#like come on that show is so good about showing how everybody in the Legal System is imcompetent and shitty

[robocops-a-christ-allegory]

Last night I got so desperate to see Barry Discussion that I looked at the subreddit and saw a bunch of people saying that Barry working with the FBI was actually his shot at redemption and I remembered how bad reddit is.

[the-east-art]

hello!! I hope you don’t mind me asking this, but do you have any good gf fic recs? I really like your sister’s one so maybe ones with similar vibes to that? :D

heck yeah! *to the tune of Stunkle Bunkle* East gives Gravity Falls Fic Recs!

idk if i can say for sure what does or doesn't have similar vibes to Pines Paradox, but I can tell you fics I like! Although legally if you like a fic I recommended you have to tell me 'I read that one and liked it' so I can feel like I'm getting a good grade in fics recs. One last thing: I'm not really a shipper so these should all if not mostly be gen. (if you want to see my entire list of bookmarks fics you can check out my ao3

Pines Paradox - BrownieFox

Ford's research is interrupted by his estranged brother showing up on his doorstep with a kid who claims to be time traveller. Meanwhile in the present, Stan and Mabel try to figure out how to get Dipper back to the right time. There will be secrets revealed, old wounds readdressed, and above it all a one-eyed demon watches with interest.

East: the primer. the blueprint. The one I do all the fanart for. Obv you have already read it, but in case this list gets around to other circles outside of my own, I want to put this one up first. Dipper gets stuck in the past BEFORE Not What He Seems.

Adrift - Jamesneatojourney

Stanford wakes up on the deck of the Stan O'War, concussed and alone

East: intense and dramatic - I'm kind of a sucker for Stan whump and that's what it is paired with REALLY good Ford POV

Pines! Pines! Pines! - hellmandraws

A collection of my various Gravity Falls fan comics, previously posted on Tumblr. The main focus tends to be on the Stan twins.

East: MUST READ COMICS. Hops all over the timeline, mostly focusing on Stan and Ford. Explores a bunch of aspects of their relationship, of the years they spend alone. It's the beast stuff out there.

putting the dog to sleep - parsnipit

ford can’t stop thinking about old yeller that night, staring up at the glow-in-the-dark stars on their ceiling. he couldn’t do it, he thinks. he couldn’t ever shoot his own dog, no matter what. “well,” stanley says pragmatically the next morning, pretending like he doesn’t care as much as ford knows he does, “since he was sufferin’ and all, it was really better for him to be dead, wasn’t it? not much point in being alive if your whole life is terrible and you’re a danger to everybody you ever loved.” something cold and sharp takes up residence in ford’s stomach. he doesn’t like hearing stanley say stuff like that. he doesn’t like it at all. “i wouldn’t do it,” ford insists. “no matter what, i wouldn’t. there’s always another way.” “heh. yeah, i bet you’d find another way, brainiac,” stanley teases, reaching over to muss ford’s hair. ford swats him away. stanley can make fun all he wants—ford still spends all night thinking about cures for rabies.

East: OUTRHGDSGD the old yeller analogy that runs through this one shot absolutely kills me - I'm such a sucker for these types of metaphors. It uses quotes from the book to set the stage the the different sections and it drives me crazy in the best ways.

Things You Can't Take Back - thesnadger

It's Nineteen Seventy-Something. Stan is running from his mistakes, when he suddenly encounters the last person he ever thought he'd run into out here. What is he doing in Columbia, so far from Glass Shard Beach?

East: dare I spoil the twist? I won't. Read it. One of my all time faves.

Persist and Dwell - fencesit

Wendy pauses with her hand on the door and then says, "Hey, Soos—you ever notice Stan doesn't really...touch things?" He probably should have seen this coming, but the problem with deliberately not looking at things is that they have lots of chances to blindside you. In hopes of avoiding this conversation, Soos says, "I haven't noticed that." "Okay," Wendy says. "So. I'm going crazy, right?" "Dude, you're too smart to be crazy," Soos says, "but he totally touches things. He handed you money like five minutes ago."

East: What if Stan was lowkey-highkey haunting the shack?! THIS IS SUCH A GREAT IDEA. I really wish that there was more for this au or this idea

Deja Vu - interlude

Stan and Ford get stuck in a time loop on the day of the portal incident and are forced to work through some things.

East: Through the lense of a timeloop, watch the brothers have their struggles, and find that with infinite time on their hands there is nothing else for them to do but to eventually work things out (and maybe deal with how to get out of the loop). ITS GOOD SHIT

The Sacrifice of Stanford Pines - Jugare

Instead of sending Stan a postcard, Ford leaves Gravity Falls to find his brother. But to his shock, Stan is not nearly as willing to help as Ford thought. Everything goes south quickly.

East: I love this fic. The act of Ford going and finding Stan rather than having him send a letter gives these characters more time to interact before they arrive at the Shack, changing the course of fate. A top tier fic.

Under The Ice - castielrisingabove

What if that phone call the Bill-possessed Ford made to Stan actually went through?

East: short but to the point. A fun thought experiment and I think does a good job portraying both Stanley and Ford.

Sleight of Hand - impish_nature

Stan the magician!

East: Stan, post weirdmageddon, shows off his sleight of hand and his magic tricks. Ford POV. If you like the idea of the things lost in the cracks of memory after the series finale, or at least while Stan recuperates, you'll like this.

Unexpected but not Unwanted - impish_nature

Ford struggles as Stan remembers.

East: the tentative movements towards being a family, being brothers again, post weirdmageddon. shamelessly soft.

I Am A Selkie On The Sea - scribefindegil

The twins may be able to use the same sealskin, but only the one born with it is the true selkie. At least, that's what Ford's been telling himself for the past 40-odd years.

East: This series in general is really good. I like how the selkie skin is used to unit and to tear apart. My one gripe is I wish we never found out whether the skin belonged to Mabel or Dipper, and it was left for the reader to decide (and to decide if that even matters)

Too Late, Too Soon, Not Enough - IncomingAlbatross

(Another take on the missing scene in the Fearamid, featuring protectiveness, promises, and some long-overdue emotional progress. Also Stan being annoying on purpose.)

East: one of my favorite depictions of this scene. Does a good job with Fords POV and writing Stanley

why can't we just teach kids swears? - untrustworthyglitch

“Anyway, what’s in my kitchen that needs kid proofed? I keep the liquor in the high cabinets, where the kids won’t be able to reach,” Stan says. “Plus, the gun in the breadbox isn’t even loaded. Probably. I think.” Soos sighs. “I have my work cut out for me.” Or, in which Stan's niece and nephew are coming, and it's up to Wendy and Soos to fix Stan's life and habits.

East: A good fic, but more than that I really love this idea of how Soos and Wendy helped Stan get the shack ready for the kids.

Protective Instincts - ShyEye

Stanford decides to do some out of house research one late full moon night. He returns home only to almost instantly be attacked by an unfamiliar monster that maybe isn't as unfamiliar as initially thought.

East: I just love werewolf Stan au okay?

The Other Portal - Haberdasher

AU where, when items are lost in the Bottomless Pit, they come to Ford… regardless of his current location in the multiverse.

East: A good fic, but more than that it's a really fun idea! I wish they had pushed the implications of this even more (especially with the bottomless pit episode)

Off-Season - anistarrose

Winters running the Mystery Shack are difficult, but two unexpected guests improve Stan’s day.

East: cute oneshot. I'm a big fan of timetravel oneshots that are from the pov of the person who ISNT the timetraveler. Dramatic (or in this case tbh just very cute) irony.

In the Shadow of Death - A_Zap

It all started with the grim. Now it seems like every time he turns around, Ford finds yet another death omen hanging around his brother. Seriously, what exactly is going on with his brother that death constantly seems to follow his footsteps? A 5+1 fic of the death omens that adopted Stan and he adopted back.

East: It all comes together in the final chapter, trust me.

Changing Tides - Ariasune

When their dæmons settle, they'll be grown up. At least, that's the general idea.

and

Post-script - Ariasune

Poindexter, your deed is in the safe -- Wendy can open it for you -- don't worry about the mortgage, that's been paid off. Sorry about messing your life up again. Bye. PS - the milk is about to go bad, so you should use that up.

East: DAEMON AU DAEMON AU I'm such a sucker for these kinds of aus. Changing Tides focuses on canon, flipping between when the Stans were kids and the time of the show. Post Script naturally happens after the show. They're both good and dramatic.

Raising Stakes - Mary P Sue

East: heck, my copy and paste stopped working for some reason, so no summary for you. This is a vampire au and it's good! Create characterization, pretty clearly written either while Mystery Trio was a big thing or inspired by it. Carla fans get your juice.

[abbyromanoff]

Can I please request intersex Maria Hill x shield agent!reader. Reader is like EXTREMELY pretty like goddess level pretty and practically everybody’s in love with/attracted to her. And she met Maria at one of Tony’s parties? Thanks in advance

HALLOWEEN NIGHT

PAIRINGS: kidnapper!Maria Hill x Barton!reader

WORD COUNT: 2747

WARNINGS: dark fic, Maria has a dick, kidnapping, R sleeping with Wanda and Nat, flirting, jealousy, pretty rushed ending tbh, smut, thigh fucking, belly bulges, daddy (M), breeding kink, virginity loss, parties, kinda fem!R but no pronouns are used, drugging, needles, age gap (legal), restraints, gags, cumming on R, petnames, Maria honestly can’t last long at all, think that’s all :)

NO ONE IS PERMITTED TO STEAL, COPY, OR REBLOG MY WORK AS THEIR OWN!!

Your foot tapped gently with the beat of the music, your drink in hand as you took occasional sips. You hummed at the taste, oblivious to the watching eyes surrounding you, Maria being one of them.

All throughout the night you’ve had people coming up to you, trying to find any excuse to talk to you or look at you up close. To them, it was like a fallen angel had walked through the doors and greeted them with your presence, you were that angel. Maria couldn’t help but agree with them, but it didn’t mean she liked it. She thought, no, she knew you belonged to her, she just wished you knew it too.

“Everyone, I’d like to introduce you to my oldest, Y/N,” Clint spoke with a grin, allowing the spotlight to land on you as you shyly waved. Maria’s breath was practically shot out of her, her heart thumping quicker than ever.

“It’s lovely to meet you, dear.” Wanda shook your hand and gave you a small grin as she looked you up and down. Nat did the same as Wanda, pressing a kiss to the back of your palm before smirking. She sent the witch a knowing look and returned to her seat, patting the spot between the two, signaling for you to sit.

“And how come I’ve never met this one, huh, Clint?” He rolled his eyes at her antics, well aware of the thoughts hidden beneath layers of their head.

“They just moved back home after college, they’re a psych major.” They all nodded as your father boasted about you, Maria remained silent. She was eyeing you, but you didn’t look much into it. You feared she was doing so because she didn’t like you or was trying to profile you, but that was proven to be wrong the moment her voice came to surface.

“I’m Maria,” The sweetness shocked you, but you appreciated her willingness to let another into the bubble the team seemed to form.

“Hey, Maria, it’s nice to meet you.” You calmly retorted, giggling as you felt Nat’s fingers brushing over your soft skin. Your inner thigh was just barely showing under your dress, and they both used that to their advantage, most had throughout the night.

“You ticklish, dove?” You bit your lip to stop yourself, and Maria internally groaned at the sight. She wanted to tear that lip from beneath your teeth and bite it as she let her tongue explore your mouth.

“Just a little bit.” She chuckled, images flashing through her mind of you beneath her, biting that lip as you came around her fingers.

“Would you like a drink, Y/N?” The agent's voice boomed, bringing you out of your trance as you forced yourself to look around, noticing your father was no longer nearby. You didn’t expect him to watch you the whole night, but you didn’t expect him to leave and strike up conversations with others so quickly.

“Uh, yeah, sure.” You mumbled, your nerves rising under her gaze. She gave a short nod before walking towards the bar, her eyes occasionally glancing your way.

“So, what do you say about coming with us? If you’d like to dance, we’d love to join you.” Wanda suggested, brushing her shoulder against yours with a knowing grin. Her hot breath fanned against you, leaving goosebumps to trail your skin.

“Oh, a-alright.” You didn’t expect so much attention, but you were happy they seemed to enjoy you.

“Good choice, dove. It’s alright if I call you that, right?” The blush on your face was all the answer she needed, but she still awaited your worded response.

“Yeah, I think it’s kind of cute, actually.” The two led you to the floor, Nat placing her hand on your bottom while Wanda’s grazed up against your lower back. She stood behind you, letting her body grind against yours while Nat stayed in your view. She smirked as your lips parted when feeling Wanda’s breasts pressing into you.

“Can we kiss you, dove?” You didn’t get to speak as Nat instantly pressed her lip into yours, Wanda’s landing on the soul of your neck as a moan threatened to leave you. Your hips involuntarily went with the witch's movements, resulting in a deep groan from the redhead.

“Fuck, such a good girl.” You gave in to their shared compliments, basking in the warmth they offered you. You forgot about the offered drink from earlier, causing Maria to scowl with displeasure when seeing where you stood. She didn’t understand why she felt so predatory over you, she just met you, after all, but there was something about you she had never seen before. Not only did your beauty outshine the room, but your heart was filled with a pureness she’d never expect someone your age to have. You were a college graduate, most students would be fucking their brains up with alcohol and drugs while they slept with anyone who offered themselves, but you were different.

“Why don’t we ditch this party, yeah? I can think of a few things we could do instead.” You gulped, suddenly aware of the proximity you lacked between the two.

“Oh, I- I don’t know.”

“C’mon, dove, it’s not like we’d ever hurt you. If you want to stay here like this then that’s more than fine, but we’d love to make you feel as good as you deserve.” Wanda snaked her hand over your front, placing it undeniably close to your breasts. You gasped, licking over your lips before sharing glances between the two.

“I’ve never, you know.” Her eyes widened slightly, but it was enough to cause your brain to spiral. You hoped she didn’t think wrongly of you now, especially not when you got so far with the two. You weren’t a kid anymore, you hoped she didn’t see you as such now.

“Mm, that’s alright, we’re not here to judge you, dove.” It was made clear they still wanted to continue, and you took that as the okay to move forward.

“Please take me upstairs, I want you both so bad.”

You woke up with a small headache as the sun blared through the windows, reminding you where you were. The two women were still sleeping next to you, their peaceful snores making you grin. You didn’t know what to do going forward, you just lost your virginity to two strangers at a party. Sure, they knew your father, but that only made it worse.

“Fuck,” You groaned out, trying your best not to wake both Wanda and Nat as you scooted out of the comfortable bed. You wished you could go back to bed, but you weren’t sure if they even wanted to see you in the morning. You gathered your small pile of clothes on the floor and loosely tossed them on before exiting quietly.

“Good morning, Y/N.” You jumped, turning to the voice and spotting a tired Maria with a cup of coffee in her hand.

“Jesus, you scared the fuck out of me!” You chuckled. “What, uhm, what are you doing up so early?” You leaned against the wall, brushing the strands of hair out of your face and remaining in a neutral stance.

“I could ask you the same, couldn’t I?” Her calmness sent shivers down your spine, but you didn’t know why.

“I think we both know the answer to that,” You noticed her jaw clench and her nostrils flare slightly, making you fear that you spoke wrong.

“Would you like some coffee? I think you’ll be needing the energy after last night.” Your cheeks brightened, a snort coming from your end as you followed her into the kitchen. The place was so large, you didn’t know how anyone got around.

“I suggest you change your clothes.”

“Oh, I didn’t bring a spare, I kind of expected to be going home after last night.” You wondered if your dad went back home without you or stayed, but you were kind of hoping he headed back so you wouldn’t be stuck with his questions on the ride home.

“You can pick some from my room, I don’t mind.” You felt bad for accepting the offer, until you realized it was that or walking around in high heels and a dress the rest of the day. You found her room with the help of a small direction from her and Jarvis, rummaging through her dresser the moment you found it. You took a minute to glance around her room, the soft yet blank aroma causing your curiosity to grow. You had the clothes in hand, but you wanted to see more. Maria gave off such a tough, cold exterior, you wanted to know what was behind that.

Her bedsheets were perfectly set, not a wrinkle in sight. Her pillows were perfectly aligned and her bedside tables were close to empty, only sporting a lamp on one and a book on the other. There wasn’t even an alarm clock, how did she wake up so early? Maybe it was nightmares, but there was no way she could remain so relaxed and calm if she experienced such on a daily.

You felt the urge to go to the bathroom settling in and assumed she wouldn’t mind you using hers, seeing as she was allowing you to borrow her clothes. What you didn’t expect to see was a knife in the sink, hints of red still covering it. You gasped, only to feel a body behind yours and a hand coming to your mouth.

