#jason looks movie star cool as always

[wassupmygays]

"Throwing it back to hopping the bus to Herald Square."

photos by Andy Henderson, via the Outsiders Facebook

[onmyyan]

So I'm imagining a bit of a silly concept, but imagine delivery driver!reader with yanderes Dick and Jason. Like they'll keep ordering from the place reader works in hopes that reader will show up (and she will - your boss got fed up with all the 1 star reviews when anyone other than you shows up) but they act like creeps trying to get you to join in on their movie night or whatever. They totally don't realize they're being creeps, though - this is their darling! They would never scare her! But like reader gets fed up with them "propositioning" her so she has her boss put them on the do not deliver list. The boys are surprised (they knew her boss was sending all those other drivers on purpose! 🙄), but it's nothing a call to Barbara can't fix (she wants to be an Auntie ASAP - platonic yan Barbara, perhaps?)

It starts with a simple delivery to Wayne Manor, one insignificant package set their sights on you, but could you blame them? That smile when you handed Dick the package, the pretty laugh you let out when Jason said something witty, it wasn't their fault you enamored them with a single meeting, and it didn't help when you delivered their second package, about a week after the first, and remember their names, the audacity to do such a thing and not expect them to fall in love.

Anytime someone other than you shows up they're met with the coldest glares, Dick is short with them, no banter no charm, Jason straight up doesn't speak to anyone that isn't you.

They don't start to get creepy until about week three, that's how long their resolve lasts before Dick is inviting you in for a drink, you must be hot in that uniform of yours, why don't you come inside? It's cool in the manor and he's sure your boss wouldn't miss you for a few minutes.

Jason, to his credit, really does try to be casual about his interest, of course it's anything but casual, he pretends to be working on his bike when you come to get his signature, purposely showing off as he takes his time signing, intense blue eyes staring at you with an intensity that made you sweat. He says a pretty girl like you shouldn't have to work so hard, that you should have someone to take care of you, you grit your teeth biting out a smile as you snatch the tablet back as soon as he finishes signing.

It isn't until your latest delivery do you put them on the do not deliver list, as usual they were together when you rang the doorbell, Dick smiles so brightly at you, you'd think you were delivering the stars in a neatly wrapped box. "Hey (y/n)!" He greets you like a long time friend instead of someone you'd only spoken to a handful of times, "You mind bringing that inside?" He asks the question and despite its oddity, you comply bringing the package inside.

Jason closes the door behind you, causing you to jump, when the hell did he get here?

"Good to see you bunny." He was always calling you pet names, far too intimate for your liking, he smirks before taking the box from your hands, his fingers purposely brushing against yours. "You're like a little messenger fairy."

You choose to ignore him, turning to Dick, you hold out the tablet for him to sign. "We'll get to that in a minute- why don't you sit down for a sec?" He sits on the couch patting the spot beside him. "I gotta get back to my route-"

"it's midnight, you guys stop delivering after midnight right?" Jason speaks up causing you to look at him, he looks way too satisfied with himself, catching you in a lie. Feeling trapped you sit on the couch reluctantly. "What's up?" You ask looking between the two, Jason remains standing his beefy arms crossed across his chest. God he made you uneasy.

"we've noticed how hard you've been working lately and since we're friends-" you don't hide the confusion on your face at the proclamation, "-We figured you could use a break." Dick spoke almost as if he was nervous. "Come on bunny, take a load off." Jason finally sat down sandwiching you between the two.

"or- and hear me out on this one, you sign for your package and I leave?" They share a look before Dick is almost sadly signing the tablet. "Well if you ever wanna just chill or something-"

You don't hesitate you leap off the couch and run out the door, heart slamming so hard in your chest you felt the rumble in your throat.

You thought you'd be done with them after putting their names on your company's do not deliver list, and for about a week you are, until they realize what's going on and collectively lose their minds.

Barbara couldn't stand seeing two of her closest friends so down, so unlike themselves, once they explain the situation to her she's quick to act, understanding their... particular intensity when it came to love, and clearly you'd stolen their hearts, she couldn't stand to see them so upset so she quickly devizes a plan to get you back where you belong.

All it takes is hacking into your company's files to find your route and schedule, it's like child's play to her to set up the meeting, she ordered a shit ton of stuff all for you unbeknownst to you of course, all items you'd need for your upcoming vacation, Bruce had a few private islands for situations just like this one, and it be the perfect place for Dick and Jason to break you in. By the time you left the little slice of paradise, you'd be a perfect little darling.

With a smile too pretty for her deeds, she presses confirm on the order and sends a text to the guys.

"Your Darling is approaching with your order."

[sunnie-angel]

Singing in the Rain

jason todd x f!reader

summary: you get caught in the rain after a date, and well, there's really only so much you can do to entertain yourselves until it stops pouring

tags: kissing, fingering, fluff

rating explicit (mdni) | wc: 1.6k

a/n: inspired by an ask from @orchidsangel. ro this prompt crawled inside my brain and would not let me know peace until i had written it

The restaurant Jason chose for your date night was excellent, as always. Good drinks, better food, and even better, close enough to Jason’s apartment to walk to. It had been a beautiful summer’s afternoon, and the two of you had decided to walk to dinner, anticipating a walk back in the cool night air, hands interlaced and bellies full. 

“You know, this might just be my new favourite restaurant. Going to have to come down to this part of the city more often.” you sigh, satisfied. 

“Oh?” and a cocked eyebrow shouldn’t look so adorable on a man of his size but it does. “Are you saying that a good restaurant is your only draw to this side of town?”

“Well,” you pretend to think it over, “there might just be this cute guy I know that lives only a few blocks away. Maybe I’ll have to give him a visit too. Only after I’ve eaten myself silly of course.” 

“Yeah? Well I’ll just have to make sure the dessert I serve is worth your while.” He’s fully waggling his eyebrows, such an exaggerated leer on his face that you swat at his shoulder to try and get him to stop, but he just dances out of the way. He makes the most ridiculous faces, your Jason, when he’s trying to get you to laugh, and it works too. 

You’re almost bent in half from the force of your giggles, Jason coming to a stop in the pool of light thrown by the streetlamp to watch you dissolve. The giggles pass eventually, but the smile never leaves your face. Loosening your arms from where they’d been clutching around your middle, you start to straighten up, drawn into Jason’s orbit. The look on his face has transformed into something soft and real, eyes bright and lips parted a hair. His lock of white hair has fallen into his eyes, but he’s so transfixed by you in your floaty dinner dress that he doesn’t seem to notice. He’s got his arms wrapped around your back, drawing you close, head turned up to his like a flower follows the sun. If this were a movie, this is the part where he’d kiss you senseless under the stars and street light. 

What actually happens is the skies open up, buckets of water raining down on you in seconds. You give out a little shriek, surprised at the sudden cold interruption to your romantic evening. The two of you look up at the sky, as if your attention would change anything about the situation. Jason looks back down at you, mischievous grin catching your eye before his lips are on yours, warm and soft and slick with rain. He draws back far to soon, has you chasing after his lips for more. 

“C’mon!” he yells, barely audible over the sound of the rain. “I think there’s a phone booth up ahead, we can wait out the worst of it there.” He grabs your hand and turns, careful not to run too fast to risk you tripping in your heels on the wet pavement. 

The phone box is there, exactly where Jason said it was. It’s a tight fight. Jason’s a large man and the phone booth was only meant to hold one after all. You’re jammed into the corner, between the phone set and the side wall, Jason looming over you. His body swallows you up; if anyone were looking in from the outside, they wouldn’t be able to see you at all. He notices his hair dripping water into your face, slicks it back with one hand and leaning his elbow on top of the phone box, managing to take up even more space with that one movement. 

“So Mr. Todd, do you corner girls in phone booths often?” the line’s only marginally better than ‘do you come here often’, but your goal here isn’t to be a wordsmith, it’s to tease him. And it works wonderfully. 

“Only if they’re as pretty as you.” He leans down, presses a kiss to your forehead. “Only if they’re as clever as you.” A kiss, barely there, to the tip of your nose. “Only if they’re as maddening as you.” said, hovering right over your mouth. 

You shiver, whether from the rain or his words or his proximity, you couldn’t say. All you know is that you need him closer. Finally, after what seems like two lifetimes, does he give you what you want. He kisses you, softly. Nips at the swell of your bottom lip before licking into the seam of your mouth. His hand comes up to cradle your jaw, keep you exactly where he wants you to be. Against the coolness of your rain chilled skin, his touch is like fire. You press your thighs together, overwhelmed with need but happy to carry on like this. The two of you get lost in the rhythm of lips and tongue, sweet and heady but tinged with desperation like you’ll never get this chance again. You shiver again, and Jason pulls back with concern, worried the rain has done you worse than expected. 

“Doin’ alright darlin’?”

The chill from the rain has gone from your cheeks, chased away by the flush in them. Your pupils are blown wide, eyes glassy and dark for the man in front of you. Your chest is heaving, breath stolen away from you by all of those kisses. His hand goes to your side to steady you, brushing the side of your breast in the tight quarters. Jason doesn’t miss the way that glancing touch makes your body go taught, legs pressing even tighter together. He doesn’t miss the way that your sodden wrap dress clings to your body, nipples visible even through the built in bra. The rain is still drumming away, sound and sight isolating the two of you in your own little universe inside the phone booth. 

“Or is there something I can help you out with?” his hand moves back up from your waist, cups your breast with a warmth you can feel even through the wet fabric. You nod, eagerly, and his thumb is brushing over your pebbled nipple with broad strokes. He kisses you, a distraction while his other hand starts playing with your neglected breast. If your panties weren’t already wet from the rain, they’d be soaked now. Jasons’ large hands feel so so good, cupping and teasing and cradling you, but you need more. 

Pulling back for a second, you grab at one of his wrists. Trail his hand along your body, enjoy the anticipation and trail of blooming heat as his large palm settles between your legs to cup you. 

“Need more. Please?” you asked through dewy lashes. 

He inhales, sharply. “Okay, but you tell me to stop if you don’t like something, got it?” You kiss him in response. Jason promptly shoves his hand down the front of your panties, a little shocked by just how wet you are already. 

“This all for me darlin’?” he grins, suddenly predatory. “Good.” And there’s a finger, thick and calloused and impossible hot sliding into you. It’s only one finger but the stretch is perfect, thicker and more satisfying than your own fingers, reaching so much deeper. 

There’s a moment’s pause as you clench down at the sudden fullness, then the finger starts to thrust, curling inwards on every forward motion. Jason’s kissing at your jaw but you can barely concentrate over how good he feels inside of you. He’s got his thumb on your clit, alternating firm circles with light taps and its driving you crazy. You’re so wet now, you can just hear faint sopping sounds every time he drives his hand into you over the thrum of the rain. 

A second finger prods at your entrance to test how ready you are, just as burning hot as the first one. It slides in with almost no resistance, pulling high breathy moans from you as he speeds up. He’s so thick, his two fingers splitting you open almost obscenely. On every thrust they curl into the soft spongy part of your walls that has you shuddering, pleasure sparking through you. The pressure on your clit never lets up, only varies, and the hand on your breast keeps kneading and teasing at your nipple. Your head falls back with a thunk, hitting the corner of the phone booth. There’s a high pitched whining sound that you vaguely recognize as coming from you, but you couldn’t stop it if you’d had the power to string together the thought to do so. 

Jason is relentless, thrusting and grinding his hand into you, encouraging you to ride his fingers, driving your pleasure onward. The pressure in your belly is growing, muscles twitching and tightening. You scrabble to hold onto anything, knocking the phone off its hook to dangle on its cord, pleasure twisting and tightening where Jason keeps fucking into you. 

When you come, it’s to ringing ears and legs unable to hold your weight up. Jason works a knee between your thighs and gets your hips to grinding against him to ride out the spasms of your orgasm. He pulls his hand out of your panties and waits until your soul has finally returned to your body before making eye contact and licking every last drop of you from his fingers. You shiver and twitch at the sight of his tongue curling around his knuckles to taste every sticky trace of you, grind your poor oversensitive clit into his thigh over and over. 

Jason helps you to unsure feet, wobbling like a newborn doe in your high heels. He pulls your panties up into place and helps you right your dress. He’s just finished retying the bow for you when the sounds of the rain peter off. He glances out the glass door as you smooth your hands down the wet fabric of your skirt one more time. 

“Rain’s letting up. Why don’t we run back to my place and have that dessert?” His grin is positively wolfish.

[etoileee]

WE’RE NOT REALLY STRANGERS. ₁

⤷ a percy jackson dr shifting experience!

We were currently sitting on the floor in the poseidon cabin. this is my first time in here.

Piper and Hazel were sitting on the bed behind me, Piper’s hands running through my hair.

When I first got there she told me that my hair was nice and asked if she could play with it, and of course, I said yes because I’m a sucker for people playing with my hair.

and for her.

She asked me what I did for my hair care, and I almost felt bad saying ‘nothing’. the only thing I did was not use heat on my hair, but it wasn’t because I cared about my hair so much, but because I didn't know how to use those tools.

It's unfortunate, I know. I’m a sixteen-year-old girl who did not know how to curl or straighten her hair.

as she ran her fingers through my hair, I found it hard to keep my eyes open, her slender fingers were gently scratching and threading through my hair sending shivers down my spine, making me feel relaxed.

I forced my eyes open and looked around the cabin, It was oddly cooler in here than it was outside, but I say oddly because I didn't see any AC to keep it cool in here. On one of the beds, there was a whale shark plush.

That’s Percy's bed.

Everyone else was talking amongst themselves, probably trying to figure out what to do, but I wasn’t paying attention. I just closed my eyes and focused on the feeling of Piper’s fingering raking through my hair.

The sound of the front door opening makes me open my eyes again out of curiosity about who it may be. It was Nico and a tan blonde boy walking in, their eyes scanning every one of us.

I’m gonna bet to you right now, blondie is a child of Apollo.

“Hey guys,” Jason says with a polite smile, pushing his glasses up his nose. Percy seemed a bit amused like he didn’t expect them to show up.

I hadn’t seen Nico since our talk last night when I weirdly told him about my life before camp half-blood, and the regret was starting to settle in as I felt the embarrassment of telling him about that stir in my stomach.

Why'd I overshare so much?

I mentally facepalm myself.

I know he’s the one that asked, but I still felt awkward about it.

Nico’s eyes fall on me and I avert my gaze somewhere else, trying to not look too awkward and like I was just looking at him without thought, not like I was embarrassed to be seeing him again after last night.

“What are we gonna do?” blondie says sitting down with a smile, his face turns into a puzzled one when he sees me. “I’ve never seen you around before…” he tilts his head as if racking his brain trying to think if we’ve ever interacted before this.

“I got here yesterday,” I say quietly with a subtle nod.

He perks up at that and smiles at me “Ah! That’s why then,” he extends his arm out to me, giving me a handshake “I’m Will Solace,”

His hands are soft and warm.

