#they’re just dumb stupid silly billy boys !!!!!!

[angelmichelangelo]

i have woodyangelo fever (when don’t i tbh) and quickly compiled my favourite moments og Them *clutches big folder full* HERE YA GO

“mikey talks about you… a lot.” yeah no shit the guy is smitten pretty much as soon as he lays eyes on him lol

“sorry mikey, no woody.” *mike proceeds to act like an actual kicked puppy* this whole side plot was very very sad. the woodyangelo divorce was painful yall!

“he only wishes to love… and be loved.” mikey is crying im also crying. we’re all crying here

“woody, of course” he says because duh! yeah the idea of them being exposed to humans is scary but woody of course has to know. how else would they be able to be each others boyfriends ??

[okaybutlikeimagine]

A Father’s Day Triptych

TW: past/referenced child abuse, emotional hurt/comfort, child neglect

(you can find it on AO3 here ♥)

Father’s day in the Hargrove household was always pulled taut with expectations of kindness and submission hanging over Billy’s head.

They didn’t always used to be that way. When he was a kid, Father’s days felt like a reprieve rather than a burden. Billy and his mom would prepare special things- a nice card that would make him laugh, those new fishing poles he’d been eyeing in the big sporting store a town over, a pretty cake with fresh fruit on top from the grocer down the way. His mother went all out. She’d get Billy all excited for it too. The strenuous relationships were softened for a day where they did everything they could to make him happy.

They really did… everything they could just to make him happy. Sometimes Billy still wonders why it had to take so much.

Around Father’s day, his mother would use all her spending money to make his father smile. It usually worked. And for that day, it was so good. It could hardly get better. Grilling and watching stupid baseball games Billy never cared about but would pretend to be interested in, just for him. Fake smiles almost became real. Hot dogs and hamburgers and watermelon always tasted better on those days when his father would put his arm around Billy amicably- when he would laugh at the card and compliment how Billy’s penmanship was getting better every year.

The year that she left was the worst.

The year that she left Billy stopped getting an allowance. He had no money to soften the edges of his father with fresh cakes and fancy presents. He panicked. He stole a stupid fishing keychain from a store and made a card from his school notebook paper. He presented them with shaking hands to his father who seemed glued to the couch, eyes bloodshot, surrounded by beer cans, baseball game so loud Billy’s ears felt sore.

He got a grunt and a lazy eye roll in response. A slurred groan of “your writing is sloppy”. A quieter admission of regret.

He got resentment. Billy was 9 and he knew it was resentment towards his very existence. He slid away to his room. There was no dinner to eat that night as his father passed out on the couch with the TV still on far too loud.

When Susan and Max came into the picture, Billy miraculously found a reason to be happy for it. Suddenly there was pressure taken off of him. He let Max know it too, as Susan encouraged them to go out and “at least get him a card”. They’d lazily look through all the forcibly funny and generic pieces of paper. Max was nervous that first year.

“It’s whatever.” Billy had grunted, looking through ugly green cards with stupid phrases on them. “She’s gonna bang him tonight, he won’t care about a dumb card.”

“Ew.” Max had whined, covering her ears and pouting. Billy couldn’t find it in himself to care.

It was never fun. Billy felt like he was on a leash all day long, obligated to do everything he could for his father just to keep him civil. Susan made a steak, the kids handed over the card, his father remarked how his penmanship was the mark of someone lazy and sloppy (no matter how hard Billy would try to make it as neat as he possibly could), and the day would end. And he could stop thinking about how this man still had a hand in his life.

…

Father’s day in the Hopper household was always bumbling and awkward.

By the time that first one came around, Billy was just beginning to feel less like a burden to the house and more like an addition. He’d found comfort in the space they all shared. They had a sort of routine set between all of them. There was still no second bed for Billy, so he still felt like he was imposing when Hop slept on the couch, but it was a sort of pull out couch by that point and Hop insisted and Billy decided not to pay it too much mind.

And that first Father’s day was just… awkward. Billy had completely forgotten the date- summer had just started for him and days were rolling by in hot and languid and lazy moments of feeling out every new situation. He had just started getting really serious with Steve. Not just touching for the sake of getting off but really starting to need and want each other in ways that scared him. In ways that made him want to keep things how they were- ways that made him scared to change a thing. It was a new and alien feeling for him.

El had inadvertently learned about Father’s day from Mike when he briefly groaned about dinner plans his family had. Billy found that out from El on their drive to the store to pick something up for Hop. She had to convince Billy it was a thing they should do, because Hopper was their father. He did fatherly things for them. He took them in and gave them a roof and food and asked how their days were and wished them goodnight and good morning, however groggily. He made stupid jokes that made them moan and he danced horribly to the old records he kept on their dusty shelf and he was horrible with laundry and he whistled as he did dishes.

He introduced Billy proudly in the grocery store once. It was the weekend after Billy had a really good basketball game that Hop had decided to attend. Hop bragged about it to some friend of his. Billy flushed red and elbowed him and tried his best to escape.

He thought about it every single day.

Billy and El bought a large cheesy balloon, ingredients to make a nice lasagna dinner, and a green and white cake from the bakery. The balloon was more for El. The lasagna was a little burnt. Hop was too nice to say he’d have preferred pie to cake, but he ate it anyway as they sat around the TV and watched whatever program was on. Billy only remembered as he fell slowly into sleep that night. He jolted awake quickly, remembering a sort of far off conversation months ago where Hop had proclaimed confidently that pie was the superior dessert of anything else- yes, even Eggo's with whipped cream and sprinkles. How he admitted cake was never his favorite.

Billy felt shame overcome him as he remembered, pushing himself out of bed and turning to the sofa with the immediate want to apologize for it. He wasn’t sure what came over him.

But instead of sending pleading apologies into the darkness, he just looked towards the sofa with a heavily beating heart and let his eyes adjust. And he thought about all that man had done for the two of them. Thought about how he took in these two stray kids. Thought about how he knew Hop was getting flack for it, because Billy heard the whispers and the snickers and the sneers about Hop running a dog pound. Thought about how he gave up his probably comfier trailer for the rundown cabin, gave up the main bedroom for the dusty spare bed, gave up the dusty spare bed for the couch, gave up parts of his sanity probably…

Billy didn’t wanna apologize anymore. He just whispered a thanks, even though it was hard to push up through his throat and would fall onto sleeping ears.

The Father’s days after that first one got better. They got Joyce, and along with her 2 boys that had their own rocky past with fathers and celebrations of them. Just four kids who feared and resented father figures. It ended up being better than Billy could imagine. It was never quite as awkward as that first Father’s day, but never quite comfortable either. That being said, it was never a bad day. The bar was low, but that didn’t matter. Billy found appreciation for the general ease all the same.

…

Father’s day in the Hargrove-Harrington-”whatever we’re together now and that’s what’s most important” household is filled with guilt and feelings of imposter syndrome.

They don’t celebrate it the first two or so years after they’ve adopted their first child. He’s just a toddler, he doesn’t quite understand yet what it is. And they… they’re still struggling with what it means to be fathers. They’re confident in their rights but they’re not immune to the judgmental voices, always eyeing them oddly when they’re out together with their boy or asking after the mother when they’re out separately. Always looking a little judgmental or harsh when they have to explain why the kid doesn’t look like them- whoever is with him at the time. Or getting looks of pity when the people clearly begin to assume it’s because they couldn’t get pregnant with whatever wife must be at home.

It’s hard to hear. It makes them question everything. If their boy doesn’t know what he’s missing, then there’s no need to explain.

Billy calls Hopper and feels his heart lurch when Hop and Joyce wish him and Steve a happy father’s day. They do it with joy and certainty. As if it belongs to them, too. Billy hangs up the phone and lays in bed for at least half an hour. Steve can’t get through to him.

It’s an odd feeling. A rough feeling. When they adopt their second child, a girl of 9 years old, they know they’re going to have to confront it. Their son begins school that year too. They find out about the day from their friends and television ads and store windows. The children are timid with them- they were adopted as supposed “problem children” from rough homes and tumultuous pasts. Billy and Steve don’t expect anything of them but they’re still not sure how to explain that. They figure ignoring is easier than explaining. Maybe it’ll make it go away.

It doesn’t work well.

And Billy… Billy’s just struggling being a dad. He couldn’t explain the job if he tried. He helps make lunches, he gives timeouts, he buys and subsequently sneaks himself some silly little snack foods when he’s hungry and busy and doesn’t have time to do more than rip open a pouch. He deals with tantrums over vegetables and he wipes mouths with napkins and he sings lullabies in the wrong key and he reads bedtime stories until he himself dozes off in the tiny bed with a small head on his chest and drool pooling onto his shirt.

He’s trying. He gets frustrated at stores. He gets a little hot headed, a little loud. His heart breaks when they cry. He’s straddling the line between being a pushover and a hard-ass. He lays awake at night, staring at the ceiling, dreading ever becoming like Neil. He asks Steve, in the stillness of the night when the darkness acts as the weight of every horrible outcome imaginable, if he’ll follow Neil’s wretched footsteps.

“You’ll never be like him, Billy.”

“How do you know? What if it’s inside me already.”

“It’s not.”

“Maybe it is… maybe I won’t be able to help it.”

He stresses and he struggles and he wants to rip his hair out.

But that first father’s day comes around with their new daughter and newly knowledgeable son. And the two children blunder around the kitchen while their two dads are asleep. And then they wake the two parents up, both teary eyed and breathing heavy, faces full of apology and sorrow, asking for help to clean up the mess.

And Billy and Steve find the kitchen a single step back from full on disaster. There’s juice all over the counter and dripping onto the floor, the cereal box is all soggy from it, the toaster is smoking, a plate is broken on the ground, the fridge is still open. Their daughter pulls on Billy’s pajama pants and holds out her finger that’s bleeding. He gets out of her that she somehow managed to cut it on the butter knife she was using to cut up some fruit.

Steve gets busy cleaning things up. He asks their son to help do smaller things like close the fridge and grab some towels.

Billy takes his daughter’s small soft hand into his large, rough one and plants a kiss on it. It sends something like pure love surging through his heart. He guides her to the bathroom to put a bandaid on it and asks if she’s okay.

“Mmhm.” She nods and his heart softens. She sniffles. “M’sorry. We wanted… wanted to make breakfast and w-wanted to do something nice.”

She sounds like the weight of the world is on her small shoulders. Billy sees himself at 9 years old, doing his damnedest to get anything close to a damn smile out of his father while he sat unresponsive and unamused on the couch.

His heart yearns. It breaks and it pulls and it screams and it shouts. He pulls her in close and hugs her tight and tries to find the right words. Tries to tell her it’s made his entire year. It’s made him feel validated and happy and worth it, like all of that stress is worth it just to know that these two children got up early as hell on a Sunday morning just to surprise their fathers. Just to surprise the two of them. Just to say they thought of them, wanted to give them something, wanted to make them feel special.

“It was nice.” Is all he can croak out through his froggy throat.

“It’s a mess.” She sobs, but he just grips her arms tighter.

“It was wonderful.” He says and he’s crying too. He can’t get the tears to stop. He’s kneeling on the bathroom ground, the two of them crying to each other.

And Billy swears he’ll never get good at the father thing. He has talks with Hop about it, when he’s feeling vulnerable and Hopper’s able to get it out of him. By this point they’ve adopted another child- an older boy, a teenager. He’s rough and he’s jaded. He listens to loud, angry music. He kind of picks on the other two kids, even though he’d jump in front of a bus for either one of them. Hop asks how he likes it.

“He’s a lot like you were, y’know.” Hop tells Billy, who still doesn’t really see it.

Steve doesn’t have as much of a problem with the boy as Billy does. Billy and him just never seem to see eye to eye.

“It’s because you’re the same people.” Hop insists. Steve agrees. Joyce affirms with pity. “You clash.”

They clash hard. They get into yelling matches. Billy never puts a hand on him, but the arguments aren’t exactly great. Billy cries to Steve at night, fear shaking him down to his core, still able to see and hear himself yelling at that boy who fights tooth and nail back with him.