“You shouldn’t have gone in here, pretty girl.” You tried screaming beneath the coverage but only managed to release a weak whimper as your eyes started growing heavier. You looked down, noticing a needle drawing out of your waist before you fell limp in her hold, unable to fight her off like your thoughts screamed at you to do.

“Perfect, you’re awake.” Came the same voice from earlier, leading you to look around and take in the surroundings. You laid on a bed, it wasn’t as comfy as Nat and Wanda’s but it wasn’t as bad as the one you spent your college years on. Your mouth was still covered by a gag, your legs and hands tied as you tried to wiggle away from her. She stood in your sight now, her shirt gone as her abs shined under the dim lighting. Her left side was patched up, and you were able to get a closer look as she climbed on top of you. Her hands came to your chin, bringing your eyes in line with hers while she smirked.

“I’m going to remove this now, but if you scream, cry, yell, anything, I won’t hesitate to cut your fucking tongue out, got it?” She all but growled, causing tears to rim your eyelids. You nodded nonetheless, taking multiple deep breaths when she did as promised.

“How’d you get that?” You asked after moments of silence, your voice so silent it was practically a whisper.

“Don’t worry about it, alright? All I want you to do is sit there and look perfect for me, you don’t need to think.” You complied, your eyes fluttering as her camera’s flash shocked you. She let the polaroids dry before taking a few more, smiling as she admired each one. She licked her lips, cupping her semi-hard cock with a groan.

“Fuck, you have no idea how badly I need you.” She unbuttoned her pants slowly while stalking towards you, lowering her undergarments before stroking her length, chuckling darkly as you shuttered, your thighs instinctively clenching.

“Don’t move a single fucking muscle, I want to see how wet and needy you get for me.” You bit your lip, a desperate attempt to calm your nerves that rose.

“Are- are you going to put that in me?” You eyed her crotch, taking in every vein that pulsed.

“Mhm, and you’re going to take every last inch, Princess.” Your legs were lifted into the air, the rope forcing them to stay bound together as she put them over her shoulder. A slap came to your ass, causing your body to jolt as you cried out.

“God, I love it when you cry.” A moan found its way past her lips when her length came in contact with your plush thighs, her tip sneaking past the skin as you spotted the pre-cum drooling onto your waist.

“Fuck, please, Daddy!” You regretted the words the moment they left your lips, but your desire seemed to overpower you. She stilled, and you could hear every breath she panted.

“My beautiful baby, my angel…no one else gets to see you like this, yeah? Only me? Mhm, good. Let’s see what other pretty sounds you can make, Princess.” She looked back on the night before, the sight of Nat kissing your sweet lips while Wanda marked your neck only fueling her anger. Seeing them lead you to their room made her want to do things she could never repeat, but now that she had you in her hold, you were safe from everything and everyone else, she convinced herself. It wasn’t your fault you were so lustful, anyone who saw you instantly fell to their knees, begging to even hear your voice. But no one got to see you the way she did, and she’d make sure the two Avengers never got to see you again.

“I’m so close, can’t wait to paint your body with my fucking cum.” Spurts of hot liquid shot onto you, Maria’s head being thrown back while you took in the sight. She had never cum so quickly, whatever you were doing to her was something she couldn’t control, and she wasn’t displeased.

You felt the restraints around your legs loosen before they fell onto the bed, Maria instantly grasping onto them and putting one on either side of her body. She rubbed her cock against your folds, lips parting as your hips thrusted with each movement. Your clit throbbed in delight before she allowed her length to tease the bud, relishing in your sounds of pleasure that were meant only for her.

“Eyes on me,” She demanded when seeing your eyes fall shut, a gulp of fear traveling through your throat. “No, I don’t care if you’re scared, you’ll keep those eyes on me, got that? I want to see the very second I break you, my sweet doll.” She stroked your cheek, her gaze stuck on your cunt that slowly accepted her tip.

“Ah- it’s so much, Daddy! I- I don’t think I can take all- all of it.” You sniffled, hands struggling against the restraints as you tried to play with your pleading nipples that hardened in the cold.

“I want to see how much you can take, impress me, Princess.” You mewled out pleas. “I don’t care if it hurts, you’re here to please me, I could care less if you get off or not.” She pressed her palm against the bulge on your stomach, your sounds bringing shots of heat to her body. She could feel her coil's tightness returning, bringing a small gasp from her end.

“Oh- fuck! I- I’m close again, baby, I’m gonna cum inside you so fucking much!” Her thrusts became animalistic, her grunts causing your brain to fog. Your eyes rolled to the back of your head, your mind going hazy as drool threatened to dribble onto your chin. She was now completely inside of you, causing clapping sounds to elicit throughout the room with each moving of her hips.

“You wanna carry Daddy’s babies, sweetheart? Yeah, you want me to knock you up?” You nodded, unable to comprehend the words she spoke.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck- I’m cumming! Mhm, take all of it! Going to get this greedy little cunt filled to the brim with my fucking cum.” Her lips found your neck in a hurry, desperate to replace your previous marks with ones of her own. You felt spurts of her seed shooting into you, her thrusts becoming slower and sloppier the longer she stalled inside of you. Your warm walls were clenching onto her, gripping for dear life in ways no one has. No one has brought as deep of pleasure as you have, proving her point as to you being the best target she could equip.

“I’m never letting you go, baby, you’re mine now.” But the truth was, you didn’t mind.

[hueseok]

( 01. ) GOOD GRACES.

kim seokjin doesn’t believe in luck. he’s someone who knows that in order to have good things coming your way, you have to work damn hard for it. however, that might not be the case when it comes to bad luck, because after a video of him goes viral wherein it looks like he’s screaming at someone’s grandma, he begins thinking maybe luck does exist—and it just so happens that he’s now being subjected to a lot of unluckiness.

he’s being cancelled. his career is getting destroyed. his manager is forcing him to take a hiatus. and on top of that, as if things could not get worse, the only hope he has on redeeming everything he worked hard on depends on you, the director’s daughter of the theater show that could propel him back to where he used to be.

that should have been a piece of cake. if only you weren’t his ex who he dumped via phone call and got threatened by to never show his face to ever again...

pairing: seokjin x reader

word count: 4.2k

rating: NC-17

content: fluff, light angst, humor, exes to enemies to friends to lovers au | ft. theater actor!seokjin + himbo energy!seokjin lmao, podcaster!reader + nepo baby!reader

warning/s: lots of swearing | lots of internal monologue by seokjin? lmao

[ chapter index. ]

EPISODE 01. there are worse things i could do !

seokjin never thought that the downfall of his career would happen because of a misconstrued video of him going viral where he was apparently yelling at a poor old lady in a grocery store.

but here he is, getting canceled on twitter and being informed by his manager that he was taken off the projects he was scheduled to do for the upcoming year, the brands who were once so keen on getting him on board suddenly backtracking and terminating the previously signed deals that were already discussed.

regardless of how he tried convincing yikyung, the said manager, that he wasn’t actually fighting the woman who was probably the same age as his grandmother on that short clip—and that all of this was just a stupid a misunderstanding, he’s told it’s too late. the public already made up their mind; they all hated him, and there were several gossip blogs publishing articles that had ‘receipts’ of his apparent bad and diva behavior over the span of his career.

“look, namjoon and I are working on it,” yikyung says, explaining that the PR and legal team are already in the midst of taking care of the whole problem. “but for the meantime, the best you can do is lay low for a while, buddy.”

“what?” seokjin exclaims. “are you saying—”

“you’ll be going on a hiatus.”

“hiatus,” he repeats, enunciating every syllable like he heard it wrong. he feels like he’s going to vomit, the whole room he’s in right now spinning before his eyes.

“yes. hiatus.”

god, seokjin hates that word. he’s been working his ass off since he knew how to act and sing and was the absolute fucking best at it. and now they’re putting him on a hiatus? it’s ridiculous. it’s unfair! he isn’t in some kind of boyband or anything, but he’s pretty sure that they use that term to sugarcoat the fact that the members are quitting the industry or going solo which doesn’t make sense for him so the former category is probably more applicable to his situation at the moment and—

“it’s temporary,” yikyung continues speaking, as if reading what’s going in his mind. “at most, it’ll be a year.”

that still doesn’t calm seokjin down. “you’re benching me for a year?”

“at most.”

“does it really have to be that long?”

“yeah, if we see that it’s necessary enough.”

“i don’t think a year is necessary.”

“we don’t know that yet.”

“but if you keep me away from the public that long… it's going to kill my career!”

yikyung gives him a pitiful look. “it's already dead, jin. let’s be real here.”

he gasps, genuinely offended that his manager would say such a thing. “take that back.”

“look, i’m not happy with this either,” yikyung says, “but the public needs to forget that video. It’s what everybody is talking about, it’s what every director or sponsor that’s asking us about too—nobody would want to associate themselves with your name anyway while the story’s fresh, so this hiatus won’t kill it. doing this hiatus will just induce your career into a coma. you’ll be like sleeping beauty.”

“then who’ll be the fucking prince?”

“a mindblowing project that’ll remind people that you’re the best leading man in the theater world.”

seokjin lets that sink in.

just days ago, he was being blasted with offers to do commercials and new productions due to the successful run of chicago where he portrayed billy flynn. A lot of columns praised his versatility, saying that despite reservations on how he was going to perform, he nailed the part and captured the audience’s hearts with how he made that character his own. it was the biggest ego boost he had in a while considering he was so passionate in bringing billy flynn to life and pulling off the long note he had in we both reached for the gun—now though? all the happiness that he felt before? all the acclaim he reckoned could last him a good few months to stay motivated in doing this? it’s being buried to the ground; he feels as if everything is crashing down and every good thing in his life is fading away.

guess it’s true that being too happy can cause too much sadness after.

“a year goes by so fast, you know,” yikyung tells him. “keep yourself busy. pursue other hobbies. the next time i’ll call you, i’ll make sure it’s about an offer that’ll jolt your career awake again.”

and so with no other choice, really… that’s what seokjin did.

he decides to follow yikyung’s advice and take a train back to his hometown with the plan to help his aunt run the small grocery business she had, residing there until circumstances appear better for him. he figures this break might be better than he thinks, taking into account the fact that he’s been working nonstop since he began landing solid roles years ago. maybe a restart is what he needs; maybe he can use this as an excuse to do other stuff and pursue other hobbies like he was suggested to do.

in the first month of his forced hiatus, he becomes some kind of apprentice at his aunt’s mentioned grocery store. he meets taehyung, a young man who looks way too handsome to be only arranging packed and canned goods in the aisles of the shop as another helper of his aunt; taehyung also apparently recognizes him, asking if he’s that “theater star harassing an old lady” he kept on seeing on tiktok which seokjin’s always quick to correct. taehyung never looks convinced though, regardless of how much seokjin explains, but he at least doesn’t treat him shit for some groundless scandal.

then in his second month, he begins to try pottery. there are classes for it in the same town, a 10-minute drive away and the instructor happens to be a family friend. however, after five sessions, he realizes that he’s horrible at the task and can’t produce anything that’s worth selling or admiring even. that doesn’t mean he doesn’t enjoy it though, ‘cause he does, and he still attends each class or goes on his own for the following months to use this activity as catharsis.

for the third month, he starts painting; on the fourth, he volunteers to walk the golden retriever that an elderly couple neighbor has; when the fifth month comes, he begins jogging around the area, continuing that until the sixth and seventh as he progresses to running—and then on the eight month, while he’s tending to the crops he’s growing at his aunt’s backyard, he finally gets the call from yikyung that he always pretends not to care about.

hurriedly taking off his gloves that are covered with mud, he picks up his phone from the table and answers his agent’s call. “please tell me you have something,” is what he says, not even concealing the desperation in his voice.

“i have something,” yikyung confirms, sounding excited.

“holy fuck,” he whispers to himself. he’s pacing around now, thrilled and anxious, praying to the gods of every religion that this will be a good offer. “what is it? tell me quickly.”

“they’re doing grease,” he says and seokjin does an impromptu super mario impression, just jumping all over the place because of the mention of the famous musical, the kind of musical that he knows would definitely benefit him if he wants to be within everybody’s radar again. “they already have a sandy young—it’s the producer’s niece—so now all they’re looking for is the rest of the cast. I already got you an audition for danny zuko and it’s two weeks from now.”

“god, i fucking love you, yikyung.”

“i’m amazing, aren’t I?”

“the best. you’re a goddamn gift from above.”

“and it hasn’t even been a year,” yikyung proudly points out. “you’ll be absolutely back on your feet after this project. your scandal has died down, anyway. not a lot are talking about it, and some of your fans are getting better at defending you, sharing encounter stories of their own to support the claim that you aren’t a dick who has a fetish in getting into a bickering war with an old woman.”

seokjin rolls his eyes. “never describe it that way to me again.”

yikyung chuckles. “i’ll hire a cleaning lady to clean your apartment here in the city maybe this weekend. when do you think you’ll arrive?”

“some time after the weekend. i’ll have to take care of a few things before i go.”

“like what?”

“well, believe it or not, i actually made some friends here.”

“damn. i told you this hiatus was going to be good for you.”

“yeah, you are right about that. i think it was healing for some reason. aside from the first weeks of me being depressed as fuck.”

“so, what does that mean? does this mean that you think you’ll nail the audition?”

seokjin grins. he isn’t cocky for nothing. even though it was advised to him before to lower it down a bit so that he wouldn’t come across as a complete ass, he knows he’s great at this pursuit of his. he’s charming, he has an amazing voice, and he can pull off any choreography instructed to him regardless of his initial lack of dancing abilities. being a hard worker makes you that way, and it’s what seokjin thinks will always help him in every endeavor he runs after.

“you bet, i will.”

“how’s your voice? your joints? do you need to warm up?”

“i’ve been singing for the community here every tuesday and thursday. i also haven’t been physically inactive like you think i am. i’ve been exercising regularly, improving my stamina and all that shit.”

yikyung doesn’t answer for a few seconds, a silence that seokjin translates into his manager being impressed that he hasn’t let go of himself despite the circumstances.

after a few more clarifications and reminders, the call ends and seokjin flops down on the wooden chair close to him, this goofy and giddy smile erupting on his face. it doesn’t occur to him until this moment that he’s been wishing for a miracle like this to come along because he’s been missing performing on stage like he used to do during shows and even when he’s in dance studios for the rehearsals. yeah, having a reason to take a break was nice too as he expressed, but nothing beats doing what he loves to do.

and playing danny zuko? wow, talk about a huge upgrade from being mandated by his management to disappear from the public to potentially being cast as one of john travolta’s famous roles. of course, the challenge with this is that he has to make sure that he actually gets the role, which he’s optimistic that he’ll be fine with.

his reputation may be questionable once he comes back, but there’s no denying that if there’s anyone who can emanate an arrogant greaser who cares too much about his image—it’s him.

****

seokjin’s aunt was devastated when she discovered that he’s leaving. she tried to persuade him to stay longer (if not for her, for the plants and the grocery store—and maybe the crowd of people he would sing for whenever there was an occasion in the neighborhood). however, regardless of her insistence, seokjin cannot be budged; he’s been waiting far too long for this to have second thoughts about it, to be swayed from this provincial life he has come to love and genuinely enjoy.

“are you coming back?” taehyung asked him when the news of seokjin’s immediate departure got to him too. “because if you aren’t, can I have your bike?”

seokjin rolled his eyes. over the course of his stay, taehyung has become some sort of little brother he never had. “i’m coming back. just to visit though,” he said. “so you can have my bike.”

on the weekend before he left, he spent time with the people he befriended. he arranged a bingo session with the elderly; he ran laps with that golden retriever he took on walks every morning; he did his last piece of pottery with the instructor he also became friends with; then, on his very last night, he shared a few drinks with his aunt and taehyung, promising them that if he gets the part, they’ll have front row tickets to the show.

if not, he’ll jump off the bridge because he doesn’t think he has a face to show to anyone anymore. 

he earned a slap on the arm by his aunt with that one.

everything went smoothly when he came back to his old apartment the following morning, freshly cleaned like yikyung promised. nonetheless, seokjin felt it was necessary to check every nook and cranny of the place to verify that, even going as far as examining the decorations, memorabilia, and picture frames he had on display, his finger being swiped on the most random areas to make sure that every corner was polished. nobody lived here for eight months in his defense, and he really could catch a bad case of allergic rhinitis in the case yikyung was lying. he couldn’t have that. he had his voice to take care of; there shouldn’t be snot or phlegm getting in the way of the full prowess of his vocals.

for the next few days leading up to the audition, he did everything he can to assure that he’ll be in his best state when his time to shine comes. he practiced the song sandy, a solo piece sung by danny zuko, and rehearsed the lines for the scene where danny and sandy first meet again at rydell high.

in those hours he spent talking to himself, warming up his voice, making sure that he shaped his words right and exuded the energy of the greaser he’s aiming to play, he started thinking again that he seriously got a huge chance in landing this role. he’s superb at acting; he’s certain that he has the voice needed for this part; and not to mention that he’s got the looks for it, alright. his handsomeness is certainly one of the aspects that makes him so marketable as an actor.

plus, he manages to get a positive outlook regarding this because yikyung has been great in encouraging him, sending him inspirational quotes that sometimes were borderline annoying because it had nothing to do with his situation but still touching in a way.

like right now, as seokjin waits in the holding room of the theater for the audition, he receives a message from his manager with a GIF of a maneki-neko with an oversized arm and the quote by dr. seuss saying, “you have brains in your head. you have feet in your shoes. you can steer yourself any direction you choose. you're on your own. and you know what you know. and you are the guy who'll decide where to go”.

it is a little aligned to what he’s going through right now but seokjin can’t help but still grimace in distaste.

