#like I get she set it up to be speak now tv revel and that’s the only function it serves

[francisfordcoppolasdracula1992]

I can’t believe I gotta be the hater but that music video was horrendous

[racergirl-112]

Push Me Over - Chapter 2: Down Bad

MDNI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Content: Adult, Smut Warnings: mentions of orgasms, vibrators, language

A few days later

After a few days of shooting the main cast, Dani was finally making her debut on set. She had spent the morning in her trailer in hair and make-up and now was finally in her costume, the form fitting spandex, being more revealing than she thought. She heard the call over the radio of her assistant Kayla, that it was her time. 

“Are you ready?” Kayla asked. Dani nodded her head. Kayla replied to something over the radio before walking Dani to the main soundstage where they would be filming today. 

While they were on break from a scene, Ryan and Shawn were looking over some footage while Hugh scrolled through his phone. He had been divorced for a week and he and his ex hadn’t announced it yet, but he had people asking what had happened. He wasn’t really to ready to talk about it yet, nor was it anyone’s fucking business. He just happened to glance up as he saw Dani walk on set. The black spandex suit they had her in was hugging her curves and made her breasts prominent. He couldn’t pull his eyes away or stop the erection growing in his suit. She’s young enough to be your kid… 

Filming had wrapped for Dani for the day and she had gone back to her trailer to de-compress for a while after getting out of her costume. After being around Hugh all day in that suit and how it hugged all the right parts of his body, she needed to get away and fast. She pulled up the internet and searched his name. His filmography as well as his theater accolades popped up immediately, followed by his personal life. It said he had been married to a fellow actor for more than two decades and they had two kids. Her heart sank at reading that, but was happy to see a man in Hollywood stay loyal to his wife. 

At that new revelation, she grabbed her bag to leave and go back to the condo they had her staying at during filming. She put her headphones in and Push Me Over by Maren Morris began to play. Some of the lyrics being very prominent of how she had felt all day on set with Hugh. She began to hum then started singing out loud, closing the trailer door behind her and not paying attention to her surroundings. As she turned to leave, she ran into a body. It took a minute to register who it was, but when she saw the yellow and blue, her heart began to race. 

“Um, hi,” Dani said, embarrassed. 

“Hi darlin’,” Hugh answered. “You leaving for the day?” She nodded her head yes, taking her headphones out and putting them in her bag. 

“Yeah. Thought I’d go back to my condo, order some food and binge watch some tv. What about you? What are you doing at my trailer?” 

“Damn, are you always this questioning?” he asked, his eyebrow raising. Dani mentally added that to the on-going list of hot things this man did. 

“I was just asking a question,” she replied sarcastically. 

“I was going to tell you how great of a job you did today.” 

“Thank you?” she questioned. “I guess you haven’t seen my great background work prior?” The smartass smile on her face, making Hugh turned on as hell. 

“Damn sweetheart, you are a smartass. Didn’t your parents teach you to be nice?” 

“Not to strangers,” she smirked. 

“How about we fix that? Want to grab coffee sometime?” Hugh asked. Before she had a chance to register what her mind was thinking, she said it out loud. 

“No offense, but aren’t you married? I don’t want any headlines about me being a homewrecker.” That comment took him aback just by the look that came across his face. 

He closed the space between them and looked around before he spoke. “I’m actually divorced. It was finalized last week, but I haven’t told a lot of people. So, no sweetheart, I’m not married.” She felt like someone had sucked all the air from around them and they were outside. His face was inches from her’s and god did she want this man to kiss her. 

“Well, um,” she felt like she forgot how to speak. “I’m sorry. I know I don’t really know you, but if you do want to talk about it, I’m more than happy to listen. I’ve got to get going though.” 

“I’m going to hold you to that sweetheart,” he replied, his words sending shivers down her spine. 

After getting out of his costume, Hugh got back to his flat, throwing his stuff on the table. He wasn’t sure what the fuck had happened today, but he had been ready to fuck Dani into next week. He grabbed the bottle of Whiskey from the cabinet and poured himself a glass, replaying what had happened. Sure he had had eyes for only his wife for the past 27 years and had done countless love scenes with other co-stars, but there was something about Dani that made him want to break all the rules, especially the one where she was the director’s niece. He downed the whiskey and let the burn flood him as he closed his eyes, thinking about Dani. 

She had been semi right when she told Hugh, she wanted to go back to her condo and eat and binge tv. The food part had been right, but after their little conversation outside her trailer, she found herself using her vibrator to get her off while thinking about Hugh. How she wanted his muscular arms to wrap around her while he made love to her or fucked her into next week. Honestly, she didn’t have a preference. The more she thought about him, the quicker it got her high and soon she was reaching her orgasm. How the fuck was she supposed to stay away from him?

[writeaboutit]

Veiny Hands? Yes Please

Ellie teaches you how to play her favorite video game

Idk what this is i just wanted to write something so here you go 🤲 also this is very much not beta read so sorry for mistakes i’m dyslexic don’t blame me

You shoved your keys in the lock to your front door sighing with exhaustion. The day was long and you didn’t get enough sleep last night and the only thing you wanted to do right now was snuggle up on the couch with Ellie and take a nap.

Speak of the devil, you find her sitting on the couch playing some war video game when you walk down the entry hallway.

Ellie pauses the game as she hears you come in and gets up to great you, “Hey baby,” she places a kiss to your temple as you set your bag down on the kitchen island, “How was your day?”

You huff in response to her question. You dealt with idiots all day, that’s how it was. You save your frustration though, wanting to let it home now that you are in your peaceful home with your peaceful girlfriend. No sense in tainting your favorite place with the negativity from earlier.

You turn to face her, “It was fine just long and i’m tired. How was yours?” You smile up at her, just the sight of her calming you.

“It was good. Hey how about you go upstairs and change and I’ll make us a snack and then we can chill on the couch, hmm?”

You nod already heading for your bedroom. You needed to get out of these work clothes immediately. And what did you say you wanted: a nap on the couch. Your girlfriend knew you so well.

You change into some leggings and one of Ellie’s tshirts before heading back downstairs where Ellie has made a bowl of popcorn and gotten you a glass of diet Coke, yes your favorite

She’s sitting on the couch scrolling on her phone waiting for you. You hop onto the couch snuggling into her side before she can have time to register that you are even in the room.

“Well hello,” Ellie giggles at your sudden appearance as you throw both you legs over her lap and lean your head on her shoulder.

“Hi,” you press a kiss to her cheek and revel in the fact that she blushes just slightly. You love when you can get her all flustered.

She rolls her eyes at your knowing smirk and asks, “So what do you wanna watch?” She leans for the remote on the coffee table but you stop her with a hand to her chest, “You can keep playing the game I just want to lay here.”

“Baby I don’t mind we can watch something,” She insists.

“I know but I wanna watch you play,” you tell her honestly. It’s kinda hot watching her kick ass in her video games. Not to mention the whole veiny-hands-on-the-controller thing.

“You sure?” Ellie tried to confirm one last time. You laugh and nod returning to your earlier position on her lap.

She leans back placing her arms and hands over your thighs and focuses on one the game.

You’re not sure how much time has passed but she’s played a few rounds by now. You’ve found yourself tensing when the fights happen and growing frustrated right along side Ellie when she dies and has to start the level over.

She’s in the middle of the battle with some giant cyborg dude. She gets in a couple shots and the robot stumbles, “Yeah get him baby!” you cheer sitting up straighter, focus honing in on the tv.

She shoots the guy a couple more times and he falls to his knees before faceplating.

“Fuck yeah baby!” You grab her cheeks and leave a firm kiss on her lips.

She smiles as you pull back, “You’re really getting into it,”

“I don’t know the storyline is just interesting. And that dude was a major ass hole.” you feel shy at the sudden attention on you. You normally don’t care about video games but you haven’t really sat down to watch them either.

Ellie laughs at the blush you know is staining your cheeks if the heat you feel says anything.

“You wanna try,” she holds the emote out to you.

“I don’t know the first thing about playing this game,”

“I’ll teach you. And look,” she turns back to the screen and flips through what looks like some game setting, “There now it’s set to easy so it won’t be has hard when your learning the ropes,” she holds out the remote and you look at it hesitantly, “Come on baby you’ll love it.” Ellie urges.

You sigh and take the controller. You are interested in the story and Ellie loves video games so much it’s just another thing you guys can do together.

“Okay show me what to do,” You settle further into Ellie’s side so she has access to show you each button on the remote.

She points out what each one means and the corresponding shape. Something about L’s and R’s… you’re not really sure but you have a great time nonetheless.

It takes a couple of tries for you to start getting the hang of it but by round three you get a couple of shots on the guys who are supposed to be hunting you. You cheer each time you hit one and Ellie reminds you that they are still coming before you focus back in on playing.

You play for a while, Ellie watching you and giving you advice when needed. You can feel her eyes on you face as you play but you ignore them, that incessant blush creeps back up.

Finally, you hand the controller back to Ellie growing board of playing the same round over and over again, not able to kill the group that is coming at you before they get to you.

“You did good baby,” Ellie praises as she switches the settings back to hard.

“Thanks,” you lean back to place you head on her shoulder once more watching her hands on the remote, this time paying more attention to what buttons she hits.

You do, however, clock the veins running along the top of her hand and her forearms. Who could blame you? After all your girlfriend is hot.

How do we like? This popped into my head a few days ago so I thought what the hell 🤷‍♀️. Anyway if you have any writing prompts or ideas for me let me know because i’m in a writing slump fr! Thanks for reading <3

[whitestopper]

Bisexual media

Note: This should not be taken as a declaration of quality or my personal likings - I haven’t fully (or even at all) consumed the media below. Not all of the shows focus on a bi protagonist but all do have at least one bi main character; a summary of main initial plot is provided. I will edit this post with updates intermittently.

TV Series

The Bisexual (2018) - Leila explores her attraction to men after identifying as a lesbian alongside her girlfriend and friends for the past decade, while her new roommate tries to get a grip on his relationship with a younger woman.

Black Mirror’s San Junipero - Yorkie meets Kelly in the strange setting of San Junipero. What’s the deal with this place, and what can make them stay?

Bob and Rose - Bob is gay. Rose has a boyfriend. Can I make it any more obvious? (I can - they find that they’re attracted to each other and deal with the implications and expectations of that.)

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend - Rebecca pursues her ex-boyfriend in the hopes of finding happiness. With a drastic move to West Covina, will she learn what happy feels like?

Cucumber - Henry’s life is upturned in one evening, then another, and then some more, while boyfriend Lance and new acquaintance Freddie come to terms with the present and the past.

Everything Now - Newly out of recovery from anorexia, Y11 student Mia is determined to complete her bucket list and be seen as normal.

Feel Good - Mae and Charlotte navigate a relationship challenged by Mae's drug addiction and Charlotte's new sexual discovery.

High Fidelity - Young record store owner Rob revisits her past relationships in order to sort out her singledom.

Kieta Hatsukoi - Aoki lies about having feelings for classmate Ida to protect the feelings of his crush Hashimoto. But misunderstandings and revelations cause a hullabaloo.

Torchwood - this Doctor Who spin-off features a collection of characters solving alien crimes.

Movies

Appropriate Behaviour - Brooklyn dweller Shirin deals with her ex-girlfriend, family expectations, job struggles and more.

City of Lost Souls - a German musical exploring the experiences of LGBT people, black people, Jewish people and immigrants in post-WW2 Berlin.

Disobedience - Ronit returns to her old Orthodox Jewish community after her father passes away, having been shunned for not adhering to cultural expectations.

Shiva Baby - While at a Jewish funeral service with her family and community, college student Danielle navigates an awkward situation with her sugar daddy and her ex-girlfriend.

Books (Admittedly, I do not read nearly enough so in addition to my own suggestions, I'd like to recommend @the-bi-library!)

Fiction

You Could Be So Pretty (Holly Bourne) - In a world not too unlike our own, where girls and women can be Pretties or Objectionables, what will schoolgirls Belle and Joni make of their lives under the Doctrine after an incident brings them together?

Your Driver Is Waiting (Priya Guns) - Damani, a RideShare driver, falls hard for a white upper-class girl, but she's been grieving her father, caring for her mother and dealing with the ever-growing tension from protesters across the city. When Jolene acts with massive consequences, what will Damani be pushed to do for herself and her community?