“You’re not a bad person, Billy.”

“Why do I do that shit?” He asks, knowing full well no one but him could ever really know.

It’s not like it’s anything too vitriolic. It’s not like it’s anything really poisonous.

It’s over the fact that he stays out too late at night, and Billy gets worried. It’s the fact that Billy found cigarettes in his room and he knows the bad effects of cigarettes. It’s the fact that he pushed his little brother one day and made him scrape his knee and he needed to learn some boundaries. It’s the fact that he lied about his grades when Billy felt they gave him no reason to do such a thing.

It’s fatherly things. That’s what Hop assures him as Billy cries on the phone with him.

“It’s things I would have done with you.”

Billy never ever knows what to make of that. What to make of what he’d be like now if Hop was his father from the start. If Hop was there from the beginning. If Neil hadn’t made him a monster in his own image.

Billy does his best to get through to him. Get through to his son now because he’s his son now.

Billy feels like the worst, most undeserving father.

As the kids have gotten older, they learned better ways to celebrate father’s day. They learn breakfast in bed isn’t really what the two of them would prefer- a nice lunch and getting to spend some time with them sounds better. A homemade card always goes on the mantle or the fridge with the rest of the collection. A few hugs because those are like treasured gifts in this house with kids who have a history of boundary and trust issues with parental figures.

The older son catches Billy alone in the kitchen.

“Hey.”

“Hi.” Billy replies awkwardly back. The silence is jarring.

“I uh… uhm.” He’s struggling. Billy wants to do something more than just stand here, but he’s not sure what. He doesn’t want to push anything too far. He wants to be good at this.

The boy puts a small, wrapped box on the counter with an envelope underneath and slides it over.

“Happy Father's day.” He mumbles, suddenly fidgeting.

Billy stares at them.

“You didn’t have to.”

“I wanted to.”

There’s another pause, heavy with all the weight and worry in Billy’s heart. He reaches for the box, rips the paper open easily, lifts up the lid.

“It’s uh… it’s just a couple tapes of some of those… bands you like. And talk about. All the time.” The boy snickers, but it catches in his throat. He’s so nervous. “My friend’s family was getting rid of a bunch of their tapes and I know you’ve got your old tape player still so… uh… yeah.”

It’s a mixed bag of absolute classics. Some tapes he used to have, others he’s always wanted. Zeppelin, Ted Nugent, Def Leppard, Billy Idol, AC/DC, Alice Cooper… his heart skips. He lost a lot of his tapes after all the sudden moves he’s had to make. His eyes start to well.

“I… I don’t know what to say.” Billy pushes out on a whisper.

“Are they any good?”

“They’re… they’re awesome, kid.”

“There’s a card too y’know.” The boy adds, still shuffling nervously.

Billy slips it out from under the box, pulling his finger underneath the flap to open it.

It’s… it’s ridiculous. It’s one of the cheesiest cards Billy’s ever seen. He thinks back to all the stupid, jokey cards he used to pick out with his mother. The joke inside actually makes him laugh, loud and bright.

There’s words written underneath, quite a few scribbled out and then-

Sorry for all the trouble. I think I just don’t like knowing you’re right sometimes… but thank you for everything.

The words are nearly chicken scratch- wobbly letters clearly written with a nervous and shaky hand. The boy is damn near bouncing now, damn near trying to crawl out of his skin with nerves.

It’s the best, prettiest, most wonderful chicken scratch handwriting Billy has ever seen. He can barely see it now through his misty eyes.

“Your… handwriting is really nice.”

The boy scoffs loudly.

“Uh, thanks?” He sounds like he doesn’t believe it. Still, Billy could swear he sees the boy preen, just a little.

“Thank you.” Billy says, fighting back tears, trying like hell to hold himself together. “I’m sorry, too. I don’t… I don’t have to yell at you so much. At all. I’m sorry about it.”

The boy is just staring at him, eyes a little wide and a little shocked. Billy feels his heart lurch. He just wants to be fucking good at this.

“I’m gonna do better.” Billy asserts through a not-so-wobbly-anymore voice

The boy gives a small smile that grows a bit wider. If Billy isn’t absolutely crazy yet, he’d say that the boy’s eyes are getting a bit misty too.

“So are those tapes actually good?” The boy asks, clearing his throat and trying to seem casual. Billy sees more and more of himself in him.

“Hell yeah… do you think I’d have bad taste?”

His son cackles just a bit, rolling his eyes.

“Yeah, alright then. Whatever you say.”

There’s a pause. Billy takes the card and tucks it back into the envelope to save for himself- to put in a special place in his and Steve’s room. He then busies himself with shuffling through his tapes before his son says-

“We can… listen to some of them. If you want.”

Billy’s eyes shine with excitement and appreciation.

Listening to the tapes together is wonderful. They rib each other about what songs are better, what voices do and don’t sound the same, what the lyrics are like. They learn more about each other and maybe Billy is finally forced to admit that they’re a lot more alike than he realized.

And Billy starts to feel that maybe… maybe he can finally define what a father really means to him. And father’s days start to feel a bit more like they belong to him, too.

[ishyaboiwhoadwoadie]

I Have Now Watched Teen Titans (2003) and Will Give You My Episode Because I Feel Like It (SPOILERS)

Worst Episodes

5. Homecoming-Honestly there aren’t a whole lot of outright bad Teen Titans episodes. The Brotherhood of Evil are good, and I love the Doom Patrol showing up. This mainly got on the list because Mento is so lethally stupid of a leader that I just really hate him in this episode.

4. Only Human-Again, not bad. Atlas is a silly villain whom I love because he’ll throw hands over losing a video game, and Keith David and John Dimaggio are a great pairing. It’s just got a dumb “Your heart will bring you through” lesson when Cyborg has a literally weight limit due to being robotic.Eh, not awful.

3. Forces of Nature-This one actually is bad. Thunder and Lightning are not engaging characters, the Beast Boy-learns-to-say-sorry subplot was weak, and Slade has a random fire demon ritual. Typical crummy Moral of the Week writing from a show that would later do great at it with episodes like Spellbound and Troq.

2. Fractured-Larry’s really annoying. There are a lot of Teen Titans episodes about reality warpers causing mischief, and Larry is far and away the worst of them, even though he’s the closest one to heroism. I will never watch this episode again, not even for sexy sexy Johnny Rancid.

1. The Beast Within-Sure, I’ll follow public opinion! The plot contrivances of ignoring Beast Boy’s toxic waste encounter and a second Man-Beast were too much for the gritty, dark tone. I actually think a full episode exploring their anti-bad guy bias when one of their own seems to turn would be a cool episode, but they already softballed it with Apprentice, so some of the impact got lost. Ah well.

Best Episodes

10. Revved Up-I love Wacky Races and Mario Kart, so an entire episode around race hijinx is right up my alley, and they play the chaos and character interplay very well. Ding Dong Daddy’s hilarious, the T-Car gradually breaks down, and Starfire and Raven get to do the one bit from Blazing Saddles. Coolio!

9. Lightspeed-I do love the HIVE Five. They’re a really endearing anti-Teen Titans, and I wish we got more of them. These perspective flip episodes are really fun, and the zany characters are a huge boost. Billy Numerous and See-More are hilarious, and Mammoth yelling “Hey, I paid for that!” was top-notch. Plus, Kid Flash was a fun nemesis, and Jinx gets to tell off Madame Rouge, that hussy.

8. Masks-Slade could sometimes get on my nerves. His “all part of the plan” coolness seemed less like a trait of an awesome strategist and more like a writing excuse at times. However, here we get to see him and Robin play manipulation chess, and having a direct opponent was an excellent choice. Plus, it has the Red X costume, and though it didn’t make the list, Apprentice also became awesome in large part because of the boost this episode gave to Slade’s legitimacy.

7. For Real-Ok, this will be the last Season Five episode. Control Freak is a hilarious villain who combines the zany reality warping of Mumbo Jumbo with the pathetic joke nature of Dr. Light into a giant nerd with a chip on his shoulder and too much power. His gauntlet match really helped legitimize the Titans East and was just ingenious in general. The gag of him expecting the main Titans and his traps getting busted was also great as was the chatroom gang. Solid episode all around!

6. The End-Trigon had a lot of setup. Zombie Slade, the occult symbols, Raven’s paranoia. With all the build, one could reasonably fear the entrance not measuring up. It did. Trigon instantly turned the world to lava and became a giant must-destroy-but-can-we freakout final boss (except for the Brotherhood of Evil) that very nearly killed the Teen Titans, and the sheer drama of it all made for some excellent villainous television.

5. Birthmark-Speaking of setup for Trigon, this is an entire episode of Slade hunting down Raven. The horror of fire demon zombie Slade and the gradual dissection of the team leading up to all the markings was a super-tense effort. This was a key moment in making us believe that we the viewers should keep watching for The End while also being a great episode to watch itself.

4. A Date With Destiny-Enough seriousness! Let’s do a prom episode with killer moths and Killer Moth. Watching Robin suffer and sulk his way through slow dances and a tuxedo before getting to tell Kitten off was hilarious, and bumbling, daughter-enabling, city-threatening Killer Moth was a great villain. Likewise, Kitten was a hilarious bratty diva who filled the villain shoes quite well. Top notch!

3. The Sum of His Parts-This is probably the first great episode of Teen Titans, and it set the formula for a lot of future serious episodes: psychological dissection of a Teen Titan. Mumbo Jumbo is fun and all, but the slow tension of Fixit trying to turn Cyborg full robot and showing how dear his humanity is was one of the more painstaking episodes, and it definitely made this into their Heart of Ice. For the thoughtful Teen Titans fan, I say this.

2. Revolution-And for the Teen Titans fan hopped up on sugar, I say this! Mad Mod’s got one joke: he’s British. It’s a joke that doesn’t last more than two episodes, but man do they get their money’s worth here. Every moment is another British pop culture reference as this loony Brit sinks his teeth into every piece of the scenery. As mentioned before, there were a lot of mischievous reality warper episodes, and this one is head and shoulders above them all. And now, time for the final crumpet of this tea time.

1. Haunted-Again, I am willing to follow public opinion. It’s just a really fraught episode where Slade becomes a horror movie ghost villain, and Robin slowly unravels. Again, it’s all about the tension of “How did he come back from the dead?” “Oh crap, is Robin going to be ok?” “Man, Raven took one in the kisser through psychic powers!” The Titans writers are very creative, but they usually save their powers for zany antics and goofball villains (which I love: see entries 10, 7, 4, and 2). However, here they use those powers for evil, and man is it unsettling. Best Teen Titans episode ever!

[cellard0ors]

Fic: Little Bit Hot, Little Bit (Bitter) Sweet

For @peachworthy ,who asked about Link's ennui when it came to his bachelor party and its lack of strippers. (Warning for infidelity)

"So, what was that about?"

Link and Rhett are back in their office, gathering up their things. The Mythical Crew has already checked out for the day, leaving the two lifelong friends alone and Rhett is looking at Link inquisitively after posing this question.

Link, not meeting his eyes, is idly adjusting the zipper on his laptop bag, "Don't know what you mean."

Rhett rolls his eyes, "Of course you do. You got all weird when we analyzed that one organizational pic. The one for the bachelor trip. Why? Was it cause I got another point?"

Link hasn't redirected his attention from the bag, so Rhett presses on, "I can't help that I smoke you at these things, man."

"It wasn't that," Link cuts in neatly, words practically overlapping over Rhett's, "It's..."

He shrugs helplessly, "Silly."

"It ain't," Rhett argues, "Not if it bothers you this much, so," he gestures to him to continue even as he says, "Go on..."

Link sighs and finally looks away from the bag, putting it to one side. He sits on their couch and flaps his hands," Look, I was just thinking back on my bachelor party and how it wasn't that big a celebration and it just-? I don't know...brought me down? It's just that there are a finite amount of things you can experience in your life and I guess I just've been feeling like I missed out on a lot."

"... because you didn't have strippers?"

Link levels Rhett with a look at that, but Rhett counters with his own, "Look, bo - we both got plenty of time left. Is that it? This some kinda midlife crisis thing? Cause I know Lily's going to college has left you feeling a lil'-?"

