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themagicsquad · 1 year ago

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I'M PROBABLY GONNA MAKE THIS BLOG A CENTER FOR ALL MY OCS SOON, JUST FYI. They're not fandom OCs, they're blorbos from my brain

Rae Rosenfeld: 30... something. A mother of 2. "I'll take in any stray!" is her motto, be it animal or child. She's a weeb, a gamer, and her day job is a sys admin or something, idk, she's a computer sciencer. She's in an open relationship with her husband, Sascha. Sascha's a fuckin cuck, so sometimes he's just there. Watching. She loves helping her friends, to the point of being Leslie Knope levels of absolutely steamrolling her friends trying to solve their problems for them. She's hella maternal, and if you hurt her kids, you'll pay. She had severe anxiety and mental health issues when she was younger, and is estranged from her parents. She's going to be talking to you like a regular ass tumblr/tiktok user, because she's a nerd that way.

Zxy Tepechkie: Don't tell the others, but he's my favorite. He's vegan, magic, and brilliant. Hailed as a prodigy as a child, he was expected to become king to make his family even more prestigious than they already are. He hates politics, so he refused. When his parents didn't want to let him refuse, he said, "ok, watch this," and jumped headfirst into hardcore drugs and partying and doing things that would make nobody in their right mind want him as king. Unfortunately, his 13-14 year old ideas of "I'm too smart to get addicted" didn't work. He's clean now, but that time of his life contains secrets, trauma, and angst. And tooooons of guilt for the things he did. Also, magic folks age 1 year for every 10 regular, nonmagic years. So he's physically 19, but actually like 192.

Bane [last name redacted]: Idk his last name. He's the current king, at 18 physically, but 180+. His parents died when he was very young, so he was raised being groomed into the role of king, since the former king (dude had no kids and had to pick an heir haha) realized Zxy was PROBABLY not gonna cut it. Being raised to treat his work as his sole raison d'etre, but with a bunch of servants that would just say yes to anything, he became kinda spoiled. That spoiled became twisted when several assassination attempts when he was like 10 traumatized him enough to make him lose it. He got better, but not before torturing Zxy for months. They're on good terms now. This boy will prooooobably be speaking in a haughty, formal manner (if he's not being a huge slut and talking like he's horny on main) because he puts on a little front all the time, being a king and all.

Aubrey Rosenfeld: Rae and Sascha's son. He's 17, but real 17, despite being magic. Something funky happened to make him magic, despite his parents not being. That said, he's into being an almost cheesy level of rebellious. He'll graffiti a dick onto a cop car and then parkour away so he doesn't get caught. This boy fucking LOVES parkour and freerunning. He also loves chaos in general. Hates authority, loves being a menace to society. He's an absolute little shit gremlin boy, but a good kid. Everyone thinks he takes after Rae, but he actually takes more after his father. Was experimented on for a time for his magic when the government went apeshit bonkers and wanted to eradicate magic folks.

Willow: Fuck if I know what her last name is. She's a mercenary hired to kill Bane and Zxy but didn't, because she's not stupid. She did get to know them, however, so now she's around a lot, and good friends with Rae. She tries hard to act tough and push down any emotion, and she has severe attachment issues due to her upbringing and a past abusive relationship, but at her core, she's mischievous and loves pranks and joking around. She also looooooooooves animals. Take this girl to the damn ZOO. She's awful at cooking. Do not let her in a kitchen, unless that kitchen belongs to your enemy and you want their house burnt down.

Lili Rosenfeld: Rae and Sascha's daughter. 15, and also normal 15. She's shy, but not as severely as her mother was. She dreams of becoming a marine biologist, and loves all the little sea critters. Her favorite color is yellow. She has healing abilities, which is a big deal in my canon because literally no other magic person can do that. They're kind of wonky and hard for her to control, however. If you manage to make her upset enough, she'll wind up cussing you out like some seasoned biker gang member, which can be kinda... jarring. Tbch? I need to work on her, right now she's "boring little girl character #1." I'm nothing if not honest.

Sascha Rosenfeld: Oh ho hoooo, this guy. This guy right here. Love him, but he's a tool. Or, used to be. He'd sleep with any girl who would have him in college, and when he met Rae, he kind of fell in love without realizing. He wouldn't stop pestering her and flirting with her, which wasn't taken very well by her back then. He did have a dependable side, which is what attracted her to him at all in the first place. They got together, broke up because he's a jerk and cheated on her out of fear of commitment, then got back together after he groveled enough to satisfy her. They got married, and now he's a doting husband and, surprisingly, a good father. He was a detective, but ACAB, and since the government was actively trying to kill his kids and people like them, he stopped with all that. This man is a cuck. He's so into his wife, it's embarrassing.

RULES:

-The first rule of fight club is have fun and be yourself

-Don't godmod unless you ask, I will probably let you do it for the bit, if it's funny

-I don't really... do smut. I'm just not comfy with it. Go nuts if you do, though, I don't block or unfollow for it being on my dash

-Feel free to reply to anything I post, send asks, tag me and specify a character... whatever

-idk, more to come, it's kinda basic RP rules ig

MORE IN DEPTH INFO:

For reference, my little "world" takes place in just... the regular world? Earth? Idk, my characters are American, I'm so sorry lmao. I just always imagine them hanging out in specific parts of the States bc I'm there, but travel is easy because these magic fuckers can TELEPORT.

Magic folks are highly secretive and don't just let humans know that magic is real all willy-nilly. They're actually not supposed to at all, but, well, you form a close enough bond and you're going to find out. Accidentally or otherwise.

The main timeline story, in a nutshell, is that the former king (his name was Isaiah. Not important, it literally never comes up) had no wife or heirs of his own, so he chose between two kids he thought had potential and had ties to royalty, even if it was distant. Zxy was the brilliant shoe-in, the one whose family was focused on their position and how to advance it. Zxy's parents, Amy and Gregory, serve as envoys to the king, so when their younger son had the chance to snag that crown, they wanted it. BAD. They didn't care about their elementary school-aged son's protests that he hated politics and didn't want he job. Some things happened that took Zxy down a very dark path, which I don't wanna go too far into here because I'd rather it come up organically, but it took him out of the running.

So then child #2, Bane, gets the crown. Bane, whose parents died when he was 6 (60+, since magic people age 1 year for every 10. Physically, anyway. Mentally is kind of a mixed bag. They're definitely more mature than their human counterparts, but a teenage magic person is still going to act like a teenager.) was taken in by Isaiah immediately and groomed for the role. Normal schooling was out, this orphan child was raised learning etiquette, diplomatic skills, languages, budgeting, everything a good king would need. The servants treated him like they would a prince and basically let him get away with quite a bit. He was a precocious kid, but he grew spoiled. Repeated assassination attempts at a young age took their toll on him, mentally, until he kind of wound up paranoid and having a mental breakdown, which led to suspicion of Zxy, which led to torturing Zxy for over 3 straight months. He got better. The two are on decent terms now.

I still don't have the best handle on my magic system. It's kinda like Dragonball Z energy, but also kinda you have to have the ability and creativity to give it form, and... yeah. It's wonky. Sometimes I make my characters hold the idiot ball to avoid godmodding. It's worked well with the bestie so that sometimes nonmagic people can cause shenanigans. I take turns deciding which character I want to absolutely break and drive to desperate tears as they get the tar kicked out of them, so sometimes it's just easier to go, "Oops, someone sealed their magic." And then sometimes the would-be attacker doesn't seal them and gets murked. It's whatever works best for the plot at the time, if I'm honest.

Sometimes I reference an AU timeline, which is where pretty much all of Aubrey's characterization comes in. Rae and Sascha died (Rae was a total hellion trying to revolt against the government for being anti-magic, and it got her shot repeatedly in her kitchen for it) and then Aubrey was left at 15 to take care of his 13 year old little sister. Lili also died, and Aubrey was left all alone, avoiding authorities... when he wasn't provoking them. Two years pass from his sister's death, putting him at 17.

In the AU world, climate change has totally wrecked the world, leaving it barren and uninhabitable outside of terraformed domes for any extended period of time. It takes awhile for him to meet back up with Zxy, who, at that point, is also working to take down the anti-magic government to save everyone from extermination. The Zxy I use isn't AU Zxy, it's just plain flavored, no added spice.

Obviously, this means Rae and the rest of the family came back to life. I don't really have an explanation for that, because it was something that happened in RP with the bestie, so I've just rolled with it, because Rae is fun to write, and Sascha and Lili could stand to be fleshed out more.

The AU thing doesn't come up a lot, unless I'm feeling like being mean to Aubrey and making him sad about things that happened to him in his past.

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ask-de-writer · 2 years ago

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IMMORTALITY? A Grumpy Goat *tail* (Part 3 of 3) : MLP Fan Fiction

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IMMORTALITY?

A Grumpy Goat *tail* (Part 3 of 3)

De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)

7865 words

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Users of Tumblr.com are specifically granted the following rights. They may reblog the story. They may use the characters or original characters in my settings for fan fiction, fan art works, cosplay, or fan musical compositions. I will allow those who do commission art works to charge for their images.

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Attempting to ring the church's bell had caused a swarm of hornets nested in the steeple to dive into the congregation. The resulting panic left several unconscious ponies near trampled in the church. They alone had no stings!

Sawnax got a big spread of pictures by himself. Fleeing with the rest of the congregation, he got stung twenty or more times on forelegs and neck. The mobility cart ramp was too steep and he lost control, careening through a hedge laced with poison oak and poison ivy, he hit a family on their way to a picnic in the park and overset, banging up his good hind leg in the process.

The family was not hurt, beyond a few bruises, but their picnic basket and contents were ruined. Among the pictures were some of the fallen Sawnax rummaging the wrecked basket and scarfing sandwiches.

The entire collection of Celestian priests got out without a sting. They fled through a back door, overgrown with the new ivy. Poison ivy, that is. They might as well have painted themselves with the itch causing, blister raising, oils.

To cap the disaster, some ponies working in the church kitchen fled and left a stove burning. The resulting fire was a Special Procedures 23 - Toxic smoke requiring evacuation and decontamination of the downwind area.

As Romaine observed, in print, it was not as bad as the Ponyville Elementary School disaster of years ago, which Sawnax was also involved in. *(for details read Caramel Treat's Lunch!)*

We kept finding more and more to giggle over as we read Romaine's excellent prose. She got almost the entire Special Edition because she “just happened to be on the scene as the disaster unfolded.” With her camera!

As a side note, the fire spread through all of the ornamental shrubbery and the up the walls of all the Celestian buildings. All of the poison oak and poison ivy infestation was burned out, along with destroying all of the structures involved.

Clarence and I gave a High Hoof to each other! Frankly, it went even better than we had hoped. Not one pony killed or even seriously injured but LOTS OF PAIN in lots of butts, and elsewhere, of course.

We both gave Coalsmoke a hug of congratulations. Her enthusiastic return hugs made the whole enterprise worthwhile.

The next day, we were sitting out in the sun, looking over the Ponyville Books and More listings to pick out our next Daring Do book.

We could hear them even before we saw them. It was a regular parade coming up the trail. Coalsmoke grinned as she caught sight of them. She offered, “Grumpy, you should get that trail paved! I would bet that Clarence could give you a special deal on good intentions to do it with!”

To make things perfectly weird, the leader of the parade was not using the trail. Derpy was flying, low and slow, so that the others could follow. She landed on the ledge without hesitation and carefully opened her mail pouch. Ceremoniously she handed me a letter. The envelope had a well known seal. Almost every pony or horse in Equestria has seen it. Darn few have seen or handled an ORIGINAL ROYAL SEAL of the Twin Thrones of Equestria.

I did not have time to open it just then.

The clowns arrived to put on their show!

Celestian High Priest Hortimer was almost unrecognizable under the mass of bandages and itch relief creme. The remainder of the priesthood were too. It was obvious that the treatment was not helping all that much. Which suited me right down to the ground.

There was Sawnax in his mobility cart, being pushed by two husky ponies. He had a cast on one hind leg and thick bandages on the other. His rump was swollen and covered with plasters where boils had been drained. Both forelegs and his neck were covered with the lumps of hornet stings. Covering almost all of stings and swellings were the rashes and running sores of the poison oak and poison ivy.

There was another group in formal mourning attire. They were accompanied by Mortimer “Mortician” Mollycoddle, D.E.L. (Doctor of Equestrian Law), who was looking sour.

The one who seemed out of place was wearing the uniform of the Ponyville Fire Department.

The act was led off by Hortimer demanding, “You must heal us of this vile result of your Necromancy! Your evil burned down our church!”

“Hortimer, ol pony! Necromancy is against the Law! Magic, in general, is not. Be clear. How could I cast any spell against you? A Pure and Honest Heart is absolute protection from all the influences of the Evil One. As if evil has some one simple spring outside of themselves and ponies are innocent of harboring rot in their minds.

“You are a personal and perfect refutation of your own claim.”

Hortimer gesticulated at his fellow priests. “We are grievously afflicted by your evil magics and Necromancies!”

My fleshless skull, which should have been expressionless managed to convey complete confusion. “What evil magic, Horty, ol pony? You knew that your church was infested with poison oak and poison ivy. Every reader of the Prancer knows it too. The news went public on Nightmare Night.

“You and your fellow con artists ran through a known hazard and got a case of poison oak. That is your definition of evil magic and necromancy? You do a stupid thing and therefore it is some EVIL GOAT'S fault? Wow.”

As I was shaking my head, I noticed that we had company. Just down the hill, Romaine was snapping away with her camera and taking notes. Clarence managed to utterly fail at looking innocent.

The stallion in the PFD uniform spoke up, handing me a document as he did so, “Grumpy Goat, Sir, the Battalion Chief wanted you to have this to defend yourself from baseless charges like the ones just made. This is the formal investigation report on the fire and surrounding events.

“The entire thing, including their rashes, was caused by their negligence. The details, including all of the ordinances relating to publicly accessible buildings that were violated is here.”

Hortimer looked horrified. “How could you say that this disaster is our fault? We were victims! Just look at us!”

Coalsmoke said acidly, “Look at you? Why? You have always been so ugly that the bandages are an improvement! And you are still ugly!”

That brought a reaction from one of the group in mourning clothes. “You and that damned goat murdered my dad!” He was pointing dramatically. He waved a copy of Coalsmoke's contract with me and yelled, “Here is the proof! Dad found this and made a secret copy!”

Coalsmoke looked utterly pained as she replied, “How is that proof of anything? Secret copy? Just go to the Ponyville Hall of Records in the City Hall. There is a publicly registered copy there for anyone to look up. Grumpy's Contracts are ALL publicly registered.”

I was even more surprised when Mort spoke up. “I do represent the heirs of Clyde S. Dale, but this part of the case is baseless and I have so advised them. You are correct. They are due a substantial sum from his will.”

Coalsmoke nodded emphatically. “They are. They are getting over half of it. The insurances were formally changed to my name and they knew it. I have copies of the acknowledgements.”

Mort nodded. ”I am aware of the issues. I have advised them not to sue on the insurances. Their waivers are clear.”

One of the ones in phony mourning demanded, “Whose side are you on? We hired you!”

Mort, imperturbably replied, “Yours. Coalsmoke is an expert at these things. I have examined your case and hers. She is taking care of you through the will. She has made no effort to cut you out.

“This will come as no surprise to you, but Mister Dale was terminally ill, with a failing heart. His sudden death was probably a mercy.”

“So, dad was dying, we all knew that! We takes all that insurance money that she is stealing from us! She done nothing for it!”

Mort told him bluntly, “I have told you that I am on your side. This advice is as direct as it can be. If you try to sue her, you will waste what you are going to get from the will and wind up owing her a large indemnity. That is a simple fact.”

I was taken aback. Mort the Mortician was an HONEST LAWYER? The world was capsizing!

That was when Sawnax spoke up in a pitiable tone, “That there stuff is all well and good, but what about me? I gots the same rashes and all that Hortimer and the other priests got and was stung besides! I got TWO bad hind legs now, too!

“I thunk you said that I could do whatever I done before. I done break my leg trying. Then they was the boils. I gets that took care of but they still hurts until they heals!

“I is in a lot of pain!”

I knelt in front of the mobility cart to face him eye to eye socket. “You dictated most of what is in the contract, Sawnax. You wanted to live a very long life. You wanted your mind to stay sharp. You wanted to be able to do and enjoy what you could at the time that we signed.”

I sighed. “You are getting all of that. Immortal is NOT invulnerable. It has one advantage in this case. When you heal, you will be just like when you started. It will just take time. Sadly, one of the things that you enjoyed was and is swiping lunches and otherwise cheating. Banged up, dazed and dumped out of that cart, you found sandwiches that were not yours. Scarfed them up, too.

“All inside the contract.”

He turned misery laden eyes to me and asked, “What can I do abouts this? It ain't none of it workin' out like I thought.

“It hurts.”

Said it before. I am honest. Evil but honest. He did actually ask for advice. “You only have three things that you can do here, Sawnax.

“First, you can simply let the contract run. If you do, you will have the least trouble if you do your level best to be a good pony, living a good and honest life. You will have good times and bad. That's life. A long one.

“Second, you can simply repudiate the contract and take the lifespan that you are given, free to do or be whatever you want. You will probably live longer if you follow the advice of your doctors. You lose your money paid but that is all.

“Third, you can commit suicide. You still lose your money but you are out of the whole suffering thing.

