#i'm just really starting to appreciate my friend from my last organization. she really was good at this kind of thing and i miss her

[senadimell]

I am not the best yet at initiating small talk with older people because in my previous retired-friends circle, they were the ones who initiated conversations with me (though often with the help of a good host who introduced us). I'm decent at reciprocating, but my mind often goes blank when standing in front of a stranger in an unstructured setting.

Tonight at my Retired People event, I overheard the people next to me talking about how they really need to attract young people like me, and while on the one hand that's a complicated question involving demographics and changing expectations and blah blah blah, part of it is not complicated at all:

talk to us.

It is not easy for most people to walk into a group of old friends who know each other, each other's kids, and are only talking about mutually shared personal knowledge that an outsider has no idea about. I personally would like to improve my small talk game. But also? it takes two to tango.

If you want new people in your aging circle, you have to actually welcome new people. Ask them to sit with you. Ask them a question or two. Ask them why they're here (as in: what interested you in [group]/how'd you find out about [group]). Don't just talk past them to your friends about the things you already know about each other and that the new person has no way of knowing; periodically invite them back into the conversation by asking them a question.

[cherrrydragon]

➤ find something worth saving (it's all for the taking)

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: BACK TO OUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING

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SUMMARY ↳ Not everybody takes time to appreciate the holidays, it seems. Damian’s brow furrows as he inspects your arm. “You were…” “Awesome?” “Reckless.” pairing: jon kent x gn!reader x damian wayne warnings: nada wc: 3.2k

totally forgot to mention this last chapter, but this fic now has an official playlist!

It takes some convincing from Damian and Jon for them to let you go back to work. Jon says you shouldn’t be back so soon after getting shot. You tell him that your body is fine and ready to go, and also remind him that one of the first things you did when you were better was spar with the whole damn Batfamily. He looks properly sheepish after being chastised.

Damian says that you don’t need the job anymore, since you live with his family now. You tease him, asking if you technically classify as his sugar baby. He scoffs, turning away. It gets him off your case.

Sam damn near jumps over the counter to get to you when they see you walk in. “[Name]!”

At Sam’s shout, Carrie and Garrett pop their heads out from the back. Carrie’s face lights up, smile lines showing as she rushes over to join you and Sam’s hug. Garrett lets one of his rare smiles show, patting your head.

“You shouldn’t be back so soon,” frowns Carrie, pulling back.

You would lift up your shirt to show that you were fine, but she’s right, you shouldn’t be back so soon. A bullet wound on a normal person wouldn’t be completely healed just yet, but, you know, super healing. You’ve been left with a very faint scar. Jon spent his time tracing it, eyes hard and lidded. It gave you goosebumps when his fingers would pass over it.

You wave them off, laughing softly at their concern. "I'm fine, guys, really. It's good to be back."

Sam eyes you skeptically, arms crossed. "You better take it easy, though. We can handle things here."

Carrie nods in agreement, though she's smiling. "Just don't overdo it. We were worried sick about you."

Garrett gives you a nod of approval, his expression serious yet supportive. "Glad to see you're up and about, [Name]. Take care of yourself."

You promise them you will, appreciating their concern and warmth. Sam ushers you behind the counter, immediately putting you to (light) work, much to your amusement.

"So, spill," Sam insists, leaning in conspiratorially. "What happened?”

“What do you mean?” you ask as you organize some sugar packets.

“Dude, Robin and Superboy literally hauled your ass out of here.”

“They just took me to the hospital, Sam,” you sigh. “I got shot, it was pretty urgent.” Shoving a pastry in Sam's mouth, you push past them to ready the coffee makers. “In other news, I moved in with my future rich spouse.” It’s a way to distract them from questioning too much.

Predictably, Sam chokes on the bun. “What!? Hold on, back up a minute, when did you start dating somebody?”

“It was a joke, we’re just friends,” you chuckle. “He’s a huge worrywart and refused to let me go back to my apartment. Could barely walk out of the front door this morning. Said I didn’t even need this job anymore, basically said he’d take care of me.” He didn’t really, but whatever. “Isn’t he sweet?”

“So you’re telling me he basically said you can be the rich trophy partner? Why the hell are you here then?” Sam deadpans.

You match their expression. “Wow. Nice to know I was missed.”

Sam rolls their eyes. “You’re impossible. Who’s the guy anyway?”

“Damian Wayne.”

Sam blinks. Once. Twice. “Can you repeat that? I could’ve sworn you said Damian Wayne. Son of Bruce Wayne. Heir to Wayne Enterprises.”

You huff, placing a hand on your hip as their brain fumbles. “Dude, you bagged the big one. Holy shit, I didn’t know you could pull like that.”

“I told you, we’re just friends.”

“I thought he was, like, stuck up, or something. Cold ice prince type.”

You feel the need to defend Damian’s honor, even if Sam has no true ire towards him. “He’s nice. A good friend. He’s just… awkward.”

Sam takes time to look at you, a brow raised. You hope they're not doing that thing when they just look at you and know all of your secrets. Eventually they hum, dropping it.

“...You think you can ask his dad to pay my tuition–”

Tonight marks your first official patrol with the Batfamily. You're already suited up, crouched on the ledge of a rooftop with Damian. His cape billows in the wind. The city below is alive with lights and sounds, a symphony of Gotham’s nighttime pulse. You adjust your stance, feeling the adrenaline start to course through your veins. Damian is focused, his eyes scanning the streets for any sign of trouble.

"Keep your eyes sharp," Damian says, his voice a low murmur. "Gotham's quiet tonight, but that can change in an instant."

You nod, your own senses heightened, every sound amplified in the quiet of the rooftop. The tension in the air is palpable, a reminder of the city's ever-present dangers.

Damian glances at you, a hint of a smile playing on his lips. "You ready for this?"

“Been ready, are you?” you challenge with a smile.

Suddenly, a voice speaks into your ear. It's Barbara. "We've got a situation near downtown. Reports of a robbery in progress."

Damian tenses, his eyes narrowing. "Let's move."

You both leap from the rooftop, descending into the city's shadows. The thrill of the chase ignites your senses as you navigate the rooftops with practiced ease. Damian is a blur of motion beside you, his movements precise and controlled.

Your arm muscles tense and release with every web swing. You take time to twirl and flip around Damian in an elegant dance as he swings with his grappling hook. The two of you move around each other in synchronized harmony.

As you near the location of the robbery, you spot the scene from above. A group of masked men are trying to break into a high-end jewelry store. The glass is shattered, and the alarm is blaring. Damian signals for you to flank them from opposite sides.

You land silently behind a dumpster, observing the thieves as they hurriedly shove jewelry into bags. Damian moves in from the other side, his presence a shadow in the night. You wait for his signal, your muscles coiled like springs.

With a sharp nod from Damian, you spring into action. You leap out, webbing one of the thugs to the ground before he even realizes what’s happening. Damian disarms another with a swift kick, his movements fluid and efficient.

The remaining thieves scramble, but they're no match for the two of you. You dart between them, your webbing and acrobatics keeping them off balance. Damian is a blur of motion, his strikes precise and powerful. Within moments, the robbers are subdued, webbed up and disarmed.

Damian steps back, catching his breath. "Nice work," he says, his tone grudgingly approving.

"Were you practicing those moves to impress me?” you ask cheekily.

“Why, were you watching me?”

“I just can’t take my eyes off of you,” you sigh dramatically.”

“Stop flirting, losers,” Stephanie teases on the comms.

Just as you're about to talk back, a low rumble echoes through the alley. The ground shakes slightly, and you exchange a wary glance with Damian. A nearby manhole cover bursts open, and a hulking figure emerges from the sewers. It's Killer Croc, his massive form towering over you both. What the hell.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" Croc growls, his eyes gleaming with malicious intent.

You throw up your hands. “Come on man, I wanted an easy night.”

Croc advances with heavy footsteps, his massive claws glinting in the dim light. Guess he’s not in the mood for chit-chat. Croc chuckles, the sound sending a chill down your spine. "Think you can stop me, little bats?" His voice reverberates through the space, filling the space with menace.

“I am not a bat,” you mutter. “Only in spirit I guess." Killer Croc has a similar demeanor to that of Rhino, at least in terms of size. You’ve dealt with more than enough of them to be well equipped to deal with this situation.

You exchange a quick nod with Damian, silently communicating your plan. "Let's do this," he says, his voice low but determined.

Without hesitation, you both spring into action. Damian charges forward, engaging Croc head-on with a series of lightning-fast strikes and evasive maneuvers. Meanwhile, you use your agility and webs to dart around Croc, aiming to distract and disorient him.

Croc swings a massive fist, aiming for Damian, who narrowly dodges and counters with a precise kick to the knee. You take advantage of the opening, firing webbing at Croc's arms, aiming to restrict his movements. The webs hold momentarily before Croc tears through them with brute force. Boo.

"Keep him distracted!" Damian calls out, his voice cutting through the chaos.

You nod, focusing on keeping Croc off balance while Damian assesses the situation. With each move, you gauge Croc's reactions, looking for vulnerabilities to exploit. His strength is immense, and you start to hope this won’t take long. You’d like to get a decent rest tonight.

Damian maneuvers around Croc, striking with calculated precision. His training and experience shine through as he lands blows with pinpoint accuracy, each one aimed at weakening Croc's defenses. You watch in awe, both of Damian's skill and the sheer determination in his eyes.

As the fight wears on, Croc becomes more aggressive, his attacks growing wilder and more unpredictable. You dart in and out, using the environment to your advantage, hoping to find an opening. It's a dangerous dance, the alley echoing with the sounds of combat and the occasional growl from Croc.

Croc is getting overwhelmed, which means he’ll get desperate. His eyes keep darting to the window. He’s gonna try to escape, shit.

He shoves Damian to the side with his arm. For a split second, you want to make sure he’s alright, but you know he is. Trust that he is. You seize an opportunity to leap onto Croc's back as he charges out of the alley and onto the street. The sudden movement sends pedestrians scattering, and cars screech to a halt to avoid the monstrous figure rampaging through the city. You wrap his shoulders, providing you some extra distance from him as he tries to reach for you. He bucks and twists as he runs, trying to shake you off.

Croc flips up cars as he runs. Your claws dig into his shoulders as you steer him out of people's way the best you can, while simultaneously trying not to get thrown off. People scream and flee as cars swerve to avoid the chaos. With each passing moment, your muscles strain under the weight and movement of the monstrous villain.

“Should you be on vacation or something? It’s the holidays! Take a day off, Christ,” you grumble.

Croc chuckles dangerously. “Hang on tight, not-bat.”

It’s your only warning (aside from your senses screaming at you to get out of the way. Too bad you can’t) as Croc makes a superhuman leap, crashing straight through a window of Gotham Mall. Your suit protects you from the glass as it crashes down around you. Shoppers scream and scatter as the massive creature barrels through the aisles, sending displays and merchandise flying.

“Do you have any non-destructive hobbies?” you huff, dodging his grabby hands. Croc cuts a corner narrowly, slamming you slightly into a wall.

“Swimming. In the sewers.”

“Well, of course, where else?” Oh shit, there’s a baby in the way! You throw a web from each wrist, pulling yourself over to the stroller. You pick it up and narrowly move it out of Killer Croc’s way, putting it down next to the mother and quickly webbing yourself back onto Croc.

“Thank you!” the mother cries.

“You’re welcome!” is all you can say before your web pulls you back onto Croc. You curl your hand into a tight fist and hit him right in his head as you return. Croc staggers from the force of your punch, shaking his head as he attempts to regain his bearings. His momentum slows, giving you a moment to catch your breath.

“Spinnerette, report,” Bruce asserts in your ear.

“Uh, Killer Croc’s rampaging in Gotham Mall. Trying to minimize the damage,” you breathe, dodging another swipe from Croc. 

The noise of glass shattering and displays being knocked over is deafening. You hear Damian's voice cut through the chaos over the comms, “I’m en route. Hang tight.”

You cling tighter to Croc, using your agility to stay out of his reach as he wreaks havoc through the mall. “Yeah, hanging tight is kind of the plan,” you mutter, half to yourself.

You web his face, causing him to growl in frustration. Croc has a thick hide as protection, so your fangs won’t be able to pierce him. Your venom is useless here, which sucks because it would’ve been really nice to have in this situation.

Okay, you’re on the third floor of the mall, since the bastard jumped real high. How can you trap him? His advantage is his strength, so you need to restrain him so that he can’t use it. The whirring of a grappling hook catches your attention. Looking behind you, you see Damian swinging over to you, surprisingly gaining speed.

You spray a web towards him, catching him by the chest. Damian grips it as you pull him towards you. He lands with ease on top of Croc’s back. Croc's roar of frustration reverberates through the mall as Damian joins you.

“Fancy seeing you here,” you quip.

"Thought you could use a hand," Damian replies, his eyes never leaving Croc.

You grab his hands and wrap them around the makeshift web reins you had attached to Croc. “She–” you tap the ring you gifted him you know is under his glove, “–will tell you what to do. Don’t let him hurt anybody.”

Damian tries to catch your hand as you swing away, but you’re too quick for him. You gain speed, swinging ahead and away from Croc. “Tell me where a big glass window I can crash through is, K.”

“Take a left here.”

You swerve to the left. You can hear the commotion behind you as Croc thrashes and roars, but you focus on finding an exit point.

“Straight ahead.”

There. A large window overlooking the city. You see other buildings sparking with lights. Bracing yourself, you send yourself hurling into it. The glass shatters as you crash through it, arms out in front of you to protect yourself. Screams of people fade away behind you as you fall into the air. You’re lucky, there’s an intersection below you.

You swing onto a nearby lightpost. “I need the biggest and stickiest web you got, K.” You launch off and aim your hands in the middle of the intersection.

“Certainly, but it won’t be big enough for Killer Croc,” she says as a good and proper spider web slinks out and attaches to nearby light posts and buildings. The spiral pattern doesn’t extend to the radius of the web. “You’ll need to spin the rest of the web yourself.”

Bouncing off the center of the web, you start spinning the web across the intersection. The web begins to take shape, forming a large, intricate net that spans the entire intersection. Civilians look up in awe at your work. 

“Spinner!”

You look over as you hop across the web to see Nightwing grappling over. “Get the civvies out of here!”

He pauses, then nods. He swings down, quickly directing people away from the intersection to safety. He enforces power into his words, arms gesturing for them to go.

“Robin and Killer Croc are approaching.”

Using the web as momentum, you launch yourself and spray a web onto the ledge from which you jumped off. Climbing up, you stare down the large hallway of the mall. Croc is running straight towards you. He hasn’t thrown Damian off yet, so that’s good.

“Come on! I’m right here!”

“What are you doing–” hisses Damian in the comms.

Killer Croc growls, charging at you. His steps are thundering, echoing in the mall.

You brace yourself, waiting for the right moment. Croc lunges forward with a roar, his massive form barreling towards you. You time your move perfectly, leaping to the side just as Croc lunges out of the window space. You grip Damian’s cape, tugging him off of Croc as he begins to fall. The web bounces up and down as he lands in the center, trapped.

You pat Damian’s shoulder before jumping off the ledge after him. More webs spray from your wrist as you restrain Crocs arms to the web. You ignore his curses and yells as you struggles against your trap. It’s no use, the web holds firm.

“Holy cow,” whistles Dick, walking over. He reaches out to poke the web, but you snatch his hand away.

“Do that and we’d have to amputate you. It’s really sticky,” you frown solemnly. You’re joking of course.

Dick pulls his hand away, holding both of them up and a surrender gesture. “Okay, okay, I won't touch it,” Dick says with a grin, clearly amused. He looks around at the chaos in the mall, where people are cautiously peeking out from hiding places or rushing to leave.

“You know, you’ve certainly made a mess,” he comments, gesturing to the shattered glass and displaced merchandise around you.

“Actually, I think I’ve done worse.”

“Guess you’re fitting right in,” Dick remarks, his tone light but approving.

“Have I earned my rite of passage?” you smirk.

