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alalaya2 · 2 months ago

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Tim Drakes Sleeping habits save the Earth

11 They’re Coming 1/2

A Few hours had passed, and Danny was Disassociating as he was going in and out of consciousness, he was not able to accept what was happening around him. In the two years he had been a protective spirit he had never lost anyone. The 30 people who had died during Ghost attacks were the rare occasions when he was not in town when the attack happened. The Deaths were cause by the GIW not caring about civilians and hit a tour bus trying to catch Boxy. The locals knew to stay away which is why they only got injured but not the outsiders, that was probably the point when the GIW started their information block in earnest. Before then there were a lot of people coming in and out of the city, then the tourists just stopped coming.

It didn’t really worry any of the Amity Parker's at the time everyone figured that people were realizing it was not safe to Visit anymore. They were upset and were starting to see that the GIW were no longer the funny MIB rip offs that shoots like a storm-trooper, they were more Dangerous than the Ghost.

The Ghost may have caused some property damage and caused a few inconveniences, but they never went out of their way to hurt anyone. The GIW had now actively killed the people they claimed to protect. Danny’s parents refused to work with them after that and started to notice things about the ghost around them. It shocked them and had shaken their faith in the GIW when Boxy had actively tried to save the Tourist while he was actively being shot at. By the time they had run across him bonding to Lunch Lady They had completely abandoned the notion that Ghost were non-sentient.

It had shown then that Humans can be the real Monsters in the story. There were kids on the Bus that had been Burned alive and if it wouldn’t have caused them more trouble the GIW would have taken every single one of them for experimentation. Danny and Jazz had been so relieved that their parent did not agree with the GIW about the experiments. It had made him feel a lot better when he had finally told them he was Phantom because he knew that he would not be ending up as one of their experiments.

He couldn’t move the Bindings were too tight and they Burned it helped just thinking of the past. In the back of his mind, he knew he was going into obsession failure. It was a lot like shock, but it could be even deadlier, and it was even more dangerous for first time obsession failure. He knew he if he didn’t pull himself together, he could risk his Core Cracking. If his Core Cracked, he had a 10% chance of not fading. If he managed to pull himself out of the Obsession Failure it would be less dangerous each time.

Normally when a ghost started to have an obsession failure the elders of their Farid would use their core energy to support them until they could heal. As it was, He was alone, and he was not doing so well he couldn’t get overt the fact that he had lost one of his subjects when he was right there. It was worse because he knew Klemper the 30 Tourist were hard because he hadn’t been there to help but this was worse. He wanted his parents and his Ghost parent. “Clocky Help” he managed to say around the muzzle before he finally managed to pass out Luckily the suppressor cuffs kept him in his Ghost form.

Agent O looked onto Phantom wondering where Agent E was, he was in charge of all the wet work for experimentation and was supposed to be back from vacation today. This was one of the few protocols that he hated but he knew it was needed. They only had a limited number of specimens, and they had to make every experiment count. He just wished that they could get started, it had taken so long to get Phantom, and he didn’t want them to escape. Though looking at the green glassy eyes he didn’t think it would happen anytime soon.

Clockwork and Frostbite saw the glassy eyed stare on the young king and Agent O’s look of discussed on the Time Mirrors.

“He is going into Core shock” Growled Frostbite.

“He is and he will survive it” hissed Clockwork his tail lashing like an angry cat he was not happy with what needed to happen. If he didn’t know the hell that was about to rained down on them in a few hours he would have gotten Danny. Timeline be dammed, as it was, he knew his sister would be a good step in for the battle. He was a good fighter but, in this case, he was compromised and if he got involved too much it would lead to a lot more pain for Danny. He tilted his head to a different Mirror “I will not be able to go until the end of the battle, but she will give them the retribution they deserve.”

Frostbite looked at the Mirror Clockwork had pointed at. It showed Morrigan with a dead clock falling from her hands, her hair was wild and had black feathers sticking out along with arm and leg guards of black metal and feathered details on them. The little Curl of Black makeup on her left eye was sharp as ever with an outline of red and she had a black feathered shoulder guard on. She was standing away from the GIW base “They’re so Screwed” he said in surprise and awe.

Clockwork nodded Morrigan was the middle child and while he was always ready to through hands his sister was the one to Burn it all down. He watched as Morrigan’s Crows circled around bringing her the information they would need to get in faster. “True but there is no such thing as over kill in love and war.” They watched Morrigan Turn as three portals opened behind her….

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#danny phantom #dp x dc #batman #ghost king danny #dpxdc #clockwork #frostbite #fright night #princess dani phantom

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retrieve-the-kraken · 4 months ago

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In honor of the Young Royals anniversary, I’m posting my pictures from my pilgrimage to the holiest of places in YR fandom, Kaggeholm slottet (Hillerska).

I have to say, not only was it so surreal to arrive at the actual place, but it was actually one of the nicest days from my whole trip to the Nordics (besides seeing Omar at Furuvik and my birthday). It was such a nice day with perfect weather, the trip to Ekerö itself was kind of a fun little adventure, and I wasn’t yet dying from pollen allergy (more on that some other time). It was great.

I have to say, getting off the bus, and seeing the bus stop, and then turning around and realizing that the building is RIGHT THERE, was a little shocking. I don’t know what it is, but the dimensions of everything in my head were completely different. I mean, is it me, or did everything look bigger, farther, higher on the show…?

The area is very peaceful. I saw some cars arriving, some people working in the surrounding buildings, and I was prepared to be told to “get the fuck out”, but no one said anything to me. Guess they’re either very used to YR fans walking around in awe and they don’t pay us any mind (unless you’re disruptive or something, perhaps?), or they just don’t mind visitors. Either way, I was left to roam the area, and take pictures and nobody ever asked me anything.

The main building was closed, though, and through the windows I could see a lot of piled furniture. The high season is in the summer, and it’s clear that they were working on the areas and buildings used by visitors, and for summer activities. I didn’t walk too much around the buildings in the back because they were working, and I was worried about walking straight into a construction.

The whole garden was in dire need of upkeep, which I’m guessing happens nearer the start of the summer season. The grass was quite high, and there were loads of flowers growing everywhere. The fountain was empty.

But the area was really beautiful and peaceful. Sometimes there was the noise of grass-cutting equipment or an electric saw, but most of the time, I just heard birds singing, and the breeze, and it felt very nice. Perfect for a picnic.

Look! The classroom building! And the pier!

It was near midday, and I had to figure out where I’d have lunch. I brought a little picnic, but it felt kind of weird to sit there all alone and eat. Also I couldn’t see where to dispose of my garbage afterwards, so after taking a gajillion pictures and videos, I started back toward the front to wait for the bus in the iconic bus stop.

On my way around the main building, I saw this offering by a fellow YR fan.

Also, since I knew the bus would still be a little while, I did sit at a picnic table on the front, and had a knäckebröd sandwich, in honor of Wilmon. And I enjoyed some more of the soothing sounds of birds singing.

And the final stop of my little tour was the red bus stop.

Wow, that place has been turned into a real chapel of YR adoration and prayer, hasn’t it?

I was amazed by the amount of graffiti all over it, paying tribute to all the characters, the actors, the creators and the magic of the show. But I was also amazed about the fact that it has been left untouched. I hope it remains like that forever, but you never know, so I captured as much of it as I could. I might have to share them all in another post, because this is not letting me right now...

I left my own mark, so if anyone ever visits, you might find a tiny message saying Retrieve-the-Kraken was here (or something like that, can't remember) somewhere on the bench. I think I remember thanking Lisa too.

So there you have it. I was but a humble pilgrim wanting to see the place where one of the most special shows that was a very special part of my life for three years took place, and it did not disappoint.

It felt especially bittersweet to be there after the end of the show. From the way the place looked, it was almost like they really shut down Hillerska, but also it was like entering a dimension of its own, the birthplace of a love like no other. And I don't mean just Wilmon Endgame™, I mean a very special fandom which will live in my heart forever.

I'm not ready to let go just yet, though...

#happy young royals day #happy young royals anniversary #young royals #young royals forever #wilmon #wilmon endgame #hillerska #kaggeholm slottet #sweden #kraken i norden #kraken i sverige

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rambleonwaywardson · 22 days ago

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Clegan Olympics AU - Gold Over America

Masterpost

Read on AO3 (this is a new installment in the Clegan Olympics AU series on AO3)

Author's note: This is NOT the official epilogue. However, I went to see the Gold Over America Tour recently, and I couldn't not write this. Takes place about 5 months after Sous le Ciel de Paris

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“You holdin’ up okay?”

Curt asks Bucky some form of this question every single night. Are you okay? How you holdin’ up? How’s the leg feel? You sure you’re good for the next number? We can fill in for you if you need a night off.

Sometimes it bugs him – usually when he is, in fact, in more discomfort than he cares to admit – but more often he’s coming to recognize it for the friendly concern that it is. He’s slowly starting to accept the fact that he isn’t a teenager anymore. He isn’t indestructible, and there are people here who care about him and actively want to help him stay healthy.

That’s what we call growth.

Bucky blinks, frozen in the middle of wrapping his knee with tape. Tonight is only his second time since Paris tumbling without a brace and he’s probably overcompensating with how much he’s wrapping the joint. He might as well just wear the damn brace. “Huh? Yeah, yeah I’m fine. Thanks.” He tilts his head and squints, taking a second to actually think about how his leg feels, before concluding that physically, yes, he is fine, if a little sore.

He nods again. “Yeah. I’m fine.”

Curt smacks his hand and makes a quit it motion. He grabs the tape out of Bucky’s hand and starts unwrapping it from around his leg as Bucky sputters in protest. Then Curt hands him his brace instead. Bucky glares at him, but he takes the thing and goes about strapping it around his knee.

“No reason not to wear it if you’re this jittery,” Curt says.

It’s early January, a brand new year, and they’re at Capital One arena in Washington, D.C. It’s their third week of the Gold Over America Tour, a fun sort of victory lap for USA’s Olympic gymnasts as well as some of the other gymnasts from the U.S. and from around the world. It’s performative instead of competitive, promoting camaraderie, strength, and resilience through a mixture of gymnastics and fun dance numbers.

In short, it’s a two month long cross-country excursion where the gymnasts basically just get to have fun and interact with fans.

Since they’re in D.C., they’re close to home, and Bucky’s been distracted like this all day. He hasn’t been able to think straight from the moment he woke up on the tour bus, all jumpy and worried about seeing his boyfriend and if he would actually show up or if he’d decided in the month since they last saw each other that Bucky wasn’t worth it after all. Then when Gale actually did meet them in the stadium for rehearsal, Bucky was so excited that he kept getting distracted and tripping over his own feet. Not to mention the amount of time he spent just staring at Gale in complete awe when they all went out to lunch earlier, or the fact that he was nearly late for the show because he was doing god-knows-what backstage.

And now they’re here, in the middle of act one, and Bucky is thrown all out of whack again. Curt tells him to get his head on straight, and Bucky flips him off.

Beside them, Croz is changing into a different competition shirt and pants. He glances up at Bucky, a teasing smile on his face. “You see him out there?”

Bucky nods as he gets to his feet and starts tugging his own pants on. “Just for a second.”

One, perfect second during the opening number where the noise of the stadium faded to quiet and it felt like everything around him was moving in slow motion. It’s hard to see into the crowd through the lights shining on them, but Gale is in the front row, right by the spring floor. And Bucky was drawn to him like a moth to a flame.

Curt rolls his eyes. “Not like you didn’t know he’d be here. You’ve been with him all day.”

“It’s just… different.” Bucky shrugs, shifting his weight from leg to leg to test out how the brace feels. “It’s the first time he’s getting to actually see me do this since…” Well, since the Paris Olympics five months ago. Since that last fateful day in Bercy Arena that nearly destroyed John’s career (again) and tore them apart.

It’s the first time since then that Gale gets to watch Bucky be a gymnast. The first time since then that he gets to watch Bucky do what he loves to do.

Originally, before tickets went on sale, before Bucky fucked his leg all over again, they’d hoped to do this tour from September until early November, giving them enough time to recover from the Games and choreograph the show on the front end, and enough time to get back to work for the 2025 competition season on the back end. And then John Egan, one of the stars of this show about strength and resilience, got hurt, went AWOL, spiraled into oblivion, what have you, and it looked like they’d be doing the tour without him.

Once he came to his senses and started at least attempting to crawl his way out of the hole he tried to bury himself in, though, he insisted he wanted to do it.

The doctor, of course, said he was risking his career doing any form of gymnastics so soon, so they came to a compromise.The tour was postponed until mid-December to give his knee time to heal, and he, for the most part, keeps his skills fairly low impact. There’s one part of the show where each member of the Olympic team performs part of one of their routines, but other than that, most of the skills they’re doing here are easy by their standards in order to preserve their bodies, whether that means doing one less twist or flip or letting themselves fall onto the mats during their landings. John isn’t the only one that needs to be careful – they all do. So, as he claimed to the doctor, anything he’s doing on the tour really isn’t more than he’d be doing in his training gym back home at this point.

That doesn’t keep everyone from worrying about him, though.

For the most part, it’s gone well. Performing on tour with his friends, meeting so many fans, and traveling around the country has been a blast. He keeps up with his rehab regimen, frequently doing the whole rest, ice, compression, and heat deal on the bus between cities, and he’s only had to miss a show once due to overuse of his leg.

He’s doing what he loves, and truly he’s finding his love for it again after a rough couple of years. But now, things are different. He has two loves, and the other is in the audience tonight. They’ve been apart for a month, and yet when they saw each other this morning, Gale still jumped into his arms, kissed Bucky like it was nothing, looked at him like he was everything.

“I’m so glad you’re here!” Gale had exclaimed, with that bubbly, candy-sweet smile that is so rare and makes Bucky’s heart jump when he sees it. “I miss you.”

I miss you. I miss you. I miss you. It made Bucky feel all sappy, hearing those words, seeing Gale’s freckles and dimples and the real, unequivocal love in his eyes. It made him feel special, wanted, loved.

Bucky still wonders what he did to deserve that. He still thanks the universe every day for giving him a second chance with the most amazing guy in the world.

Croz puts a hand on Bucky’s shoulder, bringing him back to the present. They can hear the music of one of the girls’ numbers pumping through the stadium; it’s coming to an end, which means he needs to get ready to head out. “He’s proud of you, you know,” Croz says. “You should’ve seen the way he watched you during rehearsal.”

