#i think the background of this screen changes color if you buy the pass which means this might accidentally show that i bought the pass.

[loveletterworm]

i barely played fortnite at all this season because it was marvel-themed until like the day before the halloween event started (I wanted to see the halloween event) and I was like level 20 or something then, because I'd barely played at all, and now somehow

????? What is wrong with me

[xneens]

love me, hate me - part two

Warnings: explicit sexual content, swearing

Word count: 3.3k

Summary: Christmas comes around and Ransom wants you more than ever.

part one

"You're telling me you actually want to date this guy? The one who can't even make you cum?" you asked, licking the remaining frosting from your finger. You placed the messy bowl in the sink, watching your best friend trying—and failing—to get the egg shells out of the mixture.

Meg gave up, dumping the brownie batter down the sink with the water running, fed up with the shells. "Yeah, but sex isn't everything, you know. I don't know—it's just this guy isn't like my exes. He genuinely cares about my feelings, and doesn't control me. Besides, he made me cum a few times. He's nice."

With Mariah Carey's Christmas music playing in the background, the miniature Christmas tree on the table, and the snow falling, the Thrombey household felt festive. Although, the people bundled up and arguing in the next room—not so much. Yet, neither of you cared while you continued to work, helping Martha out, on the desserts. It wasn't going as well as planned, but you took it as a positive considering you hadn't started a fire. Yet.

"Ah, yes, nice. Can't relate. I'm currently attracted to assholes who have anger issues." you commented, passing Meg the flour once again. Your creation was in the oven, and all you hoped was that no one got food poisoning because of it. Even you couldn't live with the guilt of Ransom, or his touchy father, throwing up Christmas morning.

"Currently?" Meg asked, raising an eyebrow, getting eggs out of the fridge for the hundredth time. She glanced at the direction of the door, the sound of it opening drawing both of your attention. "I'm pretty sure your daddy issues didn't just happen recently. Speaking of which, you may be the main reason Ransom decided to come back for Christmas instead chasing a model around."

You rolled your eyes, sitting back in your chair while contemplating whether or not it's too late to ditch. While Ransom was hot, his spoiled attitude wasn't worth tolerating for a quick fuck. With sarcasm dripping, you sighed. "Oh, how wonderful. 'Cause, that's exactly what I need right now."

Meg chuckled, focusing on the task at hand, trying not get shells in the mixture again. She had held off on mixing the dry stuff, much to your dismay, but to her it made sense to get the hard part out of the way so it wouldn't fuck everything up. Your best friend had just finished cracking her last egg when Harlan walked into the kitchen, Ransom trailing a few feet behind him. The playboy's eyes immediately landed on you, yet you didn't meet his, too preoccupied with the phone in your hands.

Harlan's slight frown lifted into a smile, surveying how messy the kitchen had gotten. "My, my, I wasn't aware a cake had exploded in my kitchen."

Looking up, you grinned at the old man, the smile reaching your eyes until you saw who was behind him. Ignoring Ransom, you giggled at Harlan's remark. "You call it a mess, we call it baking."

"As long as you ladies are having fun." Harlan replied, patting your shoulder before heading off towards his office, too tired to deal with his dysfunctional family at the moment.

Ransom lingered, walking up to you, a smirk impended on his face. Yet, you refocused you're attention back on your phone while Meg left the room, her apron still attached to her. You didn't question her sudden disappearance, knowing she was just as annoyed at Ransom's presence. The man in question peeked over you shoulder to see your screen showing off another man's dick, the words right below it explicit.

His jaw clenched in jealousy. Much to his chagrin, the man's dick was just as big as his own. But, he kept the icy exterior up. "Would it be offensive to ask whether or not your baking will make me sick this evening?"

You scoffed without looking up, tapping out of the dick pic your previous hook up had sent. "Since when do you care if you're offensive or not? Who are you, and what have you done to Ransom Drysdale?"

Ransom shrugged, leaning against the kitchen island while facing your annoyed expression. His smug behavior got under your skin, and the bastard was well aware. "Maybe all this Christmas spirit got into me. Or maybe I'm trying to be nice."

You raised an eyebrow, getting off your chair, rushing to the window, pretending to be looking for something. After a few seconds, Ransom's curiosity got the best of him and he joined you, looking for anything unusual outside. The snow-covered land showed nothing out of the ordinary, furthering Ransom's confusion.

"What are you looking at? I can't see anything." he said, squinting at the general direction you had look at.

Shrugging, you moved back to your seat, propping your elbows on the back of the chair, allowing a smug smirk lift your lips. "I thought pigs were flying. Ransom Drysdale isn't capable of being nice, yet alone say the word. I'm shocked hell hadn't freeze over. Yet."

The playboy rolled his eyes, crossing his arms as he took your body in, wrapped in his favorite color, the dress hugging your curves. "What's a guy have to do to be taken seriously with you? You and I both know I can give you everything you want, and more."

"Are you trying to buy me right now?" you asked, half teasing, half annoyed. Ransom could not take a hint, and you hated the fact that he didn't back off despite the sarcasm and insults you threw his way.

"I'm trying to be nice but you're making it really hard." Ransom answered, his cockiness wearing off. He was growing frustrated the more you looked at him like he was a piece of trash. All you wanted him to be was nice, now that he was trying to be, you wouldn't believe his intentions, despite wanting to prove it to you.

Pursing your lips, you tapped your finger against the table, the acrylic nail making a clicking noise. "You wanna prove it? Fine. You've got til midnight tonight. If you're unable to change my mind, you have to buy me my spring break vacation, all the fees and expenses."

"And if I do change your mind..." Ransom smirked, brushing a stray hair behind your ear, earning a half-hearted glare. "... you have to go on a date with me."

Ransom nearly burst out laughing from your shocked expression, the genuine look of surprised slapped on your face with the words. You shut your hanging jaw, still not processing what he was saying. "Excuse me?"

"You have to go on a date with me if I convince you that I'm willing to change my, and I quote, 'bratty and douchebag ways.' An actual date where we sit down, eat dinner, talk about our feelings, and get drunk. Whatever happens, happens." Ransom purred, placing a finger on your bottom lip. You slapped his hand away, and his smirked grew. "Are you going to back out of this already, princess?"

It was your stubborn side that made agree, pressing your lips into a thin line, you grabbed Ransom's hand, shaking it. He raised an eyebrow while you sighed. "You're on. Hope you have enough money to pay for a lengthy trip. I plan on drinking every bottle of wine in Italy."

Despite your baking debacle, you left the kitchen, leaving Meg's monstrous creation on the counter along with Ransom. You went into the living room, trying to find the girl in question when you happened to stumble upon Richard. He barely got to say a word before you turned around, and left the pervert behind. It was always a puzzle how Ransom turned out so hot with Richard and Linda as parents.

Climbing the stairs, you heard the family arguing growing quieter with each step. The second floor was almost a safe haven considering Harlan didn't let anyone raise their voice in the upper level, making it the only quiet place in the house, safe from any Thrombey fights. It was a wonder how the family hadn't murdered each other yet; it was only a matter of time.

Unable to find Meg in your shared room, you sighed, patting your body to find your phone only to realize you left it in the kitchen. With Ransom.

"Looking for this?" Ransom held out your phone, coming up behind you. His usual smirk was gone, a small, genuine smile in its place. It made him look less arrogant.

Speak of the devil and he shall appear.

You took your phone back, half expecting him to take it back just as you wrapped your fingers around it. But he didn't. You realized he was pulling out all the stops, all the little things that you found annoying was gone. He was acting. Eyes narrowing, you unlocked your phone, studying him. "Thanks. I think."

"Meg is helping the Brazilian maid." Ransom answered your silent question. Your thumb hovered her contact, going back to the home screen. Your eyebrows had risen by his mis-categorization of Martha's race and employment. "Pretty sure they went to the grocery store or something."

"Oh, okay." you replied lamely, putting your phone in your back pocket, the tight jeans making it nearly impossible. Opening the door to your room, you stepped in, not giving Ransom another look. But he followed inside, making you turn around. "Do you need something?"

Ransom stuffed his hands in his pockets, the cream-colored sweater shifting with the gesture. "You didn't exactly give me much time to prove myself. And looking around, we're all alone. I can't think of a better time."

As much as you hated to admit it, he had a point. The bet was a bit unfair considering how stubborn you were, and the amount of time he had to convince you. But it was a bit unsettling seeing Ransom try so hard, let alone being nice. You nodded, agreeing. "Fine, but can I change first? I'd rather not be covered in flour while you try to seduce me."

"You and I both know I wouldn't seduce you before dinner. There's no way in hell I'd treat you like the others." he mumbled to himself, but you heard it. Clearing his throat, he stepped out of the room. "Yeah, I'll be outside. Waiting. Take your time."

As soon as the door closed, you looked around the room to check if you were being pranked, expecting Ashton Kutcher to burst out of the closet along with a bunch of cameramen. After a few seconds, you came to the conclusion that Supernatural was in this universe, deciding "Ransom" was a shapeshifter or a demon possessed him. It was the only reasonable explanation.

Reaching for the hem of your top, pulling it off in one swift move, dropping it on the bed. Your jeans piling on top, allowing your legs to breathe. Despite Joni's hippie side, she had let Meg sneak in a few joints, the smell becoming stronger as you neared both your suitcases. You didn't think Harlan would be too please to have weed in his house, no matter how lenient he is.

You took your time, a little baffled by what to wear. Ransom hadn't exactly given you an agenda on his plans, leaving you to grab a clean pair of black jeans, and a classy, yet simple, red top. You looked decent enough to fit in a nice restaurant, but casual in case Ransom decided he wanted McDonald's, and most importantly: warm. If he wanted to take you to the North Pole, then he'd have to give you his cozy-looking sweater.

You opened the door, the sight of Ransom rocking on his heels greeting you. His back was to you, his hands inside his pockets as he looked out the window, frost crawling along the edges. It genuinely concerned you how much this man was acting; if you didn't know better, you'd think it was real.

Clearing your throat, you watched him jump in surprise, quickly turning to you. Raising an eyebrow, you tucked your phone in your pocket, meeting his warm, blue eyes. "I'm ready."

"Okay." said Ransom, motioning for you to follow him. You walked down the stairs without a word, the air becoming thick as you walked behind him. The sweater did little to no good disguising his broad shoulders, the muscles somehow still visible under the clothing.

As soon as you reached the bottom, you glanced around, the Thrombey fighting becoming louder with each second. It wouldn't be long before one of them stormed out of the room, muttering a curse under their breath. You'd seen all of them do it at least once. You crossed your arms, wary of whatever Ransom was planning. "Be honest, you're not just going to drive me off to the middle of the woods and murder me, are you?"

Ransom chuckled, giving you a wink as he held his hand out. Without hesitation, you took it. "If I was planning to murder you, I wouldn't do it in the woods. If you're going to die, it's going to be epic."

"Oh, well, that makes me feel better." you sneered sarcastically, instantly rolling your eyes. In the back of your mind, you pondered how long it would take for your eyes to get stuck in your brain with the amount of times you rolled them at Ransom.

He led you towards the door, smirking. "You ready?"

"No. Let's go."

—

"Fuck, baby."

He spent a few moments just staring at your spread pussy, amazed and aching for you more than he ever ached for anything.

"Don't you know why I want you to see it, Ransom?"

Ransom just shook his head without taking his eyes off the your pneumatic body.

"Because it's yours," you sighed. "All yours, baby. You're the one I've been keeping it nice and fresh for."

"Fuck," he muttered.

He kept staring at you, waiting for you to rub you pussy again, but you didn't. You just kept holding it spread.

"Don't you wanna taste me, Ransom?" you purred, barely above a whisper. "C'mon, baby, please. I want you to lick it so bad. I love you so much and I want to give you everything that belongs to you."

The playboy was all but paralyzed by your words. He finally dragged his eyes off your open pussy and looked at your face. You were staring back at him with a glazed look in your eyes. His solid cock was pulsing hard in the tight grip of his fist. No girl had ever looked at him the way you were at that very moment, yet at the same time, he knew you were playing with the hottest kind of fire there was.

"Sweetheart, you know this wasn't the deal." he whispered, distracted.

You smirked. "But you still won."

He finished the thought by leaning down and sliding his tongue up and over your generously offered pussy. You pulled in a sharp gasp when Ransom's tongue lit up your heavily tingling pussy. Your hips rolled instantly in response, your gasps turning to moans while Ransom eagerly slathered his tongue all around your creamily delicious slit. He soon focused his attention on your clit and slipped a finger up inside your hole at the same time.

The man's finger curled and twisted inside you, searching for you g spot while he suckled and lapped at your fully swollen clit. You could barely form words as you gasped and moaned, your luscious body now writhing with desire.

Your pussy oozed heavily the more he licked and fingered you. Your cream was sweet, tangy and intensely intoxicating. Ransom probed at your hole with his finger and the tip of his tongue at the same time, but he soon drew his soaking wet finger out of your hole and wedged it between your ass cheeks, searching for your puckered rimhole.

You gasped deeply and lifted your legs up higher, giving Ransom better access to your asshole. He massaged your tight bud with his honey-coated finger and made deep, hungry love to your pussy with his mouth.

"God god god god, Ransom!" you cried, your hips rolling harder and harder against the man's mouth and finger.

Your body went tense for a few moments and then relaxed. Ransom backed off and watched you languish after your orgasm, pausing briefly to catch your breath. Then you shifted your body and took the hem of your outfit into your hands and peeled it off over your head. Ransom pulled off his T shirt and slid over on top of your luscious body, grinding his rock-hard cock against your pussy as he lowered himself to kiss you.

You whimpered while Ransom's chest mashed down against your heavy, naked tits. They felt amazing against his body, and he was beyond reason when the your mouth opened and set your tongue into motion against his.

Ransom had never kissed any girl so hard or hungrily in his life. Nor had any kissed him back the way you had. At the same time, you were grinding your slick, wet pussy against his cock as hard as he was grinding against you. Then he squeezed his hands in between them and grasped at your tits, kneading them eagerly with his strong hands.

He released your mouth and said," Baby girl, reach down there and put my cock inside you for me. I need that pussy bad, but I can't bring myself to let go of these fantastic tits now that I finally have my hands on them."

You giggled happily and kissed him again while you worked your hands down between your naked bodies. Finally, you got one hand on your pussy and spreading yourself open while you wrapped the other around Ransom's thick cock.

"Oh geezus, fuck, Ransom, you're so fucking hard," you cooed. "Oh god fuck me deep."

You tucked Ransom's cock head into your wet maw and he began grinding his shaft deeper into your sheath. Your pussy felt so tight and creamy, and you both groaned as his rock-hard flesh gradually filled your body. You looked at each other in disbelief, even though nothing had ever felt more right or natural.

Ransom growled as he began to pump his cock in and out of your spectacular body with long strokes. His grip on your tits went tighter and he lowered his head to suck and lick on your swollen nipples.

You whimpered with pleasure, wrapping your legs around his hips and grinding your pussy hard against his thrusting cock. It wasn't long before he was straining to hold on and keep fucking you deep and hard. You didn't make it any easier because of the way you were moaning and your cunt squeezed his pounding cock every time you came.

Finally, Ransom raised himself up on his hands while he pumped your succulent pussy hole as hard and fast as he could, watching your pretty face twist with pleasure while your tits heaved with the force of his lunging body.

"Gimme your cum, baby. I want it in me...fuck!"

With a final, frenzied volley of full body thrusts, Ransom's pulsing cock exploded in your pussy, filling you with a hot flow of jetting spunk.

After, they spent a long time kissing while Ransom caressed the your beautiful tits. He kept his cock buried inside you until his flesh finally started to relax.

You fell asleep in each other's arms, and Ransom knew he had the girl he always needed right there with him. He had been right, all the sarcastic comments and stupid fights had been worth it.

In the morning, Ransom awoke from a haze of dreams to look down and find you lying between his legs with your lips sliding up and down his swollen cock. When you realized he was awake and watching you, you released his big cock from your mouth, giving his shaft a long lick before greeting him.

"Merry Christmas, Ransom."

[imlovethomassanders]

Eyes are the Windows to the Soul(mates) - Chapter 4

You can also read on ao3

Thank you to @strongindependentcheesecake for beta reading

This work is complete, and new chapters will be added everyday until completion:

Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 5 (FINAL)

Summary: The lucky few who have a soulmate are born with heterochromia, with their left eye being the color of their soulmate’s eyes and their right eye being their own color. Not only was Virgil one of the lucky few to have a soulmate, but he was given four. His left eye changed colors every time he blinked, rotating between his four soulmates’ eye colors. His rotating eye colors caused him to be a bit of an outcast growing up, but when he finally leaves for college, things start to fall into place. This is the journey of five strangers finding each other.

Pairings: DLAMP with background Remile

Warnings: None I believe

Words: 3924

Taglist:  @touchstarvedvirgil @lamp-calm-sanders @ninjago2020 @confinesofpersonalknowledge @secret-novelisthost18 @phander-sides @sherlock-lives-on-bakerstreet @bookbingingproblem @viana-dascolli @sharktryingtofly @crofters-n-falsehoods @turnedthefreakingfrogsgay @little-kat07 @romano-hottopic​

Logan had been too worried about Roman and his eyes to talk to Patton and Virgil. It had been two weeks since they last video called, and Patton and Virgil were getting worried. For the first few days, Logan said he was sick. Then he had a lot of homework, then he had a migraine, then he had to study, then he had to help Emile with studying, or whatever excuse he could think of. He knew Patton and Virgil didn't buy it, but he was grateful they didn't push him.

Patton: How are you feeling today sweetie? Virgil: think you can talk to us today? Logan: I'm in the apartment elevator. As soon as I get home I will turn on my laptop and call you. Patton: !!!! :D <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

Emile wasn't home yet, so Logan assumed he was still out with Remy. He went to his bedroom and opened his laptop, and a video call request popped up as soon as Logan came online.

"Hello-"

"LOGAN YOUR EYES!!" Patton exclaimed, Virgil wincing next to him. "Who?? When?? Where??"

Um, a couple weeks ago," Logan admitted. "We... had a bit of a rough start."

"You okay, Logan?" Virgil asked.

"Yes, things are getting better. We actually have a date tomorrow."

Patton squealed. "Oh, when can we meet them?? I can't wait to meet them!!"

Logan texted Roman that they were excited to meet him. Even though Virgil waited to meet Logan in person, that wait was only a couple days. Since Patton and Virgil probably wouldn't be able to meet Roman in person until the end of the semester, they decided to video call tomorrow.

Logan got to Roman's apartment a little before noon, and Remy was already gone. Roman said he wasn't too upset about being kicked out, since he got to use this as an excuse to go see Emile. Logan remembered Emile being particularly giddy as he left.

Logan was surprised when Roman pulled him into a hug as soon as the door opened.

"Hello," he said, muffled against Roman's chest. He prayed his cheeks weren't as red as they felt.

"It's wonderful to see you," Roman said as he let go of Logan. "I made tea. Do you like tea?"

He started talking again before Logan got a chance to respond.

"Oh, I'm so excited. You're going to love these. Which ones do you want to watch first?" Roman asked as he shoved a mug into Logan's hands.

"Show me your favorites."

Roman beamed.

A relaxing afternoon passed into evening. Roman and Logan had spent much of the time poking fun at inconsistencies in the movies, or Logan holding back laughter as Roman dramatically sang along to the songs.

Logan's phone buzzed in his pocket.

"Patton and Virgil are almost back to their dorm. They will be ready to call us when they arrive."

"Oh, wonderful!" Roman said.

Their moods had been so playful, it was easy to notice Roman's mood shift as his leg started shaking.

"Are you okay?" Logan asked.

"I'm fine," Roman said, but winced when his voice cracked.

"There is no need to worry," Logan said as he pulled his laptop out of his bag and Roman paused the movie. "I know they are very excited to meet you."

Roman gave him a grateful smile as Logan clicked the "Accept Call" button.

The few moments it took for the video to load dragged on for what felt like forever before the image of two men appeared on screen, one with pale skin and dark hair and the other covered in freckles with golden curls.

Roman's breath hitched at how absolutely gorgeous they were.

"Ohmygosh! Hello!!" the curly one exclaimed with a giant grin. "I'm Patton! It's so so wonderful to finally meet you!"

"Hey," the other one said, not nearly as energetic. "I'm Virgil."

"I'm Roman Kingsley. I'm so glad to finally meet my soulmates," Roman said as he flashed a grin. "And may I just say, that you two are two of the most beautiful beings I have ever been blessed enough to see."

Patton squealed in delight as he grabbed Virgil's hand while Virgil's cheeks grew a dark shade of red.

Conversation followed easily for them, and all of Roman's worries melted away. Roman glanced over to see Logan looking at him with eyes softer than he'd ever seen before. Roman smiled back and took Logan's hand and the two turned their attention back towards Patton and Virgil.

They were all so incredible. Roman swore he was in love.

*

"Logan?" Roman asked. He was laying on the couch with his head resting on Logan's lap. It was late Saturday night, and the two were exhausted after spending most of the day unpacking boxes. Roman and Emile were switching places so they could each live with their soulmates (Emile made sure he and Logan kept in touch - plus, double dates with them were now a common occurrence).

"Hm?" Logan hummed as he ran his fingers through Roman's hair.

"How long until winter break?"

"Thirty more days, dear."

It had been almost two months since Roman and Logan first met. And since Roman had met Patton and Virgil, too, he had been counting the days until he would finally get to see them in person.

"That's too long."

"I know."

Roman reached for Logan's hand that wasn't in his hair, but he didn't take it. Instead he just held his hand out for Logan to grab. Roman had been prepared to move at a fairly fast pace once he met his soulmates, but Logan clearly wanted to take it slow. So Roman was patient and let Logan set the pace. It took a couple weeks for Logan to hold his hand in public, a couple weeks more for Logan to cuddle with him. Some days, Logan didn't feel like being touched at all, so they'd sit in the same room on different chairs, just enjoying each other's company.

"Not that I'm not content with you," Roman quickly added. Logan opened his mouth to speak but Roman didn't notice. "I'm so unbelievably happy when I'm with you. Though I'm excited to meet Pat and Virge, you make me so much happier than I ever imagined I could be-"

"I know, Roman. I'm excited to see them, too."

Roman smiled up at him as he squeezed Logan's hand.

"...You're gorgeous," Roman said softly as he gazed up at Logan. Logan's face tinted pink as he glanced away.

"I-... you-... Thank you," Logan managed to stammer as he looked back at Roman, letting go of his hand just to run his hand down the side of Roman's face. "...May I kiss you?"

Roman's eyes widened as he sat up. "Are you sure? Because if so, then yes. Absolutely yes. But I don't want you to feel rushed or-"

"I want to, Roman," Logan assured, a tad embarrassed. Roman gave him a gentle smile as he placed a hand on Logan's cheek. He leaned in slightly but let Logan close the gap. Roman sighed happily as his eyes fluttered closed. He went to raise his other hand to Logan's cheek but Logan' separated, eyes wide and cheeks red.

"Are you okay?"

Logan nodded. "That was... really nice."

Roman smiled.

"Can I... Can I kiss you again?"

Roman nodded as he placed his hands back on Logan's cheeks. This time Logan placed his hand on the back of Roman's neck to pull him just a bit closer, not that Roman minded. Logan was the one to pull back first again, but only for a couple seconds before he pulled Roman back to him.

Roman kept the kiss slow and soft as Logan's hands held tightly on him, firm grip trying to pull them as close together as he could. Roman moved his arms around Logan's waist, aiding in pushing together. Soft gasps were escaping them both as their chests were pressed together.

The next time Logan pulled away, he just wrapped his arms around Roman and buried his head into the crook of Roman's neck. Roman smiled as he placed a kiss onto the side of Logan's head while rubbing soothing circles on his back.\

"Roman, I... I think that I... I0" Logan huffed out a frustrated sigh as he struggled to finish his sentence, his grasp around Roman tightening.

"I know, Logan," Roman assured him with a smile. "I know. Me, too."

*

Roman groaned and shut his laptop. He had done enough school work for tonight. Probably.

He ran his hands over his face. His eyes stung slightly from staring at a bright screen for so long in the dark room. Glancing at the clock, he was surprised to see it was already nine o'clock. Logan had gone out to attend some seminar for extra credit, not that he needed it. With Roman no longer tapping away at the keyboard, he noticed the light pattering of rain.

He pushed his chair away from his desk and fell onto his bed, reaching for his phone. He didn't know when Logan would be back, but he hoped it would be soon. The apartment got lonely when he wasn't around.

Roman was about to text the group chat to see how Patton and Virgil were doing when he got a phone call from the emo nightmare himself.

Surprised, but in no way complaining, he happily tapped the answer button.

"Hello, my darling. How are-"

"Roman," Virgil gasped out, and Roman was immediately worried. He sat up in the bed, mind racing with what could be wrong. Was he hurt? "I'm sorry. This is so stupid, but Patton's not at the dorm and- Oh, it's getting late I shouldn't have called I'm sorry-"

"Virgil," Roman interrupted. Virgil was already breathing heavy - Roman didn't want him to work himself up even more. "What's wrong, dove?"

"It's stupid," Virgil muttered.

"Virgil."

"...It's storming. And thunderstorms make my anxiety spike."

As if on cue, Roman heard a loud clap of thunder in the background followed by a sharp intake of breath from Virgil.

"That's not stupid," Roman said, affection dripping in his voice. "Just focus on my voice, dove. Follow my breathing."

Roman took a few deep breaths, listening as Virgil followed, and his breathing eventually grew steadier.

"Perfect. You're doing wonderful."

Roman led Virgil through breathing a bit longer until Virgil's breathing was back to normal.

"Thanks, Roman," Virgil said quietly.

"Of course, darling. I'll always be here for you, to protect or comfort. Whatever ails you, I'll work to destroy it."

"Sap."

Roman couldn't help but smile. The sound of rustling blankets came through the phone.

"...Hey, Ro?"

"Hmm?"

"Can you, um, sing for me?" Virgil asked quietly. A large grin grew on Roman's face, his heart burning with so much love for the man on the other end of the phone that it almost hurt.

"Of course I can."

Roman started to sing softly all the love songs he knew, anything he thought could even begin to portray how much he was already in love with him.

"I wish you were here," Virgil said, his soft voice making it evident he was getting sleepy. "So your voice wasn't muddled by the phone."

"I wish I was there, too. To hold you and let you know that as long as I'm around, nothing is going to harm you. Not even thunder."

Virgil chuckled softly.

"I wish you could hold me."

"And I will, love," Roman said earnestly. "As soon as I can."

Virgil yawned.

"Sing me to sleep?"

"Anything you need, Virgil."

*

Fluffball <3: Everyone get on video call!!

Roman shook Logan's shoulder, who was sitting by him, to get his attention. He showed Logan the text and Logan grabbed his laptop.

"Hey sweeties!" Patton said the same time Virgil said "'Sup."

"Hello, dearests," Roman said the same time Logan said "Salutations."

"So we all agreed to get together the first couple weeks before Christmas so we could still go see our families on the holidays, right?" Patton started, smile wide in excitement.

"Yes, Patton." Logan said.

"Well, I found a place in my home town we could rent for those weeks. So we can spend the time by ourselves instead of making our schedule around my parents," Patton said sheepishly. "If we all pitch in, I know we could afford it."

"That sounds incredible, Pat," Roman answered with a large smile. Patton's grin grew wider.

"I'll email y'all the details."

*

Roman was shaking his leg as Logan drove. He was finally, finally, after far too many months, on his way to see Patton and Virgil.

"There's nothing to worry about," Logan assured him. "They are both very fond of you. Just... be prepared for a really big Patton hug when you walk through the door."

Roman was looking forward to it.

Roman knew Patton and Virgil almost as well as he knew Logan due to the constant texts and video calls, though that could never compare to finally being able to see his darling soulmates in person.

Logan held Roman's hand as they walked up the path to the front door. He didn't have time to knock before the door flew open and Logan was pulled inside, yanking Roman in with him.

"Roman!!" Roman heard someone shout before they threw themself into his arms. "Oh my gosh it's so wonderful to finally meet you in person!"

Roman pulled back to see Patton looking up at him, absolutely beaming. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Virgil and Logan hugging while exchanging "I missed you"s, but right now all he wanted was to focus on the little puffball in his arms.

"Hello, dear," Roman said with a large smile as he pulled Patton back to him. Patton let out a loud squeal of laughter as Roman picked him up and spun him around.