“Cītlalli Ohara” I let go of his hand and brought it to rest in my lap. I managed a small nod in acknowledgment to Nico next to him, he gave me a nod back.

I want to rip my scalp off.

“PERCY IT’S A MESS UNDER HERE!”

Annabeth's head was currently lost in the darkness under Percy Jackson’s bed in search of some sort of game we could play to pass the time together. “No, it's an organized mess!” Percy yelled from the bathroom running his hand through his dark hair before coming out of the bathroom and getting on the floor to help Annabeth look for the card game.

I laid back on the bed behind me, observing everyone. Piper behind had started braiding my hair.

I know it’s a weird thing to do, but I’ve always been a people watcher. It’s almost like watching a movie for me. I liked learning from people just by looking at them.

I sound like a weirdo.

It is normally not this quiet—

“HEY HEY HEYYY” there he is.

Leo.

The curly-haired boy strutted into the cabin with a grin on his face and surprisingly didn't have on his repair boy suspenders.

I miss the suspenders.

bring back the suspenders, repair boy!

“Hey, star shine,” He says, giving me a fist bump and flashing me a charming smile, my fist making contact with the ring on his.

That kinda hurt.

The area had become more lively now that the tan boy was here, weirdly. Being around him is like having a shot of espresso.

“I FOUND IT!” Percy yells standing back up from under his bed, in his hands is a small red box with white wording, reading;

‘WE’RE NOT STRANGERS.’

we all gather around on the floor, the box being put in the center between all of us. Percy opened the box revealing well-organized cards. “I’ve been wanting to play this for a while” Percy murmurs, Jason taking out the game pamphlet from the box and reading through the game's rules and directions.

“Listen, learn, reflect. you’ll go through three levels of questions, each level becoming deeper. be honest with your answers. you won't be strangers by the end of it.” Jason reads and puts the pamphlet on the bed, careful to not let it be folded or damaged in any way.

He took out the first card from the first level and read it aloud.

“Level 1 Perception: Do you know how others see you? Level 1 is about gaining perspective on what first impressions we give off and challenging the assumptions we make about others.”

Jason sets the card down next to the box “Who wants to go first?” he asks, pushing his round frames up his nose. The lack of response from everyone made him chuckle. “I’ll go first then,” he turns his head to the right to look at Frank.

“You’re like a gentle giant,” he begins, making us laugh softly. “you’ry kind and look out for everyone around you. and we appreciate it a lot, Frank” his tone was genuine.

Frank smiled shyly “Thank you,” Jason nodded his head and Frank turned to his left to answer the question about Hazel “You have a big heart... you care about everyone.” He says looking into her eyes as hazel looks away to hide how flustered she is. which made me smile a little bit.

“Even when you shouldn’t care” he adds, rolling his eyes jokingly, making Hazel slap his shoulder lightly.

Hazel turns to her left seeing that she’s to answer the question about Nico.

She smiled and began to speak “I think people would perceive you as cold or mean, but I don’t see you that way,” the tension in Nico’s shoulders seemed to relax a bit as she spoke like he wasn’t used to people speaking of him this way.

“you’re extremely observant, you read people very well, you’re a good listener,” she rambled on about the boy, making me smile again. I had only met Nico yesterday, but I found myself agreeing with everything she said.

“Okay okay—that's enough” Nico cuts her off, letting out a little huff. Shaking his head.

He didn't mean it rudely, he just seemed flustered, and or annoyed. like he didn’t like talking about himself.

Nico turned his attention to Will sitting on his left, he wore his usual stoic expression, but his eyes told me something else. “You’re nice,” he shrugs acting indifferent and looking down at the floor, his right hand twisting the rings on his left. “you’re really nice” He speaks again but this time quieter.

My face softened a bit watching the scene. It was sweet, even if Nico looked like he’d rather jump off a cliff right now.

Will smiled at him softly and gave him a little nod, he knew that was all Nico would say about him.

Will turned to Piper to answer the question about her “You aren’t shy about your opinions and feelings on this, and I admire that a lot about you,” his smile got bigger as he spoke, “You’re passionate about the things you care about, I like that about you.”

Piper seemed shocked for a second before laughing softly “Thanks Will” she said pushing her brown choppy hair out of her face.

I didn't miss the way Jason smiled either.

Piper’s eyes met mine, and I don’t know why, but I felt dread.

I met all of them yesterday, what could she— any of them have to say about me?

“You’re hard to read,” her eyes studied mine like we were looking for something in them. We all stayed quiet waiting for her to continue. “I don’t know much—anything about you, really,” she shook her head.

“But I like you.” she finishes.

I stared at her for a little bit, literally having no idea what to say.

“I like you too,” I say just above a whisper, I don’t even know if anyone other than her would’ve heard it.

I turned to Leo next to me to answer the question about him, not giving myself enough time to watch Piper’s reaction to what I said. I didn't wanna know.

I stared at him for a few seconds and a grin slowly appeared on his face as I did. “I think you’re really fun,” he’s full-blown smiling now “I’m fun? That's all I get?” he tilts his head teasingly at me.

I roll my eyes playfully, shaking my head “You’re really fun. there? happy?” I tease back trying to not smile. He sighs dramatically, running his hand through his black curls “I guess…”

He turns to his left, Reyna sitting next to him “You,” he points a finger at her “You scare me hella,” I bite my cheek to keep me from laughing, I hear Piper next to me let out a low laugh.

“But you’re a damn good warrior, and I respect you a lot.” he finishes.

Reyna’s face softened as she processed what Leo said about her, she didn't say anything, she just wore a thoughtful expression. Leo smiled and held his fist up to her. She smiled and collided her fist with his in a lighthearted fist bump.

Reyna turns to Annabeth next to her and says “I have a lot of respect for you too” She has an accent, but I genuinely cannot tell where it's from. “It’s been an honour to fight along side of you.” her voice firm. she means it.

Annabeth looked touched by what she said, but her face hardened a bit again, “Thank you,” she said back to her, i’ts obvious they both had mutual respect for each other.

Annebth turned to Percy, and it seemed like she had been dreading her turn this whole game. Percy smiled mischievously, he had been waiting for this to happen. He points to his ear, mocking and anticipating whatever she’s about to say.

“I don’t like anything about you.”

Nico lets out a sort, a tiny smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. “Yeah yeah laugh it up,” Percy says rolling his eyes and making a few of us snicker in his response.

Percy turns to Jason, the last person left. “You take care of all of us.. and you’re responsible. We’d probably be lost without you” He says lightheartedly.

We move on to the more lighthearted part of the game,

I read my card aloud “Give this card to the best listener.”

You mean the boy I’d been avoiding making eye contact with for the last 15 minutes?

I stare at the card for a few moments before looking up a Nico, his face unreadable as usual. I extend my arm out, holding the card between my middle and pointer fingers. He takes it from me, glancing down at the card before up at me again.

He didn't say anything, he just looked at me for a little bit before moving on.

“Give this card to the biggest flirt” Nico reads, his tone indifferent. without a second thought, he gives the card to Leo.

Leo smiles and takes the card from him. somewhat prideful “Y’know it,” he says taking a card from the unread pile and reading it.

“Gives this card to the person that stirs the pot,”

We all know who that is.

“Jackson,” Annabeth laughs, clapping her hands together. Percy grins and puts his hands together, bowing his head down. “That’s for you, love,” Leo says in a posh accent putting the card in Percy’s hands like it’s something precious.

“D1 instigator” Piper jokes, making us laugh.

“Give this card to someone you want to get to know better.” Percy reads before looking up at me, handing me the card with an awkward smile, the kind with both your lips pressed together in a line.

It made his dimples visible.

I take the card from him laying it on the floor next to me, I reach out to get a new card and read “Give this card to the most intimidating.”

I stare at the card for a few seconds, trying to figure out who to give it to.

Annabeth,

Reyna,

Nico,

That’s who’s going through my mind right now.

after a few moments of thinking about my answer, I look up at Annabeth and Reyna, still trying to decide on who to give it to. “You guys can share that,” I say, putting the card in front of both of them.

There was a ghost of a smile on Annabeth’s lips, Reyna’s face stayed emotionless.

I think I might be growing on them.

[corkinavoid]

The Tip Of The Iceberg · Owl City

Grumpy x sunshine

Winter wonderland

DPxDC Love at Frost Sight

Jason's favorite season of the year was fall. Early fall, to be exact, when the trees become red and golden, and the air smells of pumpkin spice because of all the coffeeshops simultaneously deciding it's the time to bring it back once again, and it's not yet cold enough to wear a coat, but just cool enough to put on a comfy sweater.

On the other hand, his least favorite season was winter. All of it, starting from late November and ending in early April. His bones ached in the cold that no coat could manage to keep out, the roads were always slippery, no matter how much salt was thrown over them, and he despised the amounts of hot tea he had to drink to keep himself from freezing to death.

Not to mention the lack of sunlight, the vitamins he had to take daily, the shiver that ran down his body when he stepped out of the shower and-

"You know, if you keep frowning like that, people are going to start thinking I've brought you here under the threat of a gun."

Jason blinks and tears his gaze away from the dimly lit, snowy scenery of Robinson Park and looks to Jazz, who is walking just beside him, a steaming cup of coffee in her fingers. She looks beautiful, even wearing a puffy purple jacket that makes her look like an off-color penguin and a knitted hat that hides all her red hair.

Jason huffs and rubs his forehead, smoothing the wrinkle between his eyebrows manually.

"You still hadn't told me why are we taking a walk in the park instead of doing literally anything else," he reminds her, and Jazz smiles, holding her chin higher.

"I have my reasons," she tells, her voice full of mischief. Jason rolls his eyes and hides his freezing palms deeper in his pockets. "We're almost there, don't roll your eyes at me," Jasmine shorts a short laugh and pokes him in the side.

Almost where, he wants to ask, because he is pretty sure she can't show him anything he hasn't seen before in here. He is a Gothamite, after all, and she just moved here two years ago, and Robinson Park couldn't have changed that much since his whole dying and coming back act.

But then, Jazz finishes her coffee in a few large gulps, tossing the empty cup into the nearest bin, and takes his elbow, all but dragging him forward, off the path and into the who knows where.

Jason stumbles over his feet but catches himself quickly enough to not faceplant the snow. Yet, that doesn't help in the slightest with figuring out where they are going because, well, it's half-past-six, which means it's already rather dark around them even with all of the street lights, and Jazz can be really fast when she wants to, and-

"Here," his impossible girlfriend suddenly stops, so abruptly like she's just ran into a wall. Jason, despite all his vigilante training, is not capable of canceling the laws of inertia on command, so he takes a few more steps forward to slow down.

"And what exactly is here?" He shakes his head, trying very hard not to snap, because he is cold, and he doesn't like surprises, and Jazz can be frustrating more than she likes to admit. But, before she can answer, and before Jason is able to put all that winter irritation into words, there's a snap.

Jason turns his head sharply, looking for the source of it just out of habit.

And halts, feeling his eyes go wide and his head completely empty.

The lights appear one by one, a slow, charming process of illuminating the small clearing they've run into. Warm and fuzzy, like tiny stars, or maybe fairy lights, but with no strings to hold them, they light up the trees and the sparkling, untouched snow under their feet. Jason blinks. The sight that he's grown to associate only with those decorative glass balls full of fake snow doesn't shatter.

And, to be fair, Jason knew winter could be beautiful - he's seen countless pictures and movies, and he understood the appeal it had on some people. But he's never really felt it, what with winters in Gotham, even at Christmas Eve, being more glum and gray than sparkling white and twinkling pretty.

But this is exactly that.

The tall trees covered in white snow, the gentle fall of snowflakes over them, the bright yellow lights that surround them.

"Close your mouth, love, you'll catch a cold," he hears Jazz say with a fond, soft laugh, and only then he realizes he is gaping.

His mouth closes back with a snap as he turns to face his girlfriend.

"How did you..." he trails off, not even sure what he's asking. How did she bring a fairytale into life? How did she find this place? How did she manage to bring him here?..

Jazz's teal eyes hold the reflections of countless warm lights around them, and she is grinning from ear to ear, her hand finding Jason's to intertwine their fingers.

"Danny helped," she admits, "But I just wanted you to see it. See why I love winter - not just because my brother is a living icicle, but because winter is magic, in a sense. It's only in winter that you can feel what's really warm and what's not."

Jason has half of a thought to ask her what she means, but he gets it just a moment before the words fall out of his mouth.

Because this, standing in the silent snowfall among the tiny lights of miniature stars, holding Jazz's hand in his, is warm. Not in a literal sense - his skin is still moments away from freezing - but something inside his chest feels like a tiny, flickering flame.

And that flame makes him smile.

"It's very pretty," he says, not taking his eyes off Jazz, and watches her cheeks become pink.

Somehow, he is certain it's not because of the cold.

~•~•~•~

This was written to not one but two Owl City songs. The first one was, as requested, 'The Tip of The Iceberg', and the second was 'Peppermint Winter', my all-time favorite winter song.

And here's the additional aesthetic!

Danny, who is responsible for the gently falling snowflakes and keeping the lights from going out, sitting invisible in a tree above them: what great lengths do I go for you, Jazz, you better get me something nice for Christmas or I swear to Ancients-

[melodymunson]

Eddie Munson x fem goth cheerleader reader

ao3 link

2 part story Eddie x reader friends to lovers, slow burn

You were dating the hottest jock in school until one day you met Eddie and your life changed forever. (Reader is 19 Eddie is 20).

7.2K words

read part 2 here

Being a cheerleader at Hawkins High School was your claim to instant popularity. You were dating Chrissy Cunningham's boyfriend, Jason Carver's best friend, Sam. He was a typical jock, brunette, all-star basketball player, muscular, with brown eyes and the total package. Girls wanted him and guys wanted to be him. Chrissy was your friend and made being a cheerleader bearable. You were a former loner and secretly loved horror movies, goth aesthetic, dungeons & dragons, and metal like Ozzy, Judas Priest, Dio, and even Corroded Coffin. Guys like Eddie were living the type of life you wanted and thought was ideal, but somehow, being popular wasn't all it was cut out to be. You knew your boyfriend was probably cheating, and you thought going to see Eddie make a drug deal would be the perfect escape for you. Eddie's hatred for jocks was endearing. The week had dragged on and now that it was Thursday and close to the weekend; you were trying to look on the brighter side of things. Every afternoon after lunch, he was in the boiler room, skipping class and making drug deals. The nickname they had for him, Eddie 'the freak' Munson, was a title he didn't seem to mind. He embraced it. He was always so cool, calm, collected, and polite when you passed him in the halls. He was rumored to sell some of the best drugs, so after lunch on Thursday, you stopped by the boiler room. It was darkly lit in the boiler room, but once you saw Eddie, you didn't hesitate or waver as you walked toward him.

