#probably because my phone camera isn't that great

[plushie-lovey]

Thought some of my plushies were looking pretty in the light of dawn

[mellosdrawings]

What's that? I finally took the time to make an actual character sheet for my Yuusona?

Yuu

17 years old, 1st year

They/them, probably on the aro/ace spectrum though they never really thought about it (they do get weird when people show interest in them)

Half Japanese half french

Probably has some flavor of AuDHD

Back home: Before they were kidnapped forcefully moved to Twisted Wonderland, they were the main caretaker of four younger siblings while their parents were busy working. One of their main worry now is whether their siblings are doing alright without them. Their deepest wish is to at least be able to phone call their family to reassure them that they are ok.

Personality: They usually prefer to stand to the side and observe rather than talk and engage with others. They tend to be very prudent with their actions, up until their patience runs out. They're actually pretty perceptive and great at reading others, they just keep everything to themself without realizing.

They make up their absence of magic with their fists and wits. People tend to underestimate them due to their size and quiet demeanor, but they can be vicious and ruthless when push comes to shove. They are not very expressive physically.

At school: Yuu has a terrible focus so they struggle a lot, even when the subject interests them. They are very fond of History of Magic but also hates it because learning a whole world's history in a few months only is a nightmare and a half. They also hate flying with a passion since they are scared of heights. If they could choose a club, Yuu would go for photography and/or filming.

At Ramshackle: Yuu cleans the dorm as a past time, it keeps their body moving while they're thinking about what problem they currently have. They hate cooking though, so when the cafeteria isn't accessible they try to cram themselves in whichever dorm will have them to enjoy someone else's cooking. They aren't very time savvy so they and Grim keep leaving late in the mornings.

Relationships (with Housewardens/OB)

Yuu has a soft spot for Riddle. Unless it's some rule they find completely nonsensical they tend to do whatever Riddle asks. Whenever Yuu comes to class with a clean uniform, it's because Riddle was around to correct their appearance.

Yuu and Leona's relationship is peak siblinghood. Once Yuu figures out that Leona won't act on (half of) his threats, it's over for him. He's one of the first Yuu comes to when they have a problem.

Yuu and Azul regularly try to outsmart each other. At first their interest with Azul is very transactional since he can help with everything Crowley can't be bothered to do (ie give Yuu an actual legal presence in this world) but since they have somewhat similar mindsets they end up getting along very well.

Yuu values Kalim's presence a lot. He's one of the rare pure hearted people at school so Yuu doesn't have to be hyper vigilant around him. It's a breath of fresh air. He is a bit too active for Yuu though, so they tire very fast around him.

"It takes one liar to know another" would be Jamil and Yuu's relationship starter. They had weird vibes from each other from the very start but Jamil did end up underestimating Yuu. Yuu is obsessed with Jamil's hair and regularly takes pictures of him.

Yuu is kinda scared of Vil (in a good way). If they were a tad more outgoing they'd be asking Vil to pose for their camera 24/7. Instead they quietly worship him.

If Yuu could, they'd adopt Idia (and Ortho). Yuu tends to miss their siblings all the time so they get a bit emotional around them both.

Yuu loves to observe Malleus. He's some kind of very strange entity that they can't get enough of and they don't understand half of what he talks about which tickles their curiosity a lot.

Yuu treats Grim like their own cat and plushie. They hold him in their arm as much as possible (until Grim gets tired of it and wanders off somewhere else) because it reassures them. They do fight a lot, a bit like siblings, but they also look out for the other all the time. Yuu sometimes agree to cook for Grim despite hating it.

Relationships (the less fun kind):

Since they're in a world they don't know with students who try to kill them every couple months, Yuu is very defensive in how they approach relationships. Everything starts as transactional and about how "useful" someone can be to keep around. They try to keep even the people they don't really get along with close for this reason.

They are actually very emotional (despite not showing it) so their heart takes precedence over their brain eventually. Despite not being particularly proactive they do go out of their way to help the ones they're close to.

[anjaelle]

Hii I’m in loveeee with your writing I was wondering if you could write a Dave Lizewski x bimbo reader fic?

Oooh this sounds fun. I had to ruminate on this a bit, but I think I got it.

Pairing: College!Dave Lizewski x Bimbo!Reader

Rating: She's tame

Word Count: 1.3K

--

He was staring again. Every time you turned to look at him, he would quickly avert his eyes to the front of the room. In confusion, you turned to look behind you, only to see the blank wall of the classroom. You looked back at him and found him staring straight ahead like he'd been caught doing something bad.

You pulled your phone out of your bag and opened the front facing camera to check to see if you forgot to properly blend your makeup again. Or maybe you had crumbs on your face.

It didn't look like you had anything on your face. Though you did think you could use a re-up on gloss, and maybe a touch-up on your brows. You accidentally left your makeup bag in your dorm, and you kept losing all of your backup purse makeup, so all you had was a lip balm and school stuff. You supposed that you could use this as an excuse to do a quick drugstore run across the street to pick up another backup makeup kit. But you also felt like you'd be missing out on the sushi buffet in the dining hall if you got there too late. You hadn't had sushi in a long time, it would've been a shame to miss it. Then again you could always order it from that one spot you went to with that one guy. What was his name again? Something with a "F"--

"Hello?" The professor said, addressing you and pulling you out of your thoughts. You raised your brows in surprise, and smiled sweetly.

"Hi!"

Your professor tapped her chin with a beautifully manicured nail and looked you over with a funny look on her face. "Your presentation topic for next week?"

"Oh!" You said, looking down at your notes. "Well, I might talk a little about how hard influencing is and how it's actually harder than a 9-5 job. I'm still deciding. What do you think, professor?"

There were a few whispers in the class as she thought hard on the question. At least that's what you thought she was doing.

"Why don't you workshop that and get back to me tomorrow?" She finally said, turning away from you and moving onto another classmate.

You pouted at yet another presentation subject being shot down and made a note in the margins of your notebook to do just that. You hated going to her office hours, because you felt like you could never really do anything right.

When class let out, you pulled your phone out to text your friends about your change of plans tomorrow, when you felt a gentle touch on your elbow and turned to find Lizewski. Knowing that he was quiet and always a little bit stuttery, you smiled politely and gave him your full attention.

"Hi, how are you?"

"H-Hey," he said, shoving his hands in his pockets, "Uh...I saw that you've been having a bit of a hard time with our media class."

A few people passed by the two of you in the hallway and greeted you but shot a curious look his way.

"It's so bad isn't it?" You frowned, crossing your arms in front of your chest, "I'm literally so great at most Social Media outlets, I don't understand why this is so hard. I mean...it's all the same shit."

He nodded, wide eyed and eager as always, "You're so right."

"And I'm trying really hard, but I just can't get it."

"I can help!" He blurted out. "Only if you want. I mean, you probably don't need my help. But I'd be happy to, if you want."

"You'd help me?" You asked, genuinely touched. "I don't know if I can pay you much, but how much do you want?"

"You don't have to pay me, come on." He dropped his eyes to his sneakers and shifted his weight on his feet, "We've known each other since middle school."

This time your eyes widened in surprise, "We have?"

This time it was his turn to look at you in surprise and confusion, "You went to my Bar Mitzvah."

"I did?" Then you thought about it, "I only remember going to one, and it was this boy named David."

He let out a short laugh and nodded, "Yes, that was me."

"David?! But everyone calls you Lizewski! That's your last name?" He nodded again and you gasped. Your whole world turned upside down. Without thinking you pulled him into a tight hug, "It's so nice to see you again, David! I thought you moved away in high school!"

"No," he said against your shoulder, "I just grew my hair out. And got taller. And you can call me Dave, or David, or Lisewski. Whatever you want."

You pulled away from the hug with a huge grin, and you reached out to readjust his glasses which sat crookedly on his face. Then you looked him over, trying to see the skinny thirteen year old you remembered in the grown man in front of you. You could almost see it. If he cut his hair shorter, and lost about a foot of height, he'd totally look the same. You grasped his shoulders in appreciation.

"Well this is wonderful! I've never had a friend for longer than 3 years before!"

As you walked side by side across campus, you could feel people staring like you had three heads. After the fourth set of eyes on you, you nudged Dave with your elbow.

"Do I have something on my face?" You tilted your head from side to side so he could examine you properly, and he shook his head.

"No, why?"

"People keep staring at me." You frowned, "It's kind of weird."

Dave said nothing at first, but looked around to see the evidence of your suspicion and sighed. "I think it's because you're hanging out with me."

You snorted, "That can't be it. That's so silly."

He kicked a small rock down the footpath and hummed in disagreement, "Is it? I mean...you're you. I'm me. We don't really hang out. I think people are used to seeing you with guys from...Sigma Alpha Epsilon"

You still didn't get it, and you crinkled your nose in disgust at the mention of the name.

"I don't talk to them. They're losers," you shuddered again, "They all have a weird obsession with skulls too. Have you ever seen those skulls with the blue stripe down the middle? They all have them on their trucks. It's so weird."

You watched him raise a single brow as he kicked the rock further down the path, "Are you talking about The Punisher's symbol?"

Before you could ask, he showed you a picture on his phone and you nodded.

"Yeah that's it! What's The Punisher? Is that, like, a band?"

He chuckled, "It's a comic book character and his symbol gets misused a lot. He's a vigilante."

You frowned, thinking of why someone would choose to do something like that. That seemed kind of mean.

"Well can you really see me hanging out with a bunch of guys who like vigilantes?"

For some reason, Dave's step seemed to falter, and he peered at you curiously, "Oh. Are you--do you think vigilantes are bad?"

There was a hint of poorly disguised panic in his voice.

You were confused about why he was confused. The answer was obvious.

"Vigils are a good thing," you said, matter-of-factly. You were surprised that you had to break this down to someone as smart as him. "Sometimes people have vigils for their dead grandmas and their pets, and stuff. Someone who's anti-vigils is obviously not a good person."

Dave gave you a long, strange look and laughed. Like, actually laughed. You didn't understand what was so funny about being pro-vigils. You felt like that wasn't exactly a controversial opinion. Were you on the wrong side of history this whole time? Were vigils actually bad?

"Are they bad for the environment or something? Like, the candles?" You squinted at him. He rushed to ease your worries with an extended hand.

"No! No, it's--vigilantes aren't people who are anti-vigils. They beat up bad people."

Oh.

"What a weird name to have for that," You admitted rolling the word over in your brain. Then you brightened at the memory of something, "Hey there was a guy back home that was like that! Kick-Ass! Do you remember him?"

He said nothing for a moment, but shrugged in response.

"Yeah, kinda."

"All the girls in our grade were obsessed with him," you continued, fishing through your bag for your dorm key. "At first, we thought it was that one weird guy who used to try and sell us coke from the trunk of his car down the street from our school. But one girl said that he saved her dad from getting jumped, and he was apparently, like, young. At least college aged."

"Ha," Dave simply said, "Maybe. I kind of remember people thinking it was someone from our school, though. Someone most people wouldn't even really expect, because it'd be super hard to keep a low profile. Someone who's probably super strong and really cool, even though most people don't know it."

You suddenly giggled, "What if it was that guy Todd Haynes?"

Dave stumbled over his own feet and shot his hand out to steady himself.

"You know who Todd Haynes is?"

"Yeah, I know him. He was in my gym class!"

"He's my best friend, I've known him my whole life. I'm--shocked that you know him." You brightened at the new information.

"I didn't know Todd had friends! You sure are full of surprises today." He stared at you again. For a super long time. You weren't sure what was going on in his brain. You touched your cheek, "Again with the staring. I think you're lying. I definitely have something on my face."

[shalotttower]

Hello!!! Could i maybe see some reader (maybe begrudgingly?) seeking comfort from L?

hi! this is probably not what you asked for, anon, because "seeking comfort" immediately had this interpretation in my head

but it is what it is

Title: Acclimatization Summary: Post-captivity, Reader struggles with the aftermath of L. Notes: yandere!L, L is dead, Watari is dead, past kidnapping, implied PTSD, paranoia.

