#ok i redid it four times

[constantlyfalling]

you're my light Stolas version here (inspo)

[ravidrws]

[spagheddiesquash]

more mw oc stuff really quick before i head off to bed

ok so you know how i mentioned in tags that i might redo eddie’s color pallette? well i did! here’s the new one. (i also redid his wings to make them a bit more like an actual moth!! while he’s technically just moth-like, it bothered me that his wings didnt look very much like that of a moth)

ADDITIONALLY i believe i also mentioned that id post about more mw ocs eventually. i made more, and ill show them to u guys right now.

so this image is a quick doodle all four of the ocs i made!! obviously you guys have already seen eddie, but i still have yet to completely finish making refs of ALL of them. i did, however, have the time to make one of vivian:

and before i go here is another doodle page of a few varied expressions. theyre all doing something with their eyebrows did u notice that

and ill explain some lore about them that ive since why the hell not? (btw this may be subject to change as i come up with more ideas, as all oc shit is, but ESPECIALLY with these ocs because i came up with them VERY RECENTLY. like TODAY recently)

they have their own merc company (the name of which i am still trying to come up with) and so yeah. technically speaking, scorch and vivian own the company, though jazz and eddie are technically part of it. jazz helps out with general stuff and eddie does all the kinda boring, financing things (because he likes doing math).

IF ANYONE HAS QUESTIONS ABOUT ANY OF THEM FEEL FREE TO ASK ME!!! I LOVE ANSWERING QUESTIONS ABOUT MY OCS :^)

anyway with that said TY FOR READING GOODNIGHT :^D

[giacosketch]

Hello! I Graduated!!

Hey, hi again. It's been a bit since my last update, but I wanted to share what I've been up to since you last saw me.

So, let's rewind to a few months ago for my last post. That was a school project I had to do, but I want to take this blogging thing kinda seriously to keep track of my work and career progress. So, jumping to now, I finally decided to get off my ass and make a new post! Anyway, let's talk about the meat and potatoes of the post: my graduation from the Seneca College (or Polytechnic) Diploma of Illustration program!

I've been in school for a LONG time now. I started in Art Fundamentals (or 'fundies' as I'll refer to it) at Sheridan College back in 2016. Then, after some hiccups and a few failed classes here and there, I took a year off. I then reapplied to Fundamentals and redid that so I could get the credits needed to get into Sheridan's famous Animation program! After two attempts (one during my first round of Fundamentals, and the other during the second), I finally got into the Animation program! But after some more failed classes and hiccups, paired with being held back a year and the beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic, I just ended up dropping out of the course, cursing the name of Sheridan College, and taking yet another year off to ride out the pandemic and see where things would take me. This takes us to 2022 when I applied to Seneca College for their animation program and their illustration program. Now, you may be asking, "But if you're gunning for animation, why did you switch to Illustration???" and to that, I say 'I needed something to change'.

I initially went to art school to pursue comics and MAYBE storyboarding because I thought it was cool. It wasn't until some chats with tutors and classmates that I switched to animation. I was hesitant at first, and the more I look back, the more I think I just wasn't ready for that kind of work. But I did it anyway, and turns out, while I do like animating, I don't like animation school (at least not yet).

So, after a few weeks of waiting, I got an update from Seneca! I did not get into the animation program, BUT I was accepted into the illustration program. I took this as a sign to pivot and try something I wanted to do from the start. Who knows, I might like it! So, I accepted my offer and again, after SOME hiccups and a few failed classes, I… I graduated… I actually did it, I graduated college, and it DIDN'T suck!

I won't bore you with the full details, but my experience at Seneca was really good! With my past knowledge of art school and generally knowing the structure of assignments and the deadlines, I was able to manage my time and my work while also experimenting with new mediums and techniques I was too scared to try before. I went in with the mindset of 'Well, I paid for it, might as well try'.

I kid you not, that carried me through this program, even when I didn't want to do the work.

So, after an amazing 5 semesters (I was held back one) and the amazing crit and help I got from my professors, I got to the end game of making a four-image set piece for the Illustration Grad show. This is the program's thesis project, which basically everything you learn leads up to. The show went amazing, my family and friends all came out to cheer me on. My classmates won awards for their beautiful artwork, and after an amazing week of the show and a great reception night, it was all over. The college ride came to an end, and I can now hold my head up high and say…

"I graduated college."

TLDR: I went to Sheridan College for some time, messed around and failed. Then I applied to Seneca College for their animation or illustration program. Got into illustration and had a great time, then I graduated!

Full visual Timeline*:

*This timeline is leaving out some important things that happened but for the sake or simplicity and privacy, I left that stuff out.

OK so that was A LOT to take in and read, how about we talk about some art!

So I said I got my work into the Illustration Grad show and I bet you're wondering 'What was the work you did?'

this is it!

INVISABLE

11 x 17 cream text paper

Risograph Print

(and here is my artist statement I wrote to accompany the piece:)

Change is a force all around us. We see it in our everyday lives and experience it within our minds. Both the invisible and visible change controls us. I’ve experienced it a lot during my time in school, both artistically and emotionally, and I've seen my family and friends change from once familiar nostalgic forms, into mature and responsible beings. 

INVISIBLE brings creatures from our deep past,(Microraptor, Tiktaalik, Smilodon, and Australopithecus) and inserts them into our modern era in familiar settings. We think of these animals as things from a time long forgotten, or as museum specimens, but without the past, the present just wouldn’t come to be. Their lives, and struggles shaped us and molded the very ground beneath us. We are our past, just as much as we are our future.

Pretty fancy, eh? I wanted to really put on my artist cap for this one, and I honestly had a blast making it.

Each of the skeletons shown is drawn as ACCURATELY as I can make them. I referenced skeletal diagrams, research papers, and I reached out to some paleo mutuals and Discord servers for some critique. Oh, and you may be wondering why Risograph. To be honest, it's really just because of the aged look of the ink. I wanted a semi-museum quality to the final product, and Risograph just felt right to me. Shout out to the amazing Colour Code Printing for the excellent work they did. Lastly, the name "INVISABLE" is in reference to how these animals and the change they caused are NOW invisible to us, and it's also a reference to the Duran Duran song of the same name. I liked the vibes a lot, and there was a meme circulating around with the song at the time, so it was in my head a lot. The feeling I got from the vocals and the instrumentals was something I wanted to recapture in my work, albeit to varying success. I'm extremely proud of this work, and the reaction from everyone at the reception was awesome!

I do hope to maybe one day do another gallery in the future, but I'm also not really about that kind of stuff. But the last few years have taught me a lot about myself and that I have to be open to change and reinventing who I am. I can't stay stagnant, or I'll just sink, and I've seen it happen to many, many people not only in school but at work and just out and about. Keep an open mind and try new things; that's the lesson I learned throughout all of this.

If you're reading this and you don't know how to feel about growing up or if you should go to school, all I say is this: Try new things and don't be afraid to mess up. Fail faster, and you'll learn faster.

[ronanlynchbf]

hi, i wanted to ask what did you mean by the og format of the dreamer trilogy being discarded (in the tags of that opal story post you make about a week ago)? i keep missing all the behind the scenes info on these books :(

HIII hello <333 i'm putting this under a keep reading cut because it ended up being quite long

so in a tweet i think? or actually it might've been a fansign event of sorts i don't rlly remember which one it was but anyway maggie said that originally the dreamer trilogy was set to be further in time, with all the characters in their 20s, and the moderators (worst part of tdt imo) were never actually intended to be in the story AT ALL, from which we can conclude that the story of tdt would've been different bc if u eliminate the moderators there's LOADS of stuff that would change. maggie also said somewhere that - especially when writing greywaren - she had a lot of anger inside of her over being so sick that she put in the book initially but eventually scrapped and redid for some reason or the other (personally i think cdth & mi touched on that anger & frustration she felt abt being sick, but i can't rlly see it anymore once i get to greywaren). maybe she felt it was too personal, maybe she was advised to change it idk but she described it as "an angry draft" or something like that and mentioned having to rewrite a lot throughout tdt after that first greywaren draft/outline. she didn't rlly go that much into detail and i don't remember everything, but considering what she did say and what she implied, the dreamer trilogy originally had a different look and format and setting and outline/story even and tone and also different titles!! the og titles she was gonna go with was this:

which i personally think are very cool and also all corresponding to each other, like the three titles are in the same theme whereas call down the hawk, mister impossible, and greywaren have little to no correlation. ANYWAY i don't have any actual links to when she said this i'm soooo sorry but like bottom line. the dreamer trilogy's story was originally different (though maggie didn't specify as to how or how much difference there was) and sans-moderators, it was more heavy and raw on how tiring and hard and frustrating the reality of dealing with chronic illness is, the characters were originally all supposed to be fully adults (adam was also originally more in tdt but that was also cut), and the titles (and i assume overall theme/tone of the story) were different, so the dreamer trilogy that we now have is likely quite far from the dreamer trilogy we could've had/maggie originally wrote. i for one would LOOOOOOOVE to see the original draft of tdt even if all the books are published already and the story has basically come to an end (i personally believe that, had maggie stuck with the og outline, the epilogue would not have been what it is now, which like. atp i'd take anything over an "it was all good" ending four years later but maybe that's just me) OK ANYWAY this is wayyyy longer than i had intended it to be but that's what i meant with my tags; there's nothing in the world i'd love to see more than that original angry draft of greywaren that maggie changed to - i presume - satisfy the masses, genuinelyyyyy would give anything to get that version in my hands but either way i hope i explained it sufficiently!!! and i hope u have a great rest of the day 💗💗💗 ❗

[starknightgirl]

MCC18 Cyan Centipedes Skins!

Oh boy, this one is a doozy. Get ready for a lot of photos. If this is the first MCC post of mine you’ve seen, hi! I make CaptainSparklez’ team skins ever since MCC14 (links: MCC15, MCC16, MCC17). On rare occasions I also do other teams (ie. MCCR Red Rabbits and MCC16 Sapphire Simmers). Feel free to share this, just tag this post so that it links back to me. Thank you! Ok, more below the cut.

I’m using my reddit username as the signature, don’t worry I’m not stealing from anyone.

The theme of this set of skins is the ‘boss’ mobs from minecraft. What, there are only two boss mobs in minecraft? Technically that’s true, but I added two semi-boss mobs (one of which is not even in the game yet) to the lineup.

Also, did you know centipedes are hard to make pixel art of? Because centipedes are hard to make pixel art of. But don’t worry, I managed to make one that looks nice for the back. Alright, time for individual breakdowns.

Starting with Ranboo, who of course must be the Ender Dragon. Look, I thought about making CaptainSparklez the Ender Dragon but really there was no choice here. It had to be Ranboo, the one with an Enderman skin. This one was really easy to make. The wings were especially fun because they’re basically just strips of the appropriate colors.

