#hey do you guys remember how like 6 or 10 years ago

[unopenablebox]

it's possible i'm going to get, like, really into tmbg, just to give me a thing to do

[morgana-larkin]

FIRST i just wanna say im obsessed with your writing!!

second i wanted to ask for a mel x reader!! where they are at janines party (like the finale”. basically they have really big feelings for each other but neither of them (especially mel) wants to admit it. during the party reader and mel gets really drunk (like she did in the episode). some guy starts flirting with the reader and mel gets jealous and just grabs the reader and pulls her out of the party and kisses her, and takes the reader to her place. maybe leads to some smut!?? then they wake up the next morning and remember what they did, they admit they’ve had feelings for a while and maybe some softer smut at the end!!?💕💕

Hi anon! I’m so happy you love my writing! ❤️. I hope I wrote it to your liking with enough fluff and smut! Not edited in the slightest and I hope you like it!

On another note: I’ll either be working on the next prompt or the next chapter of worth it, I haven’t decided yet. It’s a Chessy prompt, which one would you like?

Drunk With Jealousy

Warnings: Smut, Fluff, Slight Angst

Words: 2.6k

“So are you going to Janine’s party?” You ask Melissa in the break room. It’s the last day of school today before summer break.

“Yep, are you?” She asks and you nod.

“I wouldn’t miss it, especially more now that I know you’re going to be there.” You tell her and you look at your food and miss the blush that forms on her cheeks.

Later that day you arrive at the party at 7:50. You wanted to be early since you could help Janine with last minute setups that always happen at parties.

“Hey y/n!” Janine exclaims

“Hey Janine!” You say. “I wanted to know if you needed help with last minute setups.” You tell her and you hear voices coming from her kitchen.

“No I don’t believe so. Barb and Melissa are already here if you want to go see them, or at least Melissa.” Janine says and you look at her confused. “We all know you have feelings for her.” She tells you and you sigh. You go to the kitchen and true enough, Barb and Melissa are there, talking about something.

“Hey guys.” You say and Melissa whips her head around to see you and she smiles.

“Hey y/n!” She says.

“Hello dear.” Barb says as Melissa looks at a loss for words. “I’m going to finish up the living room. Maybe y/n can help you out in here.” Barb says to Melissa with a wink, that you don’t see, and leaves.

You’ve had a crush on Melissa since you started there 2 years ago as a second grade teacher. She was in a serious relationship with Gary at the time so you didn’t say or do anything. Then they broke up about 6 months ago and you found out she started hooking up with the fire chief.

Melissa on the other hand was a bit different. When you first started she didn’t think much of you as you were new. She thought you were attractive but nothing more than that. It wasn’t until 6 months after you started that she started getting to know you. She started developing a crush on you close to when you were finishing your first year at Abbott. She didn’t act on it as she was still with Gary at the time. But when they broke up, Melissa thought about telling you how she felt but chickened out and started hooking up with the fire chief. She will neither confirm nor deny that she’s imagined you there instead of the fire chief, more than once.

“So what are you two doing here early?” You ask Melissa once Barb left.

“Helping to tidy up. You?”

“I was making sure she didn’t need any help with last minute preparations.” You tell her and she nods.

“I see. So are you planning to get drunk tonight?” She asks and you chuckle.

“I am yes. I took an Uber here and I’ll take one back home.” You tell her and she shakes her head. “Are you planning to get drunk tonight?”

“Maybe, we’ll see.” She says and then you hear a knock at the door.

10 minutes later people are filling the space and dancing and getting drunk. You started drinking about 5 minutes ago and you’re currently on the dance floor while Melissa is happily staring at you from the kitchen. She’s leaning against the doorframe, with a barely touched drink in hand while she’s watching you dance.

“Why don’t you go dance with her.” Barb says as she comes up beside Melissa.

“Why would I do that?”

“Because then you’d both have fun together.” Barb states like it’s obvious.

“I’d have fun but I bet she wouldn’t. She probably wouldn’t want to dance with someone my age.” Melissa says. Just then you look over to see Melissa and Barb at the kitchen entrance and Barb is motioning you over. Melissa downs her drink as she sees you coming over, stumbling a bit.

“Hey guys!!” You slur a little bit.

“Hello dear, how many drinks have you had?” Barb asks and you think for a second.

“2 or maybe 3.” You tell them and Melissa snorts.

“Here, lemme take your cup and get you a refill. I need another myself.” She says and takes your cup to get you another drink.

“Dear, you should invite Melissa to dance with you.” Barb says.

“I would love to, but I don’t know if she likes to dance.”

“I’m certain she’d love it if you invited her to dance with you.” She tells you and you smile at that. Just then Melissa returns with 2 cups full of alcohol and you take a sip before looking at her.

“What?” Melissa asks as she catches you staring.

“Wanna dance with me?” You ask her and she looks taken back.

“Uh, um, s-sure.” She stutters out and Barb pushes her a bit towards you when she doesn’t move. You grab her hand and lead her onto the dance floor. You get to a spot near the middle where you both have space to dance and you start dancing with her. Barb starts dancing near you guys at some point.

About 10 minutes later the power goes out and Melissa goes to refill your cups. When she comes back a couple minutes later, she sees you talking with another teacher and she grips the cups a bit tighter. She walks closer to you guys to hear what you’re talking about and she sees him touching your arm and laughing at whatever you said. She puts the plastic cups down at whatever is closest to her and makes a beeline for you. She’s had about 3 cups of alcohol at this point and she’s not in the right state of mind to think about anything clearly.

When she reaches you, she grabs your hand and pulls you away from the teacher. She brings you to the doorframe of Janine’s bedroom and kisses you with force. You kiss her back with just as much force and then the power comes back on. You both pull apart and look to see it back on and then Mr Johnson comes and stops in front of you.

“Hey Janine.” He says and looks past both of you. “I fixed the problem.” He says and you both turn to face the bedroom and see Janine and Gregory there looking shocked at you both. “Am I interrupting something?” He asks all 4 of you.

“No, come on y/n.” She says and grabs your hand.

“Where are we going?” You ask with a giggle.

“My place.” Is all she says and you let her lead you away. She calls an Uber and you make it back to her place in 10 minutes. As soon as you walk through the door, her lips are on yours again and she pushes you up against her door. She hoists you up and you wrap your legs around her waist and arms around her neck. She moves her mouth to your neck and begins sucking whatever spot she put her mouth on first. You put your hands in her ginger locks and gasp as she began sucking. You undo her blazer and take it off of her and roam your hands on the exposed skin. She then carries you to her bed and drops you on it then crawls on top of you. She grabs the hem of your dress then looks at you and you nod. She takes your dress off and you're left in your matching bra and underwear set.

You take her gold shirt off and roam your hands all over her back and tummy while she kisses you and cups your breasts over your bra. You moan into the kiss and she reaches behind you and unclips your bra then rips it off of you. She cups your now fully exposed breasts as she’s straddling your hips. She leans close to you as she starts playing with your nipples.

“You’re mine y/n. You’re not that other teacher’s, the one who was flirting with you, mine.” She says, voice dripping with jealousy. You buck your hips and moan as she’s playing with your nipples and the sound of her voice with so much jealousy is getting you excited. She takes her bra off and you open your eyes and see that magnificent sight. The sight of her ginger hair perfectly framing her face, her emerald eyes that are so captivating, her lips that are so kissable, her amazing breasts that you want to suck on, and her tummy that has so much skin to touch. She takes her leather pants off and she’s left in her underwear and socks.

“You’re so beautiful.” You blurt out and she smiles at you as she strokes your cheek.

“Thank you, and just so you know I’m gonna fuck you so good that you’ll forget about ever wanting to be with someone else.” She tells you and you quirk an eyebrow.

“What if I already do that?” You tell her and she gives you a smile then a passionate kiss. She then retrieves the strap on and goes back to the bed. She takes off her underwear and puts the strap on. She takes a nipple in her mouth and she begins sucking on it and licking it with her hot tongue and you buck your hips. She lines the strap with your entrance and inserts it slowly. You gasp out as you feel it start to fill you up and you want more, more of Melissa. She gets you to bend your knees when she’s all the way in and she starts to slowly pump in and out of you. She goes faster and faster until you’re moaning out her name. “Omg Melissa, please I need you.” You tell her and she has no idea what you’re asking for as she’s already fucking you.

“What do you need from me babygirl?” She asks and you moan.

“I need you closer to me.” You tell her and she smiles at you and brings her body down to lay on your body.

“Is that what you need from me babygirl? My body on yours.” She questions and you nod. You place your hands on her back and dig your nails into her skin and she moans as it feels good, like you’re trying to mark her so nobody else does. She keeps pumping in and out of you and she puts her hand to your clit and begins rubbing circles on it. You come not long after that but she doesn’t stop.

“Omg Me-Melissa.” You gasp out.

“I still need to come babygirl, I’m so close.” She tells you. She comes a few seconds later and you come right after her as she was still rubbing your clit.

She pulls out of you gently and removes the strap and lays down next to you. You both try and catch your breath as she gets you to cuddle her. You shimmy closer to her and lay your head on her chest and wrap an arm around her waist. You fall asleep on her and she watches you for a few seconds before she gives you a kiss on your head before falling asleep herself.

You wake up to her spooning you and you began freaking out a bit. You try to get out of her grasp and out of bed to change and leave but you slip and fall off the bed. Melissa bolts awake at the noise and crawls to the edge of the bed to find you on the ground.

“Ooowww.” You groan out.

“Are you ok? Did you get hurt at all?” She says as she helps hoist you up.

“I think just my ass… and my pride.” You tell her and she giggles. You then suddenly remember you’re completely naked and you go to get dressed.

“What are you doing?” She asks you as she watches you put your underwear on.

“I’m getting dressed, what does it look like I’m doing?” You tell her and she looks slightly upset.

“Why?”

“Well I’m not going to leave naked.” You tell her a bit annoyed.

“Why are you leaving? I mean, you- you don’t want to stay?” She asks you as you put your bra on and then look at her.

“Melissa, usually one night stands don’t stay.” You tell her and she’s looking at you confused.

“This was a one night stand?” She asks as you pick up your dress.

“Well we got drunk, and then we had sex. What would you call that?”

“I think you left out the part that I got jealous.” She tells you and you look at her confused.

“Jealous? Jealous about what?”

“The teacher who was flirting with you.”

“Why did you get jealous of that?”

“Because I like you.” She says and you drop your dress that you were holding.

“You-you like me?” You ask her and she nods. You walk towards her as she’s still in the bed. You cup her cheek and she leans into your touch and hums. “I like you too.” You tell her and she smiles softly at you.

“Really?” She asks and you smile and nod. She gets so excited that she grabs your waist and pulls you down onto the bed and you end sitting across her lap. She moves the hair out of your face and she kisses you. She gets you to lay on the bed and goes on top of you. She kisses your neck and unclips your bra. She trails down to your nipples while she takes your underwear off. She rubs your legs up and down to touch all over you.

You’re gasping and moaning underneath her and then she switches to the other nipple and you buck your hips. She inserts a finger in your entrance and you buck your hips.

“Oh, oh my god Melissa. I love you!” You scream out and she freezes the pumping.

“What did you say?” She asks and you look at her.

“I said I love you. And I do, I really do love you.” You say and she smiles at you.

“I love you too.” She tells you and kisses you before you can reply. She starts pumping in and out of you and you gasp into the kiss. She presses her thumb to your clit and brings her free hand to one of your nipples. The pleasure is quickly building and you feel yourself getting close to an orgasm.

“I’m so close, Melissa.” You tell her and you wrap your arms around her neck and pull her close to you.

“Come when you need to babygirl, I’ve got you.” She tells you and she goes faster.

You then gasp out as you come and she slows down before she pulls out.

Before she can react you stick your fingers in her and she gasps out as she falls forward. Her hands are next to your head as you pump in and out of her.

Oh, oh, y/n, yes! Don’t stop! Please!” She screams out and you pull her down to you and kiss her lips. She pulls back just a little bit and she’s breathing heavily in your ear as she’s close to coming. “Oh y/n, I’m about to…” She screams out as she comes. You pull out of her and she stays straddling your lap, trying to catch her breath. She strokes your cheek and she smiles at you. “I love you so much, babygirl.”

“I love you so much too.” You tell her and pull her down to kiss her.

Taglist: @esposadejoyhuerta

@imaginesmultifandoms

@idonothingalldays-blog

@sexysapphicshopowner

@dvrkhcld

@lilfartbox1

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Let me know if you want to be added!

[earlgreytea68]

LOOK AWAY IF YOU DON'T WANT SO MUCH FOR (TOUR) DUST SPOILERS, OKAY?

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Set list:

(1) That Pink Seashell spoken word thing actually opens the show

(2) Love from the Other Side: I assumed they'd play this first, and they did, and they looked very happy with the reception that it got

(3) The Phoenix

(4) Sugar, We're Goin Down: I overheard two guys when I was leaving saying, "I only came to this show for that Sugar song, and it was the third song they played," whatever to those two guys lol

(5) Uma Thurman

(6) A Litttle Less Sixteen Candles, A Little More Touch Me

(7) Chicago Is So Two Years Ago: I know they always play this song when they play Chicago but the way the show is set up, there's this spoken intro that references a light being left on in Chicago, and then they launch into this song, and so I feel like maybe it's permanently in the set list for this tour, we'll see.

(8) Grand Theft Autumn: Patrick told the story again of how he wrote the lyrics while jogging with Pete. Here is exactly what he said, because I recorded it, hahaha: "I wrote this song out here, jogging, trying to figure out the words. This was back when I wrote a lot of the words. And Pete was jogging with me and he was like, 'Eh, maybe change this, maybe change this.' Before we knew it he was writing all the lyrics." And then Pete said, "Imagine us jogging" lolololol

(9) Calm Before the Storm

(10) This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race: They added a little Peterick-y moment in here? I don't remember them playing at each other during this song in previous performances? It was cute, it was during the instrumental part before Patrick leads the singalong, maybe I've just always missed it? They played it each other and kind of did some kind of kick thing with their legs??

(11) Disloyal Order of Water Buffaloes: Honestly, always a delight to hear this song, this is one of my favorites <3

(12) Heaven, Iowa: THIS SONG LIVE, I SWEAR

(13) "The Take Over, the Breaks Over": OH MY GOD I LOVE THIS SONG AND I TOTALLY DIDN'T EXPECT THEM TO PLAY IT, I WAS SO HAPPY

(14) Headfirst Slide into Cooperstown on a Bad Bet: <3 Guess they got over being scared of playing this one lol

(15) Fake Out: I CANNOT TELL YOU HOW EXCITED I WAS THAT THEY PLAYED THIS ONE OMGGGGGGG. Also, there was some plan I wasn't aware of to, like, hold up cell phones with pink paper over the lights so the crowd lit up pink???? I have no idea who engineered that but it was CHARMING and at the end of the song Pete said, "Thanks for that, guys, that was beautiful," and the stage was on darkness so it seemed absolutely spontaneous on his part and I think they really did like the effect, so, Idk, future shows, keep doing it????

(16) Patrick did some kind of piano interlude where he played "Don't Stop Believin'"????? It was random but he was super charming, I think the rest of the band used it as a break, it was just SO GREAT. Part of his intro was: "Pete was putting together this show and he said to me, 'Hey, you should play piano.' And I was like, 'I kinda only play songs I wrote. I don't really play piano. I don't know how to play piano.' And he's like, 'Eh, you'll figure it out.'" And then Patrick sat down and played gorgeous piano ugh THANKS, PETE.

(17) Last of the Real Ones: I am glad Mania got some love.

(18) Save Rock and Roll

(19) PETE RECITED BABY ANNIHILATION WHAT. I SWEAR TO GOD. I SO DID NOT EXPECT THIS AND I STILL CAN'T BELIEVE THAT IT HAPPENED. If you're going to the show, pay attention, because I looked away and apparently there's, like, a magic trick at the end of the monologue where he disappears behind a piece of black silk?????