“kim seokjin?” the casting assistant calls, and he snaps his head up from the screen of his phone to peer at the person who called him.

he stands, gaining the attention of the casting assistant. “here.”

“great. follow me please.” she smiles and begins walking to where the stage is without checking whether seokjin followed her or not. 

he does, as quickly as possible, thankful because he can finally get away from that enclosed space with fellow auditionees who were either gaping at him or chatting him up, asking about the hiatus he did. he’s smart enough not to give any specific details, instead saying the standard “mental health break” or “sabbatical leave” that they seemed to buy.

walking across the stage, his eyes squint a bit at the spotlight directed to him. then, stopping at the center, he averts his gaze to the two people who are sitting on the front row seats. hyunbin park the director and seungjoon ahn the producer. they both appear serious, like they’re bored, or like they’ve been unimpressed by the roster of auditionees they’ve been having so far.

it creates a spark of hope for seokjin who’s confident that he might just be the person that’ll blow their minds for today. even though this is his first time performing in front of a professional again, he’s learned over the years to trust his skills more, and he knows that he’s definitely adept for the tryout happening at the moment.

“kim seokjin, isn’t it?” mr. Park says. he’s the more intimidating one out of the pair. he’s famous for having directed a lot of shows that got to win several trophies in every award giving body that catered to the theater industry. aside from this production being an anticipated project of his, he’s scheduled to direct a movie with a star-studded cast.

seokjin nods. “yes, that’s me.”

“wait a minute, i know you,” says mr. ahn, an index finger pointed towards him. this man doesn’t look that much older than seokjin. give or take about only five years his senior. “i’ve seen you somewhere. where have i seen you?”

seokjin swallows hard. fuck, fuck, fuck. kill me now. bury me in the ground. shit. i hope he doesn’t realize that i'm—

“ah! i remember.” mr. ahn laughs, turning to mr. park. “isn’t he the guy who played corny collins three years ago or something?”

a huge breath of relief escapes seokjin.

mr. park nods unsurely. “yeah, I think so. did you play corny collins, son?” he asks.

“i did.”

their faces significantly brightened.

“well, i’m looking forward to your audition, seokjin,” mr. ahn says. “i watched the media preview of hairspray back then. i was a great friend of jiyong.”

jiyong was the director of the said show.

“you may begin,” mr. park adds, gesturing for him to go ahead before readjusting the glasses he’s wearing. “break a leg.”

seokjin flashes a dazzling smile and begins.

****

yikyung: how was it? yikyung: the audition should be over by now. yikyung: tell me how you did! yikyung: i’ll be like this for the whole day until you reply. yikyung:

seokjin: do you think sending gifs is cool? seokjin: bc it’s not

yikyung: you didn’t answer my question?

seokjin can’t stop grinning. he’s had this grin since he finished the audition and walked out to the lobby, his mind replaying the events that took place during his performance and the reactions of the director and producer after he was done.

even though the two didn’t make their verdict apparent, seokjin had a feeling that he was going to get cast in this show for the reason that as soon as he finished belting the last line of the song sandy, mr. park and mr. ahn shared a look with one another, their eyebrows raising in what comes across like understanding.

now, quick disclaimer, seokjin doesn’t read minds, but he’s pretty sure that that’s a good sign. he’s done his fair share of auditions and seeing an interaction like that from people who are in charge of casting always raises the chances that he’ll end up in the project. it’s a really big tell from what he thinks—and it’s what’s prompting him to almost skip like a little girl while walking to the café nearby where he’s planning to treat himself with the mouthwatering strawberry cream croissant he saw on their display earlier, nothing in his mind other than fantasies of receiving a call as soon as he gets home confirming he got the part.

maybe i should start incorporating black leather jackets into my wardrobe more… it is what danny zuko wears half of the time in the film and since i’ll be danny zuko, it can be some kind of way i’ll be able to internalize the character and be fucking amazing in this…

clearly, doing an inner monologue isn’t advisable when you’re walking along a busy street filled with people who are obviously in a rush to get to where they’re going.

because as he continues marching forward, taking a quick turn to the café he’s aiming to go to, his thoughts everywhere aside from the path he’s strolling on—his arm bumps against someone’s shoulder, ceasing his daydreaming and causing him to glance back, about to utter a quick apology if it wasn’t for the sight that greets him when he does.

he wrinkles his forehead, gazing at you.

there’s no doubt in his mind that it really is you who he’s looking at, but due to the fact that it’s been approximately 9 years since you last saw each other, seokjin asks himself whether this is legit or is his imagination taking a sinister route and letting him imagine how it would be like to meet the person he doesn’t want to see on a perfect day.

“well, shit,” you say, staring at him with the same surprised yet puzzled expression. your features look more mature, your hair is styled in a different way, your choice of clothes is more sophisticated—yet despite the subtle changes, you’re still as attractive as you were when he last got to see you. he might even dare to think that your attractiveness leveled up as well. “i’ll be damned. it’s you.”

seokjin feels his throat closing up, reality sinking in that you’re really here in front of him. “____?”

“i’m flattered that you remember.” you chuckle. “or that you’re not pretending to have amnesia to escape this conversation at least.”

to be fair, if it registered to him a few seconds earlier on who you are, he might have done exactly that.

but of course he doesn’t admit it. his ears just turn red while he utters a lie. “that’d be silly. it’s not like you’d believe me if i said that.”

“touché. but i still reckon you’d do it. you are an actor.” a smirk makes its way to your lips. “how’s that going, by the way? last time i heard, you’re being murdered on twitter and being called a world class asshole.”

he winces slightly. “that’s an exaggeration.”

“i don’t think so. you are on hiatus because of it, aren’t you?”

“not anymore.”

“oh?”

“you seem disappointed,” he retorts. “then again, i wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve been praying for my downfall ever since you-know-what happened.”

“you-know-what? do you mean when you dumped me?” you explicitly say, not even missing a beat after he was done speaking.

yes, you’re an ex-girlfriend. sadly, an ex-girlfriend he knows he didn’t treat well because of what you just reminded him of.

he presses his lips together, gathering all the confidence he has left. “yes. i do mean that. and i am sorry about it. truly.”

“you dumped me over the phone.”

“i’m aware of that too.”

“you didn’t explain why you wanted to break up.”

a pause. “yes, i didn’t.”

“and just because we coincidentally met again after so many years, you finally apologize?”

“that’s about right.”

“it doesn’t sound very sincere to me.”

he widens his eyes, surprised that you’re not letting this go as easily as he thought you would. from what he remembers, you’re the type of person who doesn’t hold grudges; you’re the type of person that everybody would say was genuinely good. in fact, it’s what he was mad about years back when you were still together—how you often let other people take advantage of your kindness, often putting you in a position of being a doormat or an emotional punching bag.

but that’s almost a decade ago. he feels bad that he’s not sure whether to be proud of you or to be a bit frustrated that he’s on the receiving end of this.

“anyways,” you add after the excruciating awkward silence, “as much as i want to give you a piece of my mind, i have to go. i’d say it was nice seeing you and that we should catch up sometime, jin, but that would be a lie.”

seokjin’s supposed to let you go despite his conscience eating him up. he’s not entirely stupid, it’s apparent that it’s better not to reopen healed wounds, and judging from the manner you spoke to him, you don’t want to give him an opening to enter your life again.

but then your phone rings, which you’re holding on one hand while the other holds a paper bag from the coffeeshop. And then, seokjin sees it—sees mr. park’s face on the screen with a caller ID named ‘dad’, that he can’t prevent himself from staying still and allowing you to leave without explaining what he’s witnessing right now.

“wait,” he holds your elbow as you’re trying to walk past him, “your dad isn’t mr. park, is he? i know your dad. He’s not hyunbin park.”

you blink at him, confused at the random question, however a wave of understanding swiftly washes over you. he watches you grin all of the sudden, eyes twinkling in amusement. he’s familiar with that expression, and it’s scaring him to death because he now has a pretty good idea on what your answer is going to be.

“you’re here in the city because of an audition,” you state, tone so sure that it makes him sweat. “don’t tell me… You’re auditioning for grease?”

he doesn’t tell you he’s auditioning for grease.

your grin widens even further, your next sentence inducing a sensation that might be a heart attack.

“then you’ve met dad. he is hyunbin park, the director.”

fuckity fuck fUCK FUCK!

note. AHHH first chapter is out! i hope y’all like this because i’m happy with how this turned out hehe. this drabble series will only have 10 episodes and i’m gonna pray that i get to finish this before the year 2024 ends 😭

gentle reminder: this author loves feedback! let her know your thoughts if you enjoyed reading this fic and you’ll add 100+ points in her writing motivation meter ♡

[geekgirles]

The interesting thing about Gobbowl culture in Ankama media (and probably the aspect that most resembles irl football) is the fact that the interest it draws comes less from the sport itself and more from there being players the fans can idolise and obsess over.

Khan Karkass summed it up best: people don't come to matches to watch them play, they come to watch him.

Gobbowl fans care more about their favourite player than the sport itself. In fact, for the most part they care more about their favourite player putting on a show for them than them playing well.

And this is something that's been present in all iterations of the franchise, in the different eras (except for Waven, but the game's not quite there as far as I'm concerned).

Back in Wakfu season 1, there was Kriss Krass, who was massively popular, even when I seem to remember he didn't even play in the first division back then.

Moreover, his main flaw was being a complete showboat, but it was precisely because he knew his fans cared more about him putting on a good show than about the actual outcome of the game. I mean, the man held back from utterly cursbtomping the opposite team just so he could keep the game going for as long as possible and his fans wouldn't get bored!

Then season 2 introduced Maude as the Masked Gobbowler. In Brâkmar. Where women aren't even allowed to watch Gobbowl.

And, sure, one of the main reasons she hid her identity was precisely because if she was found out, the lightest sentence would be her being banned from ever playing again, with the highest sentence being... Well...

You know...

But that doesn't change the fact that Brâkmar holds their best player in such a high pedestal the Masked Gobbowler had a say in legal procedures and how to deal with the accused party of a trial. With no one, not even the Prince of Brâkmar, daring to refute.

And in the end, after Maude proved just how amazing her technique is by saving the city alongside Kriss from the Mmmmmporg's rampage, Brâkmar started treating having a girl as their best player as a badge of honour (if only because they thought it proved their superiority over Bonta).

And then we have the Dofus Era with Khan Karkass.

Khan, who was introduced looking for new team members with the sole purpose of making himself look better, because that's what the fans wanted. They wanted Khan. Everybody else was little more than a living prop meant to make him shine.

His fame was so great that you could say it overshadowed even Jashash's. Because even though the match was supposed to commemorate him and his sacrifice, what everyone really came to see was Khan play. Even the announcer gave so much more importance to Khan's presence over Jahash's feats.

And, again, the fans seemed to care much more about Khan as an icon than they did his actual skills. Now, don't get me wrong, Khan genuinely was a talented player, more importantly, one that recognised true talent. And Marilyn possessing his body and playing bad on purpose was a great factor in the fans' disillusionment over him during the climax.

However, it should be pointed out that what horrified them first was Marilyn shaving Khan's hair. Because that simple action shattered their ideal image of him. If they truly cared more about the sport, they wouldn't have even batted an eyelash.

(Again, this is a reflection of real life, where the moment a famous player makes a drastic change to their appearance, social media is already flowing with comments about it).

But no. They were horrified because they idolised Khan as a source of entertainment much more than they liked the actual sport, and his hair was his trademark. Getting rid of it was getting rid of what made Khan an object of envy and desire. And Marilyn, as fellow Khan Karkass Stan and scorned admirer, knew that. He knew it better than anyone. That's why he did it.

And I don't know wny I chose to fixate on this today and overanalyse a relatively small aspect of the franchise. I just guess this is all a neat piece of world building.

[wishful-thinking64]

One Hell of an Unpopular Opinion #03

Characters like Barbie Wire, Chaz, Crimson, Octavia, and Stella only exist as plot devices to garner sympathy for other characters. _______ I knew fully well that Chaz and Crimson were going to merely be plot devices for Moxxie the more I watched Exes & Oohs. And sure enough, Chaz was killed at the end of that very episode and Crimson is yet another wacky cartoon villain that the narrative expects for you to take seriously. Both of these characters existed so that the audience could gain sympathy (or at least pity) for Moxxie being raised in a Mafia family and having been abused as a child along with being betrayed by his ex-boyfriend (who also happened to be Millie's ex-boyfriend for some reason.) Other than Moxxie's Mafia family upbringing making zero sense the more you think about it, Viv has basically done this exact backstory before in the form of Angel Dust (with the whole mobster backstory who was also abused by his father.) However, the Exes & Oohs episode and title actually stems from one of the HH mockup episodes that was originally about Charlie and Vaggie coming across Charlie's ex, Seviathan (yes, that's what Viv named him), and his sister, Helsa, while they were at a dinner party.

Now, do I think Chaz and Crimson could've had the potential to be good characters? In all honesty, no. Especially not Chaz. The guy is a harmful stereotype of pansexual people and how, "They'll sleep with anyone," which no, they won't. I'm not pansexual myself but that thought process is as gross as it is fucking stupid. The only person who I've seen even re-writing Chaz has been Loves Art23 (I mainly know her for YouTube videos being critical on Hazbin Hotel + Helluva Boss along with other shows like the disaster known as High Guardian Spice) and I think she's done a fairly good job so kudos to her for making him work. Personally, though I'm scrapping him as that gives me one less character to worry about when re-writing HB. Crimson would have to be heavily and I mean HEAVILY reworked/re-written in order for him to make any actual sense. That and I'm tired of every character having some variation of the same daddy issues in the Hellaverse. Which means he's also gonna get axed from me. Moving onto the ladies I mentioned, let's start off with Barbie Wire.

Having been foreshadowed since the pilot of I.M.P. (as seen when Tilla was still Barb's and Blitzo's older sister rather than their mother) Barbie Wire was an anticipated character by fans for years! And then her actual appearance finally happened in Unhappy Campers, an episode hated by practically everyone who saw it, and no one really cared about her showing up, other than the fact that the writers thought that having her seduce a BARELY legal adult would make for a good joke, when in reality, it only made everybody uncomfortable and several people dislike Barbie because of it. Sure, near the end of the episode she had that "emotional" scene with Blitzo that wants the viewers to feel bad for him and Barbie before she left but in the long run it didn't matter as fans barely even talk about it because of how uneventful it truly was. So, with that out of the way, would I keep Barbie Wire around for a rewrite of HB? To that I say, yes! There are several paths Barbie Wire's overall character could go in. If you're mainly sticking to canon, then what you have to work with is a former circus performer who lost her mother in a fire caused by her twin brother that left his own best friend to rot and be disabled for the rest of his life. It's very likely that this very fire, caused her to be out of a job and probably even homeless for a bit which could explain why she ended up becoming both a drug attic and a drug dealer. Homelessness is one of the few things that nobody wants to experience. It causes people to be filled with a sense of overwhelming loneliness and desperation as many of them either believe that there's nothing they can do or they do anything and everything that they can to get out of it even if that means resorting to crime. If you wanted to have her be loosely based on canon instead, you could make it to where she never learned about who started the fire and actually stuck with Blitzo well into adulthood. Have her become one of the members of I.M.P. and later down the line have her learn through someone like Fizz or maybe Cash (her and Blitzo's father) what actually went down that day. Have her be rightfully pissed off at Blitzo for screwing over multiple people along with being the one responsible for killing their mom. Anyway, let's proceed onto Stella and her daughter Octavia.

As much as the narrative wants me to hate Stella with a burning passion cause she hurts Stolas, I can't do it for multiple reasons but I'll list my top three. #01.) Stella's just as (if not even more so) stuck in this arranged loveless marriage as Stolas is. #02.) If the man I had no choice in marrying not only cheated on me with a man from one of the lowest classes in all of Hell but IN OUR OWN HOME & SHARED BEDROOM NO LESS? OH, FUCK NO!