Next up, WilburSoot, who is the Elder Guardian. I know the Green Guardians were a thing for MCC, but they’re not anymore and anyways these are Halloween skins. I turned his beanie (which one of his skins had) into a guardian eye. This one was a bit harder to make, but I think it turned out great.

Sneegsnag is the Warden. And yes, I know the Warden isn’t in the game yet, I don’t care. This one is quite the change from the original skin, but I think it turned out good. The gloves were very tricky though. Just like finding pictures of the backside of the Warden was hard. It’s worth it in the end, though.

And finally, CaptainSparklez as the Wither. Out of all of them, this one was the hardest. I probably redid the ribs bit like four or five times. Also that ribbon placement? Very hard. The ribbon is three pixels wide and the gap of the coat is two pixels. So that doesn’t work very well.

And now for the fun bit. See I was of two minds for these skins. I was not sure if I wanted them all in Cyan or in colors more true to the mobs in question... so there’s an alternate design for all of these skins.

Yeah, that’s right, I made four recolors of the skins based on the actual mob colors. It wasn’t that bad actually, as it was almost just find and replace. Almost. Alright, here’s some shorter breakdowns.

Yeah, the real Ender Dragon is basically black and grey. But that doesn’t look very nice. So de-saturated purple it was. Also have the golden crown returns (it’s a bit darker than the original), but with purple gems to match the theme.

This one was the bane of my existence. The colors would not cooperate. The tans were all wrong, the spikes looked off, just. Everything. Although actually making this color adjustment is what made me make the gradient on the spikes more prominent.

And now Sneegsnag really looks like a Warden. This one was really easy and turned out amazing. I basically just swapped the colors, no adjustments necessary. And it looks sick.

Finally, the alternate version for CaptainSparklez. I went with the charging up Wither because I thought it would be more vibrant and visually interesting. And getting the blue just right was an adventure. But it turned out good.

Here’s all the regular skins if you want them yourself.

And here’s all the alternate skins if you want those instead.

[rosemaidenvixen]

A Secret’s Worth

Chapter 19: Toby

Ao3

Toby's chest hurt so bad it actually felt like someone was literally stabbing him in the heart. Still he didn't slow down, if anything he pedaled even harder. 

The girls were riding neck and neck with him, in just as much of a hurry to reach their destination.

He shouldn’t have flipped out at Jim yesterday. He shouldn’t have thrown back what he knew about the scars on his ankle just because he was pissed. Now this whole thing was ten times worse and it was all his fault.

It had been so hard, watching Jim go home every day for the past month and forcing himself not to say anything, even when Jim started to look more and more anxious every day. But you know who had it even worse? The guy doing the actual suffering.

Toby had heard the phrase victim blaming before, but he never really got it until now. He’d just been so insanely furious hearing Jim yell at them for lying when he hadn’t said an honest thing to them in months, and when they’d been doing everything they could to help him he hadn’t responded right--

The guy’s mom locked him in the basement and slashed up his ankle; what the hell was the ‘right’ way to act after that?

Now Jim was hurt really bad and he’d had to go to the hospital and he wasn’t in school today and he wasn’t answering his phone--

Toby needed to see if Jim was ok.

A throbbing pain that had nothing to do with the strain of pedaling uphill stabbed through his chest.

Or if not ok, alive and kicking.

He skidded to a stop on Jim’s lawn, stumbling off of his bike and running up to pound on the front door “Jim you’ve got about ten seconds to open this door before I’m breaking it down!”

Ok maybe that was the wrong thing to start off with considering he was there to apologize, but Toby would just add it to the list of things to grovel for forgiveness for after he saw that Jim was alright.

And just when he was about to make good on his threat, a hand grabbed his shoulder and started tugging him away. Toby jerked around to see who it was.

“Don’t try to stop me Darci,”

Her expression was soft in a way that made him feel even worse “I’m not, but Toby, I don't think anyone's home. All the lights are off and the car’s gone,” 

He snapped back around, heart plummeting when he saw that she was right. 

Jim and Dr. Lake weren’t here.

“And your Nana’s watching,”

Toby whirled, spotting Phil, one of Nana’s chess buddies, sitting in his car in their driveway with Nana stepping into the passenger seat. He stood there frozen for a few seconds before darting around Darci and sprinting across the cul de sac.

“Nana, wait! Stop stop stop!”

Phil, clearly startled, stopped the car in the middle of the street, Nana rolling down her window and poking her head out “Toby? What on earth is the matter?”

Besides the fact he didn’t want Nana witnessing him busting into Jim’s house, just because Jim had gone radio silent on them didn’t mean that Nana had stopped talking to Dr. Lake. So there was a chance she knew something they didn’t.

He slowed to a stop, panting “Have-- have you- have you heard what’s going on with Jim?”

Immediately her face shifted from confused to contrite “Oh yes Barbara told me, so sad that he got hurt, but he’s doing much better now,”

Toby heard the girls scurry up behind him.

“Do you know when they’ll be home from the hospital?”

“Didn’t Jim tell you?” Nana glanced at Phil, who took the hint and put the car into park before Nana turned and faced them again “They came home about two hours ago, but left for their spring break trip right away, Barbara and Jim won’t be back for about ten days,”

Toby actually felt his jaw drop open.

“B...But…” Claire stammered “Are they seriously going backpacking in Yosemite with Jim being all busted up?”

“I was surprised to, but Barbara said that Jim really didn’t want to miss their vacation, so they’re going to San Francisco and staying in a hotel instead,” the corners of Nana’s mouth tugged downwards into a frown, eyebrows drawing together “Did Jim not tell you any of this?”

Ok she had clearly picked up on the fact that things weren’t ‘Ok’ between Jim and them, and normally Toby would be trying to reassure Nana that everything really was cool, but right now he was too busy concentrating on not puking. 

They were gone. For ten days. Ten whole days Jim and Dr. Lake would be gone.

Plenty of time for another 'animal attack'. 

After an uncomfortably long silence Nana leaned back in her seat and redid her belt “I need to get to my cardiologist appointment now, but we can talk more when I get back,”

With that she nodded at Phil, who looked incredibly uncomfortable, but restarted the car and pulled away, leaving the four of them alone in the cul de sac, with nothing to do but slowly pick up their bikes and trudge into Toby’s garage. 

They’d screwed up. He’d screwed up. He’d screwed up so freaking bad. Yeah Jim was being a gigantic freaking hypocrite about the lying, but his mom locks him in the basement every other Tuesday. Of course the guy wasn’t acting rationally. 

He could still see the terrified look on Jim’s face while they yelled at him yesterday crystal clear.

And just because Jim was being a hypocrite didn’t mean that it wasn’t a dick move to lie to him about calling CPS.

And what they did yesterday….

Toby swallowed back another wave of nausea. Just thinking about what he’d done was enough to make him sick, he wanted to go back in time and smack some sense into himself.

He’d let his anger win out over everything else and started firing back at Jim, and then the girls had followed his lead. Pushing Jim so far over the edge that he went and started a fight with Psycho Steve of all people, who put him in the freaking hospital. Now Dr. Lake had taken him out of town and he wasn’t answering his phone--

His train of thought flew off the rails and crashed to a halt.

Jim and Dr. Lake were gone, and wouldn’t be back for over a week. Which meant that their house was going to be completely empty for that whole time.

Before the idea had even finished forming Toby knew what he had to do.

Immediately after propping his bike up against the wall Toby strode over to the toolbench and grabbed the items he was looking for. A doorstop, an unraveled wire coat hanger, and the biggest pair of bolt cutters Nana had been able to find at Home Depot.

Darci was the first to notice him “What are you doing with all that?”

“Snooping,”

Now Mary and Claire were looking at him to “What do you mean?”

“Jim and Dr. Lake are gone for spring break, and I think we all know that Jim is going to ignore any texts or messages we send. So I’m going straight to the source, I’m going into their house to get some real answers,”

The girls all shared an uncertain look “Toby…” Claire said slowly “You know that if you break in they won’t be able to use anything you find as evidence, right?”

He wilted a little, but tightened his grip on the bolt cutters at the same time “I know, but this might be the only chance to find out what’s really happening to Jim. And if I can figure that out, maybe I can figure out how to get Jim to let us help him,”

Toby turned and then hesitated, dragging the toe of his shoe on the concrete “I won’t ask you guys to come with me, but I need to do this,”

Knowing that if he waited any longer he was going to chicken out, Toby raised his foot and strode out of the garage, making a beeline for the Lake house. After a few seconds he heard footsteps behind him as the girls started to follow.

And even though he knew he’d do this alone if he had to, it felt really really good that he didn’t have to.

Once he got to Jim’s garage, Toby pulled a trash can up to the door and stood on it. Boosting him up high enough to wedge the door stop between the garage door and the frame, reaching in with the coathanger until he snagged the cord and pulled it down within arm’s reach. Cord in hand, Toby yanked until he felt it give, allowing him to slide up the garage door with ease.

Stepping down and picking up the trash can, Toby turned to go put it back when he saw Claire, Darci, and Mary staring at him with big eyes.

“Toby…” Mary said slowly “How did you know how to do that?”

“Oh, uh…” he felt his face heat up “Nana showed me how when Meow Meow PI got locked in our garage, then she made me promise not to tell anyone….so please don’t tell anyone,”

“We won’t but you are going to have to teach us that one,”

Once the trash can was back in place they headed in, Toby pulling the garage door shut behind them “Where should we start?” Darci whispered, even though it was only the four of them in the deserted house.

Toby glanced around, tool bench, picnic coolers, spare fridge, chest freezer-- He froze, eyes locked on the chest freezer pushed back against the far wall. The one that was always kept padlocked for reasons he’d never questioned until now. The only reason he could think of to keep a freezer locked would be--

He shoved the idea away before a picture could form in his head. 

But now he needed to see for himself to make sure that the thought he was desperately trying not to think about wasn’t true.

“Here,” he strode over, and with only slightly shaking hands, cut the metal U of the latch off with two snaps of the bolt cutters, the unopened lock clattering to the floor. It was actually easier than he thought it would be, of course the bolt cutters were ginormous compared to the latch.

The girls gathered in close as he popped the now empty latch and slowly lifted the lid.

First off there weren’t any dead bodies staring back at them, so that was good. It looked like the freezer was just stuffed with regular plastic grocery packages. But why put a lock on ordinary food? Maybe they really were worried about racoons, those were a menace in this neighborhood. 

Despite that perfectly rational, reasonable explanation, Toby couldn’t shake the feeling that something looked off about the food in front of him, something that he couldn’t quite put his finger on.

