#in the next panel she throws him at the audience

[tentenarchive]

In Defense of Tenten - the Chunin Exams' Written Test and Her Mirrors

A common joke made about Tenten is how obvious her mirror and line contraption, used to share answers with Rock Lee during the written exam, is. In this post, I'll show how her solution is perfectly reasonable and why she wasn't disqualified by the ninja proctors.

Firstly, we have to stablish what the objective of this written test is: to cheat. The written test was designed to be too difficult for ninjas of their level to be able to answer, forcing them to cheat from each other. Such is stated by Ibiki in the end of the First Phase chapters:

Next, the proctors are all higher level shinobi, better prepared and used to seeing various tricks and jutsu. It's not an stretch to suppose they're aware of EVERY cheating attempt made by those Genin, but were responsible for judging if their technique is too sloppy, obvious or ineffective.

My theory is supported by this scene, where Izumo eliminates one of the ninjas doing the test, claiming he took "five strikes".

It implies the competitors are allowed five errors before being disqualified, and one of the eliminated Genin makes it clear to the reader the "five strikes" are five times being caught cheating.

Naruto is also implied to be caught almost cheating when Hinata offers him her test answers (it can be interpreted either as Naruto being closely watched or Naruto's nerves making him think like that, half the proctors' job is to scare the Genin) and even then he is not automatically removed.

Tenten's technique may be obvious for us, as readers who have been shown by the author himself how she did it, but it's a single and successful attempt, and it's not commentated by any other characters, meaning no one caught on her besides the proctors, and they would only disqualify her if she did it more than once (which wasn't needed, she found the mole with all the answers!).

A pettier criticism i've "how isn't anyone seeing the lines?" to which the answer is very simple: manga is a visual media and the author needed the audience to understand how she was manipulating the mirror. If you take in consideration Tenten's fight with Temari in the anime - which is filler, btw, and it's up to you reading this to decide if it's a fair assessment on their abilities or not - she's shown using invisible lines to manipulate her weapons after throwing them. The lines are, conveniently, only visible when the animation needs us to understand how the weapons are moving backwards. Any other frame they're invisible.

You can see in the panel how the lines fade out towards the bottom and only show where they're attached to the mirror.

Finally: that's exactly what Ibiki expected the genin to do. There have been a few posts, specially on twitter, asking "how are you supposed to pass if you don't have a kekken genkai??". Like Tenten. That's how.

Kankuro and Tenten are the only characters which Kishimoto showed us cheating that didn't use an exclusive DNA super power. Kankuro and Tenten both use hidden threads, one uses chakra lines for puppetry and the last manipulates mirrors. They also pass their answers to their teammates, Temari and Lee.

(Sakura is the only confirmed character to do the entire test without cheating. Congrats Sakura!! You could argue Hinata used her byakuugan to cheat like Neji, but if you think she did it by herself, I will give you the pleasure of congratulating Hinata too. Congrats Hinata!)

Tenten's method was practical, and used her specific skill set: summoning and kunai work (where do you think the mirrors came from? a scroll, that's for sure). It was probably set up before the test started, during the commotion Team 7 created with their arrival. We're not shown it because Tenten is a tertiary character and Kishimoto wouldn't invest 2-3 panels of set up for a 3 panel sequence pay-off that works by itself very well. She is smart, did great and made sure her teammate was not left behind.

Tenten is not even the most absurd method used in this exam, so, as a treat, i will show you, in order, the most obvious cheats shown in the manga from least to most!

Sasuke's Sharingan If you're a ninja from the Leaf Village, you know who Sasuke Uchiha is and what a Sharingan is capable of. Unfortunally for him, the Exam is being held at the Leaf Village and all the jounin and chuunin there are from the Village. Any proctor looking at his direction in a position in front of him could see clearly his eyes and know exactly what he was doing.

Neji's Byukuugan Like the Sharigan, you can physhically see when it's activated, with the downgrade of being noticible by people sitting at up to 95º from him, as the veins are visible on the sides of his face too. A fair trade for the ability to see better than the Sharingan, even if you're not able to copy, in my personal opinion.

Ino's Mind Transfer Jutsu The jutsu's hand signal is simple and can be missed, but it's still obvious for any Konoha ninja watching, it is a very recognizable ability. There's also the higher chance of Ino being caught since she needs to do it three times (once for getting Sakura's answers, twice to pass them to Chouji and Shikamaru). Besides, the "dropping dead on the table" thing can be disruptive in a mostly silent classroom.

Akamaru and Kiba's communication Akamaru is barking all the way through the exam, and while the balloon used for the text is the one for thoughts, it's also the same used for whispered conversations up to this point in the manga. The anime makes the barks happen in the real world, and not in their thoughts, and as far as i could find, Kiba can understand dog language but there's no psychic talk between them. By the noise alone he could be caught. I think he wasn't expelled just because a full conversation between dog and human is a novel enough ability to not be considered by most ninjas unaware of the Inuzuka clan's special abilities.

The Most absurd one: Kakuro and his Puppet He put an entire guy no one knows and has never been seen in a room where all the authorities are from the same village and have, at least, a vague knowledge of each other's existence. To increase the absurdity, somehow everyone let Kankuro use his own puppet to guide himself to the bathroom. I cannot express enough how unlikely it is that, in a real info gathering mission inside a single room where all the higher rank ninjas are exclusively from the same village, Kakuro's plan could work. Most decent sensors could also catch the chakra line's signature.

I'll give it to him, making the puppet talk helps with the disguise, but it only fools his fellow attendees, not the proctors. He's too confident that he didn't raise any alarms.

But Ibiki goes as far as insinuating he knows (and has known from the start) about the puppet's existence when Kankuro comes back from the bathroom.

If Kankuro was able to finish the test and not get disqualified, even if he had what I consider the most obvious cheating attempt from the named characters shown, it's fair game for Tenten and all the other important cheaters. Besides, it's a single attempt at cheating, even if it required an entire prep work for it, so it doesn't matter if all the high level ninja's are aware, that's not enough to kick him out.

I cannot leave out the meta reasons why these characters weren't removed from the class: they're important to varying degrees to the story and they need to advance through the first phase to keep readers engaged.

Regardless of how absurd I think Kiba's and Kankuro's methods are, they need to go all the way to the fight tournament after the Forest of Death, where they have important roles to fill: Sasuke and Naruto are main characters and are prioritized by the narrative; Ino and Sakura will have an important character developments and flashbacks during their fight; Neji has an entire arc that only concludes all the way in his fight against Naruto; Kiba is the rival for Naruto in the surprise fighting tournament and he is one of the few characters able to match Naruto's silliness so he can win in a silly way; Kankuro and Tenten are both part of the two strongest cells present in the event, the Sand Siblings and Team Gai, both introduced as real threats to Team 7, and having anyone from these cells lose would undermine the narrative created around then. All of them would get through anyway.

Tenten losing against Temari in future parts of the Chuunin Exam has narrative importance too, a fight I will cover in the next In Defense of Tenten, but in short Tenten was introduced as a threat alongside Neji and Lee, her abilities and experience surpassing Team 7's. Having her lose against one the Sand Shinobi serves to show how big their gap in power is: if someone more experienced and well trained than them can't win against them, Team 7 has no chance. It's part of the build up for the future Naruto and Gaara fight, and the suspense about their real strength (since the fight doesn't exist in the manga, only the result is shown).

Conclusion: people are overly critical of Tenten because she's seen as a "lolcow" in the Naruto fandom, in part by the bad adaptation of her fight with Temari to the anime, which poisoned any feat of hers before and after it; but also because Naruto and Boruto don't give satisfying ends to any of the original female cast besides Hinata (she marries the man she loves and becomes a housewife away from the battlefield, an honorable decision i will never shit on, she never wanted to be a ninja and is a kind mother and wife, good for her!) so all female characters are seem as weak and useless when compared to their male peers. Naruto is a work riddled with undercover misogyny, never out right stated but always preventing the girls to achieve any meaningful resolution or permanent development.

That added to the ever expanding powerscalling abilities and fights make characters with simpler and down to earth abilities and feats outdated by its own universe. Knowing how big the Naruto fights and jutsu get in the future make people look down on crafty solutions like sealing scrolls, kunai and mirrors, when that is a perfectly respectable solution within the series and matches the powerlevel presented this early in the story.

Tenten is not weak, or bad, or useless. She's misrepresented by the most popular media consumed: the anime, and further misunderstood by the fans of said work. Large fandoms can be allergic to text interpretation and infighting is stimulated to the point fans of smaller characters are bullied off social media and forums (i.e. the forum where I got the list of all chapters Tenten is in is filled to the brim with comments about how OP should move the topic to "fan works" since no one would want to read about it in the canon work page, or how the mods shouldn't allow him to have a thread). I respect Tenten's feats, as well as other small characters', and refuse to be fed the same "uselessness" narrative this fandom always had, because i actually enjoy Naruto, even if i have many problems with it, and I take it seriously.

She did great.

[avacoleman]

when the lights go out || a firstprince fic

summary: Henry Fox’s career is in crisis and his dating life isn’t faring much better either.  After a chance encounter with a charming man becomes memorable for all the wrong reasons, Henry throws himself into his next assignment: writing the memoir of a beloved C-list actor. Henry, however, knows Alex best for the role he played as his random, awkward one-night stand. Henry enters their professional partnership keen on keeping their relationship just that. But after Henry confesses that their hookup was less than spectacular, Alex concots an arrangement that Henry is unable to resist. In addition to ghostwriting Alex’s life story, Henry will teach him a thing or two about satisfying a man.  As they spend months out on the road together, they must decide if the connection between them is yet another story worth telling.

chapter 2/8 || rated e || read on ao3 *updates every tues. and fri. *

Portland, OR Rose City Comic Con Day 1 [Unknown number] hey, i hope you’ve made it safely [Unknown number] in case it wasn’t clear, this is alex. i’ll catch you later. maybe we can grab a bite or something after today’s panel? Henry saves Alex’s number and confirms that yes, he’s arrived in one piece and would be happy to join Alex after the event. All of this is still wrapped in impossibility for Henry. Even though he’d been fully briefed on the tour and signed his contract, the fact that he’s now embarking on a multi-city tour with Alex hasn’t sunk in yet. The six and a half hour long flight didn’t do much to lessen the surrealness and now that he’s here at the venue, Henry doesn’t see an end in sight to the feeling. The convention center is, in a word, daunting. For as much as Henry loves Lord of the Rings and Star Wars, he can’t say his appreciation for the franchises has ever been this devout or even close to it. All around him people are decked out in elaborate, truly remarkable costumes. Some are easy to ID like Doctor Who and Marvel characters. But others are so obscure that Henry can’t even hazard a guess. It’s overwhelming but also kind of intriguing too, seeing people be wholly themselves and embrace the things they love. He forces himself to focus up as he grabs a directory map of the convention’s floor plan for reference before going up to one of the booths for his credentials. With his badge secured, he looks at the map again and makes his way over to where Alex’s panel is being held in one of the larger rooms. It takes him some time to find it; the convention center is practically a maze. But he spots a blowup outside the door clearly marking the panel, Supernatural in the Mainstream. By the time he gets inside, the room is packed and the excited chatter is practically tangible. 

Henry spots a few Crescent Valley fans in t-shirts referencing the show. Admittedly Henry still hasn’t started the series, but before he hopped his flight out of JFK, Pez spent the vast majority of their last few days together giving Henry a pretty substantial rundown of the essentials, including some cast trivia. Most notable from the recap was learning that Alex had dated one of his co-stars, Nora Holleran, during season two. Henry decided it was none of his business– only after doing a Google search on her.

Even with the knowledge that the show resonated with so many people while it aired, it’s strange to reconcile it with the fact that the guy he met on a whim at a bar is part of such a cultural force.

After a few moments, a woman takes to the stage, introducing herself as the moderator. The audience is ravenous as she introduces the panelists and Henry almost goes deaf from the screams Alex earns when his name is called.

Henry studies Alex as he crosses the stage, waving to fans and putting a hand to his heart in appreciation for the warm reception. The large monitors on either side of the stage zoom in on his face and the sincere gratitude Alex feels is plain as day in his eyes.

“Alright, let’s get started, shall we?” the moderator says to kick things off.

Alex in his element during the panel, magnetic really. Even though he’s one of four panelists, it’s so clear to see how he effortlessly draws people in. 

Henry takes out his notebook, hoping to glean something in any of Alex’s responses to the questions directed at him that can be a kernel of an idea they can turn into the core of this book.

He can’t shake Alex’s words during their lunch with Zahra, the way it seemed that Alex sincerely wanted his book to be about something real. 

Vanity cash grab celeb autobiographies were a dime a dozen. Henry figured for people who lived so heavily in the spotlight, it probably felt like the natural progression of things. But with Alex and his team being so adamant in their search, scouring through profiles in hopes of finding the right person to pen Alex’s story, he had to believe this book would actually stand for something other than more dollars in their pockets.

There isn’t much that Henry is able to take away for research other than noting the way people gravitate towards Alex. More than once, he’d actually seen people in the audience quite literally shift to the edge of their seats as he spoke.

When the panel is over, Henry fights against the current of attendees to make his way backstage. He presents his badge to the man at the entrance who gives it a once-over before deeming it to be authentic and ushering Henry through the curtain.

Alex is easy to spot, holding court just as he’d done on stage before, this time with a small audience of just the moderator and his fellow panelists. He’s got a water bottle in his hands, preparing to take a sip when he catches sight of Henry instantly and politely excuses himself from the group.

“You survived day one. How’d you like it?” he asks.

“Your world is very different from mine, but it’s pretty cool,” Henry admits.

“Good, I'm glad to hear it.”

There’s a lull as Alex looks him over and Henry suddenly feels oddly self-conscious and small. Seeing this side of Alex, the sheer star power, is a bit overwhelming.

“You're done for the day, right? I took another look at the itinerary this morning. You’ve got the signing tomorrow, yes?”

Alex nods. “Yeah, I’m all yours starting now.” The man’s face instantly flushes. “You know what I mean.”

Henry offers up a smile that feels more like a white flag. 

“We should head out,” Alex says.

He moves away and heads back to the others in the room, making his parting remarks before touching Henry’s elbow and guiding him to a set of double doors he hadn’t initially noticed when he entered. Henry is treated to a glimpse of the convention center’s underbelly, the private exit that leads them to a secluded area outside on the street level.

Henry is sure it’s probably all in his mind, but now that it’s back to just him and Alex, away from the adoring fans and bright lights of a main stage, the man standing before him now is someone else entirely again. Henry wonders if he’ll ever be able to wrap his head around the two versions of Alex that exist in this world.

“There’s a park not too far from here. Do you want to walk around for a bit?” Alex asks.

It’s a random ask but Henry is glad for it. He’s not sure what to do with himself as they try and find their rhythm around each other.

They make it to the park a few minutes later and walk alongside the edge of a small pond.

Henry turns to attempt starting a conversation and it seems as if Alex had the same thought too; they bump arms immediately and both rush to apologize.

Henry sighs and stops walking.

“I have to ask. Are you still sure about this?” 

Alex’s eyebrows furrow. 

“What do you mean? This walk?”

Henry crosses his arms and gives him a dry look.

“Ah. You being on this project then,” Alex says.

Henry nods. 

Alex looks at him. “Of course I am. I won’t lie, it is a bit of a mindfuck when I stop and really consider it. I’m still trying to figure out how to be around you. But my opinion on your work? My decision to collaborate with you? That hasn’t changed. Not one bit. So, yeah, we had a good night. Great conversation and even better sex,” he muses. “But I can forget it if you can.”

Henry snorts out a laugh in surprise that he quickly tries in vain to cover up as a sneeze. Alex, rightfully, doesn’t buy it though Henry wishes desperately that he would. He hates the way Alex’s face falls. 

“Are you…do you mean you didn’t enjoy it? That I wasn’t…,” Alex trails off.

Henry’s basic functions betray him and his mouth merely opens and closes like a landlocked fish struggling for breath.

In the end, no response is an answer within itself and Henry watches the varying degrees of what can only be described as horror play out across Alex’s face.

Goodbye tour, goodbye contract, Henry thinks. All gone before it even truly got started.

For a man that writes for a living, Henry falls short on what to say. How could he possibly salvage this now?

“I…it…,” he flounders. 

Bang up job, Henry, he internally chides.

“Oh, my god. Oh, my fucking god,” Alex whispers to himself. “Crap, that’s why you snuck out then, isn’t it?”

Henry winces. While that is an astute, wholly accurate description of what he did last week, hearing it so plainly — and from Alex’s lips no less— just makes it sound that much harsher.

“Maybe it was just an off night. It happens sometimes. But look, we don’t have to talk about it. Like you said, we can both forget it ever happened. Today can be our official day one.”

Alex shakes his head, refusing to let it go.

“No. What didn’t you like about it?”

“Alex, come on. Seriously. We don’t have to get into it.”

Alex takes a step closer.

“Please? I want to know what I did wrong.”

Henry frowns.

“That’s harsh; don’t frame it like that. Just think of it as…areas of improvement.”

Alex crosses his arms. “That isn’t much better, but I guess you’re right.” Alex pauses. “Okay then, what do I need to work on?”

Henry groans and looks up at the sky.

“I…how is this happening right now?” Henry mutters to himself, rubbing his forehead and turning his eyes to the water.

He gets a wild fantasy of jumping into the pond and hiding in its depths to avoid this conversation. Could he hold his breath long enough to wait Alex out? He’d be willing to test that hypothesis if it meant even five seconds away from this talk.

When he looks back at Alex, the man’s eyes are unwavering and Henry’s instantly transported to the night in question. To how wide eyed and earnest Alex had been after they had sex and he checked in. It makes something in his chest crack a little, enough to put a hole in the wall he hoped to build around the truth.

“Well, the handjob was a bit…rigid. And when you were working to open me up, that felt a touch awkward. And then when you were actually inside me, it was rushed and uh, a tad repetitive. You were enthusiastic, which was nice, but I couldn’t quite mirror that.”

He hopes his answer is diplomatic, but he knows there’s simply no easy way to say any of this. 

Alex’s brows knit together deeply and it feels like a lifetime before he speaks again.

“So…sex. You’re telling me I’m just straight up bad at sex as a whole?”

Henry groans and slaps the palm of his hand against his forehead.

“Like I said, it could have been an off night. We were drinking, we were both overexcited. The room was cursed or perhaps I really was, remember? There’s a lot at play here.”

Alex is quiet again, too quiet for Henry’s likings. Henry awkwardly scratches the side of his nose and rocks slightly on the balls of his feet as Alex stares off at nothing before turning his gaze back on Henry.

“I’ll take this into consideration. Thank you, Henry. I appreciate your honesty.”

It’s clinical and closed off and Henry wishes he could take back the last few minutes. But the truth is out there, the ball squarely in Alex’s court and Henry can’t help the sinking feeling that he’s about to lose it all.

~*~*~

Rose City Con

Day 2

Much like yesterday, Alex continues to be incredible with fans. It’s only a signing today, but Alex’s energy is on one hundred for each and every person that comes his way. He poses for pictures and makes good conversation with fans. He asks them questions, learns a bit about each of them. It’s clear to see the knack he has for making everyone feel like they’re having a unique, truly personal interaction with him.

Several people come up to him already in tears and overwhelmed, but Alex doesn’t seem fazed by it at all. Henry is impressed with the way Alex puts them all at ease in no time, cracking jokes as he signs merch.

Henry has no clue how Alex manages to keep his enthusiasm going for hundreds of people. The fact that this is only the first city makes his head spin. He’s not even the one engaging with people and yet Henry feels exhausted merely watching Alex in action.

Henry barely managed to sleep last night. Each time he closed his eyes, he was brought right back to the water’s edge with Alex, replaying every painstaking moment of their conversation. 

There was no time to talk about it this morning. The last thing Henry wanted to do was throw a wrench in Alex’s day when he had this signing scheduled.

Looking at Alex now, it makes Henry commend actors for their ability to truly compartmentalize and put their focus where it needs to be.

Once the signing wraps and the final Crescent Valley fan is off with a bag full of newly inked merch, Henry sees the first crack in Alex’s mask. His shoulders sag a little and he rolls his neck from side to side before standing.

He hops down from the slightly raised platform he was seated on. Henry walks towards him without really thinking about it.

“Are you heading back to the hotel now?” Alex asks.

Henry cocks his head to the side, adjusting the strap of his bag.

“I was going to…unless, do you have something else you need me to shadow you on?”

Alex shakes his head.

“No. I was hoping we could talk.” 

Henry looks around. There are still some stragglers from other signing lines though they’re out of earshot.

“We can go back together,” Alex says decidedly. 

They take a car service back to their hotel and Henry is all too relieved once they’re outside again. The ride over was silent and heavy with the weight of whatever Alex wanted to say but couldn’t in the moment.

All that free time merely left Henry with a thirty minute window to dream up scenarios of what Alex wanted to discuss. Every single one of them ended in him being fired and pulled from the tour.

“Can we go to your room?” Alex asks.

Henry nods stiffly. He figures maybe it’s for the best. At least he’d be able to pack his things immediately after Alex chewed him out and sent him on his merry way back across the country to New York.

For now, three thousand miles don’t separate them, merely three feet as they head up the elevator. 

A feeling of déjà vu sweeps through Henry, but this evening couldn’t be any more different than the night they met. Instead of crowding each other’s space and making out, they keep enough distance that their clothes don’t even come close enough to touching, never mind any other parts of them.

Henry lets them into his room and pockets his keycard as he steps inside. The door slamming shut behind Alex sounds ominous though Henry fully recognizes that’s probably his irrational brain conjuring the sense of foreboding.

“So…you wanted to talk,” he says, toeing off his shoes and setting them neatly along the wall. The sooner they got this over with, the better.

Alex nods, crossing his arms against his chest, his hands holding firm to his biceps. The positioning makes him look so small suddenly, vulnerable even. It’s such a sharp contrast to the energy Alex had with fans not too long ago. 

The enigma of Alex Claremont-Diaz continued to baffle him.

“After we spoke yesterday, I took some time to think about everything. I decided to do some research,” Alex says. “I went back to past partners to see if they shared your point of view.”

This isn’t at all where Henry thought this conversation was going. All the same, he plays along, still bracing for the worst. This could all well be a roundabout way of him getting the axe.

“And what were the results of your findings?” he asks.

“They were inconclusive. They all said they never faked it with me which got me thinking again. There’s a factor to consider here that varies from the others.”

Henry's confusion must register on his face because Alex sighs and rubs his face.

“I’ve recently…uncovered something about myself that probably should have been super obvious to me. But hey, you know what they say about hindsight.” 

Alex groans in frustration at himself.

“Can you, like, just face the wall or something? I’d really rather not have to look at you when I say what I’m about to.” 

“Your ridiculousness truly knows no bounds, does it?” Henry huffs but Alex quickly levels him with a glare.

Henry holds his hands up in defense, knowing a lost cause when he sees one.

“Fine, fine,” he says, turning away. 

He can see Alex in the reflection of the TV screen and a part of him feels guilty for not owning up to this fact when sees the tension in the man’s shoulders and watches as Alex shakes his hands as if warding something off.

“My past partners were all women. It’s come to my attention in recent weeks that I’m bi and the night we hooked up…that may or may not have been the first time I had sex with a guy. So maybe, just maybe, I wasn’t stellar at it for what I think is a pretty valid reason when you think about it.”

Henry turns back so suddenly the soles of his clothed feet scrape against the carpet. He’ll think of the rugburn later, but for now, there are bigger things to focus on.

“Alex,” he says, unsure of where to even go next. His mind is racing so quickly, it’s hard to make sense of anything right now, not with Alex’s confession laying bare before him. 

“Your shoulders barely even fit through doorways so I don’t want your head getting big too,” Alex quips, “but…I wanted to be with you that night. It felt like nothing else really mattered to me except getting into bed with you because we really vibed and I wanted to see where it could go. And I know that sounds totally lame and cheesy and probably pathetic as hell or whatever, but it’s true.”

Alex rolls his eyes at himself, stuffing his hands in the back pockets of his jeans.

“This doesn’t have to be a big deal. Hell, it doesn’t even have to be a thing, period.”

“Alex,” Henry says again. This time, something in his voice must stand out because the other man finally stops talking and looks directly at him.

Henry holds his gaze for a moment, needing his words to ring clear.

“It should be a thing because it is in fact a big deal, contrary to what you might think of the matter. Coming into your sexuality, it can be a lot mentally and emotionally. Add in making physical strides…you took a major step that night. That sort of thing isn’t easy to do.”

Alex huffs out a terse laugh.

“It was a swing and a miss.”

“I’ll pretend that’s a cricket reference instead of the tragic baseball one I’m sure it was intended to be.”

Alex’s lips quirk into a reluctant smile just as Henry was hoping it would.

“The only cricket I’ll acknowledge is Jiminy,” he says.

Henry laughs. “I’ll allow that inane response. We’ve got more important things to discuss.”

Alex sighs and takes a seat at the edge of the bed, his head lobbing back as he looks up at the ceiling. All it does is expose his smooth neck and Henry looks away before the sight gets the better of him.

He follows Alex over and sits beside him, his hands resting on the comforter on either side of him. Alex doesn’t rush to speak which Henry grows a little concerned with. Alex is hardly ever quiet or still. Seeing him like this now, Henry can practically hear the whirlwind of rushing thoughts. 

“I should hope that by now, you know you can be honest with me. That’s quite literally what I’m here for. Whatever’s on your chest, you can say and it’d be completely safe. Let your conscience be your guide and all that.”

“God, I hate you,” Alex says, but there’s no bite to his words, especially as he smiles softly and rests his head against Henry’s shoulder.

“Thanks for being so cool about this. Part of me is still not entirely convinced I won’t be struck dead from embarrassment later but, if I had to get news like this from anyone…I sure as shit am glad it was you.”

“You’ve got nothing to be embarrassed about. This just explains a lot. I’m sure you’ll only get better from here on out, now that you know.”

Alex sits up and snorts a laugh.

“And how many guys will I have to fuck until I get it just right?”

“Is that a riddle? A rhetorical question? Some kind of demented R-rated Goldilocks reference?”

“I’m genuinely asking here,” Alex says sincerely, enough to get Henry to quiet down. “What if I never figure it out and I’m just this trash partner for dudes going forward? How many is standard for it to, you know, click?”

Henry smiles sympathetically. “I can’t answer that for you.” Alex frowns, but Henry continues. “It could be ten or it could be as little as one. It’s different for everybody. You just need to get more comfortable with it.”

Alex’s brows furrow, his lips pinching slightly before he looks away. It’s almost an identical look to his expression that night when he was taking his time in touching Henry for the first time.

“What are you thinking?” Henry asks now, unlike that night. They’re well past that stage of being tentative.

Alex opens and closes his mouth before shaking his head.

“Nothing. It’s nothing,” he says, getting up from the bed and running a hand through his curls.