“Maybe if you can survive a month without causing a city-wide panic,” he teases, flashing you a grin.

Damian lands gracefully behind you, his cape billowing dramatically behind him. He surveys the scene with a critical eye, his expression serious and focused. You can tell he eyes Croc’s trapped form before he hurries over to you.

You hear the sirens of Gotham’s police force wail closer. “Always late to the party, it seems,” you hum, pursing your lips. You groan and flex your shoulder, still tingling from your little wall slam earlier.

“I’ll take it from here,” Dick reassures as the cop cars come to a stop near the scene. “You crazy kids go.”

Damian seems to have no qualms about that, since he grabs your hand and tugs you away. You let him drag you around, swinging with him as he grapples away. You swing through the night with Damian, adrenaline still coursing through your veins.

Coming to a stop on a rooftop, Damian’s hand runs down your arm, squeezing gently. “Are you hurt?” he asks gently.

“A little bruised, but I’ll be okay.” Your arm tingles under his touch. You chalk it off as pain.

Damian’s brow furrows as he inspects your arm. “You were…”

“Awesome?”

“Reckless.”

You catch his hand in yours, giving it a reassuring squeeze. “I knew what I was doing, birdie.” He sighs, a mixture of relief and frustration evident in his voice. “I know, I know,” you reply softly, bringing his hand to your lips and pressing a kiss to his knuckles. “But I’m here, and I’m fine.”

He meets your gaze, a small smile tugging at his lips. “You handled yourself well back there.” The moment lingers between you, the adrenaline of the night’s events slowly fading into a quiet calm. Damian’s thumb strokes over your hand, a silent gesture of reassurance and gratitude.

Damian holds your hand tight as he guides you home.

The next day, Spinnerette is trending.

notes: short chapter because its really just a filler but next one is gonna pop off i PROMISe

also, i hope i captured killer croc correctly? have literally never watched or read anything with him in it so im SO sorry if he is nothing like how he is supposed to be

also i straight up yoinked this scene from Spider-Man: Miles Morales, just replaced rhino with croc.

[halliescomut]

Love Sea Ep 2 Thoughts

Okay. I've had some time to consider the episode, organize my thoughts (potentially) but I think this still might be a bit of a ramble....sorry.

So we do start off right where we left off where they're coming back on the boat, and they're talking on the beach. I mentioned in my watch along a lot of these thoughts, so I'm kind of just expanding on them, so it might be helpful to read that first. But I've taken an interest in a lot of the body language happening in the show, and looking at the scene it gives me this feeling of Mut sort of invading Rak's space, but just enough.

Like their legs are entwined, but there's decent distance from their upper bodies, which given Rak's hesitation to get too close, or be too charmed by Mut really works for me. Given the scene prior, and Rak's sort of level of upset, it feels pretty clear that Mut is working to kind of distract Rak. And Rak basically jumps on that opportunity. It actually kind of reminds me of Sky in that way, like we don't have a confirmation of Sky's general MO in regard to sex, but the ONS read a little bit to me as an intentional decision to distract himself. I get that same feeling here, Rak doesn't want to think about why he reacted as he did, or consider how vulnerable he made himself, and so he kind of thinks by jumping into a sexual experience that will distract both him and Mut.

I have (as is kind of always the case with Mame) reservations on the kind of D/s undertones she uses. I got to be honest, part of the issue is the weird commitment to putting Peat's character in the more submissive position (she did it with Sky too) I honestly don't find that it suits him or his characters well, and is based solely on his body type versus his personality. Setting that aside for now, I will say that I appreciate direct expression of oral sex. In LITA specifically (I know I'm calling back to that a lot, but it's hard not to use it as a comparison, specifically for the NC scenes) we saw two separate allusions to oral sex, or honestly we were robbed of two NC scenes involving oral. The ONS, where Pai doesn't let Sky give him a BJ, and then the bathroom scene that ended up getting cut where we see Prapai giving. I made this observation (among friends, not publically...I don't think) that I think the intentional exclusion of that specific sex act in Thai BL leads me to believe there's a particular reason why it's not included. In terms of MM sex we see your standard penetrative sex pretty regularly, and then small sprinkles of handjobs in general, but oral is almost never even alluded to, much less shown. Now I'm honestly not super caught up on a lot of Thai BL, but I would say I've seen more direct expressions of oral in the last year, than I had seen in two years prior since I got into Thai BL. So overall I think it's a step in the right direction in encouraging a more well-rounded and accurate depiction of the gay experience.

In terms of the actual physical acting of the scene...I'm gonna say C+. It's less about their facial expressions and more about positioning and timing...in a way. I will salute the decision for oral sex if you're doing it on a beach, because that is going to be your least chafe-y option.

Following this we get a return of the humor with Rak saying they need to go back to the hotel room immediately...Clearly leading Mut to believe that the sexy times will continue, but they do not. Rak starts writing, we don't get insight into the specific scene, but I do wonder if the written scenes mirror the IRL experiences or not. Like how similar are they? During that time we see Mut basically pouting and then googling Rak. This gives us our first suggestion in the show I think that Rak is basically a self-insert for Mame. And we see the covers for The Boy Next World as well as Love Director, two novels that 'Rak' has written and are being made into series. He follows that up by checking what looks to be basically Rak's Instagram, containing many pictures of Rak looking incredibly attractive and then basically excuses himself to take a shower.

Rak finishes his scene, and I'm not really sure if he's kind of run out of mojo, or if he's just done with that scene in general, but he goes looking for Mut and he sure does find him. Now I did miss the arm movement initially and thought we were just appreciating the rear view so to speak, but then you realize that Mut is in fact jacking off.

Overall, it seems a case of "Well, we've already crossed the line" and we have the most minimal discussion of terms. I'm not a person who cares at all about the sexual decisions that adults make, but as someone who is close friends with people who have and continue to work in the sex industry, it is of course not a necessarily safe way to go about those types of negotiations. This is not a dealbreaker for me by any means in regards to watching the show, I genuinely don't expect anything overly realistic, it's just an observation.

Moving on to the main event as it were, the sort of antagonistic flirting is on point, which with Fort and Peat is not surprising. They mentioned that Mame gave them an opportunity to do what felt natural for their characters and I do feel that in the conversation and acting in the shower. Once we move back to the bedroom things move very quickly, and while I think the scene is very good, it doesn't feel passionate in the same way the earlier scene does, or previous NC scenes we've seen from FortPeat as PrapaiSky (except for one in particular and I'll get back to that). I'm not personally sure if this was an acting choice, if it was just how the scene ended up, if it was directing, I truly don't know. I think though it really fits the situation in a particular way. The almost emotionless sex feels appropriate because they don't truly have feelings for each other yet, not really. Flirting and attraction aside, there's not a true emotional connection, especially on Rak's part. And I'm sorry, but it reminds me of the ONS in LITA. It's the only sex scene we see of Prapai and Sky where there are positions where they aren't facing each other, which creates an emotional distance. It's why we see missionary position so often in BLs even when that may not be the go-to position for MM sex. Having characters face each other creates an emotional connection.

The choice makes sense if you consider that both Rak and Sky are going into this sexual encounter with the intention of maintaining emotional distance. And even Mut and Prapai at this point, while intrigued by this very attractive person, aren't coming into it from an overly emotional place. So, overall I do think in this scene it's a vibe that really works for me, and I'm interested to see how these scenes change as the characters open up more to each other.

Once Rak is done, he's very definitively done and sends Mut away, but does admit to himself that this Mut is one of the best he's ever had.

We then cut to the next day and get more of what I personally call Mut's village rounds, just him going around and talking to different people from the community, and we see more interactions with Palm, the bartender from episode one. They're interactions are really cute, I actually really enjoy him. He has good doofus energy. Anyway, after that Mut heads to the hotel because Palm told him that all the single staff there were trying to 1- figure out Rak's sexuality and 2- potentially woo him because he's rich. So Mut is there sitting with a group of ladies, to Rak's eyes he's flirting, but we don't hear much if any of the conversation, so it's unclear if there's actual flirting or if it's just Mut's general charisma. I also don't think we've gotten any specific clarity on Mut or Rak's sexuality in terms of whether they are gay, bi, or pan. I personally suspect that Rak does not feel attracted to women, but that's my own read on it. Mut is harder to nail down, but we haven't seen nearly as much of him in a flirting-approriate situation. But back to the point. Rak sees Mut with the women, he hears hotel staff talking about how he's a catch or something (I skimmed over that on the second watch, sorry) and he's jealous.

We see a peek at Rak's impulsiveness here (like the beach and the shower, and even the robe scene of last episode) and he sends Mut 65,000 Baht which is $1,771 in USD, so not small change, and basically comes up and stakes his claim on him. We get more of Peat's English here, and I'm guessing we might get more of it when he returns to Bangkok, or maybe just more if we see more conversations with Connor. I have feelings about the whole "I paid for you, I don't share", as discussed above, but I do think it gives insight to Rak, and the kind of slippery slope he's found himself on here.

Mut leaves with him after agreeing to feed him and we do get an adorable montage of them on the motorbike. While the tone of the episode shifts throughout, I don't feel like it's quite as abrupt as the previous episode, and I think the motorbike scene really sets up the future of Rak kind of finding some peace not only in Mut, but also in this rural community. Once they arrive at the area where the restaurant is we get the joke that the motorbike ride set up, which is that it may not be the best mode of transportation if you spent the previous night engaging in pretty vigorous anal activity. Fair enough, and the teasing there from Mut using his Southern dialect is downright adorable, but what's most interesting is we get confirmation that both Mut and Rak are out in their communities.

While this is not necessarily surprising with Mame, outside of her university set stories most of her characters are reconciled of their sexuality from the start. They may not necessarily be publicly out, but they're aware of and enerally accepting of their sexuality and even confident in it. I actually think Mame's spectrum of where people are at in their coming out journey is one of the better aspects of her shows, as it gives people at all different parts of that journey characters they can relate to.

We re-encounter Palm here, he's kind of similar to Mut, or at least Mut a few years ago, a less than flush native of the island who works whatever odd jobs he can find. Rak finds him a bit annoying which is fair, but I did enjoy the small bit of teasing between Palm and Mut. I think they have a pretty cute bro relationship. Once they go to sit down Rak (and we the viewer) get to meet another community member who heaps quite a bit of praise on Mut for his work and contribution to their community. Mut's shy reaction is very sweet and the scene overall offers a glimpse to Rak of the person Mut truly is, beyond the shameless flirt.

We also get backstory for Mut, learning that he had a falling out with his father at 15, leading to him leaving that home. It's not clear if his sexuality may have been a factor, but homophobic parents have been present in Mame's work before and are something that very sadly continues to be consistent in many queer kids lives IRL, so I don't think it's farfetched. This particular scene is one of the most well-acted I think we've gotten from Fort in it's minimalism. I think Fort feels comfortable with the flirty-charmer character type, and the way he holds himself, how he schools his face, his tone, as he talks about the fallout with his father is so well done. His eyes too, Fort does a lot of really excellent acting with his eyes. What particularly felt accurate to me was the sort of emotionlessness that we see. Experiences like he had, particularly with a parent are really hard to reconcile. As humans we want to have a loving relationship with our parents, more specifically we want to be certain they love us. When it becomes clear they don't, it's a very difficult thing to accept, in particular because it's necessary to simultaneously recognize that you are not at fault in the situation. That's kind of why most people require actual therapy to work through experiences like this. But when that's not an option, the way you deal with it is usually dissociation. You can't dwell on it, let it get to close, because then it will cause a problem, so you keep it at arm's length. That's what we see here with Mut, and what Fort portrays so well. We also get one of the most heartbreaking lines in Mut saying "My dad never takes back what he says. I suppose that's the only thing we have in common." Mut is proud of being a person who keeps their word, we see him mention it before, and we now see that it's a trait with a direct connection to his father. Seemingly the only potentially positive connection he can create there.

For Rak's part, we see those little cracks forming in those walls, he recognizes Mut's vulnerability, he's practically appalled at the idea of Mut's father kicking him out, which based on what we can presume is a very close relationship with his mother, sister, and niece, is understandable. He doesn't understand that betrayal from family really. But he's starting to see Mut as a more well rounded human being, versus the way he'd initially saw him which is solely a potential sex partner/distraction. We then start to get our first bit of insight into Rak when Mut asks him why he became a writer. In the voiceover we hear that he started writing to escape, but his spoken response is that it started as him just wanting to share stories he loved with people. Given that his chosen genre is romance, he wanted to escape to these happily ever after love stories, and share them with people who also want that, because to him happily ever after is only a fantasy, it's not attainable in the real world. Peat's body language is wonderful here, the crossed arms, and looking off kind of the side instead of meeting Mut's gaze directly show that he's being deliberate in how much he's sharing, but in the end I think he still reveals more than he intended with his answers. Mut questions if he's happy, and Rak says that if he weren't he wouldn't be Tongrak, the writer, to which Mut replies "That's all there is to life. And you've been doing a good job". Now I kind of feel like there's nuance missing in the translation, but I'm not the person to address that. But the sentiment seems to be 'happiness is what's important, and by valuing that you're doing a good job' and Rak is very touched by that. He says he doesn't recieve compliments very often, and while I don't know if that's fully accurate given his success and handsomeness, there's a great deal of difference in someone complimenting your work or your looks and someone recognizing that that you're doing a good job as a person, especially a person with a traumatic past. Being a survivor of any kind of trauma creates a lot of pitfalls that are difficult to overcome and create even a semblance of a normal life, and so having that effort recognized, even if not directly is really affirming. We see Rak very intentionally return this compliment to Mut, which communicates a level of recognition.

This conversation also kind of confirms for me that Rak is a bit of a self-insert character for Mame, especially considering that he brings up criticism that his stories get. I've never directly seen or encountered it, but I have heard rumors of Mame getting upset and even responding to negative critiques of her work. Her use of more problematic tropes is a valid criticism, and while I can see some progress from one series to the next, I do also feel like she falls back on what's "easy" instead of really trying to push her stories into more positive directions. While her sexuality is her business, she is a woman writing about gay male relationships, and honestly sometimes it's unrealistic to the point of being distracting. As I've said before, I don't truly expect realism from Mame, but her stories are meant to be in the genre of realistic fiction, they're not fantasy or sci-fi (leaving TBNW out of it for now). It's also very important to recognize that many gay men who watch BL do find some of the tropes she often uses to be damaging, both because they portray gay men in not the best light, but also because they set up potentially problematic expectations in young queer or questioning men who might partake in her stories.

We then cut to night again, joining Mut at home and he's trying to weasel information out of Kom, who does ask Connor, but Connor refuses to give any, only telling him to ask Rak himself, which I appreciate. We can suspect that Connor is kinda trying to matchmake here, but I appreciate him being a good friend to Rak and not revealing his secrets. In the end he calls Rak and invites him diving and we get to the last portion of this episode. Let us pray I can fit my thoughts in a single post.

Now aside from how honestly weird it is that Rak showed up for diving in a small fortunes worth of luxury jewlery (why?), when he sees Palm there as well he gets a little upset, seemingly because he thought there was potential for another hookup. Which I guess is fine, but why would you think diving is the code word for that, when it's literally part of how Mut makes is living? But moving on, they get out into the water, Mut get's Rak all set in his gear and as he's going to get Palm to help him get his gear on Rak goes ahead and dives (that impulsiveness again!). Setting aside my frustration with Rak's fully dangerous decision here, we do get a really lovely little scene of the underwater flora and fauna. Things take a downturn when Rak has a series of flashbacks. It's not really clear what triggers them here, but we see three scenes back to back. First his parents arguing, when he's quite young...8-9 (?), then him comforting his sister, both of them late teens it looks like (they look to be in school uniforms, but could potentially be college), after her boyfriend leaves her after finding out she's pregnant, and then with his mother again, the final sentence is a bit garbled, and not translated in the captions, but logically I think it's something along the lines of "Don't trust in love, if you don't want to end up like me."