It only took a few more seconds of staring for him to figure it out. He didn’t recognize any of the labels on these packages. And he and Jim had done a lot of grocery shopping together. Jim going on and on about all the subtle differences in flavor between different items and different brands.

That’s how Toby knew with absolute certainty that this stuff wasn’t anything you could buy at any grocery store in Arcadia Oaks. Because in all of their trips shopping together, they’d never bought any of the items in this freezer.

Reaching past him, Claire gingerly picked up something shrink wrapped in blue and yellow plastic “Beef sweetbreads?”

Toby eyed the package suspiciously “Bread doesn’t come from beef,”

“Sweetbreads aren’t bread, they’re organ meat,”

“Ew,”

“Hey they’re actually pretty good when you cook them right,”

Even more curious now, they all started reaching in and rifling through the frozen packages in front of them.

“It looks like this is just a bunch of meat,” Darci said while holding up a bag of beef bones by the corner between her thumb and forefinger.

Mary wrinkled her nose at a package of chicken livers “Yeah, but I’ve never seen Jim cook with any of this stuff,” she peered in Toby’s direction “Have you?”

His mouth went dry, nausea creeping back in “No, I haven’t,”

They kept digging, plastic packs of meat piling up on the floor around them, and the deeper they went the weirder things got. Eventually hitting what looked like whole small animals, cleaned and skinned and sealed in shrink wrap. Toby lifted one of them out, guts squirming in his belly “Guys, what are these?”

Claire leaned over and read off a tiny label on the corner of the package “It says whole rabbit,”

This kept getting freakier and freakier, Jim had never cooked rabbit meat before, let alone roasting them whole. 

Darci and Mary cleared off the rest of the rabbits to uncover a massive package at the bottom, one that would have taken all four of them to lift out, bright red of raw muscle showing clearly against the white of the freezer. But unlike everything else in here, this one had clearly been opened and resealed multiple times, with chunks of meat taken off, proving that someone was taking stuff out of this freezer and using it on a regular basis 

“This one says whole bison leg,” Darci said quietly.

A chill went through him, and not because he was standing in front of an open freezer.

“Oh my god, I just can’t--” Mary darted away, running to the wall farthest away from the freezer and slumping against it, gasping and shaking. Claire immediately ran over and put an arm around her shoulders, leaving Toby and Darci standing in front of the freezer.

“Toby,” Darci’s voice was a monotone, her eyes locked on the frozen leg in front of them “Are you absolutely sure that Jim never cooked with any of this stuff,”

“Positive,”

“Then...what do they do with all this?”

Toby’s stomach shrank in on itself “I don’t know,”

Were they trying to bait racoons or something? It was the only thing Toby could think of, but if they were, why? And he was pretty sure there was a lot cheaper stuff out there they could use for racoon bait. But if they weren’t using it as bait then what they hell were they doing with all this weird meat? And why the lock?

Pulling in a deep breath through her nose, Darci slowly started putting the packages they’d taken out back in the freezer “Ok, we’re not going to find anything else out here, we need to clean up and keep looking,”

Fighting past the painful tightness in his abdomen, Toby grabbed a rabbit and joined her. Claire eventually came over to help them, but Mary stayed far away until the lid of the freezer was shut.

“Um, Toby…” she said, walking back up to join them “How are we going to put the lock back on when you cut it off?”

“Easy,” he walked over to the toolbench and picked up a small bottle “Instant set Gorilla glue,”

And with two quick dabs of glue and Mary holding the pieces for him, the lock and the latch looked nearly as good as new. The latch did look a little funky from where the cutters had gone through, but Toby was pretty sure Jim and Dr. Lake wouldn’t notice it.

Now time to search the rest of the house.

Toby headed through the side door into the main house with the girls just behind him, pausing just inside the hall while he tried to figure out the best place to search first.

“Let’s look in Dr. Lake’s bedroom,”

All three of them slowly turned towards Mary.

“I mean…” her cheeks filled with red “If she’s hiding something chances are it would be in there,”

Claire nodded at that “You’re right, let’s go,”

The girls headed towards the stairs, but Toby hung back. Darci paused at the foot of the stairs, glancing back at him “Everything ok Toby?”

Even knowing what he knew, about the basement and the scars and all the other strange stuff. There was a part of him that still thought of Dr. Lake as….Dr. Lake. His friend’s fun, sometimes goofy mom, the one that took them to theme parks and gave the best presents on birthdays and holidays, who was never too busy to talk and always happy to see him. Going into her room and snooping through all her stuff felt...wrong.

All the girls were looking at him now, seeing what the hold up was.

Toby clenched his jaw and raised his head.

But no matter how bad he felt about it Toby couldn’t let his guilty conscience get in the way. Dr. Lake….Dr. Lake wasn’t who he thought she was, and Jim was in real trouble. This was the only way he could help him. That meant he had to suck it up and follow through.

He’d come this far already.

“Y-- yeah I’m fine, let’s go,” Toby forced his feet to move and followed them up the stairs into the back bedroom. His throat tightening when he saw Mary dive straight into going through her dresser, even as he set aside his tools and got down on his knees to join her. 

They spent nearly two hours going through the room from top to bottom. Searching the closet, every drawer in the dresser, under the bed and in the nightstand, every single nook and cranny in the room, even under the mattress. But they didn’t find anything. Just clothes, jewelry, and books.

Toby glumly replaced the socks back in the drawer he pulled them out of. If there was anything hidden in the house it wasn’t in here. So all they’d managed to accomplish was violating Dr. Lake’s privacy. But if there wasn’t anything in her bedroom then where else would--

“Toby,” Claire spoke up, startling him “Do you know if this house has a crawlspace, or an attic?”

He paused with his hand halfway out of the sock drawer. The Lakes had both a crawlspace and an attic. He’d seen the crawlspace, a small cubby in the basement full of their Christmas decorations, but the attic--

Dr. Lake had only mentioned once that they did have an unfinished attic, even shown him where it was.

And then said that he should never ever go up there.

“Their crawlspace is full of Christmas decorations, but I’ve never seen inside the attic. Dr. Lake said it was off limits,”

That got the girls’ attention.

Mary got to her feet “Where is it?”

“Closet, in the ceiling,”

Immediately they all made a beeline towards the closet, Mary pulling open the doors and revealing the square cut out of the plaster in the ceiling. 

Claire frowned “How is one of us supposed to get up there?”

“I’ll do it guys,” Darci stepped forward, shoulders square and mouth set in a firm line “I’m the tallest, just give me a boost,”

Positioning themselves directly under the hole, Mary and Claire each grabbed one of Darci’s legs and lifted, allowing Darci to push aside the cut out square of ceiling and poke her head into the darkness of the attic beyond.

“A little higher guys, I need to get a good grip to pull myself up,”

Claire and Mary obliged, raising Darci until she was waist deep in the attic, allowing her to kick off from the palms of their hands and vanish into the dark hole. After a few seconds Toby saw a small light, which had to be from Darci’s cellphone, blink on, illuminating the bare wooden beams of the unfinished space. 

“You see anything Darc?” Mary called up at her.

The light bobbed around in the small space above them, ceiling creaking under her as Darci moved around “Nothing so far, there’s a lot of fiberglass insulation so I have to be careful not to…”

All of a sudden the creaks stopped, the light staying frozen in one spot.

“Darci,” Toby forced the strangled word out “What’s going on?”

Things were silent for a few more seconds before they heard her voice again “There’s a box here guys, and it doesn’t look like Christmas decorations,”

With some tricky maneuvering, Darci managed to push the box down the hole, where Toby and Claire caught it. Quickly moving it off to the side so the three of them could catch Darci as she jumped down. Once she managed to untangle herself from them they all turned their attention back to the box.

Toby pushed it out of the closet so there was enough room for all of them to huddle around it. The box was about the size of a microwave, dark metal and surprisingly heavy for its size. It looked like one of those heavy duty water/fire/apocalypse proof boxes, and fortunately it wasn’t locked, meaning they wouldn’t need the bolt cutters. Trembling, terrified of what he might find, Toby popped the latches and lifted the lid. 

Part of him was worried that when they opened it they wouldn’t find anything but boring adult papers, bills and insurance stuff like that, but one look and he knew that wasn’t going to be the case.

Inside were two black bags, a large plastic one and a small felt one, and some kind of weird plastic rectangle. Mary reached in and pulled out the small bag first.

They all watched her tug the drawstrings open, not even daring to breathe as she turned the bag over and dumped the contents out. 

A bunch of loose teeth and a bundle of black hair in a rubber band tumbled onto her hand.

Just when Toby thought this couldn’t get any more confusing “What the hell is all that?”

Claire poked at one of the teeth sitting in Mary’s palm “This looks like stuff from an animal,”

It certainly did. That hair could easily be fur, and those teeth would have been right at home on a bear’s mouth. Big and sharp and clearly from a meat eater.

A locked freezer full of strange meat, animal parts hidden away in the attic. Toby still couldn’t put the pieces together, but it wasn’t shaping up to be anything good.

They spent a good minute staring at them before Mary poured the teeth and hair back in the bag “We aren’t going to learning anything by staring at teeth, let’s keep going,”

Claire grabbed the large bag just as Mary was replacing the small one, setting it in front of her and untying the straps to peer down inside.

Toby crawled closer “What is it? What’s in there?”

“It looks like...bath bombs,”

“What? No way,” Darci scooted up to Claire’s side and glanced down at the open bag “Huh, it does look like bath bombs,”

It took Toby a few seconds to realize they weren’t talking about actual explosives “Bath bombs,” he said incredulously “You mean like those fizzy scented things you put in the tub, those kind of bath bombs?”

Claire got to her feet “Only one way to be sure, follow me guys,,”

They tailed after Claire down the hall into the bathroom, where she promptly started filling the tub. Once there was about a half a foot of water inside she reached into the bag, pulled out a grainy pink ball, and dropped it in the water.

As they gathered in close and watched, a cloud of pink bubbles fizzed up around the sphere, filling the tub with pink foam and the scent of--

“Huh,” Toby sniffed “Roses,”

Mary reached a hand into the water, swirling it around before emerging slightly pink “It looks like they are just bath bombs,”

Ok this was getting really weird. Bath Bombs and animal parts weren’t exactly criminal, but what were they doing locked up in a secret attic box?

For a long time Toby had thought that the curfew and the locking in the basement was because of what Nana told him. That Dr. Lake was so scared of losing Jim she’d started doing some messed up things in order to keep him.

But after learning about the scars he started wondering if that was actually true. And now after seeing the meat and the animal parts and the bath bombs…

It was starting to look like all of this was just scratching the surface of something a lot bigger.

