#for a rewrite I think I’d have Finality just be the collective memories of the Honkai | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

rfsak2 · 9 months ago

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Easy Target, Pt 1.

So we'll see if anyone even reads this but Ima post it anyways. This has been brewing for decades at this point and it is somewhat of a rewrite of something I posted on Sycophant Hex (~I’m aging myself~) years ago.

For the record I acknowledge that Snape is OOC. He’s taller (by a lot), capable of healing and kindness, and has a sense of humor and hella PTSD.

His characterization is due partly to having started reading these books as a kiddo well before the end of the series (which ended when I was in college ~I’m old~). I have been collecting and revising headcanons since I was a child and now, as an adult and a therapist, I have a very specific idea of Snape that may not be canon, but I might like better.

I also have un-unalived some characters. Lupin and Tonks and maybe more as we go. We’ll see. Again it may not be canon, but I like it and my Snape better. (Fuck JKR).

If you like my Snape, let me know. If ya don’t… also let me know. I’d love to discuss and compare our thoughts

Easy Target

They thought wrong. Severus/OC

Warnings: nothing right now, some bad language words. There will be warnings if continued including mentions of past abuse/assault, violence, smut.

MINORS DO NOT ENGAGE.

“Little Lottie Beauregard.” The woman grinned maliciously. “How the hell are you doin’?”

Charlotte sighed and set down the book she had been perusing. She glanced over her shoulder and made sure her son was out of earshot. “My last name is de Vilieré, Annabelle, or are your drinking habits finally impairing your memory?”

Annabelle grit her teeth. “No, ‘course not. Say, did you hear about who was at Antoine’s last night?”

Charlotte made a face. “Can’t say I care about gossip.”

“Beau was seen with the Dreaux girl.”

“Good for her.”

Annabelle fidgeted with her hair, disconcerted that she wasn’t getting a reaction. “I mean, I would think you’d be interested as that’s why y’all got divorce ‘n all.”

“I didn’t get divorce because Beau was fuckin’ other women. Sorry that I can't validate your petty jealousy.”

“My petty jealousy?” Annabelle shook herself free of following that line of thought. “Why did you get divorced then?”

Charlotte caught her eyes and held them, dispassionate and disinterested, sliding a book back onto the shelf.

Annabelle shied away from her. “I just know that the Beauregards aren’t the kinda family you leave. So you had to have reason to try.”

“I didn’t try, Annabelle, I succeeded.” Charlotte began flipping through another book. “Maybe, they aren’t as bulletproof as all y’all thought.”

“Rumor has it, your mother has already started undoing all your success.” Annabelle managed to make faux sympathy look as vicious as direct assault. “I reckon you’ll be back at home in no time.”

Charlotte chuckled, eyes fixed on a spell in the book she was reading. “Well, my mother is hot on the heels of her own divorce, so maybe she should mind her business.” Charlotte turned towards Annabelle and shut the book with a snap. “Ironically, that’s advice you’d find helpful too.”

Annabelle batted her eyelashes. “Oh, didn’t y’know: my business is anything I make my business.”

“That’s why your family business is failing, ain’t it?” Charlotte nodded. “Makes sense, too many fingers in too many pies.”

Annabelle blanched.

“Though, gotta say, don’t know why’d you want me to remarry Beau.” Charlotte mimicked her simpering tone. “After all, now you can fuck him all you want and you’ll be the only one committing adultery. I mean, he may need to hire a secretary to manage his… social calendar but I’d imagined this would be good news for you… and the others too, ‘course.”

Annabelle ignored her, pushing her straight, dark hair over her shoulder. “Don’t be silly. Your father isn’t going to divorce your mother. Seriously, it’s a bluff.”

Charlotte smiled. “Would you look at that? There’s at least one thing you don’t know anything about.”

Annabelle hummed, trying very hard to remain calm and disinterested. She failed.

Charlotte bared her teeth. “You don’t know my dad.”

Annabelle rolled her eyes. “No one knows your father.”

Charlotte nodded, eyes on Hadrien, lest he hear more than he should. “That’s not one hundred percent true. I mean he is the eldest son of one of the founding families of this city, a descendant of the first Creole governor of Louisiana. He’s a philanthropist, an expert in his field, he’s active in all the right circles. Everyone knows my father. My father just doesn’t cast pearls before pigs.”

“Pigs?” Annabelle sucked in a breath and looked down at her hands, trying to school her emotions. “And yet, even the illustrious de Vilierés needed the Beauregards-“

Charlotte laughed. “We didn’t need the Beauregards. My mother made what she thought was a calculated bet. She put her money on the wrong horse, hence the divorce.”

“What horse should she have betted on?”

Charlotte grinned. “Me.”

Annabelle swallowed. “Seems to me that the de Vilierés aren't as prominent as they used to be. Seems to me that she bet on the only horse she had.” She simpered. “After all, the shame was only narrowly avoided. If she had not acted so soon… well, one shudders to think.”

“Must not shudder often, huh?”

Annabelle shot her a nasty glance. Charlotte returned it.

“I just think y’all are awfully big in your britches, considering…”

“Considering, what?” Charlotte challenged. “Quit pussyfooting and say it.”

Annabelle demurred.

Charlotte nodded, sighing. “See now… That’s how I know just how prominent my family is. You wanna drop hints and flirt with what you think is true, but you are too coward to say it. You lack conviction. I doubt you really believe the shit in your mouth. It’s just fodder for your imagined superiority.” Charlotte shrugged and returned Annabelle’s earlier malicious grin. “But then, maybe you just don’t know. Just like you don’t know my dad. You don’t run in the right circles. You want to, for sure. Badly. Desperately. You spend too much money -more than the rumor mill says you have- on dresses for balls and cotillions hosted by social circles you’ll never be welcomed in, to climb a ladder you can only get so high on.”

Annabelle shrunk back.

Charlotte didn’t press forward. Her posture remained loose and unbothered. “Just remember, Annie, my family built the ladder you’re trying to climb. I firmly believe everyone deserves a chance to try to climb the ladder, but knocking us off won’t get you any closer to the top any faster.”

“How egalitarian of you.” She sneered

Charlotte shook her head. “It’s not equality per say, but desire for quality competition. Can’t know how good I am if I don’t know how good my competition is. As it is, I’m not sure I have competition.”

Annabelle flushed. “See, the problem with y’all is-“

Charlotte hummed, cutting her off and set the book in her hand back on the shelf. “The problem is you decided to make my life momentarily difficult instead of minding your damn business. The problem is you’re boxin’ outta your weight class. Shoulda kept your mouth shut and you wouldn’t have embarrassed yourself. But then, the problem is that you got that inferiority complex gnawing at your brain. Makes it difficult to think, I reckon.”

“Charlotte.”

Charlotte turned over her shoulder, away from Annabelle’s slack-jawed stare, and smiled at her brother-in-law’s mother, her godmother.

“Bonjou, Mama Oya! Koman sa va?”

“Mo bon, babygirl.” Tall and ebony-skinned, Oya Dillioles glared down her nose at Annabelle with more regal dignity than any monarch the world over had ever possessed. “Mrs. Brennan.”

Annabelle just managed to not sneer. “Mrs-“

Charlotte tsked. “Madame.” She tilted her head, blonde ringlets tumbling over her shoulder. “I mean, you gotta know I ain’t about to let you address her recklessly.”

Annabelle locked her jaw. “Madame Dillioles.”

Charlotte smiled. “That’s better.”

Oya hummed and turned sharply away from the fuming brunette. Leaning down, she placed a kiss on each of Charlotte’s cheeks. Charlotte stretched up to return the gesture.

Oya shifted so she was standing full in front of Annabelle. “Charlie, cher, I was on my way to the Shop and felt faint. I was hoping you and my strapping, young grand-baby could walk me over, if y’all were done here?”

Charlotte fought back a smile, knowing full well that Oya Dillioles had never felt faint a day in her life. Charlotte would unhesitatingly put money on her living forever.

“Of course, Mama. We’re meandering that way.” Charlotte called over to Hadrien, who stood from where he had been inspecting a low shelf of books. “Baby, is there anything you wanted to buy? We’re gonna walk over to the Shop with Mama Oya.”

“No, I’m good. I didn’t see anything that we don’t already have at the house.” Hadrien approached with a bright smile, giving Annabelle Brennan a wide berth. “Hey, Mimi!”

Oya’s smile was beaming as she reached up for Hadrien’s peach-fuzzed cheek. “I see you everyday, baby, and I swear you get taller every time. Just the spittin’ image of your Grandpa and Uncle.”

Hadrien beamed and stopped ever so slightly to press a kiss to his de facto grandmother’s cheek.

They left without glancing at Annabelle Brennan. Meandering idly, Hadrien regaled Mama Oya and Charlotte with a complicated potion he had been helping his uncles with all summer.

“Nonc Ogun said that my-“ he stopped short in front of a beignet shop. “Do you think they’ve eaten?”

“Your uncles?” Charlotte glanced at her watch. “I doubt it. It’s only 10:30, baby.”

“I’ll get them coffee and some pastries then. Be back in a second.”

Charlotte smiled. “Get me a coffee too, H. Mama Oya?”

Mama Oya pinched Hadrien’s cheek. “Me too, baby. Thank you.”

When Hadrien was clear of the door, Mama Oya glanced down at Charlotte. “You shouldn’t let her get to you.”

Charlotte smiled. “She doesn’t. I’ve known her all my life and the worst she can do is try to taunt me about my divorce? A divorce I wanted and instigated?” Charlotte grinned. “Pathetic. I ain’t worried about her.”

Oya hooked her hand in Charlotte’s elbow. “Who then? Who are you worried about?”

“My son, me, all of my family including the Dillioles..” Charlotte shrugged. “I love NOLA, it’s in my blood-“

“But?”

Charlotte sighed. “But I’m not sure how much longer I can be here without hexing someone into the next century.”

Oya frowned. “Are people harassing you? If so, I can get Amadioha or Eshu to walk around with you.”

“No… that’s not necessary. They both have more important things to be doin’ than babysitting me.”

Oya clicked her tongue. “They would happy -proud- to keep their Auntie Charlie safe, you know that, especially if you’re being harassed.”

“It’s not that bad.” Charlotte sighed. “People mostly just stare or make little snide comments. I kinda wish someone would try something. Give me a reason.” Charlotte caught her eyes. “I just- I’m done. I don’t have it in me to pretend anymore. To show people only what they want. To allow them to spew shit about situations they know nothing about without retaliation. It’s killin’ me.”

Oya nodded. “You’ve never been good at politicking, playing nice. Straight to the point. It’s one of the reasons we should’ve known that you didn’t want to be with him. That there was more going on.”

Charlotte shook her head. “I worked real hard for a long time to keep y’all out of it. I just wish I had said something sooner.”

Oya nodded. “I know, baby, I know.”

“I just don't know if I can be me here. Everyone already has an opinion here. About me, about the family, about the divorce. I feel like I’m suffocating.” She sighed. “I'm trying to make it to January but I don’t know if I can.”

“When Hadrien turns eighteen.”

Charlotte nodded. “I have an interview. I haven’t told anyone yet.”

“For a job?”

“Yeah, with a school out in the UK.”

“Hogwarts?” Oya whistled. “Ain’t that somethin’?”

Charlotte swallowed. “They’ve finished fixing up the school after the- after and the Headmistress was their transfiguration professor so they need a new one.”

Oya smiled and pinched at her cheek. “Well, I’ll miss you for sure, but I can’t think of a better person to take over a transfiguration professorship.”

Charlotte turned wide, vulnerable eyes on Oya. “Are you sure?”

Oya pressed a kiss to Charlotte’s forehead. “Never been surer about anythin’, cher. You are the best transfiguration master I’ve ever met.”

Charlotte breathed deep and nodded. “One thing that would make it easier, tell you what. Once Dad’s divorce is final…”

Oya sucked on her tongue. “Hush you.”

Charlotte grinned. “Gotta get rid of your boy toys though.”

Oya pursed her lips to tamp down her smile.

Charlotte yawned and glanced at her watch.

6:00 am. Goddamn.

She could barely keep her eyes open as she dropped her portkey into the waiting basket, set down the bird cage in her hands and stepped off the platform.

This is bullshit. People don’t actually exist at this hour.

She looked around quietly, hoping to catch sight of not only the customs office, but also a coffee shop? Or at least someone who could tell her where to find one?

She sighed upon seeing the customs office, sans coffee, and made her way towards the line she could already see forming, catching a brief glimpse of herself in a large decorative mirror.

She winced, taking in her bedraggled appearance.

As per normal, her blonde hair was a mess of frizzy ringlets, her blue eyes tired and clouded over the bags that normally haunted the sleepless. To top it off, she hadn't really even bothered to get dressed beyond a faded t-shirt and a pair of cuffed, faded blue jeans that had once been dark. It just seemed too much effort to get all dressed up for traveling and the inevitable errands she had to run.

She shivered. It was full-summer sweltering, bordering on hellish in NOLA. She had worked up a sweat walking from the car to the porkey office in NOLA not thirty minutes ago. She would have to dig a sweater out of one of her bags at first opportunity.

She swallowed dryly and set her shoulders. She was a de Vilierè. She could do this.

She felt her posture collapse, the energy required to keep upright almost too taxing on her frayed nervous system.

I’m not sure I’m human currently, much less me.

She pinched the bridge of her nose feeling the caffeine headache starting up.

There was so much to do after she finished fighting her way through the red tape. There were new clothes to buy, books to peruse, money to exchange and bank vaults to set up. She then had to portkey to some remote town in Scotland and become acquainted with the school that she would be living in for the foreseeable future.

She sighed and shook off a raging headache and a distinct sense of melancholy. Best get to work.

After an hour waiting in the line at the customs desk in the British Ministry's International Portkey Office, she imagined she had seriously considered casting nearly dozen unforgivables, a great majority of them directed at either the execrably slow customs officer or the man in front of her that sported excruciatingly severe body odor.

It took a further fifteen minutes of abject torture before the man in front of her moved away from the counter and cleared the way.

To be fair, she tried valiantly to put on a smile and remember the manners society expected of her, but upon reaching the front of the line, the portly woman found there launched into a laundry list of items that the Ministry had deemed 'restricted.'

No hello. No good morning. Just a list of vegetables and restricted potions ingredients.

It took another ten minutes and all of her easily exhausted patience, after pulling nearly all of her worldly possessions out of her bespelled satchel, to convince the officer that she was carrying none of the restricted items in her luggage.

Finally, after checking the last item off her list, the witch turned back to her and held out one chubby hand. “Hand me your wand, Ms. de Vilieré.”

Charlotte raised a blonde eyebrow in response, both at the butchering of her name (de Vil-ear) and the idea of placing what amounted to a part of her soul into the hand of a customs officer who she doubted would treat it with the respect it deserved. Knowing it would get her nowhere, she relented and handed her the wand.

The woman examined the wand carefully and then measured it, calling back to one of her cronies, “Yew, ten inches, with...” She paused and cast a spell on the wand, “A snake's scale.” She shot Charlotte a skeptical look. “You yanks believe that snake scales hold magical properties?”

Charlotte smiled frostily, her deep south accent deepening further (if that was even possible) in irritation. “It's not just any snake, it's Li Grand Zombi and it does hold magical properties or it wouldn't be in my wand.”

“It's a zombie snake?” The woman guffawed. “I'll believe it when I see it.”

“I can demonstrate if y’want.”

The woman froze, staring at her from under her lashes. “No, mum, it’s not necessary.”

Charlotte simpered. “If you’re sure.”

She cleared her throat and gave the wand an experimental flick, turning her back on Charlotte. “Yew, ten inches, springy and with a zombie snake's scale at the heart.”

A red-headed man sat behind her and stared at Charlotte from behind a set of clerical file drawers. “Got it, Matilda.”

Matilda cast an appraising look at Charlotte and whispered, a bad parody of sotte voce. “Though, I reckon she’s not the type we’d be wantin’ ‘ere after You Know Who.”

The man nodded. “Yew wood and a snake core. Bad omens, they are.”

Charlotte grit her teeth. “Can I please have my wand back, Matilda?”

Matilda looked uncomfortable and handed back her wand. “Here y’go, mum.” She nodded, awkward anxiety written in her posture. “You’re done ‘ere, mum. Passport control and visas are two floors up.”

Charlotte thanked her quietly as she accepted her wand. She made to leave and paused. “For the record, Voldemort didn’t have nothin’ on some of our racist madmen.” Charlotte delighted in their shivers, fighting down her conscience. “And I’m an absolute pussycat compared to them. Adieu.”

She didn’t get far before regretting her ill temper. She’d be lucky to make it to Hogwarts at this rate. Matilda was probably calling the passport office right now.

Tossed out because I couldn’t watch my mouth. Who’da thunk?

Charlotte glanced up at the clock and cussed under her breath. She made her way towards where she assumed the elevators were. She had at least another hour of bureaucracy and red tape before she could do something fun.

Three hours later, she was sitting on a bench in the middle of the now-bustling Portkey Authority, trying valiantly to fight of the wave of sleepiness that had latched onto her mind with a vengeance as soon as she stopped moving.

As it were, she was quickly falling into a light doze when an indignant squawk broke its way through the fog of sleepiness.

“Hermés, shh.”

The squawking did not stop and the bird-cage sitting next to her on the bench shook violently. Charlotte sighed a little and, with a small indulgent smile, twisted around to find her steadily over-filled satchel on the other side of the bench next to her. She pulled out a bird treat and moved the leather cover out of the way looking at the falcon within.

She offered the treat as one would offer a peace treaty and got a hearty nip to her forefinger for her trouble.

“Yeah, yeah, screw you too, bitch. You never stay angry for long, and you know it.” She reached into the cage and smoothed the ruffled feathers on the falcon’s head, before retrieving another bird treat.

“I don't mean to intrude, mum, but are you Charlotte de Vilierè?”

Vil-i-ear. She shrugged. It was better.

Charlotte started and turned toward the representative of the Authority she somehow missed approaching. “Um yeah, that’s me.”

The short man cleared his throat. “Well, we are ready when you are, ma’am.”

“Yeah. Okay.” She took a deep breath and grabbed Hermés’ cage. “Let's go.”

Charlotte took another deep breath of clean, cool air, trying really hard to not jostle Hermés in his cage. She looked around Hogsmeade slowly, taking in what amounted to a tiny sleepy village in its full summer splendor. The sun was bright, the foliage green and the air cool and clean, a startling difference to the muggy, sweltering heat of New Orleanian summers.

She took another deep breath to savor the beauty around her and stepped further onto the street.

“Oh and yeh must be the new professor!”

Charlotte started and turned towards the large man standing next to a carriage. She nodded slowly watching as the man began to walk towards her. He shot her a broad grin, then stuck a hand out.

“Th' name is Hagrid, I teach Care of Magical Creatures. Nice ta meet yeh, Professor.”

Charlotte felt her body relax, smiling easily and slipping her hand into his. “Charlotte de Vilieré. Nice to make your acquaintance.”

Smiling, he reached for the bird cage in her hand and relieved her of her satchel as well. He bowed slightly and opened the door for her. “Go ahead, then. Get in the carriage. I'll be taking yeh up to the grounds.”

She nodded again and made for the carriage quickly. “Um thank you.”

He smiled and nodded then followed her into the carriage, setting Hermés on the ground between them. “You're welcome.” He settled back and shifted around her until he was comfortable. “So where are you from, Professor? The headmistress said you were from across the pond, but was mum as to where exactly.” A small self-deprecating smile flitted across his face. “Probably guessed we wouldn't have no clue what she was talking about anyways.”

Charlotte smiled softly. “I'm from New Orleans, Louisiana.” At his look of confusion, she clarified. “It's in the South, along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.”

Hagrid nodded enthusiastically. “Mardi Gras, right? I don’t rightly know where that is but I've heard about Mardi Gras. I probably coulda guessed that you were from the South from your accent.”

She chuckled lightly. “It is rather distinct. Maybe when I am settled in I can show you New Orleans on a map.”

“I would like that, professor.” Hagrid smiled broadly again. “So you're gonna be takin' over teachin' Transfiguration?”

“Um, yes. I'll be teaching Transfiguration and taking over a couple of the Arithmancy classes so that Professor Vector, I believe, can do more research.”

The sound of gates swinging open cut off the rest of the conversation.

“We're here.”

“This here is Professor Snape, our Deputy Headmaster. He'll be showin' yeh around Hogwarts.” Hagrid smiled brightly and motioned to the dour-looking man in all black standing on the steps of the school. As if sensing her anxiety, he whispered from somewhere over her head, and took Hermés’ birdcage from her hand. “I know he looks a fright, but he's a war-hero. Never met someone as brave ‘n trustworthy as the professor. Man deserves to be a little grumpy after what all happened. I’ll take your owl and your bags to your quarters.”

She nodded absently, choosing not to mention that he didn’t look a ‘fright’. He wasn’t smiling, sure, looked to be pretty ticked to be standing there, but that wasn’t the problem.

She had done her research and knew who Severus Snape was. She knew to expect some curmudgeon-esque behavior. His personality had been extensively reported on, but so had his deeds, his skill, his intelligence.

Severus Snape was capable and, while she knew she was intelligent and the Headmistress had been impressed with her, seventeen years trapped in a marriage had done little for her professional confidence. The imposter syndrome was kicking her ass.

That and he was attractive. Sure, he wasn’t Brad Pitt or Leonardo DiCaprio, but she’d never been really interested in conventional. He was tall and intense and wore intelligence and ambition like armor.

It had been a long while since she’d felt any type of attraction for anyone. It was enough to set her nerves on edge.

And honestly, she probably looked like she had been dragged backwards through a swamp. Bedraggled and disheveled.

Her mother’s voice came to her unbidden. Really Lottie. Put more effort into how you look. That’s your job as a wife, to be ornamental. He didn’t marry you for your brain.

Maybe if you took being Beau’s wife more seriously he wouldn’t-

She shook herself free of that memory and started up the stairs toward the tall man. She wiped her hands on her jeans, hoping he didn’t see, knowing by his sneer that he did. “Hello, Professor Snape. I am Charlotte de Vilieré.”

One black eyebrow rose as a pair of black eyes looked down in disgust at her hand. His eyes flickered back up to hers and he intoned a brief: “I'm aware.”

She breathed deep. So it begins. “‘Course.”

He hummed.

Her jaw clenched slightly, before she forced herself to relax. “Nice to meet you.”

“I'm sure.” He sighed negligently and waved her into the castle. “Shall we? The Headmistress thinks it a good idea that I show you around the school.” His tone left no room for imagination as to his feelings on the matter.

