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rewriting-thearrowverse · 8 months ago

Text

It said I finished writing this one on May 1, 2023

𝑺𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒐𝒏 𝟏 𝑬𝒑𝒊𝒔𝒐𝒅𝒆 𝟐: 𝑯𝒐𝒏𝒐𝒓 𝑻𝒉𝒚 𝑭𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 (𝑷𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝟏)

𖤓ꕥ𖤓ꕥ𖤓ꕥ𖤓ꕥ𖤓ꕥ𖤓ꕥ𖤓ꕥ𖤓ꕥ𖤓ꕥ𖤓ꕤ𖤓ꕤ𖤓

The thunder crashes as the scene changes to Oliver's Lair as he is beginning to get ready to take out another screwed up One Percenter.

*Oliver's Voiceover*

The day I went missing... Was the day I died. Five years in hell forged me into a weapon. Which I use to honor a vow I made to my father. Who sacrificed his life for mine. In his final moments he told me the truth. That our family's wealth had been built on the suffering of others. That he failed our city and I had to save it, righting his wrongs. But to do that without endangering the people I love, I have to become someone else. I have to become something else.

➳➳➳➳➳➳➳➳➳➳➳➳➳➳➳➳➳➳➳➳➳

The hood stands on a rooftop in a standoff against three men.

"Marcus Redman asks "Who's that?"

"And where did he come from?" Asks another man

"What's going on here?!" Says a third man as the hood fires an arrow at him

"Get the chopper back now!" Yells Marcus in a panic

The hood shoots an arrow at another man as Marcus says "Who is this guy?"

"Whoa whoa whoa! " he tells as he hits him with the bow, throwing him into the ventilator.

The hood kicks it open, exposing the blades. And then he pushes his head towards the blades as Redman struggles.

"No! Please! No!"

"Marcus Redman! You have failed this city!"

"Please! No! Please don't hurt me!"

"Cell phone, inside pocket. Call your partner to give those pensioners back their money!"

He jumps off the roof as he uses a Zip line arrrow

Oliver walks into the living room where his family is watching the news on the hood "Mr. Redman has withdrawn more than 30 million from the plant's account. Redman claims refunding the Halcyon Pension plan was always his intent., but sources say he was coerced by the vigilante.

Oliver points at the TV and says " Wow this guy gets more airtime than the Kardashians."

"5 years on a deserted island and you still know who they are." Says Thea

"I've been catching up. Nice to see how much our culture has improved while I was away." He says

"The city used to be safe." Moira says and sighs

"What's wrong mom? Are you scared we're next?" Thea asks

"Do you have any questions about today Oliver? It's a simple proof of life declaration. " Walter says as they stand up

"Read a brief prepared statement to the judge, then your death in absentia will be voided. "

"I'll be okay Walter, I've been in a courtroom before." Says Oliver

"About 4 times." Says Tommy as he walks in

"I mean there was the DUI, The time you assaulted that Paparazzi douchebag. When you stole the taxi, which was just awesome by the way.. And who could forget peeing on the cop? " he says with a light chuckle

"I wish everyone would." Says Moira

"Sorry Tommy, we're off to court. " says Oliver

"I know. That's why I'm here. You're getting legally resurrected, I wouldn't miss it for the world. "

Oliver looks at Thea before asking "What about you Thea?"

"The last 4 times of you in court was more than enough." She says as she walks away

"Fair enough."

Diggle walks into the room and says "Mrs. Queen, the car's ready."

➳➳➳➳➳➳➳➳➳➳➳➳➳➳➳➳➳➳➳➳➳

As Oliver walks up to the Courthouse he is bombarded by the Paparazzi.

The constant talking, questions and lack of space brings up another flashback.

*Flashback*

Oliver and Sara are thrown as the boat sinks.

Oliver reaches for her hand, but misses and the ocean tears her away.

"Sara!" Oliver's yells as she screams

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Inside the courtroom, Oliver begins to speak "there was a storm.. "

"The boat went down and I was the only survivor."

*Flashback*

It returns to him, his father and Gus on the boat as Oliver yells for Sara. "She's out there!"

"She isn't there!" Robert yells

"Sara!"

"My father didn't make it."

*Flashback*

Robert shoots himself in the head.

Oliver screams "No!"

"I almost died.. I thought I had when I spent so many days on the life raft before I saw the island."

*Oliver's voiceover*

When I reached it, I knew..

Oliver was crawling to the island.

I was gonna have to live for the both of us.

"And in those 5 years, it was that on thought that kept me going."

The Lawyer stands up to speak "Your honor, we move to vitiate the death-in-absentia, filed 5 years ago after Oliver's disappearance at sea on the Queen's Gambit."

Oliver looks back at his mother "unfortunately we will not be rescinding the declaration of death for Robert Queen, the Queen family is only entitled to one miracle, I'm afraid."

➳➳➳➳➳➳➳➳➳➳➳➳➳➳➳➳➳➳➳➳➳

As they head out Moira says "Now, into the officers. Everyone is ready to meet you."

"Mom... That was a little heavier than I was expecting.. Can we please go tomorrow instead?"

"Of course. " she says and then she and Walter walk away.

Oliver and Tommy continue walking "Last week you couldn't wait to get to the company."

"I had just spent 5 years away from civilization, I wasn't exactly thinking straight."

Oliver and Tommy run into Laurel.

Oliver awkwardly smiles and says "uhh... Hi."

Laurel glares at him, "What are you doing here?"

"They were bringing me back from the dead, Legally speaking. And you?" He asks

"My job."

"More like the DA's." Johanna mutters and Laurel looks back at her.

Oliver extends his Hand to Emily Nocenti, who shakes it.

"Oliver Queen."

"Emily Nocenti."

"Last week Oliver got back from a deserted island and before that he was cheating on me with my sister. He was with her when she died. Then he told me to stay away from him. It was really good advice." Laurel says and storms off up the stairs.

"It was nice to meet you." Emily says as she and Johanna follow Laurel.

"Come on buddy, shake it off." Says Tommy and then they walk outside.

➴◈◉◈➶◈◉◈➴◈◉◈➶◈◉◈➴◈◉◈➶◈◉◈➴◈◉◈➶

Reporters are questioning Martin Somers "I don't know what I've done to earn this witch hunt by Ms. Lancer, but I can tell you I am an honest businessman and I will fight this slander to my last dime and breath."

As Somers walks in, they see Oliver and then their questioning to him as they swarm him.

As Diggle, Tommy and Oliver walk to the car, He tries to contain the situation "Everybody Back!"

A man with his camera gets extra close and Diggle angrily responds "Hey Man, I'll make you swallow that Nikon! Back!"

Oliver drives off and Tommy and Diggle look over.

"This happens to you a lot, doesn't it?" Tommy says as Diggle looks at him irritated.

Laurel is standing in the court room as she begins to speak "How much is a life worth. The life of a good man, a stevedore on the docks of the city in which we live?"

*Flashback*

Two goons drag Victor Nocenti towards Martin Somers.

*Laurel's Voiceover*

A father, with a daughter.

As Laurel walks around the courtroom she continues "The plaintiff will prove that Victor Nocenti learned his boss, the defendant was taking bribes from the Chinese triad to smuggle drugs into our city. "

*Laurel's Voiceover*

And when Nocenti threatened to tell the cops, Somers had him killed.

The Flashback shows a member of the triad slitting Victor's throat.

"Mr. Somers is a very well connected man, with friends in the district attorney's office. So if Emily Nocenti is to ever to get justice for her father's death, Someone's gonna have to do it for them."

✧𖣠♫✧𖣠♫✧𖣠♫✧𖣠♫✧𖣠♫✧𖣠♫✧𖣠♫✧𖣠♫✧𖣠♫✧𖣠

Back in his Lair, Oliver is training, all of his scars from the island are shown.

He climbs up a tall rope.

*Oliver's Voiceover*

Martin Somers. Laurel's Targeted the worst of Starling City, so it's no surprise he's on my list.

Oliver practices as he hits metal bars with swords to hone his skills.

*Oliver's Voiceover*

The Police and the DA's office can't stop him, or they won't. Laurel thinks she's the only one willing to bring him to justice. She's wrong.

➴◉◉➴◉◉➴◉◉➴◉◉➴◉◉➴◉◉➴◉◉➴◉◉➴◉◉➴◉◉➴

In a warehouse at the docks, Somers speaks "You, do whatever you have to so this trial gets shut down. The media will crucify me."

"Yes sir." Says the man as the lights dim and then they go out.

Multiple arrows can be heard being fired, the lights return and Martin Somers see all of his men down, just before he is grabbed from behind.

he wakes up, hanging upside down and in front of him, The hood is standing.

"Martin Somers."

"Who the hell are you? " he asks

"You have failed this city." The hood finishes

He aims an arrow at Somers, who then begs for his life. He shoots an arrow past him.

"You will testify in that trial and confess to having Nocenti killed. There will be no second warning." He says as he shoots an arrow that grazes Somers in the cheek, and he disappears.

Martin screams.

In the living room of the Queen Mansion Moira speaks "I hired you to protect my son. And while I'm not a professional bodyguard, a job requirement seems to be keeping around the person you're supposed to protect."

"With all due respect, I've never had a client that doesn't want my protection." Diggle responds

"I hired you, that makes me the client. Now where do you think he's going unsupervised?" She asks

"I truly do not know ma'am." He says

Oliver walks in "and he truly doesn't."

"Then perhaps you'd like to tell me where it is you go?"

"Mom, I've been alone for 5 years." He says

"I know that, Oliver." She sighs

"Mom...alone." He says

"I see."

"I promise to introduce her if it ever gets to the first names stage."

"No, I'd rather you promise to take Mr Diggle with you. It's not safe, you've been abducted once, and there's a maniac hunting the wealthy." She says

"He saved my life."

"This isn't a game, I already lost you once. I'm not doing it again."

"Okay. Dig's my guy."

"Thank you." She says as she leaves the room.

"Sorry to give you so much grief." Oliver says to Diggle

"I served 3 tours in Afghanistan, you don't even come close to my definition of grief. But if you ditch me one more time, no one will have to fire me." Dig says before walking away.

Oliver catches Thea passing as he catches her dressed nice "Where are you going?"

"Somewhere loud and smoky, and don't try to pickpocket my stash this time, cause I'm gonna get drunk instead."

"Thea, do you think dad would want this? " he asks

"Dead people don't want anything, benefit of being dead." She retorts

"I was dead and I wanted a lot."

"Except your family. All you do is avoid mom. Ignore Walter and Judge me. Don't wait up." She says as she walks off

At Somers' warehouse, Quentin questions him. "Guess I owe you apology. We come all the way here and it turns out you don't need the police."

"That's what I've been telling you." Somers responds

"So I guess that 9-1-1 call we got about a man in a green hood attacking you last night was what? A practical joke?" Lancer responds

"These men like to fool around."

"I'd be inclined to believe an upstanding business man like yourself, except my men found this at the scene." Says Lance as he pulls a green Arrow out of a bag.

"You see, there's this vigilante running around. He thinks he's some kind of Robin Hood. He's robbing the rich, he's trying to teach them a lesson I guess. I don't know, I don't know." He says

"The point is, he's a killer and no one and nothing will stop me from taking him down."

Quentin sticks the arrow in the mark on the desk, seeing it's a perfect fit. "Like you said, clearly nothing happened here last night."

"Isn't this a conflict of interest? Your daughter is suing me." Says Somers

"I'm pretty good at keeping my emotions in check."

"Well I'm not." Says Somers as he stands up.

"Neither of you wanna find out what happens when I get emotional."

Quentin and the other police walk out.

Oliver, Walter and Moira are taking a walk through of Queen Consolidated.

"We've modernized quite a bit since you were last here." Walter says

Moira sees Oliver flirting with some girls and asks "Are you enjoying yourself?"

"A little bit, yeah."

As they walk towards the office Walter says "I remember how excited you were when your father would take you as a boy."

"Dad let me drink soda in the office." He says

"So that's why you enjoyed coming" Moira says as they enter the office.

"The most recent success of the company comes from many different technologies, such as bio-tech and clean energy." Says Walter.

"Can I have a sparkling water?" Oliver asks a secretary.

"Take a seat Oliver, Walter and I have something to talk to you about." Moira says

"Mom, it makes me nervous when you ask me to sit." Oliver says

"The company is gonna break ground with a new applied sciences division shortly, and we want to honor your father by dedicating the building to him." Walter says

"Nice."

"And at the dedication we want to announce that you'll be taking a leadership position in the company." Says Moira

"No."

"No? But your company"

"I don't want to lead anything, besides Walter is doing a great job." Oliver says

"You are Robert Queen's son." Moira says

"A fact that I don't need to be reminded of." Oliver sighs

"Obviously you do." She says

"We understand this transition is hard." Walter says

"Which part exactly? That a deserted island gave me my MBA or that my father's CFO now sleeps down the hall from me?" Oliver says in irritation

As Moira walks away she says "you know, 5 years ago your irresponsibility was somewhat charming, it is a lot less so now."

Walter and Moira exit the office. Shortly after Oliver and Diggle walk to the car where Dig shields Oliver from the press.

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"The driver will be here in a minute. "

In the car, Diggle looks at Oliver before speaking, "I spent the first 27 years of my life in Starling City. And after that, I was 5 in Afghanistan. Did you want to know what I learned?"

"There's no place like home?"

"The opposite. Home is a Battlefield. Everyone wants you to be what they want or expect. But sometimes you're not sure if that's you anymore."

Oliver looks out the window "or maybe I'm wrong and 5 years alone didn't mess you up as bad as it should've."

*Flashback*

Seagulls are swarming the raft, where Oliver's Father's body is.

"Hey! Get away from him!" Oliver shoos them away.

He coughs from the smell as he drags his father off the raft, with the constant interference of seagulls.

He carries his father over his shoulder.

At CNRI Laurel and Johanna talk to Emily about her father's case.

"I'm sure Somer's attorney will try to make it look like you're blinded by grief or want money." Johanna says

"It's not about the money. I just want justice for my father's murder." Emily says

"Emily, there are Dangerous people who don't want this trial to proceed."

"My mother died when I was a baby. It's only ever been me and my father and they slit his throat. They'll have to kill me if they want me to drop this." Emily says

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that." Laurel says

"It won't. The three of you are under protective custody." Says Quentin entering with three cops

"This is ridiculous." Laurel says

"It's my job to keep you safe." He says

"Um, Emily. Let's grab a cup of coffee." Says Johanna

"Go ahead and do that." Lance says as he signaled his men to go with them.

"You stay." He says to the last one.

"I don't seem to remember this working this last time you tried it, when I discovered boys." Laurel Argues.

"This isn't a joke Laurel. Somers was attacked last night."

"What?" She says

"Yeah." He sighs

"By who?"

"It doesn't matter. The point is you've gotten on the wrong side of these men, so you'll be protected til the dust settles. End of discussion." He says

"I'm not a kid anymore, this isn't gonna work." Laurel Argues

"I said end of discussion Laurel!" He yells at her

"You're insistent on doing your job, fine. This is me doing mine, not only as a father, but also as a cop"

"You don't realize just how dangerous these people are, and you've made them angry."

✧𖣠♫✧𖣠♫✧𖣠♫✧𖣠♫✧𖣠♫✧𖣠♫✧𖣠♫✧𖣠♫✧𖣠♫✧𖣠

At Somer's Warehouse, China White walks in and he says "Thank you for coming."

"anything for a friend." She says

"We're not friends. I let you use my port to smuggle drugs." He says

"For which you're paid very well." She responds

"Not enough to get shot at with arrows. You need to take him seriously, he's a much bigger threat than Nocenti ever was."

"Except now his daughter is the problem." China responds

"No way. If you kill her Laurel Lance won't let it go until she burns me, you and the whole triad."

"Then we kill her too."

Oliver is in his room changing his shirt when he gets distracted by the news report on Martin Somers saying "The attorney overseeing the case of Martin Somers has stated that Somers maintains his innocence, as he has no intention of testifying."

"We'll keep you updated as the information comes."

Thea walks in, seeing Oliver's scars as he puts his shirt on.

"How did you get those?!" Thea says

"Don't you knock?!" He says full of irritation.

"I know mom said there w-were scars, but this...?" She continues

"Ollie, what happened to you on that Island?"

"I don't want to talk about it." He says as he finished buttoning up his shirt

Thea scoffs "no surprise there. You never want to talk about anything other than my social life."

She begins to walk out.

"Wait Thea. I'm sorry. I know I need to get better at talking about what happened there. But.. I'm not ready yet."

"Do you have a second?" She asks

"Yeah." He says

"I wanna show you something out back."

#arrowverse rewrite #arrow rewrite #arrowverse #arrow #green arrow #oliver queen #dinah laurel lance #laurel lance #quentin lance #moira queen #walter steel #tommy merlyn #thea queen #john diggle #arrow fix it

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the-firebird69 · 1 year ago

Text

TROPICAL STORM HILARY

And there are a couple problems with what you're doing one of them is that the ships have not backed off and you say they have and when does off and on cuz of ships so we're going to help and we're going to get this idiot out of here. There's a bunch of people who think there's a parallel but there isn't really just trying to use it to lots of ships and stop you from interfering and not and so you won't get any and it's still that way the attacks have increased on the clones they're at 4% an hour ago right now they're at 3.5% the general population and their bases are going down in size and it's going to go down probably it's a 35% in moments we see that they're 35% operational now and a size wise not yet but they will be momentarily and that's good. In seconds they will be there. It's going to happen and they will continue to shrink it's an important number talking about five bases four of them are evacuating the fifth is kind of just sitting there getting attacked though the attacks are not massively heavy they're trying to infiltrate. And yes it is proportionally sized no it's smaller by percentage is about 17.5%, so a couple more bases fall because 2.75 bases have fallen and the fourth base is half operational pretty soon it will be just that base and they will go after clones globally because of it the fleets the black ship are now at 100 million the stone chips are at 80 million and soon the stone ship will be exposed but having ships that look the same and I wasn't necessary but we'll be later you pull up in a big ship and you bully the other big ship and you force infiltration things are going on like that a little bit but not much it's different more shortly this is going to change rapidly

Thor Freya

Zues

We have a lot of dead space too we want to occupy it and use it mine it and make it ours and use it as bases so I suggested Dead space for citadel and big bases and they're looking at and saying wow that's a good idea and they're going ahead underneath it are things so we're going to use it

Hera

It's a terrific day we needed this we're going to have a strong presence everywhere and it's different than before and they said in the ocean too and we're doing that right now we have to have at least seven bases out of 10 to have a serious presence and we're trying to get there and it's not possible unless he's ideas came about and we're doing it now

Thor Freya

We can't get elsewhere right now but we're going to take those places and start right now and it's going to be great I mean this is an awesome idea and system

Nuada Arrianna I feel it necessary to say this we're going ahead with this plan because it's the only plan we have that's one reason and it's very good the series valid if we have a presence we move out and have satellite bases and we have enough troops that we can do things it's really difficult to get around now this will make it easier and we'll have to watch the skies for ourselves

We needed this it's a tab on the shoulder and it's a really good one and Hera is the one who brought it up this time around and she did it right

Olympus

You primed it and got it ready and we started advancing using this patchwork idea and we're going to go ahead with it there's plenty of room for factories using this too and the imbeciles can commute to it

Hera

Haha yes

Thor Freya

He's going to publish to get his teeth brush but we all have a lot to say so we're going to go around and say to each other this is a better way

Nuada Arrianna

That's much better and I have a whole bunch of that space and I know what to do what he means is take it off cuz they don't do it or go use it or go through it and we have stuff under it and minerals and other I'm doing it right now I've got permission

Gu Oya

We are going to help and what you need is what we're going to help deliver and we'd like to presents here too that's one reason

Abomination is she abomination

Terrific and it's a good idea

Gu Oya

They have a permission and we're rolling

Olympus

0 notes

tedturneriscrazy · 3 years ago

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Here's Eclipse Lake, an episode that has been highly anticipated! Will it top Knock, Knock, Knockin' On Hooty's Door?

I'll skip the pretense: No. It won't.

You'll see under the cut.

Hmm, that list of ingredients for the Grimwalker...I'll let other people theorize about this (like @sepublic ), but it sure looks like a thing

Guess the mysterious green goo won't cut it, huh?

Belos face reveal already?! Huh, didn't expect it so soon.

Oh, no, he's hot! (And I'm mad about it)

Still an ass, though

Now we know why Hunter was wearing a different outfit (because people fixated on that for some reason)

Amity with the clipboard gives me strong Dipper vibes

GHOST! My beloved!

I need a moment because CAT!

(Also, someone pointed out earlier that Ghost was based on Dana's cat, and that's super obvious in hindsight)

Raine?! Oh, wait, you mean rain. Sigh.

Eda gets training tips from DBZ confirmed

(Also Amity's face when reacting to Eda's explanation is priceless)

Oh God Eda's a weeb I need another moment

Damn, Amity just straight up calling Eda old

Oh, loopy Luz

(The abomination holding the tissue box is adorable for many reasons)

Yeah, don't want Luz to eat the McGuffin

I have several questions about those Tamagotchis that I'll refrain from listing here

Amity your Odalia is showing

Girlfriend counter: 1

(Yes I am introducing a counting gag, deal with it)

Was wondering if they were ever gonna reference the dissection incident. We've come a long way, baby!

Oh, so that's what everyone was looking at

Luz honey your enthusiasm is admirable but no

Luz burrito is quite cute, though

Girlfriend counter: 2

(Damn, still wild to think that that's the case)

Just occurred to me that "Boots" is probably shortened from "Bossyboots" from earlier

Guess the Luz hiss compilation needs to be updated again

Those tunnels ain't the only thing around here that's unstable, amirite?

Oops, guess Kiki was justified, after all

Maybe don't talk so loudly about your plans, dude

That is her son, get it right!

Serves you right for having that stupid strand of hair sticking out like that

Is this just the episode where everyone dunks on White Boy? Because I can totally get behind that.

Already mentioned this, but I am loving the parallels between Katara and Amity with that bottle of abomination goo. Insert obligatory "Two Nickels" meme here about Mae Whitman.

We really are just dunking on the white boy and I am living for it

Hooty had to get it from somewhere, I suppose

Nothing says mother-son bonding like shooting things at each other (see also: Separate Tides)

I'm sure the magic bouncing off the veins won't come into play later at all

Oh well, at least the echolocation looked cool

At this point Amity would kill Hunter for a Klondike bar

Wait why does Hooty need a chair

Willow with the galaxy brain ideas

"A bad but sad boy" Luz is a genius at succinctly summing people up

Kikimora continues to be unhinged. Ironically she's not wrong about Hunter.

Motherfucker stop acting like you know what that says

(Also, projecting much?)

Girlfriend counter: 3

Friendly reminder that Hunter is still an antagonist

Uh oh

UH OH

I know someone mentioned Willow having the brain cell, but honestly it seemed like Luz had it this whole time. And that's not good.

WHY IS FOOL'S BLOOD EVEN A THING

Aaaaand cue the getting screwed over

Further reminder that he's still an antagonist (Apparently there's a vocal segment who's Really Mad at him that seem to forget this fact)

You unhand Ghost right now!! And Amity too, I guess.

(I kid, she's literally my second favorite character)

For what she did to Raine it warms my heart to know Kiki has had zero peace of mind

Wait, the Abomatons are Transformers?! Okay, that's kind of awesome, actually. Alador might be a shit dad but he is a brilliant inventor.

Chucking kids off cliffs is a surpisingly common pastime in the Boiling Isles

Owlbert no!

Eda did spend literal decades fighting the Owl Beast within, so I guess she can't be blamed for not thinking to talk to it

Also hurry up guys I'm very concerned about Owlbert

Fuck yeah Harpy Milf!

Yay Ghost returns!

She's glad they're okay (I didn't need to take this, I just thought it was cute. Also this is surprisingly high quality considering I just took a photo of my TV screen)

Oh, so they do have video games in the Demon Realm. That or Luz introduced them.

Trailer shot!

