#i would also enjoy a little kiss from gretchen | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

maybeimamuppet · 3 years ago

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it takes a village

hey hey little muppets!! happy wednesday!! this is a request fill for gracerailly on ao3 who requested the poly-stics babysitting cadnis' kids.

cw/tw for depression/depressive episodes

otherwise, enjoy!!

---

Cady wakes up to chattering coming through the baby monitor.

Which is unusual, because Janis usually wakes her up with their twins. But today, Janis is still in bed next to her and gives a quiet groan when she hears the noise.

“Jay?” Cady asks groggily. “What’s the matter?”

Janis groans again and flops onto her back, bringing her hands up to sign. That’s never good, Janis only uses sign language when things are especially bad for her.

“Can’t move,” she signs. “Feel… heavy. Slow. Dead.”

“Oh, my love,” Cady hums sadly, leaning down to kiss her forehead. “Do you think you’re having a depressive episode?”

Janis nods slowly. Cady can tell she’s using a great deal of energy to bring her hands up again. “The girls.”

“I’ll get them up for today, don’t worry about it,” Cady says immediately. “You relax. Everything’s okay.”

Janis pouts but nods again, letting her hands drop back to her side. Cady pecks her nose gently before she goes to get their daughters up.

They’re both awake, standing up in their cribs and waiting for someone to come get them ready. Both of them look her way when Cady switches the light on, with their adorable frizzy curls and sleepy blue eyes.

“Good morning, my little loves!” She says happily, going to give them their morning kisses. “Did you have good dreams?” Both twins nod happily. “Good, that makes Mama so happy.”

“Where Mommy?” Layla asks, rubbing her eyes and holding onto her stuffed elephant. Cady pauses for a second. How does she explain this in terms they can understand?

For now, a white lie won’t hurt anything. “Mommy’s still asleep, Mama gets to get you ready today.”

Leo reaches out first, so Cady grabs her and carries her over to be changed before swapping her out with Layla to do the same.

“There we go, all clean! Let’s go have breakfast,” Cady says happily, scooping them both up and carrying them downstairs to the kitchen.

“Mama?” Layla pipes up. Cady smooches her chubby little cheek a few times.

“Yes, Ladybug?”

“We hab f’uit?” Layla asks. “P’ease?”

“Yeah, of course you can have fruit,” Cady says. “Good pleases, too, that’s a good girl. Bumblebee, do you want fruit too?”

Leo just nods. She’s less of a morning person than her twin. Cady sets them both in their high chairs and buckles them in for safety, then washes some blueberries for them to eat.

Leo picks at hers, resting her elbows on her tray and holding her head in her little hands.

“What’s the matter, Lolo?” Cady asks sadly while she gives the pets their own breakfast and prepares some quick cereal for herself.

“Miss Mommy,” Leo says with a precious little pout. “Want cuddle.”

“Aww, sweetheart,” Cady says. “Mommy’s still here, she’s just upstairs. And we can go see if she wants to cuddle after breakfast.”

Leo perks up a little bit at the reminder that her mommy is still there, just not at breakfast, and starts eating her blueberries with a bit more speed. She and Layla chatter away about their plans for the day while they eat. Cady can’t quite understand what they’re saying, but she grins at the interactions regardless.

“All done,” Layla says when her blueberries are finished. Leo shoves her last few in her mouth and chews them with a nod of agreement.

“Good job, girls! Okay, let’s wash our hands and then we can go see Mommy,” Cady says. She grabs each from her chair and helps them wash the berry juice off their tiny hands, then carries them back up to the main bedroom to find Janis. “Jay? You up for a cuddle?”

Janis rolls over and gives a weak grin when she sees her whole family there waiting for her. She nods and gestures them over with a hand, so Cady sets the twins down to run over to her.

“Be gentle, girls,” she says quietly, following after them. She scoops Leo up and helps her get on the bed since she was struggling to make it. Layla sits and cuddles in on top of Janis while Leo nuzzles into her side. They both can clearly tell something’s off.

“Mommy sick?” Layla asks. “Need med’cine?”

Janis chuckles weakly and brushes a hand through Layla’s messy hair. Cady can tell it’s taking nearly all of her energy just to cuddle their babies, but Janis forces herself to keep going.

“Kind of, but medicine won’t fix it this time,” Janis says quietly. “I just need cuddles and sleep.”

“Wha’s wrong?” Leo asks, unfortunately curious. How do you explain depression to some barely two year olds? Cady thinks for a second before she tries to explain.

“You girls know how Aunt Reggie is a doctor? And she talks to people who are sad or scared or mad a lot, to help them feel better?” Cady begins. Both twins look her way and nod. “Some of the people Aunt Reggie talks to have something called depression. That’s a tough word, can you say it?”

Both girls try, sounding closer to ‘press in’ than anything else.

“Yeah, good job! But Mommy has depression too. Sometimes it makes her sad, or sometimes angry, or scared. Today it’s just making her really tired. But she’ll feel better soon, and then she can play with you again.”

“I can fissit?” Layla asks, wanting her mommy to be better now.

“You can’t fix it this time, Ladybug,” Cady says sadly. “But we can help Mommy feel better by giving her cuddles and letting her rest. We love her bunches, huh?”

Both girls nod and cuddle in again, trying to squeeze every ounce of love for their mommy into the snuggles. Layla even leans in to leave a wet, but sweet kiss on her forehead. “Mmmmwah!”

“Thank you, girls,” Janis says with a weak chuckle. “What did you have for breakfast?”

Cady knows that the twins are going to talk for a while, which buys her some time to track down a babysitter. She pulls out her phone and is about to shoot off a text to Damian before she remembers that he’s out of town visiting family. Aaron went with him, so that just leaves the Plastics. Oh boy. It’s worth a shot.

spacecadet: Hey is there any way you guys could take the smalls for the day?? Janis is having a depressive episode and I need to be able to take care of her

georgewashington: Are you sure you want us to? What about Damian?

spacecadet: He’s out of town for the week. I wouldn’t ask if I wasn’t desperate, I know you’re still sorta wary of them

georgewashington: I just don’t want to hurt them, or make you guys upset. Janis would never forgive me if something happened to them because of me.

spacecadet: Regina, you don’t have to worry about stuff like that. Unless it was something major we could never be mad. And Janis does trust you, she’s just protective

georgewashington: If you’re sure, we can take them. Gretchen’s working from home today, so we’ll all be here. What should I do?

spacecadet: Oh, thank you so much!! All they’ll really need from you guys is somewhere to nap and someone to play with. I’ll pack them some toys and things they’ll need and I can drop them off

spacecadet: Just maybe hide anything stainable, breakable, or expensive :/ they are toddlers

georgewashington: Okay, I’ll prep what I can. See you soon.

spacecadet: Thank you so much, Regina!!

Cady switches her phone back off and rolls out of the bed. Once she’s changed out of her pajamas, she goes to get her babies. “Okay girls, should we go get dressed?”

Layla crawls over when she reaches out, but Leo doesn’t want to leave Janis.

“Wha’bout Mommy?” She asks sadly.

“We can come see Mommy again for a little bit when you’re done, Mama will go fast,” Cady coaxes. Leo thinks for a second before she also comes to be picked up. “Yeah, there we go.”

Cady carries both babies back down the hall to their bedroom and sticks both in Leo’s crib to keep them contained.

“Do you want to match or dress different today, pumpkins?” She asks, rooting through their dresser for some outfits.

“Mash,” both twins say at the same time. Cady chuckles and pulls out two of everything she needs. Two green shirts, two pairs of soft black jeans, two pairs of socks. Layla reaches for her first this time, so she heads to scoop her out and rests her on the ground in front of her.

Layla giggles when Cady pops her shirt over her head and surprises her with a kiss on the other side. Cady smiles back until they reach the socks, which are always a struggle. Luckily for her, Layla cooperates and is quickly dressed and subbed out for Leo.

Cady repeats the process on her second daughter before she heads to their closet to grab the finishing touches. Two tiny pairs of white high top converse that match her own, and two of the jean jackets Janis painted to match her old ones. These have teddy bears on the back, which are absolutely adorable.

“Mommy painted these for you while you two were still in my tummy,” Cady says, resting them on the rail of Leo’s crib.

“In you tummy?” Leo asks interestedly. Cady nods and carries them both to see the pictures on their bulletin board. That’s a more recent addition to the room, and full of pictures of all the people important to the twins.

Cady points to one of her maternity photos, specifically at her belly. “You two were in here. That’s where you grew for a while.”

They both look curiously at the photo, then down at their own tummies. “How we come out?”

“Um… we can talk about that another day, let’s go do your hair,” Cady says quickly. Before the twins can say anything else she carries them into the bathroom and pops them down on the counter. She gives them each a comb to play with and then sprays them down with some detangling hairspray, brushing their dark curls out to a more manageable state.

She splits Leo’s down the middle and ties hers in space buns on top of her head, then gives Layla one ponytail so the Plastics can tell them apart more easily.

“I have a surprise for you, girls,” Cady says as she roots through the basket for some hair bows, per Leo’s request. They both perk up at the mention of a surprise and look to her interestedly. “You guys get to go to Aunt Reggie’s house today, isn’t that cool?”

“Aunt Weggie house?” Layla asks curiously. They’ve never been to Aunt Reggie’s house, Uncle D is their usual babysitter.

“Yeah! You get to go play with her and Aunt GG and Auntie Karen and Nutmeg,” Cady says, clipping the green bows to their hair ties.

“Wow,” Leo says excitedly. Cady laughs and picks them up again to carry them back to Janis.

“Mommy,” Layla calls happily, running back to Janis’ side of the bed. Janis helps her back up for another round of cuddles. “We go Aunt Weggie house!”

Leo wriggles her way up again as well, and Janis grabs her for snuggles too. Once she has her babies safely back in her hold, she raises a suspicious eyebrow at her wife.

“Just for the day, they’ll be fine,” Cady groans. “Damian’s still out of town and I want to be able to give you my full attention.”

Janis shrugs and brings her daughters up for some kisses, making them both giggle in delight. Cady takes the time to go pack some supplies for the girls while Janis has them occupied.

She packs enough diapers to last them each a week, some extra clothes in case of disaster, a few of their favorite small toys and activities, their pacifiers, and their stuffies. They already have sippy cups and other dishes there, since Damian insisted on buying everyone some just in case there was ever an emergency and they had to babysit. Turns out it was a great idea.

When Cady brings the jackets, backpacks, and shoes back into the bedroom to finish getting her daughters ready, she finds Leo carefully stroking her little hands through Janis’ hair, while Layla sits on Janis’ belly and is thoroughly explaining all the things she wants to do at her aunts’ house.

She chuckles at the precious sight before she enters the room and snatches Layla up for tickles and kisses. Layla shrieks in surprise, but quickly starts laughing and trying to push her away. Cady carefully rests her down and gets her tiny shoes on, and Janis grins when she sees the cute jacket Cady tugs onto Layla’s arms.

Leo goes next, giggling anxiously and curling into Janis for protection as Cady looms ominously overhead. She squeals when she’s snatched up by the mama claw and brought in for her round of kisses and tickles. Once her shoes and jacket are on, it’s time for them to go.

“Okay girls, give Mommy hugs, we gotta go,” she says quietly. Janis grunts slightly as both twins jump on top of her for one last cuddle before they head off.

“Bye girls,” Janis whispers. “I love you.”

“Luh you, Mommy!” Both twins call at the same time. Janis chuckles and kisses them one last time before Cady scoops them up and rests them on the ground.

“Get some rest, love,” Cady murmurs, bending down to kiss her wife. “I’ll be back soon, text me if you need anything.”

Janis nods and curls back into bed. Cady flips the light off on their way out and follows the twins to the car.

—————-

“Whoa,” both twins say when they see the apartment building. Cady realizes she probably should have explained that their aunties don’t live in the whole thing.

“Big house,” Leo says slightly anxiously. Cady chuckles and picks them both up to carry them in.

“Your aunties live here with other people,” Cady explains. “There’s a bunch of little houses in the building that other families live in.”

Cady carries them past the main desk and to the elevators. Leo gets to push the button to call it, and then Layla pushes the button to get up to the right floor.

“Can you knock?” Cady asks, since both her hands are full. Both of them helpfully rap their little fists against the door. “Good job. There’s Auntie Karen!”

“Hey!” Karen says happily. “Come in!”

Cady enters and sets the twins down. Layla toddles off immediately, making a beeline for Nutmeg.

“Dog, dog, dog,” she says happily on her way. “Doggy! I pet, p’ease?”

“Yes, you can pet her,” Karen chuckles. “Hi Leo.”

“Hi,” Leo replies quietly, pressing against Cady’s leg with a heartbreaking pout. Leo’s always been her anxious one, and is clearly frightened at the prospect of facing a new environment all alone.

Cady crouches down to comfort her, stroking some stray hairs away from her baby’s face. “You’re gonna be okay, Bee. Aunt Reggie and Aunt GG and Aunt Karen are gonna play with you, Mama put all your toys in your backpack. And you have Georgie in there too, he’ll give you cuddles if you get scared. And then you get to take your nap, and probably have lunch.”

“Wha’ lunch?” Leo asks.

“I don’t know, we’ll have to see what they have for you, but I bet it’ll be so yummy,” Cady says. “But you’re gonna be safe, little love. Your aunties will protect you, and they can call or text me on my phone if you need me. And I’ll be back to get you in a while, okay?”

“Okay Mama,” Leo says.

“That’s my brave girl,” Cady says happily, pecking her forehead and standing up. “Oh, there’s Aunt GG!”

Leo runs over immediately for a hug. She and Gretchen have a special bond, which Cady is always happy to see. Regina pops out of the kitchen too, upon hearing the commotion that the twins bring everywhere they go.

“Aww,” she coos when she sees Leo cuddled up with her girlfriend. She comes over to Cady to urgently ask, “Which one is that?”

“Leo,” Cady chuckles. “She has space buns, Layla has a ponytail.”

“Got it,” Regina says. She looks down when she feels something tug on her pant leg. “Oh, hi Layla.”

“Hi!” Layla says excitedly. Regina just looks at her for a second, not totally sure what to do. Layla reaches to be picked up, so Regina bends down and scoops her off the floor.

“I should get back to Janis soon,” Cady says. “I’ll have my phone, you can text or call if anything comes up.”

“Sounds good,” Gretchen says, still holding Leo. She sets her down for a second and says, “Go say bye to your mama.”

Regina sets Layla down too, and both twins run to give Cady a goodbye hug and kiss.

“Mwah. I love you, girls. Be good, I’ll be back to get you later,” Cady says, kissing both of their foreheads and holding them close before releasing them back. “Have fun!”

—-

Regina notices Leo hunch in on herself a little bit and look around anxiously when Cady leaves. Layla is fine and very occupied trying to play with a lazy Nutmeg. Regina still doesn’t quite know how to handle the twins, but Leo is clearly frightened. She knows how to deal with that.

She heads over and crouches down in front of her, but leaves some distance so Leo doesn’t feel crowded. “Hi, honey. Can you show me what you have in your backpack?”

Leo nods and sits down across from her, removing her little backpack and resting it on the ground in front of her. “Help p’ease?”

“Okay,” Regina says, undoing the zipper for her. “What do you have there?” Leo reaches in and carefully pulls out her stuffed giraffe. “Who’s that?”

“Georgie,” Leo says quietly. “He gi’affe.”

“That’s so cool,” Regina says. “Should we show Georgie around so he knows where everything is?”

Leo nods, so Regina stands and picks up the baby to give her a little tour. Leo holds tightly to her stuffed friend and looks around curiously.

“This is the kitchen,” Regina says. She lets Leo look around at all the things on the walls, giving her time to adjust. When Leo looks back to her, they move on. “And this is the living room.” Leo’s seen this, it’s where the entryway leads to and where Layla is currently playing with Karen and Gretchen. She looks around for a short while before she’s ready to move on. “And this is the office, this is where we do our work, and over there is the bathroom.”

“Where sleep?” Leo asks, so Regina shows her the two bedrooms.

“This is where Aunt GG and Aunt Karen and I sleep, and then this is the bedroom for when we have people come sleep over,” Regina says. Leo looks around curiously before giving a nod. “What do you think?”

“Big,” Leo says. Regina chuckles and nods.

“It is pretty big. Oh, do you want to see something fun?”

Leo nods interestedly, so Regina carries her to see the axolotls in the tank in their bedroom.

“Fishy!” Leo says excitedly, pointing to the tank. “Ooh.”

“They’re called axolotls,” Regina explains. Leo tries to say it, but it just sounds more like ‘blelele’. “Yeah, close enough!”

“Name?” Leo asks, looking curiously at the strange creatures. Regina holds her at a different angle so she can see better and points to each one.

“This one is named Versace, and this is Gucci,” she says. “And then waaaaay back here is Louboutin The Second.”

Leo giggles. “Silly name.”

“They are, just a little,” Regina agrees. “Okay, let’s go find your sister, hm?” Leo nods, so they head back to the living room. Layla has finally been satisfied with the amount of doggy cuddles she’s been given and left the poor creature alone. She’s now busy explaining her toys to Gretchen and Karen.

Gretchen looks up when they come back, and smiles when she sees Leo cuddled into Regina’s shoulder. “Do you wanna come play?”

Leo nods, so Regina sets her down and lets her run over to her twin and their toys. Regina jumps a little when she feels an arm slide gently around her waist to rub that one spot on her lower back, and a sweet peck pressed to her neck.