Henry rises to his feet too as Alex turns back to him and speaks suddenly.

“I’m hungry. You hungry? What do we think the room service situation is like here, hmm? I’m guessing high volumes of quinoa and other rabbit foods. A damn shame. I weep in Texas barbecue. Fuck, what I wouldn’t give for some good barbacoa right now,” he prattles on as he tries to sidestep Henry.

Henry gently catches hold of his arm and stops him in his tracks. Alex sighs defeatedly and looks up at him.

“Maybe we’ll get to a point where I’ll be able to read your mind, but until then, I’d really like to know what you’re thinking,” Henry says. “Please.”

Alex sighs again. “Well, when you ask so nicely.”

Henry lets go of him then and holds his gaze. The stalemate ends as Alex collects his thoughts and courage.

“I was thinking, maybe you’re onto something with that whole ‘one person’ thing. Like…I don’t know, maybe that one person could be you? You could, maybe, teach me. Show me the ropes. Or at the very least, explain how I could be better. You know, give me pointers and stuff…if you’d even go for that.”

Henry’s jaw drops slightly, his blood rushing and pounding in his ears. For all his ribbing and joking before, Henry can tell Alex is completely serious now.

“You know, I can’t read your mind either, right? You’re gonna have to say something. Ideally right this second because if I thought I was out on a limb before, I’m freefalling right now and spiraling is not cool or sexy,” Alex says.

Henry blinks twice, letting Alex’s words fully sink in.

“Wait…you’d want to…with me again?”

Alex rolls his eyes and throws his hands up.

“I feel like you deserve a redo. And besides, do you see any other hot British men around here who know my secret shame?”

Henry startles out a laugh.

“You shouldn’t be ashamed and we British men do not travel in packs.”

“Tell that to the Redcoats. British men traveling in packs,” Alex repeats and shudders. “No good ever came of that. Just open any history book at random.”

“My god, do you ever stop talking?”

“Usually when my mouth is occupied in other ways.”

Henry quirks a brow.

“Down, boy. Get your mind out of the gutter. I was absolutely talking about when I’m drinking coffee or eating food or—“

Henry puts his hands on either side of Alex’s face.

“For the love of God, can you be quiet for two seconds so that I may think?”

Alex mirrors his raised brow.

“Holy shit, you’re actually gonna consider this?”

“Did you think I wouldn’t?” Henry shakes his head and lowers his hands. “I mean, yes, there are a hundred and one reasons why we shouldn’t. Chief among them being that we’re here for business not pleasure.”

“But seeing as though we kinda shot that to hell without meaning to…,” Alex supplies. “I freaking love loopholes. I really do.”

“Why doesn’t that surprise me?”

Henry looks up at the ceiling briefly before shaking his head.

“If we do this, we’re going to have to be very, very careful. I don’t want to jeopardize our working relationship. This book has to always come first.”

“Of course.”

Henry sits once more on the bed, Alex stepping close to him with his arms crossed against his chest.

“If this were to happen, we’d need to establish some ground rules. No staying overnight in each other’s rooms. If, for any reason, one of us wants to call it off—,”

“No questions asked. No awkwardness,” Alex says. “Simply not wanting to anymore would be reason enough.”

Henry nods. “Yeah, exactly.” He purses his lips. “And it won’t be a daily thing either.”

Alex scoffs and puts his hands on his hips.

“Jesus, do you think I’m insatiable? You’re hot, but I promise you, I can in fact exercise some self-control.”

“In the short time that I’ve known you, I must admit that’s coming as quite a revelation, but I suppose I’ll have to take your word for it.”

Alex rolls his eyes and smiles softly, his face a bit thoughtful. Henry can’t look away as Alex speaks, especially as he takes note of Alex’s change in tone, the way he grows more serious and contemplative.

“I’m gonna make it up to you. That night.”

“You don’t owe me anything. Besides, this isn’t even about me. I’ll just be here to help you figure out what your future partners might like.”

“And the best way for me to start with that is by learning what you like. When the time comes, yeah, I’ll figure out how to make another guy come undone. But in the meantime? These next few weeks? It’s just me and you. I want to make you feel all the things you should have when we were together. Every sigh, every moan, every desperate breath. I’ll earn it for real this time.”

Henry’s throat feels a bit dry at the thought, at the determination in Alex’s eyes. 

“Is that a promise then? A challenge perhaps?” he manages to say, trying to keep his composure even as he feels himself getting aroused.

Alex doesn’t miss a beat as he says, “Sweetheart, that’s a goddamn guarantee.”

~*~*~

Phoenix, AZ Canyon Con

One of the best parts about agreeing to be the ghostwriter for this project is undoubtedly the ability for Henry to visit cities he’s never been to. 

The flight to Arizona with Alex was enjoyable and this time around, they’re set up in an AirBnB for an entire week.

They’ve settled into their temporary new digs pretty nicely and Henry is looking forward to making further progress with Alex and this book. 

Neither of them has actually brought up the other day and the deal they’ve struck with each other. Henry hasn’t been sure how to breach the topic, but now that they’re set to stay inside this rental for the week, it feels like it’ll take true Herculean effort to ignore the elephant in the room for much longer.

He reasons that since it was Alex’s idea, he’ll leave it to him to mention when he’s ready. For now, they have been able to tiptoe around it, making conversation about virtually anything else.

Henry takes up residence on the couch with his laptop, headphones on as he queues up Crescent Valley. He’s begun watching the series as part of his research. He’s halfway through season one and he still can’t tell if he likes the show or not. Despite that indecision, he can sincerely say Alex is a pretty great actor.

The show itself is campy at best, but there’s something very earnest in Alex’s portrayal of a newly turned vampire attempting to find balance in the two worlds he’s a part of.

Episode nine begins and for better or worse, Henry finds himself getting sucked into it. He rues the day already when he’ll have to confess to Pez that he should have watched along with him back when they were roommates in university. He’ll never hear the end of it. He’d better start preparing now for the resounding chorus of “I told you so”.

Henry’s so wrapped up in the show that he jumps a little when he sees a figure in the doorway of the living room. Alex is now both on his screen and here in the flesh.

Henry awkwardly makes to get up, hitting pause and taking off his headphones.

“Did you want to watch television in here? I can go.”

Alex’s brows furrow a little.

“Oh, no. I just wanted to hang with you. I know we haven’t really had much time to sit down about the memoir yet, so maybe we could now? But if you’re busy though, we can do it later.”

Henry shakes his head and closes out of Crescent Valley. He switches over to the Google Doc he created, storing away all the notes he’s been taking from various interviews he’s watched and read of Alex.

“Now would be great. It’s been nice seeing you out there with fans, but what I’m still trying to understand is the reason why you want a book at this time. What’s the angle or message you want readers to connect with?”

Alex takes a seat on the single seater across from Henry. 

“I want to talk about my sexuality, my ADHD, being a tragic child of divorce, the highs and lows of being in this career. But, mostly the first part.” 

Alex takes a deep breath and lets it out.

“I want to come out and maybe in doing so, it’ll help someone else to make sense of the things they might’ve been feeling for years, but never knew how to dissect or put a name to.”

Henry thinks back to their initial business meeting. Alex had made it clear that despite their past, Henry still remained his top pick to ghostwrite. Alex had also said there were different reasons why he hid the truth of who he was. Now it all slid into place since Alex’s admission the other day.

“Alex, that’s incredible. This is huge.”

Alex smiles nervously. 

“I can’t believe I’m doing it, but I feel good about my decision. My friends and family know. I feel good about myself, even though I’m still figuring this out.”

“You’re taking a big step and on the world stage no less. That’s pretty remarkable. I’m proud of you. I’d be honored to help tell your story.”

He takes his phone out of his pocket.

“Do you mind if I record? It helps me to get details correct and it’s also useful in getting your cadence right when it comes time to start writing.”

“Not at all. Go for it,” Alex says.

Henry nods and opens his voice memo, hitting record. He asks questions about Alex’s upbringing, the sort of little things a quick Wiki search can’t tell a person. 

True to the terms of the contract and Zahra’s assurance, Alex makes himself, for a lack of a better term, an open book. He gets candid about how his parents’ divorce coupled with his relative celeb status has made it difficult for him to put much stock into the concept of dating, especially with people outside the industry.

This fact in particular strikes Henry though he decides not to examine that too closely.

After about an hour and half, Henry decides they’ve covered enough ground to get him started.

“This was great. Thank you,” he says, looking over the new notes he’s taken and saving the recording.

“Yeah, of course.” Alex still looks contemplative and for a moment, Henry merely chalks it up as a side effect of their in-depth conversation until he stands and Alex speaks up.

“Um, could we talk about the other thing too?”

Henry doesn’t need clarification. He tucks his laptop under his arm and sits back down.

“Of course we can.”

Alex lets out a relieved breath.

“I couldn’t sleep last night and I kept thinking about the problem areas you mentioned. One thing you’ll learn about me is that I like making lists and stuff to keep me on track. There’s a neurosy or two in there, but let’s not look at it too hard right now. We can get into that later for the book,” Alex says.

“Point is, I ended up making a sort of…outline for us and these sessions so they have some structure to them. You can talk things out first and then maybe we could have a practical portion. I can link you to the live doc.”

Henry blinks a few times.

“That’s comprehensive. You've made a sex syllabus.”

Alex’s cheeks flush slightly.

“It’s too much, isn’t it?”

“Alex, I’m British. I thrive off structure and formality. I’d quite like to see this outline so yes, please, link me.”

He stands up again.

“Maybe you could come by my room in about an hour?” Henry suggests. “The deal was that the book comes first. I’d say we made sufficient progress today in that area,” Henry says, tapping his laptop.

Alex blinks twice. “Sounds good.” 

His tone is almost detached and before Henry can ask if he’s alright, Alex is already on his feet with his phone in hand.

Henry retreats to his room and sets his computer down on the nightstand. He hears the chime of his inbox and he opens it to find an email from Alex, subject line “aforementioned sex syllabus 🍆💦”.

Henry laughs and opens it.

The first lesson, Back to Basics, has subsections for kissing and touching.

Henry closes out of the doc as his eyes look at later topics like fingering and oral. He begins to pace, his neck feeling hot at the road ahead. 

In all fairness, at least, this first lesson won’t be difficult at all. Kissing is as harmless as it comes and Henry can attest to the fact that this wasn’t actually an area in which Alex needed improvement.

All the same, Henry knows there’s merit in easing them into this new working relationship instead of jumping into the deep end on day one.

An hour goes by much faster than Henry could have anticipated and suddenly Alex is knocking at his door.

Henry squares his shoulders and crosses the room to let him in. He takes some reassurance in the fact that Alex looks as uncertain as he feels.

“Hey,” Alex says as he comes in, taking a look around himself before landing back on Henry. Even though these sessions were Alex’s idea, Henry gets the feeling he’ll have to be the one to get the ball rolling tonight.

“I will preface this lesson by saying you don’t need any pointers in this department.”

Alex smiles to himself and Henry has to admit, it’s kind of adorable seeing that reaction.

“Regardless, I think your guideline was pretty smart in starting out slowly with these sessions. We can build up from there.”

Alex nods. “Cool, I’m glad you agree.”

Henry stuffs his hands in his pockets. “And you’re sure you want to do this, right? I won’t be offended or anything if you’ve had a change of heart in the past hour.”

Alex shakes his head. “No, I’m still in. I guess I’m just nervous about screwing things up a second time. I don’t know if I could readily bounce back from that level of humiliation.”

Henry steps closer to him, removing his hands from his pockets and instead encircling Alex’s waist.

Alex’s eyes widen but he doesn’t shrink away or look uncomfortable. If anything, he looks curious. Expectant even.

“I think the best way for us to get past the awkwardness might be to simply embrace it,” Henry says.

Alex peers up at him, his eyes drifting to Henry’s lips and back just as he’d done that night right before they kissed for the first time.

This time around, it’s Alex who makes the first move and tugs Henry closer. Henry can’t hide the way this affects him. His breath catches as Alex leans in and presses his lips to Henry’s.

It’s reflexive to kiss him back at once. Alex had left his brain in an absolute fog that night in New York as they kissed on the street and weeks later, Alex hasn’t lost his spark.

This kiss doesn’t mean anything. It won’t lead to anything and Henry thinks that’s what allows him to rid himself of any self-consciousness or second thoughts.

Alex’s kiss grows hungry and quickens and for the sake of Henry’s quickly beating heart, he needs them to take it down one notch or two.

“A bit slower,” Henry says softly against his lips. “I don’t want to rush this.”

Alex smiles and does as he’s instructed. He kisses Henry agonizingly slowly, perhaps out of spite, but Henry relishes in it. Alex’s tongue skims along the seam of his lips and Henry opens his mouth to him at once, gripping Alex’s hips as their tongues meet.

He breathes in deeply, his mind growing hazy in that way that Alex is too good at initiating. Henry feels like absolute putty in Alex’s hands, entirely malleable. 

Alex must know it too as he takes control and walks Henry back to the nearest wall. Henry instinctively drapes his arms over the man’s shoulders, lightly threading his fingers through Alex’s hair.

Alex lowers his hand between the two of them and lightly cups Henry. Henry sucks in a surprised breath at the touch.

“Next time,” Alex says quietly, tauntingly.

Henry whimpers in protest.

“Unless,” Alex tacks on in question.

Henry pulls his face back a little and licks his lips.

“Touch was on the agenda, right? We can do a teaser.” Henry sighs. “Rather, selfishly, I really want you to keep touching me. That felt nice,” he admits.

Alex laughs softly but places his hand back over Henry. His cock twitches immediately at the attention. He clenches his jaw as Alex strokes him lightly over his clothes. Henry’s eyes shut, his head resting back against the wall.

His arousal grows with each stroke, his whole body feeling liable to melt. If Alex had touched him like this their first night, it most definitely would have set a different tone for the evening.

He rocks forward as he resumes their kiss. Alex tentatively squeezes his cock. Henry moans against his lips, heart pounding. Alex squeezes him again before continuing to stroke him. Henry can feel himself leaking.

Alex’s hand creeps up, gripping the waistband of his jeans. Henry desperately wants to feel Alex’s skin on his in earnest, but he reminds himself that this is merely their first day. He can’t lose himself like this, no matter how good it feels.

He touches Alex’s wrist lightly and opens his eyes. Alex stills at once and lets go.

“I think that’s good for day one,” Henry whispers.

Alex nods. “Yeah, that was, uh,” he clears his throat and returns his arm to his side as he steps back, “that was enough.”

And yet still, Henry wants more. He wonders if it would be wiser or more efficient for them to blow through the lessons in one go. Maybe that way they could in fact spend the rest of their time together doing what they’ve signed contracts for and are actually getting paid to do.

But the knowledge that he can get access to Alex like this for several more weeks makes him throw away all sense and logic. He wants an excuse to keep these clandestine meetings going.

“I’m gonna grab a shower,” Alex says unhelpfully. All his words do is put images in Henry’s mind that shouldn’t be there.

Henry nods stiffly. 

“I’ll get started on dinner for us in the meantime,” Henry says. Maybe getting lost in the rhythm of cooking will make it easier for him to calm down.

“I’ll see you in a bit then,” Alex replies.

Henry sees him out and waits until he hears Alex’s footfalls down the hall before locking his door and undoing his pants to finish the job Alex started.

[swampstew]

𝔸𝕥 𝔽𝕚𝕣𝕤𝕥 𝕊𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕥 - 𝕔𝕙𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝟟

Welcome to Raven's Reading Nook - a small corner of this blog dedicated to cozy story times. Take a seat next to the log fireplace as we begin this in-progress, spicy/smutty reader insert story starring YOU (AFAB Reader) and the Kid Pirates. Powerade and snacks are provided! You can find links to the mini-series on Wattpad and AO3 at the end of the post. Minors DNI you will be blocked - for mature audiences only.

Spicy smut in this one😘 warnings: vaginal penetration (reader is AFAB), and creampie.

Y/N was relaxing on the deck, up the ramp over the helms room, lounging around with the women crew members and Heat. They drank chilled beers and talked amongst each other quietly, all wearing sunglasses, looking more like their own posse instead of pirates despite the fact that the group was roughly 86% pirate based.

Kid was silently seething. Pissed he was missing out. Upset he wasn’t invited. Tired of being punished for his mistake.

It had been how many weeks? Two? Three? He didn’t even know anymore.

His bed felt alien and uncomfortable, gotten so accustomed to a body keeping his warm throughout the nights. He felt like an addict going through withdrawal. Which was insane. She was just some woman. Why was she fucking with his head this much?!

He sighed miserably and removed himself from the display, seeking refuge in his workshop to brood in private.

Everything sucked.

Nothing could lift his mood.

He used his power to mash metal together and throw it around, smash it down and rebuild it. Did that for an hour before he laid down on the couch, stewing in loneliness.

Kid had no idea how to fix any of it. Killer was hopeless, too torn up about having harmed someone they pretty much considered a…friend, with some really great benefits, to be any help whatsoever. He covered his face with his greased palm, a despondent groan tore from his throat.

Without removing his hand, Kid almost reflexively activated his power, letting his mind flow freely to make something…simple. Soothing. The tinkling clinks of metal tapped in the air as bolts, nuts, screws, and panels rotated around each other. Clicking into place. Molding into desired shapes and angles. Until soon there were half a dozen metal death moths with ghoulish skulls lazily flying around the workshop. He watched them drift in and out of his sight as he quieted his mind, engaging in the rare activity of introspection.

If only for a few minutes.

Someone knocked on the door, breaking his peace. The small creatures fell from the air as Kid deactivated his power like a battery switch.

“Enter,” he rasped.

Y/N stepped through the threshold, “Didn’t mean to interrupt. Left my polishing kit here and I didn’t realize how much I neglected my weapon.” Her tone was impassive, almost bored. Had been for weeks and he was over it. So resentful of how much he craved her warmth, her affections once more.

Being stonewalled sucked. Kid now had sympathy for anyone who had to endure him when he did the same. Making a mental note to be better towards Killer in the future.

Without waiting for Kid to acknowledge her, she walked inside to where she last remembered using the kit. Stopping short when she found the remains of the death moths he dropped. She picked up the pieces, turning them in her palms and then, somehow, intuitively piecing them together until it was mostly reformed. Not perfectly like Kid could make but enough to make it recognizable.

“Didn’t know you could make something so elegant.”

Well that was nice to hear.

“S’lot you don’t know about me,” he grumbled.

“Touché,” she almost sounded regretful. “We should be getting close to the next island soon. Then I’ll be out of your hair and you can once again have whatever peace you had before I came along.” The droll of her aloof tone back. It irked him to no end.

“…Wouldn’t say I had peace then. Had it recently for a bit… I think,” he muttered, moreso to himself.

“Is that so?”

“Aye,” his voice was strained. “I’m sorry.”

“Wh-what?”

He sat up, “I’m sorry for scaring you. For taking you and putting you through what I did. And for acting like a twat after it happened. Expecting you to fall in line with what I wanted.” His flesh hand was bouncing nervously over his thigh as he spoke.

Y/N’s eyes widened in shock, “Thank you. I genuinely thought you would have drowned yourself first before I ever got an apology from you.”

“It’s not off the table.”

She placed her weapon on the work table and slowly walked to the couch. Standing in front of him, “Well don’t. Your crew needs you,” she tutted softly, using the rag towel she pulled off the table to wipe his face free of residual grease.

Kid scoffed, “I know they do.” Taking the towel, he cleaned his hands and stared at the ground. Wishing with his entire being that something would give. Anything to have her back in his arms. His smoldering eyes looked up and burned into hers, “You don’t. Wish you did.”

Her breath caught in Y/N’s throat, her eyes dilated as she took him in. Seeing him truly remorseful as he sat below her, all pride and bravado gone.

“Just so we’re clear. This is a one time thing because I’ve been feeling…stressed. Nothing more,” she bent down to his ear, nearly whispering the words..

He nodded his head, not even fully comprehending what she said, just wanting her forgiveness in any manner she was willing to give it.

Forgiveness came in the heavenly warmth of her gushing, throbbing pussy engulfing his neglected, starving cock.

“Y/N!!” Kid gasped, hips bucking sharply.

Her walls clenched on him in response. She rocked her hips on him as she straddled his pelvis to grind herself flush against his pelvis. Her clit grinding against his pelvic muscles, she moaned throatily as she hastened her pace.

She’d been starving too. Her pussy greedily took him in and hugged him close, not allowing much room for him to retreat from her sopping cavern. Not that he wanted to.

He felt himself twitch as he fought the urge to cum right then and there. Felt like he might have failed as he felt like some cum managed to bypass his control and dribble out in a short rope as her rutting pushed him against her cervix.

Y/N lifted her hips, gripping his cock as she pulled away and it slowly slid out of her cunt, only to slam herself back down, shaking her hips to drive him deeper until he was nearly crying out loud in pleasure. One hand on his scarred chest and one hand behind her on his upper thigh to support herself, Y/N set a rapid pace of bouncing on his cock with full strokes that rubbed her sweet spot. Her ribbed walls coaxing his ecstasy to the surface; his hardness making her inner muscles quake and spasm.

Quickening her pace, desperate to snap the taut rope of pleasure inside her lower belly, her slick made squelching noises as she rutted on the massive man’s impressive girth, Y/N began clawing at his skin. Kid groaned pathetically as his raised his hips to meet her thrusts, drunk on her tight pussy.

Her orgasm peaked as she fucked herself on his cock, stroking her throbbing walls until they clenched repeatedly on his thick, veiny member. Not stopping, her hips switched directions until she was throwing her ass back on his thighs, grinding him into her.

“Oh oh oh fuuuuuck,” Kid panted, the new sensation sending hot erotic bolts of lightning straight to his cock. He felt his balls rise as they slapped against her cheeks. With a final slam of her ass on him, Kid’s cock railed Y/N’s cervix and he came with a loud, needy moan. Ropes of thick cum shot from his engorged head that was positioned right on her secret entrance, flooding her private garden with his sin.

Y/N’s moans were voiceless as her head hung back and she rutted on him. Milking him. Feeling the need to step up, Kid attached his metal arm and secured her seat on his still-swollen cock that was the only plug to keep his cum from leaking out. He pressed his calloused, organic thumb on her clit and began rubbing circles.

Letting out soft shrieks, Y/N’s hips buckled at the overstimulation. Clenching on his hard-again cock as he quickly built her up with swipes, flicks, and pinches to her swollen bundle of nerves. Rutting shamelessly, Y/N’s shrieks turned into panting moans and yelps as Kid rubbed and teased her, edging them both on as he milked all the physical affection he could get from her.

They both craved the orgasmic rush of lust, her hips slammed against his as his metal arm helped her rapid thrusting as they peaked. They came at the same time, breathlessly. Convulsing against each other as their juices flooded, lips crashing together for the first time in weeks, not breaking apart until their hips stopped moving on their own accord.

Falling right back into kissing in heated passion even after they stilled. Y/N finally pulled away desperate for air and tucked her face into Kid’s neck, wrapping her arms around him to anchor herself. Kid panted lightly, swollen painted lips nearly wiped clean.

“Y/N?”

She hummed in response.

“Are—are you afraid I won’t like you or somethin dumb like that if I find out about your past? I don’t…give a shit about who you were or where you came from. You coulda been the princess of your entire island and I wouldn’t judge you…much. I just want to know.”

Sighing heavily, “No, its not that. Kid, I don’t want to tell you because I don’t trust you. I’ve been burned by the people I have put my faith in whom I’ve known for far longer than I know you. What makes you think you’d be the exception?”

He numbly nodded at the logic in that, “I want to be.”

“I wanted you to be too,” she whispered so softly he went to discretely pinch himself to make sure he hadn’t dreamt the entire damn affair up. His suspicious were confirmed when she lifted herself off him, the cold grip of loneliness made him hiss as his cock lost her warmth. Y/N started dressing herself and Kid fought the urge to fucking beg her.

Don’t go.

He followed suit and pulled his pants back on, fixing their appearances in silence. She grabbed her items and walked towards the door. Kid let out a strangled, choked sound he covered up as a cough.

“Y/N!”

The woman stepped into the hallway, not turning around, “Don’t make this harder than it has to be.”

“Look at me!!”

Y/N flinched and he thought he could hear a shaky gasp escape her lips. Gingerly, she turned on her heel and stared at him with glassy eyes.

I’ll treat you better! I’ll do whatever you need or want to accomplish your goals! Please don’t leave me! Don’t leave me to be alone again!

Words he wished he could will himself to say. Words he did not utter. Words too inappropriate to come from a man like him.

“I just—” he struggled to form the words.

“I know.”

His hairless brows furrowed, “You know?”

Y/N nodded, “I liked the peaceful feeling I had with you. With Killer too. It made me feel less lonely. That’s not my fate in this life. I don’t get to have nice things like that.”

“Says who?”

She smiled sadly, “Everyone I’ve ever cared about is dead. I don’t like those odds. Do you?”

He couldn’t argue. Watching with sad eyes as she left him alone. A stab through the stomach would’ve been less painful. He thought back to when he read her journal entry, the first page that told the story of her parents love story.

‘They’d kiss each other and I’d run away screaming like a brat. Going to my room and daydreaming about the day someone would tell stories like that about me.’

Kid didn’t believe in things like fate or deserving things. He knew firsthand the only way to get anything in this miserable life is to take it or make it himself.

Still.

It made something toil in his gut. The idea that some silly little girl with whimsy daydreams would never get her happy ending…it didn’t sit well with him. Not for something so simple as yearning for good, ole’ loyal companionship. She could stand to dream bigger, but it was…admirable.

She suffered enough, hadn’t she? Fuck he knew so little about her and yet from what he could tell, she more than earned the right to have people who wouldn’t betray her, who would appreciate her, who would make her feel…lucky to be alive.

Sitting at his workbench, Kid mulled over his thoughts as he collected his moths. Noticing one was missing. The one she had put back together. A small smile perked on his lips. That was what he wanted.

To make her want to have those dreams again.

He decided. He would win her loyalty and trust, and in the end have her join the crew as his. Give her the best goddamn life she had ever dreamed of, on top of the world as the King and Queen of the Pirates. How could he not win?

Grinning to himself, Kid sat on the bench and started crafting a new project. In the air behind him, more metal death moths began to spawn, fluttering in whimsical circles as the redhead worked.

Y/N sat atop the dinosaur skull, sharpening, and polishing her borrowed longsword. She had always loved sitting on the figurehead or in the crow’s nest of a ship, letting the salty air breeze infiltrate her lungs and cleanse her mind. It had for at least two hours. As she took another gulp of regenerating air, she suddenly felt something sour. Like rotten seaweed that had sat on the beach for too long. A sickening feeling in her stomach.

Swiveling her head, she tried to detect which direction the ick was coming from but the weather had been slowly shifting from slightly overcast to darkening skies and a bit of fog. Stowing her items in the helms room, Y/N sprinted across the deck and vaulted up the rickety steps to the crow’s nest, slamming the door open and startling Killer.

