#maybe the intentions were good but. sounds kinda weird i dunno

[drysauce]

love it when i wake up and see a message from my friend that immediately makes me angry and annoyed (i hate it)

[grumpybreakfastfriend]

One thing really weird to me is the accusations that Bell only agreed to do QOS because "they whitewashed his allegations", there's a LOT to criticise about the way QOS set all of these interviews up, they misled a fair amount of people on what this doc was about and it's... the end result is very sensationalistic and it does make money off the backs of other people's trauma, but it also started a good conversation.

But the thing about like "they whitewashed his allegations"... Like I agree it's something people should talk about but the documentary was about nick and abuse allegations on the set of nick shows with child actors and nothing in any of his allegations have to do with any other former child actors, other survivors should have a chance to speak and talk about their experiences but.... I hardly think that the thing about him only agreeing to do it because "whitewashing of his allegations"

They had been in contact with him many times over a few years and he kept refusing because he wasn't ready to publicly talk about what happened to him, he had also rejected to speak on "An Open Secret" in 2014, long before allegations against him ever came to light, so I think the narrative is honestly, not to be mean sounding, but BS. but people say it like it's a confirmed thing or they have "insider information" on that whole situation.

Speaking of, how do you feel about QOS and what Alexa Nikolas is saying (suddenly) about how QOS is opportunistic and using trauma for their own gain because she recently appeared on a news segment or whatever talking about Drake Bell's trauma, so I... that feels a little hypocritical if I'm honest because isn't she doing the same thing? I can understand Lee Bolleau (All That, Amanda Show) being upset about being left in the dark about major reveals in the series that she had thought was just about workplace toxicity, not p*dophilia and SA. And she says she was super close with Drake when they were on Amanda Show so imagine how horrifying it was for her to find that out. I don't want to paint the creators of QOS in a bad light but there's some stuff that's 100% wrong with QOS and should be criticised... They -seemed- like they had good intentions but keeping people in the dark and lying to others and then kinda editing the scenes to be a shockumentary and also the complete lack of focus the entire doc seems to have, it goes from "Dan Schnider has a horrible work ethic" several times to "Convicted SO Brian Peck" and then skips to talking about Amanda Bynes without her consent and... idk, i don't know how to feel about it too much, I know every documentary does this, I know that An Open Secret did this as well, but it's just... I dunno.

Bolleau says that she was misled on the subject of the doc for over a year, and Marc Summers had dropped out of the project because they lied to him about what it was about and he was like "I don't know anything about whatever happened here wtf", add to that the fact that Drake consistently answers vaguely about what abuse he experienced and they plaster it all over the screen anyway, and then the fact that they took out some of what Alexa even talked about in her interview, like Alexa is a little easier to criticise on this because she seems like she's flip flopping on supporting the doc based on not being invited to the LA panel talk or being asked to come back for ep 5, but I believe her when she says that they had a narrative to paint, mostly about Dan but they didn't have enough so they just cobbled together whatever allegations and rumors they could find which is so skeevy.

and to give Alexa some grace, she does talk about how she went in with a little more information on the subject and background about the doc because of her Eat Predators movement, but finding out that other people were misled and lied to she feels regretful that she sat down with them, so maybe she's -not- flip flopping, but a lot of people don't like her and criticise her for things like this.

Bolleau and Nikolas say that the producers pressured them in the interviews even when they voiced hesitation, which lines up with Drake being pushed to talk about explicit details of the abuse, Bolleau and Nikolas also say that they were harassed by endless attempts of contact during pre-production.

And then of course the 5th episode drops and it's so weirdly out of tone and touch with the rest of the series and though it was a good "idea" i guess in theory to follow up with the people, it felt so rushed and like they were cashing in, Schwarts and Robertson, the two who created the doc were defacto interviewers off screen in the first four episodes but out of nowhere Soledad O'Brian is the one asking questions to people regarding this stuff, and of course she brings up Amanda Bynes to Drake over zoom even though he looked very uncomfortable being asked about her life and there's a moment O'Brian says something like "What happened there, what happened to people like Amanda Bynes" and it's clear she's trying to get a very specific answer to that question.

With all these criticisms and then episode 5 it really paints this picture of them using these stories for the salaciousness factor and the ratings, even though it DID start a good conversation about abuse in these places, but they claim that 5th episode was for talking about where the industry can go from here, and offered absolutely NO discussion on that theme.

Nikolas was talking about how they edited the like, intro sizzle reel to the 5th episode, taking the sexually suggestive clips and putting them in a montage, stripping them entirely of context and kinda turning it into… like, idk, like how those true crime youtubers sensationalize the hell out of the cases they talk about.

And they take Lee Bolleau's words on an amanda show sketch out of context, kinda editing it to make it seem like something else.

Lee and Nikolas were just not invited to the LA panel at all probably because the doc producers didn't like their talking back about the misleading and lies…. and I do feel for Lee, and maybe more so than Nikolas because although I know a lot of people try to question or judge her trauma and I am 100% not doing that here, I just feel like she wants to hitch herself onto the backs of the other kids and what they went through, specifically Drake, it's weird that she's speaking on his trauma after HE bared his soul for the documentary.

And again, the interviewers / creators pushing for certain details of their guests when they knew it was making them uncomfortable... Its just weird, I know that Brian's charges are public record but they seemed to want to get shock value out of Drake's answers.... it didn't sit right with me.

I guess I'll just parrot people saying "two things can be true" because this did start an impactful discussion not only for the industry but for abuse and SA victims who have not come out yet and felt inspired to do so after hearing these stories, and it DID shine a light on Brian Peck who has been living pretttyy damn easy since being arrested and before this doc he was able to lay low and attend horror conventions and I'm just not sure that's super possible for him right now because everyone knows his face, and it did shine a light on many many many industry professionals backing a convicted p*dophile, but at the end of the day the more stuff that QOS and it's team does afterwards feels super super exploitative.

It's just a lot to think about, sorry for the long message!

I appreciate the message! I'm going to try and respond to the overall theme, since I don't think I can hit every point covered.

I agree that objectively, the documentary isn't that good. It's very disjointed and sensationalized. It felt like I was watching an old YouTube compilation of "creepy Dan Schneider feet scenes" that have been around for years with no actual new information, a bit about workplace harassment, almost conspiracy-esque speculations about Amanda which have been around for years, and then an extremely moving and harrowing story from Drake.

I've found a lot of his follow-up podcasts to be even more compelling and haven't gone back much to the documentary itself. We can have a larger conversation about how kids are vulnerable in entertainment, but their focus on Schneider as the Big Bad, when the Brian Peck abuse had nothing to do with him just didn't hit right for me.

I think the doc is still a net good and I am glad it is shining a light on these issues and gave Drake a platform to tell his story. I was talking to an older coworker who didn't grow up with these shows, and she found the doc to be a powerful watch, so I'm glad that it is still having that impact on people.

If it's not evident from my dozens of Drake Asks, I was really moved by his story. Quite frankly, I am not very invested in whatever is going on with Alexa. I hadn't heard of her before this, and I feel like I would have to spend too long watching all of her content to come up with an informed opinion, when I would rather spend that time checking out Drake's discography. It's a shame she's getting dogpiled for supporting Drake now, even if I do not know all of her motivations or issues.

[elareine]

If you could, can you please write JayTim or RoyTim (whichever one you want) trying to be romantic and woo Tim (maybe with some puns, I love puns), but Tim is a bit oblivious towards it, because the other is so cool, therefore they must be trying to make friends and be nice with him and nothing more. So when he does finally realize its an italicized "Oh" moment.

Hi lovely!! Thank you for waiting so patiently for this fill. I... ended up making it JayRoyTim, I hope that's okay? It just fit so well, but I can totally write something else with JayTim or RoyTim for you if you want :)

Also, it turned out to be about pick-up lines more than wooing, sorry. I might’ve gone overboard with googling the puns. It's long enough that I put it on ao3, too. What's your username on there? Then I'll gift it to you.

if you were a transformer (you’d be optimus fine)

“Well, here I am.”

Tim looks up, utterly confused. “I didn’t call for you, but… that’s… great?”

Roy waggles his eyebrows. It looks faintly disturbing. Redheads should maybe not do that. Or, actually, Tim revises mentally, thinking of literally every other redhead Dick ever dated—that’s just Roy. “What are your other two wishes?”

“Coffee and some silence to finish working this case?”

Roy looks weirdly deflated at that, but he does get him some coffee. Tim soon forgets about it.

—

(“How’d it go?”

“Does obliviousness run in the family?”

“Yes. Yes it does. Have you met Bruce?”

“…okay, fair. Your turn next.”)

—

“Jason? What’re you doing here?”

Sure, Jason and Roy have been spending a lot more time in Gotham lately. Something to do with a case, Tim assumes. Maybe even with the one that they worked on together in Star City five months ago?

Anyway. They’ve been around, is what Tim is saying. Not at the manor, but at Tim’s apartment and his workspace, cause apparently it’s not worth rebuilding their safe house after it went up in flames, and Bruce and Damian are too often at Dick’s place. He’s not exactly surprised to see either of them anymore. (Pleased, yes. But not surprised.) However, Tim has no fucking clue why Jason is currently grinning at him from the other side of the library desk.

At least Tim has the good sense to check his name tag before he gasps: “Jason?”

“Oh, hey, Tim.” Jason’s grinning. “Guess you figured out my new job, huh?”

“Yeah.” Tim shakes his head. “Color me surprised.” So this is what Jason’s spending his days doing. He’s gotta be shadowing someone, right? Tim’ll ask him tonight.

“I’ve always liked this place.” Jason’s gaze is far away for a moment. Tim badly wants to know what he’s remembering. Then the older man seems to come back to himself and gives Tim a weird—maybe angry?—look. “It’s a good thing I’m a librarian, too, cause I’m totally checking you out.”

“Alright, I can take a hint.” Tim grabs his book and demonstratively walks over to the self-service scanners. Really. How rude.

—

(“Are you telling me he managed to resist you in your cardigan?”

“Apparently.”

“Aww. C’mere, babe.”)

—

So Roy blows things up all the time. No, really, Tim now totally understands why Dick was so happy when he heard the duo is camping out at Tim’s place for a change. His older brother even gave Tim a thumbs-up, for God’s sake. He must’ve known.

Cause yeah, there’s at least one explosion every two days. Or Roy dropping something cause he’s too focused on what he’s thinking to remember what his hands are doing. Or something dropping on him. Jason seems used to it; he just catches whatever it is or laughs at Roy. Tim… is starting to learn to do the same, actually. Whatever Roy comes up with at that moment is usually worth it, and besides, he’s kinda adorable.

Aaaaaaanyway. (He’s using that word a lot in his own thoughts right now. Almost as if he’s avoiding thinking about something. Hmm.) Tim’s not surprised when Roy walks into a room, stumbles, and slaps a hand over his eyes with a dramatic exclamation.

Tim, in shorts and not much else cause he got drenched in pollen earlier, just raises an eyebrow. “Alright, Roy?”

“Nope.” Roy’s hand is still covering his face, but Tim can still see his grin underneath. “I’m gonna need your name and phone number for insurance purposes.”

“Roy. You have both of these things,” Tim explains slowly, wondering if Roy sustained a brain injury or accidentally dosed himself on something. “And why insurance?”

“I was blinded by your beauty.”

God. Sometimes Tim wonders about the original Titans and their socialization for the two dudes if this is how they think making friends works. Then again, Kori, Donna, and Dick probably appreciated constant compliments about their beauty. It all makes sense. Roy must be so used to it that he even uses those same methods when someone unexceptional like Tim is around.

He smiles gamely. “I’m looking forward to hearing that phone call. Must be almost as great as the time Bruce tried to convince his insurance company that Clark dropping on his car wasn’t an act of God because God is demonstrably not a Kryptonian. Neither was the giant ape punching Clark out.”

Roy drops his hand at that. “…Batman did what?”

—

(“You were doing so well, too.”

“I knoooow. How much more obvious can we get?”

“I dunno, but I intend to try.”)

—

“Do you like Star Wars? Because Yoda only one for me!”

“Haha. No. Star Trek or die.” Tim’s answer is automatic. He’s had these discussions soooo many times with Kon before. Of course Jason also goes for the space cowboy soap opera.

Besides, Jason’s boyfriend is standing right next to him. He doesn’t mean to sound flirtatious with Tim. Or maybe he does, and it’s just good fun? Or maybe teasing him? Tim can’t figure it out, but he knows he doesn’t like the weird hollow feeling he gets in his stomach when he thinks about it, so he changes the topic.

And makes both of them sit down to watch some classic Captain Kirk, of course.

—

(“Should I be insulted by that pick up line?”

“Nah. There aren’t that many lines that imply a polycule, though.”

A kiss. “Alright.”)

—

One of the things Jason and Tim have in common is their predilection for motorbikes and fiddling around with them. Not that makes them unique in the batclan; Tim has never spent days quietly working side-by-side with Dick, though, the way he does with Jason. They started out with separate projects. Then Jason saw this vintage Ducati at an abandoned warehouse he was about to blow up and, well… Would be a shame, right? Tim just happens to have had one of these before—regrettably lost to one of Harley’s exploding baseball bats—so he offers his expertise.

It’s not because it means bending over the engine with Jason, closer than they ever are, their hands brushing when they hand each other instruments. It’s not.

Roy doesn’t join them. He’s too polite to say so, but he finds normal cars and bikes boring af. Doesn’t stop him from popping his head into the garage and whistling when he sees that they are shirtless and covered in grease. It’s a damn good look on Jason, so Tim can’t fault him for that.

Roy follows it up with a: “Are you a parking ticket? Cause you got fine written all over you.”

Tim can’t help it; he blushes at the suggestive tone. Those two never stop flirting with each other, do they? So far, he has managed to avoid stumbling over them while they’re making out (not that they’re making that easy—the kitchen? Really?), and he’d like to keep avoiding that, thank you very much. He’s already feeling guilty enough for his fantasies as it is.

“Uh. I should clean up,” he mumbles and flees.

—

(“Dammit.”

“…do you think that was a rejection?”

“Nah. He was definitely checking me out before you came and fucked it up.”

“That’s saying something if you noticed it.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”)

—

So Tim has magically acquired cat ears and a very fluffy tail. Don’t ask. They’re gonna go away in eight hours, and until then, he’s gonna stay in the cave and work himself to distraction. Jason seems intent on keeping him company, though.

(It’s nice. Tim loves hanging out with Jason—that’s not the problem. The issue is that Tim is looking ridiculous, and Jason is being nice about it, and none of this is helping his stupid crush go away.)

They’re absently chatting about nothing until Jason says: “Kinda a pity you’re a cat, though.”

Tim looks up. Huh? Admittedly, he never pegged Jason as the type to go for catboys (though maybe… he did hang out with Kyle… perhaps it’s just that he definitely doesn’t go for Tims), but that’s still a weird pronouncement.

Jason is grinning. “If you were a chicken, you’d be impeccable.” He pauses. “Wait. Like even more than you already are. Uh.”

Tim sighs. Great. And now Jason is making fun of him again. “Whatever.”

—

(“A chicken?”

“Shut up. I panicked.” A sigh. “He was so cute with these ears.”

“…yeah, he was.”)

—

“You must be tired. You’ve been running through my mind all night.”

“I’m not tired,” Tim says automatically. Why does everyone keep asking him that tonight? Surely the shadows under his eyes can’t be that bad? He used concealer!

Something in Roy’s expression softens. “Aww. C’mere.” He pats the space on the couch next to him, and when Tim sits down, Roy pulls him half of on top of him and into a hug. “Relax for a bit, little bird.”

Tim sinks into the embrace, boneless all of a sudden. Roy just has that effect on him. Tim vaguely remembers thinking of him as his oldest brother’s cool friend and then Jason’s cool boyfriend, kind of a fuckboy but clearly good for Jay.

Now? Now, Roy just makes him feel safe.

—

(“So you spent the night on the couch just so he could sleep in your arms?”

“Yeah. Totally worth it.”

“Duh.”

“I just wish we could do that with him every night. Bet he fits perfectly between us.”

“Yeah.”

A pause.

“We might have to up the ante or switch tactics.”)

—

They’re talking about their favorite books—Tim doesn’t read as much as Jason does, but they discovered a shared love of sci-fi weeks ago—when Tim says: “Actually, that book kinda reminds me of you.”

“Oh?”

“Overly dramatic but good.”

Jason makes an offended noise, and Tim grins.

“I’m not sure which part I should argue about first.” Jason pretends to think.

Tim is always down to tell Jason that fuck his self-perception—Jason is a good man, one of the best Tim knows; that also feels too revealing right now. Instead, he gets up from their comfortable position on the couch and grabs the first stack on the table, carrying them over to the shelves to replace the gaps. “What kind of book would I be?”

“Babe, if you were words on a page, you’d be fine print.”

“Annoying and no one reads it?” Tim asks without turning around, trying to ignore the babe. That’s. That’s gotta be a slip of the tongue, right? Force of habit from spending so much time with Roy?

“No, fine,” and the emphasis is clear this time. Jason continues before Tim can reply: “Though if we’re talking books…”

Tim whirls around. “Save it. You don’t have to make fun of me just because I—“He swallows down the words.

Jason looks alarmed. “Tim—“

As if he can smell trouble, Roy chooses that moment to enter the room. Tim has barely heard him approach, Jesus. He doesn’t want to have this argument in front of Roy, though, so he just stands there in the middle of the room. Jason, too, has stopped speaking.

Roy, of course, takes one look at the awkwardness and decides to make it worse. Or more confusing.

“Did you just come out of the oven?” he asks.

“As this isn’t Hansel and Gretel, no, I didn’t.” Tim checks his shirt, just in case this is an actual conversation opener and not just a weird attempt at a distraction. “Do I have soot on me?”

“Nope.” Roy shakes his head, and he’s smiling that smile again, the one Tim is startled to recognize, the one he thought is reserved only for Jason— “Because you’re hot.”

And finally, Tim gets it. “Me?”

“Yes, Tim.” Roy’s moving in closer. “You.”

There’s a soft touch to Tim’s shoulder, and Tim whirls around, expecting Jason to be mad, cause his boyfriend is—is hitting on Tim, right, that’s what’s happening, Jason can’t be happy—

Jason is smiling down at him. His hand is still resting on Tim’s shoulder, but it slides down to his collar bone, a gentle presence as he murmurs: “You’re so beautiful that you made forget my pick up line.”

Oh. Oh.

Tim says the first thing he can think of: “Are you a raisin?”

Jason starts grinning. “I’m not even gonna qualify that with an answer.”

Tim smiles back. “Cause you’re raising my hopes for a kiss right about now.”

And he gets one. And then another, and then Roy joins in, kissing Tim’s neck and then his mouth and—Yeah.

They’re too busy for any more pick up lines right now.

[griavian]

the 36 questions that lead to love

x <- read on ao3

dream finds a list of questions that can supposedly lead to two people falling in love, so him and george try it out on stream. turns out, they don't really need all 36.

“Come on, George. It’s just a couple of questions.” Dream pleaded into the call, making George roll his eyes. He’s been trying to end stream for the past 15 minutes, but Dream always convinces him to go “just a little longer!”.