#03.) This woman had to spend 9 months having to nourish and care for a baby inside her stomach that she had with a man that didn't even want to sleep with her. On top of that, she had to have become pregnant with Octavia when she was a young adult since current day Stolas and Stella are only in their mid 30s. I need you to let that information sink in.

In short, I can't hate Stella for loathing Viv's pathetic self insert bird twink with every fiber of her being.

Having said that, would I have Stella in my HB rewrite? Well, considering that I plan on keeping the war that happened in the bible that caused Lucifer and several angels to fall from grace, one of which being Stolas. Kind of. Allow me to elaborate, I would keep Stella as Octavia's mother but I wouldn't have her marry Stolas. I'd have her be a surrogate mother that way Stolas still gets an heir and Octavia could still exist. Speaking of Octavia...

We all know that she exists to make Stolas look like a better person as several stans of this show love to say how much of a good dad Stolas is when he isn't. He neglects Octavia frequently in favor of Blitzo and only pays attention to her when she's gone although EVEN THAT doesn't last long as shown in Seeing Stars where HE KNEW Octavia was missing on Earth but rather than ACTIVELY look for his daughter, what does he do? HE SITS THROUGH A STUPID LIVE COMEDY SHOW CAUSE BLITZO IS PERFORMING! HE COMPLETELY SIDELINES HIS OWN DAUGHTER IN FAVOR OF A LIVE COMEDY SHOW!

God, Octavia deserves so much better than to have a dad like him. I'm keeping Octavia for my HB rewrite so that this poor girl not only realizes how much of a bastard her dad is but eventually gets the found family she deserves. I don't plan for it to be through I.M.P. though. In closing, the characters of this show deserve to be better developed but especially the women in them.

_______

That was a long one to get through cause it's been on my mind for a while. Thank you all for reading through it and bye for now everybody!

[lovingrosewho]

Framed

Hello there! It’s been a while since I’ve written anything but I recently began watching Criminal Minds again and fell in love with Aaron Hotchner all over again as well, so I just had to write this, I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it :) This is my first Criminal Minds (published) fanfic, and the first Hotch x Reader I’ve written ever! (also the first nsfw)

ONE SHOT (but who knows, it may even have a part 2 on a future maybe not-so-near but not-so-far-away either)

Pairing: Aaron Hotchner x Cis!fem!reader

Rating: 18+

Word count: 3467

Summary: reader has been accused of murdering her older, rich ex-fiancé (of course I took my inspo for this piece of fanfiction from Brooke Whyndam, of the movie “Legally blonde”, also, the line “then show them a picture of his dick” is from that movie).

Warnings: NSFW content (innuendo, sex, curse words, age gap - reader is in her mid twenties, Hotch is in his early/mid forties)

“I didn’t do it!” you scream one last time slamming your fist on the table, on the edge of tears.

It had passed around 8 hours already with you in custody, accused of the murder of your ex-fiancé, a (quite older) man, CEO of a big company in town, and as if that wasn’t enough, the best friend of the sheriff.

SSA Aaron Hotchner rubs his face, tired, after observing Prentiss and Morgan’s attempts to get you to confess. It’s almost 3am.

“Sheriff, with all due respect, I think she’s telling the truth” he tells him with a soft voice after a deep sigh.

“And with all due respect, you profiled that the suspect would be a female in her mid twenties, who we’d have to get the information out of her”.

“And we also profiled she’d be seeking for attention and validation which we don’t see it happening do we?” Aaron retorts rolling his eyes discreetly.

The sheriff gives SSA Aaron Hotchner one last glance before grabbing the doorknob of the interrogation room and storming in, Hotch follows close behind, seeing how the sheriff turns off the videocamera recording what happens inside the interrogation room, knowing no good can come from asking the same questions over and over again when everybody is also tired and fed up with trying to get a false confession out of you, which, from your behavior, Hotch knows it’s impossible.

“That’s it!” the sheriff yells “You killed my best friend! Either you confess or I’ll let you rot in here the rest of the 72 hours we can have you legally detained!”

“For the last time, I. Didn’t. Do it!” you yell back.

The BAU team exchanges glances between each other.

“What judge is going to believe you huh? You were engaged to a successful man in his mid fifties! And then he goes and marries someone even younger than you!”

“That was over two years ago!” you talk back.

“You had motive and opportunity, no judge nor jury is going to understand any other reason for you to be with him that is not for the money”.

“Then show them a picture of his dick! That might clear a few things up” you finally bark at him. The sheriff looks at you in astonishment. Morgan disguises a snicker as a cough, Prentiss bites down her lower lip to suppress a laugh, and Hotchner… Hotchner just stands impassive at you.

The sheriff leaves the room enraged, and everyone else follows, not before giving you an apologetic look. Hotchner is the last one to stay. You see the slightest doubt on his eyes and the subtle twist his lips make. You know he’s thinking about letting you go, but he then lowers his stare and gets out of the room, just like everybody else.

You sigh, drained out of energy after all the interrogations. This can’t be happening to you.

You knew since the moment you met John, that just his pure acquaintance could ruin your life. He had many enemies, and even more groupies who belonged to social circles that if you hadn’t met him, you would have never even imagined they existed, but what you had never imagined either, was that after all the heartbreak, loss and pain of what you thought in that moment to be the love of your life, you’d be reliving all those feelings, cause of some stupid cop negligence.

You lay your head slowly on the table, feeling the coldness of the metal surface on your cheek, and close your eyes for just a couple of minutes. You can’t sleep, not until this nightmare is all over, but at least, you get to have a few moments of peace and quiet before some other agent enters the room and begins yet another interrogation, demanding new information. Information you don’t have.

Outside the gray room, where you can’t hear nor see anything, the BAU team argues with the sheriff about your freedom.

“We’ve gotten out of her everything we’re going to get, I’m telling you, she didn’t do it” Morgan tries to reason with him.

“An unsub who planned a homicide this calculated would be equally calculated both on his answers and his behavior, this girl was in shock when we started showing her the case photos and couldn’t get a single cohesive phrase out. You can’t pin this murder on her” Emily backs up Morgan.

The sheriff looks at both of them, puffs a sigh and places his hands on his hips before discussing.

“Look, I get it, you profilers or whatever think you’re better than all of us, but this is still my county, and while I can have her in custody, I will. Who knows? She might even give up a confession or at least some new information. Goodnight gentlemen. And lady” he starts to walk to the exit without giving any of them any chance to convince him “I suggest you too get some rest. It’s been a long day and there’s one even longer ahead of us. Lock up when you get out”.

With that last statement, the sheriff ends the discussion and exits the precinct. Morgan and Prentiss move their heads in disagreement, proceeding to look back at Hotch, who is frowning at the door the sheriff just left through.

“What now?” both the BAU members look at the unit chief.

“Sheriff is right in one thing: you should get some rest. I’ll stay here with (Y/N), keep her company and see if there’s something we missed” he declares “Call Reid, Rossi and JJ, head back to the hotel, I’ll catch up with you in a few hours”.

“Hotch she’s not our unsub” Morgan defends you again “I mean we could, let her go right?”

“I’m afraid not. If we step ahead of the local officers, we might make things worse by getting ourselves kicked out of the investigation. It’ll be of more use the sooner we find something, anything, that might help (Y/N) clear her name and get her out of here” Hotch answers, he’s looking at Morgan but directs his orders to both of them, he knows his team too well to not know for a fact that Emily is the one who’s more inclined to let you go. They both nod silently.

“All right” Emily surrenders, not just because she’s too tired to continue arguing, but because she also knows that perhaps getting back to the hotel and going over some of the facts and scenes with Reid or JJ, might be more useful “Do you want me to stay with you? I mean the precinct is completely empty. You’ll be here all by yourself”.

“It’s okay. You and Morgan. Hotel. Rest. We’ll gather first thing in the morning and go through everything we have so far” he assures and doesn’t wait for a reply, beginning to walk back to the interrogation room, hearing the exit door of the precinct close behind him and the key turning.

When he enters again, he finds you on the same position you were trying to rest, your cheek against the now warm table, your hair falling on it and covering parts of your face.

“I’m not asleep” you mutter softly “I just needed to clear my head, breath and relax for a bit”.

Hotch lets out an almost imperceptible sigh, but everything is so quiet, that you get to hear it.

“(Y/N) I know you didn’t do it” he pronounces just as softly as you.

“Really?” you frown and shift your position, sitting back on the chair, looking at him “Then… can I go?”

He presses his lips into a straight line, and lets out a firm, but still tender “no”. A single tear escapes your right eye and you wipe it off quickly, not quite giving in to the emotions just yet. Hotch notices and comes to stand right next to you, laying on the edge of the table.

“If I’d let you go, the local authorities would not let us continue the investigation and they’d pin that murder on you. Trust me, the best we can do right now is wait a few hours until everyone has cooled down and come back with fresh eyes” he guarantees you, his features relaxing as he tells you this “Everything’s gonna be fine”.

“Everything’s gonna be fine” you repeat his words slowly, then look up at him. Damn it. He’s handsome. It’s no secret to anyone you have a thing for older men, but did that trait really have to emerge right now? You can’t help but to laugh out loud at the thought, it’s absurd to you that you could be thinking of that when you’re being accused of murder.

“What’s so funny?” he asks confused, and distances himself ever so slightly from you, without leaving his place on the table.

“Nothing, just…” you start, in an attempt to explain yourself and don’t end up looking crazy “God, if I had met you under any other circumstances, I’d probably be all over you right now”.

SSA Aaron Hotchner does not move, nor his face changes towards you, but you can see the most subtle blush on his cheeks, and his fists tightening. His lips finally crack up a light smile, finding the situation absurd as well, he quickly remembers the videocamera is off.

“You do realize you could be facing murder charges, right?” he asks playfully, kinda mocking you, keeping the volume of his voice down.

“I know, I know, I’m sorry” you apologize “It’s just so late, I’m tired, and well, you’re smoking hot” you confess with an apologetic, but also mischievous, look. Hotch finally lets out a laugh. Get a hold of yourself, Hotchner, he thinks to himself, takes a deep breath and goes back to his serious stare.

“(Y/N), I understand it’s been a long day in which you’ve been under a lot of pressure, but for me to keep up this game would be not only unprofessional, but also unethical. Your mind is probably just making up this crush for you to pass the time and distract yourself from what is happening. You’ll get over me” he explains sweetly.

“I wish I could get under you instead…” your witty retort catches him off guard, he swallows hard and starts coughing. He’s not used to women flirting with him anymore, not for a long time, let alone women almost half his age.

“I’ll see you in a few hours” he says standing up and reaching towards the door, not really uncomfortable by your approaches, but more by his increasing boner.

“No, okay I’m sorry, please stay with me” you beg him, standing up as well “I was just joking. Well, not really, but just… please keep me company, stay?”

He turns back at you not realizing how close you are, less than a couple steps behind him and he almost crashes into you, but he prevents the two of you from tripping by stabilizing himself grabbing your hips, but his hands can’t get to let go afterwards. You breath heavily, feeling the arousal and heat from the proximity suffocating you.

“Please fuck me” you half ask, half beg, admitting to yourself that what you need right now is precisely what agent Hotchner said: relieving some stress and distraction.

SSA Aaron Hotchner can’t help himself.

Ugh, fuck it, he thinks. It’s the sheriff’s fault for turning off the videocamera in an attempt to scare you and try and trick you into making a confession.

Without any further notice, he grabs your ass and the highest part of the back of your thighs to lift you. Your legs instinctively wrap around his back and your arms around his neck, not breaking eye contact as you let him carry you to the table. He places you on the table with tenderness, caressing your back as he does so. You bring your dominant hand to grab his tie and pull him in for a long, wet, controlled kiss, running your other hand along his arm and chest, ending the trace on his cheek, allowing your thumb to move back and forth on his skin.

Quite to be honest, Aaron doesn’t know how well he’ll be able to perform. It’s been a while since he’s last had sex, and his mind is always either on his job, or his family. He’ll probably won’t last more than a few minutes. But he can try and make it up to you.

He begins to deviate his trace of wet kisses from your mouth, to you jaw, your neck, and slowly your chest, discovering little by little the skin under your clothes, while his hands drop by the side of your waist, hips and legs, exploring you under the midi skirt you’re wearing. His right hand finds the slit between your legs, covered by your panties, and starts caressing it through the fabric. He listens to you moan and brings his other hand to cover your mouth with endearment, letting you know you’ve got to keep quiet.

He moves your panties to the side and traces one finger along your slick, inserting it inside of you. You have to suppress an even louder moan. He moves that one finger up and down, hitting your G spot, inserting another finger when you’re ready.

“Please” you beg once again. Aaron chuckles, grabbing you and getting you closer to the edge of the table, proceeding to get down on his knees and sucking all your juices without any type of heads up. You can’t but let out a loud moan. He looks up at you, and even though his eyes demand silence, you can tell there’s the slightest grin on his lips, before he continues sucking and licking your folds and clit. Your back drops to the table, unable to keep yourself steady so you can watch him. You’re trembling with desire and lust “Agent Hotchner, please” you beg once again. Hearing you call him ‘agent Hotchner’ does something to him. He stands up, wiping a little bit of your juices off his mouth and kissing you afterwards, his hands resting on either side of you on the table, one of them coming to grab each of your nipples one at a time.

“How much do you want this?” he asks softly.

“I need you” you answer “Please, fill me”.

His eyes meet yours and he nods slowly. His mouth comes to encircle one of your nipples as he pulls down your underwear and hides it in his suit pocket, and undoes his belt and trousers, without taking any clothes off. You come up from your laying position to support yourself with your elbows on the table, not wanting to miss how the special agent from the FBI takes his cock out to give it to you.

When he’s got it out and ready for you, he pumps it up and down a couple of times before lifting entirely your skirt and positioning himself in your entrance. He enters slowly, letting you take him all in, allowing you to accustom to his size, and for the love of him, he feels like he could explode any second. He breathes deeply and clears his mind, his ego not letting him end up looking like a teenager having his first time.

“Let me ride you” you ask after a few slow thrusts, needing more of him. He looks at you and nods.

God, what is he doing? At least you’re innocent. Are you? Right? You’ve gotta be. The profile doesn’t fit. But they’ve been wrong before haven’t they?

You exchange positions so he’s laying on the table, you get on top of him and guide his cock back into you again. You part your lips in a moan when you come down on him and begin moving your hips, his hands moving alongside them. You lower yourself without stopping so you can kiss him, rubbing your whole torso on his, your sweat making your skin slip on his skin. He grabs your breasts so he can bring them to his mouth, nibbling them.

Meanwhile, you’re wondering if this might just be another trick for you to let your guard down. But what could you say that might incriminate you? You know you’re innocent. What if he’s not even a real agent?

You’re so close that you can’t give yourself permission to sink into those thoughts, instead, you start riding Hotch faster and stronger, your clit rubbing against his pelvis as you do so.

“Aaron, Aaron…” you moan lowly. You don’t know if it’s okay that you’re on a first name basis already, but it just seems weird to you if you call him ‘Hotch’ like his colleagues.

It seems like he’s perfectly fine with it, as he digs his fingertips on your hips, encouraging you to keep going, feeling how your walls tense around him as your orgasm hits you.

You moan uncontrollably as you come, not being able to keep those in, digging your nails in Aaron’s shoulder suit sleeves. Afterwards, you lay slowly on his chest, until you start feeling like he’s pulling himself out.

“Wait” you gather and pull yourself up again, with him still inside of you “What are you doing? Don’t you wanna finish too?”

He looks at you in disbelief.

“Well I thought you may wanna rest or…” he begins explaining. You laugh and look fondly at him, lowering yourself again to murmur “don’t stop” in his ear.

Of course, he remembers. Twenties.

That’s everything he needs to start thrusting into you with everything he’s got left.

“(Y/N) I’m not-“ he tries to phrase “I’m not going to last longer, I’m- is it okay if I…?”

“Come inside me” you order “It’s okay, don’t worry, I’m on contraceptives”.

He decides to believe you, for his sake, and fastens his pace until it becomes sloppy, spilling inside of you just like you asked for, his cum filling you and showing between your folds as he brings himself out.

“Oh my god” he breathes out as he brings you down to his chest, securing his arms around your back, bringing you even closer to him “I’ll put you in handcuffs myself if it turns out you’re not innocent”.

You chuckle, tracing circles on his chest through the fabric of his shirt.

“I am. But still, you can put me in handcuffs any time you want”. He laughs alongside you, still feeling a bit like a teenager. A teenager who just did something very very wrong and that nobody should find out about. He takes a deep breath and closes his eyes for a few seconds before his cellphone starts ringing, he answers almost immediately.

“Hotchner” he says calmly “Yes I’m still here. No, everything’s fine, she’s… behaved. Prints don’t match? Well of course they don’t, was García able to tell whose are they then? Right. Well, tell her to keep digging. I’ll see you in a bit”.

