#i kept that skirt well into high school lol. actually i might still have it somewhere... unless it ripped at some point

[britneyshakespeare]

you know miley stewart is a fun character because she's in no way a "not like other girls" lead, but she still has a little bit of an outsider thing going on for being a tennessee girl living in malibu. she's a BIG girly girl and is absolutely not ashamed of being crazy about cute clothes and cute boys, but she differs from amber and ashley because she is actually nice to people.

and this was like not a hard thing to do; it feels like, pretty typical actually. this is what most female-led media was like in the early 2000s, before it devolved to toning down the overall "girliness" of many protagonists, but often without replacing it with anything much more substantial as a personality. like, the mean hyperfeminine popular bully girl trope STAYED for the antagonists, and the protagonists were not defined in many ways other than NOT being like them. they weren't supposed to be so obsessed w going to the mall anymore; the popular bitches won that in the trope custody battle. even though going to the mall is fun and should not considered a thing only vapid kids can enjoy.

[desiraypark]

An Old Friend

Characters: Adam Sackler x Original Character (Black Female/Femme)  OC: Katrina “Trina” Santos - described as petite (particularly short, not necessarily thin) and having been quiet and introverted when they were young. Storytelling purpose: Adam thinks he’s about to turn her out and toss her around like a dodgeball. Content: Chile. Take a wild guess. Licky-licky; pokey-pokey; sucky-sucky. Additional CW: Dirty talk; a tad bit of name-calling; Adam shoves that spray can down OC’s throat and OC guzzles that Reddi Whip.  Author’s Note: I still haven’t actually watched a full episode of Girls lol. YouTube clips and Girls Wiki have been my friends. Word Count: 2,829

Adam stood outside of the bar, took a deep breath, and walked in. He maneuvered through a small group that was just standing in the middle of the floor for some fucking reason, and sat down. The bartender was way on the other end.  “I’ll be with you in a minute,” he said. Adam nodded his acknowledgement, and used the time to think about what he wanted. “Adam?” a little voice called to him. He looked in the direction it came from--two seats to his left. A vaguely familiar girl with curly hair and gold hoop earrings that complemented her gold eyeglasses smiled at him. “Trina...Santos...” Adam blinked and shook his head a little, trying to adjust his vision. The last time he saw Katrina Santos...well, it was in a cap and gown. But before then, she always wore hoodies, jeans, Jordans and round, black eyeglasses. She rarely wore makeup or even jewelry. And she definitely didn’t talk much. 

Now, she was sitting at the bar with her hair out, gold jewelry placed wherever jewelry could go--wearing red lipstick, that contour or highlight shit that girls wore now, and had a set of jugs partially on display.  “No fucking way,” he said. “Trina?!”  He slid over to the empty seat beside her and gave her a hug. “How are you?” “I’m doing fine,” she replied. She looked down at her half-empty pint glass. “Well, kinda.”  She got a good look at his face. He still looked the same, yet so different at the same time. His hair was longer and his body bulkier. 

“You still live in Brooklyn?” he asked. “No. Harlem now.” Her head tilted a little. She suddenly remembered that Adam had a drinking problem in high school. She cleared her throat, not daring to question him.

“I’ve seen you on TV a few times. I’ve heard about you being on the stage. I’m glad you stuck with theatre. You were so good in school.” “What’ll you have?” the bartender asked. Adam’s head shot up in his direction and he gave the decision deep thought. He felt Trina’s eyes on him, too.  “Club soda with lime.” The bartender nodded and fixed up his drink. “So, what are you doing now? Are you still a shy poet?”  Trina scoffed and chuckled. “Still shy. A poet sometimes.” The bartender handed Adam his drink.  “I work as a reading specialist now. At an elementary school,” Trina added. “That doesn’t surprise me,” Adam said. He took a sip of his drink. Trina felt butterflies in her stomach. She didn’t expect Adam to remember things about her.  “So, what brought you here?” he asked. Trina looked down at her watch. “I’m supposed to be on a date. But I guess I missed the new rule where only one person actually shows up at the meetup spot.” “Wow. Did you call him?”  “Of course. Called, text. No response.”  “Damn. What a dick,” Adam said. 

Trina finished off her drink, then held up her hand. “It is what it is. C’est la vie; que sera, sera. All that stuff.” Adam twirled the straw in his club soda. 

“So, what’s been going on with you?” she asked. Adam looked back at her. “Oh, working. I’m rehearsing for a play right now. Off-Broadway...” “That’s great,” Trina said warmly. “But what I meant was...what’s got you ready to fall off the wagon?” Suddenly, there was silence between them. Beyond them was the chatter of strangers, the sound of liquid being sucked through straws, and easy listening music. Adam looked down at the bubbles in his drink. “My girlfriend broke up with me.” Trina rubbed Adam’s arm. “I’m sorry to hear that...” “I’m fine. It was understandable. Might even say it was karma.” “Oh?” “Yeah...” 

He looked up at Trina’s empathetic face. “But let’s talk about something else. What time was your date supposed to be here?”  She looked down at her watch again. “An hour ago. But I’ll be honest, I was more so hoping to get laid than to make a connection. So, no broken heart tonight. Just a dry puss.” Adam chuckled and shifted in his seat.  “I’m sorry, that was so vulgar,” Trina said, laughing to herself.  “No, I get it.” Lust filled Adam’s eyes. Trina caught them, and cleared her throat. “It just sucks that I got all dressed up for nothing,” she said. Adam used her statement as an excuse to give her another once over. She hadn’t gotten any taller since high school. The only difference between then and now, was that then, she was short and relatively thin. Now, she was short and had a little...umph. “Wanna grab something to eat? Keep the night from being a total waste?” he asked.  Trina gave her watch another glance. “Sure. Why not?” Adam paid for both of their drinks, and they walked toward the door. He held the door open and Trina turned around just in time to catch him looking at her ass. He met her eyes with haste.  “You remember Vinny’s?” he asked. Trina smirked. “Of course.” She started walking and Adam’s long legs quickly pulled him to her left side, protecting her from the street they were actually yards away from. Their shoes hitting the pavement were the only sounds they heard. Finally, Trina looked up at Adam. “Do you live nearby?” she asked. “Yeah...two blocks away...” Trina nodded. Adam could sense the tension that suddenly fell over her. He put his hands in his pockets and looked down at his feet, then noticed her little feet. Red-painted toes in gold, high-heeled sandals. He looked back up at their path, and suddenly, she stopped walking. Adam stopped, too. “Do you wanna fuck?” she asked.  Adam smirked, took her hand, and led her in the opposite direction. Trina giggled as he led her through people, around a corner, and down a couple of blocks until they reached his building. Still not letting go of her hand, he unlocked his door, pulled her inside, and held her face in his hands. Then, he devoured her mouth. “It’s dark in here,” she whispered. Next thing she knew, she was being pulled into a bedroom. Adam flicked on the light and started kissing her again.  “I say some crazy shit in bed sometimes,” he said, pulling just centimeters away from her mouth. “I do some crazy shit. Sometimes.” “You do?” he asked. He nudged her against his door, making it slam shut, then reached under her dress to pull her panties down. “I do.” Adam beamed like a kid in a candy store, and as the panties went down, he went down with them--falling to his knees. When Trina stepped out of her panties, he wasted no time covering her clit with his lips.  “Oh!” she cried, grabbing his door knob. Adam tapped on her calf and she widened the distance between her legs. She watched his head movements as she felt the tip of his tongue exploring her clit. He looked up at her--the light from his ceiling managing to hit his face just enough to reveal his dilated pupils and the many moles and freckles on his face. She ran her fingers through his hair. “You look so good with your face in my pussy,” she said.  Adam’s dick twitched and he pulled his mouth away to say, “Fuck.” Using his thumbs, he spread her lips open to get complete access to her pussy--already glistening. Then, he dove back in--flicking her clit with his the point of his tongue. He sucked and licked it, and spread her juices on his mustache. Her moans resonated throughout the room, and suddenly, he pulled away again and shoved two of his fingers inside of her. “Fuck!” she shouted. Her knees wobbled from the shock and force of the sensation, but Adam pushed his free hand against her belly--nearly adhering her to the door. “I’m gonna make you come all over my fingers, and then I’m gonna stretch this little cunt open with my cock,” he said, massaging her velvety walls with his big fingers.  “Please, Adam. I fuckin’ need it so bad...” “I don’t know whose been in this pussy since I last saw you, but I’m gonna make you forget they fucking existed...” Trina squeezed the doorknob and scratched at the wood of his door, unable to escape his hold.  He pulled his fingers out, sucked them, then jammed them back in, making Trina squeal and back her ass into the door--desperate for some relief. He splayed his fingers across her abdomen, holding her down even more, and pressed the fingers in her pussy in deeper--as deep as they could go. 

Then, he curled them upward--rubbing the roof of her pussy with moderate “come hither” strokes and not taking his eyes off her face for a second. Trina grabbed his hair and pressed her fingers into his scalp.  Soon, her eyes started to roll back, and Adam grinned. Her grip on his scalp tightened and her mouth dropped, but no sound came out. Adam felt her pussy tighten around his fingers, and suddenly, liquid gushed out of her and all over his hand.  “Fuck yeah,” he said, gritting his teeth. He kept pumping into her. “Give me some more. Give me some fucking more...” 

He stuck a third finger inside and rubbed against her spot again. “Ahhhh!” Trina cried out, flailing about and squirting all over the place. 

“Fuck, Adam, fuck! Stop, stop!” Adam pulled his fingers out and sat back on his knees, watching Trina grip his doorknob and gasp for air. He watched like it was a movie. When she seemed to be calming down, he stood up, kicked off his shoes and undid his pants. Trina looked up at him and pressed her back against the door. She tugged at the skirt of her dress and pulled it over her head, revealing a lacy bra that matched the panties on the floor. Then, she dipped her hand between her thighs, collected some of her cum, and stuck four wet fingers into her mouth.  “Fuck,” Adam grumbled. He took wide steps to his nightstand, opened the drawer, and pulled out a condom. Then, he sat on the side of his bed and pulled his pants and boxers down, revealing a hard, veiny, and mouth-watering dick. Trina joined him on the bed, lifted her leg, and reached for the fastener on her shoe. “Keep them on,” he demanded. 

He kicked his pants and boxers away, and Trina put her foot back down. She lied back on the bed and teased her nipples. While getting glances back at her, Adam opened the condom wrapper, tossed it onto the nightstand, and slid the latex sheath over his length. Then, he got on top of her, pushed her legs open, knelt between them, and lined himself up at her entrance. “Give me that dick, Adam,” she mumbled, gyrating her hips under him. Adam pressed about an inch of himself inside, getting a good feel of her wetness. Then, with one swift motion, he buried all of himself inside, causing her to strain out a moan and grip the sheets.  “What a fucking slut you turned out to be,” he said. “So hungry for some dick in you.” He pushed her legs back and got a good look at the limbs--the calves; the band over her ankles; the gold stiletto sandals in the air, then he drilled deep inside of her--moaning just as she was in reaction to her slick walls. “You like my pussy, Adam?” she asked. His dick twitched inside of her. “Yeah, I fuckin’ like it...” “Does it feel good?” “Fuck yeah, it feels good. You like my cock in you?” “Yes, baby. It feels so good in me,” Trina moaned. “And you’re taking it so well, too. Look at you...” he mumbled.

Trina grabbed her breasts and began massaging them. “Move your hands,” he said. “I wanna see those pretty tits bouncing.” “I wanna play with them,” she said, refusing to remove her hands.  Adam yanked his dick out and smacked the side of her thigh. “Get on your hands and knees.” Trina pouted and flipped over, resting on her hands and knees as told. Adam pushed her further down on the bed and smacked her ass cheek. He realigned at her entrance and pushed deep into her. Then, he wrapped his arm around her belly and pulled her up, making the back of her body flush with his front. He fucked up into her slow and deep. “When I tell you to do something, you’d better fucking do it,” he whispered in her ear. He gave the lobe a little bite and snapped into her one hard time. “Understood?” Trina didn’t answer. Suddenly, she felt a hand moving up her neck and grabbing her jaw. He gave it a squeeze. “Understood?”  “Yes,” Trina answered breathlessly. Adam pushed her back down on the bed, grabbed her wrists with one hand and held them back as he picked up his pace--thrusting into her and seemingly finding a new spot to probe and explore with each stroke. The mental stimulation that came with having her hands behind her back, and the physical stimulation of her walls being stroked--it all made her clench down on his dick without thought. Her pussy didn’t want to let Adam’s dick go. “Are you trying to make me come?” Adam asked, with a hint of “I dare you to say yes” in his voice. Trina turned her head to the side. “Are you about to come?” she asked playfully. “No,” Adam answered sternly. He began to fuck her harder. 

“Hey, you shut the fuck up, you little tease,” he added, a delayed reaction to her slyness.  Trina giggled and squeezed on his dick again. “Just come, Adam. Just come. You know you want to.” Adam was quiet as he pounded into her a few more times. “Fuck it!” he said to himself. He pulled his dick out and yanked off the condom. Trina sat on her butt and watched him tug on his dick. Then, she moved his hand away, wrapped her lips around the head, and sucked him off. She stroked his length and covered it with puddles and strings of saliva, giving him no choice but to grab her head and push it down, making her gag. “That’s right. Choke on that shit.” She looked up at him with watery eyes. Her lipstick had smeared onto the side of her mouth. “You look beautiful like this. Wish I had a fucking camera so I could take a picture of you.” He pulled her head back, then pushed it back down. 

Garrrrrm! her stuffed mouth said. “No, I wish I had a fucking Polaroid camera. I’d take a picture of you like this and jerk off to it whenever my cock gets fucking hard. Shoot my cum on the fucking picture.” He released his grip on her head, and let her keep working on her own. 

Trina slathered his dick up with her hot saliva and massaged his balls. Then, she began to stroke him as she sucked, slurping and tugging as he moaned and groaned over her.  “I’m about to come right down your fucking throat. You ready for it?” “Mm-hmm,” Trina moaned. She sucked and stroked him harder and faster, until suddenly, she felt his load squirt into her mouth, and she swallowed it down. Adam moaned and whimpered, and fucked into her mouth with shallow strokes, riding out his orgasm. As he came down from his high, he quickly realized that Trina was still sucking him.  “Shit, stop Trina,” he mumbled.  Trina looked up at him with dilated pupils and a mouth still stuffed with dick. She hollowed her cheeks out and sucked him at a rapid pace--putting her neck to work. “Trina, fuck!” he said. 

His knees began to shake, but Trina kept sucking. She rested her hands on his thighs and slurpslurpgarmgarm’d the sensitive meat. She laughed to herself as Adam’s moans went from baritone to alto. As he reached out and grabbed his mattress to soften his imminent fall, Trina maneuvered in whatever necessary direction to keep his dick in her mouth. When he finally made his way down, she hovered over his crotch with her ass in the air, and sucked and sucked and sucked--even as he did the hokey-pokey with his legs and growled like a tiger. 

Finally, she gave the poor guy some relief, pulled her mouth away, gave his dick a slap. Then, she tossed a leg over him and hovered over his red face. His eyes were glistening and wide.

“Should have just let me play with my nipples, Adam.” He laughed between the breaths he was trying catch. Then his eyes fell down to her breasts. He gripped and kneaded them a little, then lifted his head to draw one of her nipples into his mouth.

[jeonjeonggukenergy]

Anti-Hero

summary ~ in search of wine at a party that’s so not your scene, you run into jungkook, the weeb from your film class, and become determined to learn just how much he lives up to his big reputation.

pairing ~ jungkook x reader

genre ~ fluff, light smut w/ more to come - college!au

wordcount ~ 1.7k

warnings ~ light smut, drinking/partying, mentions of dick?, basically just making out, feat. long hair jk :)))))

a/n ~ this is my first time posting a fic!!! costume idea inspired by @ddaenggtan‘s iconic weeb-ass jk in chasing butterflies lol, and I got the idea to write this in general from wondering what a scenario like @joonbird​‘s literally flawless fic passionfruit would be like from the opposite perspective bc I kept reading it (and rereading it...and rereading it...) and loving the connection but I’m much more like joon in that au than the reader oooop. anyway thank you to all the writers on here whose work i have loved and my friends who have encouraged me and made me bold enough to embrace such a fun new creative outlet xxx u know who u are :’)

next: chapter 2 | chapter 3 | chapter 4 (coming soon!) 

~ read on ao3 ~

CHAPTER 1 ~ dress up

You never intended to end up at this Halloween party. You didn't even know who to expect to see here, other than your roommate's friend from high school, the host, who had invited y'all as a package deal even though she knew you didn't really do parties. At least not ones like hers, where every bedroom ended up occupied by the end of the night and nearly no one went home alone. Thrilled to break out of your lame group of friends for a taste of flirtation and fun, you tried to relax into the scene but the unspoken expectation of casual sex intimidated you the tiniest bit.

Speaking of casual sex, there was Jungkook.

Used to admiring him from afar in your "14 Films To See Before You Graduate" class, you paused to take in the sight of him in what you supposed was a more natural habitat. Everyone knew Jungkook got girls, thanks to the rumor his first freshman-year hookup had started about his seriously impressive dick. He had a beautiful body too, carefully crafted muscles obvious even beneath his usual baggy black clothes, so as the more intimate rumors spread and various co-signers confirmed every detail from length to curve to (you had always hated this word, but...) girth, getting a piece of all that became a badge of honor among the girls in your grade. You had never really understood how the awkward boy who hid manga under his desk in class could supposedly be such a sex symbol, but you almost felt bad for him. That kind of reputation following you around everywhere couldn't be all fun and games. If anything, though, it had intrigued you even more about the rest of him, all his little weeb quirks and the way he debated your points in the discussion boards like he actually cared. He wasn't exactly studious in general, but he clearly loved film and you enjoyed speaking up in class just to see how he would jump off of your observations. You hadn't really talked to him other than that, but he didn't seem to be talking to anyone else tonight either. From the corner, you let yourself appreciate the way his nervous hands tugged at the skinny black tie of his costume, freeing more of his throat from a thin yellow button-down shirt.

At least you no longer felt overdressed in your Nancy Drew outfit. The retro headband, brown loafers, and bookish plaid knee-length skirt set a much more sophisticated tone than most other ensembles you'd seen, but Jungkook's weeb ass had basically worn a full suit to channel Spike Spiegel from Cowboy Bebop. With his grown-out hair tousled and a navy pinstripe jacket cinched tight with two strips of electrical tape over his tiny waist, you couldn't deny that he rocked it. He leaned against a long plastic table left in the hallway, bobbing his head to the music in the next room and adjusting the too-slim suit pants around his thick thighs. His translucent cup stayed hidden behind a hip until he raised it quickly to his face for another sip of...red wine? Probably Franzia, knowing tonight's crowd, but anything was better than beer. You made a beeline for the one boy with taste at this party, your sole mission now to get wine drunk, sneak some Usher throwbacks on this playlist, and drop it low enough to leave some dude hard on the dance floor. #wastehistime2019, yknow.

"Hey!" You got his attention, grabbing the hand with the cup before he could lower it out of view again. His eyes grew comically wide and his mouth formed an "o" in shock before you demanded "Where is the wine?" and he pressed his lips back into a line, stuttering.

"I-I-I'm sorry, I just brought a bottle because the beer here sucks but I think it's all gone by now, I tried to hide it but yeah anyway you can have the rest of this one if you want though." Wincing at his own ramble, he ruffled the retro pouf of his hair with one hand and proffered the plastic cup in another. Both actions highlighted how pretty his hands were and you were just slightly tipsy enough to thread your fingers over his in the also-pretty black waves falling over his yep-still-just-as-pretty cheekbones.

"Aw, it's okay, I don't want to take your wine. No more liquid courage for me," you grinned, dotting the lightest kiss on his nose. It was an innocent gesture, but as your face naturally lowered so your noses touched, leaving your lips centimeters away from each other, something snapped—in him.

His wine discarded on the table, a hand curled around to clutch your ass and you practically felt his tongue before you felt his lips. Slamming your body abruptly into his, he nudged a thigh between your legs to grind it up on your center and as your arm got caught between your bodies, the tension you sensed filling his frame gave you pause. You pushed him away gently but firmly with the hand already flattened against his rock-solid abs. Looking down at the slight space restored between y'all, you removed his hands from his hair and your ass and laced them in yours to guide him back against the wall.

"I...what was that?" you almost giggled. You definitely weren't trying to laugh at him, but you couldn't hide your surprise at this first potential proof of his fuckboy reputation.

"I'm—" his whole face crumpled, both from the simple sting of your seeming rejection and the possibility that he had broken a boundary or forced himself on you against your wishes, which made him so sick he could barely face you. Squirming under your light hold but not quite resisting, he rambled again: "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to force myself on you or anything, don't worry I would never try anything if you didn't want to, I just figured we might as well get to the point if you did because, uh...when girls touch me like that or even talk to me at these things it's pretty much always just because they...want to."

"Jungkook," you breathed, pulsing your hands over his in reassurance. He squeezed his eyes shut, still distraught, and when they opened, you had craned your neck to meet his averted gaze.

"I never said I didn't want to."

His eyes widened again. "Uh...uh...then..." he trailed off, never having needed to directly proposition a girl like this before. He really had been inexperienced before the rapid escalation of college, and was at a loss for how to get to the good stuff from here via anything more eloquent than a rushed "Wanna fuck?" You shook your head silently, nose grazing his again, and let go of one hand to cup his face with care, like he was something precious you were scared of breaking.

"What? You want to get right to fucking me?" you murmured into his ear. He shivered at hearing you curse for the first time, freed from the constraints of class discussions and closer than he ever guessed you'd get to him. "Is that really what you want? Or is it what you think I do? Because if it's alright, I think I want something better. For you."

You pressed a new kiss to his nose, only slightly stronger than the one that had started all this. He held his breath and his untouched, open mouth trembled as you scattered soft introductions of your lips across his forehead, to his temples, over the scar that sliced his cheekbone. Finally inhaling a skittery heave of your shared air as you passed closer to his lips, he forced it back out in frustration when you ducked away to nudge under his jaw instead. Returning your hand to his hair, you grinned, enjoying the spike in his pulse under your thumb and skipping the tip of your tongue lightly over his neck right up to the earlobe. You lifted the choppy ends of his waves away from the dangly silver hoop they hid, tensing the strands just slightly between your fingers in an inability to hide your glee. Something told you this was going to drive him crazy.

Taking a slight detour to suck his pierced lobe between your lips, you responded to Jungkook’s low moan of surprise by wedging your tongue through the first oversized hole and letting your teeth clatter over multiple rings of metal. He was trying so hard to stay pliant under you, but the tease of slight pain in a new and unusual spot made him want your mouth more, anywhere he could get it. No one had ever spent this much time tracing so few inches of skin.

And so many girls had buried his face in their necks, craving evidence of an encounter with the Jeon Jungkook, that a strange kind of empathy caught him off guard when you showed him how good it could feel to receive. You connected your lips to the hollow right under his ear, feeling the tendons stretch as his head lolled away from you. Working him through a cascade of light gasps, you stepped away satisfied once you had sucked a dark bloom to the surface. He watched you leave with his mouth agape and chest heaving, unable to believe you could just walk away with a wave and a "See you in class!"

But you did, and he would.

"Shit!" he swore, a shaky hand darting straight to the spot. Now he had to keep his hair long for at least another two or three days. If he showed up to discussion on Monday and had to watch you admiring your work on his skin, he would probably just die on the spot. And that would not be very Spike Spiegel of him.

next chapter

[melbee]

Biker Babe’

David Lee Roth x Reader

Summary: You thought keeping a relationship between an ordinary Catholic school girl and a notorious, eccentric rockstar should be kept under wraps. So when you agree for him to pick you up after school... well ordinary was never in David’s vocabulary.

Note: My first ever one-shot, let alone fan fiction. However, I couldn’t resist after this idea had been on my mind. Hope you enjoy :)

Warnings: none ;) except for some ass-grab lol

Words: 1,894 

~Late May, 1983~

“y/n?” I heard my best friend whisper over to me, tugging on the lapels of my jacket harshly, as I looked up from my textbook.

“Yeah? What is it?” I said, a bit of annoyance seeping through my tone as I flicked my gaze between my friend and the text I currently read in the library, my mind riddled with anxiety due to the exam that now loomed over me.

If I can get at least a B in life science, I’ll be able to have a stress-free summer. Warm, tropical breezes... a delicious rockstar-

“Er.. well.. the librarian is trying to get you to go over there.. she seems to be talking to someone on the phone..” she said to me a hint of peculiar curiosity in her orbs, as her eyes were now dead set on the old woman, that looked menacingly at us.

“Okay...” I replied hesitantly, not quite sure as to why it seemed too important until a devious smile loomed over my friends face as she swiveled her head.

“Do you think it’s...” she said as she stopped before completing her sentence.

I laughed and shook my head. “I don’t think so Ann, he’s hardly back from tour.. plus he’s got more important things..”

“Oh shut up you dimwit, now go answer.” She said as she pulled me up rather forcefully to my unfortunate demise.

