#great part of 12 hour shifts is that you can really track the changes both in the morning and at night like

[queerofthedagger]

delight of the day: it's finally starting to be notable that the days are getting shorter again mwah

delight of the day: baclava 😌

[mabelstone]

Teachers Pet

matt stone x reader

summary: part four of Professor Stone.

words: 2144

note: i’m not sure if this is what you wanted, but i felt like writing some angst for this one. minor warnings of explicit content. minor humiliation kink and consensual choking.

my absolute fav, mean!dom matt.

here's my masterlist for the previous chapters.

enjoy <3

The way he looked at you that lesson made you feel sick. You walked in and sat at your usual spot, your professor entering just on time as always. Instead of chirping his usual, “morning,” to the class, he dropped his things onto his desk and sighed. He glanced in your direction briefly and you smiled at him. He quickly looked away, expression not changing at all. Okay, maybe he had a bad morning? You knew he had a good night, so what changed in the last 12 hours?

“I’ll wait,” he sighed grumpily, waiting for the class’ murmurs to die down. He looked down and fiddled with his pen as you shifted uncomfortably in your seat. The class eventually got the hint, the room quickly growing silent. “Great. Today we’re revising chapter 30. Your exam is in two weeks, so I want there to be no talking, and everyone is to pay attention.”

His tone was flat and his face was expressionless. He grabbed out a whiteboard marker and began writing equations on the board. Your classmates looked at each other in confusion, raising their eyebrows, mouthing, “I don’t know?” at one another. The class listened, nobody even whispering to their friends.

You were so confused as to why he was acting this way, but you decided that you didn’t want to make it worse. Yet, on the other hand… You could have some fun with this.

“Alright. Let’s see who studied.” He mischievously smirked, turning to face the silent class. “Who can explain this equation to me?”

Some students raised their hands unconfidently, the professor pointing to a random student. They explained the equation in a voice slightly too soft for his liking.

“Speak up,” he huffed, leaning on the edge of his desk. You knew it was fucked up, but there was something so sexy about him being so pissed. The student cleared their throat before perfectly explaining the equation, you of course barely understood as your tutoring sessions didn’t consist of much tutoring.

“Good. That’s one of you that actually listens,” he chuckled to himself dryly, continuing to scribble more scenarios onto the board. Everyone nervously copied down what he was writing, but you couldn’t seem to take your eyes off him.

You sat forward on your elbows, admiring the way he used his hands a little too much when he explained things, the way he absentmindedly ran a hand through his hair or trailed his fingers over his stubble.

He rolled his eyes when he saw you were the only one not doing your work, quietly walking over to your desk. “This is why you don’t perform well,” he seethed, eyes dark and angry. He spoke only loud enough so you could hear.

“I’m sorry sir, I-“

“Save it,” he cut you off, angrily opening your book for you and roughly placing your pen in your hand. “You need to try, Y/N, or I won’t help you anymore.” He threatened as he began to walk away.

“Oh please, we both know you don’t wanna give that up.” You retorted back like a smart ass, making him stop in his tracks. You really shouldn’t have said that. He turned back to glare at you, the anger inside him only growing fiercer when he saw the cocky smirk on your lips.

He shook his head and walked back up to the front to write a new equation on the board. “Okay!” He clapped his hands together loudly, startling the entire class. “Hmmm..” He pretended to scan the class to ‘randomly’ pick a student, finger pressed to his lip. “Y/N, can you come up and complete this please?”

Your heart dropped when he fired the same cocky smirk your way, waiting expectantly for you to get out of your seat. You did, your legs nearly giving out on the short walk to the whiteboard. He handed you the marker with a deadpan stare, motioning to the board.

Your face was hot, you couldn’t believe he would do this to you. You picked the wrong day to give him attitude. You took a deep breath and uncapped the marker, shaky hands travelling to the board. You filled in the equation to the best of your ability, your professors' stare boring holes into peripheries. “I-I’m stuck,” you spoke to him hushed, giving him a pleading look.

“What was that?” He asked loudly, eyes gleaming meaner than before.

You closed your eyes and sighed before repeating yourself slightly louder, “I’m not sure what comes next.”

“Maybe you should ask a classmate,” he feigned sympathy, his lips quirking up into a condescending grin.

You turned to the class, fighting hard to not tear up from embarrassment. You opened your mouth but no words came out. The whole class felt bad for you, shocked at your professors' unprofessionalism.

He sighed for what seemed like the millionth time that lesson and turned to the other students. “Can anyone please help her?”

“I will,” one of the nice boys you’d interacted with a few times spoke up, walking up to you with apologetic eyes. He took the marker and explained to you and the class what came next and how he got the answer.

He was quite cute, bleached blonde hair and piercing blue eyes. You knew he was doing a film degree and also taking this class for the extra credits. You couldn’t remember his name for the life of you, though. He turned to you and smiled once finishing, placing the pen back in your hands.

“Thank you,” you blushed, smiling wide at his kind gesture. “That was so sweet.”

You both walked back to your seats, exchanging another smile before sitting back down. Matt’s plan to humiliate you had worked, and then backfired on him completely.

As the class ended, you grabbed your things and began heading out; a big change from staying back after every lesson. You looked back at your professor who’s eyes were locked on you, following you to the nice boy from earlier.

“Um, thank you again for that,” you smiled sweetly, gently placing your hand on his arm. “You really saved me there, I owe you one.”

“Oh, it’s no problem at all,” he chuckled, leaning in to whisper, “I don’t know why he did that, he’s an asshole.”

You laughed in agreement, unaware of the jealousy boiling in Matt’s stomach.

“If you ever need a hand with studying, I’m happy to help.” He offered with a genuine smile.

“Thank you! Here, give me your number,” you handed your phone to him, Matt’s hands balling into fists at his side. Trey was his name. You texted a smiley face to his number and thanked him again before saying your goodbyes.

Before you were able to reach the door, your professor spoke up. “Y/N.”

You turned around to face him, letting the door shut behind you. “Yes?” You grumbled, arms folding in front of you.

“Come here,” he commanded, pulling a chair up by his desk.

You cursed your legs for obediently dragging you to the front of the hall, stopping yourself in front of his desk.

“Care to explain what the fuck that was?” He growled, his stance mirroring yours but somehow... angrier?

“What do you mean,” you laughed exasperatedly, “you mad your little stunt to embarrass me didn’t work?”

“You really need to watch that mouth of yours,” he warned, stepping toward you. You felt intimidated, but tried not to show any sign of it. “It’s gonna get you in trouble some day.”

“Well maybe I’ll just get help from Trey from now on,” you spat back, legs weakening as he stepped even closer, face only inches from yours now.

“Don’t forget who marks your papers.”

You scoffed in disbelief, taking a step back from him. Amusement painted your face when you realised, “you’re jealous!”

“I’m not jealous,” he rolled his eyes, leaning back against his desk. “But I’m not gonna fuck you while somebody else is.”

As toxic as it may be, this new side of Matt turned you on like crazy. Seeing him all riled up over exchanging numbers with someone… you couldn’t imagine how he’d react if you did something actually worth being jealous over.

“Why do you even care?” You laughed in his face, trying to ignore the arousal forming between your hips. You stepped toward him again, close enough that you could feel his breath on your lips. “You act like you don’t even like me. I think you just want to fulfil your sick fantasies with me.”

He didn’t like that. He grabbed your throat and flipped you around, the back of your hips roughly slamming into the desk behind you. A strangled moan escaped your lips as he towered over you with rage.

“Don’t you dare speak to me like that,” he growled, pushing your back onto the desk and separating your legs before stepping between them.

You whimpered under his grip, wrapping your legs around his waist. You grabbed the back of his neck and pulled him down to capture him in a heated kiss. “So desperate,” he tsked, pulling away.

He let go of your throat and pulled your shorts down, revealing white lace panties with a pink bow stitched into them. He prodded at the wet patch forming in the front, pulling them to the side and licking a stripe up your clit without warning. You gasped at the feeling, lifting yourself up on your elbows to watch him. He looked breathtaking. his eyelashes fluttering as he focused on making you feel good. You weren’t gonna last long, not with a sight like that. He moved his head down slightly to thrust his skilled tongue inside of you, his nose brushing your clit in just the right way. Once he added his fingers, it was over for you.

You felt your breathing pick up, your whines growing higher in pitch. “Professor,” you moaned, thighs trembling as they barricaded his skull in place. Just as you were about to finish, he removed his fingers and that godly tongue, stepping back.

You whined in frustration, on the verge of tears for the second time. He simply shushed you with a smirk, beginning to unbuckle his belt.

He pulled out his cock and you went limp. You’d been imaging how he’d feel for a while, and now you were getting impatient. He spat on his hand, stroking himself before lining his cock up with your hole, a hand forcefully gripping your hip. You roughly gripped his shoulders, begging, “please, sir, please.”

With a grin, he slowly pushed himself in, letting out a low groan at the feeling of your wet, tight entrance. He slowly thrusted for a moment, picking up his pace once you’d both adjusted.

Your eyes began rolling back, screaming obscenities. He was quick to place a hand over your lips, mouthing shut up with a stern look. You whimpered under his touch, rhythmically moving your hips with his. Hand still over your mouth, he laid his body forward, practically on top of you as he annunciated with every thrust, “don’t… you… dare… disrespect me… again.”

He was so thick, stretching you wonderfully as a tear rolled down your cheek, the ecstasy becoming overwhelming. He thought you looked beautiful like this, eyebrows knitted together, switching between wide eyed when he’d hit your g spot, and eyes screwed tightly shut when the pleasure became too intense.

He uncovered your mouth, demanding, “apologise.”

If he wasn’t balls deep in you right now, you would’ve laughed in his face and told him to shut it. But, you were too worried he’d pull out and end this pleasure train you were on.

“I’m sorry,” you whimpered through tears, nails digging deep into his biceps.

“Say it like you mean it, pretty girl,” he commanded, thrusting into you deeper, biting his finger to stop himself from cumming right then and there.

You felt the familiar heat pooling in your stomach, and you were close to losing yourself all over him.

“I’m sorry,” you cried, his hand reaching down to your clit, tracing small circles into it, pushing you over the edge. You came undone around him, your pussy pulsating hard as you continued whimpering through your orgasm, eyes screwed shut as you chanted, “I’m sorry, sir, I’m sorry.”

Without thinking, he came inside you, burrying his face into your shoulder, biting down as he did. You were both seeing stars, trying hard to steady your breathing.

He pulled out slowly, watching the mixture of his cum and your slick drip out of you deliciously.

“And that shit you said earlier,” he began, voice deep and husky, “about me not liking you,” he pulled his pants back up and redid his belt. You sat up, cheeks flushed, pulling your underwear back on. “You’ve always been my favourite.”

[mouthpiece-simp]

if you're ok with writing for non managers, CLO/reader headcanons, please?

CLO x Reader Headcanons

First of all, congrats for being brave enough to not be anonymous! Second of all, I'm here to write fanfic, I don't care if she's technically not a manager :)

📚After your first fight with the CLO, you found yourself really wanting to know more about Diane.

📚You decided to schedule an appointment to go see her {you had to book it out months in advance, wow!} through Judy, and you just set the reason as a "consultation." By the way, you only got the appointment because you got Belle to help you pull some strings given their history. How'd you get Belle to help you? You listened to hours of stories about her grandchildren.

📚In the meantime, you fought Diane a few {okay, maybe a lot} more times while waiting for your appointment. She became very familiar with your toony face...

📚When it was time for your appointment, she kinda scoffed when she saw you and asked you why you'd scheduled an appointment to come see her in the first place. You hesitated before making up some nonsense, and she could tell you were lying. So, you admitted that you kinda liked her and wanted to try at least being friends.

📚She thanked you professionally for your honesty but cited that it was common practice for toons and Cogs not to be friendly with each other. You asked her if that was a strict rule, to which she admitted there wasn't...

📚So you once again suggested to try at least being friends. To your surprise, she hesitantly agreed and allowed you to visit her after her shifts {which were almost always 12 hours every day, by the way... yikes! Cogs really did have to work a lot}.

📚After a while of being friends, Diane realizes you've been acting more and more strange lately but she also knows why... it's because you have a crush on her. To her dismay, she found herself returning your feelings.

📚She had an open discussion with you about it and sounded like she was about to say she didn't wanna pursue a relationship with you, but she quickly changed her mind in the moment and asked you out on a date. Even she seemed surprised at what she'd just said.

📚You said yes though, and that's how you started dating!

📚Given the fact that she's like 10 times your size, physical affection is a bit... interesting. Usually she can only hold you in the palm of her hand while your way of showing your affection is hugging whatever part of her you can get your gloves on {usually her wheels or her arms}.

📚You can also ask her to bring you to her face so you can kiss her! She can also try to carefully kiss the top of your head, but she doesn't wanna accidentally bite your entire head or something so she doesn't do it often.

📚Diane is very serious about things, and she has a hard time understanding your toony humor. She's trying, but she's not quite on the right track yet...

📚Speaking of toony things, she surprisingly knows a LOT about the stuff toons do just from studying them so much along with what her Lawbots have told her. Heck, she even knows the rules to lots of toony games and you've even managed to convince her to participate in a few.

📚When you ask her if they were fun, she gives a vague response. But you can tell she had fun.

📚You basically get to free roam Lawbot HQ as long as you're not interfering with anyone's work. Pretty much all the Cogs know about your relationship with the CLO at this point and they don't dare hurt you because they don't want disciplinary actions taken against them. But you'll also get quite the scolding if you hurt THEM so it's kinda M.A.D. but in the corporate world.

📚Diane will probably try to get you to wear corporate attire and convince you that you look great in it. Surprisingly she won't try to actually hire you {she considers toons too much of a risk for lawsuits LOL}, but she does try to kinda "Cog-ify" you a bit. I guess you both rub off on each other.

📚She loves sitting in silence with you. It helps he destress from work.

📚After being defeated by toons, you try to help the CLO both on an emotional and physical level. You try to help repair any Cogs that weren't completely destroyed, and you climb onto her wheels and kinda sit there and chat with her about the pesky toons that just defeated her while she's getting repairs.

📚When she gets defeated while she's overclocked, the repairs she needs are more intense and sometimes you have to give the repair Cogs a lot of room to do what they need, so you just try to focus on helping repair the other Cogs and maybe even the Litigation team. But after her repairs are all done you're there to comfort her.

📚Basically, you're dating a very serious, no nonsense type of Cog and both of you will have some of your mannerisms rub off on each other. Neither you, the toons, or the Cogs know which side you're on anymore either.

[fiddlepickdouglas]

Viva Las Vegas, Pt. 18 -Chemistry

Summary: Sunset Curve Alive AU, Willex, what will they do?, 2.5k

@trevor-wilson-covington is the bestie who makes these lovely edits, we stan supportive friends

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

“Two, three, four!” Alex counted off and the band sprung into action inside the studio. The one good thing about the drums was that it made him hyper aware of every limb on his body. There was no room for distractions or intrusive thoughts when he was keeping time. It was almost like the euphoria of being dizzy, only without the dizziness. He could be okay in this state for a little while - just long enough to reset his mind and declutter itself.

As they finished their take, they heard a familiar voice from the sound booth.

“Sounds incredible boys!”

Caleb. There went the whole ‘reset and declutter’ thing he had going.

Each of the guys looked around at each other, knowing they would have to do their best to pretend they didn’t know anything. This was the first time they were seeing him since Alex had given the news to the rest of the band. None of them had actually discussed what they would do the next time Caleb happened to stop in. Setting down their instruments and slowly filing into the sound booth, they all greeted Caleb, trying to appear happy to see him.

“Let’s hear that playback, shall we?” he said as they all sat together. He pressed a few knobs on his soundboard and they all listened closely to their own song. It was just gonna be another session with notes on where they could dub vocals here and there or duplicate tracks to fill things out - it had to be normal, Alex prayed.

“And let’s stop here for a minute,” Caleb was saying after getting into a couple minutes of the track. “Reggie. What happened to the bassline?” Reggie sat up, blinking at being called out. “That’s not what was on your demo; why did you change it?”

Reggie’s face had already fallen as he made flustered attempts to respond.

“I-I...I just liked that line better...I think it fits the style and the direction of the song,” he stammered, shoulders slumped, avoiding eye contact. His hands came together in his usual fidget - the one he did when he got yelled at. Alex saw Bobby’s hand curl into a fist.

“Alright, alright, trust me,” Caleb placated. “I understand, probably more than any of you, why improvising a part feels so good. I wouldn’t host a jazz club if I didn’t get that. But here the difference is that no one knows your songs yet, boys.”

“We’ve had faithful fans for years,” Luke interrupted.

Caleb cut him off with a mere look. Shutting his mouth, Luke scratched the back of his head nervously. After taking a breath, Caleb simply let out a sigh.

“Boys.” His tone was really drawing on the charisma, Alex noticed. “My job in helping you reach the stardom that you all one hundred percent deserve is to help you create a footprint on the walk of fame. A footprint means as beginners we can’t mess with the core elements that make your brand. These songs need to stay consistent until we have thousands of fans singing back to you in the audience the very lines you wrote in your humble garage. They need to know the first few seconds of that drumbeat and recall who you are on the radio. They are going to learn those basslines and those chords and add them to their own repertoire while they aspire to be legends like you! Don’t you see how important that is? I know. Playing around is fun; experimenting with new ideas and sounds is the whole reason we’re here. But from now on, I want you boys to stay in one lane, and I will match your speed.”

Eyeing each other warily, they all awkwardly murmured and nodded to agree with him. None of his words had been all that comforting. Alex was stuck thinking about how Caleb had made an appeal to every single one of them and somehow been right on the nose. It was like he could read their minds and it felt rather invasive.

“We’ll remember that,” Alex told him. He knew the other three were battling with their fight or flight responses and it would be suspicious.

“Oh, good,” Caleb replied. “I can see we’re having an off day, but maybe Alex can get the rest of you on board. Let’s run that song again.”

Exchanging glances, the guys stood up and headed back into the recording booth.

“Man, chemistry sucks,” Bobby complained from his seat in the armchair in his garage. Books were spread out around him, as well as about a dozen crumpled up pieces of notebook paper. “Reggie would get this.”

Alex looked up from the history homework he’d been focused on. He was gaining such an ear for whenever Reggie or Bobby mentioned one another and it made him laugh inwardly. For now, though, he had to hide the smirk.

“Well, I would call him, but he’s taking care of his sister tonight.”

“Yeah, I know. I don’t want to bother him anyways.”

This was one of the rare occasions where it was just Alex and Bobby together. Usually at least Luke would be around, but he was out on some date with Julie and there was no telling when he was expected back. Bobby had been helping Alex with history for a little bit but about half an hour ago remembered his own homework in a panic. Now they were both having trouble focusing. Their time in the studio that morning was clearly still on both of their minds.

“Hey, did Reggie tell you we were playing for his cousin’s wedding?” Alex asked in a non sequitur fashion.

“What?” Bobby said, finally sitting up and tearing his eyes off the diagram he was making. “No, he didn’t. Since when was that happening?”

“I’ve known for a couple weeks,” Alex told him casually.

“Oh.” Bobby looked down at the floor. “Any reason you haven’t mentioned it until now?”

Alex shifted in his seat on the couch at the suspicion in Bobby’s voice, but tried to play it off with a shrug.

“I just forgot. We’ve had a lot going on since he mentioned it to me.”

It did the trick. Still, Bobby sat in thought for a while, playing with his tongue inside his mouth absent-mindedly. Alex physically bit his own tongue to keep himself from asking what was on Bobby’s mind and pretended to turn his attention back to his history work. There was a long, static pause.

“Reggie’s been really weird lately,” Bobby said.

“Is that so?” Alex didn’t look up this time.

“Yeah. I mean, he’s always been goofy and everything, but I mean, he’s been unusual even for him. You know what I mean?”

“I guess I haven’t been paying as close of attention.” Alex flipped a page in his text book. “But I’ll take your word. Are you worried about him?”

Furrowing his brow, Bobby frowned in thought.

“I’m not sure,” he said. “I mean, I always worry about him, you know, cuz of everything he deals with at home. But I don’t know...this is different.”

“Is it because of what Caleb said today?”

“I didn’t like that either, but no, that’s not it.”

He looked so serious that Alex couldn’t find it funny anymore. Actually, Bobby seemed so distressed by it that it was making Alex distressed.

“Hey,” he said with concern. “Why do you look so bummed about it?”

He received a glance as though a great weight sat upon Bobby’s shoulders. It was so familiar it shot him in the chest. His friend looked so lost and uncertain, so afraid to speak his mind. And Alex thought Reggie had been conflicted. It was a little worrying.

“I think you actually know what's going on, huh?” Bobby said in resignation.

Nope. Now it was just frustrating. Alex sat up and looked at Bobby directly.

“Okay, I know expressing yourself isn’t your strong suit, Bobby, but please say it out loud. You can do it. Especially with me.”

His friend’s eyebrows knit together even further, trying to convince himself to get it off his chest. A minute passed, and finally he shut his chemistry book, set it aside, and faced Alex.

“I have feelings for Reggie.”

Thank god.

“Good job! You’re officially the last to know!”

Bobby’s face fell into a confused expression.

“What?”

Alex merely shrugged. They were so helpless, but luckily he was better at trying to solve others’ problems than his own.

“I had to let you come to your own conclusion. It was exhausting; you took forever.”

Bobby folded his hands and fidgeted with his thumbs.