“Experience talking here, immortality is not all fun and games.”

He nodded and said softly, “I needs to think.”

I simply backed away. As I did, I saw the pony in the PFD uniform talking to Hortimer. He had a paper. When I heard, “But surely, as a church, we are exempt!”

The PFD pony politely replied, “I am afraid not, Sir. You maintained a nuisance and failed to either report it or let the city know what efforts you were taking to eradicate the nuisance.

“Under both ordinance and Kingdom law that makes you responsible for all costs connected to it. We have decontamination efforts under way at seven residences and five businesses that were downwind and contaminated by the smoke from the burning poisonous plants.”

Hortimer pointed dramatically at me and exclaimed, “He must pay it! He cursed us with those diabolical plants! It is his fault!”

“Me? You mean that if cash is on the line, I am mightier than the Goddess that you worship?”

“Do not blaspheme! Of course Celestia's Power is greater than your mere diabolic dabbling!”

I laughed as he was trapped by his own reflexive arguments. “So, it is your responsibility after all! Celestia must be gravely disappointed in you for trying to shift the blame!”

His horrified expression was almost reward enough. Almost. I had to add it. “You did not need me to clear up the poison oak and poison ivy after all! Celestia's Holy Fire has removed it all!”

That did it. Delightful.

Sawnax said, “That was sharp, Mister Grumpy. I probably gots no right to ask it but if I repudiates the contract, would you do me one favor? You is getting to keep a lot of gold.”

“What favor is that, Sawnax?”

“Can you, like, speed up my healing some? This is a real misery.”

“I can do that, Sawnax, but I will lay a heavy one on you for it. You must stay honest and not cheat anypony, horse or goat until you are healed.”

Clarence had his wings up and his teeth were chattering as he giggled.

Derpy tugged at my foreleg. “Mister Grumpy, about the letter, will there be a reply? It is post paid by their Highnesses.”

With Clarence, the Litch King and Coalsmoke looking over my shoulder I opened the letter.

“To Grumpy Goat: Hail and well met!

We, your Princesses, have heard rumor of you practicing unlawful Necromancy. We have looked deeply into the matter and have found no evidence of such criminal activity. The casting of Glamors and other such magics is perfectly legal.

Further, we have found that you have honestly registered all of your contracts, which appear to be in the form of bets that certain events will happen within set time frames. You hold the stakes and, if you win, keep the coin.

It is a remarkable coincidence that ALL of your contracted events have happened as spelled out. Always through some routine or other natural means.

With your consent, we should like to visit your cave to discuss a few such “bets.”

Yours, Celestia Yours, Luna.

As Derpy flew away with my reply, Clarence and Coalsmoke both suffered major giggles.

~THE END~

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#IMMORTALITY?#Part 3 of 3 #MLP Fan Fiction #The Annals of Grumpy Goat #Written by De Writer

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batarangsoundsdumb · 4 years ago

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guess fucking what? my inbox is so fucking full right now i'm unloading all of this shit in one post.

For the 11th gotham memes: gothamites react to bruce being jacked in a tiktok he made with kids, like super yoked, ripped as hell

fucking hilarious thanks. i think i did it in one meme post, but i genuinely don't remember which one

i dunno which of the batfam would do this but one time i was sleeping over at a friends house and ended up on the floor bc the bed was so very small and i just stayed there because the rug was soft

that's a drunk jason move i don't know what to tell you

tim and jason are "i listen to pop punk" solidarity. whenever jason highjacks the batmobile theyll go on long ass car rides blaring mcr and paramore and then never talk about it again

as they should!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! tim: no jason it's my turn using the aux cord i gotta put on my jams jason: don't you dare put on weird shit tim: don't worry, you're gonna love this *plays fearless (taylor's version)

hear me out hear me out, red hood stans 🤝 nightwing stans t h i g h s

holy shit yes.

SNL au: Bruce breaks character when pretending to superman and says something like "I'm not superman! You've seen his gps!! It's from 2001!!!" @sabeanybabe

superman flies past the snl building the next day just to say 'actually it's from 2005, i'm not a heathen'

does your back hurt from carrying the batfam fandom

it hurts more from the exotic rock collection i keep in my backpack, but thanks for the concern.

I love your posts by why would you always leave the best parts in the tags?

as a treat for the people that check the tags ;) (and also because i'm committed to the short post aesthetic)

somehow your playlist was everything i never knew i needed. i mean it. this is my new favorite playlist.

and don't you dare get a new favourite playlist!

babe ur stoner tim playlist is exactly too perfect, earth is literally blessed by ur existence

babe thanks so much! i love my stoner tim playlist because it's just my usual playlist but people think it's an artistic choice that i put taylor swift and britney spears in there, when it's just what i unironically like listening to

JANDKSKDK BILLY RAY CYRUS ON THE STONER TIM PLAYLIST I LOVE IT IT

again it's not even an ironic choice, i know every single word and i genuinely like the song

The last chapter of Fundamentals of Casework has me crying at work. Thanks I love it @dudelookitsalesbian

oh babe, i'm sorry, but also, not sorry i love chapter 4 so much it's my lovechild with the 'mental illness' tag

soooo....stumbled on your tumblr by some stroke of fate??? read your DC fanfic first. which is PHENOMENAL btw. then found all the batmemes; the funniest thing EVER bc everyone forgets about regular old gothamites. kept scrolling and your blog pops up as recommended. clicked on the ao3 for shits and giggles and waddaya know?!?!? it's YOU!!! you're LEGEND!!!! ever seen that meme? it's a video of a cat that got into a baseball field and the two announcers get really invested in his escape attempt and start giving a play by play of the cat instead of the game. memeable moment: "GREAT stuff from the Cat!!!"

i seriously think about this ask every single day and it's so fucking funny to me that i've never seen the meme you're referencing, but i still find myself going 'GREAT stuff from the Cat!!!' whenever i see something funny. but wow i'm glad you liked this steaming pile of garbage

Fav dc character overall? And fav batfamily character?

don't ask me to pick between the loves of my life, but i can tell you i've cried about every single batfamily member and also wally west (my beloved)

What's your opinion on fans having a problem with batfam being "too big"? And some even claim that batfam is just "Bruce Alfred Dick Damian" and the rest of them are just "friends and allies" (source: reddit) Personally, I like batfam because of this reason but idk

stupid. a family can never be too big. i'm not that big a fan of like huge batfam stuff with everybody from every single universe, because as much as it's funny for bruce to have like 30 kids, it just feels a little too OOC for me.

This is the best tag I've seen involving the batfam, thanks for thinking of it

This is canon now @nctxrejects

lmao yeah i think at that point alfred has had to sit through like at least a dozen coming out talks and just has a pride flag collection in the attic that he pulls out whenever a kid comes out

idk why batfam hits different as compared to any other superhero family

bc it's found family and usually the other superhero families are almost all genetically related in one way or another

I don't know if you watch the umbrella academy but I saw your last post about batcest and saw the similarities. But the thing is (although I think it's weird) in TUA, they addressed it by saying "they were raised as weapons, not siblings" or something along those lines, which is simply not the case with batfam.

yeah i watched tua but i also thought it was ridiculous and they still treated each other as siblings so i didn't like the luthor/allison thing, and am glad they stopped doing that shit bc it fucking sucked.

Hot take: Batcest shippers are the same people who believe adopted siblings are not actual siblings

smoking hot take: batcest shippers are the people who watch 'my sister got stuck in the washing machine' porn

Duke was adopted by Bruce?

not technically no, but do i, tumblr user batarangsoundsdumb, look like i care?

True story but I had to change my freaking name because it used to be "Damien" and most people would go "OH LIKE DAMIAN WAYNE" like please I'm just tryna live

true story, but i don't actually think of damian when i hear the name damian, literally the first thing that pops up is damian darkh like bruh what?

apparently dc comics company supported comic stores by giving out new titles and stuff during the beginning of the pandemic to help them run and I just think that's wholesome

ah yeah that's so fucking cool, still don't like dc, the company, because this world is a capitalist hellhole and we're all owned by warner brothers or disney with no in between.

ayo looking at tumblr head canons and finding out bruce is actually a terrible father is a punch in the gut

lmao yes, in like 50% of comics bruce is a terrible father and it gives me whiplash

oooh I just saw the jason todd vs winter soldier post and the real question is: batman vs iron man

while iron man has like hundreds of cases of armor, batman could throw out an emp and have the guy dropping out of the sky in 2 seconds.

dickfast = fastdick = quickdick = quickie

magnum hot take

hey bata(?) just thought I'd let you know I have copied the obnoxious emoji and Billy Ray post for use on simping men going forth

thank you 😘🌷 (@spacebarsidecar)

why would you do that to your followers???? i get why i did it, but why would you???

what is scarecrow made the nightwing funko pop himself, like those diy-ers that paint over other ones

oh god no, horrible take, horrible take, that's a disgusting thought oh no

I see your HC that Bruce and Oliver fucked and raise you this: Dick and Roy ALSO fucked

yes they did and it was a horrible moment for jason to find out dick has fucked both of his best friends

"at this rate bruce adds like 1 child to his family every decade or so" Duke is introduced in 2013, Damian as Damian, not as an unnamed child, in 2006. And he is already 14 years old, Robins rarely remain Robins after 16 😬 It looks like a new Robin and Batkid will appear in a couple of years

i mean i can't wait? but somebody will probably die first tho, we're due for another major character death. my money's on either cass or duke this time.

BRO you're so right all of your Bruce's ex headcanons are amazing but they aren't ships, that's kinda wild. Like I don't want any peeks into how their relationship was I just want to see everyone make fun of them

lmao YES it's just i love bruce being a slut, like good for him.

I am in love with your posts your honour thank you

omg thanks are we like,, gonna kiss now?

The justice league needs to have a meeting to discuss how many of their members/partners have slept with bruce. Because through a combination of cannon & fannon (if DC wasn’t homophobic) we have AT LEAST: 1) clark 2) lois 3) oliver 4) dinah 5) john

Thats not counting villains or random civilians @dudelookitsalesbian

yes yes yes, they'll have a yearly meeting about how many of their collective exes could be out for revenge and batman's list just keeps getting longer.

tim was like "i'm drake now" and everyone was like ahh so your fursona is a dragon and tim was like pffffft no. ducks.

and what about it?

when steph's fighting livewire and she zaps her with lighting and nothing happens and then they both just. stand there awkwardly for a second and talk. yeah i couldn't stop laughing at that batgirl steph is the BEST

oh yeah that was fucking hilarious and i think it would be so cool and sexy of dc to give steph a little comic series,,, as a treat

Hi I absolutely adore all of yours "Bruce and Oliver very badly pretending they didn't fuck each other" memes

lmao i do too

I need you to know that “Bruce Wayne had frosted tips” is one of my favorite Bruce takes of all time it’s so galaxy brained. you’re right and you should say it

he also painted his hair blonde once when he was travelling and in conclusion, this is why he's being blackmailed by the gotham gazette.

you know my thing about gordon being branded as the only good cop in gotham is its a load of shit like arguably he's a good person and not working to screw people over or anything but the fact that he also works w. batman makes him a shit cop. like yea batman is better than the mob but its still illegal its still an abuse of power he just not making bank

babe, all cops are bad cops. (but yeah youre absolutely right, working with vigilantes makes you a shit cop, but also working against vigilantes just makes you an asshole cop yanno?)

ruh roh i think i’m about to add “so not yeehaw” every time i don’t like something

that's a very good vocabulary upgrade

somehow i feel like steph already knew. like babs obviously knew but i feel like bruce got high/drunk in front of steph and started telling his boarding school stories and steph was just like “oh you fucked up i’m never gonna forget this”

steph and bruce have weird uncle/rebellious niece dynamic and they just hang out sometimes and bruce will be like 'i once broke my arm when i tripped over a hedge when i was drunk so oliver drove me to the hospital on an electric scooter' and steph will just have to sit there with that knowledge in her head.

Hello I just wanted to tell you you are So right in all your steph opinions bc she is, in fact amazing and I think that's very sexy of you. Ps. Your Bruce/Oliver fic is hilarious

babe, thank you so much and yes steph is amazing and i love her and she deserves the world and she's the best member of the batfam hands down. also thanks

In Supersons we see a couple of kids that are implied to be Damian and Jon's children and the boy has laser eyes and can fly, so I asume he's not adopted. The girl, who calls Bruce grandpa, can also fly, btw. So it's canon (probably by accident) that Jon can have kids and he must have married one of Bruce's kids. (I'm hoping for Damian, mostly because any other of his children would be waaaaaaaaaaaaay too old.) @artemisa97

lmao that was probably an accident seeing as jon is a 17 year old superhero in the year 3000 (by the jonas brothers)

You know, I'm a die hard fan of your memes, but I gotta say one thing: if Gothamites actually took gas mask everywhere with them, then the Scarecrow would just be a weird dude in a weird costume, and not a villain oh so scary. DC really should just takes notes from you.

bold of you to assume there's no gothamite anti-maskers

How does it feel being the funniest person on this app?

horrible, next question.

I can't listen to Green Day or Billy Joel without thinking of your post about how Bruce got arrested at a Billy Joel concert @nightwings-kid

yeah that's your mistake, i on the other hand can't enjoy billy joel without thinking about the glee rendition of 'uptown girl'

I've FINALLY been watching the Batman animated series and I gotta say, after watching "the gray ghost" I am CONVINCED that Batman is a closeted super hero geek who was 100% freaking out the first time he met Superman and is just REALLY good at hiding it.

superman: so what do you do in your free time? batman, thinking about the superman fanfiction he's writing on the batcomputer: i have no free time

bruce and oliver be like boyfriends to co-workers 401k (do the justice leagues get 401ks??? not that bruce and ollie would need them, but-)

lmao yes just 400 thousand words of bruce realising 'oh dip oliver is such a fucking dumbass' (also i don't know what a 401 k is but i assume they don't?)

Gothamites would totally boo superman as he saves Gotham while batman is out. @meenje

he's like 'okay think about that next time you want to be saved from an alien octopus'

I just took long break from dc comics and I come back to see ric grayson ??

i think it's very cool and sexy of dc to see dick and just think 'you know what? let's just give him a traumatic brain injury' and then didn't develop his character in any real way

SPEAKING OF RIC GRAYSON, gothamites making confused memes out of ric grayson is much needed

'dick grayson is my taxi driver? can anyone explain what the fuck happened he looks like an italian plumber?'

i hate to say it but batfam are def "marvel characters" in that sense they are characters who are human but become superheroes unlike most dc characters who are gods trying to be human maybe this is why I like batfam

fair enough

#this is only like half of it #but at least you can get like a few answers #yanno fuck it #bataranswers #ask #asks #anon

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mistressemmedi · 3 years ago

Note

what does that meme mean "again"? Is this a regular occurance for Misha? Does the man really pull up his Twitter and post ao3 links on the reg? (-Person who just started watching spn and doesn't follow any of the actors and never have)

The man is completely unhinged(affectionate)

Of the top of my head:

Three (?) days after the first episode of SPN where his character was introduced, Misha went online to see what the fans feedback was. Instead he found a LiveJournal which had just posted a blowjob dean/cas fic. He read it AND ADMITTED TO IT AT A CON

Also at a con, he called out THE AUTHOR OF SAID FIC. Her LiveJournal user was her name, so at a con she goes "Hi, I'm [insert name]", he interrupts her and goes "[insert name]? From LJ? Did you write the blowjob fic?" THERE'S A VIDEO OF THE WHOLE ASS EXCHANGE, 10/10 UNHINGED BEHAVIOUR. He then felt bad for exposing her and treated her + friends to a milkshake after the con.

In one of his tweets, he referenced one of the most infamous destiel fics, Twist and Shout. 10/10 do NOT read it has major character death and will break you

Not fic related, but he tweeted out (accidentally) a link to a tumblr post which was a massive cockles manifesto. Instead of deleting said tweet, he left it up and doubled down on it. Deranged little man, honestly.

Yesterday's tweet. Nothing else to add.

He's... Something.

#anon #q&a #misha collins #supernatural #Mish pspspspsssss #Drop the fic rec list

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dingoes8myrp · 4 years ago

Text

An Examination of Joss Whedon

On February 11th, Charisma Carpenter made a post on her Instagram account detailing mistreatment she experienced on the sets of Angel and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Carpenter worked on both shows from 1996 to 2004 and attributes this mistreatment to show creator Joss Whedon.

On the same day, I made a post on my Tumblr and my WordPress accounts regarding my stance on this topic. I felt it was important for me to post something quickly due to the large number of Buffyverse followers and mutuals on my Tumblr.

I was overwhelmed by the likes, reblogs, and comments this post received in less than twenty-four hours. I’m so glad so many people support Charisma Carpenter and others who are speaking out about their experiences.

Workplace mistreatment is insidious, and too often the systems in place to mediate these situations are designed to protect the employer rather than the person experiencing mistreatment. This happens everywhere in every industry. When people in the public eye draw attention to these issues it helps bring awareness to everyone and encourages societal change.

In today’s climate, social media moves faster than legal or internal HR systems. This means, more often than not, accusations spread, opinions form, and action is taken long before any investigation can occur. Because of this, it’s important for people to seek out the facts themselves in order to stay informed or make decisions about who in fandom they choose to support or not.

I’m going to go through various tid-bits I’ve seen over the past twenty-five years regarding Joss Whedon’s behavior, which prompted my quick response to Charisma Carpenter’s post. I feel it’s important to share this with those who may be new to the fandom, or those who doubt Charisma Carpenter’s claims and those of others.