Oh dear, we about to have a fight over the key

Wow, being so high ranking under Belos is really bad for mental health

Jesus Christ Belos what have you been putting in this poor kid's head?

Leave it to King to give radical recontextualizations

Amity, I'm glad you remembered/realized this about Luz, please don't let the sad white boy play you like that again

Also, I appreciate the gesture you're making, and it's a wonderful summary of your character development, but goddamnit he's gonna go for that key because he's STILL AN ANTAGONIST

"Being nice usually works for Luz!" A) Not always, and B) Amity I love you but Luz you are not. A valiant attempt nonetheless.

Ooh, cool fight scene!

Always lovely to see such superb animation

I was privately griping about not seeing Amity use magic for so long, and now I am fed

Don't think I didn't hear the glass breaking

Appreciate your ass from a hole in the ground, Golden Boy!

(jk I don't actually feel that strongly about him still. That kind of threat still isn't cool, though)

Oh so that's why it's the Common Mold!

It's kinda cute, actually. Or maybe it's just because it's Luz.

TIL Hooty is heat resistant

Apparently Owl Beast just wanted a snack

Girlfriend counter: 4

Also love how calling Amity her awesome girlfriend is literally the first thing Luz says to her upon returning.

Yesssss return the hug! You deserve it!

(I know there are higher quality versions of this screenshot, I just didn't feel like looking around)

King demands huggies, too! (And gets 'em)

Reminder that Amity is smart as hell. I knew that glass breaking indicated something!

So once again I've been had. I let the fandom trick me into thinking this episode would be way more intense. Guess that one screenshot was from the next episode.

Overall this was...fine. Some nice Lumity moments, Harpy Eda strutting her stuff, that gorgeously animated fight sequence; those were all lovely.

I do wish Willow and Gus had a bit more to do. And I'm still rather unenthusiastic about Hunter, to be honest. I've seen his type several times before, and the path they have for him is rather obvious. I may never share the fandom's love for him, and I guess I'll have to deal with that.

Anybody who says this was better than KKKOHD is a damn fool.

Mid season finale next week! I think Yesterday's Lie will finally bring the pain!

#the owl house #amity blight #luz noceda #eda clawthorne #king clawthorne #toh hooty #willow park #gus porter #emperor belos #toh hunter #toh ghost #kikimora #toh s2 spoilers #the owl house s2 spoilers #the owl house season 2 spoilers #the owl house spoilers #toh spoilers

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jamiejohnsontalk · 5 years ago

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LGBT Representation in Jamie Johnson as Compared to Other Kids’ Media

Pinned to the top of my blog because I’m quite proud of this post, and I still want newer followers to be able to see it.

From what I know, LGBT representation is relatively new in media. Not just kids’ media, but media in general. I don’t even think I knew what gay meant until I was like 11. And I didn’t know that religions didn’t exactly have the greatest opinion of gay people till my GCSEs. In that sense, I was lucky. I knew I was gay before I knew what homophobia was, so I have always been comfortable with who I am. But others didn’t have life that... Well, simple I suppose. I’ve always known who I am, but other people, well, in the worst case scenario, gay people can become homophobic themselves and grow to hate themselves. This might seem like a sidetracky introduction, but I think it shows the importance of LGBT in media. For someone like me, it can help to start to normalise gay people to my family. Even though they’re still homophobic, at least they’re able to watch programmes with LGBT characters in. I met someone who’s dad wouldn’t watch any shows with LGBT characters in it. And for how rare gay people used to be in media in general, they’re even rarer in kids’ media. Why is it that Disney Channel only had their first gay main character in 2017 when homosexuality was legalised in... 2003 in the US. Wow, I can’t lie, I looked up that statistic expecting it to be way earlier. OK, but it was legalised in 1967 in the UK. So why did I never see any gay characters in my childhood? I’ve known I was gay since I was 9, but I must have first seen a gay character in, OK, it was Doctor Who. Captain Jack was pansexual. So I did have some LGBT representation. But there wasn’t much. And again, not in kids’ media. So, let’s look at some of the kids’ media that changed the landscape for LGBT rep in kids’ media. Sarah Jane Adventures and Wizards vs Aliens We’ll start with what I think is probably the worst types of LGBT representation. First of all: Wizards vs Aliens. Benny came out. But I can’t remember the show ever talking about it again after he came out. Sarah Jane Adventures. Yes, it’s not Russell T Davies’ fault that he never got the chance to let Luke come out in the show, and yes, he got to have Luke come out in the memorial episode for Sarah Jane on YouTube, but even before Liz had... Luke had left the main cast, so his coming out would have still meant less to audience members. Gravity Falls had a coming out at the very end of the show, and I believe so did Adventure Time, so they fit in this category too. Compare that to Dillon from Jamie Johnson. Yes, there’s a reasonable chance we won’t see him again after this season, but if it is, he gets to leave on a high. We get to explore his coming out journey. Steven Universe Steven Universe is great for LGBT representation, and it’s great for normalising LGBT representation. You’ve got a huge variety of LGBT characters, because the Gems are all gay (Except Rose). So you can understand that there are different types of gay people (Love Victor did that too, but I’m not sure how many people would watch it). Steven universe is definitely the gayest kids’ show. High School Musical the Musical the Series fits in this category too. Carlos is out and proud. And we don’t see his coming out, more his love life. Again, great rep. Normalises gay people. Jamie Johnson is nowhere near the level of gay that Steven Universe or High School Musical the Musical the Series is, but I think that it’s less meaningful than other shows I’ll mention and Jamie Johnson. It’s the same reason Victor said “Screw you” to Simon at the beginning of Love Victor. We don’t want to see gay people who have it easy. We want to see gay people who are like us. Who have been through stuff and have come out the other side alive. We want hope, but that doesn’t come from seeing gay people who have it easy. I see people playing football and risking corona and I’m jealous. I want to play football again. I see gay people have it easy: Same. I wish I could have it that easy, and it makes me sad. Steven Universe is a great show, and has great rep, but I think even kids’ media should have something closer to home. Andi Mack and Diary of a Future President I love how they portrayed Cyrus and Bobby. We got to see Cyrus’ story from realising he liked guys to being able to say “I’m gay” to showing his crush he likes him (though homophobes can pretend the bench scene was just a friendship scene). Cyrus’ arc was great, and the bench scene was perfect and the only problem with it was that it deserved a fourth season so we could see Cyrus and TJ in a relationship. Diary of a Future President though. I was heartbroken when Bobby didn’t come out to Liam. But then I found out there was a season 2 and I was OK, because it’s hard to come out. It’s as if all the shows make it so easy to come out to the first person, but it’s not. The first real life person I came out to, I came out at 22. And they had come out to me first. And I had to write it down on my phone. I couldn’t say it out loud. So yeah, seeing Diary of a Future President take it slow is amazing, and I love it, and it’s also what they did with Dillon. Some people think that they only really intended for Dillon to be gay from season 4. But, I think that they’ve known since the beginning. I plan to do a character analysis on Dillon after my rewatch, but I think I found something that shows they must have known since at least season 2. (I expect the analysis will be a lot shorter than this. Sorry for the crazy length. And if it’s a crap read. I don’t essay well). But if they knew from the beginning, that was a brilliant move on their part. The only thing that makes me unsure is how Dillon took 3 years to realise he might be gay, but it’s possible that he denied it to himself until he realised Elliot was gay. Because there’s no way he wasn’t thinking he was gay in season 4 episode 5. He didn’t think he was asexual, his reaction to Ruby’s foster mums suggested that he was interested because they were gay. But regardless, I love that they took it slow. Not everyone can come out as easily as others, and having someone like Bobby, or like Dillon, is so much more meaningful than Cyrus, even though Cyrus is an amazing character. Bobby and Dillon are more relatable because they’re finding it tough to come out. The Dumping Ground I kept trying to decide whether I thought the dumping ground or Andi Mack/Diary of a Future President had better LGBT representation. In the end, I decided that I preferred the Dumping Ground’s representation. Yes, in Andi Mack and Diary of a Future President, we get to see the coming out journey of Bobby and Cyrus, but even though Andi Mack touched on homophobia, a lot of people didn’t even realise Kira was blackmailing TJ, making him afraid of how people would react if they found out he was gay. A number of people just thought TJ was being an idiot. But the Dumping Ground had a gay couple wanting to foster Gus. And IIRC, Johnny thought it was wrong because they were gay. Something like that would foster (see what I did there?) potential discussion between parents and children about gay adoption. Some kids watching the show might have been gay and if they watched it with their parents, they could talk about it with them. Gage their reaction. Maybe even come out to them. The Dumping Ground’s episode was great. And then May-Li came out. And we never got to see her full journey, But we did get to see her journey to being accepted by her grandmother I think. And that’s something. And Now On To Jamie Johnson Just like the Dumping Ground, Jamie Johnson has been able to tackle serious issues. I mean, season 1 dealt with Jamie’s cheating father. You’ve got Zoe being a carer, Dillon getting diabetes. But in terms of LGBT representation, it’s season 4 and season 5. Season 4 episode 5 was incredible. I remember telling all my friends about it, and how amazing it was that CBBC were doing this. To recap: Ruby said her heroes were her foster parents, causing Dillon to ask Ruby about it. She thought he was being an idiot, even though in actual fact, he was excited that someone else was gay and trying not to show it. Dillon told his dad that Ruby had foster mums while he was telling him how Ruby’s biological parents weren’t in her life anymore. Liam, Dillon’s brother, used it to rile up Ruby’s sister Alba until she attacked him. She probably would have gotten expelled from the club, but Sienna filmed the incident so everyone found out what really happened, and it was Liam who got expelled. I think Alba only got excluded. What I find really awesome about the storyline though is not just that they had it. It was that the consequences of Liam’s actions set the course for the rest of the season, aka Dodgy Duncan. Liam’s actions caused the club’s image to go down the drain, and sponsors to leave, and that’s what made Duncan turn to the dark side. And it’s a subtle way to just say “Homophobia is bad”. Because Liam’s homophobia caused all the problems in the rest of the season. The First Time Dillon Let Himself “be Gay” Dillon took a long time to come out. And, like me, I think for a long time, nobody really suspected he was gay, in real life or in the audience. He never really showed it. I’m pretty sure when I was a kid, I would act super offended and upset if someone jokingly called me gay. So, yeah, it’s a slow burn. And we didn’t get any hints that he was gay, but that happens. Gay people are good at hiding, I think that’s why gay kids are often portrayed as loving theater. They already have to act their whole lives. It’s not easy to be in the closet. But I think that once Dillon was able to leave his father’s shadow, he was able to be more comfortable with himself, leading to him coming out to Elliot in episode 7. I think he had crushes before, specifically Michelle from season 2, but Elliot was the first time he felt like he could be himself. So here we have two massive points from other shows, but they haven’t been done together. The discussion of homophobia in the Dumping Ground, and the Slow Burn from Diary of a Future President. Social Media Presence Andi Mack made a huge deal about Cyrus being gay, like a week before the episode where he came out aired. HSMTMTS had Carlos be a gay stereotype from the trailer, and OK, Steven Universe was always gay. But Jamie Johnson, and the Dumping Ground didn’t make a big deal about it beforehand. They didn’t scream to the world “Look at us! We’re woke!” They showed it. They let people see for themselves, they let people debate for two weeks on Dillon’s sexuality, and they didn’t tell everyone that this was the episode Dillon would come out (though they made sure that everyone knew they should watch this episode). They just let people see for themselves. And after the episode aired, they made their move. They had the Jamie Johnson logo in rainbow colours to celebrate pride, they had a guide on how to react if someone comes out to you, and they had a history of pride, and I expect they’ll do even more on their social media after this week’s episode. @tkstrand reckons the Delliot post is Jamie Johnson’s most liked instagram post. I don’t know whether the other shows did this, but it’s a great gesture regardless. Oh, and there’s the fact that they’re doing a Bafta zoom conference on how they tackle issues. Choosing the Right Character and Breaking Ground for CBBC A lot of people on Instagram said that they thought it was Boggy who should be gay, and while I think either storyline would be great, I think that the writers made the right decision. 1) Boggy is an amazing person. He’s not afraid to be himself. I think, if Boggy was gay, then he wouldn’t have as much trouble coming out as Dillon is having. Of course, Boggy is going through stuff right now, but I still think he would have been a lot braver than Dillon and so we wouldn’t get the storyline we’re getting now delving into homophobia 2) If Dillon does have a minor or major role in season 6, we might get to explore homophobia in professional football, which would be super exciting 3) While Boggy is an amazing character, I’d reckon kids tend to gravitate to the coolest character as their favourite. And while Boggy radiates cool. (Seriously, check out the two posts I made on how sarcastic he is. And just look at his hat at the beginning of episode 1!

But Dillon is the more traditionally cool character, so he’s more likely to be a fan favourite (that and the fact that he’s the best developed character in Jamie Johnson). So for those who aren’t necessarily homophobic, but don’t really understand homosexuality, Dillon is the perfect choice to have written as gay. Because after next week, the people who don’t believe Dillon is gay might leave the episode with a new understanding of LGBT people. It’s been done with TJ, who’s also a cool character, but people who want to ignore the gay subtext can because it was never said out loud in the show. And I reckon Dillon is a groundbreaking character for CBBC. Benny left soon after he came out, Luke left before he came out, May-Li is part of an ensemble cast, so in terms of a small number of main characters (the core 4 in JJ being Dillon, Jamie, Zoe and Boggy), so I think Dillon is the first gay main character (not ensemble character) on CBBC who has gotten a major gay storyline. Could be wrong, let me know if I am! Groundbreaking in General From what it looks like, the next episode is gonna focus completely on Dillon’s coming out storyline. Forget kids’ media, I don’t think I’ve seen an adults’ show that has an entire episode solely dedicated to an LGBT storyline. (Even Reunited from Steven Universe wasn’t completely focused on Garnet). Love Victor was jam packed with side stories and I think even Real O’Neals always had side stories to it. If another show has done this, I’d love to hear, but if Jamie Johnson really has the whole episode dedicated solely to Dillon, I think it’s huge. I only hope it doesn’t mean that the storyline will be forgotten about in the last 4 episodes, but since the head writer of Jamie Johnson is LGBT, I have no doubt they’ll do it justice. Does Jamie Johnson Have the Best LGBT Representation in Kids’ Media? No, I don’t think it does. Andi Mack has 2 seasons where we follow Cyrus on his coming out journey and Steven Universe has a lot more LGBT people, including a non-binary character. But in the aspects Jamie Johnson does well, it excels at. The homophobia storyline(s), and Jamie Johnson’s instagram presence. And having the best developed and best defined character be the one to show kids how to treat gay people. Thursday could be a historic moment for Kids’ television if they do this right, and I think they will. So I hope that everyone enjoys the episode! No, I swear this wasn’t a long promo for the next episode. No, I am not sponsored. Yes, this post was extremely long, I’m really sorry about that. I hope it’s worth the read. If not, don’t worry, this will almost definitely be my longest post. No, I don’t know how to have a “continue reading” button. Does anyone happen to know how? Thanks! Edit: Apparently 4 O Clock club had a gay main character first, so I got that wrong, but I still hold that Jamie Johnson is groundbreaking.

#jamie johnson #delliot #lgbt representation #analysis #long post #Seriously this is a super long post

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athetos · 4 years ago

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Not to also be basic, but Luz?

we love basic people here

2-4 songs that are probably on their ipod: “royal” by waterparks, “psycho” by red velvet, “heaven” by pvris, “i’m just a kid” by simple plan

the one place they sometimes end up falling asleep - where they’re not supposed to: Eda’s nest, because it is comfy and when eda isn’t around, free real estate... also probably at Hex side, during free periods.

The game they’d destroy everyone else at: i don’t play minecraft but i think luz would be so fucking good at minecraft. i know you don’t fight or whatever in it but she could make such awesome things in it and everyone would just be amazed.

the emoticon they use most often: i think she and willow and gus would send owl emoticons they find all the time. she teaches hooty how to make a really long owl emoticon if he was able to text and it’s disastrous. he sends an emoticon so long it crashes everyone’s phones.

what they act like when they haven’t gotten enough sleep: very confused, ‘what’s going on’ type mood. would have to get forced through breakfast and getting ready in the morning,then fall asleep on the ride to school, type thing.

their preferred hot beverage on cold mornings/nights: hot chocolate with lots of mini marshmallows in it. coffee and tea are icky.

How they comfort/care for themselves when they’re in a slump: curling up to watch some of her favorite shows, cuddling with King probably, maybe inviting willow, gus, amity, over.

what they wanted to be when they grew up: a witch. is that canon? i mean she’s the kid who reads fantasy novels and hopes and dreams that she becomes the protagonist one day.

their favorite kind of weather: when it rains swords and she’s stuck inside and gets to go “wow this is just like adventure time”

thoughts on their singing voice: I’m assume she’s decent, definitely has karoke nights and forgets the words halfway through though

how/what they like to draw/doodle: all sorts of fantasy items, maybe ideas for her future palisman!

#ash talks about toh #toh #the owl house #luz noceda #luz #ash answers your burning questions #breawycker

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awesome-fandom-reference · 5 years ago

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This is a continuation of my aizawa x reader fanfic called partners. To read the previous chapters click here:

Chapter 8

You woke up earlier than usual to stop by a cafe you enjoyed before you headed to work. When you finally arrived to UA (which was earlier than your usual arrival time) you went straight towards the teachers lounge. Luckily there wasn’t really anyone there, but sitting at a table with papers in front of him was Aizawa.

You’re asked over to him, with a coffee in hand.

“Morning Mr. Aizawa.” You said.

A tired face turned around to look at you.

“Good morning.” He replied.

“I brought you coffee.” You said placing the cup in front of him.

“I took a shot in the dark & assumed black. But I also brought some cream and sugars in case I was wrong.” You said reaching into the cafe bag & placing them next to his cup.

“What’s this for?” He asked.

“I just wanted to say thank you for sticking up for me in the meeting. & yes I know what you said, that I earned it & not gonna lie you do have a point haha. But I just wanted to let you know I still appreciate the things you said; this job means a lot to me. And also I think we started off on the wrong foot, but I’m down to start again? I mean if I learnt anything from that class incident is that you’re excellent at what you do...”

Aizawa just started at you quietly with a somewhat blank expression on his face, making you feel a bit awkward & silly. You turned red.

“Anyway, I don’t want to ramble on. I’ll let you get back to your work. See you around.” You said nervously & quickly turned to walk away to your class.

“Hey, YN” he called out.

You turned.

“Thank you for the coffee.”

“Anytime.” You said & have a half smile.

You walked out feeling good yet bad at the same time. A confused nervous excitement.

“‘I’m down to start again’ what even was that? “ you said to yourself scrunching you your face in embarrassment.

The rest of your day went on quite calmly. You’ve decided to stick to more theory based lessons for a while, to gain back a more stable reputation. Meanwhile you couldn’t help but feel a bit of regret with how cringy your interaction with Aizawa went, yet happy with the fact that you did it.

You had seen him at lunch time & noticed that he saw you as well. You gave a tiny smile but quickly looked away, still shy about earlier.

The next day you arrived to work at your usual time. Deciding to avoid the teachers lounge you headed directly to your classroom. As you say down your desk you noticed on it a black thermos with a note on it.

“I owed you a coffee.” The note said.

You opened it to a smell the most amazing roast with hints of cinnamon & nutmeg to the aroma.

You took a sip & quickly realized this is one of the best coffees you had ever had in your life.

At the end of the day you stayed extra hours to finish grading some papers that you’d rather not take home. By the time you got ready to leave, no one was really around.

As you walked out of the building, you saw Aizawa leaving as well. You ran up to him.

“Mr. Aizawa.” You called out & he turned.

“Thank you for the coffee.” You said, returning his black thermos.

Aizawa chuckled slightly.

“Like I told you, the things I said at the meeting weren’t a favor, so I owed you a coffee. Now we’re even.” He said with a light smile.

“It was really delicious. Where did you buy it?” You asked.

“I brewed it at home.”

“Oh wow. Usually I’m a cream & sugar kind of person, but the flavor was so rich I didn’t need it.” You said.

“It’s all in how you brew it.” He said.

An awkward silence suddenly fell with you not knowing what to say next.

“Well I’m sure you’re busy, I’ll let you get home.” You said blushing & adjusting you’re bag to turn around & head your way.

“YN.” He called out & grabbed your elbow.

“Why are you acting so shy lately? You and I both you aren’t that kind of person.”

You felt your face burn red & your heart begin to race. You scrambled up quickly to think of something to say.

“Ugh.. I know how I can be... I just don’t want accidentally say something that would put us back on the wrong foot.” You said nervously. ‘Why do I keep referencing feet?!’ You thought to yourself.

“You shouldn’t diminish yourself to make others more comfortable. You’ll never get anything done like that.” He said with a confident voice.

“I’ll keep that in mind.” You said as you quickly turned & left back to your place.

The rest of the afternoon you were trying to process what had happened back there.

“Ughhh” You groaned throwing a knife to the wall.

“In my attempt to not have things be so tense between us by getting to know him, I just feel more confused.” You thought to yourself.

The next morning as you arrived to your classroom, you saw the black thermos in your desk with a note.

“Figured I would bring you more coffee.”

Chapter 9

“Thanks for the coffee.” You said to Aizawa, handing back his thermos.

It was lunch time, & Aizawa was getting a plate at the cafeteria.

He made eye contact & smiled back at you.

“Of course.” He said in a low but deep voice.

“I’m surprised to see you at the cafeteria. I figured the pro eraserhead was just fueled on black coffee & stubbornness alone.” You said.

He caught on to your teasing, looked at you, gave you a smirk & a small chuckle.

“Don’t get too used to this sight, I’m about to go right back to my class now that I have my food.”

“Awww come on. What is so important that keeps you from enjoying this fine cafeteria?”

“Schoolwork.”

“Nerd.” You said in a low breath with a sly smile.

“I’d rather be in the quiet of my class room, where I can hear myself think.”

“Okayyy.” You said rolling your eyes and reaching over for a tray.

“You’d change your mind if you experienced for yourself the joy of not having everyone around you.”

“Okay, then prove me wrong.” You said with a wide grin.

“Hmmmm” he grunted

You walked into class 1A, the seats were all empty & you watched as Aizawa set down his tray on his desk.

He motioned for you to walk over, so you put your tray on his desk as well and say across him.

“Hmmmm.” You said.

“What?”

“Well it does beat having to talk over everyone else I’ll give you that.”

He smirked lightly.

“How have your lesson plans been going?” He asked.

“Nah nah, don’t get all chatty with me, you said you came here to do school work, so get at it. I’m just here to watch.” You said giggling.

Aizawa rolled his eyes.

“Oh okay, you but grump. Lesson plans have been good. Guess I’m just struggling to keep my class interested.”

Aizawa arched his brow.

“I wouldn’t expect that from a subject like yours. Usually hero focused material is what students are most invested in, specially material they get to practice...”

Aizawa gave a suspicious look at you.

“You haven’t been doing practical things with your students, have you?” He said sharply.

“Well we made such a commotion last time, I didn’t want to get in trouble again. I’ve been trying to build back up a more reliable reputation again, even if it means sticking to theory for a while. I really love this job at UA & I don’t want to lose it.” You said worriedly.

“That meeting we had after the incident was just to make sure everything was ok. At UA we aren’t obligated to uphold any traditions & we hero’s can teach however you see fit.”

“Well this is how I see fit for now.”

“Fit for your students or for you?” He said looking directly at you.

You stayed quiet but with your mouth open.

“You’ve been holding back. That’s not why they hired you. Remember what I said about diminishing yourself for others; you’ll get nothing done that way.”

“Well what am I supposed to do Mr. Aizawa? Not diminish myself for others or teach how is fit for them? Cause right now your two points seem contradicting.”

Aizawa took a final slurp from his juice, stood up from his chair & walked towards the door.

“Prove to me that it’s not a mistake you’re here. Show me you deserve to be at UA.” He said with mischievous smile & a beckoning motion & walked out.