"Hey um… Y/N.. right?" He asked with his curious wide and brown button eyes. He crossed his arms, unsure at first about how to react to a cheerleader here seeing him about buying drugs, and he secretly wondered if you were a narc. Either way, he thought you looked great in your green and white uniform complete with leather jacket and rockstar patches/pins.

Although he was skeptical, you planned on making the deal rather than getting out of there. Being alone with a guy who wasn't your boyfriend was probably not the right thing to be doing. Just seeing him and getting the weed would be good enough… for now. He had a metal lunchbox next to him with his drug inventory.

"I'm here to buy some weed," you told him firmly, trying your best to maintain eye contact.

"Oh, uh, well, that will be fifteen bucks for half an ounce."

His tattoos were visible under the dim lights and you couldn't help but stare at them a little. He soon caught on and noticed your lingering eyes and stare. You looked for your wallet and then noticed it wasn't there. You left it in your locker.

"Guess I left it in my locker," you told him, sounding bummed.

"Well, let's just do this deal tomorrow, then. I will save some for you."

You had a basketball game to cheer at the next afternoon, but you could make it work before the game and make it your priority to make the deal.

"Okay, sure. Maybe we can even smoke like a joint together?" You asked curiously.

"Why not? I'd like that," he told you with a smirk. He uncrossed his arms and then put his hand out to shake, which you did.

"Deal. See you tomorrow then."

Eddie nodded and checked you out as you left, his eyes lingering on your body. He wasn't normally the type to go for cheerleaders but you were gorgeous and he was pleasantly surprised you were talking to him, yet grateful and not just because you would be a new customer for him. The rest of the school day passed with extreme boredom. You couldn't wait for the party that night.

You had a lot of homework, and weren't sure you could make it by the time the party started, which you told Sam earlier that day. Eventually, you finished and decided to still go to the party. It was a bit late by the time you got there and no one else knew you were going, but you saw Chrissy and exchanged pleasant hellos. You knew Sam would be around here somewhere and asked around about him. No one knew for sure where he had gone off once he finished beer Pong. You passed Steve on the way up the stairs and he stopped you.

"Hey. We didn't think you were going to show up," Steve said nonchalantly.

"Just looking for Sam."

"Yeah, you probably don't want to go into the third bedroom down the hall," he warned.

"Why? What do you mean?" You asked looking confused.

"Don't say I didn't warn you."

You went to the bedroom in question and went inside, turning the doorknob, and saw Sam heavily making out with a half-naked cheerleader on the bed as she was giving him a handjob through the tent hole in his boxers. You slammed the door and ran through the hall and down the stairs until you reached the door. Now, more than ever, you wanted to be as far away from those jocks and popular kids as possible. Chrissy ran after you, knowing you were crying, but you were far gone before she could confront you. As soon as you got home, you blasted some metal music and drowned your sorrows with the musical styling of Motorhead until you fell asleep.

The next morning you woke up after a fever dream of you hooking up with Eddie after he told off your soon-to-be ex. It would be a good day as long as you could see Eddie and stick it to that lying cheater's face. Unfortunately, you had to wear your Hawkins High cheer uniform today, but hopefully, Eddie wouldn't mind it too much.

At school, you ignored your boyfriend, and carried on the day doing your best to practice patience, til you saw Eddie again. It was easy to ignore Sam when you didn't even have the same classes. During lunch, you skipped and went to eat outside. Eddie noticed you sitting alone and came over to you.

"Are you okay? Why are you eating alone?"

"I could ask you the same thing, Munson."

"It's none of my business, but is something wrong? Usually, you were surrounded by all your friends and the popular kids, especially during lunch on a game day."

"Well, not today. I found out last night at a party my boyfriend was cheating on me," you confessed looking down sheepishly.

He sat down next to you and put his arm around you. His touch was so comforting, and he smelled nice.

"That guy is a loser. You don't need him. Look, I'll give you a deal on the weed. We can smoke a joint together at no extra cost, and I'll let you have a dime bag for ten dollars. Now, how does that sound?"

"Great actually. Thank you. You know what, Eddie, you are pretty great."

"Thanks. I thought you'd be sort of scary, but you aren't. Look, do you want to find somewhere off campus and smoke?"

"Wouldn't your girlfriend be upset about that, though?"

"I don't have a girlfriend," he told you plainly with a shrug of his shoulders.

You smiled at him, hoping this drive would be a good thing.

"Okay, let's go then. Anywhere you want to go. I'm down."

He got up, took your hand, and then led you to his van. Once you got into the passenger seat and he got into the driver's side, he started up his van and pulled away from the parking lot. It was nice to be getting away from Hawkins. As he drove closer to the woods, you wondered if this was where he was planning to take you. Being far away from civilization and people, though, was what you needed, so you happily went along with him. He soon stopped at a residential park and turned off the engine. He got out and helped you from the van by opening your door. You walked with him to a picnic table and sat down.

You didn't think this could be you. Sitting here at a picnic table in the park all alone with Eddie 'the freak.' If only the kids at school could see you now. All you knew was that you never wanted to be with Sam again. Eddie could hopefully take away the thoughts you still had of your soon-to-be ex. The breakup, even informal, would be what you needed to do soon. You watched as he lit up a joint and took a deep drag before handing it to you. Deeply you inhaled, then blew out the smoke and passed it back to him.

"I'm glad you came here with me. It's kinda of tedious to come out here alone. I'm trying to skip classes more at least. It's nice to have some company," he told you before taking another inhale and passing the joint.

"I agree. I needed this escape. Anything to get away from the school crowd. Sometimes I wish I could just quit everything, especially the popular lifestyle. I thought I wanted it at some point, but not anymore."

"I know we don't run with the same crowd at all, but you are a good person. I can see it in your eyes."

You gazed into his chocolate eyes as you took another drag and passed it with a smile.

"Thanks, Eddie. I think you are too. I'm so not looking forward to Monday's auction of the cheerleaders and jocks. It's all for charity and a good cause, but I can't possibly go out with Sam. He always pledges the most money for these things, just like his stupid friends," you told him glumly, not wanting to bore him with the auction details or your problems.

"You know what? I have been saving up for a while now and I have a good bit of money. Why don't I buy you at the auction? It is for charity, right? I think it would be nice to take you out to cheer you up." He played with some strands of his curly brown hair as he inhaled the joint and exhaled.

His rings were stunning and you couldn't help but look at them as he talked. He was so eloquent with his words. You would give anything at that moment to be touched by him. Just to have the chance to hang out with him more like this would be the best.

"Good. That would be the best thing. I'll let you do that if you want to. I'll break up with him soon."

"You deserve someone much better. For our date from the auction, I was thinking we could do a nice night out or you could pick where we go."

"How about camping? Next weekend? I would like that haven't been camping in a long time," you replied with a shrug of your shoulders as he handed the joint back to you.

You didn't know if it was the weed talking or not, but you wanted to kiss him at that moment so much. Who cared about Sam or Hawkins High or anything? You wanted him and hoped he wanted you, too. You licked your lips casually and tried to be as nonchalant as possible as you bit them. Eddie was paying attention from his side eye though and noticed.

"Camping would be great. I know a good place. What's on your mind?"

"I've been thinking about kissing you," you admitted after a gulp, feeling slightly nervous.

Eddie glanced at you with a smirk on his face. He didn't know if this was a rebound, but he didn't care. He had been thinking about kissing you since the moment he saw you.

"I'd be more than okay with that."

You passed the joint back after taking a hit and he took one more before stomping it out.

You moved closer to him and he ran his fingers through your hair as he stared longingly into your eyes and moved in closer to you. You were so close- closer than ever. Your lips grazed his as he ran his fingers through your hair. He kissed you slowly with a fiery passion as your lips collided and you tasted him, parting his lips with your tongue. As you explore each other's mouths, he pulls you in closer to him by grabbing your waist. The way he kissed you was incredible and no one else came even close to being as good of a kisser. His hands roamed up towards your chest, before he stopped himself. Just as you realized what he was doing, you grabbed his hands and put them over your breasts, cupping them and he moved his mouth to your neck, sucking and licking you there. The kisses he gave you were so hot and it made you feel so turned on, but you didn't want to move things too fast and things with Sam weren't exactly over yet.

"Maybe we could save this for our weekend of camping. Pick up where we left off."

"That's fine. I've rushed things before and regretted it, but you have a good point. Let's rest and chill in the back of my van for a bit."

You walked with him hand in hand to his van and got into the back. He had pillows, blankets, a comforter, and sheets all setup. He held you as you relaxed and pulled you in close to him. It was so comforting for him to have you there and he already considered you a friend and even wanted things to be more, but he would wait for you until the time was right. Minutes passed, then a half hour, and before you knew it, you were both napping. Eddie's soft breathing was soothing, and you felt safe in his arms. Two hours passed, and you stirred awake slowly in his arms. He woke up soon after that and gave you a forehead kiss.

"I'll take you home if you want me to."

"Thanks, Eddie. Call me this weekend, though."

As you both woke up fully and got ready to go to your place, you wrote your number down and put it on his dashboard. As soon as you got home, you planned on calling Sam to break the news about it being over.

Once you got back to your place, he got out and opened your door for you, then walked you to the front door.

"You're the perfect gentleman. Thanks for everything."

"No need to thank me."

He waved goodbye, then walked to his van and pulled away after he made sure you were safely inside. No one else was home, and you were focused on breaking up with that cheating jerk of a so-called boyfriend. After three rings, he answered.

"Look it's over. I saw you at that party on Thursday. You cheated on me."

"Babe, I can explain."

You huffed angrily before replying in a furious tone of voice.

"Explain what? That you were kissing a half-naked girl with her hand inside your boxers?"

"I was drunk and fucked up. Didn't know you would even show up. I'm sorry OK? It was the biggest mistake and I regret it. I plan on buying a date at the charity auction and making it up to you."

"Too late for that. I'm done and I could not care less about seeing your stupid face again."

You hung up quickly in haste, wanting to put that idiot to rest. You spent the night in the bathtub soaking and thinking about Eddie. Imagining what it would be like to have him taste you and to taste him. You had never had a partner who was good at oral, but he seemed like he would be perfect at it.

Eddie thought of you when he was in the shower, and touching himself. He imagined you down on your knees in front of him and all he could think about was your mouth and lips.

Saturday came and went, but on Sunday night, Eddie called.

"Hey, it's me. I'm looking forward to tomorrow. I know we didn't make a deal on the weed Friday, but if you still want to buy some, I'll give you that discount."

"Thanks, Eddie. I broke up with Sam on Friday night, but he's still pathetic enough to think he'll win me at the auction."

"Not a chance, babe. I will outbid him."

"Good. I need that. Please do. A date with him would be the worst. I'm glad we met even under the circumstances."

Eddie cracked a smile at this feeling happy to have you in his life.

"See you tomorrow?" He asked as he relaxed on his bed.

"Yeah, but how about we stay on the phone? It would be comforting. To know you were on the other line would be great."

"I agree. Sweet dreams. Don't worry, I won't hang up."

"Sweet dreams Eddie."

You placed the phone near your head, soon drifting off to sleep. The night passed and early morning came, then went and it was finally time to wake up. Your alarm clock went off, and you quickly turned it off.

"I hope you slept well, Eddie."

"I did. Hope you did too beautiful," he told you in a sleepy tone.

"See you soon."

"You too."

You hung up and got ready, dressed in your cheerleader uniform, and ate breakfast. Once you got to school, you looked for Eddie soon, finding him near your locker.

"I guess the auction is soon isn't it? Ready to win Mr. Munson?"

"I sure am."

He looked at you longingly and held your hand and not long after, the bell rang. After lunch, the auction would take place. You and Eddie said your goodbyes and then went to class. By lunchtime, you were feeling overwhelmed, but glad the auction would be over soon. You ate with the squad, tossing Eddie occasional glances from across the room. He looked right back at you and smiled each time you looked at his table.

The auction started promptly at 1 p.m. and everyone went to the gym. You weren't sure of the outcome or what to expect, but it would be good if Sam at least lost.

To no one's surprise, all the jocks won a lot of money for the charity auction. The cheerleaders were up next and you were first.

"For this lady, who would like to start the bidding wars at $10?"

Eddie shouted Me and Sam soon followed with $20. He wondered what the hell he was doing here probably, but you were so glad he was there to outbid Sam. Eddie replied with $40, then Sam $80.

Things were getting heated, and it could be anyone's win. You looked out at the crowd and Sam seemed pissed. He didn't want to lose to the freak, and he was determined to win you back. Not under any circumstance would that happen.

Eddie bet $100 and Sam bet $120. Eddie bid $140 after and Sam betted even more at $160. Eddie's final bet was $180 and by then, Sam gave up, defeated. To your relief, Eddie won the date with you, and Sam stormed off in a huff. Once the pep rally ended, you met Eddie in the hallway, rushing into his arms as he twirled you around.

"I'm glad it worked out. I knew it would," you told him excitedly.

"I knew it would too. Sam is crazy. I'm just glad I got you."

"You knew I wouldn't go out with him either way, right? I was going to be with you, regardless."

He kissed you and hugged you, making you feel happier than ever.

"I knew that. I can't wait for Friday. It can't come fast enough."

"I know what you mean. Call me sometime soon."

He nodded in agreement. Then you both went to your last classes of the day. Unfortunately, Sam was in this class. Once it was over, he came up to you angrily.

"I could've won you easily and I would've, but you know what? You are just a cheap little slut," he told you with a raised voice.

"Get away from me. I hate you. Eddie will treat me right."

"Good luck with that. He's a loser."

"I have nothing left to say to you."

You walked away feeling relief and like a big weight had just been lifted off your shoulders. You had a feeling it wouldn't be the last time you would see or at least hear from Sam. He was the last person you ever wanted to see again, and you just hoped graduation would hurry and arrive. There were 3 months left until you took that stage and hopefully, Eddie would be there to graduate with you. He would help make these last several months bearable. It wasn't like you to rush into relationships right after a breakup and in this case even before a breakup, but he was special to you already. Prom seemed like a cliche, but when the time was right, you would ask him to be your date.

The rest of the week passed slowly, but when it was finally Friday night, you were ecstatic. He called you every day of the week and you talked to him about everything, including horror movies, metal music, concerts, dreams, food, TV shows, books, dungeons & dragons, and what you planned to do after graduation. At 6, he would come over to start the weekend. Thankfully, with camping, it was safe because it wasn't somewhere where Sam would think to look for you, and of course, you wanted to have Eddie all to yourself. He was all packed with his sleeping bag, blankets, a big tent, sheets, camping gear, an extra change of clothes, snacks, a canteen, and booze. You had a bunch of homemade snacks to bring and you wanted to make sure it was a great trip by even throwing in a cassette player with some of your best heavy metal cassettes just in case either of you wanted to play some music. You got all the camping necessities together, and he arrived on time. No one else was home and once you let him in and led him to your room, he couldn't help but notice your huge metal collection of vinyl and cassettes.