I sighed as I gave her a pointed look before walking my way over to the main desk, the click of my leather shoes in time to the beat of my heart. why was I so nervous? It couldn’t be him..

“Hello, Sister.”

I finally made my way over to the desk as I perched my hands flat on the table looking up at the librarian who stared at me pointedly. “Glad you could finally make it Ms. y/l/n, I have a man on the line who would like to speak to you..”

My eyes widened as my curiosity set in, who could possibly be calling, let alone the library line, how would they have known I was in here? I went to reach for the phone, but the lady hesitated. Uh oh... here comes the lecture..

“I would advise next time, Ms. y/l/n, to not have visitors call until the specific time-set hours occur, and being at the designated call stations, not the library desk. However, he seemed urgent, be thankful.” She said as she raised her head high her veil swooshing menacingly behind her.

“I am Sister, God bless.” I bowed my head, trying not to snicker, and looked up, her gaze tinged only minor approval before motioning for me to come to the side.

I smiled as I grabbed the phone connected to the dialer and brought it near to me, putting the phone up to my face.

“Hello?” I said hesitantly

“Do you always say ‘Sister’ to your teachers, or is there something I should know about your extended family?” A familiar deep voice sounded out of the phone, as a giddy smile loomed over my face.

“More of a religious thing.. David.. I... why are you calling?” I asked as a confused looked came over my face.

“Why do you sound surprised, doll? You are my significant other..” He said as he chuckled a bit over the phone.

“I mean.. yeah I just thought you would’ve been a bit busy all with getting back to town from tour...” I said as I twirled the cord around my fingers as I glanced toward librarian who gave me a glare, as if to say to speed things up.

“Nonsense, I always have time for my best girl.” He said as I picture that cheesy, adorable smile fall on his face, my heart thumping at just the mere image of seeing him. Oh god I missed him..

“Well, what do you have in mind, hot shot?” I asked grinning.

“Hm.. what are you wearing?” He asked slowly, drawing it out as if he were trying to entice me.

I rolled my eyes as I bit my lip, “Behave.. I’m wearing my skirt.. why?”

“Oh perfect! We’ll blend well today then.” He said over the phone, as I paused my reply as I realized his actual words.

“What do you mean? Today?” I asked, as I was thinking of any plans I had, and the absurdity that would be David, picking me up.

“Yes the day is today, and I figured being the great boyfriend that I am, I’ll carpool you.” He said, as I heard shuffling over the phone, and the vaguely familiar sound of his garage door opening.

“David.. I don’t know.. what if people recognize you?” I asked hesitantly over the phone. I was worried this secret of ours would be foiled.

“I thought Catholics had too many sticks up there asses to care about rockstars?” He said as he laughed at his own joke. Typical.

I rolled my eyes, “You underestimate the power of 20 year olds..”

“I sure did, for one in particular...” he said as he seemed to draw into thought. My heart swooned at his little statement, and knew he had won me over with his little plan.

“Fine.. be chill..” I asked. My nerves seeping in at what might happen.

“Baby I’ll be borderline frozen” He said so firmly.

He was NOT borderline frozen.

As I stood near the gate of where cars came through to pick up friends and family for weekend vacation, I heard a rumble vibrate the ground.

It became ever louder and apparent, as the rumbling got closer till you could make the figure of a dark, black motorcycle with custom shining leather, and gold encrusted finishings between seat and the grooves of the wheels. 

While the bike was classy-rocker and bright, the man who laid so smooth on it, had even more going for him. He sat so confidently in his all leather ensemble his bell bottomed leather pants flowing, along with that mane of hair. A clean-fitted leather jacket showing off the dips of muscle, and chest hair he displayed so confidently. Shades sat atop his face so effortlessly, making the cut of his jaw so powerful, a cigarette hanging loosley on his full lips.

I watched as nearby girls in their cliques and parades stop, their jaws dropped, and gazes etched with awe, confusion, and most definitely desire.

I looked to my right to see my friends’ jaw dropped as well as she looked to him then to me, as he got closer. “Oh. my. God.”

I wish I could kill that man...

“Ann... You’ve met David before..” I said as I gave her a pointed look, not before turning my head to watch as he made his way closer to where we were.

“Uhm.. only briefly until he wooshed you away for some romantic, rocker, sexy time..” She said as her eyes followed the movement of the motorcycle. 

I couldn’t help but snort at her, “Really...’rocker-sexy time’?” I said as I looked at her incredulously. 

She flicked my arm as she rolled her eyes, “I saw it in a movie.. look are you going to get your ass over there, or are you going to let those girls drool all over your man?”

She was indeed correct, as he made a stop to the main front, before turning off his bicycle, and hopping off, the sway of his hips so unfairly evident, as he leaned on the front of his bike, taking a drag of his cigarette. 

I saw a couple girls try and make their descent towards David, but not before my friend pushed me down the steps, in a fast attempt to get me there first, not before making me stumble slightly right directly in his line of sight.

I glared at my friend as she shrugged and gave me a hug, and an air kiss to David before skipping excitedly to the side, where she waited for her ride. 

I tucked my y/h/c hair to my ear, as David and I finally made contact for the first time in a while. I sucked in a breath as I finally really reeled in the glory that hailed from such an aura as him, his leather combo really did suit his assets well.

and I mean all of his assets.

His eyes glowed as he crushed his cig out and onto the floor much to my dismay, he smiled brightly as he drew a finger beckoning me forward to him as a mischevious look filled his eyes..

I made my way to his arms length, no sooner grabbing him into a bone crushing hug, kissing the sides of his face, his jaw, his nose, then his lips.

He grinned as he grazed his hand under my skirt, grabbing my ass to pull me in closer, biting my lip, until we found ourselves in a steamy french kiss. 

No doubt we had everybodys attention now.

He groaned as we groped each other in effort to make up for some sort passion we had missed when we were not together. “God.. I missed my little school girl..”

I laughed as I pulled away, trying not to get too ahead of ourselves. “I missed my golden-haired rockstar..” He laughed at my comment, and gave me one last kiss, the tips of his fingers grazing my lip gently.

“Well, come on we’ve got to get this school girl back home...for some much needed home-work.” He said as he slapped my ass playfully, my face-cheeks burning as he grabbed my hand toward the other side of the bike and watched as he stepped on first.

Thankfully, this wasn’t my first bike ride with David, and I shimmied my way on the back, straightening the ends of my skirt to the best of my ability.

I may not be afraid to make-out with my boyfriend in public, but I still need to maintain some decency.

I grabbed onto the sides of his waist, feeling the firmness of the muscle, and felt it stretch as he reached down to adjust the seat before popping his shades onto his nose.

“Oh I almost forgot!” He said as he made a point to put his finger in the air, he grabbed a pair of shades from his pocket and handed it to me. “To my newly recruited biker babe’, may this signify a start of our journey as a bike couple.” 

I laughed loudly, as I grabbed the shades and put them on, “Which I’m sure is very different from a normal couple..?”

“But of course..” He said as he grabbed my leg and patted it. “Now let’s get a move on, gorgeous.”

He started the bike, a soaring rumble gravitated across the plaza, signifying again of where we were, and who we were. “I’ve got a new title for a song.”

“Oh yeah and what’s that?” I whispered in his ear, as the rumble started to make our voices incomprehensible.

“Hot For Student!” He yelled loudly, so loud in fact I’m sure the whole school had heard him as he started off out of the line and toward the exit.

We turned the corner, and pushed on the gas as we drove toward the West Coast sunset, a smile not once leaving my face.

[0ceanoflight]

My thoughts on Gaya Sa Pelikula now that I've watched all 8 eps.

Cause I need to write down my thoughts and Twitter's character limit just isn't enough so thank you tumblr. This is gonna be a rant

Also, just wanna say this is from the point of view of a gay trans masc enby, aka me.

First impression

Gaya Sa Pelikula is just.... Wow. It's hard to describe. I originally watched it cause some moots on Twitter kept talking about it and they recommended it to me. It doesn't take much for me to watch a gay show, so of course I checked it out. At the time I think maybe 2-3 eps were out.

I knew nothing about the plot. I had no expectations for it. Just hoping it didn't have any problematic stuff in it, hopefully some cute stuff, same as any other gay show. It was just some show to watch to pass the time. I was wrong. It's so much more than just a good show. It's rare for me to get THIS emotionally invested into a show.

From the first ep I thought "Oh, this is pretty realistic lol. I've said stuff like this", referring to Vlad's lines. That continued as I watched the remaining available eps. Later my moots mentioned that it was written by a gay man and I understood right away. GSP is a gay show with the intention of being very realistic. It wasn't just gay for entertainment's sake. It was gay for the sake for real gay people.

Characters

The characters are so well written. They are flawed. They're not perfect. They all have their own struggles that you wouldn't know until you sat down and talked to them. Their lines and personalities are real. They feel real. I've met people like that. I have friends like that. I see myself in them. Also the acting is incredible. Really brought it to the next level.

The Music

A golden sound track. Every song just fit. It felt like the songs were made for that scene. The lyrics, the vibe. There were so many times when I thought that lyrics perfectly fit the scene in a way that would make me connect even more to what was happening. Really couldn't have been better. 10/10.

The visuals and plot devices

The way everything seems to have a purpose. Everything seems to be interconnected. There were so many things that were mentioned earlier in the episode, or I'm previous episodes that you originally didn't fully understand, then they would come back and suddenly *mindblown*.

The lines in the first prom dancing scene in the first ep. The ghost stories (still blows my mind). Vlad not liking his hair being touch which wasn't explained till later. The keychain. The theme song test. The movie they were watching about the imaginary beach (I forgot the name). The reason behind Judit's seemingly fake/weird ally speeches. The reason why Karl always seemed so stiff and awkward. The closet. The orca. The remote. Ect.

All of that came back later in the show and added so much depth. The metaphors used seemed to almost add extra explainations. Like... they didn't just give more layers of complexity, but it gave us a stronger understanding of what was going on. Or at least it made it more emotional. Idk. I was just one of he people who read posts of others dissecting the show cause I'm not as good. Lol.

Also there were beautiful scenes visually. Karl's dance scene. Beautiful. The film scenes outside, looked gorgeous. The use of mirrors and the TV. Great. Awesome

Connections

There were a lot of things I connected to.

Vlad's lines like I mentioned above were among the first. I've personally said or thought very similar things. Or even those exact things. I was actually shocked at first. By how real that felt for me.

Vlad being lonely, but faking it. Aha. I'm an introvert, and people know it. As much as I need space, I get lonely very easily as well. And friends online sometimes aren't enough. It's not the same as having someone there. With covid, and the fact that all of my friends live far away or are normally too busy to meet up, I very rarely am actually with friends. It almost hurts tbh. Especially since I'm a very affectionate person. Also the gay yearning hours are real and powerful.

Karl's dance scene, letting out the inner femininity. So I'm a bit different. I never came out as gay. I'm a gay trans guy. People already knew, or assumed, I liked men. However I did have the struggle of inner femininity. I hated fem things up until I was maybe 15-16, maybe almost 17. I didn't know why I hated it, I just did. Clearly now I know why. However my evolution to being a fem guy from hating fem things happened around the same time as discovering I'm not actually a girl. It was confusing 3 years (yes it took me about 3 years to piece everything together, a bit longer to settle). My point is, once I opened up to fem things, it was beautiful. It really really was. I felt more comfortable. I felt freer. I went from "ew makeup, skirts, leggings, pink. I hate it". To wearing makeup, wearing leggings, liking pink, often painting my nails. I've worn pretty short shorts with a loose t-shirt and a cardigan. Peak fem. Felt great. I want to wear a skirt, but I'm too afraid to do that. I may feel better with being fem, but society is still society and I might get looks cause "wtf, a man wearing a skirt?". Maybe one day. Uhhh anyways. The times I've grown to become more fem felt like how watching Karl dance felt like. Just like that.

Karl's struggle with his sexuality. Ok again I can't relate on the gay part, cause my coming out was coming out at trans. However yea. That was an adventure. I remember being so confused in 8th grade & 9th grade. God that was.... something. At first I thought I just wanted to be more tomboyish, more androgynous. So I found androgynous girls with short hair and said "I want this". Everyone was confused. My friends said "is there a reason you cut your hair so short?". I was afraid of that question. At the time I didn't know why I was so afraid. I don't remember exactly what I said, but tbh I was pretty defensive. Of course I later realized why I felt that way. I remember finally figuring things out after I settled into knowing I was trans, I didn't know how to come out. I couldn't say it directly. In fact, I never did. To my friends I just said "he/him, they/them pronouns" when asked at events, and of course they knew, but didn't ask more. In fact one friend found out cause I wrote "agender" on a form cause he looked over my shoulder. For my family... I just dropped a big hint, and they understood something was up. I wasn't able to explain it well then either. It took another 2-3 months till I couldn't take it anymore and did my best to explain it better so they would take it seriously. I was afraid. I couldn't say it directly. I actually didn't come out to my my high school. I was too afraid. I had friends who were out and I was jealous. I was jealous of their bravery. Same as Karl to Vlad. I was out to friends, but couldn't be open in the real world, much like Karl. I was only out within the space of the GSA, and of the local lgbt center. That was my "apartment". It was only until after i graduated where I promised myself I would live my real self.

The prom dance scene. I missed my high school's prom too. I wasn't brave enough to wear a suit. That would be like coming out and I wasn't ready. So I missed that. I wouldn't have been able to be open of course. I went to the senior dinner. I guess that was the start of me trying to be open. I went in a suit. Tailored men's dress pants too. I went with friends.

Wanting to write my own stories. That's a big one isn't it? I never really do see myself in films or tv. An autistic mentally ill gay trans masc enby? Yea, not a thing. Not a popular role in hollywood, will never be. I'm not a writer, I wanted to be as a kid, I was going to go to uni for writing, but I'm not really good enough for that. I really really do want to see more of myself in media. I wish I could be able to create such things for other people as well. Cause things like Gaya Sa Pelikula are truly magical. It literally made me cry whenever something I related to happened.

[ngame989]

“Enough” - TGG SVTFOE Fanfic Collection Ch. 11

Writing: @ngame989​

Art: @toxicpsychox​

Musical Arrangement: @ubercelloczar​

Editing: @ubercelloczar​, @seddm​

Alternate fic links - FFnet, AO3

Summary: Star, Marco, Tom, and Janna reflect on their pasts, arrive at a crossroads in the present, and make decisions about their futures when Echo Creek Academy hosts a dance with an uncannily familiar theme.

Comic Page

Masterpost

Merry Christmas, happy holidays, happy New Year! This is a very special chapter, slightly breaking the tradition of having its poster be a Polaroid photo (though one of those will be coming soon lol). Also, this was inspired by an actual real life event, Google the date for yourself. MASSIVE thanks to my friend @ubercelloczar​​ for the musical arrangement - I can’t embed it partway through so I’ll just link it when the time comes. Hope you enjoy!

Red. All these years, and she was just now realizing how little red there was in her expansive collection of outfits. Star could probably count on one hand the number of times she’d worn anything in that color besides Marco’s oversized hoodies. Though for all intents and purposes she’d moved into Marco’s room over a year ago, most of her clothes were still kept in her old room at Angie’s insistence. You leave pajamas in the mailbox ONE TIME and suddenly everyone’s all “please use a closet, Star.” Her fingers fondly brushed over the fabrics of dozens of dresses and skirts she owned. The turquoise with the narwhal? Timeless classic, though a bit worse for wear after so many life or death incidents on Mewni. Purple with suspenders? Eh, not so much… for whatever reason she just hadn’t felt like wearing that in a while. Her sleeveless sky blue dress, on the other hand, had made its way back into her rotation after the dimensions cleaved. Why, she couldn’t say, though she tended to skip the leg warmers these days. The pink overalls with the cute skirt were one of her favorite buys on Earthni - the perfect blend of dimensional fashions.

Minutes passed as she reminisced, her wardrobe a library unveiling its stories as her eyes roved its contents. One random winter night came to mind at the sight of her rarely used fuzzy yellow jammies. The heater had been on the fritz, so she and Marco had cuddled up even closer than normal. Her brain had been too frozen to think straight at the time, but in hindsight it was one of her favorite memories - spending all night watching movies with family, hot cocoa by the gallon, and holding Marco tight did more to warm her soul than any heater ever could. Some more notable memories were captured in the attire too, like the lavender dress she’d planned to wear to her first school dance before ditching it to resurrect a clown; the Love Sentence concert tee she’d made; her green dinosaur dress, captured forever on that fateful photo strip.

Experiences shared with Marco stood out among the rest - they usually did anyway, but tonight perhaps more than most, and for good reason. She’d once obsessed over a tattered, stinky hoodie of his as a source of calm and stability for some of the harshest weeks in her life, but tonight she felt like she was at her highest point. When her eyes finally spotted her target, the reason she had even been rummaging around an old closet and choking on enough dust to fell an adult warnicorn, her small, nostalgic smile stretched into a wide grin laden with too many emotions to count. If there’s any night to wear red, this is it, Star thought as she slipped into the silky dress awaiting her.

After all, she and Marco were once again going to a Blood Moon Ball.

Six Weeks Earlier

“Not sure if we’ll be able to pull this off, Diaz. They’ve got us surrounded.” Steam rolled out of Star’s mouth with the words, threatening to give away their location. She shivered despite the warm pink fleece she wore; the wind today was so chilly that even Marco had donned a winter jacket over his hoodie. They were in the midst of a battle, nay, an all-out war. We’ve got one, maybe two dozen? We’re doomed.

Where Star faltered, Marco’s resolve was firm. “Our only option is a last stand. I can lead a strong forward assault and draw fire long enough for you to flank their offense.” They’d found a secure location with solid cover, but it severely limited their scouting ability. Marco lowered his hood and stole a glance above the metal behind them, ducking back down instantly. Snow had already accumulated on his lashes and glittered softly in the sunlight, but Star couldn’t afford to linger on that image. It was do or die.

He took her hands and pulled her close, almost touching their noses. “If I don’t make it, Star, I want you to take care of Nachos for me, OK?” He scooped up his armful of snowballs and moved into position.

She theatrically reached out a hand towards him right as he got to the threshold of safety. “I’ll never forget you Marcoooo…” she whispered loudly. The pair giggled as Star grabbed her ammunition. “Alright, enough of that. Ready?”

“Ready.”

Marco dashed around the playground slide and into the fray. Right as Star followed, she heard him yelp and fall into the soft snow coating the playground, three enemy combatants hovering over him and pelting him mercilessly. “Marco!” Star yelled and trudged over with the gleeful cheers of their enemy ringing in her ears. “Speak to me, Marco! Don’t leave me!”

“Star… Remember me...” He grunted and let his head drop into the snow.

“Noooooooooo!” With one final breath, she flopped on top of him and accepted death by a thousand snowballs.

One extra large hunk of snow, far too large to have been thrown by any of the kids, exploded on Star’s back and coated her entirely in soft white fluff. Star heard the warm rumble of Antonio’s hearty chuckles at his successful finishing blow. “Alright, kiddos, your families are here. Have a happy break!” His beefy hand grabbed Star’s own and easily hefted her to her feet before doing the same for Marco. How the heck he was OK in the cold with just an ear-flappy-hat and his usual flannel shirt, she’d never know.

Star dusted herself off and watched the children skip through the snow - a much smaller group than usual, since it was the last evening shift before Christumpmasday break. Most were eager to return to their families, though Star had to help two little girls finish building their snowlizard and take a few pictures before they were willing to leave without bursting into tears; in their defense, it was a ridiculously cute and fun snowlizard. And with that, it was finally holiday break time!

As they walked back to the Center with Antonio, Star took in the sight of the campus covered in fresh snow. The sparkling white planes draped across the pristine Earth architecture contrasted with the raw, natural aesthetic of snow and ice intermingled with remnants of a once-thriving Mewman village, but it all blended together into something unique and beautiful. She caught Marco transfixed with a goofy smile on his face, in awe of her as much as she was with the world, and her cheeks flushed a tiny bit more than they’d already done in the cold. The crunch of snow underfoot and the gentle whooshing of the wind as they swung their joined hands back and forth were the only sounds disturbing this peaceful, perfect moment.

“Merry Christumpmasday, Antonio!” Star shouted as she gave her boss-slash-friend a big hug, and he laughed and returned the gesture with enough strength to lift both Star and Marco off the ground a little.

“Same to you two. Thanks again for staying late, I feel bad about keeping anyone here like this. My husband’s still out of town until tomorrow so home, work, it’s all the same to me, personally. Wish your whole family the best for me.” After saying their goodbyes, Star and Marco walked back out into the cold where their ride was waiting.

“Hey, girl” Marco’s voice was tender as he adjusted Nachos’ cute winter cap and stroked her back. As he was testing his foothold to make sure he wouldn’t slip and faceplant while trying to hop on, Antonio peeked his head out the door.

“Wait, before you go… an elderly lady gave me this flier for some kinda dance.” He scratched his chin through his beard. “Dunno why she brought it here of all places, but since I had it, I thought I might as well pass it along.”

“Oh, is it for that big dance the high school is throwing for all the teens in town?” Marco asked.

“Seems so. Maybe she just got confused about what kinds of kids it was for,” Antonio said, lightly chuckling. “January 30, it says, and it’s an all-nighter; that’s quite the shindig. If Earthni parties are anything like my high school days, it’s probably best I give you the whole next day off,” he said with a wink and a smirk.

All night dance? Even the Bounce Lounge was rarely that crazy - what was so special about this? Antonio handed the flier to Star and Marco who took hold of the other side of it, moving it between them as they gaped in shock at its contents.

“No way, there’s no way, what the-” she and Marco muttered in perfect unison. “Are you- seeing this? It can’t- how did-” They started and stopped as their attempts to stop copying each other canceled each other out.

Marco blinked a few more times to finally pry his eyes away from the page. “Well, eclipses do happen pretty often on Earth, I guess...” They both glanced incredulously back and forth between each other and the flier before the tension in their shoulders finally dropped. An unspoken agreement had been made: they might as well give this dance a shot. Star took one last look at the flier before hopping on Nachos, stuffing it into her jacket and wrapping her arms around Marco’s midriff for the ride home, its words emblazoned in her mind.

January 30-31, 2018. Super Blue Blood Moon Eclipse Extravaganza at Echo Creek Academy! Come dance under the red light of the lunar eclipse!

***

Present Day

“OK, Diaz, let’s see what you’ve got. Sweat prevention, check,” he noted with a quick whiff of his armpits. “Outfit, check.” Bright red dress shirt, sharp black jacket, sleek black tie. Marco posed in the bathroom mirror a few times, getting everything in order for a night he’d been looking forward to for months. “Hair, check.” It was just his usual style, but it never hurt to make sure it was ready to go. Looking good, Diaz.

His stare lingered in their bedroom mirror for a moment too long as thoughts began racing through his mind. Was he nervous? Marco Diaz, nervous for a big night with the girl he loved? More often than not Star was his reason not to be nervous about anything, but this was their first big formal dance as a couple and he did have a pretty dicey history with those. And what were the odds that it was on the night of the Blood Moon again? He wasn’t exactly worried about the curse, per se - there was some caveat or another in demon lore that the Blood Moon could only impart its curse when shining through a special Underworld crystal, the very same one embedded in the roof of the Lucitor ballroom years ago, Relicor had assured them. And it’s not like it even did anything bad to them in the first place, right? Marco still stood by his own words - it was all baloney. Still though, it did leave him with a decision to make. He experimentally put on his Día de Los Muertos mask and turned his head a bit. Should he?

“I don’t think I ever told you how cute you look in that mask.” He’d gotten pretty good about anticipating Star’s sudden appearances but had been caught up in his own mind enough that he still jumped a bit, much to her amusement. “Buuuuuuuut…” she drawled as she swiftly stepped forward and snatched it off his head. “I like your face more.” She grinned and pinched his cheek before they both stopped to truly look at each other. They hadn’t seen each other’s outfits ahead of time but as always they’d been on the same page. “I like the rest of you, too,” she muttered, biting her lip. Marco felt his cheeks turn the same color as his shirt at the comment, but also at her own appearance. Two wavy strands of hair in front of her ears framed her adorable face, though her hair had otherwise been left down as normal. Her red dress had a lone heart clasp on one shoulder, a pattern of moons and stars on a dark band circling the waist, a knee-length wavy skirt that gently swished as she rocked back and forth, and black high heels.

“Wow,” he uttered.

“You like it?” Star asked hopefully. “I thought, well, I didn’t want to go too over-the-top and wear the old Blood Moon Ball outfit but I still wanted to fit the theme so-”

“You’re beautiful,” Marco stated. Not that she’d needed to be wearing an incredible evening dress for him to think that, and he knew she knew that too, but she was still making him a bit dizzy right now. “Wait-” he stopped her when she tried to move in for a kiss, leaning back to their nightstand. He grabbed her horns and gently placed them on her head, brushing a wayward strand of hair back into place. “Perfect.” He leaned forward to kiss her, seeing her doing the same as his eyelids closed, and-

“Mijos!” Star and Marco’s eyes opened, freezing in place so close together that her breath tickled his lips, staring at each other for a second before turning towards the door. Daaaaad. “Oh, sorry, did we interrupt a moment?” We? Rafael stepped aside to reveal all their parents, plus Eclipsa and Globgor, crammed into the hallway. Star took Marco’s hand as they separated.

