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theficplug · 2 years ago

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Nights Like This.

Carmen Berzatto x Black Reader

Summary : A fluffy little look into Carmy helping his fiancee after a girls night out.

Warnings: 18 + as always, no actual smut just slightly sexy moments-loads of fluff though.

unedited. sorry, i know i'm still rusty lol, i hope you like it still.

(watch The Bear , it's so good and Jeremy Allen White / Ebon Moss-Bachrach always eat up all their roles.)

“I want you to have fun tonight. Call me when you’re ready for me to pick you up baby. You got your pepper spray? Did you charge your phone? ” Carmy anxiously asks against your lips with a final kiss.

“Baby, My phone is fully charged. I’ve got the pepper spray and the lipstick knife that you got me last weekend. It’s okay, I’m okay. What are you gonna do tonight?” You ask, nuzzling his nose and he shrugs.

He then leans his head for a moment like he's weighing his options.

Ever the old man. If you knew your man well enough, you knew that he'd probably be at home with a wine older than both of his parents and he'll be yelling at Beat Bobby Flay. Or something along those lines.

“Probably watch Iron Chef or some shit until I nod off. Richie wanted me to come over for some football game, but he knows I don’t watch sports like that. I only ever really watched it with Mike- Go go go, they’re waiting for you. Say hey for me and call me when you’re ready. No Ubers or Lyft or whatever the fuck it’s called. I’ll come scoop you up.” He insists again and with that you’re giving him one final kiss before you’re being pulled away by your girls.

He didn’t trust Ubers or any of that stuff late at night and always insisted on taking you to and from your night outs with your girls. No matter how tired he was from being at work all day.

The night was beyond fun because you hadn't seen your girls in forever and of course you were going to celebrate Davena's birthday on Throwback Night at your favourite place. The lot of you settled on going as Destiny's Child.

Hours later when your feet were aching and the room felt like it was moving like a Tilt-A-Whirl and all the uncles had came out two stepping towards you and your friends. You knew that it was time for Kelly Rowland to head out and home to her man.

You pulled out your phone to call your fiance. And the press of a button he was outside waiting for you and your friends within the next 15 minutes.

“Heeeyyy Carmy. I'm gonna get Luke to come around tomorrow to take a look at that stove. It might be time to do a replacement.” Davena says entering the car

"Hey, okay, yeah. It hadn't been changed since like '03 anyways so it's time. It's the one that Michael loved, and it was like the only stove he cooked on 'cause when the place first opened he was broke as fuck and couldn't afford more. But I'm tired of that shit nearly catching on fire every time Syd turns it on." he answers and earns a chuckle from her.

“How you doing Carmy? You still trying to learn how to make gumbo? I told you that an Italian boy from the Chi don't know nothing about that. You need to get my grandma up in your kitchen, but she's never giving that family recipe up." Naomi teases as she sits back in her seat.

"No doubt, No doubt. I wouldn't even dare ask Ms. Monroe about that. I learned my lesson from the peach cobbler." he says and they both laugh for a moment thinking about her grandma asked Carmy to buy a peach cobbler from the store to bring to the cookout instead of making one because she didn't believe that he was actually a chef.

They always joked and chatted like this back and forth like brother and sisters and you were grateful that they got along like family because they hated your long term boyfriend before Carmy with a passion.

In all fairness , his family and friends watched you like a hawk as well until they realized that you were damn near perfect for him. You were Carmy's first serious relationship so you understand their caution and concern.

It took one time for them to sse the way that you and Carmen interacted and they just knew that you two were meant to be.

“Boy, you should’ve seen how she busted her ass coming outside to you. Talking about my mans outside.” Naomi jokes as she pretends to fall over in her seat.

They all talk at once slightly slurring their words as they enter the car with you .

You, took the passenger seat while they piled into the back still laughing at you holding onto Robin so that you didn’t completely fall down.

“See, I wasn’t going to say nothing about you throwing ass on Mr. Leprechaun but- sis next time I’m going to need you to turn around and see that it’s not us.” you reply to Naomi before she shakes her head in disgust.

“His , ‘where’s me gold’ looking ass almost gave me a damn heart attack. Y’all wrong for that one.” she says throwing a peanut from her bra at the back of your head.

"We got him out of there when we realized , didn't we?" Robin says still laughing and wiping at her smeared corner of her eyeliner.

Carmy smiles sleepily at you while stopped at the red light and lean over for a kiss. He sucked on your bottom lip for a moment tasting the remnants of the sugary drinks and peanuts from the bar when you leaned back to hiccup.

“The girls wanted to stay over tonight and go home in the morning?” you question and he nods, tapping his tattooed fingers on the steering wheel to the music with the other resting on your inner thigh.

“That’s fine. We’ve got the pull out and then someone can take the air mattress that’s still up from the last time Tiff put Richie out. So it all works out.” he answers and you turn up the radio as Davena starts singing along to the song.

You know that it’s a successful girls night out when you, Davena, Robin , and Naomi are in the car singing along loudly and off tune to Keyshia Cole after countless fruity colorful drinks that snuck up on you way too quickly.

“LOOOOOVEEE. NEVER KNEW WHAT I WAS MISSING, BUT I KNEW ONCE WE START KISSING-” all 3 of you sing as you point at Carmy and he just laughs sleepily while shaking his head at y’all putting on a full concert in his small car.

“Love you though.” You whisper to him as he nods and gives your thigh a small squeeze.

The car ride ended quicker than expected as the 5 of you made it to your shared apartment with Carmy and he immediately began to set things out for them.

You not only loved how he has been a gentleman to you for the past 4 years of you two being together but also the way he treated the women in your life. He was always polite, loving, and kind to your mother sister and friends.

He found multiple blankets in the storage closet with pillows and laid them out before sluggishly turning towards the group with your purse and heels in his hands.

“There’s blankets on the couch. I made lasagna earlier. You are more than welcome to it. Just please keep it down for me. I have an early morning, thank you. Goodnight crew." Carmy says quietly to the group before heading off to the bedroom.

“OKAY, LASAGNA.”

“They really could not cook at that place because everything they offered was either cold or cooked too hard.”

“ We love you Carmiiiinnnee” they call out to him.

“Right back at you.” he responds quickly before finally making it to the bedroom and sliding off his shirt. He sits on the bed and watch as you wobble and scurry around the room.

You grab clothes for your girls to change into before making your way into the bedroom after Carmy.

He smiles at you for a moment getting wrapped up in watching you before stretching and moving to the bathroom to find your cleanser.

Your heart melts when you notice Carmen was prepared for you to return home. He had a cold bottle of water set out for you, meds, a night gown, peppermints, and your makeup remover wipes. This man is truly one in a billion let alone one in a million.

“Come to the bathroom so that I can help you.” he calls out to you while looking through the cabinet to find your cleanser.

“I also have your robe right here if you don’t feel like wearing anything tonight. I mean- I’m not complaining if you don’t want to.” he states half jokingly as he stoops down once you reach the bathroom to rub your aching foot a little before switching to the other one.

He moves back up to slowly making his way up your legs as his hands find the button to your mini skirt and you shimmy it down your legs along with your panties.

You notice how his eyes are following the curves of your body as if he’s seeing it for the first time.

You don’t miss the way that his fingertips ghost up from the bottom of your stomach and up your sides to slide off your top and then to unstick your boob tape.

You hiss for a second and he gives you a small chuckle and faint pout.

“Aww baby, I’m sorry. I had no other way to get it off. Let me kiss it better?” he asks in faux concern.

He just wanted to take the moment to get his lips on you.

The mix of the way he’s eyeing your breasts and putting his pouty pink lips all over your glistening bronze skin has got you on go.

His tongue briefly swirling over the now hardened little dark brown bud while your hand makes their way to the back of his head, flushed against the soft waves to steady yourself.

You moan softly and wobble over slightly, leaning over and putting all of your weight onto him tiredly.

Carmy laughs for a moment before remembering what he was initially supposed to be doing in the first place.

You let him sit you on the bathroom counter and watch him leave and re-enter with the water and meds.

“I know you're sleepy but you’re going to have to let me get this off of you because if I don’t get this makeup off of you and put your bonnet on for tonight. A very happy drunk you will turn into a very upset hungover you in the morning. I’ve got to be at the restaurant early tomorrow. I don’t want you crying into my chest telling me about how much your head hurts. Then they’re gonna be on my ass for missing the meeting ‘cause you know I can’t leave you like that. You know Syd is the only one I trust with the place but they don't listen to her. Drink your water and then close your eyes so I can take your lashes off." Carmy says finally while putting the cold bottle of water to your lips.

“Wish Syd would've gone out with us tonight... Hmm, Yes, Chef. Love it when you take care of me. Always take good care of me". You purr teasingly while running your fingertips up and down his bare belly and then down to the inside of his boxers and sweats, sending slight shivers up his spine.

“Stop that shit. Ferma quella merda (stop that shit). ” He repeats half heartedly, swatting your hands away and stepping back slightly to keep you from palming him.

You could tell that your antics were getting to him while he tried to focus on washing your makeup away because his breathing quickened and his heart began to beat a mile a minute.

“You don’t want it?” You ask slightly, separating your legs for a moment and he looks down, contemplating while licking over his bottom lip.

He brings one hand over your thighs giving the thick soft skin a squeeze before dragging his hand between your legs letting his fingertips dip into you slightly.

You instantly scoot up against his hand, thighs locking around it like a vice.

Carmen lets out a long drawn out sigh at how wet you are while shaking his head.

You place your hand over his before working your hips against it and yours finds its way inside of his boxers to palm him again.

"What's got you dripping like this already, pretty?" he asks quietly taking his time his fingers exploring and moving without haste inside of you.

Carmy removes his hand and licks his fingers clean before taking your hand out of his boxers with a soft groan.

“I know. I know.” he coos to soothe your protesting . You look at him with a frowned expression and it takes everything in him not to laugh at you sitting on the bathroom counter stark naked, mostly drunk, and pouting at him like he had just offended you.

He ignored you staring daggers into him as he put the minty toothpaste onto your toothbrush.

“If you start some shit- you know that i’m not going to be able to finish it. Not with you like this. Come on, I have to be up at 4 tomorrow. Stop pouting and gimme kiss.” He asks with his lips puckered out and you take the opportunity to lean up and kiss him until he’s moaning softly against your lips, then kiss all over his face.

“Thank you baby. Open- ahh.” He instructs and helps you brush your teeth gently before that post-alcohol breath starts to hit different.

"I promise. Tomorrow after work, I won't even make dinner because I already know what i'll be eating all night. Deal?" he offers feeling bad that you're now trying to give him the puppy dog eyes.

Carmen couldn’t help but to laugh at your antics because if sober you knew that you were being all sappy and affectionate she would go through the floor.

"Deal. Wanna taste you too though." you finally respond.

You were eyeing him and taking in his mousy brown hair and his slightly tired eyes and puffy kissed bitten lips. He looked so beautiful like this.

A moment where he isn't stressing about 9,000 other things.

“Gonna marry you and have all your babies. You know that? If we have a boy. We have to name him Michael. ” you say to him , half awake at this point.

He knows that you’re tired and drunkenly saying what’s on your mind but the fact that you wanted to name your son after his brother made his heart feel like it was going to leap through his chest.

He knows that Michael would’ve loved you. Carmen's sister and his entire family adored you already as if you were their own.

You were the reason why he began to rebuild and repair the relationship between them that was strained long before the grief.

He knew the moment that you walked into the restaurant with all of your color samples and designs for the remodel that you were going to be it for him.

Call it fate, divine timing, luck, or whatever else. You two got on from the moment he sat down across from you in the booth.

By the end you two had long forgotten that the purpose of the meeting was to talk about interior design and renovations. You were too busy telling him that he hadn’t lived until he tried Ethiopian spaghetti.

You two didn’t stop talking until well after the restaurant had closed and everyone had gone home. But, not before Richie yelled “wrap it before you tap it, cousin” from outside of the restaurant window and you both turned to flip him off.

You two were friends for a long while and it took everything to convince each other that it wouldn’t end in disaster before you both just gave in to the inevitable of falling in love.

Even as the restaurant's changes came to an end. The bond you two had forged so quickly within those months was just getting started.

“Gonna make me a husband and a daddy? How did I get so lucky, hmm ?” he asks, leaning down to nuzzle your nose and your neck.

After brushing your teeth and completely taking off your makeup Carmy places a final kiss to your forehead and lips.

“Let me see you, my pretty baby.” he coos , holding your face in his hands.

“You always take good care of me baby. Love you so much.” you mumble half asleep as he slides the silk gown from the counter onto you.

You place your head against his chest to hear his heartbeat.

“‘That’s what I’m supposed to do because I love you too. Always gonna take care of you. Come on, let’s get you to bed, pretty.” he responds, sliding the bonnet onto your head and tucking it up so that it doesn’t irritate your ears.

He had finally got you into bed and spooned comfortably in his arms.

It took him all of 10 minutes of humming and letting you trace his tattoos for you to fall asleep, snoring softly.

He didn't bother even bother to turn on the t.v. because he already knew that he'd be following shortly.

Both of you grateful that you get to be husband and wife officially in 4 months time.

#the bear #carmen berzatto #carmy berzatto #carmy the bear #fanfic for black girls

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tiptapricot · 2 years ago

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So we know Jake fronts in emergencies, in times of distress, in cases Marc can’t handle when it comes to protecting the system (or at least that’s how I read it), but what if that extended to certain emotional situations too?

Steven seems to be the main emotional protector, yes, but his role in that also hinges on being unaware of a lot of the stuff happening around him. In addition, Marc and Layla’s relationship seems to have been an overall very loving and positive one, but we also know there’s been dysfunction, that they fought at points, had to work through rough patches together. You don’t get married to Marc Spector and experience completely smooth sailing.

So then… what happened when Marc and Layla fought? When Layla had her own breakdowns and yelled or cried or lashed out in highly emotional scenarios? What happened when Marc couldn’t handle that? When seeing her like that was too familiar, too deeply triggering and close to home?

Well�� Steven certainly couldn’t pick up the reigns, he doesn’t have the context to handle it properly and gaining that context would severely damage his ability to continue on normally. So then that just leaves Jake. Jake, who takes care of threats, who steps in for Marc, who gets them to a safe place after dealing with the enemy.

And Layla’s not an enemy, she’s not, but sometimes their brain still feels like she is, and those are the times where Jake finds himself holding a crying woman in his arms, and apologizing, and letting her rant, and sitting her down somewhere he can hug her shaking bones together.

And he gets good at it, after awhile, good at being Marc. A Marc that’s quieter, that’s there for her, that does what he’s supposed to so she can breathe again. It’s what he’s there for, so it’s what he does.