"I'm not having a midlife crisis," Link returns in a slightly waspish tone, arms crossing, "I'm simply recognizing things I missed out on "

"Link, if...if you want to go to a strip club-?"

"Christ," Link hisses with a surprising amount of annoyance - so much so that Rhett bristles at it, surprised and hurt until Link drops, "I don't want that. I just-? I want-?"

His voice drops in volume, soft and sad, "I just want to feel special."

Rhett blinks in shock. He opens his mouth, closes it. He's at a complete loss on how to answer, which a relatively new experience for him. Luckily, Link is more than up for filling in the silence, "Ain't like I need a stripper for that... albeit someone taking off their clothes for my enjoyment is a nice benefit, but..."

Rhett just stands there. Looming above Link, thinking and silent and Link shrugs again, rubs his palms over his knees, "Been married for forty three years... getting to damn near fifty and I don't regret a second of it, but it's-? It's nice, y'know?"

He sighs and tips his head back so it rests against the couch, eyes closed, "It's nice now and again to think of yourself as... attractive. Special."

The silence stretches out and Link shakes his head, "Man, just-? Just ignore me. I'm talking crazy, I'm talking-!"

Link's words are cut off by the sound of music coming from their blue tooth speakers. It takes him a minute to recognize it and when he does, his head shoots upright lightning fast, eyes wide, because it's ZZ Top.

It's not the kind of tune they normally listen to, but as Billy Gibbons starts singing for someone to give him all their loving, Rhett starts shaking his hips.

It's overly theatrical and he's toying with his shirt, lifting up the hem this way and that and Link bursts into giggles. Is his friend serious?

Apparently he is, as he starts making 'come hither' motions to Link and Link, still laughing, shakes both his head and hands, because no way is he going to get up and dance with this lovable idiot.

Rhett, undeterred, shifts his attention to his shirt again – whipping it off in one smooth motion before raising it one handed above his head, spinning it in crazy circles.

Link, seeing now exactly what his pal’s intentions are, begins to hoot and holler, clapping as if watching a real strip show. Rhett makes sure to toss the shirt at him and Link catches it easily.

He fawns over it dramatically, fanning himself and going as full ham as he can. Rhett’s nose scrunches up and he bends over laughing, clutching at his knees a moment before tossing his long hair back, a near perfect replica of a professional stripper tossing back her locks around during a routine.

He spins on his heels and kicks off his shoes clumsily before turning back, unbuttoning his jeans and slipping them off with as much skill as he did the shirt.

Once again, he tosses the discarded article of clothing at Link, who this time tosses it aside as if it’s an annoyance. There’s Rhett, in his boxer briefs and socks, shaking his booty at Link and it’s – without a doubt – one of the greatest things Link has ever seen.

Absolutely hilarious and silly and just the thing to snap him out of his blues.

As Link starts pretending to ‘make it rain’, Rhett dancing within the fake flurry of bills, he wonders idly if Rhett is going to climb upon his lap.

If he’ll embark on some faux lap dance or try to find something that he can work as a pole, but instead Rhett backs up and Link can’t help but snort, pumping one fist as he brusquely cheers, “Back dat thing up!”

Rhett stops again, chuckling, and Link breaks down as well, the two losing themselves to laughter. Link suspects at any moment Rhett will stand upright and resume a more conservative mien, but instead Rhett literally waggles his ass near Link and Link can’t help but pretend to spank him.

To be fair, he kind of really did spank him in that video they did – what’s so different about this?

Well, it turns out it is different, because when Rhett unceremoniously seats himself upon Link’s lap, his back to Link’s front, things are...not exactly the same.

Okay, so, yes – they did this in that same video – however, in that video, it had all been for show and Rhett hadn’t been…so…fully seated. Much less…grinding.

He’s grinding joyously on Link’s lap, completely unaware that this has just gone a wee bit too far, because yeah, the heat of him? The feel?

…oh boy.

Link’s…’not so’ little Link notices. And then some. Rhett’s rocking against him in perfect sync with the thrumming bass of the song and it’s been awhile since Link has felt this kind of special. Both he and Christy have been busy with this or that and this is…ahhh…

Rhett really works himself downward, creating a fantastic friction between his ass cheeks and Link’s burgeoning erection and Link closes his eyes tight, ready to speak up when Rhett knocks back against him some, tone throaty, “This working for you?”

“Rhett…” Link chokes out and Rhett, having yet to clearly recognize any troublesome signs, just gives him the sauciest grin, “Thinking it’s working for me. Working up a good ol’ sweat – might have ta take this act on the road, see if Jes-!”

“No,” Link grunts, because…he can’t think about that right now. He can’t think about anything. Instead, he grabs a firm hold of Rhett and does his best to halt his movement.

Rhett makes a questioning sound and then? Then he flushes. His cheeks grow fully crimson, green eyes wide as he pushes back just that little bit and he lets out a quiet, ‘Oh.’

Link nods. Rhett stops his movements completely. Link sits there in horrified humiliation, waiting for the hammer to drop, but then? Then Rhett does something completely crazy.

Crazy, immoral – absolutely nuts.

He…starts moving again.

This time with…intent.

He circles his hips and rocks backwards and Link lets out a choked sob, confused and betrayed and yet…unable to deny himself. His grip moves to Rhett’s hips and they’re surprisingly full. They fill up his sweating palms perfectly and Link can’t help himself.

He curses and prays to God equally as he locks down on Rhett and thrusts up. His rapidly swelling dick reaches its maximum hardness and – even through all the layers – he swears he can feel that sweet spot between Rhett’s cheeks – feel that hidden spot, that entrance, that-!

Link’s head knocks back on a full throttle moan and Rhett is not helping as he swallow thickly, muttering his own curse and…moving again.

Rhett is moving again.

And then so is Link.

They start working against one another – Rhett bearing down, Link thrusting up and the air fills with the sounds of their thick, heavy panting – whimpers and moans and Link knows his grip on Rhett has to be bruising and he wants to ease up, wants to relax it, but he can’t, he can’t.

He can do nothing but chase after this vicious, hungry pleasure and it’s like a beast inside of him has been awoken. It snarls and bears its fangs and bears down on its prey with full force.

What had started off as stupid fun has turned into a charged, erotic moment beyond comprehension and Rhett gasps Link’s name, gasps nonsensical things – filthy things.

And when Link hears something along the lines of ‘can practically feel you in me’ he loses himself entirely. With a sharp cry, his body releases – his cock throbbing with endless ecstasy as wet, hot heat fills the front of his drawers As his cock exerts itself, spilling his seed, balls pulsing and it’s so good, so good, so good.

It takes him awhile to recognize he’s chanting this helplessly into Rhett’s back as he thrusts up into him. As he cums and cums and he’s never had a climax like this.

One that leaves him blind, deaf, and dumb to everything. But then -just as wonderfully as the spell washed over him – it washes away.

And he’s cold.

And he’s ashamed.

And he’s…fuck.

The fact his next thought is that he wants more just makes him feel even worse and then Rhett slowly peels his fingers away from him.

The force Link used to hold Rhett in place is horrifying to him and he wouldn’t be surprised if Rhett never forgives him for it, if it wasn’t for the fact that – when Rhett rises – he’s clearly aroused.

His own underwear is tented by his obviously full cock and he turns to Link and licks his lips, eyes bright and hot as he husks, “Be back.”

Rhett disappears into their shared bathroom and Link has no doubt about what he’s doing in there. Not that Link is going to wait around to find out. He immediately springs from the chair. He springs from the chair and flees – flees because that wasn’t supposed to happen.

Nothing like that was ever, ever supposed to happen and his whole body is still humming with the afterglow of pleasant release and yet his eyes are burning with unshed tears because – what has he done?

What did he do? What did they do?

He just wanted to feel special and now?

Now, he feels nothing.

[akmongs]

for @harringroveweekoflove‘s day 4 prompt: school dance

billy and steve ditch prom. it's steve who suggests it, curled up against his side in the backseat of the beamer while they're sharing a smoke.

"you sure you don’t wanna miss out?" 

"why would i care about going if i can't go with you?" steve says, looking genuinely confused, like it's the simplest thing in the world. and maybe it is, but billy's still getting used to this. to the unfiltered, unambiguous way steve shows him and tells him that he cares. that he chose him and keeps choosing him. 

it wasn't always like this. this fragile thing between them kept safe under layers of teasing and flirting and sarcasm keeps getting realer, and billy knows he wouldn't want it any other way, but his heart still hasn't gotten the memo that it needs to stop growing three sizes every time steve surprises him with so much honesty.

can't stop his lips from pulling up at the corners either, a soft smile creeping its way to his eyes, helpless. he steals the cigarette from steve's fingers with his free hand to hide it, the other buried in the soft hair at his nape, tracing lazy patterns on the side of his neck. he takes a long drag and blows the smoke up, shuffling imperceptibly closer, head thrown back against the leather seat but eyes cast low on steve's face, his pale skin and pink lips and long brown lashes.

"so whatd'ya wanna do," he murmurs, presses his lips to steve's hairline and leaves barely-there kisses with each syllable. steve tilts his head up, nose bumping billy's as he shrugs, eyes low and smile easy, relaxed. billy, cigarette still balanced between his fingers, pushes steve’s hair back from his forehead and tugs a bit, snorts at the way his nose scrunches up and steve pulls at his necklace, fingers curled around the pendant. he rests that hand on steves’s knee then, his long legs thrown on top of his, and steve holds his wrist and strokes the back of it with his thumb.

"my house will be empty", he says, the as usual left hanging in the air. "we can go there, or we can come back here." he gestures with his chin at the car window and the quiet surroundings of the quarry. steve's hand pulls at his wrist and billy lifts his arm to bring the cigarette to his mouth, steve’s lips pressing softly against the pads of his fingers. billy stares at them as they wrap around the stick and suck.

"everyone will be at school anyway," steve continues, blowing the smoke to the side. billy drags his eyes back up to steve's, to the line of his brows. "as long as we got music and booze everywhere's good."

"sounds like you got it all figured out," billy says with a soft chuckle. he brings the cigarette back to his mouth and takes another quick drag, exhales from his nose like a dragon. "do i have to rent a tux?"

steve grins up at him, devilish, legs shuffling on top of his. "i mean, i’d love to see it," and his big doe eyes are so bright and flirty it’s dumb, dumb like the big dopey smile billy feels growing on his face that steve leans in to kiss, just a short thing that has billy chasing his lips for more, his breath hitching. "but don't bother, baby. wouldn’t last long anyway," he mumbles, raising a brow and tugging billy in by his necklace.

"oh yeah?" he purrs, amused and warm and ridiculously pleased.

"yeah," steve breathes and kisses him, hands coming up to cradle his face. billy sighs into the kiss, lips closing over steve's upper lip and sucking, tracing it with his tongue. he tosses the cigarette out of the window blindly and wraps his fingers under his thigh, shuffling to lay steve on his back and lie between his legs, steve pliant under him, all soft breaths and slow kisses.

and they already got off before, could do it again, but billy doesn't feel like he needs to. it's something steve's taught him, kissing for the sake of it. making out for the sake of it, because it feels good, not just as a means to an end. and he likes kissing steve so much, wants to do it for hours, 'til he feels lightheaded and silly, lips kiss-bruised and sore, and steve would let him, does let him, happy and enthusiastic (and his, all his).

so two weeks later, steve steals liquor from mr. harrington's cabinet, billy buys a six-pack at the gas station out of town that never id-checks him, and they ditch prom and drive to the quarry. it's empty, the music plays loud from the car’s radio and echoes, and steve smiles at him drunk and blinding like he hung the fucking moon as they share cigarettes and alcohol and kisses and laughter. steve wears a deceptively simple white button-down that probably costs more than billy's whole outfit, and billy spent an extra half-hour on his hair only for steve to ruin it in ten minutes.

"you made a fucking mixtape?" he asks, incredulous, when steve asks him to get a cassette from the glove compartment.