The Bronze

Before there was Twitter, there was The Bronze.

The Bronze was the official online gathering place of Buffyverse fans. Joss Whedon and others involved with the shows occasionally popped in and posted, interacting with the fans. There was speculation about the trajectory of the show, discussion about lore, fan theories, and behind the scenes rumors.

I didn’t learn about these forums until I was in high school (from 2002 to 2006) and I never posted. I just read up on the fun factoids I could find. I wasn’t a heavy Internet user back then. We had one computer in my house and it was shared with my parents. I was only allowed on for so much time per day, yada yada.

I think Buffy the Vampire Slayer was one of the first shows – if not the first – to utilize this kind of creator/fan interaction. It wasn’t a regular thing back then.

The vibe of these forums was very laidback. When someone directly involved with Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Angel posted (known as a V.I.P.) it was with a very casual, unmoderated tone. There was no screenshotting every word to be saved for later. Someone from the media couldn’t grab a comment made and spread it across the Internet in real time. There were mailing lists – collections of email addresses for people who wanted updates on show spoilers or particular non-show activities of various actors. Fan letters were still a thing – actual snail mail letters you could send to actors and writers of the shows. Things moved slowly, and there wasn’t as much transparency as there is on the Internet today with sites like Instagram and Twitter.

In a series of posts made on November 6th, 2001, Joss Whedon reacted to the airing of the musical episode, “Once More with Feeling.” He called it “the biggest undertaking of my life,” but expressed his appreciation toward the UPN network, the cast, and crew – particularly Anthony Head, Amber Benson, and James Marsters. He calls Anthony Head “the golden throat” and writes of James Marsters, “And James, who always tells me to do everything I dream of, then brings that intense voice and those cheekbones along for the ride.”

All he writes about Amber Benson is, “Amber… just, you know… Amber….”

Alarmingly absent from his praise is star Sarah Michelle Gellar, who “went back and forth” over whether or not to sing in the episode. “I’m not a singer,” she told EW. She didn’t feel prepared enough and “didn’t feel confident.” As someone who broke out of her comfort zone and pulled off a wonderful leading performance, Gellar was certainly deserving of some acknowledgment.

Seemingly realizing he neglected to mention Marti Noxon, Whedon tacked on, “Do you know anyone that hot who can run a show? Do you? I don’t think so. What a voice.” At the time, alongside comments about James Marsters’ cheekbones and being “a little gay” for Anthony Head, this seemed to be an attempt at an edgy complement (though a little cringey). Marti Noxon was a new showrunner for Buffy, taking over for Joss. Referring to her as hot rather than praising her work is a little demeaning, in my opinion, particularly when it was up to him to make sure she was respected and taken seriously in filling his shoes.

On May 22nd, 2002, Whedon posted about “the gay thing” – probably not for the first time. Regarding some fan reactions to the death of Tara Maclay, Joss wrote, “I knew some people would be angry with me for destroying the only gay couple on the show, but the idea that I COULDN’T kill Tara because she was gay is as offensive to me as the idea that I DID kill her because she was gay. Willow’s story was not about being gay. It was about weakness, addiction, loss… the way life hits you in the gut right when you think you’re back on your feet.”

Keep in mind, at the time, Willow was one of the first gay main characters – if not THE first – on a major primetime show in the sci-fi/fantasy genre. Having a gay couple on a major show like this was not a regular thing, which made the shocking death of Tara and the dark turn of Willow particularly hard-hitting. While Whedon isn’t saying anything particularly inflammatory here, it does show a sort of crass attitude toward the removal of this representation from the show, which had become so important to so many fans – and still is now.

There’s not a lot of meaty information to be found that I could dig up, but I wanted to give people an idea of this landscape back in the day. I picked out those particular Joss Whedon posts because they show a very casual disregard for the women involved in the shows – an insidious and subtle thing, but it’s there.

Fighting with Buffy

Jeff Pruitt was a stunt coordinator on Buffy the Vampire Slayer from 1997 to 2000. He also happened to be romantically involved with Sarah Michelle Gellar’s stunt double, Sophia Crawford. Both would exit the show by its fifth season. According to Pruitt, it was not an amicable exit.

Pruitt claims he and Crawford were treated badly on the set, that Crawford was “one never ending injury” and she had “reached the end of her rope.” He said that they were threatened and blackballed when they made attempts to leave before the 100th episode. They got an opportunity to work on Dark Angel, but the people at Dark Angel supposedly received a phone call from “someone high up at their studio” and were told not to hire Pruitt and Crawford. He suspects this was to keep Sophia Crawford from leaving Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Their firing was unceremonious, according to Pruitt. “Sophia was told point blank that she was being fired because she knew too much about things,” he claimed. He said Joss Whedon and Jane Espenson threatened Crawford, saying if she spoke about what happened on set she’d “never work in this town again.”

Jeff Pruitt spoke about “sneaky politics” behind the scenes, saying “there was something weird going on” in the months leading up to his and Crawford’s exit. Pruitt claims Sarah Michelle Gellar was a “spoiled starlett” and that she was “out to get” him and Crawford. He attributes statements he made in private emails that were later read by Joss Whedon to his firing.

It’s worth noting that many people have stated that Sarah Michelle Gellar is undeserving of a “diva” label. When asked in 2004 what it was like working with Sarah Michelle Gellar, Julie Benz said, “She’s extremely talented and generous. Her reputation is just completely untrue. Unfortunately in Hollywood if you’re young and female and you have an opinion you get labeled a diva or something…else. Sarah’s an amazing talent, but she got labeled.”

In a 2013 interview on Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live, Alyson Hannigan answered a series of rapid-fire questions about Buffy the Vampire Slayer. When asked who was the most “annoyed” by the end of the show, she said, “Sarah,” referring to Sarah Michelle Gellar. When the audience booed, Hannigan clarified, “Well, she had a big career going, and it was a lot of work.” When asked when Gellar started to “hate” the show, Hannigan quickly said season three. In a later interview for Huffpost Live, Hannigan clarified her comments further. “[Sarah Michelle Gellar] worked her butt off,” she stated. “She worked eighteen-hour days for years.” Hannigan said she wouldn’t have classified Gellar as “annoyed,” saying, “she was super professional.”

Honestly, I’m Team Sarah on this one. I couldn’t find corroborating sources for Jeff Pruitt’s claims of her “diva” behavior, but I found several sources stating otherwise. Gellar did confirm during a cast reunion that she may have oversold her stunt experience, which ultimately would have meant more work for her stunt double and the stunt coordinator. It seems to me like this set everything on a bad foot with that team. But, the reasons Jeff Pruitt and Sophia Crawford gave for their exit had little-to-nothing to do with Gellar.

Vincent Kartheiser

Vincent Kartheiser played Connor on Angel, and he did a number of interviews talking about his experience on the show. I picked his interviews because I’ve always found him to be very candid and he doesn’t seem to shy away from uncomfortable answers to questions. A few of his answers provide a little insight into the mood on the set at times, and Charisma Carpenter’s attitude.

When Charisma Carpenter was pregnant on the show, she had a storyline that heavily involved Connor, so the two spent a lot of time working together on set. He was asked about her pregnancy and how it affected filming. In a 2003 interview for BBC Cult, Kartheiser said of Carpenter, “she was a great sport and would suck up the pain even though you could see that she was in it.”

In another interview for Angel Magazine from the same year, he said Carpenter had “an abundance of energy for a working, pregnant lady who, right in the heart of her pregnancy, they put her in so much.”

It’s worth noting Vincent Kartheiser had his own issues with the show. “What really made me interested in Angel was the idea that as a show, it changed so much and all the characters could change so much,” he told Angel Magazine. “It wasn’t that clichéd kind of ‘show up, do your thing, go home’ all the time.” Unfortunately, the potential that interested him never came to fruition for his character. “As the season went on, we never really got to deal with the relationship problems between me and David,” Kartheiser said, referring to David Boreanaz as Angel. “I never really got the opportunity to bond with any other characters.” He expressed a feeling that there was nowhere for his character to go and that Connor’s motivations seemed to change from week to week. “There were parts of the season I didn’t have the opportunity to stretch,” he explained, “that it felt like I was doing the same scene over and over.”

Vincent Kartheiser did a later interview with Giantmag.com where he reiterated some of these frustrations. For him, the character of Connor started to get stale early on. “Every week I’d show up and have a scene with Cordelia,” he said, “then Angel would show up and I’d have some sort of conflict with him. There’d be a couple of fight scenes where I’d fight with them even though I didn’t want to and then I would sulk and leave. That to me was every episode.” He felt the writers had written Connor “into a corner” and that fans responded poorly to him.

When comparing his experience on Angel to his experience playing Pete Campbell on Mad Men, Kartheiser expressed a lackluster feeling on the set of Angel. “There was a real sense on Angel that people were just doing a job,” Kartheiser said of the set. “The grips, the DP, even the directors would kind of just show up, do their job and go home.” This atmosphere is a direct contrast to what had attracted Vincent Kartheiser to the show in the first place. “On Mad Men we also have Matthew Weiner on set all the time whereas Joss [Whedon] was hardly ever on Angel,” Kartheiser explained. “I think Joss was doing Firefly at that point and was in love with his next project. I had a friend who filmed a few episodes in the first season of Angel and said everyone was invested and there was crazy energy, so maybe I just came into it late.”

Kartheiser also delved deeper into his frustrations over the direction (or lack thereof) of his character. “I let them know right off the bat that some of the choices they were making [about Conner] were wrong,” he said. “I showed up to play that character and I had a lot of ideas. And they didn’t like any of those ideas.” As a result, Kartheiser said he got “jaded” and “angry” at the show. “I felt like it wasn’t a collaboration, that the people I was working with didn’t care to take risks.”

In hindsight, he went on to say, “I was never a fan of Buffy, I’ll say it straight out. I was never a fan of Angel. I always found it hard to say Joss’ words.”

From all these comments, both from the beginning of Vincent Kartheiser’s journey as Connor, and from a few years after the show ended, it seems like he was excited for the opportunity, but ultimately disappointed with the overall experience. He also revealed how uncomfortable Charisma Carpenter had to be during filming while she was pregnant, but noted her energy and attitude were never a problem.

Farewell Cordelia

Prior to Charisma Carpenter’s official exit from Angel, her character arc had taken a very strange turn and Cordelia had been ominously left in a coma. Concern grew when Charisma Carpenter was not included in the cast of season 5. In a 2003 interview with TV Guide Online, Joss Whedon stated, “The Angel/Cordelia [love story] had gone pretty much as far as we wanted to take it” and that it wasn’t popular with the fans. “It just seemed like a good time for certain people to move on,” he continued. “Not completely, obviously. I’m hoping that we’ll get Charisma to do some episodes as Cordelia sometime during the year.”

TV Guide asked, “Isn’t that a disservice to fans who invested all those years in the character and her redemption? It seems an odd thing to do to the show’s leading lady.” Whedon responded, “That’s a fluctuating concept, the leading lady thing. And it is a little odd. Some choices are ultimately kind of controversial about who stays and who goes and who we focus on. But obviously, we had to have her out of a bunch of episodes toward the end of the year because she was having a baby… so what we had [leading] up to it wasn’t a dynamic I wanted to play out that much.” When asked if things were left on good terms with Charisma Carpenter, Joss Whedon stated he wouldn’t discuss that in an interview.

From Charisma Carpenter’s perspective, she was uncomfortable with Cordelia’s storyline prior to her coma and her death. “It was creepy,” she said of Cordelia’s relationship with Connor. “Connor was Angel’s son and half my age.” Carpenter stated it was important for her to return to wrap up the character’s storyline. “We didn’t want to just leave Cordelia in a coma,” she stated. “Whatever happens after this, I’m open. But it’s just best this story be [resolved] now. Otherwise, it’s a disservice to the fans of our show.” When pressed regarding whether or not she’d return to the show, Carpenter replied, “I don’t think it’ll be necessary. You never say never. However, at this point in time, I don’t see a future for her.” She continued with, “I feel like Joss feels – the Cordelia stories have been told. There were no other directions to go with her.”

Carpenter’s final appearance as Cordelia was an emotional experience. “We’ve been crying for the last two days,” she said in a behind-the-scenes interview. “I’m so physically drained.” She wasn’t the only one affected, either. “The director was crying, the crew was crying, we were crying,” she said. She called it a sad goodbye personally, professionally, and story-wise.

Working with Joss Whedon

Over the years, Joss Whedon gained a reputation for being unconventional to work with. Many actors from the Buffyverse have said they were unhappy with their characters’ creative paths. Sarah Michelle Gellar felt season six “betrayed” who Buffy was, saying she had to be “talked off a ledge” a number of times during filming.

Nicholas Brendon felt the character of Xander was “underrated,” particularly during season seven. “Joss did have a talk with Sarah and I because he was kind of contemplating the idea of Xander and Buffy ending up together at the end of season seven,” Brendon told AV Club. “We were both for it, but then that never came to fruition and I lost my eye.”

On an episode of Michael Rosenbaum’s Inside of You podcast, James Marsters said he was “terrified” of Joss Whedon. “I wasn’t designed to be a romantic character,” he explained. “The audience reacted that way to it. And I remember [Joss Whedon] backed me up against a wall one day, and he was just like, ‘I don’t care how popular you are, kid. You’re dead! You hear me? You’re dead! Dead!” Rosenbaum asked, “Was he kidding around?” and Marsters replied, “No. Hell, no.” Marsters also said he had “open wounds” on his scalp from over-using bleach on his roots every eight days to keep the roots from growing out.

Multiple actors from Angel have talked about Whedon’s habit of making actors squirm. David Boreanaz spoke about how he learned about the Angel spinoff during a twentieth anniversary cast reunion. “I got a phone call that Joss wanted to talk to me,” Boreanaz recalled. “The only thing he said was, ‘I want you to come into my office tomorrow,’ and I’m like, ‘I’m fired.’” He described having a night of “angst” and spent the following day working on some flashback scenes. When he finally met with Whedon at lunch it took some time for Whedon to tell him his character was getting a spin-off. Alexis Denisof expressed a similar knee-jerk feeling of “uh-oh,” but had an idea the spin-off was filming. However, Amy Acker had a similar story to what Boreanaz experienced when she was told about her character Fred’s transformation into Illyria. “It seems to be an echo of, like, ‘Hey, can you meet me for coffee tomorrow?’ and I’m like, ‘Ohh, they’re firing me!’ And we sat down to coffee and he said, ‘I just wanted you to know I’m killing Fred.’ And he waited, like, really a long time.” Charisma Carpenter chimed in, “He likes to do that!” Acker was then informed she would still be on the show as Illyria.

Charisma Carpenter and Marti Noxon have shared their own stories about Joss’s “You’re fired, just kidding” stories. Seth Green quipped “He did that to me too, but it took.”

Whedon’s View of Women

While Joss Whedon considers his writing to be feminist, his portrayal of women as well as other statements he’s made contradict this. In 2013, he gave a speech for Equality Now about his dislike of the word “feminist.” While this speech earned him some acclaim, it also earned him some backlash from the feminist community. This was mainly because he claimed it’s natural for people to be equal, and to add “-ist” to the end of the word “feminist” implies that people’s natural state is to be unequal. This stance was seen as disrespectful to Feminism as a movement, for some.

Joss Whedon received wide criticism for his portrayal of women in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. One critic, Scott Mendelson, talked about Whedon’s portrayal of Scarlet Witch and Black Widow in Avengers: Age of Ultron. “Scarlet Witch eventually has to be coaxed into bravery by one of the male heroes,” Mendelson writes of Elizabeth’s Olson’s character. Mendelson was even less thrilled with Scarlet Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff. “Maybe I shouldn’t be annoyed that the only major female character’s primary arc is a theoretically unrequited pining for a nice guy with major anger issues,” he writes, “or that said character briefly gets captured by the villain in the second act and tossed in a cage for no reason other than to be rescued by her male compatriots.” Backlash over this film caused Whedon to quit Twitter. In an article for Gizmodo, writers Meredith Woerner and Katharine Trendacosta point out that Joss Whedon teased a “killer” backstory for Natasha Romanoff. “Instead of an assassin constantly struggling with finding moral lines she didn’t know existed, we got a woman who feels incomplete because she cannot have babies,” Woerner and Trendacosta concluded.

In 2017, Whedon’s ex-wife Kai Cole wrote a blog for The Wrap stating, “he used his relationship with me as a shield, both during and after our marriage, so no one would question his relationships with other women or scrutinize his writing as anything other than feminist.”

Cole alleges Whedon wrote her a letter in which he said, “When I was running ‘Buffy,’ I was surrounded by beautiful, needy, aggressive young women… As a guilty man I knew the only way to hide was to act as though I were righteous… In many ways I was the HEIGHT of normal, in this culture. We’re taught to be providers and companions and at the same time, to conquer and acquire — specifically sexually — and I was pulling off both!” At the end of her essay, Cole wrote, “I want the people who worship him to know he is human, and the organizations giving him awards for his feminist work, to think twice in the future about honoring a man who does not practice what he preaches.”