“You’re really good with her,” Gretchen whispers. “It’s cute.”

Regina shakes her head and pulls her closer. “I’m not. I just know how to calm people down. I don’t even know how to play with them.”

“Just try,” Gretchen says quietly, kissing her cheek gently and heading back over. Regina watches as Karen and Gretchen play legos with the twins, building masterpieces and then taking them apart to make new ones. Gretchen makes it sound so simple, just try. But Regina wouldn’t even know where to begin.

So she just watches. Leo sits on Karen’s lap and builds her creations, and Layla stands in between the couch and the coffee table in order to make hers. Regina takes a sneaky picture of Leo explaining her tower to Karen.

“Aww,” she coos quietly when she sees how it came out.

“Send that to Janis, she’d like that,” Gretchen chuckles.

Layla looks over at her curiously. “Aunt GG?”

“Yeah?”

“Who… um… Janis?” Layla asks, lisping the end but managing to get the sound out.

“Janis is your mommy, that’s her name,” Gretchen explains.

“No,” Leo says with a head shake, joining their discussion.

“No?”

“Mommy name… uhm… love,” Leo explains. The Plastics all fight to contain a coo, looking at each other.

“Mommy’s name is love?” Karen asks. Both twins nod. “And what’s your mama’s name?”

Janis tends to switch between nicknames for Cady more often, so they’re curious to see what her ‘name’ is.

“Baby,” Layla says.

“No,” Leo disagrees. “Mama Bullaf’y.”

“I don’t know.” Layla says eventually.

“That’s okay,” Regina chuckles. “You’ll learn it soon.”

—————

“Hey, Jay, how you feeling?” Cady asks gently as she heads back into her bedroom. Janis groans quietly when she flips the light on. “You know it gets worse if you just sit here in the dark all day. You need light. You’re like a plant.”

Janis pouts at her. Cady kicks off her shoes and crawls back in next to her for a snuggle.

“The girls are fine, the Plastics seemed really excited,” she says quietly. “It’s kind of nice, isn’t it? Just us for a day.”

Janis nods. They both love their daughters more than the world, but it is nice to have a break from time to time. Even if the circumstances surrounding it are less than ideal.

Cady’s phone dings in her pocket, so she fishes it out to see who’s messaging her.

“Speak of the devil. Aww,” she chuckles, holding it so Janis can see.

reginald: Sent a picture: Play time

reginald: Also, just thought we’d let you know, they don’t know your names.

spacecadet: Really?

reginald: They can’t decide if yours is baby or butterfly, and they think Janis’ name is love.

spacecadet: Oh my goodness

reginald: It’s actually really cute. Gretch said to send that picture to Janis and Layla didn’t know who that was.

spacecadet: At least they don’t think our names are mama and mommy anymore. Are you guys still good?

reginald: Yeah, everything’s good. Leo just needed a little tour and now she’s all settled in. And Layla and Nutmeg are best buds.

spacecadet: Haha, poor pooch. She’s always after Daffy and Ellie too

reginald: Oh, Nutmeg loves it. She just gets to lay there and be cuddled, it’s her dream come true.

spacecadet: Well you guys can have the twins anytime so she can get her snuggle seshes in

reginald: Sounds like a plan, I’ll let Nutmeg know. We’ll probably keep sending you stuff, too.

spacecadet: Please do, you guys are so good with them. Thanks again <3

reginald: Of course.

Janis chuckles as she reads over their conversation too. Cady cuddles her closer and pecks her forehead.

“Did you eat?” She asks. Janis shakes her head. “Okay. I’m gonna go get you something, I’ll be right back.”

Janis pouts again, so Cady leans down to kiss her a few times before she leaves. Janis grins contently and settles deeper in under the covers.

——————

Karen continues playing with the twins for a few hours, and Regina stays to watch. Gretchen has some new designs to work on and heads into the office for some quiet.

Regina’s making progress with the twins, eventually even coloring a picture with them once they pull out some crayons and paper. They both eagerly compliment her drawing of a rabbit.

It’s almost relaxing, in a strange way. Karen makes conversation with everyone as she draws a duck, and the twins seem to be warming up even more to the environment.

Relaxing until Layla suddenly snatches the same crayon Leo wanted to add another beautiful scribble to her page. Leo whines a, “Hey!” and scrambles to take it back. Layla shrieks and holds it out of her reach, and suddenly they’re both in tears.

Karen and Regina look to each other in concern at the two little tantrum tornados they now have to deal with, and each gently pick up a twin so they can’t reach each other. Karen looks very anxious as Leo thrashes in her hold and releases a shriek that so loud they can’t quite figure out how such a small person managed it. Apparently quiet little Leo is actually the screamer of the two.

Layla seems to be more physical, wriggling to be put down so she can get back at her sister. Regina refuses to let her down, knowing it’ll only get worse if she does. Time for some desperate measures.

She manages to carry a wiggling and screaming toddler into the kitchen in one arm, doing a strange sort of fireman’s carry. It works well enough. She grabs two of the sippy cups they have and fills them with some cold water.

Karen is now holding Leo as far away as she possibly can, trying desperately to keep her grip as Leo kicks and shrieks like a banshee in her hold.

“Good lord,” Regina murmurs under her breath. “Hey!”

Her tone isn’t mean, or harsh, just loud. Both twins briefly stop their antics to look at her, knowing they might be in some serious trouble here.

She hands Karen one of the cups to give to Leo. “I need both of you to take some big drinks for me, okay? You’re gonna run out of tears to cry, we have to give you more.”

They both take their cups with a very serious look in their eye and drink a good bit of their water. They don’t want to run out of tears, that would be bad.

“Good job,” Regina congratulates when they pull away with a gasp. It’s a trick she was taught in college, that actually regulates their breathing and helps calm people down in intense moments. “Now you’re gonna take a nap. And we can have a talk when you wake up.”

For safety, they decide to keep them apart. Layla gets set up for her nap in the master bedroom, and Leo in the guest room. They make little barriers with pillows so they don’t fall out of bed and give them the best blankets, then leave them with their stuffed animals, pacifiers, and cups of water to rest.

“Fucking hell,” Regina breathes when she shuts the door to where Leo is resting. “Where do they get the energy for that?”

“Revenge is a big deal for toddlers,” Karen shrugs. “They don’t like when things aren’t fair.”

“Christ,” Regina sighs, sitting down and rubbing her temples. Karen sits down as well. “They’re so sweet, usually, what-what happened?”

“I know what you’re thinking, and no it’s not,” Karen responds. Regina looks at her in shock, wondering how she could’ve possibly known. “It’s not your fault, and you’re not a bad aunt. Do you know how impressive what you just did is? You got two toddlers to stop having a tantrum. That’s, like, really special.”

“But they only started getting upset when I started playing with them. All I can do is… stop them crying or whatever,” Regina grumbles. “I don’t know how to interact with them, or-or play with them.”

“They were upset because they were overtired,” Karen hushes, letting Regina lean onto her shoulder. “We just should’ve had them nap sooner, that’s all. But you’re really special, you know.”

“Hmm?”

“You treat them like people,” Karen says quietly. “That’s, like, super rare. You showed Leo around when she got here instead of just making her go play, and you helped them calm down instead of yelling at them for being too loud or whatever. That’s what’ll help them the most.”

Regina gives a noncommittal hum and accepts the comfort offered by her girlfriend.

“And even if you don’t really play with them that much, they still like you,” Karen continues. “You still talk to them, and give them cool stuff. Playing isn’t the only way to interact with them.”

“I guess,” Regina agrees. “You’re good with them too.”

“They’re easy!” Karen says happily. “But I’m still a kid at heart, I guess. They’re easy for me to relate to, or whatever.”

Regina chuckles. “I can see that. You’ve always been the fun one.”

“Thanks,” Karen laughs back. “You okay now?”

“Yeah. Thank you, honey,” Regina says quietly, leaning in for a quick kiss. “I love you.”

Karen beams, it’s quite rare that Regina says ‘I love you’ first. “I love you too.”

——————

Leo wakes up from her nap first. Gretchen had been hiding in the study throughout the crayon debacle, leaving it to her girlfriends to handle. But the office is closer to the bedrooms, so she decides to be the one to go comfort Leo as she hears her start to cry.

“Hey, Leo lady, good morning,” she says gently. Leo scrambles down off the big bed she’s on and runs in for some comfort. “What happened?”

“Dark,” Leo whimpers, sniffling into Gretchen’s shoulder. “‘N big. Scared.”

“Aww, I’m sorry, sweetheart,” Gretchen hushes. “You don’t need to be scared, nothing here can hurt you. See?”

Leo nods in relief when she flips the light back on. “T’ank you.”

“Of course, honey. I think Karen is making lunch, are you hungry?” Gretchen asks, shutting the light back off and carrying her back into the kitchen. Leo nods and rubs her eyes blearily. She’s not quite awake yet.

“Hey, Leo,” Regina says quietly. “Good morning.”

“Hi,” Leo yawns. Regina chuckles gently.

“Do you feel better?”

Leo nods again. “Wha’ lunch?”

“I don’t know, we have a lot of things here,” Regina answers. “What would you like?”

Leo shrugs, so Gretchen carries her in to see her lunch options. Karen looks up from her sandwich when she hears them come in. “Hey, kiddo! Did you have a good nap?”

Leo nods with a little smile. “Auntie Kawen lunch?”

“Yeah! I’m having a sandwich, do you want one?” Karen asks. Leo nods. “Okay, what kind?”

Leo wiggles a little bit, so Gretchen sets her down to go look at the options. She and Karen both chuckle as Leo picks a large jar of peanut butter out of the cabinet and hands it to Karen.

“Dis p’ease,” she says. Karen takes it from her and unscrews the lid.

“Okay, do you want jelly in it too?”

“No t’ank you.”

“Okay, good job! I’ll bring it to you in a second,” Karen says. Leo runs back to Gretchen to spend some time together while they wait on lunch.

When they head back to the living room, Regina is gone. Leo looks around in confusion until she comes back with her twin. Regina beckons her over, so Leo lets go of Gretchen’s hand and heads over to her other aunt.

Regina sets Layla down next to her. “Do you two feel better now?” They both nod. “Good. Being angry like that is no fun, huh?” They both shake their heads. “Say sorry for fighting, then we can go play again.”

“Sorry Leo,” Layla says sheepishly.

“Sorry Lala,” Leo replies, wrapping her twin in a hug. Layla hugs her back for a second, popping up on her tippy toes to squeeze her sister.

“Sorry Aunt Weggie,” Layla adds. “Fer sc’eaming.” Leo nods to agree.

“Thank you for your apology, girls. Layla, let’s go pick your lunch and then you can play some more,” Regina says, picking them both back up and carrying them to the kitchen.

“There they are,” Gretchen says when they return. “Leo, your sandwich is ready, do you want something to drink with it?”

Leo nods and heads over to see what they have in the fridge, while Layla goes to Karen to pick her meal. She also just picks a sandwich and is quickly released to go pick her own beverage. Leo chooses apple juice, and Layla picks milk.

Surprisingly, each twin finishes about half of her sandwich. Karen helps them down off their chairs and releases them back to the living room for more playing. Leo dives right in and pulls out a small puzzle she brought, pulling out all the animals and trying to work out where they go again. Layla does her own for a while, but gets bored pretty quickly.

So she decides to go on a short adventure. Her Aunt GG disappeared into a room a while ago, so Layla heads off to find her.

Gretchen turns when she hears noises at the glass door to the office, spinning around in her chair to find Layla on her tippy toes trying to reach the doorknob. It takes a few tries, but she manages to open it and toddles into the room victoriously.

“Hi GG!” She chirps happily. Gretchen laughs and beckons her over.

“Hi Layla. What are you up to?” She chuckles, pulling her into her lap and re-doing Layla’s ponytail since it got messed up during her nap. Layla seems delighted to be sitting at the big desk where her aunties do their work.

“Lolo do puzzle,” Layla explains. “Don’t wan’ to.”

“Aww. That’s okay, do you wanna help me with a few things?” Gretchen replies. Layla nods eagerly, so Gretchen wheels them closer to the desk and pulls over a design she’s working on for a client.

“Ooh,” Layla says. “P’etty.”

“Thank you,” Gretchen chuckles. “I have to draw it first, and then I make it a real dress people can wear later.” Layla looks at her in awe. “I know, right? Here, help me with this. What color should I make these flowers here?”

Layla suddenly feels a massive amount of responsibility weigh on her two year old shoulders. This is very important. “Uhm… uh… lellow.”

“Yellow?” Gretchen asks. “That would be really pretty, actually, good job! Yellow would look nice with the blue here. Good pick!”

Layla gives a happy little wiggle on her lap, and watches eagerly as Gretchen sketches the flowers in with a yellow pencil.

“Aunt GG?” Layla pipes up as Gretchen moves onto another area.

“Yeah?”

“Me too?” Layla says. “P’ease?”

Gretchen chuckles. “You want a dress?” Layla nods. “Okay, we can try that. Here.”

She sketches out another model, with about the same proportions as Layla.

“Here, stand up, that’ll make this easier. How long should we make the skirt?” Gretchen asks, popping Layla onto her feet and crouching down in front of her. She points to her ankle, just below her knee, and just above her knee. “Which one?”

Layla looks at her legs for a long moment before she points above her knee. Gretchen smiles and nods.

“That’s what I would have picked too. And should it go out big or be closer to your body?” Gretchen asks, demonstrating where each type would fall. Layla picks a big poofy skirt. “Oh, yeah. You got some good style, chica. Now the sleeves, where should they go?”

Layla watches as Gretchen points to her wrist, just above her elbow, and her shoulder. She points to her shoulder when Gretchen takes her hand away and giggles as Gretchen tickles her.

“Okay, come see,” Gretchen says, picking her back up and resting her on her lap again. Layla smiles happily when she sees the form of the dress. “Now we get to pick what colors and patterns it has. What’s your favorite color?”

“Uhm… g’een,” Layla replies, pointing to her t-shirt. Gretchen grabs two different greens that would look good with a dress this shape, one closer to an emerald and the other a lighter fern sort of shade.

“Which green?” She asks, holding them in front of Layla. Layla picks the lighter one. “Ooh, yeah.” Gretchen carefully makes the skirt green, a plan for fabrics already starting to come together in her mind. “Now what should we do with the top bit?”

“Uh…” Layla says. “Sparkledy.”

“Sparkly? I didn’t even think of that,” Gretchen hums. She pencils it in the same color and adds marks to make sure she knows the bodice should be sequined. “You could be a designer too, Lala, look at this cool dress we drew!”

Layla giggles and looks proudly at the drawing. “Now make it?”

“I can’t make it right now, but yeah, soon! All my stuff to make it is at my work,” Gretchen explains. “Here, let’s take a picture to show your moms, they’re gonna be so proud of you.”

Layla smiles when Gretchen holds her phone up for a selfie, and laughs as her auntie kisses her cheek with an exaggerated smooch sound. “Cheeeese.”

————-

Cady reaches an arm out of the bath she’s dragged her wife into taking when her phone pings with a text. She carefully unlocks it to find a few messages from Gretchen.

fetchen: Sent a picture: i have a new assistant!

spacecadet: Aww! She looks so happy <3

fetchen: Sent a picture: no, seriously, she designed this dress basically herself

fetchen: are you open to having the girls as models at some point?? i’m kind of thinking i should start a children’s line

“No,” Janis pipes up quietly, having read through the conversation as well.

“Not even for Gretchen? It’s not like it’s a huge company. And how cute would they be in outfits like that?” Cady pleads. She’s wary of the idea as well, but knows Gretchen would handle everything safely.

Janis considers this aspect, and has to admit her daughters would make excellent models. Maybe she can make an exception for Gretchen. “Fine.”

spacecadet: You should, we’ll buy all your designs

spacecadet: And if they’re into the idea I don’t see why they couldn’t model for you. Layla loves a camera

fetchen: haha i’ll have to get Gina to take some pics of her then! she’s been looking for a way to connect with them anyway

spacecadet: Aww, how sweet. They love all of you

fetchen: that’s what I keep trying to tell her! anyway, I should probably get back to work with Lala. tell Janis I say hi!!

spacecadet: Of course!! Thank you <3

Janis nuzzles into her neck as she flicks the phone back off and sighs, in a mix of exhaustion and contentment.

“Layla must take after you,” Cady murmurs. “Little artist.”

Janis grins gently against her. “We’ll see.”

—————

“There you are,” Regina says as she enters the office to find Layla with Gretchen. “What are you two up to?”

“GG make d’esses!” Layla says happily. “I helpin’.”

“Oh, you’re the best helper,” Regina responds. Layla beams at her. “What did you do?”

Gretchen smiles too as Regina tips her head up and kisses her forehead, then starts gently looking through the designs. Gretchen pulls out the one she designed with Layla’s help and shows it to her.

“She did this pretty much herself,” she says. “And now I kind of want to start a children’s line.”

“You should,” Regina says. “You could make little matching ones of the adult designs you do. Have, like, a mommy and me line. I’d buy that and we don’t even have kids.”

“That’s a good idea,” Gretchen hums. “I’ll think about it more later. We’ve done enough work for today, let’s go play!”

Regina chuckles as Layla runs out of the room when Gretchen sets her down, her little ponytail bouncing behind her.

“You two are cute together,” she murmurs. “You’d make a good mom.”