"of course," he says with an easy shrug, hair bouncing in his eyes, and billy looks at him, looks at the sh&bh 1985 prom written in black marker on the cover of the cassette tape, and really has to hold back from saying something stupid like i love you, like i don’t know how i got so lucky.

steve steps closer, and if it wasn't silly, billy'd think he looked shy. "no offence, babe, but nothing you like can actually be danced to." he takes the tape from billy's hands and stretches into the car to pop it in the radio, one knee on the driver's seat. steve turns the volume up as a synthy beat fills the air and stumbles back out of the car. he clears his throat and takes billy's hand, pulls him in with a smile, flush against him, chest to chest, hips to hips, and billy can only go with it, heart threatening to beat out of his chest.

steve sways him, bobs his head, starts singing along to the song and billy can't help but laugh as the chorus hits and steve goes into an impressive falsetto, never breaking eye contact like he really means what he’s singing, how they’re head over heels in love, but making the dorkiest scrunched-up face billy’s probably ever seen. laughs, head thrown back as steve sings to him, the ringing of your laughter it sounds like a melody, to once-forbidden places we'll go for a while, hands around his waist in a slow dance, the softest smile pulling up his cheeks, big brown eyes looking at billy with something like wonder as he starts chuckling himself.

and billy can't believe what he's doing, dancing with a boy in hawkins, indiana, where he thought he'd either die of be killed, where instead he found a boy that loves him and makes him laugh and makes him feel like the beginning of his life is right here, in this moment, with fucking alphaville playing, wrapped in steve harrington's arms.

"you’re a fucking sap," he says and means i love you, and steves leans in, foreheads touching, noses bumping, smiles brushing in a kiss that says i know.

[omegatheunknown]

AEW Double or Nothing 2021

In which the spirit of WCW is alive in confusing and delightful ways and we are left to parse whether overbooking and extracurriculars are offset by having actually very good wrestling happening at the same time.

- Lessons learned from Revolution on the production side? Maybe just cool it on pyro, though the rappelling adventure in the Stadium Stampede showed some of that now-characteristic 'trust us it'll look better on TV' flair. Hot crowd tends to paper over most woes, and the crowd was pretty hot. My one gripe is that the casino theme is hanging around like yesterday's takeout containers. Nothing wrong with clinging to a theme, I just think it's time for season 2. My suggestion? Under the Sea.

*Pre-Card Serena Deeb (C) v Riho for the NWA Women's Championship (***1/2) - Serena Deeb's star has finally risen. She's a remarkably consistent technician and she can get a match out of anyone at this point. She's working at the level of Mercedes Martinez or Madison Eagles at this point, it's amazing that she was overlooked or considered fit only to be a coach for so long. With the NWA belt she has this new swagger, she's basically everything Tessa Blanchard might bring to the table with none of the downsides (Serena has a lot of friends and seems like a lovely person, even!) - Riho's back and here to stay. Her time in Stardom didn't do much for my evaluation of her, which is that there are many better wrestlers that would be better representatives of the joshi style and she's merely pretty good. - The match was very good. Serena showcased a champion's aggression against a sympathetic Riho, they really work well against each other, Deeb's technical prowess against Riho's flexibility led to a very dynamic finish.

*Main Card Hangman Adam Page v Brian Cage (***1/2) - Here the shenanigans start. Brian Cage is on Team Taz, Team Taz has nothing else much to do tonight, so why wouldn't Team Taz flex their muscles, bait us with HOOK, etc? (Because it would be nice to have some variety in the card in terms of a match where one competitor stands across from another competitor?) - Hangman is (checking notes) yeah, still over as fuck, as befits the Anxious Millennial Cowboy. Cage terrifies me, he's a child's drawing of a body builder. He do be very agile for a man of his immense musculature tho. They match up well, Page is biggish for a flyer, Cage loves to play catch. Nothing much to write home about, other than Hangman's beautiful moonsault to the floor and what was overall a very good curtain jerker. - Okay fine, I am curious about Cage's reluctance to lean on the goons, Starks can't come back soon enough.

The Young Bucks v Jon Moxley & Eddie Kingston (***) - I will not be referring to Mox & Eddie as (The) Wild Things because it gives me 'he calls it the wacky line' flashbacks for some reason. - The Bucks have to cheat and abuse Rick Knox's attention span constantly to be on even footing with Mox & Eddie, which is a clever sort of thing that gets washed out by the appearance of LG and Karl Anderson, which again, is cool in a vacuum but was the story of the evening. - Pace was weird - repetitive in eliminating Eddie, then Mox fights back, failed hope spot, Bucks team up, Eddie saves x2/3 in a row. - Mox, unlike Cody (in so many ways,) will probably actually be taking some time off with Renee, which is the kind of thing I would prefer not to know in terms of booking, but they really uh, put him down on the canvas here, and it felt pretty finale-esque.

Casino Battle Royale (n/r, but on the balance pro) - Any changes to the theme of the PPV would likely include changing up the nonsense suit format of these largely joyless slogs. - Obviously anticipating a NJPW talent, or... I dunno, actually -- Lio Rush was a surprise. Got in a quick demonstration of his otherworldly quickness, and you know what, there's probably a fun place for him in AEW. He'll need some friends, of course, feel like Team Taz might fit his temperament. I wonder if he was aware of the Mark Henry news... - Christian does not need to win this kind of match to get a title shot, obviously, but that said it was super lovely to use him to give Jungle Boy the shine. Jungle Boy would be a license to print money if he was even as big as Hangman. - Could register some continued griping about how Penta is not getting his due in AEW but he also literally was dressed as the Joker so I'm low on sympathy on this one particular night.

Anthony Ogogo v Cody Rhodes (*) - I did not like this. It's hard for me to read jingoism as a face move to begin with, and Cody's was egregiously tone deaf and kinda silly yet delivered without a trace of irony because Cody doesn't do irony on purpose, ridiculous neck tattoo aside. - Great argument to be made that Ogogo just isn't experienced enough to be winning matches against Cody. But like, what are we doing here? Cody needs to take some time off, maybe. I thought that's what was happening when he had his mini feud with Penta that really just ended in quick decisive Cody win. I though maybe Cody was being turned when QT and The Factory snapped-- sure, they're a group of impotent player 2s, but Cody is an out of touch elitist with a callous and manipulative streak. Alas, also no. America #1. - Cody is approximately 8 times as tough as Billy Gunn based on his weathering of the one punch man. Match ran a bit long given how little there was to go on. Cody gigged? Quelle surprise. - Cody had the best match on the card like, 3 out of the first 4 AEW events or something, and that was all booking and storytelling. I do hope Cody follows Moxley's lead into a little sabbatical.

Miro (C) v Lance Archer for the TNT Championship (**1/2) - Card's hossiest hoss match, a quick burst reminiscent of a car wreck. Absolutely hit on what it should've hit on but a little slow moving considering it went all of 10 minutes. - I will not complain about Jake the Snake, who I love. And also the gimmick spot, with Miro very astutely yeeting what was definitely a snake in a bag (surely.) back down the tunnel.

Dr Britt Baker, DMD v Hikaru Shida (C) for the AEW Women's Championship (***) - Picked up a lot of steam toward the end but seemed a little toothless (heh) until the last five. - Shida 'deserved' some more time as champion in front of crowds but also it's time to let heel Britt reach her peak, I can't even imagine how obnoxious she can be as the champ, it's going to be great.

Sting & Darby Allin v Ethan Page & Scorpio Sky (***1/2) - Such is the power of STING that I feel like I might be underrating this match... I mean it was an okay match about very simply getting some revenge and the sixty year old man did a very subdued Code Red and a slightly less subdued dive. He's also Sting. They missed an opportunity in calling it the 'Scorpio' Death Drop, but the main takeaway here is you see something like this where it's The Icon and you start to understand why WWE trots out their legends to come out of incredibly still kick ass without bending their knees. - The difference, I guess, is that Sting is absolutely being used to build up Darby Allin, whereas it's not like the fed brought back Goldberg and his attendant aura to pump up... anyone but Goldberg?

Kenny Omega (C) v PAC v Orange Cassidy for the AEW World Championship (****) - Off the top I have to say I'm very sad that the rest of the Galaxy's Greatest Friends were seen only very briefly, nice of them to bring OC's backpack. - Also have to point out that PAC's promo featured one of my favourite jokes, that Kenny must be short for Kenneth as a sort of legal/birth name belonging to a professional wrestler. (See also: Samoa Joseph) - And Mr Cassidy certainly did try in this match, ragdoll sells and all. Kenneth and PAC are absurd talents who bring aerial, power and technical maneuvers in equal measure and OC is not doing any of those on the same level, but he picked his spots, showed his genre savvy and hung in there to the point that he wasn't just the fall guy. - The extracurriculars continue in a match that was already a little overboard for silliness due to asymmetry... I think if you're the Invisible Hand it would've made sense to save up all your tricks for this match, but who am I to question the golden goose? - Sure, Kenny and Don ran the classic heel manager interference spot and taking out the ref in desperation spot but having to take out the ref because PAC wouldn't break the hold is fun, as is the stupid/inspired sense in running the 'smash opponent with the belt' spot four times so as none of your heavy gold prizes feel left out. (I love that AAA Mega Championship, they weren't on TV so we get to see it?) - "Fuck You, Don," indeed.

The Inner Circle v The Pinnacle in 'Stadium Stampede II' (***1/2) - This one had to grow on me for two reasons, first that it's usually pretty unforgivable to co-opt the main event spot from the championship match, and second to law of diminishing returns on dumb gimmick matches. - But grow it did. There's a full on meat locker? Commentary will refer to a cardboard cut-out of Shahid Khan as Tony Khan's father (that's canon now,) and Jericho will lovingly pat it? Konnan happened to be the DJ at whatever night club there is a Jaguar Stadium? Spears surrounds himself dramatically with chairs and his hoisted by his own petard? - Ultimately it comes down to letting Sammy shine. His involvement with the Inner Circle has sometimes come at the cost of being able to showcase that prior to AEW he was an ascendant talent in PWG, on his way to Ricochet level feats of acrobatic excess. Still feel like Sammy could've/should've been the one tossed off the cage a few weeks ago, but even better is being the guy getting the pin in the ring.

[whats-rambled-rambled]

Stuck in reverse - playlist

You can find it on Spotify here. 

Okay, let’s talk about it! 

Sam Smith – Fix you

I remember crying to the original song (by Coldplay) back in 2005. Whoo boy, lots of teenage feelings!

I’m not the biggest fan of Sam Smith’s music, but one day I was just driving home from work and this song began playing on the radio and by the end of it I could barely see the road.

// When you try your best, but you don’t succeed When you get what you want, but not what you need When you feel so tired, but you can’t sleep Stuck in reverse And the tears come streaming down your face When you lose something you can’t replace When you love someone, but it goes to waste Could it be worse? //

That one line – stuck in reverse – felt just so perfect for a story set in the universe where people invert themselves back and forth.

It became one of the three main songs that inspired me to write the whole damn thing, and also the only title in the story that is not a title of a song as well.

Chapter 1: Ben Platt – Ease my mind 

This is one of the songs I have on my daily playlist, I just love it, and the lyrics are so fitting:

//Most days I wake up with a pit in my chest There are thoughts that I can’t put to rest There’s a worry that I can’t place

Most nights, I am restless and quiet won’t come So I lay there and wait for the sun There’s a trouble that won’t show its face

You came out of nowhere and you cut through all the noise I make sense to the madness when I listen to your voice//

We learn more about the nightmares in the next chapters, but it all starts here. That melancholic vibe stuck with me for the rest of the story I guess.

Bonus song: Lewis Capaldi - Before you go

The combat scene in one song, or at least what I imagined was going through Reader’s mind at that point.

//I fell by the wayside like everyone else I hate you, I hate you, I hate you but I was just kidding myself Our every moment, I start to replace ‘Cause now that they’re gone, all I hear are the words that I needed to say When you hurt under the surface Like troubled water running cold Well, time can heal but this won’t//

Have you ever felt that way? Trying to hide your broken heart under anger? I don’t know, it just resonated deeply.

