#thinking how paper girls got cancelled the same WEEK the first season came out

[krittec]

why is netflix spearheaded by absolute morons who decide to cancel their shows that actually do well?

Shadow and Bone + the spin off that would’ve been INCREDIBLY successful, Six of Crows

and now Dead Boy Detectives.

it’s just WEIRD like what is their business plan? Whatever happened to letting shows grow to their max potential instead of cancelling it before it even has a chance to breathe.

[shakey-hands]

Hi hi!! I LOVED your fic about Ranpo and Fukuzawa, it was wonderful❤️ And I adored your writing style as well, I really hope you’ll continue writing~

I’d love to see a Kunikida x Fem!Reader where the reader is dating Kunikida for a few years and one day, a client comes and starts flirting heavily with the reader and Kunikida decides to make him understand that she has a boyfriend. (I’m so sorry I just love these healthy jealousy dynamics hehe)

sooo i’m ngl, i love kunikida :) i haven’t finished season 3, i’m waiting for my semester to end before i do. i did take some artistic liberties with this so i hope you like it :)

tw: dazai osamu and men (and slight cursing).

---

It was annoying how sunny the day was. Kunikida’s eyes squinted as he added no sunglasses to his ongoing list of why the day was not ideal. First, he woke up late. His eyes had opened to his very loving girlfriend promising to see him at lunch and giving him a kiss on the head before heading to her job. Then, his coffee was cold, making him reheat it in the microwave that then caused the coffee to get everywhere inside. There was no time to clean it up, meaning he would have to figure out how to get the stains out before his girlfriend came home to the mess. It was not like she wouldn’t mind helping him, but Kunikida was in one of his stages where he had to be perfect for her.

Kunikida had showed up to work five minutes late due to some idiot (see: Dazai) holding up traffic to dramatically propose to some random girl in the middle of the street so they could commit suicide together. The crowd had loved it, but the girl had not. Then, Kunikida was slammed with a lot of paperwork all the way until thirty minutes before his lunch. Of course most of the paperwork was just Kunikida fixing other people’s paper work. That one hour of seeing Y/N had the potential to flip his entire day. The bespectacled man looked forward to awkwardly holding Y/N’s hand while they ate the bento boxes she made the night before on a random bench at a park. And yes it was awkward, he never could get the right pressure down, making him either barely hold her hand or squeezing it. It had been years since he started holding her hand, but he never got it down.

That finally leads to one of the worst surprises. Dazai had forgotten to tell Kunikida about an appointment with a client that was fifteen minute before lunch. While this wouldn’t be a big deal, the client needed to meet at the park for lunch and Kunikida did not know how long the meeting would be. Since moving in together in their second year, Y/N and Kunikida had agreed to keep their work lives separate from their home life. That meant that Kunikida could not bring a client to their lunch date. While Y/N was the epitome of kindness and being homey, once she set a boundary she had set it. This was part of why Kunikida loved her so much. However, he was now checking his phone every couple minutes to see if she had responded to his text about lunch.

‘Meeting came up, might be late.’

Vague? Yes. But Kunikida knew she would understand. Hopefully, Y/N would take her time and arrive later than planned. She had a habit of literally stopping to smell the flowers in the park.

The client had been speaking for a long duration, talking about how some thugs were ruining the park's atmosphere and how his grandchildren frequented this place all the time. He was small and had comically large glasses. His hands were folded over one another on top of his cane as he rested on a park bench across the park from Kunikida’s spot with Y/N. Kunikida did not see why the agency was taking this case on. He had gotten a message from Fukuzawa that it was important, but no details as to why. This was a police matter, not something the agency needed to add to its plate. Especially when more pressing jobs needed their attention. The old man spoke slowly, not paying much mind to anything else.

Kunikida’s phone dinged and he couldn’t help looking at it right away.

‘Is this your way of telling me you need to cancel?’

Y/N was just giving him a hard time. She took joy in messing with him, knowing that Kunikida was up tight and would probably freak out. He could vividly see her lips stretch into a teasing smile. All he was missing was the soft kiss on the cheek Y/N always gave him to make up for being mean. She would always pull him down by his tie, gripping it tightly. Dazai had gripped his tie the same way once, and ended up with an earful of colorful words and an official complaint against him. Kunikida let Y/N get away with so much, and he would continue to. He was so in love with his girlfriend of three years.

“Sir, is there an emergency?”

Kunikida snapped out of his daydreams of how Y/N cradled his face whenever they kissed. The client was staring up at him, an eyebrow slightly raised. At the other end of the bench, Dazai snapped his head towards them. He stopped singing the annoying song that had played on the radio that had gotten stuck in both his and Kunikida’s heads. A sly smirk took over his head and slid down the bench towards the client.