After he hangs up he turns to you with a playful look.

“You never touched the gun that was in your purse, did you?” you shake your head.

“Guns and, weapons of any type really, give me the creeps, I just left it there thinking it was someone’s idea of pranking me or something”.

“Well that may have just made your case. You’re free to go. Whoever was trying to frame you did a lousy job not guessing you weren’t going to grab the gun” he tells you arching his brows at you. You stare perplexed at him.

“You’re serious? Oh my god Aaron! Thank you!” you exclaim kissing him.

“Yes, and we should get dressed and get out of here before anything else happens” he affirms gently, helping you stand up so you both can fix your clothes.

“Well, agent Hotchner, it’s been a pleasure. Truly” you tell him when the two of you are walking out of the interrogation room towards the exit.

“Pleasure is all mine, (Y/N)” he says, winking an eye at you “I’d like you to know… I don’t usually do this. I don’t…”

“Aaron” you interrupt sweetly, one of your hands coming to grab his forearm to stop him “I know. I can tell. It’s okay. I know that if I hadn’t initiated it or followed up you would have never even considered it, I get it… but now, can we please do it again?”

He chuckles.

“You know where we’re staying and the number of my hotel room, sweetheart. And I also recall reading on some case file that you’re from Virginia and were just visiting your home town?”

You smile widely at him as you nod, pulling him in from his tie for one last kiss. Or who knows, it might not even be the last one.

MASTERLIST

[aspd-culture]

Welcome back. You’re very informative.

I’m very confused about how numerous people, from you, to other antisocial people speaking from their experiences (some of which I learned are actually friends) to prosocial researchers of ASPD say that antisocial people see relationships as transactional. It’s not weird that you guys see it that way, it’s more like “and prosocials… don’t???” Because I’m certain I’m prosocial. I’m neurodivergent, sure, but no signs of ASPD. So, how do most prosocial people typically view relationships if they’re not transactional?

So I find prosocials and pwASPD both tend to think “but doesn’t everybody” when we hear this - it’s a super undescriptive term - but we’re thinking different things define something as transactional. We also see the reason for that transaction to be different.

From a prosocial generally, they’ll mean “I only want to be around people that ‘don’t drain my energy’, that don’t just take take take, that we mutually enjoy the friendship/relationship and want to be around each other”. That’s kinda their definition of getting something out of it, and they want everyone to get something out of it. If they’re draining you, they want you to be free of it so you can be happy, and the transactions involved can be purely emotional/vibes. The reason they feel this way is a desire for positive and enjoyable social connection; the consequence for an uneven/bad/missing transaction is discomfort and wasting their time in negative experiences and generally feeling bad in association with that person.

PwASPD see those transactions very very literally. There’s no vibes nor emotions in the transactions, those are either a reaction to the transaction or a bonus. We mean that we are getting something tangible or practical out of it. Rides, help with things we can’t or don’t want to do alone, sex, maybe even the social relief from the annoyance of “why don’t you ever talk to anyone?” coming from all sides. We also don’t always care if it’s even on the other person’s end. If they’re ok driving me everywhere/if they do it and don’t say or show they’re uncomfortable, then I will assume they are fine with that piece of the transaction. If I’m taking more than I’m giving and they seem chill with that then I’ll accept it. However, I won’t give them *nothing* and that’s because of our reason for transactions - it’s dangerous otherwise. First off, I have shit I need I can’t get myself as much as it sucks, so I need to be around people. But if we need something from them, what we learned in our childhoods is that we don’t get that for free. There’s always something over your head. A lot of pwASPD had friends or caregivers that would hold favors or even *basic, legally-mandated caregiving* over our heads as though we didn’t deserve it. Often our value was determined as a child by what we provided, and since children can’t provide much, we were worthless and not deserving of good treatment.

This is part of the reason (TW non-descriptive CSA mention, skip to the next paragraph if you want) that people thought ASPD was directly correlated with CSA for a long time - many cases of long term CSA come from either “I’ll give you x/do x for you if you help me with this” or worse, doing something first then saying “but I gave you X!/did X for you! I wouldn’t have if I knew you’d act like this”, often call us selfish if we tried to say no and maybe get aggressive or forceful after, and that is an easy lead-in to our view of interactions.

So a lot of us see it that if we want to be safe/know we can continue to get what we need, we HAVE to be giving them something. If you claim you like being around me “just to be around me” or worse that you’re willing to do something for me “just because I want to”, that’s not safe. You want something from me and I’ll give it to you - just tell me what it is. If you’re not telling me, that means it’s not good or you’re just gonna decide later that I’m selfish. You might hurt me to get what you want and justify it with this. Take something from my side so we’re even, because even means safe. Even means I get access to what I need and you get access to what you need - so now we’re both using this relationship/friendship/etc for something and you wouldn’t wanna mess that up by putting me in danger any more than I’d want to mess it up by putting you in danger.

Of course, not every prosocial sees it the first way and not every pwASPD had those experiences and/or sees it that way. But that’s what I’ve found to be common. If you see “they make me happy” as what your or their end of the transaction is, it’s definitely a prosocial response, maybe with the exception of thinking of it as “getting their brain to dopamine/oxytocin” vs caring how they’re actually feeling. If not, if you need it to be practical, that’s definitely transactional.

It’s important to note this is personal relationships with no practical consequences to ending the relationship - most people see relationships (platonic) with coworkers or managers as transactional and that’s a way I usually explain it to prosocials (“do you deal with your boss bc you like them or bc they sign your check - and would your boss keep you hired if you didn’t do your job because you make them happy just by being there?”). But with a romantic or sexual partner, a friend, etc. this is not a typical view of relationships.

That said - you can *absolutely* not have ASPD and have transactional view of relationships. It’s not a 1:1 thing there; not everyone with ASPD has it and not every prosocial doesn’t. It’s just a really common piece of the puzzle that is this personality disorder.

Edit: ack I’m so sorry I forgot to add the csa tw tags they’re there now.

Plain text below the cut:

So I find prosocials and pwASPD both tend to think “but doesn’t everybody” when we hear this - it’s a super undescriptive term - but we’re thinking different things define something as transactional. We also see the reason for that transaction to be different.

From a prosocial generally, they’ll mean “I only want to be around people that ‘don’t drain my energy’, that don’t just take take take, that we mutually enjoy the friendship/relationship and want to be around each other”. That’s kinda their definition of getting something out of it, and they want everyone to get something out of it. If they’re draining you, they want you to be free of it so you can be happy, and the transactions involved can be purely emotional/vibes. The reason they feel this way is a desire for positive and enjoyable social connection; the consequence for an uneven/bad/missing transaction is discomfort and wasting their time in negative experiences and generally feeling bad in association with that person.

PwASPD see those transactions very very literally. There’s no vibes nor emotions in the transactions, those are either a reaction to the transaction or a bonus. We mean that we are getting something tangible or practical out of it. Rides, help with things we can’t or don’t want to do alone, sex, maybe even the social relief from the annoyance of “why don’t you ever talk to anyone?” coming from all sides. We also don’t always care if it’s even on the other person’s end. If they’re ok driving me everywhere/if they do it and don’t say or show they’re uncomfortable, then I will assume they are fine with that piece of the transaction. If I’m taking more than I’m giving and they seem chill with that then I’ll accept it. However, I won’t give them *nothing* and that’s because of our reason for transactions - it’s dangerous otherwise. First off, I have shit I need I can’t get myself as much as it sucks, so I need to be around people. But if we need something from them, what we learned in our childhoods is that we don’t get that for free. There’s always something over your head. A lot of pwASPD had friends or caregivers that would hold favors or even *basic, legally-mandated caregiving* over our heads as though we didn’t deserve it. Often our value was determined as a child by what we provided, and since children can’t provide much, we were worthless and not deserving of good treatment.

This is part of the reason (TW non-descriptive CSA mention, skip to the next paragraph if you want) that people thought ASPD was directly correlated with CSA for a long time - many cases of long term CSA come from either “I’ll give you x/do x for you if you help me with this” or worse, doing something first then saying “but I gave you X!/did X for you! I wouldn’t have if I knew you’d act like this”, often call us selfish if we tried to say no and maybe get aggressive or forceful after, and that is an easy lead-in to our view of interactions.

So a lot of us see it that if we want to be safe/know we can continue to get what we need, we HAVE to be giving them something. If you claim you like being around me “just to be around me” or worse that you’re willing to do something for me “just because I want to”, that’s not safe. You want something from me and I’ll give it to you - just tell me what it is. If you’re not telling me, that means it’s not good or you’re just gonna decide later that I’m selfish. You might hurt me to get what you want and justify it with this. Take something from my side so we’re even, because even means safe. Even means I get access to what I need and you get access to what you need - so now we’re both using this relationship/friendship/etc for something and you wouldn’t wanna mess that up by putting me in danger any more than I’d want to mess it up by putting you in danger.

Of course, not every prosocial sees it the first way and not every pwASPD had those experiences and/or sees it that way. But that’s what I’ve found to be common. If you see “they make me happy” as what your or their end of the transaction is, it’s definitely a prosocial response, maybe with the exception of thinking of it as “getting their brain to dopamine/oxytocin” vs caring how they’re actually feeling. If not, if you need it to be practical, that’s definitely transactional.

It’s important to note this is personal relationships with no practical consequences to ending the relationship - most people see relationships (platonic) with coworkers or managers as transactional and that’s a way I usually explain it to prosocials (“do you deal with your boss bc you like them or bc they sign your check - and would your boss keep you hired if you didn’t do your job because you make them happy just by being there?”). But with a romantic or sexual partner, a friend, etc. this is not a typical view of relationships.

That said - you can *absolutely* not have ASPD and have transactional view of relationships. It’s not a 1:1 thing there; not everyone with ASPD has it and not every prosocial doesn’t. It’s just a really common piece of the puzzle that is this personality disorder.

Edit: ack I’m so sorry I forgot to add the csa tw tags they’re there now.

[9800sblog]

hybe tarot reading

the group members vs current legal matters

this reading was concluded in 20th May of 2024

bts

the magician reversed, 10 of pentacles, 6 of swords, page of wands

good business, it requires safety, protection, health, newjeans is such a big group and hybe is such an influential company, these issues and their solutions affect the entire world and generations to come. they're breaking old curses, that are helping all types of workers, they know what they're doing and it's likely been planned and/or expected. there's only so much they could do before, this is like britney spears waiting til the right time to expose herself, to try and change the entire justice system.

txt

the moon, the chariot reversed, 10 of cups, ace of swords, 9 of pentacles

a lot to show for, they're loving the consequences and how it influences them, but they're waiting for their own time to make their move. this is bringing very necessary change, in things the public isn't talking about (literally), the cards are diverse here, groups are having fun with them, they're so untouchable, it's a breath of fresh air for those involved, cracking jokes and seeing things for what they really are - not that frustrating situation that everybody's trying to get involved. this is probably the strongest/most powerful group at hybe.

enhypen

3 of pentacles reversed, queen of pentacles, 7 of swords, the devil reversed, ace of cups

it's probably a good day for hybe/kpop/enhypen, leave behind stupid laws they have to answer to and stay in their own lane, doing their own thing. they must have broken ties with people that underestimated them and held them back, hybe is finally getting authority over their art, instead of a law-forced hierarchy, everybody's working towards the same goals. these dudes love science.

illit

10 of wands reversed, 7 of wands, the high priestess, the sun, 6 of wands reversed

they trust those people with eyes closed, it's frustrating how people think it's because artists can't see what's happening, it's because they're strong as fuck.... they defend themselves when need be, and most of who they are is hidden, illit members are happy that people are starting to notice that public figures are bigger and smarter than they thought, somebody cracked the mirror of their reflections and they actually just don't care. you know how illit debut is clearly scientists that ran away from psychic wards and live in abandoned places, but people think it's just "innocent concept"? hm that's very true to real life. they're defying gravity running in isolated spaces, how is that similar to newjeans who's concept is just them and their culture?

le sserafim

8 of swords reversed, 5 of swords reversed, strength, strength, 3 of wands

I literally heard "so the plan is working! it was you, little devils!?" coming from the cartoon on the tv as I shuffled the cards (it's rugrats by the way, but I didn't catch which episode was playing), just like the lyrics in smart. very similar to enhypen, they're involved in a lot of meetings and planning, they're all protected by the things they did when they were kids and by family and friends, there's no need to worry about these groups as if the public knows their story because everyone dismisses that. public has been playing detective because they're bored, le sserafim is changing the industry, like they said, and kpop is part of government, so they're actually changing politics. they're all fine.

seventeen

death reversed, 2 of pentacles reversed, page of pentacles, 5 of cups reversed

again from the tv "alright, but you're gonna regret it! if these rats wanna come in, let's give them a ride they're never gonna forget" right after the death card fell reversed. why is nobody paying attention to seventeen? they're really fucking things up for those that try to control people/the masses, this is a BIG company in every sense of the word, there is not a single small talent here, people are getting involved, posting and talking without even looking, they're everywhere! they're probably here too kkkkkkk this is not a joke, the cards really indicate that, they have a passion for design, it seems, meaning they have a passion for shaping the way people perceive the world.

fromis_9

king of cups, 9 of wands, 7 of cups reversed, 5 of wands reversed, 3 of pentacles reversed

again, have yall forgotten about these groups? they're really screwing things up, this feud is nothing about pedophilia or 1 vs 1, it's about politics and laws, it's obvious.. they may have many licenses, come from lawyer families or be lawyers themselves (yes, members), they've also been untied to something that tried to control them, they're hiding in the shadows, but damn they really know what they're doing.

tws

ace of cups, 6 of cups reversed, 3 of cups reversed, 8 of pentacles, knight of pentacles

this is an adrenaline level legal feud, it's all to do with politics and science, just look at the cards. they may have been pushed to debut by governors that think people are numbers, but that's no issue to them, they're like musketeers. there's not much to say here, just they're fine, they're gonna solve this their own way and they could care less if the public will think they're bad people (much like hybe staff - min heejin and bang pd), they don't care about "they deserve an apology; they're victims", ruthless and they don't get tired.

I'm reminded of miroh by stray kids, uh oh by g idle.

boynextdoor

the lovers, knight of wands, the emperor, 6 of cups reversed, the magician

they have ancient culture involved in this, spirituality, witchcraft and things like that - I don't know how people see things like these on music videos and pretend they're not associated with those people, like how many idols have had tarot and oracle on their images, that's like red velvet's entire concept and please don't pretend aespa aren't scientists and nct aren't businessmen, like kpop is still happening in real life, it's not a psychedelic trip. these members are way more in control than people think, because they relate to physics laws.

newjeans

2 of swords, judgement, 4 of wands, 2 of cups, the devil

they're FINE, these are HUGE cards to have in a situation like this, OMG. the cards don't even need any explanation, like look at this combo, like if you have any doubts or worries, just watch newjeans music videos and listen to stray kids songs like this spread is so district 9 coded. "but I'm not gonna be the one to get hurt" [hurt - newjeans], "I'm going crazy, right?" [omg - newjeans] and "when you say I'm a dream, you don't even know my name, do ya?" [super shy - newjeans]

also, I found the strength card hidden under the 2 of cups LIKE-

like there's a reason why newjeans, le sserafim and txt are the ones public is paying most attention to, "don't forget the shoes I left behind, what more need I say?" [antifragile - le sserafim]

&team

4 of pentacles, 8 of wands, 7 of pentacles, the world

"remember how he was obsessive over clowns? oh he'll be fine!" from the tv as I shuffled the cards again. it's like if you don't know anything about laws, of course this whole situation sounds scary, simple, yet unsolvable, these people train for YEARS, and their resumes are huge.

[celeste444spacey]

Celebrity sp scenarios politician edition (good one ofc)

Okay is this officially MY series cause i know u guys are eating these scenarios up

So ya girl has been obsessed with scandal lately (as i should be) and this shit has me thinking about the president and shit (not even american here like it's insane, plus the show is super fictional soooo)

Anyways i know there's some of you are probably wanting to go into law and politics and want to have an SP who is too.

SO HAVE FUN!!!! HOPE U LIKE THESE

also shoutout to miss @fayelilye for this idea

You and him are one of the most loved people in the political field in the country, (heck even the world) everybody has so much respect for you, even the opposition party cannot say bad things about you guys.

Your man keeps you on his side throughout his political campaign and just cannot be seen in the public without you

He keeps saying how grateful he is that you exist and that he wouldn't even run for office or get this far if it weren't for you

He wins the election and he mentions you in his speech

"Thank you so much to the public for believing in me, the people over at <party> and most specifically the love of my life <you> who has been the backbone of this campaign and without her i don't think i would have won."