And there was still one more thing to check out.

After draining and rinsing the tub, they all went back to the bedroom and gathered around the box again, where Toby picked up the final item inside it, the plastic rectangle.

He turned it over a few times, trying to figure out exactly what it was when it clicked, filling him with a jolt of exhilaration.

“Guys I think this is some kind of book,”

Books meant data, information. Maybe even the answers behind the bath bombs, teeth, and weird meat.

Mary kneeled down next to him “Can you get it open?”

“I’m trying, but there’s a combination lock, and the thing’s completely sealed so I can’t just bust it open with the bolt cutters without destroying it, and--”

They all jumped as a deafening chime rang through the house.

The doorbell.

Toby’s heart shot up into his throat like lightning, beating hummingbird fast as the bell kept ringing again and again. 

Hearing the sound shattered his focus like a harsh slap, forcing Toby to remember exactly where he was and what he was doing.

He was in someone else’s house.

They’d come in without permission by breaking into the garage. 

They were breaking and entering.

They were committing a crime.

If they got caught it wouldn’t be extra homework or detention they had to deal with.

If they got caught they would get in real trouble.

For the first time Toby knew he wasn’t being melodramatic when he imagined getting arrested and sent to juvie.

Toby shot his head up and saw that the girls had the exact same panicked, horror-stricken looks on their faces that he knew he had on his. From down below the doorbell kept ringing again and again.

The locked book slipped from his hands and fell to the carpet with a dull thunk.

Oh fuck. 

“Guys we need to get out of here now!”

They all simultaneously jumped to their feet, Claire practically throwing the bag of bath bombs back in the box, and after fumbling with it for a few seconds Toby managed to toss the book in after it, Darci slamming the lid shut while muttering ‘oh god’ over and over again.

Frantically dragging the box back towards the closet, they figured out really fast that getting the box up was going to be a lot harder than getting it down, especially considering they were all freaking out. After running around like idiots for a few seconds, they got it together enough to hoist Darci up to the attic again, and then raise the box to where she could grab it and put it back, before dropping down from the attic herself. 

Meanwhile the doorbell continued to ring over and over, each chime practically giving Toby a heart attack, as they raced around the room, replacing items and shutting drawers and removing every trace of their snooping.

“Claire what the hell are you doing!?” Mary hissed.

Toby glanced over to see Claire standing in the doorway staring down the stairs to where the front door was “C’mon Claire we have to hoof it before Jim and Dr. Lake come in!”

“But...why would Jim and Dr. Lake be ringing the doorbell of their own house?”

Toby, Mary, and Darci all stopped dead

Claire was right, if Jim and Dr. Lake were back they’d just come right in without even touching the doorbell. But then who was ringing it? If it was just a salesman or something wouldn’t they leave as soon as they figured out no one was home? Whoever this was had been ringing the doorbell for nearly five minutes with no sign of stopping.

“New plan!” Mary piped up, voice a full octave higher than normal “Sneak out the back, then circle around through the bushes, act like we’re just out walking and see who it is,”

Toby nodded shakily along with Claire and Darci, leave it to Mary to come up with a plan under extreme pressure.

After double checking and making sure they’d gotten rid of all evidence of their break in, Toby grabbed his tools and ran to the stairs “Quick guys, go go go!” 

Not wasting a second the girls scampered down the stairs on light feet, Toby following after, the unrelenting doorbell even louder on the first floor.

They made a beeline for the back door, Toby going out last and locking it behind them. Following them, he ran over to the fence and, in a feat only possible to the insane amount of adrenaline shooting through his veins, hopped it in two bounds and dove into the shrubbery, joining the girls. 

“Everyone ok?” Darci whispered, crouching low in the undergrowth.

“Yeah,”

“Uh huh,”

“Yep,”

It was all Toby could do not to collapse, gasping for breath and quivering all over from equal parts relief and leftover panic. 

They’d gotten away with it. He was pretty sure they’d gotten away with it. No one had seen them and they hadn’t left any evidence behind. Although they hadn’t had time to wipe their fingerprints off of everything, or get rid of their DNA, hopefully Jim and Dr. Lake wouldn’t realize that their house was broken into at all. And even if they did there was no reason for the four of them to be suspects.

They were fine. No one was going to get arrested.

Although now that the adrenaline was starting to fade, Toby was pretty sure he was going to have some wicked bruises from his landing. 

Mary sank lower the the ground, perched on her hands and knees “Keep to the plan guys, let’s sneak around to the other side,”

They all followed her lead, Toby forcing his breathing to slow and become quieter, crawling through the bushes until they emerged on the sidewalk around the corner. Standing and shaking off the leaves and branches, Toby tucking the cutters, hanger, and stopper in a bush to retrieve later. 

“Let’s go,” Mary took the first steps towards Jim’s house. A few months ago Toby would have thought she was completely relaxed about the whole thing, but now he could see just how on edge she was.

Toby walked after her, along with Claire and Darci, trying to be as casual as humanly possible without completely overdoing it. 

Nothing to see here. Just a group of teens out walking around, as teens did. No criminals here.

He had to try especially hard to act normal as they were heading around the corner of the block, breath catching in his chest as Jim’s house, and the mysterious bell ringer came into sight. 

It was some scruffy looking guy, messy looking beard and jeans and a jacket that had certainly seen better days. Not a particularly scary looking guy, but it certainly didn’t look like he was there to sell anything.

Feeling bolder now that they were out in broad daylight and not at risk of being caught mid-felony, Toby came right up to where the front steps met the sidewalk, the girls stepping up next to him, with scruffy standing less than ten feet away. Fidgeting and pressing the bell every ten seconds or so, face crimped in frustration.

Of course this close they should have realized it was inevitable that the mysterious scruffy man was going to notice them.

“Oh hey!” he jogged across the porch towards them, causing them all to shuffle backwards involuntarily “You kids know the people who live here?”

“Why do you want to know?” Mary said warily

“Oh-- I heard from my buddy that CPS has been sniffing around, and Barb took Jim out of the hospital without checking him out yesterday, so I’m trying to see if they’re ok,”

Instantly uneasy, Toby glanced over at the girls, the three of them looking just as tense as he felt. The whole leaving the hospital without being checked out was news to him and definitely not good. But even more alarming was the fact that although this guy apparently knew Jim and Dr. Lake, Toby had no idea who he was. And by the looks of it, neither did Darci, Claire, or Mary.

“So do any of you know when they’ll be back?”

Claire took half a step forward “Sorry but...who are you again?”

“Oh! Well I…” scruffy trailed off, letting out a gusty breath and running hand through his hair “You see I’m--” all of a sudden he cut off and looked over at them sharply, Toby flinching as the man locked eyes with him.

“Toby! Come on, you know me, right bud?”

His heart stopped, blood running cold. From the corners of his vision he could see the girls pull around him protectively “Who are you, how do you know my name?”

“Come on,” the man grinned, as if they were all old buddies “You know me, from back when I used to live here,”

Toby just kept staring at him blankly. Used to live here? The only person he could think of that used to live here was--

No. It couldn’t be.

He looked at him again, really looked, comparing the shape of the jaw, the scraggly beard to the ones from his murky, half faded memories.

“Hang on,” Toby slowly raised a finger to point at the stranger who might not be a stranger “You mean that you’re--”

“That’s right,” he flashed them a smile, painfully familiar now that he could see the resemblance “I’m Jim’s dad,”

[courtney-deserved-better]

whats ur writing schedule/process like! not in a “write faster” way, but i think once you mentioned writing in script form? and i like the way you wrote ur most recent fic! just curious bc ur works are just really good :)

this is a great question!!

if its not slippery slopes, ill usually get an idea for something and periodically jot down notes when they come to me until I feel like i have enough information to start writing (or if im just motivated), that's what i did for my horror challenge rewrite. and for stuff that's like... rewrites of an episode that aren't as character-focused as slippery slopes, i usually read the episode transcripts and try to replicate that total drama style with my own writing

for shorter oneshots, i usually just get a vague idea and run with it until i find a good ending spot, then i go back and clean it up a bit so the structure works

slippery slopes is an... interesting cycle. chapters are getting long enough that i cant just write them in one sitting any more (i think ch5 was the last chapter i did that for) and instead ill agonize over the beginning (always the hardest part to write for me) but once i get going with that i usually finish the chapter within a few days. then i reread the previous chapter to make sure it flows ok (and there aren't any contradictions) and then ill give myself a break where i dont do anything total drama related before coming back to edit and post. though before I do all that I type up notes and rough dialogue bits

and then once i post it it's like... a weight off my chest? like ive been purged or something?? idk its a weird sensation but im just like i Physically Cannot Write Anything For This Right Now and i don't start on the next chapter until that goes away. and then i either start the beginning and do nothing for a week before going back and finishing the chapter or i go into a manic state and write nonstop for a few days. right now i haven't reached a point where im ready to begin writing chapter 10 but i have a lot of notes for it.

(also as soon as i finish posting a chapter i try not to go on my laptop for like 12 hours so i don't obsessively refresh my email for comments. i love reading comments so much holy shit. please comment guys it makes fic authors feel so happy we will love you for it)

as for scripts: i am working on being a writer professionally, but specifically a playwright. writing in a script format comes more naturally to me than writing prose. funnily enough, i started posting fanfic just to practice my prose (and fix stuff in cobra kai that i didnt like) but things sort of... ended up here? idk man but im enjoying it.

right, so because writing in a script format is easier when im really struggling with a section in a fic ill usually scrap whatever i had and write it like a script, then translate that into prose. i was very excited to write the family videos for chapter 9 of slippery slopes, but i was Having Issues, so i redid it as a script and then rewrote that as prose. ill put the script version under the cut if you're interested in that.

but thank you so much for the question!! i do think my writing process is a bit unconventional but hey i think things are turning out well! if you have any more questions feel free to send them in!!

ok here is the last scene of ch 9 of slippery slopes in script format:

[SIERRA]

MOM: Hi honey! Omigosh this is so exciting! I bet you’re having such a great time! Especially since Chris is there! Is Chris watching this? Hi Chris! You know, I loooved you on that ice skating show. Your hair was fantastic! Well, it always is, haha. Do you really make your own hair gel? I’ve been trying to perfect the recipe but you’re just so hard to track down! Oh, you’re such a funny guy! I laughed sooo hard when you made all those jokes about marrying Chef.

Chef: hey!

Chris: ok just for the record, I wasn’t joking, we are married, Sierra tell your mom we’re married

Sierra: …can we just turn it off please

[COURTNEY]

DAD: Courtney, sayang, I know you’ve been going through a lot right now—

MOM: So you’d BETTER make it count. You’ve made it this far before, I want to see you getting all the way to the finale this time. And winning it. Enough moping about those hideous, good-for-nothing slackers! That’s what you get for hanging around freaks like them. You’re doing this for the million, now get the million. Is that clear?

