#the bigger public is just wrong about horror movies but i get it. i get it like no one gets it.

[backlogbooks]

Backlogbooks Bingo Challenge - Horror Recommendations (part 1)

To the surprise of no one, I'm starting off my challenge recommendations with horror! I'm getting the publication dates off of storygraph, so if I'm wrong, I take no responsibility <3

60s

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson -- Shirley Jackson! The queen! This one is such a combination of horror and humor and then horror again, about two sisters who live alone, ostracized by their town because of their family's dark past.

70s

Harvest Home by Thomas Tryon -- A very creepy folk horror novel about a family who leaves The City to come to a Small Town in new england, getting Close to Nature. Naturally, the townspeople have some dark secrets. I loved the atmosphere in this one--the slow building of dread, and trying to piece together exactly what the Dark Secret at the center of the harvest home festival is.

Jaws by Peter Benchley -- Okay, I don't know if I can actually recommend this, because to be honest with you, the movie is so much better. But also, if you're a shark movie fiend, this is a Piece Of History. Feel free to reply and argue with me if you love this book!

Carrie by Stephen King -- This book is about Carrie, a perpetually bullied girl who has the chance to go to the prom. I'm sure you know how it goes from there--but even if you do, I recommend reading the book. It's a heartbreaking horror novel, and I really enjoyed (slash hated) the way the tension mounts as you get closer and closer to The Bad Thing

The Shining by Stephen King -- Jack Torrance has a big new job as the caretaker at the Overlook Hotel during the off-season, and there's some evil afoot! Again, I feel like you know how it goes from there, but King is really so good at building dread and tension.

80s

A Nest of Nightmares by Lisa Tuttle -- Recently rereleased in the Paperbacks from Hell line, this is a collection of horror short stories that mostly center on women, with horrors both mundane and paranormal (but an emphasis on the paranormal). These stories were so creepy to me, and I really enjoyed the way that mood built. TW for rape (I can tell you which story for sure if you want! I'll just need to double check my copy to make sure I'm not misremembering)

Misery by Stephen King - He's back again! This is actually my favorite Stephen King novel (setting aside the dark tower series to make it a fair fight). Paul Sheldon, a bestselling novelist, is taken captive by his biggest fan, Annie Wilkes. Annie is like, my favorite villain I think. I've been wanting to reread this book for years because of her <3

2000

House of Leaves by Mark Z Danielewski -- Okay recommending this book does feel a little like trying to trap someone, but I love it. So! Will Navidson's house is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside; Johnny Truant is obsessed with a book by a blind man about a film that Navidson made that doesn't exist; everyone is lost in the labyrinth, including you. Please join me in this bonkers book. Conspiracy board supplies are not included, but you're encouraged to gather them up yourself as you go.

Uzumaki by Junji Ito -- Kurouzu-cho, a small fogbound town on the coast of Japan, is haunted by spirals. This is not as metaphorical as I imagined it would be when I first picked it up! The body horror in this book is insanely good, and there are some lines/images that are going to live in my head Forever. Highly recommend if you like horror manga.

2003

Come Closer by Sara Gran -- This is a fantastic possession book--it keeps you right in her point of view as she spirals down, trying to figure out if she is in fact possessed or if there's some other break with reality. I loved the "are you possessed" quiz as a guiding structure.

2006

The Ruins by Scott Smith -- Trapped in the jungle, far from home and with no way to get help, a group of friends face an inhuman horror. This had some of the most skin crawling body horror I've seen, and I loved the development of the antagonist (don't wanna say more because spoilers!). Great survival horror. What a terrible group of people to be trapped with.

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks -- If you love yourself some worldbuilding and zombies, check out this book! World War Z gives you vignettes about different areas of the world, and different aspects of life during a zombie apocalypse. It was a slow read for me, but I really enjoyed the details.

2007

Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill -- An old rock star buys a ghost online, because he's a dumbass (aka because he "has a thing for the macabre"), and has to go through hell to get rid of it. It's been years, but I remember being deeply creeped out by this book!

2010

Feed by Mira Grant -- More zombies! This one set twenty years after the zombie apocalypse, following two bloggers who are working to uncover a conspiracy behind the Infected. This had political thriller vibes mixed in with the horror, which kept a fast pace, and I loved the main characters. Eventually I may even finish the series!

2011

The Ritual by Adam Nevill -- Four old friends try to push aside old and new tensions for a reunion hiking trip. Since that's not working, they try to take a shortcut and end up very, very lost--and very deep in woods that have more than just animals to worry about. I held my breath through a lot of the first half of this book. Good for folk horror fans or people who want to be very afraid of every forest they walk into.

2013

Dark Tales by Shirley Jackson -- Shirley Jackson again! This one is a collection of short stories, including "The Summer People" and "Louisa, Please Come Home," which are some of my favorites. Creeping dread, domestic horror, and the question of what happens when your life takes a sudden, unexplainable turn. Definitely recommend the edition with an introduction by Ottessa Moshfegh!

2014

Through the Woods by E.M. Carroll -- A collection of short horror comics, with dark fairy tale vibes. I want to eat E.M. Carroll's art style, or at least cover my house with prints from this book.

Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix -- Have you ever had a nightmare about being trapped in an ikea? Or, sorry, Definitely Not Ikea (So We Don't Get Sued)? Are you tired of your retail job? This is the book for you! Haunted ikea: much more terrifying than I expected it to be.

The Grownup by Gillian Flynn -- This is a quick, 64 page story about a young woman who pretends to be a psychic to get by, and ends up being pulled deeper and deeper into a family's dysfunction when she promises to help rid their home of ghosts or other powerful forces.

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer -- Horror science fiction about Area X, an unexplained phenomenon where earth is returning to "pristine nature" with a horrific twist (or many of them). Our main character, the biologist, is one of my favorite characters I've ever read. I'm actually a little insane about her. Join me!

This is really long so I'm splitting it in two! Stay tuned for 2015-2019 recommendations next week :-)

And please recommend your favorite horror books for this challenge too!

[the-acid-pear]

Hands of hips looking down shaking my head I don't know how to sugarcoat this so I won't but signs is so much better than nope. I don't know how people even say the movie aged bad. I think the feelings they have for the director cloud their view (I don't even know how either of his names). You got a 1:30hs movie vs a 2hs movie (I'm cutting the 10 minutes of credit for both) where in one you are never bored and are gripped by emotions and the other where you sit waiting for anything to happen. Like I'm sorry but there's no fight here. Hydrogen bomb vs coughing baby.

[nerdlvr]

not so little is it?

(MDNI)

younger jaemin x older reader , small age gap , jaemin is brothers best friend , ur brother is mark lee , big dick jaem , jaem is bigger than reader , size kink if you squint , kinda public sex (ur both in the kitchen & living room and mark is in his room) , harsh blowjob , cowgirl yeehaw , couch missionary , jaemin is cocky and mean , pet names like a lot , light mocking , degradation kinda , jaemin refers to himself and y/n in third person sometimes idk , jaemin knows how to use his dick damn... , requested here !

it  had been the fifth time that night that you had called jaemin baby. and not baby in a i wanna fuck you type of way, baby in a little boy type of way. If only you could go into his brain and see all the things jaemin would do to shut you up. maybe he’d stuff your mouth with his big, hard-

“babyy, are you listening? The popcorns ready!”

jaemin felt his eye twitch, a small fake smile directed at your pretty face. he shook his head softly, turning his head back to focus on the movie.

“dude you need to stop calling him that, we’re not even that much younger than you.”

jaemin could not agree more with your brother.

he was never one to hold grudges, it was childish, unlike him. but for some reason you had been more annoying than usual tonight, the high pitched ‘baby’ and the sweet toned ‘minnie’ only itching him in all the wrong places.

he turned to the clock in mark’s room, 2:00 AM, well shit. had he really laid here for 3 hours straight thinking about your annoying mouth? his eyes drifted down to his now tented boxers, well double shit. maybe thinking about your mouth right next to your sleeping brother wasn’t the best idea. he needed a walk.

.

the cool air from the fridge numbed his senses, his nipples perking up at the soft breeze.

ice cream, butter, cheese, ew. did mark have anything without milk? wait isn’t mark lactose intoler- “his fridge looks like something out of a horror film right?”jaemin felt the hair on his body rise as he jumped, the fridge shutting loudly behind him, a hand coming up to his chest, “jesus you scared me.”

you giggled as you poked his bare chest, "sorry didn't mean to scare you baby. was just coming out for a snack."

baby, did you like to test his patience? he pushed your hand away as he let out a loud huff, "don't call me that."

your soft giggle continued to ring in his ears, your hands now moving to pinch the fabric of his boxers, "call you what, bunny boy?"

his eyes drifted down to his boxers, small bunnies adorning the fabric. he grabbed your wandering hand, smirking as you let out a pained whine. "does your mouth do anything good besides spout nonsense?"

you ripped your hand away from his tightening grasp, your free hand coming up to massage the sensitive skin,"what's your problem jaemin? i'm being nice to you and you're acting like a brat!"

your eyes widened slightlyy as a scoff left his mouth, lips quirking up into a smirk, "nice? you're treating me like a fucking child y/n. i stopped being little years ago. maybe you've been too busy bitching to even notice!"

your heads turned quickly as you heard shuffling from mark's room, his sleepy groans muffled by the thick walls.

"whatever tough guy, i'm leaving, your attitude ruined my appetite."

his arms were quick to stop you, trapping you against the kitchen counter, "where do you think you're going? where's my apology?"

it was your turn to scoff, eyes rolling at his questions. "apology? grow up na jaemin, you're not getting an apology if i did nothing wrong." you pushed at his chest, muscles firm against your hands. when did he get so strong? you mumbled out a low move embarrassed by your lack of strength against him.

he chuckled, breath fanning against your face, "give it one more go baby, maybe this time you might get it."

you bit your lip, head turning to look anywhere besides his bare chest, "this isn't funny, move or i'll-"

"you'll do what y/n?" he licked his lips, smirking down at you.

damn you na jaemin, damn you and those strong muscles, damn you and those plump lips, damn you and this new attitude that is so so hot. you gulped loudly, looking away as you tried to sneakily squeeze your thighs together, heat building between you legs.

"something wrong?"he leaned in closer to you, lips just one breath away. you turned your head further away from him, edge of the counter pressing deep into your back.

"you think being immature is cute jaemin? get off of me!"

he pressed his forehead against the side of your head, breath fanning against your ear. "no-"

he lifted his leg slightly, using his his knee to gently press against your core. you bit your lip to stifle a moan, head lowering just enough to watch his knuckles turn white against the counter. "but you clearly do. been squeezing these pretty thighs together since i started raising my voice at you."

you kept quiet, eyes squeezing shut as his knee pressed further against your heat, "who's the baby now hm?" you ignored him, brain zoning into to light pressure being applied to your clit, only a light hum being your response.

"answer me when i'm talking to you." your eyes fluttered open as he gripped your chin, moving your face so you'd look at him, "m-me jaem."

he tilted his head, smirk growing wider, "what was that?"

you swallowed your pride. there's no way you're gonna miss this opportunity. "i-i'm the baby jaem." he could help but chuckle, leaning in to plant a wet kiss on your cheek, "good girl, you learn quick. now lets put that bratty little mouth to good use."

you sunk onto your knees like your body was possessed, hands coming up to tug at his boxers. his cock sprung free, slapping his toned stomach. he was big, tip flushed and leaking.

his hand was quicker than yours, grabbing onto the base of his length to slap it against your cheek."not so little huh? call me baby again little brat."

"b-bab-" he chuckled as your words came out gargled, his cock being shoved into your mouth to silence you, "you look better with your mouth full." your eyes squeezed shut as you focused on your breathing, jaw relaxing slightly.

he was heavy on your tongue, smooth skin rubbing against the sides of your mouth. you hollowed your cheeks, sucking him in further. "shit angel, mouth so good, keep doing that."

you bobbed your head against him, spit threatening to spill past your lips. the sight above you was heavenly, pink hair held up with his hands as his mouth hung open. he let out soft pants as he tried his best not to thrust into your mouth. "let me- fuck- let me do it."

his hands moved into your hair to hold your head steady, hips starting to pick up a rhythm. you batted your lashes up at him, soft moans spilling from your mouth as he pressed deeper into your mouth, "look so pretty like this- just wanna-"

you gagged loudly as he pushed the rest of his length into your mouth, tip hitting the back of your throat. he held you there, your nose pressed against his pubic hair as you swallowed around him.

his groans went straight to your core, thighs squeezing impossibly tighter. he pulled you off in one swift motion, laughing as you gasped for air, eyes watery and lips swollen.

"look at you-" he slapped your face lightly, "acting so grown and can't even take my cock- get up and turn around."

but you remained on your knees, whimpering as you wiped at your mouth. you hadn't noticed you were crying until jaemin leaned down, warms hands rubbing your cheeks, "awe you crybaby, minnie's cock got you all worked up hm?"

you pushed his hands away struggling to get up, legs sore from the kitchen tiles. his arms wrapped around your waist pulling you against his chest, "still so stubborn, baby just needs some good dick fucked into her so she'll learn hm?"

he laughed at your weak yelp, his arms lifting you up as he walked towards to living room, "now you're gonna show me how much you need this dick."

he sat on the couch, placing you right on his lap, face to face with you. "go on put it in." your cute pouts did nothing to him as he moved his arms to rest them on the back of the couch, head nodding to urge you to continue.

you whined softly as you hovered your hips over him, hand coming down to push your panties and sleep shorts aside. your cheeks burned as you both looked towards your heat, wetness dripping onto his length. he threw his head back as he let out a soft groan, "fuck baby, what would mark think about me having his big sis dripping all over me hm? like the idea of getting fucked by me that much?"

you nodded quickly shame evaporating from your body as you began to rub his tip along your soaking cunt. he hissed under you, his hands gripping the couch cushions, "don't tease baby, wanna feel you."

you sunk down slightly, hollowly fucking yourself on his tip. your bottom lip was trapped between you teeth, body leaned back as you gripped onto jaemin's thighs. he couldn't help but groan at the sight of you, body covered up by your pjs but your pussy on full display.

he moved his hand to your tummy, fingers slipping under your shirt to pull the fabric over your tits, "fuck, you little minx, look at you dripping on my cock- shit, keep going."

you whined loudly, soft pants leaving your desperate lips as you sunk down on him, the stretch hot against your walls."c-can't jaem, too-"

his hand gripped you breast, rolling your sensitive nipples against his fingers. he pouted up at you, a slight tilt to his head, "can't what baby, hm? minnie's dick to big for my little princess?"

you huffed in embarrassment, cheeks burning red as you threw your head back to hide.

"that's okay angel-" his hands traveled down to your hips, a light chuckle leaving his lips as he lifted his hips to meet yours. the loud slap of your hips vibrated against the living room walls, a soft cry leaving your lips as you leaned forward, stuffing your face into jaemin's neck.

"it's okay-" his hips began to move, your slick making it easy for him to slide against your walls, "you can take it baby see? you're so good for me- fuck"

you whined against his neck, walls tightening around his length as he slapped his hips up. "jaem, jaem, please, oh my- feels so good baby, so deep."

he laughed at your small squeak as he suddenly picked you up, placing you in the corner of the couch, your back pressed against the soft cushion,

"i'm gonna need you to be quiet now okay princess? don't want mark to know how good i'm fucking his big sis hm?"

you nodded quickly, mouth hanging open as he slid back into you without warning, a small moan leaving his lips. "fuck jaem i can't- just please, want it so bad jaem, plea-" your hand flew to your mouth to muffle your loud moans, his hips moving to repeatedly slam into you, his length angled in just the right position.