You have a new habit now. An array of them, in fact, but this one stands out — staring at your phone screen until it goes dark before turning it on again.

Because it feels odd. The weight and shape, and texture; you grew unaccustomed to them during your time with L. So you keep turning it on and off, over and over, without any particular purpose other than just...looking.

The first few weeks you refused to touch it.

Maybe there's a chip inside that allows to watch you through the camera. Or a microphone that records every word you say. A transmitter that broadcasts your location. Those were the thoughts which came and went, present regardless of what you tried to do. They hovered near the periphery of your mind like bees around a flower garden and stung whenever something triggered them: the sound of shuffling footsteps passing by your door, the smell of fresh pastries, older men in formal suits.

Now you're better. Mostly.

Yesterday you went outside and even sat in the park for a bit.

The world seemed so vibrant. So crisp.

So vast, that fifteen minutes was all it took to exhaust you. You came back home, locked the door (all four locks, plus two chains), checked everything twice for no real reason other than making sure. Nothing has changed since your departure.

The curtains were still drawn shut. The air smelled of floor wash from the last cleaning. Your bedroom remained the same, with no signs of tampering.

Nothing was out of place, and yet there's a certain feeling you can't shake off ─ that someone has been here while you weren't around.

You know what it is, of course, this form of hypervigilance; you never were one prone to delusion, despite having an active imagination.

It's not going to vanish overnight, and will require therapy, coping mechanisms, and medication.

But it's okay.

You're okay.

And your new phone is just a phone.

---

Sometimes you think about him. Not always on purpose, and never in great detail, but it's hard to completely forget a person who squeezed himself in every single aspect of your life for two years, and even after that.

Because this apartment you live in isn't yours. You bought it on the money he left you.

This phone in your hands doesn't belong to you. You bought it on the money he left you.

Your clothes are new, your fridge is stocked full, the bills are paid, and it's all on the money he left you.

You wonder if he planned it from the very beginning. If he knew that it was going to be like that ─ him and Watari both gone, so abruptly and suddenly that you'll be left behind with nothing but questions which will never find answers.

That you will need footing after losing the ground beneath your feet ─ again ─ and having to adjust to the world around, again.

You wish to say that you don't need his money or anything else (he didn't leave anything else). That you are fine on your own without his help, but lying to yourself is pointless when the truth stares right in your face.

It took two months before you were able to go outside.

How long will it take to start looking for a job?

Another two?

A strange sort of comfort exists in knowing there's no pressing need for immediate income.

It's not the type of comfort you wish to have, but it's the only one you receive.

[teapotteringabout]

Stingray Ep 1

It's me again, doing those reviews I promised. Episode 1, lets go:

Recently voted in @tv21pollshowdown / @room-on-broom 's Stingray Episode Tournament to be the absolute best of the bunch. Personally I don't agree, but we'll get to my favourites later. That said, you may have noticed I've popped it into Glorious GLORIOUS because it's definitely one of the best, and serves its First Episode job perfectly.

For starters, the start. Literally. It's the dramatic words "Stand by for action!", a literal explosion and Bob on the Battle Bongos earns his paycheque. The rest of the intro theme is trombone and bongo-heavy, very fast, very stirring, and a masterful weaving of two of the main musical motifs we hear throughout the show. It's Barry Gray, baby! You could argue that every episode has this in their favour but for episode 1, I think the theme hits especially hard.

We're also introduced to our main cast: Troy Tempest, Phones, Commander Shore, Atlanta Shore, Marina, X20, Titan and the Aquaphibians. And Fisher! Even Fisher is in episode 1. Good for him.

I do love the WAY some of these characters are introduced. Troy is an aquanaut who has a fascination with the sea (naturally), so we first see him through an aquarium. Phones is the chill one, so here he is, chilling out.

My favourite introduction is probably X20's, the very first non-human character we meet. The shot of the mysterious island, the eerie warble of the strings, the pan to the shuttered window, then BAM IT'S BRITNEY BITCH:

Then we get the precursor to TOS's Operation Cover-Up, only much fancier, and X-20's charming abode turns into charming evil lair.

(the gifs are fast because they were too chonky so I had to cut some frames haha)

It's during this scene that we're first introduced to Titan. Personally I think it's a shame our first look at him is on a black and white screen. You could argue that we still get the full impact of his majesty later, but I think I'd prefer it if we just heard his voice to start with. When we do meet him, he's a great villain, featuring the booming tones of Ray Barrett who 'curls' his voice just enough to differentiate it from Shore's. We meet him with the camera looking up at him, because he only looks down on people, you see. I love his design, particularly the Hellenistic swirls in his beard.

Speaking of Titan, I love how his throneroom isn't the typical evil lair. It was the first UK show to be filmed in colour, so the art team went all-in with bright colours everywhere (also because they were still learning about cinemtographic colour). Why should evil characters lurk in the dark all the time? Be like Titan. Bust out the glitter carpet and the ginormous pearls!

Finally, Marina's introduction. When I first saw her I was blown away by how beautifully-crafted this puppet was. She stands out. No other lady has such long hair, and every episode it's in an intricate coiffure. Pretty much all the other female puppets have a heart-shaped face, while her's is oval. She is an icon, she is the moment.

In terms of plot, it's simple but effective. We're sort of in media res, straight to the point with the aquaphibians blowing shit up, here are your cast, Stingray is attacked and the crew captured. Then we have the beautifully drawn out Trial by Teufel scene.

If Teufel looks away from Troy within a marine minute (about 1 and a half Terranean minutes it would seem), then Troy is guilty of 'crimes against the underwater nations' and will be executed. The timer is a vial of dripping water, coloured red for the camera, and the sound of the drip like the ticking of the clock, combined with the tense string notes makes for a very gripping marine minute. Of course, Troy almost makes it to the end before Teufel turns his back on him at the last moment, thus declaring him guilty.

Cut to the next scene, and Troy, Phones and Marina work together for the first time as a team to escape. The action is swift and effective, but I won't lie, it leaves me wanting more. The aquaphibians seem overtaken very quickly, I demand more blood! Obviously the puppets are limited in their range of movement, but it would have been cool to have a proper Stingray battle in the first episode. That's something that get's rectified in its 'sequel', but we'll get to that.

Finally, everyone's gathered round the Shore dining table (including Fisher!!) and Atlanta realises she's in a love triangle. Thankfully, it's not one that lasts long, but again, we'll get to that.

There's a couple of things in the plot that I don't really understand. When Stingray goes missing and an aerial search turns up nothing, Shore's next move is to nuke that area of the ocean. It never happens thankfully, but aren't there any other submarines that could investigate? You know, considering Stingray is a submarine and might be on the ocean floor? Now, in fairness, according to Stingray: Adventures in Videcolor (Andrew Pixley 2022), in the original version of the script, Shore had a few extra lines were he detailed that this mysterious underwater enemy (Titan) had sunk 5 ships already, killing hundreds (p244). So in his mind, with their ultimate submarine supposedly lost, an all-out retaliatory attack makes more sense. But that's not in the final episode, and I'd rather judge the series on its face value rather than using supplementary material to inform me. This will crop up again in the next one, believe me.

Now we get the first rendition of 'Aqua Marina' in the end credits, which I'm only talking about in this episode 1 review. It's a beautiful song, but it's perhaps the main reason why Troy has this love rat reputation. Oh, he'll have a few instances of 'love rat' behaviour in the episodes for real. But the slideshow of him hanging out with Marina while Atlanta looks wistfully at his photograph is pretty damning, regardless of the actual content of the episode. As we'll discover, most of the series doesn't actually contain the love triangle, with it mostly ending by episode 10 at the latest, but this end credits sequence alone makes you think it lasts all the way. It makes you wonder if there was more planned for the love triangle arc, but it was ultimately done away with?

Over all though, it's a terrific episode. Writing it out now, I realise how good it is so I can see why it won the poll. It's not my favourite, but it's a solid S tier all the same. Glorious, in fact.

[one-piece-aus]

Whumptober Day 6

Ace x Reader

Warning: implied loss in accident

Edit: forgot this was requested by anon, oops

"Spark on the wire~ fuel on the fire~ preach to the choir~ do~ or die..."

"I know you could sing!" Ace exclaimed revealing himself once you finished singing.

"Ace?" You jumped around to see him. "How long have you- why are you holding your phone?"

"I'm gonna upload this to YouTube~" Ace said, a giant smirk tugging on his lips.

"Oh no you don't!" You climbed off your bed and started charging at him as he ran away laughing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Come on [Y/n], just give it a try," Ace said as the recording started. "You saw how many views the last one got, people will love to hear your voice again."

"I don't know..." You adjusted the headphones around your neck. "You sure it wasn't because of the end of the video that people kept watching it?"

"I'm sure, you got an amazing voice, you just need to get it out there." Ace smiled at you from behind the camera. His smile made you smile, even if it was a small smile you gave.

"Alright... here goes nothing." You put your headphones on and let the music take over.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Alright, alright, how does it feel to have your first gig offer at 20k subscribers?" Ace asked holding the camera up to get your reaction.

"I can hardly believe it," you laughed, leaning your head on the back of your chair. "Are you sure this isn't a dream?"

"Would you like me to pinch you?"

"Sure."

Ace moved closer and pinched your arm.

"Ow! Not that hard," you whined rubbing your arm.

"You asked for it," Ace chuckled backing up so the camera wasn't in your face, he then turned it around to face him. "She asked for it."

"Oh yeah? Let's see how you like a taste of your own medicine!"

"Woah shit!" Ace started running out of the room, camera still facing him as he rushed out of there. From certain angles, the camera caught you chasing after him from behind. "I didn't ask for this!"

"You did with a smug smirk of yours!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Acccce, there's so many people out there," you whispered walking over to him, holding your mic in your hand.

"This is nothing, [Y/n]," Ace reassured, accidentally getting his hand in the camera's frame. "Way more people watch you sing on YouTube." At least, he's trying to reassure you. Your grip on the mic tightened and you held it closer to your chest. Taking notice of this, he moved the camera away from his face so you could see him. "Hey, you're gonna be alright, just find me in the crowd and act like you're in our chill cave, they even got the same lighting as the place."

You glanced up at Ace before wrapping your arms around him. He hugged you back for good luck, only letting go when the lights went down.

"I better get to my seat now. Don't worry, you'll do great out there."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"You'll never make me." You turned your back to the camera.

"[Y/n], this a ticket to your dream city!" Ace reminded you as he waved the plane tickets. "They're first class and everything."

"I'm afraid of heights."

"Since when?" Ace questioned, putting the tickets down.

"Since always."

"How come I never knew before?"

"Because we've never been up somewhere high before?"

"What about the top of the monkey bars?"

"That's not 10 thousand miles in the air!" You stated, turning back to the camera.

"Okay it's not that high-"

"You're right, it's probably even higher!" You spun around again and fell back on your bed. You folded your arms and pouted while Ace walked around your bed and looked down at you.

"You know, for someone scared of heights, you fall down on your bed without hesitation," Ace pointed out, you grumbled and narrowed your eyes at him. He sighed and sat down next to you on your bed. "If you're nervous, you don't have to be. Trust me, with some headphones and music playing, you won't even notice where you are."

"Really?" You look at him, fragments of worry still lingering in your eyes.

"Mhm, and I'll be there by your side the entire time."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Because the world will never take my heart~!"

The crowd cheers after the performance ends. Ace smiles from behind the camera as he's recording you smiling and waving to the audience. Who knew you'd get this far?

"Thank you everyone!" You began, and more cheers were heard. "Alright, alright, settle down." You waited for the crowd to quiet down before you continued. "You are all so amazing, and I'm grateful you're my fans, but I never would've gotten here if it wasn't for someone, which is why I wanna say a big thank you to Ace."

"Me?" Ace whispered, surprised and caught off guard when you hopped over to him, taking his arm and pulling him on stage.