ZARINA: And kick ass!

DAD: Zarina!

Video cuts out.

Alejandro: courtney you good?

Courtney: no, she’s right. Mama didn’t raise no quitter

Alejandro: [knows she’s still upset about duncan and gwen]

[ALEJANDRO]

MOM: Hola, Alejandro. We hope you are doing well, especially in such unsavory conditions. I’m glad to see you’ve made it to the final four— we expected nothing less, of course.

DAD: You have been utilizing your skills quite well. Though I wish you hadn’t been so… blatant about it. You’ll have to work twice as hard once this is over to convince people you’re trustworthy. But surely you were aware of that going into this… odd endeavor. That’s just politics. Reputation is everything.

JOSE: [snorts] Oh, and what a reputation you have, Al. I could easily compile hours of footage of your failures, but I, unlike you, do not waste my time on the frivolities of reality television. Though you always have been lacking in taste. Especially with that bratty girlfriend of yours— oh, my mistake, aren’t you dating the whiny weakling? It’s so hard to keep track! [laughs]

Alejandro: callate!

MOM: I’m sure Alejandro is just working an angle on them.

DAD: Whatever the case is, do not disappoint us.

[NOAH]

MOM: Hi Noah, I’m sorry, I don’t have time to record a full video, but I’m proud of you! Here are your sisters!

ISWARI: A million dollars? A million [bleep] dollars? Win it, Noah! Win it!

RUTH: Dude!! This is crazy! I know you can do this— good luck! Ark misses you! [holds up Ark who barks]

MARA: Are you insane? Why aren’t you dating Alejandro already?

Noah: shut up, mara, just because you can’t keep a boyfriend—

ANYA: Don’t let ‘em trick you! No mercy! Crush their skulls if you have to— no, wait, you’re not strong enough for that. We’ll get there!

LIYA: I say this as your sister, someone who loves you but is constantly annoyed by you— for someone who is quite literally a genius, you sure can be an idiot sometimes.

BALLARI: Okay, I literally have no idea how you’ve made it this far without an athletic bone in your body— are we sure you aren’t adopted? I’m kidding

ABS: You’re stubborn as hell when it comes to me, so you better be stubborn as hell when it comes to winning! And when you do win, get me a frozen yogurt machine, will you? I promise I won’t make you rock climb again!

JAEL: If you lose this, I’ll kill you with this racket. And then use your guts to make myself a new racket. So don’t fuck it up. Again.

Noah: [frozen, ashamed]

Sierra: well that was a mess

Courtney: ok show of hands, who felt better after hearing that? [no one raises hands]

Chris: yeah I was expecting this to be a lot more heartwarming…

Chef: chris just look at them. If they had stable home lives they wouldn’t be doing reality tv

Alejandro: can we please stop talking about this. Also aren’t you supposed to be flying the plane

Chef: oh fuck

Chris: yeah sure. I think im gonna call my mom

Everyone: …

Noah: ok so that was really shitty. Why dont we all go to first class and try and ignore our problems

Everyone: yeah ok sounds good

***

Courtney: so that sucked

Alejandro: at least your dad seems ok

Courtney: true. What are your guys dads like

Noah and Sierra: bold of you to assume I know my dad. Jinx

***

Alejandro: that last girl… you mentioned a sister who does tennis and hates you

Noah: yep

Alejandro: why?

Noah: none of your business. but… it is pretty justified

[fanversequeen]

Alrighty guys I'm gonna talk about Rise of the Titans and everything it destroyed from the past few years starting from the ending. I'm pretty sure the writers for the movie weren't the same writers for the shows.

One: Why. Just why. It's cannon that if Jim didn't become the trollhunter, Draal would. It says so in season 2: Unbecoming

Jim was supposed to be the first human trollhunter no matter what universe he's in. If a random troll picked it up, sure. But a different human? Nah.

Two: Where was Zoe? Don't we have this kind of rule where if you saw a side character more than once in different series, they were important and we'd get to see them again. So where was she?

Three: Everyone became irrelevant and underused. Aja didn't even say lively or use her skills in combat, Claire had a very short span of power usage, Krel's and Blinky's smarts weren't really used, Archie and Charlemagne were locked away for some reason, and Aaargh... well

At least Toby was used for something... oh wait

Three: Where were the Creepslayerz? Ninth configuration? Let me tell you, Steve and Eli both played a huge part in Trollhunters, 3Below, and Wizards (Steve). So why were they cast aside due to a pregnancy that shouldn't have happened? Yeah, that was weird.

Four: Ok so there were some pretty awesome parts like the beginning with the subway and when Douxie used his magic to hold everyone on the van. And when they were running up the titan hero style? 👌 But the second they got there, Bellroc just pushed them back down... and they couldn't get back up. Listen I'm pretty sure out of all the characters that were present, at least 4 -5 could climb back up and help Jim.

Fifth and last one: I really would have loved it if Jim had used the sphere to go back to the part before Strickler died and just redid everything but this time saving everyone's lives. I wouldn't have minded if the movie became 2-3 hours long just for that.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk and I hope Guillermo Del Toro decides to remake the movie but better because some of us would like that.

[theodorecanaryhood]

Anything you can do

Request from tagged user: can i request one where jason and his brothers bring their girlfriends over and have a competition on who does their girlfriends makeup the best and its jason x reader dick x kori tim x steph dami x raven

So it all began one Saturday when the boys were bored in the Manor, you would think living in a giant mansion there would be stuff to do. But no, the four boys were bored out of their minds.

'Wanna hang out with the girls? Sure they're not busy' Tim suggested, the other boys just shrugged. Jason Reading his book, not really caring. Damian cleaning his sword.

About an hour had passed and all four boys and their girlfriends were sitting in the living room chatting. Dick was with Kori, Jason with y/n, Tim and Steph and Damian and his newly found beloved, Raven.

'So we were really drunk, or at least I was. That's when Jayman decided the next day, he would do my make up and hair for me seeing as I was too hungover' y/n spoke, smiling the whole time.

'Something similar happened to me, I was too tired one day so Dick decided to do my hair' Kori laughed, the both of you laughed together.

'You do your girlfriends hair?' Damian asked confused, Raven chuckled.

'Why are you weirded out, you've done my make up before' she laughed, all the boys looked at each other.

'No one can do it better than me' Tim laughed, Jason scoffed

'Oh really replacement? You wanna do this now?' He cracked up, getting onto his feet and standing up, Dick following.

'You do know I have experience with doing makeup? I was in a circus remember?'

By this point the four girls were laughing as all the boys were arguing, full on, over who could do their girls make up the best.

'Boys, only one way to settle this' Steph said, the four girls were in sync, handing the boys their make up bags.

'Let's have a competition, whoever does it best wins the argument' Kori finished, all the girls washed off their makeup so the boys would have a fresh start.

Tim showed off Steph first, however, the colouring was a little off for a blonde. Tim tried his best.

'Dark colours on a blonde?' Dick laughed, Tim sighed, 'it's ok Timbers, you tried'.

Damian showed off Raven next, her looks were already unique so her paler foundation went well with her dark eyeliner and lipstick.

Dick showed Kori next, her skin fell perfectly with the colouring that Dick had chose, but Kori was a close second to Jason's Masterpiece.

'I have a confession, I don't wear makeup as much and Jason helps to do it for me. He's great at a lot of things, and this is one of them' all the boys looked at how well Jason had done. But of course, they needed a tie breaker for Damian, Dick and Jason.

'Who did it best?' Kori asked, everyone sighed in unison as they looked on but Tim started laughing. When all eyes fell on him, he went quiet trying to hold it in.

'What's so funny?' You asked confused, Tim chuckled again as Raven and Kori looked at Steph, then they all gasped. He redid her make up perfectly.

'You are good' Dick smiled, then he pouted, 'so I guess we're all equally good?' He asked confused. Everyone nodded.

'Guess so, although we could as Bruce or Alfred for their opinion' Jason suggested, you just sat down bored again.

'Or we could just drop it and watch some Netflix'

Then everyone looked at each other and shrugged, sitting down and getting comfortable on the couches and chairs.

'Who's the one of all of us that can hold their liquor more?' Dick asks as a joke, but everyone seems to point to a different person. Starting a new argument.

'Here we go again' you laugh as everyone scrambles to start proving their point, you roll your eyes and smile.

Sorry it's short! Hope you like it

@coolkidjtworld

[lemonwritesstuff]

safety pin (ow highschool au)

summary: jesse and genji make a promise to each other and maybe, this time, two wrongs will make a right. read it on ao3

a/n: this is very based off the song safety pin by 5 seconds of summer bc im on a mcgenji and old 5sos kick rn. Featuring an american high school written by a british first year college student. Also jesse and hana are jack and gabes kids ok good cool also genji is trans and lucio is enby ok bye 

genji and jesse use he/him, hana uses she/her and lucio uses he/they

Ships: mcgenji, a sprinkling of bunnyribbit and background reaper76

word count: 1.2k (this is the longest fic i’ve ever written holy shit)

tw for mentions of transphobia and gender dysphoria/ self deprecating talk

Jesse just wanted to get to his locker. But instead, he was greeted with a crowd of people shouting horrible things at someone. Upon further investigation, he saw two people being targeted. And when the taller boy saw the green, he knew it was Genji and Lucio. 

Genji could usually stand up for himself, so why wasn’t he? 

Before anything could happen physically, the vice principal, Jack Morrison, appeared with his husband and head of phys ed, Gabriel Reyes, in tow. They were the teachers in charge of the GSA and they were also Jesse’s parents. They both knew how much Genji meant to Jesse, and how much Lucio meant to Genji so they were always first to take their side whenever anything happened to them.  

“Get to class, all of you!” Jack shouted, his voice laced with anger but also an attempt to stay professional. Gabe weaved through the crowds in an attempt to get them to disperse, before he caught the dickheads responsible.

“Principal's office. Now” Gabe scowled, his voice also laced with anger.

 As the crowd cleared, Jack spotted Jesse and Hana, worry plastered on their faces.

“Jesse, Hana, stay here.” he said, his voice much softer. He had a soft spot for any of the kids in the GSA, he’d been in their position years ago and was glad to give them the help he wished he had. At this point, the GSA was just the entire queer population of the school and no allies, but that was fine. They could all just unapologetically be themselves, without the fear of judgement. The GSA was the safest place in the school to be for them. 

“I’ll let your teachers know what's gone on and have them mark you in for the rest of the day but you don't have to go to class.” He was addressing the four of them now, voice still soft but laced with concern for the green duo. “I’ll write you all hall passes but you’re free to sit in our room if you want to. I’ll also notify all staff about what’s happened and I’ll be in my office if any of you need me.” 

