- bluest eyes I've ever seen," you grip onto Vision's arms as you imagine moments with your Pietro.

You grew up in the cell beside his and Wanda's, immediately forming a sisterly connection with her at a young age while Pietro hated you. He would tease you, pull on your pigtails, and steal some of your food on the off chance you three were eating outside of your cells. Over the years the teasing turned to flirting, and your dislike for him turned into a huge crush.

One night-a night you can normally remember with full clarity- after Hydra fell and before Ultron, the two of you were out on a walk, much to Pietro's chagrin. You were telling him about this new book that you were reading and how the characters annoyed you so because they were obviously in love but wouldn't admit it. Pietro zoomed in front of you, causing you to smack into his chest and almost fall to the ground, you would have if not for Pietro's arms wrapping around your waist and bringing you close to his toned chest.

The wind was blowing his hair into his eyes ever so slightly, so without thinking you reached up to move it out of his face and away from his eye. The small act of tenderness that you had displayed caused Pietro to give into his desires, he leaned in and his wind chapped lips descended onto yours. You melted into the kiss, clinging tightly to his biceps to ground you. One of his hands slipped down from your waist to squeeze your ass, the other wrapped more tightly around your waist and kept you anchored to him.

"I love you, Printesa, I have since we were kids," he admits when you pull apart for air, leaning his forehead on yours.

"I love you too, Quicksilver," you use the superhero nickname he gave himself when you were twelve. He grins before attaching his lips to yours once more, it was an unforgettable kiss that filled you with warmth and hope for your future.

"(Y/N), are you okay?" Vision's voice brings you back to reality, or whatever this is.

"No," your voice cracks as you remember the last kiss Pietro planted on your lips, right before he protected Clint. The memory that still haunts your dreams, seeing him with all those bullet holes and knowing there was nothing you could do to save him. "What kind of person forgets the love of their life? I'm a terrible person Vis!"

"No you aren't (Y/N)," the sincerity in Vision's voice makes you really believe him. "Wanda's doing this, she didn't want you to remember."

You gasp as another memory floods your mind. You had agreed to go on a road trip with Wanda after being resurrected from Bruce's snap and defeating Thanos. You both wanted a break, or so you thought.

Wanda had stopped right when you had passed the entrance into Westview, she claimed to be checking her directions when you asked why she had stopped in the middle of nowhere. And no matter how weird it was that she chose to stop at the border to the town and not at a gas station, you believed your best friend and sister in law because she had no reason to lie to you.

A moment later her eyes and hands were glowing red as she touched your temple. She pushed all your memories behind a wall in your brain, then filled your head with memories of a happy life with her and Vision in Westview.

She did it again when 'Pietro' showed up on your guy’s doorstep, this time filling your head with memories of him. Memories of a different first kiss, but an eerily similar first date to the one you and your Pietro had. It makes sense to you now, you and Pietro had never told Wanda the real story of your first kiss, instead telling her you had it weeks later on your first date. You had tried to keep your relationship a secret for a little because you didn't want to make it awkward for Wanda if it didn't work out.

Another thing she didn't add was your engagement and subsequent marriage to her brother. In this reality you and 'Pietro' are just dating. You have to assume that it's because it happened weeks before the battle against Ultron and she doesn't want to remember anything that close to her brother's death.

The thing about the new Pietro is that he seems to rub Wanda the wrong way, something your Pietro never did. He makes comments that you know yours would never, and Wanda always tenses up near him. This Pietro likes to show you off more than yours did, which is saying a lot because your’s used to cling to your side, praise you, and show you off in town when girls would flirt with him. Every time this Pietro kisses you it doesn’t feel right, it’s nowhere near the earth shattering kisses that you had somehow managed to remember from the deep parts of your brain. 

"My ring," you shudder in horror when you realize the diamond ring that your Pietro stole from the jeweler in Sokovia is no longer sitting delicately on your left ring finger like it was before entering Westview. You hastily search your body for your most prized possession, sighing in relief when you find it hanging from a simple silver chain around your neck.

"(Y/N)," Vision says gently, resting a hand on your shoulder, it’s one of the few times he doesn’t know what to say. 

"He's dead," you cry, knees buckling under your weight again. This time you catch yourself on the kitchen table, before sinking in the seat to your right.

"Who's dead?" Wanda appears in the doorway out of nowhere. She has an innocent, concerned expression on her face, but the tilt of her head tells you she'll come take your memories away again if you slip up in the slightest.

"Dr. Drake Ramoray on Days Of Our Lives, the soap opera I was watching this afternoon when you and the boys were out. He fell down the elevator shaft, and I'm apparently taking it harder than I thought I would. I must be pmsing or something."

"Or maybe you're pregnant," there's a red glint in her eyes that scares you to no end.

"Oh," you swallow the lump in your throat, and hold back the bile rising up your throat from anxiety. "I don't think so, I'm not ready to be a mother yet."

"It would be so fun though," 'Pietro' zooms behind your seat, leaning down to place a kiss on your cheek. "Little mini me's and you's running around the house with Billy and Tommy."

"I think two super human children are enough for the house right now," you let out an uncomfortable giggle. You and Vision side eye each other, both very aware that you'll probably be as pregnant as Wanda was a few days ago within the week.

[eremiie]

you want it that bad don’t you?;

❥ 5k words | nsfw | mafia au | levi x reader

❥ being in the mafia isn’t fun and games— and levi has no problem reminding you.

❥ content: gun kink, rough sex, “sir” kink (?)

you tapped on your crossed legs as you sat in the waiting room, adjusting the black skirt that sat pretty on your legs, in anticipation and slight nervousness. hange rambled beside you, and you tried not to block her out but your own thoughts were quite captivating. you weren't sure how it happened but you fucked up big time, and you weren't sure how ready you were to face the repercussions.

"i mean how did you even manage that, ___? did you just shoot him in the head and go 'oh shit, i killed him.', you're in some sh-" you cut hange off with your own leveled tone, chuckling slightly at the irony of the situation.

"i know, hange, i know. it went something like that..." you shook your head and raised an eyebrow at her as she began laughing, the eyepatch over her eye raising up in the slightest as her cheeks did causing you to smile, a little light in the dark moment you were bound to face.

armin stepped out with a worried expression on his face, sympathy crossing it when he spotted your figure tensely lounging in the lobby chair. he nodded his head at you as you stood up nervously, you'd hope your relations with the underboss would save you. he gave you a shy half-smile and hange covered her mouth with an 'oooo' causing you to glare at her and shush her, your life was ‘at stake’ and her jokes weren't helping. "uh, ____... don levi is.. he's ready for you." armin's voice shook as he spoke, he seemed more worried than you.

"don't worry armin, i'll be fine." you reassured the timid boy. sometimes you wondered how he even got into the mafia, his short stature and soft looks were sure to be underestimated until he kicked ass, not to mention his intelligence probably made up where he was lacking.

"are you sure about that? did you see the way he kicked eren's ass just for him to even GET in the mafia? you're gon-"

"hange! please." you put up a hand to still hange's voice.

"better be lucky you're not taking this up with boss erwin." hange continued, causing you to earn another sympathetic look from armin.

you turned around to face hange, your eye twitching. did she know who you were dealing with? "you mean unlucky? i rather have him any day."

"okay, okay, i don't want to get in trouble too let's go!" armin ushered you to the grand door of the underboss' office, your heart thumping at what, or better yet; who would lie beneath it. you’d better whip something up before you entered the gates of hell.

armin knocked at the door twice before slowly opening it, he mumbled something to levi before looking back at you and opening the door wider, you took slow steps into the brightly lit office, the curtains on the windows in the back drawn shut so that the only light illuminating the office were the luxurious lamps that detailed every corner. you took multiple steps forward until the only thing separating you and the devil himself was a brown polished oak desk that was carved to perfection. beyond it? the intimidating subordinate of the boss, levi ackerman, his pristine hands supporting his face as his legs crossed. his black trench coat that you knew costed more than you would make from any mission adorning the brown leather seat that he sat on, his posture perfect just like every strategically placed strand of hair on his head.

you breathed in and put on your most charming smile, keeping your hands behind your back as you bowed at a 90 degree angle, if bowing all the way to your feet would save you, your head would've been drilled into the ground right about now.

"don levi, my favorite person." you started, as he eyed you intently, the scowl on his face growing by every minute you were in his presence. he stayed silent for a good moment before uncrossing his legs, the fabric on his jeans seeming to become cleaner by every dust of his hand.

"what happened." he snarled, hoping you would have a good reason that your captive was dead, which meant the mafia no longer had the upper hand on their enemies now. yes, you knew you fucked up big time.

"okay, so well.. you see, we were heading towards the hideo-"

"not that far back you brat. stop wasting breath and get to the point. why is our captive dead?" he snapped, leaning forward on his desk, your breath hitching in the slightest.

you took a step forward and placed all eight tips of your fingers on the wood tapping them slightly as you looked at levi with a face that showed remorse on all levels. "sir, the captive was seated in the back of the vehicle with us. his restraints were loosening and he was yelling at everybody in the truck, especially to me, the one with the gun." you started, puppy dog eyes beginning to grace your face as if that would help. "the whole time he was cutting the restraints with a knife when he was back in the seat, an-"

"and why did no one catch this?" levi interrupted, his face growing even more furious by the second you spoke.

"because... well we were all trying to get him to calm down, and-"

"for fucks sake weren't you brats trained to catch shit like this? now we're facing repercussions because he's dead."

"i didn't mean to kill him-"

"but you did. he's fucking dead, how did he die, caporegime?" he didn't even use your name, the way he addressed you by your title making you cringe in the slightest, backing away from the desk as he stood up and came around the desk, a gun slinging in his hand that wasn't supporting his weight as he now leaned against the table, waiting for your response.

"commander... i, he, he was waving the knife around and the truck, the vehicle was starting to go off of the road because," you took a huff of breath as you pulled your thin trench coat that was falling off your shoulders more over to conceal the small skirt and button up you had underneath. you crossed your legs as you stood, your black heels clinking as they shuffled on the ground. "well, i panicked,"

"you panicked?" levi scoffed.

"i came up with the best solution, which was to shoot him." you answered bluntly as you stared at levi, his eyes narrowing at you. you took a small step forward as he sighed. "levi-"

"the best fucking solution, ____?" great, back to a first name basis, "what happened to all the years you fucking trained for shit like this? you know combat and so does everyone else in the damn truck!" he began to come forward to you, gun moving around a little to reckless for your liking and you backed up even more.

"lev-, commander, sir, it was an accident! or else, everyone else and i would be dead!"

"an accident? tch? now if i shot you right now would it be an accident, ____?"

your back hit the wall as levi cornered you, the barrel of the gun now touching the cream colored walls as did your head. although levi was short, you were still deathly intimidated, your chest noticeably heaving up and down as the flimsy trench coat was pooling at your elbows, the button up your wore revealing your cleavage, and you sure didn't miss the small gaze from the underboss, his steely eyes connecting with yours once more.

you tried not to let the small smirk become noticeable on your face as you tilted your head up in the slightest, side eyeing the gun to your left then raising an eyebrow at levi directly in front of you.

"but you won't?" your response came off more as a question then an answer, you're nervousness still racking as levi's eyed widened in the slightest at the small disappearance of fear in your eyes.

anybody else in your position would've probably been beaten to a pulp right about now, or even dead. but luckily for you, your small relations with the underboss was saving your ass altogether.

the gun was lifted from the wall and slipped its way into your mouth harshly, and you could hear the 'chink' of the trigger as he cocked it back, your mouth struggling to close around the barrel. you could taste the steel of the device and you felt the coldness of the gun that matched the cold gaze that was upon you. you let your tongue slide around the front of the gun.

you were playing a risky game.

you placed your hands on levi's chest, causing the gun to falter in your mouth as he dragged it down to your chin. "levi, baby," he cringed, eye twitching at the lack of honorific as you let your hands glide down the tie around his neck, your trench coat dragging on the floor behind you as you walked forward, levi stepping back, still in contact with you.

"i can fix this.." you mumbled, causing the underboss to grab your wrists with one hand and swing them down to your sides, pinching the bridge of his nose as he walked back to his desk, refusing to be lead on by you. he knew his position and regardless of what you do or did with him, he couldn't let the way the coat lingered off your body, or the way the two buttons of your button up revealed the thin lace trimming of your bra, or the way your skirt was riding up as you were backed into the wall fool or distract him. he sat back in his seat and used his hands to speak, the gun in his hand flailing around as well.

"how can you fucking fix this? you're gonna get another hostage, huh? you know how hard it was to get him? you gonna deal with his fucking body? remember where you fucking stand _____."

you slowly walked towards levi, letting your coat fall completely onto the floor, levi going on his rant as you got on your knees in front of the tall leather rolling chair placing your hands on the matching black leather belt that levi wore, caressing it, letting your hands move side to side on it.

"i can fix this."

you looked up at levi with a look of sultry, the way your eyelashes only let a slight shimmer of your eyes seep through as you looked up at him, and the way that extra layer of gloss that coated your lips could be imagined around his dick made him let out a shaky breath as he gripped the gun in his hand tighter.

"get under the desk."

you stopped yourself from grinning as you used all fours to crawl, levi avoiding your gaze. once you were seated under the desk you took it upon yourself to unbutton another button, thanking the heavens that you decide to go for the dress shirt instead the other white mock neck that's still sitting in your closet of your studio apartment. you pushed up the black lace bra that you wore up to accentuate your breasts as levi twirled his seat until you were enclosed under the desk fully.

you began to unbuckle his belt, your hands lingering a little longer on the silver buckle before you unhooked it and folded it neatly, placing it on the floor beside you as to not anger levi any further. after all, he still had the steel weapon in his hand, as a matter of fact his arm hung loosely over the side of his chair, the gun in close range to you.

as you tugged at levi's unzipped pants he lifted his hips in the slightest to help you pull the jean fabric down, pulling his member out of the slit in his grey boxers. you smiled a little at the way it stood proudly because of you and looked up at levi who was now looking down at you, although he still avoided your eyes. you noted the permanent crease between his brows making his expression look even more angry. at what? you weren't sure, maybe it was your shit execution at your mission, or the fact that he was faltered and was letting you do this during his office hours.

you loved yourself.

before you could wrap your hands around levi's length he used his free hand to pull slightly on your ponytail that held your slicked hair back. "don't make a mess." he muttered before you placed your slender fingers around him. he sucked in a breath as you licked at his tip, his dick feeling like it was growing with every touch you made around him. the effect you had was incredible.

"yes, levi."

"sir."

"yes, sir."

maybe on any other day you wouldn't be so quick to comply, you had a bite to you, but you knew your limits and today wasn't the day. you puckered your lips and kissed the tip of levi's cock before going down on it letting it reside in the wet, warm heat of your mouth. "mm," you relished in the way it felt heavy on your tongue, and you let it sit there for a moment before beginning to bob your head up and down.

levi removed his hand from your hair, relaxing under you and letting out a shaky sigh, he didn't want to let you know how much he was actually enjoying this rendezvous but oh, you knew. you probably would have been more oblivious if it wasn't for the mere whimpers and grunts that left him, or if it wasn't for how silent the room was besides those same sounds that he stopped before they could vocally leave his throat.

you opened your mouth and swirled your tongue around his member, using your hands to get what you couldn't reach at the base of his cock, twisting your hands slightly as your worked at the top. you then placed your hands on his lap and picked yourself up in the slightest to go down on him as far as possible, humming, sending the vibrations down on his dick, the sensation running through his body. a slight shudder left levi, him preventing himself from bucking up into your mouth which he knew would cause a mess.

"did you like that, sir?" you pulled yourself off his tip for a brief moment, in an attempt to tease levi without you know... tempering the man. you continued to work at him with your hands as you looked up at him, fluttering your eyes and keeping your mouth open ajar. your lips were reddened and your lip gloss would need to be reapplied later.

"who told you to stop?"

you let out a small chuckle which you hoped levi didn't hear, and if he did he didn't comment on it because you hurriedly slipped him back in your mouth, giving a particularly hard suck that made whatever he maybe wanted to say stop short with a moan that he quickly covered up with a clearing of his throat.

you were so stuck on pleasuring the underboss that you didn't even realize it when he lifted the gun and twirled the chamber until it landed on an empty spot, before he shot it directly at in front of him to clear the cocked gun, returning it to its neutral state. the sound of the pressurized air leaving the barrel made you jolt and your teeth grazed his length as your jaw tightened, your heart rate speeding up until you realized you were fine.

but that didn't convince the snoopers lingering outside the door.

"i knew she was gonna die." hange shook her head with a pout as she sat beside the door to the office, not even worried about the risk of getting caught. "she didn't make a noise... hm, i'll never underestimate levi's aim again." she let out a small gasp. "imagine if he heard me calling him levi! i'd probably end up like ____." hange clutched her chest as she let out a small laugh, shaking her head once again at your expense and at her joke.

meanwhile, armin was pacing back and forth in front of the door trying to stop his tears from spilling. "hange! how can you joke about this when, when she could really be dead! you know lev- don levi would really... no, she can't be dead. i'm gonna check."

hange closed her eyes and tilted her head back as she listened to armin. "you know that's a bad idea! imagine if you went in there and there's just like blood everywhere, like-"

"hange!"

"well besides the blood, he'd probably shoot you too so there would be no witnesses. i'm just kidding, you'd just be in a bad spot. oh, but ma-“

"that's it, i'm going in." armin was shaking as he knocked on the polished door, making sure to use his small handkerchief to wipe off any marks his knuckle could've made. "sir, is everything alright?" his voice was awkwardly unleveled, it cracking halfway through his sentence.

levi's hand flew to your hair as he pulled it back in the slightest to stop your motions. "sh." he made sure he was presentable just in case, setting the now uncocked gun down on the desk before clearing his throat. "is there something you need subordinate arlert?" levi spit out his words in slight frustration.

armin twisted the door knob, looking away in fear at the sight of blood, gaze focused on hange who sat on the floor to the side of the door. "no, i, i just was making sure everything was okay, i... i heard a gunshot."

you smirked at the sound of armin's voice now clearer as he spoke. you thought for a second...

you know what? you decided to take a risk.

levi's grip in your hair was looser as he focused more on him and armin's small conversation instead of you and you took it as an opportunity to do the same hard suck you did earlier, levi's breath hitching, cause his voice to falter as he spoke to armin, his grip on your ponytail tightening once more.

"and that would be your business because, brat?"

you smiled at your success, trying to move your tongue despite the heat from your scalp as levi expressed his anger through his hold.

armin gulped and squeezed his eyes shut. "very well, sir. i'll be shutting the door now."

"and don't interrupt me again, that goes for you and anyone else in the hall."

"yes, sir."

and with that, you heard the heavy door shut and you knew what was to come. levi yanked your head back a scowl on his face as he watched your head abruptly bob backwards off his member, you licking your lips innocently.

"what the hell is wrong with you? do you have an actual fucking death wish?" he hissed, your ponytail feeling like it could rip off at any given moment.

"what if we got caught, huh?" levi rolled his eyes and scoffed in shock at your carelessness. he was such a tough nut to crack. "fuck..."

"levi, rel-"

"it's fucking sir. commander, captain, stop addressing me like we're equals." he let go of your hair and moved his steel grip to your shirt, gathering the white fabric in his hands as he pulled his chair back, pulling you from underneath the desk, panic ensuing in you. he pushed you back until your thighs hit his desk causing it to scoot back in the slightest as you stopped yourself from flying back with your hands.

"cap-"

"shut up. every word that comes from your mouth is irritating me."

you pursed your lips and watched levi study your face, his gaze constantly flickering down to your body as well, watching your disheveled form as your chest heaved up and down. frankly, you were afraid to even move, you were sure one more mistake from you would've made him burst. but, as you watched levi pull his member back through his slit you opened your mouth anyways. "commander, please." you didn't want to be left hanging, the wetness that was pooling in your own underwear wasn't going to fix itself.

"what could you possibly want." he stopped his motions for a minute, the desperate expression on your face reeling him in slightly.

you were frozen for a second, before you scoot back on his desk and pulled your skirt up it bunched up at your waistline. you hastily looked around before you grabbed the gun that was sat beside you and put on your best seductive expression. “captain..."

you spread your legs as you rubbed yourself overtop of the matching lace fabric of your bra, the newfound sensation causing you to bite your lip. you pushed aside your underwear as you teased yourself, letting your slick gather over the tip of the gun. you made sure levi was watching before you pulled it away and examined the tip before bringing it to your lips and slowly licking up your own secretions while looking up at levi, not missing the way his eye twisted, or the faint red that tinted his pale cheeks.

he stepped forward and you tried to contain your smile for the one thousandth time that night, before he grabbed the gun from your hands, staring you straight in the eyes and huffing, turning around. "captain!" you couldn't stop now, you grabbed his wrist and pulled him towards you until the tip of the gun was pressed against you once more the cold metal making your breath stutter.

your body tensed up, holding in a whimper as you looked at levi with a pout, using your other hand to turn his face towards you, your thumb brushing over his bottom lip.

his upper lip twitched as his eyes flickered down to your own. levi leaned forward until both of you were face to face. he leaned even closer so that your noses barely touched until you were staring deep into his rocky eyes, flecks of black outlining the grey, and then there was the abyss of his pupils.

"you want it that bad don't you?"

you whimpered again and your eyes fluttered. you let go of his wrist and placed both of your hands behind you on the desk, nodding your head. "yes, sir." you felt like you repeated for the umpteenth time.

