#more pizza brian

[porrigens]

i like to draw him eating

[muscleloverz69]

A Raw Deal

To a normal person one of the fae might appear human. In fact it is nearly impossible to tell the two apart. The only difference is the fae are always extremely hot. One of the most important rules of dealing with the fae is never make a deal. Unfortunately, Brian had no idea Nick was anything but a young vendor at the music festival. 

All the food looked so good to Brian and he was so hungry, too bad he realized he was flat broke once he reached the front of the line. He looked up from his empty wallet at Nick to apologize and completely froze. Brian had always been completely straight but even he could admit Nick was one of the most attractive men he had ever seen with completely chiseled features, perfect lean muscles that complemented his narrow waist and thick upper thighs spread out in his seat. Nick smirked “Hey dude, you good?” 

“Oh yeah sorry I’m flat broke my bad I’ll step out of line.”

Brian was so flustered he completely missed the predatory gleam in Nick’s eyes. “Bro don’t even worry about it, I’ll make you a deal help me out in the back for a couple hours and lunch is on me.”

“Wow really, thanks!”

“Of course! The only rule is you can’t eat until we’re done or it’ll mess up my inventory count.”

Brian was so hungry but he knew he could struggle through a couple hours for a free lunch, so he nodded and followed Nick into the tent behind the counter.

The moment Brian entered the tent he felt his stomach cramp up, the most delicious smells of pies, cookies, and sandwiches were coming at him from every angle.

“So, I really just need you to stay here for the next two hours and make sure nobody sneaks back here and eats anything.”

Brian could only shake his head in agreement and watch as Nick walked away admiring his full ass move as he did. He rubbed his eyes trying to snap himself out of it. Brian had never so much as looked at a man in his entire life but maybe the hunger and partying from the past couple days was getting to him.

Not to mention Brian was a little sex-starved. It wasn’t that he was unattractive. Some would definitely think he was cute but it was always in a twinky nerd way. He looked nothing like Nick who was already occupying more space in his mind than another man should.

The first hour wasn’t easy, but Brian just tried to ignore the food around him and relax. He didn’t notice Nick peek through the entrance. Nick was starting to wonder if Brian would make it the full time and decided he needed to turn up the challenge. Nick walked back into the tent holding a large pizza. “Hey, this came a little early its for after you’re done working but it might be a little cold by then.”

Nick shrugged and walked back out. Brian sweated it out for a few minutes before finally stuffing his face with the pizza. It only took a few bites before Brian could tell something was wrong. First he felt a burning sensation on his arm, then in big letters NICK was written in black on his arm. He found himself frozen unable to move at all.

Brian stood there unable to move for the next few hours until it got late. Then Nick walked in with a wicked smile across his face. “Hello Brian, so it looks like you couldn’t wait to eat. Unfortunately, that means you are now my servant.”

Nick snapped his fingers and Brian found myself able to speak but my feet were still planted to the ground.

“WHAT. I don’t understand I’m sorry I couldn’t help myself.”

“Brian, it’s quite alright. These things happen you’ll come home with me and the details of your contract will be provided shortly.”

Nick walked forward to Brian wrapping his muscular arms around his waist. Nick brushed under Brians chin forcing them to make eye contact. Nick leaned in their lips brushing against each other. “We are going to have fun together.”

Brian woke up in a large bed sore and confused. As he looked around his eyes landed on a man. He was an attractive guy, large boulder shoulders and beefy pecs that shadowed over him.

“You’re up,” the man walked over to him.

“My name is Jock how do you feel?”

Brian shook his head confused, “your name is Jock.”

“I don’t think it was always Jock but that’s what master said it is now.”

It was then Brian glanced down at his arm to the letters NICK and remembered what happened. Jock went on to explain that Nick was a fae and had tricked the both of them into becoming his slaves. They were now magically forced to do anything Nick asked. 

“Really anything master wants you’ll do, become, or believe,” Jock sat down on the bed. “I didn’t always look like this but this is what master wanted for when he has fun with me”

Brian was in disbelief at what a quick turn his life had taken. “So what can I do? I’m not gay and I don’t want to be owned.”

Jock shook his head “There really isn’t anything you can do, my only advice, Master offers everyone the same deal…take it.”

It was then the door swung open. Nick walked in to the bedroom shirtless, his tight muscles reminding Brian of some predatory cat. “Jock thank you for watching our new guest, you can go.”

Like that Jock was gone. Now it was just Brain and Nick.

“So Brian I trust Jock filled you in. Now its time to make you more suited for my home. First I value fitness so grow your muscles for me.” 

Brian hardly had a chance to be confused before he felt his stomach ache and looked down to see a set of cobbled defined abs. He suddenly felt much wider as his shoulders and back spread. His pecs began to balloon and his biceps thickened.

Nick smiled as he closed the distance between them. “Now you look tasty.” 

Nick kissed Brian pushing him backward on the bed. Brian opened his mouth to say something but Nick cut him off “You will participate and try to please me.”

Brian quickly got the message and allowed his lips to part for Nick’s tongue. Brian tossed his own shirt on the floor. Internally he was screaming, I’m not gay, but he couldn’t help but try to make Nick happy.

Nick groped Brian’s new arms before cupping his face. “Now time for a few more things. First Brian doesn’t quite suite you anymore, I think from now on you’ll be Thad and you can forget it was ever anything else.”

Thad was confused. Wait wasn’t his name always Thad. Was that right?” 

Nick interupted Thad’s thinking, ”The only thing is that name isn’t known for being intellegent so let’s dumb you down and make you a little more bro-y”

Thad felt a relaxing fog descend on him, he didn’t mind it. “Bruh that kinda feels sick.”

“Now just one last thing. I offer everyone this deal, now it’s your turn. You will live hear forever but if you agree to become gay I will make you happy to be here. Then you’ll have as much fun with our encounters as me. I could just make these changes myself, but honestly it’s no difference to me how you feel and the choice is more fun.”

Thad felt confused. A feeling he would probably have to get used to with his new intellect, but he needed to choose. Thad decided that if this was his new life he might as well enjoy it.

“Ok dude, do it.”

Thad felt it almost instantly. He was in the best place ever, and standing in front of him was the sexiest man he had ever seen. Thad almost lept forward, ripping Nicks pants off and began latching onto his cock. Nick gripped Thad’s new styled hair as his head bobbed up and down. Then Nick came. Nick chuckled Thad didn’t know it but the entire spell only would have lasted 24 hours then he could have gone home free, but now that he willingly drank Nick’s cum the spell was sealed forever.

Meanwhile Thad was in total bliss he was going to love being here with Nick and Jock.

[delicatestones]

Various Parahuman Teen Couples Go To The Mall

Brian and Taylor: Going to the mall is a normal thing neither of them enjoy, which is precisely why they convince themselves that they should do it. Brian musters up hope that he will be able to carry Taylor's bags and wait for her on benches outside of clothes stores, which will affirm his value as a man. Taylor, who only wants to buy a single hoodie, anxiously refuses to let Brian carry her bag because she doesn't want to be a burden, which banishes Brian to the Masculine Insecurity Pocket Dimension in his own mind. They attempt to rally by going to the food court, where they try to have an awkward 'normal' conversation over greasy pizza slices.

Fortunately, a supervillain they have history with attacks the mall mid-pizza, and they rush off to change in the mall bathrooms and return to thoroughly beat the interloper's ass. Brian apologizes for the mall date going wrong (secretly relieved, also deeply compelled by watching Taylor break a guy's arm with a baton) while Taylor says it's no big deal (even more relieved, mesmerized by Brian's visible sweat on the back of his neck). They may or may not awkwardly touch hands at the fire exit before they flee the scene of the crime.

Krouse and Noelle (Pre-Simurgh): On a quest for limited edition Ransack merch at the Gamestop, which turns out to be all sold out or on reserve. Krouse tries to social engineer it out of the clerk anyway, but Noelle gets so visibly uncomfortable he desists. In the depths of excruciating failure he says something shitty about the guy's haircut after they leave the store and Noelle tells him he's being a dick, which he apologizes excessively for in a way that just makes it more awkward.

In a now desperate effort to turn things around, Krouse tries to lighten the mood by latching onto listing Alternative Mall Activities including one of those photo booth set ups. He makes fun of how cliche they are and how it would be completely lame if they went into one, which transitions into cajoling Noelle to join him in this extremely cringe activity for the bit. She says her hair looks dumb and she doesn't want to, so he gallantly offers her his over-sized hoodie so she can hide her face the entire time, a gesture he does not realize extends the shelf life of their relationship for a solid two weeks. His visible joy when she agrees to the idea adds another week to the tail end of that. They hold hands on the way to the parking lot.

His copy of their photos becomes an instantly precious memento he sticks on the wall above his bed; Noelle puts hers in her picture shoebox in her closet. He spends all night on E-bay overbidding for the merch.

Krouse and Noelle (Post-Simurgh): Twelve Injured One Dead In 'Food Court Nightmare'.

Dean and Victoria: It takes Victoria half an hour to get ready for a mall trip. Dean shows up too early to pick her up and engages Carol Dallon in small talk for twenty minutes, a time span in which Carol manages to list every single one of Victoria's deepest insecurities in the form of barely veiled criticism while Dean smiles like he's being held at gunpoint.

At the mall they get stopped outside the Gap by a gaggle of Glory Girl preteen fans. Dean holds Victoria's bags (many) while she goes through the New Wave Fan Experience Checklist. Victoria says something afterwards to him on the way to the next store that hints at the Dallon Torment Nexus. Dean continues smiling and offers the mildest possible effort at sympathy, which Victoria reacts to with virulent irritation, so he gives up and buys her a mall outlet jewelry store diamond tennis bracelet instead. Thus mollified, she proceeds to allow him to obtain Jamba Juice for the both of them. It's another normal (bad) day in Brockton Bay.