“What the?!”

“I need your telescope!”

The blonde handed it over, pulling out a new one from a small box next to the door. Y/N scanned the horizon until she could vaguely make out the blip silhouette of something in the water. After a minute, the shape grew in size as it drew nearer. Another ship.

“I’ll alert Kid. Stay here and see if you can make out any markings or clues on who that is.”

“Got it!”

Thankful she was alone, her eye strained against the glass as the tall mast toting the ship’s main sail came into view. She gulped.

It was them.

Or at least one of their ships. It wasn’t her ship. The sail design was an obnoxious logo that came from the world’s most pompous, self-deluded asshole. Scumbag. This meant that the small fleet was on time to meet on the designated island, just as Luciano had said. Brian was supposedly stretched thin trying to find a specialist in order to sell a hot item. He had ordered his men to split up and find anyone who would cooperate, even under duress.

“Y/N!” Kid hollered from the deck.

She skipped steps in order to reach the ground faster.

“Who are they?”

“My prey.”

A sickening smile grew on Kid’s face, “Good timing. Wanted to see you wield these in battle.”

Y/N gave him a confused look as he placed gauntlets with wicked claws on each end.

“Give ‘em hell.”

“Thanks Kid,” she gave him a grateful smile. “You were wrong, you know.”

Kid’s fury welled on his face before she could finish.

“I do need you. Without you, I couldn’t have gotten here.”

“Haah?! Oh! Yeah, no big deal,” he brushed it off, face as red as his hair. “We -ahem- we good then?”

“Yeah.”

“And me?” Killer stood shoulder to shoulder to Kid.

“What have you done for me lately?”

“I do all your chores now!” he whined.

“Learn from your Captain then,” Y/N clicked her tongue. She sheathed the long sword and strapped the gauntlets over her hands. A perfect fit. It was made of a dark metal alloy shaped into human bones, bones of the hand actually, and fit the back of her hands and fingers perfectly. The metal metacarpal bones sat over her fingers snugly, the middle to distal phalanges covered her digits entirely. At the ends of each digit sat long, curled claws. She lightly dotted the pad of her pinky and drew blood, “These are elegant.”

“HMMPH,” Kid wore his proud grin loudly, only turning to begin shouting orders at the crew to prepare for interception.

The Victoria Punk sailed straight towards the vessel. Their target tried to evade them using the thickening fog but they couldn’t catch the wind. The Kid Pirates caught up to them in under three hours.

“We have no quarrel with you!” The Captain of the vessel shouted out as Kid used his powers to drop their anchor, creating multiple metal fists to seize their ships wheel and rudder too.

“Well I have beef with you all!” Kid retorted. He held their attention while Y/N observed the ship personnel from the crow’s nest with Killer.

“How much is the original crew?”

“About 10, so the rest must be with Brian. Don’t know who that Captain is. I’m not aiming for anyone that wasn’t my original crew so you all can do what you will to the others.”

“Thanks for the permission,” he scoffed.

“You’re VERY welcome that I’m sharing my pool of revenge, serial killer.”

A laugh and growl cross fired and got caught in his throat. Choosing dignity over retort, Killer followed her down the ladder to join Kid.

“What’s the plan?” Kid asked her.

“I’m going to take down everyone that was on my crew. I’ll kill the ones that I know won’t have any information and hack down the ones who do for later questioning. Luciano said Brian’s crew was out searching for a specialist so they may have some valuables on board. I’m looking for something personal.”

“The hot item?” Killer attached his scythes to his gauntlets.

“It’s a personal item,” Y/N insisted.

“What’s so special about it?” Kid took her hand and inspected the gauntlet, making sure it was on properly.

“My dad forged it. It’s the last thing I have to remember my family by,” she said sadly.

Must be the family legacy that asshole Donnie talked about. “I see. I understand why it’s important for you to take it back,” the redhead nodded solemnly. “C’mon, let’s go kill a bunch of bitches.”

Read on Wattpad | Read on AO3

[j2spntranscripts]

★ 2007 Chicon (Jared solo)

Official name: Creation Entertainment's SALUTE TO SUPERNATURAL, SMALLVILLE AND BUFFY/ANGEL Location: Hyatt Regency Woodfield, Chicago, Illinois Time: Sunday November 11, 2007, ?10:10? am (GMT-6) Panelists: Jared Padalecki Last episode: 3x06 "Red Sky at Morning" Nov 8, 2007 Next episode: 3x07 "Fresh Blood" - Nov 15, 2007

Question Index: 1- Dog snacks 2- Jensen impression; Fav Love Interest 3- Living, dead, or fictional dinner; 2x17 "Heart" love scene 4- Pranks; Kim Manners; 2x06 "No Exit" 5- Most rememberable SPN moment 6- Acting with Sandy; 3x05 “Bedtime Stories” crossroad demon scene 7- 3x03 “BDABR”; Sam laughing end scene 8- Fav pastime 9- 3x05; “Bedtime Stories” walking up hill scene 10- Gilmore Girls; fav drunk!Jensen moment 11- Dream Role; H/F 12- SPN Appreciation 13- Post Production 14- Fan Gift; Thank you plaques 15- On Set Happenings; funny

(video playlist/links and transcript below the cut)

(*if you notice any mistakes in the video transcripts or found more video coverage of the con please point them out thanks*👍) (*tumblr doesn't like dailymotion vids so I can only hyperlink them*) *Purple text: corrections/suggestions from @detailtilted

[click here]- jensen_cc3 by _sin_attract [click here]- jared_cc1 by _sin_attract [click here]- jared_cc2 by _sin_attract [click here]- jared_cc3 by _sin_attract

◘jensen_cc3 by _sin_attract (6:25)◘ ◘Jensen and Jared at Creation Con 7 by sarahmonious(0:58)◘ ◘Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki at Chicago Con…4 by DegaDreamer (0:34)◘

Jensen: (walks off stage) Thanks guys. (audience cheers)

Jared’s Panel starts.

•Intro- (6:30-SA, 1:03-S, 0:38- DD)

Jared: Can I have a cold seat? (audience laughs) He kept it warm for me. Hi guys! (audience says hey back and cheers) Some the same, some different. Good to see y’all.

◘Chicago November 2007 - Jared Solo Panel - Enhanced Edition Con Video - V2.0 by DetailTilted◘

Were y’all easy on him? (thumbs off stage)- We can- We can smartify the questions now- now that- (audience laughs and oo’s) (grimaces and then smiles)

•(1:21 S, 0:57 DD, 0:06 DT )- Chicon07JP;Q1- Dog snacks

Audience member: Did the dog like his snacks?

Jared: No, my dogs loved the snacks. They love all snacks. Anything, they’ll smell it, they’ll find it, and they'll... (audience member: Cats.) eat it. (nods) Cats. They actually we were- (audience member: Cats.) (audience laughs) I took them to the vet the other day. Um, my-my shepherd, Sadie, uhm, she had a wart growing on her mouth. (a few audience aw’s) And, I was afraid it was a- I was afraid it was a spider bite or something. So, I took ‘em to the vet and there was one of those old school, fat vet cats that kind of hangs out in the lobby. It probably ran into a, you know, thousand dogs and.. vicious dogs and nice dogs.

And Sadie, just being the shepherd, goes up to the cat and starts kind of, like, smells and do a little rumble. And the cat just goes like (mimics rapid swatting) (audience laughs) maybe five or six shots. And Sadie was like, “Alright, I’ve had enough of that cat.” (audience laughs) “I’m not really-” And Harley’s too slow to really do anything. So, he’s sort of like.. confused. The cat moves too fast. He cries and.. (audience aw’s) I pet him. (audience laughs) So.. that’s it. (a few audience aw’s)

Anything else? H-How are y’all, uh- How was Jensen doing? Did he.. (audience says good and cheers) (?Did he do everything? Good?). (raises fist) Good. (nods) Yeah. I can always count on him to.. say the right things (?when he?) (audience laughs) (?does one of these?)

Anybody have any more? Anybody have any more... questions? (throws his hand up) See you later (mimics leaving) (audience laughs)

Audience member: Stay!

Audience member: Both sides.

Jared: Both sides. Both sides. Oh! (looks back and forth) Which side- Which side do I start with?

Audience members: This one.

Jared: (throws up a hand) Oh, this is very organized. (audience laughs) I was trying to find out.. which were camera phones and which were microphones. (audience chuckles) Uh, (looks to his right) Hi.

•(1:33 DT)- Chicon07JP;Q2- Jensen impression; Fav love interest

Fan: Hi, I’m Gen. I wasn’t really expecting a switch so, um... (giggles) (audience laughs)

Jared: (laughs) I can play Jensen. (audience cheers)

Jared swipes his bangs to the side, squints his eyes, and puckers his lips. The audience screams and then claps.

◘Jensen and Jared at Creation Con 8 by sarahmonious◘

◘Out with Jared, in with Jensen… by tchuuuka◘

Jared: (deeper voice) Yes? (audience laughs and catcalls) (laughs) He’s not here to defend himself. I feel bad. (audience laughs) Which means he’s going to defend himself back in the corridors.. like.. kicking me in the stomach.

Fan: Please, though, I have two questions then. (Jared: Please.) Can you do that again now that I zoomed in? (audience laughs)

◘Jared in Chicago: Being Jensen by BabyBlueSteel◘

Jared: Sure. (dramatized calm gesture) Out with Jared, in with Jensen. (resumes Bluesteel expression)

Parts of the audience are yelling out to look in their direction. The rest is laughing and squealing. Jared abruptly stops, laughs, and wipes his eyes and then nose.

◘Jared_cc1 by _sin_attract◘

Jared: I think I snotted outta my nose. (audience laughs) That was very not Jensen. He probably wouldn’t ‘ve.. snotted on himself. (audience laughs)

Fan: Okay, now for my real question (Jared: Yeah.) Umm.. uh.. (laughs) (audience laughs)

Jared: Uh, I agree. I agree. (audience laughs) (turns) Next. (laughs) Sorry.

Fan: What would be your, uh.. favorite love interest on “Supernatural” so far? (audience yells out Sarah)

Jared: So far? Uhm, my favorite love interest- which one? (audience yells out Sarah) You know what? I s- I feel- I feel like the most open ended- Obviously Madison’s dead, (audience laughs) and, uh- Though that was- that sort of s- was a full arc, it happened very fast. And, I think that Sam and Sarah did have something (audience: Yeah) kind of going on, and we never- (audience screams) And, nothing ever happened, so I’m curious to see if she comes back.

And it seemed like, at least at that point in time, it seemed like, um- it seemed like it was setting her up to come back, because she worked.. at antique shop where there might be more, uh, (audience member: Yeah.) more.. (shrugs) paintings or.. more stuff. (nods and points at the crowd) I borrowed that word. (audience chuckles) More stuff that comes in that she need help with. So, I wonder if we’ll see her come back. (nods) But, that’ll probably be.. the most realistic.. for my opinion. (nods)

Fan: Thank you.

Jared: Sure. (turns to his left)

•(3:37 DT)- Chicon07JP;Q3- living, dead, or fictional dinner; 2x17 love scene

Fan: Hi. (Jared smiles) I have two questions. (Jared: Okay!) Uh, a friend of mine would like to know, if you could have dinner with any person living, dead, or fictional who would it be? And I would like to know (Jared: Oh, wow.) who chor- I would like to know who choreographed the love scene in Heart. (audience laughs and squeals. Jared laughs)

Jared: That was, uh- the first- the second question easier to answer. That was Kim Manners. (audience laughs) Inevitably- inevitably it’s, uh, it’s.. I’m mean kissing on screen is awkward enough, because.. you're sort of like, I wanna look cool. (swipes his bangs bang) (audience giggles) I wanna be- I wanna be, like, hot and sexy. And I wanna, like, get (wiggles) that (a few audience catcalls) right emotion.

◘ Jared in Chicago: the Love Scene in Heart by BabyBlueSteel◘ ◘Jensen and Jared at Creation Con 9 by sarahmonious◘

And then, you know, (sits up straight and rigid) the light’s there and they’re going, “You’re blocking her light.” (audience laughs) (mimics stiffly backing up) So you back up. (audience laughs)

"Is it good now?" Like, “Okay, Yeah. Now lean in.” (leans forward) “Turn your head more.” (nods and turns head) “Okay. Yeah. Still look good? Still look-” “Yeah. Yeah.” (audience is laughing the entire time)

(sits back and relaxes his body) And so, that’s odd enough. And so, now take a lot of clothes off. (a few audience catcalls) And then you’re like, (slightly turns) “Where can you see? Can you see.. my forearm?” (gestures to his forearm) “No. So, I don’t need to flex my forearm? Just the top? Okay.” (audience laughs) “My back?” (turns slightly in the chair and gestures to his torso) “Can you- Can you s- Did you get any abs? Shannon!” My makeup artist, Shannon. “Give me some paint.” (audience laughs) (points around his side torso) “Some- Pour- Pour" (laughs) "paint around here.”

And so, it’s- it’s- Though it looks- it looks… fine on screen. It’s inevitably very awkward. And it’s always, like- She was a very sweet girl. Uh.. but it’s like, you know, “I’m sorry. Like, nice to meet you. Okay, uh.” (mimics taking off clothes and then shrugs) (audience laughs) So, it’s- it’s odd and it's awkward. So, they have to be very choreographed. But Kim Manners did that.

And the living, dead, or… You know what? This is just, uh, this is just something out of my own curiosity. And I’m- I’m.. I love my family and I never got to meet my dad’s dad. So I’d like to go back and.. (audience aw’s) and see, yeah. (nods) My mom’s parents, uh, I-I knew them both. My- my dad’s mom, but I never got to meet.. my father’s father. So-

Fan: Good answer.

Jared: -If I could.. go back and meet him, I- I’d love to.

Fan: Thank you.

Jared: Sure. Thank you. Now I go (snaps his fingers and turns and points to his right) New face.

•(5:32 DT)- Chicon07JP;Q4- Pranks; Kim Manners; 2x06 “No Exit”

Fan: Hello. Um, I was wondering- improvising here because (laughs) I had a question for Jensen. (audience laughs)

Jared: I- I can bring him back. (swipes his hair and puckers his lips) (audience laughs) (laughs then shakes his head)

Fan: But, um- You can if you want to. But, I was wondering what your favorite practical joke was.. that you played.. on someone.

Jared: My favorite practical joke was that I played, um- You know what? I-I still say Kim Manners once- (points off to his left) To go back to Kim, we always have a lot of fun with him on set. And last year, we threw him into- When we were doing “No Exit,” um, which is the one where they were in the walls, Jo and Dean. Uh, there was a tube that they built on set that had water all through it.

◘Jared_cc2 by _sin_attract◘ ◘Jensen and Jared at Creation Con 10 by sarahmonious◘ ◘Jared Padalecki talking a prank in Chicago by BeckyVids◘

And so, we had to crawl through it. We’re all getting wet and our knees are getting all scuffed up and- and Manners is laughing. And so, Jensen and myself and two of my buddies, my buddy Jordan and Logan who were in town visiting, um, picked up Kim. Who as it is, is already, you know, 5’6” and much smaller than (laughs) any of us. (audience giggles) And so, he’s like a hundred and ten pounds or something. (audience laughs) So, we just grab him.

And he’s like, (mimics struggling) “I’ll kill yah. I’ll kill you all.” (audience laughs) He’s.. struggling back and forth and finally we just overpower him because there’s like four of us. And we shove him into the, uh- into this.. tube full of water and kind of.. gunk and all this crazy stuff that they put in there to make it look like a sewer. And, so- He got us back though. (nods) He got us back. It’s actually on the gag reel, he's getting us back. (audience: Yeah!) (nods) Yeah. So, uh- So, he had the last laugh, but we still have to get him back for that.

We’re biding our time. (nods) (audience giggles) Yeah.

Fan: Thank you.

Jared: Thank you. (turns to his left)

•(6:55 DT, 1:02 SA)- Chicon07JP;Q5- Most rememberable SPN moment

Fan: Hello. (Jared: Hi!) I’m Maria. Um-

Jared: Hi, Maria. I’m Jared. (audience laughs)

Fan: My question is that- Um, my question for you is, what is the most memorable moment you’ve had in the process of filming “Supernatural?”

Jared: …Wow, uhm.. that’s a- that’s a.. very good question. (audience giggles) Uh… You know what? The- iit’s not really been one moment. But it’s been, maybe, a series of moments.

◘Jared's q&a by augustfading 1:03◘

This is what’s pops in my head.. of.. when you kind of realize that what you’re doing.. such as right now this very second, when you realize that what you’re doing is reaching people. And, people are actually watching and enjoying your work and- and getting along with those stories. And, you'll read this.. letter, o-or you'll hear from this.. fan.. or this person that says, “You know, listen, um.. it’s something that I can watch with my brother. We used to not get along.” “It's something I can watch with my father.” “It's Something I can watch with my sister.” "It's something like- We’ll turn the phones off. And you know, “We’ll- We’ll lock our doors and no one kno- Everybody knows not to call us.” (audience giggles)

And so, hearing stuff like that, (nods) it really gets you through the long hours. And the, you know, we’re living in Vancouver. We’re waking up, going to work, going home, going to sleep. Waking up, going to work, going home, going to sleep. On the weekends, we do grocery shopping, you know? (audience laughs) Like, and then go back to sleep, and then we’re waking up and we're at work again.

And so, these moments help you realize the last two in a half years has not been for naught. (nods) So.. (nods)

Fan: (?Well, you make-?)

Jared: Thank you guys.

Fan: (?You guys make incredible?) (?)

Jared: (nods and smiles.) Thank you. (The audience claps and cheers.) (turns to his right.) Hi.

•(8:25 DT, 2:33 SA)- Chicon07JP;Q6- Acting with Sandy; 3x05 “Bedtime Stories” crossroad demon scene

Fan: Hi. I’m Sarah.

Jared: I’m Jared. (audience laughs) Sarah. That was, uh, Taylor's name in.. “Provenance.” (looks down) (Fan: First of all-) (looks up and points at his head) My mind is always working, guys. (audience laughs) Always working. (leans back, grimaces, and then chuckles)

Fan: First of all, I just have to say, Hi, Sandy. I- I think your fabulous.

Jared: (hand on chest) I’m Jared. (audience laughs) (looks around) I can bring (swipes his hair) Sandy in here. (audience laughs, cat-calls, cheers, and claps) (laughs) Thank you. She was- she was absolutely fabulous. She is. Thank you.

Fan: Second of all, I have to say my birthday is on Thursday. And I just have to say thank you so much for coming out here, you and Jensen both. This is the best birthday present ever.

Jared: Oh. Well, happy birthday. And thank you so much.

Fan: And third of all, my question.. (audience laughs. Jared smiles) um, is, was it difficult in the episode Sandy was in, (Jared: mhm) acting that scene out because, I don’t know about anyone else, but that was disturbing for me to watch you shoot her.

Jared: It was- (laughs) (audience laughs) Well, I’ve always wanted to.. (gun gesture) you know, (smiles) (audience laughs and oos) (laughs) I actually called and asked. I was like- a-Originally I just walk away, but I called Eric, “Can I shoot her or something?” (audience laughs)

Um, it-it was- it was difficult in that.. you.. when.. you’re in a relationship and- and you know somebody so well and you fall in love with a person for many, many years.. (points back and forth to his eyes) you- you- there’s something different that happens when you look at them and you don’t- you don’t see- even what they say, you kind of- Like-like they could not talk and say anything and you’re.. reading? You’re buying what they’re selling (laughs and shakes his head and mouths “I don’t know”) Sorry. (audience laughs)

◘Jared and Jensen Q&A (1) by LauraTX1◘

So, it was weird to act with her in that sense. And-But it was kind of- It was a great.. kind of way to come full circle, because we met on "Cry Wolf" (nods) ..and acting (Fan: acted) together. (nods) And so it was interesting to- to go back and act and- and I was very proud of her and very happy with.. the work.

And it was fun. It was a lot of fun.. And our director was very.. (swipes hand) obviously.. conscious of what was going on. And-and it was fun. But, the only thing is, is that when I watched the ep- when I watched the scene, it looks like I’m smirking (audience laughs) at a point in time. And I’m like, “I know I’m not smirking. I know I’m smirking as Sam, but I hope it doesn’t look like I’m laughing.. because I know” (audience laughs) “Sandy.” Because I remember, I was trying to smirk to-to- to help Sam bluff the crossroad’s- (swipes hand through air) Anyways, (audience laughs) it was odd, but I loved it. (nods and puts briefly hand on chest) I loved it. And I’d do it again too. (nods) Yeah. (audience laughs) (turns to the audience and nods but then realizes) Not that! I didn't- (leans back and facepalms) (audience laughs, claps, and cheers) (smiles to himself looking down and then at the audience) I’m done. I'm done. (audience laughs) (to Sarah) Sorry, baby.

Fan: Thank you.

Jared turns to look at fan and turns to his left laughing to himself.

•(10:46 DT)- Chicon07JP;Q7- 3x03 “BDABR”; Sam laughing end scene

Fan: Hi Jared. (Jared: Hi.) I’m Amanda. (Jared: I’m Jared.) (audience laughs) Um, my question is about the "Bad" episode of season 3, “Bad Day in Black Rock”

Jared: Yeah. I got it. (audience woo’s) Yeah, (?I loved that episode?).

◘Jared_cc3 by _sin_attract◘ ◘Jensen and Jared at Creation Con 11 by sarahmonious◘

Fan: I absolutely loved that episode. (Jared: I did too) And in.. the last scene between Sam and Dean where.. Dean is yelling out, “Son of a bitch,” (audience and Jared laugh) you can see you cracking up on film. (audience laughs) I was wondering- (Jared: [points] That’s- that’s actually-) I was wondering how many takes did it take for you to just give up and have that one on film.

◘Jared's q&a by augustfading 1:51◘

Jared: We, um.. Well he improvised that line. He- he’s thrown in a few- He’s said, “Son of a bitch,” a few times on “Supernatural” for those who- for those who know the history of “Supernatural.” A lot of times he’s just.. uh.. improvising it.

And so, the shot- a-as I had known the shot was over, and it was- it was a great shot- it was a Steadicam shot, that starts- And that was all- that whole scene was one shot. And it was sort of a way to cleverly tie in us leaving with catching her in the background, and then coming back and ending on us. And it was just a- it was a great shot, a really tough shot. We have a great Steadicam operator.

◘Jared in Chicago: The laugh in BDABR…Jared or Sam? By BabyBlueSteel◘

And, um.. we had to do that.. probably three or four times. You know, there’s a light.. that goes off. Or I fall. (audience laughs) Or one of those things like that. Or the car is not, um, is not cued on time. Or it’s cued on time, but she goes too fast. There was- there was so many elements that work, especially those long Steadicam shots. Everything has to be perfect.

And, he.. comes around. And so the people who are (mimics boom mic operators) running behind us holding mics have to like run (audience laughs) and then run back, and then get-hunk down, and like.. run into grave stones. And we try.. to ignore (laughs) everything.

But, um.. that one I couldn’t help but laugh (nods). (audience laughs) Yeah. It was one of those ones and I was like, “I don’t know if they’re still rolling, but if they are I better hide my face." (turns head) (audience laughs)

Fan: (?I'll?) say, I watched it and then I went- I was watching, um, Jensen’s reaction (Jared: Right.) and then I went, “Hang on, Jared. What's that?"

Jared: Yeah. My favorite part of that episode is actually (points then mimics holding the check) just the look on Jensen’s face when we win the- when we have the check from Biggerson’s. (audience laughs) He looks like he’s six years old. (mimics Jensen’s face) (audience laughs and claps) There’s something about… there’s something about- because he’s- he’s a li- he’s a few years older than I am. But there’s something about when he gets this goofy look on his face, he could be five. (audience laughs) He could be my son, like, on my shoulders. (mimics Jensen on shoulders and handing him food) “Want some chicken nuggets?” (audience laughs)

But.. But, yeah. That was- Every time I watch that I crack up. But.. yeah. That was a funny shot.

Fan: Okay, thank you.

Jared: Thank you. (turns to his right)

•(13:38 DT, 2:08 SA)- Chicon07JP;Q8- Fav pastime

Fan: Hi, Jared. I’m Tina.

Jared: Hi, Tina. I’m.. (Fan: I wanted-) Jared. (flustered smirk) (audience laughs) (laughs)

Fan: I- I wanted to ask what your favorite pastime while you're filming “Supernatural” is. When-

Jared: Um, my favorite pastime while I’m filming “Supernatural..” Uh.. I guess during the day.. um- It’s weird because.. when you’re filming a TV show or a movie or anything, it’s true what they say, you know, in a fourteen hour day only be working three of those hours? Four of those hours? Maybe on a hard day, half of that time? But, your off time, you can’t necessarily just go, (looks at watch) “Okay, I have five minutes between shots. I’m gonna go, uh, you know, like.. read a book or write-” Because you get totally out of the scenes. It’s, you know, you go from doing a crazy emotional scene to like, “Hey, let’s go play like.. you know, jumpin’ jacks or something.” (audience laughs)

And so, whatever- what I tried to do during the day is just try to set my head straight. You know, my dogs are usually with me (a few audience aw’s) and I-I’ll just kind of sit down with them and pet them, or I’ll call Sandy. Or, uh, turn on.. the news, just sort of have in the background.

But, even sometimes watching the news, you know, you’ll- you’ll sit there and go, “Oh, wait.” And they’ll call you, they’ll- “We're ready on set.” (mimics talking to someone behind him) And you're like, “I just wanted to see if.. this person’s alright.” (audience laughs) You know and so, it’s tough.

And-and it’s sort of this weird.. limbo where you can’t- you can’t… stay on set, because you’ll just go crazy. But, you can’t.. completely.. let your mind leave.. the job at hand, because then you’ll get out of the scene. So, it’s kind of- you kind of just.. zone out. But, I guess, just relaxing. (nods)

Fan: Okay. Thank you. (audience laughs)

Jared: Thank you. (turns to his left) Hi, I’m Jared.

•(15:06 DT, 3:35 SA)- Chicon07JP;Q9- 3x05; “Bedtime Stories” walking up hill scene

Fan: Hi. (audience laughs) I’m (?Brendan? or ?Brittney?) my comment was going to be for Jensen, sorry.

Jared: Okay! (Fan: Um-) I can- I can- (swipes his bangs back and purses lips) (audience laughs)

Fan: (?See if Jensen is still out there. He can hear this but-?)

Jared: He will be coming back. (Fan: Okay.) He will be coming back.