Non-fiction

In The Dream House (Carmen Maria Machado) - Machado goes through her volatile relationship with The Woman From The Dreamhouse, intercut with musings on pop culture and history.

Strong Female Character (Fern Brady) - famous in British comedy circles, this autobiography follows Brady's life growing up in Scotland as an autistic woman.

You're Embarrassing Yourself (Desiree Akhavan) - from the Creator of The Bisexual and Appropriate Behaviour, this autobiography covers Akhavan's life as a bisexual Iranian immigrant.

Bisexuality research/history/essays

Bi Any Other Name: Bisexual People Speak Out

Bi: Notes for a Bisexual Revolution

Bi: The Hidden Culture, History and Science of Bisexuality

The Bi-ble Volumes 1 and 2

Claiming the B in LGBT - Illuminating the Bisexual Narrative

Go the Way Your Blood Beats - On Truth, Bisexuality and Desire

A History of Bisexuality

Purple Prose - Bisexuality in Britain

Music (This is for songs which are outright bisexual, not just songs inspired by bi experiences or by bi artists. Also, no Sweater Weather.)

Alicia Champion - Bi

Ana Carolina - Homens e Mulheres

Ani DiFranco- In or Out

Anne Marie - Perfect to Me

Bali Bandits - Girls & Boys

Book Of Love - Pretty Boys and Pretty Girls

Cariño - Bisexual

Christina Aguilera - Not Myself Tonight

Delli Boe - Bisexual Problems, Bisexual Problems 2

Demi Lovato - The Kind Of Lover I Am

Domo Wilson - Becoming Myself, Bi Pride, Bisexual Anthem

Halsey - Alanis' Interlude, Bad At Love

HOUSE OF SAY - Boys Girls

Jão - Meninos e Meninas

Jesse - Girls & Boys

Jessie Paege, Lucy & La Mer - Not a Phase

King Kitty - Bisexual

Megan Thee Stallion - Captain Hook

MIKA - Billy Brown, Blame It On The Girls

Miley Cyrus - Midnight Sky, She's Not Him

Missy Higgins - Scar

Mitski - Cop Car

Peaches - I U She

Peter Allen - Bi-Coastal

Poppy - Girls In Bikinis

Torrey Mercer - Boys / Girls

Ysa Ferrer - To bi or not to bi

[railroadmike1]

Brainwashing a cute little sub, turning her into a brainless dumb doll.

A friend asked me to brainwash his younger sister she just turned 18, and was a bit of a bratty snob. She is cute little looking for her age but has some amazing features. So I was invited to spend the night and it was at around 4 AM that this plan of action took place.

First she always slept in the nude fully nude, so it was great, wireless earbuds were placed in her ears, her legs spread wide and secured into place. her arms were next spread wide above her hear to the bed post's. next a blindfold was added to cover her eyes. we knew she had always wanted to suck a mans cock so a penis gag was slid into her mouth and strapped into place. Next very carefully I added a vibe belt to her tender virgin pussy. everything was in place the nipple clamps would come later. then an elastic head band one size too small for her was placed around her head to keep the ear buds in and to prevent them from falling out.

It was set the ear buds recording started at a low hum of soft relaxing music very zen like. started to play in her ears the vibe came to life low humming she started to rock to the feeling of the vibe about that time I removed all of her blankets reveling her clad tiny naked body with her ample DD45 Boobs, her hips rocking to the vibe and then like a crack of thunder my spiked flogger swung in the air and made contact with her boobs she awoke right away un able to move bound to her bed as she was. the remote on the vibe went to full power as she attempted to cry out in fear, the large penis gag kept her mouth full. the ear buds stopped playing music and was replaced with my voice she settled down long enough for me to speak.

Trinity, I said, Happy 18th B-day, 18 years of annoying other people like they say karma can be a bitch now you will learn to submit and be my brainless mindless cute little dumb doll, But first lets erase the past 18 years. something that will make you go insane is the first step then denied orgasms' followed by sexual over stimulation to your entire body from breast beatings to pussy punches to whatever it takes to make you submit. So lets get started less talk more action so the first step mental reprograming we start now.

I turned off my voice and at the max volume setting static sounds from an old TV pre recorded for 1 hour followed by 5 min of my voice stating what she is (you are nothing but a mindless brainless doll who will submit. then back to the static for another hour. During this time her pussy vibe was on at max setting when I saw she was about to cum it was turned off for 3 min then back on. This process lasted for 2 full days no food or water.

The gag was removed and replaced with a head harness open mouth gag, My cock slid in past her teeth and deep all the way in her throat her tongue was happy to taste something other than rubber. I strapped her head to my waist so she couldn't pull away, it was at that time I decided she needed some proper fluids so I gently relaxed and pissed deep down her throat. she tried to fight it but soon she stared to gulp it all down as she did I patted her head turned the audio down and spoke to her (Good Little dumb slut). She swallowed all of my piss, she then started to lick my shaft hard for the next 30 min I couldn't pull out of the ring gag as the ring is smaller than my cock, I soon came hard as my cum was shot down her throat she did her best to keep my cock hard, I think she figured I couldn't get free so she decided to keep me in place. that was till I was ready to stand up I undid the straps around my waist and she kept her mouth sucking my cock there would be time for this again soon.

I then needed to stand up so I did wat was needed within reach was a collar I locked it to her neck, and spoke to her stop sucking my cock or you will get some serious pain. she ignored me as she now know I was stuck so she kept sucking my cock and made me cum again, this was the only meal she had in two days and once I came down her throat it was my turn to have some fun and pressed a button on a small had device that sent electrical volts into her neck as her throat spasmed my cock slid out of her gag. my fist laded perfectly on her nipple and straight to the base of her chest. 12 more boob punches in her soft flesh then the static and audio recordings started along with my flogger beating her well shaven pussy.

I got a bit hungry and turned everything on her to max settings and left her there for the rest of the day, As her mind slowly drifted away from her, as the static got louder her mind starting to go blank and the dildo gag back in her mouth.

.........................................................................................................

If you would like to know the next part comment on this post I do enjoy writing. This is a fictional story the names of the people is simply put fantasy, but also based on the real life bdsm devices and creations I do in real life. I have not acted out this scene with anyone yet, If you are 100% female and want to try some of my ideas in person please let me know. And I hope you like this first part again if you would like me to write anothe part just ask me to :-) Be well all.

-Master Mike-

[ingravinoveritas]

Radio silence from both Georgia and Anna with the occasional bs post from Anna about her “Mama’s Mabli Moo”. Wonder what they’ll do when the press tour begins. More specifically when Michael and David go on that show on Monday and everyone goes insane over them

Oh, so very much to unpack in such a brief period of time! Yes, we are finally getting Michael and David back together on a TV interview and I, for one, could not be more ecstatic.

To your points, Anons #1, I did notice that, apart from the Insta post you mentioned, Anna has also joined Threads. And now we also have the story that @phantomstars24 mentioned, and I just...

I do not at all believe it's a coincidence that she joined Threads when she did, just four days before Michael and David were to start doing interviews together. (Interestingly, Georgia does not appear to be on Threads, which is likely because she has other actual things to post about now that Staged has ended, whereas AL does not.) My supposition is further bolstered by AL's Insta story, which is a clear effort on her part to remain relevant, despite the fact that no one is going to be interested in this once tonight's One Show interview airs.

(Also, on what planet is any of the above "dirty talk"? Is this supposed to be a callback to/flat-out copy of Georgia's screencap of her text conversation with David about breakfast? Because it's not even close and the cringe is next level. At least we know she stayed in Wales this time...)

That said, whatever we are in store for on The One Show, it is most definitely going to be extraordinary, and the talk of social media. We know that Michael is going to be the champion of all things Ineffable Husbands and give us all sorts of feral, brain-breaking moments, but I have a feeling that it's David who is going to be the real revelation this time around. We've already gotten these eye-opening quotes from him in SFX magazine:

And given how vulnerable and open David has been lately, it would not be at all surprising to see him open up further around Michael. He and Michael are even closer now than when the first season was filmed, and we will no doubt see it reflected in their rapport, and in how happy and relaxed they are around each other. (Dare I also add "in love"? I don't think we can rule it out. And if there’s even a hint of that, it’s going to be plainly visible, and it won't just have to do with the characters...)

Which then brings us to the clipping that @feuerkindjana has helpfully shared, and that I think really sets the tone for today's interview. I recently talked on my blog about how Michael was saying four years ago that the lines between the character and real life were blurry for him, and now it's four years later and he's saying that is even more so the case than before.

"Everything that has happened in-between plays into coming back to these characters. I am sure it is all feeding into it."

This mirrors what I've felt for some time now, which is that the relationship between Michael and David has and did inform the relationship between Aziraphale and Crowley in season 1, and now that is doubly true for season 2. And Michael is telling us this, is blatantly saying that what we will see on screen this time around isn't just the characters--it's him and David, and what we're going to see absolutely would not be what it is if it weren't he and David together in these roles.

But it's the last sentence in the clipping above that really gets me:

"It's very difficult for us to know how that is informing the characters and their relationships."

"Very difficult for us." Us. Not him. That alone makes my heart ache, because it reinforces Michael's previous remarks about not seeing his role of Aziraphale as independent from David as Crowley. It's that he's speaking seemingly for David, as if he doesn't even have to think twice about this being the way David feels, because he absolutely knows it is.

It's also how the "us" evokes the feeling of what we will now see in season 2, with Aziraphale and Crowley being on their own side, and echoes what David said in the article quotes above. That they are relying on each other in a way neither of them expected, and more than they would care to admit. That, taken together with Michael's comments just completely and utterly wrecks me a little. (Or a lot…)

So yes, given all of the above, I think we are in for an incredible time on the One Show today. I've had folks DMing me about all the emotions that this day is bringing up, and I can't help but think that if the prospect of them being together again is making us weepy, how must it be affecting Michael and David. Truly, I have no doubt we will find out once the show airs, and I am beyond excited to watch...

[greer-morgan]

When the Sky Comes Down | Self-Para

July 23, 106. Launch day. Morning.

The TV droned on quietly in the background as seconds ticked by, inching closer and closer to noon when the Games would start. Greer could feel each one of them somehow moving in both slow motion and hyper speed. She was curled under blankets as a pair of pre-Games commentators rambled their thoughts and predictions, filling the final stretch of time before the launch. They talked of the Arena first—what they’d like to see and how different Arena types would influence the dynamic of the group of tributes. Then, they talked of the tributes themselves, starting at District One and making their way down the line.

As Greer lay in bed, in the familiar comfort of one of Mahlon’s t-shirts, she thought of what he must be doing. He was probably already in his uniform. Maybe a stylist was still checking it over to make sure everything looked and fit the way it was meant to. If she knew him at all, she thought he was probably giving that stylist a hard time about it too. Maybe by now he was getting his first set of instructions to get into position—most likely that claustrophobic little tube that would trap him inside and raise him up to his pedestal. Or maybe it was some other sort of vehicle that would deliver him. Maybe it was a rollercoaster cart or a cage ready to be lowered into water. Whatever it was, the thought made Greer’s heart race, hammering frantically against her ribs at a rabbit’s pace.

The room was cloaked in darkness, with the shades down and the lights off. The world was entirely shut out, but even here in her solitude, Greer plastered on a mask of stoicism to cover her terror. There was a certain sense of stillness here, far away from wherever people were undoubtedly reveling in excitement. Which was why she was so startled when the glow of her phone screen cut through the darkness, and it buzzed noisily on the end table. She almost didn’t answer, but she found herself reaching for the phone half worried that whoever it was would just keep calling. She couldn’t turn it off—not once the Games had started.

“Hello, I’m calling for Greer Morgan?” The voice on the other end chirped.

“This is her speakin’,” Greer answered, her voice sounding distant even to her own ears.

“Hi, Miss Morgan. This is Diana from the Tower Medical Center. We’re giving you a call to discuss the results of your blood work. I know it’s a busy day, but do you have a moment to speak?”