“How long have you noticed?”

“Technically? Since before playing at the Pearl. But that’s when it really started to be obvious.”

Smirking, Bobby just bowed and shook his head.

“You know,” he began. “When I was first getting to know you, I didn’t trust you. Luke and I were already so close, and he introduced me to you and Reggie and you two already were such good friends. For a while I couldn’t figure out when you were being sarcastic or serious and I didn’t want to admit I was too sensitive. Reggie helped me figure out the difference and I just sort of dropped anything I was upset about.”

Alex listened carefully, nodding at his words.

“And now you’ve started getting all personal because you know I’m the most trustworthy one here, right?” he half-teased.

Nodding, Bobby smiled a little.

“I guess this is the part where you tell me to get my crap together and tell Reggie?”

“Yep,” Alex said. “But go at your own pace. The last thing I want is you two making things even weirder than they already are by trying to discuss things when you’re not prepared. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great, but don’t forget the rest of the band in the process.”

“Oh, yeah,” Bobby pondered. “You have a point. Speaking of weird business, I’m still not cool about us pretending to go along with making the album while knowing what we do about Caleb.”

“Me neither, but I think Luke was right. We’re just being careful.”

“Since when is Sunset Curve careful, though? We would just set up and play wherever we could until we got chased off the property, and then we’d just find a new location the next night.”

“The difference is we were nobody fifteen year olds who didn’t have contracts signed. You said it yourself, we could risk losing the rights to our own music if we break things off.”

“We read the contracts, though, right?” Bobby insisted. “I made sure we did. I don’t remember anything that seemed too controlling in them.”

“Would we have known what to look for?” Alex responded.

Sighing heavily and flopping back into his chair, Bobby stared up into the ceiling. It felt like no good answer could be given. Alex was frustrated too, but he remembered what Tía Victoria had told him as well. He believed Willie, of course, especially since Victoria hadn’t actually seen or spoken to him. She hadn’t been able to get a sniff of Caleb’s true nature, and she was a professional investigator. If Caleb could fool her that easily, he’d tied their hands while they willingly held them out.

“Bobby,” Alex started. “What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking we should stop laying ourselves on the ground and letting him walk all over us. None of this ‘establish the brand’ B.S.”

Straightening his posture, Alex sat up and folded his hands. That was exactly what he wanted to do, too. Even if he didn’t know anything else about Caleb, the way he’d gone after Reggie had left a sour enough taste in his mouth. Before he could say anything else to Bobby, Luke stepped into the garage.

“Guys, I was thinking - ” he started.

“You wanna go after Caleb too?” Bobby said.

“Whoa, how did you know?” he sat back in surprise.

“Bobby and I were just talking about it,” Alex told him. Luke raised his eyebrows as he flopped onto the couch beside Alex.

“Were you guys mad when he singled out Reggie, too?”

“Yes!”

“Nobody shames Reggie like that!”

“Bobby, you should go cheer him up,” Luke suggested. “We all know you’re in love with him.”

“Oh my god!” Bobby cried, throwing his arms into the air in exasperation. Immediately he stood up and gathered all his books. “Just for that, I’m turning in you guys. Have a nice night, Alex. Luke, I hope it’s cold.” He stormed out of the garage and into his house while Luke and Alex simply laughed together.

“I, uh… I already gave him a speech about it,” Alex told Luke, smirking.

“Thank you!” Luke cried. “I know they tease me about being dense but at least I go for what I want! And so do you!”

Smiling at the acknowledgement of him and Willie, Alex slowly started packing up his homework. He could finish it tomorrow night.

“By the way, how was hanging out with Julie?” he asked.

Placing his arms behind his head, Luke got that dreamy far-off look on his face. The ‘Julie on the mind’ look. He smiled like he’d seen an angel and the angel had smiled back in kind.

“Oh, she’s awesome. She’s way better at roller skating than me. I wish there were two of me just so one of us could hold her hand while skating with her and the other could sit down and watch.”

Alex made a face at the odd visual, but he understood what Luke was talking about. He wondered what he and Willie looked like from an outside perspective. Did they look as happy as he felt? Did Willie bring out something in him that he’d never seen in the mirror? Or even something the rest of the guys didn’t know yet? That was something he really wanted to discuss with Willie now.

“I can’t wait until her mom gets out of the hospital,” Luke was saying. “I want to learn everything she can teach me. She told me she took two years just working on the production of an album for her band. Imagine what we could do with our songs if we had her in the studio instead of Caleb.”

“Wow,” Alex commented. “At this point, I really wish we were working with the Molinas. At least they seem to get us.”

Luke looked at him and Alex knew he’d heard all the underlying meaning in that sentence. All the guys had been accepted by Julie’s family in a way none of their own seemed capable of. Alex almost wished he hadn’t said it out loud because it only tempted him to forget about heading home.

“Maybe one day, we will, Alex,” Luke said, giving him an encouraging smile.

He chuckled as he shouldered his backpack and headed out the door.

“Yeah. That’d be sweet.”

[killiansprincss]

We Found Wonderland

Summary: Trapped in the past after the S3 finale, Killian and Emma are forced to fade into the background as a newly married couple in a village while Rumplestilskin works on the portal to send them back to the future. (No Marian)

What challenges will they face, after all it’s only pretending to be married after all right?

Inspired by Taylor Swift ‘Wonderland’

Read on AO3

Huge thanks to @captain-emmajones for reading this over for me as I was going insane after editing it for weeks

Happy New Year to all! They say to start the year off as you mean to go on, and my goal for 2021 is to write more so I really hope you enjoy it!

Set just after the CS movie, no Marian.

We found Wonderland

You and I got lost in it

And we pretended it could last forever 

________

Emma had realised on this trip that Storybrooke was her home. Not Boston or New York. Yes things were messy and dangerous in Storybrooke. But it was home. It was where her family was.

She had longed for a family for 28 years especially after the foster system failed her and after Neal abandoned her. But when the boy she gave up for adoption asked her to come home with her, it changed her life. Even if she didn’t believe in the curse at first, she knew it was a place she could eventually call home.

She wasn’t scared anymore. For once, she was excited about the future and what it would bring. And Hook.

This trip had shown a side to him she hadn’t seen before. She knew he had feelings for her, and as much as she tried to suppress her own feelings for him, he was different this trip. He wasn’t pining for her or making his usual stupid flirty jokes. It was clear he cared about her family, he wasn’t selfish.

Kissing Other Hook was an adventure. But seeing her Hook get jealous and punch the other him was even better. She could see in his eyes it was killing him that she was flirting with the other him, way more than she had with him. And she wasn’t going to deny that she enjoyed it.

“You alright love?” Hook's voice pulled her away from her thoughts.

She smiles at him as they walk into Rumple’s Castle, “Yeah. Just excited to get home.”

“Well dearie it’s gonna be awhile before you can do that.” Rumples voice cuts through as they walk into the great hall.

“What the bloody hell does that mean Crocodile?” Hook asks, anger in his voice.

Rumple just laughs, “well it’s not just a portal that I could do easily for you. Time travel has never been done before, except for you two. It’ll take me around a year to create that portal for you two.”

“IM SORRY-A YEAR?”

“A YEAR?”

Both Emma and Hook's voices respond to this sudden realisation.

“You’re telling me, it’s gonna be a year, until we can go home to the future?” Emma asks, hoping she heard wrong.

“Were you not listening?” Rumple asks.

“So we have to stay here for a year while you figure out the stupid portal?” Hook looks angry, like he could use the dagger on Rumple so quickly.

“W-what about preserving the future?” Emma asks, she can’t stay here for a year. She can’t.

“Well you’ve already messed up your parents timeline and they’re still on track. I have no use for you in my castle, so I’ll place you two under a glamour spell in a small little village where hopefully you’ll make little impact. After you’re gone, I can erase the minds of the villagers.” Rumple explains while Emma is still trying to wrap her head around staying here for a whole year.

“My parents just met and are on track to get married and have me. It’s around 2 years before I’m born and the curse strikes. The portal will be ready by then right?”

Rumple just rolls his eyes at Emma. “I’m not an idiot. I say it’ll be a year, it’ll be a year.”

“Then what the bloody hell do we do?” Hook slams his hand down on the table.

Rumple looks as though he could kill him, but he just laughs. “Well I considered keeping you here in my dungeon. But alas I already have my help. You two will be a newly married couple that just moved to this part of the land. You can work at the tavern or something, I don’t really care. I’ll be in touch when the portal is ready.”

“Married?” The two exclaim at the same time.

“Are you two having trouble hearing?” Rumple asks, rolling his eyes.

—————

After probably an hour quarrelling with the Dark One about their arrangement, they’re transported to a small village and a hut that they guess they would have to call home for the next year. It had one large room, with one bed in the corner, a fireplace and what seemed like a stove to the left of the door and a few chairs by the table. It was small alright, and she had no clue how they were going to last a year in this place.

“You have got to be kidding me.” Emma says as she looks around.

Rumple laughs, “I'll be in touch when your portal is ready.” And vanishes a second later.

The pair look around at their home. Seeing the one bed Killian quickly offers, “You take the bed, I’ll sleep on the floor or somewhere it’s fine.”

Emma shakes her head, “no way, you take the bed. I have slept in my car and much worse places before. You take it.”

Hook just laughs, “you really are a stubborn lass. Look, it’s big enough for the both of us. It’ll be fine as long as we stay on our respective sides, no use arguing. We’re going to be here a while, no use one of us being uncomfortable.”

Emma reluctantly agrees.

The first night is the hardest, knowing she won’t see her family, Henry, for a whole year was a lot to wrap her head around. She had really enjoyed this trip when she wasn’t scared for her life, she had seen her parents fall in love and it made her finally understand what that meant, to be born of true love, the true love they had just witnessed.

And Hook. Or rather Killian, she should get used to saying his real name. She couldn’t quite admit to herself that she was falling for him before this trip. It would be a lot simpler if they were going back to Storybrooke, she probably would’ve given him a chance, a date perhaps, and see where it ends up. But this wasn’t Storybrooke. It wasn't even her time. She couldn’t risk whatever they had, not when they had to rely on each other to get home.

The next morning, Emma wakes to find they hadn’t exactly stuck to their respective sides. Killian’s arm was around her waist and she had tucked her head into his chest. It looked very cosy, and to an outsider it would seem they were truly a happy couple. But they weren’t.

Killian luckily wakes around the same time and, noticing the situation they’ve found themselves in, removes his arm and the two don’t say anything about the situation.

Except it keeps happening.

Every. Single. Night.

____

The next few days were spent discussing what their story would be. They had decided that Killian had been discharged from the Royal Navy because of the accident where lost his hand, and they were used to travelling but now had to find somewhere to settle down as a newly married couple.

They found jobs, Emma as the barmaid in the local tavern, similar to the one where she flirted with Other Hook. Killian found a job working by the docks so that he was still close to the water, it was mainly cleaning and anchoring the boats, very different to his pirate days. But it allowed them to slip into the background, not being noticed by anybody and not making any drastic changes to the future.

“How was your day, love?” Killian asks as Emma comes through the door after a long day working in the bar.

Untying her corset, trying to get out of the horrible clothes she tells him,“Horrible. I hate it here.”

Killian looks up at his ‘wife’, “that bad?”

Emma sits down on the chair. “I had 3 separate men try to buy me a drink whilst I was working. I told them I was working, and that I was married and they still tried to touch me up.”

Killian chuckles, “I’m guessing they aren’t going to do that again.”

Emma smiles, “of course not. I hope they won’t be needing their fingers for a while. How was your day?”

“It wasn’t bad. Can’t say I don’t love being by the water but it’s not the same. Although Cassian said he and his wife want to invite us over for dinner one night this week. Said that he wants to see the wife I don’t talk about enough.” He explains, he knows how Emma feels about getting too close with the other villagers, but if they avoid them for too long it could end up much worse.

“You mean you don't talk about your incredible and very hot wife, all day every day? Why did I marry you?” Emma teases. Their relationship has been like this ever since they got stuck, flirting and teasing but never going any further. “I know we can’t avoid other people forever, it’ll only cause more suspicion, so I guess we can meet them for dinner this time.”

“If this dinner goes well, I will start to talk about my incredible wife some more.” Killian teases back, “about how she’s messy and violent and she snores loudly when she sleeps.”

