#they wrote the wrong movie in the caption

[invisibleicewands]

(x)

[void-wolfie]

We Had Matching Wounds. Mine's Still Black and Bruised.

summary: Jenna's still grieving after you walk out on her, but you've already moved on.

pairing: Jenna Ortega x gn!Reader

tw: angst, maybe depression(?)... not exactly sure, let me know if I need to add something

words: 960

a/n: thanks to the anon who suggested The Exit by Conan Gray... wrote this pretty late at night so it might be trash who knows lol

Jenna's apartment was a mess; clothes splayed across every surface, dirty dishes stacked a mile high, and a pile of laundry that hadn't been done in weeks. All in all, it was safe to say she wasn't ok, not by a long shot.

She had barricaded herself in her room long ago. Refusing to move unless it was absolutely necessary, which wasn't often. She'd drowned herself in one of your oversized hoodies and a nest of blankets. If she wasn't asleep or crying, she was staring blankly at the ceiling or mindlessly scrolling through her phone.

A notification popped up across her phone. She stared at the headline, thinking about clicking on it. The dull numbness that’d consumed her days gave way to heartache the longer she stared.

Y/N and pop singer Olivia Rodrigo officially confirm their relationship!

She was finally at a place where she wasn't gnawed away by guilt and heartache every second of the day, a sort of depressive numbness settling in. But she knew seeing you with a new girlfriend would crush her, making the reality of your breakup all too real, all the more final. But at the same time, curiosity was eating away at her. The hope that maybe it was clickbait or fake news was naively tugging at the back of her mind.

Against her better judgment, she clicked on the article.

Everyone says a picture is worth a thousand words. A thousand words wouldn't begin to cover the extent of pain Jenna was feeling.

There at the front of the article was a screenshot from your Instagram. A post of you and Olivia kissing, with the caption; Happy three months, love <;3.

She felt sick to her stomach. She probably would've puked on the spot had she actually eaten anything in the past two days.

Three months. Those words shattered her already fragile heart.

Three months... The two of you broke up only four months ago.

She could still remember the night it all went wrong, like a broken record stuck on repeat.

"y/n?" She called out, setting her stuff down on the kitchen table.

It was a miserable day, it'd been raining all day and thunder could be heard in the distance. The run from her car to the front door left her soaked from the cold rain.

"y/n?" She called out again, only to get no response.

She padded into your shared bedroom, her hair leaving tiny water drops across the tile floor as she shivered in her wet clothes.

She stopped in her tracks. There was a suitcase on the bed full of your stuff, and you were packing more in.

"What's going on?"

"I'm leaving." You didn't spare her a glance, you knew if you did you'd only be inclined to stay. Those big brown eyes of hers would always be your weakness.

"Leaving?" You weren't leaving her, were you? Sure your relationship had been on the rocks as of late, countless arguments and nights spent yelling. But had it really gotten this bad?

"I can't do this anymore, Jenna."

"Do what?"

"This. Us." You closed the suitcase, zipping it up, still refusing to look at her, "The arguing, the late nights coming home, always feeling like your second choice. I just can't do it anymore."

You finally looked at her, seeing tears streaming down her freckled face. It broke your heart, but you had to protect yourself. Even if that meant breaking her.

"Do you even know what it feels like Jenna? To feel like your second choice? You come home late every other night, you're gone for months at a time, and you lie about who you're with and where you go. Do you even remember the last time you said ‘I love you’?"

"I..." She wanted to refute everything you'd said, but she couldn't. She couldn't remember the last time you had a movie night together or even ate dinner at the same table. She couldn't remember the last time she said those three words.

You had tears of your own streaming down your face, "3 months ago. You haven’t said it in three months."

Jenna was in a stupor. Her whole world was crumbling before her, and she was lost on how to fix it.

How had you moved on so quickly? It felt like only yesterday she was so deep in love, falling into a black hole of bliss with only you on her mind. She thought you felt the same, and maybe you did. But you'd already replaced her. With one of her friends, no less.

Jenna skipped reading the article. She didn't want some reporter's half-assed observations and opinions on your dating life. They didn't know you, and she could care less about their opinion.

She clicked over to Instagram, despite her shaking hands and teary eyes, and tortured herself with your latest post.

You looked happy. There were all kinds of pictures of you and Olivia together. Pictures of you two dancing in the rain, swimming at the lake, even one at that club she never had the time to take you to. Not to mention the abundance of candid photos fans had tagged the two of you in. Pictures of the two of you kissing, the two of you visiting that little ice cream shop by the beach, some at that little cafe by your house that had your favorite coffee.

To say it was agony was an understatement. There weren't words for her pain. She could never effectively describe the heartache that left her crying for hours on end, breathless and shaky from the exertion.

It hurt knowing she carved out her own heart for you and in the end, her downfall was her own doing.

You already found someone to miss, while I'm still standin' at the exit.

[thehollowwriter]

Omg you guys in Afrikaans we've been watching this Afrikaans movie the past few days and it such a willd ride it's so ridiculously Afrikaans I just can't-

But before i get to the other stuff, I must say whoever wrote the dialogue definitely had someone they hated because the main character faints from stress and then there's a conversation with her love interest that, I'm going off memory here, goes like this

"Don't worry, the vet said it's all fine."

"The vet?"

"Yeah, Dr (something) is great at his job, he knows how to treat cows well."

YHWWHR3TH?!?!?

Like the main character is 30 (technically 29) and single and everyone is acting like she's done something horrible wrong (I believe one character even said "if I were 30 and still single I wouldn't be able to live with myself" and just being shocked that she's a woman who can't cook or bake and I just- there's even a line like "of course I don't know how to change a tire, I'm a girl!" (When I say this movie is very Afrikaaans, I mean ultra traditional Afrikaans almost conservative-y)

There's also the banger bit of info that mc's brother is gay and her mom, while complaining about having no grandchildren bc of her gay son and single daughter, says (more or less):

"Of course your brother showed his true colours, a whole flippin rainbow"

The main plot is that she inherited a bakery from her late aunt and now she has to keep it afloat after quitting her original job despite not having any idea of how to bake AND she has to get a boyfriend before she turns 30 lmaaaao. Her aunt friend teaches her how to bake and also helps her with the other thing by putting an ad in the town newspaper whrhqrwtjqhr it's literally main character's picture with "Vrou Soek Boer" as a caption (which is also the title of the movie)

Idk it's just quite funny and ridiculous I love and don't love it at the same time, I hope we get to finish it lmao

[artg210-karenf]

Summary #6:

In the article “I wrote the book on user-friendly design. What I see today horrifies me” by Don Norman he talks about how there is a disconnection between designs and people's ability to use these designs. As most of the Western world’s population is aging, you would think that accessibility, especially vision accessibility, would become more commonplace and promoted. However, Norman’s opinion states that the opposite is happening. Everyday items are more difficult to use, think about cans where it is sealed so tightly that you cannot open them, or packaging that requires a knife to open. These designs are not accessible to people with any form of disability or mobility impairment. When items are designed for elders or disabled people, they often are bland, and unstylish and highlight that they are unable to do something. Norman mentions how canes used to be stylish and even fashionable to the point where able-bodied people would use them as an accessory. Thinking back, when was the last time you saw someone use a stylish cane? Most canes or mobility aids look like they came straight out of a hospitable, in an ugly white or grey plastic. This makes people not want to use mobility aids even if they need them and only increases the stigma of using a medical device. As mentioned previously, labels for medicine are also too small, but it isn't just medical labels that are like this. Think about nutrition labels and ingredient lists for processed foods. Often the font size is too small or there is a low contrast between the font colour and the background colour. Even captions in movies or TV shows have this issue. Captions often block parts of the show or even have overlapping words, making it impossible to read what is going on. While these may seem like minor inconveniences to the designer as JP Williams stated in “Design Issue: The State of the Ballot”, the user is never wrong and is never stupid. If something is designed to make a user feel stupid or complete a task incorrectly, it is poorly designed. Ignoring good, accessible designs can have serious effects on the user, whether it makes them vote incorrectly, causes environmental damage, or leaves them confused. To do this the RGD Access-Ability handbook states that we should design for the outliers and identify the wide range of human ability. We should consider the range of eyesight ability, hearing ability and cognitive ability when designing. By using grouping or hierarchies in our design, it makes them easier to understand and comprehend. Keeping text short, literal and clear makes it easier to scan. Avoid typefaces where ‘I1l’ (that's uppercase i, the number one, and the lowercase L) look the same or typefaces that use mirrored letters. Instead increase contrast, line spacing and tracking of text elements to make them more legible. Make your design perceivable, operable, understandable and robust. Test everything to make sure it is accessible for people with vision impairments, difficulty hearing and cognitive impairments. For my designs, I make sure to test for colour blindness by changing my work to grayscale so that I know my work is legible. 

Key Take-Aways:

Disconnection in design makes it harder for people to use the product

Accessibility should be considered at the beginning of a design

Design for the outliers

Design to reduce stigma

Test every design for every condition

Real-World Examples of Inaccessible Designs:

The photo above shows an instruction sheet for my own prescription medicine. In this 3 page document, only three sentences (the highlighted ones) were important for my understanding of the medicine I was taking. While warnings, side effects and the use of my medicine are important, most of this information is jargon. This text was not easy to scan, hence why I had to highlight the information on how to take a dose of my medicine. The order in which the information is presented is also confusing, considering this is a prescription drug, I already know the use for it. Instead the ‘side effects’ and ‘how to use’ should come before the ‘uses’ section.

[marmorafarms]

Love You to Death (an SDJ fic)

Pairing: Nick Herrara x Cis female reader

Fandom: Something's Wrong With Sunny Day Jack

CW: cis female reader, cunnilingus, blow jobs, vaginal sex, fingering, condom use, use of the word cunt in a sexual sense

AN: Forgot to post this on here whoops! This is not SDV, but I wrote this out and wanted to share it! If you want to read it on ao3 you can find it here:

“Hello? What planet are you on right now?”

You blinked and turned your head, and realized your roommate was sitting next to you, apparently having tried to engage you in conversation.

“Oh um. I was just…don’t worry about it.”

Shaun rolled his eyes, a grin on his face. “I know that look. You’ve got romance on the brain.”

“What?” you squeaked out. “N-no! Nothing like that! I was thinking about…uhh…”

“Caught ya,” Shaun said with a wicked grin when you came up with nothing. “So there’s someone you’re interested in?”

“Not exactly,” you said, passing Shaun the popcorn. “This guy came into the shop and asked if I was single.”

“Oof,” Shaun said sympathetically. “Was he weird about it?”

“No, he actually was really shy and stumbled over his words,” you said thoughtfully. “I was kinda freaked out at first but I mean, all things considered he was pretty cool about it. I told him I wasn’t interested and he took it well.”

“Wait pause,” Shaun said, hand going still in the popcorn bowl. “You said you weren’t interested? And now you’re daydreaming about him?”

“Look, I wasn’t sure at the time!” you said defensively.

“Did he give you his number?” Shaun asked.

“No,” you said. “He probably would’ve if I hadn’t shot him down. He didn’t even say his name.”

“He should’ve just slid you his name and number on a napkin and smiled,” Shaun said, shaking his head. “Boy is not smooth.”

“He really wasn’t,” you said. You pulled your phone out as Shaun turned on the TV and began flipping through different movies. You scrolled through the many influencers you followed on your social media and sighed. Most of them were pretty vapid, and you weren’t even sure why you didn’t just unfollow them. You had some friends on there though, and saw that one of your friends had posted a new reel. Hmm.

You clicked on it and almost choked on your mouthful of popcorn. Shaun looked at you with a worried look on his face.

“You good?” he asked. You took a drink of your soda and handed Shaun your phone.

“Look at this reel,”

It was a picture of one of your friends with a wide smile on their face. They were standing by a man in a leather jacket who was grinning alongside them. The caption was: OMG I CAN’T BELIEVE I MET HIM!!!!

The caption was followed by a link to his social. Shaun stared at the reel, and then looked over at you with a shocked look on his face. “Is that the guy?” Shaun asked.

“Yeah!” you said, looking back at your phone.

“Are you telling me you shot down Nick Herrera?” he said, sounding like you had revealed that you had turned down Ryan Gosling.

“I…guess so?” you said. “Is he someone I should know?”

“Someone you should…wow you really are out of the loop aren’t you? He’s a major influencer! He does all sorts of shit. He vlogs, he streams games, he posts adorable pictures of his two Pomeranians…”

“He has dogs?” you asked, perking up.

“They’re adorable,” Shaun gushed. “Go check out his page!”

You shrugged and looked the guy up. You looked at his follower count and…

Holy hell.

Over half a million followers? What?

You scrolled through his pictures and stopped on one where he was posing on the beach. His shirt was off, revealing a chest tattoo of a rose, and a skull on his arm. It looked like a calevera you’d see on Day of the Dead. And were those nipple piercings? You gulped and heard Shaun chuckle from beside you.

“He’s also a professional dom and has some more spicy photos on a different site. You want the link?”

“Shaun!” you said, face beet red. “I…! I don’t…!”

“You don’t what?” Shaun teased.

“I turned this guy down, I’d feel weird looking at pictures like that of him,” you grumbled.

“You can say porn,” Shaun said, and you stuck your tongue out at him.

“Fine. I don’t want to look at porn of him after I told him I wasn’t interested.”

“Well…you could send him a message and let him know you’ve changed your mind,” Shaun said. “Tell him his sexy body made you reconsider.”

You threw a pillow at your laughing friend and bit your lip. Would it be weird? Would he be mad? It might look like you found out he was popular and only wanted to go out with him because of that. But the temptation was strong. You took a deep breath and finally typed something out.

Hey! You probably don’t remember me, I’m from the yogurt shop on 4th St? I wanted to say that I know I said I didn’t want anything, but I thought if you were down for something casual that could be fun. If you want.

You hit send and instantly regretted it. The message sounded stupid. But maybe that was good? He would read it over and roll his eyes. You put your phone to the side and helped Shaun pick the movie. Nick wouldn’t respond. He’d probably be irritated that you were messaging him in the first place. It was fine.

Buzz buzz

Oh shit that was your phone.

You picked your phone up and gulped.

“He responded,” you said, throat dry.

“What’d he say?” Shaun asked.

“I’ll look at it after the movie,” you said as it began to start.

“Fuck the movie, tell me what he said!”

You glared at Shaun and sighed dramatically as you opened your phone and opened your messages.

That’d be cool.

“That’s it?” Shaun asked, looking scandalized. “Nothing else?”

“He’s just shy,” you said. “Maybe he’ll say something else.”

You turned to the movie, and the two of you got sucked into it. When

it finally ended, you checked your phone and saw that he still hadn’t messaged anything else.

“I think you’re gonna have to say something,” Shaun said, and you sighed. Man. You had hoped Nick would do the whole “asking out” portion of this conversation.

When are you free next? There’s a korean bbq place I’ve been wanting to try if you’d be into that?

Twenty minutes passed. Did he go to bed early or something? It was only when you started getting ready to go to sleep that your phone buzzed again.

Is it the one on Hawthorne? Love that place. I’m free tomorrow, but it’s cool if that’s too soon.

Tomorrow?! Well. You didn’t have work tomorrow and it’d be nice to do something other than just sit on your laptop scrolling through social media and wondering if there was anything else to do on the internet. The two of you agreed on a time, and you went to bed with a fluttering heart. Wow. This was really happening.

The next day seemed to drag on as you waited for it to be time for your date. Shaun had encouraged you to wear your special lacy lingerie set under your sundress, just in case.

“I’m not going to sleep with him!” you had said.

“Doesn’t hurt to be prepared!” Shaun said in a singsong voice. After some thought you decided he was right. You hadn’t even gotten to wear this set yet because you bought it as a surprise for your at the time boyfriend for his next visit. Someone might as well see it. And maybe it would be Nick. Maybe.

You entered the restaurant a few minutes early and found that Nick was already there. Wow. You wondered if he was just as nervous as you were. He looked up when he heard the door open, and you could tell right away that he was in fact even more nervous than you were.