"Many of you know him if you watch my YouTube channel, he's the reason why I'm standing here today." You gave him a side hug and Ace had to adjust his hold on the camera so he could return the hug. "So thank you, Ace!"

The camera perfectly captured your smile at him, so full of life and joy, a memory he'll treasure forever.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"So thank you, Ace!"

"Hey, bro you in here- oh sorry."

Ace paused the video and looked up at Sabo.

"Didn't mean to interrupt," Sabo apologized. He frowned as he watched Ace close his laptop.

"Nah, it's fine..." Ace pushed the laptop away from him and shifted his position in bed. "What did you need something?"

"No, I was just gonna tell you the pizza's here."

"Oh..." He dipped his head down. "Can you bring a box up for me?"

"Sure thing." Sabo headed out, leaving the door open since he'd be returning shortly.

Ace's gaze wandered around while he waited for food. Your CDs are scattered across the floor next to his radio, he'd probably pick one to play while he's eating. His hoodies you used to steal were thrown over his dresser, your scent faded from them, and even the one he wore now hardly held it anymore. His hand gripped onto your old headphones, trying to hold your presence.

"I'm back." Sabo entered his room with three pizza boxes.

"I only asked for one-"

"You don't expect me to eat two pizza boxes by myself downstairs, do you?"

"Alright..." Ace moved over to make room for Sabo to sit down and place the pizza between them. Silence laid in the room for a bit as the two ate until Sabo broke the ice.

"How long has it been since... the accident?"

"I don't know," Ace shrugged. "Each day is a blur now."

"Hmm..." Sabo hummed and finished his slice before continuing, "You know, I was in your shoes after Kuma passed. It's hard losing a friend-"

"She wasn't just a friend." Ace lowered his slice of pizza. "Sorry, I didn't mean to snap, I just... I loved her you know... and I never got the chance to tell her how I really feel."

Sabo sighed and placed a comforting hand on his brother's back. He wishes he could say something more but alas, what do you say to someone whose heart was stolen by the world?

Tag: @bookandyarndragon @roseoftrafalgar

[madhatterbri]

Warning | Hangman A.P. Part 2

Summary: You keep getting better every times you post something. I was wondering if you could do a part two to warning, where matt uses y/n to get adam to join for blood and guts but it back fires or whatever you want.

Author's Note: Thank you for your kind words. ❤️ I hope I continue to do you proud. I stopped it short because I kinda wanna see where they go with this. I hope it's okay.

Requested by: @smallestsnarkestgirl

Warning Part 1

Hangman Masterlist

Taglist: @plentyoffandoms @theworldofotps @hotgirlgraps

Matthew and Nicholas stared at the small screens before them. As EVPs, they wanted to make the locker room a safer environment. What better way to do that than by watching the video cameras backstage? It wasn't spying, Matthew told himself, more like ensuring employee safety.

"Isn't this stalking?" Nicholas asked as he pressed the buttons on the keyboard. The screen changed to another camera to find Hangman. They wanted to find more information on him.

"It's not stalking at all when it is for the safety of your company. The government does it to us. We are just making sure AEW is safe while putting on a great show," Matthew insisted.

"You are right. Thanks for correcting my ass, brother. I'm just still a little hot about what Hangman did to us last week," Nicholas admitted. The attack on them was unwarranted in their eyes.

Matt smiled at his younger brother. He clicked on the arrow and paused. He found their guy. Well, more like their Hangman.

In the shot, Hangman was pacing down a hallway. He seemed to do that a lot lately. Breathe heavily and just rant to himself about revenge. The moment his eyes locked on Y/N, he stopped. "I think we are going to get just what we need to get Adam on board for Blood and Guts,"

Their eyes glued to the screen when they saw Hangman and Y/N together. She appeared nervous around him, yet something about him softened. He visibly calmed down.

"Hey," Hangman greeted. He knew he burned his bridge with her. The cowboy was so wrapped up in his revenge with Swerve that he treated her horribly. Distraught, she was now aligned with Matthew and Nicholas Jackson.

"Hey yourself," Y/N smiled, but the same emotion couldn't be shown in her eyes. She was sad to see him like this. Despite her harsh worda about him to Matt, she still cared about him. Maybe he would always have a place in her heart.

"Long time no see. How have things been?" He asked, unsure of how to start the conversation. Hangman knew what he wanted to hear. Nothing could have prepared him for the next words that came from her lips.

"Are you going to hurt me too?" She asked. Y/N bit her lip and looked down. Once she looked at him again, tears were falling down her cheeks. Her mouth trembling. "Like what you did to them last week?"

"I would never hurt-"

Hangman couldn't possibly finish the sentence. He knew he hurt her before. Hell, this conversation was probably hurting her now. All the crying voice-mails and texts on his phone pleaded for him to stop his downward spiral against Swerve.

Y/N placed a hand on his cheek. Her thumb rubbed against his skin. He leaned his face to her hand and closed his eyes. "I am glad your suspension was lifted. Just please take care of yourself, Adam. That's all I ask,"

Adam simply nodded. His skin burned when her fingers left him. She took one last look at him and left him alone. Hangman ran his fingers through his hair. His pacing and ramblings would continue on.

"And that is how we get our old friend to join Blood and Guts," Matthew smiled and high five Nicholas. The older Jackson brother stood up and reached inside his pocket. He dialed Y/N's number. "Hey, we are going to need to see you for a meeting right now,"

Matthew heard the knock on the door. He decided to let the person outside wait a few. Their plan was coming along perfectly. During their meeting with Y/N, they told her she was going to be suspended or possibly fired for interacting with someone who publicly disparaged the EVPs last week.

Word traveled fast in the locker room. One person told another, and that person told another, and soon the news made it to Hangman. They watched on the cameras as he stormed to their office door. He looked as heated as ever.

"Go get the door, Nicholas," Matthew instructed. Nicholas followed his brother's orders. Actively avoiding another elbow shove, Nicholas took several steps away from the door.

Hangman walked in, fuming. His fists clenched as he stood in front of Matthew's desk. "Suspension or firing? Y/N didn't do anything wrong!"

"She didn't read the employee handbook. She had a situation last week and now one this week. We have to show the locker room that we don't play favorites," Matthew defended his previous actions.

"If this is one of your bullshit-"

"You want to help her? Fine. Join us at Blood and Guts, and she keeps her job," Matthew interrupted. Adam paused. So this was another one of his bullshit games.

Nicholas walked next to Hangman. "Just one match and she gets to remain an employee at AEW,"

"That's right. We will even remove the write-up from her file. It would be like it never happened," Matt offered and reached out his hand. Hangman glared at his hand yet shook it roughly. Matthew grimaced from the pain.

"One match, and then I'm no longer your puppet. That goes for the both of you," Adam growled and side eyed Nicholas.

Matthew could barely hide his enthusiasm. He walked around the desk and placed an arm on both of their shoulders. "See how easy that was. It's like the band is back together,"

Hangman shoved his arm off. He slammed the door closed behind him.

"Can someone find Y/N? Even the EVPs make a lapse of judgment sometimes!" Matt announced to one of the crew members.

[kingshovelbug]

Hi, I just wanted to let you know that I got a fairphone (with the /e/ os by murena) because of your reblog earlier this year and I'm really enjoying it! Not being tracked or having to log into a google account (I deleted mine!) is great. The camera isn't *great* and I can't send large images or videos in messages because it doesn't support my carrier's advanced messaging whatever the hell, but I would not want to go back. Just wanted to share!

thats awesome! im glad to hear good reviews. as cool as the concept is and as much as i want one i havent seen any in the wild

ive been exploring what i could put together with calyxos app wise so i know what to grab when my phone eats the dust but its still working. i might give will my phone when theirs dies and grab one but thats still probably a year or two away

[theamityelf]

Descendants Characters As FNAF Night Guards: Auradon Kids

Ben: Answers the phone, listens to the phone call, and just kind of assumes this is what normal jobs are like. He just does it. Shows up every day and does it, without complaint. Which isn't to say he's perfect at it, but he's great at not losing his head when things go wrong. If the power goes out, he's hiding in the bathroom until morning.

Audrey: Doesn't answer the phone because her instructions never said whether she was allowed to. Accidentally conserves power because she keeps getting distracted and forgetting to check the cameras; she's been tidying up the office, instead. This means, when the animatronics do show up right outside her office, she has plenty of power to shut the doors on them. Survives the first shift, then calls her employer the next day like "Hey, the animatronic showed up outside my office. Is that supposed to happen? It really scared me." Because she's talking to her boss and not Phone Guy, she gets a response about how everything is safe and there's nothing to worry about. Reassured, she shows up to work again and still doesn't listen to the phone call. Rinse and repeat until she quits or is attacked by an animatronic she was too distracted to notice.

Chad: Does not listen to the phone call because it's not his job to answer phones. (Because this rules-lawyer is definitely going into this knowing the exact on-paper requirements of his job.) Does not think to conserve power. When he looks at the cameras and sees the animatronics have been moving, he immediately closes both doors, shortly runs out of power, and hides under the desk. Freddy at the left door? He leaves out of the right. He is an athlete. Foxy could probably catch him, and maybe Chica's cupcake, but if neither of them are nearby, he gets out safely. He's going to try to sue Fazbear Entertainment, and you know what? I think if anyone can make the litigation stick, he can.

Jane: Listens to the phone call and goes into hypercompetency mode. Gets through the first night no problem. She plans to go back again the next day, because she hates disappointing people, but her fear catches up to her right before her next shift and she ends up not showing up. After which she never goes back.

[monsterswithimagines]

Undisclosed Desires - Part 14

Joe Goldberg x female!Reader

Summary: Twenty minutes before he would have met Guinevere Beck, Joe meets you instead. You intruige him, but it will soon become clear that there is something off about you.

Words: 696

Masterlist

My Joe is kind of like Netflix!Joe and also like Book!Joe, who kills people and then goes "So anyway..."

I thought you'd notice how distracted I am, considering the amount of time we've been spending together.

But no, you are fighting with your grandparents and your mother isn't answering your calls and you don't want to talk about it so I am giving you your space. It's that easy.

You are thankful. You promise you'll make it up to me later.

You don't have to make anything up to me, (Y/n). You are giving me the time I need to rid the world of a pest.

It's surprisingly easy to get Jasper alone. His polygamous relationship is unfulfilling (shocking), so he spends most of his free time running around New York with his ‘friends’, who probably wouldn't notice if I walked up and stabbed him right in front of them. His evenings consist of getting drunk at shady bars and buying drugs from shady people. It only costs me three days to figure out his entire pattern.

How this man manages to be so put-together at work every day is one of life's great mysteries.

On day four, I spend the early afternoon at a thrift shop. I buy a tracksuit that looks sufficiently used and a baseball cap that looks sufficiently new. At the end of the work day, I wait around outside your office (making sure you don't see me when you leave) for Jasper to come out.

And then I follow him.

Jasper doesn't drive. He's the kind of asshole who takes the train because he thinks it makes him look down to earth. Good thing for me, because it makes it so much easier to stay on his tail.

First, he goes home, but he only stays there for an hour. Just long enough to appease his wife. Then, he leaves again.

Tonight's shady bar is actually near your apartment, but I don't think Jasper knows that. All he knows is this is the wrong kind of neighborhood, which means it's the right kind of neighborhood for his purposes.

I really need to get you to keep your windows closed.

Jasper meets three guys outside and they all shout-greet each other and slap each other's shoulders the way these types often do, and then they go inside.

You know how you can tell that I love you, (Y/n)? I spend nearly six hours waiting inside the disgusting alley, leaning against the wall with one leg bent, foot against the brick, like drug dealers in movies do. I've got my cap pulled low over my eyes and I pretend I'm texting frantically. When the wrong people approach me, I glare at them until they walk away.

It's after midnight when Jasper stumbles outside. He is alone. He is either so drunk or so uninterested that he doesn't realize he knows me. He wants cocaine and I tell him I have some.