“So would you,” Gretchen says, wrapping her arms around her waist. Regina shakes her head and tries to move away, but Gretchen refuses to let her go. “No, look at me.” She gently cups Regina’s chin and makes her look into her eyes. “If you wanted to, you would make a wonderful mother. You’re not your dad. You’ve made so much progress, sweetheart.”

Regina flushes at the pet name and buries her face in the crook of Gretchen’s neck. “We’ll talk about it?”

“Yeah,” Gretchen agrees quietly. “Always. Whenever you want, we’ll talk about it. You know you can always talk to us?”

Regina nods. “You know too?”

“Yeah,” Gretchen murmurs. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” Regina whispers, unfortunately having to pull away from one of her favorite places, since her spine is beginning to ache at being hunched over to cuddle her smaller girlfriend. “We should probably go save Karen.”

Gretchen laughs and takes her hand, leading her back out to the living room.

—-

A short while later, Regina half-watches Karen giving the twins ‘airplane rides’ around the apartment, weaving around the furniture and in and and out of rooms. She’s also half-watching her Tiktok feed for the day. Hmm.

She brings up her text thread with Cady to ask a very important question.

Cady peeks at her phone when it chimes, picking it up from the bathroom counter to see the message. She laughs when she sees what it is, and heads back to the living room where Janis is lethargically sprawled on the couch.

“Regina wants to know if she can put the babies on Tiktok,” she giggles.

“Absolutely not,” Janis grumbles.

“Oh come on, grumpy pants,” Cady coaxes, turning their show back on and dimming the lights a bit. “Some of them are cute, and Gretchen says she’s having a hard time connecting with them. She said she’d send them to me for us to check before she posts them. Please?”

Janis does kind of want to see how her daughters react to a few of the trends she’s seen, and knows she’s wary of the idea simply because she still has a hard time trusting Regina. So, begrudgingly, “Maybe.”

Cady grins and kisses her hair, and they wait for the videos to come in.

They only have to wait a few minutes before the first one comes through. Cady pauses their show again and waits for Janis to turn onto her back on top of her, then brings up the video so they can both see.

Layla and Leo sit side by side on a very nice couch, their little socked feet not even making it to the end of the cushion. Regina hands each one a little gift bag, and they both tear in to see what present they’ve gotten. Layla gasps excitedly when she pulls out a banana.

“A ‘nana!” She says happily. Leo pulls out one of her own and looks at it in confusion. “Leo, we got ‘nanas! Aunt Weggie, open p’ease?”

Leo’s eyes go wide and and she gives an excited gasp when she realizes she actually has one of her favorite fruits in her hand, and asks for hers to be opened in sign language. Regina laughs and peels both bananas. Each girl takes theirs back and munches happily on it while the video closes. Just before it cuts, they both say a muffled, “T’ank you!” around their bites.

Cady and Janis both laugh, and Cady sends back a message to explain that they usually give them their bananas pre-peeled, so that’s why Leo didn’t recognize it.

The next video comes through a few minutes later. Leo and Layla have finished their bananas and are still on the couch. Regina enters the room filming, rests her phone on the coffee table, and leaves the room.

It takes a second for them to notice, but Layla clocks the phone first. She rolls onto her tummy and slides off the couch before going to pick it up. She sees herself on the screen and pauses for a second to smile at her reflection before she goes running to find her auntie in the kitchen. The background moves wildly as Layla pokes her little tongue out in her concentration, and the rhythmic little thumps of her footsteps can be heard.

“Aunt Weggie!” She calls happily when she finds her. “You left you phone!”

“I left my phone?” Regina says in fake shock. Layla toddles over and gives it back. “Oh, thank you! You’re very responsible.”

The camera flips around to show Layla wrapped around Regina’s legs, giving a wide smile up at her just before it cuts.

“Aww,” Cady coos. “We’ve trained them well.”

“She’s so cute,” Janis chuckles, tapping the video to play it again.

The next one features Leo, sitting on Regina’s lap in the kitchen. Regina explains that Leo had asked for a drink and they’re going to see how well she can pour it herself. A small glass is put in front of the toddler, and she’s offered a bottle of almond milk.

Leo takes the bottle carefully and tips it over the glass, slowly pouring some into the cup. She has the right motions, but quickly gets carried away and fills the cup too much. It spills over onto the counter, and Regina quickly grabs the bottle to stop it. Both Leo and Regina pull the same face, wide eyes and lips pressed into a thin line as they look into the camera.

“Oh no,” Leo says. “Needa towel, p’ease.”

Someone else, most probably Gretchen, hands over some paper towels, and Leo carefully swipes it over the counter to clean up her mess.

“There we go,” she says, sounding more like ‘dairy doe’.

“Good job!” Regina congratulates as Leo ever so carefully picks up her very full cup of milk and takes a sip. Regina helps her get down off her lap, and a ‘T’ank you!’ can be faintly heard. “You’re welcome!”

“Oh goodness,” Cady laughs. “At least she cleaned up after herself. Poor Regina.”

“And she’s polite,” Janis chuckles quietly. “Her sweet little voice.”

“We’re doing a good job,” Cady says quietly. “With them.”

Janis nods in agreement and scrolls back up to the video with the bananas.

It takes a long while for the next video to come through, and Regina explains that they’d taken a break to eat dinner (alfredo pasta) and then to clean said dinner off the twins. Layla had apparently taken a special liking to the meal and managed to get it in her hair, so that took some extra time.

But a video of two clean babies comes through. Regina is sitting on the ground wrapped in a fitted sheet so just her face is visible. Karen seems to be filming this time, and encourages the girls to go get their auntie. Leo seems a little concerned, but they both run over to Regina.

When they just make it, Regina suddenly opens the sheet and snatches both inside like a venus flytrap. They both scream in surprise, but their adorable giggles are quickly heard. The video cuts, and they both run into the trap again, and again, and again.

Another one comes through, and this time Gretchen is the one in the sheet. The twins don’t stop laughing the whole time, their giggles making a precious audio for the video. Just before it cuts, Gretchen is looking exhausted, but Leo calls a delighted “‘Gain!”

So, another one comes through with Karen in the sheet. The twins’ hair is frizzy and their cheeks are pink by this point. Cady is just glad they’re getting some energy out before bedtime.

Janis laughs gently at each video, wondering how she hasn’t thought of this. Apparently her daughters are easily entertained. “I miss them.”

“I miss them too,” Cady sighs. “I’ll need to go get them soon, though, it’s getting late.” An alert suddenly comes through her phone then, letting them know a thunderstorm is approaching. “Uh oh.”

“Maybe not,” Janis chuckles. “You shouldn’t drive in that.”

“But they freak out during storms,” Cady says anxiously. “Especially Leo. But I can’t get there before it hits.”

“She’ll be fine,” Janis comforts. “Regina can handle that.”

“I hope so.”

—————

Regina grins happily as she reads the comments for the videos she’s posted so far, everyone delighting in her precious nieces. She’s reading one that seems nearly distraught at how polite they are when a text comes through from Cady.

spacecadet: Hey, I just saw that a storm is coming. Jay doesn’t want me to drive in it but both of the girls get really scared

Regina checks her weather app and sees that a small but strong storm is rapidly approaching. She peeks out the window to find that the sky is already grey with dark clouds.

reginald: Yeah, you definitely shouldn’t drive. I think we can make it, you come when it stops.

spacecadet: Are you sure?? I know they’ll be fine but you shouldn’t have to deal with both of them screaming

reginald: Oh, it’s fine, we already have. There was a little incident before naptime. And scared babies are easy, we’ll be fine.

spacecadet: Incident?

reginald: Bad word choice. Both had a tantrum, they were tired and wanted the same crayon.

spacecadet: Oh goodness, I’m sorry

reginald: Cady, they’re two, it’s fine. We dealt with it and they’re fine. Is there anything you usually do with them during storms?

spacecadet: If you say so. If we know they’re coming we usually warn them, and if it’s really bad we hide in the basement so the noise is muffled. But you can do whatever you need to

reginald: Sounds like a plan. See you whenever it passes.

spacecadet: Thanks, Regina :)

“Girls!” Regina calls gently as she clicks her phone off. Leo and Layla come barreling down the hallway to her when they hear her call, and Gretchen and Karen quickly follow. Regina crouches down to the smalls’ height to explain the situation. “There’s a thunderstorm coming, but you don’t need to be scared. We can all have a storm party!”

“A pawty?” Leo says anxiously. She instinctively reaches for Layla’s hand, nervous at the prospect of a storm. Especially without Mama or Mommy there to comfort them.

“Yeah!” Regina says excitedly. “Come on, let’s get ready.”

Gretchen and Karen seem confused, but follow along with Regina’s plan. They open the curtains on one of the floor-to-ceiling windows so they can see out, and the twins helpfully grab all the couch cushions and pillows they can carry. Regina gets blankets, and they build a little fort in front of the window, held up by a lamp.

Regina, Gretchen, and Karen head inside, and the twins sit in between them to wait.

After a few minutes, the first flash of lightning lights up the dark sky. Both twins let out a whimper of fright and scream when a crack of thunder follows.

“Shh, it’s okay,” Gretchen comforts as they both bury their faces in her chest.

“Loud,” Leo whimpers.

“I know,” Gretchen hushes. “The storm can’t hurt you, it’s just a scary noise.”

“Let’s play a game,” Regina coaxes. Both twins peek their little faces out to see her. “Come here.” Anxiously, they both crawl into her lap and look out the window. “Let’s count.”

“Count?” Layla asks anxiously, jumping and letting out a squeak of fright at the next lightning.

“Yeah, let’s go,” Regina says, coaxing them to look. “One… two… three… four… five… oh, there’s the thunder!”

“Why count?” Leo asks, poking her face out when the booms stop.

“If we can count high that means the storm is far away,” Regina explains. “It’s gonna get closer, and then it’ll move away and be done. And we’re safe in here.”

She smiles as she sees the twins take some deep breaths to calm down and cuddle closer into her. They still jump when the lightning goes by, but this time they count with her.

“One… two… free… four… fibe,” they say anxiously. This time, they giggle when the thunder hits. Layla says, “I did it!”

“Did you make it thunder?” Regina chuckles. Both girls nod. “Good job. Oh, here we go, do it again!”

They only make it to three this time.

“Get close?” Leo asks curiously, looking to her aunties.

“Uhhuh,” Regina confirms. Karen and Gretchen switch to be on either side of her and cuddle in close with everyone. “It’s getting closer and then it’ll go away.”

A few more rounds go by where they get as high as three, and then they start only making it to one or two. Luckily, they don’t seem scared anymore. They look excited to be tracking the storm and making the thunder happen.

“Oh, we can count higher now, the storm is leaving,” Regina says happily. “You’re doing so good!”

Gradually, the rain slows and the storm dissipates. Leo and Layla look curiously out the window the whole time, and make no effort to leave Regina’s lap once the sun gently peeks out from the horizon, beginning to set for the day. Strangely, Regina finds herself not wanting to let them go, either.

Gretchen and Karen gently exit their little tent to get all the twins’ things packed back up, and find their shoes and jackets once again. Gretchen is just tying on the last little shoe when they hear a knock at the door.

“Who could that be, girls?” Karen says excitedly, also trying to stop Nutmeg from barking at it too much. “Go see!”

Both twins eagerly run down the hallway to the front door, and Leo stands on her tippy toes to open it.

“Mama!” They both call happily, wrapping each of their little bodies around one of her legs.

“Hi, sweet girls!” Cady says happily, bending to pick each of them up and kiss all over their little faces. “Oh, I missed you so much! What did you do today?”

Both girls immediately launch into a story, explaining in as much detail as they can the exciting events that happened with their aunties. Cady enters and shuts the door behind her as they rattle off their favorite parts.

“Really? Did you have so much fun?” Cady asks when they finally have explained everything they wanted to. They both nod eagerly. “Good. We have to go home now, can you go say thank you?”

Both twins wiggle to be set down and run back to their aunties, giving hugs and saying thank you for a fun day. Cady follows suit too, and grins as her daughters seem to linger for just a while longer with Regina.

“Thank you so much,” Cady says gratefully. “You guys are so good with them, thank you.”

“Anytime!” Karen says happily. “Bye girls!”

Both girls wave goodbye and call a, “Bye-bye!” over their mama’s shoulder as they’re carried out of the apartment and down to go home. Cady chuckles and kisses each forehead gently as she buckles them into their car seats.

——————

“Mommy, Mommy!” Both girls call happily when Cady unlocks the front door to let them in, toddling full speed down the hall and over to Janis on the couch. Cady stays behind for a second and gives a small grin at the wide smile her wife gets upon seeing their children.

“Hi, girls!” Janis says happily, sounding like she already has a bit of energy back. It usually takes her a minimum of a few days to recover from an episode, but she’s already making good progress through this one. “I missed you.”

“Miss Mommy too,” the twins say at the same time. Janis grins contently as they both worm their way up on top of her for a snuggle.

“Aww, my sweet girls,” Janis coos. “Did you have fun with your aunties?”

Cady rolls her eyes lovingly, knowing Janis just opened a whole can of worms for herself. At least she has enough time to go get the twins’ bedtime things ready for them while they explain their whole day to their mommy.

The twins apparently gave Janis an abridged version of the story, because when Cady comes back she finds them all silent. Both twins are cuddled into Janis’ chest, one little head on each of her shoulders. Janis has a hand resting on each of their backs, holding them close to her. Her eyes are closed contently, and she looks the most at peace Cady thinks she’s ever seen from her. She’s glad to see it.

She sneakily snaps a few pictures of her perfect little family before she does unfortunately have to break up the little cuddle party. “Alright, munchkins, it’s bedtime.”

“I can get them down,” Janis says quietly, opening her eyes when Cady kisses her forehead.

“If you want, of course,” Cady agrees. “I got their jammies ready and everything.”

Janis nods and picks up both of their sleepy girls, standing carefully and carrying them upstairs. Cady flops onto their bed and listens down the hall as Janis gets them into their pajamas, brushes their teeth and hair, and reads them some bedtime stories.

The end of story time is her cue, and she hauls herself up to go to the nursery to kiss their babies goodnight. Janis is hunched over and pressed against Leo’s little face, giving her her goodnight kisses and having their little nightly chat. Cady goes to Layla first.

“Did you have a good day today?” She whispers. Layla nods. “Good! What was your favorite part?”

“Uh… doggy,” Layla responds.

“You liked playing with Nutmeg?” Cady chuckles. “I bet she liked you too. What part did you not like?”

“Fundersto’m,” Layla says.

“I know, that must’ve been scary,” Cady replies. “But you made it through the whole thing even though you were scared! You were so brave, Ladybug.” Layla beams at her, and Cady smiles back. “Are we gonna have our best day tomorrow?” Layla nods again. “Good, get some good sleep so you’re ready for it.”

Cady leans down to kiss her forehead and down her little nose.

“Goodnight, my sweet little pumpkin, have sweet dreams,” Cady whispers. “I love you so much.”

“Luh you, Mama,” Layla says quietly, followed by a yawn.

Cady and Janis switch twins then, repeating their process on the other girl before turning on the white noise machine and nightlight, and leaving them to sleep.

—————

Across town, all three Plastics flop into bed early, exhausted after a very, very long day. It’s Regina’s turn in the middle, her favorite nights. She’d never admit it, but she loves having each of her girlfriends cuddled up on either side of her all night.

“We did good,” Gretchen yawns. Her girlfriends nod in agreement. “We… we should have a chat tomorrow.”

“Stop yawning, you’re making me yawn,” Regina grumbles. Gretchen chuckles and leans in for a kiss. Regina suddenly forgets her complaints and kisses her back.

“Ahem,” Karen coughs. Regina rolls her eyes lovingly, but flips over to give Karen some affection too. “Thank you.”

“I love you,” Regina whispers, kissing both of her girlfriends and cuddling in under the duvet.

“I love you too,” Gretchen murmurs, also kissing both of them before cuddling in on Regina’s right side.

“I love you three,” Karen says, getting her kisses in and settling in on Regina’s left. They say this every night, and still always giggle at ‘I love you three.’

They drift off tangled in each other, completely exhausted but completely content.

It takes a village.

---

hope you enjoyed!!

i’m still undecided on whether to give the plastics kids, which is why i left the ending sort of intentionally vague in that regard :))) so let me know!! if you guys want i can totally do a kid fic for them, or just give them a kid and not write about it. or not give them a kid!!! up to you guys!

im hoping to have requests re-opened by next week! I'm just finishing up some last little things here and there and then they should FINALLY be reopened bc its been forever omg. anyway!

thank you all so much for reading and have a lovely day!

lots of love,

ezzy

26 notes · View notes

the-demelza-robins · 3 years ago

Text

never understood you before (but i do now) part vi

guess who’s back!! and with the final chapter!! sorry for the wait, and hope you enjoy!

you can also read this on ao3

THANKSGIVING BREAK PASSES in a flurry of turkey, potatoes, and disapproving glances (courtesy of Petunia). When it finally comes to an end, standing next to her parents and waving halfheartedly at Vernon’s car as it backs out of the driveway, all Lily feels is relief.

The moment is short lived. “Lily, dishes,” Laurel says, more of a statement than a question. Lily sighs and walks back into the kitchen. She’s about ten minutes into the seemingly endless pile of plates and tupperware before her mother joins her.