"I can not express how ecstatic I am to finally hold you," Roman said as he put Patton down, taking the opportunity to cover his face in kisses. "My dear, my darling, my love, I've been waiting for this day for as long as I can remember, and oh, how gorgeous you are in person."

Patton's face was very red as Roman finished talking, Logan and Virgil watching in amusement. Roman panicked for a moment, thinking he had gone too far, but Patton just threw his arms back around Roman and pressed kisses to his cheek.

"You're so sweet! I'm so happy you're here," Patton said as he pulled back.

Virgil gently placed a hand on Patton's arm, and he let out a little "oh" before stepping aside, turning his attention to Logan.

"Logan! I've missed you!" Patton exclaimed as he threw his arms around Logan, but quickly pulled away once he remembered Logan's occasional aversion to being touched. But Logan wrapped his arms around Patton, and Patton smiled before hugging him again.

"I've missed you, too."

"Uh, hey, Roman," Virgil said a bit sheepishly as Patton turned to Logan.

"Hello, Virgil,"  Roman said with a grin as he stepped closer. There were a couple of moments of silence, then Virgil threw his arms around Roman and Roman quickly reciprocated, placing a hand on Virgil's back and pressing him against his chest.

"It's lovely to finally see you, darling," Roman whispered as Virgil took a shaky breath and hid his face in the crook of Roman's neck. "I'm here now. It's okay."

"We're all together!" Patton squealed happily as he wrapped his arms around the two of them, and Roman felt Virgil smile against his skin.

Roman gave Logan an expectant smile, holding out his hand for Logan to take. And when he did, Roman pulled him into the group hug.

"It's really nice to finally be with all of you," Virgil muttered against Roman, voice cracking just slightly. Roman tightened his arm around him.

"It is," Patton beamed. "I'm so happy."

*

Roman groaned as he stood up off the couch and stretched his arms up, hearing his bones pop in the process. The four of them had gone out to eat that night, and it had been pure magic. It wasn't a particularly grand place, just a small diner around the corner, but the four of them being in the same place for the first time was just wonderful. Roman could put his arm around Patton, or reach over to take Logan or Virgil's hands. The way the four of them clicked together so naturally made Roman feel like he was walking on air.

Oh, how lucky he was to be blessed with soulmates.

When they got home, they had put a movie on the TV. But after a long day of travelling, Logan and Roman didn't last half the movie. When Roman woke up, Virgil had also fallen asleep and Patton was gone, but Roman could hear humming in the kitchen.

"Oh, hello, sweetie," Patton said as Roman walked in. "I'm making tea, would you like some?"

Roman nodded as he reached out towards Patton but hesitated. Patton then gently grabbed his arm and pulled Roman towards him.

"You don't have to worry about me. I always want cuddles," Patton sighed happily as he rested his head on Roman's chest. "You don't have to ask."

"But what if one day you don't-"

"Then I'll make sure to tell you. Though there's never been a day in my life I didn't want hugs."

Roman rested his cheek on Patton's fluffy hair and sighed. "I... I'm honestly sort of relieved. Obviously I'm not upset about Logan's boundaries, but..."

"You can tell me, honey," Patton urged as he tightened his grip around Roman. "It's alright."

"It's just... I've been fighting my insecurities for as long as I can remember. And physical affection just makes me feel better, I guess. It makes me feel secure and wanted," Roman said, voice getting softer from embarrassment. "And when I feel like I need it but Logan doesn't want to be touched, I just keep my mouth shut on how I'm feeling to not make him feel guilty."

"I get it," Patton said as he stepped back to cup Roman's face. "Virgil's the same way. Less often than Logan, but the same.

But I don't think you should hide how you're feeling from Logan. He'd feel bad you felt the need to hide from him. I just know he would want to know so he could find a way to help you. He loves you, Roman."

Roman huffed a bit as he pulled away from Patton to sit on the counter.

"But I don't want him to think I'm trying to pressure him."

"I know, I know. Roman... I get sad often. For no real reason in particular, sometimes. And physical affection helps me feel better, too. And just like Logan with you, Virgil is usually more than happy to help me. But for a while I, too, felt like I needed to keep it to myself because I didn't want to bother him."

"And?"

"He figured out, and he told me to tell him whenever I'm feeling sad. And we've found other ways. I'll sit next to him and we'll watch cat videos, or he'll show me his favorite music. Sometimes he'll say he can handle a little bit of touching and he lets me hold his hand or rest my head on his shoulder. But nothing is going to get better if you keep it to yourself."

Roman ducked his head as Patton gingerly pushed hair away from his face.

"Yeah, you're right," Roman said quietly. Patton pressed a kiss to his cheek. A smile grew on Roman's face. "And one day, we'll all live together, and we'll all balance each other out and love each other in our different ways. We'll never be more than a name call away from all the affection we need. Plus, while I'm here with you, I'll always be more than happy to give you lots and lots of attention."

Patton returned his soft smile as he cupped Roman's cheek. The two gazed at each other for a moment before connecting their lips, pulling the other towards them as close as they could.

The kiss was so incredibly soft. The two had to break apart for a moment just because their smiles grew so big, but they immediately reconnected their lips. It was gentle, just like Patton. Roman couldn't help but melt against him, promising himself that he was going to get as many Patton kisses as he could in his lifetime.

"I don't think I'll be able to handle another semester away from you," Patton said with a melancholy smile as they parted. Roman kissed him.

"Only a couple more years, darling. Then I'll be all yours."

*

Over the following days, Roman had the three of his loves in arms reach at all times. He could finally cuddle Patton against him or wrap Virgil tightly in his arms (and he'd never get tired of holding Logan). But the bliss couldn't last forever, and the day for them to leave for the holidays arrived.

Logan and Patton didn't have a far drive at all considering they were already in their hometown. Virgil had a good few hours, but Roman had to drive to the airport to get home, meaning he had to get up early in the morning and leave significantly sooner than the others.

"I'll see you soon, Specs," Roman said with a sad smile.

Logan met Roman halfway for a kiss. "See you soon."

Patton had been holding back tears all morning. But when Roman pulled him into a tight hug, he couldn't help that a few tears fell down his cheeks.

"Hey now, it's okay, darling. We'll see each other again soon. I lo- I'll miss you."

Patton's eyes widened and Roman tried not to wince at his slip up. But Patton gently placed a hand on Roman's cheek and pulled him down into a kiss.

"I love you," Patton whispered. Roman kissed him again.

"I love you, too."

They shared one more brief kiss before Patton let him go.

"I'll bring your bag out for you," Virgil said and walked out the door before Roman could say anything.

Roman gave one last goodbye to Patton and Logan and followed his other love.

"Call me when you land," Virgil said. "Want to make sure your plane didn't crash."

Virgil put Roman's suitcase in his trunk and slammed it shut. He wasn't looking at Roman.

"And drive safe. I know you like to play your music loud but be careful."

"I will."

"Well, um. I guess this is goodbye," Virgil said, staring at the ground.

"...Please look at me, darling."

Virgil huffed but slowly lifted his head, showing his red cheeks and puffy eyes.

"Oh, my dear," Roman said as Virgil let him pull him into a hug. "It'll be okay. We'll see each other again soon."

"I know," Virgil muttered into Roman's shirt. Virgil pulled away slowly, then placed his hands on Roman's cheeks to pull Roman down into a kiss. Roman pulled Virgil as tightly against him as he could, wishing this didn't have to end.

"I love you," Virgil whispered, surprising Roman. But he smiled.

"I love you, too. So much."

"Call me," Virgil said as he let Roman go.

"I will."

Virgil pressed one more quick kiss to Roman's lips before walking inside. And Roman smiled.

This is going to work out perfectly, he thought.

[ahsxual]

My Personal Teddy Bear

Pairing: Phoenix!Joker x Reader

Genre: Fluff

Request: "Heyyy !! Love your writing ! :D If it's okay for you, can you please write a headcanon with Joker 2019 and a very romantic reader who loves fluffy things ? Thank you !! <3"

Word Count: 1,9k

A/N: Thank you so much for requesting this my dear @arthurjokersgirl!! I'm really happy to know that you like my writing 🥺🥺 It means so much to me!! And I'm so sorry for taking so long, but I had a few problems in writing this fic (tumblr didn't save it, so I had to write it all over again). Anyway, I hope you enjoy this fic I made for you <33

(I don't own this image!!! If you own it, please message me and I'll give you the deserved credits)

When you and Arthur met, both of you were surprised by the amount of things that you had in common.

You two are so kind, so good-hearted, so romantic and dedicated to your partner and everything you do... and if there's something that manages to put a cute and melting smile on your faces, is when you receive, especially when it’s from one another, fluffy objects, such as teddy bears, flowers, romantic CD's, love letters... anything that involves and expresses the love you have for each other.

Whenever you idealized a relationship or whenever someone asked you to describe the "perfect man", the answer was always the same: a romantic, caring, generous and cute guy who would do anything for his girlfriend, promising to love her for all eternity.

Once other people heard your answer, they would say you were just being childish, that those types of guys weren't real and that you had to live in the real world, not some kind of princess movie, waiting for your prince to rescue and fulfill your heart with all the love he could muster... what they didn't know, was that your prince was destined to meet you the moment you were welcomed into this world.

You couldn't imagine being with anybody else: ever since you shared your first words with Arthur, you knew deep inside that he was the one for you, the love of your life, your charming prince... and as if he hasn’t told you yet, he felt exactly the same, you were his one and only that he had been waiting for so long all his lonely life.

Your chemistry was unique: you were so in love, so committed to your relationship, that you were sure that you would spend the rest of your lifes with each other. Death wasn’t able to break your chain, it was stronger that anything else in the universe. Once you had finally perished, you would marry each other as many times as you needed, twice, thrice, billions of times if it were needed. 

Arthur sees you as a sweet, gorgeous flower, being utterly different from the others by its unique beauty. He doesn’t have eyes for any other flower: you're the only one he has eyes for and feels pure love for: he even compared himself to the Little Prince, and you were the only flower in his world, yet perfect and outstanding.

He loved the fact that you were as romantic as him, because that made him feel more secure and sure of yourself. Even the little things would put your eyes in tears and make your smile grow until your red cheeks started to hurt because of his sweet gestures.

Your favorite hobbie is, after getting from a tired and exhausted day of work, laying in each other's arms on the spacious sofa while watching romantic movies or comedies to brighten your mood, covered in blankets while sharing a cup of hot tea because of the frosty cold winter.

You loved everything about Arthur and your relationship with him: it was all about trust, support, love, dedication, comprehension and understanding. He was your best friend, and you were his.

Every month he would save some extra money to buy you a present, sometimes even starving himself for days just to have enough money to buy you the most expensive gift he could afford. But of course that once you knew about this you immediately stopped him, not admitting him to do such silliness no matter how good his intentions were.

But what he didn't know, was that you were willing to play the same game: without him realizing it, you saved some cash every month as well (without starving yourself, of course), to buy tickets for a romantic movie that would debut in the cinemas.

You were so happy about it, to finally give Arthur what he deserves and to take him where he has always wanted to go since he was a little kid. But this time, he would see a romantic movie with you, giving you both an opportunity to have a decent date for you to enjoy.

You couldn't wait to see your lover's face once he knows he'd go to cinema for the very first time with the love of his life, with his one and only... with you.

On the other hand, Arthur was thinking exactly the same thing, since he had been saving some cash to give you a surprise, imagining your reaction after he had offered his gift that would mark and change your lives forever, while increasing your pure love even more, if that was even possible.

One day you went to grab your hidden piggy bank with more money to save, only to count it right after. Once you had counted it and saw that you had enough, you instantly jumped and giggled from the sheer happiness around your shared room. You made so much noise, that even Arthur who was in the living room, knocked gently on the door to make sure you were fine.

Today was the day where you finally could show your gift to him: you told him that he needed to hurry up and dress something nice, because you were going to an amazing place. He wanted to know what your plans were so bad, but he knew it was useless since you wouldn't tell him until you had arrived to the "misterious place".

Once you had arrived and had gotten out safely from the bus, you told your boyfriend to close his gorgeous ocean eyes.

"You can open them now, love." you gently said with the two tickets held in your hand, while being right in front of the cinema so he could understand your intentions.

He was immediatly dumb-founded as soon as he understood what you meant. "Y-you... you want me to go to the cinema with... with you?" his eyes started to become moist with each second that passed, and you only had time to embrace him in your eyes while assuring him that this was real, that this was really happening.

"It's ok love, it's good to let our emotions out when we need to. I'm right here if you need anything. We will have so much fun! And you know that we deserve this, it will be good for us and our relationship, right?" you look into his eyes and could see that a few tears managed to slide down from his red and cold cheeks. He was definitely crying, but from happiness, something that he never thought was possible: he could only relate tears to sadness, however you managed to prove him that the opposite was possible as well. That's what he loved about you: even having been through a lot and felt so many things from his entire life, he would always learn something new about you, him and others from you.

"I can't even thank you enough for all you have done for me, honey... If I could only retribute half that you have done for me... I would be the happiest man for seeing his future wife happy as well." you were smiling from ear to ear, but once he said the words that you always dreamed to hear from him, "future wife", you had to hold your tears back from falling down your now stunned face.

You were too distracted, or should I say too concentrated on your lover, that you didn't realize that the movie was about to start.

Once you entered the cinema room, both of you were amazed by the view: the red seats were all over the place and were very organized; the movie screen was giant, the perfect size to enjoy your movie; the background was simple, yet exquisite, giving you a sudden feeling of luxury, however you didn't care that much if you were honest. As long as you were by Arthur's side, that's all that matters, because your love is the most luxurious thing in this world.

That night was the one you've always dreamed of: you stayed close to each other while grabbing your hands firmly, yet gently, like you were terrified of someone taking the other away from yourselves; the movie contained a lot of romance, which illuminated your hearts more than the brightest stars. You could even relate yourselves to the lovely couple on the screen, which made you both smile the entire time, changing glances with each other with the most passionate stare. This made Arthur think about what he had planned for you for a long time, more specifically from the moment you shared your first kiss, because since then, he instantly knew you were the one.

It made him feel a little bit, not to say extremely, nervous as well, and when the movie ended, you thought it was necessary to ask if he was ok or if he just didn't like the movie.

"N-no! Of course I liked the movie, I actually loved it. I couldn't imagine any other date more perfect than the one you planned for us... thank you once again, it means so, so much to me, sweetheart..." he admitted, making you feel more relaxed. However, he seemed like he was hiding something else, like he had something on his mind that he couldn't let out. But then he smiled at you while grabbing your hand softly, and from that moment you knew that he was about to tell you what was stuck on his mind since he left home.

You walked out of the cinema and went outside, where you instantly felt your body shivering from the cold of the late night of Gotham... but your boyfriend made sure to warm and melt your heart in an instant.

You saw Arthur overthinking and trembling a little, and when you were about to ask him if he was cold too and wanted you to warm him up, he kneeled on the rigid ground and took a small box of your favorite color from his back pocket.

You had an idea of what was coming, yet you couldn't believe that that was what was really going to happen.

"My sweet precious, kind, and beautiful love, would you... would you l-like to ah.. m-marry me...?" his eyes seemed like they belonged to a baby puppy that was asking for affection or his favorite treat, but in this case he was asking you for being his wife... Is this a dream??

You immediately felt your eyes burning and becoming wet by the few rebellious tears that managed to escape from your lovely stare. Your hands were now in front of your gaping mouth, and you couldn't feel cold anymore. The only thing you felt in that moment, was an enormous wave of warm love that you couldn't help, but you let yourself drown.

It was at this moment that all your insecurities and fears that were related to your mutual love, were permanently defeated. Now you knew there was nothing nor anyone that would tear you apart... and you had so many goals yet to achieve as a couple.

[irandomblogfulb]

FATE: What happens when you get a bunch of middle aged white guys to adapt a cartoon for girls

Well, I just went through 6 hours of fate and I have a lot of opinions on it. Yeah, this is going to be long (slightly under 3k words) so putting it under read more and obvious spoilers.

PSA before delving right in:

1) Yes, I will be comparing to the original. Any comparisons are not through rose-tinted nostalgia glasses. There are parts here and there that I genuinely think were done better in the cartoon on a writing standpoint.

2) This is purely my opinion and overall negative. Don't like it? Don't read. I'm all up for discussion but I don't want another person crying to me about how I “ruined” their experience of the show.

3) If you like Fate then good for you. This isn’t me bashing people who like it. 

I've spit it up into sub sections just for my own convince.

1. The problem with the 'I'm not like other girls' trope

This pertains to the entire Bloom-Sky-Stella love triangle. I wasn't as pressed about it compared to other winxers (and I loved Stella's and Brandon's relationship on my rewatch). In fact, I was okay with it. But then I sat down and watched the show and there's a lot of underlying problems with the love triangle. Particularly pitting Bloom and Stella against each other for Sky's affection.

Now this part of the love triangle I already didn't like. Correct me if I'm wrong, since I dropped the OG Winx after season 5 but the Winx while they did have their conflicts and arguments, never fought over a boy. I really appreciated that from the cartoon so seeing that live action would fall into that trap – I was mildly annoyed at that. Then it hit me. It's Bloom and Stella.

The seemingly ordinary girl vs the pristine princess of Solaria. If the title didn't give it away, you should get the point by now. Others have already called it by now but the "I'm not like other girl's" trope in itself, while seemingly feminist is actually misogynist. Saying the more masculine type of girl is better than the feminine is inherently misogynist. Stella, the prime princess, girly and feminine, is villainized by the love triangle. Sky's and Stella's relationship is toxic and Stella's overt co-dependence and jealousy are already big fat red signs - but Sky's and Bloom's relationship is built on how she's "different". Bloom isn't like Stella, she's "real".

2. Am I supposed to like Riven?

As the title puts it, wtf am I supposed to feel about Riven. Is he supposed to be a good guy? Do I root for him? Is he morally ambiguous? Because holy shit compared to OG!Riven, this guy is diabolical and much much worse! OG!Riven is an asshole and he teams up with the trix but his arc was very simple and easy to understand. He joins the bad guys, distances himself from the good guys, the trix betray his ass, he self-reflects in the dungeon - escapes and redeems himself. Net!Riven is so bad to the point where you can't redeem him and the writers don't even try. Freddie Thorp is good in his role. (however, he definitely doesn't pass for a 17-year-old. He's 26 and it shows) and he actually makes the cringe dialogue work. But he's way too diabolical and downright predatory. The scene where he forces Dane to gulp down his spiked drink - it’s worse seeing it than reading it. That grossed me out more than the gore.

What makes it worse, nobody properly calls him out. Beatrix kinda does on his homophobia – “Homophobic bashing by GIF” - and Sky does chastise him, but they still tolerate him. It is kinda funny in a way Sky has a whole ass arc about how he's enabling Stella's problematic behaviour by still dating her after she blinded her friend but doesn't realize he's doing the same for Riven.

The only person that really puts her foot down with Riven is Terra and nobody takes her seriously about anything she says.

Everyone is very laissez-faire around him and that's not how you respond to your friend being problematic. (Hey, kinda like the other girls sans Aisha are with Bloom!) Everyone surrounding Riven is so disgusting and the notion of him supposedly being a good guy is very hard to buy into. His whole relationship with Dane has a section of it’s own because there’s just a lot to unpack.

3. Stella I am so sorry

I'm also in the majority hating how they've tarnished Stella. Basically, they turned her into the stereotypical rich bully with mommy issues.

I get that Stella has an abusive mom but that’s no excuse to be a total bitch to her roommates. And no, her roommates shouldn't accept her back with open arms. And she doesn't even redeem herself - the girls just accept her back after her mom pulls her from Alfea.

And this is also another issue with the writing were the characters suddenly just change their opinions on a whim. Suddenly Stella likes the winx, suddenly Terra misses Stella even though having that girl literally gives her anxiety. Suddenly Aisha's on Bloom's side in the end.

This isn't me simping for the cartoon out of nostalgia. I was mostly okay with the idea of Stella and Sky hooking up. But Looking at it from a creative standpoint - looking at the source material, and the many paths you can take this character, the best thing Brian Young and co. can think of for her was turning her into the stereotypical rich bully that we've seen time and time again? No deconstruction no meta take, it's played out exactly how you’d expect it.

Again, this isn't me simping for the show. Purely from a creative standpoint Stella was such a major let down. There's so much to the character and Brian Young took the easiest, saturated path.

4. That one scene with Bloom's parents

You know the one. Mike unhinges Bloom's bedroom doors and Vanessa cusses out and insults her child like a petty teen bully. Forgetting how utterly cringey that scene was, you can't have her mom go batshit insane on her child, then act like she's this loving parent that cares so deeply about her daughter. Screw that! Vanessa deserved those 3rd degree burns! She invaded her daughter's privacy. Bloom didn't even do anything wrong!

I can't buy into this narrative of Vanessa and Mike being loving parents when they do something like that. Seriously who thought that was okay?

5. Pity Parties for everyone.

I already discussed this in Stella’s section but I don’t like the “it’s okay for me be a shitty person because my life sucks :)” narrative Fate tries to pull. They did it with Stella, Bloom, Riven.

What I liked about the first season of Winx Club is Bloom’s arc and her character as a whole. Because while she went through shit, from the Trix, to finding out she was adopted, her existential crisis, not feeling like she belonged, losing the dragon flame, she went through a lot. She didn’t throw a pity party. She didn’t whine, bitch and complain. She allowed herself to feel upset, took it as it is and tried to make lemonade out of lemons. And I respect that.

Net!Bloom is agrevating. She does some dumb, reckless stuff but it’s excused because she’s the protagonist? She let the war criminal out, the school gets taken over by the bad guys because of Bloom. Faragonda fucking dies because she let the war criminal out! The burned ones attacked the school because she let the war criminal out!!! But no, Aisha’s villainized for calling Bloom out because Bloom’s existential crisis is more important then anything else.

Getting to Sky, he isn’t as bad as the others. He doesn’t become a shitty person because of his problems. (Though lowkey flirting with Bloom while he hooks up with Stella is uh not good.) But he does come across incredibly whiny. Because of the cringey dialogue and the unnecessary swearing  I can’t take his speech on opening up to Bloom seriously. I laughed throughout the whole thing and Bloom leaving his unconscious body there was the icing on the cake.

One of the few characters that deserved a pity party is Terra. She’s very much like OG!Bloom in a way. She is bullied by Dane and Riven, has body insecurities, anxiety, nobody listens to her and at most only tolerates her. Despite all the crap that is thrown her way she still reminds humble, kind, and respectful. And she is one of the few characters that deserves more support than what she got out of the season.

5. Bloom, Aisha, Tokenism and their awful relationship

I’m going to be upfront, their relationship sucks. The core of their dynamic is what Aisha can do for Bloom. It’s very one-sided. Bloom only goes to Aisha to help solve her problems, which Aisha gladly does – but when Aisha disagrees with Bloom or says something Bloom doesn’t like, Bloom suddenly goes off and Aisha’s made to be the bad guy. Even though she’s right? And Aisha has her own problems as well, shown to also struggle with her powers. But nope, that’s pushed to the back burner because Bloom needs help.

I am all for creative freedom. I can stomach Stella x actual Sky. I can stomach turning Stella into a rich mean girl. I can stomach the dark academia aesthetic but what Brian Young and co. did to Aisha is just plain racist. Screw the “it’s an adaptation” excuse. Turning this character who had a rich storyline and was a princess into a white girl’s magical negro who fixes all her problems is racist and by definition tokenism. And by whitewashing the other two characters of color, making Aisha the only poc in the group – that’s the worst thing you can do to her.

And frankly we need more black princesses on screen.

6. Dane and the homophobia of the show

Towards the show’s climax it’s revealed Dane is helping Beatrix because she accepts he’s “different”. Not only does this go back to my pity party rant but like bruh,

1)      Beatrix never really did anything for Dane? She hung out and smoked with him a bit, but that’s all. You’re telling me Terra wouldn’t accept Dane? Beatrix never helped him and he never really opened up to her about his struggles.

2)      Nobody else, not even background characters bully or harass Dane for being “different”. It’s only Riven, the guy he’s crushing on. The whole falling in love with the bad boy/abuser trope is bad in a hetero relationship and that still stands for a gay one. And I know damn well if Dane was a woman half of the shit Riven did to Dane wouldn’t slide.

It makes no sense for Dane to side with the bad guys when Riven’s the one bullying him and Beatrix is complacent in the bullying. Oh, and having your second black* character who’s also lgbt+/potentially questioning be a villain? Not good.

I’m all for gay and poly rep, but not like this. If Stella and Sky’s toxic relationship is going to be called out for what it is, why not Dane’s?

*Idk if Theo Graham is light-skinned black or biracial so I’ll just refer to him as black.

7. The plot

It’s very predictable. Personally, wasn’t fond of the ‘twist of a twist of a twist’ style of writing. The story tries to be nuanced and deep but it’s not. Common sense is treated like a big revelation. Not trusting the war criminal you barely know isn’t as big of a take that the writers try to make it out to be.

8.  Everything else

·       Beatrix is fine. No Icy but did like the gothic bookworm aesthetic.

·       Sam is just there to be Musa’s love interest and provide some dumb drama between Musa and Terra. I thought they’d go the Edward/Bella root – Musa’s drawn to Sam because she can’t sense his emotions for some reason. Nope, they just get together for the obligatory make out sessions. Don’t care much for the relationship or the character.

·       Since the powers are all elemental shouldn’t there be classes purely for an elemental? Classes purely for fire fairies, etc?

·       Musa’s powers are confusing. If she has no control over them and they are “always on”, shouldn’t her eyes constantly be glowing purple?  Very wishy washy. Sometimes they overwhelm her and other times she has complete control. Her character is just there for plot stuff.

·       Terra is one of the better characters but can’t enjoy her knowing about the whitewashing. Why can’t we have a plus sized character just exist and not have body issues?

·       Sky doesn’t feel like a prince. Characters treat him like his dad is a war hero and not the King of Eraklyon. There was a point where I thought I misheard and thought his dad was just a war hero and not a king.

·       Why try to justify Rosalind’s war crime if she’s going to be the big bad anyways?

·       The way the characters treat death/act around death is very weird. Musa and Terra see a pile of dead bodies and they’re unreasonable calm. Especially Bloom an “ordinary teenage girl from earth”, reacts very nonchalant when death and war crimes are brought up. Doesn’t help the show tries to push this “they’re kids fighting a war” narrative.

·       Can’t buy into the girls’ friendship. The Aisha/Bloom dynamic is centred on what Aisha can do for Bloom. Bloom only cares about herself and only goes to her friends to help with her problems. Most of Musa’s and Terra’s interaction centre around Sam. Stella didn’t care for the girls until her mom showed up and pulled a 180. The girls were quick to turn on Aisha when she sided with the adults.

·       I have no problem with technology existing but why do they have Instagram, Tiktok and Tumblr? The otherworld is a completely separated from Earth, why do they have the same technology?  

9. Brian Young, what do you mean by mature?

I grew up on the 4kids dub before transitioning to the Nick dub for season 4 and 5 then dropping the cartoon for good. So naturally on my rewatch of the cartoon I decided to go watch the RAI dub since I heard it’s more accurate and 4Kids are infamous for their horrid localisations straying too much to the source material. Upon finishing season 1 and currently watching season 2, a few things took me by surprise. For one, the cartoon is surprisingly dark. The schools are at war with the Trix and their army of Darkness, Sky almost dies in Season 2, Riven almost dies and the Trix thinks he suicided, it’s heavily implied in Season 2 Darkar murdered some of the pixies, the paedophilic undertones of Bloom and Avalon’s relationship, the list goes on.

When the interview with Brian Young came out, he said Fate would be a mature take on the cartoon. And I wondered, what did he meant by mature? Was he going to delve deeper into the darker aspects of the show, or did he mean he was going to have the girls swear and have sex? Watching Fate, I found my answer.

If you take out the gore, swearing, drug and alcohol usage from the live action, the maturity is on par with the RAI dub. The difference is in the presentation. This is what sucks about the mentality surrounding live action remakes. Because the OG!Winx was colourful with glittery transformations , was super girly and overall had a positive upbeat tone (not forgetting 2D animated) - it can’t be taken seriously. You have to strip all that, the colour, the kindness, the femininity in order to be deemed mature.