In the chaos of the last few days, Greer had nearly forgotten she’d even gone in for it. It had been all of twenty minutes a few days before while the tributes were in their private training presentations. She hadn’t even mentioned it to Mahlon when she’d gone. It was just a quick blood draw to check if anything was out of whack. If maybe all these sudden dietary restrictions were finally catching up to her, causing some deficiency that would explain her unrelenting fatigue that had been getting worse by the day and was getting harder to blame on stress.

“Oh, right. Uh… yeah, why what’s goin’ on?” She asked, shifting to sit so she could find a bit of focus to spare on the conversation instead of the screen—Kedzie and Levi’s faces plastered behind the commentators.

“Well, according to your results, a few key nutrients are at the lower end of the normal range, but it’s nothing you need to be overly concerned about yet. It’s also probably not the reason you’ve been feeling so exhausted,” the nurse explained.

“Okay, so then what is goin’ on?” Greer snapped, growing impatient with the way this conversation was drawing itself out.

“You… are pregnant, Miss Morgan,” Diana announced cheerfully, forgiving Greer’s frustration. “Congratulations! And you can rest assured that fatigue is a very common symptom in early pregnancy, and it’s usually nothing at all to worry about.”

There was a long stretch of hesitation before Greer finally broke the silence with a sound that was some indecipherable cross between a barked laugh and a strangled cry. “That’s-” she started, but she couldn’t quite follow the thought to its end. “I can’t- I’m not- No. Y’all must’ve made some kinda mistake, or you read somethin’ wrong.”

Suddenly, the room was a vacuum completely devoid of air. She couldn’t be pregnant. Not now, when Mahlon was about to be thrown into the Arena, and the entire country seemed to be on the precipice of something unknown. She needed him here to make sense of this with her, and the realization that he couldn’t be here seemed to crash down on her with a renewed sense of urgency. She was fairly sure that neither of them wanted kids, but had they ever actually talked about it in any meaningful way? Did her feelings change with the understanding that Mahlon might die without ever knowing the piece of him she carried with her now? The questions squeezed like a vice in her chest, and Greer wasn’t sure if she’d ever felt a pain quite so intense before.

She wanted to hear him say that they would figure this out together, and that whatever choice they made would be the right one. Greer just wanted him here to hold her. Instead, she swallowed down the guilt and the wave of nausea that welled up inside of her. She swatted away the tears that pooled against her lower lashes and replaced her mask of stoicism, a thousand emotions falling away to be replaced by a feeling of numbness that she knew how to handle.

“It’s not a misread,” the nurse assured Greer, her seemingly unwavering positivity cooling slightly. “You’re definitely pregnant. So, at this time, you’ll want to go ahead and follow up with an OBGYN off-site to continue prenatal care, and you’ll want to make sure to start on a prenatal vitamin as soon as possible.” Just as quickly as it had subsided, the woman’s enthusiastic attitude returned, “Congratulations again and enjoy the launch. Happy Hunger Games!” The line clicked softly as the call ended, the phone slipping from Greer’s hand and landing with a muffled thud against the mattress below her. Greer lowered her body to the mattress alongside it, collapsing back into the pile of blankets.

Slowly her gaze refocused on the TV screen as Mahlon’s picture stared back at her. “Last but certainly not least is Mahlon McCreary of District Twelve, and he will be one everybody will be watching,” one of the commentators crooned. The other nodded emphatically. “He’ll be divisive, that’s for sure. You either love or hate to see someone like McCreary back in an Arena, but you know it’s going to be a good show.”

“Absolutely, absolutely. I personally like to see someone who can outsmart an Arena, but I know you love to see a tribute who’s willing to muscle their way through.”

“I do. You know I do. I’m excited to see what he’ll bring to the table this time around… or in his case, the platform.”

“Me too. It will be quite the show, I’m sure. And with that, folks, it’s time to turn it over to the live cam. Without further ado, we introduce to you all the 136th Hunger Games!”

[basedkikuenjoyer]

Followup from my other one. This time, I’d like to plug nine more obscure or underappreciated series that I very much enjoy. Some of these are only in manga form, and some might require one to sail the high seas so to speak. But like...this is a niche Tumblr blog and I feel like my vibe was pretty indie already so have fun with it!

TOP LEFT - Attack no.1: This one is probably the hardest sell which is a damn shame. It’s a series from the 60s, there are pretty good fansubs out there but the manga has never been translated to my knowledge. Attack no.1 is one of the most important anime of all time, a volleyball shoujo made in the wake of the Japan Women’s team bringing home the gold in the 1964 Olympics. That sounds pretty mundane now, and a lot of it would feel that way on casual glance today too. But...it was the first. First shoujo sports series and really one of the earliest that wasn’t a kiddie magical girl show. Big, big deal that aired in primetime. Completely unafraid to touch on misogyny, racism, cold war tensions, and being one of the only anime I have ever seen call out Japan’s erasure of the disabled point blank. You’d also see the birth of so many sports anime tropes, but they make perfect sense couched in this epic that ties Kozue’s journey from middle school superstar to Olympian together with this saga of Japan undergoing massive social change. Can’t say enough good things about this one, it’s dated but still amazing. It also has this like, oddly hardcore edge to it. Kozue ain’t called “oyabun” for nothing.

TOP MIDDLE - Glass Mask: One of the bestselling shoujo series of all time. Still need to finish this one but as a former theatre kid I love it. Same format as so many others, rivals and challenges and meeting true companions...but the theatrical nature makes it feel so classy. Melodrama in the best way possible.

TOP RIGHT - Rose of Versailles: Yeah, it’s another one of the most legendary shoujo of all time. Lady Oscar, raised as a man and this captain of the guard added into the backdrop of the French Revolution. Is it entirely historically accurate? No, but still uses enough legit detail you’ll walk away with something. Beautiful, timeless. Oddly enough one of the first anime I got into outside of what I could find on TV. The one that kicked off a fascination with the history of anime and manga. A lot like Glass Mask, you’re getting a big, sweeping romantic epic. Both in the lovey-dovey and literary sense. Bara wa bara wa...

MIDDLE LEFT - Kanojo ni, Naru Hi: Or literally “The Day He Became She.” Figured fans of a blog that ostensibly started about Okiku might like some other good stories that use trans themes. Short but has good scans for it and the sequel series. Starts off a little weird but opens up a few chapters in and makes sense. Set in a world where physically transitioning can just...happen to some boys in order to keep balance. That’s just an excuse to handwave away the stupid points people get hung up on, which leads to the real strength of the series. Said this about Kiku, this is one of the few times I’ve seen a trans narrative that deals with “what comes next” so to speak. Also an amazing romance story in its own right that follows the Kare Kano tradition of getting the couple together early and letting them face hurdles as a pair.

CENTER - Kyou Kara Yonshimai: “Four Sisters, Starting Today.” Short series that executes a simple premise. Starts off as a family of three sisters buzzing with excitement to see their sole brother for the first time in two years. You can guess from the title what change makes for the inciting incident. What I like about this one is how well it executes; all four sisters shift believably around this new revelation. While it doesn’t sugarcoat friction it may cause in families, it’s always from a place of love. At the start, they’re all in proper “roles” for their family order. By the end, they’ve all followed their new sister’s example and ended up finding out where they fit in the best.

MIDDLE RIGHT - Full Moon wo Sagashite: This was like, the seasonal flash in the pan of 2004. Almost immediately forgotten when it ended but well liked at the time. It was the first series I pirated off of BitTorrent...over dialup internet. Patient process of letting it run overnight, took about two weeks for a 4 episode batch. Worth it, cute magical girl idol series. Not an uncommon blend. Centered around the hook of its young protagonist Mitsuki having cancer. Not afraid to be tragic underneath the sugary exterior. Songs are fun too. 

BOTTOM LEFT - You’re Under Arrest!: This one is deceptively good, think of it as a precursor to the “cute girls doing cute things” genre from the early 90s. But it’s about adults which is incredibly refreshing. Focuses on a pair of traffic cops, so its like a really petty police procedural. One of the major supporting characters Aoi happens to be that classy trans girl archetype a certain samurai we like here fits to boot! Comfy hand-drawn animation that sticks to the episodic format. A fluffy sitcom that can spruce it up with a little action when it wants to. 

BOTTOM MIDDLE - Paradise Kiss: Kinda forgot until I was writing this that it’s another one with a good incidental trans character in the main group. Unique series about haute coture fashion design. Ended up doing the same thing as Yu Yu Hakusho where it trying to be modern when it came out ended up making it a great period piece for the 00s. Fun cast, lots of pretty visuals, the fashion world is enough to keep things interesting given it’s a short series. Love the ending theme for the anime, funky animatic to a Franz Ferdinand song.

BOTTOM RIGHT - Lupin III: Does this count as obscure in the West? Even when it was on Adult Swim it was always late in the block. Never hear people talk about it but I’ve always loved the tales of the gentleman thief. Lupin, Jigen, Goemon, Fujiko, and Zenigata. You only need five main characters for such a massive franchise. The James Bond parody Austin Powers wishes it could be. Funny as hell and has delivered so many good emotional stories hidden in there to boot. A true classic. “Rose & Pistol,” or “Shot Through the Heart” in the English dub, is absolutely burned into my brain.

[wolfys-blorbo-mansion]

Ronnie and Rosalyn's Timeline (WIP)

Okey-doke, I decided to make a timeline of events involving Ronnie and Rosalyn, as if they were actual characters and not OCs. This took me a bit to put together, so I hope you like it! (Dividers by @firefly-graphics, Red Harpy fan art by davyonmartz on Twitter/X [Warning: 18+ Content])

1991

Ronnie Banner makes her comic debut as a newborn in Incredible Hulk #379. She is the result of the pregnancy revealed in Incredible Hulk #342. While Betty is discussing trying to process Bruce's new form as Merged Hulk, she mentions that his presence could be threatening to their newborn daughter, Ronnie.

Ronnie was born with green wings from Betty's previous mutate form, Harpy. At first, Bruce was shocked at the revelation of being a father, and feared that Ronnie would grow up to be just like him with an uncontrollable alter-ego, or that he'd repeat his father's past sins of alcoholism and abuse. With the support of his associates, Bruce was able to set his fears aside and be a good father and role model to Ronnie.

1993

After the events of Future Imperfect, Bruce began to fear becoming like Maestro, his evil future counterpart, and showed signs of instability when referring to himself as "Hulk" or "the Hulk" instead of "Bruce." This fear would get the better of him as it affected the time he spent with Ronnie. Eventually, after Ronnie's second birthday, Bruce reached a breaking point and decided to entrust her to his cousin, Jennifer Walters, aka She-Hulk.

2001

Rosalyn Sharp makes her comic debut in Umbra #1. Initially depicted as a no-nonsense mutant working for SHIELD. Her powerset consists of dark energy manipulation, invisibility, intangibility, flight, fear inducement, healing, and peak human condition.

Her backstory was revealed in the next issue; she was born in Atlanta, but was given up once her parents found out she was a mutant. She was then adopted by a seemingly benevolent family, only to later find out that they were working for an evil organization that would exploit mutants. Rosalyn would find out the truth when she turned 16, and unleash her untapped potential under a moment of extreme distress, destroying the facility.

This event gained the attention of the X-Men, who took Rosalyn in and trained her to better control her powers.

2005

Ronnie gets her own comic series called Hardy Hulk Girl. The first issue establishes the concept of a now 18-year-old Ronnie, and how she balances her school life with her hero life, which she adopted when she was 15. Her human form gained more attributes of Harpy such as more pronounced canines, the ability to shoot concussive energy blasts, and nails that could sharpen into claws. While her wings are normally hidden in human form, they will spread if she needs to fly or whenever she gets startled or angry.

As Hulk Girl, her wings and claws remain unsheathed, her forearms and calves become feathered, and she gains birds' talons (similar to the above picture, but more reminiscent of She-Hulk). Her strength and durability increases drastically from base form to Hulk Girl form. In dire situations, she can tap into a primal rage and become Savage Hulk Girl, further increasing her strength and durability at the cost of her intelligence.

Despite the fact that Hulk can speak, albeit in broken English, Savage Hulk Girl hasn't spoken, and is confirmed to not be able to speak. This is mainly because Savage Hulk Girl's personality is heavily based on the Hulk from the late 70s-early 80s TV show. Much like him, Savage Hulk Girl has a childlike personality, acts on either instinct or emotion depending on what triggered the shift (Savage Mode can activate regardless of Ronnie's form), and only communicates in growls and roars.