(20) Crazy Train cover: I...don't know what to say about this randomness hahaha but it happened??

(21) Dance Dance

(22) Hold Me Like a Grudge: I think Patrick adores singing this song, I really do.

(23) G.I.N.A.S.F.S.: I KNOW. I CAN'T BELIEVE IT, EITHER.

(24) My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light Em Up)

(25) Thnks fr th Mmrs

(26) Centuries

(27) Saturday <3

The show ends with a little piano version of So Much (for) Stardust played over the sound system, so pay attention for that.

The set is super Alice in Wonderland-y and I adored it, it's playful and fantastical and has all these whimsical touches and interludes and I just thought it was delightful and at one point there were bubbles, and I heard some people complaining after the concert that the fantasy thing didn't suit their style of music and really, I was surrounded by downers after the concert, I thought they were perfect hahaha. Like, ABSOLUTELY PERFECT. They looked so, so, so tangibly happy, all of them. Patrick sounded fantastic and he looked like he was having a blast, he smiled the whole time.

I have a lot of videos but they seem like they're all pretty terrible, but I'll see how I feel in the morning lol

[sinner-sunflower]

A HH Lucifer-centric AU 15/?

PART 1, PART 2, PART 3, PART 4, PART 5, PART 6, PART 7, PART 8, PART 9, PART 10, PART 11, PART 12, PART 13, PART 14, PART 16, PART 17, PART 18, PART 19, PART 20, PART 21, PART 22

hooo weee this is a long one. A reaction chapter part 1

A few things to clear up:

Sir Pentious is in Heaven

They do not know that yet.

He'll have a part in the sequel!

------------------------------------------

Charlie is beyond worried.

She and the entirety of Pride sat in anticipation as Hell's highest powers perform the ritual again. Her dad disappeared a month ago and in his absence, she thinks she had handled Pride rather well. Vaggie and her friends were a big help though, as well as her uncles and aunts if they could.

Charlie has not missed once broadcast ever since it aired. Every time she looks for her dad among the demons and every time she's disappointed.

She keeps watching anyway in support- no matter how busy she was. The hotel residents do the same, dropping what they were doing to all sit in the couch together and watch this 'til it ended. The first time it aired created a mass panic that Charlie had to induce a Hellshake to placate her people. It somehow worked.

After the panic, it became the biggest hit "show" in Pride, resulting in the production of legit merch and even a few parodies- like it's just a game, like this can't kill them all.

That craze lasted almost 2 weeks but even the fanatics stopped watching when it was apparent that this wasn't a quick fix. Panic again then calm then panic- over and over and over again.

Vaggie: Babe?

Charlie: Hey, Vaggie.

Charlie tried to give her lover her usual smiles but she thinks she haven't given one ever since her dad left. Worry and guilt are eating her whole and she's just trying to stay afloat.

Vaggie: Hey, come on. What's going on in that pretty head of yours?

Charlie: Flatterer.

Vaggie: Not wrong though. But don't try to change the subject. .. Is it about your dad?

Charlie: I don't think I remember a time in a hundred years when it wasn't. When did it go so wrong, Vaggie? We were so happy when I was a kid..

Something inside the princess whispered her mother's name. She shakes off that thought because there's no way. Her mom and dad loved each other.

'But then why did they split? Why did your mom leave? Why did your dad fall in love with someone again?'

The voices are making a point but there's no chance her dad was going to tell her everything and it's not like her mom is even an option.

When Vaggie told her that Alastor and her dad were something, she tried to think of every moment she saw of her dad and the radio demon together after the hotel was rebuilt. The princess of Hell trusts Alastor but she doesn't know if she can trust him with her dad.

But..

Charlie: Dad is happier.

Vaggie: Huh?

Charlie: Sorry. Was thinking of him and how Alastor is probably helping him come out more than I am.

Vaggie: Hey hey. I know your dad would be devastated if he knew you were thinking that. He loves you and you love him, right?

Charlie: More than anything.

Vaggie: That's my girl. Now why don't we-

Cherri: Holy shit! Guys! The broadcast turned on again!

All of them rushed to the lobby upon hearing the cyclops yell. They thought it was over 30 minutes ago when the nth overlord and Goetia fainted. Guess Vox was a bit afraid he would be next and turned it off to save face.

Angel: Holy shit!

Holy shit indeed. The one on the screen is none other than her dad! And a beautiful lady in white?

Husk: Who the fuck is that?

Nifty: She looks so clean! I wanna know what products she use.

Vaggie: Do you know who that is?

Charlie: Probably who dad was looking for.

Goodie: Such words! Angel, was self-preservation not included when you gave them the fruit of knowledge? Lucifer: Apparently not.

Okay, they clearly missed out on some context because her dad just arrived and he's mad. They watch as Lucifer grabs Velvette's face hard enough to bleed. Everyone is kneeling and seem to be locked in place. Husk eyes Alastor's monstrous form in the background warily.

Husk: Something happened.

Lucifer: I can't blame you. I was not the most present ruler, after all. But I thought I made something very clear when I dealt with that moth man.... I guess one example isn't enough.

One moment Velvette was struggle and the next her fucking jaw is gone!

Angel: Holy shit!

Husk: Ugh! You keep saying that. Don't you have any other words than holy shit?

Angel: 'M sorry, Huskie. But what else am I supposed to say to that huh??

Charlie's winces but her eyes are still glued to the screen as her dad summons his flaming sword and brings it down to the pink demon.

Lucifer: So, let me keep it simple. I'm Lucifer Morningstar. The creator of the first sin. The angel that damned humanity. Í̷̫̈́́͂̒̚̕͝͝͝'̶̨̛̺̤̿̀͒͛̂̿͋̄̑͆́͘͠͝M̴̝̯̖̦͍̽̎̏͆̔ ̴̛̛̄̋̈̑̓̀̓̃̄͐͗ͅŸ̷͇̙̟͈̭̥̬̻̙͔̠̱́̽̊̊ͅÔ̵̤͙͈̬̫̪͕̼͍͌̀̔͜U̴͈̼͖̯̤͌̀̀̓̾̔͆̈́̊͑͗̕͠͝R̵̨̹͍̦͒͌̋͒͆͌̄͛̓͑̔́͜ ̸̝͑̐̀̉̃͠͝F̵̞͖̮̗̗̜̯̯͔̮͒̊͒̈́̈́́̽́̂̂͑̎͝U̵̟̙̱̙̯̤̼̙͈̳̘̫͊̈̀C̷̙̞̔̅̊͌͋K̷̖͙̼̪̠̾̄̅̾͘I̵̛̩̘̜͖̩̙̿̐̽́͊́̒͆̆̎̑͗N̴̤̏̂͝G̸͋̋̍ͅ ̵̡͈̩̹̗̹̝̻̬͍̗̬̲̳̟̍͋̽͛̒̉̍͊͑̑̋̅̽Ḳ̷̡̬͔̞̱̤̬̮͉̙͇̪͛̅͊̚I̵̤͙̪̞̝͔̱͎̜̩̖̺̟͔̙͊Ṉ̵͈̤̘͚̻̙̼̓͂̌͋́̎͜ͅĢ̸̭͔͇̹̹̳̭͋̓̒͗̈́̉̈́̂̚.

They all had to avert their eyes as a giant ball of flame came down to finish Velvette off.

Lucifer: Û̶̪̌͐́̂̆͠͠n̸̛̟͕̱͍̫̘̻̣̱͈͈͇̱̜͛̓͗̏̅̇͋̒͆͊̓͗̚͠d̷̢̢̨̼̙͈̞͈͓͈͙̂̌͋̔̂̉̍̈́͆̿̈́̕͘͜͠e̵̛͍̯̫̼̫̐͛̊̒̆̉̓̊̽̓̒̒̚͘ŗ̶̨̢̧̮̜͙̪̹̯̙̪̤̠̝̓́̒̋͆̆̓̿͐̄̓̕̚̕ş̷̛̮͖̰̝̟͇͕̟̞̳̟̪̥̂̀̈́̈͗́̿̐̔̎̕̕͠t̶̮̖̭̹͓͉̪̣̦͙̖͍́͐͂̑��̑͂̑̾̓̍̊͝ô̵̥͓̥͐̄̏̀̾̀̽̆ò̴̜͇̣̣̳͖̗̹̟̇̓͑͝ͅd̸̨̨͈͓̠͑͑̒̎̈́͘͠?̸̟̎̈

Even the sinners in the safety of the hotel nodded in fear. Lucifer made a delighted noise and with a clap, Velvette is back in one piece, albeit trembling in Vox's arms.

Lucifer: What? Do you really think I killed her? Sounds counterproductive. We still have a situation at hand and you are no use to me dead. Goodie: Up now! My sister is becoming restless.

Everyone let out a breath they didn't know they were holding. Angel collapsed to Husk's side, when did he even stand up? Nifty didn't move a muscle but her maniacal smile is gone. Cherri started fiddling with an ignited bomb out of nowhere which Angel had to move to throw.

Goodie: Remember, angel, if this fails, you must do what I have told you. Lucifer: Let's start.

Angel: Holy shit.

Holy shit indeed.

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Part 16 will be the 2nd part of the reaction before Lucifer goes in!

Dk if I will post on Wednesday as it will be my birthday! yayy

[fannyyann]

Tkachuk tells NHL.com how change in approach lifted game for Panthers

Forward no longer playing it safe, becomes ultimate clutch player in Florida

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – There was a time in Matthew Tkachuk’s life when he played it safe. It’s hard to remember now, hard to get that image out of your head, the one where he is crushing opponents and taking over Stanley Cup Playoff games and literally walking off the ice after scoring a game-winning goal in the fourth overtime of Game 1 of the 2023 Eastern Conference Final. 

It’s hard to remember there was a before. 

But there was.

Once upon a time, like most mortals, Tkachuk didn’t want to make a mistake. He didn’t want to be blamed. He didn’t want to err, to let down his teammates, the fans, himself. It was a time when he wasn’t quite as confident, wasn’t quite as assured -- if that can be believed -- when he didn’t know that, for him, safe was the riskiest play of all. 

“I think maybe earlier in my career, being a young player, not wanting to be the guy that made the mistake, [I] maybe played a little bit safe in the high-pressure situations,” Tkachuk said. “Just trying to play it smart and, honestly, safe’s a perfect word for it. 

“And then a couple years ago, I was like, why not make the play when nobody else wants to try to attempt it because they’re too nervous [about] what bad’s gonna happen? And I’ve seemed to go the other way, in the extreme other way, and that’s seemed to work the last few years.”

Tkachuk pinpoints it exactly, to 2021-22, his final season with the Calgary Flames, before the trade, before he landed in South Florida and became a genre-crossing star, before he helped propel the Panthers to the Stanley Cup Final last season. 

“I was like, ‘Why not?’” Tkachuk said. “Why wouldn’t you want to be the guy that can make that right play at the last minute of the game or whatever? … I’m like, I’m capable, I feel like I’m a good enough player where I can be confident in myself no matter what the situation is. And that’s just kind of kept going.”

The Panthers and Tkachuk will need it to keep going, as they head to the playoffs having hit a tough skid of late. The Panthers, who are set to face the Boston Bruins at TD Garden on Saturday (3:30 p.m. ET; ABC, ESPN+, SN, TVAS), are 3-6-1 in their past 10 games, including a 6-0 win against the Ottawa Senators on Thursday. 

They are second in the Atlantic Division, four points behind the Bruins, having clinched a playoff spot on March 28, a far cry from last season when the Panthers clinched with a single game remaining on their schedule. They then fell behind 3-1 in the best-of-7 first-round series against the Bruins. That was when they -- and Tkachuk -- came roaring back to force a Game 7. To win that Game 7. 

“I knew what he could bring on a stage like that, but I don’t think the whole rest of the world knew what he could do,” brother and Senators captain Brady Tkachuk said. “So for him to show what he was all about is pretty cool. And I think he’s got another level to his game.”

Paul Maurice thinks he knows why. 

The Panthers coach has seen a handful of players in his career who are elite, who might even rise to the level of potential Hockey Hall of Fame players. And when he’s viewing them, he notes something, something that seems to be common to all of them.

“I watch them and they have a higher expectation of the result,” Maurice said. “And the analogy I used [was] when that guy goes in and buys a suit, he expects it to fit right and it’s going to look good. He has an expectation of the result. 

“With Matthew, it seems to me, it’s tied, there’s four minutes [left], he’s excited about that situation because he has a really high expectation that something good’s going to happen because over the course of his life, that’s exactly what’s happened. It wasn’t a lottery. It’s just he’s gone out and made it happen, so he wants to and believes it can. 

“I never sensed any arrogance on him. I truly have not. It’s not like, hey, give me the puck, I’m the shooter. He just thinks when he hits the ice, it could happen, and his life has told him that it could happen. So why wouldn’t you enjoy the hell out of that?”

Oh, and he is. 

Not only has South Florida been a revelation for Tkachuk, so too has the team, which has entered into the top echelon of the NHL. He has figured out himself and his game, not only that he can -- and will -- come up big in the biggest of moments, but that he can also adjust to fit what the team requires, mold his game to the situation. 

Asked if he is a chameleon, he readily agrees. 

Especially in the playoffs. 

“I look at those types of playoff games differently,” Tkachuk said. “Like some people if they’re not producing, they’re not doing too much to help their team, whereas one of the good things that I’m able to do is recognize what my team needs out of me on that particular night or that particular shift. 

“There are some nights when offense comes second and all I’m trying to do is run around, be physical, try to forecheck and try to gain my team momentum like that. Even if teams are keying in on me or really focusing on me, there’s ways to make an impact.”

No one can argue with that. The Bruins still bear the scars -- some literal, some figurative -- of what Tkachuk did to them in the playoffs last spring. 

In the final four games of the first-round series, Tkachuk had eight points (four goals, four assists) to help them win the best-of-7 series. 

Boston forward Trent Frederic, who traces his understanding of Tkachuk back to basement games as kids in St. Louis, said that he thinks that, likely, had Tkachuk not been on the Panthers, the Bruins would have advanced. 

But he was. They didn’t. And now it’s not hard to believe that many teams are uninterested in seeing the Panthers on the opposing bench in the playoffs, in seeing Tkachuk on the opposing bench. 

Before a cracked sternum forced him to miss the fifth and final game of the last season’s Cup Final, Tkachuk had 24 points (11 goals, 13 assists), including four game-winning goals, in 20 playoff games. 

“So the playoffs, I think the one quote, he’s a [expletive] gamer, that’s how I feel about him in the playoffs last year. And I know it’s profane, but it’s also very specific words, it’s exactly the way I feel about him,” Maurice said. “Sometimes the words just fit. Sometimes they’re casual and you swear too much. Sometimes I do. But that is how I -- a [expletive] gamer. He comes up with the biggest plays time and time again. And his energy level to be able to play at that level, that was specific to the hockey. 

“This year, I’ve gotten to watch what an incredible leader he is.”

He sees it on the bench, in the exhortation of his teammates, in his calming of them, in his barking at them. He sees it when he brought a friend and his two kids into the dressing room after a game in Detroit, when Tkachuk paused in his postgame showering routine to sign a jersey, to take a picture, to get Carter Verhaeghe out of the shower to sign the other jersey. 

“I don’t even blame players who don’t sign,” Maurice said. “But he doesn’t have to do that, and he does that consistently. … It’s not fake. It’s not showy. I think he understands the responsibility that he has and he takes care of it.”

There are so many responsibilities heaped on Tkachuk now. 

He is a leader on the ice and off it. He is the second-leading scorer, with 83 points (24 goals, 59 assists), the top chirper and certainly the most talked about player on the Panthers. And he is ready, once again, to receive that pressure. He is ready for the playoffs. He is ready for the eyes and the lights and all that comes with it.

“I enjoy it,” Tkachuk said. “I think that the high intense games and the rivalry games and the, just like the intense part of the games that some guys might not feel too confident or comfortable, I seem to thrive in them and I love those moments.”