You were so intrigued, you had no choice but to follow.

Chapter 10

You hurried to keep up the pace & follow the sensei.

You had no idea what he was up to or where he was taking you, but you’ve never been one to back down when curiosity peaks, so you followed hastily. A few minutes of walking & you realized, he was taking you to the practical training area for your school subject.

“Why are you bringing me here?”

“For lesson planning.”

“What do you mean?”

“We’ll be practicing defense & attack skills that you can use as excersizes for your students.”

*I can tell since the meeting she’s not sure of her teaching skills, thinking that the best thing to do is to stay under the radar. She is incredible at combat with lots of experience, but deep down she’s still just a new faculty member. I would like to help build her up.* Aizawa thought to himself.

“Are you crazy?! That’s how this whole mess started.” You said.

“There’s no rule in the school against pro hero training, in fact teachers advising other colleagues is highly supported, for the sake of the education of future pro hero’s.” Aizawa said with a grin.

In the blink of an eye you saw his scarf whip out & before you knew it, you were tied up.

“What is this?!” You said.

“Come on YN, think, what would you teach your students?”

“To use their quirk to their advantage.” You said & turned your arms into blades, cutting your way out.

“Good, but you should also remind them that their opponent will use their quirk to their advantage as well. So what now?”

You knew what was coming, what he was about to do; so you didn’t give him a chance to do it. You took your arm blade and put it in a beam of sun, reflecting the light straight into Aizawas eyes, blinding him, forcing him to blink.

“I teach them to use their opponents quirk to their advantage as well.” You say as you take the end of the scarf that was once tied to you & pull on it, causing him to fall over. You then run up & pin him down with your body weight as you grab the other end of his scarf & simulate a choke hold.

“Very good use of attack & defense. But you must remember basic applications, & this is a basic position in which I’ve found myself in many times on the field.”

Aizawa kicked up his back & put his feet on the ground, managing to tip you over; however you did not let go of the two ends of his scarf, bringing him down with you, but he positioned his fall so that he would land on top of you, rendering you immobile.

There you both laid, at a draw. You having control over his scarf, & him pinning you down with his body.

Both of you breathing heavily, & covered in sweat, he looked at you.

“I’m sure now you have many ideas to engage your students once again. And I’m sure you’ll be pleased to know we managed to keep it discreet.” He said in a husky tried voice.

“Haha yeah, this was really good.” You said, your face flushed from all the exertion.

You both still laid there. You not letting go, & Aizawa not getting off from you. He kept looking into your eyes, his face close to you, as if he wanted to say something. You couldn’t help but have a strange feeling of desiring him closer, & wishing you were brave enough to tug on his scarf to pull him to you.

You felt your hands tingling, it could be a simple slip up, a muscle spasm. The opportunity & want was there, you could feel it in you; so you tightened your grip around the gray fabric &...

You heard the bell ring. Lunch time was over.

Your hands went lose & Aizawa stood up, offering a hand to assist you to get up as well.

“I should get back to my class before my students get there.” He said scratching the back of his head.

“Yeah, I should probably go & let my students know that class will be here.” You said feeling your face burn red as you turned to leave.

“YN” Aizawa called out.

You looked back.

“Let me know how the class goes later.”

#aizawa x reader #my hero academia aizawa #boku no hero acadamia oc #my hero academy fanfiction

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go-events · 5 years ago

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GO Rom Com Spotlight: @raiining

The wonderful @raiining has claimed My Big Fat Greek Wedding to adapt for Good Omens in the Good Omens Rom Com Event.

For reference, here’s some information about the source material!

Synopsis of My Big Fat Greek Wedding: Everyone in the Portokalos family worries about Toula (Nia Vardalos). Still unmarried at 30 years old, she works at Dancing Zorba's, the Greek restaurant owned by her parents, Gus (Michael Constantine) and Maria (Lainie Kazan). After taking a job at her aunt's travel agency, she falls in love with Ian Miller (John Corbett), a teacher who is tall, handsome and definitely not Greek. Toula isn't sure which will be more upsetting to her father, that Ian is a foreigner or that he's a vegetarian.

We spent some time chatting about how the adaptation is coming so far, as well as future plans for it! Now, get to know @raiining (also here on Ao3) a little better!

* * *

goromcom: You know how if you open a Tumblr chat with someone you haven't chatted to before, Tumblr tells you two things they post about? I wanted to tell you that I was delighted to see that yours reports that you "post about #omg and #lol." Which is a mood for 2020.

raiining: Bahahaha, I forgot that about tumblr. #omg and #lol seems accurate.

goromcom: You chose to adapt My Big Fat Greek Wedding as your rom com. Has this movie been a favorite of yours, or is there some other reason you chose it?

raiining: Yes, My Big Fat Greek Wedding is an absolute favourite and, coincidentally?--one of the view movies on the list you circulated that I recognized/have actually seen. I have got to sit down and actually watch When Harry Met Sally one day because I have never seen it and I feel this is likely a terrible thing. But yes, MBFGW is an awesome movie and a favourite. I have a big family but not nearly as big as in the movie, so I can relate without it being all too painful. I also like how the suspense of the movie isn't so much "getting them together" as it is "making this work."

... so of course I want to use it to talk about Aziraphale and Crowley and their relationships with Heaven and Hell, and also Heaven and Hell's relationships with each other, and, also, I'm going to make my fic hinge on the fact that when this all starts Crowley and Aziraphale aren't actually in a romantic relationship and so "getting them together" is going to be a big part of the plot. Because why not.

goromcom: What's your favorite moment of your chosen rom com, and are you looking forward to presenting it in your adaptation? Any loose plans for that scene that you can share?

raiining: My favourite moment is the one I'm pretty sure I'm going to use in my summary, which is having Gabriel say "Well, he might as well meet the whole family."

goromcom: Hoo boy, Crowley, brace yourself!

Do you plan to stick very closely to the story beats of the original movie, or make bigger changes?

raiining: As I alluded to above, I'm going to be making some changes. I love AUs (and am currently writing two of them because I am terrible) but I really love the idea of NOT making this an AU and instead playing cut-and-paste. I'm going to use the idea that Heaven and Hell view the fact that Aziraphale and Crowley have lived together for a "year and a day" as the fact that they are already, in celestial minds, married. Gabriel has the (in his opinion) brilliant idea to use this as a way to make Aziraphale's situation seem officially sanctioned and not heretical and/or something that leads to other angels asking questions. So Heaven decides that they need to get married, and Crowley needs to be Officially introduced to Heaven, and then of course Beezlebub is not an idiot and isn't going to let Heaven steal all the good bits of this PR disaster, so... *rubs hands together* .. so I'm having fun, is basically what I'm saying. ;)

goromcom: What's an interesting decision you've made in your planning so far--a notable casting decision, a changing of venue, or some other plan you have to paint Good Omens all over your rom com?

raiining: I'm going to have Heaven play the part of the Portokalo's and Hell the Millar's, even though, going by personality, it should be the opposite way around. I'm definitely going to have fun with that, too.

goromcom: I love a good switcheroo!

I am blatantly stealing this last question from The Good Place: The Podcast, but here goes: Tell me something "good". It can be something big or small. It can be a charity you think is doing good work, or you can talk about how great your pet is.

raiining: Hiding half the kid's Christmas presents and bringing them out in July to shouts of, "Wow! New presents!" is awesome.

goromcom: Christmas in July is awesome!

There you have it! GO adaptation of My Big Fat Greek Wedding coming to an Ao3 near you soon!

#goromcom #good omens #goromcom spotlight #raiining #my big fat greek wedding

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calliecat93 · 5 years ago

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Top 5 Likes of Red vs Blue: Season 1

(Top 5 Dislikes)

Alrighty, the first Dislikes post is up. Which even calling those things Dislike is stretching it, to be honest. So let’s get to the Likes! Which there s honestly a lot to like in this season. Even though the Blood Gulch seasons are my least favorite and as a saga it’s just barely over Freelancer, these seasons are very endearing. I always enjoy going back over them, and I’m glad to be able to talk about a few of the reasons why. So let’s get to it~

#5. Early Installment Weirdness

You know everything I listed on that Dislikes list? That’s all due to Early Installment Weirdness. That essentially means things early on were quite strange when you compare it to a show’s current standard. It’s only natural that a show needs time to find it’s footing and not everything will work out or be done well. Especially for a webseries like this made by a bunch of video game nerds for what was originally planned for a miniseries, but the more ideas they got, the longer it went. So as I said, many of these things are very forgivable.

Plus, like I also said on that list, these things make the show endearing. The Blood Gulch Chronicles are very comedic driven compared tot he later seasons that are plot-driven. Things like the amateur voice acting, the weird stuff like the afterlife, and even the audio quality adds to the charm. It’s this weird show being made via a video game by some video game nerds. It feels like a newcomer’s indie project… which I guess it kinda is. And while machinima has been around before this, no one quite did it like how RvB did it. These things, as well as the other things I’ll get to soon, just help make it stand out.

Plus, if anything, it helps show how far we’ve come. Every dislike I listed has been improved. The voice acting is stellar, the audio is much better, the characterizations are stronger, and while there are still the occasional continuity issues many of them have gotten reasonable explanations. It’s fun to go back and see the lesser developed parts. You don’t feel annoyed with it, you have fun watching it not just because it’s funny, but because we’ve seen the evolution of the show. We can have fun with the older stuff, and that’s a great thing. It’s why I think these things should be celebrated, not mocked. I only put them on a Dislikes list out of necessity, but I love these things. I don’t want them to go back to it cause production standards are higher, but I’ll always enjoy revisiting it.

#4. Church Dies

Okay maybe phrasing it like that is kinda mean, but it is what happened so…

So I knew this was coming because Ten Little Roosters had this fact as a joke in Episode 2. But despite knowing about it, it was still a surprise to me. I mean they killed a main character? In Episode 7? And the character of the creator to boot?! Wow, that is ballsy. But the part I didn’t know about was that Church came back as a ghost. I guess I should have known since I had seen people talking about Church and he was still listed as a main character on Wikipedia when I was looking up stuff about the show. But tbf I didn’t know he died this soon or that it was only the first time.

It was certainly a thing that took me by surprise. Especially since IIRC, Burnie hadn’t planned on doing it. He just came up with it since I guess at this point they knew it was going to go for longer than intended. Honestly knowing that a lot of this season was made up on the spot explains a lot of the weirder stuff like the afterlife scene… anyways! Yeah, it was something that legit shocked me. The ghost thing confused me for the longest time, but I was just glad to have Church around soon since he has easily become my favorite (sorry Grif, it wasn’t always you…) and this one on the spot decision? It lead to some of the best parts of RvB. BOth comedically and once it was time to become more plot-driven, it made some of the best drama and lead to my favorite saga in the show with Recollection. It’s a minor thing, hence hwy it’s at 4, but it lead to so much more and I love it~

#3. The Tex Twist

Adding Tex to this season was a great move. For one it allowed a lot of great things for later, like the Freelancers and the plot after Blood Gulch. Even before all the Freelancer stuff came out, having these agents who were pretty much paid mercenaries added plenty of potential for stories and even comedy down the road. It also helped that we had someone who was actually competent among the main cast, adding an actual threat level. Not to mention she has a very blunt sense of humor that helps her stand out despite being the only female character aside from Shelia.

Heck, making Tex be Church’s ex-girlfriend was a great move. It adds something a little more personal and also helps Church’s character. He was the grumpy, snarky one among the Blues and then he died not even halfway through. But this helps give him another dimension as a character since he clearly still cares about Tex and wants to free her of the AI. Sure he’s still grumpy, being dead will do that to anyone, but he showed some competence once Tex got captured and again still cared about her. Tex’s bluntness and non-caring attitude about these things as well as owning her bitch-like personality helped her not just be ‘the girl’ either. She’s the competent one, but she isn’t just there cause she was Church’s girlfriend. She’s tough, takes no shit from anyone, but she never really gets annoyed or exasperated by the others either. Her straightforward personality is not only funny, but lets her shine as her own character and the later seasons only help.

While IDR if Tex was planned, her being Church’s girlfriend I remember Burnie saying was not. This is kind of a precursor to something I always admired about the show, taking small things and weaving them into the story. Like taking the joke that the teleporter turns armor black and the Blues using that to their advantage to trick the Reds. You almost can’t tell that this wasn’t going to be nineteen episodes cause they did so well finding ways to extend the story by using what they had. Tex is a perfect example of this. Not just because of later, but even for this season it added some more humor, added to her character when she could have easily been this standard tough guy, and also helped Church’s character. It’s probably the best decision that Burnie made for this season, and I’m glad that he did.

#2. Character Interactions

On Dislikes, I talked about how the characters were not very fleshed out. This, as well as the show being machinimated, meant that the comedy and dialogue had to be really good. Fortunately, that was by far the thing that they nailed most in this season. As I said while the characters aren’t fleshed out, they /do/ still have character. Heck Burnie basing them off the people he cast was a very good mood in this regard. People like Gus and Geoff have known each other for years, for example. So this made for a lot of natural character chemistry and a lot of really good interactions. I mean people love having Grif and Simmons together for a reason. They just play off of each other so freakin’ well..

The interactions and dialogue are really good and even funny. Sure sometimes maybe they dragged a joke out a little too much. Like when Church was starting to talk about Sidewinder and Caboose kept interrupting, you just wanted Caboose to shut up so Church could get to the point. But at the same time, Caboose’s interruptions and Church’s annoyance felt so natural and funny. Or how Grif and Simmons messed with Donut and tricked him to get headlight fluid, and everything that led to. Not only were the contrivances funny, but the characters just bounced off each other so well. They didn’t need to be deep in this season because they all balanced each other out so well, which is pretty key when it comes to comedies.

I think that this is what allowed the show to thrive. People didn’t mind the machinima or how bizarre things got because we liked seeing these characters together. We enjoyed seeing them bicker and them getting themselves into something stupid. The dialogue was funny, the jokes, while some could drag, were timed well, and it just felt so natural. Despite most of the cast recording from different parts of the country (and in Gus’ case another country), you wouldn’t know it going off the interactions. It just worked very well and is very much what helped the show endure for this long, and it’s something I don’t feel has ever faltered even at it’s lowest point. That is saying a lot I think.

#1. Memorability

“Hey?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you ever wonder why we’re here?

You already heard the voices the second you saw the screencap, let’s be real. You look at Season One, and it’s clear that it’s not exactly a cinematic masterpiece. It’s made by people who had no idea what they were doign. Everything is pretty amateur. The comedy, while good, is pretty much aimed more at middle/high schoolers and some probably would not pass today. I know if I tried to watch the show when it came out when I was nine years old, my mom probably would have banned me from it. So then… why did it succeed?

Like I said, it’s flaws and character interactions made it endearing. There’s a lot in this season that we still remember. ‘Why are we here’ is the most obvious one, but this led to so much. Church being a ghost got us Recollection. Tex got us Project Freelancer. There are so many quotable moments, like Tucker’s Voltron line or picking up chicks in a tank. Moments like the first scene, Church’s death, Tex’s arrival, Donut’s pink armor/awesome throwing arm. We always remember these things. We always end up going back to Season One in one way or another. Sure, some stuff is jarring, but we don’t care.

Season One is just fun. No one knew that it would lead to one of the longest-running webseries made, including RT themselves. I mean this allowed RT to exist period. It’s just got so many moments that we remember and still quote to this day. Even the show will call back to several moments. I mean how many ways have they incorporated ‘why are we here’ into the show now? Not only is it still funny, but it shows how far we’ve come since. We wouldn’t have the rest or RvB or anything else we enjoy from RT without this season. As such, I think that it’s memorability and just general existence is the best part about it, and is my pick for Top Like of Season One~!

Okay, one season down. Fourteen more to go. Thank you for reading everyone~! This is done, but I’m just getting started! So stay tuned for Season Two~!

#rvb #rvb reviews #top likes/dislikes

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ashleyspinelliburnbook · 5 years ago

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S1E7: I Will Kick No More Forever/The Kid Came Back

It was bound to happen eventually, but these two were...not as good as the others? I don’t know, y’all. I didn’t feel fulfilled or inspired watching this pair of episodes. But I tried...for one of them, anyway.

I Will Kick No More Forever

Well, okay, there was one inspiring thing. Gretchen and Gus doing commentary for the kickball games made me think they should probably do a podcast together. So here’s a sports podcast that happens to be about the plot of this episode!

(I’m just going to write this all at once and see what happens. I have only ever written TV scripts, so I’m just winging it. Forgive me.)

GRETCHEN: I’m Gretchen Grundler.

GUS: And I’m Gus Griswald.

GRETCHEN: And this is “I am in Sports.”

[theme music]

[theme music fades]

[nat sound: kickball noises]

GRETCHEN: Kickball. Or as it’s known in most of Canada, “soccer baseball.” A sport of humble origins, and today, one of the most popular recess games in the United States.

GUS: You might not know all the names of some of the great kickballers in the storied history of the sport, but today, we’d like to introduce you to one in particular who took the playground by storm.

[nat sound fades]

ANNOUNCER (SOT): “Here comes Vince ‘The Foot’ LaSalle!”

ANNOUNCER 2 (SOT): “Kicks lefty, throws righty...”

ANNOUNCER 3 (SOT): “And that ball’s not coming back! A home run!”

ANNOUNCER 4 (SOT): “The undisputed, single greatest kicker that Third Street School has ever seen.”

GRETCHEN: Vince LaSalle. A fourth-grader in name only, he made everyone from kindergarteners to sixth-graders quiver in their kickball shoes whenever he stepped up to the plate.

GUS: His trajectory was storied. He was the only known kindergartener in Third Street School history to be invited to play with the first-grade kickball team, and by second grade, he was challenging sixth-graders to play.

GRETCHEN: This confidence was impressive. Inspiring, even. But it wasn’t meant to last.

VINCE (SOT): “Okay, everyone! Outfield in!”

GRETCHEN: It was a regular Tuesday, bottom of the ninth inning. Recess would be over in about two minutes. Ashley Q. was at the plate, fresh off a phone call, and Vince made the call to bring the outfield in.

GUS: It would be the last time anyone on the playground would trust him for a long time.

ANNOUNCER 5 (SOT): “That ball is up! And up! And up! Good golly, that ball is gone! It’s out of this world! Ashley Q., ladies and gentlemen!”

- SOT -

VINCE (on phone): “It was...horrible.”

GUS: “Horrible?”

VINCE: “When you make a call like that, bringing the outfield in, bringing everyone in, you don’t...that’s not what’s supposed to happen.”

GUS: “What is supposed to happen?”

VINCE: “Well, the opposite of that.”

- END SOT -

GRETCHEN: The next day, Third Street School received a long distance call — very long-distance. This call was from a busy street in Beijing, China.

PRINCIPAL PRICKLY (SOT, on phone): “They said they found our ball. I was like, what? What ball? And the man on the phone explained, you know, your ball. It says your school’s name right here.”

GRETCHEN: Ashley Q. had recorded the longest kick the school had ever seen. And Vince? Well, he didn’t take it so well.

- SOT -

VINCE (on phone): “I just started whiffing.”

GUS: “Whiffing?”

VINCE: “Everything. Just, missing everything. The next game, you know, the ball would be rolled to me just like usual. Kicked it right back into the pitcher’s hands. Kicked it foul. Missed it entirely.”

GUS: “What about after that game?”

VINCE: [sighs] “You know what’s worse than being picked last?”

GUS: “Not really. I’m picked last a lot.”

VINCE: “Have you ever not been picked at all?”

GUS: “Wow, no. How did that make you feel?”

VINCE: [laughs] “Well, after that, I left the sport.”

- END SOT -

[brooding music]

VINCE (SOT): “I am announcing my retirement from kickball. I will kick no more, forever.”

[brooding music fades]

GRETCHEN: Vince was distraught. Even though he was sure in his decision to leave the sport he loved, he didn’t take the transition well.

GUS: We visited him after school one day — a day he’d missed, we weren’t sure why — and found him in front of the TV, drinking root beer and eating doughnuts. It wasn’t pretty.

GRETCHEN: He kept repeating something, we didn’t know what at first. We tried to ask him to speak more slowly, articulate, enunciate. And then Gus finally figured it out.

GUS: “I was outkicked by an Ashley.” Over and over again. Just...gut punch.

[SFX - EXPLOSION]

- SOT -

GRETCHEN: “So we are...in my bedroom right now. Me, Gus, TJ, everyone. And I just showed them [crash in background] — Guys, what was that?”

TJ: “Sorry. Lost control of the Flubber again.”

GRETCHEN: “Glorp. It’s called glorp.”

TJ: “Yeah, whatever it is, it’s awesome. This should do the trick.”

- END SOT -

GUS: It was supposed to be a science fair project, right?

GRETCHEN: Yes, it was one of my attempts to invent a substance to replace liquid soap. But what I got instead was a bouncy...well...glorp.

GUS: And remind me what the plan was?

GRETCHEN: The plan was to create a diversion and switch out the kickball with the glorp ball. It’s much easier to kick, and it goes a lot farther. We just wanted to give Vince his confidence back, even if we had to bend the truth a little to do it.

GUS: My job was to switch the ball after Mikey and TJ created the diversion, from the kickball to the glorp ball.

[spy music]

- SOT -

MIKEY: “My foot! My foot!”

TJ: “Mikey! Are you okay? Can you play?”

MIKEY: “No! But if I don’t play, you’ll have to forfeit!”

TJ: “I’m sure there’s someone else we can use.”

- END SOT -

[spy music fade]

GRETCHEN: [laughing] Okay, it was a bad plan. It was not the best plan. But it worked.

ANNOUNCER 6 (SOT): “What’s this? Vince LaSalle, disgraced kickballer, appears to be coming out of retirement to replace the injured Mikey!”

TJ (SOT, on phone): “I was just trying to tell him, like, ‘If you don’t kick, we’ll lose the game,’ and he goes, ‘Yeah, well, get used to it.’ And I go, ‘Well, the only thing that makes you a loser is not trying.’ And it did the trick.”

ANNOUNCER 6 (SOT, CONT.): “He’s kicking righty today, maybe a revamped routine to make this try at his career go a little better, and...Oh my! Oh my word! That ball is gone! It’s in the stratosphere! It’s past the stratosphere! Where is that ball! No one knows, but Vince LaSalle has done it! He’s won the game!”

GRETCHEN: Here’s the thing. We all felt incredibly guilty after the fact. Because it was just the glorp ball. It wasn’t Vince. And still, we couldn’t tell him. But then it turned out we didn��t have to tell him.

GUS: I remember this moment so well. I was running back from the bathroom, wondering why the game was over.

GRETCHEN: And we were wondering why you were out of breath. You weren’t the one who had just kicked the ball into parts unknown. But then we learned the reason was...

GUS: I didn’t make the switch. I went to the bathroom, left the glorp ball outside, and when I came back, it was gone.

GRETCHEN: Vince had done it all on his own. His confidence was real.

[SOT - “Vince! Vince! Vince!”]

GRETCHEN: The world’s greatest kickballer was back in business.

[fade SOT]

[theme music]

- SOT -

[phone rings]

PRINCIPAL PRICKLY: “Hello?”

HAROLD STEVENS: “Hey, Principal Prickly, this is Harold Stevens at NASA. Look, I just wanted to reach out and say we won’t be charging you for the damage because this seems like a once-in-a-lifetime thing.”

PRICKLY: “Excuse me? Damage? What did those kids get up to this time?”

STEVENS: “Oh, well, the kickball dent on the space shuttle. It won’t be a problem.”

PRICKLY: “What?”

[click]

- END SOT -

[theme music fades]

Takeaway: I need a Gus and Gretchen podcast YESTERDAY.

The Kid Came Back

Look, everyone. The previous recap was so long, and I don’t want to overshadow it by going too deep into this one. This episode was just...a baby thriller, you know what I mean? All the elements of a creepy story tailor-made for kids, but absolutely no payoff. It was an insult, frankly.