In response to Kai Cole’s letter, Laura M. Browning wrote in an AV Club article, “I was sad, but not shocked—maybe a little embarrassed I hadn’t looked more closely at some very clear problems in his work… His work has plenty of male gaze and women in refrigerators and some narratively pointless rape scenes—it’s all right there, in hundreds of hours of television and film—but boy, it sure is a lot more comfortable to listen to a guy tell you he’s a feminist than listen to a lot of women telling you he’s not.”

Whedon’s veneer of feminism has been cracking for several years.

Recent Allegations

Actor Ray Fisher claimed Joss Whedon behaved inappropriately on the set of Justice League, tweeting, “Joss Wheadon’s on-set treatment of the cast and crew of Justice League was gross, abusive, unprofessional, and completely unacceptable.” Fisher also accused Geoff Johns and Jon Berg of enabling Whedon’s behavior. An investigation was done by Warner Brothers and co-stars Jason Mamoa and Kiersey Clemons publicly supported Fisher. Ultimately, the investigation concluded and “remedial action” was taken. The action taken has not been specified.

Shortly after, Joss Whedon exited the HBO series The Nevers, which Fisher attributes to his own claims.

Team Charisma

Those who have shown support to Charisma Carpenter include: Sarah Michelle Gellar Ray Fisher J. August Richards Michelle Trachtenberg Amber Benson Eliza Dushku Jose Molina Marti Noxon Emma Caulfield James Marsters Anthony Head Clare Kramer James C. Leary Sophia Crawford David Boreanaz Amy Acker Julie Benz Danny Strong Adam Busch Tom Lenk Nicholas Brendon Jeff Mariotte

Others who have written about Joss Whedon or come out to support those coming forward:

Courtney Enlow Nell Scovell Glen Mazzara

My Conclusion

As I stated in my previous post on this topic, I stand with Team Charisma. It is not okay for a person in a position of power over others in the workplace to misuse that power in an inappropriate or abusive manner. No matter how talented that person may be and how beloved the work may be.

#buffy the vampire slayer #btvs #angel the series #joss whedon #charisma carpenter

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ahmedmootaz · 4 years ago

Note

Hello! I saw you request of requests, soooo. Can I request a story and it can be however long you want it to be. The sort of prompt is what you think would or want to happen in the upcoming episode “The Phantom and The Sorceress”. It’s fine even if you don’t answer this ask, thanks for all your content and theories!

Dear Anonymous,

What, did you think that just because I replied one day before the episode aired that I wouldn’t do it?...Well, I was debating it, but this was a fun one. I really hope you like it, because I spent quite a bit of effort on it.

Beware of possible spoilers, however. I mean, it is all prediction, but you never know when you’re right. So, here’s the link:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/26551864

And here is the magical Read More button, for those who need it (Note that Tumblr doesn’t copy italics, for some reason):

It was a dark, cold night in the Forest Of...whatever. Lena couldn't care less about what its name was. It was damp, awful, cold, and filled with monsters. No wonder Magica would hide here; it was basically her dream home. Maybe it was a mirror, too. She trudged with her friends, Violet and Webby, who'd oh-so-kindly volunteered to help her on this mad quest of hers. She was going mad, that's what, and they were both ready to go mad with her. She really was lucky when it came to friends.

They kept trudging in silence, not wanting to reflect on the series of what must've been unfortunate events to lead them to searching for Magica DeSpell in the dark, cold night in the middle of a swamp. An ugly swamp, too...though, now that she thought about it, there weren't really 'pretty' swamps, so it wasn't like Magica chose a bad one; they were all bad.

Despite telling herself several times how she was over this, how she had no issues whatsoever about what they were doing right now and that it was for the greater good, she found herself contemplating any other choice. Just what, exactly, led them to this point?!

...Well, they all knew. It was a rhetorical question. An angry rhetorical question. Leave it to the McDucks to be attacked by a literal video-game monster that crawled out of the screen and treating it like another boring day. Which...yeah, it kinda was for them, but she'd gotten used to the calmer household she moved in. It wasn't like that was the biggest thing that happened today, either, it was more like...the appetizer, even though that wasn't really a correct statement, since it was like eating a whole roast duck only to be told it was an appetizer.

Still, it wasn't the tentacle-monster which they took down that led to this situation. It was the fact that Gladstone...Gladner? Something along those lines, showed up. Apparently, he was the boys' uncle, which made him someone she didn't know. Not that it mattered anyway, he came in, crying about how his luck left him forever before weeping on her arm, which was conveniently next to him. Her sleeve was never going to return to regular levels of salt after this.

It took a while before Scrooge managed to calm him down. It seemed like his luck...which was a thing she didn't know about, had left him. Normally, she was told, they would've chalked it up to some paranormal mystery and had to excuse themselves and send her home, but it went further then that...Almost everyone in Duckburg was losing their abilities.

They didn't really believe it at first, but when Scrooge's monetary abilities started going blank, the alarms blared loudly enough in everyone's minds. It wasn't just him, too; Gyro was losing his intelligence, so was Huey, Mrs.Beakly lost a good portion of her Agent skills, and Dewey lost the ability to Dewey, whatever the heck he meant by that.

It only left her and the rest of Team Magic to fend for themselves and figure out what was draining their powers. There was one teeny-tiny problem, however:

How would they do that? Webby was an amazing fighter, but their enemy, a certain Phantom Blot that Violet heard about, didn't leave a trace, much less a body to fight, and despite Violet's best efforts, nothing came out of her investigations to find where he hid, which left Lena to do the job. One issue, however: She couldn't.

She was a brilliant sorceress, or so she bragged, but there was still much she needed to learn before casting detection spells. And they, she theorized, didn't have that time. Violet was an amazing step-sister and a scarily fast learner, but even she came up empty-handed when it came to learning anything about that power. That left one magic user in Duckburg she knew. Ugh.

She shivered at the memory, snapping out of her mind due to some whimpering from Gladstone. He said he needed to find his luck or else he was a goner. She thought he was exaggerating at first, but then a boat nearly fell on him. 4 Kilometres away from sea. He promised he'd do them anything if she let him accompany them on this treacherous journey while the rest of the gang tried investigating using their own ways, and the agreed. How bad could he be, anyways?

-"U-Um...Lena? I don't know how to tell you this...but I...I hate swamps. I don't think I know how to walk in them. It was always my luck helping me out. I'm cold, scared, and humiliated."...well, not too bad, but he just wouldn't shut up! And while he seemed to amuse Webby and Violet, he was just getting on her nerves.

-"Well, nobody here likes swamp, either! And you've been listing the things your luck did for you for two hours now, is there anything you can do on your own, Mr.Gladstone?", she shot back, irked.

He used to argue and bicker with her, but as his luck kept worsening throughout the day (How on earth does one get mauled by a bear, an alligator, and then receive a speeding ticket because the alligator's death-roll was too fast??), he mostly stuck to paranoia to help himself. She couldn't help but feel bad for him, despite how much he annoyed her.

-"W-Well...I used to breathe well on my own...I could also walk...I think...", he mumbled, his voice a broken mess compared to his arrogant and proud tone, or so she was told by Webby. "A-And...I think I might need to learn how to go to the bathroom in the swamp.", he added, his exhaustion overpowering his embarrassment.

-"Pffft, don't worry about it, Gladstone! The entire swamp is your bathroom! You're basically the King of the swamp!", and there it was, the perky, energetic voice that was trying to keep Gladstone away from depression this entire trip.

-"Oh, quit with the lies! I am nothing without my luck!", he cried, seeming on the verge of tears for the...seventeenth time today? Lena couldn't remember. "B-But...It wasn't my choice! My luck was always there for me! Like...Like a-a stick! Something to lean on my entire life and now it is gone!", he lamented, slouching as his footsteps got a bit slower. For the sake of all them, Lena hoped he regained any of his luck soon.

-"Well, it is true; any being born with a condition, abnormal or not, that aids him throughout his life without any major work done from the part of the being will eventually get used to this condition, which could explain why you're taking this particular misadventure hard, Mr.Gladstone.", Violet bumped in their chat, checking the notepad on which they brainstormed the possible locations of Magica. "Still, I'd advise you to remain positive, as I sense we may be able to fix these conditions.", she added, giving him a small, encouraging smile which he didn't notice.

-"Yeah, probs.", the teenage witch agreed after she felt a nudge from the Vanderquack. Anything to cheer up her friend's friends' uncle. "Hey Vi, are we close or not?", she asked, trying to ignore the eye-roll from her shorter friend.

-"Well, I don't have a particularly detailed map, though I imagine that Magica would mark her camp with a particular sign; an X on the ground, perhaps, or perhaps we must deduce it from the surrounding environment-"

-"Or she might've carved her face on the bottom of an ancient tree!", the cheerful duck happily announced as they entered a clearing with a small dirt road that led to the mouth of Magica DeSpell. A wooden carving of her, anyway.

It was just as Webby said, large, reeking of pride and arrogance, and yet...oddly well done. The details were really nice and actually looked like Magica. If she had to give her 'aunt' something, it had to be that she apparently didn't suck at something in her life. Really though, wood carving, of all things? Was she a carpenter before becoming an evil, awful witch? Is she talented? She didn't have her magic...maybe she had someone else with her.

-"Alright, so, is everyone prepared to meet my homicidal aunt?", the tallest duckling asked with fake happiness, receiving a nod form everyone but Gladstone, who emitted something of a sniff. Webby readied the axe she brought with her, patting the kitten at the top while Violet tightened her garlic necklace, while Gladstone...he stood there, steadying his back a bit. "Mr.Gladstone?"

-"Ah, forget about it, whatever she does to me, it can't be worse than having an anvil hit me from ten-meters.", he steadied his tone, managing to make it more bitter than desperate. Well, at least he wasn't going to cry when they see her.

She looked back at the tree's base, blocking out the various memories that gave her the urge to blast the door, and knocked. Harshly. Hey, she was going to give herself something. She felt both Webby and Violet's hands on her shoulders, and she anticipated the door opening. Now or never...they were going to convince her, and somehow, she didn't think it was going to be too easy.

Her mind raced, imagining all the awful things she could be plotting right now. She heard garlic was harmful to magic users, something she didn't know too much about, but was apparently true, as she figured out when her magical powers suddenly dimmed as she touched some garlic. Still, Magica could hit them form a distance...and what about that axe? Was going physical the ideal plan? Was-

CRASH!

The quartet of ducks yelled, jumping back before they realized the door didn't even open. It was something from the inside. Someone, to be exact. A couple of curses came through the door as a metallic sound came through as well.

-"Bloody Hell! Who comes in this hour of the night, in this swamp, to this tree?! I don't even pay bills!", the angry yelling of her not-really-aunt came through. Yep, that was about the attitude she expected. "If you're the Magical Supplies Shop, I'm sorry, but if you couldn't tell, I lost my powers after following a wonderful plan of mine. I cannot pay you in whatever things you want. Now go away before I shoot you!", she answered with a sickeningly sweet tone. Even her voice brought Lena awful memories and forced her to frown.

-"You can do this, Lena. You faced her down before. She can't do anything to you.", Violet squeezed her shoulder, giving her a determined smile. Lena shot one back, before taking a step closer to the door.

-"Hey, this is Lena...Your...", she sighed, bringing a hand to her temple. "Niece?", she finished, awaiting a sick laughter or an undignified scowl at her for attempting to break free from being a shadow. Sorry-not-sorry, Magica. For moment, there was silence. Then there was laughter. Hysterical laughter. So much laughter Lena felt scared.

-"Ooooh, good one, person-who-is-trying-to-fool-me! I don't have a niece! My brother is dead and my sister cannot keep a worm alive! Now scram before my patience runs out!", she thundered from behind the door, leaving the ducklings and Gladstone in shock.

-"She has a brother?", Lena repeated with incredulity, looking at her two friends and Gladstone.

-"I don't know! How should I know? I thought she didn't have family!", Violet answered with equal confusion, shrugging.

-"I mean, technically she doesn't have a brother anymore.", Gladstone chimed in, his voice devoid of any enthusiasm. "Who's this woman anyway? And why does she sound like she woke up on the wrong side of the bed?", he asked, raising his voice a tad too much.

-"The wrong side of the bed?!", came the war-cry from behind the door, only leaving a moment before a couple of locks unlocked and it swung outwards, revealing Magica DeSpell . With a shotgun. Oh, well this was just lovely, wasn't it? "Alright, that does it, I will put more holes than you than there is in...swiss...cheese...", her speech slurred, looking at the three ducklings in front of her house.

The silence remained for a moment, with no one doing anything. Webby brandished her weapon, Violet made a threatening expression, and Lena ignited a spark in her hand. And Gladstone stood there, trying to take all this in. That moment gave Lena enough time to admire Magica's hut; a three-room lodging, more aptly. It was basically a sink, a gas-cooker, and some drawers, a wardrobe, and a bookshelf, all locally-made, apparently. There was also a toilet and a bath in the background. It was a pretty sorry place to live in, but it seemed functional enough.

-"Hi, Aunt Magica.", Lena greeted, gritting her teeth and delivering the widest, fakest smile she could possibly give. "I almost forgot how you looked! We haven't seen each other in such a long time. What a shame.", she continued, trying her best to remain calm and to look the elder sorceress in the eyes. Said sorceress was now surveying the ducks surrounding her, measuring her chances and keeping her hands on the shotgun's trigger.

-"Get out. Now!", the cape-wearing duck yelled, looking dangerously close to a rage-fit. "All three of you. Now!"

-"Three? Hello? I may have lost my luck, but I am certainly not invisible, lady!", Gladstone announced with an undignified tone. He got a glare that shut him up. "Yeah, sure, okay, talk with the people who really matter. Why wouldn't you?", he grumbled bitterly.

-"Listen, as much as we'd love to, we can't really do that.", the younger sorceress laid her hand on her waist, looking both bored and uncaring. At least, she hoped she did. The last thing she needed was for the awful, horrible duck in front of her to sense any weakness, something she assumed she excelled at.

-"Besides, we're already outside! Your evil mind trick won't work on us!", Webby boasted, swinging her axe a bit for intimidation purposes. They didn't seem to work all too well, but at the very least, they made Magica's shotgun point at her just a tiny bit. Was that a victory?...Probably not.

-"Fine then, get away from me! From this place! The last thing I need is to spend my night with a bunch of *McDucks*.", the gun-wielder practically screamed, her veins starting to bulge from the anger. Her voice was laced with venom dripping off of every word. It was honestly both terrifying and admirable how much hate she poured into every word.

-"I told you we can't.", Lena repeated calmly, trying to avoid a fight she saw she was coming.

And then, just as she hoped things would calm down, a loud, roaring BANG! filled the swamp. Every single member of her group jumped, looking frightened as they searched around for wounded. There were none, only four ducks staring at each other. She'd tricked them. And she didn't even have her magic. Lena frowned and turned her face back to her shadow's origin. Her...uh...creator? She was her shadow, did shadows have creators? Maybe a caster was a better term? As much as she hated it, 'Aunt Magica' rolled off the tongue far better than 'Caster Magica'.

-"Are you searching for fight? Because I'm not certain your chances would be very high with the four of us.", Violet spoke for her step-sister. Her new room-mate at this point, but Lena still appreciated the gesture with all of her heart. It appeared Magica actually fired a shot, even if it was only a warning shot. Everyone tried to make good on that statement, looking as threatening as they could. Even Gladstone lifted his fists, adding a grand total of 4% to how threatening they were.

-"Maybe you are! Why can't you get away from me? What do you want? I don't have any more plans for the moment, I didn't do anything illegal for the last month, and you're taking my books from my cold, dead, hands!", the former-Sorceress Of The Shadows barked back defiantly, still pointing at them with her gun. "I don't care if you kill me! I'll take at least two of you down before I-"

-"Could you shut up?!", Lena cried out, her eye twitching and doing everything she could to not attack Magica. "We're here because...because...", she couldn't say it. She couldn't bring herself to ask her for help.

-"...You want to buy something?", her 'aunt' guessed, gun still pointing at her head, but apparently curious.

-"No."

-"You want to brag?"

-"...No.", okay, maybe they did, but they couldn't do that. Not now, anyway.

-"Are we here to rent the room?", Gladstone chimed in, scratching his head. Lena was certain Violet explained to him on the way here...but he apparently forgot.

-"I NEED YOUR HELP!", there, she spat it. She couldn't believe she said it, covering her face afterwards. She felt Violet's hand pat her and heard Webby saying something along the lines of 'There, there'.

-"...I'm sorry? Is this...Listen, it's the middle of September, the swamp is humid as all Hell and I'm trying to set up a fan, if you're just here to brag,", she said before adding 'as you McDucks do.' under her breath, "Then you can come sometime else, these garments aren't exactly fun to wear when the humidity is 85% today so-"

-"No, we need the help. But you'd better watch your back, you witch, because if you try to betray us, I'll shove this axe right down your head!", Webby warned threateningly, patting the kitten once more. Magica actually remained silent and judged what she said, and Lena decided it was time to uncover her face again.

-"And why would you need my help?", the witch repeated, lowering her weapon. Lena could just feel smugness radiating off of her, and she hated it with every molecule of her being.

-"There's a thief in town. He's stealing everyone's abilities. Everything about them. He's stealing it. He calls himself the Phantom Blot.", Violet answered, looking rather impatient with Magica, who smiled with a hum.

-"And why should that concern me?", she smugly inquired and...well, she wasn't wrong. Lena hated that she wasn't wrong.

-"The Phantom Blot hates magic and its users. He wants to eradicate the both of them and you, if I remember correctly, are a witch, yes?", the hummingbird explained, gaining a bit more of a reaction this time: A chuckle. They really couldn't find anyone else, huh?