There will be no shortage of those moments in the waning days of the season, in the start of the playoffs, as the Panthers attempt to replicate their Cinderella run to the Final last season -- without the Cinderella part. 

Because much like the Panthers, who have been at or near the top of the NHL all season, there will be no surprises when it comes to Tkachuk. He is known, now. Known for stealing games, for coming up big in the biggest moments, for never, ever playing it safe. 

And when the pressure comes, as it will, he will be right there. 

“Knowing him, that’s going to make him go to another level,” Brady Tkachuk said. “And I think for him, he’s going to love, not the spotlight, but the opportunity that comes from that and what he’s going to be able to do with that. He gets better when the pressure is higher.”

[valeffelees]

Oh do tell about that snowbaz au of yours 👀

I WOULD FUCKING LOVE TO, thank you so much tumblr user pidgelikethebird (and also my most beloved and loyal companion @drowninginships) for providing me the enrichment i need to survive the winter.

ok gimme a min here to turn my thoughts into comprehensible words. i'm gonna say right now: this post is gonna be a LONG one, but 10 out of 10 scientists agree you should read to the end.

so, if you didn't know, The Beauty Inside is a Korean romcom from 2015, based off an American short film of the same name; the orig short film i linked is an extremely quick watch (only 6 episodes, each one 4-10 minutes long) and i would absolutely recommend it, but the very basics of the premise is that: a man wakes up in his bed on his 18th birthday to find he's in a completely different body than his own, and every day since then, he wakes up as somebody new.

AND OBVS I JUST HAD TO FUCKING SNOWBAZ THAT, which is how my AU, titled In the Many Ways of Loving You, was born:

Simon Snow wakes up every day as somebody new; the only person who knows the truth is Penny, his best friend and roommate, since she's been by his side since it all began ten years ago.

he works on commission as a custom bookbinder—like, he has an Etsy or some shit, i dunno, some kinda online shop where people can commission him in a variety of ways to rebind their favourite books, either by paying extra for Simon to buy the book himself and rebind it from new and send it to them, or sometimes collectors will send their personal copies to him to have him rebind them, and he's very good at it, and N E WAY the point of this is that he has a small bookshop he's been going to regularly for the last eight or so years, because it's close to his and Penny's flat, and where the story begins: Baz is a new employee that just started working there about two weeks ago and Simon has a massive crush on him.

ok, now. day one: when we meet Simon for the first time, he wakes up and he's lovely and blonde and brown-eyed and ok, yeah, i've just made him look like Agatha bc i thought it'd be kinda funny, esp since Agatha's not actually in the fic otherwise.

and Simon has to pick up a copy of some random book from the bookshop today bc someone bought a custom binding of it, so he goes down and, as usual, since it's his job, Baz has to come over to talk to him and is like, "hey, can I help you with anything?" and Simon doesn't need any help bc he's been coming to this shop for years, but every time Baz asks he says yes bc he wants the excuse to talk to him, and on this day Simon is like, wait. i'm so hot rn. so he asks Baz out—

and Baz is like [finger guns] absolutely not.

and Simon is like 👁️👄👁️ welp i'm in fucking agony.

but whatever, fine. a guy like Baz is prolly already in a proper relationship, and it's always a bad idea for Simon to get involved with someone he has to see on the reg. he had to start going to a different coffee shop that's twenty minutes out of his way bc he went out on a great date with one of the baristas at his old spot and then obvs couldn't go out again after just that one time, and it made him super emo, so really, Baz saying no was prolly for the best.

TIMESKIP, it's been a few days and Simon has to go down to the bookshop again. but this time he's a bloke. and so Baz comes up to ask if Simon needs help and he says yeah, as usual, and the two of them end up having a bantery convo about the book Simon's looking for bc they've both read it and Baz hated it, but Simon loved it, and it's just very cute and casual, and then Baz is like. so, my shift ends in liiike... four hours. are you doing anything?

and Simon is like. OH. OH!!!

that whole "it's prolly for the best" thing? yeah, fuck that, that was Simon of the past, he doesn't know what the fuck he's talking about bc cute bookshop guy wants to hang out and so they go out and have the most fucking insane romcom date ever.

'cause you gotta remember, Simon only gets one real day with people, so he doesn't do like casual coffee dates or movies or whatever. they go out and like fucking B&E a museum after hours bc Simon knows someone like the janitor or something (i dunno) leaves one of the back doors unlocked so he can step out for a cig every few hours, so they sneak in and have the time of their life running around looking at art while trying not to get caught, and we're going to use the suspended disbelief bestowed upon us by the power of romcoms to pretend security cameras aren't a thing, and it is BRILLIANT. like, Simon and Baz have so much chemistry, and when the night ends Baz is just like all smiles and creased eyes and messy black hair and, breathlessly: "I want to see you again."

and Simon's heart drops. because he wants to see Baz again, too, but he can't. no matter how much he wants to, he can't. when he wakes up tomorrow he's going to be someone new, so he can't, he can't, he can't, he—

"Yeah," he says. "Tomorrow?"

SIMON NO!!!

"It's a date."

FUCK!!!

ok, so now we have a problem. Simon can't just stand him up, i mean he could but he doesn't want to, and he really does want to see him again, so he does the only thing he can think of: he stays awake. all fucking night.

Baz, the next day: "You look exhausted."

Simon, wired asf on caffeine and trying to be smooth: "Had someone on my mind all night."

and then they go have another wicked date, but i have nothing in my notes about what it is. oh, i have them living in Canada in this fic btw bc as a rule, if a fic doesn't have to be set in England, i move them to Canada for comfort. so i might have them go cliff jumping or something? who knows. we'll go with that for now.

cue the romcom montage.

[mother tongue starts playing SO DON'T SAY YOU LOVE ME FALA AMO, JUST LET YOUR HEART SPEAK UP AND I'LL KNOW]

ok. post-date. Simon is so dumb and infatuated with Baz and does something only a boy who is dumb and infatuated and sleep-deprived would do in his situation, and he goes back to Baz's flat with him to "watch a movie", or in other words: the movie starts and then they prolly have sex, but in my notes this is written as "??? smash ???" so i guess it's kinda up in the air.

either way, Simon passes the fuck out at Baz's place bc he was properly exhausted by that point, and he wakes up to Baz screaming at him bc obvs he looks like a different person now.

Simon, half-asleep: [PANICKED FLAILING] BAZ IT'S ME!!! STOP THROWING THINGS!!! BAZ!!! IT'S ME, IT'S SIMON!!!

and Baz is like: WHAT THE FUCK

and Simon is like: I CAN EXPLAIN

and Baz is like: HOW DID YOU GET IN HERE

and Simon is like: I CAN EXPLAIN!!!

so, here's a detail from the orig film that comes into play here: in the orig movie, the MC keeps a video diary, logging every day what his face looks like, and in this, Simon does this on his phone and backs them up to his computer every hundred days, so he gives Baz his phone and tells him the whole story while Baz scrolls through these short like minute long videos of Simon on various days going, "Hey, this is me today. I have [this and such] thing to do, blah blah blah."

and the thing is, Baz recognises him in some of them. bc Simon is always coming into the bookshop. he stops watching when he gets to the day Simon looked like Agatha, and Simon has been quiet for a while at this point, just letting Baz process.

Baz: "I want you to leave."

Simon takes his phone without a word and goes. Penny picks him up on the corner a block over and drives him back to their flat. she doesn't ask what happened. she already has a pretty good idea.

when Simon's next commission comes in, he thinks about going to another bookshop, he really does. but this one is so convenient, esp since Simon can't drive bc he can't risk getting pulled over carrying a licence that doesn't have his face on it, and he's been going there for eight years and it's not like Baz will recognise him anyway.

so, to the bookshop he goes, but this time when Baz comes up to ask if he needs help, Simon is like, "haha, no that's okay," and goes back to looking for things on his own, and Baz kinda lingers awkwardly for a moment before going on his way, but then when Simon comes up to the till to pay for the book, Baz just stands there staring at him. and Simon is so uncomfortable, like, he just wants to leave—

"Simon?"

SORRY, YOU WHAT?

"What?" Simon gapes at him. "How did— how did you? But I'm—"

"Can we talk?" Baz asks.

"How did you know it was—"

Baz shouts over to the other employee on the floor that he's taking his lunch break, and Simon just slowly follows him out of the shop with the book forgotten, unpaid for, at the check-out.

and here's the deal, Baz liked Simon a stupid amount considering they'd only gone on two dates, but they were good dates, and Baz doesn't date much, so he's a bit hung up on just how much he liked Simon and the weird way shit ended, so he's basically like. i want to see it again. and Simon is like, see what? and Baz is like, you. the... whatever that you do, i want to see you change.

and that's how Simon ends up bringing Baz back to his flat, and btw: Simon has a rule about never bringing people back to his flat bc it's weird as fuck. his room is really tiny, and it's cluttered as fuck in a Howl's bedroom type way. he keeps to the same cheap, casual style for all his clothes, but he needs things in a bunch of sizes. shoes are a nightmare. he has to take care of his hair in a million different fucking ways. so he has the lives of a dozen people shoved into a room the size of a shoebox, and his mattress has no frame. that shit is just on the floor, so it takes up less space. and there's this mirror, a wide full bodied mirror, propped up against the wall facing the bed, so that the first thing Simon can do each day is roll over and look at himself.

Simon and Baz have supper together, they talk, they pretend this isn't weird as fuck and, even though it is weird as fuck, they still have so much chemistry, and this is a fanfic, so they just end up having sex again but it's supposed to be kinda emo and tender and look, it's what my heart wants, ok?

morning comes. Simon wakes to Baz's hands on his face. which is already and improvement compared to last time. Baz is looking at him very seriously, but also very like. softly. he's touching Simon's features, tracing them, and Simon is quiet for a very long time, watching him do this, until he's just like. what are you doing.

Baz: "Getting to know you." A pause. "Why does it happen?"

Simon: "I don't know."

Baz: "Are there other people like you?"

Simon: "I don't know."

Baz, sighing: "Well, what do you know?"

Simon: "That I'm still me. Inside, I mean. Like... if you had a book, and every day you gave it a new cover, the story wouldn't change."

Baz: "You must get lost on a lot of shelves."

Simon: "Yeah."

and from there, Baz is just a part of Simon's life the same way Penny is, he knows the truth, and he deals with it. for the first time in Simon's adult life, he gets to really date. he and Baz do a bunch of domestic shit together, for months, and it's so good. all of it is so good, all the time, and they fall so fucked up deep in love with each other.

(detail from this point that is relevant later: Baz and Simon make a game out of Baz recognising Simon at work on days when he hasn't seen yet what he looks like. Simon will come in and try to act like a stranger, but Baz can Where's Waldo him every time.)

but then Christmas comes. and Baz has to go home to see his family. and i don't have an exact idea of how this convo goes, only that it is not a fight of any kind, like, it is a normal convo about the holidays but Baz apologises to Simon during it for not telling his family about him, he says they'd want Baz to bring Simon home if he did (bc i just don't wanna fuck with homophobia in this so we've shot Malcolm with the ally beam) and he wouldn't know how to explain Simon's whole... thing to them, and Simon kinda realises that like. he can't ever be the type of boyfriend Baz can bring home to his family. he can't ever be the type of boyfriend Baz gets to have a normal life with.

SO SIMON GHOSTS HIM.

like, Baz comes back from his family's place, annoyed that Simon hasn't returned any of his texts or calls, only to find that Simon and Penny have literally fucking moved flats in the two weeks he's been gone. and obvs he's fucking devastated and confused by this and desperately trying to get Simon to respond to him, but he won't.

Simon goes out of his way to find a new bookshop to go to, and that's the end of things for about a week or so, and i haven't actually decided what happens here exactly, but the general idea i wanna go with is that Simon goes to the bookshop Baz works at just for the sake of seeing him, checking up on him, bc he misses him.

but remember that game they played? so yeah, Baz walks up to say his usual like, "hey, can I help you find anything?" but he fucking clocks Simon after like ten seconds.

scene change: they're in Simon's new flat, like maybe Baz demanded that if Simon is going to break up with him he owes it to him to do it goddamn properly, but i dunno. details, details. but they end up getting in a huge fucking fight and Simon reveals the reason he ghosted Baz was bc he realised Baz can't have a real life with him and Baz is like:

"You don't get to decide that for me! You're still you, you're still lovely—"

"You don't even know what I look like!"

"I don't care what you look like, you fucking moron, I care that you're Simon Snow! There's a person inside you that exists every day, even when everything else changes, and he's lovely. I love him. The rest doesn't matter, how can you not see that? Stop telling me I'm not allowed to love you however you are, I'll love you a hundred different ways, Simon. Any size, any shape. I'll love you over, and over, and over. That's a life for me. A real life for me. You!"

and then Simon throws his arms around Baz's neck and hugs him like he needs him to breathe and Baz clings to his shirt and they're both prolly crying all loud and gross, but it's fine. they're gonna be fine.

the next day: Simon wakes up to Baz's mouth on the back of his neck. "Like this one, then?" he says.

"Loveliest yet." Baz brushes his knuckles over the slope of Simon's shoulder. "Freckles, curls, broad shoulders... Mmm, maybe we should stay in bed today."

Simon laughs and rolls over to pin Baz to the mattress, grinning at him. he goes to say something, prolly rib at him the way they do, but as he does he catches his reflection in that mirror he keeps by his bed and he freezes.

"Holy shit!" he shouts, and shoves himself up onto his knees. "That's me!"

Baz rolls his eyes. "Yes, yes, I told you—"

Simon shakes his head furiously. "No, it's. Baz. I'm. Jesus fucking Christ, that's me. Baz, that's me."

Baz sits up slowly. "Do you mean—"

"Fuck, holy shit!" Simon grabs his curls with both hands. he hasn't touched these curls in ten fucking years. he looks older than he remembers himself, which is a given, but it's definitely him. his father's eyes, his mother's chin. the moles on his cheek, above his eyebrow, below his ear.

Simon freaks out in a way that kinda toes the line between being happy and being a breakdown, he throws himself at Baz, and they both fall back onto the bed and Simon is laughing and he's shaking and he doesn't understand, he doesn't get it, but holy fuck, he has his own face, he has his own body, he has his own hands. Baz pushes them apart so he can get a look at him, and Simon is actually kinda self-conscious when he does, which is a new feeling. he never has to feel self-conscious about anything, usually, since he knows every flaw or insecurity isn't really his, and will be gone the next day, but this is just... him.

Baz takes Simon's face in his hands and then, breathlessly, "Hello, Simon Snow."

AND THEN THEY KISS bc what else would they do here.

and uhh, yeah. so. Simon goes out to the kitchen where Penny is making breakfast and she loses her shit when she sees him. big hugs all around. Baz really does take the day off work to spend it with Simon, even though that just means lying around on the sofa watching movies while Simon works on his current rebinding commission. when Penny gets home that evening, they order takeaway and sit around the lounge room playing boardgames together until late, late, late into the night. Penny falls asleep in the armchair, and now it's 3-am.

Simon is tired. he's looking at the clock, sitting with his knees up and his arms around them, with Baz beside him. Baz has his forehead on his shoulder, an arm around his waist. he doesn't want to go to bed, because what if... what if it was only for today. how long will it be until the next time? what if there is no next time, what if, what if—

"We'll still be here," Baz whispers, exhausted. "And you'll still be you. No matter what, Simon."

and so they go to bed.

Simon wakes up to Baz's mouth on the back of his neck.

"Good morning, Simon Snow."

AND YEAH, that is the entire plot of my The Beauty Inside AU.

i told you this was gonna be a long one, but if you've made it all the way to the end of this mess, thank you kindly again for indulging me!

[kenniel-fanfic-readerinsert]

Forget the Past, Enjoy the Present (Jack Salter x Reader)

_

lame *ss title.