“36 questions is not just a couple of questions, Dream.” George glances at his second monitor to make sure his green screen was still black and to check a few discord messages. He had no intention to fall into Dream’s trap for another hour of streaming.

“But it says it’ll lead to love!” Dream says, exasperated. He googled ‘questions to ask your friend’ earlier and found a list of them that apparently lead to falling in love. To George, it was bullshit.

“That’s such bullshit.” He expresses.

“You’re no fun.” Dream’s voice lowered, and George can feel the pout Dream has plastered on his face. He can already predict what the next 12 hours would be like with Dream: silent treatment and being a general dickhead. George was used to it when they lived an ocean apart, and even found it amusing, but it was a totally different experience living with him. Dream would mope around, go into George’s room randomly just to not talk to him, and go as far as to blast sad music from his own room across the hall while George was trying to finish up some editing. Sure, it was all light-hearted jokes, and Dream would stop his act in a heartbeat if George was truly annoyed by it, but George still dreaded it.

“Fine.”

Dream immediately cheers up and starts typing on his keyboard while George watches his chat fly by, seeing a lot of emotes and positive messages.

“Okay, um- first question. Given the choice of anyone in the world, whom,” Dream mocks the formality, “would you want as a dinner guest?”

George’s nose crinkles. “How is that gonna make me fall in love with you?”

“Just answer the question.”

“I don’t know! The queen?”

“That’s a stupid answer.”

“What!” George screeches and Dream barks out a laugh. “You’re so dumb.”

“You gotta give me a better answer than that, or else we won’t fall in love with each other.”

George rolls his eyes, but decides to think about his answer. Truthfully, he wouldn’t want anyone special as a dinner guest. “Um. My mum.”

George eyes his chat as it’s filled with “aw”s. He almost scoffs.

“See? That wasn’t so hard.” George wants to punt Dream into another universe.

“Alright, who would you want as a guest?”

“Tom Brady.”

“That’s the stupidest answer ever!” George yells, his eyes wide, perhaps offended that Dream picked Tom Brady out of anyone else in the world.

“Question two!” Dream ignores, “This one is kinda dumb, but would you like to be famous and if you do, what for?”

George hums. “Probably don’t want to be famous-famous. Maybe being well-known for being the first person to invent IRL-VR. I want my body to be submerged in the Minecraft universe.”

“That’s sick. I dunno what I’d want-”

“You’re already famous.”

“Shut up. I don’t even- I don’t even want to be famous, really. I just want to make whoever knows me smile.”

“Aww, isn’t that sweet, Dream.” George teases and he knows Dream waved him off. George has his habits practically memorized.

“Whatever. How about you ask some questions?” Dream sends a link on discord and George reads through them.

“There’s no way these can make people fall in love. What even is this question? Before making a telephone call, do you rehearse what you’re going to say and why?”

“Trust the process. I mean, I do that. I don’t want my brain all jumbled up, I guess. Words are hard.” Dream answers.

“I don’t think I’ve ever done that. I wing it.”

“That’s very you. Next question.” Something about Dream saying that made George smile the tiniest bit, made the serotonin flow through his brain.

“What’s a ‘perfect day’ for you?” George reads. It’s quiet for a moment.

“Hanging out with you,” his voice is sincere, “You and Sapnap. Recording, streaming, anything like that. What about you?”

“Hm. Me too.”

George isn’t one to show his feelings often. He remembers being asked if he did, and he answered with “not ones that matter”. It still rings true to this day. His walls are still built up and that’s okay to George. Mushy feelings aren’t important, but he’d be damned if he didn’t say his heartstrings were playing a beautiful melody during this moment.

The questions and answers fall easily after that. George knows it’s around 1 am, and he should go to sleep, but answering the questions was kind of addicting.

“Do you have a hunch on how you’ll die?” Dream reads the question with a chuckle. “That’s such a weird question to ask someone you wanna fall in love with.”

George tries not to read in between the lines.

“Heart failure. For both of us.”

“You know how I’ll die?”

“We’re Minecraft streamers, Dream. We’ll probably die at 40.” They share jokes and giggles of scenarios where they die and what they’d do, and something about it feels a bit too honest.

“I’ll die the day you die, George. Emotionally and physically.” Dream says, dramatic as ever. George only huffs, and they leave it there.

“Name three things you and your partner have in common. Dream, do you have a secret girlfriend?” They start to bicker back and forth, because of course they do.

“It doesn’t mean romantic partner, you dumbass. Like- it’s like a science partner,” Dream sighs, “Well, we do have a lot in common. We have the same job, we care about the same things, and we love each other! Easy.” Dream answers.

“Who said I loved you?”

“You literally did last night.” George had closed chat a while ago, already prepared for what was to come. He can only imagine what they’re saying.

“They’ll never believe you.” George says with a sadistic grin.

“Ugh. Okay, what are you grateful for in life? You have to answer this.” George can hear Dream get a little closer to his mic, almost anticipating George’s answer. Dream knows how much he doesn’t like to express any feelings, and probably expects him to skip the question overall. George prevails.

“You. Obviously,” and before Dream can get out an aww, George says, “You made my career, dummy, and I’m grateful for that. And my friends, family, all the normal things. Chat! I’m even grateful for chat.”

“Well, I’m incredibly grateful for you especially.” Dream’s voice is soft, almost loving. George rolls his eyes. He could’ve guessed Dream’s answer, but it weirdly hurts him when it was spoken aloud. He doesn’t know whether it hurts because it might be a fun little joke or if it’s because someone might care about him that much. George decides to stop thinking.

They answer more questions, from taking four minutes to tell each other their life stories (“There was no reason to add that detail; you’re so gross, Dream.”) to what significant quality they would want to wake up and suddenly have (“You’re already good at code shit, George. That’s the saddest answer ever.”). They move onto section two of the list, which are deeper questions.

“Is there something you’ve dreamed of doing but haven’t yet, and why haven’t you?” George asks. He knows about Dream’s unfinished projects. There’s probably a million answers to the question, and George would listen to every single one.

“Uh, well. You know I was writing a book, yeah? I was halfway done with it, and I can’t make myself finish it. It’s probably writer’s block, but I don’t think I’ll be able to do it.” George frowned.

“You can’t finish it with that attitude, silly. You’re annoyingly amazing at everything.” George says with a snort, “I don’t have an answer to this. What did you say that one time? Your future is my future? Well, your dreams are my dreams, then.”

George cringes a little at what he said. He doesn’t know his viewer count, but knows that at least a million people will watch that clip out of context. Dream doesn’t say anything back and moves on to the next question.

“What is your most treasured memory?” Dream asks, and George immediately laughs.

“I definitely know your’s.”

“Do tell, George.”

“Our first Christmas together. Sapnap insisted on getting a real Christmas tree, and when we started decorating the stupid thing, Sapnap sees a spider and screeches. Then, our neighbors come knocking on the front door and you had to explain to them that nobody was being murdered, it was just your roommate being a big baby. And as if it could get any worse, I got tree-sap all on my fingers and clothes and you couldn’t help me because you were laughing too hard.”

“Pretty sure I almost choked on my own spit.” Dream adds, and George scoffs. “But no, that’s not my treasured memory.”

George sputters. “What? You’re telling me I told that to thousands of people for nothing?”

“To be fair, you were all soft on Christmas morning, so our first Christmas might be your treasured memory. Anyways, remember the first time you helped me with a code?” George stays silent, giving Dream the answer. “Well, that was the first time we had a real conversation. I made you laugh, then I started to laugh because you laughed, and we didn’t get the code done. It sounds dumb, but I always smile whenever I think about it.”

George’s face falters a bit. God, he just wants to hug Dream; he wants to make a beeline for his room and attack him with affection and make sure he knows that George loves him, platonically or romantically, George wants him to know.

He just can’t express it with words.

“That… sweet.” George’s eyes travel down the following questions and panics, seeing how personal the questions are. He fakes a yawn. “As mushy and stupid this thing is, I’m really tired.”

Dream doesn’t say anything. It almost scares George, but he deafens on Discord and bids farewell to his viewers, who were completely freaking out. George doesn’t blame them. He’s abruptly leaving after a sweet moment? That’s a recipe for disaster, and George knows better. Yet, he clicks the end stream button.

The door to his office swings open instantly and startles George. It was Sapnap, someone he didn’t particularly want to see.

“What the fuck was that?” His roommate whisper-yells.

George groans and slides deeper into his chair, covering his face. “I don’t know,” he muffles.

“Are you even trying to hide your feelings at this point?” He can hear Sapnap close the door and flop on his office’s couch. “You might as well buy a billboard that says ‘I’m in love with my best friend! His name is Clay!’ with a big ass picture of your dumb face beside it.”

“I know,” George whines. “Do you think he knows?”

“He’s not the one I’m worried about knowing. I’ve told you a million goddamn times that he’s too whipped to notice. I’m worried about the fans. They’re gonna go fucking bonkers because of this stream. Clips are gonna be shared. People are gonna speculate.”

George uncovers his face and narrows his eyes at his friend. “Thanks for the reassurance,” he deadpans.

Sapnap rolls his eyes. “I’m being serious, dude. I know you’re very deeply in love with him in the gayest of ways, but you gotta be careful in front of the fans.”

“Oh my God. I know, Sapnap! I know. I forgot we were even streaming. It felt like it was just the two of us, and I got too comfortable. And it was so nice. I can’t even do anything about it now, so it doesn’t even matter.”

Sapnap sighs and pulls himself from the couch. “You need to talk to him before this gets out of hand. You know I love ya, and that I’m here for you.” George cringes out of habit, but nods. It reads as ‘I love you too, I guess’.

Sapnap leaves without another word, and George is left alone with his thoughts. It’s not long before he sluggishly makes his way back to his bedroom. He opens the closed door, enters, and shuts it. He turns around, only to be greeted by a familiar person in his bed, and yelps.

Dream laughs. He’s wearing blue pajama pants and a white t-shirt. His hair looks messed with, and his cheeks seem to have more color to them. George can’t help but stare.

“Well? Aren’t we gonna finish it?”

George cocks an eyebrow.

“Finish what?”

“The questions, dummy. You don’t… you don’t have to. I mean, it’s kinda stupid that I want to do it in the first place, but…” Dream trails off. George hops on his bed and grins lightly.

“Go for it.”

They answer questions they skipped, like what is your most terrible memory (“My, uh, grandma. She died when I was about 14. It was… hard on me.” “Oh, George…”).

The overhead light was off at this point, the only light coming from a lamp on his desk and the stars shining through the window. The two are on their sides, Dream on the right of the bed and George on the left, facing each other, occasionally looking at their phones to ask the questions.

“What roles do love and affection play in your life?” Dream asks, his voice softer than ever. George can almost not answer. He doesn’t know.

“I’ve never been a super affectionate person, so I don’t know. I’ll give you guys quick hugs of course, but with really close relationships, I don’t know what to do.”

Dream looks as if he’s searching for something in George’s face, and George can’t tell what he’s looking for. His movements are hesitant, George sees.

“Do- um. You wanna maybe,” Dream pauses, closes his eyes,and scrunches up his face. “Try?”

“Try what?”

“Affection.” Dream lets out a breath and opens his eyes. “Affection is my strong suit, afterall.” His mouth forms into a teasing smirk despite his eyes showing nervousness.

“Um. Take the lead.”

It’s slow. So, very slow. Dream’s hand raises up and lands itself on the dip of George’s waist. He’s whispering instructions, and George listens. His hands are hung around Dream’s neck, and their legs are starting to tangle together. They laugh when they realize how far apart they are, and Dream pulls him closer. George can feel his heart beating out of his chest as he lays his head where Dream’s right shoulder meets his neck.

“Do you want me to ask the rest of the questions, sweetheart?” It sounded like a coo, and George is surprised at how effortless the pet name comes out of Dream’s mouth.

“Was that okay?” Dream whispers after a moment of George going still. He perks up.

“Yeah! Yeah.”

“Okay.” Dream pulls George closer and rests his left hand on his back. He starts rubbing up and down in slow motions.

George simply melts.

The questions and answers go by slower, and their voices become gentler. Dream announces that they’re on section three now, and to state three true “we” statements. Dream goes first.

“We… are cuddling?”

“Obviously, idiot.” George chuckles. “We are really tired?” Dream hums.

“We meant everything we’ve said tonight.”

“We are going to mean everything we say tonight.”

“You can’t just steal my answer.”

“Just do your third one.”

“We will be ‘Dream and George’ forever.”

Forever is a long, long time. And yet, Dream’s statement is still true.

“We don’t know what is going to happen tomorrow.”

There’s a beat of silence.

“Very vague.”

“Next question, Dream.”

“Alright, alright. Complete this sentence: ‘I wish I had someone whom I could share…’”

Without a second thought, George replies, “My emotions with. Your turn.”

George swears he felt Dream squeeze him.

“My everything with. Every single little thing. Physical, metaphorical, emotional.”

“Even Patches?”

A laugh.

“Yes. Even Patches.”

“Next question.”

“Tell your partner what you like about them and be very honest.”

“Your voice. It’s like… I don’t even know how to describe it.”

“Does it get you going, George?”

“Shut up. I definitely don’t like your smart-assery.” George can feel Dream lean down into George’s shoulder and smile. “I like how you act around people. It’s always different depending on the person. Different with me.”

“I like how you act around people too. You’re almost always bubbly, even though you like to say you aren’t. And, God, your laugh. It’s so overwhelming, but in the best way possible. You have no idea how many times I’ve said the stupidest shit just to hear your little laugh.” George digs his head deeper into Dream’s shoulder. “I also… really like it when you say my name. My real name.”

George raises slightly, gaining the tiniest bit of confidence. “Clay?”

“Yeah. Yeah, that.”

“Clay,” George whispers.

“George.” Dream sounds weak. So, very weak. George gets closer to his ear.

“Clay.”

George can’t tell if he’s joking.

“You’re gonna kill me, George.”

George’s lips brush against the outer of Dream’s ear, and his friend shivers. He decides this isn’t a joke anymore. He thinks the invisible line they had drawn in the sand many years ago has been kicked and stomped on to the point where neither of them remembers the line being there. George goes further.

“Clay, Clay, Clay,” George is still whispering, slowly brushing his lips across Dream’s jaw, and the hands around his waist get the littlest bit tighter.

George finally raises his head to meet Dream, who was a mess. His cheeks are glowing and his eyes are almost bloodshot. His breath is labored and his hands are shaky.

“Calm down, love.” George whispers and raises his right hand to meet Dream’s cheek, who leans into the touch.

“Kiss me.” Dream begs quietly, as if saying anything louder would shatter the moment in little pieces.

An adrenaline rush fills George’s veins. “Anything you want,” he says, and closes the gap.

The kiss is soft. Dream is maneuvering their bodies to be more comfortable, meaning George is pulled on top of Dream. Their lips didn’t part once.

They move together in harmony, both in the kiss and their bodies, putting everything they got into it. It was unsaid feelings and years and years of thoughts, and George felt every single one of them. George is straddling Dream’s middle and Dream is leaning up to meet George’s touch. His hands are rubbing up and down and squeezing George’s hips and George’s hands find their way into Dream’s hair. It’s perfect and imperfect and everything George has been waiting for, yearning for.

They part, and Dream pushes their foreheads together. George assumes they look dumb, but how could he care in this moment?

“Beautiful. You’re beautiful.” Dream says, his breath tickling George’s mouth. He lets out a breath and breaks out into a smile. His hands start brushing through Dream’s hair and George backs away to get a good look. Dream is staring back.

George lunges forward and wraps his arms around Dream’s neck, sending him flat on the bed with an “oof”.

“Jesus Christ, George. A warning would be nice.”

“I love you. I-love-you-I-love-you-I-love-you-I-love-you-I-love-you-I-love-you-” George couldn’t get enough of saying it. George’s dam cracked when Dream held him and fucking exploded when they kissed. He doesn’t have to hold back anymore, so he doesn’t.

“Slow down, baby.” Dream says through a chuckle. He makes George lean up with tans hands on pale cheeks and a lot of eye contact. “I love you, too.”

George’s breathing slows down to a normal, less-adrenaline-filled pace, and Dream kisses him again. George forces his head back up.

“What does this mean for us?”

“Isn’t it a little obvious?”

“Not really.”

“Boyfriends, George. We’re dating now.”

“How do you know I wanted to even be your boyfriend.” George narrows his eyebrows in faux-suspicion.

Dream’s stare is blank. “I mean. You’re- well- you know, um-”

George dismisses this shortly and confirms, “I want to be your boyfriend.”

Dream sighs in relief. “You’re such an idiot.”

“Yeah. Whatever.” George slides off Dream’s waist and lays facing him. Dream turns as well. “Was that question the last question?”

“No, actually. There were a few left.” Dream blinks, then muses, “Guess we didn’t need 36 questions after all.”

“That was the cheesiest thing you’ve ever said and I hate you for it.”

“You wound me, George. You wound me.”

George makes up for it by letting himself be engulfed in Dream’s embrace, and feels tiny kisses on the top of his head. George nuzzles closer.

Yeah, everything was going to be fine.

[narrators-journal]

Step two

Sorry for the vanishing! I was out with friends for a two days. Because of this, this particular part is a little less edited because I’m exhausted, but! I will post!

Previous part: here

First part: here

Good progress was made in a rather short time after that first night, Illumi felt, but he still had a pretty big issue when it came to more personal matters. Mainly, it was the fact that he struggled to adjust to the life of an impoverished man. He couldn't cook at all, he had no idea how to do laundry, and sleeping in his relatively cheap bed was awful for a conductive rest. That wasn't even touching the fact that being alone without a butler or maid truly revealed  how messy he was, his clothes scattered around or piled up to await washing he couldn't provide, snack wrappers here and there, the trash verging into overflowing territory before he bothered to take it out, which wouldn't have been so bad if his goal was not to consequentially get you into his bed, and according to his mother, women weren't keen on sleeping in a dirty bed no matter the charm of the man. However, that matter was for later, on a more cheerful note, he felt he was making relatively good progress with you. Such good progress, in fact, that he had landed a date to a restaurant with you already.