And he has no right to touch her, he knows, no right to be this close. He doesn’t belong in her life, isn’t the one who should be running hands through her hair or pulling her to his chest, or wiping away her tears, but he does it anyway, because he has to.

Jake Lockley has always been a necessity, the man to fill the spaces the others can’t, the one to adapt seamlessly, quietly.

And so he does so. For years.

And when it all comes crashing down—the walls between them, the secrets—and Layla sees him for the first time, she asks such a simple question, and it breaks him.

“Have we ever met before?”

Yes, he thinks immediately, his mind going to the days her grief for her father was too strong for her to stand, or the days her tense muscles and tight jaw couldn’t relax after fights that brushed too close to being deadly. He thinks of Marc and Layla yelling across a room, cheeks wet and angry and chests shattering, and all he can do is look at her, his mouth a thin line, his brows knotted over themselves, and lie.

Yes, would be the right answer, because it’s true. He’s been there for so much of her, seen some of her most vulnerable moments, pulled her back and held her close, but he doesn’t say that. He can’t.

No, Jake Lockley just shakes his head, and mumbles something quiet, and squeezes his heart a bit tighter to keep it from spilling.

Because there’s no use in telling her, in letting her see the ache he has to hold her, in telling her how much she deserves to be happy, in revealing how well he knows the tense squeeze of her fingers. After all, she could never reciprocate that. She could never know him like that in return, and he’s not quite ready for that reality. Not yet.

(Had a moment last night w @steverogers-against-disney and @guss-other-fin going a bit nuts over some songs in regards to the MK sys, and LONG STORY SHORT it sparked this idea and I’m now holding it close to my heart. Inspired by Breaking Down by Jeremy Messersmith, bc the lyrics make me bananas pls go look at them)

#it’s about being touch starved #it’s about being there for someone when they don’t even realize it #it’s about deeply caring relationships that go unnoticed #it’s about Jake Lockley #moon knight #jake lockley #layla el faouly #mikes mk meta #kinda #the fruit is talking again #the fruit is headcanoning again

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ddwcaph-game · 2 years ago

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Dear Diary,

Since I promised Franzinyte to shoot an Our Life-related one of these days, i decided to go for this question first. Who among the cast of DDWCaPH (so feel free to include everyone who isn't in the main cast) would get along with those from Our Life?

Hehe. For those not in the server, I did play Our Life as Roselyna a while ago, and I was pleasantly surprised that there's actually quite a few similarities between MC and Cove, with Wayne and Roselyna. 😄

Now that I think about it, MC, Lizzie and Cove would fit right in with F6E—MC and Lizzie are adopted, and Cove's parents are divorced 😅

Anyway, to keep my answer shorter and more consistent, I'll just assume that the characters are just neighbors (or at least go to the same school) instead of taking the MC's role, and limit it to the Volume 1 cast.

Wayne would most likely get along with everyone (except Shiloh and Jeremy), but especially MC's and Cove's parents, considering how close he has gotten to Rosie's parents.

I don't think Wayne would like Step 1 Cove very much, but would start warming up to him in Step 2 for sure, and would share his love of birds with him (he likes sea creatures too). He'd like Lee, Terry and Miranda as well, but probably not Baxter, at least on his first impression. Oh, and I get the feeling he'd like teasing and annoying Lizzie, hehe.

Also, Wayne adores Tamarack very much and would definitely have a crush on her. He'd probably like Qiu as well, but I'm not sure how well their personalities would work for now.

Like Wayne, she'd try to get along with everyone, but unlike him, she'd try to make Shiloh and Jeremy like her too. And just like with Nestor, she might want to call Cliff "Daddy" too, heehee. 😊

Rosie had a near instant crush on Cove in my playthrough, but if she wasn't the MC, it probably won't happen until Step 2 when he becomes a lot taller, hehe. I can see her getting along nicely with Derek, Lee, Miranda, and Terry as well.

Baxter isn't exactly her type, but she'd definitely love to go ballroom dancing with him.

She also has a crush on both Qiu and Tamarack, but I'm leaning more towards Tamarack in my playthrough, mostly because they look similar and it seems like they vibe well together. (If she had to choose though, it'd be Cove for sure.)

There isn't really much to say for Lily and JM since they're both more introverted, but they'd try to be at least casual friends with everyone, although for different reasons.

It's in JM's interest to be helpful to his class/schoolmates, while Lily likes to keep tabs on everyone, and more "friends" means more contacts.

Lily would probably be at odds with younger Lizzie though, and then grow closer and have mutual respect for each other when they grow up. Also, I can see her teasing Cove a lot. 😄

B probably wouldn't like the other characters that much by default if they see them hanging around with F6E, but wouldn't start bullying them necessarily unless B has reason to.

If that wasn't a factor, B would probably have at least an amicable acquaintance with all the other friendly characters, not being particularly close to anyone.

As for Little B, it really depends on whether or not the characters can handle Little B's hyperactivity. 😛

I'd imagine Paddy's relationship with the others would be similar to their relationship with F6E currently. Just friendly acquaintances, unless they approach Paddy first to be friends (as in the case with Wayne and Rosie) or give Paddy reason to dislike them (as with B).

Paddy would definitely like MC's and Cove's parents though.

***

I like to think Julie, Robert, and Wayne and Rosie's parents (plus Yaya Connie) would get along with MC's and Cove's parents a lot, and maybe set up some events for them and the kids to hang out together (maybe a trip courtesy of LT?).

Lily's moms are too busy to get involved, JM's dad wouldn't be interested at all, and JM's step-mom only shows up occasionally, enough to just be friendly acquaintances with the other parents.

Anyway, as a little bonus, here's some portraits of F6E in the OL: Now and Forever MC creator:

#f6e #brandon/beatrice #f6e parents #our life #our life beginnings & always #our life now and forever #ispeakhalflies #other games #dear diary asks

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garc-i-a · 3 years ago

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Learn Separation

Okay I am writing this because I keep seeing this post coming up on my Instagram explore page and I need to say something about the whole situation. It is about the comments on Madison’s lives. More specifically, it is the comments about the boys. Now we all know how she gets these comments all the time and that she ignores them or makes it clear from the start they are not joining the live. The issue is that people seem to think Mads is annoyed with the boys.

Mads is annoyed with people coming into the comments and asking for the boys. It is majority Charlie comments obviously. Since he is the “unattainable Canadian sweetheart”. Let’s not get it twisted. She loves her Phantoms. Even when they are being super himbo. The fact Charlie couldn’t tell bill from belle when trying to write that song at the convention….anyway. Mads doesn’t like seeing people go to her lives but want someone else. It is the simps that piss her off.

It is understandable to some degree to want to see the boys (really Charlie and Owen realistically) on a live with Mads. They don’t go live very often and are not putting up Instagram stories like that. So it is nice to see them interacting with one of the band or being live in general. That does not mean it is okay to blow up the comment section in Madison’s live every single time and basically beg for them.

Now here is where it gets really frustrating. As I said, Mads loves those three. Jeremy is her fellow anime loving older brother. Owen is her bestie she can gossip and shop with. Charlie is probably her closest guy friend who matches her crazy. She was so happy to see Owen when he came on the stage at the con. And despite what people claim, she is closest to Charlie out of the boys. But for whatever reason, there are people who believe that to uplift her, they should tear down and discredit the boys.

Mads has been working on her own music as we know. She even had Jadah collab with her and it came out so fire. She has also been auditioning for movie, stage, and guest roles on TV. And some people think that Mads is better off without Julie and the Phantoms. That it is just a stepping stone and that she is meant for “better”. Mads LOVES Julie and the Phantoms. She isn’t going to leave it just like that. It is more than just her first role. It is a part of her. She has a new family from the show.

Yet I have seen comments saying she needs to “move on” and do something else. I have also seen a comment from someone who doesn’t want her to work with Charlie. Someone made a comment on the video of the original soft rock Perfect Harmony video saying they wanted to see what other music they could make together in the future. Another person came out of left field saying that Mads working with Charlie would not help her career and not be a good idea. BISH, WHAT!? Perfect Harmony is so good because they made it together. And Mads worked with Jadah and the video for “Main Thing” got over a million views! Charlie also co-wrote “Talking to a Memory” with Jeremy and that song is considered the favorite off the Vintage album by many. Mads and Charlie work great together in whatever they do. Doing any project together would benefit them both.

People need to get it through their thick skulls. Mads adores her band mates. You can be a fan of her and love the boys too. Don’t demonize them in some convoluted attempt to make it seem like all white boys are bad or that they are purposely trying to take the shine away from her. They all support her in everything and she them. Don’t make this into some racism/sexism drama that it isn’t. Stan this band of goofballs. That’s all you got to do…..and keep Owen from sleep shopping, Jeremy from losing it when Carolynn is gone, and Charlie from….everything. Okay soap box is down now. I’ll be back tomorrow with my usual analyses for the show.

#julie and the phantoms #jatp #madison reyes #charlie gillespie #owen patrick joyner #jeremy shada #jadah marie #treat them all equal #be nice to Owen #Jer is too sweet to be mean to #don’t come for the human puppy

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creativeashproductions · 4 years ago

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We Wouldn’t Be Us // Charlie Gillespie

IN WHICH: We get a look into the timeline of the reader and Charlie’s relationship from the first date that wasn’t so perfect to the news they get. The relationship has its ups and downs like all relationships do but this one brings the birth of a song. They know in their relationship that anything less just wouldn’t be them

Warnings: Swearing, an argument, allusion to sex (NO SMUT), pure fluff

Words: 3.1k

A/N: I suppose this is an entry for @cherrymaybank’s Valentine’s Day Fic Challenge.

Based on the song We Wouldn’t Be Us by Alexandra Kay

TO BE TAGGED SEND AN INBOX/ASK PLEASE!

Masterlist

Every dress didn’t seem to fit properly no matter what mirror with different light in your apartment you tried. The spare bathroom’s bulb was dying, so that made the colour appear off, and the best mirror was dirty, which would dampen the romantic goal. Nothing made you feel that oomph that you desired for this date.

You could wear the standby little black dress of which you had two options, the clubbing one or the work appropriate one. It didn’t seem right to choose a standard black and no colour for this insanely sweet guy that had this insane energy. With that thought in mind, you dug deeper in your closet for that special dress that you’d never found someone worthy of it. It was your best dress and your most expensive with the tags still on. You would have gone for the maroon dress but it was Valentine’s Day and that seemed like over kill.

Somehow it still fit perfectly despite the length of time from purchase, it was a vibrant green satin with lace matching the colour. The dress's satin ended just below the knee with the matching lace falling an additional six inches past. The A-line skirt was loose flowing contrasting to the form-fitting material across your bust and midsection.

One of your favourite parts of the dress was the off-shoulder bateau neckline that gave a tasteful sneak of your cleavage. The bottom of the thick straps came to make a perfectly straight horizontal line. Across your waist was a one-inch wide satin ribbon attached to the dress that formed a perfect bow that tied the outfit together, no pun intended.

“Whoa.” You breathed stepping in front of the floor-length mirror kept in the spare bedroom, it had once been your roommates’ room before she moved.

You had to admit the dress was magical with it, bringing out all your curves and went with your skin tone. It was a pure shock to see how you managed to make the dress come to life with just a makeup look that was easy to do. All you did next was your favourite beige heels that went with everything. You had just slid on the left heel when the buzzer sounded and slid the right on as you hit the button unlocking the apartment building door.

“This is going to be perfect.” You breathed leaning into the mirror beside the front door. You inspected your lipstick as a knock sounded on the dark brown wood of your door.

“You look gorgeous.” Your date breathed, widening those colour changing irises as he took in your outfit, “You take my breath away. Happy Valentine’s Day”

Your cheeks flushed, “Thank you, Charlie.”

He stepped into the apartment as you quickly went to the kitchen to grab your coat and purse with your essentials. He had gently retrieved the coat from your arms to help you into the cold jacket.

“I know traditionally I would have brought you flowers, but I also know you love books.” Charlie breathed grasping the items in his hands, “So I got these flowers.”

His warm hands held three books. The top one was The Orchid House by Lucinda Riley with a cover that had the background blurry with only the back of a girl in clarity. The girl’s pink dress matching the flower in the upper corner of the book. The next cover proudly displayed The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley with red flowers growing down on a stone building. The third one was a light pink book with an anatomically correct heart with flowers growing out of the arteries, veins and valves; a collection of poetry I Saw You As a Flower by Ellen Everett. Lastly, you held Rupi Kaur’s second collection of poetry The Sun and her Flowers that had come out a couple years ago.

“Charlie, this is so thoughtful. You even has a rose one!” You breathlessly spoke gently touching the covers, “Thank you so much for these.”

“I thought we could read them together?” Charlie was bashful as he quietly asked with flushed cheeks. He didn’t know why he felt like this was his very first date all over again.

“I’d love that.” You softly told the Canadian with the manners a mother would be jealous to have in her home. Charlie’s fingers linked with yours as he tugged you out of the apartment into the hallway.

Your hands swung during the short walk from the apartment building to his bright orange Subaru across the street. The sound of the light wind rustling the trees lining the sidewalk mixed with the humming from Charlie was a perfect film score. He was the ideal gentleman even before he asked you out.

You couldn’t wait to tell your close loved ones about Charlie. You could really see this going somewhere. The relationship that is, as you were now on the side of a road with the Subaru’s hazard lights flashing.

“I forgot to fill the tank.” Charlie moaned, pressing his forehead against the steering wheel. His eyes clenched just as tight as his fists.

The Canadian was so embarrassed to have had what he thought was the best date of his life. He’d played music from the playlist he had patiently curated specifically for this date, and he held your hand to the restaurant. He’d already made plans for another date when his car’s warning beeped.

In Charlie’s haste, he’d forgotten to fuel up his car, so here he was with the prettiest person he’d ever seen in his passenger seat. His confidence in a second date had greatly diminished.

“Char, you said Owen was on his way. There isn’t anyone else I’d prefer to be stranded with. Don’t be so hard on yourself.”

“I wanted this date to go perfect. This is my first Valentine’s Day with someone.” Charlie admitted turning his head to stare into warm pools of your e/y colours. His eyes scanned the soft smile that appeared on your face as his confession, “I had this whole thing planned out, and now you definitely won’t want a second-”

“I’m gonna kiss you. If you don’t want that, let me know.” You murmured before pulling him in for what would be the best kiss of your life thus far.

Sure his car broke down, but you kissed him anyway. He tasted of the complimentary chocolate dessert from dinner.

A Year Later

A young, admittedly broke couple sat on the cold floor of the unpacked kitchen eating SpaghettiOs. You had only just moved into the studio apartment with Charlie that had drained most of your savings. Had it not been in a decently safe area in the city and a close commute you would have said no.