"Wow, this is so great you have Slayer, Ozzy, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, WASP, Motley Crue, KISS, Dio, and more. I'm quite impressed. It's just that most girls wouldn't love music like this. You know, real music?"

"Yeah, well, I love it all. I'm into any rock, especially female-fronted. The Runaways are probably one of the best rock bands I have in my collection, and I love punk rock like the Sex Pistols and The Ramones."

"Good choices. So I think you are like my musical soulmate or something, y'know?" He said as he flashed the devil's horns sign with his fingers and a huge grimace his tongue sticking out.

"It's great we have that in common. I think it's going to be nice to go camping and don't worry, I didn't forget to bring along some music for us," you told him as you held up the boombox and bag of cassettes.

"Let's get going soon, though. I was thinking we could grill some burgers and hot dogs. I have a cooler in my van. Also, some booze. Weed and cigs too, if you'd like to smoke some," he told you with a slight shrug.

You wrapped your arms around him and kissed him. He knew you so well and what you liked already.

"That's perfect. I'm all ready to go just need to feed my puppy."

Eddie looked at you, amused, as you went to feed your little dog, Ozzy, a black lab. As soon as Eddie saw your precious little puppy, he reached his hand out for him to sniff which Ozzy did and he pounced at Eddie, jumping, wanting to be held. He obliged, holding the little guy as you got his food and water, and handed him a special treat.

"He's so cute. What's his name?"

"Ozzy. I've had him now for over 2 months. He's going to get pretty big, but I love him, anyway." You gave his head little pats and rubs, which he always loved. After Eddie placed him down, he went to his bowl and began eating.

"What a good little pup. I hope you won't miss him too much. I know I would if he was my dog."

"I will. He's my little guy. I am glad you got to meet him. I just knew that he would love you."

You led Eddie out of your house and he helped you with your stuff, soon loading it into the back of his van. It would be a great trip and you couldn't wait to be under the stars in the fresh air. As soon as everything was ready, you got into his van and drove off to the camping spot just as a beautiful red and orange sunset with yellow hues formed in the sky.

"Mind if I play some metal?" He asked.

"I would love that."

He turned on the cassette player and the familiar sound of Ozzy Osbourne's voice on the track War Pigs by Black Sabbath began blasting from the speakers. He tapped in rhythm and time to the beat of the music on his steering wheel as he drove to a familiar campsite and you got into the music as well, head-banging and flashing the devil horns. It was more secluded, but still a relatively safe place. Few other cars were on the road and thankfully by the time you got to the camping area, you didn't notice many vehicles in the parking lot. It was getting dark fast, but with Eddie; you weren't worried or scared about anything. Soon you arrived and took in your surroundings, finding the camping spot quite cozy.

You moved into the back to unload the camping gear and bags. He was eager to get the tent pitched and to unpack, then look for wood and start a nice bonfire for the night. It was still very early spring and chilly, but you bundled up enough for the weather. He opened the back doors to his van and unloaded onto the pavement and nearby grass.

"See any good place to set up camp? Just let me know."

"Sure, Eddie. I can't wait to get everything ready and enjoy tonight."

As you helped him get out all the camping gear and your boombox, he reached into his van to get out the two shirts he wanted you to have. One was for Hellfire Club and the other shirt was a new print of a Corroded Coffin official shirt. You took them from him with a bit of surprise and a wide grin formed on your face.

"These are amazing. Thanks. I'll be wearing them to school."

"You're welcome, beautiful."

You kissed him, and he blushed. It was so great to be called beautiful by him. You pretended not to notice and then folded the shirts nicely, putting them back in the van for now.

"I'll wear one of the shirts tomorrow."

"If you want to. C'mon, let's go gorgeous."

As you picked up the bags, he grabbed the boombox and got the cooler and you got the liquor and your bag. As you walked further into the campsite, you found a good place under a big tree to settle down.

"Wish I would've brought my guitar. Could've played for you. Maybe next time, though."

"Sure, that sounds great."

Few other people were around, at least not nearby, and you were glad. As soon as the tent was set up, you helped him bring the stuff to the campsite and set everything up. With clear skies and a no-rain broadcast, you were pretty certain it would be a nice night weather-wise. Now all that was left to do was find some twigs, rocks, and tree branches to make the fire.

"I can go get the branches. You can get the rocks," he suggested.

Following Eddie into the woods, you soon collected a nice bunch of rocks and he found a good bundle of firewood. Once it was all brought back to the campsite, he started the fire as you turned on the boombox and Slayer came through the speakers. As the orange and yellow flames flickered, he sat back relaxing on the grass so you took the opportunity to sit down on his lap and he wrapped his arms around you tenderly.

"Well, this is rather cozy and you have excellent taste in music," he whispered into your ear. His whispering gave you goosebumps. It was nice relaxing by the fireplace with him and listening to the best music.

You turned towards him and gave him a kiss, which he deepened kissing you even harder.

"How about we get some drinks going and grill the food?"

"Sure, that's a great idea. I'm practically starved," you told him as you held him close to you.

He reached over for the cooler pulled it closer, and took out the burger patties, hot dogs, the buns, and set the liquor bottle to the side for the time being.

As the food was cooking and the music was playing, you felt you were truly enjoying yourself on a date for the first time in a while. Being with him just felt natural and nice. He was so easygoing and a guy who cared genuinely about you and your feelings. Having him there on a camping trip was the perfect date night. Your ex thought a good date night was watching a basketball game with some beers or going to a pointless and stupid game. One of the best things about Eddie was that he loved metal music, DND, and horror movies, and thought a game where tossing balls into laundry baskets was dumb because it was one of the stupidest things ever to be created.

"I brought s'mores stuff for us later. I even made some chocolate chip cookies for us for dessert."

"That's perfect. You think of everything. Thanks, beautiful."

You wondered what Eddie thought of cheerleaders and why he liked you because you didn't think you were his type or stood a chance with him. You wanted to make this time with him last as long as you could and hoped he wouldn't get tired of you because you couldn't possibly get tired of him saying you were beautiful. Any name of endearment he wanted to call you was something you embraced. It was just great to have him to talk to. Most people wouldn't listen to you and care they would pretend to. With him, things were different, and you were just so content with even sitting there next to him in silence.

"I am having the best time with you. I didn't think you would have a date night this weekend with a cheerleader, though, did you?"

"Not really, but I'm pleasantly surprised. Nice to have a new friend who I can talk to so easily. It's a great thing though. I'd like to make it more though. It's just that we haven't known each other that long yet.."

His words were honest and true, but in a way, they made you yearn for it to be more. Taking things slow could make it better. As long as you had him in your life, you would be just fine. Trust wasn't easy to come by, and you were hoping you could gain his and that he would grow to trust you with time.

"I understand. Let's just spend more time together. Play some dnd, hang out with our friends and each other. I can even teach you how to cook."

"Definitely yes to all of that and of course I want you to come and see my band Corroded Coffin play live. We play every other weekend at the hideout on Saturday. So the next show is next Saturday night."

"I'll be there."

You finished cooking the food, and you both loaded yours onto paper plates. He drank the tequila straight from the bottle before offering it to you. You took a generous swig from the bottle and swallowed it, letting it relax you as it slightly made your throat tingle, but only in the best way possible. After adding ketchup and BBQ sauce to your food, you passed the bottle between each other taking sips of it, not wanting to get too drunk too fast if you could help it. As you sat there eating with him, you looked up at the stars and the full moon. It was so nice to be star-gazing with him just enjoying his company as you continued to sit on his lap and have him hold you. Once the main course of the meal was finished, you reached over into your knapsack to get out the Tupperware of cookies and other stuff to make s'mores. As you roasted the marshmallows, you both tried the cookies.

"Amazing. I need you to bake for me like this. Whenever you want to, though. No pressure, of course. I just love these cookies."

"Thanks, Eddie. I am an excellent baker, but just wait until you get to try my cooking. It's even better."

He looked at you, quite impressed, and grimaced.

"They are delicious, and I bet your cooking is even more wonderful."

Soon your marshmallows melted to your liking, and you added the chocolate and the graham crackers. It was the perfect treat for such a windy night with clear skies like these. After you finished your s'more and another cookie, you drank a bit more of the tequila, deciding it would be the rest you wanted for the night and felt drunk. He soon finished his dessert and gazed at the stars and moon, feeling so content with life and just being there. Back home, he had problems of his own, but didn't everyone? The cassette soon ended, and you turned off the player.

"How about we just stargaze for now and talk? Lay on our sleeping bags and when we get sleepy enough, we can just go back into the tent?" He offered, as his gaze never wavered from the stars.

"Sure, just gotta brush my teeth first and change into my nightgown."

You got up, and he did too. After you both brushed your teeth and changed, you brought the sleeping bags and a few pillows and set them up near the fireplace. You had one sleeping bag laid out and used the other sleeping bag as a blanket. Eddie pulled you in close and wrapped his arms around you because he needed to feel your touch and skin. The feeling of his soft curly waves of hair against your neck and his touch was so tender and affectionate. He had strong arms, of course, and just having him next to you like that was amazing and made you feel safe.

As you talked into the night with him about friends, hobbies, past job experiences, literature, and concerts, You discovered you both loved the same video games, had the same interests in art, and loved JRR Tolkien and Lord of The Rings and The Hobbit. Most of the concerts you had been to were like Eddies. If only you had known him sooner, you could've gone to concerts together. You secretly wanted to see his band play, but were always too shy and awkward about going alone. Chrissy had been to a Corroded Coffin show once, but she hadn't been back since, mainly because of her social status and her stupid boyfriend Jason not wanting to go to a rock concert. Eddie got up during the night to retrieve his leather-worn paperback copy of The Hobbit and you took turns reading some of the chapters to each other from the light of the fire. No other guy you had met seemed to love quality books, unlike Eddie, which made you want him to be in your life more. He had awesome taste in everything and was the coolest guy you had ever met. Little did you know, but he felt the same way about you. It was nearing 1 in the morning and Eddie checked his watch for the first time all night, noticing just how late it was getting.

"Maybe we should go to bed? Get up whenever tomorrow."

"Sure. I can put out the fire for us," he offered.

You got up, and he folded the blankets and sleeping bags as you doused the flames of the fire so it would go out. Once he was with you back in the tent with flashlights being your only source of light now, you listened to the owls in the nearby distance overhead and the surrounding trees. You were facing him and holding hands as his other hand rested against his head with his elbow propped up on his pillows.

"It's been so amazing spending this time with you. Just wanted to tell you I think you are beautiful. If you think I'm being a little slow with us and apprehensive, well, it's just because the last time I was seriously dating, she broke my heart and cheated on me," he admitted, looking just a little forlorn.

"I don't blame you for not wanting to rush into things. Sometimes it's better that way. I've been cheated on, too. I have a question though. Would you like to go to the prom with me? Doesn't seem like your scene or whatever, but it would be nice to go with someone I care about who likes the same things. Even if it's just as friends."

He answered you by leaning in close and meeting your lips in a kiss.

"Yes, of course, I'll go to the prom with you. I couldn't imagine going with anyone else. I was planning on going with some friends or just stag, but with you, it would be perfect."

You felt so relieved he felt that way and glad he was going to go with you to the stupid prom. You planned on wearing something vintage and all-black, of course, to show off your true style to the entire school. What mattered, though, was going together and what he thought of you.

"I'm so glad. I heard we can request songs from the DJ. I will ask for a metal song."

"Me too. Well, goodnight." He gave you a forehead kiss and then laid back down, fully relaxing into the pillows and blankets now.

Eddie and you fell asleep pretty quickly after that and slept peacefully throughout the night.

Sometime later he stirred awake in the middle of the night, not exactly sure himself what time it was, but he felt so turned on, feeling his straining erection pushing through his pants. He was having a dream about you- that he was devouring you and making you cum for him- orgasm after orgasm it was seemingly endless. There was no way he could fall back asleep unless he took care of it. Taking his time and being as quiet as he could, he took his hardened cock out of his boxers and began to lick and spit on his hand, then stroke himself with his back turned towards you. Some moments passed as he was getting off. You stirred awake slightly because you heard soft gasps and pants as he was getting himself closer and closer to his release and thinking about making love to you with you on top. Your cheeks blushed in the dark and you stayed perfectly still, not wanting to disturb him but knowing perfectly well what he was doing. It felt good to know that he was edging himself, no doubt because of you, and hearing the sounds he was making was so sexy. Quietly and slowly you reached down towards your pants and slipped your hand inside and with two fingers slid them over your already wet, slick heat. His panting noises were so hot and you tried your best to resist the urge to make any noise so as not to make him aware of the ways you were pleasuring yourself. Soft and low moans escaped your lips eventually though as you fingered yourself and he heard you smirking widely but not making you aware he knew what you were doing. Now he was closer than ever to reach climax and you wanted to be there with him. You bit your lips, doing your best to quiet yourself, and soon a wave of orgasm rushed over your body. Moments later, Eddie was right there with you groaning as he came down from his high. You both lay there in the darkness for who knows how long, but it was so nice to secretly or not so secretly get off with him. A little later on, he reached for some tissues and cleaned himself up before going back to dreaming about you. Soon after that, sleep overtook you too, and with it came dreams of your own. Dreams about dominating him and making him do whatever you wanted him to do. When you did finally have sex with Eddie, it would be worth the wait.

Morning came sometime later and, to your pleasant surprise, you opened your eyes to find Eddie with his arms wrapped around you, and holding you close to him. It felt so nice to be there with him sleeping in and having a nice morning with him just to yourself. No friends, no family, no stupid people from school around you. He was all yours and things felt like they should be.

You woke him up with a good morning kiss and straddled his lap. He opened his eyes slowly and looked at you with amusement.

"Good morning to you too, beautiful." He kissed you on your mouth, cheek, and neck.

"I think this is the best way to wake up."

"Oh yeah? Me too. Don't forget about next Saturday and the hideout."

"Don't worry, I won't."

You got up and got dressed for the day and Eddie soon did the same and brushed his teeth. Once you were both done getting ready, and packing up and taking down the tent, you got out the chocolate and glazed doughnuts from the cooler and handed him a big plastic bag with two donuts, and a carton of juice and took yours as well.

"Should get on the road we can eat in my van."

The rest of the camping site had cleared out, and it was already late morning. Sleeping in was so nice and you were grateful for that. Once you were on the road again, you drank your OJ and he drove. Soon you arrived back at your place and kissed him goodbye.

"I guess I'll see you at school, Ed's."

"I can't wait. Maybe we can have lunch together sometime."