The restaurant was a bit cheap, small, with a very unrefined sort of aesthetic through out, but you had said you enjoyed it, and it was an opportunity to see you dressed up a bit for him. Maybe this is why Father takes Mother out on her demanded dates. he mused while he sat outside in the cool evening air of (f/r) waiting for you in the best 'poor' clothes he had in his closet. He continued to think about his situation until he heard you snort, making him whip his head towards you, eyes beginning to narrow,        "Illumi?" you said with a bit of amusement "um, you look very nice, but this isn't the type of place that deserves that type of outfit." you pointed out, gesturing to the dress pants and button up shirt with a tie. In contrast, you had on a rather nice dress, maybe with some leggings, appreciated by the assassin if so, that wasn't super flashy, making Illumi stand out among the other casually dressed customer.        "oh. This is the only sort of nice clothes I have." he explained, and he didn't know how to feel about your giggle in response just yet.        "Maybe after our...d-date," you turned an adorable shade of pink when you admitted what this outing was, "you can look into buying some less proper clothes." you suggested, and even he had to admit it came off a bit more suggestive or rude than you most likely meant. "S-sorry, that sounded weird." you muttered, your face staying a slightly darker pink this time as you turned your eyes to the sidewalk. Illumi simply smiled,        "It's fine, (y/n), let's just go eat." he suggested, and you were quick to agree, letting him lead you into the restaurant.   The date was going well in Illumi's mind, though he could about feel the tension rolling off of you in the silence. I guess on a date it's a bit weird to simply sit  there in silence. he mused, than remembered his intention with this date, so he began asking you questions about yourself. Admittedly, he was a bit stiff about it, but you seemed to relax little by little as the two of you spoke. It seemed that his slightly off and awkwardly blunt nature worked in his favor as well, since you were soon giggling and smiling at Illumi's 'obliviousness' when his words could come off as different and sometimes more inappropriate than he meant, and the ebony haired assassin decided he enjoyed your laugh, slipping in a few double entendre here and there on purpose to fluster you and make you giggle more. Your laugh was quite pleasing to hear, which was good because he needed a wife who wouldn't be super annoying, wouldn't be demanding of him, and wouldn't require going out of the Zoldyck estate a lot. From how you were so reclusive, he trusted that you'd not want to head into town a lot or down the mountain. She'll most likely hide herself away a lot too, making the biggest obstacle intercourse, but if push comes to shove I can tie her down. He thought while the two of you ate, but then he realized something, Wait, if she's so reclusive because of sexual trauma, tying her down and taking her by force could push her over the edge. I'll need to figure out if her habits are innocent , or trauma related. From there I can plan accordingly. He decided, looking at you with his dark eyes as you ate, attempting to read your body language for hints, but than you spoke out of the blue,          "Um, Illumi? Are...you alright?" Your voice was tinged with caution and...discomfort, maybe it was some sort of physical trauma that made you so shut off from the world? He'd have to think on that idea,          "Hm? Oh, yes, I'm fine. I was simply admiring your pretty face," he said, grinning at the wave of red that overtook your body in response. You were deliciously easy to fluster. Wooing her must be a simple task, he thought to himself while you cleared your throat,          "Um...could I ask you a question?" Your voice was meek, uncertain, making the assassin's heart squeeze with excitement while he nodded, "uh, sorry if this is rude, but why are your eyes like that?" The question was a bit out of the blue, and his silence seemed to convey that seeing how you instantly tried to backpedal,          "How are my eyes odd?" he asked, not letting you change the subject,                "I dunno, they just seem...kinda dead." you pointed out, and he nodded,            "Ah, I can see why that may seem weird, but I don't have a reason for why my eyes seem...dead, they've been like this my whole life," he explained, making sure to add a casual, not-offended lilt to his voice to hopefully quell your remorseful, anxious aura. You nodded,        "I-I still think they are very pretty eyes, uh, very hypnotic almost...kinda..." you fumbled before a short, tense silence seemed to fall between the two of you while Illumi slowly blinked and hummed, watching you with his dark, owlish eyes. Finally, you changed the subject awkwardly. Your social ineptitude was so alluring to him, and so fun to aggravate like some sort of wound. Once the food was gone, he picked back up on the conversation, continuing to learn about you and flirt until it was time to pay and take you home. As the two of you walked down the street though, he decided to ask,           "(y/n), would it be rude to ask why you don't seem to go outside a lot?" He did his best to phrase it gently, just in case it was a trauma response, listening to your explanation. If it was something to do with a dark part of your past, no matter for the assassin, he simply decided to end whoever hurt you or their loved ones, but if it was little more than you being an introverted, naturally skittish woman, he was ecstatic. If you were just not very social on your own, he had fewer things to avoid in terms of successfully wooing you, which was such a relief to him, plus, he could easily work on your social awkwardness, so that in itself wasn't even an issue. When the two of you reached your home, he kissed your cheek,           "I hope you enjoyed your night," he hummed, doing his best to ensure he had his charm lacing each word, which came off as slightly suggestive but he was fine with that.           "I did, so, um, maybe some other time...we could do this again?" you offered, attempting to match the flirtatious tone he had, making the assassin smile slightly despite the awkwardness of your attempt.           "I'd enjoy that. It gives me a reason not to try cooking for myself," he pointed out, making you laugh slightly,           "Glad I could be of help tonight than." With that, he took the chance and leaned down and kissed you pretty quickly, watching your (e/c) eyes widen for a moment before you became a flustered mess for the umpteenth time that night. You swiftly said good night and scurried into your home, leaving the tall man outside in the cool spring night. He stood there for a moment, debating whether or not he should sneak into your home again, but deciding not to. He instead headed back to his house and contemplated what to do for the next date.

[fbfh]

light up the dark [V] - leo x reader

genre: romance + action + enemies to lovers kinda

word count: 2.4k

au: none

pairing: Leo x gothy!child of eros!fem reader

requested: yes teehee

warnings: spoilers for HOO but like what’s new, at least one fuck, mentions of breakfast foods and burger king, one “cranberry fucknut”, brief visit to a historical memorial site, I think that’s it????

summary: you have a very weird dream that leads you to realize you’re actually on some kind of quest! very fun! you, Leo, and Jason follow a lead, find out Chiron’s sending you guys some backup, and realize you’re going to need a very large airbnb

listen to: making mirrors - gotye aka the best dream sequence music

                also we’re the rats. it’s not relevant just living in my brain.

a/n: honest to god it tookme so long to write this i forget what happens in the first half rip

also requests r open uwu

Your dream is unnerving, and not just because you had spent years in a dreamless sleep and forgot what dreaming was like. Okay, partially because of that, but also because of the atmosphere. 

You’re standing in a dark room. It’s pitch black, but you can make out the shape of the room, which is unusual to say the least. It’s long and rectangular, and the ceiling has cylindrical indents, almost as if giant logs were supposed to fit there. The indents go across the short side, with another in front of it, like a rope bridge across a river. Giant curved metallic discs like flat mushrooms are embedded in the ground at regular intervals. 

You get the feeling something’s missing. You stare up at the ceiling trying to get more information, when something hot and glowing presses against the roof. It shines through, casting everything in a strange pink light. You can’t see it, but you know what it is. A translucent sundial that gave off a glowing orange cast.

Sunstone. 

You look back down not wanting to hurt your eyes, and they fall on someone else in the room. He hadn’t been there a second ago. He’s blonde, and looking up at the ceiling, seemingly unbothered by the blinding light. 

“He has it,” he says, wistfully, almost regretfully. 

"Who?" You question. 

"I can't pronounce his name, no one can."

"How can we get it back if we can't find him?" He smiles, liking how you know what he needs you to do before he even tells you. 

"I can't tell you his name, but he's very old… some may even say archaic…" He looks at you with intention, searching for a spark of understanding. He doesn’t find what he’s looking for, and continues, “and not far from here. Which is good, since I need you to get it back for me.” 

“How do we find it?” He tosses you a small, clear container filled with what looks like yellow slime. You look at him, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. 

“It’s a drop of sunshine,” he explains, “don’t touch it or you’ll burn up. It’ll glow when you get closer to what you’re looking for.” You tuck it in your jacket pocket.

“Can-”

Before you can get out the rest of the sentence, you feel like you’re being pulled out of deep water. Your eyes shoot open, and you take in a quick breath through your nose. You open and close your eyes a few times, and push yourself into a sitting position. There’s a weight on your stomach and you trace the hand back to Jason, who had gently nudged you awake moments ago. His mouth is open and there’s a stale smile, like he was about to tell you to rise and shine. Your stare is unwavering, and he retracts his hand. 

“Uh… breakfast is ready,” he says, turning back and heading over to the couch. 

“Kay,” you mutter, still groggy and disoriented. Maybe sleep just isn’t for you. Jason hesitates about half way across the room, noticing the lack of cat-like vengefulness in your tone of voice.

“...You okay?” he asks softly. 

“Fine, just a weird dream,” you roll your shoulders, back sore and stiff, to try and loosen the two stubborn knots just below your shoulder blades. His eyebrows furrow at your words and you continue, “I’m starting to think I should add a little chloroform to my sleepy time tea.” 

“What happened?” he asks, sounding way more serious than you’d expected.

“I dunno, I-” he cut you off, calling for Leo. Jason encourages you to tell them what you’d dreamed about as in depth as possible once Leo comes in from the sitting area, so you don’t have time to gauge how he seems after last night. You feel a little silly trying to describe a surreal dream to them, especially since they seem to be paying such rapt attention. After recalling as many details as you could, they sat in silence for a minute. They share a look, then sigh in unison. Jason pushes up his glasses and squeezes the bride of his nose as Leo lets out a soft ‘fuck’. 

“I’ll go iris message Chiron, Leo, do you want to get some food and offerings to burn?” Jason says. Leo agrees, and Jason’s already in the sitting area, misting water in the air with a squirt bottle. Leo puts a hand on your shoulder.

“Why don’t you get dressed, I already made some coffee,” he says, the spike of hesitance that shot through his stomach at his instigated physical contact dissolving when you nod sleepily. An unusually warm feeling clouds through you, less distant and detached than normal. You realize while digging through your bag that for whatever reason, you didn’t hate the feeling of Leo’s hand on your shoulder. You grab your clothes from your bag, and feel a weight in your jacket. You reach into the pocket, and pull out the “slime” from your dream. It glows briefly, fading as you walk towards the bathroom. Huh, you think, at least now we know what to look for. You’re grateful for the example as you get dressed and freshen up, wondering what the hell happens next. 

Burning the food doesn’t take long. Leo throws the extra breakfast they’d ordered onto the metal table on the patio, except for a piece of toast he held in his hands. He summons fire until the toast is engulfed in flames, and drops it with the rest. He fans the smoke and asks for guidance, protection, typical pre quest stuff. After a minute or two, he pours out a pitcher of water to extinguish the flames, and heads back into the sitting area with Jason. On his way, he watches you through the open bathroom door for a second as you put on your makeup. You sure are different from girls he’d liked in the past. A strong twinge of pain from the previous night makes him flinch. He shoves it away, and takes a seat, greeting Chiron through iris message. Jason had just finished filling him in on the dream and the sundial, and he looks worried.

“I was afraid this might be the case. I'd gotten word that something like this might have happened, but I hoped it was just hearsay… I'm sorry boys, but you're most definitely on a mission from the gods. The story behind that sundial is long and complicated; in summary, if Apollo does not have his sundial by june, summer cannot happen."

"Wh- like, time will stop?" Leo says. 

"Will it just skip to autumn?" Jason adds. 

"What about Persephone?"

"Can Demeter do anything?" 

Chiron holds up his hands to quiet them. 

"I wish I could say, but no one really knows what will happen, only that we do not wish to find out."

"So, what do we do?" Jason asks. 

"Who can I send?" Chiron says to himself, "Dear gods, this is… unfortunate."

"Chiron," Jason says again, getting his attention. 

"Right, I'm sorry my boy, this whole situation is… preoccupying." Jason agrees, and asks what they should do next. 

"Get as much information as you can from what Apollo has told you. I'll gather some people to send over at once, they'll be on their way shortly. This is most distressing…" he trails off, lost in thought again, and the iris message cuts out. Jason's stomach is in knots. 

After freshening up, you get dressed, having chosen your clothes deliberately before. If shit’s about to hit the fan, which it looks like it is, you’re going to need a strong balance of comfortable and kick ass. Plus, it’s still the cold part of spring, and New England weather is no joke. 

You assess yourself in the mirror, satisfied with your choice; half black half gray cargo pants with chain belts, a long sleeved fishnet top with a black crop top over it, and one of your favorite pairs of platform boots. You topped it off with a layered choker studded with black jewels and delicate chains, asymmetrical earrings - one attached to an ear cuff, the other dangling - and a ring that looks like a snake wrapped around your finger. Last but not least, a dark olive green bomber jacket with ‘god save the queen’ written on the back in paint. 

Your mind wanders as you lean closer to the mirror, laser focused on perfecting your eyeliner. The memory of Leo’s hand on your shoulder creeps back up, and your brow furrows at the panicked flush to your cheeks, wondering why you didn’t push him off. 

‘Some cranberry fucknut broke his heart last night, I didn’t want him to feel worse’, you think deliberately, refusing room for any objections or alternative solutions your brain keeps offering up. You finish your makeup relatively quickly, pleased at how much better it looks when you don’t sleep in it for years. Your hair is… hanging in there, but you can’t drop everything and redye it now. At least you know what color you want next - a nice, coral tinted red. You’ll have to keep an eye out the next time you go shopping. 

Finally, you’re ready. You put away your makeup and pajamas, and make your way over to the boys. You grab some coffee and pick at a muffin, the strategy session beginning. 

Jason takes a sip of his own coffee, scowling at the slightly burnt taste.

“Where should we start looking? Do we have any decent leads?”

You sip your coffee, your face mirroring Jason’s moments before.

“The guy from my dream-”

“Apollo,” Jason interjects.

“Right,” you continue, “he said whoever has what we’re looking for has a really hard to pronounce name or something. Maybe we can start there.”

After some back and forth, and consulting of travel guides, you find a memorial for some historical figure with a name that definitely would have gotten him bullied. 

“Wasn’t that guy a demigod?” Leo asks, and Jason confirms. You’re already checking the maps scattered around for a route.

“It looks like it’s pretty much just further west from where we are, we can probably get there pretty easily,” you remark. Jason and Leo look at you, then each other. No one has any better ideas, and at least it’s some kind of lead. 

~

Four and a half hours later, you sat in the car in stumped silence. It took almost three hours to get up to the memorial site, an hour to look around and realize there is absolutely nothing there that can help you at all, ten minutes to debate what to do next, and twenty minutes to get burger king, since no one had eaten since breakfast. 

“Well, that sucked.” 

Leo and Jason give you a look, knowing you’re right.

“Yeah, it did.” Jason agrees matter of factly, earning a small chuckle from you and Leo. 

“So what do we do now?” Leo asks. 

“Well, no one’s around, we could probably iris message Chiron-” before he could finish his sentence, a shimmery image of a tan girl with choppy dark hair appears in front of him. 

Jason and the girl - Piper, apparently - greet each other enthusiastically, then Leo follows suit. It looks like she’s in a cab, holding something at arm's length. You make it out to be a phone, probably to trick her cab driver into thinking she’s on a facetime call or something. Two other people lean over, one blonde and smiling, the other dark haired and irritable, and more greetings are exchanged. You lean slightly to the side so you’ll be out of site and hopefully won’t have to make any introductions. Leo seems to catch onto this, and when Piper’s eyes land on the edge of your shoulder.

“So did Chiron send anyone else?” he asks before she can say anything. 

“Yeah,” she replies, “Frank and Hazel are coming from camp Jupiter; Frank’s flying, and Hazel’s getting a ride from Arion,” Leo and Jason nod in understanding, picking up instantly on her deliberate word choice. Christ, you’re going to have to get a bigger place than that hotel room.  

“Uh… Percy and Annabeth just started spring break, so they’ll be coming soon. Hazel should get there first, for…” she glances at the cab driver, “obvious reasons, and me, Nico, and Will are on our way now, we should be there in a few hours.” 

Your skin is already feeling prickly from the idea of being around that many people. They talk for a few more minutes, and Jason says he’ll tell them the specific address as soon as possible before ending the call.

Thankfully, you all had repacked the car with your bags from the hotel room before you left, just in case you needed anything, so there’s no need to make the two and a half hour trip back to the hotel. You sigh and turn to the boys.

“Why don’t we go get some groceries and stuff, and I can get us an air bnb.” 

They agree, pleasantly surprised and grateful for the normalcy of something like grocery shopping,  and you ask how many people there are going to be.

“Uh, should be te-”

“Eleven.” Leo says firmly. Jason looks like he’s going to say something, but he bites back whatever it is. Leo’s hands normally dance around like swirling snow, light and natural with subtle patterns if you can figure them out. But right now, his normal subconscious movements seem to be heavier, more intentional. His relaxed expression is set in stone, a silent plea to move on, act like everything’s normal, and you know he’s covering up the depth of the wound that girl left on his heart. A twinge of concern flares in your gut, and you blink, looking away. 

“Okay,” you say, pulling out a pen and notepad from your bag to write out a grocery list, “Let’s go. What do we need?”

Jason pulls out of the parking lot, and begins to head to the nearest box store. Your eyes dart over to Leo involuntarily a few times, and by the time you’re almost there, he seems to be almost back to himself. Subconsciously relieved, your mind starts to wander back to the list, skimming it one more time to make sure you don’t forget anything. 

Maybe you can pick up some hair dye while you’re here.

[cozymochi]

I already know this, but it’s worth asking-

What are elements of the soft retcon you love and what elements do you still prefer from the original continuity?

AFTER OUR BINGE, I noticed a lot of things.

but im too scared to blast this to the masses cuz it involves some tinfoil hats on my part so 😭 It’s kind of long and dumb.

The soft retcon stuff I like is definitely the design overhaul. I dunno. I really like the more saturated and bright look. Both for the aesthetics and the characters. Though I’ve seen people rly hate that. …Not my problem though!

A BIG THING I LIKE: I think I like the soft-retcon Membrane family waaaay better.

After watching the main series’ I kinda noticed how much harder it was to root for Dib, or how kiiinda flat the other members of the family were. Don’t get it twisted, I liked ‘em fine as they were. They just didn’t really do anything for me. It’s definitely evident that JV and co didn’t quite pin down what they wanted for them yet. (This kinda thing is pretty normal for anyone I think, sometimes ur characters are just gonna be wips for a while, and IZ was cut off really fast)

The overhauls in the soft retcon (primarily in ETF) such as making Dib’s general motivation more personally driven, or making the family dynamic a little better (and cooler in some cases) I think makes them all a bit more palatable as characters? I dunno. Lol. I just like seeing more positive things. (I don’t view this as in-universe “character development” tho that’s kinda weird imo, sometimes it really just is easier to say that somebody just changed their mind). The Membranes in ETF definitely feel like a fleshed-out culmination of stuff that was getting rolling in the comics.

Even if the gainax ending in ETF punches me in the face.

(And believe me i got a myriad of issues with the comics, but those guys aren’t really one of them) 

The stuff I prefer in the original continuity though is pretty much everything and anything having to do with the Irkens and other aliens.

BECAUSE THAT STUFF WAS PRETTY GREAT and I think it got shafted pretty badly in the comics and ETF. I can see why though. I read some JV interview from 2015 (I think on IGN? Idfk. I should’n’t have been on incognito), around the time the IZ comics were getting started. Long story short, he wanted to use the comics as a means to address all the problems he had with the Membranes in the og series and kinda… revise them. Which, gr8 yay, they needed it imo

As for Zim? He said Zim wouldn’t change.

Call it my tinfoil hat moment, but I think that that mindset was exactly the issue… Zim and co. were VERY defined and fleshed out by the og series end (as wack as some later eps were gonna be), but I think just leaving them to the wayside like that as characters that don’t need change (i.e. that much attention) is exactly why Zim, The Tallest, and much of the other space-centric stuff kinda got warped and flanderized. Or, hell, not referenced altogether. Zim got dumber, the Tallest got dumber, and a lot of the other space things specifically involving ID2 kinda… phased out.

Sometimes what you remember a character being like, wasn’t what they were like at all. And if u don’t reaaally work with them, ur gonna exaggerate or even forget whole things. The Membranes were worked on with the intent of fleshing them out and reworking them to what we end up seeing in ETF.