As a child, watching two women he cares for deeply suffering because men that they trusted to love and care for them simply didn't would certainly put a bad taste in anyone's mouth about love. So we've kind of identified the catalyst for why Rak doesn't believe in love, even having witnessed it with Kom and Connor. Though I understand in the book there's perhaps some insight into negative feelings related to that relationship, and Kom "taking Connor away". I haven't read either Love Sea or Love Sand, so this is based off of conversations with people who have, so I could be wrong, but I don't think it's a stretch to think of Rak grappling with negative thoughts related to Kom and Connor, even if he's recognizing that those thoughts are a bit ridiculous. It's normal to mourn the loss of what was easy and comfortable when friends find romantic partners and you have to figure out what the new normal is, you just have to make sure you keep resentment and negative feelings under control and don't let them fester.

I will point out though, is that one cinematic choice that's made here is having the sort of washed out blue tones of the flashbacks match the underwater coloring. It keeps the scenes from being too jolting as they cut back and forth, an dI think it was an excellent idea.

Due to the flashback Rak kind of panics, looses his regulator and Mut basically finds him just in time. Giving him some mouth to mouth oxygen before getting him reset so they can go back to the surface.

This type of scene would have been very difficult to film, even if it wa managed in a single take, which is kind of unlikely, and so massive props to Fort and Peat for doing some amazing work here.

Returning to the boat we see Mut become very serious about how dangerous Rak's actions were, but that seriousness is balanced with a lot of empathy as well. I can't fully express my thoughts on the metaphor I feel like is intended in the "they need buddies" conversation, but there's something happening there. Mut does try to talk about why Rak panicked, but Rak shuts him down and we get a convo about the wordplay that is their names instead. Mut here is trying to lighten the situation a bit, and I think Rak kind of recognizes that, but is too stuck in his darker memories to really let it happen and he says something I don't know that he means to. That "Love is a figment of our imaginations". And he believes that, and you can see that Mut know he believes it, and his reaction is the most "Oh sweetie" look I've ever seen. (Seriously, Fort's expressions are always so fantastic). The moment is broken when Rak pulls a Kim Theerapanyakul and says "I'm hungry" and walks away.

We do get s teensy post credits scene which returns us to the restaurant where Rak sadly finds out that at many fresh seafood restaurants those tanks aren't just for ambiance (Bless you red fish for nourishing us) and we get some more good natured flirting from Mut "Will you eat me if I'm tasty"...boy if you don't.

Now we saw this same kind of thing last ep, where we ended on a pretty serious tone, go the end title screen and then a more humorous scene after. I think it's kind of intended to leave us as an audience on a more positive note instead of just wandering through the rest of our day traumatized and sobbing.

As we see the actual credits roll we get confirmation of my suspicion that the scene might change and progress as the episodes go on and indeed this episode we see Mut join Rak at the beach at a companionable distance. A bit curious to see if we might also have a change up when they go to the city.

Overall this was an excellent episode, clearly much to unpack (as you can see by this 4000 word post. It's well paced, the acting is very good, we're kept engaged as an audience. I didn't talk much about P'Vie and Mook, but I'll make a much shorter separate post for that.

[the-sprog]

I think a Batman/DetCo crossover would be perfect especially in the context of how fucking insane Shinichi's parents are.

I was thinking and I realized they're a mix of the Drakes (neglectful in the "never being home" kinda way, rich but it doesn't seem like their child sees a lot of that money) and Bruce ("how'd you learn how to shoot a gun" "my father spent a summer with me in Hawaii to teach me" what an insane scene that was. Not to mention the "yeah. It's a good idea to traumatize our child via fake kidnapping to teach him a lesson about stranger danger :)" and "Shinichi, dear, I know you're 6yo but come investigate this suicide with me sweetie") but they're also above worse (willing to falsify police and government documents for son).

Would Bruce love the Kudos or hate them? On one hand, Yusako definitely has them figured out. He's kinda like Alfred that way.

The Kudos get invited to an event, something like an award ceremony or some kind of cinema festival. They decide to bring Conan as a decoy for Shinichi related questions (usually they'd just use school as an examination why he wasn't there but they've been saying Shinichi is traveling for a case nowadays and it wouldn't do well to contradict that).

Bruce is the one that organized whatever event this is. I wanted the Drakes alive but I also want Damien to meet Conan. So. Sorry Janet and Jack. I'm going full Batfam for this.

Clark Kent is there, though he's technically a plus one. Cat is doing a piece for the event, specifically she wants to interview the Kudos, which is a feat as of late, and needed a last minute plus one (the Kudos are volatile and no one knew if they'd actually show up. When they did, Cat had to rush to get to Gotham before they decide they got bored and fucked off).

Of course, Cat immediately latches onto Conan's existence and assumes that he is why the Kudos have been out of the public eye. But not in the actual real way. She starts by asking general questions about them, their careers, and the event they're at at the moment.

And then she hits them with: "so. I see you've expanded the family. How does Shinichi feel about having a little brother?"

Which breaks just about everyone involved in the conversation.

Immediately Yukiko goes into actress gear. "Oh no he's- this is Conan, Conan Edogawa. He's our nephew. He's been staying with a friend of ours in Japan, but we thought he'd like coming back to the States for a bit!" All while smiling. Meanwhile Conan goes through all the stages of grief and is already building up the script for when he's gonna have to kiss ass to Ai for ending up in the Daily Planet.

Yusako senses this and tries to mitigate the situation a bit. "I'd appreciate if you didn't put him in your article. He's just a kid. And the focus is supposed to be on the event and our achievements, not a gossip piece about our private life"

But then Clark speaks up. Unfortunately he's been listening to the conversation and keeping track of everyone's reactions to everything. And he has a good memory. He has also listened to enough rants from Batman about the KID Thief to know more details than the average person.

"Aren't you the KID killer?" Everyone blanches. "I mean, that child from the KID Thief heists?"

"Uhm..." Conan is stumped. He's really bad at this. Of all the things his parents did, they never left him to deal with the vultures alone. But that also means that in his entire High School Detective career he had more of a "avoid at all costs" kinda mentality when it came to talking to the press directly. Sure they've made articles about him, but he's never met anyone interview him directly.

But again, Yukiko to the rescue. "I think that's enough. I hope you can respect our wishes." She puts her hands on Conan's shoulders as she redirects him away from them.

Clark is a little worried, a little suspicious. But he stops Cat from following them by reiterating that he's a kid and the Planet is not a tabloid newspaper.

Of course pt2, things go as things go when Conan is around a respectable amount of people and someone dies. Immediately Conan is on high alert, but so is Bruce who's worried about how someone could've managed to successfully commit a murder under his nose.

So, the investigation begins. On technically 4 sides. Yusako is doing his own detective work, but he's staying on the sidelines and letting the others be at the center of it all. Conan's special interest has been activated so he's in full inspection mode and putting himself in everyone's business. Bruce immediately contacts Commissioner Gordon, and starts distracting the people at the event while sussing out anyone who might have had a motive and/or opportunity. Clark has engaged his investigative journalism side and is already gathering evidence.

Meanwhile Damien is trying to convince Bruce to let him threaten people with unimaginable violence to make them comply and confess. But then he gets distracted by Conan and starts trying to babysit him but in a "I'm better than you tsk you're so immature" kinda way. Keeping him out of the way by yelling at him and dragging him away physically. Conan is not deterred.

All in all, it's a regular day for Conan, a particularly interesting day for the Kudos, a surprisingly weird day for Bruce, and a very annoying day for Damien.

[maybe-i-will-fandom]

eah gift exchange 2024!

My @eah-exchange gift for @champion-of-love! Happy Holidays, Stephanie!! I hope you like it!

(Sidenote - someone please let me know if there is a collection for this on Ao3 that I should post this to. I tried but it said it couldn't find any called "eah gift exchange 2024")

Summary: The Pink Squad are throwing another spellebration for a long-lost party Headmaster Grimm doesn't approve of: Destiny Swap Day.

Stephanie, I took inspiration from some of your tumblr posts. I meant for this to be 3-4 chapters but finals hit me harder than expected so I ran out of time. I'm going to try to finish it later!

It's behind a login wall, so if you don't have Ao3 I put the chapter below the Read More here :)

The alarm clock shouted at her. Briar bolted up in bed awake. What day was it? How long had she been out? She checked her mirror phone and sighed in relief. It was just the next day; she’d only been asleep for 6 hours. 

Mornings were hard for Briar. Just another (not) hexciting part of being the next Sleeping Beauty. Every time she woke up, she was struck by fear that she’d just taken her destined sleep. That no one and nothing had been able to wake her, and she’d been gone for so long that her friends had all moved on. Either to the next life or just, moved on from her. 

That was always her biggest fear: losing her friends. She never wanted to bum anyone out though, so she didn’t mention it much. She’d brought it up one night, after a particularly epic page ripper of a party, when she, Cupid, and Hopper were all hanging out on her bed together after and the 3am of it all had her spilling her guts to them. ‘The Wakies Scaries’, Hopper had dubbed it. Cupid had booed and Briar had thrown a pillow at him, but she appreciated it. She would never admit this while sober, but giving it such a dumb name had helped her be less frightened by it every time she woke up. She still got them, but she was learning to deal with it. It was way more hard to be scared of something with such a silly name. 

She took a moment to revel in being alive and awake, just like her mom’s healer had suggested she do to feel more grounded. Then she checked her mirror phone, eager to catch up on everything she’d missed in her 6 hours out. 

[Notifications Center]

Apple White to Me: I’m fairy hexcited for your party! I just wanted to check - you three are not going to break any school rules right? I know Headmaster Grimm usually d...

👑🐸 better as a frog 🐸👑to Pink Squad ♥️💗❣️💟🥰: ‘679 messages since last night?’ You’re killing me! Time to start my daily scroll ig. The things I do for this group smhmh 

👑🐸 better as a frog 🐸👑to Pink Squad ♥️💗❣️💟🥰: {message reply} LMFCOOOO HE TOTALLY WOULD 

Head Fairy In Charge to Me: I better be getting an invite to ur stupid little party tonight, Briar. Duchess told me u tricked her out of ur last secret party. Ykw I’ll do to u if... 

👑🐸 better as a frog 🐸👑 to Pink Squad ♥️💗❣️💟🥰: {message reply} bruh ok just @ my frog breath next time geez😭

✨Farrah✨ to Me, Cupid💗, ✨Farrah✨, Ginger B., Hopper: Hi party people! I have lunch plans but I can come over any time after 2pm to help make things that will last to midnight! 

Ginger B. to Me, Cupid💗, ✨Farrah✨, Ginger B., Hopper: and let me know what time to bring the snacks! I have everything prepped, just need to know when to start the oven hehe

👑🐸 better as a frog 🐸👑 to Pink Squad ♥️💗❣️💟🥰: {message reply} ok and????? I rocked those heels better than she ever could 💅💅😤💪

👑🐸 better as a frog 🐸👑 to Pink Squad ♥️💗❣️💟🥰: {is typing...}

She really loved her friends. 

Hopper blearily scrubbed a hand over his face and shook his head awake. He took his mirrorphone and bathroom kit and headed for the hall bath, already scrolling through the 500+ messages from the Pink Squad groupchat in the time that he was asleep. He likes to start his morning by scrolling through everything he missed between Briar and Cupid last night and replying with his thoughts. 

Frogs usually sleep 12-16 hours a day. So since he’s part frog, he needs more sleep than most people. So he misses out on a lot of the texting people do at night. He used to like to start his days every morning by going through and replying on every groupchat he was in. It made him feel like, even though he wasn’t there when the conversation was happening live, he could still be a part of it. But then one day Sparrow had made fun of him for doing it in the Bookball Team chat. And even though Daring, Dex, and Hunter had all told Sparrow to knock it off and let Hopper do what he wants, ever since then he’d still been too embarrassed to do his mass-replies anymore. But he kept doing it in the pink squad, because he knew how much it meant to Briar. She’d said as much when the three of them were just starting to hang out together more. 

“I love the way you just jump right in as soon as you wake up,” she’d said. “Maybe you missed the main event while you were asleep, but that doesn’t matter because... you join as soon as you’re awake and it’s still like you were there with us. It makes me think maybe I’ll be able to do that. You are asleep for most of the good parts, but we don’t leave you out of it because we still love you. Hopefully, my friends will always still love me. Hopefully, when I’m asleep for the good parts, I’ll always be able to jump right back in too.” He had immediately teared up and pulled her into a hug before even thinking about it. 

Then, as soon as he’d realized he was hugging Briar , he’d turned into a frog and fallen out of her arms onto the ground with a wet squelch. Way to ruin the mood, Hopper.  

But that’s another testament to how far their friendship has come. Briar used to just be Briar - an intimidating, popular, enchantingly beautiful, unapproachable princess who could make him turn with just a simple look. Now, she was Briar - a good friend who he and Cupid can bare their souls and most secret thoughts to and she’ll find some way to make them sound lovely. Of course she was also still that popular, enchantingly beautiful princess, and she liked to make him turn with playful flirting and teasing every now and then. But their friendship now was stronger than his still-ever-present crush, and he was grateful for that.  

Briar and Cupid were true friends. He could be his whole self with them. They didn’t make a big deal of it when he turned, and when they laughed about it he truly felt like they were laughing with him, not at him. Cupid had come from a place where people could turn into lots of things, and that was normal. She’d helped him accept his frog-self quirks, and Briar had helped him accept his human-self ones. As far as he was concerned, they were the wisest princesses ever after. 

He scrolled in the groupchat to a picture Briar had taken of Cupid falling from the sky because she saw Dexter smile and forgot she could fly. 

Cupid felt the warmth of sunlight on her face and opened her eyes for a brand new day at Ever After High! She stood up and stretched her wings then looked around the room. Her, Briar, and Hopper were getting ready to throw another one of their signature spelltacular parties this weekend, so Cupid was already gathering some of the supplies in her and Blondie’s room. 

The party was for another long-forgotten holiday that Dexter had read about in a library book. He’d told her about it at lunch one day because “I know how much you like hosting parties, and this one used to happen every year! True Hearts Day and now Destiny Swap Day - I wonder what other Ever After Spellebrations have been lost to time! I should start looking for those when I���m in the library doing research. In fact, I think I’ll start right now!” then he’d pushed the book into her hands and run off all excited. Cupid had been distracted by his dreamy eyes the whole time and didn’t process where he’d run off to until a full three seconds after he’d left, but she’d read the book he left her that night. 

Destiny Swap Day was such a cool holiday! It centered around each student swapping destinies for a day - dressing up and going through the day as each other to better appreciate the important role each story plays. It reminded Cupid of the adventure she’d gone on with her friends on Thronecoming Day!

The party planning was coming together great, and Destiny Swap Day seemed like a fun way for all the students to get to know each other and their true selves better. Cupid should be happy! But for some reason, she’d been feeling a bit down these last few days. Destiny Swap Day would be fun. But it also reminded her of another holiday. One that made her miss her last school. 

The dressing up and late night spellebrating reminded her of Halloween. And even though her new friends at Ever After High were the fairy best friends a demigoddess could ask for, and she was hexcited to spread love and understanding to this new world, she did still miss her ghouls back at Monster High. She was usually able to push past her homesickness - for Mount Olympus and Monster High - but the Destiny Swap Day preparations were making it harder to do so lately. 

She usually tried to hide it when she was homesick. She didn’t want to make her Ever After friends sad, and she didn’t want them to feel like they were less important to her than her family back on Mount Olympus or her other friends back at Monster High. Plus, she was supposed to bring love and light and truth and all things happy! But, her friends had helped her see that missing people and places is just another part of loving them. And that missing, like loving, was an emotion she shouldn’t feel the need to hide that she felt deeply. 

She knew she needed some help cheering up. Luckily, Humphrey had given her the tools to get that help. She headed out to the courtyard and pressed the button on the Pink Squad groupchat for telling her friends her homesickness was hitting a bit too hard, and waited for her friends to come rescue her. 