"fuckkk yes bunny, look at you. pretty pussy sucking me in so good." his pace was relentless, one of your hands having to muffle your moans and the other gripping his arm for stability. you sunk into the couch, cushions bouncing under you from each thrust.

he leaned down close to you, body radiating heat against your chest, "want you to cum baby, i'm so close, so clo- fuck yeah baby just like that, so fucking tight shit."

you squeezed around him your stomach tightening as his words filled your ears. all you could think about was jaemin. his strong arms surrounding you, his warm body enveloping you, his soft moans urging you to cream on him and- oh. he hand flew down to your core, finger pressing gently on your clit, "come on angel, cum for me, wanna feel it, need it baby, please."

you squeezed your eyes shut, teeth clamping around your hand as you arched your hips up. the tight feeling in your stomach radiating throughout you, body shaking as you let go.

he stilled inside you, head pressed into your neck to muffle his own moans as he came inside you, whimpers of your name leaving his lips as he panted against you, "fuck, fuck, fuck, so good, so good for me bunny, you did so good."

he kissed around your neck, lips trailing up onto your lips. the kiss was sweet, soft touch of his lips making your body tingle. his grip was warm against you as he held your trembling body.

"shhh, it's okay, you're okay-" he kissed your cheeks, hands rubbing your sides, "minnie's here baby, i got you, everythings-"

you sunk deeper into the couch as you heard the fridge door slam shut, watching as jaemin's eyes landed on the kitchen entrance, "jaem?" mark's sleepy voice broke the silence, "what are you doing out here?"

jaemin stuttered slightly, pink cheeks still evident against the dim lighting,"i- i was just-" you heard mark take a loud sip of something, clearing his throat after, "if this is about my sister- she's, she's just annoying, all that baby stuff is just her being annoying. you know- sometimes i even kinda feel like she might like you or something."

jaemin bit his lip, only a loud mhm being his response as his now soft length slid out of you, "yeah so, don't let it get to you jaem, get to bed alright?"

jaemin nodded, saying a quick goodnight as mark left his sight. he looked down towards you, a scared look on your face, "so you're into younger guys, huh bunny?"

your giggles filled the small space as you rolled your eyes, hand gently slapping his chest. he leaned down to plant a soft kiss on your lips, a wide grin on his face, "don't worry, i like bratty older women too."

[t0ast-ghost]

S3 EP14 (Whom Gods Destroy) in what way?- nevermind probably the killing way. Okay. Well-

Just go:

- “A medicine with which the federation hopes to eliminate mental illness for all time.” WHAT. That is certainly a way to start an episode

- Cory is either going to die or is not actually a doctor. Well according to Marta I’m right about the latter

- they fucking knocked Spock out! (His named autocorrected to spoon lol)

- oh wait so the ‘cure for mental illness’ thing was REAL?

- goddamn why’s he stand like that

- Scott and McCoy are so confused

- Stigmatizing mental illness by showing that all characters who have it are violent. I get this is set in a prison but this is the only time they show any explicitly mentally ill characters and it’s to show that until there is a ‘fix’ they should be locked away for the safety of the public, which is not a good message to put onto tv. That is my problem with this episode, it’s spreading of stigmas and stereotypes.

- McCoy immediately saying that something’s wrong, ‘that’s not my boyfriend’

- Garth’s fashion sense is… awful

- getting distracted by Kirk’s ass

- oh my god that’s the first time anyone’s really threatened to harm Spock (edit: that’s a lie. That’s just a lie)

- Making the group of inmates all noticeably alien to make them seem like separate or fictional beings

- This argument? Live Spock reaction:

- “What is your reaction, Mr. Spock?” “Well, I find it [the dancing], uh, mildly interesting and somewhat nostalgic, if I understand the use of that word.” “Nostalgic?” “Yes, it is somewhat reminiscent of the dances that Vulcan children do in nursery school. Of course, the children are not so… well-coordinated.” Spock danced as a kid

- Kirk does not want her. Also he’s gay and one of his husbands is right there.

- “A dream that made Mr Spock and me brothers.” I think this is the first time Kirk and Spock refer to each other as anything other than friends… fascinating

- “Blind! Truly blind. Captain Kirk is your commanding officer, and you are his subordinate. And that is all.” Yeah but they’re husbands. Also this feeds into more of the ‘Kirk is designed to be a lonely character’ thing. He can’t even have a connection to his first officer :(

- damn they didn’t even let him infodump

- “No, thank you, I prefer to join Mr. Spock.” Yeah you would

- THEY HAVE AN ELECTRIC CHAIR ?!?

- I think the governor character is a stand in for McCoy, but they decided, ‘I guess we’ve tortured him enough’

- He’s sleepy

- And they’re kissing (edit: not sure who this is referring to)

- It’s always about getting to a control room and taking down a force field and never about kissing your boyfriend

- Spock coming to Kirk’s rescue? He finally got his knight in shining armour moment

- That’s not Kirk dammnit. He would never let Spock stay- oh wait it was Spock who was the imposter. Okay but where’s Spock

- Kirk’s little curl <3

- Kirk gets fucking shot. Second time he’s been knocked out this episode

- “You could serve as human sacrifice, for example.” “No, I wouldn’t enjoy that at all.” I love when they write Kirk as polite but obviously he’s got that Spock/McCoy sass rubbed off on him

- Kirk must be so disoriented. He got shot with a phaser and wakes up being held in a very uncomfortable position. Then he’s getting dragged places and beat up again.

- WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS EPISODE. No. No. What the fuck. They just made her choke on gas and then blew her up. This is horrifying. I swear some of these episodes are on the level on horror movies

- It’s funny how Scott and McCoy are getting along (and running the ship together)

- oh okay Spock’s just been chilling

- DOUBLE NERVE PINCH

- OKAY Spock ACTUALLY gets to save his husband in distress this time by being the knight in shining armour

- Once again Spock does not solely abide by pure unemotional logic, he does not fuck around, but he does find out. He’ll get you.

- THEY DID NOT PULL A ‘which is the real Kirk’ ON SPOCK

- which ones got the bigger ass- who said that (edit: I do not remember writing that but it’s genuinely the best thing I’ve written)

- HE DECIDES TO WAIT. HOT GIRL SHIT

- Spock isn’t turned on at all during this fight

- HOT GIRL SHIT IS SHOOTING THE INTRUDER PRETENDING TO BE YOUR BOYFRIEND WITHOUT A SECOND THOUGHT

- The thing that turns on and off the force field is literally a switch that says on and off and is labelled ‘force field power’

- yay they win or smt

- ‘Why’d it take you so long to know it was me?’ ‘Well in simple words, captain. I didn’t want to shoot my fucking boyfriend.’

They cured mental illness… We’re done for tonight.

Masterpost

Teleplay by Lee Erwin

Story by Lee Erwin & Jerry Sohl

[yukidragon]

So... I always had this question in my head, How do you think Shaun and Ian would react if MC and Jack had a baby? Well, in the sense that they can't see Jack they don't even know he exists, so I think it would be weird (especially Ian who would be (devastated)) that the MC would come with a baby. I also think if MC had a child with Jack, what would her pregnancy be like?

Shock would be an understatement if no one else but MC knows Jack even exists. Shaun and Ian would want to know who the father is, that’s for sure.

You know, this ask gives me a good excuse to do a few happy baby headcanons to counteract the sad and depressing ones that came from the previous ask about the topic. Mind if I use my specific version of the MC, Alice, for this? Awesome.

Before we begin, let’s throw in the obligatory tags for @channydraw, @earthgirlaesthetic, & @sai-of-the-7-stars​. If you want to be tagged in my next headcanon/theory post, please let me know!

Just as a gentle reminder, Something’s Wrong with Sunny Day Jack is an Adults Only game, so there’s most likely going to be some 18+ only content sprinkled into the headcanon. Also, I might use some art Jambeebot/Sauce posted on their public twitter before it went down, so I’ll once again remind everyone to please not repost the pictures posted privately for patrons on the SnaccPop Studios Patreon.

First of all, the pregnancy is entirely planned. With Jack’s very existence being heavily dependent on Alice(/MC) wanting him there, it’s doubtful that he can accidentally get his sunshine pregnant. He can’t do anything she doesn’t want him to do, after all. It’s impossible even touch her if she doesn’t want it, so I doubt any eggs are getting fertilized unless she is 100% on board with the two of them making a baby together.

Since Alice wouldn’t want to have a baby until she is more financially stable and lives in a bigger place, this would probably be a few years down the line from when she first meets Jack. Let’s just ignore all goals he might have for his state of reality and presence in the world, and just assume that even at this point, only his sunshine can see/hear/touch him.

This might be a bit of a spoiler for the future of Sunshine in Hell, but I’ve mentioned it in a previous post anyway, so whatever. Alice is going to tell Shaun about Jack, both about the situation with the tape and such, and about them being in a relationship. Shaun has been cautiously supportive of their relationship and seen proof Jack exists. I mean, it’s hard to claim Jack is just Alice’s imaginary friend when said “imaginary” friend can lift her up off the ground.

As heartbroken as Shaun was that Alice got in another relationship that’s not with him, the idea of having a ghost(?) lover is exciting, and he’s kind of lowkey jealous.

Shaun is the first to hear of Alice’s pregnancy, outside of family. To say that it fills him with conflicting emotions is an understatement. On the one hand, he’s happy that his friend is happy, but on the other hand there’s this sense of sadness from missed opportunities and what might have been. He’s a big enough man to not let the latter influence him, but it still stings.

However, the bigger thing is the fact that the baby’s daddy is a ghost(?) That is both incredibly cool, and concerning. There’s plenty of horror movies where making babies with a supernatural entity ends very, very badly. I mean, Shaun would actually consider doing it if he had a supernatural lover and he could because, shit, that’s so cool, but he’d also be worried about how it might end... and doubly so when it’s a close friend of his going through this.

Shaun loves Alice, he’s just trying his best at this point to keep all that love platonic rather than romantic. He doesn’t want anything to happen to her, and he’ll do what he can to help take care of her... even if Jack gets a bit territorial.

This sort of exchange may or may not happen between them.

...

“Hey, back off with the spooOoOopy ghost crap, man. I know you gotta rub it in my face that Alice is with you now whenever we hang out ‘too much’ for your jealous yandere ass to handle, but pregnancy is no joke. I’m helping Alice as long as she needs it.”

“The only person Alice needs is me.”

“Oh get over yourself. You ever heard about what people go through to make a baby? That shit takes a lot out of you, and those are just normal babies. Who knows what a half-ghost baby is going to put her body through.”

...

Well, something like that at least.

Yes, Shaun and Jack are going to have conversations. Jack can move objects around, so why not a pencil on paper? I already have a few fun ideas for some interesting messages Jack might send to Shaun. :o)

Also, I want them to become friends despite their friction. Because I think it’s possible if things fall into place the right way with their interactions, and if Jack is able to feel secure enough for Alice to have other friends besides him. Plus I just think it would be a really fun dynamic. :3

Shaun does help a lot with driving Alice places like doctors appointments during the later stage of her pregnancy. While Jack can technically drive a car, it’s going to cause a lot of issues if people see a car moving without a driver behind the wheel.

Jack is totally not going to sulk in the back seat the first time Alice needs a ride from Shaun, definitely not.

So while overall Shaun isn’t exactly totally thrilled about the pregnancy, he is supportive for Alice, and is happy for her. She does sincerely want this baby and is both excited and scared to be a mother, and what sort of friend would he be if he couldn’t take some pleasure in her happiness?

Ian, however, is a totally different story.

I’m going to go with the idea that Jack didn’t actually do anything supernaturally madness-inducing to make Ian go away that involves horrific nightmares. Ian got to keep his sanity because Alice finally blocked him and moved on completely from that chapter of her life.

Ian, despite everything, still holds onto the hope that he and Alice will get back together someday, that they are meant to be together. Hearing the news that she’s pregnant - second-hand no less - would be devastating. He heard some rumors that she had a new boyfriend, but there’s no photos of this “Jack” person, and none of their mutual friends have seen Jack personally.

In fact, a friend of his wondered if Alice was making up having a boyfriend to keep Ian from going after her. It would certainly explain why Jack never appears on any social media photos Alice posts. If that’s the case that “Jack” is just made up, then Alice got knocked up by some random guy and is going to be raising the baby alone while lying to the world... or deluding herself that she has a new relationship.

Either possibility does make Ian afraid for her. Despite Alice cutting him off, he would feel the strong need to reach out. Hell, he’ll be willing to raise the child as his own if she’ll just give him a second chance!

Needless to say, Ian wouldn’t do anything to endear himself to either Alice or Jack by doing this. Hopefully he’ll take another rejection from her alright. If he won’t listen to her, then hopefully he’ll listen to Shaun’s advice that it’s over and he needs to move on.

If not, then Jack will certainly make sure Ian won’t trouble his sunshine further. Stress is bad for Alice and the baby after all.

Speaking of the pregnancy, Alice would likely be more exhausted than from a normal pregnancy. Bodies work on overdrive when building a baby, and given she seems to be what’s allowing Jack to be around in the first place, no doubt she’s already being taxed pretty hard. She’s probably going to be eating a lot more than the usual pregnancy and sleeping a lot longer. Luckily for her, Jack is actually going to let her sleep in whenever she needs it.

Jack would insist on carrying Alice around as much as possible during the pregnancy, even in the early stages. By this point, she’s gotten used to being carried by her big sappy tree of a boyfriend, and it’s sweet how eager he is to take care of her. It’ll be especially appreciated when she’s feeling the ill effects of pregnancy, such as morning sickness.

As mentioned earlier, Alice would make sure to be in a good financial situation before getting pregnant. She has a better job at this point, one that allows her to work remotely from home, which is very helpful when she finds herself with less energy to do much or go places. She also finds herself with a lot of cravings when it comes to food. Fortunately, Jack is there to help make sure she eats well, takes her medicine on time, and exercises moderately.

Naturally, a fair amount of that exercise involves sexy times.

Okay, maybe most of the exercise is sexy times. Pregnancy hormones can make a pregnant person very horny, and that’s the case for Alice.

Speaking of which, Jack’s connection with Alice is very heavily emotion-driven. Since pregnancy wreaks havoc on emotions due to hormones, that supernatural link between them is going to be affected.

Remember this picture where Jack got drunk because MC was drunk too?

Now imagine Jack getting a nice little cocktail of pregnancy hormones affecting his mind.

The result is Jack being even clingier and hornier than ever. Hard to believe, I know. Fortunately, when Alice isn’t feeling crappy and exhausted from her body building a baby, she will be trying to climb him like the big sappy tree he is.

Jack will certainly not complain about that side-effect of the pregnancy. It would be a fun change, since Alice is the more timid one of the two of them when it comes to sex, so it would be quite arousing to see her get a little demanding in that regard. He’ll even encourage her to top him and lavish her with praise for how well she rides him. Reverse-cowgirl is a good position when pregnant after all, and it allows him to play with her breasts while she bounces up and down in his lap. He’ll be sure to point out just how much her breasts have grown during the pregnancy as well.

Speaking of, as soon as Alice starts lactating, Jack is going to want a taste. He won’t steal from the baby when they arrive, but he’s going to enjoy the special treat while he can. He’ll also make sure to let her know that it’s the best milk he’s ever tasted, much to her embarrassment.

It’ll be pretty arousing as well as heartwarming for Jack to watch her belly slowly get bigger, knowing that it’s their child growing inside her. Alice loves him so much that she’s having a baby with him, and soon their little sundrop is going to come and join their family.

There will be plenty of intimate and not necessarily sexual moments where Alice will snuggle up to Jack while he rubs lotion on her pregnant belly, just quietly marveling at the little life growing inside of her. There’s a little person made up of parts of both of them, proving that he’s real without a shadow of a doubt. He won’t be forgotten because a part of him will always live on in their baby... and all the other children they’ll be having.

Alice would be feeling self-conscious about her body being changed by pregnancy, but Jack would reassure her the second he senses her thoughts going in that direction. She is beautiful, absolutely glowing with life. She appreciates those moments where he’s just quietly admiring her body, sighing in contentedly as he rubs her soothingly and cooing gentle words of love and praise as he takes good care of her.

Of course, Alice will be sure to let Jack know how much she appreciates him, and how glad she is that he’s there. Hearing her tell him how much she loves him is going to make the man just melt into a puddle of happy goo.

Love, consent, and their emotional connection is so important to the bond between them, and it’s even more true when Alice is pregnant. She would feel more inclined to just spend time with Jack to the point that she would wake up early of her own accord just because his isn’t in bed with her when he snuck out to surprise her with breakfast in bed.