5. He makes a groundbreaking policy that changes millions of lives and all cause you suggested it and he names the act after you (i don't know is this even legal?? law students lemme know lmao 😭)

6. During his office, he writes a bunch of love letters for you later releasing the book which becomes a bestseller and all of the chapters are just essays on how much he loves you and thinks about you. He could name it "Letters to <nickname he calls you>".

7. Always seen doing charity everywhere, helping millions of people.

8. Let say he's president, he plans out detailed security for you everywhere he goes, even more than his own just so you can be safe and secure and protected.

9. You are the nation's first couple. That's what people call you, the first couple.

10. Your home is THE home of your country. You guys are lifestyle goals

11. You guys even though super super public and needing maximum security wherever you go, get caught going on ice cream runs late at night with the security surrounding you, but you guys lost in each other like you're kids having fun.

12. You are his personal and political advisor, he comes to you with every issue first and discusses it with you before moving forward.

13. You guys go all out on festivals calling people to the office (for eg the president's place and stuff) for giving gifts, candies and stuff to children and families.

Sooo, do we love these?

[genolover]

So I read @aughtpunk 's cotl forgiveness au in like 2 days and now I'm hyperfocusing on it. I just keep thinking of cute little things. Particularly between Shaun and kallamar. Aughtpunk probably shouldn't read this.

Like they have regular are-we-still-engaged chess matches. The first time kallamar wins, they regretfully tell the others the engagement is off. Most everyone is like, you were engaged?? How?? Since when?????? The next day they're engaged again. It great and not at all confusing. Pretty soon no one is sure if the engagement is even real or not. Don't ask kallamar, he's not 100% sure either. Like they play games to see who's responsible for the flowers or menu decisions but is it real? Half the group is sure it isn't until it's the night before the wedding and Holy shit this is actually happening wtf and Shaun is just so disappointed in them. Kallamar is too, right my love? Kallamar is like, yeah, I can't believe they doubted the seriousness of this situation. Internally he's screaming. Shaun also didn't think it was that serious but over time he got sick of people shit talking kallamar to his face so he was like, now I gotta marry him in the biggest most amazing wedding ever. I just gotta.

I also just like the idea that they would use games to settle most disagreements. They watch eachothers strategies and moods to figure out how serious they need to be. If it's a lighthearted thing then they joke the whole time and whoever wins, wins. Gg. If it's something more important to one than the other then they give a good game but let that person win since clearly this is a significant matter. If it's an important matter to both, they use the game as something of a distraction. I can't kill you for not understanding exactly where I'm coming from by magically reading my mind if I'm too busy trying to figure out if the move you just made is even legal. By the end of the match, whomever wins, it comes out as more of a compromise.

They do have this problem where if they don't have a clear goal for a game, it can escalate into terrible ends. Like Shaun makes a flirty double entendre about calamari, kallamar says something gross about cannibalism, suddenly its 3 am, they're in the kitchen with heket who is waaaay too happy about cooking some of her brother's flesh with the intention of giving it to his ex-fiancee to eat (shaun being grossed out by cannibalism made him lose), and questioning all of their life choices.

Oh and after wedding thought. Shaun asks narinder for a life flower (that what I've been calling them in my head). Narinder is grossed out but Shaun gives this whole speech about how they aren't gonna use it now, he just wants to show kallamar that he did notice that he wasnt sure how serious he was about the wedding but he is very serious about wanting to have this life together with him and growing their family together. Narinder does reluctantly give him a flower. Little while later kallamar asks for the same thing. His explanation is a little more based in logic. They've talked about children before and he's probably gonna be the one carrying them so it just makes sense for him to have the flower. Everyone is like aww they're gonna present these flowers to eachother and it's gonna be cute or something. Meanwhile kallamar is confirming that he and his husband aren't needed for anything else tonight and maybe the flower might work if brewed into a tea but eh it's better to not chance it and just. Fucking. Eats it. Right there. Infront of God (poor jake) and everybody. Did his husband see that? No, of course not. That would prevent any miscommunication drama. It's like, dude, did you guys plan on that or...? And kallamar is like, we've had some of the most important discussions about this already, I fail to see why we can't start trying now. And then he leaves to go spend his wedding with Shaun in private and now the whole family has no idea what to do with themselves. They did not need this information.

I also have thoughts for their kids. First set is twins. They are cute. They look like normal lambs just tinted blue. At first. They actually have tendrils they hide amongst their wool. They're also good at team hunting. If you see the both of them, it's safe. If you only see one, it's a distraction, turn around, you are being ambushed.

These are just fun little thoughts I had. Feel free to ignore me.

[dreamsandstars24]

Night has come- Episode 5 and 6 (INCLUDES SPOILERS)(WARNING: LOOOOOONNNGGG RANT AHEAD)

AGAIN, this post includes spoilers (All my posts do) so if you haven't seen this episode, I recommend not to read this post.

However, if you want to know just how bad your mind will be mess up, you are welcome to stay.

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First of all

I had this very interesting post that I was about to post in which I explained how the girl with the ax in the intro was Lee Yoon Seo, and now I see that it was a good idea not to post it because it would have made me look stupid considering what happened at the end of episode six.

So, that saved me.

EPISODE 5:

A FREAKING ROLLERCOASTER.

It was kind of obvious that Park Woo Ram was Mafia but the way it was delivered? that was unexpected. But let's not jump ahead of the whole kidnapping/dividing thing, because WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT IT.

I, for once, knew Go Kyung Jun was going to be a pain in the butt but I will not take away the credit for his intelligence.

Like, the way he was right about who was the mafia? That was detective work right there. The way he delivered the confession? I won't lie, torture is a good way to make someone confess to something you had no part of but Woo Ram was mafia.

THE TORTURE:

I am sure Kyung Jun is a citizen. I have no proof but I have zero doubts. But, I do think that he'll be able to kill somebody if it means protecting himself or someone he cares about.

As it was shown in episode 5, he tortured Woo Ram to get a confession out of him, and as an avid reader of mafia romances -and currently writing my own, if I may say- the way he managed the torture was exceptional.

Tumblr don't flag me, but a girl has to admit when torture is on point, and this one was. It wasn't the physical torture that surprised me but the psychological. The way he would smile in a clear way that showed he didn't care about making somebody suffer was the CHERRY IN TOP OF THE ICE.

(And if I may mention, he is very cute.)

However, every bad character has a soft side and as we saw when he locked himself in the canteen, he started crying because he caused someone to die, and he tortured someone and everybody hates him so that ought to hurt.

THE SECRET PATHWAY:

When I tell you my mouth went

I have a feeling

AND THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT FEELING

That the ghost is trying to help Yoon Seo, as a matter of fact, I don't even think Woo Seok is dead but I'll dive into that theory later.

What I mean by the ghost trying to help Yoon Seo, I mean that the ghost seems to be leaving clues for her to find. Why is the ghost doing this? I don't know but I'm sure they are connected somehow.

When Yoon Seo found the secret room, I have to admit I was a bit disappointed in how she didn't stay longer to investigate.

Girl reads crime and mystery novels, and she just looked for a bit and left.

If that had been me? I would have looked through the freaking cameras in the room to try and find out who was the mafia (We know who is the mafia, we are expecting the results) but she just left, so that was a bit disappointing.

I feel the ghost is making every clue obvious for her to find because she is not looking properly. You would expect her to be more invested into the whole thing but as of right now the only thing she has found was how the second body didn't had defense marks and the black light used to look at the door.

The door was obvious, it was not as if someone could break a door open like that with the power of hate.

However, everything else has been the ghost doing. Finding the entry to the secret hall? The ghost pushed the boxes.

The picture? The ghost had to put a light on it so she would actually find it interesting.

The exit? Again, the ghost had to say "Girl, it's this way" and I find that hilarious.

The ghost is carrying the show.

THE GAME:

This game is cheating in the most awful way possible. Like, it is legal for someone to not vote! But the game changed the rules and now they either vote or die.

As I approach the ending, I am allowed to touch the rules of the game.

Everybody must vote. As we saw in episode 3, the consequences are catastrophic. Great way to get rid of most of the cast.

The game must take place inside the designated zone. I am not a tech wizard but there must be some kind of sensor that alerts whoever is controlling this game when someone steps out, right?

If two people have the same amount of votes, then the voting has to be repeated and if it happens again, then they all die.

The third one was genius. Like, I can't find any crack in the rules and that is amazing and frustrating.

and finally,

what we were all expecting,

Woo Seok dying:

This was sad, and it probably hurt me more than it hurt Yoon Seo

BUT

I don't think he is dead

Like, sure. His head did the ringing of possession and his eyes went white but I don't think he died.

I think he is alive

I think he is not a mafia

I think he is controlling the game

GOSH, IT FEELS GOOD TO SAY IT.

Why do I think he is not dead?

All the other deaths have been very gruesome

(This is just an example, I won't put all of them)

Even the ones with the pillow and the curtain were gruesome and awful but Woo Seok?

Look at that

His head is not even underwater,

his body is not belly down

he is just there

floating,

like a water lili

He looks like a model.

So I don't think he is dead

Him dying defies the purpose of the whole show

He wants to protect Yoon Seo and dying won't grant him that

Now, if he is actually dead then that was a stupid move from the producers but I'm sure we'll get our plot twist.

KIM SO MI:

We all knew she was mafia.

We all know she wants to survive

But she is a psycho

Like, real psycho

Why all of them thought that leaving the ax out while there is a killer on the loose was a good idea, I don't know, but she has it and she has a victim in mind.

The end of episode six clearly shows her about to slice Yoon Seo open, but the the screen goes dark and she screams

And I don't think it was a scream of "Getting ready to kill you in the most awful way possible" but I think it was a scream of "Something is awful and I am about to die."

I think the ghost showed up, or the doctor/police stopped her

It may be hopeful thinking, but I think she is dead

like, really dead.

Yoon Seo can't die. She is the main character and even though kdrama writers and producers are fond of killing the main characters (we all know what I mean) killing Yoon Seo would be a stupid move.

Yoon Seo remains alive, So Mi? I'm not sure.

Now, this is not a point but just some questions and theories I have.

Why is Oh Jung Won so protective of Yoon Seo? I mean, I would also defend my best friend with my life but the way Jung Won is so protective makes me think there is something else happening here.

Jin Da Beom. He is one of the main characters. Why is he a main character acting like an extra? This is annoying me.

This may be random, and this is me being crazy but I am SO SURE that if Kyung Jun and Yoon Seo joined forces, they would find the mafia.

Besides, the way he only stops when she speaks? I may romanticizing stuff but you don't join kdrama land while being sane.

You are welcome to call me out in something I may have mistaken, and you are welcome to share your theories with me too!

Until next episode.

[specialbluehens]

mother hen

based on this post i made about shane being an older sibling figure to the younger bachelors & bachelorettes. he's the disgruntled mom friend.

1. sam

Shane slumps into a chair and takes off that dreadful cap as he begins his legally designated 15 minute break at work. He knows if it weren't for the literal law that he wouldn't be given a break at all, especially with Morris stressing about customers that never show up. It's the same two or three people from town every day. Morris isn't going to get that through his thick skull, though. Shane sighs as rubs his eyes roughly with his palms, trying to fend off his exhaustion and mild hangover.

He's getting better. He hasn't cut himself off completely, but he's getting better. He can remember his nights now instead of select moments and then blurry images and distant noises. Shane sighs. He has a therapy appointment in a couple of days. He isn't enjoying therapy but it is starting to give him relief in a way he's never felt before. It's better. It's better, he reassures himself, despite the pressure in his chest yelling at him that he's a failure for not going cold turkey.

Shane slouches further down in the chair and tips his head so it rests on the back of the chair. These cushioned armchairs, as cheap and small and obnoxiously colored blue as they are, are the best things JojaMart has ever gotten. He shuts his eyes and listens to the sound of absolutely nothing in the break room. He's saved from the terrible repetitive pop music playlist on the floor. It's just him and the whirring of a nearby fan.

Until the door swings open and Sam comes barging in with a giddy smile and something in his hands. He's going to come over and try and show him isn't he?

"Shane!"

Shane groans and covers his face with his cap.

"C'mon! I gotta show you something!"

"No." Shane grumbles from under his cap. "Go away."

"Please?" Sam asks nicely, "I promise you will like it."

Shane grabs his cap and swings it down onto his lap. "What is it?"

Sam holds out a flier and beams. Shane sighs and snatches the paper and takes a look at it. It's an advertisement for a show in Zuzu City.

"Who's 'Goblin Destroyer?'" Shane asks.

"My band!" Sam says excitedly, hopping from foot to foot. "We got a gig! It's a small show but it's still in Zuzu City!"

Shane blinks and nods. "Alright, cool." He looks up at Sam, who's got the biggest hopeful puppy dog eyes he's ever seen. Sam is giving Jas a run for her money. "Uh… good job." He tries to say it and mean it. It's exactly what Sam is looking for, because Sam somehow grins even wider and giddily jumps up and down.

"You totally gotta come!"

Shane purses his lips together. Go to their concert? He can't remember the last time he'd been to a concert, especially given how tickets usually cost more money than he has. Except, Sam and his band can't be expensive. It's their first show and probably at a small concert venue or in a club in Zuzu City, which most of the time is free. He has no reason to not go other than he doesn't know if he wants (or can handle) being in a potential crowd.

But Sam is waiting patiently and quietly. This means a lot to him.

Shane sighs, "Yeah, I can go. I just need the date and time."

"Really?!" Sam nearly shouts. "And everything is on the flier, plus everybody from here who's coming will be on the bus together. Pam agreed to it," He explains.

"Ah," Shane says, reading the flier again and seeing yes, all of the information is there. "Erm, your mom going?"

"Her and Vince are going, yea," Sam sounds less excited but he's still happy. "I'm not sure Mom will like the music too much, she doesn't like it when we practice in the house, but I think my dad would like it."

"Mmm," Shane hums.

"My dad isn't going to be home until next year," Sam says, his demeanor shifting into what Shane can only describe as sullen. "It's been weird, getting ready for it even though it's a whole two seasons away."

Shane isn't sure what to say to that. He never had much of a family growing up, and what little he remembers of his father are more images than true moving memories. Flashes.

"He's been gone since Vince was a toddler," Sam says. "We had just moved to the valley when it happened." Shane knows all of this already, this isn't the first time Sam has told him about it. Sam tends to repeat it a lot.

"I mean, I'm an adult now, y'know?"

"You're an adult?" Shane teases dryly. He smirks as Sam leans over and gives him a light slap on the knee.

"I'm being serious, dude," Sam says, "I just… I'm doing great things and he's not even here. I've been told he didn't have a choice but then there's so many people whose dads are here and weren't shipped off to the war. Did he have no choice?"

"Sam there wasn't a draft, and there hopefully won't be one anytime soon. So no, your father wasn't forced," Shane states matter-of-factly. He didn't plan on continuing further, but Sam's look of defeat…

"But, by 'no choice', probably meant in looking for a job. People who aren't doing well sometimes feel like the military's all they can do and be guaranteed some benefits at the end of it. Why did y'all move to Pelican Town?" Shane asks.

"It was too expensive in Zuzu," Sam says.

"Do you know why I moved to Pelican Town? Why did I move in with my aunt?"

"Because it was too expensive in Zuzu City."

"Right, and that was just me and Jas," Shane says, "Two of us. Y'all are a family of four. I can't imagine how hard it was."

"... Yeah…" Sam murmurs.

"Look, your old man was doing what was best at the time. He's gonna be different when he comes back."

"Yeah, in his letter he said he was different. I found it in my mom's room."

"Don't go snooping in your mom's room," Shane scolds. He clears his throat to switch off the "talking to Jas aka a child" mindset. "All I'm saying is, maybe this," Shane passes back the flier. "This'll be something he can enjoy when he gets back."

"I hope so," Sam says. "I don't know what I'd do if he doesn't like it."

"He'll like it," Shane says, "And even if he doesn't, he'll still be proud. He's your dad. He'd be crazy if he wasn't proud of you."

"You think so? Sometimes I don't even know if my mom is proud of me."

"She's going to be proud of you when she sees you on that stage. I know I'd be."

"... You would?"

"Mhm."

Sam looks at the flier and his face scrunches, deep in thought. Shane checks the clock and sees he's a couple minutes past his break. He sighs and he stands up, stretching his arms up to try, popping his back. Before he can leave, Sam is wrapping his arms tightly around Shane and squeezing.

"Sam?!"

"Thank you," Sam breathes.

Shane awkwardly pats Sam's back. "Er… you're welcome?"

Sam lets go and hurries off out of the breakroom. He probably wasn't even supposed to be back here, let alone for an entire 15 minute break. Shane sighs as he drags his feet to the door.

"That was weird," He murmurs to himself. He ignores the lightness in his chest. It was weird.