“What did you think of Vernon?” Laurel asks, leaning against the kitchen doorframe. Lily pauses, faucet still running. She calculates. Honesty is not the solution here, but neither is an outright lie.

She settles on saying “I think they’re a good match” while sponging the pan she’s washing a little too aggressively.

Laurel hums. “Petunia’s always been more — conscientious of the future. It’s one of my favorite things about her. She plans and she plans and she plans.”

She’s planning with Vernon, Lily translates. Her future is safe with Vernon.

“I think there are some things you can’t plan,” Laurel continues, smiling slightly. “Your father and I… never in my wildest dreams would I have predicted marrying him. I just — I just worry for Petunia, that she won’t be able to experience that.”

Silence, except for the faucet.

Lily clears her throat. She wishes she could respond I worry for Petunia, too, but the fact is that she and Petunia have never been close, not since they were children, not since — well, not since Severus. In the dim recesses of her mind, Lily can scrounge up some happy memories of her sister — shared Halloween costumes, Petunia’s protective stance on the playground — but they’re both rare and fleeting. Petunia is Petunia, and Lily is Lily, and the former will forever disapprove of the latter in the way that only sisters can. She can’t vocalize this truth, though — even if her mother already knows. Instead: “I think Petunia doesn’t want anything to be unpredictable. I think she’d hate falling in love with someone unexpected.”

Laurel nods, standing up a little straighter. “What about you?”

“What about me?”

“You’ve been branching out this year. I know you don’t tell me everything, but the Parents’ Association moms are very chatty. I never would have imagined you with Roger Davies, that’s all. I was surprised.”

Lily knows that she’s started to blush, but she can’t stop. She and her mother never talk about these things. “I really don’t think I’m in love with Roger, if that’s what you’re getting at, Mom,” she says, thinking of the last time she really spoke with him. The last yearbook meeting, maybe? Anything they’d had had fizzled out after that first date, after she’d somewhat clumsily executed a slow fade. “I haven’t even spoken to him recently.”

“Well, I guess I’m behind the times. Want to catch me up? Anything going on lately?”

“No,” she says, more forcefully. “Nothing.” Inexplicably, Lily pictures James, sitting on the kitchen counter just days ago. She pushes the thought down — she must have had too much wine at dinner, to be randomly thinking about him like this.

“Just checking,” Laurel says, a glint in her eye that Lily can’t interpret and feels vaguely threatened by. “I’m going to bed. See you tomorrow morning.”

“Love you,” Lily calls automatically, already back to the soapy water, her mother’s words echoing in her head. You’ve been branching out lately. Had she, really? Yes, she’d spoken to Roger. Become friends with James. She supposed she had more people to say hello to in the halls now, but that was really just because of her position as head of the yearbook. The fact was, she still felt like the same old Lily, truly open to only a few people, closed off to the rest of the world behind a veil of awkwardness and, at times, imposter syndrome. Her thoughts pull towards James again: how comfortable she feels in his presence, how easy it is to do away with the layers of caution that seem to smother her other social interactions. She shakes her head, turns the water off, examines the now clean kitchen. No more thinking of James Potter, she tells herself firmly. The thought echoes through her head as she gets ready for bed, self defeating by nature.

*** Marlene comes back from Thanksgiving break with a new friendship. She and Remus, she explains, had been volunteering at the same soup kitchen over break. Long hours ladling soup and tearing off bread had created (by Marlene’s telling) an unbreakable bond. “All of this is to say,” she says now as she swerves past a mailbox, Lily hanging on for dear life in the passenger seat of her friend’s car, “that Remus invited me over to watch a movie at James’s on Friday. It’s so funny how they — all four of them, you know — just invite people over to each other’s houses. Squad goals? Anyway, he said the invite was for me, you, whoever else. Dorcas has those damned violin recitals, but hopefully we’ll be able to spring her free — watch it! —” (a pigeon had dared hop into the road, and flew away hastily) “— and Alice and James and Sirius and Peter too.”

“Oh,” Lily says.

Marlene shoots her a look. “I thought it was a wonderful idea, seeing as you've started to become completely platonic, innocent friends with James Potter —”

“— every day, I regret telling you about Halloween more and more —”

“— and there’s nothing like a movie on a Friday night to solidify a friendship, is there, Lily?” Marlene smirks, and Lily can do nothing but silently fume as they pull into the high school parking lot. “Come on. You know it’ll be a good time.”

“I do, and I hate you for it,” Lily grumbles, getting out of the car. “And, for the last time, there’s nothing going on with James. Stop smirking.”

“Speak of the devil,” her friend says in lieu of a response, motioning to where James is approaching them from across the parking lot. For a second, all Lily can do is stare. He looks tanner, she thinks, briefly, before dismissing the thought; he didn’t even travel over the break. She must be seeing things.

He stops in front of them, holding onto his backpack straps and squinting against the sun. “Just the girls I was hoping to run into.”

“Oh?” Lily asks, tossing her hair over her shoulder and glancing up at him before she loses the nerve. Just James. Just a slightly tanner James. Nothing you haven’t seen before.

“For the movie on Friday: Peter and I want to watch Jaws and Sirius and Remus want to watch Love, Actually. Thoughts?”

Lily finds herself sputtering, “But — I barely just agreed to go, how did you —”

Marlene’s dangerously close to smirking again. “I may or may not have told James you’d be a sure thing,” she says, not noticing (or not caring) about James’s hair, or his tan, or the way his biceps flexed slightly when he ran a hand through his hair. How could someone not care about those things? “Have a nice break, Potter?”

“Perfectly fine. Did you like the flowers, Lily?”

Marlene shoots her an incredulous look, and Lily doesn’t know who she wants to murder first. “My mom really appreciated them. Tell your mom she said thanks.”

He pouts. It makes his mouth look — good. Shut up. She knows what it’s like to kiss him. Shut up. To feel his lips on her skin, on her neck, against her pulse point. Shut up.

“— game on Friday,” James is saying, and Lily’s not listening, but it doesn’t matter, because now he’s talking to Marlene. Lily trails behind them, watching as her fellow students move aside to let him pass through the parking lot, through the school entrance, through locker-lined hallways.

“— coming, Evans?” he asks, snapping her out of her stupor. They’re standing outside what she belatedly recognizes to be the math classroom, Marlene long gone.

She blinks once, twice. He raps her temple gently, that teasing glint in his eye again. “Lily?”

She’s so stunned by the fact that he’s touching her — granted, his knuckles are touching the side of her head, not a particularly romantic gesture — that for a second, she can only stand there, scrambling for some excuse, something to fill the suddenly heavy air between them.

Before she can come up with a suitable response, Gretchen Prewett shoulders between them to step into the classroom, breaking their contact and bumping into Lily a harder than strictly necessary. And that’s when Lily remembers — James and Gretchen. Gretchen and James. Gretchen with her curly blonde hair, her brown eyes, and her kindness, her infallible goodness, ever since kindergarten when she offered Lily a turn on the swings — Gretchen ensconced in James’s embrace after the soccer game, Gretchen whispering in his ear at the Halloween party, Gretchen with her arms around his waist at that one house party at the start of the year….

“Lily?” James repeats, this time with more concern. “You okay?”

She blinks again, suddenly unable to make eye contact. “Um, yeah.”

“Thought I lost you for a second there,” he says. “Shall we?”

He steps through the classroom door, and all Lily can do is follow.

***

That night, Lily sits on her bed, calculus notes spread around her, and texts the group chat.

i don’t think i can do this movie night thing on Friday

She exhales, the lie settling in her brain. She adds: something came up

Marlene responds almost immediately.

Marlene: was that something the realization that ur so desperately attracted to james samuel potter, you can’t be in the same room without wanting a repeat performance of halloween night?

Dorcas: i don’t think james’s middle name is samuel

Marlene: semantics

Dorcas: you don’t have to go lily

Marlene: oh yes you do

Lily: his middle name is Fleamont after his dad

Marlene: …

Marlene: why would you ever know that if you didn’t want to submit to the sexual tension that seems to follow you both EVERYWHERE

Lily: i’m a normal person who pays attention to things, that’s how i know his middle name!!!

Lily: and we do NOT have sexual tension

Marlene: pish

Marlene: i saw the way you were looking at him in the parking lot today

Marlene: you were feasting ur eyes

Alice: i wasn’t there but i believe marlene

Marlene: it’s okay tho because he was checking you out too

Lily’s blushing uncontrollably now. She’s always loved Marlene’s relentless determination, her stubbornness; however, it’s almost never been turned on her. What makes her friend’s insistence all the more infuriating is the fact that she’s right. Lily is plagued by flashbacks to Halloween night whenever she’s close to James. She can’t help, really, but admire how smooth his jawline is, or the shape of his collarbone, or the curve of his biceps, which sometimes show, depending on what shirt he’s wearing —

Even his once-annoying habit of constantly messing with his hair has grown on her, if only because she knows what it feels like to run her fingers through it, and wants desperately to repeat the experience.

Lily: okay even if i were a smidgen attracted to him it doesn’t matter because i completely forgot that he had a thing with gretchen

Alice: omg gretchen

Marlene: i thought they were just hooking up???

Lily: idk but she was really aggressive to me today right after i spoke to him

Marlene: huh i didn’t think she had it in her

Alice: go gretchen honestly

Alice: it’s about time she developed some backbone

Dorcas: yeah not with lily tho???

Lily: i don’t want to be a homewrecker

Marlene: you are literally so dramatic

Marlene: just ask James where he’s at with Gretchen

Marlene: on Friday.

Marlene: when you’ll be at the movie night, because you’re coming with us, because i’m picking you up at seven

Marlene: :)

***

At 7:05 on Friday night, Marlene pulls into Lily’s driveway.

“Surprisingly punctual,” Lily comments as she slides into the passenger’s seat, the familiar hum of the engine calming her nerves slightly. There’s a bitter chill to the air, to be expected in early December, and she wraps her coat around herself more tightly.

Marlene shrugs. “I do what I can.”

Then she floors it. All too soon, Lily finds herself standing in front of James’s door, hand hovering over the doorbell. “Is this really —”

Marlene rolls her eyes and jams her finger against the bell. “Yes. It’s really necessary. Talk to him and then ride off into the sunset together.”

Just then, the door swings open, and there he is: hair wet from a post-game shower, wearing a shirt that brings out the green in his eyes — eyes that flick up and down, taking her in, so quickly she almost could’ve missed it.

“Lily, you look great,” he says, then clears his throat. “Um, we’re downstairs. Movie’s about to start.” For the first time, he seems to notice the girl standing beside her. “Hi, Marlene.”

Marlene whistles lowly as they head downstairs, and Lily prods her with her elbow, cognizant of the fact that her cheeks are turning more and more red. She tries to take her mind off of James by focusing on her surroundings; she hasn’t been in his house since elementary school, when it was common procedure to invite the whole class to every birthday party. It’s nice — that’s no surprise, considering his family’s considerable wealth — and looks fairly lived in. As she and Marlene step into the basement, fully finished with a giant television and an assortment of comfy chairs and couches, Lily begins to regain her composure.

Sirius and Remus are cuddled up on one end of the couch, with Alice and Dorcas sitting on the floor in front of them, flipping back and forth between Jaws and Love, Actually. Marlene immediately walks over to Remus, and Lily trails behind, dismayed to hear that the two have already begun talking about a class that she doesn’t share. She turns towards Alice and Dorcas, but is stopped by the prickle at the edge of her vision — some subconscious mechanism alerting her to the fact that she’s being watched. Sure enough, Sirius Black is staring at her, eyebrows raised. The almost challenging expression is new to Lily; the Sirius she’s always known has been laid back, easygoing.

That is, before she accused him of trying to take advantage of her best friend on Halloween night. She cringes internally at the memory; she won’t apologize for worrying about her friend, but perhaps she had jumped to conclusions a bit too quickly. She clears her throat and veers towards him, steeling herself.

“Lily.” Sirius inclines his head ever so slightly, watching as she perches awkwardly on the couch’s arm.

“Sirius. I, um, probably should apologize for Halloween night.”

“What part?” he says, and something’s wrong, here, she thinks. “The part when you accused me of taking advantage of Marlene, or the part when you stuck your tongue down my best friend’s throat, then abandoned him?”

She’s so floored she almost falls off the couch. He’s speaking quietly, tone monotone, and if she hadn’t known better, she would’ve thought he was bored by the whole thing. But his gaze hasn’t moved from her face, and she realizes for the first time that Sirius Black, while angry, is worthy of fear.

“I — well — I’m sorry for assuming your intentions with Marlene. I didn’t know you —” she looks towards Remus, still chatting away obliviously with her friend “— I didn’t know you were in a relationship, and I overreacted. As for the James stuff, I — I really don’t know what to say. I thought he just wanted to be friends.”

“Yes, when Remus kissed me for the first time, my first thought was, ‘Oh, I bet he just wants to be friends,’” Sirius mutters acridly, but his expression has softened slightly, and Lily allows herself to relax, just a little bit. “Jesus Christ. This is worse than I thought.” “What is worse?” Lily asks, feeling strangely defensive. “James and I —”

“James has had a crush on you since seventh grade, Lily,” Sirius all but hisses. “It’s so incredibly obvious, I never even considered you didn’t know. I thought you were —”

“Some manipulative bitch stringing him along?” Lily finishes, arching an eyebrow at him, hoping she can disguise the shock reverberating through her. Since seventh grade.

“You’re kind of scary, Lily Evans,” Sirius says drily. “And sharp. Emotionally aware or some shit. It’s intimidating. The poor fool was just happy to have time with you, even if you thought that him fucking kissing you was an expression of platonic friendship — ”

“That’s not — I’m not — I — he was with Gretchen!”

Sirius scoffs. “I can’t explain all his choices. But they were never together, never officially. Gretchen was hooking up with Michael Goldstein at the same time. She can get kind of territorial. I told him not to get mixed up in it, but he was so hung up on — well.” He pauses. “I’ve said too much.” His tone is not apologetic or regretful in the slightest; in fact, Lily can see the beginnings of a smirk on his face. She doesn’t focus on it for too long, though; there’s too much to process. For the first time, the possibility of James — of really being with him, of holding his hand, of FaceTiming with him late into the night, of walking down the hallways together — cements in her head. Her head swims, imagining the potential of it all. “Where’s James?”

“Getting drinks upstairs,” Sirius says, eying her with suspicion. “Why?” “I think he and I need to have a talk.”

***

Lily finds James in the kitchen on the main floor, trying and failing to carry seven beer cans at the same time. When he sees her, they come crashing to the floor, and before she knows what she’s doing, she’s helping him pick them up, avoiding eye contact.

“What are you doing up here? Is something wrong?” James asks once the cans have been dealt with.

She leans against the kitchen island, wiping her palms on the sides of her jeans. His gaze follows the motion before he blinks and makes eye contact again, clearing his throat. Waiting for her to speak.

So she does: “Nothing’s wrong. I just — I wanted to ask you about someone.”

He cocks an eyebrow. “Really? Who? Sorry. Whom.”

Lily can’t help but roll her eyes, his impeccable grammar relaxing her nerves. “Whom? Really, James?”

He scoffs and shakes his head, but there’s no real heat to it. “Only the best for my yearbook editor.” He’s leaning against the wall opposite her, hands in his pockets. When he looks back at her, the air feels like honey: thick and slow-moving, sweet. She’s never had someone look at her like that before. Her heart speeds up. Get back on track, Lily.

“Right. Uh, anyway. I was thinking about Halloween —”

There it is, again. That look. Followed by a brief glance at her mouth — he’s quick, but she’s attuned to his every movement, now — before his eyes flick back up to her face. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. And I realized that I completely forgot about Gretchen.”

James breaks eye contact. “What about her?”

One deep breath, then two. “Well. Were you seeing her? Was I — helping you cheat, or —”

“God, no,” he says. “Lily, I would never — we weren’t exclusive, or together, and she was mostly using me to make Michael Goldstein jealous, anyway.”

“Oh.”

He clears his throat again, runs a hand through his hair. It’s dry, now, and looks impossibly soft. Lily’s fingers clench automatically.

“Well,” she says, heart pounding. She senses she’s very close to something, something big; it’s like she’s standing on the edge of a cliff, crystal-clear water below, and she’s terrified of how deep she might fall. No matter that jumping off that cliff is what she’s been wanting to do for months now. No matter that jumping off that cliff might simply mean closing the two feet of separation between her and the boy she so desperately wants. “See you downstairs, then.”

***

Lily bolts.

There’s no other word for it; she walks out of the kitchen as fast as she can, pretending not to hear James calling her name. She knows she’s a coward. She knows that if she’d crossed that final threshold, if she’d turned back around, if she’d stayed, her life might look very different. But she can’t do it.

The fact of the matter is, Lily Evans has been Lily Evans, undesirable, longer than she has been Lily Evans, as-crushed-on-by-James-Potter-since-the-fucking-seventh-grade. She needs to let the notion sink under her skin. She’s out of first moves; she’s out of soul-searing confidence. She asked about Gretchen. It was a baby step. Now she can go downstairs and watch the fucking movie, and bear the brunt of Marlene’s disappointment, and fall asleep fantasizing about James’s lips and hands and body instead of experiencing the real thing. It’s fine. It’s what she’s used to doing, and so far, she’s done perfectly well.

It’s not that she doesn’t like James; no, the opposite holds true. She very much likes James, to an extent that is unfamiliar and sticky and all too attainable. James Potter — the disco ball that’s sharp around the edges, except lately it seems as if they’ve both been childproofing the jagged parts, making them soft and round and welcoming. She doesn’t know how this works, how to navigate a minefield that’s been disarmed and paved over.