Disclaimers:

1. I should be sleeping

2. It's been like... 6 years? since the last time I wrote a fanfic

3. I am sorry for the cringey writing, I needed to get this out of my system

4. I only saw the movie 1 time, I hope I can go again before they remove the movie in the cinema

5. annddddd I don't own brands, names and etc. Only the cringe plot

5.5. I don't know much of how motorsports work, maybe when I have more free time I will write something really good, in the meanwhile, I ' m r e a l l y s o r r y

6. Jesus, David Harbour, I love you

Part 2 or a remake of this, yess

There is like a 10 year age gap, I believe Jack was in his 30s when the accident happened, so Reader is in their 20s making their way on racing things.

Italics for past time and details about yourself

-----------

15 years ago…

“This is devastating” a car race has gone wrong before, but this wrong? “Jack Salter seems to have lost track of his path along with another racer. Everyone at the expectation of what is going to happen next.

“Is he all right?” Jack asked while the paramedics were taking him into the ambulance “He seems to be stable, we need to hurry”, assured his trainer.

“You’ll be okay, Jack, don’t fall sleep” he heard a familiar voice before getting unconscious.

.

.

.

.

Present Time

Jack got a call from that stupid gremlin Danny Moore while he was working. Gamer racers? People who probably never drove a real car before on these powerful vehicles? Crazy idea, but here he was.

“Oh, but our special team is not complete yet” Danny was showing him the GT Academy, but once they reached the racetrack for the academy he stopped at the pits. Jack just sighs. “Now what?”

“I want our racers to have a different kind of life experience besides yours” Moore gave him a little smile.

“Stop talking around the bush, who is it”

“Well, you know them”

Jack just closed his eyes.

.

.

A demi sport sedan of (your design) was nearing them on the pits. The driver’s door opened reveling a (your hair color) person. They got closer to them. The marketing expert clapped his hands and opened his arms to embrace Y/N in a hug.

“Can’t believe you still are so energetic, Daniel” Y/N greeted him. He smiled but also sensed the tension between the other two. He pulls apart from Y/N and gestured to Jack “I’m pretty sure you remember this big guy”, Moore gave Jack a gentle pat in his belly, making the taller man grunt.

“Of course, hard to forget a man with his nose. Hello, Jack”

“Hello, Y/N” they gave each other a quick look and turn their eyes to any other place possible.

Danny clapped his hands again “Well, let’s get to it!” He gave both Jack and Y/N a pat on their backs before leaving to greet the players.

Once they saw the gaming racers arrive and Jack gave them a depressing speech, Danny introduced Y/N to relieve the pressure of the competitors. “Hello, I’m Y/N, I love racing so much that I’m an Industrial Designer to understand better everything about cars. I’m a racer but since I was young, I participated in street racing. That’s why Daniel here wanted me in the team, to teach you about how savage real racers will be with you.” They gave them a wink before getting in their place behind Danny.

“All right, get comfy guys, but not so much because you start your training tomorrow” the marketer for Nissan dismissed everyone.

Jack was left confused, so they got a degree to understand more about cars?

.

.

.

.

A couple months before the accident

“Hey, you know it wasn’t your fault, right?” they said, Y/N’s fingers touching only with the tip of the fingers in his shoulder.

“Yes it was, I should’ve more careful!” he got angry, everyone kept saying that it wasn’t his fault, that maybe could have happened with another person. He push Y/N’s hand away, but they got used to that reactions.

“Besides, what do you know about safety? The only track you know is the street, you have never been in a real race” He added fueled by the anger remembering the crash and the loss of a life.

“Is as dangerous if not more, but whatever, I tried everything to cheer you up, but it seems that you never bear my presence. I’m sorry, I hope you find peace someday.”

Y/N met Jack when they started to become more interested in racing in a professional way, not that they doesn’t enjoy street racing, but earning cups and medals looked really nice.

Jack doesn’t say anything nor gives them a glance. They picked their things up and left him alone in silence.

.

.

.

.

The team of Danny Moore, Jack Salter and Y/N worked just fine, even if the racers ended up with mixed instructions from the older racers. Moore found it problematic, he needed Jack to be synergic with Y/N so the racers could get better and better.

“Jack, my brother”

“We are not brothers”

“Oh, c’mon, we been working for days now.”

“Whaddaya need” Jack didn’t enjoy when people interrupted his Walkman’s sessions.

“Welp, always straight to the point. The three of us, we are making a great team, but no perfect.”

If Jack got a cent for every time he sighs for something that came out of Danny’s mouth, he will have tons of money. “Now what, just tell me and I will work on it”

“Nice of you to say that. Apologize to Them”.

Jack lifted his eyebrows surprised. “You think that’s the issue? We are fine, we talk the necessary.”

“Yeah, like divorced parents. That’s the problem”

“…”

.

.

.

.

“I liked the turn you made on that weird curb, but next time…” Y/N really takes pleasure in giving feedback to the young drivers. Jack approached and cleared his throat; the other instructor paused at the interruption and turned their head.

“Yes…?” Y/N raised a brow, clearly confused because Jack never shared a word with them aside from things related with the competitors or Danny (Danny himself is a topic).

“Can we… uh, talk, like the two of us” he tried to say as quiet as possible so the others couldn’t hear.

“Sure, let me finish with them” Y/N gave some last instructions to the gamers and then followed him far from the pits.

“Well, I don’t know how to start”

“Why are we here, then” Y/N crossed their arms.

“Fine, fine. Look, I’m sorry” he ran his hand over his face trying to find the courage. “I… what happened 15 years ago wasn’t my fault, you were by my side even if I never liked it. I was young and stupid to push you like that. I’m sorry” he ended and looked at the (your eye color). "I also took you for granted as a driver, hell you drive better than most of those assholes out there"

They cast their face down for a moment and then up to his eyes. “It’s fine, I appreciate your apology. Everything is in the past now” Y/N offered a small smile to him. He nodded his head. "And thanks for the compliment, it means a lot coming from you."

.

.

.

.

After that they manage to find a better rhythm of teaching the competitors. A couple of weeks have passed, Y/N and Jack became friends (the first time they met doesn’t count to Y/N since it was one-sided). Sharing meals together without Danny.

Danny Moore got an eye for perfect opportunities, and again he found one. He noticed the long glances Jack gave to Y/N, and how he worries when Y/N got in a car to give the gamers extra lessons.

“Jack, my brother” He said to Jack once they were in the press room alone.

“Jesus Christ, now what?”

[youredreamingofroo]

The Roo-seum...

group pics and other stuff under the cut! (just to avoid flooding the dash lmao)

CAS pics in the NEXT POST

Now onto me ranting.

The Roo-seum is a 16 sim project that's consumed me for the last couple of days (in a good way), this explores most of Roo's lifespan (not implying he's dead LMAO), from the age of 9 years old, up to now, 28 years old, talking about what he went through for each year (for the most part anyways), of course, I didn't start at 1 or 2 years old, mainly because, way back when I made all of these Roo's (roughly back in July '23, this is not an idea that suddenly sparked, I only acted on it because I have a way to show off each age that isn't a Picrew lmao... I can't draw well so I just used TS4), I made them in Picrew, which... at the time couldn't find a Picrew with kids/babies so the youngest I went was around 9 years old, and just built up from there.

Roo is my persona gone OC, around 5 or 6 years ago, I put on this persona of "Roo", which started as "The Unfortunate Roo" and Roo's (or Mine, since this was technically a Persona, doubling as an OC) design was COMPLETELY different back then, He wasn't a he, the design was a sucubus I think, I don't really recall and I really couldn't care for it, it's embarrassing 💀 I don't remember how he came to fruition, but I remember finding this one picrew that I LOVED, and I used that picrew to create ~Roo~, his initial design was akin to the 22-23 year old Roo, there's a lot about his design that I could talk about but will avoid doing so, but just know that his Sims design isn't super on the dot to what his actual design is supposed to look like.

So... what's Piametia?? Why did you come up with that?? How did you come up with that?? To be honest, I never actually came up with a name up until yesterday when writing the note for 10-12 year old Roo, I don't really remember what sparked me to come up with a condition that "has the Patient suffer a sudden loss or gain in pigmentation and melanin in the eyes and hair," I guess 17 year old me thought it was cool, and it is! It opened up a new story for him, where I couldn't provide story (for someone without Piametia), like how being affected by Piametia caused him to go from extremely accepting of himself, to getting bullied into "normalizing himself," While he achieved this, it was really in vain, because he was still bullied for his condition, but as he grew older, out of his teen years and into adulthood, it bothered him less and less, because, well, shit like that doesn't fucking matter, sure it still bothered him, sure it still traumatized him to some degree, but it's just what some stupid kids say, it doesn't determine what his worth is, and he understands that, so after recovering from almost ending his life, he realized that something had to change, he couldn't live in this wallowing ball of agony because some kids determined "hey! That kid is different! They're no longer as cool as we are! Get him!!"

I should also mention that he didn't develop Piametia til he was around 9 years old, which is exactly what the condition does, it's genetic (although it never occurred in Reese or Virginia, the only reasonable conclusion was that it skipped a generation) and it's drilled into the person's DNA and only takes effect before puberty (in the average kid). So Roo was considered a part of the other kids' little cliques and stuff, but only until his hair and eyes changed color.

I kind of hyped this up to be something extravagant and maybe it is, idk, I don't have the eyes of the audience, I'm just a guy who made this and I have a rather critical view of my work sometimes, I try not to, but force of habit lmao. I really liked making this because Roo is an OC who has grown with me, mainly because he's both a persona of me while also being an OC, so where I change and grow, he often reflects that change and growth, in his own ways of course, I often wish he was real, but he's not and that's the harsh reality. Also gonna clarify that his life does NOT completely reflect mine, I'm only 18, he's ten years older then me lmao, where he was 8 I was 10 years to be conceived- Roo is still his own character, he's had his own relationships, all of which have went poorly (reflecting my own), and even had his own stalker (which escalated)- But parts of his life like when he became extremely homophobic of himself and who he truly was is not reflective of myself, I never had that stage in life (whether you did or not however is not a bad thing unless your actually just homophobic, then gtfo like?? 😭).

I went on a rant there, and I probably could've kept going, but figured I should stop at some point lol, but I hope you guys like this, I sure LOVED making this and I love doing Roo related things and posts. I also provided text in the image descriptions in case it's hard to read in the images (I tried to keep it as clear and readable as possible), and in case anyone who uses a screen-reader finds this post :)

[dairogo]

20 Questions for the Writer

Tagged by @griseldabanks ^_^

1. How many works do you have on Ao3?

Only 18 :O I have a bunch on fanfiction.net that I never transferred over, but they're all an extra 10 or so years older than the Ao3 ones so ... there's some disparity of quality, partly in the writing but also very much in the content present.

2. What is your total Ao3 word count?

168,935

3. What fandoms do you write for?

FMA! I had other things when I was younger, but FMA bit and it's the one that stuck with me.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

A Bed Too Small (Mustang POV, same bed trope, tongue-in-cheek)

Wayward Youth (Hawkeye POV, learning about crushes and affection from the girls at her boarding school while seeking her father's attention)

Order 3066 (Hawkeye and Mustang POVs alternating, Ishval fic about being broken and coming out of it [still broken, but moving])

Partiality (Mustang POV, post-canon, broaching the topic of a relationship)

The Next Step (shifting POV, written soon after giving birth to my youngest and in a bit of a family-related haze. Mostly fluff.)

5. Do you respond to comments?

I certainly try to! I might have missed some along the way, but I usually get there!

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Hurrrghgh, one from my ff.net days: The Manga-ka Has Her Reasons. It was basically saying, hey, they can't get together guys - things will go bad if they do. And so it ended with them both dead.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I'd say The Next Step, because it's just fluffy and lovely :)

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not really. The last time I remember feeling taken aback by a comment it was over a decade ago and it was someone rightly pointing out a factual error I'd made. The FMA community I've found myself in is largely positive, and I don't know if that's about the FMA community in general, or that the stuff I write appeals to people who are just cool about community instead of looking to be jerks. Whatever the reason, I'm very grateful!

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Nah

10. Do you write crossovers?

I've got a half written FMA/HP crossover that I started in like 2005, resurrected a few years ago, and then haven't touched for the last year and a half. Sigh. It's probably going to be stuck in my brain forever.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Not a fic

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

Royai for suuuuure <3 I'm so big on romance as a side-plot, and if that's not the perfect way to explain their relationship I don't know what is. Like, FMA aside, their own personal story is that romance is their side-plot, not their main thing.

15. What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

Wayward Youth! I have a few really rough drafts of later chapters that need to be edited, but I still haven't written all the way to the end and I'm happily working on another project with all the time/headspace I have, so I don't want to interrupt that flow. But I'm hoping to slowly accrue the last of it, then go through and make it presentable and post it one day.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I think I can write fairly clear action. And I like putting together a lot of threads to tug on as I go - not all big plot things necessarily, but just things that repeat again later to add an extra layer.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I don't know. I feel like I can write in a very blunt way sometimes, so I have to be intentional about adding in colour and emotion - that doesn't always come through on the first try.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I wouldn't do this to show to a native speaker, oh boy oh boy nosirree! Currently reading a book on English idioms and my main thought as I looked at it today is that this is exactly why I'll never consider myself fluent in other languages.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

In year 5 we had to co-write a story and my best friend and I basically wrote an AU of Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

20. Favourite fic you've written?

Look, it depends on my mood. If I want something light and short, I can't go past Desperately Hoping He Didn't Look Like an Idiot (modern AU, Royai without angst). But I'm probably proudest of Order 3066, because it took a lot of work and a lot of emotional catharsis to get through that and I ended up with a bit of a deadline for when I had to finish it up and made it! So I feel good about it.

Tagging @scienceoftheidiot and @fullmetalscullyy if you're interested :)

[up-in-space-reading]

Average Weekly Screentime - Chap 10: So Who Won?

pairing: Jake Peralta x Amy Santiago

word count: 3141

warnings/tags: college au, texting, drunk texting, text fic (mostly, there's prose a few chaps in), bets, bisexual!jake peralta, jake peralta has adhd, parties, drinking and alcohol, sexual references, implied sexual content (nothing explicit, just suggested its going to happen/has happened), friends to lovers, swearing, mentions of cannibalism, lighthearted threats of violence (typical rosa stuff yk), fluff

read on ao3

Average Weekly Screentime masterlist

Story Summary: texting fic college AU with the squad! It's the beginning of the school year and while everyone else thinks it'll be the same as the previous year, Gina has a feeling things are going to be different and wagers a bet with Rosa and Charles. Told through all the various group chats everyone is in.

Chap 1 | Chap 2 | Chap 3 | Chap 4 | Chap 5 | Chap 6 | Chap 7 | Chap 8 | Chap 9 | Chap 10

authors note: The last chapter to this monster of a fic! Hope you enjoy <3

Jimmy Jabbers

[09:24am, Friday]

Four Eyes: Jake has once again fallen asleep in class Four Eyes: Bets anyone?

RoRo: he’s gonna wake up in 12 minutes

Mr Grapes: 10 minutes

Queen G: 20 minutes

Four Eyes: Will keep you updated

-

[09:36am, Friday]

Four Eyes: Rosa I don’t know how you do it

RoRo: idk RoRo: you guys just gotta get good i guess

Queen G: this sucks

-

Dance Squad

[11:36am, Friday]

G-Hive: rosa ur bet date was two days ago G-Hive: i just remembered

Scary: gina you just might win this

G-Hive: omg omg this is so exciting

Charlese: Remember when you tried to get them together on new years?

G-Hive: i had a momentary lapse of judgement G-Hive: BUT now im back in betting mode G-Hive: need to keep them apart for another few weeks

Scary: that’s meddling once again

Charlese: Technically Rosa has some buffer time before her bet is completely void

Scary: neck and neck gina Scary: watch your back

G-Hive: anyone else getting super scary vibes rn???

-

Skipping School Is(n’t) Cool

[10:05am, Saturday]

Ferris: good morning beautiful

Cameron: Good morning!

Ferris: whats the plan for today??