But it was the perfect starting place for you two as you both were unfamiliar with living with an SO. It sucked on each of your ends to not have a better situation, Charlie wanted nothing more than to spoil you on the first day living together. Unfortunately, it wasn’t possible but sitting on the floor with a cheap candle was imperfectly perfect.

“I’m sorry we’re eating out of cans.” Charlie whispered pointedly, keeping his eyes on the spoon, stirring the red sauce with the beige circles.

“Char this is perfect. As long as it’s you and I then anything is perfect. Besides we didn’t label the boxes, I have no idea which box has our kitchenware.” You admitted glancing at the boxes boarding the edge of the room.

You ate out of cans for at least a week before you had unpacked the kitchen and had the means to buy actual groceries. Living together thus far had been going super smooth until wasn’t.

It was a bad day on both your parts, your entire work was deleted after a computer glitch. Charlie had auditioned for a role he had been really really wanting since he heard about it. Your father came down with the flu axing the plans to meet for dinner; it would have been the first time in six months you saw him in person.

The apartment's atmosphere had been rising and very volatile by mid-afternoon when Charlie blatantly forgot a deal. If he was going to play music, it had to be in the study so you could focus on your work.

Today he’d decided to be in close vicinity to have a virtual jam session with both Owen and Jeremy. He’d chosen the room you were in solely because it had the best wifi reception which you needed as well.

“Charlie, please can you go to the study? I’m trying to finish this!” You cried out as he struck a chord on the electric. His eyebrows came other in the glare he sent you, “I lost all my work last night.”

“The guys and I are working on songs-”

“-Charlie, this is due tonight. I can’t concentrate with-”

“It’s not my fault you have a shitty attention span!” Charlie angrily snapped contradicting the gentle touch on his guitar. He placed it back on the stand to not accidentally damage it, “The wifi is best in this room.”

“I’m very much aware of that Charlie. Out of the two of us, I use it the most. Can you please either move to the study or at least wait an hour so I can finish?” You pleaded with the Canadian actor ignoring the two guys on the computer silently waiting for the fight to be over.

“Why can't you mov-”

“Fine. I will.” You fully stared down your boyfriend for a full five seconds before you harshly closed the top of your computer. It took seconds to gather your work stuff into the leather satchel you stored the computer in, “You didn’t even mute the call.”

Charlie watched as you swiftly pulled on your jacket, “Babe-”

The sound of the door slamming shut cut his sentence before he even had a chance to speak his thoughts. The apartment was eerily silent compared to the sounds of music that always played through the Bluetooth speaker.

The inspiration to play evaporated with the aftermath of a stupid argument permeated the apartment typically filled with love. All three actors quietly said their goodbyes before they ended the video call.

You spent an hour uncomfortably sitting in a cafe finishing up what you’d needed to finish with the argument replaying. Your finger barely hit the button to send the email before you had already stepped outside the business. You spent the walk struggling to draft a text to your boyfriend.

It didn’t matter because when you walked into the apartment, you heard the soft song you’d both deemed yours. It was cheesy, but that was part of Charlie’s charm. Speaking of your boyfriend, he was sat on the floor of your kitchen with matching mugs of brownies.

“I’m sorry. I was insensitive.” Charlie started as soon as your jacket was draped over one of the kitchen chairs. His usually wide smile was as bashful as the one he’d worn on the night of your first date.

“No I’m sorry, Charlie. I could have easily put on my headphones or moved to the bedroom for a bit. The fight was stupid, and I love you so much that sometimes I think I take you for granted. I mean, look at you! You made the brownie cups-”

“Even sitting on the cold floor like when we moved in.” Charlie cheekily inserted, reaching over to hold your hands in his, “I like our tradition. I definitely like how we upgraded from SpaghettiOs to brownies.”

“Me too.” You breathed leaning over to press a lingering kiss on his lips. His hands delving into your hair to keep you close.

The butterflies stormed your stomach as the heat slowly inflated from your toes until it reached your flushing cheeks. Raw emotion pouring into the passionate kiss that only closed down as you broke for air. But you also went back in as that warmth slowly built in your tummies. Charlie’s eyes marginally opened to ensure he wasn’t imagining the Angel he got to kiss.

Finally, with heavy breathing, you pulled apart, but only a fleeting moment froze the time in the apartment. For, as soon as Charlie caught your dilated pupils, his one hand cupped the back of your hand, fingers tangled in your h/c tresses.

Soon enough, you were making up on the kitchen floor with each article of clothing tossed in the vicinity. A shirt landed on the kitchen sink spout. The brownie mugs forgotten as you gave into the passion with your boyfriend. Your lovemaking had you missing supper.

Charlie’s solution was a trip to the local authentic English pub founded by a nice guy from London. You never failed to stop him for a dance in the empty street as his smooth voice gave music for smooth motions. Dancing was a common thing from pulling off the road in Dieppe to dance. You drank and danced at the pub until Jack cut you off at 2am as his pub rules had.

You and Charlie just laughed in a love bubble as the real-world worries faded because you always came together in the rough times.

Months later you returned to Dieppe with Charlie to spend the holidays with them. The entire family together creating such a welcoming atmosphere.

“I’m gonna grab a glass of water.” You informed the group of gals ad non-binary pals who had gathered in Meghan’s bedroom. The group had decided to sleep over Meg’s childhood room with face masks, nail polish and lovely wine.

Meg and Jeannette both nodded to acknowledge your announcement before they returned to their respective conversations. You took a moment to take in the great group of Gillespie and Co you had the honour to be part of. The thirst was only temporarily forgotten in the happy bubble you found yourself in.

You practically skipped to the kitchen, barely noticing the two people in the living room, but their words stopped you in your tracks. Your boyfriend, Charlie Gillespie, stood close to his older brothers Ryan, Patrick and Michael.

“I’m gonna ask her to marry-” Charlie caught himself from finishing the sentence when he saw you standing pale-faced at the opening into the living room.

His entire body was encapsulated by the lights casting in the living room from the Christmas tree. The tree couldn’t hold a candle to the ring of your dreams that promptly had you bursting into tears.

“I RUINED THE SURPRISE!” You sobbed dropping your face into your cold hands, avoiding the gaze of the Gillespie brothers. Had you not been hiding in your hands you would have known the older three had vacated the room.

“Hey, it’s okay.” Charlie cooed with the ring safely put away in the box he had shoved back in his pocket, “You didn’t ruin the surprise. I shouldn’t have been telling my brothers in the middle of the living room.”

Charlie’s warm hands slowly pulled your hands from your soft post-mask skin with such a pretty healthy glow. He could see the remnants of the mask on the edge of your scalp, but it didn’t take away from your beauty.

“I’m sorry.” You whispered, staring up at him from underneath your eyelashes. The soft hazel eyes not upset in the least, things often didn’t go the way you wanted to together.

Take the first date from over two years ago where you and Charlie had waited for Owen to meet you with a jug of gas. You’d shared childhood stories and future dreams. Or the time you hadn’t marked the boxes creating an entire week of eating out of cans and cartons.

Ruining the proposal was almost expected at this rate.

“I knew from the moment I saw you in that emerald dress I knew that you were the One for me. I’ve adored each moment I’ve gotten with you from the spontaneous dances on the side of the road. To bursting into song in the middle of the street.” Charlie shakily started with sweating bands but an open heart, “When your best friend told me the emerald dress was the special one, it melted my heart.”

“Charlie.”

“Other than my belief that this relationship will last, I was only ever sure of one thing in my life. I was sure I would be an actor, but now I’m more sure that my favourite role will be supporting you, loving you and evolving with you as your husband.” Charlie sniffled, taking one hand from yours to wipe the tears flooding his cheeks, “Will you marry me?”

“Yes.” You breathed lunging on your tiptoes to kiss him with as much passion as you could. Your hands caressed the skin of his cheeks; his long tresses tickling your wrists.

“God I love you.” Charlie gushed with a gentle shake of his head. His hazel pinned to your e/c eyes as if you were the most precious gem in the world.

A voice cut the bubble enveloping you, “Well are you gonna put the ring on her finger or what?”

Charlie’s head moved to meet the teary eyes of his mother surrounded by his siblings as they bounced on their feet. You laughed as your now fiance clumsily rushed to slide the absolutely gorgeous ring on your finger.

“Welcome to the family officially.” Jeannette cheered along with the celebratory whistles and yells as the crowd of the family grew more and more. Soon enough, the entire room was overflowing with people congratulating your new engagement.

Months later, you stood in front of that same group holding the hands of your handsome fiance. Both dressed to the nines in front of the officiant.

“I wasn’t looking for a fairytale, because they all end the same. The princess has a conflict that she revolves with the help of the prince. They get married and live happily ever after. I adore how we’re writing our own story that fits our relationship. Charlie Gillespie, I wouldn’t change a thing about our lives. I wouldn’t have it any other way even with the fighting and slamming doors, but we always end up on our kitchen floor making up with two brownies in mugs.” Your vows brought tears among the onlookers along with the Canadian barely keeping it together.

The vows would later be eloquently transformed into lyrics from you with the accompanying melody provided by Charlie. On Valentine’s Day, you played the song on the kitchen floor with a plate of brownies. Three brownies waiting to be devoured.

“Three for each of us.” You wept as you watched as Charlie melted into a puddle of joyful tears. He took no time in placing his hand over your flat stomach.

Yeah, you wouldn’t have it any other way. Especially when Valentine’s Day become more to the Gillespie family; a new little love taking up the day.

(Reader’s Dress In Beginning)

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#charlie gillespie imagines #charlie gillespie fanfiction #charlie gillespie x reader #luke patterson imagines #jatp fanfic #charlie gillespie #luke patterson #charlie gillespie imagine #caitsy and ash productions #CherryValentinesFic

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shadeofazmeinya · 4 years ago

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That Golden Spark

Summary: Los Santos was alive most at night. When the artificial lights shine brighter than the sun, when all the real business happens between whispers and concealed hands.Trevor has the unfortunate task of gathering the Fakes for the night. Surely they couldn’t have gotten into too much trouble without him.

A/N: For the @rtwritingcommunity Springfairy fic exchange! This one for @uy8hg! A simple fahc fic that was a lot of fun to write!

Los Santos was alive most at night. When the artificial lights shine brighter than the sun, when all the real business happens between whispers and concealed hands. And the bars were the most lively, the music swirling through the streets, the sounds of people’s yells and laughs bouncing off the buildings. It was no different this night, at a small but no less crowded bar in the Fakes area of the city. A favorite and Trevor knew that this is where everyone will be.

Trevor can only sigh as he walks up to the dive bar, the building vibrating with shouting and crashing. A pair tight in a brawl burst from the door, nearly colliding with Trevor as they fell to the street. Not breaking apart as they roll around and chase each other down. Trevor rolls his eyes, sidestepping as he pulls the door open and heads in.

Inside, fists and feet were flying. It was every definition of a bar brawl, people wrestling. Broken bottles and shattered wood scattered everywhere. Two people locked in arms pass in front of Trevor, collapsing a table that splinters and crashes. He hears all the voices blurring together, some unfortunately familiar. But as Trevor scans the place, it doesn’t take long to find the center.

Gavin sits on a stool at the bar, one arm resting on it as he is facing the crowd. His legs were crossed, with a foot tapping to the barely audible music. He shifts just enough to avoid a brawl slamming besides him, lip pulling into a smirk as he takes a drink from some brightly colored concoction. His sunglasses are on, the scenes of violence reflecting against the gold as he watches like he was enjoying a movie.

Trevor has always known Gavin was a talented fuck. Gavin knows how to wrap people around his finger, get people to do what he wants without them even realizing. Unfortunately, Gavin doesn’t tend to use these powers for good.

“Free,” Trevor huffs, pulling one of the only standing stools over to sit besides him. “Fredo said you got here only 15 minutes ago.”

Gavin laughs. “New record, innit? Barely even had to talk this time. Just a few looks, a few winks. Bloody almost got hit!”

“Gavin,” Trevor says, glaring. “Seriously, I thought I told you to lay low.”

“We are laying low. No one will be able to remember anyone in this. And besides, Michael and Jeremy needed a go-” Gavin points and Trevor dreads looking over but does anyway. Sees Michael and Jeremy laughing as they both are taking on four different guys. It is impressive to watch, the two twirl perfectly around each other, knocking out their drunken opponents. At least Trevor knows their brawlers can handle these bar fights. But there was one more.

“And Alfredo?” Trevor huffs.

Gavin blinks, mind falling in a sudden realization and looks around. “Bloody hell, where did he go? He was the one that wanted a bar fight!”

Trevor lets out a deep sigh at that, standing back up. He drops a few hundreds onto the counter, nodding to the cowering bartender who stood in the corner. Then he faces the crowd, glaring. He lifts his hand and lets out a piercing whistle.

The bar stills instantly. People pause mid swing, with arms wrapped in headlocks, bottles settling onto the floor. Michael and Jeremy both drop who they were wrestling, exchanging sheepish looks as Trevor speaks.

“I’m sure you’re all having fun here. But I would suggest to anyone I do not know to leave. Now.”

People just stare, frozen in their place. “Now.” Trevor snarls, voice thick with unsaid threats, and finally the crowd kicks into action, scrambling out of the bar.

“Cmon, Trevor,” Jeremy whines as they step over, whipping their bloody knuckles on their shirt. “We were just getting into it!”

“And now you’re done,” Trevor huffs. “Do you two idiots know where Alfredo is?”

“Is everyone gone?” a small voice is heard behind them and they all glance to see a familiar pair of eyes peeking out from under the bar.

Gavin smirks, shaking his head. “Trevor scared everyone off. You’re safe now.”

Alfredo sighs, climbing out and over the bar, sitting on the ledge. “Fuck, that shit got intense.”

Michael smirks, laughing. “That’s what fucking bar brawls are. You’re the one who said you wanted to be in one. Because you’ve never been in a fucking proper fight before.”

Alfredo shrugs. “Well, I can scratch that off my bucket list. Can I go to bed yet? I think I’ve had my experience and I learned it doesn’t need to happen again.”

“You’re all heading home,” Trevor sighs. “We have a heist tomorrow. In case you forgot.”

“We’re all ready,” Michael laughs, leaning over the bar to grab another bottle of beer. But Trevor smacks his hand, swiping the bottle away.

“We can drink more after the heist. So you don’t have hangovers. And can focus.”

“We really didn’t drink that much,” Jeremy assures. “One beer each so far. We know not to be too impaired for a heist.”

“At least one of you is responsible,” Trevor hums. “Fredo, you ok?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” he assures, grinning. “Just didn’t expect the fight to involve so many fucking people. Gav can rile a whole crowd in seconds.”