Fan: Alright, but.. I might not get to tell him. (Jared: Awooh) Fell in love with him on Dark Angel and, um-

Jared: Didn’t we all. (audience laughs) (leans back) What? (clears throat and taps mic) Sorry. (adjusts his shoulders and purses his lips)

Fan: Love him more now. But, um.. (Jared laughs) question can be towards you. (Jared: Okay.) In the episode-

Jared: I’ll-I’ll take it. (laughs) (audience laughs)

Fan: Well, it involves you, but um, his answer would have probably been a lot better. (giggles)

Jared: (nods) It probably would've- (audience groans and oo’s) (curls up, shaking his head, then sits up) Will someone come wipe my tears. (audience is a mix of laughter and groans)

Audience member: We love you Jared!

Fan: In Bedtime-

Jared: I’ll-I’ll take no offense. (audience laughs) In Bedtime. (nods to fan)

Fan: In “Bedtime Stories,” the episode, there is a scene that, um, Sam and Dean are walking together in con- (Jared: Right) in conversation. And you, like, look like you fforget your, um, your- no. ur- you know, your lyri- lyrics- (audience yells out lyrics and lines) your lines. (Jared: Right) (laughs) And, um.. And Dean has to, like, step in. In the- in.. offset there- not offset, but you can see, uh um, an extra- a female extra walk by and you kind of, like, follow her and Dean has to jump in.. and finish, like, your line or whatever.. and save you, I thought.

Jared: Which one was it? A lot of times that’s, uh, a lot of times he and I work out that. Do you remember which scene that was? Because, I could probably.. answer very specifically. (fan sighs) It was in “Bedtime Stories?”

Fan: It was in “Bedtime Stories.”

Jared: Were we in a hospital?

Fan: No, you’re not in the hospital. You’re outside.. in the park- (a few in the audience start talking) Yeah, you’re talking about what happened in the morgue.

Audience member: You said, “I got nothing!”

Fan: Yeah I- Yeah, you got nothing- you kind of, like, paused and (Jared: [mumbles] I got nothing) Dean had to jump in and, like,-

Jared: Oh, You know what that was! (nods) Okay, I know what you mean. We’re walking up a hill. We’re walking up the hill of the streets. (Fan: Because it’s-) What that was, is that was another long shot. The-the longer the shot the more you kind of have to rush things. And what it is, is that we had to finish the shot by the time we came exactly even with the street, because that’s where we had.. our cameraman. We had, uh, ‘cause we had another angle- We had an angle going down the street. And we had an angle that was sort of following us like this. (moves his hand horizontally to his left)

And so we had to time out that whole walk, to try and start it at the bottom of the block and finish it by the time we exited frame. (Fan: mhm) Um, and so it’s just this weird timing issue to where.. you sort of- Either you’re going too fast and then you have to really slow down and, like, dramatic pause (flips hair) (audience giggles) towards the end of the scene. Or you have to take your pauses through the scene and then you sort of, uh, rush it at the end.

So, I think that was sort of.. we both might have rushed it a bit at the end to- to make sure it got out.

Fan: Get- Because it.. It kind of looked like you were checking the chick out, which is so out of character for Sam. (audience and Jared laugh)

Jared: Well. (laughs and throws a hand up)

Fan: It’s usually Dean. (laughs) It’s usually Dean who’s really like, “woo.” You know?

Jared: Man.. (laughs) I think- I think it’s- it's actually- If-if- if I was checking- (laughs) (audience laughs) (stands up) Back pedal. (mimics stumbling back and then shoveling dirt) If I was- I’ve actually tried to make a conscious effort this year- for no reason I haven’t been (?informed by?) any writers. But, there’s a- there’s a line that Fred Lehne says to Jensen at the end of last year which is, “Are you sure what you brought back is 100% Sam.” (audience agreement)

Fan: Right.

Jared: And though we haven’t- So- So, we started to- I’ve started to sort of.. bring out the Dean in Sam. (nods)

Fan: Right. And that’s what I was wondering if that’s where (Jared: Right. [nods]) the storyline (Jared: Which is- [laughs]) was going. (Jared: Um-) Because it really- that's- re- (laughs) re- (laughs)

Jared: Not- not s- not tech- not specifically, but just as an actor (nods) some choices.. I make.. o- to deliver lines would be how I think maybe Jensen would’ve done it. (Fan: Right) Or with just a check-out here and there.

There’s also another part in “Sin City,” where they didn't- you didn’t see it too much, but where, uh-um, Martin Papazian, I forget his character’s name, but, (Brooklyn accent) “Forget about it,” that guy. (Fan: Yeah) Where he comes out he’s like, (Brooklyn accent) “My sister, Cheryl.” And then she walks away. And we both (leans forward) kind of check her out. (Fan: right) (nods) And that was another thing that I decided, you know, like, throw Sam’s face out there and- (nods)

Fan: You guys are great. Thanks so much.

Jared: (pats leg) Thanks so much. (audience claps) (turns to his right)

•(19:36 DT, 7:33 SA)- Chicon07JP;Q10- Gilmore Girls; fav drunk!Jensen moment

Jared: Hi! (Fan: Hello.) I’m Jared.

Fan: Taylor. Um-

Jared: Taylor was Sarah. Sarah was the girlfriend. (audience laughs) (snorts and then chuckles)

Fan: (laughs) Um, (?). I have two questions. (Jared: Okay.) First one is, are you in contact with anyone still from “Gilmore Girls?”

Jared: I’m not. I-I’m- I’m not in contact with anyone still from “Gilmore Girls,” but I have, uh.. When I see people here or there, like Scott Patterson is up in Vancouver right now shooting, Al-“Aliens in America.” (an audience woo) And so I’ll see them- Yeah, he’s great. But I’ll see them at, um.. Warner Brothers events or CW events. And.. the latest people I’ve really seen have been Scott, and I saw Milo, like, a year and a half ago. (a few audience woo’s) But other than that I haven’t- I haven’t really been able to keep in charge of everybody. (looks at audience)

He’s kicking ass, huh?- He’s kicking butt. (grimace) He’s kicking butt. (nods) Yeah, I’m really proud of him. He’s- he’s a- he's a hard worker. (nods) He deserves it, so. (nods)

Fan: Okay and the second on is, Jensen didn’t really answer this one but, what is your favorite memory of Jensen-

Jared: (?Wouldn't? or ?What do?) you mean my answer is going to be better than Jensen’s? (looks back and forth in the crowd) (audience laughs and cheers) (stands up) Where is she? (nods, points into the crowd, and then sits back down towards the fan) I’ll take care of it. (waves at the fan) What's your- What’s your question? (audience laughs) (laughs)

◘Supernatural - Jared memory…By csnutty◘

Fan: Tell us your favorite memory of Jensen when he was drunk?

As soon as the question registers, Jared’s face lights up with an open mouth laugh and then he gets up, turns around, and pumps his fist in the air. Then he turns back and pumps his fist towards the middle. The audience laughs and cheers. Jared walks and sits back down.

◘Jared Padalecki at Chicago Con…By DegaDreamer◘

Jared: (laughs) You know what? Uh- It goes back to my favorite memory of Jensen in “Bad Day at Black Rock.” He’ll sometimes get this face- this look on his face where he’s six years old. (audience giggles) And you want to, like, take a beer out of his hand and go, “Son, you’re- you’re not old enough.” (audience laughs) So, uhm, idk, we have a lot of fun. W-We don’t ever get stupid, but we have a lot of fun and like to laugh. So, just goofing around on each other. You know? (nods)

Fan: Okay. Thank you!

Jared: Thank you, Taylor. (turns to his left) Hi!

•(21:14 DT, 9:10 SA, 0:40 C)- Chicon07JP;Q11- Dream Role; H/F

Fan: Hi, Pam. I’m Jared.

Jared: Hi Jared- (audience laughs) (reels back, presses his lips together, and then hides his face behind his mic for a few beats) I did it on purpose! (mock frowns and then laughs)

Fan: Is there, uh, an historic person or fictional character that you would like to play?

Jared: Uhh.. Yes. I’d love to play Howard Roark from “The Fountainhead.” (Audience member: Yes! Woo!) (audience laughs) (nods points mic at audience member) Yeah. I-I love- I love to do that. When I read that book, I really- I really.. appreciated.. the character. And, whether you agree with Ayn Rand or not, you know, (swipes hand) that’s a totally different discussion. But I think he’s a very.. interesting character and he- and he’d be very, very fun to play. So. (nods)

Fan: Thank you for being here.

Jared: Thank you. (turns to his right) (audience laughs) Hi!

•(22:08 DT, 10:04 SA)- Chicon07JP;12- Spn Appreciation

Fan: Hi. I’m actually an actor from New York.

Jared: Awesome! (pats his leg) (Fan: Yeah) Well, nice to meet you.

Fan: Um, I so connect with the show and I’m not really a TV person at all. (Jared: Right) But um, I really wish that, you know, the darkness and evil in the world came from the supernatural, (laughs) you know. (Jared: [shrugs and nods] Right.) But, it doesn’t. (Jared: Right.) And um, I still connected with the show, because, um, well coincidentally my mom died the same week that the father died on the thing. And I- I look after my sisters and there's a lot of dark and pain and terrible stuff. And, um, these conversations that you have about faith and all these things, I just so connected. It has such an impact on me. You just- You know, the writers do it, but you really bring the unbelievable to be believable. Which I think is such a skill. And so...

Jared: Thank you so much. (audience claps and cheers) I’m very sorry, but thank you so much. And that’s- and that’s one of the things actually- (points at fan) You voiced one of the reasons that Jensen and I are so excited to be apart of this show. And Eric has voiced it before. And it’s.. in this guise of supernatural we get to... tackle a lot of.. real-life issues dead on. Like y- like.. the vampires, Do you kill them and sort of tackling racism? Or like you’re saying faith, you know, you’re talking about faith healers are real or not, you sort of talk about beliefs and that. So, it’s-it’s been a good- it’s been a good way to get away with talking about real-life issues, but not throwing it in your face like.. (shrugs) real-life issues. You know? (nods) (audience laughs)

Fan: Dean- Dean had this one line where he says- In, “My Time of Dying” he says um, I would, um, you know, “You always have a choice. You could roll over and die or keep on fighting no matter what.” (Jared: Right [nods]) And that stayed with me, through so many things. And I just wanna...

Jared: Awesome. Well, thank you so much. (audience claps) (turns to his left and smiles)

•(23:45 DT, 11:41 SA)- Chicon07JP;Q13- Post Production

Fan: Hi, I’m Charity.

Jared: I’m Jared. (an audience laugh) I’m Pam. What? (audience laughs) (smiles)

Audience member: (?That’s right!?)

Fan: Uh, my question is, um, since you guys obviously film out of sequence, uh eh, whenever actors are available or whatever. (Jared: sure.) What do you think of the final.. program once it’s put together?

Jared: It’s so bizarre. Because not just the out of sequence filming but.. um, with the visual effects, and the special effects, and the color timing that’s done- the changing- the- the darkening of, uh, a lot of the shots, and just everything getting put together. It’s- it’s great to watch.

It’s-it’s not- it’s not just like- and I loved Gilmore Girls. I loved my five years on Gilmore Girls, but when you film it, you know what you’re going to see. You know, you look around and you’re in.. uh, Luke’s Diner and you’re like, “Oh, okay. At least it's gonna be Luke’s Diner.”

Whereas, you know you’re here and we’re out in the field somewhere and we’re yelling, there are rain towers, and I’m reading Latin book, (audience giggles) and looking at absolutely nothing. And then you see, uh, what our visual effects guy’s have done and our special effect guys have done. And you’re going, “Wow, like tha-that’s good for them.” (audience giggles)

It-It’s just feels like a really collaborative effort because um- on all sides. So, not just the out of sequence filming. But.. every aspect t-that goes into “Supernatural” really. Um, makes it.. a fun production and fun to watch.

It’s easier t-to detach myself.. when I watch it. Because inevitably actors are very.. um, critical of themselves. And so, since it’s such a fun, kind of crazy-kooky show you can sort of get caught up in it as opposed to watching it going, “Oh, I suck there. I suck.” (audience giggles) “Well, I was better than Jensen there, but I-” (audience laughs) (laughs)

Fan: Do you get to watch it every week?

Jared: No, we don’t get to watch it every week. But- because we’re usually working. Actually, I think.. we work most every Thursday at that time. But-but, they give us a copy. (fist pumps) And I have the I-Tunes season pass. (audience woo’s, cheers, and claps)

I watch it on my I-pod. Whenever I want to get recognized I go, “Sorry let me pause “Supernatural” on my I-pod.” (mimics pausing a device) (audience laughs) (mimics showing off the device) “It’s a great show. This guy is” (fist pumps) “hot.” (nods to fan)

Fan: Thank you.

Jared: Thank you. (turns to his right) Hi!

•(25:44 DT, 13:40 SA)- Chicon07JP;14- Fan gift; Thank you plaques

Fan: Hi, Jared. I’m sorry. I lost my voice.

Jared: It happens. It happens. (audience laughs) (throws up hand) I have that affect. (audience laughs) (holds up hand and shakes his head) I’m just kidding. (facepalms) (audience woo’s, cheers, and claps) Okay. No! No! (makes a cut motion) Don’t take me seriously. Don’t take me serious- (swipes at the audience) Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. (audience laughs) (laughs)

Fan: (?blending the tar binding thing right?) No I just- I don’t have any com- questions, because I think I know more about you than probably your mom, I guess.

Jared: (reels back and nods) Good to know. I’ll-I’ll have to call you and ask you some stuff sometime. (mimics phone) “I was wondering!” (audience laughs)

Fan: Um, I just wanted, um, to say you’re doing a great job. (Jared: Thank you) I appreciate you guys getting up early in the morning. I know it’s hard. It.. takes a lot you out of you guys physically and mentally. (Jared nods) I’m also the one that sent you the thank you plaque. (Jared: Yeah! Okay. [nods]) And I got one here for your mom and dad.

Jared: Oh wow. Well, thank you.

Fan: For bringing you into the world, because if wasn’t for you and Jensen, I wouldn’t be here today.

Jared: Well, thank you so much. (some audience aw’s)

Fan: (?The more I say?) the more I appreciate it. (audience claps)

Jared: Thank you… Thank you very much. I- I don’t know how to.. get that- (looks back and forth) (audience laughs) I can leave- Can I? (gets up to hug the fan) Thank you very much. (hugs) (audience aw’s and claps) (talks to fan off mic nodding)

Audience member: You dropped a card.

Audience member: You dropped your card.

Audience member: Jared, you dropped the card.

Jared: (laughs) I got it thank you. Thank you (?I will talk to her?, ?I'll- I'll talk to her?, or ?I'll tell her?). (picks up card that dropped on the floor) Alright, Thank you. (goes back on stage) Awesome. Thank you so much. (on mic) That’s my favorite question yet. (audience laughs) Free stuff. Free stuff. (laughs sits down and puts down the gift) Put that down. Okay, I go back to this side. (points and turns to his left) Hi!

•(27:26 DT, 15:23 SA)- Chicon07JP;Q15- On Set Happenings; funny

Fan: Hi, I’m Carly.

Jared: Hi, Carly.

Fan: Okay. Um, (audience laughs) I was watching the Ellen.. DeGeneres episode where (Jared: Right.) you were talking about that experience you had where thought you were dead.

Jared: That’s right. (audience and fan laugh) Yep. (nods while looking down)

Fan: I was wondering if anything like that has ever happened again on set or anything funny like that?

Jared: That was during “Flight of the Phoenix.” (laughs) That was kind of.. (fan giggles) Odd. And I’m starting to wish I didn’t admit that. (laughs) (audience laughs) It’ll follow me.

Um, it’s, uh- Every now and again some- some kooky stuff will happen on “Supernatural.” Ah, I don’t know if it’s.. because of what we’re filming or because that's kind of where you put your head for the sake of.. trying to act.. more gooder. (audience laughs) So- But um, I remember there’s this episode- I remem- I keep on telling this story of when we were shooting “Skin” which was the.. one- of season one where we had the brother-brother fight scene.

We were in this house- It was this big gorgeous house. And, you know, there are grips putting up their grips’ stuff and electrician putting up their gaff stuff. And everybody is kind of doing their own thing. And then all of a sudden, on this opposite wall, where nobody was, was a wall that, um- Outside of that wall was outside of the house. Like, it wasn’t an interior wall. It was a… (Audience: Exterior!) (smiles) exterior wall. It was the interior of an exterior wall. (audience laughs) But, all of a sudden this clock just goes, (mimics clock falling) “blunk,” and falls off.

And a couple of us sort of looked over and we were like, (tilts head) “Who did that?” (audience laughs) “And why did that do that?” And then somebody, I don’t remember who it was. But, somebody just sort of walked over and.. (mimics picking up clock) picked it up and put it back on. And we all just sort of scattered. (laughs) (audience laughs)

But, every now and again there’s some- there’s some crazy things. (nods)

Fan: Well, Thank you. (Jared: Thank you) I still- I’ll agree with that person. This is the best birthday present ever. (audience aw’s)

Jared: Oh, well, Happy Birthday. Thank you.

•(28:59 DT, 16:56 SA) - Closing

Jensen: (walks in from the right of the room wearing a Sam t-shirt over his clothes) They’ve got some amazing merchandise.

Jared looks off stage and then looks down laughing. The audience screams, cheers, and claps.

Jared: That guy is-

◘Jensen in Jared shirt By jensenluvx3◘

Creation staff brings Jensen and Jared director’s chairs. Jared stands up and the staff remove the old chair off stage.

◘Jensen and Jared at Creation Con 13 By sarahmonious◘

Jensen: I’ve never felt more comfortable than I do right now. (audience screams and laughs)

Jared: (sits down) I’ve never been more attracted to your torso, Jensen. (audience laughs)

Jensen: It’s a funny thing isn’t? (sits down)

Jared: I don’t know what it is. Something about the whooole.. half- (circle gestures at Jensen)

Jensen: (sits down and scoots back in his seat) Ah.

Jared: I answered (?two? or ?a few?) questions better than you would have. (brushes back bangs and looks around) (audience laughs)

-J2 panel starts-

[du-buk]

8:11 Questions+Answers Pt.2

Got behind again:,D Thank you all for the questions and support though! I hope these don’t disappoint!💙✨✨✨🦭

General Characters Asks;

I’m SOOOO behind on these asks, I apologize to you anons😭💙 But thank you so so much 2nd anon! I love rambly asks, so no worries💙 Thank you for supporting BOTH versions of the game, and liking it! I am honored and I hope you enjoy the sequel; and Gabriel’s next upcoming content then! Thanks again!

For anon 1; hahahaha, I love that! What a cool dream......... I would love to try making such a thing in real life...... but no idea how to structure jokes into four-panels......

But it would be really cool! Newpaper comics and the like were some of my biggest drawing inspirations as a young kid. It would be so nice to give it a go:)

I’ve thought about it, and, sadly no 💔 I’m incredibly busy, especially as of late due to family tragedy, and my health makes it hard to be online all the time.

I’m a mod for one discord server my friends made, and, I do a terrible job at being a mod. I’m never online and just don’t check in with servers, sorry! But I can always happily promote a fan one👍✨

Hmmm......

There’s a small linkage to this. To be honest there was an grand, but old concept for this; but I might drop it as it doesn’t really impact the story in a positive way (as I see it). Or maybe I’ll continue with this, and see what I can do with it in the future.....! Maybe I’ll surprise myself, hahaha. Let’s find out!

But in general it was used before to signify angels, or death’s presence. I don’t know if I like this as I didn’t really use it for every angel in chapter one. For fun, this is what the map looks like when Gabriel and Vittorino talk and the static occurs. The Basilica walls change, and some angels appear.

Hmmm..... oh boy. I think there were a few changes, so I will attempt to remember, but I believe I changed;

Gabriel’s co worker plot line: Meh. It’s a good excuse for him to get to the Basilica. But it’s not so heavily talked about anymore. She is most likely just dead, or missing, and Gabriel can now use Vittorino to help regain his memories. Gabriel’s past overall has done a lot of last minute changes; I think all for the best.

Gabriel’s age: I made him younger. Just to look more helpless and you feel sorry for the guy.

Vittorino and Gabriel dialogue; Vittorino is meant to be ambiguously-taken by the audience when he meets Gabriel. You can decide to trust him, or not.

Accardi and Vittorino’s dialogue in Act 3: I believe I changed some things when they talk about Dante. The old version, I believe, there were indications that Accardi knew who Dante was? He still does for the updated full game, but, now with V2 he claims he can’t remember specifically just Dante’s appearance/face. Lots of face imagery here hahaha

Lots of little details I believe; like what notes Ryker found and such.

The static noise. Also is the reason why in the demo; Leon told Ryker to ignore the static noises; and why it’s not in the full game now. I really just didn’t care for that concept, and wish to use something better.

In the future, if given the chance; I would like to re-make the town and the townspeople. In general just change NPC outfits, way of speech, beliefs, etc. to really give the town a stranger feeling and making the player feel so out of place.

Hmmm..... sometimes I throw an intentional curve ball. Sometimes I don’t give a yes or a no to not spoil the future fun.  And yet, I have also deleted some asks that said too much. I try to delete outdated asks but I’m also just..... not online much and forget to go through my archive, hahaha^^;

Off the top of my head; nothing was spoilered in my answers, but, a lot of people ask me about “how will X character react to Accardi being outed as a cannibal?”

Well.... I’ve already decided to change someone’s reaction. I think this will be fun to write dialogue for, when I’m at that scene, hehe.

To give an idea; 8:11 is has been fully written for years now. But, it’s been a struggle to create a game with my health, busy schedule, etc. as a one-man-team. So, sometimes bits and pieces of the story, or characters, change over time like I do. New things inspire me, challenge me, etc. and I like to implement it in my stories. So far, the ideas and sets I’ve made for 8:11��s sequel overall make me extremely proud, and I hope to show it sometime in the near future when completed. 💙👍💙🦭💙

Hmmmm...... only recently! As a challenge I wish to find voices in the same language characters grew up speaking (i.e, Ryker = French, Gabriel = Italian, etc.) My girlfriend actually pointed out a really nice headcanon voice someone had for Ryker, which is this video;

I’ve shared before that I think Leon sounds like this, but, other than these two, I have no ideas yet on voice claims.

Hmmm...... I don’t know much about instruments, so, I might leave it up for fans to think about, hahahah^^;

I like to think Juliek was forced by his parents to learn violin or something; but he didn’t care for it. So he doesn’t pressure Amalia to pick up instruments if she doesn’t want to. But he loves to hear Accardi play. Maybe Susan knows how to play as well? Maybe instrument-playing is reserved for more upper class people in this world, as it sounds with above hahahaha.

Hahahaha, weeeeell...... ummm.... [weapons/guns talk below warning]

Sorry for a disappointing answer anon, but, I just like arrows! They are often in my dreams, and fun to draw, so it’s common to just see in my artwork and stories hahahaha. I’ve had practice with shooting arrows and guns; and just like them. So I like to draw characters with weapons. Nothing much to it for 8:11′s story(symbolism wise); but maybe for future stories of mine.

Yep! But I cannot say who ;) But I find the secret couples cute

I’m glad you like them anon, thank you!!

After playing Pathologic, and re-watching Twin Peaks, I really wish I developed Dakota and Wankou more. Side characters can be so fun to talk to and interact with. I hope in the future to develop them more 💙💙💙

Yep! Go ahead anon, please help yourself to any of the ADULT characters! Have fun!

Ryker asks;

Are you referring to this?⬇️

Then yes! My dear best friend @jirachi​ made that for me, in support of the game! I actually have it up on my wall, next to my work station 💙😭 So everyone say thank you to her! And since time is played around with in the Basilica, like loose strings, I figured it fit best there:)

He would, if you’re Ryker. If not, but you can see him, he might be alarmed (”why are you able to see someone else’s guardian angel?” he’s thinking) but if you are friendly......he can hug you. He would be so warm, yet probably smell like soil.

They certainly smell bad. They were going to take a bath in act 3, but then found Beetle in the tub instead.

Hi anon! Well.....

It wasn’t my intention, but, if you see fit; then who am I to stop you? Ryker wasn’t written with anything like that, but in general if I write a character with something; I will state it in text. (Which is why there’s so much talk about depression and anxiety disorders hahah)

Leon asks;

Hello anons! He technically had someone he was very close with, but, NOT in a romantic sense. Just a friendly way.

I’ve never written a love interest for Leon, sadly. If you want him though, you can have him. Just be gentle....

He also has no canon last name, so, you can give him yours. 👍💙💙💙

Hahaha, surprised (but glad) to hear! I didn’t think Francis would gather any fans until chapter two. Here’s some fun facts;

He was a morning person until the incident

He enjoys □ □ □ 

□ □ □ □ □  □ □ □ □ □

Yes! Francis is just spoken with in a non-human form, so, it can be tricky to tell.

Accardi+Juliek asks;

He probably had to drag them around, got dizzy, and threw up on them. What’s a few more bruises to Ryker when they’re covered in them, hahahaha.

Hannibal, definitely. Your mom is very right👍 I love Mads Mikkelsen’s portrayal of him. Other than Hannibal, Accardi was inspired by other characters like Koito from Golden Kamuy and Westley from the Princess and the Bride.

Are you referring to his pixel sprites? It honestly might have been a mistake, as, pixel art hurts my eyes 😭 I think 8:11 will be the last game I make with pixel art, as, the little details are too difficult for me to keep up with. My bad!

Hello! Yes, I confirmed it over on Twitter a while back I believe. But don’t be fooled........it’s not a long history between them, and anything about them will just be implied. Juliek just likes to fuck.

Uh, no clue, sorry anon. He’s just always had that.

Remember when Accardi told Ryker he gave stitches to Vittorino once? When he bumped his head on a table? Maybe Accardi had to do something similar with Juliek after a crazy night with the boys..... who knows....

Vittorino+Gabriel+Dante asks; 

There’s no cure. We’re just going to have to put you down. Sorry.

He would chase you with an axe.

I don’t mind! I’ve never really thought about it myself.... but I don’t mind it, hahaha. Chapter two might be a wild ride though if you do ship them ;P

Dante enjoyed hunting as it relieved stress, and a way to escape from the madness at the Basilica for a moment. Though, he was never taught proper gun safety (no surprise).

🔞🔞🔞🔞Asks;

....Or in the past, possibly. I doubt Gabriel would want to do anything in a sewage area.

Hello! I am, thank you for asking! You’re free to draw whatever you want, I don’t care.

You might have to ask off anon. I don’t know exactly how to send these images, as, I don’t want to upload them on my archives 😭Just a heads up, I don’t think anything other than bare chests are shown so don’t get any hopes up👍I believe for the priest zine I only drew Leon and Vittorino.

LOOOL yeah okay, pretty funny. But we will have to see, hahha. I don’t really draw NSFW images but I can try my best.

Well.... in honor of Noda, the author behind Golden Kamuy ranking  sizes.....sure. I will do that too 👍✨

Wankou (the biggest)

Dakota

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[trashinaglass-archive]

Just for Us

Request: Heyyy I saw you were looking for requests.. mine is for Chris Evans, how about they both star in the MCU and after all those years reader and Chris get into a relationship and keep it secret for awhile but then decide it’s time the others should know before the media find out first :) Maybe Seb and Mackie could admit they had a bet on it as one of the reactions?