She sighed and followed after him, noting with more than a little resignation, that he seemed determined to lose her. At maybe six-three or six-four and towering a foot-plus over her not particularly impressive five-two, he had a much longer stride and used it to his advantage. He was in the building before she even had time to clear the first level of stairs.

Breathing deeply, she scampered behind him. Once in the building - the castle, good god, where am I?- she became easily distracted by the architecture, the smell, the feel of the place. Nothing in NOLA, as opulent and storied as it was, could compare to this.

He stopped abruptly, she almost ran full-tilt into his back, and turned towards her, watching in sarcastic amusement as she put a hand to her chest and huffed a shaky, “Shit.”

“Having problems keeping up, Ms. de Vilieré?”

What a dick. She glared at him and stood up straight. “Please continue, Professor.”

The smirk fell from his face, indicating that she had likely said that out loud. She flushed and felt a brief stab of something more than anxiety as he appraised her with dark eyes.

He seemed to come to some decision and turned away, drawling a quiet: “Indeed.”

Turning toward the giant doors in front of them, one large hand came out from the depths of his pockets with a wand. A negligent flick of his wrist later and the doors opened.

She followed him into the room and looked up at the enchanted ceiling silently, awestruck by the sheer complexity of the charms needed to pull something like that off.

“Do close your mouth, Ms. de Vilieré. It is rude to gape.” He shot her a smug look and continued to walk further into the room. “This is the Great Hall...”

After that she found it rather hard to concentrate on what he was saying. Somewhere in between imagining a dozen or so wordless, wandless jinxes she could throw at him, she completely zoned out.

She was just considering the mathematics behind a wandless color change spell, when the subject of these musings cleared his throat.

“Ms. de Vilieré, if you would kindly listen when I speak to you.”

With a swift shake of the head, the woman rejoined the world of the living and stared up at the very tall man in black with tired eyes, realizing yet again just how tired she was. She sighed and rubbed a hand over her face, chastising herself. She seriously considered attempting to throw a jinx at the man just because he was being a little ornery.

“Professor Snape?” A sour look passed over his face briefly as he waited for her to continue. Her accent was thick with exhaustion and she was sure she looked a mess, but she struggled to focus on his disapproving black eyes for more than a few seconds. “I know that it's pretty late in the afternoon here, and that by all rights I should be as cheerful as you, but,” she paused to yawn, peeking with one eye over the hand shielding her mouth at the glowering man, “But I have not stopped goin' since midnight and I need to sleep desperately.”

He looked down his long nose at her, black eyebrow raised in disdain. “I see. In that case, I will show you to your quarters. Will that suffice?”

She nodded mid-yawn before adjusting her tote on her shoulder. “By all means, lead the way.”

He nodded curtly and turned sharply on his heel. “This way, Professor.”

When next he saw her, this time hours later at staff dinner, she looked if possible, even more ridiculous. She seemed to be wearing the same trousers as she had been wearing this afternoon, wrinkled as if she had fallen asleep in them, accompanied by an over-large gray sweatshirt, with the word ‘Saints’ emblazoned across the front in garish gold lettering. Her curly blonde hair was free of the ponytail it had been in earlier and had formed a cloud around her head that made her look like an overgrown mushroom.

A beautiful mushroom, to be honest, with an alluring, impressively glowing recommendation from Minerva and a surname that tickled at his memory for some god forsaken reason.

But a mushroom, nonetheless.

She approached the table timidly, with the near imperceptible scuff of trainers on stone, and made for the only open seat, the one directly across from him.

The table fell silent, even Rolanda and Lupin choosing to forgo their rather obnoxiously loud discussion of quidditch in lieu of watching the tiny, blushing woman take her seat.

Minerva cringed slightly at the woman's less-than-professional appearance, before forcing a thin, polite smile on her face. She cast a look at Severus and he knew immediately that she was warning him to play nice. “And how did your travels go, Professor de Vilieré?”

“Charlotte’s fine.” The woman smiled, her hair arranging itself into a neat bun of its own accord.

Wandless and wordless. Severus shrugged it off, it was likely a spell she had been using most of her life. Proficiency was a given.

“It went alright, I guess, Headmistress. Thanks for askin’. I'm exhausted but I reckon I'll be right as rain in the morning.” She shrugged with a self-deprecating smile. “And more put together too.”

Minerva responded with a pleasantry he didn't care to catch and the woman responded in kind with a soft smile and soft admonition he couldn’t make out.

As she spoke recounting some particular or another about her journey, he allowed himself to listen to the odd cadence of her voice. Her voice was soft and her accent thick and drawling, lacking the staccato rhythm of the Minerva’s brogue and brusque quality of his own voice, but there was something annoyingly pleasant about it.

Like almost everything else about her, he decided it was irritating. She was a lesson in extremes. She was too short, her hair too wild, her jumper too garish and her accent too American. She couldn't just be average.

That thought led into another rather interesting thought. Why was it that this blasted school couldn't hire anyone normal?

“Severus!” A long fingered hand landed on his sleeve heavily. “Are you quite alright, dear?”

Severus snapped to attention and focused on Minerva. “Yes.”

“What has you so distracted?” She retracted her hand.

He sighed, frustrated that he had been caught lost in his thoughts. “It is of no importance.” He caught de Vilieré’s eyes and grunted, looking down at his food.

“That jumper, Ms. de Vilieré, may I assume that it is in...support, shall we say, of a sports team?” Despite his polite, maybe even pleasant, phrasing, the deep baritone of his voice dripped with sarcasm. He didn’t like her or her sweater and desired that she knew it.

The asshole.

She looked up from the mush she had made on her plate and caught his arched eyebrow with one of her own, and spoke in a deliberately cheerful voice, nodding. “The New Orleans Saints. They are my hometown’s professional football- American Football- team.” She deliberately ignored his contemptuous look.

“Ahh,” he drawled, smirking slightly. “Muggle football, I’d suspect.”

She breathed deep, trying to steady herself. “Yeah, it’s a no-maj sport.”

“Not Quidditch?” Professor Hooch frowned. “Do Americans play quidditch?”

“Some people are into it. There’s a club league in NOLA that my brother-in-law tried out once. Quidditch is more popular up north, I think. The South has been obsessed with Football as long as people have been playing it.” Charlotte smiled. “To be honest, I don't think I've ever watched Quidditch. I’m not really a sports girl."

Snape arched an eyebrow. "Then why the jumper, I wonder?"

Charlotte shrugged, watching as the Headmistress shot Snape a look. "I think my brother gave me this sweater, to be honest, or my dad.”

Professor Hooch looked scandalized. “Did you play quidditch at Ilvermorny?”

Charlotte smiled. “I didn’t go to Ilvermorny. The US is a very large country. Most states have their own school or schools. I went to the Convent - the Lafreniere School of Magic in New Orleans. The no-majs believe the school buildings are an old Ursuline Convent. Most still call it the Convent rather than by the school’s official name. Everyone in my family went there and it’s, like, right around the corner from our house. My dad wouldn’t have felt too secure sending his children that far from home.”

“It’s not a boarding school?” Professor Lupin leaned forward.

Charlotte rubbed at her face. Their questions were to be expected but this level of social engagement was exhausting her already rock bottom stores of energy. “No. Most schools in the States don’t board their students. Ilvermorny does and I think there’s a boarding school out in California.”

“I’ve heard that Americans often pursue higher education. Did you attend university?”

Charlotte winced imperceptibly, having dreaded this question. “I had planned to. Life got complicated around the end of my time at the Convent.”

“Complicated?” Snape drummed the pad of his middle finger against the table, dark eyes on her.

Charlotte nodded. “Complicated. I decided it would be more feasible to pursue apprenticeship in my chosen fields.”

“Complicated how?”

She turned back to Snape and considered him quietly. “Complicated enough that it derailed many of my personal plans.”

He caught her eyes and held them for a long moment.

“How interesting.” The Headmistress smiled, sensing the rising tension. “The differences in culture are astounding.”

She blinked and he looked down.

Sprout leaned forward, ignoring her. “I’ve heard about something called Mardi Gras?”

Mar-tee Grass. Jesus Christ.

Charlotte chuckled but didn’t correct her. “It’s one of the things New Orleans is famous for. It means Fat Tuesday. It’s the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday.”

“Ash Wednesday?”

Professor Snape sighed. “The Wednesday before the start of Lent.”

He was met with blank stares. He caught Charlotte’s eyes. “The forty days before Easter. Meant as a time of repentance. Catholics observe it.”

Professor Sprout turned back to her. “Are you Catholic?”

The look on her face must have been unedited because Professor Lupin chuckled.

She marshaled herself and made a so-so motion with her hands. “Culturally, I guess. I did all the sh- rites that were expected of me. But I haven’t willingly stepped inside a church in years.” She shrugged.

“Why did you do all the rites if you don’t think you believe it?”

“Pomona!”

Charlotte nodded at the Headmistress. “It’s okay. It was expected of me, given my cultural heritage and family. I don’t know of any member of a Creole family that would risk social censure by rejecting Catholicism. You just do it, take Communion, light the candle, get it over with. Grease the wheels and all that.”

“How do you know about Lent, Severus?” Pomona turned to Snape with curious eyes.

“I was raised Catholic.” Snape nodded to Charlotte. “Similarly to Ms. de Vilierè, I did all the shite that was expected of me and no longer practice.”

“I didn’t know that about you, Severus.” Flitwick hummed, kind smile on his face. “What did you mean by Creole, Charlotte?”

“Being of French heritage from the city of New Orleans.”

“And being Catholic is part of being Creole?”

“I think it’s widely assumed to be essential to being Creole.”

“You would disagree?” Severus watched her quietly.

“I don’t think it matters if I agree.” She sighed. “New Orleanian magical communities are very… culture-bound and committed to maintaining tradition. As a result, these communities retain a lot of the historical prejudices that the no-maj communities have lost to some extent. My family is Creole and, outside of school, I didn’t really socialize with people who weren’t. Creoles live in the Quarter and go to Mass at St. Louis, Americans live across Canal Street and attend church at First Magical Baptist, the Irish live in the Channel and go to their local Catholic church, and so on. If I had wanted to change that, make a different decision, -hell, if I had wanted to move out of the Quarter- the social pressure would’ve been intense.”

“Americans? Aren’t you all American?” Lupin smiled.

“Now, yes, but again, the Creole magical community holds to a lot of older, traditional prejudices. There’s a pecking order- a superiority complex. We were the original colonists. I’ve always been taught to identify as Creole first, American second.”

“What’s Cajun?”

Charlotte blinked. “I’m sorry?”

“What does the word Cajun refer to?”

Charlotte’s smile felt tight. “Of French heritage from outside of the city.”

Professor Binns nodded. “I thought it was food.”

Charlotte breathed deep. “It means that too.”

The Headmistress sighed loudly and set her hands on the table with some amount of finality. “I think we’ve all asked too much of our new colleague already. She’ll be here past today so you can ask more questions at a later date.”

Professor Sinistra smiled. “New Orleans sounds fascinating.”

Charlotte ducked her head. “NOLA is unlike anywhere else in the US. It’s truly unique.”

“Why are you in Scotland then, I wonder?”

The air left the room with a whimper. The Headmistress rubbed at her face.

Charlotte nodded, biting at her lip, glancing over at Snape. There was a part of her that wanted to be honest and another, larger part that wanted to meet his sarcasm head-on.

The latter part won.

“The weather.”

Professor Sprout snorted.

He hummed, eyes on hers. “You’ll be disappointed then.”

She chuckled. “I already am. It was summer when I left NOLA this morning. I should’ve kept a jacket out when I packed. ‘Bout near froze.”

“Disappointed and of delicate constitution.” Snape sighed dramatically. “You’re not likely to last long here.”

The Headmistress's jaw clenched. “Severus.”

“I’m cold-natured, sure.” She shrugged, smiling the edgy little smile that used to irritate Beau. Despite the obvious being exactly what she meant, she clarified for the sake of professionalism. “I do get cold easily, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say I’m delicate.” She fluttered her eyelashes at him. “I wouldn’t worry about my longevity, I have survived much more frigid climes. I’m tougher than I look.”

Severus made a face that communicated clearly that he didn’t believe her. “I’m sure.”

She hummed. She wasn’t going to let him goad her into revealing more about herself than she was ready to share.

Professor Lupin glanced between the two of them. “At the risk of being nosy, why did you decide to move to Scotland?”

She considered Professor Lupin and saw Snape watch her out of the corner of her eye. After a moment, she shrugged. “The magical community of NOLA isn’t small, per say, but it is insulated and very interconnected.“ She paused and looked at Snape again. “I felt a little stifled at home, I guess. Needed a new environment.”

“A new environment for what?” Snape traced the wood grain of the table with a single long finger.

She bit back the urge to shock him with an absurd lie. “To grow, develop. A bit like a houseplant, I needed a new pot.”

Professor Sprout made a pleased sound.

“You felt stifled in a city with the culture and history you’ve spent the last hour describing?” He demurred sarcastically. “Your new pot may be a mite small.”

“I’m sure it’ll be alright. After all, it seems big enough for the current residents.” She lowered her chin, eyeing him from under her lashes. “If such illustrious company can grow to fit such a space, I’m sure I will do alright.”

Professor Lupin choked on his wine. Professor Flitwick dropped his silverware with a clatter. Hagrid froze as if he was in the presence of a predator.

“Touché, Ms. de Vilierè.” Snape nodded.

Part 2

#severus snape #snape/oc #Severus Snape/oc #harry potter fanfiction #harry potter #severus snape fanfiction #pro severus snape #fanon severus

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fnaffersblog · 2 years ago

Text

Hello internet!

It’s officially been over a week since the release of the ‘Moon’s DEATH in VRCHAT’ episode and I am FINALLY done with this essay on the show. IRL stuff be damned, this was important lol.

Not really sure how to explain what this post is, so I guess it’s just my thoughts on some stuff from the show overall, focused in around this specific episode. It started off as a why I liked and didn’t like the idea of Moon’s “death” and kinda spiraled into something more as things tend to do for me sometimes. It’s a collection of opinions and observations from my perspective, so if you do happen to read this, uh, hi! Thanks!

I began writing this about five minutes after I finished watching that episode on the 15th of April, and have spent the last couple days doing most nothing BUT writing. I held off on watching the most recent lore episodes, (after Lunar’s death) because if I didn’t I’d just have to keep rewriting it and rewriting it and then it would just never get done. There are many things in this post that have been resolved at this point, but I chose to keep writing it anyway because I was having fun (Like, Moon’s been resurrected at this point and I have NO IDEA if he’s got his memories back. Which is a… large portion of this post lolol). There’s also references to some of the stuff I did see and while I did go through and read it through several times, some stuff still got through I’m sure. It’s a bit all over the place. So keep that in mind if you do choose to read this!

I wanna make clear really quickly that these are all my personal opinions and insights, based on my experiences of the show. I like this show, and doing stuff like this is fun for me. It’s a way for me to show my enjoyment, and at the end of the day this is a silly role play show featuring characters on the internet, that I like to watch. Please don’t come into the comments of my posts or my ask box trying to start fights over stuff I’ve said. I’m all about hearing people’s opinions and I’d love people to give me their own insights about the stuff I’ve talked about (if I didn’t my ask box would be closed.), even if we don’t see eye to eye!

My own opinions may change in the future. I’m open to that. Welcome it even! There’s so many different interpretations and likes and dislikes about different characters and I love that so many people have been brought together by their enjoyment of SaMs, even thought sometimes there are bumps in the road. It’s genuinely my favorite part, that we all enjoy this show for such varied reasons. But I won’t entertain outright hatred, insults, or attempts to start discourse with me. I will simply block people who do so.

Now that it’s out of the way, though, LET’S TALK! Prepare for sloppy thinking and many lots of words below the cut because my brain has been all over the place for several DAYS and I’ve been super excited to deep dive into this. I’ve been vibrating thinking about all this and trying to get this done!

!SPOILERS FOR THE SUN AND MOON SHOW BELOW!

So.

They killed Moon.

(Porbably. 2% chance and all that but let’s… let’s be real folks cam’ahn. Ya know? Ya know.)

I’ll be honest, this decision took me completely by surprise. I was not expecting the death of such a titular character, after all it is called the Sun and MOON Show. But, taking a look back on stuff that’s happened in the show, specifically with Moon himself, it’s not all that much of a jump that this happened.

Let’s talk some meta first. I’ve been somewhat worried about it, and I know other people have asked both here on Tumblr and in the comments of many of the recent lore videos about the show possibly ending or the VA’s moving on to other things.

META/ Behind the Scenes Word Vomit

So there was another show, called the Mommy Long Legs and Daddy Long Legs Show and I’m pretty sure there were others, but I know about this one for certain. They have the Huggy Wuggy and Poppy Playitme show listed in their Home page and as of writing they still have 2.33k subscribers. I know at one point the Huggy Wuggy and Poppy Playtime Show was listed under the channel page of all the FNAF Reacts shows. It isn’t anymore.

Whatever used to be on the Mommy Long Legs and Daddy Long Legs Show is gone. If there were videos on that channel, they are no longer there. If you are actually worried that they are going to end the Sun and Moon Show channel, be aware of the possibility that eventually they will probably do the same as they have done to the Mommy Long Legs and Daddy Long Legs Show. Same for any of the FNAF Reacts channels that you enjoy.

THIS IS NOT MEANT TO CAUSE PANIC! Even if the show were to end, I don’t believe they would delete all the videos right away or anything like that, and most likely we will have confirmation that that is the intended path for the show. But take those facts as you will. I’ll be keeping an eye on the Huggy Wuggy and Poppy Playtime Show, just to be certain. I won’t be surprised if at some point those videos get erased too.

HOWEVER!

I don’t think they’re ending the Sun and Moon show, for several reasons.

One of the reasons I saw someone call out as for why they might cancel the show is views and subscribers. So I went and pulled some numbers from various channels. As of today, (April 19th, 2023) here are the subscribers counts for some various shows in the FNAF Reacts verse as well as the Huggy Wuggy and Playtime Poppy Show, a show which was made by the same company but which HAS ended. The last episode of that channel aired on the 23rd of February this year and still has all their videos up, but it appears they have stopped uploading.

Huggy Wuggy and Playtime Poppy Show: 193k

Sun and Moon Show: 422k

Circus Baby and Glamrock Freddy Show: 238k

Funtime Foxy and Glamrock Chica Show: 113k

Roxanne Wolf and Gregory Show: 348k

As you can see, the Sun and Moon Show still has the most subscribers of all the channels. I didn’t include the Monty Gator and Foxy Show because that show is so new, and I didn’t include the Springtrap and Spring Bonnie show due to the recent re-branding which I feel would have messed up the numbers. I didn’t include the Freddy and Funtime Freddy show because I forgor. But each of those channels also has less subscribers than the SaMS. I also went and looked at the view counts for the past thirty days of videos (not including todays) and pulled an average view count from those episodes.

Huggy Wuggy and Playtime Poppy Show: 21.5k

Sun and Moon Show: 59.5k

Circus Baby and Glamrock Freddy Show: 35k

Funtime Foxy and Glamrock Chica Show: 9.9k

Roxanne Wolf and Gregory Show: 23k

The Sun and Moon Shows still got higher view counts than any of the other shows too. From a, I guess, business stand point, I really don’t think their highest performing show is the one they’re going to give the boot. Besides, people love this show beyond the numbers. I went and watched that most recent QnA video again recently and like… just the sheer love from them scrolling through all those comments and questions people had? Fuck guys. Makes me emotional.

On a somewhat related note, which stems from genuine curiosity about behind the scenes stuff and because I need to just word vomit for a second, I wonder if they’ve lost a bunch of subscribers or if their view counts have been affected by the death episodes? I don’t really surf the tags on Twitter so much, but in the comments of the videos and here on Tumblr I’ve seen quite a lot of people say they’ll stop watching or that they’re taking a break from watching. I also wasn’t paying attention to the subscriber counts before and after so I don’t know! Did people really leave?

I wonder what the reasoning, the thought process was behind the decision. They had to know there was going to be backlash! Did they not care? Killing two major characters back to back? Maybe they thought spreading out the deaths would be too much and decided to drop all the bombs all at once? Maybe it really was just to set up for the next plot line? Like, it’s a HUGE thing to kill one of your main, load-bearing characters! (I can’t particularly articulate why but, like, this is really big? It’s HUGE? Especially in the middle of so many separate story lines?)

How long have they been planning to do this? How far in advance is the show planned? We don’t really know anything about the behind the scenes for the show. Who writes plot points and ideas? The VA’s? Someone else? Whoever did, they’ve been setting up for it! It felt really sudden to me, and in a really weird place, but it had to have been in the works for some time! With everything else going on all at once, it just felt like a really sudden wrench in the gears, caught me by surprise for sure! It’s gonna throw everything out of whack! I like thinking about things like that. Yus yus yus.

Anyways, it doesn’t seem to be the path the creators are taking from a story standpoint either. If they were planning to end the show they’d be wrapping up plot threads, and instead they’ve been setting up for new stuff. If they were planning to end the show, why have Moon leave a message for Sun? Why even suggest the 2% at all? Why introduce Earth? I think it was in the ‘Killcode and Moon’s Final Conversation in VRCHAT’ episode where Kill Code suggested Eclipse might seek out the Creator since their goals aligned. But, like, that’s the introduction of a new character motive as well as setting up for a team up between two main show villains.

They’ve done character building on Sun, they gave the Creator motives for his plans, they’re building Eclipse up to be even more threatening. Hell, why even suggest there was a possibility to save Lunar if they were just going to end the show? Monty wouldn’t have found a nanomachine, and they wouldn’t be teasing us about it in the description. Lunar would just be gone. Like, you don’t make cliffhangers for a piece of media you know is going to end, that you intend on ending, that’s not very good in any aspect. And these folks know what they’re doing, they’ve been doing it for awhile.

I think the more likely option is one or both of the VA’s are taking a break from or leaving the show. For those who don’t know the two voice actors for the Sun and Moon Show are InvisibleDavis Studios (Who plays Sun, Eclipse and Monty) and EC_Universal Productions (Who plays Moon, Lunar, and Kill Code).

Both actors have their own channels and their own projects outside of the Sun and Moon show. Invisible Davis has Bonnie’s Adventures, another FNAF RP series, and his Undertale series and EC_Universal has the Punkrocks FNAF RP, which is part of TheFamousFilms greater FNAF MC RPVerse (also known, I believe, just as the FNAFverse) and has also recently been previewing another new and upcoming RP series based on Danmachi or Is it Wrong to Pick up Girls in a Dungeon. Invisible Davis also just started the Monty Gator and Foxy show.