As long as the kid's happy though, right?

Shane questions if it was worth it as Morris yells at him for being late coming back from his break. He sees Sam behind Morris, mopping as usual as if he hadn't gone to the breakroom and is the reason Shane is late. Shane sighs again.

He'll take the blame for it this time.

This time, he tells himself, despite it not being the first time.

It probably won't be the last.

[shieldagent93]

just rewatched the final scene of the Korra finale, and I still love it so much. I love Korrasami and I’m so glad they got to go on that vacation they deserved. Truly cannot believe that next year will be their 10th anniversary!

Same Rachel!

Ever since I finally watched LoK a few years back, I always watch the final scene (if not the entire episode) every year on the anniversary.

It's legit like a holiday for me. Every year, once it gets to December, I always tell my friends and family, "You know, it's not long till December 19th, which marks the X year anniversary of when Korra and Asami went off to the Spirit World together and became a couple." At this point, they know just to nod and go along with it 😂

They're such a good couple, even despite all the network's efforts to get in the way of it. I know some people nowadays don't consider it "enough" or whatever, but I think that's bullshit given it came out in 2014 before gay marriage was even legalized throughout the United States (where Nickelodeon is from). Holding hands might seem like so little now, but this was the beginning. It was stuff like Korrasami that helped pave the way for popular shows like She-Ra, Arcane, and The Owl House. I'll get off my soapbox now, but c'mon, we need to remember how far we've come.

I'm so glad that Korrasami is canon. I care about both Korra and Asami as characters and I love how they managed to take a sticky situation and make a true friendship from it. And then later, building a beautiful love story from that friendship (friends to lovers is one of my favorite tropes). Just...

Happy Korrasamiversary everybody. Nine years now. Can't believe it.

🍾🍾🍾

[hauntedestheart]

Artist Development (Male Possession)

Fame can change people. More specifically, fame can change people into me.

Who am I? I'm nobody and everybody. The biggest star in the world and a complete mystery at the same time. I've sold millions of records without anyone learning my name– you've heard my music, you just didn't know it was mine.

Wondering how this is possible? Let me tell you. I will remain anonymous and names will be redacted, but here's the tea on one of the industry's best kept secrets.

I was just a kid from Nowhere, Iowa (so to speak) who thought music was going to be my ticket out, and I was so sure about it that I dropped out of school and chased my dreams all the way to LA. After all, I was a great singer, played twelve instruments, wrote my own songs... surely I had everything it took to become the next big sensation in music!

Cue the laugh track.

Labels were always excited to meet with me after hearing my demos, but the second they saw my face they couldn't get me out of the room fast enough. I wasn't ugly, just... plain. Unremarkable. Average. And labels aren't interested in signing someone you could see walking down the street.

See, the sad thing about the music industry is that talent is only about 10% of what it takes. Maybe 15% on a good day. Having a successful career is 50% image (a fancy way of saying "being hot"), and that was something that I lacked.

But that remaining 40%? That's how willing you are to play the game, and that ended up being my saving grace.

My career was going nowhere fast, and after years of being beaten down by the industry I was on the verge of calling it quits and limping back home to Iowa. Then I got a call from a label (that shall remain nameless) asking for a meeting.

After years of rejecting me they were now offering me a deal: a guaranteed album release, collaborations with the best writers and producers in the business, a national tour, and a multi-million dollar marketing push.

The catch? I wouldn't be doing it as me.

Apparently the label had snapped up some kid that they were convinced had tons of star potential, but executives were nervous that he was a bit too green to succeed in the industry and they had come up with a radical new solution that could revolutionize artist development. Their r&d team had developed certain technology that could transfer consciousness from one human to another, effectively allowing them complete control over another person's body and live as them indefinitely.

The plan was to implant someone else into the kid's body and have them bear the brunt of his early years– someone with talent, experience, and most importantly, someone desperate that they could control. Someone just like me.

Though what we were doing was entirely legal (just a tip to any aspiring artists out there, always read the fine print in your contracts), for obvious reasons the label wanted to keep it on the down-low. The deal was that I'd "help" him through his first album, and then disappear into the shadows... but during that time I'd get to be a superstar.

Naturally I was conflicted. It was a tempting offer, but it was strange knowing that none of the success would truly be mine. No one would ever know my name. Was a hollow victory better than a defeat? Was I willing to sacrifice my artistic integrity for success?

Turned out the answer was "yes."

What sealed the deal for me was when they showed me a picture of the kid... a tall, strapping white boy who looked like he was built in a lab by thirsty gay men. I'd get to live my dream, and I'd get to do it looking like that? I'd be an idiot to pass that up.

So I accepted and turned him into the superstar he is today. Perhaps you've heard of him.

I spent two years piloting his body while he got his career off the ground, and with his face and my talent it wasn't long until I was topping the charts... and plenty of groupies as well. Fame is the ultimate aphrodisiac, but having tight abs doesn't hurt either! His penis was actually smaller than mine (bummer) but the rest of the package more than made up for it; the face of the boy next door with a body built for sin.

After years of being unremarkable, being a star went to my head fast and I'm not ashamed to admit that I became a bit of a slut... but trust me, if you could experience what it's like to be the hottest young thing on the scene, you'd do the same. I used that guy's body to fuck men and women in every city across America, and I even managed to do it without tarnishing his good boy image.

As long as I never missed a show or appointment, the suits were happy– and it helped that I was sucking them off behind their wives' backs.

(Like I said, you have to be willing to play the game.)

Eventually my contract ended and the label allowed the artist to resume control of his own body, but they were so pleased by my performance that they asked me to help them out with someone else– an established artist whose wild behavior was becoming a bit of a liability. Would I mind stepping in for him for a bit and helping get his career back on track after a few scandals?

And since then my life has been a whirlwind of different bodies. I've become the industry's invisible hatchet man, the enforcer who gets called in to deal with singers who need a bit of extra attention.

I've done it all: broken in newbies, rebranded stars, stood in for legends. I did a year in South Korea as a Kpop star– didn't speak a word of Korean, but that doesn't matter when you're as beautiful as he was. Name a boy band, I've probably spent at least a week as one of their members. I'm everywhere.

By this point I've lived so many lives that it would be pointless to list them all, so I'll stick to the greatest hits.

I took over the body of the frontman of a rock band who didn't want to "sell out" by going in the more sexual, commercial direction that the label wanted for them– which I, of course, had no qualms about. His shirt came off, and everyone was happy about what was underneath.

The other members of the group were skeptical at first, but I can be very persuasive when I put my mind to it. A lot of their fans wound up absolutely hating the new music, but hey, that wasn't any of my business!

Being onstage as a rock star is electrifying, when the music pounds and the crowd screams I feel like an absolute god. When I was up there shaking that wiry body around I knew that every single person in that room wanted to fuck me, and the second I got offstage I did my best to let them. Even if they didn't like the music, none of them complained when I invited them back to my dressing room.

And let me tell you, alt-rock groupies? They're freaky.

A lot of the artists I get assigned to are skinny young men (because every label thinks they're going to launch the next teen idol) so it's always a treat when I get to work as someone a bit more... let's say mature.

Once a popular r&b singer got into a dispute with his label over not wanting to film a certain feline related movie, so I was brought in to smooth things out in my own special way.

His voice wasn't that great but damn, could he move. I had to take a crash course in dancing but thanks to his body's muscle memory in a few weeks I was doing flips and splits I'd never dreamed of. The things his body could do were insane, and I took full advantage of that.

Strictly speaking about bodies, his was the best I've had. He was big in a way a lot of the other guys weren't, huge biceps and rippling pecs that I loved to show off. A hell of an ass too, though I didn't get much use out of it because he had the biggest penis I'd ever seen on a man and I wanted to cram that elephant trunk into everything I could.

A lot of the time, when I look in the mirror at the bodies of these superstars, I wish that I could suck on their dick. But in his body? If I bent over I actually could.

Honestly I hated the music I made as him– but man, I miss that dick.

I had similar motivations for spending a few months as an up and coming country music star– a bit more indie than my usual jobs, but I jumped at the chance to try out being a bigger guy (because let's face it, there aren't enough of those in the industry).

After years of cycling between bodies with abs it was a bit of a shock to suddenly have a gut, but the experience was even better than I could have dreamed. It's sensual in a different way– the feeling of all that soft flesh sliding under my hands still haunts my dreams.

Plus he was openly gay (another rarity, look at that) which meant I didn't have to keep my usual nighttime escapades on the down low. I didn't feel any less sexy– quite the opposite actually, I've never had people worship my body as hard as the guys I hooked up with when I was a scruffy bear cub.

Being gym trained hunks isn't exactly a hardship, but I did tell my management to keep an eye out for any more jobs like this one.

But probably my favorite experience was when I spent eight months helping a certain reggaeton artist break into the US market. The sex I had using that body? Out of this world.

I'm not sure what it was but his body was just built for sex. It oozed out of every inch of him, from those bulging tattooed arms to the hefty seven inches (soft!) he was packing down below. There was even a music video where someone sucked on my toes, because apparently even his feet were sexy.

This was the closest I ever came to getting fired, but I couldn't help it! I was constantly horny, all I could think about was drinking and screwing. I ended up overindulging a bit and the paparazzi caught some snaps of me stumbling out of a party naked and well... even though this guy had nothing to be ashamed of, it wasn't my proudest moment.

My ass was saved because the pictures blew up on Twitter in a good way, so his management decided that having a sexy bad boy image was actually good for him. Getting paid to party, have one night stands, and dance around shirtless? I have the best job in the world, and I never want to lose it.

Currently I'm assigned to a new guy, some viral online sensation that the label is worried will be just a one-hit wonder and needs the help of my special brand of direction.

I'm excited because I'm already seeing tons of "potential" in him... we're gonna make sweet music together, I can tell.

Gif sources: (x) (x)

[anarchistmemecollective]

great labour history here

transcript below

I am mildly obsessed with these moments in history - specifically, sports history - when somebody looks at the way everybody is doing something and says, but, wait a second. What if I tried it this totally unexpected other way?

You know, famously, in high jump, a guy named Dick Fosbury started jumping over the bar backwards, and it was so effective that now everyone does it.

Or in baseball - at some point, a very clever player was like, what if instead of swinging at a fast-moving ball - what if I just hold the bat up to where the ball is going to be and (clicks tongue) knock it frustratingly into the infield? And the bunt is born. Love the bunt.

And look, I'm obsessed with these moments because it forces everyone to be like, wait a second. Can they do that? That can't be legal. But yeah, it is, and the game is changed forever.

NICK FOUNTAIN, HOST:

And Kenny, of course, these moments don't just happen in sporting competition. They happen in our world, too - the world of economics and business. And there is an example that has become particularly relevant right now.

MALONE: Yeah, so we're in the middle of what people have been calling hot labor summer. I guess it's turned into, I don't know, unseasonably warm labor fall or whatever.

FOUNTAIN: (Laughter).

MALONE: But yes, we are seeing this spate of labor actions across the country - strikes in Hollywood, at hospitals and schools, at car factories.

FOUNTAIN: And, you know, strikes are not so different from sports. They both have chanting and people holding up punny signs. But more importantly, they also have competing teams employing tactics and countertactics and counter-countertactics.

MALONE: In other words, labor is kind of exactly the right kind of situation for the right person to come along and jump backwards over the way things are supposed to work and change labor disputes forever.

(SOUNDBITE OF ANTOINE BRUNO FREDERIQUE BLANC, JAMES PATRICK KALETH AND MAX BRONCO'S "TAKE ME BACK AGAIN")

MALONE: Hello, and welcome to PLANET MONEY. I'm Kenny Malone.

FOUNTAIN: And I'm Nick Fountain. And if you had to pick a Fosbury flop, bunt moment in labor history, a decent candidate might be what happened 30 years ago when one airline went to war with a group of scrappy flight attendants.

MALONE: Today on the show, the story of what happened when a union figured out how to strike without really going on strike. It seemed too good to be true. There were legal challenges. There were shady flights to Guadalajara. And arguably, it's a case study that is still shaping the labor disputes we see today.

(SOUNDBITE OF ANTOINE BRUNO FREDERIQUE BLANC, JAMES PATRICK KALETH AND MAX BRONCO'S "TAKE ME BACK AGAIN")

MALONE: Before we get into our story, you have to understand this enormous threat that has been hanging over airline unions for the last 3 1/2 decades.

FOUNTAIN: Yeah, we're going to call it the TWA threat because, in 1986, the flight attendants for Trans World Airlines, also known as TWA, were in a labor dispute with their airline. And it was looking like they were going to have to strike.

MALONE: And, you know, the thing about a strike is if you generally follow all the rules and the letter of the law, the government protects that labor action. Like, you are not allowed to be fired when you're striking. That's the deal. So great - the TWA flight attendants went on strike.

FOUNTAIN: But what was so notable about what happened in 1986 is that TWA found a legal workaround - a way to effectively fire all those striking flight attendants without technically firing anyone.

MALONE: Yeah, apparently, when a flight attendant walked off the job - went on strike - it was legal for TWA to fill that newly vacated position. TWA wasn't actually firing anyone, but the flight attendant that went on strike - well, they would have to wait until another position opened up. And, of course, until that happened, that flight attendant was functionally fired. They weren't working. They weren't earning a paycheck.

FOUNTAIN: And the TWA move in 1986 was to do this on a massive scale. When the flight attendants went on strike, the company started replacing them - thousands of people. It would take years before a new TWA job would open up for most of them.

DAVID BORER: And they were all replaced by scabs. The sanitized term for it is permanent replacements.

MALONE: But you're a labor lawyer, so...

BORER: Right.

MALONE: ...You call them scabs, sure.

BORER: That's right.

MALONE: This is longtime labor lawyer David Borer.

BORER: It was horrifying. And, you know, you look at that and you think, oh, my gosh, we can't ever let this happen again.

MALONE: David was watching this TWA fiasco carefully because back then, he was just starting out as the union lawyer for a different group of flight attendants, which included the ones that our story is about today, the flight attendants of Alaska Airlines.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED NARRATOR: At Alaska Airlines, we discount fares, but we never discount service.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

FOUNTAIN: Ba, ba, ba, ba-bum. Ba-bum, ba-bum.

So we pick up a handful of years after the TWA stuff. It's 1993. David was negotiating the new contract for those Alaska Airlines flight attendants.

MALONE: And David says, negotiations were not going very well. And so he and the flight attendants, they had started meeting to discuss what to do next.

BORER: We spent the better part of a week talking about strategy. And we knew the guiding thing behind all of it was, we can't do what the TWA flight attendants did.

MALONE: Right, because now all of the airlines have the TWA playbook. So if your flight attendants go on strike, you just use the old TWA move and replace those pesky strikers.

FOUNTAIN: One of the people David was strategizing with...

GAIL BIGELOW: Good morning, Nick. It's Gail Bigelow.

FOUNTAIN: Gail Bigelow was an Alaska Airlines flight attendant and one of the union's lead negotiators. And she says, this contract negotiation time, it was tense. Alaska Airlines was a small-ish company. And suddenly, not everyone was on the same side.

BIGELOW: And so they had their people who were either married to or friends with or whatever from different departments, and so they were getting information. I'm sure they weren't...

FOUNTAIN: Ooh, there were spies in your ranks.

BIGELOW: There were spies in the ranks. Yes, indeed.

MALONE: To avoid spies, David and Gail had started to hold secret strategy meetings. And really, the focus was trying to find a way around this sort of impossible problem, which was, if the flight attendants go on strike, Alaska Airlines is just going to use the TWA strategy and replace all of the flight attendants. David says they knew they needed a counterstrategy.

BORER: Of course. Sun Tzu says you don't attack your opponents directly, you attack their strategy.

MALONE: Were you literally the guy quoting Sun Tzu's "The Art Of War" at the union organizing meeting?

BORER: Oh, yeah.

MALONE: (Laughter).

BORER: Call me crazy, but, I mean, there's a lot in there. This idea of attacking their strategy was, like, directly applicable.

MALONE: Attack the airline's strategy. Now, remember, the TWA move was to effectively fire everyone without technically firing anyone. Well, David and Gail thought, what if there is a way for us to effectively go on strike without actually going on strike?

FOUNTAIN: In other words, what if they could create the impact of a strike without the risk of a strike? On June 19, 1993, the union calls a press conference.

MARY JO MANZANARES: There's a bunch of chairs. There are people in chairs. There are cameras.

FOUNTAIN: Mary Jo Manzanares was acting as a union spokesperson at that press conference.

MARY JO: There are print reporters, there's television reporters. The big question, of course, was, what were we going to do next?

MALONE: What were they going to do next? And if you were one of the reporters there, it was totally reasonable to expect the big announcement to be the Alaska flight attendants are going on strike. But what happens instead is pretty incredible. Mary Jo walks up to the microphone and basically says, we are not going on strike yet. We will strike, but we aren't telling anyone any of the details.