“Eeeee!” Eclipsa squealed in delight. “You two are absolutely precious. Come downstairs, loves, we must take your picture.”

“I’ve got two backup rolls of film!” Angie chimed in as Moon herded them all down the stairs and out of the way.

Marco looked at Star, who was goofily smiling at him as she squeezed his hand. It wasn’t that he minded being affectionate with Star around friends and family - heck, his own parents were still the most overtly lovey-dovey couple in the house - but he couldn’t help a bit of embarrassment when they were the center of attention like that. After double checking to make sure they had everything they needed, the pair headed out and walked down the stairs together to the oohs and aahs of their families. Star’s parents merely watched while Marco’s both wielded cameras, snapping pictures fervently. Nachos wasn’t due for another few minutes, so they decided to just endure the gauntlet.

“Didn’t think a sort-of-school dance was such a big deal,” Star murmured. Eclipsa sat down on the arm of the couch next to Globgor while Moon daintily folded her hands in her lap on the opposite side with River squished between her and the size-shifter.

“Well, when Marco left for Mewni, we were worried he’d never get to have a prom,” Angie cheerily responded, having evidently heard Star’s comment. “This is basically the same thing, though. Raf, honey, remember our prom?”

“Oh, yes, it was delightful,” he said, finally lowering the camera and turning to address the others on the couch. “We had actually just broken up that morning and went separately, but your mother just happened to walk directly into me as the slow music started and we ended up waltzing the night away. That was the last time we had to get back together.” How many details about my parents have I missed? Marco wondered to himself, before realizing he likely didn’t want to know quite a few of them and shuddering a bit. Still, it was better than being endlessly fawned over, so Marco stood perfectly still and shut his mouth.

Eclipsa set a hand on Globgor’s shoulder, smiling fondly. “Globgor and I met at a dance too! Well, not quite a ‘dance’, I suppose... he twirled me out of the way of an assassin’s arrow, and I swept him off his feet, but the principle seems about the same to me.”

“I was about to eat a guard until she blasted me to the ground. She cast a spell on me in more ways than one.” Globgor laughed. “Though the literal one was very painful,” he added seriously.

“Well, River and I had been to our share of Silver Bell Balls and other royal festivities,” Moon chimed in. “Though when I was Star’s age we weren’t together yet, and I was very focused on the kingdom by the time things were calm enough to enjoy them properly…”

“And now our little girl is going to big fancy galas with a handsome young man. Next thing you know she’ll be setting out on her own, never needing her parents again!” River wailed, clutching Moon’s arm. Well, the diversion was good while it lasted.

“River, please,” Moon gently chided. “You two are quite the adorable couple, though. Though I never wished to interfere in your personal affairs on Mewni, I am certainly glad things eventually worked out as well as they did.”

Eclipsa strolled over and enveloped both of them in a hug. “You two look positively astonishing together,” she cooed before releasing them to take them in one at a time. “Star, darling, you’re as stunning as I’ve ever seen you. And Marco...” She paused, placing her hands on his shoulders. Her purple eyes were laden with unbridled affection as they looked him up and down, her lips turning upward in as sincere a smile as he’d seen her display. “Marco, you sweet young man… You’re quite lucky to have each other, you know. Perhaps it’s not my place to say, but I’m so proud of how you’ve grown these past few years. Now have fun tonight, this is great practice for a certain other first dance I see in your future,” she finished with a wink, causing his blush to return with a vengeance.

“Picture time!” Rafael singsonged, getting up close and flashing a camera near Marco’s face. “Do some fun poses! Give the people what they want! We are not going to miss any more of our son’s major life moments!” His voice was filled with determination to the point of sounding angry, and Marco’s eyes widened in part sympathy, part stark terror. Minutes flew by as Star and Marco supplied their families’ demands, exhausting both the traditional prom shots and their signature poses: back-to-back, too cool for school, Star pinching his cheeks, drowning in a monster’s stomach acid… the list seemed endless, and though goofing around with Star was always fun, he’d been anticipating the dance so long that every second of delay felt like torture. Finally, Marco breathed a sigh of relief when his dad moaned in dismay at the camera clicking without anything happening; he was out of film.

“Oh dear, only one left,” Angie echoed. “Let’s get a nice one of a kiss. Don’t be shy.”

“Well, Marco? Shall we?” Star threw him a flirtatious grin, wrapping her arms around his neck.

He opened his mouth to respond with a quip of his own when he heard wheels screeching to a stop outside. Sweet freedom. “Well, that’s our ride!” Marco stated a bit too forcefully, breaking away from Star and heading towards the door to greet Nachos. Flying in on a dragoncycle would be a major departure from whatever prom fantasies about picking up Jackie in a limo he’d had as a kid, but he still wanted to do something special with a traditional flair. She snorted and cackled when the door opened and revealed his grand prom surprise: Nachos with a top hat and bow tie.

“Marco, what did you do to her?”

“Well, it’s prom, so our ride needs to be the fanciest it can be,” he giggled as she rolled her eyes. “Only the best for you, m’la-”

When Star’s lips cut him off sweetly as she tugged him closer, suddenly Marco didn’t mind staying a little bit longer, and the snap of his mother’s camera seemed to agree.

***

Chaos. Compared to any dance Star had been to before, this was the best kind of chaos. The energetic beat of the electronic music thrummed in her ears as her hips swayed and arms waved in the air. She wasn’t sure exactly how many people had shown up, but the gymnasium of Echo Creek Academy was more packed than she’d ever seen it. Still, it wasn’t so cramped that she had no room to get her groove on; when her butt bumped into Marco beside her, it was by choice as she slyly grinned at her boyfriend in his red shirt, now sans jacket. He smirked back at her and set his feet in place, slicing his hands wildly through the air. “I thought you didn’t like the sword-hand dance,” Star loudly spoke into his ear, though it was a whisper relative to the volume of the music and crowd.

“Yeah, but if everyone else is gonna do it anyway, I might as well own it.” They locked eyes as she began to mirror him, mimicking his karate poses in time with the music. He abruptly grabbed both her hands and swung them up and down, laughing as they just shook everything they had without a care in the world. She yanked him towards her and spun them both around, their backs flush against each other as they kept bouncing to the rhythm.

“Woop, woop! Starco in da HOUSE!” Ponyhead stuck her horn between them, forcing them apart as she floated up and down.

Tom also made his way beside them, drink in hand. “Anyone else want punch?” He lowered the plastic cups he’d been levitating over the crowd into Star and Marco’s hands, and Pony’s tongue. “Gotta say, this is pretty good punch. What kind of blood is it? Centaur? Unicorn? Oooooh, I’ve heard that giraffigator blood is hot these days.”

Marco eyed his cup warily. “What the heck is a giraffigat-”

“WHAT’S THIS ‘BOUT UNICORN BLOOD?” Pony screamed, getting up in Tom’s face.

Star quickly separated them, holding her hands up to try and ease her friends. “Guys, guys, there’s no actual blood in it, I think it’s just citrus.” Well, she was fairly sure. She took one trial sip, tasting the sweet flavor of- “Wait, yep, this is blood,” she said disgustedly after she spit it back into the cup.

“More for me, then,” Tom said nonchalantly, as he snatched Marco’s cup and took another swig while Pony floated in circles grumbling. It seemed like the DJ was taking a break from the upbeat dancing music for now, so the group made their way to the outskirts of the gymnasium where they’d left their belongings. Star laid down on the bleachers, resting her head on Marco’s lap after he’d put his jacket back on and sat down. He stroked her hair with his thumb as they relaxed after an intense hour of dancing. It struck her that this was actually the first time she’d ever truly had carefree fun at a formal dance. The original Blood Moon Ball left her with very mixed feelings to say the least, and her one experience with an Earth dance had been a bit of a disaster even though she didn’t actually go. Time had largely expunged the lingering venom she’d directed at herself for her relationship mistakes after returning to Mewni, leaving some life lessons and fond memories; but even some enjoyable fiery dances with Tom didn’t change the fact that the Silver Bell Balls were stuffy political dramafests. She reached up and intertwined her fingers with Marco’s, squeezing his hand and beaming at him - this was more like it.

“You know, I will say, this DJ is killing it tonight,” Pony said as she returned. “I was kinda expectin’ something lame but this is the best party I’ve been to since the Bounce Lounge closed.” Star nodded in agreement.

Tom leaned back and crossed his legs a few rows below them, taking a sip from his second cup so far. “Oh, yeah, I know him, he’s actually the cousin of my old anger management coach. His name’s Kim H. Brian.”

“I thought your coach’s name was Brian,” Marco responded.

“Yeah, Brian Brian.”

“Get outta t- wait, the Kim H. Brian?” Star bolted up at Marco’s words and they stared at each other incredulously.

“The producer of Love Sentence’s most controversial album, Prison Breakup?” Star and Marco said simultaneously.

“That’s the one,” Tom said, chuckling a bit. “Only you two could still say entire sentences at the same time without a demonic curse.” He stared into his drink for a few seconds, his visage suddenly becoming completely somber. All three eyes closed as he took a deep breath before floating up and sitting next to the couple. “Look, about the whole Blood Moon thing-”

Hold on, was he still in a twist about this? “Tom, it’s fine!” Star said, putting a hand on his shoulder. “We broke the Curse, you apologized, it’s all good.”

“I know, but it’s not that- after we went to the Severing Stone, deep down I knew that the Curse wasn’t why you two had those feelings, but I just kept pretending because I still liked you, Star. If I hadn’t been so caught up in that, maybe it wouldn’t have taken so damn long to sort our mess out. I know it doesn’t matter anymore, but… I guess the dance just got me thinking again about friendship and love and stuff. So if you’re OK with it, I actually asked Kim to do a little something special for you two later, to help give you the Blood Moon Ball you deserve,” he finished with a toothy smile.

Star’s eyes started to mist up; Tom had always been supportive of Star and Marco since they’d all sorted themselves out, but it never failed to move her. Star lunged forward, wrapping herself around him in a bear hug, and Marco followed suit. “Toooooom, that’s so sweet!”

“Yeah, man, that’s really-” Marco was stopped by the sudden intrusion of Ponyhead into their little moment.

“Hey, Lucitor, do you know where Janna went? I’ve been TRYING to ask her for the hot deets on totally eligible bachelors here. You know, name, height, bank account balance: the usual business. So anyway she hasn’t been, like, responding at all and I’m starting to worry I might not be able to score a good enough rebound to make Seahorse see that he made the biggest mistake of his life letting me dump him!”

Marco nodded toward the still-in-progress group hug. “Little busy?”

“Yeah, whatever, save your huggy feeltime for later, this is im-por-tant.”

“OK, fine,” Tom said, extricating himself from the embrace. “I haven’t seen her for a while but I can help look. It’s Janna, so she’s probably just splicing some gargoyle DNA to a class hamster or something.”

“Last I saw, she was by the old photobooth.”

Wait, that had survived? Star and Marco exchanged shocked glances at the thought of the site of their first kiss having survived the whole way to Earthni.

“You thinking what I’m thinking?” Marco asked. Star grinned and nodded, grabbing his hand to run off and make even more memories.

***

Janna Ordonia had never been more scared in her entire life. Okay, maybe that time a monster guy exploded into dust a few feet in front of her was more viscerally terrifying, but Janna was used to freakiness and death even before she’d spent so much time in the literal Underworld. Tonight, though? The pit in her stomach that left her unable to speak, unable to think, was something almost alien to her. She had so much unique expertise in dealing with all things mystical and macabre that it took something completely and utterly human to faze her, and now she found herself staring in a mirror struggling to cope.

Janna Ordonia had caught feelings.

She’d always known she had a thing for the spooky and supernatural, so an attraction to a half-demon with two horns, three eyes, and purple skin was basically inevitable. It hadn’t bothered her like this when she’d had a casual fling with a talking skeleton years ago, either. The only logical conclusion she could draw was that whatever she was feeling now was a different beast altogether. The night had started out so pleasantly: the Lucitors had invited her over for a casual dinner beforehand - whatever meat the Underworld used for burgers was damn good - and they’d taken the carriage together to the dance afterwards.

It just made practical sense, it didn’t mean anything, I don’t WANT it to mean anything. Some variant of this refrain had been repeating in her mind a lot lately, but staring at her own reflection, it felt thinner with every passing second. If it was true, she probably wouldn’t even be here now; she could be doing way cooler things with the night of an ultra-rare eclipse than drinking cheap punch and shuffling awkwardly on the dance floor to chart-topping pop trash. But Tom had seemed excited at the prospect, and the next thing she knew she had picked out a simple black dress with pink highlights - hell, it was even Tom’s nonjudgmental support that had given her the confidence to wear her secret favorite color more in the first place. One way or another, everything seemed to circle back to one simple fact. Each day spent learning about the Underworld and adventuring in its depths was obviously worthwhile on its own merits, but it was always better with him. If she couldn’t stop this storm brewing inside, then the only thing left was to take control of it on her own terms. Well, this is it, Janna. You have a serious crush on Tom Lucitor.

By the time her mind had finished processing its own confession, she’d already made her way back to the gym and meandered to a vacant corner to watch idly by herself, not unlike how she’d spent most of the dance so far. They’d arrived from the Underworld fashionably late and it had only taken a few minutes for Janna to ditch her friends and hide while she moped about her feelings, but of course as soon as she wanted company again there was none to be found. She huffed and pulled out her phone, switching between a few games to occupy the time.

“Hey.” She looked up to find Tom holding two glasses. “Anything fun going on in this empty corner?”

“Yeah, it’s pretty intense over here. Some dust bunnies got in a street fight.” She smirked and stole one of his glasses, raising it to her lips for a sip.

“Wait, don’t, that’s-” It tasted funny, fruity and sweet but with a metallic tang. “Blood.” Ah. She considered it for a moment before deciding to take another sip. She’d had worse. “Anyway, where have you been? We basically haven’t seen you since we got here.”

“Oh, you know, nowhere and everywhere. It’s what I do,” she deflected. “Where’re the others?” Star and Ponyhead were forces of nature when it came to stealing the spotlight, so Janna figured they were her best shot at getting through the night with minimal awkwardness.

“We were taking a break and then they ran off to a photobooth. I still don’t really get the hype, but you know how it is with them.”

“Yeah, it’s gross.”

“Yep…” They both fell silent, continuing to drink what was supposedly some kind of real blood punch as the dance droned on in the background. “Hey, so, uh, can we talk for a sec? About… us?”

She tried her damnedest to suppress the unexpected surge of conflicting emotions, burying her face in her cup until she thought she could reliably answer. One time, when they were in elementary school, she’d poured milk down Marco’s shirt at lunch and a few other girls had teased her, insisting that meant Janna had a crush on him. She never really understood that connection - she just kinda liked pranking Marco - but the taunts had gotten to her. There was a sort of pride she felt in being inscrutable, an enigma that could only be unraveled on her own terms. Had he figured her out so easily when she herself had been in denial? A mumbled “uh, sure” was the best she could as she ran through the last few months in her head trying to figure out if she’d betrayed her feelings.

“It’s pretty loud in here, can we head outside?” Janna only nodded in response, her own racing thoughts drowning out her surroundings. The DJ was announcing some kind of special song request as the gym doors closed behind them and they stepped out into the chilly winter air. “Oh, right, um-” Tom quickly took his jacket off, handing it to her. “Since it’s cold, and I can make my own fire, and-”

“Thanks,” she gruffly said, putting her arms through it. Damn him. She was cold, and he was being thoughtful and helpful, but it only made the upcoming conversation even more difficult for her to have. One hand idly pawed through the enchanted storage compartment she’d fitted in her dress (even in formalwear, she considered function most important). Damnit, she’d left her entire arsenal at home, save for a prototype glass bottle that would harmlessly evaporate on impact, which was filled with some leftover antigravity potion - no easy way out of this, then.

“No problemo,” he drawled, pointing finger guns at her before jamming both hands into his pockets and staring at the ground. “Since Star and I broke up, I’ve been trying really hard to just be my own person. Heck, you’re the one that showed me that’s what I needed to focus on. I had no clue what I was doing.... Honestly, I still don’t.” He paused again, turning back towards the school. “Being here, it just makes it hard to ignore how things have been kinda, you know, weird lately, between…” A little fireball coming off his finger zigzagged back and forth between them.

Why was he so insistent on bringing this up? “Look, Tom, we don’t have to-”

He turned back towards her “Yes, Janna, I think we do! If we don’t deal with it now it’s only going to get worse, and I don’t- I can’t-”

“Dude, drop it, OK? Let’s just go back inside so we can-”

“NO!” A puff of flame shot out of his head but quickly dissipated, leaving only a lingering sizzle and water in his eyes. “I can’t do this anymore! I like you, Janna. I really like you, and it’s screwing everything up.” ...wha? There were a few hundred possible ways Janna thought to respond, but none even made it beyond a guttural yelp in her throat, so Tom continued unabated. “I know you’re you, and you can stay really chill about stuff even when you care a lot, but I can’t, OK? You’re clever and fearless and everything’s more fun with you. You’re one of my best friends and that’s why I couldn’t keep doing this without telling you even if I’m probably making a complete idiot of myself right now.” Every second that Janna remained utterly paralyzed on the spot left Tom’s eyeliner even more streaked as his tears rained down, each tiny splash hissing on the cold pavement and melting the nearby snow and ice. “Yeah, OK, I get it. Look, forget I said anything, I just want to still be friends, OK? I- I totally get if you want some space for a while, so I’ll just- alright, bye.” He wiped off his face with his sleeve and turned around, floating off the ground and flying back into the building, leaving Janna alone on the sidewalk.

The oncoming shivers in Janna’s spine provided the final push to lift the dense fog clouding her mind. He’d just confessed to her, he had a crush on her, and she’d basically just snapped his heart in two. Pangs of guilt and sorrow and joy all ganged up on her; was this how bad things had been for Star and Marco? She almost felt sorry for ribbing them about their romantic struggles now. At this point the only thing left to do was to find Tom, so she sprinted into the building after him, braving the fray of the dance floor once more.

Can’t be that hard to spot a tall set of horns with three eyes. Even though there were all sorts of monsters in attendance, there were very few demons, but that didn’t seem to help her locate him. He wasn’t responding to her texts either, ugh! As Janna kept looking around, she realized she didn’t recognize anyone here. She’d left Echo Creek Academy at the same time as Marco but didn’t go to college, nor had she spent a ton of time with Mewni’s teenage population before the Cleaving. The Underworld was what she knew best; it was where she’d felt most at home, even with two whole dimensions merged together, and that realization spurred her to keep searching. Janna barged through another door into the hallway and rounded a corner, instantly colliding with someone.

“Ex-CUSE me! Watch your freaking face before I pulv-” Ponyhead shouted, shaking her hair back into place after being bumped into the locker. “Oh, it’s you, girl! Where you been? And is that Tom’s jac-”

“Tom. Have you seen him?”

“Oh, I see how it is, first Starco gets their own flipping song and runs outside to go boink under the moonlight or whatever, then my boyfriend runs off to sell a toaster or whatever, then Tom comes in here all moody and doesn’t want to talk to me, and now you’re abandoning me too? I feel like I’ve barely been around you guys lately, why does no one want to spend time with Ponyhead?”

“Wait, didn’t you dump- never mind, Pony, this is important, OK? I seriously blew it, I need to talk to him-”

“Hey, woah, is there some drama going on here? Shoot, why didn’t you say so? OK, so, he was floating around in circles out here for a bit. I came out here to do my bi-hourly makeup check just a minute ago and I do believe he was going back into the gym, mmhm, yes, that is where he was. Go do whatchu gotta do and give me the juicy deets after, mmkay?” Ponyhead winked and whacked Janna on the back with her horn.

Janna ran back into the gym and finally spotted Tom standing in the center of the floor, uninterestedly swaying back and forth to the beat of some crooning couple’s ballad. When his eyes met hers, his gaze became visibly pained as he turned to walk away. “Tom!” Her pleading shout was emphatic enough to keep him from running, but it also attracted an audience and left her standing there, too uncomfortable to speak.

Janna put one foot forward, then another, then another, willing herself forward against her better judgment. She’d frankly had enough: enough talking about her feelings, enough uncertainty about her own relationships, enough giving a single damn about “what-if”s. There’d be plenty of time later to tell him he was her best friend too, to assuage his doubts, and to put more meaningful words to her own feelings, but for now, she had settled on a course of action that began with reaching into her pocket to pull out the lone potion bottle within.

“Uh, Janna, what-” Tom stammered, a different kind of concern than the one he’d been stewing in all night bubbling up in his expression as the crowd backed up slightly. Some tiny voice in the back of her mind registered that they seemed nervous to the point of being frightened, and that comforting feeling pushed her to do the one last thing she needed to do. Before he could react, she slammed the bottle to the ground at her feet and felt the weak antigravity effect take hold. Janna closed the last few steps of distance to Tom, firmly grabbed both his shoulders, and kicked off the ground, crashing her lips into his as she hovered a few inches off the dance floor. Tom unconsciously did the same, letting her momentum carry both of them into the air until the confused, but cheering, audience was beneath them.

As he started to return the kiss, he hesitantly placed one arm on her waist and another behind her back to keep them from drifting apart, and Janna wasn’t sure she’d ever felt so secure.

***

Alright, that’s the last of them. Marco finished carefully stacking the photo strips in Star’s bag while he waited for her to return from the restroom. The photobooth had thankfully been a much more fun and much less emotionally exhausting experience this time around, though a very smug Ben Photino had still greeted them when they were done, $650 richer than before.

Now’s my chance, Star thought as she snuck up and affectionately pounced on Marco from behind. Nearly everything about tonight had been perfect so far - just her, Marco, and their friends getting a night of dancing and partying she wasn’t sure she’d ever forget. For so much of her life, it had seemed like nothing important could ever happen without a sizable dose of drama and conflict; by comparison, this all seemed like a dream, and she didn’t want to wake up anytime soon. Speaking of her friends, though… “Hey, where are the others?” She felt a bit guilty over ditching everyone else to go back to the booth for corn knows how much time, but she was certain they wouldn’t have gone too far.

“Not sure,” Marco responded, craning his neck and spotting a tuft of pink spiky hair and two brown horns across the gym. Why was he heading for the exit?

Marco started to lead the way across the gym floor when the sound system screeched with audio feedback and boomed with the sound of tapping a microphone. “Echo Creek, are we having fun tonight?” the DJ, Kim H. Brian, asked the cheering crowd. “We’re gonna keep this party flowing, but right now we have a very special song for all the soulmates out there, so get ready to twist and twirl your special guy or girl.” Star and Marco tentatively stopped in their tracks.

“Is that-” Marco started.

“What Tom was talking about?” Star finished. “We have to get him before he misses it!” What did you do this time, Tom?

(LINK TO AUDIO)

They had made it to the center of the dance floor when the lights dimmed and tinted red. It was obviously from a stage light, but the effect still flooded them with the same hopes and wants and fears from their run-ins with the Blood Moon. Marco gently smiled and took the lead, keeping one hand in hers and tugging her closer with the other on her waist. Piano chords opened the piece - a slow waltz - and Star and Marco were taking their first steps when the cello started to play a hauntingly familiar melody. It struck them both at the same time - this was the same tune that had played when they danced under the light of the Blood Moon only a few months into her friendship. Their moves grew more daring and flashy as the song went on, spinning and swaying to the rhythm.

“I always forget how good a dancer you are, Marco” Star dreamily sighed when he spun her around and dipped her down.

“My grandma taught me. She says that the only right way to dance is the fun way,” Marco laughed, lingering for half a second too long as the music swelled around them. Somewhere in those blue eyes sparkling with only love for him, he’d lost track of the world around them. Only after he noticed how the blonde curls in front of her ears shimmered in the red light did he snap back to reality and continue the dance, much to Star’s amusement.

“That’s good, because it’s always fun with you.” They stepped in harmony, slowly rotating as they box stepped to the same waltz that had once been a source of apprehension. Star took her hand off his shoulder and lifted it to his face, rubbing her thumb over his cheek. She knew the contours of his face inside and out, could describe every last detail of all the facial hairs that he’d given silly names, could picture every last one of the warm and loving ways his soothing chocolate gaze could pierce her soul, yet it didn’t stop her from being completely enraptured by it now. That intimate knowledge informed her when even the most trivial thing was out of place, which is why she decided to flick a spot just under his mole. “You had a fleck of corn.”

“In my defense, your dad’s cooking is really messy.”

“Yeah… it was cute, though. Like you had a second mole.” Something had changed in the waltz from what they remembered, a different theme slowly building until it led into a refrain that was entirely new yet somehow familiar in a way neither could place. It was a vibrant, comforting melody that felt right for them. Star shifted her hands to the back of his neck as the distance closed between them. Though Marco had grown noticeably taller than her, in her heels she found herself at nearly eye level with him as she rested her forehead on his.

Marco’s arms slithered around her waist, holding her tight as their lively waltz morphed into intimate, formless swaying. “This- this is really nice.”