Bucky is quiet for a second, and then he nods hesitantly. He and Gale got into a bit of an argument when Bucky said he wanted to go on tour, after he had already promised to take time off. They didn’t speak for at least a day, and Bucky remembers being so afraid that he was about to lose the only good relationship he’d ever had all over again. He was so afraid he’d have to choose between gymnastics and Gale after all.

But eventually, Bucky managed to push all that aside and try his hand at instigating a real, open discussion about what him on tour would look like and what precautions he’d take. They held onto each others’ hands and Bucky told Gale what he wanted, what he needed. Gale laid out his concerns, but also reiterated his overall support of Bucky’s career. And they talked. And listened. And Bucky never knew how good healthy communication could feel before.

Gale was also there every step of the way as Bucky healed, rehabbed, and then started getting back into the gym again just about two months ago. He was there for the ups and downs, running to help Bucky stand back up when he fell, cheering him on with every forward step.

He never gave up on Bucky.

He’s proud of you, you know.

“I know,” Bucky says to Croz. He thinks he might even believe it.

“Alright, you’ll get to play with your boy toy later,” Curt jokes. He grabs Bucky’s hand and hauls him to his feet. “Come on, you’re up.”

Bucky has to admit, performing his big comeback number – which he’s come to think of as his “I’m back bitch” number – is incredibly cathartic. He wanted to perform to Elton John’s “The Bitch Is Back,” but the production team said it wasn’t “family friendly” enough.

No fun.

The number starts out with a dark stadium, and there’s a video on the big screen as he gets himself to the center of the floor. It shows a few highlights of his career, his Championship wins, his best Olympic moments, him goofing off with Curt and Croz in the gym. A recording of his voice plays over it, something about how, at some point, everyone faces seemingly insurmountable obstacles, or comes to a crossroads that might determine the course of their life.

“…In my case, an injury that should have ended my career.”

Every night, Bucky stands in the middle of the floor, dimly illuminated by the light of the big screen. He doesn’t really even know what he says in the video, doesn’t remember. He hasn’t listened to it since it was first recorded, and he blocks it out night after night, except for the end.

He swallows thickly and looks up, sees a clip of his horrifying fall off high bar, cut before he hits the ground. Then a clip of him collapsing after rings back in August, unable to rise. Every night, it makes his heart beat too fast, makes the blood rush in his ears, just for a moment. But then every night, he hears his own voice, smooth and confident: “We rise to the occasion, no matter how hard it might be. We don’t give up, because giving up is not in our nature…”

There’s video clips of his recovery, after both incidents. Videos of him doing painful rehab after high bar. Videos of him back in the gym after rings. A shaky clip of him laughing after landing a tumbling pass again for the first time, running right to the cameraman for a hug.

Gale. He’s running to Gale.

And it makes Bucky’s heart soar.

The video ends.

John Egan is a guy that likes attention, so standing, feet shoulder-width apart and hands on his hips like a superhero, in the middle of a dark arena as lights flash wildly around him and the beginnings of AC/DC’s Thunderstruck plays is very on brand for him. The flashing lights cast his shadow, long and fleeting, across the floor in all different directions until, finally, they light up and stay on, spotlighting him from all sides. He lets the wild grin overtake his face, pushes back against the pit in his stomach, the buzzing in his head. He shoves all the adrenaline he feels into this moment. He puts both hands in the air in a salute, as if he’s at a competition, and then he launches into a tumbling pass that has the crowd going wild.

The original plan was for him to do a whole floor routine, but he’s trying to save his leg as much as he can, so he does his big opening pass and lands on an extra mat that the techs positioned in the corner, then he does a few easier passes before the lights fade out on him. A spotlight pops up over the high bar, where Curt jumps up and does a few giants, a couple release moves. Then there’s Croz on parallel bars. Alex on pommel. Brady on floor. Then to finish, Bucky jumps up on high bar, the apparatus that tried to break him, just to prove a point. He does a couple of easier releases before jumping off, a single flip, nothing fancy.

It gets him a deafening round of applause anyway.

The Thunderstruck number, every night, drives a range of emotions through Bucky like a truck, for better or for worse. It shoves salt in old wounds, forces him to relive some of his worst moments. And yet it feels so damn good, in a way, just to show people – “hey, I’m here. I’m still fighting. I’m not giving up.” Just to tell them – “if you’re fighting your own uphill battle, don’t stop. Please don’t stop. You don’t have to give up.”

So yeah, it’s cathartic. It makes him feel powerful. It makes him feel in control. It makes him feel like he did something right, at the end of the day.

But he much prefers the more lighthearted parts of their show anyway. The ideas that spawned from a bunch of friends goofing off in a gym between practices. The ones that show their personalities and let them be silly and let them be a little stupid and let them be human instead of just athletes.

There’s a Texas Hold ‘Em number where the guys and girls all dress up in cowboy hats, the guys in white shirts and jeans and the girls in sparkly leos.

There’s some absolutely badass dance numbers from the girls, which Bucky loves watching. They’re full of attitude and confidence that makes him a little jealous.

Then there’s the girls’ rendition of Pink by Lizzo followed by the guys’ take on I’m Just Ken. All the guys on tour get to wear neon tank tops and shorts as they animatedly jog out onto the floor. Nearly all of them spread out and start doing stupid exercise motions: Bucky pretends to lift weights while Brady does push ups, Croz does jumping jacks, Alex does sit ups, and the others pretend to box or jog in place or something.

Meanwhile, a spotlight illuminates Curt over on the balance beam, an apparatus that none of the guys have a clue about. He stands on it, all wobbly but exuding confidence, and he salutes a judge that isn’t there before trying out some of the girls’ skills. A wolf turn, a switch leap, a side aerial. Night after night he fails pretty miserably, sometimes nearly falling off the beam all together. He gets a lot of laughs from the audience before doing a pretty pathetic dismount and running to meet the other Kens on the floor, where they join hands and passionately sing the end of the song.

Every night, none of them can keep themselves from laughing, and they often nearly mess up their choreography, tripping over themselves and trying not to double over from the ridiculousness. Usually, that’s Bucky’s favorite number to perform.

But not tonight.

“So here’s the thing, DC,” he says into his mic as he comes out from backstage, passing the girls as they exit. He walks across the floor, back in his white tee and jeans instead of his Ken fit. “We’re gonna do something a bit different tonight. ‘Cause not only is this place my home, but it’s actually my lucky day, ‘cause a special someone is in the crowd tonight. You may be able to see him, right up here in the front row where I can look at his pretty face.” He points to Gale, who’s sitting in one of the best seats in the house, just feet from the spring floor. The man in question rolls his eyes as Bucky stops at the edge of the floor, right in front of him. Beside him, Marge laughs and shoves his shoulder. Benny reaches over and ruffles his hair.

“What’d’ya say we bring him up here?” Bucky asks the crowd.

Gale shakes his head as if he has a choice. As if they didn’t literally rehearse this earlier today. He didn’t have a choice then, either.

“Yep, come on, beautiful.” Bucky holds his hand out expectantly, until finally, after a very pointed I hate you glare and a long-suffering sigh, Gale takes his hand, stands up, and lets Bucky lead him onto the floor.

The camera locks onto them immediately, showing them on the big screen for the entire arena to see. Gale is dressed in dark jeans, a gray t-shirt, and a worn leather jacket, looking as perfect as ever with his messy hair and beautiful… everything.

Usually, the next number would be a delicate, choreographed dance combined with some skill demonstrations. A love story. Literally, it’s choreographed to Taylor Swift’s “Love Story.” On a normal night, it consists of Bucky, Brady, and Croz each dancing with one of the lovely dancers they have on tour with them. The story-telling choreography is interspersed with the guys showing off some basic skills on parallel bars, high bar, and pommel horse.

Tonight, Bucky’s dance partner gets this number off. He felt a little bad asking her if that would be okay, but the moment he explained what he wanted to do, she all but threw herself out of the mix for this one show.

“Yes. Do that. You have to do that,” she insisted.

And so Gale, even before he knew the plan, didn’t really have a choice.

Gale Cleven’s moment of fame at the Paris Olympics turned into a bit more than a moment. He’s had companies fighting to sponsor him, wanting to throw him into commercials and ads all over the place. Despite his lack of interest in social media, his following has skyrocketed. Little kids are getting into horseback riding because of him. People remain obsessed with the “Clegan” love story, and they always comment on Bucky’s videos asking about Gale.

This crowd, packed with people of all ages from 3 to 93, loves him just as much. They go absolutely nuts when the camera focuses on him as he takes Bucky’s hand and they walk over to the pommel horse. “Give it up everyone!” Bucky yells into his mic. “Gale Cleven, Olympic silver medalist, your local equestrian legend, and my lovely, amazing boyfriend.”

They’re in a stadium filled with thousands of people, but the only person that can see Gale’s blush is Bucky.

Bucky helps Gale hop up onto the pommel horse as the lights around them dim and a spotlight shines on the parallel bars to their left. The song begins to play out over the arena: “We were both young when I first saw you…”

Gale watches Croz and his partner start their dance around the base of the parallel bars. He got to watch during their rehearsal earlier today, but now he’s pulled away by the feeling of a hand wrapping over his hip. He glances over at Bucky, and his breath catches.

They wait in the darkness for their part of the song, and as they sit together on the pommel horse, Bucky’s eyes are locked on him, even in the dim light. Shadows flit across their faces, eyes reflecting fleeting teases of the light flickering around them. Bucky has a strong arm wrapped securely around Gale, supporting his back.

He leans in close to whisper, “I’m glad you’re here. I wasn’t sure…”

Gale’s hand finds Bucky’s free one. “Don’t tell me you thought I wouldn’t come.”

Bucky shrugs. Because part of him did think that, no matter how ridiculous he knew it was. They’ve been video calling every other day since he went on tour, but it doesn’t compare to the surety of having Gale in his arms. Before Gale can say anything else, though, the lights start to rise around them at the end of the first chorus.

“So I sneak out to the garden to see you…”

They stay sitting at first, Gale leaning into Bucky’s hold while Bucky points up at the ceiling, acting like they’re stargazing. They smile and laugh before Gale jumps off the pommel horse, still holding Bucky’s hand, and walks around to the other side, leading Bucky into a backflip off the horse.

Typically, Bucky’s part of this number is far more choreographed, seeing as his partner is usually a professional dancer. Gale Cleven… is not a dancer. So they have to improvise a little bit. Bucky’s decided it’s fine: what the audience loses in terms of seeing competent dancing, they gain in terms of seeing a real love story.

At the part that says ‘so close your eyes,’ Gale spins so his back is to Bucky, and Bucky’s hands cover his eyes. Instead of the usual sequence Bucky and his partner would do, involving lifts, rolls, dips, what have you, he simply twirls Gale around before kissing him softly – to cheers from the crowd. He takes both of Gale’s hands in his, and they spin around together, laughing the whole time as the camera records it all for the big screen.

Later, he’ll come across a video of this moment on social media, and he’ll save it to his favorites, to watch when he has a bad day.

He grabs Gale by the waist and lifts him easily up onto the end of the pommel horse, and he walks around to the other side as Gale spins around to meet him. Bucky takes his hand, kisses his knuckles gently, and helps him down again. Then Gale jogs off into the shadows, leaving Bucky to hop onto the apparatus to do some circles and flairs.

He comes back as Bucky dismounts, and they grab onto each other’s hands from opposite sides of the pommel horse, looking into each others’ eyes. Then comes the only real original choreography that Gale agreed to do: drawing from his equestrian experience, he grabs onto the pommel and, in one swift motion, throws his leg up over the end of the pommel horse, as if he’s mounting a real horse. Bucky comes around behind him, and Gale draws his knees up so he can be lifted off the horse bridal style.

Gale can’t help but laugh as Bucky spins him around once, twice before setting him on his feet. They end up standing in front of the apparatus, pointing to the imagined sky once again as the lights around them fade out.

Cast in partial shadow as Brady and his partner dance around the high bar, they hold onto one another and spin slowly in circles, a twirl thrown in here and there. Gale whispers things like “you owe me” and Bucky replies “please, don’t act like you’re not having fun.”

“Dancing in front of thousands of people is a little outta my comfort zone.”

“They love you,” Bucky says, genuinely. Because they do.

At the end of the song, all three pairs come together on the spring floor. Bucky lifts and spins Gale one more time, and at the very end, when the other pairs look like they might kiss but stop just short, Gale is the one to lean in that last inch or two, kissing Bucky in front of thousands of people.

“Je t’aime,” he whispers as he pulls away, and it makes Bucky freeze. Je t’aime. I love you.

Whenever he hears those words, his mind still flashes to that day when he stormed Gale’s barn to declare his love after the Games were over. They’ve said it since, of course, but not often. It still feels… New. Special. Scary.

And yet Bucky wants to shout it into a hot mic for this entire stadium to hear. He won’t, but only because he knows Gale won’t like it.

And because the sound techs learned the hard way to triple check that Bucky Egan’s mic isn’t hot.

So his heart hammers in his chest as he looks into Gale’s eyes. Croz and Brady are already walking off into the shadows with their partners, but John and Gale remain center stage, Gale’s arms wrapped around Bucky’s neck and Bucky’s hands holding firmly to Gale’s waist. Like they belong there. The roar of the crowd is deafening, but all Bucky hears are Gale’s words echoing in his head.

I love you. I love you. I love you.

He lifts a hand to cup Gale’s jaw, stroking a thumb over his flushed cheek. “I love you,” he says back, and he kind of can’t believe he had such a hard time saying it before.

He’s on tour with some of the best gymnasts in the world, performing every night in front of thousands and thousands of fans. He’s got several Olympic medals to his name. His leg, while still not a sure thing, has healed well enough to let him do this. To have fun with his friends in the most extravagant way. To make him really believe that he might have another Olympic season left in him.

And all of that… it’s the stuff he’s hoped for since he was a kid.

It’s all enough to make him wonder if he’s dreaming sometimes. But right now, he has this moment. Right now, above all else, it’s the way Gale smiles at him that puts him on cloud nine, makes him think he did something right.

It’s that soft, just-for-him smile that lights up his world and makes him feel like he can do anything. He wants to be the reason for that smile for the rest of his life.

So he smiles back, and he says it again. “I love you.”

…

Here’s a shitty video of the real Love Story number

#gay sports boys are back #I had so many thoughts about them while watching this show #I continue to base Croz on Paul Juda for some reason #clegan olympics au #clegan #mota #masters of the air #john egan #gale cleven #clegan fic #buck x bucky #bucky egan #buck cleven

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morganbritton132 · 2 years ago

Note

Okay but after that flight twitter threat. Do Eddie and Steve see that threat at some point? Who shows it to them? What are their reactions? Do the gossipy news pick the story up? Does Eddie get asked questions about it in interviews?