Besides, she thinks as she begins to walk down the stairs to the basement, how is she supposed to hold up to the idealized version of herself that must have been growing, festering, in James’s head for the past five years? Lily, who’s only kissed three people, and never done more; Lily, who doesn’t know how to be in a relationship, especially one with one of the school’s most visible students; Lily, who, despite all her newfound confidence, still can’t wrap her head around the idea that James would like her. Would want her. Would —

“Lily?”

Instinctively, her head snaps towards the voice’s source. It’s James, of course it is. He stands at the top of the stairs, the soft glow of the overhead light making him look practically angelic. She nods at him.

“Can I join you?”

“Yes.”

He walks until he’s standing on a step two feet away from her. The trek down to the basement involves two flights of stairs, with a landing in between; on the first staircase, therefore, she and James are hidden from the basement’s occupants, from outside influence, from the world.

“What is it?” she asks, going for unbothered and confident and failing miserably. She can’t meet his eyes.

“I was just wondering — now that we’ve, um, cleared up the Gretchen thing — well, the thing is,” he says, running a hand through his hair and smiling apologetically, “I’m, um, rambling. Sorry. Um, what I’m trying to say is that I’ve really enjoyed being your friend over the past few months. But — and it’s only fair you should know — I’ve really, really liked you for the past few years. God, that makes me sound creepy. It’s not that, I swear. I just — you’re so — so poised and kind and sharp. I always, well, I always thought you were too mature for me, too smart. You — you really don’t suffer fools, Lily, and I am one, but, well, in spite of that — in spite of everything — will you go out with me?”

She looks up at him, eyes wide, heart beating wildly. “You are a fool, James,” she whispers, words almost catching in her throat, because there it is. He’s just given the final confirmation, the truth: that he, James Potter, likes her. Wants her. Wants to be with her. She can’t stop — fuck, she keeps remembering Halloween. His hands on her skin. “I — you’re a complete fool, and you’re also ridiculously charming and intelligent and social in a way I can’t fathom, and I respect you. I really do.”

James’s face falls. “Right. Well, I’m glad you respect me, and I’ll just — I’ll just go now, I guess —”

“I don’t want you to go,” she bursts out. This conversation is getting out of her control (when had it ever been in her control?), the words slipping away from her. You can’t do first moves, grand proclamations, the voice in her head whispers snidely, but she ignores it. “I want you to stay. I respect you, and I like you, and I want to be with you. See?”

It’s his turn to look gobsmacked. “Oh. As friends, or —”

She pounces on him. There’s no other word for it, not really; she reaches the staircase step below his, and then she guides his mouth down to hers, hands around the back of his neck, back arching under his. If she stands on her tiptoes she can make the angle better, and… there. Something like a sigh falls from James’s mouth. His hands wind through her hair, glasses bumping slightly against her forehead. It’s not a perfect kiss. But it does accomplish the most important thing, for James Potter, jagged around the edges, and Lily Evans, sharp to the touch, have changed.

Both are now soft, malleable, in each others’ arms.

#jily #jily fic #jily fanfiction #harry potter #james potter #lily evans #american high school!jily #harry potter fanfiction #james x lily #James Potter x Lily Evans #mine #my writing

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mentesimploria · 4 years ago

Text

Dawn of Eve

The program is a social experiment run by Gretchen, she wants to prove that women can be better leaders than men. I don’t think Dawn of Eve is the first experiment that was based in an island, where the subjects needed to test their survival skills and try to work together to complete all milestones. At the end of the season, Leah learns that there’s another group of boys in the island, and that’s when we found out about the Twilight of Adam. There’s no evidence that the boys’ experiment is running at the same as the girls’, but we have some clues that might indicate that it happened some time ago, like a year.

1. On episode 3, we found out that Gretchen was voted out of her job at the university in the last fall (the events on the island are placed in 2020, so she lost her job in 2019).

2. On episode 7, after telling Linh that she isn’t working at the university anymore, Gretchen says she finally has time to focus on her project, she also mentions that she can’t wait to show them what bold measures can do.

3. Throughout the whole season we see Gretchen struggling to keep the experiment running, how hard she’s trying to find financiers for her project. *this is totally my opinion, but it would make zero sense if the U.S Army were involved in the experiment, like, if they were why would she be the one getting financiers for the project?

4. When talking to Leonard, Gretchen says the girls found milestone 8 two weeks before her projections.

5. The Adam of Twilight’s file says: Control Group. From where I see it, Gretchen is using the boys’ experiment to compare with hers. It may be the one she was voted out of; but we can’t know yet.

When she chose the girls:

· Gretchen was voted out in August, 2019*

*okay, so I don’t know if they fucked it up or not, but some things just don’t make sense in their timeline. Ex: Gretchen and Linh met each other. Linh asks when she was gonna get fired from the university. Gretchen says that the board will take a vote in two weeks. When Gretchen’s at the bar where Linh works, there’s a poster dating August 23. So either they messed it up, or after she was voted out something else happened, during fall. Gretchen and Linh meeting each other in august fits in their timeline.

· Linh learns the girls’ names, and who they are, one month after she joins Gretchen’s team. {on episode 7, Thom says she has been with them for only a month}

· Nora was the first one approached by Gretchen. I’ve already made a post about her, but to sum it up: Nora met Quinn during summer session in 2019, in September she found out about his death and met Gretchen in October.

· Dot was the second one to find out about the retreat, her dad gave it to her as a Christmas gift, in 2019 (obviously).

· Shelby was the third one, her dad changed his mind about the permanent teeth procedure after the pageant competition (that happened maybe after January?).

· Leah was the fourth one, her parents decided to send her to the retreat during Spring in 2020, after the accident. (Leah’s mom mentions to the doctor that “last winter was so hard”; also, Leah met Jeff when she was 16).

· Fatin was the fifth one, and we know that because she was at the party on the night of Leah’s accident.

Martha and Toni are a mystery. Lol. Don’t even know why they picked Toni. Maybe it was because of Martha?

How Gretchen selected the girls:

I stand by my opinion that Gretchen chose them based on their age, I mean, aside from the fact that they’re from different states, race and social class. All the girls are 17 years old and none of them are turning 18 during the experiment.

The information we got so far about the girls:

Leah is 17 years old, she met Jeff when she was 16 during Spring in 2019, they “broke up” months later, on Summer. Leah’s car accident happened one year after she met him. Her birthday is on September 5.

Rachel and Nora are 17, their birthday is on November 4;

Nora took summer sessions in June-July, 2019. She and Quinn broke up in August. Nora found out about Quinn’s death in late September. She met Gretchen in October.

Rachel’s episode was a little bit confusing for me, I don’t know if the flashbacks were in chronical order or not. But there are a lot of things that we don’t know about her. When did she know she wasn’t going to Standford. Did something happen, after Quinn died, and that’s why Nora agreed on being part of the experiment?

Fatin is 17 years old. We don’t have that much information about her aside from the fact that she’s a great cellist, loves to party and had a great relationship with her dad. She found out about his affairs during Spring in 2020.

Dot is 17 years old, for Christmas gift her dad wanted her to go to Hawaii for summer camp, he died during Spring. Shelby mentions that Dot hasn’t taken a picture for the yearbook since sophomore year. She met Gretchen during Spring (2020).

Toni’s 17 years old, she met Regan in 2018, after they broke up, she moved in with Martha and her mom.

Martha’s 17 years old, she was shot in February, 2012 and she was 10 years old. She had physical therapy from March 16, 2012 until January 22, 2013. In 2013, she won the 39th Annual Powwow contest when she was 11. Also, Martha perjured herself in 2018.

Shelby’s 17 years old, I think her birthday is in November because that’s when she mentions if she can have permanent teeth procedure before the winter pageant competition, she could even start it in the next month (December), and since their parents want her to turn 18 she must’ve thought she could do it 1 year later. The winter in the U.S ends in February, so Shelby must’ve kissed Becca sometime in January and the pageant competition and Becca’s death happened in February.

That means: Gretchen didn’t choose Shelby because she was gay, or Fatin didn’t end up in the island just because she decided to leak her dad’s private information or Nora because Quinn died. Gretchen had already chosen the girls way before all that shit happened. Now, there’s a chance of Gretchen knowing about Jeff and Leah. We know that one of the reasons why she chose Martha was because of what happened to her when she was a kid. Maybe Fatin’s, Leah’s and Shelby’s parents belong, somehow, to Gretchen’s circle of friends and that’s how she convinced them.

This is what I have theorized so far from what they showed us in Season 1. There are still a ton of things that are yet to be proven and confirmed and we’ll just have to wait for Season 2 to further investigate them. Until then, let’s just enjoy the #shoni content that Mia has been feeding us on Instagram.

#the wilds #the wilds theory #the wilds theories #nora reid #rachel reid #leah rilke #fatin jadmani #toni shalifoe #martha blackburn #dot campbell #shelby goodkind

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dragynkeep · 3 years ago

Note

I saw that you did top 5 best female & male characters in rwby and why, so i was wondering could you do the same but for 5 rwby worst female & male characters you dislike and why.

luke did this ask before along with the best one so i’mma steal this for me.

worst female characters.

robyn hill — hands down one of the most annoying additions to the show. she is meant to be robin hood yet fails in the character’s motivations & ideals in every instance, her outfit / general design are clunky & poorly thought out, her personality has the exact desirability of hot garbage juice & she herself is just as appealing. the only slightly fun thing about robyn is her voice actress, the amazing christina vee & the potential she could’ve had that i really enjoy seeing be brought out in fanfics instead. in canon? robyn can go rot.

blake belladonna — our resident all lives matter queen who was meant to be a champion for all minorities watching the show, a bisexual icon & a shining example of an abuse survivor ... only to fail on all three. blake’s influence on the racism storyline only makes her come off as a privileged brat who would lecture those who are just trying to survive & blame them for the actions of a terrorist organization she was part of, & it was dropped as soon as her abusive ex was killed. her actions as an abuse survive are nonsensical at times. & blake wasn’t even confirmed to be bisexual representation until eight years into the show & she / her female love interest still aren’t canonically together while the cishet writers hide behind a slow burn excuse that was never applied to their m / f couples.

ruby rose — it sounds nonsensical to say this about our main character & i wouldn’t have put her on this before v7 & 8, but her favouritism by the narrative in those two volumes to the point the story would break it’s back to justify her drove me crazy. i was watching this character who we were meant to root for make mistake after mistake after mistake & hide behind her age & inexperience like a coward; like she hadn’t shoved her way into this war & rejected everyone around her who had experience & wanted to help because they didn’t want to do it her way. ruby behaved like a petulant child & i have no doubt that this isn’t going to change.

cinder fall — listen she was always a middling type of character for me, i didn’t hate her but i didn’t love her either. cinder was just cinder, a kind of flat antagonist who didn’t go anywhere; until they tried to make her go somewhere & in doing so had her repeat the same character arc like three times. her “backstory” that was just cinderella lazily copy & pasted eight years after people had been asking for it was the final nail in the coffin for me. they waited too long & got too lazy.

nora valkyrie — again, not really a character i thought i would’ve put on here after i really started to like her in volume 4 when she & ren finally began to get character development. they were kind of in the background which annoyed me but they weren’t being obnoxious so it was fine. i want to go back to v4 - 6 so bad lmao; nora in these two volumes has been horrendous. not only did she ignore all of ren’s boundaries when he was trying to ask for space, she thought the appropriate action to him asking for that space & struggling to vocalize it was to kiss him without consent. and then, she co opts his entire arc anyways for v8 & now it’s nora who wants the space & ren is being unreasonable, ren is forcing her boundaries, ren is in the wrong. fuck her stupid ass one liner backstory too. nora dropped so far on my shitlist because of her actions the last two volumes smh.

worst male characters.

qrow branwen — again much like ruby & nora; i never thought i’d put qrow on here but his behaviour in these last volume especially has just dropped my fondness for him all the way to the grave lmao. he acts so much like ruby, a petulant child who was told no & lost his favourite toy, while acting like he didn’t specifically break that toy. he went from someone who was level headed, if an absolute asshole to a whiny manchild who spent the entire volume crying in a jail cell about how he was gonna kill his dead boyfriend’s boss because he doesn’t wanna admit he got him killed. & then he forgot about that in the last five minutes to cry about his potentially dead nieces, which only left me thinking, where was your concern about them the rest of this volume qrow? so yeah. on the shitty character list you go buddy.

ghira belladonna — i would change my mind & make this dumbass number one but he’s always annoyed me so i’m more settled with that emotion whereas qrow is a new development. but ghira is literally worse than annoying, he’s a useless character who takes up space & actively worsens the plot & the character — mainly blake — that he’s connected to. everything from his useless pacificism to the fact he’s a privileged faunus living in a mansion while his people are in huts to the fact that he’s now retaken the helm at the head of the white fang like?? what about his mentality has changed & how will that prevent another terroristic faction raising up in result of his negligence towards their people in favour of his own comfort driven pacifism?

hazel rainart — sir, your motivation is hokey & your hair is dumb & your braid ribs are giving me nightmares. originally i didn’t have as much of an issue with hazel infantilizing his grown twin sister because i thought we were at least going to get some rebuttal to this man using her death to metaphorically & then physically beat on ozpin. but no, he was validated & then had the gall to use her name in order to guilt trip ozpin in the “ no more gretchens ” line — like he hadn’t created dozens of gretchens in mistral with tyrian? sir you are a mass murderer — & then went out like an ass in one of the laziest redemption arcs i’ve ever seen. bravo, you suck.

adam taurus — he’s really not the highest on this list because i recognize that this is more because of milk & kornflake’s white comfort bleeding into their writing of a marginalized man & less of actually him as a character. adam is a bastard but he’s so much of a hate sink that i can’t take him seriously or hate him because of these traits; if mkek told me he killed puppies as a hobby, i wouldn’t hate adam for that, i’d hate them for continually making him edgier & edgier while ignoring their own racism around his writing.

scarlet david — this one’s a little bit of a joke one but also, i just hate this catty fay gay. get back in the closet sir because your face annoys me & your attitude stinks. i’m renting the down with cis bus just to run him over. ♥

#rwby #rwde #mkek critical #rwby critical #robyn hill #blake belladonna #ruby rose #cinder fall #nora valkyrie #qrow branwen #ghira belladonna #hazel rainart #adam taurus #scarlet david #owl.txt #answered #q

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i-could-be-so-much-more · 4 years ago

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So I just finished watching The Wilds on Prime, and I got some thoughts... like I really enjoyed it, some of the plot twists got me good, others were entirely predictable... I just.. got some thoughts (spoilers ahead) (I would insert a ‘read more’ break but I have no idea how to on mobile, I’m sorry)

What’s the weird obsession with Pink? Was it supposed to be a running joke? Is there a point to be made? Did she sponsor the show? She comes up literally at least 4 times, and as far as I can remember is one of the only named music artists?

While I entirely agree with the feminist rhetoric, it felt a little ham-fisted. Like I do think a patriorical system is what’s wrong with the world, I do think too many men have too much power, and statistically female led countries are doing better in most/if not all areas (especially with COVID right now), and cataclysmic change and reform is very likely the only way to balance the scale. But for Gretchen to be so convinced of her cause that she would run such a risky study, it just takes me out of the realm of believing.

Plus the whole ‘being a girl in high school sucks’ thing is also pretty ham-fisted, like yes it does it really fucking does, and yes it ties into the feminist themes. But it also made me roll me eyes a bit, especially in the first episode, I genuinely thought about turning it off. And I definitely think it will turn some less than liberal minded people away ... and like obviously they’re not the intended audience, but also if we exclude them from the conversation we’re not going to finish the discussion..

That final plot twist at the end was so glaringly obvious. It kinda killed the mood, I’m not gonna lie.

The fact they set Dot up to be the other confederate when it was Nora was actually pretty good, like I was lowkey rolling my eyes at how glaringly obvious it was that it was Dot and then they completely flipped it and I was straight up that shocked cat meme

I know I’ve just been talking about obvious twists, but if there was any setting up of Shelby/Toni, or if it seemed obvious to anyone else before they kissed, then somehow I completely missed it. I really enjoyed them, their beef at the beginning, and then their growing relationship, it was really lovely

I really think they missed the mark making this SO... teen. Like the way they were trying to make it.. relatable is kind of my biggest issue with it, it didn’t feel is the tone matched the narrative, so I spent like 25% of my watch time trying to decided if I was actually enjoying it (I was, I think)

I’m not normally a fan of non-linear narratives (mostly because most shows don’t do it well and it end up being more confusing than entertaining,) but they did pretty well here; revealing enough to keep you watching, building up the characters’ backstories in the right order so it fits in the narrative and builds the story of the island. They made some good editing choices with it, the story board was a*

Where they chose to end of the series was pretty rubbish ngl.. I don’t see how they’re going to have another whole series worth of story to tell. If Leah has gotten out, the secret is out, clearly they got A LOT more story left on the island (what happened to Martha, how Shelby went from a positive person discovering her sexuality to a dissociative unstable wreck (that could’ve been just the eventual exposure of the whole shebang I suppose though), how things went down after Rachel gets attacked) but it just feels like they’ve not got a lot of story to tell outside of the island... I feel like either they should’ve lobbied for a few more episodes and made it a 1 series deal, or revealed Nora as the confederate to the audience earlier, and made that the cliffhanger at the end of the episode where the plane flys overhead and started season 2 from there... then you’ve got the mystery cliffhanger as well as the dramatic one... I mean, I might be wrong maybe they’ve got a lot planned for the next series, I just hope they don’t stretch it thin or over complicate it.