10. Wrapping up

I went into Fate expecting the worst and honestly, it wasn’t that bad. There were things I liked about it. The show looks pretty, and I did like what they were trying to do with Sky’s arc. The actors did what they could with the material. Freddie Thorp made the cringe dialogue work and Abigail Cowen proves she can carry a show as the lead.

Fate is your generic, YA, dark academia show. It follows all the tropes of the YA genre to a T. If that’s your niche, then you’ll love Fate and I’m not bashing anyone who liked it.

For me, as a creative, it doesn’t capitalise on the strengths of the source material. I’m not asking for Winx Club again, as I’ve reiterated, I’m all for creative freedom. But Brian Young, Iginio Straffi, whoever worked on this – they could’ve created something new, innovative, something that stood out from the hordes of other YA shows. They had good material in their hands! But what I got -  I’ve seen before, and I’ve seen it done better. That’s a major disappointment.

As a winx club fan, don’t bother watching this. It’s a very diluted version of the Winx. In trying to capture the interest of the adult fans who grew up with the franchise – Iginio showed how out of touch he is if he thinks this is what they wanted.

[ahgaseda]

enough | four

even if everyone else leaves me, you’re enough for me, you’re my only one, stand by me forever, only you, just you...

summary : to survive as a single woman in the big city, you resort to letting rich men pay for your company, but never anticipated that your first client would be the boy you once loved, Jinyoung.

warnings : strong profanity, explicit dialogue, references to prostitution, mentions of gang activity, graphic sexual content, potentially triggering elements involving mental health, panic attacks, etc.

miniseries chapters : one / two / three / four / five / six / seven

Fingertips delicately brushing over your arm pulled you from peaceful dreams. Dreams of Jinyoung and how he used to smile. How you would squeeze his cheeks between your palms when he tried to hide behind his hand, afraid to show his teeth. It had taken you years to break him of that habit.

Humming with contentment, your eyes blinked sluggishly. You could feel the morning light filtering through and warming your skin with golden hues.

The body radiating heat behind you snared your attention in a heartbeat. You smiled when you felt him breathing heavily at your back. He had been sound asleep as well, but just couldn’t resist a touch of your soft skin as he started to wake.

His fingers continued tracing senseless patterns up and down your arm. You shivered at the pads of his fingers, shuffling backwards and even deeper into his embrace while he spooned you in his oversized bed. You glanced up, noting the sun was rising higher outside the window; a sign the two of you had slept quite late.

Jinyoung called your name sweetly and with a smile, you turned to face him. Closing your eyes, you burrowed yourself against his firm chest, tucking your head beneath his chin and draping your legs over his thighs.

“Good morning to you, too,” he teased, an arm coming to wrap tightly around your waist in gentle possession. Jinyoung would normally hide his smirk, but given your position against him, you wouldn’t see it and so he smirked freely.

You didn’t leave me, was the first thing that came to mind, but instead you hummed sleepily. Then, you giggled as his fingertips slipped beneath your shirt and began to dance up your spine.

After squinting against the sun to read the clock on the nightstand, Jinyoung sighed heavily and whispered, “Baby, I have to go.”

You shook your head adamantly, setting your hands to his shirt and gripping him as tightly as you could.

Jinyoung flushed at your newfound affection though in his many, many memories with you, you were always clingy in bed. He chuckled when you began to circle your arms and legs around him, like you could physically prevent him from leaving.

“I have business,” he told you, grabbing one of your hands and bringing your knuckles to his lips for a few appeasing kisses.

“Don’t leave,” you whined in a sleepy daze. “I finally have you back.”

Jinyoung melted, leaning in and kissing your brow. He cradled your head in the bend of his elbow and his hand trailed down your hip, guiding your thigh to hook higher on his waist. Pulling you closer into his warmth, Jinyoung met your opening eyes for only a second before capturing your lips in a heart-stopping kiss that made you smile against his mouth.

But the moment you drifted back to sleep, he was gone.

Jinyoung wanted to be angry with you, to punish you for leaving him behind. God knows his heart was still somewhere in a million tiny pieces on that driveway you left him on, but the caveat was Jinyoung didn’t actually want to hurt you.

Yes, he wanted you to suffer, but only in moderation.

When you finally came to, you wanted to be furious at being abandoned, but you were too overcome with a sense of victory after the events of the night before. Not only had Jinyoung pleasured you, but he allowed you to fall asleep in his arms and for the first time in nearly four years, you slept like a baby.

You had forgotten how it felt to wake up beside him, feeling the pads of his fingers caressing your bare skin. He was insatiable when it came to your body against his. Jinyoung always had to have his hands on you. You were his and he was yours.

Well rested but anticipating a long day, you crawled out of bed and raked your hands through your disheveled hair. Approaching the floor to ceiling windows, you gazed out at Seoul and its bustling, morning energy. You preferred the view at night, when the endless landscape of colors reflected into the darkness of the bedroom.

Turning around, you finally noticed your clothes folded neatly on the dresser. The same dresser Jinyoung had pinned you to the night before. Proceeding to gather your things, you smiled when you saw the note placed on top.

Sorry not sorry for ripping your shirt. I will buy you another, said the note in Jinyoung’s scribbled handwriting. You let out a giggle, rolling your eyes in amusement before tucking the paper into your bra for safe-keeping.

When you stepped into the living area, having dressed and tamed your hair, you greeted Jackson and Yugyeom, both of whom were absorbed in their phones while a cooking show played on the enormous flat screen in the background.

“Good morning, Your Majesty,” Yugyeom replied with a broad grin that scrunched his nose. “You scared us last night.”

“I’m sorry,” you apologized sweetly.

Wiggling his eyebrows playfully, Jackson asked, “Did you sleep well?”

You nodded and skipped to the adjoining kitchen, saying, “Yes, I was rewarded with a very nice orgasm.”

Yugyeom dropped his phone and clapped his hands loudly. “That explains why boss was in such a good mood,” he quipped, earning a sharp elbow from Jackson.

You snorted.

Pouring yourself a glass of orange juice and taking a sip, you asked with a pout, “Why did he have to leave so early?”

“It wasn’t early. It was almost ten,” said Jackson, pretending to chide.

You shrugged, bringing the glass to your lips and peering over the rim. The penthouse still floored you with its scale and size. Jinyoung couldn’t cook. He would never need this amount of space for a kitchen. It was sheer indulgence, plain and simple.

Jinyoung never cared about money, never sought after it. He said money made people crazy. Power, on the other hand, was his weakness. Setting down your glass, you mulled over what kind of business pulled Jinyoung out of bed with you.

Before you could ask any potentially dangerous questions, Yugyeom’s phone chimed and after reading, he said, “We’re under strict orders to take you back to your house. Boss ordered you brunch and it will be delivered there.”

“He said you have classes later,” Jackson added, rising and pulling on his jacket.

You grimaced. Thinking about studying paled in comparison to having Jinyoung on your mind. Nevertheless, classes weren’t going to pass themselves. “Actually I have study sessions for exams today. They’re next week.”

Yugyeom grabbed his keys and gave them a jingle. “Well, let’s hit the road then.”

The atmosphere was different from the day before. Any tension and anger you had been harboring was long gone. In fact, you smiled the entire way to your new home, especially with the way Jackson and Yugyeom bickered like an old married couple.

When Yugyeom pulled into your driveway, a delivery car was already waiting, handing Jackson a pair of rather large bags. The bodyguard tipped the boy handsomely and you eagerly rushed inside to scan the goods.

“Why is this kid spoiling me, but won’t let me spoil him?” you asked in a whine, pulling the food from the brown paper bags.

Yugyeom replied dryly, “Because he’s a manly man with a whole lot of pride.”

You retorted, “I just want to suck the soul out of him.”

Jackson grabbed a fork and deadpanned, “We never said he was smart.”

You laughed.

The three of you ate together like you had been best friends for years. Jackson and Yugyeom could hit the road as a comedic team with the way they bounced off of each other and made you cackle until your stomach hurt.

When you had finished your meal, you proceeded to clean up and bid the boys farewell. Yugyeom held you snugly when you hugged him and earned a slap on the back from Jackson.

“This is awkward,” Jackson chuckled. “We aren’t actually leaving.”

“Oh?” you questioned, brows raised.

“I drive. He...,” Yugyeom hesitated.

“Watch. I keep watch,” Jackson interjected, flashing a comforting grin.

You narrowed your eyes suspiciously. “The two of you aren’t going into the study sessions with me, are you?”

Jackson waved his hands. “Of course not. Yugyeom will drive us and I will just hang out around campus. As far as you’re concerned, I’m a prospective student that loves to gab around the quad.”

“Okay,” you said, skeptical.

After a long, hot shower, you dressed comfortably and readied your backpack with notebooks and textbooks and any other books needed for your study sessions until your bag weighed a thousand pounds.

When your phone rang, you smiled at the screen and answered, “Hello?”

“It’s me,” Jinyoung greeted, as if he had forgotten he was saved in your contacts now. “I just wanted to check in.”

You bit your lip to keep from grinning, pleased at how much he had softened in the past twenty-four hours, and murmured bashfully, “I’m glad you did.”

Jinyoung took note of your tone and smiled, not that you could see it. “Am I interrupting classes?”

“No, I’m about to leave,” you replied, hoisting the backpack onto your shoulder. “Apparently Jackson and Yugyeom are babysitting me.”

“You can send them away anytime you want. I just thought having the two of them around would make things easier for you.”

There was always a certain note in Jinyoung’s tone when he lied. His voice sounded like a news anchor telling you reassuringly that everything would be fine whilst the world was literally on fire. You weren’t an idiot. Most of the girls already warned you that on occasion their wealthy clients kept tabs on them. Security protocols and whatnot.

At your brief silence, Jinyoung decided to change the subject. “Which exam will you be prepping for?”

“Statistics. It’s actually a lot of fun when it’s applied to situations rather than dull numbers on a sheet like in regular math.”

Jinyoung wrinkled his nose. In no way, shape or form was any variation of math fun. But he enjoyed your enthusiasm. “Uh-huh. And which class is kicking your ass?”

“That would be physics,” you droned with loathing. “I’m afraid its fundamentals are completely lost on me.”

Noting the clock, you headed out the door in search of your babysitters.

“What does physics have to do with becoming a doctor?”

“Oh, a question I have asked myself many, many times since I discovered I would have to take not one, but two semesters of it,” you joked, following Jackson to the car. “I think it’s primary function is to weed out the weak ones.”

“In that case, kick its ass right back,” said Jinyoung, eyes flickering when the door at the opposite end of the warehouse opened.

Sliding into the passenger seat, you glanced at Yugyeom as he backed the car out of the drive and lowered your tone, “Will I see you again tonight?”

Jinyoung exhaled loudly and your heart sank. “Afraid not. I have a lot of work to do.”

You sulked, wanting to press the issue, but knowing full well Jinyoung was a stone wall. “Oh,” was all you said.

Hearing the disappointment, Jinyoung shifted his weight, looking down at his shoes. You made him like a crazy, hormonal teenager all over again. He just wanted to spend every waking moment with you, listening to you talk excitedly about things he didn’t give a shit about if only to hear the joy in your voice. He missed the simple days of having time alone on the couch with you and a boring ass movie, which was a perfect excuse to pull you beneath him and mar your beautiful skin with hickies.

Jinyoung cleared his throat, snapping out of the thought.

Gripping the phone a little tighter, you started, “Jinyoung, I…”

There was a sudden influx of noise in the background and Jinyoung grumbled under his breath, “I have to go. Study hard, baby.”

You opened your mouth to continue, but the line went dead.

Flustered, you glared at the phone. I love you, was what you had wanted to say, but you choked. What if he didn’t say it back just to torture you?

His words from your first night as your client rolled back into your mind, Imagine that - having to pay for the love of my life... Once upon a time, that’s what you had been. It didn’t mean he still felt the same way. In fact, his level of bitterness could only be from losing one’s love.

Jinyoung was tempered now. He was grown. And you leaving him had partially shaped him into the man he had become. And that could be a man no longer capable of trusting and loving you as he once had.

That notion made you want to cry and you quickly shook your head, freeing your mind of its obsession with Jinyoung. As Yugyeom drove, you pulled out the physics textbook and proceeded to read, drowning yourself in mundane words that only seemed to repeat.

Meanwhile, on the other side of town, Jinyoung slid the phone into his back pocket and moved back to Jaebeom’s side, scowling at the abrupt arrival of his unpredictable ally.

Jiwon was ambitious. In fact, he was specifically after Jinyoung’s spot, a fact Jinyoung was well aware of and why he chose to keep Jiwon in the loop of some of his business dealings. The problem was Jiwon embodied everything Jinyoung despised in a business partner.

He was loud, flashy. Had no respect for law enforcement and how easily they could unravel the threads that held everything together. He dabbled in contraband that Jinyoung would never dare involve himself with and tended to fly by the seat of his pants rather than plan anything out.

Jiwon took the last drag out of a cigarette before tossing it to the floor. “Jinyoung-ie, how goes it, brother?”

“You’re late,” Jinyoung sneered. “As usual.”

“Deepest apologies,” Jiwon mocked, putting a hand over his heart. “I was distracted by some Daegu pussy, but I’m here now.”

“Fantastic,” Jinyoung groaned.

Jiwon raked a tongue over his teeth and said, “Speaking of hot pieces of ass, I saw that little slice of yours.”

Jinyoung’s eyes hardened and his voice came out a slow growl, “Excuse me?”

“You know the one I’m talking about,” Jiwon continued, grinning. “Walks around smiling like a little princess, but I bet she loves it rough. Doesn’t she, Jinyoung-ie?”

Jinyoung could feel his blood boiling. Suddenly, everything in the room was painted in red hues. How he had always despised Jiwon, but now, he was talking himself into the nearest harbor.

Jaebeom shuffled slightly, feeling the tension. His eyes were hot enough to burn coal.

Jinyoung stepped closer, lowering his voice in a warning. “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Ever heard that phrase, Jiwon?”

Jiwon nodded. “Of course.”

“Don’t ever be deluded into thinking I keep you around because I cherish your company,” Jinyoung hissed.

Jiwon clapped his hands. “Shit, she is the bitch you’ve been holding out for. I’m impressed.”

Jinyoung set his jaw. He couldn’t lose his composure, couldn’t let this asshole know what you meant to him. Instead, he warned calmly, “You’re walking on thin ice with me.”

“Do I sense some panic in your voice, Jinny? After all, if I saw her, others may have, too.”

Jinyoung switched tactics. “What do you want?”

Jiwon held up his arms and shrugged, noncommittal. “I know I notoriously play both sides, but there’s a deal going down and I want you on my side.”

Jinyoung's expression hardened. “I don’t take sides in that bullshit you play. I notoriously stay in my niche. You know I don’t get involved in the corruption game.”

“Well, today you do. My team is going to hijack a shipment and you’re going to help me.”

“And if I don’t?” Jinyoung asked with a tilt of his head.

Jiwon sucked in a breath between his teeth, to make it sound like he was almost wincing. He blithely took out his phone, turning the screen to give Jinyoung a view. The picture was of you, smiling at a classmate with books held in your arms.

“I know plenty of bad, bad men that could break in such a good girl for you.”

The words had barely made their way from his mouth before Jinyoung was on him, grabbing Jiwon by the collar and shaking him like a ragdoll. When his guard made a move with a measly switchblade, Jaebeom calmly put a hand on the gun attached to his belt.

“I will kill you,” Jinyoung hissed in his face. “Do you hear me?”

Jiwon sneered, “You of all people should have known better than to give in to your weakness.”

Jinyoung was ready to rip him inside out and that was evident as he spoke, “Weakness is the last thing you will think of when you think of me.”

But Jiwon merely laughed, a sound devoid of pity or fear. “I own you now.”

Jinyoung released him roughly and held his ground, watching Jiwon slink away with a broad, impish grin.

Jaebeom moved closer and murmured in hushed tones, “He won’t do anything.”

“Have her brought to my place,” Jinyoung whispered, hands trembling. “Now!”

It was late afternoon when you finished your study sessions, feeling confident in your ability to ace the oncoming exam. With statistics prep out of the way, you devoted yourself to the neverending battle between you and physics.

Jinyoung had already said he wouldn’t be able to see you tonight. With that thought, you donned an overgrown sweater and some knee-high socks to keep your feet warm. Then, you plopped on your bed and cracked open the books.

Time passed swiftly and you were shocked to see the sun had faded from view just outside your window. Taking a quick and hard earned reprieve, you massaged your aching hand, tense from the overabundance of notes you were scribbling, and you jolted on the bed when Yugyeom burst unannounced into your room.

“What the hell,” you exclaimed, tugging down your sweater to hide your exposed thighs.

Yugyeom panted, “Boss wants me to bring you to the penthouse.”

You relaxed, but rolled your eyes over the needless interruption. “He said no booty calls tonight.”

“He wants to see you. Something has upset him, but they won’t tell me more than that.”

That tidbit of information intrigued you. “Okay, but I’m bringing my books to study while I wait.”

“Fine by me.”

Jackson’s behavior was your first red flag. Rather than his jovial, talkative self, his eyes were on the surroundings, watching and waiting like something could be lurking just beyond. In fact, he didn’t say a word as he opened the car door and slammed it shut behind you.

Jaebeom’s behavior was your second red flag. He was there at the building to greet you, opening your door and grasping your elbow to practically hoist you out of the car. Managing to sling your backpack over your shoulder, you asked, “Has it finally happened? The zombie apocalypse?”

Your joke fell on deaf ears.

Jaebeom looked to Jackson and said, “Basement.”

Jackson nodded his understanding, then turned to you and said, “Go with Jaebeom.”

You merely bobbed your head before Jaebeom ushered you to the back elevator. You crossed paths with the friendly Mr. Jung, who discreetly accepted a roll of bills from Jaebeom’s outstretched hand.

Heat flared across your cheeks. Jinyoung was going to get a piece of your mind when you saw him. All this sneaking about and acting like at any moment a sniper was going to drop you. Then, your heart fell somewhere in the pit of your stomach. Years away had let you forget the constant feeling of living in danger.

The gangs had turned your home into a warzone. Suddenly, you were right back where you started and the thought made your eyes water.

“Where is Jinyoung?” you asked in the elevator.

“On his way,” Jaebeom answered shortly.

You almost hadn’t expected an answer. Jinyoung clearly was putting you on lockdown. You peered up at Yugyeom and he offered a gentle smile, as clueless as you were. At least, you weren’t alone.

Jackson vanished into the darkness of the basement, the echo of his footsteps ricocheting off of the concrete walls. Spotting the only other person inside, he called out, “Jaebeom is on guard. Now, what the hell happened?”

Jinyoung stepped out of the shadows and said, “That bastard has a picture of her on his phone. He showed it to me.”

Jackson appeared unfazed. “Alright, we will increase security and I can…”

Jinyoung whirled around and grabbed the nearest crate, shoving it into a heap rolling across the ground. Then, he roared, “How could I be so stupid?”

Jackson shook his head. “You’re not.”

“I kept my distance for almost five goddamn years,” Jinyoung shouted, angry and scared. “I was good. I knew it was safer that way while I did what I had to do. But she broke me. The minute I found out she was gonna sell herself, I had to jump in.”

“I know,” said Jackson, unmoving.

Jinyoung’s next words came out shakily, “I have a whole list of enemies that will tear her apart in front of me.”

Jackson reminded firmly, “We’re better than them.”

“Are we? Because I’m losing my fucking mind at just the thought of someone laying a hand on her!”

“No one will.”

Jinyoung was the epitome of composure. He never lost his temper and he never allowed himself to be a slave to his emotions, which was why an outburst such as this was exceedingly rare. Jinyoung didn’t know what to do when his heart took hold, but Jackson did.

“I made a lot of enemies. I tore people apart to get here. You know that, brother,” Jinyoung choked, tears in his eyes. “None of them would bat an eye at taking her away.”

Jackson knew that was enough. He stepped forward and grasped Jinyoung by the shoulders, levelling his voice, “Stop and listen to me for a second. Why do you have me and Jaebeom? Why does Mark spend almost every waking hour behind a computer?”

Jinyoung stilled.

“The answer is for bullshit like this. Do you have any idea how many threats we have neutralized before they got to you?”

Jinyoung snorted. “Would you like a raise?”

Jackson chortled and waved him away. “You pay me more than enough.”

Jinyoung put his hands on his hips and lowered his gaze to the ground in shame, shaking his head from side to side. “I should send her away. I should leave her.”

“It’s too late for that. They know she’s your baby.”

“Yeah, she is.” Jinyoung slumped in defeat.

Jackson simpered. “It happens to all of us, brother.”

Jinyoung relented. No one could talk him down like Jackson.

Jackson looked at him expectantly, seeing Jinyoung had calmed. Then, he cocked his head toward the elevators.

As the two headed up to the penthouse, Jinyoung asked, “How was she today?”

Jackson didn’t hesitate to sing your praises. “Exam prep is putting her through the ringer, but I’ve never seen someone so determined to kick school’s ass.”

Jinyoung snickered. That sounded like you. When you got knocked down, you laughed and got back up. When you set your mind to something, no one could stop you. Jinyoung frowned, wondering at what moment you had decided to leave him all those years ago.

“And she constantly checks her phone, waiting for you to text her,” Jackson added, leaning back against the rail. “When you checked on her this morning, you should have seen her smile.”

“Stop making it worse,” Jinyoung grumbled, shooting him an insincere glare.

Jackson beamed. “You’re welcome.”

Nestled comfortably on your side in Jinyoung’s bed, you poured over your textbooks, filling your pages with notes. Flashcards lay in a messy crescent around you. All a result of you trying to distract yourself from Jinyoung.

Inevitably, you crashed, falling asleep in the warmth and comfort of his bed. Your brain was exhausted from absorbing so much information, and the city lights and soft music had lulled you to sleep. If his playlist was any indication, Jinyoung preferred melancholy, slow songs to soothe his aching heart.

You would fix that later, but for now, you rested.

Jinyoung breezed through the kitchen, tugging off his jacket and draping it over the couch in the living area. Glancing around, he turned back to the bodyguard and asked, “Where is she?”

“Bedroom,” was all Jackson said.

“You can go now,” Jinyoung sang, dismissing him with a wave of his fingers.

Jackson chuckled and headed for the elevator.

Jinyoung entered his room ever so quietly, letting out a long exhale of relief when he saw you sound asleep within a ring of textbooks and study materials. First, he unfastened his button-up and discarded it on the bedpost. Then, one by one, he pulled your books from around you and stacked them neatly on the dresser.

Settling in behind you, Jinyoung contoured his body to yours, propping his head on his arm while his free hand landed on your hip and began to curl around your waist. He just needed you safely in his arms. If anyone so much as gave you a sideways glance, there would be hell to pay.

Jinyoung remembered why he had joined the gang in the first place - to protect you. He learned that when you can’t beat them, join them. But he had never expected that would be the tipping point. He joined the gang and you left him. Ever since that day, Jinyoung had warred with himself over his decision. Maybe you had seen it as betrayal. Even when he explained that he had done it for the both of you, you didn’t accept that and you sure as hell didn’t forgive him.

And then, you were gone.

Jinyoung realized he had been the only one keeping you tied there. You had given up on everything and everyone else, and then he cut the final cord. Sometimes he told himself it was the right thing to do. You were able to leave and find a new life, the life you had always wanted.

But Jinyoung always wanted to be a part of that life. Not many kids could say they had found their soulmate and Jinyoung, as much as he hated the notion, knew you were the person he was meant to spend his life with. There was never any doubt in his mind.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered under his breath, knowing you weren’t listening. I gave you no choice, he pondered sadly. Tightening his grasp around your body, he tucked his face to your hair and lingered in the scent of you. He just needed to hold you until he found his strength again.

You hummed quietly in your sleep; a tiny inconsequential noise that completely set his veins ablaze. Your body instinctively shuffled back, seeking his warmth and the constant of him beside you. Jinyoung raked his eyes down your form, intent on your bare thighs. For fuck’s sake, had you come to his penthouse in a sweater and knee-high socks and nothing else?

Jinyoung brushed his fingers through your hair, exposing your neck, and left a few gentle kisses at the curve of your shoulder. “Bad girl,” he whispered darkly in your ear.

Your lashes fluttered before your eyes opened, and you immediately shuddered at the feel of his wet lips on your neck. “Jinyoung…,” you sighed.

“Hi, baby,” he replied, mischievous. “How many people saw these pretty thighs today?”

You could hear the jealousy in his tone and it made you smirk. “They rushed me here urgently.”

“I will let it slide…,” he said, nipping at your ear. “This time.”

You reached back to grab a handful of his thick hair, tugging him forward so you could mold your lips to his in a kiss. You had missed him deeply. Jinyoung let you, though his hand began to wander. You felt yourself melting into his kisses, slow and warm, that when his fingers slipped beneath your sweater, you didn’t notice until a digit hooked in the band of your underwear.

Pulling at his hair, you took his lip between your teeth and yanked gently. Then, meeting his eyes, you whispered, “Those are a present for you.”

“For me?” he asked, clearly piqued.

“Mm-hm.”

Jinyoung gave you a chaste peck on the corner of your mouth in farewell, then he moved down your body to get a better look. You watched him push the hem of your sweater up to your ribs, exposing the cute pink panties you were wearing. After biting his lip with appreciation toward the view, he began kissing his way up your thigh.

“Rough day?” you asked anxiously.

“The worst,” he huffed, proceeding to suck a blemish on your hip.

You choked out a word that sounded vaguely like his name, squeezing your thighs together to calm the aching in your core at how close he was to your most intimate part. Jinyoung, with his kisses alone, could have you completely pliant beneath him, begging him to give you release.

Jinyoung called your name.

“Hm?”

His lips broke from your skin and he lifted his head to look you dead in the eyes. “I’m gonna eat this pussy.”

Your eyes widened and your heart promptly thundered inside your chest. “...You have my permission.”

Jinyoung flashed his teeth in a smile at the dumbfounded look on your face and said, “Good.”

Your lover lifted your leg, letting it rest on his shoulder as he buried his face against your clothed folds, giving your cunt open-mouthed kisses. Your head fell back and you tried to roll onto your back, but Jinyoung held your hips in a vice and kept you on your side. He never gave an inch.

You reached down to thread your fingers into his messy hair, remembering how much he loved when you raked your nails through his locks while he sucked you dry. Sensitive after the years apart, you trembled with the way he kissed your pussy like he was starved. He flattened his tongue between your lower lips, tasting your essence through the fabric of your panties.

“Babe,” he called from between your legs, voice having descended an octave or two with lust. “As much as I love my present…”

You felt him winding his fists through the material and before you could reply, the panties snapped like they never stood a chance.

“They’re in my way,” Jinyoung finished with a dark smile, peeling the torn remains from your body and tossing them over his shoulder.

“I loved those,” you pouted, trying to sound sulky and not meaning a single word.

“I’ll buy you ten more,” Jinyoung said impatiently, bringing his lips to your bare pussy and taking a long, hungry lap of the arousal slipping between your folds.

You let out a noise and it completely embarrassed you, which could only mean Jinyoung loved it and wanted to hear it again as soon as possible. His arms tangled through your thighs, round your hips, and he kneaded your flesh in tandem with the sucking and licking of your cunt. You stole a breath and held it, trying to keep your sounds at bay lest you give him any more reason to tease you.

But that only spurred him on more. Jinyoung glanced up from your glistening pussy to see the tension on your face, his cock twitching in his jeans as he watched you grab a handful of the blanket and try to hide your face against it. He stroked your beautiful hips, squeezed your plump ass, and nipped your soft thighs.

Jinyoung was tempted to taunt, to ask you how it felt to have him pump his tongue inside your wet cunt, but by the look on your face, that was answer enough. He watched your breasts rise and fall and decided he would suck those next when he finished making you come.

The room filled with the sounds of his tongue and lips working your soaked pussy, your whimpering and airy moans of his name, and the moody playlist still playing on loop in the background. You suddenly remembered the windows, where all of Seoul could be watching the view of his head between your thighs, but then you were reminded the glass was tinted.

What a shame.

Jinyoung found your swollen clit and teased it between his teeth. Your lower body immediately arched away from his mouth and a loud involuntary moan left you. Your clit was a live wire, hypersensitive from years of neglect, and each time he touched it, your stomach tightened.