“It’s one of my many talents,” Gavin purrs then laughs, setting his drink aside and standing up. He opens his wallet, slipping out another stack of cash and setting it down. He just winks to the poor bartender who’s still squished into the corner, shaking. “I’m sure this’ll cover the damages, luv. Sorry about all this.”

The bartender just nods, carefully taking the cash, eyes widening as they flip through the hundreds that Trevor and Gavin have both set out. Enough for the damages and more.

The night air chills through all of them, as Trevor leads the way out to the cars. Michael and Jeremy laugh and push each other around, retelling their victories of the night. Alfredo sheepishly adds the hits he got in, earning cheers. Trevor rolls his eyes, but can’t help the fond smile that grows. He knew how much he was inheriting, taking over more of Ramsey’s roles, becoming the boss. And while these idiots certainly don’t make the role easy, he doesn’t regret it at all.

#fake ah crew #fahc #ragehappy #that golden spark #fahc trevor #fahc gavin #fahc alfredo #fahc michael #fahc jeremy #gen #not shippy but if u squint u can find some haha #anyway #ao3 link in reblog!

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pleasereadmeok · 4 years ago

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A Goode Year? Review of 2020

Can’t believe it’s that time again. What a weird year. Despite Covid and Lockdowns we have actually seen quite a lot of Matthew Goode this year - so this is a long post to save for when you are bored of eating over the holidays! I’m not adding links to vids, etc. like previous years because tumblr doesn’t like them anymore [Grr] but all of them are still available and I’ll signpost them.

In January Matthew was finishing filming A Discovery of Witches Season 2 in Turin and we had some glimpses of his leather clad bod in some Teresa Palmer instastories -

...and in Sky’s ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ Excellent sneak peek.

... and Joshua’s uncle Lee gave us a few gorgeous pics ...

In February we saw Matthew and Sophie having fun at the Pre - BAFTA party

[Pics - Dave Benett]

The rest of that month was all about Leap Year’s 10 year anniversary and we drooled over Declan all over again ....

In March Matthew was finishing filming Silent Night with Keira Knightley when the world changed. We were introduced to ‘social distancing’. We had to keep a full Matthew Goode length away from other people - a handy reference is below to remind you -

[Pic - Ellen Von Unwerth] On the upside the news broke that Matthew would be playing Keira’s husband in Silent Night (as we suspected) and that they had finished filming before lockdown in the UK.

In April Matthew had his 42nd birthday. Check out all of the fabulous birthday tributes posted on here around 3rd April. ��As a special birthday present Sky released ‘Four Kids and It’ on their cinema channel on the same day with Matthew playing the role of slightly harassed parent David. It was a goode family movie and just what we needed in lockdown.

[Pics - Sky Cinema]

In May we got our first glimpse of Matthew in lockdown when he made a poignant contribution to Bletchley Park’s VE Day celebrations -

[Vid available on Bletchley Park You Tube]

It was perfectly judged - just Matthew filming himself on his phone, in his garden, complete with birdsong.

“This is your finest hour.”

According to James Purefoy and Joe Fattorini Matthew shaved off his hair with the dog clippers in lockdown so he looked a bit different the next time we saw him in June!

Matthew appeared via zoom on ‘Dan Nicholls Really Likes Wine’ show - ‘Drinking the Goode Stuff’. It was great seeing these old friends bantering away and drinking wine. Of course Goode fans immediately campaigned to get Matthew on The Wine Show @ Home and we got our wish a few weeks later when Joe and Matthew had a virtual wine tasting on zoom -

The whole session was hilarious. Matthew was completely adorable and funny as usual. Amongst other things Matthew told us that Sophie had gone off pork (not a euphemism) and we got another peek at his beautiful home with Sophie’s interior design skills on show. This is also still available on The Wine Show @Home You Tube.

June also gave us the new trailer for ‘The King’s Man’. We heard Matthew’s unmistakable voice as the Scots bad guy and there were some tantalising peeks of his character’s mysterious alter ego ‘Shepherd’ -

In July we finally got to see one of Matthew’s Q & A sessions for actors in training at Bow Street Academy in Dublin that he had recorded in May -

Matthew gave frank, funny and very practical advice on auditions, preparation for roles and demonstrated how to be scary with a knife!

August was a bit quiet - we got news that A Discovery of Witches Season 2 would now be aired in January 2021 but a new promo image helped soften the blow of that delay. -

[Pic - Sky]

Kingsman was delayed yet again.... but at least we got some new promo images of Matthew’s character - Captain Maximillian Morton. (Morton? Hmm - someone on here (not me!) spotted the relation to Roxy!]

[Pics - Total Film/Empire]

In September Matthew’s new movie ‘The Duke’ received glowing reviews at the Venice Film Festival and we got confirmation of my speculation that he would play barrister Jeremy Hutchinson.

Tantalisingly goode info about Matthew’s up coming movie Silent Night came from Baz Bamigboye from the Daily Mail as he called it ‘the most astonishing Christmas movie ever made’ - hopefully he meant it in a goode way! We had fun spotting Matthew’s body parts in the pictures accompanying the article ...

[Pic Daily Mail]

Production on A Discovery of Witches season 3 started under strict Covid rules and Matthew was seen filming for ADOW Season 3 in Bristol -

[Anthony Ward]

October was a very goode month!

It kicked off with The Wine Show Season 3 teaser -

Matthew ‘sub-section’ Goode joined in with the ADOW cast Q & A. He was a funny and engaging as ever including an unforgettable impression of a ‘wafter’ and a hasty exit at the end!

We had the official ‘first look’ trailer for season 2 of A Discovery of Witches -

[pic - my edit]

The Wine Show season 3 landed on Amazon Prime in the UK and it is SO goode even tho’ there is less Matthew than usual due to filming clashes with ADOW. Matthew was still his adorably goofy self and gave us the usual interesting fashion choices and jokes.

[My Edit]

October also brought us a new tie in cover for Shadow of Night -

[Pic - Deborah Harkness Twitter]

And as if that wasn’t enough excitement for October we got the official news that there will be another Downton Abbey movie - starting to film in March 2021. Hopefully we will see more of him in this one!

[Pic - Carnival]

Matthew usually keeps his charity projects private but in November we saw him donating his ADOW ‘wedding day’ boots to be auctioned for the Small Steps Project ....

...complete with on mud from the set. Some lucky person is probably stroking that suede as I write this!

[Pics - Small Steps project]

Matthew also recorded some charming contributions to the #SaveJenny campaign. He evicted the dog from her favourite chair by the radiator in the kitchen and sat there to read the opening chapter of Wind in the Willows -

and later ‘The Night before Christmas’ poem complete with music!

You can still see these contributions and most importantly DONATE - links are listed below -

December has been all about A Discovery of Witches season 2 - with a stunning second trailer and plenty of teasers and pictures from Sky and Bad Wolf - there are too many to include but here’s a few -

[Pics my edit / sky/badwolf]

So what of next year? So many goode things to look forward to. I’ll do ‘Goode Things coming in 2021′ a bit earlier next year because January is gonna be BUSY for Goode fans!

Thank you SO MUCH for making time to read this blog. And a big thank you to Goode fans who create content to share with others on here and on matthew-goode.net. We really appreciate the effort that everyone puts in to sharing the Goode Stuff.

Lastly I have to thank Matthew Goode who patiently tolerates the fan nonsense while he tries to pretend that he doesn’t actually have any fans anyway!

Cheers Matthew!

#matthew goode #matthewgoode #a discovery of witches #adow #the wine show #downton abbey #the duke #silent night #Kingsman

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postmodernmulticoloredcloak · 4 years ago

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Fantasies, dreams and desires, ideas of normalcy and fears of difference. A slightly queer reading of 15x14

Mrs Butters is a delightful character who is built to parallel so many things in the show. She occupies perfectly the semantic sphere that the narrative has crafted around Dean’s desires; also, you know, cake.

We could talk for days about the significance of food and drink in Supernatural. One of the biggest themes that run through the entire show is hunger (or thirst) and food is very often a symbol for an emotional need of sorts. Supernatural draws a lot folklore, and human stories have always used symbologies that put together food, desire, love, sex, family, goodness and darkness and all those human experiences.

We have discussed the shit out of every instance of food in the show, analyzed parallels to other stories and fairytales, scrutinized queer-codings and subtexts, got called nasty names by impolite people accusing us of saying that a slice of baked good means Dean likes sitting on dicks. So, yeah, I’m not gonna start explaining everything from the beginning. Let’s jump to the parallels.

- The comfort food. Motherhood, hugs, and the past that can never return: the ideal of childhood and the 50s fantasy

We’ve already talked about how Mrs Butters functions as a parallel to Mary and a symbol of the ideal motherhood that both Mary and Dean struggled with. In Dark Side Of The Moon, we see a memory from Dean’s childhood, where we learn that Mary would cut off the crusts off his sandwiches. Mrs Butters also says that she cut the crusts off, establishing a direct parallel to Dean’s ideal of childhood and child-parent relationship. Or, we should say, as both Mary’s and Dean’s ideals of a child-parent relationship, because we know that Mary set up her life with John and the kids as an elaborate “scene” according to her idea-slash-fantasy of the perfect safe life.

She strugged with that, because her ideal life could never match with reality - she had loose ends from hunting to deal with, she at some level liked having those loose ends to deal with because as much as she hated the hunting life and craved for safety and “normalcy” that was still something she was in her element doing, probably more than the perfect housewife role. Of course when she came back she attempted to recreate the scene but quickly discovered that it was impossible and dropped all attempts to do so, embracing the opposite, or at least what she perceived as the opposite (having a pretty dualistic view of hunting life-domestic life where they cannot be reconciled).

Dean, on the other hand, started out with a similar dualistic view, figuring that he’d always belong to the hunting world and could never have the domestic, “normal” thing at all, embracing his “freakness” as opposed to the concept of normalcy represented by civilians, by the middle class, by the suburbs, by the apple pie, white fence life (insert heavy queer subtext here). And yet there was always an ambiguity with him (again, he’s never one-or-the-other, he’s always both), because, while on the surface he embraces this rebellious, devil-may-care persona, that’s not quite what he is as a full individual. He grew up essentially a housewife from a very early age, has a very caregiving personality, and thrives in taking care of others.

Dean is both Mrs Butters and Mary, where the difference between him and Mary is that Mary couldn’t (didn’t have the time, support, resources?) reconcile parts of her that Dean instead was able to (and in fact recently helped her with: before dying, she’d reached a pretty healthy balance of living her own life as a hunter and having a warm relationship with her sons, at least as healthy as it can get in that kind of circumstances).

Another important parallel to Dark Side Of The Moon, borrowed by Scoobynatural, is the nightgown that feels like being wrapped in hugs: we are reminded of Dean’s “I wuv hugz” from when he was a kid, a symbol for his early life of affection and safety that he lost with his mother. Childhood hugs, comfort food, loving gestures like cutting off the crusts are all symbols of a past that cannot return.

On a level, from a “coming-of-age story” perspective, childhood, with its innocence and perception that adults will always keep us safe, is obviously something that everyone needs to accept as something that belongs to the past and cannot return, to embrace instead the responsibilities and risks of adulthood in a healthy way. In a sense, Dean needs to go through all these steps - acknowledging that his mother was a flawed person, that in fact both of his parents were flawed people who made mistakes but he can forgive them for his own sake in order to be able to let go of trauma and carry on... - to become a healthy adult able to be a good parent to his own child.

(There’s also the cholesterol thing - Mrs Butters chastizes Dean for his diet, but we know that there’s a depth to Dean’s diet, not only his extreme appreciation of food due to experiencing food scarcity and insecurity as a child, but also the memory of his mother’s comfort food, such as the “Winchester surprise”, a monstrosity of meat and cheese. While the “meat man” persona would appear on the surface as a sterotypical masculinity thing, it has layers, in a typical Dean fashion... not coincidentally, in the latest episode he calls himself the meat man while wearing an apron that we’re told he’s very fond of, painting him, again, in a mixture of different meanings, masculinity and femininity, fatherhood and motherhood, devil-may-care attitude and caregiver attitude.)

On another level, a more political level, there’s the 50s fantasy element. We all know the significance of the idealization of the post-war period as the “good ol’ times” in American culture, and it’s an ideal that Mary definitely drew from when she built her perfect life with her family. Mrs Butters represents this in a very literal way, being literally from 1958 when she “froze” herself, and acts as a very stereotyped governess for a bunch of men that feel like they are above housework, what is considered women’s work. Dean initially comments “how progressive”, knowing exactly how bullshit these conversative ideals are, but then appreciates the comforts of the perfect caretaker.

In fact, Dean’s “giving in” to the comforts of a governess makes me think of that famous feminist manifesto “I want a wife” by Judy Syfers... because housework is very much Dean’s work in the bunker. It’s interesting that Mrs Butters immediately comments negatively on the cleanness of the bunker and their clothes: we know that Dean cleans and washes, and, while it’s likely that he cannot keep everything super perfect like a governess would because he’s busy doing many other things, it’s a way Mrs Butters uses to establish roles that she knows and is comfortable with. She is used to being the one who does “feminine” work while the Men of Letters have absolutely zero skills in that regard, and doesn’t really even stop to question if that’s the case with the men in front of her.

Anyway, let’s go back to the 50s fantasy. The show has repeatedly made commentaries on the vacuity of it. Peace Of Mind is the most obvious instance, but there’s plenty of subtext in the show that deals with that typically American aspect. Just like the childhood aspect, the narrative tells us that the “good ol’ times” are also an idealized thing that cannot return (if it ever existed, because Dean’s childhood was built on a fantasy, and the “good ol’ times” are also a fantasy, because the real 50s were horrible for anyone who didn’t swim in privilege). Mrs Butters cannot stay, the 50s fantasy-slash-childhood fantasy cannot last, and Dean embraces his role as an adult-slash-modern housemaker. Blah blah gender, blah blah cake. (Yeah, sorry, but you can fill in the blanks.)

- The contaminated drink. Poison and weakness from the forbidden sexual desire to the forbidden family domesticity

Aaaand now the second branch of parallels that Mrs Butters pinged on my radar, which sends us in an even more queer-subtext-heavy territory. We’re going to talk about the smoothies and the tomato juice. Yes, I know, the smoothies are given to Jack, not Dean, but symbolically Dean and Jack share the same semantic area; both are given a magically conjured drink, and both end up locked away waiting to be killed. For this analysis, they basically overlap.

Let’s start with the tomato juice. I don’t think that it’s a coincidence that Dean is given something that visually reminds of the blood the vampires drink. The tomato juice is a stand-in for blood, and blood in relation to vampirism has a long history of subtext in the show that connects to sexuality, sex, sexual fears and contamination. While vampires are not necessarily always invested of those meanings every single time they appear in the three-hundred-whatever episodes of the show, their main symbology is connected to sex and sexual fears, as vampires do in modern western literature, after all.