Cameron: I actually have to do some work, you’ve been distracting me the last few days

Ferris: sorry i cant help that i wanna spend time with my giirllfrieennddd

Cameron: I wasn’t complaining at all Cameron: I’m just warning that if you come over I will be doing work

Ferris: im literally on my way

-

Unnamed Chat

[10:45am, Saturday]

Jake: hey ter!

Terry: Hey Jake, how’s it going?

Jake: absolutely wonderful amazing excellent

Terry: Haha let me guess – things went well with Amy

Jake: ur the first person im telling bc u helped me so much omg im so excited

Terry: Well congrats to both of you Terry: I hear Taylor has a lot of love songs

Jake: im never living it down Jake: and IM TOO HAPPY TO CARE

Terry: Hahaha

-

Jimmy Jabbers

[02:04pm, Saturday]

Four Eyes: do u think that guys named cal their name is short for calendar

Pineapples: yes ames i think thats true

Queen G: how do i tell amy u have her phone

Pineapples: she is aware Pineapples: but i dont think she realised what i was gonna do with it mwahaha

RoRo: you should probably give it back

Four Eyes: He has returned it now Four Eyes: He’s cowering in the corner because he knows I’m going to take his

Pineapples: someone help me

Mr Grapes: Just go fetal position Jake, that’s what I do

Pineapples: Too late

Queen G: RIP soldier

RoRo: i think it’ll be funny if amy killed him

-

Dance Squad

[02:10pm, Saturday]

G-Hive: so that was weird right??

Scary: super weird

Charlese: Definitely weird

G-Hive: okay cool

-

Jimmy Jabbers

[04:28pm, Saturday]

Mr Grapes: Anyone wanna do dinner tonight?

RoRo: can’t, busy

Mr Grapes: What are you up to?

RoRo: wouldn’t you like to know, soup boy

Queen G: fine ill do dinner

-

[04:53pm, Saturday]

Mr Grapes: @Four Eyes @Pineapples are either of you interested in getting dinner? Mr Grapes: Haven’t heard from you yet

Pineapples: sorry charles, im busy

Four Eyes: I’ve already got plans, sorry

Mr Grapes: That’s alright!

-

Dance Squad

[04:57pm, Saturday]

Charlese: That’s weird right?

G-Hive: definitely

Scary: you two have fun

G-Hive: @Charlese ill meet u at sals in 30?

Charlese: Yep!

-

“We have got to find a new dinner spot” Amy whispers to Jake across the table who’s giggling.

“Aw but I like Sal’s” He whispers back, their chins nearly touching the table as they duck from view.

“Probably on us that we assumed Gina and Charles wouldn’t come here” Jake continued with a shrug of his shoulders.

“Yeah, that’s definitely on us. What do we do?” Amy asked anxiously.

“What do you mean?”

“They’re here, we’re here, they don’t know about us. What do we do?”

“Sneak out the side door and pretend we were never here?” Jake suggested with a mischievous twinkle in his eye.

“Sure, let’s do it” Amy agreed, a small smile returning to her face.

The two of them got up quickly, Jake grabbing Amy’s hand and dragging her out of the diner quickly behind him. She had her bag slung over her shoulder and was carrying her scarf, not having had a moment to put it on yet.

Once they were out the door and walking down the street the two of them laughed as Amy finally wrapped her scarf around her neck. Jake took Amy’s arm and linked it with his, holding her close as they walked down the snow lined streets.

“We’ve gotta find somewhere else to get dinner now” Jake brought up after they’d been walking for a few minutes with no real destination in mind.

“How would you feel about pizza?” Amy asked with a smile, knowing exactly how Jake would feel about pizza.

“Dumb question Ames, I know just the place”

He redirected them, crossing the street and turning a corner while Amy simply followed his lead. Once there they ordered and got their pizza, they laughed about their escape from Sal’s again and Jake filled Amy in on the ongoing Sasha drama after she overheard Gina mention it.

They finished their pizza and hung around in the shop for a little while longer, ignoring their phones and everything outside the door. As far as Jake was concerned, right now the world existed in the pizza shop, sitting across the table from him.

It was only when the owner of the shop politely told them he was going to be closing soon did they leave – leaving behind a nice tip for having stayed so long – walking arm in arm slowly back towards campus under the light of the street lamps. Amy could tell Jake was trying to delay saying goodbye to her, and if Amy was honest with herself she didn’t want to say goodbye either.

They stopped at the usual split in their path, this section of the sidewalk held so many memories and emotions that Amy couldn’t believe it had all happened in less than a year. The two of them hugged for probably too long, they were clingy for a few day-old relationship but Amy never wanted it to stop.

“Come back to my dorm with me?” Jake asked her quietly, breath brushing against Amy’s ear in a way that made her skin tingle, “If you want” he added, giving her an out.

“I want to”

It was an easy decision, and one she didn’t regret at all.

-

DDC

[10:28am, Sunday]

G: messaging to check on u bc i havent heard from u in nearly 24 hours

Jacob: im fine g

G: alright G: how r u feeling?

Jacob: great!

G: cool

-

Dance Squad

[10:32am, Sunday]

G-Hive: something happened

Scary: context?

G-Hive: somethings happened with jake

Charlese: Proof?

G-Hive: 1 image attachment G-Hive: says hes great before noon on a sunday G-Hive: i think tf not

Scary: weak

Charlese: Yeah it’s not a super strong argument

G-Hive: ugh honestly you two

Charlese: I’m starting to give up on them honestly Charlese: If it hasn’t happened by now it won’t ever happen

G-Hive: r u serious charles!!! G-Hive: ur not serious

Charlese: Okay I’m not 100% giving up

Scary: i have

Charlese: What??

Scary: my betting day has passed and i either get it exact or i lose Scary: i’m not winning on a technicality

G-Hive: what about the prize money???

Scary: we just don’t pay out?

Charlese: Damn, this is a sad way to end it

G-Hive: HEY! my bet is still ongoing

Scary: you’re seriously gonna hold out hope??

G-Hive: unlike SOME people i dont back down from a bet

Scary: ugh fine i’m still in

G-Hive: YES

Charlese: Okay I’m still in!! you just caught me in a moment of weakness

G-Hive: lovely lovely G-Hive: time to go get proof

-

DDC

[10:51am, Sunday]

G: where r u???

Jacob: my dorm why???

G: i feel like ur lying

Jacob: im not lying gina Jacob: why would i lie about that

G: idk but ill find out

Jacob: u do that

G: ill ask amy where u r

Jacob: amy will just tell u to ask me

G: we will see

-

Girls Girls Girls

[10:55am, Sunday]

Gina: @Amy do u know where jake is??

Amy: I don’t know, probably in his dorm? Amy: He’s probably still sleeping

Gina: hmm okay

-

DDC

[10:57am, Sunday]

G: i still dont believe you

Jacob: 1 image attachment Jacob: what about now??

G: u couldve taken that pic anytime

Jacob: i just took it now

G: ugh fine

-

Girls Girls Girls

[11:03am, Sunday]

Gina: @Amy can u send me a pic of the cover of that book u recommended the other day

Amy: You have never asked for a book recommendation and I don’t believe you that you’re starting now

Gina: u and jake talking about me???

Amy: WHY would Jake and I be talking about you??

Gina: u tell me????

Amy: You are in a mood this morning

Rosa: tell me about it

-

Jimmy Jabbers

[11:07am, Sunday]

Queen G: i have had ENOUGH Queen G: @Four Eyes @Pineapples explain urselves

Four Eyes: What do I have to explain???

Pineapples: i am also confused as to what i need to explain

Queen G: one or both of u are lying to me Queen G: dodging questions and such

Four Eyes: Good god you need to go outside or something

Queen G: i will NOT be made out to be crazy

Pineapples: then stop acting like it girl

Queen G: where r u both right NOW???

Pineapples: in my dorm Pineapples: in bed if u want specifics

Four Eyes: I’m in my dorm, at my desk to be specific

Queen G: take a pic of ur desk rn

Four Eyes: I’m not entertaining this

Queen G: AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH Queen G: im gonna figure it out

RoRo: maybe let it go gina

Mr Grapes: Gotta agree with Rosa

Queen G: ugh fine

-

Dance Squad

[02:35pm, Monday]

G-Hive: im following jake and amy this afternoon G-Hive: who wants to join

Charlese: I’ve got nothing better to do

Scary: this is the last time i’ll entertain you

G-Hive: it wont even be long G-Hive: ill be able to tell if theyre together or not immediately G-Hive: meet me in the courtyard

Charlese: On my way!

Scary: coming

-

Skipping School Is(n’t) Cool

[02:48pm, Monday]

Ferris: heads up rosa gina and charles are following me to the library Ferris: theyre doing a bad job

Cameron: Hahaha okay

Ferris: should we have some fun with them?

Cameron: We absolutely should

-

Jake made his way to the library happily, lighter than air and excited to see Amy again. When he walked into the library she hadn’t noticed him yet but as soon as Jake saw her he couldn’t stop the smile spreading from ear to ear.

Amy finally noticed him as he approached the table, a matching smile gracing her face, and it took everything in Jake to hold back kissing her as soon as he was sat down next to her. They kept their conversation casual and work focused, it felt like before they were together when the two of them were dancing around whatever was happening between them.

After some subtle searching of the library by taking looks around at random intervals he was able to spot Gina, Rosa, and Charles at a table nearby. They were pretending to be engrossed in one book between the three of them and doing a bad job, Rosa was clearly uninterested but there anyway.

-

Skipping School Is(n’t) Cool

[03:21pm, Monday]

Ferris: three musketeers sitting at a table near the computers Ferris: doing a terrible job at hiding

Cameron: I’m not even surprised Cameron: What did Gina expect to discover?

Ferris: probs us together

Cameron: Nosiest friends ever

Ferris: haha tell me about it

-

“This is boring, they’re clearly not together” Rosa was annoyed.

“But what if they are and they’re just playing it down?” Gina argued back.

“If they were together we’d know by now” Charles now joined in.

“God this is ridiculous” Gina threw her arms up in frustration, “I just need them to kiss or something”

“Go ask them” Rosa suggested slightly sarcastically.

Gina fixed Rosa with a look that made Charles want to shrink in on himself, feeling grateful he hadn’t crossed either of them.

“We could just wait for them to tell us?” He suggested in hopes of stopping Gina and Rosa’s staring match.

“Fine” Gina agreed begrudgingly.

Gina was the one to get up first, followed by Rosa and then once they started walking away Charles quickly followed, not wanting to be left behind.

-

Jake saw movement out of the corner of his eye, catching his attention he looked up to see Rosa, Gina and Charles all making a hasty exit from the library and he smiled knowing he and Amy had been able to bore them into leaving.

Once their friends had left the library he leaned over and gave Amy a quick peck on the cheek, startling her out of her concentration where she looked at Jake with surprised.

“What abo-“ She began before Jake cut her off.

“They just left”

Amy let out a laugh before placing a hand on the side of Jake’s face, he leaned into it with a content sigh. Jake then reached up to lightly grab Amy’s wrist, keeping her hand in place as he twisted his head to plant another kiss on her palm.

“You can’t distract me like that” Amy said quietly, trying to be teasing but sounding more breathless.

“Sorry” Jake had apologized but didn’t sound one bit sorry, returning to his work with a satisfied smirk.

-

Jimmy Jabbers

[06:25pm, Wednesday]

Queen G: sasha is having a party on sat so im absolutely going Queen G: anyone else in??

Mr Grapes: Oh definitely! Mr Grapes: Do you know if she invited Sam or Matt?

Queen G: she invited both of them and its most of the reason i wanna go

Mr Grapes: It’s self sabotage at this point

RoRo: ill go if it means watching sashas life implode lol

Pineapples: ill be there

Four Eyes: Yeah I’ll go too

Queen G: im so proud of all of u Queen G: so like are you guys team sam, team matt, or team sasha

Charles: I’m team Anne! She’s been messed around

Queen G: so true charles

-

It was the first time they’d hung out as a whole group since Jake and Amy had gotten together and hiding their relationship was more difficult than Jake had anticipated. He wanted to hold her hand in the back of the uber and put his arm around her shoulders as they walked into the party but couldn’t do any of it.

That was until they split up after playing some small drinking games together, Jake immediately asked Amy if she wanted to dance and she couldn’t have said yes quick enough. He assumed his friends were off finding the drama, Gina and Rosa probably on the hunt for people to flirt with while Charles waited for Genevieve to arrive soon.

Once he and Amy had reached the dance floor her pulled her close, bodies pressed up against one another – he wasn’t wasting a single moment keeping her at a distance. They danced together in the way Jake wished they could’ve on New Years, and it was the most fun he’d had at a party in a while.

So much fun that he leaned down to kiss Amy hard, brain slightly foggy after the alcohol they’d had so far, but pleased when Amy leaned into it. The kiss became intense as they abandoned any illusion that they were dancing.

Finally Jake pulled away with heavy breaths, leaning down to whisper into Amy’s ear.

“Bathroom”

She nodded furiously and followed closely behind when Jake grabbed her hand and dragged her away from the dance floor.

-

Queen Gina Linetti @g-hive01

i love being right #calledit #sashasparty

[11:08pm, Saturday]

-

Jimmy Jabbers

[10:47am, Sunday]

Queen G: i think its time we talk about the elephant in the room

Pineapples: what?

Queen G: this has gone on long enough

RoRo: gina what are you doing

Mr Grapes: Don’t do something you’ll regret

Queen G: i have no regrets in life Queen G: including this Queen G: @Four Eyes @Pineapples you two like each other and you need to work it out before I start prematurely aging

RoRo: gina!!

Mr Grapes: We agreed we weren’t gonna meddle and this is beyond that!

Queen G: deafening silence from the culprits themselves

Pineapples: way to make things awkward g…

Four Eyes: Wait, you guys ‘agreed to not meddle’? What does that mean?

Queen G: dw about that Queen G: do u have anything to say for urselves??

Pineapples: gina what did u see???

Queen G: u know exactly what i saw at exactly 11 last night

Four Eyes: Shit

Pineapples: my b ames

Four Eyes: Takes two

Pineapples: if its any comfort gina that bathroom wasnt as romantic as u would imagine

Queen G: i didnt think it would be

Four Eyes: Aw don’t say that babe, I thought it was perfectly respectable

Pineapples: dont lie to me

Four Eyes: Sorry haha

Mr Grapes: Wait wait wait wait Mr Grapes: You just called him babe

Four Eyes: Oops

Pineapples: gina caught us so theres no point keeping secret

Four Eyes: Yes Jake and I are together

Mr Grapes: Greatest day of my life not joking

RoRo: good for u

Queen G: u guys will NEVER make me seem crazy ever again so help me god Queen G: i was fucking RIGHT

RoRo: for reasons you don’t need to know RoRo: when did this start?

Pineapples: last wednesday Pineapples: why?

RoRo: i’m $100 richer

Mr Grapes: Damn

Queen G: ah shit…

Four Eyes: Can’t believe you guys bet on us!

Pineapples: i can

-

Skipping School Is(n’t) Cool

[11:40am, Sunday]

Ferris changed Cameron’s nickname to Ames Ferris changed their name to Dread Pirate Jake Dread Pirate Jake changed the group chat name to As You Wish

Ames: Aw I’ll miss the Ferris Bueller theme

Dread Pirate Jake: that was for when we were friends Dread Pirate Jake: needed to change now that youre my giirrllfriend

Ames: Haha fair enough Ames: Meet outside to go get lunch together?

Dread Pirate Jake: as u wish my lady <3

-

Dance Squad

[11:40am, Sunday]

Scary: I’ll take my $100 in cash

Charlese: I don’t even care about losing money I’m so happy for them

G-Hive: you will never make a fool out of me again

Scary: sure sure Scary: now pay up

Chap 1 | Chap 2 | Chap 3 | Chap 4 | Chap 5 | Chap 6 | Chap 7 | Chap 8 | Chap 9 | Chap 10

authors note: Oh my god, I can't believe its all done and over.