This earns a laugh from Emma, but also a pillow thrown at his head as she changes out of her corset. She’s never complaining about fitting into jeans again.

~~~

A week passes, more shifts at the tavern and more sleazy drunk men who probably have wives and children at their homes.

Emma earns 10 silvers and 15 bronze a week, Killain, 1 gold 9 silver and 12 bronze a week, which Killian told her is decent money, it allows them to feed themselves with food bought from the market, and buy more clothes which are not comfortable in the slightest. She hates the corsets. Luckily. She only has to wear them at work, the clothes she wears outside of work, whilst ugly and plain, are much more comfortable.

Emma wonders if she’s ever seen any of these villagers in Storybrooke, maybe they’re teachers or shop workers. Did they currently have a horrible life, and even though they’re cursed for 28 years, does it get better for them once they’re in Storybrooke?

The day finally arrived that the two of them have to go to dinner with one of the guys Killian works with. And Emma is petrified, it was fine just the two of them going about their days and telling their story to those around, separately. But telling their story together, they’d never done this. Would they know something was up? Would they know they were lying?

Killian can tell she’s tense, so he takes her hand in his and brushes his thumb over hers over and over. He knows her, he can tell when she’s stressed and knows that this calms her.

“It’s gonna be fine,” he whispers to her as they approach their friends home.

“Killian! So good to see you!” A blonde man opens the door, Cassian, Emma assumes. “Welcome, please come on in.”

Killain smiles and takes Emma’s hand in his as they walk through the door.

“May I introduce my beautiful wife, Emma.” Killian says gesturing to Emma who holds out her hand to shake, assured by Killian this was still the proper greeting in the Enchanted Forest.

“Emma. You are as beautiful as Killian has described. May I introduce my wife, Maeve.” Cassian smiles gesturing to a heavily pregnant woman beside him.

“It’s so kind of you to invite us into your lovely home.” Emma smiles, trying to keep her cool composure.

——

The night is pretty simple, they go over the story of how long they’ve been here, Killians time in the Navy, mostly true stories of his actual time, just a fabricated truth to fit the time and their fake timeline. The food was pretty good for the Enchanted Forest, some type of meat, pork or beef maybe, with rice, beans and vegetables. It was okay, but Emma was really missing grilled cheese.

Cassian and Maeve are really lovely people. They discover Maeve normally works at the market, but picks up extra shifts at the Tavern that Emma works at to make extra money, but is taking time off due to her pregnancy. Emma wouldn’t call it Maternity Leave as she was pretty sure it wasn’t a thing in the Enchanted Forest. Maeve said she was convinced it was a boy, but Cassian was sure it was a girl.

“Have you two thought about children yet?” Maeve asks.

Emma almost spits out her water. “Um great question. Um.” She decides to tell a fabricated truth, make it more believable. “I had a son, when I was younger, before I met Killian. I lost him, and I don’t know if I will ever see him again.” Truthfully, she didn’t want to make up a lie about her and Killian, they were not married, they were not together.

“It's a cruel fate to fall pregnant when young and unmarried. I’m sorry to hear that. I wish you the best for the future.” Cassian tells her. She smiles, thanking that they didn’t ask any more questions on the subject.

But there was one story, one question that really fucked Emma up. It was asked by Maeve when she wanted to know more about their marriage.

“So how did you decide you wanted to marry Emma, Killian? I can tell you two married for love, did you plan a romantic proposal or was it a spur of the moment type thing? Cassian proposed to me with his mother’s ring, he took me to the market stall where we first met. I was selling grain and he kept coming back every day for more grain. After weeks of coming to the stall he admitted the truth. A few months later, he took me back to the spot we first met and said he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me. Of course I said yes!”

Emma looks over at Killian, hoping he has something to say. “You tell it so well Killian! He’s such a romantic my Killian!”

Killain looks at Emma and smiles. “So I lost my brother at sea years ago, and the only thing I have left of him is his ring. It’s kept me safe all these years, and when I met Emma I knew she was special. She didn’t like me very much at first, but I wore her down. She’s stubborn like my brother, so I knew I had to give her his ring. I took her down to the water, it’s not where we first met but it's where we both come when the world feels on top of us. Not much in my life has felt right since losing my brother, but Emma came into my life and she filled that void. So I took her to the water, got down on one knee and told her I couldn’t imagine my life without her. We don’t have much in terms of money, but we have each other and I think that’s enough.”

Was he serious right now? Emma thought he would maybe change up the story of how he wanted to marry Milah or something, but that was far too descriptive and emotional for it to be a lie or a fabrication. He had clearly thought about it, a little too much, Emma thinks.

Maeve was practically crying. “That is a beautiful story. You two are lucky to have found one another.”

She was going to murder him.

I’m sorry this is all that the Tumblr limit will let me post, check out part 2 here

[stxrrywildflower]

amputee (1)

pairing - aaron hotchner x reader

summary - after being injured on a case, your life is forever altered

warning - kidnapping, injuries, amputation

word count - ?

part 2

the team had a case in washington dc. the unsub was extremely dangerous which led to your eventual kidnapping. you were gone for 12 hours before the team got any lead. in the time, the entire team had kicked themselves, especially hotch.

the two of you had been dating for close to a year. missions terrified both of you and now with your disappearance, hotch was even more scared.

thankfully, garcia got a lead and managed to track down the unsubs location and sent it to the team. they had pilled into the suv’s before speeding off to your location. they had determined that the unsub was on one side of the building while you were in the other. hotch took morgan and sent the rest to go get the unsub.

they found you tied to a chair, barely conscious. your face was beaten as well as your torso. your ribs were definitely broken and you had potential internal bleeding. then came your legs. you had been shot three times in your left leg as well as severe bruising and cuts. you had mumbled something about being kicked repeatedly.

“morgan go help the others, i’ll get y/n out of here,” hotch orders. morgan didn’t waste a second and took off running to the other end of the building. just as hotch picked your now unconscious body up, he heard a panicked voice in his communication system.

“hotch, the buildings rigged with explosives! get out of there!”

hotch held your closer and began to run out of the building. just as he managed to exit the building, there was a large explosion. the force pushed hotch and you to the ground. his ears began ringing but his primary concern was you. paramedics came running over to the two of you.

“i’m fine, go to her,” hotch struggled out. he watched from a distance as you were quickly placed in anmbulance, knowing that there was nothing he could do. j.j. and rossi were the first ones over to hotch, helping him up and leading him to the car. thankfully, he was just a little shocked from the explosion and had no injuries.

in the hospital, the team had sat around in waiting chairs. morgan and rossi were busy doing paperwork, wanting to pass the time. j.j. was asleep on reid’s shoulder and he had leaned his head on hers and also fell asleep. emily was sitting in a chair, eyes shut but everyone knew she wasn’t asleep. hotch, on the other hand, was pacing back and forth in the waiting room, desperate to know if you were okay or not.

close to fifteen minutes later, a doctor emerged holding a clipboard. “aaron hotchner?” the doctor spoke. emily’s eyes shot open. she then shook awake j.j. and reid while morgan and rossi put their files down. hotch stepped forward, his face emotionless.

“you are listened as y/n y/l/n’s emergency contact for both personal and work reasons, correct?” the doctor asked. hotch nodded briefly. “alright then i need to speak to you in private.”

“whatever you tell me i’m going to tell my team,” hotch spoke calmly, the nerves slowly building up. “i still need to speak to you alone, you can tell your team after.” hotch looked at his team who all shot him reassuring smiles. he let the doctor lead him down the hallway and into a conference room they had.

“agent y/n has gone through surgery to repairs the damage to her ribs and stabilize her leg. however, if she ever wants to be a field agent again, we are going to have to amputate the limb. if we don’t, her leg will practically be immobile for the rest of her life. we already received the okay from her and needed to let you know first. the surgery is in a half an hour,” the doctor informed hotch.

his eyes fell slightly at the news he received. an amputation? that was a big deal. it would affect you both emotionally and in your work life. hotch left the room and went back to where his team was. they all looked up desperately at their boss, wanting to know your condition.

“due to the damage she sustained, the doctors have to perform an amputation on her left leg, from the knee down. they’re already working on getting her the proper prosthetics but for now we all need to be here for her,” hotch informed. “reid i’m going to need you to do some research on both amputation and the prosthetics and training y/n will need.” spencer nodded, before standing up to exit the waiting room, phone in hand.

with that, he sat down in a chair away from the rest of the team. rossi stood up and made his way over, sitting next to hotch. “what’s running through your head?” the older agent asked.

“we’ve never had an agent who had to get an amputation and still want to be back in the field,” hotch sighed. rossi looked at hotch, knowing that there was more. “and i’m worried about her. jack is really starting to think of her like a mother. and we even discussed getting married, dave,” hotch’s revealed.

rossi sat for a minute. “she’s going to be fine. she has a great family to support her. besides, i think reid has read up on pretty much all of the proper prosthetics needed for her to be fireld agent again,” rossi said with a chuckle. hotch slightly smiled at that. “yeah she does.”

the following morning, you work up from your surgery. obviously, looking down and seeing your knee down gone was shocking. you just layed back down on the pillow and blinked back tears. the door to your room opened. you didn’t bother looking and just turned your head to the other side.

the chair scuffed against the floor as it was pulled close to your hospital bed. at that moment, you moved your head to face your boyfriend.

“hey,” he whispered with a soft smile. you pressed your lips together as tears began further welling up in your eyes. hotch noticed this and stood up, pulling you into a tight hug. with that, the dam inside of you broke. you cried softly into his shoulder as he held you tighter.

finally, after a moment, hotch spoke up. “the doctor should be in here in a few minutes along with reid. they’re going to run over your prosthetics for both day to day use and when you return to the bau. then we’re going to try walking and you should be released,” aaron informed you.

“thank you aaron,” you whispered, grinning when he kissed you softly on the forehead. spencer and the doctor walked in. you smiled at reid who also hugged you. you listened as the doctor went over the proper medical procedure for using for a prosthetic. you first tried on the day to say one.

you gripped hotch’s hands as you slowly stood up, swinging your legs over the side of the hospital bed. your right leg came first and then your prosthetic. standing up, you doubled over and nearly fell. hotch quickly held your waist to prevent you from falling. then, you took your first step. you felt stupid like you were a baby taking your first steps.

however, after about twenty minutes, you slowly got the hang of it. then you tried on the more mobile brace. this one connected to your knee and had a half of circle sprint almost that would let you run. it would take a lot of getting used to but with a lot of practice, you could be back in the field in a month or less.

aaron had informed you that jack would be staying at his aunts for your first night back, knowing that you would need some time to adjust. he took your bags in first and dropped them in the bedroom. you slowly moved around the house, getting adjusted to walking around the layout with your new prosthetic.

after an extremely late dinner, you and aaron decided to go to bed. you were exhausted and didn’t bother showering. with a little help, you got changed into a pajamas, brushed your teeth, and sat on the side of the bed. you removed your prosthetic and crawled under the covers. minutes later, aaron came in before getting under the covers next to you.

you rolled over, smiling softly at your boyfriend before shifting so your head was on his chest. fifteen minutes later, you heard the soft snores from aaron. for the rest of the night you tossed and turned. around two am, you had enough and decided to go get a class of water.

after sitting up in bed, you went to stand up before realizing that you couldn’t. you would need to get your prosthetic on which took a lot of work. from there, your mind drifted. you felt your cheeks heat up as well the tears that slowly flowed. then came the sobbing.

you had managed to keep it quiet by placing your hand over your mouth but eventually, it was too much and you let out a chocking cry. with that, aaron slowly stirred next to you before realizing what was happened. he then moved so he was next to you.

“what’s going on, honey?” he asked, his hand moving to run circles in your back in an effort to calm you down.

“i-i just wanted to get some water. and then i realized i can’t just get up and do that anymore,” you cried. aaron stood up, moving into the bathroom and grabbing you a cup of water which you accepted with shaky hands.

“this is going to be a big adjustment for us. but we’re in this together. you have me and you have the rest of the team who i’m sure would drop everything to help you,” aaron reassured your.

you managed to calm yourself down after that. aaron held your close as you tried desperately to go to slee. when you passed out, he too fell asleep.

____

your return to work was two weeks later. in that time, you went on two daily walks, one with your normal prosthetic and one with your work prosthetic. this let you become pretty good as using both. decided to wear your normal one but packing the work one just in case, you quickly got dressed into your work attire and grabbed your bag.

aaron has left earlier then you to take jack to school and you didn’t want the attention from walking in with him. you knew the news of your injuries had spread fast in the bau.

so, once you walked through the glass doors, people seemed to stop. you kept your head down as you began to walk over to your desk. that didn’t stop the stairs that burned into you from practically every agent on the floor. you tossed your bag down on your chair and ran your hand through your hair.

at that moment garcia came walking into the office. she greeted you before letting everyone know that there was a case and needed to meet in the conference room. you walked to the stairs with ease but once reaching them, you stopped for a minute.

“everything alright?” j.j. asked from behind you.

“i’m not 100% on stairs yet. more around the eighty range,” you quickly explained. j.j. smiled sympathetically before wrapping her arm around your waist and slowly helping you up the stairs. aaron emerged from his office to see you two and smiled.

you followed him into the conference room where you were back with your team. “first i would like to extend a warm welcome back to y/n, how are you feeling?” garcia asked before she presented the case.

“i am just really happy to be back,” you sighed.

[purplesurveys]

1197

survey by ohsh1t2wksl8

Layers

Layer 1: The Basics

Name: Since there’ve been several people who’ve followed me recently anyway, HI I’m Robyn.

Age: 23.

Birthday: April 21st.

Gender: Female.

Zodiac Sign: Taurus.

Layer 2: Your Family

Do you have any brothers or sisters? Yes, I have one of each.

Do you have any pets? Yup, two dogs.

Do you still live with your parents? I do. I’m not in a rush.

Do you have any stepparents? Nope.

How many cousins do you have? 11 first cousins. Throwing my second cousins into the mix would dramatically increase the number and I don’t feel like counting rn.

Layer 3: Your Friends

Who is your best friend? Angela and Andi.

Who have you been friends with the longest? Angela and I have been friends for 16 years and it’s stronger as ever these days because of our mutual love for BTS hehe.

What do you like to do with your friends? It really depends! There’s no one thing I like doing most with any of them; as long as I’m with them I’d consider it time well spent.

Do you have more friends online or in real life? Real life. It’s hard to form friendships online once nearly everyone starts becoming younger than you.

What is a good way to make friends with others? One thing I learned is that you have to be okay to initiate, and that’s not really something I like doing all the time.

Layer 4: Your Home

Do you live in a home, apartment, duplex, trailer, etc? I live in a house.

How many rooms are there in your house? There are 4 bedrooms and 5 other kinds of rooms – that’s 2 bathrooms, the living room, dining room, and kitchen.

Is your home large or small? I’d say it’s medium-sized. It’s not small that I feel cramped or inadequate, but it’s also nowhere near a mansion. It’s very comfortable for a family of 5.

What is your favorite room in your house, and why? Rooftop. My family barely goes there (and what a shame they don’t), so it’s a nice place to go to when I want to be alone but can’t get out of the house. Not to mention that it’s open-air and windy there, so whenever I feel as if I’m getting cooked inside I can always depend on the rooftop.

Do you prefer having people over to your house, or would you rather go to theirs? I’d rather go to theirs. Our house is really deep into the village and is a challenge to get to, especially if you’re unfamiliar with the general area.

Layer 5: Can You

Can you fold your tongue into the taco shape? Yes, but that’s the furthest it can go. I can’t really bend or twist it into shapes more complex than that.

Can you touch your toes without bending your knees? Nah, I lost that ability years ago. I didn’t make the most out of my flexibility back when I still had it.

Can you tie a cherry stem in a knot with your tongue? I never tried.

Can you hold up your end of a physical fight? I bet I can’t.

Can you do any yo-yo tricks? No, I was always terrible at the yo-yo.

Layer 6: Who

Who inspires you the most, and why? I don’t have any ~inspirations. I do like looking up to whoever my current obsession is – be it Rhett and Link, Paramore, BTS, etc. – to help me be happy and have something to smile at, but I try not to let any of them govern every single aspect of my life.

Who helps you maintain your sanity? My best friends. And these days, surprise surprise! – BTS.

Who do you go to most often for advice? Depends on the topic; I always run to either of my best friends. If I need a collective opinion, I go to my college friend group’s group chat.

Who knows you better than you know yourself? At one point it had been Gabie, but *shrug* Nowadays, the person who knows me best would probably be Andi.

Who is someone that you would die or put your life on the line for, no questions asked? Any of my friends.

Layer 7: Do you

Do you still eat sandwiches without the crusts? Nah - I’ve grown to be a fan of the crusts. I used to make my grandma slice them off as a kid or else I wouldn’t even think of touching the sandwich; then something changed as I got older and now I absolutely have to have the crust. At home, I even call dibs on the first and last pieces of bread (the ones that are all crust) whenever we get a new pack of sliced bread.

Do you typically finish your meal at a restaurant, or need to take a container home? I usually ask for it to be packed up for takeout.

Do you pull an Oreo apart in order to eat it? No, I just bite into it.

Do you read a lot of gossip magazines? As a kid/teenager. I’m over that now.

Do you make friends easily? I’m not the biggest social butterfly, but I’m also not super closed off. I’ll be happy to talk to anyone who approaches me.

Layer 8: How Many?

How many people live in your house with you? Four.

How many pets have you had in your lifetime? In my lifetime...I guess a good rough estimate would be somewhere around 10? I’ll never know exactly how many we’ve had since I never kept track of how many goldfish we kept.

How many tries does it take you to become successful at something? Depends. I never learned how to ride a bike even if I’ve pushed myself to practice ever since I was 5, but there are other things I’m able to pick up easily.

How many meals do you eat a day? One, dinner.

How many people can you honestly tolerate? This isn’t really an issue to me haha, I like being around people and my patience around them is usually long.

Layer 9: How

How do you typically get to school or work? I work from home at the moment and probably would for a little while longer; but if things were different, I would be driving myself.

How do you deal with a breakup? When I was going through mine, I was stupidly stubborn at first and refused any form of help. I deactivated all my social media and shut both my best friends out; it even got to a point where mutual friends were beginning to ask Andi where I’ve been as I’ve “disappeared off the face of the Earth” (an actual quote they relayed to me). I cried day in and day out, cried during my shifts, stayed holed up in my room; and I skipped hundreds of meals, sometimes not eating all day. It wasn’t a good place to be in.

But I knew I was on the right path to recovering the moment I reached out to friends again and acknowledged that I needed help. I started to help myself, too; I cut the person off slowly, and I started to look for new things to get into, new hobbies to invest in. I let my friends give me tough love and show me the reality of my situation, and I listened this time around. I don’t know what drove me to make a sudden change in my life but I’m really glad I came around to the decision, because I’m happier than ever these days.

How do you like to help others? All sorts of ways. I always want to make others’ lives a little easier.

How do you know when you’ve found “the one”? I don’t trust that instinct anymore.

How do you sleep in bed? On my side, clutching a pillow. No pillow to hug, no sleep.

Layer 10: What

What do you think happens when we die? That I just fall asleep for a very long time.

What do you do if there’s no toilet paper left on the roll and you’re already peeing? Turn around and hope there is at least a bidet in the stall.

What do you eat most often? Rice.

What toys did you enjoy most as a child? Anything with a lot of buttons or features to play around with, like detailed dollhouses.

What do you do if you witness someone being awful to someone else? Intervene, for the most part.

Layer 11: Where

Where is your favorite place to eat out? BGC has great ambience and restaurant choices, but it’s been a while since I’ve been there. I also still feel weird about the place since Gabie and I had dates there pretty often, sooooo I really ought to make new memories there with new people once I can.

Where is the place that has the best ice cream in your area? We don’t really have places known for ice cream...most people just buy pints or tubs of them at the grocery lol.

Where did you meet your current or last significant other? School.

Where can you be found at 7 PM. typically? Wrapping up work in my room.

Where can you find the best French fries? Potato Corner.

Layer 12: When

When did you find out the truth about Santa, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy? Never believed in the first two. Tooth Fairy I lost hope in when I placed a tooth under my pillow when I was around 6 or 7 and woke up to nothing.

When do you typically fall asleep? Early hours of the morning tbh. I’d sleep anywhere between 1-4 AM these days.

When was the last time that someone paid you a compliment? Kata and I often make sure to compliment one another for our hard work by the end of particularly grueling shifts.

When do you feel most comfortable? Friday nights when I’m sure I can finally close my work group chats for the next two days.

When did you last go to the bathroom? Around an hour or so ago.

Layer 13: Why

Why do you enjoy taking surveys so much? It’s a stress reliever that has never failed me, and it lets me answers quirky random questions no one would ever have to ask me.

Why do people gossip so much? For one, probably the thrill of knowing something that's meant to be a thing.

Why can’t humans fly? It wouldn’t have been a necessity, I’m guessing.

Why aren’t you doing something else right now? Because I just spent the last 24 hours streaming Butter on Spotify and YouTube to raise views and plays for the boys, and taking this survey is actually the first thing I’ve done all day after taking a quick nap this afternoon to recover from all the streaming I did hahaha.

Why is the sky blue? I don’t know.

Layer 14: If…

If you had a million dollars, what would you spend it on? Buy chocolate chips because I’m craving them rn; get all BTS merch in one go; give a chunk to my parents; keep the rest.

If you found out someone was cheating on you, would you ever take them back? I don’t really have consistency when it comes to this situation. I know I definitely would’ve been stupid enough to stay with Gab if she hypothetically cheated on me while we were still together; I’m not sure if I’d stay when it comes to another person entirely.

If you found a wallet with cash in the street, including identification, would you turn it in? Why or why not? Yeah, I’d look for the owner. I’m not that desperate for money, personally.

If you could have any food right now, what would you like?   SUSHI.

If you found out that the world was going to end tomorrow, how would you spend your last day? Go to the mall and get some much-needed air, then probably drop off some japchae and tteokbokki at Angela’s place.

Layer 15: Firsts