I hope they don’t flip it on it’s head and make the boys camp(s?) more successful. I know I said the feminism is heavy-handed, but I also don’t want them to kill the message. For all the trauma they’ve put these girls through, I hope the study is at least a success for Gretchen, because she’s gone about it completely wrong, but I still agree with her cause.

This sounds like I’m really shitting on the show, but I honestly really enjoyed it. I think it’s important to analyse media and enjoy things critically. This show does some important things for POC and LGBT representation, empowering women whilst not putting them on pedestal of perfection, showing imperfect women (the decision to actually have them dirty and sunburnt throughout and then skin damaged after), challenging sterotypes, starting discussions about the real damage of patriarchy. I hope they stay true to message and maybe get a little clearer on how to demonstrate that message, in the next series ☺️☺️☺️

Ps, I got more thoughts I’m just tired

#The Wilds #The Wilds Prime #I’m honestly open to discussion about this #I’m not trying to shit all over the show

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gretchensinister · 3 years ago

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I too am curious about 3, combined with 5? also 15 and this might be a nightmare question but, 22 for DoL

3: Do you have any upcoming WIPs? How far along are you with them?

5: Share a snippet that you’re proud of from an upcoming fic/chapter.

Okay so. The WIPs. 1. The farthest along is the college students in a cabin being killed by a monster story, which I wrote for a Pitch Black Halloween event a couple years ago and now I am editing to publish as its own novel. I’m actually at the last scene! Unfortunately I also need to rewrite the last scene because the current last scene basically introduces two new characters and I think that damages the effect I’m going for with the story overall. It’s a story with a small cast and very few extras and closing on strangers adds distance between reader and story which I don’t want.

2. Then there’s my Phantom of the Opera fic, which yes it has been maybe a year since I worked on it, but I really want to finish it and put it into the world. I just thought it would be shorter, since I repeatedly said to @marypsue, “I’m not going to rewrite the Phantom of the Opera”…cut to card saying “Gretchen rewrites the Phantom of the Opera.”

3. There’s the fic I was working on for Dead Dove Day. I wanted to write some smut with a completely blank slate being introduced to sex by someone with tons of experience (which apparently now gets a frowny face put in one’s file) and also every character has dual genitalia (I’m still waiting for the paperwork to come back about whether I’m allowed to fantasize about that or not, and then of course there’s all the other forms to determine if I’m allowed to encourage other people to also fantasize about this). The smut is done unless I add another scene at the end but it developed a plot so I’m trying to resolve that.

4. There’s some simple! classic! blacksand! that won’t resolve for some reason and makes me feel like I lost the ability to write. I know this isn’t true but it’s like…I need to be writing this in class or something. I need to be getting away with it.

5. Last, there’s blackgeneral which I have put in a human AU and made even worse! But if you’ve never written something where you wonder at least a little bit if it would fail the Miller Test, have you even lived?

Now for some samples, in the order in which they were mentioned (lmao this got long):

1. “Did you see that, did you see that?”

“What was that?”

“Yeah, I saw it but—”

“It was tall, it was tall, it was a bear!”

“No, it was skinny! It couldn’t have been a bear!”

“And anyway, it was fucking gray!”

“Okay, okay,” Gabe said when things had quieted down a little. “Everything looks kind of gray in this light.”

“I’m not really concerned with its color!” Sugar said.

Kelly had stood up in all the commotion and now moved behind Gabe, resting her hands on his shoulders. She hadn’t liked the look of that thing in the woods, but now Gabe was pointing his flashlight down into the lake, and that was actually worse for her.

“Shine your light at it again,” Sandy said. “We’ll either frighten it away or get a better idea of what it is.”

They waited tensely as Gabe swept the trail again, revealing nothing.

“I don’t know if anyone else is thinking this,” Minnu said, “but I thought…I thought it kind of looked like a guy.”

“Yeah,” Gabe said, after a moment. “Yeah, it kind of did.”

“That kind of seems worse,” Sugar said.

“True,” Sandy said. “So, what should we do? I vote for going back to the cabin.”

“And I think we should go without our phone lights or flashlights,” said Sugar. “If that was a guy, he could have a gun.”

“The person that was found dead wasn’t killed by any gun,” Kelly said after a short pause.

“Well, this could be someone entirely different,” Sugar said. “It’s not like there’s a rule, only one thing that can kill you in the forest at a time. In fact, it’s pretty much the opposite of that.”

“Guys, guys,” Sandy said. “I know this isn’t the most normal thing to say, but…are we really sure that that thing looked like a…well, a human guy?”

2. She screams. She screams her sorrow and her rage, and her rage is at the way of the world but also at herself; why had she been a coward? All she had done was seen, and she had still frozen in fear? All she had were her hands, but should she not have used them? She should have flown forward and strangled the man! But she had only frozen, frozen and silently watched, as if she was nothing more than the ornament she was supposed to be.

“You will hurt yourself, screaming like that,” a voice says, then.

No one else is in the chapel with her. She checked many times in succession before closing the door. The voice is that of no one. A ghost.

But the abruptness reminds her of Mme. Giry as she instructs the corps de ballet on form. You will hurt yourself, bending like that.

But since no one is here, she responds as if she is alone. “No one ever taught me how to properly scream.” As she says this, she can feel the rawness of her throat. It hardly matters, she has no solos approaching, and probably never will.

“Do you want to learn?” the voice asks. “I could teach you.”

“What would be the point? No one wants me to scream.”

“No one wants me to do anything,” the voice says. “But I know how to do many things.”

The shape of her mouth flickers towards a smile. The concept is oddly enticing: to build a skill that no one wants. And this voice, that is oddly enticing, too. It reminds her of the heavy velvet that she’d noticed in the costume shop one day, brushed to a shimmering dark red like a fire behind smoked glass. The soft weight of it had been a glory in her hands that sent a strange shiver all down her spine.

And just as she knows that velvet doesn’t grow on trees, she knows that this wonderful voice didn’t come naturally, either. A lot of work went into its creation, and right now, she is the only one being given that beauty. That’s enticing, too.

It seems she’s taken too long to respond, for the voice speaks again. “I could teach you how to sing as well as scream. I’ve heard you sing on your own before, away from the chorus. You could be the greatest soprano the opera has ever heard.”

“Singing is something they want,” she says. “And you say…the greatest. Do you think I could be sublime, as a soprano?”

“Sublime,” the voice muses, and the slow word makes her shiver again. “I have met few who truly desire to be sublime.”

“I do.”

This time it is the voice that takes a long time to respond. “I believe you,” it finally says, sounding curious, and a little sad. “Yet I do not fully understand you. Perhaps I will if I teach you. And I can. I have far more experience with sublimity than with beauty.”

“Your voice is beautiful,” she says tentatively, “at least it is as you speak to me. But I hear in it something that tells me you can easily transcend with it to the sublime. I only wish to say, from hearing you, I would guess you had experience with both.”

“You do not know what you say,” the voice replies, with control so careful she cannot be sure what it conceals, “but that is all very well. You will have a voice with sublimity waiting behind its beauty, this I swear. Sublimity will be yours to hold to heel or to unleash, and when you do—”

“Yes,” she interrupts. “What then?”

She can hear a smile in the voice now, at her eagerness. “At the very least,” the voice says, “you’ll be able to shatter glass.”

She smiles too, imagining. “Every globe in the chandelier, from the stage.” It is a reckless wish, and a thoughtless one—she does not really want to rain glass down upon the audience, or if they were not there, to make the cleaning-women sweep up thousands of razor-sharp shards. But if she could, oh, it’s an uncanny thing to do. Not a pretty thing.

“If you have the will, I will show you the way,” says the voice. “If you agree, will you tell me your name?”

“Yes, and yes,” she says. “And my name is Christine Daae. But what is yours?”

“I am the ghost,” he says.

3. The Pitch held Sandy close with one arm while their other hand flowed down Sandy’s body, slow and sweet like honey. They bent to kiss Sandy’s mouth as they fondled their full breasts. And it wasn’t—it wasn’t as if the Pitch spent a long time at the stiff points of Sandy’s nipples. They were too sensitive for that right now, the line between pleasure and pain too thin. But they did touch, and the touch of their inhumanly long fingers felt somehow both reverent and barely restrained. Sandy knew this could only be their projection onto such a new Pitch, but knowing didn’t make the feeling go away. It didn’t stop them from going half-mad with it, their cunt getting wetter and their cock getting harder, barely a breath away from begging the Pitch to pinch them, hard, to fall over the line of pain to see if there was pleasure on the other side.

But that was part of a different lesson, and not something every owner wanted their Pitch to learn. Sandy wasn’t quite sure it was what they wanted, either, except that it would be more sensation and more was what they wanted from the Pitch.

But of course the Pitch could give more, and of course they would give more. That was what they were for.

The Pitch caressed their belly luxuriantly, their speeding breath and some soft sounds muffled by their mouth on Sandy’s proclaiming their absolute delight in every curve of Sandy’s very ordinary body. And again it felt like real desire, as if the Pitch had forgotten that the point of their actions was to arouse Sandy. As if it was assured, as if there was a long understanding of mutuality between them, as if indulging themselves with Sandy was something they knew Sandy would enjoy.

As for the last, with Sandy, they were right. Every greedy touch of the Pitch’s hands was a gift, a drug.

A drug that opened the mind to some dangerous ideas. Pitches are made for pleasure. If I could choose a pleasure construct I’d choose a Pitch. I’d choose this Pitch. Precocious Pitch and I wonder, I wonder if in a different world where Pitches are what the born look like, if this Pitch would commission a Sandy if they could. It should have been unthinkable. But pleasure constructs were also made to make the unthinkable possible.

So obedient, and they come with their own built-in taboos for you to think about breaking!

4. Conversation is all right, Sandy said. If you can find someone to do it with. But there are things I like better. He looked up at Pitch. Things I think you might like better, too.

“Is that so? You know something good enough to make me be good?”

Sandy grinned, now, and Pitch—Pitch absolutely felt his heart beat faster, though it was getting harder now to say that this was out of panic or even simple fear.

I don’t know if it’s that powerful, but I’d be happy to give it a try, Sandy said. What do you think?

What did Pitch think? He felt like somehow he’d been herded through a great number of corridors in his mind and now he had reached a dead end. Or—not exactly a dead end. It was just that all the doors around him were ones he had locked tightly, and he had tried to forget that he still had the keys. It was the Sandy wing of his mind, and now the real Sandy was blocking him from leaving the corridor the way he came, and spinning a key ring around his little golden finger. If Sandy unlocked any of those doors, then he’d see…he’d see…

Maybe…Sandy would see something he…liked?

“Try me,” Pitch said, giving the words an unsuitable earnestness.

5. Porcelain skin and blue-black hair from their mother. Sharp angular faces, proud aquiline noses, and bones that promised height from their father. And yet their mother’s influence performed alchemy on these traits, somehow making them gracile, proving that on those infinitesimal spiral staircases of fate, she would always have the higher ground. Their lips might be thinner than hers, but they were still perfectly formed to bring to mind sensuality, even from this young age. They might be forbidden cosmetics, but the lashes she gave them were long and thick enough that no one who saw them would be able to stop themselves from wondering. And their eyes, of course, were hers, that exquisitely rare and exotic topaz had completely overshadowed their father’s pure northern blue. There was just enough of their father in their looks that they could be no one else’s sons, but the rest of their looks whispered this open secret: Though he was powerful enough to wed and bring to childbed the most beautiful woman within a thousand miles, claiming such beauty meant that he would never have a son quite in his image. That single, perfect, impregnable vessel of immortality for himself was nothing but a ghost. What he had, after having everything else, was this uncanny pair. Warped reflections of their mother, warped reflections of their father.

And perfect reflections of each other.

15: Which fic that you’ve written relates to you and your personal life the most?

A Draught of Light. I was working through a lot of stuff in that fic and while writing it, I’m not done working out everything I was working out in that fic, and bizarrely it seems to continue to become more relatable to me as years pass, even through situations I could not have possibly have foreseen. But also Speak Oil Into My Ear is very near and dear to me because of how much of Austin, TX I put into it, and that’s where I was living when I wrote it.

22: Have you used any symbolism in A Draught of Light? What does it represent?

You mentioned this might be a nightmare question and I guess it kind of is, because DoL is like…not subtle in any way. That’s just how it is. Any symbolism is baked into the magic system because it’s how magic works—if a light adept can figure out how to understand what they’re doing as related to illuminating/revealing/opening etc., then they can do it with light. If a shadow adept can understand a working as related to concealing/vanishing/hiding etc., then they can do it with shadow. Fire is change, water is healing/restoration. The ending doesn’t go full allegory but like. For those who are familiar it’s very obvious why I would think of this story more around Easter than around the autumn equinox, when it’s actually set.

But! Story time! When this story started, it was partially due to three factors: a kinkmeme prompt that I wasn’t sure if my idea actually addressed, a round pool at the apartment complex I lived in at the time, and a dream I had where I was standing in this underground circular stone chamber, and I clapped my hands and water began flowing from them, and (here’s the symbolism) in the dream I knew that the water represented forgiveness. (Though that’s not really what it means in DoL.

#tejoxys

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mrsrcbinscn · 4 years ago

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Franny Robinson HC Infodump #7: More Music Stuff

tw: mentions of psychedelic use (it’s clear it is in moderation but)

Cover Contributions To Tribute or Charity Albums (and other notable covers):

King of the Road: A Tribute to Roger Miller - Franny recorded a cover of The Moon Is High (And So Am I) for the album. There’s a really cute video uploaded on her YouTube channel of her recording the song and she’s playing acoustic guitar and dancing around in place as she sings in several takes. It’s one of the few internet videos where her husband is seen, because sometimes the camera pans to the sound engineer booth when he’s sitting next to Serghei, her go-to sound guy.

She participated on the charity album BBC Children In Need: Got It Covered, since England’s been her home from nearly twenty years now. She sang a slowed down, gentler version of Pat Benatar’s Shadows Of The Night. (inspired by that being a song I vividly remember my mom singing to my siblings and I lmao)

For the album The Music Is You: A John Denver Tribute, Franny sang Rhymes and Reasons.

On a John Prine tribute album released in 2017, Franny and the other half of the duo Dara & Danny, Daniel Maitland, recorded In Spite Of Ourselves for the album.

For a Connie Francis tribute album, Franny sang Where The Boys Are

Franny, along with black country singer Erica James, curated a Charley Pride tribute album, featuring solely country or country-adjacent singers of color. “Charley Pride, when I discovered a black country artist, as an Asian-American growing up in the 80s, that was amazing to me. Because little Cambodian me was like, ‘wow, so you don’t gotta look like Dolly or Willie to love this music.’ Everyone thinks country and bluegrass music is white people shit, but it ain’t. It was always a mix of folks influencin’ it. DeFord Bailey paved the way for Charley Pride, who paved the way for Darius Rucker, who paved the way for Jimmie Allen, Willie Jones, Mickey Guyton, Erica right here, and non-black POC like myself and Dan(iel Maitland). It was such an honor to get to curate this album with Erica. Amazing.” Franny recorded Does My Ring Hurt Your Finger for the album.

On the Tracy Lawrence tribute album Good Ole Days, she recorded As Any Fool Can See with him

She was featured on Brooks & Dunn’s Reboot, recording She’s Not The Cheatin’ Kind

During a SiriusXM session, she sang Gretchen Wilson’s When I Think About Cheatin’, and the performance w/ent viral

On a Leonard Cohen tribute album, she recorded A Thousand Kisses Deep and that cover also became popular

During a Spotify Sessions recording with Seoul Hanoi’d, Franny recorded a cover of Marcy Playground’s Sex & Candy, which also blew up, prompting Seoul Hanoi’d to officially release it on their 2018 album. It was the second of five singles off of the album, and Franny in the music video was Hot ™

During a Spotify Sessions recording as a solo artist, Franny recorded a cover of Kris Kristofferson’s From The Bottle To The Bottom

Khmer Music:

Franny, for the most part, does not record or perform pop music. However, she’s collaborated on tracks with Cambodian pop singers

She writes a lot of songs used in the soundtracks of Khmer tv dramas, and sings a lot of them as well

She’s known as The Soundtrack Queen in Cambodia

In addition to a lot of songs for film and tv, she’s released three albums entirely in Khmer. A jazz album comprised of original songs and Khmer language versions of classic jazz songs; and two in the indie/alternative style of music similar to Seoul Hanoi’d

And she’s recorded Khmer versions of several of her most famous songs

With other Cambodian diaspora musicians, she regularly collaborates on special covers of iconic Khmer 60s and 70s songs

Songwriting

Franny’s even more active as a songwriter than a recording artist. She’s got over 1,000 songwriting credits to her name.

She began writing songs “when I was 11, but they were atrocious, unsalvageable things. The first song I wrote that ever saw the light of day even after heavy edits was first thought up when I was thirteen.”