FOUNTAIN: Here's Mary Jo making the announcement back then.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

MARY JO: So where do we strike, when do we strike, what do we strike? I don't know, and none of you know. And none of management knows. And none of the traveling public knows.

MALONE: The union's thinking was that Alaska Airlines couldn't replace the striking flight attendants if they weren't actually striking yet.

FOUNTAIN: And yet, the announcement made that threat of a strike very real. Mary Jo was at the podium saying that they could strike at any moment on any flight.

MALONE: She told the crowd of reporters that the union was calling this strategy CHAOS, which she was quick to point out was an acronym.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

MARY JO: Create havoc around our system.

MALONE: Create havoc around our system. And you can think of the CHAOS strategy as, like, guerilla warfare. You know, when you're up against a bigger, more powerful opponent, you keep them scrambling. You carefully pick the moment you're going to attack. Hopefully, that forces your opponent to prepare for anything and everything constantly.

FOUNTAIN: And you know who loves a good guerilla warfare, airline chaos story?

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: Now, live at 11 o'clock, KOMO News 4.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #1: Good evening, everyone. If you fly Alaska Airlines, a labor dispute might affect your travel plans.

FOUNTAIN: The television news.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #1: Alaska flight attendants are threatening to create chaos this summer for passengers aboard the airline.

MALONE: Yeah. I mean, this was made-for-TV-news stuff. What's a better story than CHAOS in the skies, or pay us or CHAOS?

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #2: We just don't know when this stoppage or slowdown or disruption of service is going to occur, but it could happen literally any moment, David (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #3: And of course, that's the tactic of the flight attendants, is not to let anybody know, that threat that something might happen at some time. Has it had any effect on bookings by the airline?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #2: As a matter of fact, it has. The company wouldn't get into specifics, give us absolute numbers, but they did concede today that, yes, the number of bookings is down because of this.

MALONE: Yes, the bookings were going down, and this was key. The union was basically getting the benefits of a strike without suffering the consequences.

FOUNTAIN: Right 'cause if you think about the way a normal strike works, it's all about inflicting economic harm on your opponent. So, like, the company won't make any money because their workers have walked off the job, but also, those workers aren't getting paid either. Normally, both sides are taking the financial hit.

MALONE: But with the flight attendants here, their airline was losing bookings because of the strike threat. And yet, the Alaska flight attendants weren't actually striking yet, so Alaska still had to pay them. And if CHAOS was the strategy, flight attendant and union negotiator Gail Bigelow says it was working better than she had ever expected.

BIGELOW: I had people calling me at my home saying, oh, I have tickets to take my kids to Disneyland. Please don't strike my flight. I mean, people I barely knew. And...

(LAUGHTER)

BIGELOW: ...So it was working.

FOUNTAIN: CHAOS was working. No one knew what would happen next, says union lawyer David Borer.

BORER: And that was part of the strategy - was to keep them guessing. Sun Tzu - to go back to Sun Tzu - says a confused enemy is easily defeated. I know it's corny and everything, but strikes are so much like warfare that it's actually directly applicable.

FOUNTAIN: Now, this whole not striking but threatening to strike thing - this was just phase one of the CHAOS strategy because the union knew this phase could only last so long. Like, eventually they would become the flight attendants who cried strike over and over, and people would stop taking their threat seriously. Phase two of CHAOS was coming - a real strike somewhere, sometime, just eventually.

MALONE: In the meantime, Alaska Airlines - they were preparing for that moment. Greg Witter was a spokesperson for Alaska Airlines at the time, and he was in the boardroom helping to figure out Alaska's plan, their countermove, for when those strikes finally did begin.

GREG WITTER: In preparation for the fact that there could be a strike, all the management personnel were trained as flight attendants so that if there is...

MALONE: Including you?

WITTER: Including me. Yep. Yeah, I went off to three weeks of flight attendant training.

MALONE: Tell me about going to flight attendant school. Yeah.

WITTER: Oh, very intense.

MALONE: Intense because, of course, being a flight attendant is so much more than safety demos and handing out little bags of pretzels or whatever.

FOUNTAIN: Yeah. Greg says he had to practice for an emergency landing, pass a pretty rigorous swim test, memorize a phonebook-size safety manual.

WITTER: You've got to learn, basically, every inch of every aircraft you fly. You got to know the least-risk bomb location and...

FOUNTAIN: The what?

WITTER: Latches for this - oh, the least-risk bomb location. So if someone on the plane says they've got a bomb in the bag, and you're able to wrest that bag away from them, where can you put that bomb on the aircraft where it would do the least damage if it went off.

FOUNTAIN: That's a thing? What?

WITTER: That is the thing. Absolutely. The least-risk bomb location - absolutely a thing.

MALONE: And what is the least-risk bomb location? I mean, should we even tell people this, Nick? Is this dangerous information?

FOUNTAIN: It's helpful information.

MALONE: OK, OK. Greg says it's usually behind the engine. Least-risk bomb location - behind the engine. There you go.

FOUNTAIN: So Alaska was training people like Greg, the press guy, and hundreds of other manager types not to become full-time replacements, but as stopgap attendants for the moment the union finally started to strike.

MALONE: Yeah, right because Alaska Airlines was worried about the strike starting, like, in the middle of the flight or something. And so they actually started booking seats for Greg and this crew of managers trained to be flight attendants onto as many flights as possible. You know, that way, if the strike did start mid-flight, one of those people could jump up and suddenly become a flight attendant.

FOUNTAIN: Greg says he was assigned to literally just sit on the flight from Seattle to Guadalajara, Mexico, over and over again. At one point, he says, he even got pulled aside by the Mexican authorities.

WITTER: I just - I remember my heart was pounding when they hauled me into the backroom. And I thought, oh, my God, I know exactly what they're thinking here. And I presume they thought I was a drug mule of some kind.

FOUNTAIN: Sure.

WITTER: Like, who's this guy that keeps flying from Seattle to Guadalajara every four days, you know?

MALONE: Now, having Greg and lots of other management people flying around and sitting at airports - this was just a way to temporarily keep flights going when the big strike eventually did happen.

FOUNTAIN: But Alaska's bigger move was going to be the TWA strategy. As soon as the attendants walked off the job, Alaska could replace them with an army of new flight attendants.

MALONE: Of course, Alaska had to hire that army. They had to find a whole new workforce. And so Alaska held a giant job fair - even sent their assistant vice president of employee relations to this thing.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: We are going through the selection process to put people into training for future openings. And, of course...

MALONE: This, by the way, is the weirdest job fair I have ever heard about. For one, remember, Alaska didn't have any jobs to fill yet since no one was striking yet. But also, there are people picketing the job fair, and reporters are asking the job fair attendees basically, like, hey, don't you feel bad signing up to take a job from someone who's going to go on strike?

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: I'm not worried about them. I got a wife and kids to support. You know, that's their problem.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: I don't know them, so - if I knew them personally, it'd probably hurt. But I don't, so it doesn't bother me.

FOUNTAIN: OK, so our two sides have their strategies. The flight attendants have CHAOS, their constant strike threat without actually striking yet.

MALONE: And then, Alaska is preparing for the moment that flight attendants finally do strike, preparing to go full TWA, hiring their army of replacements.

After the break, the strike begins.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

MALONE: The CHAOS campaign had two phases - phase one, threaten to strike at any moment and then phase two, actually strike, actually have flight attendants walk off the job.

FOUNTAIN: Two months into the campaign, they decided it was time to move into phase two. Gail Bigelow had been collecting the names of her fellow flight attendants who were willing to walk off the job, and they got put on what she called the Guts List.

BIGELOW: They'd have the guts to do it, yes. It was - that's the Guts List.

FOUNTAIN: 'Cause going on strike as a flight attendant very likely meant getting permanently replaced, you know, because of the looming TWA strategy.

BIGELOW: Well, it was frightening for me because I was in a position to try to encourage the flight attendants to strike.

FOUNTAIN: You were asking them to make a - take a crazy risk. They might all lose their jobs.

BIGELOW: It was a crazy risk, yes.

MALONE: It was also this huge puzzle for the flight attendants. Phase two of CHAOS meant actually going on strike. And yet, the moment a flight attendant walked off the job, Alaska was allowed to replace them, pull the old TWA move.

FOUNTAIN: Gail and the union team thought they just might have discovered a way around this, a way to strike without getting replaced.

MALONE: Yeah, it was a very clever, very chaotic kind of countermove to the entire TWA strategy, but they couldn't be sure that it would work until they actually tried it.

FOUNTAIN: The moment of truth came on August 20, 1993, and the whole thing unfolded like a SEAL Team Six mission or something.

MALONE: The target? A fully booked 6 p.m. flight leaving out of Alaska's hub in Seattle. That flight had a crew who had signed up for the Guts List.

FOUNTAIN: One of those flight attendants was Jennifer Price. She says it was a seemingly normal day. She was at the airport when a union official walked up to her and said...

JENNIFER PRICE: OK, Jennifer, we've chosen your crew. You will be striking your flight.

MALONE: Jennifer calmly gets on the plane, stows her baggage, does the preflight checks.

FOUNTAIN: She's there with her fellow flight attendants, Chris (ph) and Barb (ph).

PRICE: The boarding agent came down to the plane and said, are you ready to board? And Barb said, no, we are not ready to board. On the advice of our union, we're engaging in strike action, and we won't be available to perform our work assignment (laughter). And you could see the agent's eyes getting bigger. And then she said, you're kidding. No, I'm not. And we grabbed our suitcases and walked off the airplane.

MALONE: Jennifer and her crew walked past the passengers who were all ready to board. She says they looked confused. They looked like they were getting worried.

FOUNTAIN: And at this exact moment, Gail Bigelow, who's back at strike headquarters, sends a fax to Alaska Airlines saying, we are writing to inform you that we are striking this one flight, Flight 536 out of Seattle's airport.

MALONE: There it was. The strike had officially begun. Yes, it was just one flight crew on one flight. But this was the moment Alaska Airlines had been preparing for.

FOUNTAIN: Yeah, an emergency team of those managers that were trained to be flight attendants jumps into action to sub in for that striking flight crew.

MALONE: But of course, the bigger Alaska strategy was the TWA strategy. As long as Jennifer and her crew were on strike, Alaska was allowed to permanently fill the positions they just walked out on - to effectively fire Jennifer while she's on strike.

FOUNTAIN: But after just 28 minutes of the strike, Gail Bigelow sends a second fax to Alaska Airlines saying, actually, strike's over now.

MALONE: And here's why that is a genius move. Alaska hadn't actually managed to get the paperwork together or whatever it would take to permanently replace Jennifer's flight crew during that 28-minute strike window. That crew was no longer on strike, and so the union was pretty sure Jennifer's group of attendants was now safe from getting TWAed (ph), from getting replaced. Here's Gail Bigelow again.

BIGELOW: The three of them came back to strike headquarters then. And I can remember the picture of them, and they were all very relieved to be in strike headquarters, knowing that they were going to get their jobs back.

MALONE: Flight attendant Jennifer Price remembers that moment - walking back into headquarters that night.

PRICE: Oh, yeah, they cheered. We were the heroes of the day. It was - you know, that was helpful (laughter).

FOUNTAIN: The kind of strike that happened that night, it has a technical name. It's called intermittent striking.

MALONE: Yeah. You know, the idea is instead of everyone going on strike and then staying on strike, you do a bunch of little strikes. In this case, you strike one flight at a time and just for a tiny window of time. And the union was hoping that this would make it incredibly hard for Alaska to actually catch and permanently replace attendants while they were on strike.

FOUNTAIN: And the flight attendants kept attacking this way. Four days later, they struck a flight out of Vegas, then hit five Bay Area flights on the same day.

MALONE: And it was chaos every time this happened. Alaska had to scramble to get their managers onto these flights as flight attendants. Alaska spokesperson Greg Witter remembers being at Seattle's airport when somebody from his company comes, like, running up to him.

WITTER: We have a walk-off. And it was me and two guys from marketing. We were hailed. You guys got to go work a flight. Oh, my God. All three of us - the blood drained out of our faces.

FOUNTAIN: So Greg rushes to get on the flight, and then he realizes he's going to have to give the iconic safety demo.

WITTER: My heart literally was about coming through my throat while I'm doing this safety demonstration. I had cold sweats. Oh, my God. My palms were all sweaty and clammy. It was terrible.

FOUNTAIN: How many flights do you think you did that day?

WITTER: One, two, three. God, I think probably at least three until we got to fly home.

FOUNTAIN: Greg can't exactly remember because it was a total mess. It was clearly an unsustainable solution for Alaska, and it had been just three weeks of this intermittent striking.

MALONE: In the end, here is how this whole tactic-countertactic battle wound down. In what feels a little like an act of desperation, Alaska Airlines said, you know what? We think this intermittent striking thing - we think it's actually not allowed. So forget being replaced. If you do this, you're going to get straight-up fired. The union took Alaska Airlines to court, and the court sided with the union. They said intermittent striking is protected by law.

FOUNTAIN: And the union's like, OK then. We're going to keep doing these intermittent strikes until we get a decent contract. Less than two weeks later, Alaska proposed what Gail thought was pretty decent contract.

MALONE: Gail had been at this for more than three years, and just like that, it was over.

BIGELOW: I was like, oh, my gosh. I have my life back (laughter). I mean, really, that's how I felt. I have my life back. But I - but in seriousness, I felt really good about it. I felt the contract was a good contract.

MALONE: David Borer, the Sun-Tzu-quoting lawyer, agrees. He says the new contract was phenomenal for the flight attendants.

FOUNTAIN: So it was a great victory in your head.

BORER: Yeah, like the poster on my wall, total victory. No, I mean, we didn't lose a single job. Nobody who struck lost any income. And we got a contract with a 60% raise that we hadn't even asked for.

FOUNTAIN: David thinks it was the most successful labor strike of a generation. And he says the CHAOS strategy has kept working for the union. Since that Alaska flight, not a single flight attendant from David's union has had to strike in the U.S. The mere threat of CHAOS has been enough.

MALONE: And I suppose it is reasonable at this point to then wonder, why doesn't every strike use this exact same CHAOS playbook? It seems like the obvious thing to do.

FOUNTAIN: Well, the answer to that one is a little in the weeds. So airline strikes and, actually, railroad strikes, too, have one set of rules. But most other strikes are governed by a different set of rules. And those rules don't allow for this kind of intermittent on-again, off-again striking.

MALONE: Yeah. So for instance, we've got this United Auto Workers strike happening right now. Once the UAW announces, for example, that the Ford assembly plant in Wayne, Mich., is now on strike, well, those workers are going to need to be on strike until the dispute is over. They're not allowed to 20 minutes later, say, oh, hey, never mind. This plant's strike is over.

FOUNTAIN: But what has been really interesting to watch are the ways that the UAW and their president, Shawn Fain, do really seem to be introducing CHAOS where they're allowed to. Attorney David Borer has noticed this too.

BORER: Nobody's asking Shawn Fain, oh, how long do you think you can hold out? They're all saying, oh, when are you going to strike the next plant? And that's exactly how it was with Alaska.

FOUNTAIN: Right. Because what the UAW has done is start by striking at three auto factories, and then it has added a strike at a factory somewhere else, and then at somewhere else and then somewhere else. The rhythm of this UAW strike is sounding a lot like the CHAOS strike from 30 years ago.

MALONE: Yeah, it's funny. I was driving to work the other day and heard a report from our colleague Camila Domonoske about the UAW strike. Here, we'll play a little bit of it for you.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)

CAMILA DOMONOSKE: No one knows how long these strikes will last or what kinds of locations could be targeted next or even which companies. The union has said...

MALONE: So, yeah, I heard that. And I just thought, like, wow, that sounds so similar to that wild press conference 30 years ago when the Alaska flight attendants first introduced CHAOS to the world of labor.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: So where do we strike? When do we strike? What do we strike? I don't know, and none of you know, and none of management knows and none of the traveling public knows.

(SOUNDBITE OF LUNA CITIES' "BELIEVE")

FOUNTAIN: You can email us at planetmoney@npr.org, or you can find us on TikTok, Facebook or Instagram. We're @planetmoney.

MALONE: Our show today was produced by Sam Yellowhorse Kesler with help from Dave Blanchard and Willa Rubin. It was edited by Jess Jiang and fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. It was mastered by Hans Copeland. Ayda Pourasad helped with research. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.

FOUNTAIN: Shout-out to the Wall Street Journal reporters Nora Eckert, Mike Colias and Ryan Felton, whose mention of the CHAOS strategy in an article about the UAW's present strategy turned us on to the story. I'm Nick Fountain.

MALONE: I'm Kenny Malone. This is NPR. Thanks for listening.