Zim? He wasn’t. He was just considered fine as he was, and while I agree with that on principle, in the comics execution he doesn’t quite feel the same. He feels more like… maybe a caricature is too harsh? But. Definitely weird. I’m just not nearly as invested. :( (There are a couple exceptions, but. Meh)

But I should also mention in that same interview the point of the comics wasn’t really for lore or continuing setups from season 2, but just random anthologies and a sandbox to fix up some characters *cough* the membranes. Unfortunately, that didn’t include the titular one. Meh. What can ya do.

SO YEAH. ORIGINAL CONTINUITY ZIM AND CO? Yes. They WERE more fleshed out and defined. But plz, that doesn’t mean nothing else can be done with them! ya gotta actually work with them! Character expansion happens naturally. …Eh. What would I know? I don’t have a dang series.

This is kind of an aside: But I really don’t like the idea of trying to make the soft retcon retroactively fit into the old continuity yet have both things play out in the exact same way. Sometimes it makes sense, other times it just makes something get framed a whole a lot worse unintentionally by trying to deem it as “unseen character development.” Trying to tie everything together under a single path is kinda dumb imo. There’s no way to do that without making something a lot more FUCKEDDDD. Or way more complicated. IZ was workshopped waaay too much in it’s run to do that jfhfhchv

And, personally, I don’t really like making things more complicated tbh. Sometimes— as dumb as this sounds— not looking into stuff is much easier to swallow than trying to make everything work as a single unit.

All a soft retcon is is just: “things pretty much are setup the same they just played out a bit differently.” You may as well call ETF a soft retcon of Zim Issue #1 /s There’s just no way, man. God forbid this go into anime territory with “HERE IS A DIFFERENT TIMELINE” OH GOD NO!!

It’s ok guys really. Sometimes… things just be like that aight…

and that’s why at the end of the day we hand-wave it by not getting too deep, or pick and choose what we like and head out :DD

and let’s be real despite what i praise i don’t enjoy everything from the soft retcon, if my zim rant wasn’t enough. Like how i don’t enjoy everything from the comics or OG series. And despite my wording I actually don’t take all of this that personally.

…But it’d sure be nice if i could have all the good stuff from all of it mushed together. Gimme the alien lore from the og series, gimme the membranes and earth from ETF, and—

…

well idk wtf i’d take from the comics lmaooo maybe the Gaz plots.

[yanderecandystore]

man, aven cute and all, but albedo is a trash guy and im a trash person, so now i want to request Al being more of a yan, desperate to make his human darling see he is a good guy for them, just to see they be like "hey since we're good friends, can you gimme tips on how to court this guy? i mean he's not a fae, but you're a guy too so"

dunno, just wanna see him act lovesickly a bit, you can make this behavior known by y/n or not - 🇧🇷

Hey boo, how are you? Sorry for making you wait-

TW/Tags: Human M!Reader x M!Fae // also- How dare you?? You're not trash boo >:( You're awesome :D // in case anyone doesn't know what this post is about [🧚💐🍄] // we'll start with soft, and then go straight to hell :3 // being lost in the woods

🍭꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍮꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍰꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍮꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖🍭

Red! [Yandere!M!Fae OC x M!Reader - Headcanon]:

I'll start this by saying this is fairly similar to this post [😠🧚🥺]- Basically:

You were seeking different ingredients inside the forest when you got approached by Albedo who acted like a really big jerk the first days you went there, but after a while he started warming up to you.

You two were fairly different, he was the tall elegant bully while you were- Well, you! A human who just wanted to get his special flowers and go back to his home, yet managed to make a friend along the way! That's a plus.

He was kinda mean from time to time, but you learned to interpret it as he weird way of saying he loved you- What can you say? You made a strange friend, [y/n].

Albedo had tried so hard to act like didn't like you or humans at all, that he started acting more douchey than ever- Which would make you start distancing yourself from him, which would in turn make him beg you to forgive him for crossing the line.

Sometimes you take advantage of this and makes him admit that he is a dumb bully- Is a really small punishment for someone with such vile mouth, yet even as pathetic as this sound- He kinda likes it whenever you smile and laugh at him, not because you find him stupid (well, not THAT stupid-) but because you find him somewhat funny, or cute maybe.

I mean- It's not like he hopes you find him cute! H-He is a big man that doesn't need your validation at all, alright?

You do find him cute, mostly because of his unusual behavior, especially about how over the top he can be. You really like spending time with him, even if your search for certain ingredients ends up being unfruitful. It's just nice messing around with him, you don't know why.

Al however, knows exactly why he likes hanging out with you, although he would prefer to never really say it- It's so weird having a crush on not only a human, but on a person in general! He wasn't accustomed with this, not at all!

It is terrifying! It's a new experience to him yet he feels somewhat familiar with this feeling, not that he has ever really gone through these emotions- But it oddly feels like has already witnessed them before.

It doesn't matter anymore though, he is just- Happy, happy you're here with him! That's all that it really matters.

He does tries his moves occasionally, like trying to get you to tell him what you see in a guy- Asking for a "friend", saying he was just curious or just keeping it a secret from you, although let's be honest, those advances were kinda straight forward, not because of courage but because of awkwardness- Especially when you noticed him trying to act differently each you time you said something to him, you caught on his act earlier and decided to confirm your suspicions by saying really specific actions, and whatever the hell you invented would be foolishly replicated the next day, Al tried so hard to impress you by copying what you told him to be "the thing/action you found more attractive in a guy". It was the most embarrassing thing you ever witnessed, yet somehow really cute.

You kinda liked Albedo, but- Should you really accept the feelings of a fae? Al can be a bully sometimes but when it comes to you, you know he doesn't mean it.

But that's not really the issue, the biggest issue would be dating a fae while you're a human- That feels your mind with a lot of questions, and you don't even know how to achieve those answers! Should you ask Al? Would it be too forward? He hasn't really told you he likes you, he has just- Well, acted like he does! It could scare him off if you did ask him about it.

But then again, holding the truth from him for too long wouldn't make it any better, especially after realizing that you did kinda take advantage of his crush on you- Although what you did was without any intention of harm and was done mostly as a both sided joke, it doesn't take away the fact you should feel guilty for never addressing this with him.

You're a pretty naughty human for someone he considers to be made out of pure gold, and you know that, right?

Eventually, you would have to tell him that you know about his feelings- But will you be able to reciprocate them? You like him, you really do, but is a love between you and him possible? Old Albedo would have said no, new Albedo would scream on top of his lungs that yes, of course it is-

You tell him, he is just panicking just as you thought he would- Defending himself at all costs, accusing you of liking him, despite the facts proving the contrary. He will try to act like he doesn't until he has to face the facts and say the truth.

Yeah you caught him, what about now? He does act like he is ready to be rejected, but to be honest?? He isn't at all, he is so unprepared that he thinks it's impossible for you to reject him- Up until this point you have proven that you liked him, you have indulged in this situation just as much as him- Oh please, he may be a lot of things but dense is not one of them- It was obvious that you were pinning for him as well, it would be ridiculous for you to just decide to stop right now-

Please don't do this. Don't do this to him.

And that's how your first fight with Albedo began. You two started talking about it and telling the truth to one another, and you denied his confession- Well, not really- You said you needed time to think, that you were still confused about this, again- You really like Al, but do you, well, love him?

You didn't know, that's why you said you needed more time- To which he responded for the first time ever with nothing more than pure distraught in his voice- How could you…?

"That's a lie, that's a lie and you know it!" It's what he kept telling you, not raising his voice, not raising his body language- Not attacking you, just feeling… Lied to, used by you, in a way.

In his head, you were just as interested in this relationship as he is- As he was. He feels so betrayed yet, somehow he can't bring himself to feel angry or overly sad about it.

Albedo would still say you're only denying your own feelings and playing with his own. He doesn't believe you could be stupid enough to say something like that, but it's alright.

It's not like it matters really, right? You would have to eventually come to terms with the fact you love him- And that without him you won't be able to leave this forest safely.

Be glad you never gave your name to him, you're stuck in the woods with a possessive creature but at least you're not his prisoner- Yet.

🍭꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍮꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍰꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍮꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖🍭

[thosestarsthatshine]

Dogfight

Atsumu x Reader

The rules were simple: find a date and win some money. Who knew that one small encounter could change Atsumu’s life forever.

masterlist

Chapter Two - Come to a Party

It’s been hours, and Atsumu’s been having the worst luck. He’s been all around Tokyo - to the library, the park, the karaoke bars -  and yet despite it all he still hasn’t found a date. It feels like the universe is conspiring against him. Every girl that he’s approached as either seen right through his tactics, or just has flat out ignored him. He was beginning to grow desperate. Time was running down and he needed to find someone to bring. The competitive side in him was growing irritated at admitting any sort of defeat. 

Also the blow to his ego from all the rejection isn’t helping either.

He’s not backing down though. Atsumu spies a small cafe, aptly named Rose’s, up ahead and decides to take a quick break before continuing to search. 

Stepping through the door, Atsumu notices that although it’s only 8, the cafe is not that busy. The tiny cafe doesn’t look like it could fit a ton of people, and the people who are there are few and far between. He heads up to the counter and is greeted by the sight of woman, who looks to be about middle age, behind the counter.  She greets him as he approaches, “What can I get you?” 

Atsumu looks at her name tag, it says Rose - she must be the owner, and attempts to give her his best flirtatious smile, “I’ll take your finest cup of coffee please.”

Rose seems unamused as she answers, “Coming right up.” Atsumu, once again defeated pays and finds a seat at a table in the corner. 

As he sits, he looks around the small cafe, he spots a waitress clumsily coming out from behind the counter. She makes small talk with Rose, who points to his table as she hands the waitress his cup of coffee. He hadn’t known that she was back there to begin with, or that she was in the cafe at all. She seems shy, a bit awkward, not super comfortable in her own skin, and to be honest she’s very plain. Not really Atsumu’s type but she seems like the perfect person to take to the dogfight. She makes her way over to his table with his coffee, and Atsumu sees this as his last ditch effort to try and find someone, anyone to take. Atsumu knows that he has to try really hard to get her to find him appealing enough to agree to come with him. 

She arrives at the table to set down his coffee, avoiding his gaze completely, quietly speaking, “Here’s the coffee you ordered.”

“Thanks. Say, I’m feeling kind of hungry. Anything that ya’d recommend from the menu.” Atsumu gives her a genuine smile as he holds the menu he found on the table, in his hands. It seems that no customer in this cafe must pay her any real attention because she seems shocked that he’s speaking to her. 

She fumbles with her fingers as she nervously speaks up, “Um, well I personally think that our muffins are the best, but I might be a bit biased since I helped make them this morning.” 

Atsumu sees this as an in, “So you’re a baker huh, do you make all of the pastries here?”

She quickly nods

“What’s your favorite ones to make?”

Atsumu can see that she still seems wary of him yet somehow beginning to open up to him, “I prefer chocolate chip, they’re just classic.” 

“I’m a bit of a banana nut muffin man myself, but I’ll have to take your word for it. Anything else ya’d recommend?”

Before she can respond, Rose comes over to the table. “Hate to interrupt but Y/N I need some help. Gotta get ready for the morning.” 

Y/N faces Rose and apologizes “Sorry mama” then turns to Atsumu, “Sorry, I - I guess I gotta get back to work.” Y/N moves away from the table and back over to the counter. Before Atsumu can say anything Rose speaks to him as if sensing his intentions with her daughter aren’t all that wholesome, “Better finish that cup, we’re closing soon.”  She leaves through a door in the back of the cafe that leads to a set of stairs, there is a sign over the door that says “EMPLOYEES ONLY”. Atsumu waits a bit before heading to the counter to speak with Y/N again. 

“Hey, I apologize if I got ya in trouble. It was never my intention.” Atsumu tries to sound as sincere as possible. 

Y/N gives him a shy smile, “It’s okay, Mama just gets a tad bit grumpier at closing time.” 

Atsumu gives a small laugh, “I get it, my Ma’s the same way when it’s getting late and my twin brother and I are still outside practicing our volleyball plays.”

Y/N seems curious, “You have a twin brother, I’ve always wanted a sibling. I bet it’s fun getting to play volleyball with him?”

“It can be, he’s a bit of a scrub sometimes.” He mumbles, to which Y/N laughs, a genuine one full of innocence. He continues, “We’re pretty good actually. Made it to Nationals the past three years.” Atsumu beams with pride as he says that. 

“Hey, I just realized something, I never introduced myself. The name’s Atsumu Miya.” He sticks his hand out as if he wants her to shake it, she does, letting out a small giggle. “I’m Y/N L/N.” Their hands shake for a few moments as they smile at each other. Atsumu decides that now is as good a time as any to try and get her to come, so he pretends to look at the clock behind Y/N. “Well, I better get going, gotta head to a party.”

“A party?”

“Yeah some friends of mine are throwing a little get together.” Atsumu suddenly pretends that he’s had this brilliant idea, “How’d ya like to come with me?”

Y/N is a bit shocked, she’s only just met Atsumu. She won’t deny that she thinks that he’s cute, but it seems a bit weird to go to a party with a man she’s just met.  “I would love to go but - I’m still on the clock and I have a lot of work to finish up.” 

“It’s okay Y/N ya don’t have to lie to me. I get that I’m an athlete and that sometimes we don’t have the best reps. People think we’re rude jerks. If you don’t wanna go ya can just say it, I understand.” 

“No, it’s not that - I don’t think you’re - its just - I mean, I just met you.” 

Atsumu begins to think on his feet. “Well, you know my name, you know that I have a twin brother, that I play volleyball. I’m an open book anything ya want to know, I’ll tell ya.”

Hearing this seems to make Y/N shy, Atsumu runs with this. “I’m not playing any games, I promise. Sure, I thought ya were pretty when I first saw ya, but I just want ya to get to know ya. I feel this connection between us, even if we did just meet. Kinda rare don’t ya think?”

Y/N seems skeptical. Atsumu continues though, “Come to this party with me, I promise to treat ya right. We can take this opportunity to get to know each other. Have some fun. I know this might sound weird but I just think that you seem real special. I promise if ya come there’ll be no funny business.” He makes an “X“ over his heart, signifying a promise and gives her his best smile.

“I dunno, Atsumu, you seem nice but like I said we just met, plus I have a ton of work to do to help close up.” 

“Why don’t I tell ya a little bit more about myself and you can decide if ya want to come or not. I was born in the Hyogo prefecture. I’ve played volleyball all my life. I’m actually here in Tokyo for a recruitment camp in the hopes I can get scouted to a team.”

“Wow, that must be exciting”

“It is, all my life I’ve wanted to play volleyball. I knew I was destined for it. It’s in my blood, I know it is. It’s the only real true calling I’ve ever had.”

Y/N seems touched by his words, gives a small smile, “I bet you’re really good then, to have made it to a recruitment camp.”

Atsumu smiles at her, a genuine one, “Thanks.”

Y/N is torn, she wants to go with Atsumu and get to know him, but she’s never done anything like this before. She feels a bit flustered. “Atsumu, I’d really like to go with you, but I gotta finish cleaning up.” She begins to resume cleaning up. 

Atsumu perks up at this, “What if I help ya out?” He’s getting desperate he can sense the hesitation in Y/N, it’s now or never at this point.”

“I don’t know that doesn’t seem like a good idea.”

Y/N’s words fall on silent ears as Atsumu begins to “help” clean up, although who knows if help is the right word for it. What little he achieves in helping clean up, he makes up for in charming Y/N. As they clean up together, they begin to talk more and get to know each other. Atsumu still asking her if she would like to come with, but Y/N is still hesitant. 

They finish up in record time, as Y/N sets a chair up on a table, but as she goes to turn around she trips over a box that Atsumu must have left on the floor in his “attempts” to help her clean. 

Before she can hit the ground, Atsumu races over to her and catches her in his arms. Mere inches apart, close enough to kiss, there is apparent electricity flowing between them. Maybe Atsumu was right earlier about a rare connection.  A moment passes between them only for them to immediately separate as they were abruptly interrupted by the arrival of Rose. He shakes away the thought from a moment ago. 

“Y/N, honey, you need to change the sign on the door, we’re closed.” She says the last part more to Atsumu than Y/N.  As quickly as she arrived, Rose turns back. 

Atsumu looks at the clock once again and sees that he only has 30 minutes before the party is supposed to start. He realizes that maybe he’ll just have to accept defeat. “Well I guess I gotta head out. I’m glad we met Y/N, you’re a sweet girl. Maybe we’ll meet again one day. Still, it’s a shame. I thought that maybe if ya came with me, well who knows. Maybe we coulda -“ He pauses for a moment, lingering on a thought hoping she’ll say she’s changed her mind. When he senses that she won’t he, he gives up, “Anyway, have a good night.” 

Atsumu goes and turns for the door. Y/N watches him go, she’s torn as she considers going. It feels like time moves slowly as Atsumu gets closer and closer to the door. He has his hand on the handle as Y/N shouts at him, causing him to stop. “Atsumu, wait. I’ve changed my mind. I’m gonna go with ya, just let me run upstairs to my apartment to change!”

Atsumu smiles, feeling victorious, “Okay!”

“Okay!” Y/N turns towards the stairs to her apartment then stops. “Atsumu, I’ve never - what kind of party is it?”

“A party, party.”

“Should I dress up?”

Thinking this is too good to be true Atsumu responds, “Yeah, you should dress up, go all out if ya want!”

“Okay” Y/N’s excited as she runs up the stairs towards her apartment, tripping on the first step, then pauses looking at Atsumu hoping he didn’t catch that. 

Atsumu just pretends he didn’t see, as Y/N continues run upstairs. Excited about going to the party with Atsumu. 

As soon as Y/N is out of sight. Atsumu decides to wait outside, laughing at his incredible luck. Relief washes over him. “I can’t believe I did it! I’m totally gonna win now!” Now all he needs to do is wait for Y/N to come down. 

[daantaat]

twu s2 thoughts even though nobody asked <3 just a brain dump and it’s quite long so I tried to separate my commentary by categories but it’s still a mess unfortunately. Spoilers under the cut!

General

Overall, I enjoyed season 1 more than season 2. I’ve watched season 2 three times now, and I do think it had some good parts that I definitely overlooked during my first watch (probably because I was preoccupied with Charlotte x Shona 😶😅). My initial reaction to this season was like ‘hmm so that happened and I’m not sure what to think’ but then I rewatched it and tbh I think my complaints are mostly to do with the time jump between seasons and the pacing...

Like yeah there’s only so much to touch on in six 25-minute episodes but!!! I finished the season wanting a bit more, because I thought that some of the things that were introduced were either not explained fully/well or they just dropped off completely and didn’t really have an effect other than me asking questions after the season was over, like it felt as though there were missing scenes— more on that later (though maybe they will be addressed in season 3??? If there is one? How soon do shows get renewed? Idk). Though I guess the audience does have to do some interpretation of their own but still... Idk! Idk. And the assumption that certain events/plot points mentioned in a character’s dialogue would be enough for context had me kinda “:///” y’know? Like don’t tell me, show me?? I’d like the full course please!!