“Thank you, Sir.” the four of them said in somewhat unison. Once Jack had walked off, Hana rushed over to Lucio, who was leaning against the wall and still shaking from the encounter.

“Lú! Are you ok?” Hana asked, concern now laced through her voice. She cradled Lucio’s head in her hands, rubbing away their tears. 

“Yeah, I’ll be fine, Hana. It’s nothing I haven’t heard before. I guess I deserve it, wearing a skirt to school” they replied. Being one of two openly trans people in the entire school was bound to go wrong at some point. 

“Shut it, dingus. We both know you don’t deserve it. It’s not our fault people are transphobic assholes.” Genji chimed in. 

“Exactly!” Hana said. “Now, let's go sit in the room and fix your makeup. You deserve to feel pretty, baby.” With that statement, the pair set off, hand in hand, to the room that GSA meetings were held in, leaving Jesse and Genji alone in the hallway. Genji was still processing what happened but Jesse pulled him back to reality.

“Our spot?” Jesse asked, voice quiet in order to not disturb the students learning in the class opposite them. Genji just nodded, and after Jesse got his bag from his locker (which was the only reason he was in that part of the school anyway), they set off toward the exits.

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“Thank god I got some snacks, I forgot we were gonna have a shorter lunch. I’m starvin’.” Jesse started, plonking himself down on the ground with Genji following suit opposite him. “You ok darlin’? Ya still look scared. How come ya didn’t stand up for yourself? I know you can, the entire grade has seen ya do it before.”  Genji chuckled and sighed, before replying.

“I was already having a bad enough day with my dysphoria and I was talking about it with Lucio when someone overheard us and.. yeah.” 

“Oh, baby, I-”

“No, it’s fine.” Genji said, cutting Jesse off. “They’re right, I’m not a real man and never will be. I wouldn’t be surprised if you wanted to break up with me, Jesse.” Genji couldn’t hold back the tears any longer and before he could say anything, he was in Jesse’s arms. One of the few places he felt safe. One of two places where he could exist without judgement.

“Dumplin’, I know it’s hard but please never believe anything those assholess say. You’re not only a man, but you’re MY man and I’m not going anywhere. Nothing will ever change that. Ever. They’re just asshats that lack so much self confidence that they tear others down.” Jesse said softly, cradling his lovers face in his hands, wiping away tears. 

Genji melted at any nickname Jesse gave him, especially dumpling. It came from an in-joke on their first date, where Genji had compared himself to a dumpling, small and bite sized (compared to Jesse anyway) and the nickname stuck ever since. 

“Do ya want me to do anything, darlin’?” Jesse murmured, rubbing circles on Genji’s back in an effort to calm his tears.

“No, this is fine for now.” Genji barely whispered, not even daring to look up at the brunette. Just as Jesse was about to reply, his phone pinged. 

buncha fuckin misfits

padre: the dickheads have been dealt with and they’re outta here

gaymer gorl: good riddance lmao

boy scout lookin ass: those kids have done this multiple times and i’m surprised it took this long to expel them 

boy scout lookin ass: how are gen and lú by the way?

gaymer gorl: i redid Lú’s makeup and they’re back to lookin fabulous!

yee to the haw: just givin’ gen some cuddles, he was already havin’ a bad day with dysphoria and he just needs some convincin’ that he’s stronger than he thinks. he’ll be ok :)

With that, Jesse shut off his phone and turned his attention back to the green haired boy in his arms. The brunette ran his hands through the sea of green hair beneath him, letting out a low whistle when he realised how soft it was.

“I redyed it last night” Genji said, his tears having pretty much run dry at his point. 

“Well, ya better tell me what hair products you use, darlin’. Wish my hair was as soft as this.” 

Genji let out a chuckle, which made Jesse smile. He’s getting there. 

The pair stayed like that for some time until Jesse had an idea. He reached over to his bag and pulled a safety pin off the strap, handing it to Genji. Before Genji could question him, he began to explain himself.

“ Maybe we can safety pin the pieces of our broken hearts back together. We’ve both been hurt so much in the past, and we’re obviously gonna wanna be whole in the future. So, I’ll give you this as a promise, that I’m always gonna have your back and the one on my bag is your promise to me, that you’ll always have my back. Make sense?” Jesse said, pinky extended towards his love, smile creeping onto his face.

“Of course.” Genji replied. “Besides, maybe, this time, two wrongs make a right.”

[youmustbestrongernow]

Ok so here it is the tattoo post, throughout writing the story Matteo was always long-haired and tattooed it’s just such a look and one I can imagine for him as he starts to feel more comfortable in his self, freer. So I wrote about him being tattooed and then as I wrote I had ideas for the specifics and every time I saw something or imagined something I wrote it down. Maybe they’re a bit sappy but then he never got them to look cool, he got them because it’s David’s art and the kids’ art and he wants it with him always.

Matteo wanted the bird tattoo since David first drew it on his shoulder, it took him a couple of years though. David drew on him a lot with markers, paints etc it was just something they did. One day he asked Matteo why he liked it so much. Matteo said it feels really good on his skin, to be marked with his art. David said he should get it tattooed not really meaning it but Matteo fixated on it until he asked David if he'd mind his bird being inked on his skin. David was so flattered he redid it with the flourish of the cage behind it, and that's how it started. He got that on his left wrist and it felt so good he knew he needed one more

Shortly after that on his other wrist, he got David to draw him a dandelion after reading about dandelion children, then he got it tattooed. He added another for David after seeing try harder and knowing what he went through. Later on, he added one for Jake and Jammy too.

On the top of his right arm, he has an infinity hourglass with all the time in the world written around it. Because they still say it when one of them is stressed to remind them they’re there, they’ll always be there, there’s always time, the bad times always pass

Once David drew a little set of vampire fangs, just a doodle, on his hipbone and Matteo kept it. Only David gets to see that.

Once, when Matteo was still in Uni he fell into a depression where everything was so heavy, David stayed with him in bed a lot and one day Matteo told him he felt so disconnected from his body, so David just grabbed a marker, just doodled all up his right arm, just mindless happy stuff, silly things like beautiful flowers, trees, vines, birds, butterflies because Matteo loves plants and nature. All in David’s style. Words and phrases like Home and I’m here and you will be free again. The first thing he did when he came out of it was get it made permanent, David didn’t even question it, he knew now how it comforted him and he liked it too.

On his ankle, he has a fancy looking compass that he saw in David’s sketchbook, when he got it he said it would lead him home (to David) always

On his ribcage on the left-hand side (the most painful one he’s had done) he has a crooked house with equally crooked writing underneath that says: this is my home, i am safe here which Jamilah made on her first day of school after moving in with them to the new house.

Jake's cat is on his left forearm on the inside and is like very much drawn by a four-year-old but it was the first thing he drew on the whiteboard they made his wall into because he was brave and he started to realise he was safe, Matteo immediately took a picture because he wanted that forever

One time he described to David how his depression felt, a cage around his mind, so David sketched out a shadow of a head with a cage around it, but coming from the cage are butterflies and the bars of the cage has vines around it with small flowers blooming, that was a comfort to Matteo, it’s on his left upper arm, just above his elbow

On his right upper arm, where the doodle sleeve ends there is a hand reaching out of the water (Matteo’s) and another hand grabbing it (David’s) that’s how Matteo described it once when he came out of an episode. That David just being there with him, felt like he had something tangible to hold onto to stop him floating away, drowning

Those are just the ones I had in my head, the ideas, like i said I imagine them separately to how I imagine him with tattoos but I think they all fit (i did that doodle!). Also he’s not going to stop whenever David draws something particularly cool or beautiful he usually wants it, of course Alex is creative too, as you’ll see a lot more of, and Matty could be the absolute worst at drawing but Matteo would love anything he made him.

[grifhinx]

Peculiar patterns (Trickery Cleric)

Ok so here’s the supposed “odd one out”, but bear with me. I ended up discovering stuff...

Uhhh yeah. So this was pretty much the one who got picked last. Having the other subclasses making clearer cross-matches and connections early in the process, the Trickery Cleric ended up having less and less options to decide. So the design had to make do with the fact that it was to reference the sacrament Matrimony, the angelic rank of Thrones, and the color pink of the priest’s stole (the latter seemed to have made more sense compared to the others, but we work with what we’re dealt with).

Image by Incerun

Earlier in this whole character class project, I came this garment with almost no idea what to do with it. I liked its simplicity and its modesty tho, its ability to be very mild by hiding your arms in a very interesting way. I initially tried this on the Wizard due to its sorta sly vibes, but felt like of them really matched this garment.

First sketch

Decided to try it on this design, obviously in pink. Certainly felt festive, joyful. But how do we take it to Trickery tho...

Second sketch

I attempted to incorporate the angelic reference and the holy symbol, with wings spanning the back and reaching to the front (a trick I noticed and learned from previous designs) and the symbol resting in the undershirt for a more sly visual effect. Thinking there might be more to the design ,I redid my research only to discover a peculiar detail about the angel...

Third sketch

The Thrones, also known as the ophanim, are often construed as angels, altho, per the visions of prophet Ezekiel, they are seen as flaming, rotating rings covered with eyes. 

“They sparkled like topaz, and all four looked alike. Each appeared to be made like a wheel intersecting a wheel. As they moved, they would go in any one of the four directions the creatures faced; the wheels did not change direction as the creatures went. Their rims were high and awesome, and all four rims were full of eyes all around”

- Ezekiel 1:16-18

... really was not expecting that. But I just decided to give it a try.

Fourth sketch (front)

In a twisted kind of realization, I felt like this was a complete match and whole look. Let’s see...

There’s this sorta classic Filipino saying about marriages and relationships - “wala pang nagkakamali” (i.e. no one’s made the mistake). There’s this self-deprecating humor of a notion where Filipinos like to think of people falling in love with them to be a mistake, usually based on a life of knowing themselves too well. This actually lends to the idea that with people in general, everything isn’t always what it seems.

Cut to the actual sacrament of Matrimony that seeks to bond man and a woman in a special and unified call to a life of ministry in the service of God. The sacrament and the angelic reference seem to have established an unexpected similarity in both of them by the time I completed this design...

Fourth sketch (back)

... because what else could be a better and more distinct symbol of marriage, but rings (with judging eyes)?

[atinydroid]

🍔 Share a 1-2 sentence summary of your WIP

Ok since davy decided to send me LITERALLY EVERY QUESTION i’m gonna just answer them all in one post

🍔 Share a 1-2 sentence summary of your WIP

In the far future, somewhere out in space, two girls meet. Their lives are changed forever as they traverse space on the run from the government all the while helping each other find out who they really are.