"tch," levi glared at you before pulling down his boxers. "desperate, dirty."

and you didn't even care because you won, like you did most of the time.

you layed down on the desk causing levi to twitch as your head touched his papers, him quickly moving them to the floor and making sure nothing would fall or collapse, although he kept his desk mostly empty. you couldn't recall any pictures family members decorating the desk, the only thing you could remember probably being a stapler, papers, and maybe a nameplate. "mm, thank you captain." you smiled as you layed back and pulled your black undergarment off, sitting it beside you instead of flinging it onto the floor.

levi didn't respond as he grabbed your hips and pulled you forward, positioning himself at your entrance. you anticipated the way he would slide into you like he did everytime, slowly and carefully, always studying your expression to make sure he wasn't hurting you, and so he did this time as well. you groaned at the sensation of him entering you, every inch filling you up completely and you struggled not to make much noise, trying not to give any hints to what was happening in the large room. "sir..." you hissed as you felt him bottom out inside you.

levi groaned at the feeling of him being buried inside you completely, tilting his head down to look at the way he disappeared you completely, his mouth hanging open in the slightest, and it made you feel special. the way you were in this position, as other people could barely touch him.

"do i feel good?" you asked, propping yourself up on your forearms to see him inside you as well. levi didn't answer as he began to move inside of you, the wet noises of him pulling in and out raw filling up the room, causing you to throw your head back as you whined. "please, you can go faster."

levi did just that, picking up his pace, voluntarily rocking his hips as he moved inside of you causing the desk to shake. you moved your legs to the side of him and pulled him closer to you so he could hit deeper, careful not to let your heels touch his top. "fuck, le-, sir... i know you can go faster than that." you groaned.

levi clicked his tongue and his pace picked up again, him now initially slamming into you with every hit of your hips against each other, a slapping noise eliciting everytime, and your breasts now bouncing up and down from how hard he was pounding into you. "you gonna stop complaining now?"

his voice caught you off guard, as you looked up at him, your eyes half lidded, your mouth in an o-shape, and him staring back at you, his skin slightly shining almost as if he was about to sweat, and your skin reciprocating. "fuck, yes... it feels so fucking good."

you could feel that sensation tumbling in your stomach with every stroke, you're breathing become ragged as you tried to grab at the desk, you tightening around levi. “i think, i think i'm gonna come." you voiced, your eyebrows furrowing as you tried to concentrate on the feeling bubbling up inside of you. "can you make me?" you teased again as you threw your head back and arched your back, trying to make levi talk again. you could tell he wasn't the vocal type during sex. or maybe it was because you were in an office.

levi pulled one of your legs from behind him and scooted your body up on the desk, pushing your leg towards your chest as he looked up at you, his own mouth hanging open as he grunted with every hard thrust.

"remember where you stand, ____."

he drilled you harder, every thrust he made shaking your body and causing his dick to almost leave you completely every time, before burying you completely as well.

"yes, sir."

"call me that again," levi shut his eyes tight as he bit his lip trying to conceal his moans, forcing your leg down some more, pounding into you trying to reach his own high, his own feeling trying to crawl its way to the surface, he wasn't even worried about a mess at this point, the sound of his name plate clattering to the floor not even making him open his eyes.

"fuck sir, i'm almost there, please!" you whispered as you looked down to see your wetness gathering at levi's base, and that made you tumbled over the edge as you cried out, feeling every nerve in your body pinch as you climaxed, your forearms dropping to the table causing your back to hit the desk before you arched it. "levi!" you whimpered as he went even faster his own climax teasing him.

"fuck," he groaned softly before letting go of your leg and grabbing your hips, pulling you towards him as he released inside of you, letting his cum seep into you, a ragged breath leaving his throat before he hissed pulling out of you.

the both of you caught your breath and you rolled off of his desk with a smile despite your legs being wobbly while you stumbled to grab your underwear.

"hey," levi started as he wiped himself clean with a napkin he kept inside his desk. "don't get that anywhere." he used his head to motion down to your cunt.

"oh? your cum?" you knew he what he was talking about, and you laughed. "don't worry. i'm thinking about keeping this in me for a little while." you bit your lip as you pulled up your panties, patting them before you pulled down your skirt and started to button up your top again.

levi gave you a disgusted expression and sighed before shaking his head and spraying down his desk, wiping it down and placing his belongings back where they were while you dressed yourself up again, him already have gone through that process.

you picked up your trench coat off the floor in front of levi's desk before walking up to him slowly. "sir," you smiled, adjusting his tie, his irritated expression making you chuckle. "i told you i'd make it up to you."

levi scoffed and backed away, placing his miniature cleaning products back in his drawer after cleaning his weapon, and using the small cologne bottle in his desk to try to cover up the faint smell of sex in his office.

"you just make sure you get your situation under control. that's still not over. get two subordinates to help you out and get this shit fixed by the end of the week. you're not off the hook, and i still have to review this with boss erwin, i'm still under him."

you raised your eyebrow and scoffed. "so much for that god complex earlier." you mumbled as you walked away and towards the door.

"what?"

"nothing, captain."

"get out."

"alright, alright." you giggled as you tied the waist of your trench coat and opened the door to his office before stepping out.

"thank goodness, you're alive, we thought you died!" you were squeezed into a hug by armin and hange, hange hugging your feet as she was seated on the floor and armin's arms around your waist.

"what?" you questioned, pulling both of them off of you.

"so how'd you do it? how are you standing here to this minute, ____?" hange asked dramatically, shaking your legs as she spoke.

"hange what the hell, get up. what are you guys talking about?"

"we thought he killed you.." armin whispered, as his eyes darted between the door and your confused face.

you rolled your eyes and crossed your arms, beginning to walk away from the door and towards the staircase of the building.

"please," you smirked to yourself as you added a small strut to your walk. "not in a million years. he wouldn't kill me."

trust and believe, you knew where you stood.

[raibebe]

Simple Lessons

Genre: fluff Words: 3.200 Prompt: 90s grunge boy Jeno x female reader

Warnings: smoking, mentions of food

A/N: Literally no one asked for this but this just poured out of me the other day... EVERLONG JENO IS MY COMFORT CHARACTER OKAY??

Everlong masterlist

“Do you want to go out to grab lunch? You don’t have classes until later as well, right?” Your best friend asked as she dragged you out of the lecture hall. “Sure,” you smiled, basking in the rays of the sun for a while after being stuck inside an auditorium with barely any daylight for two hours straight. “There is this cute new diner a little off-campus and a little birdie told me there is this super hot guy working there,” she wiggled her eyebrows to which you could just groan loudly, making her giggle in return. Mimi had talked you up during orientation days and you two hadn’t seperated since. Sharing majors surely helped with that and soon you had found a small group of girls to call your friends. While she was very much the flirty, extrovert in your group, a crush on a different boy each day of the week, you couldn’t not be fond of her shenanigans when it made all of you laugh out loud whenever she told stories of yet another drastically failed date. “Not everyone can still be with their Highschool boyfriend like you,” she accused, slapping your arm before tugging you in the direction of the diner. “Are we really going to this diner just because someone told you that one of the waiters is hot?” “Listen. This was a very trustworthy source,” Mimi pouted, “I’ll pay for your meal, just come with me please.” “How can I say no to free food?” You laughed loudly, letting her pull you along while complaining about all the assignments your professors had given out.

You had to admit that the diner was really cute. It had this old-school look inside with the red, big sofas and a variety of license plates decorated the walls and the female servers even wore cute puffy skirts. “This is so pretty,” you said once Mimi had chosen a booth, the leather of the sofa squeaking while you sat down. “Yeah, yeah,” she waved it off, looking around the place, “Now where is this hot waiter?” “You’re hopeless,” you giggled, picking up the menu that was already laid out on the table to look at their food options instead of helping your friend. “Shut up,” she grumbled, copying your action, “You also still haven’t introduced us to your boyfriend.”

“Yeah,” you sighed, “He’s...” Well, what were you supposed to say now? If it were to go how you had wanted, your friends would have already met Jeno at the first party you were invited to but he had declined the offer, only sweetly kissing your head and promising to pick you up at 2 am from the adress you had given him. Which he had done but by that time everyone was so wasted that they couldn’t remember a thing. Which had become a reoccurring theme, no matter how much you’d bribe them to not drink to finally catch a glympse at him. “If you all would stop drinking yourself into a coma every time we go out, you’d have met him already.” “I am beginning to think you’ve made him up,” Mimi grinned, “He seems way too perfect. Letting you go out and party on your own and picking your drunk ass up after but then he never shows up to your classes to walk you to the next one.” Well just maybe you hadn’t gotten around to telling your friends that Jeno in fact wasn’t even studying but working different part-time jobs to help finance your apartment until he had figured out what he wanted to do in the first place. They had just assumed he was studying something way different than you hence why you wouldn’t meet up during your breaks. “Well he is real,” you sighed, “He’s just... Different?” “Oooooh, I get it,” your friend grinned, “He’s older than you. Oh my god. Do you have a sugar daddy?” At that you let out an embarrassed screech which made her double over with laughter. “Why would you say that?” You whined, “He’s the same age as us, for real.”

“Hi ladies, I see you’re already having a great time. I’ll be your waiter for today, have you already decided what to get?” A deep velvety voice interrupted. You didn’t need to look up to know who the waiter was or what he looked like because his voice was almost as familar to your ears as your own was and you knew his body inside and out. Smiling brightly, your eyes met Jeno’s who was also smiling, throwing you a little wink. You had known that he had been working in a diner for a little while now but not this specific one so it was a nice surprise to see him here clad in a neat button-down and pants that for once weren’t ripped to shreds. Meanwhile, Mimi was stunned in silence, her mouth parted in what must be awe. “Hi,” you kept smiling at Jeno, “Anything you can recommend?” “Our burgers are pretty good,” he shrugged, “But what’s really good are our milkshakes.” “Then we’ll take that, right?” You asked your friend, kicking her shin beneath the table to get her to snap out of it. “Y-yeah sure,” she stuttered, still blatantly gawking at Jeno. “Great, I’ll be right back with your drinks,” Jeno smiled before walking off again.

“Girl he’s so hot oh my god,” Mimi exclaimed as soon as he was out of earshot, dramatically flopping down onto the table. “He’s really good-looking,” you admitted, a big grin on your face. “Better than your boyfriend?” “I wouldn’t say that,” you laughed, awkwardly shuffling in your seat. Was this the right time to tell her that the waiter apparently a lot of girls were thirsting after was in fact your boyfriend and probably not at all like they thought him out to be? “God, I bet he looks so good out of his uniform as well,” she groaned, “Just the thought of him in light washed denim.” At that, you had to mask a burst of laughter with an awkward cough. You had tried times and times again to convince Jeno to swap out one of his dark jeans for light-washed ones but he wasn’t budging, only in turn challenging you to wear one of his many black baggy T-shirts instead of your brightly colored spaghetti tops. “Sure,” you giggled instead, kicking your friend’s shin again to alert her when Jeno came back with your drinks. “There you go, food will be out in a bit,” he smiled politely. Not the kind of smile that turned his eyes into beautiful crescents but a more reserved one.

“Hey, uhm,” Mimi suddenly spoke up when Jeno turned around to walk away again, making him halt in his steps. “Have you been working here for long?” Oh god. You had to physically keep yourself from cringing at her awkward try to rope him into a conversation. “Just a handful of weeks, so not that long,” Jeno shrugged, “Looking for a job as well?” “Oh no, we both work part-time at a clothing store downtown,” she waved it off, “I was just wondering because I had never seen you around before.” “Well yeah, makes sense I haven���t been here for long.” “So you recently moved here? I’m sure I would have remembered a handsome face like yours,” Mimi now blatantly flirted, twirling a dyed strand of hair around her finger and just slightly leaning forward on the table to give Jeno a better view of her cleavage in her white cropped top. “Yeah, I’m not from around here,” he shared, his eyes firmly staying on her face but the redness of his ears and how his fingers were fiddling with his little notepad betrayed his cool facade. Was this the time where you should end this to save Mimi and Jeno from further embarrassment? Or should you enjoy this for a little longer? “Are you also a student?” She asked next, “We both go to university here.” “Oh god no,” Jeno exclaimed and this time you couldn’t hold in the little giggle that slipped past your lips, noticing that your boyfriend’s lips twitched into a little grin as well. The more Jeno saw you struggle between classes, essays and study sessions, the more sure he had become about his whole decision to not do the whole university thing. Just when your friend wanted to ask the next question, a loud voice interrupted: “Jeno, I am not paying you for flirting with customers! Get back to work!” Rolling his eyes at his boss, Jeno shot the two of you an apologetic look before quickly walking to the register where his boss was waiting.

“God, even his name sounds good,” Mimi groaned, returning to her former position, sprawled out over the table. “You sound like you’re in love with him,” you giggled, “You don’t even know him.” “Listen. This is love at first sight. Do you not watch romance movies?” You did in fact. Even though Jeno would complain throughout the whole first 30 minutes of the movie until he’d either accept his fate in favor of cuddling and letting you pet his hair or actually get invested in the movie as well, cursing the characters for being so stupid and not talking out their problems. “I do, dummy,” you rolled your eyes, taking a sip from your milkshake that didn’t disappoint after Jeno had praised it so much, “But don’t you need to get to know a person before you can love them?”

“You’re the one with a boyfriend,” she mumbled, collecting herself from the table to take a sip of her drink as well, “Tell me about him.” “My boyfriend?” “Yeah, you never speak much about him and don’t let us meet him either. Convince me he’s not made up.” “Well we know each other since childhood,” you shared, feeling heat creep up your cheeks and neck, knowing how cliche your story sounded, “He lived in the house next to ours so we played a lot as children but then my family had to move away when I was in like elementary school or something because of my dad’s work but eventually we moved back for my last year of highschool.” “Oh wow, that must have sucked to leave all your friends behind twice.” Sighing, you ran your hands through your hair. “It wasn’t easy to just leave everything behind, but I managed. We moved back into our old house and he was also still living in the house next to us with his family. His mom made him take me to school every day and we shared a lot of classes and then it just went from there,” you smiled, blatantly leaving out the part where you had to basically force Jeno to speak and open up to you at nights on his rooftop beneath the moon and the stars. That was a private matter you didn’t want to share without his consent.

“That is so wholesome,” Mimi cheered, “What’s he like?” “Different?” You tried to explain, swirling your straw in your milkshake, “Like different than you’d expect him to be. When you see us together, you’d probably say we don’t match.” “Ooooh,” she nodded, her eyes wide, “So you’re like opposites?” “You could say that,” you smiled, “But when you get to know us, we’re not that different.” Before she could ask more questions, Jeno interrupted you again, hands full of your plates. “And that’s your food girls. Please enjoy,” he smiled, placing the plates down, “If you need anything else, I’ll be around.” “Actually,” Mimi began and you had to hold yourself back from interrupting her, “I was wondering when your shift is ending.” “My shift?” Jeno repeated, his eyes shortly drifting over to you. “Yeah,” she smiled, waiting for his answer. “I’m off in a bit,” he said slowly after checking the time on the neon clock hanging over the counter. “So you’re free after we’re done with our food?” She pressed on. “Probably?” “Would you like to hang out after? We still have some time until our next classes start. “Hang out. With you two,” he repeated, still dumbstruck by her boldness. “I mean you don’t have to if you really don’t want or have something to do,” she shrugged but you knew that look in her eyes. She was determined to have him hang out with you. “I was just going to go get groceries and go home,” Jeno shared, “Listen, I gotta go back to work or my boss will literally fire me because he already hates me.” With an apologetic smile, he quickly walked down to another table where a couple was seemingly done with their meal.

“You’re so shameless,” you accused your friend, finally digging into your meal. “Listen. I see a hot boy and need to talk to him, it’s as easy as that,” Mimi giggled, taking a bite from her burger. “Now tell me more about that boyfriend of yours.”

Once you were finished with your meal, Jeno already wasn’t there anymore to take your bill, instead, a cute girl with a big puffy skirt handed your friend the bill. “But half the stuff is missing,” Mimi asked, “I’m paying for both of us.” “Oh, my colleague took care of one of the meals,” the waiter smiled, “He must like one of you.” “I told you my flirting was worth it,” your friend smiled, handing over the money. You really didn’t have it in you to tell her that Jeno most likely covered for your half of the meal when she seemed so genuinely happy about it, so you swallowed the words back down even if it was going to come out sooner or later when you’d finally get Jeno to meet your friends.

Apparently, the universe wanted it to be sooner because as soon as you stepped back out of the diner and into the sun, a boy clad in all black caught your attention. He was leaning against the little railing around the diner, a cigarette between his lean fingers. “Hey,” you nudged your friend, nodding towards Jeno. “Huh?” “It’s the waiter,” you explained, looking over at him. By now it looked like he was trying his hardest to hold back his grin while taking another drag. Shocking people with his looks still was one of his favorite things to do if they only knew him from one of his jobs where he had to wear a uniform. “No way,” Mimi whispered, “He looks like a completely different guy.” “You’re not in love anymore now?” “He’s just so…” “Different?” You helped her out, rolling your eyes. Why could no one see past the dark clothes, chains and the cigarette and made the effort to actually get to know Jeno? “I don’t think he’s my type.” “You’re ridiculous,” you snorted, leaving her behind to walk over to Jeno.

“Hey bubblegum,” he smiled, curling an arm around your waist like it was second nature already, “Fancy seeing you here.” “You didn’t tell me that was the diner you applied to,” you pouted, scrunching your nose at the smell of smoke. “I didn’t know it was close to your campus,” he shrugged it off and stubbed out the remainder of his cigarette after taking a last drag, making an effort to blow the smoke away from you, “Your friend tried really hard to flirt with me.” “She’s an idiot,” you rolled your eyes, looping your arms around his torso to hug him close, “I missed you.” “I made you breakfast literally this morning,” he laughed but pulled you closer to him anyways. “If you work this close you could have come to visit.” “Bubblegum…” Jeno sighed, tucking a wild strand of hair back into place. “My friends think I’ve made up my boyfriend,” you pouted. “You want to show your friend back there how real I am? I think her eyes are already very close to falling out of her head.” “What’s going on in that head of yours Jeno Lee?” “Let me show you,” he grinned, cupping your face with one of his hands before pressing his lips to yours in a languid kiss, the taste of smoke on his breath familiar by now. “You really need to quit,” you grumbled against his lips. “I know,” he sighed but kissed you again anyways, “Wasn’t expecting to see you this soon.” “So you smoke in secret?” “Stop arguing when I’m trying to kiss you,” he grumbled, playfully biting your bottom lip. “Stop kissing me when I’m trying to safe your lungs,” you pouted, slapping his chest for emphasis but didn’t protest and insted kissed you again, languid and deep.

“Are you two done making out now?” Mimi suddenly interrupted you, making your face heat up as you took a step back from Jeno who was having nothing of that and pulled you back against his side by your waist. “Yeah, all done,” he grinned, holding one of his hands out for your friend to shake, “I’m Jeno.” “I figured from your boss screaming at you,” she mumbled but shook his hand anyways, giving him her name as well, “You made me look like a fool. Like you could have told me you were the infamous boyfriend refusing to meet us.” “It’s not like I was refusing.” “You totally were,” you butted in, pinching his side. “Listen it doesn’t sound as appealing to spend my evenings with a group of all girls as you think it does,” he defended himself, “And now you have a witness that I am in fact real.” “You’re not getting out of his now, Jeno Lee,” you grinned, lacing your fingers together. “And if I told you I had this really important thing to do?” He tried, throwing you his best puppy eyes. “We can go grocery shopping after my last class,” you rolled your eyes, “You’re walking back to campus with us now.” “Yes, ma’am,” he rolled his eyes, “Let me carry your bag.” “Oh god, you’ll make me feel so single,” Mimi groaned when you handed Jeno your backpack to carry. “You wanted this, I can leave any time,” your boyfriend shrugged, “Do you have like stones in your bag or something?” “It’s called books, you should try it,” you said, playfully sticking out your tongue. “Why am I even dating you?” Jeno just rolled his eyes. “Because you love me,” you smiled brightly. “Yeah, I kinda do,” he confessed, squeezing your hand.

“No need to make me feel even more single,” Mimi groaned again, “Do you have any hot friends to introduce me to, Jeno?” “I don’t think they’re your style,” he shrugged it off, motioning at his attire of ripped black jeans and dark shirt. “So you do have some hot friends that are also single?” “You almost fainted when you saw me, I don’t think you could handle them.” “Don’t judge a book by its cover, babe,” you smiled, leaning into his body. “Sure, bubblegum,” he gently smiled back.

Because if you had judged him by his cover, you’d never be as happy as you were right now.

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh Season Zero: The Yo-Yo Crimes of Jounouchi Pt 1

It’s been a while since I visited the many times Yugi should have gone to jail, AKA season Zero, and I’m excited to visit it again.

If you just got here, this is Season Zero, which is very different vibe and a different direction plotwise than the other seasons and you can read the season zero recaps from the start in chrono order here: https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yuugi%20muto/chrono

So be warned, this is a 90′s anime, and it will do 90′s anime things, and I expect y’all reading this aren’t like 12.

Like I said in an earlier post, I wrote this out fully when I was going through the symptoms from my second dose--which PS, is worth it--but those symptoms knocked me out for 10 days. I was kind of a space cadet, and yo, I made some mistakes. Including writing this post out in full and then not clicking “save” on this post and then not realizing I had done that until several days later.

