#imagine being the director and having to deal with their chaos every day

[thegeminisage]

tng update time!! we're back, baby. sunday we did "the masterpiece society" and "conundrum" and last night* we did "power play" and "ethics."

*by last night i mean earlier tonight, but i'm typing this at 1am and letting it post tomorrow

the masterpiece society: this one was okay. i was very endeared at first to this guy flirting RESPECFULLY with deanna after the ordeal of 3 rape scenes in one episode but then she shot him down and he kept flirting. WILL my misery never cease

that said, i like that picard was nice to her when she fessed up about fucking with him. i am so fond of saying "treat him really niceys" about data but perhaps we should also be treating DEANNA really niceys. instead of raping her repeatedly.

one hilarious detail i noticed about this episode was that they went out of their way to show us a lot of extras in this episode (sometimes we don't even get this many extras in ten forward scenes) and show us that the extras were. diverse. because if the society is "genetically engineered to perfection." and then you only show white people. THAT puts a whole new spin on things. i'm imagining some joker on the production team looking at a shot of mostly-white extras and frantically calling the casting director on the phone

i was EXTREMELY worried when they asked geordi to work with this woman but he was professional the whole time to my huge relief. actually, geordi had a little bit going on in this ep that i really enjoyed - when these "perfect" people kept implying he would have been aborted as a fetus in their society he gave as good as he got EVERY time and his blind ass DID in fact wind up saving all their lives and GOOD FOR HIM!

i dont really get what the big deal is about 23 people leaving = destroying their society. if you can't plann for people being out then it's your managerial skills that need work. also, they were kinda freaks, so maybe they needed to have their little cult broken up. sorry

conundrum: EPISODES FOR MEEEEE. this episode was just like tabula rasa, except this predates tabula rasa, so really tabula rasa is just like IT. anyway, amnesia. i was gleefully rubbing my hands together the entire time

hands down funniest bit was everyone just assuming worf is captain despite the fact that he's bloodthirsty and insane but the second funniest bit was data the bartender. "where's the android?" "serving drinks in ten forward." "[as data speed types] you must have been one hell of a bartender." 10/10 no notes

also his little chess game with deanna!! wah.

actually no the other funny bit was riker lowkey running around on deanna with ro. and i abslutely LOOOVED he and deanna being flirty with each other. it's ABOUT TIME we got some real food. it's been so sexless up til now that all she did was play with his hair a little and we both went bananas

and then the scene at the END? riker more flustered than we've EVER seen him and these two ladies ganging up on him...mwah. 10/10 perfect.

the villain this episode was good. when he first showed up cathy was like who tf is that and i was like idk some rando im sure he doesnt matter but then the computer named him first officer and it was like !!!!!!!!!!!! they tricked me !!! it's a VERY rare day when tng manages to trick me i was so pleased. i do kinda wish they hadn't theo teennwolfed him though (made everyone else a bit dumber to make him seem smart)

power play: deannna was so hot in this episode she should play male characters more often

i really REALLY wish i had been riker deanna and worf that had been possessed. data's not as much fun when he's someone else and not data. obrien could have come too if he wanted though i guess

PLEASE do not tell rosalind chao to shut her baby up. the last time someone told anyone to shut a baby up in a property she happened to be acting in. well. mash fans know. they know.

i genuinely believed those guys were ghosts until the last second. probably because prisoners makes no sense. also, i think prison for 500 years is too much. can we not just let them die

i love when possessed data tried to prove worf and worf was like lol no. he knows data is 10x stronger than him lmao

i wish guinan had been in this episode it's been ages and i miss her

after how tense and fun the beginning was the end and middle of this episode were kind of anticlimactic. still, it was fun and so it gets a pass. more people should get possessed on the enterprise

WHY DO I ONLY GET 4K CHARACTERS PER TEXT BLOCK staff i'll fucking kill you. anyway

ethics: RIKER/WORF/DEANNA IS REAL IT HAPPENED ON MY COMPUTER SCREEN!

ok, first of all, sorry i have to go ahead and get this out of the way before i get to the good stuff, picard advocating for assisted suicide is NNNOT his best look. in fact it's literally such a fucking bad look. actually. uhh tw for talk of suicide here on down

i understand what they were trying to do. they wanted to present both sides of the ethical dilemma here "equally." but there are some problems with this. firstly, in the real world, assisted suicide is for people with like. terminal illness. worf was fine. yes, he was paralyzed, but he was healthy and had the change to regain a great deal of his mobility. so picard already looks like an asshole because he's advocating for a disabled person killing themselves because they "can't" adjust to the loss.

SECONDLY, the use of "can't" was very poorly done here. if picard had said, worf is too stubborn to change his beliefs, he WON'T adjust to this because he will refuse to try, that would be a LOT BETTER than saying "worf CAN'T adjust to this, it's too many lifelong values to change."

and finally, if we really wanted to be "equal" about the debate, it wouldn't be about worf's ability or inability to adjust to being disabled, it would be about his BELIEFS. like his society and heritage, which he cherishes so deeply because he felt disconnected from it for so much of his life. instead picard was just like "worf is way too much of a pussy to do this just let him die lmao"

like he seriously tried to persuade will to KILL WORF. worse, to help worf kill himself!! JUST BECAUSE WORF WAS DISABLED. he even guilted riker about it: "he wouldn't have asked if he didn't know he could count on you." girl what the FUCK

ok anyway, speaking of will: his reaction here was so strong i wonder if he knew someone who'd killed themselves before. NOT that i'm complaining about a strong reaction. FINALLY we are getting some solid worf/riker Content. maybe asking your commanding officer to kill you is romance or whatever. i loved their argument to little bitty pieces. compare to: riker in tears next to deanna's sickbay bed. ooough i am eating. according to the wiki they actually cut a scene of nose-to-nose yelling and i'm mad about it. LET THEM PUT THEIR FACES TOGETHER. give me something to live for

deanna in this episode too. her kneeling by the fallen worf and murmuring "let me help you." her making him talk to his son. him BASICALLY asking her to be his kid's new adoptive parent should he kick it

oh speaking of alexander. he said some really troubling things this episode. such as, "my mom always said klingons had dumb ideas about honor" and "i don't care about being klingon." HIS MOTHER WAS RACIST..............if alexander decides the klingon ways aren't for him that's fine but that should be a choice HE GETS TO MAKE what an insane way to be raised. meanwhile people are out here calling worf a deadbeat and he put aside his suicide plan for alexander specifically

other shocking things about this episode: beverly was sooooo good actually. she was channeling bones energy in her fury and i mean that as the highest possible compliment. that other doctor quite literally KILLED A PATIENT because she's so sketchy and focused on her own glory "oh i need tokeep a professional detachment" YEAH SO YOU DON'T FEEL GUILTY ABOUT KILLING PEOPLE. bones would have torn her limb for limb and i'm very glad beverly did too. i just don't understand why she was allowed to like leave the ship and go back to practicing medicine. she should have her medical liscene revoked. was this too also in the name of "both sides" of the debate girl this isn't fox news she KILLED A PATIENT for her own personal gain just space her ass!

the fake-out with worf dying was expected but them faking us out for so LONG was a surprise. i was like how are they gonna get him out of this one and it's literally the klingon anatomy. double of eeeeeverrrything. wow that sure is something. funny that worf has ridges on sooo many places. love that it took until season 5 to see it

also, that surgery scene was GROSS. im not normally squeamish but that little worm thingy they put into him looked awful

devastated there was no worf/riker reunuion at the end but other than that and picard and that other dr lady not getting fired it was extremely good. one of my favs so far i think actually.

tonight: "the outcast" and "cause and effect." i've started spoiling myself w/ episode summaries in order not to get surprised by 3 rape scenes in a row again and ik what both of these are about and im soooo excited for it

[gunsatthaphan]

chaos behind the scenes of the eclipse finale

[itsany62]

SteveTony - Alternate Universe

Here are some Alternate Universe fics that I love. Don't forget to leave kudos and nice comments in every fic!

Food for the Heart, by LagLemon, 14 k >, Cooking, No Powers.

After being introduced to a gourmet food on a budget blog by Pepper (a gift for her elderly, cheapskate mother) Tony starts cooking again. The recipes are good, but the blog owner is even better. Still, Tony isn't so sure Captain America, the guy who runs the blog, can compete with Hot Bagboy, the gorgeous blond who works at the grocery store.

"Free to Good Home" by Captain_Panda, 7 k > words, Alternate Universe - Animals.

"Oliver and Company" AU.

There's a great big world outside the box.

But it's a dog-eat-dog world, and Tony's just one cat. Then a stray dog comes along, looking for a friend.

A Day In Principal Stark's Office, by nannersmelo, 10 k > words, Steve Single Parent, Director Tony.

Tony Stark has his hands full with not only Stark Industries, but also his beloved mother's life project: The Maria Stark Academy, and as he enters his office in order to deal with a ferocious mother whose son was apparently assaulted by one of his brightest students, he was sure this day would culminate in nothing but a heinous headache. Little did he know - he was in for one hell of a surprise.

I Am the Night by gottalovev, 6 k > words, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Vampire Tony Stark, Wizard Steve Rogers.

That's it. Tony is doomed. He rolls on his back, crosses his wings over his belly and closes his eyes. He'll await death here, misunderstood by the world to the bitter end.

C is for Calculus and Compromise, by heydoeydoey, 11 k>, Gifted AU, Post-Divorce, Angts with a Happy Ending.

Steve's just trying to give his prodigy daughter a normal childhood. Enter a meddling school administrator, Tony Stark, and too many lawyers.

tell you my love for you by jelliebean, 22 k > words, Alternate Universe - Normal High School, Based on Love Simon.

A guy at Shield High comes out on tumblr, anonymously. Tony thought he was the only gay guy on campus--not out, because of Howard--and sends him an email.

“Hey, Flying. Same here. I’ve got a secret too, and it’s like I’m hiding who I am, every day. From everyone. All the closest people to me. But I just can’t tell them. I’m gay, too. It feels like I’m putting on this mask, this shell of who I think they want me to be. Even though I don’t think my friends would judge me. I don’t know why. I just. I’ve got a secret. –Shell”

The guy seems great--amazing, even, and then Hammer has to step in and ruin it all.

Mergers & Acquisitions by Robin_tCJ, 33 k > words, Angst, sex as currency.

Steve Rogers is the CEO of the Rogers Corporation, which he built from the ground up. When he learns that Hydra International is making a bid for a hostile takeover of Stark Industries, he decides he has to do what he can to stop Hydra from overtaking the market and becoming an unstoppable, unethical conglomerate. Tony Stark asks for something Steve isn’t sure he should give, but he does it anyway – and it completely changes everything. But when Hydra keeps coming, Steve and Tony realize there’s more to this than they’d realized.

Meeting the Monsters by itsallAvengers, 23 k > words, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Creatures & Monsters.

Tony's at public school with kids his age for the first time in seventeen years, and he is determined that this year is gonna be his year. He's going to make friends. He's going to be popular. People will like him.

Unsurprisngly, none of that actually happens.

He does sort-of-maybe fall in love with a vampire in his class that everyone is terrified of, though. So... there's that.

(I Want You To See) The Darkest Side Of Me by ann2who, 45 k > words, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Post-World War II.

In Monte Carlo, Steve meets the wealthy widower Anthony Stark. It’s love at first sight—at least for Steve—and he can’t believe his luck when Tony asks him to live at Stark Mansion, his large estate in Malibu. Never in his life had Steve thought something like this was possible… never had he been this happy. However, soon Steve realizes that Tony is still deeply troubled by the death of his first wife and haunted by the many ghosts she left behind. The longer Steve lives in her shadow, the more he understands that… He can never be what Tony’s wife had once been for him. And Tony might never truly love him.

Gift With Purchase Remix by sabrecmc, 43 k > words, Alternate Universe - No Powers, hooker Steve, Sugar Daddy.

Gift With Purchase Remix wherein Steve actually is a hooker. But for a Really Sympathetic Reason.

The Little Glass Screwdriver by ann2who, 19 k > words, Cinderella AU.

When Prince Steven is forced to find himself a bride, true love gets in the way. As the night of the grand ball unfolds, the prince meets a mysterious knight who might just change his entire life in a way he could have never imagined.

**Cinderella AU**

Covered in Lines by royal_chandler, 3 k > words, Alternate Universe - Student/Teacher, Alternate Universe - College/University, Age Difference.

He can’t lose sight of pale, deft hands that gesture on transitive verbs, an ink-stained thumb edging underneath Tony’s ribcage with an affection that can only be called dangerous.

half-wild and glimmering by deathsweetqueen , 15 k > words, Alternate Universe - Western, Prostitution.

“Give me a drink, Tasha,” Tony sighs as he lands in front of the bar. “I’ve had one hell of a day.”

Natasha raises an eyebrow. “Have you really?” she asks, loftily, sliding a tumbler of whiskey along the well-polished wood.

Tony lets his head hang, the sweat beading on the back of his neck. “You wouldn’t believe what I’ve had to put myself through today,” he sighs, wearily.

“I would not know. You will not let me work the rooms,” Natasha retorts, her voice a little strained, busying her hands in a dirty glass.

“I don’t let you work the rooms ‘cause you’re liable to kill anyone who touches ya the wrong way and we can’t lose that much of our business,” Tony reminds her, wryly amused, sipping at his whiskey. He shakes his head at the burn. “We peddle flesh, darling, not death.”

peers, fears and holiday cheers by jacobby, 24 k > words, Parent Tony Stark.

“He’s only two years older than you,” Tony finally says when the silence becomes too much to bear.

“Dad, Teddy is turning twenty-seven next year.”

“I am not dating your husband—”

“I’m not implying you are. I just want you to be...aware that he’s practically the same age as my husband.”

AKA

Tony Stark's new boyfriend is only two years older than his adult sons. Telling them is one thing, introducing them is another. What Tony doesn't expect is that the past always has a way of catching up to him, of biting him in the ass when he least expects it. Well, at least they're all together for the Holidays. What more can he ask for?

A Higher Form of War by sabrecmc, 292 k > words, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Historical Romance.

Tony is a King with a surprising number of people out to kill him. Steve and the rest of the Avengers are fighting for Pierce's rebellion and end up with Tony as their prisoner. Oops.

you can call me babe for the weekend by complicationstoo, 10 k > words, Alternate Universe - No Powers, actor Tony Stark.

Tony left his small town for Los Angeles after high school, leaving behind everything to pursue his dream. Ten years later, he comes back for the first time and finds that some things are impossible to let go of.

Lord, What Fools These Mortals Be by iam93percentstardust, 72 k > words, Alternate Universe - Theatre.

Famed director Phil Coulson brings Shakespeare’s beloved play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, to Broadway. This production though comes with a twist: a brief but passionate love affair between the faerie king, Oberon, and his attendant, Puck. In the roles of the two star-crossed lovers, Coulson casts America’s darling Steve Rogers, fresh off his third Academy Award, and Broadway royalty, Tony Stark. Steve quickly finds himself falling for the quick-witted and sarcastic actor but Tony is dating the stage manager. Unwilling to come between the seemingly happy couple, Steve steps back but all isn’t right behind the scenes and Tony may need him when everything falls apart.

and so we rebuild by raeldaza, 26 k > words, Alternate Universe - Star Trek Fusion, Soulmates, Mutual Pining.

Sometimes, a voice whispers: you will never atone for your mistakes.

Tony believes that, believes it so strongly some days he drowns in it, but he still tries. Tries through Starfleet, tries through inventions, tries through missions. Then, one day, he meets his new Captain, and things change.

and teach this heart (how to beat with light), by starklystar, 40 k >, AU Hospital, Single parent Steve.

Eight years ago, at a funeral with a baby's cries ringing in his ears, Tony Stark decided to turn his life around. He's a genius, billionaire, philanthropist. What's so hard to adding 'doctor' to that list? And after that, it can't be that hard to add 'husband' and 'father' too, right? But the past has a way of haunting even the very best of us, and in any universe, Tony Stark and Steve Rogers have never had an easy love.

Featuring: drama, chaos, Peter's scheming, meddling friends, and doctors learning again that the heart can never be as simple as four chambers and four valves.

Catching Lightning in a Bottle by sabrecmc, 120 k > words, Alternate Universe - Sweet Home Alabama Fusion.

College student Tony meets janitor Steve at MIT and they fall blissfully in love, until Howard happens and things fall apart. One divorce paperwork snafu courtesy of the ever-helpful Jarvis, and ten years later, Tony has to get re-divorced from Steve.

This does not go as he imagines.

Or, the Sweet Home Alabama AU that no one--well, okay, a few of you--asked for.

The Night Shift by weethreequarter , 16 k > words, Alternate Universe - Hospital.

Welcome to the Emergency Department of San Antonio General where Dr. Tony Stark joins the team fresh from his most recent tour in Afghanistan and - much to the consternation of the other staff - strikes up an instant rapport with Nurse Steve Rogers. Meanwhile, new resident Bruce Banner refuses to give up on his patient, and Dr. Sharon Carter learns something from her own patients. Throw in a pissed off hospital administrator, Clint using the coffee pot as a mug again, and a major car crash and you have, well, just another night shift.

Cake It Till You Make It by ChocolateCapCookie, 10 k > words, Kid Fic, Alternate Universe - Bakery.

Steve Rogers and Tony Stark have a lot in common. They're single parents, they own rival bakeries at the center of town... and they both hate each other's guts.

When a mix-up at Peter and Morgan's school has both fathers scrambling to prove they're the better baker, they do the mature, adult thing and compete in a bake-off. Between the mixing and the creaming, the baking and the icing, Steve and Tony find that hate is actually not that far from love.

Looking for Heaven by foxxcub, 31 k > words, Alternate Universe - Regency, Marriage of Convenience.

When young Lord Anthony Stark learns Steven Rogers has enlisted in the army, he thinks he's seen the last of his tiny, headstrong, haughty stable boy. But four years later, Lord Stark gets an unexpected visit from Steve, whose mother has fallen gravely ill and into financial ruin. Even more unexpected, Steve agrees to a shocking proposal: they will marry, giving Steve the necessary funds to save his mother, and Tony the much-needed reprieve from harassing would-be suitors. It is a business arrangement, nothing more. But as time goes on and circumstances arise, Tony begins to learn that keeping his heart away from his husband is easier said than done.

just a guy, standing in front of another guy by theappleppielifestyle, 12 k > words.