This is the longest piece of writing I've done so far, what started out as a silly little text fic idea that I wanted to do just to 'not waste a concept' turned into something that I've loved writing and am beyond proud of. I'm sorry there was a bit of a wait between chapters in the middle there but I hope the speedy release of the ending made up for it! Thank you so so much to everyone who commented and left kudos, you guys kept me motivated and excited to write this fic. Shout out to my friends both irl and online (none of whom will see this lol), you guys consistently provide me wonderful content to use in my writing lol (for this chapter it was: "wouldn't you like to know, soup boy")

Thanks again for reading my lil fanfic, I hope you enjoyed it <3

[himebushou]

I've basically been doing very little with my time besides watching Shaman King 2021 so phew, here are some thoughts on Episodes 10-32!

Episode 10

The bit with everybody hanging out at the inn was adorable, hee.

I LOVE BOZ THEY'RE SO FUNNY

It's odd that Yoh is already paying that much attention to "Hao" considering the name has come up once? But yeah...

Ryu comes back!! And damn, he already qualified for the main tournament?

Bason and Ren are too cute. Also, it's interesting to watch Ren's mindset change and hee, we get the showdown against Tao En!

Episode 11

Phew — Ren gets captured by his Pops and the Zoldyck vibes INTENSIFY.

I don't remember the Tao family having their own Super Sentai Squad, but hey, it tracks!

It's a bit of a shame that these battles were concluded so quickly, but it was cool to see Horohoro and Ryu's upgrades!

Can't believe Tao Rn squeezed that poor baby panda to death only for it to be resurrected as a zombie in the next scene! SHEESH!

Episode 12

This episode also went at THE SPEED OF LIGHT! I cant believe we got Jun's dramatic rescue and the whole Tao En reveal and fight in the same episode! I mean, at this speed, Ren's deep loyalty to the gang does seem a bit goofy, but hey, I'll deal!

Ryu saying, "Just what exactly do you think wavering is?" had me laughing so much, oh man.

Episode 13

How is SO MUCH happeningin EVERY EPISODE?

Yoh and the crew leave home!

They meet Hao!

They get dropped out of a plane!

They meet Lilirara, who's really cool! There's sone backstory!

They go on their way — AND THEN LILIRARA DIES???

Wild!!!!

Horohoro continues to be adorable and guh, I'm really enjoying watching the episodes dubbed... honestly, the dub iis really, really good!

Episode 14

WHEEE LYSERG THE DOOFUS IS HERE... to be honest he's a lil green Sherlock. Isn't it nice that everyone has a colour-coded Oracle Bell lol Yoh's is orange and Lyserg's is green... it's been like 15 years but I still don't know if I've forgiven him for what comes later. Whoops.

Anna is such a great character and I love how much bearing she has on the story.

New ending! And it's Iron Maiden Jeanne!!

Also, the goof with 6 years versus 8 years... Lyserg's parents definitely weren't killed 6 years ago, sheesh.

Episode 15

Okay, so this was one of the eps where the pacing was definitely painful. Anna got a (hodgepodge) version of Hao's backstory — honestly, why didn't Yohmei just tell her the whole deal if he was going to reveal so much? And then, she dealt with Hao's familiars SO QUICKLY that there was like. No threat to them at all. I was expecting more boom bang...

But she did use the 1080 beads! We love the 1080 beads!

Horohoro is just one of the best characters and I loved his upgrade, gosh. Again, we could have had a whole episode dedicated to his time with Apollo, rather than 10 mins. I also don't know HOW Ranger Bluebell knew bout him wanting to become the Shaman King since that wasn't discussed

For obvious reasons, Morphin is renamed Morphia in the dub, hue.

Episode 16

Not much that I can say about this episode (I was a bit sleepy when I watched it). Ryu is getting an upgrade — at lastl! And this episode had some of the humour I love from Shaman King: the whole bit with the vampiric guys was SO funny. "If there are only 5 in the group, why do two of them look the same?!" Yoh/Ren/Horohoro are such a darling trio.

Episode 17

/inhales

THE X-LAWS ARE HERE

WHICH MEANS MARCO IS HERE

WHICH MEANS... ERIC STUART!!!

And man I hate Marco (thought ťhe X-Laws are great villains who basically permanently impacted mine and my friends' psyches; they're a specific type of evil) but boy oh boy, it is sooo good to hear Seto Kaiba in an anime again, sobs.

Lyserg... tbh, I don't think I ever forgave his betrayal back from 2001; THERE'S STILL A PART OF ME THAT'S MAD. I wonder if I might feel differently this time around but I half-expected the little green bean to run off with the X-Laws in this very episode so I was a bit surprised when he didn't.

And then a surprise! Hao chatted to Anna and Manta and Tamao! Anna looks so cool with the sunglasses, lol. Though... I feel like Manta's being from money is largely a plot device (because how else would everyone get to the States)... but I often find this with rich/wealthy characters. sighs!

Oh, also! The Shaman King timeline is SO WHACK. Like, Ryu says to Yoh: "You forgot about me in Izumo which is when I trained to be a shaman." But here's the problem. I think Ryu only went to Izumo in the he first place to take Manta there and THEN he trained with Yohmei — but the flashback reveals that Ryu had to wait for a week to get Yohmei to train him (why is Mikihisa Like That btw) which means that. Yoh would have already been back and fighting and drawing against Ren and therefore concluding prelims in the same time that Ryu was supposedly waiting for Yohemi to train him? And yet Ryu somehow had an Oracle Bell AND qualified for the main tournament? While Ren had only completed two battles?

fudjdjd stuff like this drives me absolutely cuckoo I NEED WRITERS TO HAVE CHARTS AND TOURNAMENT TABLES AND TIMELINES AND ALL ELSE. URHFJFJD

Episode 18

JOCO!!! HEART EMOJIIIS

Anna slapping Hao with her free hand!

Mihihisa being revealed to be Yoh's dad!!

And the whole bit with Ren deciding the teams fhdjd man I am CRACKING UP!

(I rewatched some scenes in English and Japanese and wow, some of the changes are completely unnecessary fjdjd)

Episode 19

I... finally caught the Mic the Jaguar / Mic Jagger joke.

After almost 20 years.

SHEESH.

(I love Boz they're so funny fjljjd)

Episode 20

I never knew that Joco's backstory was so sad... my poor little guy...

I love how Ren pointed out that Horohoro did nothing, zero and zilch in the match dhdjd

Episode 21

Phew... to say that the X-Laws are brutal is putting it lightly... and looking at Jeanne and the way she was in this episode and knowing that she ends up with Ren is very. HUH?

I kind of can't believe just how laidback Yoh is sometimes. It kinda irritates me a tiny bit? Back in the day, I couldn't choose between Yoh, Ren and Horohoro for the Favourite Character Spot, but I'm not firmly Team Horohoro, ehe.

Poor Team Niles. Gosh.

Episode 22

Crying and sobbing... why won't Shaman King just give me. A TIMELINE? So now I discover that it's been TWO MONTHS since they were in the Patch village (???) and it's already the last battle of the first round of the tournament (???) and that Anna already taught Team Funbari Hot Springs EVERYTHING in Hao's big bad book (???) and? We didn't get to see any of that? Like I understand this decision if that's how it went down in the manga and the double OS was a major, unprecedented reveal, but if not... I LOVE A TRAINING MONTAGE. Give me these arcs...

Also, the dub's choices for which terms to leave in Japanese are messy. They use words like Onmyoji and Ultra Senji Ryakketsu, but 'Mana' replaces 'furyoku'... like I'm pretty sure the 4Kids dub used furyoku because it was a term I was v. familiar with.

Anyway, its nice to see a battle span two eps!

Episode 23

Wowee... this episode got me teary. Ryu's upgrade is NICE and Anna talking about the flexibility of Yoh's furyoku was so sweet. I also love the Icemen and their design — and it was particularly cute to see Pino and Horohoro chatting together at the end.

And then Hao's whole convo with Ren (the 4Kids dub called him Len and Yoh nicknamed him Lenny which was the cutest; gah, things I miss!) was really interesting

BUT WHY HAS YOH SOUGHT OUT LYSERG THE TRAITOR... ooft!

Episode 24

WAAAA WHAT A COOL EPISODE?

Okay, so it turns out that I was wrong about all the matches being over because this ep was HAO VS THE X-LAWS and damn, Hao using OXYGEN as his medium? That's bloody cool!!!

The OST in this ep was top tiiieeer and freaking — the X-Laws being humanised? A bit? I am SHOCKED.

Episode 25

Revelations galore... and Yohmei Tries to Commit Infanticide: Extended Edition.

Blimey. This anime is getting me so emotional.

(I love Horohoro I love what a good friend he is he is my FAVOURITE.)

Episode 26

WOW I LOVED THIS EPISODE.

The senior Asakura and Tao folks coming together to discuss Hao's bigtime book and the gang finally finding out about Yoh's origins! I got to see TAO RAN again (I love her) and freaking heck, Mikihisa is so cool? I guess jury has to be out with him a liiiittle bit because I've seen people commenting that he sucks. But. I have a major soft-spot for shounen dads (Goku, Echizen Nanjiroh, Van Hohenheim, Kurosaki Isshin...) and I reckon Mikihisa ticks cool points.

And freaking Ren! Why is everyone so cool??

Episode 27

NO TIME YO RECORD THOUGHTS MUST WATCH NEXT EP

Team Flower vs Jun / Anna / Tamao yeah!!

GOTTA SAVE REEEEN!!!

Episode 28

HOWLING

HOWLING!!

The Iron Maiden will save Ren (oh my GOSH — NOW, CERTAIN THINGS make more sense) and Yoh will be withdrawing from the tournament (?) and we got a new opening AND a new ending and Horohoro had that whole speech and buuu MY TEARS!

Episode 29

Mikihisa appears and just adopts everyone on sight and oh my gosh, the babies? Forget everyone else I want THEIR happiness and dhdhd what is this stuff about a golem?

HOW CAN I GO TO SLEEP WHEN THERE IS SO MUCH HAPPENING IN THIS ANIME

Episode 30

Ahhh we're entering a flashback! So this is what people were talking about when they kept bringing up "Osorezan Arc", huh?? YOH AND ANNA'S FIRST MEETING!

AND SHE WAS SO DISGUSTED.

Once again, the timeline is WHACK because there's really no way it can be the year 2000 at the time of the Shaman Fight unless I'm missing something huuuge... Yoh and Anna really should've been 8 when they met, not 10?

And I'm finally meeting Matamune!

But he was in the last Shaman Fight dhdhd i guess Hao couldn't have participated since he was a Patch that time but what happened at the fight 1000 years ago?

SO MANY MYSTERIIIES

Episode 31

Oh man, I can see why people were so obsessed with this arc... there is just so much emotion here from all sides: Matamune (having to defeat Hao!!), Yoh and Anna, Kino — everything.

You can see why Yoh and Anna are the dream team, wow.

Also, I looked up a timeline and I think I can make my peace with it being the year 2000 in canon... but the anime did not explain it AT ALL, which is pretty poor.

Episode 32

Wow.

Yoh and Anna are very, very special.

[caluski]

Few days ago @ikonofilizm tagged me to do the "put music player on shuffle and list 10 first songs" thing Thank You my dear I loooooove doing this shit 😁😁😁 let's get to it

1. Lucky to get him by Aly and AJ - revisited this album recently, it's really nice and chill, I like the direction they're going in now as adults. I was never really into Americana, but maybe theyve kinda changed that with this release.

2. Another life by Jadu Heart - god, this was the first song I've ever heard of them, such a throwback!!! I remember walking thru the city at night time, walking back from a party I think? Alcohol leaving my body and I just stared at the starry sky. An unbelievably beautiful track. Since then the duo became one of my favorite bands atm.... Please give them a chance, especially their last EP.

3. Liquid air by Temples - one of my favorite tracks from their new album. Talked about them more than a healthy amount of times recently; really good neopsychedelia if you're into that stuff, a 10/10 album for hot summer days.

4. DYNA by PEEL - some more neopsychedelia! It's been a while since I listened to it, but I used to have it on repeat so much.

5. HAUNTED by Isabel LaRosa - ugh, i remember when it came out and I discovered it in like one of those spotify playlists. It had like a thousand plays maybe!!! And I loved it so much, I added it to my midground playlist and had it really high up on my wrapped for that year, and then I checked back a few months ago and it became like a tiktok sound or something with like a billion plays :((((( I guess good for her but mannn my pretentious soul was hurting LOL

6. Assumptions by Sam Gellaitry - some house...ish dance track, i guess. It's fun and I like that vibe of sort of city pop it has going on, but the fucking high pitched sound at the start is the WORST. So fucking annoying. Every time it comes on, even though I actually like the song, the noise just pisses me off and I cant help but skip it!!!! Who thought it was a good idea to START with what sounds like fucking tinnitus.

7. Upside down by Sacha Rudy - ohhhh throwback... I used to love every single track this guy would put out since like 2019. And then he released that EP last year and other than "upside down" I really just couldn't get into it. Felt like a mess. And now he's disappeared since! Can't help but hope he'll come back with something as good as "be a man", because that was my most listened to track that year. So good.

8. Lamb's wool by Foster the People - HEY that's my song!!!!! Oh no wonder it's coming up on shuffle when I've listened to it so much again this past few weeks. This time it's the original and not the Poolside version. One of my all time favorites, like, ever, and if you can only listen to one of the songs I've listed, please make it this one. Who DOESN'T love tracks about how terrifying death is??? I'll hold you so you're not alone 🤓

9. Blessed by August Charles - people who listened to my dinner party/cafe playlist probably heard this one. Ugh it makes me so melancholic. Really good tho. No wonder it's his most listened to track.... I should probably check out his other works bc I really like his voice.

10. Theme of Re:Served by Re:Served - instrumental track with So Few listens that it doesn't even have the count visible on spotify! I remember being obsessed with them back in 2016, when the way I would discover new music was by downloading random japanese experimental albums from my favorite site. This is honestly just like runway music. I love runway music with good bpm. This one is good. You should listen to it and become their third monthly listener with me.

Thank youuuuuuuuu for tagging me!!!!!! Sorry its so long tho!!!! I love talking about songs I love!!!!! Tagging back: @moldavite , @slavicafire (i know u never do these but hope dies last!), @ferdydurke , @jurajurica , @kotikonnut , @skrzynka , @nocylipcowa , and everyone else who listened to at least one of the songs 😁😁😁 let's have a lovely Sunday afternoon everyone mwah

[fatefulfaerie]

20 Questions For FIc Writers

Thanks @linksthoughtbrambles for tagging me!

I honestly don't interact with the Tumblr fic community anymore because time is such a fleeting thing so whenever I post I feel like everyone is like who dis?? I do wish I had more time for this stuff and miss the good old days <3

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

26

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

523,592

3. What fandoms do you write for?

The Legend of Zelda mostly buy RWBY, Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, and Star Wars when I'm feeling those.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Ten Thousand Years Ago: 135

Hindsight: 137

Written In The Stars: 184

Honesty: 229

In Calamity's Grasp: 345 (but that's because my co-authors @pastelsandpining and @aurathian were/are awesome)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I try to but sometimes I forget!

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

uhh to many to chose from but *sighs* yeah that's probably ttya

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Have I written any uh...yeah probably AMB

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I did once and I deleted the fic because of it. They were upset because I pulled the "it was all a dream" bit and like sure but it's fan fiction about an alternate timeline that I made up based on a fictional web series. I mostly write it as a thought experiment and like idk. People got really mad and for what? Like I wrote a thing, I did words, nothing in it was problematic and hey I'm just a human? Like I'm not saying it was perfect but I think the amount of hate I received was a bit much. Sometimes people just want to be mad and RWBY "fans" like REALLY want to be mad. I have no idea.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind.

Not really. It's not even because I'm squeamish anymore it's just not my wheelhouse. I respect people who do though!

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

I don't think I have?

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No but I think fan fiction.net had a translation option and I remember playing with that to see what my words looked like in other languages.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes! Pastels and Bella and I wrote ICG together! It's still one of my favorites!