Aisha and Alec: There strictly to cause problems for the sake of causing problems. Alec 'distracts' the staff at Hot Topic by faking a fall into a rack of studded belts and loudly insisting he will sue them for emotional and psychic damages while Aisha shoplifts bracelets. They buy hot pretzels and perch on the edge of the mall fountain marked 'NO LOITERING' to conspicuously loiter while occasionally kicking each other in the ankle. When a security guard tries to get them to move they collaborate on roasting his bloodline back to medieval times, triggering rent-a-cop wrath and a threat to call the Real Cops.

Now officially Wronged By The System, they decamp to breaking into the mall's back corridors (going through an unlocked access door) to vandalize the security office while throwing gummy worms at each other's mouths and missing 70% of the time. In high spirits, they make their cunning exit (leaving through the same door) and sneak into a horror movie at the mall theater halfway through its run time. They heckle the on-screen slasher victims for being idiots until an usher shows up with the original security guard, and then book it for the outside world while laughing like small and charming hyenas.

They agree they should totally rob the mall for real later, preferably while Brian and Taylor are on their make-up mall date, because they are good and kind teammates who only want the best for them.

(This post inspired by the learned discourses of Wormblr character understanders, particularly users lakesbian and simurghed. Any mischaracterizations and errors are my own. These hypotheticals are a non-representative sample of Ways They Could Be At The Mall.)

[ladykailitha]

Icarus Part 25

Damn. I actually hate seeing that number up there. Because that means it's done. Eight months, twenty-five chapters, 52895 words, and one hell of a ride.

I'll start posting the sequel on Tuesday, and will post Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays until it's done. I hope to get it done before October's end. But that's not looking likely at the moment.

But once it's done, I will post the epilogue. This was actually written first and was a way for me to flesh out the band members. Then I just wanted to dive right in to writing the full story. A link to the original idea here.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 Part 15 Part 16 Part 17 Part 18 Part 19 Part 20 Part 21 Part 22 Part 23 Part 24

~

The rest of the American tour while it had its ups and downs was pretty much was uneventful. When Steve got back to Cali, he got some actual therapy from someone Gareth’s therapist, Dr. Sam Owens recommended to him. To not only deal with the abandonment issues left by his parents and Nancy but to help deal with the sudden onslaught of fame.

It was going well.

It was the therapist that had strongly recommended going on the vacation with his two best friends. That really helped put his life in perspective.

They were out celebrating Gareth’s one year of being sober and everyone had been invited. Jeff, Brian, and Eddie, of course. Even Vickie made it out. Dustin, Will, Mike, Max, Lucas, Ellie, Hopper, Robin, all the members of The Fallen, sans persona. Gareth had really become friends with all of them, yes even Steve. Gareth and Shane became really close. It was nice to see.

“Cheers!” Jeff said holding up their glasses of sparkling apple cider that they had all brought to share.

“Cheers!” the rest of them cried, clinking their glasses together.

They had rented out a nice surf and turf restaurant for the occasion and everyone was catching up. The owner was a friend of Jonathan’s, Argyle Rivera. He had gotten his start with a pizza food truck and it just exploded.

“So what did you and Mike decide to do?” Steve asked when there was a lull in the conversation. “I know you two weren’t sure the last time I was in Hawkins.”

Mike and Will shared a bashful look before Mike said, “I wrote a children’s book and Will illustrated it. We sent it out to a couple of different publishers so we’re just waiting to hear back.”

“That’s amazing!” Dustin cried. “You guys are going to be awesome.”

“Yeah,” Will said brightly. “I finally convinced Jonathan into going in to photography at the local community collage and he’s doing really well.”

“Nancy is going to school, too,” Mike said quietly, knowing how most of the group felt about his sister.

Eddie raised his eyebrows. “Yeah? What is the once great Nancy Wheeler going to be studying?”

Mike perked up a little that someone had taken a interest in what he said. “She’s actually going into journalism. Especially to be a war corespondent. After everything rightfully fell apart after the incident with The Fallen and Corroded Coffin, she took a hard look at her life and decided she hated the person she had become. So she’s been in therapy and has gotten into her dream school of Emerson.”

“That’s good,” Steve said quietly. Robin gave his a hand gentle squeeze and he returned it with a grateful smile.

“What are doing next, Ellie?” Brian asked. “Designing more epic costumes for the rich and famous? I saw that dress you designed for Lupita Nyong’o for the premier of her new movie. That was a gorgeous shade of purple.”

Ellie’s face dimpled in the force of her wide, happy smile. “Something like that. I’m just glad the dress turned out so well. I’ll be heading back to New York, to stay this time. I got a job at a fashion house that I’m really excited for.”

“What about you and Dusty?” Lucas asked, tilting his head. “I thought things were going great.”

Both Dustin and Ellie share a blushing smile.

“We’re still together,” Dustin replied. “I’ll be in Boston and she’ll be in New York. We’ll going to try and make it work.”

Max nodded. “Long distance can suck, but if the other person is worth it you can make it work.” She nudged Lucas’s shoulder and he grinned back.

“So you didn’t get traded to Lakers like you wanted?” Gareth asked Lucas.

He shook his head. “Maybe next year. But in the mean time, Max has a couple interviews at Tony Hawk’s video game company as a mo-cap performer for the female characters in his games.”

Everyone oohed and ahhed and congratulated her.

“I don’t have the job yet,” she muttered, but happily soaked up the attention anyway.

Dustin turned to Steve and Robin. “When are you two going to do something with your lives?”

Eddie winced and Steve and Robin didn’t even have to glance at each other to be suddenly on the same wavelength of doom.

If this was an anime you would have have seen the dark waves behind their heads.

“We make good money doing what we do,” Robin said darkly. “Yeah, it’s a bit jack of all trades, but it’s fun. We’re never stuck doing the same thing. We get travel all over the world. We get to meet famous people and all the perks of fame with the drawbacks of having our privacy invaded on the regular.”

“Jack of all trades, but master of none,” Dustin said to be pedantic. “Don’t you guys want to do something specific, like a teacher or a doctor?”

Robin snorted. “No.”

Chrissy hand covered hers, and Robin gave her a squeeze back. She was fine, just annoyed.

“Yeah,” Steve said. “And I don’t why being a jack of all trades is bad thing. Focusing on one thing is great for the people who can do it, but I love the different jobs. Roadie one tour, PA another, then EMT the next. It’s great.”

Dustin frowned, stabbing his plate with his fork.

“My therapist says people are like plants,” Gareth said, “some people are trees and they grow up slowly. Some are bamboo and in the right environment shoot up super fast. But some people are like periwinkle and grow out sideways. Robin and Steve are like that. It’s still growth, just not the growth you want them to have.”

“I guess,” he huffed. He looked up at Steve. “Are you happy doing what you do?”

Steve and Eddie shared a glance. “Yes, for all its faults, I am very happy.”

He nodded and they went back to celebrating Gareth’s year of sobriety. But under the cover of the loud celebration and raucous laughter, Vickie and Simon chatted quietly to themselves.

~

Steve and Eddie lay on the bed in Eddie’s mansion curled up together after sex.

“What’s wrong?” Eddie asked Steve when he had curled up under his chin and held on tight.

“We were out celebrating,” he murmured, “and I couldn’t even tell them we were in a relationship.”

“Most of the people there already knew, babe,” Eddie murmured. But when Steve didn’t say anything it clicked. “You wanted to tell the kids. Especially after the bomb Mike dropped about Nancy moving on.”

Steve nodded.

Eddie scooted down the bed to look Steve in the eye. “Whatever you do or don’t tell them is entirely up to you I don’t care either way.”

“You don’t care that we’ll never get to go on dates or be seen holding hands or kissing?” Steve asked seriously.

Eddie shook his head. “Do you want to know why?”

“I guess,” Steve said with a half shrug.

“Because when I first got into the music business,” Eddie murmured, “I slept with anyone who would give a passing fancy.”

Steve looked up at him in confusion. “But I thought you already had a crush on me then?”

“I did,” Eddie confirmed. “But here’s the thing, sweetheart, do you know who’s partners get torn apart the most in celebrity relationships?”

Steve shook his head.

“Those with non-famous partners,” Eddie said. “If your partner is anything other than a C or B list celebrity when you’re an A-list, you get called out for ‘slumming it’ and their partners get called all sorts of nasty names, but especially ‘gold digger’. Which is the last thing I wanted for you.”

“Is that why you were okay with being with after you found out I was secretly famous?”

Eddie rose up and tackled Steve into the pillows. “You listen close, Steve Harrington. That was absolutely not why. I didn’t even show up with the flowers intending on confessing anything other than knowing your secret. It was like I suddenly saw all the facets of the diamond I’d been admiring for years and realizing any reason I had to not put myself forward were stupid.”

Steve blinked up at him in awe. “Oh.”

“Yeah, baby, ‘oh’,” Eddie huffed. “Continuing to protect you from the shame and humiliation of the slings and arrows of the media is my mission in life, okay? And if you ever decide to come out, either as bisexual as Steve or as Steve as Abbadon, I will be there for you. One hundred percent.”

Steve’s eyes welled up and he nodded. “Okay.” His lips quivered. “I love you so much. I just want you to be happy.”

Eddie kissed him fiercely. “I know you do and you make me very happy. The Fallen, Abbadon, being closeted? All that? That’s just a part of you that I love.” He bounced onto the bed. “In fact...”

He grabbed his phone and started going through it. “Eureka!” He turned the phone around to a paint of a night, shielding a maiden from the sun and a large crowd of people. This is us, babe. I am the knight and you are my maiden. I won’t get tired, or upset that you need protecting.”

Steve blushed. He sat up and pulled up his knees to his chest. “When we first started coming up with names for us, we didn’t originally all have the same letter.”

Eddie raised his eyebrows. “Wait, really?”

Steve shook his head. “Spence was just Death. Shane was always Astraeus. Simon was struggling with finding a name that fit.”

“And did you have your name picked out?” Eddie asked gently, knowing where this was going.