This wouldn’t be the first time this has happened in the collection of FNAF React shows. The Funtime Foxy and Glamrock Chica show “rebranded” to the Funtime Foxy and Lolbit Show for a while, but that was in the titles inside of the videos themselves only. As far as I can tell, the voice actors did not change nor were the cast credits changed during that time. There’s also been several times where main characters were “replaced”, as with Freddy and Shadow Freddy or the different variations of Roxy, Circus Baby and others (Shattered Roxanne, Lovesick and Scrap Baby, Eclipse and Lunar).

However, many of you, if you keep up with the other shows, are probably aware that recently the Glitchtrap and Glamrock Bonnie show recently completely re-branded to the Springtrap and Springbonnie Show. They changed their banner, their channel name, as well as their cast credits in their most recent videos. This is a full on channel re-branding, which has not happened to this degree before, except maybe to the Freddy and Funtime Freddy show, as the original videos on that channel actually didn’t have Funtime Freddy at all. The cast credits are now the VA’s for the characters on the Freddy and Funtime Freddy show and the previous VA for Glamrock Bonnie is no longer listed. I am not in the Discord for any of the FNAF Reacts shows, so I do not know if there was an announcement for this change.

I mention this re-branding for two reasons only. The first is to establish that this is a possibility for the Sun and Moon Show. A decision could be made to replace Sun or Moon or both with new characters as it has already been done. These are most likely different scenarios, it is simply a possibility. The second is to establish that if there IS a VA change or if the channel is being re-branded, however they approached doing so with the Springtrap and Spring Bonnie show they will probably do again for the Sun and Moon Show. Whether that be no announcement at all or what, again I didn’t see how they advertised the GtaGBS/StaSBS switch over, regardless it will most likely be approached the same way.

To be clear this possibility is pure speculation based on already accessible information about the on goings outside of the show, mixed with my own personal experiences to theorize what may happen in the shows future. I will admit, I had several more paragraphs written detailing why I thought this might happen, but I decided against putting it in because I think it was inappropriate to make theories on the real life people behind the scenes. I don’t know anyone who works on the show, and it’s not my place to speculate about anything personal the real people behind the show may have going on to affect decisions. Don’t take my word as fact on anything. It is ONLY speculation.

Please be respectful to the voice actors and the folks working on the shows. They put in a lot of work to create something that we all love and enjoy in our own ways. Be mindful and don’t bug anyone. Until we are given explicit facts from someone who works on the shows, or an announcement from a trusted and related source, we just need to trust the process as they say.

(As a quick plug, because I truly do enjoy the content these folks put out, if you like the Sun and Moon show or the FNAF Reacts channels, especially for their lore I recommend checking them out! They’re really fun, I have been personally enjoying the hell out of the Punkrocks series. That series specifically is only on episode #69 so there’s not a ton you would need to catch up on this point and while I haven't had time to watch the Undertale series as regularly as I want, the stuff I have seen is fun!)

Now, with that out of the way let’s move on into the good sauce.

Les talk about the storrry.

STORY

What happens now? Where do we go from here?

There’s kinda three big paths I can see this taking at this point,

The first is that 2% comes into effect. Moon comes back with all his memories in tact and he’s (relatively) fine and is reunited with Sun.

Second, the 2% does not come into effect, but Moon does eventually regain his memories!

Third, the 2% does not come into effect, Moon is reset and does not ever regain his memories.

There are other options of course! Maybe a Moon from a different dimension pops in, maybe he doesn’t come back at all and another character takes his place (there’s plenty of options), but these are the three main ones I can think of. There’s also the option of there being a recent backup of Moon somewhere, but I see that being too similar to the first option, just with an additional fact of he would probably be missing memories of all the things that happened in his mind, if not a little more.

OPTION 1

I see the first option as the most ideal outcome of the three, at least for the characters, because it comes with the least amount of consequences. Moon comes back, and he and Sun are reunited. Moon meets Earth. Kill Code is alive inside of Moon’s computer. AI1 is restored, as they themselves stated a backup of them was made pre-entering-Moon’s-mind, and they are reunited with AI2 (though I would have LOVED to see AI2’s reaction to AI1 being gone. Do you think he would have been sad? Do you think he would have missed him?). Everyone is ‘fine’ and we move on with the story.

At this point, we just head on and start dealing with all of the plot points in the same manner we would have if the 2% thing had never been a thing at all. There are a couple things that need to be addressed, that were established after Moon’s “death” like Lunar and getting Kill Code a new body and all that but it’s pretty much all the same problems and no new added ones that come from Moon losing his memories.

Eclipse is the big one, of course! His obtaining of the Newton Star is something they’ve been trying to prevent since practically the beginning of the show. With Kill Codes added suggestion that the Creator might try and seek Eclipse out or the two might join forces due to similar wants, we have an incredibly interesting threat on the horizon.

By the way, I was going to mention Eclipse resetting the world as an option since that seemed to be his original plan, and it would be a really easy way to ‘reset’ the channel to 0, but he himself stated that he didn’t want to do that anymore. Just thought I’d mention it!

Some other stuff they could build stories around:

- Sun’s powers and Moon’s loss of magic, which includes the circle being destroyed

- Monty Gator and Foxy having their own show and what led to that happening (people picked up that there seemed to be something going on between the Celestial Siblings and Monty that required them all to take a break from one another for a bit)

- Earth! Moon hasn’t actually met her yet! Also, I made a separate post about this, but the Creator has outright stated that Earth was made to be better than the boys in EVERY aspect. Which, considering what we now know of the Creators motives, most likely includes killing humans. I cannot WAIT to see where they go with her. (Her reaction to learning that Sun killed someone clicked some switches for me, it struck me as weird. Little details from the last couple episodes are striking me as really interesting and I’m getting more and more excited.)

- Lunar. Monty dealing with Lunar, the nanomachine, Lunar’s trauma, all sorts of stuff with Lunar. (Maybe he’ll become a major side character on the Monty Gator and Foxy Show!)

- Puppet???? Mentioned, like, twice? This is 100% a personal thing but GIVE ME MAH WIGGLY OG CHILD CARE TAKER. They’ve set up for the character, also excited to see where they’re gonna go with them.

- Solar Flare. It didn’t seem like he was actually dead, but instead fighting back inside Eclipse's systems. Maybe he’ll be the final puzzle piece to taking the down the long cheeto.

- Blood moon and Sun dealing with his first murder still.

As well as:

- The last time Sun saw Moon, Moon had trapped him in a small, magical barrier in a bunker by himself and left him.

- The message Moon left for Sun and dealing with the repercussions of that basically being a suicide note.

- Sun dealing with having Kill Code around, especially when just recently they were talking about killing him.

- A whole bunch of other things I can’t even remember right now

And of course.

Sun and Moon themselves, and their relationship with one another.

If Moon does not get reset, we’re still dealing with the same Moon we’ve had for the past year and beyond the beginning of the show, and he has a lot to atone for.

This isn’t to say that Sun doesn’t have things he’s done that need to be addressed, quite the opposite. He’s not 100% in the clear here.

I believe both of them are flawed and complex characters who have both made mistakes and done ‘bad’ things. I believe both of them deserve to have a spotlight put on them so we can see how they react and evolve afterwards. I do not want anyone to think I’m demonizing either one, by the way, or think that I’m infantalizing Sun as some weenie baby who’s never done anything wrong. Nor do I want anyone to think I’m excusing either of them for their actions farther down in this post. They both have growing they need to achieve, things they need to answer for, and diminishing them to singular character traits is to do the character’s a disservice.

But, right now, this is about Moon and I DO think between the two Moon has many more things he’s done that he needs to answer for and I do think that a lot of it revolves around Sun.

I’ll get into that, because there’s a reason I feel this way about Moon that actually has nothing to do with his character but rather with the show itself, but not here, because I’d like to address both of them separately and I’m still talking about possible outcomes. We’ll get there.

Point is, if they don’t actually kill/reset Moon, there are still so many stories to go with! That’s only stuff I remember, stuff that was established and can be built on from the most recent lore episodes. And I didn’t even touch on possible episodes with character interactions (Monty hasn’t met Earth! Earth and Lunar haven’t met anyone! Eclipse and Earth! The Creator and Earth! Moon and Monty after Lunar’s splosion! GOOD EcliPSE LeaRNINg AbOuT LUNaR. So much s tufffffffff!)

Buuuuuut

I’m pretty sure they are not going to go with option one.

OPTION 2

Option two and three are more likely and we won’t know which for awhile. Like, I mentioned up in the meta section, they probably wouldn’t have set up the 2% at all if they were ultimately not going to do it.

So, option two! Also known as Moon’s Amnesia Arc!

Moon appears in his own body, back in the daycare. Kill Code is in the computer, AI1 has yet to be restored, for any various number of reasons. Sun and Earth are there and they either find Moon or are contacted by Kill Code/ one of the AI.

And Moon doesn’t remember anything.

I’m trying to think of all the things a reset would encapsulate. It was a total reset and all his memories, so probably anything you can think of that wasn’t part of his base programming. He probably doesn’t remember any of the other characters, unless those names were a part of his initial known information. Which would include Sun.

(Fuck. Do you think Sun would think he was messing with him at first? As like a really awful prank?)

Like. Sun. Jesus. It’s going to be so bad, if it happens. Sun’s already dealing with SO much, I don’t even know if Earth could pull him back from the spiral. He’s already blaming himself for Moon getting trapped in his own head because of the destruction of the magic circle. He’s already feeling guilty and dealing with the Bloodmoon hallucinations. If Moon loses his memories, and like, doesn’t even remember Sun (which he’ll probably see as a consequence of his running off to fight Eclipse alone and destroying the magic circle) this is going to fucking BREAK him.

Followed by the message. “Sun. I don’t know if I’m awake already when you’re gonna hear this or if I’m gonna be still repairing myself. I had to do something. I had to do this. In order to not feel responsible for killing another person. Kill Code’s getting better. He WANTS to live. He wants to be his own person. But he needs help. He needs your help. And I’m gonna need it too. In order for Kill Code to exist one half of my AI’s have to delete themselves, which they can be fixed. That’s easy. But I… I got reset. More than likely. There’s about a 2% chance I didn’t, so maybe you got lucky. But I… I can’t kill another person. I love you brother. I know you understand what I did. And I know why you left. I know you wanted to help me. Now’s your chance. Just be my brother. That’s all I’ve ever needed.”

Just. The emotions that will come with having a memory-less Moon show up and see Sun. Kill Code in the computer. Do you think Sun will blame him? I don’t even think he’ll believe Kill Code until he hears the recording. I wonder if he’ll believe him even after! I’ve already written about how the two of them, Sun and Moon, don’t really know each other in a different post. I DON’T think Sun will understand this decision at all. Like, deep diving into that message could probably constitute another essay all on it’s own. I’m excited. I’m dreading it. I can’t fucking wait. Arghargharghargharghnamnamanamnomm

His memories about magic. His memories about the daycare. All his experiences, gone.

Think of all the other characters who are going to have to deal with the effect’s of Moon’s death, too! This is going to have blow back that reaches to other characters who knew him! All the different opinions. There’s going to be characters who did like Moon, who did NOT like Moon, who were helped by him. He wasn’t unloved in the FNAF Reacts Verse, people came to him for help and advice a lot, enough that, an entire other universes Pizzaplex failed without him. Fucking Monty, guys. KC having to live on with the realization of what exactly Moon saving him cost and what that actually meant. When he sits and thinks on it, what really happened. LUNAR.

And on top of all of that, every plot point I listed above, is still open to be addressed. Every single one is a loose thread still, except now Moon doesn’t remember anything. He can’t help with Eclipse or the Creator as well as he could before, because he doesn’t remember. He won’t have any reaction to hearing Lunar is dead, because he doesn’t remember who Lunar is.

And he can’t attone for the things he’s done to Sun and the other people he’s hurt, because he doesn’t remember doing those things.

However, with option two, eventually Moon remembers! I saw a couple suggestions for how this could happen. Backups somewhere. Maybe the AI’s can find them, maybe they were in Lunar and when (if) he gets ‘resurrected’ they’ll get Moon back too, I think I saw someone say that Moon outright said he had backups somewhere, maybe he put them somewhere and one of the side plots will be trying to find where they’re hidden since the only one who knew where they were was Moon himself.

I think, if they do go this route, there will probably be more severe consequences for the message and the choices Moon made in his head. Because, unlike in the first path where nothing ‘bad’ came from the choice, in this path there were severe consequences for people other than Moon that happened because Moon lost his memories. Especially to Sun. But there is once more room for growth, because now he can face those consequences, possibly even with a new perspective! I saw someone suggest that Moon with no memories (and no trauma!) watches the show and realizes he was an asshole, and it helps him take strides to making amends as best he can and growing as a character even after he regains them.

Which now brings me to the third and final path I see this entire thing taking.

OPTION 3 (Kinda)

The 2% comes into effect and Moon loses his memories.

And he does not ever get them back. A true reset.

Maybe there are no back ups. Maybe there are backups, but Eclipse finds and destroys them all and with it any chance of Moon coming back. Maybe they find the backups but they’ve been corrupted somehow. Point is Moon is forever the way he is now, with no memories of his past beyond the recordings provided him and anecdotes from the people who knew him.

I don’t particularly love this option. I don’t hate it, I can see reasons for why it could happen, and also reasons why it would be a cool path to take! But I think, of the three I listed, I want this option the least.

I’m going to veer for a moment, twice. We’ll get back to that topic in a little bit, but I’d like jump to what I mentioned before and talk about Sun and Moon themselves, and their relationship with each other as well as another kind of major opinion I have for the show.

I’m going to talk about Sun first, because I think my opinions on Sun are a little different than other peoples. I’ve never actually seen anyone talk about him like this, so I’d like to get it out of the way because it does kind of lead into what I think about Moon.

SUN

Initially, while I was writing this piece I couldn’t quite figure out what to write about Sun. So I started off this section with ‘Sun is boring’. Which I don’t think that so much anymore. I spent some time while I was writing this, going back and watching some older lore episodes, ranging from all the way back at the beginning of the channel to more recent episodes.

And I think a better description for how I feel about Sun is that I think Sun has been very overshadowed over the course of the show. And because of that, until recent episodes where the show has started to focus on him, I just didn’t really care about him all that much. I realized this while I was trying to figure out how to characterize him, because I was trying to think of specific moments where he did something that jumped out to me, that put his character on display and or story arcs where he has been an active focus and, besides the most recent stuff, I couldn’t think of any. Which is weird, because I can think of a TON of stuff for Moon.

I’d like to clarify quickly that I am not a religious watcher of the Sun and Moon Show. I don’t always have time to watch episodes day of, and I often don’t watch gaming episodes, so I don’t get the little tidbits of characterization and character information that happen in those episodes. I started watching the show regularly sometime after the Interview episode way the fuck back in July of last year because I saw an animatic or something that got me really interested, but I never went back and watched anything before now. I’ve also missed lore episodes so I’m most likely coming from a place of less understanding than someone who has watched the show regularly, seen every episode, or watched and paid attention to Sun’s character specifically. I don’t know everything, and I don’t want anyone to think that I think I know everything, I very much do not.

Eventually I hope to watch the show in it’s entirety (which I know is a huge undertaking, but I want to do it anyway at some point because I just really like this show). Even with the few episodes I’ve been re-watching so I can find little details for my writing, I’ve discovered so many more cool little things so I’m sure in the future once I’ve re-watched it all, my opinions will change (for sure!).

But from my perspective (which is, again, very limited. I will outright admit that), Sun is a very overshadowed character on the show despite being a title character.

The basic character points I know about Sun are:

- He’s anxious

- He’s hot headed/ impulsive

- He likes things being organized and clean

- He’s very much a caretaker, good with kids

- He tries very hard to be optimistic and cheerful

- He’s very often the butt of jokes

In the early days of the channel, Sun was much more joyful than he is now. He’s always been optimistic and back then nothing ever really got him down for long. This early show version of Sun actually comes back in the ‘How Sun and Moon FIRST MET in VRCHAT’ episode. He’s super happy, cheerful, super excitable, singing to himself. His voice is FULL of joy. He comes across a problem (trying to figure out where nap time is going to be) and he bounces back from being confused about it and not finding an answer immediately. He’s not unhappy about it at all, nor is he unhappy about not being able to figure it out, he decides not to dwell on it, optimistically stating he’ll figure it out in the future.

That optimism and impulsive decision making has remained but he’s less cheerful, less excitable. He’s anxious all the time and he questions himself a lot, which has been focused on often in response to his actions with Bloodmoon. A really good example that I personally like is in the episode ‘Sun LEARNS Moons SECRET?! In VRCHAT’, the way Sun reacts to finding out to Moon telling him he has no plans to stop Eclipse, that he tried everything and that he’s failed, is to say, “No. No. There has to be something. Like, like literally anything. There has to be something!” Even when Moon is telling him that this is it, they’re out of options, Sun continues to hold on to that hope. Of course, right after he starts to panic because he doesn't want to die, but the point is that his initial reaction was that hope!

Even after he starts to panic about dying, about Moon possibly dying, he’s still trying to come up with options. He says, ‘Maybe we can be stuck together!’ still looking on the bright side! And when Moon starts panicking, Sun assures him that he’s not a virus, he’s not a mistake. It’s very good.

But that’s it. That’s where my, even with all of my re-watching and reevaluating, understanding of Sun ends. And that’s not a lot. It’s paltry in comparison to what I know about Moon.

Which brings me over to talking about Moon.

MOON

In the same way that I started talking about Sun with a less-than-accurate description, I’m gonna start off with a less-than-accurate description of Moon. Contrary to my description and personal understanding of Sun’s character, I’m gonna say something I have seen a ton of people say about Moon’s character.

Moon is an asshole.

I actually very much dislike this summation of Moon’s character because while it is true, Moon IS an asshole, it’s only a fraction of his full character. There are other things that supply his characterization.

The basic character traits I know about Moon are:

- He’s generally rude and mean to other people

- He’s apathetic

- He’s emotionally closed off

- He often resorts to threats and violence as an answer to his personal problems

- He has a lot of unresolved trauma stemming from his time under the virus/ Kill Code and being stuck in a body with Sun

- He has incredible technological and magical prowess

- He dislikes kids, and taking care of them (also not very good at it)

- He has a lot of self loathing

- He has a need to protect the people he cares about at all costs

We’ve heard often about how Moon was trapped in a body with Sun for the longest time. The breakdown he has about not wanting to be stuck again just before October started always sticks out in my mind, it’s one of the clearer moments I always remember from the show. But we never really got a look at that time, despite it being so important to the both of them, until the flashback episode ‘How Sun and Moon FIRST MET in VRCHAT’ and, from their first moments, Moon has always been an asshole to Sun. Their very first interaction with one another was not good, and it came from Moon.

But that was a VERY different situation. And I think it was a very normal response.

Not okay. But normal.

He’s stuck in a body he has no control over. He has no control over himself. He may even feel that he doesn’t have a self. Nobody can hear him (and considering the events of Security Breach are canon in the show, it’s possible nobody cares either). Trying to wrestle control is impossible, and trying to do it anyway is painful for both him and his counterpart. So, he responds to it by taking his anger out on the only other person he can take it out on, the only other person he can reach. Sun.

Sun even tells him in that episode that it’s not his fault they’re like that, he knows it’s not fair, he doesn’t have any control over it either (and in typical Sun fashion, Sun tries to offer solutions, he tries to come up with something that works for both of them) but Moon doesn’t care. He’s mad. He’s not thinking straight.

Different people react to different situations in different ways. Feeling trapped, being stuck in an abusive or awful situation changes people in different ways. Some people become very timid and submissive. Some people get angry and violent. You do things in the name of survival and sometimes these things aren’t good or reasonable. These are completely normal responses for this type of situation, even with the fantastical nature of it in the show.

I don’t know how long they were like this. I do remember a line at some point that they had been separated for a year before the first episode of the channel. They’d had some time apart from each other, so we didn’t get to see much of the immediate backlash of finally being separate, nor have we gotten to see any of the time they were together besides their very first interaction. We got long after. There had to be some reconciling for the two of them to be calling each other brothers by the beginning of the show.

This is Moon’s big traumatic incident, which has never actually been addressed on the show. This is the thing that so much of him revolves around, that fuels so much of him on the show, this powerless situation he was trapped in for years, being stuck in his own head. His need to take care of his siblings, his apathy and issues dealing with personal and emotional issues, his self loathing which stems from his actions (he feels like if he isn’t fixing things, making things, solving problems for people, he doesn’t serve a purpose, he’s worthless). All of it can probably be traced back to this.

It is the thing that a lot of his character revolves around, is this time where he was stuck in his own head with no power. He never wants that to happen again. Yes, he’s an asshole. But in character context, there is an explanation for him to be.

I think regardless of your opinions on Moon, most of us can agree he is often mean to the people around him. Sun, Eclipse, Monty, he doesn’t really pick favorites when it comes to being rude to people, though he is more/less/ mean in different ways to different people. Except for maybe Lunar, in fact he seemed really nice to Lunar even with that small section of episodes where Lunar took over Moon’s body in mid September. He certainly wasn’t as harsh with Lunar as he was with Eclipse. And he’s certainly not as mean to Lunar as he is to Sun.

Though he has made decisions for Lunar in the same way he’s made decisions for Sun, without his consent or understanding. With Sun of course I’m thinking of the trapping episode, because Faffers is incapable of shutting up about the trapping episode lol. For Lunar, I’m thinking about the Good Eclipse stuff. Moon lied to him about needing Lunar to scout a dimension, a dimension he told Lunar right after he “would enjoy” and then sent him to the Good Eclipse dimension without any information. He knew where he was sending Lunar, he most likely knew what was waiting for Lunar there.

Ultimately, it ended up fine. Lunar made a new friend and he started visiting Good Eclipse often. But the issue is that Moon made that decision FOR Lunar without communicating with him and I think also without quite understanding what was wrong, because Lunar has a lot of unaddressed trauma when it comes to Eclipse. Lunar panics when he gets there and sees Good Eclipse. It might not have gone the way Moon wanted and it could have made the situation worse.

It’s just another example of Moon making a decision that wasn’t as well thought out as it should have been, because Moon thought he knew better than the people he was making the decisions for. However, these decisions GENUINELY STEM FROM MOON’S CARE FOR THE PEOPLE HE DOES IT TOO/FOR.