[saintmeghanmarkle]

🍵 This story about our Saint was just shared with me by 🍵 u/ContentPineapple3330

This story about our Saint was just shared with me Hi! It’s me. The person who started the thread asking people to share their own experiences with our victimized saint (or, more likely, your friends/connections experiences). Oh, did you deliver! And I'm so tickled you appreciated my pre-Harry story of her Toronto days.

Anyways, after that post, someone with a much better tea than me DM’d me (with pictures for proof). They want to remain anonyomous, which is why I am sharing on their behalf and taking out all identifiable details, because as we know — the sugars are legitimately insane and no one needs them in their lives.

That said: It is SO IMPORTANT we share these stories, because this is how the truth comes out. Critical mass is hit, and no PR can change it.

The story, paraphrased by me.

I've been waiting for the moment to tell this story. I'm a long-time lurker of this sub, but I don't usually comment or post. However, I have some really interesting tea that I got from a friend during a work trip.

Last year, at the Invictus Games in Germany, a photo of Prince Harry, his wife, and a colleague of mine went viral. In fact, imagine my surprise when I first saw it here in this sub! Much later, during a work trip, I met up with my colleague for dinner, and I couldn't resist asking her about Invictus. I thought she was pro-H&M; however, her experience revealed quite the opposite.

First the picture. She recounted that Meghan Markle spotted her and a friend, saying, "This would make a great photo opportunity," then practically manhandled them into taking a photo. Although Meghan was nice during the photo op (and Prince Harry was much nicer, and carried the actual conversation), my friend described her as "evil" and mentioned that Invictus is used primarily for PR. The organizers and volunteers had code names for the couple and could predict their arrivals because entire sections would be blocked off for staged events, and Getty photographers were ushered in.

In Harry's opening speech, he mentioned recently discovering his wife's Nigerian heritage. My friend said there was "tumbleweeds" of awkward silence, except for some cheers from about a dozen Nigerians who had been "rounded up" for this announcement. It struck many as disrespectful, diverting attention from an event dedicated to injured soldiers to focus on Meghan's heritage.

She was also at the event where Harry danced down the stairs to meet the Nigerian team. Organizers had gathered Nigerian women into a section, and H&M were then escorted down among them. Meghan walked right by my friend without acknowledging her, despite having forced a photo with her the previous day. It was clear that the Nigerian connection is obviously about PR. They stayed for only 10 minutes, and people were planted for photo ops. It all felt very contrived, with Getty photographers capturing them "posing for photos in the crowd" before they were quickly ushered out.

In fact, my friend revealed that supportive cardboard banners are handed out to people gathered in sectioned-off areas. [Editor's note: this is where my mouth dropped open. THEY'RE HANDING OUT BANNERS OF SUPPORT!]

She said Harry seemed to hate the attention but is besotted with Meghan. He disliked it when the crowd sang "Happy Birthday," whereas Meghan appeared to revel in the attention, enjoying people pulling at her and touching her hair.

Funny anecdote, Harry was heard saying: “Keep those fucking English away from me," clearly referring to English journalists.

I believe that every Invictus Games will have volunteers who witness similar things, and it's only a matter of time before more details like this leak.

post link author: ContentPineapple3330 submitted: July 13, 2024 at 03:49PM via SaintMeghanMarkle on Reddit disclaimer: all views + opinions expressed by the author of this post, as well as any comments and reblogs, are solely the author's own; they do not necessarily reflect the views of the administrator of this Tumblr blog. For entertainment only.

[corrodedseraphine]

wherever I am | one shot

pairing: eddie munson x fem!reader

based on my second (!!!) request from @phantypurple, thank you dear, I hope you won't be dissappointed! this time insead a long story I present you some short scenes, hope that's okay

request: Eddie x reader. They haven't met yet, but they keep bumping into eachother constantly by luck. (Going to grocery shopping and she is there, going to the music store and he is there, etc) and they both feel really attracted to the other but they don't interact until CC just forces them cause they can't stand the pinning anymore and then it's cute and fluff.

3 002 words

The one shot is also avaliable on ao3

eddie munson masterlist | general masterlist

1990

The first thing Eddie did as soon as he fully recovered was to become employed in the mechanic's shop of one of Hopper's friends. After a few years of hard work, Eddie was appreciated, because when Mr. Smith retired it was Young Munson who became the new owner of the place. Thanks to this, you were able to afford to buy an apartment together. When everything was ready you organized a housewarming party, thus together with those closest to you you were now sitting in the large living room celebrating the new beginning of your future together.

"I'd like to ask for everyone's attention!" Eddie exclaimed, standing in the middle of the room. At the sound of these words, Dustin quickly ran to another room and returned from it with a huge cardboard box wrapped in gift paper, which he handed to Eddie. "This is a small gift, for our beautiful new start, dear." he said, placing the box in your lap. It was suspiciously light.

"What is it?" you asked curiously.

"Unpack it and you'll find out." he showed his boyish smile.

So you started unpacking. In the large cardboard box was...a smaller one. In the smaller one was an even smaller carton, and so on endlessly. With amusement you unpacked step by step, until finally you reached the smallest item. The item at the sight of which took your breath away and the laughter and conversation throughout the living room quieted. Almost no one expected something like this.  Your hands were shaking as you opened the small velvet box that contained the ring. You didn't even notice when Eddie got down on one knee in front of you, watching your reaction carefully. He slowly took it from you and began to speak.

"As I said...this is our new beginning together. I have always known that you are special. Something has always been drawing us to each other, I don't know what it was but I'm damn grateful for every moment that fate put you in my path. Without hesitation you followed me to hell. You never left my side, and I hope you know that I would have done the same for you." His voice was slowly breaking, and tears were flowing from his eyes however, he was still smiling. "I love you. I love you more than anything in my life, and I want you to always remember that. I don't know what the future holds for us, but I know that together we can handle anything. The last few years have shown me that a trip to Mordor will be like a damn trip to Disneyland for us." he laughed. "Together we are unbreakable. So now, in the presence of our family I want to ask, will you make me the happiest man in the world and become my wife?"

"Yes!" the world around you was spinning. Your heart was beating so loudly that it drowned out the applause of the rest. Seconds later you were kneeling on the floor next to him as he gently slid the ring onto your finger.

"I love you Eddie. I love you so damn much," you hugged him and cried into the bend of his neck repeating those words again and again.

"I love you too, sweetheart. I always will." he muttered into your hair embracing you and stroking your back.  When you separated from each other it was time for congratulations. Everyone hugged you in turn telling you how happy they were with your happiness. Wayne also couldn't hold back tears when he said he welcomed you to the family.

"Does that mean I'm going to be your best man?" asked an excited Dustin.

"And why should it be you?" asked Mike.

"Yeah! I was the one who helped packing the ring!" interjected Lucas.

"But I was the one who came up with the idea to pack it like that!" exclaimed Dustin.

"You seem to forget that it was me and Steve who helped him pick the ring." added Will high-fiving Steve.

"That's enough of this pointless argument, gentlemen!" suddenly Gareth got up from his seat and walked over to Eddie putting his arm around him. "Everyone knows that if anyone is to be best man it will be me," he said.

"And why is that?" Dustin was shocked.

"Because if it weren't for me, the thing between them would never have happened." he smirked

"What is he talking about?" you asked curiously.

"Dude, for real? Now?" Eddie groaned.

"Time to face the truth my friend." Jeff added with a laugh.

"Honey, before I say anything I would like to remind you that the offer was accepted by you, you were aware of your actions and returns are not accepted." He said looking and kissed you wanting to soften your heart. "Sit down. It's story time." He sighed.

January 1986

Mondays were never one of Eddie's favorite days, but the delivery of supplies at the music store always made them bearable.

"Hi Dave!" he shouted toward the owner as he walked inside, letting in the cold air behind him.

"Shut the damn door boy!" the man replied. Dave was a good friend of Wayne's. One of very few. This friendship did not bother Eddie one bit, on the contrary. A friendly discount on all new tapes was something awesome for him.

"Oh, yes, shit, sorry."

"You're earlier today." he said pulling out a big box from under the counter, at the sight of which Eddie's eyes lit up.

"I couldn't miss it!" The boy immediately dived into it, looking intently at the small plastic packages.

"You know the deal. You're the first person to look through them, but you put them all nicely in their place."

"Sure thing." Eddie smiled broadly and at a slow speed began unpacking the contents of the carton and laying everything out in its proper places. Fully absorbed in his task, he paid no attention to what was going on around him, so he flinched slightly when he felt someone tapping him on the shoulder.

"Excuse me, sir." He turned quickly toward your voice. When he saw you he stopped moving. You looked really beautiful, your nose and cheeks red from the cold added to your charm. "I'm sorry to disturb you, but I'm looking for the store manager." You said trying to mask your stress and sound in control and professional. His attention, however, did not escape the slight tremor of your words and your slightly too fast breathing. He noticed something about you that didn't allow him to simply look away. You must have been new in town, because he was sure you would have definitely attracted his attention before. Besides, he didn't think anyone had ever addressed to him as Sir. Hardly anyone called him by his first name let alone this.

"Are you looking for him because...?" he asked grinning as a plan popped into his head.

"I saw a sign in the window saying you were looking for employees. I just moved to Hawkins and I am interested in a job offer. Here's my resume." You said holding out a piece of paper in front of you.

"This is your lucky day! You're talking to a manager himself!" he said enthusiastically, smiling wider.

"Not true!" Dave's voice came to you as Eddie reached out to take the resume from your hands. Seeing the other man's reaction, you stepped back confused. "This punk doesn't even work here." he continued. Eddie just rolled his eyes and went back to his previous activity, trying to hear what you were talking about. For some reason, he wasn't able to focus on the music anymore, and his gaze wandered to the small wooden table where you and Dave were sitting. He suspected that he would be here much more often from now on. 

A few days later, Eddie and Wayne went out shopping. In the parking lot in front of the store, he noticed a rather familiar figure. Maybe not exactly familiar, but certainly the one he had thought about very often since meeting her at the music store. With a bag slung over your shoulder, you quickly entered the store, and they followed your footsteps. Still looking around between the shelves, Eddie couldn't focus on what his uncle was saying. Finally somewhere in the chemistry aisle he spotted you and stopped to observe what you were doing.

"Are you even listening to me son?" asked an irritated Wayne when Eddie, stopping, bumped into him. "What the hell are you looking at?" followed his nephew's gaze. You stubbornly tried to reach the laundry detergent from the top shelf by jumping up.

Unfortunately, it had no effect. Resigned, you put one foot on the lowest shelf. "Go help the girl before she knocks over the whole thing on herself, not stare!"  With a quick step, he moved towards you, seeing the rack slowly starting to wobble. "Hey, let me help you." He said quickly standing next to you and reaching for the detergent. He was close enough that he could easily smell your perfume, not at all surprised that he liked it.

"Thank you, Eddie." you said, smiling shyly.

"Wait-do you know my name?" he asked shocked.

"I've heard a little about you," you said.

"I'm betting that the things you heard were not among the best..." he rolled his eyes.

"Just because I heard them doesn't mean I believe them." You shrugged your shoulders. "Thank you for your help."

"You're welcome, help you with anything else?" he didn't know what but something inside didn't want to let you go at any cost.

"I think I can handle it. Have a good day, Eddie!" you said goodbye and, together with your purchases, you moved ahead.

To young Munson slowly began to get the meaning of your words. You had heard about him. People probably started warning you about the local freak the very first day your foot stepped on Hawkins land. But you didn't care. He still had a chance. But a chance for what actually? He didn't know himself.

"She looks nice." Wayne's voice snapped him out of his thoughts.

"Yeah, she does." he whispered still not taking his eyes off you.

"What's her name?"

"Oh, shit..."

You were everywhere. He had to let someone go across the crosswalk? It was you. The girl who accidentally bumped into him while walking in the woods when he was going to his regular selling spot? Of course it was you. He no longer counted the number of times you stood behind each other in line at the store or passed each other on the street. Wherever he was, you were there, too. For the moment, he was able to recognize you in the biggest crowd. Even without seeing you yet, he felt your presence, felt this strange attraction and a moment later he always found a face he couldn't stop thinking about. Still, he did not know your name. Of course, he thought about it many times. He applied all sorts of names to you, wondering which one fit best, hoping that one day he would finally not have to make them up.

"Hey, loverboy!" Gareth threw a drumstick at him.

"What?" he asked, shaking it off.

"Thinking about the mysterious stranger again?" laughed Jeff. "Shut up," he muttered.

"For five minutes we've been talking to you about a new song and you're somewhere else! We'll never get beyond the Hideout with this attitude."

"Stop being dramatic and play!" Eddie growled while grabbing his guitar. The rest immediately returned to their instruments harmonizing with the guitar. Before the song was over something else caught his attention. Suddenly, a jacket in a color he knew well appeared on the porch of the house across the street. He squinted his eyes wanting to take a closer look when you turned. Your gaze immediately met his. You smiled broadly while waving in his direction, and he immediately stopped playing to wave you back.

"Who the hell are you waving at?" asked Gareth, annoyed by the sudden pause.

"And you're smiling so stupidly." Simon added.

"That's her..." Eddie said quietly still smiling. He watched as you got into the car and slowly drove off from under the house.

"You have a crush on Mrs. Hunson's granddaughter?" Mrs. Hunson was the owner of the house across the street and the only person in the neighborhood who tolerated the band's rehearsals in Gareth's garage. Maybe it was because her husband was a big metal fan, or maybe because she was deaf in one ear and the noise didn't bother her that much.

"Do you... uh- Do you know what her name is?" he asked scratching the back of his neck.

"Dude! You've been drooling over her for over a month now and you don't even know her name?" the situation was hilarious to the rest of the band.

"Why don't you be a good friend and finally tell me?" Munson bit back.

"And just so you know, I'll help you! But not like this." A sinister smile crept onto Emerson's face.

"And what way?"

"You'll find out in your own time. Now play!" 

The crowd at the Hideout was not the largest, as always. That's why when he noticed you sitting alone at one of the tables surprise and excitement mixed into one. This had to be a sign. Since you even found yourself here and sat there watching him with a smile on your lips it had to mean something. Fate had put you on your path too many times to just leave it at that. For the first time in his life, he couldn't wait to get off the stage. Unfortunately, there were still a few songs ahead of them. Feeling a surge of positive energy, he began to pull out all his aces from his sleeve. The sight of you giggling fueled him even more, he showed off as much as he could when the performance finally came to an end. Applauding loudly you got up from the table walking towards him. He didn't know if his heart was beating so hard from fatigue or because of you.

"Hi," you greeted.

"Hi!" he replied enthusiastically.

"You were great!"

"I'm glad you enjoyed it." there was a moment of awkward silence between the two of you as you stood like that and looked at each other.

"And uh... I got your note," you said reaching into your pocket.

"My note?" he asked puzzled.

"Yes, the one you left in the letterbox?" seeing his surprise you looked even more confused than he was. Eddie quickly took the paper from your hand and opened it. 

I have a strange feeling that wherever I am you are there too, just as if fate  wanted to tell us something. How about the first non-accidental meeting?  The Hideout. 8pm on Tuesday. - Eddie

Oh shit. Shitshitshitshit. So that was Gareth's great plan to help him. To trick him and bring you here. But you didn't know that. And since you came here it meant that you wanted to meet him. That you wanted to get to know him better. Missing such an opportunity would be a sin, wouldn't it? He took a deep breath.

"I'm glad you came." he said handing you back the card. "Would you like a drink?"

"With pleasure."

"So... first question. What's your name?" he asked smiling shyly as you sat down.

"Oh, right." You laughed and introduced yourself.

Very quickly you found a common language. Eddie told you a little more about the band, you told what brought you to Hawkins. The fact that you had to stay here for the next few years made him very happy. It meant a great amount of time to get to know each other better. And that's exactly what happened. From that day on, with each date you discovered something new about each other, more reasons that made you both begin to understand why fate pushed you in each other's direction. Every moment you spent together seemed appropriate. It is known that there were ups and downs, but you always coped with it. Your friendship quickly turned into a relationship that exploded into the truest love. You were made for each other, written in the stars. You were inseparable, and your love became unbreakable. 