So long story short, I don’t remember what I originally wrote here, but lets all assume it was weird, and didn’t make sense and wasn’t funny. We’ll just assume this was for the best that it was deleted forever.

So this episode is about 2 things: Yo-yos and Jounouchi. Both get used as a tool for violence, and both need to get just a little bit cursed by Yugi to scale it the hell back. So, understandably, we start off this episode with Jounouchi, who has eagerly identified with this off brand yo-yo he apparently got out of a dumpster for being just a huge ass defect.

(more Yo-Yo crimes under the cut)

I see you dodging copyright infringement, Yugioh. Eireboy.

Also whenever I read “Eireboy” I do it in my mind in the same pacing and vocal tones that Pegasus uses to say “Kaiba boy.” Something about it’s conjunction to Yugioh, I see anything with “boy” at the end of it, and it’s voiced by a weird guy with one eye.

So I wrote these caps under the influence of my second dose, just assuming y’all understand the life I lived, but I realized writing this episode...traveling bands of yo-yo performers that go to your school and shill yo-yos with yo-yo shows in the hopes that it will get you so obsessed with yo-yos that you will not join a gang and do drugs and have sex may be just an American thing.

So when I saw a yo-yo episode I was like “Tight! Clearly, the yo-yo clowns have come to town!” and I assumed everyone in this class would be draped in yo-yos, because I just assumed that at some point at School you will get MAD OBSESSED with yo-yos for about 2 weeks.

But in this episode, everyone was like “Jounouchi, why are you playing with a random yo-yo?” and it didn’t occur to me until typing this out just now: only Jounouchi is doing this. He did this unprompted, without the encouragement of a bunch of middle aged performers doing tricks to techno music.

So instead, I have to think of Jounouchi as Ralphie in this scenario, and he just got a official Red Ryder, carbine action, 200-shot, range model air rifle, with a compass in the stock and this thing that tells time for Christmas, but he’s gonna shoot his eye out.

Because yo-yos in this episode are basically guns.

...Kind of like a duel deck was also just a gun...

...or the wands in Harry Potter...

...which honestly...I’ve probably said this before but where I’m from, we just use straight up guns in these elaborate analogies because we freakin have to make the point crystal clear. The moment Ralphie finally got his hands on a bb-gun, he very nearly shot his eye out and broke his glasses. And that scene will haunt me until my dying day...

...but fine, we can use yo-yos, I guess it works, although to me, yo-yo’s are just teachers hoping you’ll become such a dork that no gang will accept you (and then in this universe, it does the opposite? So freakin weird).

The beginning of this episode is Jounouchi trying do his best to impress with his skills, but in actuality, getting very close to clubbing Anzu with a yo-yo. And, while Anzu is the strongest person in Yugioh in the later seasons, I feel like Season Zero Anzu is another level. It’s a serious tempt of fate that Jounouchi is doing, so Honda wisely cuts him off from doing any more of that so she won’t end up strangling yet another person in broad daylight in the middle of school.

Remember your yo-yo safety, children.

Straight up, Honda’s version of yo-yo safety is to just Never Use a Yo-Yo and that’s the most gun safety thing ever that they’ve slipped into this Yugioh Episode. I almost expected Yuugi to pull a “well, actually, I use a hunting yo-yo to get enough venison to feed my family.” But youknow, he lives in a city, so while Yugioh is pretty weird and Yuugi has to worry about a lot of things--he doesn’t have to worry about that.

This is actually foreshadowing, which I only realized in hind sight, mostly because I just can’t associate a Yo-yo with crime. Joey knowing how to use a yo-yo was foreshadowing that he was absolutely part of this gang in a past life.

Yeah that one went completely over my head the first time and the second time and it really wasn’t until just now that I finally caught it. Hoo boy, sometimes I wonder why y’all let me analyze this show.

Jounouchi decides to confront the yo-yo bandits and everyone else is like “Silly Jounouchi, he’s not gonna do that. That would be stupid.” And...in S0, they don’t know him well enough yet to know that he really is that much of a well meaning dumbass.

I think a S1-5 Yugi would have been sprinting out the door to keep Joey from killing himself (again), but Season Zero Yuugi had hope that Jounouchi would just naturally tucker out and fall asleep or something.

And he was so wrong.

Anzu’s “New Tricks” line was from the dub itself and man that’s a good line. I love Anzu’s sass in Zero.

So, Honda decides to help them find Jounouchi so all of them together could give Jounouchi an intervention for skipping school. This is the same Honda that once skipped school to babysit a tomagachi and said it was because of “Maternity leave,” but don’t worry about the hypocrisy, because from this episode we learned that Jounouchi needs a very short leash.

So this episode is a great Jounouchi episode to explain stuff that still hasn’t been explained in 5 seasons of Yugioh. In S1-5, we don’t get much about his home life other than his Mom left and his Sister lives far away and is like sickly as hell. We know nothing else. But this is the episode where we finally get to find out why Yuugi and his Grandfather decided to basically adopt him from S1 onward.

Yugioh is tackling some pretty heavy territory, but I respect the show for not trying to magically change Jounouchi’s parents like they did to Dartz. Instead, the crew decide to reach out and try to find their friend who clearly didn’t go home last night (and won’t be going back for a while), by checking every alleyway in Domino.

Fun fact Yuugi drops this episode, Domino is one of the biggest cities on Earth. This makes the Battle City Tournament even more crazy when you realize Kaiba shut down several blocks but, it also makes a tiny bit more sense how we have so many Millennium items in one place. (Yet...it still doesn’t explain Bakura and Joey’s accent.) And, I guess if your city is just extra large, you get an extra large warehouse district, too.

Speaking of, they eventually find Jounouchi at his new (but also old) crime antics mugging some random stranger next to this Game store that I just realized was cropped so it looks like it says “GANG.”

Say hello to our crime clown. He’s sort of like a discount joker, and that beanie is...man it is green.

I forget this green exists sometimes, but Season Zero has it as one of their prime colors. Good ol’ Retro Kaiba green.

I’m a little tempted to swatch Season Zero a bit and figure out their full color scheme--it’s really saturated, which is interesting when you compare it to the later seasons which are a lot more muted since...the 00′s were like that, they greyed a lot of colors out. But I’ll do it later if I do, maybe another post for another day.

Jounouchi and Honda, before they moved to the school with Yuugi in it, used to go to the same school and up until now I just assumed they were close friends. But apparently they were a lot more distant than that. I’m sure they met up several times as Jounouchi destroyed stuff and Honda came along in his volunteer janitor outfit to put the stuff the hell back, and maybe that’s how they got to know eachother better?

But basically, Jounouchi was the freakin worst, and Jounouchi’s best friend was Hirotani--this 45 year old 15 year old with the blue pony and turquoise fade--and Honda has SO MUCH hot goss to say about it.

I really get the gist that Honda may not have liked anyone else at his old school, like at all. Like maybe Honda likes cleaning up trash so much because his school was just trash top to bottom.

As is tradition, Yuugi got his tar beat in by Hirotani. Another concussion to add to his list of issues to tell his future therapist that lives in that puzzle he wears around his neck.

I still expect him to do a double cross, but it seems they wanted to keep it a relatable and more realistic fall-out, where Jounouchi has just bounced on them without even a goodbye. He and his Dad had a bad fight, and Jounouchi was like “well so long to all of this and everyone that has anything to do with it.”

In later seasons, Joey is the one trying to save other people. He’s saving his Sister, he’s saving Mai, he’s saving Yugi, but in this season Jounouchi’s friends had to save Jounouchi from himself a few times now.

I like this depth to his character, I’ll be honest. I can understand why S1-5 don’t touch on it, and I don’t think it’s because they didn’t want to have an abusive Dad storyline, because they did that several times over with Seto Kaiba (man the Dad situation in Yugioh is DIRE.) Instead they probably just felt like Season Zero already did it, so why do it again?

It’s just a shame that it wasn’t talked about in the other seasons. Joey makes a lot more sense to me now because we get to see why Jounouchi is so hard set on saving people. S4 Mai Valentine, who ditched everyone and joined a gang? That’s basically a Joey move, and that was why Joey Wheeler was all over that.

Really would have added a lot to that particular arc if the show...actually talked about Joey’s history at all rather than assume I would have watched something that was never released in the States. Instead...it just looked a lot like he had only romantic motivations, which may not have been what they were going for.

Speaking of romantic, check out this sunset. Like the sun is exploding for some reason--just a wild sunset you only see for a still frame before a commercial break.

As Joey, youknow, takes on an entire rival gang single-handedly.

Hey guys, I lived near a pretty big city most of my life and I have been on a roof...once. Just the one time when I was doing an internship in SF with a painter and we needed to take a reference photo of his painting for a gallery (and it was hella sketch, and we weren’t exactly allowed up there). Who are all these people giving teens Roof Access? It’s so hard to get! Even if you live in an apartment of a tall building, I can count on zero of my fingers the amount of times I was allowed on that roof. But TV shows and movies--they freakin love roof gardens and roof hangouts and roof fights.

Am I missing out?? How did y’all get on the ROOF? I know I’m on S5 of Yugioh now and I have seen a lot of roof stuff, but like...is this normal for everyone else? I know there’s schools that have roof sport--that’s common in the city everywhere--but that’s like...specialized roofs with 30 ft chainlink fencing and really good supports to your body doesn’t fall straight through it when you jump too much. The hell is using their normal ass roof?

This gang should have their legs swinging halfway into the floor below them, is all I’m saying, if my roof couldn’t handle our solar heating, then a normal ass roof cannot support a gang fight.

But it does look really, really cool.

Anyway, Anzu does some offscreen snooping and finds out where the crime hangs out, and suggests that we step right into crime zone and just yank Jounouchi out of there. Which is something you would only do and say if you were Anzu and cannot fear death.

If it were Jay’s it would be with an ‘s. That’s how you do a plural Jay. But it’s the 90′s, so we put a “z” on the end of everything that should have been an “s” and that’s how you get the...

I mean, thank you, dubbers, for not saying “Jizz” but for reals...that be Jizz.

Please don’t flag me, Tumblr. (which, PS, I think they turned off the flagbot, Tumblr hasn’t flagged me in forever and I’m so thankful. Mods are asleep, we can talk about anime again)

So even though Honda decided that he was fed up with Jounouchi and didn’t want to save his ass, he decided to give it another go but complete with some new sash. He also did this without telling any of the others, who just kinda spectated him for a little while.

Honestly, if they weren’t laughing at him, I wouldn’t have known that this sash was any weirder than any of his other sashes. I don’t know really know what a school uniform should look like. It’s a shame, I feel like this series has a lot of jokes and puns probably soaring right over my head.

A little bit embarrased he was caught being vulnerable, Honda decides to give us a little more context to why he ever decided to give Jounouchi the time of day in the first place.

They had PE class once, and Honda apparently loves the hell out of PE. Jounouchi ran really fast in a straight line that one time, and that is why he’s trustworthy friend material. He just needs to stop joining gangs, and he’ll be solid.

I have no idea if the fandub put that in there or if that was native to the show, but Miho legit stans Honda/Jounouchi and acts as if she’s off to write some fanfiction about it. Honestly if she did, it would make her so much more interesting of a character.

And so, until next time, we shall have to wait and see exactly what Yami Yuugi is going to do with a freakin Yo-yo and I’m sure it’s all sorts of real effed up. Excited to get there, honestly. A shame it had to happen on the part that isn’t dubbed yet, but I’ve done these subbed before, it’ll be fine!

[spencers-renaissance]

The Noiseless Crash of Crumbling Walls

Summary: After Derek and Spencer are paired up on a science project in their senior year of high school, they become the closest, most unlikely friends possible. But what happens when Derek finally finds out what Spencer's dealing with at home? Inspired by the prompt “where did you get those bruises?”

Tags: high school au, hurt/comfort, fluff, angst, hurt spencer, protective derek, abuse, friendship, pre-slash, spencer just turned 16, derek is almost 18

Word Count: 4.6k

Pairing: Derek Morgan & Spencer Reid

Masterlist // Read on AO3 // Part Two

This is a platonic Derek & Spencer friendship fic because they are minors, but there are seeds being fairly obviously sown for part two of this series which will be set when they are both over the age of 18.

Spencer unfolds the creased piece of paper he’s holding for the eleventh time as he stares up at the house in front of him. He remembers the address scrawled on the sheet Derek Morgan had ripped from the back of his notebook earlier that day perfectly, the spiky peaks of his handwriting and the surprisingly loopy ‘y’s and ‘g’s are burned into his brain, but nerves have overtaken his helpless body. He’s not exactly in control of his actions. 

It’s not much but it’s definitely a cheerful house, that much is clear from the brightly lit windows and colourful curtains, the many gnomes decorating the front garden and the carefully planted flowers neighbouring the vegetable patch. One of the windows upstairs is cracked slightly and he can hear 90s R&B floating through the airwaves, accompanied by a female singing voice. The welcome he knows he’ll receive, though, is exactly what’s giving him pause.

A happy home is so foreign to him he has no idea how to behave. He’s used to being the adult, but tonight he has to play the 16 year old he is, and his mask is so dusty and disused he’s worried he won’t be anywhere close to convincing. 

Eventually, though, he summons up the courage to make his way up the stony path leading to the bright red front door. A brass knocker stares him in the face, but there’s a doorbell to his right as well, and the choice debilitates him for a moment, leaving him standing uselessly on the front step. He decides on the doorbell, since it’s a little more subtle, and he only has to wait a couple of seconds before the door is being yanked open and a smiling Derek Morgan is right in front of him. 

“I thought you’d never come.” His voice is bright and cheery but Spencer wonders for a moment if he’s mad at him. He’d been early when he first turned onto Derek’s road, but his over-thinking and ritualistic obsession over the address written on a scrap piece of paper had made him late. 

“Sorry,” he says sheepishly, and his desperation to be understood, his clear discomfort in such a foreign environment must be obvious, because Derek’s face softens even further. 

“Don’t be ridiculous, pretty boy,” he grins, slinging an arm around his shoulders and leading him deeper into the hallway as he kicks the door shut behind them. 

Pretty boy. He’d used the nickname once earlier that day when they were planning when to meet up for their science project, and Spencer had flushed immediately. No-one’s ever called him pretty. He’s an awkward, lanky 16 year old senior who’s far too short for his age; his appearance isn’t exactly conducive to flattery. 

The last time anyone had called him by a fond nickname was when he was eleven years old and his mother was still somewhat rational. She’d pulled him close and called him her baby boy, and while some pre-teens might have recoiled from such a name, he simply snuggled closer and tried to remember every second he was wrapped up in such warmth. Five years later, he’s so thankful he did. He replays it most nights before he drops off to sleep.

He blushes again at Derek’s easy affection, trying to relax into the warmth of his house. 

“Is that your friend, honey?” A woman emerges from what Spencer assumes is the kitchen, drying her hands on a teatowel. She looks every bit the stereotypical American mother, dressed in casual, comfortable clothes with a warm smile plastered across her face. “It’s so nice to meet you, sweetheart. I’m Fran, Derek’s mom.”

“It’s nice to meet you, too,” he says shyly, trying to meet her eyes but failing miserably. He can’t help that this whole experience is so out of his comfort zone it’s ridiculous. 

“Do you boys want any snacks to take up with you?”

“Are you hungry, Spencer?” Derek asks, and he internally panics for a moment. Yes, is the answer. Yes, I’m so hungry. The only thing I’ve eaten today is an apple this morning. But is he allowed to say that? He examines the both of them and it does look like a genuine offer, but will they guess that something is wrong if he says yes? It’s only six o’clock, though, so maybe he can swing it.

“Yes please,” he dares, “I haven’t had dinner yet.”

“Well, we can’t have that,” Fran says, putting her hands on her hips. “You both head on up. I’ll bring up a tray.” 

Derek’s room is big, filled with football trophies and posters. It’s so achingly normal that Spencer’s stomach clenches as he gingerly takes a seat on his bed at Derek’s instruction. 

“I did some research that will help us with our presentation,” Spencer offers as Derek sits on his desk chair, spinning around to face him. 

It had been a shock when they’d been paired up. Derek’s friends had hollered and laughed when their chemistry teacher had paired them together, and Spencer had gone bright red at the humiliation, not that he could exactly blame them. Pairing up the skinny nerd who’d been moved up two grades with the jock who was almost guaranteed a football scholarship to an excellent university later this year had been a rather bizarre choice on their teacher’s part.

It’s not that Spencer minded: along with being the quarterback with a 4.0 GPA, he was also painfully nice. But everyone else certainly did. Every girl in their science class had sent him death glares as Derek had sauntered over to his desk at the end of class, wearing a lazy grin.

“Chill, pretty boy,” Derek chuckles as he pushes himself side to side in his spinning chair. “We got time.”

“I have to be back home by 9,” Spencer says sheepishly. He’s sure most people in their senior year are allowed to stay out later than that, and he hopes against hope Derek thinks it’s only because he’s sixteen and not that he has to get his mother into bed and try and force her meds down her throat so she won’t wake him up in the middle of the night convinced the shadows in her room are government spies. 

“Still three hours. Anyway, I’m sure my mom can drop you home,” Derek shrugs. “It’s not a big deal. Besides, we have weeks until we have to present. Why don’t we spend tonight getting to know each other? I feel like I should know a little bit about my project partner, especially if we’re going to be working together for the rest of the year.”

“The rest of the year?” His voice squeaks anxiously but he can’t help it, Derek’s completely catching him off guard. 

“Yeah. Ms Farron keeps partners from the first project together for every assignment that year.”

This is news to Spencer, but he tries to keep calm. It’s a good thing, right? Derek has always been friendly to him, and he’s intelligent, too. It’s unlikely he’ll fob all the work off onto him. But being taken advantage of and subsequently left alone is what he’s used to: ‘getting to know each other’ is decidedly new territory. Spencer’s head is spinning. 

“Oh.”

“So, pretty boy,” Derek grins, giving himself another 360 spin, “tell me what a 16 year old is doing in senior year.”

“I got moved up two grades back in elementary school,” he explains, grateful that this is at least a rather impersonal topic. “My teachers wanted me even higher but two grades is the maximum our school district allows.”

“I guessed that much,” Derek points out. “Why were you moved up two grades?”

They’re briefly interrupted by Fran’s delivery of a delectable spread for them to feast on. Spencer reaches for a cracker and dips it in some cream cheese, but as soon as he’s swallowed his first bite, Derek gives him a look that tells him he hasn’t exactly gotten away with it. 

He sighs. “The last time I was tested, I had an IQ of 187,” he admits, looking down at his worn sneakers. He’d expected to be told to remove them, but he’s glad he wasn’t. His socks almost certainly have holes in them, and laundry isn’t something he can afford to do often. “And I have an eidetic memory.”

Derek lets out a low whistle. “Damn, I knew you were a genius but that’s some next level shit,” he says, before popping a grape in his mouth. “You’re going places, Spencer Reid.” He’s saved from having to fight his blush too hard by Derek moving swiftly on. “Your turn to ask me a question.” 

Spencer takes a second to think before deciding to push the boat out, to ask something he actually wants to know instead of playing it safe. “You’re popular, star of the football team, get straight As,” he starts slowly, not meeting Derek’s eyes. “What makes you so nice? You could easily join in with your friends and be another asshole jock pushing me into lockers.”

When he looks up, Derek’s face is an array of emotions. “Kindness costs nothing,” he says seriously, and the intensity of his gaze surprises Spencer. “I saw my pops shot to death in front of me when I was ten and I got my ass kicked every day in freshman year, believe it or not. I know what kindness can mean to a person just as much as I know what cruelty does to someone.”

Spencer doesn’t really know what to say to that, but he knows that he’s finally relaxed a little. Derek’s stark honesty and vulnerability, as much as he doesn’t know quite the right way to react, is refreshing to him, and it’s made the icon of their school seem much more human. 

“I’m sorry you had to go through that,” Spencer says quietly. 

“Thanks, man,” Derek says, a half smile crossing his face. “What about your family life?” 

Spencer swallows another bite of his cream cheese and crackers, his empty stomach thanking him for finally filling it. “My dad walked out when I was ten,” he admits, treading as carefully as possibly. “It’s just me and my mom now.”

“I’m sorry. Are you and your mom close?”

How does he answer a question like that? They’re close in the respect that Spencer cares for her and spends every free moment he has with her. But he also holds his breath every time he turns down his street, half expecting to see his house up in flames, and they’re going hungry this week because she threw most of their groceries in a nearby river after convincing herself it was all poisoned. They don’t exactly have a typical mother-son relationship. 

“Something like that,” he mumbles, stuffing another cracker into his mouth. Derek clearly takes the hint that he doesn’t want to elaborate and moves on. 

They spend the rest of the evening taking it in turns asking one another questions, ranging from simple ones like their favourite colours to deeper conversations around their future plans and biggest fears. By the time 9 rolls around, they’re lying next to one another on Derek’s bed both facing the ceiling as they trade questions back and forth. Fran’s dinner tray is now covered in crumbs, her carefully prepared spread having been demolished by two hungry teenagers. 

Their assigned topic, Enthalpy, Entropy, and Free Energy, hasn’t even been touched, and Spencer can’t find it in him to care. He could throw together a perfect presentation the night before if he needed to. Right now, getting to know Derek Morgan seems far more important. Ironically, the boy he’s only really started to get to know three hours ago is probably the person who knows him best in this whole world, and the thought makes his chest hurt. 