You nodded in agreement and he walked you to your door and gave you one final goodbye kiss after he brought your stuff into your room. Once he was gone, you did your best to enjoy the rest of your Sunday with him on your mind often. Eddie himself thought about you nearly constantly and spent some time with his friends, like Garrett and Dustin. He wanted so badly to tell him about this super amazing girl he had met but wanted to wait for them to meet you themselves first.

soundtrack headspin- Butcher Babies I wanna be your boyfriend- Ramones Bad Romance- Gaga Buzz- Halestorm Scarlet- In This Moment I'm gonna be your Dog- Joan Jett Fever- BFMV Kiss the Girl- William Control For your love- Maneskin Anarchy- Lilith Czar Cinnamon Girl- Type-negative Love- Lana to be alone- Hozier funeral of hearts- HIM waiting for a girl like you by Foreigner Monstrance clock- Ghost Come undone- Bad Omens I won't forget you & talk dirty to me- Poison bad medicine- Bon Jovi a girl like you- def Leppard no one like you- scorpions dangerous- depeche mode

tag list: @corneliuswatkins @keeryatmosphere @jadeylovesmarvelxo @unholy-church01 @ali-r3n @somethingvicked @mrprettywhenhecries @daisy-is-a-writer @lovemesomeeddiemunson @stevesxyellowxsweater @koskeepsake @munson-mjstan @rowanswriting @loritate7311 @edsbug @bimbobaggins69 @babygorewhore @inourtownofhawkins @steveslittlesunflower @harringtonfan4 @emsgoodthinkin @dananahenderson @probablyin-bed @corrodedcorpses @ofhawkinsandvecna @lovelythoughtfulcupcake @xxbimbobunnyxx @brinasdead @bunnsandroses @thescoopstroopers @undead-supernova @haceleyes @aleisashortcake @gravedigginbbydoll @zestychili @veemoon @thepurplelovewitch @spenciesprincess @ellharrington @caityboosworld @stolen-in-moonlight @hellv1ra @littlenymphfables @voyeurmunson @kelseyaparker19 @prettyboyeddiemunson @munsons-mayhem28 @eddiemunsonfuxks

[adriellej]

I'm Yours

Warnings: None really, maybe a little implied grown-up time ;P Besides that, it’s just fluffy fluff.

Pairing: Harry Wells x Reader

Word count: 1.2K+

A/N: So this is my first posting in what, 4 years? Has it really been that long? Not only that, I also decided to do it with a fandom I have not written for before. I fell into a Flash hole about a few months ago, and I have taken a particular liking to Earth 2 Harry Wells. So consider this as me hopefully coming back, and hopefully having made something cute for y’all. All mistakes are my own!

It's based on I'm Yours by Jason Mraz - was hearing it one day in my car and thought it would be cute! Also I don't own the GIF's, one I found on google and one here <3

You were walking through the cortex, thinking about how you were going to steal the projector Cisco was hiding in STAR labs. A big smile spread on your face as you skipped down the hall. Cisco rarely let anyone borrow it, not even you, his best friend. He loved how you were both movie dorks, but he protected it with his life if he had to. Hence you were now sneaking in to steal it for the marathon weekend you were having with yourself.

You turned towards his workshop, his little lab, or not so much his own anymore. There was a certain Earth 2 scientist that had occupied it. Now wasn’t any different than usual. Harry was sitting in the lab tinkering away at some sort of tech in front of him. You weren’t the engineer or the smart one as your best friend, so you never understood what he and Harry worked on together. Or what they were always bickering about. 

You leaned yourself on the doorframe into the lab as you studied him for a bit. His long fingers worked away, tweezing some cords together as he tried applying power to it again. Harry only earned some sputtering from the tech and groaned out in frustration. 

“Goddamit how hard can it be?!” He yelled out while tossing the screwdriver across the room. You huffed out a small laugh as you shook your head as the older man in front of you acted like a child who didn’t get his way. You had always liked Harry, you were pretty sure the entire team knew, except for him. The way his outside was so hard, when in fact you knew that Harry’s heart was big and cared a lot for all of you here. He would never say it, but you knew. You two had many small moments together where you turned his frown upside down like only Jesse could. It was one of your assets for the team. Keep Harry from throwing everything around and make him a little bit more easy-going. 

“Ya know, maybe you just need a break,” You said while walking into the room, haven gotten a great idea, if you had to say so yourself. “Y/N, what are you doing here?” He asked while turning towards you for a brief moment, only to return his attention to the project in front of him; “Also no, I don’t need to take a break,” he grumbled as he started to tinker away again. 

Meanwhile, you had found your phone, this was also one of the things Cisco loved about you, as you found a song to play. “To answer your question, I came to steal Cisco’s projector, but now I think I have a better idea of how to spend my time,” you mused as you closed in on Harry you put your phone down beside him, and pushed play. 

You slowly turned Harry in his chair, he looked at you like he could kill you, but all you could do was smile as you started singing. 

“Well you done, done me in; you bet I felt it, I tried to be chill but you’re so hot that I melted,” you reached your hands down to Harry’s arms to pull him to stand. “Y/N, I’m not doing this. I’m busy, and you of all people should know I need to get this done,” His voice laced with annoyance and reluctance as you sang. “Well, I don’t care,” You answered while the music shortly played on its own. You forced him to stand, keeping both of your hands in his, as you slowly started to move the both of you. 

“Before the cool done run out, I’ll be giving it my bestest, nothing’s going to stop me, but divine intervention, I reckon it’s again my turn to win some or learn some,” You continued as you slowly got Harry to move with you. A big smile played across your lips, your eyes twinkling in the light of the lab. You were looking into Harry’s beautiful blue eyes behind the glasses, and you swore you could see a little glimpse of enjoyment. 

“See, it’s not so bad, now is it?” You joked with him earning a small groan from him, but a small smile curved at his lips. He pulled you into him, earning a small squeal from you, as you properly began to dance together. 

“Well, open up your mind and see like me. Open up your plans and damn you’re free. Look into your heart and you’ll find love, love, love, love” Your voice continued to ring out as Harry spun you around. “Listen to the music of the moment, people dance and sing, we’re just one big family, and it’s our god-forsaken right to be loved, love, love, love, loved,” 

You were having the best time as you were laughing and singing. Having Harry be invested in your idea, actually dancing with you, and not only that, he was smiling. Your heart felt so full. You knew he would be the death of you, with his gorgeous smile and handsome looks. 

“I’ve been spending way too long checking my tongue in the mirror and bending over backwards just to see it clearer,” You got caught off guard when you heard Harry’s hoarse voice singing along to the song while you were still swaying to the song together. You had heard it so many times around him, that the genius apparently had learned the lyrics. 

“I guess what I be saying is there ain’t no better reason to rid yourself of vanities and just go with the seasons. It’s what we aim to do, our name is our virtue. But I won’t hesitate no more, no more, it cannot wait - I’m yours,” You sang together as the song came to an end you stayed close to each other. 

You looked into Harry’s mesmerizing eyes, your eyes must shimmer from all the love you felt towards him. You had your hands at his shoulders and his was around your waist. You had laughed and smiled so much during your dancing that your cheeks hurt, but you couldn’t remove the smile on your lips. Looking at Harry with a rare but equally just as big of a smile as yours, as you were breathing a little heavy after all the dancing and singing. 

You thought to yourself how perfect he looked standing there. You could feel yourself getting flustered as you felt his breath on your lips. Before you could stop yourself you leaned up toward his lips. At first, he didn’t respond to it, but it didn’t take him long before his lips moved with yours. Your fingers tangled themselves in his hair, earning a little moan from him. His tongue ran across your lip and you gladly let him enter. His hands on your hips pulled you even closer to him. 

As the kiss deepened and became more passionate, his hands moved down to cup your ass and without any words needing to be spoken, you jumped and wrapped your legs around his waist. He walked over to his desk and set you down on it, while his hands came to cup your face instead. You pulled apart for both of you to catch your breath, foreheads leaning on each other. 

“Wow,” Was all you could muster to say, as you smiled while biting your lower lip. He gave a small chuckle from the depth of his throat. “Wow, yourself,” he gave you the biggest smile and a wink. “Maybe that break isn’t such a bad idea,” He said hoisting you up to him again, a squeal and laugh escaping your lips. 

Tag list:

@hiddenwritingsintheworld, @brianllamawrites

[suzukiblu]

hello, you like superheroes and I have a superhero-related question so I was hoping you might be able to help. though it is not specifically about your specific favorite heroes.

I'm trying to design a supersuit, and I'd like for the mask to like. go all the way around the back of the head instead of just being in front. partly because more realistic staying in place, partly for other reasons.

but I'm having trouble thinking of supers with that kinda shape to look at for inspiration to not have it look the wrong kind of goofy (supersuits are always gonna look a bit silly. but there's still some kind of balance possible)

I know the flash and the batman have cowls, and I think their main goofiness counter might be the shapes?? flash has his lil lightning bolt antennae, and batman has pointy ears. whereas I try to picture just a smooth topped mask and my brain goes haha that's silly

and I cannot think of any supers at all right now who have a mask which covers the top of their head but isn't attached to the shirt part of their supersuits

except maybe Jay Flash, though his might just be a helmet?? I don’t remember. It definitely needs to cover most (but not all!) of the face as well.

Anyway. so the question is. Do you have any thoughts on supers to look up as idea references?

Jay Garrick just has a helmet iirc, yeah. There are actually some pretty cool alternate mask designs out there I know of that don't require spirit gum, though, so off the top of my head:

the Netflix version of Daredevil started out with an opaque over-the-eyes/over-the-hair cloth mask that tied behind his head

I usually see Connor Hawke's version of Green Arrow done with a TMNT-style eye mask tied around the back of his head and an accompanying hood to go with it

Arrowette/Cissie King-Jones' design from Young Justice 98 had a ridged mask that went over the upper half of her face and the top of her head, leaving her hair loose behind/underneath, including a variant with a hood

Empress/Anita Fite wore a full face mask with some cool shapes in it and a big curly ponytail out the back

Wonder Girl/Cassie Sandsmark originally wore goggles

Spoiler/Stephanie Brown originally wore a full-cover stocking mask with very large lenses and a hood over it and I believe currently wears a mask over her mouth and a hood

Speedy/Mia Dearden has worn a mask that ties around the back of the head with a hood

Batgirl/Cassandra Cain originally wore a full face mask that covered her whole face and all her hair

I frequently see Ravager/Rose Wilson wearing an eye mask that covers the top of her head and ties in the back

at least one of Barbara Gordon's more recent Batgirl designs has a combination eye mask/helmet, or at least something akin to one

Red Hood/Jason Todd has worn both a full helmet and a muzzle with an eye mask and a hood, though I thiiiiink the eye mask was a domino

Star-Lord/Peter Quill wears a helmet that wraps around the back of his head

Chamber/Jono Starsmore wears a mask made of leather straps wrapped and layered around the bottom half of his "face"

Jubilee/Jubilation Lee wears an opaque visor

Cyclops/Scott Summers wears an opaque visor

the Winter Soldier/Bucky Barnes wears a strapped-on muzzle and also grease paint around his eyes in at least one movie

Annnnnd I'mma stop there before I take over anyone's dash, haha. Some of these are older designs, but hopefully a helpful starting point or two is somewhere in there!

[spidernuggets]

note: i thought your idea was so cool and wanted to write for it. it’s the way i said i’m writing this and not my papers due tomorrow. it's also not finished hence why it doesn't include all the plot points and i don't think i'll continue it cause it sucks but wanted you at least read it. i also noticed that you said the titan not the teen titan and that who I based this off of and then reread your plot again and realized (another reason why i feel like not continuing it) gosh this is mess but enjoy!

“tell me, are they going to be okay? 

the question is from starfire who carries a concerned look on her face while everyone else’s eyes are still glued to the tv screen.    

“don’t worry star, course they will. it’s just a movie after all, none of it is real.” dick’s attempt to comfort kori comes from a place of trying to remind her that movies are in fact not documented disasters but purely made for entertainment purposes.

“no.” beastboy blurts out out of no where, but is lucky that starfire is too focused to hear what he says.

both you and raven shoot him a look from your places on the couch, one that clearly reads ‘don’t you dare say anything that’ll even come close to spoiling anything again.’

“i mean no it’s not. the titanic was an actual thing that happened. it is real right?” he turns to you who’s plotted on the ground with him to defend his case.

you only shushes him with a hand gesture and signal to keep watching.

“—i see now. i believe i understand. titanic. titans. surely, a collective of superhero’s like us shall show up and rescue all in the ship.” star looks proud with her predictions.

everyone freezes.

you eye dick who’s next to you and his eyes are wide and saying ‘maybe showing her this movie wasn’t the best of ideas.”

you’re amazing with this eye reading thing.

you glance at raven. she shrugs.

“we’ll just have to se—.”

your voice is interrupted by what sounds like footsteps trotting up the stair. everyone looks back to the unthreatening intruder to only then look back when he’s identified.

he’s invisible.

he makes no effort to glance at anyone. you make no effort to look away from him.

…

the sticker of [blank] on jason’s room stares back at you. technically speaking it’s the spare room that stays vacant which he only uses whenever he’s around.

which is not often.

before you can raise a hand to knock, the door flings open and you’re met with an unexpected glare from jason.

“hi.”

“hey.” he looks out into the hall and back at you. “wasn’t expecting you.”

“sure you weren’t.” you poke your tongue out.

“of course I wasn’t.”

“says the person swinging open doors.” he needs to be reminded.

“to the person snooping around floors they have no business being on.” you need to remember.

you narrow your eyes at him, and smile starts to play on your lips. the one he’s been holding back since you came hasn’t gone unnoticed by you either.

“okay jason. i’m here for you because i miss you so much and maybe, just maybe, i want a hug, 4 kisses and 7 different responds to my question of ‘how are you doing?’”

jason’s can’t help but laugh at your admission. “yeah?”

“are you making fun of me?” you pout.

“i wouldn’t dream of it. c’ mere.”

grumpy and moody is what he is in others presence but for you he’ll show you any side. as he pulls you into a warm hug, you can’t help but feel a sense of victory. it might be your playful way of breaking down his walls, but you know that deep down, he appreciates your effort to bring a bit of lightheartedness into his world.

to you he’s never invisible.

you nuzzle your head into his chest as he wraps his arms around you.

“you took forever.”

“i know.”

…

jason’s room lacks curtains, a detail most evident in times like these when the sunlight infiltrates in and rouses you from your sleep.

you’d offered getting him a pair from the storage a couple of times, but his response was always the same: he wouldn’t be around for too long.

so you don’t need to turn around to know he’s gone.

...

U g hhhh!!! STOP they little cuties

-------------------------------------------------------------

The two of you laid in his bed for a while longer, your head on his chest and his arms wrapped around your waste.

"I wish you'd stay longer," you say quietly. A wish, a hope, a desire you crave every day. You couldn't help but lean closer into his body as you whisper that, wanting to hold him tighter, closer, as if he would permanently fall off the face of the earth if you'd let go.

"I know, mama," He replies sadly. He mirrors your movements, arms holding you close. Holding on, rewinding the fantasy he's been playing in his head. The fantasy that he could just take you away with him. Settle down in someplace far from Gotham. Far from any worries. But that's all it was. A fantasy. A fantasy he couldn't make come true, and you couldn't either.