In short, a kid no one has seen before starts following the gang around, and bad things start happening to them. They decide it’s because of the kid, so they tell him to buzz off, and he starts crying. The gang’s takeaway is that, oops, our bad luck wasn’t caused by this kid! And so they go apologize, and then they learn he has other friends anyway. The lesson is not to tell kids to buzz off...or so we thought, until another mysterious girl shows up at the very end and the gang runs away from her immediately so as to not engage. We never learn what’s causing their bad luck.

Just...skip this one. I hope the next one is better and that we’re not rolling down an infinitely long hill. Who haven’t we checked in with in a while? Have we had a TJ-centered episode yet? I’d be fine with that.

Takeaway: I need to tighten up my scriptwriting so I don’t run out of steam before even getting the chance to make fun of a bad episode, lol.

#recess

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cheesystars · 6 years ago

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Cyrus’ Calendar Catastrophe (Tyrus Week 2018 Day 1)

Before you read a brief warning that I have never written fanfiction before. I came up with this idea in bed a few days ago and just spent two hours writing it and it is now past 2am. So it kinda sucks but I need to go to sleep so I’m just gonna post it as is. Enjoy and feel free to give feedback!

Cyrus liked to have everything planned out. He even had a color-coded calendar with all of his friends' weekly activities mapped out. For instance, today was a Wednesday. On Wednesdays, Cyrus hung with Amber while she worked at the Spoon. All of Cyrus’ other friends had extracurriculars on Wednesdays. Buffy and Tj had basketball practice, Jonah had frisbee practice, and Andi had recently joined a DIY club run by the school. This made Wednesday’s the perfect day to chat with Amber at the Spoon until her shift ended and then hang out at Cyrus’ house. This Wednesday though, Cyrus was in for a few surprises.

Cyrus was eating his baby taters while Amber stood on the other side of the counter cleaning up a customer’s remnants when he heard a familiar voice call out, “Hey, Cy-Guy! Hey, Amber! How’s it going?” Cyrus murmured out a “hi” but let Amber take the weight of the conversation while he silently deliberated over the situation Didn’t Jonah have ultimate today? Did Cyrus mix up the schedule? Finally, he blurted out “Why aren’t you at ultimate practice?” Jonah grimaced and replied “Gus got food poisoning and threw up all over the field. We decided to just cancel practice for the day.” Oh. Cyrus was relieved. He hadn’t messed up his precious calendar. It was a last minute change. He tuned back into the end of Jonah and Amber’s conversation to hear “Well I gotta get going, don’t want this food to get cold.” Jonah said lifting up his to-go bag. “But I’ll see you Friday Amber?” “Yep, 5 o’clock.” “Awesome. Bye, you guys!”

As Jonah walked away Cyrus turned to Amber with a slightly perplexed expression. “What?” she questioned. “Nothing. Just, how are you and Jonah still so close after how things ended? Isn’t it awkward?” “Not really, we’ve talked it over and realized we both weren’t fully into it. We were caught up in not wanting to be single. And besides, I never really liked Jonah. At least, not the way you did.” As Amber reached the end of her explanation Cyrus dropped the baby tater he had been lifting towards his mouth. Amber knew about that? How? It was gone before they even became friends. How did she even know he liked boys? Cyrus spluttered in a panic. “I-what-my-I didn’t-I mean,” he stopped and sighed, “How did you know?”

“Do you remember when you and Andi left the spoon after seeing Jonah with me?” Cyrus nods. “Well, when Jonah ran out after Andi I followed him out and watched you guys. Andi turned back to stare longingly at Jonah, and so did you. If you turn to look back it means you like them. After that, I picked up on your behavior around him whenever you were here during my shift until you stopped giving him that look a month or two ago.” Cyrus was shocked silent. “Wow.” he gaped after a minute. “You’re really observant.” “Well, when you have no friends to talk to you gotta do something to amuse yourself.” The two chuckled bit until Cyrus fell silent once more. “You don’t think I’m… weird? For liking boys instead of girls?” Amber’s face melded from a smirk into a small, knowing smile. “Cyrus, I of all people would never judge you for something like that. Who you like doesn’t affect your worth as a person.”

Cyrus was about to question what Amber meant by “her of all people” when another unexpected voice called out from behind him. “Hey, Underdog!” “Tj?!” Cyrus shrieked incredulously. What was he doing here? Is Cyrus going mad? Why is nothing going to his schedule? Tj must have noticed Cyrus’ bewildered expression because he quickly clarified “I left my gym bag here yesterday by accident. Coach let me leave practice early to get it. It’s kinda hard to practice basketball without having a ball.” Once again Cyrus felt the tension drop from his shoulders. HIs friends had to stop making last minute changes to his plans. All this confusion and surprise was going to drive him mad. Tj walked over to an empty booth in the corner and grabbed his bag out from under the table. Instead of walking out he headed back over to Cyrus at the counter. “I should probably get going but wanna hang at the swings after school tomorrow? I got the day off work and I figured we haven’t been to our spot in a while.” Cyrus felt his cheeks heat up at the phrase “our spot” as he nodded and answered, “That sounds great.” As much as he didn’t want to admit it to himself or anyone else, Cyrus was slowly gaining feelings for Tj. Tj said one last “See you later, Underdog.” and Cyrus tried to turn back to his food, but found himself turning around in his seat to watch the older boy walk away. Right as he was grabbing onto the door, Tj lifted his head over his shoulder to look back at Cyrus. Their eyes met and Tj gave one last timid smile from his flushed face before exiting the spoon.

Cyrus was too caught up in his pining to realize what had just happened until he turned back in his seat and saw Amber smirking at him. His eyes grew wide as he remembered what she had just told him about looking back. “Tj-he-he looked back- at me!” “Mmmhmmm.” Amber’s smirk grew to a toothy grin. She was clearly enjoying watching Cyrus’ mini freak out. Cyrus couldn’t believe this. Tj liked him back? He actually had a chance! Before he had a chance to open his mouth and voice his thoughts the bell on the Spoon door rang once again. “Oh hey, Cyrus!” Cyrus spun around abruptly when he heard Andi’s voice. “WHY IS NO ONE FOLLOWING THE SCHEDULE TODAY?!?!"

#tyrus week 2018 #tyrus fanfiction #i'll put it on ao3 whenever i get approved for an account #andi mack #look back #cyrus and amber mlm wlw solidarity #oh yeah amber is lesbian and that's why she didn't like jonah and said i of all people wouldn't judge you #i know this sucks but i'm just proud that i actually wrote out my idea for once #it's so late ok goodnight

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callie-the-snarky-geek-blog · 6 years ago

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RvB16 Episode 7 Review: It Just Winked At Me

Last time on Red vs Blue: O’Malley came back bitches. That’s it. That’s all you need to know. No need to go into how Grif is all alone with only a talking lens flare and all the potential angst that writers can dig up from that. Or that Atlus is a dork who obliterated Tucker and Sister into subatomic particles. None of that’s important at all. Only O’Malley matters.

Alright, so this episode has been hyped for awhile. Joe hyped it up. Kyle Taylor (the Machinima director) hyped it up. Even Gus hyped it up. Any of this can mean anything. So as we enter the shortest episode so far (only 7 minutes… I guess Joe couldn’t make the episodes longer unless he’s holding them back for later), what has all the talk been leading up to? Well… I can say it was like nothing I’ve seen before!

Overview

So good news, Tucker and Sister are alive! Yay… yeah I knew that was coming. There is no way that they’d kill a long-time character and a fan favorite character they finally made a main like that. Also it looks like the blast sobered them up. So there’s your lesson kids: if you are drunk off your ass, being blasted by God is how you sober back up! Atlus tries to kill them a couple more times before finally realizing that ‘his’ protection is making that impossible. Also we find out that Kalirama is his sister, which explains her being the Queen of the Cosmic Powers. So goign into some speculating, Kalirama mentioned being the Daughter of Time. My guess has been that the villain is Chronos, the Personification of Time. It can also refer to Cronus, the King of the Titans and father of Zeus. If Joe made Chronos and Cronus the same person who Atlus overthrew and he and Kalirama and his kids trying to keep him locked up… wow and I thought the Church and Grif families were fucked up.

Since Atlus can’t obliterate Tucker and Sister, he goes with the option of ‘let my mindless minions do it’. So he summons up a cyclopes… I am NOT joking. Some may find this too bizarre, but as someone who likes mythical shenanigans I do NOT give a shit! Plus it fits the myth theme since cyclopes’ are part of both Greek and Roman mythology. So the cyclopes obviously isn’t a Halo character, so what did they do? They… put Gus in a costume/a ton of makeup and made him do it. Yes, you read that right. The cyclopes was RvB’s very own Gustavo Sorola. It is also, I believe, RvB’s first implementation of live-action within the show, at least on this level. It’s pretty good! I mean the cyclopes is butt ugly, but I’m pretty sure that was the point… sorry Gus.

So Atlus sicks… Grugh, I think? Screw it, I’m calling him Gus. My blog, my rules. Atlus sicks Gus on the two Blues. They understandably, make a run for it. At least until Sister quips that Tucker could prove how great a fighter she is. Which she meant as sarcasm… but Tucker of course has to decide to be Mr. Macho and face Gus. The result? Both the time gun and the sword get knocked away from him. I should also point out that Gus is about 100X larger than Tucker. So he can easily crush him… yyyyeah… not your best plan Tucker.

Back in the 6th Century (not the 16th like I wrote last week, Past Callie is stupid), Huggins is trying to figure out what to do now that O’Malley has gotten away and both she and Grif are stranded. Grif is currently… I guess looking for mushrooms since he mentions eating them later. Guess since he can’t talk Italian, that’s the only way he can survive, I mean it worked on the moon! Anyways, Huggins contemplates her options. Now because she’s talking fast, it’s hard to make out everything and for whatever reason,t he RT site doesn’t have a subtitle option that I REALLY hope they fix soon. But anyways, Huggins comes u with three potential solutions:

Wait it out and let time move along until she’s back in present day. This is ruled out because it would take far too long. This one is declared a ‘maybe’.

MURDER! Kill Grif and prevent at least one dirty shisno from fucking everything up! This is also ruled out as it goes against Huggins’ code and it’s also forbidden. Oh, but Atlus can obliterate people? I sense abuse of power!

Talk to Grif and convince him to team up so that they can find a way out of the 6th Century. But if she does this, thee penalty is getting tortured int he Underworld for all eternity. But this is the only option that could work, so… ye, she risks it.

Alright, so reasoning! Huggins goes to Grif, who is pretty much refusing to believe anything that is happening. Huggins tries to convince him to help her since otherwise hey’re both gonna die. Grif doesn’t buy any of it, especially when Huggins reveals that the Gods sent her to spy on them. SO he just walks away and Huggins is probably re-considering the murder option now.

Alright, back to the moon! Tucker tries to shoot Gus… and of course fails. Stupid guns! Sister retrieves both the time gun and Tucker’s sword as Tucker himself ducks inside the base. He tries to think of what to do… and sees his old armor set, giving him an idea. Gus reaches in and grabs what looks like Tucker, eating his head. Eww, Gus! That’ll ruin your teeth! Also is this an Attack on Titans reference? I’m positive that it’s an Attack on Titans reference. But of course it was really the empty armor which Tucker stuffed with grenades. Which go off, distracting Gus and Tucker drives in with the Warthog, driving it straight into hos face. It finally knocks Gus down and Tucker along with him.

So it looks like Tucker wins, right? Haha… yeah… about that. Sister points out that normally when you beat the boss, they come back twice as powerful. You’d think that Tucker, living in a video game, would know this but meh. SO yeah, Gus gets back up and he is not happy. Hey Tucker, tell him that they should go to Vegas! That’ll make him REALLY angry I bet! Tucker runs into the caves and seems safe since Gus’ hand is too big… until Tucker says he needs to do it one finger at a time. And Gus can understand English, so… yeah…

Fortunately before Tucker can get grabbed, Sister channels her inner Xena and attempts to use the sword, jump down form the cliffs, and stab Gus in the head. But Tucker informs her too late that the sword only works for him. SO she gets smacked away and when Tucker exits the cave to help, he gets knocked over to her. Sister points out that cyclopes’ have a fatal weakness, so Tucker goe sin and… attacks Gus’ groin. I… don’t think that’s what she meant Tucker… but it works as Gus finally hits the ground. Well… not the defeat I was expecting, but it was a defeat!

Unfortunately, Atlus decides to sick Gus’ wife on them who is rather peeved that due to this, they can’t do hanky panky and have kids. Having had enough, Tucker and Sister FINALLY do what they should have done before: open a time portal and get the fuck out of there. Where do they end up? Well remember the medieval scene from Episode 1? Well they FINALLY connected it to the main narrative as the two end up on the same tower as medieval Grif and Simmons. And the two get arrested… WELP.

Review

This episode has had a lot of mixed reception so far. I haven’t seen anyone hate it, but many were disappointing. It’s understandable why. After all the hype, it was really just about a dumb joke. A very well shot dumb joke, but a dumb joke. There’s still so little about he plot we know, nothing advanced any further here, the episode was incredibly short, and it’s still unclear what all of this is leading us to. We’re on Episode 7 and no progress has been made. I think so far Joe has the opposite problem he had last year. Last year, he rushed it because he only ha done season. This year he has more than one, but due to it he slowed down. A little too much maybe. This coming off the heels of last week’s O’Malley plot bomb and… yeah I don’t blame people in being disappointed and viewing this as completely pointless.

I didn’t know how to feel during the first viewing… but when watching ti again to write this review, I was laughing so much. I got a LOT more enjoyment out of it. To be fair, I am always like that. I always like stuff on the second watch than the first one since I knwo what’s coming and I can better process it. And watching ti again… I don’t think that this was pointless at ll. There’s no major progression with the plot, and I agree that it’s been long enough. But… I got a lot out of this episode, even form Grif’s brief scene. Not just with plot, but the work on this episode is truly impressive imo.

Before we talk about that, lets do Grif’s scene. It’s only about a minute long and the only machinimated scene. Yeah, 95% of the episode was CGI animated. But Grif’s scene, while brief, was good. I wish we saw a bit mroe follow-up on how he’s doing after O’Malley left him stranded, but him living off mushrooms I can buy. Him also goign into denial over everything I can also buy. So not as much as I was hoping for with him, but good stuff that matches his character.

The scene’s actual importance is mainly setup for what’ll happen later. It also FINALLY gave us some time with Huggins’ since Episode 1. And OMG, I absolutely love her. Her rapid fire dialogue is kind of hard to make out, but her actress did a good job at it. Huggins is cheerful, but serious about her job. She understands the importance of what’s coming, but has to resort to breaking law since she’s in a position where otherwise, everyone is doomed. She’s cute, but also sassy as evident with her response when Grif calls her Tinkerbell (is that gonna be his nickname for her when he warms up to her? I want it to be!) Seriously I am already loving the interactions between Grif and Huggins and I am really excited to see more of it! Now how they’ll get out of the 6th Century IDK, but we’ll just have to wait.

Okay, back to the res tof the episode. As I said, pretty much the entire episode is CGI animated. it’s the first major CGI fight in the season, and it was awesome. Okay it was mostly running, but it was fun to watch. Tucker plowing the Warthog into Gus was freakin’ badass. The voice acting was also on point. I have never laughed harder at Jason Saldana’s performance than I have today and Becca continues to crush it as Sister. Seriously, going all Xena with the ‘alalala!’ war-cry had me dying. An ProZD as Atus… OMG ProZD. He was fantastic in this episode and it added so much to Atlus as a character. Like he is just enjoying the show and is so unimpressed with Tucker and Sister even when they win. His animation where he’s just celebrating watching Gus winning was also so freakin’ fantastic and again, dds to the character. Seriously, I wasn’t sure what to think of Atlus before, but he has already become one of my fav RvB villain ever after this episode alone.

So onto Gus… I have no idea how Joe talked him into this. I mean he’s done worst and IDT anything will be as bad as when he did the Baby Gus RT Short. That short man… anyways! I think Gus did really well! It felt like he was truly interacting with the environment. He didn’t have to do much acting aside form grunting and going around wildly, but it felt like he was playing a monstrous cyclopes. Credit also to Joe and his directing. I don’t knwo what inspired him to do this, but OMG I am so glad he did. I mean it looks weird and it’s ridiculous.., but it’s RvB. It’s always been weird and ridiculous. Plus using live action again sells the effect that the cyclopes is a monster compared to what we’re used to with the machinima. It sold the effect really well. So kudos to Joe and to Gus because shooting this and then editing it in had to be a nightmare.

It’s why I don’t think the episode was at all pointless. I mean we DO have some minor things. We find out that Kalirama is Atlus’ sister, the villain si indeed a locked up time God, get a taste of how powerful the Cosmic Powers forces are, have some characterization for Atlus, setup for Grif and Huggins’ plot, an actual fight scene after so long, and it FINALLY ties in the medieval scene. It’s also huge on a cinematic scale, which is probably why it’s only 7 minutes. I mena Joe and his team had to fully animate the episode, shoot Gus’ scenes where he’s pretty much just interacting with air, combined the footage together, likely do re-shoots if the live action was even slightly off, edit it all together with the machinima, and… yeah. This was likely a huge pain it he ass to do for everyone involved. But I appreciate that they did. Joe is going above and beyond what he has to do. he could just do solely machinima and it would be fine. But he’s trying new things, implementing more CGI, and taking the show to the next level. Is it a hit? That’s for one to decide on their own. I think it worked here, but I don’t think they should regularly implement live action as they did. Special occasions are fine though. But I still appreciate Joe trying things and putting in the effort when he doesn’t have to. He wants to make the show as good as he can, and I can absolutely respect that.

Final Thoughts

Did they hype this one too much? Maybe a little. It was not what I was expecting at all. But I don’t thin that’s a bad thing. Again, I appreciate them going out of their way to do this. Plus the animation, dialogue, and voice acting were really good. Can I understand why people don’t like this episode and are getting weary of the season? Absolutely yes. I do hoe that Joe starts to speed up the plot soon. But I still had a fun time watching the episode, and in the end that’s what matters: having a good time. It was weird and ridiculous and I wouldn’t have it nay other way.

#rvb #rvb16 #rvb reviews #old blog repost

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sunshine304 · 4 years ago

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Okay, getting a bit more info on Yin Pei, thanks for that. He’s got the sheath of his family’s sword with him because it seems Azure Dragon Master stole the sword when he attacked the family. Is that a given now? That he did it?

ChuChu yet again MVP, taking notes and doing paintings of Duan Jianiang’s fighting style! I also love how she always looks so meek, but she’s actually really assertive, and helpful, and also really clever. I love her interactions with A-Fei, together with XY they’re a great trouple! Also, good to see A-Fei actually trying to connect the dots re XY, like: Hm considering his lightness skills are so amazing it seems really weird that he has no internal power whatsoever. Strange.

OMG when Ji Yunchen asks A-Fei about her skill level and she’s like, „Ehhh I’ve been training for 2-3 years…“ and then she thinks what an embarrassment she is because she’s so „slow“ in learning while JYC just boggles at her, and she amends to, „Ok, 1-2 years, whatever“. And then admitting to ChuChu that uhm no, it’s more like 6 months, while XY goes in the background, „Seriously, if you’re not using demonic methods 2-3 years is super fast, hello!“ XD

And how Ji Yunchen has her analysed immediately, like, „Hey Zhou Fei, you wanna help me fight and kill the bad guy?“ and A-Fei is like, „Ah well, why not, sounds good.“ and Xie Yun is like, „NOOOO don’t do it!“ yet again seeing his future marriage endangered. XD

And XY is sooo frustrated because A-Fei just can’t read him right. She yet again assumes that he must be afraid of death because he always runs away (but at least this time she understands that she said sth not good) and he’s actually angry, going, „I take you to be my soulmate and you ask if I’m afraid of death!“ Poor Xie Yun!

And I wrote down that he said „zhiji“, did he? because whoa.

Anyway, I felt like the last two eps or so have been dragging a bit with them walking through the forrest and through the cave and talking, while the bad guys are following them loudly banging their gongs OMG and also just walking around.

But aha, it’s getting more lively!

Azure Dragon Master likes how A-Fei fights and wants to recruit her, as you do. Promising her all kinds of awesome stuff, and A-Fei just goes, „Nope“. And he immediately gets angry, like „Stinky girl (that insult is just…) you shouldn’t be allowed to learn more and get even better (really!), now die!“ XD

And thank you for confirming that you really killed the Yin Clan/Sect, and Ji Yunchen of course is able to fight when it looks dire.

Love how XY always, always talks his way out of any situation. XD He explains Dragon Master’s deal to him and then explains his body armour, and A-Fei is so happy that it wasn’t her lacking any skills but that she would’ve gotten some good hits in if not for that body armour. XD

Nice that Yin Pei helped fighting that bad guy, that was at least sth. And of course Ji Yunchen dies after he managed to virtually give A-Fei his skills. XD Now I’m wondering where the Dragon Master’s soldiers went? Did they just… leave?

So, Yin Pei is also searching for the Hai Tian Ye Se (?) which I guess is the McGuffin we are waiting for to be explained. It was at least kinda nice of him to leave the body armour with ChuChu!

So, basically A-Fei just walks around, meets lots of old masters who are the last of their kind and manage to teach her their super awesome skills, and then die. XD And Li Sheng is doing basically the same somewhere else in the woods. At least the Daoist master isn’t dead yet.

Oh nooo Xie Yun tells a short version of his story but of course without actually saying that it’s about him. :( How old was he there, about 12-13? And then he was just used as bait and decided that this is shit, and calls himself a deserter. I’m pretty sure that’s not how it really went down. Someone rescues him but he was poisoned and the poison is still there but kinda blocked. But that’s why he can’t use his martial powers anymore. :(

I also really liked the landscape at that ruined house (that was where Duan Jianiang had that meeting with Li Zheng, right?). Just, really pretty with the horses and mountains in the background. And mysteriously A-Fei suddenly has a fainting spell right there. hmmm

OMG Li Jinrong lets Li Yan leave the mountain because she whines loud enough! XD I mean I can’t fault her, I would also want some peace and quiet once in a while, but... are you sure you should send her out into the world? While you’ve already kinda lost a daughter and a nephew out there? Li Yan does not seem like someone who would do well in a fight. But then again, letting her loose on the world might be funny, she’ll likely just whine and pout the villains into submission. XD

Ah yes let’s just all meet up in Hengyang City, why not! Xie Yun + A-Fei are on their way because XY of course “knows a guy”. And Evil overlord Shen Tianshu wants to go there because.. I assume he wants to meet the same guy? This will be fun. Wow and the new evil master of the Disha is called Killer Leopard, Gu TianXian. Their names are really sth else. XD

Seriously, why why why is everyone entrusting General Wen with the safety of anyone?! “Please take good care of Chuchu because evil guys are after her!” Yeah no problem, he just leaves her standing there in the forest because he must look for the hunter traps himself. Good thing that it was Li Sheng who was strolling through this very same forest and happened upon her before Disha did. And of course Li Sheng is the happy puppy he is and doesn’t even tell her his name, just goes, “Hey you look like that girl A-Fei and I saw the drawing of!” XD I’m not really sure what he wants to accomplish with his plan, couldn’t they have just... stayed hidden in the underbrush or something?

#legend of fei #sabrina watches legend of fei #my posts

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ganglylimbs · 8 years ago

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A Cup Of Sugar

Pairing: Gavin Free/Lindsay Tuggey/Michael Jones/Meg Turney

Summary: Gavin gets new neighbors. This is how his life changes.

Notes: So, I’m late again with another story for Mavinseg week. This one is a combination of 3 seducing 1 and Go Big or Go Home.

Warnings: Neighbor AU, abstract amount of time. It’s also the longest one sot I’ve written. 10,855 words

Edit: I forgot to say, if you would like to buy me a coffee, please do!