Given your reaction, Jinyoung made your bundle of nerves his main target. He latched his lips to the nub and rolled it with his tongue, grinning when you could no longer fight back your noises of pleasure. His jeans were unbearably tight, cock moving on its own accord with the lewd squelches of your pussy begging to be filled by every inch of him.

You clawed your fingers through his hair, tugging hard to slow him down, and whimpered, “Jinyoung, oh… god. You’re gonna make me come.”

“That’s kinda the point,” he retorted, sinking his teeth into the flesh of your inner thigh.

Your clit was throbbing, pulsing, and every touch of his tongue was pushing you hard toward the edge. You wrenched your fist in the blanket and chanted, “I can’t. I can’t. I can’t…”

Suddenly, a hand crept between your breasts, fingers finding your throat and getting a solid grip.

“Jinyoung,” you choked, though his name barely made it out of your mouth.

Jinyoung squeezed and your whining stopped. You held his wrist in your hand, the other still tangled in his hair, and accepted you were along for the ride.

He was merciless against your clit, desperate to give you climax. His hold on your neck went slack after you had calmed and you felt more arousal gush from your folds at his show of dominance.

“Fuck,” you cursed, flexing your legs as your body tried to curl away from the stimulation.

Jinyoung reeled his hand back and landed a swat on your ass, smiling against your pussy with the way you squeaked.

“Jinyoung,” you cried out in disbelief, reaching toward his arm that held your thigh. You could feel taut, bulging muscles beneath the sleeve and knew you were wholly at his mercy.

A loud smack resounded through the room as another hit connected with your ass and Jinyoung sucked your clit like he had run out of patience and it was time to come.

Begging for mercy in a whine, you dropped your head to the mattress, hair falling wildly over your face and you arched your hips against his mouth, bouncing your ass into his face. Jinyoung coaxed his hand over your heated flesh, leisurely tracing your skin to give you an ever-present reminder how quickly he could spank you again if you misbehaved.

With every breath, you let out some mortifying sound. Your clit thrummed and the scalding heat at the apex of your thighs was about to spill over and ruin you.

Without warning, Jinyoung pulled away from your aching pussy and was chest-to-chest with you in the blink of an eye, his hand still poised around your throat.

Once he had your undivided attention, his hand landed on your folds.

You cried out in surprise.

“You wanna come for me?”

Before you could answer, his palm landed on your sex again.

“Yes, yes, yes,” you chanted hurriedly. You were right on the edge, so close you could taste it. “Please let me come.”

Jinyoung bit his lip, failing to hide a smile. His pupils were blown wide, lost in arousal and pleasure. Bringing his mouth to your neck, his wet lips pressed kisses beneath your ear, and then he whispered, “On my face or on my cock?”

It was a no contest decision. “On your cock,” you replied without missing a beat, eyes wide and expectant. “Please.”

Jinyoung tapped the flat of his hand on your pussy to some random rhythm, keeping you lingering near the edge. Every brief moment of pressure on your clit was enough to make you press your thighs together.

“Please,” you said again.

Jinyoung shook his head in amusement, flashing a devilish smile at how far gone you were already. “You want me to fuck you, huh?” he teased, slipping his tongue over your bottom lip, red from where you had been biting.

“More than anything.”

Jinyoung let his gaze lock with yours momentarily before he smirked and moved back between your legs, finding your entrance with his mouth again and lapping his tongue inside.

Disappointed but not surprised that you wouldn’t be getting dick that night, you focused on your orgasm, hoping and praying he would finally give it to you.

With every roll of your hips, Jinyoung connected a smack to your ass and the sound ricocheted into your ears. You could feel your cheeks heating up, enough pressure on your neck to cloud your mind, and his name became a constant chant from your lips. Just the way he liked it.

Jinyoung returned to your clit and with his mouth, commanded your body to give him what he wanted. The intensity of release washed over you and by the way you shuddered in his grasp, Jinyoung knew you were suspended in ecstasy, but he didn’t slow down. He kept taking your clit between his lips and stimulating past your threshold.

You tapped out, tearing out of his grasp and pushing at his head until he finally set you free. Jinyoung rose to his knees and pushed you roughly to your back, gazing down at the mess he had made. You panted for breath and closed your eyes, waiting for your body to settle back down from its constant shaking.

“That pussy is still mine,” Jinyoung whispered in his gruff dialect, giving your dripping folds one last look.

When he began to move away from you, you came back to your senses and grabbed his wrist before he could get far.

Jinyoung turned to you in surprise.

“Why would you rather jack off than let me have you?” you asked desperately.

His reply was terse, “I got what I needed.”

You frowned. “Please.”

He cocked a brow and his tone was a little harsher than intended, “Please what?”

You were laid bare before him and it showed in your voice. “Touch me.”

Jinyoung was back to the game of refusing to give you what you wanted most. “Where do you want me to touch you?” he asked under his breath.

“Everywhere,” you admitted breathlessly.

He smirked, roaming his hand down your inner thigh. “Hard or gentle?”

Your lashes fluttered. “Both. Either.”

Then, he shifted mercurially and snapped, “Why would I? I’m angry with you.”

You said the first thing you thought would fix that. “I’m sorry.”

“You left me.”

As if you had forgotten. “Jinyoung…,” you started, reaching for him.

“Do your homework,” he told you dismissively.

The blood drained from your face and you gripped him tighter. “No, no, Jinyoung. Please.”

“Give me a reason.”

You yelled, “I’m sorry. Is that what you want to hear?”

He shrugged, and the gesture was absolutely maddening. “No, it does nothing for me.”

Anger danced up your spine and you spit venom, “Fuck you.”

Jinyoung took your jaw in his hand, leering down at you. The dominant streak you were praising only moments before was now front and center. “Test me one more time,” he hissed in warning. “I dare you.”

You stared up at him and hesitated. His eyes were intense, smoldering. You finally offered up one last plea, “At least let me watch.”

Jinyoung tilted his head. He expected you to say anything to appease him, but that certainly wasn’t one of them. “Shirt off,” he ordered lowly, making short work of his own top.

Pulling the sweater up and over your head, you lay beneath him and spread your legs invitingly. Jinyoung got comfortable on his knees between your thighs and began unbuckling his belt. You reached forward to help, but he swiftly batted your hands away.

Your eyes didn’t know where to settle. He was so much more muscular than before. The boy you knew was strong, but lanky. Food was a commodity back then, not a right. His arms and chest bulged with strength, and you had never seen such a chiseled set of abs in your life. Then, you caught sight of his happy trail and followed it all the way down south.

Once unzipped, Jinyoung pushed down his jeans and boxers to free his hard cock. He was so aroused, his length curved toward his abs and the head was angry, weeping. You watched as he reached between your legs, gathering your slick on his fingers and stroking his cock with your juices.

Your mouth was watering, salivating for a taste. You wanted his dick in your mouth, to return the favor of a mind-blowing climax to him. Your eyes followed every move of his hand, distracted only by the flexing of his defined abdominal muscles when he pumped the head of his length. Your core tightened on nothing, aching to be filled, and you quickly swallowed the saliva in your mouth to keep from drooling.

“I miss sucking your dick,” you blurted, shameless.

Jinyoung let his tongue linger at the corner of his mouth, twitching at the clouded arousal in your eyes. Then, his gaze fell to your breasts and he licked his lips hungrily.

Seeing him distracted, you wrapped your hand around his shaft, circling the head and teasing his slit with your thumb. Jinyoung sucked in a hard breath through his teeth, losing any and all resolve to slap your hand away.

You hummed softly at the girth of him in your hands, remembering all the times he stretched you open. He seemed even bigger than before, but still so hard. He could move like silk inside you, fitting just right.

You peered up at him with coy eyes. “I want you inside me so bad.”

Jinyoung stroked his thumb over your wrist while you worked his length and said, “That’s cute.”

You cut him a glare and jutted out your lip in a pout. “You’re vicious.”

“No more than you,” he countered, breath stuttering at your quickening attempts to get him off. “We always did have that trait in common.”

You pumped him harder, pleased when he released a tiny moan. “Come on, baby,” you crooned. “I know you’ve been hard this whole time.”

Your words must have pushed him over the edge, because Jinyoung snatched your fingers and held your hand at bay as he fisted his cock and rapidly jerked himself to release, groaning when his seed finally came.

You trembled with lust when his release coated your stomach and breasts. Jinyoung tipped his head back and let out a long sigh of relief, satisfied for the moment. You flushed at how badly he turned you on. The pleasure on his face coaxed you to madness, wanting nothing more than push him to his back and ride him into oblivion just so you could see the ecstasy on his face again.

His self control was admirable. Yours was dead and buried.

“Wait here,” Jinyoung said, clambering off the bed and disappearing into the bathroom.

You wanted to be a smartass, but didn’t have the energy. As far as you were concerned, it was night and you weren’t leaving his bed until morning.

When Jinyoung returned, he told you, “Hot bath is ready.”

You sat up and asked, “What about you?”

He seemed confused. “What about me?”

“Can we… talk or something?”

Jinyoung studied you, naked save for your socks. You just didn’t want to be parted from him, not even for a moment. With an exhale, he grabbed your thigh and removed the sock, then did the same with the other side. “Yeah, come on,” he finally relented.

You smiled victoriously and trotted yourself to the bathroom in all your nude glory, feeling his gaze on your plump backside.

Sinking into the scalding water, you hummed with delight. Jinyoung fought a smile as he lowered to sit beside the tub. You sloshed around, getting comfortable, and Jinyoung watched you with nothing short of adoration. Fuck, he was head over heels. Though he was mad as hell, everything you did was just too cute.

Propping your arms on the rim of the bathtub, you rested your head overtop and called gently, “Jinyoung?”

“Yeah, baby?”

Warmed by the gentleness of his voice, you blinked through the steam of hot water and asked, “Is there any hope for us?”

He leaned his head back against the wall, arms draped on his knees, and sighed, “I don’t believe in hope anymore.”

That tugged at your heartstrings. “Oh.”

Jinyoung kept his eyes on the ceiling, not wanting to see how sweetly you looked at him, and said, “I know you hate that I joined the gang. I’ll give you that.”

It was a start, but you were surprised to hear it. Jinyoung wasn’t the type to surrender so soon and he never admitted when he was wrong. “Then, why did you do it? After I begged and begged you not to,” you asked cautiously.

“Because I was good at it,” he confessed, finally turning back to you. “I got off on the power. I realized that for once in my life, I could have all the control.”

You shook your head. “Control is an illusion.”

“It’s not,” Jinyoung interjected and he sounded convinced. “I’ve tasted it.”

You found yourself wanting to reach over and grasp his hand, but it was too far out of reach. This was the Jinyoung you knew, who was only ever vulnerable with you when it mattered. “Was it worth it? Do you sleep well at night?”

“Same as before. That hasn’t changed.” He smiled softly and whispered, “I only sleep well when you’re beside me.”

You sighed, staring at him with affection.

Then, the obstinance returned to his face and he said, “I don’t care about all the evil things I’ve done. I did them for the right reasons.”

“The road to Hell is paved with good intentions,” you sang, the same way your father always did.

Jinyoung snorted. “I prefer a paved road to a rocky one.”

You were quick to tease, “So, is this the closest I will ever get to an apology?”

Jinyoung swallowed the lump in his throat and replied, “I will never ask your forgiveness for how I chose to survive without you.”

Your eyes batted with the threat of tears. Your mouth parted to say his name.

Jinyoung shushed you, grasping your jaw and leaning in to press a tender kiss to your lips. For a moment, he stared into your eyes with longing. Then, without another word, he stood to his feet and left.

Your heart wanted to burst. He was still so in love with you.

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a/n : this story was previously Lacuna on my old blog, minheoney. I’m really excited to finally finish it! This fic was my baby for so long and I’m ridiculously happy to give it a new home :)

Hey there, beautiful! If you enjoyed this, please leave a like or reblog or follow me! Or maybe buy me a coffee so I can keep writing? Or check out my masterlist here for more stories! Thanks for reading :) - Katya

This work is fictional and for entertainment purposes only, but is licensed and protected under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. Any instances of plagiarism will be dealt with accordingly. Do not re-post or translate without my permission.

{ copyright 2018-2020 © ahgaseda // all rights reserved }

[goldenraeofsun]

just say yes

The latest installment of this verse... or 5 times Dean tries to propose to Cas.

Dean bites his lip as he scans the menu. What the hell is branzino, and where the fuck are the prices? He flips the flimsy piece of cream-colored paper over, but no dice. 

Thank god there’s a steak listed among the five lone entrees. It’s probably five times his normal dinner price tag, but Dean already made peace with putting off buying that 30 year anniversary Rush album. It’ll still be there after his next pay check. 

Cas eyes him over the top of his own menu. “What are you thinking?”

Marry me.

Dean doesn’t say that, though. He has plans. Keep his trap shut until dessert. Tell Cas he’s going to hit the head. Pull a waiter aside and ask for two glasses of champagne. Return to Cas. Hopefully not shit his pants as he proposes. Drink champagne. Go home and have fantastic engaged sex.

Dean has high hopes for the last part of the plan.

“Dean?”

Belatedly, he says, “The steak.”

Cas hums. “That does look good.” He ducks back behind his menu. “I was thinking of getting that too. But maybe not.”

Dean takes a hasty sip of water. “Get the steak if you want it, man. We don’t go to places like this often.”

“I think I’ll get the honey glazed salmon.”

“Sounds good,” Dean says lamely. He drinks more water. At this rate, he won’t have to fake the bathroom run.

Aren’t they supposed to have alcohol by this point? They’ve been sitting at their fancy-ass table in this fancy-ass restaurant for nearly fifteen minutes.

Maybe he shouldn’t have picked the newest five-star restaurant to propose to Cas. He’s already on edge from the pressure, and the pristine white tablecloth isn’t helping. He can already see five ways he’s gonna stain it. There are several forks in front of him. For fuck’s sake, this place has an actual chandelier. Dean hadn’t honestly thought they existed outside of billionaire mansions and Disney movies.

The live music is nice, though. A sedate piano tinkles in the background, barely audible over the buzz of polite dinner conversation.

Dean catches a glimpse of himself reflected in the dark windows to the street. He looks a little sweaty, but not as nervous as he feels, thank god.

This is stupid. He shouldn’t even be nervous.

They’ve talked about marriage before. They’re adults in an adult relationship, so popping the question out of the blue would go down like the time Dean swept Cas away for a surprise camping trip. Turns out, Cas did not like camping. Which Dean would have known if he had asked anytime in the past four years.

But… that marriage conversation was two years ago. Dean wasn’t ready then; they both weren’t. Cas was still in a bad place with Jimmy and Claire, and Bobby had just died, so they weren’t about to roadtrip to Vegas anytime soon.

Now, Claire can have a civil dinner with her parents, and the hole Bobby left in Dean’s life can go unnoticed some days.

The deal is, Dean can’t chicken out tonight. He already told Claire to make herself scarce. She can sleep at her parents’ or at Krissy’s, Dean doesn’t care, as long as she is not crashing on their sofa when they get back from dinner.

Dean would rather read a hundred plagarized student essays on The Very Hungry Caterpillar than admit to Claire he failed to ask Cas to marry him. 

So, proposal time.

The waiter comes by with their drinks and takes their orders. Conversation is a little stilted, but hopefully Cas chalks it up to Dean being outside his comfort zone in this fancy-ass place. There’s no steady thunk of darts hitting a board or clack of pool balls in the background to put him at ease. Just that lame piano.

Cas makes porn noises over his salmon at first bite, which Dean totally doesn’t get. It’s fish.

“How’s your steak?” Cas asks as he surfaces and dabs his mouth with his cloth napkin.

Dean belatedly slices off a piece of his meal and pops it in his mouth. A generically bland compliment dies on his tongue. Jesus Christ - that’s some good cow. It practically disintegrates before he can chew. “Great,” he tells Cas honestly.

Cas hums in contentment.

“And since you’re practically at third base with that salmon,” Dean starts, “I take it-”

“Oh my god!” a woman’s voice squeals behind them.

Dean reflexively turns his head in the direction of the commotion. A few tables over, near the center of the restaurant, a man is down on one knee, and - son of a bitch.

Dean watches, his mouth hanging open, as the woman shouts, “Yes, of course, yes!” Waiters walk past their table with a whole fucking bottle of champagne. People at nearby tables fucking clap.

Dean resolutely turns back around to face Cas, at a loss for words that aren’t extremely loud swears.

“Isn’t that nice?” Cas says mildly.

“Yeah, very nice for them,” Dean says through gritted teeth. 

Of all the goddamn nights. Of all the goddamn restaurants. What are the goddamn chances?

Dean slices into his steak with extreme prejudice. If he could murder the happy couple, he would. With zero regrets.

Fuck it all, Claire’s gonna be insufferable.

  A CHARMING B&B IN VERMONT

Dean wakes up delightfully cozy with Cas spooning him from behind. No memory foam, but the bed is delightfully springy anyway. It was definitely what they needed after a full school day and a nine-hour road trip. Luckily, the owner of the bed and breakfast, a charming older woman actually named Mrs. Butters, was happy to wait up for their late check-in last night. She even had hot cocoa waiting.

Dean had held out a slight hope they could christen their room before they turned in for the night, but Cas passed right out before Dean turned on the lights. Poor guy had to deal with three sets of angry parents, and it was only the second week of school. Something about how their supposed-genius kids should be in AP Latin instead of the Fun Latin class - aka the one for dumbass seniors.

The mid-morning sunlight filtering in from behind the plaid curtains casts everything in a warm glow. The room itself is beyond charming. There’s a legit fireplace next to the bed, and they’re currently nestled under a patchwork quilt. The wood panelled walls give a distinctly rustic feel to the place, despite the reasonably sized television screen mounted on the far wall.

Dean turns over in bed so he’s facing Cas instead of the door. He resists the urge to poke him awake, and instead prods with a gentle, “Cas.”

Cas grumbles wordlessly. Fucker doesn’t even open his eyes, although Dean can tell from how his breathing changes that he’s awake.

“Cas.”

Cas wrinkles his nose and shoves his face into the pillow. “What, Dean?”

Dean can barely make out the words, but he gets the gist from the million times Cas has done the exact same thing. “I smell bacon.”

Cas’s eyes slit open. “So?”

“Don’t you want bacon?”

Cas huffs, and Dean can tell the exact moment he resigns to waking up. “Then go get the bacon. Nobody’s stopping you, Meat Man.”

Dean wiggles in bed, jostling the whole mattress. “Come on, babe.”

“I was sleeping.” Cas raises his head to look squint out the window. “It has to be before ten am. Since when are you a morning person?”

Since today is the day Dean is going to propose.

Instead, Dean reminds him pointedly, “Bacon.”

“Ugh,” Cas groans as he sits up. “I expect at least a blow job after breakfast if we’re leaving bed this early.”

Dean slaps his ass and jumps out of bed before Cas can retaliate. “Up and at ‘em!”

“I hate you.”

“Love you too, Cas.”

* * *

Claire 11:02 Did you ask him yet? If he said no I’ve got chunky monkey waiting

Claire 11:31 That was a joke Uncle Cas will say yes Theres no way he wont

Claire 11:40 If you’re not answering because of sex don’t tell me

Dean sighs as his phone lights up with Claire’s latest text. In the bathroom, Cas hurls again. 

Dean 11:41 No proposal

The bubbles showing Claire’s typing start almost immediately.

Claire 11:41 Are you serious? He’s not goin to turn you down!!!

Dean 11:41 Food poisoning

Claire 11:42 HAHAHAHA

Dean scowls at his phone.

Dean 11:44 Not now, Claire.

Claire 11:44 Wait Seriously?

Dean 11:44 We think it was something he ate at breakfast

Claire 11:44 Oh fuck I’m sorry for laughing

Dean rereads her text. He hasn’t ever received a straight-up apology from Claire before. Unsure of how to respond, he sets down his phone and gently pushes open the bathroom door. “How’re you doing, babe?”

Cas, slumped over the toilet and looking like death warmed over, raises his head an inch. “It seems to be easing up.”

“Really?”

Cas vomits into the toilet again. He groans.

“Shit,” Dean mutters as he crouches next to Cas. He rubs his back with one hand. “Do you think you can get some water down?”

Cas nods, so Dean straightens and fills a glass next to the sink.

As Cas drinks, Dean runs a hand through Cas’s sweaty hair. His forehead has a sickly sheen to it, and the back of his neck feels hot.

“Dean -” Cas breaks off to cough the water right back up into the toilet. “I’m sorry.”

“Hey, no,” Dean says quickly as he refills the glass. “Don’t be sorry. This isn’t your fault.”

“But you had all these plans,” Cas moans as he takes the water to try again.

“We’ll do ‘em some other time.” He wets a washcloth and wipes down Cas’s forehead.

“Before Thanksgiving,” Cas rasps, “we’ll come back. I don’t want to miss the leaves changing.”

“Of course,” Dean says soothingly. He moves the washcloth to the nape of Cas’s neck. “On the bright side, you’ve been puking for, like, an hour. There can’t be much left.”

Cas, the dramatic bastard, nearly brains himself on the toilet seat with the force of his next hurl.

  HOMEMADE DINNER

After the disastrous fancy restaurant and B&B, a homemade dinner has to be the way to go. They’ll be in their own goddamn house - that has to cut down on the number of things that can go wrong.

Dean spends a whole week deliberating on what to make. He could do his usual burgers and fries routine, Cas’s favorite, but it should be special.

He settles on beef wellington. Pie for beef!

It’s a bitch to make - both because puff pastry from scratch is no joke, and hiding his first experiments from Cas means inventing increasingly convoluted reasons to get him out of the house. And, sure, every Youtube chef and Great British Bake off contestant has said store-bought puff pastry is fine, but Dean doesn’t want fine, he needs perfect. 

Dean picks a day when Cas has Model UN afterschool. It’s in the middle of the week, but at least Cas is guaranteed out of the house until six at night.

By 5:58, Dean is ready. The Wellington is cooling on the counter; the red wine has been breathing (whatever the hell that does) for the better part of an hour; and he’s showered and made himself presentable.

His phone pings at six pm on the dot. 

Heart sinking with foreboding, Dean taps the screen.

Cas 6:00 I’m going to be late for dinner. There was an accident with chemistry club a few minutes ago. The building had to be evacuated.

Dean 6:00 Are you OK?

Dean takes a moment to hammer the heel of his hand against his forehead. One fucking break. That’s all he’s asking for. One goddamn evening to go right.

Cas 6:00 Yes, and the kids are too. They’re airing out the halls now, but we won’t be let in for another half hour.

Dean picks up the wine with the hand not holding his phone. 

Dean 6:01 What time do you think you’ll be home?

Cas 6:01 7:30 maybe? I’ll keep you updated.

Dean swigs back a gulp straight from the bottle before he can answer. Fuck this.

Dean 6:02 Great! I’ll order pizza when you’re on your way back

Cas 6:02 Meatlovers?

Dean 6:02 Unless you’d like something else

Cas 6:02 No thank you :)

Dean flips on a recorded Jeopardy! episode as he cleans up the kitchen and texts Charlie. He has a free dinner waiting for her if she can hightail it to his place in the next hour and never speak of it again.

  HOMEMADE DINNER #2

If Dean is anything, he’s stubborn. John Winchester raised no quitter. Try, try, and try again. And try a fourth time, when the first three go sideways.

Burgers, this time. They don’t need a days’ worth of prep. And they’ll go over well.

“Dig in,” Dean says as he sets the plate down in front of Cas.

“This looks delicious, Dean,” Cas says sincerely as he picks up his burger.

Dean waits, and he can see the moment Cas tastes the molten cheese stuffed in the middle of the patty. His eyes go wide with surprise.

“Like it?”

Cas nods vigorously and inhales the rest of his burger in record time.

“There’s enough for us to have thirds,” Dean says smugly. 

Cas smears ketchup all over patty number two, and beams at him. “These make me very happy.”

Dean laughs. “That’s the goal-”

Cas’s phone rings.

Dean falters.

Cas stares at him expectantly, waiting for Dean to continue.

“You should get that,” Dean says, his shoulders slumping as he sets his burger down. It’s probably a bad sign he was already half-expecting things to go south. “It’s probably important, or whoever it is would’ve texted.”

“We’re in the middle of dinner,” Cas protests even as he reaches in his pocket to pull his phone out. “It’s Claire,” he says, baffled, before he picks up. “Hello?”

Cas sets down his half-eaten burger. He listens, his brows slamming down forbiddingly as Claire’s voice gets louder and louder, but still not loud enough for Dean to make out actual words. Silently, Cas takes his napkin off his lap and pushes his half-empty beer in Dean’s direction. Finally Cas says, “Yes, of course, Claire.”

Dean frowns as Cas lifts his gaze up to meet his. “Jimmy and Amelia?” he mouths.

Cas shakes his head, speaking into his phone,  “Does Kaia need a pick up from the hospital?”

Dean goes cold. Kaia was actually one of his favorite students. While she was in his class, she won a Scholastic Gold Key and honorable mention for two of her horror novellas and always did the reading. But Dean and Cas haven’t seen her since she broke up with Claire the summer before college.

“Is she okay?” Dean asks quietly.

Cas’s mouth thins. He gives a short nod.

Dean sighs and picks up the plate uneaten burgers. He can probably reheat the patties. The fries won’t keep, though, so he leaves the plate in front of Cas. He shoves a few in his mouth and gets to his feet.

He’s halfway through cleaning the frying pan when Cas gets off the phone with Claire.

“Are you heading out?” Dean asks gruffly while he gives the iron a particularly hard scrub.

“Yes,” Cas rumbles as he wraps an arm around Dean’s waist. “I’m sorry to cut dinner short.”

“Hey, it’s Kaia. ’Course we gotta help.” Dean forces an understanding smile on his face. “I’ll make up the couch while you pick her up?”

Cas squeezes him gently before moving away. “Thank you.”

“You got time for the cliff notes on what happened? Why’d you get the call?”

Cas leans against the counter next to the sink. “Kaia was in a car accident. She’s a little banged up, but mostly fine. A few bruised ribs and a possible concussion.” He shakes his head, disbelieving. “You know Kaia was never especially close with her foster family, so Claire got the emergency call.”

“Huh.” Dean grabs a plate to clean. “It’s been two years since the split.”

Cas shrugs. “I’m not sure what their situation is. I know Claire was surprised. She’s already in her car, and she should be here by midnight. Hopefully she recognizes Kaia’s injuries,” he frowns, “and they won’t try any… any ‘hanky panky’ tonight.”

Dean laughs, and if it’s slightly higher than normal, Cas doesn’t seem to pick up on it. He grabs Cas and kisses him square on the mouth. “You are ridiculous. Nobody says hanky panky. What the hell is wrong with you?”

Cas scowls. “They have to be well past kissing at this point.”

Dean snorts a laugh. “Yeah, that ship has long sailed, dude.”

Cas throws his hands in the air. “We don’t have enough sleeping surfaces to separate them.”

Dean sets the dirty plate down to face Cas fully. “Do you really think they’ll get back together? Kaia broke Claire’s heart not too long ago.”

Cas throws him a look like he wonders where the hell Dean’s logical brain has flown to. “Are you asking if I think couples can get back together after a harrowing break up?”

“… no.”

Cas shakes his head ruefully. “You’re more like Claire than I ever was, and you took me back.”

“Huh,” Dean wipes his hands off on a dishtowel, “you might have something there.”

“You do call me the smart one,” Cas says as he pushes off the counter and heads to the doorway. “It has been known to happen.”

“Smartass,” Dean corrects loudly as Cas grabs his coat and keys.

“Semantics.” Cas doubles back to kiss Dean a proper goodbye, and it’s just as electric as it was when they were seventeen. Cas tastes like Dean’s cooking, and he’s been letting his stubble grow out, the short hairs rasping against Dean’s palm as he cups Cas’s cheek.

“I love you, Dean,” Cas says as he draws away.

Dean grins. “I know.”

Cas huffs an almost-laugh as he heads back towards the door. “Now who’s the smartass?”

  IN BED

Cas, the son of a bitch, falls asleep before Dean can wring out a second orgasm out of him. Such a godamn shame. Just goes to show, they really aren’t teenagers anymore. At least Dean got to use the new vibrator he bought for the occasion and the edible panties. 

Dean flops back in bed. Maybe he should put the proposals on pause. Clearly, marriage isn’t in the cards. He can be a bit dense when it comes to Cas and him, but there’s dense and there’s denial.