“It’s not real,” Tony says, still smiling, jaw twitching with effort. “The fame. It’s - I’m just a guy."

(Or, Notting Hill AU, with a twist.)

Mother of Exiles (A Titanic AU) by BladeoftheNebula, 21 k > words, Alternate Universe - Titanic Fusion.

“You’ll never guess what just happened!” Steve said, taking a deep breath to try and calm his breathing. “I met someone. A guy from first class.”

Dublin 1912: Steve Rogers is barely making ends meet, living in the tenement slums of Dublin. But a stroke of good luck gives him and his best friend the chance to change their fortune. Two tickets to America on board the RMS Titanic.

The Devil You Know by shetlandowl, 17 k > words, Alternate Universe - Detectives, Alternate Universe - Author/Novelist.

Best selling author Tony Stark revives the bodice ripper genre for a modern audience. From frisky gay cowboys to ravenous lesbian pirate queens, he consistently delivers riveting thrillers full of romance, drama, and the filthy, unapologetically kinky sex that has become his trademark specialty.

Tony has everything a man could dream of - horny, adoring fans, and boatloads of money. Or that's what he thought, until Detective Steve Rogers walks into his life and turns it all upside down.

Bears and Mountains and Lumberjacks Oh My! by justanotherrollingstony (adoctoraday), 24 k > words, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Lumberjack Steve Rogers.

It was supposed to be easy--go meet the reclusive artist and buy some art. And then came the broken down car. And the snowstorm. And the lumberjack with a face like a greek god. So yea, Tony is stuck in a cabin in the woods with a hot lumberjack till the storm clears. Could be worse.

Series: A Furious Vexation by Annie D (scaramouche), 18 k > words, Alternate Universe - Post-Apocalypse.

A Steve/Tony post-apocalypse AU that exists pretty much just for the smut.

That Feline Beat by Tito11, 5 k > words, Alternate Universe - Animals.

Presenting Steve and Tony in the Aristocats!AU

Tony and his three kittens have been kidnapped from their fancy Upper East Side apartment while their owners are away and deposited on the mean streets of Harlem. Unsure of where they are or how to get back home, they'll have to rely on street cat Steve to guide them. Will they get home safely? Will Tony's fear of abandonment cause him to drive away the best tomcat he's ever known? Only time will tell.

do you fondue? by calciseptine, 16 k > words, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting.

Tony has done crazy things in the name of food, but falling in love with Steve Rogers really takes the cake.

a glimpse of heaven's love by parkrstark, 13 k> words, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Terminal Illnesses.

The child begins to empty his pockets. He starts to count coins on the counter. Tony huffs a little impatiently as he realizes most of them are pennies.

The cashier actually humors the kid and counts along with him. They reach 3 dollars and 54 cents before he shakes his head sadly. "Sorry, kid. There's not enough here."

The kid sounds close to crying. "I need these paints for my Papa. It's Christmas Eve and these...he doesn't have any. The doctors said he doesn't have long. I want him to have these. In case he meets Jesus tonight, I want him to paint one more time. Please."

Tony takes a step forward, arms still full of toys he's buying just because. He can cover this child's gift for his dying father. Money. Money is what he's good for.

"I'll buy them."

--

Or, the Christmas Shoes AU no one but me asked for.

If you survive first impressions, you're good to go by itsallAvengers, 3 k > words, Parent Tony Stark, Alternate Universe - No Powers.

The first time Peter Parker-Stark sees Steve Rogers, he may or may not be standing in direct path of the man's motorcycle.

His daddy is really not going to be happy about that one.

A Rat-ional Conclusion by BladeoftheNebula, 6 k > words, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Alternate Universe - Veterinarians, Parent Tony Stark.

He had a strong flurry of patients throughout the morning and by the time it rolled around to noon, he was just about worn out.

He walked out into the reception, stretching until he felt a satisfying pop. “Are we done?”

Bucky checked the screen. “Just about. One more before lunch - a rat, singular.”

Steve breathed a sigh of relief. Hopefully straight forward then. “Great, let me know when they-”

He was interrupted by the bell over the door and looked up to see a little girl cradling a small animal carrier, being shepherded through the door by easily one of the hottest men he’d ever seen in real life.

Oh wow.

Tidal Pull by sabrecmc, 97 k > words, Octopus Tony Stark, Alternate Universe - Shipwrecked.

After the American Civil War, Union soldier Steve Rogers takes a chance on an opportunity to sail with the Stark Trading Company down in the Caribbean. During a terrible storm, his ship is lost. To his surprise, he survives, and ends up stranded on an island that isn't quite as deserted as he first thinks.

Or, a reverse Little Mermaid tale where Steve has to fall for the fish-man.

Twelve Days by elysianprince, 22 k > words, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Alternate Universe - Ghosts.

In which Tony finds himself in a town that looks like it crawled out of a Hallmark Christmas movie, trying to sell an inn he didn't know he owned, all while dealing with Steve Rogers, the resident ghost who has returned to haunt the inn each December during the twelve days of Christmas for the past seventy years. Tony has only one logical solution that benefits them both: break the curse that binds him - but falling for a man almost a century old wasn't among his plans.

She kissed me by S_Horne, 1 k > words, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting.

“Your mom kissed me.”

Steve blinked awake and lifted his head from his pillow to look over at the silhouette in the doorway. “What?”

“Your mom,” Tony reiterated. “She kissed me.”

“Yeah,” Steve said simply, “she does that.”

[alexthemagicaldevil]

DSMP Members in the Marching Band

So I have nostalgia for marching band, and I started thinking about what different DSMP members would play if they were in one. Also, while thirty people is a lot when it comes to content creation, it makes for a very small marching band, something I connect to greatly since all of seasons I've marched has had fifty people or less. Here we go! :)

Band Director - ~Philza Minecraft is the best band director~ ~Dealing with these little shits for hours at a time~

Drum Major - Wilbur ofc. Can you imagine this man conducting a band? The drama? The absolute STYLE??? As if he would let anyone else be Drum Major.

Flutes - Karl Jacobs and Alyssa. I don't know, I just think they would have fun, also, I like the idea of them playing something ridiculously fast together and everyone staring because HOW?? Are your fingers?? Moving that fast??

Clarinets - Niki and HBomb! They would cause so much chaos, I know it. Constant Squidward jokes. How many stupid noises can you make with a clarinet? No one knows but they intend to find out. Constantly battling w/ the flutes to see who can make the highest note (sorry, flute wins every time).

Saxophones - Skeppy (alto), Ranboo (tenor), Eret (baritone!) The meme team. The puns are immaculate. Playing Careless Whisper at every available opportunity. All of them have JACKED thumbs from holding their respective sax, basically a giant callus at this point. So much chaos. How does Phil deal with these three?

Trumpets - Tommy and Dream. They're constantly showing off their skills and ego, as trumpets do. They also like to join the clarinets in trying to make the highest sound possible, which ends badly for everyone involved. Both are actually very good, even if Phil has to constantly yell at them to blend into the band and stop being show offs.

Mellophones - Bad and Antfrost! Fun fact, mellos and alto sax's often have the same part as each other, which is how Bad and Skeppy became friends. That being said, the mellos are constantly trying to keep the sax's under control, but often end up joining the memes.

Baritones - Puffy, Sam, and Ponk. Fun fact, Ponk has only one arm, and it is JACKED. He's based off of someone my band director knew from drum core with one arm. That being said, this entire section is jacked. Lats for days, bro. Sam likes to joke that Puffy and Ponk are truly 'low brass' players. Both can and will kick his shins in retaliation.

Tuba - Foolish! This himbo throws around those 35 pounds of metal like it's nothing! He looks down upon Sousaphones, the lesser tuba. Always blasting a different stands tune, usually Louie Louie or Hey Baby. Partial to Sweet Caroline and ESPN. Lifts more than the football players, always ready to prove that they're weak compared to him.

Snare - Jack Manifold! This man can do rolls and trick shots for days. Always ready to fight. 100% Manifold.

Bass Drums - Callahan, Sapnap, and Drista. Drista is actually an 8th grader that was invited to play in the marching band. Dream wanted her to play trumpet like him, but she decided to be spiteful and hit drums like Sapnap does. The entire percussion section adores her. Callahan is silently there, being the best. Sapnap is a mess like always.

Pit (Front Ensemble) - Quackity (mallets), Fundy (mallets), Tubbo (synth), Jschlatt (aux), and Connor (aux). Jschlatt is a senior that has never played an instrument in his life, but Connor, a passionate auxiliary player, convinced him to join. Tubbo is cracked at syth. Fundy and Quackity like to freak everyone out by holding four mallets at once. Jschlatt now affectionately calls them his 'Cabinet.'

Colorguard - Technoblade, Hannah, Purpled, Punz, and George. So much elegance. So many bruises. Techno loves the saber, Hannah is a girlboss on the rifle, constantly competing with Punz. George and Purpled are basic and like flag the best, but they're cool about it.

So uh, yeah, that's it. Sorry if I missed anyone, I was just trying to get the main members and whatnot.

[silver-starlight-99]

Monsters at Work:  The Jokester Generation  Part Four: Steps to an Uncertain Future

Be prepared for one doozy of an info-dump

One of the proudest moments of Tylor Benjamin Tuskmon’s life was the day he graduated Scarer Cum Laude from Monsters University.  It was a hallmark moment for the entire Tuskmon family in fact; as he was the first in his familial line to graduate from college.  Bernard and Millie Tuskmon couldn’t have been prouder of their son, and both were more than happy to share that act.  From as young as five years old, little Tylor was awestruck by the Scarers of Monsters Inc., I imagine like many Monster children his age.  But it wasn’t until the fourth grade that he made the decision to become a full-fledged Scarer once he came of age. 

The boy was a natural talent, with his height and horns giving him quite the intimidating profile.  But much like a certain green, one-eyed monster, Tylor wasn’t afraid to study like mad to perfect his skills, and made a hobby of collecting/memorizing every Scarer Card he could get his claws on.  His parents, despite coming from more of a lower middle-class background, wanted to do everything they could to support their child when they saw the dedication he was putting into his dream-career.  Bernard worked long nights at his family’s hardware store for years, and Millie even pawned off a number of family heirlooms, just to make enough to put their boy through college once the time came.  Add on the special scholarship he received from one of the most prestigious Scaring Schools in the country, and it looked like everyone’s hard work paid off after all.  Sure, that kind of laser-focussed dedication meant he wasn’t as sociable as most his age, but it was worth it if it meant being that much closer to his childhood dream. 

Besides his graduation, the last time Tylor had this much attention on him was during the party hosted by Dean Knight in celebration of him breaking an old MU Scaring record as a part of his final exam.  Beating even James P. Sullivan’s numbers on the Simulation Room, recorded from the monster’s time during the Scare Games. A fact that made its way across the school campus in record time, reaching the ears of a certain brother duo working in MU’s theater department.  They were both friends with the infamous college dropout, and thought he’d be interested to hear his old title was being taken over by this new blood.   

Even if he couldn’t remember the names of most of the people in attendance, despite having been in classes with them for years, Tylor couldn’t have been prouder, knowing all that hard work had been worth it.  Especially so because before leaving the party, his teacher, Professor Shade, pulled him aside to tell him he’d received a letter of recommendation from Monsters Incorporated.  Despite the controversies surrounding the company since the event deemed The Waternoose Scandal, Monsters Inc. was still considered one of the premiere energy factories in the country.  And, looking at the young monster’s impressive list of accomplishments, the Board of Directors wanted to accept him as soon as possible.    

This was everything Tylor Tuskman could’ve wanted.  The chance to live his dream, make his family proud, and make his mark on the world of Scaring.  He thought that after he graduated from college, it would be nothing but smooth sailings.  Little did poor Tylor realize, he would make an astronomical impact on not just the Scaring world, but the Monster world as a whole.  Just… not in the way he expected.  And he had one of his former childhood heroes to thank for that.   

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Most monsters would agree that everything began to change the morning The Waternoose Scandal was released to the public.  Some would argue that it was the initial sighting of the Tiny Terror of Monstropolis at the now famous restaurant Harryhausen’s that got the ball rolling.  Others say that the panic stirred by the escaped child was merely the spark that would ignite the true bonfire that would come to consume the city. 

Tylor Tuskmon was just a bit too young to remember much of the hysteria itself.  The almost two-year-old spent most of the time after the initial sighting held up in his family’s hardware store.  While Bernard worked to keep his family safe and provide his neighboring Monsters tools they could use to defend themselves, should the dangerous creature be spotted in their neighborhood.  It wasn’t until the next morning when Millie saw a televised announcement from the CDA giving a cautionary all-clear that the Tuskmons felt safe enough to take down the boards on their windows.  They, along with many of their other neighbors, spent much of the day in a state of anxiety, with a confused Tylor trying to comprehend why everyone he knew was being so skittish and weird.  By the following morning, it was announced that the CDA had located and returned the child back to it’s world, and their door was shredded for good measure.  The Tuskmon parents heaved a sigh of relief as it seemed things could go back to normal.  However, it wasn’t until three days later that the official story behind the escape was released to the public, and that initial air of dread would be replaced with something new.  

Henry J. Waternoose Ⅲ, during a city-wide energy crisis, was diluting company funds and manipulating his employees to build a prototype for something he’d hoped would reinvent Scream-power extraction.  While effective, it would put Scarers at a higher risk of contamination because of their closer interactions with human children.  And he was willing to put Monster society on-a-whole in danger by kidnapping thousands of kids in order to maintain his machine’s efficiency.  The Tiny Terror was just the guinea pig to test the prototype.  If all this chaos was the result of a single child escaping his grasp, who knows what would befall Monstropolis if a small army of them were able to revolt from their captors?  If not for the courageous, somewhat fool-hearty, actions of Monsters Incorporated’s top Scaring team, the situation could’ve been much worse.  Thankfully, Mr. Waternoose was quickly apprehended, any known conspirators were questioned, and the CDA would remain vigilant in locating any other associates.  One of which being Randal Boggs, another of Monsters Incorporated’s top Scarers, who seemed to have fled the city while James Sullivan and Mike Wazowski focussed their attention on the true head of operations.

Between the media coverage of the CEO’s trial, dealing with the continuing energy crisis, the protests that arose from Monsters angered by the gross negligence of Waternoose’s Scream Extractor plan, and the lingering anxiety from the initial child sighting, things in Monstropolis would remain… let’s say hectic for a while.  Because of The Waternoose Scandal, Anthropophobia was at an all-time high, especially in Monstropolis, where there were more than enough monsters happy to use that lingering paranoia to their advantage.  You’d be surprised by the amount of small and big-budget movies that were produced in response to the whole affair.  Along with Monstropolis politicians that would use this instance to promote themselves as beacons of safety during election campaigns.  Not to mention the dozens of Monsters who’d use The Waternoose Scandal as a way to sell cheap junk to gullible tourists believing they were purchasing actual weapons used against a human.

Meanwhile, as trust in Monsters Inc. was beginning to dwindle, the same could not be said for the CDA.  Mike and Sully may have received the lion’s share of attention and praise for their efforts, but public approval for the Child Detection Agency had reached new heights for their supposed work in apprehending Waternoose and detaining the dangerous child.  And as long as the heroes of the hour were “willing” to vouch for the good work of Roz and her subordinates, she was willing to overlook certain incriminating details that may have fallen through the cracks as she wrote up her report.

It would be two years since The Waternoose Scandal before the dust would truly settle.  While the fear of Humans would remain in the city, much of the initial mania had long-since died down.  Despite receiving a life sentence in the Monstropolis Maximum Security Prison, the former CEO would pass on due to heart complications just a year into his confinement.  Since then, Monsters Inc’s Board of Directors had appointed new CEO, a squirrely fellow named Hunter Tycroft, who was more than willing to comply with the CDA’s occasional sweeps of the factory in hopes of discovering any lingering documents involving Waternoose’s plans for the Scream-Extractor.

As for Mike and Sully, they would eventually go on to continue their good work as the best Scaring team in the city, even breaking the all-time Scaring record; a dream they’d both shared since their first days on the job.  A young Tylor Tuskman, along with many of his peers, would watch in awe from their televisions as mayor Titus Fangmore himself held a ceremony to congratulate the two for their good work.  But to those who truly knew the duo, their fire, that initial passion for their work that drove them to achieve such records, had been fading ever since Waternoose’s arrest.  They did their part to help with the energy crisis, but between Sully’s bout of depression and Mike’s aggravation over the constant harassment by the press, the two were going through the motions for a while.  But with each other’s support, they would eventually get their heads back in the game, and their normally cheerful personalities would return.  To the general public, it seems like things were finally going back to some sense of normal.   

But trust me, in a few years, the duo idolized as heroes, would soon become the center of a cultural upheaval that would drastically affect both Monsters Incorporated and the Monster world as a whole. 

——————————————————————————————————————————-

By the 10-year anniversary of The Waternoose Scandal, things in Monstropolis had almost returned to normal.  Sure, there would be the occasional conspiracy theorist looking to stir up the populace, something that was becoming easier through the development of technology and social media.  But of course, most Monsters are quick to dismiss the more outlandish stories.  I mean, come on; The CDA blackmailing Mike and Sully into assisting with the capture of a door-hopping child?  It sounds like a fun idea for a movie, but that’s just the kind of speculative fiction Monsters make up to milk whatever nostalgia they can from a big event.  Something like that couldn’t have actually happened and been covered up, right?

Well, whatever the case, Mike and Sully are brought in for an interview on national news to commemorate the anniversary, with many of Monstropolis’ citizens tuning in.  And while some of the two’s answers can’t help but feel a bit… scripted at times, things go smoothly.  That is, until the end, where Mike and Sully decide to make an announcement.  For what feels like the first time since the initial incident, the two choose to be more earnest about their time with the human child.  It’s not enough to technically break the vow of silence they had with the CDA, but it’s enough to talk about one specific experience.