I Love it and I have so many questions

They do see it!

Steve actually sees it first because Robin saw it first. She sent him a screenshot of the thread, but conveniently left out the tweet where the person realized it was Eddie and Steve. She texted him like, “This you?”

Steve’s like, “Whoa, you can’t have a conversation anywhere nowadays. It’s worse than when the FBI was actively bugging our phones.”

Robin texts back, “Hi to the FBI agents currently bugging our phones.”

Steve says, “Yeah, hi.”

And that’s that for Steve.

Eddie, however, tracks down the original thread and Corroded Coffin’s official twitter account responds with a picture of Eddie’s ‘vintage’ SpiceWorld Tour t-shirt that he got in ’98 when the fruity four went to their concert. He’s like, “Yeah, they’re not very metal but are you gonna tell me that The Lady’s a Vamp isn’t an absolute banger? I think not.”

Then he goes to bed.

And the internet does what it always does and jumps to a conclusion that’s based in nothing. People are trying to figure out if Eddie was sitting next to his husband or if there is a cheating scandal on the horizon. The OP doesn’t remember what Turtleneck looks like and Eddie hasn’t posted anything since he reminded people about his interview.

By morning, the gossip sites are running stories about his rampant cheating. Eddie is throwing away ten years of marriage to his sick frail husband for plane sex with – gasp – a woman! Or a younger man! Or John Travolta of all people.

Eddie responds to all this with a Tiktok.

In the video, he starts out filming an article on his laptop about how he’s in New York right now cheating on his husband. He pans from the article up to Steve shoving their stuff back into their suitcase. Steve’s hair is a mess. He’s half-dressed and clearly tired, and there’s a line of hickeys tracing up the scar on his neck.

Eddie zooms in on them before panning up to Steve’s face. Eddie says, “Babe, did you see this? I’m cheating on you.”

“What, right now?” Steve asked, clearly just humoring him. He deadpans, “I’m devastated.”

“Yeah, tell me about it. I thought I was coming to New York to do a silly little interview and spend some time with my husband but, nope. I’m currently having sex with – Matt Damon. Really? If I’m blowing up my marriage, it’s not with actor equivalent of plain toast.”

“I’m embarrassed for you.”

“Yeah, tell me about it.”

#Eddie: that turtleneck is gonna come in handy huh?#eddie munson tiktok saga #eddie munson #steve harrington

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stusbunker · 7 months ago

Text

Spotless: Pizzicato

Chapter Nineteen

Featuring: Dean Winchester/Reader, Dean/Bela, Dean/Cas (unrequited)

Other characters: Miriam Talbot (OFC Bela's mother)

Word Count: 2567

Warnings, etc: Mutual pining, putting out other people's fires, and old baggage, unbeta'd

A/N: Castiel and Trouble's friendship is something I didn't realize she had been missing until he was in front of her. There are a couple of big truth bombs in this chapter and I hope I handled them respectfully. This is an AU and it is not indicative of this author's feelings on canon or any other fandom shipping practices.

Series Masterlist

Posting on Dean’s instagram account was par for the course as the band’s publicist. You bothered to know what a hashtag was, for one. For another it also allowed you to check traffic on posts and actively moderate things to help the comment section look best for Dean’s image. Afterall, Dean trusted you, you weren’t going to leak anything or make him look like an idiot.

You were a goddamn professional and this wasn’t the hardest thing you’d done in the last year, but Jesus fuck were you pissed.

Dean hated tattoos. Really, he hated needles. He was black out drunk when he and Sam got their matching flaming pentagrams. He actually had a panic attack the next morning after realizing he let someone “sew ink” into his skin. By sheer force of will and through the bond of shared grief, you got him to go with you for Jo’s memorial tattoo on the tenth anniversary of her death. It was in your all-time top five ultimate Dean-Y/N memories.

And now it meant jack shit.

You edited and cropped the photos, sent two back to Bela to post on her account and then posted the lion’s share onto Dean’s, making him look like the diligent boyfriend while Bela was busy in the chair. You thanked Billie for taking care of “his girl” and made sure the shop was the location and tagged. You wanted to punch something, it looked so good. Then you sat back and let the interwebs do its job.

Okay, in actuality, you emailed about twenty different people, had a conference call with the tour management marketing team, scheduled radio station drop ins and followed up with Meg on the expected release of Dean’s photoshoot and interview. These days it may just end up online, but you hoped she was able to score him real physical print space.

It was just as you were winding down for the night, when your phone rang. It was past any reasonable business hours and you were already done with your skin care routine, but then you saw the caller id.

“Miriam! Hi!” You tried to sound pleasantly surprised.

“Don’t Miriam me, young lady. What is going on out there? Is it drugs? I thought we missed this stage when she quit acting for college. You’d tell me if this hoodlum was pressuring her into risky behavior wouldn’t you?”

Which was a lot to unpack right off the bat like that, luckily you had experience dealing with Bela’s mother.

“It’s just a tattoo. She’s not on drugs, I promise.”

“And what about this Dean? I knew they were seeing each other, but this seemed a bit more intimate— not exactly in the public eye.”

Oh, she was good.

“He’s not on drugs either. And—- he actually isn’t thrilled with tattoos. This might be all Bela, if I’m being honest.”

“Have you seen the things they’re saying? The things they’re calling her, Y/N?”

You rolled your eyes and heaved yourself out of bed, you needed your laptop if you were going to continue this conversation rationally.

“Let me look into it— what site were you on?”

“Oh, I’m not sure. Olivette, one of the boardmember’s wives, told me she read about it online during dinner.”

You inhaled deeply and started your usual rotation of sites, you’d have to add some new tags to follow Bela’s buzz more closely going forward.

“And you’re sure this wasn’t just bad blood from Olivia? I��m not finding much besides general surprise.”

“It’s Olivette. And yes, I’m certain. She wouldn’t make me worry without a reason.”

And then you realized what you were missing, it wasn’t just People or TMZ you had to worry about. You went to Hello!’s twitter and you found what had Miriam Talbot’s friend in a huff.

You started scanning the comments, gathering the most common complaints and judging their amount of influence via cursory glances. You did not know a lot of the news personalities or celebrity bloggers in the UK. You were going to have to meet with Bela and figure out a better approach going forward.

“Okay, Miriam, it’s almost eleven here. I know you probably called me as soon as you woke up, but consider me on the case. Alright? Bela’s fine and this is just a minor hiccup.”

“If you’re sure, Y/N, dear.”

You sighed. “Of course. I would warn you if there was anything to worry about. But please just let this run its course. You know how the tabloids are.”

“Unfortunately I do, that’s why I called. Please keep me updated if anything else comes up?”

“Will do. You have a good ni-day!”

“Goodnight dear— and thank you.”

You smiled at your lap. “Anytime.”

You let her hang up. Then you promptly pulled up your contacts list and warned Bela that her mother was sniffing about online and to call her at a decent hour. And finally, you spent the next four hours (or so) online until you had swam to the bottom of the cesspool and decided it wasn’t worth your time. At least not right then, not so exhausted.

Three days passed since the snobby UK gossip rags’ judgment rained down and, as expected, it had already just about fizzled out. You sat in a cafe with a quad shot flat white, waiting for your lunch date to arrive. Not truly a date, though it wasn’t a meeting either.

It was a diplomatic mission.

Then you spotted him and your stomach swooped, feeling the loss of his presence in your life all over again.

“Hey, Cas.” You stood and held your arms open for a hug, which he accepted with a timid smile.

“It’s good to see you, Trouble,” his gravelly voice murmured in your ear. He still smelled the same.

You pulled back and looked him in the eye, searching for anything but the sincere blue reality in front of you. He held no grudges, not with you, without even discussing it you knew he was still your friend.

You then punched him squarely in the shoulder. “That’s for ghosting us all for the last nine months, assbutt!”

He grunted, and rolled his eyes. “I can accept that.”

“Good. Because I missed you. We all miss you.”

He tilted his head and raised his eyebrows in challenge.

“So— heard you have a kid, huh. That’s —- weird.”

Castiel exhaled and shook his head. “Who told you?”

“What? Nobody. I have eyes. And spend enough time online to draw some conclusions.”

“Kelly told you.”

“She didn’t have to. She’s amazing by the way— are you a thing now, now that you know he exists?”

Castiel looked affronted. “Me and Kelly? Oh, no. That was a teenage mistake. We were young. And we’ve both matured into vastly different people. But I respect her and I think— I hope I’ve earned her trust.”

“Tell me about him—- he’s what? Twenty-twenty one?”

“He’s twenty three and very talented. Kind, impossibly optimistic even.”

“Yikes, tough combo out here.”

“Tell me about it.”

You shared a look and he smiled at you like he knew what you were thinking about. Like you were reliving the same joke.

You blinked away the sting in your eyes.

“Go get your dark roast and get back over here, we’ve got things to discuss.”

His eyes softened, but Cas didn’t argue with you.

You sipped your drink and tried not to let all of the questions that had been building for months run away from you. He was back both too quickly and too slowly. You cleared your throat, the awkwardness you had been fighting back rushed to the surface.

“So— I presume there is more to you calling to get lunch. Not just asking about Jack and goading me about my latest tattoo?” Cas wasn’t one for small talk.

You nodded and swallowed around another perfect mouthful of milk and espresso.

Castiel’s face went through a journey when you didn’t quickly reply. “He doesn’t want to see me—- he made that quite clear.”

“And what about since everything?”

“What do you mean?”

“I know Dean’s called you. He might not have been big enough to actually apologize in a voicemail, but I know he wants to fix things— he misses you as his friend, too.”

“Then he should be able to suck up his pride and make the effort,” Cas snipped, the first sign of the lingering anger from his and Dean’s fight.

“I haven’t exactly seen much of your effort. Do you not want to fix things?--- And I’m not talking about coming back to the band— that ship has sailed. I’m talking about twenty years of friendships you just walked out on.”

Cas stared at his coffee, his eyebrow ring arched with his bitchy expression. He hated being corrected, you knew that. But this had gone on long enough.

“I’ve spoken with everyone but Dean,” Cas explained. “It’s not perfect, but it’s progress.”

“You never spoke to me,” you spat.

Cas’ eyes softened again. “I always knew where your loyalties lie, you took your time, too.”

“Wait— even SAM?!”

“Sam and I haven’t lost contact this whole time.”

You sucked in air. “Oh, he is so dead.”

“Y/N. It wasn’t like we were plotting or anything. He was worried about me, I was worried about Dean.”

“Yeah, but if Dean knew—”

“Ask Sam, but I don’t think he could hide anything from Dean if he wanted to.”

You knew he was right. Ever since Sam got sober, transparency had been something Sam put into his closest relationships anyway. Beside Dean being ruthless and stubborn, well, you supposed Cas was right.

“Why do I feel like this band just doesn’t want me to be able to do my job?”

“Your position as group therapist is fairly tenuous. Especially with Pamela involved.”

“I meant my real job. If I had known you were on decent terms with, well, everyone but Dean, it would have made things a lot easier, young man.” You couldn’t help but smile now. Sure you were hurt, but the eggshells you had been stepping over for so long really only took up a single corner of the floor.

It was freeing.

“I never meant to cause you any distress.”

“That doesn’t make it go away, Cas.”

He bowed his head, but popped back up to meet your gaze. “I know. I apologize. I didn’t want you to think that I was done— with any of you.”

You pinched your eyes closed quickly and then reached over the table to squeeze his forearm. “Okay. So— you’ll come to Dean’s birthday party, then?”

Cas patted your hand with his left and sat back, breaking the contact and sat with the invitation for a heavy moment.

“What makes you think he’d want me there?”

You glared at him, all tattooed and handsome and absolutely clueless about how much his absence has affected Dean. Sure, Dean got to keep the band, but it wasn’t the same without Cas. Cas has had to start over entirely, become a dad and rebuild his career all without any of the support Dean has had around him through his own troubles.

“Look— I know you’re Mister Independent and I don’t want to set back any of the progress you’ve made without him needing you around. But he still looks for you whenever we all go out. And hanging out with Kevin, made it abundantly clear to him that you were available— you just weren’t interested.”

“Why do you always make it sound like we were an item?”

You rolled your eyes. “Look, we all know Dean has attachment issues. I’m not saying anything was kinky between you guys— that’s not my business. But, as friends, you guys deserve to at least get some answers— closure or forgiveness can come later, if you get there.”

“I’ll think about it.”

“Really? You’re not just saying that to get me off your case?”

“Yes, really.”

You smirked and Cas’ smiled with his eyes, fidgeting his lip ring with his tongue.

Cas cleared his throat and took a sip of his coffee before changing gears. “So, your friend Bela and, uh, Dean?”

You groaned and hid your eyes in your hand. When you looked up he was laughing at you.

“What?!”

“Stop— we both know what it’s all about.”

“Kevin seems to think Dean’s whipped.” Mischief continued to dance in Cas’ eyes.

“Well, it’s about time.”

“I told him, the only one who has had Dean whipped in over a decade is you.”

You choked on your spit, sputtering at Cas’ bluntness.

“They don’t know it’s for show do they?”

You inhaled deeply. “Sam knows. Dean and Bela have their own private agreement about it all. But, uh, yeah, you pretty much guessed right.”

Cas watched you thoughtfully, futzing with his lip ring with his top teeth now.

“How are you holding up?”

“Me? I’m fine, why?”

Cas nudged your ankle under the table with his combat boot.

“As someone who was definitely in love with him for most of my life— I know the symptoms.”

You sighed and shivered at being seen and having your long held suspicions confirmed. You rubbed your upper arm, trying to fight the goosebumps. “I’m fine. Nothing has changed. He’s just been working on himself and that is— distracting.”

Cas hummed, head cocking to the side as if looking at you with a different angle would give him more insight.

“I mean it. He’s in therapy and everything. Sam and him are working out. He’s been insanely focused on the latest album—”

“He’s doing penance.”

“Maybe. But he wants to be better. It’s not just guilt. I don’t know how to explain it. But, you’ll see what I mean.”

Cas eyebrow popped up again.

“You will,” you insisted.

“You always were able to read me weren’t you?”

You chuckled at the back of your mouth, short and knowing. “Guess it comes with being stuck with each other for so long.”

“Shared trauma response,” Cas teased.

“Or that.”