It’s been two and a half months. Five proposal attempts. They’re nearly halfway through October, and he’s no closer to getting a ring on Cas’s finger than he was in late August, sweating bullets in that stupid fancy restaurant.

He can’t keep planning and failing to propose to Cas every other week. One, he can’t handle the stress and constant brainstorming. And B, he’s way behind in writing college recommendations and grading his freshman’s essays on Animal Farm. 

Cas isn’t going anywhere. Dean isn’t going anywhere. So Dean can cool the proposals for now and start fresh in January.

  SCHOOL ASSEMBLY

“I hate these,” Dean mutters to Benny. He frowns across the top rows of the bleachers where the seniors are supposed to sit. There are a few notable faces missing, but nobody that belongs to Dean’s homeroom, so he couldn’t give less of a shit. Below them, sit most of the juniors, and pretty much all of the sophomores and freshmen.

“It’s thirty minutes, brother,” Benny says, patting his arm. “You’ll live.”

“Shows what you know,” Dean grumbles back as Jody strides to the middle of the gym, microphone in hand. He asks Benny, “Do you know what this one’s about? Bullying? Cliques? Hugs not drugs?”

Benny shakes his head.

Jody sighs loudly into the mike. Clearly, she wants to be here just as much as he does. “Thank you all for coming,” she starts like any of them had a real choice. “First things first, Halloween is in two days, and while costumes are allowed and encouraged, don’t be racist.” She grimaces. “God help me, I don’t know why I still have to say that. If you are unsure if your costume is racist, it probably is. Wear something else. Secondly…”

Dean tunes her out. Instead, he scans the bleachers again, this time looking for Cas. He should be with the other sophomore homeroom teachers, but there’s no sign of him. Dean frowns. He can’t remember the last time Cas played hooky. And never without Dean. Dick move, Cas.

Movement at the edge of the gym catches Dean’s eye, and he watches, puzzled, as two students roll out one of the old projectors. The overhead lights turn off.

Is Jody seriously going to make him sit through a slide show? They’re wasting a prefectly good Friday morning on a goddamn PowerPoint?

The projector flips on, and the first photo is… of Dean. 

What the fuck? His mouth drops open in horror. In the picture, he’s in his junior year of high school - he can tell from the hair - with a bunch of people he hasn’t seen in fifteen years. Plus Cas, who’s at the next table over in the cafeteria, head bowed over a book and slightly out of focus.

There’s a click, and text scrawls along the bottom of the screen, Destiel Met in Edlund High School Fifteen Years Ago! 

The projector flips to the next photo, this time showing Dean’s senior yearbook picture.

More than a handful of students peer excitedly in his direction, undoubtedly hoping for a reaction.

Scowling, Dean cranes his neck to search the crowd for Charlie’s flaming red hair. She’s the only one who refers to the two of them as “Destiel”. Everyone else uses their names like sane people.

But the projector clicks to a photo of Cas, and Dean can’t help getting distracted. In the picture, Cas is alone at a table in the library. God, he was cute back then. His cheeks were a little fuller, and his hair was curlier. He still had the same intense blue-eyed stare, though. Patented Cas.

It all started with a tutoring session. Young Mr. W needed help in Latin, and our future Latin teacher, Mr. N, was up to the task!

Dean is going to kill Charlie. He tries to get to his feet - maybe she’s hiding behind Jo or something. But Benny’s hand grips his upper arm, holding him in place. “Don’t,” Benny says softly.

“What?” Dean demands as he tries to shake Benny off and fails. “Do you know what the hell is going on?”

“Stay.” The corners of Benny’s mouth twitch like he’s fighting a smile. “Watch.”

Dean huffs a breath and turns back around. If it was anyone else, Jo or Charlie, he wouldn’t trust a word out of their mouths. Benny, though, he’s not the type to make Dean sit through this without a good reason.

But that’s all ancient history. Destiel really got started five years ago, in this very gym.

The projector shows a picture of their class reunion, when Dean met Cas after ten years of no contact. They’re standing pretty close together (but that doesn’t mean much with Castiel What-Is-Personal-Space Novak), and they appear deep in conversation.

Since then, they have been inseparable.

Dean and Cas at a softball game. Dean and Cas at homecoming. Dean and Cas at GSA’s pride party.

Here’s to fifteen more years of Destiel!

The students clap and cheer with more than a few laughs.

Musical Interlude! flashes in front of a picture of Dean playing guitar to a group of pajama-clad students at last year’s Senior Lock-In.

The lights flip back on, and Dean blinks as his eyes adjust. By the time the spots have cleared from his vision, the projector has been wheeled away, leaving the main floor of the gym empty.

A staticky crackle echoes around the gym. And - is that Def Leppard playing on the speakers?

As the intro to Rock of Ages plays, the cheerleading team troops out from the locker rooms. 

They start a routine Dean’s never seen before. To Rock of fucking Ages.

The cheerleaders sings along with Joe Elliot, “What do you want?”

Dean’s mouth falls open as the entire high school chants back, “I want rock and roll. Long live rock and roll!”

By the time they get to the “Rock of Ages” chant, all the students are on their feet, clapping along with the beat and cheering.

The song dies down soon after, and Dean, a broad smile on his face, turns to Benny. “I don’t know what the hell is going on, but I dig it.”

Benny laughs. “Good. He’ll be pleased.”

Dean’s just about to ask who he is (he’s 99% he knows), when Cas walks out from behind the bleachers. 

Cas takes the microphone from Jody. He coughs nervously, waiting for the students to settle back down. “Thank you,” he says to the cheerleading team. “That was... awesome.” He glances up at the assembled students and teachers. “Dean-” he pauses as the cheers and clapping start up in earnest “-can you please come down here?”

But Dean’s frozen to the spot.

Benny gives him a not-so-light jab with his elbow. “Go on.”

Dean shakily gets to his feet and makes his way to the gym floor, and he swears his legs are about to give out from under him.

“Alright, you got my attention,” Dean says with forced bravado. “What’s up, Cas?”

The students hoot and holler.

Cas reddens as they die down again. Clutching the microphone in a death grip, he says, “Dean, we have been together for a number of years.”

Dean grins, a wonderful, all-consuming giddiness filling him the longer he stands in front of Cas. “I know, dude. I was there.”

The students laugh and someone, probably Jo, wolf whistles.

Cas swallows. “I wanted to do this here, where we first met, where you first asked me out on a date, where we had our first kiss.”

“Don’t tell ‘em about all our firsts on school property,” Dean says in a stage-whisper, “or Jody’s gonna have an aneurysm.”

Over a fresh round of student laughter, Jody puts her head in her hands. Donna, the school guidance counselor, pats her a few times on the back.

“Dean Winchester,” Cas says, and, shit, his hands are shaking. “I have loved you for more than half my life, and I look forward to far more than fifteen years by your side. Will you marry me?’

Dean’s not stupid. He had a strong hunch, ever since Rock of Ages played - aka the cassette he put in the Impala the first time he took Cas for a drive fifteen years and a lifetime ago - that this was what Cas was leading up to. 

He’s mostly surprised Cas had the guts to pop the question this way. There was a reason Dean tried to keep his proposal plans mostly to the two of them. One of them is practically a social hermit, and it’s sure as shit not Dean.

“Just say yes, jerk!”

Dean spins around, nearly tripping over his own feet in surprise. Fuck, that’s Sam. His giant of a brother is hovering right outside the gym’s double doors, beaming at the pair of them. Claire gives a little wave from where she’s half-hiding behind him.

Dean turns back to Cas. He can’t think about Sam right now. Or Claire. Or the five hundred students with their eyes on them. 

Only Cas.

“Cas,” he says, and it feels like the whole room is holding their collective breath, none more so than Cas, who looks like he’s about to pass out. “Man, I’ve loved you since I was seventeen. Of course I’ll marry you.”

Cas lets out a shaky exhale of relief, and Dean laughs. He takes the microphone from Cas’s now slack grip, steps all the way into Cas’s personal space, and kisses him.

The cheers from the assembled students are nearly deafening.

[americangodstalk]

Notes on S2E4: The Greatest Story Ever Told

# During the flashback to the Boy/CEO background we pass by three main eras. The Pong era, the Game Boy era and the one with the computer (well, one of the first computers). See my Game Boy theory.

# Bast licks the wounds for them to heal.

# Ibis and Jacquel are prosectors. They save tissues for analysis and do autopsies for the county medical examiner (while also being a funeral parlor snce 1863). They found a “niche” during the Civil War, opening up as a funeral parlor for people of color (though of course they did not identify themselves as people of color). Upon being asked about the name Cairo, he only answers “chicke-egg”.

# Odin is against monogamy.

# To meet Money, “the most influential god in America”, “untouchable asshole but his stocks never fall”, they go to Saint Louis, a “big city with big money”. 

# It is mentionned that Anansi and Bilquis know each other “biblically” (aka they had sex). 

# New Media mentions to Technical Boy that “we need each other”. New Media says that Media “died”, while Technical Boy opposes that Media didn’t die but simply “changed” into New Media. 

# When Mr. World arrives, there are numerous electric disturbances. He is of course pissed off at Tech Boy’s failure, saying that “war is won with information”. Technical Boy mentions that he knows a “guy” that own him, in Silicon Valley, and that can provide them with a “new network”. The guy will of course turn out to be the CEO. 

# Apparently, Money was born (or at least it is implied by Wednesday) in 1933, when Roosevelt took the dollar out of the gold standard, so that money couldn’t be exchanged for gold anymore. As a result, money became more than a piece of paper - it became a “story”, a “value”, the “greatest story of all” and thus gave birth to the most powerful god of America. 

# Mama-Ji is present in all of the Motel Americas across the United-States. It is mentionned that she and her followers (those that practice hinduism) own half of the motels in America. (Is it true? I’ll need to check). The day Kali slew Raktabija is mentionned - however they imply that Odin was here to with her? 

# Of course, there are the Penny Scouts. 

# The company of the CEO is Xie Comm. New Media manifests herself through screens, holograms and SMS to taunt Technical Boy. The Xie office has in it numerous white faces - later revealed to be the faces of Technical Boy. “I always thought I’d see you again. You will show me something new?”

Let’s note that Xie is a Chinese surname, meaning “immortal” or “enlightened one”, and that the Xie Comm headquarters are shaped as a symbol of infinity. 

# Bast is referred to as Thoth’s sister. Bilquis and Anansi apparently know each other “since infancy” (which is... up to debate). Anansi talks about slavery - designing it as a cult. The gods clearly represent here their worshippers.

# Argus is referred to as “CCTV”. More precisely “a relic, a desiccating, necrotising, geriatric, organic sack of redundancies. CCTV?”. Tech Boy mentions that he creates “coltan-encased microchips”, and that thansk to him people carry “trackers” to give up their “locations, card numbers and facial IDs” (interestingly, this is all the things Mr. World knew in season 1). Tech Boy goes as far as make a Jesus comparison with “I have given of my flesh to my disciples”. 

# When asked by Shadow if the Penny Scouts give candy, Wednesday answers that he will take them “a gold bar and nuggets”. These are references to money - a nugget is a slang for a pound coin, and money in general in the UK, and is a nod to the “gold nuggets”, while a gold bar is obviously what it is - and a pun on candy bars. The Penny Scouts keep repeating “Credit or debit?”, which is THE question every foreigner in America is puzzled upon hearing because this way of paying is quite unique to the continent - in France for exemple we don’t have that. Odin identifies himself as “Odin the Allfather”. 

# Among the Penny Scouts badges you can see the All-Seeing Eye, the American flag, and the sentence “e pluribus unum”. Shadow reveals that he has no debit and no credit in his file, “no trace” whatsoever, and Money apparently hates those that have neither debit nor credit. 

# Bilquis says that Jesus was a “rebel” and a “troublemaker” that died because he angered the men in power and refused to be controlled - and for that he became one of the most popular and worshipped gods. As Bilquis says, “he was onto something” - she visibly identifies herself with him or wants to follow his route.

# At one point, the Book of Thoth is mentionned by the other gods - a legendary book said to contain the secrets of all the Gods.

# One should not forget that the speech of Anansi is actually a trick. While he says true facts, he actually exaggerates and change some numbers so that they are a bit higher than the official ones - again, Anansi is a trickster god known to twist the truth. 

# New Media shows to the CEO a “pattern”, and while many people were confused by it - if you look carefully enough, a humanoid shape actually appears in this pattern. It seems what New Media shows the CEO is the future Quantum Boy. 

# The “face-hugger” makes a new appearance, this time to “retire” Technical Boy.

# Mr. World is offered a “Payback candy” by the Penny Scouts, but Mr. World answers that to meet Money he has “no need to buy candy” because he “retired a god today”. Which grants Mr. World access to a meeting with Money.

# Mr. World says that money is not “cash and gold” anymore but zeros, number sequences, and banks and accoutns with no physical presence”. Money appears as an old man with trembling hands, and while he says that he loves profit, he refuses emotions, and thus refuses to involve himself in the war.

# Mr. World says that he “prefers to be feared”. 

# In the credits, it is quite interesting that the man who is identified as “Money” in the episode is actually identified as the “Bookkeeper”. As for the “Son” aka the “CEO”, two of his “childhood” actors are identified - the one for 1977 and the one for 1987. 

# Among the badges, well actually the “scout patches” worn by the Penny Scouts, one can see the Chinese Yuan, the Indian Rupee and the British Sterling Pound. 

# An interesting point is that the father of the CEO wanted to teach his son faith in the ingenuity and talent of humanity, by showing you the musical works of Bach. But the son only saw algorithms and patterns in the music, and then used a computer to create something identical if not better (in his mind) - because the CEO has faith in technology over humanity. And this is precisely this displacement of faith that apparently led to the creation of Technical Boy.

# Some think that the Bookkeeper only “put up an act” of being a senile old man, asking for the bill, because they note that he is much more serious when Mr. World and Wednesday sit at his table. 

# Mr. Nancy mentions that he did not took the deal of the New Gods because it is a rigged one - in fact he equals it to slavery and to its modern variations (human trafficking, prison industry, racial profiling, etc...)

# Many people interpret the line of Mr. World “retiring a god” as basically him having sacrificed a god in order to obtain the favor of the Bookkeeper, literaly doing a sacrifice so that he wouldn’t have to pay to meet him.

# Interestingly, while Mr. Nancy is against peace and says that peace only reinforce complacency and apathy towards oppression, Bilquis and Mr. Ibis answer that suffering and “social ills” are universal, and that waging a war is definitively not the way to change those, because ultimately everyone is equal in front of death and all could end up killed. 

[metalgearkong]

Ghost of Tsushima - Review (PS4)

9/21/20

Developed by Sucker Punch Productions, released July 2020

Let’s not beat around the bush: Ghost of Tsushima may be my favorite game of this console generation, and one of my favorite games of all time. This is a massive samurai tale crammed with unforgettable moments, characters, and environments. After finishing this game, I felt like I had been through no less than the peak samurai experience in any entertainment medium. Never before have I stood up and given a standing ovation for a video game upon the credits rolling. While feeling complete and filled to the brim, there are small technical aspects that do have room for improvement in the potential sequel. Sucker Punch came out of nowhere and knocked the world on its ass with a fantastic stylized epic feudal Japanese journey, one I can never forget. 

Ghost of Tushima is open-world, easily comparable to The Witcher 3 or a modern Ubisoft title. What Ghost of Tsushima brings to the table is its incredibly realized medieval Japanese world, to the same extent Red Dead Redemption brought the mythic American Wild West to life. Authenticity can be found in every corner, and I set the game for Japanese voices and English subtitles to extend the immersion (something I can’t recommend enough). The Mongols have invaded Japan, and their first stop is Tsushima island. The samurai here are all that stops the massive army from reaching the mainland. The details themselves might not be perfectly accurate to 1274 Japan, but the world itself is consistent, which is what’s most important. 

The game begins with a huge battle, as we take control of our main character Jin Sakai (Daisuke Tsuji / Kazuya Tsuji) right away. An orphan raised to be a samurai by his uncle Lord Shimura (Eric Steinberg / Akio Otsuka), Jin holds guilt and shame for not being able to save his father in battle when he was young, and strives to be the best warrior possible. The explosive intro gives us a quick intro to the open combat, and leads in to a fairly typical tutorial, adding in brief lessons on stealth, and using evasive tactics & tools. I remember how panful the combat first felt, as each strike looked like something akin to a samurai film. The main villain and leader of the Mongols Khotun Khan (Patrick Gallagher / Tsutomu Isobe) establishes himself as a despicable person, and someone totally opposite to the samurai honor-bound code of combat. He wants to conquer Tushima by any means necessary, and Jin is the only one willing to adapt his fighting style to combat this new  dishonorable and overwhelming threat.

Jin Sakai is closer to a Geralt, rather than a blank slate avatar character of a Fallout or Elder Scrolls game; He has a specific personality, background, and motivation. Part of the overarching story is Jin learning to rely on tactics he would normally frown upon in order to stand a change against the Mongol forces. This is something his uncle highly detests and forbids Jin to do, leading to a secondary conflict in the story. This is useful for also explaining in the gameplay why the player can either face enemies out in the open, or scurry around and stabbing them in the neck. Of course, most players will do a bit of both, and whatever suits the situation of how you’re feeling in the moment. The best part is, it’s not an binary dilemma, as open combat and stealth can be used completely intermixed at any time.

Personally, one of my favorite parts about the game was unlocking and finding new apparel and color schemes for my outfits. This game (eventually) allows you to dress anywhere from humble peasant, to shinobi of the night, to fully armored samurai warrior. My only nit pick is I wish the game gave you more cosmetic options to buy or find earlier in the game, as I felt limited to just a few outfits and accessories at first. There’s nothing more awesome than manually sheathing your sword after slicing up a dozen grunts, all the while your cape and robes aggressively blowing in the wind. The game allows you to manually bow and play a flute as well, adding the immersion of every moment of the game. You travel the huge island via horseback, and can summon your horse at any instance with the push of the button. I also love how quickly you pick up items, by merely pushing R2. No needless animations or time spend slowing the momentum for the sake or grit or realism.

One of the most unique aspects of the game is using the wind as your guide. If you really wanted to, you’d never have to open your map to know how to get to your current quest. Simply swipe up on the touch pad, and the wind blows in the direction you need to go (the game doesn’t even feature an in-game minimap or radar). This kicks up leaves, twigs, sand, and other particles which add greatly to the visual appeal of the game, and help make you feel closer to the environment itself. Adding to this is how foxes and birds can lead you to hidden secrets, upgrades, or new gear. With so few HUD elements, focus on paying attention to the environment, and the gorgeous lighting and scenery, Ghost of Tsushima gave me to many moments where I felt spiritually uplifted in its world. Despite not having the budget of a super high end Naughty Dog or Rockstar game, Ghost of Tsushima remains one of the most beautiful games I’ve ever played, and much of that leans on the art style and environmental effects alone.

Missions are equally entertaining whether they come from a main character or minor character you happen upon. Most quests may involve (but aren’t limited to) tracking, fighting, sneaking, climbing, riding, and spying. I especially enjoyed quests with specific limitations, such as having to remain undetected and not to kill any guards. Eventually, however, due to the game’s long length, some of the missions do start to show their repetitiveness, and I don’t think it would have been horrible if the overall run time was 10-15% shorter. I also enjoyed the fact that so much effort was put into side activities that feel serene and peaceful, akin to the Buhddist and Shinto side of being a samurai. Composing haikus and bathing in hot springs to increase your total health felt very much in the spirit of a Bushido lifestyle; always a calm in between the storms of violence. The fact that not all side content is action oriented was a very neat and authentic detail.

Samurai duels were some of my favorite parts of the game. Occasionally Jin would come across an opponent or rival with legitimate swordsmanship skills, and has to face them in an arena. These locations where the duels would take place never failed to be more epic than the next. Duels act like boss fights in the game, and incorporate similar combat to the regular open world combat--only Jin can’t use secondary items such as kunai, his bow, or smoke bombs. These moments were ripe for the photo mode, something I used throughout this game constantly, as its packed with incredible environmental design and lighting effects to make almost every moment and location feel like a living painting. Samurai duels were usually never very difficult, including the ending boss fights, but they always looked awesome and felt damned satisfying.

The game does suffer from some minor technical glitches, but these small drawbacks mean next to nothing compared to how impressively the rest of the game was designed and executed. Frequently I would approach an enemy group and want to initiate a stand off (the samurai version of a high noon cowboy duel) but the game either didn’t give me the option or the option blinked on screen for only a moment and I was unable to do it. Something similar would happen for stealth kills, as sometimes instead of doing the assassination animation when prompted, Jin just did a regular slash attack instead, blowing my cover. Situations like this didn’t happen often, but were consistent enough to notice. I give Sucker Punch a huge pass on these small technical details, as they never ruined my experience of the game, remaining small frustrations on occasion.

Ghost of Tsushima is a greatest hits of iconic feudal Japanese visuals, sounds, tropes, settings, and themes. Countless details build upon this heightened version of Japanese history, making this game an all in one interactive Kurosawa film. Everything from the sword duel boss fights, to the multiple fighting stances, to the stealth, to the nature surrounding you, everything has been executed with extreme skill and thoughtfulness. It can have its small moments showing a lack of polish either in the visuals or mechanics, but Sucker Punch more than accomplished what they set out to do. Ghost of Tsushima is the best PlayStation 4 exclusive, and by far one of my favorite games of all time. If you have any interest in the open world genre, and love the Japanese culture and art style, Ghost of Tsushima likely won’t let you down. An amazing adventure wreathed in katanas, honor, blood, wind, and cute foxes. 

9.5/10

[softboywriting]

A Perfect Fall

Summary: You and Shawn have been best friends for most of your lives and since you were a teenager you’ve had a crush on him. He has no idea, or so you think. Things are about to change, and all it takes is a trip to the best pumpkin patch around for true feelings to surface. [fluff] [best friends to lovers] [fall/autumn theme]

Word Count: 4k

|Masterlist In Bio|

If someone were to ask you your favorite color you would say gold. Gold like the leaves on the trees in the middle of October. Gold like the letters of Shawn’s last name gilded across the back of the letter man jacket that sits over your desk chair at home that he left there a year ago. Gold like the sun going down over the river on a cool autumn night. But most of all, gold, like the color Shawn's eyes are when he sits across from you in a barn an hour from your house and stares out at horses in the nearby corral. He's beautiful. Breathtaking. Outstanding in every way. He's your best friend in the entire world and he has no idea that you're completely gone for him, or does he? Let's go back to how this day started.

Beeping, incessant, droning beeping. The sound of your alarm clock going off at its regular time, seven in the morning. Right now you should be getting up and making yourself appear to be somewhat human before heading to class, praying you remembered all of your homework. You should be scrambling through your kitchen, grabbing a banana for breakfast as you head out to meet Shawn in his Jeep. Not this week though. It's the first day of Thanksgiving break and you're so happy to be able to smash that snooze button and bury your face into a pillow.

Your phone goes off, a low buzz buzz against the pillow your head is on. You've almost fallen back to sleep, nearly reached that floaty state of perfect warmth under the blankets that gives you an express ticket to dreamland. Almost.

Buzz buzz.

"For the love of everything holy, can you go away?" You groan angrily into the pillow. As if the phone might switch itself into silent mode out of pure fear. That would be that day wouldn't it?

Buzz buzz.

You slide your hand under the pillow and extract your phone, turn your head just enough to see the screen and lay it against the pillow next to you. Three missed messages.

Shawn: you awake?

Shawn: get up loser i have coffee

Shawn: I'll come in there

You drop the phone on its face and tug your blanket up over your head. If he wants you to get up on your first day of this mini vacation from the hell that is your second year of college, he can come get you his damn self. He may be your best friend, and yes, you may be head over heels for him, but getting up early on vacation happens for no man.

The sound of rattling outside your window followed by a dull thump is a dead giveaway that Shawn has scaled your mother's new trellis and tripped on the old shingles of the back patio roof. Clumsy and dumb. That's Shawn for you.

"Get up, hey," he talks against the glass as if you'll hear him better by doing so but ends up only muffling his voice further. "I know you're up."

"Go away!"

"No!"

The latch on the window wiggles, you can hear a familiar scrape of his student ID card from his wallet against the wood of the window frame. You watch as the ancient lock flips 180 degrees and the window slides up, sending a cold gust of morning air into your bedroom.

"You're a dick." Shawn grumbles, squeezing through the narrow window frame. He's had trouble getting through it since freshman year of high school. Really the only reason he's climbing through it now is to avoid making too much noise coming in the front door and enduring the wrath of your dad who is surely still asleep because he works nights at the packing plant in town. Shawn woke him up once by just walking too loudly and that was enough.

"You're a dick for waking me up on my vacation." You roll over and face the wall.

Shawn flops on the bed, leaning over across your legs and waving something in your face. "I am not, I'm the best person ever."

"Nope."

"Come on! Look at the tickets!"

You slip your hand out of the blankets and snatch the papers from Shawn's hand. Two all access passes to the Friendly Farms Pumpkin Patch. You narrow your eyes at him and he raises his eyebrows. This is such an unfair move. He knows how much you love pumpkin patches and he knows that you've never been to the Friendly Farms Pumpkin Patch because it's so far away and it usually costs an arm and a leg if you don't buy preseason passes.

"Eh? Whatdya say? Me, you, old J-Bone and the open road to the best place to get your pumpkins this side of the river?"

You groan and drop the tickets on the pillow. "Okay! Okay fine I'll get up." You shove the blanket back and it covers his lap. "But stop calling the Jeep "J-Bone" it's so weird."

"She has a name okay, and I'm gonna call her by it."

You sit up and shove him down on the bed. "Freak."

"Only for you." He smirks, sticking his tongue out and making lewd licking motions.

"Oh God please stop." You throw your pillow at his face and get up to get dressed in whatever was semi clean. Laundry had taken a backseat to classwork these days, you’re planning on catching up during the break.

One big hoodie, Shawn's that he left at your house a few days ago, a pair of leggings under some fitted sweatpants and a lopsided ponytail later and you're ready to go. As promised Shawn has a coffee in the Jeep for you as well as a croissant breakfast sandwich.

"How long is this drive again?" You ask over a mouth full of buttery sausage and egg goodness. "An hour?"

"An hour and a half."

"I'm gonna go to sleep then."

Shawn chuckles. He pulls the Jeep out of your driveway and heads for the highway. "I have a feeling you'll stay awake."

"Why's that?"

"The drive is too beautiful to miss."

_________________________________

Shawn is absolutely correct. The drive down the highway is way too incredible to miss for just a few more minutes of sleep. Of course you've seen the trees around your town turn shades of red, orange and yellow before but driving through open roads where trees grow in massive forests completely unbridled by man, is an experience you won't soon forget. Never in your life have you seen so many different hues of fall colors at one time.

"Shawn, pull over, I need to get out and do something."

Shawn looks over and quickly turns off the highway onto the shoulder where the gravel meets the grass. "Everything okay?"

"More than okay." You grin and unbuckle your seatbelt. You open the passenger door and slide out, leaving the door open as you tromp across the grass to the edge of the forested area. Behind you Shawn kills the engine and you can hear his door open then close followed by your door being closed.

"What are you doing?" He laughs, following you into the trees. "We're not even at the pumpkin patch and you're going crazy."

"I've been crazy. You know that, come on, we've been friends for how long?"

"Twelve years and counting."

You stop before a tree that has bring pinkish red leaves on it. They're like no others around it and you pick up a few of the ones that have fallen. "Pink leaves." You hold them out and Shawn takes one.

"These are pretty. I've never seen them this color."

"Take my picture? I wanna remember this tree forever."

Shawn takes your phone and types in your pass code to unlock it. He's the only person on the planet who knows it beside you and you know his as well. "Alright, do you wanna pose or something?"

"I'm gonna throw a bunch of leaves up in the air and if you can, try to snap the picture as they fall around me?"

"I'll do my best." He chuckles and kneels down a bit to get you in full frame for a better angle.

"Okay on three? One, two, three!" You fling an arm full of leaves up into the air and laugh as they rain down over you.

"Nailed it."

"Really?!" You rush over and Shawn hands you the phone. Sure enough it's you standing and grinning at the leaves as they fall around you with the pink tree in the background. "Oh my God it's perfect."

Shawn puts his arm around you and starts walking back to the Jeep. "I've been messing around with my friend Josiah's camera a bit. He showed me a few tricks for everyday stuff."