One of my favorite quotes about Moon actually doesn’t come from an episode of the Sun and Moon Show, but from an episode of the Freddy and Funtime Freddy Show. Some quick context: On the FaFFS they introduced a character in August called Shadow Freddy. I’m not so caught up on the lore of FaFFS but I believe Shadow Freddy is a manifestation of Freddy’s magic, which gained corporeal will and form due to Freddy’s lack of use of it. Shadow Freddy’s purpose was to protect Freddy or something. This eventually manifests as Shadow Freddy completely taking over Freddy in maybe early/mid October and he was actually on that channel all the way up until either mid December or mid January (I’m not sure I was just looking at thumbnails rip).

On the 11th of December FaFFS aired an episode called ‘Moon SAVES Ghost Freddy in VRCHAT’ and on the 12th of December, FaFFS aired an episode called ‘Moon VS Shadow Freddy in VRCHAT. Both videos canonically take place in time before the ‘What if ECLIPSE had won?’ episode on SaMS. In these episodes Freddy has escaped his body in ghostly form and run away from Shadow Freddy to try and figure out a way to get his body back. Freddy explains the situation, Moon and Lunar help him out, giving him a temporary body made out of magic and then send him on his way.

The quote in question comes from the second episode here. Shadow Freddy has tracked Freddy to the Daycare, broken in and gives Moon his tragic backstory. Moon is being patronizing the entire time, calling him an idiot and clearly not giving a fuck. Shadow Freddy tells Moon a couple of things about the four wellsprings of power, and about how if Freddy dies Golden Freddy will get mad (which Moon says sounds like fun). Shadow Freddy of course gets frustrated that Moon doesn’t care about any of these really important repercussions he’s telling him about and Moon goes, “Listen here buddy. You don’t understand. Hi! I’m Moondrop! I don’t care about anybody aside from my brother.”

Which is such, it’s such, it is such a good fucking line! It is such a good line to describe Moon! He cares very deeply about Sun, he truly does love Sun! His actions towards Sun stem from a genuine place! A lot of his actions in the show stem from wanting good things for his brothers!

But you can want good things for people and still mess up. You can do good things and still have bad outcomes. You can have good intentions, but they can still be wrong. Different situations call for different solutions and not every answer is the right answer for certain problems. Moon falls into this a lot. He thinks he’s doing the right thing, he’s convinced he’s doing what’s best for people! He’s does things out of the kindness of his heart, doing his best. But he doesn’t have a correct understanding of what the right thing is.

Moon never gained the social skills to effectively deal with problems like this. These skills were warped by his time trapped with Sun and he never got help for it. I saw someone describe it as ‘socially incompetent’ and he himself stated at one point that he doesn’t think he’ll ever understand it (I could not find said quote but I do remember it being said). Which is that self loathing coming back. So he resorts to what he knows.

(It’s one of the reasons why I enjoy that idea someone else had where he watches the show and realizes he was an asshole before he lost his memories. He’d be coming at it from an unaffected angle, with no pre-established effects from that traumatic time which could help him grow those skills without any interruption! There’s no trauma that he has to push past, so it’ll be easier.)

He has good intentions, he wants to fix everything for the people he cares about and he does care very deeply about his siblings and the people that he loves. They’re very important to him, the most important to him. But taking away other people’s agency, making choices without their consent, even if you’re doing it for love? It’s not okay.

There’s more to all of this, but now I’m going to switch over to that second thing I mentioned before, that major opinion about the show.

THE SUN AND MOON SHOW

So, as I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been re-watching episodes from different times on the channel. As of now there are 134 episodes in the VRCHAT playlist, with most of them being ‘lore’ episodes. I skimmed through most of them, taking a look at the different arcs the show has been through and watching episodes I didn’t remember very clearly or hadn’t watched at all.

And I kind of realized that there hasn’t really been a Sun-centric story lines until recently, with the Bloodmoon death arc. Let me try and explain what I mean by Sun-Centric. With the Bloodmoon arc we are looking at a choice Sun actively made and the direct repercussions of it, which still revolve around Sun’s actions. Sun’s killing off Bloodmoon and his subsequent decision to hunt down Eclipse by himself have affected more people than just himself. There is a reverberating effect to his actions, something I don’t really think we’ve had from Sun before. This was the hardest thing for me to explain, so my apologies if it doesn't come across well.

Like, I can’t remember any arcs where Sun has been the primary focus of the story in this way. There’s plenty of them for Moon. For Eclipse. For Lunar. Hell, even Monty has had a couple of episodes dedicated to him on the channel. But for Sun, like, maybe there were some episodes at the beginning of the Eclipse stuff that focused on him alongside Eclipse and I’m sure there was some focus on the Roxanne stuff at one point. ‘Sun Goes on a DATE with ROXANNE WOLF in VRCHAT’ was about Sun and his feelings towards Roxanne, with Moon playing a supportive role in that episode! But none of those really stuck, there wasn’t any butterfly effect from Sun buying Moon a room in space or Sun visiting Golden Freddy for advice after the first fight.

Like, what important events can I think of that might have related to Sun?

July 16th? That wasn’t Sun’s fault, that was Eclipse and Bloodmoon. Sun had no hand in that at all. The Witherstorm? He helped solve it, but he was with Moon and again that was caused by Eclipse. Roxanne’s maternity chip stuff? Eclipse. Sun broke Moon’s computer? Sure, he caused it but then we flipped immediately to Moon and the resurgence of his Kill Code.

Shit! Sun barely even had anything to do with the pre-October stuff. Moon was the one doing all the planning then. He dragged Lunar back to switch him out with Moon that one time, but most of September was about Moon and Lunar. And he was literally GONE for all of October! I remember we saw him one time at the beginning and then he was literally just gone for a month. At the end of the episode ‘The Future of ECLIPSE and LUNAR in VRCHAT’ we see Sun get transported to a strange mindscape away from Moon. That episode aired on the 2nd of October. The next time we see Sun is in the episode ‘Moon REVIVES Sun in VRCHAT’. That episode aired on the 25th of October. 23 days! We were missing a title character for 23 days in October! I remember it, I remember people wondering where he went, being so happy he was back because he’d been gone for so long.

And I want to say that I’m blowing this out of proportion a little but, like, I’ve scrolled through EVERY episode in the VRCHAT list and the only stuff I can find where Sun has had a primary focus in the story is the last couple months. Please, please, PLEASE talk to me about Sun if you like him because I wanna be wrong about this. I want someone who loves his character and knows a lot about him to tell me all about how Sun’s actions have actually been driving the show alongside Moon and tell me all about their favorite Sun episodes where he’s been a driving force in the series. But as of this point, with all my research I just don’t see it!

So. Here’s that big ‘ol opinion I mentioned before.

The Sun and Moon show is a show that’s all about Moon.

Or at the very least the story is! There are, of course the gaming episodes which usually feature Sun and Moon, which I’ll touch on in a bit. For now, I’m just talking about the story/lore stuff.

Moon is an extremely powerful character in two fold. He’s super intelligent. We get examples of this all the time, either just from him being knowledgeable about various things or solving problems with his inventions. He created his AI’s, he’s upgraded the other animatronics, he regularly offers solutions to problems with ideas and inventions and he’s been doing so in the show for a long time. In fact, he’s so integral to the world of the show that they literally established in the ‘What if Moon didn’t exist in VRCHAT’ episode that the daycare was shutting down and the entire building was being closed because Moon wasn’t there to do tech work, which I brought up before.

He’s also a magical prodigy, to the point that Golden Freddy (who is, like, THE magic guy) said both he and Sun have huge destinies in front of them. Even recently, in the FaFFS episodes I mentioned earlier in the post, he gained access to another tier of powerful magic (PRIMORDIAL FIRE BABEY!). He may focus on his technology, but he has solved problems before with magic and has access to very powerful forms of it. When people have magic problems, they go to Golden Freddy or they go to Moon.

I think that, from a narrative standpoint, this makes Moon a weaker character in all of the stories he’s in. By being so powerful, he renders most regular problems moot. There isn’t really any threat behind threats because Moon has proven over and over again he can just solve them with his intelligence and technology or his magic.

I mentioned this in a post back in mid March, around the trapping episode, that I believed the only person who could reasonably contend with Moon is someone with incredible magical power and intelligence to combat his abilities. Which is why I was so excited when Sun got his own magic! Moon, with no context, compared Sun’s magical outburst to Golden Freddy. Again, like, THE MAGIC GUY, Golden Freddy. It’s possible that Sun’s natural abilities will surpass even Golden Freddy’s.

Now, you think this would be held back by the fact that Moon doesn’t like anyone other than his siblings. In fact, bringing up that FaFFS episode, Moon reveled in the idea that Golden Freddy would get pissed off if harm came to Freddy. He was excited about it! Considering his actions in that episodes you’d think he would have sent Shadow Freddy off on his merry way with no help at all, right? Except he did help Shadow Freddy! He still helps people he doesn’t like! Even when he’s expressed that he would enjoy the alternative. Like, he butts heads with Monty all the time but he still assists Monty when he could just do nothing. He helped Lunar, despite Lunar’s participation in Eclipses plans.

This is also the reason why I like the October episodes and the Kill Code resurgence stuff because those were problems that Moon couldn’t solve and we were outright told that. He needed outside help to ultimately solve the problem in October, which came from his connections with Monty and Lunar’s own separate development which didn’t involve Moon at all really. But even with all of his skills, he couldn’t initially fight off Eclipse. He lost.

And in the case of Kill Code, we were told over and over and over again that there was no way for Moon to remove Kill Code without killing Moon! All of Moon’s skills were useless in that scenario, and he had to make a compromise with Kill Code.

But Moon ultimately intended to use magic to destroy Kill Code. And at the end of October, Moon was the one who escaped first and told Sun how to cast the magic. I was expecting Sun to be the one to ultimately solve the problem, because he and Eclipse were so entwined, they were trapped together in the same body for months before October. I still liked how they did it, with Lunar recognizing that what was being done to him wasn’t good and him choosing to betray Eclipse. But at the end of the day, of the two main characters, Moon is the one who figured everything out and gave Sun the tools to fix the problem! Sun didn’t do any of the work to get there, he just cast the spell.

Eclipse was the first big thing that happened. Like, SaMSs first episode aired on 3/24/2022 and they introduced Eclipse barely a month and half after the first episode, possibly even before that because I’ve seen it theorized he was around in some gaming videos I haven't watched (Two months later, in June, was the wither storm battle. 2 months after THAT, in August, they introduced Lunar and it hasn’t really settled down since it started. This show came out fuckin’ SWINGING.). He’s been a main player since the beginning.

After Eclipse showed up, Sun didn’t really get anymore episodes that focused on him until recently, where he took charge and went off to find Eclipse by himself. It was always about him AND Eclipse or about Moon and Eclipse and, like I said before, I can’t really think of any episodes that just focused on Sun.

I think a lot of Sun’s characterization was also built alongside Eclipse, focusing heavily on the similarities and differences between them, without ever focusing on just Sun. They shared the same body, and their story lines were so threaded together that I remember one of the main plot lines between the two was ‘How much different IS Sun from Eclipse?’. Like, Eclipse was Sun. Eclipse was also Moon. Eclipse was also Kill Code. Whereas Suns character is who he is not, and who he is not is Eclipse The main differentiating factor between Sun and Eclipse before now was that Sun did not kill people! And then he killed Blood moon! And his demeanor has shifted enough that Lunar straight up told Sun he was turning into him. I know that whole explanation is confusing. It’s very confusing for me. Hard to articulate well.

(Actually had Eclipse actually killed anyone in the show before Bloodmoon died? I’m sure it was mentioned. Did we visually witness Sun kill someone before we saw Eclipse do so?? I can’t remember and now I’m really freakin’ curious.)

He feels like a main side character in his own show, at best. I think this show has very often over shadowed Sun in favor of Moon, and other characters to a lesser extent, even when Sun probably should have been an integral part of whatever was going on. Moon is often in the center of the plot, a focal character in almost every single arc on the show, and of the two main characters, the Sun and Moon Show is very much a show that has been about Moon.

Which finally leads me into the final stretch of this post where we bring it all together.

OPTION 3

I like the idea of killing off Moon. For a couple reasons.

To start, I think it was just done really well. Like I said, it may have been planned, but for me it was very sudden and took me by surprise. Which is fantastic, because sometimes that’s how death is. Sometimes it’s sudden and it leaves things forever unanswered. When someone dies, that’s it. There are things that will never be resolved, words that will forever remain unspoken, explanations that will just never be received. It leaves characters reeling, and opens up paths for interesting character developments and scenes.

This was also completely in character for Moon. His personal self loathing, which has only been exacerbated in recent episodes as he’s had to face his past mistakes over and over in the last couple weeks, mixed with his regrets over killing people and hurting them making him not want to do so anymore makes his decision to spare Kill Code a perfect decision.

Jumping back to Moon’s message to Sun, he told Sun, “I had to do something. I had to do this. In order to not feel responsible for killing another person.”

“Kill Code’s getting better. He WANTS to live. He wants to be his own person.”

“I can’t kill another person.”

Kill Code had changed. He no longer wanted to kill. He was making the ACTIVE decision not to kill and was then forced by the Creator to do so. He was making the choice to get better, he tried to fight it, he tried to fight his own programming. And Moon saw that. He knows what it’s like to kill, and he doesn’t want to kill anyone, especially someone he believes doesn’t deserve it and Kill Code did not deserve it.

Also throwing this in at the end here, AI1 also straight up told Moon this was the only option. Moon built the AI’s to assist him, they ARE him. He has a lot of faith in them. So when AI1 told him that, Moon trusted them.

It was a fantastic choice on the part of the people who run the show and it’s completely in line with what we know about Moon.

We’ve also removed Moon as the dual-wielding powerhouse he was in the story. Without his magic or his memories, problems that he could have easily solved before with a flick of his wrist or a new invention now have to be solved by the other characters without him as a support net! Also, with him momentarily down for the count, we’re going to get more Sun-centric content!! We’ve already started! It’s already happening and I’m so, so happy about it! I’ve been living for the Bloodmoon stuff. I’ve loved seeing Sun have to deal with the repercussions of what he’s done. I love seeing, well, Sun!! Sun finally feels like a main character in his own show, he’s finally gaining agency in a show about him!

And there’s so many things we could focus on!

Personally, I’d love to see a focus on helping Sun with his own trauma of being stuck in a body with Moon. Because as much as I’ve talked about Moon being stuck in his own head with Sun, you have to remember that Sun was stuck with Moon too! On top of that, Sun was also stuck with Eclipse! Two characters who went out of their way to make Sun’s life ‘a nightmare’, ‘a waking hell’ for something that was both not his fault and out of his control, there is no way in hell that didn’t have some sort of effect on him!

But I also don’t like the idea of this option.

Because I want Moon to have to stand for the things he’s done.

I mentioned above that I felt that Moon has more to answer for than Sun and the main reason I felt that way was because Moon has had so much more focus, he’s had more opportunities given to him to be mean to Sun. The gaming episodes also tie into that! Like I said before, the gaming episodes are where a massive amount of little characterization moments happen, and tidbits of information are dropped. Almost every gaming episode on the show features Sun and Moon so we have seen them interacting a TON. There literally is just more content for us to pull from as examples, for both of these reasons.

Don’t get me wrong! One of my favorite tropes to read about, watch and write about is memory stuff. I LOVE that shit. I think it’s one of the most fucked up things you can do to a character. Loss of memory, the threat of memory loss or theft, memories as a cost, amnesia arcs, because I feel as if memories are such an important part of ones self. Your memories are what make you you and what direct your decisions.

(I also literally JUST SAID that was one of the reasons I like that it did happen this way. But I like that more because it’s very realistic and can bring about interesting things in a story, not because I necessarily want it to happen.)

I’ve also been referring to this as a death this whole time. This is why. To take someones memories is akin to death to me. Death without death. In my mind, if they take his memories, they have effectively killed Moon. Just so folks see where I’m coming from here.

If they truly are planning on replacing one of the VA’s or reset the series somehow, this ‘reset’ is a really easy and quick way to do it! Makes sense!

Narratively? In this instance? I don’t like it at all and I really, really hope they don’t go with this option.

I, personally, have been waiting for catharsis from the trapping episode. I have wanted Moon to answer for that SO badly. And I have seen post upon post upon list from other folks about the things Moon has done and about his actions and the way he treats Sun and the people around him. Moon has effectively spent his entire life, from the moment he woke up trapped in Sun’s body, lashing out and causing harm to the people around him, and while there’s more to it than that the harm has been done.

Wouldn’t it just be so great to see him have to stand for those things?

Learn from them?

Grow as a character?

I want THAT more than anything.

Instead, he’s now become Bloodmoon.

In Moon’s own words, “He couldn’t change. He’s DEAD.”

If the reset goes through, if Moon loses his memories, whoever comes out of it WILL NO LONGER BE MOON. There is no room for character growth, the Moon who did those things will never be able to repent for his actions or face consequences, he will never be able to atone for the shit he’s done because THE MOON WHO MADE THOSE ACTIONS IS GONE. Any apologies he makes beyond that point will be hollow. There won’t be any weight behind those apologies because the memories of what Moon did will be gone and he won’t actually understand exactly what it is he did. He would be apologizing for the actions of somebody else. The Moon we get back will be a completely different person forever. This is an easy escape from his multitude of problems, whether he knew it or not.

And that’s tragic.

And that’s unsatisfactory.

To quote Earth from a couple episodes ago “The choices we make, we have to live with”.

Moon hasn’t really taken steps to get better towards Sun. There’s a lot of unresolved conflict between the two. And he’s never taken steps, that we’ve seen, towards tackling his trauma and the effects it had on him. Maybe he never would have. Maybe he would have never gotten better.

But I don’t think that’s the case! Moon recognizes he has issues, which is the first step towards fixing them! And if Kill Code, an AI designed in his code explicitly to kill things, can decide against his own coding, then Moon is capable of change too. He’s already started! We’ve already seen he’s capable of kindness, and he’s got a ton of love to share. I truly believe he could extend that towards Sun and begin to heal fully.

YIPPEE

RIGHT.

THAT’S IT.

After 10 days, several late nights, and… ohlord 11,500+ words I am finally done with this thinggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg

That felt like an adequate amount of ggggggggs. I think I earned that.

I kind of don’t know what to say. If you did get to the end of this, thank you again for reading the ramblings of a mad man! I’m not one much for interacting in communities online, so this is a new leap for me and I’m very nervous about putting this out there. I’m still so nervous I didn’t even tag this post under the Sun and Moon Show tag lol. Oh well.

Buuut, I spent a lot of time on it and like I said waaaaay back up at the top, if I didn’t I’d just regret it. So yeah! I’m off now to watch the checks watch six episodes I’ve missed over the last couple days and listen to some goofy music! Farewell! Have a nice day.

Some Final Notes:

- Need bean bag factory lore. Head canon that it’s just TF2.

- Wanna see Eclipse before and after Lunar’s death

- Earth being evil? Who knows?

#fafferchat #here it is!#im not going to tag it unfortunately #i've sat with the post open waiting to press post for like 20 mins now #and I'm just too nervous #it's enough for me to just get it out there #if you do read thanks again!#enjoy!

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smolla-than-a-bug · 4 years ago

Text

you’re definitely flirting with me

—jason todd x villain!reader

second and final part to are you flirting with me. can be read as a stand-alone tho

navi | bat boys m.list | are you flirting with me

content — language, blood, mentions of harassment, mildly suggestive (use of the word ‘daddy’ but ironically)

notes — i know that its literally been years and that i formerly posted a part two to are you flirting with me, but looking back, i didn't like how it turned out. i did find a fun drabble in my drafts with villain!reader as well, so i decided to rewrite it and use it as a continuation. i actually deleted the old parts personally, i prefer this version of the end!

"I'm in."

"Hot. You should be able to see–"

"Nothing?"

Silence.

"Is this your way of telling me you're visually impaired?"

"I will scoop your eyes out in your sleep."

"Please use an ice cream scooper. My eyeballs would fit so well, it would be so satisfying–"

"Harper."

"Okay, okay. What do you mean nothing?"

"By nothing I mean nothing, ball sack. The warehouse is fucking empty."

Frantic rustling of papers and violent knocking of objects could be heard on Roy's end of the line. Jason sighed, going to pinch the bridge of his nose before realizing he had a helmet on.

The whole situation was throwing him off his rhythm — that much was evident. The intel they had collected on the gang of criminals seemed too obvious, too predictable. Jason had his suspicions, but Roy was quick to shut him down. 'Dude, trust me,' he said. Famous last words.

A crackle of static sounded in his earpiece. Roy's voice urgent and choppy before completely dying out. Jason could only attempt to call out to his partner in the hopes of a full response, but his efforts brought no avail. That's another thing that went wrong today.

"Hey, sexy."

What in the fuck.

"Your ass looks great from this angle. The party you're looking for is in a bar on the other side of the city, by the way."

You couldn't actually see him, but he doesn't need to know that. It's just your thing to mess with him, and by the sounds of him cussing you out for hacking into his means of communication, it was working. It was amusing. He kept you entertained.

That was all you had to say to him for now though, so you bid him goodbye. The roaring of his motorcycle over his colorful language directed at you was the last thing you heard before you cut off and allowed his partner to get back on the line.

"Jaybird? You there?"

"Ah, you're back. I'm never trusting you with getting intel again."

"Whatever. Anyway, was that...?"

"Yeah. Y/v/n."

"Hm. I don't know what she's on, but you have no ass like–"

"And yet I have more ass than you, so shut the fuck up, paddle board."

“That... That was a bit harsh, bro.”

Soft gushes of wind blew against your masked face. You shut your eyes, feeling the breeze and relishing in your little moment of peace. Lazily pacing, you hummed a random tune.

Your mischief and cunningness is something your alias was known for. Most often, it's a convenient trait to be able to slip around with ease and get the job done in a snap, but sometimes you get bored. It can be such a drag when nobody tries a confrontation with you. That's why you're so fond of the Red Hood. It's a shame that it's been a while since you've seen him around, so imagine your delight when you feel a familiar presence behind you.

You took a seat at the edge of the building. To anyone, you would've looked like you were having your main character moment, peacefully looking over the city if not for the small pile of bodies rotting away not too far from you. The dried blood on your attire and your fingers no longer irked you in the slightest. It's something you've gotten used to, which lead to your habit of picking the blood under your nails. Red gets annoyed when you do this — all the more reason to entertain your habit in front of him.

You let your legs dangle over the edge without a care. You didn't bother to greet the vigilante, who currently had a gun aimed at your back. Sigh.