You finished the last of your drink and looked around the cafe.

“So, where we going to eat? I think we’ve had enough heavy— sushi?”

“You buying?”

“Phantom Traveler is covering this as a business lunch.”

Cas stood and pushed in his chair. “Okay, well then, bring on the seafood.”

You stood and let Cas walk you outside, his hand on the small of your back until he could offer you his elbow on the sidewalk. You smiled up at him and pulled him tight to your side.

“I’m glad you’re back, Cas.”

“Well, we’ll see if everyone agrees with you, won’t we?”

The afternoon passed quickly, catching up and sharing memories that were now tinted with the grief of the last lost year. Things made more sense the longer you thought about how the band had been acting, especially way back at the Animal Shelter where Cas’ niece had been more than willing to put in her two cents. You texted Sam while you waited for your meals, warning him where you were and what you knew.

‘Have fun.’

His only response. Asshole.

But everything kept from you, kept from Dean, wouldn’t last forever. It couldn’t. Now you at least could control the narrative a bit more by being in on it all. Or most of it at least.

Tagging:

@deans-spinster-witch

@mrswhozeewhatsis

@cosicas-cuquis

@fics-pics-andotherthings-i-like

@suckitands33

@ladysparkles78

@deans-baby-momma

@stoneyggirl2

@sassy-pelican

@leigh70

@globetrotter28

@winharry

@lastactiontricia

@rockhoochie

Chapter Twenty: Arpeggio

#spotless series #rockstar au #slow burn #dean winchester fanfiction #dean angst #dean/reader #dean/bela #friends to lovers #it's no longer a love triangle or maybe it was bela who made it a square

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minniejenseo · 2 months ago

Text

I got like… 1 follower (I think maybe even none) ANYWAYS I HOPE THIS REACHES ALL ENGENES. Read if you actually care for ENHYPEN

I’ve recently seen on twitter Engenes calling for a boycott which includes anything that can financially support Belift/HYBE (including tickets to tours, merches, and yes even streaming). I know there’s a lot to catch up on. BUT PLEASE LISTEN IF YOU ACTUALLY CARE FOR ENHYPEN.

There’s always been a HYBE boycott. Not sure about the exact date it started, but it’s been established since the time Scooter Braun—a well known Zionist—has been appointed a position within HYBE related to matters regarding a group’s overseas activities. The HYBE boycott applies to ALL HYBE group fandoms (not just ENHYPEN). WE DO NOT WANT OUR ARTISTS ASSOCIATED WITH ZIONISTS.

And of course, ENHYPEN’s health and well-being. The Fate Tour was DRAGGED for like almost 2 years and they’re now popping a new one right after it. The boys have been showing signs now of their health being compromised, such as Jay for example. AND THAT’S NOT RIGHT.

Belift is a company A DAMN BUSINESS. Ofc they won’t really gaf about Enhypen’s health. Which is why we the fans should at least do it. I just don’t want to imagine the boys losing their passion for this career all due to burnout from being constantly overworked by their fuckass company.

Belift WON’T LISTEN TO OUR COMPLAINS if there’s no action taken. If we just continue to be spineless and act as if nothing wrong is happening, then Enhypen will just continue to be exploited by their company. WORDS, EMAILS, TRUCKS, COMPLAINTS, TAGS are not enough. All of us should BOYCOTT to force that damned company to properly manage their artists.

I really hope I worded this well. If anybody has any questions regarding the BOYCOTT, I’d be willing to answer and explain but please do it through asks since I know it’s easier and it’ll be more visible for everybody else.

Reblogs are highly appreciated to help spread this out 🫶🏻

#let enhypen rest #HYBE DIVEST FROM ZIONISM

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kittyball23 · 11 months ago

Note

Hi is it okay if you write a story about baby branch and Floyd

It sure is 😊

Remember (a Trolls fanfic)

Dear Diary,

It’s been a pretty quiet evening at home so far, and I guess there’s a few reasons for that. For one, I guess it’s no secret that I’m the quietest among my brothers (they say I should assert myself more, but I find that I can’t - it’s just the way I am 0.0). Also, my older brothers aren’t here at the moment, and the bro that IS here is sleeping on my lap (it’s a little hard to write right now, but I can manage). I’m guessing you’re probably wondering where exactly my older brothers are. Well, John Dory is out running some errands with Grandma, so they’re hitting the grocery store and a few other places (plus, JD DID say he was going to try and get supplies for some new costume ideas he has planned for us and our band, BroZone).

Spruce is out on a date. He ran another one of his competitions, and the winner this time around is a girl named Doreen. I’ve seen her around town a bit, and she seemed very excited to be able to be with him. As for Spruce… I don’t think I could really say the same :( But, regardless, they were heading out to Senior Frosty’s. A lot of us like to go down there for some sweet treats (personally, I think Grandma’s stuff is the best, but they’re okay too ^_^). Spruce’s favorite is the Tropical Sunset sundae, which is an ice cream that I think is made from vanilla, with some kind of fruity syrup and chunks of pineapple on top. It sounds pretty tasty, but my personal preference is the strawberry delight (an underrated flavor, but delicious nonetheless!)

Clay headed off to another one of his sad-book club meetings. He’s sorta told me about them before, but I’m a little nervous to go to one, if I’m being honest. If it’s about sad books like he says, I’m probably gonna be in tears the whole time! I guess I’ll just have to make sure that I pack a lot of tissues when I do get the chance to accompany him :)

That leaves me and Branch, like I mentioned before. We had some fun with all kinds of activities around the house.

We frosted some sugar cookies that Grandma had baked earlier in the day (Branch got a little messy with the decorating, but he didn’t mind). We played some games (the usual - hide-and-seek, tag… freeze tag) and sang some of our band’s songs together. I’m very proud of him. Even though he’s only a couple years old, he’s got a great falsetto going. Golden! I can tell he’s going to be an amazing singer one day, and I can’t wait for him to start performing with us. John Dory thinks he’s ready, too. A few days ago, he actually suggested that we should start arranging for our first tour. Spruce and Clay agreed, and it’s going to be so exciting!

As Floyd tapped his pencil to his chin, pondering what to write down next, the light weight on his lap began to shift. He immediately put his journal down, and watched admiringly as Branch cutely yawned and stretched.

“Hey, Branch,” he cooed softly, stroking his brother’s delicate little cheek. “Did you have a good nap?”

The baby blinked up at him, rubbing the sleep out of his large blue eyes and grinning his sweet little one-toothed grin. “Uh-huh!”

Floyd chuckled and ruffled his rich blue hair. “That’s good.”

“What did you do, Floyd?” the small Troll asked curiously.

“Oh, I was just writing in my journal,” he said, showing him the book that he’d placed at his side.

“Ohhh,” Branch mused, cocking his head. “Can I see it?”

“Sure thing,” Floyd replied fondly, opening it up and allowing Branch to flip through the pages.

“I write all kinds of things in here,” the magenta-haired Troll explained while the baby stared in wonder. “Ideas, stories, wishes… but do you know what my favorite thing to write about is?”

“What?” Branch asked, his eyes twinkling with interest.

“All the stuff I do with you, and our brothers.”

“Wow! Really?”

“Definitely,” Floyd answered. “That way, when we want to remember something special, it’ll all be right here.” He gave him a little side hug that Branch happily leaned into with a giggle. Then, the little blue Trolling thought of something else.

“Do you write songs in there, too?”

Floyd nodded. “Yeah, I do.” Then he smirked. “But you know, I’ve been having a little trouble trying to finish the one I’ve been working on. Do you want to help me?”

His baby brother’s face lit up. “Yeah!”

And, as he and Branch made another cherished memory - harmonizing together and creating wonderful new melodies - Floyd made sure to recall every little detail of their experience so, in that way, he could notate it in his journal for them to always remember.

#trolls #trolls 3 #trolls band together #branch trolls #floyd trolls #dreamworks #my sons 🥺#fanfiction #kittyball writes #thanks for the ask!#kittyball answers

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remy2fang · 4 months ago

Text

BIG Thought Dump on SF6 BISON, Shadaloo, and Gratuitous Amount of F.A.N.G

I actually plowed through the Bison stuff when he dropped. I wrote a few of my thoughts on Twitter X, but I’ll dump everything here on this post. Warning, it’s really really big and the end may have some speculative spoilers (font will be red as a warning). Here it goes.

Playing Bison

I’m no pro player, in fact I’m super casual, but Bison is hella strong! I didn’t look through all his command list because I just want to plow through arcade and World tour for the story. All I know is Psycho Crusher, Scissor Kick (turned motion instead of charge), and Head Stomp from previous games, so I just stuck to those lol.

Arcade Mode and Fighting Ground

Ok now for the story. The first thing I did when Bison dropped was Arcade mode and was automatically hit with some fan service in the beginning. Naked Bison. Capcom knew what they’re doing here lol. There were some guys making jibes at him and then he beat the crap out of them and stole their clothes for himself. And then he went on fighting other people he don’t remember through arcade mode. And then his boss rival is Juri. Ngl, I was super excited when I saw that. I was actually hoping to see this for a long time. In Juri’s SF6 arcade, the thought of her not having her revenge against Bison had been eating her up for years. She never moved on from that since SFV, so “probably” almost a decade had passed since then. Her seeing Bison again is her moment to have what she wanted. But it didn’t go her way. I can see why Juri fans didn’t like the outcome. For me it’s different. Yes, it would be nice if she got her revenge right there and then (as indicated with her win quote against Bison), or if she moved on from Bison after her fight with Chun-Li in her own arcade mode. But I have the feeling deep down she really wanted that revenge. Plus, she helped Neo Shadaloo’s efforts too, albeit for money reasons, and even said that she’ll take them down if they ever rise again. Now that Bison’s back, she’s no longer in the state of regret and now has all the chances to go against him and get what she truly wanted. She’s not aimless anymore. She has a real reason to fight now.

As for win quotes, some were fun and some were boring. Of course I was most interested in A.K.I.’s. For sometime before Bison’s release, I was curious on how A.K.I. feels about him. Would she have a favorable view of Bison because F.A.N.G admires him greatly? Or would she be jealous of him because all of F.A.N.G’s attention will go to him instead of her? Lots of people and I have been wondering about this. Now the cat’s out of the bag, this is A.K.I.’s win quote against Bison:

“You must be the one the master’s talked so much about. I must send word to him immediately.”

This suggests that A.K.I.’s sentiments toward Bison is neutral, but she wants to report to FANG about it because she knows that Bison is important to him. I can’t help but compare this quote to her Rashid one:

“You… You’re the one the master spoke of.”

F.A.N.G talked a great deal to A.K.I. about these two, but of course his attitude for the both of them are different from one and the other. F.A.N.G admires Bison and hates Rashid.

World Tour Mode

For World Tour, we see that it takes place after Bison’s arcade mode because he took over the secret ruined Shadaloo lab after fighting Juri. I was already at Nayshall when I started World Tour and I automatically got a message from Foo aka F.A.N.G. Ahh yes, I knew I’d see F.A.N.G again for the Bison update 💜💜. He has to take part in it because this the man he wants to work for.

This time we work with F.A.N.G much more extensively than before. Yes, we see more of F.A.N.G in the Bison update than in the A.K.I. one (but there’s no FANG illustrations except for one in the Bison quests). He’s a lot more active and involved this time. And we get to see his soft side too. F.A.N.G actually likes seeing cute animal photos, especially with the cat and the baby hippo 💜💜. This reminds me of how A.K.I. reacted with the pufferfish and snake. Hmm, I wonder if that’s the reason why F.A.N.G didn’t mind A.K.I.’s super cute messages with the Lolita bunnies and kittens? Deep down, does he enjoy AKI’s letters because of those cute Sanrio-esque characters?? Idk, but I think it’s super cute. Ahhh 💜💜

We also get to see the scope of F.A.N.G’s influence and reach, especially as his persona as Foo. At first it seemed that he only has A.K.I. as his assistant, but later on in the Akuma and Bison update, we see that FANG has Experimental Subject Lee, Neo Shadaloo mole Hahn, Minox from the Colosseo, and former Doll Changpa. Out of these aside from A.K.I., Hahn and Doll Changpa seem to work the most extensively with F.A.N.G. Hahn knows F.A.N.G’s deal. 2 salutes. Answer messages within 2 minutes. 2 sugars in his coffee hehe. Doll Changpa elaborates further on how she ended up working with Foo aka F.A.N.G in this update than in the Akuma one. Basically, she had nowhere else to go. FANG needed intel on Shadaloo remnants. Doll Changpa needed a place to stay. So they work together because of that. To her, it’s purely transactional. She insists that it was her choice to work under FANG, but she did hesitated on the thought that she may have went back to her Shadaloo life, even by choice. It seems she had mixed feelings. Nevertheless, a job is a job.

Back to Bison. He went face to face with his own phantom Bison and absorbed it. He regained some memories from it, but not fully. It’s said that if Bison absorbs more psycho power, he would regain more of his memories. But even with 100 bond points and max mastery at level 20, Bison still doesn’t remember everything. As I suspected, Bison still has a way to go before he reaches his peak. But it’s not like he cares anyway lol. He’ll just continue on quenching on power.

We don’t really get a clear answer on how Bison came back, but Bison heard from others that he’d often die and come back to life via spare bodies. He thought that’s how he managed to be alive in his current form, but that’s just his conjecture based on what others said about his past lives. F.A.N.G also had no clue on how Bison came back either, despite being the last person to have seen his “”demise,”” but he also questioned if this is in fact the “real” Bison (he is). According to the devs, Bison’s current body is actually the same one from SFV. The cracks and scars on his right side of his body came from Ryu’s final blow. So instead of disintegrating (his death was obscured by F.A.N.G and smoke in SFV), he lost his memories. Not sure if the game will reveal the truth of Bison’s “resurrection” in a later update tho.

Although his memories are still fuzzy, Bison has a major hatred towards Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Cammy, and Guile lol. He doesn’t know them by name nor does he understand where the hatred comes from. He sent the avatar to talk to these fighters and they all remembered him with disdain. They all may have an idea where the avatar learned such fighting techniques, but it seems they didn’t want to press on. When the avatar reports back to Bison, Bison basically said he doesn’t care about them because he doesn’t truly remember them…but he’ll gladly fight and dominate them lol

Other people that Bison hate are obviously Ed, Falke, and Juri. They all undermine him. Bison also hates JP. Hmm, I wonder why? For the past couple of months, people were mulling over whether JP is for or against Bison. For me, it’s really hard to read JP’s intentions and plans because he tends to lie a lot, but I also think JP is not trying to win Bison’s approval. JP is not a Bison fanboy lol. Even his quote against Bison said that he is incomplete: “Hm. Peculiar. Perhaps you are not your whole self just yet.” What is JP’s plan then? JP is not actively involved in the Bison update for World Tour. But if you talk to Doll Changpa at the Suval'hal Arena in Nayshall at night, she found out that JP is still plotting to do something with Ed and the “imperfect” Bison. From the sounds of it, JP is still the main antagonist for SF6 as he seems to have a grandiose plan for the both of these characters. We’ll probably see it unfold in the next couple of patches.