There's a woman smoking at the mouth of the alley, but her back is to us and it is so easy to lead Jasper around the corner to where there's a dead-end and knock him out. There are no cameras here, no doors. There is a dumpster, but nobody's going to come out and throw anything away until two am, when the bar closes.

Jasper should be grateful. He dies without anyone noticing - including himself. It's easy. Painless.

When they find his body, it will be a drug deal gone wrong and everyone will pretend they never thought something like that would happen to him even though they really did think it would. They were waiting for it. People like Jasper always end up like this in the end.

Nobody will ever think to connect either of us to his death. Why would they? You would never come to a place like this and me? I barely know the guy.

As I leave, I check my phone for texts from you. There are none because you don't know what I just did for you, so you don't know to thank me. But when you find out about Jasper's death, you will pretend to be sad and secretly thank whoever is responsible, which means you will be thanking me anyway.

[ezekielbhandarivalleros]

The Meeting

Paring: Jake Tweneboah (Open Heart) and Ade Augustine (Bloodbound) - Friendship Pairing

Summary: Jake and Ade have been online friends for a while now. Ade plans on day to come visit Jake in Toronto

Rating: - General 

Collab Fic with @aesthetic-aag

It’s a really special day for two best friends Ade and Jake. They are meeting for the first time since they met online a few years ago and will really help cement this friendship in stone. Here is the story of how it happened. It all starts at Budapest Park in Toronto

Ade's POV

If I had a dollar for arriving at places early, it would probably be in thousands. Seriously. Some people consider it a good thing but to me, it isn't. My anxiety keeps me occupied especially during these situations. It goes off the charts. Even though I know I can do it, I still doubt myself. Today has to be a good and memorable one. Because I'm meeting my long time online bestie Jake in Toronto. Yes, I'm flying from Muscat. And, by flying I meant I already did. I'm at the airport with my luggage looking at the exit gate. Me and Jake have been besties for years. We always talked about how we're gonna meet one day in real life and give each other the biggest of the biggest hug.

I'm so grateful to have met him and I know that so is he. But, my anxiety has other plans today. Even though, I'm excited and want to run out of the gate as if my life depends on it. I'm still hesitant. What if I screw up? What if I do something that ends up embarrassing me and him? Or only me? What if he thinks that I'm nothing but a stupid person? He is well aware about my mental health issues and is very understanding. I drink water, count till 10 in my mind, close my eyes and take deep breath. I open them. Now, I feel better and prepared. I walk towards the gate as I take a deep breath. Well, here goes nothing. 

Jake's POV

The day is finally here, the person who I call my best friend is finally coming to see me in person right here in Toronto. I’m shaking and excited at the same time. What if she doesn’t like what she sees, what if I say something and it ends up costing our long-time friendship.

She’s a girl after all and females can be really harsh critics. I look at myself through my phone’s camera. Nothing is wrong with my hair and outfit. I shouldn’t worry about it too much, she basically almost knows everything about me. I take a couple deep breaths to calm my mind down. I’m not afraid of meeting people but why does meeting someone I've known for a years at this point now that it feels like a challenge.

I walk over to the trash and throw away the pair of empty lensed glasses. I've heard people say that glasses make you look smart and respectable but I don’t need to lie for someone to like me. They should like me for who I am. I look at the time for the last time on my phone and start walking towards the gates of the park we planned to meet up at. Well, here goes nothing.

In the distance I see her. I wave my arms to signal her to me. She doesn't see me and starts heading to a gruff looking man sitting on a bench. Just by looking at the man sitting it felt as if he'd beat anyone up if they looked at him slightly in a way he didn't like. I guess I should have told her how to find me. I quickly rush to her side to pull her away but in a way where she doesn't intermediatly see me and prop my hands over her eyes. I see a smile forming on Ade's face as she spins around to hug me. Even though we already know each other I introduce myself to her as if we are meeting for the first time. "Hello My name is Jake, what's yours" I say this with a smile plastered on my face.

Ade's POV

I hug Jake tightly. “Hello. I'm Ade.  I'm so glad to finally meet you, Bestie. How are you?” He smiles. “I'm great. I'm really happy that we finally met.” “I told you we would meet one day in real life.” He nods. We walk and sit on the bench and exchange gifts. I couldn't stop smiling. After all these years, we're here. We finally met. And, he's such an amazing person. We talk about a lot of things. He asks me about my flight and I tell him that I came here straight from the airport, which earns me a surprised look from him. I ask him about Jackie and he tells me that she's well. Then, I tell him that I'm kidding. He laughed. We get so busy that time literally flies. We don't even realize that it's almost night.

Jake's POV

I called an Uber which I paid for straight  to my apartment. As we arrived my cat Charlotte, a grey British-shorthair greeted us at the door. “Welcome to my home, please make yourself at home” I say. Ade heads to the sofa but not before going the dining room to place down the gifts she had brought me to then make herself comfortable. “Where’s Jackie, I’d like to meet her?” Ade asks me. “I’m sorry she isn’t here at the moment, she left to visit her family for a month” A frown starts to form on Ade’s facebut it quickly changes when Charlotte comes next to her asking to be picked up and cuddled. “It looks like Char really wants some attention, I’ll go make us cups of hot chocolate while you keep her company” I say as I head into the kitchen grabbing two cups. I pick out a SpongeBob themed cup one of my favorites for Ade while I choose a plain colored cup for myself.

Charlotte and Ade immediately start bonding as I can hear purring coming from the living room. Charlotte has seen Ade before from the pictures she’s seen her send me. The hot chocolate is ready and I offer her Ade the cup. Charlotte sees what’s going on and noticing Ade's hands move away from her and jumps away from Ade’s lap to lay in her cat bed. I guess she’s giving us two some space for chat and catch up. We talk about the many recent things that have happened in our lives and the books we’ve been reading.  We get so busy that time literally flies. I excuse myself and head to the guest bedroom that we have if any of my or Jackie’s parents or siblings are in town and come to visit and set it up for Ade. I’m very excited that one of my besties is here. Next time it’ll be her turn to accommodate me. For now it’s time for me to enjoy our time together.

The day has come to an end as these two best friends will cherish these next coming days as the best days of their lives.

Ade's POV

It's been a few minutes since Jake left the room. And, by now me and Charlotte are inseparable. I take a toy ball and throw it and she brings it back to me. We keep playing like this and she's enjoying it from what I can tell. Jake served me Hot Chocolate and it's really good. I finished it on minutes after he left. I see Charlotte yawn and then go back to her cat bed and falls asleep. Looking at her, I yawn too. I'm still exhausted from my flight and I look forward to bed already. Jake comes back in the room and looks at Charlotte and then at me. “The bed is ready. Feel free to stay here as long you like.”, he says as he sits beside me. “Thank you bestie.” He smiles and looks at the empty cup and then asks, “Did you like it?” He looks kinda nervous. “I loved it. It was really tasty. Thank you.” 

He smiles again and says, “Don't thank me. I'm just very glad that you're here. Finally, in person.” “I know. I can't still believe it, but I'm so grateful.” I say “Me too. You should go and rest. I'll see you tomorrow.” I nod to him and walk to the door. I stop and turn back. Jake gets up from the couch and I run back to him and hug him. For a moment, he surprised but then he hugs me back. “Thank you Bestie. I'm so glad that we finally met.”, I say. “No problem at all, bestie. And thank you too.” We hug for a moment before saying our goodbyes. Then we go into our rooms.

Tomorrow is another amazing day and I can't wait for it. Another day that I get to spend with my bestie and my new friend Charlotte. 

The End.

[donnerpartyofone]

I have complained about this before--and I'll complain about it again!--but most photos ever taken of me are really bad and this makes it upsetting and confusing when I hear, as I often do, that people think I'm "photogenic". It must be that I'm a good subject for a photo the way some novelty object is; you know, something that activates an image by being "interesting". But you know, I'm a person and I have normal vanity issues, so I don't love or understand how people go out of their way to show me a picture they took of me where I look manic and confused and I'm making some bizarre expression (which I often am but don't take a picture of that, what the fuck!), or where I just look slovenly and old and tired and I see clearly how I'm turning into my creepy grandma. Like you might enjoy looking at that picture for some quirky compositional reason (or because you subconsciously think of me as an amusement and not a real person), but ask yourself if you'd be thrilled if it was a picture of YOU! The current exhibit comes from an old friend who actually takes pictures and has shot movies, who felt absolutely compelled to send me this early in the morning with a comment about how great I look in it--which does beg the unpleasant question, if this is a "great" picture of me, what do I look like to people normally?

Like here I am flaring my teeth and shaking my jowls and rolling my eyes and sucking my slowly vanishing chin into my neck and like, I get that this might be the best I ever look to my friends, but why point it out to me? One problem is that I do have a very expressive face, for better or worse, so if I happen to be talking when someone photographs me I inevitably look like I'm either in a drunk stupor or a senseless rage. And again, this photo may not look overly offensive to you, but if you had to be me, you probably wouldn't want someone to send it to you unprompted with the implication that it's the best you can do! Personally, I have to look at my stupid face every single day whether I like it or not, and this is what that photo, and others like it, looks like to me:

I wish my phone's supposedly superior camera could focus on more than one tiny point on a completely flat image, I really miss my old phone from ten generations ago that didn't make everything closeup look like it's tilt shifted, I take way fewer photos than I used to because of this and I guess that's permanent because I try not to replace my phone until it's absolutely critical and I don't want to take a bath on another expensive disappointment BUT ANYWAY. The irony is that I actually like this drawing; like I was just trying very hard to show the world how I feel about these kinds of photos, and the unexpected bonus was that maybe I can still draw spontaneously! But yeah like, please don't send me pictures of myself looking fat and confused and old like you're doing me a big favor. I'm not grateful to know I look like that, and I worry about why you think I should be.

I was going to conclude this rant with a really stagey selfie or two to make my other point about how different my selfies look from real life, and how hard they are to take, but instead I got these kind of candid ones that maybe speak more clearly. These were extremely brief and casual and I would *like to think* that this is more of what I look like on a good day. Or at least a neutral day. Which is vastly preferable to the unfortunately typical "great picture" example above. Probably I should just ban everyone who isn't me from photographing me, then I won't have this problem at all!

[queen-of-writing-bad-things]

Henry Danger Reader Insert | Captain Man x Reader: SEASON 1

Episode 4: The Secret Gets Out

~Henry's house~

"Here I come." 

"No, you don't." Henry and Charlotte were sat on the couch, competitively playing a videogame. 

"I'm gonna get ya!" Henry taunted his friend, as Jasper burst in through the door, interrupting the gameplay.

"Hey, guys." The curly-haired boy greeted them, dumping his back and showing them his phone.

"You gotta check this out." 

"Quiet!"

"We're playing a game!" The two teens on the sofa were too preoccupied to look at whatever Jasper thought was important. Still, he pressed on.

"No problem, I'll take over your screen." He smirked, flicking the news video on his phone to the T.V, much to the annoyance of Charlotte and Henry. The news showed a live report on Captain Man, who was being interviewed by a pretty reporter.

"Just watch the video." He insisted.

"What video?" Henry complained.

"It's called 'Captain Man's big fail.'" Charlotte liked the sound of the dramatic headline and told him to play it. Henry, however, freaked out, not wanting to accidentally say something about Kid Danger in front of them.

"Uh, hey, look. My belly button." He said, trying to distract them, but it only made them look at him in confusion.

"Play the video," Charlotte instructed Jasper, who did as he was told.

"We're live in downtown Swellview, where the Phone Shark has struck again. This time, the Phone Shark bit through a dozen of people's cell phones, then fled the scene, once again escaping capture from Captain Man." The reporter described what had happened to the camera, whilst the superhero next to her shuffled awkwardly on his feet. By the guilty look on his face, Henry knew he hated that he'd been beaten again.

"Captain Man, isn't it true that the Phone Shark has been attacking people's phones for over a year now?" The woman continued, passing the mic to Ray so he could splutter out an excuse.