"We're going to be okay?" You ask. It was meant to come out as a statement. But though you gave so much faith in your relationship, you couldn't help but question how long you can hold on.

"We're going to be okay," Jason states. Neither of you make a promise. Neither if you can guarantee that you'll be okay. But for now, you cherish the moment. With tight hugs, lingering kisses, and fading fantasies.

Your hand trails down to his. Your thumb caresses his calloused skin. Reminding him he's not invisible. Not to you. Never to you.

-------------------------------------------------------------

IK UR LIL STORY ISNT FINISHED N U WONT CONTINUE IT, BUT I LOVE IT SM STILL 🫶🫶 I WANTED TO CONTINUE ON LIKE A LIL COLLAB!

THANKS SO MUCH ANON, THIS HAS FILLED THE EMPTY HOLE IN MY SOUL THAT LACKED MY PROMPT, EVEN IF IT IS LACKING PLOT POINTS, STILL ADORE IT NONETHELESS!!!

HOPE YOU GET YOUR PAPER DONE!! I'M CURRENTLY READING YOUR SHORT STORY INSTEAD OF WRITING MY ESSAY TOO!! HAVE A GREAT DAY!

[thevindicativevordan]

what do you think of the rumour that Slott is taking over Superman with a new #1?

I think there’s four likely possibilities:

Bleeding Cool is lying or misinformed. Remember when Rich claimed we were getting a Zatanna/Robotman book after Knightterrors? He’s not always right.

Slott is taking over Action, either for another three part Superstar arc, or permanently. He hinted on the CBR forums that he had no intention of leaving Spider-Boy… which doesn’t rule out working at both Marvel and DC given Jason Aaron and Deniz Camp are currently working at both. This is the most likely outcome imo. Personally I would be fine with this. Slott is a decent idea guy and maybe he’d do some interesting work with the villains. His take on Superman himself and the supporting cast would likely be mediocre, but I do consider him the definitive Doc Ock writer. Seeing him handle Brainiac or Ultra-Humanite might be cool. If it’s bad, whatever, I’d have Williamson and Aaron.

Williamson is leaving Superman and Slott is taking over with a relaunch. In that case DC are out of their collective minds. Slott is not a big name anymore. He’s not a guy who is going to drive people to check out the Superbooks. Plus what on earth is the point of trying to synergize with Gunn’s movie? That stars a young, unmarried Superman fighting Lex Luthor, an evil clone of himself, and Engineer. What is the big hook for a Superman relaunch trying to line up with that? “Oh look everyone Dan Slott is going to write Superman vs. Lex Luthor!” whoopty freaking doo. Lex is ALWAYS front and center in the Superbooks, he’s been a core component of Williamson’s run. No one who goes to see Gunn’s movie is going to the LCS afterwards, be for real. This will tank in sales for no real gain, especially because of how often they’ve relaunched Superman in recent years.

Slott is taking Action but someone else is taking over Superman proper… and the most likely culprit would be Taylor. That would be a nightmare scenario for me. I enjoy the book Williamson is putting out right now, I have no clue if Slott would prove as enjoyable and I am not reading Taylor. I’d be down to just Aaron’s Absolute Superman book.

Fingers crossed for option 1 or 2. Option 3, well, I’ll give Slott a chance. I suppose if Williamson WANTED to leave (but then why bother dropping two other DC books to focus on Superman and GI Joe if you planned to leave next year?) then fine, even though I think DC could picked way better choices for his replacement. Option 4 would be the on brand bonehead DC decision that I pray doesn’t come to pass.

[rezonan]

Why do people use OOC/Irrelevant stories to justify their hatred for characters?

I'll admit I got this question from reddit but seeing as you are a big fan of Iron Man and certain characters afflicted by this issue I thought I would ask

Comic book characters and the consistency of favored portrayals

Why do people do the exact opposite to justify how cool they think a character is?

Look this is probably the worst kind of question to ask me, back when I was in high school my classmates hated me cause when it came to arguments I would always 'Stand on the fence' or 'Never pick a side' and I agree, even when I disagree or agree I can't help but see the other side of things with some questions.

I think one of the biggest things comic fans need to accept with our medium is that, the only real continuity that exists is the one we try and brute force and make in our heads, some writers themselves don't really care, Geoff Jones ignored Batman previously basically begging for Hal Jordan to come back to life when he was The Spectre to writing Batman basically complaining that Hal was back because to him that is what he thinks Batman should act like with Hal, and considering he probably grew up with a comic like Dark Knight Returns the asshole authoritarian was probably was he knew of the character, who knows I don't know his personal life.

I think we can all say that you have fallen in love with a character based of Non Canon stories, Hell my favorite comic for Superman and the one that got me into liking the character was All-Star Superman. The exact opposite of that like what you asked tho, Hating a character because a story depicted them poorly whether it's canon or not is valid as well, I mean it's pretty damn short-sighted if they have been exposed to better represented sides of those characters, but it doesn’t change the impact they initially felt, wether they can get past that is on the person. Like for example, I fucking hated Superman growing up cause the first movies I remember seeing him in was the freaking Dark Knight Returns duology and certain parts of Young Justice Season 1 but overtime seeing better versions and representations of the characters and also hearing put fans on what he represents has pushed him up to my 5th favorite hero, I do understand not everyone can do this. People just want to support their view of the character.

I also do think people who hate certain characters do reach a lot of the time, sharing panels of stories older than their parents sometimes probably not even knowing what comic it even came from, just happy they have this image of the character they don't like being abusive or something. It's even worse then the he outright go out of their way to find these panels or stories to use for hate on purpose even after knowing it's generally agreed upon it's a shitty representation of the character. Seriously nobody should bring up All Star Batman and Robin as some 'Got Ya!' moment in an argument, just no. Sometimes some people have just predetermined in their mind they want to hate a character and will go out of their way to farm for anything that can paint them in the worst light possible.

With Iron Man it's people bringing up Civil War again and again and again continuously like the 40 years of stories before that don't show why Tony would never do any of that in his right mind. With Superman it's people bringing up injustice in literally any relation to him or people bringing up a scene of Jason Todd blaming Bruce for his death as evidence of how whiny he is even when one of the highlight lines of his first appearance as Red Hood is 'Bruce I forgive you for not saving me but-'

With characters like say, Hal Jordan, Magneto or Venom and meny more, it gets more interesting here. Here what the characters did that was bad IS/WAS(considering reboots in Hal's case) in continuity but a version of the characters that were received much more popularly then makes fans disregard these past appearances as wrong, say they have had this entirely new portrayal longer than they had that one or writers themselves will retcon them away by making them, in the case of former villians now refromed, seem less evil than they were. No no those people Magneto killed weren't innocent humans in the silver age, they were actually anti-mutant bigots that killed a little girl for being a mutant. One of my favorite examples of this is Hulk. Yes Hulk the rampaging monster from movies to series to comics, in comics in I think 2008 was retconned to have never and I mean never killed a single person in all his rampages In the in-universe 12 years at that point, not even indirectly because Bruce Banner was subconsciously calculating all the angles of where he would throw or smash stuff apprently. All those crumbled buildings, nope, nothing.

And you know what? I can agree with some of that (that Hulk retcon is still dumb) because let me tell you the real truth to all this.

Consistency

People love consistency, They don't care about Magneto killing innocents in the 60s or Venom eating people in the 90s, they care about the take that has been supported consistently in their view for longer or just showed more consistently in what they have seen. Even for the haters it's the same, if for example my only experience with Batman was All Star and Certain Post New 52 issues, I would be happy knowing I hate this borderline sociopathic dude that's what I know Batman as.

You see it even with the movies, When The Amazing Spider-Man came out you had people saying it was an inaccurate take or not liking the changes even though it was actually more comic accurate that what came before but fans of the Raimi movies have consistently seen Peter as a meek and nice kid before being Spider-Man not an asshole, they have consistently seen him with organic webbing not with web shooters. Anything that breaks the portrayal they have known the most if gonna make them react either well or badly. People who only knew Tony Stark from Civil War probably reacted well to his MCU version seeing as he broke the consistent borderline villian they knew him from the comics.

So the big issue is people trying to force their own consistent idea of a character on others when comics just aren't consistent, everyone like I said at the start has their own makeshift continuity in their head they made up with books they liked or think fit, the consistent portrayal they know about, so this is why you get people arguing about if Batman is the real identity or Bruce Wayne or if Clark Kent should wear trunks or not I could go on and on like if Wonder Woman should use a sword? Someone who is used to the New 52 version would say yes and someone used to the Post Crisis version would say no. Or maybe it's what love interest Spidey should end up with, people who say Gwen probably grew up with TASM and Spectacular Spider-Man. Better for people to just respectly discuss the takes of characters different people have instead of childishly pushing the version they have in their head as the correct version and putting down everyone else's pretty damn subjective takes. That's with superhero comics of course, the nature of what is canon and isn't and how fans of this stuff talk about it with different 'takes' is way more unique than talking about disliking MCU Spider-Man or talking about why you hate Sasuke or something.

I don't really have a good way to end all this cause that's just it, all about consistency if I didn't get that across the 10 times I used that word. As usual feel free to disagree with me and if possible tell me how and why.

[ltwharfy]

Rewatching "I Love You, Man" and Overthinking Rudy's Iconic Halloween Costume

One night this week, when I was feeling particularly tired after work, I noticed that the 2009 movie “I Love You, Man” starring Paul Rudd, Rashida Jones, and Jason Segel, had just started on one of the commercial-free movie channels, so I decided to watch it. I had seen it a long time ago and thought it was pretty entertaining (I pretty much always find all three of the movie’s leads entertaining in anything, so…_). But I’m pretty sure I hadn’t seen it since “Nightmare on Ocean Avenue Street” came out, and certainly not since I became a person who writes “Bob’s Burgers’ fanfic and posts stuff about the show on this silly website. So, some thoughts on “I Love You, Man” specifically as the source of Rudy’s iconic Halloween costume:

-Man, this movie is R-rated! I had looked that up a while back, and it amused me because Louise also makes reference to R or TV-MA rated stuff (No Country for Old Men, Pan’s Labyrinth, Game of Thrones, just off the top of my head). But, I couldn’t exactly remember why it was Rated R, and if that rating made sense. Rewatching it reminded me that there is a lot of sex-related dialogue in the movie. It could not be cut out or toned down that much. It is actually pretty central to the plot (I’m not going to go into details, since I don’t want to put a content warning on this post, or spoil a 14 year old movie for anyone). It’s not a movie I would feel okay about watching with a  9 year-old that I was responsible for.

-So, did Rudy actually see the movie? There are definitely other times on the show where it is pretty clear the kids haven’t actually seen the more adult entertainment they make reference to (“what’s Caligua?”) It’s quite possible that Rudy may have just been familiar with Paul Rudd from more age appropriate fare (Ant-Man or something) and seen the poster for “I Love You, Man” somewhere and thought Rudd’s outfit looked cool (I mean, it’s a sweater and jeans, but this is Rudy we’re talking about).

-But I think it’s more fun to imagine he actually saw the movie. It’s implied that Rudy has a number of older cousins (we meet Mandy, and he wants her to tell the others about his attempt to sled backwards) so I can imagine him seeing the movie at a family thing with a bunch of his older cousins and just being so excited to watch a grown-up movie with the older kids that he thinks it’s the best thing ever despite a ton of the jokes going completely over his head. (There are a lot of movies I saw with my older sister as a kid then when I revisited them as an adult I realized I had completely missed some pretty racy stuff in them.)

-Also, I then imagine Rudy later innocently asking one of his parents about some term he heard in the movie that he didn’t understand, which leads to the older cousins getting in trouble for letting him see it.

-There are definitely parts of the movie I could see Rudy understanding enjoying. The first conversation between Rudd and Segel’s characters is Segel pointing out how another guy is clearly holding in a fart because he is trying to impress a woman he just started dating. This seems to very much be on the level of humor of most of the Bob’s Burgers kids.

-And it’s pretty easy to see Rudy enjoying Paul Rudd’s character in the movie, because it’s basically just Paul Rudd playing a nice kind of dorky guy in a pretty typically Paul Ruddy manner. His character is into fencing, which I can easily see Rudy thinking is a pretty cool hobby. (I can totally see Rudy and Louise trying fencing when they get older).

-Rudd’s character also plays the bass, and there is a running gag of him saying “I slap the bass” in a bad attempt at a Jamaican accent. I can see Rudy enjoying this and repeating the line to the point of annoying people (“You don’t even play the bass, Rudy, you play the drums!”) I may be projecting because that’s certainly what I would’ve done as a kid.

-If you managed to read this far without knowing the plot of the movie, Rudd and Jones’ characters get engaged and it is pointed out to them that Rudd has always been a “girlfriend guy” who doesn’t really have close male friends. It’s kind of interesting to think about that in the context of Rudy, since it seems pretty clear that Louise is his best friend, and I find it interesting to think about who Rudy’s best male friend is. I have this headcanon that it’s Jeremy just because he is at Rudy’s birthday and his appearance seems kind of random if he’s not actually good friends with Rudy. (It’s easy to see Harley going to that party because she’s super friendly and seems up for anything, and Rudy could’ve gotten to know the Pesto twins through Louise, but why is Jeremy there?!)

-That said, the male characters Rudy has the most friendly interaction with on-screen are probably Zeke and Gene (or as I like to think of them, the World’s Best Future Brothers-in-Law). Of course, Rudy is a minor character who is only in 10% or so of the episodes and we basically only see him when he’s with the Belcher kids. It’s possible he has a really meaningful friendship with Hogarth Haber that is never seen or referred to on-camera.

-So, be on the lookout for my Roudise “I Love You, Man” AU Fic, coming soon! (That’s probably not actually going to be a thing. Honestly, I think I’ve explored this joke as far as I can. Well beyond the point of reason, in fact.)

-I had forgotten what a fun cast “I Love You, Man” has! In addition to Rudd, other “Bob’s Burgers” guest stars in the movie include Aziz Ansari, Andy Samberg, Rob Huebel, Nick Kroll, and Joe Lo Truglio.

[anhed-nia]

BLOGTOBER 10/16/2023: NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 4 - THE DREAM MASTER

One of the best movie posters ever, let's face it.

What does your slasher movie hierarchy look like? Which guy is your favorite, and is that guy's franchise your favorite over all, or is there a different one that you think is more consistently enjoyable? I have a hard time answering this question for myself. Some comparisons are too apples v. oranges; I mean, I think it's fair to pit Jason Voorhees against Michael Myers, but Leatherface has a really different vibe even though he's still technically a pretty basic slasher, and I cannot get what I get from HELLRAISER in almost any other movie or series. The CHILD'S PLAY franchise may have started out on more standard ground despite its oddball "voodoo doll" premise, but it has since transformed itself into a committedly queer campfest, and no one else in the slasher game is really doing the same thing in the same way. NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET is also in a class by itself on many levels, including but not limited to the originality of its premise, its allowance for wild fantasy sequences, and the platform it provides for a wonderful character actor to strut his stuff. I mean not to slight the great Brad Dourif, but every ELM STREET installment is basically the Robert Englund show, and we like it that way. NOES is probably my favorite over-all franchise, in part because I think it probably has the highest proportion of quality movies. Even a bad ELM STREET movie is kind of good because of its star, and its open field for filmmakers to be as imaginative as they want to be. It's like that thing people (erroneously) say about how sex is like pizza: Even when it's bad, it's still pretty good.

NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 4 was one of my first R-rated movies. I think I saw it when I was about 9, at the home of the first of of my many Bad Female Friends. Michelle was extremely controlling and a compulsive liar, and my weak ass has always been catnip to people like that. She lived with her mom who, despite her unpredictable temper, basically ran a house with no rules; most of the time I was there she was locked in her bedroom with her boyfriend, loudly watching game shows. Once in a while one of them would emerge in a bathing suit to get chips and dip and soda out of the fridge, and that's all I usually saw of them. The mom was also a den mother for the Brownies, which I was forced to participate in because my parents knew that otherwise I would just stay in my room for the rest of my life. I got out of it because Michelle's mom was always dropping her off at our house whenever she felt like getting rid of her kid, and the one time my parents wanted her to babysit me she said no arbitrarily, and they got in a huge grownup fight, and that was that. Uh anyway, where the hell was I going with this? Oh yeah, Michelle got to watch anything she wanted, which was Not Cool with my hippie media-phobic parents. I got in a huge amount of trouble for "letting" Michelle show me SLEEPAWAY CAMP 2--which, to be fair, is inappropriate for audiences of all ages (and is therefore great)--and NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 4: THE DREAM MASTER.

I vaguely remember my mom just being really upset on the phone with Michelle's mom, and trying to figure out how to instill in me that I should resist at all costs the contaminating effects of horror movies; even if somebody else was putting them in front of me without supervision, it was still my responsibility not to watch them. (My mom personally enjoyed John Waters movies and FLESH FOR FRANKENSTEIN and stuff like that, but she didn't want me to see PSYCHO until I was 18 years old--go figure!) But my dad's religion is Jungian psychoanalysis so he was intrigued by the dream-based plot, and he decided to actually watch the movie himself and come to his own conclusion about whether I might have been harmed by it. He didn't wind up liking it, but he did understand what made it interesting, and knowing that had a healing effect on me.

For my part, I liked everything about NOES4, not the least of which was that it's the ultimate '80s movie. I mean this thing was really programmed to go straight into the brain someone who was 7 in 1988 and just completely take over. The absolutely sick soundtrack, the very of-the-moment layered and over-accessorized fashions, the surreal neon-lit dream sequences, and...really just everything. Watching the movie today, it still presents as a perfect (albeit idealized) time capsule, and Renny Harlin was the perfect guy to create it. Harlin was a major league ham who knew no limits, and with a premise that is literally limitless--the whole idea is dreams made real--he did exactly what you'd want him to do, reputedly subbing in his own zany nightmare concepts when he felt the script didn't go far enough. I recently rewatched his acrophobic thriller CLIFFHANGER and read that the first stunt you see in the movie was only attempted once, and the stunt person received one million dollars to do it...which is easy to believe when you see it. That's the kind of filmmaker Renny Harlin is, and I think it shows even in an ELM STREET movie where everything is as artificial as possible.

Another way in which THE DREAM MASTER epitomizes its moment is that it has this perfectly motley ensemble. I feel like we don't have this anymore; a lot of films are very careful now to have a mix of ethnicities and sexual orientations in the cast, and yet in most cases this has not contributed to a feeling of having a lot of different kinds of people represented. I miss seeing movies where the friend group includes, like, a punk and a jock and a nerd and a goth and a normie and a dreamy loser. I miss movies where these two people can be best friends:

And at this point, you might have asked yourself why I didn't include SCREAM in my imaginary slasher franchise hierarchy. The answer is...I don't care about it. That first movie is fun and the series has its moments, but I'm not sure that it has much to offer once you get past the novelty of its self-awareness. That is, it doesn't have much to offer unless your main thing is seeing a bunch of cute friends hanging out together. Sure some of them are slightly nerdier or slightly more popular, but there's not a bunch of variance there; the main point seems to just be "attractive young people". And frankly, I just don't find that very interesting, and it's not that interesting to have a movie that just lists rules and then follows the rules, and it's not that interesting to have whodunnits where the main question is "which one of my cute friends is secretly mean". So there. I probably shouldn't write this down on the internet, but considering that we're probably all on some kind of list these days, I'll just say it: I'll take the undead soul-eating child molester over the homogeneous gang of fuckable friends any day of the week.

[jandjarchive]

Friday the 13th Interview on JoBlo.com

archive link

Featuring jared being his rambling self. What I would give to have this one on video...

They tell us that as much of the violence is in this movie there's also sex. Do we get to see you topless?

(laughs) Not yet! If there are reshoots who knows they might try and yank off my shirt.

I'm being equal because we were wondering about the female cast.

No man.

And it's only fair to ask.

It's absolutely fair to ask. That was also something that I brought up with the writers and producers and the director because I'm wearing like a form fitting shirt and I was like 'Listen guys... I'm already on the CW, which is kind of like the pretty boy network. The last thing I want to do is do this movie with a lot of fans and just be like 'Hey, here's me taking my shirt off.' And like be kind of douchebaggy. I was like honestly, I wanted Clay to just be a normal guy. I didn't want him to be like 'Hey, here I am. I'm a sex symbol. Watch me fight Jason. I'm cool. I'm a ninja. Blah blah.' I just wanted to be a guy trying to find his sister. Not about how he looked, whether he worked out or whatever. So I steered clear of the topless scenes.

full text with images:

Jared Padalecki has been around for a couple years now, finally breaking through and scoring his first leading role in FRIDAY THE 13TH. Some may know him from his starring roles in GILMORE GIRLS and the popular genre show SUPERNATURAL. He's also got a couple genre movie credits to his name in HOUSE OF WAX and CRY_WOLF, so as you can see he's definitely a fan of the genre. We caught up with the young actor while on the set of FRIDAY THE 13TH. The time was around 3 AM and Padalecki had just approached us munching on a bag of Doritos Cool Ranch chips. Regardless of it being early morning and having worked all night, Padalecki was upbeat and ready to sit down with us and answer some questions. Little did he know that as soon as the interview was over he'd be wrapped for the night, lucky him!

JARED PADALECKI

It's always this time of night where there's nothing to eat so you just go straight to the craft service table. Bunch of peanuts and Skittles and now some Cool Ranch chips. Terrible, terrible. And then you say why did I do that? Oh yeah it was 3 o clock in the morning and I couldn't think straight.

Tell us about your character and what you’re doing in the movie.

I play Clay Miller. Basically my involvement in the movie is I start out and we don't know much about me. We just know that I'm looking for my sister who's gone missing. So I go out to Camp Crystal Lake not knowing the legends and not knowing what's out there and what happens on Friday the 13th. And that's when I run into another group of young guys and gals who are out there for a camping trip and then horror ensues. I'm sure you can all imagine where we go from there, right?

How familiar were you with the earlier films?

I seen the first one and I seen FREDDY VS JASON. I'd seen one of the other ones, I assume the second one, where he had the burlap sack still. Because the first one he obviously wasn't the villain and then FREDDY VS JASON I had seen, I had some buddies that were in that and I went and watched it. But mostly I was familiar, I knew the story. Everybody knows Jason Voorhees whether you've seen one or ten or zero. From then obviously Friday the 13th and the whole legend behind that, there's not a Friday the 13th that goes by... It's funny. I got home from work last night at like... I don't want to exaggerate, I want to say it was like 5.. no 6:30 am ok. The hotel leaves your stereo on like classic music. The guy who was in-between songs was like 'Well here on blah blah blah we have a long day of beautiful classical music in case you want to stay in and not go risk those Friday the 13th roads and that Friday the 13th traffic and blah blah blah.' And literally as I walked into the door and I was like 'weird man' and I just turned the radio off and went to sleep. But I knew the legend, Friday the 13th. And I knew Jason.

Was this something you pursued or was it something that was pitched to you? What was your first reaction when you read the script?

I had seen AMITYVILLE that Platinum Dunes had redone and I had seen the original TEXAS CHAINSAW that Platinum Dunes and Marcus had done, or the remake, the original remake. And I had seen THE HITCHER, Sophia Bush is a friend of mine. I loved, I enjoyed them all but I loved the TEXAS CHAINSAW remake and I watched it actually when I did HOUSE OF WAX. The director sat us down and as a cast we watched the movie. He's like this is a recent horror remake that's done really well that I think is really good and so I want you guys to watch it. We watched it and we were like... man that's good. It's interesting, it tells a story visually. It's hard to remake a classic and give homage to the original but still make it new and interesting for younger audiences and different audiences. So I found out about this script from my manager, it was during the strike and I was about to go do some international press for SUPERNATURAL, that's a show that I'm doing on CW. I was literally about to fly out... four or five days later or something and I hear hey, the strike wasn't over yet and they're like listen, there's this movie FRIDAY THE 13TH the remake, I was like 'Oh this movie, I know what that is.' The director is in town and Brad Fuller, one of the producers is in town and they want to meet with you. I was like 'Well can I see the script?' They were like 'Okay we're emailing it to you right now, print it up, they want to have dinner with you tonight.' And I was like 'Alright.' 

I'm assuming your going right back to work after this?

Yeah (laughs). I'm doing international press in Australia next week so I leave from Dallas on Wednesday to go to Australia for a few days and then we're supposed to start shooting the first week of July. No rest for the wicked right? I had like a three month break during the strike so I can't bitch and moan too much, but yeah straight from SUPERNATURAL to FRIDAY back to SUPERNATRUAL[sic].

How long do you shoot SUPERNATURAL?

Nine months.

Straight?

You have two weeks off for Christmas; you get a four day weekend for Thanksgiving and Presidents Day and stuff like that. From July 2nd I think we're supposed to wrap the first week April.

What's your favorite kill in this movie?

My favorite kill is the kill of the police officer who comes to sort of check up on us. We hear knocking and we know Jason's outside and we know someone’s killing off these people in this group of friends that I've hooked up with. We hear a knock on the door and at first we're a little panicky but we're like why would this guy knock? So we go to check out the door and it's a police officer, so I start to let him in and as I let him in Danielle Panabaker's character Jenna sees Jason basically drop down from the roof and shove a fireplace poker through the police's eye, through the door, it ends up right in front of me and then we take off. That's really the moment in the movie where everything has sort of come to a head, and then just explodes. It's like man, everything is so fast paced, and everything’s so hectic. The audience is really going to be on the edge of their seat from that moment on. Not like they wouldn’t before. That's when the break line breaks and it's full speed ahead for the rest of the movie.

What's been your favorite part of this whole shoot?

They tell us that as much of the violence is in this movie there's also sex. Do we get to see you topless?

(laughs) Not yet! If there are reshoots who knows they might try and yank off my shirt.

I'm being equal because we were wondering about the female cast.

No man.

And it's only fair to ask.

It's absolutely fair to ask. That was also something that I brought up with the writers and producers and the director because I'm wearing like a form fitting shirt and I was like 'Listen guys... I'm already on the CW, which is kind of like the pretty boy network. The last thing I want to do is do this movie with a lot of fans and just be like 'Hey, here's me taking my shirt off.' And like be kind of douchebaggy[sic]. I was like honestly, I wanted Clay to just be a normal guy. I didn't want him to be like 'Hey, here I am. I'm a sex symbol. Watch me fight Jason. I'm cool. I'm a ninja. Blah blah.' I just wanted to be a guy trying to find his sister. Not about how he looked, whether he worked out or whatever. So I steered clear of the topless scenes.

When you are putting together this character, do you spend a lot of time thinking about a back-story? Is that an important part of your process or do you feel like it's important to the film?

It is. It's important to my process and it’s important to the film. I always start the process of building a character by just reading the script over and over and over again to where you’re kind of trying to hook into his motivations and instincts and what's driving him. Which is also why it's little things, little lines here and there. You’re like hey listen, earlier in the movie I say this and now I'm saying that, it kind of contradicts, can I change it up a little bit? And they're like yeah of course we didn't even think about that. Or this is from this version and that's from that version. The back story’s important and usually you get the chance to talk to other characters, other actors and actresses in the movie about like hey, let's think about how we know each other, how we met each other. But really the only character in this movie that I know is my sister, so all the people that I spend most of the movie with I meet them during the course of the movie. So it was nice to have that freedom to introduce my own character. Who knows if it comes across and who knows if I even get into it, but just so I know. And also the scripts usually will you know... Up rides Clay Miller. 23. Athletic. Blah blah blah blah blah. It kind of gives you a little outline and then little expositional things. I'm talking to Jenna, Danielle Panabaker's character about my sister and I's relationship and how it's been since my mother's death and blah blah blah. You get hints from the script and then you’re sort of free to do your own thing.

You mentioned fighting Jason earlier. Do people actually fight Jason a lot during this movie or are they mostly running from him?

Does the sense of comrodery[sic] with Derek and the rest of the cast, does it make it easier or does it maker it tougher for you to center yourself when you go back in and you have to be scared?

I guess for everybody it's different. For me it makes it a lot easier. I'm not method, like I don't not enjoy my work. If I'm playing somebody who's sleep deprived, I sleep 9 hours a night. (laughs) I don't want to get to work and be miserable because it keeps me... it messes with my focus. And likewise I don't want to worry about not getting along with somebody that I'm working with, like be fakey during the day just so that you could get on but it’s nice to be friends with somebody. Because it's so weird and it's so... I'm bruised up and banged up and there's scenes where we're having fights and I cut my face open for real during the fight and it's like ughh. You don't want to go from that to 'And cut.' And then like you don't want to talk to anybody, you don't want to go 'oh dude I think I just cut my face' because you don't like the guy. It's nice to go 'Derek, I think I just messed myself up.' He'll be like 'What, you alright?' And you'll be like 'Yeah, I'm fine, I'm fine. Jeez I'm having a scotch when I get home' or something. 

It's nice to be able to vent a little bit, you can't burn the candle on both ends. It's nice in between takes to sit down and have lunch with everybody and joke around and kid around. Otherwise... you spend so much time with these people... I have a director named Kim Manners, he's one of our directors/producers on SUPERNATURAL. He's always like 'If I didn't enjoy working with you guys, I would quit because there's no point...' And this is his quote to me, I'm not married but he's like 'I spend more time with you guys than I do with my wife, with my kids, with my dog, with my best friend, with my family... if I didn't like you all, why would I want to spend so much time with you guys. Money? How much do you want? I'd rather enjoy my life and not have as much money. Just work to make money and not have a shitty time doing it.' So it's really nice in my opinion to get along with everybody.