When did you lose your first tooth? I was in Prep and it actually fell out while I was in school. We were having storytime and I had to interrupt the session to tell my teacher it was starting to feel loose, so she got me some tissues to help me get it out.

Who was your first teacher that you ever had? Her name was Kathy. I don’t really have any substantial memories of her because I was 4 lmao, but I know she was nice.

When did you first learn how to ride a bike? ...Still learning...

When was the first time you had sex? Like a day or two after turning 18.

Did your first birthday have a theme to it? Not necessarily but my parents threw me a party at Jollibee, so it kinda had to be Jollibee-themed lol.

Layer 16: Lasts

Last person you texted: I don’t feel like checking because it was most definitely a work-related text and I don’t want to be reminded of work on a Sunday, but it was a media person. 

Last drink you sipped: The last of my coffee.

Last time you rode a bike: Like, March last year when the pandemic had still been fresh and I thought I could use all the free time to finally learn how to ride a bike. Absolute clownery.

Last time you swam in a pool: August 2019.

Last person you hugged: Not sure. Angela, I think.

Layer 17: Favorites

Favorite Color: I think pastel pink is still taking the lead for me.

Favorite Season: We don’t have the usual four seasons, but I do have a liking for winter. It just seems very cozy for me.

Favorite Shape: I don’t have one.

Favorite Letter: Mmmmm, don’t really have one of these either.

Favorite Number: 4 or 7.

Layer 18: This or That

Pepsi or Coke? I don’t drink softdrinks.

Movies or Television? Movies, but I haven’t really been watching much of either recently.

Phone or Tablet? Phone. Haven’t used a tablet in yearrrrrsssssss.

Fruits or Vegetables? Veggies. Hate fruits.

Animals or Humans? I think I like both an equal amount.

Layer 19: Which

Which Poke’mon is your favorite? Chikorita.

Which day of the week is your favorite? Friday, because of course.

Which birthday celebration was the most memorable for you? My 18th, even though out of all the friends I celebrated my birthday with I only have one of them left in my life. I know I was happy during that time so I wouldn’t invalidate that experience for myself.

Which holiday is your favorite? Christmas, only for the sheer amount of food I get to have.

Which shoe do you put on first? I always switch it up, I’m pretty sure. I don’t have a particular habit.

Layer 20: Love Life/Relationships

What is the name of your first love? Gabie.

How many times can you honestly say you’ve been in love? Once.

Have you ever been in a relationship before that was abusive in any way? After being able to take a step back and analyzing it deeper, yes.

Have you ever been engaged or married before? Nope.

Do you have any children? I don’t.

Layer 21: Jobs, Dreams, & Goals

What did you want to be when you grew up (as a little kid)? I couldn’t decide among being an astronaut, firefighter, or veterinarian.

What do you aspire to be now? What interests you? I realized I wanted to be in the field of media and public relations, and that’s where I am now. I like being able to use my writing skills for something I find fun and fulfilling, instead of rotting away in a newsroom writing news I’m usually too sensitive for.

What is the most recent goal you’ve achieved? I got regularized! :)

What is a goal you are still striving to reach? A salary increase would be nice, and then a promotion down the road would also be awesome.

Have you ever won any sort of awards before? If so, for what? Sure. I was consistently on the honor roll in college and graduated with Latin honors, if those count as awards.

Layer 22: Opinions & Beliefs

Pro-life or pro-choice? Pro-choice.

Were you raised with any sort of religious background? If so, then what? Yesss, I was and am raised in a Catholic household. Weirdly enough my parents have grown more laidback in the last few years and my mom no longer berates us for not doing the sign of the cross when we pray before eating (my siblings have taken after me and refuse to do it as well). No idea what sparked that change but I’m just glad I never have to do gestures like that one anymore.

Democrat, Republican, or Independent? We don’t have the same parties here.

For or against the death penalty? This is a very complicated web and for reasons largely relevant to my country and the issues we have, I am mostly against it.

Thoughts on assisted suicide? I am ok with it as long as there is consent involved. 

Layer 23: Currently/Today/Present

What day is it? It’s Sunday again, blegh.

What’s the weather like outside? Sunny.

What have you eaten? Just a Fudgee Bar so far but I’m having breakfast with my family in an hour or so.

Did you run any errands? Well it’s only 8:37 AM so not yet, but one or two might come up throughout the day.

What time is it? 8:38 now.

Layer 24: Yesterday

Did you have a work shift? No, I don’t work Saturdays.

Did you eat out anywhere? No :( I’ve wanted to for a while, though. Maybe I might today, actually – they’ve loosened up quarantine protocols so restaurants have opened up again. Let’s see if I’ll feel like driving today.

Was it snowing? It doesn’t snow here.

Who did you last say goodnight to? Cooper.

Did anything unusual happen? It rained and there was cold breeze during the evening.

Layer 25: Tomorrow

Do you have to go to school/class? No, but I do have to go to work.

Does this day have any sort of significance to you? May 24...I don’t think so. Nothing comes to mind.

What is a chore that needs to get done? My veeeeeeery long list of to-do tasks that I’m trying not to think about rn.

Will you hang out with friends? No chance of that happening.

What time will you be expected to be awake by? 9 AM.

Layer 26: Have You Ever

Performed a magic trick successfully? I don’t think so.

Sat or laid on a rooftop and looked at the stars? I’m at the rooftop all the time but I only occasionally lie down to look at the stars.

Walked around with your underwear on inside out or backwards all day without realizing it? Nope.

Touched a snake? Yep. I’ve had one wrapped around me before, too.

Been bitten by an animal? If so, what animal? Just by ants and mosquitoes.

Layer 27: School Life

Are preschool and kindergarten mandatory where you live? Not sure about mandatory but I’m pretty sure I’ve heard of people who went straight to first grade as kids, either because of advanced intelligence or financial limitations.

Were you or anyone you knew homeschooled? I have one set of cousins who are all homeschooled; and I also used to have classmates who eventually transferred out of my school to be homeschooled instead.

Did you attend public or private school? Private.

Were you bullied in school, popular, or somewhere in-between? I was a loner for the most part, but after befriending the popular groups in high school I kind of got dragged into that scene as well.

What is the highest level of education that you completed? Undergraduate degree.

Layer 28: Your Appearance

Eye Color: Dark brown/black.

Hair Color: Black.

Height: 5′1″.

Weight: A little under 100 lbs.

Do you have freckles, moles, beauty marks, or birthmarks - and where? I have moles on my right arm, under my jaw, near my left knee, and under my left boob. I have a birthmark behind my left shoulder.

Layer 29: Electronics, Internet, & Social Media

How much time do you spend on the internet per day? Hahahah yeesh, way to put me on the spot. I wanna say anywhere between 16-18 hours? I’m online the second I wake up until the moment I turn in for bed.

Which social media platforms do you belong to? Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Tumblr.

When’s the last time you replaced the batteries in your television remote? 4975493875495743 years ago.

Are you more likely to stream movies and shows on your laptop, or cast them to your television? Laptop.

Do you have an e-reader, or do you prefer actual books? I don’t read regularly anymore, but I’ve never liked reading from a screen. I prefer a physical book as much as possible.

Layer 30: Are You

Are you still in school? No. I’m not opposed to grad school either, but it has to be a REALLY REALLY REALLY fucking great opportunity for me to sink my teeth into it. We’re talking getting accepted to grad school in like Spain or NYU; otherwise I wouldn’t take it.

Are you a member of the LGBTQ+ community? Yes.

Are you looking forward to anything coming soon? Festa month!

Are you dreading anything coming soon? Work tomorrow.

Are you gullible or naive? I can be both.

Layer 31: Does

Does your workplace make you feel like you can never take a day off without feeling guilty about it? Not at all. I’m really grateful they take vacation leaves seriously; we even have a Mental Health Break Day scheduled two Fridays from now. Purely a company thing.

Does someone currently hold the key to your heart? Kim Taehyung... :/

Does anyone out there hate you? Idk and I couldn’t give less of a shit if anyone does.

Does talking about sex make you uncomfortable? No.

Does crying make you feel less strong? Nope. It took me a while to realize it, but acknowledging feelings and processing them is actually one of the strongest things you can do for yourself. 

Layer 32: Would You

Do the Polar Bear Plunge? Idk what that is.

Ever try to walk across a room blindfolded? I’ve done it before, so sure.

Swim with sharks? As long as I’m surrounded with experts, yes.

Go into outer space, given the chance? In a heartbeat.

Go out in public, looking how you do right now? Nope.

Layer 33: Pets/Animals

Do you have any pets? If so, what type, and their names… Yesss. There’s Kimi who’s an aspin, and Cooper the beagle.

If not, what type of pet have you always wanted?

What is your favorite animal? Dogs and elephants :)

Do you think it is cruel to have circus animals? Yes, or having animals do tricks for show, in general. I always discourage my parents from booking tickets to animal theme parks when we plan vacations.

How often do you walk your dog, if you have one? How often do you scoop the litterbox, if you have a cat? Every week.

Layer 34: Food

What is your favorite breakfast item? Fried rice.

What is your favorite kind of dessert? Macarons and cheescake.

Do you eat all three meals everyday? Nah. I have one meal on weekdays, and two meals on some weekends.

What’s the longest you’ve gone without food? Around 24 hours.

What do you like to eat when you are feeling sick? Greasy things haha. If I’m feeling like death, might as well be having good food.

Layer 35: Past

Does your past ever come back to haunt you at times? Not really.

What is one of your favorite memories of the past? Spending my college years with the right people.

What is something that you used to do in the past, but no longer do? Harm myself.

If you could have a meal with someone from the past, who would it be, and what would you ask them? Audrey Hepburn, but I don’t really have a question for her. It would just be nice to get to spend a few minutes with her.

Which historical time period would you like to go back to and check out? Precolonial Philippines.

Layer 36: Future

Do you think you will ever get married one day? It’s definitely a lovely scenario to have but I’m really unsure about it at the moment just because there’s no one I have in mind and I have no plans to start dating around again soon.

Do you plan on ever getting a different job in the future, or are you happy with the one you’ve got? I’m happy with the one I have and I don’t see it changing any time soon.

What age do you plan to retire at? Or do you plan on working til you’re dead? Probably the latter haha.

What is something on your bucket list worth mentioning? Going to Wrestlemania.

If given the opportunity to see how your future plays out, would you take it, or no? Yes.

Layer 37: Hygiene

How often do you shower? Once daily. Twice if it’s stupidly hot during the day.

How often do you brush your teeth? Once or twice a day.

Do you actually iron any of your clothes? Mm, not really. But if I was planning on wear something that gets easily crumpled, I iron that in advance.

How often do you do laundry? I’m not in charge of laundry.

How long do you use a bath towel before switching it out? Around 1–2 weeks.

Layer 38: Clothing, Makeup, & Style

Do you wear nail polish? If so, how often do you paint your nails? Nah.

How would your describe your sense of style? I like sticking with trends as long as I feel comfortable in them.

Are there any popular trends that you do not find appealing? Just makeup in general.

Where do you typically buy your clothing from? Local small businesses or H&M. 

What sorts of accessories do you wear/use? I don’t really invest in them, but I wanna start buying more headbands, bucket hats, and earrings.

Layer 39: Hobbies

Do you still color, even as an adult? Occasionally.

Do you/would you like to crochet, knit, cross-stitch, etc? Yeaaah I do embroidery but I’ve stopped for a while since finding other interests and hobbies to dabble in. I have no plans to ditch it completely though; I’ll come back to it when the time is right.

What’s the last thing you crafted all by yourself? Not sure.

Do you use Pinterest at all? Nope.

What’s the last thing that you cooked or baked? Lol.

Layer 40: Dislikes

List some of your pet peeves here. Driving slowly on lanes intended for overtaking; taking too much of my food; being subtle about asking for favors.

What are some things that annoy you about yourself? Easily punishing myself for mistakes, no matter how small; I also find that putting others first before myself 100% of the time can sometimes end up being an inconvenience for myself.

Is there anyone out there who you actually hate? Who? Nope.

What is a feeling that you dislike? “I should have done/said this.” Not sure what feeling this falls under (maybe helplessness?), but having these thoughts irritate me to no end especially if I can’t do anything about the situation.

Do you get some ugly road rage while driving? Yep.

Layer 41: Random

Have you ever successfully pogo’ed on a pogo stick? Nah, I’ve never even seen one in real life. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always been dying to try getting on one lol. 

Have you ever mastered the jump rope? I wouldn’t say I’m a master, but I can do the basic jumps and last a long time doing them.

Do you know what it feels like to be truly happy? I don’t know if I’ve determined this already; I have a lot of years ahead of me and lots of experiences I’ve yet to go through.

Is it winter in your part of the world right now? No.

What’s your favorite type of survey, and why? Random ones or ones with categories, like this one.

Layer 42: Music

What are some of your favorite genres of music? Alternative, folk indie, punk rock, R&B...and BTS.

What are some music genres that you can’t stand? Country, screamo, techno.

If you had a blank pair of concert tickets, who would you hope to be going to see? Any one of my holy trinity: Paramore, Beyoncé, or BTS.

Do you still listen to music on the radio from time to time? Not anymore, come to think of it. I’m completely unaware of the Top 40 space right now, and have been for a while.

iTunes, Spotify, Pandora, Amazon Music, or YouTube? Spotify.

Layer 43: Books

What were some of your favorite books as a child? The Septimus Heap series and the Percy Jackson series.

What genre of books do you typically read most often? Memoirs.

What are some of your favorite books as an adult? I don’t read anymore.

What is a book that you were required to read for school that you actually enjoyed? Hands down, Without Seeing the Dawn. I remember fairly enjoying Charlotte’s Web and Number the Stars as well.

Do you read any newspapers or magazines anymore? No.

Layer 43: Around the World

Where’s the best place you’ve taken a vacation and/or day trip to? Jeju, South Korea; Bali, Indonesia; Palawan; Batanes; and Boracay.

Where is somewhere that you’d like to go someday, assuming you have the funds to do so? Seoul, South Korea.

Where do your family members originate from? Just Philippines.

What is your favorite type of ethnic cuisine? All Asian cuisines. Each of them is so unique and always has something new to discover.

What is something that is typically representative of your own culture? Jollibee? Hahaha.

Layer 44: Would you Rather…

Drink apple juice or grape juice? Apple.

Wear pants or shorts? Shorts, as much as possible.

Be taller or shorter? Taller.

Go to a zoo or an aquarium? Neither if possible.

Visit an art gallery or a museum? Museum.

Layer 45: Movies

Do you remember what the first movie was that you saw in theaters? Stuart Little 2 when I was 4.

What are some of your favorite movies you’ve seen? Two for the Road, Gone with the Wind, Roman Holiday, Revolutionary Road, Toy Story, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and Room.

What genre of movie do you typically enjoy? Drama.

What is a movie you’ve seen that you weren’t expecting to like, but were pleasantly surprised? Requiem For A Dream, but maybe remove ‘pleasantly.’ Anomalisa is also a good answer for this.

How many movies do you own? Are they all DVD’s, or do you still have some VHS ones left? I just watch them on Netflix, haha.

Layer 46: Personality

Are you more of an introvert or an extrovert? I’m really more of an ambivert than anything else. I can deal with alone time and more social days equally well.

Are you more easygoing and laid back, or anal? Again, I can be both depending on the situation.

Are you kind to everyone who shows that they deserve kindness? Yes.

Describe your sense of humor. I can laugh over anything from dad jokes to crackhead memes.

Do you tend to over-share? Not really. I tend to have a good sense of how much I should share depending on the person/group I’m with.

Layer 47: Celebrities

Which celebrity has given their child the most unique name, in your opinion? I mean, Elon Musk and Grimes have to be up there, right? The Kardashians have also given their kids unique names, but I actually am a fan of them all.

Are there any celebrities that you keep tabs on/read articles about often? Nah, I’m past that part of my life lol. As obsessed as I am with BTS and as unavoidable rumors about their personal life are, I literally don’t care and just want them to have happy private lives. That’s one of the reasons why I know I’m truly in my 20s now hahaha.

Who is/are your celebrity crush(es)? Kim Taehyung, Hayley Williams, Kristen Stewart.

Have you ever personally met someone famous before? If so, then who? A lot of local celebrities and personalities since it came with the nature of my course.

Who is a celebrity that you’re getting tired of hearing about all the time? Ariana Grande and Taylor Swift.

Layer 48: Emotions

When was the last time you cried? Earlier, but they were happy tears.

What are some things that you’re afraid of? Big change, injections, drowning, sharp objects.

What is something small that makes you happy? Cold weather.

Who is the last person that you were angry with, and about what? My mom wrongfully blaming me for something I had very little to do with. Both my siblings are very sensitive and are never scolded, so I usually take the heat even for things I’m barely involved in. Such is the life of the eldest daughter in an Asian household, lmao.

Are you typically a shy or outgoing person? I’m always shy at first, but end up being perky and outgoing once warmed up.

Layer 49: Digging Deeper

What is your favorite alcoholic beverage? Mixed drinks.

How old were you when you got drunk for the first time? 18.

Do you smoke? Very rarely. I don’t want to make it a habit.

Have you ever taken and sent naked pictures of yourself? I have.

Have you ever done any drugs other than marijuana? If so, which ones? No.

Layer 50: Games

What are some of your favorite video games? Mario Kart, Resident Evil, and Legend of Zelda are some of my favorite series.

Do you have any computer games that you play regularly? I don’t play computer games.

What was your favorite board game, growing up? Scrabble.

How about your favorite card game? I also don’t play card games.

How good are you at solving puzzles? (such as a Rubik’s cube, word puzzles, or putting together a jigsaw puzzle) I don’t like puzzles.

[rennyforpresident]

Renny’s BBSim: First Boots THE FINALE!!!

For the last time, Welcome back to BIIIIIIIIIG BROTHER!

@ashleaevans @bathroom-sand @kaysarswhore @kayysarridha @kelleekim @lahallucinations @maxdoesbb @misshoh @music-obsessednerd @nerdphobic @nomwastaken @pawn2393 @phylisisley @remember-caltoru @rennyforpresident @shaolinbynature

Welcome to the finale of Renny’s BBSim: First Boots! 95 days ago, 16 former first boots went to bat to try and redeem themselves in the BB house. So far, 13 of them have fallen short of the prize, but three remain standing, ready to duke it out.

@ashleaevans. Someone who started off as furniture quickly became a house contender. Often the center of drama, he wasn’t afraid to speak his mind, and made clear who his alliances were whenever he was given the chance. With two HOHs and Vetos under his belt, he has a formidable track record. Will he be the one to take the jury votes?

@pawn2393. Someone who laid low the entire season and relied wholly on his alliance to get him further. Some call it piggybacking, some call it meat shielding. I call it smart. He just won his first veto, and while competitions aren’t his strong suit, his social game has been nothing but on point. Will the jury recognize this and reward him with the half million dollar prize?

@shaolinbynature. This competition BEAST has won FIVE HOHs this summer. Completely redeeming their track record wasn’t enough, though, and she got involved in numerous deals and alliances, even finding love along the way. She also didn’t shy away from drama, and had several legendary fights during her stay in the house. Will her record precede here and earn her the grand prize?

These are your three finalists. The jury will decide between two of them, and in order to determine which two, we need to have our final HOH competition of the summer!

Round 1 is endurance. The competition seems easy, but as the waters act up and the weather turns bad, people get cold, and the complaints start rolling in. 

After 48 minutes, someone loses concentration and accidentally removes their hand from their key

@ashleaevans: “FUCK! No no no no no I didn’t mean it!”

But unfortunately, he remains out. The other two battle it out to the end, and stay in their boats for almost three hours. @ashleaevans is sitting on the sidelines doing nothing, waiting for this to be over.

@shaolinbynature whispering: “Hey, @pawn2393, if I get off do you promise me you’ll take me to the end? I swear to you I’ll take you.”

@pawn2393: “Deal dude. I can’t sit next to someone as likeable as him.”

After another quick confirmation, @shaolinbynature pretends to slip his hand off, and 

@pawn2393! You will advance to part 3 of the final HOH competition.

This one will test our houseguests’ memory, as well as speed. If they remember everything about this season, they’ll be golden!

Once both houseguests compete, they gather in the backyard for the results.

@ashleaevans, you had a time of 12:13. Good job!

@shaolinbynature, you will need to beat this time in order to advance to round 3 of the final HOH. Your time is...

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11:20! Which means

The two houseguests competing in the final HOH are @shaolinbynature and @pawn2393. Unfortunately, @ashleaevans, you will be sitting this out.

@ashleaevans in the DR: “I’m a little pissed that I’m sitting this out. But I have faith that @pawn2393 can pull this out. He’s on kind of a winning streak right now”

(It’s called encore presentation because this is literally the same competition as last week’s HOH lmao)

The two stand on giant scales, ready to compete. The stress from the competition is palpable, and even Arisa and Julie are nervous. 

After 8 rounds of questions, the game ends with a score of 6-5. The winner of the final HOH, and the person who has guaranteed themselves a spot in the final 2, is...

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@pawn2393! You have secured your spot in the final 2, and earned the right to decide who will be sitting next to you!

Arisa: “Congratulations everyone on making it to the finale! But even more congratulations to @pawn2393! Before you make this final decision, both of our nominees get one more chance to sway your vote and plead their case. @ashleaevans, you’re up first.”

@ashleaevans: “You know how much I adore you, and I respect you infinitely. I have faith once again in your decision, and I know our deal will hold true. There’s no way you’d choose to sit next to @shaolinbynature in the end, and I have complete faith that we’ll honor our deal and be the final 2.”

@shaolinbynature: “If you want a shot at winning, you’ll take me. I’ve pissed those people off; the only one @ashleaevans has pissed off is @kaysarswhore, and you’ll have that vote against me too. I am telling you straight up, do not screw this up. Put him on jury and secure his vote too.”

Arisa: “When you’re ready, please stand and cast your vote to evict.”

@pawn2393: “I am so sorry about this, but I have played this game a certain way and I can’t change now. There’s no way I can be in final 2 with you. I vote to evict...

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Arisa: “Come on out, @shaolinbynature!”

Arisa: “So close! Where did you go wrong??”

@shaolinbynature: “Not winning an extra comp! I knew I was screwed when I lost, there was no convincing @pawn2393. I’m pissed that I’m not still in there”

Arisa: “If you had won, who would you have taken with you?”

@shaolinbynature: “Oh @pawn2393 without a doubt. They’ve been floating this entire game, and @ashleaevans definitely has some jury votes on his side. That was an easy choice.”

Arisa: “Well, we are so sad to see you fall just short of the finish line, but we have a winner to crown! Let’s bring out the rest of the jury for jury questioning!

When @phylisisley sees @shaolinbynature, she immediately tears up, and both of them hug for the first time in weeks. No one really looks excited to see @ashleaevans and @pawn2393 as the final 2.

@nomwastaken: “My question is for @pawn2393. We were in an alliance together, and yet you chose to go against it in favor of who you’re sitting with. Why did you do that, and do you feel bad?”

@pawn2393: “I did it because I knew the alliance would only protect me for so long. I was at the bottom of that totem pole after you left, and there was nothing I could do about it. I did my best to play both sides so that no one would see me as a threat and take out my allies before they take out me. Leaving the alliance was one of the best decisions I made in the game, and I stand by it 100%”

@lahallucinations: “My question is for @ashleaevans. @kaysarswhore was a prime target for weeks, yet you failed to take her out. Why should I vote for you when you couldn’t convince people to vote out a threat like her?”

@ashleaevans: “I did my best and fought my hardest. There was no convincing people once their minds were made up in this house. It took me winning two separate HOHs to finally be able to vote her out, and I’m proud that she went out on my HOH.”