In fact, I’m inspired to write out a little scene:

...

Jack hummed a quiet but cheerful tune as he cooked breakfast, wearing nothing but an apron and a smile. He just finished flipping over the second pancake when a warm body suddenly pressed into him from behind. He quickly realized Alice had snuck up behind him while he was distracted and latched onto him like a koala clinging to a tree.

Jack couldn’t help but chuckle fondly as he looked back over his shoulder at his sleepy lover. “Good morning, sunshine.”

“Mmmfgh,” Alice responded as she buried her face into his back, wearing nothing but his big fluffy robe. It was so large compared to her that it dragged on the floor behind her, but she was too tired to care.

Jack set aside the spatula and turned around to pull Alice into his arms, hugging her close before pressing a gentle kiss to her forehead. “You can go back to bed and sleep in a little longer if you want. You need plenty of rest for the baby.”

Although Alice sighed in pleasure at the kiss, she grumbled at the suggestion, and buried her face in Jack’s chest, muffling her next words. “Don’ wanna... Too cold without you.”

“Awww...,” Jack cooed, his heart melting, and he swept Alice up into his arms, carrying her easily despite how far she was into the pregnancy. “Sunshine...” He gave her a soft peck, his lips curling into a smile as she sleepily returned the kiss. “I wanted to surprise you with breakfast in bed, but I’d love it if you keep me company while I finish cooking. I won’t be long, I promise.”

Alice merely mumbled a sleepy affirmative as she snuggled in closer to Jack, basking in his warmth of his love.

...

Yes, this is the first thing I imagined when I thought of the scenario of Alice getting pregnant. I am a sucker for sweet little moments of intimacy like these.

While the pregnancy is going to be taxing on Alice, I’m definitely not going to headcanon a sad result like in the previous ask. The pregnancy is going to be complicated by her chronic health issues, but Jack will move heaven and earth to make sure his sunshine and their baby are happy and healthy. At the end of it all, the two proud parents will welcome their baby, a son whose name I haven’t decided on, who looks a lot like daddy dearest.

Yes, I couldn’t resist headcanoning this adorable bean as Jack and Alice’s oldest child. I mean look at that face! So cute! Just wanna fluff that hair.

As for younger siblings to follow... there’s going to be quite a number of them, since Alice wants a large family, and Jack is only too happy to help her make as many babies as she wants. I guess I’d have to design them myself sometime. At least one of them is going to inherit their mama’s albinism, of course.

Of course, how things go down in Sunshine in Hell will be a little different than this scenario, but this is still fun to imagine the challenges Jack will have taking care of a pregnant partner and then their children while the world doesn’t realize he actually exists.

[dulceackles]

heyyyy, could you maybe write a one shot with ethan x reader. Ethan read some mean online comments and completely shuts down, so the rest of maneskin calls the reader to have her help them cheer Ethan up, and at the end it’s just really fluffy with a group hug including the reader?🥺👉🏼👈🏼

Silent movies | Ethan Torchio

Requested: yes

summary: Ethan reads hate comments after a long day of practice and the band decides to take the evening off and have a movie night with y/n. 

Pairing: Ethan Torchio x reader (she/her, third person)

word count: 1.4k

content and warnings: well it’s only little angst in theory, it turns fluff, little cursing.  

The rain had washed the streets the whole day and the wind had pulled threes apart the whole day. It was hard to believe that even an outdoor loving person would have wanted to step outside but gladly Ethan, Victoria, Thomas, and Damiano had had a great time practicing their new songs yet to be released. 

Damiano and Victoria were in the kitchen making Tortillas for the band and Thomas had drifted into his own thoughts after a long day of work. Ethan sat on the couch, scrolling social media through on his phone to kill some time while waiting for their dinner to be ready. He usually didn’t dig in too deep what people were talking about them online but for some reason, one specific comment section stole his attention. Maybe he should have not cared, be the bigger person and not let some internet trolls get underneath his skin but maybe it was overwhelming to see so many people agreeing on just hating him. He didn’t know what he could have ever done differently in a public eye that would have made people dislike him so much. So maybe he didn’t even want to admit to himself how much it actually hurt him.

“Ethan?” Thomas snapped Ethan out of his thoughts, he looked confused. 

“Hmm?” He answered to him noticing he had gotten up. 

“The food, It’s ready.” Thomas said, “I’ve called you like two times now.” He muttered

“Oh sorry.” Ethan got up and started to walk to the kitchen with Thomas. Thomas however had noticed that something was bothering him greatly. He hated seeing his friend sad but didn’t fully know how to bring it up.

Victoria and Damiano were already filing their Tortilla’s as Thomas and Ethan walked to the dining table. 

“You asses couldn’t wait for as, huh?” Thomas pointed at them smiling. 

“Hey, We made these!” Damiano raised his hands in defense.

It didn’t take long for Damiano and Victoria to notice Ethan’s off behavior. It was painfully clear something was bothering him, he didn’t even say much during the whole dinner and that made Victoria worried and even though she tried to carefully ask him about it, he didn’t say much. 

“What’s wrong?” Victoria had asked. 

“Nothing. Just was on Instagram and have you guys seen the way some people talk there?” Ethan answered her, gently playing with the end of his hair. 

“Don’t worry about them, like you said they’re just being rude for the sake of it. It doesn’t matter what they say.” Damiano said. 

“true.” Ethan nodded his head but Victoria could tell Ethan was still feeling low. 

“Let’s have a movie night, we’ve played all day I think it’s enough for today.” Thomas tapped his hands to the table. 

“Yeah I agree” Victoria got up, “Let’s invite y/n too, she’s probably really bored at home too.” She knew y/n was really good at cheering people up.

Y/n heard her phone’s notification sound ring as she was laying in her bed reading a book she found on sale at the nearest thrift store. 

Vic: Wanna come for a movie?

y/n: Sure, what are we watching? 

Vic: Haven’t decided yet. By the way, Ethan’s really upset. He read some comments online. So heads up. 

y/n: ohh okey, I’ll bring snacks.

It didn’t take y/n long to drive to them even if the weather was ruff and she truly was happy it didn’t because she hated to drive in dark and in rain alone. Because wasn’t that just how horror movies started?

After she had parked she quickly trotted to the front door. She knocked on it waiting for someone to open the door and let her inside out of the sharp rain. 

“Snacks or won’t open.” Ethan joked behind the door. 

“Well for god’s sake just open the door it’s pouring here.” y/n laughed at him through the door. She heard the door lock twist open. 

“I brought Popcorn,” Y/n said showing a pack of microwave popcorns in her hand.  

Y/n walked in and took her now slightly muddy shoes off. “Sorry, I tried to jump over puddles.” 

“Hii Y/n!” Victoria screamed from the living room and y/n greeted her back. 

Ethan and y/n walked into the kitchen to make the popcorns into the microwave as Damiano, Thomas, and Victoria were throwing pillows to the floor to make the best movie night living room possible. 

The microwave howled as the popcorns were popping inside. 

“Did your mom told you you’d hurt your eyes if you looked into the micro too long too close?” Y/n asked Ethan as both of them were keeping a very close eye on the popcorns, “Or was that just my mom?” 

“Oh, she did!” Ethan smiled remembering the complete urban legend his mom too had told him once. 

“I always wondered if she believed in it.” Y/n slowly said as she turned to look at him. His hair fell long alongside his back and y/n too had noticed he looked a little tense. She wondered if she should have said anything or if he was better left alone.

“Victoria told me you were a little sad today.” y/n said gently, almost whispering.

Ethan hummed, “I knew they called you here to babysit.” 

“No they didn’t.” She protested, “No one just wants that you’re sad.”

“I just saw some stupid comments, it’s not serious.” He said. The microwave peeped and he took the steaming popcorns out. 

“I mean it is serious if you’re upset by them and understandably everyone would be.”  She looked into his eyes that were staring back at hers. 

“hmm. It’s just... I guess it just makes you wonder if there’s something true about what they say.” He looked down a little bit. They started to walk to the living room. 

“Well I think no, I see not one flaw in you and nothing I would change even if I had a chance.” y/n said as she laid down to the pillow see others had made onto the floor in front of the tv.

Ethan giggled and laid down next to her. “I wouldn’t change anything in you either.” He smiled at her. 

“aww, cute.” y/n laughed and snuggled to give Ethan a little cuddle. He rested his head on the pillows. 

“I just don’t get why people have to be so mean online.” He said as he gently played with y/n’s hair in his thoughts. 

“They just don’t have anything better to do I guess. It really has nothing to do with you and everything to do with them.” y/n said while drawing figures onto his hand with her fingers. 

“Yupp and besides, There’s always gonna be someone who likes you and someone who doesn’t,” Damiano said joining them on the floor and stealing the popcorn bowl. 

Ethan too got up to sit to make room on the pillows for Thomas and Victoria too. 

“That’s one thing I didn’t know though; like how much at the end of the day how much you’ll get shat on once you get noticed in the music industry,”  Victoria said as she and Thomas joined them. 

“True, well I guess sometimes people just need someone to use as a trash bag for their own negative emotions.” Thomas agreed, he reached his hand to crap a couple of popcorns. “I think, you know, we have each other and close ones and those really just are the people you need sometimes and who you know you can lean on. Yeah, You are the people whose opinions I care about, no one else.” 

“Awww.” Damiano, Victoria, Ethan, and y/n said at the same time and y/n could see that Ethan’s eyes had softened. 

Victoria wrapped his other hand around Thomas and the other one around Damiano pulling them into a hug and Thomas wrapped his hand around Ethan who then pulled y/n into the hug. 

“I love you guys,” Ethan said as they all hugged each other and he truly felt like at that moment, it really didn’t matter what they said on the internet. 

Y/n rested her head against Ethan’s chest and he pressed his cheek on top of her head yet before all of their hair got tangled with each other, they stepped back to their own seats. 

“So what are we going to watch?” Damiano asked. 

“We should watch silent movies cus people talk too much.” y/n snapped her fingers to her own pun. 

[dancingamongstdust]

Creepypasta Scenarios - First Meeting (Part 3)

I’ve opened requests now, if anybody is interested. Here’s the post:

Requests

Lost Silver

As stupid as it sounds, the game didn’t scare you.

It had started as a joke, something passed around your friend group after it had been discovered. The cartridge was just a janky version of a Pokémon game that was apparently spooky and so, everybody had taken turns messing around with it. They all said creepy things started happening but nothing too bad.

When it was your turn, you had been fully expecting something out of a horror movie. Instead, you had gotten a game that just had audio cut offs and weird notes warning you to stay out. It wasn’t all together scary.

You mentioned this to the next person you gave the game to in your friend group and they had laughed, saying it would probably ring true for them also.

But for some reason, your ally didn’t manifest.

Less than two days later, they practically threw the game at the rest of you and ran away sprouting things about curses. After that, the appeal of playing it kind of went away.

Nobody wanted to buy it and apparently throwing it out wasn’t a suggestion. So you ended up getting it.

Curiosity soon got the better of you and you booted up the game again, really sure that it would do something absolutely crazy but it never did. It ran like it always had with only that one file being completed.

So you deleted the file.

And nothing happened.

The next day, when you booted up the game, the file had simply returned as though you hadn’t deleted it in the first place. A similar thing occurred the next time. And the next.

Eventually you gave up and just started your own game. There, everything ran like it was meant to and you were beginning to think that your friends had all been imagining stuff. Maybe their paranoid got to them or something like that?

But eventually, the nightmares started. And they were bad.

You couldn’t remember exactly what happened during them. They were a swirling mess of games and glitches, horrible things spelled out in letters and blood covering everything. You would always wake up right when they seemed to be coming to a pivotal point. You’d find yourself dragged into a graveyard and then you’d wake up screaming

It was awful. You hardly got any sleep during them and they seemed to haunt you every night, keeping you up until the early hours of the morning.

But the worst only came when you didn’t wake up.

When you were dragged to the grave and looked down to see the ellipsis where the name should be. A punch to the gut that reminded you of what the game file was called. A confirmation of what was causing this dream.

You stared at it for ages before your eyes drifted up and you met his gaze. He was covered in blood, it leaked from every orifice and limb. It stained his dirty clothing even worse.

While you were staring, the world seemed to distort even though he didn’t. The game world melted away and your bedroom slowly reappeared.

It wasn’t until you saw car headlights move past your window – casting awful shadows across the room – that you realised you were no longer dreaming. He wasn’t a figment of your imagination.

The temperature in the room plummeted and you began to slowly reach for a weapon of some kind. He turned to look at what you were watching. His head tilted to the side and a glitch raced across his body before he vanished into thin air. Flicking on the lights didn’t show him hiding or cowering.

Perhaps your friends weren’t crazy after all.

Masky

“You know, if we had been a little more patient, none of this would have happened,” your sibling lectured. “We could be relaxing inside the car without having to worry about a bloody flash flood coming down from the sky.”

You shoved their back, forcing them to stumble a little as they went through the door. “Chances are the river’s going to burst its banks anyway. We would have been stuck in traffic for hours because the bridge is blocked off.”

“At least we would have been dry,” they muttered, running their fingers through their hair. “And not trapped inside an abandoned building.”

You rolled your eyes and made your way over the rubble to settle down on a camping chair. “Don’t even start. This place has been a hangout for my friends and I for ages. There’s never been a single problem bigger than a few spiders.”

“Till a landlord shows up,” they scoffed.

“Then we’ll move to the forest,” you joked. “I’m sure there’s a good bear cave we can use.”

“I’m going to be an only child,” they said, rolling their eyes. Still, they made their way over and sat. “How long do you think we have until the storm dies down?”

You relaxed back into the chair and smiled up at the asbestos-filled ceiling. “From the sound of it, a while.”

It wouldn’t have been the first time you had taken a nap in the building. You were scared of giant cockroaches coming to eat you once. You had gotten used to it since then but this time when you woke up, you were uneasy.

Glancing around, nothing was out of the ordinary. Your sibling was snoring in the chair next to you and outside the rain was pounding the roof.

You sat upright. Sometimes was definitely wrong.

Pulling your phone from your pocket, you got up from the chair and began walking as quietly as you could through the house. It had always been tiny and practically void of furniture, but the few rooms provided ample hiding spots.

Nothing but rubble was in most of the rooms but, in what you presumed had once been a bathroom, you found a person.

He had his back to you but when you pushed the door open to peer in, he spun around, his hand flying to his side. He was wearing a white mask, dark features etched onto it, and an orange jacket. A dark stain ran up the right side of it, emanating from under his hand. The oddness of his clothing made you immediately back away from the door, finger twitching on your cell phone in case you needed to call for help.

The two of you stared at each other in silence.

You were lost about what to say or do. The stain on his jacket was spreading and the more you stared at it, the more you became convinced it was blood. “Are you okay?” you finally managed to ask.

It took him a while to respond but then he nodded. The mask was unnerving you. You didn’t like not being able to see a person’s facial expressions.

“I don’t mean to pry or anything, but it really looks like you’re bleeding,” you said. “And quite badly. I can call for an ambulance or something although…” you turned your attention to the window behind his head. “I’m not sure they’ll be able to get anywhere with this weather.”

He stepped backward. “I’m fine,” he said, so soft you barely caught it. “I thought this place was abandoned.”

“It normally is,” you answered. “But we had to avoid the storm. I’m guessing that’s why you’re here also?”

“Yes,” he responded.

You waited or him to say something more, but all you got was silence. He had moved further away and now he had his back against the window. Part of you wanted to turn around and go back to your sibling but you were unsure about turning your back on the strange man.

The mask made you scared he could stab you or something.

Somebody calling your name made you turn your head on instinct. Your sibling must have woken up and realised you were missing.

Quickly, you turned back to the man, but he had disappeared. Rain spat through the now open window.

Nurse Ann

Everybody always warned you about exploring old buildings. They would yell about how many things could injure or kill you. Stray animals, drug addicts, old equipment, and all that. You had heard just about every warning imaginable. Ghosts were pretty commonly mentioned also.

But killer nurse was a new one.