The jittery nerves that had consumed him at the start of the evening have dissipated into a calm companionship, and he can’t believe how comfortable he now feels. He doesn’t want to leave, but he has to take care of his mom; she’s already been on her own for so long today. 

As if on cue, Fran knocks on the door, poking her head round. “Would you like me to drop you home, Spencer?”

He feels guilty accepting, but the last thing he wants is a twenty minute walk home through the streets of Chicago in the pitch black December night. “Yes, please.”

Derek comes with them for the short drive, and Spencer feels a little embarrassed as he points out the apartment block he lives in. It’s a shitty neighbourhood and his building is crumbling, but it’s home and it’s the cheapest they can afford on welfare. He ducks out of the car and shoots them both a grateful smile. 

“Thank you for driving me home, Fran,” he says. “And thank you for a nice evening, Derek.”

“No problem, pretty boy,” Derek winks. “I’ll find you at school tomorrow and we’ll sort out another night to meet up, yeah?”

The smile the Morgans put on his face doesn’t fade until he opens the door to his apartment and reality brings him crashing back down to earth. 

⭐️

Over the next few weeks, Spencer Reid gains his first friend. They finally end up actually writing their presentation and naturally, they get an A+ but Spencer’s anxiety that Derek would want to stop hanging out with him once the project that had brought them together was behind them ended up being for nothing. Derek had fist-bumped him as they’d walked out of their classroom. “Come over tonight?” he’d asked, and once Spencer had recovered from his shock, he’d beamed and nodded excitedly. 

As Christmas comes and goes, they continue their bizarre friendship. Spencer runs up to Derek’s room as soon as the door is opened, and dives under the covers on his bed, always freezing cold. The first time Derek had cuddled Spencer, he hadn’t been able to stop smiling. He’s seriously touch-starved, and it’s only more apparent from the way he craves contact with Derek. He’s ridiculously thankful that the older boy is so free with his affection, not consumed by the same toxic masculinity that seems to plague the rest of the football team. 

It’s nearing February when Derek asks the fatal question.

Spencer had whizzed home after school and made sure his mom was okay before running over to Derek’s, breezing past Sarah on the staircase and diving onto the soft, clean bed sheets. He’s sometimes jealous of all the home comforts his friend has access to, but he does his best to tamp it down. It’s not like it’s Derek’s fault that he’s well-loved and cared for. 

“Whoa, pretty boy,” Derek chuckles as he spins around from where he’s doing homework at his desk. “Where’s that shy boy who sat right on the edge of my bed only two months ago, hm?”

“You prefer confident Spencer and you know it.” He moves up the bed a little to sit with his back against the headboard. He’s never become so comfortable around a person this quickly before but there’s something different about Derek. 

“Can’t argue with that.” He gets off the chair and moves to sit next to Spencer on the bed, lifting his arm to let the smaller boy cuddle close. Spencer sometimes has nightmares that the boys at school find out how affectionate they are with one another and call them gay after which Derek doesn’t want to hang out with him anymore. (Secretly, he thinks he might actually be gay, but he won’t tell Derek that. Just in case.)

“Can I stay for dinner?” he asks. It’s a moot point: Spencer always asks if he can stay and the Morgans always say yes, but he doesn’t like assuming, especially since he knows how expensive food is. Not that Fran has ever complained about an extra mouth to feed, though. The dinners at Derek’s house are always a family affair, full of laughter and hearty, homemade meals and Spencer likes pretending he’s one of them, just for a little while. 

The guilt that he’s leaving his mom for so long eats him up, only eased by the knowledge that she usually sleeps the afternoon away, worn out by a manic morning. He has no idea how to navigate this anymore. It was easier when the only person he had in the world was his mom, but now he has Derek and his family. And as much as he loves his mom and doesn’t mind taking care of her at all, spending time with Derek doesn’t automatically trigger gut-eating anxiety and heart-wrenching misery.

“Of course you can stay, don’t be ridiculous.” Derek elbows him playfully. “You don’t need to ask every night.”

“What if one night you don’t want me to stay, though?”

“I thought I told you to stop being ridiculous?”

Spencer can’t help but smile at Derek’s relaxed, easy grin. For some reason this popular football player with the world as his oyster and a million friends chooses to spend every evening with the nerd who’s two years younger than everyone in their year. For some reason, Derek chooses Spencer. 

After a few minutes of comfortable silence, Derek asks the question. “Why don’t I come over to your place instead one evening?” It’s a casual suggestion, there’s nothing really behind it. “I’d like to meet your mom and see your bedroom. If you’re gonna make fun of my football trophies, I need some revenge material.”

Spencer freezes. He has no idea how to respond to such an innocent proposition. Derek takes his stunned silence as reluctance simply cured with a little more persuasion. “Besides,” he continues, “I feel bad that you always have to run home first before coming over here. It’s like a twenty minute walk.”

“I don’t know,” Spencer hedges, trying to buy time as he comes up with a cover story. “My mom is really particular about our space and she doesn’t really like visitors. I’m not sure your mom could spare you a family dinner anyway.” He pushes Derek playfully, hoping to God he’s even half-way convincing. 

One glance at Derek’s face tells him he isn’t buying it, but he can clearly read Spencer’s troubled anxiety expression so he doesn’t push it. “Okay, pretty boy,” he says, relaxing back into the bed, “we’ll stick with the Fran Morgan dinner delight for now.”

Something tells him he won’t get so lucky next time. 

⭐️

Spring is just starting to show her face the next time it comes up, and this time it’s completely Spencer’s fault. He shouldn’t have gone over to Derek’s. He should have made up an excuse and stayed in his shitty apartment with his mom, but he couldn’t help it. He was sore and desperately sad, and all he wanted was Fran’s comforting shepherd’s pie and a cuddle with Derek. So he’d made his way home, checked his mom was still sleeping before limping over to the Morgan’s.

He’d concealed it pretty well all day, but energy is seeping out of him and the pain is only getting worse, not helped by the decent trek across town. 

He has a key now, so he lets himself in, hoping to avoid Fran until dinner time. Luckily, he’s quiet enough to not disturb her baking in the kitchen, so he makes his way slowly up the stairs, hoping Derek is not as perceptive tonight as he usually is. He’d briefly considered using bullies as a cover story if it came up, but Derek has spent almost every moment he could at school with him the last few days, he wasn’t out of his sight long enough to really encounter anyone cruel enough for it to be a viable story. 

“Pretty boy,” Derek greets him, not turning away from the maths homework he’s finishing up. It gives Spencer a little extra time to make it to the bed like he usually does. “You good?”

“Yeah,” Spencer sighs. “A bit tired. You?”

“Training was rough today so I’m sore as shit, but otherwise I’m fine. Better now you’re here.” He turns to smile fondly at Spencer, finally locking eyes on his pale, sallow skin and defeated expression. He scrambles to try and make himself look slightly less terrible, but he’s not quick enough. “You sure you’re good? You don’t look it.”

“No, seriously, I’m fine,” Spencer tries to persuade him. “Just tired as I said. Can we watch a movie while we wait for dinner?”

Derek doesn’t look even close to convinced, but he gives in and brings up netflix on his computer. Spencer collapses against Derek and lets his eyes close as the film they choose plays across the laptop screen, but he must fall asleep because the next thing he knows, he’s being shaken awake by his friend and he’s in a completely different position. 

“Spencer, wake up,” he says insistently, and the urgent worry in his tone makes him sit up, wincing when the movement aches his core. 

“What? What’s wrong?” he mumbles sleepily, obediently sitting up at Derek’s instruction. 

“Pretty boy,” Derek says, sounding teary and a little desperate, “where did you get those bruises?” 

He freezes for a second before glancing down at himself and realising that as he’d slept his shirt had shifted, revealing his black and blue stomach. How the fuck was he going to explain this? Not seeming himself wasn’t such a challenge, everyone has their off-days after all, but bruises like these aren’t the sort of thing your best friend just drops when you don’t want to explain them. 

“I—” He has no idea what to say. Tears spring to his eyes in a terribly unhelpful fashion, and Derek moves closer, wrapping Spencer up in a hug. 

“It’s okay, you can tell me, Spencer,” he promises as he holds him so tenderly it breaks his heart. “Take your time.” 

He cries for a good few minutes — it just feels so good to let it out — but as his painful sobs draw to a close, he knows it’s time to face the music. There’s no other option. He has to tell Derek. And maybe a teeny tiny part of him actually wants to tell his best friend.

“I haven’t been honest with you,” he confesses, keeping his head buried in his friend’s chest so he doesn’t have to look him in the eyes. Derek’s hand combing through his hair doesn’t falter. “The reason I didn’t want you to come to my place is because of my mom… She’s a paranoid schizophrenic. When my dad left I became her primary carer, and I’m— I’m not doing a good job.”

Derek holds him a little tighter and presses his cheek to the top of Spencer’s head, shushing him quietly. “Don’t say that, I’m sure you’re doing an amazing job.”

“The other night she got confused because she’d refused her meds again. She became convinced that I was a spy there to hurt her. I can usually talk her down from these moments, or at least guide her to bed to let her sleep it off, but this time there was no reasoning. Eventually, she got so worked up that she shoved me backwards, hard. It sent me sprawling face first across the coffee table, and she kicked me twice before considering herself safe and barricading herself in her room.” He tells the whole story through thick tears, shoulders still shaking with pent up emotion. He wishes it didn’t feel so good to finally get off my chest. 

“Spencer, oh my God,” Derek whispers, sounding thoroughly shocked. He’s suddenly fearful that he’s going to report Diana, and he sits up, finally meeting Derek’s teary eyes with his own. 

“You can’t… you can’t tell anyone,” he begs. “If anyone finds out, she’ll be locked away and I’ll be put into foster care. I can’t do that to her and I can’t lose you.” 

Derek takes Spencer’s hands. “Okay, okay,” he soothes, making him calm down a little. “I promise I won’t tell anyone, okay? Not without your permission. But I also can’t let you be beat up by your mom.”

“It’s not her fault,” Spencer says desperately, “it’s not her fault. She doesn’t know what she’s doing, she thinks she’s in danger.”

“I know,” Derek promises him, “I know it’s not her fault, but she still hurt you. Has this happened before?” Spencer’s hung head and refusal to respond speaks for itself. “Okay, listen. I know you need to go home tonight, but come over tomorrow morning okay? It’s a Saturday and we can spend the morning figuring out a game plan and the afternoon taking your mind off it. How does that sound?”

“Yeah, okay.”

“Is this… is this why you like being here?” Derek sounds nervous asking the question, clearly not wanting to offend him.

“Before I became friends with you,” he whispers, moving back to hide against Derek’s chest where it’s safe, “I went hungry a lot. We don’t have much money between rent and bills and mom’s medical expenses. I had to hide the groceries because she would become convinced they were poisoned and destroy them, but she got really good at finding them. I had to stop keeping them in my room because she would insist that I was corroborating with the government in trying to poison her.” 

“Spencer,” Derek breathes, holding onto him for dear life. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry I didn’t know about any of this, I would’ve done something, I could’ve helped.”

“I didn’t want anyone to know.”

“I’ll keep you safe now. I promise.” 

When Fran comes and asks them down for dinner a few minutes later, Derek points to Spencer’s exhausted form slumped against him and asks if they can have it up in his room. She relents, and Derek manages to get him to eat a few bites of the risotto Fran had made, not leaving his safe cocoon against Derek’s chest.

He insists on driving Spencer home himself tonight, surprising Fran who had her coat and boots on already, but he escorts his friend right up to his door. “If you come in, mom will get confused,” he explains so Derek gives him a long hug in front of his apartment door instead, holding him as close as possible. 

“Spencer… you know I love you right?” he asks, expression intense and serious as his gentle hands rest on his shoulders. “You’re my best friend. I’m always gonna be here for you.”

“I love you, too, Derek,” he whispers, giving him another hug. It scares him just how much he means those five little words, all the meanings that dance behind them taking him aback. For now, though, he settles on one more tight squeeze before deciding to not procrastinate the inevitable anymore. “I should go in and see mom.”

“Yeah. I’ll pick you up at 9 tomorrow?”

“Perfect.” His heart does an excited little leap at the thought of seeing Derek again in the morning. As he walks away back towards the elevators, Spencer takes a deep breath before inserting his key into the lock on his door and pushing it open. He only has to go 12 hours without seeing his best friend. He can do this. 

His life suddenly seems like it holds infinitely more promise than it ever has. He supposes that’s the power of Derek Morgan.

Part Two 

taglist: @criminalmindsvibez @hotchgans @suburban--gothic @strippersenseii @takeyourleap-of-faith  (taglist form)

[artificialqueens]

Galactica, Chapter 91 (Group Fic) - TheDane/Veronica

A/N: Click here if you’re looking for previous chapters (or here if you’d rather read on AO3). 💫

Previously: Kade joined Pearl and Violet’s drunken night out; Sutan begrudgingly signed Tatianna; and Team Adult was more fractured than ever.

This Chapter: Kade and Violet bond, Tati meets her new roommates, Bianca’s group texts to Team Adult leads to dueling brunches, and Team Baby officially joins forces with the Models.

***

Pearl woke up, her throat as dry as the Sahara desert, which wasn’t all that unusual after a night out. What was unusual, was that Pearl very clearly remembered climbing into Kade’s bed with Violet, the man insisting that he’d take the couch.

Yet, there was no Violet, the sheets cold beside her.

Pearl rolled onto her back, taking a deep breath to fight the nausea, the wire in her bra digging into her ribs. She sat up, spotting her jeans on the floor and grabbing them, her phone thankfully in her back pocket, drunk Pearl a master at losing things.

It had run out of charge, Pearl sighing deeply at the inconvenience. She was just about to start looking for a charger on Kade’s nightstand, when she heard a noise come from the other room.

Pearl got out of bed, quickly pulling on her jeans and collecting her hair in a bun, her jacket from last night thrown on the floor too.

She pushed the door open, a bizarre sight greeting her.

Kade and Violet were sitting on a beat up couch, the living room Pearl hadn’t paid attention to last night more drag closet than it was a functioning living room, sparkly clothes spread everywhere.

Violet was eating, a piece of toast in her hand, her body language completely relaxed. She was wearing last night's clothes, though it didn’t seem to bother her, a big smile on her lips as she listened to Kade who was flipping through a magazine and animatedly telling a story, almost spilling his coffee in his enthusiasm, neither of them noticing her, the two of them off in their own little world.

Pearl had never seen sober Violet this interested in anyone. Hell, Violet was barely this interested in her when she was drunk, and Pearl was pretty damn sure she had heard Violet call her her best friend.

“Really? I say I can make anything you’d like…” Violet sounded surprised, but intrigued, “And you want orange?”

“Don’t say it like that!” Kade gasped, mock offense on his face, “You know I’d look gorge Gorge!”

“Sure, it’d be perfectly lovely,” Violet smiled, her voice dripping with sarcasm, Pearl’s chest tightening with what she refused to identify as jealousy, Kade and Violet like two peas in a pod.

***

“Fuck,” Tatianna groaned, flopping into her narrow twin bed, arm over her eyes. She’d spent the morning moving into the model apartment, which was actually pretty exciting, but she was exhausted.

Elite had sent a car to her aunt and uncle’s house in New Jersey, which Tatianna thought was a joke when Sutan’s assistant had texted the details. Models Plus had never reimbursed her Ubers—or even given her subway fare.

The girls seemed really nice so far, especially the slighter older British one called Bimini. She had taken the time to show Tati all around, including the gym on the building’s ground floor, which Tati gathered she was expected to utilize regularly. She’d already noticed that the other girls under Sutan all had a little more muscle tone than she was used to seeing on editorial models, and she liked that. Apparently Sutan wasn’t into representing the whole wispy, waifish 90s vibe, which made her feel better about her own body; she’d secretly wondered if her tits and ass were the reason she had a hard time finding an agency. But Sutan seemed confident that she could do editorial and runway, which was amazing. She made a mental note to write Bianca a very long thank you note.

It was going to be interesting, living with a group of girls like this. The rooms were set-up like dorm rooms, and Tati got the distinct feeling that Bimini was their unofficial RA. She hoped that everyone would be chill, but was very prepared for drama—that she’d hopefully stay out of.

The door to her room swung open and she sat up. That must be her roommate, Naomi, who she already knew from the pictures on her vanity mirror was a stunning girl with legs for days and lips to die for.

“Hi! I’m-”

“Tatianna. I know,” Naomi said, tossing a few shopping bags on the bed. “I hope you’re not a snorer.”

She turned toward the closet, flipping her long dark hair over her shoulder. Tati raised her eyebrows. This was clearly someone used to being Queen Bee. But Tati had spent enough time both as a cheerleader in high school and then in a sorority to know Mean Girl posturing, so she just laughed.

“Same, I guess,” she retorted. “And thanks for the warm welcome.”

Naomi turned back to her slowly, dark eyes scrutinizing her closely for the first time. Tati gave a bright smile, showing how not intimidated she was, and Naomi sat down on her bed, facing her. After a moment or two, she tilted her head.

“What are you, anyway?” Naomi asked suddenly, and Tati let out an incredulous chuckle.

“What am I?” Tati asked, pursing her lips prissily.

“You know what I mean.” Naomi said, tapping the back of her hand lightly.

Tati laughed again, nodding. “My mom’s Black. Dad’s Italian.”

“Ah. Cool.” A genuine smile finally broke through on Naomi’s pretty face. “Sorry for being a bitch. I’m just really not in the mood to see another new girl come in and get better jobs than me because my agent has this dumb shit idea that all I can do is swimwear. Like, has anyone ever actually wanted to do Miami Fashion Week?”

“I get that,” Tati said, “My last agent tried the same thing with me.”

“Right? I know that I have an ass that won’t quit, but that doesn’t mean I can’t do French Vogue.”

“Exactly!”

Naomi smiled again, then said, “Hey um, if you’re not doing anything tonight, my boyfriend invited me to this club downtown. You could come.”

“Oh! Yeah, that sounds cool,” Tati said. “I was just gonna hit up some friends who live in the city, but we don’t have solid plans yet.”

“Are they hot?”

“Totally hot,” Tati said.

“The more the merrier,” Naomi said, spreading her arms grandly.

***

BIANCA: We’re still on for brunch tomorrow right?

BIANCA: Hello?

DETOX: lol

BIANCA: I’m serious!! Are we on or not?

BIANCA: Me +1

BIANCA: ;)

RAJA: You’re not funny

DETOX: She’s a little funny

RAVEN: Why hasn’t this bitch been booted yet? Honestly?

BIANCA: Sorry what’s your name again?

RAJA: Shut up

RAVEN: Fuck you Bianca

[RAVEN HAS LEFT THE CHAT]

RAJA: Why can’t you ever just not be an asshole?

JUJU: Now now kids. Maybe let’s all take a deep breath?

RAJA: I don’t need a deep breath. It’s Bianca that’s being an insensitive cunt.

BIANCA: Good to know that the first lieutenant is in position

DETOX: *eats popcorn*

KARL: Why are you guys blowing up my phone? Is this something I should care about or just some lesbian bullshit?

DETOX: LOL check your insta DMs

KARL: :o

[FAME HAS LEFT THE CHAT]

Karl: :OO

BIANCA: So...then that’s a no on brunch? :’(

RAJA: Obviously

BIANCA: Fucking hell

JUJU: Sorry sweetheart

KARL: Sutan!! I can see you’re reading these! Pick up your phone!

JUJU: I’m sure it’ll work out.

JUJU: Someone should still bring me waffles tho tbh

***

Fame took a shaky breath, leaning back against the smooth porcelain edge of her tub.

She had been relaxing since Patrick was out, when her phone started dinging like crazy, picking it up and reading the messages like a slap in the face.

Fame hadn’t imagined that Bianca could be that insensitive, that she could be cruel enough to make light of how serious this entire situation was to their friends.

She took a deep breath, refusing to cry, her phone quiet now since she had left the group chat.

It was so like Bianca to attempt to skate over hurt feelings, to be unwilling to deal with the harm she caused, but Fame thought that she, that they, were important enough to Bianca for her to be vulnerable or at least honest.

Fame hated it, but it seemed like her place in Bianca’s life didn’t matter anymore, a 20 year old trick clearly the only thing Bianca cared about now.

She didn’t cry, but she could feel the tears threatening to spill as the feeling of abandonment washed over her. Was this really her dear friend? How could she act this way? How dare she act this way? The more Fame thought about it, the angrier she felt, the rage inside of her demanding to spew forth like lava, turning everything to ashes in its wake.

FAME: I cannot believe you're making light of this. Where is your compassion?

BIANCA: Compassion for WHAT? I don't even know why you're pissed at this point.

FAME: You don't know why I'm mad? Are you serious?

BIANCA: Yes! Is this about her quitting? Because 1, that's not my fault and 2, and even if it was, you fucking hated her so...no, I don't know what you're so mad about

FAME: Her quitting is just the nail in the fucking coffin. Was that your plan all along? When I told you not to date her and then you went behind my back and did it anyway? You betrayed me and disrespected our years of friendship, all for some cheap conquest. I’m sure you abandoned the taste testing for Courtney, not caring that I needed you. You humiliated Galactica with your red carpet PR stunt, with no consideration for my business or reputation. You behaved beyond selfishly at the Christmas party, where I bet you left your chosen family to go fuck a girl you barely know. You even hung up on me when you were in Puerto Rico, which you visited without telling any of us! She threw away my sketches, yet you defend her? You put her needs above everyone else, and it’s incredibly heartless and frankly stupid when we all know you’re gonna lose interest the second someone better catches your eye, just like always.