It happened all at once, so they didn’t think much of it at the time, but there was something about that instance that always stood out to them.  Monsters had always believed it was a child’s screams that powered their world, yet a giggle had enough energy that it could blow out an entire apartment’s worth of appliances?  They only had a few experiences to go by, but Mike and Sully were at least open to exploring Laugh power as an alternative energy source for their world.  After living through, and being forced to work to their limits during an intense power crisis, there was something appealing about Monsters being able to harvest ten times the normal amount of energy from a single kid.  Of course, all of this was just working off of theories, but the Scarers were eager to reach out to others who’d help them test their ideas.  After all, if this was as successful as they believed it could be, this could completely revolutionize the power-production industry.  That is, if the higher-ups within that same industry were willing to accept the possibility of treating children as something other than a toxic battery. 

Yeah, unsurprisingly, a majority of Monster society had… let’s say conflicted opinions about this.  This wasn’t the first time the idea of alternative energies was brought to the general public, it’s not even the first time someone proposed something cleaner, sometimes with no necessity for a human.  But in a world where companies like Monsters Incorporated, Fear Co and Scream Industries have a monopoly on power distribution, they made sure to deter any who posed a threat to their bottom line.  Many of said companies have some sort of tie to major media outlets, so it doesn’t take much to persuade certain news stations to… alter the public perception of certain individuals.  Or just scare the populace into a frenzy akin to the Satanic Panic of the 80’s at the mere mention of alternative energies.  Monsters Bernard and Millie’s age can remember reading news articles in their high-school years about some kind of whack-job cult that believed the blood and teeth of human children could be turned into a reusable fuel, but only if pulled directly from the source.  Of course such rumors were eventually debunked, but their purpose was fulfilled, and most major cities would come to totally rely on Scream energy.  Leaving many of those same monsters who proposed a change to be publicly shamed into reconforming, or unable to build a functioning prototype for their idea because of a lack of funding.    

But things were different for Mike and Sully.  They weren’t some crackpot duo out to corrupt Monster society, these were the heroes of Monstropolis, the tops of their field in Scaring, and practically paraded by the CDA at any needed opportunity.  And now, they’re saying they’re willing to give it all up because of a hunch from an incident over ten years ago?  They’re claiming that the beings that have terrorized Monsterkind for hundreds of years are creatures that should be entertained and not terrified?  Are human children even truly toxic?!

So, like I said, many in the monster world were split on this idea.  Many of the older generation were quick to dismiss Mike and Sully’s idea, usually because of their own self-interests or internalized perceptions of humans.  One thing’s for sure, it hurt Tylor when Barnard insisted they get rid of all his Mike and Sully memorabilias after the interview, the elder Tuskmon believing the Scarers were just trying to reclaim their fame from ten years ago by making up nonsense about children not being toxic.  It was a sentiment shared by many Monster adults, unable to comprehend that such a seemingly obvious fact of their world was being challenged.  For Tylor’s generation however… things get a bit complicated.

Of course, for kids like Tylor who grew up in a time where anthropophobia was on the rise in their formative years, a fear of Humans was ingrained pretty early on.  But at the same time, these were kids that grew up during The Waternoose Scandal.  The seemingly-irrefutable truths of their parents’ era were being questioned, or outright exposed for their corruption.  Even if most Monsters of this younger generation were still brought up to be scared of humans, there was more than enough evidence for them to consider that perhaps alternative forms of energy production were worth looking into.  Not to mention, with the total boom of human-themed horror films that were brought about by the The Waternoose Scandal, just as many human horror film fanatics come to root for the monsters in movies, there were many Monsters that became fascinated with humans because of such productions.  While the Tuskmons may have considered their son to be a relatively good kid, in a fit of rebellion in his teen years, Tylor would occasionally sneak into his local movie theater to catch an age-inappropriate human-based horror movie.

As the young Monster would grow to hone his scaring skills, Mike and Sully were doing what they could to make leeway with their plan to bring Laugh power to Monstropolis, while dealing with the public backlash they were receiving as a result of their announcement.  Sure the younger generation was open to the possibility, but they needed individuals with a little more credibility in the corporate field to build a working prototype.  Not to mention the ever-daunting question of where exactly could they find Monsters that would be willing to be the test-subjects for such a project?  Because of their… complicated background with the folks at the MU Scaring school, Sully didn’t think it wise to turn to them for help.  Having the vocal support of a famous Scarer could’ve helped to give credibility to their idea, but as expected, most weren’t exactly willing to forfeit their Scaring careers or reputations on such an outlandish idea.

In the end, the only people they could get to listen to them were a little-known organization called CETHCA (Creatures for the Ethical Treatment of Humans and Children Alike.)  Because the Monster world’s understanding of human behavior is so warped, this group could best be described as a weird human appreciation club that was managed by extraterrestrials.  Unlike the general public, these individuals are actually curious to learn more about the habits of the human race, and have often tried to advocate for the proper treatment and compensation of children for their screams.  Of course, the media does what they can to paint these people as  attention-seeking wackjobs.  Sully himself even remembers listening to Waternoose complain about a CETHCA protest during his early days as a Scarer, with the CEO painting the lot as a group just a few steps up from an organized cult, with its Monsters so desperate for validation they’d believe any dangerous notions their leaders told them.

But when they finally caught wind of Mike and Sully’s proposal, they decided to pull their resources together to try and boost the public’s support for the idea.  It wasn’t quite the compensation for children they were hoping for, it was the first time in what felt like a long time someone in the energy business seemed to take an interest in showing these creatures some respect.  Like I said, these guys are certainly more sympathetic to humans, but that doesn’t mean they have the experience to be able to see children as beings equal to them in sapience and intelligence.  While they still didn’t have the most positive reputation in the eyes of the public, CETHCA had slowly received more members as dissatisfaction with Monsters Incorporated’s practices began to grow.  And with the development of social media, what started as an eclectic group of Monsters was soon enough to form a decent following.  And after getting to meet with Mike and Sully themselves, they took to the streets and the internet to spread the word of the power of laughter.

——————————————————————————————————————————-

It had been fifteen years since The Waternoose Scandal.  While their glory years as Monsters Inc’s top Scarers may have been behind them, Mike and Sully remained figues of interest, for better and for worse.  Their advocacy for Laugh power may have gained more legitimacy because of CETHCA’s efforts, but that didn’t mean many of their co-workers were quiet about their discomfort.  If Scarers didn’t have what it took to make children laugh, many would need to be laid off in exchange for those who better fit the bill.  In fact, a lot of Monster culture is based around a Monster’s scariness; for some it’s considered the measure of a true Monster.  There are many businesses outside of Scream production that only exist to try and make a Monster look more threatening.  If Laugh power proved to be more profitable, it meant not just a max layoff of Scarers, but a decline in the world’s economy, one Monsters may not be able to bounce back from.  A few of Monsters Incorporated’s Scarers decided to transfer to other companies, or outright quit to pursue more stable jobs in these unsure times.  If Mike and Sully weren’t doing their best to maintain Monstropolis’ energy levels, the higher ups probably would’ve fired them just to keep the company out of another scandal.

Which made it all the stranger when the two received a message from the Board of Directors.  Beforehand, Monsters Inc. never gave an official statement on whether they were for or against the idea of Laugh power, still just trying to clean up the mess left behind from The Waternoose Scandal.  But suddenly, Mike and Sully received an email stating that the company was interested in experimenting with Laugh power, if only to see for themselves if it was possible to multiply their energy output with just a few tweeks to the typical method.  While skeptical, Sully was just relieved that someone in the higher ups was finally taking their idea seriously, and agreed.  Mike was equally unsure of the Board’s intentions, but decided to use this to his advantage, managing to squeeze out a few work perks and a raise for him and Sully in exchange for his compliance.

From then on came the process of actually building the experimental “Laugh Floor,” and finding the right Monsters that would inevitably become the new faces of Laugh power production, aptly called Jokesters.  Using one of the older Scare floors reserved for members of the occasionally-used night shift, they would begin to build the first Laugh floor.  All that really needed to be modified for the process of energy extraction were the Scream canisters, to adjust to the larger amounts of output produced.  To do so, the Board pulled some strings with their connections at Monsters University, having some of their Scream-Can focussed students earn extra credit by assisting with the prototypes.  What took a bit more work to explain was the request for a simulation dummy that responded with laughter instead of screams.  But hey, as long as MI was willing to be more lenient in accepting their Scaring school students after graduation, the university saw no need to question things further.

With most of the technical stuff sorted out, then came the difficult task of finding the right Jokesters.  In the end, it was decided to be a mix of old Scaring pros to start things off, and then use them to train the fresher faces, as a way to prove that training was accessible to any who were open enough to try.  Mike of course led the charge in Jokester training, working with Ms. Flint to create a step-by-step training guide to eventually be shared with other companies and Scaring schools.  It was here where Mike saw his first recruit, Brian “Phlegm” Bile, a regular in the company’s simulation room who seemed to make a name for himself as the Monster to look to to see what not to do to Scare.  The pratfalls that seemed to keep him from becoming a true Scarer made Phlegm a perfect Jokester candidate.  

The next two actually reached out to Sully.  Scaring legend Carla “Killer Claws” Benitez was interested in the potential of techniques that could produce larger amounts of energy, so she was willing to do her part, even at her older age, to keep the city she loved from having to deal with another energy crisis.  For Rosie “Roaring” Levin, even if it came from a morbid curiosity than anything else, was curious to see how a more human-friendly form of energy-production would work, and so reached out to Sully to see what he had to say.  Lastly, but definitely the most surprising, was Art.  Yup, Mike and Sully’s old Oozma Kappa brother had certainly lived an interesting life since his graduation.  Part of which included joining up with CETHCA, if only to try and broaden his own understanding of the world.  He was actually the one to get the two Scarers connected with the organization.  And now that they were ready to put things in action, he was happy to lend his services as a Jokester.  

Mike included, that totaled to five Jokesters.  An admittedly small number, but something they could hopefully make up for with their extra energy output.  As Sully worked with the mechanical side of putting together the Laugh floor, Mike and Ms. Flint were using trial and error to turn these Scarers into Jokesters, and organizing their findings into a comprehensive manual for future trainees.

——————————————————————————————————————————-

It’s been twenty years since The Waternoose Scandal.  It’s just days away from Tylor Tuskmon’s first day at Monsters Incorporated.  Just a few days before this Scaring pro has his childhood dream turned on his head.  Just two weeks before the city of Monstropolis learns that one of their biggest companies is going through some big managerial changes.  And just a few days before a certain someone makes their official return to the city that changed their life forever.  Will the Monster world be able to survive this inevitable upheaval?  Who knows.  Either way, I suggest you grab a snow cone, you’re gonna want a snack as we wait for this powder keg to go off.   

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By the Gods!  When I started writing these things, I had no idea it was gonna take me this long just to get through my backstory stuff!  Ugh.  Well, it’s finally done.  And you know what?  Back when I did part one, I said I wasn’t planning on turning my ideas into a full-fledged fan-fiction.  Well guess what?  After all the energy I put into this, I’d feel pretty sh*tty if I didn’t bother paying off all the stuff I was building up to.  Yup, looks like I’m writing a fan-fiction for my Monsters at Work au thingy.  Hopefully it shouldn’t take me a whole month before I make another post about this.  But I won’t try to make promises I know I can’t keep.  To the handful of people who bothered to stick around this long, and to read all of my previous rambly-posts, thank you.  And I ask you to stay tuned.  The Jokester Generation is on its way.

[gallickingun]

I was looking at the prompts list and I can get “hands brushing unexpectedly” (number 8 I think) with Shoto out of my head ☺️ So maybe that for a drabble request?? Please and thank you!

a/n: baby it is shoto loving hours over here alright! i need to write more sho’, because he’s competing with kacchan for first place in my heart rn. i hope this is something like what you wanted!

Prompt #8: hands brushing unexpectedly

The first time it happens, you don’t think much of it.

You’re walking next to one another on your way from side of the agency building to another, accompanying each other from the training room to the conference area. It’s not abnormal - you and Shoto have become something akin to friends in your time here. 

He was the first out of the two of you to sign onto this agency - his powerful quirk and notable lineage making him a much better, more appealing target than you initially. You spent a couple of years as a side kick at another agency a few cities over, living off of scraps and poor advertisements. The two of you managed to fight together a couple of times, and actually worked well enough together that he suggested his agency buy out your contract. 

It was as if Shoto took you under his wing, then deciding that he would help you learn the Pro Hero ropes. He was your training partner, and he ensured you that he would have his marketing director work with you directly instead of assigning an up and coming new staffer to your case. His influence with the wealthy was something that you didn’t mind taking advantage of -  you had a nice new suit with comfortable fabric and apparatus that would actually assist you in using your quirk in battle.

Now, with your muscles aching from a workout and your mind on just getting one foot in front of the other, it’s hard not to notice his closeness. 

Your knuckles brush and you’re jolted by the cool feel of his palm on his right side. Your breath hitches and your eyes dart to the side, trying to gauge his reaction to the touch. You swallow when he does not make a move to recoil from you or make a comment about you keeping to yourself.

Todoroki is not one to be unkind, but he is also not overly animated in his daily life. You’re not sure how he would react to you being too close to him outside of sparring, or touching him in general. You know his father is one of the elite, someone who keeps his distance from those he doesn’t deem worthy. Shoto has proven to be little like his father, but you are unsure of how deep the familial traits may actually run.

Instead of bringing it up and making it a big deal, you take a breath and keep walking. 

When you walk through the conference room door, you miss the hesitant heterochromatic gaze on the back of your head.

-

It seems after that first day that your knuckles brush, it happens more often. Todoroki seeks you out a little bit more, asking you to walk with him to the cafe or the training room. And, without a doubt, each time, your hands will touch. Whether it’s grabbing a tray for lunch, or picking up the same weights, you can always count on his fingers trying to beat you to the punchline. 

Three months later and you’re getting ready to pack everything away when there is a gentle hand on your shoulder, “Hey.”

“Oh, Sho’,” you turn, smiling up at him. “Sticking around for another late night?”

Todoroki shakes his head and you stand to your feet, your bodies separated only by the bench between you. His chest expands as he takes a quick breath, “No, actually, I was wondering if you’d want to take a walk with me?”

Your breath stills in your lungs and you feel your eyes go wide, but you reign yourself back in as quick as possible, “Sure, that sounds nice!”

You sling your backpack over your shoulders and he takes the first step towards the exit, holding the door open for you once he gets there. It’s silent as you walk down the stairs and out the front entrance, the cool evening air washing over you like a balm.

“Wow,” you breathe in the sunshine-laced air, feeling rejuvinated, “it’s beautiful.”

Shoto tilts his head, considering you while you’re distracted, “Yeah, it is.”

About a tenth of a mile into your walk, it happens again.

Todoroki is walking abnormally close to you, but every time your arms pass one another, you’re just out of reach. You have to let your mind wander for a second - could he be doing this on purpose? When his knuckles brush yours, and you feel the spark from his left side, you latch onto the idea that Shoto just doesn’t know how to express affection and a smile crosses your face.

You almost trip when you feel his fingertips graze the inside of your palm.

As his knuckles slot between yours, a gruff whisper escapes his lips, “I-Is this okay?”

In reassurance, you squeeze his palm, looking down at your toes so he doesn’t lose what little confidence he has. You chew on your lip before replying, “More than okay.”

Shoto’s grip becomes more firm, the entirety of his hand flush with your own. He takes a sidestep closer, your arms close enough that you can feel the heat radiating off of his body. It’s almost electric, the way that his hand fits into yours and your bodies find comfort in one another. Your gait is the same, not one of you chasing after the other, but rather walking in unison, in tandem.

When you’ve both circled back around, you tug him by the wrist, capturing his attention but also causing him to stumble out of shock.

“I would like to do this more often,” you manage, voice clinging to your throat out of sheer anxiety.

Shoto leans forward to grab your other hand, mimicking the position of his palm in yours, a gentle smile on his otherwise stoic face, “As would I. How does tomorrow sound?”

Turns out, tomorrow can’t come fast enough.

–

a/n: short and sweet! i hope you liked it!!! i’m too used to writing bakubaby that todoroki didn’t come easy to me on this one lol.

taglist below the cut! 

@simplybakugou @kamehamethot @lady-bakuhoe @todorki-shoto @redhawtriot @burnedbyshoto @cookies-n-chaos @katsukisprincess @rat-suki @cutesuki–bakugou @k-atsukidayo @bnhatrashh @succulent-momma @voiceofreader @multifandom-fanfic @that-one-enthusiast @bitchtrynafck @cutest-celestial-princess @blue-peach14 @pastel-prynce @bokunokangae @shoutodoki @bakuoushoe @tenyaingenium @hoe-biscus @kingtamakimurder @myherofuckademia @myherowritings @lxvely-mha @myherorambles @ramen-rambles @bratwritings @samanthaa-leanne @orokayagi @tumblingintothefeelstrain @sunbeamwrites @bnhawritten @bnhasidebin @ua-imagines @lovekatsukibakugo @aizawamirite @plusultrawritings @bnha-violetnote @yuueimagines @suckersuki @heroes-landing @bnha-mha-imagines @heroesreverie @pink-imagines @brattyquirks @kazooli 

[kamiboothblog]

Befores, Afters and Always

On this day 20 years ago I dropped my seven-month-old son off at daycare and a short while later pulled my car into a parking space at the high school where I worked. Then the world exploded. 

Terrorists were attacking the World Trade Center in New York, the news reported. The Pentagon too.

Chaos. Confusion. Disbelief. Fear.

My first instinct was to turn around and make the 20-minute drive back to pick up my child. As a new mother, I immediately felt guilty for bringing him into this now-unsafe world. Would this be our new norm, a life of bombs and plane crashes and threats from people who simply hated you for being you?

Deciding to wait to take action until I learned more, I walked into the choir room where I served as the piano accompanist and was met by singing. The classroom of teenagers, too young to know much of war but old enough to understand this was now a day their grandchildren would ask about decades later, was raising its voice in patriotic song. The wise choir director had decided that music was the only answer these kids needed at this time when too many questions were being asked, too few answers were being given, and when nothing made sense. Music: something familiar, something tangible, something that can never be destroyed. An always. 

As the days and months and years rolled by, we learned the rest of the story of that fateful Sept. 11th, and we adapted to the changes it brought in how we lived and worked. We mourned and we continue to mourn. We never suspected that on the 20th anniversary of the terror, we would be under another attack - this time not from humans but from covid-19, a virus that has taken the lives of more than 4.6 million people.