"Uh, yes, that is true." He replied simply.

"So, why don't you catch him?" The reporter didn't understand how hard catching slippery criminals was. 

"Well, Kid Danger and I have been trying." Ray tried to tell her, but his excuses weren't working. Henry rubbed his eyes in panic and gave his friends the side-eye when he heard his alias being mentioned.

"Doesn't that bug you?" Henry knew it really bugged Ray. In the couple weeks, he'd been working with him, he'd heard him complaining to (y/n) several times about how he just couldn't catch him.

"Yes." Ray answered with gritted teeth. Jasper paused the video, and Charlotte expressed her sympathy for the poor man on the T.V.

"Aw, I feel bad for Captain Man." She said with a sad face.

"It's not Captain Man's fault, he needs a better sidekick." Jasper shared, not knowing about Henry's secret identity. His best friend looked at him in irritation as he sipped his drink.

"One more time?" He said, frowning.

"Just saying, I'd be way better at catching bad guys than Kid Danger." Jasper bragged, but Henry wasn't impressed.

"You couldn't catch butt warts." Henry scoffed back.

"Oh, yes he could. Remember fifth grade?" Charlotte reminded him.

"That was a rash! Big difference." The boy on her right defended himself as Henry stood up.

"Whatever, I think Kid Danger does a great job." Henry piped up, not letting his name get dragged through the mud. 

"Why are you getting all mad?" Charlotte looked over at him, confused as to why Henry was suddenly in such a bad mood.

"Because Jasper's being unfair. And I think it's unfair to criticise that-- that Kid Danger guy, when he's probably doing the best he can" He retorted, trying to seem less bothered than he was.

"And people should be fair, y'know? I'm pro-fair." He finished, sitting back down and not meeting their eyes. Suddenly, Piper burst in through the door, shouting at Jasper.

"What?" 

"Get up." She ordered him.

"Why should I?" The teen replied, not wanting to be bossed about.

"'Cause, you're gonna carry me to my friend Marla's house." She told him like she was royalty or something.

"I"m not going to carry you. I ain't no horse." Jasper sassed her. Big mistake.

"Fine, then I'll just upload the video so the whole world can see it." For a 9-year-old girl, Piper knew how to blackmail people to get what she wanted. 

Video of what?" Charlotte asked. Piper then proceeded to show them all a video of Jasper wearing a wig and sitting in his room, singing along to the Cup Song from Pitch Perfect, only he was really bad at it. His friends laughed as they watched him fail.

"Stop it, turn it off. Turn it off!" He pleaded, feeling very embarrassed. 

"Where'd you get that wig?" Charlotte giggled, thinking he looked ridiculous.

"You don't need to know." Jasper pointed his PearPad at her sternly. Piper revealed that she had obtained the video when she snooped around his ThumbDrive. 

"Oooo, you're so bad." The red-faced boy sneered. Henry scolded his sister, not wanting the entire world to see the video. Piper agreed that she wouldn't, but only if she could use Jasper as transportation. 

"Okay, fine. Get on my back." Jasper submitted, not wanting to be humiliated. Piper stepped up and leapt onto him, smiling because she had gotten her own way.

"If he goes too slow, just kick him in the side." Charlotte joked, which made Jasper turn around and glare. However, Piper didn't want to stop so she hit him sharply on the hip, making him waddle out of the door.

Henry and Charlotte were laughing together at the sight, when Henry's watch began to beep, notifying him that there was an emergency and Ray needed him. Charlotte looked down at the device, feeling suspicious.

"Yeah, I've been meaning to ask, why does your new watch beep like that?" Charlotte mentioned.

"Uh, It just means they need me at work. Bye! " 'Okay, that's a sensible answer.' Henry thought to himself as he got up and sprinted out of the door, leaving a confused and mistrustful Charlotte with her arms folded on the couch.

"There is something up with that boy." 

~The Man Cave~ 

"What's the emergency?" Henry briskly came out of the elevator, seeing (y/n) at the computer. Ray was next to her, leaning one hand on the back of her chair.

"There's a fire at the syrup factory, all that sugar is just burning up." She reported, pressing the controls and reading from the screen.

"Any people in the building?" Ray said in his hero's voice, which made goosebumps cover her body. 

"Yeah, I'm getting reports of up to 10 people still trapped in there. You guys better hurry."

"Oh man, we need to go." Henry prompted, thinking about all the civilians in danger. 

"There are firefighters on scene, they can give you equipment if you need it." She turned around in the chair, her face and voice demonstrating her professionalism.

"Right." The sidekick's face paled a bit, but he took his gum tube from his pocket, copying Ray.

"Things are about to get hot." Ray said coolly.

"ETA is 20 minutes, and don't take the main road. There's been an car crash, with delays of up to half an hour." She advised as they chewed and blew their bubbles. Once in their uniform, Ray gave Henry a fist bump and (y/n) waved them goodbye.

"Have fun!" Ray smiled at her, feeling thankful that he had her to help him out, as Henry sent them up the tube. 

~Later that night, Henry's bedroom~ 

Henry climbed through his window, feeling exhausted from his night out with Ray. He was going down the steps, glad to see his bed, but then the lights were switched on, revealing that Charlotte was in his room. He fell down the stairs, landing on his butt and looking at Charlotte with a petrified face.

"You're home late." She smirked at her friend.

"What are you... How did you get in my house? Why are you here?" He asked her, his heart slowly calming down.

"'Cause I'm suspicious." The dark-haired girl said to him. Her suspicion had reached its peak. 

"Of what?" Henry said looking away.

"Why did you climb in your window?" She stepped forward, squinting her eyes and analysing Henry's every move. 

"Uh-- Because the front door was locked and I forgot my key." He lied.

"You know your parents always leave a spare key under the mat." Charlotte saw straight through the lie and called him out on it with her logic.

"I like your shirt," Henry said, wanting to move off the topic. 

"Where have you been?" She quizzed him.

"Working. You know, just working." He replied, which technically wasn't a lie. He had been working, just not where she thought.

"Really? 'Cause I called Junk-N-Stuff. Nobody answered." Charlotte interrogated, wanting the truth.

"Okay. You wanna know where I've been?" Henry started as his anxiety levels through the roof.

"Yeah."

"You want the truth?" He went on.

"Yeah." She reiterated.

"I'm a jazz musician." Henry lied, trying to keep his oath to Ray.

"I don't tell a lot of people, but secretly, I play jazz and the only time the jazz clubs are open is late at night, so that's where I was, at a jazz club-- blowing jazz... on my horn." He continued the lie, hoping that if it was more elaborate, she would buy it. She didn't say anything at first, she just stepped forward and sniffed his hair.

"Why'd you sniff my hair?" He asked.

"I heard on the news tonight that Captain Man and Kid Danger put out a fire at a syrup factory." Charlotte told him about what he had just returned from.

"Did they?" He said, feigning ignorance.

"Yeah. And your hair smells like syrup." Charlotte knew she had him foiled.

"It does. I wonder why." Henry replied, checking his hair.

"Maybe because you're Kid Danger." 'Oh my god.' thought Henry. He started to scoff and laugh at Charlotte, but the look in her eyes told him that she definitely knew.

"Ha! I wish! I mean, that'd be nice. And I guess you must be Beyoncé." He chuckled and panicked.

"Henry." She pressed, looking at him intently, making him sigh and not believe what he was about to do.

"Okay. This is really big what I'm about to tell you." He started off seriously.

"What? That you're Kid Danger?" She teased.

"SHUT UP!" Henry shrieked at her, not wanting his parents or worse, Piper, to hear. He ran to the door and opened it to check if anyone was listening in the corridor. He slammed it shut and locked it, returning to his friend.

"I'm Kid Danger," He revealed in a hushed tone.

"I know. I figured that out." She'd always been a smart girl, but this was her biggest mental achievement.

"Just promise me you'll never tell anyone." He was desperate to keep his identity a secret.

"I promise," Charlotte swore, but Henry grabbed her by the shoulders, so she could really look at her desperate face.

"No, no, you don't understand. I took an oath that I'd never tell anyone that I'm Captain Man's sidekick." He had never been more serious.

"I swear, I'm never gonna tell." She insisted.

"Thanks." Henry breathed out a relieved sigh and dropped his hands from her shoulders.

"Can I tell Jasper?" She asked, not believing she was in on such a big secret.

"NO!" He shouted, Jasper wouldn't be able to keep the secret to save his life.

~The next day, in the Man Cave~

Watching the news from earlier, Ray and (y/n) were shovelling Chinese takeout into their mouths. She was perched on his knee and leaning back into his chest as she focused on what the reporter was saying.

"We're live in downtown Swellview, where Phone Shark has--" Ray rewound the clip, back to when the news reporter pointed out how he was still unable to capture the villain. The elevator doors opened, and Henry walked out of them, after getting up from the drop. He cleared his throat to get their attention.

"Ray? (y/n)?" He started in a small voice. They turned around, noodles hanging from Ray's face, as they smiled and greeted him. Ray put his carton on the control panel, as (y/n) stood up from his lap since they weren't alone anymore. She moved to the side, still picking through her food carton.

"Henry, I didn't know you were working today." Ray looked at him in surprise. 

"He didn't butt beep you, did he?" (y/n) joked with a mouthful of stir-fry.

"No, uh, can I talk to you two about something?" Henry said, walking to where they were.

"Uhhhh, babies come from the baby store." Ray stuttered out, not wanting to go into 'that' subject with a teenager.

"Shut up, doofus." (y/n) chucked a piece of carrot at him.

"It's not about that." He replied, much to the relief of Ray.

"What's up Hen?" (y/n) asked, digging in her carton again.

"You guys know my friend, Charlotte?" Henry began.

"Yeah."

"The not-bucket friend." They both said, not concentrating on Henry's nervous body language. 

"Yeah, well, she's like really smart. And-- uh, she.. uh.. kinda figured out that.." He didn't know how to say it.

"Figured out what?" Ray still wasn't picking up on his nerves.

"That--um... I"m Kid Danger." He chuckled, bracing himself for their reaction. Ray turned around and looked at him with a stunned face and (y/n) stopped mid-chew, feeling the gravity of the situation hit her. She looked to Ray and hoped he would keep a level head.

"Isn't that kooky?" Henry tried to make light of the situation, but his jokes fell flat.

"Yeah. What'd you tell her?" Ray said, hoping that Henry had been smart.

"That I am... Kid Danger." Henry swallowed, as the young woman in front of him choked on her food. She knew he was in deep shit.

"Ohhhh... interesting." Ray let out a squeal as he took in the information and Henry nodded with him.

"You're not mad, right?" Henry asked, confused as to why Ray looked happy, but (y/n) knew that he was actually livid by the sight of his tense shoulders.

"Mad? No.? Ray smiled sourly and shrugged the sentence off.

"Cool." For a moment, Henry thought everything was okay.

"You're fired." Ray's smile dropped and he let all his friendly feelings melt away. He stood up and walked to the middle of the Man Cave.

"What? Fired?" Henry felt his heart drop.

"Raymond!" (y/n) knew he was mad, but couldn't believe that her friend could be so cruel.

"You can leave your watch on the table there." His voice was monotone, and he was ignoring the wide-eyed glare the girl across the room was giving him. She moved towards him, hoping she could get him to calm down and change his mind.

"Ray, please think about what you are doing." She hissed at him from his side, as he mindlessly fiddled with some machinery.

"I swear, I didn't wanna tell her! She figured it out." Henry pleaded, desperately wanting to keep his job.

"Henry! You took an oath!" Ray looked at him sadly, upset that his sidekick had broken his promise.

"I know, but..." Henry whimpered.

"You promised me you wouldn't tell anyone and I trusted you to keep that promise." The superhero said, walking down the steps, (y/n) still following, but now, tears were welling up in her eyes. Henry had grown on her, and it didn't seem fair to fire him after one mistake.

"When trust is broken, it can never be fixed." Ray looked down at his shoes.