“H-hey,” he said, a soft smile on his face.

“Hey,” you said back. “It’s nice to see you!”

“Yeah, it’s nice to see you too.” Nick said. “Um, we can seat ourselves so…do you want a booth or a regular table?”

“Booth,” you said.

The two of you sat down and you were surprised that the conversation flowed easily. You ordered, and the two of you had fun cooking the meat that was brought out. You knew you had a stupid grin on your face as you placed your meat on the grill that was built into the table.

“I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself,” Nick said.

“Well, this is fun and the company is excellent,” you said looking up and giving Nick a coy smile. He blushed and rubbed the back of his neck, a small smile on his face.

“I…thanks,” he said shyly. “You’re a lot of fun.”

He looked so cute sitting there, cheeks dusted pink. Your mind wandered back to that beach picture of him, and you took a breath.

“I could show you how much fun I can be after dinner,” you said, faking confidence. He was cute, you were wearing fancy lingerie and you wanted to see those piercings in person.

Nick choked on his drink, and looked at you, surprise on his face.

“I mean, unless you don’t want to,” you said, suddenly nervous.

“No I do,” Nick said. “Actually, I kinda want to pay and head out now,” he said with a chuckle.

The rest of your dinner flew by, and soon you found yourself in Nick’s car. A nervous silence filled the air as you drove to his place. This wasn’t something you usually did. Going to a guy’s house on the first date? Well, you had said this would be something casual. But still!

You arrived at his apartment and stood in the elevator with him, heart beating fast. Casually, you reached out and hooked a pinkie with his.

He looked down and then looked at you.

“You’re cute,” he said.

“No you,” you said.

The two of you practically ran out of the elevator and down the hall towards his apartment. He quickly flung the door open, and as soon as it closed, the two of you were all over each other.

The kisses were heated, full of passion and desire. He began kissing down your jaw, a hand reaching up and cupping one of your breasts.

You let out a small moan as his lips moved to your neck. You moved your head to the side, giving him more space to work with, more space to mark up.

“God you’re gorgeous,” he breathed, voice husky. “Your lips…fuck.”

“Want more,” you said, and moved your hand down, cupping his hard cock. He let out a soft moan as you began rubbing him through his pants. Before he could ask you to go to the bedroom, you sank to your knees, undoing the button on his jeans.

“Wait are you sure…? Here…?” he panted, looking down at you. The two of you locked eyes and you pulled his zipper down with your teeth. He visibly gulped. “I guess that answers that,” he said.

You pulled his pants down a bit and began kissing and licking at the tent in his boxers. It was only when he let out a tiny whine that you finally pulled them down. The head of his cock was a dusky pink and dripping wet. You smiled as you lapped at the head, licking up his salty pre cum. Nick swore, and you gently kissed his tip before taking him into your mouth.

“Ah fuck baby, yes,” he panted. You found his hand and gently guided it to your head. He threaded his fingers through your hair and gently began to help speed you up, moving your head slightly. You fully relaxed your jaw and put your hands on his hips. You gave them a light tap.

“Are you sure?” Nick gasped out, getting the message. You gave as much of a nod as was possible and felt his grip on your hair tighten. He thrust his hips forward, cock sliding all the way into your warm mouth. You let out a small hum, and he pounded faster, using you for his pleasure. Tears pricked at the corners of your eyes, but you were proud that you were able to fully take his length.

“Can I…? In your mouth…?” Nick asked. Again you gave a partial nod and he gave one in return. He thrusted a few more times before throwing his head back in ecstasy, slamming into your mouth and spilling down your throat. You did your best to swallow it all down. He tasted slightly sweet, and you found yourself wondering when you’d be able to taste him again.

You pulled off of him with a small pop and looked up at him. His chest was heaving and he was looking at you with such adoration in his eyes.

“Your turn mi reina,” he said, helping you to your feet. He pulled his pants up and then led you to his room. There were band posters everywhere, some you recognized, some you didn’t. The two of you fell into his bed, and he began kissing you again. You felt drunk off his lips, and when his tongue slid into your mouth you couldn’t help but moan low.

“Let’s get this off,” Nick said, tugging at your dress. When you pulled it over your head and tossed it to the ground, you noticed Nick staring.

“What?” you said bashfully.

“Were you planning on this?” Nick said playfully.

You laughed lightly. “On what?”

“On seducing me.” Nick said. “Or do you just wear this normally?”

Your lingerie was very nice. A silky green bustier with black lace, and panties to match. You grinned.

“I’ll never tell,” you said, and pulled him in for a few more kisses.

“May I?” Nick asked after a moment, reaching between your legs. You nodded and bit your lip as Nick began to palm you through your panties.

“I can feel a wet spot,” Nick said softly. “You like me touching you?”

“Mmhm,” you said and gasped as Nick slid his hand into your underwear, gently rubbing at your clit. You squirmed and panted as

Nick moved his fingers in a circular motion.

“You like that baby?” he said. All you could do was nod parting your legs further. Nick raised an eyebrow.

“You want something?” he asked, and slid a finger inside your dripping cunt. “I bet you want my cock don’t you? I’m not quite ready to go yet, but don’t worry beautiful. I’ll make you cum plenty before I finally get to be in you.” He thrust his fingers in and out, and you could feel yourself reaching your peak. His name was the only thing on your lips, and you repeated it over and over again like a mantra.

When you finally came it was with a loud cry, your back arching off the mattress. As you came down from your high, you noticed him sucking on his fingers.

“Mmm you taste so nice,” Nick purred. “Can I get another taste?”

Wordlessly you parted your legs and Nick settled in between them. He placed gentle kisses on your inner thighs before beginning to suck marks.

“Mine,” you heard him growl. You let out a pathetic whine at that, and it spurred him on. He spread your lips gently and began lapping at your clit. The overstimulation was intense, and you found yourself grinding your cunt into his face. You wanted more, needed more, needed to cum again!

Nick’s tongue dipped inside of you before returning to your clit. He slipped two fingers inside you, and slowly added a third. He had been big, that’s for sure, but was three fingers really necessary? Honestly, it didn’t matter. It felt so good, and you were numb to the world at this point. The only thing filling your mind was Nick. He was all you needed to think about, all you needed to focus on.

Your second orgasm hit you with a jolt, and you practically screamed as waves of pleasure washed over you.

“There you go,” Nick said, “Now you’re ready. And I am too. One second…”

You looked up and whined as Nick got off the bed. He made a tutting sound.

“No glove no love,” he said with a wink, pulling a condom out of his dresser drawer. He pulled his pants off, fully hard again. He slowly slid the condom on, clearly putting on a bit of a show. You couldn’t help but stare, desperate to feel him inside of you.

Nick got on top and pinned your hands to the bed as he slowly slid in.

“Fuck…that’s…wow you feel amazing,” Nick moaned, eyes practically crossed as he pushed all the way inside. He set a slow but steady pace, hoisting your hips up and pressing your legs back.

“Come on Nick…I know you want to go harder…” you moaned out.

There was a pause, and then Nick let out a dark laugh.

“I want it harder? I think you got things mixed up muñequita,” he said, stilling his hips. “I think you want it harder.” He began to pull out very slowly before suddenly slamming back in. “Don’t worry, I’ll give you anything you ask for.”

The smacking sound of skin on skin filled the air as he thrust deep inside you. You looked up at him and noticed he was starting at your tits, watching them bounce with every thrust.

“Like ‘em?” you asked.

“Love ‘em,” he said. “Love every fuckin’ part of you. You’re so goddamn gorgeous.”

This time you came at the same time, fireworks bursting before your eyes, legs shaking with the force of your third orgasm of the night.

The two of you slowly came down from your highs, and you could feel him going soft inside you.

“Damn,” you panted as he pulled out. “So glad I messaged you.”

Nick laughed loudly as he tied off the condom and tossed it in the trash. “You know, I’m good for other things too, not just sex.”

“Are you good for making me breakfast in the morning?” you asked, letting out a yawn.

“I’m not a bad chef,” he said with a grin, settling beside you and pulling you in for a hug. “Do waffles sound good?”

“Mmm yes,” you said. He gently kissed the tip of your nose, and the two of you cuddled close. You felt so safe and warm in his embrace. It felt so right. Maybe you wouldn’t keep things so casual after all.

[ausetkmt]

A trailer for a low-budget film that thinly recreates the night rapper Tory Lanez shot Megan Thee Stallion in July 2020 has gone viral and fans of the “Cobra” rapper are not here for it.

Will The Real Black Journalists Please Stand Up

Under a trailer available to watch on YouTube, the synopsis for an upcoming film called “The Rapper Who Got Shot In The Heel” reads like this: “Music artist Raven The Stallion and Cory Gainz are having a secret love affair behind their friend Chelsea’s back. One night after a lot of partying and drinking everything goes wrong, leading to a shooting that will forever change their relationship.”

Sound familiar? Many social media users thought so too, and they are not having it.

“This is tacky as hell” wrote one commentator under the trailer on YouTube. Another commentator agreed and wrote, “This not it.”

Produced by 9/10 Productions Film, the trailer was actually released back in September, but lately it has been making the rounds on social media because director Alvin Gray posted movie stills from the film on Instagram that were set to audio from Stallion’s “Anxiety.”

A caption for the photos reads:

“Movie stills for the film “The Rapper Who Got Shot in the Heel”! The film was a heavy production, focusing on bringing REAL awareness to domestic violence within our community and making the appropriate choices before it’s too late! I hope people learn from this film, and not take it too lightly.

So, far there has been no set release date for the production, and it could be because no streamer wants to touch the subject. Previously, 9/10's productions were picked up on Amazon and Tubi—including “The Nurse That Saw the Baby on the Highway,” inspired by the Carlee Russell hoax—social media users assumed that the Stallion and Lanez-inspired drama would also be available on the streaming platform. But Tubi reportedly told Vibe Magazine that the film is not on its streaming platform, and there are no plans to ever have the film on its platform.

A negative response to the trailer also prompted director Gray to release a video statement on Dec. 14 to clarify why he felt dramatizing the incident was important.

He explained, “I want you to understand this movie is not poking fun at domestic violence or anyone getting hurt or anyone getting shot. If you truly are a fan of mine, you know I don’t even get down like that.”

He added, “I was intrigued by that whole thing. Because — this is my opinion, personally — a lot of things didn’t make sense. Guilty, not guilty, whatever the case may be, certain things just didn’t make sense to me which is intriguing. That’s how I am as a filmmaker.”

While some wrestle over whether the “The Rapper Who Got Shot In The Heel” is shrewd filmmaking or simply an exploitation of a Black woman’s trauma, others can’t wait for more.

“You should do Puffy next lol,” wrote one commentator under the Gray’s film stills, referencing Diddy’s recent legal troubles.

[namesisfortombstones]

Howling II: ...Your Script Needs Work

I am fascinated by the insane sequel Howling II: Stirba - Werewolf Bitch (U.S. title—Howling II: ...Your Sister is a Werewolf). The movie is a train wreck, like if a jet full of mimes crashed into a bus full of clowns. And its behind the scenes story is every bit a train wreck with mishap after mishap after mishap happening to stymie the filmmakers at every turn. Hearing everything that went wrong with the movie, watching the final product makes one think it may have been something entirely different. And logically so, I had always wanted to read the screenplay for the film to find out just what it was originally supposed to be, but all attempts to do so met with failure.

Howling II: Choose Your Own Adventure!

Here is what we know as facts from eyewitnesses who participated in the production of the film; The Howling novel author Gary Brandner was enlisted by the Howling producers to write the screenplay for the sequel and what he did was adapt his book sequel The Howling II (aka The Return of the Howling). When he was done, he turned it in and the producers said "Gary, this is really good, but we have some money in Mexico. Can you set it down there?" Brandner was all "Sure!" and off he went on a re-write. When Brandner turned that in, the producers said, "This is really good, but now we have money from Spain, so can you re-write it to be set in Spain? And the producer's a friend of Fernando Rey. Can you write a part for him?" Brandner was like "Fine" and off he went on another re-write. When he turned that draft in, the producers said, "This is really good, but the Spanish money fell through, so now we're gonna shoot the movie on the cheap in Yugoslavia." Now that Brandner had a book deadline approaching, he basically told the producers, "I gotta go. Do what you want with it" and off he went to go write his next book. Enter a writer named Robert Sarno, whom the producers enlisted to polish up Brandner's work. But what does he do? He throws out most of what Brandner wrote and re-writes an unproduced vampire screenplay he'd written, turned the villains into werewolves, and passed it off as The Howling II.

Seen here: not the person at fault for Howling II. Director Philippe Mora, who says he never read anything but the Sarno draft when he came on board the movie, says that he shot a campy, silly movie. This is almost in line with Joe Dante's original The Howling. That movie played its events dead seriously, but with a tongue-in-cheek tone as if to say, "Yeah, it's scary sometimes, but you can laugh at it too." But Robert Sarno and Philippe Mora aren't John Sayles and Joe Dante. At any rate, Mora reports that after he created his edit of the film and left to go shoot his next movie, Death of a Soldier, the producers got cold feat about having a funny horror movie and decided they wanted a scary horror movie. As such, the producers had the movie re-edited without Mora's knowledge or input and it became the movie it is today. Logically, this would lead one to believe that at one point, Howling II was a completely different movie.

Still probably too much of this guy, though. A few months ago, I was watching the now "lost" TV version of Howling II to see if there were any differences between it and the normal version of the film (and in addition to the new end titles montage, there were a few here and there). But watching the movie with closed captions, I noticed when they announced Christopher Lee's character's name, it was spelled as "Stefan Krosko." Now, since I saw the movie back in... 1989 or 1990 (?), I presumed his name was "Stefan Croscoe" with one 's' because that's how all the Croscoes I've known spelled their name. With the advent of the internet, however, everyone online seems hellbent on spelling it "Crosscoe," which to my knowledge is not a legitimate name. At any rate, I did a few searches for "Stefan Krosko" and there were some hits from some eastern European websites and I subsequently discovered "Krosko" is a real European surname.

What is your name, man?! And what is your deal?! So what is the character's name? I decided we needed to find a damned script then and there to find out. And somehow, I happened to manage upon a site selling a Howling II screenplay and immediately snatched that sucker up. After waiting just shy of a month's time because of the site owner being in the hospital, the script arrived and I finally got to see just what the hell they were dealing with from the get-go. And the results are a disappointing mixed bag. Firstly, I have no reason to doubt anything said by anyone who made the movie. There is a literal laundry list of things that can go wrong with any movie. It's hard work to make a bad movie. A great or even a good movie is a miracle to pull off. However, while there are many differences to get into, this screenplay is more or less the final movie. By and large, everything that happens in the movie is here. Some of it is a little more in depth, but not much. Does the screenplay do anything to explain just what the hell is really going on in this story? The answer is a gritty, in-your-face "no."

“What do you mean it was like that already?!” The draft of the script I have is merely entitled "The Howling II." No subtitles. It's marked as "Revision Draft: May 1, 1984" and "Further Revised: June 20, 1984." It's about 89 pages long with a 4-page "optional" prologue. This is the first time I've ever encountered a writer bothering to craft something that could specifically be discarded. But why did I think anything about this movie would be standard? The prologue opens in L.A. where a couple named Gary and Joann [sic] are trying to get home before the latter's father realizes she's out. When they miss the bus, Gary thinks he's got a great shortcut— through the cemetery. Of course Joann is spooked the entire time, especially when they begin to hear "hideous laughter" that is not coming from Gary. As they flee in terror, a cemetery guard cackles to himself "Bet they'll never take this shortcut again." Scared senseless, the couple takes refuge in a church they run upon. Inside is a casket of one Karen Marie White (the protagonist played by Dee Wallace in The Howling). As they try to go out the back of the church, the coffin's lid opens and Karen emerges as a rotted zombie werewolf. Cue screams and the main titles. And after that bit of standard horror business is dealt with, the script moves on to Karen's funeral scene that opens the movie.