Charlotte x Shona (+ Vish I guess)

I think it was really jarring to see their relationship grow from colleague/business partners to friends and then finally to something more in season 1 only to see them awkwardly handle their unresolved feelings in the workplace with nothing to show for their actual relationship besides a mention of “a week-long gay safari” + the brief flashes of a sex scene that was intermingled with Shona and Vish’s cyber sex session, which in itself is 😐😐😐 like yes it shows that Shona still thinks about/fancies Charlotte in some capacity, but if I were to choose between that sex fantasy/flashback or a flashback of Charlotte and Shona together (like Charlotte telling Shona she was falling for her!!!!)... I think I’d choose the latter? I was just disappointed that we didn’t really get to see Charlotte and Shona being all cute and romantic with each other this season :(

ALSO I wished we got to see more of jealous!Shona; I was super hyped to see that since that scene was included in the trailer. It was nice to see her want the best for Charlotte because she’s “great” but the jealousy part of knowing Charlotte is dating someone great got settled pretty quickly and instead we got Shona evaluating her commitment to Vish and considering the idea of having kids after learning she has a womb of a 39-year-old (😐) and it felt.... like a lot!! It was definitely different from season 1 Shona (”I actually don’t want kids” “I genuinely, I genuinely don’t, you know, it’s not a big deal. Just never have” in 1x04) but if this was to show her dealing with comphet or internalized homophobia or just simply running away from her feelings then... idk what to think of it! I really don’t. I think this is where things could have been written differently because using an affair with Charlotte like that (an affair that we didn’t even get to see besides the stolen kisses at the finance event) was so... ugh, I’m suffering here

Anyway, I think their office scenes were definitely highlights of the season, like Indira and Sharon really gave those scenes their all!! Even though it hurts to see Charlotte so heartbroken and Shona running away from her feelings and hurting Charlotte in the process, I live for the angst lol. I will say though, the 180 that happened after their convo outside Charlotte’s office was a bit “🤔” considering Charlotte had talked to her therapist about Shona for 4 months. Like one hungover feeling dump from Shona and they can move on? Hmm communication is connection, huh. And I guess they were just excited that the article got good results? But how cute that they got each other gifts of their picture in the article??? Wtffff I love my “unfunny and obvious” gal pals even though I’m in pain

As for the voice note... omg, so many questions. Like did Charlotte try to reach out to Shona after she abruptly ended their call to check if she sent the voice note to Vish?? Was that gonna be the first time Charlotte heard Shona say “I love you” to her? What was the reason Shona said “I love you” anyway??? Is she, you know 👀 Also do y’all think Vish will listen to the entire voice note since it was clear it was meant for Charlotte? And who knows maybe Vish’s phone died and he can’t turn it back on or check his WhatsApp or whatever. I’m in denial lmao. But also I think he's a pretty good guy, like when he sent biscuits over to the house when Shona wanted some and him saying what’s the point of having fun in New York when she's not there with him... :/ but he was also a bit weird about her putting a nail in a wall or leaving out the egg duck or whatever as a display item in their house though I suppose that’s not a huge problem so like idk man idk!!! I'm just saying season 3 better not have a time jump I need to see what happens and not just in exposition

Shona and Aine

Love them :) I wish they had more scenes together (if that's possible??) but I liked the somewhat change in dynamic seeing Aine a bit worried about Shona (asking her if she’s okay when she mentions she’s thinking of getting a fringe lmao and again asking if she’s okay when they’re unpacking in Vish’s house). And of course Shona is still very protective and worrisome but seeing Aine just miserably lounging around her apartment over the weekend and getting in her bike accident after Shona wasn’t too supportive of her and James’s business idea made me so sad :( like Shona was so shitty about her not typing up everything in the notes for the meeting! And not even reading James's CV... big yikes. Anyway I thought it was odd that we didn’t get a follow up on the voice note Aine left Shona after getting into the bike accident... like she sounded soooo shaky and out of it :((( what luck Shona was sick and didn’t see Aine with a missing tooth before she got it fixed

Anyhow, Aine was right when she said Shona needs to talk to her and talk about her feelings more!! AND this is part of where my complaint about the pacing and the missing scenes comes into play! I think we should have seen Aine and Shona fighting about Shona’s affair and leaving Vish the voice note. The audience knows Aine cares about Vish and I’m not entirely sure where her relationship with Charlotte stands since Charlotte told Freddie about her being in rehab (on the assumption that he knew, as Aine’s ex-boyfriend) but!!! Just cutting to them on the floor waiting for Vish’s flight to land was not as hard hitting as it could have been

Aine x Bradley (+ Richard)

OKAYYY. Cute!!! I definitely overlooked the signs during my first watch here but yeah they were definitely there during my rewatch(es)!! I quite liked seeing Bradley try to get Aine to stop talking negatively about herself and just try to treat herself better in general like exercising and actually eating off of a plate :’) and the comparisons between Bradley and Richard have me like 👀📝 Bradley saying he likes how much Aine talks vs. Richard’s friend Mark saying she talks a lot and how he wasn’t expecting a whole show to which Richard replies he thought that at first too but she “calms down” like brooo... alright. Anyway Bradley going with her to Tom’s funeral/service made sense since he actually met Tom (though Aine did vaguely talk about him and his drinking problem to Richard in 1x05) and the fact that she told Bradley about PACT and her time there but she didn’t tell Richard (to be fair she was thinking about telling him) hmm 👀 Also Bradley saying “Sometimes it would just be nice to be with someone you could just relax with as yourself” yeah I’m on board with them

Loneliness, COVID, Communication is Connection

Initially I thought these themes could have come across a little stronger but after rewatching... hmm. Yes, Shona was lonely in the house by herself; she even asked Anil to stay for dinner, had her own “pile of shit” boyfriend on her bed (which she did clear off), and told Vish that nobody had time for her. Also after the business meeting she asked Aine what she was doing during the weekend (which Aine also spent alone anyway), but I dunno... oh yeah her hen/bachelorette party was a bit lonely since places were starting to go into lockdown and not everybody could attend, but I think the COVID element entered a bit too late into this season? I’m not sure it really added much in terms of the loneliness. Maybe it did add to the uncertainty of things though

“Communication is Connection” was there but I thought it kind of fell flat as well, but maybe that was the intention— to highlight the mess that a lack of communication can cause? Shona apparently writing off Charlotte’s feelings and them not necessarily talking about their relationship/feelings until their convo outside Charlotte’s office... Shona talking to Seema saying she’s never really asked what Vish wanted (regarding kids) and Seema saying that’s a convo for her and Vish to have... Aine not telling Richard she overheard him and Mark talking about her... Richard not consulting Aine about telling Etienne about them and just getting a new tutor for him... hmm. What does it mean. What does it all mean

Other stuff I’m still thinking about/have questions about

Shona mentioning it’s “annoying” how Aine talks like she’s the only person to ever get sad in episode 1 but still telling Aine she’s fine and then in episode 6 Shona saying she only has two emotions or whatever so she doesn’t need to talk to Aine about her feelings as much -____- istg we need to get Shona to talk to a therapist in season 3!!!

I also liked that Shona, Aine, and Eileen talked more. I’m still a little disappointed that the fact Eileen leaving Shona for three months when she was a baby was not mentioned at all. Yeah it was a secret but when Eileen said “well, you should never lie. You’ll always get caught out.” I— HELLO? If anything, that secret seeing daylight could have had something to do with Shona's sadness + loneliness this season. Also could you imagine that becoming a fear of Shona’s, like what if she doesn’t want kids because she’s afraid of doing the same thing to hers if she has any??

Jim asking Charlotte if she’s straight and Shona immediately going “what does that have to do with anything” or something like that and apologizing to Charlotte after Jim left— I’m not sure how I should have read that??? Did Shona mention to Jim that Charlotte is a lesbian?? When he started to ask, he was still looking at Shona (yeah I’m reading too much into this I know)

Marcia figuring out that Aine and Richard were seeing each other (after he touched her hand on his way out to get a taxi)— what was the purpose? Other than Marcia obviously feeling bad for Etienne, whom I assume she sees as a son of her own (based on the Mom Instinct™ snooping when she was doing housekeeping + her convo with Aine when he came back from France). She didn’t talk to either Aine or Richard about it, just told Aine to have a good time when they were leaving the house to go to their “separate” events. I guess it wasn't her place to say anything, but hm. Speaking of Etienne, it was obvious he had a schoolboy crush on Aine (or at least he was vying for her attention) in season 1 and it’s really too bad we didn’t get to see his reaction to suddenly getting a new tutor or dealing with Aine and Richard’s relationship other than him looking at them hugging while the new tutor was teaching him. He deserved some more screen time this season :(

Hmm so that was all very incoherent but if you made it this far thank youuu <3 here are some last silly comments:

Absolutely loved Julie!! I want to know what she knows about Charlotte and Shona 👀 girl give me the scoop on the last 4 months at the office

Super sad we didn’t get to see Charlotte’s cat (I’m always gonna be vocal about this 🗣🗣🗣) or know who her new girlfriend was but at the very least we were introduced to one of the most important side characters of all: Charlotte’s stompy boots <33333 she really wore those around the office with a blazer/blouse/leather skirt! We love that lesbian attire

[genshin-djinn]

Sinae Unicornis Act 1

I went into Ganyu’s story quest with a low bar set for it to jump over. As long as it was better than Albedo’s, I wouldn’t be disappointed. And hey, I wasn’t. Not because the bar was low, but because this story quest was very fun.

Warning: this post contains major spoilers for the entirety of Ganyu’s story quest! If you haven’t played through the quest yet I would recommend not reading this post because there are lots of spoilers and some of it will not make any sense.

the characters

The characters were possibly my favorite part of Ganyu’s story quest. I absolutely love seeing playable characters and named NPCs during other characters’ story quests and Ganyu’s was full of them.

Firstly, we need to talk about the character who was unequivocally the most important NPC in Ganyu’s story quest... the Hydro Fatui Skirmisher. He was perfect and I love him. He just wanted to pick fresh berries on his morning off and ended up getting attacked by some randos who thought he was doing wrong just because of his loyalty to the Tsaritsa. The game’s been giving the Fatui NPCs a lot more personality as time goes on— they now have idle animations, voicelines, and some of them even have names— and I love it. This perfect hydro man was just the icing on the “sympathetic villains” cake.

Another awesome character featured in Ganyu’s story quest was my favor— uhhh, my second fa—- no, uhh.. one of my favorite adepti, Cloud Retainer. I want to see more of her. She’s fantastic. I’m really confused about her relationship with Ganyu in the past, because it sounds like she looked after Ganyu when the latter was a kid, but Zhongli says that Ganyu’s the Adeptus who’s been working for Rex Lapis for the longest. Maybe Cloud Retained knew Ganyu from before she made the contrast with Rex? I dunno. Her stories about Baby Ganyu were so fecking cute and revealed a little bit about Ganyu’s adorable past.

Another Adepti we saw in Sinae Unicornis was, in the words of Paimon, “that cold- hearted loner”, Xiao. It was nice to see a little corner of Xiao’s caring side— while he’s pretty blunt about it, he does want Ganyu to be happy and acknowledge both her Adepti and her human sides. It’s also pretty adorable to see Xiao caught off guard for a second— he isn’t quite sure what to do for Ganyu’s second trial, so he gets flustered and makes something up. It’s gonna be a real test not rolling for him during his banner, because the more I see of him the more attached I get.

The next character I desparately have to talk about was the real MVP of Sinae Unicornis, Uncle Tian! I was absolutely delighted to get backstory for the slightly sus fisherman who looks after Childish Jiang. It was so fun to hear an old man call Ganyu “onee- sama” in the Japanese dub,,,, and the idea that Tian’s known Ganyu since he was young enough to call her “older sister” is really cute. And kind of upsetting. More on that later. Now, *stares pointedly at Jiangxue*, if only we could get some backstory on another mysterious fisherman...

the combat

Ganyu’s story quest had a really nice balance of combat and story for me. The two trial run trials were well- designed to showcase Ganyu’s abilities.

Cloud Retainer’s trial was a lot harder than Xiao’s for me because I kinda suck at aiming, especially when my eyes kept drifting to the ticking timer above Ganyu’s head. But even though at one point I didn’t notice the correct path forwards for a solid 30 seconds, I still managed to finish the trial in one try. It was kinda difficult, but not too hard.

Xiao’s trial was a neat demo of Ganyu’s cryo abilities. Even though I refuse to roll on any banners until Hu Tao’s, she fit right into my team of Diluc, Xingqiu, Kaeya, and Zhongli. Ganyu in a team comp seems to reeeeally want Pyro and Hydro units with her, plus maybe a cryo user for the cryo damage boost inside her circle. She’s like Amber but way better.

Side note: I haven’t looked for any sort of meta info on Ganyu yet, but during her trial run her ult energy regeneration was really weird. It took her a long time to get her first ult up, but right after I used it her next ult was up off cooldown, and the ult after that was ready before her circle had even ended. Idk what’s going on there but her ult seems to do something with energy regen.

Ganyu

Sinae Unicornus showed us a lot about Ganyu.

Not that I knew anything about her before it.

Ganyu is a polite, kind, and respectful person. She overworks herself to the point of falling asleep standing up and likes eating Qingxin flowers. But her story quest shows another side of Ganyu— a side that’s learned a lot from being alive for thousands of years. Ganyu is incredibly good at her job and has picked up a lot of tricks over the millennia. She observes what those around her do and learns from them. She has a severe, cold side to her that makes her all the more efficient in her work. Ganyu’s is the second Adepti story quest we’ve gotten so far, and oh by the archons she and Zhongli are such great strategic players.

Ganyu is also lonely. She’s in between two worlds, and can’t be fully a part of either. When she’s with mortals, she’s an Adepti, and when she’s with Adepti, she’s a mortal. There’s nobody in the world that Ganyu knows of who is truly both and neither like she is. The mortals around her admire her, the Adepti around her seem to see her as young/ lower in rank than they are. So of course she would take solace in befriending Aether, someone who’s also not quite a mortal or a god.

In a way, Ganyu’s story quest almost ties into Albedo’s. They’re both “inhuman” in a way that isolates them from others and turns them into lonely individuals. This loneliness and isolation brings them, consciously or unconsciously, closer to Aether. This one similarity also brings attention to the differences between Albedo and Ganyu— Albedo is neither human nor god, while Ganyu is both.

I don’t know if it was intentional or not, but I think putting Ganyu’s story quest right after Albedo’s was a very nice touch.

ending thoughts

Sinae Unicornis was a very decent story quest. It was no Carmen Dei, but I’d say it was on the level of Jean’s and Mona’s. And,, ,,, it made me value Albedo’s story quest a tiny bit more. I love Ganyu, I think she’s adorable, and she seems like a pretty good versatile unit. She’s risen through the ranks of my favorite Genshin characters and is probably in the top 10. Despite all of these complements I will unfortunately not be rolling for her.

The next story quests we get shoooould be Xiao’s and Hu Tao’s (ofc I wouldn’t complain if Qiqi, Keqing, Fischl, Bennett, Barbara, Noelle, Sucrose, Chongyun, Diona, Xinyan, and Ningguang also got story quests...). I’m extremely excited to see Edgy Boy again and to finally meet my favorite funeral parlor owner. I’m also hyped for the events we’ll get before 1.3– hypostatic symphony and multiplayer Liben should be coming up soon. and then.... 1.3!

[darks-ink]

Darkness - Ectoberweek 2020

Yes I wrote this one because I just really wanted to write Vlad and Danny meeting in Antonym-verse, shh. Don’t say anything.

[first part]

Rating: Gen Warnings: - Genre: Supernatural Words: 2,147 Additional Tags: Alternate Universe, Sequel

[AO3] [FFN]

---

“Well,” Danny said, humming thoughtfully.

“Well,” the other person agreed, his bright red eyes absurdly visible in the dark room they were in.

Since the man didn’t seem inclined to talk, Danny didn’t bother to, either. Instead he started peering around, blinking his own vivid green eyes. Even though his retained night vision usually did him little good, he was glad to have it, now. He highly doubted ordinary humans would’ve been able to see in the pitch black they were in.

Unfortunately, the room did not include any hints as to where he was, nor why he was here.

“You’re Danny, aren’t you?” the man suddenly asked, his red eyes narrowed. “The Fenton’s adopted son?”

Danny hummed. He wasn’t sure if he was legally adopted, the human world had so much complicated paperwork, but they certainly seemed intent on counting him as their son. “Yeah,” he finally agreed, figuring he should vocalize. “But I don’t think I know you. Do I?”

The man visibly considered that, weighing options against each other. Finally he offered a hand to Danny. “Vlad.”

“Well, you already know my name, obviously.” Danny shot him a grin as he took the hand and shook it. “But I’m Danny.”

“And you’re half-ghost,” Vlad said, a strange emphasis on the ‘half-ghost’. “Aren’t you?”

“Yeah, well, so are you,” Danny pointed out with a shrug. “I think that the more pressing questions are “where are we?” and “how did we get here?”, don’t you?”

Vlad hummed at that, expression somewhere between pleased and aggravated. Someone was digging for information, huh? “Yes, I suppose you’re right. You don’t know either, then?”

“Nope,” he agreed easily, taking his eyes off of Vlad to look around again. The room was empty and featureless, absolutely non-distinct in how bland it was. “But! I don’t think we’re in the Ghost Zone.”

“How can you tell?”

“Not nearly enough ectoplasm in the atmosphere.” Danny leaned over to knock on the wall. “And these are solid. Humans can go through walls in the Ghost Zone.”

“You seem to know a lot about the Ghost Zone.” Vlad’s eyes narrowed once more.

“Yeah, well.” Danny paused, reconsidered. Vlad didn’t seem like a ghost, not like him. Vlad seemed like a human. If Danny could become part human as a ghost, why couldn’t a human become part ghost? “I guess I spent a good bit of time there.”

“And your parents?” Vlad pressed, cold disinterest in his voice.

Danny snorted, dismissive. “You mean my biological parents? Dunno. Can’t remember them. That’s why the Fentons took me in, y’know? Now can we please focus on getting out of wherever this is before we continue the interrogation?”

“Yes, of course,” Vlad said, graciously. Like this was anything to be gracious about. Danny bet that if he’d been in full control of his powers he could’ve beaten the other half-ghost easy. But, alas. He was still fighting to control his core, never mind use his powers properly. He would have to settle for civilized human behavior.

“Good.” Danny turned away from Vlad, walking along the wall, one hand trailing over it. The whole thing felt solid in a uniquely human way. Definitely no ghosts involved here.

The door, when Danny reached it, was no less solid. He grabbed onto the rounded doorknob and jangled it, but there was no give. Definitely locked. “Yeah, we’re not getting out this way.”

Vlad, who still hadn’t moved, the ass, hummed thoughtfully. “I suppose we will have to use our powers to leave, then. I see no cameras of any sort, do you?”

“No,” Danny admitted, releasing the door and looking around just to be sure. “I suppose you’re right. Some intangibility and invisibility should get us out.”

“Yes, indeed.” Vlad crossed his arms, waiting for a moment before arching his brow at Danny. “Well, go on then.”

“Me?” He scoffed. “It was your idea. You go first.”

The man stared at him for a moment longer, his red eyes boring straight into Danny’s, before he sighed. “Fine, then. But only because I suspect I cannot hope to out-stubborn a teenager, let alone one raised by Jack Fenton.”

Danny quirked an eyebrow at that unexpected hostility. Sure, he’d only known Jack for a month or two, but still. He seemed like a good man.