“Yeah… I love it. I love you, Marco.” She paused a moment, leaning back to get a clear view of as much of him as she could; even after a year and a half of being together and years of friendship before that, she was still giddy over how much she truly loved every bit of him. “Nothing’s ever going to change that.”

“I love you too, Star. I’m not going anywhere.” Their hands joined once more as they resumed their spirited dance, their devotion to one another vaulting their joy to new heights. Neither cared about elegance or form anymore; their steps and spins and lifts came from the deepest places within, as if their very souls were mingling in the air above. Plucked strings accentuated the song as it grew calmer and entered what Marco was fairly sure was its final verse. A bittersweet sensation bubbled up from within his chest; he’d had plenty of moments with Star that he’d never wanted to end, but this one seemed to have an extra significance attached. The final chord of the waltz rung out, the pair both freezing in place in their final waltz pose, stunned at the beauty of what had just transpired.

The crowd’s clapping broke finally them out of their trance. “Woah,” they breathed out in unison. In her breathless state, Star idly wondered if the applause was for them, but she realized how silly that was as the full breadth of the outside world slowly trickled back into her senses. Shortly after, the dance went back to normal; had it been a dream? No, of course not, it had literally just happened mere seconds ago, but the impact it had on them felt otherworldly.

Returning from the daze, Marco finally recalled their goal of finding Tom, and the extent to which Marco wanted to crush Tom in a thankful hug and blubber into his shoulder gave it an additional sense of urgency. He turned to her with a determined look, and had it returned. “We should find Tom.” They went to the gym exit, but it was blocked by... Miss Skullnick.

“Oh, it’s you. Nice to see you, Star,” she saccharinely sneered. “Don’t be trying anything funny, you hear me? We’ve already had four couples’ ‘incidents’.”

A shiver ran through Star at the involuntary thought of Miss Skullnick catching her and Marco in a more... private moment, but she quickly brushed it aside for her own sanity. “Skullzy, we’re just trying to find our friend,” she whined.

“Well, too bad, you can’t use this door. The sidewalk somehow melted and completely iced over, and I don’t wanna be sued for liability!”

“C’mon, Star,” Marco said. “We can just go out the front door.” She was still indignant, but acquiesced and followed Marco into the main building and through a hallway. They rounded the corner to the main entrance and stopped dead in their tracks at the sight of Ponyhead passionately making out with Seahorse.

“Pony?!?” Star shouted.

“Oh, um, why hello Star and Earth Turd!”

“Greetings!” Seahorse added in his usual monotone chipper voice.

Star slapped her hand to her forehead. “I thought you broke up ‘for really-realz’ this time, Pony?”

“Well, yes, mmhmm, I do believe that is how I described the sequence of events that occurred. But then, well, you know how it is with him… we made up while y’all went off to take a bazillion pictures or whatever. That weird old human lady that kinda looks like a troll caught us while we were-”

“Pony!” Star yelled, cutting her off in shock. Really, though, the most surprising part was that Ponyhead had been responsible for only one of the so-called “couple’s incidents.”

“Lilacia gave a very high satisfaction rating to the Reflectacorp™ line of vibrating-”

Marco stepped in and clamping Seahorse’s mouth shut before they could be traumatized any further. Star rolled her eyes and took Marco’s hand once more, heading past the other couple towards the front door.

“Fine, I see how it is. C’mon, Seahorse, let’s go get freak-ay on the dance floor!”

“Reflectacorp™ disco technology allows you to boogie and/or woogie risk-free, guarantee-!”

The double doors shut behind Star and Marco as they stepped out into the cold. They walked around the building towards the gym and saw that Miss Skullnick had been telling the truth; but there was no one else in sight, only the snowflakes gently drifting through the air and a full moon above in the night sky. Star still wanted to get back to her friends, but the tranquil scene gave her pause as she stood beside him. Something had been subtly gnawing at her all night - though it’d been on her mind longer than that, if she was honest with herself. “Hey Marco?”

“Yeah?”

“When Eclipsa said earlier about ‘another dance’...” She swallowed, letting the implication hang between them. “Do you think that’s something that will happen?”

He glanced at her quizzically until the meaning sank in and his heart skipped a beat. Was she- did she- is she asking… His eyes blinked rapidly once, twice, three times while he processed the gravity of the question. But his surprise quickly dissolved; after all, he’d been thinking about it too. Maybe he hadn’t drawn that specific connection, but how many times tonight alone had he beheld the wonderful girl beside him and remarked to himself that he’d be happy with her for the rest of his life? He swiveled around to stand in front of her, taking both of her hands into his own. “If you want it to, then I know it will, someday.”

She sighed happily, lacing her fingers through his. It wasn’t even the first time they’d declared their love with permanence, but no matter how far they went, they couldn’t help but be concerned about how the other felt about the next step. “Didn’t a lot of people usually wait until they’re, like, 30 to get married on Earth?”

“A lot of them, yeah,” he admitted, “but, I dunno, I don’t really care about that.”

“Me neither,” she asserted, happily beaming at him.

“So we just… let it happen when we’re ready, I guess.”

“Mmhmm,” Star hummed, feeling a warmth deep inside that combated the chill prickling her skin. One of her hands left his and tangled itself in his hair, as her gaze fondly roved the face she hoped to see as long as she lived before finally settling on his lips. He had the same idea, leaning forward and sweetly kissing her. Their lips were a bit chapped from the cold, but it didn’t bother either of them; this signified something far more than physical gratification. She pressed them closer together until there was no distance left between them, the dual friction of his soft, inviting lips moving against hers and her silky dress rubbing on the coarse fabric of his jacket thrummed through her entire body.

When they separated, his eyes scanned the sky for a moment before sheepishly turning back downwards. “Huh,” he murmured.

“What?”

“Nothing, it’s stupid.” Star raised an eyebrow insistently, the pair still in each other’s arms. “It’s just, I thought that maybe- maybe the Blood Moon would be shining, or our cheekmarks would glow or something. It’s dumb, I know-”

“Well, that does happen to us a lot,” she conceded. “But I’m pretty sure the eclipse isn’t supposed to start until, like, 3 AM.” “Have you ever thought about when we broke the Curse?”

“What do you mean?”

Star stepped away from their embrace, folding her arms and stuffing her frigid hands under her armpits as she frustratedly tried to piece together her complicated thoughts. “Like, when we were in the Severing Stone, I remember it took us back to the Blood Moon Ball and we started dancing… what happened after that? If it never changed how we feel, what was even the point?”

Marco shrugged; when he’d finally accepted his feelings once and for all, he’d dismissed the entire concept of the Curse as bogus, but since then he had considered it in some new lights. “If it was actually a curse, I’m glad we got rid of it, but… looking back, I’m kinda glad that the Blood Moon Ball went like it did. That was one of the first times I saw how special you are to me.”

“Same. Plus, that’s where I learned you dance good,” she growled with a smirk. “But still… sometimes I wonder if I told you I loved you while we were in there. Because I did love you then, you know. Even if I was trying to push it away.”

“Maybe we’ll never know.”

“I guess I’ll just have to tell you every chance I get from now on, then, because you’re stuck with me, Diaz.”

“So long as we both shall live. Do you accept?” He asked with a cheeky grin.

Her laughter, bubbly and playful and sincere all at once, was answer enough for Marco. Not one to be outdone, though, Star carefully lowered herself onto one knee, lowering her head and closing her eyes solemnly before looking back up at him. “I dooOOOH-” She shrieked as the icy sidewalk took its toll and sent her toppling sideways. Marco reacted quickly, stopping her from hitting the ground and helping her to her feet. “Maaaaybe we should go inside now.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” he responded, draping his jacket over both their shoulders like a cape. “Still have to thank Tom.” She clung to him as they hurried back around the school and into its shelter from the cold - even shared body heat and emotional warmth could only do so much. Although they’d removed whatever eternal supernatural soul-binding curse the Blood Moon may have bestowed, Marco mused, they’d still shared a tender first dance and grown as partners under its light, once upon a time. Perhaps, in a roundabout way, it had always been a blessing, too. In a sense, they’d just cleaved their own souls together again with only a simple promise. No magic, no curses, just Star Butterfly and Marco Diaz... and that was more than enough.

They stepped back into the gym, ready for the hours of partying ahead of them, and were greeted by the sight of Janna and Tom floating in the air locked in a passionate kiss. Star and Marco’s eyeballs both nearly bugged out of their heads as their eyes whipped back and forth between each other and the spectacle in front of them, leaving them with only one possible response.

“WHAT THE-”

[you-are-my-neverland]

so. it’s finally time to talk about [my] nano.

i’ve kept my nano project pretty under wraps so far, mostly because it’s been out of my hands. i wasn’t actually planning on doing a for real for real nano; instead, i thought i would dedicate some time to my fanfic (spoiler alert, but i haven’t yet) or work on finishing up revising fairbone (spoiler alert: i did revise one chapter, but i still have like half of it left to go and a nov 30 deadline...rip). if that didn’t work, i thought i would pick a wip i started over the summer or one i had half developed (let’s just say the ideas note i have really boomed over the summer and like...yeah). in conclusion, there were many wips ready for me to work on them, including ash heart, which i really want to write but haven’t figured out how to.

instead i started a new wip.

well, it’s not necessarily new, persay. it’s an idea i’ve had stewing since like late september/early october and planned out a good portion of. however, deciding to start it was a last minute decision - and by last decision, i mean that on october 31st i finished developing the barebones of character development and basic plot lol and then gave it a go. it’s honestly been going crazy well. as of today (november 9th), i just hit 21.2k words. i’m hopeful about this year, while also not wanting to jinx stuff, but like...wow. but writing is has made me realize that, wow, this book is going to be crazy long probably...like i’m 21k words in and we’re still like in the exposition idk what’s going on. but hey, i finished planning out the rest of the basic plot for it today!!!

right. onto the wip details.

honestly, the only reason i haven’t introduced this wip is because a) i want actual stuff done on it and like a proven commitment, because i feel like too often i introduce wips i don’t actually go anywhere with and i hate it, b) i don’t have a set title and c) i actually have no idea how to summarize this.

the novel i’m working on right now is the first of a projected trilogy. i say projected because i have a vague idea that it belongs to a trilogy, but like not a lot of plot except some vaguely connected ideas that should happen in the future. in it, i used a lot of characters from these violent ends, which i tried to write for camp april 2020, but like just their basic barebones; i changed a lot to fit the story, of course. 

not to sound nerdy, but it is like....harry potter inspired, but ONLY in the magical boarding school sense. of course, right now all i have is magical boarding school shenanigans, which i don’t really like because i feel like it unfairly sets the book up as like fun magical stuff when it’s really about murder & politics & student activism (+ a lot of other things ending in -ism). the whole activism part came from watching the trial of the chicago 7 and i was like, bingo, this is what this story needs. 

kay but ANYWAYS. onto the story. like i said, i can’t really summarize it, but there are lots of themes of classism, feminism, the affect on youth and youth’s effect, manipulative adults, revolution, terrorism, sibling dynamics and found family vibes, like all that stuff...packaged into a magical boarding school off the coast of maine setting...recipe for disaster!

mainly i’ve been writing in ophelia’s pov, because she’s my main girl and she’s problematic, but also she’s trying her best and just having a little difficulty fitting in. some other main characters are her twin brother, sebastian, and two other boys, asriel and vincent, who have an initially animistic relationship with ophelia (& kind of each other?) but it’s like enemies to friends (to lovers?).

anyways. here are some carefully curated excerpts below the cut:

i. vincent and asriel meet on a train (ch. 1)

The boy pursed his lips together. “It’s unusual,” he said, finally. “That’s all.” But he was looking at Vincent as if he was noticing him, which meant he was lying, or at least withholding the truth about something. He added, “You’re not from around here, are you?”

“Do you mean geographically?” Vincent replied, raising an eyebrow. “Because I’m from New York.”

A small glimmer of a smile appeared on the boy’s lips, though it vanished as quickly as it had come. “From the Magical World,” he clarified. 

“What gives it away?” Vincent asked sarcastically, waving a hand across his body. “My impeccable taste?”

“Among other things,” the boy said.

ii. sebastian and ophelia discuss grief on a ferry (ch.2 )

“You and mom talked?” Ophelia asked, surprised. She hadn’t exactly been keeping track of them, but she was sure she and Sebastian had spent much of the day together, as they were wont to do.

Sebastian looked at the floor. “Yeah,” he answered, hoarsely. “At least she wants to talk about Des. Dad doesn’t, and neither do you.”

Ophelia sighed, wondering why, today of all days, her sister was haunting them. Maybe it was because there should have been three people heading to Rijevduct, instead of two. Maybe Mother Magic was reminded of the loss of one of her own. 

“I’ve let her go,” she said. “You should too. We have too much of our lives ahead of us to mourn Desdemona forever.”

“I don’t mourn,” Sebastian said, words uncharacteristically sharp. “But I do grieve.”

“Isn’t that basically the same thing,” Ophelia mumbled, closing her eyes and feeling the press of a headache behind them. 

“Sorrow,” Sebastian said, the word a soft shudder. “And sad endings.”

“What?” 

“That’s what makes a good tragedy,” Sebastian answered. “I read it in a book.”

iii. headmistress alexeyev gives a speech (ch. 2)

“Eight years ago, seventy two students were slaughtered here. Some died on the very spot where you now stand today.” Ophelia glanced down at the floor, seeing the motion repeated instinctively around her as well. She looked over at Sebastian, who had closed his eyes instead, a pale flush meeting the faint color in his cheeks. His throat bobbed as he swallowed, tennis shoes scraping against stone as he toed them against the floor, as if he was shaking something only visible to him off.

“It was a tragedy,” Headmistress Alexeyev continued. “I say this because it is the truth. It was a tragedy, and not one that should never have happened.” She inhaled; Ophelia saw her chest rise, shoulders with it, in a sharp motion before she exhaled, body rearranging itself into poise once more. “I speak of this to tell you to assure you that Rijevduct is safe. I know there have been continuous doubts over the security of this school since that day eight years ago. I cannot, of course, guarantee that you will not come to any harm here. I cannot tell you that Rijevduct is the safe haven you were taught it was growing up; events have already proved that it is, in fact, not as impenetrable as one might think.”

Ophelia frowned, confused as to the line of reasoning. She had thought the whole point of the year of transition was to make sure that Rijevduct was infinitely more safer than it had been—and they had all been under the assumption that Rijevduct was virtually impenetrable until the massacre, which had led to the heightened security measures they saw today.

“I can, however, promise you that I, and everyone here today, will do anything in their power to keep you safe,” the Headmistress said. Next to Ophelia, Briar bowed her head, lowering her eyes and swallowing, the action almost a convulsion of her throat and mouth. Ophelia brushed her hand, lightly, in question, and the other girl just shook her head, looking away purposefully, so that Ophelia lost sight of her face and her sad eyes.

“These next three years will be far from easy. Gone are the sheltered lives where your parents could kiss your injuries goodbye, or sing you to sleep at night. Rijevduct is far from the cold, real world, but it is close enough when it comes to not asking you what you want first. This is an adjustment period. This is learning how to survive—and I will tell you this; surviving means many different things to many different people. You will have to decide on your own what this will mean for you, and how you will apply what you are taught here to your futures. Be wise. Be proud. Be humble. Cry. Laugh. Live. As your Headmistress, I, along with your professors, will be here throughout your time.” She raised her glass, “To the worthy,” and then drank, turning and walking back to her seat, which she lowered herself into gracefully.

iv. sebastian pov! (ch. 3)

There was a dead girl in Sebastian’s first period Magical Theory class. She was sitting diagonal from him, on the Glass side of the classroom, in an empty chair, staring straight ahead at the chalkboard. Sebastian tried not to look at her too obviously, his eyes straying from the open book in front of him to her cautiously, beneath the sleeve of his sweater.

She was sitting blankly in the chair, scraping her shoes against the ground, though they could not leave any scuff marks. Though she was the same faded shades most girls were, Sebastian could make out her pleated pale blue plaid skirt, which brushed around her knees, and the stained white blouse that might have once been spotless, but had been marred forever by the circumstances surrounding her death—objectively, that was to say, with blood. Her dark brown hair fell into loose curls around her shoulders, little silver studs glinting dimly, unable to catch the light. Her knee high socks now pooled around her calves and ankles, revealing a rotting bandaid on one of her knees. One of her tennis shoes was peeling at the toes, looking as if it had been ripped apart. 

Her fingernails had all been pulled off. Sebastian was good at analyzing ghosts by this point; he recognized the bloody flesh and bone of the nail bed. There was also blood matted across her head, trickling down her temple, with bruises covering her body; they peeked out from beneath the collar of her shirt, blackened across her cheekbones with a sunken quality in particular to one of her cheeks, as if the bone had begun to cave.

Subjectively, she was far from one of the worst that Sebastian had seen.

[null-draws]

So in light of Pride Month, I wanted to share my experiences with both my gender and sexuality (mostly with my gender) as a Quoisexual Agender person.

(More below the cut)

Throughout my whole life, I've never really felt connected to my gender fully. As a kid, I just wore whatever clothes I felt physically comfortable in and didn't really associate certain things with certain genders. However, I still leaned towards more masculine things, because I just enjoyed them more as a whole, and my family always assumed I was just a "tomboy" because of it.

Fast forward to high school, when I actually began trying to find a name for my identity. I mentally experimented with certain things, starting out with identifying as Genderfluid and trying out skirts and dresses as casual clothing for the first time in years (before I had only reserved those for very formal occasions), but never really felt like they suited me. About a year later and after breaking up with a previous boyfriend, I came to the conclusion that I was a trans man.

I first came out to my closest friends and therapist, who were all very supportive of me, and was already going by Dustin before then because it was a unisex name (according to the name app I'd used, anyway), so it wasn't too suspicious to my family thus far. I eventually started coming out to the rest of my school slowly but surely and still somehow kept it from my family, and it even got to the point where I was being picked from the boy's side in gym and was invited to attend the LGBT+ club's events despite not being an official member. I felt accepted and much more comfortable knowing my friends and the majority of my teachers had my back, and finally mustered up the courage to start coming out to my family.

However, things started to go downhill once I did.

My good aunt was the first I came out to, partially because at the time I was staying with her while my grandparents (who were my legal guardians) were on vacation, but also because her ex-spouse had come out as a trans woman during their marriage, which ended in a divorce as a result, but they stayed generally on good terms. She was very supportive of me, but it was semi-conditional, as she told me she wouldn't use my preferred pronouns until I had a sex change and/or started hormones, but would still call me by my preferred name even before I legally changed it.

My grandparents, on the other hand, were a completely different story.

Between the two of them, I came out to my grandmother first in front of my therapist, because she was the easiest for me to talk to at the time and I figured she would take it better.

Long story short: She did not.

Unknown to me, she had told my grandfather I was trans the same night I came out to her, and I had wanted to tell him myself with her because I thought she took it well, and I didn't discover she had told him already until months later. After that, she became worse and worse towards me, telling me she thought it was my brother's fault I was trans (it wasn't), telling me I acted "too feminine" but refusing to tell me how, and telling me to "man up" and "grow a pair" when I expressed my dislike towards my uncle moving in whom I didn't feel safe around.

It was because of her that I snapped and decided I was Agender, and it's because of her that I left my family behind.

To summarize the rest of my family matters, I'll say this: My mother is dead to me for unrelated matters, but seemed as though she had false acceptance, my father had false acceptance for me, and my great-grandmother, who was another main reason for me running away from my family, did not accept me in any way.

It was because of this toxic environment (with more reasons than just the transphobia) that was the backbone for me leaving them, and I've never once regretted my decision within the year since I've left them. I started living with friends who accepted and supported me, who helped me with getting my first binder and starting HRT, and who even at the very least use my preferred pronouns (which honestly means a lot to me after so long of being misgendered).

It was a really long journey to finally get somewhere I feel comfortable, and to finally be able to feel comfortable in my own skin for once, and despite having lived with such an abusive family, I'm glad I'm at where I am today. I'm proud of who I am. I'm proud to say I'm Agender, and although there are times where I know I need to hide my identity for my own safety, I still love knowing I'll be me, regardless of whoever tries to break me down.

(And on a side note, don't even get me started on my sexuality. That shit's always been a mess for me, I don't know what's goin' on with it half the time, I may stay Quoi/WTFsexual for a while or I might not, but only time will tell with that lol)

[har-rison-s]

you've silenced the great richie tozier!

request: I love your writings! You said you will write for all of the losers? Would you write a Richie x reader where the reader is an even bigger trash mouth and he’s like oh thats super hot?

A/N: Bonsoir, ladies and gents. Saturday, 19:45. Starting a little earlier, yay. Really wanna finish this tonight. I've watched 3 horror movies today, jesus christ. + Now I'm home alone. Now it's Sunday, haha. My eyes are tired from crying (I watched Chapter Two again and cried everything out). But I wanna finish this, I hope I do. Yah, lol, I didn't even live up to my own expectations. It's Tuesday and I really hope I actually finish and post this tonight. Happy reading!

warnings: strong language, horrible jokes cause I'm no comedian in all actuality.

IT masterlist

main masterlist

gif credit goes to owner, which isn't me!

“Beats spending it inside your mother.” Richie's exclaims and raises a hand for Stanley to high-five, but the boy brings it down. Last day of school, the boys have emptied their school bags of their contents, and are currently sharing their summer plans.

“Oh, it's Y/N.” Eddie announces, he sees the girl coming towards him and his friends. “Hi, Y/N.” Eddie waves at her and Y/N waves back.

“Hey, virgins.” She greets them with a big smile. The boys respond with quiet “hellos”, and they expect Richie to respond with something in his style of conversation, but there's just a small “hello” from him, too. Bill shows his surprise, looking at Richie with raised eyebrows. Y/N senses the strange silence between the four and scratches the back of her head out of pure nerves. “Why are we all so stiff? Playing manikins?”

“Yeah, haven't heard of the new play? The plot is set in a clothing store.” Richie says, his tongue back to work. Y/N narrows her eyes at the boy.

“And I assume you'll be playing the guy who gets a wardrobe makeover?” She raises an eyebrow, and eyes Richie up and down. His friends laugh, and for the first time in his life, Richie doesn't have anything to say. Even his friends notice. “So, what are you guys doing today? Last day of school!” Y/N wiggles her eyebrows with a grin on her lips.

“W-we have thuh-the Bar-Barrens.” Bill informs her. “Y-You wanna come al-along?”

“Sure. I've got nothing else to do, anyway.” Y/N shrugs.

“You're so sweet.” Richie says sarcastically.

“No sweeter than your dad's tongue.” She shoots right back, which earns laughter from the other three boys. Richie's quite frozen on the spot from her quick response. He adjusts his glasses. There's many things to say, but none of them cross Richie's mind. And he hates to be losing at a conversation of this sort.

The group of five start to head towards their bikes, though Henry Bowers and his friends are unfortunately in the group's way. First Bowers pushes Richie into Stanley, which causes both boys to fall down. Y/N immediately runs over to them and helps the boys to get back up on their feet.

Once they're up again, Richie and Stan both thank her for it. One boy is more flustered than the other, looking at her with deep red cheeks. Confidently, and without shame, Y/N faces Henry Bowers and shows him her clearly pissed off expression. But the bully isn't looking at her yet. “Hey, Bowers!” She calls out to him. Eddie, Richie, Stan and Bill look to her in a contained panic, and the Bowers gang, all four of them, turn their attention to Y/N, and the main bully sees the angry expression on her face. But it doesn't intimidate him in the slightest. “The fact that you're a dick doesn't make yours bigger.”

“Are you crazy?!” Eddie hisses to her, but Y/N pays no mind to the boy. Eddie's clearly in worry about her further well-being. Henry Bowers starts approaching her, and she stands bravely between her friends, not intimidated. And even though she's not afraid of the bully, she knows she should have kept her mouth shut. Just like Richie, this curse of always spitting out jokes and insults, will get her literally killed one day.

“Your summer will be hell.” Bowers growls. “You'll wish you were never born, you slag.” He tells her.

Y/N still looks at the bully, her slight anger rising more and more in his eyes, and feels a tugging at her skirt. It's Bill, signalling for her that it's time to go, but she doesn't notice him yet. “At least I'm not a failure like you.” She shoots right back at Bowers.

“Fuck!” Richie curses and they have to grab Y/N and make her leave with them a bit forcefully. The only way she could survive now is just to run. She and the boys head in a quick pace to their bikes, they're running as fast as they can, the Bowers gang right behind them. Though it's a little hard for Henry to run when his legs are like wooden sticks.

Though Richie is scared to death to actually get caught by Bowers and for Y/N to have the same destiny, he's very impressed by her. She's just like him, but—wait, could that be possible?—a bigger trashtalker than Richie. Could that really be possible?

He's also a bit jealous of her, but mostly he finds this increased, female-version-of-him Y/N quite… attractive. And not just because she speaks the way he does and because their personalities are basically the same, but also because she's pretty. She's very pretty. Though he feels like her personality bests her looks (No offense, Y/N's face, he thinks). She's magnetic.

“Fuck, I forgot my bike.” Y/N realises a big detail.