Dame Not-Appearing-In-This-Film The most peculiar thing about the screenplay, however, is the obscene amount of Hispanic character names, even when the story changes to Transylvania in Romania! Somehow, I don't think there are too many Carloses running around Romania. Frankly, Ben White and Jenny Templeton are the only characters whose name made it from script to screen. So do we finally get to discover what the true spelling of Stefan's surname is? No. Because in this script, his character name is Luis Romo. Now, I've seen damnably British Christopher Lee convincingly portray Chinese and Pakistani characters before, so I have no reason to doubt that I could buy him as a Spaniard. But on paper, it just looks silly (slightly less silly than "Stefan Croscoe/Krosko" I suppose). The proprietor of the Transylvanian hotel is named Carlos. The number two (three?) werewolf-in-command is named Vittorio (?!). Vasile the dwarf is Emiliano. And last but not certainly least, there is no Stirba. Well, there is, but she is only known as "La Bruja" ("The Witch" in Spanish) here. She has no true name other than "La Bruja," which is what Stefan/Romo refers to her as, as well (I'm going to use the film and script's character names in order to curtail confusion). This of course further betrays the story's vampire origins as, while La Bruja doesn't behave like a vampire, she's never really written to behave like a werewolf either. Stirba of the film does once or twice transform into a "werewolf bitch," but that's the extent of her werewolfery. Stirba in the finished film just seems to be a sorceress that can randomly grow body hair.

Fernando Rey as... Luis Romo???  This La Bruja business actually tracks to me because of the origin of Stirba's name. "Stirba" (properly pronounced by Christopher Lee and Judd Omen as "Still-buh," although Lee may be saying “Shtill-buh,” which is more correct) is derived from the German word "sterben" (still-ben/shtill-ben), which means "die" or "to die." And I don't believe for a second Robert Sarno was clever enough to come up with that. Maybe Philippe Mora (who alternates between being a genius and an absolute madman depending on the moment you're talking to him). But I'd bet dollars to donuts that Christopher Lee came up with that name, him being fluent in German.

Mora, you magnificent bastard...   Probably the most interesting name-related bit from the script is that Mariana, portrayed by Marsha Hunt of Dracula A.D. 1972, in this script is Marsha Quist of the original Howling! Marsha was portrayed by Elisabeth Brooks in the first movie, but—like Dee Wallace—she refused to appear in the sequel. There are conflicting accounts as to why. At any rate, Marsha plays the same part and story function that Mariana does in the final film. Additionally, Marsha/Mariana's sidekick in the early parts of the story is Erle, originally portrayed by John Carradine in the first Howling but portrayed in Howling II by the fine character actor Ferdy Mayne [billed here as Ferdinand Mayne, who reportedly only did the movie because Christopher Lee was in it]. However, the script never seems to acknowledge that Marsha and Erle are returning characters and they are introduced in the text just like every other character, as if we hadn't seen them before.

Seen here: Elisabeth Brooks escaping from the raging tire fire that became Howling II.

I prefer continuity, but eh, we did okay.

Shit no, Ferdy! Nobody’s gonna notice you’re not John Carradine! Or... Martin Landau? So, as I said before, the script more or less unspools exactly as the movie does. No sillier, no more serious. It's the movie. What is different? Well... Ben White is written to be slightly less stubborn and disbelieving in this script than Reb Brown portrays him in the movie. Ben and Jenny don't know each other at all at the beginning. And Stefan/Romo is written as a bit of an aloof goof, at one point falling asleep in front of Ben and Jenny after giving them the lowdown on La Bruja and her evil plans. In the film, Christopher Lee imbues Stefan with a bit more personable humanity and never once does he come off as tired.

”It is her immortal soul which is in very grave danger.” “Please, eat my ass with a bag of skittles, Stefan.” “Now was that so hard? Good day, sir.” In the punk club scene, alas Stefan/Romo is not present in punk clothes and wraparound shades.

UNACCEPTABLE!!!  Marsha comes in, picks up some annoying riffraff victims, and off she goes to the warehouse. I had noticed an odd name in the movie's end credits, "Moon Devil." All these years, I assumed this referred to the helmeted guard outside Stirba's castle. Apparently, Moon Devil was supposed to be one of the jerks at the club and subsequent warehouse victims! He absolutely does not live up to that cool moniker.

You’re gonna sit there and tell me this isn’t the “Moon Devil,” script??!?!? The whole slaughter in the warehouse is written to be quite a bit scarier than it comes off in the film. You're let in from the get-go that Marsha/Mariana has brought these people here to feed her werewolf friends. However, whilst Marsha/Mariana does appear naked to lure the men to their deaths, she doesn't seem to be hanging around partially transformed, listening to her werewolf brethren devour people. Once the attack begins, she disappears. Hell, she may be one of the attacking werewolves. However, at the very end of this scene, there is Stefan/Romo outside the warehouse (presumably in his normal clothes, but it'd been a lot cooler if it were that punk outfit), hanging around, "investigating outside" the script says, and doing absolutely nothing to help those poor people being eaten alive.

“Fuck those kids.” The scene where Stefan/Romo explains werewolves to Ben and Jenny happens right after the previous scene in the middle of the damn night, rather than more sensibly the next morning as in the movie. Stefan/Romo is written with explicit text that he is "giddy" and "excited" as he lays down the wolf lore here. There is about two-thirds of a page description of Stefan/Romo's home (a place we never see again) that more or less amounts to "it's gothic and messy." It's said that he has just stuff thrown all over the place with a combination work table/work bench right in the middle of the living room! What it's for goes without explanation. In the final film, Stefan’s house is shot at the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Ennis House, notably used in The House on Haunted Hill (1959).

Seems a little... I dunno... big for one person? The tape that Stefan/Romo has seems to be trying to describe what's onscreen in reference to what happened at the end of the first Howling. However, here too, Karen is described as being a roaring, ferocious animal with bared fangs and blood red eyes filled with murderous rage. And of course in The Howling, Karen transforms into a weeping were-poodle that doesn't look frightening because she's "innocent" and hasn't murdered anyone. Sarno eschews all that in favor of cheap horror movie thrills. But at least it all comes off better than whatever the hell was on that tape in the movie. Yeesh.

I think somebody sold Stefan a copy of The Howling as recreated by those kids that remade Raiders of the Lost Ark in their spare time. Stefan/Romo shows Ben and Jenny pictures of Marsha/Mariana and Erle on a slide projector, rather than blown-up photographs. He still explains that Marsha has become immune to silver bullets and only titanium will kill her, but also adds a perplexing bit that if one were to shoot her with silver bullets, it would transform her into a "more dangerous mutant"!

SHIT. It's important to point out a couple of things here. According to the audio commentary on the Shout Factory Blu-ray, Philippe Mora reveals that they shot this scene on location over in Czechoslovakia. However, when the film came back, it was all dark, which forced them to reshoot the scene once they got back to L.A. In the song, "Your Sister is a Werewolf" written by Steven Parsons on the Howling II soundtrack (but not used in the film), the song's lyrics are solely pieces of dialogue heard in the film. All except for "Hear me; in three weeks time, at the next full moon, on the midnight hour of that fateful day, all werewolves—all—will reveal themselves. Each and every human being will be devoured by her lustful disciples." I assumed this might have been a line that was in that original Czech version of the scene but didn't make it into the U.S. reshoot. And that line is indeed here in the script (what Lee says in the final film is "At the next full moon, it will be the tenth millennium of Stirba's birth. At midnight on that day, all werewolves will reveal themselves—ALL. The transformations have already begun... Process of evolution has reversed. There are many stages before man becomes a beast.")

“ALL, motherfucker.”  Additionally, you know that bizarre pre-title bit where Christopher Lee is floating in space, reading from a book, with a skeleton slowly fading in behind him? "The great mother of harlots and all abominations of the earth"? That bit is here! And while he is reading it, for some reason, thunder and lighting are going on outside (just like the unwarranted thunderclap over the title card). I suspect maybe this was shot in Czechoslovakia and was perhaps the only usable footage from the sequence. And Mora just threw it in at the beginning of the movie to 1.) ape Dune (1984) and b.) I dunno... baffle everybody? At any rate, the scene ends with Stefan/Romo falling asleep in a chair and telling Ben and Jenny to show themselves out.

That look says it all.  So who exactly is Stefan/Romo? Who did you think he is? Because whoever he was in your head is who he will have to remain. There is absolutely no backstory on the character. There is no indication that Stefan/Romo is himself a werewolf or a witch or if he is in fact 10,000 years old like Stirba. Watching Howling II, you have questions. The film nor the script has any answers and Sarno seems infuriatingly uninterested in exploring whatever mythology he had cooked up for this story.

Stefan, we hardly knew ye. Sorry your creator couldn’t be bothered to give a damn. The whole sequence at the cemetery is far more involved than in the movie, starting with Ben and Jenny discovering the fence has been yanked wide open so something could enter. In the film, it looks like they're flabbergasted that someone used bolt cutters on a chain. There are four werewolves during the attack, presumably Marsha/Mariana, Erle, and two others. Stefan/Romo is not doing last rites over Karen's body like in the film, but instead is just loitering around waiting for Ben and Jenny to show up. When they try to flee into the crypt, one of the werewolves is up on the roof waiting to pounce, but gets shot for its trouble but when that doesn't work, Ben throws a flashlight at it. Maybe the flashlight was made of titanium casing? At any rate, once Jenny and Ben are in the crypt, Stefan/Romo seems to invoke the occult by drawing triangles around Karen's casket, though it says he does mutter a prayer in Latin. This, of course, pisses off Ben to no end and he threatens to "blow [his] nutsy head off!" Jenny tries to step in between the two to calm things down, but Karen-wolf bursts out of her coffin and grabs Jenny's wrist. When Ben tries to shoot Karen, Stefan/Romo stops him, claiming "Not yet! They are coming!" Karen-wolf proceeds to shred the lid of the coffin whilst still hanging onto Jenny. At this point, Ben loads his rifle with titanium bullets and pumps Karen full of lea—er, alloy?

Also not found in the screenplay, “BLAAAH!!!” Stefan/Romo blesses Karen, but then smiles and remarks, "Here they are," and sure enough the four werewolves are in the crypt with them. While Ben is busy shooting the monsters, Stefan/Romo "chants a strange Latin chant” [sic] and hurls holy water at the werewolves. And it works. One flees and another follows after it. The last werewolf helps the one blasted by Ben back to its feet and out of the crypt. For some reason, the four werewolves are on the run, fleeing for their lives from the cemetery as the wounded one lags behind. Now, in the film, Ben asks at one point, "Do you think Stefan's going to the cemetery tonight to set traps?" and there's no real payoff for it. Here, actual traps are mentioned being in Stefan's home and then, the wounded werewolf trips one and is caught in... a net. The other werewolves ditch him and our ersatz heroes catch up to Erle, who has transformed back into a human. We get the exchange in the movie "Where is La Bruja?!" "Dark country..." Stefan/Romo stabs Erle and kills him. Rather than Mariana, the security guard from the prologue has apparently been watching all this and remarks, "I gotta stop drinking."

Not gonna lie: this does work better. Stefan/Romo announces he's going to "do battle with La Bruja" and Ben demands to come with. When they ask where the "dark country" is, the response is "Transylvania... where else?" Where else, indeed... if you were fighting vampires! Christopher Lee's response in the movie works a lot better. "Where do we have to go to find 'Stur-buh'?" "To the dark country... to Transylvania." Ben then wonders if it's safe to drink the water... which works for when the story was to move to Mexico, but makes no sense referring to Romania.

You know Mexican architecture when you see it. At any rate, somehow Marsha/Mariana beats the heroes over to Transylvania and the script claims the town they're in is "Santa Marta," rather than "Vlk." Vlad here is named "Vittorio" and he meets Marsha/Mariana at the train and takes her to the castle. There's the scene with the hitchhikers, which seems to be played for terror rather than laughs. And then, we go to La Bruja's castle. The rite here is far more involved, starting with the little girl—said to be hypnotized and 14 years old—being prepared. The script says the rite is being witnessed by a coven of 12 disciples and that many of them are villagers of Santa Marta, even though we haven't met any of them yet! The little girl is taken and rested on a huge pentagram that has been drawn on the castle floor. It is at this point that Stirba/La Bruja makes her entrance into the story and she is rather rudely described as being "an incredibly old hag” [in all caps for emphasis]. The script does, however, describe what the hell the staff she has for the whole movie is—"some hideous gargoyle with folded wings and long fangs." So if you were wondering what it was, there it is.

Sarno’s mean.  Stirba/La Bruja takes a "wickedly serrated dagger" and beheads a chicken over the little girl, pouring blood onto her face while mumbling "indecipherable magical words," and then the script proceeds to write them out! If you can discern them, they aren't indecipherable now, are they? In the movie at a later point, Stirba casts the Eko Eko Azarak protection spell against Stefan, and here, the words spelled out appear to be the black magic spell Exorcism of the Bat. At any rate, instead of the batshit crazy montage that is randomly edited into the scene, the script just describes a bunch of batshit crazy things going on at once: Stirba/La Bruja leans down inches away from the girl's face and "draws in air with a sucking sound." The little girl begins convulsing. The disciples writhe about "in orgasmic ecstasy" (which sounds repetitive to me) as they look on, the headless chicken is still flapping its wings, Marsha/Mariana watches "with intense pleasure," and Stirba/La Bruja kisses the little girl on her lips.  The rite is apparently successful and Stirba/La Bruja is a young woman again. The little girl, though, has become desiccated and is dead. Stirba/La Bruja beckons Vlad/Vittorio and two handmaidens to her bedchamber.

Oh, gawd, yes! The two women dress the "werewolf" queen, but the script does not describe in what. She shoos them off and turns her attention to Vlad/Vittorio who can just barely keep his hands off her. Marsha/Mariana is brought in and she kisses a ring with "a strange design" Stirba/La Bruja is wearing Godfather-style. The scene continues as in the movie, though as Vlad/Vittorio and Marsha/Mariana begin "making love" on her bed (the script rather prudishly constantly uses the phrase "making love" rather than "sex" or "fuck" even though, let's face it, in the Howling II movie, nobody is making love), Stirba/La Bruja just slowly removes her clothes instead of ripping them off. Fade to, and I quote, "three wolves in a lovemaking frenzy" [again, in all caps for emphasis].

*sigh* Why? At this point it's worth mentioning that in an interview with Philippe Mora with Fangoria magazine during the filming of Howling II, Mora made the outrageous claim that Sybil Danning didn't really exist in the film. What he said was that throughout the entire movie, Stirba was an old woman and that the appearance of Sybil Danning was what Stirba wished she looked like and was a spell that she had cast over everyone. Some of this seems to make it to the final film like when Sybil-Stirba first appears and seems almost scared until she realizes that everyone sees her as young. And then the end of the movie where Stirba's magic won't work on Stefan and as such, he sees her as the 10,000 year old woman she actually is. However, the movie does in fact play it off as Stirba is young again, Elizabeth Bathory-style. None of that is in the script. Not even Stefan/Romo seeing Stirba/La Bruja as an old woman in the showdown.

Goddammit, Philippe. For real? We then hang out with our three heroes for a bit as they cross Transylvania in "a small European sedan." In the film, Christopher Lee seems to be asleep in the backseat but here, Stefan/Romo is described as "meditating" with a "slight smile on his face." For some reason, Stefan/Romo is written frequently to constantly have "a slight smile on his face." Yeah, I think Lee made the right decision not doing that.

“Meditating” my ass. I know a nap when I see one.  They have the encounter on the road with the woman in the street and it goes like in the movie except the priest claims she was hit by falling rocks (?!) and the woman doesn't suddenly grow fangs. Stefan/Romo just ices her werewolf ass out of nowhere. Just like in the movie, Stefan/Romo randomly ditches Ben and Jenny, though he does anti-explain, "I will leave you now. There are things I must do alone." Where he goes is never described... just like in the movie. Ben and Jenny continue on when a tramp suddenly steps out into the road and they hit him. When they run out of the car to investigate, the tramp is nowhere to be found, but blood is on the road. Our heroes shrug it off (Ben remarks, "He is here... but he is not here. Welcome to Transylvania.") and get back in the car. This is where the crouching werewolf-hidden dumbass comes into play and the scene continues just like in the movie, complete with a random cliff just appearing out of nowhere.