Franny is openly bisexual and explores that in her songwriting-- however, most of her songs about women or her sexuality that she wrote “pre-2009-ish” she’s scrapped or sold to other artists. Why? “Look, I’ve been married to my husband for almost twenty years now. And that doesn’t make me any less bisexual. But a lot of the songs I’ve written about women are from the perspective of a thirteen through twenty year old me, and at forty, I’m not the best narrator for those stories anymore.They are my lived experiences and my lived feelings, but I want to see how someone actually going through that will take it and interpret it. The songs I write about women loving women now are about characters I make up for the purpose of storytelling so they’re about women closer to my age, it’s about big girl love, not adolescent love.”

Common themes in Franny Sor Robinson songwriting: geography, vivid imagery like she’s showing you a picture of what she’s singing about, Buddhist themes, Christrianity (she’s a Buddhist but grew up in the Bible Belt so she’s very familiar with Christian themes), alliteration

Franny came under a degree of controversy in 2014 with the release of a song called “The Sabbath” because it was a tasteful song about how much she likes sex with her husband after they’ve been apart for a while, and Franny was like “you know you’d think the pearl-clutchin’ folks would be glad I practically worship my husband, but I forgot women ain’t supposed to actually enjoy sex.”

She's written another really sweet song about making love with her husband that did Not get hate because it was Acceptable TM and pretty romantic actually. Think along the lines of Josh Turner's Your Man or Dierks Bentley's Come A Little Closer. Songs deff about how they wanna get down but sweet.

After Franny retweet a clip of that Tyler Childers song in 2019 with the caption “big relate”, she was asked in a tweet if a follow up to The Sabbath was in the cards. Franny replied with “there’s a demo recorded for a song I wrote about six years back and that’s that on that.” Yes, Franny Sor Robinson indeed has written a song about masturbation. She’s performed the song live a few times, however, it is still unreleased officially

Franny’s written songs with lyrics alluding to her family’s experiences under the Khmer Rouge and escaping and resettling around the world, she cleverly hides them among her albums so people accidentally digest some education

Cornelius is the well-documented muse for “every love song I’ve written that I don’t specify in the album notes or an interview is written about a character. My husband is the love of my life and had given me twenty years and counting of great material to write about.”,

Franny’s been on both ends of this story. In 2019, a song Franny wrote but didn’t record became a smash pop hit after she and her producer sent it around to other producers. They recorded Franny’s demo in mid-2017 and they and the bigger pop producer that worked on the song with them listened to over 20 demos of the song until they found the right person to sing it.

And in 2013, Franny got a huge boost to her fame when she was the featured vocalist on a pop song that became a global smash hit. Franny doesn’t typically do like...super top 40 pop type music, but she liked the song so when her agent suggested she record a demo for it and send it back to the producer looking, she was like “sure, okay” and then was absolutely surprised that they chose her over some of the names she knew also recorded demos for the song.

Misc. Music facts

In 2019, a group of NYU students (where she did her undergrad) made a Franny Sor Robinson tribute album project; the majority of the students were Asian students in the university’s music programs who cite her as a big inspiration for them pursuing music. She 100% cried

For the Netflix show Just Trust Me that she co executive-produces, Franny is also one of the people who soundtrack the show

In 2020, to celebrate the 10 Year Anniversary of her biggest solo album’s release, she pulled a The Story And Cover Stories (we stan Brandi Carlile) where it was re-released along with cover versions of each song by other artists including some of Franny’s biggest living musical influences. All proceeds for the album were donated to Cambodian Living Arts.

Franny has openly admitted in interviews to using mushrooms, LSD, and DMT before in songwriting sessions. Her stance is Kacey Musgraves’ stance. Franny quote from 2019, “Used responsibly, I think psychedelics are a worthwhile experience to have. But safety and education are key. I truly don’t believe they are party drugs. Psychedelics aren’t a party, they’re a deeply spiritual and philosophical journey.”

#&&...hc #i should have slept but it is 6:15 am and here i am

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elixir448 · 5 years ago

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Beth x Rio and OTP questions -- What’s the first thing that changes when they realise they have feelings for each other? and -- who says I love you first?

I am pretty sure that I am answering this wrong and maybe I’m supposed to create a written piece for the two characters but honestly the thought of writing for these two makes me cringe. I’m sure I’d be terrible at it!! So, I’m just going to answer the questions literally and hope that’s what you wanted!

Right, so. The first question is so painful because I am convinced that Beth and Rio were a little in love with each other. I know it is controversial but the more I think about season 2, the more it makes sense. In order to unpack your first question, I guess we need to have a think about when they started to have feelings for one another and then when they realised that this was the case.

Honestly, I think that these two caught feels for each other as early as season 1. Certainly, those feelings were mainly comprised of intense curiosity, desire and the fact that they both seemed aware of the electric connection between them, something that neither of them anticipated.

I mean I’m sure if you asked the collective fandom when Beth and Rio developed feelings for one another, the answers would wildly vary.

It’s evident that Rio had been thinking about Beth prior to their conversation in her van (1x05), as indicated by “what are you doing with someone like me?”. Even before then, as soon as Beth and Rio were in the same space as one another, it was like they couldn’t quite remove their focus from the other person, like they were orbiting one another. At this point, after seeing the scale of Rio’s operations, it’s clear to me that he never had to deal with the girls directly after 1x02; initially, it was about using the girls to get his product from Canada and seeing what these suburban mamas could contribute but eventually it was like he couldn’t help himself. I mean, we’ve seen how many times Rio redirects his attention back to Beth whenever Annie or Ruby say something. It seems as though he doesn’t want to look away and it really makes me wonder if, of the two, Rio was actually the first one to catch feelings? Something more than just an awareness of their charged connection.

One of the other reasons I think Rio developed feelings for Beth first is that he’s been making exceptions for Beth for a long ass time, since almost the beginning of their professional relationship. That doesn’t mean he’s not hard on her but it could have, and probably should have, been way worse. It’s not smart for a person like Rio to make exceptions; he never made any for Eddie and I think he knows that he never should have for Beth either. I think it was intrigue that drove him to listen to her and give her some leeway and then I think he was too impressed not to hear her out. Eventually though, I believe he just liked it. He liked seeing her and talking to her in cars and cafes, he enjoyed their loaded conversations and eye-fucking and I think he genuinely wanted her. Like really wanted her. To the point that he let her get away with things that no one else could, like turning him in. Honestly, I oscillate between thinking that he first became aware of his feelings for her at the end of 2x02 or maybe he was full on punched in the face by them in 2x09, after she kissed him and he just stared at her. Or maybe he knew he was f***ed when he retrieved the Dubby for her and stuffed it into her mailbox, instead of leaving it when he confirmed that Jane hadn’t been kidnapped. We saw how soft and open he was with her in 2x08 on her picnic bench. So basically, I don’t know when he realised and I love that it probably snuck up on him, past all the eye-fucks and amusement and exasperation.

So now that I’ve got that out of the way, let’s address your first question, considering Rio’s POV first. I think the first thing that changed was that he suddenly became aware of how dangerous she is to him. In season 2 and probably in the latter half of season 1, I don’t think he could have killed Beth even if he wanted to. There was no way he was going to kill her after he said “Elizabeth. Go home” in 1x09. Also, I’ve said it before but I really do think that throughout 2x02, Rio didn’t know what to do with Beth, who by all accounts was his rotten egg at that point. A rotten egg he couldn’t deal with, despite berating her for being unable to handle her own. I believe that Rio is very self-aware and knew how many exceptions he had made for her but perhaps had convinced himself that it would be worth it, because she was useful. And the thing is she was. But in the business, I think she’d also be considered more trouble than she’s worth.

Realising that he had feelings for her would force him to reckon with the fact that, even though there is a clear imbalance of power in their professional relationship, she actually wields far more power over him that even she is aware of in their undefined personal relationship. And I think as soon as he became aware of that, he was forced to regroup and evaluate what he was doing. This was pretty quickly followed by the realisation that she hadn’t killed Boomer, that she had been lying to him throughout the season despite her insistence that they were partners. I believe that was the driving force behind the “That’s what I am? Work?” scene in 2x12.

Regarding Beth’s feelings, well, she was certainly thinking about Rio early in season 1 as well, “Rio. His name’s Rio.” Annie and Ruby’s responses to that were absolutely perfect and reflective of the audience’s reactions. And come on, with the way that Rio looked at her, called her out and challenged her. There’s no way she wasn’t thinking about him. Sure, she enjoyed it when he blatantly looked her up and down but I think something inside her unravelled when he looked at her with admiration and curiosity in 1x02 (“we’re normal people”) and at the end of 1x04 (“we’re not here to try, we’re here to win bitch!”).

I think Beth has felt undervalued by a lot of the men in her life, including Dean and probably her father (the lack of any mention of him was pretty conspicuous in the 2x08 flashbacks). I think she spent most of her adult life comfortable but not happy. Not unhappy either though. That uncomfortable in-between. Initially, I think she viewed Rio as an opening into the thrill of what she had just done in 1x03, a way to make some money, but part of the thrill was him; I mean, her lies to Agent Turner’s face revolved around both of them having sex. So she definitely thought about that, probably daydreamed about it too. However, I think she also liked what she saw in herself when he looked at her. Her capabilities. And, look, I’m not saying that Beth’s self-worth is tied to Rio. It certainly is not and that would be extremely unhealthy. We’ve seen how much she disregards him lol. What I’m saying is maybe she needed that acknowledgement. Everyone does.

None of this stopped her from turning on him towards the end of season 1, when he “broke up” with her. I am convinced that she was driven by fear of what he would do yes, but mainly by anger and vindictiveness. A bit of a screw you, I don’t need you to do this (and gosh, the irony of that considering the fact that Rio says that to her in 2x06) and how can you just walk away?

We all know that Beth represses a lot, so if she had just sat down and unpacked what she was feeling, she would’ve known pretty quickly what Rio represented to her, a thrill but also a genuine connection. Then, after the bathroom scene in 2x04, her blatant avoidance of discussing it definitely says to me that it meant more to her than she was willing to acknowledge at that point. Then along comes the green-eyed monster when she saw him with Dylan. Come on Beth. Even Annie and Ruby knew that you were jealous but she couldn’t acknowledge it. Instead, she repressed and threw herself into uncovering what his new hustle was. When he returned the Dubby to her and that exhale when she pulled it out of the envelope; Gosh, I think she was confused and decided to avoid what she was feeling even more but maybe it was leaking out without her permission when she and Rio were being so gentle and light-hearted, ribbing each other on the picnic bench.

Interestingly, I’m way more certain of when Beth realised that she had feelings for Rio and that’s probably because we, as the audience, are poised to view Rio from Beth’s point of view. Any insight we get into his character is usually through her, other than his scenes with Turner in 1x01 and Gretchen in 2x03. And we follow her not just in her scenes with him but also through the other aspects of her life, whereas we usually only see Rio in scenes with her. I believe that Beth became aware of and couldn’t repress her feelings anymore when Dean presented her with a choice. Their family or Rio. When she was presented with a time stamp on their relationship, it jolted her. I think by that point, Rio and her had been through a lot and yet always ended up in the same story anyway. Like none of it mattered. Their connection wasn’t erased by any of it. So, she must have stopped thinking that anything could permanently rip them apart. Like, she turned him in and yet there they were, doing what they always do and so what if it means something more? In those moments where Beth’s sitting at the bar, knowing what she had to do, she must have been dreading it. Maybe a little of that was fear of how he might retaliate but Beth knew by that point, in her bones, that Rio would not harm her. No, that dread was because she knew how she felt now and she knew that what she was about to do was going to hurt. Strangely, acknowledging her own feelings was what spurred her to act and seek out that “one last time” with him.

On to your second question, who says I love you first? Oh lord, honestly, I can’t imagine these two every fully exposing themselves like this, not verbally anyway. The Dubby was a pretty obvious declaration of Rio’s feelings (come on, the episode was called “The Dubby”), even if he was probably pissed off while stuffing it into her mailbox. I think, in his own twisted way, presenting her with Agent Turner in 2x13 was another, more f***ed up declaration of something. I’ve thought about this a lot but I can’t even imagine Beth and Rio hugging. Like, it blows my mind to even think about it. Part of the reason is that they are not there yet. They didn’t trust each other, not even before Beth shot him. Telling the other person they love them would expose them in ways that I don’t think either of them can stomach yet. I think it would make itself known in other ways and, hell, it already kind of has with the way they looked at each other in 2x09 before going to Beth’s house. Also, I think the music (Love and War by Fleurie) was an excellent choice for the final scene of the season 2 finale and it was also very telling of what these two represent to one another.

I low-key think that in season 3 or 4, Beth may end up making a declaration of her own, through her actions, of how she feels about Rio. Like saving his life or refusing to flip on him or protecting him in her own way. Her equivalent of the Dubby. And honestly, I will be living!

What I’m trying to say is that Beth and Rio are definitely those two that everyone would eventually know are in love but they would struggle to say it to each other, even if they knew it. If it did happen, I kind of think Beth would be the one to say it. The show is called Good Girls and it’s about our three gals. Beth left her pearls for Rio, lifted up her dress for him and crossed the distance between them to kiss him first. So, in keeping with that theme, it makes sense that she would be the one to say it.

That being said, I can vaguely see both of them saying it. But in a resigned way. This is killing me. You could kill me. I know. I’m tired. I love you.

Like, all those thoughts and emotions swirling together, until it it just came out, leaden with exhaustion.

Anyway, that’s that. I am so sorry that it took me so long to answer this ask but I got ridiculously insecure with my answer and then realised that I had actually written that everyone will have different opinions, so I thought screw it. I’d really love to hear other peoples’ thoughts! Also, feel free to send in asks (they’ll defos be as rambly as this one, sorry)!

Btw, this is pretty irrelevant but can you imagine if we get to see scenes of Rio in the next season, thinking about her when she’s not there (maybe with the pearls)? Followed by Beth thinking about him? Probs won’t happen but I can dream.

#nbc good girls #yes i was listening to shameless (sofia karlberg cover) while writing this #don't look at this #i'm a mess over these two #beth x rio #sorry this is so long #it probs makes no sense anymore #why did you not finish your case discussion?#i wrote 3 pages of beth x rio analysis #soz

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becca-petersen · 5 years ago

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Broadway to Tour Changes

Since I’ve been asked about it a lot, here is a list of all the changes I noticed in the Mean Girls touring production. There are probably some that I missed and some of these changes are so miniscule but I just included them anyway! Don’t read on if you don’t want spoilers.

The little one or two line songs Cady sings throughout have been completely cut and replaced with straight dialogue

The only change I noticed in A Cautionary Tale was when Janis says “You can’t buy integrity at the mall it’s not for sale” Damian just replies with “Truth” instead of the “Nice!” “Thank you” exchange

“It Roars” has changed a LOT and rather than describe the changes in full, you can listen to it on my page if you search for it! I’ve never listened to the DC version but apparently it’s a combination of the current “It Roars” and “Wildlife”. Cady already knows they’re moving at the beginning of the song. The song starts with Cady’s mom telling them they need to leave and Cady says she’s just saying goodbye. The jokes about America are different too. Mrs Heron says “But the United States is so -” Cady and Mr Heron: “Violent and racist and everyone’s on opioids?” The ensemble sings something when she arrives at the school and I honestly can’t understand what they’re saying, but maybe someone else knows what the words are. The song still ends the same way. I actually liked the tour version a lot better! I think it helps Cady’s character development earlier on in the show.

There were a few changes in “Where Do You Belong?”. The line is now “There’s girls who eat their feelings and girls that don’t eat, they’re not a Lifetime movie but they might be.” And “Debate team and dance team, they like to compete / but neither one would take me, so they can bite me.” And then during his dance break he says “Big mistake, dance team!”

As far as I could tell, “Meet the Plastics” was the same, but someone on Reddit said a verse was cut but I checked my Broadway audios and Meet the Plastics was the same length as the tour track

Stupid With Love was the same except she says “with dreamy smile and shiny eyes, he is live and in the room” instead now, which I know is what they change the line to when Curtis is on for Aaron on Broadway as well

In Apex Predator, but Lizzie Thurman now says “This is why I have to be high every day” at the end of her aside about Regina.

Also in Apex Predator, Regina now says something like “Cady, come here. I’m going to buy you those suede heels, because you need more.” Cady says “More what?” then Regina says “More shoes! More style, more height, more butt lift. Trust me, more is better!” which I felt was a nice way to set up “More is Better” later on in the show.

Regina’s mom no longer has the dog but instead has a giant margarita. The jokes in this scene have changed too. Now she says her @ cool mom username and there’s a joke about #bellytea #ad and Regina says “You can’t say #ad if no one is paying you.” Her mom asks for tech help because she accidentally Marco Polo’d her dad’s boss on the toilet again. Then when she leaves she says “Enjoy those tiny butts... because it’s all going to go.”

What’s Wrong With Me? was the same.

Sexy was the same

Someone Gets Hurt was also the same

In “Revenge Party,” there are a few changes

Damian says he almost had an inside man at summer camp instead of governor’s school

About one minute in Janis immediately says they need to find a way to destroy her hotness and Cady says she knows how and they all say “The Kalteen bars” in unison. Then Cady is in the lunchroom with the Plastics and convinces Regina to take the kalteen bars. The scene where Cady and Gretchen talk and Gretchen defends Regina and gives Cady a hug for Regina was completely cut.

instead of “Your hair looks sexy pushed back,” it goes like this: Regina: Cady, settle an argument. Are his eyes gray or green? Cady: They’re green. Regina: No. I think they’re gray. (Regina kisses Aaron).