Bison eventually remembers Vega and Balrog and sends the avatar to find them. F.A.N.G, as Foo the messenger, offers to help the avatar in finding them. Hmmm I wonder if F.A.N.G ever contacted them after the fall of Shadaloo since he knows their whereabouts and how to get their attention?

To get to Vega, the avatar has to fight Ignacio in the most “beautiful” way. In-game, basically win with a perfect KO.

Seeing Ignacio, I was already curious about him. At first I thought he was Vega's son, but then the illustration scenes have him next to a very handsome butler with similar features, so I then thought that Ignacio might be a servant boy for Vega. I'd like to know how Vega gets to know these characters, and I'm wondering what their back stories are because they both have dark complexions and yellow cat eyes. I don’t know the butler’s gender, but I’m assuming male (looks very much like Sebastian from Black Butler). If it’s female, she would have worn a maid’s outfit instead. I know I shouldn’t assume and that characters can also present as gender-nonconforming, but most often times devs from Japan/Asia usually make their female characters “cute” or showing something that emphasizes their “femininity.” Very seldom do they actively make a female character have more “masculine” traits with their appearances. But then again, SF6 has been pushing the gender boundaries outside of the norm, especially with the avatar gear, the NPCs, and a few of their roster characters. That would be cool and it would be interesting if the butler is a woman.

Anyway, Kizer brought up something interesting and it led to some speculative conversations. On Ignacio’s brooch, there’s a Ken Masters Foundation.

But when I looked at the avatar gear that can be purchased in the Battle Hub, the same tie brooch with the Masters’ logo can be found there. It could just be assorted avatar gear just to create these interesting NPCs. But at the same time, I’m still wondering if Ignacio and the butler were affiliated with Masters Foundation. That’s something to find out in a later DLC. And I hope the relationship between Vega, Ignacio, and the butler is a lot more kinder in-game than what’s been speculated in the conversation. Even I’m concerned lol.

We also get to see an illustrated cutscene with Balrog in it. He still keeps in touch with Ed and thought about joining his group. But, which ever organization has more money, he’ll go to it. Good ol’ Balrog 😂😂. I’m sure he’ll share the wealth with Ed tho!

The only names Bison remembers are Balrog, Vega, and Sagat. But even then, he doesn’t really have the clearest memories of them either. In this illustration, all the Shadaloo officers were all wearing these curious uniforms. Bison mentioned about “brainwashing” them and they all worked for him. I didn’t think much of this scene at first except I got to see F.A.N.G on there. But a friend of mine said an interesting comment and I liked her interpretation more than anyone else’s. What the illustration depicted wasn’t an accurate memory. Because Bison’s memory is “foggy,” he actually meld the Kings, Officers, Dolls, and Soldiers into one conglomerate thing. I still believe the Kings and JP acted on their own accord. The only people that got brainwashed in the organization were the Dolls. As for the soldiers, I don’t know lol.

Bison really likes his horse, whose name is Rocinante, like the Don Quixote’s horse. Bison said the reason why he didn’t kill the avatar was because Rocinante took a liking to them. Bison came upon the horse in Mexico. He was on the brink of death and yet he hung on to life. Bison infused the horse with psycho power to give it strength to carry him. The scientist in the Ruined Lab said that most regular animals would run wild with psycho power and die. Rocinante lives and it has the strength to withstand it. Bison loves power, but he also respects any living thing with strength (and even better when they serve him). Learning about Rocinante’s story reminded of F.A.N.G’s first encounter with Bison in SFV. F.A.N.G and his former organization, the Nguuhao, were about to assassinate Bison, but Bison overpowered and killed nearly all of them except for one. Although losing, F.A.N.G stood his ground against Bison. Bison was impressed by F.A.N.G’s strength and will to live and offered him to join Shadaloo. After that, F.A.N.G worked his way up and became a Shadaloo King.

Unfortunately for F.A.N.G, Bison doesn’t remember him. At first it started off funny when he got flustered, but then I can feel the sincere heartbreak from his text. F.A.N.G became quiet and his tone turned solemn. Even though Bison’s return didn’t turn out the way he wanted, he still complimented the Avatar on a work well done, albeit in a bittersweet way. As subtle as it is, I don’t think I’ve seen this side of F.A.N.G before, not even from Toxicity. If anything, there’s many sides of FANG I never got to see before SF6. Yes, we saw him visibly upset when Bison “”died””in SFV, but it didn’t have the same poignancy that his message had.

If Bison were to encounter A.K.I. (and win), the story outcome would probably go into a different direction. This is Bison’s win quote:

“You shall tell me who your master is. If they have value, I will gladly use them.”

This sounds like it would go into F.A.N.G’s favor as he would gladly serve his Lord Bison…except Bison does not remember him. Would F.A.N.G be happy to serve someone who may be considered as a “fake” or an “imperfect” Bison? Perhaps not, even though it is the real Bison with his marred SFV body. Throughout the Bison missions, F.A.N.G questioned his authenticity. He also mentioned that it was “too soon” for Bison to come back. Hmm, how does he know the duration of a “perfect” rebirth then? This makes me wonder if F.A.N.G had anything to do with the revival of Bison himself and left him until he’s ripe enough for the “rebirth,” and then Bison ended up “waking up” earlier than expected? I dunno, I’m just speculating on this and maybe more info would come out later lol. Also, maybe the devs knew ahead of time that some Street Fighter fans would groan at Bison coming into SF6 too early lol. I still see complaints about it lol.

About Bison’s win quote against A.K.I., he refers her Master as “They,” because he doesn’t know the gender. I like that little detail. Also in the Japanese dialogue, Bison referred A.K.I.’s master as 先生, which is “sensei”and can be used for both men and women. But knowing A.K.I., she uses the word “xiansheng” (also spelled 先生 in Chinese), and that’s usually used for men. Basically, Bison said this to AKI:

"先生とは誰だ。

使える人間なら、使ってやろう。"

"Who is your xiansheng (teacher)?

If he is someone who can be used, I’ll use him."

As sad as it is that Bison doesn’t remember F.A.N.G, I think this is a good thing. If the Bison mission ended with him remembering F.A.N.G, then that could possibly be FANG’s happy ending and his story might’ve stopped there. But because that didn’t happen, it gives more reason for F.A.N.G’s story to continue in SF6. He can actually continue on fighting for what he strives for. F.A.N.G hasn’t given up yet and he said he would contact the avatar if he needs them.

Also, Only 1 unused FANG voice line was released for the Bison dlc. He said, “Oh my days!” in this one. There’s more voice clips that haven’t been used yet. If they haven’t dumped the rest of his audio in this update yet, I’d think more will drop in later DLC. Who knows how long F.A.N.G’s story will last in SF6 if they’re going to release one unused voice clip per update. If that’s the case, I hope they stretch F.A.N.G’s story for a looong time haha!

https://twitter.com/remy2fang/status/1806508555153146085?s=46&t=iEGeYIIN_aP028wRnoVcUQ

youtube

Even though F.A.N.G didn’t get what he wanted after the Bison mission, he at least accomplished what he wanted to do since the Toxicity story: Reviving Shadaloo. He took part in it by having the avatar track down Bison. He then sent the avatar to the Ruined Shadaloo Lab with the assistance of Doll Changpa. The avatar had to fight using psycho power in order to power up the residual memory machine, which caught Bison’s attention and he absorbed it. When Bison gained some memories back, he told the avatar to find Vega and Balrog. F.A.N.G helped the avatar in this regard as he knew the former Shadaloo Kings’ locations and how to get in contact with them. That in turn had Vega and Balrog interested in working with Shadaloo again. So yes, it was F.A.N.G that drove the revival of Shadaloo.

This is something I mentioned a long time ago on another post, but just because FANG has an NPC model, that doesn’t mean he’s deconfirmed to come back playable. Throughout the entirety of World Tour, not a single character mentioned the name F.A.N.G at any point. A.K.I. never said it and neither did F.A.N.G himself. Even as his personas Foo and Fang Fei, he never said his actual (code) name. He’ll hint at it and skirt around it, but never outright saying nor spelling it. The avatar hasn’t even heard of the name F.A.N.G yet. Foo pretends he’s not a former Shadaloo King and Fang Fei feigns that he’s only a humble medicine man. His personas Foo and Fang Fei aren’t fighters. That means Fang Fei won’t be fightable. If that’s the case, that means there’s a chance that F.A.N.G can be playable at a much later point in SF6. It’s funny how it works. Other characters who have yet to make it to SF6 have their names mentioned but do not have 3D models. F.A.N.G is the opposite in which he has an in-game model, but his actual name was never revealed except in the official website, in-game credits, and JP mentioning it in A.K.I.’s arcade mode. But for now, it seems that NPC Foo/Fang Fei will remain as it’s hinted that he’ll be contacting the avatar again in a later update.

I just want to say I really love F.A.N.G’s portrayal in SF6 💜💜. Not only does he have a cool new look, but his personality is made to be more endearing, especially with the Bison update for World Tour.

I know FANG is still very evil, but I can tell the devs tried to make him more likable. They wrote TOXICITY that delve into his backstory, made the amazing AKI be his biggest fan, have him working with the avatar, and showed many sides of him that’s not often portrayed in SFV.

Also it’s good to know that my dream from nearly a year ago got one thing right: F.A.N.G being an important NPC and we see (and talk to) him a lot as shown in the Bison update. 💜🥹💜🥹

Also, good on Capcom to release the Return of Shadaloo Battle Pass. If I see official F.A.N.G content, I’ll eat it up 💜😋💜😋.

FUTURE CHARACTER SPECULATIONS AND LEAKS. DO NOT READ IF YOU DON’T WANT POTENTIAL SPOILERS.

From what has happened in Bison’s World Tour Story, it’s hinted that Vega and Balrog would be DLC. I��ll tell you this. According to this leak here, Vega would surely come back. Yes, I remember people said it was fake…and then a few months later Bison and Elena became official DLC, and the leak’s description of them were accurate.

As for Balrog, it’s up in the air. I’m not saying he’s not gonna be playable in SF6, but i didn’t see his name from the above leak nor from this one (this actually mentioned Bison, Terry, Mai, and Elena as far back as April 26, 2024). But just because a character’s name is not on those lists, that doesn’t mean they’ll never be DLC. From what a Japanese fan told me, the devs want this game to have a long lifespan. Hopefully it would be longer than SFV’s so more characters would come in the future.

END OF SPOILER

#street fighter #m. bison #juri han #sf6 jp #f.a.n.g #street fighter vega #balrog #a.k.i.#shadaloo #a.k.i #m bison #street fighter 6 #sf6 #sf6 world tour #sf6 thoughts #sf6 juri

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andi-dromeda · 5 months ago

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I’m obsessed with Jaygrant so ofc I had to ship them here too. In this au they start off as kind of colleagues. Grant sees this as a gig where he just has to humour whatever mediation, magic stuff Jason’s got going on and collect a pay check. Jason sees Grant as an assassin he can turn into a monk. I’d say Jason probably starts out training Grant and Tara the way he’s used to being trained, brutally and bossily. He gives orders but quickly realises it isn’t working because Tara and Grant both aren’t listening to him, Tara keeps threatening to go home and Grant keeps saying he needs a pay raise every time Jason tells him to do something. Luckily, Jason’s adaptable and begins to treat them more like equals who just need the right approach to become all caste members. He realises Tara likes to learn more about the culture and practices of the all caste instead of the fighting (not that she’s not interested in the combat, it’s just that all the experiments and clubs have left her with a bad opinion of most types of training). Grant is far more interested in the fighting, loves hearing about the All Castes victories over the untitled and after hearing about Jason killing the devourer of young souls Grant can’t help but gain some respect for the guy. Grant and Tara still like to provoke each other so Jason tries to mostly train them one on one giving both of them a lot of free time. Jason and Tara begin to bond over random recipes their mothers taught them and stories about living on the streets. Jason and Grant start to bond over weapons and fighting.

Then they discover they’re all gods and their souls weren’t just similar in that they all died. From here the group dynamic starts to shift. They see each other as more interconnected now. Before this they all chose to be here. Sure Jason would bite his tongue more than he normally would because he couldn’t find anyone else with a soul similar to his but he still felt like he was mostly in control of the situation. Now they knew this was all some grand destiny. Everything that had come before was simply preparing them for ascension. Jason and Tara are both bothered by the idea of losing their humanity but Grant isn’t. For Jason and Tara they want to right the wrongs that were done to them but now that means they’d lose their humanity and become gods. Grant on the other hand doesn’t care about his humanity and the wrongs he has to right are with his parents who he has literally been in hiding for a year at this point because of. This causes a fracture in the group. Tara decides to visit the Wilson’s for a bit and think about her options but Grant is eagerly pursuing godhood. Grant sees figuring out how to kill Slade as his only obstacle and is frankly ecstatic. Jason decides to keep an eye on Grant and they go on Grant’s very own murder world tour.

During their trip, Jason starts to see a lot of himself in Grant. Especially because he’s been where Grant is now. I mean they’re literally travelling across the world trying to find the best way to kill Grant’s mysterious dad who he won’t even say the name of. One night they have to crash in a random motel (which Grant forces him to pay for) and oh no, only one bed! Jason doesn’t care that much after having to share a bed with Kyle and Donna for ages when Kyle actively wanted him dead. Grant maybe flirts a little (not in a romance way though) but Jason shuts him down. Unfortunately, neither of them can sleep so end up talking about their dads. Jason mentions B and his birth dad Willis (I’m team Willis was a good screw the retcons so at least Jason had one good dad). Grant mentions how his dad was always going on mysterious trips and when he was around he was abandoning his son in the woods or taking the sink or swim teaching style to literally everything. It’s the most vulnerable either of them have been in a long time but since they can barely see each other in the dark and since they don’t even know each other’s last names or aliases there’s an almost anonymity. They feel safer to open up to each other than anyone else. This is when I imagine they’d start tentatively considering each other friends.