Similarly to 9/11, the pandemic is marked by an excruciatingly painful awareness of the before and after. Life before quarantine and face masks and Zoom calls held an innocence we didn’t even realize we had until it was taken. 

“I miss sitting next to you in a crowded gym and breathing each other’s air,” I half-heartedly joked nine months ago to a group of fellow high school danceline moms as we longed for the return of in-person dance competitions.

What was once normal daily life now seems like a privilege just out of reach. Even as vaccines have made it easier to return to some of our pre-pandemic ways, a cloud of uncertainty about the future remains.

So how do we live like this? How do we face every day watching the death toll rise again, putting masks back on that we had hoped we could discard for good just months ago, distancing once again from loved ones, and listening to the non-stop, often vicious chatter from groups that are making this pandemic political? How do we keep from sinking into deep despair at the thought that life as we knew it is gone and may never return?

Before these trying times, I always thought the answer was in hope. Hope is defined as “a feeling of expectation and a desire for a certain thing to happen.” Being hopeful is positivity and positivity is good. We can hope that through vaccination, herd immunity and medical advancements covid will die out just like other diseases of the past. 

But these days hope feels….passive - a little too soft, a little too future-focused.

Cue faith. Faith is “confidence or trust in a person or thing or belief not based on proof.” Faith deals in the now, not the someday. Yes, it is important and arguably calming, inspiring and motivating to dream, to wish for a brighter tomorrow. However, the optimistic attitude that hope can birth is fruitless without a solid foundation on which to build it. We need faith to first plant the seeds to grown our garden of hope.  

If you are a Christian, your faith is in God. But I believe that you do not have to be religious to have faith; you simply must have conviction. You must hold deeply to your truth.

In his 2014 book Keeping the Faith Without a Religion, bestselling author Roger Housden writes, “Faith implies a basic trust in the way life weaves its patterns - an awareness that is not passive or fatalistic, but actively engaged with and accepting of all of life’s twists and turns.”

So keep the faith. This is not a saying to be taken lightly but an earnest call to action, a conscious and committed decision that must be recognized and renewed daily. At times, faith may appear intangible, but I believe it can actually be felt deep within your body, if you are willing to practice being attuned to it. Faith is a solid and steady knowing in your gut that gives you courage in the midst of fear, strength in times of weakness and confidence when uncertain. If you don’t know where to start, why not try believing in something - anything - that gives you even the tiniest sense of peace, comfort, or motivation to keep moving forward. Therein lies what I believe to be the secret to navigating the unknown. 

“Life’s twists and turns” has brought me to a place where my seven-month-old son whom I feared for and yearned to apologize to on Sept. 11, 2001 is now 20 years old, a junior in college. He is happy, confident and grounded. He has a younger sister in her last year of high school who is doing equally well, a compassionate and brave soul who encountered her own unexpected hardship a few years ago but chose to walk in faith through it. My children have successfully and (mostly) happily grown up in a world that is just as safe and just as unsafe, just as kind and just as unkind, as we view it to be. If I allow my fears and imagination to run, I could picture our future to be strewn with with more terrorism, more pandemics, more racial and political division, more strife. But I do not. I walk tall and deliberately with purpose, wearing my belief as armor. Whether those obstacles arise or not is of no matter because I will carry my faith with me - always, of course, singing the entire way. 

[warmest-oceans]

A Non-Paradoxical Moment of Accepting Oneself While Falling in Love with a Best Friend

Set in Phuket, a beautiful large island in southern Thailand, I Told Sunset About You already wins the Best Picture category. The island is magnificent on its own — blessed with emerald clear water, bed of white sand, quiet calm breeze, but the island also has the charm of its old town scenery. Every shot feels like it was shot in a new world. The combination of laid-back island life with culturally rich town is visually pleasing.

Aside from its excellent choice of set, the storyline is the true gem here. In the peaceful island of Phuket, we’re brought into the not-so-quiet lives of our two male protagonists, Teh (Billkin Assaratanakul) and Oh-aew (PP Amnuaydechkorn). From the start we know that these two best friends are about to be involved in something that’s bigger than themselves, something that’s uncontrollable and something that will change their lives forever.

It won’t be a 10/10 series if the actors can’t bring the golden storyline to live. The actors who play our male protagonists apparently have been friends since they were teenagers, making every scene they act on-screen believable. The chemistry can be seen clearly with a dash of improvisation here and there by the actors themselves and the magical direction by Boss Kuno, the director of the series.

I can’t really wrap up my introductory of the series without mentioning the amazing soundtrack and scoring. We only have three songs as soundtrack (with different versions) sung by our male protagonists, but the quality is top-notch, you’ll fall for it!

OK, I’m done with my introductory piece. Now, let me gush about this series. To me, I Told Sunset About You has become a coming-of-age story that left a permanent dent in my heart. It’s everything I ask for in a series; a beautiful set, excellent story, magical chemistry, and incredibly fitting soundtrack. Sadly, the series is almost always lumped into BL category, which I find insulting to the series to be honest.

Although I don’t identify myself as a part of LGBTQ+ community, I relate to the series more than I initially thought. Let me be honest, I am INVESTED in this series. Let me just write down the things that I think make this series is in a whole another league.

Self-acceptance in the middle of everything else

The series is great at delivering the moment of being a teenager who’s in the middle of self-discovery, starting to think about the future (the protagonists are in 12th grade), falling in love (hard) for the first time (on top of that, with your very own best friend!), seeking acceptance and validation, and trying to stay afloat at the same time. The topic seems to be nothing out of ordinary, but its ordinariness that brings up its own charm when it’s combined with excellent character development.

We all go through self-discovery and we all try to accept who we are when we’re teenagers — how crazy it was, restless, tiring, but also exhilarating it was. That’s why I think the series will resonate with most people.

I love how the process of the protagonists discovering and accepting themselves also answers the dilemma of falling in love with the best friend. Personally, I believe that I need to love myself first to love another person (note: if you want it to work and if you want the relationship to be a healthy one).

Thanks to this series I had a pleasure of reliving the experience of self-discovery and self-acceptance once again. No kidding, after I watched the series, I did a bit of self-reflection.

Impulsiveness

I think the first emotion that the series successfully portrayed is the impulsiveness of hot-blooded teens. I love how chaotic and erratic Teh and Oh-aew can be. One day they’re best friend, tomorrow? Who knows. Everything is a mess and everything is truly a collection of fleeting temporary moments.

Nobody in the series got their shit together and it’s supposed to be like that. Nobody figures out shit when they are in 12th grade. Everyone in the series is scattered, explosive, tortured, yet sensitive and delicate at the same time. It really reminds me of my own 12th grade moments!

Most of teens would act out of their gut reactions and that’s exactly what the characters do in this series. They’re not perfectly groomed and planned. So if you’re no longer in your teenage years or maybe if you’re in your 30s, you may find some of their actions to be silly and atrocious even. Tip: try to remember your teenage years. Try to remember all the stupid things you did in 12th grade. It helps you understand the characters.

Jealousy among friends is real and valid

I rarely see a show can realistically execute the side story of jealousy in friendship or even rivalry. Sometimes it’s too mean, sometimes it’s not even brought up (mostly being avoided in a story). I Told Sunset About You portrays jealousy in the most relatable way, through microexpressions. Through Oh-aew’s subtle glance at Teh and Ma or through Teh’s smile when talking to Oh-aew. Really, kudos to the whole team!

Naivety that leads to boldness

I think we can all agree that we’re much bolder when we’re younger, no? That’s because we have this naivety vested in us. Like trying to learn how to ride a bike for the first time, we don’t think much about the risk, we just want to have fun with the bike. We think adults will catch us when we fall anyway.

It’s another thing from the series that makes me fall in love with it. These flawed characters, probably in their 17 or 18, think that everything will be sorted out eventually. While, we adult know that most of the time, we clean our own mess. You’ll know what I’m talking about in episode 4.

Everyone got their own idea of first love

I think love is a complex, hard-to-understand feeling for everyone in every age, let alone for a bunch of 12th graders. Deeply impressed with how the series handles the tenderness and also the chaos of first love. How the series shows different outcomes of loving romantically for the first time is also admirable.

Teh stole my heart. At first, he was so certain about his feeling. He was calm, loving, and patient, the best you could be when you’re in love. But later when he’s in turmoil with himself, he becomes petty, awkward, and impulsive. He thought he loved, but turned out, it wasn’t even the kind of love he’d imagined.

I’m the main character

No character in this series is a filler. Everyone got their own dream and ambitions. Tarn, the female character isn’t just an obstacle between our protagonists. She’s a fully-developed character, an independent woman that works hard for her dream and a dynamic person. Bas, a male character, a good friend of Oh-aew has his own likings and dream. He’s good at some things. He acts on his own. Everyone is the main character in their own world and it’s evident in the series.

Symbolism and color theory

This wouldn’t be one of my favorite series without hidden meanings, symbolism, and color theory. Almost every scene and every material placement is intentional in this series. I won’t talk about it much because it’ll spoil the fun of you finding them.

Nostalgia

I had fun watching, crying, smiling, and laughing throughout the episodes the way they are. Aside from warmth and the feeling of awe, maybe the production crew doesn’t realize that it also makes me feeling nostalgic.

It reminds me of how futile and just fragile some of the moments from my youth were. They looked like big deals when I was in my 17, but now they are just dust. They really don’t matter in the next 5 years.

It reminds me of how insanely good falling in love felt like. It was intense yet tender, messy yet everything fell into pieces perfectly. The feeling that you want to give the person the world, but sometimes that world isn’t what the other person wants or needs. The feeling that you can almost do anything for this person. The suffocating feeling of not knowing what to do, but want to do everything for the other person. The liberating feeling of falling into the abyss. The feeling of surrender… completely.

The series makes me remember how exciting and scary it was when I realized I fell in love with one of my best friends, how confusing it was to even talk to him the next day after the realization. I just wanted to be with him ever since. Nobody could take that away from me and everything just didn’t make sense anymore in my head, just like how Teh and Oh-aew felt.

As you can see, I only have good words for the series. I hope, after watching the series, you’ll feel various emotions but hopefully… they’re all good and warm, because that’s how I felt. I also think that the production crew tried really hard to deliver a heartwarming series (please watch the documentaries/their behind the scene videos, it’s amazing!). I hope this series can be a newfound joy for you.

[hjbender]

Hi it's that Donald Blake au anon, and I agree I don't like Donald in general it's weird and sometimes in the comics he has a stick that he's always holding onto then he bangs it and somehow becomes Thor, idk. But the au is something that really interested me cuz it has so much potential, like is Thor an Avenger in this au, does he have to wait til Loki is not looking to go and save the world? Or is he not worthy yet and somehow choosing to reveal himself to Loki the real way to be worthy?

OH HAI AGAIN, ANON. THANK YOU FOR RETURNING

Yeah, I’m kind of glad the writers and directors decided to leave out the whole “mild-mannered human alias” from the Thor franchise. Really, so many superheroes already have alter egos—Peter Parker is Spider-Man, Ryan Reynolds is Deadpool, literally every single one of the OG Avengers except Thor has another name—that for once it’s nice to just have Thor be Thor.

But as far as that brilliant idea you pitched, in the first couple drafts of my answer, I actually started to rewrite Thor (2011) to make your idea fit with canon. However, after getting stuck a couple times, I started thinking it might work better away from canon (specifically Earth 616), more like a true alternate universe, no Avengers or Thanos or anything. Or, to make things simpler, it could just be a Porn With Feelings deal where the story is driven by characters and drama (and, of course, porn).

For the PWP approach, Thor masquerades as an MD on Earth because he genuinely likes to help people and having a human form helps him escape detection, or possibly keep his powerful electromagnetic radiation field from harming humans. In any case, Loki is unaware of his brothers super-secret human identity.

Somehow Loki bites off more than he can chew or pisses off the wrong supervillain—it’s practically his hobby, isn’t it?—and ends up getting his ass beaten and thrown to Earth. Miraculously, Thor (as Don Blake) is there to help him, and Thor can’t risk getting his cover blown, so he just plays along while Loki regains use of his limbs and/or powers (a perfect opportunity for some hurt/comfort whump sickfic type tags). Thor brings Loki to his apartment until he can fully recover, and in that time, Loki finds himself bonding with this disabled and good-natured human man who reminds him so much of his brother… and thus begins the forbidden romance and angst-ridden relationship drama.

...okay, so the PWP setup actually has a lot more plot than your average smutfic. (But just think of all the opportunities for medical kink in this one. Like Loki pretending he feels hot and achy and insisting that Blake give him a thorough, private exam… on the kitchen table… with stethoscopes and tongue depressors and lots of poking and prodding and pelvic exams. Anyone? No? Just me?)

The actual canon setup is the one I tried (unsuccessfully) to write out, but here’s a bullet list of the basic plot (get comfortable, this gets kind of long):

After defeating the frost giants in Norway in 900-something, Odin secretly makes a deal with Laufey to raise Loki as his own son, then marry him off to Thor so they can establish everlasting peace with Jötunheim (just like Odin and Frigga did to stop the Æsir-Vanir war). Thor and Loki’s children will be heirs to both royal houses. Upon Thor’s ascension to the throne, Odin will then return the Casket of Ancient Winters to its rightful place, and Jötunheim will flourish again with Asgard as its protector/ally

Loki is a lot more autonomous and independent than his original cinematic depiction, traveling the realms to learn seiðr and be an ambassador (and cause mischief, naturally, but nothing that can’t be fixed or used to his advantage). He’s always held a secret torch for his brother but knows there’s little/no hope of it ever being reciprocated, thus he stays away from Asgard as much as possible

Thor loves and misses his brother (perhaps too much). Their parents would surely disapprove of their relationship, gods or not, and besides, Loki is too much of a free spirit, a wanderer, content with his own company. Asking anything more of him (like a grounded, committed relationship) is something Thor could never do

Loki returns to Asgard on the eve of Thor’s coronation with gifts and smiles, and Thor embraces him with deep affection. They almost confess their feelings to one another, but shy away at the last moment (damn!)

Meanwhile, Malekith the Accursed (comics version Malekith, who is a lot sexier and generally more interesting/diabolical than his MCU counterpart) doesn’t like that Laufey is planning to make peace with Asgard and sever his alliance with Svartalfheim, and somehow breaks into the Vault on Thor’s coronation day just so he can frame Laufey and sour the arrangement with Odin

Odin decides not to act, sure that something else must be going on. Loki decides to take the intellectual route and do some investigating while Thor and his warrior companions sneak into Jötunheim to kick some ass

Thor accuses Laufey of wrongdoing, just as Malekith wanted, and almost incites a war with the frost giants. Odin banishes him to earth to live as a disabled human man until he can learn some humility

After much screaming at the sky and manly weeping, Thor finally accepts his fate and his new human identity

Enough time passes (months? A year?) that Thor eventually learns to be humble and considerate, helping other humans physically and emotionally in the medical field (I imagine him becoming an orderly at a local hospital since being a doctor requires years of education and money. Also, being thrown to Earth without a penny to his name will help Thor work through some of his entitlement and privilege issues. I headcanon he was aided by some good-hearted humans who were able to find employment for him and a place to stay, help him get on his feet, basically)

With Thor out of the way and the royal family torn apart, Malekith begins preparing for his attack on Asgard

Loki doesn’t know that Thor is trapped in a human form, only that he was banished and all contact forbidden. Loki is suspicious of the frost giants and goes to Jötunheim alone, where Laufey reveals everything to him—including Loki’s betrothal to Thor

Loki is stunned at first, unable to believe that the thing he’s wanted most was always meant to be his, and he hurriedly leaves Jötunheim

He tries to sneak to Midgard without using the Bifrost, but Malekith catches him en route and they fight. He throws a binding spell on Loki to render him powerless and then beats the living daylights out of him

Loki crash lands on Earth not far from where his brother was banished (he had been following the last known path from Asgard to Midgard), and is rendered temporarily powerless and amnesiac, not remembering anything about his fight with Malekith, Thor’s banishment, or why he was on his way to Midgard

Loki wakes up in a hospital bed with a kind human man looking after him. After an unsuccessful escape attempt, he settles in and finds himself comforted by Donald Blake’s presence. It’s… soothing, somehow familiar…(maybe it’s the drugs talking)

Thor instantly recognizes his brother but he cannot reveal himself, either because he’ll look insane/lose his job or maybe Odin made it so he’s unable to even speak the name “Thor” until he’s worthy again. In any case, Thor decides it won’t hurt to beat Loki at his own game just this once (Loki has played this prank on him more times than Thor can count). He ends up taking Loki back home with him once he’s discharged from the hospital

As his memories and powers slowly return, Loki is surprised that Blake listens to and believes everything he claims to be, and soon grows to trust and even like the man. He’s never really had a true friend before… except for his brother, Thor, of course. Blake reminds him so much of Thor…

While things gradually heat up between Loki and Blake-Thor, Malekith disguises himself as Loki (just as he did in the War of the Realms comic arc) and returns to Asgard. Odin and Frigga learn that Loki had indeed traveled to Jötunheim and confront their “son” about what he might have learned there

Not knowing it’s actually Malekith they are speaking to, they reveal the truth about Loki’s parentage and upbringing, and the reasons for his betrothal. Malekith is shocked, then amused at his good fortune. He decides to use this information to his own advantage

Malekith plots to bring Thor back to Asgard and insist that they be married at once. Thor will be crowned king, and when Thor finishes swearing his oaths, Malekith will steal Gungnir and kill Thor with it (and the entire royal family of Asgard). He will then steal the Casket of Ancient Winters, return to Jötunheim, kill Laufey and all the rest of his clan, and then head to Midgard to finish off the last of that bloodline: Loki. Then, with the power of Gungnir, Mjölnir, and the Casket of Ancient Winters, nothing will be able to stop him from bringing war and chaos to the Nine Realms

My brain is smoking and on its last cylinder right now, and I know this post is already decades long, so I’m gonna cheat and skip the whole part where Thor and Loki somehow learn about Malekith’s plot (maybe the Warriors Four come to Earth to warn them), and Thor becomes worthy again, revealing himself to a stunned Loki, and they all go flying back to Asgard, beat Malekith in an epic battle, and save the day

Once the dust has cleared, Thor is crowned king to an audience of Æsir and Jötnar, followed immediately by his and Loki’s wedding. Everyone cheers, Volstagg weeps and uses Fandral as a handkerchief, and Malekith gets a tiny slice of the wedding cake down in the dungeons

The end 🍰

[sweetsmellosuccess]

Sundance 2021: Day 4

Films: 4 Best Film of the Day(s): Mass

Mass: Predictably, Fran Kranz’ film opens with a shot of a church, but the title turns out to be a reverberating double entendre   —  both the religious service towards forgiveness; and a term commonly used in conjunction with a multiple-homicide shooting event. The church, Episcopal it turns out, is the agreed-to meeting place for two sets of grieving parents: Gail (Martha Plimpton) and Jay (Jason Isaacs), whose teen son Evan was killed some years before in a high-school massacre; and Linda (Ann Down) and Richard (Reed Birney), whose son, Haden, was the shooter, before killing himself in the school library. They have agreed to meet, long after the lawsuits and legal wrangling have been settled, to possibly provide answers and solace to one another. As can be expected, the atmosphere is fraught with tension  —  a setting Kranz, an actor making his directorial and writing debut, expertly mines before the couples arrive, with a kind but overenthusiastic church administrator (Breeda Wool), fretting about the details of the food arrangement  —  and the couples, wary, at first, of letting things get hostile, work diligently to avoid disagreement by staying mild (an arrangement of flowers Linda brings is speculated upon a great deal). Eventually, however, the four wounded parents get down to more brass tacks, Gail and Jay eschewing their therapist’s call for them to avoid “interrogation” questions, to get at the root of what they are after. In truth, as Kranz has the characters cannily come to understand, there are no details that shed new light, no explanations that help rectify what they’ve lost, only a grim understanding that, as parents, they are all subject to the laws of chaos and chance. Unsurprisingly, Kranz has an actorly sense of conflict and explication, but, despite the limited setting (this could easily have been an adapted play), he gives his actors plenty of room with which to work, and the quartet are more than up to the task. They are each terrific, and given opportunity to shine, but it’s Plimpton’s monologue near the end about her son that becomes the film's singular tour-de-force moment, a scene with so many hooks and edges, it sticks to you like velcro. Kranz is careful not to overstep his dramatic boundaries, difficult given the potentially melodramatic elements of the story, and allows his actors enough time to breathe so it avoids feeling polemic or preachy (an early scene with Gail and Jay in the car before they arrive is a scintillating bit of set-up, where words are spoken, but our attention, like that of the characters, is entirely elsewhere). No easy answers, thankfully, just brutal realizations that can’t be avoided.  