The second part of the song kinda seeped into the next chapter:

//Was there something I could’ve said To make your heart beat better? If only I’d have known you had a storm to weather

//Would we be better off by now If I’d have let my walls come down? Maybe, I guess we’ll never know//

Chapter 2: Kaleo - I can’t go on without you

Another song from my daily playlists (side note – I saw Kaleo once live on a music festival and they were mind-blowing, you should really check out more of their work).

It worked with the story because of its desperate and painful mood.

Bonus: Calum Scott - Dancing on my own

Holy shit, I FELT this one. (Been there, done that). Of course I had to write it into Reader’s past. Actually, I wrote it first and then found the song, but it doesn’t matter, that’s the flashback scene right here:

//Somebody said you got a new friend Does she love you better than I can? And there’s a big black sky over my town I know where you’re at, I bet she’s around And yeah, I know it’s stupid But I just gotta see it for myself I’m in the corner, watching you kiss her, I’m right over here, why can’t you see me? And I’m giving it my all //

Chapter 3: Billie Eilish – Bad guy

No feels, pure bop. This song is so BADASS, I really needed to get that vibe into the undercover mission, I didn’t want Reader to be an emotional mess and nothing else, you know?

Bonus: Tones and I – Dance Monkey

I shit you not, I’ve had that one on repeat for the dance scene. There is something incredibly seductive in that beat, I just couldn’t get it out of my head.

Bonus: Kings of Leon – Closer

It just makes my heart clench and leaves me breathless.

Chapter 4: Ben Platt – Bad habit

Ah, that was the moment when I cursed at myself for using Ease my mind for chapter 1, but we already talked about it.

Even though this song is very emotional, it’s not that heartbreaking, you can hear a faint smile here and there and it just makes my heart sing.

And oh my god, those lyrics:

//You always said that I’d come back to you again ‘Cause everybody needs a friend, it’s true Someone to quiet the voices in my head Make ‘em sing to me instead, it’s you Hate to say that I love you Hate to say that I need you Hate to say that I want you But I do Bad habit, I know But I’m needin’ you right now Can you help me out? Can I lean on you? Been one of those days Sun don’t wanna come out Can you help me out? Can I lean on you?//

They just work with that plot, you know?

Bonus: Dodie – Sick of losing soulmates

Another song that just resonates with the story.

//What a strange being you are, God knows where I would be If you hadn’t found me, sitting all alone in the dark A dumb screenshot of youth Watch how a cold broken teen Will desperately lean on a superglued human of proof

What the hell would I be, without you (what the hell would I be) Brave face talk so lightly, hide the truth (hide the truth)

'Cause I’m sick of losing soulmates, so where do we begin I can finally see, you’re as fucked up as me So how do we win?//

Chapter 5: Adele – Someone like you

The whole damn sunset scene + this song on repeat = feels

The pain in her voice? God, it just reduces me to a puddle of tears.

Reader could just sing it at some point to Neil almost word for word.

Bonus: Passenger – Let her go

Okay, the case of that one is quite funny, because I kinda needed to figure out how to get from point A to point B of the chapter, and I was browsing Spotify looking for „campfire songs” or something like that. Of course I’ve heard this one before, but I’ve never actually focused on the lyrics.

And oh boy, suddenly it all became clear.

Headcanon time – in my head, Wheeler and Neil are close friends, she treats him a bit like a younger brother, I just can imagine they know each other very well at that point. Of course she knows hows about his past. Of course she heard about Reader. And she thinks they are both silly babies and they should just kiss, right? That’s why she chooses that song.

Those lyrics – they fit Neil’s backstory so damn well.

//Only know you love her when you let her go

And you let her go//

And he was stupid enough to let her go. Because his timing was off.

Those lyrics are also perfect to make Reader think about his ex-girlfriend, because of course that is what you’re gonna it’s all about.

Bonus: Del Amitri – Tell her this

Ahh, there it is – the second out of three main songs for Stuck in Reverse.

I remember the moment I found out that Rob Pattinson sings and writes music, then I listened to some of the songs and my heart went whoooosh. So I just had to make Neil play a guitar, I just needed to find out what song would be The One.

Do you remember that flashback about them both watching a tv show on his couch? Here, you’re welcome. 

I recently started rewatching Scrubs and when I got to that episode – ding, ding, ding!

This is the ultimate “hey, I fucked up, I shouldn’t have let you go, I’m an idiot and I love you.”

Chapter 6: Imagine Dragons – Next to me

I adore that song. It warms my heart. I think it fits Neil and Reader’s relationship.

And I needed all the fluffy feelings to switch the tone of the story to something lighter.

Bonus: Michelle Branch – Everywhere

This one is a silly bop, and it always puts me in a good mood. A nice song to listen to when you are happy, in love, and you are making breakfast.

Bonus: Ashlee Simpson – Pieces of me

This one (same as the one before) came to me from Zach Braff’s workout playlist, haha. I mean I almost forgot about it, but it makes me smile every time I hear it, and the lyrics work nicely:

//On a Monday I am waiting Tuesday I am fading And By Wednesday I can’t sleep Then the phone rings I hear you And the darkness is a clear view Cause you’ve come to rescue me

Fall, with you I fall so fast I can hardly catch my breath I hope it lasts

It seems like I can finally Rest my head on something real I like the way that feels It’s as if you know me better Than I ever knew myself I love how you can tell All the pieces, pieces, pieces of me//

Bonus: Kaleo – I want more

Is there such a thing as a warm melancholy? Because that is a vibe I get from that song.

//Turn back, leave all you had Forgive, I’ll forget 'Cause what we need is what we once had Time won’t stand still Just say you will 'Cause I need you there and now

If you leap, I’ll come falling too Running deep 'til that rivers through I don’t mind what you have to do 'Cause I won’t think less, less of you

Yes, I want more, more Looking for more I want more, more 'Cause I want more

Old grounds Feels like the weight has been lifted away So don’t you leave me there wanting more//

Chapter 7: Ben Platt – In case you don’t live forever

I mean it’s not my fault that Ben’s songs make me FEEL things, damn it.

The whole damn song = utter heartbreak when you think about Neil coming back to Reader before he goes back to Stalsk-12 to open that damn lock.

//I, I’ve carried this song in my mind Listen, it’s echoing in me But I haven’t helped you to hear it We, we’ve only got so much time I’m pretty sure it would kill me If you didn’t know the pieces of me are pieces of you

I’ve waited way too long to say Everything you mean to me

In case you don’t live forever, let me tell you now I love you more than you’ll ever wrap your head around In case you don’t live forever, let me tell you the truth I’m everything that I am because of you//

Bonus: Charlene Soraia – Wherever you will go

Why am I doing this to you? Because we all like pain.

This one is for the scene on the deck:

//So lately, been wondering Who will be there to take my place When I’m gone you’ll need love to light the shadows on your face If a great wave shall fall and fall upon us all Then between the sand and stone, could you make it on your own

If I could, then I would I’ll go wherever you will go Way up high or down low, I’ll go wherever you will go

And maybe, I’ll find out A way to make it back someday To watch you, to guide you through the darkest of your days If a great wave shall fall and fall upon us all Then I hope there’s someone out there who can bring me back to you//

Bonus: Rhys Lewis – No right to love you

No light, only pain and suffering.

//'Cause I have no right to love you When I chose to walk away I have no right to miss you When I didn’t wanna stay And I have no right to need you And I knew what my heart was gonna lose I have no right to love you But I do, I still do Yeah, I still do//

Bonus: Knox Brown x Gallant – Reignite

This song is just so incredible, it makes my palms sweat and my mind going places. Yep, it was on repeat.

Oh you know which scene this one is for.

Bonus: Freya Ridings – Lost without you

The last dialogue. On repeat. Because this song breaks my heart and leaves me a sobbing mess.

//Strangers rushin’ past Just tryna get home But you were the only Safehaven that I’ve known Hits me at full speed Feel like I can’t breathe And nobody knows This pain inside me My world is crumbling I should never Let you go I think I’m lost without you//

(OI, SPOILERS) 

Chapter 8: Florence + The Machine – Never let me go

I have only one thing to say:

Fuck you, Nolan.

Third out of three.

//And it’s over and I’m going under

But I’m not giving up I’m just giving in

Oh, slipping underneath So cold and so sweet

In the arms of the ocean, so sweet and so cold And all this devotion, well, I never knew at all And the questions I have for a sinner released In the arms of the ocean deliver me

(Never let me go, never let me go Never let me go, never let me go)//

Bonus: Sasha Sloan - Dancing with your ghost

Suffer with me.

//Yelling at the sky Screaming at the world Baby, why’d you go away? I’m still your girl Holding on too tight Head up in the clouds Heaven only knows Where you are now

How do I love How do I love again? How do I trust How do I trust again?

I stay up all night Tell myself I’m alright Baby, you’re just harder to see than most I put the record on Wait 'til I hear our song Every night I’m dancing with your ghost Every night I’m dancing with your ghost//

[pretty-bratty]

I'll Be Home for Christmas (Even When You're Being a Brat)

I'll Be Home for Christmas (Even When You're Being a Brat)

It's their first Christmas. And it should be perfect - if only Steve wasn't such a brat. And Billy wasn't so tired. And wasn't wearing this goddamn sweater! Bullshit, it's still perfect. 'Cause they're together.

Light dom/sub, spanking, Christmas fluff

It's going on in Baby, Can You See Through the Tears universe - but you can read it on its own.

Every chapter is either in Steve's POV (written by @pretty-bratty) or in Billy's POV (written by @strangergrove).

We post a chapter a day!

Chapter 2: Christmas Spirit (Steve)

Everything is warm and cozy and just...the best. Steve curls up, getting comfortable next to Billy, and lets out a soft giggle when he steals a marshmallow from his hot cocoa. 

"I swear to God, Harrington, those chipmunks are reminding me someone," Billy chuckles, shoving a pancake and a cookie in his mouth, both at the same time.

Steve watches Chip and Dale making fun of Pluto while Mickey chops the Christmas tree. He smiles at Billy, taking a cookie too. Dustin's mom baked cookies specifically for them, a whole jar, frosting and sprinkles and all. Dustin's swearing his mom makes just the best cookies, and well, even Billy seems to agree now, considering on how he inhales them in handfuls. 

"Who?"

The tree on the screen starts to sparkle with colorful lights, and Steve watches it, mesmerized like when he was ten. He's so glad that stupid Demogorgon hasn't ruined his fascination with fairy lights, must be a miracle of its own.

"I dunno," Billy drawls lazily, a mischievous glint in his eyes. "Some certain troublemaker we both know."

"You?" Steve gives him a toothy grin and gets reduced to uncontrollable laughter next moment, because Billy decides to tickle him for that. "Okay, okay, it's me, it's me, stop, Billy!"

He doesn't stop until Steve's literally hiccuping from laughing, grabbing his shoulders into a tight hug then. Steve just sighs happily, relaxing completely. 

It's officially his favorite time. Well, every time with Billy is the best in his books. But Christmas time with Billy is truly magical. 

It's everything Steve has ever seen in the holidays movies and Disney cartoons and everything he's dreamed about, but has never had before. 

He's always been mesmerized by all the falling snow and silvery bright stars, glowing in the dark blue night, and Christmas magic that he dreamed to experience once.

He's never thought his magic would come in a form of wild Californian boy with firm hands and secretly warm heart. But well. S' a miracle, after all. And they come in unexpected forms.

Billy lets out a soft laugh, watching Pluto going nuts on the screen, and cuddles Steve closer.

It's probably his favorite part, Billy being soft all the time - cuddly and gentle and letting Steve get away with almost everything.

He's got it only once, a few days ago, when they met a real-life wild deer during their walk in the snowy woods.

Steve tried to pet its nose, despite Billy's firm forbidding - because a Christmas deer, Billy, honestly, how could you not - and almost got his hand bitten off. It's actually scared all three of them to shit.

The deer pranced back into the woods immediately, probably deciding to never go closer to any dumbass humans. Billy yelled and used all profanities that Steve knew and some more.