"Wait, what?!" you exclaimed. "You want to tell me that the note I've always carried with me in my wallet from is from Gareth? Are you kidding me?"

"Hey, you're being mean!" Emerson indignantly replied. "After all, it worked! You couldn't stop admiring that gesture for years!"

"Because I thought Eddie did it!" you were shocked. How did he manage to keep it a secret all these years?

"It's a good thing Gareth didn't have to propose for him too." Robin said amused by the situation, causing the rest to laugh.

"No one else has the right to propose to her!" exclaimed Eddie coming up to you. "'Baby are you mad at me? I beg you not to be." he put his hands on your shoulders watching your reaction. "I had to lie then, because I was afraid it would be a one-in-a-million chance to keep you with me."

"Why didn't you tell for all these years?" you asked.

"I have no idea. I'm really sorry. But I want to remind you that for real I don't take returns." He kissed you on the forehead. "You are grounded with me. Forever now." he added trying to fake a tone of voice like a villain.

"You are impossible." You sighed hugging him. If you had found out in a different situation maybe you would have actually been a little angry. However, today you were able to forgive him a lot. Thinking about how interesting the rest of your life would be by his side, you couldn't stop smiling. Your silly boy. Your hero. Your Eddie. And soon - your husband.

taglist: @i-me-mine

[tuliptiger]

Hello again! House/life update.

I am in a much better place mentally but really rather the same financially. I am currently laid off for a month seasonally since I'm still not a permanent employee. I have something in the works I'm hoping plays out so that I have a permanent position and worst case scenario I go back to work May 6th as a temp for 6 more months. I have side jobs and unemployment lined up in the mean time.

Anyway though! On to the house. Disappointing news but honest news in terms of the first contractor we hired. We still haven't gotten money back from him.

Recap: my mom and I fired him because he lied to us, charged tools on our account we up front said not to do, built a shoddy excuse of a foundation and frame for my house that we eventually had to pay our current contractor to demolish because it was so bad. It was for all definitions a different house the original contractor built. He used the wrong framing type for the blueprint and didn't even use framing nails to the city code. He wasn't even on site for 90% of the build and seemingly subcontracted it out which we didn't know.

In addition my mom is...not the best person to work with and makes a lot of mistakes. She's not a critical thinker on a lot of things. I made the mistake of asking her to help me buy land and build a house in the pursuit of escaping my generational poverty. I made the second mistake of asking her to take on individual responsibilities and not step in when the red flags started coming up.

I left her in charge of getting the money back from the OG contractor since she had all contact with him and she was originally the one who found him. That went as well as anyone could guess and she's, in summary, procrastinated doing any proper paperwork for attorneys or the contract board. I keep pushing her and she always says she'll get to it this day or that day or hits a dead end and then it goes nowhere.

This would not be a big issue but we're talking more than $20,000 he did in damages and $1,000 he directly stole from us like straight up $1,000 we handed him to do work he never did. The donations everyone has been sending in slowly are very much appreciated and remind me to keep fighting for this.

At this point I just want to get the house done so I can be done with the contractors and done with my mother. I don't want to be in this situation anymore and it's been dragged out for 3 years now. I've added pictures of where the house is at now and most of it having been done in January and February.

As the electric was finished and passed inspection I'm waiting in the HVAC and plumbing as the last things professionals must do before I can finish the house. I've started putting in flooring and the wood stove was just delivered so things are still moving.

The donations haven't covered anything large from the build but it has covered smaller things (I've used it for nails, locks for the doors, etc.) and given me strength to continue. Motivation from strangers, acquaintances and friends to not just walk away and to keep my head in the right space. I've emotionally and mentally been in a better place since I initially made the gofundme which has helped.

Anyway I've been meaning to make this for awhile and I'm sorry for the delay. I've been working my full time job before I was laid off, my side gigs, working on the house, still living out of my car and trying to work with my mother. I appreciate everyone who's been invested in this, shared it and donated. More updates will come in the future and thank you all again.

[andydrysdalerogers]

Cross-Checked ~ Chapter 19

Andy Barber x OFC Leighton "Leia" Andrews

Summary:

Andy Barber is having the best year of his life. His game is on point. It’s gets to play with his best friend and his fiancé just... dumped him?!. 

Reeling from a sudden change in status, Andy decides it’s time to just focus on hockey. Until his best friend's sister comes out with news that rock the entire organizations world., 

Andy has always carried a torch for the untouchable Leighton but in her hour of need, is now the time to shoot and score or risk getting cross - checked again? 

Warnings: Cheating (but not by the MCs); slow burn; friends to lovers eventually; SMUT!; pregnancy; jealousy; handsome goalies, evil exes...

A/N: The tag list is open! Also, so sorry to be behind on this one. Life got in the way for awhile but I'm back!

I do NOT give permission for my work to be translated or reposted on here or any other site, even if you give me credit. DO NOT REPOST MY FICS. Reblogs, comments, likes, and feedback ALWAYS appreciated

Dividers by @firefly-graphics

Banners by me!

Previous: Chapter 18 ~ Daydream Believer

Series Masterlist // Main Masterlist

Chapter 19 – Oh Good, You’re Home 

35 Weeks – Leia 

Ever heard the story of the scorpion and the frog? 

No? 

Quick side story.  There is a river and the scorpion trying to cross it. He sees the frog and says, “Hey Frog, do you think you can carry me across the river? 

The frog says, “No way, you’ll just sting me in the middle of the river, and I’ll die.” 

“No, I won’t because I want to get across. I promise I won’t sting you.”  

The frog begrudgingly accepts, and the scorpion climbs on him and they start to cross.  Halfway through the scorpion stings the frog . “Why did you do that? Now we’ll both die!” 

The scorpion just says, “Its just my nature.”  

Sometimes some people just can’t be trusted.  

Except, this is one person who I trusted before Andy.  

She had been my best friend.  And when my father died, I think she died with him. 

The woman at the door doesn’t look anything like the mother that raised me.  

“What are you doing here Mother?” I protected my bump as best I could.  

“I wanted to speak to you, Leighton.” She looked at my bump with a loving look. That’s different. 

“I have nothing to say to you or hear anything you have to say.” I moved to close the door, but she stopped me. 

“Leia-bear, just give me a few minutes.” Her eyes are pleading. Underneath all of the makeup and filler she has, I can see a flicker of the mother I used to know.  

“Five minutes,” I say and let her in.  

She glances around the living room.  It was different from the last time I saw her. Her gaze stops on the mantle. Over the fireplace is our favorite photo from my maternity shoot.  The one where Andy is cupping my face and kissing me softly. It was the perfect reminder of our love. “That’s a beautiful picture,” she finally says.  

“Thank you.” I sat back down and gave her a look.  “Why are you here? You made it very clear the last time I saw you that I am a disappointment at the choices that were half made for me and the ones I made to make sure my little girl is protected and loved.”  

“It’s a girl?” 

Dammit. I hadn’t meant for that to slip. “Yes.”  

“Congratulations.” She made a slight move towards me, like she wanted to touch my bump but stopped herself. “Leighton, I wanted to talk to you about Bret.”  

“What about him? I really hope that he went back to Japan.”  

“No, he’s still in town. He’s staying with me.”  

I sat up straighter. “What? Why would you do that?” Is she trying to kill me? He’s harboring my ex and my pregnant brain is on the fritz.  

“Well, he needed a place to stay for the few weeks that he is here since his house sold.” My mother straightens her diamond pendant on her necklace.  

“You understand that he is my ex and has nothing to do with my life or yours? Because he has no rights.”  

“I don’t understand what the problem is?” My mother scoffed.  

I don’t recognize the woman standing in front of me.  The mother that I remember was warm and caring. She made cookies and hot cocoa for my brother’s team after practice.  She took me to ballet and gymnastics, always with a snack. She made thanksgiving dinner and arts and crafts for Christmas.  Summer held snacks and games.  She was the mother most people dream about.  

I guess I was right. She died when my dad did.  

“You want to know the problem? Ok, here’s the problem. Your daughter was being controlled by a man that wanted a maid and nothing more.  That man told me my dreams were worthless.  That I wasn’t worth it. I told him about the baby, and I heard nothing. He doesn’t want me or my baby.  Did you know that I know he’s been having flings when we were together?  Yeah, that’s the dream man that you want me to be with.  Instead of being happy, you want me to be miserable.  Just because you’re miserable doesn't mean that I want that.”  

She’s silent but I don’t stop.  

“I know that it’s been hard since daddy died but we have been trying to support each other because that’s what family does.  You checked out and never came back. I didn’t know we became orphans that day, but we did. You don’t know me; you don’t want what’s best for me. Because you would want, I was able to get myself, a man who loves me, you encourage me, who supports me, who dreams with me, who cares for my daughter as if it were his own.”  

I took a breath and looked at her tear-filled eyes.  “If you don’t want me to be happy like I have found, then please leave me alone. Don’t come back.  Until you make up your mind, I need you to please leave.”  

I wiped at my face as my mother walked out the door. I sink onto the bench that’s by the door and try to calm my body. It was cathartic really. Getting all of the unspoken words out was good. I didn’t mean to get worked up but I can’t change that.  After I feel my breathing slowing down, I move to get up and I am rocked with a pain around my middle. “Shit,” i groan.  I wait to see if there is another pain, but it’s gone. I must have Braxton Hicks contractions.  

I move to call Andy and Luke but they go to voicemail so they must be in practice.  I sigh and move to get a drink. As I make it to the fridge, another pain seared across my bump. I hang on to the fridge handle as I ride this out.   

I reach for my baby book, trying to find advice on how to get myself out of these Braxton Hicks. Plenty of fluids, warm preferred and a bath.  I can do this; I can relax again.  I pull out the kettle and tea. Once I have that, I head upstairs to our bathroom. I love that Andy got a jacuzzi tub, but I just need the warmth. As the tub fills, I pull out my favorite lavender bubble bath and add it in. Soon, I’m neck deep in bubbles and I can feel myself relaxing.  But at the same time, I’m thinking about my mom.  

She seriously thinks I should be with someone who only saw me as arm candy and nothing more. That isn’t how I was raised, and she knows it. My dad treated her like an equal. He shared the responsibilities and made sure his family was taken care of. I don’t know who this pod-person is that looks my mother but she certain is not any longer. The thoughts bring another flash of pain in my belly. “Ok,” I say out loud as I stroke my belly, I’ll stop thinking about her. “Just relax, little one. Daddy isn’t here and you need to be patient to come out.”  

The pains come and go for the next couple of hours until I’m hit with one that last longer than the others. “Fuck, this hurts,” I mumble.  

That would be the least of my problems.  

Jeremy 

Being injured sucks.  

Getting a concussion sucks more.  

I can’t believe that Craig, my old teammate, had the balls to crash into me like he did. Now I’m out at least two weeks in concussion protocol.  At least my vision is ok, its just a lingering headache.  I’m in my apartment waiting for a call from Stella when the phone rings.  And I’m shocked to see who the caller is.  

“Leia?” 

“Jeremy, please tell me you’re home and you can drive?” 

I furrow my brow. “Oh yeah.”  

“Oh good. Because I’m home alone and my water just broke.”  

The fuck did she say? 

“Your water broke?” 

“Yeah, I think I’m in labor and I’m five weeks early.” I can hear the heavy breathing through the phone. “Please help me.”  

“I’m on the way.”  

This was not on my bingo card this year.  

I jump in my car and race to Andy and Leia’s.  I knock but the door opens.  “Leia?” 

“In here,” she calls from upstairs.  The woman is in labor and she’s upstairs.  Can’t be easy right? 

I take two stairs at a time and see Leia bent over the bed and breathing hard. I come up behind her and rub her back.  “Breathe, Leia.”  After a moment, she tries to stand. “Are you ok?” 

“Yeah,” she huffs. “That was the longest one so far.” She looks at me and I can see the pain in her eyes and the sweat on her brow. “I need to get to the hospital, and I can’t get a hold of Andy or Stella or my brother.” I can see she wants to cry.  

“Ok, I’ll call coach or the GM and get a hold of them. Let’s get you down the stairs and to the car, ok?” She nods before pointing to a bag on the floor.  

“I need that.”  

“I got it.” Then I take her hands and help her down.  Right in the middle, she gets hit with another contraction and withers.  I take hold of her as she grips my shirt. “It hurts,” she cries.  

“I know. I’m sorry I can’t be more help. Just breathe it out, ok? In one, two three four, out two, three, four.”  The contraction passes and I get her into the car.  I use the bluetooth and call Coach.  

“Swayman, I’m kinda...” 

“Andy’s girl is in labor. Leia is in labor and I’m taking her to Boston General.” 

“Holy... ok hang on. Barber, Andrews!” I can hear coach skate towards them.  “Get your shit together and get to the airport.  Leia is in labor.”   

“But she’s early,” I hear Andy say.  

“Just go,” Coach orders. “Jeremy is driving her there.”  I don’t hear anything from the guys.  “Sway, keep us updated.” 

“Will do Coach.”  I hang up and look at Leia. “You ok?”  

“I’m fine just uncomfortable. Jeremy, please don’t leave me.”  

I take her hand. “I’m right here, every step of the way.” 

Leia 

This is not how I thought I would be making my way to the hospital. But I won’t complain because Jeremy answered the call and brought me here. I’m so scared and in a lot of pain.  As Jeremy walks me into the hospital, another pain streaks through. I grip onto Jeremy’s hand and try to ride it out.  

“Holy fuck,” I hear him whisper. I want to laugh but the pain is overwhelming. It finally subsides and I let go. He shakes he hand out but gives me a tight smile. “It’s ok,” when he sees my eyes watering. “Its my glove hand. If it stays in that position, maybe it will help me stop the puck.”  

“I’m sorry,” I cry just as a nurse brings me a wheelchair. “I think I hurt him,” I told the nurse.  

“No, I’m fine,” Jeremy says, flexing his hand. “I wasn’t ready for it, but I am now.” He gives the nurse a smile. One I see he gives fans not his pickup one.  That’s odd.  

“Ok, let’s get your wife admitted,” she says.  

“Oh, no,” we both say. “My boyfriend is on his way. My friend is helping me.”  I give her a smile. “But he can stay with me right?” 

“Of course. We’ll just ask him to step out when we check on you.” She takes us up to labor and delivery and get me hooked up.  

“You talked to Andy?” I asked Jeremy.  

“Yeah, they were boarding from Toronto. He should be here in about three hours.”  

“Ok. My book says that first pregnancies can take up to twenty-four hours of labor because your body isn’t used to it so that gives us plenty of time.”  My doctor comes in right then.  

“Leia, I thought we had an agreement.” She gives me a smile and looks up and is startled. “Oh, I thought...” 

“Andy is on his way,” I explain. “Jeremy was home and...” 

“I get it.” Dr. Montgomery smiles. “Well, Jeremy, if you can step out for a moment.” 

“I’ll call Coach and give him an update.” He leans over and kisses the top of my head. “I’ll be right back, don’t freak out.” 

I smile and once he’s out the door I look at Dr. Montgomery.  “Tell me Andy has time.” 

The doc examines me and I don’t like the look on her face. “Leia, you are at 7 centimeters and full effaced. I’m guessing that we have max two hours before you are gonna start pushing.”  

“But, Andy isn’t here.  He has to be here to hold her and cut the cord.” I can hear the alarms going off on the monitors. “I... I can’t do this without him.” 

“Ok, sweetie, we need you to breathe.” Dr Montgomery takes my hand. “Get Jeremy back in here,” she orders a nurse. “Leia, you need to try to calm yourself.  You’re putting your self into tachycardia and making the baby’s heartbeat drop.”  

“I need him,” I cry as Jeremy runs back into the room.  “Jeremy, I can’t do this without him.”  

He sits and takes my hand. “I know, Leia, but you’re not alone, ok? You’re so strong, gorgeous. I’ll be right here, no matter what. I want to meet her, fresh from the oven.” That gets a giggle, which helps the monitors relax. “That’s it. Good girl.”  