“Oh, I do hate the sight of blood.”

“Well then, maybe — just maybe — you shouldn’t kill for a living.”

That got you to turn your head to face him. You cock an eyebrow — doesn’t he kill for a living too? Sure, his victims are usually criminals and thugs while yours are people you’re paid to target, usually business owners and the occasional politician, but you digress. Details. The point is, he kills people too.

A few seconds of staring and prolonging the tension passed, and Jason weighed his options before eventually putting down his gun. He then opted to join you on the ledge.

“So,” he started, “what’s your favorite color?”

Funny.

“Sweetheart, if you thought you’d be able to keep me entertained with small talk... I think I’d rather you shot me.”

You stood up from your spot on the ledge and leaned over the rooftop to examine your altitude. You grin to yourself.

“What are you doing?”

You don’t answer. You want to see something. Instead you turn your body to face Jason and mockingly salute him before leaping off the building, though not before you heard him call out your alias’ name and yell a panicked ‘Wait!’

Immediately after you, Jason followed. You chuckled when you saw him get closer. You enjoyed fooling him around almost as much as you enjoyed fooling around with him.

With no time to waste, he pulled out his grappling hook, yanked your body by the waist, and zipped to the rooftop of the nearest building — one different from the last one you were on.

Jason‘s heaving chest radiated distress.

“You’re fucking insane! You could have died!”

You stood in front of him, arms crossed and your stance relaxed. Nobody would’ve suspected that you literally jumped off a building just a few seconds ago. Aw, you pout, he cares about me.

“Would’ve made your job easier. You know, you heroes are supposed to get rid of the bad guys.”There’s humor in your eyes. Jason knows you’re enjoying this. He hates how much you enjoy this. “So, why’d you save me?”

“Why’d you help me with my mission last time?”

He’s deflecting. Cute.

“Hey, I asked you a question first.” You know he won’t budge til you give him an answer. He’s probably been asking himself that question since it happened. You mentally pout, aww he thinks of me. Sigh. Okay, fine.

“The gang you were after just so happened to have given me a job a little while ago.” You recall some of the gang members attempting to grope you. Some unpleasant memories you’d rather live without. “Pissed me off. Now your turn.”

Why’d you save me?

A pause. He shifted to look to the side. Oh, this is interesting.

“You could have died.” Ah, this again.

“Well, you’ve died,” you remind him. “Not that it really stuck.”

He says your name — your real name. You wonder when he discovered your identity, but then again, you’re not all that surprised. It’s him after all.

He can see your growing smile the longer he refuses to answer your question. He knows you’re already thinking of something, and still opts to ignore your question, allowing you to further indulge in your thoughts. He dreads you enlightening him; he knows it’s coming. Jason could not fathom how one woman could frustrate him so much.

“You like me.” There it is, he thinks. There’s your stupid smirk and your dumb air of arrogance.

“Come on, just admit it, hot shot. You can’t live without me.” Okay, maybe that one’s a bit of a stretch (just a bit), but you stand by it nonetheless.

You grin wide as you approach him. Leaning slightly forward to grab Jason by the collar and pull him down to meet your eyes, you repeat yourself.

“You like me.” Stated with more emphasis, like a significant fact that you try to drill into your head when studying for an exam.

“I’ll shoot you.”

“Please, daddy.”

tags — @iwriteaboutstuff @comicsgirlimagines @httpfandxms

#bat family #batfam #imagine #jason todd #jason todd x reader #bat boys #red hood imagine #the red hood #red hood #red hood x reader #roy harper #arsenal #reader insert #dc comics

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inevitably-johnlocked · 4 years ago

Note

Hello Steph 😊 Do you have any BAMF Molly or just some good fics that feature Molly? I need some Molly love at the moment because I just read a fic where she "turns to the drak side" so to speak, and my heart 😭😭😭

Hey Nonny!

Ah I did a few comm. recs lists recently with Molly, but here are what I can offer you from memory, LOL. PLEASE add your fave Molly fics, guys! PLEASE NOTE these are fics I’ve read, and please check the sub-headings for a TONNE of stuff I haven’t read!! Big title so I can find it later LOL.

MOLLY PLAYS A ROLE

See also:

COMM RECS: Coming Out To Molly

COMM RECS: Molly with Women

COMM RECS: Molly and Greg Push John and Sherlock Together

COMM RECS: Molly as a Villain

Santa Knows by Itsallfine (T, 1,719 w., 1 Ch. || Christmas Party, Love Confessions, First Kiss, Fluff, Matchmaking, POV Sherlock, Pining Sherlock) – Sherlock and John both get exactly what they want from the Yard's secret Santa exchange. Pure holiday fluff.

What John Doesn't Know (Won't Hurt Him) by blueink3 (NR [T], 4,392 w., 1 Ch, || S3 Fix It, Pining Sherlock, Snippets of Life, Hurt/Comfort, Scars, Fluff and Angst, Five and One, Hopeful Ending, POV Sherlock) – Five people who see Sherlock's scars before John Watson. But Sherlock's secrets were never something he could keep from his blogger for long.

Thirty Three Hours Without John Watson by Bookaholic, mybrotherharry (M, 6,232 w. || First Kiss / Time, Pining Idiots, BG Mystrade, Crackish) – Sherlock can SO TOTALLY survive without John Watson. It should be a piece of cake. AKA the time when Sherlock braved grocery store lines for milk, purchased and gave away a box of tampons and figured out what the X-Factor is. Greg and Mycroft didn’t sign up for this shit. Next time, they are going to the Bahamas.

Wonderful, Etcetera. by VictoryCandescence (T, 16,955 w., 3 Ch. || Wonderful Life AU || Alternate Timelines, Brotherhood, Homophobia, Suicidal Ideations, Mentions of Drug Use, Friendship, Different TRF, Sherlock’s Past, Victor Trevor is Past Boyfriend, Depression, Hallucination, Love Confessions, Christmas, First Kiss) – Sherlock thinks everyone would be better off if he had never existed, including and especially himself. When he finds himself in a world in which his wish has been granted, he begins to think perhaps even he could be wrong – but it takes an unlikely chaperone to make him not only observe, but understand.

Insanity in the Middle by DotyTakeThisDown (E, 28,010 w., 8 Ch. || Equestrian Sports AU || Alternate First Meeting, POV John, Pining John, Bottomlock, Clueless Sherlock, First Kiss/Time, Passionate Kisses, Hand Holding, Caught Making Out, Bed Sharing, Spooning, Blow Job) – John is a world-class eventing rider with a gold medal and several four-star wins to his credit, but he's never won at Rolex. Sherlock is an up-and-coming rider taking the sport by storm.

Love or What You Will by miss_frankenstein (T, 31,987 w., 11 Ch. || College/Uni AU || Professor John, Ph.D Student Sherlock, Pining John, Poetry, Falling in Love / Slow Burn, Light Angst, Happy Ending) – John is an English professor who specializes in War and Post-War Literature and Sherlock is the brilliant yet impossible Ph.D. student assigned to be his TA because no one in the Chemistry Department is willing to put up with him. And - somewhere between Waugh and Plath, e-mails and takeaway, novels and villanelles - they fall in love.

The Wrong Wagon by DancingGrimm (E, 35,663 w., 20 Ch. || Alternating POV, Molly/ John [Molly pines for John], Public Sex, Casual Sex, Obliviousness, BAMF!John, Awkwardness, Angst & Humour, First Time, Virgin Sherlock, Jealous Sherlock) – Molly sees John in a new light and realises that she may have hitched her horse to the wrong wagon...or something like that. John pines for Sherlock and worries what he will think if he ever finds out. And Sherlock doesn't know what Molly's up to...but he knows he doesn't like it.

The Pieces That Fall to Earth by Itsallfine (M, 49,513 w., 84 Ch. || S4 Fix-It, Epistolary, Love Confessions, Slow Burn, Parentlock, Past Abuse, Coming Out, Internalized Homophobia, Questioning Sexuality, Mental Health Issues / Therapy, Angst, Happy Ending) – John and Sherlock have hit rock bottom, but with all their armor stripped away, they can finally speak honestly, seek healing, and find the truths that matter most. An epistolary post-s4 fix-it fic. Now complete. (This fic is rated T except for one very clearly marked and easily skippable chapter, which is rated M.) Part 1 of The Pieces that Fall to Earth

floating through a dark blue sky by Lediona (M, 58,966 w., 15 Ch. || Notting Hill AU || POV John, Celebrity Sherlock, First Date / Time / Kiss, Past Drug Addiction, Angst with a Happy Ending) – Of course, I’d seen his films and always thought he was, well, brilliant -- but, you know, a million miles from the world I live in. Or, when John is the owner of a travel book shop and the famous Sherlock Holmes stops in one day.

This Thing All Things Devours by cypress_tree (E, 63,844 w., 15 Ch. || In Time AU || Science Fiction, Dystopian Universe, First Meetings, Action / Adventure, Romance) – In 2169, time is money—literally. Humans are genetically engineered to stop aging at 25, when the numbers on their arm start counting down from one year. When that time is up, they die. The only way to get more time is to earn it, borrow it, or steal it.John Watson lives day-to-day in the crowded slums of Zone 13. He never imagined living any differently—until he meets the practically-immortal Sherlock, and helps him on a case to track a local time-thief...

Northwest Passage by Kryptaria (E, 95,157 w., 27 Ch. || PODFIC AVAILABLE || Canadian AU || BAMF!John, Canadian John, PTSD, Anal / Oral Sex, Rimming, Emotional Hurt / Comfort, Drug Rehab, Falling in Love, Pining Sherlock, Love Confessions, Sherlock’s Violin, Panic Attacks, Switching, Anxious / Protective Sherlock, Hugs for Comfort, Suicide Mentions, Healing Each Other) – Seven years ago, Captain John Watson of the Canadian Forces Medical Service withdrew from society, seeking a simple, isolated life in the distant northern wilderness of Canada. Though he survives from one day to the next, he doesn't truly live until someone from his dark past calls in a favor and turns his world upside-down with the introduction of Sherlock Holmes." Part 1 of Tales from the Northwest

The Stars Move Still by BeautifulFiction (E, 96,022 w., 5 Ch. || Magical Realism, Demons, Slash to Pre-Slash, AU, Happy Ending, Souls) – "What could I want so desperately that would make me sell my soul? What could possibly compel me to surrender the part of myself that makes me who I am: the source of my magic, my self-control, everything?”

Definitions by siennna (T, 101,528 w., 12 of ? Ch. || Dev. Rel., Pining, Fluff and Romance, First Kiss, Love Confessions, Fluff, Cuddles, Girl’s Night, Texting, Virgin Sherlock, Drunk Sherlock, Background Mollstrade, Hair Petting, Laying on Lap) – Sherlock’s journey in defining his flat mate and stumbling through the muddled world of emotion. {{This feels complete; the chapter count is listed as ? but I feel like it is done}}

between each beat are words unsaid by darcylindbergh, hudders-and-hiddles (T, 107,998 w., 215 Ch. || Epistolary, Slow Burn, Friends to Lovers, Angst, Happy Ending) – On their wedding night, John and Sherlock gift each other with the things they each said when the other could not hear, the things they each put down where the other could not see: a collection of writings that illustrate the way their love for one another has grown over the years. Part 1 of between each beat

The Burning Heart by May_Shepard (M, 119,150 w., 21 Ch. || Canon Divergence, Post-TRF, John’s Sexuality, S3 Rewrite, Pining, Angst with a Happy Ending, POV John Watson, John’s Gay) – When Sherlock dies, John Watson feels like his life is over too. He’s completely shut down, until Mark Morstan, a new nurse at John’s medical clinic, catches his attention, and helps him uncover the long buried truth of his attraction to men. Although he’s certain he’ll never get over Sherlock, John plans to move on, and build a new life with Mark, unaware that Sherlock is not quite as dead as he appears, and that Mark is hiding secrets of his own.

A Further Sea by i_ship_an_armada & ShinySherlock (E, 125,492 w., 23 Ch. || Historical Pirates AU || Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Doctor John / Pirate Captain Sherlock, Sailing, UST / RST, Masturbation, Action / Adventure, Mild Angst & Peril, Romance, Shaving, Molly/Janine, Bottomlock, Hand / Blow Jobs, Past Drug Use, Slow Burn, Mild Violence, Facial Shaving, Happy Ending) – Here be a tale of adventure for both body and soul, but beware if ye be not of stout heart, for this be piratelock, ya savvy? Luckless ship's surgeon John Watson takes a chance, and finds himself eye to eye with The Ghost, the scourge of the seven seas and a definite thorn in the side of the blaggard, James Moriarty. But when John finds there's more to this most cunning pirate than be meetin' the eye, he has to choose... is it a pirate's life for him?

The Horse and his Doctor by khorazir (T, 129,003 w., 13 Ch. || Horse / Vet AU || Magical Realism, Horses, Vet John, Horse Sherlock, Implied Alcoholism) – Invalided after a run in with a poacher in Siberia, veterinary surgeon John Watson finds it difficult to acclimatise to the mundanity of London life. Things change when a friend invites him along to a local animal shelter and he meets their latest acquisition, a trouble-making Frisian with the strangest eyes and even stranger quirks John has ever encountered in a horse.

Performance In a Leading Role by Mad_Lori (E, 156,714 w., 21 Ch. || PODFIC AVAILABLE || Hollywood / Actor AU, Secret Relationship, Falling in Love, Slow Burn, Romance, Coming Out, Fluff and Angst, Pining) – Sherlock Holmes is an Oscar winner in the midst of a career slump. John Watson is an Everyman actor trapped in the rom-com ghetto. When they are cast as a gay couple in a new independent drama, will they surprise each other? Will their on-screen romance make its way into the real world? Part 1 of Performance in a Leading Role

Mise en Place by azriona (M, 161,004 w., 28 Ch. || Restaurant (Kitchen Nightmares) AU || Sherlock is Gordon Ramsay / Celebrity Sherlock, Restauranteur John, Harry Plays Prominent Role, Alternating POV, Mutual Pining, Cranky Sherlock, Bed Sharing, Slow Burn) – John Watson had no intentions of taking over the family business, but when he returns from Afghanistan, battered and bruised, and discovers that his sister Harry has run their restaurant into the ground, he doesn't have much choice. There's only one thing that can save the Empire from closing for good – the celebrity star of the BBC series Restaurant Reconstructed, Chef Sherlock Holmes. Part 1 of Mise en Place

#steph replies #johnlock fic recs #molly fics #molly plays a role #my fic recs #Anonymous #long post

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taeyohonic · 4 years ago

Text

stolen dances | chap. V

summary: sometimes supporting the person you love is the hardest challenge you’ll ever face.

pairing: jeon jungkook x fem!reader

rating: m

warning: one/two swear words

additional tags: f2l, ceo!jungkook, bestfriend!jungkook, shrink!yoongi, my best friend’s wedding meets 27 dresses (if the boss/secretary couple had happened), angst-y

words: 1500

links: prev. | next

note: lower case letters intended

chapter summary: a muffin never tasted so bittersweet

can you believe it’s been three years? i miss you army

you can’t help the bittersweet memories flooding your mind at jungkook’s tweet. it’s been such a long time since bangtan stood in front of their fans – performing their music to the people who adored them with all their hearts.

you, yourself, were part of this crowd, more times than your bank account wishes to remember. their stage presence was so enticing, so alluring, you could not not fall in love with them.

jungkook shared some pictures in his tweet, old photos of jin and him demolishing a plate of deep-dish pizza in chicago, of jimin and taehyung posing in front of their pop up store in seoul, and one with all four of them bowing to the crowd in tokyo dome.

there is a smile on your face – not because you think about their shared journey, but because your best friend chose photos of events that you attended. sure, you hadn’t known them back then. but it can’t be a coincident that you have similar pictures – granted from another perspective – on your own camera roll. it makes you miss him.

“what’s going on?”, yoongi asks as he slides your coffee across the table. your starbucks is full of people, but namjoon, yoongi’s dear friend, works here. so, there is always a spot cleared for you. you don’t mind the special treatment as you sip your white mocca.

“just thinking”, you mumble, warmed by the caffeine.

“that can’t be good”, he says and sips his iced americano. he looks as tired as you feel. yoongi is recording his second mixtape right now. so, after he finishes his work talking to people about their problems, he starts rewriting, taping, recording, mixing and editing. no wonder he looks like death.

“i have you know that i’m actually thinking 67 percent of the day.”

“that can’t be good as well, ______. please use your brain more often – it might evolve with training.”

you gap at his audacity. “you do know i’m not paying you to talk me down, right?”

yoongi’s eyes smile while his lips are still half asleep. “you’re not paying me right now, _____. we are just friends meeting up for coffee before we have to… be a part of the working class.”

“i still can’t believe i get to see beautiful, brilliant, boisterous butterflies”, you say. your friend answers with an unattractive snort as his hands move into his thick, bleached hair.

“and i can’t believe you’re getting paid to watch bonkers, brackish, boring butterflies.”

you look away as you see his biceps flex. when did get this muscular? it takes a second for you to register his insult. maybe you need another coffee before leaving.

“i do have to care about my class as well, yoongi. it’s not all sunshine and butterflies. it’s also children’s snot and education.” still, you’re not making eye contact. if this was a therapy session, he’d ask for you to look at him, to ask why you’re feeling uncomfortable. but here, you are… just his friend.

“your work is important, _____, i know”, yoongi answers honestly. he knows how much you love these animals and children. and it is a big deal that seoul’s butterfly exhibition opens up just for your excursion. it makes him happy to see you this excited.

“and because i know that, i’ll remind you that you had to leave three minutes ago.” what? your eyes rush to your watch, only to widen in surprise.

“damn it, namjoon”, you mutter. your barista friend did take a long time with your order.

“don’t blame joon, _____. we were the ones who missed the train”, your friend reminds you as you put on your jacket in a rush.

“less correcting me, more helping me, yoongi”, you shush at him and make a motion to your heavy bag right next to his chair. “come on.”

yoongi doesn’t know why he agreed to help you carry all the lunch packs to school, he really doesn’t. nevertheless, he gets up and slings the heavy bag onto his shoulder and grabs his half-finished drink.

“let’s go – teacher of the year.”

the exhibition is amazing. you feel true bliss walking around the nature themed rooms, all home to one of the most rare, beautiful creatures. the kids hang on their tour guide’s lips as she tells them interesting facts about butterflies.

your phone is a constant companion – the camera roll now filled with funny pictures for the moms and dads to enjoy at the next parent-teacher conference. there are even a few photos of just you with a pink butterfly resting on your shoulder. jisoo, your coworker, is an amateur instagrammer, so the results of her taking your pictures are… really flattering.

now, the kids enjoy their break before you guys leave to drive back to school.

“really, you amaze me, ___”, your coworker says as she sits next to you on the bench – eyes trained on your students chasing around the butterflies.

“why?”, you ask, your attention monopolized by the two boys in a heated exchange over their shared butterfly net.

“getting the exhibition to open up just for our class? after hours? without additional fees?”

you flinch at her words as your heartbeat quickens. “wha- what? jisoo? i-“, you start to stutter, “i thought… you organized that.”

there is a fruit basket waiting on her desk with a thank you note for all her planning. now jisoo, too, looks uncomfortable.

“i didn’t”, she says.

it takes you a long time before you reach out. the whole train ride was spent with a pro and contra list on your ipad. then, while you were making yourself a two-person bowl of ramen, you crafted more than one email, only to delete every attempt. you haven’t talked to jungkook for more than five days. that’s the longest period the two of you ever went without seeing each other.

there is still a tightness in your chest when you think about his insult that night on the terrace. at first, you weren’t sure if jungkook realized that he hurt you – admittedly you aren’t the best with communicating your feelings. but your cold responses to his texts the next day must have been enough of a red flag for him to act.

then came the gifts: a triple chocolate muffin, still warm, delivered to your home before you had to leave on monday.

on tuesday, there was a singed copy of the unreleased album from one of your favorite kpop groups.

the next day, there was a poem collection where he scribbled in some commentary. you nearly teared up at that because this used to be your ritual when you first got to know each other: lending books with marked and commented pages for the other to enjoy.

on thursday he was strangely silent – only a single daisy decorated your briefcase.

but now, on friday, he went out of his way to get your class into this exhibition. you don’t even want to think about what that must have cost him.

there is an uneasiness in your fingertips as you dial his number. for one fleeting moment you want to call your therapist instead. but you can’t… because you may have left your whole “cold-shoulder-to-jungkook”-move out of the last session. and you really can’t take yoongi’s probing right now.

he answers after seven rings, breathlessly happy.

“______”

you smile and it’s not uncomfortable.

“jungkook… you didn’t have to”, you greet him and can’t help the endearment in your voice. he picks up on that and chuckles.

“of course, i didn’t… i wanted to.”

“thank you”, you answer, “it was really the highlight of my week.”

you can hear his cockiness at your words. “better than stray kids’ new album?”

“better than your thoughts on contemporary poems”, you counter teasingly. then, there is a beat of silence.

“______”, jungkook begins, “i… i really didn’t want you to think i’m not … or that i wouldn’t… do anything for you. you mean so much to me… it’s a shame i have to prove it to you… it should be… obvious.”

you suck in air as if your life depends on it. his words warm your heart and his awkwardness makes you smile.

“i get that i wasn’t the best of friends… but i’ll improve – trust me!”, jungkook vows with fire in his voice. “the winter collection has been kicking my ass… my family has been nagging about christmas… and the wedding…”

there is a beat of silence you do not dare to interrupt. this is his moment, not your responsibility.

jungkook collects himself fast and continues. “i know how much you’ve done for this wedding, for me… for us… and i want to be more involved… i’ll be by your side for all of next week’s appointments. ms yang already cleared my schedule.”

jungkook wants… to be by your side when you talk to the dj? the cake decorator? when you finalize the seating chart? dear lord.

“let’s spend some quality time together, ____. just you and me… and the wedding.”

you cannot find the right responds as you gap silently into your phone. after a moment, another voice is heard through the speaker.

“ask her if she liked the muffin i baked her.” his fiancée’s words punch you in the gut without ill-intent.