BIANCA: ...

BIANCA: You're a psychopath

BIANCA: You're not serious, right? I mean...

BIANCA: Fame

BIANCA: Fame

BIANCA: Fame…

BIANCA: FAME

BIANCA: FAME!

FAME: Fuck off with that guilt trip shit. I know my truth!

BIANCA: Me?! You’re the one who’s guilt tripping!

BIANCA: HELLO

[MISSED CALL]

[MISSED CALL]

[MISSED CALL]

BIANCA: Ugh. Whatever. I’ll talk to you when you get your head out of your ass

***

“Are you okay?” Courtney asked, settling down beside her on the sofa.

“I’m…”

What Bianca was, more than anything, was stunned. She had been thinking, all week, that Fame was having an over-the-top hissyfit about Courtney quitting. But then, Fame hit her with a diatribe not only listing off every sin she’d committed for months, but also assuming the absolute worst at every turn. It was so obnoxious, so petty. Bianca didn’t know how to feel. All she knew was that there was a twisting in her gut, that her heart was pounding as if she’d just run four blocks.

She was shaken from her stupor by the feel of Courtney taking her hand, delicately lacing their fingers together.

“I can stay home if you want,” she said quietly, “I’m sure Tati will understand.”

Bianca had been keeping Courtney abreast of the texts going back and forth with her friends. Not the full details, of course, only an abridged version, making sure to keep her tone jovial, reiterating how funny she found it that they were overreacting so much. But she supposed that after the latest exchange, even she couldn’t fake the lightheartedness.

She looked at Courtney, taking in her expression of concern, and managed a smile.

“No, you don’t have to…you don’t have to babysit me. I’ll be fine. Tell Tati I’m glad it all worked out with Tan.”

“I will.” Courtney leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her lips, then pulled back slightly to ask, “What can I do to make you feel better?”

“I don’t know,” Bianca said honestly.

Courtney squeezed her hand, sympathetic, and then looked at her with wide, earnest eyes, and asked, “Do you want me to sit on your face?”

At that, Bianca burst out laughing, wrapping Courtney up into a tighter embrace, grateful for her uncanny ability to always put a smile on her face. “How did you know exactly what I wanted?”

“Witchcraft,” Courtney said solemnly before grinning down at her.

“Excellent,” Bianca laughed, then added, “Hey, I think I’m gonna invite Juju over tomorrow.”

“Okay,” Courtney nodded pensively, “I’m up for a threesome if that’s what you-”

“Not a threesome!” Bianca exclaimed, pinching her just below the ribs, making her squeal. “For brunch, you dingbat…”

“Ah, okay. That sounds good too,” Courtney said, the delighted smile never leaving her face.

“You’re such a goofball,” Bianca said, still laughing, “And I love you.”

***

ADORE: Bro, are we at the right club?

ADORE: I see a lot of straight dudes.

COURTNEY: Yeah, pretty sure some of these guys work in the Galactica building. Yuck.

ADORE: Wahhhhh

TATI: COME INSIDE!

ADORE: This is so not my scene. And Courtney’s on Team Lez now too, haha

COURTNEY: Lol #rideordie

ADORE: There’s a bar down the block that has red hook on tap

TATI: Please come in

TATI: I’ll make it worth your while ;)

ADORE: LOL well when you put it that way…

***

“I’m so proud of you,” Courtney said, wrapping her arms around Tati’s waist and giving her an impulsive embrace on the dance floor.

“Wait until I actually book a job to be proud,” Tati laughed, taking Courtney’s hand and spinning her in dizzying circles.

“I can’t help it! Plus your roommates seem really sweet.”

When Tati told Courtney that her new roommate’s boyfriend was getting them into a club, she was not expecting a night out with a posse of professional basketball players. Luckily, the guys seemed content to chill and smoke weed in the VIP section while the girls danced. Because if there was one thing Courtney had zero interest in anymore, it was pandering to the ego of straight dudes. Morgan, however, was on cloud nine, practically in the lap of one of the guys as she flirted her ass off in the corner.

“They do!” Tati exclaimed happily. “Living there could end up being really fun.”

“More fun than living with me?” Adore asked, lips turned down in pout.

“Nothing’s more fun than living with you,” Tati replied quickly, kissing her square on the mouth.

“Awww, thanks bunny.”

Nearby, one of the models—the redhead, whose name Courtney had forgotten—let out a squeal of laughter, toasting with another girl before both of them quickly downed shots.

“Hey, uh, just out of curiosity…how old are these girls?” Courtney asked Tati, voice low so as not to embarrass them.

“Their IDs say old enough,” Tati answered with a laugh.

“Do you think maybe we should make sure-”

“I think you shouldn’t worry about it,” Tyra cut in quickly, handing out more shots. “You’re not their mom.”

“True.” Courtney shrugged, clicking her glass against Tyra’s with a grin. “They just look like babies, so-”

“Everyone looks like babies next to your girlfriend.”

“Hey now.”

“Yeah, just ‘cause you’re living with an old woman doesn’t mean you hafta turn into a narc!” said Adore.

“I’m not gonna narc! I just meant maybe we should make sure there’s water available,” Courtney insisted.

“Great idea,” Tyra said, opening a water bottle and splashing Courtney with it.

Courtney shrieked, ducking behind Adore for protection. She supposed her friends were right; it really wasn’t her business. And anyway, the drinking age being 21 here was incredibly dumb, practically forcing people to get fake IDs. She’d had one too, in college. So as long as everyone was standing of their own accord, everything would be fine.

Suddenly, a Tove Lo remix came on and she screamed happily, immediately finding Adore like a magnet, the two of them whirling around the dance floor together, joy flooding through her veins like a drug.

***

“Is your stomach still bothering you?” Sutan called from the closet, checking up on Violet who was lying on the bed, his girlfriend telling him in a quiet voice that she was nauseous when he had woken up, though she hadn’t looked at him as she spoke.

“Mmh,” Violet nodded, her head resting on the pillow, an untouched cup of tea on the nightstand, Violet insisting that she didn’t need anything from the pharmacy. “Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize, lovely eyes.” Sutan picked up a tie, stepping out of the wardrobe and walking over to the bed to sit down, looping the tie around his neck. He wouldn’t normally be wearing a full suit on Sunday, but Fame was insisting that everyone dress up for brunch at Le Coucou, and there was no way in hell that Sutan was going to be the one rocking the boat right now.

“You know,” Sutan looked down at Violet, unsure how to breach the subject, “I’m not saying that your stomach isn’t hurting...” Sutan had tied a Windsor knot so many times he didn’t need to look, his fingers doing the work on their own. “But it doesn’t have to hurt for you to get out of going to brunch.”

“What?” Violet’s eyes widened, a flush spreading across her cheeks, “I, it does, I’m not-”

“I know, but if you were, I’d understand,” Sutan moved a little closer, the side of his leg pressed against Violet’s chest. “I’m not sure I’d want to hang out with my boss and her friends on a Sunday either.”

Especially when said boss was in a bad mood, which he didn’t say aloud since it wouldn’t make a difference, one way or the other.

Sutan knew that Violet was struggling being back in Fame’s office, but she hadn’t brought it up to him, hadn’t said a single word about it.

She hadn’t demanded he’d use his influence on Fame to make her life easier, hadn’t attempted to manipulate him, hadn’t forced him into a power struggle that wouldn’t benefit anyone, and make everything worse.

It was one of the reasons he loved her, Violet always insisting on separating work and what they had together.

“Right…” Violet bit her lip, still looking a little unsure, “Well, maybe, when you get back from brunch, I’ll be feeling better?”

“I’d like that,” Sutan smiled, leaning down to press a kiss against her forehead. “I’d like that a lot.”

***

“I would make fun of you for so clearly sucking up to me, but…I don’t want you to stop,” Juju laughed, helping herself to another Belgian waffle, her hand resting on her stomach.

“Hey, you’re the one who said you wanted waffles,” Bianca said, pushing the syrup towards her.

“Thanks, Daddy,” Juju teased, fluttering her lashes, earning a disgusted groan from Kelly and laughter from everyone else.

After the downright hostile reception from the Team Fame contingent of her friend group (as for Fame herself, Bianca was still too flabbergasted by what she’d said to think about her right now), Bianca had said to hell with it and just invited Juju and her family over for brunch. Thankfully, Juju accepted. It made Bianca somewhat relieved that at least one of them wasn’t going to shun her, and actually gave her hope that she could make it right with the rest at some point—although she wasn’t planning to try again until tempers subsided. The fact that Karl and Sutan hadn’t officially picked sides was a promising sign that there was still a chance.

So far, brunch was going well. Adore, who was there as a potential buffer, was off in her own world and thankfully not needed to keep things chill. Juju was just happy to be fed, and Detox could always be counted on to be an absolute pussy when he was outnumbered, so besides a few cheeky comments, he was on pretty good behavior. Plus, the kids had immediately fallen in love with Courtney, especially Julia. The little girl was sitting in her lap and chattering away, more animated than Bianca had ever seen her.

She couldn’t really follow���apparently she was recounting the plot of a movie or TV show. Bianca strongly suspected that Courtney wasn’t really following either, but she was doing an excellent job of nodding and encouraging her, and even getting her to pause and eat a bite of food every few minutes.

Bianca caught Courtney’s eye and gave her a wink. Courtney grinned back, smoothing down Julia’s slick black ponytail and trying to tempt her with a strawberry covered in vegan whipped cream.

Beside her, Adore giggled at something on her phone.

“Something you wanna share with the rest of the class, Adore?” Bianca asked. Now that she wasn’t on edge, she could afford to be curious about what was capturing her sister’s attention.

“Not really,” Adore said, thumbs moving at lighting speed.

“You know, you could put the phone away while we’re having a meal.”

“Sorry mom.” Adore gave a dramatic eye roll and then placed her phone face down.

“Is there some new girl in your life?” Juju asked, her voice light and teasing.

“Yeah, anyone we know?” Detox followed up.

“Maybe, and…maybe,” Adore said coyly. “But I don’t know if it’s gonna be anything except some flirting.”

“You’re getting kind of old for that, aren’t you?” Kelly asked.

“I’m 24,” Adore replied, brow furrowed.

“Exactly.”

“Well, anyway…that smile on your face says it’s more than flirting,” Juju told her, taking a delicate sip of the mimosa-adjacent tangerine spritzer that Courtney had made for her.

“Who wants to bet that she’ll be breaking out the U-Haul in a week like her big sis?” Detox snickered.

“Hey! It wasn’t a week, it was…a month,” Bianca said, wondering how that math could possibly be accurate. Shit. Had it really only been a month?

“The best month,” Courtney said, looking so earnest that Bianca didn’t care anymore about De’s smirking face.

“Yeah,” she agreed, dimples deep in her cheeks.

“Awww…that’s so gross,” Kelly noted, and Juju snorted out a laugh, nodding.

[tomdiddlyumptious]

Can u do a Tom Holland x model (tall) reader where she’s friends with law roach and zendaya and z and law roach introduces Tom and Toms friends to reader at a after party and they become friends and it’s fashion week and reader invites them and reader does multiple runways and photo shoots and Tom really likes her 🥰maybe fluff and smut

IT WAS TO FLUFFY TO ADD SMUT BABE- THANKS FOR THE ASK! REQUESTS ARE STILL CLOSED I HAVE TO FINISH THE ONES ALREADY ASKED!

Summary: ah, nothing like a nice life

Warnings: boob grabbing, dancing, sitting on laps and fluff! No smut!

A/n: IM SO SORRY THIS TOOK TO LONG- NOT PROOF READ!

T.H| I’m OuTsIdE iN a AmG

You sat down on your phone, playing candy crush like the old person you are, it was an after party and you came with zendaya and law roach, you’ve been friends for a little bit but it was nice, you both got closer then you both expected. You sat there pretty in a black tuxedo, shirtless with red bottoms on, hair in a shag, a pretty one though. You lifted your leg and placed ontop of the other, it was like any other after party, boring. Zendaya and law roach singing the lyrics while others jumped around them.

“Y/n!” Zendaya said, catching your attention, you shut off your phone and put it in the side of your pants, looking up at her. “Get up I wanna introduce you to someone” “zendaya-“ “later please” she took your hand and lifted you from your seat, you took the seat with you because bitches be wanna steal shit. “So y/n, this is my friend Tom- did you really take the seat with you?” “I sure did, hello Thomas” you looked at him, curly brown hair, a little bit of gel, he wore a charming smile, he was also short. “Hi” he laughed. “Thank you-“ a stranger said, trying to take the chair, “I think the fuck not!” You yelled over the music, tugging it back. “Back Yo ass up!” You say, fake charging at the person making them flinch. “You are so mean” law rolled laughed.

“It’s not my fault she crazy” you sat the chair down and sat in it. “Well anyways, this is Harrison” zendaya said, Harrison waving with a smile. “And Harry, toms brother” he also waved. “Hi Tom and erbodyelse” you waved right back at them. “She apologizes” law said. “What did I do?” You asked, law looking at you. “Hey it’s okay, she’s funny” he laughed, you gave a innocent smile. “Well let’s party right!” Zendaya said, making everyone but you smile....until of course ice cube had to come on ‘you know how we do it’ you had no other choice, you could rap every single word of it, of any 90s song. You weren’t the type to party but you better make the best of it, zendaya handed you a beer and you took it sipping it. “I’m not letting this chair go” you said, “I’ll take it” Tom said, you stood and he took it, walking to the bartista and asking him to keep it back there and not let anyone else grab it. Once the achol got in your system there was no going back, you did what you said you could, everyone was suprised you didn’t even break a sweat, would you remember this? Of course you would! You aren’t that drunk dumbieee.

You’re the life of the party when your not so stuck up and stubborn, but it’s just your personality, you got your chair back and Tom was about tired as hell, he ended up sitting on your lap and having his back on the arm rest, having a normal conversation, you both have a lot of shared likings, basically the same person but not, your feelings are always mixed but Tom is nice to even it out.

“You think this is weird?” Tom asked, “Nah it’s good, look at her” you pointed at the girl who keeps whipping her head around to the song, leaving Thomas laughing as you silently giggled. “So your a model?” He asked and you nodded, sharing a hamburger you got from somewhere, it didn’t matter. You handed it to him and he took a bite “so like Victoria secret?” “Yeah and Rihanna, ya know fenty?” “Of course I watched it like a million times!” “Who was your favorite?” You asked him, “I mean Laura was pretty sexy” he shrugged and you laughed, “yeah she was” “but she wasn’t the best” “who was then?” “You, you danced in that tight underwear, it had to be uncomfterble” “no Rihanna makes sure it’s comfterble” “well I know you would kill it in some butterfly lingerie” he shrugged, handing the burger back to you. “Why thank you, seems like you like me showing skin huh?” “Hey I might not be sober, but I’m sober enough to not tell you my secrets” “dang it!” You laughed taking a bite out of the burger.

“I should come to your runways” he looks at you, his eyes slightly squinted. “That was just what I was thinking!” You took a bite as he laughed with his cheeks filled, you chewed away as you both just looked at each other. “So favorite movie?” “I can’t go one night without watching Spider-Man-“ “really? Thank you” he cheered, you only laughed, “you didn’t let me finish, Spider-Man into the spider verse” “that movie sucks!” “Noooo it’s miles morales! He’s fucking better then youu” “we can fight if you wanna fight” “then you wouldn’t be able to come to my shows” “ah fine”

As the time passed you both only made jokes, watching everyone else dance and point out the ones who don’t know how to. It was fun, he gave you his number and you gave yours to him, chatting and no more drinking, just eating.

“Naw I saw you both!” Law yelled as zendaya hyped it up. “Doing what! We were only talking-“ “and eating!” Zendaya added on. “That’s romance!” “Well I don’t think so, so hmph” you shrugged. “Whatever bye y/n” law exited the call and zendaya did to, it was time for your photo shoot for the week and Tom was expected to come, he didn’t come yet so you had time to get dressed.

You went shirtless with a pair of high waisted cargo pants and combat boots, your hair wet and your long nails black, there wasn’t really any makeup on your face other then a whole lot of highlighter, when you went out you found Tom. He had two water bottles in his hand, his hair wet with a black shirt and normal navy blue jeans with some black air forces, he looked around for you until he found you, giving you a smile as you holded your boobs with one hand to wave at him. He made his way over to you “hey!” He cheered. “Hey Thomas, how are you?” You asked and he shrugged, “I’m pretty full so I’m happy” “you ate without me?” “How was I supposed to know? What do you want” “loyalty” he smacked his lips at you “I got you water atleast!” “I can’t drink that right know, my stomach has to look good” you both looked at it, you basically were glowing.

“Water can’t kill you” “yes it can, that’s my que, let’s go!” You took photos in this large house, with a huge mountain next to it. Tom thought you looked beautiful with your hair out, he was to respectful to look somewhere he wasn’t supposed to. You sat next to the pool with a chair, sitting in it backwards you arched your back, Tom having a seat in the background just watching how you move and how the sun reacts to your skin, lucky you put on some sunscreen so you didn’t have to get sunburns. He sipped his water and smiled to himself, Tyler the creator played in the background and as you took your time you danced some, you were a cute dancer...you couldn’t dance but you looked nice moving!

“Tom I need your hands!” You yelled, Tom instantly came over asking you what’s wrong. “I need you to fix my hair really quick” “you and I both know I can’t do that” “then please hold these” you smile at him. “What’s?” He asked, knowing what you were saying but not so sure. “Hold my boobs dude” you took his hand with your free one. “Alright alright!” He says, coming behind you to hold your boobs. “Thank you Thomas” as you were about to grab your phone your hair stylist came up to fix your hair. “You can’t do it either” she said. You smacked your lips as Tom laughed at you, still holding your boobs with both of his hands, which they perfectly fit too.

“Alright Thomas you have to be in this photo shoot” the photographer said. “What why!” He asked, completely not ready. “It’s just a great pose” he smiled. “I don’t know if she’s okay with that!” Tom said looking at you. “I don’t mind” you shrugged, looking back at him. “Alright then I’m pretty sure we have some cargos for you!” “Right here actually!” Why do they have some men’s cargos, you like men’s clothes sometimes, your more thicker then Thomas though so that’s really confusing. You silently gasped “law!” You said to yourself. “Let me go change yeah” he said, you put your hands ontop of his, he removed his and ran to go get changed, when he came back he was dressed just like you, highlighter on his abs, everything.

“You look good” you complement. “Not as stunning as you darling” he said, ice cube now playing “alright let’s go to the mountains”

You all made your way up there, on the tip of the mountain, if you were to fall you’d die, you afraid of heights but Tom held your hand to reassure your safe, you and Tom stepped on the end, one of his arms came around your breasts, perking them up and the other came around your waist, you leaned on your left knee, tilted your head to lean on toms, the sun glistening your skin as you closed your eyes amd lips slightly open and your hand held his cheek as his lips were softly touching your neck. “Alright, perfect” they recorded you both, then when they look back there gonna make it pictures, they snapped another of you both hugging each other, his back muscles and the back of his head, showing his wet curls as you wrapped one around your finger, your lips so close to his ear, pelvis to pelvis and chest to chest, all very very good pictures.

You and Tom danced to the music, all oldies playing, Mary J Blige, Tony!, Tupac, Brandy, New edition, Micheal Jackson, snapping more pictures while you both weren’t paying attention. “Oh this totally gonna is gonna get in the book, this is gonna be all over the news” “oh tell me about it” the photographers laughed, but it was time to take the solo one, you covered your breasts as you were on the tip of the mountain, your face infront of the sun, you covered your face with your hand from a distance, revealing one of your eyes as they were light from the sun, you looked up at the camera and made eye contact with it, your lips again slightly open. “Perfect!”.

Snapped.

Tom put you on his story, smiling to himself as you came back down. “It’s hot!” You yelled, everyone laughing at what you said. “Guess who’s the new face of vogue!” Jim said, the photographer. “Me!” You jumped, dancing to yourself as everyone cheered you on as P. Y. T played, everyone clapping to the beat as you kept dancing, everyone singing and doing their own thing. Tom sung as he came up behind you, holding onto your waist as you moved you hips, some people recording for the YouTube video. It was like you were dating before you even knew it, it was nice, everyone could see the love you had for each other even if you both were oblivious of it.

“Did a wonderful job darling” he said, both in the same dressing room. “You didn’t do to bad yourself” you smiled at him, putting on your bra and your oversized shirt, taking off your pants and boots next as he followed along to put on the clothes he had on first. “Your the new icon y/n” he smiled at you. “Don’t say that, we both know zendayas the queen” “but you can be the king” he winked at you, you only smiled and shook your head. “So you guys, can we post these videos!” Jim said, you both looked at each other then the door. “Yeah!” Both of you said, I mean it was platonic right? Totally.