You’re probably going to think, wait, what? What has Mrs Butters got to do with sexual fears? Yeah, I know, it sounds weird, but hear me out.

The tomato juice - a stand-in for blood, with a vampire reference - parallels Mrs Butters (who represents trauma, remember) to 6x05 Live Free Or TwiHard. Sexual assault, blood, contamination via the poisoning liquid.

Next to the tomato juice there’s the smoothie. It’s a poison in disguise, a contaminated drink that makes Jack weak. We have, in fact, a pattern of Dean being given contaminated drinks that place him under another’s power. Not just the vampire’s blood, but also Jeremy from 3x10 Dream A Little Dream Of Me, who offers Dean a beer through which he connects him to his dreams. There’s Nick the siren from 4x14 Sex And Violence, who contaminates Dean through the flask. The venom in the siren’s saliva parallels straight to the gorgon Noah in 14x14 Ouroboros, and I don’t have to start explaining what all those things represent, right? (I have written posts about these things, it would be nice if tumblr didn’t suck and showed them to me when I go look for them.)

(Oh, there’s also Crowley’s human blood addiction, which is not, as one might expect, a parallel to Sam’s demon blood addition, but Dean’s First Blade/Mark Of Cain issue, and the First Blade/Mark Of Cain arc is all imbued by the queer subtext of the Dean-Crowley-Castiel triangle.)

Basically, Mrs Butters is inserted in a history of queer subtext, although it appears as obvious that Mrs Butters hardly represents homosexual desire, unless we go a pretty stretchy route of her occupying Cas’ space in the Dean-Sam-Cas-Jack family (I mean, that’s true, but it’s not simply that). It is also true that Mrs Butters represents Cuthbert Sinclair, and here the radar pings, because Cuthbert Sinclair is totally inside the pattern! He wanted to make Dean part of his collection just like the vampire in 6x05 wanted to make Dean part of his pack, with supernatural means of exorting control over Dean and heavy heavy rapey tones. (I know we don’t like to talk about this, but the show does play with incest subtext, John mirrors are often rapey.)

So, we have all this semantic area of poison, weakness and submission to external control painted in overtones of sexual assault and sexual fears especially in relation to homosexual desire. (I am NOT linking homosexual desire to sexual assult, nor the show is, it’s a wide and volatile semantic area where the common denominator is fear, fear of being hurt FOR being different sexually, it’s about vulnerability because of being different. It’s a horror narrative, guys, remember, queer fear is a recurrent theme in the genre. Dracula was about the horror of what happened to Oscar Wilde, we’re running in circles.)

Now, what kind of fear is explored in 15x14? Well, the episode is about the fear of losing family. The plot is about Dean’s feelings towards Jack after he killed Mary. Dean doesn’t know it yet, but he’s going to lose Cas soon also because of Jack. Mary and Cas are both very noisy absences in the episode, and we know that Dean is going to suffer something horrific again that will shatter his family again. This goes past the fears regarding forbidden sexual desire: we’re in the territory of forbidden familial desire, so to speak, Dean’s craving for a domestic peace with his family.

Jack is both the culmination of Dean’s process of family-building, as the son figure of the family, and the element of destruction of that family-building. Not a coincidence Jack’s birthday was referenced, as Jack’s birth coincided with Cas’ death and Mary’s supposed death or at least separation. Now Jack has supposedly killed Mary (or is it a inter-universe separation again? @drsilverfish’s theory always pops up, and we keep getting reminded of other universes - the telescope is broken...) and we know that Cas’ ultimate death hangs above us.

We’re always running in a spiral, Dean’s relationship with Mary, Dean’s relationship with Cas, Dean’s relationship with motherhood and gender roles, Dean’s relationship with sexuality. There’s a big picture of mirrors in the semantic area of fantasies, idealizations, desires and dreams. I hope I managed to make this post make sense, but I’m always open to requests of clarification or elaboration. Thanks for reading!

#my spn thoughts #spn meta #spn 15x14 #queer subtext #dean and femininity #dean and masculinity #dean and food #dean and mary #dean and childhood #dean and sexuality #dean and family #spn

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the-roanoke-society · 4 years ago

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Is there any way you could tell us about Former Technical Officer Drake? (The one that uses Tom Holland as a face claim?) Like what happened to him that made him become a Former officer?

let’s talk about jude shepard.

and note, that i can’t talk about jude shepard without also speaking of where he died.

it isn’t often i get to tell a story that begins in one decade and ends over a century earlier.

details of violence, sci-fi-induced stressful situations and implied gore and body horror below the cut. proceed with caution.

turn back the clock to 1996.

jude—that is, drake, at the time—was one of the youngest people ever to be brought onto the basement crew. our watchers pinged him at just 14 for showing exceptional aptitude to what i would best describe as technomancy. the phrase ‘wiz kid’ was used often, and seriously. but, the then-wyvern—justine—knew that lilith wouldn’t bend on recruitment rules. she waited patiently until jude was old enough and immediately “adopted” him as a mentee.

our gate had been completely built by this time. at least, an early version of it.

but we knew way less then, than we do now.

and what we know now, we’re realizing, is still precious little.

i wish that i could tell you what happened to jude was significant. i wish i could say that it was meaningful, that it happened for a just cause. i wish i could say that for the handful of officers our homemade portal has swallowed over the decades.

but—well.

a year and a month. that was how long jude had existed fully in his role, fully as drake. justine trusted him completely, why wouldn’t she? he passed training with flying colors, of course he did, that genius born out of the bronx, maybe he’d graduate to her title someday, of course, why not, he’d make a great leader—

so of course he could do routine maintenance by himself.

of course, his hands would never slip and puncture the wrong wire, triggering an instantaneous opening that would have felt like stepping into a sauna turned way too high.

of course, he would never be snapped up, as though raptured.

but they did. and he was.

now, the good news, what slivers of it were to be found, were that we did trace his landing point.

the bad news—he wasn’t in north america in the 1990s.

he was in 19th century prussia.

and the worse news—which everyone knew was the worse news as soon as they saw lilith’s expression shift when she realized the coordinates—was where exactly in prussia he’d been spat out. it was why we couldn’t pull him back, even after repairing the gate’s puncture. why we couldn’t get a push signal to re-generate to the same point.

brennenburg castle.

she recognized it, of course she did.

alexander.

“lady,” lilith began. her eyes didn’t leave the screen, didn’t leave the green dot blinking in russia. “will you please get brosnya on the phone.”

when was it that she’d last spoken to yekatarina, the head of the order of snow and sun? a year ago? two? five?

because of the atrocities committed in that castle, the order is very—protective, of that particular parcel of land. today, as it was then, it’s heavily warded, and regularly observed. the structure itself still stands, condemned and rotting.

lilith had always run on the assumption that, surely, they’d sent field agents down into the castle’s interior to clear it. to make sure that nothing was left behind that shouldn’t be, like say—a proverbial open door.

an exquisitely, ridiculously dangerous open door.

but she still had a sense of decorum, and wasn’t about to point blank ask for some kind of verification as if it was owed to her. after all, the heaviest parts of that investigation would have been years and years earlier.

surely, they had.

surely.

but the unfortunate truth was that there wasn’t much to be done. alexander’s property was cursed, and that curse was powered by something far bigger, and far older, than us. jude was doomed as soon as he hit the ground.

the gate is our homemade doorway. we made it ourselves.

the orb that lilith desperately hoped was in the order’s protective custody, the entire reason behind the castle’s ruin? was built by something like a god. or gods. we’re—we’re not sure.

but it’s not our fault that research is limited.

remember another time we had someone try his hand at technomancy?

remember the time we hit a wall?

turns out that there is a way behind it after all.

remember, there was never any doubt that it wasn’t a wall, and a wall is not a wall without the other side.

if what had happened at brennenburg castle was anything like the world beyond the wall, lilith had zero desire for us, or any other agency, to go there.

more recently, dohbar has been sending her updates. there are seven orbs. “it’s all set up like spokes on a wheel, diana. spokes on a wheel. are we turning? where we are going? how many spokes? and where is the hub, you think? what could possibly lie at the center of something so vast? so ancient? what do you think, diana?” he was getting worse every month. she could see it in his writing. she knew ness was watching him, but not in the role of distant, mournful witness, not like she was watching him.

we have evidence that alexander managed to secure at least a beginning signal, an initial push, to this other plane.

we have no evidence that it was successfully destroyed—beyond the order’s word.

but lilith wondered.

justine was heart-broken, which is why the handle was retired for fifteen years, even as her title passed to jeremy, who followed protocol out of respect—up until he actually met drake and it felt a little too much like a ‘stars aligning’ moment.

a clever cover story was crafted for the benefit of jude’s parents. one that made his ending quick, easy. pure accident. pure fate. pure whatever would bring them peace.

lilith didn’t know it. she wept, god, how she cried, for nights, praying for the first time in what seemed like lifetimes to anybody, please let it have been quick. please let it have been easy. please let him be in peace. please let it have been quick— a never-ending mental prayer chain, timed with her heartbeats, with her jagged breaths. because she knew it had been none of those things. she knew this for a fact. but she whispered into her hands anyway, cupping her own pleas like water to offer to the universe for just this one thing.

at least... as much peace as they could offer at the price of a body. there was nothing to bury. nothing to burn. “we’re sorry. he is gone.”

they bought a plot anyway. they upturned the soil, (”ned--neddy? honey, is this--are we breaking the law?” “oh they wouldn’t dare touch this flower bed, analiese. it’s--it’s the principle of the thing!”) planting begonias. jude’s favorite flower. and yes, he has a tombstone, calling him by his names: jude levi shepard. beloved son. beloved friend. beloved, beloved, beloved.

jude was “buried” in between his paternal and maternal grandparents in a cemetery in long island.

annabelle has a saved photo on her phone from drake of the view from jude’s garden, looking at the city’s skyline.

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adoraang · 5 years ago

Text

She-Ra Week Day 5 by @fauxghosts

Prompt: PRINCESS PROM / healing

Summary: When Glimmer and Bow bet Adora she can't ask Catra to prom before the end of the spring musical, she gets frustrated with her feelings.So what do you do when you've got a bunch of pent up frustration?You duke it out in the Denny's parking lot with your crush in a lightsaber duel.

Read it on AO3

“You’re not gonna do it.”

“I am not gonna do it,” Adora said dramatically as they stepped off the stage after finishing Act Two.

Their school, after constant begging, had finally decided to do a production of Les Miserables. After doing things like Seussical (they don’t talk about that) and High School Musical (nothing wrong with it, just mundane), the theatre department wanted something more serious. Something that would challenge them.

So they forced their director, Double Trouble, to fight with the school about doing Les Mis. Despite some of the… suggestive stuff from the show, the school probably didn’t want to fight some theatre kids, and let them have their show.

The audition process is always the scariest. Being a soprano, she only had one role really available to her: Cosette. Glimmer and Bow peer pressured her into auditioning for a lead instead of going straight to ensamble, and she still wasn’t going to do it, but then Catra asked her to do it, and she couldn’t say no.

Adora ended up cast as Cosette, and she had practically cried of happiness when the cast list came out. Glimmer had gotten Fantine, being a very low mezzo. But then Catra’s name was listed for Eponine, and she just about proposed right there.

They were far from love interests. In fact, they were love rivals. Sea Hawk was the one playing Marius, and the two girls spent the entire show in love with him, which wasn’t the funnest. Neither of them even liked boys, so for Catra’s character to die because she was delivering a letter to Marius… It was a trip.

Even if they weren’t true love interests, and only shared one song with each other that wasn’t the Act One finale, Catra and Adora still spent the most time in rehearsal together. Ironic, because the one song was called A Heart Full Of Love, and it’s Adora’s hardest song, in her opinion.

She gushed about Catra to Bow and Glimmer everyday in the car home from rehearsal. “Guys, I think my heart is full of love. Would it be weird to ask Double Trouble to switch Marius and Eponine? I’d rather spend the whole show simping about Catra then Sea Hawk-”

“Adora!” Glimmer cut off. “You’ve been halfway in love with Catra since Seussical, and I think that’s saying something. You should tell her. What’s the worst that can happen?”

“She rejects me, never talks to me again, drops out of the show, and I can’t spend the rest of senior year with her or college, since we’re both going to University of San Diego together to major in theatre, and she’ll never want to be in another role with me!”

“You’re freaking out again,” Bow childed, not turning away from the street as he drove. “You know Catra isn’t like that. And I don’t think she’ll reject you in the first place.” “I am so tired of hearing Adora talk about Catra when Catra probably likes her back,” Glimmer growled. “I’m going to do something about it.”

She reached into her pocket, and Adora almost hopped over the console. She thought they were going to call Catra and tell her something, and it was enough to make her take off her seatbelt, despite Bow’s car safety. “Glimmer, wait-”

Instead, she pulled out her wallet. “I will give you fifty dollars if you ask Catra to Princess Prom as a romantic date. I’ll double the offer if you do it before closing night.”

“An extra twenty if she says yes!” Bow chimed in.

Glimmer and Bow don’t struggle with money, so a hundred wasn’t a lot for them, but Adora’s eyes grew wide as she thought about it. Of course, it involved asking Catra out, but she’d figure that out later. “You have a deal.”

“Now please put your seatbelt back on!” Bow screeched, his voice cracking.

Which brought them to now, as they got into position for curtain call. She’d be bowing with Sea Hawk after Catra had hers with Kyle (who played Enjorlas, and it’s still shrouded in mystery how he got the role). Glimmer was one of the first to bow, but she still caught the wink as she walked away.

“That thing is huge,” Catra mumbled when she got in line backstage, waiting for their cue.

Adora looked down at her costume. The huge wedding dress wasn’t her favorite costume from the show, but it couldn’t be more appropriate for the moment (or inappropriate, take the pick). Catra couldn’t look more beautiful in her sleeveless white shirt and brown skirt that hit the floor. Despite the fact that the belt on her waist was big on her and she had dirt slathered all over her, she’s never looked better. Plus the red cap… That stupid thing was going to be the death of her.

“It’s always been like this,” Adora replied, falling into her place next to Sea Hawk, who busied himself with Kyle. Her heart thumped with the question. She doubted Catra had feelings for her, but she could always ask as a friend. Not like Glimmer and Bow needed to know anyways…

Bow had been a life saver in tech. He always knew when to turn off people’s mics, including that one time he turned off Catra’s when she started shit talking principal Hordak backstage when he came to watch rehearsal. Luckily, he turned them off now as Adora made her attempts to approach the subject.

“Princess Prom.” That’s not a question, it’s a statement! “Uh, I mean…”

“Catra, you and Kyle are next,” Scorpia, their stage manager, said.