“Come on, just give me a little more information,” you nagged. “I’m going there whether you’re with me or not so you may as well just tell me what you’ve heard.”

Your friend (and partner in crime for most ventures) groaned. “It’s not much. They just say that she guards the place and if you get too close, she’ll run you off with a chainsaw. Some people have died from injuries they got while there. Let’s just give this one a miss, alright?”

But you were not in agreement at all.

“Maybe she’s cute though,” you teased.

They didn’t find that funny and you didn’t push them to come with you. So later that evening, you snuck in by yourself.

The hospital was old with crumbling walls and smashed windows. It was hidden from the public by means of a tall barbed-wire fence and a substantial distance of open garden. Nothing too extreme for you and definitely worth the potential items you’d find inside. When hospitals went under, they often left tons of awesome stuff just scattered around.

You’d never sold anything you found in your abandoned building dives. They were more collectables than anything else but they meant quite a bit to you.

There weren’t any signs of crazy nurses as you approached the place. Nobody came running at you with a chainsaw at least. You didn’t even find evidence of squatters who could sometimes pose some danger.

After deciding it was safe enough, you lifted yourself through one of the windows and began to explore.

Honestly, it was creepy. Everything was way too old to be worth collecting and there were too many unidentifiable stains for your liking. The water damage was bad. It looked like the ceiling was there for aesthetics only and several rooms creaked too much for you to comfortably cross them.

And that was even without the awkward feeling of being watched.

You told yourself that it was just superstition but you couldn’t shake it. Every few seconds saw you looking over your shoulder in anticipation. It distracted you from keeping your eye on the path in front of you and the loud crack reached your ears too late.

The floor gave out and you fell through. Your shoulder hit some kind of metal object as you landed in the room below. Painful shocks ripped through your body and your head knocked against the floor with a heavy thud.

Stars danced in front of your vision and you raised your hand to the top of your head. Blood coated your hand when you lowered it to look.

Shit.

Shakily, you tried to pull yourself up but quickly found that your arm was too sore. Instead, you pulled your phone from your pocket and sent off the emergency text to your friend.

The world faded to black not long after that.

When you woke up next, you were in your room with a bandage wrapped around your head. You had felt like absolute crap but still gotten up to thank them for the save. They had nodded and warned you to be more careful, happy that you had been outside the hospital so they didn’t have to look for too long.

Before you could even think about how you had crawled there, they asked how you had managed to do your own stitches so nicely.

Puppeteer

Your camera was on 10% battery.

Grumbling, you shoved it into your bag and cursed your past self for forgetting to put it on charge. In order to get the best sunrise photos, you had found yourself waking up earlier and earlier. It was tiring but it was worth it… most of the time.

You just hoped that at least one of your pictures was usable but you could only check on them once you got home.

The streetlight above your head flickered as you walked past. It wasn’t unusual but when you were the only person awake for miles around, it was awfully creepy.

Putting your hands into your jacket pockets, you continued strolling back home. The neighborhood had never been dangerous and despite living in the area for your entire life, no incidents made you want to stop walking around at night.

Deciding that you wanted to take a precautionary shot, you headed for your neighbour’s house first. They had an arch covered in jasmine flowers that made for some perfectly safe photos and they never minded your presence.

After making your way there and getting a few photos, you were treated to the fright of your life when their began howling and barking. It wasn’t aimed at you but you didn’t like the noise regardless.

As you rounded the corner of the house, planning on racing back to your own home, you encountered the dog’s target.

A man – cloaked in the darkness and barely illuminated by the streetlight – opening one of the windows with ease. Irritated by the dog, he didn’t notice you until your finger twitched around the shutter of your camera. There was a flash.

His head snapped up and you screamed.

The man’s complexation was literally grey. He wasn’t just ill, he was the colour of storm clouds. Golden eyes with no pupils glared at you and froze you in place. Whatever he was, this man was the furthest thing from human.

Your scream woke your neighbors. The sound of movement began coming from inside the house.

He abandoned the window, stalking towards you. The air tingled like it was expecting a lightning storm. Golden tendrils grew from his fingertips and shot towards you. They had you pinned in an instant.

You struggled against them and opened your mouth to scream again but they wrapped around your head, forcing your jaw shut.

This was how you died… tears spilled down your cheeks at the realization. You were going to be an unsolved murder. All you hoped was you got a good picture of him.

Your neighbor’s front door opened and great dane let out an ear-splitting bark as he raced toward you.

The man, or creature, or monster, or whatever he was, released you to face the dog. He let it approach before vanishing into a cloud of smoke as its jaws reached him.

“What was that?” the timid voice brought you back into reality.

“It was trying to get into your house,” you said. “I screamed when I saw it and then it grabbed me.” Your voice changed to a whimper as reality hit you. You nearly died.

The small child of the house came over to hug your leg. “I’m sure Puppet didn’t mean to scare you,” she said. “He always comes to visit but he doesn’t like it when people make noise. You shouldn’t scream when you see him again.”

You made eye-contact with the parents and they wore expressions of horror at their daughter’s words.

“Puppet?” you asked in a small voice.

She nodded rapidly. “He says he stops by because he likes watching people. I think that he’s watching us all right now! But he can hide in the shadows too well.”

“I’m going to go and call the police,” somebody said.

You weren’t all too focused. The feeling of being watched grew heavier and you clutched tightly at the camera in your hands.

Slenderman

You couldn’t tell if they were being serious. You hoped that they were joking. They weren’t genuinely going to…

“No,” you stated.

The two younger children both turned to look at you simultaneously. Guilt flashed across their faces as though they weren’t aware you were listening. It was as though you were asked to babysit them because you didn’t pay attention. These two should have realised that by now.

“Do you think all the stories are true?” the boy asked. “I think that they are. One of my friends said she saw a huge dog in the forest and then it ran away after eating a whole cow!”

“No way!” his twin sister shouted. “Dogs don’t eat cows, so it can’t be true!”

You put on your best intimidating expression and crossed your arms. “I don’t care if they’re true or not. There is absolutely no chance that either of you are going to go running off into the woods with bears, wolves and all kinds of other creatures.”

The two children glanced at each other and bolted for the tree line before you could grab their shirts.

Thankfully your legs were longer even if they had a head start and you managed to catch up pretty quickly. Once you caught the boy and picked him up with ease, the girl dashed behind a tree.

“Can we please just leave?” you asked nicely. “If we forget about the forest adventure thing, I promise I won’t tell your parents and I’ll get you ice cream.”

The boy was trying his hardest to get out of your hold. You were starting to think babysitting didn’t pay enough.

“I don’t want ice cream,” the girl said. “I want to go and find a unicorn.”

She darted off into the forest and you let out a deep groan. Shifting the boy’s weight over your one hip, you started walking after her. If you wanted to give chase via running, you would have to put the kid down and trust him to follow or stay.

It was obvious that wasn’t happening.

It didn’t take you too long to find the girl. Mostly because she had stopped in the middle of a weird grove in the trees. She was just staring off into the dark shadows beyond it.

As you approached her, static popped in your ears. You shook your head in an effort to displace it but the closer you got, the louder it became.

The child in your arms whimpered, clutching his head.

You softly called her name and then it appeared. It was a man-like monster, standing just in the shadows of the trees. Easily over 7ft tall and insanely thin with no facial features. Your heart jumped into your throat and your stomach tied itself into a knot.

Without taking your eyes off it, you reached out a hand and fumbled around until you grabbed the girl’s shirt.

The static was getting louder and louder. You tried to shut it out as you started moving backwards, tugging the child along after you. She wasn’t willing to move her legs. She was entranced but whether by fear or magic, you couldn’t tell.

And then it was much closer.

You stumbled in fright, letting go of the girl’s shirt and landing on your ass. The boy fell on top of you but scrambled away and hide in the bushes within the blink of an eye. You sent a silent prayer to him to run back home to the other adults.

Once again, the creature was stationary but now the static was growing to such a volume that you could imagine your ears were starting to bleed.

You reached out for the girl again slowly, but something wrapped around your leg and yanked you into the air.

It took almost a full second for you to realise that the screaming ringing in your ears was you. Whatever was holding you tightened and whipped your body through the air. It was like your leg was being ripped away.

Then you were falling.

It was some feat of luck that you managed to twist your body, so you didn’t land on your head. You lay there for a while before something poking your back made you unbury your face.

The twins were staring at you with wide eyes and the monster was nowhere in sight.

“What was –“ you couldn’t finish.

“Slenderman,” they said in perfect sync.

Splendorman

Another stop…

You couldn’t help yourself. Every time you walked past one of the posters fluttering lightly in the wind you had to stop and stare at it.

A few days ago, your dog, your beautiful and sweet puppy, had disappeared from your house without a trace. The missing posters were depressing reminders that he wasn’t home. It hadn’t taken long for your mind to spiral into the negative thoughts about how close the road was.

Damn your coworkers. One of the had suggested the road in the first place and while they hadn’t intended anything malicious, it was definitely not helping your fears.

The dog had been with you through thick and through thin… if it was dead, you may as well have lost a close family member.

Hanging your head, you dragged your eyes away from the poster and kept walking.

People bumped into you, but it was your fault. You refused to look up in case another poster distracted you. Getting home before the sun set was your only focus now.

You had tried going out and searching in all the places where your dog once spent time to no avail. Always willing to try again, you chose to drop off your bags and head out later that evening when you ran out of distractions.

As you walked through the gates in front of your house, a gust of air gently messed up your hair. A gust of wind suspiciously similar to a laugh.

Your logical mind told you it came from the street, but something made you stop in your tracks.

The walls around your property towered. There’s no possibility that somebody could be in your garden. To try and scale one of the walls, they would have been in full view of your neighbours who would have undoubtedly called the cops.

“You’re sad,” the wind whispered before you could brush off your suspicion.

Spinning wildly, you searched around for the source. You backed up until your entrance gate was behind you. You could run down to the main street with ease if you could just get your fumbling fingers to unlock things.

“Don’t run,” the wind said, this time blowing from a separate direction. “I promise I’m not going to hurt you. I just wanted to know why you’re upset.”

Is this what going insane was? Nobody around and the wind was talking to you. You had always feared losing your mind and now it was happening.

“I’m real,” the wind said. “I’m hiding because I’ll scare you if you see me.”

“I’m going mad,” you muttered, shaking your head. “If this is somebody pulling a prank on me I swear….”

The wind quietened for a bit and then it picked up again, ruffling your hair as it spoke. “If I show myself, it’ll prove that you’re not going crazy, but I don’t want to make it worse by frightening you… you’re so sad already.”

“I lost my best friend and people have been telling me he’s most likely dead,” you hissed. “Obviously I’m not in the best mood. Now I’m losing my fucking mind and talking to air.”

The atmosphere around you dropped, like it does moments before lightning strikes. You glanced at the sky in confusion. As expected, no clouds in sight.

You lowered your gaze and a 7ft tall creature covered in bright polka dots stood in front of your house.

Once you screamed, it disappeared.

“I’m sorry,” the wind said. “I knew I would scare you, but I had hoped it would show you that I’m not imaginary. I’m just trying to help.”

The gate finally opened behind you and you stumbled backwards through it, your heart sitting in your throat. A monster was in your house and it was probably going to kill you. Spinning on your heel, you took off full speed back towards the main street.

You were fully expecting it to give chase now that you hadn’t fallen for its claims of harmlessness but it didn’t.

Instead you reached the main road and only got a few strange looks because of how much you were shaking. Nothing followed you.

The wind picked up once more. “I’ll try and help,” it promised.

People walking around you should have heard it as well but none of them so much as blinked.

Ticci Toby

While you had been told that a noise limit for the forest existed, your laughter refused to cooperate. It rang through the trees and probably chased off all the animals nearby. A picnic out in a national forest was a fantastic way to reconcile with nature and to scare it all away.

With eleven people in your picnic party, chances of any creatures coming into view were already slim though so you didn’t worry too much.

“We didn’t bring nearly enough fruit,” you muttered as you dug in the basket.

“Excuse you, I brought a whole watermelon but you ate it,” somebody answered your grumble. “If you want fruit, it is spring. Go and forage for some berries.”

You snorted. “Yeah, right. I’m going to go out by myself in the middle of the one season where bears are irritable as fuck. I know I sometimes act a little impulsively, but I don’t exactly have a wish to die at the claws of a grumpy teddy.”

Your friend leaned towards you. “Is that so? What if we split into teams and made a bet? Loser has to take a dip in the river.”

“A bet?” you asked. “I’m interested.”

She grinned and snapped her fingers. “Okay, there are eleven people so I’m feeling groups of two with one impartial party as a judge. We should be fine if we make enough noise and stick within close vicinity to each other. See how many berries we can gather?”

Tipping out the picnic basket’s contents, you smirked and pushed it into her chest. “Oh, I hope you brought a swimming costume.”

Everybody teamed up with ease and grabbed one of the many containers lying on the blanket. You headed out with your partner and gave a wink to the other teams. All you needed was to find one good bush first and you had it won.

“We should split up,” your partner said. “Cover more ground.”

You nodded. “We meet up back here once we’ve found a good bush,” you agreed. “And we shout if we find any animals.”

Obviously, your plans hadn’t involved losing your footing almost directly after the two of you split.

Tumbling down the small hill, you tried your hardest to protect yourself from the bushes as you went through them. At some point, you lost your basket and by the time you had finally rolled to a stop, you had no idea where it was.

Grumbling, you stood up and started searching until something dark caught your eye. Thinking it was your basket, you made your way over.

The clearing you walked into housed a scene you could never have imagined.

A dead bear lay slumped against a tree, its fur being what had caught your eye earlier. A hatchet buried in its neck was spilling blood onto the floor around it. All that hardly compared to the man leaning against a tree.

“Oh my god!” you exclaimed. “Are you alright?”

His head immediately snapped up, allowing you to see that he was wearing a mouth guard and a pair of goggles. Blood seeped from between his fingers where they clutched against his chest, but he hardly noticed. A hatchet was hanging from his belt.

Suddenly, you were wishing you had kept your mouth shut.

He stared at you blankly for a while, an occasional twitch minorly affecting his body. Reaching up, he took off his mouthguard. “I can’t feel any pain,” he said. “So, I’m fine. Why are y-you out here? The hiking trail is far.” He struggled with one of the words, seeming to hiccup a little on it.

“I was searching for berries and I slipped down a hill,” you answered. “Are you sure you’re okay? It looks like you got into a fight with a bear. Your shirt is all bloody.”

“I did fight a bear,” he laughed, gesturing to it. “I won.”

Your eyes grew wider. “I think you should get to a hospital. What’s your name? I can call somebody for you and we’ll get you medical attention.”

“Toby,” he said. “That’s my name. What’s yours?”

You gave him your full name and pulled out your phone. “My friends are close by,” you said. “Don’t worry, they’ll be here to help soon.”

When you raised your attention from your phone, he had disappeared and so had the hatchet from the bear’s neck.

Trenderman

Work was hard. It made your feet ache, it made your back click and crack, and it felt like the problems would never end.

Would you give up working in the fashion industry? Not a chance.

Your boss walked past where you were calming down an irate customer over the phone and dropped the keys to the front of the building in front of you. “Close up for me,” she mouthed as she left.

Nodding, you moved them to the side of the desk where they couldn’t be lost.

Once you had finished calming the customer, you glanced around to check how many people were left in the room. Three still working and one in the process of leaving. You were technically going into overtime at this point, but you didn’t mind.

There was a reason you were promoted so quickly.

“We need to set up cameras!” one of the floor managers snapped, storming into the office. She marched straight over to your desk and glowered at you. “I put this request in a week ago.”

Scrolling through the documents, you quickly opened the file. “I see but it looks like it’s been bumped due to a shipment malfunction, I’ll flag it. What’s the problem?”

“Customers or members of staff are moving items around and throwing things out without warning. We need to catch the culprits!” she snapped.

“What has been thrown out?” you asked. “I’ll add it into the information.”

The woman started listing quicker than you could type. “I’ve found crocs, toeless thigh-high boots, bellbottomed jeans, coloured faux fur jackets, luminous lipstick, w-necks, and jeggings all in vast numbers in the trash can. Every time I put them out on shelves, they disappear again.”