@kelleekim: “My question is for @pawn2393. Why should I vote for you when you were furniture most of the season? I didn’t see you make any real moves, and most of the jury agrees.”

@pawn2393: “That was my strategy, to hide all of my moves from you all. I worked with the Block Destroyers and cultivated a secret relationship with @ashleaevans at the same time. This protected me during the double and after that. I was the voice in every HOHs ear when they were nominating, and I was the puppeteer the whole time. You not recognizing that means my strategy worked.”

@kaysarswhore: “My question is for @ashleaevans. I think we all know where my vote is going tonight, but I want to ask what your biggest move in this game was, other than taking me out.”

@ashleaevans: “My biggest move was using chaos as my friend. Shifting the target off my back by throwing it on other people was good for me, and I did it multiple times. I did it with you, I did it with all the members of the big alliance. My biggest move was getting in fights, and I stand by all of them.”

@shaolinbynature: “My question is for @pawn2393. I won 5 HOHs, and I can’t remember you being in my ear. Whose ear were you in, like you said you were?”

@pawn2393: “Well, I was in @ashleaevans‘s ear and @kaysarswhore‘s ear for the most part, but me being tight with both sides of the house influenced your decisions too. I disagree that I wasn’t in your ear, because you never put me up.”

Arisa: “That’s all the jury questions we have! Now it’s time for the final pleas.”

@ashleaevans: “I have played this game hard. I knew I had a target on my back from the beginning, and I knew that I had to play. I won competitions and took out threats to my game. I made strategic moves with who I talked to and interacted with to ensure that I’d be sitting here. I couldn’t have done it without @pawn2393, but my game was my own. Vote for me, because I deserve this.”

@pawn2393: “I played a quiet game, yes, but I also played an effective one. No one in here considered me a threat, and I made it to the end virtually scratch free. I won at the end when my safety was dependent on it, and I voted out the biggest comp beast this game has ever seen. I controlled others’ HOHs throughout the season, and I played this damn game. I have proven that I am a BB great, and I deserve this title.”

Arisa: “Alright jury! Time to vote!”

@shaolinbynature votes for @ashleaevans to win. She respects the game he’s played, and knows that every move he made was to advance in the game.

@phylisisley does the same. She respects the fact that @ashleaevans never lost sight of the prize, and played hard.

@kaysarswhore votes for @pawn2393. She would never cast her vote for @ashleaevans to win, and is happy to hopefully see a Block Destroyer win the game.

@nerdphobic feels the same way. He wants a Block Destroyer to win, and genuinely feels like @pawn2393 played the better game.

@nomwastaken feels differently. He knows that @ashleaevans was the one who took him out, and he’ll be damned if he goes out at the hands of anyone but the winner.

@misshoh also wants @ashleaevans to win this. She believes @pawn2393​ made two fatal mistakes by having the opportunity to vote out @ashleaevans​ and failing to. She wants to show him the error of his ways.

@lahallucinations​ disagrees, and thinks @pawn2393​ deserves to win. She doesn’t respect the loud game that @ashleaevans​ played, and wants to see a quiet assassin win.

And if anyone respects quiet games, it’s @kelleekim​. He votes for @pawn2393​ to win as well, because quiet players stick together.

The vote is 4-4. @remember-caltoru​ is the deciding vote, and will determine the winner.

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@remember-caltoru​ votes for @ashleaevans​ to win. He recognizes that he had the balls to play hard, and respects that immensely. He respects someone who isn’t afraid to speak their mind.

Which means!!!

Congratulations king!! Certified Legend!!

BUT THERE’S MORE!

For the past two weeks, America has been voting for who they want to be America’s Favorite Player and receive a cash prize of $25,000! And the winner of AFP is...

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@misshoh​! Keep throwing pizza rolls, bc they love it!

That’s it for this BBSim! This was so much fun to write, and I hope y’all enjoyed it! I don’t think I’ll do another one any time soon, but thank you all for playing!!

Here are the stats for the season!

[strangergrove]

COLLEGE!AU TIPS/INFO

Hey everyone! I love college!AUs and know some people may want to write one but do not feel confident doing so because they haven't been to college, or maybe just want some more information. Now not all of this will apply to all colleges/universities of course, but I wanted to give as much as I could. (For reference, I went to the University of Minnesota) This is meant for giving an idea of general college life and things that might be fun to add to a story, so I haven't added the more technical things, but I can if you guys want that.

ORIENTATION WEEK

Freshman arrive a week before everyone else to get settled in and learn the ropes (no classes yet, just events)

You get a student ID that's required to enter the dorms and higher security classrooms (ones with expensive equipment) You can also put money on it and use that at cafeterias and campus stores

They took all the freshman to Target after-hours (so we were the only customers) so we could buy groceries and anything we forgot to bring before school started

They also brought us to the Mall of America (because it was five minutes away) so we could go on all the rides and visit Sealife for free (the shops were closed down, though, so no shopping) I think it was supposed to be a chance to make friends before classes started. I don't know, but it was fun

DORM LIFE

I didn't have a roommate so I can't comment on what that was like (when applying for dorm living, we were asked if we preferred to have a roommate or not. I didn't want one and therefore lived in a single-occupancy room)

I did, however, have a sink mate (our single-occupancy rooms had this weird thing where two of them were joined by a tiny room that had nothing but a sink and mirror in it. The doors locked from the outside so the other person couldn't get into your room if you had it locked. Some people left their doors open so they basically had a roommate while getting to have separate rooms) I know this is probably unique to my dorm (because it's really weird) but it's also fun and could make for interesting scenes

At the end of every year you had to reapply to live in the dorms and you were given the option to stay in your room, change rooms but keep the same roommate (you and your roommate both had to apply for this option, of course) or change rooms and roommates

Rooms with only 1-2 people did not have their own bathrooms. There were shower stalls in the bathrooms that you could use. This lead to a lot of people walking around in robes or towels in the halls.

The cafeteria food was not included in the price of the dorm. You either had to buy a meal plan (X number of meals a month) or pay per meal at the door. If you had the meal plan, they scanned your student ID. You were allowed like 5 guest passes or something

There was a computer lab in the dorm with printers you could use, but rarely anyone went there

There was a laundry room in the basement. You had to scan your student ID to pay for the washer and dryer (ours was broken and let you do it for free) If you weren't down there to transfer or collect your laundry as soon as it was done, some people would take all of your clothes and just throw them on the table (even if there was already a pile of clothes there) because washer and dryer space was limited. So laundry at 2 in the morning was usually safest

CLASSES

I biked everywhere because our campus was huge and it was like a 15 minute walk minimum between my classes (sometimes a half hour if I had to walk to the stadium downtown) so biking was a life saver (biking in the snow was hilarious and difficult)

Driving anywhere near campus was a nightmare. Therefore, there were free shuttle busses to take you to different parts of the campus (most of the campus was in Minneapolis but part was in St. Paul.)

I had classes start as early as 7am and run as late as 9pm. My longest classes were 4 hours. Most common length was 2 hours

Only some teachers took attendance (usually in small classes) others passed around a clipboard to sign your name and prove you were there

For each hour in-class you expect 2-4 hours of homework that day

Most of my classes were Monday/Wednesday/Friday for lectures and Tuesday/Thursday for other classes. Once-a-week classes could be any day (and were usually the really long classes)

In high school you can take Advanced Placement classes and test into higher class levels (and earn credits toward a certain subject) This means if you leave well, you can take fewer prerequisite classes and fewer classes that have nothing to do with your major. This also means you may be able to graduate early (I graduated a semester early from this and taking way too many credits per semester)

In our university, any credits above 15 each semester were free (I took 18-19 each semester to take advantage of this) The required amount of credits to be determined full time was either 12 or 13, but they recommended 15 to be in track to graduate in 4 years (assuming you were going for a bachelor's like I was)

FREE TIME

There are tons of student groups ranging from support for foreign students to writing clubs to learning a certain language to capture the flag (which we played at midnight) These groups are amazing and a great way of meeting like-minded people

We had an event every year called Spring Jam where they had all kinds of vendors come, they threw parties and events, and even a concert

Our dorm hosted events for every holiday (Yule ball, haunted house, etc.)

We had a student union center with all sorts of resources for students, but also a theatre, cafeteria, game room (with bowling alley, great food, video games and pool tables you could rent by the hour, and trivia night every Thursday) and great hall for concerts and events

There was a bar called The Library, so any time anyone said they were "going to the library" they got suspicious looks

There were also a ton of on-campus jobs specifically for students, so you could submit your class schedule to them and they would schedule your shifts around it

If you want more information on anything, please don't hesitate to leave a comment/ask/dm! Also, if you have anything you'd like to add, please feel free.

I will update this if I think of anything else, so please check the notes for mentions of updates.

[popculturebuffet]

Loud House Reviews: The Purrfect Gig

The Sam/Luna trilogy comes to an end here, as we get to the most recent of their now annual episodes, each so far produced and aired toward the end of the season. That being said like last season Sam had at least one apperance before this as I saw her in the thumbnail to “Deep Cuts”, the OTHER Lunacentric episode this season. And while it sounded bad to me at first looking into it.. no. The writers, for the most part, gave almost every kid two episodes a piece, and last season gave each 3, so to the writers credit they TRY to ballance out who gets episodes.  

The exceptions are Lincoln, who has around 5 that don’t also feature the girls as a whole, and 2 of those are with Lana, Lori who has 4, 2 of them shared and justifed as she’s possibly leaving for College next season and thus her episodes outside of one focus ont hat, and Lana and Lola: Lana has 3, and Lola has 2, and both have one together. And really even with those imballances it’s really impressive the show juggles 14 leads, with the parents themselves getting 2 this year too, along with Clyde, not counting his ones with Lincoln. | And that’s WITH the baffling decision this season to have the first 5 episodes be “With THe Cassagrandes”, i.e. 5 episodes of the Casagrandes that are counted as loud house episode that weren’t produced over at the sister show for some reason. And I have nothing against the Cassagrandes, what i’ve seen it’s not a bad show: I already have gone on about how much I love bobby, and I also love CJ and new comer Sam. I love the fact it has plenty of representation and a diffrent kind of big family, I love the theme song and I love the fact Melissa Joan Heart is on it because she’s terrific and spent the last decade really not picking her roles well. She was the lead in Holiday in Handcuffs, aka the movie where she kidnaps Mario Lopez and holds him at gunpoint to pretend to be her fiance until he gets Stockholm syndrome for really flimsy reasons. But I dont’ feel i’ts fair to the show to wedge it into another show’s spot: The Cassagrande-Santiago clan has shown up in 2 half hour loud houses and 2 15 minute eps. The kids watching KNOW these characters, and reception of the loudest mission was positive enough to get a spinoff made. You don’t need to spend a huge amount of another show’s episode order to promote a show kids will likely watch because it has characters from a show that airs all the time and is uber popular and has a similar humor style, and fans of the Loud House will at least try becuase they like the mothership and have known was coming for years now. This show HAD an audience going in. I watched both American Dad and the Clevland Show because it was from the same crew as family guy which I liked at the time. Granted American Dad had a decent stretch and Clevland Show .. had David LYnch as a recurring cast member I guess? Seriously david, this and not gravity falls? The point is it feels insulting that they felt the need to try and promote the show more, and all they did was take up episodes of the loud house and confuse children, and possibly turn viewers off a show they would’ve watched anyways. And if your wondering why I took such a massive detour it’s simple: Other than noticing the fact they’ve been specifically making sure each sibling gets more than one spotlight episode, shared or not, and this dumb decision.. Season 4 isn’t THAT much diffrent than Season 3. It carries on plots started there  (Lori heading towards college, Luann and Luna’s relationship), but otherwise it’s basically just more shipping and shenanigans. But really. .that’s far from a bad thing, as I consider season 3 a highwater mark for the show, and it introduced a lot of neat new elements (Lynn’s Table, Stella, Leni having a job) that are still prevelant in season 4. It’s not bad and it’s even more understandable given that next season, every character is growing a year (thank you press releases), meaning they have tons of new plots to explore, and large status quo shifts with Lincoln going to middle school, which out of the four schools shown is so far the most underdeveloped and will need development, and Lori possibly moving out of the house and going to college, among many other things that have me chomping at the bit for next season. But that’s probably a few months away so for now, it’s time to get back on focus and with everything else out of the way, the actual review of this episode starts under the cut. 

We open with Luna sitting in bed sighing when her poster of Mick Swagger starts talking to her. Whatever she’s smoking I could really use some. Depression is a bitch. Anyways, her drug induced hallucination of her hero starts talking to her. I haven’t really talked about Mick yet since the show uses him sporadically but he’s exactly what you’d expect; The show’s version of Rolling Stones front man Mick Jagger, only slightly younger.. maybe. I dunno. Maybe he’s been around since the 60′s and is just a timelord. Or a groovy robot. Or has a dorian grey thing going on. We haven’t really gotten into Dino Spimoni situation yet where Luna helps her idol and has to help him reunite with a partner or convince him to stop faking his death. Just a reminder that Hey Arnold is great and that if you think it’s odd his crooner dean martin based idol got talked out of faking his death by a 12 year old, keep in mind he also tracked down the daughter his vitamise neighbor gave up so she could go to america and have a better life, helped convince his neighbors not divorce, and had to save his pig from being eaten in a revolutionary war reinactment. Hey Arnold was far weirder than I remembered and i’m here for it.  Anyways, Hallucination Mick asks if Luna is coming to his concert this weekend, and she HOPES so she just dosen’t have the money for  VIP pass to meet the actual version and do drugs with the actual mick swagger for a change. He says you never know when opportunity will come a knockin and it does in the form of the McBrides! Clyde’s dad’s Howard, the skinny one voiced by national treasure Micheal McDonald and Wayne Brady whose also great.. and i’m not just saying that because i’ve seen this. Don’t be absurddddd....

Howard and Harold are Clyde’s dads... and while Clarence and Steven Universe beat them to having Gay parents in a children’s cartoon, their still the first interacial gay couple in a children’s cartoon, and on a nicktoon period, and even if they weren’t either of those it’d still be fucking great. Anyways the two are nice characters, while i haven’t seen EVERY ep with them their a loving couple, nice parents, and treat the loud kids as their own.. granted that goes too far in one episode, but still, thems good people.  Anyway Howards having a panic attack, respect, and as his husband calms him down, we find out why: the mcbrides are going to pick up nana for the annual family reunion, and their catsitter cancled. Hence Howard’s freakout and Harold worrying about the 20 pounds of amish potato salad in the trunk. So naturally their hoping someone can watch their cats, Cleopawtra and Nefurtiti for the day, and them going to the louds makes sense, both for the obvious of the Louds being their closest friends in the neighborhood, and the not so obvious of a previous episode I haven’t seen having established the older kids as the best babysitters in royal woods, meaning that in addition to knowing them they have skill and this likely isn’t the first time. Luna, not thinking about herself, admits Lori went to hit the golf course early and Leni is at work, a nice way to explaning why it’s Luna that gets the job: She was there and it was implied by the fact she was getting high and talking to her hallucination that Luann isn’t, so most of the other options they’d have without some reservations are gone with no contrivance necessary.  Anyways Luna’s Drug Fueld hallucination,  points out money can be exchanged for goods and services, such as VIP passes, and also mentions sam already has hers. Either Luna’s forgot or her hallucination can use her phone. Either is probable, and is backed up by Hallucination Sam, before both start playing their guitars and Luna air guitars with them. I”m unsuprsied by all of this. She offers and the McBrides take her up on it immeditley. I do like that it avoids the “I don’t know if your up to this” cliche that always happens in these types of scenarios, the McBrides have no reason not to trust her, so they just.. do. Hell Harold only sets out one rule: don’t invite anyone over.. and it’s not even because he dosen’t trust Luna to have anyone over or anything like that, he just knows the cats get anxious with a crowd, though their therapist is working with them on that. And of course the two rich men with a single child have a cat therapist. I would too if I were rich. Harold and Clyde throw and unconcious Howard into the car and their off, they’ll be back at 6. And TOTALLY won’t be home hours early for hyjinks. Totally.  Luna arrives to find a massive binder on feline care. Someone went to the Amy Santiago school of binders. It says to feed the cats at 10 sharp.. and it’s 10:02. Luna tries feeding them but the cats instead attack her in a full on psycotic rage and dump food all over her, so dinners on her. 

Anyways, Luna then tries walking the cats which goes as well as you’d expect.. not because she had to put harneses on cats and expect them to do anything at a certain time, but because they pull hard. I can relate to that with my dog.. not my cat. He just goes wherever he wants because he’s old and kind of an asshole.  Anyways, with the cats now messy from running over a guy with a cake, because of course, Luna looks up what to do next which is.. give.. them a bath. 

Who.. who does that. I know their messy, but use a rag or something. No animal likes being bathed but cats, esepcially one who this episodes shows aren’t declawed (And rightfully so but still), do not LIKE being bathed. Granted they wouldn’t like being cleaned off with a rag or something either, but it still feels less cruel to both them and any prospective babysitter to just hold one down and wipe it off then find the other and repeat. Look witht he walking thing I can see why someone would, in their case because their probably too skittish to let their cats wonder around, and in some cases because said cat is young. But this.. this even for a comedy contrivance is stupid. It’s not the worst uninetional cat abuse i’ve seen in media, Elmyra exists and the mother of the lead of get fuzzy tried putting her cat on a vegetarian diet, which Rob, said lead and a staunch vegetarian himself, not only found concerning but gave said cat the money for takeout.. keep in mind in this strip cats can talk and walk upright. Also I miss when Get Fuzzy was both daily and good. So Luna naturally ends up in the bathtub, soaked and depressed and not sure what to do when her friendly neighborhood sign that the drugs haven’t worn off yet comes by and tells her to shape up if she wants to go to the show with Sam. This gives Luna a great idea. LIke a Zack MOrris great idea it involves breaking the rules.. unlike a Zack Morris idea, it dosen’t involve sexual harassment or a zany scheme. She decides to call Sam, since she’s apparently great with cats and given we saw how she was with chickens last time, not a real stretch. She also pops Mick’s bubble which.. hurts him.. somehow. I dunno.  Anyway cut to Sam arriving. She arrived fast because she was picking a new character up from his gamer’s club meeting: Her brother Simon, who’d been mentioned in side materials but makes his first apperance here. I like him, he has a neat design and i’ts nice to give sam a family life of her own, and he’s a nice if glued to his not-nintendo switch kid. Frankly I hope he and LIncoln meet at some point. I mean he has an opening in his friend group starting next season there’s no way Rusty passes 5th grade. And even if he somehow does, it’s not like adding another member is too much of a stretch given, once they got past courting her, the rest of his group warmly welcomed stella in and it’d be an intresting dynamic having his sister’s girlfriend’s brother in the group. Also if your wondering if i’ll ever stop finding ways to bash rusty in these reviews even when he’s entirely absent..

Anyways, Luna slams the door in the kids face, which he takes in stride , and explains the situation, and after fred fliintstonning him is taken off the table, go with “Sneak him past the cats”. It works because cats never look up at the backs of a gay teenage couple sneaking a small child inside. Luna decides to leave Simon in the entertainment room while she and Sam watch the cats and he finds Clyde’s VR gear and asks to try it on, with Luna reluctantly agreeing as long as he’s careful.. which as far as we see.. yeah he entirely is. The Sharpe’s are good people. 

Cue a montage! Sam helps luna scrub the cats, with brushes as they should’ve done minute one, put them through spa type pampering which is also a call back to the first time we saw the McBride’s house in the series, take selfies, and then sing the cats to sleep, in a really sweet and really well sung lullaby, notable for being the first time Sam’s sung on the show and Allyson Stoner, who I haven’t mentioned but should’ve before this shame on me, does a terrific job and has done a terrific job as Sam in general. Luna thianks her for the help, Sam says no sweat they get to see the show together, and Sam ducks out... before realizing she forgot something. Her wallet... no wait she has that.. OH SHIT HER BROTHER. And before she can get him DOUBLE OH SHIT THE MCBRIDES ARE BACK.  Harold is grumbling about the potato salad... apparenlty Aunt Brenda brought some and wasn’t supposed to. I do like how both McBride dads have their own quirks:While Harold IS the more rational one, he can slip up just like anyone can. Luna prepares to leave.. only to realize oh shit her girlfriend’s brothers in the house still. Her not all complex scheme! She fakes having left something behind to get him out, and once sam calls comes up with a plan: Sneak Simon around back. Sam sneaks around with the bush she ducked into, and we get one of my faviorite tropes: A scooby doo doors sequence! Also the dads speak in unison. Dawww. We also get an adorable bit of Sam gesturing for Luna to hand her the boy. I couldn’t find a gif of it sadly, and I would’ve credited it, but I did find 50 tons of creepy Sam X LIncoln fanart. Just.. why. Why exactly. Why do you do this to me tumblr. And to be clear I have ZERO issue with shipping a character whose sexuality isn’t fully confirmed as just gay in canon with a male character, Bi and Pan representation is important. It’s why I get annoyed at the people who throw a hissy fit any time Della Duck is shipped with Launchpad. Here though I do because it feels like this ship is ENTIRELY a troll, especially since LIncoln has 80 other options, not at all including the icky incest ones, and that I cut and dry have every problem with, and is being done soley to annoy people who ship sam and Luna and are finally enjoying some gay/bi representation on children’s television. If this is a troll then kindly 