-"Listen, Purple, if you can remember so well, then you might as well remember that Lena over there stole all of my power. I'm in no danger of this Phantom Blot.", she shot back, a taunting smile on her beak and crossing her arms.

-"Alright, listen up you freak, maybe you don't realize this, but he doesn't know that you don't have your powers. All he knows is that you were the single biggest magical spell to hit this town less than a year ago. I'd say you're still on his hit list.", not taking any more of this back-and-forth, the younger sorceress quipped, closing her hands together and trying a smirk of her own to counter the furious frown and growl her 'aunt' gave her.

-"And you're still on our hit list, you monster! So don't try to even think about doing anything funny!", Webby added, giving her best-friends a reassuring smile, though a somewhat threatening one.

-"I don't think I care about that too much."...she didn't? Oh. Well. There goes the entire base of their plans. "My family isn't here, neither is my home, I don't have my powers, I struggle to eat half-decent food, and I can't even make any new plans after that piece of-", she stopped herself, "Sorry, after Glomgold took everything I had monetarily. In other words, life isn't looking too great for me.", she finished indifferently, though a bit sad and bitter. Huh. That's...really odd. Bitter yes, but sad? Lena wouldn't have ever expected that from her.

-"Tough luck, lady. There's a great pharmacy that sells anti-depressants on the next corner. You know. If you're like me and lost all the joy your life ever had.", the former-luckiest duck in the world suggested darkly, pointing a thumb somewhere. "Look, I don't know you, you don't know me, but please just do me a favour, alright? I need your help. Magic or whatever I just...I just need my luck bad. I need my life back. Can you please help us for the good of your heart?", he got down on his knees and begged, not showing too much emotion, but just enough to almost make you forget his bitterness a moment ago. Almost.

-"...Yeah, listen, the 'good of my heart' doesn't really exist, and even if it did, then I won't be giving it to you of all people.", well...Lena couldn't say she wouldn't say something similar to some duck she barely even knew. Unlike Magica, however, she'd actually accept. Probably. "But it seems Scrooge's thinking isn't there quite yet for all of you.", she stated, almost with disappointment, as she brought two fingers to her temple. "My life at this point is in danger...but that's not really what's motivating me here. What do I have to gain?", ah, straight to the point, are we?

-"What, keeping your life isn't enough for you?", her former-shadow snarked back, utilizing the opportunity to show no respect whatsoever. Ah, that felt good. It didn't feel good to see her nemesis laugh at her, however, as if she knew something she didn't.

-"Now, I may be misunderstanding this, but you don't have much time, yes? Phantom Bolt or whatever is already striking. Both of our lives are endangered, and if it means taking you out...well, I don't need to say much, eh?", oh, how Lena hated the smugness in her voice. They'd accounted for this, but she just wanted to punch her in her stupid beak so much!

-"Fine, does this make you any more inclined?", the younger witch pulled out a purple gem, dangling it from her finger and immediately making Magica's pupils widen.

-"My Sumerian Amulet!", she yelled, throwing herself on Lena, though not with so much force the latter wasn't able to repel her. Indeed, all the younger duckling had to do was raise a hand as her 'aunt' tried grabbing the amulet that was dangling so close to her.

-"There, feeling a bit more excited now?", the intelligent, sharp voice of Violet observed. "We know how much this means to you. Maybe you could even regain your magic with it, yes? This is as much as we're going to offer, so if you don't want it..."

-"...Fine!", came the near-instant response. Magica was biting her lower beak, looking majorly conflicted. "Alright, you have some of ol' Scroogie in you. You want my help? Fine. Fine, no really. How about we seal the deal, then? I help you with whatever it is you want to beat the Phantom Blot, you give me back my Sumerian Amulet, and we all try to kill each other sometime later, affaire conclue?", she extended a fingerless-ly gloved hand, looking all-too-gleeful about all of this. Lena knew the amulet was powerful, but the way Magica accepted their offer...it gave her second thoughts about giving her the amulet.

-"It means 'deal?', Mr.Gladstone.", she heard her step-sister tell the triplets' uncle. Apparently, he wasn't too fond of Magica's new terminology...but then again, neither was Lena. "Though I must wonder how you know of French, Magica.", the short hummingbird muttered as she extended a hand alongside the other three ducks.

-"I have some Savoyard cousins. You're not the only ones with a family here.", came the dry answer.

It took a moment of hesitation, with everyone almost certain that the other side will pull out at the last second. Then, suddenly, Webby's hand went forward and shook, or rather, grabbed Magica's. Violet soon followed, and Gladstone did as they did. That only left Lena, who stared at Magica. If she shakes this hand...she'll take orders from her again. She'll give her the amulet that will make her able to hurt her again. She didn't want to do this...but she had to. Not only for herself, but for her friends. For everyone who depended on her, she took a breath and forced her hand to shake with Magica's. It was...huh. Wow. Her fingers were tiny compared to Lena. How did she never notice?

-"Lovely. Now, you're trying to go after this Phantom Whatever, yes?", the cape-drapped witch asked, looking a bit more enthusiastic. She received a nod from everyone, Gladstone included. "Very well, I can make you an elixir to poison him, though it's going to take some-"

-"Woah woah woah, we're trying to defend ourselves here! Not everyone is a murderer like you!", Lena objected, waving her arms frantically just as her 'aunt' was going to enter her hut. She earned a disapproving stare. She hated them.

-"He's going to kill you, Lena. You're being naïve if you think showing kindness is going to change someone who's bent on murdering you.", the sorceress mocked, resting her hand on her hip. "Besides, why come here in the first place if you're all such big fans of Gandhi?"

-"We want you to teach Lena spell.", Webby replied, her axe still unsheathed, though it only gained an unimpressed look as her enemy got used to it. "We can defeat the Phantom Blot without resorting to your methods, and you'll see that yourself!", she proudly continued, lifting the axe a little higher.

-"A spell?", Magica repeated, mystified. "You...You want me to teach you a spell?! To be back where I belong? To rejoin my magical destiny-", oh, come on. Couldn't she stay clam for five minutes? Why was she acting like a hyperactive child all of sudden? That wasn't how she was supposed to act!

-"Yes, yes, all of that. Now if you could just-"

-"Ooooh, it feels good to be back!", deciding that two could play at the interruptions game, she ignored her 'niece' as she wrapped her cloak around her, covering her beak and moving her fingers for dramatic effect.

-"You are exhausting to be around, you know that?", Lena quipped, glaring at the far-too-gleeful duck in front of her.

-"I try. Now, what spell do you exactly want?"

-"We were thinking about trying a spell to locate the Phantom Blot.", Violet explained, and Lena couldn't help but notice Magica tilted her head just a teeny tiny bit. "We want to know where he is, and if possible, bring him to us.", she clarified, her dignified tone not wavering.

-"You seem worried, witch. Are you worried because you're trying to play us and now you can't?", Webby interrogated with her 'detective accent', looking suspicious to Magica's current indescribable expression.

-"No, it's not that, it's just...Locating people and things is more of a Teleporter thing...", she answered, almost begrudgingly.

-"Welp, we came to the wrong person. I told you! We needed a teleporter, we have a witch. And we made a deal. This is just fan-tastic.", ever the positive one, Lena ranted as she started walking around, waving her arms, exasperated.

-"Of course it would be you to not know magic-branches, Lena.", her 'aunt' scolded, noticing Webby's sudden axe-swing and trying to ignore the obvious threat. "Teleporting is magic. Just a branch of it. I'm more talented in the spells branch and the alchemy branch, alongside shadow-manipulation, of course. Teleporting...well, I can help you. I tried learning it, after all.", she boasted, mumbling the last part to herself more than to the ducklings surrounding her.

-"Branches, huh...And how can we know you're not just messing with us? You could be saying absolute mallarcky!", the seater-wearing duck accused, earning an undignified huff from the older sorceress.

-"I said I tried learning it, and not without some success.", she claimed, hoping to satisfy Lena's questions and just get closer to getting the darn amulet. She didn't. "Listen, my brother was a pretty good Teleporter. I'll tell you what he told me, alright?", she explained further, noticeably uncomfortable with what she was saying.

-"How come I never heard of him if he's so go-"

-"Because you've never spent more than two months in Europe, you brat! Don't you dare talk about the King Of Napoli like that!", she screamed, looking more threatening by the second. A full-blown beatdown was about to ensue if it wasn't for Gladstone, of all people.

-"Hey...I remember that name...He stole my car when I was on a trip in Europe! And my newly-won crown which I won in Barbaria!", he recounted, looking far-too-happy for what he was saying.

-"Bavaria.", Violet corrected.

-"Whatever, he just teleported in my car and stole it after throwing me out! And he had someone else with him, too!", the former-luck king continued, still looking inexplicably happy. "I never thanked him for his service! Some old lady saw the accident and thought I needed help, so she gave me one of her luxury jets to console me! Told me nobody was safe from the King Of Napopi.", he finished, a smile on his face. "That was before the whole...unlucky thing...", and now he was going to be depressed again.

-"See? Now just listen to what I tell you and you should be fine!", the elder duck ordered, apparently unable to sense the internal moment of struggle Lena had before she obeyed, taking a step forward.

-"Yes...Magica.", she muttered under her breath, standing in front of her arch nemesis' cold stare. Her friends were there to protect her. There was nothing to fear. Nothing to fear at all. This was just a forced training session. She was going to get through this.

-"I'd appreciate it if you call me Miss Magica.", and yet it didn't seem like her momentary teacher was willing to make this easy for the both of them. Holding her sly smile, she straightened her back and looked at her forced-apprentice for a second. "Let your magic run through you. Teleportation is a complex art, and all its branches need a constant flow of magic through one's self. Location is no different, let the magic run through your body.", she stated, trying to throw her cloak in a dramatic way.

-"Okay so...like this?", the tallest duckling asked, holding her right arm in front of her and sensing the tingling sensation of magic as it coursed through her. She came to control it after a multitude of attempts, so this wasn't much of a trial. "Oh, and since I might as well milk you for whatever you're worth, can I change this colour? I hate this purple.", she wondered, noting that she didn't get any reply before forcing her vocal cords to add "Miss Magica?"

-"Hmm, well, I don't know, the colour of one's magic is determined by both their will and their chosen Branch of Magic, I had to go through lots of training to change my magic's colour, and since this is my magic,", she pointed at the flame-like purple shape that surrounded her 'niece', "It's going to take a lot of time for you to change it back. But it's no special technique. Some can immediately change it, others cannot. It comes eventually.", she continued indifferently, paying attention to the magic that was radiating off of Lena.

-"Don't talk to Lena like that!", the Vanderquack reaffirmed her stance on Magica as she exchanged glares with the now-dysfunctional sorceress.

-"Webs, it's fine. I can deal with her.", her best-friend answered, turning her attention back to her teacher. Oh, how she hated that she had to refer to her as that! Nevertheless, she was surprised she actually got an answer. She expected some insults and nothing else, but it seemed that once they had a deal...she worked with it. It was...unnerving.

-"When it comes to searching for something, you must see it with your blind eye. You must both wish for it, see it in your mind, and release enough magical surges to clear the way for you. Only then will you sense where what you search for lies. For example, I have a red neckerchief in my house with a raven on it in my home. Try sensing where it is.", the DeSpell explained emotionlessly, guiding Lena a bit closer to her home.

She closed her eyes, as she was told, and tried seeing the neckerchief. Red...raven...yep, pretty plain alright. And yet...she tried releasing energy as she was told, but the only thing that was getting released was a bunch of aimless magical balls that deflated on the ground. She couldn't sense anything. She had the image in her brain, but she couldn't really...get 'it', if that made any sense.

-"Not good. As expected, you cannot properly use my magic. Perhaps you need to be more emotionally motivated to feel the 'click'?", of course it would be like Magica to benefit off this situation. Of course. Well, at least she was partially right. Lena grunted as a response, not wanting to give her trainer any more satisfaction than necessary. "Then we must up the risks a bit.", the elder sorceress claimed moving a bit to where her friends stood.

-"Listen here, Magica! Lena's trying her best, and we have no need for you! If you ever- Hey! My...bow...", in an instant, there was a 'splash'. The eldest of the ducklings turned around to see Webby without her iconic bow staring into the stagnant water of the swamp, shocked and furious at the same time. "That was a gift from my grandma!", she yelled back.

-"Oh, quit it, you want to help your oh-so-precious friends, yes? Then let me teach!", the witch shot coldly, evading an axe swing with relative ease, watching as the energetic duckling gritted her beak; they had no one to trust but her. "Now, Lena, this swamp is filled with alligators and all sorts of nasty creatures. If we don't find Debby's bow in five minutes, it might as well be gone forever. If you can find where I threw it, I'll go get it myself. Sounds good?", too good. Especially that last part. In fact, only that last part, since Lena had little faith that she could succeed.

When everyone around her went silent, the young witch turned her head to Webby. She looked distraught. Closing her eyes once more, she faced the swamp and tried sensing for the bow. Pink, small, and plain. It was a rather noticeable part of Webby. Something that clearly meant a lot for her. If she could find it...Then she'd have helped her friends. She saw it...she willed it...and she started releasing magical sparks. For a moment, just like last time, they merely deflated.

Then, all of a sudden...she felt 'it'. A guiding feeling...like an arm on her shoulders. It made her open her eyes, but she could still see the bow. She saw it. She felt it. It was pulsing...the pulsing pushed her to where it came from:...Away from the water? It was behind her. But the only thing behind her was...she turned around to look at Magica, who had a detestably smug expression on her face as she showed Lena her fingerless-ly gloved left hand. The glove had a small bulge near the wrist.

-"Seems as if I was correct.", was all she said. Lena didn't growl or frown this time. She had no reason to. It slightly angered her to agree with her 'aunt', but as far as correctness went, there wasn't much to critique here. "I learnt this little trick as a little girl. It can help you in a tough spot.", she added as she removed it from under her glove, throwing it into her student's hand. "There, I made good on my promise, right?"

...She did?...Well, yes, she did teach her. Lena thought that she didn't mention some things, such as the formula or how much energy one should dedicate, but in the end, those details were all discovered by her apprentice with no need for more external help. She, should she follow the instructions correctly, was now technically able to find the Phantom Blot.

Then why did she feel something wrong? She felt as if something wasn't quite...right, to put it simply. She expected a bigger fight with Magica. Harsher treatment. Little to no emotions, but it was just...meh. Nothing too big. She stared again the the elder witch. She was smiling. It was a smug smile alright, but it was a smile. It wasn't something she expected to see of Magica. Perhaps as a result of her disdain for her 'aunt' she, too, came to see her as incapable of being a person.

-"I guess so...", she murmured, knowing exactly where her former-teacher at this point was going. She prepared her amulet, not wishing to give it away. "Her name is Webby, by the way.", she added, not getting a response

-"I told you my brother was a good teacher.", her fifteen-minute trainer mumbled, more to herself than to anyone else, and Lena felt awkward. She stared back at her friends.

-"I...uh. Sorry about him. Dying. I guess.", she whispered but it caught the attention of Magica, and she looked positively shocked. "Don't look so shocked. Respect the dead and all that.", that came out wrong. So wrong. If she meant to disrespect him, she couldn't have done worse.

-"Heh...listen, sometimes faking death is a bit easier with magic on your side. If you're willing to share a bit more than the amulet, then maybe I can tell you about him.", she smiled again, though this was one of her more typical smiles, if still an actual smile. Huh. Curious

But just as the newly trained sorceress was about to say something, a 'zap' echoed in the swamp. There was light for a moment, and Magica had to jump to avoid the bolt that zapped a part of her hair and neck. Everyone turned in a split second to see a black-clothed figure with green eyes and a metallic glove on his right hand.

-"And I was just about to pick this four-leaved clover, too...", was the only sentence uttered for a solid minute. And by Gladstone of all people.

The Phantom Blot looked menacing. Pure, undiluted, unadulterated intimidation radiated off of his clothed figure. From afar, you wouldn't be blamed if you thought he was a medieval executioner. The metallic glove on his hand looked more electronic than medieval on closer inspection, but that didn't matter too much. His eyes, fully green by some method, conveyed little emotions, but there's something Lena sensed from him: Hatred.

-"Finally...", his clunky, distorted and terrifying voice announced, his footsteps calculated and his eyes focused. "It seems my searching has led me to the most vile of beings, at last.", he added, closing his fist.

-"The most vile of beings? Listen, I heard some nasty things about ducks, but come on man-", Gladstone tried countering, only to receive a bolt that knocked him over, making him grunt.

-"Not you, you imbecile! These WITCHES!", he cried, hatred drenching his words as he advanced. He most certainly had an accent...But Lena couldn't just pin-point it...though she thought she heard it sometime in the past...

-"These what now?", Magica repeated, apparently offended.

-"WITCHES!", he repeated, not slowing his advance as the group of ducks slowly backed off. "You come in with your magic, destroy cities with your undeserved power, and you...you're never satisfied! You always want more! You never leave something to the people who work for their power!", he ranted shooting a couple of bolts that forced the group the yell and retreat further to Magica's hut.

-"Oh. Witches. I think I still hate you, but a little less than when I thought you said-"

-"It would just be like you to show up now, huh?!", back to interrupting Magica, it was Lena who couldn't keep it in her head anymore. "I spend an hour with Magica to learn how to find you and you just show up like that?! Couldn't you have came in a little early?! Do you have any idea what kind of deal we made?!", she complained, ranting at him, and forcing him to do a double take on her words.