While Bruce's personality shifts are a result of his DID, Savage Hulk Girl's personality shift is due to Ronnie's mind kicking into overdrive due to multiple stressors. Since Savage Hulk Girl is still Ronnie at her core, she doesn't mind being called "Ronnie," unlike Hulk, who hates being called "Bruce" or "Banner."

2008

The Incredible Hulk is released in theaters. While not as popular as Iron Man released a month prior, one of the hottest conversation topics about the movie was the addition of Ronnie. People praised Bailee Madison's performance as Ronnie, calling her "adorable" and "charming."

2012

Marvel's The Avengers releases to critical acclaim. Some changes between the canon Avengers and this version is that Bruce and Rosalyn (who made a cameo in the post-credits scene of Captain America: The First Avenger) have a few scenes together, hinting at a possible romance. During the scene where Bruce hulks out on the Helicarrier, Rosalyn attempts to calm him down. This seems to be working, but it gets interrupted by a helicopter shooting at the Hulk. When he falls to Earth, Rosalyn ends up following him.

There's a deleted scene where Rosalyn tells Bruce about her backstory, which follows her comic origin for the most part, but instead of being taken in by the X-Men, she gets taken in by SHIELD.

2014

A sequel to The Incredible Hulk is released. This time, the movie focuses on Ronnie and her struggles. The plot kickstarts once Ronnie is sent to a summer enrichment program, and has to create a prototype for a device that could improve the world. Ronnie creates a gamma-powered Arc Reactor, inspired by her dad and Tony. While Ronnie is participating in the program, she befriends a young boy by the name of Christopher and quickly finds out that he has cancer.

Prior to Ronnie's presentation, an unknown entity sabotages the Arc Reactor. The presentation starts off normally, but once Ronnie tries to demonstrate the Arc Reactor's capabilities, it is set to explode. Everyone manages to get out safely, but once Ronnie notices that Christopher is nowhere to be seen, she heads back in to try and save him, despite the protests. Before they can escape, Ronnie and Christopher take the full blast of the explosion. Ronnie's frustration at the presentation being sabotaged combined with being bathed by lethal amounts of gamma radiation transforms her into She-Hulk for the first time (the name She-Hulk was used for Ronnie's alter-ego since Jennifer Walters doesn't exist in the MCU, therefore there is no risk of confusion with the names).

Upon recovering from her rampage, Ronnie finds out that Christopher died due to the blast expediting his cancer. Bruce decides to train Ronnie in controlling her anger and eventually transforming at will, but Ronnie is against using her new powers and tries to find a way to repress her emotions in order to prevent any accidents.

Meanwhile, it's revealed that the person who sabotaged the Arc Reactor was Samuel Sterns, who now goes by The Leader. As shown in the previous movie, after a drop of Bruce's blood entered an open wound in Sterns' head, his intellect increased dramatically, at the cost of his morals. His plan was to kill Ronnie as a revenge plot, but it ended up backfiring when Ronnie turned into the She-Hulk.

The final battle would focus on the Hulk fighting one of the Leader's lackeys, Crusher Creel, aka the Absorbing Man. At one point, Creel would get the upper hand, causing Ronnie, who was watching the fight as it was happening, to hulk out and assist her father.

Once the fight ends, Ronnie feels a bit more comfortable with her powers, but not to the extent of Bruce. The idea being that later movies would have Ronnie grow more as a character and accept She-Hulk as a part of her.

2015

Avengers: Age of Ultron is released in theaters. The plot is roughly the same as canon, with a few differences. For starters, Bruce and Natasha are not in a relationship, and Hulk turns back to Bruce in the first scene due to Ronnie's presence.

During the party, Natasha flirting with Bruce is replaced with Ronnie getting to know some of the partygoers, such as Sam, as well as Bruce and Rosalyn keeping their distance, since they're not the biggest fan of parties. When Ultron attacks, I vividly remember a brief bit where Bruce falls face first into Natasha's boobs… yeah, that's getting omitted. Instead, Ronnie runs into Bruce, and they tell each other not to turn green.

She-Hulk goes on a rampage in Johannesburg due to Wanda's mind control and has to be stopped by Hulk and Tony in his Hulkbuster armor (called Jughead here, since Veronica is Ronnie's full name).

After this display, the Avengers go into hiding at Clint's farm. The bedroom scene where Natasha tries to convince Bruce into running away with her is replaced with Ronnie doubting her status as an Avenger.

Bruce is captured by Ultron, but can't hulk out and escape since Ultron gave him an ultimatum: "If I even see a speck of green on you, I'll make sure you never see your daughter again." Once Ronnie finds out about Bruce's capture, she manages to face her fears and hulk out to save him.

Hulk and She-Hulk join the final fight against Ultron, and Rosalyn attempts to calm the two down once the fight is winding down. However, they get attacked, knocking out Rosalyn and She-Hulk (she's still inexperienced, therefore she's not as powerful as her father). Hulk takes Ronnie and Rosalyn to safety and tosses the Ultron clone out of the Quinjet. Here, Hulk does listen to Ronnie and turns it around, since if he left, he would break Ronnie's heart again, and he didn't want that.

At the end, Ronnie confronts Wanda and berates her for her actions. She ends up nearly killing her until Bruce and Clint intervene. They tell Ronnie that even though she still has ill-feelings towards Wanda, they're on the same team now, so she should at least tolerate her. Ronnie begrudgingly agrees, starting an interesting relationship with Wanda.

[blogger360ncislarules]

Scott Patterson returned to The CW this week with the series premiere of Sullivan's Crossing, playing the role of Harry "Sully" Sullivan.

TV Fanatic got the chance to chat about the actor's return to the network, the complicated dynamic between Sully and his daughter, Maggie, and finally getting to work with Chad Michael Murray.

Check out snippets of our chat below.

Returning to The CW

Patterson returned to the network after starring on Gilmore Girls and 90210.

The actor fondly remembers being on the network in 2006 while starring on Gilmore Girls when the network launched.

He says being part of the relaunch is interesting because he believes the network is not messing around now.

"They're a big network getting respect now," he noted, adding that The CW is now in many more homes.

"You can feel the difference, too. It feels like a weighty, large network now with real resources, so it's very exciting to join them as Nexstar's taking an ownership position."

"It's just a wonderful family to be a part of again, so I appreciate it."

Patterson praised Sullivan's Crossing showrunner Roma Roth because she made the series collaborative, asking his opinion on storylines and more.

"That's never happened to me before. That's kind of a rare thing in this business."

He believes Roma is approachable because she gets to know everyone she works with.

"You're a human being; you're a real person with a brain and heart, and she wants to hear you."

Working With Chad Michael Murray

Scott and Chad worked together on Gilmore Girls but never got to share the screen.

Now, they're working together.

Scott always wanted to work with Chad, so hearing he would be a part of Sullivan's Crossing made it easier for him to say yes to the show.

"We have a great working relationship. He's a very talented guy, and what I love the most is that he knows how to be in front of the camera."

"He's very relaxed. He's very confident and has a real ease in his approach to Cal, which is wonderful to work with and watch."

"As actors in an ensemble, we all need to know our roles. We need to know what we're being asked to do."

"He understands what he's being asked to do. A lot of people misinterpret what they are being asked to do and do something different."

"They have to be told that's not what you're being asked to do, but he's got a real emotional intelligence as a person, and he puts that into his work, so it's great reconnecting with him and working with him."

"I hope we get to do more and more scenes together."

A Fractured Relationship Between a Father and Daughter

Patterson says his attraction to the show was the dynamic between Sully and Maggie.

"It was that estrangement and the potential of coming back together," he shared, adding that the only way these two can find common ground is if they confront their own issues and deal with their own demons.

Sullivan's Crossing Season 1 Episode 1 showed just how far apart Sully and Maggie are, setting the stage for plenty of drama throughout the season.

I noted that Sully seems afraid to reconnect with his daughter and wondered whether he maybe felt like she abandoned him for the big city and whether he believes that there are some things he could have done better to maintain that father-daughter relationship.

"I think all of the above. At times, he did feel like she abandoned him."

"He's not willing to admit that he probably had something to do with the fracture of their relationship and the breakup of his marriage."

The biggest shocker on the premiere found Maggie learning that she and the hospital were being sued for malpractice.

Before that revelation, Maggie believed returning home was a bad idea and was gearing up to leave, seemingly without saying goodbye.

"This is an emotional rollercoaster for both Maggie and Sullivan. When they come together, it's combustible. When they're apart, they're exploding all by themselves."

He believes this serves as the spine of the series.

Scott said the show will make all of the characters face their demons as Sullivan's Crossing Season 1 progresses.

"One of the show's main themes is you're watching these characters heal. They come to Sullivan's Crossing to heal themselves or to have experiences that are going to force them to look in the mirror and say, 'I need to make some changes.'"

The best part?

"They're doing it as a community. They're doing it as individuals within a community, and it's very challenging," he added.

"You need to go really deep on the emotional scale to portray these characters truthfully."

"We're really tired at the end of the day because we give everything of ourselves every day, and I think that's translating on screen."

"That's why it's so effective."

"We're like Mick Jagger. We're stabbing ourselves in the heart and bleeding all over the stage for the audience."

Scott says none of that would be possible without the supportive team and the safe environment.

Filming in Nova Scotia

I told Scott that the filming locations look picturesque on-screen.

"That's what all of Nova Scotia looks like. It's everywhere. I'm sitting here talking to you, looking out at the coastline," he responded.

"It's beautiful. All you have to do is drive around, and you realize it's just prettier over here, and let's drive another mile. Oh, it's even prettier than the mile before."

"Your breath just keeps getting taken away, and the people are wonderful. The food is wonderful. Everything is warm and welcoming."

"Very decent people here, and they're very friendly and considerate of one another."

"It's just been a wonderful experience. It feels like you're in a small European community where people just care, know each other, and care about each other. It's been so wonderful so far."

[prometheusinitiative]

Ridley & Royce | Chapter 1 Verdict Reaction | You'll Know When It Happens

Royce’s gambit fails. Ridley’s counter ends with the amount it started with.

All it would have taken was one more person to sway things in a better direction. One more person to have doubts and play along with the narrative the two of them managed to stir up despite being separated, all of the obvious flaws in the evidence discovered. If Kezia was someone of poor character, someone would have known by then. Royce wonders to himself if Ridley’s unexpected outburst swayed things too far for any of them to salvage.

And yet… The finger of suspicion went to her from so many for so many obvious reasons. He reads Eden’s moving lips effortlessly despite muting the channel the instant he opens his mouth, feels the caustic fire of judgment igniting in him like it did with Michiya at Eden’s own “death”. Whatever Eden is saying feels as worthless and spiteful as if he’d outright insulted Kezia instead.

Kezia has doomed herself in silence.

He listens as others cycle through everything ranging from apologies and attempts at comforting words, and thinks of them—alive, at the end of all of this—mostly doing nothing. Accepting it because thank God it isn’t any of them in Kezia’s place right now. If Ridley’s not already thinking about what he’s thinking of, she will be soon. The only difference between this slaughterhouse and the other one is the lack of the uncaring sun’s cloudless fury above them. There was never any time to help Kezia. It happened, the worst coincidence possible, and it went unheard, over as quickly as it started.

I must not judge, Royce thinks, watching the recordings, sick to his stomach. It’s hard not to despise Tracy in that moment—guilty or not, to push someone and have to resort to self-defense so extreme. And he should have known. Should have been able to tell from Kezia’s reaction, intimately familiar with what that same level of inexplicable terror looks like.

Hatred radiates from his silence.

The revelation stuns Ridley into her own horrified silence, hands flying up to cover her mouth. She can’t look at Kezia. She can’t look at anyone. There is absolutely nothing the words “I’m sorry” can possibly convey.

They were trying.

“You duped ‘em with the caring friend thing, took advantage of that as soon as they opened up to you?”

Ridley reminisces on their adventure in the woods with Jules, how confident they all felt that there was a solution to find before time ran out, how rock solid that felt with the three of them together, how she and Jules indulged her naming the stupid fucking axe they found after Cher, how some of the best and brightest minds in the world had all come together and would find a way to help not only themselves, but the rest of the world. And she was just along for the ride.