The neighborhood was a small one, quiet with neatly manicured lawns and white picket fences. It was close enough to the nearest city, and to the nearest community college, that getting groceries wasn’t too much of a trek but far enough away that the prices were reasonable cheap. Gavin was no social butterfly, but even he knew most of his neighbors. He knew Burnie and Geoff from down the street often have BBQ competitions during the summer. He knew their wives, Ashley and Griffin, put up with because they love them. He knew not to disturb his grumpy neighbor Gus during Saturday mornings, as he’s most likely to be recovering from a hangover. He was friends with the rowdy but strangely nice group of college boys who live across the street from him. Though the guy scared him and was a bit weird, Gavin was even on friendly terms with Haywood who lived three doors down and to the left of him.

And of course he was well aware when quiet, funny Ray Narvaez Jr., who had previously lived to the right of him, moved to another city to live with his girlfriend. It was practically the talk of the neighborhood for two weeks. Gavin, being the guy’s next door neighbor and sort of friend, got used to the coming and goings of cars as the realtor showed off the house. Two months later, when the talk had slowed down, as did the cars, Gavin had mostly forgotten about it.

Gavin had just gotten back from a long shoot, paying the cabbie and thinking of the nice hot bath he was going to take, when the sight of a moving truck parked in front of the house next to his made him pause. I guess they sold the house? Which Gavin thought was weird, considering he hadn’t heard anything about it, especially with the way the neighborhood loved to gossip.

Not wanting to be caught awkwardly staring, Gavin finished paying the cabbie and quickly walked into his own house. Once the door was closed, he briefly thought about what he should do now. It was customary that he introduced himself, right? That was the social norm? So should he go over and say hi? Gavin didn’t really see the point in that and besides, it would require him to bring something (he can’t cook and after his disastrous try at meeting new people by bringing wine to the surprising-nonalcoholic Ryan, he was warily of trying that route again). So...maybe not.

What if they wanted to come over here and introduce themselves? Gavin looked around. His house was neat enough (?) and Gavin was great at faking small talk. But the thought of new people coming into his space slightly frightened him and Gavin found himself hoping it didn’t come to that.

So his best course of action was to meet them at the next block party, where they could be distracted by other people and no expectations would be placed on him. Nodding to himself for coming up with such an excellent plan, Gavin went to start that bath.

Of course, Gavin should have taken in the fact that it was spring and while they lived in a fairly warm place, Geoff and Burnie usually waited till they were sure that the cold weather wouldn’t come back before bringing out their pits.

So it wasn’t till a month later, when Gavin heard a knock on his door, that he realized he had no idea who this strange woman was on his doorstep.

“Hi there!” Gavin had to admit, she was cute. Shorter than him, and plumper, with bubble gum pink hair, she seemed to shine with happiness. Her smile was wide, her eyes bright, and Gavin couldn’t help smiling back at her.

“Hi?” Gavin asked, hyper aware that he was still in his shirt that he slept in last night and the hastily put on pajama bottoms.

She stared at him for a second before blinking. “Oh. Sorry. I guess I should introduce myself. Lindsay Tuggy, I recently moved next door.”

Gavin shook her outstretched hand, purely out of instinct. He was a bit shocked that this was his next door neighbor. If he had known that he may have gone over sooner-yeah no. No he wouldn’t have. “Gavin Free.”

“Nice to meet you.” There was that bright smile again and Gavin could feel his face getting hot. “I know we’ve never met before and I’m sorry if I’m bothering you and how awfully cliche this is, but could I borrow a cup of sugar?”

Gavin was a little taken aback. “Oh, um. Sure? Sure. I could go get it...or do you want to come inside? I have some tea I made up. It’s probably not hot but I could heat it up again. Or maybe some water-do you drink water? I don’t have a lot of other drinks-”

“Water is fine.” Lindsay broke in, chuckling a little.

Gavin smiled back at her, relaxing, and let her in. “Ok.”

Lindsay followed him into the kitchen. Gavin noticed her looking around as he got her a cup, fiddling with it for a few seconds as he tried to think of a topic. Small talk. He could do this. “So...you recently moved here? From where?”

“Oh from uptown Austin. Finally decided it was time to move in with my partners, to our very first house.”

“That sounds nice.” Gavin handed her the water. “What’s your partner’s name?”

“Partners. Meg Turney and Michael Jones, the loves of my life.” She beamed again and Gavin caught the dreamy look in her eyes.

He couldn’t help feeling a bit disappointed that such a cute and nice girl was taken by not one, but two people, but quickly shook that off. “You sound really fond of them.” He noted.

Lindsay nodded. “I’m serious when I say I’ll probably spend the rest of my life with them.”

“Wow, I’m a bit shocked. But happy for you!” He quickly added on. “I can’t imagine finding someone to live with me, not to mention two people.”

“Oh, you can’t be that bad.” Lindsay teased.

“That’s because you’ve only known me for five minutes.” Gavin pointed out. “Trust me, I’m terrible. Can hardly take care of myself.”

“Sounds just like me! I’m so lucky I met Michael and Meg. I probably wouldn’t have made it this long without them. I’d burn water and I tend to throw my clothes everywhere. Michael threatened to break up with me the next time he trips over my shoes.”

“I’m horrible at making food too.” Gavin replied. “The last time I tried to make food for myself, I nearly burnt my kitchen down.”

“I almost did that too. Thank God for take out, right?”

“Absolutely. Gets a bit expensive though.” Gavin laminated.

“Well, maybe I’ll bring you some of Michael’s food. He’s great at feeding me. And Meg is fabulous at baking sweets. Which reminds me.” Lindsay looked over Gavin’s shoulder, at the clock on the microwave. “I should probably get back with that sugar.”

Gavin quickly straightened up. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to keep you.”

Lindsay flapped her hand at him. “Don’t worry about it. Meg can wait a few minutes.”

They were walking back to the door, saying their goodbyes, when Lindsay caught sight of Gavin’s cat slinking around.

Lindsay immediately stopped, squealing. “You have a cat?”

“Yeah. His name is Smee.” Gavin looked over to where Smee was giving them an unimpressed look, sat atop Gavin’s couch like a King on his throne. “I’m guessing you like cats?”

“I fucking love cats. Unfortunately, Michael hates them and refuses to let us get one. We do have a dog, but that’s because Meg had Penny before we started dating her.” Lindsay had already set her plastic tub of sugar down and was quietly calling to the cat with little kissing sounds.

“Woof. That sucks.” Gavin said as he watched her, instantly feeling sympathy. His old apartment hadn’t allowed pets. It had been freeing, to buy his own house and get Smee. Less lonely too. “I love Smee, though he can be a little minge pot at times.”

“Minge pot?” Lindsay questioned, smirking up at him.

“It’s a word.” Gavin defended. “And Smee is the mingest cat. He sometimes gets grumpy and swipes at me. Or wakes me up at three am because he went mental.”

“Sounds like the cats I grew up with.” Lindsay gave up on trying to call Smee over to her. Gavin blames the way her mouth briefly turns down into a pout for the next words that come out of his mouth.

“You can come over some other time?” He offered. She tilted her head at him and Gavin looked away. “If you want to, that is, and play with Smee a bit. He’s usually more relaxed and willing in the morning, after being fed.”

Lindsay was silent for a brief second before breaking out into that sunny smile that Gavin’s was starting to associate with her. “That’s sounds awesome. Michael will certainly be grateful anyways.”

Gavin waved goodbye to Lindsay from his doorway, a piece of paper in hand with a date for when Lindsay would next come over. As soon as he shut the door, Gavin felt some panic starting to set in.

What had he done?

Flowers had started to bud as spring set in and Lindsay had visited him four more times. Most of the time, it was to play with Smee and lightly talk with Gavin (those visits usually lasted no more than ten minutes) but she also had a habit of coming over to borrow something from him.

Mostly sugar.

“I’m starting to suspect you're taking advantage of me.” Gavin brought up one day as he handed her a full cup (neatly labeled Lindsay because if they were going to do this, Gavin was going all out).

“Would I do that? Me?” Lindsay fluttered her eyelashes at him. Gavin gave her a look and she laughed. “Ok, so maybe I’m being a little lazy. But at least it gives me an excuse to come talk to you.”

“You don’t need to make up an excuse.” Though Gavin was flattered she wanted to. He had half-thought that he had scared her away with his extensive talk of cameras and editing when they had talked about their jobs one day (though Gavin had to admit, she almost had him running for the hills when she casually mentioned she worked for a big name company. As the bloody CEO).

But she had stayed. And listened. And asked questions. And wasn’t that strange? Gavin wasn’t used to people being interested in his work. Yeah the people he worked for, and Dan, and his parents were, all to different degrees. But the people around here? The second Gavin dived into anything more than “I film slow motion”, people had a habit of tuning out.

Lindsay didn’t and Gavin was grateful for that.

So no, Gavin was more than ok with Lindsay popping up now and again. Dare he say, even looking forward to it.

Lindsay shows up for sugar and Gavin provides it without argument.

There’s a knock on Gavin’s door and Gavin eagerly opened it. Because either it’s a package from his company or Lindsay and Gavin was looking forward to both.

Instead, what he was met with was the sight of a grumpy looking guy, with freckles and glasses and short boyish hair and Gavin could feel his heart thumping loudly. It was like meeting Lindsay for the first time all over again, only with less blinding smiles.

“Are you Gavin Free?” The man asked. Or, well demanded.

Gavin could feel his shoulders hunching, mind racing to think about who he had pissed off. His company was happy with his latest video, he had cleared up that thing with his ex months ago, and Dan hadn’t inappropriately hit on anyone for a while. Nothing coming to mind, Gavin hesitantly nodded. “Yeah?”

If possible, the man’s frown deepened. “This is so fucking stupid.” He muttered before straightening. Gavin could only blink at him in confusion before the man continued. “My name is Michael Jones and I’m here to borrow a cup of sugar.” He paused before, almost reluctantly adding. “And some cold medicine, if you have any?”

Michael Jones? That name sound familiar-wait, cup of sugar? “Are you Lindsay’s boyfriend?” Gavin asked, eyebrows raising.

Michael rolled his eyes. “Has that idiot never mentioned us before? Yeah, I’m her boyfriend. Can I get that medicine?And sugar, I guess?”

Gavin licked his dry lips before letting Michael in and leading him to his kitchen. “Lindsay mentioned you. I just, uh, wanted to confirm? I guess.” He gave Michael the sugar before heading to the cabinet above his kitchen counter, rooting around for any left over cold medicine he may have had. “Did she send you over? Is she ok?”

“Yeah.” Michael’s voice was coming to the right of him. “Fucking idiot got herself sick and now I have to take care of her. Why she wants the sugar, I don’t fucking know. We have sugar at home.”

“You do?” Gavin looked over at him. Michael nodded. “Well she usually comes over to borrow some from me. I guess it’s more of an inside joke. She probably knew I wouldn’t remember her saying your name and so used that as a way to make sure I know she’s with you.”

“That or she’s a fucking idiot.”

Gavin frowned at those words. That was the third time he said that. It was hard imagining Lindsay, sunny Lindsay, with someone like Michael Jones. Even now, whenever Gavin glanced at the man, he was scowling at the room. Gavin hurried his search, wanting to end this meeting and becoming increasingly uncomfortable by the silence. He’d might have to ask about their relationship the next time Lindsay came to visit.

“So I only have a little of the off brand. It’s not much but I hope that it’ll do for now-” Gavin turned around and cut himself off as he tried to understand what he was seeing.

Michael was lightly petting Smee. He was still frowning but Smee seemed pretty happy enough for the both of them. Michael looked up to see Gavin staring at him. “What?”

Gavin shook himself. “Sorry, sorry. Just surprised, is all.”

Michael raised an eyebrow. “Surprised I’m petting your cat?”

Gavin shrugged, giving the man a small smile and hoping that it would calm Michael down. “Lindsay had mentioned that you didn’t care for cats?”

Michael stared at him. Then he slowly shook his head. “Of course she did.” He took the medicine and the sugar and headed for the door. Gavin followed, worried that he messed up.

As soon as they reached it, Michael spoke again. “I don’t hate cats.”

“What?”

Michael looked back at Gavin, still frowning but there was something...sad (???) about it. “I don’t hate cats. Lindsay likes to joke that I do. Sure, I’m a dog person. But I don’t hate cats. I just know we don’t have enough time to take care of one and I refuse to get a pet and treat it like a toy. Lindsay understands that. But she still wants one, one day.” His mouth twisted up at that, a small smile and his eyes seemed to sparkle a little, like he was remembering something funny.

Gavin was having a little mood whiplash. Michael had, honestly, seemed a little hateful. Unpleasant. But what he was saying was making sense and Gavin gained a little respect for him. Plus, the way he said Lindsay’s name, like something sweet he couldn’t get out of his mouth and didn’t want to, had Gavin thinking maybe he had judge Michael too quick.

But just as he was thinking that, Michael’s smile disappeared. “Thanks for the medicine. And the sugar.”

“Ah...you’re welcome.”

With a nod, Michael left. And Gavin was left standing there, thoroughly confused about what had just happened.

Three days later and Lindsay was back at his house. The first thing she said when he opened the door was “I’m sorry about Michael.”

Gavin turned to the side to let her in. “Hey Lindsay, how are you feeling? Your voice sounds a little rough.”

Lindsay sniffed at him. Her nose looked red and her hair was messy but her eyes were as clear as ever. “What? Yeah I’m fine. I just came to apologize for Michael.”

“Why? Did he say something?” Gavin asked as he lead Lindsay to the kitchen so he could pour her a glass of water.

“No, he didn’t. I know because he’s Michael.” Lindsay said it like that explained it. And maybe it did but what Gavin wasn’t sure. Instead he motioned for Lindsay to continue. “And because it’s Michael, I know the asshole acted like, well, an asshole. I wanted to apologize for it.”

“He was pretty...intense.” Gavin agreed.

Lindsay sighed before sitting down in one of the chairs, sipping at her drink. “Yeah, he can be. But honestly, it’s just because he was worried.”

“He seemed annoyed at me.” Gavin said, sitting down across from Lindsay.

“Like I said, worried. I was pretty sick but because I was suddenly busy at work, I didn’t really pay too close attention to what my body was trying to tell me. I woke up Tuesday dizzy and ready to vomit. Meg is out of town but luckily Michael was there. And Michael can get pretty protective when one of us gets hurt in any way so you can see where this is headed. He’s annoyed I didn’t take better care of myself, annoyed we don’t have any medicine, and annoyed that he has to ask for help.”

“Oh.” Gavin said, relieved as he slumped in his chair. “I thought he hated me.” Gavin had been so worried that he had done something to upset Michael. Worried that he had somehow ruined the friendship he had with Lindsay because her partner hated him.

“What?” Lindsay sputtered. “No, no. He doesn’t hate you. He thinks you’re cute actually-”

“What?” Gavin sat up.

“And if anything, he’s upset with me for making him look foolish in front of a pretty boy.”

Gavin was RED. He knew it, could feel the heat in his cheeks.

Lindsay smiled at him and if Gavin didn’t know any better, he would say that the smile was a bit devilish. “What?” Her voice was innocent. “That’s what Michael was most annoyed by, the fact that I told him he needed to ask for a cup of sugar. You wouldn’t believe the fit he threw. I had to argue with him for like, ten minutes. While I was sick.”

“Why?” Gavin moaned. He was a second away from dropping his head into his hand.

Lindsay shrugged, unbothered. “Because I thought it would be funny.” Gavin gave her a look. There was that smile again. “I had to entertain myself somehow.”

“You’re an arsehole.” Gavin grumbled.

“Yes, but I’m an asshole who got a good laugh when Michael slammed open the door, ranting about how silly he looked, standing on your doorstep, asking for a cup of sugar.” Lindsay leaned in, voice dropping down to a half-whisper, like she was sharing some big secret. “You know what he told me?”

Gavin was sure whatever Lindsay was going to say would make him blush again, but he leaned in.

“He told me that he felt like he was in some black and white film, like a suitor showing up on the doorstep asking for the hand of a delicate Southern Belle.”

And yep, there goes his cheeks. “He did not!” Not only couldn’t Gavin see the man he met yesterday saying those words, he wasn’t so sure if his poor brain could take it.

“Well, ok. Maybe not. But he did say he felt like some asshole from the 1950’s by doing that.” Lindsay was laughing. The cheerful sound was broken up by horrible coughing. Gavin sat there awkwardly, not knowing what to say or do as he let it pass over.

“Are you alright?” He finally asked.

Lindsay nodded, taking in large gulps of her drink. “Yeah, I’m good. But I should probably go now, before Michael comes home. I promised I would stay in bed all day, no matter how boring it is.”

“Your secret is safe with me.” Gavin gave her a little grin.

“Thanks.”

Before she left, Lindsay turned back towards Gavin, biting her lip. “I...I came over here to today because I wanted to let you know that Michael really is a sweet guy. Really. He’s romantic and fun to be around and. Well, I love him. And I know he didn’t leave you with the best impression. But he’s my partner and we’re friends and I...want you guys to get along.”

Gavin thought about the way Michael petted Smee, carefully, and the passionate response to why he didn’t want pets. “He certainly scared me, but if Smee likes him than he can’t be too bad right?”

Lindsay’s eyes went wide but she was smiling again. “He actually pet Smee?”

“And Smee let him.” Gavin eagerly agreed.

“He wouldn’t pet our old neighbor’s cat no matter how much Meg and I cooed over it!” Lindsay said, faux offended. “I can’t wait till he comes home to make fun of him for this one.”

To say his feelings surrounding Michael was confusing would be an understatement. When meeting with rude assholes or people that made him feel uncomfortable, Gavin’s stance on them usually didn’t change. But Lindsay seemed to be determined to make sure that they got along.

The next time she came over to chat, she brought along Michael.

It was awkward. Michael still scowled the entire time and Gavin remained fidgety. Lindsay was the only one who really talked, chatting excitedly about some big thing her company was going to do. Gavin tried his best to listen, but couldn’t get past the feeling of Michael’s eyes glaring at him. As they were starting to leave though, Michael caught sight of Gavin’s gaming system and they ended up staying an extra ten minutes, talking about favorite games and what new releases they were looking forward to.

The next time they come over, Gavin is out of town. This prompts Lindsay to ask for his phone number so they could text. Gavin doesn’t feel nervous when he hands it over.

Lindsay and Gavin send cat memes to each other. Michael asks that he not help fuel Lindsay’s cat obsession. Gavin starts sending pictures of Smee instead.

About the third time the two come over, it was unexpected and Gavin was slightly embarrassed by the pile of takeout he had yet to throw away. Michael took one look at it and then exploded. Started going into a tirade that embarrassed both Gavin and Lindsay. Then he left, leaving Lindsay to apologize. He reappeared twenty minutes later with home made food. Gavin took one bite and instantly forgave him.

It became, like, a thing between them. Lindsay would come over to pet Smee and Michael would feed Gavin some home made food. In between bites, they talked and Gavin grew to like the other man. Lindsay was right, he was really sweet. When you got pass the foul language and angry scowls that is.

Around the sixth time they came over, they brought another woman. She was beautiful, enough to make Gavin tongue tied. She had long purple hair and glasses, her makeup was spot on. She was thin looking, dressed in running gear. Michael introduced her as Meg. Gavin could only nod as his mouth had turned dry.

“So this is the guy you two have been sneaking off too.” Meg said, smile wide.

Gavin sputtered causing Meg to chuckle.

“We have not been ‘sneaking’ over here.” Lindsay admonish, but she was smiling too. “We told you where we were going. You were just too lazy to join us.”

“If by lazy, you mean incredibly busy than yeah. I was totally lazy.” Meg rolled her eyes.

“What do you do?” Gavin finally blurted out, having scrambled his brains back together in order to form a sentence.

“I’m a cosplayer.” Meg said. “I make all my own cosplay and have a Pateron going. I also make Youtube videos.”

“Wow, what do you cosplay?” Gavin asked. He never had the time or patience to cosplay himself, but he loved to look at what others did.

“Mostly video games. The last shoot I did was as Tracer from Overwatch.”

“Oh nice. Do you play?”

“Only occasionally. I usually play indie games instead. And Mario Kart!”

“I don’t think I’ve played Mario Kart since I was a teenager.” Gavin mused. He blinked as the three of them looked at him in shock. “What?”

“You haven’t played Mario Kart in how long?” Meg asked, sounding slightly offended.

“Um...I guess like, eight years?” Gavin said, confused.

“Lindsay.” Meg said.

“On it.” Lindsay replied, already heading towards the door.

“What?” Gavin asked.

“I’m going too. We’ll need snacks and I know he won’t have any.” Michael butted in, already following Lindsay.

“What?” Gavin asked again.

Meg laughed and grabbed him, dragging him deeper into his own home, towards the living room. “We are going to play Mario Kart. You get the added bonus of watching me kick everyone’s ass in it.”

Gavin could only grin as they began setting up his game station. Lindsay returned with the game and Michael with the promised snacks. Gavin thoroughly got his ass kicked by Meg but he wasn’t always last and delighted in the angry shouts Michael and Lindsay let out whenever they got screwed.

Mario Kart turned to beers and horrible movies and Gavin could honestly say he has never had so much fun in all of his life.

With the weather getting nicer, the Ramsey’s and Burn’s started their cookouts. Gavin of course was invited as was Michael, Meg, and Lindsay. The first one they attended, the neighborhood swamped around them, wanting to get as much information as they could. Gavin stayed a little away from the circle, knowing how tough it can be to be hounded with questions.

But after a few minutes, Meg had weaseled away to find and chat up Gavin.

“It’s good to see you.” She said. “I don’t think I’ve seen you anywhere but at your house.”

Gavin smiled. “I’m very...reclusive. I usually don’t have time to go outside and enjoy myself.”

“Shame. Michael has commented a few times about how your backyard would look lovely with a few flowers.”

“Michael likes to garden?”

“More like he likes to the act of being productive. He likes planting and pruning and watering. Don’t know if he actually likes the flowers. They do make a good background for photos though.”

“He really seems to like to work with his hands huh?” Gavin observed, looking over at where Michael and Lindsay were busy entertaining everyone. He noticed that Michael seemed to be hitting it off well with everyone. Lindsay was too, but he expect that of her.

Michael had a really nice smile. It showed off his dimples.

“Oh, I can assure you. He loves working with his hands.” Meg’s wink was raunchy.

It took real effort from Gavin to not spit out his drink. “That’s, uh. Good to know?”

Meg chuckled, taking a sip of her own drink. “By the way. What do you do for a living?”

Gavin, almost shyly, told her all about his work with slow motion. Meg asked question after question after question and Gavin found himself relaxing into a conversation with her. He told her all about him coming over to England at the recommendation of his mentor and setting up his business. That lead into a conversation about England and, after finding out about her stints in other states, California.

Gavin found himself really liking Meg. She could make him laugh about anything.

This continued for the next few barbecues. Everyone would gather around the newcomers, Meg would somehow slip away and find Gavin, and the two would engage in conversation before someone noticed them. Eventually, everyone got bored of questioning Lindsay and Michael, and the next time they came to a block party, they were left alone.

For some reason, they always chose to hang out with Gavin. Gavin would be talking to Geoff about something and they would pop up and immerse themselves in the conversation. Gavin ended up introducing them further to people, including Ryan (Gavin pushed down the feelings of jealousy-and what was that about-at the way Ryan and Meg got along so quickly) and Jeremy and Trevor and Matt and the rest of the college boys. That lead to Gavin finding one of Michael’s weakness-the man couldn’t say no to a bet.

Later, Gavin would have to apologize to Burnie for the chaos that followed.

Summer was always a busy time for Gavin (well, every season was busy, Gavin was always busy but particularly in the summer). Summers in Texas always produced good weather, especially the light Gavin needed to film. As long as he drank enough water and wore sunblock, Gavin filmed as long as he could.

As such, his visits with his next door neighbors went down. He still texted them (Meg had given her own number to Gavin, with much blushing on Gavin’s side, and Michael soon followed saying he might as well) but he sorely missed their face to face chats.

Also, Dan came to visit.