Vlad’s transformation was similar to Danny’s own. A spark of light from the chest, from the core, forming into rings which passed over the body, and shifted it from one state to the other. Admittedly Vlad’s were bizarrely black, while still giving off light, but it didn’t really matter. Not now, at least.

No, Danny was far more interested in Vlad’s ghost form. He looked rather like a typical ghost, up to and including a thematic appearance. And what an appearance. Vlad had gone full vampire on his looks, with pale blue skin, empty red eyes, pointed ears and sharp fangs. His hair, black in ghost form, was swept up into gravity-defying points, and his clothing did not match the suit he’d been wearing at all.

Hell, the guy even wore a cape. What kinda person did that?

But… Vlad had gone and shifted to his ghost form, so Danny supposed he’d better follow suit. Mentally crossing his fingers that his powers would hold—his core was still settling back into proper stability after his accident—he called his core to the forefront of his existence. Light flashed as he, too, transformed into a ghost.

Vlad quirked an eyebrow at him, judgment heavy in the air. “A jumpsuit, boy, really? You are certainly a Fenton, aren’t you?”

“It’s Phantom, actually,” Danny correctly idly. “The jumpsuit is just a coincidence.” He lifted up from the floor, trying to judge how well his core was doing that day. “Now come on, I don’t have all day.”

“And you think I do?” Vlad scoffed, but started floating as well. “I will go first. I expect I will be more likely to recognize where we are than you.”

Well, he wasn’t wrong, but he didn’t have to be so haughty about it. “Sure, knock yourself out.” Danny swept out an arm in a wide arc to underline the statement, throwing in a sarcastic bow as well.

The gesture clearly wasn’t lost on Vlad, but he apparently made the choice to ignore it, flying towards one of the walls and flickering invisible before he hit it. With a roll of his eyes, Danny followed, focusing his senses on the feel of Vlad’s core so he could track the man while invisible.

Outside it was… also dark, admittedly, but not as hopelessly pitch-black as inside. A glance upwards confirmed that it was a regular dark—stars barely visible due to a nearby city, and the new moon that was supposed to come that night.

Vlad was still nearby, although invisible, so Danny let himself drift over. “Well,” he said when he was close enough, keeping his voice low since they were still invisible. “I don’t think we missed much time. The moon phase is correct.”

“Hm. And what do you know of where we are?” Vlad asked, a tone of curiosity layered under the smarminess of his voice. “Or have you spent all your time looking up?”

“I thought you were going to focus on our location?” Danny shook his head, realized Vlad couldn’t see, then decided to look around anyway.

And, huh.

“Well, at least we’re not far from home,” he said, feebly.

They were on the outskirts of Amity Park.

“You aren’t, no.” Vlad huffed, a sound of displeasure. “Unlike you, however, I live in Wisconsin.”

Cool. That meant very little to Danny. He was pretty sure that it was a state in the country he was living in, but where, or how far away it was? Absolutely meaningless.

“Okay, well… If you know the Fentons you can probably stay over?” He let his invisibility drop, since the strain on his core was rather unnecessary. The people of Amity Park didn’t look up enough to care about ghosts in the sky. “And if you didn’t… Well, they probably would let you stay over anyway. They’d love to talk more about your half-ghost-ness.”

“Joy,” Vlad muttered, and he could not possibly have put more distaste in the word. “And you do not care to stay invisible, then?”

“I can’t keep it up forever, dude.” Danny shrugged, letting his legs blend away into a tail as he drifted in the direction towards home. “Besides, I know Amity Park. It���s a safe place to fly without invisibility, trust me.”

Vlad scoffed, but dropped his invisibility as well. “Very well, then. Lead on.”

Danny nodded back, then shifted into proper flight, making sure to keep his speed fairly low. As annoying as it was to have to hold back, he knew he couldn’t make full use of his powers, not while his core was still recovering from the transition. One day, hopefully, he’d get back to his prior strength.

Still, that did make him wonder. It definitely seemed like Vlad was a human who’d become half-ghost. How did that work, compared to Danny himself? How strong was Vlad? Did he need to wait for his core to mature the usual way? That almost seemed easier to Danny than what he was going through. A slow progressive growth, rather than having all these powers and not having the power to use them.

And Vlad had conveniently skipped around explaining how he knew the Fentons, too. Honestly, he was kind of giving Danny the creeps. Something about his behavior was just… off. Weird.

Or maybe that was just how slimy he was, how haughty, how superior. Yugh.

Vlad didn’t try talking to him while they were flying to FentonWorks, although he did raise a questioning eyebrow at the neon sign when they landed behind it.

“The glow of the sign will hide our light,” Danny explained with a shrug. He’d been told by Jazz that the sign was an oddity among humans, but he didn’t think it was that weird. “We can enter the house through the door up here.”

“Why not phase inside?” Vlad asked, crossing his arms. “That way no one will see us.”

“True. But it’s also rude to go inside without announcing yourself.” Danny grinned at Vlad, displaying his own sharp teeth, before releasing his core to shift back to human form. The flashing light was barely visible beyond the glow of the sign. “Coming, Vlad?”

The other half-ghost sighed, making a motion like rolling his eyes—despite the fact that they were empty in his ghost form—but transformed back into human form as well. “I would’ve thought that using ghost powers meant we were no longer following human sensibilities, but it’s your house.”

Human sensibilities? What, has no one ever told this guy the rules of lairs in the Ghost Zone? Yikes. “You do realize that it’s a thing in the Ghost Zone too, right? Not randomly wandering into people’s lairs?”

“And how would you know?” Vlad sneered back, his eyes dark for the first time since Danny had met him. “You’re what, fourteen? And clearly new to being half-ghost, too.”

“Yeah!” Danny snapped, feeling his core kick up a notch. He was so tired of this asshole. “Yeah, I’m new to being half-ghost! Because I was a full ghost before this!”

He leaned in closer to Vlad, seeing the reflection of his glowing eyes in Vlad’s. “Just because you think you’re a big deal doesn’t mean you are. You don’t know shit, Vlad.”

Satisfied that he’d gotten his point across, Danny whirled around, pulling open the door and climbing down the stairs. After a moment, he heard Vlad follow.

“You are… a ghost turned half-human?” Vlad asked, quietly. “Not the reverse?”

“Not like you, no,” Danny confirmed, opening the door to the upper floor hallway. “But the Fentons will still want to talk to you.”

“No.” Vlad stopped before crossing the door. Danny, too, stopped, turning around to face Vlad again. “No, I don’t think that that’s going to happen.”

“What?”

“I thought I had found someone like me. For that, I was willing to put up with Jack Fenton, at least for the moment. But now?” Vlad scoffed, a derisive sound. “For a poor ghostly imitation? No, certainly not. Goodbye, Phantom.”

With that, Vlad whirled around, vanishing from sight. Danny could still track his core—apparently Vlad had shifted forms almost immediately—but he was, in fact, leaving.

“Well. That just happened,” Danny muttered to himself as Vlad left the premises entirely. “Wonder what the chances are that the Fentons know more than one guy named Vlad.”

He shrugged to himself, continuing down to the living room, where his family waited. Guess he had some more mysteries to solve now.

Like that room. What the fuck was up with that?

[keelywolfe]

FIC: Welcome to Backwater ch.7 (spicyhoney)

Summary: Stretch knows he can't really depend on the kindness of strangers, but oh, sometimes he wishes he could.

~~*~~

Read ‘The Kindness of Strangers’ on AO3

or

Read it here!

~~*~~

It was with a heavy, weird-ass book in hand that Stretch returned to the heat of the afternoon. This time he made haste getting back to the store while his knees were cooperating, almost jogging on the sidewalk and waving to any regular customers as he passed. The sun was on its downward path by now and the strollers were out in full force, the Human moms and pops pushing them hardly paying him any mind past a ‘good afternoon’ as he went by.

His knees were back to the wibble-wobbles when he slipped through the door, the bell announcing him with a muted clank. The first thing he noticed was that Red wasn’t behind the counter. He was standing at the back of the store, leaning on his cane and blocking off the hallway that led to both their living quarters. Yeah, that looked like insurance that Stretch couldn’t hurry on past him upstairs; Red wasn’t quick, but he also wasn’t stupid, and Stretch could feel his hard gaze scrutinizing him from across the store.

Wonderbar.

Stretch pasted on a grin and tried to act like someone who hadn’t been recently felt up by Red’s little brother in the public library. Not that Red said that he couldn’t, but some things, (for example, random groping) could probably be inferred.

“hey, what’s up?” Stretch said brightly.

“my bro called,” Red said bluntly, and Stretch’s feeble hopes deflated like yesterday’s party balloon. So much for discretion.

“i can explain,” Stretch blurted, “it wasn’t my idea, seriously, i was only—"

Red interrupted him with an amused snort. “easy, kid, don’t haul out your guilty conscience on my account. all he did was give me the gist of things, said you had yourself an unexpected adventure.” Red jerked his head towards the hallway. “g’wan, string bean, you can use my bathroom. take a shower and cool off.”

A cool shower pouring down on his dirty, sweaty bones sounded like Eden itself right about now, apple not included.

“thanks,” Stretch said gratefully. He skirted around Red, who didn’t move, only squatted there like a grouchy stump in the middle of the doorway while Stretch squeezed around him. Must be tempering his kindness with a little extra asshole to keep things even.

On his way to showerland, Stretch took a quick detour to leave the book on the coffee table amidst the clutter. Maybe he could ask Red about it, get the cliff notes version.

The shower in the downstairs bathroom was stuck with the same crappy water heater as upstairs, not that it mattered since Stretch was about ready to cuddle with an iceberg to cool off. Added bonus, the showerhead was a lot better and it managed to crank the feeble water pressure up to its max. There was a cheap plastic stool sitting in the tub, way too short for Stretch. He sat on it anyway, knees almost up to his chin as the cool water poured down on him and washed away the sweat and filth.

He was shivering a little by the time he was done, dragging a ratty towel over his dripping bones. The pile of his clothes was missing and there a new folded bundle sitting on the closed toilet lid. He must’ve been out of it more than he thought, he’d never even heard Red coming in. Unless laundry fairies were a thing and wasn’t that idea a lot more pertinent than it was yesterday.

Stretch picked up the bundle and part of it fell on the floor. Pajama pants, luckily not a pair of Red’s although it might’ve been hilarious to see Stretch wandering around like a scrawny hulk who sprouted upward out of his clothes instead of sideways. They were red plaid flannel and worn to the stage of being shiny at the knees and elbows. Probably an old pair of Edge’s, the fit was pretty close and not too many Humans wore their waistband quite as skinny as a guy without a waist.

(he was not getting a cheap thrill out of wearing a pair of Edge’s pajamas, no matter what his libido was trying to tell him)

He wandered out into Red’s living room, still squeegeeing his skull dry with the damp towel, and saw the sofa was made up with some blankets and a pillow, the television remote set helpfully in reach.

“you done?” Red’s voice echoed up from the store and his peculiar gait made its way down the hallway until he appeared again in the doorway. “then lay down and turn on the boob tube, zone out awhile. you’ll feel better.”

“what did your brother tell you?” Stretch asked. Not that he wasn’t willing to do what he was told. The couch was saggy in the middle, but the blankets were clean and smelling of laundry detergent. They felt blissfully cozy after the cold shower.

“said you met edgar allen,” Red said. “under less than stellar circumstances, i’m guessin’, since i don’t think ya got an invite for a meet and greet with the local scarecrow.”

This time his shiver had nothing to do with the temperature. Edgar Allen was an okay guy, (guy?) but Stretch was still on the fence about the corn’s attitude problems. “not exactly, no. thanks for the heads up, by the way.”

Red tilted his skull to one side, baffled, “heads up about what?”

“i dunno,” Stretch leaned up on an elbow to see him better and hopefully increase the effect of his dirty look, “maybe when you’re warning me off from the local landmarks, you could’ve touch on that fact that a stroll through the fields might involve the corn trying to hold me as a captive audience?”

“naaah,” Red scoffed. Stretch didn’t miss the way he absently started picking at his gold tooth; that was a nervous tell right there and maybe all this wasn’t just concern but dealing with a little guilt that Stretch’s latest town bonding experience was less than top notch. “that's why the damn scarecrow is there t'begin with. ‘sides, even without him you’d have gotten out before dark. anyway, never expected you to go tromping off into the corn in search of a maze, sorry i misgauged the direction of your dumbass.”

“no, i’m sorry, not your fault.” Stretch couldn’t hold back a yawn so wide it nearly split his skull, yeesh, it wasn’t even dinner time and he was ready to sleep for a week. The imaginary hamster running on the wheel in his head wasn’t quite as ready and it decided to race back to thoughts of Edge sitting in the library, alone. Researching he’d said, so intent on his books from the so-called restricted section, like a bargain basement Hogwarts. “hey, what does your brother do?”

“mostly he’s a pain in my ass.”

It was said with great feeling and Stretch snerked out a laugh. Yeah, kinda a universal trait with little brothers. “no, seriously, i mean, for a living, what does he do?”

Red shifted his feet, his cane scraping the floor. “why are ya askin’?”

“curious. bored,” Stretch shrugged, “take your pick.” He didn’t really want to explain to Red that his brother wasn’t just a sexy pair of legs in boots anymore, (but those hips would never be forgotten). He was interesting, no, fascinating. This whole town was turning out to be some kind of puzzle and it seemed to him that Edge might be a big piece. He’d said that figuring out Backwater was a fool’s errand, but he’d never met Stretch’s kind of fool before.

“kid—” Red sighed and that resigned tone snapped Stretch out of his whimsies. He cringed internally. What was he even trying to do here, he owed Red so much and not just for the job, and here he was digging for information about his bro after Red already warned him off, not once, but twice, so maybe what he was really digging was his own grave, if he didn’t knock it off.

“nevermind,” Stretch said hurriedly. “i shouldn’t’ve asked, none of my business, i get it.”

Red shook his head. “that ain’t it.”

Stretch tried on a little laugh, ha ha, see, it wasn’t that big a deal, right? “look, the state of your brother’s ass aside, i get it. that’s your little brother, and i didn’t forget what you said. we only bumped into each other at the library, i’m really not trying to get into his pants.”

He left off on making it a promise; he was telling the truth, but why take the chance on not keeping it.

He didn’t expected the hand that suddenly scruffed over his skull, like the noogies he used to give to Blue when he was little…well, okay, Blue was still little but noogieing was off the table since he’d started his guard training.

This wasn’t like that childish roughhousing, Red’s knuckles only scraped softly along his coronal sutures. “no, kid, you don’t get it. my bro can handle himself, it ain’t him i’m worried about. but you? don’t ya got the feeling you ain’t up to any new affairs of the soul right now? might want to take it easy awhile.”

That unexpectedly gruff kindness made tears sting in his sockets. Stretch guiltily leaned into that touch to absorb every drop, and how was it he could accept it from Red when he couldn’t take it from his own brother? “i don’t get you. you barely even know me. why are you so nice to me?”

Red huffed out a laugh. “you want i should be an asshole? okay, but i gotta warn ya, i’m a contender when it comes to dick moves.”

“thanks, but you can keep your dick in your pants.”

“your loss.”

“seriously, though, what i mean is. i just don’t get it. this place is so weird, but everyone is nice.” It didn’t exactly line up with Stretch’s view of the world. His brother was always nice sure and Snowdin hadn’t been too bad, if you didn’t count the fact that all his friends were from drinking his nights away at Muffet’s. The surface world ran about fifty-fifty with Monsters being on the kinder side of the scale…until he got dumped and found out he lost all his friends in the divorce, how was that for loyalty.

Red only chuckled. “now you’ve gone and cursed yourself. can’t say everyone is nice, you ain’t met everyone yet.”

That was true, fuck, he hoped the universe wasn’t listening and if it was, that it didn’t decide to drum up a little drama. “red?”

“yeah, kid?”

Stretch craned his head back on the pillow and met Red’s crimson gaze upside-down. “thank you for being nice.”

“don’t tell anyone. i’ll lose my resident asshole status.

“secret is safe with me, promise.” Stretch yawned again and the cow bell suddenly jangled loudly out front, startling them both.

Red shouted. “yeah, i’m coming!” He tossed over his shoulder back at Stretch, “take tomorrow off, sleep in, you ain’t had a day off since ya got here.”

“thanks, boss.”

Stretch started to settle in, nap ahoy, captain, hard to starboard and all that, and his eye lights snagged on the book. Shit, he forgot to ask Red about it. Probably didn’t matter, Red’s ingredient label kinda went equal parts of cryptic and cryptid, so he probably wasn’t gonna give the right answers even if Stretch figured out what to ask.

Wait.

If Red and Edge want to share the part of the local Obi-Wan with their mysterious ways, that was fine. He already had the perfect person lined up to ask about the town’s history. Well, part of a person, anyway, the most important part.

Plan formed, Stretch turned on the television and snuggled into the blankets, letting the dulcet tones of Pat Sajak lull him to sleep.

He didn’t dream.

~~*~~

The next day, Stretch headed over to the theater bright and early, still munching on the muffin Red handed off to him as he settled on the stool for the day with his latest book, this one with a bare-chested pirate embracing a busty Human woman as the ocean sprayed up over the hull over them. Seemed to Stretch that would be less smokin’ sexytimes and more cold and wet, but what did he know, his closest encounter with the ocean was extra salt on his Applebee’s margarita.

“thanks, mom,” Stretch said as he took the little paper lunch bag Red held out to him. Red only grunted and didn’t look up from his book. In the midst of rummaging for his tasty free breakfast, Stretch hesitated at the front door.

He felt a little guilty even though Red was the one who told him to take the day. Before he started working at the store, was Red really sitting there all day long, twelve hours of a cash register and customers while he drank beer and soaked up a little romance language in the form of a cheap paperback?

Not that Stretch was judging, hell, if that made Red happy, more power to him. Still, there had to be more to his life than that, didn’t there? Maybe he’d see if Mitch sold sudoku pads at the gas station, pick him up one along with a six-pack. Hard to guess if they carried that kind of entertainment; Mitch was either some kind of crossword grand champion or the kind of guy who ate ketchup on his cheerios and Stretch still wasn’t sure which.

The first movie showing wasn’t for another hour, but Igor didn’t make a fuss when Stretch asked him if he could go sit down early. (and holy shit, the proprietor’s name was actually Igor? He wasn’t sure if the guy’s parents hated him or if the universe sense of irony rolled a natural D20 when it hit this town.)

Igor only grunted and handed over two cups of popcorn without being asked, handing back a crumpled dollar in change. Aww, Stretch had a usual, see, he was settling into town just fine, suck it, Edge.

(don’t think it, don’t think it, don’t think it…)

Stretch made his way to the theater to his regular seat, propping his sneakers up on the chair in front of him. The popcorn he set aside for now, it wasn’t exactly his idea of a breakfast treat and that muffin Red gave him was still settling into his magic. To be honest, he wasn’t entirely sure if Doris could show up very long before the movie. He was no expert, but he did know that ghosts could have some peculiar rules about manifesting. Hopefully this wouldn’t mess with her morning routine, whatever it was.

He didn’t have to wait long. Maybe Doris could sense him or maybe she could just feel it when a living person came into the theater. She slowly came into focus next to him, pale ectoplasm coalescing, and the already cool air chilled even further.

Doris happily sniffed at her popcorn as she said, whispery soft, “Good morning, Stretch, you’re here very early.”