Thank you John. So anyways Sam does grab the boy and nearly gets him out the door.. only for the mcbrides to run into their bisexual catsitter shoving a small chubby child out their kitchen window only to have a lesbian fall out into their kitchen. Naturally Howard faints again and Harold is displeased... probably because his husband fainted again.. and you know the shenangians in his kitchen. The only time shenanigans are allowed in that kitchen are when Clyde is sleeping at a friends house for the night and only on the table dammit. They got reinforced oak for a reason.  We cut to the boys playing, which is a nice touch: Clyde being a nice kid dosen’t mind sharing, Simon has similar intrests, and the only time we’ve seen him be eh on sharing is letting Lincoln borrow his new console.. and he not only felt BAD for not wanting him to borrow it and having to try and get it back, but he only did so because the Loud house is insanley chaotic and understandbly he wasn’t sure it’d get back to him safetly. His dad’s rasied him well, he’s a good boy once he got past his ‘Stalking his friends older sister” phase and got into his “anything besides that “ phase.  Luna comes clean to the McBrides and.. Harold appricates the honesty. And both are impressed with how well they took them, with Sam and Luna giving each other credit. So instead of getting upset, especially since Luna was both honest and only called in Sam for help and Simon was an unexpected guest and they both did a fantastic job, they offer to split the money instead. Sam, in a really sweet gesture, then gives Luna her half with no hesitation or prompting from her girlfriend, Luna gives her a cheek smooch and they hug. Then Luna acciently wakes the cats, and we end on the girls singing the cats, Simon and the McBrides all to sleep. Also Luna’s hallucination is alsleep.. those drugs wore off hours ago after all.  Final Thoughts:  A really fantastic setup. Once again the show shows it’s slowly gained talent for taking stock plots (in this case a babysitting episode) and making them actually intresting, mostly by having the characters behave reasonably. While it didn’t really expand Sam’s character, it didn’t really need to , the previous ep with her having fleshed her out as a sweet, kind girl with a talent for animals, and Simon is a wonderful addition to the series massive cast of side characters that , unlike some additions , will hopefully show up again. Seriously half the reason I bitch about Rusty is that the show is great at making charcters, and improving them after a few bumpy episodes as seen with Clyde, Lori and Luann, but yet still uses him and dosen’t make him any funnier, while I can name handfuls of characters who either need more apperances (Girl Jordan) Or haven’t shown up again at all (Carol Pingery, Rocky, Maggie). And that’s not even all of them obviously, but my point stands. But given he’s the brother of one of the main characters girlfriend and would fit in with the main character well, I have a feeling we’ll see simon again at some point.  I also really liked seeing the McBrides, mostly because I haven’t seen many of their episodes, and found them to be delightful, helped by having wonderful va’s behind them as standard for the show and great chemsitry and it was a nice bonus to have the shows two main gay couples interact, without it feeling at all forced, and neither did Sam’s inclusion. And while we haven’t gotten a full on kiss with Sam and Luna, which really they should, CN beat them again on that, the cheek kiss and hug was still very sweet, as is the episode really. It’s funny, heartwarming, and really enjoyable. While itd osen’t have as much emotional weight as the last two eps, I like that it didn’t: For once the conflict was low key but understandable and now Sam and Luna are a full couple, they can just do cute couple shit and get into wacky shenanigans like any other couple on this show without any angst attached. It’s really nice. It also shows that no, a couple being together isn’t boring fuck off will they or won’t they, but i’ve ranted enough about stuff unrelated to this episode. I really liked it and hope to come back to these two someday.  For now as I sign off Pride Month is far from over... as next up I have multiple things planned, but one of the biggest is a FIVE PART series on Red Action and Enid from OK KO. Yes FIVE. All 3 of their romantic eps, and Red’s first two for proper context both for the finale, which uses both episodes as part of the plot, and for a proper view of her character arc and to ease readers into the series better. So be there for that, and a donald duck birthday celebration, and until then, later days! 

[sierraraeck]

Dancing, Drugs, and Lies (Pt.1)

BAU x OC Aundreya

Masterlist | Series Masterlist

(This is my gif so please give credit if used)

Summary: Morgan’s cousin is in danger. Aundreya decides to use some of her ‘special talents’ to help the team find her. Story seven.

Category: Working a case with the team. A bit angsty, I guess.

Warnings: Cussing. Drugs. Implied drug abuse. Normal CM gore and situations.

Word Count: 3.1k

A/N: Just a reminder that this is all fiction and I don’t actually know about drugs or exotic dancers. Also, I didn’t want this to be 3 parts, but Tumblr told me that I can’t have more than 250 text blocks so … here we are.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

It was 3am. Three. Fricking. AM. And I was getting a call. I had finally gotten my brain to shut off for the best quality sleep of which I was capable not even two hours earlier, and I was getting a damn phone call.

“What?” I answered, my voice groggy and annoyed.

“We need you here, right now. Morgan’s cousin is missing.”

That was all I needed to snap me right out of my complainey mood. I was already out of bed and felt wide awake when answering, “I’m on my way.”

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

When I got to the office, everyone except for JJ and Rossi were there waiting.

“Aundreya,” Penelope said.

“Hi, I came as quickly as possible, what’s happening?”

“Morgan’s sister came to him saying that his cousin never returned home last night. She went to check her apartment and called her several times and nothing.”

“What about her phone? Can you track it?”

“I already tried but it was left at her apartment.”

“And there are no other places around that she spends a lot of time at?” I asked.

“No. If there are, no one knows about them,” Penelope answered. I saw Morgan standing a few feet away and I walked over to him.

No one wants to be asked how they’re doing, so I opted for, “Hey, we’re going to do everything we can to find her, okay.” He was clearly distressed, a hand on his head and he was slouching, something our big brave Morgan hardly ever did.

He met my eyes. “I don’t know what to do. Sarah and I split up and looked for her, Garcia tracked her phone, and none of us know where she was or should have been, or what she was doing.” He was trying to keep it together, but I could hear the panicked undertone.

“Okay, good to know what we can rule out. Do we have a picture of her that we can put out?”

“Yes,” JJ interjected. She and Rossi had just arrived. “I’m going to have Garcia get one out.” I nodded.

I placed a hand on Derek’s shoulder and looked straight into his eyes, “We’re going to find her.” That was a promise I intended to keep. No matter what. I walked back toward the rest of the group to see if there was any new information.

“Hey, how’d you get here so fast?” Rossi asked.

“I came as quickly as possible.”

“You live farther away from here than I do.”

“I said I came as quickly as possible.” I shrugged and he raised his eyebrows at me.

“I’m letting this go, only because we have more pressing issues.”

“I think that’s a good plan,” I agreed. I love Rossi, but sometimes he felt like a parole officer. Leave it to him to put together that I sped about 30 over to get here in under 10.

“Okay, we sent out a picture of her to the media as a missing person,” JJ said, rushing back into the room. I checked my phone and all the air inside me abruptly escaped once I saw the picture. I know her.

“I know her. I literally saw her last night,” I blurted before I could even think about what I was saying.

“Wait what? You saw my cousin last night?” Derek asked, chiming into the conversation.

“Yeah. Morgan, what does your cousin do for a living?” I wanted to be sure that this was the same person before I let on any more.

He looked perplexed, but answered anyway. “She’s a finance consultant.”

“During the day,” I mumbled.

“What? What are you saying?” Derek was on a short fuse and I was going to have to remember that.

“I’m saying that at night, she works in a strip club.” Everyone’s faces contorted around me into a variety of different emotions.

“How do you know that?” Emily asked.

“I went out for a walk last night-”

“Last night as in 24 hours ago, or tonight as in 5 hours ago?”

“Last night. I went for a walk because I couldn’t sleep and needed some fresh air. I walked by a strip club and saw her exiting it in a nice robe and I could tell she was wearing some dancing outfit underneath,” I said. It actually sounded like a pretty plausible story, but I still got skeptical looks from people.

“That had to have been just before she went missing,” JJ said.

“How do you even know it was her?” Morgan asked.

I held up my phone with her picture as if that was the answer. He was looking for more, though, so I simply stated, “I recognized her photo.”

“So if she’s been working at a strip club, that makes her a higher risk victim,” Prentiss said.

“Sure, but there are specific rules outlined for dancers. They do what they get paid for, and only what they get paid for. I don’t know a single dancer that would allow herself to go home with a customer,” I said. I gained more weary looks.

“So you don’t think there is any chance that she got abducted from the club or from outside of it maybe?” JJ asked.

“It’s highly unlikely.”

“But it’s possible?” Morgan asked.

“Yes. It’s possible. But if that is the case, this guy is super sophisticated. He’d have to get around all of the security cameras,” I answered.

“I’ll go check those now. What club?” Penelope asked.

“The Camelot,” I answered. She nodded and rushed as fast as she could in her nearly six inch heels to her bat cave.

“I can’t believe this,” Morgan said. It was Rossi’s turn to console, and I turned to follow Garcia to see if there was any way I could help her go through the footage. On my way, a familiar hand grabbed my arm and spun me around.

“You weren’t on a walk,” Spencer stated, confusion and, even a bit of anger, in his voice.

“Yes, I was.”

“What time did you leave?”

“11:25ish.”

“How far did you walk?”

“Down a few blocks and back.”

“What time did you get home?”

I did some quick math. “12:10.”

He studied my body language, trying to spot anything that would indicate otherwise.

“Why would you go walking by yourself at midnight?”

“I told you. I couldn’t sleep and needed some fresh air. Don’t worry, I had my gun with me,” I said. That part wasn’t a lie. I did in fact bring my gun.

“Fine.” He released my arm and stood there staring at me. I returned his gaze for a couple of moments before continuing my path to Garcia. Of course Spencer would decide to fact check my story for any inconsistencies.

The FBI hired me, which was great and all, but it wasn’t exactly like they were paying me. Kind of, but not really. I was as close to a volunteer as the FBI could manage. However, I needed extra money, just a little something that I could have for a rainy day. The best way I could think to achieve that goal, was to revert back to my old ways. My really old ways. Before I was thrown in prison, while I was in the gang and running the ring, I was dancing. I had been since the moment I landed on the streets. My stage name, and the one the ring came to call me by, was Alionth. I became one of the most well known dancers in the entire Chicago area, and even got prospects from clubs all around the nation. Once I got out of prison, it wasn’t that difficult for me to persuade the owners of certain clubs to let me ‘guest star’ here and there when I was available. One of those clubs was the Camelot. They allowed me to pop in on short notice (since I never knew when we’d close a case), and shift around their dance schedule. Of course, having me back drew more attention to that club, but my sketchy schedule actually worked in their favor. The manager said that they had more guys coming in, hoping to land on the right night that I’d be there. It kept customers in suspense and coming back for more. And they paid me really well.

Morgan’s cousin, Cinthia, or Thia as we knew her, was one of the girls that I worked with. She was there the night before and I saw her walk into a private showing room. After that, I don’t remember seeing her. I assumed she had just finished the dance and went home. Based on what Garcia found, or more like what she didn’t find, that wasn’t the case.

“Riiiiiight … there! Did you see it?” she asked me. There was a portion of the outside security footage that started over. The scene barely faltered, but with someone as good as Garcia, barely wasn’t enough to protect them.

“Yeah, I do,” I said. “This is not good.”

I returned to the rest of the team to give them the information.

“So this guy is sophisticated enough to hack into the feed and set it on a loop before he abducts the women,” Emily confirmed.

“Or worse. Someone on the inside is helping him change the footage,” I offered. Neither one was a good scenario.

“Chambers, Prentiss, why don’t you go down there and see if you can get anyone to talk,” Hotch ordered. Prentiss nodded at me and I followed her lead out to the elevator. Hopefully, without my wig and elaborate outfits, the girls wouldn’t recognize me.

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

We entered the club and it was strange being there at 4am. I was usually out of there at 2 or 2:30 at the latest, so I never knew how it looked when it was more calm. There were about a third of the people there than during the busy hours, but luckily I still saw some girls that we could talk to. We approached them and I recognized them immediately. They were the two new girls who unfortunately had to work the crappy hours until they moved up the ranks. Steph had huge, curly blonde hair and Heidi had short black waves.

“Hi, I’m Emily and this is Aundreya. Could we speak with you for a moment?” Preniss asked. I was definitely going to let her take the lead on this one. I wanted to stay as inconspicuous to both parties as possible.

“What for?” Steph asked.

“We were just wanting to ask you about a woman who works here, Cindi Burns?” Prentiss held out the photo to them.

“I don’t know a Cindi, but the girl you’re showing me is Thia. She works here,” Heidi answered.

“Okay, well have you seen Thia recently?” Prentiss pressed.

They both just shook their heads. “Why?”

“She’s been reported missing.”

“Missing? By who, I thought Thia didn’t have anyone,” Heidi asked.

“Her cousin.”

“Oh damn. We didn’t see her last night. Sorry,” Steph said. Both of them turned to walk away and that’s how I knew something was up. Most of us stuck together, and were concerned when we heard about something happening to one of us. Not only because we cared, but because we knew there was a likelihood that we could be next.

“Was she with someone?” I asked.

They slowly turned around to look at me, sizing me up.

“Don’t think so. Sorry, we don’t know anything.” Lies, more lies. I shot Emily a look. She’d caught it too. I tilted my head in the opposite direction of the girls, asking her to let me talk to them alone. She arched an eyebrow.

“Trust me,” I said. She complied and walked away. I chased after the girls.

“Please,” I called after them, “She is in trouble and I know you know what’s going on.”

They ignored me.

“Look, we don’t have a problem but we could depending on if and how you answer these next questions,” I threatened. That’s when they heard it. The sass in my voice that was always more amplified when I was here, playing my character.

Both of their heads whipped around. “There’s no way.”

“Steph, Heidi-”

“Alionth?” they screeched and tossed their arms around me.

“It’s me,” I confirmed.

“What the hell are you doing with the police?” Steph asked.

“I know the cousin who reported Thia missing. Somehow I never put together that they were related,” I said, avoiding their real question.

“Oh wow. Small world,” Heidi said.

“Yeah. So she didn’t show last night?”

“No. She was supposed to, but she never came,” Heidi answered.

“Do you have any idea what happened to her?”

“I mean, I saw her go into the private room with that guy, but after that, nothing.”

“Have you ever seen that man before? Could you describe him?”

“Not really. It was dark,” Heidi said.

“No, but I’ve seen him before. Well, I didn’t recognize his face, but he was wearing a long trench coat that I’ve seen before,” Steph said.

I was about to ask if there was anything about the coat that stood out when a girl came stumbling out of the bathroom. “Help,” she croaked.

Prentiss and I rushed over to her.

“I tried to stop it,” she said. Her breathing was labored and she didn’t look familiar.

“Tried to stop what?” I asked.

“I tried. I tried. He did it again.” She wasn’t making any sense and she looked high.

“Who? Who’s he?” I pushed.

“The guy in the coat.” She started coughing, then collapsed.

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

She woke up in the hospital dazed and confused. I stayed with her while Prentiss went back to report to the team and assist them with whatever else they needed.

“What happened?” she asked.

“You collapsed after we found you in the Camelot. You were high,” I told her. Once we got her to the hospital and she was stable, we looked through her clothes and found a small bag full of a white powder. The lab was running it to figure out what it was. “What’s your name?”

“I’m Amanda. I dance at the gentlemen’s club a few blocks away. Who are you?”

“I’m Agent Chambers-”

“Agent?”

“Yes. We are investigating the disappearance of-”

“Multiple women in the area?” she finished eagerly.

“No, actually. Just the disappearance of Cindi Burns, also known as Thia.”

“What? No,” she quickly became irritated. “This has been happening to exotic dancers all over the city.”

“What? How do you know this?”

“I’ve been tracking it. I bounce around a lot between clubs, and that’s when I realized that I kept seeing the same man. That doesn’t seem like a big deal, men go to multiple clubs, right? But it is weird if he wears the same exact coat each time he comes, and each time, he asks for a private dance with one of our girls, and then that very same girl goes missing the next day.” I was impressed at how observant she was. There’s a lot going on in a club, so most girls just tune it out and only focus on what they’re doing.

“Wow. How long has this been going on?”

“Probably four or five months. No one is looking for these girls because most of them don’t have people who are looking out for them. I tried telling the police but they brushed them off as run-aways.” She was very passionate, and I respected her dedication.

“Do you want to do something in law enforcement when you graduate?” I asked. Her eyes went wide and I knew I was right.

“Yes. How did you know that?” she asked in wonder.

“I’m with the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit. It’s part of my job,” I smiled. These girls didn’t hear it enough that needing financial help to get them through college was acceptable, that what they were doing was an acceptable form of secondary income to get them a higher education. “You seem like you’d be a great addition to the system.”

“Thanks. You’re literally my age, how is it possible that you are already working in a top unit of the FBI?” Her excitement quickly diminished. “You’re probably looking at me and wondering what in the hell I’m doing.”

“No, actually. I’ve been where you are. Actually, I still am where you are. I dance at the Camelot occasionally.” Amanda looked at me bewildered, but it brought light to her eyes.

“You work for the FBI and dance?”

“It’s complicated.”

“Must be. What are you going to do about this?”

“Can I ask you a few more questions?”

“Absolutely. What do you need to know?” It gave me hope that this woman was so invested in helping.

“Walk me through what happened and what you remember.”

She told me that she’d gone for a ‘smoke break’ around midnight because that’s when the man usually showed up at the club. She looked around for him but never saw him. Amanda had only ever seen him at three of the five clubs she worked at, so she called the other two to ask them if a man like that was there. When the Camelot told her that someone there matched her description of him, she hailed a cab and drove over. When she arrived, she went straight to the private rooms, and found him forcing a girl to take drugs. When he saw her, he panicked and yanked her into the room and forced her to take the drugs as well. They immediately kicked in, she recalled, but she had enough wits about her to keep hold of the bag because the drug was nothing she recognized. She finally came-to in the bathroom, but by then, Thia was already gone and Prentiss and I had arrived.

I called Aaron and relayed the information.

“She messed up his routine and he panicked, causing him to get sloppy,” he told me.

“Yeah, but that means he might accelerate, which means …” I didn’t want to say it.

“I know. Hopefully we’ll get the toxicology report back soon so we can narrow down our search based on whatever drugs are in that bag,” he said, still trying to stay positive, even though deep down he knew this didn’t look good.

“How’s Morgan?”

“As expected. See if Amanda remembers anything else, then head back here.”

“Will do.”

Part 2

[cxhnow]

Growing Up With Chloe x Halle

The Bailey sisters on why they didn’t switch up overnight — the world just caught up to their speed.

On their 2018 debut album The Kids Are Alright and on Freeform’s Grown-ish, a 19- and 17-year-old Chloe and Halle Bailey sang “Watch out world, I’m grown now.” So you’ll have to forgive them for acting out a little on their new sophomore record — they warned us. While Ungodly Hour might sound like a pivot to the grown ‘n’ sexy side of R&B similar to plenty of their peers, trading TKAA’s colorful doodles for chrome angel wings and skin-tight latex, they’re really just living the same truths they preached up and down TKAA: Own your insecurities, work hard, don’t get distracted by drama. “When we created this album, we said, Okay, we want to show all the different sides and layers of us,” Chloe tells me, sitting side by side with her sister, over Zoom from their family home in Los Angeles. “We don’t just want to show this one side. A lot of people still think we’re teenagers.”

Now 22 and 20, the former child stars are ready to explore the topics they’ve been singing about since they were kids making covers on YouTube, the ones that landed them a record deal with music royalty before they were old enough to vote. The new album calls out former flings, seethes with jealousy, and apologizes when necessary. Lyrics like “It’s four o’clock / you sendin’ me too many pictures of your …” and “No drama, no baby mamas” immediately started dating rumors online, roping in their Grown-ish co-star Diggy Simmons. While most fans are having fun with it, those a little, um, outside of the Baileys’ age demographic are still struggling (try to get through this Breakfast Club questioning without cringing). In case you missed it: They no longer have to change Beyoncé lyrics from “You showed your ass” to “You showed your butt” — on “Do It,” they proudly sing “I’m a bad girl, shake a li’l ass.” Alongside all the perks of growing up, the album makes sure to normalize the struggles, too.

When the coronavirus pandemic sent Halle home to L.A. from The Little Mermaid rehearsals in London, their house (complete with mom, dad, and younger brother, Branson) became their album rollout headquarters. One of the few albums to not be pushed due to the coronavirus, Ungodly Hour was originally planned for June 5, but the deaths of George Floyd in Minnesota, Breonna Taylor in Kentucky, and far too many others across the country, created a moment that Chloe and Halle felt they couldn’t ignore. They pushed the album one week, to June 12, and continued to use their platform to share petitions, funds, and awareness, while also personally signing petitions and making donations. As both an escape and work, they’ve been focusing their energy on the album, diving into elaborate DIY remote performances and mashing up songs, but making sure to leave Sundays for rest. After a busy weekend tearing up the BET Awards and Global Citizen virtual stages, channeling Aaliyah in one performance and going full rock and roll in the other, they’ll be back on Instagram Live this Thursday for Ungodly Hour Tea Time, where they often chill out in Snuggies, try to remember what day of quarantine it is, and update their supporters on their lives.

How has it been, emotionally, to have to sing and dance while all of this turmoil is happening? Halle Bailey: Emotionally, what’s keeping us afloat is music and feeling better through the art. I think that’s why we love music so much because even though we create it and we sing it, we use it as our healer, too. Everything going on really makes you reflect. But we’re young black women, this hasn’t been anything new to us. Our community has known about this for a very long time, and it’s constantly upsetting. But what I’m appreciating about technology and social media is that our voices can’t be silenced anymore. And the things that they used to try to hide, they can’t any longer. We’re seeing these injustices happen over video, and [so is] the rest of the world who’s usually ignorant to the racism that’s been underlying in this community. They’re seeing it and they’re upset as well. So it’s good because change can only happen when we’re all working towards a common goal. I can’t wait to see what comes out of this.

I feel like every time we have one of these moments where everyone is just mourning so publicly in such a communal way, there’s also music that uplifts us. Talk me through deciding to postpone the album.

HB:  During the height of the George Floyd protests, emotionally, we just were not right to release a project. Our little brother and our father — when we see a video of George Floyd getting killed in the street, we think that could be them tomorrow. And we wanted to shine the light on what needs to be seen. That George Floyd video, Breonna Taylor, all of the other brothers and sisters that we have lost to police brutality — that is what needed to be at the forefront and what still needs to be at the forefront.

And when The Kids Are Alright came out that was right around March for Our Lives, the Women’s March was happening. How does this moment compare for you?

Chloe Bailey: Wow, now that I’m thinking about it, this time, it feels a bit more like change is really going to happen. Around The Kids Are Alright, we went to the March for Our Lives and we were around that incredible energy; it was really positive and uplifting because we were all banding together. But for some reason, this time right now … I feel like we have the entire world’s attention. Actual change is going to come out of what’s been happening. So, it feels the same but different, right?

HB: Yeah, I definitely think this one feels more massive. Feels like, Okay, maybe we’re getting somewhere this time. Maybe it won’t just go away a week after all of this is over, you know?

In the early stages of Ungodly Hour, did you go in wanting it to be something that showcased your maturity? Or did that come out as you were going with it?

HB: We absolutely knew that we wanted it to showcase our growth, the evolution of us into young women. Because I feel like The Kids Are Alright was very much us finding ourselves and that project took three years to make. So with that length, you can kind of go through and see like, Oh, wow, they must have been really shifting through and figuring out what’s wrong and what’s right. So, for this project, it was like, Yes, we are here. We are now grown women. I’m 20. My sister’s about to be 22 this week.