Steve just got frozen on the spot, his heart beating wildly, before getting pulled into the tightest hug from Billy.

Unfortunately, after a moment Billy understood that Steve's a) okay and b) disobeyed him, so the next thing Steve got were a few harsh slaps on his ass, paired with some pretty pissed scolding. 

Then he got hugged again though, and cuddled for the rest of the day, so it wasn't even that bad. He also managed to keep the faint memory of the deer's velvety nose, so - totally worth it.

Besides, deliberate disobeying usually lands him into a full-blown trouble, so this was honestly nothing.

Apparently, Christmas time's the time when you can get away with literally anything. Which is one more reason to love this season dearly.

The cartoon is ending, and Billy moves, as if trying to get up.

"One more," Steve grabs his hand, getting more comfortable on top of Billy and stealing the frosting from his cookie.

Billy checks his watch. 

"Steve, it's time to get ready, baby."

"No," Steve pulls a face that Billy usually calls a spoiled pout. 

"Have you changed your mind?" Billy hauls him so Steve straddles his lap, facing Billy, like he's not heavier than a little puppy. "Are we not going to the Byers?"

"Of course we are," Steve's voice gets all hoarse and he's just...going completely still.

Because his breath is hitching and there's this sharp, almost painful feeling in his stomach, and his head's swimming and his heart is going wild - like every time when Billy holds him like that. 

Holds him with his firm hands, palms warm and steady on Steve's sides, like he can easily lift him in the air - and he probably can.

Billy's gaze is intense, both soft and piercing at the same time, and he seems so big and confident, while Steve feels so, so small.

Small and vulnerable, and kinda lost. He clutches Billy's shoulders, not actually knowing what he's doing. The only thing he knows is that Billy, unlike any others, wouldn't push him away.

Steve feels his eyes prickling all of a sudden, and it's stupid, he's not some whiny girl, and all he wants is to promise he's gonna be so good, only good, like, forever - just - just please, don't let me go, never let me go.

Saying it out loud would be too dumb even for Steve though, so he just keeps looking at Billy, breath hitched, completely helpless.

But Billy - Billy still seems to just somehow get it, because Steve's being held close and cuddled to his warm chest. 

There are soft lips touching his ear, and it's ticklish and warm and Steve feels so incredibly light, like his stomach is full of tiny airy bubbles, like in coke, and Billy's hands are running down his back, all soothing and steady and firm, yet so gentle.

"You're a good boy, yeah, my good boy," Billy's voice feels like a warm blanket wrapped around him, so reassuring and soft. "No matter what. Mischievous and spoiled and bratty as you are, you're my boy. M' keeping you forever, okay?"

Steve closes his eyes, treasuring these words. He's used to cold or stern voices way more than to this soft praise, because people apparently think he deserves only that. Steve kinda believes it himself - but seems like Billy's made it his mission to change it.

So Steve just clings to him, soaking it all up like a sponge, melting in this warmth and tenderness.

Billy keeps drawing soothing circles on his back, murmuring some silly questions to which Steve just needs to nod or shake his head - like 'are you excited for the party' and 'are you still gonna ask Joyce if you can put a reindeer antlers on the dog' and 'do you think I'm gonna beat the Chief in how much gravy we eat'.

He doesn't stop until Steve can breathe normally again, until he gets all relaxed, giggling softly into Billy's neck, pressing his lips to the warm skin.

"Now let's get ready," Billy moves him to look in his eyes. "We promised to come earlier and help, remember?"

"But..." Steve knows it. He wants to go and he also wants to sit here with Billy forever, and just, time is such a stupid concept!

"No 'buts', Stevie. And none of that pouting," Billy gives him a pointed look, patting his cheek lightly. "I told you you're my boy and I'm not letting my boy be disobedient, got it?"

Steve just pouts more.

"What, it makes me not your boy if I'm disobedient?"

"Where the hell have you picked up this nonsense?"

"But you said...."

Billy rolls his eyes and then fixes him with somewhat stern look. Whoops.

"It makes you my boy who I'll have to punish so he behaves again. Are we clear?"

Uh, so maybe you can't get away with everything even at Christmas after all. Or maybe Billy's just trying to scare him. It's better to listen now anyway.

"We're clear, Billy. But I'm all ready to go!" Steve looks at him all innocently, pointing at his sweater and then at Billy's naked chest. S' not like he doesn't appreciate the view, but...

"Yeah, about that," Billy frowns, drumming his fingers on Steve's back. "You little shit happen to know where have all my shirts disappeared?"

Chapter 1

Also on AO3!

[marypoppinswasmyfatherbitches]

Oh my goodness, I didnt see the link to your fanfic account! I am dumb. So ignore my previous ask and instead answer this one for the meme. 13, 3, 14, 1 and 2 for Happiness goes on? (I shall leave reviews on your beautiful fanfic soon I promise, they are good.)

(Hiii, sooo…this whole reply is late because I actually typed up ALL OF THIS last night, and then accidentally “x”-ed out of my browser and lost it all, because I am very very stupid. And then was too tired to retype it up before going to sleep. I hope I remember roughly everything, and apologies for that mistake.)

Oh! Haha! Alright then! Thank you! Don’t feel dumb at all for not realizing which AO3 account is mine or for your previous ask(which for others who are curious, said: “1 - 5 for all your fics! Just talk about your favs!”). I was prepared to choose 3 fics (including “Happiness Goes On” since that’s definitely the one I’m most proud of, so I guess that’s closest to a “favorite” right?), and go through the first 5 questions for each, though I won’t lie and say it wouldn’t have taken some time to answer.

BUUUT…since you said to scrap that first ask, I’ll answer these individual ones for “Happiness Goes On.” And your compliment and promise for a future review means SO goddamn much, thank you sincerely.

(WARNING / REMINDER: This is about my fic that deals with the subject of child molestation, and I do reference that a little bit in this reply. Don’t read further if it makes you uncomfortable, which I entirely understand and respect.)

**********

13: What music did you listen to, if any, to get in the mood for writing this story? Or if you didn’t listen to anything, what do you think readers should listen to to accompany us while reading?

HA! Well, American Pie obviously, for a majority of it. While brainstorming / writing / editing the epilogue? A lotta Billy Joel. ;)

The idea to use American Pie bounced into my brain when it came on the radio at the thrift shop where I volunteer, one of the rare times my own music speaker battery died. Usually a disaster, because our store radio is pretty crappy, but the sound quality wasn’t too bad that day, and I rediscovered how much I love that song and ‘Why isn’t this on my ipod again?’. Listening to the lyrics, I realized how much some of them fit the Guardians in general, and this story specifically, which I have Gamora mentally note in the fic. I was sitting and casually chatting with the manager while also thinking, ‘Google what year this came out when you get home, but I’m sure it’s the 70′s. Peter would know it, and it could be the Zune. I think it could work.’ I’m proud that I was able to reference the song so many times without actually naming it by title, but I assume most readers knew what it was, it’s just that famous. (I also couldn’t resist the light-hearted joke, later when things calmed down, of Gamora saying “This…is the longest song…I have ever heard.” and Peter smiling without even looking at her and giving a cheeky “I know.”)

In terms of using Billy Joel for the epilogue, I’m just a Billy Joel fanatic. The use of him for this story began just from the We Didn’t Start the Fire joke toward Rocket at the bar (I thought it was clever, Peter!), and later on I saw how The Longest Time fit romantically for Starmora, and some of the lyrics matched the healing themes of the overall story, and I thought ‘Maybe they’ve been playing BIlly Joel since that night; maybe that can be the joke.’ Why shouldn’t his Greatest Hits albums (at least) be on the Zune? I struggled a lot over what song should be the final one Gamora comments on before they switch artists to appease the group. I never specify which romantic Billy Joel song Peter and Gamora slow danced to during their “date night” in that six-week summary, but I like to imagine it was Just the Way You Are. I considered Keeping the Faith or Vienna for the final one, but I thought they deserved something more fun and naughty to analyze this time, so Only the Good Die Young it is. :D

In conclusion, I listened to The Longest Time, and the entire An Innocent Man studio album, a lot (as if I needed an excuse).3: What’s your favorite line of narration?

The portion in italics is my favorite line, but I’m including the entire sentence for context purposes: “She would need to grow used to him viewing Yondu as a caring parent who was extraordinarily protective of his boy, and would have hunted down this pervert to whistle a glowing arrow through her skull.”14: Is there anything you wanted readers to learn from reading this fic?

Ohh geez, wow, that one is tough. I don’t know if it’s accurate to say this story was intended to educate, but just to explore the idea with fictional characters. I have no expertise on the subject, and would never claim such, or talk down to those who do. I didn’t intend to create a PSA. I suppose all of the “lessons” for Peter (if they can be called that) I hope all readers already know and agree on (basically a collection of “it wasn’t your fault” and “this doesn’t define you” and “trauma isn’t a competition, someone else suffering worse doesn’t invalidate your experience” and “you should feel comfortable talking about anything without judgement or shame” etc.).

Slightly lesser scale messages, there’s also reminders about the importance of communication, trusting each other, letting the other person speak in an argument, not letting one’s jealousy/instincts/bad mood interfere with fairness, not running away from a fight or staying angry, respecting boundaries and privacy, all that healthy relationship jazz that these two are still figuring out. 1: What inspired you to write the fic this way?

This post is already very long, and I could probably talk for hours about the decision-making process for many scenes (of my GotG fics, this took the longest to write and publish, over 2 months), so I’ll try to condense this to a few bullet points that probably don’t fit the “inspired” criteria.

- It was originally going to be in two parts, 4 scenes each, when I thought the epilogue would be much shorter. But as the lil’ wrap-up got longer (because we needed a fluffy conclusion, dammit!), I decided to make it a separate “chapter.”

- I think the concept probably started as one of those strange, angsty “what if?” scenarios I make up in my head at night that I still can’t believe I created into a full-fledged work. I liked the idea of Peter and Gamora having this conversation and her comforting him, but I knew if I was really going to throw it out there for other fans, it had be more balanced with happier moments, too. I just know I was always going to make the offender a woman - both because it would lead to the misunderstanding that she was a past consensual hook-up when Peter was an adult to spark some irritation and jealousy in Gamora, and because it’s realistically different from other sexual assault stories, since women can be pedophiles and child predators too, and they’re just as horrible. :(

- The fanfic idea of “Gamora accidentally starts a fire while trying to cook, and Peter falsely accuses and lashes out at Rocket” was in my head before, but there were two key differences. 1) It was the entire plot, not a light-hearted subplot in the shadows of something bigger, 2) Meredith’s letter was either fully or partially burnt as a result of the fire. By the end Gamora was going to confess it was her fault, that she was trying to surprise Peter by cooking spaghetti, and he would apologize both to her and to Rocket for losing his temper and getting so angry. I hated that idea later and found it too sad (he’s already lost the Walkman and second cassette tape, why would I want him to lose even more from his mother?), and in “Spark My Memory” (the Christmas fic I wrote for “12 Days of Starmora”) the Guardians put his mother’s letter in the photo album gift for Peter, completely safe and unharmed. I like to keep all my fanfics canon-compliant and non-contradictory from each other, so the letter is fine, no burning it.

Yet “Gamora started a fire cooking” still seemed fun to me, as I like the idea that she’s so badass and skilled and intelligent, but failed at something so domestic and simple. Kinda cute. I was so excited to insert it into this, because I think it worked on multiple levels. It’s a driving force for the plot (the reason the team go to the restaurant and they stumble upon that particular waitress), the reason Gamora was already in a bad mood during her fight with Peter, it could be used as a metaphor/comparison for Peter’s anxiety and Gamora’s guilt, it was something for the Guardians to put at a higher priority to tease and mock Gamora for while oblivious to the main story, something for Peter to just break down into giggles over once they changed the subject (because he earned a good laugh after that heartbreaking and vulnerable childhood trauma story), an excuse to give Rocket so many funny lines, an overall silly and sitcommy-style subplot to fall back on, and a sweet “victory!” for Gamora to have (sort of?) conquered by the epilogue. ^_^2: What scene did you first put down?