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

The nonexistent bridge fic between botw and botw 2 but idk. That's the only situation where I feel exhausted fixing Nintendo's problem for them. They should just hire me so that these things don't happen in the first place.

16. What are your writing strengths?

dialogue

also humor I've been told but I can't control that power yet

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

descriptions

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I've played with French for some poetry but that was using Google Translate. I think I'd need to actually know another language in order to do that.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Probably Once Upon A Time when I was 14

20. Favorite fic you've ever written?

Am I allowed to say In Calamity's Grasp?

Tagging @pastelsandpining @aurathian @linktheacehero @dyventus

Idk if you guys are still around or what you've been up to but I consider you the OG lackeys although I know I'm forgetting people I'm just not sure of usernames anymore

[murderbirds]

To claim my rightful place pt.5

Oswald was wrong. He had to be. Ed understood why he would be angered by the existence of the international police, but it wasn't their fault that some pokemon trainers used their money and influence for nefarious reasons. In fact, if there wasn't so much crime, maybe they would be able to focus on solving that instead. The problem was, evil teams just continued appearing in Gotham.

“You don't truly believe that.” Ed jumped as he heard the voice coming from behind him. He stopped the autopsy he was working on and glanced behind his shoulder. Nothing. He shook his head. Just his imagination. “You wish.” He looked around again. Still nothing. “C'mon, Eddie. Don't tell me you have forgotten about me. We used to be so close, remember?”

“No, I don't.” The scientist said as he got back to work. “You aren't real and those were just tactics created by a 10 years old to learn how to deal with his abusive father.”

“Ogerpon didn't seem to think so.”

“She humored me! Because she loves me! Besides, you are wrong! Just like Oswald. I respect him and I believe in him for most things, but not this. I'm sure that, if Galavan is as bad as he says he is, the police will get to him eventually.”

“Uh huh. You know, if I remember correctly, you wanted to kick him out a week ago and now, because he opened slightly towards you, you are crushing on him even harder than before.”

“I'm not crushing on him!” Edward shouted just as the door of the morgue opened and an officer stepped inside.

“You, what?” The man, who went by Lieutenant Harold asked.

Ed blinked a couple of times, “crushed- uh,” he looked down, “the body! He- he was killed by having something crush his skull!” He pointed at the injury on the corpse's head.

The lieutenant frowned, not fully believing. “Right, whatever you say, Nygma. I guess Dougherty is right, you are losing your mind.” He chuckled and placed a clipboard on a desk. “Boss asked me to deliver this to you.”

“Thank-” the door shut on Ed's face, “you.” The scientist sighed.

“Hey, Ed, the poor have it, the rich have it and if you eat it you die.”

Ed groaned, “nothing.”

“That is what you are for these people. Better to crush on Cobblepot than suck up to a bunch of assholes that couldn't care less if you dropped dead.”

“That's not-” he went silent as voices spoke outside.

“What were you doing in there with creepy Ed?”

“Just delivering some papers. He was talking to himself again, can you believe it?”

“Really? Of my Arceus, how long until he loses it fully and just starts an evil team of his own.”

“I give it six months.” Both voices laughed and Ed let his face fall.

“Idiots. I mean, to make an evil team, ya need people willing to follow you, and you don't even have that, do you, Eddie?” Ed looked to the side, tears coming to his eyes.

“Say,” one of the officers outside said, changing the subject, which Ed was very appreciative of, “is it true what people are saying? About some new pokemon living in the catacombs beneath Gotham?”

“Honestly? No one really knows. The guy Nygma is analyzing was apparently down there and he was found with some weird injuries.”

“Weird how?”

“Like, so violent that there is no way a wild pokemon did that, even the rabid ones. Has to have been a trainer that instructed their ‘mons, either that or I really, really don't wanna meet whatever lives down there.”

Ed's eyes widened. “Did you hear that?”

“Crazy pokemon living in the caves beneath Gotham? Kind of hard to miss it. Wait- Ed, don't tell me that you are planning to tell Oswald that-”

“It's a good plan!”

“No, it is suicide!”

Ed shrugged. “Or an opportunity.”

1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8

Full story

[aci32]

BLIND GUARDIAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey folks sorry for running 72 hours late, better late than never, here's my 4th review of 2024, Blind Guardian!!!!! It had been 8 years since I last saw them which was at Wacken Open Air 2016 and that show was absolutely electric. It had been 9 years since I last saw them in Toronto and that was at Danforth Music Hall with Gravedigger as the opening act. This was also the 4th different venue I've seen Blind Guardian play, which I will elaborate later on.

Let's begin the festivities!

Firsr band up was NIGHT DEMON!!!!!!!!!!!!! I had heard of this band via seeing their name circulate around social media but never checked them out beforehand. I will say they had a great live show as frontman and bassist Jarvis Leatherby, who if you asked me looked like Jonathan Davis and Glen Benton had a love child together, and guitarist Armand Anthony, who looked like Rotting Christ frontman and guitarist Sakis Tolis, had great stage presence and energy. My only disappointment was the lack of banter, but I suppose the reason for that was time limitation in which their set lasted for 45 minutes, which is a great amount of time for an opening act. At one point their mascot came out with a chalice to pour invisible red wine or blood. Here's their setlist:

1. Outsider

2. Screams in the Night

3. Escape From Beyond

4. Dawn Rider

5. The Howling Man

6. Beyond the Grave

7. The Wrath

8. Welcome to the Night

9. The Chalice

10. Night Demon

After Night Demon it was time for BLIND GUARDIAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This was my 4th time seeing them and as I mentioned earlier, I last saw them 8 years ago at Wacken Open Air when they were one of the headliners alongside Twisted Sister, Iron Maiden, and Whitesnake, and it was the day after I saw Maiden play and the day before I saw Twisted Sister play, and I remember that show was absolutely awesome as I got to see BG play in their home country and the crowd was electric especially during The Bard's Song and Valhalla, which was their last song at the time. I also remember half the field being empty during Ministry and Testament's sets as the crowd was spent after BG finished. Also before BG, Tarja was performing and the crowd grew impatient as they were craving BG. This show was great but definitely not as great compared to seeing them at Kool Haus when the sound was crystal clear, same with Danforth Music Hall when the sound was clear, once again Rebel dropped the ball with their muddy sound. Hansi Kürsch not only sounds phenomenal live especially since he's pushing 60, he's hilarious in between songs because before Blood of the Elves he said the following "Another tough night for me *crowd laughs* I'm sure we will get you sooner or later. We do everything possible, what exactly? I do not know IT'S GREAT TO BE BACK HERE TORONTO!!! *Crowd roars* This is how we imagined a Canadian welcome. *crowd cheers* You approve I know. *crowd laughs* We will help you on that, why so confident on that? It's quite easy because of the guys behind me. That's all the praise thinks of you're right. Well but (Marcus) him he knows all the tricks, he's a great guy. He's not wasting too much time on music anymore. He's indulging in his 'Witcher' career *crowd laughs*. A role model for almost everyone, apart for the people who want to play guitar. But uh maybe when we come back next time, he will improve. He's also not that good a Witcher as we will find out on the next one. But he's good for having that. Even you do not know whatever you're cheering now right? And it means all the hard work for you, let's protect the Blood of the Elves" man that was amusing how Hansi had said that Marcus Siepen having gone totally grey was cosplaying as the Witcher as a means to roast him. I'll also highlight this was the 6th time overall I've seen Hansi Kürsch live as I saw him twice with Demons & Wizards 5 years ago before Jon Schaffer's legal woes which would lead to D&W breaking up in the process. In conclusion this show was great, but Wacken Open Air 2016 tops them all. Here's their setlist:

1. Imaginations From the Other Side

2. Blood of the Elves

3. Nightfall

4. The Script For my Requiem

5. Violent Shadows

6. Skalds and Shadows

7. Into the Storm

8. Secrets of the American Gods

9. The Bard's Song - In the Forest

10. Time Stands Still (At the Iron Hill)

11. Lost in the Twilight Hall

Encore:

12. Sacred Worlds

13. Bright Eyes

14. Valhalla

15. Mirror Mirror

Overall a great show and a great way to spend a Thursday night.

HEAVY METAL FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[storiesofdeathsblog]

Three Special Prisoners By TJ Noose

The warden of the state's main penitentiary sat in the study of his large ranch in the wooded countryside about 10 miles from the state prison. Tomorrow would be a big day, with three executions scheduled.

The state had switched to lethal injection several years earlier, but when the oldest of the three brothers sentenced to die several months ago asked him to work something out to allow them to die by "anything but the needle", he knew just what to do. Working with his most trusted death row guards, he conspired to fake the executions of the three young men, and then snuck them away to his secluded ranch to await their real executions. As far as the state was concerned, the three men were dead, and they had no family, as the murder of their parents was the reason the men were on death row in the first place.

As part of his agreement, the warden would not tell the men until the day before their real executions when it would happen or how they would die. They also agreed to follow his instructions from the moment they were delivered from within the walls of the state prison.

***

Six months ago ***

The oldest of the three men was Dave. He was seventeen when the crime was committed just over three years ago, and like his brothers, was tried as an adult. Dave was a handsome man about 6 foot 3 with dark wavy hair. His twin brother Doug was a few minutes younger, and shared his brother's good looks, although he had a scar on his left cheek from a bicycle accident when he was ten.

The youngest, Tom, was 15 when the crime was committed. The state had decided to execute all three once Tom reached the age of 18, which was about 4 months ago. He had grown another 8 inches while in prison, leaving him about an inch taller than his older brothers.

The morning after their scheduled death by injection, they woke up from a drug-induced slumber to find that they were once again in prison, but not the one in which they had 'died' the night before. Their cells were spacious and well lit, and were located on three sides of a large cinder-block structure. The fourth side had two metal doors, and the only window was high on the same side, although it revealed nothing but sky from any of the three cells. In the center of room were various weight benches and exercise machines. Each of the cells was well appointed, with comfortable cots and showers in the corner. They even had all their possessions from their cells on death row.

Dave was the first to wake up and look around. He looked to see his brothers sleeping in the cells on either side of him. He was relieved to find that the fake executions had apparently gone off as planned. There was always the risk that the warden was lying to them, and there was little they could do once the drugs started flowing into their veins, as they would be put into a near-death sleep necessary to fool the witnesses in the death chamber. Waking up in this new prison meant they had postponed their deaths, while avoiding the humiliation of being put to sleep like dogs.

When Doug and Tim woke up a few minutes later, they could smell the smoke of Dave's first cigarette of the day. Doug swung his feet to the floor and lit up a smoke of his own as his kid brother said, "Hey, guys, we did it! We cheated the needle!" Tom reached for the fresh pack of chewing tobacco sitting on a steel table, and put in a chaw.

"OK, guys," Dave told his brothers, "remember the deal. We promised the warden we would do anything and everything he tells us to, and he will execute us as he sees fit. We screw up, and he'll give us the needle right here. A deal's a deal." His brothers voiced their agreement.

Just then the door opened, and the warden and another man, who they had never seen before, walked into their cellblock. The warden said "G'morning men!" He handed each of them the local newspaper as the other man slid breakfast trays into their cells. "Thought you might like to read about your executions. As of this moment, you do not exist. You were buried in the cemetery beside your parents about an hour ago. Enjoy your breakfast. We'll be back in a little while."

The men looked over the articles as they ate their eggs and bacon. When breakfast was done, the warden returned as promised, with a couple of the guards they recognized from their stay on Death Row.

"Men, you know our deal. Here's the plan. This morning we are going to take each of you for evaluation to determine your ideal execution scenario. Our goal here is to make this stimulating and enjoyable for you and for us." He turned to the two guards and said, "Bring along Dave, and we'll start his evaluation."

The warden opened the second door while the guards released Dave from his cell. They walked him into a small soundproofed room, and the Warden closed the door behind them. In the center of the room was a large and heavy wooden chair. "What's this?" Dave asked, realizing immediately that this was an electric chair.

"Don't worry, Dave," the warden said, "I got this when the state switched to lethal injection, but it's not hooked up. Please, have a seat." Dave sat down and placed his forearms on the arms of the chair. The two guards proceeded to strap him in using the well-worn leather straps fastened to the chair. In front of him was a large TV screen. The warden continued: "We are going to hook you up to some diagnostic equipment to measure your heart rate, blood pressure, adrenaline levels and so on. Relax, please. This will take a few minutes."

The two guards unbuttoned Dave's prison jumpsuit and set about attaching various wires to Dave's chest, wrist and fingers. They also fitted a cuff around his semi-hard cock. When they were finished, they stepped aside, and the Warden turned on the TV. "Dave," he said, "you are about to see a short video. Your reactions to the images you see will be measured, and we will use this information to determine your method of execution. Please sit back and relax, and just focus on the TV screen."

With that he stepped to the side and pressed the Play button on a VCR. The screen came to life, and a series of innocuous pictures of flowers, sunsets and buzzing insects filled the screen, accompanied by soft violin music. This was designed to establish a baseline and to relax the inmate. After about 2 minutes of this calming video, a series of pictures lasting 5 seconds each were displayed. They showed still pictures of executions, photos of men having sex with women and other men, and shots of men dressed in various clothing, including military camouflage, leather harnesses and athletic uniforms. These were also interspersed with the calming photos of flowers and so on.

The third portion of the tape included video shorts of some of the same types of images as appeared in the still photos. When the video ended, Dave was sweating and quite excited. The guards removed the wiring from the prisoner, released him from the chair, and the Warden said, "Thank you, Dave. I ask that you not talk about what you have seen with either of your brothers during your stay with us. You will now be returned to your cell."

Doug and Tom were both shown the video during the next hour.

The next day, after breakfast, the Warden returned to the small jail with another man the prisoners had never seen. The Warden said to the three brothers: "Each of you will be put on a different exercise and diet plan. You will be fed a specific diet, and also provided supplements as well. This here is Mike, your personal trainer. You will follow every direction he gives you, as if it came from my mouth. Is that clear?"

The three prisoners nodded and Dave, as the leader of the group said, "Yes, Sir." "Dave, you will be moved to another area for your training." The warden rapped on the door, and four guards came in to take Dave away in handcuffs and leg irons.

"OK, Mike, these guys are yours." The warden stepped out into the ante-room of his little prison, and when he was gone Doug and Tom started their training.

Meanwhile, the warden followed the guards and their charge into the basement of the warden's house. They led Dave into a windowless back room and put him in a small cell furnished with a bed, a TV, a recliner and a table with a large ashtray.

"Dave," the warden said through the bars as his prisoner stood in the center of his small cell, "your training is a little different from that of your brothers, and I didn't want it to cause any problems so I moved you over here. You, too, will be put on a special diet. Your exercise program is limited to the weight bench in here, but for the most part you will be provided with videos to watch. There's a list of viewing choices sitting on that table; just let us know what you want to see. The thing is, you only get to watch a video when we say you can, and that depends upon reaching certain goals. We noticed you really got turned on by the videos and pictures of men smoking cigars. You will be given a daily ration of them, and if you finish them for the day, then you can watch videos the next day. As we go along there will be a few more surprises that I'm sure you will enjoy." With that he handed Dave a couple of small cigars and left him to begin his training.

The warden looked out the window at the small cinder-block building behind the house. Everything was in order for tomorrow's execution. The three men now matched the physical profiles he had selected for each of them. Mike had done his job well, driving them to success. He ran his part of the operation like basic training, which was only appropriate, as Mike was a former drill sergeant.

The warden looked over his list of things to do. The six members of his hanging fantasy group would all be arriving this afternoon from around the country. The video cameras and taping equipment were tested and ready to go come morning. The gallows and other equipment had been built out of earshot of the prisoners, and they were tested and ready. Now he only had to prepare the prisoners.

During their training, the three men had been measured on a weekly basis. As far as they knew, this was simply a way to gauge their progress, and Mike used the results to spur each of them on to better training. In reality, it was also a ruse to allow the warden to provide precise measurements to a tailor.