"Yes, it can. He's your sidekick." (y/n) put her hand on his bicep, hoping to get through to him, but he just shook her off. He grabbed a fortune cookie from one of the boxes of Chinese takeout and gave it to Henry.

"Open this cookie and read the fortune." He instructed. Henry opened the packaging and cracked the cookie so he could read the paper.

"'When trust is broken, it can never be fixed' He read aloud, wondering how what Ray said and the fortune could be the same. 

"Let's not argue with the Chinese." He whispered huskily. Her emotions getting the better of her, (y/n) snatched the paper from Henry's hand and tore it in half. She threw it to the ground and turned to Ray, tears now rolling down her face.

"I can't believe you, you're being ridiculous." She seethed, but Ray just brushed her comment away and walked off towards the sprocket.

"Goodbye Henry." 

With a broken heart, Henry glumly took off his watch and put it on the table. Turning around, his face matched (y/n)'s. She wrapped the poor kid in a hug, as he tried not to cry.

"I'm so sorry Henry." She whispered into his hair. Henry pulled back with a bittersweet smile.

"Not your fault." was all he said, before walking to the elevator and leaving the building.

~(y/n)'s PoV~

As soon as Henry left, I marched through the sprocket, down the corridor and into Ray's room, where I knew he would have retreated to. He was sat on the bed with his head in his hands.

"I've seen you do some dumb shit, but this is dumbest. What the hell were you thinking!?" I shouted at him, my voice breaking as I started to cry again. Ray didn't move, so I carried on.

"You wanted a sidekick and you got one. A damn good sidekick and a sweet kid, who didn't deserve what you just put him through." This time, he looked up and his eyes were red too. Seeing he was upset, I took a deep breath and sat down next to him, but I didn't touch him, I just waited to see what he had to say.

"I know, he's a great kid and an even better sidekick. But he told his friend about Kid Danger, he broke the oath!" Ray's eyes stayed on my hands, which were wringing together in my lap. I processed what he said, knowing that now I had scolded him, I need to be more gentle. 

"Yeah, he screwed up, but it was just one kid, you could've handled the situation better." I leaned into his side and hugged his arm, knowing it would make him feel a little better. His left arm crossed his chest and came to rest on where my hands joined on his arm. I smiled from the contact, the tears on my face drying. My head slowly dropped so it was on his shoulder, and he then rested his on mine. 

"What's done is done." He muttered hoarsely. I sniffed, thinking I'd never be able to joke around or watch stupid cat videos with Henry. 

"I suppose." I didn't know what else to say, so we just sat there in silence for a few moments.

"Sorry I made you cry." He mumbled into my hair, and I felt my heart flutter.

"S'okay. I'm sorry for yelling." I murmured back, glad we wouldn't carry our problems through the day. He untangled his arm from mine and wrapped it around me in a side hug. As my arms went around his waist, he pressed a kiss to my hairline, so I buried my face into his shoulder, meaning he wouldn't see my blushing.

I inhaled the scent of his cologne and felt so relaxed, I just wanted the moment to last forever.

~Back at Henry's House~

Henry had never felt so depressed. From his place on the floor, he popped the cap on the large bottle of chocolate sauce and let it drizzle into his mouth.

"And Captain Man fired you?" Charlotte asked him, pacing up and down his room.

"Mm-hmm." The sad boy just mumbled as he let the sweet sauce trickle down his throat.

"But-- But it's not your fault I figured out you're Kid Danger." She said, feeling guilty.

"Doesn't matter. I broke my oath." Henry said dejectedly, not caring about anything or anyone.

"Well, you gotta fix this." Charlotte tried to perk him up, hating to see how sad Henry was.

"How?" He asked, not seeing any hope.

"I don't know! But you're not gonna find the answer at the bottom of a bottle of chocolate." She chided, confiscating the bottle and throwing it onto the bed. However, to her dismay, Henry pulled a spare from behind his back.

"I won't know if I don't look." He said, smearing chocolate around his face, as he poured more of the sauce into his mouth.

"Jasper was right." Words that rarely left Henry's mouth.

"About what?" Charlotte looked down at him.

"I was a lame Kid Danger. I couldn't even help Captain Man catch the stupid Phone Shark." He sniffed, still wallowing in self-pity.

"I feel awful." The girl said from her place on the ottoman at the foot of his bed.

"It's cool. Still got ma jazz." Henry grabbed the sunglasses next to him and put them on so Charlotte wouldn't see his teary eyes. He grabbed his remote for the hi-fi and turned it to a jazz station.

"I got my ticket for the long way round, two bottles of chocolate for the way." He started to sing with the music.

"And I can't believe I got fired today." He looked so depressed, his voice deepening at the end of the line.

"But I did and it's kind of all your fault." He was too upset to care about Charlotte's feelings, as she bowed her head.

~Later that night~

Sprawled out of the couch, Henry was just scrolling through his phone, listening to Piper and Jasper argue, when a call from Charlotte came through.

"Hey, Char, what's up?" He addressed her.

"Henry. Come to Swellview Park right now." Charlotte whispered down the line, as she crouched down behind a bush in the park.

"No. I'm not in the mood for trees." Henry whined at her.

"Did I ask you what you're in the mood for?" She hissed back with gritted teeth.

"No."

"Come to Swellview Park right now." She repeated, needing him to get there urgently.

~Swellview Park~ 

After dealing with Piper and Jasper, Henry made it to the park and he saw Charlotte crouched down behind a bench. She was spying on a wedding with a pair of binoculars.

"What's going on?" He asked her, only to be yanked down.

"Check out that guy standing by the groom." She said, giving Henry the binoculars. He peered through them and saw one of the groomsmen smiling with a set of sharp, metal teeth.

"The guy with the crazy teeth?" He asked Charlotte.

"Yeah, he's the Phone Shark." She revealed, shocking Henry.

"Whoa yeah, that does look like him." He commented as he squinted to get a better look at him.

"It is him. Now, do Captain Man a favour and go catch the Phone Shark... Kid Danger." Charlotte encouraged, knowing he was more than capable of taking the villain on. Thanking his lucky stars that he forgot to give it back, Henry pulled out his tube of special gum.

He popped a gumball and ran to a secluded corner where he could transform safely, much to Charlotte's amazement. 

"Whoa, how does that whole costume fit inside one little gumball? She asked, but that was a question Henry would have to ask (y/n) if he ever saw her again.

"Just--Just wait there, all right?" He said, sprinting around the other side of the wedding tent. He watched as the couple were taking the vows, before walking a few steps down the aisle and interrupting the ceremony.

"Hey, congratulations." Many shocked whispers and comments were heard around him, as no one expected the intrusion.

"Young man, this wedding isn't over." The officiator said to him, as the bride frowned. 

"I know, I just wanted to show that hairless guy my brand new phone... that's never been bitten." He said, whipping out the new PearPhone (y/n) had given him a couple of weeks earlier.

"Come on, yeah, you know you want to bite it." He taunted the Phone Shark, waving his device around to tempt him. He even sniffed it, which seemed to really entice the weird criminal.

"Gotta love that new phone smell!!" He teased, the villain chattering his teeth.

"Yeah, yeah, come on!" All Charlotte could do was watch.

"Give it to me!" The Phone Shark yelled as Henry threw it into the air.

"Catch it!" As the man looked up at the phone, Henry used the distraction to jump on his back, starting a brawl in the aisle.

"Give me the Phone!" He shouted again, as people cleared the area, realising who the evil man was. Henry was spinning around on his back, making him accidentally kick the bride in the face, sending her to the floor.

Falling to the floor with the Phone Shark, the guests tried to help him, which gave him a minute to get back on his feet. The criminal threw the guests off him, snarling and roaring at them all with his razor-sharp teeth.

"Hey! Hey! Come on! Come on, Phone Shark!" Henry showed him the phone again so he could get him away from the guests. The criminal was so desperate to sink his teeth into the phone, he charged at Henry, who at the last minute ducked out of harm's way. The man's momentum sent him hurtling into a table of gifts, rendering him unconscious and Henry victorious. The crowd applauded his brave actions and he smiled at Charlotte, who was clapping along. 

~The Man Cave~

"Kid Danger, how were you able to locate and finally apprehend the Phone Shark?" The onscreen reporter asked Henry. (y/n) and Ray were both so absorbed into what Henry was saying on the computer. 

"Well, I'd love to take all the credit, but it was really my boss, Captain Man, who made it all happen." He smiled, knowing the public would be praising Ray again.

"Interesting. Can you tell us more?" The woman asked.

"No." Henry answered curtly, not knowing what other details he could share. (y/n) paused the video there, knowing Ray had seen enough to be impressed with Henry. He was wearing his Captain Man suit, as Henry had brought Charlotte back with him, but he kept his focus on the teen.

"You gave me all the credit." Ray said, flabbergasted. 

"Well, everyone's been giving you a hard time about not catching the Phone Shark, I figured I'd help you out." He said solemnly to the man, which made (y/n) give him a warm smile.

"Told you he was a good kid." She bent down and whispered in Ray's ear and a smile grew on his face, both from her comment and how close her lips were to his ear.

"Uh, excuse me?" Charlotte called from her seat near the elevator. She hated to break up the sweet moment, but she was bored of waiting.

"I'm the one who found the Phone Shark." She bragged with a smirk.

"It's true she did." Henry told them both. Ray let out a long groan and threw his head back into (y/n)'s stomach.

"Ughhhhh, Charlotte, Charlotte, what are we going to do with you?" He said as he stood up and the three walked to the young girl.

"Uh, I think it's pretty obvious," Charlotte responded, standing up too. 

"What's that?" Ray didn't understand what she meant. 

"Give her a job here, you idiot." (y/n) said, smacking his arm from how dense he was sometimes. 

"We need another smart person around here. I can't do everything, I'm one, very tired girl." She continued, smiling at Charlotte.

"I'm (y/n), by the way, nice to meet you." She added in and leaned over to shake Charlotte's hand, which made Ray roll his eyes.

"Nice to meet you too. Are you his assistant?" She smiled and pointed at Captain Man.

"I prefer the term 'helper'. 'Assistant' makes him think I have to do everything for him." She joked and the two laughed, knowing that if Ray gave her a job, they'd become firm friends.

"Ok, no more laughing. First, I want to know how you found the Phone Shark." Ray said, still not fully trusting Charlotte. 

"Well, I figured no guy with normal teeth can bite through a phone, right?" She started off, and (y/n) tilted her head as she listened.

"'K." Ray said, feeling dumb since he hadn't been the one to work it out.

"So I started calling every dentist in Swellview until I found one who told me he had a patient who asked a whole mouthful of titanium teeth." She explained like it was obvious. 

"We should've called some dentists." Ray said to Henry, slapping his hands together. 

"Totally should've." Henry agreed, also feeling stupid.

"You guys had one year, she had one day." (y/n) whispered in their ears, smiling at how smart the teen girl was.

"Then I hacked into the dentist's computer files, got the guy's name and searched him online." Charlotte said sweetly and simply.

"OH, we should've gone online." Ray looked to Henry again.

"What is wrong with us?" Henry couldn't believe how blind they'd been. (y/n) rolled her eyes, these two were meant to be superheroes, but one girl managed to outsmart them.

"Oh, and his last update said, "Off to my brother's wedding in Swellview Park, hope they serve phones for dessert, LOL.'" She read out, confirming how intelligent she was. 

"And then she called me." Henry said to Ray.

"She's good." The superhero said to his best friend.

"Yeah, she is." She replied, looking back at him.

She could really help us out around here." Henry piped up looking at him hopefully and nudging his side.

"Us?" Ray took a moment to think about Henry's words and the events of earlier that day flooded back into his mind. (y/n) placed a hand on his arm to remind him that she was still next to him and she wasn't going to take his crap.

"Oh, right. You fired me." Henry's eyes dropped to the floor.

"Well, you broke the oath." Ray's voice was wobbly from emotion, so he turned his back on everyone.

"And he caught the Phone Shark." (y/n) wouldn't let him make the same mistake of letting Henry go again.