Catra nodded, then turned back to her. “So, this is it, huh.. Our last curtain call as seniors, being cast as the leads for the first time, our last show in general until San Diego.”

“Don’t remind me.” She already cried in her car as she drove herself and Catra to school, emotional about ending her last show already. Closing nights are always a mess, but it just hits differently as seniors, and when you’re playing love rivals with the girl you’re pretty in love with.

“I’ll see you on the flip side,” she whispered before she ran out on stage, the bright lights shining down on her.

Even though Adora could only see Catra’s back, they were both sad about this being their last show. They had identical tears pricking their eyes, and when she rushed off stage with Kyle, she braced herself for the emotions to come.

She took Sea Hawk’s hand, and they ran to center stage when Scorpia gave them their cue. She couldn’t stop the tears from coming, even as she bunched her dress in her hands to give the curtsey bow. Sea Hawk did the Jeremy Jordan bow, where he clasps his hands in front of him and takes his bow.

Their last show…

The cast got into a line going horizontal, pointing to their lovely orchestra for their part of the bow. They started to make their way backstage again, and Adora took Catra’s hand. For emotional support, you know? She wasn’t going to see the blinding lights or the tech week shenanigans or the mic taped to her forehead in high school again! Obviously she’s going to be very dramatic about it.

As the cast made their way to the green room, everyone was in the same mood: sad. Catra had opted for letting go of her hand to wrap an arm around her shoulders as they silently sniffled. She was going to miss this…

“Closing night isn’t over, people!” Sea Hawk shouted, pumping a fist into the air. “Let’s go say goodbye to Double Trouble, and head over to Denny's!”

Ah, yes. The theatre kid ritual. Every show, they have to go to Denny'safter closing. It’s the law, and she looked forward to it every time. It always created the best memories, like when the obnoxious senior from last year, Octavia, got arrested for stealing a shopping cart.

Denny's always made her night.

“He’s not wrong,” Catra said to her. “Am I driving with you?”

“Duh.” Wasn’t that a given? Or was it too forward to assume. Or maybe-

“That’s what I thought.”

But when they stepped into the green room, all thoughts of Catra disappeared (for one second exactly) as Double Trouble walked in, whopping loudly. They gave their speech about this being one of the funnest shows to do, but Adora was too busy wiping her wet cheeks to really listen.

“Go out there, kids, and rule the goddamn theatre world!” Double Trouble finished, dismissing them for the night.

“To Denny's!” Glimmer exclaimed, giving everyone the pick-me-up they needed.

“To Denny's,” Catra repeated to her, quieter. To Denny'sit was. They walked to the parking lot, heading to her car, but Glimmer caught her wrist as she was opening her door.

“You only have a couple hours left. Use them wisely.” Satisfied with her words of wisdom, Glimmer got into the passenger side of Bow’s car parked next to them.

“I’m really going to kill them,” Adora whispered to herself as she put the key into the ignition. Her little yellow beetle may not be anything for any other high school kid, but it was perfect for her.

“Why?” Catra asked, having apparently heard her. Rats.

“Because.” And it was left at that before Adora opened her mouth again. “Princess Prom. That’s a thing that’s going on. It’s going on very soon. Like, in a month soon.”

“Yes, what about it?” Catra seemed so dismissive of it. She looked out the window, listening to Somebody’s Watching Me on the radio. Was she even going to go? What if she asked and Catra had no plans of going, and Adora’s unknowingly forcing her into it?

“Nothing.”

“Oh…” Catra traced the window with her nail. Now why was she all deflated? This girl is way too confusing for her brain. “I want to go, but I don’t want to be alone.”

Adora is going to kill someone. Seriously, all it would take is driving the car into Denny's. “Really? You’re going?”

“Not as of right now, but I kind of want to. Like I wouldn’t wear a dress or heels. But… I would want to wear a suit and maybe get my nails a color that isn’t black. But I don’t know who I’d go with.”

She momentarily turned away from the road to look at Catra. Bow would be screaming at her right now, but she couldn’t find it in her to care. She was basically given an invitation to ask, but what if Catra didn’t want her to ask? What if she’s just talking about it? What if she wants Adora to set her up with someone else?

Catra opened her mouth to say something, but she got distracted by something gleaming in the backseat. “There’s no way I didn’t notice these earlier!”

She reached into the back, leaning across the console. Her white sweater rode up on her waist, and Adora exploded into a blush at the sight of some skin. Seriously, what is wrong with her? And because she doesn’t get cold, she wore a cropped red cami and regular black jeans. Her outfit did nothing to hide the blush.

Catra came back up, holding the hilt of two lightsabers. They were both big Star Wars nerds, and she spent thirty dollars (each) on these sabers. But the money from the bet would pay it back, if she actually did it. Catra dove into the backseat again, bringing the two sticks of plastic that she fastened back onto the hilt.

She pressed a button, and the blue light from Anakin Skywalker’s lightsaber lit up the car. Catra stared at the saber, and Adora couldn’t help but notice how her skin managed to light up perfectly in the blue light. “Try the red.”

Catra turned off the blue saber, and grabbed a hold of Darth Vader’s lightsaber. The red added a dangerous feeling to the atmosphere. Blue was fun and playful. Red was full of passion, and the silence that followed afterward proved her point.

Finally, Catra cleared her throat, moving the saber around a bit. “Oh, I like this one.”

“But I like that one,” Adora protested as she pulled into a parking space at Denny’s. She could see everyone had already arrived. Not like she was driving slower than usual just to get a couple more seconds of conversation. No doubt they would see the red light and question what they were doing.

She pointed the end of the saber at Adora. “Well then, I guess it’s going to have to be a duel to the fate.”

Adora rolled her eyes at the reference, but grabbed the blue saber from the console, igniting it with the push of a button. “Okay, Eponine ‘I Died Delivering A Letter To My Love Interest That Was Actually About Another Girl’ Thénardier.”

“That’s the show’s fault, not mine.”

“Unimportant.”

Catra opened the car door, bouncing to Adora's side within seconds. She hastily took off her seatbelt, practically sprinting out of the driver's seat, spinning the hilt in her hand. “I’m pretty sure you’ve never fought with one of these.”

Adora scoffed. “I own them.”

“Yeah, just like I’m gonna own you!” Catra charged forward, raising her saber above her head before bringing it down on Adora. She barely had time to respond, lifting her own saber to block it as she sunk down to her knee.

“Hey, I just ordered our table! It’ll be ready in a couple minutes,” Scorpia said as she came out the door in time to see Adora stand and knock Catra away from her. “What are you guys doing?”

Catra held Adora in a parry as she turned around to yell, “Fighting, duh!”

“Yeah, we see that!” Bow shouted as Adora brought her sword back to her chest, making Catra stumble as they slowly moved away from her car. “Why are you guys mad?”

“Not real fighting!” Adora answered, moving in closer to Catra as their sabers met in the middle time and time again. “I’m defending my honor and rights!” “Yeah, her rights to dance with me instead of fighting in a parking lot!” Catra responded.

Adora faltered at that. Before she could begin overthinking what that meant in the middle of a lightsaber duel in the Denny's parking lot with the entire cast of Les Mis watching, Catra caught her saber and twisted her arm, causing Adora to completely let go of her saber.

“It’s over, Adora. I have the high ground,” Catra boasted.

“Not yet!” She dropped down low, catching the saber by the hilt before it hit the ground. She brought her blade back up, the two of them getting caught in another round of aimlessly swinging and blocking.

“You guys are ridiculous!” Glimmer shouted, her head in her hands.

“You don’t appreciate the true art of Star Wars like we do!” Adora yelled back.

Truthfully, this isn’t how she expected her last post closing night dinner at Denny’s to go.

When she was talking about it to Catra on their way to school, they imagined a tearful night. Majority of the cast and crew were seniors, and everyone loved them. Glimmer had basically adopted a little sophomore, Frosta, who played Gavroche (no one even noticed the genderbend!). They all thought they were going to be sad, and cry in the back of Scorpia’s pick up truck as they sang One Day More as a cast, one last time.

Instead, Adora was sword fighting Catra in the parking lot as all of their friends watched.

A great conclusion to her senior year musical, honestly.

Adora stood in front of Catra for a moment as they caught their breath. In an instant, they started twirling their sabers in their hands. The light from the blue and red was a whirlwind, and Catra laughed as they recreated that one scene from their favorite Star Wars movie: Revenge of the Sith.

Catra’s laugh was intoxicating. It made Adora let out her own giggle. They went back to fighting after a second, but Catra’s face illuminated by the red light in the nighttime made her stomach go up in butterflies.

“You were supposed to join me, not leave me in darkness!” Catra recited, smiling the whole time.

Adora swiped the saber at her feet, and Catra hopped over it. “Well, I love you!”

She froze, and Catra even faltered. But because she froze, Catra pushed her onto her back, pointing the red saber at her. “I know!”

For a moment, she forgot it was a reference to another one of the movies. But Adora let her saber fall out of her hand, looking up at Catra. The red light was stunning. Everyone else around them had fallen silent to watch the exchange. She then realized no one else knew what the reference was from.

“Guys, it’s from one of the movies!” Adora called out from her place on the ground. “Empire Strikes Back, it’s pretty good. You guys should watch it!”

Catra panted, looking down at her. “What?”

She was equally as confused. “What? What happened?”

“Oh, forget it.” Catra turned off the saber, holding her hand out instead. “Want to rule a galaxy together instead?”

“How about we start by taking over Broadway,” Adora grinned, helping herself up with Catra’s assistance. She turned off the blue saber, but they continued to stare at each other. Catra continued to hold her hand, but neither made any attempt to move away.

“Did we just hash everything out in a Denny’s parking lot?” Catra asked.

“I think we did..”

“Adora!” Glimmer shouted, interrupting their staring contest. “So like, I have a hundred with me. Bow has a twenty, but…”

The bet. A hundred and twenty dollars if she successfully asked her crush out to Princess Prom and didn’t get rejected. But they just beat each other up with plastic toys from the Disney store. Maybe it just wasn’t meant to be. Or maybe they were, but then one of them would fall to the dark side and tragically die. Who knows?

“Oh, that thing where Glimmer and Bow were going to give you money if you asked me to Princess Prom?” Catra raised an eyebrow, laughing at Adora’s horrified face. “Bow told Scorpia, and she accidentally let it slip.”

Adora groaned. She wanted to go fall in a hole and die in a ditch. Maybe she should’ve been shot on stage instead of Catra. “Yeah, about that-”

“I’ve been waiting for you to ask me,” Catra said, tightening her hold on her hand. “I didn’t think I wanted to go, but then I heard that and I realized… maybe I did. The dances and stuff always felt really corporate to me, and it wasn’t my thing. But I went home everyday wondering why you hadn’t asked me yet, and then I realized-”

“Oh my god I am so sorry,” Adora interrupted. She was horrified. Catra knew the entire time. She’s been tripping over herself for the two months of rehearsal and three weeks of the actual production, but never stopped to think what if she already knew. She’s absolutely mortified. “You got dragged into this mess of a joke between me and Glimmer then Bow came in and I just thought, I don’t know. I don’t think or I think too much. Oh my god, I can not believe this is happening!”

Catra chuckled when she spoke without a pause. “Breathe. I’m not mad. Or upset or anything like that. I like you too, Adora.”

Her cheeks flamed. “You did?”

She nodded. “You’re not exactly subtle, per say…”

Adora didn’t feel like crying out of embarrassment anymore. She put her free hand in her pocket, ghosting her fingers over Catra’s knuckles with the other. “You actually like me?”

Another nod, accompanied with a gorgeous laugh. “Yes. Yes, I like you and all your high notes. You think I liked seeing you kiss Sea Hawk every rehearsal and show?” They both laughed. Neither of them like it, apparently, because Adora didn’t. “You and your private story where you rewatch Clone Wars with me and we both cry, and I get to see the video and laugh at how oblivious you were to notice that I liked you. You and your bootleg pirating, despite the fact that Newsies is your favorite and it’s literally proshot. So yeah, Adora. I do like you. You and your overthinking.”

Adora was over the moon, and she wanted to stay here in the parking lot all night and talk. But first, she had something to conclude. “So, Princess Prom. That’s a thing we should go to together.”

“We should.”

They did.

#she ra #catra #adora #catradora #sheraweek #my fic #my writing

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writerofshit · 4 years ago

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welp, the new minecraft for first has made this thought emerge: jeremattichael are absolute shits to each other, poking fun and being general nuisances, but if anyone outside the fakes says SHIT abt 1 of them, there's hell to pay. also, while the pestering is fun, there is always implicit affection throughout that becomes explicit when in private, whether alone or with the rest of the crew, just general sweetness and lil pda, not too much tho

YES, 100% on board with this. I've said it before and I'll say it again: the love language of the fahc is just general assholery/pestering + lovingly bullying one another. It is all that they know.

Let's imagine they're robbing a bank or something, Jeremy and Michael acting as the muscle/putting the fear of god into those in the lobby. They're throwing playful jabs back and forth, arguing about who's more terrifying.

"I'm definitely the badass here, M, everybody knows you've got a baby face under that mask."

"That's funny, considering the Rimmy Tim get-up makes you look like you were dressed by a preschooler."

Matt is on cams, carefully keeping an eye out for anybody trying to be a hero. Technically. He's mostly just giggling to himself and resisting the urge to remind them that the person who's most badass doesn't even have to be there to instill fear. And they both look like children playing dress up, actually.

It goes on, Michael and Jeremy pacing, Matt watching, the rest of the crew fulfilling whatever role they had. It's pretty chill, as bank robberies go.

Until Michael trips over the corner of a rug and gets ruthlessly mocked for it.

"Wow, first day on the job, or-?"

Matt pops up on the comm line "I saw that, and you're a fool. Just so you know."

"Hey Mich- er, M, careful, there is another rug you've stepped over 20 times now. Wouldn't want it to jump out and surprise you as well."

"Alright, both of you can fuck off."

It's all good natured, all a fun story they can tell later. Until the useless security guard makes a comment under his breath. "How the fuck are we being robbed by such incompent assholes?"

Which would be fine, if they didn't have someone like Matt watching and listening to everything. He switches easily to the overhead speakers. "Hey, dickhead with the questions, maybe don't make fun of the guys with the guns."

"Axial?"

"You wanna talk shit about these guys, pretty sure your job was to prevent this type of thing. Maybe take a look in the mirror when you talk about incompetence." He probably shouldn't have given so much of his hand away, but he's irritated. Nobody gets to talk shit about his crew and live to tell about it. Especially not when it comes to Michael or Jeremy.

Later, after it's all over and the celebration has died down, Michael brings it up again. "You know I dont need you guys to defend me, yeah? Guy can say whatever he wants."