He started by going downstairs to his basement prison, joined by several guards. He unlocked the door to find Dave sitting in the recliner watching "Deliverance" and sucking on a fat 70-ring cigar. Dave had been fed over 5000 calories per day, and was smoking ever fatter cigars all through the day. In an effort to spur on his charge's caloric and cigar intake, his days had slowly been reduced to just 20 hours per day, making him think that he had been in the windowless cell for more than the six months. At this point Dave was a far-from-buff, but muscular bear. Like his brothers, he had not been permitted to shave throughout the stay in the basement, so he had a rough and sinister look to him. The new tattoos on his chest, belly and arms, as well as a thick nose ring and other piercings added to the image.

Dave stood up when the warden entered, and stuck the half-smoked stogie into his mouth. "Hello, warden!"

"Hello, Dave. I'm here to tell you it's almost time. Your execution has been set for tomorrow morning." With that, the guards shackled the prisoner and walked him back to the main cellblock.

Dave was in for a surprise when he arrived. His two brothers were hardly recognizable, and Dave and Doug barely looked like twins any more. Doug's training had produced a tightly muscled vision of the perfect male specimen. Tim, meanwhile, was looking a bit gaunt, but muscular and quite tanned, as his training involved daily sessions on a tanning bed.

Dave was locked into his cell. Like his brothers, he sat down on his bunk facing the warden. "Gentlemen, your training is complete. Tomorrow your sentences will be carried out." He paused to let that sink in. "There is some prep work still to do, but you may relax today in your cells. Your executions are set for tomorrow morning beginning at 9:00."

He turned and walked out.

Tom worked the chaw in his mouth, spit a stream of juice into a cup, and said, "Well, guys, this is it."

Dave and Doug, twins to the end despite their appearance, said, "Yep, I guess so," in unison. The two of them still acted and behaved like identical twins, even if they no longer looked much alike.

The three men sat talking about what was about to happen through the morning and catching up on what they had done during their training. Even after the lights were turned out on schedule at 10 pm, they continued to talk into the night.

Morning dawned to a cloudless sky, with just a hint of the hot day to come. The prisoners were awakened at 6 as usual.

After breakfast, the warden came in with three guards carrying cardboard boxes. Each man was taken, one-by-one, into the small room where they had watched the video months earlier. They were told to strip off their orange prison garb and given a different haircut. As he returned naked to his cell, each man would find a box of clothing had been left, with instructions to put them on.

Dave was the first to be prepped. His beard was trimmed slightly, but was left bushy and intimidating. His long hair was tied into a short ponytail in back. He found his box contained black leather chaps and vest, a pair of tall motorcycle boots, and a leather collar. He dressed quickly and took a seat on the cot in his cell. The lack of pants left his ass and cock fully exposed, but he cared little as he stroked the smooth and lustrous chaps. He fingered the PA that had been put in during his training bringing his cock fully to life. He asked for a cigar, as he had smoked his last one the night before, but was told he would have to wait. He stretched out on the cot to ponder in anticipation of his forthcoming execution.

Meanwhile Doug was taken into the little room. His hair was cut back to a military high and tight. His beard and mustache were shaved off. He showed off his now sculpted body as he returned to the tiny cell. To his growing excitement his clothes turned out to be a set of camouflage pants and a tight olive drab shirt, a jacket that matched the pants, as well as black military boots, dog tags and a web-belt. He put the uniform on with pride, buttoning the jacket up to the top, which accentuated his neck, now thick enough to make any football lineman envious. On his head he positioned a marines-style BDU cap; he ran his hands along the shaved sides of his head, which sent shivers of excitement through his body. He rearranged his erect cock in the tight fitting pants, which accentuated the thick muscles of his thighs and especially his tight ass.

Dave watched through the two sets of bars at his twin lighting a cigarette and said, "You'd have made a hot-looking Marine, bro."

"Thanks, man." Doug took a seat on the cot, let out a stream of smoke through his nose and said, "I'm starting to think they might tie me to a post and shoot me. I kinda had my heart set on a hanging. Now I don't know what to think."

Dave had no time to comment as their younger brother Tom came out of the small room showing off his all-over tan. He had received a cowboy-style haircut. His beard and stache were trimmed neatly. Once again locked into his cell, he opened up his box. It contained well-worn Wranglers, a cowboy shirt, brown chaps, a wide belt with a large oval buckle, and boots with spurs. He was also given a black hat and a red bandanna to wear. He smiled broadly around his fat plug of chaw as he started to put on the comfortable western gear.

By now it was nearly nine o'clock, and time to start. The three men sat on their bunks, each trembling with excitement about what was to come. While Doug sucked on one cigarette after another and Tom worked his chaw, Dave started to get desperate for a cigar.

Suddenly the door flew open. Four bikers in full leathers rushed in bearing automatic handguns and screamed at the one guard, "You! Open that one's cell!" pointing at Dave. The guard complied, and the bikers wrestled Dave to floor and clasped handcuffs on his thick wrists. They pulled him to his feet and dragged him out of the room.

Outside they threw Dave into the back of a pickup truck and drove off. They soon came to a large clearing in the woods. On one side was a raised platform, on which several men sat on folding chairs. All around the area were video cameras, some mounted on tripods and others held by guards from the state prison. In the middle of the clearing was a three-foot square concrete pad, with a metal post about 8 feet high mounted near one edge.

The pickup truck skidded to a halt near the pad, and the four bikers carried Dave to the post. A short greased metal column sheathed in latex protruded from the post, angled upward. He was lifted up and the column was forced up Dave's ass. He was then allowed to stand; the butt plug's angle prevented him from slipping off of it. The cuff was unlocked from his left wrist and then quickly refastened with the chain located behind the post. Leather straps were applied around his knees and waist, and a d-ring on his leather collar was locked to an eyebolt mounted on the side of the post. Finally, his feet were tightly shackled to ankle cuffs welded to the base of the post.

Dave's eyes darted from place to place trying to take in the entire scene. The warden walked up and said, "Dave, you shall be executed by asphyxiation." With that, Dave's already erect cock grew longer and fatter. The warden offered Dave a very fat cigar, and the prisoner sucked hard on the stogie to get it lit, his body craving the nicotine it had been denied since yesterday. He drew the thick smoke into his lungs and let out a stream with a sigh of contentment.

Two of the bikers stepped forward with posts, each 8 feet tall, on which votive candles had been spaced every 6 inches. The posts were stood upright on the far corners of the concrete pad, and the candles were quickly lit. A third biker fitted Dave with a wireless microphone.

The warden stepped forward again, and asked, "Do you have any last words before your execution by carbon dioxide?" Dave exclaimed, "Let's get it on, man!" and took another drag on the stogie. "Very well."

The warden stepped back and took a place on the viewing platform. A clear plexiglass box was lowered from the trees above. It slid over the prisoner and the two posts of burning candles. As soon as it was in place, a biker with a caulking gun sealed the gap between the clear box and the raised steel rim of the concrete pad, sealing Dave in. The condemned man stood looking around and smoking his cigar. A cloud of smoke soon became noticeable within the box.

At the top of the box was a nozzle. A rubber tube was attached to it. At the other end of the tube was a vacuum pump. A second nozzle was attached at the base of the chamber to a metal box of dry ice. A propane burner was ignited, which slowly heated the box, converting the dry ice to carbon dioxide vapor. When everything was ready, the pump was turned on. The air in the chamber was slowly removed, drawing pure carbon dioxide in from the box.

Carbon dioxide is heavier than air, and it filled the chamber from the bottom up. As Dave stood there smoking, he watched as the votive candles went out, one by one. Soon the candles up to waist level had been extinguished. Dave's breathing rate picked up as adrenaline coursed through his veins. He sucked hard on the stogie with almost every breath, but much of the smoke was being sucked out from the top of the chamber by the vacuum pump. Dave eyed the candles as they continued to be extinguished due to lack of oxygen. He rearranged the cigar to the other side of his mouth, but it fell out, and landed by his feet. The glow of the ash went out almost immediately in the oxygen-starved air at the base of the chamber. By the time the candles at eye level went out, he was involuntarily gasping for breath as his lungs desperately fought for oxygen. The sound of his breathing was picked up by the mic and transmitted to all of the participants and viewers scattered around the clearing. For Dave, the stimulation of the situation combined with the anal probe finally triggered a massive ejaculation, which sprayed cum onto the walls of his final cell. Dave's skin began to take on a bluish color, and as the last of the oxygen was drawn from the plexiglass box, Dave passed out, his chubby body slumping as far forward as the tight restraints would allow. His gasps for air soon slowed to a stop. His body was left to complete the death process as the next execution was prepared.

The warden soon returned to the cellblock. On his orders, Doug turned his back to the cell bars and slipped his hands through a slot in the cell door, allowing his wrists to be cuffed behind him. Ankle shackles were also locked in place, and the cell door was opened.

For the first time since entering the small cellblock, Doug was led out the door and through the anteroom. Outside, he was greeted by a dozen guards from death row wielding M-16 rifles and dressed in camouflage. The prisoner was led to a waiting canvas-topped military truck. He mounted stairs into the truck and took his place on the right-side bench. Several of the armed guards joined him in the truck, while the others walked behind, following the truck down a dirt road into the pine forest.

Reaching a separate clearing from which Dave had been executed, the truck stopped and the stairs were replaced behind the truck's gate. The prisoner was led down the steps and around toward the front of the truck, where he got his first glimpse of the site of his execution. He let out a sigh of relief at the sight of a thick noose dangling from the massive crossbar of a large gallows above his head.

Doug was led up the wooden stairs to the top of the platform, and moved to a position along the front edge of the structure. He stood looking over a raised reviewing stand on which the warden and six other men sat. Scattered around the area were video cameras and microphones, as well as the dozen rifle-toting guards.

The executioner was a heavyset man about 35 wearing a tight-fitting leather shirt and pants and a mask that covered his entire head, with cutouts only for his eyes and mouth. He stepped behind the prisoner and fitted the heavy noose around Doug's thick neck, cinching it tight. He knelt down and removed the ankle shackles. He also unbuttoned the fly on Doug's trousers, unleashing the condemned man's thick and erect cock.

The warden then stood up and asked Doug if he had anything to say. "You have treated us well, and I hope to give you a good show. Enjoy, gentlemen!" He paused for a moment and said, "I don't suppose I could have a final cigar, could I?" The warden nodded his assent, and one of the armed guards mounted the scaffold and handed the executioner a fat stogie saying, "I'd hoped to have this to celebrate afterwards, but I guess he needs it more than me."

Doug replied, "Thanks. I guess I won't be finishing it, so you can have it when I'm done." The guard nodded and returned to ground level.

The executioner lit the cigar, and then slipped it into the waiting mouth of his condemned prisoner. Doug sucked hard on it, blowing smoke that wafted past his executioner and into the trees. Doug was sweating heavily now in the thick military clothing, but he hardly noticed. His eyes panned the clearing taking in the sight of all the armed guards surrounding the scaffold.

The hooded executioner stepped across the platform to the release lever and awaited his signal. At a nod from the warden, he yanked back the wooden bar, which dropped the front portion of the scaffold away. The condemned man dropped a few inches and immediately started struggling against his handcuffs. Doug's cigar popped out of his mouth, and its original owner retrieved it from the ground and sucked on it, tasting the man who was dying before his eyes. Several of the guards, and all of the men on the reviewing stand took their cocks in their hands and masturbated as they watched the struggling man before them. The tight camouflage clothing and muscular physique accentuated the experience, and several of them blew their loads at the same time as the dying man. Doug's wad managed to hit two of the guards standing well away from the gallows.

The struggles slowly died away, and the man let go a high arching stream of piss, which showered the ground beneath his dangling combat boots. He also showed a distinctive bulge in the tight ass of his pants, where his bowels had released.

Tom sat all alone in the jail that had been his home for the past six months. He worked the chaw in his mouth, pondering how his older brothers were enjoying their executions while eagerly anticipating his own. He spat out the worn out plug and reached for the pouch to reload, but it was gone. In its place, a can of Skoal had been left. He opened the tin and put a couple of thick wads of snuff into place behind his lower lip, and then slipped the can into his left rear pocket, where it rested comfortably in a well-worn circle.

Suddenly the moment had arrived. The Warden came through the door, dressed in black. A sheriff's star glinted on his left breast, and a brace of Colts rested comfortably in holsters on his hips.

He turned to the three similarly-dressed men behind him and said, "Let's go men. Get him ready."

One of them carried a leather strap into the cell once the door had been unlocked. They cuffed Tom's hands behind him, and then fastened the strap around his chest, securing his upper arms to his sides. They led him out of the cell and through the anteroom. Outside a pair of horses stood hitched to a wooden buckboard, surrounded by a number of rough-looking men Tom recognized as guards from the prison, but all dressed in western garb and toting lever-action rifles. Two of the guards that led him from his cell lifted him up onto the cart and Tom took a place near the front, joined by three of the guards. The other men and the 'sheriff' followed the cart as it slowly left the cell building.

As he sat there, Tom wished he could adjust his painful erection. He had long imagined what it would be like to be some desperado being led to his execution, but this topped anything his wildest imagination could have dreamt up. He looked around as if trying to soak up every image, to store away in his memory banks. He sucked on the strong tobacco and spit a stream of brown juice onto the wooden floorboards between his dusty boots.

The buckboard turned a corner between the tall pines and emerged into a clearing. He barely noticed a strange box-shaped contraption covered by a tarp to one side, never dreaming that the box contained the lifeless body of his oldest brother. Instead his eyes were on the thick hemp noose that dangled from the branch of a sturdy oak.

The cart came to standstill and he stood up. A guard with a handheld camera approached the back of the cart as the guards helped him down. As the guards arrayed themselves around the oak tree, rifles at the ready, the young prisoner turned to his left and walked around the cart toward the dangling noose. His eyes locked on it.

A brown stallion was led from the side of the clearing, meeting him at the noose. Tom was helped into the saddle, his pinioned arms helpless in assisting the guards. He settled down in the saddle the best he could, fully realizing that his first ride on a horse would also be his last. "At least I will die as the cowboy I dreamed I would be as a boy!" he thought.

The sheriff mounted up on another horse and sidled up beside the condemned prisoner, whose mount had been moved so that Tom's head was placed just inches from the thick rope. The sheriff removed Tom's hat and hung it on the horn of his saddle. He slipped the noose over Tom's head and tightened it just above the red bandanna. He pulled on the rope a little, so the coils of the noose were parallel to the ground, and replaced Tom's hat.

The sheriff asked Tom if he had any last words. Tom turned to his right and spit a stream of tobacco juice onto the ground and said, "Shit yes, man. Do it." The sheriff wheeled his horse away from the prisoner and rode over to the side of the reviewing stand, where his hanging club buddies awaited the third act of their show. He nodded once.

One of the guards flipped the stirrups on Tom's saddle up over the horn and then led the horse away. For the first couple of feet Tom continued upright in the saddle, until he reached the end of his rope. His hat was knocked from his head and he was dragged backwards over the back of the saddle, and suddenly he was free of the horse's support. He swung back and forth, his spurs jangling as he strained for a stance, but the ground was three feet away, and nothing would bring that ground any closer. He struggled against the cuffs and strap. His chest hurt from the strain of trying to inhale one more breath, but that pain was nothing compared to the constriction on his crushed windpipe. He began to black out, but was lucid enough to feel the jet of cum shoot in his tight Wranglers. His last sight was of one of the guards, a rifle in his left hand while his other hand reached down his own pants, rubbing a similarly engorged cock. Tom's struggles lessened and finally stopped after he passed out. His last unconscious action was the emptying of his bladder into his cum-stained jeans.

The warden and his friends spent many a day watching the edited tapes of the three stunning young men breathing their last in ways the state regretfully would not sanction. He considered selling copies on the Internet, but the possibility of detection by prison authorities deterred him. Only as the warden of the state prison could he possibly be able to add other inmates to the graveyard behind his house already containing the executed bodies of his first three special prisoners.