Then during their globe trotting adventure Jason comes across some scientists developing a weapon to kill Deathstroke. He decides to try steal the weapon and stop the research in case it gets used against Rose so he tells Grant about his plan to steal it. Then Grant is suddenly very interested. He asks a lot of questions like: “who’s Rose?” “How many kids does he even have!?” “Rose is Ravager!?” “He gave you his approval? Like for free?” “He sent you a postcard for Christmas!?” Grant has a million thoughts swirling through his head so when they go on the mission, Jason tries to get Grant to hang back. Grant doesn’t listen, rushes in and to save Grant from his own idiocy, Jason takes a bullet for Grant. Everything’s on fire, explosions are going off and Grant then has to choose in the heat of the moment to either stop the weapon from getting crushed (Jason already destroyed all the research so it can’t be replicated) or save Jason from getting crushed. Jason would normally be able to push through the blood loss but everything’s feeling a tad bit too familiar so he’s a bit occupied at the moment. And Grant makes his choice before he even has the time to consider it. As soon as he heard Jason’s cries he forgot all about the weapon. Grant saves Jason from the collapsing lab (that for thematic purposes was hidden in a warehouse) and without even thinking about it chose Jason over ascension and revenge two of the most important things to him.

When Jason manages to cool down after everything, he states more than asks Grant is Slade’s son. Grant says “biologically, yes unfortunately. But from what you’ve described he sounds like he’s much more fatherly to you than he ever was to me.”

“Then why did you chose me? You could’ve saved the weapon, killed Slade and become a god. Why… me?” A long uncomfortable silence hung between them. Jason’s barely dried eyes shimmered in the dim hotel room. He looked confused. Why? If he could get even a heartless bastard like Slade to like him how could he ever be surprised that someone cared about him?

“I didn’t chose you. I didn’t chose at all. I just did it. You know?”

And that was the moment Jason fell for Grant. Because he’d replayed the night with Joker and Bruce in his head a thousand times. He’d purposefully put Bruce through hell before the confrontation. Then bludhaven blew up. Then the rest was a blur and the only thing that felt solid was the sharp pain against his neck. The slow trickle dropping down his throat as he lay under the rubble. He went over the night again and again and tried to excuse the batarang. Bruce was stressed, he wasn’t thinking and of course he was never going to choose Jason. Bruce always thinks he can find a better option. Of course he’d try to have his cake and eat it too. Bruce was simply too used to getting what he wanted. (Maybe that’s why Jason didn’t tell Bruce he’d killed him. Because if Bruce knew that Jason would just keep coming back, then he wouldn’t even have to pretend he saw a Jason as anything more than canon fodder. Anything more than a good soldier.)

But Grant picked him. Grant didn’t even think about it. Grant owed him nothing. At most Jason was a convenient pay check and occasional confidant. Yet Grant chose Jason over the thing he valued most. When Jason started to choke up again, Grant didn’t say anything. He just opened his arms and held Jason until the morning. They didn’t speak about it but actions always speak louder. Grant for the first time since they’d met payed for their breakfast. He surprises Jason with tickets to some play Jason had mentioned liking during a sparring match a while back. He takes Jason out for a night on the town with Jade and only slightly makes fun of him for never going to a club unless he owned it.

Where Jason fell all at once and then decided to not do anything about it (he’s not shy he just can’t risk losing such a promising new member!), Grant fell slower. Granted, he didn’t notice. Due to internalised homophobia and a healthy does of Slade’s special home made brand of toxic masculinity, Grant has a weird perception of relationships. He kind of sees having a wife and kids as just boxes you have to tick off at some point distantly in the future and that romance didn’t last long. He hoped it did when he was younger. As a kid he’d dream about finding a partner and both being so devoutly in love he’d never have to guess if he was good enough. But none of his girlfriends could ever fix him (not for a lack of trying), he couldn’t force things to be better and so he came to the conclusion that love was just a fleeting infatuation. When he heard Jade’s troubles with Roy, his perspective was only further cemented.

So when he starts falling for Jason he doesn’t realise what he’s feeling. He thinks Jason’s hot and makes no attempt to hide that doesn’t think much of it. Grant was okay with being attracted to guys so long as it was purely physical. If it was just lust than it was just about pleasure. No need to further inspect anything he might be feeling. He’s just a completely hetero guy with functioning eyes. I mean come on, can you blame him for noticing Jason’s thighs? But then one random day Grant was eating something Jason had cooked (because Grant would burn the house down if he so much as glanced at a blender) and realised he wanted to do this everyday. He wanted to wake up to Jason in one of his safe houses that only had one bed so he didn’t have to think about it. He wanted Jason to make breakfast and it’d be delicious as always. Then they’d clean their weapons and talk about random cape drama and fight over whatever thing Grant chose that morning (because there was nothing more entertaining than giving Jason such stupid arguments that Jason couldn’t even respond and then saying the silence was just proof he was right). He wanted to be by Jason’s side on the field, on the matts, on that one cruise that was secretly smuggling rare beanie babies, on the dance floor when they were both too drunk to care about making absolute fools of themselves, on the roof of the van they stole from Penguin’s Metropolis branch and even on the bathroom floor heaving his guts into the toilet whist Jason smugly said “I told you so” and Grant was in too much pain from the vomiting and hangover to come up with a witty retort. The revelation shocked him and he called Jade for an emergency evacuation. She “saved” him, punched him for worrying her, took him out for coffee and told him to get himself together.

So now they both like each other so what could possibly go wrong now? :D

Tara comes back and invites them to meet her family. They do and suddenly Grant and Tara hate each other even more than usual and now they have to deal with the Wilson family issues. :0

Also imagine Rose’s perspective. Your ex boyfriend comes to your family dinner with you dead brother (who you never met and took the legacy title of) hates you and your other sister who apparently has been having philosophical debates with these guys says they’re all gods and your brother has to kill your dad to ascend so now you have to just try to eat your food whilst everyone flips out and you see your ex making heart eyes at the dead brother.

#new all caste au #jason todd #grant wilson #grant wilson dc #tara markov #rose wilson #cassrose #jaygrant

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smeddiemunson · 2 years ago

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I know this has been done to death now but Eddie, Steve, Chrissy and Robin all in a band together.

Eddie plays lead guitar obviously. Chrissy is the singer and plays a little rhythm guitar. Robin plays the bass and Steve is the drummer. They all write songs but it’s mainly Eddie and Robin on the music and Steve and Chrissy on the lyrics. They share all the royalties equally.

Chrissy is the perfect front woman for the band, she’s cute and charming and not quite as abrasive as Eddie or Robin tend to be when asked the more rude questions. She has patch work tattoos that stand out from her pale skin. While her guitar is featured on every song on the recorded version, when she’s playing live she’d much rather just have a microphone and the ability to dance around and have fun with her friends.

Steve never talks in interviews. He’s happy to sit back and let his friends talk about what they’re passionate about. Eddie and Robin know so much about the technical side of music and will go on and on about it for hours, and Chrissy just loves performing. When Steve does speak it’s to wax poetic about his love for everyone else in the band. He develops a little bit of a cult following and doesn’t really know how to handle the outpouring of love from the fans; he doesn’t want to let it go to his head like popularity did in high school. But he knows Robin would never let that happen.

Eddie was made to perform. He was going to anyway, with corroded coffin or otherwise. But Robin and Chrissy came to him with the idea and he can’t say no to his favourite girls. He’s a little more what people expect from their band’s sound. He looks like he would be the creator behind heavy guitar riffs and aggressive drums. No one really expects him to be as fun as he is, always joking around on stage and always hanging out by the stage door just a bit longer than his band mates to talk to the fans that stayed.

Robin looks effortlessly cool. She’s still neurotic as hell and worries a lot but as soon as her bass is in her hand she goes to a different place. They all like to joke about who has the most fans, but it’s Robin by a mile. She oozes sex appeal and mystery while she’s on stage, and she’s such a dork off it that people can’t help but be endeared. There’s even a Twitter account dedicated to finding the clothes she wears because she has the best style in the band and is definitely responsible for making sure they’re cohesive. She’s the glue that keeps everyone together.

When they win their first Grammy for Best New Artist, Robin gives an impassioned speech about finding your people, always being yourself and doing what you love. She shares the message for anyone that’s struggling that it does get better and she’s proof of that, all four of them are proof of that. They preform at pride every year and regularly do stuff for queer charities. Each piece of their merch has a different charity that a percentage of the proceeds go to. The badge set donates to helping homeless teens and the key ring donates to an eating disorder charity.

Their shows are Gay™️. Someone from the crowd will throw a pride flag on stage every show without fail and Chrissy will dance around the stage with it, wrap it around her shoulders and make sure everyone hears her when she sings about wanting to fuck hot girls.

She dances with Robin while she sings and Robin gets on her knees while she’s playing and looks like she absolutely worships Chrissy (which she does) and the only thing stopping her from getting her head under Chrissy’s tiny skirt right then and there is the looming threat of indecent exposure charge. But she doesn’t wait long to satiate her need when they get back onto the tour bus after the show and meet and greats are done.

Eddie is so active on stage. He really gets into the music, so it’s no surprise that he has to take his shirt off after the first song. He always drapes it around Steve’s shoulders and pinches his cheeks in between his fingers so Steve’s lips pucker and he can kiss him. Steve blushes bright red but goes straight into the opening of the next song.

Steve and Eddie like to tease one another. Everything they do on stage is to entice each other. Steve being on the drums means he’s at the back of the stage but the band knows the fans are obsessed with him and make sure to have a camera on him at all times that feeds into a livestream that hangs over the stage. Sometimes Eddie will get distracted between songs when he’s supposed to be bantering with Chrissy because Steve’s getting too hot and just poured a whole bottle of water over his head to cool him down, and all he can think about is licking up every droplet of water dripping from his hair onto the slope of his neck.

They like to change up the set list a lot so the fans are always surprised by what they get to hear. It’s the best part of touring when they hear the screams when a favourite is played.

There’s one song that Eddie and Steve wrote together that’s only played once a tour. Those shows get an adult content warning. Because they can’t help themselves. They wrote it in bed after spending all day wrapped up in one another, taking turns to write notes or lyrics on each others skin. When they finish, Eddie gently places his guitar on a stand and climbs up the dais the drums are on so he can straddle Steve’s legs, wait for him to open his mouth so he can spit in it then lick it up from his tongue, and filthily make out with him to the sounds of their fans screaming. It’s all caught on Steve Cam.

At all times, Steve and Eddie, and Robin and Chrissy are seconds away from fucking on stage. All the endorphins and energy just get to them.

They’ve had multiple articles published about them being vulgar, degenerate etc etc by religious groups. There was even a short time where a petition for them to be banned from performing went around. But that only seemed to get more people to check them out.

They put out a Rumours style record and the fans get so worried that their favourite band is breaking up, but actually no they were all arguing about stupid stuff and channeling their feelings into music. They’ll never break up, they’ve been through too much together.

They take a break after their fourth album in as many years. They’re still making music, always making music, but they need some time just for them. Robin and Chrissy road trip around Europe so Robin can flex her language skills and Chrissy can take Robin to every cool historical monument she’s ever wanted to see. They try new foods and every local beer they can get their hands on, document it all on their instagrams. Chrissy’s pictures are super artful and captioned with really deep thoughts, how grateful she is to be alive and thriving. (Their good friend and journalist Nancy Wheeler wrote an interview where Chrissy was able to speak candidly about her mental health troubles, eating disorder and how finding music and love helped her, continues to help her get through it). Robin’s pictures are always of Chrissy, complete candid, laughing or pointing at something with a caption in the local language saying how in love she is or how beautiful Chrissy is.

Eddie and Steve spend all their time in the fishing cabin Eddie got for Wayne with their first big paycheque. They don’t need to see anywhere else, they just want the quiet. They spend their mornings cooking together and their afternoons writing songs or reading books. In the evening they’ll dress up fancy and have candlelit dates inside the house, speak softly and tell each other how much they love each other.

Fans speculate what Eddie and Steve are doing. They haven’t been seen since the last show, haven’t posted anything on Instagram, and there are rumours that Eddie’s been checked into rehab (his drug use is wildly over reported. He smokes a joint after a show and nothing else. He’d seen what meth did to his parents and he wants no part of it, no matter how “rock ‘n’ roll” it may be.)

It’s not until Chrissy and Robin get back to the states that Eddie and Steve come out of hiding. Robin posts a video of them doing karaoke together, clearly a well practice routine where they do ‘Don’t Go Breaking My Heart’ by Elton John and Kiki Dee. And after the freak out by the fans over Eddie knowing a song like that, how in love they are, and how glad everyone is to know that Steve and Eddie are alive and apparently thriving, the fans notice something.

Steve’s wearing a ring, which is strange because Steve never wears rings. The only piece of jewellery Steve has ever worn is a gold chain with a guitar pick hanging off it that matches a silver chain around Eddie’s neck.

Steve waits three weeks after that video to post on Instagram (which he never does) to tell everyone that he and Eddie got married the day Robin took that video. It was a small ceremony, just their friends and family in attendance. Claudia Henderson (a surrogate mother to both of them) officiated. He posts a picture of his and Eddie’s hands entwined, Eddie still has rings on every finger but the single band on his left ring finger matches the one on Steve’s exactly. Steve has an extra ring under his wedding band, something simple and almost cheap looking. It’s not until years later that it’s revealed that Eddie bought the ring three months after he and Steve started dating; way before they had internationally famous band money to spend.

The other pictures that come out were all taken by Jonathan, another close family friend who is usually seen doing pictures for art houses in New York, or occasionally photo reporting for his wife because no one else is able to capture her vision the way he does.

Steve and Robin are pictured crying as they slow dance, captioned ‘father-son dance’. Eddie is captured crying at what looks like a speech from Chrissy. Robin stands up for Steve and Chrissy stands up for Eddie, but Eddie also has his old band mates with him (who still fly the corroded coffin flag and let him record the guitar on their albums) and Steve has a group of 20-somethings stand up for him that someone points out are all people who are making waves in various scientific endeavours, and how the hell does Steve know them?

They come back for their fifth album bigger and better than ever, and their fans don’t even know why they worried. There’s clearly nothing in this world that the four of them would rather do.