"Oh wow, fancy boy."

"Shut up, I am not fancy."

"Fancy pants Mendes learning all the tips and tricks on photography to pick up chicks."

He scoffs. "Yeah, as if. I just wanted to try it out. Josiah takes some awesome photos and it looks so easy, I was curious how he did it."

"I'm just teasing you Shawn." You pat his chest as you reach the Jeep and he pulls his arm away from you. "I think it's cool that you're interested in photography. It's definitely something that could be useful one day."

"Like taking photos of you today."

You smile and let out a little laugh. "Yeah, definitely like today."

Shawn gets in the Jeep and you haul yourself up into the passenger's seat. "You ready for the real fun to begin?"

"Hell yeah. How many pumpkins do you think we can fit in the back of this thing?"

"I dunno," he says, looking into the back where the seats are down and then looks at you. "But we're not going to find out."

"Buzz kill."

"Sorry, but I'm not having my Jeep chock full of pumpkins."

"Psh, it's for science."

Shawn's rolls his eyes and signals as he pulls out onto the highway. The two of you have at least another forty minutes before you reach the farm. Shawn turns up the radio and you decide to lean the seat back and just enjoy the rest of the ride.

_________________________________

The entryway to the Friendly Farms Pumpkin Patch is huge. There are wrought iron gates with metal pumpkin cutouts all along the bars of the fencing with ivy like casts on the top. Shawn drives down the bumpy dirt road to the designated parking area and stops to park near the ticket windows and actual gates inside. There are maybe a dozen cars already parked as well, which considering the popularity of the place isn't hardly anyone. It's still early though, they have just opened for business at nine and it's only about a quarter till ten.

Shawn opens the back of the Jeep while you grab your backpack purse off the floor of the backseat. "Do you need a water bottle?"

"Yeah." You walk around to meet him. "I thought you were going eco friendly?"

"I am." He hands you a reusable metal bottle. "I promise I washed it this morning."

You slip the bottle into your side pocket and chuckle. "Like we haven't been sharing germs forever."

"True." He closes the door and pulls the tickets out of his back pocket. "Ready?"

"I was born ready."

Shawn wraps his arm around your shoulders and heads to the ticket windows. You're excited beyond belief to see what is in store for you beyond the corn stalk covered gates before you. It's going to be perfect.

_________________________________

To say the pumpkin patch is beyond expectations would be about right. You and Shawn walk past the ticket booths and through the gates into a whole town built up around the fall theme. There are shopping booths, food booths, a sign for a corn maze, a hay rack ride, and the pumpkin patch. There is a whole slew of games and places to take photos as well and all that is just what you can see when you walk inside. There's a whole path along the shops that just keeps going and you are floored.

Shawn grins at you, beaming, because you're beaming right back at him. He knew this place was going to be great. Photos online just didn't do it justice. "What do you wanna do first?"

"Just...take it all in." You walk forward toward the center of the town like set up where there is a huge wooden windmill, hay bales and benches all sitting in a circle around it.

Shawn walks along beside you and chuckles. "It's pretty awesome."

"Awesome isn't the word." You laugh and plop down on a hay bale next to a smiley homemade scarecrow. "It's a dream, Shawn."

"I'm glad." He thumbs toward a nearby caramel apple stand. "Let's get a snack and start this day right huh?"

"You read my mind."

_________________________________

You and Shawn spend the whole late morning into the early afternoon wandering around, checking out the entire lay out of the pumpkin patch. You grab cider around eleven and then cocoa at noon. A late lunch consists of a shared smoked turkey leg, a funnel cake and some tomato salad that was being made fresh by some little old ladies at a booth near the center of the patch. The food is incredible and you and Shawn take turns feeding each other bites of this and that, giggling when one of you ends up with powdered sugar on your face from the funnel cake.

Spending time like this with Shawn is the best and worst thing to ever happen to you. It's a glimpse at what life with him would be like if you were together. Your heart swells every time he leans in to say something about the scenery that he’s noticed because you think he's going to kiss you.

Lunch wraps up and Shawn goes to toss your trash in a nearby oak barrel that's set up as a trashcan. He dusts his hands off on his jeans and pulls his sweater off over his head. "Here," he holds it out to you and you raise your eyebrows.

"Why do I want it?"

"Because you're going to get cold on the hayrack ride."

"Psh no I won't."

"Yeah you will." Shawn bunches up the sweater from the bottom up and holds it out for you to put your arms in. "Come on, I know you wanna."

You stick your arms out and he helps you get the sleeves over them and tugs the sweater down so your head pops through the neck hole. "It's so warm." You look down and pull out the soft knit fabric that's far too large on you. "You must be like a thousand degrees."

Shawn shrugs. "I'm always hot. You've slept with me, you know that."

"I-I-" You freeze, brain definitely going down a very different road from what Shawn means.

"Yes?" He chuckles.

"I have not slept with you."

"Well, not like that but... y'know." He shrugs and you knit your brows together.

What does that mean? Y'know what? What do you know? Does he want to sleep with you like that? What...just what?

Shawn waves his hand in your face. "Hey, earth to space cadet. The hayrack ride is gonna be boarding soon."

"Oh! Yeah!" You shake your head and start walking toward the signs pointing to the line for it. Shawn follows close behind, throwing his arm around your shoulders and leaning his head on yours.

You and Shawn take a seat at the back of the ride on a hay bale covered with a red plaid blanket. He's completely right about you needing his sweater. It is a lot colder up off the ground with the breeze from the moving ride blowing around you.

"Look, there's the pumpkins!" Shawn says, pointing to the left.

You look over through the slats of the walls of the ride. Sure enough there is a sea of orange pumpkins and deep green leaves that are yellowing with age as the plants are ready to be picked. There are a couple of very big ones and you definitely need one of those. You don't care how you get it to the car, you need it.

"Check those out," you say, pointing out the massive pumpkins.

"Holy cow those gotta be like fifty pounds."

"I want one."

"Okay."

You sit back and stare at him with your eyes wide. "Okay? You're not gonna convince me to get a few small ones instead?"

"Nope." He grins. "I'll buy you that pumpkin there."

"What's the catch?"

"No catch."

You narrow your eyes but don't argue the deal any further. He must have some motive. There has to be some catch. Maybe he'll say you have to move it or something. Seems fishy.

The ride stops at the entrance to the pumpkin picking area and you and Shawn get off with a few other visitors. There are tons of great pumpkins all around but you waste no time heading for the giant ones.

"How are you going to lift that?" Shawn pipes up as you reach them.

"Well, that's why I've got you."

"Oh? I'm gonna lift that?"

"Please?" You pout your lip out. "You said you'd buy it for me."

"I did." He chuckles, circling the giant orange mass. "I sure did."

"Regretting that?"

"Absolutely not."

You put your hands into the sleeves of Shawn's sweater and put them over your ears. They're cold and you wish you'd brought a hat or even some earmuffs. "Can I get it? For real?"

"Yes." Shawn kneels down and lifts the pumpkin up with ease. "Let's go."

"Isn't that heavy?"

"Not that heavy." He smirks and you walk next to him out of the patch to the line of employees waiting with ATVs that have little trailers attached for carrying visitors pumpkins to their cars or to the front entrance to drop them off until they leave.

"Name and car description?" The woman at the ATV asks as Shawn loads up the pumpkin.

"Ah-"

"Mendes with an s. Black four door Jeep Wrangler." Shawn says, dusting his hands off. "We'll pick it up at the gates."

"Alrighty." The woman scribbles down Shawn's information and peels a sticker of her clipboard to put on the pumpkin. "You got a big one eh?"

"Yes." Shawn wraps his arms around you and lays his chin on top of your head. "Biggest one for my best friend."

"That's so sweet. Would you like to pay here or at the gate?"

"Here." Shawn pulls his wallet out and hands over a ten dollar bill, the rate for extra large pumpkins from the yard. "Thank you ma'am."

"It's what we do," she says with a smile and a tip of her floppy straw hat. "I'll see this baby up to the gates. Have a friendly fun time!"

You and Shawn wave her off as she drives away with your pumpkin.

Shawn pulls away from you and grabs your sweater covered hands. "Wanna go over to the barn and feed the horses?"

You glance over at the big red barn where they show the horses and cattle throughout the day. "Sure. It doesn't look took busy."

Shawn turns around and squats down. "Get on my back, I'll carry you over there."

"What? Why? I can walk!" You laugh and he pats his back.

"Come on!"

"Okay okay, don't have to tell me twice." You climb on his back and he hoists you up so he can hook his arms under your legs. It reminds you of when you were nine and you first met. Shawn was big then too, tall for his age and athletic as ever being in hockey almost year round. He would always give you piggy back rides around the yard to catch lightning bugs on hot summer nights.

Shawn drops you off on a haybale near the first stall inside the barn. There is literally no one in there at the moment and you have the place all to yourselves. "I'm going to get a couple of drinks. Any preference?"

"Cider is fine. Hot please."

He disappears and you lean back against the old wooden wall. Today has been one of the best days of your life hands down. It's everything you love all wrapped into one, a pumpkin patch, oversized sweaters, hot cider, pumpkin picking...Shawn. You sigh and chuckle to yourself. Did Shawn realize how romantic this is? Did he have any clue how it must seem to any stranger passing by? The two of you would be the cutest couple. The dynamic is there, but what you lack is a pair of balls to say or do anything.

"Hot cider." Shawn says, handing you your brown paper cup and sitting down on the hay bale opposite you. "Fresh too."

"Thanks." You smile as you sip the warm spicy sweet liquid.

Shawn stares out at the corral nearby, eyes catching and sparkling in the late afternoon sun. He's gorgeous. Everything about him makes your heart soar. From his soft eyes to his slightly rough hands curled delicately around his paper cup, he is truly the only person you've cared so deeply for.

"Can I ask you something?" You say softly, barely realizing you've spoken. Too late to take it back now.

"Anything."

"Why haven't we ever gone out?"

He chuckles, a wide smile spreading across his face like wildfire. "Haven't we though?"

"No?"

"Can I tell you something?"

You lean forward, setting your cup beside your folded legs on the hay bale. "Of course, anything."

"This was supposed to be a date." He bites his lip and looks down, thumb circling the spout of his lid. "I was going to ask you out, like, for real."

"W-what?"

"Yeah." He laughs, looking up, anywhere but at you. "I chickened out though. I didn't ask you, I just sort of handed you the tickets and said let's go. Which in retrospect was fine, but it's definitely not what I had planned on doing."

"You wanted to take me on a date?"

"Yeah?"

"You...you want to be more than friends?"

Shawn rubs the back of his neck. "Shit, I guess? It's weird. You make me happier than literally anyone I've ever dated. You get my jokes and you sass me right back when I get smart with you. You're really beautiful and sexy in this crazy everyday way without even trying. And you're so smart and- how could I not want to date you? I've literally been so stupid for my entire life because I-"

You lean across the hay bale and press your lips to his. It's a moment you've been waiting for since you were thirteen years old and first realized you had feelings for him. You didn't expect to be the one initiating the kiss but here you are and there Shawn is. You pull back and Shawn just gawks at you.

"That was...you...you taste like apple cider."

You giggle. "You do too, dork."

"Can we do it again?" He asks, putting his cup aside and leaning toward you. "I think I need another taste."

"Mmhmm."

Shawn cups your cheeks and brings you in, kissing you lovingly like this is his way of making up for the last twelve years of your lives. He tugs you forward gently and you crawl over onto his lap, straddling his thighs as you grip his hair. It's been forever since he's had a haircut and it's a bit long, soft as can be, curly and absolutely grabable.

"Hey," he mutters, pulling back just enough to break the kiss. He bumps his nose to yours and you open your eyes to see his beautiful green and gold flecked hazel ones staring back at you. "Do you wanna go out with me?"

You smile and nudge his nose with yours once more. "I thought you'd never ask."

End.

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

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[boogiewrites]

A Girl Walks Into A Bar 15

Characters: Declan Harp x Bella Fiore (OFC)

Summary: Modern Declan harp AU. Declan and Bella finally find personal and professional satisfaction together.

Warnings/Tags: Mild Language.Drinking. Date Night. Flirting. Music. Sexual Content.  

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The week between their date and the first night of the music shows at the bar goes by quicker than either expected. Bella worked, then went to the bar after to help set up her end of this whole endeavor. The construction didn’t help matters when it came to testing a sound system, but they had the day to work out any kinks, and she suspected there would be a fair share. The rest of her time was dedicated to getting the word out about the show. She’d texted, called and messaged everyone she knew that might be interested. She put out ads online and in hard paper publishing’s, on the radio and hung flyers. She put in the footwork and the thumb work, putting blood and sweat into the success of the idea. Bella helped with building, cleaning, ordering and planning. Anything she could. They spent a lot of time together that week, but it was in a strictly professional capacity. Too tired, stressed and distracted at the end of the night to even think about moving their physical relationship closer. They were both thankful for the mutual understanding between one another. They’d both been exhausted by the time the crews left, sharing a kiss only after they were alone, which she appreciated greatly. They both had too much on their minds to think about much else except the bar and the show.

So the night of finally comes for the tired but excited entrepreneurs. A lovely sunny Saturday was quickly turning into a hot night in the newly renovated bar. Declan might’ve let Bella talk him into a bit much. Between his excitability about the idea and wanting to impress her, he’d made more changes in the past week to the bar than it’d seem in over a decade. He hoped this would be a success before, for both of their sakes but now covering the costs was another reason to worry. He did have to admit standing in thecleam and more modernized wooden dive , it looked good.

A new point of sales, the register now one touch and fast, the touch screen and metal out of place among the rest of the aged wooden bar. New temperature controlled taps finished bringing them into this century, everything cleaned and dusted and polished and up to code. She even talked him into buying snack food to sell. Small menus they’d curated and she designed were sat out on tables, a few new booths, black faux leather and new metal bar stools mixed with the old wooden ones gave it a touch of modernity but it still kept the vintage and dive feel. He’d appreciated her attention to detail during the process, not wanting to change what it was, just make things easier on him in the long run with technology and durability.

Bella trots about in heels and a tight dress, the same dress as she’d worn on her date. But this time in black, her comfort color. A sheer and flowing kimono covered with roses over a black background masked her curves and kept her flirty but professional. There was wiggle room when working in the music industry with what was considered professional and not, and Bella liked riding that line. She had a pen in her hair and a clipboard in her arms as she directed bands and their crews, turning what used to be the kitchen into a temporary green room.

Besides the physical bar, Declan hadn't had to worry about much else. He’d loved watching Bella work. Seeing her with her no nonsense expression, scolding men who weren’t performing up to her standards was really doing it for him, he admitted. He mused and polished the bar top, a nervous habit, and watched her with fondness in his hazel eyes. He felt his nerves for the night pass, replaced with a school boy like fascination as she moved around his space as if it was hers.

The stage was set, the boys tended to in the green room, some friends of hers from way back in her days of performing, and Declan’s part of the work was caught up.

“Bella! Can you come here when you get a second?” He calls out from the back room with the same casual tone he’d yelled it at her so many times over the past few days.

“Yeah just a sec!” She answers absentmindedly, checking off tasks on her thorough list. She sashays into the back to find him waiting, a smile on his face without anything in hand for her to address.

“C’mere.” He calls softly, taking her hand and pulling her behind the door to the stairs to his apartment. It was a brief moment of sanctuary he’d been craving. The hustle of the bar quieted by the door, a moment without prying eyes to decompress. “I didn’t think I’d get another chance to talk to you alone.” He took the clipboard from her hands and placed it on a stair gingerly.

“Is something wrong?” She asks with curious eyes.

“I hadn’t gotten a chance to thank you.” He answers in a warm, deep tone, leaning in to wrap his arms around her. She understood his intention with the way his mouth turned up in the corner. A soft smile she’d only seen on him with thru we’re alone. She let her guard down, having to slip out of boss mode to return the affection.

“Don’t thank me yet.” She shook her head as he leaned in for a soft kiss. “Still have to see who shows up.” She murmurs against his lips.

He could tell she was nervous, and granted, so was he. But he had total faith in her abilities after watching her all week. “Even if just a handful do I still need to thank you. For everything this week. You didn’t have to step up like you did.” A calm and reassuring tone matches his expression as she finds herself much more pliable and soft than had been since the last time she was in his arms.

“Of course I did.” She insists with a nod of her chin his way. “Not gonna let you look bad now am I?” She grins and kisses his cheek.

“I look bad standing next to you... lookin like this.” A brief but strong enough squeeze of her hips was enough to get his point across.

“Never.” The shake of her head sold her dramatic enthusiasm. ”You do look good though.” She smirks and looks him over, fingers trailing over the strong arms he was showing off with his deep side cut old Sabbath shirt and jeans that fit him suspiciously well.

“So do you.” A brief muzzle of nose to nose. “Very… sexy Stevie Nicks.” He praised.

“Just so happens to be exactly what I was going for.” She smiled proudly.

“I know there’s a lot going on tonight, but I had one more thing to ask you.” His eyes turn a bit soft and he fussed with a wild curl of her hair.

“Shoot.” She invites.

“Even if it’s super late… and we’re both too fucking tired to do anything… I’d like you to stay with me tonight.” He suggests with a sweet whisper, his posture almost sheepish.

“Like, sleep here you mean?” She clarifies.

“Yeah.” He pauses with a brief moment of questioned judgement. “Is that-?”

“No! That’s… fine that’s… that’s good. I’d like that.” She reassured him so casually he exhaled loudly in relief. “It’ll give me something else to look forward to tonight.” She beamed a killer smile, a genuinely affectionate one that makes him hum happily.

“Before I let you go… do you wanna make out?” He asked childishly, making her chuckle and wrap her arms around his neck. “I haven’t got to really kiss you all week.” He adds with more sentimental inflection.

“And I wanna thank you for not doing this or anything else in front of anyone else.” Her voice is deeper, her face relaxed. “Not that I’m like, ashamed or something I just prefer keeping work and play separate you know.”

“I assumed.”

“And I’ve went and mixed the two as much as possible haven’t I?” She grins and grazes his nose to hers.

“Fraid So.” He hums back with content, a small kiss to start and it grows hungry as it always does for them. A small moment to melt into each other, hands in hair and over needy bodies to hold off the hunger for another evening.

“Missed that.” She whispers when they part, his forehead to hers.

“So did I.” He gives her a less romantic, more playful smooch to make her smile.

“Hopefully we won’t be too exhausted to continue that after we close up tonight.” Her words were suggestive but her tone wasn’t convinced.

“One can hope.” He nods with high brows.

“Either way. We’ve got all day tomorrow together.” She happily adds with a kiss to his cheek.

“Mmm. That we do.” A few quick kisses to her cheek, jaw and neck make her give up that giggle for him. He gave her a squeeze before they parted, one last time before they were professional again. “Let’s go get em baby.” He mutters with a cheerful face before they break the seal on another little love bubble they’d created.

———

Declan, Mike and Bella Knick back celebratory shots for making it this far and to ease the pre show jitters. They all stand and look at each other, anxious glances and blinking eyes before facing the truth.

“Let’s fuckin do this.” Declan booms loudly and slaps his hands on the bar top sudden to cut the tension.

Bella smiles at his enthusiasm. “Don’t scar em off before they even get in the door ya lion. Roarin and carryin on.” She teases as she walks to the half stained glass and barred door. “Here we go.” She whispers to herself to pass from her true self to hostess before opening the door.

The bar wasn’t small by any measure, but the amount of people that showed up made it seem like it might’ve been. The speakers covering the music before the bands started cutting any awkward silence, the drinks and conversation going all mingle to create a good atmosphere. Bella stepped in to help take out orders when she could, focusing on Directing people and handling hospitality while Mike and Declan were swamped at the bar.

Among the bumping of shoulders, the dull roar of music and voices, she realizes She’d missed this. The rumble and buzz of a crowded club felt Nostalgic and comforting. The vibration of the music through her body while she moved about made her feel younger, more alive. She felt a moment of pride for her work and gratitude for having found the gem of a bar. She even felt Fond for the bad day that sent her there, and the drunken night that lead to all this.

It doesn’t take long for the tension to build between Declan and Bella. It was effortless on their part. As She was hovering and helping them, he kept getting sight of her and meeting eyes. They’d pass chest to chest, back to back behind the bar and she’d give him a wink no one could see while her tits dragged across his torso. He’d shoot her a look, and she knew exactly what it meant. An almost threat she felt like antagonizing. Both moving about the space they would pass each other, he’d give her a deep “hey baby.” In her ear when he could.

The crowd gets rowdy, as crowds do, and she ends up getting pushed around a bit and into him a few times. He was keeping work in mind but also, maybe staying near her unconsciously. He’s thankful when she gets shoved right into him so he can comfort her. “Hey, careful baby girl.” He warns with warm and sure hands to her body that make it react. Another low purr in her ear adds weight in her chest as she tried to focus on work and not the huge, sexy bartender that was trying to get in her panties. Not that he had to try very hard. His swoon inducing genuine smiles and his flexing bare arms were cause enough to distract her. She kept it together as she always did, but it certainly did add a bit of spice to the evening she was more than excited about.

“Boys are taking a break after this song Bella!” An old friend who was helping with sound and stage yells at her and she felt the butterflies arrive. They break her steamy day dreams to give her another sort of tingle and rush. She hadn’t performed for a crowd in years. She’d always loved it, but there was more money in being the person running the machines for people who were on stage. It hadn’t stopped her from fantasizing about doing it from time to time. It was a high she had yet to find a way to replicate.

The boys announce their break and give her an introduction. An old friend and very talented woman who was nice enough to do a set and let them take a breather she was generously called. The crowd is fairly disinterested, as was standard, but there were certainly a lot of them.

“I’ll be filling in the down time for you guys, with my friends tonight. We’re gonna start slow, let you get your drinks and snacks, go take a piss, all that.” her on stage presence demanding and confident she fell right back into it with a calm Demeanor. “Be sure to try to the Ale special. It’s my favorite and The Trading Post is one of the few places you can get it in the city. So go hit up that hot bartender and he’ll give ya what ya want.” She laughs with a charm that all women react to. A few ‘woos’ and Declan grins broadly, waving his distractingly thick arms.

“Nice and easy, take a break yourselves, gonna start with some Kacey Musgraves.” She says with a bow, starting with an acoustic guitar first. Slow Burn fades into Golden Hour and Declan is bewitched. He wished he could just sit and watch her, her voice was sweet but raspy, it melted him like butter with the sentimental words she sang. Every time she’d sing she’d surprise him somehow, and every time he was smitten.

“We’re going with the legend, the legs, Miss Tina Turner now. Kick it up a notch, wake the blood back up. Proud Mary.” She speaks the intro, “...gonna start this song out easy. Then we’re gonna end it rough.” And she delivers. A song most everyone knew, enjoying the soulfulness of her voice and then being taken into a double time, loud performance with her moving and dancing and singing, swinging her head and getting everyone’s attention again.

“And to wake you the fuck up the rest of the way!” She calls out, hair a mess and a sheen of sweat on her she roars right into Ace of Spades and the crowd eats it up. Her growling out and her rasp giving her the means to deliver the fast and hard song. She plays her guitar like a dream and Declan stops and stares. He’s never seen her do THAT.

“Holy shit.” He mouths with a slack jaw.

“Ya girls fuckin got it dunnit she lad?” Mike laughs with a slap to his back.

“Yes she fuckin does. God damn.” He answers in awe. “I’m gonna take a break, gotta ask her where the fuck this came from.” He mutters with open arms as her head hangs with her hair wild and waving, fingers picking and playing in a flash.

It ends with a hard note and the crowd now fully invested again gives her applause she happily takes. She hears a familiar loud voice by the front by the stairs.

“FUCK YEAH BELLAAAAA!” Declan’s large lungs scream out and she whips her hair to one side and gives him a disarming smile. She didn’t mind the support at all. She steps off stage after the other band returns and Declan is there to squeeze her so hard her feet leave the ground. “I’m buying you a drink! That was amazing! I didn’t know you could do that!”

“I haven’t in a very long time.” She responds with a beaming smile her self fulfillment clear in her eyes.

“Let’s get you sat down.” He offers over the noise of the crowd and uses his big frame to carve a way to a small booth you couldn’t see the stage from. To her surprise he sits first and pulls her in on his lap and she happily accepts. With the crowd now absorbed back into the showroom and their conversations of praise to her from strangers cease and they’re left with one another again. He motions to Mike to bring over drinks. “You were so fuckin good baby. Seriously. I mean it. Fuckin amazing.”

“Shots and an ale.” Mike says proudly. “Ya fuckin killed it out there, lass. Good on ya.” He gives her a happy nod she thanks him for.

Declan gives her a toast to the glass shot glasses that clink as they nod and throw them back. With an exaggerated exhale he wraps his arms around her, one on her hip to keep her in place, pulling her close so she puts an arm around him, face still content from the performance. The other hand rests on her bare thigh, his lap big enough for her to crawl into and bend her legs over his own. “You were so fuckin good up there baby.” he speaks in a deeper, slow tone that makes a more suggestive smile flare across her lips.

“Thank you.” she gives him a brief up and down glance. “You’d get a good uptick in sales from my little shout out?” she gives him a cheeky grin, her hand moving to push back a strand of hair that’d fallen from where he’d tied it back.

“Yes you sneaky little thing.” he gives her a happy low rumbling laugh, a tiny little pat to her ass that makes her nose wrinkle, giving in to her laugh. “What about not mixing business and personal? Huh?” he teases with his nose coming close to grazing hers.

“Eh. Me playing isn’t business.” she dismisses with a shrug. “That’s just fun. Plus it got everyone's attention didn’t it?”

“I think that was you that had all that. They were loving it.” he adds supportively, both speaking soft and low and only to each other. “I know I did. You sing like a...horny angel.” he chuckles.

The explanation makes her shoulders shake in a laugh and gently touch the side of his face. “I like that description.” she nods. “Except for that angel part…” she shrugs. “Pretty spot on actually.” she gives him a sly smile that turns into a flirtatious one that covers her whole face.

“I disagree but I am VERY intrigued.” he wiggles his eyebrows and he hears that little giggle from her that makes his chest flutter.

“I don’t think you’ll be calling me an angel after tonight.” she speaks quietly and peeks her tongue out from between her lips.

“Mmm that so?” his voice swings low, she can feel a distinct rumble in his body under hers.

“Mmm Hmm.” she nods, her hand now tracing the outlines of his sleeves as she looks him over with a hunger in her eyes. “Keep these shots in me and it’ll be especially true.” she tilts her head in support of her statement and smirks. “Or hell…” she shrugs, “Who am I kidding? With you? Stone cold sober I’d be inclined to behave sinfully.” her voice is just loud enough for him to hear when he leans close, getting a wiff of her sweet perfume and the tickle of her hair against his skin.

“I”m hearing nothing I don’t fully support.” he coos at her, eyes gazing over her face and lingering at her lips set in a seductive pose.

She lets out a sigh that surprises him, her hand moving to his chest, running back up to his shoulder and neck and back again as she bites her lip. “Maybe it’s the performance high. Or that shot on an empty stomach but…” her eyes return to meet his that are deep and dark and only make the fire in the pit of her stomach burn more intensely. “I weirdly don’t feel at all shy to admit that watching you tonight has done nothing but distract and make me realize just how fucking sexy you are.” her lip snarls ever so slightly with her delivery, her fingertips light on his bare skin as he feels a tensing between his legs. “Or how every night since our date I’ve thought about how it felt with you on me on that couch.” Her voice is so soft and demanding of him.

“Everytime I look at you I think about that couch.” He admits with a quirked brow. “Everytime you get close I have to touch you.” They share lingering glances between them, his mouth slack and taking in her soft expression for him, her biting her lip and wanting to sink her teeth into him. The sexual chemistry between them was undeniable and they didn’t have to wait long. “God I wanna kiss you so bad right now.” He whispers and she reaches up to touch his cheek.

“Then do it.” She leans in and whispers.

“But there’s people, I didn’t know if-“

“I don’t care.” She shakes her head and gives him an approving smile. “I want you too.” A breathy confession from her as her thumb rubs over his cheek bone. “Fuck what they think.” She nods her head back towards the crowd. “They don’t matter.” Her lips ghost over his as she gives him permission and an alternative sweetness he was growing to really love.