“You can ride with me.” Eddie proposes, and Y/N nods. They try to get on their bikes as fast as they can, with Bowers right around the corner.

“Be careful, Eddie, she might give you cooties.” Richie says, already on his bike and waiting for his friends to get started.

“You've already got all of them.” Y/N responds before Eddie can, and the boys laugh, despite their situation.

Y/N gets on the back of Eddie's bike, and off they all go. Bill leads his friends the shortest way to the Barrens, they pedal behind him as fast as they can. Y/N hears Bowers yelling profanities after them, threats that he will find them and make this summer their last.

But the girl only laughs at his threats and yells, and that takes Richie's attention once again. He adjusts his glasses and grins at the girl. She's completely untouched by Bowers and what comes with the name, the fear of him is chained to his last name like a dog to a fence. She's reckless, and she's funny. She's got a strong spirit. And Richie digs that. He hasn't met a girl like her before.

At least one that hangs out with him and his friends, and is, on the inside, a good person. Y/N looks over at Richie. “What are you looking at, Tozier?” She asks. “Glasses don't work? I'm not Diane Lane, sorry, sweetheart.”

The other boys laugh, but Richie's reaction is lesser. There's only a smile on his lips. “You wish.” He says to her, and Y/N sticks out her tongue at him.

“You wish you were Matt Dillon, Tozier.” She says, and looks at the road in front of her, and Eddie's hair that gets in the way of this view.

Richie hangs onto her words, and doesn't want to admit the truth in them. He does wish so, Dillon's the biggest heartthrob of this decade. There isn't a boy who doesn't wish to be in his shoes, with his looks and his charm. Cause all the girls dig Matt Dillon.

“You like him?” Richie asks her, and Y/N turns her head back at him. She raises an eyebrow once again.

“What's it to you?” She asks. Richie pretends like he's thinking, thinking deeply. His hand on his chin and a far-away look in his eyes.

“Say, what would you do if I woke up tomorrow and I would be Matt Dillon? Look like him, talk like him.” Richie proposes an idea. “What's your action?” He raises an eyebrow and grins suggestively.

“You'd be in Hollywood, which is a thousand miles away, so… I wouldn't really be able to do anything.” Y/N says, shrugging.

“Take a left!” Bill yells from the front, and Eddie speeds in front of an appalled Richie. The glassed boy only stares after Y/N on the back of Eddie's bike. She's got a big grin on her face, and she even laughs at Richie. Once again, she's made him lose his voice.

“Ha-ha! I'm in front of you!” Eddie brags to Richie. The boy's always been the fastest, but not now. He can't even think of being at the very front of his friend group. It doesn't even seem to matter now, doesn't seem like the most important thing.

What does though, is how to out-smart this girl. But looks like she's always a step--no, correction--a joke ahead of Richie. She's out-sassed him, and Richie is blown away. No one's ever done that before. And a girl? Most girls these days can't even look guys in the eye without fainting or blushing red like tomatoes. But Y/N's different. And Richie can't deny that he finds her hot, and her snapping back and out-smarting him.

Through the time the Losers and Y/N spent together on the last day of school, most of it was spent listening to Y/N and Richie going back and forth with jokes, too-corny-to-be-used-properly pick-up lines and pop-culture references. Though Y/N mostly beat him down, winning the unofficial contest. And she left Richie with his mind blank and mouth hanging open quite often. Bill, Eddie and Stanley had laughed at their friend. They were thankful to have found someone who makes the all-powerful Richie Tozier stutter and actually doubt his superiority in the comedy business.

He became quite fascinated with her, and he couldn't even hide his blush when she spoke to him. Though he did try to hide it, she still saw the pink tint coloring his squishy cheeks. And she had laughed, but to herself. She didn't want to embarrass the boy more than she already had. But it did make her feel a little powerful to be able to do so.

“Oh, no, now I get it.” She had said, and Richie had looked at her. For some reason, he thought she'd have a genuine statement to make. “You're auditioning for the red dress in the play.” She had concluded, and left Richie with his voice stuck in his throat.

“With a pale skin like yours, you'll do great as the white one!” He'd soon replied, which earned him a splash of Derry sewer water on his legs. The boy had only laughed and looked at the magnetic girl with wondering, wide eyes.

“I'll do great as a vampire.” Y/N had responded, and made a face that was supposed to mock the mentioned creature.

“And live off other people's blood? Disgusting, but enticing.” Richie makes an i'm-thinking face.

“I think blood is much more valuable than relying on them to always laugh at your jokes.” Y/N had admitted, and that earned her a splash of grey water on her legs. She'd squealed, but with a smile, and given an even bigger splash back to Richie. He'd gasped, almost covered in the liquid head to toe, and looked at Y/N.

“You're dead!” He'd screamed and pin-pointed the moment all hell broke loose. More specifically, he broke the hell right onto Y/N. An intense water duel had begun then, which no one except Richie and Y/N took part in, finding the activity more disgusting and unnecessary than standing by and watching would ever be.

Permanent tag-list:  @gabiatthedisco @v0idbella@inlovewithmiddleagedcelebs @works-of-fanfiction @destiel-stucky4ever-loki-queen @stfxlou @ur-gunna-h8-ths @betweenloveandfire @but-legendsneverdie @deardeacy @thewinchesterchronicles @mavieesttriste16@mrsmazzello @benhardyseyes @langdonzvoid @intrrverted @the-freak-cassie-131 @eddie-spaghetti-boi @radiantrichie​ @terratori812 @urban-dreams​

[idreamofwolves]

Not My Type - Part 2

Summary: Two polar opposites meet on unusual terms. When they decide to take a chance on each other both of their worlds turn upside down.

Pairing: Nikki Sixx (The Dirt) x OC

Author’s note: Thanks for reading! If you want to be on my tag list let me know! I was going to make the date a full part but I think it’ll be way too long lol so look out for part 3!

“I don’t know about this Drew.” Scarlet said while she absentmindedly fiddled with her hair. They’d only been sitting in the club parking lot for a few minutes, but her nerves were starting to get the best of her. “What if he doesn’t show up?”

“He’s going to show up.” Drew answered, maybe more nervous than his sister was. “Nikki freaking Sixx doesn’t just ask anyone out on a date. If he wants to actually talk to you, and not just have sex with you, that’s a big deal. He’ll be here.”

“I look stupid.” She looked down at her black skirt, probably the only black item of clothing she owned, and her off the shoulder pink top. Drew has helped her get dressed, but she wasn’t so confident.

“You look fine.” He laughed, as if her worrying about her clothes was the last thing she needed to worry about.

Knots formed in Scarlet’s stomach as she waited. 5:00 exactly. “He’s late.”

“He’s a rock star. You’ll be lucky if he shows up before 6.” Drew laughed as he nervously tapped his fingers on the wheel.

“I don’t care if he’s a rock star, he can be on time.” She said defensively. Her frustration didn’t actually come from Nikki’s tardiness, it came from her nerves and twisted stomach. She hoped this would t last all night.

After 5 minutes of nervous silence, Drew finally spoke up. “That’s him.” He pointed to a black car that pulled up beside them.

As the three of them exited their cars, they greeted each other as if they had known each other forever. “Hey man! How’s it going?” Drew called as he went in for a high five.

Nikki chuckled and high fived the exited fan. “Not to bad, how about yourself?” He raised his eyebrow at Scarlet discreetly, making her giggle. Obviously Nikki had no planned to entertain Drew.

“I’m great, dude. So where you two headed?” He asked, almost like he wanted to come along.

“Oh- I figured we would-“

“You have work tomorrow morning, I don’t want to keep you up too late.” Scarlet interrupted. She knew if Drew knew where they were going, he’d “conveniently” run into them. “Nikki, would you mind driving me home tonight?”

Nikki smiled, as he knew exactly what was going on. She was obviously just trying to save herself a little embarrassment. “Yeah sweetheart, whatever you want.”

“Okay, well I’ll see you later Drew.” She hugged her brother who was disappointed and silent.

“Be safe.” Drew said, slugging back into his car.

The moment Scarlet sat down in Nikki’s car, the overwhelming smell of leather and booze hit her nose. Something about it excited her, and her nerves went a little off the rails once her date got in and started the car. “Sorry about him, like I said, he’s a big fan of yours.”

“No problem, I deal with a lot worse than that. He seems like an alright guy.” As he drove, Scarlet began to realize she had no idea where they were going.

“So where are you taking us?” She tried not to sound nervous, but she was sure it had come through in her voice.

“Figured we’d go somewhere quiet, since I don’t think you’re too used to the bar scene.” She nodded in approval, somewhat relieved she wouldn’t be sitting on some pub.

They ended up in some family owned, Italian restaurant. The vibe was more comfort and homey than it was classy, which she thought was great, seeing as someone like Nikki probably wouldn’t fit in at a high end restaurant.

They were seated in the back of the dining room at a small table next to the window. It was dimly lit and for once, no one was staring at Nikki, not in the way he was used to anyway. A few odd looks came his way, his leather pants most likely being the cause, but no one waiting to get his autograph. It was a relief to him. The waitress promptly took their orders and left, finally giving them time to talk. “So Scar, tell me about yourself.”

The question felt too broad, she really didn’t know what to say, so she started wherever she thought was relavent. “Well, I go to university right now, I’m studying business, I-“

“Why business?” He asked as he stirred the water the waitress had just set in front of him. “Does it make you happy?”

“Oh, uh not really. It’s a good basis for about any career. My parents thought it would be helpful.” She shrugged, and for the first time she started to question her choice.

“But if it doesn’t make you happy, why do it?” She hates that he had a point and began to realize how smart he actually was. Rock stars didn’t really have the most notability for being intelligent.

“Financial stability I suppose.” She received a nod and another question right off the bat.

“So do you live with your brother?” Another rock star cliche was that they were arrogant and only wanted to talk about themselves. He was proving her wrong there too. Even the other men she’d gone on dates with, who were nothing like Nikki, had no interest in getting to know her.

“For now, yeah. He lives closer to school and I can’t really afford an apartment of my own yet. It’s really nice of him to take care of me.” She felt like a loser, not having a car or a place to call her own, but Nikki didn’t seem to mind. In fact, he didn’t mind at all, he could relate to being that poor. Except he never got the help from family like she did.

“Yeah it is. You seem to have a great family.” The waitress brought over Nikki’s jack and coke and set down a martini for Scarlet.

“What’s your like?” She asked, though had she known his answer she wouldn’t have.

“I don’t know, I don’t talk to them. I’m on my own. But that’s a story for another day.” He flashes her a smile and took a drink, but she could see that was a touchy subject.

“Sorry. Well what about you? Tell me something about yourself rock star. I’m sure your story is far more interesting than mine.” She laughed, trying to get off of the weird note that had left them on.

“I see the world from the back of a bus, fuck up hotel rooms, get drunk, get high, play shows, meet fans, whatever. It’s not that interesting.” He shrugged as if it were a normal thing, but Scarlet had a laundry list of questions, but only one stuck out.

“Drugs? Like what?” She didn’t know almost anything about drugs, and she’d never met anyone who had done them.

“Cocaine for a long time, we all did that. But uh, I guess when I found heroin I fell in love.” He looked disappointed in himself, and she honestly wasn’t sure why. “Since I’m sure you’ll find out anyway, you might as well hear it from me.” He started, “I did heroin for a long time, let everyone down, about tore my band apart. It got to a bad point and I over dosed and died. Even after my ass got saved and went and shot up again.”

“How are you doing now?” She asked, afraid for him. She didn’t know why but she was worried about him.

“Better. Cleaned up in rehab and stayed clean. I went back to drinking, obviously, but so far so good on the drug use.” He chuckled, trying to keep this light. He hadn’t expected to spill his guts about the darkest time of his life. It was only their first date.

Conversation was interrupted by the waitress setting down their food. Scarlet was excited about her dish, but she kept her martini in mind. She wasn’t one to drink and didn’t know what to do with it yet.

As they began eating, Scarlet sat back and looked her fate in the eyes. He awkwardly looked up at her and for the first time he felt a little nervous. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

“Is that still on your mind?” He asked, surprised she was so concerned.

“Yeah, I guess it is. You’re just a really talented and sweet person. I’d hate to see you destroy yourself like that.” She wasn’t really thinking as she spoke, she just said what she felt.

Nikki sat silent, but the look on his face told Scarlet that what she said meant something to him. He may have been used to adoring fans, but he wasn’t used to actual kind intentions and someone worrying about him. He didn’t know what to say, so of course, he changed the subject. “Are you going to try your drink?”

“I don’t know, I haven’t really-“

“Try it.” He laughed, knowing she’d be apprehensive. “If you don’t like it, you don’t have to drink the rest.”

“I don’t want to get drunk.” She giggles and looked around to make sure no one was watching.

“You won’t I promise. I wouldn’t ask you to do that. Come on, have your first drink with me. If nothing else it’s a cool story to tell your brother.” He was too charming for his own good. His smile would have convinced her to do about anything.

He gave him a playful glare and took a small sip. She wanted to hate it and give him a big “I told you so” but she wasn’t quite that lucky. “Okay it’s good, but the after taste is awful!” She set her drink down and eyes Nikki. He seemed satisfied as he began to eat again. “I don’t know how you drink liquor straight.”

“Lots of practice.” They laughed, and conversation seemed like it could have gone on forever.

After dinner, neither of them were ready to call it a night. “Hey, do you want to go for a walk?” Scarlet asked, hoping it wasn’t too forward.

“Hell yeah, let’s go.” They weren’t sure where the night would take them, but they both knew something good was going to come out of it, and it was only half over.

Tag list!

@fandomshit6000 @mainly-me @batirumi

[courage-a-word-of-justice]

Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works 1 - 25 (FINAL) | Waver OVA

Much like the Fate/Zero post, this is mostly a set of notes which has already been released and is preserved here because of the difference editing makes. There was one completely insensitive, uninformed note and a note which I was writing down to be “more in character” which I’ve removed in all instances of the notes, though - it’s better you not know what was being said there. 

F/SN UBW 1 (Prologue)

Now that’s the Rin I know from fandom whispers.

Turns out this is ep. 0 and there’s actually 12 eps…

This brunette reminds me of Maiya.

This wavy haired guy’s a Matou? Geesh, he somehow reminds me of the Great B*stard Archer.

Miss Fujimura’s a bit of a non-sequitur…

If I remember the fan whispers right, his name is Issei Hyoudou…? (Or is that the High School DxD guy?) Update: Issei Hyoudou is the High School DxD guy, this is Issei Ryuudou.

If people die when they are killed, then machines should, too.

I already know from checking up previous info that UBW is for the 5th Holy Grail War and Shiro Emiya is part of it.

The button says “voicemail”…well, it’s actually rusu, where rusuban denwa = answering machine (denwa = phone, so rusu means something like “protecting the house (while you’re gone)”). The best way to translate it would be “voicemail” though.

Fuyuki  Church (Kyoukai)? Rin has them on her voicemail???

I seem to remembr reading that this white-haired character is an alternate universe Shiro Emiya…but I guess we’ll find out later, huh?

Hmm…I’ve seen this Command Seal before. I think it might be Dewbond’s profile pic, in fact…which tells me that he likes Rin.

The compulsion the guy is talking about reminds me of Steph from NGNL and how she was forced to fall in love with Sora.

Rin’s treating this like a gacha game…LOL.

Pride vs. pride, huh? Anyways, I think the really entertaining thing of putting me under the pump like this is that I have such an incomplete understanding of how the Fate/ universe works that the outcomes of everything create enough entertainment for those who’ve committed to said universe. The things that I do know might be really late-game though – such as the white-haired Servant being an alternate Shiro – so I have my own surprises to confirm.

“The Archer class really is made up of archers!” - …and people die if they are killed, y’know? (<- I know this from the memes. I won’t cover Deen/Stay Night, people don’t normally recommend it.)

Why is a cup omnipotent, anyway? Cups don’t have the ability to have knowledge. By the way, I bet Rin’s acquaintance will have something to do with this.

Rin’s Holy Grail War work reminds me of my own experience with piano. Basically, I grew up doing it, so I never questioned it until I thought about what I really wanted to do. I expect Rin will be the same way.

Hmm…Sakura and…the Great B*stard?

Rin says all of this about “crude garbage”, so all I can focus on is the bin off to the side…LOL.

Oooooooh…so this appearance of Sakura is why people put F/Z before this.

Saber…the reason she’s so popular is because she appears in so many incarnations of Fate/ that she’s basically become a poster girl for it.

F/SN UBW 2

There’s something that pisses me off about Sakura. It’s probably because she’s fairly submissive, like a girl who was written to be a guy’s fantasy.

The OP and ED was subbed the first time, so the fact this isn’t is interesting.

I think I’ve seen these scenes before…probably because they look exactly like the setup for Today’s Menu for Emiya Family.

Hypoxia.

Sakura’s boobs jiggled…urgh…

This episode feels a lot more like a VN intro.

Some of these scenes were from a different perspective in the prologue, so I’ll try to skip them.

Stove = heater, if you didn’t catch on.

Oh hey, Emiya isn’t part of the archery club anymore…but there’s some evidence that an alternate Emiya became that Archer Rin has.

That’s Ilya, isn’t it…?

Emiya’s magic incompetence reminds me of Waver.

Shinji is Sakura’s older bro??? I never heard of this…? Step-bro, maybe?

I read one of the labels on the machine – makanai setto – and turns out it’s a [meal] set for staff (teachers).

This series’s messages are like anvils…even more so than F/Z.

Where does Emiya work…? (For some reason, I call Kiritsugu that but Shirou “Emiya”.)

Archer’s not in white…not that much, anyway.

“…I really nearly was killed.” – Yes, and people die when they are killed, Emiya. You said so yourself in Deen/Stay Night.

I know this iconic scene where Emiya stares at Saber! I’ve seen it in all the screenshots and everything.

F/SN UBW 3

The blindfolded woman in the OP is apparently Medea. I think I mentioned her offhandedly in one of the WP posts I did, so I didn’t expect to see her so soon.

Most of this ep is explaining this stuff to beginners. I can skip that.

I don’t get the appeal of Rin, but then again, I’m neutral at best on tsunderes.

Shoten Books? Like, Bookseller Books? How redundant…

“[G]enuine fake priest” - …LOL wut?

Why is Kirei giving me Equilibrium vibes…? Oh, it’s because he has silly hair that reminds me of Christian Bale. That’s why.

Most of this episode was recap from F/Z, so I skipped it.

F/SN UBW 4

I’m laughing – this new Berserker reminds me of Tsukasa (Dr Stone).

Ah, same old Gilgamesh. He’s just in different clothes.

Kiritsugu felt like he actually was a character. Emiya? Just a blank slate, really.

Welp, that was over fast…

F/SN UBW 5

I’m getting sick of Rin’s tsundereness, fast.

Okay, crash course in types of Servants. I needed this.

*Saber reveals the outfit is from Rin* - Ooh, Shiro, don’t go judgin’ Rin like that…

Oh-hoh, Sakura does archery, huh?

I bet Kuzuki actually is a mage. That’s how these things always turn out, no?

Actually, I think Emiya might be a better match for my piano experience. There’s this one person who played at a higher level of piano than I did, but they kept telling me that I was way better than them at piano (although I don’t know if that was self-deprecation and/or inflating my ego). As I mentioned in my relation to Rin, I forcibly cut it out of my life because my parents chose it for me – in short, no desire to hit the target, in one way of speaking.

I can see why Fate/ needed a cooking spinoff now…LOL.

Shinto = New City, with a particular combo of kanji.

Are these Touken Ranbu enemies, Rin…? (They’re called Historical Revisionists, technically, and I specifically refer to enemy wakizashi.)

I seem to remember from somewhere Sakura is Caster’s master…hmm. Another thing to confirm.

F/SN UBW 6

That Rin reaction face! I’ve seen it before!

LOL, that “I haven’t been sleeping lately” is relatable.

Medea is one of the only Servants that was originally a woman, so…it’s interesting to see she’s been given a chain as a method to keep up (but also vaguely annoying to see her have such a short skirt). A chain weapon seems to be the sort of weapon for an agile user, with possible sexual overtones (if you want to interpret it that way), so it seems like it came straight from a male fantasy of a woman.

Rin is the sort that places a lot of stock into obligations, I see.

F/SN UBW 7

I learnt how to read the word “mirage” in Japanese somewhat recently (in comparison to the basics, which I learnt through a CD-ROM maybe…15 or so years ago?). It’s shinkirou.

I find it interesting that these eps. are marked as Fate/Stay Night and the series is Fate/Stay Night UBW, because Deen/Stay Night (as I’ve been referring to the Deen version of F/SN) looks pretty different to Ufotable’s F/SN, judging by that “People die when they are killed” meme.

The subbers spelt “specialty” wrong…

Well, Emiya, being in a room with a girl…alone…you really are a typical VN lead, aren’t you?

LOL! I knew Kojiro was also part of this series and I think I knew he was an Assassin, but s***! He’s an absolute looker!

…and *sigh* Caster is using her sensuality against men. A regular Fujiko Mine, she is.

I think my heart did something when Archer gave that intense stare at Caster, too. This is no time for a reverse harem!

F/SN UBW 8

Ahh! Kojiro Sasaki’s (this Assassin’s) so hot! I love it!

The only person who can beat Saber is another swordsperson, huh? Logic checks out.

That blue ring looks like the one at the start of Shinchou Yuusha’s OP.

F/SN UBW 9

I thought Shinji was gonna barf, but that was actually laughing…that’s what happens when you don’t have the volume on.

This replacement Gilgamesh (Shinji) sucks…

Just squinting at Caster’s chest…boobs do not work that way, people. Fabric goes over things like that, it doesn’t tuck itself so neatly around them.

I think Rin’s a real idiot for ignoring that Shinji is a Master and a mage…

I almost thought Shiro was gonna kiss Sakura for a second there. Apparently you should approach an unconscious person from behind and tap them on the shoulder (as opposed to going from the front to listen for breath), in case they try to punch your lights out.

Watching Eizouken, which doesn’t have girly runs for the girls, and then watching this makes you aware even Rin is capable of girly running…(LOL?)

Gee whiz, I was so sure this purple lady with the whip was Medea and a Caster-class Servant. So she’s a Rider??? Update: So it was Caster, masquerading as Rider…is that how it goes…?

So is this a locked-room – or locked-school – mystery…?

F/SN UBW 10

This is basically “You wanna go?” from Saber.

Considering the coronavirus, these words (about people getting out of the attack completely healthy) seem sort of weird…

Samosan? Seppa seppa? What dialect is this???

*Emiya asks Issei to strip* - Ooh…this is why Fate is popular with women…*thinks of the fact this was a male-oriented VN first* Maybe.

I still think the Great B*stard kinda looks like Kyo from Fruits Basket (…not that I ever mentioned it earlier).

I just realised Taiga’s shirt is striped orange/black…like a tiger.

The amount of still frames in this episode, in comparison to the usual number, is significantly higher.

F/SN UBW 11

I just realised Kinoko Nasu means “mushroom” and “eggplant” if not exactly written the way it is…what a name…

*something about being useful to others* - U-Uwaaaaah…Emiya! Stop reminding me of all the things I’ve done at the cost of myself!

Hmm? I googled Rin’s birthday and I thought she was a Leo – she’s an Aquarius (Feb. 3rd).

Rin absolutely steamrolled Emiya, LOL.

I get the feeling Archer is saying “Only you can save yourself”.

F/SN UBW 12

Randomly, there is a Volkswagen.

*something about Emiya photosynsthesising* - Rin, that’s not how people work…

Batting centre? How can girls go there in skirts without flashing anyone? That’s taking into consideration how short Rin’s skirt is, y’know…(Practicality comes first at all times, people…well, not for Saber, who’s wearing stockings, but I worry about Rin, as you can see.)

People find blushing tsunderes cute…I kinda get it for male tsunderes, but for Rin…not really.

Ack! Another double episode!

Why does this ominous vibe on a bus remind me of Harry Potter…? (Then again, the first things I remember of the movies were a shrunken head and a bus that could squeeze through gaps, which might explain things.)

Hmm? So what is Kuzuki’s place in Caster’s life, huh? Who’s controlling the puppet?

Come to think of it, who is Assassin’s real Master? If Caster has control of him, that means he belonged to someone else before that, right?

I feel sorry for Assassin. I mean, he has to keep talking to Caster with his body torn open like that…

“Princess of Colchis” – So Caster is Medea! Maybe Scott (who said I was wrong about that) was thinking I was referring to Rider. Rider and Caster do look awfully similar…but wait, so what was the real identity of Rider, then? Update: Reading over the notes, I was mistakenly referring to Rider as Caster, hence the comment.

Wolverine!Kirei strikes again, it seems.

Lel, I forgot about Lancer…and Berserker, now that I think of it.

F/SN UBW 13

So this is Brave Shine, huh? It doesn’t sound familiar at all…

…aaaaaaaaand of course Saber is in a fancy white dress. It’ll sell a lot of figures – in fact, I think I’ve actually seen Saber figures with that outfit while browsing for Nendoroids and other merch as of late.

F/SN UBW 14

Well, this blonde guy’s hair is nice…but he’s basically Shou Tucker all over again. (I haven’t even completed Fullmetal Alchemist in any form – I just know what the guy did because the fans talk about it a lot.)