“Kunikida,” Dazai said with a wagging finger. “You’re blushing. Were you thinking of a certain little lady in a compromising position?”

Kunikida felt his face heat up. He definitely had not even thought of his girlfriend in that way where other people could perceive him. Especially not during work hours. Kunikida was very private about things like that and so was Y/N. Kunikida started to sputter about, completely appalled by Dazai bringing that up in front of a client. The client looked confused, not knowing what was going on. Dazai let out a loud laugh and began to tease Kunikida more.

* * *

Across the park, Y/N walked up to their spot. She was dressed in her uniform, tired of having to deal with picky clients of her own. Two bento boxes were balanced in her hands, both very similar in food, but different in preferences. Kunikida’s was healthier, with a small salad with various vegetables. Y/N’s had a small slice of the cake she had baked them that week and more fruit. She always woke up early to make them lunch. It was one of the few ways she took care of her loving boyfriend that he found to be quite endearing. Well, he found anything she did endearing, but there were some things that especially made his heart race.

Another example was that she wore the stupid little children’s bracelet he had won her from their first date every day. Due to his nervousness, Kunikida had been convinced by Atsushi and Kenji that he should bring her to the fair the agency was going to. Of course it was for a client, but it had slipped Kunikida’s mind when he first saw Y/N’s smile as he offered (awkwardly and properly of course) to hold her hand so they wouldn’t get lost. While at first it was very practical to not get lost in the crowd, Kunikida did not have to convince himself that the warmth of her hand was something he wanted more of. He was smitten from the beginning, and now he couldn’t imagine a life without her.

Their bench was unoccupied, like always. She sat down, crossing her ankles and casually looking around. It was a nice day, with clouds covering the sun and a soft breeze. A large tree provided extra shade, and if you looked closely, there was a small heart with both Kunikida and her initials carved into one of the large roots. It had happened one night where both had a little too much to drink, but the next morning Kunikida was freaking out over it. Y/N loved their spot.

As her eyes casually drifted over the park, a familiar trench coat caught her eyes. Dazai was draped over a bench, paying no mind to the old man sitting beside him. Standing with his back facing towards her, Kunikida had his weight shifted to one leg and his arms crossed. Y/N smiled at the sight of her boyfriend. His whole body was tense and she knew Dazai was probably giving Kunikida a hard time by the smirk on Dazai’s face. It had taken Y/N a while to get used to Dazai, but now she could smile with appreciation. The two balanced one another, and Y/N was completely aware that if it weren’t for Dazai’s softening of her boyfriend, they would have never gotten together.

Y/N was too much in her head to see the handsome man coming towards her. He had his eyes set on her silky hair and sparkling eyes. The man had been out for his daily run before he met his grandfather and just happened to see the pretty girl on the bench from across the way. Although it was not his usual running path, the man couldn’t help but switch it up. The closer he got, the more he realized how easily he could fall in love with her. As he slowed down, he noticed how she was lost in the scenery of the park.

“So, you come here often?”

Her head turned, unsure about what she was about to look at. Y/N was not impressed by the man in front of her. Though every man seemed to be paled in comparison to her boyfriend. The man in front of her was buff and looked like he was on a run. He was attractive, with high cheekbones and plump lips, but Y/N was not interested. One of her eyebrows quirked up.

“I suppose.” There was an uncertain edge to her voice, hoping he would get the hint.

Instead, the man hiked his foot up on the opposite corner of the bench, flexing in a very obvious way that he was trying to be subtle. “Yeah, I was just on my daily run. I work out a lot, mainly in nature, but don’t turn down any gym days when they come up. Those are rare though. I have a job that keeps me busy. You know, you don’t earn 200 million yen in a year by just sitting on your ass. I mean, sure I take nice vacations to my beach house every once in a while-”

His boasting could be heard from across the park. Which of course caught Dazai’s attention when he saw who the guy was talking to. It was as if God had set up a perfect day for Dazai to have. He hoped Kunikida would explode. The client was very boring and Dazai was pretty sure the supposed thugs happened to be the Port Mafia. He was just waiting for Kunikida to get through all the questions from his notebook so they could go on lunch already. But now? Now a show of entertainment was in sight as Dazai zeroed in on Y/N and how uncomfortable she looked. That would certainly set Kunikida off.

Dazai knew how whipped Kunikida was for Y/N. The tall man almost never liked to talk about things outside of work, unless it came to his girlfriend. Everyone in the office knew to steer clear of the topic of Y/N unless they wanted to be trapped in a conversation about how amazing her cooking was or how well her job was going. It was cute at first, but it had been a couple years and Kunikida was still in his honeymoon phase of worshipping her. But this? This would make him go wild.