“Talk to me. Tell me anything,” I tell him.  We spend the next couple of hours talking, forgiving, forgetting. Suddenly, another alarm goes off. “Jeremy?” 

“I don’t know,” he says as a nurse rushes in to check the alarm.  

“Page Dr. Montgomery!” she yells as other nurse come in.  “Ok Leia, we need to put you on your side, right now.  Jeremy, come to this side.” There is a flurry of activity, and I can feel myself panicking.  

“Jeremy?” He takes my hand. “What’s happening?” He asks no one in particular.  

Dr. Montgomery rushes in and looks at the report the nurses. “Ok, Leia, if the baby doesn’t respond to the body change in the next few minutes, I’m going to take you in for an emergency c-section.”  

My eyes are wide with fear, and I can see it on Jeremy’s face as well.  “He’s not going to make it,” I whisper, resigned. 

“I’m sorry Leia, but if you are ok with it, I’ll be in there with you.” Jeremy squeezes my hand.  

A few minutes later, I hear, “I’m sorry Leia. Get her ready for transport and find some scrubs for Jeremy.” I see everyone moving to get me set up for the surgery. Jeremy gets handed a blue bundle of clothes and leaves for a second.  Then I’m being wheeled out and to the operating room.  

This is it.  

I’m sorry Andy. 

And I pray that my daughter is ok.  

NEXT

Taglist:

@patzammit @texmexdarling @slutforchrisjamalevans @firephotogrl74 @tinkerbelle67 @before-we-get-started @bunnyforhim @alexakeyloveloki @sunnyhummingbee @whiskeytangofoxtrot555 @peaceinourtime82 @saucy-sassy-sparkly @kmc1989 @kandis-mom @lokislady82

[seriouslycromulent]

More thoughts on The John Larroquette Show

OK. So I've finally finished rewatching The John Larroquette Show, and I'm back with additional thoughts and commentary about the series. My first post about my rewatch can be found here.

I just want to point out that I couldn't watch every episode because the media player that I downloaded wouldn't play back all the files unfortunately. So over the course of the 4 seasons, I would say I got to see about 85% of it. Unfortunately, the majority of the episodes the media player wouldn't read were in the final season. ☹️ I hope I will get to watch those episodes via another media player in the future, but I didn't want to hold up my commentary waiting for that to happen.

So from what I got to watch, I really liked the show and it made me sad that the series couldn't really find an audience because there was some solid comedy (and drama) in those 70+ episodes.

Enough of the intro, let's dive in to more thoughts ...

I'm so slow. It took me until the 2nd season to realize the cops' names, Hampton and Eggers, are a play on the combo Ham & Eggs. Don't judge me.

Throughout season 2, you can tell the showrunners were really trying everything to get the ratings up with different guest stars and celeb cameos. It's almost to the point of being really obsequious and sweaty. Like it starts somewhat subtly with cross-promotion of other NBC series and celebrities who are mildly connected to the show, like Joey Lawrence from Blossom playing Carly's brother and David Cassidy, who sang the opening theme song for the show. Then, it was like: "Hey! Here for no reason is the '60s singer Deon, actor Joe Pesci, and Boys II Men." (Not all in one episode, mind you). Now, I love me some BIIM, but they basically shot an entire music video in the bus station in the middle of an episode, and it just did not fit the tone of the show at all. The most obvious cameo/guest star was the random appearance of the late and sorely missed Matthew Perry as a character that didn't even get a name. But Friends was already a hit by then (1995), so I'm sure NBC thought his appearance on TJLS would help with the ratings. I don't mind any of these guest stars generally, but it all began to feel a bit forced, as opposed to something organic like most of the guest stars from season 1.

Now guest stars who have worked with Larroquette in the past or were related to him were perfectly fine by me. What can I say? I like it when people I know who are friends or family get to work together. Case in point: It was great to see JL act alongside his lovely wife in an episode of his own show. All I know about Elizabeth is what JL has mentioned occasionally in interviews, which is essentially she has the patience of a saint and that she's English. With so little to go on, it's no surprise that I didn't recognize her right away. But she did a fine job, and I bet it was a real treat for them to work together on something that others (especially their kids) can watch years later.

In s2e17, "Whipping Post," Joey Lawrence guest stars as Carly's brother, Sonny. During a scene where nurse Catherine (played by the highly underrated Alison LaPlaca) is dressing a bad cut on his arm at the hospital, Sonny keeps hitting on Catherine while she's working. In a quick back and forth, he tells her how attractive and funny she is. She responds by saying something to the effect, "Thanks for that. It's nice to hear, but I've been on 5 cancelled sitcoms. Nobody gets me." The comment gets a huge laugh from the audience because it's obviously a 4th wall break. I remember LaPlaca being on a number of sitcoms in the '80s, but I just wanted to fact check to see which 5 cancelled ones she was talking about. According to IMDB, they were: Tom, The Jackie Thomas Show, Stat, Open House, and Duet (which to be fair, lasted 3 seasons). Personally, I love it when shows break the 4th wall, and I appreciate that they let the audience laugh for a long time here because it really was a funny surprise that I think deserved the response it got.

Going back to the general setup of the show, you can tell that the producers or the network is still fiddling with the formula throughout the series. They moved away from the steady references to John Hemingway's recovery in AA, and tried their best to make it more like a "regular" sitcom about the life and work of a particular group of people. This was fine, I guess. But I feel like in doing so, the show lost a little bit of what made it unique. They tried to make Hemingway a normal-ish guy surrounded by a cast of dynamic characters, and he was simply reacting to their shenanigans. But that in some ways stunted the development of John's character, in my opinion.

Speaking of character development, I also felt like the show was probably getting notes from week to week telling the writers to be more appealing to "Middle America." So as a result, the writers did the following: had Hemingway talk less about racism with Dexter; gave Hemingway a steady girlfriend & a more middle class-looking flat; made Carly more "respectable" by giving her the bar at the station to run; had Gene meet someone & get married; and kept the commentary about the cops to mostly punchlines about them specifically (compared to a commentary about police, in general). Most of these changes happen in season 2, but it doesn't stop the show from being funny. However, it does change the humor a bit. I felt like the humor only really starts to falter when they changed the canon bus station hours where we see our cast of characters go from an overnight shift (aka 3rd shift) to a late shift (aka 2nd shift). The change is subtle, but it's there. And it was definitely better when the show had a 3rd shift background. I don't know why, but it just did.

In happier thoughts, I counted guest stars from Night Court coming over and joining Larroquette for an episode on his show at 6. First, there's Bumper Robinson playing a teenage thief/would-be shakedown artist in "Jumping Off the Wagon" (s1e7). Then, we see Marsha Warfield playing Dexter's sister in "Date Night" (s1e22). Next, it was Charles Robinson playing a bookmaker that John mistakes for a bookie (aka someone who places gambling bets). That episode, "John's Lucky Day," (s3e11) was great especially because of the scene in the bar where John has this back and forth with the bartender, who thinks John is this menacing gangster who's going to hurt Charlie's character and he's trying to keep John in his good graces. The bartender is played by popular voice actor Kevin Michael Richardson, someone we rarely get to see onscreen much these days. And of course, we get a guest starring episode featuring Harry Anderson, who played a plastic surgeon trying to convince John to get a lot of unnecessary work done. That episode, "Cosmetic Perjury," (s3e14) also gives a nice little shout-out to Markie Post in a quick back and forth between the two. And last, but not least, we get to see a small reunion between Dan Fielding and Phil Sanders with the guest appearance of William Utay in the episode "Independence Day" (s3e20).

Oh, and I shouldn't forget the small role that John's youngest son, Ben, plays in "An Odd Cup of Tea," (s3e7). It must've been trippy to play your dad's much, much younger brother on your dad's own TV show. Although, they do get to argue with each other and tell each other to shut up like brothers yelling at each other often do, so maybe it was a bit cathartic.

If I had to pick my favorite episodes of all 4 seasons, I would say it would be the following, in no particular order: "Grit" (s1e21), "The Book of Rachel" (s2e8), and "Rachel Redux" (s2e21). I can't say exactly why those episodes are my favorites. But I can say those 3 episodes made me either laugh so hard I had to rewind to hear the dialogue I missed while I was laughing, or delight at the chemistry JL shared with his main costars in those episodes. "Grit" features Hemingway's relationship with Eggers, and I think they played so well off each other that it makes me sad that Elizabeth Berridge doesn't get more work. She's just absolutely hilarious throughout the entire episode. As a matter of fact, I would say that she and Darryl "Chill" Mitchell probably had the most chemistry with Larroquette when it came to comedy on the show. And Mayim Bialik as Hemingway's daughter was just pitch perfect in terms of chemistry. They worked really well together, and I'm glad we got to see her appear on the show 3 times. My favorites were "The Book of Rachel" and "Rachel Redux," but the 3rd episode she's in isn't bad though. Sure, it was a chance to cross-promote with her show on the same network, but these 2 definitely caught lightning in a bottle with their timing and delivery. Who knows? Since Mayim has worked with both John and Melissa Rauch, maybe she'll turn up on the new Night Court. I know I wouldn't mind seeing that.

I have more thoughts on the show, but I'm going to stop here for the sake of everyone's sanity. Thank you for reading if you've gotten this far. Feel free to share your thoughts on the show if you like. I hope to share a few more of mine in the future.

[mikuthedragon]

In the sea of love, one finds a Poppy

Poppy x MessyFem!Reader

Hmm.. Where are we again ? Oh yes in the counselor's office. They weren't happy you started fireworks on school grounds again. You understand fireworks under normal circumstances were dangerous.. But yours were purely illusory, harmless in other words.. You listen to the counselor and slowly zone out. You nod a few times to make it seem like you're paying attention and when you zone back in, you hear the counselor saying "I'm so glad we could reach an agreement, and we're happy to welcome you to the student council"

Huh that's weird, you walk out of the office in alright condition. Next time, you'll ask why they wanted you to join. The other thing you remember the counselor saying is "to see the school secretary to submit the admission form".

You turn to your left and see a bright pink haired lady. You walk over and she immediately asks you if you're new around here or need a freshly laminated id. You reply no to both questions, but tell her you need help with the submission of a student council form.

"Ohhh, that's what you need help with. Of course, let me register you in the database right away ^^. She glances at your form, bears a shocked expression for a second then resumes to tap away on her computer. She then turns back to you and says "Welcome home new student council president. Nudge nudge"

.. it was shocking to you, to first arrive in the counselor's office, then become a student council member to now realising you were assigned to be the president of said student council. Poppy caught wind of this and tried to catch your dazed self. "Hey don't worry prez, I might be the secretary but I'm also the vice president. I'll teach you the roots and you'll get the hang of it in no time". You blink twice and prop yourself back up. "Thank you, vice president, what is your name ?".

My name is Poppy! :)

There it was, the day you met a ray of sunlight! Being student council president wasn't very hard but there was a lot of paperwork that you were really not suited for.

Many speeches to learn and events to organize, tasks piling high like the expectations people had for the president and an increasing attention for the person who helped you through it all, Poppy ><

After the seasonal ceremony announcing winter frost, you sigh in relief that most of the work is almost over for atleast a week. You glance over to see Poppy equally tired. Something makes you a little antsy, the sight of the person who's helped you so much is bothering you, the bother being, how tired she was. You wait a little for Poppy to fall asleep and place a blanket over her shoulders. You place a pillow under her head and watch the desk while she rests, it's almost the end of the school day, just need to wait until 8:00 pm. Why is Poppy here until 8:00pm ? Classes are over after 4:00 pm but in the meantime, some students took books from the library or needed help with submitting assignments and clubs and the office doesn't close until then for those cases. You stand the desk while admiring Poppy. She's very precious to you, and you're happy she cares about you just as much as you do.

The next morning, you find yourself in Poppy's dorm. From what you remember, Poppy woke up and you both headed to the nearest dorm which is Poppy's. You were sleeping on the couch and Poppy on her bed. You head downstairs to find a note that says "Hey Y/N! It's the weekend so I went shopping for new winter clothes. I left some breakfast for you. Thank you for staying with me until 8. Bye Bestie!"

On one hand, you appreciated Poppy's sweet gesture but the last sentence left a bittersweet taste in your mouth. Even though, you're a really close person to Poppy, she only ever saw you as a friend. But the way you see Poppy was much more than that. She changed your life. You were no longer the outcast of your school but a pillar. You were on the path to a great life but you wouldn't be able to share it with your favorite person. at least not the way you wanted to. That's why even though, this would change your relationship. You asked her to meet you. at the sugar dough bakery, a hot new bakery in the new campus. It was a cold day but thanks to the ice fairies magic, you could stay outside without feeling cold.

"Poppy, thanks for agreeing to come. I wanted to tell you something."

"Ofc! Why wouldn't I go with my bestie to what will probably be the best café!"

"That's actually what I wanted to talk you about. Poppy, I don't only see you as a bestfriend."

"Oh.. Y/N that's so sweet. You see me as your best best friend?"

"Even more.. I like you Poppy."

Poppy stumbles on her words and blushes like crazy. She struggled to get the words she wanted to say out of her mouth. The vice president just had so much to say with not enough time.

"Y/N... Your feelings for me are... so precious. I don't know how to respond.. I-"

You give a small smile. You reassured her she could take her time. You knew she probably wouldn't date you, it was just you needed to tell her. The feelings you had for her were heavy. They weighed on your mind whenever you were with her, which was almost all the time!

a week passes. During that time, you and Poppy spend less time together. It was hard to talk when the "question" was still hanging in the air. But you spent enough time to keep the student council in tact. Finally on Monday morning, you receive a text.

"Y/N, I have an answer. Can you meet me at 8pm near the fountain?"

You thought to yourself, the fountain was a relatively romantic place to meet up. You kind of felt hopeful she would say yes but you decided not to dream too much in case she said no. You had to prepare yourself in case she said she doesn't want to date.

The president goes to the fountain. a popular spot for couples to hang out. They would make wishes at the fountain. The most popular wish? For their love to last and succeed. For fairies who have such a long life span, it's rare a fairy only has one partner in their life. It's exactly why fairies wish for a successful love because the fairies who only have one partner have a special love.

Poppy smiles as she sees you arrive. "Pres!! I'm happy you came.. SO ok, yes.. um. I-I like you too." She says happily

Your heart skips a beat. Your feet feel the urge to tap to the beat. Your wings want to take into the sky. Joy is the tempo of the beat.

"Can I hold your hand Poppy?". You inquire

"Yes". She smiles

Behind the fountain water, Poppy slowly grabs your chin and pulls it closer to hers. She kisses you, which you welcome fervently. No one bears witness to this except Poppy and yourself. Your little secret with the vice president <3

*+The End+*

[kachikirby]

GranEssex Chronicles: Chapter 23 - Back to Duty

In a secluded area at the headquarters of the Organization, Kurabe was in the middle of flexing her muscles. After weeks of recovering from her grievous injuries, she was finally able to move around without anyone fussing over her.

"I'm leaving, father. You can't stop me anymore, I'm ready to get out there and start fighting." Kurabe said, knowing her father could hear her, despite not being near her location.

After a few minutes of silence, a voice spoke out from a communications device. "...Go to Planet Octal. That's where your force is currently at. Rejoin with your division and take command."

Planet Octal, a strange planet that is separated into eight different parts, each piece connected to each other by a series of bridges. In many ways it was a like archipelago... a planet sized archipelago.

"Understood. Kurabe, returning to duty."

"Please be safe, my daughter." Was the only response from the device.

Kurabe only nodded, her thoughts directed elsewhere. Planet Octal was, to put it bluntly, not the ideal location for a war. Each section of the planet was vastly different from each other, with some segments being unfriendly to those with no experience of the land.

"Meta, Mercury, please be safe."

However, if that was where the base of operations of Void was, they had no other choice.

---------

On one of the islands of Octal, Meta was resupplying at one of the bases. This island, if you could call it that, was actually a blessing for Meta in a few ways. It was rocky and fairly desolate with no trees or any kind of greenery. It reminded him of the place he grew up before Kurabe found him. That being said, the time spent here was very stressful and he appreciated the chance to relax, if only for a moment. That's when he felt a feathered hand touch his shoulder, or the puffball equivalent of one.