“yeah, took the day off work,” Stretch said. His voice sounded too loud in the empty theater, not even the elevator music was playing yet. “i need your help with something.”

He might as well have flipped Doris’s switch to ‘on’. She lit up, a smile curving her pretty mouth and seeming more solid than ever. The seat behind her was barely visible through her pale pink dress as she said eagerly, “Of course, anything that I can do.”

So that was how Stretch came to tell her the story about Edgar Allen. He didn’t leave out any details, including the bit about the kids shouting at him not to go in the field, the corn closing in around him in a dizzying maze of green, Edgar Allen’s assistance, and Edge’s cryptic warning that the scarecrow would disappear with the harvest.

Doris listened to it all raptly, her eyes wide and startlingly blue, and she never flickered once the entire time. The only unsettling sight was a single trickle of blood running down the side of her face, gathering in a heavy droplet on her chin.

“My, that sounds terrifying,” Doris breathed, unaware of the irony of her saying that while a slender thread of ghostly blood ran down her cheek. The droplet swelled fatly, growing until it finally fell with a plip onto her dress, leaving behind a perfectly round spot that would slowly vanish, only to be replaced by the next drop.

It didn’t really bother Stretch much anymore; he was getting used to it and an old memory of blood was nothing compared to his recent woes. “yeah, it was spooky all right.”

“But I’m not sure I can help you,” Doris continued sadly, “There wasn’t a scarecrow in my day, not that I remember. But the corn. Yes. That I recall.” She shivered delicately and her chair let out a strange groan of springs. “A person could get lost for days in the corn. I remember…” Her already faint voice went softer and Stretch strained to hear her, her gaze distant. “I remember one year at harvest time, they found a skeleton in the field, it was awful. Oh!” She gasped and pressed a gloved hand to her mouth, “I’m so sorry, it was a dead person, not a skeleton like you!”

“no offense taken,” Stretch assured her. He slouched down in his seat even more and waggled his feet, his untied shoelaces laces bobbing against the seatback “huh. so at least one person died out in the corn.”

“I’m afraid I don’t remember much about it,” Doris admitted. “whoever it was, they weren’t local.”

“uh huh.” An outsider, then, like him, getting munched up by the corn triffids. “who owns the corn fields, anyway?”

“I…” she hesitated, then apologetically. “I’m not sure. I don’t know if I’ve forgotten or if I never knew.”

Another mystery. If he was gonna play at Sherlock Holmes, he really needed to start taking notes. Maybe get a pipe.

“welp, either way, edgar allen bro out there saved my ass,” Stretch told her. He picked up a piece of popcorn and didn’t eat it, only crumpled it between his fingers and let the mangled bits fall to the floor, “and he’s gonna die come harvest time. i feel like i owe it to him to at least hear his story, you know? edge wouldn’t tell me much, just gave me that book and a scavenger hunt.”

“This Edge person doesn’t sound very nice,” Doris said disapprovingly. Her mouth pulled down into a frown that flashed briefly to a bloody smear. “Is he local?”

“kinda? he’s a monster like me, so he could only have been in town for a coupla years. since we came to the surface, anyway.”

Sudden relief washed over Doris’s pretty face. “He’s not a human, then.”

“nope, he’s another skeleton monster.” That seemed to satisfy her. Note to self, Doris wasn’t real keen on Humans, in a way that didn’t seem like it was only about the way they ran away when they got a good look at her. That mystery wasn’t all too mysterious, not with a big, bloody clue flickering in and out of view like a gory version of a kid’s flipbook. If that was a going away present from another Human, he didn’t blame her for being wary. He wondered if she’d met Edge before but Stretch hesitated to bring up that idea, or to mention Red; he didn’t want her to feel bad if she didn’t remember. “yep, another skeleton monster in town. he’s kinda rough around the edges, but he’s okay.”

“Okay, is that all?” Doris said with unexpected mischievousness, “he didn’t sound simply ‘okay’ when you were describing him.”

A blush flared hotly in his cheekbones and Stretch hunched down in his seat, weirdly embarrassed in a way he hadn’t been with Red. At least Red could see what he was staring at, Doris only had him waxing poetically about Edge’s hips to go by, and Shakespeare he wasn’t.

“yeah, yeah,” Stretch grumbled, and damn, he should’ve brought along his hoodie, at least he could’ve hidden from the laughter shining in her translucent eyes. She had a dimple in the cheek on her good side and it deepened as Stretch admitted, “could be that i enjoy the view. but that’s it, okay? just a little sightseeing, i don’t need any souvenirs.”

“Uh huh,” Doris clicked her tongue thoughtfully, “Stretch, my mama always told me you can’t hurry up a good time by waiting for it.”

Other people were starting to come into the theater now. One of them gave him a curious look, but they didn’t stop, only followed the others down to the front row.

“the only time i’m looking for is in the nick of,” Stretch sighed. “guess there’s no way around it, i’ll have to read the book.”

He should’ve known not to try to find an easy way out; seemed like all his shortcuts had abandoned him, lately.

Doris laid a hand on his arm and a sudden chill sank its teeth in deep enough for his bones to ache. “I’m sorry I couldn’t help,” Doris said softly.

“nah, you helped plenty,” Stretch told her. She had. Now he knew that scarecrows were slightly more recent, at least within the past century and that maybe the cornfield wasn’t quiet as safe as it’d been played off to be. At least a cornfield without Edgar Allen in it.

The lights started dimming, the first credits beginning to roll. His popcorn was cold, the butter congealing it into clumps of greasy blobs that stuck to his fingers. Stretch ate it anyway, hey, it cost him a dollar, and laughed with Doris as Buster Keaton escaped from a bumbling crowd of cops by grabbing onto a passing car.

His phone was in his pocket, tucked in deep and only lightly pressing against his femur through the thin cloth of his shorts. It vibrated once in a quick, staccato burst while the movie was playing but Stretch ignored it.

That was one lesson he’d learned very well while they still lived under the mountain; if you focused on the task at hand, you didn’t have to think about the ones you left behind.

~~*~~

tbc

[thelastspeecher]

Angenie AU - Untangling

Yes, that is an absolutely horrific title for this ficlet, but I really wanted to give this ficlet a title and this was the best I could come up with.  And it sort of fits.  Gotta untangle all the chaos and crossed wires that happen in this ficlet.  Also, fun fact I recently decided for this AU, which is revealed in this ficlet: this is a rare AU where Angie takes Stan’s last name when they get married.

(This ficlet is the third chronologically.  First chronologically.  Second chronologically.)

——————————————————————————————        

              Stan and Angie followed the McGuckets into the living room.  Mrs. McGucket looked around the room with a slight grimace.

              “Well, this is disgusting.  How’d this place come to such a state?” she asked.

              “You’d have to ask Ford that,” Stan mumbled. Mrs. McGucket glanced at him curiously. “My brother.  He’s the one who owns the place.  Actually, the reason we came here was to check on him.”

              “Hmm.”  Mrs. McGucket snapped her fingers again.  Silver sparkles filled the living room.  When they cleared, the room was clean and neatly organized.  Mrs. McGucket took a seat in the recliner that had magically appeared, lounging like it was a throne.  Mr. McGucket stood next to her, a hand on the back of the seat.

              “I think it’s best if ya tell yer whole story, son,” Mr. McGucket said.  Lute joined his parents.

              “Yeah,” Lute said.  Stan looked at Angie.  She smiled at him encouragingly.  He took a breath.

              “Where do you want me to start?”

              “The manner through which ya met our daughter would be good,” Mr. McGucket said.

              “Right.  I was in the Middle East-”

              “Why?” Lute interrupted.

              “I had business to do there.”

              “What kind?”

              “Look, buddy, just let me get to the important part, okay?” Stan snapped.  Lute scowled, but made a “carry on” gesture.  “I was in the Middle East.  While I was wandering around the desert, I found this oil lamp just sorta sitting on the ground.  I picked it up.  It looked kinda dusty, so I rubbed it.  And Angie came outta it.”

              “How long were ya in the lamp, sweetie?” Mrs. McGucket asked Angie.

              “I ain’t quite sure, Ma,” Angie replied. “But prob’ly at least a couple weeks.”

              “Poor thing,” Mr. McGucket said.

              “I used my first wish for money-” Stan continued.

              “Of course ya did,” Lute muttered.

              “-and I used my second wish to free Angie,” Stan said, ignoring Lute’s interruption.  “I didn’t expect her to stick around to give me the third wish, since, now that she was free, she didn’t need to.  But she did.  And after a while, we started dating.”

              “There was no datin’ while I was beholden to him,” Angie said.  Lute rolled his eyes.  “Lute, if I wanted, I could’ve left him at any point.”

              “Still feels weird,” Lute mumbled.  Mr. McGucket shrugged.

              “It ain’t that dif’rent from how I met yer mother. ‘Course, I used my very first wish to free her.”  Mr. McGucket smiled at Stan.  “Don’t worry, son, I won’t judge ya fer usin’ yer second to free Angie.  The order don’t matter.  What matters is that ya freed my daughter instead of wishin’ fer somethin’ to benefit ya.”

              “Yeah.”  Stan rubbed the back of his neck.  “So, after Angie and I started dating, we sorta kept doing what we were doing before.”

              “Which would be?” Mrs. McGucket asked.

              “Traveling.  Had some fun. Went to weird places.  Angie almost destroyed multiple landmarks with her magic.”  Stan smirked at Angie.  She rolled her eyes, the gesture very similar to her brother’s from a moment ago.

              “Wait, what?” Mrs. McGucket asked.

              “Yeah, Angie sucks at magic.  Unless it’s an actual wish, she messes up a lot.  She’s gotten better, though.  Now, she only really screws up every other spell.”

              “Rude,” Angie said playfully, punching Stan’s shoulder. Stan chuckled.  Mrs. McGucket pursed her lips.  “Ma?”

              “I might want to give ya some exercises to help ya gain more control.”

              “That’s better than what Stan’s been sayin’,” Angie said.  “He keeps thinkin’ that there’s somethin’ wrong, that I should see a magic doctor or somethin’.”

              “I ain’t no doctor, medical or magic,” Mrs. McGucket said.  “But I can do a quick scan of ya, Angie, to see if there’s somethin’ a bit off ‘bout yer energy that could be causin’ difficulty in spelling consistency.”

              “Sounds great,” Stan said.  Angie frowned at him.  “Like I keep saying, someone as smart as you should be better at your job.”

              “But the scan can wait until after ya finish yer story,” Mrs. McGucket said.

              “Right.”  Stan cleared his throat.  “We traveled for a while.  Eventually, we visited my hometown so I could talk to my mom.  And while we were visiting her, she told me that she hadn’t heard from my twin for a while.  So we decided to check in on him.”

              “And?” Mr. McGucket prompted.  Stan opened his mouth.

              Wait.  Do I really need to tell them everything? They don’t need to know the dirty details about my twin brother going to a different universe or whatever.

              “…When we showed up, the house was empty,” Stan said after a moment.  Angie frowned at him.  He soldiered on.  “I decided to use my third wish to find out what happened to Ford, and when I did, Fiddlesticks got teleported in front of us and then passed out.”

              “Fiddleford,” all four McGuckets corrected.

              “Yeah, yeah, whatever.”

              “He’s yer brother-in-law, you should really learn his proper name,” Angie hissed.  Lute leaned forward.

              “Hang on, what did ya just-”

              “Is that the whole story?” Mr. McGucket interjected.  Stan nodded. “Hmm.  Well, I could use some time to ruminate on that.  Sally, want to scan Angie?”

              “Sure thing.”  Mrs. McGucket got up from the chair.  “Angie, follow me to a private room, please.”

              “Sure, Ma.”  Angie stood on her tiptoes to kiss Stan on the cheek.  “Play nice with my Pa and brother, okay?”

              “Since you asked,” Stan sighed.  Angie chuckled and followed her mother out of the room. An awkward silence fell.  “So…”

              “What are yer intentions with my sister?” Lute blurted out.  Stan frowned at him.

              “What?”

              “Lute,” Mr. McGucket sighed.  He raised an eyebrow.  “Though, in all seriousness, do ya intend to marry Angie?”

              “We’re already married.”

              “What?!” Mr. McGucket yelped.

              “We stopped by Vegas a bit ago.  It felt right.  So we got married.”  Stan shrugged.  “No big deal.”

              “I- yes, it most certainly is a big deal!” Mr. McGucket said firmly.  “Marriage is a big commitment.  And yer s’pposed to share the moment ya take on that commitment together.”

              “There were like, a coupla guys there.”

              “Share it with yer fam’ly,” Mr. McGucket insisted. “Not a ‘couple of guys’.”

              “Angie already told you that she felt weird about talking to you, since she wasn’t sure how you’d respond to the whole genie thing,” Stan said.  “That’s why you weren’t invited.  My folks weren’t invited, either.”  Mr. McGucket continued to scowl.  “But, I dunno, if it turns out to be as big a thing for her as it is to you, maybe we can-”

              “Stanley?”  The men looked over.  Mrs. McGucket stood in the entryway, her face carefully neutral.  “Come with me.”

              “Uh, okay.”  Stan followed Mrs. McGucket out of the room, down the hall, and into a bedroom. Judging by how neat the room was, Mrs. McGucket had used her magic to clean it, too.  Stan sat next to Angie, who was sitting on the bed.  “What’s going on?”  His eyes widened.  “Wait, did the scan find something?”

              “Yes.  It did.”

              “Is there something messing with Angie’s magic?”

              “Not yet,” Mrs. McGucket said slowly.  “What I found with the scan, it’ll disrupt her magic, but not fer a lil bit.  It’s too early on.  No, her issue with her magic seems to be that she wasn’t given any proper trainin’. I’ll be sure to give her some guidance and leave her with steps fer practicin’ when we part ways.”

              “Then what did the scan find?”

              “I overheard that ya got married to Angie in Vegas.  Which is a good thing,” Mrs. McGucket said evasively.  Stan frowned, bemused.  Angie put her hand on his knee.

              “Stanley,” she said softly.  She squeezed Stan’s knee.  “I’m pregnant.”  Ringing filled Stan’s ears.

              “You’re what?” he asked.

              “Pregnant.”

              “With twins,” Mrs. McGucket added.  Stan’s jaw dropped.  “It’s too early to tell much more ‘n that with a basic scan like what I just did.  But Angie told me some of what she’s been experiencin’ health-wise lately, and what she said confirmed the results of the scan.”

              “You’re- you’re pregnant?” Stan whispered.  Angie nodded, tears in the corners of her eyes. “I’m- I’m gonna be a dad?”

              “Yes, dear, you are,” Angie said.

              “What?!” a voice shrieked.  The door to the bedroom slammed open, revealing Lute. Lute glared at Stan.  “The first time I see my baby sister in ages, it’s with some feller what freed her from a lamp, then dated her, then married her, then got her pregnant?  This ain’t right!”

              “Lute!” Angie scolded, jumping to her feet. “Nothin’ is wrong with any of what ya just said!  Yer just strugglin’ with it ‘cause this is the first time you’ve met Stan.”

              “And this first time, I’ve learned everything I needed to ‘bout him,” Lute said firmly.  Stan got to his feet.

              “C’mon, man, stop overreacting like this.”

              “I ain’t overreacting,” Lute snarled, stomping over to Stan.  He jabbed Stan’s chest with a pointed finger.  “Yer a stranger to me, but ya knocked up my lil sister.  I don’t want ya ‘round here.”

              “Like you can make me go anywhere,” Stan scoffed. Suddenly, copper sparkles appeared around Stan, blinding him.  When his vision cleared, he was in the front yard.  “What the-”

              “Lute, what did ya do?!” Angie’s voice shouted from inside the house.

              “I didn’t do nothin’!”

              “Yes, ya did!” Angie argued.  Stan rushed back inside, slamming the door behind him. “What was-”

              “I’m fine, Ang,” Stan called.  “I wound up in the front yard.  Don’t know how.”

              “Lute did it,” Angie said.  Stan headed for the bedroom.  Mr. McGucket had joined his wife and children there.  Angie glared at her brother.  “Guess he’s a genie, too.”

              “I ain’t no-”

              “Every genie’s magic has its own color,” Mrs. McGucket interjected.  “Angie’s is gold.  Mine is silver.  The magic what accompanied Stan disappearin’ to the front yard was copper.”

              “Not to mention, Lute, you wanted Stan out of here,” Angie pointed out.

              “Bang-up job on that, by the way,” Stan said. “You sent me, what, thirty feet?”

              “Sorry, next time I’ll send ya to the bottom of the ocean,” Lute said tartly.  Mrs. McGucket glared at him.

              “Lute Everett, that’s it!” she snapped.  She grabbed Lute’s ear and dragged him out of the bedroom.

              “Ow, ow!” Lute yelped.  “Ma!”

              “Yer father ‘n I ‘re goin’ to have a talk with ya while we let Stan ‘n Angie deal with their big news,” she said firmly. Mr. McGucket sighed.  He looked at Stan and Angie.

              “Congratulations, you two.”

              “Thanks, Pa,” Angie said quietly.  Mr. McGucket kissed her forehead.

              “I’m just glad to have ya back.  Ya comin’ back with a husband and baby on the way, why, that’s just sugar on top.  But I better go help scold some sense into yer brother.”  Mr. McGucket patted Stan on the shoulder and left.  Stan closed the door behind him.

              “Your family’s intense,” Stan said.  Angie smiled and sat back down on the bed.

              “We’re married.  That means they’re yer fam’ly, too.”  She frowned.  “By the way, my fam’ly don’t really tolerate lyin’.”

              “So?” Stan asked.  He sat next to her.

              “You lied.”

              “About…?”

              “About what ya found when we arrived at this house. Why’d ya tell my folks that Stanford wasn’t here?  He was.”

              “I know Ford was here.  I was the one who got him through a portal and into a different universe, remember?”

              “Why’d ya lie?” Angie repeated.  “My folks have a lot of experience and wisdom.  And my ma’s definitely a better genie than I am. They’d be able to help us-”  Angie stopped mid-sentence.  She stared at Stan.  “You don’t want their help.”

              “No.”

              “Why not?”

              “Look.  I’m sure that your parents are nice people.  But Ford was clearly in some deep shit before he went wherever he went. I don’t want your family sticking their big noses into whatever Ford was up to here.”

              “Big noses, huh?” Angie asked, raising an eyebrow.

              “Oh, come on.  You know that I wasn’t ragging on your nose,” Stan scoffed.

              “I certainly hope not, ‘cause there’s a high likelihood one of yer children will have that nose.”

              “And it’ll look as gorgeous on the kid as it does on you,” Stan said firmly.  Angie smiled. “Seriously, though, I really don’t want your folks to get involved in Pines family business.”

              “I’m involved.”

              “You’re a Pines.  Or did you say you’d take my last name just to make me feel better or something?”

              “No, I took yer name ‘cause it looked so good on ya,” Angie teased.  She interlaced her fingers with Stan’s.  “Now that I’ve contacted my fam’ly, I can settle back into my proper identity a bit and get the paperwork done, make me legally a Pines.”  Stan grinned at her.  She looked down.  “You really don’t want my fam’ly to know anything ‘bout Ford’s sit’ation?”

              “No.”

              “All right.”  Angie took a breath.  “We’ll keep ‘em out of it.”  Stan kissed the top of her head.