He pursed his lips and nodded. “I didn’t think we’d make it this far. I really thought we would have crashed and burned by now.” He closed his eyes and hung his head. “Part of the myth with Icarus and the wax wings that people forget was that he was flying all over the place. That if he flied straight and true like his father suggested, he would have survived. But he flew too close to the seas as well as the sun.”

Steve sighed and then looked over at Eddie. “And that’s what I thought I was doing with the band. Flying too low with the fact that we were preps wanting to break into the metal scene and then flying too high with the personas and masks. I was going to not only wreck my life but the lives of people I cared about.”

He let out a low shuddering breath. “That maybe I should have listened to my father. To go to college, to get a degree in business, to fly straight.”

“So what changed your mind?” Eddie asked. “Other than Shane wanting everyone to have all the same letter as a middle finger to everyone trying to guess your identities, I guess.”

Steve let out a watery chuckle. “Shane reminded me of the beginning of Icarus’s story. That he had grown up in the labyrinth, never seeing the sky. How could his father had not seen that of course Icarus was going to play the second they were out? That, yes they were fleeing for their lives, but this was the first time his son had seen the sun, felt the breeze on his face and touched the waves on the sea.”

“But if Daedalus had played with Icarus instead of yelling at him, his father would have been able to keep him from getting too close to the things that would have harmed him,” Steve finished. “That he would have been there to catch his son when he began to fall.”

“So what was the lesson?” Eddie prompted.

“I wasn’t Icarus,” Steve said. “I was always free, I might have fallen from grace according to my parents, but that like God in the Christian story, they were cruel and cast me out because what they wanted for me wasn’t what I wanted.”

Eddie smiled. “So you became Abbadon instead. The one that fell but God still relied on to destroy the wicked. The opposite of Steve Harrington. The boy that rose up like a phoenix from the ashes to be better than his parents dreamed.”

Steve nodded. “Yeah. Icarus was the first to fall mythos wise, but Abbadon was the one people fear coming back.”

Eddie pulled him close. “Well, you’re my angel, now. Fallen or not, I’m not giving you up for anything.”

Steve kissed him softly. “I’m putting a lot of trust you, Munson. Don’t fuck this up.”

Eddie laughed and kissed him fiercely. Then he proceeded to show Steve all the ways loved him.

Steve knew he might always have doubts and fears, but now he had the support system he always needed.

It was more than past time to fly and in Eddie’s arms there was no limit to how high he could go now.

And he wouldn’t want it any other way.

~

Tag List: CLOSED

1- @mira-jadeamethyst @rozzieroos @itsall-taken @redfreckledwolf @zerokrox-blog

2- @gregre369 ​@a-little-unsteddie @chaosgremlinmunson @messrs-weasley @val-from-lawrence

3- @goodolefashionedloverboi @carlyv @wonderland-girl143-blog @irregular-child @blondie1006

4- @yikes-a-bee @bookworm0690 @anne-bennett-cosplayer @awkwardgravity1 @littlewildflowerkitten

5- @genderless-spoon @y4r3luv @dragonmama76 @ellietheasexylibrarian @thedragonsaunt

6- @disrespectedgoatman @eyehartart @dawners @thespaceantwhowrites @tinyplanet95

7- @iamthehybrid @croatoan-like-its-hot @papergrenade @cryptid-system @counting-dollars-counting-stars

8- @ravenfrog @w1ll0wtr33 @child-of-cthulhu @kultiras @dreamercec

9- @machete-inventory-manager @useless-nb-bisexual @stripey82 @dotdot-wierdlife @kal-ology

10- @sadisticaltarts @urkadop @chameleonhair @clockworkballerina @garden-of-gay

[ewingstan]

I certainly didn’t appreciate it on the first read-through, but one of the biggest background characterizations of Alec is among first things we learned about him: that he painted the Undersider’s symbols onto the doors of their hideout.

The loft reads as almost ridiculous when you first read about it. Whatever you’re expecting the hideout of a bunch of hardened criminals to look like, your not expecting “the rich kid’s house with all the best video games.” It almost took me out of it; it felt like such a teen wish fulfillment of a supervillain base that I thought Wildbow must be pretty young—and didn’t really take in what it was telling the reader about the Undersider’s mindset. Because it is a teen wish fulfillment, filtered through the practicality of what cost, secrecy, and Brian would allow for. Its the derelict old building you dare your friends to go into to find some rumored amazing or horrible secret—but this building does have a secret, and its a pizza party with a sweet flatscreen setup.

For the most part, it is an especially cool hangout spot that would appeal to your average teen—and not necessarily your average villain. Taylor gets told to use the other’s civilian names while hanging out here. They wear street clothes instead of their costumes. Its built to be appealing to the non-cape side of your life, a welcome reprieve from that world. For the Undersiders who don’t have much of a real life outside of capedom, its something like a place to play make-believe. That’s part of why its so effective as an initial pitch to Taylor when she’s looking for friends and doesn’t want to be a villain, why its important for ingratiating her to the rest of them and making her backstabbing plan that much harder to follow through on. Its part of why getting her own lair, built for the specifications of Skitter the Warlord instead of Taylor the kid, represents such a big change in how Taylor sees herself and her goals. Its why there’s presumably dozens of Undersider fics of them just casually hanging out in the loft, away from any major cape shenanigans. Its why Rachel's first full appearance is her coming up into the room and breaking the bubble—ruining Brian’s pitch of sweet teen digs by bringing the violence inherent to cape life into the supposedly separate space. Because the loft is supposed to be for the Undersiders to be themselves as civilians, instead of capes.

But at the same time, everyone’s personal room has their symbol painted on their door. And the first real thing we learn about Regent is that he’s the one who painted them.

Regent did not get to have a double life. His cape stuff and his family stuff were inherently intertwined, and it was all bad. He’s arguably the only undersider to have a secret identity in a traditional, important sense: not just “you have a civilian life, and everyone’s gonna respect that its separate and not go after anything related to it,” like @artbyblastweave​ outlined here, but “your specific other identity is important, in a sense outside of just being something to target” way. People finding out who Skitter is means they know there’s an identity there to exploit—her enemies can trace her to her school, she can’t continue to go back to her old house, etc. You’d be able to get the same advantage by finding out the civilian identity of pretty much any cape. But not with Alec. People finding out who Alec is means they go “oh fuck, its Heartbreaker’s kid—” the effect is much more like finding out Taylor is Skitter, rather than vice versa.

And that’s important, because the persona of Regent is, to a large extent, his chance to live out the life he wants. Brian and Lisa both have circumstances that don’t allow them a typical childhood, and so they construct spaces to go through the motions of one. To roughhouse and play video games with friends, to plan shopping trips and visits to Fugly Bobs. They’re looking for a respite from their normal state, and that respite to them looks like civilian life. Alec is looking for a respite from his awful childhood, and that respite has a lot of the same things, but it also has the symbols and aspects of his cape persona. He draws his crown on his door, he uses his powers casually on Brian—he’s using the space to let him be Regent, in the same way Brian is pitching it to Skitter as a place where she can just be Taylor, where Tattletale can just be Lisa. This is pretty huge for understanding Regent early-on: Taylor obviously has a pretty expansive double life, as does Brian, and Lisa clearly wants to get into some non-cape-related shenanigans. We’re introduced with a clear divide between cape and civilian identities being the norm. Rachel is presented as bucking a trend, her lack of second identity making her an outlier. But if you read into Regent’s decorating choices, you realize pretty early that you can’t separate his cape identity and his current civilian idenitiy, because their both effectively the same thing: a persona where he can be something other than a Vasil.

Sheesh, now that I’m thinking about it there’s a lot to be drawn from each of the undersider’s lairs. I already talked a bit about how Skitter having her new base be a proper “villain lair” instead of “hang spot” represented a shift in perspective, and how Rachel being unable to behave the way your “supposed” to in the loft shows that she both can’t live a double life and has no interest in doing so (unlike Alec, who is very clearly interested in making a “new” life for himself with the Undersiders as Regent). But how about how Brian won’t take a room in the loft and insists on sleeping in a separate apartment he’s planning on shairing with Aisha? He obviously wants to be able to draw an especially clear line between his cape and civilian life, and doesn’t want Aisha to get involved at all. How about how Lisa’s eventual separate Coil-provided villain lair is a disguised community center she was pretending to work in, showing both that she has some interest in a life outside of capedom and that she’s inherently drawn to working with/having control over civilian culture? She doesn’t just want to hold territory, she wants to be an institution—not just someone the other capes have to play ball with, but who the mayor and civilian agencies have to go through. She separates capedom and civilianhood to an extent, but not to the same extent as Brian, and her goals are much more “civilian-oriented” than most.

I forget the specifics of Alec’s eventual Coil-base, but I know that it was a group of buildings (a campus, maybe?) with few people in the surrounding area outside of puppets—presumably not so different from the compound he grew up. But I do remember that one of the last times we see it is near when Taylor says something about his connection to Heartbreaker, and him getting upset by it. I wonder if it changes in the intervening two years, especially with Imp’s influence. I’m kinda sad we never get a chance to see it.

[apomaro-mellow]

Hot for Teacher(s) 5

Part 4 / AO3 Link

"It's not even about what they say, I mean it is, it's more about how they say it", Eddie said over the phone. He was in the process of making himself dinner while Steve was on the line.

"Like what?", Steve asked, in the middle of making Shawn's lunch for the next day.

"Like, today Alex said 'barbecue is my favorite' and Brian was like 'your mom!' Like what? What does that even mean, Steve? I ask you, what does that mean?"

Steve laughed on the other end. "Well you know how memes work, right?"

"I'm offended you would ask that."

"I just mean it sounds like that. They're passing around a joke until it mutates and now just saying the phrase, regardless of context, is a joke."

"You're brilliant, you know that?"

"So I've been told~"

"Hey, you're making Shawn's lunch now, right? You know what would be funny?"

"Your sense of humor frightens me", Steve said.

"You tell me everything inside, and then I tell Shawn and act like I'm guessing. It'll blow his mind."