A Glitch in the Matrix: By this time, documentary filmmaker Rodney Ascher has carved out a sort of niche for himself: As with Room 237, and The Nightmare, he has gathered up fringe thinkers displaying a sort of group psychosis in order to explore other ways of seeing, and interpreting, our world. His docs don’t come down on either side of a given conundrum  —  are any of the far-out, would-be explanations of The Shining in 237 the least bit sensible? Is it possible in The Nightmare for people experiencing the horror of sleep paralysis to share in the same horrific vision?  —  but he carefully doesn’t contradict any of his subjects either. His new film, an exploration of what’s known as “simulation theory,” concerns a pattern of thought described back in 1977 by the heavily adapted science fiction author Philip K. Dick during an appearance in France, suggesting, Matrix-style, that all that we think we see and know is actually an intricate virtual reality, brought to us by an unseen technological force. True to his form, Ascher interviews numerous applicants to the theory  —  many of whom portrayed by VR avatars in their own homes  —  including scholars, practitioners, and skeptics, and bolstering their arguments with an assortment of other media, from Minecraft, Philip K. Dick-based films, and crude computer animations, to video games, and youtube videos. The views are intentionally conflictive  —  one subject suggests the very idea of such conflict is the basis of the simulation  —  and anything but conclusive, but, of course, that’s the very point. Less unsettling than The Nightmare, one of the few true horror movies of the documentary genre I’ve ever seen, save for the account of Joshua Cooke, who pled guilty to killing his parents in cold blood after cementing his belief that the ideas portrayed in The Matrix were completely real. Listening to his step-by-step description, from prison, of his descent into madness, and where those impulses took him, is to drop into first-person shooter psychosis.

Coming Home in the Dark: Both Australia and New Zealand are blessed with spectacularly beautiful land that is filled with wide-open, terrifying vast spaces in which any amount of evil may lurk. In dark, violent films like Wolf Creek and Killing Ground, all that beauty and space is turned on its head by far more chaotic inclinations, rendering brutally effective, and stomach-churning sadism as a means of displaying the horrible duality of the land. Kiwi director James Ashcroft attempts to add to this cinematic legacy with this film, a murder-abduction sort of thriller, in which a family on a camping trip in the wilds, is brutalized by a pair of killers they come across. In a twist that at least one of the killers, Mandrake (Daniel Gillies) would have us believe is a coincidence, it turns out the patriarch of the family, Alan (Erik Thompson), used to teach at the abusive orphanage school in which both Mandrake, and his partner, Tubbs (Matthias Luafutu) suffered as children. It’s not a believable conceit, which Ashcroft seems to readily admit, but because it makes the connection, the film attempts to work as a kind of metaphor for the violence which we didn’t perpetrate, but also did nothing to stop. Mandrake as an avenging angel, foisting Alan’s lack of empathy back onto him in violent spades. It’s difficult to fault a film for not being transgressive and shocking enough, exactly, but despite the theatrics of the situation, and Mandrake’s coldly comic engaging of the couple in “regular conversation,” it doesn’t have the heart to be as effective and unsettling as it needs to be. It plays it too safe, which saves the audience from being plunged into the all-too-realistic terror of, say, Killing Ground, but also dilutes the stronger point it wants to make about systemic brutality.

The Blazing World: Related to the 17th Century Margaret Cavendish novel in basic concept, Carlson Young’s feature debut walks a wobbly line between linear narrative, and neo-gothic opera  —  only with a soundtrack instead of singing. The story concerns a young woman, Margaret (Carlson), who loses her twin sister to a drowning accident as a child, but has imagined ever since that her sister lives in some alternate vortex of reality, heralded by a grinning demon, Leonid  (Udo Kier, of course). Coming back to her childhood home before her battling parents (Dermot Mulroney and Vinessa Shaw) move out altogether, Margaret meets some old friends, does some drugs, and finally enters the fantasia-like world that Leonid has been beckoning her to for most of her life in order to find her trapped sister. There, she must amass a series of keys, plucking them from demon versions of her parents, and confront her own guilt and pain in order to unlock her twin and set everyone free. It would be easy to say Young’s reach far exceeds her grasp, but the fact that she was willing to attempt such an audacious project says something about her artistic chops. And for every moment that hits wrong, there are several more that work in interesting ways. Her aforementioned use of music, and sound design invokes a kind of Kubrickian aesthetic, and her commitment to her vision is palpable. This likely won’t be the best film she ever makes, but it does portend to a filmmaker worth keeping an eye on, going forward.

Sundance goes mostly virtual for this year’s edition, sparing filmgoers the altitude, long waits, standing lines, and panicked eating binges  —  but also, these things and more that make the festival so damn endearing. In any event, Sundance via living room is still a hell of a lot better than no Sundance. A daily report.

[queerchoicesblog]

Ghost of You (SC Titanic, Zetta x Adele)

So this is my very first SC Titanic fanfic: I am excited to post it and well I suppose I should warn you that probably Zetta x Adele fictions will be rather long as this love story features themes that are very dear and meaningful to me, such as 1. well, obviously the Titanic story, 2. references to beginning of the century cinema (love very old and b&w movies), 3. sapphism and 4. femminism/suffragette movement. It’s basically everything I could have ever asked for. The Gentleman Jack fans out there might find a reference here...

So here I tried to imagine what brought Zetta to write that little note to Adele after basically disappearing. Loved that scene and I had to try and portray her turmoil, her missing Adele but also, as any historical lesbian (maybe not only historical), fearing the strings of society and their effect on their love and her beloved suffragette. Hope you enjoy it!

Disclaimer: I quoted some pieces of dialogue from the original book

Word Count: 2555

Zetta x Adele Tag: @marmolady @animus-and-anima @hayley-carter19 @escako @everlastingchoices @andrxrneda @aestheticsayeed @eleanorwaverrley @indescribablechoices @ahrielstuff @lvcley @nazario-sayeed

________________________

Two rapid knocks on the door then:

“Are you there, doll? Can I come in?”

Richard’s voice abruptly brought Zetta’s back to reality, involuntarily making her jump in her seat.  She blinked twice as if wakingg from a dream and took a quick look around. She couldn’t recall how long she had been sitting at her vanity lost in her thoughts with a brush in her hand. She just couldn’t focus that day as she was haunted by memories of the past. But Richard didn’t have to know, mustn’t have to know. She put down the brush and quickly fixed her hair before adjusting her robe to limit the skin exposure to the minimum: after all, they weren’t married yet…and her heart didn’t belong to Mr. King. Only after that, she answered loud enough to be heard on the other side of the ebony door:

“Sure, darling”

She resumed her interrupted makeup session, pretending to be fully taken by that routine that didn’t bring her the usual joy anymore. She looked at herself in the mirror and put on a practiced smile: it would have been enough to fool her fiancé.

Richard entered her boudoir and theatrically opened his arms as a seasoned professional: he mentioned that he started as an actor before becoming a stellar director.

“My love, every time I see you I’m completely blinded by your beauty. You’re the brightest star in the sky, even brighter than Venus itself” he said moving closer and kneeling beside her chair.

“…And you’re gonna be the most radiant woman at the party tonight. The belle of the ball, la plus belle” he added, courtly taking her free hand and placing a kiss on her knuckles.

He looked up at her with a dashing smile.

“Trés charmant, Richard…but are you done with poetry?” she smirked, retrieving her hand and resuming her previous core.

“Ah, la belle dame sans merci!” Richard exclaimed before falling back to the floor holding a hand on his chest.

“Silly” Zetta laughed and she was soon joined by Richard who stood again and leaned on her table.

“I can’t help it around you, doll, apologies” he shrugged, flashing her another smile.

Zetta had to summon all her acting expertise not to cringe at “doll”. She hated it when every fiber of her being when Richard -or any other men- called her “doll”. Even her first director called her so, even her husband…doll, as if that was all she was to them: a beautiful toy, maybe a collectible but not truly a woman. Not truly Zetta.

Instead, she mirrored his smile and threw him a quick look before methodically applying some rouge on her cheek.

“So, what are you dying to say that can’t wait?”

“Seeing you isn’t a reasonable excuse?”

Richard was a charming man, without doubt. He wasn’t a bad man or so it seemed to her but she had been deceived by men who swore to only want the best for her that it was hardly possible for Zetta to fully trust any of them. And a man could have never won her heart.

As she flashed him just one of her enigmatic smile, he spoke again:

“Fine, you got me: I just wanted to see you and to remind you that our producers are expecting us at Rao’s for dinner in an hour. We should leave soon” he gave an apologetic smile and lowered his voice to a whisper. “Will we be there in time?”

“We will, I promise you” Zetta confirmed then made a show of shooing him away. “Now shoo, call Sabine and let me get dressed or else we will be late”

Richard raised his arms in surrender, laughing. Then he pressed a kiss on the crown of her head.

“I’ll get off of your hair, doll”

Zetta resumed her makeup as Richard moved towards the door. He was halfway out when

“Oh I almost forgot! I spoke to Alan yesterday and he loved the movie: the story of the two sisters reunited in the midst of chaos on the sinking ship is just perfect, so heart-warming-“

“Yes, it truly is heart-warming” Zetta commented, losing focus again.

“The story is real, right? You met at least one of them on board, didn’t you?”

Zetta’s voice lowered as memories started surfacing back.

“Yes, we were…rather close”

“If they survived, we should track them down and invite them at the movie: it would be great if they could talk to the press. Journalists love stories like this: I can see the headlines alrea-“

“We’ll see, Richard. Now please go call Sabine”

She tried to keep her voice from betraying her feelings, but she could feel a rush of anger surging. She would have never handed the Carrem sisters and such a private and tragic moment of their lives to those shameless sharks who go under the name of journalists. The subtle hint of heartbreak and they prey the unfortunate victims like vultures over a corpse: they wouldn’t stop until they had dissected those aching hearts, leaving them to bleed out. No, she would have done everything in her power to prevent this.

The story she wrote down when asked to bring the grim fate of the Titanic on the big screen was fiction: inspired by true facts but fiction. Zetta was smart enough to know that life and fiction are two separate things and that an edulcorated tale of those most tragic hours was all the world could take: the people of New York, who weren’t there that night, would have been overwhelmed by the real story.

Still, when she sat at her desk and started writing a draft of the script her mind immediately turned to…Adele.

She didn’t even notice Richard leaving the room as the silhouette of Miss Carrem clouded her thoughts. Finally alone, her face fell and she shut her eyes as if to prevent the memory from fading away.

Adele, most gracious, fearless Adele…

Her lips curled into a sad smile as she reminisced their first meeting. She was sitting in her suite smoking and listening to James making some pointless speech when the door opened and Teo stepped in followed by Adele. She had the beauty of a Greek goddess and the look of someone who was going through a lot. She clearly felt out of place among finely dressed first-class passengers in the lavish room but she kept her head high. Zetta remembered feeling the urge to know what troubled her but she put on her mask, the sardonic film star ever out of reach. And then…was it a brave move or just an insane one? Adele told her of her arrest, of prison. Everyone else would have hidden from her, a new employer and Zetta Serda…not Adele. She handed her everything she needed to destroy her life as if it was no big deal. Zetta was taken aback and searched her green eyes for any sign of mockery but find none: the stranger girl truly trusted her with her life. That’s when she realized how unique Miss Carrem was.

Adele found a way to her heart effortlessly as if she had the map from the very start. When she placed her hand over hers in the projection room, she startled Zetta: whenever she had made the fatal mistake to show her vulnerable side to anyone, they would have used it against her to make her feel weak or small…clearly in need of someone who would tell her what to do, to guide her. They would have refilled her glass with wine again and again instead of going for the simplest gesture: taking her hand into theirs and comfort her. Making her believe with that touch that everything would have been fine, and she was stronger than whatever life threw her.

For a moment, as Adele held her hand, she felt safe, pacified, something she had never experienced with any of her supposed lovers. She couldn’t even be mad at her secretary when she revealed her James’ plan and the true reason behind his bailing her out of jail. She was shocked, obviously but she also couldn’t believe that Adele, brave foolish Adele, had put her life into her hands again. “I’m perfectly aware of the risk I’m taking by revealing this to you but you deserve to know. I cannot keep this from you” she said, looking her right in the eye.

Those eyes…they took Zetta’s breath away whenever they ignited with the fire sparking inside her. She could have lost herself in their green depths when they gleamed with pride and mischief as she proposed a toast to the vote to women or whenever their eyes met. She got lost in them when their lips touched, and they grew dark with desire. How daring and foolish they had been in the Turkish baths…but she couldn’t bring herself to regret that moment of ecstasy when she felt free and truly loved, for once. She could still shiver remembering Adele’s touch, the way her lips traced down her body with reverence and adoration, the soft moans the tender girl in her arms suffocated hiding her face in the crook of her neck as she melted under her caresses. In those stolen embraces she knew happiness.

How happy she felt whenever Adele was around: just exchanging a brief look across the room would make her heart flutter.

Then other memories surged and Zetta felt tears welling her closed eyes. Her birthday night, that cursed birthday night…Adele and her sneaking away from the party to find a private spot on the deck. The wine, the cold breeze of the ocean, Adele’s silvery laughter at her tipsy enthusiasm, how she craved those sweet lips all night.

“If I’m honest, I don’t even want to reach shore, I don’t want to go back to the party…I just want to stay out here with you. Forever.”

Adele’s tender smile in agreement.

“Let’s just make a tent of this blanket – we can live off seal meat and rainwater”

Her tipsy proposal made the two of them laugh again.

“What about your acting career?” Adele inquired, a smile lingering on her face.

“We’ll make our own plays. Whaddya say?”

God, how those words sounded different now…how she would have given everything to have Adele there to cup her face and give her a slow, deep kiss. But Adele wasn’t by her side anymore…she lost sight of her when her agent and Richard dragged her and James away from the crowd at the New York pier.

She hadn’t written her ever since that day and she felt so impossibly guilty because of that: Adele must have thought she had forgotten about her after all her words of love on the ship. Maybe she felt used, maybe she hated her by now and cursed the memory of her. She would have reasons to hold a grudge to her…the truth was that happiness and love are hard to accept if you have never truly had them before and if they came from a woman loving another woman.

Zetta had tried to write her a thousand time but every time she had made an effort to put her feelings into words, her lines rang hollow. Yet the words that got stuck in her throat when Adele pulled her into a corner and confessed that no matter what happened that night she needed to tell that she loved her were clear in her mind.

The months spent parted from you are the saddest time of my life. I’m haunted by you, the ghost of you. You’re everywhere: even if I’m silent, not an hour passed where I haven’t thought of you. I tried not to, but whenever I closed my eyes, there you were. I love you and I can’t live without you, without your smile, your wit, your touch. I just can’t but how can I ask you to be with me in the dark? I can’t step back from this wedding and I don’t want you to be a secret mistress: that would squalid and offensive when you are the one I want to give all of me. To marry, if that was even a possibility for us so that I could spend every single day of my life with you, waking up with you by my side, taking care of you…making you happy. Your absence makes even breathing hard, not to mention smiling to strangers, “capitalist pigs” as you would say…I even try and talk like you do, you see? But I find myself wondering: will I make you happy if I have to hide our love from the world? Kiss you only behind closed doors? Let you see me marry a man? You’re a free spirit, my love, I don’t want to put you in a cage because our love, our pure love would be a scandal and a scandal would ruin everything I worked for since I was even younger than you. I don’t want you to spend your life as a ghost yet I find myself craving to see your face one more time as living without you is barely surviving but all the light has gone as I lost you.

Suddenly she felt someone placing their hands on her shoulders.

“Let me help you here, Madame”

She opened her eyes and saw Sabine, smiling sympathetically down at her. She tried and failed to mirror her smile as her mascara was now running down her cheeks.