Obviously your no stranger to this genre, with HOUSE OF WAX and SUPERNATURAL and stuff. Do you plan on doing more horror films after this? Are you going to stay to that track? You know the routine from being in HOUSE OF WAX. Were you surprised? Was it different from FRIDAY THE 13TH, like the physical routine and everything?

Absolutely. The first question, as far as staying in the genre. It's a genre that I'm a fan of, and I've always enjoyed scary movies and horror movies and scary shows. I grew up watching THE TWILIGHT ZONE with my old man and stuff like that. If the role’s right and the character’s right or I want to work with some directors or producers. Each job is so specific, I'm not sure I'm at the point in my career... like Clooney or Brad Pitt or something.. it's like bring me a comedy, I want to do a comedy. And then 20 comedies show up at your door and your like no, no no, I'll take this one. For me, I'm still in a process where I have to sort of fight for the roles I want. This was a role I wanted, so I fought for it. I guess it was coincidental that it happened to be in a genre that I was so familiar with and comfortable with and a fan of. As far as the process being different, it's been very different. 

Has there been a scene or sequence or specific thing that you've done that you consider to be the most challenging or the most fun? Or are those two things mutually exclusive?

They're not mutually exclusive. Sometimes they coincide. For me, the most challenging was my sort of ultimate confrontation with Jason. It being a horror movie, it's night, and it being a horror movie, it's raining, and it being a horror movie, we're in a barn... fighting... for our lives. So in between every take they’re' spraying you down with water and throwing mud and dirt on you and you just feel banged up and bruised up. Derek is a joy... because there are a lot of parts.. I'm not a stunt man, so I don't do my own stunts and I try and do my own fight scenes as much as I can but Derek is a stunt man. So there's a part where I kind of... because I don't know what else to do, I sort of grab him and sort of run him back as best I can, like try and push him into the wall. A few times... I'm in like designer boots and tight jeans... you can't really move in it and my boots are all wet and it's muddy and it's starting to get sloshy. So my feet are like slipping out and I'm literally basically just leaning on Derek. I weigh 220 pounds and I'm holding onto Derek for dear life and he just... in character.. resets his feet, lifts me up and he's like 'Ok go ahead.' And he has the mask on so no one can see him say 'Ok go ahead' but I can hear him and I'm like thanks man and I'm back on my feet and doing it again. 

So that and you get bruised up and banged up. I still have some bruises on my lower back and my side, I'm not injured where I'll never walk again or something but just little paper cuts and your going where did that come from, come on. And the medics coming in because you get dirt and dust in your eyes and you can’t touch your eyes because you have dirt and mud all over your fingertips and your just sitting there going can I have some water and it looks like you’re crying. So then all the crew guys make fun of you... its fine. It was a lot of fun but that was the most challenging. And the most fun was probably the sequence I was talking about with the police officer getting pokered because we had a few different sets and there's a cool shot... when you see the movie you'll see, with like half sets and the camera moving to the outside of the door kind of following the poker and then ending up right in front of me. When I was shooting that, I remember thinking to myself.... probably the worst thing an actor could think... but like man this is going to look cool! You’re supposed to stay in the moment and do your thing and be true to the character but I couldn't help but start thinking like... this is going to rock. It's cool to shoot that and then know that it's going to look cool on camera and the audience is going to go it's cool how they do that. So that's probably the most challenging and the most fun, so far on this shoot.

Well is there anything you can tell us about the upcoming SUPERNATURAL season? Apparently Dean might be in Hell a little longer than people think. Can you elaborate on that at all?

I don't know a whole lot about specifics, but I do know that a few episodes are written and that they're going to give me the outlines for them very very soon. I do something weird... I do it during the shooting of SUPERNATURAL, but if we're shooting episode 1 and episode 2 comes out, I won't even read episode 2 until I'm done with 1 because I don't want to start thinking about it. It started because in Season 2 I had a sex scene and I read about it 2 episodes before so all I did was like oh man I have to wake up and go to the gym and your just thinking about what's going to happen 3 weeks from now instead of just worrying about what your shooting. I've been careful about A. with the demanding schedule with FRIDAY and B. while shooting this I don't want to get... it sounds cheesy, but I don't want to start getting into Sam Winchester while playing Clay Miller. But I've heard sort of whisperings of he's going to be in Hell and I might have to find out a way to go get him... which would be wicked cool. I hope they end up doing that and there are whisperings that Sammy's going to have to go a little bit more dark side than we've seen him, which I've been waiting for years to do, so I'm excited about that.

Excellent. That sounds very interesting. When will that they be planning on premiering that?

They're starting us the first week of July...

So it would be like a Fall kind of thing?

Yeah. I know they want to air us with SMALLVILLE, which probably starts shooting earlier because usually SMALLVILLE premiers and then we premiere a couple weeks later but they're bringing us back a couple weeks earlier so that we can premiere. Probably late August, early September is my hope.

Excellent. Sweet.

Right on guys! Thank you.

Thanks.

[thisaintascenereviews]

The Muppets Mayhem Soundtrack / Dr. Teeth & The Electric Mayhem - S/T

Let me get this out of the way within the first sentence of this review -- I love the Muppets. I watched some Muppets stuff as a kid, and I always knew how much of a big deal they were, but I didn’t really get into the Muppets until their 2011 reboot / sequel film that starred Jason Segel and Amy Adams. The film is about bringing the Muppets back together after their studio is about to be demolished by an evil businessman, but most of them haven’t been in contact with each other for years after The Muppet Show ceased production in the late 90s and their well of successful films dried up in the 90s and early 00s. If anything, the film is an interesting look at nostalgia and moving forward, because the film appealed to new and old fans alike. I fell in love with that film, whether it was the mature and adult way they looked at nostalgia, the way they updated the classic characters but without sacrificing what made them great, or the songs that added a lot of brevity, fun, and heart to the movie. I spent the next few years diving into everything I could, especially the older films and The Muppet Show, but there was just something about the Muppets that drew me to them. I don’t know if it was the magic of how they make me feel like a kid again, but a lot of their jokes are clever enough for adults to understand (sometimes even adding another layer that you can understand more when you get older). They’re just the perfect kind of wholesome entertainment that is also slightly challenging in the sense that there’s more underneath the surface. Both kids and their parents can watch the Muppets and find different things to enjoy. For all of its successes, the 2011 film also ushered in a bit of a “revival” for the characters; they had a solid run for the next four years, whether it was a sequel film called Muppets Most Wanted (that wasn’t as good, but it was more akin to their zany and outlandish antics in a lot of the movies that they’ve done, and a bit more kid-friendly, all the while still having their trademark humor that adults can pick up o as well) in 2014, and a single season of an Office-style mockumentary show that aimed to take a slightly more “adult” angle on them, versus being extremely kid-friendly (it wasn’t raunchy or inappropriate, but the show was much more “grounded” for the lack of a better word). After that show was canceled after a single season, they faded away for awhile, only to come with a short-lived series in the form of 2020′s Muppets Now and 2021′s Muppets Haunted Mansion. The latest in this second or third revival, depending on how you look at their history, is the new TV show that focuses solely on The Muppet Show’s house band, Dr. Teeth & The Electric Mayhem, entitled The Muppets Mayhem. Released on May 10th, 2023, this show is all about the titular band and how they finally set out to record their debut album after touring nonstop for the last 50 years. Starring Lily Singh and Taj Mowry as the main two human characters, although there are a handful more, they are respectfully the assistant to the owner of a dying record label that The Electric Mayhem were signed to and a superfan of the group that end up crossing paths and helping the band out. What’s really cool about the show is that not only is the show released, but they also put out an actual Electric Mayhem album. The digital version includes some extra songs, and some of the score from the show, but if you buy the vinyl edition of the record, it has a different cover (that’s their album cover from the show), and it only has songs they performed on the show, so it’s almost like we got an actual album from the band. I wanted to talk about both the show and the music within, especially the album, because music is a big part of this show, whether it’s about the band, how every episode is titled after a song, and how almost every episode ends with the band performing a topical cover that helps the plot move forward. Music is a big part of the show, and first and foremost, that’s what shines here. I love the debut album from the Electric Mayhem. Unironically, this is a fantastic record that really showcases how prolific this band supposedly is in the world of The Muppets. It’s funny that this show came out a couple of months after the Amazon Prime show Daisy Jones & The Six, which is also about another fake band from the same era, but despite only listening to their album and not watching the show, it doesn’t feel like they would have been the biggest band in the world at the time. The Electric Mayhem, on the other hand, they do. There aren’t a lot of originals here, but the ones that appear, such as “Rock On,” “We Are One,” “Gotta Be,” and a couple of others, are great. They don’t necessarily sound super unique, at least from 1970s rock bands, but that’s the Mayhem’s charm. They have a very old school sound that reminds me a lot of different bands and artists, versus just one or two. The covers that are here are really good, too, and if you watch the show, you’ll hear a brief clip of them, only on the soundtrack / album, you hear them in full, such as KISS’ “Rock and Roll All Nite,” Cyndi Lauper’s “True Colors,” or one of my personal favorites, Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” When I listen to this record, I don’t think of this as the performers of the characters making this album, this is The Electric Mayhem. This is Dr. Teeth, Zoot, Janice, Lips, Floyd, and Animal. This is the band, and this is what they would sound like if they released an album. I can’t stop listening to this record, but it just feels like it’s a new record from a real band, and because it sounds like it’s from the 1970s, I really enjoy it. Every performance on here is top notch and really sucks you into the music. As for the show, I’ll keep it somewhat brief, because I’ve always said a lot about the music on it, but it’s a very enjoyable Muppets show that focuses on some lesser known characters that really deserve more time. The characters are all fleshed out more, especially Dr. Teeth (the episode where him and Floyd meet is my favorite of the show), Floyd, Janice, and even Animal to an extent, the jokes are sharp, as well as a great mixture of being kid-friendly and having some subtle more adult references (such as the episode where the band basically goes on an acid trip in the middle of Joshua Tree after eating expired marshmallows). The celebrity cameos are great, too, and they never feel forced, because they’re both super random and they’re very brief, as typical Muppet projects keep them. I won’t spoil the cameos on the show, especially from musicians that cameo, because a lot of them are surprising and fun, but it was always nice seeing random cameos. With that said, though, the human characters of the show leave a bit to be desired, although I did enjoy them as a whole. A lot of the story beats are quite predictable, but it’s fun enough to where you don’t really mind, especially when it involves Muppets. For instance, there’s a love triangle between a few human characters that doesn’t do much for me, and there’s a whole section that takes up a couple of episodes where the band discovers social media and they break up right before an important concert, only to get back together in the nick of time, which is such a cliche (at least a band breaking up before something important and getting back together right before), but only the Muppets can make it work. I had a lot of fun with this show, as well as with the soundtrack, and the thing about it is that neither of them feels complementary. You don’t need to listen to the soundtrack or the band’s album to understand the show, but you also don’t need to watch the show to understand the album. If you’re a Muppets fan, and you’ve always wanted to hear an Electric Mayhem record, you got one. The show does add context, of course, and you can hear full versions of the songs from the show, but you don’t need to watch or listen to both to get a good experience. You’ll also get some great jokes and satire of the music industry with the show, especially early on when they start writing the album, because the band feels the need to stay up to date with current trends in music. I don’t know if that will date this show, but luckily, the music is pretty straightforward “classic rock” in that vein. If you enjoy the Muppets, I’d watch this show. It won’t blow your mind necessarily, and it’s not quite an essential watch, but the creators of the show said they wanted to start a Muppets “universe” similar to the MCU, where they can focus on certain characters, and this was a great little experiment that did just that. I’d love to see more of these types of shows, possibly on Gonzo, Fozzie, Miss Piggy. Scooter, or other characters, regardless of how big or small. There’s a lot of potential to do more here, and this was a great first time out. I love the Muppets, and watching this show has gotten me back into them again for the first time in years, so it’s been incredibly exciting.

[agentnico]

Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves (2023) Review

A month ago at the point of Quantumania’s release I was discussing superhero fatigue, especially with the MCU. However now it seems it may in fact be fatigue of cinema as a whole! 2023...what have you done.

Plot: A charming thief and a band of unlikely adventurers embark on an epic quest to retrieve a long lost relic, but their charming adventure goes dangerously awry when they run afoul of the wrong people.

Straight off the bat I’ll say that I am not really an avid diehard D&D fan. I have played a few games during university with one of my more nerdier mates back then. Yeah, you know the one. Everyone has that one geek king in their uni years who’s an expert in all things pop culture, comics, movies and D&D. So yeah, that cool dude! However outside of those few D&D sessions where I’d cameo as my dwarf character that I aptly named Gimli the Second, my knowledge of this trademark tabletop game begins and ends there. So of course I won’t get all the references and Easter eggs that are sure to please fans in this movie. That being said, as more of a casual viewer I must say...I didn’t really like this movie.

I know, I know, many of you liked this one. I’ve seen the positive critical reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and the excited audience response on IMDb. Yet I am not one of these lucky chums. Look, I’ve been getting really frustrated with the sheer mediocrity that Hollywood has been churning out recently. This year alone we had Adam Driver take on dinosaurs and somehow make it boring; M Night Shyamalan tackled the end of the world and there was no signature big twist; Nicolas Cage starred in his first ever western and surprisingly did not Cage-rage once; the new MCU big bad Kang ended up not being that intimidating...look, it’s been a crappy year for films so far. The fact that I’m considering Cocaine Bear at the top spot is heavily concerning. Now we have the new Dungeons & Dragons movie that I personally found to reinstate that fact of banality. 

The plot of the film is filled with predictable clichés all ripped from the likes of Lord of the Rings, Guardians of the Galaxy and The Princess Bride, only all those did it better. I found myself daydreaming multiple times throughout the movie and being flat out bored by a lot of what was going on. It was a weak narrative with very cringeworthy dialogue. Heck, even the comedy wasn’t really good. Hugh Grant does his usual over the top shtick, yet even though that worked superbly for him in Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen, in here it came off pompous and annoying. Chris Pine, as charming as he may be, is miscast as the lead bard, as the main character is supposed to be more of a know-it-all doofus, as such I feel someone like Jason Bateman would have fit the part more. In fact, this movie is directed and produced by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, whom both worked with Bateman previously on Game Night and Horrible Bosses, so I feel like they may have even had him in mind when they first wrote the script. Michelle Rodriguez is bland as ever, Sophia Lillis is forgettable, Rege-Jean Page was only cast for his looks and Daisy Head isn’t menacing enough as the villain. Justice Smith is the only one really who actually got some laughs out of the audience in my cinema, and also the only one to really have a proper character arc in the whole movie.

The visuals in all fairness were solid. The creature designs were realised really well, and the use of some practical effects is always a welcome. But overall this D&D adventure came off as a lazy fantasy rehash, and one that offered minimum thrill. Again, this may appeal more to hardcore fans of the original game, but overall the cure of 2023 movie mediocrity continues. Here’s hoping Chris Pratt voicing Mario isn’t as bad as it sounds...

Overall score: 4/10