"You're ridiculous", Steve said with a shake of his head. But he ended up telling Eddie anyway.

When he went to bed that night, he dreamt of the day Shawn was born again. But this time it was less sights and smells and more sounds as an alpha rumbled close to his ear.

"You're doing great, beautiful."

"Bet your pup's gonna be the cutest..."

He woke up, feeling slightly disoriented as he remembered that he wasn't a new parent, that Shawn wasn't an infant, and that Billy wasn't sleeping beside him. He released a relieved sigh at that last part and got ready for the day.

Both he and Eddie got really busy as winter break began to near and Eddie wondered if it would be too forward to ask Steve out during the break. For all he knew, Steve might have plans to travel during it. But then again, that sounded like all the reason to ask him out before he went too long without seeing him again.

They talked just about every other night though. And try as they might, the conversation always veered to their students and the goings on of their work lives at school.

"Should you be telling me all of this? As a parent?", Steve asked one night. He was curled up on the couch, tv low in the background.

"As a parent, no", Eddie admitted. "But if you were my boyfriend.... then you'd have access to all the hot elementary gossip."

"....Did you just try and seduce me with student gossip?"

"Don't you wanna know which girl in my class has a crush on Shawn?", Eddie tempted.

Steve let out a long drawn out sigh. "You know I do. But I also think that we should have more dates under our belt before we start calling ourselves boyfriends."

"What have all these calls been?"

"Just talks?"

"Stevie, I call you more than anyone. I think in the past few weeks I've called you more than the rest of my phone contacts all year."

"...Are you busy tomorrow?"

"Nope."

Steve chewed his lip a little before going on. "Come over for dinner. Just you and me, I'll send Shawn over to Robin's."

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

Shawn was more than happy to go over to Robin's for the night. She let him put whatever he want on his pizza and let him watch pg-13 movies sometimes. Steve was aware of this, but always warned Robin that she couldn't come crying to him when he got an upset stomach or had nightmares.

Eddie came over just a few minutes after he saw Shawn off and together they put the finishing touches on the dinner Steve had started.

"So this is going to sound weird...", Steve began as they sat down to eat. "But, have we met before?"

Eddie swallowed his mouthful before grinning. "What a line. I'm already in your house, baby. You don't need to use cheesy pick up lines on me."

"I'm serious", Steve said with a roll of his eyes. "Do you think it might be possible?"

"I think I'd remember running into someone like you. Why do you ask?"

Steve picked at his food. "Sometimes you smell familiar. Like, I know I've said you smell safe, but it's like I've smelled it somewhere before."

Eddie swallowed. "...What did your ex smell like?", he ventured.

"Nothing like you", Steve replied quickly. "Even when he wasn't upset I...I just started associating his scent with bad things."

"Well, maybe you just had a very formative experience in a candle shop. They're getting really expressive with fragrances nowadays. Remember that one from a while back? The mountain lodge scent craze?"

"God, how could I forget?", Steve laughed as the conversation changed to candle scents, perfumes, and colognes, and how some brands seemed to be going a bit far trying to imitate certain smells.

After dinner, Eddie offered to help with the dishes so that Steve didn't have to worry about them later.

"You really didn't have to", he said as Eddie handed him a dish to dry.

"Can I be corny for a sec? I've kinda always imagined doing the dishes with someone special. Boring stuff like that."

Steve felt his heart stop and he grabbed Eddie's face to bring him in for a kiss. When they finished, Eddie started perusing the shelf in the living room and immediately found Shawn's baby book.

"Didn't realize you had such a soft spot for him", Steve teased.

"Oh I'm sure he was a cute baby. But I wanna see new parent Stevie", Eddie said, holding it up, asking permission.

Steve sat down on the couch, patting the space next to him. Eddie hopped on like an excited puppy and they started flipping through it. The first few pages showed the ultrasounds and Steve's growing belly.

"I think the weirdest craving I had was turkey sandwiches with crunchy peanut butter. But besides that, it was pretty normal."

"You can't say 'normal' after prefacing it with turkey and peanut butter sandwiches", Eddie said with a grimace.

Steve shrugged. "The only other thing I craved was broccoli for a whole month."

"That explains why Shawn shovels it down during lunch."

There were a couple of appearances by Billy, but Steve didn't talk about him much. It wasn't all bad of course. It rarely is. But when Billy got unpleasant it was really bad. Enough to sour most of the good memories they had made together. The only thing untainted by Billy was Shawn himself, innocent in it all.

Then they got to the day Shawn had been born and the first few were of his teeny wrinkled red face, swaddled up. But after turning the page, Eddie froze on the couch. In the center of the page was Steve lying on a hospital bed, Shawn in his arms. There was a person standing by the bed, arm under the newborn pup, helping Steve support him.

The photo cut off the person's upper body and head, but Eddie knew it was Billy standing there. Steve felt him stiffen up and looked at him confused.

"What's wrong?"

Eddie was gazing at him like he was seeing Steve for the first time. Steve's brow furrowed even more and he took a look at the picture again, wondering what it was. Sure his hair was a mess and his face was pretty red, sweaty, and swollen, but did he really look all that different?

Then he caught the arm helping to hold Shawn, caught the rings on the hand, most different but at least one that was undeniably the same. And if that wasn't enough, caught the tattoos that were visible on the arm.

The same arm that was wrapped around his shoulders right now.

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

"Billy", Steve breathed into the phone, trying to pace himself. "Billy, my water broke. Please call me back. I'll be at Hawkins General Hospital."

Steve hung up and looked to his overnight bag sitting by the door. Even if Billy got his message, Steve wasn't very confident in him getting here on time to drive him to the hospital. And he was pretty sure most rideshares wouldn't want an omega in labor in their backseat. Steve was literally debating whether he should clean up the spill from his water breaking now or just leave it for later.

He wanted to make Billy clean it, the fucking asshole but he also didn't want an argument the moment they returned from the hospital. Mind made up, he leaned over with great difficulty to get the bag and then grabbed his keys.

Steve was never more grateful than now that he lived in a small town and was able to get to the hospital in less than 10 minutes. But it was a very long ten minutes in which he imagined every sort of car accident imaginable.

When he parked, he called Billy again and got his voicemail again. Billy had left the apartment about two hours ago, to do god knows what. He called again after checking in while he was still lucid. As his contractions got closer, he could feel that he was losing himself and his instincts were taking over.

An omega giving birth could be dangerous nowadays. In earlier times, when babies were born in the home, this wasn't much of a problem. An omega would be surrounded by family and familiar scents. But in the sterile, nearly scentless environment of a hospital, they had a tendency to lash out at the hands of strangers trying to help deliver the baby.

If the omega's partner was present, or someone else close to them, this made things go a lot more smoothly. But Steve had arrived completely alone. No one to speak for but himself and the pup inside of him. When asked if anyone was coming, he admitted to calling his alpha several times but not getting a reply.

The nurse stroked his sweaty forehead, giving him a pitying look.

"You poor thing. But you're going to have to start pushing soon. Your pup's about ready to meet the world."

Steve shook his head. "Can't. I can't. It's not time yet."

The doctor gave him an appraising look. "I'm afraid to say that it is, alpha or no. This is what happens when you get pupped up without a bite."

And that was a sore spot for Steve, who had asked for Billy's bite more than once. Even more when he found out he was pregnant. His eyes glassed over with tears from both the pain and the oncoming sensation that he had feared.

"Doctor, watch what you say. I think he's succumbing to rejection sickness", the nurse said, nose catching a hint of it through her mask.

What was worse than Steve snapping at the hands trying to assist would be him feeling too weak to even do anything.

The doctor cursed under her breath. "Nurse, go find a volunteer alpha. No need to make this more difficult than it needs to be."

The nurse scurried out, Steve couldn't tell how long she'd been gone but was deep in a flurry of sensations. Billy didn't want him, he never wanted him, not seriously. Not even to officially mate him. He didn't want this pup either. His baby was coming into the world unloved and it was Steve's fault for being such a failure and-

"Found someone", the nurse rushed in.

"'Someone'?", the doctor raised a brow at the man she brought in.

"He's not official but all the other volunteers are busy."

"This is highly unprofessional, you understand that?"

"I think losing a pup and possibly a patient would be even worse. Do you know what to do, sweetie?"

"Yeah", a third voice said.

Steve rubbed at his eyes, trying to get them to clear but the tears kept coming and the pain was never ending. He felt a hand grab his and wanted to snap but the rumble of an alpha's voice got him to pause. It wasn't Billy, didn't smell like him at all, yet somehow that was better.

"You're doing great, beautiful." The alpha held his hand on one and stroked his hair with the other.

"The pup...", Steve whimpered as the doctor and nurse got to work between his legs.

"Doc's gonna help you out. Bet your pup's gonna be the cutest in the ward. But I think you gotta help push him out."

Steve was panting as he started to push. He had to do this. He owed it to his pup to try. He had been so excited from the moment the test showed positive. He couldn't give up now. He thought about the ten toes and ten fingers and their ruddy face and their wisps of hair and he couldn't wait anymore to see them for himself.

All through it, the alpha gave him words of encouragement, projected a comforting scent, and kept both hands on him, grounding him to the moment. With a big final push, tiny cries filled the room and Steve collapsed onto the bed.

He felt like he dizzy, to say the least and while his pup was cleaned up, he was given a heavy dose of painkillers. Finally, his baby was given to him, all swaddled up and there was that itty-bitty pink face. Steve immediately started to cry again, but this time in joy.

"Gorgeous baby, just like their dame."

"Thank you", Steve breathed out. He put his nose to his pup's forehead. He smelled just a bit of Steve but besides that was scentless. His inner omega longed for the scent of himself and his alpha to cover their babe, marking them as their own and protecting them. Unknowingly, he let out a cooing call and the alpha beside him answered it, reaching out to rub his wrist against the blanket.

"What are you gonna call him?"

"Shawn...", Steve had decided long ago. He let out a very long yawn, which his pup then mirrored.