This is easy. I’ve written all but one (8 out of 9) of my fanfics in order, except for “Just Like Everybody Else.” So ya, I wrote the opening scene first, Baby Groot’s magic trick lesson and Peter’s oh-so-cruel “can only be seen once” deception. I needed to ease readers (and myself) into the angst and heavy shit to follow, and that cute idea had also been in the back of my mind for a while. ^_^

**********

PHEW, OKAY, ALL RE-TYPED! Thank you again SO MUCH for the lovely ask and wonderful questions, your actual interest and curiosity thrilled me! You see I wasn’t kidding about the incessant babbling. :P

Thank you also for the kudos you left on AO3, and take care!~

[rxpunzelwrites-blog]

what my kiddos are doing for valentine’s day!

laura tagged along with lydia and rosy for a lot of the day because she normally spends the day with lydia and felt a little lonely probably. but then she left the two of them to do their own thing and now she’s scotty’s valentine and eating donuts with him.

audrey isn’t even aware it’s valentine’s day. she was probably alarmed by the all the paper hearts in messina then eventually shrugged it off and went to work.

harper spent it with toby of course, and baked him heart shaped cookies and they probably went for lunch with their kiddies! she also baked rhodes a batch as well and kissed him all over his face and told him she loved him no less than thirty times.

reuben had to help bill pick out a valentine’s day gift from tori and suggested that he take her on a ghost tour. whether or not he took that onboard is up to jenny :’) and then reuben pulled himself to dinner and asked daisy on a second date and probably just took her somewhere nice for dinner.

mickey didn’t celebrate valentine’s day because it’s shane’s birthday which is a hundred times more important to him. he saved up his money and bought him a vintage signed photo of gregory peck.

dennis went right ahead and bought bret flowers and they weren’t crumpled this time and he says that he’s only making up for squashing them on their auction date and that he didn’t even know that it was valentine’s day but he said all this with a stupid smile on his face and probably helped with the rosy surprise even though he complained the whole way through it.

alice spent the whole day making out with jay. probably in front of quinn at some point. i am so sorry.

leon sent an anonymous card to freddie because he’s in way over his head. silly boy.

atticus kissed eeeeeeveryone on the cheek today. but finn and reggie and amelia and annie got TWO kisses. he didn’t get anyone any gifts bc he claimed that he is their gift and that they should feel blessed.

wren claimed quinn as her valentine like she usually does. she made him a card like she usually does. and she kissed him like she usually does. later on, she went birdwatching with henry and tried to ignore all the flutters in her tummy.

rosy spent her day with lydia and got the best surprise EVERRRRR. she definitely cried. and then when laura left them alone she demanded that she and lydia cuddle in bed for the whole night and then told lydia that it’s the best valentine’s day she’d ever had. also realised she’s in love with lydia but didn’t say it out loud because she wants to tell bret first and ask if he thinks she should tell her.

wilhelm literally just spent the day with ringo starr. his ankle still hurts so he couldn’t even dance, poor bb.

felix wrote little valentine’s day cards for raegan, hazel and monica and then he sent one to eddie ‘from mallory’. but yeah it’s mostly from him. felix loves valentine’s day oh my gosh.

jack sang love songs all day, i’m not joking. he probably shyly serenaded ivy as well.

justin definitely asked raegan out on a date. and then as a joke he’d pretend he’d asked colton out as well and then he’d pretend to be worried about being double booked and then insist that indy needs to come now as well so there’ an even number. it probably wasn’t even his idea because he’s too dumb for that so raegan is welcome to take the credit.

callum debated asking what scotty was doing and then decided against it and just wished kai a happy valentine’s day through the wall before ultimately just going to work and spending his night on the docks.

brody lmaaaao okay so brody bought hunter a bunch of the saddest looking daffodils in the whole entire world because that was all he could afford. and he left them at her desk and claimed that it was so he could ‘keep up appearances’ oh my god i’ve been waiting to type this all day.

riley received lots of valentine’s cards from his students and took them all home with him and pinned them on his wall after he conferred with barry just to make sure that none of them were serious love letters. he sent monty a card and said he only did so because that’s what the two of them usually do.

sutton probably went to hang out with kara and ollie fully aware that it was valentine’s day but didn’t mention it and if it was brought up he would feign ignorance like ‘oh??? it’s valentine’s day???’

let’s not talk about how greyson is doing today

elsie kept herself to herself even though she contemplated wishing tara a happy valentine’s day but decided against it. angelica probably tried to corner her for a kiss but she ran away.

wardo is the most loved up fucking goober right now. he spent the whole day kissing louis and then dancing with cecily and ivy and was even nice to ulysses. wardo was in the best mood ever today okay.

elliot cooked chicken nuggets for melody and then took her to a monster truck rally. he asked for a kiss from raegan and was probably denied it, but he definitely gave rhodes a big kiss. and he’s super worried about him after the break up.

pace and cece didn’t give each other valentine’s gifts, but pace wished everyone he came across a happy valentine’s day. he filmed a lot of people getting their gifts and even caught a proposal on camera so he’s had a good day living through other people’s happiness.

angelica gave everyone all the kisses including lizzie, bea, jess, seth, katie, carter, cassie, conrad, melody and nearly elsie. basically if you think there’s a chance that angelica would have reason to kiss your oc then she definitely did.

dean spent the day watching finding nemo with mellie and baby hadley :)

joe hooked up with someone he can’t remember the name of. very romantic.

sybil went ghost hunting as usual, possibly with byron and if anyone tried to suggest something about that she’d threaten to curse them.

ella had class but brought hazel cupcakes home for her to decorate. she probably uploaded the footage to her youtube channel.

aaron is spending the day with his girlfriend but let it be known that he text astrid saying, ‘happy valentine’s day, maine x’

harvey was working but as you can see, he’s talking to kenny which means he’s very happy about that.

nathaniel spent the day with will and jane and kissed them both and basically just tried to keep will’s spirits up.

will isn’t doing good right now and he misses alex a lot and he feels edgy and anxious but he spent time with nathaniel and jane anyway bc he knew it would make nate happy.

dixie was working but when she saw séamus in the lobby, she definitely wished him a happy valentine’s day and then spent the rest of her shift blushing about it. also her momma made a sculpture in her pottery class and ‘in the spirit’ of valentine’s, she gave it to mr croft. innocently, of course, but dixie knows better and wasted no time in telling cassie and david.

cecily spent her day playing with apollo and smiling and giggling at wardo and louis. she let wardo dance with her and she hugged ivy and after some encouragement from her brother, she got brave enough to kiss louis on the cheek and wish him a happy valentine’s day before all the excitement got a bit too much for her and she scurried off to the museum. but then she saw david and got all frazzled again :’)

levi IS GOING ON A SORT-OF DATE WITH AMELIA AND THAT’S THAT ON THAT.

dustin is making fun of all his students’ valentines. because he’s a dick.

diego probably isn’t doing a lot bc when is he ever but i like to think he enlisted caroline’s help to draw a picture of a butterfly so he could give it to cedric.

chase is getting high af and hooking up with whoever wants him. mess.

max is having the time of her fricking life and sent valentine’s to practically all of messina. she’s wearing heart themed everything today and her muse is through the roof so she’s probably planned like six new novels and she’s LIVING. and she’s asking after everyone else’s valentines and how they’re going and fangirling over all the cute things.

holly walked into a novel idea. glared at katie. left.

benji probably got another kiss of david because i say so that’s why.

jutta has no valentine but she plans to find one when she goes out clubbing tonight so really she’ll be fine.

taylor sent valentine’s to both darren and ronnie from BOTH her and james because she knew james wanted to but wasn’t brave enough, and it also helped her feel less guilty about everything that’s happened between her and the boys lately.

bennett got piss drunk then found some randomer to sleep with so he can forget about calvin and hero.

kit is in a surprisingly good mood today. simon gave her chocolates which she didn’t eat, but gave them to cody instead. then she baked cakes for daisy, simon, lo and beau. she was probably super shy about giving lo one but again, she’s in a good mood, she got over herself and did it.

simon woke up feeling sad but he still went into work and bravely wished billy a happy valentine’s day AS A FRIEND before saying the same to everyone else in a novel idea. then he went home and gave chocolate to kit and beau to be a gentleman.

evie demanded that jax be her valentine because she knew he hasn’t quite managed to work up the courage to ask ronan out and ronan remains oblivious.

oz gave out free candy to everyone and tried not to be sad when daisy told him she was going on a date with reuben so there’s that.

caroline heard that amelia and cassie were both otherwise preoccupied but decided that was okay because she woke up and tackled jason and gave him a big kiss on the cheek as well as a card that says ‘i love you to infinity and beyond’. she also bumped into gabe and pretended to not know it was valentine’s day pls just give me this.

mellie is probs very anti-valetine’s day right now. she’s avoiding che and probably pouted if indy did end up giving into justin and going out, so she watched finding nemo with dean instead.

ronan was working and being oblivious about jax and i hate him for it. he probably spent what free time he had attempting to find a date for his cousin, abel.

alfie baked all his friends a heart shaped pie and gave them all kisses even though he’s a little bi awkward around scotty rn because he’s not sure if he’s allowed to kiss his cheek anymore, but his spirits were up anyway!

emma was on set and i’m sure that drew did something charming so there’s that :’)

ellis arranged so many flower bouquets today and you can bet your goddamn ass she went to pick clara up at school and gave one to barry whether he liked it or not. she also graciously camped out in calvin’s room in order to give rory the space should he bring someone home :’) and because of that she probably bulled calvin into letting her braid his hair.

seth spent the day with all of his friend - not just katie. he gave all of his friend a valentine’s day hug - not just katie. he went out at night with all of his friends - not just katie. AND YES HE’S SURE HE STARED LONGINGLY AT /ALL/ OF HIS FRIENDS NOT JUST KATIE, THANKS VERY MUCH.

noah literally spent the whole of rehearsal belting every single iconic broadway love song at isaac just to get a reaction from him.

conrad was bullied by anya into wishing lizzie a happy valentine’s day. he’s going to be embarrassed about this for the next three months.

carter as we know was cassie’s valentine and the two of them shared alllll the candy and chocolate together. and then he met teddy and let a stranger hug him and that’s very important for him. also, he pined over jess. as per.

kevin WAS SNAKED BY CARTER FUCKING HEFFRON. he’s v displeased and pouted at katie for being the mastermind behind the whole thing.

piper probably took a selfie with hunter and sent it to brody saying that she was stealing his valentine. 

robbie spent it with blair and was appalled when jimmy showed up to ask if he could take blair out because EXCUSE ME CATTLE MAN THAT’S MY VALENTINE AND I NEED TO MAKE ALL THE MEMORIES WITH HER. so my headcanon is that he obnoxiously tagged along.

beau got cakes from kit and chocolate from simon and bought lo a big tub of marshmallows :) she’s not really up for celebrating though after her break up.

bailey sent all of her sisters gifts and then went to the stables so she could assist couples going on valentine treks together. she briefly contemplated how lonely single life can be but swiftly got over it.

adam definitely gave mack a card and a teddy literally just to piss off roy because he’s awful.

sawyer was in the ER and probably walked in on bennett and someone on the on-call room and is scarred for life. she debated going to see lux but then realised caleb might be working and decided against it.

micah spent the day at home with jd. he feels bad about not really checking on greyson but he knows he doesn’t treat jd the way he should or spend that much time with him on a good day and he wants to make that up to him on the national day of romance.

foster was working and probably received an inappropriate valentine’s from one of his students that probably left him close to tears because NO THIS IS WRONG WHY CAN’T I JUST HAVE AN EASY LIFE. he probably debated shoving himself back in the janitor’s closet before ultimately deciding to hide away at lunch time and share his babybel with ryke.

jimmy decided to ask out blair for the day and then realised that meant robbie would be tagging along. he was only a little annoyed.