“Don’t take her,”

Ridley croaks, eyes glassy again. She’s not there anymore, transported to another time entirely in her mind.

“Don’t take her, I was wrong. I was mad when I said all that stuff, I wasn’t thinking, I was… It’s not…You can’t. You just can’t, okay, you can’t force someone into circumstances like that and… Not someone who’s never done something like…”

Frenzied, she rushes the wall of TV sets, grabbing any of them to try and pull them closer to her face, screaming, sobbing, beating her hands against each one, pacing the chamber she’s in like a caged predator before lunging back at them again, the entire feed lurching with a violent shake.

“What’s she supposed to do?! Just go along with it? Something she didn’t even choose, something she has no control over? Is she supposed to just take it and die just because someone else decided she has to?! Because they said so?! It’s not a choice you make, it’s a fucking struggle to survive!”

Ridley shuts up when Jules speaks, a spark of hope igniting within her, holding their screen in a white-knuckled grip, nodding along with everything they’re saying, unquestioning. Jules is getting them started, they’re right, they’re smart, if it was someone else’s situation then Kezia would be doing the exact same thing for any of them, they were all working together to solve it, and… She and Royce know each other. He’ll do something. He’ll fix it. He always fixes it.

“Jules! Jules, you have to—Ben, help her!”

Ridley’s knees buckle as Jules finishes, and she looks to Royce’s screen helplessly, waiting for him to back them up. They had an agreement, making a conscious decision that they weren’t going to participate in this stupid game after finding out the circumstances why they were all here.

When Royce finally stands, Ridley’s panicking subsides temporarily. She wants to cheer, encourage him to beat whatever they’re dealing with and figure it out like he’s figured everything else out, even if she doesn’t know what any solution to this awful, sadistic situation entails.  

Already prepared with a stack of his latest thoughts, Royce sets it on the chair behind him instead, hands fidgeting restlessly at his sides. His fingers curl and uncurl, thumbs brushing across each fingertip in preparation before he raises his arms, hands on either side of his mask before he lifts it away.  

One by one, his eye flicks to each screen, starting with Ridley and ending with Kezia. A corner of his mouth twitches like he wants to speak, but he doesn’t open it, gaze falling to the ground before he’s looking at Kezia again, expression much softer now. The right side of his mouth curls into a crooked smile before he raises the first of several papers.

It’s their first introduction unmasked. It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

He gives her a moment to read, then takes it away, underlining the word twice for emphasis before holding it up again. There was no doubt in his mind that at the very least, nothing was premeditated.

Then he is wrath incarnate, exacerbated by the gruesome wounds decorating his face, lips pulled into a frown that is as much disappointment as it anger.

He’s not angry with Encke, but the situation itself, picturing the numb feeling in his hands, the same static they’re all surrounded by. His expression shifts to something pitying, thinking the words in his mind, reaching out into the void.

And then he’s resolute again, fearless with his request for bargaining, one final step away from acceptance.

(CW: Extreme facial scarring & missing eye)

[fkingsteverogers]

This Feels Like Falling In Love

Summary: Talking to your husband has never been your strong suit. 

Word Count: 1.6k

Featuring: two idiots In Love who don’t know it, Bruce Wayne is charming and very horny actually, PR relationships, questionable changes in POV, and questionable titles

Tagging: @clints-lucky-arrow bc they were supportive 

“—the mental health of my late mother-in-law was, and continues to be, the business of nobody but the Wayne Family, her loved ones, and her health care team. The fact it is being sensationalized is disgraceful.” 

“Dr. Wayne, can you—“ the tv snaps off before the reporter can finish her sentence. “Thought you might watch.” Bruce turns to see you, dressed elegantly and holding a tray of food. You’re the only person besides Alfred who can actually sneak up on him. It’s part of why he picked you from the long list of marriage candidates the Wayne Enterprises PR team gave him. That and the fact that you’re so beautiful it actually hurts. 

Why you agreed to marry him he’ll never understand. It’s not about the money, you make enough as Gotham's environmental consultant. And it can’t be his sparkling personality. 

“Dory was just bringing up some sandwiches. I told her I would do it. I think she thinks we’re going to fuck because she’s vacuuming the spotless downstairs instead of polishing the banister outside.” Bruce smiles, actually smiles, and picks up a sandwich from the tray you set down. You perch yourself on the arm of his desk chair, dangerously close to sitting in his lap. Your proximity makes his skin ripple with electricity. He wants to reach out and touch you, to feel your creamy soft skin under his fingertips. 

He wants to hear you gasp and moan as he thrusts into you. 

“Bruce? Are you listening?” Your question shakes him out of his fantasies. “…no.” You make an annoyed little huff and frown down at him. It would be so easy to just reach up and pull you down into his lap, to feel you pressed against him. It’d be so easy to slip a hand between your legs and…shit, he got distracted again.

 “I asked you how you’re feeling about…” you trail off and gesture towards the now black tv. He shrugs and takes a bite of his sandwich. In truth, the things they’re saying about his parents makes his blood boil. It makes him want to storm into the studio and beat up the reporters. Instead of admitting that he goes for a neutral: “I’m happy you’re dealing with it.” 

You shrug and take a sandwich. “It’s what you hired me for, is it not?” It’s Bruce’s turn to frown at you. “Don’t make that face at me, Alfred hired me to be your wife. I’m doing my job.” The way you nonchalantly mention that you’re not really his wife knocks the air out of Bruce’s lungs. Legally speaking, you are married. A little over a year and a half ago you’d become Dr. Wayne in a large ceremony neither of you really wanted. Someone had to Keep Up Appearances and he couldn’t be bothered. 

“Don’t do that.” 

You hadn’t meant to sneak up on Bruce, truly. You’d meant to knock before you heard your own voice. The anger had washed over you and before you could contemplate politeness, the tv was off and you were staring at Bruce. You’re always a little shocked by how pretty he is when you see him for the first time in a long time. His intense, intelligent eyes always surprise you. You always get the impression he’s looking straight into your soul. Would he like what he sees? 

You set down the tray, it’s sliver because of course it fucking is, in the middle of your explanation. You watch Bruce’s eyes glaze over. With anyone else, you’d be offended if they stopped listening mid sentence. Bruce is different, Bruce is out of practice with human interaction. His explanation (or lack of) of his feelings might as well require a translation. Good thing you’re fluent in all things Bruce Wayne. Instead of piecing out exactly what he’s feeling about this revelation, you goad him. 

The fact that W.E. PR arranged your marriage bothers him. It bothers him even more when you remind him of this fact. “Don’t do what, Bruce? Remind you of the truth? Remind you I’m no better than the working girls at the Iceberg?” What exactly you want out of this conversation is a mystery to even you. Why you’re furious at him is also a mystery. His eyes flare at your comment, his anger clear. “You know I didn’t ask them to find me a wife.” His tone is dark with undercurrents of his true anger. You shouldn’t push him any further. 

You do.

“And yet you’re happy to let me manage the Wayne legacy. You’re happy to take me to bed and fuck me like I’m your wife.” 

The storm that rushes over Bruce’s face makes it clear you pushed too far. “You are my wife.” “Only when you need me, Bruce.” Being this close to him is suddenly too much. The space between your arms sparkles with electricity and if you don’t get out of there, you’re going to let him bend you over the desk. You stand a little too quickly in your rush to get a safe distance away and almost topple over into his lap. His hand on your elbow steadies you. Sparks rush up your arm and it only makes you angrier, irrationally angry. You rip your arm away from him and manage to throw yourself more off balance. Before you can fall to the floor, Bruce catches you in a perfect dip.  

It’s a romance novel worthy scene, you in the arms of your husband, caught mid fall during a heated argument. In the romance novel, you’d look up at him, your anger forgotten. He’d look down at you, concern evident in his face. A moment of silence would pass before he would bend to kiss you and any anger either of you had would be forgotten for the passion of kissing the man you love. 

Instead, you stomp on his foot and he drops you. 

Thankfully, you’d chosen to make your little scene on the rug so you don’t hit the hard stone floor of his bedroom. Bruce looks down at you, betrayed by your assault. You look up at him, defiant from your place on the floor. The ensuing starting contest feels like it lasts forever. You break first. “I’m sorry.” He frowns down at you and holds out a hand. “Don’t apologize, you did a good thing.” You take his hand and he pulls you up. There’s a moment where you two just look at each other, still holding hands, before he clarifies. “Defending my mother, I mean. Thank you.” You shake your head in disgust and drop his hand like it’s scolding. “Your father basically had someone killed and all anyone cares about is your mother’s mental health.” You’re muttering more to yourself than talking to him. Thankfully Bruce doesn’t comment as he sits back down. You sit down in the chair across from him. It’s a safe distance away and you feel like you can breathe, “I don’t regret saying yes, Bruce. I do not regret becoming your wife. I just…” you trail off. You wish it had been Bruce’s choice. You wish you had been Bruce’s choice. You wish he really loved you, you wish you could be Dr. Wayne in more than name only. 

Instead of actually talking about your feelings, you blurt out what you’d come here to tell him about in the first place. “They told me I should get pregnant, you know.” His head snaps up and anger rushes back across his face. “I went to our quarterly meeting with the PR team, you missed it by the way, and they said I should get pregnant. If we conceive in the next two months we can feasibly announce on our second wedding anniversary and the baby will be born around your father’s birthday. Even better if we have a boy and name him Thomas Wayne II.” 

Bruce, as usual, says nothing. You fidget in the silence. Would having a baby with you be that bad? “I told them we could adopt a circus kid or something and they just looked at me like I was crazy.” Your suggestion makes him snort. A few agonizing moments pass in silence. With your anger done, you’re suddenly exhausted. “I should go, I’m sure you have other things to do…” 

“Stay.” The word stops you in your tracks. It’s more commanding than he’d prefer but it has its intended effect. “I’d like you to stay.” 

You give him a curious look. “And do what, exactly?” 

“I would like to…talk.” You laugh and the sound goes right to his cock. He’d been behaving himself, thinking of designs for his suit to prevent getting embarrassingly hard from just having you there. Your laughter makes it impossible for him to behave himself. “Bruce, this is the most you’ve said to me in six months.” You pick up the umbrella you’d laid on the bed and shrug on your coat. “You don’t talk. We don’t talk. You come over, we fuck, and you disappear.” Before you can turn and open the door, he grabs your umbrella and lays it back on the bed. He gently slides the coat off your shoulders, pressing kisses to the newly exposed skin. “Then dance with me.” 

You laugh again but it��s shakier, less sure. “Dance? There’s no music.” Bruce reluctantly lets go of you and crosses the room to turn on a record player that had been his father’s. He can feel your eyes on him and it makes heat bloom across his cheeks. “Bruce…” He pulls you flush against him, one hand resting respectfully on the small of your back and the other clasped in your much smaller hand. Your arms tentatively wrap around his neck and he can feel your ring resting against his neck. The two of you sway gently as the music plays. 

You’re too wrapped up in your own world to notice when Alfred opens the door and leaves without a word.

[avrelia]

Into Every Generation a Slayer is Born

I finished the book Into Every Generation a Slayer is Born by Evan Ross Katz. A month ago, and I did a twitter thread review of it, since a lot of my Buffy friends are over there and not here, and now I collected it all here for myself and people of DW. :)

It is an easy read that covered a lot of ground fast but not particularly deep. I got in for the new interviews with the cast and crew, and the interviews were delivered. I could do without opinions on quality of the last seasons and continuous sniping at Marty Noxon, but well… The time for the perfect book shall come one day.

1) Best new tidbit of information: Antony Stewart Head played Giles as a mix of Prince Charles and Alan Rickman’s Sheriff of Nottingham. This already is worth the price of the book.

2) Best duh moment – Cynthia Erivo telling her understanding of Anya reflecting an experience of an immigrant. The most surprising part was why didn’t I pick up on it before, as I was watching and connecting with Anya twenty years ago.

3) the best interview was with SMG. The author is her biggest fan, and she comes off really great there. Of course she is also frank, respectful, sweet and supportive of all the people she worked with, and very appreciative and proud of Buffy’s legacy.