Sabine helped her to her feet and took care of everything. Zetta let her washed up her face and helped her into her shiny evening dress: she felt like a child in the hands of a loving mother. When she was putting on her earrings, the final touch, Sabine handed her a small stack of envelopes.

“The invitations to the movie screening and party” she explained. “It’s October first, I would suggest to send them first thing tomorrow to ensure that everyone get the invitation within reasonable notice. It wasn’t easy to find all the addresses, but I did my best”

“I’m sure you did, Sabine. Thank you for taking care of it.” Zetta said as she checked the succession of familiar names of former passengers and famous colleagues. “I will sign them personally when we come back from the party”.

“Excellent” Sabine nodded.

Then as Zetta placed the stack on her desk, she presented her a single envelope.

“I hope you don’t mind if I requested a faster delivery for this one” she added before bowing her head curtly and leaving the room. “Have a nice evening, Madame”

Zetta read the name handwritten on the last envelope where a different stamp had been appointed.

‘Mademoiselle Adele Carrem’

A lump formed in her throat but she forced herself not to cry and just smile, mentally thanking Sabine: she had found her. Following nothing else but her instinct, Zetta picked out the invitation and signed it with her fountain pen. Then, as Richard called her name, she grabbed a slip of paper and wrote a brief note:

“Please come, my love. I must see you again. Yours, Zetta”.

She folded everything back into the envelope and finally left her room as a newfound hope kindled inside her.

[timetogoslumming]

@fleetwoodwormy​ Alright! I’m not going to do all of Mountain Ridge because there’s a lot, but let’s do a random chapter. I’m going to take a closer look at Chapter 5: War.

This chapter became one of the most popular ones I wrote, but a lot of it was never supposed to happen. I had a rough outline of what would happen, but all I really had planned was general first day of camp stuff and Davey’s talk with Race where Davey mentioned being gay. I was aiming for around 2000 words per chapter and it was still too short, so I ended up improvising The Raccoon Scene. 

It did have some purpose, though. I wanted to build on the relationship between Jack, Crutchie, and Race as a trio and introduce a bit of chaos, but I also wanted to show that while they’re good at their jobs, they’re also kind of in over their heads. 

I’m going to do a close read of the chapter with more detail under the cut.

I had a doc going while I was writing to keep track of staff positions and cabins, but I also kept track of a few important campers. A few didn’t end up making the story, but all three of these were in there. Plus, another camper that shows up this chapter, Teddy.

This little moment is small, but it’s kind of huge for Davey in a couple of ways. On one hand, there’s his blossoming friendship with Jack. Davey is a pretty shy person, but he felt comfortable enough with Jack to invite him along. I believe this was the first time that Davey made the first move in their relationship (in a manner of speaking.)

On the other hand, there’s Albert and Elmer waiting for him. We see in the exposition that Davey is not accustomed to having a lot of friends, but here are these two guys that he barely knows waiting for him so they could walk together. Albert and Elmer were already friends, so they definitely could’ve gone on without him, but they chose to wait for Davey, and that’s a big deal.

I had to do lice checks every week during check-in when I worked at camp. You put on rubber gloves and use Q-tips to comb through every kid’s hair. If you find anything, they don’t get to come to camp. The whole process is deeply unpleasant.

This scene is actually part of what inspired me to write this whole fic. The initial idea wasn’t to write a summer camp AU– it was to write an AU where all of the Brooklyn boys were lifeguards. That turned into me rewriting Brooklyn’s Here with lifeguarding lyrics, which was quickly scrapped. It turned into all of this, though. 

Throughout the first half of Mountain Ridge, we see Race and Crutchie (especially Race) warning Jack against starting a relationship with Davey. We don’t get much more information about that, except that Jack had a previous camp romance that ended badly. I’m getting into the nitty gritty of that relationship in the Mountain Ridge prequel. Let’s just say, Race had his reasons.

Throughout this chapter, Davey is called David and Davey in the narration at varying points. It’s not random! When the scene is from Davey’s point of view, he’s referred to as “David” in the narration, because that’s how he sees himself. In the very beginning, he was always referred to as David, no matter whose perspective it was. When they met Sarah and she called him Davey, the nickname caught on and from then on, all scenes not from his perspective referred to him as “Davey” in the narration. There is an exception to this: as Spot and Davey grew closer, Spot had his own names for him, so in Return to Mountain Ridge, he’s usually referred to as “David” or “Dave” if the scene was from Spot’s perspective.

Mountain Ridge is written from a third person limited point of view. The story is being told be a narrator, rather than a character, but it focuses on one character at a time. You could imagine a floating video camera, but it only follows around one person at a time and can only see things around that person. For a more common example: Harry Potter is written in third person limited. You follow Harry and get his thoughts, but that’s it. 

I feel like the fandom has changed in the past few years but when I was first writing this, Davey was often portrayed in fics as either deeply closeted or in denial when it comes to his sexuality. While that’s a very real situation and there’s nothing wrong with that, I wanted to write a different type of Davey. This Davey has always been confident and supported in his sexuality. He grew up in a home where he was celebrated and never felt like he needed to be shy or ashamed of it, and I really enjoyed writing that.

Crutchie, bless him, he’s doing his best. Pro-tip: Potato stamps are pretty fun. 

I wish I were an artist, because I just find this image hilarious and it’ll forever be trapped in my head.

This scene is goofy, and it’s chaotic, but I think it also shows that number one, Jack has no idea what he’s doing. And number two, that although their methods may be ridiculous, these boys are pretty good at thinking on their feet. Quick thinking comes into play periodically in their work, particularly for Jack. He doesn’t think he’s very smart, but that boy does know how to improvise.

This is just a bit where we get to see them laughing, making jokes, and enjoying themselves, with a quick reminder that their still in out of their depths. The situation is actually sort of dangerous, but it’s also so ridiculous that they can’t help but laugh. Plus, doing something as crazy as trapping a raccoon in the art hut with your best friends? You can’t be upset about that.

So, yeah. That was a close read/ director’s commentary of chapter 5. I actually really enjoyed this. If yall would be interested in more like this, let me know.

[itsallavengers]

The Little Things In Life

He was sat at his easel, blues and greens and reds streaked across his body like multicoloured comets, when Tony arrived back home. 

The business trip to Milan had been annoying, but ultimately fairly run of the mill, and they did nice coffee over there. Wasn’t too much of a hassle, all things considered. Tony had been nagged into it by his Advertising Director; honestly, Tony wasn’t even all too sure what he’d been pushing for, but he knew he’d done a good job of it, because he’d left with that smug sense of pride in his chest that reminded him of a trip well spent.

Steve always missed him when they didn’t sleep in the same bed, though. Even though he never said anything about it. Tony had been with him long enough to know he loved to have company when he slept, and it jarred him when that was taken away. It was why Tony never really went out of the country for too long if he could help it any more. Steve didn’t complain, but he also didn’t sleep either, and Tony would rather teleconference than get back to find his husband had collapsed on the mats at gym while he’d been sparring with Bucky. 

This time, though, the trip couldn’t be helped, and it’d only been a two-day excursion. Nothing too severe, and Steve seemed... okay. Although it didn’t look like he’d heard Tony come in, which probably meant he was either deeply focused or just too exhausted to register it. 

It seemed to be both. 

Tony cocked his head and leaned against the door a little, watching Steve’s fingers grab for the paintbrush behind his ear, dip it into the little palette he was holding in his hand and then mix two of the watercolours together. There was a sort of manic energy to his work; his hands shook as they splashed across the canvas, and the colours were jagged, creasing across the page haphazardly. It was beautiful, though. The way Steve did it was effortless- the chaos of his colouring somehow managed to coalesce into what was without a doubt the skyline of New York, complete with the Avengers Tower in the middle of it all. Steve truly was a master at what he created- and when he got into it like this, he worked in the same way Tony did on his projects: filled with a manic, beautiful passion that consumed every aspect of him. Tony could watch him all day and never get bored. 

But Steve was exhausted. That much was obvious from the slump of his shoulders, the tremor of his hands. He’d immersed himself into his art to avoid the prospect of sleeping alone, but Tony was back now. He didn’t need to anymore. 

“You’re so beautiful when you create this sort off stuff,” Tony said into the quiet of the room, and Steve jerked wildly, brush slipping from his fingers and falling to the floor as he turned around. 

The smile on his face made Tony feel like the sole recipient of all of a star’s warmth. “Sweetheart!” Steve stumbled off his stool, wiping his hands on his jeans and then crossing the room. Tony met him in the middle and accepted the kiss gladly, his hands laying steadily against Steve’s chest. “How was Milan?”

Tony shrugged, loosening his tie. “Deal went through, hotel was nice, I ate a shitty sandwich and missed you. How was home?”

“Clint put an exploding arrow into the pool to see what it’d do.”

“And what was his conclusion?”

“The pool exploded.”

“What a surprise.”

They both laughed, Tony resting his hand against Steve’s cheek and stroking at a little streak of black fondly. The other man’s eyes fell shut and he leaned into the touch, turning his head inward to kiss at the palm. “Missed you too,” he murmured, “bed’s weird without you there starfishing.”

Tony pulled a face. “I do not-- I don’t Starfish, it’s a king size bed, I merely use up all available space-”

“Starfish,” Steve finished for him, pulling open his eyes and grinning at Tony tiredly. His voice was a little slurred, the exhaustion pulling at each syllable. It was clear Steve hadn’t been resting very well for a while. 

But that was alright. Tony was here now. 

He leaned forward, up onto his tiptoes, and kissed Steve again. As he did so, his hands drew around Steve’s back and then quickly untied the apron before pulling away. Steve ducked his head, letting Tony slip it off him and fold it up. “You tired, soldier?” He asked, because he knew if he asked directly whether Steve was sleeping properly, he’d just fib and say he was fine. He hated Tony worrying over him. But he also loved Tony fussing over him-- a guilty little pleasure of his that Tony was more than happy to encourage. 

Steve nodded, small. “Long few days,” he admitted through a yawn, and Tony smiled up at him as he twined their fingers together and backed up, starting to pull them over to the bed. 

“Well, I dunno about you, but I could do with some sleep. Rich people make me lethargic.” Tony pushed Steve gently onto the bed and the man’s legs buckled, sitting down on his side with a thump and looking up at Tony through half-open, beautifully blue eyes. Tony’s hands slipped across his shoulders, cupping his neck and rubbing gently at the tense muscles there. Steve’s eyes fluttered shut again. “Come on, peaches, let’s get you out off these clothes, alright?”

“Mmf,” Steve mumbled, leaning forward and slumping his face into Tony’s midsection. “M’too tired. S’just sleep like this.” He waved lazily to himself, still decked out in a paint-stained T-Shirt and his SI track-pants. The man was a walking advertisement for his husband’s brand, and Tony was at least 90% certain it was mainly because Steve enjoyed having ‘Property of Stark Industries’ literally stamped across his chest. 

Tony just rolled his eyes. “I am not letting you spoon me looking like that. Come on--” he leaned down, picking up the hem of Steve’s shirt and then gently tugging him out of it, grinning fondly at the pout on Steve’s face as he was made to lift his arms up into the air. He followed his orders though, and Tony was careful as he slipped the stained garment off his body, stopping to smooth his fingers over Steve’s chest as he went. When Steve woke up and got some more energy in him, Tony could show him exactly how much he’d missed him. Until Steve looked a little less dead on his feet, however, Tony was more than happy to just get into bed and sleep. 

“Should probably shower,” Steve breathed out, more to himself than anyone as he looked at his hands. Tony agreed with the sentiment if he was being honest- however he didn’t particularly fancy Steve falling asleep on him while they were all slippy and wet in the shower like that, and now that he’d gotten Steve sat on the bed, it seemed an unnecessary effort to lug him all the way back into the bathroom again. Instead, Tony just leaned over into his own nightstand and then pulled out a few makeup wipes that he kept by his bed for the longer days full of press conferences and public appearance. Probably not the best thing to clean paint with, but they’d do the job. 

He stood back up between the V of Steve’s open legs and then gently took the man’s big hand into his own. Steve looked up at him, his gaze soft, and Tony couldn’t help it. He leaned down and pressed a small kiss to the top of the other man’s eyebrow. He was too cute to resist like this; all sleepy and soft and pliant. It was hard to imagine Steve could break a man’s neck with his eyes closed or scale up a tower with one hand behind his back. Here, in their room, he was just... Steve. The artist. Tony’s wonderful husband. 

He looked back down to Steve’s hand and then rubbed the wipe against his skin, cleaning off the stray colours and pen-marks and graphite with a gentle, caring touch. Steve’s eyes fluttered closed again and he leaned into Tony’s middle, cheek pressed up into his abs. His free hand rested itself on Tony’s ass-- not even sexual, really; Steve just used it to pull him a little closer in. “S’always weird when you’re not here,” he sighed into Tony’s shirt as Tony worked his fingers clean, rubbing just under his fingernails to try and catch some of the paint under them.

“It’s weird being gone,” Tony agreed gently, a smile tugging on his lips as he replaced Steve’s right hand with his left, popping the now-clean one up onto his ass and hoisting the other one up instead. “Think I’ve gotten too used to all this noise and mayhem. And someone to spoon me while I sleep.” 

His husband hummed in agreement, but said nothing more, letting Tony work all the paint off his hands. A few seconds later and he was done, and he let the other one drop too. “Okay, just close your eyes, angel,” Tony guided his head back a little, waiting for Steve to follow his instruction before pressing the wipe just under his eye socket, rubbing off a streak of green. “How you even get it up here, I have no idea.”

Steve cracked open one eye drily. “Same way you get that engine oil everywhere. ‘N’ believe me, that shit’s way harder to get off.”

Tony paused. “Okay, point.” He tipped Steve’s head sideways and ran it over his cheek that time, then over the shell of his ear where there was a small red patch. Steve merely remained loose and allowed Tony to work him over, clearly enjoying the contact. His fingers gently untucked Tony’s shirt from his slacks, and he lifted his palms further in order to settle them, warm and firm against the small of Tony’s back. Steve took the smaller pleasures more seriously than anyone Tony knew- revelled in the intimate touches and unfamiliar places on Tony’s body where few had touched. Case in point, he was currently working his way up each bump in Tony’s spine, counting them up one-by-one. It was such a uniquely Steve mannerism that Tony had grown to both expect and love his strange little touches and oddly-placed affections. It was all just a wonderful part of being married to the man. 

“Same number as last time?” Tony asked him fondly, running his hands through Steve’s slightly-overgrown hair. He needed a cut, but Tony still liked the way it curled a little around the ends. It was cute. 

Steve looked up at him and smiled bashfully, nodding. “Am I presentable enough for you to cuddle with me yet?” He asked, a hopeful tint to his voice, and really, how could Tony resist that? 

He rolled his eyes and nodded, expecting at least a few seconds of pause for him to undress himself first-- but Steve took his approval as an immediate one, because with a big smile he tucked his arms more firmly around Tony’s waist and then flopped backward onto the bed, taking Tony with him. He yelped, cheeks squishing up against Steve’s chest as they landed hard against the mattress, but before he could even complain he was being rolled, landing on his back and getting blanketed by four limbs’ worth of supersoldier. Steve snuggled his face into Tony’s neck, curling up into his side comfortably with a small hum of contentment. 

Tony looked at the ceiling. “You gonna let me brush my teeth?”

“No.”

“What about Pyjamas?”

Steve paused. “No. But you can get naked if you want.”

Right. So it was going to be like that, then. Tony sighed and turned his mouth into Steve’s blond hair, burrowing in a little further. They fit together so perfectly- like two parts of a puzzle, no matter where they joined up. It was hard to argue with Steve’s firm words-- especially when he was now so comfortably wrapped in his husband’s embrace. 

So instead, he sighed and accepted defeat. His shoes were off and he wasn’t wearing the armour, so it could be worse. “You’re a menace,” he muttered, turning further into Steve’s arms. 

“Undeniably so,” Steve responded, “sleep now.”

Anyone else, and Tony probably would have been a little more stubborn-- but Steve had had a long few days, and Tony hadn’t touched him in over 48 hours, and it was warm and cosy and Tony just loved him too much to even bother. 

He followed his orders and shut his eyes.

----

(Like my work? Donate to my kofi!)

[ziyadnazem]

An Introduction To 'Q'

Who is Q? What is Q? And, perhaps most importantly, why is Q?

Q and the ever-growing worldwide movement it’s inspired have been the objects of fascination, mockery and hatred, but of surprisingly little serious analysis.

Q first appeared in October 2017 on an anonymous online forum called 4Chan, posting messages that implied top-clearance knowledge of upcoming events. More than 3,000 messages later, Q has created a disturbing, multi-faceted portrait of a global crime syndicate that operates with impunity. Q’s followers in the QAnon community faithfully analyze every detail of Q’s drops, which are compiled here and here.

The mainstream media has published hundreds of articles attacking Q as an insane rightwing conspiracy, particularly after President Trump seemed to publicly confirm his connection to it.  At a North Carolina rally in 2019, Trump made a point of drawing attention to a baby wearing a onesie with a big Q.

In recent weeks, the tempo of Trump’s spotlighting of Q has accelerated, with the President retweeting Q followers twenty times in one day. Trump has featured Q fans in his ads and deployed one of Q’s signature phrases (“These people are sick”) at his rallies. The President’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, has also retweeted Q followers.

Q has noted that the media never asks Trump the obvious question: What do you think of Q? To Q followers, the reason they don’t ask is obvious. They’re afraid of the answer.

In the meantime, Q’s influence continues to spread. Protestors in Hong Kong, Iran, and France have held up Q signs and chanted Q quotes. Q’s revelations are uniting people all over the world who want freedom.

If you’re unfamiliar with Q or only know it through the media’s attacks, I’d like to provide a brief introduction to this extraordinary phenomenon. I’ve followed Q since the first drop, and I’ve grown increasingly impressed by the accuracy, breadth and depth of Q’s messages. Q followers were prepared long in advance for the easing of hostilities with North Korea, the deflation of the mullahs of Iran, and the discovery of Ukraine as a hotbed of corruption for American politicians. They knew a great deal about Jeffrey Epstein’s activities before the public did and anticipate even more shocking revelations to come. As Q likes to say, “Future proves past.” As Q’s predictions come true, they lend retroactive credibility to the entire enterprise.