[horror-movie-blog]

HMB: Creepshow 1 & 2 AND Tales From the Dark Side

Original Publishing Date: May 22nd, 2015 

So let's talk about horror anthology series. Whether it be mature like Twilight Zone and Amazing Stories, for children, like Goosebumps or Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, or even movies like the two we'll talk about today, there's just something so likable about a bundle of cheesy, campy horror movies. You're either going to get something absolutely terrible or something pure genius. So let's talk about two, or rather three, movies that fit this description, Creepshow 1 & 2, and Tales from the Darkside Movie. Tales from the Darkside was a horror anthology series like the examples I listed above. The reason why I'm talking about this movie along with the Creepshow francise is because many fans consider it the unofficial third installment. George A. Romero and Stephen King, the writer and director of the Creepshow series, had involvement in this movie when King's book Cat from Hell was turned into one of the shorts, and it was directed by Romero. So why the hell not include it? When am I ever going to talk about this movie again? So let's take a look at all the shorts from this movie series, starting with the first Creepshow movie, with the short, "Father's Day". It sucks. Plain and simple. It's just about some old fart who wants a birthday cake. He comes back to life and he kills a bunch of people, and places a woman's head on a birthday cake. Stephen King... the master of horror... sigh. The next skit is "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill". A hill-billy played by King himself, find a meteorite that seems to grow some strange alien plants. The plants take over his home and Verrill kills himself. Again... Stephen King, the master of horror. I'll admit it was fun seeing King act so silly in this short, but it doesn't distract from the lazy story. The third skit is where things get interesting. "Something to Tide you Over", which sounds stupid, is actually my favorite in the movie. Leslie Nelson, a man known mostly for parody, plays a rather sinister man who buries his wife and her lover neck deep in sand and leaves them to be drowned by the coming tides. Holy shit is that a scary concept, I mean, can you think of anything more scary then waiting to be slowly drowned. To make things even more creepy Nelson is watching them as they drown. The next one is probably the longest of the movie but it's okay, not as good as the third but better than one or two. It's called "The Crate", a man in a miserable marriage gets a create, and inside the create is a murderous Yeti. The man hatches a plan to try to get his wife to look inside the create. The majority of the short is just build up to the woman's destined death, and boy is it suspenseful. It's long, but it works. And finally we end on a weak note, "They're Creeping Up on You". A germophobe's house gets invaded by cockroaches. That's it. But it's okay, because he's a jerk! Stephen King, the master of... You know what, I've been picking on King too much. This was a great movie, I don't care if half of them were crap, for me, the middle two was enough for a watch. Okay, now let's move onto Creepshow 2. Keep in mind, King and Romero had nothing to do with this, although Romero did write. Instead of five skits, it's three. The first one is called Old Chief Wood'nhead. A giant wooden indian comes to life and kills a bunch of teens, but it's okay, because those teens killed an elderly couple. Make sure to throw in a naked lady to get that R rating, then pat yourself on the shoulder movie, you're a mature movie! Yeah, this skit sucks. The next one is called "The Raft". Side fact, there's a show called Lost Tapes on Animal Planet that completely stole this concept. Sadly I saw that first so the chills and suspense that came from this concept was gone when I saw this particular one. Although to be fair, Lost Tapes used an actual scary monster rather then what this movie used; a blob like piece of garbage. The plot centers around teens trapped on a raft in the middle of a lake. A blob monster circles around the raft so there's no way to escape. The teen are picked off one by one until one boy has the balls to swim to shore. This was a very suspenseful idea and is probably the best in the movie, too bad Lost Tapes ruined it. Lastly we have Hitch-hiker. A woman has an affair with her husband, and while driving home she strikes and kills a homeless man trying to Hitch-hike. She drives away but the man comes back as a zombie, only he doesn't seem to be attacking her, he just constantly says "Thanks for the ride, lady". That's it. The woman constantly tries to get away from the zombie, but it keeps poping up to say, "Thanks for the ride lady". I don't get it. So Creepshow 2 sucked. The middle part was good but the other two shorts didn't make it worth watching. Which I can unfortunately say the same thing about Tales from the Darkside. The first short from the unofficial sequel was "Lot 249", based on the Sir Conan Doyle's story of the same name. A man extracts his revenge on the people who wronged him by sending a mummy after them. If this sounds familiar to you, that's because this story is considered the first horror story to feature a mummy as the monster, so the Universal movies took inspiration from this when making The Mummy. Unfortunately this short doesn't try as hard as Universal. The acting is wooden, even with critically acclaimed actor Steve Buscemi and Julianne Moore, the acting in this movie feels very bland. There's a scene where Buscemi is tied down to a chair and is about to be set on fire, and he looks like he doesn't care. There's a scene where Moore sees the killer mummy coming straight at her, and she doesn't seem to care. Basically this whole short felt like a simple Goosebumps episode with blood and gore to keep that R rating. The second short is called "Cat from Hell", adapted from Stephen King's story of the same name, and directed by George A. Romero. Even though the rest of the movie is directed by a different person, it's because of this short that people call Darkside the third Creepshow. And honestly, I can perfectly see why. This is by far the best in the movie, and if this was a franchise, I'd say this was the best in the franchise. It's about a dying old man hiring an assassin to kill a cat. Why? Because the old man is convinced the cat killed his sister, her friend and butler. I'll admit what ruins the short are the kills, the kills are just too goofy. The only death that was convincing was when the cat lied underneath the woman's legs, causing her to fall down the stairs. But besides that, the kills in this short really do ruin it. I mean, the cat jumps into the assassin's mouth and is shallowed alive. That's how the assassin dies. It's hilariously stupid. But the reason why I think this the best is because of how the story is told, up until the stupid deaths of coarse. Oh, and the cinematography. It feels like something straight from the 1940's, the muted colors, the amazing camera work, it feels like belongs in the golden age of horror. Romero did a great job in making King's work into a masterpiece. And finally we have "Lover's Vow". An artist sees a gargoyle kill his friend, but the gargoyle spares him if the man promises not to tell a soul. So the man keeps his promise, he marries, has children, his art career takes off, and it seems all is going right with his life. On their ten year anniversary, the man tells his wife the truth, feeling closer to her then ever and feeling she has the right to know. But... spoilers, SHE WAS THE GARGOYLE! And... OH NO, THE KIDS ARE GARGOYLES TOO! Oh the horror. So the gargoyle bites the man's neck, grabs the kids and flees. Okay, let's talk about everything else first. The short starts off with the gargoyle looking down at the artist's studio in stone form, giving us the idea that the gargoyle is always watching him, I thought that was pretty cool. But boy oh boy, is everything else dumb. The gargoyle effects are horrible, it looks like a broken puppet, and the twist doesn't make any sense. Why would she be so emotional over her husband telling her the truth? He did it out of love, shouldn't that tump her stupid rule? And she was a nice person, she could have understood. Or at the very least gave the man the choice of staying with her after discovering her true identity. You know what? That's what this short should have been about! A test of faith. Would you love me if you found out I was a murderous, friend killing gargoyle? But no... We have the horror equivalent of a kid breaking the friendship oath. So overall, check out Creepshow, try to only see the Raft part of Creepshow 2, and watch only the Cat from Hell from Darkside, but keep in mind some of the silly things. 

[okaybutlikeimagine]

Billy learning how to do cute hairstyles for el

LOVE IT you fuckin’ bet Billy would do this for El and my heart is bursting over it.

Okay, so i totally think Billy would also have helped Max w/ her hair when they were growing up and she was learning how to skate (i also totally like to think he taught her how to skate) Billy would be like: “You gotta get your hair out of your face, moron.”

“Fine.” and she pushes it behind her ears but the poor sweet dear has never been good at tying her hair up bc her hand gets caught in it and so Billy goes rummaging through the little drawer in their bathroom where Susan keeps a bunch of hair ties for Max that she never touches and just says: “C’mere, shitbird.”

And then he ties her hair up into a ponytail and says: “C’mon, let’s go. Grab your board.”

And I just SO believe Billy did Max’s hair a lot. Like, Max herself in S2 says that Billy was always kind of a dick but he just got bad when they moved away, so I like to think that her and Billy were bitchy w/ each other but still close. (also i haven’t read Runaway Max so sorry if this is kind of inaccurate in regards to that, woops! ♥) and so i like to think Billy just let her rely on him to do her hair. Like he��d throw it up in a ponytail or a couple of braids or whatever in the summer. He’d put it up in a bun for when she’d try to help him cook dinner for themselves when their parents left for the weekend. Just Billy doing Max’s hair bc Max was never really taught. and Billy just did it for her bc it was easier than sitting her down and teaching her.

(then of course when things go bad leading up to the move and after the move, Billy would bark at her to do it herself so she struggled to learn and then eventually did by S3)(we don’t have to talk about this right now though cuz I’m Sad)

So ANYWAY bc of that (and his own hair)(i don’t have any links but there are a lot of good posts talking about Billy’s hair in clips and scrunchies and stuff and i cry at the thought), Billy knows how to do hair! And so when El cycles through the like, 3 hairstyles she has (half up half down in a scrunchie, parted to the side, and parted down the middle w/ her hair behind her ears) Billy notices. And when they’re sitting around watching TV or whatever and El is playing w/ Billy’s hair (bc she likes to do that, she thinks his hair is pretty) Billy asks: “Want me to do your hair, short stuff?”

And El will sit on the ground and Billy will sit on the couch and he’ll brush her hair out and think about what he can do. Bc her hair is a LOT shorter than Max’s ever was so there’s not a lot of braiding options here. But Billy will twist her hair back and put a little pin in it and pull a couple of little delicate strands out and just kind of smile as she admires it in the mirror.

And so he starts doing her hair more often. He’s so much calmer now in his new home and has (a bit) more patience so he’ll just sit and do El’s hair. When they’re sitting around the house and listening to music he’ll do a few tiny braids just because. He teaches her how to braid on his own hair. He throws her hair up into two little buns before she goes to hang out with her friends.

“Like the space princess.” El says.

Billy chuckles.

“Yeah kinda.” he says and pokes her forehead.

And then one day, when Max is over to hang out with El, they put on the ABBA record that they know Billy loves (bc Billy LOVES the album Arrival. he just does and i have lots of thoughts on it) and the girls laugh and sing along to the little whispery parts of “Knowing Me Knowing You” as they make fun of him and make silly faces. And Billy is amused but plays it off as irritated and he’ll pick El up from behind and twirl her around and take her back to her room to “kidnap” her and says Max has to “save her” as El kicks and squeals.

but it really just ends up being Max barging into the room to find El brushing out Billy’s hair, still singing along to the song while Billy is sitting there grumbling a little bc “I wasn’t supposed to be the prisoner here…”

Then he sees Max, who looks confused, her face a little fallen bc Billy hasn’t done her hair for her since they were back in California.

And Billy sees the look on her face. Dejected and a little angry. And he pats the space on the bed in front of him and says: “C’mere, shitbird. Want me to braid your hair for you?”

And Max will never admit it, but her heart leaps bc she’s kind of… she’s kind of getting her brother back.

And so Max sits there and gets her hair braided and Billy lets El do his hair and he’s singing quietly along to the song before he starts talking to them about boys. Bc he knows Max has been having trouble with Lucas saying stupid things and Mike was a jerk to El a couple days ago and said she was “too emotional” (it took everything in Billy’s power not to go find him and set him straight bc Mike is the most emotional kid Billy’s ever met)

So Billy’s just like: “Y’know, you guys don’t have to be with boys if they’re being irritating. Life is too short to be with assholes.”

And Max just kinda grumbles bc yeah, Billy might be right, and maybe Lucas is a little dumb sometimes, but she likes him and he’s not an asshole.

“Then why does Steve still hang around with you?” Max asks.

Billy pulls a strand of Max’s hair out.

“Shut up, jerk, I’m getting better.”

So YES Billy doing BOTH of their hair whenever Max is around. And doing cute hairstyles on El like a high pony or little braids to pull it out of her face or a twisted ponytail. But also giving her kind of funny hairstyles, like one night when he gels it up into a mohawk with a laugh.

El eyes it curiously.

“Does it look good?” she asks.

Billy chuckles. “Killer.”

And that night Hop comes home to Billy and El rocking out to Shout at the Devil on full volume, and sees his little daughter w/ her hair gelled up into a mohawk.