              “Thanks, babe.”

              “Wow, a ‘thanks’ that I didn’t need to use magic to get?”

              “I’m gonna be a dad, remember?  I’ve gotta learn how to be responsible and use manners and shit like that,” Stan said.  Angie chuckled.  “Damn, we’re gonna be parents.  We’re gonna need a house for the kids.”

              “I’m assumin’ that ya want to stay in Gravity Falls so’s that it’ll be easier to get yer brother back.”  Angie looked around the room.  “This ain’t that bad of a place.  We could stay here.”

              “In my brother’s creepy rundown shack?  Uh, no.  We’ve got enough money to get something nice.”

              “All those five-star hotels really spoiled ya, huh?”

              “Yep,” Stan said cheerfully.  Angie laughed.  “Maybe we can go for a drive around town later to look for a house appropriate for someone in our tax bracket.”

              “Like you pay taxes.”

              “When I’m a dad, I probably should.  Don’t wanna go to jail when I’ve got two kids at home.”

              “Aw.”  Angie kissed Stan’s cheek.  “Yer already changin’ yer criminal ways fer yer babies, and they ain’t even born yet.”

[spiderparkerpeterman]

kissing your best friend

anonymous asked: Hi this is a rly cringe-y request huhu but do u know the “i try kissing my best friend” tiktok trend? [...] Hehe sorry it’s v specific but lots of changes are up to u ofc ily

this fic made me feel real old, i'll tell you that. but it was fun to write! specific requests are good sometimes. i had no idea what this trend was before the request, so it was a cute learning experience. thanks so much for the request! i've shortened it as to not give away the plot.

content: fluff, tiny bit of angst, peter parker the awkward gen z wildcard

warnings: i only use tiktok to let out meme steam and it shows, really bad twerking

word count: 1579 (whoops i went off hard)

--

peter was a nervous wreck. he had invited you over to his apartment- not an unusual occurrence- and led you into his bedroom- this happened all the time- and set up his cracked and duct-taped laptop so you could watch silly youtube videos together while curled up on his bed- what was new?- with a bowl of popcorn rested in-between his crossed legs. but this normal, everyday situation wasn't why he was borderline sweating, his heart pounding, fingers shaking.

it was that damn tiktok he'd seen earlier this morning. he had woken up and scrolled through tiktok to see what was new and popular. he came across one, where a girl was holding her phone with a guy behind her, the two smiling, the caption saying "this is my best friend". there were a few clips of them being all cute and whatnot until it said "i decided to kiss him!" and then she had tapped him on the shoulder, held his face and pulled him in, sharing a kind of awkward kiss, until they broke apart and her best friend leant in again and the video looped. something within peter's chest had done double flips, only intensifying when he thought of maybe... maybe doing that with you.

and now here you were, on his bed, laughing at the meme compilation you two were watching- well, that you were watching, while peter daydreamed and sweated some more- eating popcorn that you were getting from a bowl in-between his legs, being all cute and sweet and pretty. but he wanted to do this. he really wanted to do this. he'd liked you for ages, after you had run into each other at the same circuit in gym class and he had taught you the proper form for situps. the way you had smiled at him, completed your circuit and jogged off and then later caught up with him at lunch to say thanks and "maybe we should hang out sometime?" had made him obsessed. it had got to the point where even ned was throwing hints that you liked him and he liked you and wouldn't you two make such a cute couple? and then you were paired up together for a spanish project and the way the language rolled off your tongue made him fall even deeper in love and-

peter had to do this. for ned's sanity. for his own sanity. because if he didn't do this soon he would give up and maybe kiss you in the middle of class or something.

he cleared his throat, prompting you to look at him.

"can i make a tiktok?" he asked, his voice somewhat strained. "there's this thing going around where people show off their best friends, it's pretty nice."

"oh, sure," you replied sitting up. "what do you want me to do?"

peter pursed his lips, unlocking his phone and opening tiktok. he went into his bookmarked sounds, selected that song to make a tiktok with, and then held it up like he was going to take a selfie. "maybe just like smile and wave? and then i wanna get a few videos of us just doing our everyday things, y'know?"

you nodded, taking a second to fix your hair. peter pressed record and grinned, somewhat nervously. you also smiled softly, raising a hand and waving. he stopped the recording, and the two of you collapsed into giggles.

"sorry, that was really awkward," he groaned.

"you're really awkward," you countered, running a hand through your hair. "what's next?"

"i dunno... maybe just you mucking around? i, uh, i really don't know!" peter laughed.

you rolled your eyes with a grin, getting off peter's bed and standing up. peter was typing a caption for the portion of the video, so you waited for him. he held the phone camera up at you.

"what are you gonna do?" he asked. you looked off at the side, considering, but while you were doing that peter pressed record.

"you should dance with me," you said. peter put his phone down, and you gasped. "did you- you just filmed that!"

"yeah, i did," peter laughed. he felt his nervousness fading away as he joked around with you, so he felt like he could really do this. "you wanna dance?"

"yeah," you replied, leaning forward to grab his hands gently and pull him up. peter felt his skin burnup where you were touching him, but he smiled. "set your phone up, and we'll dance."

"what kind of dance?" peter asked as he bent back down to get his phone, crossing his room to set it up on a shelf at shoulder-height so that the video would capture your antics. he selected how long to record hands-free, but didn't press record just yet. he turned to you.

"you should twerk," you suggested jokingly, but peter had an idea. he pressed record, smirking, ran over to you, and started shaking his butt at you. the acoustic music played, nowhere near suitable enough for his "twerking". you laughed aloud and started mockingly hitting his butt. you messed around for a few more seconds, even after peter's phone stopped recording.

he stood back up and nudged you, laughing. his face was bright red, and you laughed even harder at that. he went back to get his phone and selected another few seconds to record hands-free.

"what should we do now?" he asked.

"not sure," you replied, crossing the room to rest your head on his shoulder. you reached out and pressed record for him. "i could just stare at you creepily like this."

the music started playing so you widened your eyes and stared intently at him, but peter immediately burst out laughing and knocked your head off his shoulder. you grinned at the camera just as it finished recording.

"okay," peter said, selecting the last bit to film. this was it. "now i want you to stand here, and like make weird faces at the camera or something, i don't know."

"i can do that," you replied, standing next to him.

he reached out and pressed the record, looking at you through the phone's capture as you put two peace signs up. he smiled then turned, and gently cradled your face, turning it towards him. he leant in, hearing you gasp and feeling you also lean in and-

a loud ding came from his phone- a police alert. he sprung away from you, swearing. you looked away from him, your cheeks bright pink. he left tiktok, now playing the loop of the tiktok, and went into his police app, seeing a shootout in brooklyn.

"i have to go," he stammered, rushing around his room to take off his clothes- you looked away pointedly- put his spider-man suit on, find his spare web fluid just in case and where the hell was his mask? he stopped just as he was about to climb out the window.

"stay here," he said, "please. i'll be back soon. just stay. i'll explain everything, i promise."

he lept from the window, leaving you shellshocked, webbing himself up and away. he almost smacked into multiple buildings on his way over to the shootout, too distracted to really pay attention.

did you really lean in?

he arrived at the scene, not saying his usual quips as he pulled guns away and webbed people to walls and avoided the hail of bullets coming his way and broke one guy's nose.

no, he totally imagined it.

when he had dealt with everyone he didn't stop to chat with the police, just webbed himself back to where you were, hopefully waiting, please be waiting...

he leaned in really quickly, and he was nervous, but maybe...?

he clambered back into his window and pulled off his mask. you were curled up on his desk chair, scrolling through your phone. he stared at you.

"i looked it up," you said, not looking at him, your voice quiet, "best friend tiktoks. the only thing that came up was kissing your best friend."

it took peter a few seconds to open his throat back up. "yeah."

you looked at him, something sad in your eyes.

"did you-"

"i only-"

peter bit his lip, gesturing for you to speak first. "go."

you took a deep breath. "did you- did you just do it for views? it's a kinda popular trend and so i was just wondering... i mean, it'd kinda suck if you did, and i mean- um..." you trailed off, looking away again.

"i- no, i just... uh, did you see that most people who do it have a crush on their best friends?" he asked, hoping you'd get the message.

you looked at him again, confused. but then that confusion morphed into comprehension, and then that comprehension morphed into hope and-

"you mean it?" you whispered.

peter threw his mask away somewhere, striding up to you and pulled your hands up so you'd stand. he held your face again, so gently, as you stared back at him with your big eyes, and leaned in. your lips touched, and something exploded in peter's chest. he shifted an arm to your waist, holding you tight against him, as your arms snaked around his neck, holding him closer.

a few moments later, you broke apart, your face bright pink again. peter knew his face was just as bright.

"i think we need to adjust the tiktok," he murmured, before leaning in to kiss you again.

[writteninvisibly]

A Reunion Of Sorts

A/N: :) SDB-verse my beloved

"Heads up!"

Bea looked up just in time to brace for the pizza skin spiraling toward her, left hand going up to spin the dough around, catching it and placing it on the screen. "You asshole."

Ada grinned and budged toward her just close enough to be heard over the oven without shouting across the store. "Check out the guy at Table Three. Could he be staring at you any harder?"

She snorted, shaking her head and saucing the pizza. "Yeah, whatever."

"Seriously. You should just tell him to take a picture, it would last longer."

Bea rolled her eyes, looking up finally to see the guy sitting at Table Three staring at her intently, but when she made eye contact with those piercing green eyes, he flushed and looked away.

"I dunno. He's kinda cute." There was something about him that seemed… familiar, but she just couldn't place it.

"You should give him something to look at. Put on a little show for him."

Bea shook her head and smacked Ada on the ass. "You mean like that?” A grin spread across her face as the other girl jumped and laughed loudly, quieting to snickers as the guy looked up again. “You are so annoying.” She glanced at him again, tongue pressed to the roof of her mouth as she thought. "I feel like I should know him for some reason, he seems super familiar."

"Weird. You should ask for his number, maybe give him a little somethin' somethin'."

"I hate you. You're the absolute worst. Also I'm so not single."

"Um, hey."

Bea's eyes shot up to see Table Three Guy standing in front of her. She wasn't single, but God he was hot. "Hi, how can I help you?" She gave him her best bright grin and customer service voice, confused when he grimaced slightly.

"Um. Bea?"

She blinked, surprised at the sound of her own name. "... Yes?"

"I'm, uh. Crap. I um. I wasn't expecting you not to recognize me. I'm, um? I'm Harper. Harper Edwards? We, um."

Bea's jaw dropped. "Harper?! Holy shit! You're lying. You’re lying to me. Oh my god how are you?!"

He smiled sheepishly, and oh, there goes Bea's heart. "Yeah, um." He cleared his throat and scratched at the back of his neck. "Yeah, I've been good. Just graduated with a double major, so it's nice to have that under my belt."

"Congratulations! That's great!"

"Yeah, uh. So what are you doing in town? I wouldn't, uh. Expect to see you here."

"Yeah, well. Leona and I, we live just outside of town? We never really… went anywhere. We liked it here, so we didn’t really see any reason to leave.”

“Oh.” His shoulders slumped a little bit, a tiny spark of hope fading just a little.

Bea’s heart hurt. She’d missed this stupid kid. She’d missed him so much, and-

She has a girlfriend! No matter how much she missed Harper, she had a girlfriend at home who was so hot and sexy and whom she loved very much. She had a girlfriend, and-

And her very hot and sexy girlfriend whom she loved very much had told her, late one night as they were curled up together in bed, years ago, that sometimes she thought about what it would have been like if Harper had been open to polyamory, and god wasn’t that something to think about....

Later. She would think about that later, at home with Leona, right now, she was going to find out how to reconnect with her high school boyfriend.

“Hey.” She pulled her phone out of her pocket and handed it across the counter to Harper. “Give me your number. Your mom told me you changed it, and I could never remember to ask her for it. We have to hang out sometime, catch up on everything.”

He eyed the phone warily, hesitant as he reached out to take it, typing in her password without a second thought. His adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed at the sight of Leona smiling brightly from the phone’s homescreen. “Sure thing.” He swiped through and opened the contacts app, knowing better than to open anything else. A flash. A memory, laughing, swatting Bea away and holding her phone up in the air, keeping it away from her as she jabbed at his side, trying to get him to fold. It hurt, his heart. An old ache, one he’d thought had healed by now. But it was fine. It was fine. “How are you guys doing, by the way?”

“Oh, you know. We’ve got some apple trees, a little strawberry patch. Leo likes to make jams for the farmer’s market.”

“No chickens?”

She grinned, bright and heartstopping.

Harper rubbed at his chest carefully, trying to tame the rhythm pounding behind his ribs.

“No chickens. Leo tried to convince me, but as you well know I have a very firm stance. We compromised with a dairy cow. She’s still little, we didn’t get her that long ago, but I’d die for her.”

“What did you name her?”

His eyes were soft as he asked the question, and Bea’s foot began tapping the floor, trying to release some of the tension seizing her body. “Bubba. She’s a cutie. You should come over some time, we can introduce you!”

“Yeah, well. Give me a text, I guess. I, uh. I’d better get going, I promised my mom I’d help her do some cleaning around the house.”

“Totally. I’ll see you around?”

“Yeah.” He gave her a small smile, waving to the girl standing behind her as he turned to go and pay his bill.

“Are you kidding me?”

Bea waited until her heart stopped pounding before turning to Ada, eyebrow raised in a question. “What?”

“Girl. What the hell was that?”

“I don’t know what you mean.” She cleared her throat and squinted at the order screen, disappointed to see it empty, nothing waiting to distract her from that moment.

“Yes, you do. Did you know that guy?”

“Uh. Yeah, yeah I did. That was, uh. That was my… ex.”

“WHAT?!”

Bea winced, shoulders creeping toward her ears as she cringed away from the noise. “Can you not?”

“You dated that guy?!”

“In high school, yeah. I haven’t seen him in… years.”

“No no, we’re not moving past this. You dated him?! That guy? Mr. ‘Perfect-Stubble-Lumberjack’ that you just talked to?”

“Yeah. What’s the big deal?”

“Okay, I was joking earlier, but genuinely. You have to hit that. That guy was practically screaming ‘I love you’ with those stupid big green eyes of his. And he was hot. If you don’t get down and dirty with that guy, I will never forgive you. Never.”

“You’re fucking dumb.” Bea busied herself prepping an order of breadsticks, needing something to do with her hands. Some way to get rid of the tension riddling her body. “I’m not single, dude.”

“Well I am. What’s his name?”

“Fuck off. Ada.” Bea grabbed her arm, jaw clenched. “I’m serious, that guy… I just- he’s- please. He’s not your type, I promise.”

---

“Good morning.” Bea stepped through the door with a sigh, pausing to drop a kiss on Leona’s forehead as she passed through the living room on her way to the bathroom.

“Good morning.” Leona laughed softly and turned into the feeling, eyes following Bea’s retreating form with a smile as she dogeared a page in her book. She tucked her legs up underneath her, turning in the armchair to watch as Bea splashed water on her face, taking her hair out of a braid. “How was work?”

“Tragically slow.” She gave her a strained smile over her shoulder before hesitating, fingers stilling in her hair. “I, uh… I saw Harper today.”

“Edwards? Like, your ex?”

“Yep. I guess… I guess he’s in town. He said he graduated just recently with a double major.”

“In what?”

“Dunno.” She shrugged.”I was so busy focusing on the fact that I didn’t recognize him at first, I didn’t think to ask.”

“Hmm.” She set the book aside and rose from the chair, drifting over to give the other girl a kiss. Her nose wrinkled. “You smell like pizza.”

Bea snorted and pinched Leona in the side. “Jerk.”

“Well how was he?”

“Good, I think. I mean, he seemed good. He, uh. He grew up a lot, he’s got, like, almost a beard going on now, so that’s… That sure is… something.” She stepped away to start the shower and strip off her shirt, grimacing as a cloud of flower rose once it hit the floor. “God, I smell gross.” She rested her head on Leona’s shoulder, making a noise of protest and wriggling away as the other girl tried to stroke her hair. “Stop, I’m all sweaty.”

Leona rolled her eyes and felt around behind her for the counter, hopping up and letting her heels bump against the cabinet. “So what about it?”

Bea shrugged, eyes pinned to a spot on the floor, distant. “I dunno. Just thought it was interesting I saw him.”

“Uh huh. And there was absolutely no ulterior motive in telling me about it?”

She blinked, refocusing, and looked up at Leona to pout, “Can’t I just tell my girlfriend about the things that happened at work today just because I love her?”

“Well, no, you definitely can do that. But you can also tell your girlfriend about how you saw your ex-boyfriend that you’ve somewhat regretted breaking up with from day one at work, and how suddenly you’re a little more distant than usual, and not in the way you usually are just from coming home tired.” She drew her legs up, folding them underneath her and leaning back against the counter, ducking her head in an attempt to make Bea meet her eyes. “So? Do we wanna try this again, but this time you actually tell me what you’re thinking?”

“I don’t know what I’m thinking.” Bea sighed and slid down the wall, drawing her knees up to her chest, eyes unfocused like her brain was moving a mile a minute. “I don’t know what to tell you, I really don’t.” She squeezed her eyes shut, scrubbing at her face, before looking up at Leona. “Leo, I didn’t recognize him. He goes away to college for what, three,1 four years, and then when he comes back, I don’t even know what his face looks like anymore? That boy was my best friend in elementary school, and then we dated for a year and a half, and then he went off to college, and now I don’t even know what he looks like. What the fuck.”

“Honey?”

“Yeah?” Bea’s eyes had gone distant again without her even realizing it, and when she blinked back into focus, Leona had a small smile on her face, but her eyes looked… sad.

“The shower’s warm.”

“Oh. Right.” She didn’t move for a long moment, taking a moment to reorient herself, trying to convince her body to stand.

“Need help?”

She hesitated, trying to communicate the stand up command to her legs before sighing and giving up. “Yeah, please.”

“Come here.” Leona hopped off the counter and held out a hand to her girlfriend, pulling her to her feet and slipping her thumbs through the belt loops above her hips. She pressed a gentle kiss to Bea’s bare shoulder, humming softly as the other girl rested her forehead in the crook of her neck. “You know I love you, right? No matter what?”

“I know.”

The answer was soft, barely loud enough to be heard, but Leona tightened her hands at the other girl’s waist all the same. “Okay. Go get in the shower, I’ll make you some food, and then once you’re done we can talk about this some more, alright?”

“Okay.” Quiet again, almost like Bea couldn’t make her voice any louder. She sighed and drew back slightly, giving Leona a kiss, swaying just a bit as her eyes closed. “I’m fucking exhausted.”

“Yeah, seems like it’s been one of those days.”

Bea laughed, a noise that sounded like it startled from her chest, her eyes opening. “It’s certainly been a day.”

Leona smiled, then swatted at her, “Get in the damn shower, you’re wasting water.”

“Okay, okay! I’m going! Jeez.”

She smiled and stepped out of the room, closing the door behind her and leaning against it with a sigh. She rubbed at her eyes, thinking about bright green eyes and strawberry blonde hair, and the boy that had been a part of her girlfriend’s heart for as long as she could remember. If nothing else, this was certainly going to be an adventure.

Taglist: @aeolus-x @ellfewritings