Gosh, evil begets nothing but more evil, huh? (re: Kirei and blondie here)

I gotta facepalm - this blonde dude really shouldn’t have maltreated Medea. She has a reputation for a reason.

It took me a few tries and the brightening of my screen to figure it out, but Caster spotted Kuzuki.

Gilgamesh, what the f*** did you do to those poor maids?! (Even if they were homunculi…)

The subbers appear to have spelt “homunculus” slightly wrong…

F/SN UBW 15

“Going through the front door would be a bad idea.” – Yeah, and people die when they are killed.

I really respect Illya now…and can see why she got her own spinoff.

This snowy mountain makes me realise exactly why they chose Ufotable for Demon Slayer.

F/SN UBW 16

I was wondering what Gilgamesh had torn out of Illya…ew.

I was watching Shazam the other day and a piece of advice the titular superhero gives is “Look out for number one.” (i.e. yourself) Rin has much the same mentality.

I seriously facepalmed when they tried to protect each other. One person should learn to stand down in the relationship for that to work.

Hmm…so this means Lancer’s Master is male, huh? (Why is that Master still a mystery anyway…?)

I facepalmed the third time (the second was soon after the first) when Emiya thought he could seriously protect Rin from Lancer. Knowing who Lancer’s Master is a much bigger priority right now, man – this isn’t a romcom!

I like Lancer’s sideways gaze, LOL.

*Archer comes in* - Well, hasn’t it been a while since we saw this guy? (voice drips with sarcasm)

“druther” – Hmm? I’ve never heard of this word before. Apparently, it means (when used as “If I had my druthers…”) “If I had my way…”.

Hmm? What’s this? There are two pendants instead of one…?

F/SN UBW 17

There’s a lot of shots centring around Lancer’s butt…LOL. (Or is that just the female gaze I’m forcing on to this?) Even still, because Lancer has an outfit like that, it’s kinda hard not to see that he does have a fine one.

“You have a lack of pride in your sword skills.” – Uhhhhhhh…I guess that’s why he’s Archer…?

I never seem to know who the Lancers are…geesh. Like, I could pick one from a crowd of Servants, but not their real names. Update: As it turns out, Karna (the one Indian Servant I had my eye on from Apocrypha) is a Lancer in Fate/Grand Order.

Apparently, Gungnir is the spear of Odin.

Kuzuki is a Master…of the Naruto run. (LOL)

Noting “sieben” and stuff, I think Rin’s magic is German in nature.

Why does Medea have elven ears, anyway…?

F/SN UBW 18

The subs suddenly turned yellow! What the heck?! (Prior to this, subs were white.) Update: Come to think of it, only Aniplex shows have yellow subs, while Funimation ones have white subs (although HiDive let you choose between white and black, the standard is white on the hardsubs). This might mean a switchover between who’s responsible for the show happened while this anime was airing.

“…within your grasp?”

Ooh, this I didn’t expect! Saber joined forces with Rin!

“…your wish was a mistake.”

*Shiro fights swords with more swords* - For some reason, I feel like I need to play some Daft Punk right now. (I don’t even like them as an artist, even though I’m meant to be the EDM expert around here…)

This all but confirms Archer is actually a Shiro Emiya from a distant future.

I just imagined an Archer whose body was made of swords. What a compelling image – a literal human weapon.

Those hand gestures…Shinji is a massive creep.

Huh? I’ve been skipping the post-credits segments for previous episodes because I’m binging, but there’s a post-credits segment here…

Hmm…this next-ep preview had a rook (or a king? I’m no good at identifying chess pieces by their appearance) with a red glowing symbol on it facing what appeared to be the symbol of the Saber class. What an interesting representation of the upcoming inevitable faceoff.

F/SN UBW 19

Wouldn’t it not make sense for future!Shirou to kill present!Shirou? I mean, you know the time travel paradox…if you kill the present guy, the future guy doesn’t exist.

“Sorry about that, punk.” – LOL. Lancer’s great.

Hey, wasn’t Kirei dea-oh right. In fiction, when there is no corpse, you can’t have assumed the character died. They probably skedaddled off somewhere, heavily bleeding and/or on the edge of death…and I’m assuming that was how Kirei got out of his scuffle too.

All this talk about ideals makes me wanna play Odd Future for some reason, LOL. (Well, the first line of that song is “I keep my ideals”, no?)

“…it is you who is disobeying orders.”

A eunuch, huh? Rin, you do know that a eunuch has his *erhem erhem* cut off…right?

Okay, people. Why must women be the source of the Holy Grail? This is only the 2nd time I’ve gotten to this point and you’ve got enough men to fuel the Grail instead. Why not use them??? Update: It’s safe to say I get my wish later.

“You’ve been removed from the bounds of time.” Subbers, I know you’re under pressure to produce subs, but please proofread…? Pretty please? Update: I should proofread too. My E key is a bit dodgy at the moment.

I predicted, a few seconds before it appeared on my screen, that Shirou wasn’t the type to do things he regretted. Yyyyyyyyyyup. That’s Shirou, alright.

F/SN UBW 20

Okayyyyyy. That was not an episode title that needed to be subbed.

Oh, gosh. Can you please just knee Shinji where it hurts, Rin…? I know you’re being choked, but you could still do something lik that.

…(lol)…What the heck, Shinji’s such a self-preserving prick!

So how many times did Lancer actually die and how many times was he faking it out?

“Dying because of some order that comes with being a hero.”

So who’s Gilgamesh’s Master now…?

Hmm…I thought by saving Rin and Saber, Shirou was already a hero. Maybe it’s just a perception thing.

H-Hey, Shirou…you keep saying redundant things…

F/SN UBW 21

Why is Saber just standing there, anyway…? (Well, Shirou did say it was his fight, but…she can do something…)

Okay, whose idea was it to cut after “However…”?! That’s terrible pacing.

This series peaked quite a few episodes ago. Now it’s just stretching for time.

Um, hey. Random question. Didn’t King Arthur draw Excalibur from the sword in the stone? Is that a stone or a tree stump? It’s hard to tell since the zoom quality is funny, but…if it’s a tree stump, someone got a crucial detail wrong. Update: Nup, it’s a stone. Forget I told you.

Having sacrificed myself for over a year for other people’s sake, I can’t say I agree that giving yourself up for others is a beautiful thing. This is speaking as someone who volunteers at a not-for-profit (the charity store). In fact, having thought long and hard about the fact I’ve completely gone down the wrong path from having taken this one opportunity I was given (note I did get rejected from a similar place before I got the position I did), I’ve thought, occasionally, that sort of thing is disgusting.

Did the Great B*stard even age 10 years while waiting for this new war…?

“…left off 10 years ago.”

Uh-oh. I don’t like Shinji – you can clearly tell that from the way I’ve been reacting to him – but there’s no way you’d use him as a Grail vessel…right?

F/SN UBW 22

If I understand the pink box correctly, it says kayumino-ru which is…*checks that up* itch cream(?) Another of the boxes says either iburon or ipuron, but it seems to be some kind of medicine (although I can’t figure out what it does).

“…flashy gold jerk…” – Yup, that’s why he’s the Great B*stard. The most narcisstic of all b*stards –so narcisstic he survived a Holy Grail War without being the victor.

Lemme guess, Rin…if I know my visual novels right, then the way to establish the mana link is either kissing or sexual intercourse, right? Update: Oh well, transplantation of a Magic Crest will work too. With the way Rin was reacting, I thought it was gonna be really intimate, but…nup. It’s just them taking off their shirts for one another…*whistles and pretends to walk away*

The reason I don’t like tsunderes is that whenever they want to be romantic, you can’t tell whether they’re giving mixed signals or not. Then again, you could argue I count as one, so…uh…*sweatdrop*

Shirou, why are you so concerned for the pillow?!

F/SN UBW 23

You can barely recognise the guy (Shinji)…huh.

H-Hey? You couldn’t mean Assassin’s back, right? Update: Y-Yep, that’s Assassin, alright. At least I can gaze upon his handsome face again…(lol) (<- If you’re wondering, there’s a difference between “lol” (or “small LOL”), “lel” and “LOL”. That’s the order they’re meant to be in, going from smallest to biggest laugh.)

Had to check Wikipedia, but Monohoshizao is the pole (?) wielded by Kojiro Sasaki…well, the correct term is nodachi (which I know better as ootachi from Touken Ranbu), but it’s referred to as a pole. To add something interesting to that, the ootachi I like the most (my beloved Taroutachi) is said to be 221 cm (throwing that into a converter, about 7.25 feet) and 4.5 kg (converting again, about 9.92 pounds)...which is basically something no human should be able to use, so if the pole is anything like Taroutachi...I have immense respect for this Assassin as well.

Assassin’s treatment here reminds me of Tora from Juuni Taisen…in a sense, they got what they wanted.

F/SN UBW 24

Cue the law of equivalent exchange from Fullmetal Alchemist, hahaha.

How can you be so sure you’ll beat the Great B*stard, Shirou???

Well, that Grail’s Holey, alright…(I bet you’re groaning at my joke, yes?)

I thought Archer was dead?! How did he fling a weapon at the last moment?!

Archer, you’re disappearing! This is no time for monologuing!

Why do I get the feeling I’ve seen Rin give the thumbs-up before as well…?

F/SN UBW 25 (FINAL)

Eyyyyyy? London…? Update: Oh, it’s the Clock Tower! That OVA is starting to make sense now! (Although I will watch it next, so there’s no need to muse over it.)

Tohsaka without pigtails is…weird.

Sherou (?)

Oh, romantic infighting (voice dripping in sarcasm)…That’s not what I’m here for. This is not a harem.

Ponytail Rin. This just gets weirder and weirder. Also, she kinda looks like Ishtar from Babylonia like that.

Tiny Pigtail Rin…it gets even weirder.

*yells* See?! It is London after all!!!

Update: Prior to this point, I had Silhouettes (by Avicii) playing in my head on occasion, notably when Archer was meeting his end. When Shirou came face-to-face with Saber’s grave, it switched to So Amazing by Luther Vandross. Although I normally don’t mention what I have on my mental playlist in notes like these, I just want to make note of that because it reflects the switch in mood. (Also, this is basically an extended transition into El-Melloi’s Case Files.)

Hmph. Yeah, nothing like hindsight to make something huge look small.

Sakura and Shinji’s relationship…it reminds me of a grumpy old man and his young daughter…(LOL?)

Ryudou’s reaction to romance reminds me of Tenya (from BnHA) in his more crazy moments.

All this talk about the Clock Tower is making me think that older!Waver will show up at any moment now…

…wa-hey? Well, *spits out some held-back laughter* whaddaya know? That’s the older Waver right there!

Ufotable’s older!Waver and Troyca’s older!Waver look fairly different. Ufotable’s isn’t as attractive because his hair has an artificial sheen to it and the man’s face looks more like a snake’s head in shape, so he looks a bit dumb. Update: Certainly Troyca’s Waver has a more egg-shaped head, but at least that makes his hair look nicer, no?

Post-credits segment. Keep watching.

Huh…that segment wasn’t very substantial. Maybe Hoshiai no Sora spoilt me on that front.  

Waver OVA (REWATCH)

*yells* I still think Flat Escardos is a terrible name!

LOL, I think Waver just called out a bunch of political writers right there.

So who are these old people??? (Lennon Glasses and Old Lady here) I still don’t know. Update: You do find out later – Inorai is the old lady and Rocco is the old man.

Okay, so apparently the set of characters used for “Rail Zeppelin” is literally translated to Demon Eyes Collection Train...sounds like something out of Demon Slayer.

If Kayneth is the OG Lord and this Reines girl is the new one, how did Waver become gen. 2? *rewinds a little* She’s el-Melloi Archisorte, meaning that somehow she and Kayneth are blood-related (also note Monkey D Luffy = Luffy is his first name and Monkey is the last name with D being a middle initial, so Reines could have her names around the wrong way as well). Still doesn’t answer the Waver part of the question, though. Update: The character page of the official website says Reines is the rightful heir to the name “Lord (Lady?) El-Melloi”, but she appointed Waver to be the Lord while she waited to become of age and take the position.  

As you know, I gotta question the guy’s (Waver) age. In Fate/Zero he was 19 and he looks much the same ten years later, so his approximate age range is 19 – 29 here. Wikipedia (which I linked earlier) says the anime this OVA is attached to occurs between the Grail Wars, meaning I might not be able to get an exact age. Update: “[A]lmost 10 years”, so I’d wager he’s on the back end of the age range (24 – 29).

Ooh, another good boy (Bram). I forgot he existed…and that’s kinda nasty that he’s got the bloodline of Sola-Ui in him. Update: Oh! Younger sister! That is nasty!

The word shisho (師匠), if I’m guessing the right characters, means “instructor” (or “teacher” if you wanna bend it that way). “Sir” is Waver’s title…I’m guessing that translatio choice is because he’s not a professor in title, assuming professor titles in this are given like they are in real life.

There’s something quite cute about Waver making such an indignant face…then again, he does have permanent worry lines on his face, so maybe not.

Like, whose bright idea was it to crush on the loli? Ravioli, ravioli, don’t crush on the loli! (Then again, I’m probaby worse, chasing after older men…)

Come to think of it, Ufotable is good at action motion (see exhibit A: Demon Slayer), but not free-flowing comedic motion like Waver falling over like this. That’s probably why the show jumped studios to Troyca (aside from divvying up the work of the Fate/ universe – Ei Aoki did F/Z, after all, so it makes sense he’d have some ability to take dibs on whatever works best for his studio…although he wasn’t too involved with this, I don’t think). Update: He was supervisor and storyboarder for this OVA.

Waver: Official butt monkey of the Clock Tower. Calling it now.

Troyca animates F/Z (however briefly)…I must say, they did a good job imitating Ufotable.

All I really remember from the first time around is the car chase, which really shows my priorities in anime…heh heh.

Troyca’s CGI is more noticeable than Ufotable’s, but they’re still on of the best studios for CGI, I think. That’s why they’re on my favourites list over Ufotable (since Ufotable, by general consensus, does better work but I think it looks more artificial in parts – case in point, Waver’s hair).

Setting up a mystery, like all stories, is very much about setting up the boundaries that you’re allowed to play in later. The only thing is that mysteries get more stringently judged for logic.

Hey, whaddaya know? Waver can fit Rider’s old shirt now! (Or maybe it’s the smaller version Waver implied was given to him during F/Z.)

“[W]hydunit” (in English) – LOL? There’s “whodunit”, but not “whydunit” – stick to “motive” or “modus operandi”, people.

[omgbrainstorming]

The Librarians Periscope Live

Since I can’t watch UPtv because I live outside the US (not salty about that, not at all), I’ve watched the Live on Periscope that was supposed to be on Facebook, but Facebook was dead, so here’s what happened:

UPtv has given us a new home and said that if they get enough “love” they might do something for either a new movie or season 5

Dean had an ear piece to hear the questions and was playing FBI/CIA agent 

First “on screen” was John Kim to “talk behind the girls’ backs” (they were all behind the cameras)

Dean would have loved to explore the Mayan Mythology in season 5 (and again said it still might happen)

John was asked if he thought that Ezekiel would have changed had he picked up the Apple of Discord in season 4 since he didn’t change in season 1, and he said absolutely no and Dean added that there’s a freaking reason why the answer is a big fat no and it’s in the special that they did so, hey, those of you who can watch UPtv will find out! (n.d.a. Not salty at all, really). Also he said that Ezekiel is always both the best and the worst version of himself, so really, no.

John said his fave memory is his first day because he knew nothing, where Portland was (”it’s west of New Hampshire, right?”), what he was supposed to do etc., but everyone was really welcoming 

Dean said that the actors really helped shaped it all (the show) because they had lots of great ideas (like Lindy’s idea of having Cassandra smitten with Jenkins)

John was asked if Ezekiel kept any of the werewolf’s traits and he said that even though the “fetch the ball” scene with Christian at the end of the episode was hilarious, no, he’s just himself, “Ezekiel’s superpower is that he doesn’t know what he’s doing”

Here an alarm went off and, hilariously, it was the sound guy’s alarm 

Here came Lindy “on screen”

MY SHIPPER SISTER WAS MENTIONED: they asked a @jenksel ‘s question (I’m so proud??) where she asked if Casskins was going anywhere and Lindy was all “Listen here, I AM THIS SHIP’S CAPTAIN AND IMMA GO DOWN WITH IT!” so she certainly hopes so, she loves the idea that the thing keeping them (Cassandra and Jenkins) apart was their mortality/immortality and when Jenkins became mortal “it was... maybe maybe maybe!” and Dean and John echoed her “Maybe maybe maybe” and she concluded with: “I would be interested!”

Question: “We know Flynn has a special bond with Excalibur, what would your character choose?” (As something to bond with) And both Lindy and Dean had to suggest Stumpy to John, and Lindy said that Cassandra bonded with no objects, but with her power.

Lindy started making fun of Dean for his ear piece

Q: “In an hypothetical s5, would Cassandra and Jenkins remember the stuff from s4 that was erased when they went back and flipped it?” Because, Dean explains, we know that Flynn remembers and we think that Baird remembers. Lindy said that Cassandra and Jenkins’ relationship is so special that maybe it was imprinted on their hearts ”If I can be super romantic about the entire thing, and I think that kind of thing never goes away, and so maybe, if the details of it had gotten away, they still would have had a sense of that” (n.d.a. Lindy is our ship’s captain through and through, gotta love her)

Q: John and Lindy, what was you fave scene together? They both went “The Minotaur scene” when they are inside the Labyrinth (n.d.a. I’m not crying, go away), John said that it was beautiful because up until this point we see Ezekiel not caring for anyone but himself, and here and throughout all the seasons we see how he has a soft spot for Cassandra and he opens up to her before, and then to the rest of the team (n.d.a. my Casekiel babiiiies), he loved shooting with Lindy because they felt really at ease with each other; and then the final scene of the Morgan episode where Ezekiel gives her the trophy

Q: What was your (Lindy) fave costume? Lindy loved this question. She loved many of her outfits, creating them as well, but if she has to pick one, it’s the Cindy’s episode costume, where she is really colourful, yellow skirt, striped shirt underneath, a blue vest, an extremely short tie and a lovely big bee brooch on it. She doesn’t know why, but this outfit just makes her happy. 

Dean made fun of Christian before he came on screen “don’t know if you can hear it, but there was the sound of a motorbike and a horse running, so that tells me that Christian Kane is in the house”, Christian acted as if he was winded and didn’t know what was happening (he truly didn’t know it was a Periscope and not a Fb Live)

Q: What was your (Christian) fave myth? Was it in the show or not? Christian loved the Frankenstein thing, he was jealous of John Kim for this, he knows that Flynn has killed Dracula so that’s out of the table, but he would have loved more Frankenstein. 

Question for Christian: Which series required more stunts? Leverage or The Librarians? Leverage. And Dean is still salty about the fact that Christian makes him hire stunts for him and then goes and does the stunts himself.

Question for Christian: did you have to watch The Librarian movies or did you just wing it? He said he was lucky because the role was written with him in mind, so no, he knows what Flynn did in the past, but he didn’t

Q: What was your fave interactions with the fans of the show? Christian likes that both 5yo kids and 100yo watch the show together and can both be fan. For John it was at the DragonCon because two girls went up to them (Christian was with him) dressed as Eve and Cassandra and he was like “I know those outfits”, they (the girls) told them they were Eve and Cassandra (Prince Charming Cassandra and a jumpsuit for Eve) and John couldn’t believe he hadn’t recognised them. For Lindy all the girls who thanked her via Instagram or Twitter for representing them, the “weird ones”, who said that Cassandra really meant something for them and that helped them through a difficult time. Lindy herself said she “was always a weirdo” never fitting anywhere, so it was really special, “for all of you ladies out there, hiiiiii” and waved. 

Question for Christian: how did the character of Jacob help you evolve as an actor? He said that he was really lucky to work with amazing people (said all the cast’s names, but paused before John Kim’s name lol), and he said that Jacob was smarter than him, so he kinda had to get smarter.

Q: how was it to work with Rachel Nichols? They all said she was really nice.

Q: what was the funniest behind the scenes moment? They couldn’t really pick one, they loved playing UNO together, but turns out they gave a nickname to John Kim at 2 a.m. because John Kim is a really common name for korean actors and... they brainstormed. Lindy, laughing, said “and then he said he wanted a traditional Australian name!” and... they came up with Koala Newton John. They all agreed it would have been a hit

Q: would you (Dean) have liked to have an episode with all the villains together? Yes, Dean would have loved it, mainly because they all like the actors who played them, Christian was like “yeah, man, we can take ‘em, bring ‘em in!” and Dean “We got Baird, we can win anybody”

Rebecca arrived on screen

Question for Rebecca: what was your fave action and fave emotional scene? She loved the bar fight with Christian in the very first episode because they had played brother and sister in a previous show and had a fight together, so she liked that as the action scene. As the emotional scene she said Jenkins’ deathbed was tough, everyone chimed in saying it was so very emotional, but she added the scene in s4 where she is trying to make them remember The Library and she forgets it herself (in the alternate reality).

Q: we want to know everything that happened with those bunk beds from the summer camp episode. They said that there weren’t many funny outtakes, but that Ezekiel was bunking with Jacob and that Cassandra was under Eve’s bed. They had funny pj’s (”sleeping bonnet” for Lindy, alien pj’s for Ezekiel). But, on Rebecca’s Instagram there are pictures of them in bunk beds, it’s from the time loop episode. They said that maybe they liked bunk beds so much that they (the characters) sleep in bunk beds in The Library. 

Dean said that the location for the time loop episode is an actual prison, never used before, but still a prison.  John then said that, talking about emotional scenes, the one where Eve tells Ezekiel the WW2 story was really emotional, he didn’t want to know the story ‘till their close up and it worked well because he was genuinely tearing up when Rebecca/Eve told him for the first time during the shoot.

Question for Rebecca: fave memory from working on the show? Probably The Silver Screen episode because she likes that it’s not, as usual, Flynn explaining things to Eve, it’s Eve who knows this world and explains it to him. And then the fact that they (Rebecca and Noah) were really beautifully dressed as noir movies want and they (Lindy, Christian and John) showed up dressed up as anything but. They started laughing, John’s fond memories of Jab Jab, Christian was really embarassed because of his cowboy outfit so out of context with their beautiful world. Then everyone laughed because Dean brought up Christian’s yodeling in that episode. 

Q: what was something you wanted to see your character doing/going that we didn’t get to do in s5?  John likes that he (Ezekiel) was almost at the point of being responsible and he would have liked to shoot that.  Lindy would have liked to know more about her past, her parents etc. She has so many ideas because we only got a glimpse of her goth phase in high school, she would have loved to have a particular actress as her mother (n.d.a. sorry guys, I didn’t catch her name, did you?) because she thinks she could portay the same energy Cassandra has, and Christian said he actually often visualise the same actress as his mother and thinks she’d be perfect.  Rebecca would have loved to see an immortal Eve. Christian said that Jacob has found his family in s3, so he thinks he just wants to be like Eve, not in any romantic way, but he wants her to have to focus only on protecting Cassandra and Ezekiel, he wants to be able to fight at the same level, he wants to be great in a fight. 

Dean reveals (to them as well) that he knew what the opening scene of s5 would have been: right back in the middle of the Tethering Ceremony with Nicole barging in and yelling “Stop! If you tether the world ends!” and end of teaser. He knows nothing after that, but he wanted to “screw everything up”

Q: if you had to do a body swapping episode, who would you like your character to body swap with?  John, without a second of hesitation: “Baird.” And then “Aaaaaah, to kiss Noah Wyle” and everyone started laughing. Because he likes the idea of changing the Librarian-Guardian thing. Rebecca agrees that watching her as Ezekiel would have been fun. Lindy to Christian “Does that leave you and me?”  Christian would be ecstatic to play Cassandra, he thinks he’d be great with his hands (for the visions), “I think I’d be fabolous!” and Lindy said she’s be impressive as Jacob because no one expects her to be able to fight, but she actually, in real life, is, Christian knows this and was “yes, she can throw a punch, I believe she knocked me back 3 feet”

Q: in tribute to John Larroquette who’s not here, your fave scene with John Larroquette. Lindy made a whining pained sound (she can’t choose one, “All of them!”). Dean: I think as a group, you all agree on his death scene.  Everyone: yes. Dean: that was a rip-your-heart-out scene. But what about your one on one scene? Christian: the episode where Jenkins and Jacob had the talk after the stuff with Jake’s father. Christian went up to John (Larroquette) and told him, before they even knew about that episode, “<You have to understand something, man, you’re going to be my dad in this>, and I told John that, and you (Dean) before that episode with my dad, <I’m looking at you because I have nothing, you know what I mean? I don’t trust this guys (points at the others), so you- you’re the guy>” and it went exactly as he imagined it, and said that just getting to have a cup of coffe in the morning with John is amazing. Lindy: it was the entire episode she directed (Some Dude Named Jeff) because she says that what he gave her during that episode is so incredible. Her fave scene between him and Cassandra is “the vampire episode”. Christian: “At the very end?” Lindy: “No, no, at the beginning! Where she confesses her undying love to Jenkins! And asks him out on a date! And I just remember John (Larroquette) being so awkard about this and was like (tries to deepen her voice to speak like John) <Ooooh, nooo, I don’t think you would ever ask me out on a date!> and I was like, <Listen John, don’t tell me what I wouldn’t do>” and everyone laughs. She said that she likes their fight over mortality and immortality (same episode) and “he’s just a dream to work with” and stares dreamily into the void.  John Kim says it’s when Ezekiel confronts Jenkins when he’s going away in the Apple of Discord. Dean said that his fave scene between John Larroquette and Rebecca was in the second episode, under the bridge, when he gives her the pep talk.  Rebecca agrees, but also like the scene just before his death, when Eve has brought them all back and “he was there and gave me the biggest hug in the world”

Christian: “If I can speak for the panel, none of our tears (in the death scene) were acting, I was crying”. Everyone: yes. He (John Larroquette) was powerful.