Wait, so you’re telling me this actually made sense at one point?!? Ben and Jenny make it into Santa Marta/Vlk and the hotel they stay in is given a name, the Hotel Aragon. They also don't do the dumb "six floors" gag and are given room 204. As mentioned before, the hotel proprietor is named Carlos here, but his nephew porter is "Tonio" rather than Tondo. Once in their room, there is none of that godawful garlic nonsense. Instead, Jenny kinda randomly decides to entice Ben into bed and outside, Vlad/Vittorio can smell it. That brings us to page 50 in an 89-page script and the rest of the script unspools at a rather breakneck pace. Honestly, there isn't really much writing so much as there is just action sequences and stuff happening until Sarno decides to call it a script. Ben and Jenny go to the church, where they are spied on by "Carlos" from a hotel room. Stefan/Romo's allies are introduced; Father Florrin is "Father Matteo," Vasile the dwarf is “Emiliano,” Konstantine is "Rudolpho," and Luca is "Juan." Honestly, this is getting out of hand and the absolute region-blindness is sickening. This is just piss-poor writing. Are there some Spanish people in Romania? Sure, there probably are. This many? Doubt it.

Seen here: not a Carlos.  In the script here, the children seem to really enjoy the wolf/girl puppet show. They make a bigger deal of Ben leaving Jenny to go stalk Vlad/Vittorio and Marsha/Mariana as they wander through town and... actually they don't even have the dialogue they have in the movie. They eventually come upon Stefan/Romo. Vlad/Vittorio bows mockingly at him and Marsha/Mariana just glares at him "with murderous intensity." When Vasile/Emiliano asks if that's the woman they're looking for, Stefan/Romo warns "she is as deadly as the black widow spider."

“Punk-ass werewolves...” Vlad/Vittorio and Marsha/Mariana return to Stirba/La Bruja's castle with Ben and Vasile/Emiliano hot on their heels. Vlad/Vittorio uses something described as "a cross between a whistle and a yodel" to gain entry from the rifle-toting sentry. When we go into the castle, Stirba/La Bruja is sitting on her throne, watching a fire and her "eyes are abnormally bright as if she were in a trance." In the movie, Stirba is wearing sunglasses because Sybil Danning had an allergic reaction to that wolf-hair makeup they put all over her and it looked like she was punched in the face, so they put sunglasses on her to cover it up and continue filming. The two other werewolves report Stefan/Romo is in town and Stirba/La Bruja spills the beans that he's her brother and that "he circles me like an avenging angel of death." She goes on to deliver the bizarrely-written "he lusts to destroy me. But I will destroy him!"

“Oh come on! We just sprayed for dwarves in here!” Stirba/La Bruja sees Vasile/Emiliano spying on them from the window and unleashes her werewolves upon them. When the castle door slams open, Vlad/Vittorio and Marsha/Mariana are already in full wolf form. Stirba/La Bruja chants another black magic spell that seems to be made up nonsense words this time. When Vasile/Emiliano loses his blessed earplugs, Stirba/La Bruja's chanting causes his head to explode from the inside out and the script says that geysers of blood and brain "tissure" [tissue, I imagine] sprays out of his eye sockets, nose, and ears. That seems unnecessary. Stirba/La Bruja pours an oil over Vasile/Emiliano's corpse and whispers something into his ear that causes him to come back to life as a zombie.

Like you w--wait, what were we talking about? Tondo/Tonio tries to rape Jenny, but rather than "take him away and teach him discipline," Stirba/La Bruja has a werewolf minion eviscerate Tondo/Tonio right then and there. She captures Jenny as bait. Stefan/Romo has the encounter with zombie Vasile/Emiliano and is saved by Ben in a sequence that reads like it goes on forever. Ben's fight with the dwarf is more involved than in the film—Vasile/Emiliano proves capable with a blade and Ben manages to toss him out the window with a judo throw! Ben and Stefan/Romo go back to the church for reinforcements and weapons. The significant change here is that Stefan/Romo says they have a titanium spike that was somehow made from the Holy Grail, rather than having the Holy Grail itself and nobody stopping to wonder how the fuck they have the Holy Grail on hand. He also shows off a "titanium machete" made by Luca/Juan. That, unfortunately, didn't make it into the movie, but perhaps it should have.

”Yeah, yeah, Holy Grail, whatever. Gimme dat gun!” [Yes in the final movie, Stefan actually cops to having the Holy Grail on hand. No, not a single person goes, “Hey, wait a second, Stefan...”] Stirba/La Bruja has a fuck party at her castle (described in the script as a "Black Sabbath revelry," but it's a fuck party). Here, there is "a diabolical altar with the head of the horned god prominent over it" (heavily implied to be Lucifer). Additionally, a slaughtered lamb has been split open and crucified upside down on a wooden cross. In the final film, I don't think it's crucified, but they do have a lamb just hanging in the corner of the castle, which Stirba prays to briefly.

Ya know... this movie is kinda making a good case for evil. One of her disciples runs in and tells her [presumably] the heroes are coming and she stops the fuck party dead in its tracks and orders, "Go my children... destroy them!" Everyone starts transforming, but Stirba/La Bruja tells Vlad/Vittorio and Marsha/Mariana to stay with her, which they do in human form. The trio then goes over to the altar and prays to their horned god, described as "staring out with eyes as dark and empty as deep, endless space."

Don’t make a Kristen Stewart joke. Don’t make a Kristen Stewart joke. Don’t make a Kristen Stewart joke. The werewolves attack our heroes and all hell breaks loose. Ben pushes Stefan/Romo down "for safety" and sets about murdering everything in sight. Konstantin/Rudolfo saves Luca/Juan by ripping through a werewolf's throat with his titanium machete. Another werewolf "rips Rudolfo's face" [did Sarno mean "rips off"?] and proceeds to slash him to death. Stefan/Romo—I shit you not—has a fire extinguisher that sprays holy water, which he uses to finish off the other werewolves! It causes them to "shriek in agony as if they were being burned alive!" I hope it was Christopher Lee who put his foot down and said "I'm not doing that." As they continue onward, "an unearthly, grotesque hand" with "enormous curved talons" grabs Luca/Juan and drags him into the earth like a random quicksand pit. There's no mention of werewolves here; it's just someTHING's hand. Another hand grabs hold of Luca/Juan's neck and drags him underground. Rather than hurl the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch as in the movie, Stefan/Romo throws a vial of chrism at them and Father Florrin/Matteo [misspelled as "Metteo" here] lights the leaves up with a match. Then, this happens: "as the three men sprint away, there is a horrible agonizing roar of pain from the demonic creature as it begins to burn in the fire of the consecrated Chrism. The outlines of some unearthly form rises up in the flames and twist wildly [sic] in his death throes." As we cut back to the castle, Stirba/La Bruja is "screaming and writhing in ecstasy as she walks on glowing ashes." Why?? You will go wanting because there are no answers. Stirba/La Bruja orders Vlad/Vittorio and Marsha/Mariana to "bring the girl" and they head off for Jenny. Instead of the ultra-creepy area made up of walls of human skulls, Jenny is just being kept in a more mundane torture dungeon. When Father Florrin/Matteo sneaks into the castle, Stirba/La Bruja just steps out of a shadow and stares at him. She orders her gargoyle staff to attack him and the "hideous little creature opens its eyes which glow with an infernal ruby light," leaps onto the priest's face, drives its fangs into the top of his skull, uses its tail to wrap around his neck, then uses the tip of its tail to prod up through his nose into his skull. The thing causes Florrin/Matteo's head to explode from the inside out, causing "squirming, gelatinous tentacles" to pour out. Stirba/La Bruja marches off because that was all just a touch much. Vlad/Vittorio and Marsha/Mariana appear to harass Jenny and Ben charges in and blows the back of Vlad/Vittorio's head and his brains onto the wall behind him. Marsha/Mariana is understandably stunned by this and when Ben tries to shoot her, he's out of bullets. Sorta-Ms. Quist starts to wolf out and leaps at Ben but he stabs her with a silver knife, despite the fact Stefan/Romo had explicitly told him she's immune to silver now. However, she doesn't actually seem to die. She slumps to her knees and cannot pull the knife out. When Ben hauls Jenny away, Marsha/Mariana is said to be slumped onto the floor dying and screaming. I have to say, Marsha was done dirty and she should've been able to get away Howling I-style to run amok in The Marsupials: The Howling III, dammit (which yes, does seem to take place in the continuity of the first two movies, if Olga's stealth reference is to be believed). It's worth mentioning that in the script, this scene does not have a wooden cage locked full of victims which does appear in the corresponding scene in the movie. And after Ben kills Vlad and Mariana and hauls Jenny away, our ersatz hero just leaves those poor people there to starve to death! Stirba/La Bruja hears the screaming and charges off to help (I guess?) but Stefan/Romo steps into her path and boasts "You go no further." At this point, the script goes even more off the rails. Stirba/La Bruja beckons Stefan/Romo to come to her and dares him to fuck her, going so far to throw back her cape, revealing "her luscious naked body." Stefan/Romo just starts involuntarily walking over to her (as one would) and rather pathetically calls out for Christ and God like he was inside the Wicker Man and Lord Summerisle just lit it on fire. Stirba/La Bruja says "You will be my Prince of Darkness and I will be your Queen of the Night!" Obviously, there was no way Christopher Lee was going to let that line stay in when he came on board. Similarly, a line where Ben describes Stefan/Romo as looking like "Dracula's grandfather" was removed, probably for the same reason. Anyway, Stirba/La Bruja laughs that they will rule the world and that "I give myself to you; I am yours to ravage and rape." No, really. Bottom of page 86. Sarno seriously wrote that shit.

Seen here: not a man freaking out about possibly banging his smokin’ hot sister. Stirba/La Bruja demands "Love me, my brother!" [though, based on previous scenes, Sarno definitely means "fuck me, my brother!"] and Stefan/Romo leaps through the air, tackles his sister, drives the Holy Grail titanium spike into her (where is not said), and plants one on her as she shrivels into her "hideous and shriveled hag" form [again, rude!]. Now, some of this was actually shot because there is a still of Christopher Lee kissing Sybil Danning from this scene that is not in the movie. But there's absolutely no way they were gonna have/get 62-year-old Lee to jump through the air and tackle Sybil, even with his trusty stunt double Eddie Powell on hand.

You thought I was lying, didn’t you?  Now, here in the script, Stefan/Romo's flying tackle causes he and Stirba/La Bruja to crash into her fire pit and that causes them to become engulfed in flames. Stirba/La Bruja won't let go and he can't get away from the fire and they both burn to death. And honestly, that works a lot better than whatever the hell happens at the end of the movie where there's no real excuse for Stefan having to burn to death too while Stirba admonishes that they will be "wedded for eternity." Got a man doing God's work here and God absolutely drops the ball on him.

Bullshit, I say! At any rate, Sarno thinks its funny to cut from them screaming as they burn to death to Jenny's fireplace in her apartment the next Halloween. Jenny says that she misses Stefan/Romo and Ben jibes that Halloween was probably his favorite [spelled with an extra u] day. There's a knock at the door and a werewolf plays trick or treat. You've seen the scene; you know how it goes, except Ben gives the werewolf money instead of candy and wishes him happy Halloween! The werewolf waves back and howls. When Jenny demands they go over to the apartment and say hi, the script says that Erle answers the door! But he had been killed by Stefan/Romo at the beginning of the story! In the movie, it's the priest they encounter when the woman on the road was hit by a car/falling rocks. The script just gives up after Erle/the priest asks "won't you come in?" It claims to be "The End," but it's more like "The Quit." For what it's worth, the script does not have the scene that I saw on USA one time where the camera creeps down the hall to reveal the inside of another apartment with a family of laughing werewolves inside. I'm told this ending also appeared on the VHS release in Australia, but it was certainly not in the "normal" TV version that played elsewhere (Fox, predominately, and later the Sci-Fi Channel).

Before you ask, yes that IS Philippe Mora painted into the mural on Stirba’s castle to the right of Sybil there. So there you have it. Everybody who worked on it says Howling II isn't the movie they made... but damned if the script isn't pretty much the movie we saw.

[hoghtastic]

"he is trying to boost her career , maybe even managing it…."

A lot of people think so but don't you think that if it were true he'd tag her in his stories and post photos that would clearly imply that she's his girlfriend? His followers are divided into Alex fans and only Ivar/vikings fans. That second group is the majority on his profile and they doesn't notice anything except that Ivar is walking or he is hot. One of his forty friends won't grab their attention like a girlfriend. He probably knows it so why does he give her a minimum of publicity if he cares so much about building her career?

My theory may sound a bit naive but I think Johanne might be more dominant and Alex compromised with her for peace of mind. I think he has set limits for her which they gradually cross. As an example of a limit he didn't let her cross we can cite a video of him being drunk. We also don't know the real reason she posted photos of Alex with that embarrassing caption "if you snooze you lose".There were many theories but who knows if she didn't want to make everyone angry because instead of photos with her popular boyfriend she had to insert a boring selfie. I also think that the main reason for creating her pv account was the fact that she wanted to show off her "perfect relationship" at least in front of her and his friends. Looking at how important privacy was for Alex over the years I wouldn't be surprised if only the redhead wanted to reveal the relationship.

Of course none of us know the truth in 100% and I could be wrong but I also don't think that this love theater was his initiative.

While I agree with some parts of what you wrote, there are also some things I disagree with. Let's see:

● I don't think he gives her a minimum of publicity, in fact, he's given her a lot, especially since that public appearance at some movie's premiere where Alex confirmed their relationship for the first time. Because of this, she got a lot of attention/new followers, and having been associated with a public figure and featured in some news sources granted her a verified badge on IG shortly after. All of this was helpful to boost her & her career.

● Ever since they went public, he has featured her multiple times in his IG stories, and at least in one post (where he did tag her!). She has also posted & tagged him in her stories, which he did share, so everyone who follows Alex and is interested in more than Ivar could easily find her. And he did clearly imply that she's his girlfriend — for example in the story he posted for her birthday, he wrote "elsker dig" ("love you"), which she later reposted.

● You state that maybe he set limits concerning their privacy that he wouldn't let her cross, and give as an example a video of him being drunk. Yet we all know she did cross this limit, and such a video has already been posted. And even though we can't know how he felt about this, judging by the way she kept doing such things (the "if you snooze, you lose" incident you also mentioned, for example), maybe he wasn't mad/disappointed that she crosses such limits (if there were any to begin with).

● But when you say that "looking at how important privacy was for Alex over the years I wouldn't be surprised if only the redhead wanted to reveal the relationship", I have to agree with you. It was her who kept hinting at being in a relationship with him long before it became public, by posting stories at his place or hanging with him at the Vikings Con in Paris last November. And it was one of her friends who "accidentally" revealed them, by tagging both of them at his party (maybe she asked this small favor of him? we'll never know...). By then, the majority of fanpages already knew about them and it was only a matter of time before it became public knowledge, so yes, maybe Alex felt kinda pressured to reveal it? And maybe he wanted to make her happy? Because (and I'm only assuming here, of course) his feelings and actions come off as more genuine than hers, as he doesn't really have anything to gain from this relationship (other than maybe some more attention by the Danish press towards his upcoming series, as their in-character romance became real), and he's the one who seemingly spends less time with his friends in favor of hers. Johanne, on the other hand, has a lot to gain from this situation and seems hellbent in showing Alex and everyone else how alike and compatible they are, which comes off as somewhat calculating and manipulative. So yes, if I had to guess, I'd also say this love theatre was her initiative, not his.