#steddie #buckingham #steve harrington #eddie munson #robin buckley #chrissy cunningham #band au #one day I will write this and it will be good #it’ll be tender and smutty with no angst!#please come and talk to me about it I have so much more to say!!#my fic #kinda

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secretlywritingstories · 21 days ago

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no but seriously imagine it | phan one shot

Summary: It has been 15 years since Dan and Phil met. They wake up on the Terrible Influence tour bus in Las Vegas on their anniversary with plans to see My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy later that day.

Word count: 2.5k

Tags: 2024!phan, reality, tour bus, sleepy cuddles, introspection, anniversary

No warnings

A/N: Happy phannie day! I hadn't planned to write something but I woke this morning with so many feels and they had to go somewhere! Despite the name, it only references the tumblr post.

Read on AO3 or below

Phil had called it fate. Dan had countered that it was a coincidence.

Yet, they formed their schedule around it.

Phil had reminded him of the meme that had been going around. Of them, My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy and Panic! At The Disco. Back when the bands were never likely to be active at the same time again and the two of them had yet to leave the closet. Clearly, just some tumblr shitpost, an emo multistan wanting to shove all of their interest into one singular moment for the heck of it. But well… all except P!ATD, they’ve kind of got a lot of cards lined up to be knocked down rather neatly.

Down to a festival with MCR and FOB being held on the anniversary of the day that him and Phil met. So, if they made sure to have that date free and be on tour right around Las Vegas, could anyone really blame them? Besides, they’re still emo and fanboys at heart too. It’s one of the reasons that they get their audience like this. They know what it’s like. They also just wanted to be at that festival for the music. A blast from the past.

Yet, it’s something strange to wake on the tour bus, assumably safely arrived in Las Vegas after the drive from Los Angeles. The two of them had stayed up late, wired from the LA show and the crew has clearly been letting them sleep in, even if they’re going to check into a hotel now.

The bed is surprisingly comfortable for a tour bus. Big enough that him and Phil can fit easily, even with their long limbs. No pretending to sleep anywhere but next to each other.

Phil is usually the first one to wake up back at home, but he’ll happily spend at least half an hour right upon waking to scroll TikTok, phone right up in his face to see without his glasses. He’ll only drop the phone if Dan snuggles close and distracts him. Lazy mornings are good.

This cannot be too lazy a morning. They need to be on the move. They’ve got plans for today. It’s a special day after all. A decade and a half. Holy shit, how is that real?

Dan snuggles close to Phil, uncaring if he wakes him. He kind of wants that to happen. Sleeping Phil is beautiful but it’s not just Phil’s appearance that Dan loves, though it is a nice bonus. It’s the mind inside of the man. The personality, the way he jokes, the way he smiles, the way he creates art, the way he holds onto Dan.

Dan was 17 years old when he clicked on an AmazingPhil video for the first time and it had felt like something clicked within him in turn. An instant obsession, he’d thought at the time. Binged all of the videos on his channel. Sat ready for the new ones to drop, so he could watch them immediately. Waited for a few months to tweet at Phil directly. Shoot his shot with this handsome emo boy with a mind so fascinating that it made Dan curious to learn more.

Because the fascination hadn’t lessened, only gotten worse. And now he knew it would only grow and grow.

Back then, he'd dreamt up scenarios of Phil replying. Scenarios of them getting together and living happily ever after. He was a lonely teenager who’d never had a best friend, and he was yearning in a way that felt like it consumed his whole being. He had seriously imagined it.

The vision he’d had ended up coming true in many ways. Maybe Dan should pride himself the psychic one instead of Phil.

Phil stirs a little as Dan pulls him into his arms. Little grunts of half-awareness, not enough to be fully awake, but he still moves closer on instinct. Arms heavy with sleep but reaching for Dan all the same.

Dan couldn’t have predicted this reality for them though. Not in his wildest dreams. YouTube had been a silly hobby for the both of them. He’d only started because of Phil. Wanted to be like him in every way back in the beginning. It was a good excuse for arranging a meet up, when it felt too big to admit that he just wanted to hang out. Be friends, lovers or maybe even something more than just romantic.

It’s because of Phil that Dan got to create so many things that he is proud of. This career that he’s not sure he’d ever have had, if it wasn’t for Phil deciding to turn on that camera back in 2007.

The career that they’ve built together is important. It has made them this life. But it’s not Dan’s favourite part. It could never be, especially when he has got Phil gradually waking up in his arms like this.

His breathing changes slowly, sleep clinging to his body as Phil clings to Dan’s, but it’s a lost cause. He’s been disturbed enough that he’ll wake now. He blinks up at Dan’s face, undoubtedly mostly seeing a blurry outline.

Yet, he smiles, because he always did have an uncanny ability to look right into Dan. It’s got nothing to do with his vision.

“You’re up early,” Phil says, only to close his eyes and snuggle closer to Dan again. Hiding his face in his shoulder and letting out a low hum.

“It’s our anniversary according to the internet,” Dan says instead of acknowledging what Phil said.

Honestly, it’s a day that they’ve just let go by without much fanfare most years. It’s a time where their audience loves to make edits and art of all kinds to celebrate the moment that Dan took the train up to Manchester and they met for the first time. That first selfie in the Apple Store where their much smaller audience was excited to see them together. Oh, the thousands of selfies that have followed after that first one.

You couldn’t have told those two kids. They couldn’t have known. Even if Dan had been hoping. For something long-lasting. For forever.

Iconic, when he struggles with commitment in so many other ways.

But never about Phil. It was strange how he was so certain about him, right from the start. Maybe he was just a hopeful adolescent, so full of yearning, but even back then, nothing had felt like finding Phil. Of meeting him, of loving him.

“Blessed day,” Phil mutters, still clearly tired.

He makes no mention of the fact that it took them a little while longer to put a label on it, but it hadn’t mattered. Not really. Labels have always been one of Dan’s enemies. He felt like nothing could quite capture him well enough, and even now, he feels like nothing can quite capture his and Phil’s relationship still. Perhaps that’s why he’s so prone to spin so many tales and metaphors of it, still grasping for words that can finally encompass all of it.

He is not sure he’ll ever find it, but he doesn’t mind.

Not as long as Phil stays right here, while he weaves each declaration into existence.

Dan reaches down to play with Phil’s hair. Still quite pristine blond in its current condition. The bleach has been a little harder on the hair, but Phil is doing a good job not letting it get too damaged. Takes care of it with that purple shampoo and all that.

Back when they met, Phil was dying his hair black and now he dyes it blond.

Back when they met, Dan straightened his curl into submission, now he allows them to live their best hobbit life.

Dark to light, constraints to freedom. Growth even in their appearances, like all they’ve matured couldn’t help but shine out of them.

“I’m excited for the show tonight,” Phil says, eyes still closed and breathing heavy. He could slip back into sleep if Dan would let him.

“We’re not performing tonight,” Dan says, hand still moving through Phil’s hair. Petting him. He knows that’s not what Phil means but he loves to tease.

Sure enough, Phil pinches his hip. Hard. Enough to hurt really, but no touch from Phil truly hurts. It just makes Dan laugh.

“The festival. It’ll bring me back to my youth.”

“Sure, old man,” Dan says.

It earns him another pinch, this time to his thigh and fair enough, this one does hurt a little. But it stings in a nice way. Grounds him and just makes his smile widen. Phil’s hands all over him is always a good thing.

Before Phil, he was touch-starved. Still feels it creep in when they’re apart for too long. Last time he was in USA doing We’re all doomed, they had gone the longest ever without seeing each other. The touch-starvation came back full force then. Dan was pretty sure he tried to live inside of Phil’s skin when he got back.

He’s so glad they’re back on this continent together for Terrible Influence. He loved doing his solo tour, but this feels right. Not like when he kept turning around with his eyes searching for Phil on instinct.

“I will bite you,” Phil threatens.

And he would. If Dan asked real nicely.

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

“Stop being horny, I’m trying to threaten you,” Phil says but his voice is dancing along the words. Way too amused for them to have any effect.

“Do you think you’ll cry? Hearing the music?” Dan asks, pulling Phil even closer. They’d be fused together soon, but he feels the chill along his spine, remembering the month where he couldn’t touch him.

The only way to starve it off is bringing himself back to this moment. Phil in his arms. Dan might never let go.

“No,” Phil says, and his voice is flat. Deadpan. But then it softens a little. “It’ll be very cool though. To have those two sharing the stage.”

“Yeah,” Dan agrees, but his mind is drifting again.

That’s the thing with collaboration, isn’t it? If you have two people, you really like, it’s only natural to want to bring them together. To see what would happen to have them side by side. Maybe they’ll enhance each other.

Like him and Phil did.

Dan is under no illusion that the two of them would be here if they’d decided to keep their private life entirely private. If they’d never done another video after that first pinof, the interest would not have grown to what it had been.

No, they bound themselves to each other in every way a human really can. Professionally, emotionally, romantically, sexually, reputationally, creatively, socially, physically.

Their very souls could be mates, if you believe in such a thing. It’s hard to remain a cynic about soulmates when you live a life like Dan does. But he will die on that hill. Maybe his and Phil’s souls are made of the same stardust, or whatever, but they are the ones who took fate into their own hands.

Dan saw Phil and reached out. Phil heard him and reached back.

He’ll not let some cosmic force take all of that from them. The cosmic force was not there when they struggled with privacy and uncertainty and all of it coming so close to boiling over. How they weathered the storm and found calmer seas again.

Even when those calmer seas made Dan was to visit land for a while. To feel the ground underneath his feet again. To have Phil be the one on the ship, and after a while, hand stretched and tempting with just a short voyage. To see what would happen.

Dan hadn’t been sure. He hadn’t trusted his own brain. But he’d trusted Phil. Believed him when he said that it would all work out.

And now they’re back on that ship and it’s faster than ever. Gliding through the waves as easily as nothing. Made stronger by all that its endured. Fifteen years on the sea.

It’s Phil’s fingertips on Dan’s chest that brings him back. Pressure, right where his heart is beating. His eyes are open now, and he’s propped himself up on the elbow. Still no glasses, so he can’t see shit, but he looks at Dan like he can.

“What are you doing?” Dan asks.

“Checking your heart, but it’s not racing. Thought maybe you were panicking.”

He can do that sometimes. In the existential crises, when the thoughts spiral too far, too deep, for him to make head or tails of it all. Phil was always the best person to bring him out of it.

“I wasn’t,” Dan answers honestly. “Just thinking about us. Nothing can panic me about that.”

Phil’s snort is telling enough.

Dan reconsiders. “Nothing can panic me about that anymore.”

“Good,” Phil says and then it’s his whole palm on Dan’s chest. Warm and alive. Steady, like the beat in Dan’s heart. “We should get up.”

He lets go of Dan to roll over to the other side of the bed and put on his glasses. He’s just thrown them on, and they’re crooked. Dan sits up and fixes them for him. Phil lets him. Habit.

He still looks sleepy and like he could melt back into Dan’s embrace. Dan might let him, if he didn’t know that soon they’ll find a knock on their door and be told they can check into their hotel room for the night.

It’ll be good to take a shower. Phil still doesn’t let anyone take a shower on the bus.

“We’re got the whole day until tonight. What do you want to do?” Dan asks.

He sees it, the way an idea flickers into Phil’s eyes. Something funny or sentimental. Dan perks up a little before he’d even opened his mouth.

“Starbucks.”

One word. Oh, so simple. But a reference all the same. That’s sentimental. And fun.

They do love a good memory. Hoards them in boxes and store them away safely to be revisited. Their history is special to them. And to their audience, who embarrassingly sometimes know the history better than themselves. They’ll never admit that though, and the audience will never see everything. Just the glimpses that they allow.

But sharing is fun. Having so many people care used to scare Dan but it doesn’t anymore. He and Phil know that they know. It’s been acknowledged and it’s only made things better.

“Sure, we’ll get you Starbucks with Dan,” Dan says and pulls the face, lips pulled taunt and just the barest hint of lifts in the corner. As square as he can make it to mimic the emoji that accompanied that tweet.

Phil tries to shove him off the bed. Fails and just falls into him instead. It ends in laughter, and tangled bodies, because of course it does.

They’ve never been able to resist getting tangled up in each other.

And it’s fitting to start the day with an old reference. Maybe it won’t be the only one today.

#phanfiction #phanfic #phan #19 october #phan fluff

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tomorrowxtogether · 1 year ago

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SOOBIN: “It’s always been my goal for the other members to be happy”

TOMORROW X TOGETHER The Name Chapter: FREEFALL comeback interview

2023.10.23

SOOBIN, as always, speaks in a calm voice throughout. Whether he’s talking about the happiness that surrounds him, the challenges he faces, the pleasures of everyday life, or the major goals that guide the group, his voice is resolute but relaxed—spirited, but soft.

You kept talking about how you want to watch the new movie Concrete Utopia.

SOOBIN: I never ended up seeing it. It left theaters. (laughs) If someone in my friends’ group chat says, “There’s a movie I want to see,” then someone else asks who can go, and then anyone who can goes to see it. I’m really thankful to have friends who will come with me to see the movies I want to watch.

You took a trip with them recently, isn’t that right?

SOOBIN: I took an overnight trip with them to Gapyeong not that long ago. We had a cooking competition, then they asked me to teach them the dance for “Sugar Rush Ride.” So I showed them and then they spontaneously held a competition and asked me to be the judge. It was really fun and super cute. (laughs)

It sounds like your friends are very important to you.

SOOBIN: It’s fair to say they know me really well. They really love me and look out for me. Usually when they say something like, “Choi Soobin’s eating only this much? Something wrong?”—there really is something wrong. These days they’re so good at seeing through me. It’s almost annoying. (laughs) And if any of us goes too far, we apologize on the spot. And after we take a trip, we even say, I had such a great time thanks to you guys. You really made me happy. It’s always like that. I get carried away in that kind of environment which lets me say embarrassing things, and even though we bicker sometimes, it leads to self-improvement. I guess you could say I’ve become a kinder person overall and I’m capable of being a lot more open now. I really learned how to express myself.

I imagine that you get a lot of energy out of that whole process.

SOOBIN: I started going out way more this year. I was having a lot of personal doubts and feeling confused last year, so it wasn’t an easy time. So I went around looking for help, talked a lot to more experienced artists, and got some advice. I ended up getting really close to a lot of people. After that, I had more reasons to go out. It’s a refreshing change of pace from the same routine every day, so I really need that time these days.

How did you feel during the world tour? Judging by your vlogs from that time, it looks like you established your own little routine for after each concert.