It doesn’t take him a second longer before leaning in to take her mouth against his. His arms instinctually move around her tighter, a hand on her under her shawl feeling the soft jersey stretch of the fabric of her dress. The other on her bare thigh, the heat between them searing.

She doesn’t pull away, only deepens it as his eyes roll behind their lids for the public display of affection from her. Deep rounds with teasing tongues and tense hands that roam ever so slightly they give in and forget anyone else is around them. It does eventually end but not without their foreheads together, two aroused expressions shared that told them that no matter what they would be taking this further tonight.

—————-

Counting the money in the till, still sober enough to do so after celebratory shots on the raving success the night had been. Bella, who’s seen him shut down the bar so many times does it for him. Locking up, Turning off signs, sweeping and wiping down as he counts and figures out the new POS system he’d installed. He uses his personal laptop for now to do his spreadsheets, saying they’ll get a company one soon. It looks as if they would be able to afford it with how things went. Between easily remembered amounts, he watches her. In just her dress now, shawl forgotten, laid over her purse in the back on a counter he sees her body stretch and jiggle and finds himself quickly forgetting about the money in his hands and the numbers on the screen.

Bella only had a quick conclusion on her mind. Getting everything done as fast as she could to get back to being close with Declan. An excitement in her muscles, a tension in them that was exhilarating. Finishing, she moves to the bar top, lifting herself up and plopping down on it as he finished his part of the rituals.

“Does Mike usually stay to help you with all this?” she asks, feet swinging off the edge of the bar.

“Yeah. But I told him to get lost.” he grins, laying another stack onto the counter.

“Good.” she gives the same smile back, even though they don’t look at each other. “Looks like you did pretty well tonight.” she remarks, a supportive nod of her head his way.

“WE did VERY well actually.” he lets out a soft chuckle. He puts everything with the receipts and notes into the money bag, concluding the count.

“It’s not easy moving around behind this bar.” she keeps her eyes to the ground, letting him concentrate, not knowing if he was finished or not. “Especially with more than one person. Since you’re so ...big and all.” a grin with her clear intentions spreads across her face.

He stands with his head tilted slightly, looking her up and down, an expression that was dark, giving way to a subtle smile as he moved forward. His hand drug across the bar surface, not lifting when he meets the skin of her thigh. A rather cocky smirk on his face as he moves chest to chest, both hands now on her legs, a slow rub up to her hips and back, easily slipping into a more sensual mindset.

“Am I?” he gives a sarcastic remark that makes her beam up at him, a closed mouth smile and eyes that now had the same intention as his.

“Mmm Hmm.” she nods slowly, hands moving up his arms, feeling the flex of them under her fingers. “Must be really… hard. Doing this by yourself.” her voice has dropped a few octaves, same as his. Hands now to her backside, hers in his hair as he yanked her closer, now held on the edge of the counter.

“So fuckin’ hard.” he leans in and almost groans as he watches her chest rise, any innocent intention in her eyes now gone.

“Are you?” the same cheeky response as he had earlier.

He only nods, hand moving to her face before closing the space between them, his body wasn’t going to let him waste any more time.

The kisses grow at a feverish pace, deep and indulgent. Desperate to be as close as possible, her hips even out with his, feeling the friction they craved. Her legs swinging back before wrapping around his waist, her heels hits the control panel for the speakers and music begins to play. He makes no acknowledgement, kisses traveling to her jaw and neck as she lets out a small chuckle.

“Oops.” she shrugs and he grunts in response, pulling her closer.

He shushes her, taking her mind back to where he wants it with a biting kiss, and she eagerly responds with her own noises.

“We’ve even got mood music now babe, you gonna make me wait much longer?” she whispers in his ear before taking his lobe into her mouth.

“Ungf. No.” he responded in an almost animalistic way, hands sliding under her quickly, adjusting his grip.

“You gonna fuck me on this counter or are we gonna make it upstairs?” her voice a breathy exhale against his neck as she placed little sucking kisses, feeling him tense beneath her.

“Upstairs.” he grunts again, picking her up, her letting out a tiny noise of surprise at being lifted and carried.

“Mmm. What a gentleman.” she grins between kisses, a hefty bounce as he carries her, his boot opening the door as he stomps up the stairs. She was extremely impressed with him physically already and he wasn’t even naked. The sounds of Trampled Under Foot certainly didn’t hurt the rush of feelings they were both experiencing. Her suggestive words turn quickly to eager sounds between rounds of kisses as he kicks open his door, something that made her body tense with pleasure at the witnessing of it. With another boot to the metal door, slamming it shut, anything besides the raw sexual need they both felt for each other was forgotten behind it.

They had built the emotional chemistry, then came the sexual, and that they had in spades, and now they had the time. His apartment was all exposed brick walls, the only light outside the bedroom coming from the street lamp through a window in the kitchen. Once they passed the barrier to his bedroom, she found only a single neon sign on that cast the room in a mood setting red glow. The decor was minimum, his sheets black and soft, bed unmade and clothes strewn over an old worn chair in the corner by a closet with no door. It screamed bachelor pad but she rather liked the casual, rustic, industrial aesthetic.

She takes in the red glow, the faint buzz of a vintage restored sign above his bed as he wastes no time and lays her back, feet just dangling over the sides. He moves fast and yanks his shirt over his head, eyes hungry as they watched her sit up on her knees and peel off her dress. A low rumble from his rapidly rising and falling chest as he gets his first good look at her. Almost bare except for the black bra and panties, the low light still held plenty to see as her curves were backlit in a silhouette that made him reach down and readjust himself in his tight jeans.

She reaches out and gets her hands flat on his torso to run down his belt, practically drooling at the sight and feel of him. Before she can go further he takes her by surprise and knocks her onto her back, feet kicking up in the air as he returns to the greedy kisses they’d paused before. He had to feel her before she touched him, he hoped he would last and not disappoint after the painful build up to their first time together. He gets to feel her warm olive skin give under his harsh grip she only responds in favor to. But soon she gets impatient for him.

“Mmph Declan.” A panted out and needful voice makes his eyes roll behind their shut lids.

An “Mmph?” Of his own in response, giving her room to speak as his lips move to her chest.

Her hands return to his belt and begin the metallic noises that signal something good to come. “I just want you tonight. There’ll be time for slow later...” she whines and shifts her hips under him, “no waiting just… fuck me.” Every part of his body responds to her breathy and surprisingly polite request of him.

“You sure?” A deep groan that makes her muscles deeply twitch inside her. Fingers on her bra clasp as she nods quickly and gets her hands into his undone jeans. “Whatever you want Bella.” He coos as he raises and she finishes the job, quickly but not bashfully tossing her bra across the room, watching him toe off his boots and lose the jeans.

With a bitten lip and hungry eyes she shimmy’s out of her panties, also wildly abandoned to the depths of his room. He palms himself over his tight boxer briefs and hums at the sight laid out beneath him. Every part of her was soft and silky and thick. Two muscular and hefty thighs framed a soft and chubby pair of pussy lips that her fingers disappeared into as she looked up at him.

“God baby you’re… fuck… look at you.” After the bra was tossed, and although it was a very sexy one, he was happy to admit, it’s disappearance revealed two natural and weighted breasts, even and bouncing, silver bars catching the light he thought the rest of her couldn’t also be as perfect. He was never more happy to be wrong. “You sure you don’t want any foreplay? Because FUCK I just want to bury my face between those thighs.” He rasps, hand now wrapped around himself through his boxers.

She gives him a seductive smile that makes his balls tighten, fingers in small circles, mostly hidden but he could see the light on the slick of her. “I’m sure.” She purrs, lifting the two previously hidden fingers and showing him the sticky remnants left. “I’m so fucking wet for you babe...” her long lashes bat up at him and he wants to eat her alive. He couldn’t have been happier she wasn’t being reserved or even remotely shy. She then put the fingers on display into her mouth, sucking them dry and he involuntarily releases a growl through a tight jaw. “Just fuck me already.” A playful nod of her head before sitting up and batting his hands away to finally have her eyes on him. And she was not let down.

“Fuck me…” She whispers, revealing a cock she would have written a song about. She takes both her hands to hold the heavy, uncut girth of him. Everything framed by dark thick hair. He was well over 6 inches, she could tell that much, possibly nearing 7, but what was even more impressive was how thick he was. She wanted to wrap her mouth around him and taste him, but she’d already proclaimed there’d be time later. She gets distracted, and who could blame her with a cock like his in her hands. Running over it before going to his balls which makes him emit a deep sigh.

Her silence and awe on her face clear he feels his ego rise. He’s never been insecure, for good reason, but seeing the lust burn clearly on her face filled him with a deep satisfaction. Taking himself into his hand and slowly pumping, a low and entirely confident voice purrs down at her. “Like what you see baby?” A smirk that made her want to smother him between her thighs rests on his face as she looks up at him.

“You know I fucking do.” She challenges him with snarled lips before reaching to yank his boxers off the rest of the way, scooting up the bed as he slips them off, seeing the animalistic prowl towards her before taking control of her mouth with his. His hands find her center quickly, and even though she’d proclaimed no foreplay, she didn’t fight him as his fingers explored how she was put together. Mapping out her clit and making her toes twitch before he sinks one, then two fingers into her. With a steady push behind them and an easy curve he gets to watch the first waves of pleasure pass over her face. She didn’t melt and sigh like he was used to seeing women do. Her eyes do roll back, but her lips snarl, teeth clenched as she moans for him with a tilted back head, legs splayed wide and welcoming. She was soaked, there was no denying the fact but he continues a few strokes before a third finger joins to test how she’d be able to take him. With a tiny whine, eyes returning to his with a more submissive cast to them he eats up her small moans as she adjusts. “Shit.” She swears out of nowhere fully grabbing his attention as he quickly removes his fingers and his eyes already full of apologies for her. “No, I’m fine. I forget the condoms in my bag downstairs.” She rubs her face with one hand, voice exasperated.

“Oh.” He lets out a snort of relief. “I’ve got us covered, don’t worry.” He shakes his head and she gets to see the great expanse of him reach into the bedside table and stretch above her. As it always went, he rolls it down over his length and she once again gets to marvel at him and how he can fill the tight cover.

It had been years since Bella had slept with anyone. She had plenty of toys and was no stranger to them, which helped in this particular situation, but her toys were not him. Even though not monstrous, and thank goodness for that, he would be the biggest guy she’d ever been with, and she knew there would be pain before pleasure. Luckily for both of them, she was a fan of both sensations.

“Ready baby?” He asks with a gentler turn to his low roar.

“Fuck yes.” She gives him a lusty glance that makes his heart react in a funny way, pressing forward with the winning attention his cock was demanding where it stood hard and proud and eager.

Settled between her legs, he raises to his knees to guide himself. An up and down over her thick pussy lips, glistening with wet for him she lays on her elbows to watch him, hand lowering to be helpful to spread her lips apart for him, his heavy head rubbing against her hard clit and revealing her soft pink center. As soon as he presses into her, he feels the resistance and knows he’s mentally going to have to prepare to go slow. He leans over her, still pressing as he can sense the discomfort she’s feeling. “If it hurts you-“

“Keep going.” She shushes him, fingers to his lips before pulling him flush against her, head notching in as her knees spread and fall back for him. With slow, deep kisses of intertwining tongue and moans it helps distract them for a moment, a slow push and in and out of himself.

With a few inches of progress she’s starting to relax, and is so appreciative of his patience. But she lacks that trait. “Fuck you’re so tight babe.” An almost defeated hoarse whisper escapes him as he hangs his head into her neck.

“And you’re so big.” She replies with a still happy sounding exhale. “Keeping goin, I want it all.” Her fingers dig into his back, no nails yet as she feels the pain and let it melt into pleasure as he sucks away at her breast. He fills her up so completely she feels as if he’s in her stomach when their hips finally meet again. A louder moan now, an exhale let out they didn’t know they were holding in. A slow drag out causes her to shudder beneath him. A moan that starts low and ends with a needy pitch makes his eyes roll back.

He’d imagined these sounds, and now he had them. more importantly he had her, skin to skin and nothing else between them, he had her all to himself and he felt a deep need to keep her that way. “You okay?” He asks against the bend of her neck, feeling her nod enthusiastically.

“Yes, fuck, more.” She whines, turning her head before crashing her mouth into his, hands in his hair as she gives over completely. With a masculine moan he pushes back in and causes her to interrupt the passionate kisses with an arch of her back and an open mouth. ”Oh my...fuck.” A guttural prayer from her lifted chin as her eyes fully roll back and he gets to soak up every bit of her animated reactions. He pauses again and she whines for more, her hand sliding between them to rub her clit. “Don’t stop anymore, just fuck me Declan, you feel so fucking good.” Her voice is hoarse and direct, her kisses much the same they follow, his hands now on her thigh to hold her steady, feeling them tense and shake with every pump. She was starving for his kisses, teeth tugging on his lips and growling in retort when he’d part from her. She was writhing under him, back arching and hips pushing back on him, there was nothing subtle about her like this. He felt bare with her in more than the physical way.

He met every buck of her hips and kiss of her mouth as she sought him out with growing desperation. She’d never felt so full before, physically or emotionally from sex. He was meeting her passion with his own matched, both arching and bowing against the other as the growing tension between them is fueled by their friction. With his hand gripped into the covers by her head, she raises her free hand to push the hair back from his face. She knew she wasn’t ending the night dissatisfied and found her mind wanting to focus on things besides her own pleasure for once. With guys before they were mostly there for themselves, but not Declan. He’d been there for her in every capacity thus far and she knew in bed he’d be no different. She uncovers his ruggedly handsome face. His pinked lips swollen from her assault on them, that heavy brow over shut eyes as he panted and kept the pace up with her needs and requests for more, faster, please harder. With every exhale they moaned and heaved together.

She feels a familiar build in her center. “Holy shit. I’m close already.” An almost laugh escapes her, a fully abandoned smile on her face as he opens his eyes to take in the view beneath him as he finds she’d been doing to him. She was caught off guard by him, hadn’t built up her expectations on purpose so she wouldn’t be disappointed but he was just...awesome. In the true sense of the word. Awe inspiring. With thickness she’d never had before, the pain she’d feel tomorrow was a world away, there was only right now for both of them, nothing else mattered.

Soon she couldn’t focus on anything but the growing tension between her thighs. He’s diving into his hips as she bucked up to meet him, elbow firmly planted into the mattress for traction as her fingers work quickly around her hard clit. “Yes. Just like that.” She praises through a bitten lip as she pulls her legs apart and back as far as she can, his hand moving from his hold on her thigh as he holds one of her knees back towards the bed and feels himself bottoming out inside her. He was determined to last through this, feeling her wave after wave tightening around him. “Fuck…” A groan that ends in a squeak, her mouth open and eyes not met with his. “Just like that.” She nods and her eyes stare fearlessly Into his. ”Yeah. Make me come baby. Make me fuckin’ come.” a challenging chin up at him and he feels a raw need to give her what she wants. A growl from his chest builds and she tightens at the sound alone. “That’s it Declan.” Another wicked smile and nod, her nose wrinkled in challenge to his low brow and tight jaw, hitting into her deep, causing her eyes to flutter back between rounds of her talking. “Make me come all over that big cock.” She moans, losing her composure.

“Fuck Bells.” An almost overwhelmed moan from him washes over her. He hadn’t expected her to have a mouth on her in bed but he’s wondering why he hadn’t now.

Her words give way to moans, then a more helpless voice that makes him want to end it all far too quickly begging him, “Fuck. Yes. Fuck me. Fuck me, baby.” She chants as it takes over her entire body bit by bit. Rapidly spreading from her center everything spreads like fire into her thighs and up her spine. Her stomach tenses and she draws up, shaking helplessly as it comes wave after delicious wave. Her thighs clamp around him and he’s aware of how strong she really is.

She looked him boldly in the eyes as long as she could, giving over and head tilted up and pushed into the bed as her back arched and her hips and thighs trembled. With big gulping breaths, a forced moan each exhale that followed the waves, watched her underneath him with a ravenous fascination. He was used to women going limp, to showy porn-like displays to acting meek after orgasms, but that was not his Bella.

She comes back with dark eyes and a roar. Feeling full of blood and energy pulls her mouth to his by the back of his neck before demanding, ”On your back. I wanna fucking ride you.”

He was left with no room but to obey, and he really couldn’t have been happier to switch roles for once. Women before her were submissive and delicate, but Bella was quickly making him forget any existed before her.

With a quick exchange, she leans in and kisses him with teeth and tongue, a noisy and messy exchange. She wastes no time, taking him in with a satisfying exhale and hum, a smile that told him she had only good things planned for him.

He lays in awe for a moment, feeling the weight of her grind and hit against him, an involuntary moan coming from him and sounding almost weak.

“Touch me Declan.” She commands softly, grinding down on him, putting one of his hands to her ass and the other on her chest. “I want those big hands all over me.” She shakes her head and snarls her lip, taking his fingers that rest on her chest into his mouth for a captivating moment. She grabs ahold of his headboard, hands gripped tight for traction as she really goes to work on him. That loud and satisfying skin to skin slap as she threw her wide hips and hefty ass against him. He felt himself giving over quickly. She was so tight around him, now totally soaked to her inner thighs and hot in every sense of the word. He got to watch her curvaceous body move fluidly over his, hands tracing the outline of bouncing tits to her waist to tease her hips before she demanded. “Fucking grab me.” And he sinks his calloused fingers into the soft meaty hips that had been teasing him for months. “That’s it.” She gives a wicked smile and a satisfied hum. “I wanted to make you cum but you might make me again, big boy.” She confesses, flipping her wild hair to one aide, revealing her face giving him a wink he wasn’t prepared for.

“God…” He exhales. “You keep this up and I’m gonna cum soon.” He admits with downturned brows, licking his lips.

“Good.” Is her bossy response. She moves her fingers back to her clit, that still intoxicating skin to skin slap as he grabs her ass and directs her pace as she rides him. “Fuck you feel so good. So fuckin...big.” She moans, feeling it build again as she gives direct attention to the still throbbing bud. “Fuck I’ve wanted to come on this cock for so long.” She shakes her head, eyes shut as she speaks in rolling moans and whines. She opens her eyes and leans closer, more attention grabbing eye contact he gazed up into as he felt himself getting so close. “I wanna feel you.” Words close to a whisper. “Want to feel you throbbing inside this tight little pussy.” She sneers and issues in an almost polite tone for the words being said. “Fuck me Declan.” An almost whine from her swollen lips. “I want it so fucking bad.” She groans and clenches her teeth.

He makes a decision, and luckily it’s the right one. He pulls her by the back of the neck to his lips and growls. “Fucking come for me.” Into her mouth, forehead to forehead as he plants his feet into the bed and pounds into her. Her hand trapped between them and the other pushing on the headboard she bounces on him as she pounds upward and he sends her over the edge again. “Fuuuuck.” He growls. “Fucking feel you baby girl.” He moans and sees her mouth hanging open, small gasps as she shakes above him.

“Shiiiit.” She moans as both hands clamp onto her hips and he gives her exactly what she asked for. “Yes. Yes.” She nods and takes him like she was made for him.

“You fucking want it baby girl?”

A helpless and desperate “uh huh.” From her in response.

“Fucking take it.” He growls before her hands smack to either side of his face as she kisses him hard. Through moans and roars she keeps her lips on him. She wanted to eat him whole, to sink her teeth into him and taste blood. Just wanted everything from him in the moment of hearing him curse and say her name, watching his face go from lion to lamb.

They come down together, both trembling and bodies heaving as they tried to remember how to function normally again. He moves his hands gently, up her back and her hair to hold her and kiss her properly. Deep and slow, the sounds of wet lips together becomes louder than the moans eventually. The kisses are soft and dare she admit it, sweet. The love hormones were reaping havoc on their brains as they stayed suspended, him inside her and nose to nose. She tries and loses her nerve to speak her mind, resting herself on top of him, head to his chest. He lovingly rests a hand on her head and another on her back, holding her there.

“I don’t know if I can’t move.” She lets out a soft laugh against him.

“Lemme…” He grunts, moving them both to their side, her legs still wrapped around him and now on her chest partially, her almost on her back.

“Much better.” She sighs out, feeling her hips shift back into place.

“It was.” He lets put a deep hum and she finally meets his eyes after the deed.

She nods and finds herself brave enough to give him a smile that says more than her words would let her. “Yeah. It was.” He leans in for more of her lips. He couldn’t help himself. She looked so soft after being so hard for so long. With hands in each other’s wild hair, the kisses take longer and longer pauses until they both feel sleep coming for them.

She apologizes and says she gotta get up to pee. Always pee after sex. Those are the rules. So they finally part, even though neither want to. He throws away the very full condom after watching her waddle to the bathroom with a grin.

“Don’t like it when you leave but love to watch you go.” A deep sleepy voice teases as she crawls back into bed, him on his back and holding up the covers.

“Cornball.” She snorts, But cuddles right up to him anyway. “We gonna sleep in?”

“We earned it.” He says leaning down to kiss her forehead as he speaks against it.

“I’d say we most certainly have.” She agrees and lets out a yawn, followed by a fully satisfied sigh.

“Night baby Belle.” He gives another kiss after wrapping his arms around her.

“Night Declan.” She mumbled against his chest. “You were great tonight.” She adds sleepily, lips smacking as she snuggles into him again.

“So you were you baby girl.” With it all said and done, they both felt tired down into their bones, but how could they not feel fully relaxed after the week they had, and add the night and the sex on top of it. It was the deepest and best sleep either had had in as long as they could remember. Bella felt safe and satisfied. Declan felt whole and accomplished. And both felt far more than they bargained for for the other.

Please leave a like, reblog or comment if you enjoyed this! It makes me want to write more of what you want if you let me know!

@vale0413 @littledeadgirlwalking@jaegeeeeer @phillipkopusimagines-and-stuff @mjolnir96 @xmother-mortemx @this-isnt-madness  @thors-hair-extensions @divadinag

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alrighty, let’s recap this bitch!

LAUNCHPAD! I’VE MISSED YOU SO MUCH! PLEASE COME BACK!

I looked up when National S’mores Day is (because I’m a nerd) and it is August 10. So either the photo later was mislabeled or, more likely, Launchpad got the wrong info

Huey with the little baby scouts is TOO CUTE!!

I wonder if Violet’s there. Probably not because she would have been hanging out with Huey if she was. Or this episode was meant to come before Challenge

It’s a baby beagle boy! I wonder if he’s there of his own will or if it is part of some plan

He scared away most of the kids! Now they won’t get to enjoy s’more-y goodness

His s’more sounds DOPE AF, though it probably would give you INSTANT DIABETES

“Aw, not even a modern robot.” MY SWEET SON!

I know it was the bully saying it, but Huey should chill a bit when it comes to doing things EXACTLY and PERFECTLY. It’s just gonna cause stress

 BOYD IS BABY AND I LOVE HIM

“Would you like to be friends?” “Sure. Wow, that was easy.” If only it was always that easy

I don’t know if Huey has the JWG as memorized as he thinks, going by Challenge and Quack Pack

“We’re just kids.” “Definitely!” *uses laser eyes to light fire*

This episode does a good job showing what a trigger word/phrase is like, though I’m not sure if that was the intention

I like that a squirrel with a burnt tail scurries out of one of the trees. It’s the attention to detail that helps elevate this show

Instead of jumping out of the way or hiding Huey jumps straight onto Boyd to try and help him. Huey already sees Boyd as someone worth protecting

The kid that just runs across the screen while his hat is on fire is great

Not sure why they took the time to change before going to Gyro but whatever

BOYD IS ADORABLE AND I LOVE HIM

“I’m more than an intern, I’m a scientist.” I feel like this might be hinting at Fenton’s arc for the season, possibly wanting to be seen more as a scientist than a superhero

I’m gonna pretend that using sunglasses on someone who is shooting lasers out of their eyes is a Cyclops reference. And they look pretty dope too

At least Fenton knows when he is in over his head...this time

Gyro trying to climb up on the table to avoid Boyd was kind of funny. And then him protecting himself with Lil Bulb

“Which one?” Manny is DONE with this shit

“Boyd? What idiot called it that?” Even when he’s not there, Gyro can still burn Mark lol

I figured 2-BO was a reference to something but wasn’t sure what. Apparently it’s a bit of a play on the name of Astro Boy’s in-universe creator’s son. Neat

 Huey stays in between Gyro and Boyd to protect Boyd

Fenton’s face cracks me up. There are NO THOUGHTS in this man’s head lol

“You were an intern like me?” “Nothing like you.” Damn Gyro, why so salty?

I don’t know why Fenton is so surprised that Gyro was an intern. I feel like that’s a pretty standard thing

LOVE IS STORED IN THE BOYD

It make me sad when Gyro mentions how many times Boyd’s core programing was altered. Poor baby doesn’t really get a say in what happens to him

“ROAD TRIP!” Huey, you do these kinds of things ALL THE TIME. I feel like he should be used to this by now

“YOU’RE not going. GIZMODUCK is.” Does Gyro see Fenton and Gizmoduck as separate entities or is this just a no, but yes type of joke?

Huey standing up for Boyd is so sweet. They barely know each other but Huey trusts him

When the episode doesn’t have the theme song you KNOW shit’s ‘bout to go down

I wonder who’s flying the plane. My guess is Launchpad because Della would have been cooing over Huey making a new friend and go into embarrassing mom mode. He probably went of on his own adventure or did tourist things like buying collectables. Or maybe Gyro flew them there. Who knows

As many people have said, the art direction and animation for this episode are BEAUTIFUL. I love the pink tint the lighting has in most of the episode

SAILOR MOON CONFIRMED CANON

I bet Mark Beaks is a Sailor Moon fan

I like that the in-universe Sailor Moon is a bunny because Usagi is Japanese for rabbit

I love that going incognito nowadays means you wear a hat, a hoodie, and sunglasses. Boyd looks good in red (though red is my favorite color so I might be biased)

Gyro-takes one step and the fuzz shows up. NOICE

I like detective lady. She has a cool design

Huey and Fenton are awful at acting casual

“Crimes?” Oh my sweet Hubert. I’m pretty sure most if not all of Scrooge’s employees have had run ins w/ The Law

Gyro is like, move I’m gay

“I’m here on a very important...field trip.” ALL THE KIDS NEED A GYRO FIELD TRIP LIKE HOW THE GAANG GOT ZUKO FIELD TRIPS

Lil Bulb said FUCK THE POLICE

I wonder what it actually says

Fenton just watches as the inspector chases Lil Bulb

Seriously though, Fenton does a bunch of silly stuff in the background and this episode warrants a rewatch SOLELY for him

How did Lil Bulb know where to find them? And how did he shake off the inspector? I want to see his little adventure

FOR SCIENCE!

“Blah!” *arm armor attaches* I want this joke to come back

Fenton and Huey INSTANTLY nerd out. I love them

Fenton being a Gyro fanboy is ADORABLE

“AH, DUST IN MY EYE! The dust of GENIUS!” What a dweeb lol

I like that Fenton keeps the arm on for the whole scene

Poor Boyd, he looks so scared

Huey going into protective big brother mode

Doofus continues to be equal parts hilarious and disturbing

Where are their parents? Like, someone should be looking after these kids! ESPECIALLY DOOFUS!

“Do you need a hug?” I SURE FUCKING DO

Mark is such a prick lol

“NO WAY, A ROBOT BOY! DREAMS DO COME TRUE!” YOU DON’T DESERVE THAT DREAM YOU COCKWAFFLE

SOMEONE HUG THIS CHILD! BECAUSE I CANNOT!

“Seems like the little guy’s had it tough.” MY POOR BABY

Lil Bulb gets SO PISSED he blew a fuse

You really shouldn’t have left them alone, Gyro

Why does Fenton automatically jump to superhero for Boyd? I mean the theme of the episode is letting Boyd choose who he wants to be so of course Fenton would have his own idea of what Boyd should be, but why go straight to superhero? Do you want superbros, Fenton?

Huey already realises this might be a bad idea, because he’s more concerned about Boyd as a person rather than Boyd as a machine

“IN RETROSPECT WE PROBABLY SHOULD HAVE USED THE FIRST HOLE” Fenton, you dumbass genius

Dr. Akita’s setup made me laugh. I DIED when he “enhanced” the image

I recognized the character on the chips though I don’t know their name. I’m more of a western animation fan, so many of the references probably flew pass me

BOOP

I also have a key on my laptop that flies off (it’s the u key)

I LOVE BABY GYRO! It’s so cool they went with his og look (minus the red hair) to show him younger

I LOVE THE OUTLAW COUPLE! SO COOL! SO HOT!