For the rest of the week you did the runways, the photo shoots, you of course were the new face of vogue, Victoria secret, Rihanna wanted you to come back, rumors of you and Tom dating which was okay you guessed, it was all just so going good for you, but Thomas not so much. “I think I really fucking like her” Thomas said, sitting in one of the front seats for your runway. “Then ask her out div!” “Harrison shut up!” “I’m just pointing out the obvious” he shrugged. “Well then don’t” he whisper yelled. “I can hear your whole conversation, Thomas” zendaya said smiling, “me too” law and zendaya high fives each other as Tom rolls his eyes, soon music starts playing and models come out, best for last so you weren’t out yet, Tom sat there bored wondering when you were coming out, crossing his arms over his chest as the time ticked, everyone was recording the models, professional cameras all over and recording.

And then your music played ‘Shes A Bad Mama Jama’ as you came out with your yellow layered large poofy dress, a deep v-line and black heels under, dangle earrings and your hair in butterfly braids, shinny lip gloss and long eyelashes, you walked down and danced a bit, everyone clapping for you, just cheering for you, Tom was lucky to even know you, the way your skin shined and you were so photogenic, you were just a goddess really, a mic in your hand as you finished coming down, you said a single ‘hey y’all!’ And everyone cheered for you, clapping.

“As you know I’ve done a lot in this week, including this” you held up your hands at the whole entire place. “But I couldn’t have done it without a few people” people clapped for you. “That includes, law roach” claps. “Zendaya” some ‘woos!’ “And Tom holland” he was shocked but everyone still cheered for him, smiling and waving at everyone who cheered him on. “I honestly feel so honored, I love every single one of you in this room, you’ve been with me ever since I didn’t get a chance, but that’s the thing” you pointed at the camera “if nothing works out, be your own boss. No one can reject you if your doing your own thing, that’s what I did” you shrugged, everyone clapping for you more. “So we have this set up right?” “It’s all in the trunk Thomas” “well are you gonna help me?” He whispered to zendaya which she laughed at “you have guns for a reason” she squeezed his arms. “Shut up” he silently giggled as he still payed attention to you.

You then walked out, everyone still cheering loudly as you waved them goodbye. You made your way to backstage, finding the models, including cara, Naomi, Gigi, Bella, Kaia, and Lupita. You walked over to the table and grabbed the champagne and grabbed it, law, zendaya, Tom, and Harrison all coming backstage and grabbing their glasses. “Ready?!” You ask and they all cheer, all around you, you popped the bottle successfully, you poured poured everyone some, including yourself. “Alright what are we cheering for?” You ask everyone, “your success!” Gigi says, making you blush. “Stop it, our success, we did it all together” you say making everyone ‘aw’. “To our success!” You yelled, everyone said it after you, raising their glasses and clanking it with some people before taking a sip, Tom came over and kissed your temple, wrapping his arm around your shoulder.

“Congrats babe, you deserve it” he whispered in your ear. “What’s with the pet name” you laughed. “Come to the car with me yeah?” He asked, you nodded at him and the small group followed behind you, making your way to the car he opened the trunk, revealing balloons falling out and flying in the air.

but also a collage of you both, at the club with him sitting on your lap sharing the hamburger, laughing with each other to at the photo shoot, you both dancing with each other, the actual photos you used for the magazine too, then you both hanging out getting coffee and hugging each other in public, then both of you in these dark gothic wigs, with electric guitars, back to back as you put on this weird scrunched face, to hard to explain. You smiled as you picked up the collage “I love it” you said. “I love you” he said back, you looked back at him and he smiled. “I liked you the first moment I met you, your funny, sweet, stubborn, cute, your scattered everywhere-“ “I am not!” You cut him off. “Oh you are” zendaya said, the small group recording letting out small laughs. “You just proved my point y/n, but I love how I can even you out, I like the way you look at me, I want it to last everyday, every night, I just wanna be with you.... so in that case would you be my girlfriend?” He asked, you smiled so wide as you out the collage down in the car, you walked up to him and made eye contact with him as he stood there, looking up at you, you kissed him, smiling into the kiss and kissing him repeatedly “alright get it over with” law intruded, “yeah yes I will” you nodd and he smiled, kissing you again. Zendaya smiles “AGHHHHHH” she screams in excitement. For some reason ‘ivy’ by Frank ocean played and you both just made eye contact with each other.

[cynthiaandsamus]

Custom Toonami Block Week 74 Rundown

Code Geass: So we’ve got another one of those “wacky bullshit student activities” episodes, though this one seems to ride the hardest on “shit is going down, the world is ending but haha Shirley romance drama” though admittedly it does have a nice character arc for Milly so that’s cool. Lelouch is worried that the Knights of the Round are here to investigate him until he realizes both of them only have one braincell between them so it’s fine. Cornelia’s also murdering her way through religious fanatics so that’s cool. And last but not least we have Shirley and Lelouch finally getting together right before Jeremiah Geass Cancels her amnesia so she knows Lelouch is Zero and killed her dad and presumably the other stuff that Charles put in the whole school’s brain somehow. I’m sure this will end well and their romance will survive in a way that isn’t insanely tragic.

Inuyasha: We’re still in fillertown and it’s another SangoxMiroku episode. Man we get a lot of these in filler huh? I kinda don’t remember which Sango/Miroku moments are canon at this point. I’d kinda laugh if it was just all filler and some manga-only fans were bewildered when they ended up together in the end. Anyway, Feudal Lord has a thing for Sango because he has great taste and Kagome ships Sango/Miroku so she doesn’t want her to go, Miroku’s like “Hey it’s her choice, she’s been through enough, she can choose her own life, I’m not gonna get involved” which is pretty mature but the girls still hate on him for it. Sango’s just like “Dude even if I wanted to stay I still have this Naraku-slaying quest to go on and I’m not about to sit around all day and be royalty while my friends go kick Naraku’s ass for me.” Which is how most love confessions in this series go. Also Sango suplexes a demon bear the size of a building with her bare hands and it’s pretty great. In the end the lord doesn’t give up going after Sango but they finish the bear stuff and are on their way. I like how they don’t go out of their way to demonize this guy in the end to prop Miroku up, he’s still a good guy, Sango’s just got shit to do and is more the type to like a warrior who’s got her back. There’s some really cute shipping shenanigans here and all in all it’s fun filler.

Yu Yu Hakusho: We’ve got a three for one deal here as Yusuke and Kuwabara assblast their way through the Dark Triad in one episode, continuing their power play of beating villains with little effort while the boss man bets that they’ll completely wreck his guards which is still a pretty interesting dynamic. We’ve got cringey 90s trans commentary, an invisible dude that gets blindsided easily and a hostage ogre that gets beaten by Botan taking off her coat. Honestly for these guys being supposedly minibosses they kind of went down easier than some of the grunts. But now Kuwabara’s in contact with Yukina because his bullshit power of love connection actually works for some reason and they’re in on the final fight with the Toguro brothers. With this many people betting the GDP of countries on the fight there’s no way this isn’t rigged. I really like how YYH basically makes shonen fights just part of stupid black market deals for a large part of it, just like in real life everything’s decided by some old rich guy.

Fate Zero: Kayneth’s still fucked up and has Rock Lee syndrome and can’t use jutsu anymore so his wife’s like “Yo buddy you can’t give Lancer the magic cummies anymore anyway, lemme take control of your hunky knight manslave or I swear to god I’ll rip your arm off and jerk him off with it” which since she asked so nicely he just kind of does. With Lancer still kinda being uppity about Kayneth having dibs on his soul and Sola-Ui being weirdly horny and increasingly yandere for him I’m sure this’ll end well. Saber and Kiritsugu are still pissy with each other because Saber wants to go after Caster to stop the child murders which is fair but she’s also injured and shit and she’s mad at Kiritsugu for not teaming up with Kayneth to just take down Caster right there and I mean I don’t think he really had time to suggest a truce while getting attacked with Terminator 2 goo, he’s not really the asshole here. Meanwhile and more importantly, ISKANDAR HAS PANTS! Nothing can stop him now and they crash Caster’s child murder party and are jumped by Assassin’s Forty Thieves (they aren’t named yet but I’mma just assume) and Iskander’s just like “Yeah no I’m not fighting five ninjas knee deep in child guts.” And they just burn the whole place down.

Konosuba: So in a bizarre Interspecies Reviewers/Food Wars crossover, Kazuma goes to a succubus house and instead of just getting sex they do dreams and shit which seems more complicated but I guess it’s less morally gray. Anyway, naked Darkness and contrived hentai plots ensue. They sprinkle in some good character stuff for Kazuma which is nice, it’s always kind of hard to pin down where his principles lie. Like he’s generally a scumbag and will take the easy way out of anything but he’s not evil and will give Darkness an out on their encounter if she wants and will get his ass kicked to protect his local sex worker. The Principled Scumbag approach is kind of neat for him, I wish a few more of these moments didn’t feel the need to immediately undercut themselves with a joke but that’s the nature of the series. I feel like one or two more genuinely sincere moments throughout a couple episodes would do wonders but either way it’s still amusing.

Sailor Moon Crystal: We pick up right where we left off with Tuxedo Mask throwing himself in front of the Kamehameha for Usagi and then she goes Super Saiyan and cries pokemon tears to bring him back to life. But the bad guys are somehow like ‘yoink’ and steal him from her lap through a barrier somehow (that still kinda pisses me off) and for some reason the crystal that booped its way into his chest isn’t there anymore and Usagi still has and and Usagi’s going through a lot of shit right now between processing the trauma of a millennia-old kingdom falling that’s partially her fault, working through her romantic feelings and having a Steven Universe identity crisis about how to process her identity as a reincarnation of someone a lot cooler than she is, so most of this episode is Usagi crying, as most episodes are, but at least she has a good reason.  Then we get a Girl Squad Roll Out montage because fuck it we’re going to the moon somehow.

Durarara!!:  Apparently everyone knows about where Celty’s head is but her because she visits Izaya’s office where the head is just kinda behind some books on his bookshelf and she doesn’t know but Shinra’s dad has enough time to mug Namie after telling Shinra and Celty off for their weird interspecies relationship and tell Izaya to have fun fucking around with the head. Also people have shifted from being worried about the Dollars to being worried about Saika and ALSO being worried about the Dollars maybe being at war with the Yellow Scarves. Celty’s looking into it and Shinra shows some character development in just coming out with it that Saika was the sword that severed her connection with her head… I don’t know how you cut the soul of a head that’s already cut off but okay, at least Shinra’s not hiding shit from here anymore. Also Saika’s about to seriously chop up Anri and Masaomi comes to visit his girl in the hospital finally.

[grazieschillivera]

Bad Liar

Summary: You and the boys have to spend the Night somehwere in the nowhere because of a failed mission.Billy is pissed and blames you for their situation, thats when you want to know what his problem is

Word count: ca.2500

,,Anal Wanderer.'' you said breaking the long silence in the car, that lasted since you had ran to the car to flee from your failed mission.

The original plan was to get information from a supe, whose hero career was is total flop, but Vought somehow had managed to know about your plan and almost catched you ,when you left the supe's house.The question whose fault that was would be a huge discussion later on - you had a feeling for that.

,,What?'' asked Billy, who only gave you a brief glance before he continued his grumpy look on the street. Eyerolling you looked outside of your window again, getting the ungood feeling your attempt to light up the mood wasn't about to work out.

,,My sister and I used to do that ,when we would do our vacations on caravan places.Always putting the word 'anal' before every caravan's name.'' you said already searching for another good one from all the caravans your car passed on the huge camping place.Even though you managed to get rid off Vought, Billy decided that he had no interest in driving for another six hours , he wanted to sleep.

,,Oh Anal Open Gear.'' said Hughie from behind, slightly giggeling.

,,Anal Pegasus.'' you added pointning outside.

,,Are we driving with two fucking kids?'' Billy asked M&M , looking to him through the mirror, above him, earning an unimpressed ''Yep''.

,,I got almost killed.I'm just trying to light up the mood, even though I have a reason not to do that.'' you said to Billy.

,,You wouldn't have to do that if I didn't had to save your ass.'', said Billy.

There was your hint, whose fault ist might be for the rather failed misson.

,,Maybe if someone hadn't decided to cancel the plan, I wouldn't have been caught by some stupid soldier fuckers'' said you and turned your glance to him showing your swollen arm to Billy, that had blocked a hit with the gun on his head from him.It wasn't that you were only there to cause trouble.

You could still feel the pain in your head, from being smashed on to the ground multiple times, when you fought back, and the weakness in your knees, that first came up ,when Billy helped you up and brought you to the car.

With a kick down on the brake the car stood still forcfully and you thought Billy had stoped to start screaming at you but he didn't.He just went out of the car and was gone.You were on a free place now, some meters away from the rest of the caravans.When you went also outside ,the silence continued, the only things you heared were Hughie and M&M talking and the Ocean.

,,Fuck.'' you said to yourself, when you realised that you wanted to apologize to Billy but also had no interest in giving in.

M&M was the first that went to sleep, when you arrived it already was sunset.After the last orange clouds were gone Hughie also went to sleep, after he had tried to distract you a bit from the situation with Billy and the fact that someone almost killed you.But without much success.You liked Billy but sometimes you could really punch him in the face and the shook still run through your body, when you thought about it.You knew you didn't even had to try go to sleep.

You followed the little path and the sounds of crushing waves, until you reached some small hills.The whole beach started to spread underneath you.You just searched for a nice place to sit, when you noticed Billy, sitting only some meters away from you.The first idea that crossed your mind was to just ignore him, since he still seemed pissed, but then you decided otherwise.

,,From a scale from one to ten – how much of a cunt am I to you?'' you asked when you sat down next to him, offering him one of your cigaretts, even tough he just had finished one.

,,You're not a cunt.'' he said, after he had decided to accept your offering.,,You're just fucking emotional.'' said he once he had lighted his cigarette and gave you his lighter.

,,What do you mean?'' you asked ,reaching out for it.

,,Listen when I mess up the plan then cause the plan actually sucks.But you always seem to mess up, cause you try to fix every upcoming problem.'' Billy said.

With raised eyebrows you took a drag.

,,Too caring huh? Didn't know that might be a bad thing.You're the one, who started this whole team thing.'' you said still in a calm tone, due to Billy's composure.

,,Yeah but I trust everyone, that he wont mess up except you.You just run to everyone trying to do his job.'' said Billy.

,,You mean for example preventing you from getting knocked out?Its not that I had something else to do than protecting your asses.'' you said.Billy just grumbled.

,,You think I can't do better, right?'' you asked, but deep down knew the answer.

,,See here is the thing.You're not a supe nor ,pardon, very strong.If I hadn't knocked this cunt out, you might wouldn't be here.We didn't take you as an all-around wonder, just someone for the technical work.'' Billy said.

,,And yet you took me with you for this mission.There must be some other reason, cause I had no direct job today.You're a bad liar.'' you said and threw your cigarett in the sand.

,,Careful love, I fear you're not in the position to call me that, when you're doing an awfull job of hiding your emotions.'', said Billy.,,And there we have it again.'' he added and took another drag.

Then again silence.That was again for you a sign ,that some topics could be discussed untill the end with Billy.Sometimes you had to find your answer on your own.

,,I hope when this is all over, I can find something near the beach.I could spend hours listen to the waves crashing down and looking up in the night sky.'' you said.

,,Maybe you should talk to the Fishhero, when we meet him again.'' said Billy, not really intrested in admiring this place.

You laughed unintenionally.

,,God that sounded like a possible answer from one of those quizzes to get to know which Hero would be your match.'' you said.

Billy had to snort.,,Please tell me you have a good excuse to know ,that some bullshit like this exists.''

,,Its just that Annie and I discussed which 90s singer would be our match – that had to be claryfied.It was Eddie Vedder'' you added when you had stood up.

,,Eddie Vedder, huh?Ahh careful with the arm'' said Billy, stoping in his cocky answer, when you leaned on your arm, to stand up from the sand.He stood up before you could,to take his offered hand.

,,I'm not out of glass.'' you said.,,Its the other arm, by the way.Left handed.The ones who are more creative'' you added with a smirk on your lips.

,,Right.Maybe that's the reason you should fuck Eddie Vedder'' said Billy scratching behind his ear.

,,Or the reason why I'm actually good in adapting to your off- plan actions.'' you said back, earning a silent grin from Billy.

,,So no night swimming for us than?'' he asked having a last glance at the water.

,,I'm way too hungry for that, but you can come and join me.'' you said.

,,I fear I don't have enough money left for that.'' Billy said.

,,Pity, I can't give you money.The boss hates it when I care about our colleagues.'' you said but gave him a smile and nod to follow him.

,,Boss?Could get used to you calling me that way.'' he said with a smirk, when you both started your walk.

Since Hughie and M&M already sleeped in the car, you both had to walk to the next diner.You remembered that you saw one, only a mile away from the caravan place.To your suprise the diner was also half of a karaoke bar.When you read the shop sign, you weren't sure to go inside but your stomach told you, that listening to bad singing was the smallest problem right know.Fortunatly it turned out that the almost the whole dinner was empty, leaving a small chance of hearing any singing.

You just enjoyed eating something properly and the peaceful athmosphere until your left arm ran into the table and the small pain forced you back into the memories from today.A blackout almost reached every brain cell from you until you remembered how Billy thought about you and you forced yourself too become calm again.Besides you didn't want that – to be scarred to life just because of some idiots.

Your gaze wandered across the diner and Billy.He was right, maybe, if he hadn't saved you today, god knows where you would have ended.With that on your mind you stood up from the table.

Billy had noticed your changed behavior and had a look on you when you went away, thinking you just needed some time alone.He even noticed how he thought about following you, just in case you couldn't calm down by yourself, but when you stoped at the little stage instead of the restrooms he freezed in his motion to stand up, just to sit back again in defeat.

And his fears turned out to be right, when a song started only seconds after.

You focused on the upcoming beat and high pitched voice from your low key favourite song ,,She is on my mind'' and ignored every negative thought, that came up.The next thing you felt was how you had started to sing, even before you noticed it and how your body swinged to the music.Full of disbelieve you looked into the small crowd, spreaded across the diner tables.No one seemed to really like your singing but that didn't stop you from having your fun on the small stage.You sometimes even dared to look at Billy, but you were far to buys to try to understand what kind of look he gave you right now.

When the song was over you made an exaggerated bow and walked back to Billy , acting as if nothing had happened.

,,Maybe you and Starlight could start a girls group.Didn't know you were into that stuff, since your cheeks already turn red when you order something to eat.'' Billy said when you had paid for the food and walked back to the car.

He had a point there, you could still feel your hot cheeks, or rather again.

,,I don't know.Maybe I'll regret to did that.I just had no interest in falling into a black pit just because of today...I just wanted to use my time again.'' you said in defense.

,,With doing something totaly stupid?'' asked Billy with a grin in your direction.

,,No.Doing something I always wanted to do but never dared to.'' you admitted.

,,See there it is again.Those little things no one else really does in our group, you're even worser than Hughie.'' Billy said.

,,But you like Hughie.'' you said with no effort in suppressing your smile.

,,Oi would you stop that.'' said Billy stoping in his walking and giving you a serious look.,,I tell you what.I'll kiss you when you promise me to stop putting you in danger all the time, alright?'' he asked.

Just as Billy mentioned the word 'kiss' you could feel the blood shot up in your cheeks.Your heart beat even harder against your breast, when you had answered immediatly, knowing damn well that he just wanted to tease you.

,,You think this is a good deal?'' you asked with too much mocking in your words for your liking afterwards,when you saw how Billy leaned himself against the nearest wall of a building, already all confident.

,,You will have to tell me that love.'' he said with his familar smirk on his lips.

You steped over to him and with every step closer to him you could see how his smirk widened while his eyes stayed curiously on you.Your breast almost brushed his open jacket, when you stood infront of him and looked up at his lips, savouring this moment.Because you knew that would be the first and last chance.

,,Maybe thats a good deal.'' you said.,,Didn't know you could be so generous.'' Those words made him smile once again.At first your body flinched once Billy laid his hand carefully on your waist and even though your heart skipped one beat after another, you liked this.

,,Didn't know you could be such a tease.'' he said, when you had pulled away and leaned against his grip around you, that stayed.His fingers drew small circles on your back when he eyed you up.

,,Not a tease.I just sayed no '' you said and turned around to walk out of his grip.

,,Clearly not.I would do an even bader job in this group than now, I don't think I want that.'', you said referring back to his offer and continued your walk but Billy wasn't done with you.

,,Try again.Dont you think I hadn't noticed?'' Billy asked to stop you from walking any further.,,Your looks and how you act.You might fool everyone else but I fucking know that if you follow someone like a little pup into every stupid situation you love that person... or you're just Hughie , and you're not Hughie.'' he added the last part with an eyeroll but still more serious than the rest of the night.

And even though the last part made you smile for Hughies loyality , you freezed on your spot once more, as Billy said that.

He pushed himself away from the wall and crossed the distance to you.Your eyes were filled with guilt and you had no defense to offer.

,,Listen I don't think I want this.I fear I'm not good at protecting people.I mean just take a fucking look at your arm.Nor am I a good partner.So just let me kiss you that you can come over all this fucking lovesickness and we can go back to work.'' he said.

Each word punched you in your stomach, until you stood there with tearfilled eyes.That was enough for you to grab him by his neck and kiss him,finally showing that you wasn't the only liar.

Your lips moved together and you felt that when you wanted to move back, Billy stoped you by planting his hands on your waist and held you even closer.After some seconds you leaned back and looked up at him.His eyes were never so full of warmness before.

,,You are the worst liar I know Billy.'' you said after you could find your voice again, still standing infront of him, waiting for his reaction.