It took everything in you not to snort. “I’ll mark this vital.”

She stalked off and you went back to inputting the shipping requirements. You were meant to be organising what was coming in for the latest line and subtly omitting anything that wouldn’t sell well enough.

Slowly but surely, your co-workers trickled out of the office after finishing off their daily tasks. You kept going, trying to make sure you could have a longer break the next day.

Finally, when the sun had already set, you relented and started getting ready to go home.

You sung as you finished packing up for the day. Being the last one in the building (thus having to lock up) made you a little more confident as you danced around getting everything together. You slung your bag over your shoulder and happily trotted over to the door.

It made you so happy that your boss entrusted you to be the last one around. She was so hyper-protective of company secrets that you were proud of yourself for winning her over.

Your talent with people was something you attributed to dealing with painful customers.

As you passed through the store-part of the business you stopped to rearrange a mannequin. Every morning when you came in, you always noticed something had been changed with this specific one. You figured you could move something small and see if it would be a good place to set up a hidden camera.

Though you weren’t expecting it to suddenly grab your arm.

“You may be one of the few workers here with good taste, but I advise you don’t try and change my outfit,” it said. It didn’t have a mouth, but the words rang in your head, nevertheless.

You screamed and pulled away, tearing your arm from its grip. Shelves were knocked over and clothing was sent flying as you tried to escape.

The mannequin just watched you as you fumbled madly for the door.

The glass rattled in the frame from how hard you slammed it shut behind you. You sped off down the street, moving faster than you ever had before. You collapsed on your lawn by the time you reached the house, taking deep breaths.

Nothing had followed you. Everything was okay.

With shaking fingers, you dialed your boss’ number and told her you would be taking a sick day. There wasn’t a chance in hell you were going anywhere near there again.

Not to mention the mess you made… you were definitely getting fired.

[punknerdmusings]

How Bad Can I Be Isn't That Bad, Actually

This is going to be a long and mostly pointless ramble.

How Bad Can I be is actually the better song to include in The Lorax over Biggering. If, somehow, you're on the sexyman website and don't know How Bad Can I Be, it can be found here. Biggering, its unused and (undeservedly so) more popular counterpart, can be found here. Actual essay under the cut.

Okay, so, why am I making this massive claim? For one, musically, Biggering doesn't fit the tone of the rest of the film. Some people may say that's exactly what was needed, but a huge tonal shift like that would have been incredibly jarring and would have had people leaving the theaters going 'what the fuck'. How Bad Can I be fits into the chipper yet darkly undertoned rest of the film (come on. Think about O'Hare Air. Think about the contrast between Thneedville and the outside.), while Biggering rips off the mask only to just... Put it back on, if that's what you want to call it? Unless the rest of the film had a vastly different ending (which it might have, however, there's currently no evidence to back this up and therefore we can assume it would have ended the same as it does in the final version) it would have been an out-of-place addition to the movie and would have been the least memorable, especially considering its lack of catchiness.

Which brings me to my second point! Marketability. No, not in the 'Biggering shows more of corporate greed and that's why it was cut' sort of marketability, the actual overall likelihood that the song would have been enjoyable to the public. Don't get me wrong, I like the songs that are dark and show off the bad of society a lot, but all of them have something going for them that Biggering don't: The right musicality to them. The actual terms I'm fuzzy on, I only took one year of any sort of music, but the overall vibes as I will call them are just off. A song I'd like to offer as an example of making this work is Redecorate by Twenty One Pilots. Both minor keys, both talking about their subject fairly seriously, both handling very dark topics. However, Redecorate is still a well-crafted song, whereas Biggering feels very much... Not, at least compared to the version that got into the film. There are sections of Redecorate that will forever be stuck in my head, and have been since it released, while I wouldn't be able to sing Biggering in the slightest.

My third point loops back to the story of the Lorax, but in a more character-specific way. How Bad Can I Be and its surface lightheartedness works much better for this point in the Onceler's character arc and honestly for the story's plot as a whole. In Biggering, he sounds like he's already regretting the actions he's done, and is still just pushing down his bad feelings over destroying the forest. However, in How Bad Can I Be, it's clear that he genuinely thinks that it doesn't matter, and the callousness with which he sings the lyrics honestly sells the horror of corporate greed much better in my opinion. Biggering makes you think that the CEOs regret their actions. How Bad Can I Be shows you they don't. In addition, How Bad Can I Be is a more dynamic song texturally. It goes from chipper and happy to a darker, crueler song (while still fitting the overall tone of the movie) where at the end, the line "How bad can I possibly be?" encapsulates his descent into villainhood while he's rising over the destroyed forest. He's celebrating the destruction of the forest, and all the profits that will arise from that.

How Bad Can I Be is the better song to include on The Lorax, and the team behind the movie absolutely made the right decision.

[canmom]

a post about killing for sport, spectacle & sacrifice

the Romans famously made people kill each other in public spectacles. medieval Europeans had various ways of animal torture, such as bear-baiting. public executions have been practised for most of history in as far as I know the majority of societies on Earth; it is only relatively recently that executions first became private affairs and then were at least nominally abolished altogether. the state of course still reserves the exclusive right to kill, and exercises it frequently whether in police shootings, disability benefit cuts or border regulations designed with the recognition that people will drown at sea trying to cross them; it just now finds it distasteful to exercise it too often.

outright human sacrifice seems to have been relatively uncommon as a religious practice, but its logic still prevails in various ways: if somebody does for the sake of x, then x must be more important than that person’s life, after all. would the struggle to reach the south pole be remembered so fondly if it was not for the party which perished in the attempt? an actor’s final performance is accorded a certain poetry, especially if the rigours of the role are what killed them. yet curiously, despite the 20th century being a period in which killing was industrialised, with much bigger populations allowing much bigger genocides, wars and famines etc., public killing for spectacle or entertainment seems to have become a lot less popular. of course the news media still eagerly report on occasions where the rules break and someone gets killed in a ‘noteworthy’ way, but the murder itself is rarely done for the sake of making that public display. (cops would love to be able to just kill who they want without it turning into a public scandal and cause for mass protests, as retraumatising as it is to the survivors who knew the person killed to see the spectacle made of their death.)

I don’t really think I know enough to explain why this attitude changed. perhaps the ability to simulate it in movies has made it possible to sate peoples’ curiosity about death and the feelings it engenders without the real thing? perhaps in a world where many of us don’t live so close to the edge of it, it is harder to be blasé about it happening to someone? perhaps it is that killing publicly was usually a matter of authority, and power found more effective and subtle means to maintain its goals than Peterlooing every little political demonstration? no doubt Foucault knows. in any case, the fascination still exists. I don’t really think it’s wrong per se to like dark fiction and splattery movies, and this does actually seem to be the mainstream opinion judging by the fact that these kinds of fiction still continue to be made and draw audiences. I am still trying to work out exactly how I feel about the functions of fiction and how it relates to ‘real life’, but I am accepting again that I strongly prefer ‘dark’ fiction, and I think now I would say that it seems like a very appropriate tool to process the fact that we are all constantly being killed very abruptly and unpoetically by all sorts of small and large forces without any regard for the relationships we exist in or the ambitions we carry or any fantasy of ‘deservingness’. that’s the quiet horror of this universe. shit just happens.

i used to think a lot about suicide, now I think a lot about getting killed by something before I manage to make something of this life, and I pointedly don’t think about what I’d do if I lost one of the people I love. so... guess I read/watch and make art about people dying instead. at some point it will happen. i hope to fuck it isn’t soon.

[alittlefrenchtree]

I have a PR question. How do we know if a non-paparazzi photo is staged/arranged or not? I’m talking about random pictures someone takes of him and his supposed dates. ☺️

I don’t think you can know for sure, Nonny. That’s kind of the beauty of it 😊

If you’re interested in joining today’s class and read a little more about stuff, click below.

Disclaimer 1) I really shouldn’t be any kind of authority in terms of pr and of famous people pr but since many people here are presenting things as true statements without knowing anything about anything, it’s only fair that I tried to explain some stuff while knowing, like 5% of stuff.

Disclamer 2) I’m not really interested about talking specifically about Timmy’s situation. His dating life is either a private thing that shouldn’t be commented as a public topic or a pr thing that I don’t want to encourage it by commenting. Or both and see all of the above.

What I’m interested in, is talking about pr strategy and public images in general ways, why it’s there and how it works and that’s about it.

That being said, let’s start today’s class.

My belief when it comes to pr and related stuff is that knowing the ‘truth’ is less important than having as much knowledge as possible on the subject. It’s kind like math. If you have an equation and someone gives you the answer but you don’t know how to get to there yourself, knowing the answer doesn’t get you much. But if you have all the keys to resolve the equation, you can try to find the answer on your own. And, even if you don’t find the answer, knowledge will help you understand the logic of it. Why it’s there. What it says.

So what’s our equation today? A content of one (or more) public person/people taken from a smartphone camera of someone we don’t know.

Smartphone content isn’t inconsequential. Using ‘low’ quality camera instead of a professional one says something different. It’s supposed to bring more authenticity, closeness to the audience, spontaneity. It feels truer because you could be the one taken it, since there is a large chance you own a smartphone when you probably don’t own a professional camera. It has to be genuine if you could be the one taking it, right? You would have any interest in taking part of something fake, wouldn’t you?

It can feels logical like everybody knows that or it’s not really important but it’s something that is actually thought through by professionals when it comes to create content. There is that brand of cooking videos (you know the one you stumble on when you remember Facebook exist and that show you recipe that always look really easy to make at home and delicious (and also overly greasy and/or overly sugary) that was explaining how they could totally shot their videos in professional kitchen with high quality stuff but choose to do the complete opposite instead? Because their goal is to make their audience feel like they can make the recipe at home so they shot their videos on small kitchen with smartphones.

Creating professional content on un-professional devices is a real thing. Half of the business of influencers people is built on this. To think that the strategy has stayed only in the influencers people business would be very naive. In the famous people world, content created on smartphone is used for these bts vibes. We’re showing you what you’re not supposed to see so you feel like a part of it. This is how the famous people you love are in real life, when the camera is off. Except they’re not off, since you’re seeing it.

You’re not part of it, we’re showing you just enough for you to want it, to envy it but you’re not.

Let’s go back to the casual pic of that public person. Truth is, you could be taking the picture yourself and still don’t know what you’ve taken.

Say I’m well known top model who has signed a new contract with a clothing brand. I have pap walks to put the clothes in online articles and magazines. Of course pap pics also ends up on social media but they aren’t the type of media design for the platform. Pap walks create some distance from the audience because they often looks like real photo shootings. Part of the audience is defiant towards it. Either it’s an invasion of privacy or it’s staged. It’s not that positive.

What’s positive is me going out in my brand new clothes and cross path with people who recognize me. They wouldn’t know anything about my contract but would do all the job themselves without knowing they’re doing it. They would take a picture from afar, maybe a selfie, share it on social media with a cute context. A story. Write about that cute dress I was wearing, what my coffee order was (omg, she likes almond milk like me!), what’s the interaction was like. Was it staged? I like that dress and I really wanted to go for a walk and for that cup of coffee. And the fan was nice, everything was genuine. Yet, I still went out to be seen and the clothing brand is happy.

The problem with that scenario is that I’m not in control of anything. Maybe nobody will recognize me or care enough to take a picture or something went wrong with the fan/person I’ve seen and instead of a cute story I have someone insulting me all over the internet. Lot of time lost, some risk taken, not much result. Wouldn’t be easier to take a friend or a PA who would snap a few pictures and we’ll be home in 5 minutes, job done? Pr team get the pics and share them with the world with one of the twelve stan accounts about me they’ve been running for years. Even write a little story to go with it if they’re inspired enough. If you think it’s too much, you’re naive. Everything that can be faked or staged to save time, money or give you more control of the result, has already been faked and staged by someone. Multiple someones.

My take on this would be, the bigger you are, the more money you have to carry on your shoulders, the less you let things to chance and the more you take control of your narrative. PAs, agents, PR people,… When you have a whole team around you, you don’t (overly) pay them as secretaries. They’re not just here to handle your planning and bring you coffee or you would only need one person, not 7 of them walking around you all the time.

But what if there is no contract? What if I’m just wearing that dress because I like the brand? Or maybe there is a commercial deal with the brand but I have no obligation to wear it on my daily life or been seen with it. Wouldn’t the pics look exactly the same to an outside eye?

Of course I can go low key, move only inside cars with tinted windows, don’t walk around in popular places and only go in isolated, private places. I can. But maybe sometimes I’m tired of it. Maybe I just want to meet my non-famous friends where they like to go and fuck it if I’m seen there. Pics taken by people would look like they’re staged. Except maybe they’re not.

But if I stop caring, I indirectly accept that however I’m seen becomes part of my public image. And if it has become part of my public image, I should accept that it will be monitored to some extend by my team, and eventually by myself.

So how do we find the answer? We can’t. Based on a single photo alone, I don’t think we can. Unless you’ve seen contracts or you know the person personally, you can’t really pretend what’s going on being doors. Even so, would you know everything? Sometimes a contract is just a contract. Something a commercial deal is also a friendship. Sometimes a real friendship became public et become part of your public image. Sometimes you don’t really feel like talking about commercial deals with that cousin you’re seeing 5 times a year and doesn’t really care about what the details of your fucked-up public job are. So even your own family doesn’t know the truth about everything.

What we can do, if we’re interested in doing it, is look at every piece of content and ask ourselves. What are we seeing? How is it made? For what purpose? How that type of content is used in different contexts?

With more context, you can make interpretations for yourself. Will everybody will have the same? Of course not. Mathematicians, physicists, chemists, spent their time disagreeing on interpretations of stuff, how can we expect people to agree on the interpretation on something based of human behavior?

From what I’m seeing, PR conversations seem to be going on in many (many) fandoms. From a PR point of view, I don’t think it’s not a bad thing, whether what we’re talking about is real or fake in the first place. Having people think it’s fake and people think it’s real makes the conversation going. They’re always be people who would want to defend their point of view, their opinions, their favorite celebrities. Names will keep being mentioned, pics shared, word spread. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and algorithms are happy.

My best advices, I guess, is, first, remember that you aren't obligated to have opinions on everything or to care about every aspect of the life of an artist you love, even when media and people would like you to think you are and you should. There is even things, such as dating life of other people than yourself, you shouldn’t really have opinions about at all.

If romance, love and sex keeps getting used to sell, it’s because it works. Think about all the books, all the movies, all the stories where a love story is integrated in an action movie/horror story/sci-fi scenario even when it has nothing to do with anything. Romance/love/sex sells since forever and probably for a long time. Because most people think falling in love is the main purpose of life and the most important thing in the world.

My second advice would be, don’t be naive but don’t be cynical either. Contexts and nuances are always important.

Anyways, like always I don’t have an answer and I’m barely even interested in the answer but I hope I'm able bring some perspectives to things because it’s important. More than ever, content is a tool. Since everyone is part of an audience, if not potentially part of all audiences , we should all learn more about how the tool works.

Of course i'm joking about the concept of class. I'm not a teacher. I'm only sharing some personal knowledge and opinions. I can be wrong or contested. No hard feelings against anyone.

[sepublic]

Starkiller Base was unnecessary

           Re-watching The Force Awakens, and… It’s occurred to me that, even more than I initially thought, Starkiller Base is a genuinely useless, pointless part of the plot that’s just shoehorned in for the sake of arbitrarily raising the stakes, in a blind attempt to redo the Original Trilogy while one-upping it at the same time; Taking pot shots at the original Death Star’s ‘absurdity’ to try to make Starkiller Base’s destruction feel more ‘involved’ and ‘sensible’ with having an inside job to sabotage and blow up key components, yadda-yadda; Almost feels like the writers are punching down at the Original Trilogy in a vain attempt to look more clever and ‘self-aware’, without considering how reckless power-scaling doesn’t work (Which we see once more and somehow even worse in The Rise of Skywalker).