4) the weirdest interview was with Nicholas Brendon. It is understandable, given his unhappy trajectory over the years. And I was glad to read his warm words about CC and SMG, but I also didn’t really care about his latest feud with DB. Overall, it was really sad to read, the whole story of NB, but it definitely added to the whole perspective.

5) the most emotional interview turned out to be with Cynthia Bergstorm, the costume designer for seasons 2-6. Reading her account on the atmosphere on set before she left I almost cried. No, not tears of joy. More like tears of anger

6) the most notable interviews we didn’t get were with AH and Michele Trachtenberg, as they were planned then canceled after February 2021, following the newest wave of conversation about Joss. I understand their reluctance to discuss it at the time.

7) Out of the writers we saw Doug Petrie, Jane Espenson and Drew Z. Greenberg. Marty Noxon didn’t answer the requests and for some reason the author was really mean about it several times and it was really annoying to read.

I was quite happy to see also interviews with Amber Benson, Emma Caulfield, CC, Julie Benz, Mark Blucas, Danny Strong, Seth Green, Tom Lenk, JM, ASH, Bianca Lawson, . Am I forgetting anyone of the cast?

There were no any profound revelations, after all I’ve been a fan for twenty years (soon – yay!) and generally had an idea how it came to be, but the picture became clearer and more detailed. From the history, to the process, and the behind the scene stuff

The interviewees rarely got into any details, and never shared anything lurid or scandalous, but I got the following picture: it started with them being very young and mostly inexperienced. JW was a writer, but had no idea how to run a tv show or direct episodes. And if he successfully managed to do later, the former proved to be problematic.

One of the details everybody talks about is their insane working hours: an average workday during the filming season was 18-20 hours, which is genuinely crazy even if you don’t take into account all the makeup, fight rehearsals, and expected precision in delivering dialogue.

The Beloved Buffy-speak is literally Joss speak. Joss speaks more or less like this and all his characters speak like this, and all his writers write like this and if not he changed the lines to be more like this and the actors had to say lines precisely, re-doing the takes until they manage.

They started a one small happy family, then as the show’s popularity grew, as they had more money, fame and pressure, they become “middle school with more money” according to Mark Blucas, then really, really tired group by the end of the series.

The blame for growing toxic atmosphere on set all the interviewee put on being young, overworked and “someone” on top constantly stirring s*** up and pitting the actresses against each other. (some interviews were done before Feb.2021 and the latest round of allegations)

This story, told by Emma Caulfield is very representative. I'll just add it all here

Mark Blucas, btw, gave a very sweet interview, where he several times apologized for having caused problems for cast and crew due to be totally new to acting and having no clue what he was doing and, of course, praised SMG for being very patient and very helpful

I need to finish the write-up, I guess. So, a month after finishing the book I have to say that it was a fun read, fast, not very engaging. It confirmed what I, as an old fan new or guessed, or explained details that made me go “Duh!” - of course, they were young, mostly inexperienced and over-tired.

Of course, JW was messing up. I mean, I wasn’t even very deep into details, but I always knew that the cast was divided into “favorites” and “not favorites”. I didn’t really think that it was an intentional division, that JW created and exploited, but apparently it was. Oh, well. I was happy to know that the actresses mostly reconciled by now.

And the most pleasant part of the book was SMG – both her own interview with an author, and what everyone said about her. I remember, in my early days in the fandom there was a strong anti-SMG streak, where by calling her “professional” people meant she was cold, unfeeling and un-fun.

Whereas it actually meant she cared about cast and crew and doing her job without wasting everyone’s time (remember those crazy hours!) and without creating extra problems for her colleges. She helped her cast-mates, she helped the crew, she worked a lot, she wasn’t always right, but who was?

So, anyway. That was not a definitive book by all means, but an ok one. There are more books to be written, about Buffy, and the fandom, and all the ways it is still changing our lives. I personally want more books on Buffy fandom.

[helpistolethesecharacters]

Hot Chocolate and Chill

Peter Parker x Male Reader

Word Count: 1644

This is pure fluff you guys! Thank you so much to the person who requested this, I need more fluff in my life and this is working toward that!

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

Y/n was certain he had never been more excited before. He couldn't stop himself from literally bouncing up and down as he made his way out of his last class of the day and toward his locker.

His friends just rolled their eyes and got out of the way. Y/n thought about feeling bad or trying to calm down, but then he would remember all over again that it was tonight.

He had been counting down all week to the time that he would be able to spend uninterrupted time with his boyfriend.

Peter had invited him for a sleepover after classes Friday, which, when he had suggested it on Monday had seemed like an eternity away.

But it was Friday and he had just been released from his last class. Nothing was going to stop him from being alone with Peter, and Y/n couldn't be happier.

He slammed the things he wouldn't need that weekend into his locker, slung his bag over one shoulder and took off in search of Peter, totally blanking on the need to close and lock his locker.

In the back of his mind he registered the long suffering sighs of his friends, but he was on a mission. There was no time to calm down, he had a boyfriend to track down.

It didn't take long, as he was still standing by his own locker talking to Ned. Y/n didn't stop to think, he just bounced over and launched himself at Peter.

Peter stumbled back a step as Y/n collided with him, but managed to keep them both standing. Y/n silently thanked the spider that had bitten Peter for the results as he none too subtly appreciated the muscles holding him up.

"Hi Y/n," came the resigned sigh from Peter's friend Ned.

"Yes, Tis I, The Amazing Y/n, come to light up your lives."

Okay, so he was feeling a little extra right now, sue him.

"You may now revel."

Peter and Ned lost it, which was the end of holding Y/n up. He pouted from his new spot beside Peter and waited for the two to stop laughing at him.

His pout gave way to the dopey grin that usually crept up on his face whenever he was looking at Peter for longer than a second. There was just something about his adorable dork of a boyfriend that made Y/n feel like he was floating.

Y/n subtly snuck his hand into Peter's while he waited for the other two to say their goodbyes. Luckily Peter was used to Y/n's actions and didn't startle even when he decided to hang over his shoulder.

"That's so gay!"

'Ugh, this guy,' thought Y/n as he turned to face Flash.

"You know, that isn't even an insult. We are in fact gay. Or I am at any rate, Pete's pan, right?"

Peter just nodded from beside Y/n.

Flash looked nonplussed.

"What? So you admit it, you really are gay? Ew!"

"You sure are stupid for someone who's supposed to be smart. That's like me saying, 'Oh, my God! You're such a person!'"

Y/n even affected an over the top pose to add to his effect.

"Ew, you're a person! That's so gross!"

Flash just looked confused at this point, which to be fair, that was a common response to people who weren't used to being near Y/n's particular brand of crazy, but still.

Y/n was going to go ahead and call that one a win. He and Peter turned away and ignored the bully.

Peter just looked at Y/n in shock as he heard Flash sputtering and stomping off behind them.

"That was amazing! I have to remember that for next time!"

Y/n grinned at his boyfriend, eternally grateful to which ever deity it was that had paired him up with someone who wasn't put off by his over the top personality like others had been.

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

May was watching from her place by the table in their kitchenette, bemused as Peter straightened one of the pillows on the couch for the tenth time in the last two minutes. He had been quietly freaking out for the better part of an hour now, and that was only the time he had been out in the main living areas. She was sure he had been freaking out in his room for much longer.

"I'm pretty sure he won't hold it against you if the pillow isn't in the exact right spot when he gets here."

May immediately regretted speaking when Peter's head shot up and he stared at her with the widest eyes possible. Oh, this was more than just normal anxiety. This was much more important than normal to him.

May unfolded herself and made her way over to her nephew.

"It's going to go just fine, you two are so happy together, I can't imagine anything causing a single night together to go wrong."

She held Peter close to her for as long as he would allow. He was growing up more and more every day, and didn't let her comfort him near as much as he used to, so she was going to savor this for as long as possible.

May felt Peter melt into the hug and was glad that at least she could still provide a little support, even if she couldn't fight every dragon for him anymore.

The door bell rang, startling them out of their hug, and Peter managed to trip over twice in his rush to get to the door as fast as possible.

May just shook her head at the thought of ever being so young and clearly in love.

She took her place by the table again after greeting Y/n. She had a cup of tea and a book calling her name.

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

Y/n looked around the living area of Peter's apartment, why he didn't know. It wasn't like it was his first time there after all, he had visited lots of times before. This time felt different for some reason though.

"Did you want something to drink?"

'Poor Peter,' Y/n thought, 'He looks just as nervous as I felt earlier.'

"I brought snacks and the makings for hot chocolate for our movie marathon. I can set up here while you sort out the drinks? Or are we watching in your room?"

Y/n handed over the bag that had the drink things in it and was pointed to the couch.

"Thank goodness you didn't have to patrol tonight. Are you sure it's okay to take the whole night off?"

"Yeah, I got someone to cover for me."

Y/n nodded and set about organising the snacks.

It didn't take them long to get settled with the assortment of snacks on the coffee table in front of them, their drinks close by and a movie playing on the TV.

It was a little awkward with neither of them wanting to step over any boundaries, especially with Peter's aunt sitting up at the table, but some time during the first movie they managed to relax enough to lean against each other.

By the time that the second movie was half finished Y/n was laying with his head on Peter's lap, no longer paying any attention to the movie because Peter was giving him the most amazing head massage and running his hands through Y/n's hair.

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

May made her way into the lounge area on her way out for her shift, but stopped at the sight that met her.

Peter and Y/n were curled up together on the couch fast asleep. She melted and tried not to coo too hard as she fished out her phone.

This called for proof, whether to blackmail or embarrass was still up for grabs.

As she closed the door and locked it from the outside, May was once again thankful that Peter wasn't the type to take advantage of being alone with someone he liked, so she didn't have to worry about them getting up to things they might not be ready for.

-----------

Bonus Scene

-----------

Mrs Rodrigez had been walking back from her daily walk down to the corner shop. She would never let on, but half the reason she made the time to come down each day was to see the sweet young man who always insisted on helping her cross the street.

She was surprised, and a little suspicious of the person who approached her that particular evening at the cross walk. Whoever they were, they were not her 'friendly neighbourhood spiderman' as he always insisted he was.

This man was wearing what appeared to be hardened red leather in an all over suit. He was also a lot older than her normal escort judging by his height and broad shoulders.

He had a very bad homemade cosplay mask of spiderman over what looked like another mask.

The man (she assumed) got close enough for her to read the words scrawled hastily across his chest in a messy hand.

'Spiderman! No really!'

Mrs Rodrigez fixed the man with a steely stare. She was 78, and like all older ladies, carried a large handbag that was filled with mostly useless junk that was just begging to be swung at him if he pulled anything she didn't like.

He had already gotten higher on her 'list' by pretending to be the younger vigilante. He was on thin ice as far as she was concerned.

"Hi! I can't help but notice that you are a helpless little old lady possibly in need of assistance across the street!"

The man offered her an arm, but was met with that steely stare being upped to an outright glare as she pulled him in close enough by that very same arm, to be nose to nose.

"If you've done anything to that sweet young man they will never find your body!"

[causeiwanttoandican]

Robert Lacey excerpt

I fully expect them to say William was the one commenting about the baby’s skin color after this. Battle stations! Book excerpt

The Times

Prince William ‘split his household from Prince Harry after Meghan bullying claims’

June 07 2021, 7.00am BST

‘So, are you saying,” asked Oprah Winfrey, talking to Meghan and Harry in their famous interview of March 2021, “that there were hints of jealousy?”

She was inquiring about the Sussexes’s wildly successful tour of Australia and the South Pacific of late October 2018, and the couple shifted uncomfortably in their plush wicker chairs.

“Look,” replied Harry, “I just wish that we would all learn from the past.”

By bringing up “the past”, the prince was venturing into an area that was almost taboo. He was making a sensational comparison between his mother and his wife. Harry was suggesting that Meghan had demonstrated in Australia the same massive star quality as Diana and was now having to face the family envy that went along with that.

“It really changed,” he said, “after the Australia tour, after our South Pacific tour . . . it was . . . the first time that the family got to see how incredible she is at the job. And that brought back memories.”