Anyway, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and contributing to the discussion, anon! 😊

[kat-earnshaw]

silence of the lambs

I used to lie like it was second nature. Still do, mostly to myself. That summer, I worked cancer research in a university lab, boxed in by PCR machines, Erlenmeyer flasks, and petri dishes streaked with colonies that I’d grown, scraped, and plated. Pipetting cultures, isolating DNA, loading gels, calibrating every damn machine in sight. Day in, day out, transferring minuscule droplets, incubating samples, waiting for results to manifest under microscopes and UV light. It was a mindless loop of testing, analyzing data, staring at rows of numbers until they made sense, like cracking a code. And sometimes, yeah, I’d get absolutely blitzed and see if the pieces fit any better.

Thing is, the lab barely paid, so I found ways to keep my stash green—mostly through this guy. One of those rich kids in summer school, probably close to failing out, from some Jersey suburb everyone knows because it’s where all the rich jerks live. I’d bum weed off him in exchange for what he probably thought was stellar company. I’d let him smoke me up; he’d get to play the philosopher with his three-sizes-too-big-for-him words. He wanted to “unpack” things I’d already buried deep and forgot about in middle school. He was dumb, but I was broke, and even broke-r that summer. So I took his weed, answered his questions, every answer a decade-old truth. And in between his decade-late mental growth spurt, he peppered me with personal questions, too.

What’s my favorite book? I’d say Looking for Alaska because it was when I was twelve. Movie? Silence of the Lambs, because I remember staying up past my bedtime to watch it, subtitles-only so my mom wouldn’t hear. Song? I told him Sleeping Sickness because it’d been stuck in my head for days, looping, maddening.

And caffeine? No coffee back then, it made me shake like I was coming undone. Just tea, weak and barely steeped. The panic attacks were daily, and meds? They hadn’t crossed my mind yet. When he asked me what kind of tea, I said, “Green,” just to shut him up.

Next day, walking out of the lab, there’s this giant plastic cup from Starbucks waiting for me on the staircase outside. Sweating, condensation running down its side, some pale yellow liquid diluted within. On the cup, in small, weak letters scrawled out in Sharpie: Alaska. Maybe he wrote it. Or maybe he had some barista write it because he couldn’t even manage that much. Took a sip, winced. Something sharp and wrong. Another sip—there it was, that tang. Lemonade. Lemonade cutting through dirt-flavored water. Fought the urge to leave it behind for him to see, but guilt caught me first, so I dumped it in a trash can just outside.

That night, we’re passing a joint around with all the summer burnouts, and he leans in. “Did you get it?” I nod, mutter thanks, watch him puff up like some kind of romantic hero. When someone else in the hazy circle asks me what kind of guys I’m into. I say, “Athletic,” loud enough for him to hear. He wasn’t exactly lean. Figured he’d get the message, but he just started showing up at the gym. Everyday, without fail. Synced with my schedule. Thing is, he actually dropped like fifty pounds by the end of the summer. I probably did him a favor.

But he kept bringing those cups, one Alaska after another, every damn day. I’d dump them like clockwork. By fall semester, he’s outside my dorm window, strumming Sleeping Sickness on this likely overpriced guitar his parents no doubt bought him. The kind of guitar that deserved a lot more respect than three mangled chords it took him two months to learn. My roommates cackled in the corners as I shut the window, hoping he’d take the hint. And the next week he texts me a photo of his laptop screen a scene of Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins, distorted and grainy, captioned, “Thanks for the recommendation.”

How do you tell someone who can’t pass American Lit 101 that your favorite novel is Blood Meridian? Or that your favorite song is something you can’t listen to without your chest aching? And seriously, who the hell hasn’t seen Silence of the Lambs?

Eventually, as you can imagine, it all came to a head. I couldn’t have this guy tailing me everywhere, waking up the whole sophomore tower with his midnight Dallas Green massacres. And secondly, I wanted to screw one of his friends. So one night, I told him, flat out: I hated lemonade, and he could kick rocks. I still wonder how much his dad shelled out for all those venti Starbucks drinks.

[naijaplux]

Nollywood: Kanayo O. Kanayo cautions filmmakers on misleading dressing, makeup

Nollywood veteran, Kanayo O. Kanayo, has cautioned filmmakers over misleading pictures of  dressing and makeup in movies. Kanayo, in a video on his Instagram page during the week, said that most times filmmakers  do  not align with movie costumiers. Captioning the video, he wrote; “Many Nollywood Producers paint the wrong picture of dressing/Makeup in the movies, all in the name of fine picture.…

[lauraneedstochill]

The Greens headcanons (modern!au)

I was inspired by @phiasaban post. the second I saw these photos I had an idea for the modern au and just wrote it all down in 10 minutes (this has nothing to do with the show! it’s just me looking at the photos, mind you):

Alicent is a single mom. loves to cook (def cooks when she’s nervous or upset), has a record collection, loves to dance when she’s tipsy. can be a strict parent when she’s pissed (or really tired) but overall is a mama bear (to the point of getting into arguments with teachers — “yeah, I think I know what’s best for my kids”). she’s an angry driver, keeps her car super clean. dresses casually (plaid shirts and jeans), but whenever she puts on a dress she looks so smoking hot it makes every man turn around after her. tons of them flirt with her but she mostly looks uninterested. deep inside is afraid to get her heart broken again. makes friends with her neighbor Criston (he let her borrow flour a few times). he is totally in love with Alicent and everyone sees it but her. he’s okay with her taking all the time she needs.

Aegon is a fuckboy but a very apologetic one. has no cruel intentions, he just “loves women so much, he can’t help himself”. either writes songs or poetry. has the weirdest captions on instagram. drinks wine 24/7 but manages to look sober when needed. ends up falling in love with one of his closest friends who’s been tolerating him for years, helping him sober up, making him breakfasts, giving cruel reviews of his sappy poems. one day she just casually picks him up in her car, they’re driving in comfortable silence, she asks him how his day went — and it suddenly strikes him that she’s the one. he’ll probably tell her right away (“I think I’m in love with you” — and she sharply presses the brakes). but it will take a couple of weeks for him to fully sober up, convince her to go on a date with him and then to give him a chance. will plant kisses all over her face whenever she’s upset. he loves movie dates, but his sense of humor is questionable.

Aemond is into sports (pick whatever you like, but he doesn’t look like a team player to me lol). very competitive, self-disciplined, doesn’t talk much. girls swoon over him and he ignores them completely. secretly is a nerd, reads a lot (and pretty much anything). falls in love with a girl who challenges him but will also stand by his side in every situation imaginable even if he’s wrong (she won’t shy away from telling him the truth when it’s just the two of them, though). he’s incredibly protective yet very gentle. it’s all about forehead kisses, leaving sweet notes for her, buying flowers for no reason. not a fan of PDA’s but will hold her hand every chance he gets. remembers every single anniversary. they’ll probably adopt a dog. he gives the best hugs and loves when she plays with his hair. they can talk about their favorite books for hours and she loves being the only one who gets to see that side of him.

Helaena is into astrology and tarot cards. has a cat (or three) and probably a little pet snake. talks to animals (I also think she��ll be vegan but don’t quote me on that). buys a lot of plants (and gives them names), maybe in attempt to compensate for her smoking. some may say she has a resting bitch face, but those ppl clearly never saw her smile, 'cause it lights up her face and she looks absolutely adorable. she’s the first one to steal their mother’s car (Alicent is not surprised and just texts her “no smoking in the car!”). annoyed with her brothers most of the time but god forbid someone dares to hurt them. carries a pocketknife (it looks very pretty, decorated with crystals and stuff), wears long t-shirts. adventurous but it takes time for her to trust people. will fall in love with someone who’s kind (and maybe introverted?). they’ll get matching tattoos (smth very small and simple), go on road trips and music festivals. yes, I can totally imagine her being queer.

➡ next: modern!Aemond Targaryen, college au part 1 — “All yours” part 2 — First time for everything 💌 my masterlist

[massalk2]

Throughout the months of April and May of 2022, the defamation trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard had taken place in front of the whole world. Depp sued Heard for defamation after she wrote an “opposite the editorial page” (Op-ed) on the Washington post titled “I spoke up against sexual violence - and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change.” In that op-ed, she talked about sexual and domestic abuse that she experienced as a child but also in romantic relationships. She did not mention Johnny Depp. The trial was made public for the whole world to see.

It is generally believed that this trial made it possible for men to speak up about domestic abuse, however, I think the only thing it did was reinforce misogyny and further silence victims.

I have been on social media during the trial and everybody was talking about it. Compilations on youtube about “the best moments” or “funniest moments” of this trial received more and more views, and especially on the platform “Tiktok” the harassment against Amber Heard was the harshest I've seen a celebrity receive after getting “cancelled”. Short videos of her crying when testifying (in front of the whole world) about sexual abuse or rape she received from her ex-husband Depp were published with circus music in the background, “body language experts” (even though it is not an actual thing) all over the world calling her testimony acting and suspicious. People in the comments, did not deny Depp’s alleged sexual abuse on his ex-wife, instead, they “didnt see what he did wrong here” and “they wished that was them”. I, personally, was shocked by how the public acted when it came to Heard’s testimony on alleged sexual abuse: let’s imagine that she really was lying, it was still a description of rape, not just a normal intercouse, so those comments I read about rape, were disgusting to me, and i can't even imagine how rape victims felt reading comments romanticising such important accusations, just because the perpetrator is a famous actor. The way the general public reacted to violence and especially sexual violence shows that our culture has no problem and is ready to diminish and make fun of women’s traumatic experiences, more so if they are caused by powerful men.

Besides, Heard’s testimonies would be cut into short videos, would be edited with a written caption distorting her meaning and would be published. Us, users of the internet, would see the video cut, edited and out of context, and assume she really is crazy. In fact, by the end of April, she was already the narcissist, manipulative, abusive, money-hungry witch while Johnny Depp was this brave man who built up the courage to finally break his silence and face his abuser, who is very true to himself and innocent because he comes to court in sunglasses and eats candies.

When the verdict came out on June 1st, it was like Amber Heard’s death sentence was pronounced: she was humiliated in front of the world, and petitions asking for her removal from the movie she starred in “Aquaman” got millions of signatures.

A few months later, Brad PItt is suing Angelina Jolie and people are already taking his side, Evan Rachel Wood’s complaints are being questioned, even though it was already proven that she was abused in every way possible by her long-term ex boyfriend Marilyn Manson who dated her when she was 18 while he was 37, but his image got better because he is Johnny Depp’s best friend and everyone loves Johnny Depp. So it is safe to say that the Metoo movement has died because any woman speaking up now is accused of wanting to destroy the man’s life and career and faces diffamation complaints from her abuser.

What I noticed is that women are held accountable for actions they did and actions they didn't do, and are made fun of whether they're abused or abusive.

The petition of Amber Heard getting removed from her movie got millions of votes while a Chris Brown song was trending at the same time. Chris Brown was proven guilty of abusing and being violent against his ex-girlfriend Rihanna, but everybody still listens to his songs, in fact, jokes are made everyday about Rihanna being abused. Other people still defend that we should separate the man from the artist, defending the fact that abusers should still have a career despite their actions, however women's careers are destroyed for being victims.

In conclusion, my opinion is that the Depp v Heard trial should have never been public because it was treated like a reality show, and the way the general public reacted to it has made it easier now, not only to discredit women’s experiences and trauma, but also keep any other (female) victim from speaking out, fearing that she may be publicly humiliated and see her life shatter right in front of her. Amber said after the trial that she has never felt more removed from her humanity, and i completely understand her feelings, even I, who was on no one’s side during the trial, was shocked by the comments I read and videos I’ve seen of not only how she was not treated in a human way but also how grown people were threatening to kill her one-year-old daughter.

[azaleavi]

“All of the songs are about you”

Requested by anon: Hi, first of all I want to thank you for all your amazing work that you share with us, I absolutely adore everything that you write!!! Secondly, I was wondering if I could request something with Sebastian, where reader is a famous singer and younger than him, and when they reveal their relationship, people start saying that he is only using her and he gets worried that she will leave him for someone her age. Once again, thank you! 😚

Word count: 2k

Author's note: Thank you for your kind words dear nonnie! I hope you like it.

Warning(s): language

Feedback is always appreciated and don’t forget to reblog and like if you enjoyed it and want to see more. Thank you!

Masterlist

Both of you being famous wasn't easy with you being a singer and Sebastian being an actor. Especially when you wanted to keep your relationship a secret and you were quite younger than him. You have been dating for a while now and you couldn't be more in love with him. He was your muse for many of your songs, but the fans didn't know that. They did notice though that you started writing more love songs than before. You got questions about it almost every day, but you never answered them. They had their speculations, but you never confirmed any of it. It might be selfish, but you wanted to keep him all to yourself and both of you agreed to wait a little more before going public. He was promoting his new movie and you didn't want people to think that you announced your relationship only to give more publicity to it. But sometimes the universe doesn't care what you want.

It was a normal day, like any other, when you were at Sebastian's house and you started craving some McDonald's. The weather was nice for the time being past 10 pm so you decided to go out to buy it instead of ordering. It was dark already so you weren't afraid that anybody would see or recognize you. It was a five minute walk from his house and you thought it would be nice have a short walk. You waited for Sebastian to lock the front door then started walking down the street hand in hand. It probably wasn't the best idea, but you really didn't think that any paparazzi would be near you. You went into the fast food place to buy what you needed, then started walking back to his place, laughing at a story he was telling you. You loved these late night walks, the dark giving you a sense of comfort.

"Baby" he stopped walking as still giggled, making you stop as well. You turned to him, eyebrows raised in question, a smile still on your face. "I love you" he blurted out, intently looking at you, waiting for your reaction. He never said it before, despite dating for almost 6 months now. You didn't say it either yet, not wanting to make him uncomfortable or rush him. After his last relationship he wanted to be extra sure when saying the three words and you understood him. Your heart skipped a few beats at his confession, the smile widening on your lips.

"I love you too, Seb." you beamed, stepping closer to him and pulling him into a hug.

"Thank god." he mumbled into your hair, making you pull away.

"What do you mean 'thank god'? How could I not feel the same way about you? Haven't you heard the songs I wrote lately?" you asked jokingly in disbelief, but knowing he didn't mean it like that.

"You know what I mean" he blushed under the light of the streetlamp.

"I do" your arms going around his neck you pulled him down into a deep kiss. When you broke apart you walked back to his house to finally eat.

What you didn't realize was that there was a paparazzi following you, getting the perfect angle of your kiss, taking a series of photos.

The next morning you were woken up by your phone essentially exploding with calls and messages. You groaned as you reached for it, barely being able to touch it as Sebastian refused to let go of your waist.

"Why is your phone waking us up at the ass crack of dawn?" he groaned, rubbing his eyes.

"I don't know" you unlocked it to see at least 25 calls from your manager and another few from friends and family. Around the same amount of texts were sent as well, making you sit up in bed, confused. "Something is wrong." he sat up at your tone to look at your phone. You dialed your manager, putting it on speaker. She picked up right away.

"What the fuck are you doing?" she almost screamed into the device, making Sebastian look at you.

"I was sleeping. It's 7 am." you explained.

"Care to tell me why is you and Sebastian kissing plastered on every news site on the internet right now?" your whole world stopped at her words.

"What did you say?" Sebastian spoke up as you were still frozen in your spot.

"Oh your partner in crime is there too? Great. I don't have to say this twice." she was being sarcastic, but you didn't care. You just wanted an explanation.

"Tell us what is happening, please" you pleaded.

"There are multiple pictures of you going around. They are claiming that they took them last night." she explained, but that wasn't enough.

"What pictures?" you asked.

"Pictures of you holding hands and kissing." you ran your hand through your hair.

"Fuck" Sebastian sighed.

"That's an understatement." you heard shuffling on the other side. "So I recommend you guys figure out what you are going to do and do it real fast because it is getting out of hand."

"Yeah, sure we will do that." he took the phone from you. "Thanks."

"Just doing my work." she ended the call with a sigh. Sebastian looked at you as you stared at your legs, deep in thought.

"Hey" he brushed his hand up your back, shaking you out of your mind.

"Yeah?" you looked at him, startled.

"We need to do something." he explained.

"Yeah, yeah, sure. What should we do? Go public? I mean we don't really have any other choice." you furrowed your brows.