___

hi guys! I hope you are doing well! i had to take my first covid test this week – it was negative but that’s an experience for itself, right? i hope you are healthy and you enjoyed this chapter. i’d really love to hear your thoughts! next up: junkook and the reader tackling some of the wedding preparation… love, dana

taglist: @livewittykid @thequeen-kat @kagami-s-void @goldenclosethobi @youwannabelostandnotbefound @jinsalpaca @bishuthot @laabellaavitaa21 @baekstans @jalexad

#btswriterscollective #jungkook x reader #jungkook x you #jeon jungkook angst #ceo!jungkook #idol!jungkook #rich!jungkook #jungkook fanfic #jungkook scenarios #bts scenarios #bts fluff #bts angst

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seriouslyhooked · 4 years ago

Text

I’ll Stay (Vulnerable)

Cannon divergent oneshot based in 3A when everyone is back from Neverland. CS-centric, and involves Emma coming to grips with her feelings for Hook much earlier. Available on FF Here and AO3 Here.

A/N: Hey everyone! In this chapter, we are taking things back to season 3 and we are rewriting it. I know, I know, you’re all shocked. Me – a devoted follower of fluff and hope – is going to rewrite a storyline where Emma and Henry left everyone behind and forgot them? Yup. Absolutely. Would write this fic a hundred times in a hundred different ways if I could. In this divergent little drabble, we made it through Neverland and got rid of Pan without any more curses or nonsense. Everyone knows what could have happened, but they avoided it, and now Emma is grappling with the fact that something more than a ‘one-time thing’ is happening between her and Hook. Inspired by the song ‘Vulnerable’ by Selena Gomez.

The irony was not lost on Emma that sleep was eluding her.

After what felt like an eternity fighting to get Henry back from the clutches of Pan and from the brink of danger, they were finally home. They’d staved off another curse, circumvented another terrible twist that would have ripped them all apart once more, and, most importantly, her kid was safe, sleeping in his bed and on the road to healing from this terrible adventure.

Over the past week, Emma had barely closed her eyes. Leading them through Neverland and navigating the wickedness of Gold and his father was a constant struggle. The physical toil and the emotional pain had been profound. She was exhausted and weary, but still, sleep would not come.

Here in the loft, the air was quiet, and the mood was peaceful. The moonlight trickled through the glass pane of her window, and the curtains caught in the breeze filtering in from outside. The temperature was perfect, cool and refreshing, but warm under the covers. The bad guys had been beaten, Storybrooke was safe, and the calm seemed stable, at least enough to last through the night. But it didn’t matter. Despite her best efforts, Emma could not sleep. She’d tried everything, but none of it would work.

It’s never going to work, she said to herself dejectedly. Not until you face this.

“Yeah, that’s not happening,” she muttered aloud, shutting down the part of her that wanted to work things out instead of always avoiding.

She heaved out a sigh of defeat and tossed the rumpled sheets off of her. Climbing out of bed and tiptoeing to the kitchen, Emma made sure to avoid all the noisiest parts of this apartment. She didn’t want to disturb Henry or her parents, but she couldn’t handle being cooped up in that bed. It was getting her nowhere. In fact, it was making things worse. Lying there in the dark, she was bombarded by memories and what ifs. It all was overwhelming, and enough to drive her mad.

Wordlessly she moved to the kitchen and found herself reaching for the ingredients needed for a calming cup of cocoa. Despite the lateness of the hour, she knew it would be a small token of comfort in a long, unrelenting night. The motions of preparing the sweat treat were soothing. This was a ritual she had grown accustomed to, and was mindless enough to lose herself in. But this late-night activity, which usually saw her through the worst of days, didn’t yield the desired effect. Her thoughts still wandered, circling back to a particular pirate who perplexed and provoked her.

I don’t understand his motives, she said to herself, knowing this was her cynicism taking the lead. Why is he still helping? Why take the risk? What is he after?

Why does he have to be ‘after’ anything? The reasonable part of her brain replied. Why can’t you just accept that he cares about you?

Because it can’t happen.

It already has. The kiss, in Neverland…

It was a one-time thing.

It doesn’t have to be.

It does.

It doesn’t.

It does.

You’re scared.

Of course, I’m scared! He’s Captain freaking Hook!

He’s just Killian.

“He’s not just anything,” Emma murmured as she mixed in the chocolate, watching the warmed milk turn to a rich, silky chestnut color. Here was the kernel of truth she was terrified to admit. To Emma, Hook wasn’t just a villain or a pirate. He was more, intricate and messy and moving and intriguing.

During their time in Neverland, Hook had awakened something in her. It started with the kiss, that sinful encounter that drove her to distraction, but also struck her heart, piercing armor she had been building up for years. Okay, maybe it started before that. There were plenty of heated glances, and barbed bits of repartee between them that almost felt like foreplay, but the kiss lit a fuse she didn’t realize existed. It was meant to be a power move, a strategic plan to shut him up, maybe the vent some of her frustrations out, but the consequences lingered, and they were ones that Emma never saw coming.

She could still taste him even now, the ghost of that embrace tracing touches on her skin. Pressed up against him, the roughness of leather and metal, the scrape of his beard, the taut lines of his body… She’d given into him in that moment and lingered in the pleasure. When they kissed, Emma allowed herself a minute just to feel and to live. For a fleeting blip of time, the world wasn’t crumbling around her. She was restored and she was hopeful, but it had to be just once. She wasn’t meant to want any more than that. She certainly shouldn’t still be thinking of it now, but here she was. And she was thinking of more too, thinking of the ways he’d risked himself, the ways he’d supported her, the way he’d saved her father. She acknowledged in the silence of her self-dialogue that she had grown to count on him, and that she felt drawn to him, even when his obvious role had come to an end. She should have been eager for him to go, now that the task of defeating Pan was over, but the thought of him leaving left an aching, empty feeling in her chest.

Over the past few days, Hook had luckily shown no real signs of setting outward. He was still sarcastic and cocky and cutting. He was practically gleeful every time he got to torment David, and his actions towards Neal and towards Gold were downright frosty still, but there was honor underneath it all and a respect he gave the others and this town that spoke to a more gentlemanlike nature. She had seen him when they located Henry, and observed a genuine relief when she was reunited with her son. She noticed the way he minded the others, helping far more than he hurt, and how he bit back the bullshit bad guy act when they just couldn’t take it. He could read a room, and he often did, though he hid behind the swagger and the accent. And more than once there was something that colored his gaze, swimming in the blue depths of his eyes. When he looked at her, he hid nothing, and let the weight of his affection flow between them. He may not say the words aloud, but he laid it all out there, showing a vulnerability she never imagined but desperately craved. He wanted her, and Emma… well Emma wanted -

“Couldn’t sleep?”

Emma jumped, her hand moving towards her chest and making contact with the speedy pacing of her heartbeat. Adrenaline spiked in her system, but she immediately relaxed when she saw it was only Mary Margaret. Emma worried for a moment that the conversations playing in her head may have been whispered out loud, but her mother (God that was still so weird to say), showed no awareness. Seeing as Mary Margaret was incapable of keeping secrets, Emma knew her own were safe. At least for now.

“No. You?”

“I wish,” Her mother said, reaching into the cupboard and coming out with cinnamon, bringing a small smile to Emma’s lips. “I never can after these escapades. But your father? Out like a light the moment the bad things pass. It’s almost like it never happened.”

“Lucky guy,” Emma joked, and her mother chuckled, a thoughtful expression coloring her face.

“We are all lucky tonight. It was almost so much worse.” Snow’s words had the lilt of unshed tears hanging on the end. Emma could see the mistiness in her mother’s eyes, and felt the weight of her worry. “We almost lost you again, Emma.”

“I know, but you didn’t,” Emma said, placing a hand on her mother’s shoulder. Snow placed her own hand over it and took a deep breath, nodding. She wiped two stray tears away quickly but collected herself.

“Everything that’s happened… well it’s put things in perspective for me.”

“Like what?”

“I was wrong, Emma. In Neverland, when I practically interrogated you about Hook.”

To say that this was unexpected was an understatement. Emma was shocked at the acknowledgement, even though she appreciated the words.

“It’s fine.”

“It isn’t,” her mother emphasized, and Emma stayed quiet. Snow was right after all. It wasn’t great. It had caused more pain in a series of painful events, but Emma planned to just move past it and leave the discomfort behind them. “I didn’t understand what you had been through. Even worse I jumped to my own conclusions. I was pushing you towards Neal, thinking Hook was the bad guy, but in the end, looking at the full picture, that’s not really the story, is it?”

“No, it isn’t,” Emma agreed. “Honestly, I can’t really follow the story anymore. I feel…”

“Lost?” her mother asked. Emma nodded.

“Yeah. Crazy right? We leave Neverland, and somehow I’m more lost back home than I was there.”

“Maybe,” her mother mused, as Emma poured two glasses of cocoa. She handed them to Snow for added cinnamon, but she was curious as to her mother’s hesitation.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, are you really lost, Emma? Or are you scared of facing what it is that you want?”

The words were a swift punch to the gut, but Emma sustained them, taking a sip of her cocoa and braving up to respond honestly. “The second one. But it’s insane. How is it possible? A few weeks ago, I’d never even met this man. He’s a pirate – a villain from a story that I read as a kid. Things are moving so quickly, and yet their standing still. I don’t know what to do.”

“Do you trust him?”

“As much as I trust anyone,” she admitted, the truth coming out for the first time since meeting him.

“Do you care for him?”

Emma nodded, not daring to say that part just yet. Her mother’s eyes softened, a look of love despite the strangeness of this suitor.

“Does it have potential?”

“I don’t know,” Emma whispered, but the feeling in her chest that had been there for a while now was blooming something fierce. This may not be her gut, per se, but it was something adjacent, an instinct and an emotion screaming out that there was more than meets the eye here. This was different. This was special.

“If you think about the future, is he there?”

“I think I want him to be,” Emma said, knowing there wasn’t much thinking to be done. That was what she wanted, and now, she’d finally confessed it.

“Then you have your answer. It’s just a matter of facing it and doing what you need to do.”

Her mother’s observation hung between them and Emma realized Snow had immediate expectations. “You mean now? But it’s late.”

“So? He’s a pirate. I don’t know much about them, but I’ll hazard a guess that they don’t keep normal hours.”

“This is crazy.”

“Affairs of the heart usually are, Emma. You’ll recall I once bashed your father in the head with a rock, and yet the thought of going one more day without him by my side…” Emma’s pulse skipped a beat at the mention of her heart. Another sign that deep down she had known for quite a while what she wanted. “You’ll never sleep until it’s settled, honey. Believe me, I know. You take after your mother, just as I took after mine.”

Emma didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry at her mother’s joke, but she found herself hugging Snow close and thanking her. From there, things got a bit hazy. She was working off of adrenaline, moving to her room and changing out of her pajamas before heading into the Storybrooke night. It was just after midnight, not tremendously late, but by small town standards it was as quiet as quiet could get. Everything was closed now, the diner, the inn. Even the bar was locked up tight, and that was as late-night as Storybrooke ever got. There was no one around, just Emma and the pounding of her heart. Still, she kept moving, following the advice of her mother and the sense of what-if that had nagged at her all evening.

Soon enough she was at the docks, following the lamp light, and headed in the direction of the Jolly Roger. It wouldn’t be difficult to spot, as the only Enchanted Forest vessel in the harbor, but still Emma worried. What if he’d left in the dark of the night? What if he believed her when she said this didn’t matter? What if she was too late?

When the ship came into view, she exhaled a sigh of relief, but it was quiet. The lights were out. There were no signs of movement anywhere. And then she heard it. Singing, feint at first, but louder as she approached the boat. The voice was deep, but ruggedly refined. She knew it was Hook, but she’d never actually considered what he’d sound like in a song. His voice was beautiful and a little haunting, the seafaring shanty being one of heartache and loss. It was somber and serene, but despite its content, it was also a little bit hopeful. At least to Emma. Because if Killian was up signing instead of sleeping in his quarters after all they’d faced in the past few weeks, maybe that meant he was thinking thoughts like the ones that she’d been plagued with.

On their voyage to and from Neverland, Emma came to know this ship intimately, and the wooden planks called out to her. They were familiar and welcoming, two things she never believed she would ever say. It would be so easy to come aboard and just announce herself. But instinctively she knew it wasn’t okay to board this ship without permission. Insecurities crept in at the realization. She was intruding. This wasn’t right.

This was stupid, she reasoned to herself. I should have waited until morning. I should have –

“Swan?”

The voice she most wanted to hear played strange tricks on her now, sending a shiver of anticipation through her system and a tiny bit of terror as well. She looked to the deck but didn’t see him, then she realized the voice had sounded out from a higher locale. Her eyes climbed the great mast of the Jolly and there he was, perched atop the crow’s nest. With a coordination and grace reserved for the movies, he swung down from the great height with a rope from above. The action only tensed the hard lines of his muscles even more, and Emma took each movement in, unable to look away.

Hook was still dressed in a way she was used to seeing, but now he was missing his jacket and his vest. His hair was tousled, and his beard a touch darker, or perhaps that was a trick of the moonlight. She’d never seen him like this before. He was somehow even sexier than usual, and it overwhelmed her. He descended from the ship at a hurried clip, moving towards her with purpose and precision. He closed the distance between them, until they were mere inches away from one another. When he was near enough, his eyes searched her whole being for signs of trouble, and his hand came out to reach for hers in a show of comfort. She extended hers in kind, and her body came alive at the contact. Her breathing caught as her eyes met his cerulean gaze, brimming with intensity and earnestness.

“Emma, love, are you all right? Is it Henry? Has something happened?”

The worry in his tone was evident, and the honesty she felt flowing off of him broke the last fragments of her will power. She couldn’t take it anymore. She was in this, and it was damn well time that she act like it.

She practically leapt into his arms, pulling him down by the v of his somewhat unbuttoned shirt and kissing him as she’d wanted to ever since walking away back in Neverland. The instant delight that came was heady and addictive, and this time Emma knew that she could savor it. There was nothing looming on the horizon – nothing poised to stop them or intrude on this big moment – and for the first time in a long time, Emma felt free. Free to feel and free to want something only for herself.

Hook needed only the briefest moment to respond. He practically purred out his approval, the growl he let loose buzzing through her and setting her ablaze. His expert use of hand and hook left her shaking. He pulled her even closer, closing the remaining space between them, and enveloping her in every part of him. Emma stopped knowing where she ended and he began. God, this was perfect. Easily the best kiss she’d ever had. How could anything possibly feel this good? His hard body had her squirming in his grasp, seeking any semblance of friction and relief. She’d been carrying desire for this man for too long, but compartmentalizing and hiding it away. Now it flowed freely, surrounding her, engulfing her, and leaving her breathless.

She wasn’t the only one trying to soak in every moment. Hook was just as ravenous, nipping and teasing her with touches designed to seduce and to entrance. He was hot and fierce and alluring, the scent of rum and salt and sea air clinging to him. It felt dangerous and daunting, but also natural and filled with need. Like magnets flung towards impact, two opposites attracting and finding something more. Many parts of this were familiar, but then it changed, sparked fire, and blazed to something past her comprehension.

With the benefit of privacy and time, Hook took control and guided the kiss. He was dominant and demanding in ways Emma never allowed another man to be. It set her soul on fire, and tilted the world into a whole new point of view. This heated embrace stole every shred of sanity Emma had left, but she wouldn’t trade it for anything. Neverland was about her making a statement, and tonight was as well. But Hook would have his say this time, and he showed her so much more through luscious actions than anyone ever had with words. This kiss was a revelation, a seduction any siren would be proud of, and here she was, caught within the storm but finding that she loved it all the same.

Coming up for air was a struggle, mostly because now that she had done this, Emma didn’t want to let go. But after the fervor of first contact, they both knew that they had to talk about this. For Emma, it was time to fess up, and to confess that the fear of taking a chance was overwhelming, but that the fear of losing a chance at this was even more jarring.

“It’s difficult for a man to determine if he’s dreaming when a woman as lovely as you appears like this, Swan.” Killian uttered the words as his fingers traced along her jaw. His hook held her hip in place, the cool metal a source of strange comfort. Emma nuzzled in closer, leaning against his palm and breathing him in as her eyes closed. “But in all my years I’ve never had a dream that compares to you. So it must be real. Please, Gods above, let it be real.”

“It’s real,” she whispered, pressing another soft kiss on his lips. “We’re real. I’ve been scared as hell to say that, but I…”

“I understand, love. It’s wholly unexpected. And I’m not exactly the kind of man a woman like you deserves.”

“Don’t say that,” she pleaded, and the pain in his eyes sent a sharp sting through her heart. Obviously he didn’t see himself the way she saw him. But maybe with time, things would be more clear.

“It’s the truth, Swan.”

“Do you trust me?”

“Aye.”

“Do you want me?” He nodded immediately, his hold on her tightening, whether or not he realized it. Her lips curved up to a small smile at that, and she not so secretly loved how sure and certain he was in this.

“Yes.”

“Would you ever hurt me?” she asked, her voice breaking slightly, and the pain of her past surging up in darkened memories.

“I might, love, but Gods strike me down if I do, because it’s the last thing in the world I’d ever want.”

“And that’s how I know,” she whispered. Looking at him with new conviction, willing him to believe her. “That’s the difference with you, Killian. I see you, I see your heart, and I know you see me. Not the savior, not the sheriff, not the lost little girl or the woman with walls. You see me. Just me.”

“You’re all I see, Swan. Have been for some time.”

She didn’t know who started their next kiss, but she felt the frenzy of it all the same. It was just as magnificent as before, but this time sincerity simmered throughout as well. The understanding they were reaching made it all the better. Knowing they were both going to jump here gave her comfort, but there were still some words to say.

“I don’t really know how to do this,” she admitted, running her hand across his chest as their foreheads touched. She looked down to avoid an embarrassing exchange. Patiently he waited, but when she stayed stock still, he tilted back and brought up his hook. He gently nudged her chin back up, prompting her to see that there was nothing like judgment in his eyes.

‘Neither do I. But we’ll see it through. Together.”

“I’m not good at letting people in.”

This time he grinned, looking like a man who was up for the challenge of scaling her walls. She almost rolled her eyes until he took her hand in his and pressed a gentle kiss upon it. It was an intimate gesture that made her heart soar. Who was this man who could be so roughish and rough one moment and yet gentle and sweet the next?

“That makes two of us.”

“I’m going to fuck this up,” she affirmed, assured of the missteps she would make and wanting him to realize she was so much less than perfect.

Now he looked frustrated, and his voice ground out in a graveled, gruff tone. “Not possible.”

“How do you know?”

‘Because you’re you, Swan,” he murmured, pressing sweet kisses to her face, to her neck and jaw, then her lips once more. “You’re rare and remarkable and real. You can do anything you set your mind to, anything but push me away. I’m in this, Emma. Entirely and completely. It’s soon to admit that, but you deserve the truth, and you’ll always hear it from me.”

“I really want to trust you,” she whispered, clutching onto his shirt and letting this one last worry live between them.

“And someday you will. In the meantime, I can wait. I will wait. As long as it takes.” That was all it took. Peace finally claimed her, and something in her settled.

“Okay,” she murmured, leaning in to hug him and basking in his heat and the gentle thrumming of his heart.

“Okay,” he replied, a lilted whisper in her hair as he held her close.

They remained out there for a while more, but neither needed to say anything for them to realize what must come next. Emma needed to go home, and he would see her there, safe and sound. They walked together, down Main Street in the moonlight, hand in hand, with the closeness of lovers, and the poise of two similar souls seeking comfort in each other. No one was around to see them, but Emma knew they would very soon. She wasn’t going to hide this, and someday they’d walk in the light together, letting everyone know exactly where they stood.

When they were back by the loft, Emma stalled, not wanting this to end. She wished she could invite him up for a drink, a drink that would no doubt turn to more, but she couldn’t. Instead, they needed to say goodbye for now, but she found she wasn’t sure how.

Killian took the moment to pull her in, kissing her one last time, and saying again with actions what words could only half describe. This kiss was sweet but insistent, a reminder and a promise of all that he would give and all that they could have if they chose to be together. When they broke apart, Emma was certain in him and in herself. This was happening. This was right.

“Until tomorrow then, love,” he whispered, pressing one last kiss upon her cheek.

“Good night, Killian.”

His eyes lit up and he smiled at her use of his real name. She made a promise to herself that she would use it more often. He waited for her to go inside, and only when she’d done so did he finally walk away. Leaning against the wooden door, Emma sighed in relief and smiled.

This is the start of something good. Something true. Something… happy.

And with those final thoughts, Emma headed back to bed, and found that sleep came swiftly, bringing with it dreams she hoped would come to pass.

……………..

If I gave you every piece of me, I know that you could drop it Give you the chance, I know that you could take advantage once you got it If I open up my heart to you, I know that you could lock it Throw away the key and keep it there forever in your pocket

If I gave the opportunity to you, then would you blow it? If I was the greatest thing that happened to you, would you know it? If my love was like a flower, would you plant it, would you grow it? I might give you all my body, are you strong enough to hold it?

If I show you all my demons And we dive into the deep end Would we crash and burn like every time before? I would tell you all my secrets Wrap your arms around my weakness If the only other option's letting go

I'll stay vulnerable, yeah I'll stay vulnerable, yeah I'll stay vulnerable

If I hand you my emotion, would you even want to take it? If I give you all my trust now, would you fumble it and break it? If I let you cross my finish line, then would you wanna make it? I think I'm ready, won't you come and flip the switch and activate it?