"Come on, you big doof. Hire him back." She smiled up at him, using her best grin to win him over. 

"Alright, you're re-hired." he said to Henry, not being able to say no to (y/n)'s face as it stared up at him. Henry jumped up and down in happiness and ran to give (y/n) a hug to say thanks for her help in persuading Ray. Letting her go, he then jumped into Ray's arms, glad to be his sidekick again and by his smile, Ray was happy too.

"Ahem, ahem, cough, cough, cough." Charlotte cleared her throat, reminding them that she was still there.

"Oh right, and what are you gonna do about Charlotte?" He asked the pair. Ray clutched his forehead and groaned, looking to (y/n) about the decision.

"She knows he's Kid Danger." The woman mentioned.

"She knows who I am, and she knows where the Man Cave is 'cause you brought her down here." Ray listed everything off looking at Henry.

"So, what does that mean?" She asked tentatively.

"That we either have to kill you, erase your brain or give you a job." (y/n) said, which Ray nodded along with.

"I vote job." Charlotte said, not liking the other options.

"We can really erase her brain?" Henry wondered, which caused his friend to whip around at him in offence. 

"All right, she can have a job here." Ray conceded. (y/n) went to put her arms around him, but he carried on speaking.

"IF! She can pass the pickle test." (y/n) stopped mid-movement and looked at Ray in confusion. Not even she knew what a pickle test was.

~

As per Ray's instructions, (y/n) had set up a table with a pickle hanging in a jar, which was now being tightly screwed shut by Bork, a giant man who worked for Ray.

"Thanks, Bork. Now, grunt and exit." Ray said, making the man retreat to one of the back rooms.

"Charlotte, you must now prove you're smart enough to work for Captain Man." Ray explained, which made (y/n) furrow her eyebrows. 'I never had to pass a stupid pickle test.' She thought.

"Uh, I found the Phone Shark." She pointed out, believing that was enough to prove her intelligence. 

"Well, anyone could do that." Ray retorted immaturely. 

"You couldn't." (y/n) smirked at him, sticking up for Charlotte. He didn't like it when she sassed back.

"Okay, let's not go there." Henry quickly interrupted their banter.

"Now... to prove your worthiness, you must get that pickle out of that jar that Bork just power-screwed shut." Charlotte inspected the jar, quickly formulating a method.

"How much time does she have?" Henry asked Ray, who took out his timer.

"Exactly five minut---" Ray was disrupted by the young girl smashing the jar against the table. Her ingenuity meant that the pickle was free.

"Here's your pickle." She said, which (y/n) accepted happily. She knew she'd figure it out, the test wasn't that hard.

"That was Bork's favourite jar." Ray said gravely, impressed that Charlotte had figured it out so quickly.

"Wait, wait, does that mean Charlotte's hired?" Henry asked (y/n), an enormous grin erupting on her face.

"Yeah, it does!" She exclaimed excitedly, as Henry lept over to Charlotte and gave her a celebratory high five.

"Wait, you wanna see something cool?" Henry said to Charlotte.

"Yeah!" They ran over to the tube area together.

"Hug me." Henry told her, which grossed her out a bit.

"Just trust me." He said, so she wrapped her arms around him. Henry slapped his belt buckle and the tube came down, shocking the girl.

"Up the tube!" They shot upwards, causing Charlotte to scream all the way to the top.

Meanwhile, Ray was still sat at the supercomputer. After watching the two kids leave the Man Cave, she went over to him and wrapped her arms around his neck from behind.

"Thank you for that. You did a good thing." She murmured to him gently, leaning down to press a kiss to his cheek. Ray felt like his heart was going to explode, as she removed herself from him and walked up to the sprocket, going to her room.

He raised his gloved hand to his cheek, stroking where her lips had briefly been only seconds before. As he sat there in shock, he knew that if she asked him to, he'd do anything for her.

[crstormzy]

castiel headcannons | my candy love

ok so i have this really annoying habit of inviting fictional characters to live in my head rent free for god knows how long. specially when they are assholes. specially when they're the type of assholes i'm really fond of. specially when they're castiel veilmont.

i also have the even more annoying habit of making extremes out of these characters in my head, but oh well... it be like that sometimes.

anyways, it's 3am where i live and i cannot sleep so here's some of the extremes i've taken castiel to during the last few years i've been obsessed with him:

so, first things first, my man is a genius. i'm not talking the einstein kinda genius, but more of a mozart or michelangelo or something like that. he likes art and he understands it and he is so good at it. like, otherworldly good.

he has an awesome vocal range, but he can rock the higher register. and he can also rock the growls so that makes for an interesting combination.

i don't care what others say, i just know castiel can cook. and i'm not talking instant noodles or frozen pizza either, i'm telling you my man can cook. call it perks of living almost alone from a young age, but he is a really great chef (and a really great lover, so be ready for a lot of breakfast treats if you're dating him).

although he is a singer (and a pretty good one at that), castiel just loves bad karaoke nights. like, all out awful singing: out of rhythm, out of breath, out of tune. he's paid to be a good singer all other nights of the year, so he definitely seizes the opportunity to just be a shitty one for a while.

songwriter is coded into his dna. like, waking in the middle of the night, genius ideas, music out of everything type of songwriter. dude writes like he's running out of time.

his lyrics are so deep, always with beautiful metaphors and the kind of thing that just guts you every. fucking. time.

or they're just vulgar nonsense. there's literally no in between.

can sleep anywhere. tour bus? yeah, sleeping. library table? long gone. the most uncomfortable chair in existence? catch him going. his bed, though? forget it. after midnight his brain simply starts running a mile a minute.

not. a. morning. person.

no, seriously. he hates mornings with a passion, specially during hsl. probably because he's always going to sleep horribly late, but he hates having to wake early for anything at all. the only exception is if he's really really really excited about something.

he can hold his liquor, but he hardly ever drinks enough for it to be necessary because he doesn't like the idea of losing control of himself.

stopped smoking somewhere after high school. he was never really dependant on nicotine and after a while (specially after crowstorm) he just stopped altogether. the sensation was nice and all, but kinda of not worth it anymore.

was bullied into becoming crowstorm's vocalist.

also hates instagram with a passion. shows up once every three months, posts a single story (after his manager grilled him for weeks to make any appearance at all) and promptly vanishes again.

would get rid of his phone if he could but, since he can't, he just isn't much of a user.

castiel please stop telling paparazzi to fuck off please for the love of god the press team is begging you stop trying to rip their cameras out of their hands please please

can be very polite and well mannered when he wants to (but he never does)

my boy is a charmer. like, literally everyone falls for him. and then he opens his mouth and just manages to be the biggest asshole ever.

(he claims it's also part of his charm)

lots of people speculate about how many plastic surgeries he's had. partly because he's very pretty, but mainly because of the nose and the eyes. no one believes his nose wasn't bought, and lots of people think he wears contacts.

(in truth he is terrified of plastic surgery, but, ironically, if he wasn't his nose would probably be top of the list of things he would wanna change)

anyways i could spend literal days talking with how much time i've spent with him inside this silly little brain of mine. these are some of the headcannons i could think of on spot but god knows i have so many more...

[charlierosewriting]

This viewing of Stop Making Sense, in a cinema I went to alone, did two things: it ruined every other time I'll ever try to watch this film again in my life, and revealed itself to be what it has been this whole time. Anti-performance anxiety propaganda. It also cracked me wide open.

I've always seen Stop Making Sense in one of two modes - communally on a TV through it's built-in speakers, or on my phone alone with my big chunky noise-cancelling headphones. I pick whether I want to hear it with others but sacrifice the sound quality, or to hear it at its most beautiful but by myself. In a mostly empty cinema, Stop Making Sense becomes both at once. I can't be sure if it's the A24 remaster or just hearing it on a capital everything SOUND SYSTEM, but the entire experience feels warmer and human this way. Tina Weymouth's bass playing is clearer than ever before, the synths taking a bit more of a backseat to its rumble, and the percussion of both Chris Frantz's drums, David Byrne's boombox and (most transformatively) Steve Scale's set-up hit almost with the force of actual, unshielded, live drumming. After each song, the couple behind me cheered and whooped (half-ironically), and after the midway point I joined in (completely earnestly). It's still not perfectly analogous to a live concert, even then. The audience noise is near immersive in surround sound, but it still feels as distant as the band does all the way over up on that stage. When the songs end and the crowd noise begins, the cinema experience feels strange and hollow and disconnected. I love this way more than a perfect Disneyland imagineered recreation of a Talking Heads concert.

That last point is actually where the most magic is found in seeing Stop Making Sense in a cinema, and what really started to pierce into me; the craftsmanship is more visible. These are small chips in the paintwork you can't see until you get your nose right up to the masterpiece, and every one of them adds more texture and beauty to the whole.

It's easy to be swept away by the sheer magic of Stop Making Sense in any of my usual viewings, because it's already perfect. In Crosseyed and Painless, the camera pans between Alex and David as they trade absolutely cracked guitar solos, and it is a frontrunner for my favourite shot in any film. The whole thing feels effortless and fluid from beginning to end, a document of a band in their peak, beautiful moments of improvisation and genius popping up from both the performers and the cameramen, something divinely ordained.

But when Tina Weymouth is 20ft tall, you notice her lips don't quite match the audio track on Genius of Love, and remember that the film was shot over four nights, not one continuous concert. It isn't a gift from the goddess of music, it's a team of creatives sweating in a studio with probably not great A/C to make something that feels cohesive. When David dances with Ednah and Lynn on Burning Down The House, they perfectly match his strange movements and mimic the guitar playing, and when they're 20ft tall you remember that there must-have been a rehearsal. You remember that the physical CD of Stop Making Sense you own includes a booklet, in which every movement and stage direction is documented, and you wonder if that was written before or after the performance.

One I noticed long before I saw it in the cinema was during the objective pick for best Talking Heads song, This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody), when David enjoys watching the lamp he dances with wobble back into place for just long enough that he misses his cue to sing, and is back at the microphone just half a beat AFTER he starts singing on the audio track.

This is not nitpicking. This is revelatory, this is beautiful, this is the best the film has ever been. This is the autism of Stop Making Sense.

Like Stop Making Sense, I am profoundly autistic. I have been autistic all my life, and I will continue to be autistic. If you asked me if I'm proud to be autistic, I'd say yes, but at the same time I'm sadly not sure if that's true. I have masked so thoroughly and for so long that removing the veneer isn't freeing. Taking it off doesn't let my skin breathe, it exposes raw flesh so tender that it is stung by the air. Some people never have experience with air, tell you not to worry about it, but I think that David Byrne has.

He writes more songs about buildings and food, he dances either like a marionette or like a panic attack, he sings like he is bearing his soul or like he's having a panic attack, the polyrhythms the band finds are joyous grooves or they are panic attacks. Talking Heads is sensory overload about sensory overload, confusing music about being confused, failing radio transmissions about badly communicated emotions.

The difference is, Talking Heads will express that feeling, that disconnect, that hellish radio static in the back of my mind, and make it listenable and funky and fun. When I'm overwhelmed, I'll storm out and cry alone, when David Byrne is overwhelmed, he writes Born Under Punches. When I'm happy, I smile and, if around no-one but my girlfriend, maybe giggle and flap like I wish I could more often - before regaining control and putting the mask back on. When David Byrne is happy, he releases Don't Worry About The Government and the world listens to it.

I want to write songs about buildings and food! I want to write songs about Garak and Power! About the career of Ahmed Johnson! Let me! But I won't, and I don't. I don't think I can right now. But then there's Stop Making Sense.

Stop Making Sense takes every complicated, negative emotion in the discography of Talking Heads, and does something amazing with it; it makes it a party. In its original studio form, Life During Wartime is midtempo and reverby and distressing. The groove is there, but feels intentionally shot in the shin, only allowed to lope in a way that brings out the tension and danger of the lyricism. Then it Stop Making Sense it SKYROCKETS!!! The panic is still there, that essential tender skin of autism, but it is transformed into one of the most bracing and captivating performances of the whole film. Rather than monotonal, almost krautrocky guitar solos, it is given ecstatic synths and almost double the tempo. The studio version of David feels cramped in his situation, the film David runs in place! He wriggles! He sprints laps around the entire stage! The crowd claps and screams! I clap and scream!