The alpha stayed with them for at least an hour, covering them both in his scent, turning away respectfully when the nurse came to help Steve nurse for the first time. Steve had still been too out of it to appreciate it but had been grateful later. The alpha had to go soon after, and truly it was perfect timing.

Billy finally arrived about five minutes later, looking relieved at first to see Steve and the baby were fine, but then his nostrils flared when he smelled an unfamiliar alpha on what he deemed to be his omega and his pup. Steve had been tired to fight, just kept his eyes open so that Billy could said his piece before handing Shawn over and closing his eyes.

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

"....That alpha was you", Steve whispered.

"And that omega was you", Eddie replied.

Part 6

Tag Team

@anne-bennett-cosplayer @aol19 @lololol-1234 @hippieg1rl420 @gregre369 @attic-cat-blog

[thedrifter143]

Something I noticed about Corporate Clash's Kudos managers is a somewhat running theme of isolation.

-Brian, locked himself in the Schoolhouse Basement.

-Misty, sits on the edge of a dock alone.

-Prester, unbearable to most of his colleagues and talking shit about Diane on top of a tower.

-Cathal, isolating in the secondary sellbot tower to avoid working and observing his dad.

-Chip, Isolating due to his work and the Override which has made him terrifying to his colleagues.

-Graham and Dave despite being performers are locked off from other suits they would work with, because Graham is also insufferable and Dave is much more important.

-Cosmo running a pizza place to hide his shadier work for the company.

I dunno this came to me and it feels important. Thoughts?

[intimidating-fettuccine]

could I request more teen reader with the proxies just like general HC or scenario of stuff the squad gets up too

You absolutely can, I love this stuff. Wholesome found family content is one of my favorites.

Squad cooking lessons. I don't know why this was the first thing that popped into my head, but it did. Tim is one of the best chefs in the mansion, and he already gives Toby lessons every now and then, so he's started doing group lessons with you, Brian, and Toby so that he can teach you all at once. He lets you guys choose what you want to learn how to make, and he'll step by step teach you how to make the recipe, and he goes as slow as you guys need. It doesn't matter how well your dish turns out because he's just so happy and proud that you were able to make something, and he'll ruffle your hair and congratulate you. He's the hardest on Toby though, you guys always tease him if something goes really wrong with his dish.

Squad t-shirts???? Like you know those shirts where one says "I'm with stupid" and the other one says "I'm stupid"??? You guys have equivalents to that. I didn't know where this headcanon was going so I don't know exactly what all four of the shirts would say, but you guys definitely have a shirt combination that works and you wear them whenever you go out in public as a squad. Also, once you get those shirts, Tim totally gets all of you matching flannels. Tim LOVES flannels, and right now since it's fall it's peak flannel season he wears them all the time, so he makes sure you all have nice, high-quality flannels that match the ones he likes. Don't point out to him how adorable of an idea that was, he gets very embarrassed and tries to deny it.

Tim also takes you out fishing with him. I've said before that the proxies go out fishing with each other once a week or like once every other week since fishing is Tim's favorite hobby (and the creeps view it as a high honor if he invites you), so you get to go fishing with Tim when he invites the other two. It's a time for relaxation and no phones (except for group photos and pictures of whatever fish you catch), where you all just enjoy the peace of nature and the lake. If you ask Tim for fishing tips (even if you already know how to fish please ask him), he gets so excited and he'll help you set up your rod and help teach you how to cast your line and how and when to real it in. This is PEAK bonding time for Tim, it makes him so overjoyed to be out there with all of you fishing and having a good time. Plus, if you catch anything he feels SO proud and he gives you a big hug and takes a picture of you holding your catch and probably adds it to a folder he has of everyone and anything they've caught.

Also??? Maybe an underrated squad thing, but just grocery shopping together. You guys put together the list as a group, and you go to the store and it's just such a generic family activity to do, but it's so enjoyable, especially since it's something that Toby never got to do growing up, so the four of you enjoy going together to have some nice domestic happiness with all the stress and chaos in your lives. Plus, with all of you there it makes it easier to beg Tim for extra things like chocolate milk, or pizza rolls, or candy, or whatever it was that Tim said definitely didn't need to be on the list in the first place. If you and Toby beg him for it enough, Brian will smile and insist that it couldn't hurt to get it, so he'll sigh dramatically and get it for you guys because he loves you and he's bad at saying no sometimes. Plus Tim likes it when you guys all come along because then it's easier to get people to help him carry in the fuck ton of groceries you need to feed over twenty people in the mansion. You and Toby usually turn it into a competition to see who can carry in the most at one time, and it makes Tim worry about you guys dropping things, but Brian thinks it's really cute and wholesome. He always cheers you on and hopes that you win.

[jimmy-johns-was-taken]

Creepypasta Love-Language

Request : Open!

Characters : Jeff the Killer, BEN Drowned, Eyeless Jack, “Ticci” Toby, Tim/Masky, Brian/Hoodie, Jane the Killer, Nina the killer

Notes : SO SORRY THIS IS SO LONG I GOT CARRIED AWAY! Anyways thank you for reading, hope you have a lovely day !

Jeff the Killer :

Now hear me out, but Acts of Service. JUST LISTEN OK! My idea of Jeff isn’t a crazy touchy person, just not his thing. However, he deeply appreciates you doing small things for him. Cleaning his wounds and getting the stains out of his clothes. His favorite is when you make dinner, but put his portion in the fridge for him to heat up when he gets home. When he does arrive, your asleep on the couch with a note telling him dinner is in the fridge. In return, he does small things for you, such as not getting blood everywhere and helping pay bills (he steals money from victims)

BEN Drowned :

Quality time. Anytime with him is meaningful. Just sitting on his bed, cuddling and playing videogames. Sitting at the island in your kitchen while you make a frozen pizza for dinner, just cutting up and enjoying each others presence. Anytime he can get with you is perfect, he doesn’t care what your doing. He also loves to talk to you, listen to him rant about all his favorite interest and he’s fallen head over heals for you

Eyeless Jack :

Oddly enough, but physical touch. If EJ is letting you touch him, he trust you A LOT! He adores cuddling, especially on rainy days where he can’t go out and do stuff. Just sitting in bed, maybe scrolling through your phone, and listening to the rain with his arms wrapped around you. He also does small things in public to make others aware that your his. His hand on your back, arm around your shoulder, something small but noticeable. Like many of the other pastas, he would fight anyone for you

“Ticci” Toby :

Gifting Giving, both giving and receiving. They absolutely love it whenever you give them something, even if it’s super small. In return, Toby will bring you anything they think you’ll like, or anything that reminds them of you. It’s their way of showing that they think of you, that your always on their mind.

Tim / Masky :

Acts of Service, hands down. Tim especially loves it whenever he comes home and there’s a nice hot meal cooking or laying out on the dining room. His laundry is randomly washed, the bed is made, anything small that he doesn’t have to do. In return, Tim does whatever he can do to help you around the house. Any kind of chores, yard work, anything at all, just say it and it’s done.

Brian / Hoodie :

Physical touch. My idea of Brian is a very touchy person, very touchy. Anytime he can get his hands on you, he will. Pulling you closer in a room full of people, holding your hands and dragging you across the house, anything to do with touching. He also enjoys the touch! Randomly hugging him from behind, kisses, anything.

Jane the Killer :

In all honesty, I think it would be gift giving. I could see Jane having a lot of them, just like a few other pastas, but Jane adores giving you gifts. Need more nail polish? You’ve got it. In need of a new painting for your wall? Get in the car, your going home decor shopping. Jane just loves to spoil you and she loves to see the smile on your face anytime you receive a new gift. Jane loves anything you do, from physical touch to acts of service!!

Nina the Killer :

Another gift giver! Nina, similar to Jane, loves any and all kind of affection, they eat it up. But Nina herself loves to give you small things. They will come home one afternoon, more bubbly than normal, then pull out a small rock and smile brightly. She picked it up cuz it reminded her of you!! Duh!!! She doesn’t go crazy with the money thing, unless she sees something she knows you’ll love, but it’s mostly small trinkets and such.

[oldwritingm]

Creepypasta/MH - How They’d Ask You Out

Characters: Eyeless Jack, Nina the Killer, Clockwork, Jane the Killer, Tim/Masky, Brian/Hoody

Eyeless Jack

I don’t think it would take him too long to ask out someone he liked

As long as he was sure that he really did like them, and that they didn’t hate him or anything, he’d be comfortable at least asking

He would bring flowers for sure

He’d show up at your door late at night, bouquet in hand

“Would you care to join me for a walk?”

You’d stroll through the woods, talking a bit about yourselves

It’d be a pretty deep conversation, both of you staying serious as you exposed vulnerable parts of yourselves

He’d hint at being romantically interested in you, but he’d wait until you were back at your house to pop the question

“You’ve probably noticed by now, but I really do think you’re amazing. I’d love it if you’d be my partner.”

If you say yes he’ll be absolutely radiating joy and he’ll promise to treat you well before bidding you goodnight

If you say no he’ll understand, thank you for your time anyway, and disappear into the night

He’s okay staying friends, but he’ll be sad about it for a while

Still, your companionship is more important to him than being yours

Nina the Killer

It won’t take long at all for her to ask out someone she’s interested in

As soon as she knows she can trust them, she’ll go for it

She’ll use something homemade to actually ask the question

Like a kandi bracelet that says “be mine?”

Or maybe a cake she baked herself

Either way it’s bound to be something decorative made with lots of love

She’ll find you at school/work/home and tell you she has something to show you

She smiles hugely when she reveals her little project, but inside she’s buzzing with anxiety

“So..? What do you say?”