A/n: I just checked my drafts and found this. Thought I posted it months ago, but here it sat. So sorry about that. Just another reason that I’m the worst 🥰 Also, didn’t do much editing so sorry if it sucks

I have this weird guilt of replacing anyone from the MCU, even fictionally lol, so random original character thrown in.

Conventions were the best and the worst. It was incredible getting to meet and interact with so many fans, but it was so many fans. It was difficult sometimes, going on for so long with so few breaks. You picked up your pen as someone asked Tom a question about his upcoming Spider-Man movie, and began doodling, drawing Tom as a spider getting chased by Anthony and Sebastian, who continually pick on him. It only made sense.

Chris looked over at the paper in front of you, chuckling softly at it, but not getting the opportunity to say anything about it. “My question is for y/n and Chris! Your two characters seem to be getting pretty close,” the fan pointed out as she looked to you and Chris, who was sat next to you for the panel. “Is there any chance we’ll see some Maya x Steve action sometime soon?” The crowd roared with oooh’s as she finished the question.

Chris threw his hands out in a shrug, turning to look at you with his arm slung across the back of your chair. You could only shrug, not knowing what else you could say either. “One of the most frustrating parts of this job is that so much is a secret, even to us. I honestly have no idea what’s in store for Maya and Steve.”

“But it really wouldn’t hurt my feelings, if we’re throwing it out there,” Chris joked.

“Mmm,” you hummed, pretending to think. “I don’t know, I think I’d pick Bucky if I got to chose.”

The audience screamed at your answer as Chris threw his hands up in confusion, as if asking what’s wrong with me. You leaned over to wrap your arms around his neck in a hug, your head leaning against his as you laugh. “I’m just joking.”

“Ay, you can’t have Buck nasty anyways. He’s mine,” Anthony butted in, nodding his head confidently.

Sebastian shook his head, “Bucky already has an intimate relationship with his trauma.” His eye brow raised as one should shrugged up to his ear. The rest of the panel moved on, asking question after question until time had finally run up and you all broke for lunch.

“I love doing these conventions and all, but I swear the day moves by so slow,” you whine as you drop onto the couch Chris and Sebastian were sitting at, your head leaning against Chris’s shoulder.

Anthony let out a laugh as he sat in an adjacent chair, “I’d argue it moves too damn fast. You know, like what the hell just happened out there? I don’t fucking know.”

“Words,” you said simply. “Too many of them.” The boys laughed and agreed before beginning to talk about something that happened in a separate panel with just Mackie and Sebastian. You took it upon yourself to get comfortable, curling up next to Chris. It had been an early morning and you were too exhausted to care what any on lookers thought.

You felt Chris’s head turn as he looked down at you. “You okay?” He asked in a whisper, a hand resting on your knee. You only nodded in reply.

“You comfy over there, y/n?” Mackie asked, his voice raised in a slightly teasing tone.

You laughed quietly and nodded again. “I could use a blanket though,” you requested, knowing there was one on the other side of Sebastian.

Anthony glanced at it then back at you, and suddenly that mischievous gleam in his eyes, that you had gotten to know well in your years of knowing him, shined bright. “If only there was someone that cared about you and how cold you are,” he continued to tease.

Chris let out a breathe through his nose, knowing where his friend was headed but didn’t say anything. You could feel his body leaning as he stretched his arm out, grabbing the blanket off the furniture and draping it over you best he could.

“Oh, would you look at that. How sweet. What a nice man,” Anthony continued, looking back at you. “Isn’t Chris such a nice man.”

You rolled your eyes but couldn’t hold back the giggle in your throat. “The nicest man.”

“But there are plenty of other nice guys, I’m sure,” Sebastian added, subtly looking back and forth between you and Mackie. “Do you talk to some other nice guys?”

You looked up at Chris, finally understanding what they were hinting at, and gave him a just tell them look. “You sure? It seems to be killing them not to know,” he joked.

“So it’s true!” Mackie exclaimed excitedly, leaning forward in his chair. Both of them looked as if they were watching an intense football game and one team was close to winning it all. You couldn’t believe how obsessed they seemed to be.

Chris laughed. “We’ve been dating for about a year and a half now,” he said nonchalantly.

“I knew it,” Anthony yelled, as he stood up, pointed at Sebastian who sat with his hands thrown up in the air. “You owe me twenty, dog.” Chris threw his head back in laughter as you sat up, your jaw slack in shock.

“You had a bet!?”

Sebastian put his hands up in surrender. “He was convinced you guys were dating. I said you were just close friends, and it just happened, I don’t know.”

“It just happened,” you repeated sarcastically.

“Why did y’all hide it anyways?” Mackie asked as he sat back down, looking between you and Chris.

“Easier,” Chris shrugged. “Trying to get through all that new dating stage and figuring all that out. It’s just easier to do on your own than to have everyone talking.”

You nod in agreement, “and if it ended up not working out, there wasn’t any reason for anyone to make it weird.”

Sebastian scoffed dramatically. “As if we would make anything awkward.” You hold back your laugh but smile, looking between the three men surrounding you.

“You just interrogated me. You definitely would have made it weird in some way,” you laughed.

“It’s called being fun,” Anthony defended as he walked away, a teasing smirk still lingering on his face. “But I won’t tell anyone. Promise!”

The three of you watched as he walked away before turning back. “Who do you think he’s going to tell?” You ask, knowing him better than that.

“Well, Tom did say something about having a crush on you in an interview a while ago, so he’s probably going to tease the kid about it,” Sebastian theorized. “And if he does, I’m not missing it. See you guys in a bit.” He raised his hand in a small wave as he stood up and followed where Mackie left, leaving the two of you alone.

You lean back into the couch with your back leaning against Chris, the back of your head resting against his shoulder. “Wonder if they’ll ever leave that kid alone,” you think out loud.

“Probably never, if I know them well enough.” Chris looked down at you with a smile as you turned your head to look back at him. Your eyes closed as he placed a soft kiss to your forehead, his head leaning against that spot as you sit there in silence. It was a rare occasion on promo days, so you soaked in for as long as you could before you were called for the next panel.

[shititbe]

Anyway, Peter Parker is Bi, and I Won’t Be Convinced Otherwise.

Firstly, we have to get our bases covered. What exactly is Bi-sexuality? What is sexuality? 

Sexuality is defined as a persons identity in relation to gender(s) they are attracted to. Why is this important? Peter’s sexuality has never been specifically stated in the comics, nor in any other form of media. It’s assumed that he is straight because of his popular relationship with Mary Jane Watson in the comics, and the movies. 

Now that we have a bases for what exactly sexuality is and how it’s defined, let’s go over Peter’s partners. 

Obviously Peter and Mary Jane are a piece of comic book history. They eventually get married, though sadly, during the events of Civil War II (I think, don’t quote me) Peter and Mary Jane sell their marriage to Mephisto in order to save Aunt May

They later had their memories of their marriage restored, they have yet to get back together and it’s been a few issues if I remember correctly. Next we have Peter’s first, and most unfortunate love, Gwen Stacy. 

They dated in high school where she later died. Of course, Peter has dated other people (namely, Black Cat, Betty Brant, Carol Danvers, Anna Maria, Cindy Moon, Lian Tang, and so on). Since we have his known history of heterosexuality out there, we need to move onto another important part of Peter’s Bi-sexuality. An important implication in any media, especially queer media though, and that is the homoerotic subtext. 

Homoerotic subtext is important part of queer culture, a lot of the time it’s used to portray a characters queerness without saying it out (see: Dorian Gray by Oscar Wild or Great Gatsby By Fitz). In current decade, homoerotic subtext is often used for queer baiting or creating more realistic male friendships. 

So what’s the difference between someone creating a health male friendship (or a character comfortable in their heterosexuality) and implying a character is queer? 

Here are some examples of a healthy male character, both with himself and his friendships.  

Clearly he’s just taking the shit, and messing around with Reed. He’s comfortable enough (or as I like to see it, so traumatized because good god this guy has been Spider-Man since he was 15 good god that’s awful. He probably doesn’t care anymore). Here are some examples of Peter a little more than just a straight man shooting the shit. 

This has three meanings. Two of which I will take, one of which is just deeply embarrassing. Despite Peter’s history with humiliating events, I don’t think he would get his own spunk in his eyes. Leaving the other two options, he has experience getting spunk of - some kind - in his eyes, and/or he’s taking the shit again. Which is very likely. 

Kissing a cop? For....no reason? A little not so hetero of you Peter. 

You can practically hear his disappointment in his voice. Also could be read as taking the shit, but why would you. 

Making out with The Thing? Gay. 

This one is the most important. Peter is clearly tired, annoyed by his teammates (see wolverine being wolverine in the corner). Shits on fire, its mid battle, and Peter has the audacity to mutter “I hate men” to himself. The only people I have every heard say this in that was are lgbt and straight women, and lgbt men. This kind of expression only comes from people who date, or deal with men in a completely different world than straight men. Straight men use this phrase as an endearment, “Oh have you seen Bill today, I hate that guy.” “Man Jerry can do so many push-ups, I hate that guy.” Very different language, and implications (I also, obviously don’t know how straight men speak). 

 Now that we’ve gone over our bases, and homoerotic subtext. How else could we gather that Peter Parker is Bi? There are many tropes in media - queer media - that allure to a characters queerness. Like homoerotic subtext, there are ways to tell an audience something without specifically saying it. 

This is a gay wedding Peter went to in the recent comics. I don’t know if any of you have been to a gay wedding recently, but Peters face (the first panel above the wedding) is the same exact face I made at my first gay wedding. It’s the face of excitement for not only the couple, but for yourself. The hope that maybe, you too can actually be in a same-sex relationship. 

I’m also going to allure to queer tropes as stated previously. Such as the real, and fictional trope of lgbt people sticking together. Thousands of years of belittlement and oppression will make groups of people not want to wonder out, and subconsciously look for others like them. 

Johnny Storm (and Wade Wilson since he comes in later but I couldn’t find a picture of the confirmation) is cannon Bi-sexual (Pan-sexual). 

Their friendship is deeply homoerotic as most queer friendships in media and real life are. Johnny flirts with Peter on many occasions (saying his ideal women is a female version of Peter, inviting him over to watch is sex tape, and so on) and of course oh my god they were roommates. 

Some other popular queer tropes are: Found Family, Soulmates, and Enemies to lovers. Because it’s superhero related, this includes the Identity Porn tag as well.  

Peter Parker and Wade Wilson have a famous Love/Hate relationship. I mean, how could you expect anything less when your first meeting with this known mercenary is him throwing your civilian persona out the window of a car. Now, Wade still doesn’t know Peter is Spider-Man in the current run of comics, but that doesn’t make anything about them any less gay. 

For the Found Family Trope: 

Because it’s Peter and Wade, their whole development can be read as Enemies to Friends to Lovers, so I wont bother backing that up because, uh, it speaks for itself. One panel really does to add that cause though 

I’m not going to explain what a free-pass list is.

The Soulmates part I know I have to back up. 

For SoulMates:  

Now this panel requires a little explanation. Wade kills Peter, not knowing he’s Spider-Man. Weasel takes over for Peter (they don’t know its him) so no one suspects he’s dead. Deadpool begins to feel guilty he killed his best buds best bud, so he tries to bring Peter back to life. Losing his stunning good looks (switching back to how he looked before Weapon X making his wife Shiklah estranged (then she married Dracula but thats beside the point)). Spider-Man is Peter’s “true self” or patronus for Harry Potter fans. Wade is stupid and hasn’t connected the dots yet, effectively making him the biggest simp in history. Seriously, who destroys their marriage for the c h a n c e for getting some with their idol? A Simp, that’s who.

Peter forgives Wade for killing him (and for saving him from killing their genetic daughter itsy-bitsy). If someone killed me they better be hot as fuck before I even thing about forgiving them. Ignoring Peter’s super sexy forgiving nature, uh, he’s kinda simping. 

Died in each others arms. Nothing else is needed. 

They’re heartmates. From what I read, the feeling has to be mutual in order for it to work. The witches (long story, comics are hard to explain) that captured deadpool were expecting his wife so they could get the headmistress back. Instead, they got Peter. Basically Heartmates = soulmates but chosen for you instead of chosen by you. 

To conclude my point: 

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk. 

[tokiro07]

Undead Unluck ch. 140 thoughts

[A Trip Down Memory Lane]

Once again, I’ve misunderstood the timeskip mechanic from 138, the current year is 1999, not 2000. I thought she said “pass” AT 1999, not that that was where she ended up. I also thought she skipped 26 years from 1974, not 1973, but whatever, it was an easy mistake to make. Retroactively this means that the “next tragedy” Fuuko wants to avoid is in 2002, but that doesn’t change the fact that Fuuko was still willing to skip VOID KILLING SOMEONE

Moving on! Three weeks of this point is too many!

Fuuko rushes straight towards one of Autumn’s Juniors to get bit and turned into a book. Nico questions if Fuuko ever has second thoughts about anything, to which Fuuko bluntly responds “never,” which once again illustrates just how much influence Andy has had on her. The moment a thought enters that man’s head he’s already acted on it two seconds prior, and Fuuko has become just as self-assured in her travels. Just like Andy, she knows what she needs to do and does it without hesitation. The key difference, though, is that Andy was always able to do that because he knew he’d be okay no matter what as Undead; Fuuko on the other hand has absolute, unwavering trust in her friends, knowing that they’ll have her back and do whatever they need to to make sure she stays safe. Andy definitely had shades of that too, especially later on, but for him it was a safe bet regardless, while for Fuuko it truly is life or death, so I think it means a lot more for Fuuko to put her faith in others like that especially after being a recluse for so long

In a quick flashback, Fuuko tells Gina that she killed her in the previous Loop. My gut reaction was that Andy killed her, but looking back at it objectively, no, Fuuko definitely did it, she just used Andy as the weapon, throwing his Unluck-charged head into Gina’s barrier to force a Union laser to redirect itself at her. There were several degrees of separation that make it easy to forget, but Fuuko absolutely is responsible. What we the audience think of that, though, isn’t as relevant as what Gina thinks of it, and Fuuko gives Gina the option to come to her own conclusions and do what she will with the information, even abandon Fuuko and the group. I’m sure Fuuko has faith that Gina will choose to help, but at the same time I’m sure that Fuuko would wholeheartedly understand and accept Gina’s decision to leave if she did. Whether she has some kind of contingency for that, I don’t know, but she’s kind of the Luffy type of protagonist; “do what you want, but I know you well enough that I know you’ll want to do what I’m expecting”

Fuuko’s book becomes a tower, though one that’s probably only a few stories tall at most rather than reaching into literal god damn outer space like Andy’s. Naturally, this is because she’s been alive for about 200 years whereas Andy was nearly 500 billion years old at the time. I wonder if one could calculate how much time is crammed into each page based on the height of the book...

Gina finds herself into Fuuko’s memory of their first meeting and notes that Fuuko looks more plump than her current self, likely to reflect that she hadn’t gotten much exercise back then. She also is shocked to see how she looks at 66, not because she hasn’t seemed to age, but because she dresses like a Japanese schoolgirl and finds it cringe, which frankly is hilarious. Speaking of how she dresses, we can see that the previous Gina is wearing her heart-shaped earrings, which she was not actually depicted with in her first appearance! At least, not in her first panel. See, this isn’t a simple continuity error; this is an example of Tozuka’s growth as an artist! If you go back to chapter 5, you’ll notice that Gina’s earrings seem to appear and disappear at random, along with the sketchy and inconsistently thick outlines. The current iteration of this scene is much smoother and keeps the character designs consistent, so it provides a fantastic before-and-after shot. I’m so proud

Gina learns that her previous self died so that Andy could join the Union, but the biggest takeaway for her was that she and Fuuko both loved Andy. While she herself may not recognize Andy, the tragedy of her own death was not lost on her; presumably her speech about not being able to change and the lives she’s taken, as well as Andy’s denial that age had taken her beauty, resonated with the current Gina and allowed her to understand that this was the best outcome that her past self could have hoped for. My question though is what her opinion on Andy is, I wouldn’t be surprised if she finds herself crushing on him when she finally meets him in X-number of chapters. I think that’d be kind of cute, but I’d rather not have a full on love triangle for Fuuko...that said, she does say that Fuuko is as special to her as Andy was to her previous self, sooo...

We cut to the restaurant where Andy made dinner reservations and he and Fuuko mourned Gina, and Gina sees her own ghost sitting at a table watching the two of them. She’s so surprised that she spits out her drink, which naturally is stopped midair before reaching Gina 100. Gina 100 notes that current Gina has freckles and recognizes that she’s her younger self; Gina 100 in Andy’s flashback doesn’t have freckles, so I’m not actually sure if Gina just wore makeup to hide the freckles, if they disappeared as she got older, or if it’s a detail that Tozuka thought of later, but I’m definitely gonna keep an eye out for them in the anime just in case

The fact that Gina 100′s ghost is present even in Fuuko’s memory is really interesting; this implies that the world as a whole exists in its entirety within the context of Autumn’s books, even things that the “main character” isn’t aware of. Not only that, but Ghost wouldn’t be added for at least four more months, so how did Gina’s ghost exist? Well, if you’ll recall, when Shen was dying of donutification, he saw the ghost of his sister Mei. Not only that, but Andy had already learned to control his soul from his time in his own memories, both of which prove that souls and spirits existed PRIOR to the introduction of Ghost. This implies that Ghost’s addition only actually added a “tangible” (for lack of a better word) form to said spirits, but they’ve definitely been present all along

Gina 100 is surprised to learn that Fuuko has become the new leader of the Union, though she doesn’t seem too surprised to hear about the Loop. I imagine this was to truncate the explanation of the Loop since we already know everything about it, it just feels oddly delivered since we know Juiz never told anyone

It’s cute that Gina 100 calls Juiz “Jaunty Justy” though I’m sure in Japanese it’s something like “Jasuto-chan,” as Andy is “Deddo-kun” and I imagine Fuuko’s is “Rakki-chan.” It’s not hard to see her calling everyone something to the effect of “Rule-kun/chan,” but I really like the alliterative translations and I’d like to see more of them. Maybe we’ll get to with the current Gina?

EDIT: Gina is NOT saying -chan or -kun, she is always saying -chin! User tokiro07 has been taken out back and shot for this grievous and obvious mistranslation

Gina 100 refuses to teach the current Gina how to use Unchange as it would be helping Fuuko, her rival in love, but changes her mind when she sees that Fuuko gave the new Gina her old jacket, evidenced by the Love Umbrella embroidered in the lining. Now, you may be wondering: how did Fuuko bring Gina’s Union jacket with her through the Loop? She didn’t have a bag or anything with her when she looped, so where was it? Well, she was wearing a jacket around her waist at the time, which can only mean one thing: the jacket Fuuko has been wearing since she joined the Union in the first place was in fact Gina’s the entire time! I don’t know if this was ever said in an omake or anything, but I certainly never made that connection, so this is a cute and fun revelation for me! Come to think of it, Fuuko was pretty much always wearing it tied around her waist, very rarely wearing it as a jacket if ever, I wonder if that was cus it would have been too baggy on her?

Gina 100 tells Gina that Unchange is controlled through her heart rather than logic; unwavering (or Unchanging) desire to keep things as they are reflects in the world as Unchanging constructs. This is consistent with her profile from volume 2, where she claimed not to understand the logic behind her own ability and instead just focused on what she wanted to accomplish. As always, I love Tozuka’s sense of consistency

As I joked about earlier, Gina says that Fuuko is someone special to her, though apparently as a friend. Gina 100 says their friendship will remain forever unchanged, but I don’t know, I’d appreciate it if it changed into something more. I know it won’t, but I’ll cling to whatever poly-rep I can find, dammit!

Back in the real world, Nico dives to protect Ichico from Autumn, which I’m willing to bet will contribute to their burgeoning romance (especially helpful since they’re scheduled to have a daughter pretty soon). However, this proves unnecessary, as Gina returns with her Unchange back to its former glory, holding off Autumn with two Unchanging air hands, as seen by the rain. Once again, nice forethought on Tozuka’s part; it was already raining when the group arrived to fight Autumn, and while at first it may seem like it was for dramatic effect, it was actually for this moment so we could see the fruits of Gina’s little adventure!

Our final panel sees Gina making an expression much closer to what we’re used to from her predecessor, her eyes sharpened with confidence and conviction. I’m extremely glad that we finally get a bit of an arc for Gina, I was so sad that she was removed from the story so early on when her power and dynamic with Andy and Fuuko were all so interesting. I’ve been looking forward to this ever since I realized that this was a timeloop story, but I never thought it would go this well. Gina was always interesting, but I think this chapter has made her one of my favorite characters. That said, I think pretty much everyone’s backstory chapters have done that so far. The flashbacks are always just so good, honestly, everyone is so endearing in this series

Can’t wait for Tozuka to actually make me like Void in a few weeks

[itsallyscorner]

Could you do something where the reader is a marvel actor but crashes a panel that Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan are doing (kinda like Tom Holland did that one time) but the sofa is small so the reader is squished in between them and has to share their mics when asked questions something like that. It can be platonic but they are really close or the reader has a little thing going on with Seb but is really close with Mackie. I hope that made sense!

Oooo this request is so cute! Thank you for the request lovely, hope you like it!💜

a/n: This imagine is HEAVY on the dialogue because I wanted to include some fun questions from the fans and what not, anyway here’s the imagine:) 

💌.

Stackie Sandwich

You watched from backstage as Anthony showed off his thighs to the crowd, you know, the usual. You were currently at ACE Comic Con along with Anthony and Sebastian. You always enjoyed going to these kind of things. Meeting and getting to interact with the fans was always fun, it reminded you of why you did these movies and how thankful you were to have such lovely, supportive fans.

Currently you and the crew backstage were trying to find a way to sneak you onto the stage without interrupting a question.

Anthony sat back down on the small couch as Sebastian laughed at his friend’s antics.

“I’m telling y’all, you wanna have thighs like these, you gotta do leg day. Don’t skip leg day.” Anthony tells the crowd as he nudges Sebastian. You chuckle from backstage as Kevin Smith, the monitor of the panel continues.

“So I know we were supposed to be joined by (y/n) (y/l/n), where is she?” He asked the men.

“Probably on a coffee run.” Sebastian answered immediately shaking his head with an eye roll. The crowd reacts with quiet giggles.

“I swear that woman cannot function without her coffee.” Anthony remarked.

“I’ve known her for years and lemme tell you it’s like her body is going through some kind of error. We were on set for a movie we did together and I was talking to her.” Anthony started as he leaned forward.

“Now I didn’t know she didn’t have her coffee yet. I’ve been talking for like 10 minutes and the whole time she was sleeping. And when she began to like wake up and talk, it was like she was a sloth.” Anthony shared as he proceeded to act like a sloth saying “Error 404” really slow.

You turned to the stage hand and said “I’m going now, he just called me a sloth.”

The man laughed and handed you a mic from the side. Before walking out you say into the mic, “I know you ain’t talking about me, Mackie.” You walk out to the stage and the crowd cheers loudly. Mackie throws his head back as he laughs.

“Hey everyone!” You greet the crowd, waving at all of them. You approached the guys with your arms up in a “fight me” manner, it was mostly for Anthony. You greet Kevin and move to Sebastian, purposely skipping Anthony.

“Hey, dragostea.” Seb greeted you as he wraps his arms around your body. You giggled as you wrapped your arms around his neck and hide your face in between his neck and shoulder.

When you pull away you turn to Anthony who looked offended. You send him a playful smile and smack his arm before jumping on him and wrapping your arms around him. He lets out his boisterous laugh and hugs you back. In the process you drop your mic on the stage causing you to cringe.

You guys settle onto the small couch. You sat in between Anthony and Seb, fairly squished in the middle by the two buff men. Their legs took up too much space on the couch, leaving no room for your own legs. The crowd laughed at your face as you tried to make yourself comfortable in the tight space.

You went to speak into your mic but it didn’t register. Looks like you broke the mic.

“Look at you, haven’t been up here for a minute and you already broke something.” Anthony tisked playfully. Sebastian poked you with his mic and handed it to you. You thanked him with a smile. 

“I’ll pay for that! Just send me the bill.” You yell towards the back. You look at Anthony and raise your brow at him.

“You need to pipe down, son. You’ve been coming at me all morning long.” You acknowledged pointing a finger at him. The crowd laughs along with Seb. Anthony nods as he stifles his laughs to himself.

“(Y/n), thank you for joining us, how are you?” Kevin asks you.

“I’m doing great! I’m so excited to be here and meet all of you! I saw so many of you guys dressed up, and you all look absolutely amazing! I also saw a dog on my way here!” You answered bubbly.

“What kind of dog?” Sebastian asked pulling your hand with the mic towards him.

“A golden retriever and omg he was dressed as Cap!” You squealed.

“I hope that dog is here because I want to meet them and just smother them with hugs.” You add as you motion to the audience.

“Sebastian said you were running late because you were on a coffee run, is that true?” Kevin asks as Sebastian scrunches his nose. 

“I mean he’s not completely wrong. I got coffee before I got here. But the traffic on the way here was really bad.”

“She’s lying, she spent a good half hour at Starbucks sippin’ on her coffee while inhaling the smell of Starbucks like an addict.” Anthony jokingly jabs at her. You were used to the playful jabs from Mackie, it was how you guys were. Knowing each other for years, you guys formed a brother/sister relationship.

“Alright then! So, we’ve got a line forming for the questions! How about we start?” Kevin continued as he motioned to the crowd.

🕓 Time Skip

It’s half an hour into the panel and you guys have been asked so many questions already. Some about your characters, the relationships off screen, and some new projects. Thankfully the crowd was very nice and respectful to you all, no one asked anything rude or made offensive comments.

The laughs were just dying down after Mackie told another one of his jokes. A teenage girl dressed as your character came up to the mic.

“Hi, my name is Maddie and my question is for (y/n)!” She waved at you with a grin.

“Hi, hun! You look beautiful by the way, I love your costume!” You complimented her, taking Anthony’s mic. She thanks you and continues.

“I—, I’m sorry you’re just so small compared to Anthony and Seb on that couch. You’re so cute!” The audience laughs along with the two men next to you.

You huff and squish your way out between Anthony and Sebastian’s bodies, “In my defense it’s a really small couch! And these guys are so beefy they take up all the space on here!”

“It’s a Stackie sandwich with a side of (y/n)!!” Mackie enthusiastically announced making the crowd go crazy.

Sebastian moved further into the corner of the couch making more space for you. He even moved his arm to rest on top of the couch’s backrest. You could hear some fans point it out and squeal. You thank him by patting his leg as his arm lingered behind you.