Huey is so DONE with Fenton

I love the stupid G pose he does. PLEASE HAVE HIM DO IT AGAIN. PREFERABLY WHEN DW IS NEARBY

Such a polite boy

“My bones are metal!” This line and Boyd’s catchphrase of “Hi, I’m Boyd/2-BO, a definitely real boy!” reminded me of Olaf. The end of the episode gives Boyd even MORE Olaf parallels

Gizmoduck sliding by those boxes was cool

How did Gizmoduck get himself unstuck from that alley?

I loved the double take the female outlaw does

Huey is TRAUMATIZED

I legit thought Boyd was gonna light the oil on fire the first time I watched and I was like that won’t help

“So, what do we do now?” “I...don’t know.” This is why you don’t leave babies alone to fight criminals

Boyd reminded me of Calculester from Monster Prom when he asked the lady to return the money

STOP LEAVING THE CHILDREN ALONE! THEY ARE BABIES! THEY AREN’T EVEN TEENS!

“Why do we always fight when we’re on vacation?” Because this is Ducktales and there is no such thing as a normal vacation

Lil Bulb just kicking his lil feet

The “lab” safety poster made me chuckle. Then I remembered Akita is also a dog and I laughed more

LITTLE BABY GYRO GRADUATING! My guess is his professor/dean/principal influenced him on a personal level and is partially the reason Boyd is a parrot

Lil Helper blueprints. Nice reference to the og series

Has anyone talked about the poster with the cogs and the dogman in old-timey clothes that says GIZMOS on it? I think it’s a Dr. Who reference

IDEALISTIC GYRO AND BOYD IS TOO CUTE!

How did he NOT notice the second hole in the wall?

That is a surplus of handcuffs. Do you think she uses them for...fun times?

“I’m just a guy! With very bruisable skin!”

Poor misunderstood Gyro inventions

Boyd just politely waves at everyone

Huey is WAY calmer than I would be if I got lost in an unfamiliar city

Boyd says FUCK WORK

 I love Huey stimming. Really hope Disney will let them confirm in words that Huey is autistic

Is it more common for two kids to wonder around by themselves in Tokyo? Because as an American I find it super stressful and would want to find their parents so they could be safer

THE BUNNY! AND THEN THE KITTIES!

Do cats just take buses on their own in Tokyo?

CHERRY BLOSSOM TIME BITCHES

“And I know what you’re thinking, what about ninjas?” I am ALWAYS wondering about ninjas

I like that Huey finally has a friend who shares the same interests and doesn’t mind info dumps

“Boyd, I don’t think you’re a killer robot. You’re just a kid.” “Aw, that’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.” T_T

I CAN SHOW YOU THE WORLD

I like Boyd’s motief

Akita is us after the quarantine

When he complained about being stiff I was like mood

I like his Green Goblin disc thingy

The other people don’t give a shit about Boyd just FLYING DOWN WITH HIS ROCKET FEET!

Gyro shows up *dramatic wind*

His tablet has a duckie on it. I wounder if they have a Mac/PC thing going on with Waddle and what brand the duckie represents

When the adults argue and Boyd gets all sad and scared I FELT THAT

Huey doing his best to keep Boyd calm and defend him SO PURE

OH GOD HELP THIS POOR CHILD!

HUEY IS A GOOD BOY AND A GOOD FRIEND

“Because of you I’ve become an outcast.” I feel like you did that to yourself

ANIME HAIR POOF

ngl, that shit was TERRIFYING

“You don’t have to do what Akita tells you. Do what I tell you.” So close

“INTERN! FIGHT BETTER!”

Huey must weigh NOTHING if Gyro can pick him up

Akita’s tail looks like a cinnamon roll

Huey always finding that hidden info

The gibberish Gyro says is great

BOYD SAYS IT BECAUSE GYRO TOLD HIM THAT!

THAT HUG!!!

HOW DARE AKITA HURT BABY GYRO AND SWEET BABY BOYD?!

PROTECTIVE PAPA GYRO

NEEEEERRRRRRRD FIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT

“You’ll never invent anything worthwhile.” LIL BULB HAS ENTERED THE FIGHT

Are doggos recyclable?

HUUUUUUUUUUUUUGS

Blue eyes=good robot

ANOTHER HUG

Be Only Yourself, Dude

I like that basically Gyro admitted that he was like Fenton if Fenton hadn’t had support

“That’s not technically how doctorites work, BUT I DON’T CARE!” Do you think Gyro doesn’t have his doctorate or do you think he assumed Fenton already had one?

“The hugging is a ‘just for today’ thing.” YOU CANNOT STOP THE HUG TRAIN!

“Leave. Now.”

Are they gonna go to the plane?

This season has been consistently knocking it out of the park! I’m a SLUT for backstory episodes, so I enjoyed this one a lot. I loved seeing Gyro when he had hope and faith in the world. It SUCKS that Akita took that away from him. Hopefully Gyro will see things slightly less cynical now. Fenton was a dweeb the whole episode and I love him for it. Boyd is SO SWEET AND PRECIOUS and in NO WAY deserved the treatment he got. I have a feeling there is more to Boyd’s creation/Dr.Akita that we’ll get later on. Huey was ADORABLE this episode. It’s really sweet to see him hangout with someone who gets him. Everyone deserves to have at least one friend like that. The fight scene was GORGEOUS! SO FLUID! I really loved this one and I hope we get more Team Science episodes because these characters play really well off each other. 

[weaselbeaselpants]

Hazbin Hotel Review part 2: Mistakes were made please don’t kill me

This pilot is polarizing at the moment. In between the two sides of the anti-fanbase (ppl crying “if you like HH you’re homophobic”, or the BWW with it’s cringey politics), you have lots of fans who are falling over themselves about how good this is. If you love Hazbin unconditionally that’s fine, but here’s the thing:

I like it too.

I’m the kind of person who’s naturally critical, pokes harmless fun at what I like, and is always rewriting and reimagining things within the fandoms I like. I want to be a ‘Hazbin’ fan but I don’t know if I’m allowed to since the fanbase can be so staunchly overprotective and Viv herself has said she doesn’t like criticism, no matter how valid or done in good faith.

Tbh, that’s why the drama revolving around @frootrollup1​ upsets me: the fandom is fine with lumping all criticism or redesign stuff in the realm of ignorant hate, when redesign, rewrites, revamps and other fan dribble are kind of a labor of love onto itself in other fandoms. Guess that’s a talk for later though.

With all this in mind, let me go over my thoughts:

There’s no PROPER establishment of Hell as a place, setting, world, or proper establishment of the characters.

The armor-piercing question Hazbin needs to be asked is this:

“is this a generic version of Hell we should all be familiar with and need no introduction to, OR is this a unique take that requires it’s own rules?”

^ It feels like the latter but we don’t get a good rundown of said rules. Besides that, characters are one note and serve either no purpose or become flies on the wall to other characters’ purpose.

Things were said and places were shown but we honestly don’t get a good idea of Hell by the end of the pilot. It’s a ritzy(?) place where souls of the damned literally become demons and then get purged. I THINK. I THINK, that’s what the writer’s were going for here. TBH, it feels like they’re skipping ahead and thinking of the show as a finished, fully realized product with developed characters and plots already, and not an introduction to a series/standalone piece.

If I didn’t have some inkling or the lore prior to watching it, I wouldn’t have known that the demons sans-Charlie were once human. Angel says in passing in the car that he’s already dead, but really references to the fact that they were once human are rare.

Now I’m a simple woman - I ain’t picky with mah demonology - But, call me crazy, when I think Hell I don’t think of the people who end up there turning into demons, I think of people going there to be tortured. That’s the hell I’m used to seeing and is prevelant in like every religion that has a hell. Taking a spin on that and making demons the souls of sinners trapped in hell? A-okay, but I NEED MORE. Instead of talking in a car or spending time on this lolsofuny demon turf war, we really needed more time given to the fact that Vaggie, Angel, and others were once human. No, I don’t want a full flashback, but it would give us a better grasp of the mechanics of sin in this world if these two characters told a little bit more themselves than just having some lines offhandedly explaining how everything works. 

EX- How to do revamp of a familiar setting right while still leaving certain details vague? One Word: Hadestown. 

Hadestown doesn’t need to give you all the details of it’s setting cause that’s not the point. You don’t need to know if the workers of Hadestown are literally dead, metaphorically dead, or both or where other gods live. Those aren’t the things we need to know for the musical to progress. What we need to know is Hades’ underworld is a mining colony of doom, that Hades buys peoples souls so the workers can never leave, that Persephone and Hades are on the rocks which is messing up the seasons, and that oop! Eurydice had to go back. Between the commonplace to complex knowledge westerners have of Greek mythology and the revamped Prohibition-era setting, all is explained that we the audience need explained.

I have the feeling Hazbin Hotel wanted the same thing: explain what needs to be explained for the currant plot and leave bits and pieces in the dark. It just didn’t really work.

The flow of the narrative was bad.

So apparently on the PizzaPartyPodcast Vivziepop admitted there were things that were moved around or turned out rushed.

Fair enough but even with that excuse can someone please tell me why they thought it was a good idea to start the story after Angel has already been made a patron of the hotel?

Getting to know not only how the world works first and foremost, but who our main character (Charlie) is and what she is doing (the hotel), would be the easiest way to drop us into the action of the story and get the ball rolling. But instead we start off with an intro song that sort of shows us what this world is like but doesn’t explain anything about who or what we’re seeing until the newscasters come in. Angel’s introduced in this time and the build up and execution of this character is poor, rushed, and feels more like writers fudging around with a character they like than giving us, the audience, a proper introduction*.

After that, I’m sorry to say the spots where the story picks up, drifts off, lulls about, or comes around all kind of melt into this big slurry the characters are drowning in, without any real care for telling a story. BUT THIS IS A STORY!!!

This is not a little menagerie of random characters ala the Pastoral Symphony from Fantasia. This is not a collection of little things just for the fun of it to get to to know these people (it does a bad job at getting you to know these guys). This is a three act structure. I can tell where the intro, rising action, climax, and falling action are SUPPOSED to be, but they don’t stand out, don’t do their job, and melt into the fluff in a way that makes the emotional impact we’re supposed to feel null somehow...

The pacing was bad. 

While some scenes go by far too quickly others go on for faaaaaaar too long. These are the bits that don’t surprise me when I hear this pilot was changed around, cut down, or fudged with a bit.

Scenes like this include Charlie’s back and forth with Katie Killjoy before and after her song, Charlie and Vaggie’s fight in the car, Alastor explaining himself to Charlie and Vaggie trying to talk him out of it, ALL of the Ser Pentious/Cherry Bomb terf fight bits.

Oddly, it feels like these parts are trying REALLY hard to get a point across but they end up being more of a hindrance to this otherwise snappy dialogue and supposedly simple set up. This pilot is 20+ minutes, but the bits we need to endear ourselves to our main cast are squandered on what the writers thought was “fun to write” at the time.

Too many characters, even in a 20 minute pilot. 

Instead of getting a good idea of our leads, everyone is treated with the same level of importance or interest in a world that hasn’t even been fully introduced yet.

The truly important supporting characters to Charlie, Vaggie, Angel, and Alastor are Husk, Katie, and Nifty. Katie provides conflict to the first half of Charlie’s story, while Husk and Nifty are hires by Alastor for the hotel; they establish his power over other demons and his influence on the hotel and it’s success. Sir Pentious and Cherry Bomb needed to be cameos. Their characters should be glorified plot contrivances/resolutions, No More. I ain’t gonna care about a cast of billions from the start. We gotta start small first. Not only do we have four mains, we also have a bunch of little guys who need to eat up screen time...except they absolutely don’t need to and should be simple background cameos for now.

Sir Pentious and Cherry Bomb get as much character time as the four mains even though Angel is underdeveloped and Alastor is overdeveloped. When it comes to storytelling - unconventional or otherwise - priorities, is what this pilot needs.

Angel basically does nothing after Alastor is introduced. 

Of all the characters in Hazbin to get left in the dust (lol) and be underdeveloped, Angel Dust would be my last guess. He’s popular with his creator and with the fandom but because of how the pilot is set up, his character falls to the back-burners and is kind of unnecessary: (Charlie uses him as an experiment to see if she can reform a sinner but he doesn’t hold up, so when Alastor comes into play the focus of Charlie’s plan switches almost entirely to Alastor and Angel is unneeded). If this were two episodes of a series; one about Charlie getting to know and trying to “fix” Angel, and another about Alastor coming in and taking over, that’d be fine. But this is a pilot so the plot and character development is kinda crushed in and neither Angel nor his existence amounts to much of anything.

I honestly forgot Angel was even in the latter half of the pilot. The poor demon-spider whore dies on the way to his home planet.

Not to fan-blurb here but I think it’d be more interesting if the conflict in the latter half wasn’t Vaggie trying to warn Charlie away from Alastor but Angel feeling shown up by Alastor and him being the one protesting to Alastor’s take-over of the hotel. It would have given Angel more to do and would cement him as one of our four leads.

Alastor gets a backstory because he is A) not the character I thought they were going for, or B), they’re jumping the gun on him. Alastor is a maddening character in my book because if he’s the character I thought he was supposed to be - our main villain - then they royally messed up a good villain by explaining his story. If he ISN’T the main villain, than color me confused on what he’s supposed to be. 

It goes without saying that a good villain should remain somewhat mysterious throughout the rising action, which is what the pilot is building up to (I think?). Alastor’s personality makes him an absolutely wonderful villain and probably the most outwardly “demon”-like of anyone in Hell. Him being a rogue demon that scares the inhabitants of Hell should be alluded to, not stated.

Vaggie and Angel get passing “we dead” bg but our villain gets a backstory dumped on him? For the standalone pilot this episode is, his backstory doesn’t do anything for the plot. For the rest of the series, this feels like a big waste to reveal this guy’s history over anyone else. The rest of the HH cast are sorta small stereotypes and cliches that the writers want to endear to us because of what they do and what they go through, though since there’s too many of them they end up just being there. Alastor, on the other hand, is where they hit gold and really have a character who oozes personality and the feel of their show...but they kind of taint him by giving him an unneeded (at this point) history.

Big problem with him not only being explained but him outright stating his intentions with the hotel.

Maybe I’m wrong and Alastor is not the bigbadvillain in a cast of villains...in which case I don’t know what the pilot wants us to think of him or where the show’s going with him. Is he a demonic version of Harold Hill who learns to care about ppl and gets redeemed? Maybe that will change with future episodes....

Hazbin is confusing as a person not privy to the franchise/development prior ,and feels disappointing from the pov of someone getting hyped for these characters. As a follower of the project it feels like a let down to the respective characters and plots we’ve been anticipating. While, as newcomer, it’s hard to care about anyone. My sister, who had far less info on the pilot than me, was watching it the whole time going “who are you?” and by the end said “why should I care?” Really good summary from this IMDB review here:

Little harsh but my thoughts exactly.

TL;DR: The writers need to really rethink how to introduce their world to newcomers AND fans alike. -

There’s so much passion in Hazbin Hotel but I feel it’s misaimed and a prime example of why “write/draw what you like and what sounds ‘fun’!!!!” isn’t a good idea for storytelling.

There’s technically a story in Hazbin Hotel, but because of the bad pacing and lackluster approach to world and character development, for the kind of project that it is, it’s not very good. 

-

Again, for the people in the back: if you think I’m a bully because I happen to be harsh with my criticism, sorry but harsh critique isn’t the same thing as bad faith criticism (CinemaSins, NC, Bad Webcomics Wiki) and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t lump me in with those turds because I don’t love every second of this. I may not be the best writer, but storytelling is my passion and I think this dropped the ball. IT DOESN’T MEAN I HATE IT. - Alternatively, if you love Hazbin unconditionally or disagree with me on these things: great! Like what you like as long as everything’s safe, which it is. Stuff is problematic but hey so is everything look at the stuff I like. Also, if you’re one of those people who unironically says “if you like HH than I’m blocking you teehee unfollow me”, you fittingly have a very special seat in hell set up for you. Don’t threaten my friends cause you don’t like something they like. =)

[mysterylover123]

My Top 10 Christmas Episodes

mysterylover123

Everyone has a favorite Christmas Episode. That time of year from your favorite shows where the characters celebrate the holidays along with you, usually accompanied by big changes in their lives, gaudy decorations, and creative traditions. I’ve included my top 10 here, along with some honorable mentions. I’ve excluded Christmases I liked from book/film/comic book series, thought I think in 2 years time there will be a grand new edition to the list (aka My Hero Academia). Hope you all like them and have a Merry Christmas! 

#10. Futurama “Xmas Story” Airdate: 12/19/1999

I don’t broadcast it much, but I love classic Futurama. This little gem of a Christmas episode - sorry, X-mas episode - is a common staple of “Best Christmas Episode” lists, and for good reason. It’s one of those “dark” Christmas stories, featuring a murderous Santa Claus robot, Fry dealing with being 1000 years in the future where his old traditions have died, and some good bonding moments among the cast of Planet Express. I particularly like the “gift of the Magi” joke with Amy and Hermes, and the Harold Lloyd reference with Fry on the clock tower.  

#9. X-Men Evolution “On Angel’s Wings” Airdate: 12/15/2001

X-Men Evolution is a nostalgic favorite of mine - my introduction to the X-men in high school, the first show I ever read fanfiction for, etc. It’s Christmas episode has a very warm feeling to it, a rare dip into sentimentality for the show. It deals with Scott and Rogue going to recruit Angel for the X-Men while the others are home for the holidays, and clashing with Magneto in their attempts to do so. I’m always down for an episode focused on Rogue, and her bond with Scott over being the X-Men without families to go home to is great. The little montage that ends the episode always puts a smile on my face.

#8. The Simpsons “Holidays of Future Passed”  Airdate: 12/11/2011

I heard this one was thought of as a potential series finale for The Simpsons, as a bit of closure for their premiere (another christmas Episode, “Simpsons Roasting on an Open fire”, which I like but find a little too ‘early Simpsons’ to make the list.). Honestly, I wish it had been. Modern Simpsons is generally such a mess, it would’ve been nice to see it get such a dignified end in Season 23. This one is a great little trip to the future of the family, and it really feels like a nice vision of what could become of them somewhere down the line. I like that this one gives Homer a chance to be a good grandad, and a bonding moment between Lisa and Bart. I hope this is where they really do end up.

#7. Frasier “Frasier Grinch” Airdate: 12/19/1995

Frasier is the only show that ended up landing 2 Christmas episodes in my Top 10. And I felt I still had to cut a few of them that could’ve made the list easily. This series really had a knack for the Christmas episode. My 2nd favorite, obviously, is this little offering from Season 3, which deals with Frasier trying to get Freddy gifts in time for the holiday when the ones he ordered got misdirected. It ends up touching on an aspect of the holidays I wish would get covered a little more often: when you buy others Christmas gifts, are you getting them what they actually want, or just what you think they should want? Overbearing Frasier has made this blunder, and the episode helps him learn that lesson. Though as usual Niles steals the show. Niles in a toy store trying out a doofy hat is more than worth the #7 spot.

#6. Friends “The One with the Christmas in Tulsa” Airdate: 12/12/2002

Friends has a lot of Christmastime episodes, but most of them are just kinda coincidentally set around the holidays. Only a few stand out as actual “Christmas Episodes”. While I enjoy “Holiday Armadillo”’s comedy and “Creepy Holiday card”’s sentimentality, my standout favorite is this one, the last Christmas episode they did, perhaps because Chandler and Monica are my favorites on the show and their romance is the OTP. This one deals with Chandler away from home, working on Christmas at a job he hates and being separated from Monica. Through some clips and a bit of soul searching, he decides to finally quit the job he hates and pursue something he wants to do. It’s a great example of how to do a clip show/Christmas episode well, move characters forward, and remind us of why we love these two together.

#5. Buffy “Amends” Airdate: 12/15/1998

This one would probably be higher if there wasn’t so much Bangel melodrama in the last 10 minutes (sorry fans, I really hate Bangel). But the rest of it is more than good enough to put Buffy’s sole Christmas episode at #5 for me. What I love the most about this one is, well, the ‘amends’ of the title. Xander starts making up for 3 seasons of douchebaggery by being a good friend. Willow makes up with Oz. Buffy makes up with Faith. That latter one puts the biggest smile on my face of the bunch; it’s bittersweet, given what happens, but when Faith shows up on Buffy’s doorstep with presents for her and Joyce, my small Grinch heart grows three sizes each time. Definitely a must-watch.

#4. Parks and Recreation “Christmas Scandal” Airdate: 12/10/2009

Parks and Rec has 3 Christmas episodes and they’re all pretty good. I debated between this one and “Ron and Diane”, but since that one is more about Ron’s award ceremony, I decided to go with Season 2′s. This one is a very “Parks and Rec” kinda Christmas, dealing with Leslie getting involved in a dumb sex scandal, the Parks department putting on a “Winter wonderland” on Lot 48, some dating drama about Ann and Leslie and their boyfriends (At this point, since Ben and Chris weren’t around yet, Mark and Dave), and a very cute hug between a pre-marriage April and Andy. The biggest win in this one is the sheer Christmas atmosphere. It practically glows off the screen.

#3. How I Met Your Mother “False Positive” Airdate: 12/13/2010

HIMYM is another one with a lot of candidates, but “False Positive” really stands out to me as something special. It’s essentially an “It’s a wonderful life”-style story (as they’re going to see the movie) where Lily’s false positive pregnancy test inspires the friend group to each choose the more responsible path in life of their two choices, only to chicken out when the false part of the title is revealed. The way the episode ends is absolutely spectacular, a standout moment to me among the series’ many strong character moments, and leads to strong development for all around going forward. Definitely a highlight of HIMYM’s 6th season, and an episode full of  Christmas imagery, soul-searching, and classic plotlines.

#2. Frasier “The Fight Before Christmas” Airdate: 12/16/1999

My favorite Frasier Christmas episode feels like it combines a little bit of everything that makes the other ones good: a KACL office Christmas party with a whacky theme (we finally see it instead of having it going on in the background!), Frasier being pompous about Christmas celebrations and ending up karmically punished for it, a comedic scenario which crafts a comedy of errors, Martin’s decorating. In many ways though, the highlight of this one is how deftly it handles the romance reveal from the previous episode between Niles and Daphne. in the midst of all the crappy Christmas rom coms, it’s easy to forget how strong a good Christmas set romance can be, and the moment of tension as Daphne tries to reject Niles but just can’t quite do it is a standout for me. Definitely my favorite of Frasier’s 8 xmas episodes.

Hon. Mentions: Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire, Batman Christmas with the Joker and Holiday Knights, Frasier Perspectives on Christmas, Parks and Rec Ron and Diane, HIMYM How Lily Stole Christmas.

#1. Smallville “Lexmas” Airdate: 12/8/2005

This one isn’t just a Christmas episode. It’s pretty much the Ultimate Christmas episode. Where to begin? A fancy Christmas party jam-packed with colorful decor. Superman - Clark - delivering presents as Santa for the Daily Planet. Clark talking/saving a depressed mall Santa (or is he real?) from committing suicide with an emotional heart to heart. Sweet family Christmas  celebrations (right before tragedy strike in the next episode). But of course, the real highlight of this one is Lex’s Alternate Reality fantasy. After getting shot, the titular Luthor has a vision of what his life could be like if he did the right thing, essentially an “It’s a Wonderful Life” style alternate reality. However, that reality ends in tragedy, and the tragic twist of the episode is that instead of leading the Grinch’s heart to grow, the Christmas dream only serves to help solidify Luthor’s fall to the dark side. It is certainly juxtaposed with enough holiday magic and hope to offset that depressing ending, but I will admit to liking a bit of subversion in my stories now and then. Everything Christmas episodes could have is jam-packed into this episode. 

[mattbellphotographerstories]

An Ode to High School Football

For the first time in eight years, I’m not walking the sidelines of a high school football game.

It has nothing to do with choice, but instead circumstances.

Sure, we’ve talked about the love of the game and what it means for a community to cheer on their favorite team each week. So much has been stripped away because of no play due to COVID-19.

Just tonight, I rode by J.T. Christopher stadium at George Washington High School in Danville, Virginia. It’s my home field. I choked up a little seeing the old field dead. The lights should be on and the band should be playing loud.

Instead, silence.

I’m not sure I could tell you the difference between a screen play and a flee flicker. But as a photographer I gave Friday night my all.

For five years I was privileged to call it a job. But it was never a job. It felt more like a hobby you got payed to cover for the love of the game.

There is nothing better than standing on the sidelines and hearing the fans get louder as GW moves to the endzone and scores.

As the crowd erupts, the award winning Marching Eagles break into playing the GW fight song.

I’ll sing most of it in my head, still snapping photos, and thinking about all the excitement surrounding the score.

The fight song always reminds me of so many greats who supported and loved the Eagles for years. One in particular, Wesley Clarke Whitfield, Sr. who passionately stood for the fight song each time it played. His legacy lives on with Clarke as the color man for Chuck Vipperman calling games and Burl working the camera in the north endzone.

I think of so many legendary stories that won’t get told during the year. They’ve been told countless times, but each time they’re repeated you might catch or hear something different.

Among the classics, the time a referee thought team pastor Freddy Vicks was cussing at the officiating. It was actually Richard “Loose” Wells — a lifelong Eagles fan who attended games until he died.

The story goes Loose didn’t agree with a call against GW. Well he then mouthed off something towards the sideline ref who heard it and told him not to use that language on the sideline. To which Loose turns to Vicks and says, “yeah rev don’t be using all that language.”

Another instant classic is from 2008 during the playoffs.

While covering Liberty Bealton, Clarke Whitfield was on the field covering what was supposed to be a 28 degree game. After factoring in a 35 mile per hour wind, it was closer to 6 degrees. A photo survives of Clarke in the huddle for the coin toss at that game bundled up and prepared for a cold night.

Another favorite from that season comes from the memory of the late Don Robertson.

During a pregame interview at home, David Wilson told Don and Chuck he planned to do a flip into the endzone.

So late in the game, David ran a pass into the endzone and Don had the call.

“I said, “he’s gonna do it Chuck there it is,” and David completed a flip into the endzone for a touchdown. Flags flew from the referees but they really didn’t want to give him a penalty. It was that impressive,” Don once said.

One of my personal favorite memories came from 2017, when Weber Harris scored one last touchdown against Liberty Christian Academy on the road to seal the deal for GW. I had a strange deadline that night, but I went back down on the field to shoot some file art. I got a shot of Weber going into the endzone, with Coach Nick Anderson jumping in the background. I can still hear Chuck Vipperman’s call for that moment. I shot the photo off to the sports desk anyways, and to my surprise they managed to get it in for the Saturday edition.

There are so many other stories — from Alger Pugh’s championship 1968 and 1982 football teams, to his coaching techniques, to the many legends who went on to play in college and the NFL.

Games may have started at 7, but the fun really began an hour or two before the game.

It was worth getting to the field early to shoot the breeze with everyone in the press box and sometimes whoever was on the field.

I knew Mo Haskins, so when he was a part of the team it was always fun to catch up with him.

Up in the press box, there was no shortage of laughs and good times.

From ragging on college rivalries, to making predictions for Saturday’s college games and Sunday’s NFL games there was plenty to talk about.

Even when Danville was down, there was still football. It has always been the subject on Saturday morning for how the boys played at the area high schools the night before.

There would be anticipation for the E.C. Glass game no matter if it was home or away. You could bet it would be close and sometimes unpredictable.

After each game, I would rush back to process photos. I always gave the game my all, because I wanted the kids to see themselves in the newspaper as they saw their heroes in professional football. It was never enough to me to just snap a few basic photos of the game and leave. I wanted the kids to have the very best.

On controversial calls, I was always running up to Clarke Whitfield and showing him if the refs got it right or not.

After the game, it was time to show Coach Nick Anderson some of the photos, and of course talking to him during the week about the upcoming matchup.

I still wanted to come and shoot the games this year, even if that meant buying a season pass to do so.

And now it’s 2020. The awful COVID-19 has forced plans to be cancelled or changed. For high school football the gridiron’s are quiet. The stands are empty. The concession lines are nonexistent.

High school football, we love you. We miss you. And we hope to see you soon.

[stuartha06-blog]

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