If you agree she’ll literally drop whatever she’s made and throw her arms around you

She will proceed to take you out shopping to buy something to commemorate the occasion

Matching shirts, bracelets, a new piercing, maybe even a pizza to share

Just a little something to celebrate :)

If you say no she’ll be devastated

“Oh… well, thanks anyway…”

She probably won’t talk to you for a while, if ever again

Clockwork

She’d have to know you for a VERY long time beforehand

She has trouble trusting people, as well as trouble finding someone she’s genuinely interested in romantically

You’d know pretty much everything about each other by the time she decides to ask you out

That just means that she knows the way to your heart though

She’ll make a beautiful sketch of you

Maybe there’s some gore incorporated, but hey, if you’ve stuck with her this long you’ll be used to it

You’ll be hanging out one day, her drawing and you distracted by something else, and she’ll suddenly tear a page from her sketchbook

She hands you the drawing while saying:

“Hey, Y/n, so… I really like you. You’re my dream partner. I want you by my side always.”

If you agree to be her partner, she’ll grin, turning back to her sketchbook with a little pinkness on her cheeks as she mumbles “cool”

When you leave she’ll peck your cheek before slamming the door in your face, giddy that she had the courage to do that

If you reject her, she’ll frown

Probably won’t want to be friends anymore :(

She just doesn’t want to be around someone she loves knowing they don’t love her back

Jane the Killer

I think it depends on the person when it comes to Jane

If you guys click really well, she’ll probably try to advance the relationship quicker than if your relationship started off rocky

But either way she’s going to plan something romantic

She’ll buy you something nice and deliver it in secret

Like, one day you’ll just find a box of chocolates or a necklace with a note attached telling you to meet her someplace

Personally I like to think it’d be a blossoming cherry tree, or perhaps a scenic overlook

You’ll find her there waiting for you, hands fidgeting nervously behind her back

She’ll get straight to the point:

“Y/n, I like you. It’s okay if you don’t feel the same, but if you do… wanna be my girlfriend?”

If you accept, she’ll get a huge smile and run over to you, throwing her arms around you and twirling you around

You’ll sit together at the scenic location for a while, leaning on each other with your fingers intertwined

If you decline, she’ll just nod with a sad smile

She’ll be sad for a while, but ultimately she’s got other things in her life to worry about, so I don’t think she’ll wallow for too long

Might keep talking to you, might not; again, it really depends with her

Tim/Masky

Another one who’d have to know you a while first

He needs to make sure he trusts you, yes, but he also needs to start trusting himself around you

Once he’s sure that you can both handle yourselves, he’ll take more time to hype himself up to do it

He questions bitterly whether you’d even accept if he did ask you out

Eventually he gets so exhausted from the constant will they/won’t they in his head that he spontaneously blurts out:

“Do you want to go out with me?”

You’ll be taken aback; you guys were literally just chilling in silence

Plus he would’ve given next to no hints that he liked you at all

If you accept, he’ll sigh, slouching severely in relief

Finally some peace of mind… and heart

He’ll murmur a thank you for giving him this peace, but won’t elaborate

If you decline, he’s going to beat himself up about it so hard

He won’t blame you at all; no, every ounce of blame is going into the anvil that he’s crushing himself with

Probably won’t want to keep contact for much longer

Your presence is just a constant reminder of (what he sees as) his failure

Brian/Hoody

He didn’t know you for too long before deciding to ask you out, but he knew a lot about you

If he’s interested in you, he’s going to find out everything he can

He prefers outside sources, but if he absolutely cannot find something he wants to know, he’ll begrudgingly just ask you

That being said, he knows how to charm you

He’s a pretty naturally charming person regardless, but he wants to do something special just for you

He’d leave a gift for you; something he knows you love

Jewelry with your favorite gemstone, your favorite flowers, a nice new fluffy blanket… something on the luxurious side

Plus a note saying:

“Y/n, please be mine. With love, Brian”

He’ll approach you later and ask for your response

If you agree, he’s got a whole nice evening planned out already, and he’s more than eager to take you on this first date

If you decline, he’ll probably “cut contact”

I use quotations because he’ll probably still keep tabs on you in secret for a while

He’ll get over it eventually, but until he does that’s his way of coping

Thank you for reading!! Take care of yourselves pumpkins <33

(divider by saradika)

[brian-in-finance]

About that call…

Calling all Antis post by 🌏👽, 26 May 2024

We keep to ourselves for the most part.

as far as I know, what we don't do is go to their blogs and insult them.

if any of you antis are popping over here to see what we dunces are up to - please don't bother because we have no interest in your view of us and our beliefs.

What choice is there for you to make? Anon post by 🔪⚫️, 12 May 2024

(in her response) we never came to your lanes to send hate or sow doubt.

(comment by 🔴👩🏻‍🦱) I know of NO Shipper bloggers that venture to the side of 'angry bloggers' now known as Mordor. We don't care what they think or write.

😂 You don’t say? I wonder how you would explain these 10 nuggets left on my blog by your pals? There are dozens more, but (thankfully) Tumblr limits me to 10 images per post.

Regarding the 2016 SXSW proposal video:

Regarding the marriage certificate:

Regarding post-BAFTA Scotland takeaway pizza:

Regarding Jude Hill’s HCA Best Newcomer 🏆:

Regarding her father’s passing:

Regarding Tait oot and aboot:

Regarding paternity reassignment:

Regarding imaginary funeral pics:

Regarding always ABC because C is married to T:

Regarding the bro hug debriefing:

All of this — and oodles more — on my blog, plus another 110 ignored Inbox messages... So much for The Shire’s never visiting Mordor… 👀

In her Calling all Antis post, 🌏👽 asks four questions without asking the right one. If The Shire has no interest in Mordor, why does 📻🧌Radio Mordor frequently report our goings-on?

Remember when they didn’t keep to themselves?

Brian is a shipper, not an anti. Brian ships Tait. 😝 / Blog names redacted and avatars left (or recreated) purposely.

[that-one-enby-ranger]

It's John Richard Deacon's birthday today so that means its time to yap about him so get ready

First of all, I fucking love this man. This man is amazing and has got to be one of the best people I have had the pleasure of knowing about. He is an amazing player, and even though I will admit he is probably not THE best, he is still, in my opinion, one of the best, and will always be my favourite.

This man is such a talented musician and I hate how underrated he is. He is one of the less open members of the band and is not as public, and of course isn't like Freddie, so he is often forgotten about by people who pay more attention to the music instead of the band themselves. He has written great songs for Queen which include Another One Bites The Dust, I Want To Break Free, You're My Best Friend (which he wrote for his wife and I find that so cute), wrote the bass line for Under Pressure (and then forgot it while getting pizza but lets not talk about that), Friends Will be Friends, Spread Your Wings and others

And then he has songs which are extremely underrated in my opinion because they are fucking GREAT. Misfire (great lyrics, truly poetic, can't believe someone could come up with such great words and meanings), In Only Seven Days, You and I, If You Can't Beat Them, One Year of Love, and I don't care what anyone else says I like Back Chat. He wrote other songs as well. Even though he didn't write as many songs as the other members did, he still wrote songs, some of which went on to be massive hits, and he still contributed a lot to the band.

There's a reason why the rest of the band chose him as their bass player. They tried out multiple different bass players and none of them worked out. Then they met John and boom they had the best bass player they could ask for.

John also knew engineering, and he is an electronics engineer by training. He created his own amplifier in 1972 and it is called the Deacy amp. That's fucking cool. I'm not an engineer of any kind, but I would guess that's pretty impressive.

THIS MAN IS A FUCKING FAMILY MAN. He loves his family so much and it is so sweet. His wife's name is Veronica and in an interview (I'm pretty sure it was an interview they did for The Miracle album) he said that one of his favourite songs was a song called Veronica or something like that because it was the name of his wife. He also has six kids which is pretty badass if you ask me. Plus he wrote You're My Best Friend for his wife and that is super fucking sweet especially if you listen to the lyrics and remember that he wrote that for her. "Ooo, you make me live."

We joke about John being the cute baby of the band, and even though he is adorable, he is also a complete badass and I love him for it. According to Brian May, John could make you want to crawl into a ball and die with just a couple sentences. That wasn't a direct quote but it was something similar. There was one time when the band were out recording for an album or something like that, I can't remember the specifics, but John pretty much just fucked off and went to Bali, and left a note on his bass case saying that he went to Bali. He wrote Misfire. He used to throw peanuts into Brian's hair while he was playing his guitar solos at concerts. He learnt to play the double bass in two days because Brian told him as a joke that he would need it to play '39 even though he didn't. He had tons of stitches in his hand from smashing through glass when he was drunk or something and he still played a gig. A photographer couldn't do a photoshoot for Queen so they payed John to do it and he tried to take pictures of Roger's ass. I'm like 80% sure it was Roger I can't really remember. This is just the stuff I can think of at the top of my head by the way, this isn't even all of it. If I could be bothered to get my phone and look through Queen folder to try and find all this shit then I could add more but I'm lazy. By the way, I haven't fact checked any of this shit and I am definetely not going to, this is just shit I've heard, so some of it may not even be true, but I don't care, I like to think it is.

He is the most quite and reserved of the band, especially when it comes to the public and I absolutely repsect that. Just because he's apart of one of the most famous bands in the world does not mean he has to be public outside of that. He didn't have too much attention put on to him during shows, and I can only assume he liked it like that, but he still had his own little prescensse and I love him for it. He had a little cocktail bar behind his amp ad during concerts he would be constantly going back to get drinks, so throughout the show he would be getting more and more drunk and would be getting more hyper most likely. During concerts he did little disco moves and dances and it was the best seeing him hop around in his own little area and do his own little thing.

HIS DECISION TO LEAVE QUEEN AFTER FREDDIE DIED WAS COMPLETELY VALID AND ANYONE WHO DISAGRESS CAN GO TO HELL. I heard somewhere that part of the reason why he didn't want to carry on wasn't just because of Freddie, but was also because when Freddie was with them, he felt that most of the attention would be on Freddie, but after he died, he felt that more attention would be on him and he didn't like that, and honestly that is completely fine and he can decide what he wants to do. He cared so much about Freddie and he apparently cried before going on stage for the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert and he should not have to carry on with something if he doesn't want to do it

John is such a silly cutie. They all are. But today we focusing on John. I'm writing this while watching John clips and he is so cute and such a silly underrated guy.