SOOBIN: You hear from a lot of different artists that they sometimes feel empty when they get in after a concert. But not me. (laughs) After seeing all those people in big crowds, coming back, and having some alone time, it’s—I mean, that’s a really full day. I think it’s important to have time to be alone and reflect, and to enjoy your hobbies. I don’t really feel like I need to follow up something as special as a concert with something else exciting. I actually feel more comfortable just spending each day the way I’m used to spending it.

I’m surprised you cherish what’s already comfortable to you so much when you also want to try so many new activities.

SOOBIN: I guess you could say I have a personality like a flame. There’s so many things I want to do, but I also get tired of them pretty quickly. For a while I was learning swimming and boxing, then I had an interest in baking and thought about buying an oven, but I was over it quickly. I also bought a camera and then, after a month, never touched it again. (laughs) Anyway, I’m the kind of person who pretty much goes ahead and does things as soon as I want to do them. I never hesitate to start something and I’ll even skip sleep when I want to try something. I can’t stand when I don’t have a hobby to do. It’s tough for me if I can’t have a good time and break out of my routine with something new. I guess that explains my personality where I have to do whatever I want. I’m the kind of person who tries to enjoy what he wants when I want to because I never know when I might lose interest.

But you have far more endurance doing what you do than other people.

SOOBIN: I don’t think I could’ve put this much into any job other than this one. I can already see myself living a lazy life when I’m much older and retired (laughs) so I want to do everything I can while I can. There’s a lot of people who work to make us shine, especially in a line of work like this, so there’s no way I could just phone it in when they’re putting their all into it.

You must have devoted a lot of time and effort toward getting ready for this comeback. You mentioned several times on Weverse Live how excited you are for the new album.

SOOBIN: It’s about embracing and pushing your way through the pain and the hard times you come up against in the real world, so I felt like it’s something I can comprehend and express well. I was actually worried about the last album because I was nervous I wouldn’t be able to pull off the concept of the album, and that’s why I didn’t feel very confident. But the songs are a little bit more of an “easy listening” songs this time and the choreography’s fun, so I’m more confident this time. At first I thought the single “Chasing That Feeling” was basic, but after listening to it four or five times, I realized how catchy it was and started humming it to myself. It felt like the kind of song you’d never skip over in a playlist and one you can keep listening to over and over.

You also mentioned that the dance moves for “Chasing That Feeling” are more physically demanding than those for “Back for More” (TXT Ver.).

SOOBIN: Everyone would assume that “Back for More (TXT Ver.)” is more tough when you see it, but for me, “Chasing That Feeling” is actually more physically demanding. But I still love the choreography. I had so much fun with it when first learning it and I was full of excitement while dancing, but the dance coaches told me, “SOOBIN, you have to do this one with more tenderness. You’re too hyper right now. You need to tone down your emotions.” (laughs) We stretch our arms out really, really wide in the intro and do moves we’ve never done before, but it was a really good match for me and I had a lot of fun. I think the dance really captures that idea of following your passions and always pressing forward even when it’s sort of painful. I got to like the song more while practicing the choreography.

You said on Weverse Live that you have a favorite track off this album. Can you tell us which it is?

SOOBIN: It’s “Skipping Stones.” Singer-songwriter HANRORO wrote it, and I’m a big fan of her music. The song she gave us is so characteristic of her sound that it feels like a song she would’ve written for herself. I fell in love with it the very first time I heard it. It was fun getting to record a song of a style I listen to and sing all the time, which made the process laid-back. I like HANRORO’s music and voice, but I think it’s her all-Korean lyrics that are really beautiful. “The water that swallowed the scars will become calm someday / And it will have a wide embrace.” Time heals all wounds and I was so amazed how she managed to tie that in with the idea of skipping stones. It made me respect her even more.

You wrapped up your second world tour a little bit before the album came out. Did you enjoy yourself on tour? It seemed like you had a lot on your mind while trying to enjoy yourself on stage before that.

SOOBIN: I started to feel less nervous doing the world tour. Now I’m not even scared or nervous before a concert—I’m just excited. I think I’m more comfortable with it because I feel relaxed now. I’m still not totally loosened up, obviously (laughs) but I can’t force myself to be comfortable with everything. I’ll probably have to wait a little longer for that.

During the world tour, you also put on performances at major venues like Lollapalooza in Chicago and the MTV Video Music Awards.

SOOBIN: I was nervous for the VMAs for sure but it was still fun because there were a lot of people who have been superstars to me ever since I was young and it was amazing to see people with MOA light sticks even though it was an overseas awards show. It was so fun that I felt like I was dreaming. It was like, Am I even supposed to be here? I was extremely fortunate to be able to meet people like Bebe Rexha who were a major motivator for me. Moments like those feel like rewards for all the hard work I’ve put in and they’re a huge motivation. I’m very thankful and lucky.

It’s like you take that motivation and work hard to pay it forward to MOA.

SOOBIN: It’s even hard for me to grasp, for someone who used to be a fan myself. To me, it even feels like what fans are giving is just “pure love.” I was so amazed that they’re willing to come such a long distance for our concerts and you can see fans giving things to each other just because they all share a common interest. It’s not like the love between friends or between a couple—it’s something completely special that can’t ever be explained. I’ve been a fan before, too, but speaking as a singer, “the existence of fans is just pure love.” It’s amazing how unconditional their love can be.

It’s clear how much you love the fans when you talk to them on Weverse Live about somewhat sensitive subjects in a firm but kind manner.

SOOBIN: This is how I feel: Let’s all be gentle and share the love. That way, I can be closer with them and no one will be crossing any boundaries of what is acceptable. The reason I say that is, I’m trying to make it so that MOA and I can love each other more and without having to hold anything back. Sometimes I can ignore the uncomfortable stuff and just move on, but the reason I brought that up is because I wanted to make sure we don’t make each other feel uncomfortable and there’s no hard feelings. My point was to say, Let’s make sure we all feel comfortable, and let’s look out for one another and have nothing but love for each other. I try to be as gentle as possible when I say these things, of course.

You also referred to the other group members as “companions” last year in the video TXT Share House.

SOOBIN: We all went through a rough patch at one point last year together. I felt our companionship was particularly strong while we practiced for the year-end awards shows. We were having a lot of honest conversations about our innermost feelings. We weren’t in Korea that much at the time, so I think we relied on each other a lot.

I was surprised when I found out you get a bigger room during world tours because other members come see you. I thought you would want to have your own space.

SOOBIN: I’m not really bothered by them coming in. We each have our own rooms, but I’m actually thankful and feel good that they come to my room to talk to me because it makes me feel like they trust me and rely on me. And I get more excited and talkative than they do when they come in. (laughs) I’m happy when they come in and I always hope they do.

What do you tend to talk about in that situation?

SOOBIN: They mostly come to me when they’re facing some kind of difficulty, whether it’s personal or something related to the group, or when they just want to talk. And I’m usually the one who goes to the label as our representative when we want to propose an idea to them. But there were a lot of times on the most recent world tour where they came to me saying they wanted to hear what I had to say. “How are you feeling about the tour? No problems?” Stuff like that. I actually tend to keep any baggage to myself if sharing it isn’t going to solve anything. Sometimes the other members feel hurt by that though. (laughs) But I still usually unload when it’s something that can be solved together, of course. It’s not like I don’t like to talk. (laughs)

When YEONJUN and TAEHYUN were on SUCHWITA, they said that all the members agreed on one big goal for the group. Was it those conversations that led you to be able to agree on that goal?

SOOBIN: I’m not someone with any big goals—I just want to enjoy the small things in life. But we talked a lot last year about our members’ dreams, what makes us happy, and what our goals are. Not all five of us shared the same goals, but we got to talking about how some of us want to make it to the top of our field. So I thought, If that’s what makes you happy, and that’s your goal, then I’ll try my best for it, too—because it’s always been my goal for the other members to be happy. I figured, if that’s what will make them happiest, then I’ll work toward the same goal with them.

Why does the other members being happy make you happy?

SOOBIN: It’s not just them—my family, my friends, the staff … Nothing makes me happier than seeing them all happy. That’s why I hope our fans are happy, too. I think the people I care about being happy makes me really happy and is as important to me as my own happiness. At least for me.

Has your attitude toward work changed as the goals you’re focused on have shifted?

SOOBIN: I’m making a bigger, tangible effort. I feel like I’ve always done my best, right from when we debuted, but now it’s like I’m trying to be even better than my best. (laughs) I’m practicing harder, working harder when shooting—everything. I’ll work harder this year than last, and next year I’ll work even harder still.

But there will always be bumps along the road when working toward your goals. How do you keep yourself moving forward?

SOOBIN: It might not be the case for everyone in this field, but I think this work makes me really happy, way more than it brings me pain. I'm not the type to dwell on something painful for too long in the first place. It's not simple to get this much love and support, and the happiness it brings is too important for me to let go just because things get tough. It brings me so much joy that it's worth sticking with, no matter what I have to go through.

#txt #tomorrow x together #231023 #weverse magazine #soobin #choi soobin #weverse #the name chapter: freefall #freefall

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thirteens-earring · 4 months ago

Text

Jane Schoenbrun, from Episode 174 of the Gender Reveal podcast (episode) (episode transcript)

[ Tuck: Yeah. And somehow that brings me to Limp Bizkit. Because I think it’s so funny that you created this incredible soundtrack with like every iconic girlie, and then in the movie itself you know Sloppy Jane’s in the movie, King Woman’s in the movie, Lindsey from Snail Mail is acting in the movie, and then…Fred Durst is there. [Jane laughs.] Can you talk about why you wanted to work with him specifically, and what that experience was like of bringing him into the movie?

Jane: Yeah. So the first thing to say is that when I was 12, I loved Limp Bizkit, because it was 1999, and I was vaguely pissed off at a thing that I couldn’t quite put my finger on, right? And I think that nu metal thing was very appealing to me, in that — Limp Bizkit less, but a band like Korn or Slipknot — Slipknot is donning masks, and actively appropriating just the sort of iconography of the horror movie and grotesquerie to describe their internal feelings. And Korn is talking about how they’re a “Freak on a Leash.” And it’s this pre-Columbine, right before Columbine moment where I don’t think culturally we had like zeroed in on that necessarily (or at least I hadn’t at 12 years old) as a symptom of this growing nascent white male anger. It felt more like they were carrying the torch of the weirdo; I think that was sort of the appeal of a lot of that nu metal music when it first came out, was like I’m a “Freak on a Leash.” I think Limp Bizkit was a little different, because they certainly cast themselves as the underdog, but they didn’t necessarily cast themselves as “a freak,” you know? It was more of a pissed off, like Kid Rock style — I’m young, I’m white, I’m angry, have sex with me. [Tuck and Jane laugh] But I didn’t understand all of that, and I was 12 in the suburbs, and that was what a lot of money was being spent to convince me to buy, and I bought it, and I loved it, and I had that Family Values ’99 tour tape cassette, and I listened to it. And when I got bar mitzvahed, my bar mitzvah gift was a CD case — remember those little things you would keep in your car to keep CDs in?

Tuck: Yeah, definitely.

Jane: We got custom “Jane’s Bar Mitzvah” CD booklets [Tuck laughs], and it had Limp Bizkit drawings on the cover. So if you have one of those, that’s a collectors item now. [Tuck and Jane laugh]

Tuck: That rules.

Jane: After I wrote TV Glow, and just spending a lot of time unpacking my childhood and my adolescence in the suburbs and just feelings of alienation, I had written this character — hardly a character, more like this spectre of the anger of a dad who looks at you in the way that I have experienced, where it’s like…are you looking at me as your child, or are you looking at me as a person who has robbed you of your child? And this is very much a trans horror. I got notes early on like “let’s flesh out this dad, where does that come from?” And I was like “no actually, I don’t really care about that.” This is a movie about that gaze and that disapproval, and the way something as innocuous as saying, like, “isn’t that TV show you love and are finding refuge in for girls?” can steal decades of your life from you, because of the shame and fear that it ingrains in you. And so the question then became: who is glaring at us? And it wasn’t just like “oh Fred, get on a casting call and do your best glare.” It was that it means something to see Fred Durst glare at you. Fred is a fascinating and wonderful and generous person. I took Dave McCary (my executive producer) to see Limp Bizkit with me at Madison Square Garden as we were prepping, and as I was basically like “please let me cast Fred Durst as Owen’s dad.” And we walk onto the floor of Madison Square Garden, and it’s like…white militia is the audience, I’d say. [Tuck laughs]

Tuck: Totally.

Jane: It’s a lot of, like, ex-Marine energy in the house, and a lot of the energy that was being cultivated at that show was, let’s say, riling up the audience in the way that you would at a wrestling match. There was such anger and aggression being let out — just people who were riled up getting their rocks off, or whatever. But it was also so homoerotic, and not even subtly homoerotic. Like people…the guy in front of me just kept screaming at Fred Durst on stage “I want to suck your dick!” [Tuck laughs] Yeah, I mean…good admission; [Tuck and Jane laugh] follow that impulse wherever it leads you…

Tuck: Totally.

Jane: …and get whatever you need to get out of your system — there’s a way. At one point early in the show, Dave turns to me and goes “do you ever feel, like, unsafe in public?” [Tuck and Jane laugh] And I was like…oh — this is how you teach cis people what it means to be trans, you take them to the Limp Bizkit show, and you have them stand next to the trans person. And I’m like “yes Dave, actually…and a lot more recently since my transition.” [Tuck and Jane laugh]

Tuck: OK — and what about this was like…I gotta get this man in my movie?

Jane: So then what happens…Dave is like, “you can stay if you want, but I’m actually gonna go before they play ‘Break Stuff.’” And we ran out of Madison Square Garden, and on the street Dave is like “do you still want to cast Fred Durst?” And I was like “yeah, more than ever!”

Tuck: Incredible.

Jane: And then I got on the phone with him a couple days later, and we were talking about French films within three or four minutes. He’s a gentle soul behind the scenes, with a great understanding of film and art. He’s a showman, and it happens to be that the audience that will come to his things at this point tend to be the kind of people who wanna scream that they want to suck his dick, in an arena that feels like it’s about to turn into a riot. I’m interested in the film being this intertextual thing of: what does it mean to see Fred Durst in this particular movie about this particular thing, and how does that spectre bloom both in our collective memories but still in the present tense? Which isn’t to say that it’s about Fred himself; it’s more about this white male rage that I found something in when I was 12 years old, but that has also been brewing and metastasizing since then in ways that I am very disturbed by. ]

#i saw the tv glow #jane schoenbrun #idk if I should put a readmore before the transcript..do we want a readmore vote now on your phones

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