Fearless was changed but I assume everyone has seen the new video! The Someone Gets Hurt Reprise is gone and instead Cady sings a reprise of “It Roars”

“Stop” - on Broadway as Cady leaves, Damian says “she’s leaving! Just like my dad.” But on tour she leaves while they’re dancing and when Damian notices she’s gone he says “She left! Just like my dad.”

WWWMR - I know this is such a miniscule change but on Broadway when Cady asks Gretchen and Karen about the party and the cheese and crackers they say “Yeah, yeah, yeah” in unison but on tour they go, “Yeah, mmm.” The reprise was the same though!

Whose House is This - the song was the same, but the scene with Aaron upstairs was just a little bit different. Cady no longer says “Sit boy, sit.” She says “Sit down! I’m awesome!” He no longer mispronounces Maasai and asks if he’s pronouncing it right, he just asks her if what he read about them is true.

More is Better is the same

Someone Gets Hurt Reprise is also the same

World Burn was the same

The gym scene was a little different. The part about men going around grabbing butts and shooting everybody was cut.

I’d Rather Be Me was the same. The monologue Cady has after Regina got hit by a bus was a little bit different but only slightly.

Fearless Reprise - the Fearless Reprise was shortened. The part about “I sound like a monster and maybe that’s so. I was offered bad choices but I could have said no. I’m back to lunch in the bathroom stall, hunching my shoulders to make myself small. They’re walking right by like I’m not even there. And then they stare and yes I do care.” was all cut. On tour it just goes “Fearless is not a word I’d use for me now. If I were fearless I would make better decisions. But fearless may be the one thing I can be now. No friends, nothing to lose. Find my way back and truly choose to be -(speaking) I wrote it! I wrote that Ms. Norbury’s a drug pusher and it’s a lie.” Duvall : Three weeks suspension and you’re banned from Spring Fling. Cady: “I will try to be fearless.”

In the “Rule of Twos” one of Karen’s lines was cut - the one after she talks about Coach Carr’s open marriage where she says “And I should probably leave the parking lot immediately, which I do”

Do This Thing - the scene after the song is changed, they no longer try to get past Duvall into the dance with Aaron acting like a drunk mess. Ms. Norbury says she can get them in because people are scared of her now. Cady and Aaron share a kiss and Ms. Norbury says not to do that in front of her because she’s their teacher and says they better leave before she gets arrested again

I See Stars - some repetitive lyrics have been cut. When Aaron comes up to Cady in the lion suit during the song and takes the head off i think they kiss again.

Janis comes on stage with Cady during the song and they sing these lines to each other: J: plastic don’t shine. C: Glitter don’t shine. J: Rhinestones don’t shine the way you do. Both: You are on fire, you can rise higher, up in the sky. Enjoy the view.

Then it’s back to a solo for just Cady! And before Janis and Damian chime in to say “The moral of our story is thus” they changed it to “Say what you are. We’re stars, stars, stars!” but the song resumes normally after the dialogue is over.

Overall I actually really liked the changes! I thought the show flowed really nicely and I was admittedly skeptical going in. If you have a chance to see the show on tour you totally should.

#mean girls tour #mean girls broadway #mean girls musical #mean girls the musical #some of this might not make any kind of sense #also sorry this took me so long i had to listen to the broadway version compared to the tour version again #also i could be totally wrong about some of these changes #i haven't seen the broadway version in months

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gaspbrat · 5 years ago

Text

Senior Hues

part twoes.

ch. 1 pt. 2

Reddie!

Promposal!

Sonia meets Bev!

Sh*t hits the fan!

Stan!

Absolute Fluff with a chef’s kiss of jealous angst.

the shortest of this series, maybe, wc: 2600+

♡

Stanley was amazing at most things:

Observing, Listening, Responding with a gentle harshness.

He was not the best at some other things:

Not telling Eddie to shut the fuck up right now.

“Eddie, listen to me,” he grasped his friend’s shoulders tightly, speaking through gritted teeth, “Richie is an asshat and I can’t understand why the fuck he is so damn important to you. He just dicks around all the time. Dicks with you all the time.”

Eddie begins to retreat from his soap box of anxious paranoia. Stan loosens his grip and his eyes soften.

“But he’s not dicking with you, this time,”

Beautiful strawberry blonde curls danced in the winter evening wind, caressed by the setting sun. Stan would consider this poetic if it didn’t involve the trashmouth, mozying over to the awaiting Melissa. She was tossing her hair and smiling obscenely over her shoulder.

Stan was ever grateful he could always find the best vantage point to watch the birds go at it. He knew meters away Eddie was already attempting to piece together what was unfolding right before his privileged eyes.

“Melissa,” Richie called with a rigid awkwardness, “Your glasses. You left them.”

“Oh! Silly me!” she hesitated over his hand taking her glasses back.

He did not savor the touch.

“Hey, um,” she begins twisting her lip between her teeth as he made a move to escape.

Richie wants to roll his eyes but really doesn’t want to piss her off in uniform on the main street.

“Prom’s coming up and I can’t go unless I go with a senior. Some stupid fuckin’ bet I have with Avery,”

she nods her head over to one of the vultures watching this scene.

“You know what,” Richie feels particularly evil today. He honestly belives half-truth she was giving him. She might actually have a brain in there.

“Yea, I’ll go with you.”

Melissa nearly cries out loud.

“Shit, um, okay! Yea, just,”

He brings up the sharpie in his right hand and asks for her palm. She hands it over. He scrawls some numbers between the three lines.

“Call me.” he turns with a wink back to the arcade, sauntering back to work.

Leaving Melissa to squeal with her posse moments later.

Stan scoffs before kicking his bike off and finding his friend.

“He is absolutely fucking with your whole heart right now, dude.”

Eddie’s jaw hangs open while his heart droops further.

“Stan, what the fuck, you don’t know what you’re talking about,” He croaked out, suddnely defensive of his other friend.

“I saw him write his number on her hand after you bolted in gay panic.”

He wasn’t sure whether to dignify Stan’s offhanded insult with a response or be discouraged by the thought of Richie going with someone else.

Stan watched a piece of Eddie’s heart fall to the floor and he wondered if he really made the right choice.

“Look,” he started backpedaling,“He could have just given her a fake number-”

“Why on the fucking earth would he go and do all that extra shit?”

“I don’t fucking know? You know him as good if not better than me!”

“Clearly I don’t.” Eddie’s tone hushed. He turned away from Stan, plunging himself into thought.

“Hey, Eddie, come on. Don’t go there.”

“Where else can I go, you DROVE me here?”

“We biked.”

“Not the point! Really?”

“Sorry, I’m sorry.”

Silence settled over Stan’s room as they hoth contemplated the true facts.

Stan’s eyes don’t lie. Eddie knows to trust him more than he trusts the others. He isn’t super sure about all this, though.

He assumes only time will really tell.

The next few months were spent in an unfortunate game of tug-o-war between Eds and Rich. They would only be around the losers if for sure the other would not be present. In the absolute worst case scenario they both end up sitting at the same table for a brief second before realizing they were at odds.

Richie was afraid to say anything to Eddie and Eddie was frustrated by his presence. They both feared the uncertainty the other brought with them.

Valentine’s day came and went.

Both Richie and Eddie called in sick that day. If their friends had no idea of the circumstances they would call them lovesick. One of them was working and the other was distracting himself. They both shared in longing, that much was obvious.

Saint Patrick’s Day yielded Eddie in no green claiming he forgot the holiday. Everyone had a field day. Richie snuck a pinch in while they passed in the hallway. It would have worked if he had been a few inches shorter.

Eddie spotted him instantly and bolted after him only to lose him at the main hallway.

After what felt like an eternity to everyone involved, April came. It brought the feeling of spring and budding young misguided romance.

Also, promposals.

Ben asked Beverly right before April fool’s just to make sure she couldn’t prank him instead.

Stan and Mike just started declining every offer, fake or otherwise, making sure to give each other a glance after each attempt.

Bill fixed his sights on one of Melissa’s friends, Avery Ann, whom enjoyed all of the short stories he told in his advanced literature class.

Richie gagging upon hearing Bill recant the tale of his proposal and nearly fainted at the thought of double dating with BILL AND all that noise.

Eddie had been avoiding their lunch table for a few weeks straight at this point and his sudden presence that Wednesday afternoon caught everyone (Richie) off guard.

“Woah! Hey short stack! Where’d you come from?”

“Bio, what’s it to you?” he set his bag down and squeezed in opposite his current rival.

“Nothing, I was just wondering.” Richie returned to his passive silence as per late usual.

Eddie saved the expression he was given for future reference.

“What’s new, Eddie? I feel like I haven’t see you in a week now!” Mike questioned with his warm and welcome tone to break a part of the tension.

“Nothing too crazy. Just some weird shit.”

They all stopped grazing to stare at him with expectance.

“What weird shit?” Beverly asked.

“Fuckin’ Melissa called my house twice.”

Richie froze. Everyone else held their breath.

Stan leaned back in his seat knowing all too well the screaming match to follow. He glanced at Rich to assess his mood and noticed the color had vanished from his cheeks.

“Asking for YOU both times!” he was standing, accusing the pile of messy black hair across from him, pupils darting away from eye contact.

“My mom nearly crucified me, asshole! What the fuck?!”

Richie kept his gaze on the juice box at the center of the table. He wondered whose it was. Maybe he could have a sip.

“HELLO?! Earth to shithead!” Eddie was getting loud. He knew it. He recognized his level of rage but at this moment nothing mattered but making a fool of him in front of the others. Proof he wasn’t jumping to conclusions.

He was, though, he learned from Stan.

“Why the fuck did you have your girlfriend call my home phone? Twice?!” he was shrill now.

Richie could not believe his ears.

“Wait what?”

“Did you guys fuckin’ prank call me after you got done making out or what!?”

Richie could feel this only getting worse so he got up from the bench.

“Hey, what wher-”

Eddie was cut off by a rough ‘let’s go’, led out of the cafeteria by Richie’s grasp.

This needed to be settled somewhere immediately.

Eddie expected to be escorted to Gretchen but his heart ached when Richie’s didn’t slow at the parking lot.

They kept walking in uncomfortable silence for a good three blocks before Eddie stopped, flabbergasted.

“Wait, what the fuck, where in the shit are we going?”

“Just follow me.”

He begrudgingly pursued with a groan.

They ended their journey at the local mechanic.

“You need a tune up, Eds?”

The smaller boy responded with a fury in his gaze, “No.”

“Gretchen did,. . does.”

He released the breath he held captive in his chest.

Eddie was silent behind him for a moment before squeaking out, “I thought you were getting rid of her.” he had not called her anything besides 'it’ until now.

“I was yea,” he rubbed his forehead with the back of his arm, “I wanted to surprise you for pr-” he cut himself off.

“Prom?”

Richie hissed. It was all in the open now, sort of.

“Yea, Eddie, I didn’t want to take you without her.” Richie slapped his forehead with the realization he could not lie to his closest friend.

“What do you mean? I thought you asked Melissa.” he sheepishly trailed off and toed the crack in the sidewalk. After finally looking back up to meet his taller friend’s gaze he noticed Richie had disappeared.

“In here, Eds.” he heard a voice call him from around a corner, leading into the shop.

Eddie followed the voice to find Richie, kneeling, holding a small bouquet of tickets taped to look like daisies.

“Would you,”

Eddie’s blood was fickle sometimes. Running to all these body parts for no reason. This was one of those times. His face burned with the amount of red he was probably sporting.

“Edward Gaspbrat,” Rich croaked out from his awkward seat on Gretchie’s hood, a smirk peeking through his words.

Eddie’s eyes saw his brain for a good three seconds giving his boy friend the eye roll of the century. It gave him enough reprieve to recirculate his blood flow from his cheeks back to where it belonged.

“..Bemydatetoprom?” Richie sputtered out in almost a whisper.

They both paused, watching each other for a minute. Crickets chimed in almost on cue.

Eddie did the sizing up.

“Are- Are you asking me to prom? Rich, don’t fuck with me,” the younger boy stuck his finger out at the other, instinctively scolding him even now. In this moment.

Richie could not believe his eyes.

“Maybe… yes. I am.”

He shrugged but his choice was concrete. The flustered little man before him made sure. “so, please?”

Eddie took a good four seconds to respond. Richie took this time to assess how good they would look in matching suits and ties in front if all those fucking twats. Melissa included. Melissa especially.

“Of course?“

The effect of gravity seemed to have left Eddie and he started to freak before he realized it was Richie picking him up into a gangly bear hug.

“OkayOkay! Put me down!” he started to squirm, “You’ll crush my snickers!”

Richie finally listened when he heard the word snickers.

“You have snickers? Hidden in those tiny things?”

He pointed to Eddie’s pair of very short jogging shorts he would always wear but never jog in. After four years you’d think someone would change style but no.

Richie then took a second to remind himself he was currently wearing an open tommy bahama shirt before criticizing Eddie further.

“I don’t dummy.” he quickly readjusted his fanny pack to his right hip. “I keep them in here.”

He pulled two snickers bars from it.

“Was this,” Richie takes a snicker and turns it over just to be extra sure that : yep it’s a snickers, “a reward or some bullshit? Did you know I was gonna ask you?”

Eddie started to look upset and opened his mouth for a reply.

“No I-”

“You little shit, you wanted me to look like an asshole in front of the losers and ask you and this was, what? Your gift in return? What the fuck?”

“Dickie! Shut. The Fuck. Up!” he screeched. “They were for you. For us? Like a bribe or some shit when I-” Eddie realized his train of thought was derailing so he cut himself off. His gut turned, however, when he saw the twinkle in those deep brown, enlarged eyes.

“When you what?”

Shit.

“Uh.. Nothing. Just, saw you. And I did, so… Just eat it.”

“No, no, I want to know what you saved these for. These are the special ones your mom hides in her table next to that dil-”

“Beep, fucking, BE E P!” Richie fell shut his mouth tight.

“I-I wanted to go to that hill we went to in eighth grade after I was gone for two weeks, right before spring break.”

“Oh shit, I remember! I kissed your cheek and you slapped the fuck out of me.”

“Bill was right there you fuckin-” he closed his eyes and sighed while pinching the bridge of his nose.

“That was the last time I felt happy, for a long time. My mom went apeshit the next morning about me being out so late right after being in the hospital.”

“I was going to ask you to prom and these were a bribe since I thought you were into Melissa.” he hissed through the ‘ss’.

“You thought I’d need a snickers to pick you over that?”

“I didn’t know what the fuck you were gonna do! I did what I could to prepar-” he was cut off by Richie’s mouth. He instinctively jumped but then succeeded into his touch.

Richie pulled away right as Eddie’s kissed him back.

“Eds, sometimes you just need to sit back and relax, daddy’s got you.” he patted the other boys back a little too heavy handed before leaning in to kiss him again.

When he regained his balance Eddie put his pointer finger to the other’s lips, preparing to scold him.

“First of all: Eddie, second: don’t eVER call yourself that or we aren’t going.” he waved his finger at him while withdrew it from his mouth.

“Fine, but after prom I can say what I want?”

“We’ll see how prom goes first, bubba.” Eddie noticed Richie start to open his mouth and figured there was really only one way for them to shut each other up.

Richie would be lying if he said he hadn’t figured that out seconds before Eddie.

I’ll never be quiet again.

He thought as Eddie kissed him senseless.

Saturday came quicker than he had expected.

Eddie hit the button on his alarm clock and stopwatch before groaning and throwing the covers over his head.

Prom is in 12 hours… Get fuckin’ ready.

He went through his daily morning routine swiftly but reluctantly. Beverly would be at his door in less than an hour and he hadn’t even had breakfast yet.

“Eddie-bear! Breakfast!”

He fist pumped for the amazing timing; ignoring the childish nickname it accompanied.

“Coming!”

Maroon Stacked Doc Martens skipped up the steps towards Eddie’s house, stopping on the austere “welcome” mat.

Not super welcoming.

She rapped on the door.

Mrs. Kaspbrak sighed at the interruption and made her way towards the culprit.

She looked through the peephole which just showed her empty porch. She assumed it was some dumb ding dong ditcher and returned to the living room before hearing another knock on the mahogany.

Fed up, she unlocked the door to figure out who was behind this disturbance.

She came face to face with none other than the she devil herself, Beverly Marsh. That dirty-

“Hi Mrs. Kaspbrak,” she said cheerily.

“What do you want with my son?” her eyes seared through Beverly’s.

“He wanted me to help him go prom shopping this afternoon I’m here to take hi-”

“Hi Beverly, sorry to keep you waiting,” the man in question popped out from behind the doorway to their kitchen.

“Hey Eddie.” Beverly smiled with pain in her eyes.

“Well bye mom, gotta go seeyoulaterloveyoubye!” Eddie shoved past his mom and followed Beverly down the steps to her car.

“Did my mom say anything too awful?” he asked after they were in the car.

“Nah, she didn’t have time.” she laughed into the back of her hand, other resting on the wheel.

"Okay.” Eddie sighed, shaking like a branch in the spring wind, “Let’s get this shitshow over with.”

*Cue prom shopping montage*

Thaks for reading!! 💖

#reddie #richie tozier #eddie kaspbrak #it #it 2017 #it fanfiction #hardly any of this is canon #two yr old draft again #reviving my dead content #gaspbrat #beverly marsh #mike hanlon #ben hanscom #stanley uris #bill denbrough #fics

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