I'll stay vulnerable, yeah I'll stay vulnerable, yeah I'll stay vulnerable

I'll stay vulnerable, yeah I'll stay vulnerable, yeah

If I show you all my demons And we dive into the deep end Would we crash and burn like every time before? (I'll stay vulnerable) I would tell you all my secrets Wrap your arms around my weakness If the only other option's letting go

(I'll stay vulnerable, yeah)

Post-Note: So, what did you think? Honestly, I had no intentions of writing this chapter right now. I knew the song needed to be in the mixtape, as I love it, and it fits so well with this series of CS love stories, but I have a number of other fics I am working on now that need attending to. Nevertheless, here we are, and luckily, this has proved to be the perfect palate cleanse for my other writing. My multichapter stories will be back soon. I’ve already started writing, and in the meantime, we all get an added little romantic bonus. Hope you enjoyed this dose of fluff, thank you all for reading, and know that I’m wishing you safe, healthy, and well. xE.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9,Part 10,Part 11, Part 12,Part 13, Part 14, Part 15, Part 16, Part 17, Part 18, Part 19, Part 20, Part 21, Part 22, Part 23, Part 24,Part 25, Part 26, Part 27, Part 28, Part 29, Part 30, Part 31,Part 32, Part 33, Part 34, Part 35, Part 36, Part 37, Part 38,Part 39,Part 40, Part 41, Part 42, Part 43, Part 44, Part 45,Part 46,Part 47, Part 48, Part 49, Part 50, Part 51, Part 52, Part 53,Part 54,Part 55, Part 56, Part 57, Part 58, Part 59, Part 60,Part 61,Part 62, Part 63, Part 64, Part 65, Part 66, Part 67, Part 68,Part 69,Part 70, Part 71, Part 72, Part 73, Part 74, Part 75,Part 76,Part 77, Part 78, Part 79, Part 80, Part 81, Part 82, Part 83,Part 84,Part 85, Part 86, Part 87, Part 88, Part 89, Part 90,Part 91,Part 92, Part 93, Part 94, Part 95, Part 96, Part 97, Part 98,Part 99,Part 100, Part 101, Part 102, Part 103,Part 104, Part 105,Part 106, Part 107,Part 108, Part 109, Part 110,Part 111, Part 112,Part 113, Part 114, Part 115,Part 116, Part 117, Part 118,Part 119,Part 120, Part 121, Part 122, Part 123,Part 124, Part 125,Part 126, Part 127, Part 128,Part 129,Part 130, Part 131,Part 132,Part 133, Part 134, Part 135, Part 136, Part 137, Part 138,Part 139,Part 140, Part 141, Part 142, Part 143, Part 144, Part 145,Part 146, Part 147, Part 148,Part 149, Part 150, Part 151,Part 152, Part 153, Part 154, Part 155, Part 156, Part 157, Part 158,Part 159, Part 160, Part 161, Part 162, Part 163, Part 164,Part 165, Part 166, Part 167, Part 168, Part 169, Part 170,Part 171,Part 172, Part 173, Part 174, Part 175, Part 176,Part 177, Part 178, Part 179 , Part 180, Part 181, Part 182, Part 183, Part 184, Part 185, Part 186, Part 187, Part 188, Part 189, Part 190, Part 191, Part 192, Part 193, Part 194, Part 195, Part 196

#captain swan #captain swan fic #cs fic #cs ff #cs fluff #cs smut?#cannon divergent #cannon divergence #captain swan rewrite #emma swan #killian jones #ouat rewrite #cs oneshot #captain swan oneshot #the mixtape #cs mixtape #captain swan mixtape #i'll stay vulnerable

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letterboxd · 4 years ago

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Beautiful Day: The Don Hertzfeldt Q&A.

In which the singular creator of It’s Such a Beautiful Day and the World of Tomorrow trilogy answers 57 questions put to him by the Letterboxd community, about death, gills, snacks, back flips, the best time of day to watch a movie, and the sick pleasure of emotionally destroying people.

Since his first animated outings in the 1990s, filmmaker Don Hertzfeldt has had a way of staring deeply into humanity’s soul via a humble stick figure, and his skill at blending existential questions with situational humor breeds intense reactions. To browse Letterboxd reviews of Hertzfeldt’s animated works is to meet film lovers at a rare, collective gathering point: heaping great piles of love for films that do “the exact opposite of helping with depression”.

There’s something optimistically anti-feel-good in Hertzfeldt’s works; a bleak view of the future, and a frank appreciation of death’s inevitability, that makes viewers urgently want to fix the way they’re living right now. “I’ve built a lot of my life philosophy on the messages of this film,” writes Misty, of his acclaimed It’s Such a Beautiful Day. “It has kicked my ass completely,” writes Dirk of the first, Oscar-nominated World of Tomorrow instalment, “making me angry at myself for letting trivial stuff take over things I love and making me happy I have so very, very much in my life to enjoy and be grateful for.”

The filmmaker’s magic lies as much in the process as the content: “Hertzfeldt is able to make every moment count,” writes Artpig, of the second WoT instalment, The Burden of Other People’s Thoughts, “every line of dialogue, every moment of silence, every note of music, every line of animation.” The World of Tomorrow films, says animation expert Toussaint Egan in our Letterboxd Show animation episode, are “some of the best science fiction films, period”.

And his timing. Oh, his timing. Just as the northern hemisphere days were turning cold, and the drawn-out misery of the pandemic was really taking hold all over again, Hertzfeldt tweeted:

WORLD OF TOMORROW EPISODE THREE everywhere october 9 5pm est 🚀

— don hertzfeldt (@donhertzfeldt)

October 8, 2020

And like that, World of Tomorrow Three: The Absent Destinations of David Prime was ours, an overnight gift to the quarantined and bereaved-weary, on Vimeo for all to rent or own. The gifts, they keep coming: a master list of movies that have their fingerprints on the World of Tomorrow universe, and now, in recognition of our community’s love for his films—and in his signature lower-case—the answers to questions asked in an exclusive Letterboxd Q&A.

To make things easier for Don, we grouped similar questions (and have noted which members asked what). Read on for more than you ever thought you might get to know about Hertzfeldt’s process, brain, heart and influences.

Filmmaker Don Hertzfeldt.

From “holograms that yell at you!” to the stunning colors, textures and folds of the blue mountains, to attributes David progressively deletes to make room for memories, would you please give us an insight into World of Tomorrow Three’s world-building process? —Letterboxd in the grand scheme of the series, episodes one and two still felt like baby steps to me. episode three was my first chance to really start blowing things up and exploring this universe. when i’m writing, i don’t want to worry about going over the top or think about structure or meaning or really much of anything yet. writing is playtime, it should be fun and messy. i want to go over the top. there is no top. i don’t want to start thinking too much until i’m rewriting and sorting through it all. thinking too much too soon can get in the way, like being too aware of when you’re trying to fall asleep. when you write a diary entry or a text to a friend, there’s no self-consciousness or creative blocks, you just write. it’s casual and fluid and automatic. but if you’re asked to write a term paper or a screenplay, suddenly all those lights turn off. it can be paralyzing. it’s hard to get to that place of truly not caring what anyone thinks and approach all forms of writing just as freely as writing those immediate thoughts in your diary. but that’s what i try to do.

When you start writing a new piece, do you usually start with a plot idea, a thematic idea, one uniform philosophical notion, or a little bit of each? —Kodiak J. Sanders, Trenz, Mr. Tables i don’t think i ever write in a straight line. i’ll jot down a hundred stray ideas over time, and one day i’ll sit down and see what connections might be made out of them. i really want this scene to be in the movie, so how do i get there? this is a good line, how can i get a character to say it? so the actual story usually only starts to reveal itself when i sit down to logic all these bits and pieces out. hey, in order to connect this strange idea to that strange idea, suddenly there is a very interesting third scene.

I’m astounded by how much the animation and the visuals improve with each instalment of World of Tomorrow. What have you done differently for each one? —Aske Lund, Cringetacular the characters needed to physically perform a lot more in episodes two and three so there were more demands put on the animation. when emily 4 dances or david staggers up a mountain, those sorts of scenes were animated in “ones”, which means doing 24 drawings per second versus my usual twelve. it’s still all 2D hand animation, just more of a classic disney approach that gives the movement a smoother look and a little more room for nuance. and obviously it takes a lot more work. but i hesitate to call such things improvements because i’m not sure i like the idea of different techniques being thought of as good or bad. it’s just another way of doing things. it really depends, sometimes super limited animation can be more effective.

Likewise, Part Three’s sound design is incredible. What conditions did you create it in, and what are all those sounds, and how do you have such an incredible command of the cut-to-silence trick?! —Letterboxd thanks, the sound design is always my favorite thing to do. other than julia’s lines, it’s easy to forget that all the animation starts with dead silence. obviously there’s no sound coming from a live-action set. so adding sound and music to everything, usually pretty late in production, is when all the stuff i’ve been working on suddenly starts to feel like an actual movie. this is not a future that works very well—particularly david’s, which predates everything else we’ve seen so far by a century or two—so you’re hearing a lot of creaky old hard drives booting up, electric distortions, and bent circuits from broken toys.

Emily and Emily Prime in a still from ‘World of Tomorrow’ (2015).

World of Tomorrow used to fill me with existential dread, but now with the current state of the world it’s become more and more comforting in a strange way. Do you feel that at all as you make new episodes? —mariano gg i wish that were possible but when i’m making something i’m usually so close to it i’m unable to see anything but all the things i need to fix.

Can you talk a little bit about sourcing the photo-realistic images for the backgrounds in Part Three? —Jack Moulton most of the environments were 2D images i built in photoshop, usually starting from close-up photos of different textures (like sandstone), all sort of reshaped and puzzle-pieced into something new. an easy to see example was david’s cockpit, which was cobbled together from all sorts of different old aircraft engine and machine parts. the trick in building and lighting these locations was always figuring out where the line was drawn in making these places realistic, but not too realistic for minimal characters to inhabit. i kept landing on a sort of painterly looking middle ground.

If the cloning process in World of Tomorrow existed right now, would you go through that process and create clones of yourself to prolong your life? —tim probably not, that process doesn’t seem to work so well.

If you were put into the world you’ve created, would you buy gills? —Lauren Torres i tend to avoid putting my head under because i almost always get water in my ears so i guess i wouldn’t need them. gills also seem like they’d be a real nuisance to keep clean.

What does love mean, and why do your characters go through so much effort to find it? —Andrew Michalko oh man.

In this year of years, what do you hope people will understand about death and its inevitability (or is it all there on the screen, and if so, that’s okay too)? —Letterboxd understanding death and its inevitability is maybe the most valuable thing a person can do for themselves.

Was the absence of Emily Prime in Part Three a practical decision [Don’s then-four-year-old niece Winona provided Emily’s voice] or an intentional departure from the first two films? —Michael it was both. i couldn’t find a way to fit her in naturally and i also felt like the series needed to start growing in other directions and not rest on the past. episode two had also been really difficult to write, it was so reliant on winona’s recordings, and it felt like the dam was really broken when i was finally able to write without any restrictions this time.

In a series like World of Tomorrow, where you headed in a direction that is a lot more plot-driven than your previous work, how far in advance do you plan? Did you always know this was in David’s past, or are these stories told one at a time? —Ryan Welch, Kodiak J. Sanders, julius, Alex Leon i could tell early on that this wasn’t a story like it’s such a beautiful day with a clear beginning, middle and end, but a much wilder thing that could continue to grow. the openness of it is still what makes it so interesting to me. i have all sorts of notes for the next episodes but if i already knew what would happen in episode nine i think that would take a lot of the air out of the tires and i’d start to feel like i was just connecting the boring dots. while writing, i’ve also had to be aware that there someday might be an episode nine so i can’t go wrecking the timelines before i get there.

What were the rocks and the gas pump that Emily fell in love with meant to represent? —Ekaneff she was learning how to love, and like all of us, in her youth she gravitated to a bunch of individuals that were wrong for her.

Aside from the ability to release more frequently, is there something about the episodic structure that you prefer/appreciate, as opposed to creating one larger feature-length film? —SiddFinch1 there’s just more freedom. the traditional running time of a feature film, 90 to 120 minutes, is a totally arbitrary number.

Have you ever considered writing a World of Tomorrow book or graphic novel? —Jay Smith the earliest ideas for world of tomorrow were sloshing around in a graphic novel called the end of the world that came out in 2013. but i don’t have any talent or much confidence in making another book like that. it’s a different world. when i look at someone like chris ware and then look at something like the end of the world, it’s like, “wow, baby made a mess”.

A page from Don Hertzfeldt’s graphic novel, ‘The End of the World’ (2013).

What attracted you to the unique style [of minimalist stick figures]? Is there a sense of intimacy that you feel you can achieve with this simplicity? —Evan Whitford when i was little, before i wanted to make movies i wanted to be a newspaper cartoonist. i think my drawings today might have more in common with newspaper comics than the sort of characters you usually see in animation. comic-strip panels were always composed in a very reserved way because they were generally intended to be skimmed. you needed to be able to read the strip in five seconds so you could be off to read the sports pages and obituaries. the comics pages were also under constant size and space restrictions. so they were minimal by design and the artists reduced their characters to only their most essential parts. there was no room for fussing. charles schulz said “i only draw what’s necessary”. and that’s actually incredibly hard to do. you’re accomplishing so much more with so much less.

i’ve also found that if there’s a scene that’s not playing right and bothering me, most of the time it’s because my composition was too cluttered. i almost always find myself removing things from the frame and trying to pare it down to only what’s necessary. very rarely do i ever think ‘i need to add more stuff in here’. because this shot is only five seconds long and i want you to be looking over here when this moment happens and this character says something, and if you’re distracted by this other flickering junk i put in the corner it’s going to throw everything off.

Animation-aside, which creative medium do you resonate with the most? —Bronkdan music.

How much did you pull from real-life experiences to make It’s Such A Beautiful Day, if any? What research did you conduct into memory? —Gunnar Sizemore, David Sigura, Micah Smith whenever i got a little stuck writing it’s such a beautiful day, i’d go back and reread my journal and pull more things out of it. dreams, conversations, small scenes. reading the journal now, it seems like i stole something from it every few pages. i also heavily researched neurological problems. it’s never said in the movie what exactly’s going on with bill, but i needed there to be a real diagnosis to base the medical writing on. so all the things he’s going through are real treatments or symptoms based on an actual condition. i didn’t want to ever come out and say, “he’s got terminal brain clouds”, or whatever in the movie, because then it becomes a “brain-cloud movie”, and that’s too easy for the audience to compartmentalize and distance themselves from… “brain clouds are so rare, that will never happen to me”. but not being told exactly what’s wrong with bill might help make the story more relatable and universal.

In what ways have you kept your mind fresh creatively? How do you keep yourself from slipping into complacency? —Watchmoviez, Drew’s reviews most creative blocks or stagnation come from anxiety, second-guessing and doubt. over the years i’ve learned to just sort of calm down and trust myself more. it’s like the old aesop fable: when you stop thrashing around in the water, the water becomes clearer and you can see more. if a scene isn’t working right, i can more easily chill out about it these days and trust that i’ll eventually figure it out—because i’ve figured these sorts of things out a hundred times before and i know by now that i’m not the sort of person who’s just going to allow a scene that isn’t working to remain in the movie. there’s a little more panic about that sort of thing when you’re young: “oh no, the movie sucks right now, will it always suck?!” i’ve reached the point where i know that i will not let it suck. and that sort of thinking allows all the movie gears to turn more easily.

Do you have a specific thematic, emotional or other miscellaneous motive in mind when including classical music pieces? —James Y. Lee when i’m listening to music and suddenly the right piece arrives, it’s usually blindingly obvious to me: there’s just no doubt this needs to be in the movie somehow. it’s like the idea has always existed and i’ve just finally uncovered it. it’s the same with writing. when the right thing floats along, it is striking and obvious and into the pile of notes it goes.

How much of your animation style lends itself to experimentation, such as discovering new tricks and pretty shots, that is then discarded if you learn it doesn’t work as intended? —Adam, Jacob i think i’m always experimenting. i figure if it doesn’t work, at least i’ve learned something.

What is the strangest compliment or critique you’ve gotten personally or of your work? —Elliot Taylor i’ve always remembered this one. i am so proud of you came out a couple years after everything will be ok. it was a continuation of that story, so it was basically the first time i had ever made a sequel. and everything will be ok had done really well when it came out. it won sundance and got all these great reviews. so i am so proud of you comes out and i remember reading this review that says, “everything will be ok was probably my favorite animated short of all time. it honestly changed my life. it was funny, sad, beautiful and just so wonderful. everything will be ok, boy did i love it. incredible. two thumbs up. truly, best thing ever. wow. so, unfortunately, its sequel, i am so proud of you, just feels like more of the same.”

A still image from ‘It’s Such a Beautiful Day’ (2012).

Are there any pieces of fiction that have influenced your work that we probably wouldn’t think of? —Gyani Wasp, Mikolaj Perzyna, Aaron McMillan, Harrison, Axel, Cringetacular, The25centman, Hunter Guidry one thing that pops to mind is the phantom tollbooth. my favorite children’s books were the ones with all the fun metaphors and clever wordplay. when i was plotting out episode two i wanted to lean into that, where visiting different sections of emily’s brain would be like milo visiting the land of math, the land of letters, the land of sound, with different looks and logic to it. so we had the bog of realism, glimmers of hope, broken memories, the logic center, and all the stuff in triangle land and square land. i guess that’s a lot but i wish there had been a bit more.

How did your friends and family respond to the “my anus is bleeding” part of Rejected? —Alex Tatterson they were pretty used to me by then.

Do you know of the work of David Firth, the internet animator? His work is also surreal and has dark humor, but more sinister than whimsical. Would you ever consider making an animation in the realm of horror in future? —KEVIИ HДWKIИS i’m afraid i don’t know him. i’d love to make a horror movie. from a certain point of view though maybe it could be argued that most everything i’ve made is a sort of horror movie?

My first tattoo is of Billy from Billy’s Balloon hanging from his ankle and it was the best decision I’ve ever made. How do you feel about people having your work tattooed and do you have any ink from other creatives that have meant something to you? —Elias it really fucking enrages me when people get my stuff tattooed on them. no just kidding. mostly i feel embarrassed but i’m glad you haven’t changed your mind about it yet. sometimes i wonder how many people have.

Have you ever thought about directing live action? —Abeer, Noah Thompson yes.

Is there an update on your feature film Antarctica? —Rylan California it’s one of many things swirling around.

Will you do a remake of Robocop and why not next year? —Simon no, because robocop is already sort of perfect.

Do you ever see yourself directing a large studio film? Or working with a large team to make something with a higher budget, maybe through a crowd-funded project? Or do you just strongly prefer working on your own? —Vteyshev, Monotone Duck sure. i’ve never preferred working on my own at all. it was usually just the only way to ever get anything made. i haven’t had the funding to pay a big crew, or really much of a crew at all. there’s the old saying: you can make something good, you can make it fast, and you can make it cheap, but you can only pick two. if you make it good and fast it won’t be cheap, if you make it cheap and fast it won’t be good, etc. so my only route in hoping to make something good and cheap has been to totally forget about making it fast.

What did you find digital animation added or took away from your work, and what did those changes do for your storytelling? Will you continue using the digital medium when/if you decide to move on from the World of Tomorrow project? —Alec Lai, Slipkornbizkit, Aldo digital just sped everything up. it’s still one person drawing everything, so we need to remember that speed is relative here, but i felt like i went from riding a bicycle to driving a car. there are many pleasant, wonderful things about riding a bicycle but you’re not going to get anywhere very quickly. and i’m not in my 20s anymore, in fact my 20s and 30s were mostly entirely devoured by making movies in what was maybe the slowest way possible. so these days i am appreciating the speed of digital.

If you could have a conversation with any filmmaker, dead or alive, who would it be and why? —ToBeHonest, Cringetacular if i could resurrect one of my heroes from the dead i think i would feel terrible wasting his time forcing him to have a conversation with me. he might also just sit there, covered with graveyard dirt, screaming in horror.

What is the best time of day to watch a movie? —Sammy night. i always feel a little nuts coming out of a movie and the sun is still up.

What’s your all-time favorite science-fiction film, and why? —Letterboxd 2001. because come on.

What is your favorite of Julia Potts’ films, and why? —Letterboxd i like the one with the severed foot.

Are there any animated films that you felt had a profound impact on you as a child? —Sprizzle probably fantasia. and ray harryhausen stuff. whenever there was a sunday-afternoon movie on TV, my brother and i learned that if in the opening titles there was a credit for “special effects” we should keep watching because we might eventually see something cool.

Which one of your movies is your personal favorite? —Jakob Böwer, RodrigoJerez i don’t know. sometimes it’s the newest one because it’s usually the one with the most experience behind it and therefore feels like it has the fewest mistakes. but then over time i realize they’re all riddled with mistakes. of the it’s such a beautiful day pieces, i think my favorite has always been i am so proud of you. and then i’ll see reviews that say “clearly the second chapter is the weakest one”, and i’ll think, man you guys don’t know what you’re talking about.

One of Don’s layout sketches for ‘I Am So Proud of You’ (2008).

What’s your favorite Pixar film? —Jordan inside out.

What film would you want to be the last one you watch before you die? —Gavin honestly if i’m in the process of dying i hope i won’t be watching movies at all.

Do you have faith in humanity? —Connor Kriechbaum not often.

What is something that worries you about where humankind is headed? —Felix_Bouchard social media.

What is the most valuable thing you have ever lost? How often do you think about it? —Siminup well now i’m getting sad.

Can you do a back flip, mister Don? —Doug maybe with the help of a catapult.

What is your take on the after life? What do you think happens to us when we die? —Luisdecoss i guess that it’s probably a lot like our memory of what the year 1823 was like.

Do you want anything from McDonald’s? —Andrew Rhyne only if i’m in an airport and desperate.

What’s your favorite meal or snack? —Pfitzerone, Evan lately in quarantine i’ve been discovering this particular breakfast burrito.

How’s your quarantine life, Don? —Ivan Arcena it’s okay thanks. eating lots of breakfast burritos.

Hi! I can’t believe you’re going to read this. I am currently filled with an unparalleled amount of joy, wow. This is a long shot but here I go. I’m 17 and your (self-proclaimed) biggest fan. I’ve seen It's Such a Beautiful Day eight times now and every single time I pick up on more details. I’ve watched a few of your interviews and in the AFS one about Rejected you said that the louder you play a movie, the funnier it is. On my seventh watch of It’s Such a Beautiful Day I hooked my laptop up to three huge speakers and I must say—you were so, so right. I made a video essay about the movie. Lol, I’m not sure if this will get to you but Michael Jordan once said something about missing shots or not taking shots or maybe about tequila, I am unsure but I know it was important. Thanks MJ. Not you, Mr Jackson. I’m sorry Ms. Jackson…

I actually do have a question, sorry about the rambling. Every single time I watch the guy at the payphone flip his pencil and go “fantastic, fantastic” I cry. And I think what really does it for me is that “we’ll finally have our day”. Earlier in the movie, Bill’s co-worker talks about how all of time is happening at once. So what I constantly ask myself is if the guy at the payphone is simultaneously having his day and waiting for it. And I’m no longer speaking to that one specific example or even to the movie as a whole but I guess I’m wondering if the idea of all events happening at once comforts you?

In Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut writes: “The most important thing I learned on Tralfamadore was that when a person dies he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, so it is very silly for people to cry at his funeral. All moments past, present and future, always have existed, always will exist.” When I read this I immediately thought about your movie. I think the idea of all of time happening at once makes all of life feel less important but more special. You know? Anyway, I suppose I’d just like to know what inspired the lines about time in the office scene. This isn’t much of a question, more an incoherent ramble but thank you so, so much for all you’ve done. I feel so incredibly inspired and so deeply moved by your work and I know that so many people in this comment section and around the world would agree. I can’t believe I’ve been given the opportunity to ask something. It really is such a beautiful day. :) —Eli Osei (co-signed by Vooder) that old guy at the payphone was someone i saw at the laundromat once and he borrowed my pencil and the whole thing just played out like in the movie. i just thought it was such a perfect little scene that i’d just witnessed. anyway, the idea of time being a landscape and everything taking place “at once” just came straight out of a science magazine. i don’t know how, but apparently it’s been more or less proven to be true? we perceive time in one direction, but the past and the future are always all around us. think of it as though we’re driving our car through a landscape. even though the mountains we saw ten minutes ago are behind us now, it doesn’t mean those mountains have ceased to exist. they’ve only ceased to exist from our point of view. we’ve only just driven past them. the mountains, like your childhood, are still going on back there. anyway, i had never heard of that before and thought it needed to be in a movie.

A still from ‘World of Tomorrow Episode Two: The Burden of Other People’s Thoughts’ (2017).

Are you a fan of Kurt Vonnegut by any chance? It may be coincidental, but I love how you both utilize science-fiction settings and concepts like being “unstuck from time/memory” to explore the human condition. I feel his writing and your animation are both capable of making me laugh wholeheartedly one minute and weeping genuine, sorrowful tears the next. —Vooder i’m embarrassed to say i’ve never read him and i’m told on a regular basis that i should. that all started after i am so proud of you came out with those discussions about time being a landscape. but i almost only ever read non-fiction. it’s a long story. but now i’m almost afraid to ever read vonnegut after all these years of build-up.

Hey Don, this is really cool. I don’t have as much of a question, more of a comment. It’s Such A Beautiful Day has gotten me through a lot of hard times, being in middle school sucks, I think everyone knows that: and your movie has made life just a wee bit better for me. It also gave me the inspiration and motivation to finish my first feature! Thanks lots. Love from Indiana —Blood Mountain: Experimental Cinema <3 hey thank you. yeah middle school was pretty much the deepest pit of hell. there’s this old saying, “if you find yourself in hell, keep going”. and i’ve never understood that saying. “keep going”, because, i guess, you can always just go deeper into hell?

Hi! Has the vitreous humour in your eyes started to deteriorate and have you experienced floaters within your eyeballs? If not, that’s okay. Just remember it’s part of life, so don’t get scared when it happens! Just keep moving on! But if you do have them, follow-up question: Do you think it’s funny that the body of vitreous fluid that allows your sight to be clear is called the vitreous humour, and when it detaches it’s anything but humorous? I find that pretty humorous myself, in, like, an ironic way. —Clbert1 i actually blew a blood vessel in my eye a couple weeks ago and the whole thing turned bright blood red. it didn’t hurt or anything, i just walked into the room all disgusting and my girlfriend was like, “what the fuck?!” and then the next day i had further weird eye problems. i just went to the eye doctor yesterday. i think i will be fine but i was thinking, wouldn’t it be like the most heavy metal thing ever for my biography if i just suddenly went BLIND? “and then in 2020, HE WENT BLIND.”

Will Intro ever be released to the general public outside of theater screenings? —Melissa okay yes you’ve talked me into it. on that note, i noticed that the poster of intro used on letterboxd is a weird fake and i’m not sure where it came from. someone just used a picture from rejected. if fake posters are to be made i would prefer it if they used a picture from raiders of the lost ark or something.

Do you have plans to combine the World of Tomorrow shorts into one feature-length film à la It’s Such a Beautiful Day? —David Sigura, Sam Stewart, An_Person no, it’s going to be much longer than a feature-length.

Will we ever get a ‘Hertzfeldt 4K Collection’? Or at least a Blu-ray with It’s Such a Beautiful Day and all episodes of World of Tomorrow? —Teebin, HippityHoppity there is actually already a blu-ray for it’s such a beautiful day. up next we’ll do some sort of world of tomorrow blu-ray of the first three episodes. but 4k is too many k’s. you don’t need that many k’s.

Would you ever consider comprising an OST album of all the songs you used and mixed from your films? —PhiloDemon i don’t think so. i read that for many years cat stevens resisted releasing his original songs from harold and maude on any records because he thought they were more special if you could only ever hear them in the movie. i like that.

Do you get a sick kind of pleasure from emotionally destroying people with your movies? —MaxT26 yep.

What’s been your ongoing experience of the outpouring of joy and love of your work? —Henry gratitude. how sad for me if, after all this work, nobody was watching at all.

Related content

Don’s invaluable Twitter thread about “old-school animation camera stuff”

A Few of the Fingerprints on the World of Tomorrow Universe: a list of influences curated for Letterboxd by Don Hertzfeldt

Modest Heroes: the Letterboxd Showdown for indie animation

The Drawn Cinema: Analena’s list of rough animation, pencil textures, watercolor effects, dynamic brushes and other poetic artistry.

Beloved Indie Animation: a list by Gui

Animated Sci-Fi and Fantasy: an extensive list by Stonefolk

‘World of Tomorrow Three: The Absent Destinations of David Prime’ is available now through Bitter Films on Vimeo.

#don hertfeldt #world of tomorrow #it's such a beautiful day #animation #hand-drawn #hand drawn animation #2d animation #animated film #animated short #emily prime #david prime #science fiction #sci fi animation #animated sci fi #letterboxd

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artificialqueens · 4 years ago

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Justify My Love (Gigi x Jan) - Joley

ao3 link

It had started out as a completely innocuous comment during Untucked. Jackie and Jan had been talking about their time going out to bars and clubs in Manhattan, and more specifically, how Jan approached dating and hooking up when he was single.

“I swear, Jan has like a sixth sense, a bottom superpower or something. She can, without fail, always pick out the tops in a crowd. Sometimes it’s top-leaning verses, but it’s still a talent,” Jackie was saying with Jan nodding happily in agreement.

The other queens looked at her with curiosity. “So what about here? Are your top senses tingling?” Crystal asked curiously.

“Not with you,” Jan retorted with a laugh. “I mean I know Jaida is, I got those vibes from Nicky too, and obviously we have Miss Dom Top Girl Bye over here,” she gestured to Heidi. “Um… Yeah, am I forgetting anyone?”

Gigi cleared her throat pointedly, and Jan looked at her with sincere surprise. “What? Don’t look at me like that. I prefer topping. Is it that surprising?”

Jan strummed her fingers against her glass. “I mean… kinda, especially after I throttled you across the set. Honestly, you give off more ‘bossy bottom’ vibes, like Jackie.”

“Hey!” Jackie chimed in with a laugh.

“You know it’s true,” Jan cooed before redirecting her attention to Gigi. “No but really, if you’re a top, you’re a top. The sixth sense isn’t foolproof.”

The conversation tapered off after that, but the whole exchange was stewing with Gigi, who was simply unsatisfied with the result. It shouldn’t have continued to nag at her the way it did. It shouldn’t have still been lingering when they were nearing the end of the last episode. “Do I really give off bottom vibes?” she asked Jackie.

Jackie looked at her, perplexed. In the time since, she’d completely forgotten the exchange until Gigi jogged her memory. “Are you talking about what Jan said?”

“Yeah…”

“I guess I get what she meant. You can sometimes come off a little bratty, could be where she drew that conclusion,” she shrugged. “Is that really still bothering you?”

Gigi shifted uncomfortably. “It’s just that it’s totally inaccurate!” she insisted.

Jackie furrowed her brows. “Why are you so concerned with what Jan thinks?” She studied Gigi’s reaction – the red face, the averted gaze – she only had one conclusion to draw. “Do you… have a crush on Jan?” She didn’t let the younger queen answer. “Oh my god, you do! That’s so cute!” She cupped her face. “Aw, my sweet baby Geege,” she cooed.

Gigi swatted her hands away. “Knock it off, I don’t need that shit spreading around. Doesn’t she have a boyfriend, anyway?”

The enthusiasm immediately left Jackie’s face. She felt bad for not having thought about that, and embarrassed, considering all the double dates they’d been on. “Right, right, sorry. But hey, don’t get too down about it. Stranger things have happened.”

–––

Gigi had thought her feelings would dissipate with time. They weren’t around each other all the time, she was constantly busy. It should be out of sight, out of mind, right? And maybe it might’ve been the case, if it weren’t for the fateful text she got from Jaida one November night.

‘Did Jackie tell you Jan and her boyfriend broke up?’

Of course Jaida found out from Jackie, she thought. ‘No, when did that happen?’

‘A few days ago, Jan’s crashing on Jackie’s couch until she can lock down a new place. Said she’s been busy helping or she’d tell you herself. Apparently it’s important that you know.’

Gigi turned red at that, hiding her face in her pillows and letting out a groan until she could collect herself. ‘Did she say anything else?’

‘Yeah: I told you so’

She rolled her eyes. “I told you so,” she mocked to herself. Leave it to Jackie to be a gossip and a know-it-all. Still, the next thing she did was check her calendar, hoping she would be in New York sometime very soon.

As it turned out, ‘very soon’ ended up being about ten days. And Gigi thought that was enough time, especially if she did decide to do anything. But even though there was a part of her trying to talk himself out of it, the rest of her had been drowned in the same feelings she had on set, and she knew that crush hadn’t dissipated in the slightest.

It didn’t help that most of Jan’s instagram feed was post-breakup thirst trap pictures. It had caught Gigi off guard, but she certainly wasn’t complaining, nor was she planning on deleting the screenshots of those photos from her phone anytime soon. Beyond that, she refused to show even the slightest drop of nerves when she got to New York. She was going to be the confident Gigi Goode everyone knew and nothing less. And she was going to make certain Jan knew exactly how much of a top she was by the time she went back to Los Angeles.

Once in the hotel, Gigi took a quick shower and changed into a clean outfit that was far more fashionable than the sweats and oversized hoodie she’d arrived in. After writing and rewriting a text a few times, she asked Jan if she wanted to go out to a club, and to her relief, she got an enthusiastic ‘yes’ in reply.

Gigi was expecting to meet Jan at the club, but just as she finished getting ready, he got a text from Jan asking for her hotel room number.

“Hey, I missed you!” Jan greeted warmly when Gigi opened the door. She hugged her tightly, liking the way the other queen seemed to melt into his arms.

“I missed you too. How’ve you been?” Gigi asked as she ushered her inside. “You’re all settled into the new place, right?”

Jan nodded, sitting on the edge of the bed. “I have. It’s the first time I’m living alone and… honestly, it’s freeing. It’s nice, but a little lonely,” she admitted.

Gigi nodded and sat beside her. “Well, you won’t be lonely while I’m here. I’m going to annoy you incessantly until you’re ready to dropkick me back to LA,” she nudged him lightly.

“You could never annoy me,” Jan cooed and wrapped an arm around her, pulling her closer. “Well… maybe not never, but I’m still happy you’re here.”

Gigi had forgotten how physically affectionate Jan was, it had been a bit jarring at first. She had grown up with everyone keeping themselves at arms length, and normally that was how she liked things. But Jan was a hugger, a kisser, everything Gigi normally couldn’t stand, but somehow Jan was the exception. “I’m happy I’m here too.”

“And…” Jan pulled back to reach into his bag, “I thought we could do a little pregaming before we go out,” she set the bottle of vodka and cans of soda she’d gotten from the vending machine on the table.

“You’re the best,” she grinned as they fixed themselves drinks. “Cheers, to not being lonely tonight,” and they clinked their plastic cups and took long sips.

Jan took another sip and sat back down. “What’ve you been up to? Still a top?” she teased.

Gigi bit back a grin, this was just the segue she’d been hoping for. “I sure am. Still doubting me?”

“That really stuck with you, huh?” Jan chuckled. “I thought I saw it get under your skin a little bit,” she took Gigi’s hand, swinging it aimlessly. “Not still mad at me, are you?”

“Oh, I was never mad at you,” she assured, then sat straddling Jan’s lap. “But you have to understand that I can’t just let you be wrong like that,” she added, running her fingers through Jan’s hair. All the nerves she had come in with seemed to have vanished, and she let her lust and desire take control of her words and actions.

Jan seemed just as interested, brow raised and arms looped around Gigi’s waist. “Yeah? You’re gonna show me how much of a top you are, Geege?”

Gigi put two fingers under Jan’s chin and tilted her head up. “Honey, that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Is that why you wanted to come here first? Wanted to see if I’d fuck you? There’s no need to play games, you know. You could’ve just asked.”

“But where’s the fun in that?” Jan bat her lashes innocently.

So this was how she was going to play? Gigi smirked, not minding a bit. She grabbed Jan by her shirt and pulled her into a heated kiss. Her tongue slipped past Jan’s lips, swirling and wrestling it in a battle of dominance that she knew she was going to win. When she needed to come up for air, it was never more than a few seconds at a time before she eagerly dove back in, until finally she rested their foreheads together as she caught her breath. “Shit, do you have any idea of all the things I wanna do to you? Wanna fucking ruin you.”

“Please…” Jan’s voice was soft and breathy, but filled with an undeniable need that sent a thrill up Gigi’s spine.

And Gigi simply couldn’t leave it at that. “Please what?”

“Please fuck me, ruin me, take me like I know you’ve wanted to,” the words were spilling out too fast for Jan to realize she had admitted to knowing how Gigi felt about her at first. But she knew Gigi wasn’t one to talk about feelings, so she hoped that would be overlooked.

Gigi was, in fact, more than willing to overlook it. She just kissed Jan deeply, biting her bottom lip and slowly pulling back. “I don’t know how rough you like it, like… Will we need a safe word?”

Jan’s brows rose in interest, her hands splayed across Gigi’s thighs. “That’s exactly the kind of rough I like,” she purred.

“So, what’s your safe word?”

“Madonna.”

“Jan, too soon!”

Jan scoffed in mock offense. “How is it too soon for you?” She then giggled, hiding her face against Gigi’s neck until she could collect herself. “Sorry, sorry. I’ll just tell you to stop.”

Gigi got off of Jan and pushed her down onto the bed. “You’re ridiculous. Take your fucking clothes off.”

“Oooh, yes Daddy,” Jan purred, taking interest in Gigi’s firm tone. But she paused after she took her shirt off, tilting her head. “Or… Mommy?” She looked to Gigi for clarification.

“Doesn’t matter, Daddy’s fine,” she assured, then smirked. “Now go on, Daddy didn’t tell you to stop,” she gestured to the fact that Jan was still dressed from the waist down.

Jan breathed out an apology and quickly stripped down, then pushed herself up to her knees to undress Gigi as well.

“So eager,” Gigi chuckled, lifting her arms up so Jan could take her shirt off. “So desperate to get fucked, aren’t you?” she cooed as she kicked off her jeans and underwear, pinning Jan underneath her on the bed once they were both naked. “You might not have had me figured out, but I knew you were a greedy little whore,” she attacked Jan’s neck with kisses and bites, leaving marks from the base of her jaw to her collarbone. She sat back, straddling Jan’s waist and gently raking her pointed, manicured nails down Jan’s chest.

Jan felt goosebumps spread down her arms, breath hitching in her throat. Gigi’s gaze bore down into her soul, sending electricity coursing through her body. She always found Gigi to be beautiful, she’d always been attracted to her, but something about seeing her at this angle, gazing up at her – she looked ethereal, and Jan couldn’t help but melt under her touch.

Gigi wrapped her hand around Jan’s dick, stroking lazily as she looked around. “I take it you brought lube and a condom?” she asked, only letting go and getting off of Jan so she could retrieve it. “Of course you did, slut,” she smirked and snatched the bottle from her hand. “On your back, legs up and apart.”

Jan laid back, propping pillows behind her to give Gigi an easier angle to work with.

“You’re so pretty like this, on display for me,” Gigi mused as she slicked her fingers up with lube and sat on the back of her legs, positioned between Jan’s thighs. Her free hand kept a steady grip on Jan’s hip as she eased a finger into her, waiting a moment before starting to thrust.

“Fuck…” Jan grunted softly, arching towards Gigi as her eyes fluttered shut.

Gigi landed a firm smack of disapproval on Jan’s inner thigh. “Don’t you take your eyes off of me,” she hissed as she worked in a second finger.

Jan whimpered softly, but kept her head up and eyes on Gigi, which was a sight she really had no complaints about. She gasped out when Gigi twisted her fingers in just the right way. “Fuck, fuck right there.”

“That the spot, baby?” Gigi didn’t wait for an answer before thrusting her fingers against it several times over.

“Yes, yes, fuck, Gigi, please,” Jan panted, all but fucking herself on her fingers.

She smirked, slowing her thrusts to a halt. “Please what?”

“Please fuck me. Fuck, I need your cock, Daddy. Want you to fuck me so hard, I’m still feeling it when you’re on your way back to LA,” Jan was shamelessly vocal with her pleading, already aching for more.

And Gigi looked down at her, listening to the desperation in her tone and, to be honest, she would’ve given her anything in the world. But there was no way she would’ve given Jan the satisfaction of knowing that. Instead, she eased her fingers out and grabbed the condom, tearing it open with her teeth and rolling it down her length.

Jan quietly studied Gigi’s naked form. She didn’t expect such a lithe, little twink to be hung like that. She never noticed on set, most of the time she spent around Gigi, she was thinking about strangling her or tossing her across the room again. Perhaps it was those spiteful feelings that compelled Jan to seek her out – it was the best way to hash out months old tension as far as she was concerned.

And while Gigi’s frustration with Jan had stemmed from something completely different, it didn’t make her desire to fuck Jan senseless any less potent. She grabbed one of the pillows and propped it up under Jan’s back, hooking her legs over her shoulders as well. She carefully lined herself up and pushed in, letting out a quiet stream of curses until she bottomed out.

Jan’s eyes were blown wide with lust, the heat of arousal over taking her. She felt like she was on fire without the slightest urge to put it out. It took a moment for her to realize Gigi was waiting for her to give a sign that she was ready to continue, so she nodded eagerly.

Gigi began thrusting instantly, starting slow at first, but quickly picking up the pace. “Look at you, taking my cock so well. This what you wanted, baby? To get fucked like the dirty little slut you are?” She wasn’t satisfied with Jan nodding, so she grabbed her jaw and leaned in close. “Answer me.”

“Yes! Yes, fuck, it feels so good,” Jan moaned out sharply.

“Good boy,” Gigi hummed and moved back upright, thrusts becoming harder until she was fucking her at a brutal pace that was almost beyond her control. Her hips snapped forward at an almost animalistic speed. She couldn’t get enough, and neither could Jan.

It was when Jan started squirming against her that Gigi decided to pay her more attention. She wrapped her hand around Jan’s cock, her hand still slick from the lube. “Gonna make you come for me, baby doll, gonna have you screaming my name.”

Jan’s moans were already loud and guttural, reminding both of them that Jan did make her living off of vocalizing. “God, fuck, Gigi, I’m so close, gonna come…” But there was a tinge of hesitation.

It hit Gigi after a beat – Jan was waiting for her permission, and the way she had gotten her so utterly submissive made Gigi moan. “Go on, come for me,” she goaded, thrusts slowing down a bit so she could properly watch and appreciate the sight. “God, that’s fucking hot. Gonna make me come,” she murmured, slamming forward a few more times before stopping, an idea forming.

Jan whined softly, but she was still coming down from riding out her orgasm. Still, she looked at Gigi as if to ask, ‘what gives?’.

Instead of a verbal answer, Gigi pulled herself out. She got up to discard the condom and sat back down on the side of the bed. “On your knees,” she said, then snapped, “now.”

Jan pushed herself up and off the bed, sinking down to her knees between Gigi’s legs. She didn’t need any further instruction from there – she took Gigi’s cock into her mouth and began bobbing her head.

Gigi allowed it for a moment before grabbing onto Jan’s hair, which immediately got the other queen’s attention. She began bucking her hips forward, slowly at first, to make sure Jan was okay. And after a nod of approval, she went ahead with fucking her throat.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Jan had incredible breath control and no gag reflex, so she was able to comfortably stay still while Gigi continued thrusting her dick in and out of her mouth.

When Gigi came, she held Jan’s head in place, moaning out wantonly as she came down her throat, then slowly eased out. She swiped the come dribbling down the side of Jan’s mouth with her thumb and licked it off.

Silence followed for a few moments as Jan pushed herself up and got back on the bed. “Well,” she started, “I guess I was wrong. You’re definitely a top.”

“Mm, say it again,” Gigi cooed. “Wait, actually don’t, hearing you say you were wrong is just gonna get me hard again,” she laughed.

Jan tossed a pillow at her. “You’re a little fucking bitch,” she snorted.

“A little fucking bitch that made you scream,” she corrected, shifting to lay beside Jan. “We’re not going out to the club, are we?”

“Nah,” Jan decided, wrapping her arm around her. “I’ll just listen to you talk about how wrong I was until you’re ready to fuck me again.”

#rpdr fanfiction #gigi goode #jan sport #gigi x jan #smut #canon compliant #joley #s12 #on set fic

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missjanjie · 4 years ago

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Justify My Love | Goodesport

Title: Justify My Love Summary: Gigi and Jan might have butted heads on set a few times, but the one thing that stuck with Gigi was Jan not believing she's a top. So she comes to New York with a secret mission, but Jan might just beat her to the punch. Word Count: 3089 Relationship(s): Goodesport (Gigi Goode x Jan Sport) Rating: E

read on ao3

The other queens looked at her with curiosity. “So what about here? Are your top senses tingling?” Crystal asked curiously.

Gigi cleared her throat pointedly, and Jan looked at her with sincere surprise. “What? Don’t look at me like that. I prefer topping. Is it that surprising?”

Jan strummed her fingers against her glass. “I mean… kinda, especially after I throttled you across the set. Honestly, you give off more ‘bossy bottom’ vibes, like Jackie.”

“Hey!” Jackie chimed in with a laugh.

“You know it’s true,” Jan cooed before redirecting her attention to Gigi. “No but really, if you’re a top, you’re a top. The sixth sense isn't foolproof.”

Jackie looked at her, perplexed. In the time since, she’d completely forgotten the exchange until Gigi jogged his memory. “Are you talking about what Jan said?”

“Yeah…”

“I guess I get what she meant. You can sometimes come off a little bratty, could be where she drew that conclusion,” she shrugged. “Is that really still bothering you?”

Gigi shifted uncomfortably. “It’s just that it’s totally inaccurate!” she insisted.

Jackie furrowed her brows. “Why are you so concerned with what Jan thinks?” She studied Gigi’s reaction – the red face, the averted gaze – he only had one conclusion to draw. “Do you… have a crush on Jan?” She didn’t let the younger queen answer. “Oh my god, you do! That’s so cute!” She cupped her face. “Aw, my sweet baby Geege,” she cooed.