This is Stop Making Sense in minutia. The tension and overload of autism is constant, it is pervasive, but what is present is the joy and not the pain. When I stim around my girlfriend I feel completely free momentarily, Talking Heads in Stop Making Sense feel completely free for eighty-eight minutes, and it's infectious.

Masking, at least for me, is performance anxiety. I have an ideal self in my head and, despite my constant trying to change this, she doesn't openly present as autistic yet. I want to perform my best, ideal self, and I need my autism to be part of that, but revealing myself that much to the world is terrifying.

But, once again, here's Stop Making Sense, and its perfect flaws.

The version of Tina we see sing Genius of Love isn't the version we're hearing, but she is beautiful, and I love her. David misses the cue to go back to the microphone, but I still hear his wolf howls and I smile. Chris beams like a headlight at all times, he's having the time of his life. Ednah and Lynn are always so ON that they feel more like Energizer Bunnies than people sometimes, and I wish I could be more like either of them. Jerry is consistently serious looking and kinda wooden, and he's doing so damn well up there. Alex seems to only know one dance move, it's to kick about as high as his chest and look to the right, and it's the coolest thing I've ever seen every time. Bernie looks so self serious at all times, which makes his basic ass solos on Making Flippy Floppy so much funnier and better. Steve Scales, on top of having the best name ever, keeps looking at the crowd like a kid whose parents have come to see him in the school play, and I love him. I love them all.

They are and were real people with interiority and darkness that I'll never know or comprehend, they all did bad things to good people at some point in their lives, and the version of themselves that was captured across these four nights and painted into this eighty-eight minute gasp of euphoria are my family and they are my friends.

David gets to the microphone too late and I hear the wolf howl and I smile, they all continue the song together and I clap, and then I squeal and then I shake and I flap my hands and the mask falls to the ground, and there are two people behind me who can definitely see me right now and they can definitely tell, they can so definitely tell, but this must be the place (naive melody) is the best song ever so I dont really care and the song ends and i find there are tears in my eyes and they dont fall, and before i can reach to pick up what i dropped the synth arpeggios of once in a lifetime start and i no longer have time so i sit theere and i watch and i listen and david dances and now hes wearing glasses and I'm just an animal looking for a home and, share the space for a minute or two! And I'll love you 'til my heart stops! Love you until I'm dead. Eyes that light up, eyes that look through you. Cover up my blind spots, hit me on the head! Awoo!

Postscript:

I tried writing this once on my phone, but the app crashed and deleted my progress and I almost had a panic attack lol. Glad I rewrote it, I want to put this somewhere, but it is somewhat more masked and less raw than the original version. Oh well, it's probably better written.

The one concert movie I've seen that REALLY goes into exposing how it's a construction over different nights is Beyoncé's Homecoming which is a masterpiece in its own right. The way it blatantly shifts outfits and colour schemes across shots is wonderful, people need to talk about that more. Probably shouldn't be me though lol.

[oluka]

Invincible Iron Man #10: Tony Stark and Emma Frost get married! Or do they?

It's Iron Man week again! And here are my thoughts about it.

Sorry, but I needed everyone to see this slightly disturbing panel. It's way better in context, though.

Issue #10 starts by giving us an update on Rhodey! It was a pleasant surprise for me, because I thought he would be kept to the side during the wedding plot. But no! The issue does not follow chronological order, so I'll make a not so quick detour to explain the current situation: issue #9 ends with Emma arranging a meeting between Tony and Wilson Fisk. In issue #10, Tony asks Fisk for help, and gets it. Why? Because Fisk's wife, Typhoid Mary, is a mutant, and she was forced off-world along with like 99% of all mutants during Orchis' attack at the Hellfire Gala. The thing is, the ones who were left on Earth think that the others are dead. In addition to the mutants and humans who were actually killed by Orchis, that means there are very few mutants left, and they're all out for blood. Fisk is too, since he thinks his wife is dead. So he and Tony come to an agreement: Fisk protects Tony (and Rhodey), because Tony promised he will defeat Feilong. But, well. It's Fisk. It probably won't end well.

Back to the present: Tony's the Black King of the Hellfire Club (to Fisk's White King), is desperately trying to build a new and improved suit of armour while pretending to be drunk all day, and scheming to defeat Feilong. Rhodey is still in prison and he's still being targeted by other prisoners on Feilong's orders. This time, Feilong even arranges a phone call between Tony and Rhodey while Rhodey gets attacked.

That's not very nice. Tony gets understandably mad, runs up to Feilong, about to do something very stupid like punch him in the face, but Fisk stops Tony and reminds him of their arrangement. Turns out that Fisk hired Sandman and the Living Laser to protect Rhodey in prison.

We get this nice panel of Rhodey telling Tony to win:

Nice! Tony and his allies are all determined to turn the tide of the war around, and they're doing all they can to get there.

So, what does Tony need to win? He needs a stronger armour (the stealth suit isn't powerful enough to beat sentinels), and he needs information from Feilong's mind. Which is why killing Feilong isn't a great idea right now. Unfortunately, Emma Frost (disguised as Hazel Kendal) just stepped foot in the Hellfire Club, and dreams of only one thing, revenge. So when Tony tries to stop her, this happens:

Ouch! Emma drops her ring, ready to kill Feilong and damn the consequences, but Tony begs her to reconsider.

Which is the exact moment, of course, when Feilong steps inside the room. And sees Tony on his knees in front of Emma with a ring in his hand. I think you know where this is going.

There isn't much choice for Emma and Tony: they need to get the inhibitor ring back on her finger so that the sentinels don't find her. And in front of Feilong, the only way to do that is if they make it look like a proposal. It's a desperate play, and very much unplanned. When I heard the news about the Stark-Frost wedding, I thought it would be some kind of political move on their part. I was wrong. This is a lot funnier, though.

And there you have it! Context for the panel I showed you back at the start of the post, and a very fake wedding! Between Tony Stark and Hazel Kendal. But the issue isn't finished, far from it. Tony and Emma now have to pretend. A lot. And smile at the cameras. A lot.

Tony has a nice sleazy chat with Feilong:

Look at this! This is every bad thing Tony could say about himself in ONE conversation! First: he pretends that he was only iron man for the adulation. That he didn't care about saving people. Second: he pretends to be drinking again, because "an addict gotta addict" and "booze is tastier". And third: he pretends he married Hazel (his assistant) because she was a potential HR nightmare, playing into the idea that he's just a jerk taking advantage of her. In one fell swoop, he implies that he isn't a hero and doesn't care about anything other than money and getting the next high (from alcohol).

I love it when Tony leans into the wrong assumptions that people have about him, but this is a lot. Ouch.

It gives us some very funny panels, though:

I need more of their banter, please and thank you. Look at their big fake pained smiles. I love this.

They decide to get married THE DAY AFTER. In Las Vegas. Where they go on fake dates. And then have a torrid night... of going out to do secret illegal stuff.

Tony steals some tech things from Zeke Stane's secret lab (nice cameo, Duggan), which is why they went to Vegas in the first place. And then the day of the wedding is finally here. Behold!

A literal red wedding! I have to admit, I love how committed they are to their bit. They're going full evil mode. I can't help but think of Tony Stark in the first Iron Man movie, at the casino scene, wearing his red shirt and sunglasses, looking every bit the douchy self-centered billionaire. Which he was, at the time. And here, we have Tony pretending to be all that. Down to wearing sunglasses indoors. I don't know, I really like it.

Let me make a comment about what Tony writes here: that this is the first and last time that he'll ever be married, and that Emma will break his heart. About the first part: this can either mean that he and Emma will stay married, or that he doesn't think he'll ever marry someone. The autobiographical notes are interesting in that sometimes they tell us what Tony thought in the moment, and sometimes they give us potential hints about future events, like we've seen in this issue. Will Tony stay married to Emma afterwards? I don't think so, but you never know. But if this is Tony telling us that he won't ever marry someone, then it's interesting too. I tend to view Tony as somewhat of a hopeless romantic: he falls in love very easily, and half the time it's with a woman who is only there to deceive him, or who turns evil. Think Sunset Bain, Indries Moomji, Cassandra Gillespie, Kathy Dare, etc. The other half of the time, his relationship doesn't work out because of his superhero life conflicting with his personal life. The biggest example is with Rumiko Fujikawa, one of his longest relationships. He couldn't commit enough because of his secret identity. And when it was revealed, it got better between them, to the point that he was about to propose. He had a ring already! And then a villain killed Rumiko while wearing the Iron Man armour. She died in his arms!!!!!! It was extremely sad, and no subsequent writer at Marvel ever mentioned Rumiko again. Which is baffling to me. She was one of his longest relationships. He was ready to spend the rest of his life with her. And her death isn't even mentioned once in all the years since then??? It makes me so mad. In my opinion, this should have been treated as the traumatic event it was. And in my personal canon, this is one of the reasons why he hasn't really dated people who aren't superheroines, since. With the exception of Amara Perera, but that didn't last long. Because Tony faked his death. Anyways. The two recent relationships Tony has had are with Janet and Patsy, both heroines. And he proposed to Patsy. To me, Tony really wants to have a lasting relationship, but both external and internal factors hinder him. His life is dangerous, and his non-hero friends either turn into superheroes themselves or die, so he can't really safely date. He has few friends, and almost all of them are part of the hero community (I could make a whole post about how Marvel has put aside most of his support cast and reduced it to essentially only Rhodey, but this post is already way too long). Which means he almost only interacts with heroes. Duggan made that same comment in issue #3, I think. It's sad. Give Tony more friends! Or make him interact with his existing supporting cast! We've seen what happens otherwise: he gets shoehorned into a relationship with someone he doesn't even know (Patsy...). But. Back to the proposal: Tony is someone who wants stability in his love-life. He never gets it, not for long. And now, he's married. But it's all fake. And he knows it, he knows it's just an arrangement, but he also knows that he's going to fall for Emma, and that she won't reciprocate. And he's okay with that. Because it has happened so many times already, that he cares more about the person he is with than they do about him. It's quite tragic. And also a fun inversion of what he's supposed to be, aloof heartbreaker playboy. God, I love all the intricacies of Tony's masks and armours vs who he really is.

Back to the issue. Tony and Emma/Hazel marry each other! They break into Feilong's mind to steal his secrets! Tony watches Howard's message to him and momentarily forgets all about his childhood abuse! We get a reference to Iron Man 2! Boo.

"You were my greatest collaboration" is somehow worse than "you were my greatest creation". This is possibly the only thing that I didn't like about the issue, though, so it's okay. The issue ends with Emma and Tony going on their "honeymoon", which is probably code for "secret mission to find the mutant metal mysterium". I really hope that Tony will build a kick-ass armour with it. It apparently has anti-magical properties, too.

And that's the end of the issue reached! Finally! Two random thoughts to go: 1. Tony is surprisingly okay with killing Feilong here.

There is this interesting comment about killing, a bit earlier in the issue:

Tony usually doesn't take a life if he can't help it, but he has indeed killed before. I do think he wishes he didn't "have to", though. But clearly he doesn't care about keeping Feilong alive. Is it because of how heinous the things Feilong has done against mutants are? Is it because Tony has been dealt one blow after the other, each more personal than the last, and he's lost his cool? I'd be interested to hear anyone's thoughts.

2. We get a Tony and Emma cameo in Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant (2023) #2. It's a cute reunion where Tony saves Kamala from Orchis drones, and also makes a lot of bad married jokes. Some not very appropriate for the audience.

Kamala, just turn this into a fanfic. And try not to think about it too hard.

If you've read this far, give yourself a pat on the back. See you for the next Iron Man week!