"Not about you." Jeremy says darkly.

Matt squeezes his hand. "You may not need us to, but we're gonna do it anyway."

"Besides," Jeremy begins, and there's already a giggle seeping into his tone. "I was worried you were gonna trip on your shoelace next, derail the whole thing. Somebody had to maintain control."

"You guys are assholes." But he's smiling anyway.

#my first thought when lindsay said 'oh why dont you marry matt too!' was this is the minecraft marriage we deserve #anyway i love these three and i love these thoughts #jeremattichael #that is quite the ship name isnt it?#theyre wonderful though so i'll allow it #ks talks #winkyblinkyandstew #faht

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paladin-lynx · 4 years ago

Text

SquipJere Week 2020, Day 4: Mr. Roboto

@squipjerebmc’s SquipJere Week 2020 Day 4: Mr. Roboto

Ships Involved: The SQUIP x Jeremy Heere (Technical Difficulties/Squipemy/Squeremy/JereSquip/SquipJere)

Setting: Canonverse, set in the time interval between “Loser Geek Whatever” and “Halloween”.

Trigger/Content Warnings: None

Jeremy had never been one to ‘bask in the limelight,’ as they said. He wasn’t exactly content to stay on the sidelines for his entire life like Michael was, but he didn’t need to be the center of attention. It would just be kind of nice to be looked at by someone other than his best friend since kindergarten or bullies searching for a punching bag.

But he had to admit, after his first real hangout with the ‘cool kids’ had been a success, he felt like a movie star. All of the eyes on him as he’d mastered the dancing game at Dave & Buster’s had been somewhat overwhelming at first, but he’d quickly adjusted and it just felt good to be recognized, even if it was for something that he technically hadn’t achieved on his own. But even Rich, who without a doubt knew how Jeremy had danced like he was a professional to a song he didn’t even know that well on the highest difficulty on some obscure music game, had praised him and let him have his brief moment of fame.

But it was enough attention to satisfy him for a week or more and as keyed up as he was from all the interaction, it felt nice to be home. The entire scene kept replaying itself in his head – whether that was because of him or because it was the SQUIP’s silent way of saying ‘look how well you did,’ he wasn’t completely sure – and he had a bit of a skip in his step as he walked into the house. His father hadn’t even seemed to notice he was gone so there was no way he’d noticed that Jeremy had taken the car.

The rest of the Saturday passed without much fanfare, and soon enough it was Sunday. Sundays were usually Jeremy’s day to buckle down and get his homework done, and he usually didn’t look forward to it. When he didn’t want to get up from bed, the SQUIP lightly prodded at him until he did, teasing him for his bedhead and telling him that it was sure it would be a productive day.

Jeremy had never really liked doing homework. The one exception was when he was given books to read, although that heavily depended on the book. However, ever since getting the SQUIP, he hadn’t gotten much more enthusiastic about doing schoolwork but he found it much easier to focus. He knew for a fact that was because of the SQUIP’s influence – or at least, it had definitely started that way and now Jeremy wondered if maybe his focus was better because his mind had been properly trained.

And so after scarfing down a bowl of cereal – the SQUIP had been intent on him having three meals a day, something Jeremy hadn’t exactly been great about before considering he opted to skip breakfast ninety-five percent of the time – he settled in at his desk to start on the one subject that was the bane of his existence: math. Michael had always been the one who was better with numbers while Jeremy was better with words. Jeremy had been in the drama club when he was in elementary school and for part of middle school, although he never had any roles that were too notable, but it was enough to satisfy him. His adoration of Christine had only bolstered his love of theater. He’d even debated a few times over the course of his short life trying to write poetry or songs, but he’d never gotten into the right mindset for it. He doubted he’d be good at it, anyway.

But now he had the SQUIP which, as it had so proudly declared the first day he’d gotten it, was made of math. There were certain things the SQUIP would do for him, but homework wasn’t one of them. It would stand by as Jeremy worked, ready to assist, but it would never just give him the answers. It would walk him through the problems or prompts to make sure he understood how to find the solution, and of course because the SQUIP was in his brain, Jeremy would find himself understanding even if he had initially found himself lost as the SQUIP rattled off information.

And so he sat at his desk and got to work – normally he’d end up hunched over in his chair, but thanks yet again to the SQUIP that was no longer the case – furrowing his brow as he started on the various problems. The SQUIP was helping him raise his grades but he still had to put in the effort himself, because if he was suddenly a prodigy in every subject, there would definitely be some eyebrows raised in his direction. So he needed to do well, but not too well, kind of like how he hadn’t gotten a perfect score back at Dave & Buster’s. There was a balance to these things, wherein the SQUIP would step in and hold his hand to lead him down the right path until Jeremy learned well enough to see the way on his own.

Jeremy usually waited until he got through all the problems he could do on his own before he asked for help, almost like he was still a little kid going to ask his parents if they could assist him. Then again, the SQUIP would always be there as soon as he so much as thought that he might not be able to figure something out on his own. No embarrassing scurrying down to the kitchen necessary – although it was still a bit embarrassing to need help at all.

And to his pleasant surprise, he was actually getting through most of the assigned problems relatively quickly. Sure, there were a couple that had him scratching his head for a few minutes, but it just took a quick flip through his notes – those were getting neater and better organized, too – for him to come to a realization. He might actually be able to have some free time on this Sunday instead of spending the whole day besides meals and bathroom breaks sitting at his desk and working.

He was so absorbed in his work – what a rarity – that he almost missed that there was sound in the room other than the scratching of his pencil against his notebook. When he finally noticed it, he looked up with his brow creased, confused. It almost sounded like humming, but he was pretty sure that even if his dad sang in the shower, it wouldn’t reach all the way through the closed door.

That was when he turned to see the SQUIP standing on the other side of the room, back facing him. It had a few translucent blue screens floating around it, each displaying various numbers and data that Jeremy could never even hope to understand, and it was tapping its chin as it looked over everything. Jeremy knew that the visuals were just to fit his personal aesthetics and to give him something to look at as the SQUIP interacted with him so his brain wasn’t left utterly baffled, but he still couldn’t help feeling intrigued.

Especially when he realized that his SQUIP was, in fact, humming as it went about its business.

Of course, as soon as Jeremy realized, the sound stopped and the screens fizzled away as the SQUIP looked over its shoulder. “What? You should be doing your homework.”

“You were humming,” was all Jeremy managed to say, realizing after a heartbeat how stupid it sounded to state the obvious.

However, the SQUIP merely blinked at him, turning around to properly face him, arms crossing against its chest. “I was not.”

“Wh—You were!” Jeremy protested. “I heard it.”

“Perhaps you were humming to yourself as you worked?”

“No way, I don’t hum when I work. Especially not when I’m doing math.”

The SQUIP seemed to bite back a smile at that and instead huffed. “Everything I do in this physical manifestation, Jeremy, has a purpose. There would be no reason for me be humming at this moment, so therefore I was not humming.”

Jeremy’s eyebrows furrowed. “But you were. I heard you. I know my brain is fucked up, but it isn’t so bad that I’m imagining humming. I even know the song. It was ‘Mr. Roboto’ by, uh…erm…shit…”

“Styx,” the SQUIP interrupted, although it didn’t seem entirely pleased to be giving Jeremy evidence against its argument.

“Yeah, Styx! It played at one point in Dave & Buster’s yesterday. When Jake and Brooke were doing the basketball game thingy.”

The SQUIP scowled at him. “Jeremy, I wasn’t humming. That would be illogical. Why would I carry out such a pointless act?”

Jeremy blinked, before shrugging. “I dunno. For fun? You’re an A.I., after all, so you have things that you like to do even if you don’t need to do them…right?”

He remembered the SQUIP telling him just a few days ago that it was impossible for it to ever be at a loss. But the SQUIP right now looked just a bit baffled at Jeremy’s explanation. “I…suppose that might be true. Have I done anything else like that?”

Jeremy thought for a moment. “You looked like you were having fun yesterday when we were playing games with everyone. Maybe it was just you helping me, but I think you were getting something out of it, too. Maybe the happy chemicals in my brain were affecting you or something.”

The SQUIP snorted. “It doesn’t work that way, Jeremy. But…you may be onto something.” It tilted its head, and Jeremy wondered what exactly it was processing. But it spoke again just a few moments later: “It seems that I was, in fact, humming. It was just a…mindless action. I didn’t even seem to realize myself that I was doing it.”

“Well, you told me that with every interaction, you learn and evolve,” Jeremy replied. “So maybe because you’re poking around at me less, you’re starting to realize there are things that you like to do? And that song stuck with you from yesterday.” He smiled. “Kind of fitting, honestly.”

“I’m not a robot, Jeremy. I’m a supercomputer.”

“Oh, you know what I meant!”

The SQUIP chuckled softly, reaching up to push its hair back, even though Jeremy was pretty sure it was already perfectly in place as it always was. “…This is certainly an interesting development. I’ll have to look more into it.”

Jeremy frowned. “I know you’re all about numbers and results and stuff, but…can’t you just enjoy it and not try to dig in and find a reason behind it?”

The SQUIP raised an eyebrow and tipped its head to one side as it looked at him. “I’m programmed to delve into situations and analyze how they come to be and what results may come from them. That includes how my own code functions and grows.”

Jeremy sighed, shrugging and turning back to his desk. “You do you, I guess. Just…I dunno, I have time when I’m not working and you don’t have to worry about me. So you could find your own thing to do.”

The SQUIP appeared beside him, still looking thoughtful. “You do realize I’m in your head, right? I can’t exactly decide to meander off and go attend some crazy rave.”

Jeremy smiled sideways at him. “Maybe you can meet up with Rich’s SQUIP and have a wild party or something in cyberspace. Or you could sync with some of my game systems and run around in them. I think you secretly liked being a little hamster.”

“I did not,” it protested and Jeremy only grinned more when he felt indignant static trail down his spine. The SQUIP tutted at him and turned away. “…I’ll consider looking into doing activities that don’t align with my assignment to you. It could prove to be an interesting experiment.”

“Uh huh.”

Jeremy left it at that and got back to his homework, although he was pretty sure he wasn’t focusing quite as well as before. Was it really that strange that the SQUIP had been humming? It seemed to do a lot of things that were a bit more extra than necessary – such as that little kiss to the back of Jeremy’s hand just the day before, but Jeremy was trying not to linger on that too much because it made his stomach feel funny – but it had always explained it away as being for Jeremy’s sake. But Jeremy was starting to wonder if that was just the SQUIP trying to convince itself that everything it did had a reason behind it and that it wasn’t just doing something for the sake of doing it like a stupid human would. A SQUIP was built to learn so that it could improve itself, and it would only see something as harmless as humming a tune as it worked as a distraction or even a downgrade.

But after Jeremy had eaten dinner and returned to his room to move on to his history homework, he blinked up as he once again heard the unmistakable humming. He looked over to see the SQUIP sitting on his bed, its eyes closed and expression contemplative as it almost hesitantly hummed out the familiar notes of ‘Mr. Roboto,’ albeit slower than the actual song. But as the minutes passed, the sound got more confident and Jeremy swore he even saw a smile.

“You have a nice voice,” he complimented after a bit.

“Just because someone can carry a tune while humming doesn’t mean they can sing well, Jeremy,” was the reply he got.

But when Jeremy lay down to sleep that night, nestled under the covers, he could see the gentle tell-tale glow of the SQUIP as it sat down on the edge of the bed, just as it had that first night it had activated. It ran its fingers through Jeremy’s hair, slow and soothing, and Jeremy tipped his head slightly up into the touch as he felt himself start to drift off.

And right before he fell asleep, he thought he heard a quiet voice singing:

“Everything about you is going to be wonderful…”

#SquipJere Week 2020 #lynx tales #mine #writing #Be More Chill #BMC Jeremy Heere #BMC SQUIP #Technical Difficulties #Squipemy #Squeremy #JereSquip #SquipJere #Jeremy Heere #SQUIP #of course now i'm gonna have Mr Roboto stuck in my head even if I only actually briefly mentioned it lol #BMC #fic #fanfiction #i don't have a fancy queue tag

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willowbird · 4 years ago

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Hi! How are you??? Congrats on 100 sweets!

For the prompt thingy can you write some Andrew and Kevin being best friends and shit (maybe Neil as well... idk) but yeah. please. Thank you<3

Oh! You want Kevin and Andrew going apple-picking and Andrew being his wingman? That’s what you said, right? Right? (also thank you thank you thank you!)

This one got a little bit long again, sorry friends. Rather read it on AO3? None of my formattings transferred over so if you want the full effect of how often I use italics (a lot, it’s a lot, like -- it’s excessive I’m sorry) then you might wanna click the link. Otherwise!! Enjoy :)

-----

The rusticly decorated archway had a worn sign that proclaimed 'Welcome to Sonny Acres Farm!' far too cheerfully. Andrew looked up at it in disdain and then landed his judgemental stare the reason he was here in the first place.

Kevin was too used to the glare to be affected by it. "It has good reviews," he explained, like that was anywhere close to being a valid excuse for dragging him out here. The sun was warm but the breeze was mild, the fresh scent of autumn leaves made just a bit sweeter by the hint of apples. It was ten in the morning, the world was quiet but alive, and Andrew was disgusted by how fucking beautiful it was.

"Right." Andrew didn't know why Kevin had wanted to come to this place so badly, but he was sure it had nothing to do with the reviews. First of all, why the fuck was he looking at reviews anyway? Why the fuck would anyone want to go apple picking of all things? When Andrew had asked these perfectly reasonable questions, Kevin had been annoyingly evasive.

'Are you coming or aren't you?' he'd snapped instead of giving a straight answer, already getting flustered. As if it weren't already glaringly obvious that he was hiding something. Which of course meant that Andrew had agreed to go, if only to see what the fuck this was really all about.

"So are we just going to stand here, or…?" Andrew raised a single eyebrow at his distressingly tall best friend, mostly because he knew how much it irritated him.

Since it looked like Kevin was still preparing himself for something, and Andrew was getting impatient, he only gave him a moment to respond before shrugging and striding forward. He passed under the sign and followed the path to the building closest to the parking lot they'd just come from, not bothering to look back and see if the Abominable Anxiety was following or not. The building revealed itself to be a shop, selling everything from Sonny Acres merch like t-shirts and tote bags to baskets of apples and just about every apple-themed product you could imagine. Apple sauce, apple butter, apple candy, apple pies. Apple soap, apple shampoo, apple lotion. Apple plates, apple dresses, apple earrings, apple apples.

(No, literally, there was a statue thing that was a large apple… made out of smaller apples.)

Also, four shelves of different kinds of apple candles. Andrew wasn't sure whether to be disturbed or impressed.