“So my question is, how is it like to be around such tall people? Because I’m short as well and I have to always look up at everyone.” Maddie says into the mic.

“That’s exactly how it is! Sometimes I get concerned if I’ll mess up my back because I have to look up at everyone!” You say into Sebastian’s mic, which he voluntarily held up for you.

“We carry her around a lot on set.” Seb chimes from beside you.

“Yeah like a sack of potatoes.” Anthony adds.

You pull on Seb’s arm to talk into the mic, “They also tease me a lot, but it’s all in good fun.”

—•

“Hey guys! I’m Jess and my question is for Anthony! So you and (y/n) have worked on multiple projects together. How was it like to be in Marvel with each other and act along side each other?”

You giggled at the question, turning to Anthony, “How’s it like to work with me, huh?”

“I mean, honestly, it’s always an honor to work with (y/n). I’m glad that I know someone like her in this business, she’s one of the most genuinely nice people you’ll ever meet. And I respect her for that because sometimes it’s hard to not get blinded by the fame and just become a dick, or a diva in your case.” Anthony answered as he threw an arm around you.

“Aww thanks, Mac.” You smile and lean on his shoulder.

“And to add onto that. Our characters in the movie are pretty close as well, so when Anthony and I have scenes together, it doesn’t even feel like acting. It’s always a great time on set when he’s around.” You finished off.

—•

“Hi, I’m Elena and my question is for Sebastian!”

“This is our last question for the panel, so make it good!” Kevin interjects.

“Go ahead, sweetheart.” Sebastian says to the fan.

“Bucky and (y/c/n) have really good chemistry with each other in the movies and the relationship doesn’t feel forced onto the fans. I wanted to know if any of the chemistry on screen is real offscreen?” Elena asked with a cheeky grin. You remained quiet as you felt Anthony nudge you with his knee.

Sebastian longingly stared at you for a moment before answering, “Well it’s not hard to act like you’re in love with (y/n), because everyone on set loves her. She unapologetically herself and I think that’s what makes it so easy to have chemistry with her, it just felt natural with her, you know?”

“To answer your question, Elena. They’ve been on a few dates already.” Anthony blurted out causing the audience to erupt. You looked at him with your mouth agape from your position on Sebastian. You were currently leaning into his side while your arm rested on his thigh.

“You weren’t supposed to say that.” Sebastian uttered as he moved his arm to wrap around your shoulders. You’d be lying if you said you didn’t have feelings for Seb. You guys definitely had chemistry offscreen and everyone knew about it.

“Hey! All I’m implying is that y’all need to both stop beating around the bush and make it official Anthony defended himself.

“Fine!”

“(Y/n), how do you feel about dinner tonight?” Sebastian asked you.

“Sounds good.” You smile at him.

“Great, we have some things to discuss.” He playfully teased the crowd.

“FEELINGS!” Anthony yelled over Sebastian.

Kevin laughed as he ended the panel, “On that note! Our panel has come to an end, thank you everyone for showing up and for your questions! Thank you Anthony, (y/n), and Sebastian for coming here we really appreciate it!”

You guys thank the crowd again and take a group picture with the audience. Anthony leaves the stage first followed by you and Seb. Sebastian helps you down the stairs and keeps a hand on your back.

“Wait, are we actually going to dinner?” You asked looking up at him.

“Yeah, I told you, we’ve got some stuff to talk about.” He winks as he leads you guys to the green room.

dragostea - love

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 314: ...Or You Live Long Enough to See Yourself Become the Villain

Previously on BnHA: Some random assholes were all “let’s throw exploding spears at All Might and see if it activates his Conqueror’s Haki” and SURPRISE, MOTHERFUCKERS, IT DID!! Elsewhere, Lady Nagant confusingly tried to capture Deku alive by shooting him in the stomach, but to be fair I guess that’s what happens when you send an assassin to do a bounty hunter’s job, so yeah. Deku was all “ouch”, and then because this is a shounen he basically just straight up forgot about it, and did a big fancy Smokescreen thing, and then activated his mildly incomprehensible new ki-blasting quirk which he got from the Third. En and the Third were all “hey Deku maybe let’s not just impulsively activate all this shit in the heat of battle when you don’t know how to use it yet and you’re already injured,” and Deku was all “thanks for the quirks guys but I’ll take it from here” and snuck up on Nagant and grabbed her arm and so now what’s going to happen I wonder.

Today on BnHA: Nagant is all “[shoots Deku again]” because of course she is lol. Deku is all “tell me about AFO!” and Nagant is all “why would I tell you anything?” and then proceeds to tell him her entire life story which is FILLED WITH SO MUCH MURDER, YOU GUYS. Holy shit. So basically she was an assassin for the HPSC, which we already knew, but somehow it’s one thing to know that, and another to actually see her running around capping dudes in the forehead and being covered in more blood than the elevator from The Shining. Anyway, so you’ll never believe it, but all that murder had a negative impact on her psychologically, and eventually led her to question everything she believed about hero society, and so she killed her creepy boss and was promptly sent to Tartarus. This extremely fun chapter ends with Overhaul showing up all “HI, HELLO, I’M STILL HERE”, because for some reason he is still here. Why are you still here, Overhaul.

“the beautiful Lady Nagant” oh you know your audience don’t you Horikoshi

well all right then! so I’m guessing this means that she is not, in fact, going to roll over and die just because Deku’s out here all “GOT YA!” like they’re playing a game or tag or something. ffff may the manga gods have mercy on our young suicidal protagonist

lmao so Deku is all “GOD I’M SO SMART, WHAT A GOOD STRATEGY I HAD, CAPITOL JOB THERE OL’ CHAP, CAPITOL” and lol, okay. I mean, it was a good plan though. but I’m still waiting for the other shoe to drop here

“I’ll make you give me information on All for One” well there you go, lol. Deku Angst arc still fully engaged. still no light in his eyes either of course. just a lil chaotic ball of sleep deprivation and rage

lol, fucking THANK YOU though

oh my god what the hell did she do to him lol

did she shoot him with her elbow??? fucking look at this?? THIS IS WHY WE LISTEN TO HAWKS oh my god Deku are you dead

WHAT’S HAPPENING, IS THIS GOOD OR BAD, WHO’S WINNING

things that I wish I could tell from this panel which I unfortunately cannot tell

did she stab him or shoot him?? can you imagine if it was the former lol. why does Horikoshi keep stabbing all my kids. look Kacchan now the two of you can match

did she actually hit him or did he get away??

or did she hit him and then he jumped away?? just, what

well anyway, so now Deku is asking her why she sided with AFO, but he seems a lot more pissed off than when he was interrogating Muscular, though. probably because she shot him three times. fair enough

oh my god

does Lady have a blog here on tumblr dot com?? -- does Horikoshi have a blog here on tumblr motherfucking dot com?? why do I suddenly feel like this man is out here sneakily reading up on all our discourse

oh my god Deku it’s almost like getting up close and personal with someone who can shoot custom bullets from any distance and any position with deadly accuracy was a terrible fucking idea

IF ONLY SOMEONE HAD WARNED YOU NOT TO ENGAGE WITH HER AT ALL COSTS. IF ONLY SOMEONE HAD HAD THE FORESIGHT TO DO THAT sob. can you imagine how much shorter this series would be if characters actually listened to Hawks. Hawks, and Momo. why do we even let anyone else run the show ever

OH MY GOD

DEKU, RUN

OH MY GOD WHAT IS HAPPENING

this looks a lot like what happens to me whenever I play One’s Justice. those fucking combo attacks that you can’t fucking escape from and so your character just has to stand there getting their ass whalloped repeatedly while you wonder why you paid $40 for this

but anyways though. so Lady who did you kill?? I bet they deserved it, don’t worry I forgive you

(ETA: ANYWAY SO FRIENDLY REMINDER THAT LADY NAGANT DID NOTHING WRONG EVER IN HER ENTIRE LIFE. aside from murdering all those innocent people and shit. but there were CIRCUMSTANCES, and THEY WERE EXTENUATING, OKAY.)

-- holy shit

looks like the HPSC arc is back on the menu boys

so are we about to learn that the HPSC was going full Hydra on people’s asses? secretly dispatching anyone they deemed a threat to society?? “taken care of” as in you fucking shot them??

so then was the “hero” she killed actually one of the guys who was giving or carrying out these orders?? holy shit Lady, up until now I’ve mainly just been stanning you for your flawless eyebrow game and metal af quirk, but this shit could actually get real very quickly, and I am prepared to genuinely and sincerely love the shit out of you depending on what we learn next about your backstory

oh my god?!?

so wait, hold up. am I reading this right?? basically the HPSC started murdering vigilantes because they were worried they were gaining too much of the public’s favor?? holy fucking shit???

oh my GOD oh my god

“it’s been a while since I scarred you all with the dead dog and the graphic slaughter of an entire innocent family, huh,” Horikoshi says thoughtfully. “anyway so what do you all think of my new creation, the Spaghetti Bullet.” well, Horikoshi, so you know that squished-up face that Kermit the Frog makes sometimes? yeah. that’s what I think, if you must know lol

holy hell the juxtaposition

I’m actually kind of surprised to learn she had a lot of fans? what with her M.O., I was expecting her to have been an underground hero like Aizawa, but apparently not? then again I still have absolutely no idea how any of that works. I really need to read Vigilantes already

oh snap

nothing like a sweet dose of assassin trauma to finally round out our BnHA Trauma Bingo!! well done guys, we finally collected all of the traumas! hooray!

noooo Ladyyyyyyy

holy shit what a fucking chapter. like, this man promised us an assassin, and went and fucking delivered. I was not expecting it to be this dark, lol, but holy shit I am here for it

you know, at some point you have to start questioning the logistics of this, though

I mean, how do I put this... her quirk isn’t exactly subtle. that murder scene from a few pages back looked like the first season of Dexter for fuck’s sake, that’s not exactly “disappearing” people now is it?? and I mean, her bullets are literally made from her own fucking hair; it seems like it would be impossible not to leave any evidence behind. did no one start to wonder who the fuck was going around murdering all these people? or did the people who asked too many questions wind up getting conveniently “disappeared” themselves??

and hey, speaking of asking too many questions

holy shit is he blackmailing her??!? or no, wait -- what the hell is he reaching for in his pocket boy you better not

(ETA: what exactly was this man expecting fdslkjd. “uh oh my unstoppable hair trigger assassin who is literally always armed is asking questions, better announce that I am going to shoot her and then reach into my pocket veeeeeery slowly while she stands there all of two feet away.” how did this guy ever function as the head of a shadow government with these decision-making skills, I’m genuinely baffled.)

OH MY GOD LADY YES

this. right here. is why “run the fuck away” was damn good solid fucking advice. oh shit. but my god did this dude have it coming

so wait lol has she just been narrating all of this out loud to Deku this entire time

okay but can we just stop for a moment and appreciate the fact that they’re having this deep conversation about the dark secrets of hero society right in the middle of their intense mid-air sniper free-for-all lol

holy shit you guys, Nagant’s the one that should have made the tell-all video. I mean, no offense to you, Dabi, I’m sure you worked very hard on your video and did a ton of crunches every day so that you would look good with your shirt off while you told the world all about how your dad was a jerk. but seriously...

this is already like 100x more convincing than what he put out. also, gasp, is it another flashback

yes it is oh my gosh

so the HPSC Chairladyperson whom ReDestro killed used to be this guy’s direct subordinate, huh? I wonder if she kept the whole assassin program going after she took over. can’t say I was feeling any particular kind of grieving way about her death before, but certainly not now lol

but unfortunately Nagant has finally lost me at the same place where all of the villains inevitably do, which is to say when they somehow make the dubious mental leap from “society sucks and is bad” to “let’s just be openly fucking evil lol, worth a shot.” because when heroes murder innocent people and cover it up, that’s obviously bad (and I mean, it absolutely fucking is lol, don’t get me wrong); but when villains murder innocent people straight up out in the open without giving a fuck, they’re righteous revolutionaries? just -- is there really no non-murdery middle ground here?? I guess that’s what Deku and co. are for, hopefully

anyways oh shit Deku seems to have spotted something?? and he’s doing something weird with Blackwhip what

oh, he spotted her, I guess

lmaooooo

new favorite Deku panel right here. a masterpiece

oh my god you guys our little boy is starting to grow up before our eyes

you love to see it. and you can tell with those elipses that he’s gearing up to say something really cool and determined and badass like the shounen protag he is, yes please, Deku ilu so much please do your thing

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

IS THAT A TEENY TINY LIL EYE SPARKLE THERE OMG. still not anywhere close to his usual standard, but that’s some clear resolve there in his eyes there at long last! it always shines the most clearly when he’s being true to himself and his ideals, so I love that it finally shows up again here, when he’s reaffirming his resolve to help others no matter what

uh oh so what’s Lady going to do now

is it time for a trump card?? kinda sounding like it’s time for a trump card

???

I lied btw, this is my new favorite Deku panel. but anyways what is she up to now lol

ohhhhhh, lol

why does she seem shocked, lol. here I thought this was part of her plan, but apparently she forgot all about ol’ “Look Ma, No Hands” back up there

and so I guess that’s it for this week! so we’ve learned basically everything now about Lady and her quirk and her history with the HPSC and why she agreed to work for AFO. pretty much the only question that still remains is why the hell she decided to drag this asshole along for the ride! because I still cannot figure that out dsklkjlkf

(ETA: actually now I’m kind of wondering if they maybe have some past connection we don’t know about yet. when exactly was Nagant sent to Tartarus? is it possible she was ordered to track down and kill Overhaul at some point before that, but never got around to it? or something else along those lines? idk but now I’m curious.)

anyways Deku, I know that your empathy has no bounds and that you’re on a “saving villains” kick right now, and good on you... but also, if you decide to just like, skip all of that shit just this once, absolutely no one will hold it against you, I’m just saying. just, all I’m asking here is maybe let’s think twice before we start trying to reform guys who imprison and torture little girls for profit. I think maybe that’s a good place to draw the line. next week is going to be a very interesting chapter lol

[handsmotif]

The Queercoding of Pinky and the Brain

This originally was just me infodumping to my friends on discord, but I decided it might be interesting to some people on here, so I polished it up and made it an actual essay lmao

To start, we’re going to break this into 2 sections -- the relationship between the mice, and Pinky’s relationship with gender, because queercoding doesn’t just mean gay!

For a 90′s show, Pinky and the Brain (and its mother show, Animaniacs) was very progressive for its time! But there were still lots of things that they couldn’t slip by censors, and thus, that’s where we have to read between the lines. And that is something I wanted to clarify here before we dive in, the actual meaning of queercoding. It’s NOT the same as queerbaiting. Queerbaiting is when the people producing certain media purposefully dangle the possibility of queer representation to lure in audiences (most prominent examples are BBC Sherlock, Riverdale, and Supernatural I GUESS? who knows abt that last one anymore), but never follow through, purely for profit. Queercoding is when media producers WANT to write in queer representation, but can’t, usually because the censors won’t let them. So, they must resort to subtext. (example: the policemen from Gravity Falls) It could also be unintentional, simply assigning certain characteristics associated with the LGBT community to characters. (example: Bugs Bunny, many Disney villains) Either way, it heavily relies on the audience picking up subtext, but whether it’s malicious or not varies, depending on the media. Bugs Bunny is an example of positive accidental queercoding, while a lot of Disney villains are negative examples.

Now, to actually discuss the gay little mice! Pinky and the Brain, whether it be intentional or not (based off comments from Maurice LaMarche, Rob Paulsen, and Tom Ruegger, signs strongly point to intentional, but it’s never been explicitly confirmed), is an example of positive queercoding.

There are many moments that I could pick out to discuss here, but we’ll start with some VERY on the nose gay metaphors. 

Remember Romy? If you don’t, that’s their actual biological son! Romy came about due to a cloning accident, where their DNA got combined and spat him out. 

There’s SO many things I could say about Romy. Every appearance he makes has an overarching gay metaphor as the plot. His first appearance in the episode Brinky (yeah it’s literally titled their ship name), it deals with his dads (WHICH I ALSO WANT TO POINT OUT, he DOES call them both dad, and they do both call him their son) disapproving of the fact that he wants to leave home and not follow in their footsteps of taking over the world. Brain even goes as far as disowning him whenever he tells him, which is certainly something a lot of queer people can unfortunately relate to. Also seen a lot in this episode is Pinky and Brain arguing even more than a married couple than usual, which pushes Romy away even further. Later, when Romy eventually does leave, and Brain starts to regret chasing him away, he tries desperately to reach out to him, but Romy doesn’t want anything to do with him. They end up tracking him down to an apartment building, where Romy is now living with his human girlfriend. When questioned about their relationship, the girlfriend, named Bunny, goes off on a tangent about how people shouldn’t judge others based on labels or relationships (hello?), and that Brain needs to be more tolerant. Brain apologizes and Romy forgives him. Happy ending.

Romy’s only other appearance is in the comics. Essentially, the plot of this one is that Brain wants to become the president of the local high school’s PTA, but he needs Romy’s help to make it look like he has a normal home life. He also enlists the help of Billie, the obligatory Woman introduced to make sure Brain doesn’t look as gay as he actually is, that he has a crush on. She pretends to be his girlfriend, and Pinky pretends to be Romy’s uncle, while they make up the story that Romy’s actual mother was lost at sea. Because if the organization found out that Brain has a son with a MAN??? THINK of the controversy! Anyway, the plan works, and Brain actually manages to get elected as president. Throughout this though, Pinky gets WEIRDLY jealous that Brain keeps brushing him aside for Billie. To the point where during Brain’s inauguration, Pinky actually dresses up as the wife/mother lost at sea and storms into the room.

[ID: Comic panels of Pinky, Brain, and Romy on stage at the inauguration ceremony. Pinky busts into room wearing drag, saying, “Yoo hoo! I’m back from years lost at sea to be with my son and ungrateful husband! Narf!” He then hugs Romy, while glaring at Brain. He goes on to say, “I’ll stand by your side, even though you left me behind!” The people in the audience begin to question this, saying, “Oh great fuzzy bangs!”, “What’d she say?!”, “He deserted her to be with that other woman!”, “What kind of monster is he?!”. Brain then rips off Pinky’s wig and says, “This isn’t my wife! This isn’t even a woman! It’s my roommate, Pinky.” Pinky replies, “Well, yes... But Romy really is my son! Poit!” And Brain responds, “N-Nonsense! He’s my son!” More people in the audience angrily speak up, saying, “What’s that?”, “He lives with a guy who likes to dress up in women’s clothing and the both claim to be that kid’s father!”, “Grumble! Mutter!” /END ID]

Needless to say, this doesn’t end well for them. What we can conclude from this is that homophobia exists in the Pinky and the Brain universe, and our characters are directly affected by it.

Moving on, And-There-Was-Only-One-Bed is a pretty common occurrence with these two. Their cage is big, they have plenty of room for two beds, but? They choose to sleep together? Even in some times where this has been inconsistent and they DO have separate beds, they’re always RIGHT next to each other. (what if we put our minecraft beds together ❤😳)

I would like to mention the episode, You’ll Never Eat Food Pellets In This Town Again! This episode is interesting to say the least. Deals with a lot of the meta of the show. Anyway. In this episode, Brain has a nightmare that he’s in a loveless marriage with Billie. You know, the woman he’s supposed to have a crush on. In the end, he wakes up from the nightmare in the same bed as Pinky.

Speaking of female love interests, Pinky is seen having multiple relationships with characters of different species. Any time this is brought up by Brain, Pinky counters with Brain being too intolerant. An honorable mention with this is in Wakko’s Wish, when Pinky is with Pharfignewton, and Brain’s constant pestering about their relationship could be read as jealousy. Pinky needs a mousy date, after all!

Something else I would like to mention is in one episode (I forget what it’s called, I’ll try to look it up later and edit this), Brain is applying for a job. The employer asks Brain if he’s married, and Brain hesitates before saying he “has a roommate,” but that he’s occupied with his own things, which then cuts to a shot of Pinky applying lipstick.

Leading into part two of this essay, Pinky’s relationship with gender! Pinky has always been very gender nonconforming, and loves to wear dresses, do his makeup, and make himself look pretty. For the most part, this is played pretty straight, and not as a gag, like a lot of shows tend to do! It’s just a casual fact about him that he likes to present femininely sometimes.

This does play into their taking over the world plans pretty often, where Pinky wears drag, usually either to sneak into somewhere. Like in one of their earliest appearances on Animaniacs, Noah’s Lark, where they pose as a couple to board Noah’s, and I quote, “love boat.” After boarding, Noah says to himself, “Who am I to judge?” Okay. Yeah. Alright. Anyway.

I actually had less to say on this than I thought I did, but I wanted to make sure to emphasize that Pinky at the very least is coded as being Not Quite Cis, and that he’s played a key part in helping a lot of people watching the show figure out that they’re also Not Quite Cis. 

Wrapping this up because I’m hungry, but I want to throw in some more honorable mentions that I really do not see any type of cishet explanations for:

They literally go on a romantic date at a very fancy restaurant in Brain’s Night Off. This is played extremely casually, and the only remark from anyone that they receive is that they are “much smaller than the usual clients.”

Pinky, on at least one occasion, daydreams about him and Brain being a married couple, and wanting to be a housewife (the original malewife ❤)

There’s an issue in the comics where Pinky has a crush on another male mouse, and when Brain gets annoyed, Pinky reassures him that he thinks Brain is cute and quite the catch too

Brain attempting to kiss Pinky in the reboot??????

Brain actually did conquer the world once in the Halloween special, because Pinky made a deal with the devil for it, and thus Pinky got sent to hell! Brain actually went to hell and gave up the world to bring him back

Brain was extremely close to conquering the world once more in the Christmas special, but after reading what Pinky’s feelings for him were (nothing romantic, just Pinky basically just praising Brain for being so hardworking and an amazing mouse, and lamenting that he never gets anything for it), he gets so emotional that he sabotages himself and wishes everyone a Merry Christmas instead

TLDR; these mice are very queer and need therapy, and are probably the most heavily queercoded characters that I can think of in children’s media.

[sachertortes]

Cute!

Here’s a little ficlet that was supposed to be done in time for the Darcy Lewis Bingo for the prompt ‘Cute!’. I plead oopsie-daisies 🙃

Pairing: Bucky x Darcy

Rating: T, for comic book violence.

________

A camera shakily focused on a snarling Hulk reaching for a black work van. The panels dented ominously under his green, meaty fingers. The wide eyes of a balaclava-clad man could be seen before Hulk smashed the entire vehicle into a light pole. It crumpled like paper from the middle.

“Oooh,” Darcy winced, as the news switched to an aerial view. “That’s not gonna buff out.

From behind her Jane supplied, “Think of the paperwork, Bruce!”

She and Jane were on their way to lunch when the flatscreens in the lobby began playing cable news footage of the latest skirmish. Luckily, it wasn’t taking place in a busy street downtown but a business park.The Avengers were taking out a cell of bio-terrorist wannabees and going by the explosions and structural damage, they weren’t going down without making some noise.

Steve, immediately recognizable in his blue and white uniform, was fighting some ‘roided up goon with tattoos spidering up his neck. The goon managed to free himself from Steve’s grasp and bared his teeth, pulling a gun out of his holster. Steve prepared to block with the shield.

Then Bucky Barnes appeared, deftly grabbing the gun out of his hand and in a swift movement pistol whipped him before he could reach for his other weapon. A spray of blood and what looked like teeth followed. Bucky watched him crumple to the ground and gave a tiny feral smile.

The feed cut back to the studio where a nervous, wavery-voice anchor was telling the audience that parental guidance was advised for the “violent nature of the footage”.

“Jaaaane,” Darcy whined. She bit her lip, not taking her eyes off the screen. “I want one.”

Jane let out a bark of laughter. “A Barnes?”

“Yep. So cute!”

In somewhat fuzzy footage, Bucky Barnes glanced at the camera, his dark blue tac jacket undone at the top and his arm glinting with menace. He had a gnarly cut on his brow, soot on his face, and someone else’s blood smeared on his jaw.

Darcy stared back, enraptured.

From behind him, a guy the size of a linebacker lunged but Bucky turned at the last second and punched him straight through a concrete barrier five-feet away.

“Cuuuuuute,” she reiterated, head tipped to the side, sighing dreamily.

From behind her, Jane made a choked sound.

“Do not even judge me, Foster,” Darcy lobbed back, eyes still glued to the screen. “You slept with a dude who can take out an entire city block with one hammer throw.”

It wasn’t that Darcy had a thing for bad boys. She had a thing for handsome boys who sleepily chatted with her over morning coffee in the communal room, winked at her when she got a good zinger in during weekly meetings, and shyly asked her for recommendations for specialty kibble for his cat.

And then when confronted with a fringe terrorist group threw knives like a bad boy.

There was a difference.

“God, you just know he’s good with his hands,” Darcy added, as Bucky executed some impressive knife flips, ready for the next round.

“Ohmygod, Darcy!”

“What?!” Darcy spun around to defend her stupid little crush when she realized that she was talking to someone’s broad chest instead.

“Hey, Darcy,” Bucky said. Darcy shot her gaze upwards into his bemused stare.

“Well, that’s my cue!” Jane exclaimed from beside the aforementioned not-so-bad-boy-crush. She gave Darcy a knowing grin. “I’m taking my lunch break.”

“Jane!” she exclaimed, eyes widening in the universal ‘help me!’ gesture.

“Bye!” Jane cackled in return, not at all helping. She made a beeline for the door.

Darcy’s face was flaming. Even her eyeballs felt hot. She wanted very much to be anywhere else and god, was that sweat she felt trickling down the back of her neck?

“So, um…this isn’t live,” Darcy squeaked.

Bucky smirked, eyes flicking briefly to the on-screen carnage still happening behind her.

“Nope.”

“Oh. Okay. Um.” She blinked and took in the cut on his eyebrow and the forming bruise on his cheekbone. His hair still had flecks of dust and rubble in it. “Are you okay?”

“I’m peachy, doll. Just gotta shower off this grime then I can meet you back down here for lunch.”

Wait. What. She was hearing Barnes’ words, but she couldn’t be sure her brain was putting them together correctly.

“Lunch?”

Bucky ran his metal hand over the back of his head, cutting a quick glance to the floor. “I mean…looks like Foster’s taken off so I thought you might want to get a bite to eat. With me.”

“Like…a date?”

“Yeah, like a date.”

“Okay, yeah! I mean I’d love to. Have lunch.”

At her continued bewildered expression, he leaned into to whisper into her ear conspiratorially, “I think you’re cute, too.”