Dazai let out a huge sigh as the client kept talking. He noticed how Y/N kept looking over, hoping someone would notice and get her out of whatever hell she was going through. So Dazai waved slightly, making Kunikida look over at him and frown. The client was still talking, going into some story that looked like it would drag on and on. And then, the situation got worse.

Just as Kunikida was looking to see whatever had Dazai’s attention instead of the case, the strange man began to twirl Y/N’s hair around his finger, getting horribly close. His face got too close to hers, noses about to brush. Y/N held her breath, praying that the moment would be over soon. And it was.

Nobody had expected Kunikida to be that fast, but soon he was up the hill to the bench and holding the man who was shorter than him by the collar. There was a rage in his eye that centered around the man’s wandering hands. Y/N stood up quickly, ready to pull Kunikida away from the man if he tried to be too violent. Of course she would pretend to be slow, but she still felt morally obligated to pull them away from one another. Dazai casually walked up the grassy hill, hands in his pocket and smirk on his face.

Kunikida was breathing heavy, mind racing on what he was going to do. He wasn’t naturally a violent person, but he did not like how the man was making Y/N uncomfortable. His sudden rush had caught the attention of those who were close by. There was a silence enveloping the group as they all waited to see what Kunikida would do.

“Unhand my grandson,” The old man yelled as he waddled up the hill at an extremely slow pace.

Dazai raised an eyebrow and looked behind him. For a split second, he was very aware of how easily he could push the old man back down the hill and turn back to the source of the growing tension in the park. But Dazai didn’t want to be the source of any drama in that moment so he just turned back around to see the conflict in Kunikida’s eyes.

“It’s okay, honey,” Y/N said as she slowly put a hand on Kunikida’s shoulder.

Kunikida let down the man, he dropped to his knees from the sudden let go. He faltered as he stood up, readjusting his clothes.

“What the hell is your-”

Before he could even finish his sentence, he was getting socked in the face. Everyone stood in shock as Y/N’s hit sent him straight to the ground. She stood over him with a frown on her face.

“Learn to respect women, asshole.”

And if it were possible, Kunikida fell in love with her more.

[theonewiththefanfics]

Would You Be My Little Quarantine (one-shot)

Synopsis: As the mandatory quarantine hits, the Reader is stuck in a cabin in Utah with the boys from 5 Seconds of Summer. Turns out another person is stuck in a hotel nearby. Hijinx ensue as does romance. 

Pairing: Harry Styles x f!Reader

Genre: fluff pretty much just pure, teeth-rotting fluff.

Warnings: it’s my first time writing for Harry as I was never really part of the fandom, but damn does Watermelon Sugar do things to a person, so please be kind. This is defo not my best work, but I’m slowly getting back into the groove of things, so bare with me :D

Word count: 6061

        TikTok had become Y/N’s new obsession. She’d stayed away from it as long as she could, being a true Vine generation child, she felt loyalty to the deceased app. But one night, after a long recording session, she caved. And then stayed giggling on it until the early morning when the birds started to chirp… or until Calum had taken her phone and threatened to throw it in the jacuzzi if she didn’t go to bed. 

        The girl and the four guys from 5 Seconds of Summer had been renting a cabin in the middle of the Utah woods to help them escape the distractions of the city as they recorded their respective albums, and given how they were good friends, they decided to collaborate on a few songs, and it made sense to just chill together as well.

        Which had started off Y/N’s own TikTok series, having ‘borrowed’ the idea from the Irishman living with two girls.

        “Alright, gentlemen.” She slid inside her bathroom pulling the focus of her camera on the reflection in the mirror. “I live with four guys, and I have some things to say. Why do you always, and I mean ALWAYS, leave your socks around the house? The dirty ones. You know you could just throw them in the wash… there’s an idea.”

        “We do!” Calum yelled

        Y/N turned her face to the door and hollered, “Only after I’ve asked you to!”

        “Do not!” he countered.

        “Do too!” she exited the bathroom and into the hallway only to be met with the man standing there with his hands on his hips. “Then how.” Y/N pointed the camera towards the living area you could see from where the hallways overlooked the room. “Do you explain that?” And when she zoomed in, there, in a small pile laid two brown socks, all crumpled up and almost pushed underneath one of the three couches, as if someone was trying to hide them from sight.

        Calum stammered for a bit. “Those are NOT mine.”

        Y/N flipped the camera and looked at it like they do in the Office. “Help me,” she mouthed and finished the TikTok, pointing with her hand at him. “Ya disgustin’!”

        Just as maturely as she had reacted, so did Calum by crossing his arms and sticking his tongue out, but their little bickering about whose socks they were and whose job was it to put them in the dirty wash (they were Ashton’s, and it was his job), Luke poked Y/N’s side as he came out from his room. 

        “I know might seem weird, but is there any chance another person could join our quarantine group?”