"Do you want that?" he wanted you to be hundred percent okay with whatever you were going to do.

"Yes, I just hoped it wouldn't happen like this." you sighed. "Do you want that?" you asked back.

"Yes. We already talked about going public so I guess we will have to do it now." he shrugged.

"How are we doing this then?" you stood up to get dressed, getting ready for the day.

"Posting a video on TikTok?" he grinned.

"Absolutely not. We are not posting on Tiktok." you shook your head, laughing.

"So where do you want it? Facebook?" he raised his eyebrows, joking.

"No." you laughed. "I was thinking about posting a pic on Instagram." you threw out the idea. Both of you used the app a lot so it would be the best choice.

"Okay, let's find a picture." he also stood up.

"Ah-ah" you held out your hand to stop him. "You talk to your manager while I pick out a picture to post on my account and you can post one on yours if you want to. Mine is going to be a surprise." you grinned, already having one in mind. It was your favorite picture of you, taken by a friend without your knowledge. You were in a parking lot at the beach, you sitting on the hood of his car while he was standing between your legs, kissing you. There was a second picture, where you were leaning your forehead against his, both of you laughing at your friends shouting at you to get a room. Both of your faces were clearly seen on them so you decided to post both of them.

'All of the songs are about you' the caption read. In seconds your notifications were blowing up with comments from fans. You didn't want to read them, because you knew how people on the internet could get and you knew that you being younger than him would bother some of them. Sebastian came out of the bedroom to sit next to you.

"You posted it?" he asked, taking out his phone.

"Yep" you smiled. You leaned your head against his shoulder as he opened the app, waiting for his reaction. He immediately searched up your name and tapped on the photo. His thumb froze on the little heart as he read the caption. He put the phone down and grabbed your chin to pull you to his soft lips in a kiss.

"I love you." he mumbled into your lips.

"I love you too." you giggled. He pulled away to pick up the phone to leave a comment. 'If I wrote songs mine would be about you too' you snorted at it. "You are cute"

-

A few days later you had enough courage to check the comments people were leaving online. Maybe it wasn't the best idea.

'Jesus. Isn't he like 12 years older than her?? Gross'

'He is definitely using her lmao but I can't blame him, get that coin king'

'Y'all think she calls him daddy in the bedroom kjsdnhs'

'She is just using him to write songs'

There were nice comments as well, calling you cute together and wishing you well. The mean comments always stuck with you more though and you didn't want Sebastian to read them. It was enough that you went through them. Both of you were a little insecure about your age gap, but you loved each other so you helped the other through the harder times.

You got to his house and walked in as he asked you to not to knock anymore. You found him sitting on his couch, phone in hand. Hoping that he wasn't doing what you thought he was doing you sat down next to him. He had instagram open.

"Seb" you sighed, taking the phone out of his hands.

"What? I just wanted to see what they were saying." he tried to defend himself.

"You shouldn't read these." you shook your head. "So you wanna watch a movie?" you changed the subject. He agreed with your suggestion.

The movie had been playing for a half an hour when he pulled away from your cuddling.

"What if they are right?" his voice was so quiet so almost didn't hear him. You paused the movie to look at him.

"What do you mean?" you asked, confused by his sudden outburst.

"The comments saying that you could do so much better than me" he kept looking at his feet. You sat up and grabbed his chin to turn his head towards you, your heart breaking at his words. This was exactly why you didn't want him to read them.

"Baby" you sighed. "They are not right. Not even by far. I could not find anyone better than you even if I tried. But I'm not trying because I have you with me and you are the best thing that happened to me in a long time. So get that thought out of your head." you stared into his eyes to get your point across.

"But don't you want someone your age?"

"No I don't." you shook your head. "I am perfectly happy with you and I don't need anyone else." you held his cheeks between your palms. "Plus I like it that you are older." you smirked making him chuckle lightly. Climbing onto his lap you pulled him closer. "I love it that you are more experienced." you pressed a soft kiss on his cheek. "I love it that you are taller." a kiss under his ear. "I love it that you are always so so sweet to everyone you meet." a kiss on his nose. Your right hand went into his hair as your lips kissed down to his neck. "And I love the way you make me feel when it's just the two of us." you whispered into his ear, your breath hitting his skin, making him let out a moan. He grabbed your waist in a strong grip. "I love how big your hands are." you nipped at his skin on his neck earning another noise of pleasure and his fingers digging into your skin. "But most importantly" you pulled away so you could look into his eyes to show your sincerity. "I love you. All of you. With everything I have." his eyes softened as he pulled you into a passionate kiss.

"I love you too."

Permanent taglist: @byatomoe

Sebastian Stan taglist: @wobblymug @sleutherclaw @toms-spiders @sarcastically-defensive17 @allforkook @jeremyrennerfanxxxx123 @mrsbarnesinmyimagination @bbl32 @wakandabiitch2

get added to my taglist

[harleysarchive]

To Confess Your Love | Charles Leclerc

Fandom: Formula one Warning: Angsty and FLUFFY my god. Not as long as the first one, 3500 words. Pairing: Charles Leclerc x f!reader  Summary: After the dinner party you and Charles haven’t spoken and you just keeping longing for each other. 

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A/N: Part two of To Fall in Love, and thanks again to Screnwriter for the inspiration, enjoy! 

It has been almost a week since the dinner party and you were at the airport waiting for your flight to Portugal. You and Charles haven’t spoken since that evening and you almost wondered if it was just a fling or a one time event that nothing would come from. You frowned slightly when the thought passed by in your mind, but were interrupted by a voice behind you. Lando came down running the aisle with his packback almost sliding down his shoulders.

“Hey (Y/N)!”

“Hey Lando. How have you been? Ready for Portugal?”

“More than ready, I’m so excited. How are you?”

“I’m good.” you said, more like trying to convince yourself that you were.

“Really?”

“Mmmhmm.”

“How about your crush-...” 

Lando didn’t have time to finish the sentence before your hand flew up on his mouth to hush him done.

“Not that loud, you dork.” you whispered loudly at him and he just grinned. “But nothing really, I haven’t heard from him since the dinner. But he is probably busy and I have been busy as well.” 

You tried to hide the heartbreak in your voice, but Lando sensed it and put an arm around, squeezing your shoulders lightly.

“Well, if he hurts you I will take care of him.” 

“Thank you.” you smiled at him. The speaker's voice told you that it was time to board the plane, which made the crowd move slowly forward. Lando waved at George and he soon joined you in the line. You and Lando had your seats next to each other and George was just one the other side of the aisle. He took out his phone to snap a picture of the three of you. Lando hugged you and you gave off an excited smile. George wrote the caption:

Ready to take off to Portugal!! 

Instagram went crazy over the picture and the comments were very kind towards you and some were speculating if you and Lando were dating. 

The plane ride to Portugal went by fast, you had a great time with George and Lando. You listen to some music, which spotify almost exclusively recommended sappy love songs to make your heart even heavier. You watched a movie and then it was time to land. Portugal was quite warm and you put on your sunglasses when you left the airport. A taxi was waiting for the McLaren drivers and you waved off George as he joined the Williams team. 

“So how are you going to deal with, you know…”

“With Charles?” you asked and he nodded. You hadn’t realized how close he was going to be to you now and, frankly, you were a nervous wreck thinking about him.

“I will try my best to ignore him, besides, I’m with the McLaren team. So, it’s not like he’s gonna waltz into our building any time soon.” you joked, but your heart hoped otherwise. 

The taxi pulled up by the racing tracks and you were to walk with Lando around the track to get him ready for tomorrow's practice round. Daniel had texted you that he was on his way, but his plane was a bit late. Your heart jumped a bit when you passed the Ferrari building, but you tried your best not to think about it. You were here to work, not to go after the stupid crush you had on Charles Leclerc. But your heart didn’t want to listen, it wanted him to notice you, it wanted to have that moment from the dinner. The hand touches, staring into those gorgeous hazel eyes. His warm hand on your lower back guiding you, and his hand stroking your shoulders, pulling you closer to him. Almost kissing him. 

Please don’t let it be a dream that has to die, you begged. Please don’t let this be all that comes out of this. 

An arm snaked around your shoulders, which brought you back from your ruminating thoughts of your current heartache. 

“You look sad, something happened?” Daniel asked. 

“Oh, no. It’s nothing.”

“Hey, I know you well enough to know that you are lying. What has happened?”

“Nothing.”

“Come on, (Y/N)-...”

“No, I mean nothing. He hasn’t talked to me since the dinner party.” you said and put your hands against your face. 

Daniel looked at you with a confused look, then he realized you were talking about Charles.

“Have you tried to talk to him?”

“NO.” your eyes widened and head flew up to look at him.

“Whoa, there is nothing wrong with being the first one to reach out, you know.”

“But I don’t want to annoy him.”

“And what if he feels the same about contacting you?” 

It pained Daniel a bit to help you with your crush on Charles, but it pained him even more to see you so sad over it. And from what he saw at the dinner party, the two of you really liked each other and he couldn’t deny you that happiness. I liked you and would always be protective of you, but he wanted you to be happy. Even if it meant dating a rival. He was about to leave you with your thoughts.

“Oh, and if the two of you start dating, don’t you dare leave me and Lando for Ferrari. You will stay with us.” 

You smiled at his silly remark. You gave him a hug before he left and reassured him that you weren’t going anywhere. You rose from the chair to get Lando for your round around the track. As you walked out from the McLaren building you saw people coming from the Ferrari building, Carlos was one of them with his manager. The same was for the AlphaTauri building and you could see Pierre in the crowd. He noticed you and waved at you. You smiled and waved back, but your smile suddenly turned to confusion when you saw that he was walking towards you.

“Hey, (Y/N) right?” 

“Yes, it is. How are you doing Pierre?”

“I’m good, how are you?”

“I’m good too, I was on my way to walk the track with Lando.”

It felt like Pierre wanted to talk to you about something but changed his mind.

“Well, I’m off too. I see you around.”

“Okay. See ya.” you said confused as Pierre walked away from you. 

Odd, you thought but started to walk towards Lando’s room. But when you turned around your whole body froze. Standing by the Ferrari building stood Charles, talking to one of his managers. You hated how your body reacted over seeing him again, that you couldn’t act normal. Like nothing had happened. But it had and you had played the scenes back in your head like a broken record. You had danced to every love song that you could find and felt like you could conquer the world. You had felt the butterflies late into the night, making it hard to sleep.

But now. Seeing him again made you lose all your confidence and your heartache felt even worse than before. You almost prayed that he didn’t notice you so you could sneak away, but deep down you hoped, wished, that he would see you. Notice you. To give you the same attention he had last week. But he and his team had walked the opposite way and he hadn’t looked in your direction once.

But he knew that you were there, he had seen Pierre talking to you, but he didn’t dare to go up to you. But oh, he wanted to.So bad that his body was aching for it and screaming at him to move. But he didn’t. So, instead of acting on his feelings, he avoided you, thinking it would be easier. Pierre had left you because he thought that Charles would come up to you himself and confess his love to you, but he almost got angry by the fact that he didn’t. Why did he leave you there? 

Charles continued to focus on the race and tried his best to ignore his speeding heart every time he passed the McLaren building. Pierre on the other and would not let this go. He hurried up to Charles and stopped him in his tracks.

“What are you doing?”

“Focusing on the race, why?” 

“Oh really, not ignoring a certain someone?” Pierre asked and Charles could hear the annoyance in his voice. And he hated that Pierre was right.

“No, why?” he lied. 

“Really? So, you looking at (Y/N) with those puppy eyes was nothing.”

Charles swallowed hard and tried to look unbothered by Pierre’s remark but his red cheeks and ears betrayed him. 

“Why don’t you act on it, mon ami?”

Pierre had to leave him because he had to walk the track as well. Charles let out a sigh, he knew Pierre was right. He did want to act on his feelings, but he was afraid. The what if’s haunted him, making him nervous, which was unusual for him.  

The track walking had gone well for Lando. He was super focused and it felt like he was going to do a fantastic race here as well. You walked back to the McLaren building, making yourself ready to take Daniel on his round. You looked out the window to see Charles discussing something with Carlos. 

Fuck, you thought, as you had to walk past them to get to Daniel, so you mustered up all the confidence that you could find within yourself and went out. Charles had his back against you so Carlos would be the first to notice you.

“Hello.” you smiled at Carlos as you got closer to them.

“Hello.” he greeted you politely. Charles turned around when he heard your voice.

“Hey.” Charles said, but you didn’t dare to look at him for too long. You could feel your cheeks become flustered just by greeting him. Him on the other hand had his eyes on you the whole time as you walked away. Carlos followed his gaze to see what had gotten his attention.

“Do you know her?”

“Wha-... Who?” Charles said, trying his best to disguise his flustered state. Carlos just laughed at him and patted him on the back. 

You walked up to Daniel. 

“Ready to walk the track?”

“Sure thing.” he said and snaked an arm around your shoulders. You smiled at him and the two of you started walking towards the track. Daniel saw that Charles was looking at you and Daniel brought you closer to him, trying to protect you from his gaze. Charles' expression soured by Daniel’s action, but this made him determined to do something about his feelings. He was not going to let you go.

The walk with Daniel was different from Lando’s. Daniel was more relaxed but nonetheless as focused as Lando. You took notes and asked him different questions, standard procedure. 

“I think that’s it.” you said. 

“Great! It’s soon time for dinner, are you coming?”

“Not yet, I’m going to take a walk before dinner.” you said. You felt the need to be alone for a moment. Daniel nodded and hugged you from the side before he took off. You walked back to the McLaren building and took your bag. The weather was nice and your mind needed to be alone for a while. You got out of the building, stealing a glance at the Ferrari building, which made your heart feel heavy. But you couldn’t dwell on it too much, maybe it wasn’t meant to be. 

Comotion was heard from the Ferrari building, drawing your attention towards the crowd that exited. Charles was in the crowd with his sunglasses. But you couldn’t stop staring at him and how good he looked in that red shirt. As if he felt that someone was looking at him, his head turned towards you and you quickly focused on the ground.

His eyes were still on you and he took off his sunglasses to get a better look at you. You looked up again and met his eyes. Electricity sparkled inside your body when you met his hazel eyes, you almost felt hypnotised by him and felt how your body wanted to go to him. It was drawn to him, like a magnet. He smiled at you, making his damn dimples visible again. You almost couldn’t take it, your heart almost couldn’t take it. But you smiled back. Charles broke off the gaze when someone called for him and you woke up from your trance. You tightened your grip around your bag and started to walk towards the exit. 

Charles saw how you were leaving.

It’s now or never, he thought and tried to catch up with you. You felt a presence behind you and to your surprise - and delight - it was Charles. 

“Hey.” he said.

“Hello.” you greeted him. His eyes locked with yours again and he completely forgot what he was going to do. His mind became completely blank and all he could focus on was you. You were the only one he wanted to focus on. His body wanted to get closer, his hands wanted to touch you and he could feel his eyes flicker between your eyes and your lips. His hazel eyes drew you in and you could see all the emotions that were fighting inside of him. 

“How did your track walk go?” you asked. His mind woke up from the sound of your voice.

“It went well, I think I’m ready for tomorrow's practice round.”

“I like the sound of it.” you smirked. He let out a sigh. 

“Are you going somewhere?” 

“Yeah I needed some air and to see something else than the tracks.”

“Well I know a few places, if you want me to join you?” his eyes looked at you hopefully but they also showed a bit of worry. Worry of rejection. Worry that you were mad at him for being such a coward towards you. 

“I would love to.” you beamed. He held out his arm for you. You linked it with his, feeling the electricity spark again when you touched him. 

“Can we stop by the hotel so I can get changed?” you asked. 

“Of course.” 

He had his Ferrari parked nearby and opened the door for you. You thanked him, before he started the car and you drove towards the hotel. The two of you talked about how he felt about the practice round tomorrow and how he was feeling for the race on sunday. He had a steady grip on the steering wheel, but he wanted to lay one hand on top of your knee, but he didn’t dare to. He didn’t know how you were feeling. Finally at the hotel, you said that you would meet at the lobby in 30 minutes. You rushed to your room as fast as the elevator would let you and tried to find something that fitted for your date… Wait, was this a date? 