Q’s followers believe that Q is a military intelligence operation, the first of its kind, whose goal is to provide the public with secret information. Many Q followers think the Q team was founded by Admiral Michael Rogers, the former Director of the National Security Agency and former Commander of US Cyber Command.  Some suspect that Dan Scavino, White House Director of Social Media, is part of the team, because the high quality of Q’s writing has the luster of a communications expert.

Q is a new weapon in the game of information warfare, bypassing a hostile media and corrupt government to communicate directly with the public. Think of Q as a companion to Trump’s twitter. Whereas Trump communicates bluntly and directly, Q is cryptic, sly and subtle, offering only clues that beg for context and connection.

Here’s the way it works: Q posts messages (also known as “drops” or “crumbs”) on an anonymous online forum, which are discussed, analyzed, and critiqued by the board’s inhabitants. (The forum has changed a few times after massive online attacks.) Hundreds of social media accounts then spread Q’s latest posting to worldwide followers who share their research, analysis, and interpretations of Q’s latest information.

I’ve compiled a list of Q’s most famous catch phrases and tried to put them into context.

The Great Awakening: We’re living in a unique time in which ordinary citizens around the world are collaborating to understand and expose the corrupt system that rules us. The system thrives on deception, and the overwhelming task of The Great Awakening is to penetrate its lies and reveal the truth.

The first phase of The Great Awakening is heightened awareness of the Deep State – the interlocking governmental entities that operate outside the law to expand their own power. Elections and popular opinion don’t impact the ability of the Deep State to enforce its agenda.

The second phase of The Great Awakening investigates the Deep State’s alliance with other powerful sectors: the media, Hollywood, charities and non-profits, public schools and universities, religious organizations, medical, scientific and financial institutions, and multinational corporations. This phase can be painful, as you discover that “those you trust the most” (in Q’s phrase) are deceiving you. Beloved celebrities, religious leaders, doctors, educators, innovators, and do-gooders are all in on the hoax.

The third phase of The Great Awakening is perhaps the most painful of all. The people who rule us are not merely amoral creatures who view us as collateral damage in their drive for money and power. It’s scarier than that. The potentates we serve are actively trying to harm us. That’s their goal. We’re under coordinated attack.

Dark To Light: Q tells us that what our rulers fear the most is exposure. Bringing their crimes out of protected darkness into the light of public scrutiny destroys their power to deceive. And as their power fades, the darkness of our divided, violent world will yield to the light of freedom, cooperation, and peace.

Where We Go One We Go All (WWG1WGA): Q’s most famous phrase expresses the worldwide egalitarian nature of the movement.  Every country is suffering from the system’s oppression, and the whole world will benefit from a rebirth of freedom. In this unique movement, anonymous citizens work in collaboration with the highest-ranking military leaders and the president, and everyone’s contributions are valued. When commenters on the board have thanked Q for his service, Q has replied that no one is above and no one is below. “We work for you.”

These people are sick. Perhaps the most difficult aspect of The Great Awakening is coming to terms with the depravity of our rulers, whom Q has called The Cult. Jeffrey Epstein’s story has helped to awaken people to some of the elite’s crimes. The mysterious temple on Epstein’s island hints at possible future revelations that are frightening in their scope. Q followers believe that The Cult engages in ritual practices that enshrine the shedding of blood and which prey on the innocence of children. The sickness in their souls thrives on brutality, war, and terror. These disclosures will be tough for the public to take.

Trust the plan. The presumed military leaders who created Q and who protected Trump throughout the election and presidency have created a precise path to victory. Despite the seeming chaos of daily events, a steady progression of victories is taking place. The plan includes offensive maneuvers against the Cult’s financial power, legal standing, human supply chains, and military capacity. And, of crucial importance, the plan attacks the Cult’s ability to control the narrative that shapes what the public believes. In this high-stakes game of information warfare, Q plays a vital role by empowering ordinary citizens (like me) to spread the truth.

They want you divided. The hatred that’s growing between races, classes, age groups, religions, and political parties is purposely fomented by the Cult. The more we’re divided and focused on attacking each other, the weaker we become. Q urges us to stay together and to fight the Cult, not each other.

They think you’re sheep. The Cult believes, as Q says, “you’ll follow the stars” – the celebrities in media, Hollywood, and academia who tell you, in coordinated fashion, what you’re supposed to think. Their contempt for you makes them confident they can control you and ensure your surrender to any agenda. Q, on the other hand, offers only clues and can only be understood by high-grade critical thinking, spurred by constant crowd-sourced criticism and reassessment. The essence of the Q movement is to think for yourself.

Bigger than you can imagine. Expand your thinking. Q encourages us to reevaluate everything we think we know.  The Cult may date back to ancient times, and through its powerful families, it might have manipulated historical events in ways that we haven’t suspected. The Cult may also possess advanced technology and medical cures that have not been released to the public. One aspect that may be “bigger than you can imagine” is the unfathomable scale of theft from our national coffers, as funds for foreign aid and wars wind up in the Cult’s pockets.

Track resignations. Beneath the surface, a broad and deep cleansing of corrupt players is taking place. Q asked us to track resignations to understand the scope of activity. (Here’s a website that took him up on his request: www.resignation.info) Resignations, retirements, and unexpected deaths from major players in politics, media, charities, and corporations all point to possible deals being made quietly without the public fanfare of arrests. For me, a notable resignation is Eric Schmidt’s abrupt exit from Google, which received little media attention. Schmidt resigned on December 21st, 2017, the same day that President Trump signed an executive order declaring a national emergency related to “serious human rights abuse and corruption around the world.” Further context for Schmidt’s resignation may be inferred from this photo of him in North Korea, apparently in an advisory role. Standing next to him is Bill Richardson, former Governor of New Mexico, the state in which Epstein had a secret ranch. Richardson has been accused by one of Epstein’s victims.

Their need for symbols will be their downfall.  The Cult uses certain symbols over and over again, which may serve some ritualistic need, but makes them vulnerable to detection. Q followers are familiar with Y-shaped horns that mimic those of the goat deity Baphomet, owls, pyramids, one eye encased within a pyramid, red shoes, bandaged fingers, and other repeating symbols, including the mysterious black eye that afflicts so many famous people. The Q Army also knows the coded pedophile symbols listed by the FBI. When Q drew attention to the design of Epstein’s temple, alert Q followers noticed how similar it is to the set design of a famous talk show. And the red ring on the hand of dead terrorist Qassam Soleimani prompted Q followers to compile images of similar rings on the hands of powerful people.  An excellent source for understanding how these symbols are incorporated into pop culture targeting the young through music videos, TV shows and movies can be found at vigilantcitizen.com.

Nothing can stop what is coming. Nothing. Now comes the pain.  The headlines on any given day may sound discouraging for those who want justice to prevail. But these setbacks are temporary, as a juggernaut of justice heads our way. As Q likes to say: We have it all. Massive amounts of irrefutable evidence await the criminals who try to evade their reckoning in court. For those who worry about Trump’s ability to overcome impeachment, election fraud, and assassination attempts, Q assures us: Patriots in control. And no legal tricks can help the criminals escape the ultimate judgment of public disgust.  Q promises us that the day is coming when they can’t walk down the street.

You are the news now.  The “fake news” decried by President Trump is losing credibility and audience by the day. Q has exposed the 4 A.M. drops that provide the daily talking points to media personnel, so they can all parrot the same propaganda. Q has also named various journalists whom he says take bribes. The media is concentrated within six powerful companies; on the other hand, the Q army is vast, voluntary, and anonymous. Q assures us that our efforts to disseminate the truth through social media and conversations with family and friends are having a huge impact. We are the news now.

We know what happens in the end. God wins. Many times, Q has asked us to pray. He’s quoted the famous Biblical lines of Ephesians 6:12, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” We’re living through monumental times. It’s comforting that Q believes that if we work together, God wins.

[katymacsupernatural]

Love is in the Air Chapter 15

Jared Padalecki x Reader

1200 Words

Story Summary: Jared is a Flight Attendant, one of the best in the country. Y/N is one of the hottest Hollywood stars. Both intensely attracted to each other, but prejudices get in the way. Can Jared get past his idea of how Y/N should be? Can Y/N show Jared that she’s not the normal actress, but one who is shy and down to Earth, giving them a chance at love?  

Catch Up Here: Masterpost

Waking up in Jared’s arm felt right, and you wanted nothing more than to cuddle deeper in his embrace and pretend that the rest of the world didn’t exist. That he didn’t have to travel to China, and you didn’t have to finish your film. A part of you wanted to board a plane to some deserted island where the two of you could be alone.

But the ringing of your phone on the nightstand pulled you from that daydream. Groaning, Jared snuggled his face deeper against your neck, his breath hot against your skin.

Closing your eyes, you willed the phone to quit ringing, but it started up once again. Yawning, you reached for it, picking it up and answering it. “Hello?”

“Y/N, where are you?” Your assistant Maddie screamed into the phone.

“In bed. We aren’t filming until late tonight,” you answered her, wondering what had gotten into her.

“Stay there! Don’t come to the set. They’ve canceled filming for today,” she spoke quickly. Pulling away from Jared you sat up, wide awake now.

“Why, what’s going on?” You asked as you slipped out onto the patio of your hotel room, letting Jared sleep a little longer.

“So, that man that tried to sponsor your last movie? Tony? Well, he’s here, and he’s causing a ruckus. The director asked me to keep you away until it’s safe.”

“Tony’s there?” You repeated, your eyes widening and your heart rate picking up a little bit. You had seriously hoped you would never see or hear that man ever again. But it looked like your good luck was faltering.

“He is,” Maddie confirmed. “And he’s in a horrible mood. They’ve already called the police on him. So stay away today, but let me know if you need anything.”

“Of course. And thank you for the heads up,” you hung up the phone, amazed at the nerve of that man.

“What was that about?” Jared asked, leaning against the door, making you jump in surprise.

“I don’t have to go into work today,” you explained, coming up and wrapping your arms around his waist, laying your head on his chest. “Too bad you still leave for China today.”

“In two hours,” he said, glancing at his watch. “But why don’t you have to film today?”

“It’s not really a big deal,” you started to say, but then you thought better of it. “Jared, my assistant called. I guess Tony is there, stirring things up.”

“Tony? That bastard that harassed you?” Jared’s entire body tensed up against yours, his voice going deeper. “What the hell does he think he’s going to do?”

“Get arrested by the police,” you sighed. “They just want to keep me away for safety, and I’m thankful. By tomorrow there will be a restraining order that won’t let him come close to set, and we won’t have to worry about him again.”

“I don’t trust him” Jared grumbled. “His pride is hurt, and he’s not going to back down easily, even with a restraining order. I just wish I didn’t have to leave soon. I hate leaving you here unprotected.”

“We have security on set,” you reminded him. “And all I’ll be doing the next two weeks is traveling between there and this hotel room.”

“Make sure you have someone with you at all times. Please,” he pleaded. “Maybe your assistant can bunk with you for a while? Until we know he’s not down here anymore.”

“Jared, I’ll be fine!” You argued. “I can handle myself. And besides, I don’t see him trying anything after today.”

Jared still didn’t seem convinced, so you reached up, brushing the hair back from his face, standing on your tiptoes so you could brush your lips over his. “We only have a short time left together before you leave. Let’s not spend it worrying. I can think of something else that’s much more enjoyable.”

“You’ll call me and let me know you’re safe? Every night?” He asked, his beautiful hazel eyes searching your face.

“Of course,” you assured him. “By the time you’re ready to come back, you’ll probably be wanting a break from me.”

“Never,” he answered, sweeping you up in his arms and carrying you back into your hotel room.

Waving goodbye to Jared as he climbed into the Taxi, you wished he didn’t have to go. You wanted him by your side, especially with the threat of Tony looming in the distance. But you were a strong, independent woman, and you didn’t want Jared worrying about you while he was halfway across the world.

Stepping back into your room, you picked up your phone, calling Maddie back. “How are things there?” You asked her, sitting on the edge of your bed, part of you wondering how you were going to spend the rest of your free day.

“I was just going to call you,” she squealed. “Tony’s disappeared, and no one knows where he is!”

“What do you mean? I thought the police were showing up? That he was going to be arrested!”

“They did, but by the time they showed up, he had vanished, and they’re still looking, but they haven’t found him yet,” she answered. “Y/N, keep your door locked! The police are on their way over there, but we don’t know how long he’s been missing.”

“This hotel is booked under a different name. There’s no way he could find me here,” you assured her, even though you weren’t so sure.

“Y/N, please,” Maddie pleaded with you.

“Fine, the doors already locked, and the lights are off. I promise I won’t answer the door until you tell me it’s okay,” you placated her before hanging up the phone.

“You forgot to lock the patio door,” Tony spoke up from the corner of your room, seated in one of the chairs. “It wasn’t easy to figure out which room you would be in. After all, a big star like you would get the fanciest hotel room closest to the filming area.”

“Tony, what are you doing here?” You asked him, taking a step back towards the door. “The cops are on the way, and you’re just making things worse.”

“I’m here to make things right,” he growled, standing up. “You ruined my life! I can’t do anything now!”

“That was your fault, not mine,” you told him, ready to race for the door when you noticed what was being held in his hand. Pointed right at you. The gleaming barrel of a pistol.

Jared/Sam Tags: @a-girl-who-loves-disney @aj-reuth @barbedwireandbubblegum @demonic-meatball @depressed-moose-78 @imagine-inc @kay18115 @lady-phoenix-of-tardis @musicalsarelove @lovesamwinchester @mereka18 @sadmac356 @shadowhunter7 @sizzlingbearpolice @sortaathief @unicornblood4ever @winchesterslibrary

Love is in the Air Tags: @cleverdame @deansgirl215 @destiel-equals-life  @eleven-eleven-make-your-wish @fandomsissues @i-is-for-inspiring @iamnotsaneatall @imagine-inc @imascio08 @is-that-a-gas-leak-or-a-demon @jae-sch @jordannicole56 @kay18115 @lizmalfoywayland @luciferslucille @phoenixia67 @pjofangirl18 @poukothenerd @randomstuff-idontwannatalkboutit @rosie21395000 @shaelyn102 @shamelesslydean @thelittleredwhocould @tiffanycaruso @tinyvelociraptor2319 @that-really-awkward-dinosaur @troubletrumble @waywardlodging @xthelittlethings

Forever Tags(CLOSED): @16wiishes @4401lnc @algud @amanda-teaches @andkatiethings @andreaaalove @angelsandwinchesters @anspgene @artisticpoet @atc74 @be-amaziing @bemyqueenofdarkness @bohowitch @buckysmetalgoddamnarm @bumber-car-s @brooke-supernatural16  @brunettechick @camelotandastronauts @captainradicalpassion @chelsea072498 @clairese1980 @captainemwinchester @darthdeziewok @destiels-new-girl @donnaintx @dont-you-dare-say-misha @dslocum89 @duckieburns @docharleythegeekqueen @emmazach @emilicious-7 @emoryhemsworth @ericaprice2008  @esoltis280 @essie1876 @generalgoldfishldrm @goldenolaf25 @growningupgeek @herbologystudent252 @heyitscam99 @highfunctioning-soiciopath @hms-fangirl @hobby27 @ichooseeternalplaces @imboredsueme @internationalmusicteacher @ithinkimadorable-67 @iwriteaboutdean  @jayankles @jensen-gal @just-another-busy-fangirl @karlee-fay-my-wayward-son @keelzy2 @leanbeankeane @lifelovelaughangell123 @li-ssu @littleblue5mcdork  @lowlyapprentice @luciferslucille @maui137 @mellowlandrunaway @mogaruke @nanie5 @natashacamillaus @newtospnfandom @​offbeatsilhouette @offbeatwriting @percussiongirl2017​ @pilaxia @pizzarollpatrol @plaid-lover-bay25​ @roonyxx @ronja-uebrick @rosegoldquintis​ @roxyspearing​ @samanddeanmyheroes @sandlee44 @shamelesslydean @sillesworldofwriting @sgarrett49 @skyewardolicitycloisdelena91 @smoothdogsgirl @spnbaby-67 @spn-dean-and-sam-winchester @spnwoman @sunskittlex @starry-chaos @superbadassnatural @thebikiniinspector @theflameontheinside @thing-you-do-with-that-thing @tina8009 @totallovelesson @tunadean @vvinch3st3r @walkslikesummeractslikerain @whimsicalrobots @wildlandfox @winchesterbrothers-inc @winchesterxtwo @winchester-writes @worldwidehansum @zombiewerewolfqueen

[seriouslyhooked]

Scoring Your Love (Part 13/?)

Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five, Part Six,Part Seven,Part Eight, Part Nine, Part Ten, Part Eleven, Part Twelve. Story also on FF here and AO3 here. Banner by the wonderful @timetravelandfairytales

Modern AU where Killian is a world famous soccer star who has hit rock bottom and been sentenced to the place where ‘football’ legends go to die – America. While here he crosses paths with Emma, an up and coming musician and film scorer who challenges everything he thought he knew and makes him want more than the game he’s always loved. Will be filled with fluff for days. Rated M.

A/N: Okay my friends. I just want to inform you all before you start reading that this chapter is not my usual happy go lucky fluff. For some of my more soft-hearted readers (you know who you are), I would recommend that you wait to read this until tomorrow when I will post chapter 14. I won’t be offended at all if you wait, and by then the stormier seas will have calmed a bit. For the rest of you, however, I hope you will enjoy this chapter. It’s a really important one for the story and it brings us to a cross roads I have been anticipating since I first came up with this AU. That being said I appreciate you reading and look forward to hearing what you think!

“Okay, so does anyone have any questions about what our next steps are?” Tiana posed the question to a room filled with staff from the show who were all gathered for the weekly update. Before anyone could respond, however, Tiana ran through the final bullet points of the meeting they’d just had. “We’ve got the writers working on crafting episodes seven and eight now, filming of five ends today and six starts tomorrow in Burbank, and three and four are finishing in post.”

Everyone in the room nodded in agreement, giving Tiana the green light to end the meeting much to Emma’s enjoyment. Not that it wasn’t fun to be a part of a big show like this. So far she’d felt simultaneously challenged and excited at all of the scoring work she got to do to keep pace with a network production, but Emma always did better in one on one or solo settings. Being a part of a larger team and running through the plans had never really been her style. She was a workhorse, but she preferred to focus on her piece of the puzzle and leave the grand designs for showrunners and producers.