Gavin ran his business as sort of a one-man band. He filmed, he edited, he dealt with demanding producers, he created the website, and he owned the camera. Gavin did everything himself. Expect during the summer, when his workload picked up.

Dan wasn’t as experienced as Gavin was with camerawork, but he had helped Gavin when the Brit first started up his business. After awhile though, Dan had to go back home to England to take care of his grandparents, leaving the business to Gavin. But Dan was welcomed back anytime he wished. The problem was, Dan didn’t want to live in America and give up his house back in England and Dan wasn’t entirely set on being a cameraman either.

So the two came to an agreement. Whenever summer came around and Gavin got a little overwhelmed, Dan would come live with him till work slowed down. Then Dan would go back to England until next summer.

Gavin welcomed Dan into his house one fine May day. While Dan started to put his stuff away, Gavin called the company he would be working with tomorrow to tell them he was bringing an extra guy.

While he was negotiating prices with the man, Gavin heard a knock on his door. He put the guy on hold and opened the door to find Meg standing there, looking pristine and with a polite smile on her face. Surprised, he let her in and told her he had to finish a phone call first. Meg just nodded and Gavin went about his business.

A few minutes late, Gavin finished the call and walked into his kitchen to find Dan and Meg staring at each other.

“Meg, good to see you.” Gavin grinned, walking forward to give her a hug. Meg hugged back, a little tighter than Gavin was used to. “I’ve see you met Dan.”

“Yes.”

“He’s my best bet mate from England. He’s here to help me with work.” Gavin explained.

“Oh really?”

“Yes?” Gavin said. Something about Meg seemed...off. Meg was usually warm and friendly, at least to Gavin. It was weird to see her acting cold. “Is everything alright? Oh wait, you want a cup of sugar right?”

Dan snorted behind him.

“What?” Gavin questioned, turning to see his friend smirking.

“Nothing.” Dan replied, innocently.

“It sort of sounded like you were going to kiss me.” Meg jumped in, but she was smiling now. She winked at Gavin. “I wouldn’t mind getting some sugar from you.”

Gavin stammered as his brain disconnected. Meg shared a look with Dan before the two bust out laughing. After that, Meg seemed to warm up to Dan rather quickly as the three talked.

When Meg left, Gavin commented about Meg’s weirdness. Dan smiled at Gavin. “Looks like you got yourself a possessive bird there, Gav.”

Gavin gave him a look but didn’t commented. Probably just Dan pulling his leg again.

Expect Meg started visiting more often. Their visits were usually one every few days. Now it was like she found a reason to show up at Gavin’s house everyday. When Gavin asked, Meg just shrugged and said that Michael and Lindsay were out of town for a convention and she was lonely. It didn’t sound like a lie...but Gavin didn’t think it was the whole truth either.

Even when Michael and Lindsay came back, they just followed Meg to Gavin’s house. Gavin actually didn’t mind it, even with how busy he was, but it was weird. Lindsay was constantly touching him and Michael glared at Dan the entire time (more than usual, that is). Meg was the one to introduce them to Dan and Gavin didn’t know if he was imagining the way she put an emphasize on “friend”.

Dan took everything in stride, with an annoying little smirk. Like he knew something Gavin didn’t.

Gavin and Dan had just returned from a job out in California when Gavin got a text from Meg.

You want to have dinner with us tonight?

“Meg just asked us to have dinner with them.” Gavin told Dan, showing him the text.

Dan shook his head. “No. She asked you to dinner.”

“What?”

“Sounds like you’ve got a date, Gavin.”

“What?”

Dan’s smirk was slow to spread across his face. “B. I think she’s asking you out on a date.”

Gavin stood there blinking at him. “What?” He finally whispered.

“Gavin, they like you.”

“They do not.”

“They do. You should have seen the way they were all over you when they thought I was your boyfriend.” Dan continued to tease him.

“They weren’t.” Gavin knew his voice was getting a bit high. Dan just laughed at him and Gavin slapped Dan’s shoulder. “Don’t make fun of me.”

“I’m not making fun. I’m telling you the truth. They like you and Meg just asked you on a date.” Dan said, matter-o-factly.

Gavin stared at his phone. “Do you really think so?”

“I do.” Dan gave Gavin a friendly pat on the shoulder. “Wear that dark blue shirt of yours, makes your eyes pop.”

“Dan.”

Gavin is not sure what to expect when he goes over to the Jones-Tuggy-Turney house. He flipped and flopped over if this was a date or not. Had stared into his mirror, wondering if he was overdoing it with the shirt. He had an intense debate about whether to bring flowers or not.

Instead he brought a cup of sugar.

When Meg answered the door, she burst out laughing. Gavin could feel his cheeks burning (why, why did they always make him blush). “I...I hope this is ok?” He asked, holding out the cup. His eyes roamed over Meg. She wore a white, off the shoulders shirt, that ended out in a ruffle with black tights that hugged her calves. She looked good and Gavin was grateful that he decided to go dressy today. He supposed he should thank Dan later.

“It’s fucking perfect. Come on in.” Meg took the cup, leading Gavin further inside.

Gavin looked around. It suddenly struck him that, with the amount of time the three of them visited his house, he had never visited theirs.

It was nice. They clearly put some love into decorating the place. Pictures of the three of them decorated the walls, there were flowers in a couple of vases setting on top of tables (Gavin asked if they were Michael’s-Meg said yes), and an old clock sat in the corner. It sort of made Gavin’s house look bare.

Lindsay met them in the hallway, handing both Gavin and Meg a glass of wine. “You look good.” She said, looking him up and down.

“You do to.” Gavin replied, returning the favor. Lindsay had on a long-sleeve black sweater with a short pale skirt. Her black heels clicked against the wooden floors.

They made small talk for a bit, Gavin even met Meg’s little weiner dog Penny, before moving into the dining room, which was connected to the kitchen, the only thing separating them was a counter. In the kitchen, Michael was cooking. He looked over his shoulder at them and smiled. Gavin liked having those dimples aimed at him. Michael looked just as cute as the girls. He had on soft looking jeans and a light blue shirt, covered by a long brown jacket. His curly hair was covered by a brown beanie.

“I hope you like steaks? I figured I couldn’t go wrong with a steak.”

“I bloody love them.” Gavin reassured.

“Great, how do you want it cooked?”

“Medium, please.”

“Do you want to sit down?” Lindsay asked. “You look a bit tired?”

“I just got back from a shoot. Two days with very little sleep and I have to head out again Friday.”

Meg made a sound of sympathy. “I know that feeling. Back to back flights? It’s horrible.”

“Especially if you get the middle seat. The last time I had a middle seat, it was an absolute nightmare.”

“Tell me about it. One time I had a guy lean his head on my shoulder, using me as a pillow.”

“No.” Gavin said, aghast.

“And then he started reading my texts!”

“No!”

“Ok, you two. We don’t need to be discussing flying at the dinner table.” Lindsay said.

“Yeah, we hear Meg bitching about it enough. We don’t need two of you doing it.”

“Aw, but Michael.” Gavin said.

Michael pointed his finger at him, grinning. “Don’t you Micoo me.”

“But it’s cute the way he says your name.” Lindsay chimed in.

Gavin ducked his head and quickly steered the conversation to what they had been up to that week. Meg told him about the cosplaying she’s building, Michael complained about this shitty electrical job that he had to do, and Lindsay told him her company was thinking of buying their competitor. Gavin listened, amused by the way they told their stories and the way Michael exaggerated, hands flying all over the place.

The food was served, along with more wine and water. Gavin eagerly dug into his food, openingly moaning. “This is as good as always.”

“I’m glad you like it so much.” Michael looked far too pleased with himself.

“Hey, I made the potatoes.” Lindsay piped up. “Took me all day to peal too.”

“No you didn’t.” Meg said. She stabbed her fork at Lindsay. “This are instant.”

“Michael would never let us eat instant.” Lindsay said, sticking her nose in the air.

“I would if someone forgot to actually pick up potatoes and then had to go to the store thirty minutes before Gavin arrived.”

Lindsay pouted.

Gavin was grinning like a loon. He pointedly took a bite of the potatoes. “This taste delicious too, Lindsay.”

Lindsay stuck her tongue out at the other two.

Meg rolled her eyes before asking Gavin about his plans to attend the party the college boys were throwing. “The whole neighborhood is invited.”

Gavin shrugged as casually as he could. “I’m not good with parties, but if you guys go I will.”

That seemed to greatly please Meg.

The rest of the night went much the same. They swapped stories about their childhood and experiences in life, asked about parents and other relatives, touched on their dreams for the future, and even got into an argument about the way Gavin pronounced his words.

It felt comfortable and familiar.

Gavin helped them clean up, even going so far as to offer to help clean dishes, and all three walked him to the door. Gavin bit his lip before asking the question that had been on his mind for the whole night. “So...this was a date right?”

Meg’s smile was wide and soft. “Of course it was.”

Michael snorted. “You idiot. Yes.”

Lindsay giggled. “If you want it to be. I mean, I was hoping it was a date considering how much I like you and all.”

“Really?” Gavin asked, hopeful.

“Oh man, you should have seen these two.” Meg broke in. “They wouldn’t shut up about the cute neighbor with the amazing accent who I just had to meet. Lindsay practically threw away all our sugar at first so she could go over to talk to you-”

“I told you didn’t have to do that, Lindsay.” Gavin interrupted. Lindsay just shrugged.

“And Michael was an anxious mess for those first day, worried he had lost his chance.”

“As if you’re any better.” Michael pointed out. “The second you met him, you told us how much you wanted to ruin him.”

Meg wiggled her eyebrows at Gavin. “Oh I definitely did. And still want too.”

Gavin just shook his head. “So this was a date then.”

“Yep.” They all agreed.

Then they kissed him.

Meg’s kiss was hot. She clearly knew what she was doing as she pulled him closer to her, manhandling him into the perfect position so she could slot her lips against his.

Michael’s was passionate. His hold was tight against Gavin’s shirt, his lips aggressive as they clashed with Gavin’s.

Lindsay’s was sweet. She wiped off a bit of Meg’s lipstick from his mouth before pulling him in. Her’s was shorter than the rest, but she left Gavin with a nip on his bottom lip.

Gavin was dazed as they all smirked at him. “So...a date next week?”

“Date next week. But you’re planning it.”

They continued to visit him, but now the visits had a lot more making out included in them. Lindsay would peck him on the check before crouching to scratch Smee. Michael would demand a kiss in exchange for his food. Meg would pull him into a kiss as soon as they saw each other.

Gavin noticed that they were very generous too. Meg brought flowers as often as she could and Michael made a comment about decorating Gavin’s backyard. Lindsay would look online for objects that he commonly needed in his field and order them for him (even if it wasn’t a part Gavin needed, he still kept it, grateful that she bought it thinking of him). Michael brought over games they could play together and the two often shared their games’ library.

Dan had been right in calling them possessive. They would lay their arms across his shoulders and waist, would sit or lean close to him, had even sat in his lap a few times. The first time Meg did this at one of Geoff’s parties, Gavin had to hide his face in her neck at the teasing he got. Meg had no shame, of course, and neither did the others. They kept up their physical contact. Gavin didn’t mind as much as he complained he did.

Gavin also noticed how much more he was going to their house now. It just seemed easier, with all of them living there. Even if it was arriving at their house so that they could go somewhere else. Gavin started to think of the place as his second home. Slowly, little by little, he started leaving his things there. Some socks, a book, his controller-even his phone once.

He startled himself one day upon finding an extra toothbrush for him in their bathroom. And after they started having sex, he left an extra pair of clothes and pajamas in their room.

Sometimes, when Gavin slept in his own bed in his own house, he thought about what it would be like to live there full time. To always wake up looking at Michael, curled around Lindsay with Meg at his back. What it would be like to add his things into the mixture, his hair gel mixed in with their makeup and his coffee cup sat next to theirs. He would close his eyes and imagine adding new pictures to their walls, ones including him.

Of course that was all his imagination as they had only been together for a couple of months. It was too early to be thinking of living with them. Don’t let yourself sink too deep, Free. He scolded himself. You don’t want to mess this up.

After all, they hadn’t even mentioned anything to do with moving in together. And Gavin sure wasn’t going to be the one to ask.

Fall came and went in it’s usual whirlwind of gold and red. Dan went home, a neighborhood wide prank war started by Jeremy was ended by Ryan, and Gavin was still dating his neighbors. Halloween came by and Gavin spent most of it swallowing his tongue at the sight of their costumes. Gavin felt a bit stupid next to them in his store bought wizard hat and long black cloak over a pair of jeans and shirt. Michael at least wasn’t as glamorous in his black cat costume but it fit him really, really well. Gavin could see every muscle Michael has, every curve and dip, as the black velvet clung to his body. A long black tail swung from his backside and on his head were two cat ears.

Lindsay had dressed as a Slytherin. She had the green scarf and wand she actually got from Universal Studios. She even wore the nerdy looking glasses. Gavin had to admit, her gray sweater looked really warm. Though he doubted she was as comfortable as she assured him she was with the short, short skirt she was wearing.

Meg absolutely stole the show though, with her Lara Croft outfit. Tight, brown short shorts with a cut off shirt that that showed off her stomach. Strapped to her thighs were realistic looking holsters. Meg showed them to Gavin earlier, explaining all the work she did to make sure they didn’t pinch into her skin. Gavin tried them out for himself. They were really comfortable. Her hair was pulled into a braid and black makeup was smudged along her skin and clothes to look like dirt. She looked perfect.

Geoff made fun of him for the amount of times he almost ran into a wall while looking at them.

Halloween passed and then it was November. Which meant Thanksgiving.

“Are you sure you can’t go?” Lindsay asked him again.

Gavin watched as her and Michael walked around packing their bags. They were going to New Jersey to visit Michael’s parents and planned to stay from Wednesday to Sunday. Meg was out of town for a convention and wouldn’t be able to make it. Gavin had politely declined, stating that he too would be out of town for a shoot.

Gavin shook his head, uncomfortably aware that he was sitting on their bed, surrounded by their stuff. “I couldn’t get out of this one.”

“What asshole makes people work through Thanksgiving?” Michael grumbled.

“He’s a very...particular client. Everything has to be done by a certain timeline.” Gavin gave them a sheepish smile.

“Well, we’re going to miss you.” Lindsay told him, giving him a swift kiss.

Gavin helped them into their cab and waved at them from his doorway, watching as they drove away.

Thanksgiving Day saw Gavin sitting on his couch, watching the parade. “I don’t even celebrate Thanksgiving.” Gavin told Smee, the cat laying next to him in order to receive pets.

Smee gave him an unimpressed look.

Gavin frowned back. “It’s too soon to meet their parents anyway. We’ve only been dating for...five months? Way too soon.”

Smee licked his paw.

“Besides, the two should have their time together. Alone. I’ve been coming over a lot. They’re probably glad to be going without me.”

Smee got up, stretched, then walked away.

Gavin just hummed, looking back at the T.V. and watched as a large Snowman floated down the street. He idly wondered what he would tell them when Christmas time came.

It turns out he didn’t have to come up with any excuse.

Gavin didn’t enjoy working in the cold (he was used to England winters, but that didn’t mean he enjoyed it). The shoot he was on (an actual shoot this time) made him work through not only cold, but rain. A terrible combination.

Gavin arrived home with a red nose and sore muscles. He spent the next day in bed, with a fever. Distantly, he was aware of Lindsay, Meg, and Michael coming to visit him. Gavin sniffed and coughed at them and they feed him soup.

It was Michael visiting him now, putting a cool cloth on top of his forehead. Gavin shivered and burrowed himself deeper into his covers.

He thought he heard Michael sigh and say something about how this would be much easy if Gavin was at their house. But Gavin couldn’t be sure as he immediately fell asleep, soothed by the sound of Michael’s voice.

Spring came and things were still going great. January seemed to fly by. Gavin had a mini heart attack when he looked at the date and realized that it was February 13th.

They laughed anyway at the cheap chocolates he gave them. Especially when he combined it with a mashup video of all the places he had had filmed them at. Later that night, they enjoyed another dinner Michael had made. In between mouthfuls of grilled chicken, Gavin asked a question that he’s idly thought about. “Have you guys ever wanted to get married?”

That cause the three of them to pause. Meg finished swallowing her food before nodding. “I’d love to get married, if we’re ever allowed to. I even have the dress picked out.”

Lindsay raised an eyebrow. “Do you really?”

Meg sniffed. “Of course. Don’t you?”

“Not really.” Lindsay replied. “I haven’t really thought about getting married. Not seriously anyways.”

“Same.” Michael said. “As soon as I knew I loved the both of you, getting married sort of went off the table. After meeting Gavin, that feeling doubled. I mean, gay marriage just got approved. Do you really think multiple marriage will happen in our lifetime?”

Meg sort of deflated at that. Gavin quickly said, “Maybe not in America but I’m certain some country will legalize it. Maybe England?”

“Ohhh, Gavvy, are you offering to marry us?” Michael teased, but there was an odd note to his voice.

Gavin looked down and picked at his food. “No. It’s not legal anyways.”

“What do you think of marriage?” Meg asked.

Gavin shrugged.. “My parent’s…it didn’t end well. I don’t have a very positive view on marriage.”

“Oh.”

They ate in silence for a second before Michael jumped into a ridiculous story about something stupid that happened at work.

With summer came Dan and work and Gavin celebrating one year being in love. Gavin knew it was coming, had saw them celebrating each other’s anniversary. But it still surprised him when they took him out to the movies and dinner. He got a kiss from each of them and a cake.

Gavin enjoyed the time he spent with them because, as with every summer, he got extremely busy again. Dan and him were in New York to meet with another director, sitting in the lobby of an expensive hotel, when Dan asked him, “So how is everything going in lover town?”

Gavin snorted, rolling his eyes. “Everythings fine. Meg’s lovely, Michael is a pain, and Lindsay is cute.”

Dan smiled at him. “Sounds like you're in love.”

Gavin looked back at him. “I really am.”

“Wow. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this way.” Dan teased. Gavin stuck his tongue out at him. “But seriously, B, I’m happy for you.”

Gavin’s smile softened. “Hey thanks, B.”

There was silence for a second before Dan spoke again. “So when are you moving in?”

“Dan.”

“What? It has to be hard to constantly move back and forth between houses, even if you are neighbors. I suppose you can connect your house in some way but I don’t know how that would go over with the rest of the neighborhood.”

“I..haven’t thought about moving in.” Gavin said, looking down at his phone.

“Liar.”

“Dan.”

“Gavin, look. I know you. I’ve been your friend for years. I know how you think. You want to move in, you want to spend the rest of your life with them. But you don’t know how to ask and so then don’t.”

“I do not.”

Dan gave him a look. “Gavin, I once saw a girl flirt with you, give you all the clues that she wanted to hook up, maybe something more, and you completely missed it because you didn’t realize that was what she was doing and was too shy to ask.”

“That’s not-”

“Or how about the time a guy came up to you and asked for a date and you told him it was November 6?”

“You can not use-”

“Or how about that time with the chief?”

Gavin slumped into his seat. “So you what? Think I’m being childish?”

“No. I think you're just being Gavin.” Dan said. “They like you, and you like them. What’s so wrong with asking them about moving in?”

“I don’t know, B? Don’t you think it’s too soon?”

“You’ve been dating for over a year. I don’t think it’s too soon to start at least talking to them about it. Just tell them you’ve been thinking about wanting to move in at some point. If they think it’s too soon, at least you have the conversation started and they know what you want.”

“You make it sound so easy.” Gavin grumbled.

“That’s because it is easy. Look, they can’t read your mind. What if they want you to move in but are waiting for you to say something?”

Gavin made a face at him. “When did you get so reasonable at dating stuff?”

“I’ve always been reasonable.” Dan said, sounding offended.

Gavin side-eyed him. “You once got drunk and ended up sleeping out in the lawn, where your girlfriend then had to drag you inside.”

“Sounds reasonable to me.”

“Once inside, you started crying and tried to break up with her because she had a Mr. Blobby mask sitting on the table left over from Halloween.”

“Like I said, sounds reasonable to me.”

Gavin took Dan’s advice to heart. Well, he did after agonizing over it for a good few days after getting back from the shoot. He finally mention it when playing games with Meg (both Lindsay and Michael were away at work).

“It would probably be easier if my game system was next to your game system, that way we don’t have to go back and forth with our games.”

“Totally.” Meg replied, not looking away from the screen.

Gavin felt like that was good enough.

Gavin was panicking. He was all smiles on the outside, but inside, he was full on freaking out. It was Thanksgiving again and there was no way Gavin was going to get out of meeting Meg and Lindsay’s parents.

It was going to be a two partner, apparently. Since both Lindsay’s and Meg’s family lived in Texas, so it would be easy to spend two days with Lindsay and then two days with Meg.

They were super sneaky about making sure Gavin was free. And by sneaky, he meant that they asked if he had shoots coming up and, because Gavin didn’t realize what month it was, he saw no need to lie.

Not even a perfectly reasonable “I don’t even celebrate Thanksgiving” can get him out of it.

So now Gavin had a couple of hours stuck in a car to dread about what could possibly happen. He wasn’t so worried about them not liking him as a fourth member of the relationship, he was sure if they were fine with their child dating two other people, one more wasn’t such a big deal. He did worry that they wouldn’t like him. Would they be ok with him? What if he offended them in some way?

But what Gavin was worried about the most was that this was all too soon. What would they think about bringing home a partner they’ve only been dating for a year?

But Gavin didn’t tell them that and instead just braced himself for bad outcomes.

Surprising (but probably only to Gavin) everything went well.

Lindsay’s parents were warm and positive and baked the best pie Gavin had ever had. They welcomed him home with open arms.

Meg’s family was intense. She had a lot of siblings and her parents practically grilled him about what he did, but in the end they invited him to join in on some family games and Gavin left feeling welcomed.

Gavin was...happy he went. And he could tell that the others were happy he was accepted too. For the first time, he wondered if maybe he wasn’t being stupid about the too early thing.

For the first time in forever, Gavin thought about what it would be like if he brought someone home to England.

The Christmas tree was set up in the corner of the living room and Gavin was dragged into decorating it. They hung tinsel up everywhere and Lindsay seemed to want a snowman every five feet.

Gavin loved it.

There was something so nice about watching Michael squeeze everyone’s faces as he kissed them before starting to complain that it looked like Santa threw up in here. Meg would laugh and say that they haven’t even gone through half the decorations and Lindsay would pull out another endless string of lights.

At some point, Gavin knew they would bake cookies and try to build a gingerbread house. And later they would watch Christmas movies and Meg and Lindsay would try to put a Christmas hat on Smee while Michael yells at them and Gavin films it.

It was a happy time. It filled Gavin with all sort of feelings.

Gavin knows he can be oblivious sometimes. He’s been told that plenty by Dan. Geoff would roll his eyes when saying it and Burnie always laughed at him.

But it still came as a complete shock to Gavin one fine March day when Michael came up to him, while they were at Gavin’s house, frowning. “So are we just not dropping enough hints or are you a complete moron?”

“Michael, why are you always so mean to me, Michael?” Gavin whined, though he took no actual offense.

Michael rolled his eyes but bent down to help Gavin, picking up the other side of a heavy camera case so they could put it away in Gavin’s closet. “I’m only mean because you ask for it. But seriously, what’s it going to take?”

“What are you talking about?” Gavin asked.

“About us wanting you to move in.”

Gavin almost dropped the case. Michael cursed. “What the fuck, Gavin? Are you trying to fuck up my foot or something?”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” Gavin quickly picked up the slack. As soon as they put the case away, Gavin turned towards Michael. “Wait? You what?”

“We. Want. You.” Michael gestured between Gavin and himself and Gavin scowled at him. “To move in. With. Us.”

“Thank you, I can hear.”

“So?” Michael said, crossing his arms. His foot started tapping against the ground.

Gavin bit his lip. “You guys really want me to move in?”

“I wouldn’t be asking if we didn’t.”

“Are you sure?”

“Absolutely.”

“You don’t think it’s too soon?”

“After nearly two years? No?” Michael frowned. “If you don’t want to move in with us, just say so.”