Question: which episode was the funniest to film? Or which moment?  Rebecca can’t pick, but said that the episode when they know they can work together, the four of them, without Flynn, the fairytale episode, they had lots of fun then, especially at Eve being mad for being a princess. Christian remembers going up to Rebecca: “as someone <that claims to know about stunts> I said <you’re in high heels, be careful with them> and she looked at me and she goes <Christian, there’s nothing I can’t do in high heels>” and everyone started laughing. Christian “and you know what? She’s absolutely right”

Question for John: can you actually pick a lock and have you ever stolen something? Yes, he can actually pick a lock, he learned, he can do it in under a minute. Christian “what did you steal that’s worth the most money?” Lindy at John “Nooooo! Do not admit to that!” Chaos ensued and Dean calmed them: “I’ll answer the question for him” then looks in the camera “A million hearts”. 

Q: if there could only be one Librarian, who would make the best Librarian? Dean is sure this will start a fight. John: Ezekiel Jones. No questions, no hesitation. Everyone laughs. Lindy raises her hand and goes: “Guys, like, who else’s ever read a book? Who else could it be?!”  Christian “I’ll be honest with you: it wouldn’t be Jacob Stone” and “sure as hell wouldn’t be Ezekiel” and “It would have been Cassandra. Because she thinks about things before jumping in and because she has the power of magic” 

Dean thinks Captain Marvel stole the idea from them: the fact that Cassandra has powers, then gets rid of the brain grape and her powers go boom.

Lindy: “I actually think that not one of them can be The Librarian, even Flynn admitted it, after muuuuch discussion, that they are all better together.” Dean: 100% agrees with Lindy

Q: would any of you consider being a librarian as an alternative career?  Rebecca volounteers at her kids’ library Lindy spends lots of time with children literacy causes, she wouldn’t be a librarian, “but the library is my happy place” Christian “I don’t wanna have to do with any card catalogue whatsoever!” (he’d only be a Librarian, capital L).   John: nope, his fondest memory of a library is him behind other children scaring them.

Dean: can any of you actually use the card catalogue? John: NO. Rebecca and Lindy: yes, no problem. Christian: it’s the easiest thing in the world. Then to John “of course you can’t” And Christian Kane is an actual honorary librarian, because he made some publicity for the show and the NY Library gave him an honorary position.

Q: What do you think The Librarians have been doing since the last episode? Christian wants everybody to know that Jacob Stone has perfected and probably marketed his own line of beef jerky - everyone explodes in laughs - which is called Chupacabra. Lindy (n.d.a. who totally wanted to say “Jenkins”) says that Cassandra is probably re-organizing everything in The Library. John thinks Ezekiel is being lazy, sleeping in, getting bald.

Lindy directed an episode, John asked what she did for it and she said she normally just reads the script and thinks what would Cassandra wants, here she had to do it with all of them, mostly Jenkins.  Christian said she was amazing, especially because it was her idea the opening scene (when they come into The Library, it’s shot all in one, no room for error, they are shouting news of the escaped animals at each other)

Dean asked: Did directing changed the way she acts? (Lindy) Not really, just made her want to be better.

Q: if you could use the Magic Door to take you anywhere in the world, where would you go?  Lindy: can we travel in time? Rebecca: No, it’s not a time machine.  Lindy: I kno- Rebecca: Do you even remember the show we were in? The thing escalated when they asked Dean if they could swap the magic doors for a time machine.  Christian: magic door, same day, same time. Go. Lindy: Ok. Becca? Rebecca: ahm.......................... Christian: John Kim? They laugh.  Rebecca: Come back to me! Dean: I’ll tell you where I would go!  Rebecca: ok Dean: I would take all of you and we’d go through the Magic Door and we’d arrive at The Library. Everyone: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwww!

And that’s it. 

Now it’s almost 6 a.m. here and I want the extended episodes of The Librarians. No, I don’t need sleep, someone gives those episodes to me, please

[lifeofbouyd]

Wet Wet Fantasy

Now, I have always been a bad boy, always getting called up for the worst kinda shit. I got called up so often it felt like a daily routine. Even when I did nothing wrong, my name was always the first to be called. I didn’t let that stop my shine tho. Now that I think about it, most these girls dated me because I was a bad boy. I certainly wasn’t and still isn’t the cutest, but I have done well for myself when it comes on to women. I’ve dated chicks I still can’t believe would date someone like me. Famous celebrities today, but this ain’t about them. Throughout my early teens, I learnt three key things about women. Firstly, women know what they want. You might see her acting shady and think she’s a fool, but most times you’re just not what she needs. Secondly, if she puts her mind to it, nothing but herself can stop her getting it. Thirdly, women are better at cheering. In other words, when it comes on to covering up shit and selling lies, they stand dominant. I’ve always had a taste for independent/mature women. Twice my age or just out of school. Girls my age back then we’re more focused on fucking taxi men and conductors or hype dudes who were always called up for the worst kinda shit. Although I was amongst that batch, I wanted more than the average school girls. I wanted girls who were working, girls who could buy me lunch and especially girls who could sleep over. I wanted teachers, the sexy ones, the pretty ones, the ones who seemed like they’d be good to fuck.

Francene: Bouyd, I notice you’ve been hanging out with the wrong crowd and I’d like for you to change that. If you keep this up, you’ll be out of school in no time

I stood there looking at her waist, trying to glimpse a print of her pussy through her tight skirt. Bouyd, I am serious. Are you even listening to me?

Me: I heard every word you said, just preoccupied looking at your skirt.

She slapped herself on her forehead and shook her head. She turned around to walk away but turned back with a smile like she had an ingenious idea.

Francene: I know you like the view around there. How about you be a good boy and I’ll let you see all this without clothes?

🤤 like what the fuck? Why is she fucking with my brain like this? Does she even know how badly I want to fuck her? I bet this is a prank. But, that ass tho, is it worth a termination, will it be anything like I’ve imagined, will she scream the way she does in my mind when I jerk off at nights? I stood there shocked, not sure what to say or how to react. My mind was all over the place

Francene: 18764478396, save my number and message me when you decide what you want.

She walked away without even looking back. Shaking that big ass I wanted to slap so bad. I messaged her, asking for specific details of what she wanted exactly, trying to get an insight of what or who to be. She claimed to be single and heartbroken. “I see the potential in you I guess, I just want you away from those boys,” she said. We went from texting right throughout the day to talking late at nights. Before long it became a relationship. Who would have thought I’d actually get myself a teacher? Not me for sure lol. She made me look at life differently, made me realize what’s out there. Back then I was already dating someone, someone who’d slap a bitch if they got too close. Someone who’d kick my ass if she had the slightest idea I was cheating. But I just wanted to fuck Francene so bad. She talked about sex I’m a sense it seemed like a sport. At age fifteen I had already had sex with quite a few girls so I wasn’t shy or afraid to go for what I want. But when it came to her, I couldn’t decide what I wanted. Pussy, love, money? Somewhere along the line I did fall in love, at the beginning I wanted her Pussy and in the long run, came money. She changed the way I dressed, the way I talked and my chill habits. I remember her claiming to be sick one evening. She asked me to drive her home so she could get some rest. Of course, I did, she didn’t have to ask twice. I pulled up to her house and escorted her in with expectations of leaving shortly after. She gave me an ice cold magnum from the fridge and a fifty bag to roll two spliffs while she took a shower. I made myself at home on her sectional couch. Her living room seemed way too expensive for a teachers budget, hundred thousand dollar couch, a tv that had to cost at least another one hundred and mahogany furniture. I couldn’t help but notice a portrait she had on the wall. A done to detail painting of her and dude who seemed like a billionaire.

Francene: Bouyd, can you come to the bathroom, please? I need the towel but I can’t step out wet on the floor.

It seemed like a noble request, it’s just a towel. What could possibly go wrong? I walked into the bathroom only to see the towel hanging from the shower curtain bar. “It’s on the curtain bar,” I said. Expecting her to pull it down and wrap herself up. She slid the curtain across, standing there but naked, all soaped up. My dick became steel hard and my brain stopped functioning. She was way more than I had ever masturbated to. My imagination had done her no justice. “Be a good boy and come bathe with me please?” she said. I took my shirt off without even pulling a button, my shoes without untying and my pants without unbuckling my belt. I slid out my clothes with my dick so hard it was jumping. I floated to the shower. I grabbed her by the neck and braced her against the wall. “Don’t start what you can’t manage?” she said. I braced my hard dick against her pussy. Slowly rubbing it between her clit. She turned the shower on. It was warm and tingly. Making me even hornier than I was before. I grabbed her nipples and sucked on them like a newborn. She shivered from the feeling. Hot cum ran down my fingers. I raised one leg and slid my hard dick in. I sucked on her lips as if I wanted to suck them off her face while I stroked her hard and deep. Within a minute if not less, she came. Meowing like a cat, squirting like a broken pipe. I grabbed her by both legs and held her high on the wall. Giving me clear access to her dripping pussy. We kissed and fucked and kissed and fucked some more. We left from the shower to the face basin, the living room, the bed, then the floor. I fucked her until we were both cramped. She took every last drop of my kids deep inside her. I fell asleep shortly after as I was near as fuck. I never woke till the next morning. I was shocked as fuck, I didn’t even bring extra clothes to go to school. Luckily, she was smart enough to machine wash them from overnight. We both showed up late that morning as I had to fuck her again to believe we actually fucked.

I went to school that morning smiling like a mad man. I didn’t even bathe that morning because I wanted the fuck scent to remind me of her bomb ass pussy. I had dethroned the queen and finally fucked a teacher. Two birds with one stone. I was so eager to fuck her I didn’t remember I drove to work until I saw my car the next day. I had made plans with apple to take her out but I didn’t remember shit. I rushed to her class with an apology only to get dumped. Which I did deserve but got damn, I apologized. She could have at least given me another day to make up for it. A few days passed and I wanted to be deep inside her again. I couldn’t help but think about. I needed her to feel alive. I pulled up to her house uninvited and unannounced, hoping she’d let me in. She came out in nothing but her robe on. She adjusted my seat and hopped on top without an early warning. She dragged my pants down and made herself at home on my dick. Again I fell asleep. We were both knocked the fuck out in the car. Lucky enough it was Sunday. She made us breakfast then packed a bag and got dressed for the beach. She reclined the passenger seat and placed her legs on the dashboard. We stopped and fucked twice on the way as we were both dying for each other. I felt like I couldn’t get enough and she just didn’t know how to say no. We were like this for months. Fucking like wildlings, not giving one fuck about anything else. We went as far as fucking in the teacher’s bathroom. I admit, some days were hornier than others and it was just too much to bear. I went to see her on my lunch break and we started kissing. I fingered her for a while but we both wanted my dick in her belly. I told her we could go to my place and fuck but she preferred to be daring as always. She dragged me behind her to the bathroom where she stripped butt naked. She slid my throat down her throat then sat on the toilet top. I fucked her until sweat ran down my back. Cumin all over her sexy body. She missed her period that month, I guess she intentionally didn’t take her pills. I was so excited about it I changed her name to “Le Bebé Mama”.

She was pregnant, for four months, of that I was sure. But something happened and she had a miscarriage 😔. My dreams crumbled, my heart sunk in my chest and her love for me somehow died. I guess she couldn’t bear to see me and not be carrying my child. It fucked me so I can only imagine what it did to her. I tried to mend us but she kept crying when we were together which only pushed us further apart. Before long we didn’t even communicate, and by the time I had realized she had already moved on.. she even had the audacity to message me to stop calling her name. I hadn’t even mentioned fucking her to myself. I was too afraid of what could happen if I did so I just kept my mouth shut. I didn’t reply to that message or any she sent after because I took it as an insult. I was minding my own business one day when this dude walked up to me with her keys. He bragged about how he fucked her and she said I was a wimp. Deep down I wanted to knock him out, but somehow my conscious side stopped me from doing so. That was it for me, obviously, she had moved on and wanted me to know. Why wait for someone who’s never coming back? I moved on with my happy life and acted as if she didn’t exist until she texts me one day. “Meet me in the teacher’s bathroom, I need to talk to you” mmmmmmm. I wondered what the fuck she could possibly want to talk about in the bathroom. “Fuck da gyal yah a look eno, she think she smart.” I waited for about fifteen minutes before making a move, thinking of every possible outcome. She was butt naked when I got there. Looking at me from head to. “Fuck me, hard and long,” she said. “A wa she tek this ting fah, she think she can diss me den strip naked an it good, she mek a sad mistake”. I stood there hard as steel steering at her amazing body. I turned around acting like I wanted to leave, just for show to see her reaction. She jumped me with a knife, threatening to kill me if I leave. “A bet mi buss yuh blood cloth throat if you ramp wid mi,” she said. Like a bitch, I lapped my tail between my legs and did exactly as she asked. I held the hand with the knife and started on her breast, up to her neck, then long lingering kisses on her lips. She released my belt and took my shaft out. Slowly rubbing it against her soaked pussy. Teasing herself to an orgasm. She pushed me on the toilet and slid her way down my dick. With her hands on my shoulder, she leaned back and gave my dick a lap dance. Cum ran down my nuts. She screamed and moaned and broke down in tears. Talking all kind of shit. “Breed mi, breed mi, breed mi to bloodcloth”. She hugged me tight and worked her way to a tummy full of kids. Fresh semen swimming around.

Again, she broke down in tears. “One piece a cow bawling”. She held the knife to her knock and threatened to kill herself if I didn’t take her back. 🤦‍♂️ like what the fuck is she playing at? Is she crazy? I sat there on the toilet, mute as I was confused. She could have simply asked me to take her back. That would have been easier. Not all this crazy drama shit. I wanted to say no but I was afraid she’d kill me and kill herself. As much as I wanted to be on tv, I didn’t want to be dead in a bathroom. I agreed to be her man after all. It’s not like I had a choice. We fucked for months like nothing happened, trying to fix our whatever that was. Or maybe I was just fucking to stay alive. Sometime mi feel seh mi attrak some bad duppy eno. I was out with Apple one day when her car drove up, and the same dude who was bragging about her months ago jumped out. I’m the kind who premeditates and calculates every possible outcome of every situation. From the way he jumped out and at the speed he was walking towards me I knew some shit was about to go down. He attacked me, accusing me of fucking his girl. He claimed he saw cum on the front seat and messages in her phone about last night. Like who the duck he think he is? Although I did cum on the front seat of “her” car. She said she wasn’t seeing anybody but me, she said they broke up. So why the fuck this dude fight me? Or was she lying? Either way, I didn’t intend on getting my ass kicked. We wrestled and hurled punches at each other till I pushed through a store window. Now Apple and I were just getting back together, trying to fix our relationship and this happens 🤦‍♂️. I think I’m cursed. Funny enough the cops let him go and took me in for questioning. I had just completed one year of my anger management class and this piece of shit made me get another six months. Apple left me, again, and Francene took his side. As bad as I felt, I was happy she left. Francene that is.

I’ve learned from that mistake, and I don’t intend on making it again. Never stay with a psycho chick. If she’s willing to kill herself for you, she’ll kill you just the same. A woman will love you to death and still ditch you and act as they’ve never seen you in their life. Women think they can do anything and make it up to you with some real, good sex. But sometimes we need more than that. I just can’t see past you letting another man fuck you, suck his dick, then turn around and say you made a mistake. How did that happen? He slipped between your legs while you were wet without you noticing? Did his dick magically appeared down your throat? Too grown for that bullshit honey. But on the other hand, we men are just the same. Some of us deserve that shit. But there are good men out there like “Me” who wants to be the best man, who wants to treat “women” like queens. But y’all make it so hard. Y’all can never be pleased. So when good men find good women, we go treat you like the typical, because we ain’t know who’s what and who’s not. Sigh.

Forever searching.

[theycallmebeccawrites]

Perfectly Imperfect: Chapter 2

With Tumblr holding my original writing blog @beccaheartschrisevans captive (aka flagged as explicit), I have made a secondary writing blog and may end up closing the other all together. In the meantime, I am reposting all of my stories on my new blog.

Pairing: Chris Evans x Wren Arnold (OFC)

Rating: PG-13

Warnings: n/a

Disclaimer: This work of fiction is not to be reposted, used or translated without my permission.

Perfectly Imperfect Masterlist | Chris & Wren Masterlist

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

May 9, 2020

An old, solid wood door with a cheap hook lock separated Chris Evans and the four women who had showed up over an hour early to Addy's third birthday party. They had brought their children, all of who Addy had been happy to see, but the four moms were way overdressed, or rather underdressed, for a preschool party. One mom was wearing a tight pair of black jeans with a silk top that barely concealed her breasts, while another was wearing a black leather skirt, a partially see through maroon top and a pair of knee high boots. The other two moms were wearing dresses that one would expect to see at a cocktail party, one skin tight and red and the other black and short.

Adelaide had turned three 2 days ago and Chris had arranged for all of her classmates at her preschool to come over to their house for a Sofia the First themed party. What he hadn't expected was for four of the moms to show up an hour early and proceed to flirt with him, or try to, instead of actually trying to help him set anything up. He'd lost count of the number of times his butt had been pinched or he'd been told how strong he was while they had petted his bicep.

Chris felt guilty for the way he'd told them to keep an eye on the kids while he'd fled to the laundry room right of the kitchen. The term 'chicken shit' came to mind as he leaned against his washing machine trying to figure out what to do. Taking his phone out of his pocket, he selected his family members and Wren and quickly typed a message:

SOS GET HERE NOW!

He hit send and then started to type again:

House invaded by the

He paused, for a moment, trying to figure out how to explain the situation he was facing. They were all moms, they'd come in a group and they all, apparently, wanted him and were offering themselves to him in front of each other and the kids.

House invaded by the horny mom brigade.

He hit send and his phone blew up a moment later with 'lol's, 'lmao's, and 'on our way'.

Then he got Wren's message:

Just parked. I'll be there in a few minutes.

Knowing he needed to get out there before the women decided to try and find his bedroom, Chris took a deep breath and unlocked the door. He opened it and startled when he saw one of the women leaning against the doorframe.

"There you are," she smiled, flipping her hair. "I wondered what you were up to." Her eyes flickered around the laundry room. "This room is a good -"

The sound of the doorbell cut her off and Chris breathed a sigh of relief as he ducked under her arm then all but ran to answer the door. After throwing it open, a large smiled spread across his face when he saw it was Wren. He all but pulled her inside and gave her a big hug.

"You have no idea how happy I am you are here," he muttered to her, holding her in his arms for a minute longer than needed, hoping the horny mom brigade would back off if they thought he and Wren were something.

"They can't be that bad," Wren laughed as she stepped out of his embrace. She smoothed her floral knee length skirt. "Where are the kids?"

Chris's face paled as he realized that the house was too quiet.

"We put a movie on for them," the mom in the black dress said from the entrance to the kitchen. She was holding a wine glass that was half full. "Who's this?"

"This is Wren," Chris told her. "She's my uh -"

Once again, Chris was saved by somebody arriving and he said a silent prayer of thanks when he saw it was his mom, siblings, niece and nephews.

"I'll go check on the kids," Wren offered with a smile. She slipped the strap of her crossbody purse over her head and then tucked it behind a chair so it was out of the way. She quickly said her hellos to Chris's family and then led his niece and nephews to the TV room where Addy and her school friends were watching a movie.

"Well, I assume there is still a lot to do before the other guests arrive," Chris's mom declared. "It will be all hands on deck to get this party ready." She headed into the kitchen, grabbing the wine glass out of black dress's hands as she went. "Thanks, dear. But alcohol at a three year old's birthday party might be a bit much."

Chris waited until everyone else had followed his mom into the kitchen before he did a little happy dance. He didn't feel an ounce of guilt for sticking his mother on the horny mom brigade; they deserved whatever she threw at them.

By the time Chris made it into the kitchen, his mom had everyone doing jobs: skinny jeans was helping Scott fill coolers with juice boxes; red dress was helping his older sister put together vegetable trays; black dress was helping his mom open the Sofia the First themed party plates and cups; and leather skirt was helping his younger sister fill the piñata that Addy had begged him to buy. With the four women occupied, Chris went out to the backyard to make sure both gates were closed and that the party games were ready to go.

It was another fifteen minutes, or so, until more of Addy's classmates arrived. Chris helped her answer the door while Wren, his niece and nephews wrangled the other three year olds. Most of the parents stayed for the party while others made their apologies and promised to be back within two hours time.

The next two hours were complete chaos, at least to Chris. Wren, who was used to dealing with twenty excited kids for eight hours a day, handled it like a pro. She seemed to have a sixth sense about when it was time to do a different activity and when the kids needed to rest for a little bit.

Meanwhile, the horny mom brigade had hidden themselves in the shade of the large tree in the backyard, trying to stay out of Chris's mom's eye line to avoid getting set with another task. It had humored Chris to great lengths that his mom had deemed the four women the perfect volunteers for helping little ones, whose parents had left, get to the bathroom.

Therefore, it was no surprise to anyone, when the horny mom brigade and their offspring were the first to leave the party. It was only after they'd left that the other parents, both moms and dads, started laughing and had informed Chris that the women tried this stunt whenever they knew there was a single dad in the picture. They'd all gotten a kick out of his nickname for them and had asked him to bring his mom with him to future birthday parties that the four women would be attending.

By the time the last party guests and their parents had left, Addy was stretched out on the couch in the TV room passed out from exhaustion and a sugar crash. Chris's family stuck around to help with the major clean up, but they eventually filled out, leaving the last bit of the cleaning to Chris and Wren.

"Thanks for your help today," Chris said as he dried the serving dish she had just washed. "I can honestly say we couldn't have done this without you."

"I love being around kids, you know that," Wren shrugged as she washed a bowl.

"Why don't you have any kids?" Chris asked her as he put the towel down to put the bowl away.

"Because I don't have a husband," Wren replied. "I'm an old fashioned girl, Chris."

"You'll be a great mom someday," Chris stated. His mind instantly went to Jessa and with a crack in his voice, he added, "and your kids will be lucky to have a mom like you."

Chris saw Wren's shoulders tense and then heard her shut off the water. He watched as she turned around and he knew that she'd caught the change in his voice. Turning away from her, he fussed with the dishes in the cupboard in order to get his emotions under control. He wasn't ready, wasn't sure he'd ever be ready, to talk about Jessa.

Only his family knew the real reason behind his and Jessa's divorce and he'd purposefully kept it that way. After all, the last thing he wanted was for the media to splash the fact that Jessa didn't want to be a mom all over the front pages and have his daughter find out one day from one of her classmates.

His mind flashed back to that November afternoon when he'd brought Addy home from a playdate. He'd put her down for a nap and then had gone into the bedroom he'd shared with Jessa, only to find her bags packed and her sitting at the end of the bed waiting for him.

At first, he'd thought she was going on a trip or being called away to fill in for another wardrobe assistant for Marvel, but then she'd handed him a manila envelope and had said the word 'divorce'. She had done some more talking, but all he had heard was 'blah blah I can't do this anymore blah blah blah I never wanted to be a mom blah blah blah.'

"Chris?" Wren's soft voice forced him back to the present. "What's wrong?"

Chris felt her hand on his shoulder and he took a deep breath as the anger he felt at Jessa for abandoning Addy threatened to return. He refused to let that anger affect Wren more than it already had and he refused to ruin an otherwise perfect day.

"I'm ok," he told her as he turned around. "Just had a not so pleasant memory."

"I'm here if you ever need to talk," she said, genuine concern showing on her face. "You know that, right?"

"I do know that," Chris nodded. He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her close.

Chris knew that Addy would suffer from not having her mom in her life, but he also knew that she would always have his mom, sisters and Wren in her corner. Those four strong women would show her more love than she'd know what do with. Knowing that made his heart hurt a little less for his daughter.

After ending their hug, Chris and Wren returned to their task of washing and drying dishes. It was as they were working that Chris mentioned that he'd recently gotten a job on a television drama that was going to start shooting in Boston in June.

"What are you doing this summer?" he asked. He had planned to have Addy in daycare with his mom and sisters taking up the slack when they could, but when Wren mentioned that she had the summer off, he had started to get an idea.

"I haven't made any plans yet, why?" she asked.