           The thing about why the Death Star works is like… It’s relevant. It has build-up. We’re introduced to it from the start, the entire story revolves around destroying it; R2-D2 is important because he has plans to the Death Star, Vader is seen chasing Leia because she had those plans. It all comes around to and circles back to the Death Star, we have a sense of what it is from the start, there’s build-up. You NEED the planet-killing machine for the climax of A New Hope, because the only reason to go there is because, surprise- The Death Star IS there, it just arrived right besides Yavin IV!

           But Starkiller Base… When you watch the movie, it just pops in out of nowhere, amidst the pre-established plot threads. Without any prior context or build-up, we’re just suddenly treated to a shot of this huge, mechanized planet, and then Hux almost casually drops that the ‘superweapon’ is ready, and then suddenly it’s firing and blows up the Hosnian System. The Death Star is justifiable because it’s the first of its kind, Starkiller Base is the third. In canon and Legends, there’s a lot of side-material going into the sheer enormity and horror of the Death Star, the amount of manpower it takes to construct such a thing, its formation is treated with gravitas; And yet something WAY bigger and more advanced comes out of nowhere, from a group even less powerful than the Empire?!

           Again, you need the Death Star, it’s why the rebels are being chased, it’s why Leia was captured, it’s why R2-D2 meets Luke and then Obi-Wan, bringing up the Rebel journey; It’s why Luke’s aunt and uncle die, it’s why there’s no Alderaan and instead the Death Star itself to capture the protagonists when they arrive there. But Starkiller Base is pointless- The plot is about BB-8 because he has the map to Luke Skywalker, it’s about finding Luke through BB-8. Starkiller Base is just so casually dropped for something that should be so much bigger than the Death Star in the narrative… And likewise, we don’t need it for anything.

           Is it to prove to Finn that the First Order is dangerous, that he can’t just ignore its destruction? The thing is, he already has Rey’s capture to motivate his participation. Starkiller Base could not fire, but Finn would still help the Resistance infiltrate, because Rey would still be captured. It’s not needed for Poe and the Resistance to arrive on Takodana, because they came for BB-8 after getting that message, the Hosnian Cataclysm totally unrelated. You could argue it gives the Resistance an excuse to fight back against the First Order in the film’s climax… But that does not justify creating another superweapon, much less one as implausible and redundant as Starkiller Base.

           Like, maybe the writers wanted to REALLY return to the status quo, so having the New Republic be devastated was a requirement… But was it really? Just have the New Republic continue to be ineffectual, it’s even a plot-point in side material that its military is embarrassingly small; So just say the Resistance IS the full extent of that military! You still get an underdog situation. And again, if you really want to forcibly cut off any support for the Resistance… You don’t need a giant superweapon to one-up the Death Star. Just have the First Order demonstrate its traditional military power, by having a fleet invade the New Republic’s capital, unexpected, able to waltz in because everyone is so incompetently lax about these rising fascists; And with recent real-life events, it only makes more disturbing sense.

          Instead of getting a pointless superweapon, have a bunch of Star Destroyers attack Hosnian Prime and take it over, show a montage of destruction and civilian death, etc. This still establishes the danger of the First Order and how it’s quickly decapitated the New Republic and left it in shambles, setting the stage for the underdog conflict; But you don’t have to rely on something as absurdly over-the-top as Starkiller Base, which has no build-up to its unprecedented firepower besides “Oh yeah this exists” and then watching it fire and finding out firsthand.

          The death of trillions with the Hosnian System is senseless violence both in-universe and from a narrative, writing perspective… And again, this arguably establishes the First Order as a threat better, because they don’t need to rely on a superweapon; And even after The Force Awakens ends, the audience still knows that they have access to an entire fleet… Whereas with Starkiller Base, that threat is lost by the end of the film and thus made redundant. The scene could become even more disturbing if we straight-up see some civilians on Hosnian Prime welcome the First Order, adding additional world building that helps explain why the First Order was able to develop, how it got support- And again, being topical to what happens today. It connects with canon lore about the First Order’s supporters in other worlds (such as Coruscant), and could even be a callback to liberty dying with thunderous applause in Revenge of the Sith! We could still have the people on Takodana react in horror, through the Holonet’s broadcasting of the coup.

           Of course, this is Star Wars- And what’s more iconic than thrilling space battles and trench runs? Sometimes you want sci-fi fun and stuff for the sake of it, nothing wrong with that, that’s always important too… But again, you don’t need a giant super-laser to have that. Just make up something else; Like Starkiller Base is the planet that the First Order has taken over. Perhaps they intend to launch a bunch of new Star Destroyers, or are about to finish production of a whole new batch, which would make things even worse. Instead of destroying a superweapon, you could have the Resistance crippling the factories that finish these Star Destroyers- There’s your trench run! Have them blow up a power plant that’s running the factories, instead of a thermal oscillator. There’s still a victory at the end, and while the threat is far from over, time has been bought- And it makes the First Order’s immediate retaliation in the next film more sensible, adds to the idea that every second, every bit of progress helps, you gotta take what you need… Even an extra day to prepare and evacuate is a miracle that furthers the underdog motif.

           Plus, with a batch of Star Destroyers that need to be stopped- There’s still the need to rescue Rey. The Resistance still needs to cause damage at the First Order’s base, and Finn is still needed to infiltrate and lower the shields, while taking advantage of this operation for himself and Rey. Most importantly, you don’t get a contrived superweapon that only adds to the bland, carbon-copy standard of the Sequel Trilogy; And perhaps best of all, we don’t have to see Ilum retroactively bastardized and destroyed, with Starkiller Base’s identity revealed AFTER we see it get blown up… The legacy of the Jedi and its history is not further destroyed with the loss of this sacred planet of kyber crystals.

          And that’s better, because this trilogy about passing the torch, seems as insistent as Kyle Ron, the villain, on interpreting this theme as utterly wiping out all traces of the past, and leaving nothing for the next generation to work with. Which, I’m not surprised at a corporation thoughtlessly razing and salting the earth in selfish disregard for those who will need and use it afterwards, but still. And while a star that burns brighter than most thanks to its heart of Kyber IS a neat concept that could be worked with, especially with what Chirrut Imwe says, in addition to the motifs of flames of rebirth and the Phoenix… It’s not something that justifies the further eradication of Jedi history and effort on a level that even the Empire didn’t go, just to arbitrarily raise stakes with yet another uninspired superweapon.

           Like, the Duel of the Fates script and its concept of a device that blocks off all inter-galactic communication is MUCH more interesting, clever, and innovative than the Death Star Lite, and it hits closer to home in this age of internet and mass communication; In contrast to the Death Star, which fit more in its time as a criticism of the stockpiling and development of nukes, and how that tapped into the public’s fear at the time of nuclear Armageddon. And a device blocking off intergalactic communication provides good reason for why the Resistance doesn’t have the full might of the New Republic behind them, because they can’t even communicate to collaborate, and it adds to that idea of people made to feel ‘alone’ or whatever and thus isolated, so they can’t band together and rise up. That adds to Rey feeling alone, and makes Poe and Zorii’s discussion at the end of the trilogy that much more meaningful… Not that the Sequel Trilogy was planned to consider the latter, of course.

           (Actually, I wonder if it’s possible to cut Starkiller Base’s superweapon scenes from the film. Like a cut where any references to its superweapon, and the scene where it fires, is cut out; I think the film might still work that way.)

[rae-arts777]

Makoto X Abby

@ray564 @miss-morgue-ndorffer

Abby asked him out first, Makoto thought she was joking and laughed. Abby beat him up.

Their first date was pretty awkward. They were both shy and nervous, so it was a lot of “so...how’s the food..?” “Good..” “cool..” Cythina and Laurent also stalked them and were dying of cringe.

Abby wasted no time, all his clothes became her clothes the moment he agreed to date her.

When Makoto is gone, Abby will spend the day wearing his clothes of course, and hugging the pillow he uses until he comes back.

Makoto tried to be supportive of her rock climbing adventures, but heights freak him out too much. Abby is happy he tried, they stick to hiking for outdoor activities.

They still send pictures of flipping each other off. Sometimes Makoto catches her off guard and will send a picture of half a heart asking her to finish it. Sometimes he receives another half, or just another flip off and a very flustered Abby.

Abby is very independent, so it took getting use to relying on someone else when her and Makoto got serious.

Makoto wanted them to move in together but Abby wasn’t ready, she was scared. She freaked out and disappeared for a week. When she came back, Makoto was both worried and upset. They sat down and had a very long conversation about their relationship.

Abby hates having serious talks, about their relationship and each other. Makoto does get fustrated but he always tries to understand where she’s coming from.

They did go on a break for a few months, mainly because Abby was scared and didn’t know if was ready for what Makoto wanted. In those few months they still stayed close friends. Finally Abby realized that she couldn’t run anymore. She ran back to him, and Makoto was waiting with open arms

When they first move in together, the bed was too small. Abby kicks and moves in her sleep a lot. Makoto is a blanket hogger. Sometimes they end up bickering cause Abby either kicked or punched him awake, or Makoto is stealing all the blankets.

At first Abby hated cuddling, she wasn’t use to someone holding her in such a manner. However, the way Makoto held her was nice. She’ll never say it to his face, but she loves him cuddling her. Sometimes she’s the big spoon, but she loves to be the little spoon.

Abby loves to lay on his chest and listen to his heartbeat. She loves it when he plays with her hair. She gets flustered when he starts covering her in pecks. She hates and loves how Makoto makes her feel so vulnerable.

The first time “I love you” was used was in passing. Abby said it first and completed frozen up. “I’m leaving to work” “ok love you. !!!” They both just stared at each other super red. Makoto finally was able to mustard up the courage to go “I love you too!” And darted out red. Abby screamed into her hands and was stomping super flustered.

Abby let her hair grown long a bit. She asked him if he preferred her with long hair. He told her he loves her hair no matter how length it was. So she cut it short again.

Abby does worry that Makoto wants her more feminine. Sometimes she’ll try, being more “girly”. Makoto knows went she starts acting like that, that something in wrong. He reminds her he fell in love with her the way she is, and that she doesn’t have to change herself for him.

Makoto sometimes needs Abby to remind him to not let people walk all over him. She’s always there to give him support to stand up for himself or she’ll just threaten whoever is trying to use her man.

Abby is the more jealous one. She hates watching girls flirting or throwing themselves at Makoto. She’ll cling to his side throwing a death girl at the girl, or start kissing him to get people to back off.

Abby can pick him up easily. But Makoto loves to pick her up bridal style or carry her on his back.

If Makoto isn’t giving her enough attention, Abby will jump on his back and cling to him until he gives her attention.

Makoto taught her how to cook. She loves cooking now. She always stares when he eats to make sure he likes it.

Makoto likes to come up behind her and hug her from behind. He just like to hold her. “What do you want?” “Nothing, just keep doing what you’re doing”

Abby usually doesn’t prefer being lovely dovy in public. It’s embarrassing to her. But behind close doors, she’s extremely loving.

They play fight a lot. Either wrestling or tickling. Makoto tries to catch her off guard and kiss her. Abby is smart, she’ll let him think he has the upper hand, and then pin him down laughing.

Abby walked in on him trying on one of her skirts. He freaked out and thought she was going to dump him. “Hang on I have a nice top to go with that” and she ended up doing his makeup as well.

When they go out, sometimes Abby prefers to wear a suit then a dress. Makoto loves anything she wears, everytime he sees her dressed up all he can do is go “wow”

It’s no surprise that both of them are hot heads and both have some trust issues. It does take long for fights to turn into screaming matches. One of them always ends up storming out. And one of them always ends up crying.

If Makoto stormed out he walks around the block until he’s calmed down. He will text her before he comes back if she’s ready to talk or not.

If Abby stormed out, she ends up walking around to clear her head too. Or she’ll hit some or kick to get her anger out. When she’s ready to come back, she’ll slowly come back inside and see how Makoto is doing. Depending on his facial expression, she can tell if he’s ready to talk. If he’s not when she comes back, the two will just ignore each other until Makoto is ready to talk.

Talks after fights take a long time. Sometimes they sit in silence for an hour, staring the floor, or their hands. Finally someone will speak up, and they will have their talk and then apolgize. Sometimes no words need to be spoken. They just lay in each other’s arms until they fall asleep.

Makoto sometimes comes home late. Abby will be sleeping on the couch or head on the table cause she was waiting for for him. He’ll carry her to bed and then get ready for bed himself.

When Abby comes home late, Makoto is already in bed. She’ll get ready for bed and crawl into his arms, exhausted after a long day.

Abby works in the coffee shop when she can. She’s also currently working on getting a degree at a community college.

Makoto has a drink in his shop named “desert flower”, also a nickname he callls Abby. Abby finds it super embarrassing.

Lazy days, like rainy, or super cold days, Abby will cling to him whining, begging him not to go into work and stay in. Sometimes Makoto gives in.

Abby gets cold easily, so she depends on Makoto’s body heat to warm her up. Of course during the summer that’s a problem, Makoto whining that it’s too hot to cuddle, Abby not caring and clinging to him saying she cold.

They ended up moving to a bigger apartment since the other one was becoming to small for their liking. It was big thing since they bought it together.

Makoto got her a love message box. If he’s at work and she stayed home, sometimes she’ll wait for hours for him to send her a message with it.

They both love spicy food. Sometimes they have contest to see who can handle the most spicy. 9/10 Abby wins.

They adopted a stray cat, though they also figured out Abby was allergic to cats. Luckily it was fixed with a doctor visit and prescribed medicine. Makoto gets salty since the cat likes Abby more then him. Abby 100% spoils the cat and gives it more love just to piss Makoto off.

If Makoto forgets something at home, Abby usually throws it out the window to him.

They got married at a court house. Just one day “I love you, you love me..let’s get married today” “ok”

They picked out their rings together, they’re not really fancy people so they got gold bands, but Makoto instead on getting a small sapphire gem for Abby’s ring.

Abby always joins him in traveling to go try coffee in another place. They’ll plan to stay for a week or so, go site seeing, try out some coffee, and always take a picture.

Abby got a special case for Makoto to see all his little gache statues.

Makoto is a stress cleaner. Abby knows he’s stressing when he’s starts deep cleaning.

Abby can’t have kids, they’re not even sure if they want kids. But right now, they know they’re not ready, and are just enjoying their life together.

Makoto loves to tell people Abby is his wife. He has pictures of them in his shop. He likes to just go “oh yeah! That’s my wife! She’s so lovely! I love her so much”. Abby hates coming into the shop now cause people know who she is.

Makoto doesn’t need Abby to tell him if she’s in a depressed mood, he just knows. He’ll go pick up her favorite ice cream, rent a cheesy movie or a horror film, and will make a blanket fort in the living room. He’ll just cuddle her while they watch a movie and while she silently enjoys her ice cream.

“You love me?” “I married you.” “Ok I’m just making sure”

[paragonrobits]

also as far as the question of ‘how monstrous or bad do you have to make a character before they are broadly considered irrevocably too far gone’ goes, one interesting thing I’ve seen is that audience reactions can vary hugely based on how Personal it gets, even if they are objectively worse than the other in terms of scale.

Let us compare, say, Alex Mercer from Prototype, and Endeavor from BNHA.

Mercer is, bluntly put, a shapeshifting monster like a horrific blend of the Thing (of the horror movie) and the Hulk, and a blender that hates flesh. he rips people apart and eats them, absorbing their identities and memories, and he slaughters his way through new york, killing thousands as a consequence of the immense strength and building-wrecking power he holds, as well as the attacks by a black ops group who have no grasp of collateral damage. It later transpires that he is in fact a virus given physical form, an offshoot of one zombifying new york and killing people in the worst outbreak in history; he is a mass of horrific death, with a mind made of the stolen memories of hundreds of others, killing for an ill-thought out revenge scheme drawn from the memories of the first man he accidentally killed: the real Mercer. This character himself, is literally a monster looking into the mirror and realizing that he’s wearing a stolen face.

Imagine something like they took Hulk’s rampages, and played them realistically, with bloody and mass death in collateral damage. That is Mercer.