[zaffrenotes]

[TRR: WD106] Avoiding A Blunder

Summary: Prince Liam has to fill in for Crown Prince Leo, and Murphy’s Law is put into motion at the end of his trip. Chaos ensues, condensed Wacky Drabble style. Fic Rating/Warning: M; alcohol consumption, minor health/medical emergency, anxiety/angst Author’s Note: All main characters belong to Pixelberry/The Royal Romance, I’m just borrowing them * Fictional versions of IRL individuals are included with affection; any other characters mentioned in this piece are my creation * This is my submission for @wackydrabbles Prompt 106: You’re gonna get us busted! * You have @the-soot-sprite and @ao719 to thank for this ridiculousness, lol - Soot reblogged a photo, Betsy sent me this request

and...this is what my brain came up with (PS - thank you both for the movie discussion) * For the purposes of this story, Triydalia is a fictional country that shares a border with Thailand * Word Count: 1999 😅 (7 minutes reading time)

Taglist (if your name is crossed out, I'll tag you in the comments): @/ao719 @burnsoslow @gkittylove99 @neotericthemis @ofpixelsandscribbles @rainbowsinthestorm @superharriet @/the-soot-sprite @choiceskatie @jaqren @aestheticartsx @bbrandy2002 @dcbbw @gnatbrain @jared2612 @kingliam2019 @ladyangel70 @lovingchoices14 @nestledonthaveone @princessleac1 @queenjilian @sfb123 @texaskitten30 @theroyalheirshadowhunter @yourmajesty09

Liam was used to filling in for Leo at a moment’s notice; participating in conference calls with ambassadors for early morning updates when Leo overslept, and attending meetings with ministers when Leo went AWOL. He’d grown accustomed to his brother’s antics, but he wondered how Bastien managed to keep his position, when he’d lost track of Leo’s whereabouts countless times.

While Leo spent more time avoiding his duties as Crown Prince of Cordonia, Liam dutifully took on the extra responsibilities in stride. It often meant partitioning his already packed schedule to sit in on vital cabinet meetings or dining with visiting dignitaries, but sometimes Leo’s vanishing acts gave Liam the opportunity to travel.

Though their ambassadors handled the majority of day-to-day relations with other countries for trade, Constantine preferred to meet face-to-face when he could. One such time, a lingering cough turned to walking pneumonia, restricting Constantine to as much bed rest as possible. It also meant sending Leo to Japan for a meeting with the Prime Minister in his stead.

It would have been fine, if Leo hadn’t pulled another one of his disappearing acts.

--

A week later, Liam was seated on the royal jet on his way back from Tokyo, navy attache with espresso brown leather trim in the chair next to him. Across from him, Maxwell chatted with Anya over various Thai dishes. On the other side of the plane, Drake was in a heated discussion with leggy blonde Anitah while the ladies’ petite friend Donna observed in silence, fighting back a grin. “You’re an imbecile if that’s your opinion,” Anitah declared, raising her hands up in the air. “Are you sure that’s the hill you wanna die on?”

Drake smugly sipped from the crystal tumbler in his hand. “I’m right and you know it.”

“What are you two talking about?” Liam asked, relieved to think about anything other than what was in the bag and why it was so important he hand deliver it to his father.

“Fight Club being a better cinematic masterpiece than The Princess Bride,” Drake replied. “You guys agree, right? If you could only watch one movie for the rest of your life, you’d want to watch Tyler Durden fight the system instead of some…” he paused to sneer at Anitah, who crossed her arms and stuck out her tongue at him, “...story about a swashbuckler rescuing a princess? She’s not even a real princess!”

“Fight Club is such a guy movie though,” Anya argued, turning in her seat to face Drake. “Princess Bride appeals to men and women, with a much larger audience.”

“Okay, that’s two for Buttercup,” Drake sighed. “Maxwell? Li?” He looked at his friends expectantly.

“Fight Club, definitely,” Maxwell said, nodding his head. He’d spent the better part of the trip doing everything to get into Drake’s good graces after the octopus incident on the first night in Tokyo.

Before Liam could respond, a commotion from the front of the plane made everyone’s heads turn, where a pair of Kings Guards and two flight attendants were seated near the galley. One of the guards slipped into the cockpit, rushing out a moment later in Liam’s direction, as the jet slowly tilted to the right. “Apologies, Your Highness. Do you or any of your guests happen to speak Triydalian?”

Anya slowly raised her hand. “I knew a bit when I was a kid, but I haven’t used it in years.”

The guard motioned for her to join him. “Please come with us, miss. The pilots need a translator.”

“Is everything alright, Remy?” Liam peered past the guard, eyes widening at the sight of the other guard and one attendant hovering in front of the other attendant in a chair.

“We need to land the plane, Sir,” Remy answered, ushering Anya up from her seat. “Ramona passed out. She’s breathing but unresponsive.”

--

Twenty minutes later and after a jarring landing, they’d arrived at a small airport in the Republic of Triydalia, at the edge of one of the country’s many jungle forests. Calling it an airport was generous - it was more of a cleared dirt path in the middle of the jungle with a shack for an airport tower, and a man that looked like more of a hunter than an air traffic controller. After a choppy conversation that required pantomiming and hand signals, Anya left with Remy and the man from the tower to fetch a tribal doctor, while Anitah and Donna assisted the other member of the cabin crew to look after Ramona. They were warned to remain as quiet as possible and to stay inside the jet.

Minutes passed by in tense observation; Anitah and Drake continued their debate in low whispers, growing louder as they defended their choices. Liam could see the pilots discussing something pointedly as they checked readings on the instrument panel and worked on calculations. One of them stepped out, claiming that he needed to stretch his legs, and walked cautiously down the runway. When he returned, the other pilot joined him outside, despite the original warning to stay inside. Liam peered out the windows and checked his watch, worrying about Anya and Remy, along with his father’s instructions to avoid delaying their return.

While the remaining guard headed towards the back of the plane to pace back and forth for the eighth time, Liam took it upon himself to speak with the pilots. The air was thick and stifling the moment he stepped outside. Around them, there was nothing but green, green, and more green from the wilderness that surrounded them, abuzz with tropical birds and insects. At his side he carried the blue attache, remembering the promise to his father that the bag wouldn’t leave his sight. He spoke in a hushed tone when he approached the pilots. “You’re doing more than just stretching your legs, aren’t you, Captain?”

Both men grimaced slightly. “Yes, Your Highness. Even if we pulled back to one end of the runway, we’re still at least five hundred feet short of clearing takeoff.”

“What if we worked to try and clear the brush on either end?” Liam offered, looking off into the distance.

“There’s no way to clear out the trees, even the young ones,” the co-captain answered. “We might be able to take off if we could drop some weight, but the larger concern is the longer we wait, we increase the risk of encountering someone who doesn’t want us here.”

Liam nodded gravely; months of civil unrest in Triydalia meant rebel groups assembled faster than the government could contain them. There was no guarantee of anyone’s safety, stranded on a remote runway. There was no telling what was wrong with Ramona while she was unconscious, and therefore no way to treat her without the aid of a doctor. Ensuring the safety of the crew and his friends could have been avoided altogether if Leo didn’t constantly opt out of handling the duties of his station. In that moment, Liam abhorred the never-ending list of responsibilities thrust at him as a result of having to pick up the slack for his brother, knowing if their roles were reversed, Leo would manage to find a way to leave Liam to solve problems on his own.

“Could you excuse me for a moment?”

He’d barely finished asking the question before walking into the tall grass by the edge of the runway. Ignoring the pilots’ calls to return, Liam sprinted into the dense greenery, dodging between vines and scanning the ground for tripwires until he could no longer see the plane over his shoulder. When he finally stopped running, he bent over, hands on his knees as he gulped in air. Liam looked down at the blue bag in his hand, wondering what on earth was so precious to reduce him to a courier.

Shaking the bag did nothing; it felt practically empty, though he could tell something was inside. He couldn’t open the bag to check, since Prime Minister Abe and his father were the only ones with keys, and PM Abe handed him the sealed bag when they parted ways. Liam wanted to throw the infernal “murse” the ladies had good-naturedly teased him for into the bushes. Perspiration dotted his hairline, and he let out a primal scream, before taking slow, deep breaths to quiet the worrisome thoughts racing in his head and bring his heartbeat down to normal.

Cursed courier bag in his right hand, Liam braced his arm against his torso, pinning it in place with his elbow when he bent his other arm up towards his face. Curling his fingers into a relaxed fist, he pressed his lips against his thumb, thick brows furrowing in thought. All around him, wild birds called to one another amidst the chittering clamor of insects hidden in the foliage. He was so busy running through scenarios in his head that he didn’t hear the quiet click of a camera, turning to look up only when he heard a branch snap in the distance.

“Watch it! You’re gonna get us busted!” Donna hissed to Drake. She pocketed her phone, elbowing Drake in the ribs as they crouched behind large leaves. She ticked her head in Liam’s direction. “Go get your boy, none of us are safe out here.”

After some coaxing, Liam headed back to the plane with Donna and Drake, walking briskly through the jungle, eyes trained to look for anything out of the ordinary. Liam was alarmed when he heard and then saw the engines running, until Drake explained the pilots were burning off fuel to lighten the plane. They’d begun to walk up the steps, when Maxwell popped out above them. “Whoo!” Maxwell exclaimed, digging for another snack from the container he cradled in his arm. “Feels like a sauna out here!”

“Lower your voice, Maxwell! Please!” Liam seethed. His features pinched together in disbelief. “Are you...eating? Now?”

“You know I stress snack,” Maxwell replied, shrugging his shoulders. He shoved another cookie into his mouth.

Liam’s eyes lit up and he took the stairs two by two, knocking on the cockpit door before swinging it open. “What if we unloaded whatever’s not bolted down? The decor, dinnerware, the food and drink?”

“That...would certainly help,” the captain replied, looking back over his shoulder. He turned to his co-pilot. “It could be enough to get in the air after burning off the excess fuel.”

“You heard the man, Maxwell,” Liam said, offering his friend a nervous grin. “Get Drake to help you start unloading the plane. Has Ramona’s status changed?”

“Donna found the first aid kit just before she took off with Drake to go after you. Anitah found some smelling salts that gave her a rude wakeup call. Turns out her insulin pump shorted and she just needed some juice.”

Several more minutes passed as the group removed whatever they could from the plane, leaving piles of cookware, food, throw pillows, and even seat cushions to lighten the load. Drake whined when they gathered up the liquor, but he stuffed a bottle of whiskey in a cabinet by his seat. They’d nearly finished when Anya and Remy returned, running on foot. “That thing better be ready to take off!” Anya hollered, motioning for everyone to board. “Rebels on our tail! Time to go!”

Everyone scrambled back onto the plane; Liam relayed the urgency to depart to the pilots, who rapidly went through their flight checklist. Remy pulled Anya up onto the steps and they all clamored to buckle into their seats, the sound of gunfire in the air as the jet rolled forward and lurched up into the air, barely clearing the canopy.

Adrenaline pumping and breaths shallow, Liam looked around at his friends and the crew, thankful they were safely in the air again.

--

Liam thought he was having a stroke at twenty-four when he saw the contents of the bag. Constantine smiled with glee at the small gold cat, one paw raised.

[duuhrayliegh]

Fuck Misogyny

request: Bucky uses his newly gained knowledge of feminism to squash misogynistic interview questions. @ptrs-prkrs

warnings: language, creepy men, feminist!bucky

a/n: hey babes!! i hope this lived up to what you wanted! i couldn’t find the exact video you were referencing but i know what you’re talking about, so i drew inspiration from a few others.

p.s.: my requests and tag lists are open!!

xoxo ray

full m.list

The set up was simple. A long row of fold out tables covered in black fabric, microphones in front of each seat. Black papers were taped to the backs of the microphones with each team member's name. Bucky had told Evie that he wasn’t going to be able to work out with her today because of this so it better be worth it. The PR manager for the team, Amanda, had set everything up. Hired the mediator, notified the press, everything. Ever since they announced that they were going to be hosting an Avenger’s Q&A Panel, the internet quite literally broke.

Of course Bucky had been doing lives on TikTok with the group of five for the past couple of weeks now, so he was becoming quite comfortable in this format. He’s become increasingly active on his social media accounts, gaining more and more followers everyday. Granted, there were still haters, as Freddie called them, but Bucky ignored them for the most part.

Bucky was actually excited for this press meeting. He was finally gaining traction in the media and he knew how to correctly answer their questions. As Amanda had explained, there was going to be several questions from the mediator, tons from the press that they had invited, and then some fan questions as well. They apparently were going to be live streaming the conference on YouTube allowing them to read the comments and questions as it went on.

“Okay, everyone. You have two minutes until we start.” The team was in an empty board room in the Hilton hotel. Tony didn’t want everyone on the compound’s grass because he just had it fixed. Bucky scanned his fellow teammates. It was impossible for everyone to dress for the same event. Steve was wearing a shirt that was almost bursting at the seams with a pair of jeans and sneakers.

Tony was wearing a lovely Tom Ford, three piece, two-button, of course. Natasha and Wanda were wearing ripped jeans and casual tops. Vision was wearing a sweater vest and slacks, Bruce was clad in slacks as well a jacket covering his shoulders. Sam was wearing a button-up shirt and pressed jeans and he couldn’t find Clint anywhere, probably hiding in the rafters again.

Bucky had his iconic leather jacket donning his shoulders, a pair of slightly ripped jeans. His outfit was picked out by Cassie and Penny. “You need to look like you care but like you don’t at the same time.” Is what they said, the phrase made Bucky shake his head. His hair had finally started growing back and he wasn’t quite sure how he felt about it.

He had gotten help from Evie before he left Cassie’s apartment. She had pulled back the top half, braiding back two sections into the bun at the back of his head. There were pieces dangling in front of his eyes, “to accentuate the facial features, trust me they’ll love it.” Was Evie’s explanation as they pushed him out of the apartment, so he wouldn’t be late.

“Alright guys! They’re calling your names!” The team filed out of the board room and into a large ballroom. Bottles of water were placed beside each placemat. Tony went out first, followed by Steve, then Bruce, Natasha, Clint, Wanda, Vision, Sam and ending with Bucky. They all settled into their seats, Bucky peeled his jacket off himself, placing it on the back of his chair. His black short sleeved shirt highlighted the gold inlays of his vibranium arm.

“Oh, I see we’re showing some muscle today huh, Buck?” Sam teased as Bucky took his seat next to him. Bucky groaned in realization, covering his microphone so it didn’t pick up what he planned to say.

“Good God, is this what it’s going to be like the entire panel? You just bugging the shit outta me?” They shared a laugh making the rest of the members look at the pair. The audience clapped as they were introduced and continued clapping as they assembled before them.

“Thank you. We would like to welcome everyone to the first, of hopefully many, Avenger’s Q&A Panel.” The female mediator, Stacey, read the assigned lines off the sheet on her podium. “We are going to start with questions we curated for the team and then open it up to the members of the press. After that we will turn to our live stream and answer some viewer questions.” The press rustled in their seats, pulling out pens and journals as well as their phones to record. “Okay, starting off with a question directed at the Avengers in general. How are you feeling about coming before the media in this type of format?” Glances were exchanged between the members, not sure on who was going to start.

“I feel that this is a great way for the general public to learn a little bit more about each individual team member.” Vision was the first to respond and Steve added on.

“Yeah, I definitely think that there’s a common misconception that we don’t want to engage with the media or the general public. We do, unfortunately due to the amount of research and training that we are doing behind the scenes, it just goes to the back of our minds.”

“Right. So Tony and Bruce, we all know that you two are geniuses. What are your feelings on expanding the teachings of STEM courses to not only high school, but as far back as elementary school or even kindergarten?” The pair thought about the question before answering.

“Well, I definitely think that offering STEM-based classes at a younger age would be beneficial, especially if we were to allow the kids to continue to switch what they want to focus on.” Bruce started. “It’s incredibly anxiety-inducing for teenagers to have to decide what they’re going to do with their life right before they are thrust into an unforgiving world.”

“Yeah, I’ll never understand why we do that to our future leaders, it’s honestly baffling. Why do American schools wait until high school to require our children to learn foriegn languages, they aren’t going to retain that information. The same applies for such comprehensive courses like STEM-based ones. If you wait until their brains are already developed so far, then they’ve already decided what they think is interesting and if they don’t find those courses interesting then they aren’t going to pay attention.” Tony finished Bruce's thought before nodding to each other smugly, obviously proud of themselves for answering the question so well.

“Interesting that you see it that way. This last one goes out to everyone and then we’ll open it up to the reporters. How do you deal with the stress and anxiety that comes with being an Avenger? Do you feel a certain amount of pressure to always do the right thing?” Stacey shuffled her papers, tapping them twice on the podium.

“We all have our own routines and ways that we decompress after missions so that really just depends on the person. Like I think that Bruce listens to opera music, and Wanda mediatates, Tony tinkers. It depends on the person.” Natasha answered concisely, making Bucky nod his head. He could recall all of those things to be true.

“Oh definitely, and it doesn’t hurt that we have a former VA Trauma Counselor on board to help us work through the harder stuff.” Steve added a gesture of his head to Sam.

“Speaking of that Sam, just a quick question before we open it up. How difficult was it for you to transition from regular Air Force missions to Avenger level missions?” Sam made a face at Stacey before answering.

“Um, I mean, it’s not that different. You’re always fighting one of the Big Three-- aliens, androids, or wizards, no matter what department you’re working with. The only transition I had to deal with was the Tony Stark-erized suits. Now that I think of it, Tony, can we make it tighter?” Sam quipped making the room laugh with ease.

“Alright, well now we’re going to open it up to the reporters. Starting with this gentleman in the front and then if we could also give a microphone to someone on that side of the room. Okay, thank you.” The first reporter stood up, holding the microphone in one hand and his phone in the other.

“Hello. John from Huffington Post. The Avengers inspire almost everyone around the world, so we would like to know who inspires you? Who do you look up to in terms of your idols?” He sat back down as the team contemplated their answers.

“Gandhi.” Bruce said, Tony snapped his fingers and pointed at him then added. “Pepper, she’s so amazing.” Steve looked down to Bucky, who shrugged.

“I would probably have to say that my sister, Sarah, inspires me. She raised her two sons, Cas and AJ, by herself after the Blip and was able to keep the family business going.” Sam’s answer made Bucky smile. Sam had brought him to their house in Delacroix, he remembered waking up to Cas and AJ playing in the kitchen, happy giggles filtering through reminding him of his time in Wakanda. By the time that Bucky had refocused on the conversation they had moved on without his answer. Several different questions went by, all directed to the team at large, until Chad.

“Hi, I’m Chad for the Daily Mail. My question is for Wanda and Natasha.” The pair of women perked up, excited to have a specific question. “Do you find that your equipment hinders you in doing your job as well as your male counterparts?” Stunned expressions settled over the womens faces, then annoyance. Bucky’s brows shot up to his hairline, appalled that someone had the balls to ask that. Wanda and Natasha handled the question with grace and much more restraint than Bucky would have.

“Well for me, I am able to move things with my mind so I can throw things randomly at people even if I’m not in the room. I’ve been very fortunate to work with Natasha who has Widow training, so my hand to hand combat is improving immensely. And being able to work with Princess Shuri in Wakanda to learn how to fully control my powers. It’s an ever evolving process that I’m always excited to take on.” Bucky nodded and turned his attention to Natasha.

“My favorite thing is training with either Steve or Bucky because they push me to do my best. We all have our specialties here and it’s nice to learn new skills or improve old ones with people who support you.” Natasha sat back in her chair, crossing her arms over her chest, throwing daggers with her eyes at Chad in the audience, waiting for him to say something else. Chad stood again, yelling so he could be heard over the crowd’s commotion.

“That’s great, ladies, but forgive me, you didn’t answer the question I asked.” Bucky pushed forward in his seat, leaning into his microphone.

“I’m sorry, I think I misunderstood what you asked them then. I would like for you to clarify what you mean by equipment.” Chad balked, not expecting a male’s voice to respond.

“You know what’s implied by equipment, sir.” Bucky’s jaw clenched at the man.

“Did you just ask two of the most capable women that I’ve ever known, if their equipment, which I’m assuming you’re referring their breasts, made it to where they couldn’t do their job as good as the rest of their male counterparts. Just to be clear, that’s what you’re asking?” Chad stuttered as he answered yes.

“Right, well first off that’s disgusting. Just a bit of background for you, Wanda is the strongest Avenger here, plain and simple. As for Natasha, she’s the smartest woman I’ve ever met and she can take down every single male here.” Bucky took a breath before continuing. “So, what I think you really want to know is how they encourage their teammates to keep up with them.” He dropped his head to look at the two women down the line.

“Don’t worry Chad, I’ll ask them the right question, since you can’t quite seem to understand how to respect women.” The team was holding back snickers at Chad’s reaction. “Wanda, Natasha. Chad wants to know how the hell you push your male teammates to be just as good as you are. What are your strategies to keep us on our toes while training?” Claps sounded from the women press members and Bucky awaited the pair's response. The next press member stood and asked a question.

“Hi, I’m Chloe from Vanity Fair. This question goes to everyone on the panel.” Bucky settled in for another question that didn’t matter. “How do you continue to be aware of things happening in our society today? Do you keep up-to-date through new channels, or social media?” The answers were rather generic from the team, all of them rather uncomfortable from the tension that Bucky and Chad had created. Stacey interrupted after Chloe’s question.

“Okay, we’re going to open it up to viewer questions from our live stream.” An iPad was placed on the podium in front of Stacey and her eyebrows rose. “Okay, there’s quite a variety here. Here’s one for Steve and Bucky.” Bucky perked up, nervous to answer because his adrenaline had worn off.

“One viewer asks, ‘Steve and Bucky, being from the 40’s, women were treated like second thoughts and were talked about like objects. Now, you’re in the 21st century, not much has changed. What have you been doing to support feminist causes?’”

“I just want to say that everyone should be answering this. It’s true that during the 40’s women were not treated the right way, and they still aren’t today. An 18 year old can’t walk down the street at nine o’clock at night without being catcalled. I am a proud feminist, as everyone should be. I think that as a team we are doing pretty well in that department. As far as what I’m doing to support feminist causes, I’m doing as much as I can. I actually recently enrolled in online classes to expand my knowledge on many subjects, seeing as how I am from the 40’s and all.” The crowd laughed along with Bucky.

“Almost all of my classes have to do with either psychology or gender studies, it’s a fascinatingly haunting subject. One book that I’m reading right now was suggested to me by my friend Cassie, it’s called Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women that a Movement Forgot. The author doesn’t let up and I’m only halfway through it. Look, I’m still educating myself, but I’m a strong believer in doing what is right for everyone, so I’m trying. Thankfully I have a few people keeping me in check as far as my actions.” Bucky thought his response was well thought out for being an on the fly question. He was new to the concept of feminism but that didn’t change the fact that it made total sense.

“I’m with Bucky on this. The 40’s were a rough time. I remember the first time I met Peggy Carter, I was astonished that a woman could be in such a powerful position. One of the first things she did after I met her was punch out someone who made a sexual comment to her. I’ve been supporting feminist causes ever since working with Peggy.” Steve added, a sad smile spreading on his face reminiscing Peggy.

“This one says, ‘As a total fan of all of you, I love seeing what you post on your social media accounts. When are the rest of the Avengers going to follow Bucky’s lead and download TikTok?’” Bucky’s head flew back into a full body laugh. Tony shifted forward in his seat, pointing his finger at the laughing man down the table.

“I would just like to say he didn’t get that approved before doing it. However, it did go over really well, so we’ll consider it.” Wanda’s mouth rolled inwards, stifling her laughter.

“We’ll consider it, you’re such an old man. Most of us have TikTok already, we just don’t make content on it like Barnes over here.” Sam said, tossing his head in Bucky’s direction.

“I’ve got like three videos on there!” Bucky and Sam began bantering back and forth.

“Yeah and one of them is dancing to a Cardi B song! Who even showed you that? I thought you only like 40’s music?” Bucky made a face at the man.

“Uh, just because I didn’t like your suggestions for music doesn’t mean I don’t have taste. My Spotify playlist is filling out quite nicely, Wilson.” Bucky and Sam didn’t quit fighting from then on, just little jabs at each other under the table.

“Here’s a good one,” Stacey had a smile on her face, “Are you allies of the LGBTQ+ community?” Bucky responded quickly with no hesitation.

“Yes, many of my friends are members of the Alphabet Mafia. Why wouldn’t we be?” Wanda nodded at his question, laughing at his use of the phrase Alphabet Mafia.

“Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I’m dating a fucking android, I’d be pretty hypocrictal if I wasn’t an ally. Nat, Clint what about you?” Clint bobbed his head in response.

“Oh yeah. We all are, even the Star Spangled Man with a Plan.” Steve’s shoulders shook with laughter at Clint’s nickname for him. The team broke out into laughter, joining Steve. Stacey cleared her throat, commanding the attention of the room again.

“Alright, everybody! That’s it for today.” She glanced down at her papers. “We would like to thank everyone for coming out today and joining the Avengers Q&A Panel. At this time we are unaware, if we will be conducting another one of these, but the odds look good based on the response.” The team filed out of the ballroom and into the empty boardroom. Bucky was the last to get into the room and he was approached by Natasha and Wanda immediately. Wanda wrapped her arms around him in a bear hug.

“That was so sick, Bucky!” She stepped back and Natasha offered him a side hug as well. “Where’d you learn all that? And since when are you taking online classes?”

“That guy was being an asshole, he needed to be put in his place. I hope you guys didn’t feel like I overstepped or anything.” Bucky hung his arm over Wanda’s shoulder, leaning his weight on her. “And I started about two months ago. They’re going really well, I’m learning a lot and enjoying it surprisingly. It’s a good thing to do in my free time since I’m not always on missions.”

“I’m proud of you James, that was impressive.” Natasha complimented him, she wasn’t usually a woman of many words so that was a lot. Bucky smiled at her, nodding his head. His phone began buzzing in his back pocket, so he excused himself from their conversation. His screen displayed one of Evie’s senior pictures, signalling that she was calling him. He pushed the green button and brought the phone to his ear to answer her call.

“Hello?” She ignored his greeting with a squeal.

“Check your Twitter! Bucky, you’re trending! Here I’m putting you on speaker, we’re all here Buck!” Shuffling noises were heard through the speaker as Evie began reading the tweets to Bucky. Laughs from Cassie, Freddie and Penny could be heard behind Evie’s voice.

“Oh my gosh Eve! Just let the man get back to what he was doing!” Freddie yelled at an excited Evie, who retaliated with a scoff.

“Okay, okay! Just remember we have a movie night tomorrow! It’s Penny’s turn to pick so we don’t know what to expect.” Evie mumbled the last part into her phone speaker. Bucky heard the impact of a pillow hit Evie, causing her to grunt in pain. “Okay! We’ll talk to you later, Buck! See you soon!” She hung up the phone before he could get a word in edgewise. Bucky shook his head as he shoved his phone back into his pocket. Amanda approached Bucky asking to speak with him privately.

“So we’re getting a flood of interview requests from networks and papers. We would like to start running with this. We’ll have to go over everything with our PR guy, Ryan, but it should work out. As long as you’re comfortable with all of this.” Bucky smiled and nodded, following after Amanda as she continued explaining what would happen going forward.