You couldn’t dwell too much on the idea, but it was still in the back of your head when you walked towards the elevator. Charles was already in the lobby when you exited the elevator.

“Ready to go?” he asked. 

“Absolutely.” you said and he held out his arm for you to take. He guided you to his Ferrari and opened the door for you. You thanked him and he drove you around the area, talking about everything and nothing. You laughed and his jokes and shrieked when he sped up with his car. He gave you a smug smile over how excited you were. 

“Are you hungry?” he asked when he pulled up his car in the small city. 

“Starving.” 

“Good, cause I know a place.” 

The two of you got out of the car and he guided you down the road to a restaurant that looked adorable.

“They have delicious food.” 

“Sounds perfect.” 

The waiter showed you a table that looked over the town. It was beautiful and you looked over at Charles. He was wearing his sunglasses so you couldn’t quite see what he was looking at. But his eyes were on you, admiring how you looked at everything with such awe and wonder. Like everything fascinated you to some degree and he liked that. Something distracted you, making you turn your head away from Charles. He took this as an opportunity to move closer to you. He put his arm on the backrest of your chair and when you turned your attention back to him, you noticed that he was closer. He had his hand on the table and your mind was thinking. This is exactly like the dinner last week… But you didn’t put your hand over his this time. The waiter came back with your drinks and took your orders for dinner. Charles then turned his attention back to you, contemplating if he should touch your shoulder like he had done on the dinner. Then a pang of guilt washed over him when he remembered the dinner. 

“You look beautiful, (Y/N).”

His comment made you jump in surprise and you turned towards him, but you could also feel how you got flustered over it.

“Thank you, so do you. But you always do.” you said with a smirk on your face. Knowing that you said the exact same thing last week and he remembered. He had had that sentence in his head ever since that evening. That you thought he looked good. He cleared his throat.

“Listen, I need to tell you something.”

You wanted to play cool, but that phrase just made your body react in a fight-or-flight mode.

“Yes?”

“About the dinner… I was… I was going too... '' Charles stuttered, feeling his whole face turning flustered. He was probably a deep crimson color at the moment.

“You don’t have to-...” you tried to interrupt but your tongue got stuck when you felt his hand on top of your knee.

“I really wanted to talk to you after that dinner, but...”

“But?”

“But I was afraid.”

“Afraid?” you said dumbfounded. “Of what?”

“That you would reject me.”

Your heart melted over his words. How could this even be real? How could he, Charles Leclerc, be afraid of you, (Y/N) (Y/L/N), rejecting him?

“Why would I ever reject you?” you whispered. He took off his sunglasses to get a better look at you. He wanted to be sure that you were honest with him. And nothing about your body language or eyes told him otherwise.

“I could’ve talked to you too, but I was scared that you would think I was annoying for reaching out.”

“Annoying?” he said, confused. “You couldn’t be annoying. If you had reached out to me I would’ve been more than happy to answer.”

“Really?” you beamed.

“Of course. You have already been on my mind since the dinner party.” he confessed, feeling his cheeks burn even more. Your smile couldn’t get bigger, were you hearing this in real life or was this a dream coming true?

Charles' eyes were flickering between your eyes and lips again. He leaned in and this time you had no one to interrupt your moment. The kiss you shared was sweet and full of anticipation. All the electricity that you had felt before sparked like a firework now, the butterflies in your stomach were going crazy and your whole body wanted nothing more than to be close to him. Your hand reached for his chin and his hand was pressing against your back. None of you wanted to break off the kiss, in fear of coming back to reality. But the sound of food coming your way made you break it off, looking at each other with such adoration and love that nothing could come in between the two of you. Both flustered and nervous from the kiss but also full of adrenaline and excitement. Conversation flowed as never before, you talked about the dinner and how you had felt towards Charles and vice versa. 

After dinner Charles wanted to take you to the beach before you headed back to the hotel. The two of you walked hand in hand towards the ocean. You breathed in the salty air and Charles took out his phone to snatch a photo of you. He also started a slow song on spotify.

“What are you doing?” you asked as he grabbed your hand and placed the other on your lower back.

“Dancing with you.” he said, smiling with a tint of rosy cheeks. You just laughed at his sweet actions and danced with him until the sun was setting. He guided you back to the car and drove you to the hotel. When in the lobby you shared one last longing look before you had to be seperated. 

“I’ll see you again?” you asked.

“Of course.” he answered and kissed you knuckles.

“And that’s a promise?”

“That is a promise, ma chérie.”

You smiled and headed for the elevator and the last thing you saw before the door closed was Charles’ flustered face and boyish grin. He was on cloud nine and beyond. He didn’t know when was the last time he had felt this in love and to know that his love was reciprocated.

Je t’aime, (Y/N). Ma chérie. 

A/N: Thank you for reading 🥰

Tagged: @ohmyolympusssy @perfectfantasies22​ @lu-morningstar​

[tsuki-sennin]

My, this is quite the turn of events.

What the hell happened in the past two weeks while we were gone, Donbrothers? We've got a funny red man, a blue monkey and a yellow oni who're a pair of losers, a pink bird wife guy turned epic divorce man, a jailhouse black dog, and a bunch of autistic kids hanging out in the void by themselves! ...also a Tiger/Dragon system apparently just off to the side, which is quite unusual for a Sixth Ranger.

Also, uh... yesterday morning, Kohei Murakami, who played Kusaka in Faiz and Bud in Zyuohger, after asking if his followers saw episode 36 of Donbrothers, shared a picture of Inoue captioned "Toshiki Kabedon", which is uh... exactly what you might imagine it'd be. I know I don't usually show pictures, but I find this deeply compelling. Look at his goddamn face. Look at it. That is a man who knows.

Anyways, Spoilers I guess beneath the cut~!

-Aw how cute, they're napping together :)

-F

-FIVE HUNDRED BILLION YEN??!

-Ah, yep, Kijino's in a real bad state.

-Damn. Railing against your boss like that? In a Japanese corporate setting?

-Haruka with the phonecall!

-...suddenly I'm very thankful that Crane Lady didn't see that he was getting phone calls from a teenage girl.

-Oh shit, a party?

-Of fuckin' course it's a party, have I seen this consistently festival-themed show before?

-Ah fuck, the preview has an inferno. This ain't good.

-Oh shit, GolDon Zyuoh Eagle. Hell yeah, really lean into that bird.

-Friendship :)

-Parfait time!

Haruka: Tell Mister Kijino how much he means to you, Tarou :) Tarou: Kijino, you are worth as much to me as- Shinichi: Y'know on second thought let's not do that!

-He is... The wife guy.

-Oh goddammit-

-Goddamn, he couldn't even get a man sent to jail hjkl

-Inuzuka Tsubasa...!

-Chase him!

-Damn, these Juto are violent violent!

-Me when no food.

-Ah, I see he's still a Master Shef.

-EAT

-EAT PUNY BIRD MAN

-Ohhhhh, sirens. ...did that guy say "Kyuukyuu" earlier? ...GoGoFive man?

-"Damn dude, I didn't know going sicko mode made you a shit cook. 0/10, would not eat again."

-"EAT MY GODDAMN FOOD YOU PIGS"

-Oh shit, Sononi-san!

-Crane Lady!

-Oh goddammit Haruka, do you have an interest in her too? ...I mean fair, but c'mon.

-Canned movie! ...oh shit, I still haven't seen that. Battle Familia either. Damn.

-Shake's pier.

-Prince, magic, true love, back normal!

-Hell yeah.

-Ohhhh, she wants to be a beast.

-Natsumi-chan~!

-Natsumi-san!

-"Wanna play fancy actress for a bit? :3"

-Ah, so this IS Natsumi mode!

-A rich fan!

-Oh shit, Jirou's back! I see Rumi-chan's still here too.

-Stew!

-Ah, the boys are fightin'.

-"Dude what, you suddenly grew a tiger kimono."

-He suddenly became a giga chad right before your eyes.

-Remember the sunset.

-Merbromin...

-"Yeeeeeah, I guess that makes sense!"

-Guess Haruka is a dedicated Natsumi stan now.

-Here they are! The condor lady and the shadow man!

-Ohhhhh, this is a bit intense.

-God dang it, Haruka!

Sononi: Geez, what's up with there? Sonoza: She's a

-Poor Emergency Guy.

-Momoi Tarou.

-Miho is Natsumi's dream?

-Get the real Tsubasa back, get rid of this sussy baka imposter.

-Ohhhhhh, I love Crane Lady's monster form.

-Oi, Tarou, don't say "Two on one works for me!", people might get the wrong idea.

-"Dammit, I must be slipping if I got saved by Sonoza!"

-Where the boyfriend at?

-Even wrote a notecard for you, huh?

-OH THERE HE IS HJKLH

-"Fuck it, who cares! Kage Time!"

-Kyuukyuu-Ki!

-Oh god, this is gonna be how Tsubasa has his internal reveal

-OH NO ROLLCALL TIME JHGLKGKV

-Born from a peach! Don Momotaro! Yooooo! Nippon Ichi!

-Bidding farewell to the transient world... SaruBrother! Yo! Muki muki!

-The manga master, OniSister! Yo! Oni no kanabo!

-YOU FUCKED IT UP

-YOU FUCKED IT UP YOU MANIAC

-Jirou, let's go!

-"BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA GET THEM! SHOOT THEM! SHOOT 'EM GOOD, DOGGIE!"

-God, this is such chaos, and I woudln't have it any other way.

-Save the Earth! Save a Life!

-Oh yeah, Jirou wasn't there.

-Goooold Avatar Change! Honnou Kakusei! Monarch of the Open Skies! Zyuoh Eagle!

-...that seemed a little anticlimactic. I mean, he probably could've cleared the fire on his own, but I guess a bit of Zyuoh love isn't remiss!

-There it is! The big fuck-off fully combined robot of this season!

-"Shut up arm, I own you!"

-Donbros Fantasia Supreme!

-A supreme win for the ages!

-Hey there emergency guy!

-Well done, report back to HQ.

-Goooooo Tsubasa!

-Hell yeah, you got him!

-Good job, Tsubasa!

-Only one. Ore koso.

-Did the creepy origami cats free him? Or did he rip out of there on his own?

-SONOSHI WHAT

-That form... IS THAT A HENSHIN NINJA ARASHI REFERENCE

-Well, I guess... they're a bit more even now. This man came waltzing in, so I guess he's here now. See you on Monday, I guess.

[hookingminor]

4 times his friends posted you on their instagram + 1 time he did - mat barzal

a/n: I wrote this literally back in july so lets just ignore how idealistic this is regarding quarantine but im a slut for some barzy this is all fluff

word count: 4,733

summary: like the title says, some friends (with benefits?) to lovers + a tyson cameo, fluffy summer quarantine fic

tagging @davidpastrsnack​ so kate can get on the barzy train

-

1.

To say the whole quarantine thing was an inconvenience was an understatement. School had ended online, your summer internship was cancelled, and it seemed like your summer would turn into an uneventful couple of months stuck in your apartment in, probably, the worst place to be stuck in during a pandemic: New York City.

Or so you thought.

You’d planned on having the most boring summer ever until your friend, Mat, had invited you to hole up away with him and a few friends in a lake house back in Vancouver. Well, friend was a loose term. The two of you were friends… just ones that kissed occasionally… and sometimes more than kissed. You’d met him about a year ago at a bar while he was out with his teammates after a game. A cliche meeting, but you hit it off instantly. Instead of ending up in his bed at the end of the night (which you would eventually end up at after a couple months), it turned into an exchange of numbers and an invitation to hang out later in the week.

You hadn’t thought anything of it at first, just thinking he was being friendly and wanting to end the conversation, so you were surprised to get a text the next day from an unknown number asking if you’d wanted to go on a bike ride.

Flashforward a year later and the two of you still went on bike rides together. At least, up until the pandemic started.

When the text came telling you to pack your bags for a month or so, you thought he was joking. Surely he couldn’t have meant you to join him in Vancouver over the summer? You were proven wrong when he showed up at your apartment the next day, two coffees in his hand.

“Uh, hi, Mathew,” you said hesitantly, opening your door to reveal your disheveled state, having just woken up.

“Why are you dressed like that? We have a plane to catch in four hours,” he said, pushing himself through your door, uninvited, to set the coffees on the counter.

“What are you doing here? What plane? You’re not supposed to be going out,” you reprimanded him for showing up unannounced and in the middle of quarantine.

“I told you we’re going to Vancouver, I know you read my text. Now let’s hurry up and pack, we gotta get going,” Mat rushed, already on the way to your bedroom.

You followed him after a brief moment once you’d processed what was going on. Mat had already pulled out your suitcase and set it on top of your bed by the time you entered the door. He was in the middle of rifling through your drawers and grabbing random garments to throw into the suitcase when you’d spoken again.

“You’re actually serious about this?”

“Of course I am. What better things do you have to do in a city on lockdown for an entire summer? Honestly, I’m doing you a favor,” he explained easily, turning back to grab more items.

“Oh, you’re doing me a favor? Thank you, Mat, for saving me from a summer of suffering. It’s not like I had other plans to find different internships or focus on my summer classes,” you replied sarcastically.

Mat rolled his eyes. “I am doing you a favor, and you’re doing me a favor by going. I need a hot piece of ass to get me through this, or I will lose my mind.” You slugged him on the shoulder in offense, but all he did was chuckle.

“And anyways, you can still do your classes in Vancouver. Instead of doing them locked in this apartment, you can do them lounged out under the Canadian sun. Preferably in a bikini,” he finished. You slugged his arm again, harder this time.

“In fact, you should take the red bikini, it makes your tits look amazing,” he said, noticing you shuffling through your swimsuits. You rolled your eyes at him but grabbed the red one anyway along with a couple others.

With both of you folding and packing, your bags were ready to go in record time.

“Alright, baby, let’s go.” And so you were off.

A week had gone by in total bliss. As much as you hated to admit it, Mat was right. Vacationing in Vancouver in a secluded lake house was a lot better than being alone in your apartment, even if you did still have classes to do. Mat teased you about it, but he always left you alone for a few hours in the day for you to focus on your work. Unless he really wanted something… like right now.

Mat had joined you laying on the couch while you were in the middle of annotating a book for class. He wiggled his way between your arms, causing you to break your hold on your book. He rested his head on your chest, arms wrapped around your middle, and nuzzled his face into your neck. Joining your hands back to your book and bringing your highlighter to the page, you continued to underline phrases you’d come back to later. A couple minutes passed in silence before Mat started sighing. And then he sighed again.

“What do you want?” you huffed out, closing your book with the pen marking your page.

“Let’s go swimming,” he said, pushing up to his elbows to look at your face.

“I have to finish, like, three more chapters today,” you explained.

“You can do that later. I want to go swimming now,” Mat whined.

“You know you sound like a petulant child right now, right?” you asked, moving a hand to his head, pushing his hair back as he pouted.

“Stop using big words on me. Let’s swim,” he said, rolling his eyes.

You paused to think about it for a moment, “Hmm… okay, I guess,” you said with a smile. Mat returned your smile with one of his own before hopping up to drag you to your room to change. It didn’t take much to convince you to swim. It was a really nice day out, and you didn’t really care to finish reading about 17th century philosophy.

You changed into your red bikini, Mat swapped his shorts for a pair of swim trunks, and threw on a backwards baseball cap. You went out back to join the rest of his friend group, who were in the process of loading up the boat with supplies and equipment.

“Oh, look, if it isn’t Brainiac and the Beast. Are you two finally going to go boating with us?” Tyson shouted from the dock. You rolled your eyes at his nickname they created for you and Mat. It had only been a week in Vancouver, but the chirps about you and school were tired by now.

“Princess here wants to swim in the pool, maybe next time!” you shouted back, pointing to Mat.

They laughed at your response, turning their attention back to the boat and running supplies to and from the house. You turned your attention back to Mat, who was taking off his hat and was about two seconds away from jumping in the pool.