🌭 Recommend another writer’s WIP post and tell us why we should reblog it

everyone should check out @sleepy-and-anxious ‘s WIP Good For Something it’s got such in depth world building and the aesthetic is beautiful and also my shit and the characters are so loveable and relatable and I WANNA READ IT BEL

🍟 Share a GIF that represents your WIP

not a GIF but a meme 

🌮 Recommend a writeblr who you admire and tell us what about them you admire

hmmm there are lots of writeblrs I admire but @writersblockandapotoftea is one of my favorites cause she’s so dedicated and always seem to be working on her WIP and boy i wish i could do that and she makes music and is just so talented and i’m always in awe of what she does

🍿 Share an out-of-context line from your WIP

“The only thing running through Victoria’s mind at that exact moment was that she should’ve ducked.” here’s the opening line of my WIP

🍩 Recommend a writeblr who is an all-around must-follow and tell us why you follow them

 well @carrotgirl-1 is just one of my favorite people in general. Her WIPs and stories are so well done and amazing and full of detail and awesome world building and characters who i love with my whole heart. and also she’s just the most precious person to exist and i love her very much

🍪 Share a song or music video that represents your WIP

i mean if i had to pick one song it would be this one cause it’s been with this WIP for the 3 different versions i’ve had so i feel like it’s a good representation

but here’s a playlist if you want: Constellations playlist

🧁 Recommend a writeblr who has taught you something new about writing and tell us what you learned from them

honestly @carrotgirl-1 less because she taught me something new about writing and more because she’s pretty much the reason i started writing again so actively. we share so many similar loves and at the time had very similar feeling stories and us just yelling at each other about our WIPs really made me love writing again and remember what was so fun about it.

🍭 Share a link to one of your recent WIP posts so we can give it some much deserved attention!

EDIT: took out the link cause that post is from before i redid the story and i don’t really want people reading that anymore. so uhhh how about i just give you a little more from my WIP

“I give you nothing!” Both of Isso’s mouths yelled in unison as she slammed one of her split arms on the table. Quarlians had two arms and two legs like Earthens did but at the elbow or the knee the limb branched out into two. Giving the race four hands and four feet. All four of her red eyes narrowed at Victoria as she pointed two index fingers at the girl, “Girl get caught, girl pay!” The harmonized voice echoed in the small bar.

🍫 Recommend another writer’s WIP and tell us why you love it

@synwrites he’s a good editor and a good person to bounce ideas and logistic puzzles off of and he’ll help you work through tough spots in your WIP and also he’s just fun and if you reblog an ask game he’ll send you literally every fucking question 

[enharmonic-interval]

Ok, I think now is as good of a time as any to talk about my election story.

When I was in my first year of college, I joined a club all about playing video games. While there were a few problematic individuals who would pass through, the club was mostly filled with chill individuals who just wanted to play games.

A few weeks into the semester, the treasurer of the club stepped down. Me and another guy, let’s call him Bill, ran for the position. On election day, we made our speeches to the club, and was asked to leave the room while everyone voted. After about 5 minutes, we were brought back into the room, and it was announced that I had won.

Oddly, when I went to the first officer meeting, I also found Bill there. Since I was just elected in, I was a bit out of the loop and found that there was a new position just created called Tournament Coordinator. Previously, the President set up and ran all the tourneys that we had in club, but it was becoming a little much for him and the group decided on making a new position and giving the responsibilities to them. Since it was a position where you needed to know what you were doing and less on leading, the officers had decided that the position was to be appointed by the officers and not have as much power.

This team of individuals were in officership for about 3 years. All was fine until my last semester as an officer, when some stuff came out about Bill. I won’t go into the list of allegations on him, this story isn’t about him, but it needs to be known that during a discussion on what we should do about the issue, the President and Vice President told me about what happened in my election.

It turns out that the election was the ‘heads down and raise you hand for your candidate’ kind of voting system instead of a ballot. The vote was actually in Bill’s favor. I don’t know any of the numbers, but it was something like out of 30 eligible voters, 7 voted for Bill and 4 voted for me. The President found it unacceptable that so few people voted, and he /really/ didn’t want Bill in office, so he told everyone that they had to vote. They redid the vote, and it came out about 20 for me and 10 for Bill. After the fact, the President and VP made up the appointed office and gave that to Bill, since the President felt bad about not taking the first casting.

What I’m trying to convey with this story is that we, members of a society, NEED to vote. Choosing to not vote ( or vote third party in a two party system) is not a political statement. For those of you who live in the US, it’s not choosing the lesser of two evils, it’s choosing between a guy whose OK and a guy who has let over 100,000 people die. Trump has die-hard voters - it isn’t a lot, but it’s enough that if a majority of the centrists and Bernie supporters decided not to cast their ballot for Biden, there will be another four years of Trump.

[radiosteve]

Need Your Loving Tonight Ch. 11

Summary: You spend the entire day in studio with the band before something happens and the boys need your help.

Note: Me posting before midnight? That’s crazy! Hope you like this chapter because things are going to heat up a little in the next one. So get ready! As always, the italicized part is the reader’s thoughts. This photo is one that I found on google. I do not own any rights to it. If you want to be added to the taglist send me a message or an ask and I’ll add you!  

Warnings: Language

Pairing: Roger Taylor x Reader, John Deacon x Reader

Words: 3.5k+

  November 11, 1972

 “No, no. Brian, you need to put more soul into it. It’s not someone else’s song, it’s yours. Play it like you mean it,” Freddie’s voice traveled through the microphone into the recording booth. Brian’s curly hair shook violently as he nodded along, readjusting his grip on his guitar before signaling for the track to play again. The melodic notes squeaked through the studio’s speakers as Brian redid the one guitar part that he had been trying to master for the last thirty minutes. You sat on the couch along the back wall, peering over the head of the sound booth technician, trying to see your best friend recording his solo once more. 

 You’d been in the studio with the boys all day and your eyes felt dry and heavy from the lack of natural light. The boys had recorded a little less than half of the album throughout the long hours of the day. They’d each taken turns going in and out of the booth to record their own instrument. But their favorite part of recording was the singing. As they all stumbled into the booth, throwing headphones over their ears, you could see the passion filling their eyes. It all felt so surreal to them. Surreal to you too. To think that these four talented men were effectively fulfilling their dreams with a few recordings seemed insane. Your closest friends, that were destined for something much larger than could be imagined, were playing these songs. Songs that could kick start their career. 

 Your gaze pulled from Brian as you watched Roger slump back into the room. He’d left about fifteen minutes ago for a smoke break and something within you wished to accept his offer to join. While your taste for cigarettes was starting to slow, it only seemed to heighten when Roger was around. Maybe it was because of that May night two years ago when Roger’s lips tasted of honey and smoke. But then again, there was something about the taste of honey now that made you want to gag. Roger plopped down in a chair near the desk, looking into the booth. His body swayed slightly, and his eyes looked lost. Freddie leaned into the microphone once more, praising Brian for his performance and instructing him to come out of the booth. It wasn’t until Fred looked down beside him that he noticed that Roger had come back in.

 “My god, you smell like booze,” Freddie threw a hand to his chest as he gasped dramatically. Your ears perked up and Brian walked into the room, hearing Freddie’s words. John stood up from his spot on the other end of the couch, trying to get a look at Roger. 

“Great, that’s great,” Brian threw his hands in the air, angrily looking at Roger. “We’ve still got two hours left in the studio and our drummer is completely wasted.”

 “I thought he was just going out for a smoke break,” John’s voice chimed in from behind everyone. 

 “Yes, well I guess he thought that a few drinks wouldn’t hurt,” Freddie ran his hand through his hair, pulling his bangs back from his face. “What has gotten into him. He’s been acting like this all week,” the boys nodded along as you sunk into your spot on the sofa. You had noticed the change in Roger’s behavior throughout the week as well. He’d been much more reckless and impulsive lately. Ever since that night at the club last week, Roger had been acting out left and right. And you couldn’t help but think that you were the reason. As selfish as it may sound, it appeared as though Roger’s mood changed the second he saw you pressed against John on the dancefloor. A wave of guilt flooded your body as your hand came up to press against your forehead and John glanced over at you. 

 “Well, how are we supposed to keep recording without a drummer to do the backtracks?” Brian crossed his long arms over his chest as he puffed angrily. You kept watching as the boys looked around at each other over top of Roger. It wasn’t until you heard a muffled grunt that realized Roger was trying to speak. 

 “I’m fine, guys. I can still play, easy peasy,” Roger giggled out as his words slurred. You felt your eyes roll while Brian stared down at Roger with an incredulous look etched across his face. Brian turned bright red and John quickly grabbed Brian’s arm, trying to restrain him from doing something he might regret. Roger tried to stand up from his chair before he slipped and fell right to the floor. “Woah,” he breathed out, looking up towards the ceiling. “Someone better turn off the boat, ‘cause the room’s rocking,” Roger chuckled at his own joke and sank down onto the floor so that he was laying down. Freddie tried his best not to laugh at his drunken friend, but you only felt pity fill your heart. It’s my fault that he’s like this right now. 

 “As amusing as you may find this, Fred,” Brian spoke, his words laced with annoyance. “We can’t finish recording for the day if we don’t have a drummer,” Freddie looked up at Brian, not finding Roger’s antics funny anymore. It was just then when an idea came to John.

 “Y/n can play the drums. She can do the backtracking for us today so we can record the other instruments and vocals. Then Roger can just redo them when he’s sober,” everyone’s head whipped in your direction, including Roger’s from his spot on the floor and you felt your cheeks heat up. Brian walked over to you and kneeled down in front of the couch that you sat on. He grabbed your hands from your lap, wrapping them in his.

 “I know what you’re going to say, but please. Please help us just for today,” Brian brought his hands up to his mouth, his eyes locked onto yours. 

 “No, no way. I haven’t played in two months. There’s no way,” the words slipped past your lips as shook your head. 

 “Please, Y/n. I’ll owe you big time, we all will,” Brian looked over at his bandmates near the control panel and they began to nod their heads in agreement. 

 “I don’t know, Bri. I’m really out of practice”

 “That’s bullshit. You’re one of the best drummers I’ve ever heard. You could go years without playing and still be better than most,” John spoke up from next to Freddie. “Please Y/n, we need you,” your eyes locked onto his and he gave you a soft smile. 