Now, Endeavor.

he is HUGELY prone to discourse on a par with Vriska from Homestuck or the Decepticons, and its for a good reason. Endeavor is an abusive father who paid off a family to give him a woman with ice powers as a wife so he could breed a super-child to carry out his dream of besting the world’s greatest hero at the hero game, ignoring his children abusively treating the last one, making his wife so miserable she had a breakdown that wound up horribly scarring this youngest super kid. He’s, at this point, an embodiment of the negative side of making superheroics a career and celebrity life style, and unsettlingly ACTS like a real hero when on the job. Otherwise, he’s a deconstruction of what happens when a rival shoenen character just is left to fester in the hero’s shadow.

now, the character arcs.

Mercer still eats people. but as time progresses, he begins to develop a conscience; all the minds of all the countless people he has consumed become a part of him. Their love, their compassion, their fear and pain; once, he was just a monster who didn’t understand anything but the cruelty of one man selfish enough to unleash a plague out of spite, but now... he learns what it is to be human. He understands in revulsion what he’s done, the monster he truly is, and gradually shifts focus to stopping the plague he’s unintentionally set loose, and the organization Blacklight, which intends to drop a nuke on new york and kill everyone there to MAYBE stop the virus that, again, is his fault.

Endeavor GETS what he wants; the number one hero is depowered in a brutal battle revealing the immense suffering he’s gone through to BE that hero, and he takes his place. But he only gets the position by his own ranking, not his deeds, and as he tries to adjust to the new situation and the revelations, he’s forced to come to terms with the reality of what he’s done to his family and his selfishness, and encouraged by a fellow hero, he starts trying to actually BE the hero that he previously posed as for his public image.

now, here’s my point: Endeavor’s arc is still hugely contentious to many, on the grounds that he’s done too much to just move away from that now. But the interesting thing is, I’ve rarely seen anyone who feels the same way about Mercer.

Mercer, the horrible people-eating monster and literal walking abomination, who’s entire motivation is ‘KILL EVERYONE WHO I THINK WRONGED ME, AND FUCK THE COLLATERAL DAMAGE’, and gradually softens to ‘shit, what have I caused??’. I have NEVER seen genuine discourse over him, despite him objectively having a WAY bigger body count than Endeavor and being a walking apocalypse.

People seem to feel that Mercer is more genuinely redeemable than Endeavor, and that suggests some interesting thoughts on its own!

[simsroyallegacy]

TW Is In Effect!

Mentions of domestic abuse and bad language under the cut!

Britechester University, Windenburg Campus, Anthropology Department - 1 PM

Minerva: *sighs* All this work better be worth it, graduation’s so close I can almost taste it...And then I’m never grading another lazy undergrad’s half-assed paper again...

Minerva: What to do with the afternoon? I could grab some nice takeout to celebrate the weekend...or maybe see that new horror movie...

Minerva: Wait a minute, is that...?

Minerva: Nicky? Is that you?

Nicholas: Minnie...hey.

Minerva: What are you doing here? I thought you were going to fly out to Buenos Mares with your girlfriend?

Nicholas: Oh, yeah, s-something happened and I had to cancel...

Minerva: Okay? Did you need something though? Usually you’d call if you wanted to hang out.

Nicholas: Just needed to see a friendly face I guess.

Minerva:...

Nicholas:...I shouldn’t have come. I’m sorry Minnie-

Minerva: Hey, I’m always glad to see you Nicky, but you’re acting a little strange. Is this “something” you mentioned a fight between you and Isadora?

Nicholas: No...maybe...

Minerva: *raises a brow*

Nicholas: Yeah...

Minerva: Want to talk about it then?

Nicholas: I think so, but can we-can we go somewhere more private?

Minerva: Sure, I know a place...

Bill’s Pub, Britechester University Campus - 1:43 PM

Minerva: Oh my Watcher; Nicky what the hell happened to your face?!

Nicholas: Nothing too crazy, just a little fight.

Minerva: *laughing* And who would dare to touch your pretty face? Isn’t that a punishable offence to attack the Crown Prince?

Nicholas: *laughs awkwardly* You think I’m pretty?

Minerva: *coughing* W-well I guess...seriously though, you look like you’ve taken a beating.

Nicholas: It’s part of the reason why I needed a friend I guess; this has been happening a lot recently.

Minerva: You can always come to me for comfort Nicky, but if people are attacking you, shouldn’t you be reporting it? And how has this escaped your security team’s notice?

Nicholas: You can’t tell anyone Minnie, if this gets out I don’t know what I’d do...

Minerva: Out with it Nicky, you’re starting to scare me. I promise what you say will stay between us.

Minerva: *internally* I’m no stranger to looking worse for wear...if he’s about to tell me what I think he is I’m going to lose it on someone...

Nicholas: It’s–I’m sorry Minnie, I don’t want to burden you with this but you told me about Arson so I thought you’d–you’d understand–

Minerva: Breathe, Nicky, and take your time.

Nicholas: It’s Isa, she, well, she’s been getting violent and I don’t know what to do!

Minerva: What?!

Nicholas: We’ve been fighting all the time, I’ve been so tired with it! And she’s only ever hit me a couple of times now and it’s because she felt threatened by me but I’d never hurt her Minnie, you’ve got to believe me–

Minerva: Nicky–

Nicholas: –and I swear I’ve never hit her back or anything! And she always stops and calms down after getting a punch in so I’ve let it slide but I just can’t f*cking take it anymore–

Minerva: Nick–

Nicholas: –I mean, I love her and I know she loves me but her possessiveness has been so out of control for a while now; I can’t even talk to my friends without her around and even when I’m talking to my sister she loses it and she’s been threatening other people, making me look bad and it’s starting to affect my image with the public and my dad has been on me about it but it seems like he doesn’t even care–

Minerva: Nicholas–

Nicholas: –I know you probably don’t want or need to hear my problems but I honest to Watcher thought you’d understand but it’s okay if you don’t ever want to see or even speak to me again–

Minerva: NICHOLAS!

Nicholas: I’m sorry Minnie, I’m sorry, I should be stronger than this...strong enough to stop her; she’s just a tiny little thing!

Minerva: Nicky, no, no, no! You don’t have to be sorry about anything. She’s the one who is wrong in this situation! You should never, ever, hit your significant other; not if you truly love them. 

Nicholas: I know I’m the man and I should be able to stop this from happening but I-I can’t just hit her back; it would be so wrong and I love her so much–

Minerva: Shhh–come here Nicky. You’ve been the bigger person in this situation and that shows just what a good man you are but you have to defend yourself now, do you hear me?

Nicholas: I could never hit her back Minnie, not even in self defence...

Minerva: Then we have to do something about this; we have to tell your family. They can help you if you just let them.

Nicholas: I–I don’t know...

Minerva: Trust me. I could never have gotten through the things I did without my mom by my side. You have to let at least your father know; he’ll be able to do more about her than I ever could.

Nicholas: I doubt he’d even care.

Minerva: From what I’ve seen? I guarantee you he’d care. Do you know how much he loves you? He talks my damn ears off about you whenever I meet with him! Even when we should be discussing matters of diplomacy!

Nicholas: *laughs* Seriously?

Minerva: *smiles* Seriously. Just like any embarrassing father.

Nicholas: I don’t know if I can share this with him yet, but I’ll–I’ll try!

Minerva: You won’t regret it. I know you’ll get the support you need, but if you need me, I’ll be there for you.

Nicholas: I couldn’t thank you enough Minnie...

Minerva: You don’t have to, this is what friends are for. And next time Isadora wants to throw hands let me know. I certainly have no problem kicking her ass!

Nicholas: *laughing* I would never ask that of you, but I appreciate the offer!

Minerva: Now, let’s get out of here; I want to go see the new Sims of the Dead showing! My treat?

Nicholas: *sighs* A B horror movie again? Seriously?

Minerva: Just for that, it’s going to be your treat now, Your Highness.

*shutter clicks*

[nahoyaglock]

Frobi selfship headcannons

!!sfw!!

shigabi, tenfro, fronaka, frobishima, inuobi, frokuto, aobi, frotani, fromi, ushibi, frobinoya, katsubi hcs

a/n: sorry for these long ass headcanons, i hope yall enjoy them tho?? also sorry for the reoccurring mention of my terrible paranoia </3 im going through a hard time w it rn, pls excuse me

reblogs on selfship posts are super appreciated!

shigabi

video games

i am his baby! he has a soft spot for me :3

lets me sit in his lap while he plays video games

hc that shigaraki is a twitch streamer instead of a villain and he streams with me on his lap

messy hair, black headset, pajama pants and a black hoodie vs pink tank top, white skirt, pink bows and a fuzzy blanket

we own cats named wario and waluigi >:3

we play ow and animal crossing together

he plays shooters and horror games while i play otome games and rhythm games

watching happy feet and cuddling, lets me lay between his legs as he plays with my hair

calls me brat and baby

cooks me seafood

some days i want him to baby me, other days we go run around at 4am

teases me bc of my height, leanes down to give me kisses

randomly tugs on my hair and pretends he didnt do it throught the day

i kick his ugly ass ankles /j

tenfro

baking, cuddling, horror movies and videos games 24/7

both bullied so we confine in each other and comfrt the other well

hes very caring so he always checks in, even when i seem fine

notices my mood changes

"do you need a hug?" and just hugs me bc he knows i do

he likes to rest his head on my chest when he rants to me

booping noses and interlocked hands ♡

ushijima gives us rides everywhere

their manager, so i have to make sure tendou does well

the other team members are happy im dating tendou, especially ushijima

sitting with tendou on the bus to their matches

kisses and hugs after every match and practice match

lets me wear his jersey bc he hates when other guys look at me

one time terushima tried to flirt w me and he made ushi scare him away

fronaka

hand on ass always.

tries to fight any guy that even comes near me

me, ryu and noya, the trio !

walks me to class with his arm around my waist

basically bestfriends to lovers so we spemd all our time together like we did before we were dating

still a slight kiyoko simp but lmao so am i, we admire her beauty together

brags to the team about me, telling them random things about me

"frobis favorite food are clams!" crosses gis arms proudly

"ryuu, you dumbass" insert me slapping the back of his bald head

saeko teasing him and telling him to treat me well

says "hey bae" and probably uses the devil emoji ajxjzjx

plays with my hair, he loves my curls :D

we prolly have a dog, small dog bc ooi dogs scary,, D:

frobishima

always has an arm around me

denki bestie af !

also one that i can relate to so we can share our experiences and comfort each other

top kin so we get along very well and have alot of the same interests

movie nights w/ the bakusquad

cuddling kiri the whole time and making the rest of them feel single

he likes to pinch my shoulder to get my attention

big smiles and playful biting :D

he probably has alot of my clothes left at his house bc i like wearing his shirts

insert kiri cooking while i back hug him <3

likes to princess carry me, and carries me when im sleepy

thigh kisses bc he loves them alot <3

best an comforting, sings me to sleepy and helps me when i have really bad paranoia </3

true loml

inuobi

walk to school together everyday

sometimes we race

brings me a breakfast bar, sometimes his mom makes me a morning snack too

little pecks and hand holding

we're like two energetic puppies in a relationship

i always attend his games and cheer for him and the boys

insert kuroo, tora, kenma, and kai acting like my dads

me and inu doing puppy eyes for little spoon, he usually gives in and takes big spoon

lots compliments and blushing

"inu, y-you look cute today"

"frobi, you look s-stunning"

comfort buddies!

convinces the coach to let me ride on the bus with them to tournaments

sleppys babies on the back of the bus

members have pictures of us sleeping

sharing a blanket that kai gave to us bc the bus was cold and sharing a scarf that inuoka bought me for winter

frokuto

if hes sad, im sad :( if im sad, hes sad :(((

my energy beam, my number one, my ace ���

he loves to hold my small hands in his big ones, rubbing the back of my hand with his thumb

he'd walk around at tournaments, big star bo with his tiny cute girlfriend

saru, komi, and konoha give me headpats

bo pouts because they didnt guve him head pats

many pats for the ace!! :D

during lunch i hang w him and akaashi, akaashi having to deal w me and bos shenanigans

lowkey, we probably bring him stress

me and bo go on night time adventures, he drives us <3

brings home ramen after a long day of practice

when hes sad he cries into my chest and i play with his hair

"its okay bo, your still my ace" kisses and more kisses and more kisses

he loves to hold my thumbs and kiss my wrists

always looks for me when he has a match, sees me cheering the loudest for him <3

hes my baby, he'll smiles at me and ill cry

aobi

listener

he lets me talk about my interests and day, i let him talk about his

loves to be supportive, my shoulder to lean on

we take public transportation after school to get to our house

he lets me lean against him and sleep, tired from a long day, he'll wrap his large arm around me

he opened up after a while and smiles more, sometimes he'll lightly giggle, one time i made him laugh for 5 whole mins

hes so golden in my eyes, lake dates, he likes to just walk with me

treats me to food whenever we go out

i help him be more open and push him to be himself, but i respect his boundaries !!!

if he feels uncomfortable he'll poke my back gently

i take him away from the uncomfortable situation and ask what was wrong so that it doesnt happen again

people ask why im dating him bc hes "scary"

my response is a punch to the face

jkjk, its none of their business why, but its bc hes very sweet and kind hearted, who couldn't love an angel like my nobu? :]

frotani

complicated hc?? i have like two ways it could go, my top is def still me being a shiratorizawa girl bc lmao canon !!

met him through levy, (@bigger-simp-than-kazuichi) aoba johsais manager

she introduced me to her besyies, kyo and yahaba

"hey, you're the one they call mad dog?" he hates that now but responds with "yes, im mad dog."

levy invites me to alot of their events if im not busy, lowkey oikawa is salty bc im shiratorizawas manager

kyotani stays at my side, we talk about our days and his live for volleyball

we exchange numbers and he messages me at night, we have hour long conversations till one of us falls asleep

late night calls, he just grumbles and scoffs at anything i say and he just waits for me to sleep before hanging up

confesses to me at a match infront of my team, i just kissed him in response

he visits me whenever he can, and brings me food and gifts

imagine aoba johsai vs shiratorizawa, rip kyo lmao ushi get his ass /j

kyotani likes to hold mt hands and wrap my in his jacket and scarf

barks at anyone who bothers me, loves when i sit on his lap btw

fromi

komi will pick me up over his shoulder and drag me to the room when he wants cuddles

loves horror movies, horror movie marathons any time of the year

he likes and kiss my jaw and hold my thumbs

calls me short when he's not that much taller than me

we curse at each other every 5 minutes

insert sarukui climbing through our windows atleast once a month to have a movie marathon with us

komi likes to slap my head

we probably play fight all the time, definently turns into something more intense

akaashi and konoha break us up and me and komi will be confused

"whats wrong? We were just playing"

"yall were strangling each other"

"we're fineee~"

chaotic, we always look like were fighting or arguing

"fuck you, i hate you" "fuck you too bitch"

holds hands and deep kisses the next second

akaashi lowkey hates dealing with us, bokuto loves us skxj

ushibi

shira and hayato convinced me to join at their manager

the original shiratorizawa manager, ceo of the company 😎

they introduced me to the team, and they took a liking to me

ushijima was by my side alot, helped me with my job and carrying thing especially

he was so kind and even spoke to me, asked if i ate, if i slept well, if i needed anything

didn't realize it was different from what he normally was like until tendou asked about it

one time ushi was walking me home and i asked him about it, but he was definently confused

"i, guess so. your attractive and have a good personality. i would date you."

hes so blunt, awkwardly blunt

so we,, started dating, and now he really never leaves my side

i got haterz bc im THE ushiwakas bby girl 🙈

gives me headpats and kisses before everymatch

lets me wear his team jacket, huge on my small figure

he enjoys our height difference, he thinks i look cute when i look up at him :3

teaches me how to play volleyball, even smiles when i land a good serve

patches me up whenever i get hurt, slight frown if i ever fall

hes,, kinda fatherly? a person w no dad calling someone fatherly sjcjxj lmao 🙈🙈

nurturing and caring, ushi i will kiss you, probably calls me by my full name, fro, manager, baby, and sometimes even brat

frobinoya

hes woke, i just know it

all the characters prolly woke but hes woke asf!!

we run around, literally our whole relationship is mainly just running around and being wild

arcade hangouts after school/practice

he loves arcade games so much, and so do i

we take off guard pictures of each other, also chaotic and blurry pictures

he'll kick me in the butt, que me chasing him till i run out of breath

he likes to support my interests, loves to watch me practice dancing

we wear cat ears and maid outfits and take pictures in his room at like 5am when the sun rises

videos of us kissing and cuddling in his gallery

posts on insta to make ryuu jealous

buys me cute skirts bc he knows i love to look pretty for him !!

im his pretty kitty ♡♡

likes to call me his girly~ and his serotonin

holds my hand whenever im feeling sad and strokes my cheek with his thumb

lowkey has a good voice, sings heather to me while he nuzzles his nose into my jaw

katsubi

random kisses throughout the day

pinky holding bc he likes my small hands

leans over me when he wants a kiss

gets teased by the squad and just endures it bc he likes the way i giggle when they do

head pats ! lots :3

likes to show off infront of class 1-b by holding me close and kissing me

brings me lunches he cooked and likes to feed me

always finds an excuse to be on my team for training or being my training buddy

barks at anyone who tries to train with me /j

walking me to school and home, even brings me over

mitsuki loves it whenever i come over and makes cookies when i do

katsuki helps her make the cookies D: so precious

never kisses infront of his parents bc he doesnt want to deal with their teasing and nagging

sings ballads, will sing me to sleep, probably listens to rap and rnb, some rock, but will sing me some khalid since he knows i love him

probably sung me "can i be him" one night when my paranoia got bad <//3

i laid on his chest and he ran his fingertips up and down my back, singing softly to me until i fell asleep

forehead kiss before he drifted to sleep as well, katsuuuu :( <3

@kekozume @nekosvno

[ajokeformur-ray]

So... how about a empathetic reader who works in the same hospital that Arthur is at the end of the movie? Like, she is the lastest one who takes care of him, or something like that. Pretty please? And, can it have like kisses and fluff stuff? I'M WEAR FOR ARTHUR FLECK.