-"Not only are you a witch, but you are a sore loser. I could make my nonna's pasta with that much salt!", he mocked, doing a small laugh that almost sounded dead...like, the whole laughing part was there, but there was no spirit behind it. Just a sick, twisted glee.

-"Hey, hold it there for a minute, you're italian?", Magica asked, flabbergasted. Ah. Right. Sometimes Magica lost control of her British accent in front of Lena. Now she remembered. But really? This was the thing she asked about? Why would that matt-

-"Indeed, and my heart shall always remain there! It is why I find great pleasure and cleaning Napoli of your filth!", he growled, firing another shot which she barely avoided but backing her into the tree where her hut was located.

-"Oooh, you're digging your own grave here, you Blot! I am a proud Neapolitan, and the mere name is much more than wherever you're from!", she challenged, pointing an accusing finger as the other ducks stared at each other. They didn't know what exactly was unfolding in front of them, but it couldn't have been anything good.

-"Don't you dare insult Genova, you wretch!", he shot back, almost losing his nerves for a second before calming down. "No. I am much better than losing my nerves to a fiend like you! Prepare for justice!", he suddenly declared, and the speed of it made Magica unable to dodge the bolt he fired, punching her into Gladstone, who tried hiding behind her, and throwing the both of them into the trunk of her tree. She fell down with a hard 'crack', leaving Gladstone in a duck-shaped impression.

-"Wh-Why me...?!", he lamented before falling. The sorceress tried getting up but she limped.

-"Magica!", Lena yelled. Why did she yell? Why could she possibly yell?...Because if she dies, he's going after them. Definitely. She ran, trying to raise a shield to protect her from another, more frightening zap that would've hit her. Heck, even then, it shattered Lena's shield. Crud, this guy really isn't messing around anymore. But then a pink figure shined behind the Phantom. Yes! Webby was doing it!

-"How's this for justice!", she cried from behind him as she jumped, but he was good. Too good. He managed to spin his entire figure, raise his mechanical weapon and take a fighting pose at once, stopping his assailant's hit. Oh. This guy wasn't going to be any fun, was he?

-"You...Hah! It wasn't enough!", he bragged, pulling the battle-axe from his glove as his previous wielder suffered from the vibrations of hitting a metal. One powerful grab and swing from his glove sent Webby back to her friends, face in the dirt, and with no weapon.

-"What kind of justice are you hoping to achieve?!", cried Violet, hoping to buy them some time. It didn't work, and he only accelerated his assault, firing multiple electrical charges or whatever these were, forcing the ducks to separate.

-"Justice is not my primary concern, hummingbird. I am a criminal, after all, but if I can do my job and rid the world of this evil, then I shall take the initiative!", he calmly replied, not paying any attention to the fact that most of them were getting zapped or were running in terror. "But enough playing around, I do not wish to fail now!", he stopped, preparing what seemed to be a worse, more powerful form of his weapon.

-"Lena, do you think we can take him on?", Violet asked, trying to get them regroup.

-"Nope."

-"Webby, do you have any more weapons?", she turned to the Vanderquack, trying to assume to role of the leader.

-"Don't really think they're going to affect him.", she answered pulling out a few knives that looked like toothpicks comapred to her axe.

-"Mr.Gladstone-"

-"Don't have my luck; can't do anything.", came the reply.

-"...Magica?", she asked her voice a bit desperate.

-"My shotgun has one more round in it.", she declared, pointing it at their attacker, who finished upgrading himself and was about to shoot once again. "We're going to die, aren't we?"

-"Probably.", Lena answered her, watching the black-wearing man as he began shooting at them again.

Well. Nothing else to do but to face the music, as they say. Whoever 'they' is. And whatever that meant. And whatever that had to do with their situation. Oh, give her a break. She didn't have time to think about this fight of theirs. Magic versus one very wronged, apparently, and angry man and his technology. The fight of the century.

The Phantom versus The Sorceress. Time to see how long they can stay alive.

#ducktales #ducktales 2017 #possible spoilers #magica de spell #phantom blot #webby vanderquack #violet sabrewing #lena de spell #my writing #request #Headcanon #In which two Italians compete to see who's more Italian than the other

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multimetaverse · 5 years ago

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HSMTMTS 1x06 Review

What Team? was another wonderful ep that really dove into the found family aspect of the show. Let’s dig in!

Miss Jenn’s past finally catches up to her as principal Gutierrez summons her to face the School Board tribunal on charges of falsifying her credentials, lying on her resume, and aiding Kulak saboteurs

I absolutely loved the spectacle of the trial. There’s a time and a place for realism but no one is tuning into HSMTMTS to see an accurate depiction of a school disciplinary process; we’re here to see rousing musical numbers, loving and supportive characters, over the top drama, a bit of camp, and a whole lot of heart. Tim Federle has a knack for making a crowd pleasing series without devolving into fan service and it serves him very well this this ep. As he shared on his twitter, Truth, Justice and Songs in Our Key was meant to have a rollicking, revival style to it, and it was just the right tone for the show to take

The little details of the performance are great. Benjamin Mazzara standing off to the side on top of the stairs looking down on Miss Jenn and the drama department both literally and figuratively. Big Red for some reason wearing a red trench coat and then taking it off even and carrying it with him down the stairs, it’s a bizarre choice but Big Red is a weird dude so it works. Principal Gutierrez declaring that everyone in the dramatic arts are insane. Miss Jenn’s facial expressions when Carlos and Seb call her out for having a sketchy past and dropping the ball. Ricky’s spider man jump onto the table

Of course, in real life Miss Jenn would have been immediately fired once it was discovered that she didn’t have real credentials but the show must go on and I’d rather they dispose of this now then drag it out. Though I do hope that we get some mention of Miss Jenn having to get remedial training or something

A strong ep for Carlos. His bond with Miss Jenn is very touching and one that the show can get a lot of mileage out of in the coming seasons. Carlos’ line about Miss Jenn being the first teacher not to treat him like a punchline was poignant and there’s a lot of sad history behind that. We see a more confident Carlos this ep, building off of his struggles and triumphs in Homecoming. He boldly confronts Mr. Mazzara and blames him for ratting out Miss Jenn’s past; the whole exchange was funny especially the ‘’Carlos surname’’ line but they really need to give him a last name. His bit with Nini about the forest of boys was also hilarious

We got some nice small Seblos moments this ep. It’s still amazing to see a boy playing a female character and wearing making up and having it be no big deal on a Disney show. I liked Seb gentle chiding Carlos for not leaning on him when he found out that Miss Jenn was facing dismissal and him putting his hand on Carlos’ knee after Carlos talked about Miss Jenn being the only teacher to take him seriously. Seb also has a great voice and I can see why they promoted Joe Serafini to series regular for S2. We can see the difference it makes that Carlos now has a designated love interest, it’s not just about the ship but about the fact that Carlos has a character who is now supporting his own plot lines which makes him more important

Real sketchy of Disney to cut the scene of Seb comforting Carlos that they themselves promoted with photos on instagram and in the LA Times article about Seblos. It’s an improvement over Disney’s past cutting and editing of gay scenes before they canon but I hope it doesn’t become a habit

Some nice Nini and Seb friendship moments this ep as well. As an astute tumblr user pointed out, Seb commented on Nini’s I I think I Kinda You Know post so they’ve probably known each other for a while

We got some sweet Rina moments this ep, we’re really seeing Gina let her walls down and start to just enjoy being a part of the production. I’m glad that her alliance with EJ is finally done with, if she wanted to play Gabriella it never mattered who was Troy and at this point there’s no way Gina would try and sabotage Ricky to help EJ. I also liked that she was so supportive of Ricky throughout the ep. They have great chemistry and while disaster is looming for Rina I wouldn’t mind seeing them explored more in later seasons since we certainly won’t see Ricky and Nini together for the entire series

Nini was giving Ricky some major heart eyes this ep and is clearly not over him or comfortable seeing him and Gina flirting

Disney has officially used Rini as the ship name for Ricky and Nini so with great reluctance I am retiring the use of Nicky as their ship name

Great growth for Ricky as he goes from not really caring about the musical or taking it seriously to fighting to save it. He looked too funny in that Troy Bolton wig. He’s definitely attracted to Gina but what he actually wants to be with her, just a friend or something more remains to be seen. Gina has certainly made her intentions clear especially with all those heart emojis in her text to Ricky

Good ep for Mike Bowen as well as he shows up to support his son and also takes discovering who Miss Jenn really is in stride. Ricky seems to have noticed something going on with his dad and Miss Jenn but also seems okay with it

Mr. Mazzara had a very lawyerly response to Carlos accusing him of ratting out Miss Jenn, he didn’t actually deny it but instead shifted the blame to Miss Jenn

EJ has really fallen off since Nini dumped him. His apology was a good start to redeeming himself but even in this ep he still seems to want to work with Gina to take down Ricky so he can play Troy

It seems like every ep has been getting a little bit shorter which is something that they should reverse in S2

Looking Ahead:

We know that next ep is where Gina has her breakdown scene with her mom and we know that in ep 8 there’s an almost Rini kiss (or perhaps an actual kiss though I think it’s more likely that’s saved for the finale). What leads to the breakdown and the almost kiss will be interesting to see

They didn’t have EJ reveal that it was Gina who originally stole Nini’s phone and that coming out would be the easiest way to derail Rina but we’ll see if the show circles back to that

Is the news Gina gets that she has to move again or is it something else related to her family? We know she has a mom but we don’t know if her dad is in the picture or why she’s had to move so often. I reblogged a post earlier this week that showed scenes from an audition from a girl who auditioned for the role of Gina. They paint her mother as very overbearing and the script even refers to her as Gina’s stage mom. I’m curious to see if they’ve softened her mother at all since then. It does seem like they’ve changed Gina from being someone who has viral music posts to focus more on her dancing which likely came about because they casted Sofia Wylie and decided to make more use of her dancing abilities

Joshua Rush revealed that he auditioned for the role of EJ which doesn’t have any impact on the show going forward but is interesting news and not something I would have expected. I’m very surprised he went out for the role of EJ since he really doesn’t fit EJ as he is in the show and the original character breakdown for EJ seems to track pretty well for how he is now (though we have yet to see EJ’s panic attacks). I kind of feel like his agent let him down a bit by having him go out for EJ when he was such a long shot for that specific role, I think he would have had better odds going out for Big Red or even Ricky. He would have been 16 when he auditioned for EJ and I wonder how seriously they ever took any of the actors who were under 18 when they auditioned. I don’t think it’s an accident that they went with a then 20 year old to play EJ since it seems like the character was always intended to be a muscular hunk in the way that teenagers can’t and shouldn’t pull off

We get Mr. Mazzara and Miss Jenn stuck together for Thanksgiving. I think we’ll see him start to learn to respect Miss Jenn and I’d imagine he’ll eventually fall for her though we really need to seem him apologize for exposing her past. A Miss Jenn and Mike Bowen and Mr. Mazzara love triangle could be interesting. The Salt Lake Tribune entertainment writer wrote an article before the series premiered talking about his time as an extra during the filming of 1x10 and he mentioned that the eps performance takes place in the gym not the theatre but to reveal why would have been a spoiler. I wonder if maybe the reason is because Mr. Mazzara comes up with a way to levitate Troy and that required filming in the gym rather than the theatre

Until next week wildcats

#HSMTMTS #Rini #Rina #Seblos #Ricky Bowen #Gina Porter #Nini Salazar-Roberts #Miss Jenn #Carlos #seb mathew-smith #Benjamin Mazzara #Mike Bowen #EJ Caswell #HSMTMTS Reviews

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bechloeislegit · 5 years ago

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25 Days of BeChloe Christmases - 2019

DAY 22 - CALENDAR GIRL CHRISTMAS

Prompt comes from a Tumblr post by user rejection-isnt-failure: Chloe gets a very special Christmas gift in the mail. Suddenly, everything she knows gets turned upside down. Set after PP3. Not sure this is what you were looking for, but this is where my mind went.

It was the Monday before Thanksgiving and Beca Mitchell was nearing completion of her first solo album. She had been in L.A. for almost a year

One of her best friends, Stacie, was in L.A. to celebrate Thanksgiving with her parents. Today, Stacie and her daughter, Bella, was hanging out with Beca while Beca did a photoshoot for the cover of her album.

"I can't believe the studio thinks I need to look like this on the cover of my album," Beca said, looking at her outfit.

"You look hot, Beca," Stacie said as she rocked Bella in her arms.

"It's just not me," Beca said, pulling the front of her shirt up to get rid of the ample cleavage that was on display. "I don't dress like this on the regular. It's like putting a lie on my album. Plus, why do all these outfits show off my boobs."

"They're great boobs," Stacie said. "Plus, sex sells." Stacie reached over to pull the front of Beca's shirt back down to display more cleavage. "You want to sell the album, so the cover should be hot to draw people to it."

"Why can't they buy it because they like my music?" Beca asked. "And not because they almost get to see my boobs."

"These pictures are going to have every man and woman wanting a piece of Beca Mitchell."

"Every woman?' Beca asked with a raised brow. "I can think of one who would disagree with that."

"If she doesn't," Stacie said. "She's more messed up than I thought."

"She's not messed up," Beca said. "She's just in love with someone who isn't me."

"Why are you still defending her?" Stacie asked.

"I'm not defending her," Beca said. "She didn't know how I felt about her and that's on me. Do I love her? Yes, I do. But I never told her so I can't blame her for being with someone else. Someone who could tell her how they felt about her."

"Well, you're the only one who's not mad at her," Stacie said. "Brey is still livid. Chloe ran off with Chicago and has ignored us since. She doesn't answer calls or respond to texts. We're supposed to be family and you don't do that to family."

"We exchange texts now and then," Beca said. "She always asks about the Bellas."

"Why doesn't she answer us instead of asking you about us?" Stacie asked. "We left countless messages for her."

"In any of your messages, did you ever apologize to her?" Beca asked. "I mean, you all yelled at her and told her she was stupid for staying; stupid for leaving everything behind for some guy she just met. You all know how insecure she was about taking seven years to graduate from Barden and calling her stupid just added more to her insecurities. It's no wonder she cut off all contact after you all ganged up on her. And I can't blame her; I'd have done the same thing if you treated me that way."

"She doesn't deserve you, you know," Stacie said. "You're too good for her."

"She's still one of my best friends," Beca said. "I've accepted that's all I'll be, why can't you?"

Stacie shrugged as she had no real answer to Beca's question.

"Miss Mitchell," a voice called out. "We're ready for you."

"I'll be right there," Beca said. She looked at Stacie. "Are you coming out with me?"

"I wouldn't miss it for the world," Stacie said.

Beca checked her outfit once more and led the way to, Jason, the photographer.

"Beca," Jason said. "You look amazing. We'll take a few shots of you in this outfit and then we'll need you to change. I believe we have four outfits to get through?"

Beca nodded and the photographer smiled. "Good. Let's get started."

Stacie stood off to the side as she watched Beca being photographed. She chuckled as Beca grimaced and the photographer tried to get some decent shots.

Stacie's smile fell as she thought about what Beca had said about Chloe. Maybe Beca was right. They did treat Chloe pretty shitty at the time and hadn't apologized. No one has reached out to her after the initial attempts almost a year ago. And, Chloe hasn't contacted them, but she could understand why she hadn't. If Beca can be okay with Chloe staying behind to be with Chicago, why can't they?

Stacie knows Brey misses her best friend. Maybe it was time to reach out and try and repair the Bellas' relationship with Chloe. After all, they are supposed to be family and Bellas for life.

"What a little cutie," a woman said, startling Stacie out of her thoughts. "How old?"

"Oh, um, she'll be a year next month," Stacie said.

"She's adorable," the woman said.

"Thank you," Stacie said. She looked at the woman as an idea suddenly popped into her head. "Do you work with the photographer?"

"I'm Jason's assistant, Dana Wells," the woman said.

"It's nice to meet you," Stacie said. "I'm Stacie Conrad, Beca's best friend. And I was wondering if you could help me with something."

"I'll do my best," Dana said, checking to see how the photo shoot was going before turning back to Stacie. "So, tell me what you need my help with."

Stacie and Dana continued to talk until the photographer told Beca to change into the next outfit.

~ Day 22 of 2019's 25 Days of BeChloe Christmases ~

A week later, Stacie was back in Atlanta with Aubrey. Stacie told Aubrey about her conversation with Beca bout Chloe. Aubrey agreed that maybe it was time to contact Chloe and apologize so they could get their friend back.

Stacie also told Aubrey her idea and how the photographer's assistant helped her with it. They both agreed they should put the plan into action. Stacie pulled out her phone and placed a call to Beca.

"Hey, Beca," Stacie said when Beca answered.

"Hey, Stacie," Beca said. "What's up?"

"Brey and I were talking about Chloe," Stacie said. "And we want to apologize to her. Do you have her address? We want to send her an invitation to our Bellas Christmas Party. We know it will be short notice, but we thought that would be a perfect way to get her to visit."

"I think that's a great idea," Beca said. "Do you want me to text her about it? Give her a heads up so she has time to make plans and flight arrangements."

"Um, yeah," Stacie said. "But can I get her address anyway? We want to send her a Christmas card to let her know we're serious about wanting her back in our lives."