“Mathew, stop!” you yelled out, “Get your ass over here!”

“What is it?” he asked, stopping just short of the deep end. He grumbled before marching over to you.

“You need to put sunscreen on first, dumbass,” you reprimanded. As you turned your back to grab the bottle of sunscreen, he rolled his eyes.

“Don’t roll your eyes at me, Mat,” you said sharply, turning back to face him with a raised eyebrow.

“Wouldn’t dream of it, baby.”

You ignored him, opening the cap and squeezing lotion onto your hands. You gestured him to turn around, and you spread the lotion over it, making sure to rub it into his shoulders.

“I don’t see why I have to put sunscreen on. It’s not even that hot outside,” he muttered.

“First of all, you’re a dumbass. Second of all, heat doesn’t automatically mean the UV rays aren’t strong. And lastly, you’re white, baby, you’ll burn like a sun-dried tomato and being in water only increases the amount of sun you’re exposed to,” you explained, reaching up to rub some on his face.

“Sorry, Miss Meteorologist,” he grumbled, clearly not happy he’d lost this argument.

“One of us has to have brains. We can’t all get by on our good looks and skating ability,” you replied, slapping his cheeks when you were done for good measure.

“Okay, well, if you’re finally done,” you nodded in confirmation, “Let’s go.” He picked you up from under your thighs and ran at full speed towards the pool before you could even process what was happening. You screamed his name in protest begging him to put you down, claiming you hadn’t had time to put on sunscreen yet. He ignored you as he jumped into the deep end, dragging you with him.

You emerged from the water clinging to Mat’s wet body, your hair sopping and hanging over your face like you had come straight out of the movie The Grudge. Mat was laughing at your chaotic look, knowing you were well pissed at him. You jumped higher in the water on top of him to dunk his head under and tried your best to drown him.

It wasn’t until you were relaxing on the couch later that night doing your routinely social media scroll that you saw one of the guys recorded your sunscreen interaction by the pool, you calling Mat a dumbass, and him throwing you in the pool onto their instagram story with a caption “all these two do is fight” with some laughing crying emojis added for effect.

2.

After a long day or hiking, you’d immediately crashed on the couch once you’d gotten back to the house, not bothering to walk all the way to your room. It was only early in the afternoon but you’d been out since sunrise, and dealing with people for hours on end had drained you. The group laughed at you as you plopped your body down onto the couch, curling your head under your arm instead of grabbing the pillow two feet away from you. The rest of them gathered in the kitchen, refueling their bodies with assorted snacks as they started popping open bottles of beer, ready to start the night. It seemed that even an entire day on their feet had not emptied them of their, seemingly endless, energy.

“Jesus Christ, we hiked for, like, six hours and you’re all still bouncing off the walls,” you sighed deeply.

“We’re about to go hit the boat and go water skiing, too. I’m assuming you’re too tired to join us?” Tyson teased.

“I will not be joining you because unlike some people, I need a nap. Now get out of here, you’re all giving me a headache,” you said, pinching your fingers on the bridge of your nose to emphasize your point.

They all snickered but kept quiet as they shuffled around, packing up more food to take outside. You heard the sliding door shut and close a few times as they ran in and out before it was finally silent. You let out a sigh of relief as you took solace in the calm quiet.

That was until you felt a pair of arms shifting you closer to the edge of the couch. You peeked one eye open to see Mat rolling your body over to give him some space as he climbed over your body to nestle himself between you and the back cushions.

“Not going out on the boat?” You asked as he tucked a pillow under the both of your heads and pulled a blanket over your bodies.

“No. They’re exhausting. I need some time for myself,” Mat replied, wrapping his arm around your middle to pull you into his chest.

“No offense, but if you’re with me, you’re not by yourself,” you explained, closing your eyes again as you settled into a comfortable position.

“Yeah, but you’re you. You don’t exhaust me,” he said quietly. You didn’t know what to say to that, so you didn’t answer. Within a few seconds you heard Mat’s breathing even out, and you followed quickly behind him into a deep sleep.

-

A couple hours passed in a dreamless sleep when you heard the sliding of doors and laughter travel through the house. It stirred you from your sleep and you both shifted around, letting out displeased groans.

“Are they both still asleep?” You heard one of them ask from the kitchen. Neither of you wanted to answer in hopes they would leave you two to continue sleeping.

You were sadly mistaken.

“Hey! Sleeping beauties! Time to get up!” Tyson shouted from somewhere above you.

You both groaned out a “Fuck off, Tyson,” without opening your eyes, both of you giving him the middle finger. Tyson laughed to himself and you expected him to keep bothering you, but you heard his footsteps lead away from the couch. You turned over on your other side, tucking your face into Mat’s neck before falling back asleep.

-

When you woke up later that evening, you checked instagram again to see Tyson posted a new story. It was the video of him bothering you two and flipping him off with a caption that said “I get no respect around here :(“

3.

It had been raining all day. Which meant everyone was stuck inside watching movies and eating pizza. It didn’t take long for you to get bored of lounging on the couch, especially when all they wanted to do was watch Fast and Furious movies. You sat on the loveseat you were sharing with Mat, and you distracted yourself from the boring movie by tangling your hands in your hair, French braiding the strands into pigtails mindlessly. You unbraided and rebraided your hair into a fishtail after the pigtails, and then into a regular braided ponytail after that. You let yourself get caught up in daydreams as you stared blankly at the TV when Mat started tugging on your leg. Dropping your braid, you finished tying it off with a hair tie and turned to look at him.

“Let me practice on you,” Mat said quietly.

“Practice what?” You asked.

“Braiding,” he said, shuffling to sit upright. He tried to gently push you off the couch until you got the hint and moved to sit between his legs on the floor.

“You think you can do it?” You asked, ready to offer him a demonstration.

“I’ve been watching you for the past half hour, I got this,” he replied, pulling out your hair tie. You rolled your eyes at his confidence, but let him continue unraveling the strands.

Every few minutes Mat would sigh exasperatedly before pulling out the twists he’d made to start over. Eventually, he’d almost gotten all the way to the end of your hair before he sighed again, clearly fed up by how long this was taking him. You didn’t say anything as he restarted for a third time, going for a straight back braid instead of a French braid.

After another ten minutes, Mat had finally completed his simple braid, tying your hair off with the tie. He tapped your shoulder to indicate he was done, and you pulled the long tail over your shoulder to look at it.

It was a braid.

An extremely loose one where he mixed up the strand order in a couple places, but a braid nonetheless. You turned around to get back up on the couch, and you were met with his triumphant smile.

“Good job, bud,” you complimented, leaving the braid in as you resumed your previous position on the couch.

-

You checked your phone to find a notification of a new story tag. You opened the app to see a picture of you on the floor, staring at the TV while Mat had his hands twisted in your hair and a confused look on his face and tongue poking out of his mouth. Next to your instagram tag was “he’s been knotting her hair on purpose for 20 minutes now”

4.

Your final exams for the summer classes you were taking were in a week. Finals stressed you out more than anything else in the world, and when you were stressed, you did a lot of baking. A lot of baking. After finishing your finals study schedule and nearly breaking down almost twice because of the amount you had to get done, you decided to start baking instead of going to sleep. So, at 3 in the morning when everyone was asleep, you’d  turned on the oven and brought out the bowls.

It began with a few dozen cookies. You figured everyone could at least enjoy the cookies. Who didn’t like cookies?

Cookies turned into muffins, muffins into cupcakes, and then cupcakes into pies. By the time everyone was waking up, it was nearly eleven in the morning. You’d gone to the store twice and had taken a few twenty minute naps while you waited for your desserts baked in the oven. And right now, you were in the middle of finishing off some cinnamon rolls for breakfast

“Oh my god, what the hell happened here?” Mat had asked with a scared expression, taking note of the disastrous kitchen. You didn’t answer him as you were topping off the rolls with some icing.

A few more bodies had gathered in the kitchen and began to fill the seats at the countertop while they watched you with worried eyes.

“What?” You asked innocently, placing the plates of cinnamon rolls in front of all of them. Their eyes followed you carefully as you pulled more goods out of the oven where you were keeping them warm. Plate after plate you set on the counter, all the cookies and muffins and cakes.

“How long have you been up?” Tyson asked cautiously. You swear you’ve never heard him use a softer voice than right now.

“I’m not sure. I never went to sleep, I guess? What time is it now?” You asked, pulling out glasses for orange juice.

“Nearly noon. You seriously didn’t sleep?” Tyson asked. The others had delved into the confections, eyes bouncing between the two of you as they stuffed their faces.

“She’s stress baking,” Mat replied quietly, helping himself to a cinnamon roll.

“What the hell is tress baking?” One of the other guys asked.

“Yeah she does this when she’s stressed. Usually when finals are coming up,” Mat said, directing it more towards you than his friend. You gave him a sheepish look, deciding not to comment since he already answered for you.

Mat was used to your stress baking as it resulted in you showing up at his place in the middle of the night with bags full of pastries in the late hours of the evening. It was always against his diet and he frequently gave most of your desserts to his neighbor, but he could never tell you no when you arrived with gifts.

“Well, I’m all out of flour, so, I’m going to run to the store again to get some more supplies so I can make a chocolate cake later,” you said hurriedly.

You did a quick double check of the kitchen, flashing all the guys a bright smile before heading out the door with your purse in hand, all of them staring until the front door shut behind you.

-

When you came back, you found Mat in the kitchen doing the dishes and nearly all the sweets you’d baked earlier were eaten or wrapped and put away. Maybe there was a plus side to being in a home with five other people.

“Mat, you don’t have to do that,” you said, setting your groceries down and hip checking him away from the sink.

“You’re already stressed, I figured doing the dishes would take away some of that,” he said with a shrug. He continued rinsing out some bowls as you gave him a small smile.

The two of you continued to wash the dishes in silence, moving to clean the countertops when you were done. After half an hour, the mess you’d made was gone and any signs of a baking breakdown had been erased.

It was a shame you were about to tear up the kitchen all over again.

“How about this,” Mat said, noticing the frown on your face at the thought of making another mess, “Let’s have a competition.”

You quirked your eyebrow, “I’m listening.”

“You said you were making a chocolate cake, right? How about we see who can make the better cake,” Mat propositioned.

You raised both your eyebrows this time. You both knew you were the better baker by a long shot. You did have this same breakdown at least twice a year. You weren’t even sure Mat knew how to make anything that didn’t come with box instructions or included possible salmonella-inducing ingredients.

You knew what he was really trying to do. He was trying to distract you from all the stress, and he knew you couldn’t turn down a competition. You were just as bad as him when it came to winning. Thankfully, this was something you knew you’d win.

“Fine, but I hope you’re prepared to lose,” you agreed with a smile.

“I don’t know, I have been practicing my cooking skills lately,” he said, grabbing the bowls he’d just dried off.

“Yeah, I’ll believe that when I see it,” you replied with an eye roll and heavy sarcasm.

You joined him in gathering all the ingredients and materials on the counter, setting up your respective stations. Mat divided the workspace in half, drawing a line in flour which made you laugh. You split the bowls between the sides and set up the ingredients on the second counter just like an actual cooking show.

“Okay, ground rules first. Half an hour to make the cakes, we bake them at the same time, and then another half hour for decorating at the end,” you explained, tying your hair back in a ponytail. Mat nodded at your statement and set a timer on his phone for 30 minutes.

“Ready.”

“Set.”

“Go!”

-

After about two hours, your creations were done. Well, they were supposed to be. Mat’s cake looked more or less like a brown lump coated in frosting and stripes. You’d tried your best to decorate yours with small chocolate roses, but you could’ve turned out a plain cake and probably would have done better.

“I think I won,” you stated confidently.

“You’re not allowed to decide, you’re biased! I’ll make a poll on my story,” Mat said, going to grab his phone.

“You can’t do that, your followers are going to pick yours.”

“Fine, we’ll get someone else to do it— Josty! Come here,” Mat called to his friend passing through the kitchen. He hesitantly walked over to where you were, not wanting to come in the middle of whatever you two were shouting about.

“We need you to make an instagram poll to see who’s cake looks better. Oh, and you’re going to taste test them,” you said, picking up your cake to pose for a picture as Mat did the same. Tyson sighed before realizing you two were serious and he opened his app to take a picture.

He added the photo to his story with a poll asking “Which one is better?” With two options, Y/N’s or Mat’s.

After you set the cakes back down, Tyson picked up a fork before stabbing them to pick out a chunk from each. He ate yours first, nearly moaning at the taste.

“Holy shit, this is, like, the best cake I’ve ever eaten,” Tyson said, shoveling down another forkful. You gave Mat a shit-eating grin.

“Okay, okay, try mine now,” Mat said, displeased. Tyson rolled his eyes before forking out some of his.

“Uh,” he coughed, “it’s a little,” cough, “dry.”

“What? No, it’s not! Let me try,” Mat shouted, outraged, and grabbed Tyson’s fork to try for himself.

It took him two seconds before he was spitting the cake into a napkin.

“Fine. You win,” Mat conceded, throwing a dish towel against the counter in mock fury.

You gloated for another 5 minutes, pointing out Mat’s terrible baking skills as Tyson continued to eat your cake and laugh at Mat.

You won the instagram poll too.

+ 1

It was the last week before you and Mat were flying back to New York. The past month had passed quickly, and Mat needed to get back for the start of training camps. As the summer began to end, the whole crew thought they’d spend one last day on the boat before everyone started parting ways.

It’s not like you were opposed to being on boats, but when all the guys did was water sports and no one wanted to slow down to teach you, it wasn’t as fun.

Today, however, had been quite calm as you sat against the front of the boat, a seltzer in hand as you watched Tyson wakeboarding in the back. Mat was curled up behind you as you leaned back against his chest, tanned skin shining in the summer sun. You reached back to grab the baseball cap off his head, placing it on yours to shield your eyes from the sun. You’d forgotten to bring sunglasses, and you figured Mat could part with his hat since he had a pair.

The day passed peacefully as all the guys took turns until it was sunset. Mat had joined you back on the seat, skin wet from just getting out of the water. He wrapped you in his arms before pulling you onto his lap, pressing a quick kiss to your cheek.

“Hey, Tys, take a picture of us real quick,” Mat said, shoving his phone into Tyson’s chest.

You thought nothing of it, you and Mat had taken many pictures together, and this was no different. Mat rested his chin on your shoulder, his arms wrapped around your stomach as you both gave your cheesiest smiles to the camera. A quick shutter indicated the picture was taken and Tyson gave Mat his phone back.

-

Mat called your name from your bed as you stood in the adjoined bathroom, finishing your nightly routine.

“Hey, do you mind if I post that picture of us on my instagram?” Mat called out.

“The one from the boat? Why?” You asked, drying off your face with a towel.

“It’s a cute picture,” he shrugged when you reentered the room.

“People are going to start talking if you do,” you warned with a cautious tone.

He paused for a second.

“Would that be such a bad thing?” Mat asked quietly, looking up to meet your eyes.

You stayed silent as you climbed in under the covers.

“What are you trying to say, Mat?”

He took a deep breath, “I think you’re amazing, you know that. And we’ve been friends for so long, it kind of feels natural, doesn’t it?” His fingers began tapping against the sheets anxiously as he held his breath and waited for your response.

You gave him a small smile, moving your body around to fully face him.

“It does,” you agreed, “But if you want us to be something more, you’re going to have to ask me on a date first.”

“A date? After I’ve already gotten you into bed? What’s the point?” You knew he meant it as a joke since he could barely finish the sentence without laughing, but you gently slapped his head as he began to apologize.

“I’m kidding!” He said between chuckles, “Will you go on a date with me once we get back to New York and it’s safe to go out again?”

“I’d love to, Mat,” you replied, leaning in to give him a sweet kiss.

“I’m still going to post that photo tomorrow, though,” he said after a short pause, smiling against your lips.

-

The next day when Mat had gone on a fishing trip with the guys, you saw a notification pop up on your phone.

“@barzal97 tagged you in a photo”

You unlocked your phone.

“Isolation isn’t so bad when you have this girl to spend it with”