Also, I noticed the John Deacon tag here only has like 7.something K followers and THAT IS CRIMINAL HE DESERVES SO MUCH MORE THAN THAT

He did the triangle in killer queen and that is the reason he has a microphone and I found that so fucking funny.

There is so much more I could write about him, but Im gonna stop now because I'm only half focusing on my deacy clips and he deserves more attention so I'm gonna watch that

Here have some photos:

Hot

T-pose Deacy

SUCH A CUTIE HAPPY BIRTHDAY THIS MAN DESERVES THE WORLD AND ALL THE LOVE AAAAAAAAA ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️💝❤️💝💝💝💝💝❤️💝❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️��️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️🎉🎉🎉❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️🎉🎉❤️❤️❤️❤️🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️🎉❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️🎉❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️🎉🎉❤️🎉❤️🎉❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️🎉❤️❤️❤️🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[mommyashtoreth]

what are your most hated popular aziraphale and crowley mischaracterizations

GREAT question I fucking love complaining

Not to sound contradictory right off the bat but for Az it's both like. "Aziraphale is mean" and "Aziraphale is SO cartoonishly nice that he can't even fathom of anything that could be construed by anyone as being somehow 'bad'", because I think both are really fundamental misunderstandings of Aziraphale as a dramatic character for the former and as a comedic character for the latter. "Aziraphale is mean" seems to be based entirely on the ending of s2 and I've certainly said my piece about that already, but to summarize I think it's a bad reading of that scene and I find "actually Aziraphale is manipulative and mean and Crowley is 100000% always in the right and never did anything wrong ever" to make for a much more boring story than what we've actually got. On the other hand, boomeranging right into the other direction and making Aziraphale way too nice is ALSO something I find boring, but in a more standard "fandom flanderization" type of way. Like, I'm sure you've seen something where Aziraphale is so nice and good and pure and soft and sweet and smol cinnamon roll needs protection that he passes out whenever someone says the word "penis." And I find that boring! It's a bad way to engage with his joke. Aziraphale IS nice, genuinely, and he's good to people and helps people and loves humanity, but also like, he's smug and he lies and he says guns lend weight to a moral argument and is kind of a cunt in ways people don't give him credit for. And that's good! That's awesome. He's really really really funny and I obviously really really like him. Basically I wish people knew how to balance "Aziraphale is nice" and "Aziraphale is a bitch" bc both are true and it's a fine-tuned craft managing to depict both at once

Crowley is harder to pin down... idk I just Also find a lot of fandom Crowley very boring in very similar ways, either stripping him down (God I wish) to form one half of a very basic very boring Good Guy Vs. Bad Guy dynamic, or making him this like Sexy Domineering Alpha Male Daddy Dom type that I find very boring. Not that I think Crowley can never be sexy or domineering, my url is literally, yknow, that, but I think all his "evilness" has an almost playful nature to it where like you know he's having fun with it, OR I like when it feels like he's doing it as a job. like Oh, fuck, have to make the quota today. Gotta go cause a pileup. I think people generally tend to make Crowley either too serious or too nice, and he IS nice, there's a guarded softness in like both renditions of the character that IS very important, but he's still Also kind of a bitch! And that's fun! Idk people always make "sin" out to be some huge thing like "Crowley has to literally murder a child" which makes for good conflict, but there's also little stuff that he's a) good at and b) likes doing, like causing traffic jams and moving construction poles around and just like, generally annoying people and I think that's really really funny. I read a fic once where she would order pizza for delivery to other people's houses, and I'm still workshopping mine where she, like, convinces this rich guy to invest in a bad industry so when his stocks plummet he'll be insufferable to be around (also bc greed is a sin. There are sins besides lust! Animals), and that's fun! And honestly Crowley's fun even when he's down in the dumps, he's funny when he gets annoyed with Aziraphale or when he gets angry at Gabriel or whatever. I wish people tapped into that more! Idk I also clearly like Crowley a lot I think we could hang out I could grab a beer with him and play Bowie and Brian Eno on the jukebox, and a lot of fandom Crowley does not feel like somebody I could grab a beer with. Let him loosen up! Misery is fun to write but all work and no play makes Tony a dull boy

[ladykailitha]

The Magic of Christmas Part 5/8

The paladin theory is something that a good friend of mine came up with, that if a person was playing them unironically they tended to be self-righteous assholes who actually believed they were holier than thou. Now if you were doing it for fun or to riff on how paladins were self-righteous jerks, then it didn't apply.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

***

September was the hardest on Steve. All the kids were away at school, busy being students and living their lives. If it hadn’t been for Eddie, he wasn’t sure what he would have done.

“Who are you going to work on next?” Steve asked around his slice of pizza.

Eddie wiped his hands on his jeans. “The ranger sounded more fun, so Lucas is next.”

“You got a thing against paladins?” Steve asked, throwing him a couple of napkins.

“Every person that I have ever known that played one unironically have been assholes so...”

Steve started laughing and Eddie cocked his head to the side.

“What’s so funny?”

He wiped away a stray tear. “Mike is exactly like that.”

Eddie blinked. “Wait, really?”

Steve nodded, his eyes continuing to water as he fought back bales of laughter.

Eddie started laughing, too. Soon they were falling over each other just laughing their asses off when the girls found them like that ten minutes later.

“We are gone for less than an hour,” Chrissy huffed, “and we come back to find you giggling like children. Did Eddie break out the weed or something?”

The two men shook their heads.

“I was telling about Mike,” Steve insisted, “and he was telling me his theory that people that play paladins are assholes.”

Robin blinked for a moment and then started laughing too. Which set Steve and Eddie off again.

Chrissy just shook her head and put away the dessert Robin and she got, bringing out the beer to the sofa.

By the time she had finished all three of them had calmed down enough to explain.

“I’m going to have to tell the guys about this on Sunday,” Eddie said, holding his ribs.

“What happens on Sunday?” Robin asked, flopping on the sofa next to him.

Chrissy sat down on Eddie’s other side. “D&D with the Hellfire Club. Eddie DMs, while Jeff, Gareth, Brian and I play. It’s fun. Gareth has been fiercely battling Eddie over that nugget for years.”

Eddie grinned, all teeth. “He’s only bitter because he plays a paladin.”

That got them all laughing hysterically.

“That’s hilarious,” Robin said after they managed to calm down.

“So what’s on the docket tonight for my reeducation or whatever it is we call these things,” Steve asked.

“A double feature,” Eddie said excitedly. “Muppet fantasy. It’s fantastic.”

Steve turned to Robin, “I didn’t know Tammy Thompson made movies.”

Robin gasped. “You take that back!”

Chrissy and Eddie just looked at each in confusion.

“She sang like a Muppet!” Steve insisted.

“She did not!” Robin hissed. “She absolutely did not!”

Steve leaned over to get in her face. “Like a Muppet giving birth!”

“You’re horrible!” Robin groused.

Steve turned to the other two with a smile. “Tammy was Robin’s first baby gay crush in high school. She thought she could sing but she was the only one who thought so. Well, not counting the music teacher and her mother.”

Then he proceeded to sing horribly and high pitched so that everyone was laughing. Yes, even Robin.

“All right she was that bad,” Robin finally conceded.

Steve waved his hand at her. “Thank you!”

“I didn’t know you two met in high school,” Chrissy said. “That’s cute.”

Steve and Robin looked at each other and then burst out laughing.

“Everyone knew who Steve was,” Robin said, “captain of two of the three sports he played in. Rich, good looking, popular with the ladies. It was annoying.”

“I was also a bit of a mean girl,” Steve said with a half shrug. “We didn’t meet until after I graduated when my dad forced me to take the most humiliating job at the mall.”

Robin shuddered. “It was horrible. It was a nautical themed ice cream shop in the food court and we had wear these tiny sailor outfits.”

“Like the shorts on the boys’ costume was shorter than the girls’,” Steve said. “We measured.”

“At least the girls’ costume had shorts instead of skirt,” Chrissy said.

“Thank you!” Steve said throwing his arms in the air. “Tell that to this one!” He pointed at Robin.

“I would have gotten more dates if it had been a skirt is all I’m saying,” she replied haughtily.

“You were getting dates while I was getting made fun of,” Steve groused. “It was the stupid hat. It wouldn’t sit right for a start. My hair is too thick. I even tried not styling it. Nope still refused to stay on straight. Plus, I was famous for my hair in high school, so I thought it was hiding my best feature.”

Robin giggled. “I had a whiteboard and everything. ‘YOU SUCK’ on one side and ‘YOU RULE’ on the other. He never did get a single mark in that one.”

Eddie licked his lips slowly. “There–there wouldn’t be pictures of this is... outfit, would there?”

Robin threw her head back and laughed. “There’s a commercial.”

“No!” Chrissy gasped. “This I have to see!”

Robin grabbed the remote and found the YouTube channel for their smart TV. She logged into Eddie’s account with a grin.

When Steve realized what she was going to do, he made a dive for the remote. But Eddie tackled him to the floor.

“Quick!” Chrissy said. “What’s the name of the shop?”

Robin cackled. “Scoops Ahoy!”

Chrissy typed it in on her phone and grabbed the video that clearly had teenaged versions of their friends.

Steve immediately stopped struggling when the opening jingle started, allowing Eddie to get up and watch this absolute disaster of less than a minute’s worth of hell.

“Those are some criminally short shorts, Stevie,” Eddie murmured. He leaned forward and started cackling. “Does the register really say boobies?”

Chrissy leaned forward. “Oh my god! How did you get away with that?”

“Apparently film executives pop out of Hell as fully formed adults who wouldn’t know a joke if it bit them on the ass,” Steve said on the floor. He leaned his head back far enough to see the screen. He sighed. His hair looked like shit.

Eddie poked Steve in the ribs. “You looked cute.”