Memories of what? Again Harry shied away from putting words to the almost unmentionable. But Oprah had prepared and polished this moment, like so many others in the interview, and she had a reference ready to prompt her prince’s revelation. The latest, fourth season of TV’s The Crown had depicted Charles and Diana’s 1983 tour of Australia, showing how Diana had been “bedazzling” in her ability “to connect with people”. Episode six had depicted how the crowds would groan when they realised that Charles, not Diana, was walking down their side of the street — hence the beginnings of the “jealousy” on the family’s part.

“So is that what you’re talking about?” asked Oprah. “It brought back memories of that?”

“Yeah,” Harry finally replied in a fashion that was both dismal and unmistakably aggressive.

What on earth had happened, viewers had to wonder, to the old and once-familiar happy side of Prince Harry?

When trying to define the moment that marked the decisive rift with his brother William — the break-up and actual separation of the joint household they had established together in 2009 — Harry would fix upon his triumphant return with Meghan from their Australian tour at the end of October 2018. But if asked the same question, William would have fixed on a more specific event: the explosive argument he had had with his brother earlier that month.

Both brothers agreed how bitterly they had clashed back in the early days over William’s attempt to slow Harry’s courtship of Meghan — “Don’t feel like you need to rush this . . . ” But both of them had subsequently moved on. Harry’s transparent contentment with Meghan had relaxed the tensions, give or take the odd row over bridesmaids’ dresses. The “no speaks” had eased just a little by the time “best man” William escorted his brother down the aisle in May 2018.

Then five months later came the conclusive and determining rupture — the division that has lasted to the present day — though here the brothers’ retelling of history diverged. As Harry explained it to Oprah, Meghan’s Australian tour success sowed the jealousies that caused feelings to “change”. According to this scenario, William and Kate resented the Diana-like popularity that was generated by Harry’s wife. William had a different recollection.

We now know that Princes William and Harry were no longer on speaking terms before the Sussexes set off for Australia. Feelings had already “changed”, as Harry put it, and drastically so. The brothers had parted on extremely poor terms, with the trouble centring on Meghan’s stringent treatment and alleged bullying of her staff.

Most Kensington Palace courtiers were noted for the comparatively long tenures of their comfortable and prestigious jobs. But it came to look as if employees could not wait to escape service with Harry and Meghan. Those who left formed themselves into an informal fraternity that they titled the “Sussex Survivors’ Club”. They had finally hit back, and their organising agent had been PR man Jason Knauf.

The joint communications secretary for Kensington Palace — who was still, at that date, working on behalf of both of the brothers and their wives — had become concerned by the numerous stories of mistreatment being brought to him by colleagues whom he knew well and trusted.

Texas-born and New Zealand-educated, Knauf, 34, was a popular character in Kensington Palace, widely noted for his friendliness and loyalty towards his colleagues. He had been considered a real “catch” when the brothers snared him from the Royal Bank of Scotland in 2015, and one of his concerns was that professional management practices should be more effectively enforced inside the traditional British palace. Knauf’s American sensibilities caused him to see the Meghan situation as raising principles of human resources management in the palace system that needed to be formally addressed.

Knauf’s first priority was to set down the facts, as he saw them, for the record: “I’m very concerned,” he emailed to William’s private secretary Simon Case, in a document he drafted in October 2018, “that the duchess was able to bully two PAs out of the household in the past year.”

Knauf described Meghan’s treatment of one aide as “totally unacceptable . . . the duchess seems intent”, he wrote, “on always having someone in her sights”. Specifying another staff member, Knauf alleged Meghan had been bullying her as well, “seeking to undermine her confidence”. His office had received “report after report”, he wrote, from people who had witnessed “unacceptable behaviour” by Meghan towards this member of staff.

“Meghan governed by fear,” claimed one courtier. “So many people said it. Nothing was ever good enough for her. [She] humiliated staff in meetings, [would] shout at them, [would] cut them off email chains — and then demand to know why they hadn’t done anything.”

As early as 2017, around the time of the couple’s engagement, according to a subsequent report in The Times, a senior aide had spoken to the couple about the difficulties caused by their treatment of staff. “It’s not my job to coddle people,” Meghan was said to have replied.

“Americans can be much more direct,” wrote the authors Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand in defence of the duchess, “and that often doesn’t sit well in the much more refined institution of the monarchy.”

A Brit might have raised an eyebrow at Meghan’s alleged behaviour, then looked the other way. The Yank decided to act. Knauf was actually one of Meghan’s most senior advisers — her chief adviser, in fact, when it came to public relations. Earlier that year she had gone to Knauf for help when drafting the disputed letter of severance that she sent to her father. She valued his PR expertise.

Before that, Knauf had helped Harry to word the fierce anti-media statements that he had framed to try to protect Meghan from press harassment, both as his girlfriend and then as his fiancée. The PR man had taken considerable stick from some of his non-royal contacts who criticised him as being overprotective in fighting the newcomer’s corner. Like so many people in all the palaces, Knauf had started off on Meghan’s side.

But as the months went by the American’s feelings became more ambiguous, as numerous colleagues — women whom he greatly respected — continued to bring him stories of what they said they had suffered at Meghan’s hands.

“I can’t stop shaking,” one aide had told a colleague in anticipation of an encounter with Meghan. Another reported that the prospect of confrontation with the duchess had made her “feel sick”. “Emotional cruelty and manipulation”, were the words of a third, “which I guess could also be called bullying.”

The b-word featured prominently in the accounts of several, along with an even more sinister set of initials: PTSD. Post-traumatic stress disorder was a deeply serious condition to allege — flashbacks, nightmares and feelings of deep anxiety — but that was how one complainant said that they had felt.

Several people maintained they had been “humiliated” by the duchess, and that criticism extended to Harry as well.

“I overheard a conversation between Harry and one of his top aides,” recalled one Kensington Palace courtier. “Harry was screaming and screaming down the phone. Team Sussex was a really toxic environment. People shouting and screaming in each other’s faces.”

Shouting and screaming? PTSD? Making people feel sick? Prince William went ballistic when he heard the “dossier of distress” that Knauf had gathered. We do not know whether the communications secretary brought his allegations directly to his boss or submitted them via Simon Case. What we do know is that the prince was astonished and horrified. He was instantly furious at what he heard.

“I remember Christian Jones [William’s press secretary and later private secretary] explaining to me how the Cams [the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge] are paternalistic with their staff,” recalls one royal correspondent. “They copy the Queen in that respect with all her Christmas parties and Christmas presents to her people. They’re proud to treat their staff like family. They recognise that they don’t get paid loads of money, so they are just really nice to them. So this was a very deep clash of philosophies, with Meghan being used to a Hollywood service culture — getting exactly what she wanted whenever she wanted in that famous way that Harry said.”

William personally knew and liked all the individuals whom Knauf had named in his dossier. The prince regarded them as assets to his household — colleagues to be cherished and for whom he was responsible. Human beings. Like Knauf, the prince was appalled that his respected staff may have been put in this position.

For William, Knauf’s allegations also clarified something that the prince had long believed — that Meghan was fundamentally hostile towards the royal system, which she failed to understand as an outsider. William wondered if she had not wanted to leave from the very start — even dreaming, perhaps, that she could whisk Harry back with her to North America.

But Meghan’s lawyers and PR representatives said this was quite the wrong interpretation of their client’s thinking and behaviour in a statement that they issued to The Times early in March 2021. They denied all allegations of bullying as inaccurate and the product of what they described as a “smear campaign”. The duchess wished to fit in and be accepted, they insisted. She had left her life in North America to commit herself to her new role.

I have never met Jason Knauf. What you have just read is based upon the published accusations that Knauf set down on paper — refuted as “defamatory”, it must be stressed again, and “based on misleading and harmful information” in the view of the Duchess of Sussex’s lawyers. It also relies upon William’s personal account of these events to one of his friends who then spoke to this author.

The moment the prince heard the bullying allegations, he related to this friend, he got straight on the phone to talk to Harry — and when Harry flared up in furious defence of his wife, the elder brother persisted. Harry shut off his phone angrily, so William went to speak to him personally. The prince was horrified by what he had just been told about Meghan’s alleged behaviour, and he wanted to hear what Harry had to say.

The showdown between the two siblings was fierce and bitter. William’s pre-engagement questioning of Meghan’s suitability had been quite reasonable, in William’s opinion. His fraternal doubts had been provisional, based upon how the new recruit appeared to be. The elder brother did not really know Meghan in those early days.

But now William had seen enough of his sister-in-law to feel sure that, sadly, he did know her and that many of his reservations linked unhappily with what Knauf’s colleagues had alleged. William believed Meghan was following a plan — “agenda” was the word he used to his friend — and the accusations he had just heard were alarming. Kate, he said, had been wary of her from the start.

Meghan was undermining some precious principles of the monarchy, if she really was treating her staff in this way, and William was upset that she seemed to be stealing his beloved brother away from him. Later courtiers would coin a hashtag — #freeHarry. It was only half a joke.

“Meghan portrayed herself as the victim,” recalled one Kensington Palace staffer, “but she was the bully. People felt run over by her. They didn’t know how to handle this woman. They thought she was a complete narcissist and sociopath — basically unhinged. Which was why the pair of them were drawn to each other in the first place — both damaged goods.”

William felt deeply wounded. “Hurt” and “betrayed” were the two feelings that he described to his friend. The elder brother had always felt so protective. He had seen it as his job to look out for Harry but this was the moment the protection had to stop. At the end of the day the British crown and all it stood for with its ancient traditions, styles and values — the mission of the monarchy — had to matter more to William than his brother did.

Harry, for his part, was equally furious that William should give credence to the accusations against Meghan, and he was fiercely combative in his wife’s defence. Some sources maintain that in the heat of the argument Harry actually accused someone in the family of concepts that were “racist”. But it must be stressed that neither brother has ever confirmed that the hateful r-word was used face to face.

Only William and Harry can know what they said to each other and they have respectfully maintained their silence on that. But Harry made clear to the world in his interview with Oprah that he considered his family’s response to Meghan to have been essentially racist — using the heavily freighted code words “unconscious bias” to provide an intellectual framework for his analysis.

Where could the two brothers go after such painful and damning notions had been thrown into their debate?

We have reached the crux of the drama. What painfully unforgettable and surely unforgivable things have been said? These are not passing differences. They are two core sets of values in conflict — love versus duty — going to the very heart and deriving from the deepest beliefs and loyalties of each man. Two opposing identities butting heads. In the months following the tragic and not-obviously bridgeable rift of October 2018 between William and Harry, the younger brother solidified his belief that his family were suffering from “unconscious bias”.

William, for his part, felt just as strongly about Meghan and the need for her subversive “agenda” to be removed from the operations of the British monarchy, which she did not appear to understand or respect. He certainly wanted Meghan removed, for a start, from the hitherto harmonious joint household that he and his brother had operated together for the best part of a decade. William simply did not want her or Harry around any more.

When accounts of the rift started seeping out through the winter months that followed, it was generally assumed that the volatile Harry must have set the pace in the splitting up of the joint Kensington Palace household. He was the brother who visibly departed, stalking off to set up a new home in Windsor, with offices for himself and Meghan in Buckingham Palace.

But the reverse was the case. It was William who made the decisive move. Following his furious confrontation with his younger brother in the autumn of 2018, the prince instructed Simon Case to start the process of dividing their two households immediately. William wished to be separated from Meghan on a day-to-day basis — and that meant being separated from his brother as well.

“William,” says a friend, “threw Harry out.”

©Robert Lacey 2021 Extracted from Battle of Brothers: William, Harry and the Inside Story of a Family in Tumult by Robert Lacey, to be published by William Collins on June 24 at £9.99

[floraltypes]

Distractions pt. 2

leroy jethro gibbs x reader

tw - mentions of shooting, sex, other things in a ncis episode

an - this is a part 2 to the first chapter. i might do a part three with more action between Gibbs and reader. but i already have some drabbles and a adding reader to a episode planned 🤫

“So, when did you get back?” Your old friend, Elise, asked, the both of you sitting in your living room the day after your night at the bar.

You had previously went to Gibbs house and he helped you rest for a while there, both of you letting your feelings out, but you didn’t know if he thought you would remember because you were drunk when you admitted it.