"Oh, okay," Beca said. "Hang on."

Beca went through her desk to find Chloe's address.

"What's happening?" Aubrey asked.

Stacie filled her in on what Beca had said and was waiting for Beca to find Chloe's address.

"Here it is," Beca said.

"I'm ready," Stacie responded.

Beca gave Stacie the address and Stacie thanked her.

"I'll text Chloe when we're done here," Beca said. "I'll let you know when I hear back from her."

A few minutes later, Beca ended the call with Stacie. She pulled up her text thread with Chloe and started typing.

Beca: Hey, Chloe. I have something to talk to you about. Can you call me? It's too long to put in a text. But, if you don't want to talk to me, I can send a text.

Beca knew that Spain was about nine hours ahead of L.A. so it was around nine-thirty at night there. She wasn't expecting to hear from Chloe until much later that night L.A. time or even the next day.

Twenty minutes later, Beca's phone rang and she was surprised to see Chloe's name on the caller ID.

"Chloe?" Beca asked as she answered the call.

"Yeah, Becs, it's me," Chloe said. "Um, how are you?"

"I'm good," Beca said, smiling. "How are you?"

"Same," Chloe said. "So, um, what's up? What did you want to talk to me about? I have to admit I was surprised you wanted me to call instead of just calling me."

"Yeah, I thought I'd let you decide if you wanted to talk to me or not," Beca said. "We've only been texting and I, uh." Beca took a deep breath and let it out. "I know I wasn't very supportive of your decision to stay in Spain. I was surprised that it was because of some guy. It's not like you to-. No, no, I'm not doing that. I miss you, Chloe, and I'm not going to say something that will have you ignore me, too."

Chloe doesn't say anything for a moment and Beca starts to panic. "Um, Chlo? Are you still there?"

"Yeah," Chloe said softly. "I let my hurt feelings keep me from my best friends; my family. It's just-" Chloe sighed. "I thought they would have been happy for me, you know?"

"I get it, Chloe," Beca said. "I do. It's just the way it all went down. No one was expecting it and I'm sorry if I made you feel bad about it."

"Thank you," Chloe said. She sniffled and said, "So, what did you want to talk about?"

"Oh," Beca said. "Right. Well, Stacie and Aubrey are extending an olive branch and want to invite you to a Bellas Christmas party they are having. It will be a reunion with all the Bellas and they want you there."

"Why didn't they invite me themselves?" Chloe asked.

"Well, you haven't been answering calls or texts from them," Beca said. "So, I told them I'd invite you so you had more time to consider it and make plans. The party is on Christmas Eve and everyone will be in Atlanta the day before and will be staying a few days after. What do you say, Chlo?"

"I don't think I can, Beca," Chloe said. "I was hoping to go home to spend Christmas with my family in Tampa, but I don't have the money."

"Oh," Beca said disheartened. "Um, I understand. I'll let Stacie know. So, do you think maybe we can talk again? I, uh, I miss our talks; I miss talking to you."

"I'd like that," Chloe said. "I miss talking to you, too. I should go; it's getting late here and I have to be up early in the morning."

"Oh, sure," Beca said. "Uh, give Chicago my best, and I'll talk to you soon."

"Definitely," Chloe said before ending the call.

Beca sighed and sat back on her sofa.

~ Day 22 of 2019's 25 Days of BeChloe Christmases ~

It was an hour later before Beca called Stacie.

"Hey, Beca!" Stacie answered enthusiastically. "You'll never believe what happened."

"What?" Beca asked.

"Chloe texted Brey," Stacie said.

"She did?"

"Yep," Stacie said. "She said she had talked to you and then apologized for not responding to calls and texts. She also said she'd like to talk to Brey sometime if Brey wanted that."

"That's great," Beca said. "Did she tell Brey she couldn't make it for Christmas?"

"Yeah," Stacie said. "We're both disappointed but at least she's reaching out. Brey wanted to call her but it's really late in Spain so I think they made some plans to call tomorrow so it's a decent hour for both."

"That's good to hear," Beca said.

"Thank you, Beca," Stacie said. "Brey won't say it, but having Chloe reach out and want to talk to her has brightened her day immensely."

"Great," Beca said with a laugh. "I guess this means I can take back her Christmas gift."

"Honestly, I think you could and she wouldn't care one bit," Stacie said with a laugh.

"I'll talk to you later, Stace," Beca said. "Give Aubrey my best."

"Will do," Stacie said.

~ Day 22 of 2019's 25 Days of BeChloe Christmases ~

A week before Christmas, Chicago was getting ready to leave for work. He opened the door to find the postman holding out their mail plus a package for Chloe.

"Thank you," Chicago said as he took the mail. "Chloe, there's a package for you."

Chicago quickly sorted through the mail and put Chloe's mail and package in one hand while he threw his mail on the small table by the door.

Chloe walked out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on a dishtowel. "What is it?"

"I don't know," Chicago said as he handed Chloe her mail and package. "I'll see you later, I have to go."

"Okay," Chloe said.

Chloe took the package and sat on the sofa. She threw the mail on the table and ripped the outer wrapping off her package; an envelope fell out. She picked up the envelope and slit it open, pulling out a letter.

"Dear Chloe,

Brey and I are sorry you won't be able to make it to our Bellas Christmas reunion. We know the girls miss you almost as much as we do. But, probably not as much as a certain Bella (and you know who we're talking about).

We know you are with Chicago and we respect your choice. But, we also know that you didn't know you had another option to choose from. Beca was going to confess her feelings to you but was a few minutes too late. Instead of finding you to make her confession, she found you kissing Chicago.

Enclosed is a Christmas gift from us to you. Just look at it and I'm sure you'll figure out what to do.

Hope to see or talk to you soon. We do miss you, Chloe.

Stacie"

Chloe tossed the letter down on the table and picked up the wrapped gift. She held it in her hands before ripping the paper away.

"Oh, um, wow!" Chloe muttered when a picture of Beca in a red plaid shirt, and all but two buttons undone, came into view. She always loved seeing Beca in those plaid shirts.

Chloe flipped a page and realized it was a calendar and all the photos were of Beca. She flipped through each month, biting her lip when Beca looked hotter and hotter in each one. Some of the outfits did not look like something Beca would wear, but she did look good in them.

"Oh, my God," Chloe said and swallowed when December's photo was of Beca wearing a black blazer and what looked like nothing underneath. She was sitting on a stool, her bare legs crossed and one high-heeled shoe hanging from her toes. It oozed sexuality.

Chloe closed the calendar and then opened it back to December again. She closed it and threw it on the table.

Chloe ran both hands through her hair and looked down at Beca staring up at her from the cover of the calendar. Chloe fidgeted in her seat and ran her hands up and down her thighs. She reached for the calendar again, only to pull her hand away.

She bit her lip and whimpered slightly as she thought about some of the outfits Beca was wearing.

"What is happening to me?" Chloe thought to herself.

~ Day 22 of 2019's 25 Days of BeChloe Christmases ~

The next day, Chloe couldn't stay away from the calendar. She'd hide it away and like a magnet, it kept drawing her to it. She'd open it and slowly go through each month, biting her lip and feeling herself getting somewhat sexually frustrated. Her frustration was heightened when she got to December. There was something about that picture and the playful look on Beca's face, combined with that outfit. Oh, my God!

Chloe was seriously considering taking care of herself when she heard Chicago's keys in the door. She threw the calendar in the drawer and covered it with some of her clothes. She closed the drawer and ran out to greet Chicago.

Chloe threw herself into Chicago's arms and kissed him passionately.

"Chloe," Chicago said pulling his mouth from hers. "What are you doing?"

"I need you," Chloe growled.

"Chloe, stop," Chicago said. "I don't know what is causing you to be this way, but you need to stop. I already told you I wasn't going to do the friends with benefits thing with you. I have a girlfriend and doing this will just make things worse."

Chloe got an embarrassed look on her face. She backed away from Chicago with her hand to her mouth.

"I, I'm sorry, I don't know why I did that," Chloe said before turning and rushing into her bedroom.

Chicago let out a sigh and ran a hand through his hair. He pulled himself together and went to the kitchen to get something to drink.

Chloe threw herself on her bed and let out a shaky breath. She knew what she did was wrong but she was so worked up that she couldn't help herself. Truth be told, she was still worked up so she gathered a change of clothes and went into the bathroom to take a shower. A cold shower.

~ Day 22 of 2019's 25 Days of BeChloe Christmases ~

Things weren't any better for Chloe the next day. She managed to stay away from the calendar but she had the hottest photos memorized and kept daydreaming about Beca being there with her. She no longer had a song as her lady jam; Beca's pictures were all she needed.

Chloe doesn't embarrass easily, but she found herself blushing when she heard Chicago come home just after she had finished taking care of herself while thinking of Beca. She rushed into the bathroom to wash her hands. She came out and could hear Chicago in the kitchen; it sounded like he was making dinner. She returned to her room and flopped back on her bed.

As soon as dinner was ready, Chicago knocked on Chloe's door.

"Hey, Chloe," Chicago called through the door. "I made some pasta and it's ready if you're hungry."

"I'll be right out," Chloe called back.

Chicago went back to the kitchen and set the table. Chloe came out a few minutes later.

"Thanks for making dinner," Chloe said as she sat down.

"No problem," Chicago said.

Chicago and Chloe ate without speaking. Chicago broke the silence first.

"So, do you want to talk about why you attacked me yesterday as soon as I walked in the door?"

"Oh, God," Chloe said. "I'm so embarrassed and so sorry I did that. Stacie and Aubrey sent me a Chrismas present and it kind of turned me on."

"What was it?" Chicago asked with a laugh.

"A calendar," Chloe said. "Of Beca and she looked hot."

"Oh," Chicago said, grinning. "Can I see it?" He waggled his eyebrows.

"No, you perv," Chloe said, slapping his arm and causing him to laugh.

"That hot, huh?"

"Yes, it was that hot," Chloe said.

"Are you going to go for it when you get home?" Chicago asked. "Tell Beca how you feel."

"I want to," Chloe said. "Stacie's note said that Beca was going to confess that she had feelings for me, but, I, uh, I kissed you first."

"Sorry," Chicago said with sincerity, but couldn't help the smile that came to his face. "It was a hell of a kiss though."

"It was," Chloe said. "I need you to know that I'm not sorry for our time together. I am sorry that it didn't work out the way I thought it would."

"I am too," Chicago said. "But, you were honest with me and I got a really great friend from it. So, when do you plan to tell Beca everything?"

"When I see her," Chloe said. "I just wish I knew when that would be."

Chicago wiped his mouth and got up. "I think I can help with that," he said as he walked to the table by the door. He had an envelope in his hand when he got back to the table.

"Here," Chicago said as he handed the envelope to Chloe. "Merry Christmas."

Chloe took the envelope and opened it. She pulled out what was inside and looked at it; she gasped.

"Chicago," Chloe said surprised. "You got me a ticket to Tampa?"

"I know you've been saving up so you could go home, but haven't saved enough yet," Chicago said. "And I also know that you want to see the Bellas again, so I got you a ticket home so you can be there for Christmas. It's one way by the way."

Chloe smiled at that and said, "You know I love you, right?"

"I know. And, I love you, too."

"So, you won't be mad if I exchanged this for a ticket to Atlanta?"

"We can do that right now," Chicago said, grabbing his laptop from the counter and sitting back down at the table.

Chloe got up and hugged the man. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Chicago said.

Chicago quickly did some checking and was able to change the ticket to Atlanta. "Done. You now fly out to Atlanta in three days. I'll help you box up your stuff you're not taking with you and ship it to your mom's for you."

"You're a good guy," Chloe said. "And I'm glad we can walk away from this as friends." Chloe grinned and added, "I bet your girlfriend won't be too upset to see me go."

Chicago laughed. "The one-way ticket was her idea."

Chloe let out a laugh as she sat back down to finish dinner.

~ Day 22 of 2019's 25 Days of BeChloe Christmases ~

Chloe nervously bounced her leg up and down as they got closer to Atlanta. She had already been en route for over fourteen hours, and she had been too keyed up to sleep for more than a couple of hours.

The captain made an announcement about descending and landing soon. Chloe only half heard what was said. All she could think about was seeing Aubrey, Stacie, and Bellas.

"Who am I kidding?" Chloe thought. "I'm scared to death to see Beca. What if Stacie was wrong? What if Beca only likes me as a friend?"

While Chloe was lost in her thoughts, passengers were already blocking the aisles and exiting the plane. Chloe remained in her seat until there were only a few passengers left.

Chloe slowly made her way off the plane. She dragged her carryon behind her and got on the escalator heading down to the baggage claim. She felt as if someone was staring at her and as she lifted her head, her eyes locked on those of her best friend, Aubrey. Tears filled Chloe's eyes as she continued to maintain eye contact.

Chloe ran straight into Aubrey's arms as soon as she cleared the escalator. She dropped her bag as her arms moved to pull Aubrey into a hug. The two friends stood, holding each other, mumbling, "I'm sorry" and "I miss you."

After a few minutes, Aubrey pulled back, wiping her tears, and looked at Chloe. "You look amazing, Chloe."

"You're not looking so bad yourself, Brey," Chloe said, wiping her tears as well.

"Let's get your bags," Aubrey said.

~ Day 22 of 2019's 25 Days of BeChloe Christmases ~

The next morning, Stacie was pacing back and forth in the kitchen while holding Bella.

"Babe, you're going to wear a hole in the floor," Aubrey said from the counter where she was cutting up fruit and putting together platters for the Christmas Eve brunch.

"I want to see Chloe," Stacie said. "It's been so long."

"I know," Aubrey said. "But it was a long journey for her to get here and she didn't get any sleep on the plane. Let her be and you can wake her up around eleven before the girls start arriving for brunch."

"Fine," Stacie said and stopped pacing. She put Bella in her high chair and asked, "What can I do to help with brunch?"

Aubrey and Stacie had been working together for two hours when Chloe appeared in the kitchen.

"Chloe!" Stacie squealed, running over to hug the half-asleep redhead.

"It's good to see you, Stacie," Chloe mumbled against Stacie's shoulder. Chloe pulled back from the hug and looked past Stacie. "Bella!"

Chloe hurried over to the young child. "You are so adorable! Oh, my gosh, you guys. She is just the cutest. Can I hold her?"

"Sure," Aubrey said.

Chloe took Bella out of her chair and put her on her hip. She kissed Bella's forehead.

"Hey, Chloe, I'm sorry I haven't apologized for being such a bitch to you," Stacie said. "It was unfair of me, of us, to dump on you for staying behind with Chicago. Brey told me you guys broke up. I'm sorry."

"It's okay," Chloe said. "I understand. Let's just forget it and move on. I've missed you and the girls so much."

The doorbell rang and Stacie and Aubrey looked at each other.

"It's only ten," Stacie said. "Someone's super early. I'll get it."

Stacie left to answer the door and Chloe asked Aubrey if there was coffee.

"Beca," Stacie said, answering the door. "You're early. Why are you early? You're never early."

"I have a birthday present for Bella and wanted to give it to her before it got too crazy," Beca said.

"Her birthday isn't for a week," Stacie said.

"I know but I won't be here," Beca said. "I'll have to get back to L.A. for New Year's Eve. Where's Aubrey?"

"Um, she is in the kitchen," Stacie said. "Before you go in there, I have to tell you something."

"What?"

Stacie told Beca about getting some of the photos from her album cover photoshoot and making them into a calendar and sending it to Chloe.

"Why would you do that?" Beca asked as she stormed into the kitchen. "Aubrey, did you know about this calendar that Stacie sent to-. Oh! Um, Chloe, I thought you couldn't make it."

"My plans changed," Chloe said, bouncing Bella on her hip.

"I'll take Bella," Stacie said. "You two might want to talk and catch up."

"Thanks, Stacie," Beca said, glaring at her.

"Oh, wait here," Chloe said and rushed out of the kitchen.

"Was she talking to me?" Beca asked.

"I think she was," Stacie said.

"Why didn't you tell me she was here?" Beca asked.

"She wanted to surprise you and the girls," Aubrey answered.

"Where's Chicago?" Beca asked.

"It's in Illinois," Stacie said, laughing.

"Haha," Beca deadpanned.

"He's still in Spain," Aubrey answered, slapping Stacie's arm.

"What happened?"

"We broke up about six months ago," Chloe said, having heard the last part of the conversation. "It's okay. It was mutual. We both had feelings for someone else. We're friends now."

"Oh," Beca said. "Friends."

"Yeah," Chloe said. "Friends. Like you and Jesse after you broke up. We still care about each other but there's nothing romantic there."

"So, who's the new person you have feelings for?" Stacie asked, smirking.

"Well, it's not really a new person, per se," Chloe said. "This should answer the question," Chloe said, holding out the calendar for Beca to see.

"Stacie!" Beca said, flipping through the calendar. "Why would you send this to her?"

"I'm glad she did," Chloe said. "My memories of you were fading just a bit, but these photos brought them back and for that, I will be forever grateful. They're really hot!"

"I, uh, I don't understand," Beca said. "You, um, you liked the pictures."

"Mm-hmm," Chloe said, moving to stand in front of Beca. "Actually, I liked who was in the pictures. And I have to say, seeing the real thing is even hotter."

"Oh, um," Beca cleared her throat and blushed.

"So, I'm not going back to Spain," Chloe said, offhandedly. "I'll probably move back in with my folks in Tampa until I find a job or something."