 “Ok. I’ll do it,” the room filled with a chorus of cheers as Brian squeezed your hand and pulled you up off the couch. Roger still laid on the floor, completely oblivious to what was happening, but cheering nonetheless. “Alright, what am I playing?” you asked as sheets of music were thrown into your hands. Roger slowly slid up from the floor as you looked over a song titled “Modern Times Rock ‘n’ Roll”. You moved into the booth, grabbing a pair of drumsticks and positioning yourself on the stool. Hit after hit, you started to get a feel for the beat as you kept playing. Brian, John, and Freddie were so consumed in their conversation that they didn’t see Roger slide into the booth with you. 

 “Sometimes I forget how good you are at the drums,” Roger had waited until you finished playing to speak. Your head snapped up to look at him, before gazing back down at the music sheets in front of you. 

 “Thanks, but it would mean a bit more if you were sober,” you quipped before starting a steady beat with the kick drum. Roger moved closer to you, letting himself sway to the sound as you started to follow along with the sheet music.

 “It’s honestly kind of hot to hear you playing a song that I wrote,” Roger leaned closer to you and you stopped, twirling the drumsticks in your hand.

 “Rog, you’re drunk. Try not to say things that you’ll regret in the morning,” you pointed a drumstick at him, and he threw his hands up in defense.  

 “Oh, I won’t. Trust me,” his face hovered near yours and your eyes widened. 

 “No, no, no,” you pushed yourself up off the seat before Roger could get any closer to you. “There is no way that I’m going to let you kiss me. Especially when your drunk,” Roger looked a little disappointed as you moved further away from him. You looked towards the glass window and saw the boys finishing up their conversation before Freddie leaned down towards the mic.

 “Alright Y/n, are you ready?” Freddie asked and you nodded, sitting back onto the drum stool. “Rog? What the hell are you doing in there? Get out,” you glanced over at Roger and cut him off before he could respond to Freddie.

 “He was trying to give me a few pointers for the song. He’s spewing nonsense but I think I’ve got it down,” you flashed Freddie a wide smile as Roger grumpily walked out of the booth. 

 “Start whenever you like, darling,” Freddie gave you a slight nod as soon as Roger shut the door behind him. You fingers danced across the drumstick as you twirled it before bringing it down upon the drum set. The song flew out of you at a rapid pace. Each note, every beat swirled together creating one mass of rhythm. By the time you finished the song, your hair was slightly tousled, and your fingers were tingling. You looked up towards the faces of your friends, only to be met with an array of expressions. Brian gave you a slight smirk that pretty much said ‘that’s my best friend’. Freddie’s mouth was gaping open as he stared at you wildly. Roger looked a little dazed but also completely turned on. And John had a giant smile plastered across his face. He was beaming from ear to ear as you managed to calm your breathing.

 “How was that?” your voice still sounded a little labored, but you had almost entirely recovered from your drum session. 

 “Roger’s out, you’re in,” Freddie words broke through the speaker and you heard a quiet ‘hey!’ from Roger in the background. You stood up with a chuckle, putting the drumsticks back before walking over to the door. When you stepped into the room, you were engulfed in a large hug, knocking the breath out of you. 

 “Thank you, thank you, thank you,” Brian squeezed you even tighter as you brought your arms around his back. 

 “Not bad for an accountant,” Roger chimed in and Brian let go of you to shoot him a nasty glare.  

 “Oh hush, you’re just jealous of the fact that Y/n managed to play your song better than you,” Freddie gave Roger a light push before tapping your shoulder an affectionate pat. John stood behind them all, the wide smile still present on his lips. He welcomed you into a warm hug and you rested your arms around his neck. 

 “I knew you could do it,” John practically whispered, pulling back so that your face was only a few inches from his. “The best drummer in the world,” John’s eyes roamed yours before falling down your lips and quickly moving back up.

 “That’s a little far-fetched, don’t you think?” you giggled out and John smiled back at you.

 “Not if it’s true. And it is completely true. You are one hundred percent, the best drummer in the entire world,” John let out a light laugh with his words, still holding you close. 

 “Don’t let Roger hear you. He might try to kick you out of the band,” your smile still lingered on your lips. John began to lean in, enthralled with the idea of his mouth melding against your perfect smile. But it only took him a second to realize what he was doing before he pulled back, releasing himself from your shared embrace. You noticed the longing in his eyes and felt the warmth pull from you before Freddie started to speak up behind you. 

 “Alright Johnny boy go get your ass in the booth to record,” John gave you a gentle smile before walking through the door and picking up his bass off of the stand. You caught Freddie looking in your direction. His eyebrows were raised and a knowing smirk filled his face. Freddie gave you a thumbs up before turning back towards the control panel and waiting for John to start playing. 

 By the end of the recording session, everyone had finished their instrumental and background vocals. The only parts left to be recorded were Roger’s. The five of you shuffled out of the studio as the technician stayed behind to clean up his equipment. You held Brian’s guitar case as he helped steady Roger on the walk back to his car. 

 “Y/n, do you mind getting a ride home from John? I don’t think there will be enough room for you with Freddie, Rog, and my guitar,” Brian spoke, his forehead creased with worry, hoping that you wouldn’t be too upset.

 “That’s fine. As long as John doesn’t mind driving me. I don’t want to impose,” you shoved your free hand into the pocket of your coat, trying to keep it warm.

 “It’s no trouble at all, love,” John spoke up from behind you, his bass case in his left hand as he walked up next to you. “Let me just unlock it and throw this thing in the trunk while you put Brian’s guitar away,” John pulled out his car key, shoving into the lock on the side door before pulling it open and unlocking the rest of the doors. You gave Freddie and Brian a quick hug after you placed the red special in the trunk and avoiding Roger who was already passed out in the backseat, before settling into the passenger seat of John’s car. 

 “Thank you, John. I really appreciate the ride,” you smiled at John as he slid into the seat next to you, closing his door and starting the engine. He gave you a slight nod and drove off down the road. Soft music played in the background as you and John made light conversation. His hand, which was resting on the stick shift, slowly inched its way over towards yours. After what seemed like an eternity, John finally grasped your hand lightly, intertwining your fingers with his as he continued to drive. Your heart began to race at such a simple gesture, filling your whole chest with an indescribable tingle. With shy eyes, you peaked over at John and saw his blushing cheeks. A smile grew on your lips as you admired his bashfulness. 

 Before you could continue on thinking about how cute John’s reddened face looked under the passing streetlights, the car came to a stop. Suddenly, you realized that you had arrived at your apartment building and your heart sank a little, not wanting to get out of the car. Leaving John seemed to be so difficult, especially when you thought about the shared warmth between each of your fingers at the moment. 

 “Well, here we are,” John’s voice was soft and quiet, as if he didn’t want to be speaking. He wanted to stay in this moment forever, but it seemed like every syllable he uttered drew him further away from it, from you. “You were great today,” he looked up at you, admiring the way the moonlight and streetlamps brought light to your face in the dark. “We honestly couldn’t have kept recording without you.”

 “Well, what are friends for, right?” the words slipped passed your lips and you immediately regretted them.  

 “Right, friend,” John mumbled lowly, a hint of sadness on his face as he did so.

 “I- uh, I didn't...” you were interrupted by a loud knock on the car window as both you and John jumped in your seats, your hands ripping apart. “Oh my god, Sally,” you rolled your window down, now face to face with your roommate. 

 “Hi love. Hi John,” Sally said, sending a wave in Deaky’s direction. “I just got home, and I’d hate to interrupt but I left my key upstairs and the door is locked. Could you come unlock it for me please,” Sally plastered a big cheesy smile across her face as you reluctantly agreed. 

 “I’ll be up in a second,” you called out to her as she walked towards the building. You rolled your window back up before turning over to John. “I’m so sorry about her, she really has no boundaries. And thank you for taking me home, John. It’s always nice to spend time alone with you,” a smile crept across both of your faces before you opened the car door and got out. John watched as you walked into the lobby of your building, his smile still spread over his face. His heart stuttered and his stomach filled with butterflies as he thought back to the feeling of his palm pressed against yours. After a few more seconds of peering through the glass windows of the lobby, John drove away feeling a warm and indescribable sensation spread from his cheeks down to the tips of his toes.  

 November 12, 1972

 You woke up groggily to the echoed ring of the telephone from the living room of your apartment. It had stopped after a few seconds but then startled awake once more. You groaned, pushing the bed sheets off your body, creating a shiver that ran down your spine from the sudden rush of cold air. You knew Sally wouldn’t get up out of bed to answer the phone so you would have to. As your feet padded across the cold wood floor, you grabbed a blanket from the couch and wrapped yourself in it. The phone was on its last ring as you picked it up and held it to your ear.

 “Hello?” your voice cracked and sounded heavy from having just woken up.

 “Hi Y/n,” Roger spoke, his voice deep and rough as he let out a long breath. 

 “Roger? Why are you calling so early? It’s only…” you glanced down at the watch on your left wrist to check the time. “8:37.”

 “Yeah, I know. I’m sorry but I just needed to call you,” he sounded a little panicked and you knew that he was probably a little hungover too. 

 “What’s going on? Should I come over?” you stayed still, standing next to the sofa as you listened intently to Roger on the other line. 

 “No, no. It’s nothing too serious. I just need to,” Roger paused taking a deep breath before continuing. “I need to apologize. Apologize for how I’ve been acting all week, how I acted yesterday,” his voice shook a little and you heard it. 

 “Roger, it’s fine,” you quickly interjected.

 “No, it’s not. Please just let me do this,” Roger was met with silence from you, taking it as his cue to continue. “I’ve been acting like a complete ass to you for years and I have no right to. I mean, we slept together but it’s not we’re dating. But then, for some reason, I felt so protective over you and I don’t know why. So, when I saw you dancing with John last week something inside me snapped. But like I said, I had no right to pull you away from him. Then last night in the studio I just started thinking about it again and I got so upset, so I drank. And if you hadn’t been there to do my drum backtracks, I’m pretty sure Brian would have murdered me, so thank you for that. I guess what I’m trying to say is I’m sorry and I’m going to do better to move on because I don’t want to make you uncomfortable or hurt you anymore. I just want you to be able to see me the same way you did before everything that happened two years ago. I want to go back to normal,” Roger took a deep breath after he finished and you slowly sat down on the couch, sinking into the cushions. 

 You took a moment to mull over everything that Roger had just said. Was this his subtle way at hinting that he has feelings for you? And if it was then why would he have turned down your proposition to go on a date after you slept together? Why does this all seem so sudden? Was Roger jealous? You finally managed to gather your thoughts well enough to respond and you huffed out a long breath. 

 “Rog, you still there?” 

 “Uh huh,” he sounded nervous as he gave a muffled response.

“I thin-” was all you managed to get out before you heard a click from the other line. “Hello? Roger?” you pulled the receiver down to glance at it before resting it back against your ear. “Rog?” you asked one last time before you put the phone down. He hung up on me.

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