CB: Hey!

HB: So we took that and we were just like, Let’s show who we’ve become. And let’s show the side of us that people don’t see whether it’s the naughtier side of us or the insecure side of us, or the part that picks every single thing apart about ourselves out. We wanted to show all the layers of us as young women, once you kind of know who you are, but also you’re still learning.

You’ll never be a finished product.

CB: Never, constantly evolving. And that’s the goal.

There have always been glimpses at your boss-bitch attitudes, hints of it in your music and on Grown-ish. Do you ever get the sense that you’re waiting for the industry and fans to sort of open their eyes and catch up to where you’re at?

CB: I’m not gonna lie, there are some moments. And I remember when we were even creating this album we were putting a certain pressure on ourselves. Because we were thinking, What do we want the world to hear from us? What do we think the world wants us to sound like? What would make people become more receptive to us? I remember we were creating for, like, one to two months in that mind-set, and we were creating some of the worst music we ever have.

HB: Yeah, it was. It was trash.

CB: It was because we weren’t creating from our hearts. We weren’t being honest with ourselves, and as a musician, you gotta be vulnerable and share that true part of yourself or the music isn’t going to be very good. Once we threw that out the window and said, You know what, let’s create a good body of art, the album continued to write itself. But that main lesson for us was never change yourself; the world will catch up to you when it’s ready. I feel like they’re kinda ready now for this project. It’s older and more mature than The Kids Are Alright because we’re older and more mature than who we were when we created that.

In making a more vulnerable album, were you nervous about expanding your image in that way? Was there anything that you debated not including or things that didn’t make the cut?

HB: Wow, so, I will say that our parents kind of had a hard time … well, not a hard time, but just like opening their eyes to the fact that, Okay, these are the topics that we’ve decided to talk about. This is what’s happening. It was really fun for us to watch them. I completely understand how they feel because, you know, we’ve been just little babies to them and now we’re growing and they’re hearing [about] certain things that we’ve been through, or that we just wrote in the music. They have been like, “Oh, okay, so that’s that.”

Fans tweet collabs at you all the time, but what’s your actual approach to choosing who you work with? (Ungodly Hour features just two major collaborations: Swae Lee on “Catch Up” and the title track with Disclosure.)

CB: Definitely we have to be fans of them, number one. Even though we make music, we are such big music fans and music lovers. Two, we have to feel like the person can sonically fit the song. We don’t want to throw just anyone on a song just because they have a big name, which is really cool too. It’s really great to get big features. But it’s so funny because we have a big wish list of who we hear on which songs and some people bite, some people don’t. It’s always fun to see what the end result will be. And I know we’ll start putting out remixes and stuff soon, which will be fun.

HB: It’s very interesting because it’s hard during the creative process. You kind of have to open yourself up to somebody you do not know when you make music; it’s a part of your heart that you’re sharing. So, it’s a very intimate thing to do with a stranger. Which is why with my sister it’s really easy. But when it comes to us working with new people, we gravitate towards the ones who have very open spirits and souls, nice people.

Chloe, would you ever produce for other artists?

CB: Absolutely, 1,000 percent. That would be so much fun. I would be getting out of my comfort zone, because the only person who I can comfortably produce in front of is my sister and blast it loud over the speakers. Whenever we have other sessions with other producers and we’re collaborating, I’ll put my headphones in, I won’t blast it on the aux with theirs. I have my little computer on my lap because I like using weird sounds and samples and chopping them up in a weird way. Sometimes it’s trial and error, so I don’t want people to hear my mistakes.

HB: She’s amazing and she should just blast it everywhere she goes, okay?

CB: I would definitely love, love, love to do that.

Yes, we want to hear you everywhere! So, when shelter in place started, you guys very flawlessly transitioned to doing these home covers and incredible remote performances. What’s the process of coming up with these concepts, especially the more elaborate ones?

HB: Oh my gosh, it’s really just a bunch of play. When we’re coming up with concepts, our creative director Andrew Makadsi is really amazing at seeing our vision for the songs before we actually perform them live. It’s been really interesting and exciting to have new songs to play with. But as far as the covers, you know, those are easy. We can do those in our sleep; we just love singing other people’s songs.

How long does it take to pull together a remote performance like the Today show one for example?

CB: Our amazing creative director came up with that and it took him a day. He just kept sending us a bunch of references and photo ideas he thought of and we picked the backdrop we wanted. The song arrangement, because we always like to switch it up every time, takes —

HB: Like a day.

CB: It takes us like ten minutes to arrange the songs. But then we took some of the choreography [by Kendra Bracy and Ashanti Ledon] that we learned during the music video shoot, and we added new choreography ourselves for the Today show performance. We were like on the floor and stuff — we did that the night before we filmed it. That took us like 30 minutes because we wanted to make sure the moves weren’t awkward because we’re not choreographers, so we would prop up our iPhone and that would be our little dance-studio mirror.

You guys are really doing it by yourselves in quarantine. So, what’s the tennis court situation? Has that always been there?

HB: Yeah, it has actually, we just haven’t really used it. I mean, we’ve been where we live for about two years now. We never really thought to use it until quarantine happened ‘cause we always go somewhere else to shoot performances. That’s been a beautiful evolution — using what we have. We feel so blessed to just be able to do what we love and also do it somewhere nice.

The tennis court performances have been life-giving.

CB: It’s been so useful, from the at-home photo shoots we have to do and then the performances, like I’m so grateful. We don’t actually know how to play tennis, but there are basketball hoops on each side so our little brother Branson’s usually out there. So, when we do have to do these things, I feel bad because he’s always out there shooting hoops, but he’s like, “Okay, you can have it for two hours …” [x]

[aerial-ace97]

Chrono Buster

This class is built for a 3.5 D&D homebrew world known as Sekrezia.

Base Description: Chrono Busters have scratched only the very surface of the elemental properties of time.  They study the cosmos and ripples of time that come forth from the past and use the little bits that they can grasp to harness simple tricks of timing to impossibilities.

Races Opinion on Chrono Buster*

Preferred Class:  Hoata are obsessed with history and often travel around large archaeological sights with the presence of many Chrono Busters.  Marelienths have studied the workings of time for centuries and hope to use this to find a time where logic prevails over emotions.

Common Class: Dwarves, Jaebrins, Grimlocks, Gorems, Rathens, Neothoids, Blazedeads, Luminians, Masquerions, Pendragons, Spellscales, Goliaths, Seacalled are commonly Chrono Busters.

No Preference: Implins, Litesprites, Purgatorians, Aurashades, Troglings, Duergar, Gremlins, Sinneans, Viscerans, Hexborn, Cullhearted, Titanhearts, Lyroshi, Scoprix, Karioliths, Murklongs, Ordenfey, Ishims have no preference when it comes to the Chrono Buster class.

Rare Class: Elves, Irinaga, Rutoths, Hordelings, Ogres, Lizardfolk, Shinobi, Melcrians, Ursocans, Castleclad are rarely Chrono Busters.

Never Happens: Orcs are dull witted and strong.  Why on earth would they bother with time, especially as that is a power of the gods they so fear and nor for mortals.  A certain monastic segment of Avens defended the time properties that first gave rise to Chrono Busters, and despise its theft.  Out of malice but also out of their interest in its protection, they swear off the powers of chronomancy.  Orashta see time as something that should not be toyed with and have history with the Boneruned that puts both of them against time magic (though only the Orashta have a great memory of this).  Boneruned see time in a very different way then most and see their lives very quickly and playing around with something that they don’t really understand is uninteresting to them, especially as they see it as being a construct of the fey only.  Their dealings with historical findings make them feel as though they are enough a part of history that they need not mess with time.

*(A note on race options - There are no hard limits on the classes a race can be.  Even if a class is listed as one a race would never become, you can still choose that class.  In this case though, your backstory should almost entirely be dedicated to why they took that class.  This is only in my world though, and can be altered for whoever would desire to.  Also on races, it should be noted that humans have no preference on anything and are not listed in the above.  It should also be noted that until races are released or you learn more about them in the world, you won’t know most of these races.)

Abilities: Their main stat is Intelligence and low stat is Dexterity.  Their most important stat after Intelligence is Wisdom.*

Hit Die: d4

*Each class has a main ability.  To be this class, you must have at least 14 or more in this ability without racial abilities, therefore you cannot play a character without a 14 in something.  The low stat and second most important stats are simply recommendations and the most common way the class will be built when seen as NPCs.

Class Language (Each class has access to a language which they were granted by the God Jiaren.  Teaching this to anyone who isn’t already granted this language immediately loses them all of their powers in this class) - Veilwords - Spoken by Clerics, Path Wanderers, Dream Caster, Chrono Buster, Astral Watchers, and System Breakers and clergies.

Class Skills: Spellcraft, Craft, Disable Device, Knowledge (Arcana), Use Magic Device, Knowledge (History), Search, Decipher Script, Knowledge (Planes), Perception, Survival, Knowledge (Nobility & Royalty), Knowledge (Nature), Knowledge (Dungeoneering)

Weapons and Armor Proficiency - A Chrono Buster cannot use armor or shields.  They can use guns, crossbows, bows, and slings.

Inherent Abilities – A Chronomancer draws from the Sorcerer/Wizard spell list and uses an Intelligence modifier.  It changes out spells by the spell stripping method.  Almost all time events can only be performed in a battle situation and are highly adjustable by the DM.

Time Shielding – By bending time around you, you can add your Int modifier to your dodge bonus of AC.

Arcane Time – You can manipulate any of your spells to trigger down the line instead of right away.  If it is a spell with a duration it must be triggered within the same time as the duration would be.  If it is not a spell with a duration then it must be triggered within as many rounds as your level.

Timed Precision – By bending and calculating the precision of a shot as well as the time currents of both the enemy and the projectile, a Chrono Buster is able to add his Intelligence modifier to any ranged attack (this applies a secondary time for Sniper Rifles).  If they have a negative value to Dexterity, this still applies.

Timewinder – At 2nd level, you gain timebending devices.  This can be thrown like an Alchemist’s bomb, so as a Standard.  This causes an area of the slow spell within 5 ft of it residing on a corner.  In addition, projectiles that travel through this area are at a -6 to the attack.  You also can make an additional attack as with haste in these zones.  You can create 1 Timewinder per day and you can have up to 10 + your Int modifier at any time.  This cannot stack with Haste.

Extend Spell – At 3rd level, you gain the Extend Spell Bonus Feat.

Phase Rush – At 5th level, you can choose to slow down time slightly to allow you some extra speed in attacking.  You attack as if affected by a flurry so that you get an extra attack at your highest BAB but all attacks are at a minus 2.  You can do this as many times per day as your Intelligence modifier.  At 11th and 14th level, you can add one additional attack on to the front end of this at your highest BAB.  This cannot stack with flurries.

Spell Manipulation – At 6th level, as many times as your Int modifier per day, you can choose an active spell of an enemy you know of that has a duration and halve the time it has left to be active.

Time Slow – At 8th level, you can use a move action to slow all entities in a battle.  They then all have a -8 to AC until the end of your turn.

Quicken Spell – At 9th level, you gain the Quicken Spell Bonus Feat.

Time Hop – At 12th level, at the end of a turn, you can choose to warp back to wherever you started at the beginning of that turn.  You can do this as many times per day as your Int modifier.

Reverberating Time – At 12th level, you can make a touch attack against someone that causes them to lose all free and bonus actions for the next turn.

Alternate Timelines – At 13th level, once per day, at the start of your turn you can cause two different timelines to be created for yourself.  You can then perform two separate full turns for yourself.  At the end of this, you choose whichever turn you think turned out better.  What happens in one timeline does not happen in the other and all events from the one you didn’t choose are cancelled.

Time Interruption – At 16th level, once per day, you can choose to take a turn at any time that is not your own.  This then becomes your new initiative.

Split Second Swap – At 16th level, once per day, you can choose to make two standard actions in a turn instead of taking a move action.

Rearrange – At 17th level, by bending the properties of time at the start of a battle, a Chrono Buster can buff or minus 4 from all unit’s initiative.  You can only do this once per day and must expend 100 xp to do so.  All units affected can attempt a Will Save with a DC of 12 + your Int modifier to resist this effect.

Timeless – At 18th level, you no longer age and cannot be affected by aging effects.

Time Stop – At 19th level, you can stop time for as much time as the Time Stop ability as well as an additional Intelligence modifier number of rounds.

Chrono Bust – At 20th level, once per day, you can go back in time a whole round in battle in order to reverse all damage and events in that round.  A Chrono Buster must keep track of damage from the previous round themselves if they wish to do this.

Temporal Shift – At 20th level, you are able to travel into the Temporal Plane and use your abilities to manipulate it to your advantage.  You can go back or forward in time up to Xd6 hours.  The X is equal to your level.  This ability only allows you to travel around and observe this time period and only for half the amount of time as how far you can travel and in this form you cannot be seen nor can you interact with the world.  This ability negates any situations where you or player characters would be involved in the event as the Temporal Plane assumes that things will change based on your will in that regard.

[inevitably-johnlocked]

What are your favorite johnlock fics of all time?

Ohhhh.

Ohhh noo. 

Nonny you’re cruel.

Okay so funny story: 

Someone asked me this exact thing a couple years ago. 

I started a fic rec list offline at that time

Said list kept growing and growing as I decided to start sorting my fics.

It’s now a couple years later, and the list has over 300 fics on it XD.

So you see my dilemma LOL. 

I have done a few fic lists in the past along this vein:

Top 20 Fave 40K+ w. Fics (April 2017 )

Ten Fave Short Johnlock Fics (Easy Reads April 2018)

25 Fave Johnlock One Shots (April 2018)

Top 10 Fave Fics (September 2018)

So what should I do today? How about the fics I ALWAYS re-read when I feel like I just need something familiar and oh so delicious? Would that be okay? Fics that I never hesitate to read again? Note that this list will probably change in a few months’ time as I re-read newer fics I’ve recently bookmarked; if I’m in a certain mood, a fic will get added and another removed, LOL. In fact, I’ve had this sitting in my drafts from quite awhile before I finally posted it, LOL. Waited a week, because my “feels” kept changing, HAH!

I have WAY more than 30 of these, but I had to stop somewhere! So here’s the criteria for these ones today:

I’ve read them more than 5 times since I bookmarked them

I read them start to finish, without skipping anything even though I know what happens.

That’s it. It’s just so I can keep my list down, LOL. Seriously, I love SO many fics that this list was HARD to do. Hope you enjoy!

I-J’s TOP 30 READ-AGAIN FICS (MARCH 2019)

The Strait of Juan de Fuca by mightypog (T, 6,400 w. || Vacation, Love Confessions, Friends to Lovers, Canada, Post-TRF, Love Confessions) – Sherlock is back and all seems forgiven, but something is missing between him and John. Their friendship initially appears intact, but Sherlock doesn’t understand why John seems to be slipping away. Finally, in terror, he tries to reconnect with John by taking him to the one place that seems to inspire any emotional interest in John any more: the Canadian wilderness. While there, Sherlock faces his greatest fear.

Fa Subito by kim47 (E, 6,659 w. || Suit Porn, Cockblocker Mycroft, Obsessed Sherlock, PWP) – John wears a suit. Sherlock finds it extremely distracting.

Bread and Wine and Curry Once a Week by cwb (E, 8,737 w. || Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Stroppy Sherlock, Love Letters, POV John) – Sherlock asks John for relationship advice. Little does he know that it’s him that Sherlock is in love with.

The Emergency Contact Series by blueink3 (M, 11,763 w. across 2 works || 5 and 1′s, Whump, Mutual Pining, Fluff and Angst, Caring Sherlock / John, Scars) – The first time John Watson’s emergency contact is called is the first time Sherlock Holmes finds out that he has the job. The first time Sherlock Holmes realizes he needs an emergency contact is the first time he mentally appoints John Watson with the job.

Iris by slashscribe (E, 11,948 w. | Parentlock, Pining Sherlock, Post-S3) – Sherlock does his best to make John happy when John comes back to 221B with his new baby after the events of Season 3, but Sherlock has a track record of getting things wrong in this area. This story is an exploration of their gradual shift from friends to lovers, told from Sherlock’s perspective, full of a lot of pining and lack of emotional awareness.

Speaker for the Bees by antietamfalls (M, 14,649 w. || Deaf Sherlock, Friends to Lovers, First Kiss / Time, Fluff, Sign Language) – It isn’t always easy assisting a deaf detective. Luckily for John, they make a pretty good team.

A Hundred Thousand Ways to Say the Name John by Jberry (E, 16,825 w. || Fake Relationship, Fake Marriage, POV John, Pining John, Cruise Ship, Angst & Fluff) –  John Watson and Sherlock Holmes must solve a case on a cruise ship. To get close to the crew and passengers, they must get married for the case on the Baetica. However, their relationship hits rocky seas both due to the case and internal conflicts. Part 1 of Baetica

A Shipless Ocean by myswordfishmind (M, 22,135 w || Post-TRF, John has a Kid) – Ten years after the fall Sherlock goes back to London to find that John no longer lives there. Instead, he resides in a seaside town, a widower, and the father of a seven year old son. Now, Sherlock must struggle with the fact that there may no longer be a place for him in this new world.

Knotted by naughtyspirit (E, 23,166 w. || UST/URT, Cuddling, Sharing Body Heat, Confessions, Kissing, Mastrubation, Frustration, BAMF!John) – John has to cancel a date because of Sherlock’s case, which leads them to be tied up in a basement from which they have to escape. They get wet, get tied up close and John has to step up and save them. Because he’s pretty. And hot. And just a little bit of a BAMF.

Tomorrow’s Song by agirlsname (M, 24,645 w. || Post-TRF, POV Sherlock, Angst with a Happy Ending, Virgin / Repressed Sherlock, Love Confessions, Slow Burn, Pining) – How can he think a relationship with me would be a good idea? I am the sort of person to take a break from my life and when I come back after two years, I expect to find it exactly as I left it. In reality I find it shattered to pieces. (I actually equate you with my life. When did I start doing that?)

26 Pieces by Lanning (E, 28,236 w. || H/C, Torture, First Time, Happy Ending, Schmoop) – Mycroft gives Sherlock the apparently simple task of solving a puzzle box containing a stolen microchip. It isn’t simple.

Hitting the Water at Sixty Miles an Hour by what_alchemy (E, 30,568 w. || Fake Rel., Roadtrips, Slow Burn, Mummy Holmes) – “You love your mother, Sherlock?” John watched the muscles in Sherlock’s jaw jump. He nodded in one sharp jerk.“Then we’re going to her party and making her happy.” John let out a resigned sigh. “As a ruddy couple, you bastard.”

A Study In Auto-Signatures, Sniper Dolphins, and Sex Holidays by cwb (E, 32,690 w. || Case Fic, Post S3, Evil Mary, Dev. Rel., Honeymoon, Epistolary, Bottomlock, First Kiss / Time, Fluff, Secret Agents, BAMF!John) – John and Mary go on their sex holiday, and Sherlock is grumpy and pining about it. Part 1 of HOT DOLPHIN SEX

a good old-fashioned happy ending by darcylindbergh (E, 32,731 w. || Christmas, Frottage, Comfort, Est. Rel., Fluff, Insecure Sherlock) – For Christmas this year, Sherlock wants to get John something special: something every fairytale deserves. Part 2 of things fairy tales are made of

The Yellow Poppies by SilentAuror (E, 34,952 w. || H/C, Nightmares, HLV Fix-It, PTSD, Trauma, POV Sherlock, Doctor John) – Sherlock is threatened and assaulted in the hospital immediately after having been shot in the heart, first by Mary, then by Magnussen. As he recovers at Baker Street with John and plans the attack on Appledore with Mycroft, he fights to work through the trauma caused by these two visits. Set during His Last Vow.

LHR-HNL by scullyseviltwin (E, 35,066 w. || Hawaiian Vacation, Post-TRF, Friends To Lovers, Slow Burn, Just Talk Already, Drinking, Mutual Pining) – In need of an endangered flora sample, Sherlock and John must make a trip to an unexpected destination.

Classified(s) by blueink3 (E, 36,153 w. || Wedding Date AU || Fake Relationship, Jealous, PIning, H/C, Idiots in Love, Happy Ending, Mary is not Nice, Escort Service) – Clara’s American father is the ambassador to some such territory that Great Britain probably used to own, but she (and Harry’s undying love for her) is the reason John is getting on a flight at 12:30pm, flying across the second largest ocean in the world, and pretending to be in a perfectly happy, healthy relationship with an undoubtedly perfectly coiffed stranger. See, Clara is not only American (and wealthy to boot), she’s also best friends with John’s ex-fiancée. Whom she’s placed in the wedding party. As Maid of Honor. And John just happens to be Best Man. Bloody brilliant.

A Promise Made to Be Broken by PlantsAreNeat (E, 37,018 w. || Fake Relationship, Pining, Slow Burn, RST, Eventual Relationship, POV Sherlock) – A young John makes an ‘if we’re still single at 40, we’ll get together’ pledge to a woman who ends up all wrong for him. She keeps reminding him of the promise, and won’t let go of it. John asks Sherlock to pose as his boyfriend at a family wedding, so as to dash her hopes permanently. Sherlock, who has at last acknowledged his feelings for John, reluctantly agrees despite knowing how painful it will be to ‘have’ John, but not keep him.

Goodness Gives Extras by mydwynter (E, 39,629 w. || Fluff & Angst, Case Fic, Oral / Anal, Humour, First Time, Miscommunication, Snark, Christmas) – Christmas time. ‘Tis the season to settle down with a drink, some food and a present or two, and to enjoy the quiet relaxation of the holiday. Instead, there’s a case that drags them all over, missing presents, disappointed kids, angry parents, and a freak snowfall. On top of that John has to deal with Sherlock, who is being even more of a prat than usual. He really shouldn’t have expected anything different.

Right Hand Man by SilentAuror (E, 42,031 w. ||  H/C, Injury, Slow Burn, Infidelity, Mary is Not Nice) – When John’s left arm becomes paralysed after a car accident, Mary asks Sherlock to take him back to Baker Street to recuperate, as she’s about to give birth. Despite the fact that the search for Moriarty is ongoing, Sherlock takes John in and takes responsibility for overseeing his rehabilitation as he adjusts to the loss of his arm.

Left by lifeonmars (M, 45,153 w. || Magical Realism) – John Watson is left-handed. He’s tried not to let it affect his life, but as any Lefty knows, that’s almost impossible.

Corpus Hominis by mycapeisplaid (E, 47,709 w. || Casefic, Fluff, Romance, Frottage) - John knows the human body intimately. He’s had plenty of opportunity for study as a doctor, soldier, and lover. There’s one particular body, however, he knows very little about. When Sherlock launches himself head-first into a new obsession and they get sent on a case in an unlikely location, the pair discovers each other’s bodies with confusing yet delightful (and sometimes hilarious) results.

Triage by scullyseviltwin (E, 51,612 w. || Character Injury, Introspection) – Sherlock’s mind goes exceedingly, devastatingly quiet and gray-blank. When he speaks it’s through a thick haze, it’s through molasses, he’s so disconnected from the words that it may as well be the unconscious shooter speaking.

Spare Change by Ermerness (E, 51,966 w. || Rich Sherlock AU, Virgin Sherlock, First Time, Alternate First Meeting) – The Holmes family is one of the richest and most powerful in England. Sherlock spends his time flying around the world on the family’s private jet drinking a lot and shopping at expensive boutiques as a way of trying to alleviate his endless boredom. His mother decides it’s time he settles down with someone powerful, wealthy and well connected. John Watson happens to be none of those things.