He was nervous, of course, but he could tell these nerves were coming from a place of excitement instead of fear, which was a new sensation for the man. It wasn’t unwelcome, it was the same as when he first started hanging out with Cassie, Penny, Freddie and Evie. It was the same when he went on his first mission with the team. Bucky was ready to tackle this next adventure, whatever it would entail.

[waywardnerd67]

Star Crossed: Shining Star

Summary: Between filming and conventions, Jensen Ackles hardly has a moment to himself. During a panel one weekend he learns that his favorite band’s lead singer is a fan of his. Encouraged by his best friend, Jensen steps out of his comfort zone and reaches out to her on social media. That one decision throws his entire world into a whirlwind adventure. Pairing: No Pairing Rating: E - Everyone Warnings: Fluff Word Count: 1595 A/N: None

Check out: Star Crossed Masterlist

Jensen Ackles walked into his apartment kicking off his shoes by the door. Thankful to be done filming for the week and looking forward to not having to travel too far for the convention this weekend. He loved meeting fans and performing on Saturday nights. There were some weeks where he wished he could relax in his apartment and not have to worry about traveling.

Deciding a night of Netflix and pizza was in order, Jensen took a quick shower then put on some sweats with a t-shirt. He had settled in with his pizza with The Witcher series pulled up to watch when his phone started buzzing.

“No Jared, I don’t want to come out.”

Laughter came ringing through the speaker, “Jackles, it’s only a few crew and myself chilling at our normal spot. Come out for a little while.”

“What part of no don’t you understand? The N or the O?” Jensen rubbed his forehead hearing everyone behind Jared chanting his name, “Buddy, I’m showered and in for the evening. I’ll make it up to y’all tomorrow night.”

“Fine old man, see you tomorrow.”

He groaned, ending the call and no longer interested in the show on Netflix. Turning off the tv, he walked over to his record player turning on the band he had been listening to on repeat. He discovered Wayward Stars a few years ago when a fan gifted him their cd. They were a hard rock, alternative metal band with lyrics that spoke to the soul. Also, the lead singer was drop dead gorgeous.

There had been late night shoots he would turn on one of their albums listening to (Y/N) (Y/L/N)’s voice letting it seep into the far reaches of his mind. As he sat in his apartment alone, he allowed his mind to wander of singing with her on stage one day. Making a mental note to talk with Creation and Rob Benedict about getting her to come to Vegas for SNS. For now, he let the music flow over him well into the night.

The next day, Jensen slept in until he heard Clif knocking on his door. Twenty minutes later, he was walking down to the lobby where Jared was sitting with his eyes closed.

“Hey Jared!” He yelled.

Jared jumped falling off the chair he was on. Jensen and Clif started laughing as he mumbled curses under his breath getting off the floor.

“Not funny and I will get you back.” Jared’s eyes narrowed on him.

“I’m sure you will, big guy. Now, can we get on with our day?”

They had a few interviews at the studio and some meetings before they had to get ready for the concert that night. Since the convention was in Vancouver and there was no traveling, Jensen had agreed to sing that night. He was excited to perform new songs and to be in front of the fans. As they pulled into the studio parking lot, he sighed knowing it was going to be a long day ahead of him.

It was near six o’clock when Jensen arrived back at his apartment to get ready for the night. Once again, he turned on his favorite Wayward Stars song, A Light in the Dark. It was a slower song with beautiful lyrics and then a killer riff in the end. He was in his room, singing when he heard his door open. Only two people had a key to his place and he only needed one guest to know who was walking in.

“Really? Wayward Stars again?” Jared flopped down on his couch.

“I can’t help it that you have horrible taste in music.” He chuckled.

“I like the band… just not 24/7 like you.”

He rolled his eyes, shutting off his record player, “Don’t judge me. Now come on and let’s go hang out with the fam.”

Saturday Night Special was exactly that, special. Especially when they were in Vancouver. The cast and crew seemed to cut loose a little more backstage. He was catching up with Matt Cohen when they called him to get ready to go on stage. Jared and Misha were standing by the stage to watch as Rob called him up on stage.

There was nothing more exhilarating than being hit with a roar of an audience. An electric current steady ran down his body over the next fifteen minutes as he performed. When he walked off stage, as promised, he celebrated with Jared, Misha and others until the early hours of morning.

Their early morning panel was rough as the coffee worked through knocking out the whiskey from his system. The last question of their morning panel came from a young lady wearing a Wayward Stars shirt.

“Love your shirt.” Jensen smiled.

“We get it Ackles, you’re their biggest fan.” Jared jokes.

The fan laughed, “Actually my question is about them. SPN family loves this band since they are fans of the show. Wondering if you ever had a chance to meet them or if they could be invited to a SNS show?”

“Go on fanboy…”

Jensen rolled his eyes, “I would love to meet them one day and have them come perform during Saturday Night Special. I’m forever thankful to the fan who gave me their cd a couple of years ago. Many, many a night their music has kept me sane during shooting. So yeah, definitely would love to meet them.”

“I would love for Jensen to meet them so I can film it and post it on social media for everyone to see him fanboy all over (Y/N).”

The crowd ohhh as Jensen glared at Jared, “Alright, alright… I think we have to get going now. We will see y’all later.”

Waving as they walked off the stage. As soon as they were on the stairs, Jensen punched his friend in the shoulder.

“Ow!”

“You deserve that.” Jensen could hear Jared laughing all the way to the green room.

The rest of the convention went without a hitch. Monday morning brought a whole new week of filming. Jensen was in his trailer when his phone buzzed seeing a text from Jared.

He pulled up his app, seeing a few friends tagging him in a post from a girl named Addy. Clicking on the YouTube link surprised to see (Y/N) watching him sing from SNS.

“I can’t help it. He’s gorgeous and talented and the perfect man.” She threw her arm over her eyes dramatically pretending to faint.

Text flashed on the screen, “#1 Jensen Ackles Fangirl”

He sat there stunned for a moment watching the video again. He could not wrap his mind around that she was a big fan of his. He knew the band liked the show, but to think he was perfect? His heart thumped against his chest as his shaking hands typed a message back to Jared.

Jensen took a few deep breaths before typing a Tweet then deleting it. He typed another one and deleted it. The third time he hit post and immediately regretted it, sounding like an idiot. Within minutes he received a notification from (Y/N) on Twitter.

Before he could reply, Jared was calling him, “Are you freaking out?”

“N-No… maybe, yes.” He stammered.

Jared’s laughter filled his ear, “Oh my god I wish I could see your face right now. This is your chance to make all your dreams come true.”

“I’m hanging up now, Jerk.”

“See you in an hour, Bitch.” Jared was still laughing as Jensen ended the call.

He watched the video a few more times and sent another Tweet out to (Y/N) after following her page. He went on all his social media making sure he was following her before realization hit that it seemed stalkerish.

“Jay, calm your roll.” He muttered to himself.

Putting his phone down, he tried to go over his lines for the next scene they were shooting. When he could not concentrate then he buckled, putting in his earbuds and turning on Wayward Stars. His hands were still trembling as he tried to control his fan moment.

Over the next several weeks, Jensen and (Y/N) were chatting all over social media. He posted a picture on Instagram tagging her in holding up her vinyl record.

Finally, he gathered the courage to ask for her number in a DM to chat with her more in private. Since their fans were going nuts over their new friendship. Now they would text each other everyday like they had known each other forever. She would tell him about her shows and cities she was in. He would chat about filming without spoiling anything for her. The only thing he wished could happen was their schedules to sync up so they could meet.

That thought ran through his mind everyday especially when he was at conventions like the upcoming weekend in his hometown. Thursday night, he was on a plane heading to Dallas when a notification popped up on his phone from (Y/N) posting on Twitter.

“Not next to me.” He mumbled snapping a picture of himself before replying to her Tweet.

He knew where she was off too after they had talked earlier in the day. They were still a thousand miles apart but closer than they had ever been since their friendship had begun. Settling back into his seat, he enjoyed listening to Wayward Stars newest song released that week.

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[multifandom-girlie]

𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐜 𝐂𝐨𝐧 𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟓

Imagine: “Could I request a Daniel Gillies smut like they are both at the comic con(they are both in the originals) and he is teasing her while he answers a question ? Or makes fun with Joseph and he says some dirty things.” Requested by @elijahspersonalwifeyyy .

Pairing: Daniel Gillies x Reader

Warnings: Smut

Words:

Edited: Yes

A/N: I apologise @elijahspersonalwifeyyy for the incredibly long wait. I’ve had this lined up to post but with coursework and writing so much at the same time, it’s made it difficult but I refuse to quit. I’m not a quitter. I’m also not a person to announce a hiatus. Either way, hope you enjoyed ! There is a lot to read I know but we needed a build up and this is one of my favourite comic cons ever, I wanted to do the before hand scenes either way so. Don’t forget to check out my new story “On The Way” !

All of us at the current moment in time were stood backstage waiting to be called on. I couldn't tell you how irritated I was when I went on after Joseph and then Daniel followed. They were both irritating enough to me together anyway but they were in a particularly annoying mood today and I was not prepared for it.

“The man who will break your heart and then rip it out and then probably eat it. Joseph Morgan.”

The whole audience cheered as he walked on and he waved quite casually as he did. 

“The women who brings all men to there knees but still can't find anything better to do than drink wine. Y/N Y/L/N”

I giggled as I walked out and I saw the audience screaming and Joseph giving me a mischievous look.

“The brother with a suit for every occasion. Daniel Gillies as Elijah.”

He walked out, threw me a quick smirk and blew a kiss to the audience as they screamed. He pulled his chair out and smiled at everyone.

“Nice jacket.”

“Yeah. Give it up for this jacket ! Huh ? Out of a suit and into a smoking hot jacket.”

“I know right, the one time he's not wearing a suit.”

“Thank you. It was actually a gift from Y/N.”

“Aw that’s super sweet Y/N.”

“Thank you. It was actually a gift for our anniversary.”

“Really ? How many years ?”

“Seven.”

“and very sweet.”

He called the rest of our costars out and we continued on with the panel.

After the host had started the panel with a question for Julie and Michael, it was now a group question for me, Joseph and Phoebe.

“Uh now going to the show, we've seen Klaus and Lily and Klaus and Hayley kind of trying the uh co-parenting thing and it did not really go so well as we all saw. How is Klaus going to be as a parent now that Hayley isn't around and Lily and Elijah have reconciled ?”

As soon as the question was asked, we all turned to Joseph.

“Uh you know, before he alienated his whole family by toasting Elijah's girlfriend, sleeping with his wife and and and cursing the women he thought he was in love with um Klaus survived under this sort of umbrella of Elijah's protection and forgiveness I suppose and so Elijah was always a voice of reason and Hayley was always there to battle it out with him. So, I would say badly. He's gonna do badly as a single parent you know and I think he knows he's kinda messing it up but he's trying. At least he's trying. You gotta give him that. Even if he's warping the minds of his two daughters, one before she's even uttered a syllable and the other before she get's old enough to realise that Klaus and Lily aren't actually together you know like she’s thought for years.”

“Geez. So uh how are are Lily, Elijah and Klaus going to tell her ? Who's going to be the one that does it or will they all do it together ?”

I decided to answer this questions, being more involved with the story line of my children.

“I think that Lily will have to be the one to tell her and whilst doing so will definitely have to be quite cautious when telling Sofia, you know not only because she's only 7 years old but also because she’s thought of Elijah as her Uncle her whole life- and although that hasn't changed it's still going to be difficult since this latest revelation is that, her Uncle Elijah that she adores oh so much is now also 'mommy's boyfriend' or in more formal terms her step-dad. So I think she's going to be confused and it might be quite difficult for her at first but I think she’s mature for her age and that she will understand quite quickly that, Mommy and Daddy aren't together and that despite realizing that her mom was married to her uncle I think she will quickly appreciate the fact we told her because of her understanding personality. “

Daniel quickly leaned forward and spoke before the host could ask another question.

“The moral of the story is, don't sleep with your husband's brother. Especially when not using protection and then deciding to get back together with your husband before trying to force him to sign the divorce papers.”

The whole room suddenly echoed with loud laughter and I couldn't stop giggling myself despite being offended for my character. I hit his arm playfully. He grinned at me and rested his hand on my leg as the room calmed down and he slouched back in his chair a little.

“Very true. So, I mean he can always just compel a few dozen nannies but he does have Elijah there to help him co-parent you know not just with Sofia but with Hope. I'm thinking like shared schedules, late night feedings...Whose doing what ?”

“It’s like we both wake up and the baby is crying and it's like, are you going to get her or am I ? Alright, I'll get her.”

“Yeah no it's gonna be me. I'm gonna do the graveyard shift, I know that all to well. But we gotta remember too, Lily and Freya are going to be doing a large share of the work.”

“Oh yeah, they can do it. There you go.”

I giggled and hit Joseph in the shoulder for the comment.

“Sexist.”

“No, come on. Lily's already been through this twice she knows’ what she's doing and Freya's Switzerland at this moment in time, I think for both of us to be in there...I’m gonna stop talking.”

We all chuckled at Daniel's comment.

                                               *

“Now we're going to go to audience questions in just a little bit but first I wanted to do something fun. I know it's not the holiday's and I know we don't have a big ass bonfire in front of us but I thought it would be quite fun if everybody kinda thinks about a wish for their character for the future, just throw it in the imaginary bonfire.”

“Well, I'm a human....so I just want to stay alive.”

“Good answer.”

“Oh I forgot you weren't a character.”

“I have wishes for everybody but I don't have a character.”

“I do wish for Julie that Supernatural Judge Judy becomes her next spin off and Exploding Ovaries is the title of Daniel Gillies' next memoir. 

“A wish for Hayley would be that Hope can live a normal, happy existence. I think would be what she would want the most.”

“That’s very sweet.”

“Thank you. That's it, I'm done.”

“Uh, I think for Elijah...I mean other than wishing that his girlfriend's wouldn't be incinerated or his wife doesn't sleep with his brother again...”

I giggled at Daniel's comment, despite his comment towards my character and spoke with Joseph, simultaneously. 

“Oh, come on.”

“I'm not letting that one go easily. So, uh...I would wish for him. Oh man. I wish for him, I’m actually wishing for something dark, like I sort of would wish for...a great division between the brothers before reconciliation.”

“So that's how it's going to be.”

“So, my wish for Lily is um...to finally find that bloody fertility spell that she's been looking for, for centuries. So that her and Elijah can have children of their own which they want more than anything and move somewhere outside of New Orleans in a nice family home, away from the drama.”

“That’s very sweet.”

“Uh, I wish everyone would just do what Klaus says because he's always right. He knows what he's doing. It's for the greater good. Come on. Get on board with his plans. Everything will be alright in the end. Not everyone will be alright in the end but everything will be alright in the end. Right ?”

“Um, I wish Marcel would cross over. No.”

“I wish for more of your cleavage.”

I couldn't help but laugh a little when he says comments like that. Even though it wasn't directed at me, I knew the double meaning behind it. Daniel has not taken his eyes away from my chest today. That's what breast feeding does to you, I suppose. When Daniel picked my outfit this morning, I was glad. I was going to wear some leather pants and a red blouse with some heels but he somehow convinced me to wear a dress. God was I glad, I actually listened to him. It was hot in San Diego summer heat and I underestimated a little when I decided on leather pants. 

“Yeah. We gonna get some dollar bills. Let's see some ones. Tryna make some money out here. Somebody, put on some Usher. Slow jam. Uh yeah...”

“I have a twenty. What can we get for a twenty ?”

“Break it up. Break it up.”

“Make it into ones and let's make it rain.”

“If I throw loose change at you, can I make it hail ?”

“Alright, moving on. Next subject.”

“Um, Davina is a witch and I think it would be really cool if she could fly. So, whether it's a broomstick or something else...I still think it would be really cool.”

“That’s a good one. Um, mines pretty selfish. I hate shaving, so I wish we could work something in so Vincent could have like a huge beard.”

“I changed my mind, I want superpowers as well. Three one foot long, retractable adamantine claws from each hand please.”

”Why is the camera on me ? I wanna fly. I wanna see these guys fly. I want them charging up walls and...we don’t have the budget for that. I wanna see more vampirey stuff. Why am I wishing again ? I exhausted my wish.”

“You guys can make as many wishes as you want. This is your made up tradition.”

“It’s raining wishes on you.”

“Raining for your wishes.”

“God this is embarrassing.”

“T it up.”

“T what up ?”

“What do your need for a rain of wishes ?”

“What happens when it rains ?”

“An umbrella.”

“What ?”

“An umbrella, sweetheart.”

He closed his eye in frustration and dropped his upper half into my lap, whilst we all laughed at his slow mind.

“Oh shit. Umbrella. So sorry, so sorry.”

“The rain, the umbrella...”

“Dropping hints. Awesome, alright well let’s turn it over to some audience questions.”

                                               *

“Hi, my name is Julia and first I'd like to say, I love you all. Especially Joseph Morgan and Danielle Campbell.”

“Thanks. Thanks a lot.”

“Don’t worry, I love you Daniel.”

He squeezes my thigh and leans in to kiss my head. Before deciding to move his arm around my shoulders and hugging me into his side. I rested my hand on his thigh as I hugged him back.

“I love you too, beautiful.”

I blushed and smiled, whilst the audience all awed. Which prompted the red in my cheeks to darken. I sat back up straight and he returned his hand back my thigh, yet this time a little higher up and whilst stroking the fabric of my dress up my thigh.

“My question is for the whole cast and it is, if you were able to play another role...who would you wanna play ?”

“On our show ? Or just in general ?”

“Yeah. On The Originals.”

“I..I think I would choose Hayley. The Hyrbid female. She's a pretty cool character. Your welcome.”

“Um, I would play...Klaus. Mind you probably better but...”

“I don't wanna play anybody else, I wanna play Elijah.”

“I would play, Elijah....purely because it would be an absolute blessing to wake up that hot everyday and he's a pretty awesome character.”

He smirked at me and moved his hand further up my leg, his fingers now resting at the hem of my white lace thong. I gulped a little but held my composure. It seemed hat every time I complimented him, he got further up my leg and closer to my core. Like a game...and I was more than happy to play.

“If...If I had to absolutely play someone else uh, I would play Oliver because I just think he needs to be brought back to the show...and uh #saveollie. Bring him back !”

“Uh, I would play Elijah because I think I look damn good in a suit.”

“Yeah, you do.”

“Buttoned up to the naval.”

“There we go. I know it's distracting for you, my body.”

“I cannot concentrate. I refuse to continue.”

“Um, I would play Genevieve. I thought she was a really cool character. She was a lot of fun to work with.”

“I see some Genevieve fans in the house, awesome.”

“Um, yeah I think I might choose Elijah too. I think uh, it's a really cool character that Daniel has created.”

“They both quietly believe they can bring more to the role, is what they’re saying. Not quietly, they're saying it to an audience of like three thousand.”

“Only because of what you've done with it Daniel.”

                                            *

“Hi Guys, wow that's loud. I'm so sorry, my name's Marissa. First, I want to say Daniel I watched saving hope and your death killed me. I'm so sorry that you died.”

“Yeah, tell me about it ! I was gutted.”

He squeezed my thigh a little more and started making circles with his finger on the spot closed to my core.

“Oh my goodness.”

Yeah, oh my goodness indeed. He really knew how to make a woman feel good, without hardly doing anything...quite literally.

“Um, so my question is for Julie and Michael. Um, I was wondering...there’s so much violence on the show and so much adult stuff and I was wondering if the network or the studio has ever told you, 'No you can't do that’ ?”

We all started laughing in reply to the questions.

“Oh, we have a story about that don't we...Leah.”

“I don't wanna tell the story again.”

“There's things that we did that couldn't be shown.”

“So here's the thing about broadcast television is that, apparently you can decapitate someone, you can drive a knife into a vampires skull, you can rip out their heart, you can shove a pencil up their nose, you can stab them a million times with glass but when stimulating a sex scene...if there's any movement at all that one would define as thrusting...”

“No thrusting. Pull back on the thrusting.”

“A motion that originates from the hip.”

Charles decided to get up and share a demonstration of thrusting and everyone on stage started laughing and the audience started to scream. Daniel gripped my thigh a little harder, due to jealously. I didn't have to ask him what the reason was, I already knew. At the best of times, he was not a jealous person. He loves and trusts me and Charles a lot and he knows nothing would happen but when he's horny and in need of some attention...he does get jealous. Understandably so, I know because we both do. His pinky finger then started to stroke me, through the lace of my pants.   

“It’s difficult because I don't actually remember thrusting being in the script. That was something the actors chose.”

“It was a creative choice. I mean, look at Charles...you would do the same thing. Also, let's not forget the originators of this little problem.”

The audience stayed silent, indicating that they weren't sure how to react to her last sentence. I leaned into Daniel and rested my forehead against his bicep in retaliation to Leah's comment. I couldn't stop giggling, despite the finger rubbing against my wet thong and the blush rising on my cheeks. Daniel was using his other hand to pinch his forehead, whilst chuckling.

“Come on guys, explain it.”

“So, what happened was we were doing the flashback sex scene of Elijah and Lily's wedding night. Daniel got a bit too excited and started to thrust a little and I tried hiding it by opening my legs a bit more.As I did, my underwear snapped because it wasn't as flexible as I thought. So, I had to pay a fine for showing too much skin because the sheets had come off of me a little and we hadn't realised. Not that it was much it was just a little side boob, still.”

“So, it wasn't the thrusting ?”

“No, ironically it wasn't.”

“Let me tell you. There was some excellent, simulated thrusting in those scenes. That was cut, per broadcast standards. While, I think in the same episode seventeen people got brutally massacred. It is what it is.”

“Some of the best thrusting. I hope it makes the special features.”

“Charles called Leah, for some extra rehearsal before hand.”

                                           *

“Hi I'm uh Skylar. Um, I know that between you there has been a myriad of different supernatural creatures. Uh, Phoebe...I think you've been a werewolf, a witch and a mermaid. Uh, in really life...What would you wanna be ?”

“Well, I would say witches because witches don't have to turn on a full moon and they don't have to be like plagued by vampire...the demon’s of vampires. They can just have all the power and really cute outfits...and if I can look more like Danielle Campbell. I'll take it.”

“H20 rocks!”

“Thank you ! Well actually I-Im gonna say a mermaid then. Like, life is better under the sea and I think I would be a mermaid.”

“I don't know-"

“Merman ?”

“Merman. No, I...um. I'm pretty pervy...so I'd say like invisibility.”

“Um, so I'm not pervy at all unlike Daniel. I do think that Heretics are soooo cool though. Like, they can do magic and they are vampires but still have all those human capabilities...like procreation. So, yeah a heretic.”

His hand stopped stroking me through the lace of my panties suddenly and I instantaneously felt a cold gush of air race up my well-shaved legs and punching me in my core. I felt the frayed edges of my lace tickling my upper thigh, where they shouldn't be. Hinting that my favourite pair of thongs had been snapped. I turned to Daniel and narrowed my eyes at him whilst he just continued the panel, like nothing happened. His hand when back to it’s original position resting on my thigh, clearly in punishment for making a comment about his pervy answer. 

“Nah, I'm happy where I am. You know, Hyrbid. Definitely not, invisibility. When I joined the show, I thought I was only gonna be a vampire so I was thrilled when I was a werewolf-vampire. I'm sticking to my guns.”

“I like being the token human. I'm just gonna like stay there. Create more mermen.”

“Season three, season of the mermen.”

“The next spin-off.”

“That would be so cool, let me be a mermaid. I would kill it .”

Joseph put his arm on the back of my chair, looking at me after I made my wish known to be a mermaid.

“You better not cum in the water.”

The entirety of the room ruptured into fits of laughter. Even Daniel, who had now moved his hand closer to my core again. Letting his fingers stroke my entrance. Meanwhile, I continued laughing...ignoring the feeling of my husband’s gentle and sensual touch. 

“I’m blushing.”

                                            *

“Hi, I'm Katie. If you were to go to Comic Con, on the floor. Is there anyone you would dress up as ?”

The first thought that came to mind was pleasing Daniel. If I said him there was no doubt he'd give in. The problem was, was it a risk I was willing to take...at a comic Con in front of three thousand fans and some of my closest friends.

“Daniel Gillies.”

Every one repeated my answer and whilst doing so I was discovering that I was unequivocally correct with my thought process. Sure enough, Daniel plunged his fingers straight into my entrance leaving me to deal with the resounding squeal that ripped from my throat. Causing Daniel to laugh at me, influencing Joseph to join in.

                                            *

The final question had just been answered by Daniel and I was leaning my head into Daniel's shoulder to help with controlling the moans erupting inside me. The warmth in my stomach has just appeared as quickly as it vanished again, Daniel had stopped and chuckled at my irritated expression. Nevertheless, I got up and shoved my now broken thongs in Daniel's jacket pocket and waved at the fans with a bright smile on my face as we all walked off. We had just got out of the fan's eyesight when a hand delivered a hard slap to my barely covered assume cheek as this dress was so short. I span around and grabbed his wrist before dragging him further backstage, behind a screen next to the dressing rooms.

“What do you think your doing ? Playing around like that during a panel and then not even letting me finish ?!”

I didn't even let him reply as I dragged his face down towards mine and kissed him lustfully. His hands wandered down to my waist and clutched the already tight fabric tighter around me. The other unoccupied hand drove down to my ass and clutched it, allowing the skirt to rise up. Exposing the bare skin of my cheek. I used one of my hands to undo his zipper before pulling his dick out and stroking it. Clearly, he was eager because before I knew it. I was pressed up against the wall, sticking my tongue down his throat and moving myself up and down on his already hard cock. What we hadn't realised that the screen had moved, as Daniel had knocked it with his foot when walking to the wall. He pulled away and smirked at me.

“You told me we wouldn't have public sex after last time.”

“This is the last time Mr Gillies, I'm promising you.”

We smiled at eachother and kept going against the wall. His tip caused some tension when arriving to a depth he hadn’t before but it was a pleasurable one most definitely. The lips of my pussy enveloped his tip and he ran it through my drenched folds before deciding to plunge into me once again. I was about to scream and he knew I wasn’t good at being quiet when he fucks me so good. I clung onto him hoping it would relieve tha ache he’d created by filling me so good. He sat down on a chair that was sat in a chair of the little area backstage. Sitting down, allowed his thrusts to speed up rapidly and his face to rest in between my smooth and nearly covered beasts. He bit my hardened buds through my dress and caused a shive of please to shoot down to my core and promoting me to burst.

I then decided to let go and couldn’t help but let out a gratifying scream for him. I was coming down from my high and the screen pulled back. A man that looked about 40, eyed us disgusted and told us to move it.

“Well atleast I won the deal ?”

“Remember the deal we had ? If I was right about is having sex in public again no matter how much you denied that we wouldn’t. Your were very adamant.#

*

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