One of his hands carresed your cheek, he had to grin at your words, but this time it faded away instantly.

,,What am I gonna do with you?'' he said while eyeing you up deep in thoughts.

,,For now.Fucking keep me.'' you said demandingly but still with a smile on your lips, now that you gained a bit of hope again.

,,Just fucking promise me to take better care of you.'' he said before he pulled you back in his embrace, as if you were about to vanish otherwise.In that moment you both realised your dilema and cursed it, while you also enjoyed the truth.

[chalkrevelations]

Street Dance of China S3, Ep 3. It sounds like maybe I should step up my pace on these, as they’ve announced the captains for S4 now? (Yibo back, Lay Zhang back, plus a couple of new guys I don’t actually recognize yet.) When is this going to air because it is just LAUGHABLE that I can keep up with 3+ hours of this a week. Particularly if I’m going to keep obsessively re-watching Word of Honor AND try to finally finish Killer & Healer in the miniscule free time I actually have for teevee. There’s certainly no way I can watch and dither on about 3+ hours/week worth of dance show in realtime before January, at least.

ANYWAY, this ep, we get a recap of everyone falling out after the captains’ cypher, and we learn who got the final extra towels and passed through to the next round: Lu Jiao Ni, who we barely see, on Team Jackson Wang; Yuan Ye (as promised) and A Li (who we barely see) on Team Lay Zhang (ETA: Wait, we find out later that A Li isn’t even on Lay’s team, she’s on Yibo’s - he wouldn’t move her on, and she gets one of Lay’s towels instead); Bullet (as promised) on Team Wang Yibo; and Xiao Ming (as promised? maybe? as we’ve barely seen this guy?) on Team Wallace Chung.

This week: Out of 400 people, we’re down to 105. Not all of these faces are familiar, and I suspect I don’t really need to learn 90 percent of the unfamiliar faces. I … am going to go out on a limb and make a guess that one of the dancers whose name has been bolded in one of the past two episode recaps is going to be the ultimate winner, because I have umpty SYTYCD episode reactions on my LJ, and I suspect I know how this works. I wouldn’t even put money on any of those five bolded names in the previous paragraph, quite honestly. Anyway, now it’s time to start culling down to 60. We bring out the team captains, and my first reaction is “MY EYES” because wth are some of you wearing? Wow. Yibo’s shoelaces are all over his jacket. Wallace looks like he rolled a flasher on the street for his trenchcoat. Lay Zhang is wearing a baggy pink jumpsuit, and I guess, OK, it’s easier to maneuver bathroom breaks in one of those when you have a dick, but that’s definitely a fashion trend that should have stayed back in the ‘80s. I guess questionable fashion is an international phenomenon.

There’s also an empty chair for the promised Mystery Guest, and there’s a game with clues, and a lot of guesses from our captains about who the Mystery Guest will be, and Jackson does A Bit through the whole thing. I don’t know whether to be entertained or annoyed by him. He’s the only one without some egregiously questionable fashion choices (so far) this episode, so maybe he gets a pass. Anyway, I don’t have the pop cultural context to understand the guesses, and I also don’t have either the pop cultural context or the knowledge of this area of dance to grok the Mystery Guest’s identity, but he’s Huang Bo, and apparently he had more than 1000 dance performances in the 1990s, so he must be at least as old as me and Wallace, if not older. Yibo takes the opportunity to make the – very NON-politic – remark that maybe HE wasn’t even born yet at the time? That … is not the way to win friends and influence people, Infant. Also, the Mystery Guest is NOT the person Jackson kept doing A Bit about. The reveal is all very dramatic, and he does a lil’ bit of choreography from of each of the four Extant Captains’ videos before he takes off his mask, and they act appropriately impressed, and there are some girls with short shorts among his backup dancers, so that all happened. The show obviously wants me to be very impressed by him. Show also tells us he’ll have a special skill that will be very important and at least leads us to believe that he’s going to be the “life-saver,” so the audience immediately curries favor, or at least plays at it.

Next up: Rules. Eliminations this week involve contestants self-selecting into groups of anywhere from one to five people and performing for a panel of all the captains. Teams pull a number out of a hat for performance order. Thumbs up from all four captains, you go to the next round. Abstentions from all captains, you go home. Thumbs up from some and abstentions from others, you face the possibility of a call-out from other contestants, whereupon you have to dance for your life battle to find out which of you stays and which of you goes. Oh, and we’re only going to keep going until the 60 available seats are filled, and then we’re done. If you’re number 35, you’d better be prepared to battle someone earlier and kick their ass, or you’re fucked, you don’t even get to dance. I’ve said it before: Audentes Fortuna adiuvat. Only wait, ETA: There will be some last minute BS rules fuckery, in a way that is clearly intended to save someone in particular, which I feel some kind of way about - and it is not really the way that almost everyone on the show seems to feel - but I guess we’ll get to that later.

And cue ridiculously long nattering, so we’re going to cut here.

First group is Lin Meng (Team Wallace), Teng Zai (Team Lay), Bing - of the infamous motorbike flirtation - and Dian Men (both Team Yibo), along with a dude we haven’t actually seen yet, Tang Qian (also Team Yibo). Your lack of even B-roll so far is concerning re: your chances in this competition, Tang Qian. I’m just sayin’. Anyway, this is a powerhouse group, and at least Lin Meng and Teng Zai are familiar with each other because they’re from the same crew, and Xiao Bao remarks from the audience of contestants that these guys are going to go through, no matter what. They’re going to do a totally popping routine. My sound drops out at the beginning which … yeah, makes them look even more like a boyband at the beginning, in their matching baseball uniform shirts. So, here’s the thing, they’re a little muddled, they don’t move smoothly around each other on stage - their dance moves are coordinated, but they’re not moving in space like a group that understands each other. (Somewhere in here, my sound comes back, and Yibo already can’t hold still to the music.) The other thing is, though - all of these guys are very good at what they do, they finally hit their stride a minute or so in, and when they do, they hit it hard. I’m frankly surprised they don’t get passed right through to the next round, but Jackson abstains on the vote, and when called upon to explain himself, it turns out he just wants to see them battle. I can understand the impulse, Jackson, but this is already super stressful on all the dancers, and it doesn’t escape my notice that you’re the only one of the four captains without a dog in this particular fight, so a little bit you look like you’re doing this just because you can. Remember this, because it will set a bad example for an 11th -hour vote. Anyway, there’s the chance for a callout, which no one takes because the entire audience is convinced this group is too good to beat. Five of 60 seats taken.

Group two is Shen Kai Xiang – the Jack Ma lookin’ dude. He’s flying solo. He gets to stand around uncomfortably for a while onstage while Special Guest Huang Bo does A Bit making fun of all of the captains’ speech patterns and accents and pronunciation, except Yibo’s, because Yibo apparently never talks. Ha ha. (I’m also wondering if there’s some socio-cultural stuff underlying some of this that I’m not cued in enough to fully understand.) Huang Bo then tells the contestant that Jackson has probably fucked him over by praising him too effusively (he came from Jackson’s team, and Jackson already is displaying a tendency to rhapsodize about how everything is “ART”), so all the captains now will have inflated expectations that Shen Kai Xiang is surely only going to fail to meet. I’m beginning to suspect that Huang Bo’s Special Guest Superpower is not “lifesaver” but “kind of annoying asshole.” Maybe it’s to take that particular spotlight off of Chick. ANYWAY, Shen Kai Xiang FINALLY gets to perform, and he gets a little bit of a slow start, but he packs in a lot of elements and gets a LOT of good air in his moves once he gets wound up. He’s lyrical and super emo about it. I’m kind of “eh” on him – technically, he’s good, but I’m not particularly connecting with him, which I’m willing to admit could be a me thing, as everyone else seems super-impressed. Three captains pass him through. Yibo does not and explains this decision as personal preference – he likes more “underground” styles, more battle styles. Huang Bo brings back the issue of too-high expectations to help explain why Shen Kai Xiang isn’t being passed directly to the next round, even though Yibo just explained his decision and that is literally not the reason he explicitly gave. Anyway, Shen Kai Xiang gets no call outs, which seems to surprise Yibo, and we’re at six of 60 seats taken.

In quick succession, we move through Liang Hua Jie – we don’t see much of him, but we learn that while Wallace likes his musicality, Yibo doesn’t like his face (OK, doesn’t like his facial expressions, which, what can I say? I get this. If I’d had the power to unilaterally send home Lacey Schwimmer on her season of SYTYCD, I’d have done it, that’s how fucking annoying I found the way she’d mug for the camera the entire time she danced. Like I couldn’t even watch her dancing, because I was too distracted by what she was doing with her FACE the whole time.); Jian De Chao (wait, is this Chao from the first episode?) & Chen Zui – who, from what we get to see of them have some good flow and move pretty well together, but can get a little bit mushy in their moves, and Yibo likes their skills, but Lay thinks they don’t feel like a group, which what? Incorrect; and a group that’s dubbed themselves Purple Storm Show, which includes Alex from Jackson’s team and four other people who I can’t even catch – we barely see their performance, and Lay likes them, but Jackson thinks they’re flat. I can’t tell if any or all of these guys were sent through to the next round or sent home, but if they didn’t make it, then  :(  because I liked Alex, and he got hit in the eye for this, he deserves better than to get sent home because his team can’t get it together. We still have no group that’s been passed through by all four captains.

And then, next up is another powerhouse team: Gongsu Wu Ming and Hei Zai (Team Lay), George and Xiao Ming (Team Wallace), and (Xiao) Bai (Team Jackson). Yibo is skeptical about an all B-boy group, and don’t make me fight you, Yibo, because an all B-boy group is like my dream come true (sorry, poppers; sorry, lockers; my heart truly belongs to the B-boys, they are my favorite). We learn they added a flip at the last minute – an assisted flip, with a couple of them flinging George into the air over the other two of them. Wu Ming thinks that George is the only one of all the competitors who could do it, but George – who has a little more skin in the game than anyone else, as the guy who could potentially land on his head wrong - is a bit concerned about whether they’re going to pull it off. They start, and they’re all good, a little bit muddled before they hit their stride, but the slo-mo cartwheel is great, and from there, they’re off and running. This is why I like the B-boys – I know it takes a lot out of you to do this, but there is nothing – nothing­ – like the magnetic energy they can generate when they’re in their performance headspace and everything is flowing. This is a performance, and Wu Ming has talked a little bit about wanting to step up breaking, and if this is the sort of thing he wants to do, I’m all for it – give him the platform now. I’m going to take just a minute to single out Bai and say that he’s better when he’s not doing A Bit like he did in his initial performance for Lay Zhang – he’s much more electric here, and someone else’s choreography may make the difference. Jackson, Yibo, Lay – they’re all out of their seats, none of them can hold still in the face of this. We get to the end, and unfortunately, everyone else is kind of cluttered and mushy moving into position for the flip – that is not a way to go out guys, DO NOT DO THAT at the last minute – but then George f’kn NAILS the flip, so that’s thankfully the last impression they leave. The captain’s faces are a picture. (Except Wallace, who’s suddenly too cool to give us anything, apparently.) FIRST ALL-PASS. George’s assessment: “Not bad.” :facepalm: OK, Mr. Cool Guy. They also cut in a post-interview bit with Bai about the performance, and he notes that they all know each other, they’ve been battling each other for like, a decade, now. Dance together more, guys.

Moving on, we fortunately have another very strong group to follow them: Gai Gai, Wang Tao and Huang Xiao, all from Jackson’s team, and you can tell he badly, badly wants to start in on the ART! bit but he (loudly) keeps his mouth shut about this group until after the performance. The only one of these three we’ve seen so far this season has been Gai Gai, but they all dance in the same group together, and they seem to be well-known by a lot of the other competitors, particularly Huang Xiao, both as a dancer and a choreographer. They say they’re doing jazz, although I’d be more likely to call this contemporary, if I was going to put them in a box. They are gorgeous – lyrical, fantastic dance vocabulary, amazing choreography, beautiful musicality, and the way they move together as a unit is … :chef’s kiss:  I think Huang Xiao may be the best of the three, technically, but there’s something ineffably charismatic about Gai Gai that’s pulling focus a bit – just a bit – more than the other two in this performance. If there’s a weak link, it’s Wang Tao, and really, that’s only by comparison with the other two, which is a really high bar. We get some shots of the audience of competitors worrying about Yibo’s reaction, given his preference for the old-school battle dancers and an apparent “strictness” with urban dancers and related genres, but these three also get an All-Pass to the next round, and Yibo talks to them a little bit about the choreography and his (complimentary) reactions to the performance before they leave the stage.

And then. Oh, dear. Then we get a group of three – Da Mao, A Li and Tall(? Maybe? It looked like he was going to get out of this anonymously – probably lucky for him – but then the subtitles threw up this name on him at the last minute) – who are the only krumpers who’ve made it this far. Lay Zhang is really promoting them, because he really wants to see a bigger krump presence, and he’s really nervous about their performance, and he really, really should not have pinned his hopes on these three, because I hate to say it but they are a hot fk’n mess. They are … not good. I can’t believe any of the three made it this far, and in fact, we learn after their performance, while everyone is sitting in a kind of stunned horror (and y’all, I am not exaggerating for effect there), that Yibo did not pass A Li on from his team, that she got one of Lay Zhang’s final extra battle towels. I mean, there’s an obvious gap in the quality of this performance compared to everyone else we’ve seen. There’s also a lot of pacing around and standing around instead of dancing. They’re trying for the attitude, but they’re not managing it. They do manage to get an embarrassed reaction from Chick, which says something all on its own, as I wasn’t aware that he had any shame. Other competitors also are doing the embarrassment-squick cringe in the audience. Lay Zhang is literally hiding behind his clipboard. This is the first All-Out we get, where they’re directly eliminated – not even Lay can bring himself to vote “yes” on them. Now, all the krumpers are gone, and Lay is visibly sad and frustrated, but as we appear to move to a little bit of a break, Yibo displays the most emotional intelligence of anyone there and asks Lay to teach him how to krump, to distract him and get him actually doing the dancing he enjoys for a little bit. It’s also a chance for Yibo to learn a new thing, and he talks about his chance to improve in a little interview bit from later on that’s cut in here. I mean, yes, that actually was kind of a sad attempt at krump during the cypher, my dude, so this can only help you, but you also are being an extremely good guy, giving your fellow captain some emotional support right now. Thumbs up.

Next up, we have AK Dong (Team Wallace), also flying solo, and they give us a little heart-tugging B-roll about how he doesn’t have a team with him there, so he’s going it alone. He’s fantastic right out of the gate - good musicality, clean and precise, and he’s got a nice texture to his performance, it feels … full even though it doesn’t feel as big and expansive as some of the other dancers. Unfortunately, Lay doesn’t agree with me (incorrect), says he wants a performance that’s more elegant and “balanced,” and is the single holdout vote, which opens my dude up to a call-out challenge. This is the guy who looks like comedian Hank Chen, which has overshadowed his dancing twice now, because he had to listen to it from Haung Bo when he came out to dance, and he CANNOT catch a break, because now he gets challenged by three teams, including Bouboo’s team, which also includes Klash, Bullet and Colin (all Team Yibo), plus Boris (Team Lay), who we’ve only seen B-roll of so far although he speaks good Chinese, despite being from … I’m not sure where, but not China? AK Dong complains about how Boris looks at him with innocent eyes and tells him that they have no option other than to challenge, which is true (ETA: insofar as we know at this point), because they’re #36, and the 60 slots would almost certainly fill up before they even get a chance to dance. This team wins the bottle spin against the other two challengers, and I mean. :hands: This is a slaughter. They’re five-on-one, and they’re all really good at what they do, they make it look effortless, and AK Dong’s face is going to kill me. Wallace actually does vote for him, but the other three vote for the team, and that’s five more seats filled, and AK Dong eliminated, and I’m annoyed (although not as much as I’m gonna be) because I liked him, and I would have liked for him to get a chance to dance without having to listen to the Hank Chen nonsense at least once.

Next, we have Li Yue & Sha Sha, who appear to dance together on the regular. They have a kind of sultry number put together as the Green Snake and the White Snake that is … hm. I don’t know if we’re classifying this as urban or jazz for the purposes of the show, but it’s another piece that fits more into my contemporary box, if we were classifying them for most of the Western dance spaces I’ve seen. They’re good, as befits this stage of the competition, but a little inconsistent, technically. Also, I don’t find them particularly exciting to watch – I feel like something’s missing, although I can’t quite put my finger on what. I’m not sure their flow is consistent, and they’re probably not helped by following Gai Gai, Huang Xiao and Wang Tao. They get three yes votes from Lay, Yibo and Jackson, although they are … enough to maybe make Yibo a slight bit uncomfortable, being the shy and fragile homosocial forest creature that he may be, or that he may be getting edited as, who knows. Huang Bo pokes at Lay Zhang about his reaction to and vote for them. He also basically says that Wallace didn’t vote for them because Wallace wasn’t turned on by them, because Wallace is still doing his imperturbable cool-as-a-cucumber routine. Wallace’s hold-out vote opens them up to a call-out, and several groups come down to challenge, including – bad luck for Li Yue and Sha Sha – TI, who win the bottle spin. This group includes choreographer Zheng Jian Peng, as well as Su Lianya, who I didn’t realize was a TI member, both Team Wallace, along with … oh my god, Wei Ming, who’s the “Sir, what are you doing?” guy from Episode 2 when Wallace was giving out towels to poppers like candy, and I’m kind of pleased he’s made it this far, just based on that moment, alone, never mind any dancing skills. Rounding out the group are Long Long and Wei Lin, both from Team Yibo, and I think we got B-roll of Wei Lin at some point during Yibo’s eliminations in the first couple of eps. I know nothing about Long Long at this point. At any rate, everybody in this group is so good, I can finally see how they got their rep – fantastic musicality, and a great job of working as a unit. They feel like a team, even when they don’t manage to be quiiiiite synchronized. I’m not really feeling their costumes. Su Lianya continues to be a standout, even in a group that sets the bar this high. Wallace’s composure finally breaks when the other team captains evince interest in poaching her, and oh my god, he still has the hair elastic that he held for her at her initial performance, that they said would be a token of their vow to go all the way in the competition together. OK, I give Wallace a lot of shit, but this is actually kind of adorable. He literally pulls it out of his pocket to tell the other captains they can’t have her and to plead with her to remember their promise to each other. TI gets three votes and moves on. (Lay, still apparently captivated by the snake ladies although not enough to bald-facedly vote for them in the wake of TI’s performance, abstains.)

Next up are Tao and CiCi, and OK. I’m going to be honest here. I think they’re leveraging the “couple” schtick for all it’s worth, and good for them, it looks like they can pull it off, because I think some of the amazed reaction we get from the captains and from the audience is influenced a lot by their coupleness, but at the same time, I think some of the amazed reaction we get from the captains and from the audience is actually influenced by their coupleness rather than their dancing. I mean, Su Lianya and Wei Lin are in the audience of competitors clutching each other’s hands and crying, and it seems to be just as much about Tao telling CiCi out loud that he loves her just before the music starts and the fact that they kiss as part of the piece, if not more than it’s about their actual dancing. The show is also really pushing me on this, because whereas, with everyone else, it tosses up closed captions that tell me what moves are happening (in addition to dialogue subs), now I’m getting things like “heaven-made match.” They’re good, but I think they actually also suffer a bit from following the Gai Gai/Huang Xiao/Wang Tao powerhouse, because I think we’re unlikely to get anything on the lyrical side of things that’s going to match up to that for the rest of the day. Tao and CiCi are better than Li Yue and Sha Sha were, and it is pretty badass the way she manages to make herself so small and compact she literally disappears behind him for that last little bit, and if they’d won the bottle spin on the last callout, they would have won the challenge, I have no doubt. But. :hands: I think the show has actually done that thing Huang Bo accused Jackson of earlier and set my expectations too high. I’m’a sound like Yibo – or like Yibo normally would, because he also seems to get suckered into the overwhelmed reaction for this – and say that I think Tao was better in the less lyrical style when he danced with Yibo and Bing in the Ep 2 towel battle. They get an All-Pass from the captains and talk about their inspiration for the piece, which apparently is a couple who confessed their love to each other the day before the girl had to go into COVID quarantine, and well, now I guess I feel like just a little bit of an asshole for not appreciating the COVID love story properly? Anyway, the captains then keep asking them intrusive questions about their relationship, and Huang Bo mocks Lay for apparently never being in love so he won’t understand what it’s like, and I’m cringing in my seat a little before Jackson gets us back on track and Tao and CiCi finally go sit down.

Then Huang Bo takes the chance to go over to the contestants who haven’t performed yet and stress them out about how few of the 60 available seats are left. I mean, I guess it’s part of competition, but come on, dude.