The bell on the door chimed behind him before he could make up his mind and he looked behind him to see Kevin entering. Andrew looked him dead in the eye and made a slow, simple gesture at the shop, keeping his expression deadpan.

Unaffected, because he was a bastard, Kevin dared to just roll his eyes and walked past Andrew without comment. He walked through the shop to the check-out counter at the back, looking around like some kind of lighthouse-wannabe giraffe man until he came to stand before it. He stood there awkwardly for a moment before knocking on the surface and clearing his throat.

"Uh… hello?"

Andrew continued to look around the shop, discovering a new apple-themed bit of nonsense with each scan of his eyes. His brain was beginning to hurt. He didn't look over at the desk through the shuffle of the clerk or whoever coming out at Kevin's call and didn't really register their greeting in return. He did snap his attention in that direction at Kevin's response though, which was a stammering, awkward, "Oh, hey… yeah. Hi. Apples."

Andrew watched with instant understanding as the veritable catastrophe played out before him. It was a fucking train wreck and Andrew had never been more glad to be at a place called Sonny Acres in his entire fucking life. Kevin hadn't stopped talking. It was like he couldn't, and it just kept getting so much worse which meant it kept getting so much better. Andrew thought about coming to his rescue, he really did.

"I mean, there are apples here. Of course there are apples. I mean, apples to pick. I came to pick your apples - oh God not YOUR apples! The apples that you grow at the farm. On the farm. On the farm. I promise I understand English grammar."

Oh Kevin. So that's why he's been unable to get a straight answer out of him earlier. There was absolutely nothing straight about this little trip to the apple orchard at all.

The not-straight answer in question was several inches shorter than Kevin but still too tall to be trusted. Additionally, he was wearing a sunny, affectionate smile like he did so often, the expression easy and comfortable on his face. There were even dimples in his light brown cheeks. Ridiculous. His hair was curly and bleached to a springy caramel except for the roots, and was held back with a headband that, yup, had apples on it. Objectively, Andrew could see why Kevin was being an absolute disaster over the man. Personally, he liked someone a little less sunshine and a little more lightning bolt. Or he would, if he did relationships, which he didn't. He didn't even think about them, and certainly not regarding the unfairly hot neighbor that lived across the hall from him and Kevin.

Andrew moved forward, jamming his focus back on the two morons in front of him rather than Idiot Who Shall Not Be Named.

Sonny Acres Sunshine laughed at Kevin's antics like he was being charming, his eyes dancing. Yeah, dancing. Sweet fuck. "You're a riot Kev."

"Yeah, Kev is hysterical," Andrew agreed breezily as he stepped up beside him, looking the other man up and down. "Aren't you Kev? A regular John Mulaney this guy. Hysterical." He slapped Kevin on the back harder than necessary and ignored the glare he got in return. The dumbass could thank him later.

Sonny Sunshine grinned at him. "You must be his roommate. Andrew, right? I'm Jeremy! He's talked a lot about you. I'm glad you guys came."

"Funny," Andrew deadpanned, studying his own fingernails, "he never mentioned you. Wonder why that is."

"So! Apples," Kevin cut in, apparently feeling pushy today. "Ah, we've never been apple picking or anything. Is there a way we should go about this?"

The process seemed fairly obvious to Andrew, but he let it go.

Jeremy grinned at Kevin, bright and enthusiastic. "I can walk you through it, no problem. You'd be surprised how many people have never been apple picking before."

Somehow Andrew doubted this, but - charitable soul that he was - he let that one go too.

"Really? Fall is supposed to be the time for it though, right?" Kevin attempting to chit-chat was one of the single most pathetic sights Andrew had ever had to witness. It took all his self control not to grimace.

Jeremy didn't seem to notice though. He just kept smiling, watching Kevin talk like -- oh.

Well then, Andrew's role here had just changed. Andrew could practically see the blue, purple, and pink hearts dancing around his roommates head. Idiot. Ah well, if they were going to do this, they may as well do this.

Andrew sighed heavily. "Maybe you could just come with us? Kevin owes me a home-made apple pie and I will not suffer subpar apples."

The look of annoyance Kevin shot him morphed quickly to gratitude the second he realized what Andrew was doing.

Jeremy was oblivious.

"Sure thing! It'd be my pleasure." Andrew didn't miss the way Jeremy looked directly at Kevin as he said that, because clearly neither of these idiots understood subtly. That was fine. It made his job easier. More amusing, too.

Jeremy asked them to give him a moment to recruit something called an 'Alvarez' to watch the shop for him then left them alone, disappearing into the back room.

As soon as he was gone, Andrew dropped a heavily judgemental stare on Kevin. This one had significantly more effect and Andrew was pretty enough to feel smug about that. He let the silence stretch until Kevin visibly strained with how hard he was trying not to squirm. Then and only then did he sigh and release him, granting a benevolent shrug as he strolled lazily around shop, trailing his fingers over the apple merchandise.

"So," he said, "Jeremy."

"What about him?" God, it was like he wasn't even trying. Andrew gave him a look and Kevin sighed. His shoulders sagged as he accepted defeat and Andrew basked in sweet victory.

"He's just perfect, alright? He's smart, and athletic, and adorable, and perfect, and sweet, and hilarious, and when he suggested I come see the orchard…" Kevin drifted off, like no other explanation was needed. For once, he was right.

"For the record, I fully expect an apple pie out of this." Andrew picked up an apple-shaped snow globe with an apple tree inside it that had miniature apples floating about in place of snow. He shook it and watched the apples spin and cloud around in a murder-red blur for a moment before he looked up at Kevin. "Also, you are buying the ice cream."

Kevin sighed but didn't argue. "What am I supposed to do? I've been out of the dating sphere for a while."

"Kevin you were never in the dating sphere." Kevin's 'dating' experience included mostly a lot of pining and one actual relationship with a girl who had gotten pissed at him for being abused by his shit family. Yeah. Andrew didn't tell Kevin what to do, but he could lay ground rules that the bitch wasn't permitted at their apartment. He also corrected Kevin every time he said her name by muttering 'Traitorous Bitch' until Kevin finally saw reason and broke up with her.

"You aren't being helpful." My, someone was whiny today.

Andrew set down the snow globe. "Want my advice?"

"Yes!"

"Offer to suck his cock."

"Andrew!" Kevin looked so scandalized one would think a nineteenth-century rake had just asked him to bare his ankles.

Andrew rolled his eyes. "Just be up-front with him, Kev. You like him, tell him. Be honest about what you want, ask him what he wants. Talk about it. Take it from there."

"What if I embarrass myself?!"

"Then you embarrass yourself." Andrew shrugged and scooped up an apple-shaped hackysack. He tossed it into the air a few times then grabbed another and tossed them back and forth. "What is the worst that could happen? Mr. Sunshine says 'no thanks'?"

Kevin scowled at him. "Yeah, and then refuses to ever even look at me again."

Andrew scooped up a third applesack (hackyapple?) and adjusted his rhythm before he landed his judgement back on Kevin. "If he never speaks to you again just for being honest with him then he isn't worth your time to begin with." He stared at Kevin for several revolutions of his pattern, the schick of the hackyapples hitting and leaving his palms the only sound in the shop.

Predictably, Kevin was the one to look away first. Andrew gave him a moment and added a fourth hackyapple to the pattern.

"I really like him…" Kevin finally said, his voice low.

"Clearly," Andrew agreed without sympathy. "Look, you have two choices here Day. You can do something about it, or you could do nothing about it, and let me tell you - pining is not a good look on you."

The overgrown ear of corn muttered something like "Speak for yourself" and then yelped as Andrew smoothly nailed him in the forehead with a hackyapple (those things had just the perfect heft to them).

"What was that?" Andrew asked nonchalantly, smoothly dropping into the three-pattern.

"I said, speak for your-- ow! Stop that!"

Andrew gave him an innocent look.

"Oh cool! You can juggle?" Jeremy's sunny voice cut in before Kevin could attempt to say something stupid again. Andrew looked over and abruptly dropped his hands to his sides, letting the applesacks hit the ground with soft whacks.

"Nope." Andrew shrugged, picking up the apple-globe again and shaking it as Kevin grumbled and scooped up the fallen hackyapples.

Jeremy chuckled like he'd just made a joke and lifted up three honest-to-fuck baskets with little gingham clothes lining the insides to protect the apples. One was red, one was green, and one was blue. Andrew sighed and held his hand out for one, the just stared at Jeremy when he was offered first the red, then the blue, before taking the green one that was rightfully his. "Kevin likes red," was all he said.

"Yeah?" Jeremy looked at Kevin and smiled as he offered him the red basket. "That's perfect then, blue is my favorite. At least of the baskets. I also like green," he volunteered, looking into Kevin's green eyes.

Sickening, this was truly sickening.

"Yeah, green," Kevin offered eloquently.

Andrew watched as Jeremy nudged the tall idiot and just barely managed not to shake his head in disdain. He did snort his amusement when he caught Kevin watching Jeremy's ass as the man led them out of the shop through a side door near the back by the desk. The door took them right out to a path that led directly into the orchard. Andrew gave Kevin a pointed shove and made a meaningful gesture for him to catch up with the object of his affection. Kevin scowled at him, but did as instructed because he knew Andrew was right. Because Andrew was always right.

As it turned out, apple picking wasn't as terrible as Andrew had thought it would be. Getting to watch his best friend trip over himself on a constant loop served to be excellent entertainment for the day. He also got to covertly vet this guy that Kevin was so stupid over and as far as he could tell, Jeremy Knox was exactly what he appeared to be. He laughed at Kevin's terrible attempts at humor, was actually able to keep up with him when the conversation turned to the misrepresentation of American History in public schools, and Andrew counted at least thirty-seven times over the course of their little apple picking extravaganza where Jeremy found an excuse to touch Kevin. They weren't invasive touches, nothing gross or grabby or anything, but they were telling. Jeremy was always adjusting the basket he was holding or touching his arm or his hand or picking a leaf out of his hair or -- well, yeah. It was gross.

For his part, Andrew hung back and let the two idiots moon over each other, occasionally joining the conversation whenever Kevin shot him desperate looks or the topic deserved his input.

By the time they were done, Andrew was half-expecting an invitation to the nuptials.

"Hey, this was really great. I'm glad you decided to come by," Jeremy said as he packed their apples into white paper back with smiling little apple-people on them. "Both of you, of course," he amended unconvincingly with only a small glance to Andrew before giving his undivided attention to Kevin again.

"Of course. Yeah! This was amazing. With the apples. And you." Dear Jesus.

Andrew gave Kevin a swift kick to the shin and just stared at him when the man winces and glared down at him. He tried to laser the instruction 'Ask him out you nimrod' directly into his stupid brain and it must have worked because when Kevin finished his silent hissy fit he turned to Jeremy with an apologetic smile and said, "We should do this again."

Andrew kicked him again, because that wasn't good enough.

"I mean! Without the apples. Not that I don't like apples, Andrew ow! Cut it the fuck out!"

Andrew heaved a sigh and threw up his hands, turning to go find those hackyapples. You try to help a guy…

Jeremy was chuckling by the time Kevin turned back to him. Andrew watched out of the corner of his eye as the cheerful orchard-tender placed a hand over Kevin's on the counter. He couldn't see Kevin's face from the angle he was at but he was sure it was as red as some of those fucking apples they'd picked.

"I'd really like that," Jeremy said more quietly.

"M-me too," stammered Kevin with the utmost class.

Pleased with himself, Andrew scooped up a handful of the hackyapples and made his way back to the counter to purchase them. Because he was feeling charitable, he said nothing about the dopey-ass grin on Kevin's face as they gathered up their apples and left. He didn't even comment on the way the dumbass was legitimately humming when they got into the car -- because he was a supportive and generous friend.

That generosity lasted all the way back home. They were just getting to their apartment and Andrew was holding both bags of apples so Kevin could unlock the door when Kevin suddenly stopped and looked down the hall toward the stairs they'd just climbed. Then he lifted his hand in a wave and said, "Oh, hey Neil."

Shit shit shit shit shit!

Andrew glared at the back of Kevin's head, willing him to open the goddamn fucking door.

"Kevin, hey. Andrew? What've you got?" Unable to ignore him now that he'd been directly addressed, Andrew turned slowly and stared blankly as Neil-fucking-Josten came to stand right in front of him. He was wearing a lightly curious smile on his stupid face, one that pulled up on just the one side of his mouth and revealed just the shadow of what might be a dimple if the infuriating man were to smile any deeper. What was even more offensive was the way his eyes reflected the light so that they looked like a celestial sea, stars within stars staring back at him, tempting him with all the things he didn't want to want.

Not only that, but Neil must be just coming back from a run because he was lightly flushed and the pink that clung to his cheeks, throat, and ears made Andrew’s brain do a thing resembling an old-fashioned VCR when you attempted to rewind a tape while it was still playing -- streaks of static breaking up what should be comprehensible. His wild auburn curls were pulled back with a garishly orange bandana but that only meant there was nothing in the way of his eyes.

His eyes...

He must have been silent for too long because Neil peered into the bags he was holding. “Oh, hey -- apples.” That curious little smile softened and spread slightly as he looked up at him again.

Andrew said, “Apples.”

“I love apples,” Neil said.

Andrew said, “Apples.” Because he was that fucking smooth.

Kevin coughed behind him and Andrew tore his gaze away from Neil’s stupidly pretty face, glaring down into the bags of apples.

“You should take some,” Kevin offered. “We have more than we need. I’m going to look up how to make an apple pie later too, if you want any.”

“Really? Thanks.” Neil flashed a cheeky grin at Kevin then looked to Andrew. “Can I?”

Andrew said, “Apples.” This time though, he also nodded and attempted to angle the bags so that Neil could reach in a pick out a few. He was sure the other man could hear the way his heart was playing his ribcage like a xylophone as he leaned in so damn fucking close to examine the apples that Andrew could see how criminally long his eyelashes were. Then he was pulling away with his prize, three smallish apples and one large one.

He held them up and nodded. “Thanks for the apples. See you later for the game, Kevin?”

Andrew nodded mutely and Kevin grunted an affirmative, and then Neil was gone, vanishing into the apartment across the hall. Andrew stared at the closed door for a moment then turned toward their own apartment. Kevin was standing there with a smug look on his fucking face.

“Apples,” Kevin said conversationally.

“Shut the fuck up Kevin.” Kevin was still cackling when the door shut behind them. Fucking bastard.

#asks #anon #100 followers #kevin day #andrew minyard #aftg #aftg fic #ao3 link #andrew and kevin are best friends #i had like 20 different ideas for this #but I went with this one because i also wanted kevin to go on a date?#andrew makes a good wingman #andrew can juggle!#i don't know why i made him juggle but he just can #hackyapples #its a thing #hashtag hackyapples

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