Swearing, complete inaccuracies with the legal system (creative license is my excuse and I’m sticking to it but if the lack of policies in this Arkham piece will bother you (like undoing his handcuffs because they’re hurting him, bringing food in for him, kissing him etc, I’d advise skipping it sksksks), Arthur smokes, SPOILERS and I think that’s it. I’m not sure if this is relevant but just in case - the reader has a flexible morality and some parts of the narrative are questionable. This is intentional. Also - the staff and hospital is described as being a total shit show because it’s what works for this piece sksksks I took a lot of liberties with this one lmao.

Also, as always, I teared up at this GIF. He’s so beautiful and so hurt and most of the film could have been avoided if someone had just hugged him ohhh :(((

Word count: 2, 638.

“Oh, here, Arthur,” You leaned across the cold metal table with your lighter, cupping a hand in the air underneath the tobacco end of the cigarette, which was already dangling from Arthur’s thin lips, “Let me get that for you.” You lit it easily, your hands steadier than you had thought that they would be. Immediately did Arthur’s lips purse as he took a long deep drag of the cigarette; his hypnotic green eyes closing in relief at that first hit of nicotine. 

It was close to three in the afternoon and you were the only staff member in the whole of Arkham State Hospital who was nice to Arthur. Everyone else treated him the way that he was used to - like he was a freak, a disease, someone to be watched and not extended a single modicum of kindness. But you… you had been warned away from ‘that one’. All you had seen upon first meeting Arthur was a man broken down by the world, a man who had said fuck the world and given into his impulses, his truest self, when he could no longer stand how the world had treated him and if you were being honest with yourself, you couldn’t deny that his motives behind the murder of public figure Murray Franklin made sense to you. He had been publicly humiliated and scorned and in a fit of rage had he finally expressed all that had been against him from the very start. You had read his case file extensively after being told to avoid him by almost everyone - staff members and patients alike (the more coherent ones, at least) - and you had come to one decision after a few weeks of fighting against yourself:

You were going to be kind to Arthur Fleck.

You hadn’t told anyone about your decision. It wasn’t because you were afraid of what people would think of you, but it was because you didn’t care about their opinions. None of them had bothered to try to understand him, whereas you were going to be kind to Arthur because he intrigued you; you were a naturally empathetic person and you had a soft spot for the slightly damaged and the broken. You couldn’t watch a film if animals were harmed in it; even obviously animated animals getting hurt made you cry in horror and disgust. You couldn’t handle the sight of pain in others and to see so much of it in one case file and to then be presented with the man himself walking hunched into his own body; his shoulders curved inwards, his head down, his feet shuffling instead of his taking proper steps was just too much for you to take. You had cried over a good eighty percent of his case file, your heart breaking for this one man. Never had you felt such a strong undeniable urge to protect someone before. You lamented the fact that you hadn’t met him before this day; surely if you had, this whole thing could have been avoided. It was like Arthur was apologising for his own existence in the way that he tried to occupy as little physical space as possible. To see the evidence of Arthur’s life in one manilla file and to then meet the man himself had been all the information you had needed to decide that people were wrong about him. He had done bad things, this was true, and you took great care to remind yourself of the fact that this man had brutally murdered people, but you couldn’t find it within yourself to ostracise him for it. What he had done wasn’t excusable and you couldn’t condone his actions even to yourself, but his descent was explainable.

So sure of your decision had you chucked yourself down the rabbit hole head first without even considering the implications on your continued employment at Arkham State Hospital if anyone came to learn of your affections for Arthur. You took on sole responsibility of his case, you bought him quality cigarettes with your own money, you bought him in food that you had made yourself… You told no one of these things, of the little ways in which you tried your best to take care of him despite all he had done to wind up here. Once that white door had closed upon you and Arthur for his daily therapy sessions were you granted privacy with each other. You recorded your conversations but the two of you had learned to read each other relatively quickly and as such, those moments where the verbal conversation lulled to a temporary halt were moments in which you had a discussion with your eyes, your hand reaching across the table to touch the back of his. You were careful to unlock Arthur’s handcuffs much of the time so that the chains didn’t clink against the cold metal table; though the metal bracelets were still secured around his wrists, you separated him from the chain so he had some freedom of movement in these sessions. Having spent much of his childhood being chained to radiators and the like, you were sure that his trauma would be triggered by being restrained to a table. You helped Arthur in any way you could and before you knew it, months had gone by and you were well and truly caught in the spider’s web.

Arthur pulled the cigarette away from his mouth and tilted his head up towards the ceiling to exhale; the wispy tendrils of smoke curling gently before they dissipated in the cool air of the impersonal, stark room. “Thank you.” The words were quietly spoken and your trained ears picked up on a soft note of gratitude as he allowed some emotions to creep into his voice. You smiled by way of saying ‘you’re welcome’ and distracted yourself while you willed yourself not to blush by opening the daily used case file which was thicker now with therapy sessions shoved in the back. The notes were all loose leaf and you despaired at the lack of care being shown towards Arthur. What was the point of keeping him here if no one was going to take their government appointed responsibility seriously? The head of Arkham may as well have let Arthur out for all the good the establishment was doing for him. 

“Have you eaten lunch?”

“No,” A sigh. His lack of elaboration in answer to your raised eyebrow had told you everything that you needed to know - he had either not been hungry at the time or he had been denied a meal. You cared little for what the reason was so long as he could eat now. Arthur took another drag on his cigarette, a quicker one this time, and he turned his head upwards once more to exhale; he was considerate of your distaste for his smoking and showed his gratitude in your supplying him with cigarettes despite your personal views on the habit by showing you great courtesy when he did smoke in front of you. You couldn’t have denied him this one vice if you had tried - goodness knew how mad you would go if you couldn’t have your own fix every day. 

You reached under the table with one hand, keeping your eyes on Arthur’s as you fumbled in your bag and pulled out a Tupperware box. The box was see through and you saw a light come into Arthur’s eyes which had nothing to do with the harsh overheads which could have used a gentler light bulb; for all the patients here which struggled with over stimulation and light sensitivity, staff showed little concern. Gotham was a total shit show and you hated everything about the suffocating place. It seemed that, even though Arkham State Hospital was on the outskirts of Gotham, it was still susceptible to the same toxins which circulated throughout the city. You set the box down, pushing it towards Arthur, and moved to separate his handcuffs from the chain. Your gaze, which was still holding his, very clearly said, you know the rules and he nodded once slowly, a smirk on his face, to show his understanding. 

You were the only staff member Arthur would ‘behave’ for and often were you called in at odd hours off the clock to ‘sort the fucking clown out’. You didn’t mind, not really. You had gained some strange reputation in Arkham and even the meaner patients, the ones who were especially volatile and unpredictable, left you alone. It hadn’t taken you long to figure out that Arthur had given you some kind of honourary protection in your taking on his case, though you suspected that it was more the way you treated him which had granted you this unofficial protection, and less to do with the fact that you had his case file.

Arthur peered into the box and looked sharply back up at you. “How did you know that this was my favourite food?”

You smiled and shrugged. “I pay attention. Eat. You must be starving.” You pushed plastic cutlery his way - you couldn’t get proper utensils past security no matter what you said to them - and leaned back in your chair, glancing over the therapy notes from yesterday with curiosity. You used the notes to hide the way your eyes were fixed on Arthur’s face. You were far too invested in him for your own good and though you knew it couldn’t end well, you were determined to see it through to the very end, come what may.

At the first hesitant bite did Arthur’s eyes flutter closed as he chewed and you smiled. “Good?”

“So good,” He took a second, bigger bite and your smile widened as affection bloomed in your chest.

Silence fell once more as Arthur ate, punctuating his bites with drags on his cigarette, which was almost down to the filter now. He coughed lightly at one point and though he hadn’t said anything, you hadn’t needed him to as you reached into your bag, unscrewed the cap top and put the plastic bottle of water in front of Arthur. 

Half of his food was left in the tub as he looked at the water. There was something in his eyes which you were having trouble reading.

“What is it, lo - Arthur?” You had almost slipped up, called him love and the way Arthur smirked up at you briefly before he looked back to the water told you that he had noticed your near mistake. There was no denying it if he ever decided to call you out on what you had just almost said. You knew even without really thinking about it that you wouldn’t deny anything he accused you of in this vein; all of it was true. All of it.

“You’re always so kind to me,” He frowned down at the table, nimble fingers plucking at the chain you had released him from so that he could eat without having to sit uncomfortably. 

“Well, yeah, it’s my job. I took an oath to care for - “

Staring off into space, his cigarette burnt out now, the end smouldering but still lightly held between his nicotine stained fingers, did Arthur shake his head. “No,” He interrupted you, “This is more than an oath of care.” He turned his head to meet your eyes full on and with a cocky smirk tugging at the edges of his mouth did he say, “You better be careful.”

Anger rose quickly and you almost said something but then you caught another hint of some emotion flash through his eyes, like a trick of the light did he school his facial expressions so fast. You saw a desperate pleading, you saw… you saw need. Arthur wasn’t warning or threatening you, he was asking you to be careful. If you both got caught, if you got found out on supplying a patient with food made outside the premises or buying and lighting him cigarettes - which were allowed within the hospital but only a specific brand not available to the public domain - if you got caught letting him out of the chains just so he could move a little freer, if you got caught having personal conversations with him, it’d all be over. You’d be taken off the case, more than likely dismissed or fired or transferred elsewhere, and you would never see Arthur again. He would lose the only good in his life - a secret though it was, it was his good. 

In short, Arthur watched as you saw through his mask, through his cryptic statements, You saw him and he felt an unfamiliar heat blooming in his chest. So closely was he staring at you that he saw the precise moment of understanding dawn on your face and he smirked with pride. He could always count on you to understand.

In the end, you didn’t answer him verbally. You held a cigarette out to him, the filter facing him, and you held his green oceans as he parted his lips and allowed you to place the filter between them. You lit the cigarette with a slight shake to your hand and Arthur moved somewhat awkwardly to rest his hand over yours, the lighter firm in your grip.

“Thank you.” He wasn’t just thanking you for the cigarettes and you both knew it.

“You’re welcome.” You smiled and Arthur felt an urge to kiss you. He followed it and used his grip on you to pull you down to his eye level. You gasped, shocked by the sudden movement; your heart began to pound but you weren’t afraid. “Arthur, what - “

“Shshsh, I’m not going to hurt you.” He smirked, the expression at complete odds with how softly he had reassured you in that same moment, and took the cigarette from his mouth, tilting his head and upper body backwards using the back of the metal chair to exhale, keeping the toxins as far from you as he could given how closely you were now. You were leaning over the table, your belt buckle pressed against your stomach, your face close to Arthur’s. “I’m going to kiss you. Is that okay?”

The look in his eyes told you that he was serious about kissing you but if you didn’t want to, he wouldn’t make you. He would just never ask you for anything like this again. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity for him; never again would anybody see him and care for him the way that you did.

“Okay.” A breathy exhale and Arthur smiled. It was a real, genuine smile and you felt your own lips quirking upwards in reply. You met in the middle, neither of you consciously moving, and your lips barely grazed each other’s. He kissed you so slowly, so slowly, that it made your heart bleed for him. He had a big heart, this you had come to know, and as you pulled away from him with the desperate need for oxygen did you meet his eyes again. His eyes roamed about your face as if he was desperately trying to memorise your face in this moment and that look in your eyes. “How about we get you out of here, hm?”

A look of confusion, a startled laugh, and Arthur nodded his head in agreement. Yes. It was high time that the Crown Prince of Gotham got back to work. The city needed him, after all, and he needed you. It would take weeks of careful planning, an elaborate distraction and a getaway car with a willing driver to get him out of Arkham, but he was a Joker and you were the ace up his sleeve.

The Arthur Fleck/Joker Defense Squad @writings-of-a-gen-z      @x-avantgarde-x       @insomniabird      @mavalenovaninagavi     @itwasrealenough     @morrisonmercurymalek     @rand0ms-fand0ms     @rafaelina-casillas     @aclownthing      @rebs-doom      @vivft       @help-i-am-obssessed      @autumnaffection       @taintednihilist   @vladtoly   @mg-woolf99      @misstgrey92  @that-s-life   @dopey-girl-blogs  @seeking-dreamland      @sweetheart-syndrome      @heartxfdesire  @xmusichealsthesoulx       @0callmejude0      @the-one-that-likes-riddles        @hannibalsslut       @folliaght  @freeeshavacadoo         @bingewatchingmylifegoby       @unlovedbyeveryoneandeverything  @okamiredfoxx       @sp0okysp0oky  @the-pandorabox      @mardema  @jibanyyan  @honeyflvredcoughdrop  @emissarydecksetter  @jokerfleckk  @epidendroideae  @chuuntas  @stillmabel  @pumpkinpeyes  @onehystericalqueenposts  @the-jokers-wolf  @nalsswa  @justahyena  @arianatheangelworld  @soullessblondbitch  @gothamslittlejester  @twentyonestarrynights  @sirianfromsixties  @kissmeclownman  @joker-is-my-hero  @lazyloosah  @lovesickkloxx  @ladylovelyluna  @live-love-loki  @clownerybbxx   @tragicarthur    @anmach123     @rommie-chan      @arthurflock     @lucyboytom      @anti-peach     @ immortal-bi-bitch    @hearthurfleck      @crazieroutthere      @curlystark     @hailmary-yramliah    @sagyunaro     @playinthedarktillitsgoldenagain     @jokeringcutio      @xenthefox   @mijachula @stcrrynightsinneverlcnd      @cheyennejonas22    @mrjfleck      @pauli1100     @smitten-susie    @actualkey     @callmejokerfleck   @jaylovesbats    @itsforyoubitch      @ridiculousnerd     @killerprotector3579       @soulsdontbreaktheybeeend     @fantasticwinnerclodexpert       @arthurs-sweater      @pinkie44pie    @tsukiakarinobara      @prettyxlittlexpsychoxprincess     @darkvampiplier     @yours-mia    @rustyt33th     @parkdonghoons      @lady-carnivals-stuff