He held out his hand to Steve, who took it to get up. He plopped on the floor and leaned back against the sofa. “Yeah, you think so now, but I have no doubt you would have teased me for it back then.”

Robin looked at the remote in her hand and then back at Steve. “Sorry. I thought it would be funny. But you didn’t have a good time and that wasn’t fair to you.”

Steve shrugged.

Eddie put his arm around his shoulders. “I might have teased you, but only in the most unhinged flirting kind of way imaginable.”

Chrissy rolled her eyes. “He would have been insufferable about it, too. He would have made me come with every time even though I’m lactose intolerant so that he could make goo-goo eyes at the pretty boy.”

Steve looked up at him. “You think I was pretty?”

“Sweetheart, not was, is.”

Robin smiled at them and then shared a glance with Chrissy. Absolute idiots, the pair of them.

She pressed the remote and got them back their double feature. They started with Dark Crystal and throughout the whole movie, Steve didn’t budge from Eddie’s side as they sat together on the floor, Eddie’s arm still slung over Steve’s shoulders.

It was only when it was over and they took a brief break before starting Labyrinth that Eddie let go at all.

Steve moved to the large sofa, but when Eddie came back, instead of sitting on the floor like he had been before, he squished himself between Chrissy and Steve, forcing Steve to plaster himself against Eddie’s side.

Robin shook her head. It was going to be an eternity before they got to Christmas.

*

“You going to admit you like him now?” Robin asked a couple of days later as they sat on their sofa eating mac and cheese.

Steve sighed. “I can really see myself with him for the long term.”

“So why don’t you make a move then?” she asked, poking him with her toes.

Steve picked at his food with his fork, stabbing the noodles without any real effort to get them to stay. “I don’t know. We’ve talked about it before. You think he’s head over heels and I think he’s just being polite because I’m paying his bills right now.”

“Oh.”

Steve looked up at her and echoed. “Yeah, oh.”

“Shit, Steve,” Robin muttered. “I could ask Chrissy. I bet he tells her everything.”

“Would you tell her if she asked for Eddie if I liked him like that?” he asked, going back and picking at his food.

She deflated. “No. I would tell her he has to talk to you.”

“And I’m not ready for that,” he murmured finally setting his food aside. “There’s too much time between now and Christmas, I don’t want to make things awkward if he doesn’t like me like that.”

Robin winced. Especially for New Year’s eve.

“Yeah, okay,” she conceded. “Just make sure you tell him as soon as you can. You don’t want to wait too long and find out he’s moved on with someone else because he thought you weren’t interested.”

Steve nodded. “I know. I’ve just got to keep up the flirting and teasing so he knows I’m interested and hopefully he’ll make the first move.”

“I really hope this doesn’t blow up in your face.”

“You and me both, Robs. You and me both.”

***

Part 6 Part 7 Part 8

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[ewingstan]

If you had a chance to recommend (real-world) superhero comics to the Undersiders, which comics would you recommend and why?

Oh, good question. Its been a minute since I was really into comics (I gotta figure out how to reactivate my Marvel Unlimited account), but I think I have enough background to come up with some good picks.

Lotta good options for Taylor. My first thought is to give her Ewing's X-Men Red (aka "the main reason I need to catch up on Marvel comics"), since a superhero story that focuses a lot on gaining and maintaining societal power and the work of governing as a leader in a super-community seems like it would appeal to the Warlord of the Boardwalk. Plus a lot of it is "kill the previous leader in a way that ensures you have a popular mandate," which I'm sure she'd be a fan of.

If we're talking Taylor at the start of the story or younger—well, I don't know if it makes sense to give her runs of the character she's most a pastiche of, but maybe something that fits the Spider-Man niche could still be appealing for a young down-on-her-luck aspiring hero? I could see her getting something out of the Simone or Ahmed Ms. Marvel runs, for instance.

(While Watchmen might seem like the natural pick, I'm pretty sure she'd lose a lot of enjoyment just from picking out all the ways Veidt's plan was obviously gonna fail for x y z reasons. Also dark deconstructions of superhero worlds would probably seem too familiar to her world for her to enjoy it.)

If Taylor would be interested in comics statecraft, Lisa would probably be more interested in comics spycraft and intrigue. Ewing's S.W.O.R.D. would probably scratch the same itch for her that X-Men Red would for Taylor (and Storm dramatically blowing off Doom would probably satisfy her after all the ulcer-inducing negotiations with Accord.) I might also give her Ewings New Avengers and USAvengers runs (look this is gonna include a lot of Al Ewing recs, get used to it early) if only because I feel like she'd enjoy how Roberto gets characterized in those comics. Magnificent bastard solidarity.

If we're giving comics to Brian, we already need to work past his defensive avoidance of anything that seems too childish, so I don't think we're getting anything pre-dark ages. That said, he famously thinks "looking mature" means "sick-ass skulls and leather jackets," so his idea of maturity might skew a bit into McFarlane territory. Ultimately though I think he'd be most comfortable with something where he could plausibly say "this isn't just a comic, it's actually a well-respected piece of literature." I'd want that to mean Moore's Saga of the Swamp Thing, but it'd probably actually mean The Dark Knight Returns.

As a dark horse pick, I'd give Brian some early New Warriors or Ewing's Contest of Champions, if only because Night Thrasher feels so close to what he wants his vibe to be (dramatic black leather ensemble with a very 90's idea of cool, unflappable expert strategist who pulls his weight despite a powerset with limited applicability, died horribly and came back much later for weirdly impersonal reasons) while also being just ridiculous enough to make me want to see his reaction.

Given Iota's commentary on Alec's pizza habits, I'd think Alec would most be a fan of something intense and bombastic and not mind if its often repetitive. I'd almost say Berserk would be a good match for him, but parts of that that might actually be triggering for him. Maybe some other ultra-violent longrunning work; I haven't read Fist of the North Star but it seems like a safe recommendation; various X-Force runs could work if we're sticking with Western comics.

Rachel really doesn't seem like someone who'd have much appreciation for any aspect of comics. The best bet would be something visually spectacular in a way that could be appreciated on its own, and a plot that's interesting taking issues on their own and not just as part of ongoing runs. I could see Ewing's Immortal Hulk as fitting those criteria; her power gives her an artist's appreciation for Bennett's horrific depictions of the Hulk's transformations (even if praising Bennett for anything feels in poor taste).

Ewing's scripts for each issue of Hulk are clever in a way that I feel Rachel could find entertaining; they don't require an attention she couldn't keep up, but also aren't simple to the point of being condescending. Plus, the thematic focus on "what can and can't be solved through unspeakable acts of destruction" would feel familiar in a way that's less frustrating than normal comic tut-tutting about how obviously we can't attack these guys (plus the greater willingness to say "oh yeah unspeakable destruction definitely is the best way forwards here" would be pretty satisfying).

I feel like Aisha would have more patience for comic tropes than a lot of the other undersiders, (I could see her enjoying the original Fantastic Four run), but at the same time she'd probably enjoy something a bit more complicated and out-there. Ewing's Rocket might be appealing as heist-focused mini, and I feel like the mix of melancholy and absurdity would appeal to her. Rosenberg's Hawkeye: Freefall would work for similar reasons, though replace "melancholy" with "simmering rage."

Morrison's Doom Patrol and The Invisibles both have characters Aisha might relate to for the whole "society largely ignoring or wanting to go away" thing. Plus they both have big weird ideas she'd appreciate, Richard Case's art works well with her aesthetics, and they're both seen as "respectable" series to the point that she might like peppering in references to them in alongside Jules Verne jokes.

Huh, I just realized that Aisha and Brian both ended up chasing an appearance of being mature and somewhat surface-level and off-putting ways. Brian "trust me I'm a normal adult man" and Aisha "I've compiled spider-man quips for every work in the Western Canon and will get frustrated when you don't get them" Laborn, the "something ain't right about that kid" siblings.

(I will say that Morrison's Doom Patrol has some weird black stereotypes so if anyone wants to pitch me on a similar work without Morrison's occasional racism I'd be curious).

I'd give Rowell's run on Runaways to Sabah, if only because "somewhat antivillanous found family group of teens that mostly don't have to worry about anything besides relationship drama" sounds like a nice escape for her. Closer to what she wants the Undersiders to be like. Also, I feel she'd enjoy Kris Anka's focus on fashion in his art.

I don't have a lot to go off for Lily. I could see some of the more recent Captain Marvel runs appealing to her sense of true-blue militant heroism. Ayala's New Mutants or Ahmed's Black Bolt might help combat her whole "villains are ontologically evil" thing, at least to a certain extent.

[hugintheraven]

The Undersiders approach to leftovers

Because let's face it they're teenagers.

Brian: He CLAIMS "Any prepared food over 24 hours old is unsafe and should be discarded." In practice, the reason no leftovers last more than 24 hours in his apartment is that he's a teen boy with a bad gym habit. He will wake up at 3 AM and eat an entire pizza if one's available.

Lisa: Has too much knowledge of the risks of poorly prepared food. Will refuse to eat leftovers, and prefers her actual meals overcooked.

Rachel: More likely to eat everything than keep leftovers. If she does, or she encounters the others' leftovers, she will eat anything, even if it's obviously bad. The others assume this is because dog, it's actually because she starved too often as a child.

Alec: Is more likely to order in more food than eat leftovers or cook something himself, but in situations where that's impractical will absolutely snack on whatever's handy. Often doesn't bother packing up leftovers, though. Generally unaware of the risks of age, but will refuse anything that seems off.

Taylor: Very good at packing leftovers, dating them, and eating them before they go bad. Less punctual about it than Brian, she just cares that the food is still good. When she finds bad leftovers from the others, the food and the tupperware both go to her bugs(she understands the limits of cleaning plastic).

Aisha: Keeps all leftovers. Way more than she could eat. HATES throwing them out when they're old, but also often doesn't remember to eat them. (she's used to her growling stomach pushing her to eating leftovers and now that she can actually afford food she loses track of how many moldy tupperware containers are in the fridge.)