"What's up, Vul?" He asked, immediately knowing who it is.

"How'd ya know it was me?"

"You're the only bird I know."

"Huh. Good point." His friend said, scratching his head.

"So, what is it?"

"Just checking up on you. We haven't really talked since... yeah. How goes the fighting?"

"Fine." Meta shrugged his shoulders. "I haven't killed anyone yet." He then said, knowing that's what he wanted to ask.

"Oh... yeah, yeah, that's good. Very good." The bird seemed to reply awkwardly. "Good that we're able to make them surrender or capture them, right?"

Meta nodded, not really feeling like talking.

"Hey, how long do you think this war will last?" Vul then asked.

"It'll last until it's over, I guess." The puff shrugged.

"Well, things are going smoothly at least. We haven't had any casualties yet."

Meta nodded, but Vul knew that he was at least glad about that.

"Alright, let's get back out there." Meta said, grabbing his sword and leaving without waiting for a response.

As if noticing this, Vul hesitated for a moment before following along.

---------

As they walked, Vul attempted to make conversation, but struggled to think of something meaningful to talk about.

"So... um... you hear anything from Fettuccine?" He asked.

"She's not on the frontlines. All she's doing is what she does best, interrogate."

While the reply was blunt, Vul could at least tell he was relieved about his friend not being in any immediate danger.

"Yeah, that's at least good, isn't it? What about the vice captain? Have you talked to her?"

"Vice captain Mercury is too busy for standard conversation. Outside of reports, I have no reason to interrupt her work."

"Yeah, good point."

Internally, Vul sighed, struggling ot make conversation with his friend. "Do you think Kurabe will be back soon?" Vul asked, hoping that invoking her name would get Meta to talk more.

"I hope she will." He replied. Admittedly, there wasn't a day where Meta wasn't worried about his mentor. Thanks to the war, he hadn't even been able to contact her much. He knew that she also felt the same way, of course, but it couldn't be helped.

"Well once she does, this war is a good as won."

"No, as much as I wish that was true. If sensei was here, she'd say something like, never underestimate the enemy."

"Well, um... it'll then be better in our favor then, right?"

"It will be." Was all he said.

Vul sighed again, now noting that he clearly did not want talk more about it. The bird then noticed that Meta's hand started to tense up, a sign that his instincts were shouting at him.

"An enemy?" Vul uttered, now readying his crossbow.

Right as Meta was about to respond, a group of twelve Void soldiers yelled out and charged at them. Meta responded by quickly sending a bolt of lightning out at the attackers, knocking them flat on the ground.

"Incapacitated. Vul, help me tie them up."

Vul gave a nod and started to tie up the soldiers. That was when, without warning, he pushed Meta to the ground.

"Vul! Why did-"

Meta's eyes widened in horror as he watched one of the enemy soldiers cut Vul's face with a sword. Without thinking, Meta cut the foe down for good.

"Vul, are you ok?!"

"Yeah. Just peachy. Stings a bit, but I'm fine."

That was the bird's reply, but Meta had a feeling he was putting on a brave front.

"Sorry, if I wasn't so careless, you wouldn't have gotten hurt."

"Hey, it's not that bad, so don't beat yourself up. Just let me get started on some first aid."

Meta didn't respond verbally; all he did was nod.

"You're not hurt, are you?" Vul then asked.

"No, I'm unharmed."

"Well, that's a relief."

"A relief? You got hurt when you didn't need to. If I was more careful, this wouldn't have happened."

"Yes, but I'm more glad that you're safe."

Meta didn't respond vocally, but internally he was angry. Not at Vul, but at himself. "If only I just killed them instead of trying to take them prisoner. My stupidity got Vul hurt, and my stupidity will only serve to hurt the others. I can't afford to go soft of my enemies anymore. I won't let anyone else get hurt."

"I thought I told you to stop beating yourself up." The bird glared at him.

Meta glared back, leaking out some of his own anger, which caused Vul to back down.

"Geez, I-I'm sorry, I just know how you are..."

"We have a war to fight, let's not waste more time than we need to." Meta stated, walking off with his sword still drawn.

"...yeah, right." The bird quickly uttered as he finished his first aid.

---------

As soon as Vul caught up with Meta, he asked a question.

"So remind me again what our mission for today is?"

"Eliminate our target. Vris Getztsar, mercenary for hire, apparently has knowledge about the whereabouts of Void's leader. We're to capture Vris and if we can't, killing is authorized. Personally, I'd rather not have to kill again, at least if it can be avoided."

"Got it." The bird nodded in response. "Any hints to where he is?"

"No, just that he's around this area somewhere."

Vul sighed and readied his crossbow. "All right, then we should be careful."

"Yes, we should. From the reports, he uses a strange fighting style."

Vul looked puzzled. "What kind of strange style?"

"Bubbles."

The bird looked even more confused. "Bubbles?"

"Bubbles. Apparently, he can make special bubbles. What that entails is beyond me, but we shouldn't underestimate the power of bubbles." He explained with complete seriousness.

To his surprise, Vul burst into laughter. "I-I'm sorry! It's just hilarious that you're being this serious over BUBBLES of all things!"

"Vul, this is no laughing... matter. Get behind me!" Meta shouted, pulling his friend with him as he jumped backwards.

There Vul saw what his friend was chattering on about: a lone bubble.

"Meta, it's just a silly bubble. That's nothing to be so worked up-"

KABOOM! The bubble exploded like a bomb, creating a crater where it blew up. Vul could only stare in shock, as if he was processing what just happened.

"Now do you get it? Bright side is, we know where he is. Stay alert and stay away from any bubble you see."

His bird friend nodded and once more readied his crossbow, remaining vigilant. The two looked around, waiting for a sign of the target. That's when they saw a group of yellow bubbles. Noticeably, a liquid fell off each bubble, dissolving the ground below.

"Acid bubbles."

"Should I shoot them?" Vul asked.

"Do it."

With a nod in response, the bird took aim and fired. All the bubbled popped, the acid rom them creating a large hold in the ground. Meta was trying to think of what his enemy's plan was, but he was drawing a blank.

"An intimidation tactic? No, I don't think a professional like him would use such a method during a war."

That was when Vul's eyes widened in realization. "Shit! Could it be a trap!?"

As if ready to answer his question, another group of acidic bubbles surrounded them in a circle and self-popped, dissolving the ground around them. Meta understood what was happening now.

"He has us trapped in one place. With the ground gone, we have nowhere to go."

"...we can fly, but I think that'll make us easy targets..."

"That's right, boys." A laid-back voice called out. The source was a turtle like creature standing on two legs, wearing a casual shirt with a pineapple pattern on it. "So, you're the students of the unkillable. Decent senses, but still has room for improvements."

"Is that the guy, Meta?" Vul asked.

"Yes, don't let his appearance fool you. I read about him, his body count reaches the hundreds." Meta explained to his now frightened friend.

"The recorded kills anyway, I've got a few off the record ones." Vris remarked casually, which only further scared the newly scarred bird.

"Meta what do we do?!"

"There's really only one thing we can do. I'm worried my magic will backfire and I can't risk getting close, so...Vul I need you to shoot as many arrows as you can at him."

"Got it!" The bird replied, already readying his crossbow to fire multiple bolts. "Sorry to burst your bubble!" Vul shouted as he fired off his shots, only for Varis to form a wall of bubbles that trapped the arrows inside them.

"I do hope you have a better plan than that. And better joke material."

"Yeah, I think so..." He uttered as the bolts then exploded.

While Varis was seemingly distracted, Meta rushed at him and stabbed him in the stomach. Then suddenly, Varis popped just like a bubble.

"He was a bubble too!?"

"Shit, where is he now!?" The bird uttered, getting down low and searching around.

Meta scanned the area, trying to find where the dastardly turtle disappeared too. The surrounding area seemed normal enough, which left only one other place to look.

"The sky! Vul look up!"

Vul did so quickly. "Dammit!"

He fired another bolt into the sky. Varis, who was laying on top of a bubble in the sky, laughed as Vul missed.

"You need to aim a little better, bird brain. You missed."

"But I won't." He heard from behind.

Meta had taken the opportunity to teleport behind Varis and was ready to strike. But as Meta swung, his blade was stopped completely by Varis's shell.

"Word of advice, never announce a sneak attack."

Faster than Meta could react, Varis snapped his fingers and trapped Meta inside of a bubble. Vul quickly fired another bolt.

"When will you learn? Firing like that won't get you anywhere." Varis said, destroying the bolts with his acid bubbles.

"I was ordered to capture puffball here alive, but nothing is stopping me from taking you out, birdbrain. I'll give you one chance to leave though. You should take it."

"Can I at least ask you why you want him?"

"Seriously? You're asking why the prized student of the Lady of Shadows is wanted? You really are a greenhorn ain't ya?"

"Well, I didn't know if there was something more than that."

"Even if there was, why would I tell you?"

"Good point." He sighed as he looked at Meta.

"Meta, can you get out of that bubble!?" Vul shouted.

"No, I can't move at all. Go, save yourself! I don't want you getting killed for my sake."

Vul let out a sigh, and backed away, keeping eye contact with Varis as he did.

"Sorry Meta, but that's an order I can't follow. Hey turtle soup! What's two plus two?"

"It's four! Do you think I'm that stupid!?"

"Yes, but that's beside the point!" Vul remarked, firing off more bolts, which Varis caught without issue.

"What was that supposed to accomplish? Also, you fired three bolts, not four."

"Count again."

Varis narrowed is eyes and heard a distinctive pop sound. The bubble trapping Meta was no more.

"No!" The turtle shouted as he realized what happened.

The now free knight wisely chose to skip talking this time and stabbed Varis in the stomach. To add to this, Meta sent electricity through his sword, electrocuting Varis from the inside, but only briefly. They were ordered to capture him if possible. As if knowing their creator was out of commission, all the bubbles in the surround area harmlessly popped and Meta gently floated down to the ground, carrying Varis with one hand.

"Alright. Let's take him back to base after tying him up." Vul said.

As Vul started to walk, Meta put his hand up to stop him.

"Wait, he might be pretending to be unconscious. Shoot his leg with a blunt arrow. It won't do serious damage, but enough to make him react if he's still awake."

"Got it." His ally uttered before shooting his leg.

There was no response. The target was seemingly down for the count, but Meta still wasn't convinced. Truth be told, he wanted to finish him off, permanently. It would ensure there'd be no more threat of harm to him or Vul, but he also knew that Varis was needed alive. Perhaps he was over thinking things, letting his adrenaline get to him. Besides, there was no need to kill an already defeated opponent. He would kill, but he was no murderer.

"Vul, tie him up, and make sure to cover his mouth. He might try shooting bubbles at us with his mouth."

"Got it..." Vul looked at him a bit hesitantly as he got to work with that, as if he had read his mind.

Meta watched his friend work, when he got a bad feeling, and he always trusted his bad feelings. He ran up and pushed Vul out of the way and not a moment too soon, as Varis got up and slammed a bubble into Meta's face. The exploded like a grenade, blowing Meta away and heavily damaging his eyes in the process. The turtle laughed as Vul's face twisted in horror.

"Not who I was aiming for, but whatever works." He kept laughing, only for Vul to knock him out cold with a single punch.

"Meta! Are you ok!?"

"...Are you?" He responded weakly.

"Yeah, I am, but you don't look ok!"

"That doesn't matter. You're my subordinate for this mission, even more than that though, you're my friend. Your safety is my priority. Now, tie up the turtle and let's get out of here."

Vul silently nodded, but continued to look worried as he did as he was ordered.

"You sure you're fine?"

"Yeah, I am. Honestly, I'm more concerned about you than anything." The bird replied, looking at the harsh injury the puff recieved.

"I'll be fine. It's nothing."

"Meta, can you even see right now?"

"It's nothing. Can you carry him with us?"

"Meta, answer my question!"

"It's nothing."

Vul sighed in annoyance at that answer. "You're acting just like our sensei."

"I'll take that as a compliment. Let's get moving."

The bird picked up the turtle and began to carry him. "I don't mean it as a complement..." He mumbled.

"Do you even know where you're going, Meta?"

"You haven't corrected my course yet, so I think I'm good. I can see, just a little. Enough to navigate."

"Alright, suit yourself."

"I'm already wearing my uniform." Meta replied bluntly.

Vul immediately stopped and stared, surprised at what he just heard. "Did...did you just make a joke?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Nothing, just wasn't expecting it." The bird replied, finding himself suddenly more relaxed.

"Ok." The puff replied as he continued on.

"And uh, thanks."

Meta looked back, titling his head in questioning. "For what?"

"For saving me from a killer bubble."

"Oh... you're welcome..."

"Man, who knew bubbles could be so scary."

"Yeah..."

Vul then blinked. "Are you sure you know where you're going?"

"Yes, I do. I'm not blind, just off balance." Despite this, he began to stagger a bit as he walked.

"Do you need me to support you?"

"You have your hands full with the turtle, I'll be fine."

"Ok, but please let me know if you need help."

Meta didn't respond. At first Vul thought that was just Meta being Meta, but something seemed off. He was still walking, but it was sluggish. Like a shambling zombie.

"Hey, are you awake?"

He finally received a reply, a non-verbal one in the form of Meta falling over unconscious.

"Shit! You idiot, this is why you should have let me get hit instead!"

Desperately, Vul picked up Meta with his beak and ran as fast as he could, hoping he could make it to a base in time.

---------

It was probably only a couple of minutes, but it felt like hours to the bird as he barreled into the camp, his friend and the captive in tow.

"SOMEONE GET THE MEDICAL OFFICERS! WE HAVE AN INJURY!" He shouted after quickly placing the puff on the ground first.

Calm footsteps could be heard coming towards them, the source of which was a friendly face.

"Relax, Vul. He's in capable hands." The friendly doctor Erhard said, his ever-calm face and voice doing a lot to put Vul at ease. In response, he let out a sigh of relief.

"We also brought someone along with us." He said gesturing over to the unconscious Varis. "Think we can get some stuff out of him."

"That's out of my area of expertise. But, thankfully we received a visitor from the intelligence division. Miss Fettuccine, if you'd please." Erhard said to someone standing behind him.

The usually bubbly interrogator walked out, a serious expression on her face. She stared at the unconscious Meta for a moment, worry evident on her face.

"Er, take good care of him." She said, grabbing Varis by the shirt collar, dragging him off to her interrogation chamber.

"Not going to lie, I feel a bit sorry for the guy..." Vul thought, shuddering internally as he watched. He then looked at Erhard. "I'll trust you to take care of him. Let me know when he wakes up, I have a few things to say to him."

"Of course. He'll be fine. Though it's fortunate you got him here when you did, any longer and the damage to his eyes could have been irreversible. But I should have enough time to fix the damages. Now, if you'll excuse me."

The bird nodded as the Limet took the puff with him. When he was out of sight, Vul grumbled to himself. "Damn it, Meta... why'd you have to do that...?"

"Do what?" A quiet voice said.

Vul turned around, surprised by the sudden new presence. "S-s-sensei!? You're back!"

"Yes, I am. Now, answer my question."

"He...Meta got injured protecting me." Vul said, expecting Kurabe to be angry. However, she seemed calm.

"I see. He's with Erhard now, yes?"

"Y-yeah, he is." He replied, trying to hide his surprise.

Kurabe looked disappointed, but was still mostly calm. "Then our reunion will have to wait a bit longer. Now as for you, Vul. Why are you upset with Meta?"

"Why? Because he got hurt protecting me! Why aren't you upset!?"

"Because he did exactly what I would do. Am I happy he's injured? Absolutely not. But he's alive and you're alive. He risked himself to protect his comrade, to protect you. That was his choice and I'm proud of the choice he made. Let's get to the point, you're not mad at Meta for getting hurt. You're made at yourself for needing to be protected."

Vul groaned, as if he was annoyed that her guess was spot-on. "...yes..."