“I do!” Gavin blurted out. He started fidgeting with his hands. “I do, I want to move in with you guys.”

Michael grabbed his hands. “Gavin, do you want to move in with us?”

Gavin took a deep breath, then looked up and into Michael’s eyes. “Yes. I want to move in with you.”

A slow smile began to spread across Michael’s face. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. I really, really do.”

Later, lying in their bed, Gavin would laugh and mention that he thought he had dropped hints about moving in.

All three of them looked at him with confused looks. “When?” Meg asked.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure we would have picked that up.” Lindsay chimed in.

“W-w-with you.” Gavin said, pointing at Meg. He had to half-sit up in bed to be able to do it, but he did. “I mentioned it when we were gaming.”

Meg’s eyebrows went nearly into her hair. “That was your hint? Mentioning it once when we were gaming?”

“Yeah!”

Michael just shook his head. “You’re unbelievable.”

“What? What?”

It took three days to move all of Gavin’s stuff to their house. Gavin won’t sell his house for another year (it’s a source of many arguments but ultimately they know it isn’t him having a backup just incase things go south-he’s just too lazy to get to it).

Two days after agreeing to move in, Gavin calls up Dan to talk about their agreement. Dan can still stay in Gavin’s old house during the summers until Gavin sells it. They all agree it’ll be pretty useful to have someone there to keep the house in good condition.

Dan is smug the entire time they talk. Gavin lets him be, because, well he deserved it.

At the end of it Dan tells him “I told you so.”

Gavin sighs. “I know, B.”

“You could have done this like a year ago.”

“I know Dan.”

A pause.

“Hey, Gavin?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m happy for you.”

Gavin smiles. “Thanks B.”

Gavin almost feels natural in their house. Sure, he’s been spending a good amount of time there since they started dating, but still. He woke up now in his bed, and ate food at his table, and played games on his T.V.

Their house had become his. Gavin loves it.

He loves how Lindsay and he will fight for coffee as they leave for work, how Michael is yelling at them as he cooks them breakfast, and how Meg comes down to complain about them waking her up.

He loves how one of them will knock on the door to his office, making sure Gavin took some breaks while he working.

He loved surprising them with gifts, loves going to Michael’s work to give him food (it was shitty compared to what Michael could make but he figured he should return the favor), loves helping Meg with her cosplays.

Gavin loves being with them. And he knows they love him.

Gavin is nervous as he waits in front of the putt putt golf area. It’s his two year anniversary. The rest of them were on their way, Meg and Lindsay were picking Michael up from work. After golfing, they figured they could move on to go-kart racing. Or maybe ice-cream. They haven’t really decided.

Gavin checks his watch. He looks down at the little box he had in his hand. Then back up, smiling as Lindsay waved at him from where they were walking down the sidewalk. Gavin meets them halfway.

He gives all three a kiss on the cheek. Meg kisses back but her eyes are glued to the box. “What’s this? You got us something?”

“Yeah.” He practically pushes the box into her hands.

Meg raises an eyebrow but opens it anyways. As soon as she looks inside, she bursts out giggling before showing Michael and Lindsay. Lindsay starts laughing too. Michael shouts “What the fuck, Gavin?” but he’s also smiling.

The box was filled with sugar. Gavin took the box back, shaking it a bit as he began to explain. “So I know I’m not the best at commitment and I have a hard time...expressing myself and putting myself out there. And I’m sure you know my problems with meeting...parents.”

“You mean the time you lied to us to get out of meeting my parents?” Michael asked.

Gavin winced. “You know about that, huh?”

“It wasn’t very hard to figure out. Elyse mentioned that she was surprised we didn’t take you and then told us that you had been home all week.”

“Yeah, well, ok. So I have a thing about parents.” Gavin mumbled. He shifted the sugar around some more. “So yeah. I thought this would be a good...surprise.”

“Surprise.” He lifted the box up. Beneath the sugar were a couple piece of paper.

Delicately, Meg pulled them out. “Plane..tickets?”

Gavin nodded. “To England. If you would like, would you like to meet my mom?”

They meet his mom. She loves them. They love her.

Gavin is happy.

#mavinseg #neighbors au #i don't know how to eel about this one #i love the first half #but don't know how to feel about the second half #but i hope everyone else enjoys it

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bluezey · 8 years ago

Text

The Breakdown - Part One

After another nemesis attempt fails, Rob seems to be acting a little differently the next day. Or, is it Robs? Can Gumball and friends straighten out the confusion and chaos before things get any worse?

An Inside Out/The Amazing World of Gumball fanfic

Rated G

Part 2 – http://bluezey.tumblr.com/post/159319858352/the-breakdown-part-two

Writer’s Commentary – http://bluezey.tumblr.com/post/159319939227/the-breakdown-writers-commentary

Section One

It was nighttime, the mall had closed and the parking lot was almost empty. All that was left were a few cars, including a sketchy red van parked near the top level of the garage. The side door to the van finally opened, breaking the silence of the night.

Rob stepped out of the van, then nearly jumped as the door slammed shut behind him. He walked away slowly into the empty lot, after a few steps he finally looked down at the purchase in his possession. In his jagged right hand was a small glass vial, capped by a lavender plug. In the vial shined five little lights of pure energy, floating lightly in the air inside. Each one glowed a different color: yellow, blue, red, green and purple. In his mind echoed the warning given by the shadowy figure that ran The Awesome Store inside the van. Rob closed his hand around the vial, blocking the five small orbs from his vision, but the light still shined through between his fingers. He sighed. “This was a bad idea.”

Just as he admitted his mistake, the van drove off as fast as it could. Rob turned, all that was left were empty parking spaces and a few blinking florescent lights from the concrete ceiling of the parking level. Left with his purchase, Rob quietly kept walking towards the stairwell.

The only sounds echoing through the ominous lot were the evening breeze and Rob’s footsteps. Then, a new sound broke through from across the lot.

“Mom, why can’t we get the new Legend of Zelmore?”

Rob paused. He knew that voice. “Gumball,” he growled through his grit teeth. He quickly regained his composure before his clenched fists put pressure on the glass vial. Acting fast, Rob ducked into the stairwell. He peered out from the shadows to catch the elevator across the lot, as four figures walked off the elevator. He recognized one as that fish with legs Darwin, and the rest must be his family. But, where’s Gumball?

“Hey Rob!” Gumball announced, almost appearing out of nowhere next to Rob.

“AHH!!” Rob threw his hands up to quickly grab the vial out of the air. It took a few attempts, but he finally caught it before it hit the ground.

“What’s that?” Gumball asked curiously as he saw Rob hide something behind his back.

“What? Nothing,” Rob replied, cradling the vial in his left hand behind his back.

Gumball smiled cheekily. “Is that part of your new diabolical plan to destroy me?”

“Yes, I mean no, I mean-“ Rob growled angrily at the situation.

“Can I see?” Gumball asked excitedly.

“No,” Rob replied, stepping away.

“Oh come on,” Gumball said, stepping forward with each step Rob took backwards. “Is it a secret? Give me a clue. One clue! No, wait. Two clues!”

Rob spat, “Get away from me you nut burger!” before racing up the stairwell.

“Wait, Rob!” Gumball called out, chasing after him. “Rob, come back!”

Rob raced up the stairwell, Gumball right behind him. Just as he thought he was making distance between them, Rob found himself on the roof of the garage. He stepped out onto the empty rooftop, looking around for a way out, but coming out empty. In a panic, he looked back down at the vial in his left hand. He took his right hand and tried to pry open the purple stopper on top, but couldn’t get it to budge.

“Rob!!”

Hearing Gumball was close, Rob ran across the roof. He wanted some distance between the two of them until he could get the vial open. He watched as with each quick jerking movement the five bits of energy bounced around and grew brighter, the power that not even the shop owner knew would offer if unleashed. “This is crazy, this is crazy, this is crazy,” Rob muttered to himself as he ran.

Gumball finally made it to the roof and continued the chase after Rob. “Rob, come back! Just a hint!”

Rob stopped quickly as he found himself at the edge of the building, standing by the concrete barrier that stood up to his waist. He looked over the edge at the forty stories fall to the pavement below, then to Gumball coming closer at breaking speed. Out of options, Rob began prying the vial open with all his might.

“Gumball!” Darwin called out as he made his way to the top of the stairwell. “There you are! Mrs. Mom wants to know why you ran off?”

Still running, Gumball turned to Darwin on the other side of the rooftop. “I just found Rob at the-“ he was stopped short as he slammed into something. He turned to see a large crack in a concrete barrier, then looked over a barrier to see Rob falling to the ground.

Rob screamed as he fell forty stories to the hard pavement below. Just as he hit the pavement, his left hand opened, pressing the vial between him and the ground until it gave with a slight crack.

Gumball and Darwin watched as a large flash of light surrounded the area where Rob landed. They looked away from the blinding flash, missing the five streaks of pure colored energy streak across the sky, scattering to five different parts of Elmore. Soon as the light dimmed, Gumball and Darwin looked down and could barely make out Rob lying motionless in the shallow crater below.

“You killed him!” Darwin exclaimed.

Gumball turned to Darwin. “Did not!”

The Watterson’s car stopped just feet from the crater, its headlights shining on an unconscious Rob lying inside. Gumball was the first to dash out of the car and dive into the crater. “Please don’t be dead, please don’t be dead,” Gumball whimpered to himself as he leaned in to check on Rob. “… oh thank goodness,” he sighed in relief. “He’s still breathing. He’s okay.”

“I wouldn’t really call this okay,” Anais commented, looking down into the crater.

“We just can’t leave him here,” Nicole said. “Where does he live?”

“I dunno,” Gumball replied.

“Does he have any family?” Richard asked.

“I dunno,” Gumball replied.

“How can you not know anything about your own nemesis?” Anais asked judgingly.

“I don’t know!” Gumball cried.

Darwin knelt down beside Rob and commented, “We gotta do something, he’s waking up.”

The Wattersons watched as Rob’s body began to stir with little movement, before they all looked at each other.

Nicole opened the door as she and Richard helped Rob into the house. “Well… welcome to our house, for the night… I guess,” she welcomed nervously.

Gumball ran into the living room, jumping up and down with excitement. “I can’t believe me and my nemesis are having a sleepover!”

“He doesn’t look like he’s up for a sleepover,” Darwin commented.

“A concussion would do that,” Anais added before looking up at Rob. “Hey, Rob. You okay?”

Nicole and Richard stepped aside and let Rob stand on his own two feet. He finally lifted his head, he just looked ahead with an empty stare, before lowering his head back down again.

Gumball simply shrugged it off. “Pfft, he’s fine. He probably just needs sleep. Come on, Rob. You can sleep in our room.” Gumball grabbed Rob by the hand and ran upstairs, Darwin and Anais right behind them. Rob simply kept up on his own two feet, with his face seeming to have no emotional opinion on what’s happening.

“You can have the top bunk,” Gumball told Rob as they entered the bedroom.

“That’s my bed!” Anais replied. “Why does he get my bed?”

“I’m not having my nemesis sleep on the floor! Or would I?” Gumball thought a moment before adding, “Nah, I wouldn’t let him sleep on the floor.” Gumball turned to Rob and flashed him a big, excited smile. “Okay, Rob, the top bunk is yours! What are we going to do first? Truth or dare? Pillow fights?”

Rob just simply looked at him vacantly. After a blink or two, Rob climbed up into the top bunk and lay down in bed, facing the wall, without a word.

“Fine,” Anais grumbled as she grabbed Daisy and stormed out. “I’ll take the couch.”

Darwin joined Gumball as they both looked up at the motionless Rob lying in bed. “Are you sure he’s okay? He doesn’t seem quite… there.”

“He’s just tired,” Gumball replied. “He’ll be better in the morning. Come on, let’s get some sleep ourselves.” He then went to get dressed in his pajamas before hopping into his bed on the bottom bunk.

Darwin gave another concerned look towards Rob before climbing into his fish bowl and getting some rest.

Section Two

The alarm on the nightstand blared for only two seconds before Gumball slammed his fist on the snooze button. He rolled over and opened his eyes a little before closing them. Then his eyes opened wide as he caught Rob standing on the other side of the room. He was standing there, hands on the windowsill, facing out the window. “Rob?”

“Gumball…”

Gumball sat straight up in bed at the sound of Rob’s voice. It sounded so… different. “R-Rob?”

“Gumball…” Rob replied again. “It is… a lovely morning!” Rob exclaimed as he turned and threw his hands up in the air, the most happiest of smiles across his face.

Gumball looked over this sudden change in Rob. He never seen him this… exhilarated before. And there was something new about him. His dull gray face and white static appendages had a tint of bright yellow to them. His hands, feet and brown blocky hair had a tinge of yellow. And it looked like with each grand motion of his body, or each glitch his broken body made, a little flurry of bright yellow particles would pop off of him and gradually fade into thin air. “Wow, you seem… different,” Gumball said aloud.

Rob jumped up and down and gave an excited little squeal. “I know! Isn’t it great? There’s so much to do and so little time today. We could play video games, we could play around on Elmore Plus, we could watch TV, we could-“

“Kids, breakfast!” Nicole called out from downstairs.

“Ooh, breakfast! Did you hear? Breakfast! Come on, Gumball!” Rob grabbed Gumball and yanked him straight out of bed and out the door.

Nicole, Anais and Darwin stared oddly across the table at the new Rob. “Does anyone notice that Rob is different today?” Anais finally announced for everyone.

“I know. Isn’t he great?” Gumball said as he ate his cereal, while Rob was happily shoveling the sugary milk saturated bits down with his bare hands.

“I like your friend, Gumball,” Richard complimented before pouring his bowl into his mouth.

Rob finally looked up from his bowl and wiped off his mouth with his arm. “I’m sorry, I just haven’t had anything this sugary sweet in a while and it’s so deliciously perfect!” Rob grabbed the cereal box and began grabbing the dry sugary pieces by the handful. “Mm, who knew tasting things tasted so good!” he exclaimed with a full mouth.

“Save some cereal for when we’re watching cartoons, Rob,” Gumball said.

Rob gasped with excitement. “Cartoons AND cereal? Ooh, could this day get any better?”

“Don’t spend too long on cartoons, Gumball,” Nicole commented as she got up to leave for work. “You still have school today.”

“We do!” Rob exclaimed. “I get to go to school!”

“But Rob,” Darwin explained, “you don’t go to school.”

“Yes, but now I can!” Rob replied happily.

“Uh, sure, why not,” Gumball added.

Gumball and Darwin walk down the street to school. All the while, Darwin watches as Rob runs ahead of them, darting from each new thing that makes him happy and excited. “Are you sure Rob’s okay?” Darwin asked Gumball.

“Yeah, sure. Why?” Gumball asked.

“Well, last night he was acting like he couldn’t care less, now he’s acting like he couldn’t be happier,” he commented as he watched Rob run up and happily hug a stranger’s dog.

“I know. That life threatening fall was the best thing that’s ever happened to him,” Gumball commented.

“But-“

“A bus!” Rob pointed out as they approached the school. “It’s a school bus! We could have taken the bus! Why didn’t we take the bus?”

“We got up late, again,” Gumball commented.

“Oh, well. Better late than never, I suppose,” Rob shrugged.

Gumball looked at him surprised. “Wait. You’re not mad?”

“Nope! Now come on,” Rob exclaimed, grabbing Gumball by the hand and leading him up the stairs into school. “Let’s go have fun learning our math, and reading, and gym, and study hall, and-“ Rob stopped mid sentence and lit up with excitement as he heard a delightful chime from the other direction. “Ice cream truck! Ice cream! Ice cream! Ice cream!” he chanted as he dragged Gumball away from school.

“Slow down!” Gumball called out as he was led by an excited Rob running down the street. “Rob, the school’s the other way!”

“But the ice cream’s this way!” he happily cheered.

“Guys!” Darwin was running down the stairs after them, but stopped as he heard someone sobbing nearby. He glanced over to see someone sitting on the bench at the bus stop. Someone who was definitely familiar. “Rob??” Darwin took a double take to where Gumball and Rob ran off, but they were gone.

Darwin turned his attention back to the bus stop. He stepped closer, taking a good look to see if this Rob really was, well, Rob. He did look a lot like Rob, but this one looked more… blue. Rob placed his hands over his eye to wipe away the tears, that’s when Darwin noticed his blue tinted left hand was… effervescent, like it was made from the same blue particles that were popping off of him whenever his form glitched out. “Uh… Rob?”

Rob lifted his head. “Darwin?”

“Yeah, it’s me,” Darwin replied. “And are you… you?”

Rob gave a sniffle as he wiped away another tear. “I’m sorry. I don’t like when others see me cry. It makes me feel… sad,” he sobbed.

“It’s okay, I didn’t mean to see you… well, sad.” Darwin felt awkward, not only seeing Rob so sad, but wasn’t he happy just a second ago? “Look, if you need to calm down, I can help you to Mr. Small’s office-“

Rob caught Darwin off guard as he clung to him. “You’re so nice. And we’re so mean to you. I’m so…” Rob just broke down into sobbing from there.

Even in his confusion, Darwin couldn’t help but give him a hug. But even that seemed to make Rob sadder.

Meanwhile, on a sidewalk in Elmore, Gumball finally caught up with the happy yellow tinted Rob, who was happily walking along and licking his ice cream cone. “Thank you for paying for our treats, Gumball,” Rob commented.

Gumball looked over their tall ice cream cones. “Yeah, sorry I could only afford ten scoops between the two of us.”

“That’s okay, we can get thirty flavors next time,” he replied cheerfully.

Gumball’s face lit up with such joy. “There’s going to be a next time?”

“You bet! We can do this tomorrow, and the day after that, and the-“ Rob stopped mid sentence and dropped his cone. He grabbed the sides of his head as he wobbled on his own two feet, groaning in pain. “Owww, o wow ow ow ow ow!”

“Brain freeze?” Gumball asked.

“Yes,” Rob groaned. “It’s even worse on the outside! At least I’m not frozen in ice!”

Gumball looked up at him oddly, not sure what he meant by that. “Are… you okay?”

Rob sighed as he stood up straight, he exhaled as the brain freeze finally passed. “Yes, I’m fine.” A soft relieved smile passed his face. “Wow, now that’s a memory I’m going to remember.” He turned to Gumball and placed a kind hand on his shoulder. “Thanks Gumball, you’re a true friend.”

Gumball froze in shock. “Friend??”

“Why yes!” Rob cheered as he grabbed Gumball in a tight bear hug and spun him around. After a few spins, Rob dropped Gumball and ran off, following the next thing to fuel his excitement.

Gumball landed face first onto the sidewalk, but his emotional pain was unbearable. Friend? Did his nemesis just call him friend? How could he say that?? How could they be enemies if Rob… likes him??

Still shaken, Gumball couldn’t help but notice the loud happy cheers of happy Rob were becoming distant by the second. He looked up to see Rob running back to the mall, cheering about movies at the theater, toys at the toy store and kitties at the pet store. Gumball got up and chased after him. “Rob?? Rob?? Did you really mean that??”

Section Three

The lunch bell rang, the classroom filed out into the hall. Darwin followed the crowd, but took one last look over at Gumball’s desk, wondering where he went. He then took the long way around so he can pass by Mr. Small’s office. He peered into the window to see Rob, still blue, still whimpering into a tissue. Obviously not the first one, as handfuls of old wet tissues were crumpled on the floor around his chair.

“And that’s when we got over our fear of the dark,” Rob sniffled. “But, I still miss our Daisy night light.”

“I see,” Mr. Small commented. “Tell me more about kindergarten.”

Darwin felt a little better, knowing that Rob was getting some help. Now if only he could find Gumball. He went to the cafeteria, assuming he’d find him there. Also, Darwin was hungry. He crossed the cafeteria, now filled with the chatter of students at the tables. He couldn’t help but overhear the sound of those gossiping as he walked by.

“Have you seen Lakewood’s new cheerleading outfits?” Masami asked. “Gross.”

“Those new outfits are a train wreck,” added Leslie.

“No duh. Whoever designed those outfits must have been colorblind. I mean, teal with plum? Blech!” Rob commented.

Wait, Rob??

Darwin took a double take towards the Rob sitting at the table with the gossiping students. Rob wasn’t even looking at them, he was busy filing his nails on his green left hand, ignoring them like they were less important than the conversation. As he crossed his legs, he blew on his fingernails, a small puff of tiny green particles flew into the air and faded away.

One dash later and Darwin was back at Mr. Small’s office. He looked into the window as best as he could, making sure that he didn’t have to second guess himself. But nope, he was right. Rob was right there, spilling out another sad memory of his childhood. He ran back to the cafeteria doors and peered in through the window. Nope, there was Rob, placing a hand over his mouth in order to keep his stomach down as he saw Banana Joe walk by with sloppy joes. He ran back to the office, there was Rob. He ran back-

Darwin slammed hard into someone and fell backwards onto the hall floor.

“Ugh, excuse you?” The green Rob got up and stamped his feet, disgusted at Darwin’s lack of manners. “Can’t you watch where you going?”

“Excuse me?” Darwin asked, in a daze of confusion.

“Ew!” Rob gagged. “Don’t talk to me right now! Your breath smells like chlorine and bad fish!” Rob pushed Darwin out of the way as he stormed off down the hall.

Darwin took a moment to breathe into his hand and take a sniff of his breath. “It doesn’t smell that bad.” He then looked at the green Rob storming down the hall before turning to the blue Rob in the counselor’s office.

Wait… two Robs??

Gumball’s run slowed to a stop in the middle of the mall. He looked around at the shops, the shoppers, the escalators, everything around him. The mall’s pretty empty on a school day, but even that wasn’t enough. He still couldn’t find Rob. And he needed to find him more than ever. When Rob called Gumball his friend, his world came crashing down!

Gumball’s worries were interrupted by the sound of heavy breathing. He suddenly heard someone dart right behind him. When he turned, all he could catch was someone ducking behind the water fountain in the mezzanine. He went to investigate, and yes it was. “Rob!”

“Ah!” Rob darted off into the Dinner diner in the food court.

“Rob come back! We need to talk!” Gumball called out as he ran after him. Before he was even halfway to the diner, he slammed right into someone, sending both of them spilling onto the ground. Gumball sat up just as Rob sat up. Wait, Rob? “Rob?”

“You?” Rob stared right back at him. This time, Rob didn’t look happy to see him. In fact, he didn’t look that sunny like before, instead his body from his hair down to his feet was tinted a bold red.

“Rob!” Gumball said, realizing that he finally found Rob.

Rob simply furrowed his brow at him. “You!” he growled through his gritted teeth.

“Oh, I’m so glad to see you,” Gumball replied with relief, “and I kind of dig the new design. Say, when you said friend-“

Rob punched Gumball hard in the face, sending him flying into the fountain.

Gumball got up, soaking in old circulated water, spitting out slimy water and a penny or two. He stood up and smiled, his eyes lit up like stars. “You DO hate me!”

Rob came charging at him screaming, carrying a chair from the food court over his head. He threw the chair at Gumball, knocking him out of the water and slamming him against an escalator.

The elevator slowly moved Gumball upward, peeling the chair off of him. Gumball placed a hand over his bruised eye before resting it on his pained nose. “Ow. That, really hurt.”

“That’s the point, dim wit!” Rob threw another punch, thankfully Gumball dodged it. The blue cat dodged as best as he could as Rob threw punch after punch, kick after kick, as they slowly ascended the escalator. “Do you have any idea the day I’ve had? Top with all the other crud I have to deal with? I need something to take this anger out on, and thank your dumb luck I run into you!”

Gumball was sent flying from a hard kick to the gut, landing even harder on his back and skidding for a few yards for good measure. Just as he opened his eyes, he caught Rob throwing a trash can at him. Gumball rolled out of the way, and used all of his strength to get up and run. He ran and dodged as Rob tossed every obstacle at him, from potted decorative foliage, to merchandise, to even actual shoppers! “I have to admit, Rob,” Gumball commented, “this isn’t as elaborate as your schemes usually are!”