ANYWAY, next up, we have a group calling themselves Team Wake Up – it’s the waackers, and this group includes Xiao Bao and San Jin from Team Lay, along with a guy we haven’t seen yet, Tu Zi; Meng Di from Team Yibo; and Gao Shi Yu, who we also haven’t seen, from Team Wallace. They start working it, and I’m like, oh wait … and then they hit the Cat Walk, and I’m like, oh shit, and a light bulb finally goes off, because I’ve been super-fk’n slow, but now they’ve shown me what this genre is about, and I’m interested to see what they do here, because a lot of this performance could be straight off the floors of the ball scene. The entire group is pretty good, although I do think Gao Shi Yu is the weak link, she’s not quiiiiite up to the standard of the rest of them. They move well as a group, though, good coordination, sharp and clean, fantastic musicality, high energy all the way through, with EXCELLENT attitude, which is half the battle, because if you’re not confident for this kind of thing – or if you can’t at least fake it flawlessly – you might as well not even be out there. They all do lose a little bit of focus when they’re in the background as they break out for their individual moves, and they fall apart a tiny bit near the end. Also, Meng Di’s belt is off-center, and I know that sounds super picky, but it kept distracting me, so I wish that hadn’t been the case. Xiao Bao is definitely still the standout here – he takes the lead from the minute they come out, with the mic, and never really relinquishes it. We finally get to see San Jin perform, and his extension could be better. Tu Zi must be lacking in the charisma department to not have shown up before this, because he’s better than I expected. Before they started, the group that Xiao Jie and Yang Kai are in together – who still haven’t performed – were debating if they should challenge this group, but Xiao Jie advised waiting to see how good they were, and then after the performance is all, “nooo, we should not challenge,” and props to you for not just writing off the waackers, my man, because they get an All-Pass, and there’s not even a chance for a callout. Before we move on, Wallace clams he’s learned some waacking during the show, and the other captains (led by Jackson, who calls him gege) make him demonstrate, and the contestants, who know what side their bread is buttered on, applaud.

Available seat check. Yibo participates in further stressing out the contestants by saying “Like, a dozen?” All y’all need to be challenging whatever chance you get. Now I bet you’re sorry you didn’t challenge Shen Kai Xiang back at the beginning, aren’t you?

Next up is our group of X-Crew representatives, hop-hop, and Yibo is excited. I almost expect him to do a little dance in his seat. Yang Kai helpfully lets me know that this group is from the top hip-hop crew in China. Oh, hey, that’s Qin Yu, from Team Wallace, the guy who Gongsu Wu Ming immediately recognized as the weak link in one of the towel battles and got up on; the guy who subsequently got taken out by Teng Zai, My Beloved. Qin Yu, the guy we hadn’t even had B-roll on, and still don’t. I wonder if I’m reading too much into that. He’s joined by Flea (which I’m assuming is a direct translation, as it doesn’t sound like “flea” when he says his name?) and Ding, also from Team Wallace - neither of whom we’ve seen before, I think - along with Ting and Lei Xiao Yang from Team Jackson. This is also the first time we’ve seen Lei Xiao Yang. I … feel weirdly unconfident about the famed X-Crew, given we haven’t seen more of them before this. Then again, we’d only seen Gai Gai from her group, so maybe this is a BigSurprise!edit … Ting comes out hard and heavy, and I actually think this is the best performance we’ve seen from her so far. She spends a lot of time out in front on this one, and I don’t think I got from her initial appearance or from her towel battle performances just how good she actually is. Overall though … I am … not that impressed with this group. They start out strong, but then they get sloppy. They have trouble working as a unit, which is surprising from people who supposedly have experience dancing together. They’re all very good, but they’re not synchronized. A lot of their solo showcase bits lack complexity, and that is an understatement. Qin Yu still has some of that nice fluidity along with his pretty face, but he’s not balanced, and he absolutely does not have the finesse he needs to pull this off. They all do move into the end strong, together again, hard, power behind their moves - almost everything from the slo-mo move is good - but … it’s a little late, y’all. That took way too long to get back together. And then, they inexplicably descend into … it’s not even sloppiness, it’s an utter hot mess during, like, the last 15 seconds of the performance, which is absolutely not the final impression you want to leave. And … wow. Shit. There are captains who actually agree with me on this. Sometimes you see the expected top dancers allowed to slide some in these early rounds of competition shows, but not this time – Wallace and Yibo both vote yes, but Jackson and Lay both abstain, and Jackson … wow. Wow. Is disappointed in them and expected more. Despite the fact that he’s like, 12, and that he’s done this to past groups just because he wanted to see them battle, a little bit this actually has a vague feeling of your dad telling you how much you’ve let him down. The audience is shocked, but I’m glad to hear someone say it. It was a good - if spotty - performance but certainly not the best we’ve seen.

So, we have a callout, and the group with Xiao Jie and Yang Kai, which also includes some guys named Shen Zi Hao, Xiao Zhi Bin and Oscar, pounces. And that is a very deliberate word choice, because these guys are on X-Crew like a lion on the trailing gazelle. They’re in their Men In Black suits (ETA: Wait, no, I think maybe they’re Agent Smith suits), and the audience of other competitors is losing it. Xiao Bao is very excited about Xiao Jie. Both Yibo and Jackson look like they’re in actual physical pain, to be forced to make the choice that’s coming up. Ting looks like she’s getting ready to throw up – she’s accepting this with less equanimity than she did the possible results of her initial performance, at least on the surface. I … am dreading losing her, actually, because I suspect that’s what’s getting ready to happen, and I am so so sorry, baby, that you worked so hard to carry your crew like that and they couldn’t keep their shit together. On the one hand, I’m impressed they’re pitting this level of competition against each other so early. On the other, I feel Jackson’s and Yibo’s pain. God. God. The Xiao Jie-Yang Kai group is here to f’kn battle. This is shaping up to be a slaughter. They are fast, clean, precise, great musicality, complex moves, super performance. They’re synchronized, high energy, fantastic animation – which could be a little cheesy, but they’re confident and fearless enough to pull it off - fun and interesting. They are maybe a little bit too gimmicky to be perfect for my taste, but I’m not the one voting them through, and what they’ve come up with is perfect for the audience that matters – the captains, the majority of which are 20-something-year-old boys – and knowing your audience, and performing for them, is a skill, too. BIGGEST (and frankly, only) ISSUE: Somebody fucked up a move, right at the beginning … I think maybe Yang Kai? (ETA: Yah, it was Yang Kai, ugh, what a time for that to happen.) If you’re going to fuck up, best to do it at the very beginning, I guess, and then give this performance afterward, to mitigate it as much as possible, but that one misstep gives the captains enough excuse put off a decision they really don’t want to make, like it’s not just going to make it worse to kick the can down the road a few minutes. Split vote, 2-2 (I thiiink, Yibo and Jackson for X-Crew, Lay and Wallace for the challengers?), which throws it to a further battle. Ting and Xiao Jie, one-on-one, and both of them are feeling the pressure of competing for their entire team instead of just themselves. Two rounds, hiphop and locking. So, each of them is better in their specialty. Ting’s got some fantastic, precise moves for the hiphop round. Xiao Jie is not as good in this round; I do notice he’s got a more directly confrontational style when he’s battling. I feel like she’s doing more waacking than locking in the locking round. Overall, she’s cleaner, more precise, he’s got a little bit more energy. I wouldn’t want to make this decision, frankly. I think Ting was better technically, but Xiao Jie might be the better performer – better at all that other stuff that adds up to stage presence. I do wonder how much of the captains’ decision is influenced by the groups, and who the captains are or aren’t willing to lose, even though it’s supposed to be based on this 1x1 battle. Just looking at who the show has put emphasis on already, we’ve got Ting vs. Xiao Jie AND Yang Kai, and I don’t know that they’re going to want to let that one-two punch go. Wallace votes Ting and X-Crew. Yibo and Lay vote Xiao Jie and the challengers. Jackson, the coward, abstains. Looks like Ting and X-Crew are going home, and this is the first cut that I’m genuinely upset about seeing. Ting feels bad for letting her crew down, but they let you down first, baby, or you wouldn’t even have been in that position.

Available seat check: 12. Dancers left: 27. Well.

We’re coming up on two hours now, and there’s clearly some kind of drama we want to get to, because we whip through the next few performances – few names, limited time spent on them. The ones who do make it through are likely cannon fodder in the next couple of rounds. There’s a group of four in khakis that gets sent through to the next round; Yibo liked their moves. Guy named Zhan Ke in a suit goes through to the next round. We’ve turned into a clip show now, and the screen literally says “ … ” at one point as each group of competitors gets 3 seconds of airtime. Cut to three seats left out of the 60. There’s about seven people left, and … that includes Chick. I have a sinking feeling this guy is going to be the real focus, at this point. He’s paired up with some dude named Long, and they have lost the bottle spin on callout after callout after callout, so they’ve never had a chance to challenge, and now, look at these morose motherfuckers, still sitting in the bleachers. I almost feel bad for them.

So, three seats left, and the next group is three people: Yang Qi aka “Apple” from Team Jackson, Lin from Team Lay and Bobo from Team Wallace. Urban dancers. I lose sound on them right at the beginning, but they’ve got some nice sharp moves, good choreography, they work well as a unit. Solid performance, if not the best we’ve seen. Apple’s got the best technique, I think. Audience likes them a lot. We get a cut to Chick and the other competitors who haven’t danced yet as we count down for the vote, and they are all dying. Three votes yes. Yibo abstains. Huang Bo is so prepared for this group to be sent right through that he starts clapping and congratulating them, and Yibo has to be all, “Wait, no. Not yet.” The captains give their reasoning: Jackson says that he felt their power, emotion, speed all deserved full marks. Yibo agrees.

Yibo agrees.

…

...

…

Their faces in response, y’all. Their little WTF faces as he explains that he really just wants to see the other dancers, too. Oh my god, Yibo. You can’t just say that out loud. Are you serious with this, you can’t even make up a thing to fake critique them on? Cut to a later interview with Bobo, who’s been the least able to school his face journey in response to this: “Wang Yibo, I won’t forget.” Also, Bobo says, you’re not even hot. (lol) Joking aside, the group goes on to make all the correct noises about sure, it’s a competition, you face competitors, it’s what happens, because what are you gonna say? Meanwhile, to be completely honest, I’m probably the person who’s been least able to school their face journey in response to this, because come on, Yibo. It’d be one thing if you were making some kind of statement about the way they set this up from the beginning, with all competitors unable to participate, but I’m pretty sure you’re actually doing this to give Chick another chance, because you have been inexplicably all up on his jock since he showed up, what is it about this guy? I don’t get it. At all.

So, we get a callout, and everyone left challenges, of course, because this is probably the last chance. The audience is rooting for Chick. I still don’t get it. Bottle spin ends up on … Zhao Hai Jie, from Team Wallace, who we’ve never yet seen perform. Here’s the thing: If he can win this battle, then he only takes one seat, leaving another two seats available. However, he is NOT going to win this battle, not without ripping off any figleaf of fair competition that the show may have, because he’s just not that great. If he wins, there’s no way around the fact, right in your face, that it’s a strategic vote. He does not win. Four votes for Apple, Lin and Bobo. Sixty seats filled.

HOWEVER, just in case you were worried there may be any integrity here, director Lu Wei comes ambling out to say, hey, you know those rules we have in place? Well, fuck ‘em. Who cares. Let everybody left battle, and whoever wins that battle can have a seat along with the 60 other people. I’m going to translate this one, because despite the limitations of my Level 1 Duolingo Mandarin, I have umpty SYTYCD episode reactions on my LJ and I feel like I’m pretty fluent in Dance Show BS: “We really want to keep somebody who’s left, so there’s going to be some chicanery on our part.” They really do not want Chick to go home, y’all. I know it’s him. It’s super extra obvious they’re desperately trying to save him, at this point. And I am here to tell you that if Chick ends up on this show and Ting goes home, there will be nothing on this earth that could possibly resurrect Chick from the Pit of My Dislike.

Anyway, we get Dai Dai from Team Lay, who describes herself as a fusion dancer and is pretty good for the first 40 seconds or so of her music and then completely loses the thread and kind of falls apart. The captains do not seem impressed. Possibly they also know we’re just killing time until we get to Chick. Up next is Su, who is Very Dramatic. He doesn’t say what team he’s from, but given Wallace’s reactions, I suspect he’s from Team Wallace. I suspect Yibo’s not going to like his face. His performance goes increasingly off the rails as he goes on. He’s got a lot of goodwill from the audience of competitors, but no. This is not a winning performance. And then we get Chick & Long, literally the last to perform. Chick spends the entire time doing A Bit. Long, who anyone barely remembers is even there, does 2/3+ of the dancing. Everyone – everyone – is apparently vastly entertained by Chick, and I just … :hands: Fine. He’s a character, but I have yet to see anything in three episodes, across, like, 7 hours, that lets me see whether he can really dance or not. Yibo literally tells Jackson, “He doesn’t have many tricks, but he’s got a ton of ideas” and later says he’s a B-boy without a power move. Anyway, one vote for Su (Wallace), three votes for Chick and Long. We’re at 62 dancers, and I cannot believe I’m going to be subjected to Chick’s continued clownery when Ting has to go home.

Thank GOD we’re activating the Special Guest Host Powers, the first of which is “REVIVE,” i.e., bring someone back who was eliminated. Yibo is immediately like, omg, the hip-hop group. Then we do Yet Another Bit where the captains cater to Huang Bo so that he’ll take their advice on who to revive, and it goes on too long when we are, my god, two hours and fourteen minutes into this. Meanwhile, Yibo reiterates, the hip-hop group. Yeah, Yibo, this I approve of - if I gotta watch you fall all over yourself over Chick, you need to get Ting back for me. So, we’re finally getting the captains’ actual recommendations: Jackson says the hip-hop group, possibly feeling bad about the fact that he’s the one who spiked their chance the first time around? Yibo is all, me too! Yes! That one! It’s kind of adorable. Also, yes, Yibo, you need to get Ting back for me. Lay says Li Yue and Sha Sha, the white and green snakes. Wallace recommends a popping group that I don’t even know if we saw perform? At any point in the past 7+ hours of three episodes? Wallace, are you high? Anyway, THANK GOD, Huang Bo brings back the X-Crew group. We’re at 67 dancers.

Second Special Guest Host Power is … “battle?” So, we’re setting up Qiang Qi Da Zhan, aka Seven to Smoke, which they’ve apparently done in past seasons? Each captain picks two people – eight total – to participate. Twenty minutes total. Increments of 30 seconds each to battle. And I guess you have to accumulate seven points in various battles. We don’t get to hear the captains’ picks, but I can see that AK Dong is called back for this one. Also, I spot one of the krumpers. (:eyeroll: Really, Lay? Because I know that was you.) We see some clips of this. We see AK Dong get to six points. He … maybe gets his seventh point? Anyway, he says in the last interview clip that he’s here. I guess we officially find out the Seven to Smoke results next ep?

Also next episode: Divided into two groups and battling by genre for the next elimination. Five rounds. Also looks like captains might get a chance to poach from other teams. Also some wacky fuckery with the dancers’ heads that looks like it’s going to be stomping all over my embarrassment squick, argh.

Finally, we get a peek at hotpot, and it sounds like they ended up with 70 dancers, so three people managed to get seven points in Seven to Smoke? And somebody’s mom is apparently coming to hotpot, but I’d have to watch the actual hotpot show to find out whose mom, and we’re out.

[amphxtrite]

In relation to the #StopAsianHate tag, it seems fitting to add this contribution since China has been doing a lot of horribly questionable things(to put it mildly), and this has led to a rise in anti-asian rhetoric, with extras on the anti-chinese rhetoric.

It has affected overseas Chinese-descendants and the Chinese diaspora around the world badly, since they had no hand in what China did, nor do they share the same sentiments of China, yet they still get harassed and targeted. Even to the point of cop agents admit to accusing a Canadian professor of Chinese descent of being a spy, Hongkongnese coworkers mistreating overseas Chinese not from China, and a British-born Asian man getting deported without question.

So in lieu of letting this storm rage over even more, the better option appears to be to address everyone's concerns and assumptions about people of Chinese descent who are citizens since birth in other countries and have never set foot in china before.

The main point is: NOT ALL CHINESE AROUND THE WORLD ARE WUMAO COMMUNISTS, NOT ALL CHINESE DESCENDANTS SHARE THE SAME SENTIMENTS AS CHINA OR DOING THINGS FOR CHINA. Got it?

Now, to move on to the other part of attacks on Chinese culture and shaming people just for being Chinese.

1.It is okay to be Chinese-born; there is nothing wrong that you happen to be a Chinese person. You deserve dignity, pursuit of happiness, liberty and respect, just like any other race of person, black, white, Jew, etc out there. You are a person too and don't let anyone treat you otherwise.

2.Chinese people are not "spawn of the bad" or "corrupted subhuman" or "tainted genome"; they are not inherently rotten just by being of Chinese descrnt. There is no proof of that, when you pick apart gene sequences from a Chinese descendant in the clinic, it's still very similar to any other person's dna. Just like every nationality, there's kind people and there's assholes. And just like most other countries, who also had monarchy inbreeding, illness, and radiation(did you know of the Radium Girls in the 1920s, or the very unsafe nuclear testing in the 50s to 90s? They even used to put Radium in wristwatches for citizens to glow in the dark so casually.), the Chinese are no different. Just like to bring up the good parts of others' history rather than focus on the bad so much like china.

3.Chinese history, philosophy and culture does not have all bad parts. Please read and analyze everything, good and bad parts, if you want to make a proper judgement. It is very shocking to hear everyone at this point, so comfortable with joking: "let's nuke the Chinese" or "hope we bomb china badly if there's a war" or "the British and Japanese were good to wipe out the Chinese first" so casually! It is not a fair sentiment nor anti-racist one. If it's wrong to say: "the native Americans should have gotten rid of the arriving pilgrims because they were gonna genocide them anyways so might as well" or "black people should be allowed to hurt white people now for all they've done" then statements of that nature against Chinese is also wrong.

And just like other nations who came before and around the same time, these other nations also had bad parts of their culture. No one seems to highlight how colonizers used to practice Safari Game Hunting in Africa for centuries which killed a lot of animals leaving endangered species, no one talks about the quack and irrational remedies doctors in medieval Ages used to do, how they used to mix arsenic in paint on toys in Victorian era, European wars against indigenous peoples, as much as they keep on bringing up Chinese history's weak points and irrationally using it as a weapon to hold against Chinese people irrelevant to the cause of their past generations for years. It is unfair to whitewash your history while scorning the Chinese people's past.

Some Chinese clothing is nice. Some Chinese food is delicious. Some Chinese architecture can be very beautiful. Some Chinese inventions are useful. Those are the good points of Chinese culture. Not everything is tainted.

4.Not all Chinese are ugly. Or yellow skinned. Or receded jawed. Some have hooded eyes, some have high cheekbones, bigger mouths, wonky noses naturally too. Please look at every Chinese person without plastic surgery and analyze the whole populations faces, before you pass a half-assed judgement of how "ugly" they are in general! Seriously, if not how can you make a proper judgement?

5.As for other Asians who are non-Chinese, please stop trying to compare your cultures against theirs, treat it like a contest and say which one is the 'better Asian' to the people of the Occident(white). It is not cool nor necessary. Just do your thing go brighten your own little corner and you'll be great. Not every wumao is stealing your culture all the time sometimes cultures and trads just overlap or happen to be similar or shared through separation and migration reasons. Yes, you are a different non-chinese Asian and unique, there's no need to make noise or insult Chinese people just to prove your point too.

6.Overseas Chinese had ancestors who suffered too hence their migration and diaspora. Read about the Nanking Massacre, their Opium Addiction, 731 labs, Mao's rule, and other conditions. A lot didn't migrate for fun and games.

This is not dedicated to defending China's misdeeds or the Wumao, this is dedicated to the OVERSEAS people of Chinese descent, the Southeast Asian Chinese, the Chinese diaspora in the west, and anyone who didn't ask to be born with Chinese genes or ancestry but got it anyway: it's not your fault. Don't let yourself be shamed for being born this way, even when it's 'cool' to make fun of Chinese, and find a little pride in yourself. Take care and look out for yourself. There may be 1.4 billion mainland Chinese(even with the birth control policies), but there are many more overseas Chinese who need to be understood as "overseas people of Chinese descent" and respected as such.

For those who are non-chinese reading this, please think carefully anytime you want to post something, is it attacking only the current leaders in china or also targeting Chinese people or overseas Chinese-descent peoples too, before you become the very bigot you hate against a group of people or do a hate crime you might regret. Take a moment, and calm down.

Whoever needs to see this, glad you seen it, even if you need it translated. If you can tag it that would be helpful as well.

this right here 👏👏👏

i hope everyone remembers that it’s not all chinese people who are supporting the unjust things the government is doing. China in general is a very patriotic country and so when given the choice to believe something bad is happening or believing what they have been taught their entire lives (china is great and the best country in the world) they are going side with the statement that has been drilled into their heads since they were children. Chinese people aren’t ignorant they really just don’t know, every news outlet and media platform they use backs up the point that China is the best and they know if they step one toe out of line China is very powerful.

This is the government and the people of power’s doing and it doesn’t matter what the people think. The people either don’t know or don’t understand and it’s fry oho we many people repeatedly blame China as a whole for just a small part of it’s country’s doing.

What’s going on there is absolutely a violation of basic human rights and terrible but please take a moment to remember half the people don’t even know what is happening outside or inside their country because of how controlling everything is there.

Next, because everything there is decided by the government chinese immigrants have NO control over what happens there heck the people in china barely do. So the hate crimes in the west make no. fucking. sense. You’re not going to reach china by attacking u.a or canadian citizens you’re just adding to unnecessary violence. Elderly people, adults and children of north american citizenship are assaulted, harassed and bullied for somethings they cannot control and it’s terrifying how normalized the hate has become.

To all the chinese people seeing this stay strong, there’s no reason to be ashamed of where you or your family is from or how you look.

This anon put it best 🤍🤍