“Not too long after I told that bartender I was leaving,” You replied to her. She was finally asking about you after bragging about her very sexual night with the bar owner.

“Who took you back? Did you go back with someone at the bar?” She had a teasing tone at the end, wanting to mess with you a bit and get all the details.

“No, there really wasn’t anyone at the bar. I just got a coworker to drive me back. Speaking of driving, shouldn’t that cab you ordered be here soon?” You tried to change the subject, and luckily it was perfect timing.

“Oh right!” She shot up from the couch and rushed over to where her suitcase is, forgetting about you for a moment before waddling back in the too-high, high heels. “Bye! Thanks for letting me stay,” She grabbed the suitcase and left your apartment, allowing you to finally take a breath.

But you could only breathe in the peace for so long until your phone began to rang.

“Where are you?” The stern, deeper voice said into the phone, on the other line. You recognized the background noises of other people, figuring the person was probably somewhere public, or listening to the TV loudly.

“I’m at home? Why does this matter?” You asked getting off of the couch and moving to the kitchen to go and grab a glass of water, all of a sudden feeling a little parched. Gibbs did give you some medicine this morning.

Once you woke up, on the couch... There were pills and water right by your side and he came down at the perfect timing, motioning for you to drink it. He then went to make coffee for the both of you, but once you noticed the time, you made him drive you back to your apartment.

“Do you not look at clocks?” Gibbs sneered, and you could hear him yelling someone’s name yet it sounded a little fainter, maybe he moved the phone away.

“I do. I’m fine on time, what’s your problem?”

“You’re supposed to be at work.”

“No, I told you I was coming in late, like a week ago,” You remind him, specifically remembering how you planned to drop your friend off at the airport, not knowing she was going to get someone else to drive her. But, it was no use still coming in normal time, might as well take the break.

“Well, that doesn’t matter, a petty officer was found dead and we’re supposed to go and investigate. So, get your lazy-ass up and meet us at the address Kate sent you.”

“Got it,” You hung up the phone, rolling your eyes at your bosses usual antics. You figured he probably didn’t really mean the kiss, so you locked away those feelings and got yourself ready to go and investigate.

You were able to meet Ducky and Palmer, driving the large truck, at a stop so they could pick you up. Not your first choice, but the other agents were already too far to pick you up, and Ducky was always so kind to go out of his way.

“Hello, dear Y/n,” Ducky greeted with a smile, getting out of the truck to let you slide into the middle.

“Hey, Ducky. Palmer,” You greeted, moving in. “Mind catching me up to speed with what’s going on?”

And so they did. They told you about Petty Officer Liam who was found dead, apparently gunshot to the head, in a ditch near a cross.

Once you made it onto the scene, a news reporter, police, the sheriff, and the rest of your team all swarmed around where the Petty Officer was.

“Ducky, L/n, you two finally made it,” Gibbs voiced, watching the three of you walk down the small hill to where the cross and not to far the body was.

“Palmer ended up turning to the wrong road,” Ducky responded.

“You told me the wrong street!” Palmer explained, carrying down the bag Ducky needed and some other things to soon move the body.

“Now, now, Palmer,” You sent him a little look, soon walking over to where Todd and DiNozzo was.

“How was last night little drunk,” DiNozzo greeted, putting on his last gloves and handing you a set.

“Shut up DiNozzo,” Kate commented soon turning to you. “Did you end up getting laid?”

“Lord knows Y/n needs it,” DiNozzo added, laughing after his little sentence which let Kate to punch his shoulder.

“I don’t need it. I got home fine, no need for you to know, you just ditched me. So, don’t expect me to help set you up with that girl on the same floor as me, anymore,” You finished putting on your glove and grabbed the wallet near the body.

“Holding a lot of cash?” Kate asked, moving over by you to peer over your shoulder. “Maybe he was getting mugged and it went wrong,”

“The cash is still here. So, it probably wasn’t a mugging,” You answered, then grabbing a card that was present. “But it might his death could have something to do with this bar, seems like he has a lot of used coupons and receipts to there,” You reveled, pulling them out and handing some to Kate while putting the wallet into the bag.

Ducky and Palmer continued to check out the body to figure out that the cause of death was some sort of drug and not the gunshot, it was made to look like that. They would have to take the body back to be able to know for sure, so that’s what they did.

You took some pictures with DiNozzo and Todd and soon head back to Gibbs car, taking the front seat while the other two took the back. It was normal for you to take that seat, but at this moment it seemed odd.

“When we get back I want you to contact his wife DiNozzo, L/n and Todd will do some research about the bar you two found out about it,”

When arriving back to the office you and Kate quickly got to it and found out that in order to get in you had to go in as a couple. Kate talked to some people who had formally went there and one other friend of the petty officer that died and was able to figure out that there was a more secretive area apart of the bar where certain couples were only able to go.

None of the people could specifically say what went on, but figuring that out could lead to you and the other special agents to figuring out who exactly killed the petty officer.

“Gibbs,” Kate spoke, you and her walking over. “Turns out in order to get in you need to go as a couple and then if you say a certain co word, you’ll be able to get in to the underground part of it,”

“Okay, what did you find out DiNozzo?” He turned to DiNozzo who was walking over.

“Found out some passwords to things, hoping probie can then go through and figure out what the password for getting in tonight would be,”

“Who will go undercover?”

“DiNozzo and Todd I want you to stay with Liam’s wife and children, make sure that the person who killed Liam won’t go after this family if Liam still owes him something. L/n and I will go undercover tonight while Probie will be able to patch us all four together,” Gibbs commanded.

“With DiNozzo, really,” Kate looked at him and Gibbs just sent his regular stare. “Okay, DiNozzo it is,” She walked over to the man who was talking to the ‘probie’.

“Uh, Me and Kate could just switch Gibbs,” You told him, standing oddly by his desk.

“No, you and me will go undercover, you’ve done undercover work before,” He quickly told you, standing up. “Go get ready and I’ll meet you back here. Dress up nice,”

So that’s what you did, you left to travel back to your apartment and threw on a nicer dress, still short enough to run if needed but long enough to hide a gun that would be holstered to your thigh. You did your hair, leaving it down, and a light makeup look. You figured out a fake name, Leah Molane, and Gibbs as well, Frank Hater.

When he arrived you looked at him with a small smile, trying to take in his nice outfit for the occasion, and for a moment it seemed like he was trying to do the same. The car ride was fairly silent besides going over your plan.

“Were you able to get the fake ID’s?” You asked, sitting in the passenger seat and messing with your nails a bit while Gibbs drove to the bar.

“DiNozzo knew a guy, and I refuse to ask more,” He laughed a little and handed you your fake idea from his pocket. 

The two of you soon arrived to the bar, it was fairly easier than what it originally sounded like. You showed the man your ID’s and Gibbs snaked a hand around your waist, pulling you into his waist a bit more. 

He was able to find a open table and helped lead the way there. While walking you took a look around, while scoping you found a lot of normal things like couples making out, dancing, drinking, yet the mirror opening up as a door and three people disappearing into it caught your eye. You made it to your seat and the two of you sat right next to each other in the booth. 

“What you got McGee?” Gibbs asked into his watch, it looked like everyone was busy doing their own thing to pay attention to the older man who was speaking into his watch. 

“Abby was able to find out the drug that was put into Liam’s drink that killed him. It changes the original drinks color yellow, so don’t drink anything yellow,”

“We could figure that out on our own,” Gibbs grumbled a little underneath his breath. “What else do you have? That better not be it,” 

“It’s not Gibbs,” Abby now spoke. “We figured out the code to get to the downstairs area!” 

“And what is it?”

The both of you could hear some arguing on the other line, which just seemed to annoy Gibbs more. 

“It’s, uh,” McGee coughed. “It’s ‘sex vault’ boss, I think because its a drink name on the menu or because they have a section where couples can go and have, uh, se-”

“Enough McGee, I just needed the code,” Gibbs turned off his device allowing McGee and them to hear what he was saying. Gibbs turned to you and leaned a bit, his lips hovering over your own. “It would be good for us to kiss now, so we don’t blow our cover,”

“Makes sense,” You hummed, your eyes connecting with his own as you looked up at him. 

“Just pretend it’s just us, like yesterday,” He whispered, before his lips were on yours and moving at a fast pace. It was so much more passionate than the last time. 

“The two of you know this is a VIP area, right?” A woman walked over, the gum in her mouth being obnoxiously loud.

“Yeah, obviously,” Gibbs responded, moving away from your face and grabbing your hand. “We’ll take two ‘sex vaults’,” He told her and the woman went scurrying back off behind the counter. 

“Boss, we found out that there is another Petty Officer that frequented that bar often. His name is Denup and he served the same time that Liam did, DiNozzo is asking Liam’s wife about him and Abby is doing some research on him,” Mcgee spoke into the device that was in yours and Gibbs ear. 

“Got it,” Gibbs mumbled into the watch and soon the woman walked back over. “Find out more and be quick,”

The woman came and beckoned for the both of you to follow her to where the mirror you saw open earlier was. 

“Liam’s wife said she didn’t have too much on Denup but we were able to find a type of journal Liam was keeping with tons of money, it looks like in the journal there are stats on sports,” DiNozzo spoke this time. 

“Denup is also not doing too well finacially, we were able to get ahold of his wife and ask her a few questions. We learned he’s taking on some extra jobs,” Kate spoke now. 

“Abby, Denup’s prints might be in the system, run them with the ones we found on the wallet,” Gibbs quiclly spoke into his watch once the woman left you both. You looked around at a few people chatting and watching the games, there was another smaller bar down here, multiple TV’s, some tables, and a pool table. 

“When doing bets in settings like these, who usually takes care of handing out the money?” You asked Gibbs. 

“The bartender,” He answered. 

“They also said Denup was taking on extra jobs and doing bad financially. What if he is a bartender here and has been scamming people?”

“Liam found out and threatened to reveal what he was doing, which would ruin his chances of getting out of the hole,” Gibbs realized what you were saying. 

“Exactly, but it seems like something is missing. If Denup was doing this on his own, how could no one else catch on? And how is he not out of the whole already. I’m going to assume there are many bets that happen down here, so where is some of that money going?”

The two of you walked up to the bar and took a seat at the two stools that were placed in front of it. 

“You both thinking of making a bet?” “Not with him,” You laughed, pointing to Gibbs. “Man loses all of them, is a loser in general. But what about you, do you lose? What’s your name?” 

“Just call me Denup, that’s what most of the people down here do. Now what would you like, a drink or some cash?”

“I’d like to get.a little tour of your selection back there,” You smiled, getting up from your stool and moving to walk around the corner. 

“Gibbs, his prints match the wallet, but Liam’s ID has a different print itsself,” Abby revealed, once again, speaking into the device in the both of your ears. Gibbs nodded to you, giving you the confirmation to arrest the man. 

Gibbs stood up and pulled out his ID. “Denup, NCIS, you’re under arrest,” 

Denup grabbed your arm harshly, pulling you into his side and grabbing a knife, sticking it to your throat. “Louis!” You heard Denup yell, and watched Gibbs spin around, just in time, to watch another man reach into his pocket, grabbing a gun. Gibbs quickly shot him in his shoulder, the man dropping the gun. You used this opportunity of Denup being in shock to reach down to your thigh to grab the gun and quickly aim it at the mans toe. He dropped the knife yelling, giving you enough time to kick it away and for Gibbs to toss you a pair of handcuffs he had in his pockets. 

“Just NCIS folks, please go back to your drinks,” You said to the shocked people around, you handcuffed Denup and pulled him off the ground. “I know your toe got shot or whatever, but do you think you could at leas try to walk out of here?” 

You and Gibbs left the bar, informing the team you caught the suspects and the police were at the front of the bar, ready to take them into custody. Gibbs told everyone they could go home and offered to take you back since you went together. 

“Successful date night I would say,” He joked once the two of you were in the car and on the rode home. 

“For sure, got a kiss and arrested two murderer’s,” You laughed.

“I hope you know that just because I like kissing you I won’t soften the papers you’ll be filling out tomorrow,” He looked over to you with a calm smile playing on his lips. 

“I could never,” You smiled back. “I do expect you to now be buying me a coffee though,” 

“If that’s all I need to do, it doesn’t sound like the worst thing,”