“Forget schemes!” the furious Rob yelled as he used all his rage to throw an actual kiosk. “This is personal.”

The impact of the kiosk landing by Gumball was enough to throw him down a corridor to the left. Rob ran after him, but stopped as he turned. He looked to his left, to his right, straight ahead. No Gumball. That cat must have given him the slip. Rob clenched his fists and growled, his reddish brown hair sparked as it twitched with each agitated glitch.

Gumball ran into the unisex bathroom and shut the door. He placed his whole body against the door to barricade it… and gave a sigh of relief. His heart was racing, his legs were aching, his eye was swollen that he can barely see through it. He had never seen Rob so angry before. It was awesome! And, admittedly, terrifying.

A low growl was heard from the other side of the door. Gumball turned and backed away, before quickly running into a restroom cubicle. He slammed the door shut, locked it, and held his body weight against it. He listened, but he couldn’t hear that growl anymore. Gumball sighed in relief. Then, he realized instead he was hearing what sounded like nervous whimpering… and it was coming from right behind him!

Gumball turning around was just enough to scare Rob standing on the toilet. Wait, Rob? Wasn’t Rob behind him? And red? Why was he now purple? And terrified? “Rob??”

“Shhh,” the frightened Rob whispered. “She’ll hear you.” Rob covered his mouth to stifle a yelp as he heard the growl once again, this time louder. The two heard the door to the restroom open slowly, it sent shivers through Rob’s body as Gumball climbed on top of the toilet brim with him. Rob cowered behind Gumball, chewing on his fingernails on his purple left hand.

Slow, heavy footsteps echoed through the silent restroom. A tyrannosaurus rex’s foot can be seen from under the cubicle door as the dinosaur slowly stalked the restroom. Gumball was still as Rob’s eye grew wide with fright.

Tina paused. Silence. A long moment passed before she turned and walked towards the exit.

The two quietly sighed in relief. Then froze as Rob’s wire frame foot slipped into the toilet, causing a splash.

The cubicle door was torn off its hinges as Tina charged in, giving a loud roar and exposing her sharp teeth and gaping maw at them. The two screamed, but Rob jumped so high with fright that he managed to clear the cubicle divider and fall into the cubicle next to them.

The cubicle door flew wide as Rob went screaming, running as fast as he could until it appeared he ran face first into some invisible glass barrier, causing him to fall backwards and pass out onto the tile floor.

Gumball quickly snuck out from underneath Tina’s reptile nose and ran. He stopped momentarily to pick up Rob, who was just coming to, and the two ran out of the restroom, with Tina close behind them.

Tina broke the door and the doorway as she went charging out of the restroom. “Stop running!” she demanded as she chased Gumball and Rob back into the mall.

“Dude, why is Tina after you?” Gumball called out to Rob.

“I don’t know!” Rob yelled back in a panic. “I was lost, I was scared, I didn’t know where I was, then I saw a T-rex and I ran, and then I just kept running and hiding and running and hiding- AHH!!“

Rob instinctively dove into a trash can. Gumball looked over his shoulder at Tina, then dove in as well. Tina just kept running, passing by the trash can. Soon as the rumbling footsteps stopped, Gumball climbed out of the trash can, followed by Rob. The two took the moment to catch their breath.

“Gumball?” Rob asked.

“Yeah?” Gumball replied.

“Am I gonna die?” Rob asked with a whimper.

A loud shattering of glass was heard from the hardware store behind them. They turned to see a forklift emerge from the gaping hole in the store, along with a frightened Larry running for cover. The angry red Rob stood from his seat and glared down at Gumball. “Prepared to get wrecked, you little brat!”

Gumball and the purple Rob both screamed as Gumball was held up to shield the cowering purple Rob. Still screaming, Gumball’s eyes darted between the purple Rob behind him screaming in terror and the red Rob in front of him screaming in fury. Gumball was both terrified by the looming forklift creeping towards him and the confusion of two Robs being in one place!

Their screams were silenced by Tina’s tail slamming against Gumball and purple Rob, knocking them down. The two sat up as Tina lowered her head, eyeing them closely with a growl from her throat. Gumball tried to back away as purple Rob curled up into a little ball.

“Hey! You! Lizard lips!” The red Rob jumped off the forklift and stormed up to Tina. “Get your tiny scaly hands off my Fear!”

Tina turned and roared at Rob. Her gaping maw was inches from Rob, his whole body was getting assaulted by bad breath and saliva, but he was not moved. As Tina stopped roaring, he simply stared her down, closed his eye tight, and stood defiantly as he yelled loudly right back at her. His glitching hair sparked a few times before suddenly bursting into a pillar of flame atop his head. As his yelling subsided, so did the flames, but Rob wasn’t done yet as he jumped onto Tina’s shoulder and began beating her with his fists. Tina stomped off as she shook her body, trying to knock Rob off. As Rob climbed onto her back and kept attacking, Tina tried to bite at him so she can pry him off with her teeth.

Gumball was left in a stunned wide eyed gaze at the sight stomping away from him. This gave the purple Rob cowering behind him time to quickly dart away into the mall, also out of sight.

A long moment of disbelief passed before Darwin came running up to him. “Gumball! You’re not going to believe this!” Darwin said in surprise, “There’s more than one-“

“I noticed,” Gumball interrupted.

Section Four

The school bus drove off from the Watterson’s home as Anais walked inside. She walked upstairs into the bedroom and sat down in the middle of the floor to begin on her homework. As she began to take the notes out of her backpack, she caught something out of the corner of her eye. She looked up at her bed to see a pink hand dangling out from underneath the covers on the top bunk.

“You’re still here?” Anais grabbed the covers and yanked them right down. Rob lifted his head, then sat up from the bed. “Why did you come back? And where’s Gumball and Darwin?”

Rob didn’t respond. He just looked down at his feet dangling from the bed.

Anais noticed Rob was expressionless, still distant like he was the night before. And his appearance was back to his usual dull gray, rather than the bright yellow it was this morning. Her angry face fell into concern. “You still have that concussion, huh? Just as I thought, your attitude this morning was just some delirious state.” She sighed. “Come down from the bed.”

Rob silently climbed down. Soon as he was on the floor, he just sat down and looked at the ground.

“I guess you can stay here until you get yourself together again,” Anais said. “But you’re not sleeping in my bed again.” Anais went back to her homework. She tried to focus on her notes for a few minutes, but she just couldn’t shake the presence of Rob in the room. He just looked empty, emotionless. It was worrisome, but also creepy. Anais took her notes and left the bedroom. “I’ll be downstairs.”

Rob didn’t say a thing, didn’t even move.

Gumball and Darwin raced up the stairs leading into the school, slammed through the doors and ran down the halls.

“I knew something was up when I saw two of them,” Darwin explained as he ran. “A blue one and a green one.”

“I found three,” Gumball said. “Technically two, I lost one at the mall. Actually, I lost all three of them at the mall.”

“That makes five Robs!” Darwin exclaimed.

“Dude, what’s going on?” Gumball asked in confusion. “Not only are there five Rob clones, but they’re acting all different. Even the one who hates me, he REALLY hates me!”

“I dunno,” Darwin replied. “But I think we can get answers from one of them.”

“How?” Gumball asked. “We keep losing them.”

“That’s just it,” Darwin explained as he and Gumball stopped at Mr. Small’s office. “I found one that was able to sit still.”

The two opened the door to Mr. Small’s office. Leaning against his desk is Mr. Small, looking down concerningly over a blue Rob lying face down onto the floor, sobbing into a puddle of tears.

“Darwin, this may not be a good time,” Mr. Small commented. “We finally made progress into his grade school years.”

“But we need to talk to the blue Rob,” Gumball explained.

Rob looked up from his puddle of tears. “The blue Rob?” he asked, confused.

“Yeah, Rob,” Darwin replied. “We need your help.”

Rob sat up on the floor. “But, I’m not Rob.”

“What??” Gumball and Darwin exclaimed in shock.

“I’m not THE Rob,” the blue tinted Rob explained. “I’m just a part of Rob. I’m… one of his emotions.”

“Wait wait wait wait wait,” Gumball said in disbelief. “You’re saying Rob’s emotions are running around Elmore?”

“Oh that’s where they are?” Rob sniffled as he wiped away a tear from his eye. “I was too busy being sad from being separated and lonely that I just…”

“Oh, there he goes again,” Mr. Small smiled comfortingly as he gave the crying Rob a tissue.

“So, how do we fix… this,” Gumball asked, referring to the situation.

Rob finished wiping away his tears before wrinkling the tissue into his hands. “Well, first we need to find all of his emotions. There’s five of us. There’s Joy, and Anger, and Disgust, and Fear, and…” the blue Rob held out his hand shyly to the two. “I’m Sadness.”

“Oh, hi Sadness,” Darwin replied happily as he shook Sadness’s hand. “I’m Darwin.”

“Dude, we can make Sadness happy later,” Gumball said, breaking Darwin away from Sadness. “First, we need to fix Rob. Come on, Sadness,” Gumball said defiantly, as he had a mission to complete, “let’s go find Rob’s emotions.” Gumball grabbed Sadness by the hand and nearly dragged him out the door, with Darwin following right behind them.

“Oh, I’m coming too!” Mr. Small said excitedly as he ran after them. “An out of body experience such as this? I’m in!”

“Okay, where are the others, Sadness?” Gumball asked as the group walked down the streets of Elmore. “Lead us to them.”

“I don’t know where they are,” Sadness replied softly.

“What the what?” Gumball snapped. “You’re emotions! Can’t you, like, hone in on them with your feelings or something?”

“Emotions can’t do that,” Sadness cried, sad that he was getting yelled at. “We help Rob feel and help make his memories.”

“We can’t waste our time looking for them!” Gumball said. “We’ve spent all day doing that without even trying!”

“Oh look, there’s one,” Darwin said as he pointed to the window of the pizza parlor they were walking by.

“Oh, that was easy,” Gumball commented as the group entered the store.

The pizza parlor was a little slow for the afternoon, so it was easy to notice the green Rob sitting in the booth in the corner with Masami, Terri and Leslie. They were all trying to share a pizza, but Rob was making it difficult with his picky choices. “Ew, ham and pineapple? Could you ruin pizza any more for me?”

“Is there anything you do like, Rob?” Terri asked, getting a little frustrated with his attitude.

“Olives? No thank you,” Rob added, pointing out Terri’s choice of toppings.

“I appreciate the sentiment, Rob,” Leslie nodded in agreement.

Sadness pointed to the green Rob as they walked towards the booth. “Guys, that’s Disgust.”

“Perfect.” Soon as they reached the booth, Gumball grabbed Disgust by the hand. “Come on Disgust, you’re coming with us!”

“Ew! Don’t touch me!” Disgust immediately pulled his hand away and wiped his hands with a napkin. “Terri, I need disinfectant, now.”

“Yeah, Disgust doesn’t like to be touched,” Sadness explained to Gumball. “He’s supposed to keep Rob from being poisoned, both literally and socially.”

Disgust looked up from sanitizing his hands when he heard that voice. “Sadness?” Disgust hopped out of the booth as he tossed the sanitizer bottle back to Terri. “There you are! Ugh, finally. Where are the others?”

“We’re looking for them,” Darwin explained.

“Ew, don’t breathe on me with your gross fish breath,” Disgust told Darwin judgingly.

Gumball eyed Disgust with just as much disdain. “This emotion is in charge of Rob’s social life?”

“Disgust has gotten pickier lately,” Sadness commented. “He was a little more lax than this when Rob was younger.”

“Sounds like you emotions could benefit from a group therapy session,” Mr. Small commented.

“Later,” Gumball interrupted. “Right now we got to find the other three.”

“Ugh, finally he starts making sense. Come on, crew,” Disgust told Leslie, Masami and Terri. “Let’s go.”

“Yeah, let’s go save Rob!” Darwin cheered, blowing his breath into Disgust’s face.

Disgust gagged horribly before covering his mouth and racing towards the bathroom at lightning speed. The group just waited awkwardly as they heard the emotion wretch.

“He’s going to need a minute,” Sadness commented sadly.

Darwin breathed into his fin to smell his breath. “I don’t smell that bad.”

It was a quiet afternoon in Elmore park. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, in the distance some little kids played on the playground. On a park bench by the lake, Alan and Carmen were enjoying each other’s company.

A purple Rob peered out from underneath a picnic table before crawling out from underneath. He walked along the path, turning his head every which way as he nervously looked around for any strangers. He made his way to a large tree in the middle of the park, where he sat down in the shade and leaned against the trunk. Finally letting his guard down, he placed his hands behind his head and gave a big sigh of relief.

Rob’s eye fluttered shut in peace, but within a moment it flung open as he thought he saw something in the distance. Sure enough, there was a group of people approaching him. The group consisted of Gumball, Darwin, Mr. Small, Masami, Terri, Leslie, Sadness and Disgust.

“That’s Fear,” Sadness told Gumball.

“Perfect. Guys,” Gumball announced, pointing to Fear, “get him!”

“AHHHH!!” Fear leapt to his feet and ran away in terror.

Disgust stamped his feet as he glared down at Gumball. “Ugh! Here’s a tip, moron: the next time you’re hunting down a concentrated personification of fear, don’t yell get him!”

The group scattered as they tried to catch Fear running through the park in a blind panic. He dove under park benches and picnic tables, into bushes and flower beds to hide, but every time someone got close he darted off screaming in another direction. Losing focus of where he was running, Fear even ran through the lake, emerging drenched on the other side and running over a bench, breaking apart Carmen and Alan from their moment together.

“Coming through!” Gumball announced as he leaped over the bench as well.

“Stop that purple Rob!” Darwin said as he ran by Carmen and Alan, as his way of asking for help.

Confused over the chaos, both Carmen and Alan shrugged before running off to help them catch Fear, who ran into a playground for cover.

“Why is he so fast?” Darwin asked aloud.

“It’s who he is,” Sadness called out. “He’s trying to keep safe, that’s his job as an emotion. Rob’s been through so much, almost everything makes him jumpy and scared.”

Fear ran under a jungle gym to hide, but he was almost surrounded by the group. He raced by the swings, then dove to avoid getting hit by a blue egg shaped child on a swing. He then raced up the stairs of a slide, then froze as he looked down from the dizzying heights of five feet, and realizing he got himself cornered as the group surrounded the slide.

Frustrated, Gumball turned to Sadness and Disgust. “This is ridiculous. We’ll never catch this guy.” Gumball was interrupted as he was knocked down face first into the dirt. Fear landed in a slumped pile on top of Gumball’s back after sliding down the slide as an escape attempt.

“That worked,” Disgust commented sarcastically.

“Hello, Fear,” Sadness said to Fear.

“Hi,” Fear moaned in a whimper.

The school playground was empty that afternoon, all except for one red tinted Rob pacing furiously across the concrete like a caged animal full of rage and ready to pounce. His fists were clenched tightly and his face displayed an angry grimace. He turned as he heard the doors to the school fly open, a black and white delinquent student with a bomb for a head stared him down. “There you are!” the delinquent yelled, fuse lit, as he charged at Rob.

Rob yelled at him, his head burst into a pillar of flames, as he charged towards the bomb headed delinquent. The two ran headlong towards each other at full strength, and just as they butted heads they were both engulfed in an explosion of smoke and flames. When the smoke cleared, the two were lying on the ground, but only Rob was able to flip back up onto his feet. He eyed two other bad seeds, a cupcake and a pink bear, charging at him. Rob ran right towards them, fists clenched tight and ready.

Meanwhile, Gumball, Darwin, the emotions and the others were watching behind the chain link fence surrounding the schoolyard. “That’s Anger, all right,” Disgust said.

“Why is he so mean?” Darwin asked, surprised at how furious he was.

“He is concentrated anger,” Fear commented. “Usually we can control him before he has Rob fly off the handle.”

“But, we’re not so good at keeping Anger himself under control,” Sadness added. “Especially now that Rob has become a villain, Anger pretty much embraces his rage now.”

Gumball watched in horror as Anger took down each delinquent one at a time like it was nothing. “How are we supposed to catch this guy? He can literally burst into flames, and the last time I saw him he tried to kill me!”

Disgust eyed Gumball, a sly smile crossed his face as he got a wild idea.

Anger watched as the last delinquent fell. He nodded defiantly at them before looking around the schoolyard. “Anyone else want to be a hero?”

“I do!” Gumball called out from the other side of the yard.

Anger turned towards Gumball. He gave a wicked angry grin as he punched his right fist into his left hand. “This is going to be good.” Anger charged forward, yelling furiously and with both fists clenched.

Gumball’s brave face fell into fear as he closed his eyes and ran right towards Anger, yelling all the way. Just as they met in the center of the schoolyard, Anger slowed to a stop as he realized that Gumball ran right by him. “What the?” he muttered to himself as he saw Gumball run frantically into the building. Furious, Anger charged after him. “Gumball! Come back here so I can destroy you!”

“No way, man!” Gumball yelled back as he kept running down the hall. He ran at full sprint, only looking over his shoulder after each turn down the next corridor. He grew more and more terrified as Anger grew closer, not even slamming into Bobert or Sarah seemed to slow him down. Gumball took one more turn down the hall and ran through a pair of double doors. He stopped and turned to see Anger closing in fast. Terrified, Gumball ducked into a ball as he yelled out almost pleading “Now!!”

Darwin, Alan, Disgust and Leslie sprang the trap, placing a fire resistant blanket over the doorway. Anger ran right into it, and the four wrapped it around him, holding him down. Anger kept kicking and screaming, smoke fuming from underneath the sheet.

“Anger, calm down!” Fear pleaded as he knelt down to look underneath the tarp. “It’s us!” Anger’s fist popped out from underneath the tarp and slammed into Fear’s face, knocking him out.

“Don’t tell me to calm down!!” Anger snapped as he stopped fighting and was finally released from the blanket.

“Yay! We got four of them!” Darwin cheered.

Sadness went over to check on Gumball. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, just waiting for my heart to start beating again,” Gumball said, still in a shocked state of fear. Once he finally composed himself, he got up off the ground. “Okay, so we got Anger, Disgust, Sadness, Fear. All that leaves is the yellow Rob, Joy.”

Just then, Penny was walking down the hall, and stopped when she overheard Gumball. “Did you say yellow Rob?”

“Yeah, have you seen him?” Gumball asked.

“Yeah,” Penny said, not sure how to explain this. “You’re going to need to see this.”

“One! Two! Three four five! We are Elmore Junior High!” The small group of cheerleaders chanted as they practiced their routine on the football field. Molly held her arms out and caught the yellow Rob she tossed in the air. Rob joyously cheered with the happiest of faces, enjoying himself with his new friends and his fun pom poms.

Gumball, Penny and the others stood by the stands, watching the scene. Many of them were surprised, Gumball especially. “You’re right,” Gumball told Penny. “I’m seeing it and I still don’t believe it.”

“Joy!” Fear called out.

Joy stopped in mid cheer and happily ran over to them. “Fear! Disgust! Anger! Sadness! You’re all here!” Joy gasped happily. “Penny! You brought Gumball and all his friends!”

“Ew, you’re wearing pleats,” Disgust commented as he looked over the cheerleading outfit Joy was wearing.

“I know, isn’t it cute?” Joy asked happily. “They gave me a new outfit. And I love these little pom poms. And can I say I love this skirt it’s adorable? I just love the way it twirls.”

“Please, please don’t twirl,” Darwin begged before Joy could attempt a twirl in his cheerleading outfit.

“Okay, we found all five of Rob’s emotions,” Gumball said. “Sadness, now what?”

“We need to find Rob,” Sadness replied.

“But you’re all Rob,” Mr. Small commented.

“No, you burned out hippie,” Disgust replied. “The original Rob. The one with the mind we came from?”

“We need to go back into Rob’s mind so he can feel again,” Fear said worryingly.

Joy took a step back as his happy face fell into concern. “Wait, what?”

“And the only way to get back into Rob’s mind is to find Rob himself,” Anger explained.

“So, where is Rob?” Penny asked.

“I dunno,” Gumball replied. “Last I saw him he was asleep at my house. But this morning I took him to school, but I just now realized that it was Joy I took to school- which means Rob has been at my house the whole time.”

“That’s sad,” Sadness commented softly. “He spent a whole day alone, not feel anything.”

Darwin frowned and nearly broke into tears. “That’s so sad!”

“Yeah, we get it emotions are good,” Gumball replied, wanting to wrap this up before they run into any more problems. “Come on Joy, let’s go home and...” Gumball turned to Joy, but all that was there were his two piece cheerleading outfit and pom poms. He looked over to see Joy, back in his yellow tinted low res skirt and shorts, running off into the distance. “Joy?”

Joy raced out of the school and down the streets of Elmore, making a beeline straight to Gumball’s house. “I gotta get back to Rob,” he said to himself.

“Gumball! Darwin! Anais!” Nicole called from the kitchen. “Dinner’s almost ready!”

Anais closed her schoolbooks on the coffee table and stowed them away in her back pack. She went upstairs to go wash up for dinner, but just as she reached the bathroom door, she paused and looked over at the bedroom door. Curious, Anais entered the bedroom to find Rob still sitting on the floor, looking down without a feeling.

“You’re still here?” Anais asked. Before she could get upset about it, she sighed. “Let’s get you downstairs. Maybe we can feed you dinner before we decide if you can stay another night.” Anais took Rob’s hand, but he didn’t get up. Growing frustrated, Anais pushed Rob up onto his feet. “Come on, move!” Anais said, getting Rob to balance on his own two feet before taking his hand again and leading him down the hall and to the stairs. “You are being so difficult. I don’t know what that fall did to you, but a concussion is no reason to give up.” Anais could feel Rob’s left hand begin to slip out of hers. “And give me back your-“

Anais was shocked to see Rob’s left hand gradually disappearing into thin air. She saw the eye half open, emotionless Rob fall forward and roll down the stairs. As he landed in a lying slump at the bottom, she watched as his wire frame foot began to disappear as well.

“Uh… mom?” Anais called out, both confused and scared.

Gumball, Darwin, the four emotions and the others raced down the street. The whole time Joy was ahead of them, far enough to see him but not nearly far enough to stop him.

“You emotions are so fast,” Gumball whined. “Why are you guys so fast?”

“And why is he running away from us?” Darwin asked.

“I don’t know!” Fear replied, scared of what was happening.

“Wait, I think we’re catching up,” Penny commented, as a red light at an intersection caused a few cars to park in front of Joy. However, Joy kept up his speed and, in one leap, slid across the hoods of the cars and cleared the road, continuing down the street.

“Gosh darnit!” Gumball yelled as he and the others slowed to a stop in front of the cars. Gumball attempted to imitate Joy’s stunt, climbing onto the first car hood, but instead was scooting across so agonizingly slow.

Frustrated, Anger yanked Gumball off the hood and threw him long and far, making Gumball clear the intersection and then some, screaming all the way through the air.

Disgust sighed in relief. “Thank you.”

“No problem,” Anger replied.

Joy raced down the sidewalk, the houses flying by him. He skidded to a stop just in front of the Watterson’s house. He sighed, a relieved smile filled his face as he headed up the walk to the door. Before he could reach the porch, he was pelted to the ground by Gumball. “Where did you come from?” Joy asked in surprise.

“Where did you go?” Gumball asked back. “Why did you just leave us?”

“You don’t understand,” Joy replied, scrambling to his feet. “I need to get back to Rob before the others do.”

“Why?” Gumball asked, following Joy as he made his way through the door.

“Because Rob needs to be- Rob!” Joy shouted in shock as he saw Nicole, Richard and Anais surrounding Rob at the bottom of the stairs. Joy raced over to him, but stopped and screamed as he saw Rob lying lifeless on the ground, in a fetal position, facing away, fading fast. He reached out to Rob, but before he can place a hand on him, he was gone. The last thing he saw was Rob’s emotionless face, then his emotionless eye, then… he was gone.

#The Amazing World of Gumball #Inside Out #TAWOG Rob #TAWOG Gumball #TAWOG Darwin

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