“Emma, can I talk to you for a quick sec before you bolt?” Tiana asked, her smile wide as she called Emma out for her more singular tendencies. Emma agreed that she could and waited behind as everyone else filtered out of the conference room.

“What’s up?”

“’What’s up’ is that you are unbelievable, girl! I got the final cuts you sent over last night and it’s amazing. I got chills like five times, and I knew every twist that was coming.”

Emma smiled at the praise, knowing that the magic of sound when added to a base cut was really something. A show or a film was never finished without it, and though it wasn’t the flashiest part of production, Emma knew the music and the score could pack just as much punch if done right as any dramatic acting or cinematography.

“Oh good, so this isn’t one of those ‘you’re fired’ kind of meetings then?” Emma joked.

“Hardly,” Tiana said with a genuine laugh as she shook her head. “You’re the real deal, Emma, and I’m not the only one who thinks so. I sent your stuff up to the network execs and they’re thrilled. They’re convinced we have a hit on our hands and you helped make that possible.”

“Just doing my part,” Emma said honestly.

“Well either way you’ve made some powerful people very happy, especially since there’s a new potential producer that wants in. A very wealthy producer.”

Emma’s eyes widened at the statement. It wasn’t unusual from Emma’s understanding for producers to join as shows were still on the air, but to add someone with money this early when the pilot hadn’t so much as premiered was a big deal. Though Emma hadn’t worked much in TV before, she knew that shows were seen as a big risk in their first few seasons. There were a lot of factors that could make or break a new series, and at the end of the day the most important thing was ratings. To survive, a show needed to resonate with a lot of people, millions of people, and that wasn’t so easy these days.

“Congrats, Tiana. That’s awesome. I know how hard you’ve worked on this, and you deserve every success.”

“Thanks Emma. So that being said… I was hoping I could ask for a favor.”

“Name it,” Emma said, willing to do whatever she could to help out her friend and boss.

“The potential partner is in town just for today and he’s coming to check out the production side of things. He’s going to see a bit of the set and meet some of the actors but he’s also interested in post, specifically the music. Turns out he’s heard of you and he was hoping to get a look at your process.”

Emma hadn’t expected anything like this and to be honest she was surprised. Despite all of the interest that she’d garnered after the Oscars, Emma still felt strange about being noticed, and the actual craft of scoring was always a relatively personal thing. She collaborated of course, working with other musicians and sound designers, and reporting to directors and show runners like Tiana, but to have an outsider in her space was a very different thing. For some reason it made her a little uneasy, but rationally she knew that was silly. She should just take the compliment and live up to her promise to Tiana. This would be fine, just a few minutes spent schmoozing with a potential investor, and then she could go on her merry way.

“I know, I know, it’s kind of weird and intrusive. I wouldn’t ask if I could see a way around it, Emma, but he seems really interested and…”

“And in this business money talks,” Emma said, prompting a knowing nod from Tiana.

“Exactly. I mean technically we don’t need the money, but it just never hurts, even if we know we just have it for a rainy day.”

The rationale Tiana offered was something Emma understood well. It fit in with the facts of Tiana’s backstory that Emma already knew. Coming form a working class family and losing her Dad early in life, Tiana was used to living in the real world where having things was not a given. She might have had some advantages over Emma, being raised by her mother and her grandmother, but that same underlying pull to try and create a comfort that she never had was there.  Money was something that granted access and possibility, but it had to be worked for and protected. Emma knew that first hand, and she knew the drive to collect and save what she could just in case something went wrong. For that reason she could let go of her misgivings and do this for the show and for Tiana.

“I understand,” Emma said. “Just send him down whenever you’re ready. I’ll be around most of the afternoon.”

“Fantastic!” Tiana said with a clap of her hands. “I owe you, Emma.”

With the conversation now finished, Tiana took her leave, no doubt to play superwoman and handle every possible crisis or flare up that would crop up through the day. Emma, meanwhile, headed to the studio, deciding it was best to continue on like it was a normal day instead of focusing on a potential visitor. She situated herself in the booth and got to work.

Having just finished the final touches on an episode the night before, Emma now had a whole episode to create for. It was a real blank slate to start fresh on, and there were completely different themes needed for the final cut. She needed a few pieces for Ruby and her costar – the heroes of the hour and the side of good that the audience should root for. Some of those themes she had already made, and she’d only have to rework them a little from previous episodes, but others required she start completely from scratch. Emma needed emotion packed pieces for the episode’s twist and one for the sad state that the victims were in at the beginning before Ruby and her partner stepped in to save the day. But in the end Emma decided to go for a darker, more sinister piece today.

In every episode of the show there was always some kind of villain, the person (or creature) that committed the crime or was causing the chaos that the heroes had to fix. Usually that was a harder mindset for Emma to get into, and for the past few episodes she’d left that piece almost for the end, but after last night’s fiasco at dinner and the run in with that terrible Gold fellow, Emma was feeling strangely inspired. It wasn’t difficult to channel the emotions needed to depict monstrosity, not when she’d experienced his cold, calculated evil, and been filled in on so much more after dinner.

“Truth be told, Emma, I don’t even know where to begin,” Killian said as they finally entered his apartment and she told him that it was time for them to talk. “The lies that man has told… they’re not something I ever want to touch you.”

“I think it’s too late for that. I know you’re trying to protect me, Killian, but the only way to do that is to tell me the truth.”

“Aye, love. I know. I only wish it wasn’t quite so ugly.”  

Ugly or not, Killian confessed everything to her that night. He told her about the life he used to have, which was pretty much on par with what Emma imagined the life of a world-famous soccer player would be. She had hardly imagined he was a monk, and honestly she’d just been glad it wasn’t as bad as it could be. In the scheme of things, the unmoderated drinking and the partying and the fights wasn’t that bad. When she thought about the drugs and the lifestyle of some of the people she’d met here in LA she was relieved. That being said she wasn’t exactly thrilled at the fact that there was a time when he leaned into the bachelor playboy image, and hearing about his liaison with Gold’s ex-wife… well it just didn’t sound like the man she knew now.

“Why did you do it?” Emma asked, genuinely curious as to why he would start something with a man like Gold. Surely Killian had to know it would go terribly, but he’d made the choice anyway. He wasn’t stupid, so there must be a reason.

“Because my life was in shambles, love. I had nothing even thought it seemed that I had everything, and I was too foolish to realize that the dream I’d always had lacked anything like substance. I was tricking myself into believing that I had what I wanted, but everything I had was a lie. It wasn’t real or authentic, and I think deep down I knew that. I was desperate to be checked, to be forced out of the same bloody horrible cycle, and this was just a way to have to face the music.”

Emma thought long and hard about that, and it made sense the more she thought about it. Killian had been scouted when he was still so young, and before that he’d dedicated his whole life to this sport. He had no one in the world except for his brother and the only thing they really seemed to share was soccer. Emma imagined what a dream like that would mean for a young man, and she knew that anyone is his position would be tempted to give in and live the fast life that went with it. She could even understand his reasoning now about subconsciously wanting someone to put a stop to all of it, even if she never would have made those kinds of choices herself.

“Do you regret it?” Emma asked, wanting to hear what she already knew – that he was different now and that he wanted different things than he had in the past.

“No,” Killian replied, surprising her. “I mean yes, I wish I hadn’t made that choice with Milah. It was beyond bad judgment. It was seedy and ugly and it’s spiraled to something I never imagined or ever wanted. But even the worst parts – the complete lack of privacy, the lies, the character assassination – they were worth getting here. I wouldn’t have ever found my way to you without those choices, Emma, and though I’m ashamed at the man I was, I had to make those mistakes to find you and I can never regret that. I can only move forward. I can only try to show you that I’m not really that man. Not anymore.”

For better or worse Emma heard those words and she felt them to be true. She looked at him and the details of his past that weren’t all happy and shiny and hopeful and she accepted them. Killian wasn’t perfect, but Emma knew she couldn’t judge him. Bad choices were something everyone dabbled in at some point or other, and after Killian had told her everything and more, Emma felt like she had room to share some of her own worst moments too.

“I was in juvie,” she blurted out, both because she wanted to alleviate some of the feelings of shame on Killian’s face that had formed since his confessions and because she knew that she wanted him to know every part of her just like she did him. “I was sixteen. I’d run away from another group home and I tried to hotwire a car to get me out of the state.”

“Tried to?” He asked, clearly shocked but not giving off any kind of judgmental vibes as he pushed for details.

“Okay, I did hotwire a car.” Her words made something shift in his gaze and Emma swore he looked impressed. Leave it to Killian to find the best in one of her worst faults. “And I made it a whole ten miles before I got caught.”

“What kind of car was it?” he asked after a thoughtful pause, completely surprising her. Most people asked what happened. They asked what juvie was like or if she regretted her decision, but not many cared about the car. She’d always appreciated that since it was a bit embarrassing.

“This vintage yellow beetle, and by vintage I mean old.”

“You’re kidding.”

“I’m not.”

She’d then proceeded to tell him the rest of the story, about how juvie was the scariest thing she’d ever gone through and how she’d started to really let go of the belief that things would ever be okay. Emma had been alone her whole life, but solitude was better than being there those first few weeks. The culture inside there was tense at best, and she’d felt isolated and afraid all the time. Only when she’d been put into some of the art and music classes had she found any sort of comfort, and the only reason she’d had a fighting chance at a better life thereafter was because her music teacher and her social worker had stayed in touch. They’d seen something in her and they fought for her second chance when Emma didn’t know how. Everything she had now she owed to them, and she didn’t think she’d ever have found her path if she hadn’t made some terrible mistakes.

But even though last night had proved a critical step in their relationship, Emma couldn’t help but resent Gold. His presence in LA might have forced Emma and Killian to be open with everything, but his intention was hardly helpful. He was a cruel man and a vengeful one and Emma could never forgive him for what he’d done to Killian and what he was still doing. Wasn’t it enough that Killian’s reputation had taken such a hit and he’d been forced to leave the team he loved? What kind of person kept kicking someone when they were down?

Someone with an unchecked ego and a whole bunch of crazy, Emma reasoned to herself as she thought it over, and it was that dynamic that made Gold the perfect muse for a villainous figure. He lacked the heart most people had, and his actions undercut the sympathy any one could feel for him. Maybe he’d been wronged, but his vendetta surpassed the bounds of decency and that was a monstrous trait indeed, one Emma hoped she’d never have to deal with face to face again.

“Knock knock,” a voice said, pulling Emma from her music, and as she pulled off her headphones a sudden wave of apprehension hit her. The voice had been muffled by the audio on her feed, but even before she looked her hair stood up on edge. When she turned to find Gold, she was only half surprised even as she recoiled. God this man was creepy, and she definitely did not want to be anywhere near him.

“How did you get in here?” Emma asked, ignoring any kind of pleasantries with a man who deserved no such kindness. “You shouldn’t be here.”

“Now, now, Emma. Is that any way to talk to a new investor?” He said with a wave of his hands and a flash of his teeth that was less a smile and more a snarl.

Emma’s heart sank at the realization that Gold was the potential producer Tiana was scoping out and she knew that despite Tiana’s hopes this was not going to work. She hated to make her new friend choose but if Gold was signing on then she was signing off. That being said, Emma had always prided herself on being able to read people, and she didn’t actually think Gold was here for an investment opportunity. He was here to cause trouble, plain and simple.  

“You and I both know you don’t actually give a shit about the show,” Emma said, wanting him to give himself away without her asking him flat out.

“Oh Miss Swan, how you wound me. You really think I’d stoop to such a low? You think I’d come all this way for nothing?”

His voice dripped with sarcasm, making the strange tone it had grind upon her ears even more. It was almost sing-songy and Emma wondered if and how he got away with these theatrics in the real world. Apparently money bought a lot of freedoms the rest of the world didn’t benefit from. After all, she couldn’t be the only one who thought he was so over the top. It was clear as day and frankly undeniable.

“I think you came here to mess with Killian, and it’s not going to work.”

“You say that now, but that’s only because you don’t know -,”

“I know,” Emma cut in, interrupting whatever crazy rant he was about to go on. “I know what Killian started with you. I know the choices he made.”

Gold grinned at this, seeming to take a sick satisfaction in the fact that he had forced Killian to reveal himself. Emma wasn’t swayed by his reaction in anyway though. In fact, she just felt more hostility and more need to defend Killian and assure Gold he hadn’t hurt them in the slightest.

“I also know that you’re insecurity is what’s brought you here. You’re fighting a war over what, your hurt pride? If you ask me that’s the sign of a very insecure kind of man.”

“Well no one asked you, did they?” he snapped, his attitude shifting from the weird playfulness to full on threat. Her blood ran cold as she saw the malice that crossed his expression, but just as soon as it was there it was gone. Jesus, this guy was a full on sociopath. “Besides, it doesn’t matter what you say, dearie. My battle with Jones ends when I say it does.”

“What else is left?” Emma asked. “You’ve already taken so much -,”

“I have,” Gold sneered, interrupting her. “I thought I’d taken everything, in fact. But then low and behold you arrive and now it’s like he’s won. I can’t have that, Miss Swan. Surely you must see that.”

“So you what? Thought you’d get on this show and threaten me.”

“It crossed my mind a time or two,” Gold said brightly. “But you strike me as the kind of woman who is burdened with integrity. My guess, having met you, is that you’d play the martyr. You would leave this job and any other before you hurt him.”

Emma stayed silent even though what Gold said was true. She didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of knowing he was right, but Emma knew that this job wasn’t worth more than what she had with Killian. Music would be her passion no matter what, and as for the rest of it, she’d figure it out. She’d always figured it out before.

“That’s why I’ve decided to change my strategy. You can relax, dearie. I won’t be signing on for the show. You’re little dreams are safe from me. But Killian’s…”

“What about Killian’s?” Emma asked defiantly. “You can’t get to him. He’s protected now. He’s signed on with Regina and they have an agreement.”

“They do,” Gold said. “And at one time she was a valuable ally, but the tides have changed.”

“What did you do?”

“I did what I do best, Miss Swan. I found the person I needed, then I found their greatest weakness, and from that weakness I struck a deal. This deal just so happens to be with the president of the European Soccer League.”

The sense of foreboding Emma got from this weighed heavily on her. She had a thing about lying – she knew when someone was being honest, and Gold had all the power here. Whatever weapon he had found he was being honest about it, and Emma knew exactly what he had planned without his even having to say it. He still did of course, because he was terrible, and as the words washed over her Emma only felt worse and worse.

“You see, in exchange for some discretion about the… less than savory parts of his life, he’s made me a promise – that Killian Jones will never play in Europe again without my say so. He’ll never play in any respectable league without my go ahead, and he will never get that, dearie… unless.”

“Unless?” Emma asked, her heart pounding in her ears as her palms grew sweaty and her eyes threatened to form tears. She fought them though, unwilling to show weakness to such a man.

“Unless you end things with him. Now.”

And there it was, the ultimatum. Either Emma would give Killian up or she would take away the biggest part of his world. Killian loved soccer, and for all Emma knew he had every intention of doing his time here before going back. Everyone talked about how he deserved that chance, how the league here wasn’t challenging enough for him, and how the world deserved to see him on a stage befitting his skill. But in giving him up Emma would be giving up so much of herself, because she loved him – she loved him in that big, huge, once in a lifetime kind of way, and she didn’t think she’d ever get over him no matter what other dreams may come her way.

“I know this is a lot to process, Miss Swan, you seem very taken with Jones for whatever reason. I realize you’ll likely have to think about it. But I will warn you my offer is not without limits. You have twenty four hours to make your choice and in the meantime there will be no contact. No calls, no visits. If you speak to Jones the offer is void. I want you to cut him off completely. It’s the only way I’ll consider the score even.”

The numbness Emma felt at taking all of this in was debilitating. She was so angry and so hurt at the same time. There was so much emotion swirling around inside of her that she was paralyzed from it. She couldn’t speak. She couldn’t think. She felt trapped and suffocated all at once. It was excruciating, and Gold loved every second of it. He even had the balls to laugh at her pain and at the horrible choice he’d given her.

“I’ll take your stunned silence as a sign that you understand me, and that I should go.” With that he grabbed his things and made to head out. But before he left he turned back once more offering one last cruelly gleeful grin. “Good-bye, Emma. I hope you make the right choice.”

Emma couldn’t say exactly how long she stood there when Gold was gone. It could have been seconds, or an hour or more. Honestly, she was reeling from the interaction, caught up in a daze that she just couldn’t seem to shake. She was stuck in limbo, unsure of where to go, but eventually something did pull her from the mire of her thoughts: the familiar ding of a text message sounding from her phone. She reached for it quickly, hoping it would be Ruby or Mary Margaret. Someone who could help – someone she could trust, but instead it was exactly the person she wasn’t supposed to see.

K: Missing you like crazy today. We still on for tonight?

Her finger hovered over the reply bar for a while. One heartbeat. Two heartbeats. Three. Four. Five. But the more that came the harder it was to think. She just didn’t know which way to go. Her heart was dying to say yes and to tell him she loved him. She wanted to run to Killian, to tell him the truth, and to find a way to fight this together. But she hesitated, wondering if that was love or if it was selfishness. Was she making that choice for them, or would she be doing it for herself because she loved him and couldn’t picture a life without him? 

Emma didn’t know the answer to that question, and Gold said reaching out in any way would make the choice. Once she replied the damage would be done, and so she didn’t, instead shutting off her phone and slipping it into her bag with the rest of her things. She didn’t know where she was going, but Emma knew she had to leave. She had to run, and right now she didn’t where she was going, only that she had to go.

Post-Note: To those of you brave enough to ignore my warning and read this I hope you aren’t too angry with me. I did warn you after all, so you kind of knew what you were in for. That being said I PROMISE I am going to fix this for Emma and Killian and I am going to fix it next chapter, which as I have said, will be posted tomorrow night. I really hated to make it a cliff hanger at all, but the chapter was already a lot longer than my normal one so the cut off had to be made. Don’t worry though. I will make the next chapter longer too to make up for it. Anyway, thank you all so much for reading and I hope you have a good rest of your night!