Coventry by standbygo (E, 52,020 w. || Dollhouse AU || Case Fic, Slow Burn, Sci-Fi / Fantasy, First Kiss / Time, Attempted Rape, BAMF John, Falling in Love) – “Let me get this straight,” John said, wondering when his life had become a science fiction film. “Some guy orders up a personality, a person, to his specifications, and they program this into a real live person, who has consented to do this, and she goes to this person and acts as his wife, or lawyer, or Royal Marine, or Navy Seal or what have you, and she has all the skills, all the knowledge, everything? Then you say the magic words, and she follows you back to The House, and they erase it all until her next appointment?”

Wars We Fought, Things We’re Not by blueink3 (M, 55,204 w. || Parentlock, Fluff & Angst, Kidnapping, Whump, Post-TAB, UST, Slow Burn, Couple for a Case) –  Five months after John’s world has fallen apart, Mycroft sends the consulting detective and his doctor on a case that neither is prepared for.

Perdition’s Flames by i_ship_an_armada (E, 63,435 w., || Treklock AU, Est. Rel, Genetic Engineering, Angst & Fluff, BAMF!John) – Sherlock would do anything to save him. Risk anything. Give anything. His money, his life. His soul. What he does, though, is change both of their destinies forever. Genetic re-engineering is the only option left. It turns out researchers underestimated the life expectancy and potential abilities of genetically re-engineered subjects. The British government and what would eventually become the United Federation of Planets, however, had not. Part 1 of PF Universe

You Have Drawn Red From My Hands by J_Baillier (T, 67,085 w. || Three Garridebs, Heavy John Whump, Hurt / Comfort, Pining, Heavy Angst, Case Fic/Adventure, Slow Burn, Sick Fic, Injury, Guilt & Depression, Just Talk Already Please, Medical Realism, PTSD) –  John getting injured leads Sherlock on a path of guilt and revelations.

Shatter the Darkness (Let the Light In) by MojoFlower (E, 109,683 w. || Genie/Djinn AU || Magical Realism, H/C, Kidnapping, Genie Sherlock, First Kiss / Time, Case Fic, H/C, Angst, Clubs, John Whump) – Fairy tales are for those who remember how to dream; not John Watson, broken and hiding from his bleak future in a beige bedsit. But then he discovers a lamp and finds himself in the dangerous riptide of an enigmatic man whose very existence is unbelievable, murder charges against his sister, and the growing pains of feeling alive once more.

Midnight Blue Serenity by BeautifulFiction (E, 151,907 w. || Friends to Lovers, Gay Bar / For a Case, Drugs, Pining, Case Fic, UST) – When Sherlock infiltrates a club in order to track down a serial killer, his altered appearance is enough to make John question his assumption that Sherlock is beyond his reach. However, is he the only one who appreciates his flatmate’s charms, or is Sherlock at risk of becoming the next victim?

[chain-unchained]

October 12 - Part 2

The gentle plink-plink of the rain on the bathhouse’s roof gave Shane something to listen to as he slowly shrugged out of his jeans and hoodie; he wasn’t there to make use of the actual bath, not yet anyway. Sam had asked for another one of his shifts, and Shane had agreed, glad to get an extra day off. It gave him a chance to finally follow up on that decision to start getting back in shape, and so he dragged his sorry butt up the mountain path to make use of the small gym in the bathhouse. Like hell he was going to make the long trip into Zuzu to use a gym there.

It felt so odd to be back in a place that he once considered a home away from home. Back in his college sports days, his free time was usually spent working out, to the point where it was borderline obsessive. Now here he was, over a decade later, all flabby and out of shape and disgusting.

Well, there was only one way to change that, and so he resolutely tugged a plain black tank top and gym shorts on. He really didn’t like wearing so little clothing, but he was already going to be sweating up a storm, and it wasn’t like anyone else ever used the place.

That being said, he didn’t exactly know where to even start. Stepping from the changing area into the gym space proper, his eyes shifted from the bench press, to the treadmill, to the bicycle, to the barbells—and he began to feel a little overwhelmed. He wasn’t looking to ever get back into gridball, so maybe focusing on his cardio would help him shed the pounds; on the other hand, building more muscle would let him naturally burn more calories, but then he would have to buy new clothes since what he had now wouldn’t fit anymore—then again, that was something he was going to have to do anyway if he did start to slim down…

“If you’re looking for a place to start, you could warm up with a couple farmers’ walks.”

Shane just about jumped out of his skin as Alex strode into the gym space. “Fuck, don’t sneak up on people like that.”

“Wasn’t trying to.” Alex didn’t seem bothered by the fact that he’d started the older man; he casually set a duffel bag down by the bench press and began to do some warm up stretches. “Oh, you probably wanna do some stretches before you actually start. Might end up pulling something if you don’t.”

“Yeah, I know that much.” Shane was even more hesitant to start now that Alex was here. “… Know what, I’ll just come back another time…”

Alex stopped mid-stretch and looked at him in surprise. “Huh? Why? There’s plenty of space for both of us.”

“That’s… not exactly the issue.” But Shane wasn’t going to explain to a 20-something kid that he was self-conscious about his body.

A look of genuine cluelessness was on Alex’s face. “Then what is? C’mon, working out with a buddy is better. We can even play some music on my phone.”

The offer left Shane somewhat at a loss for what to do. A couple of months ago, he wouldn’t have thought twice about brushing him off or just plain ignoring him and leaving without a word. Now here he was, trying to figure out how to talk his way out of this without hurting the kid’s feelings. It had to be Ashe’s influence on him, no doubt about it…

“… Oh, I think I get it now.” A light had practically gone off in Alex’s head as he came to a realization. “You know, I think it’s pretty awesome that you’re trying to get back in shape. I don’t wanna get in the way of that, so I’ll just lift some weights at home today.”

Well, now Shane just felt bad. “Nah… don’t worry about it.” He sighed and awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck. “If you really don’t mind an old lard-ass like me sharing the gym, that is.”

“Don’t mind at all.” Alex strode over to the stereo and hooked his phone up to it. “Got any song requests?”

“Just whatever you think would motivate me.” Well, there was no sense in putting it off any longer. Deciding that he would rather do the treadmill that day (it was further away from where Alex was going to work out), Shane moved to the machine and started to slowly stretch. He was surprised at how many different stretches he remembered from his sports days.

The sound of what could only be described as ‘pumped up workout tracks’ began to play over the stereo, and the two of them fell silent as they set about burning calories. Every so often, Shane couldn’t help but glance over towards Alex, envious of the ease with which he pumped iron—and then he immediately derided himself for being jealous of a kid in the prime of his youth, who had put in the time and effort to get that fit in the first place.

“You used to be a professional gridball player, right?” During a lull in the music, Alex decided to ask a question he’d always wanted to ask.

“Wouldn’t say professional.” Shane corrected, huffing and puffing something fierce as he jogged away on the treadmill; he’d found a relatively comfortable pace to stick to, one that got his heart pumping but still felt like he could maintain for awhile. “I played for my university gridball team, so if you count that, then sure.”

“What made you stop?”

Almost as if on cue, Shane’s bad knee gave a sharp jolt and nearly locked up. “That right there.” He grimaced, after hastily shutting the treadmill off before he fell. “I messed up my knee and that was the end for me. Can’t exactly play gridball when your knee is screwed up.”

“That must have sucked.” Alex set his weights down and took a swig of water from his branded water bottle. “… You think I have a shot at going pro?”

It was a question that caught Shane off-guard. “Uh… you’re asking the wrong person.” Why Alex thought he could tell, he had no idea. “I mean, you’ve probably got as good as shot as anybody else. Never seen you play or anything, but if you’re serious about it then I don’t see why not.” He shrugged his shoulders. Honestly, he knew it wasn’t the answer Alex wanted to hear. He didn’t need to know the aspiring athelete to see his younger self in him, that same aspiration to go big burning bright in his heart. “…If there’s any advice I can give you, it’s to have a plan to fall back on.”

Seeing the blank look on Alex’s face, he sighed, walked over to where Alex was sitting, and sank down onto the bench beside him. “It’s one thing to decide to try and go pro, and it’s great that you’ve got that ambition and that drive. But don’t let that be the only thing going for you. If things don’t work out, or you end up hurt so bad you can’t play anymore, you need to have a Plan B… otherwise you end up a loser like me, working for a company like Joja and miserable every minute of every hour of every day.”

Alex was quiet for a few minutes, quite clearly thinking about what Shane had said. “… I get what you’re saying.” He said slowly. He’d never really put any thought into a plan B; after all, he always thought that it was a guarantee that he’d achieve his goal. But the thought of ending up like Shane really put things into perspective. “…. You’re not that miserable anymore though, are you? You’re way different than you used to be.”

“….Yeah, I guess I have.” Shane looked down at his hands. Some days it didn’t feel like it. Others, it felt like he was worse. But they were outnumbered by the good days now… and he never used to have those at all. “But my point is, don’t put all your eggs in one basket hoping things will work out how you want them. Nobody should ever feel as bad as I used to.”

With a groan, he pushed himself back to his feet. “That’s just my two cents, anyway. It’s your call in the end.”

Alex stayed sitting for a few more seconds, quite obviously having a lot to think about. That was fine with Shane, who felt a little more comfortable with getting back on the treadmill now that the kid was zoning out. It was pretty common knowledge that Alex was 90% brawn and 10% brains, so it wasn’t a surprise that it was taking him awhile to digest the advice. “… Do you wish things had turned out different?” He finally asked, almost a half an hour later.

Having reached his limit, Shane had quit the treadmill and was trying to catch his breath on the chair beside it; the rain had more or less settled down by that point, only barely audible over the music playing on the stereo.  “What do you mean?”

“I mean, like… do you wish you could have gone on playing gridball?”

“Well, of course. When I think about where I could have gone, the money I could have had, the life I could have lead… there’s no way I don’t think ‘if only’.” Gingerly, Shane rubbed at his aching knee. There would always be a part of him that wanted that outcome. But then he remembered how much joy he got from the chickens at Marnie’s ranch, from being able to dance with Jas under the porchlight in the summer, from having someone like Ashe by his side through the best and worst of him, and realized that he didn’t want to trade any of that for all the money and fame in the world. “But I don’t have it so bad here, not anymore. So I’m not missing what I never had.”

With more than a little effort, he heaved himself up from the chair and started towards the locker room. As he passed by Alex, he clapped him on the shoulder, just briefly. It was strange to think that just a few months ago, he didn’t give two shits about other people in the valley besides Marnie and Jas. And now here he was, getting invested in someone else’s future. It was almost frightening, how much he had changed, but it wasn’t nearly as scary as the prospect of going back to the way he was. There was only one path, and it was forward. Towards the future, towards more change. Towards a brighter tomorrow.

[ambereyesandwine]

We’ve Got Soul: Chapter 1

WC: 2362

Warnings: Cursing, Sass, Minor Crime, that’s all for now I think

Beta’d by: @teaspacebar

Notes: This is the first of a several part Detroit: Become Human OC Fic. Eventually there will be a romantic Markus x OC pairing and a platonic Gavin Reed x OC pairing. Have fun :)

Chapter 1:

June 20, 2036

11:34 A.M.

           When Fantasia arrived at her Aunt’s house, she marveled at the sight of the long driveways and property gates and lush landscaping that seemed to be included with every house on the street. She pulled the key from the ignition and hopped out of the small moving van to walk up to the intercom. She pushed the button, “Aunt Samantha? It’s Fantasia. Can you open the gate please?”

           A voice she didn’t recognize rang through, “Leave the van at the curb and make trips,” and the gate opened.

           “Alright, I guess that works.” Fantasia strode to the back of the van and opened the doors, pulling out closed boxes labeled ‘Books’ and ‘Electronics’ and ‘Paints,’ setting them down on the sidewalk to be brought into the house. She hummed while she rolled two suitcases of clothes through the front door and set them aside neatly by the wall of the entryway. When she went out to make another trip, she was stopped by a man’s voice.

           “Moving in?”

           “Yeah, I’m Fantasia.” She turned to find a gentleman in a wheelchair and his android companion had come over. “You’re Carl Manfred,” she said with shock and awe in her voice as she dropped the box she was holding.

           The android caught the box and looked over the small plants inside it, while Carl chuckled slightly, “Yes, and this is Markus. We live next door.”

           “Oh, wow.” She looked over to their house and then back at Carl and Markus, training her expression into calmness. “Well it’s really nice to meet you both. Um, I can,” Fantasia gestured to the box of succulents and reached for it slightly, “I can take those.”

           Markus happily passed them over, with a knowing smile, “Of course. You sure you have them?”

           Fantasia blushed slightly and held the box on her hip.

           “So, you paint?” Carl asked, nodding to the canvases leaning against the outside of the van.

           “Oh, uh, yeah,” Her attention refocused to Carl, “since I was a kid, or at least as far back as I can remember, anyway.”

           “Are they always monochromatic?”

           “No, just that set. The monochrome is supposed to show obsession with the subject of each painting.”

           Carl nodded slightly. “Bold statement.”

           “Thank you?” Fantasia’s head quirked as she questioned the intent behind his comment. “Well, I have to get this stuff inside, but it was really nice to meet you both. Thank you for stopping to chat.”

           “Have a good afternoon, Fantasia…?”

           “Jacobs.”

           “Jacobs. Alright.” Carl turned his chair and began to slowly wheel back to his own home, so Markus briefly turned back to Fantasia.

           “It was nice to meet you.” He nodded as a farewell and Fantasia waved as he walked away.

 June 23, 2036

1:12 P.M.

           Fantasia sighed heavily as she was escorted into the Detroit Police Station in handcuffs.

           “Here I was hoping for a quiet day in the office.” Officer Miller shook his head as he adjusted Fantasia’s handcuffs to hook her to Detective Reed’s desk.

           “And what, now it won’t be?” Fantasia shifted slightly in her chair to be more comfortable.

           “Not when Reed finds out you’re here.”

           She snorted. “I can handle Gavin.”

           Chris only mumbled to himself in response as he walked away from her.

Soon after, Fantasia heard a distinct, “Aw, fuck,” ring out from behind her.

           “What’s up Detective Reed?” She channeled as much sass into her voice as she possibly could as she watched the man come into view.

           “I don’t have time for your bullshit today. Here,” He pulled paper and a pencil out of his desk and pushed them in front of her. “Now stay here and shut up, I’ll deal with you when I have a minute.” And he stormed off.

           Fantasia sat in shock for a moment before shrugging the encounter off and doodling her time away.

           Detective Reed returned an hour and a half later. “What are you doing? What is that?”

           “It’s you.” She turned the paper around to show him angry chibi doodles of himself with all sorts of profane catchphrases in speech bubbles.

           “That’s not funny.”

           “It is objectively hilarious.”

           He looked ready to punch a wall but took a deep breath before speaking again. “This is the third time you’ve been in here just this month. You drive me up the fucking wall for hours every time, and now that I finally gave you something else to do with your time, you’re gonna use that against me too?”

           “Absolutely.”

           “Right.” He was unamused, “The report says ‘Vandalism.’ Again. Why do you keep doing it if you keep getting caught?”

           “The point of the art is to be seen. Why would I put it up with the intent of it not being found?”

           “You could just not vandalize shit.”

           “And you could just not show up to work hungover.”

           “Excuse me?”

           “You ever think you’d get more out of people by being less of an asshole?”

           Detective Reed was fuming. “You ever think you might have friends if you weren’t such an obnoxious bitch?”

           Fantasia feigned offense with a dramatic gasp.

           “Reed! Phone!” Captain Fowler called from his office.

           Detective Reed stared Fantasia down angrily while she returned the stare, smug, and when the detective’s phone rang, their eye contact didn’t budge.

           “Yeah.” He answered the phone. “Mmhmm, yeah. Great, I’ll let her know.”

           “Were you talking about me?” Fantasia batted her eyelashes at him.

           He groaned as he reached for her cuffs to unlock them. “Somebody by the name of Manfred just paid your bail.” He tossed her cuffs onto his desk. “Get out.”

           “Gladly.” She stood up and began to walk away, “Try not to miss me too much, Detective,” she called over her shoulder.

           Reed only balled up the paper Fantasia had been drawing on and threw it at her across the office, receiving a middle finger in return.

June 23, 2036

5:42 P.M.

           Fantasia locked the front door behind her. “I’m back!” She called out.

           “You missed dinner!” Martha, the woman who Fantasia learned was taking care of her aunt, called out from across the house. “You’re going to have to figure it out tonight!”

           “Okay!” As Fantasia began her ascent up the stairs, there was a polite knock at the door. She quirked her head in confusion as she walked back over to open the door. “Markus?”

           “Hello,” He stood patiently on the porch while Fantasia stepped out. “Carl would like you to join him for dinner this evening if you are available.”

           “Uh, yeah, I’d just need to change,” She started to go inside before turning back to Markus. “Did he say why?”

           “Just that he wanted me to collect you if you’re available.”

           Her nod was skeptical, but Fantasia replied, “Okay, give me just a minute.”

           “I’ll wait here.” Markus turned away from the door and stood still, looking around while he waited for Fantasia to change.

           “Okay, I’m back.” She locked the door and gestured for Markus to lead the way.

           As he began to walk, Markus looked over Fantasia’s new clothing, noting the adjustment from paint covered jeans and t-shirt to a sensible sundress. “You look nice.”

           “What?” Fantasia’s eyes went wide and she blushed.

           Markus held his gaze forward as they rounded the corner to Carl’s walkway. “Your dress.”

           “Oh,” She looked down at her dress and composed herself. “Thank you,” She said it softly and smiled to herself.

           Markus held the door for Fantasia as she crossed the threshold into Carl’s house, to find Carl waiting in the foyer.

           “Thank you for joining us. Please, come sit down.” Carl wheeled into another room without any explanation, so Fantasia followed.

           “Am I in trouble?” She asked Markus quietly.

           “I have no idea, but I’d follow him.” He nodded in Carl’s direction and then left the room through a different door.

           Fantasia sighed, “Great.” She walked through the door Carl had disappeared through and found him sitting at a dining table in a large room, seemingly meant for other things. She saw a piano, and tall bookshelves, and skeletons hanging from the ceiling, as she walked to the seat Carl gestured toward. When she sat down, Carl simply stared at her for a moment before speaking.

           “So,” He started sternly, “What art styles do you enjoy?”

           Fantasia was hesitant to answer, but replied, “Expressionism mostly. I only paint when I have something to talk about.”

           “Mmhmm, yeah, and what about vandalism?” Carl’s tone was perturbed, “That seems to be another something that you rather enjoy.”

           A nervous chuckle escaped her lips.

           “Imagine my surprise when I looked up the young artist who moved in next door, only to find that she needed bail money.”

           “Which was extremely unexpected but highly appreciated, by the way. I-”

           “Do you regret it?” He interrupted.

           “What?”

           “Do you regret having painted a piece called ‘Androids are people too’” He emphasized the title she’d left on it, “on the wall at the bus station?”

           She hesitated, trying to gauge what kind of response he was looking for.

“I’d like the truth, please.”

           Fantasia deflated, resigned to telling the truth. “I don’t. It needed to be said. So, I said it.”

           Carl nodded. “Excellent.”

           “What?”

           “Having something to say is the most important part of being a successful painter. I’d like to see some of your work.” He started to come around to the other side of the table.

           “I-”

           “Some of your non-vandalism work.” He stopped next to Fantasia’s chair. “I need you to bring me three pieces; one that shows significant growth, one that makes an unapologetic statement, and one that you consider to be your personal favorite, so I can see where we need to start.” He began to roll away, “Follow me please.”

           Fantasia began to follow him through yet another door. “I’m sorry, what is happening right now?”

           Carl ignored her completely and lead her into a magnificent art studio with floor to ceiling windows covering two of the walls. “You can work and keep your supplies in here while I’m teaching you and-”

           “Wait!” Fantasia stopped in her tracks, face frozen in confusion. “Seriously, what is happening?”

           Carl slowed and turned to face her in his chair. “I’d like to offer you an internship. If,” he raised his hand toward her in the ‘look at me’ motion, “and only if you stop the graffiti. Whether you have something to say or not, the law will view it as vandalism, and I won’t have my name attached to it. We can find other ways for people to see your message, but it can’t be illegally if you want me to teach you. Deal?”

           “Absolutely.”

           “Good. If you get caught it again, you can consider your apprenticeship terminated, and you should not expect to have your bail paid for. Understood?”

           She nodded, “Yes, sir.”

           “Good. Then I’m happy to have you here, but please, just call me Carl.” He started back toward the door he’d entered the studio from and motioned for her to follow. When Fantasia made no attempt to respond to him further, Carl filled the silence. “Would you like to stay for dinner?”

           “I’d love to.”

 July 10, 2036

3:19 P.M.

           Fantasia looked to her vibrating phone on the coffee table and saw the caller I.D. had come up as ‘Restricted.’ She skeptically answered, “Hello?”

           A gruff voice came across the line, “Is this Fantasia Jacobs?”

           “Speaking.”

           “Hi, this is Detective Gavin Reed of the Detroit-”

           She hung up and stared at her phone for a moment, startled by the identity of the caller. Her phone rang a second time, the caller again labeled as ‘Restricted.’ She clicked the accept button.

           “Don’t hang up.” He sounded peeved.

           “I didn’t do it.”

           “You’re not in trouble.”

           “I don’t believe you.” She said it matter-of-factly.

           He huffed. “Look, the DPD is formally requesting your assistance with a case, be here by 5 P.M. tonight.”

           “What if I have plans?”

           “What if I come pick you up in a patrol car with the lights and siren on?”

           Fantasia went silent for a moment, unsure of how to reply. “I don’t have a choice, do I?” She questioned.

           “Think less ‘favor for a friend’ and more ‘court summons.’” Detective Reed sounded smug. “I’ll see you in a few,” and the line went dead.

           She sighed heavily. “This is gonna be fun.” Fantasia pulled up Carl’s contact and pushed the ‘call’ button.

           Carl answered on the first ring, “Yes, Fantasia?”

           “I can’t make it for dinner this evening. I’ve been ‘summoned’ by the DPD.” She emphasized her irritation as much as she could.

           “Is that code for “Carl, I’ve been arrested again”?” He questioned.

           “No,” She defended. “Apparently they need my help with a case. I have to be at the station in a little while, and I have no idea how long I’ll be there.”

           “Alright. We’ll reschedule for when you’re available.” He sounded indifferent about the change of plans. “Don’t get into too much trouble.”

           “Yes, sir.”

           “Don’t-”

           Fantasia hung up the phone before she could hear the rest of Carl’s complaint. She grabbed her things and walked outside to catch the bus to head into town. When she arrived at the station, she waited patiently to speak with a reception android.

           “Hello, how can I help you?” The android asked with a fixed smile.

           “Hi, I’m here to see Detective Reed.” Fantasia stated coolly.

           “Okay, you can go through those doors whenever you’re ready.”

           Fantasia smiled, “Thank you.” She walked through the small security gate and into the back room, escorting herself directly to Detective Reed’s desk.

           “Woah,” He looked surprised when he saw her. “What’s with the getup?”

           Fantasia rolled her eyes. “I had plans, remember? Why am I here?”

           He smiled at the annoyance in her voice “I… have a job for you.” He dropped a small file onto his desk in front of her. “I need you to take a look at those,” He opened the file and spread out the pictures inside, “and tell me everything you know about that symbol and who painted it.”