Stacie and Aubrey were smiling and shaking their heads at Beca's obliviousness.

"Really?" Beca squeaked out.

"Yes," Chloe said. "But, before I make a decision I was wondering if you still had the outfit you wore for December? I'd love to see you recreate that photo for me. It's my new lady jam."

Stacie snorted and turned her head into Aubrey's shoulder to keep from laughing out loud at Beca's reaction.

"Your lady jam?" Beca said, confused. "But that's when you-. Oh!

Chloe got a predatory look on her face and moved closer to Beca. "I heard a rumor that you might like me."

"You did?" Beca said, looking over at Stacie and Aubrey before turning her eyes back to Chloe.

"I did," Chloe said, now standing so that she and Beca were almost nose-to-nose. "I hope it's true because I really, really like you."

"Really?" Beca squeaked out and tried to step back, but was up against the counter and couldn't.

"Really, really," Chloe said and pressed her lips to Beca's.

A moan or whimper escaped from Beca but she pulled Chloe closer and deepened the kiss. The kiss ended and Beca swallowed and looked around before looking at Chloe again.

Beca smiled and leaned in to kiss Chloe again. Chloe pulled out of the kiss and stepped back a few inches.

"So, Beca Mitchell, would you want to go out with me sometime?" Chloe asked.

"What are you doing New Year's Eve?" Beca asked. "And how do you feel about coming to L.A. to celebrate with me?"

Stacie and Aubrey's mouths fell open; it was a bold move on Beca's part.

"I'd love to spend New Year's Eve with you in L.A.," Chloe said and gave Beca a quick peck on the lips.

"Oh, my God, you two," Stacie said rushing to pull them both into a hug. "This is so exciting. I'm so happy for you!"

"Thanks, Stacie," Chloe said and winked at Stacie, adding, "And thanks for sending the calendar."

Beca rolled her eyes and blushed. Chloe laughed and pulled her into another quick kiss.

"I should go shower and get dressed," Chloe said. "Before the girls get here."

Chloe started out of the kitchen when Beca smiled and asked, "Need some help?"

Stacie grabbed Beca by the back of the shirt. "Oh, no, you don't. You can help us get ready for the girls to arrive."

They could hear Chloe laughing as she continued toward the guest room.

"Oh, I almost forgot," Beca said, pulling out an envelope out of her purse. "This is for Bella's birthday."

Stacie took the envelope and opened it. "Beca? What is this?"

"I started a college fund for her," Beca said. "I figure it's never too early to start, right? And I put your names on the account so you can manage it."

Aubrey looked over Stacie's shoulder. "Beca, that's very generous of you. Thank you."

~ Day 22 of 2019's 25 Days of BeChloe Christmases ~

Several hours later, the Bellas were sitting around the living room, much like they did when they were still at Barden.

Chloe was snuggled up to Beca with her head on Beca's shoulder. Emily was sitting on the floor in front of Chloe, leaning against her legs. Flo and Fat Amy were playing bartender. CR was sitting on the floor, holding Bella who had fallen asleep. Jessica and Ashley were sharing a chair. And Stacie was sitting on Aubrey's lap in the other chair.

"So, Chloe," Fat Amy said. "What are you and Beca now?"

"Um, we're dating?" Chloe said, looking at Beca.

"I prefer something a little more exclusive, like girlfriends," Beca said, causing Chloe to pull her into a hug and kiss her.

"I knew it!" Emily squealed.

Chloe ended the kiss and said, "Girlfriend? I like it."

"You're her lobster," Jessica said and everyone laughed.

"Merry Christmas, my lobster," Beca said, smiling as she kissed Chloe.

"Merry Christmas, my lobster," Chloe said, smiling into the kiss.

#bechloe fanfiction #bechloe #beca mitchell #chloe beale

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thephantomofthe-internet · 6 years ago

Text

Rock You Like A Hurricane

Stripper!Billy Hargrove x Reader

Summary: On the whims of a drunk group of bridesmaids and the bride to be, you went to Studz and found your own Romeo...too bad you already knew him.

Word Count: 2,772

Warnings: swearing, drinking, sexy dancing (is that a warning? idk), minor sexual implications it’s not graphic and i’m a little baby at this so be gentle with me

Author’s note: so did I reach 1.2k? No, but Tumblr is trying to censor safe sexuality and I want to see how far I can go writing wise before I start making plans. If this gets flagged, I will make an AO3 and give y’all the user so we can keep getting weird, ya know? Anyway, hope you like this mess! I tried 😫😫😫

Permanent Tag: @hotstuffhargrove @hargrovesgoldilocks @denimjacketkisses @lilmissperfectlyimperfect @casaharrington @moonstruckhargrove (you ain’t usually on this tag but...I LOVE YOU AND WANT YOUR LOVE) @thechickvic @alex--awesome--22

FEEDBACK APPRECIATED AND ENCOURAGED!!!

Your cousin Elizabeth was getting married. Twenty-three years old, barely out of college, and engaged to the richest guy you knew. Your mother was never going to let you hear the end of it. You and her were the same age and practically grew up together and your mother believed that she was the standard every girl should live to. She was pretty, decently smart, and popular. She was a high school cheerleader, an honour roll student; she volunteered at animal shelters and had just graduated from college with a degree social work. You were a mediocre student, a college dropout, and, thus far, a failed actress. You were a failure of a daughter and your mother had seemingly given up on you.

So when Elizabeth asked you to be one of her bridesmaids, your mother wouldn’t hear the end of it unless you said yes. You agreed, begrudgingly, dropping too much money on a magenta taffeta nightmare to wear once and answered every upset phone call from the anxious bride to be. You had been given the highly important role of planning the bachelorette party. Naturally, the large hoard of rich North-eastern girls were only coming to you for this because you lived in LA and they were ready to bask in the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, refusing to believe that you didn’t actually live at its centre. And so Elizabeth dragged Vivian, Olivia, Kimmy, Maria, and Amber to your shit hole apartment and tried to not complain about it or your plans, although they were already over it and you before the clock struck eight.

You had decided on one thing and one thing only-you would not take them to a strip club. You’d go anywhere else-tourist traps, filthy clubs and bars- you’d even sneak them onto a movie set if it meant the whole thing would be over sooner. Just no strip clubs.

And you didn’t take them to one. Elizabeth’s maid of honour, Vivian, dragged you all out to the nearest club, advertising the hottest guys in town. You were forced into what was perceived as the hottest dress you owned, a short neon nightmare you bought in college, and pushed out the door despite your pleas. You didn’t want to be in a grimy strip club, certainly not with your cousin and her bridesmaids, all various degrees of drunk.

And Studz was not a nice club. If you had wanted to take them to a club, you would’ve taken them to a Chippendale’s, it would have at least been cleaner and a bit busier. Inside the dingy club, with its sticky tables and tiny stage, you were one of three occupied tables. Vivian had chosen a table at the front of the stage, a prime location for viewing the milk crates the club was calling a stage, but the other two parties seemed intriguing.

One was filled with what you could only assume were regulars, an intriguing mix of tough looking women with buzz cuts and sour expressions guarding a trio of grinning, excited boys each with their own sense of style, all of which your mother would’ve called feminine or, as politely as she could, queer, and your father would’ve called…well, you wouldn’t use that word.

The other table was a group of nervous looking women, all old enough to have children old enough to at least in middle school and surrounded by tall orange drinks, which you’d guess were ‘Sex on the Beach’es, knowing the fruity gradient well enough from the drunk barely-legals who came to your bar. They all seemed awkward and embarrassed, the same feeling you felt sitting in the dark room where drinks were twice as expensive and the music blared in your ears. You might’ve been able to handle it if you weren’t forcefully decked out in bachelorette party gear bought angrily by Olivia, peeved that you hadn’t bought any for the group. You had on a white sash which read in glittery pink text ‘I’m the single one’, advertising you like a prime piece of real-estate and not a broke loser. You felt silly and sad, you wished you had just put your foot down and said no. But still you stayed, nursing an insanely overpriced jack and coke through a penis shaped straw, listening as the girls chattered on.

“So anyway, Y/N, this is how you throw a bachelorette party! We want Lizzie to be surrounded by insanely hot dudes for one more night before she ties Stevie down forever. One last night of sexy adventures for our gorgeous bride to be!” Vivian declared cockily, pointing at the giggling Elizabeth, already drunk from the giant Cosmo in front of her and the five jello shots she’d taken at your apartment, the one thing you’d done right so it seemed.

“Whatever you say…” you muttered, rolling your eyes as you spun the melting ice around in your glass. Suddenly, the lights in the bar dimmed impossibly further and the stage lights flashed on, first in a spinning disco ball of bright rainbow coloured lights.

“Alright ladies, let’s give a big welcome to Armando!” the announcer slash bartender called from the microphone on the rail, barely looking up from his copy of Proust. You clapped politely as the bridesmaids cheered, though not as loud as the mismatched table, where the boys of the group lit up like Christmas trees and hollered loudly. The sultry, sticky sounds of Def Leopard’s Pour Some Sugar on Me blasted from the speakers. A larger man with a beautiful tan stepped on stage. He wasn’t exactly rippling in muscles, but he was fit and his fade was lined up nicely. He was dressed as a construction worker, complete with a hard hat. He looked confident, but you could see the Vaseline he’d used to define and brighten his abs caking in between the muscles; most men would’ve used baby oil, but he was trying to appear fitter than he actual was and the trick seemed to work, Kimmy, Elizabeth’s childhood best friend was already openly drooling over him.

His set was awkward and jerky, you were certain it was one of his first shows, and he tended to rely on pelvic thrusts instead of a variety of moves. When the bar cut the song, you were able to count the money he’d earned sitting sadly on the stage floor.

The rest of the numbers were about the same. Next came Carlos, who the back table seemed to be a big fan of. One of the boys, decked in a bedazzled muscle tank, screamed out “I love you Carlos!” in a feminine voice with a slight Puerto Rican accent, clapping above his head. Then Julian, Stefan, Emilio, and Cole all decked out in various ‘sexy’ outfits; poor Emilio was stuck in a weak Native American costume as though he was a member of The Village People. The whole thing was embarrassing and awkward but as Elizabeth and her friends got drunker and drunker, they seemed to enjoy it more and more. Poor Maria had seemingly fallen in love with Stefan and, after running a shaky hand over his greasy, hairless chest, declared that she wanted to have his baby and spent all her cash on him. When he didn’t come around after his set, she pouted and drank more to fill the void.

Then, everything got improbably darker. At one point, Vivian had snuck off to talk to the emcee and returned with a smug, proud smile, which worried you. You were the only sober person left in the group and thus the babysitter of the girls, watching drinks and keeping hold of those drunk enough to pounce on a dancer.

“There’s a bachelorette party in the house!” the emcee called, earning polite claps from the other tables and hoots and hollers from the girls surrounding you. “Well, we have a treat for you! Welcome to the stage, Romeo!”

First, in the darkness, someone brought out a chair and when the lights came up again, The Divinyl’s I Touch Myself began to blast out of the speakers and out from the sparkling red curtains came a man dressed in leather chaps, the most attractive of the group. His back was to the audience, his muscular legs and butt on full display, his right hand reaching up to the microphone descending from the ceiling, taking it easily.

“I’d like to invite the lovely bride to be up for a dance.” He said huskily and your heart stopped. You knew that voice, it stuck in your brain like a thorn. Billy Hargrove. You should’ve recognized him from the still present mullet. But how could you? Why on earth would you believe him to be anywhere near you, in the Valley of all places? Elizabeth was being forced to her feet by Vivian; this was obviously her master plan from the start to give her dear friend one last thrill.

But this thrill was unwanted, as it seemed. Elizabeth was trying very hard to force her thin wrsit out of Vivian’s grasp and begging anyone nearby to help. Naturally, you jumped into action, pulling Vivian away from her.

“Y/N! Y/N I can’t do it! I don’t wanna cheat on Stevie! I don’t wanna do this!” she cried, tears welling in her bright green eyes. You nodded, taking her hand, and squeezing it in your own.

“Okay, okay sit down you don’t have to. We’ll go home, okay? We’ll go, just calm down.” You said sternly as she nodded, teary eyed.

“Don’t ruin the fun, Y/N.” Vivian said crossly, scoffing at Elizabeth’s tears. “Here, if you’re so hell bent on being the centre of attention, you go.” Before you could even try to retort her idea, you were being pushed to the stage the girls were screaming with delight. Billy was looking down at you with a smirk and a hand extended to you. When your nervous expression met his confident leer, his smirk dropped away.

He recognized you.

You and Billy weren’t exactly friends in high school. He’d come to Hawkins, Indiana in your second last year of high school and joined your graduating class with all the anger and hatred of a boy forced out of his home. He took that anger out on anyone who didn’t play his games and you weren’t one to play along. It was all because you wouldn’t do the entire English project you’d been assigned his partner for. You wanted to split the work even, he wanted to do nothing and get a great grade. In the end, he got a shit grade and tormented you for the rest of high school. It wasn’t as bad as what he did to nerdier kids, who’d get pushed around and the shit kicked out of them for the entire year while he was there. Your torment matched Steve Harrington’s; sure he mostly left you alone, but he definitely made his mark on your mind. He called you Blow Pop for a whole year, based on the baseless rumour that you’d sucked off your gym teacher, Mr. Carlson, who while being a young, hot man was a notoriously easy marker and not worth sleeping with to get a good grade. Although in retrospect, that was probably the kicker of the whole rumour. Your reputation was ruined for the rest of school and even now the kids of Hawkins, now adults, still knew you as Blow Pop.

And you hated him for it, the whole thing left a sour taste in your mouth. He was so hot, you noted it the second he arrived, but his attitude was so awful that it ruined the rest of him. And once you were Blow Pop, you lost all interest in him, no matter how tight his jeans were.

You wanted to run, but you couldn’t abandon the drunken girls cheering you on, so you used his hand to pull yourself onstage and saunter over to the chair. “Well, come on Romeo, give me a show.” You said through a gritted smile, taking your seat in the chair. Billy nodded, matching your uncomfortable expression.

He started into his number, pulling off his ridiculous leather vest, throwing it offstage and revealing more of his well oiled chest. He rolled his body, running a hand up his chest and through his hair, running his tongue over his lips with a smirk. You watched the girls as they hollered, sticking dollar bills into the waistband of his chaps, lapping up his attention. This continued for most of the song, thrusting and grinding into the open air, ripping off the legs of this chaps, revealing his black jockstrap and earning whoops from the whole bar. You wanted to laugh at the whole scene, to find it awful and gross, and it kind of was; here was this guy who ruled your high school dancing in front of you for cash. But mostly, it was hot. Like, really, really hot. He was honestly too good at this, it made the back of your neck sweat and your nerves burst into flames. You mind ran wildly with dirty images and thoughts you couldn’t get away from if you tried; rationale wasn’t quelling the fire he’d lit in your stomach. He only turned back to you when the coda hit, lip-syncing along with the words. He rolled his lips over yours, straddling you gently and running his hands over your arms, bringing your hands to touch his chest and abs.

“This is really weird…” you muttered, more to yourself than him, letting your smile drop away into a look you hoped didn’t come off as completely lustful and desperate, hoping he’d either stop or finally touch you. Of course, he did neither.

“It’ll be over soon, just till the last chorus, then you’re free.” He replied softly, thrusting into you gently. “Just touch my abs, it’ll give your friends something to laugh about and earn me better tips.”

You obeyed, running a hand over him as he got up, coming behind you to give this look of longing in your reach. You let out a heated sigh, which was mostly fake, letting your head lull to the side as you sighed, earning a scream from Elizabeth, who’d long stopped crying.

“You’re really sticky.” You whispered and you swore for a brief moment, Billy broke, his smirk turning into a tiny smile he was working hard to hold back. He came back around, pulling your hands to rest on his hips as he went back to thrusting and wriggling. You chuckled “And you’re wearing glittery eyeliner, what a treat I’m getting today.” Just as he was about to stand, the song coming to an end, you ran your ring finger up his spine. He shivered involuntarily, his gaze coming back down to you, quirking his eyebrow.

Billy didn’t like that you were here. He didn’t like that he was dancing on you. And he certainly didn’t like how absolutely gorgeous you’d become. Sure, he remembered you well enough from high school, but if he hadn’t? He probably would’ve taken you home and screwed your brains out. It left this uneasy tension for the whole dance. Usually, he’d focus on the bride to be, but with you being so…different and obviously not being the bride herself, he found himself keeping a distance to keep him professional. But he couldn’t stop the shiver when you touched him on your own. And you noticed, you smirked at him liked you’d found some secret trick. He wanted so badly to wipe that smirk off your lips.

You shrugged easily as he looked at you curiously, standing as the song ended and pulling the wad of dollar bills Amber had given you from your bra, handing it to him easily as you walked off. You jumped off the stage, grinning as your fellow bridesmaids screamed, coming to hug you and grab your arm, declaring that he was so hot.

“Come on girls, my hands are all sticky now, let’s get out of here.” You said, pulling your purse off the back of the chair, walking off towards the exit. For a brief moment, you looked back, desperate for another look.

Billy was already gone, much to your disappointment, it was as though you’d dreamt him and you’d wake up at home drenched in sweat and soaked. He might as well have puffed into a cloud of smoke and glitter and vanished, the chair was gone too. But you knew it happened. And you felt so stupid-you’d just been played by a stripper.

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