"Vul, there's nothing wrong with being frustrated. But, don't for a second think you failed. You're both alive. In war, you only fail if you die. You two will live to fight another day, and you'll get the chance to make it up to Meta by protecting him in the future. Instead of doubting yourself, you should be preparing yourself for the future battles we'll face. Learn and grow from your mistakes, that's the way of the warrior."

"I see... thank you, sensei." He replied. "So, what are you going to do now?"

"Wait till Meta is released and Fettuccine is finished with her torture session. After that, I'll make an announcement of our next course of action."

"Do we have another target lined up?"

"Yes, but for now, you don't need to worry about it. Go get some rest. Your left wing has a little blood on it."

"Will do, sensei." He nodded before heading off to one of the tents to rest.

Kurabe watched him walk off, then proceeded to walk off herself. While she wanted to see Meta now, she could wait. Rather, she had to wait. Besides, she had a vice captain to visit. With a slight sigh, she headed to the tent.

---------

Upon flipping open the cloth that covered the entrance, she called out.

"Mercury, are you here?"

Mercury, who was looking through mountains of paperwork, looked up to see who it was. Immediately, she hugged her best friend with speed even Kurabe wasn't expecting.

"You're back! If you almost die on me again, I'll kill you myself." She jokingly threatened.

"No promises." She giggled.

"So, the old timer finally let you leave?"

If it was anyone else, Kurabe would tell them to address Z with respect. But Mercury was the sole exception to that.

"Yes, it was a bit longer than I wanted because I needed rehabilitation after all those injuries. He was saying things like "well, if you're going to fight, we might as well make sure your back at your full combat potential before you go"."

"Fair enough. At least you're back now. Now let's get the formalities out of the way. I, acting commander Mercury, now return the duty of commander to you, Kurabe. Welcome back ma'am."

"I'm glad to be back Mercury. Now, what's the situation of the battlefield looking like?"

"Currently it's a stalemate, they haven't gotten any major victories against us, but we haven't gotten any either. Until today that is, with the defeat of known mercenary Varis of the deadly bubbles, we have secured some footing. All we need now is Fettuccine to finish her work, but who knows how long that'll take. As far as casualties on our side, none dead. About one hundred and fifty wounded, a few of them in critical condition, but no confirmed deaths. A majority of the wounded will be back in action in a few days."

Kurabe's expression was unreadable. "I see..." Was all she said. "I'll be on the frontlines from now on. Especially because of something I learned while stuck at my father's."

That seemed to pique Mercury's interest. "What is it?"

"One of the other combatants we'll have to fight. A woman named Sang Lune. My father received reports of her existence one of the islands that makes up this planet."

"And just who is this woman? The way you speak about her, she seems like a big deal."

Kurabe remained silent, as if trying to calm herself down. "She's a Myovam."

Mercury's eyes widened, fully understanding her friend's worry. "I can see why you see that..." She uttered, recalling what happened to Meta during his time with the Intelligence Division.

"Yes. What makes this even more worrisome, is that she's not even a member of our enemy's organization, nor is she a mercenary like our turtle friend. According to the reports, she's attacking both sides. A true wild card has been thrown into the mix. It's partly why I came as fast as I could."

"Alright. Just be careful regardless." The vice captain said.

"Oh please, I'm always careful!" Kurabe replied with a huff.

"Right. It's good to have you back."

"It's good to be back." She smiled. "Although I don't like the circumstances." She thought to herself.

Kurabe looked at the direction of where the medbay was, hoping that this conflict would not last as long as she feared it would.

"Do you want to go see him, sis?" Mercury asked.

"Yes, but for now he needs time to rest. He needs it, we both know how tiresome war can be."

"I know... but don't you think that seeing you would make him feel better?"

"You know he's unconscious, right?"

Mercury paused. "He can probably still sense you."

"And that Erhard is still working on him. I have to wait, even though I don't want to."

"Alright then." Mercury replied, looking at her friend.

The warrior was clearly trying to keep a straight face, but it was obvious she wanted nothing more than to barrel over there and just stay by her student's side.

"Come on, let's go get some rest, sis. You're probably exhausted from the trip here."

"Yes, and I'll probably need it anyway..." Kurabe took her leave, her thoughts centered solely on her student.

[supercantaloupe]

rambling from work (youth orchestra) tonight. ignore me

new part time assistant conductor/manager/violin coach at youth orchestra and it's my beloved violin friend from brahms violin concerto !! i was so delighted to see her i immediately threw my hands open for a hug when she walked into the rehearsal room to help set up before rehearsal tonight. it's good to have another pair of hands helping out since our other asst conductor, while he's wonderful at what he does, can't make every rehearsal all the time due to family commitments. on that note i told maestro that i have to take a required class next semester on wednesday afternoons that will prevent me from being able to get to youth orchestra rehearsals in time to set up before rehearsal starts...but we move. it's an unavoidable conflict (required course for my degree and the last one i need before i can be officially done) so the others will just have to pitch in more to help set up in my absence. i also mentioned that i may have to take a class on tuesday evenings which would overlap and conflict with orchestra rehearsals, but it turns out that won't even be an issue because la boheme in the spring is gonna be a reduced orchestration with only one oboe part so i wasn't even gonna be on the hook anyway. so continuing my current arrangement of attending one rehearsal a week (thurs only instead of thurs and tues outside of concert weeks) will work just fine next spring. while i'm slightly disappointed i won't get to play another opera it will undeniably be a weight off my shoulders in terms of scheduling stress, also now i get to actually watch it which will be fun. anyway maestro also introduced the new assistant/violin teacher to our org managing director by calling her a wonderful player and concertmistress (correct) she was like "you're being too nice" and maestro was like "i'm not being nice it's just true" LOL. i get it girl he talks about me the same way. actually when we were leaving the building tonight i ended up chatting with maestro in the parking lot a little about work and money. as great as the vienna trip looks on paper i'm kind of doubtful it will end up happening bc apparently the sign up numbers are kind of low and we can't run the trip if we don't get a big enough crowd. and i understand why, the price for the trip is...a lot. i don't remember exactly what the cost of the italy trip i went on in my youth orchestra days was but i would hazard to say this vienna trip is twice the price...yikes. maestro was telling me how even with all his different jobs he feels like everything has gotten so expensive what with inflation and taxes and everything that it's getting tough to keep up financially with everything. i don't even have a mortgage or kids but man i feel him. i said i'm just glad to have my fellowship, i'm getting two master's degrees for basically free (plus a modest living stipend which really doesn't cover living in this stupid city very well lol but i'm hustling). this youth orchestra managing gig, i'm grateful to have it, and the extra cash on the side is certainly appreciated, but i am not doing it for the money. apparently neither is maestro because he told me it's probably his worst paying gig despite it being the biggest and most well funded organization and performance venue...lol. but then he got to suggesting different people he knows (most of whom i also know albeit kind of poorly and tangentially) i should talk to re: work and also suggesting different positions i should look into once i'm done my degrees like librarian for [redacted local orchestra]. because what this current gig lacks in terms of payment, it is a huge boon to me in terms of experience and resume power...i mean i'm scarcely 24 and i have a managing job under my belt already. that's going to be huge for me once i start looking for full time work after grad school...hopefully. we'll see i guess. anyway maestro told me that i'm "amazing as always" and then went to his car to go home

[elderwisp]

i spent the last hours reading tessellate from the start so i just wanted to drop a little love because eeeeeee i like it so much!!! first off all ur characters are a hit!! dynamic personalities, and they all mesh with one another really well in interesting ways. it all feels like a little peek into the lives of random people and sometimes that all you really need babey! i'm excited to see where you go with things especially with atlas, dan (my beloved), also the way that there are multiple storylines/ a large cast of characters yet i never feel overwhelmed <3333 and ofc visually, the post are lovely. the one juxtaposing frances and atlas coping...u know you ate with that. that last closeup with ares and dan with the lighter and frances's recital?? so pretty!! stapled in the brain.

on a less serious note, frances and icarus SAVE ME i like their dynamic so much their interactions seem very organic and fun. a friends to lovers (would they fall under that category..ik he's her boss but they're friendssss) for the ages. i feel like with a name like icarus things are destined to get messy between them and im afraid of it but also im not....but also i need only good things to happen to frances always, tu sabes. and its so funny that i finally read this after you mapped out their first kiss scene, bc i would not have survived the irl four years of building their relationship up godbless <3 also BEEE!!! sorry i just remembered i love bee and i hope she stands up to her boss at work one of these days (and gets whatever she wants for the rest of her life despite how inadvisable it may be at the moment :) )

hope this all isn't too weird, but i had thoughts to share and who better than with the author. tldr: your story brought me joy at 1:15 am and i appreciate it!! also everyone has such cool names??? what a slay. ty and take care <3

live footage of me reading this:

this seriously made my evening i think i reread this about ten times!! i honestly had to retype this message several times because just being able to receive commentary like this is everything. a lot of these characters have been with me for such a long time so to be able to share the little dudes livin their lives AND have people enjoy it??? AWESOME! a lot of the scenes you mentioned are also seared in my mind forever LMAO especially the scene between frances and atlas. i think the week i was gathering everything to shoot it, i completely scrapped the original and the parallels post was a complete spur of the moment thing but i'm glad it happened GAH i'm so excited to share more in the future <3 also with icarus and frances, they're actually my most difficult pair to write for simply because initially (in my ts3 days) icarus was supposed to be such a small part but they had such a good dynamic i had to expand that! so he's a fairly new character for me!

anyways thank you so much! i hope you have a great day! :D flowers is for u <3

[elizabethplaid]

a fair number of notes - june 19th, 2024

-- Good counseling session today. Relayed some of the theories and conversations I've had with my dad and phone-friend. She noted that I expressed a lot less guilt than I used to, in previous years, regarding these "down swings".

-- Dad picked up Rx meds and a Dunkin drink for me. Came home right before counseling started, so I took comfort in my frozen drink.

-- Dad also installed the AC window unit in my bedroom. It was 93F today, so it's been very handy. The hottest it's been otherwise lately were a couple days of 84F.

-- After a post-counseling nap, we went to the grocery store. First time driving the "new" car, aside from just backing up in the driveway. It feels good, spacious; thin seat belt is unnerving.

-- --- Snagged some of my sparkling water and novelty sodas. Our main goal was our usual 2L sodas and a cucumber for pasta salad tonight. Ugh, just realized I forgot to get ice cream.

-- --- Dad messed with the AC controls, within 2 miles of driving home. I didn't say anything to stop him, because I thought we'd be home really quick. Nah, fuckin' distracting. Had to move the vents off me really really quick. I can't remember our exact words, but he apologized for being distracting. I said something to the effect of, "When I'm feeling this bad, pushing myself like this, everything is a distraction."

-- --- Really, I thought I felt okay until the air flow changed. When it did, I realized how thin a grip I had on things. But I had been confident and handled a lot of stimuli very well. And I'm still in good spirits!

-- For this excursion, I felt happy enough to throw on my jewelry, jeans, and one of my new bras. It fits well for the band, but the cups are small and squish me flat. Not bad for a lounging bra, especially for $10. It's comfy enough.

-- --- It's been almost 2 weeks, but I haven't cut off the tags from my new clothe yet. Need to do that and throw them in a load of cold laundry. Need to do laundry in general.

-- --- My goal is to do a bunch of little cleaning chores, bit by bit. Just clean the sink in one visit; clean something else in the next, etc. I'm tempted to make a list, to better organize my thoughts. But I'm already nibbling at things, so... I don't really -need- to make a list.

=========

-- Phone friend is fighting really bad allergies. They work outdoors, and the pollen provoked a really strong migraine. We've already discussed cautions of heat versus meds, staying hydrated, trying to stave off migraines. They've switched to new eye drops, and it seems to be helping.

-- --- Feeling sick and fatigued, we had to cut our last call short, and they skipped some of the morning/evening greetings. They worried about seeming too distant lately, and I'm like...

Really, I've been caught up in my own head, with all my sensory overload stuff. I'm chilling with my own vibes, feeling fine by myself. Never even occurred to me that things could be interpreted as us being a bit distant.

My reaction also reminded me of the apple juice story from Hannibal Buress. "... so caught up in the euphoria...," forgetting the practical reasoning.

I replied, explaining that we're good. I understand when life (and fatigue!) get in the way. I mean, I wanted to cancel this week's call, because my brain isn't good with speaking out loud. (I could hear myself talking in circles, repeating myself last week, because I space-out mid-sentence.)

=====

Anyway, thanks for sticking around reading all these notes. And if you didn't, if you just clicked "like" because you like me, that's fine too.

I started writing these notes for a few specific people, back when I was really depressed and withdrawn. Now, I write them to help me remember what I've been up to lately. As always, I really appreciate your support, friends.

[evil-ontheinside]

Free Day byler fic recs!

(which I use to rec some fics I forgot or wasn't sure how to categorize)

No one should ever have to look at themselves. by Stanningeverything

Mike discovers his asexuality, catastrophizes, thinks his relationship is doomed by learning the fact and despite everything his family still weighs on his mind. He deals with all of this (badly)

Just the ordeal of figuring yourself out, dealing with your family issues, all while thinking you are the worst person on earth. Hopefully he has a great support system with his friends and boyfriend.

i turned around and nothing was here by ethqreal

Mike didn’t care. Maybe because he always managed, he made his own choices regardless of what his parents chose to preach and if he really was cursed with ice running through his veins, it didn’t matter because he would always love the boy across town until his very last breath and he had frozen from the inside-out.

or a cursed boy, his boyfriend, an idle town and them against the world.

The End of the World by eagle_ace

Post season 4, vaguely pre-season 5. Things fall apart, to say the least. After everything, the party's not really a party anymore. Mike wants to fix it, but he doesn't know how.

Mike's POV, lots of emotions, I tried writing in the present tense which I don't normally do. There's byler, there's an el-initiated milkvan breakup, there's the party (sans max unfortunately) being friends. Hypothetically this could take place between seasons, but I'm certain there'll be something in season 5 that makes that impossible.

Left to Rot by Cate_Olivyn

“Oh.” Mike snapped his fingers, huffing out a laugh. “Oh, this is like that- that black and white movie my mom likes to put on at Christmas. The Jimmy Stewart one.” He stood a little taller, a wild look in his eyes. “Alright! I’ve learned my lesson! I can go home now, and appreciate my life, yada yada.”

Nothing happened. Mike snapped his fingers again, more urgently, before raising his voice in a yell.

“Lesson learned! I wanna go home!”

The world stayed as it was, broken and decayed, and Mike screamed into the cold, stale air.

Or: After a bad fight with his friends, Mike wakes up in an alternate reality that seems to be plunged into an apocalyptic nightmare.

an ode to hope (and other funny things) by @pyschologicalrocketgirl

“Everything's going to be fine, please don't freak out.” Nancy starts to say, which causes Will’s eyes to widen.

“That’s…not really reassuring, you know that right?”

Nancy huffs a laugh, “Yeah, it isn’t, sorry.” He hears shifting through the receiver, and he thinks maybe that's all she's planned to say.

“Mike’s in the hospital.”

Will sucks in an involuntary breath, letting the air back out, shaky. He nods repetitively, a little numb as he tries to process, before realizing Nancy can’t see him.

“Okay.” He aims for level but his voice cracks mid-way. He’s almost whispering, “Is- he okay?”

Mike's in the hospital, which kickstarts a drive to Boston and a worried Will as he thinks about Mike, the past, and love, all while conveniently held up by New York traffic.

the loneliest blackout by @drop-of-infinity

Will knew the stages of Mike’s breakdowns. First came the silence, then the welling tears. They would stay there, perched on the edge of his eyelids until he began to talk, and then they would make their enviable path down Mike’s face. The tears would increase as his words trickled off, and eventually he would break into gasping sobs, unable to speak, unable to do anything but cry.

Or, Will tries to rip the bandaid off. Mike breaks down. They figure it out in the end.

@bylerficrecweek thank you guys so much for organizing this! the whole week was so much fun and I really enjoyed going through my bookmarks and discovering new fics loved by others <3