"Do you have any interest in taking care of Addy for me this summer?" he asked. "It will only be during the week and most of the time it will be normal hours, but I do know there will be some night shoots."

"Do you need an answer now?" Wren asked, hesitantly.

"No, I don't," he replied then quickly added, "But please don't feel pressured to say yes. My mom and sisters have already agreed to help. I just thought you and Addy would have fun together."

"I think we would, too," Wren nodded. "But I'll still need to think it over."

"I understand," Chris told her. "Take all the time you need."

They finished doing the dishes and then Wren said her goodbyes. Chris watched from the doorway as she whispered goodbye to Addy and then he followed her to the front door.

"Text me when you get home," he told her as he opened the front door.

"Will do," Wren nodded.

Chris watched as she made her way down the path to the sidewalk. She gave a slight wave as she reached the end and then she started walking to her car, disappearing from his view.

Closing the door, Chris took a deep breath as he leaned against the door. He barely had a minute to himself before he heard Addy call for him. Shaking his head, he pushed off the door and made his way into the TV room where the best part of his life waited for his attention.

Chapter 3

Want to find me off tumblr? I'm @beccatheycallme on twitter. I also post my stories on AO3.

My tag list is always open, just let me know if you'd like to be added!

[jujywrites]

WIP Challenge

I got tagged by @kikithedeceiver to do this!

Challenge: post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous.

Here’s the thing. I don’t have many separate WIP files; most of them are in one huge doc. and most of the separate wip files are... pretty dead? but ok whatevs. under a read more since it’s long...... and my ego won’t let me skip snippets hjkhkhk thanks for the idea Kiki

From my main miscellaneous folder:

50 Grades of Steele. 1 and a half chaps of a role-flipped 50 Shades of Grey rewrite (i haven’t read the books so I extra don’t care about the characters lol). why do i still have it i’ve lost interest.... *side eyes her entire wip ecosystem* ...Then I see my interview subject, seated at her desk.

"Mr. Grey. I'm pleased to meet you."

And I stop breathing. [end CH1]

[open CH2) I forgot to mention something: I exaggerate occasionally. But I'm not now. I literally stop breathing for a few seconds. A thousand thoughts are racing through my mind, which doesn't help my chest stop seizing, but the main problem here is that Anastasia Steele is quite possibly the most beautiful woman I've ever seen.

Fanfic idea masterlist. my most active file and where I keep most of my WIPS, unless they get too “large”. Organized by fandom. lotta stuff i keep passing by & may as well be dead but don’t wanna delete. here’s a zero-draft snippet of probably the next chapter of my G-rated yukyoru fic collection

He grabbed a pillow and placed it to his chest, grabbed her arm, and yanked her to him, praying his idea would work.

Seconds passed and he didn't transform. He put his arms around her gingerly. Should he try to immobilize her or would that make it worse?

She made the decision for him. "Mom," she sobbed, clutching him with an iron grip. "N-Need to help...!"

His stomach dropped to his shoes.

Thudding footsteps announced Yuki's arrival. "What's wrong?! Honda-san--"

He didn't say "What did you do?" The thought raced by and Kyo said, "Grab a pillow and help me!"

As Yuki positioned the pillow and himself without having to ask, Kyo said, "She won't wake up. I don't know what to do!"

"Night terror," Yuki said tightly. He was too close but it almost didn't matter. "Not much you can do besides wait."

MayxWard BDSM fic agents of SHIELD. mix of notes and actual writing. kind of a half AU. Melinda climbed into the driver's side and buckled in, then started up the car. "If you've not ridden on the left before you might have motion sickness. It's normal. Just close your eyes until—" She paused as she looked at him; his hands shook so much he couldn't manage the seatbelt. "Here, let me."

"Thanks," he muttered with a sigh, looking rueful.

Modern AU Zelink. What it says on the tin~ Teenage-ish Zelink, with a mash of supporting characters from other games. another mix of notes and fic. Link wasn't sleeping tonight. Tonight was the night he'd been planning for and awaiting for weeks. He was going on a quest: the quest to meet Princess Zelda. 

She wasn't really a princess, of course. That was just her nickname. Zelda Nohansen was Hyrule's sweetheart, the most sought-after young actress in the movie business. And Link had fallen in love with her the first time he'd seen her, two years ago in a tiny theater in Kakariko.

PMMMfic homumado. Madoka Magica. AU, been around since about an hour after I finished the series (5 years yikes, still gotta watch Rebellion). Homura's time power still somewhat involved, but Mami's an adult, everyone's at a boarding school (I think?) where ~things aren't as they first seem~ and Madoka has mysterious powers and night terrors. just notes at the moment.

SoubixHitomi.  Loveless. 3 unfinished/dead first-person Shinonome-senseixSoubi snippets, all of ‘em spicy.

yvy abo. Yuri On Ice. Yuri (Katsuki!!)/Victor/Yuko(!!?!), my attempt at. well. omegaverse(!!!!!!!). orignally started as part of a “bad YOI fic” bigbang and now I’m taking it seriously dgdgfg. Alpha Yuko. “Please, please stop,” she whispered, like saying it aloud would make any difference. But the pressure in her head kept building. Her limbs had begun to itch restlessly.

And Victor wouldn’t let go of her hand.

With the last scrap of her control, she straddled him quickly and kissed him awake.

Even in half-sleep he arched to meet her, and when he opened his eyes sapphire blue had already turned stormy with lust.

yvy canonfuturefic. Yuko-focused following of canon, or: how canon can I keep YOI while still rareship OT3ing it. She and Yuri fall in and out of love, in between falling for Victor. Victuri is still my life I swear   

“You have got to watch this,” she tells Yuri. She watches Yuri’s face instead of the video, having seen it at least forty times by now.

Yuri’s eyes transform into beacons of awe, and Yuko swallows around her rapid heartbeat, breaths coming too short. She sees everything she’s feeling and more on his face. She remembers that she loves him, that he’s real and here and more important than the beautiful boy on her phone who’s trying to pull her under to a scary new world.

ZnT ot3 bdsm AU. Zankyou no Terror, 9/12/Lisa. mix of notes and fic, not just PWP. in heavy need of editing bc a lot was inspired by a non-spicy book.

“But it’s not just me. It’s everyone. You need everyone because you have no idea how to need yourself. Or even how to be yourself.”

“You’re wrong.” The force and volume of her voice shocked her and pushed her onward. “You and Touji. I don’t need anyone except you and Touji! Because you both taught me how to be myself-- no, how to find that on my own. I know exactly who I am, and that me isn’t complete without both of you!” She could feel the tears streaming down her face, yet somehow her voice didn’t waver. She felt so full of conviction she could burst into flames. “Don’t you understand, Arata? We’re all meant to be together.”

From my SnK folder:

Cave of the Crystal Maiden (working title). Aruani. Modern AU. MMORPG shenanigans with a dollop of magical realism/supernatural. Just notes. @portraitofa-girl suggested “meeting online” and it’s been there literally for years oh lord im sorry. no fic yet, just notes.

Falling Anthem (working title) Modern AU Levihan, art student Hange and young professor Levi. just notes. fic one in a planned series. also has been years ;_;

Raindrops and Soft Steps. Jearmin. unsurprisingly, modern AU. One morning, when Jean looks out of his bedroom window, he sees a boy dancing across the street. In the street, to be exact. There wouldn't be anything unusual about that, Jean supposes, except it's raining cats and dogs outside.

In my IAMXfic folder (fff i almost skipped this):

2ndPOVCalberto (DO NOT CORRUPT WITH HET) ChrisxAlberto? not much to say?? yes i know they’re real people??? which applies to everything after this oh my god *crawls under desk* Of course she knows; she is annoyingly perceptive when it comes to romance. The only thing preventing you from asking her (like a fucking lovestruck teenager) if Alberto likes you back is emptying that beer bottle. By then the only thing on your mind is ordering another.

CalbertImmi. i can’t even keep my poly shit outta RPF ahaha omhg Imogen has a conversation with her lover's lover. (AlbertImmi, sequel to...) Imogen finds herself in an unenviable position. (emerging CalbertImmi)

Alternate summaries (CC POV, first fic?): Chris loves two people. He doesn't want to choose. Chris has fallen in love a few times in his life. But he's never fallen for two people at once. (Chris also isn't good at choosing.)

ChrisxJ. several self-insert fics bc CC is just that powerful, apparently. haven’t looked at the file in a long time,,,,,

He started calling people to the stage with him, and one by one, my row emptied.

"Come on, yeah, come on," he was saying, waving his hand in an inviting gesture and grinning like a little kid. "Hey, you want to?" I did a double take.

"Me?" I mouthed, pointing at myself just to be sure. He nodded, smiling wider.

So it was that I walked unsteadily down the ramp and waited in line, feeling like I didn’t belong there. Soon I was next in line. What would I say? What would I do? I was sure if I opened my mouth I’d either burst into tears or faint.

Genderswapped IAMX sci-fi. The sci-fi was inspired by a word prompt, genderswapping by my own brain. (play spot the Immi lmao) Across the aisle, Sam rolled his eyes. “Leave Chris alone; she’s nervous.”

“And put on your own seatbelt, Johann,” shouted Jess, two seats back and in Sam’s aisle.

Patrick turned  to look at Chris. “Subspace travel is a bitch,” he said simply, and turned back to his book.

“Oh, I feel much less nervous now,” Chris said with a sardonic grin. “How do you know that, anyway?”

"I'm not exactly what I seem to be." He didn’t look up.

Chriimmi (While I Was Gone inspired). Chris/Imogen, inspired by scenes from Sue Miller’s While I Was Gone.

"You really ought not to do that, you know," he said softly.

"Do what?"

"Sneak up on me."

My eyes slid from his face. "I didn't mean to. It just... happened."

"Mm." I glanced back at him; he wore a lopsided smile. "Not that I minded." The tension was so strong the air nearly vibrated with it, yet I held my tongue, terrified that I was the only one feeling it. He took a breath, deep, nearly rising on his toes. "No. I didn't mind at all." He took my hand, circled his thumb over the back. My breath caught as I felt it, as I watched him looking down at our hands.

Chriimmi bathtub dream. dream inspired Chris/Immi smut.

Chriimmi twitter. twitfic plus some, inspired from an actual tweet iamx made that i’m still not over. 

@ imogenheap Come sing your lovely lyrics with us in London. @ IAMX misses you. CCx

ChrisxImmi main. grab bag of Chriimmi I was too lazy to put into separate docs.

“What do you think?” She grinned, twirling.

He cleared his throat. “Ah, I-Imogen, what are you wearing?”

“Well, I didn’t want to clash with your theme…  Janine helped me. Does it work?”

Scandalously short skirt, midriff-baring top, knee-high boots.

“You’re trying to kill me, aren’t you? You’re trying to fucking kill me.”

Her grin only widened, even though a blush had started.

Fic edit chriimmi ver. yeah. editing someone else’s original fic to be chrimmi. either never posting or editing the frick out of. ~_~

He kissed her neck, whispered into it, “I love you.”

Imogen laughed. “Bollocks,” she said lazily.

”I do!” Chris protested. She looked down at him, nestled on her shoulder. He looked back, open, a little adoring. “I fell in love with you halfway through the show; I sang every note just for you.”

”Oh, please. You couldn’t have seen me.”

”No,” he said. “But I knew you were out there… I knew it had been you the minute I saw you backstage.”

Hospital Chriimmi. In which my guilty feeling over RPF are even worse bc of the inspiration ^_^U “Ms. Heap. What a pleasant surprise.” It’s surprising, how well she remembers his voice.

“Mr. Corner, what have you got yourself into?”

“Oh, just a bit of lingering insomnia. You know how it is.”

She takes a seat in the chair near his bed, crossing her legs. “Well, I’ve certainly had a sleepless night here and there, but I’ve never ended up in hospital from it. So no, I don’t suppose I do know.” Her tone is light, but her smile has begun to crack.

ImmixChris genderbend smut. the my secret friend video is... fertile material. have not actually written the smut yet.

...he saw us as characters– we put on those clothes and become separate from ourselves, removed. Whereas I simply felt like myself in men’s clothes, and instead of feeling what He felt for Her, I just kept right on feeling what I felt for Chris, amplified to a distracting level.

ReluctantdommeImmixSubCC. ...shrug emoji? notes and uh. visualizing.

Vampire Chriimmi. based on a dream. smutty. inspired by True Blood so wow that’s old.

From my Markipairings folder:

demon dream. markiplier self insert...... ughhhhhhhh o///o

"You can have me," I tell the creature. "But this one," I jerk my head toward Mark, "comes with me. He's mine, you see." A bold proclamation to make, but in the moment I know that the truth in those words surpasses everything I've ever said. He is mine, and saying the thought out loud fills me with courage. He squeezes my hand, two short and a long one so strong I think he might break it.

I know we’ll win.

DommeJujY. same as above, same as the next four. smutty.

Fight team AU. i forget where i got this one from. vaguely inspired by loveless i guess.  The first clear thought I had was, He shouldn't have gone ahead of me. The second one was, I should have been able to protect him. But these came later, after the rage went away, after I hugged him and apologized, after I bandaged him…

Gaming meetcute. i win some contest or whatever to secretly tagteam w/ Mark. stuff happens and yeah......

The adrenaline surges through my veins as I take in the scene. Mark's avatar is flailing around, backed into a corner by some Eldritch Abomination and holy shit, the graphics in this game are amazing.

"This is not good, I can't move, I can't move…"

There's a voice in the back of my head screaming to shut the game down, to get that horrible thing off the screen. I ignore it.

Markinpanties. .......smut.

shifter-slight sci-fi AU. shrug emoji.

I looked up from the ground and saw I was heading straight for a brick wall. There was no time to slow down. I braced for impact...

It didn't happen. I opened my eyes and found myself in a café.

What.

Looking behind me, I saw a door. On impulse I walked over and opened it; the tree-lined street I could see through the glass was indeed there. No brick wall to smack my face into. Bewildered, I turned around and looked for a seat, choosing one near a window.

Gouldiplier~. master doc of ficbits of my cracky mccrackship, MarkiplierxEllie Goulding.

I check my phone during break time again. My selfie has been liked and retweeted thousands of times, and I shake my head in disbelief; I don't think that will ever stop surprising me, deep down. To make things even better, Mark's liked it! I'm in the middle of a happy jig when I realize there's a text from him and a squeak of joy slips from me.

hellooo gorgeous

looks like you're having fun. Hope the shoot's going great! <3

I quickly send a reply. it has been. Be glad when it's done tho. Missin u lots xo

Markipicbunnies. fanart of Mark for Gouldiplier insipration. photographer au. 

"Ms. Goulding, I'm really not sure about this…"

"I produce pictures that are intimate because I'm an intimate being, Mark." Ellie looked at him directly, a hint of a smile shaping her lips. "Deep down, I think you are too. We just need to draw you out a bit."

showersexgouldiplier. WELP. IT’S SMUT.

Also I have folders for my 2010/11 nanowrimo novel that are kinda still WIPs but also kinda not

i’m gonna tag.... @kippielovesyou @kiridork and @mistergrass and anyone else who wants to do this can too :3

[chiseki]

Figured I’d make this an intro post, since I’m pretty much using this alternate url as an “out” url compared to my usual vagueness.

I’m Joshua. Yes, that matches the sidebar, so it’s not really surprising here.

And that would surprise an entire two people following my main blog that know me irl because the rest were previously informed. Maybe three people, I forget if the last one is on tumblr or not.

Which is, by the way, ““““““““fun”““““““““

Yup, having like three local friend circles that had relations to each other outside of myself, and only one of them being in the know is fun.

You can basically stop reading at this point, because from here on out is just gonna be a massive time rewind to.....jeez, fuck if I know when, my childhood? I promise there will be time skips, we don’t need that mess played at normal tempo. (Also some funny stories after the giant gap in the text, if you want to scroll for that).

Most of this story is actually located in college, but the only real indicator (aside from having a general dislike of dresses) was way back when I was in all of second grade--apparently I was so damn insulted I burned all these facts into my memory--and an older kid was brought into the classroom, gave us this cool sales pitch about do we want to learn to shoot a bow, go camping, build campfires, etc

and then was like “OH YEAH THIS IS THE BOY SCOUTS IT’S BOYS ONLY”

I was so hyped lol.

Wound up being in a mediocre girl scout troop later, and my brother obviously got directed into boy scouts. At which point I got to find out that their camping trips were mostly getting rained on and finding black windows and getting taught woodworking by a dude missing a chunk of finger.

So more suffering than child me would have expected, but they still got to build fires and go REAL camping and shoot bows and rifles and shit.

Meanwhile, in girl scouts, we went to this one set of cabins every year. We never stayed in the damn cabins, because someone would find A Bug in there, or a spider, and then someone ELSE would have the same issue, and no one wanted to be in a cabin alone let alone be the only one in the cabins at all, and we always wound up sleeping in the air conditioned lodge that was visible from the damn cabins.

Except the one year where we went to a different camp, stayed in the legendary caboose, and there was a bat sleeping on the outside of the window so no one wanted to sleep there except me.

My scout group was weak.

I miss the cookies, though.

Anyway, due to not being forced into gender-targeted toys and getting to play with whatever the fuck I wanted, I also have jack shit for anything resembling an early warning sign aside from the above.

Actually, scratch that, I was not really a fan of dresses. I mean, this was fair in general, since they were usually scratchy, didn’t fit my arms/shoulders right, were designs I had no say in, and everyone would get on my case if the dress might get even a LITTLE dirty. Had some skirts I liked in middle school, but even that was a mess of having to wear tights because my genes have never resulted in anything resembling a thigh gap.

And I was like, constantly trying to play with the guys in grade school. And they’d periodically get that “NYEHHHHHHH GUYS ONLYYYYYY” shit going on. That was never not infuriating tbh.

Flash forward to high school, still basically left to my own devices. Only indicator here was that I was just tickled fucking pink whenever I heard that I either passed at cons or was at least tossed in the “maybe.......?” zone.

Flash forward to college. I honestly don’t remember what set me off on thinking about it, but started eyeballing my gender with a microscope. Unfortunately I couldn’t apply a litmus test like sexuality, so there was a lot of “uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhfuck” going on.

Actually, I think part of it was that on the forum I hung out on, a lot of the old regulars had assumed I was a dude until a childhood friend had dropped a pronoun several times in succession & asserted its correctness, which then led to a discussion along the lines of “whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat”.

But yeah, started testing the waters.

Also tried going to a LGBT+ club like, once. With the gal I was either dating at the time or was about to be dating, my memory is shit tbh. “HEY SO HOW ABOUT WE ALL JUST COME OUT TO EACH OTHER, A BUNCH OF STRANGERS <33333333″ still freaks me out, honestly. I get why it’s generally done, but like, no thanks. But I was horrendously obvious in ducking about the gender question and she totally called me out on it later in private lol. Also got me my first binder, but I digress.

Anyway, basically spilled on “I’m.....probably..............? a dude...........? jsyk??????” to my immediate friends, which was met with a lot of “.....YEAH ACTUALLY THAT MAKES SENSE” and a “hang on I need a dictionary........ok I get it”

I think I was the least smooth part of anything resembling a coming-out just due to like, me not wanting to have to tell people to do things for me? It’s something I find extremely awkward, like I know it’s that horribly stereotypical dating thing of “what’s wrong, bby, what do I have to do” “I DON’T WANT TO HAVE TO TELL YOU WHAT TO DO” but.

And that’s an entire digression about how my relationship with my mother often included me saying a lot of shit I had to say convincingly, but didn’t mean at all, and probably led to me having fuckall faith in what people say, most especially when under a forced prompt. I could do an essay on that, but not here.

Which, admittedly, I’m gonna rewind here because I think it’s funny in hindsight, but it means the dictionary reaction went like “SO...........I’M.............TRANS?” “What?” [thinking this is pushback on the idea] [PANIC MODE] “UH” “Like, literally, what does that word mean, I've never heard it in my life.” “OH. WELL. Heh. Uh. That internal reaction I had was embarrassing then, oops.”

Anyway.

Then the collective action was, “well, have you picked a name what do you MEAN you haven’t picked a name, we can’t just run about calling you by your deadname after all that”

And I tossed some names out, that I’m not going to list, because they were just fucking awful. So I got interventioned and the method became throwing names at me until they stuck.

Adam? Nah I knew an Adam and I can’t unassociate with that

Noah? Violin teacher’s third kid was named Noah. Same issue with Gabriel and Caleb.

Benjamin? I fucking grew up with a Benjamin he would kill me.

you get the idea.

And those were like, actual reasonable rejections. At least half the time I was just like “I DON’T LIKE HOW IT SOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNDS.” Take, for example, Josh. I 1) knew one in high school and he was a piece of work and 2) I just, inexplicably, don’t like how the word sounds.

Which is part irony and part masochism that JoshUA stuck.

I mean, that name had pre-existing connotations for me. I had played..........a game.........in high school. And given that my options were pretty shafted to Stereotypical White Boy Names if I didn’t want to stick out like a sore thumb, some positive(?) pre-existing connotations were going to be needed.

Incidentally, I had a v. sweet trans girl offer me her deadname, which was a cool name, but just, like, didn’t fit me in particular so. She also picked her name by RNG tournament, with the top 10 baby names for her year being the competitors. Which was neat and worked well for her, but I know I would have just re-run the fucking tourney if I didn’t like the winner lol.

But anyway, continuing on to a less flowery story. I’ll add some blank lines so it’s skippable. No need to set off every other person with gender issues here.

Decided to come out to my family. Apparently time fuzzed down my memories of being devoured by mosquitos outside while my parents were trying to decipher that their kid was holding hands with a girl in the back of the van and that girl had been planned to sleep over that night, and despite the fact that booth teens wouldn’t be jumping to sex that fast nor had the equipment to make a kid between them....it was Reason For Concern like a straight couple sharing a bed.

I mean, my mom was convinced that anything touching the nether regions was SEX and PREMARITAL SEX was EVIL. But I digress.....again.

So. I tell them. And the reaction ranged from “well ok I mean you’ve always been weird” (thanks, bro) to “uh I guess my last name’s odds of getting inherited just doubled........?” to “HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME”

Yeah. That last one was word for word. Some stuff was thrown, lots of crying (”I CAN’T EVEN DO MY MAKEUP AND IT’S YOUR FAULT”)--both of which were not my doing, though I got shocked(?) into my own set of tears iirc.

I think I set a speed record for climbing back into the closet. Like, a week later, everyone was pretending it never happened. I sorta emotionally cut ties with my mom at that point--kept it civil, but Did Not Want to discuss my life or friends at all with her or in any way that would get back to her.

So obviously, no one in my family knows I go by Joshua. If they asked, I would tell them, but lo and behold, zero questions, they never brought it up again, etc. And I’ve been very careful about not letting that knowledge spread, not putting it on the internet in a way that connects back to my legal name, being primed at any point to pretend “Joshua” is a mutual friend and to not respond to that name if someone accidentally calls me by it.

Incidentally, during Yet Another Family Counseling that was at least performed at an individual level this time, my mom apparently told the counselor that she thought she handled that well. Last I checked, making the situation about yourself and doing the whole “woe is me, the mother, with a child like this” shpeal was not “well”.

And I mean the WHOLE shpeal. If you’ve ever had the misfortune to see the posts by parents of trans kids that wax soliloquy about losing their child and mourning their “death” (especially the ones that aren’t all “but I got a new kid!”) like, the ones especially cut from the same cloth that would be like “my child is autistic but ~I~ am the inspiration for waking up in the morning” like no, your kid is the inspiration for dealing with you.

And if anyone is wondering, this is basically the Midwest Stereotype for....LGBT, interracial dating, etc rejection imo. Seemingly ok with it, but NO WAIT HANG ON, NOT MY CHILD. Like, I legit had trans kids explained to me (albeit without terms for it) at a relatively young age by my mother and yet. “X exists but not in our good christian neighborhood” attitude. Ugh.

So where was I? Hmm, yes, funny Joshua stories. Ok I have like ONE story. One of my friends that was in the know finally got me to play Trails in the Sky. Now, this sucker has a chunk of text lead-in with a ~mysterious~ boy that young Estelle’s father has brought home, and the whole discussion skips his name, ending on “my name is....”. Then it time-skips to present day, finally casually dropping this dude’s name, which, obviously, is Joshua.

My friend did not tell me this.

No warning, nada. Only Estelle had really come up in conversation.

And then we collectively dragged another friend into the abyss with us, except he wasn’t in the know. We also had him streaming his playing sessions when our schedules coincided, which led to--because of a shitty accuracy stat--him yelling (as we did) “JOSHUA!” frequently in combat.

I debated on just responding “Yes?” randomly one day in the most casual closet-exit possible. Then procrastinated by deciding to just be out with it at the end of the first game since he’d also played twewy.

Some of you have probably started to eye my avatars with judgement in your hearts. That’s fair.

Anyway, we had forgotten about another character that practically had his name, so at least I had someone to share my weird feelings with.

And then, he started the second game, and I didn’t hold back on responding “yes?” every time “Joshua” was used as an interjection.

Also because of that one post about biblical names, I will respond to any use of “Jesus”.