        Y/N’s eyebrows rose. Sure, the house was giant, mostly because whatever production she was a part of on Broadway, after a successful season, she invited all of them there to get away from the bustle of New York and just chill. It was in the middle of the forest, encased by gorgeous mountains and at the side of a lake where they’d go jet skiing and cliff diving.

        “I thought people can’t visit one another?”

        “They can’t,” Luke confirmed. “That’s the point. The unfortunate soul just got stuck at a hotel not too far from here, and all the flights are cancelled. Two weeks of quarantine without symptoms have been concluded, but, knowing how impossible it’d be to get to London, when you know, as I said, there are no flights, I offered a place to stay.”

        “So,” Y/N dramatically rolled her head. “You already offered to stay before asking me?”

        “Well, I knew you’d say ‘yes’ because you’re a kind, generous, amazing, smart, talented, compassionate person and wouldn’t leave someone on the streets when you know you could help.”

        “Mhm, keep talking.” Y/N squinted her eyes and put her hands on her hips.

        “Incredible, best musician I’ve ever met, how you haven’t won all of Tony’s I’ve got no idea. Your acting skills are impeccable and the movie industry is missing out on a once in a lifetime kind of a talent by not castin-“

        “Alright stop.” Y/N busted out laughing. “As long as you promise I won’t wake up with an axe in my head, ‘s fine.” 

        “Promise.”

        “Good. Also, could you please get me three bottles of that wine I like?” Y/N hollered before skipping downstairs and to the kitchen where Ashton was brewing the tenth cup of coffee. “I have a deadline in two weeks and have literally no idea where to go with the story.” She referred to the second book of her series she was writing, and now with the lockdown going on, her literary agent was breathing down her neck, and it didn’t help she hadn’t written anything in like a month and didn’t remember half of the already exiting story.

        Luke lifted a brow and hissed through his teeth. “That bad?”

        “You have no idea,” she sighed and left for the living-room where she could harass the boys for their fries and procrastinate some more. 

***

        The few hours, while Luke was away, were quite uneventful. All of them sat around on the couch pit, wrote some music, lil bit of lyrics and Y/N almost cried seeing as her characters had decided to live their own life and not obey to her story.

        “Why do you have to be such an idiot,” she mumbled under her breath and furrowed her brows as she wrote herself into a new plot hole.

        Right as Y/N was about to delete the whole chapter, the door slammed open and she heard grunting. “We’re here!” Luke hollered, and the thought of wine made her giddy, making her leap over the edge of the couch, and rush to the front door only to stop dead in her tracks. 

        Y/N’s mouth hung open, not because of who the person joining their quarantine group was, but because of what the person was. “A fifth GUY?! You didn’t tell me it’d be a guy!”

        “I didn’t think it’d matter!” Luke yelled back.

        “There’s already four of you!” She pointed back to the living room hearing loads of ‘hey!’ being shouted back.

        “Would you leave him on the streets if you’d known he was a dude?”

        “No, of course not!” 

        “Why are we yelling?”

        “I don’t know!”

        “I mean, I can leave.” Harry Styles said pointing at the door, not really knowing what to do. He certainly hadn’t expected that sort of greeting. “But I do come bearing gifts.” He lifted a black bag where a clinking of glass could be heard.    

        “No,” she sighed.  “It’s fine... I just… I just miss the company of vaginas.”

        He raised a perfectly groomed eyebrow. “Vaginas?”

        “People I can rant to. Honestly, it doesn’t even matter if you have a vagina, as long as we can have a good rant. Especially about the gross things like having all of your dirty socks thrown around the house.” She threw Luke a look that screamed ‘I know you pushed all of them under your bed, and it’s stinking up the whole place.’

        Harry shook his head. “Ya not gonna find me leaving my clothes like that. Besides, ‘s disgusting.”

        “No,” Luke whined, “come on, man! You’re supposed to be on our side!”

        “It’s two against four,” Harry snickered, throwing his hand around Y/N’s shoulder, who gave Luke a smug grin, and it made her mimic the same expression.

        “It’s evening out. Maybe you should actually invite some other people to quarantine with us. Say, Harry, is maybe Niall in need of a place to stay?”

        Luke rolled his eyes, and shook his head, going into the kitchen and placing the food bags he’d been holding. “I hate you so much.”

        Y/N’s smile just widened.         

        ***

        “Yes, I’m still stealing your series Irishman.” Y/N zoomed in on her face. “Because now…” she looked up at the ceiling in a manner ‘someone please save me’, “I’m living with FIVE dudes. Yes, FIVE. We have an addition. And if someone doesn’t come and kill me, I will kill them.”

        “We’re not that bad!” Michael hollered form out of frame, to which Y/N yelled back, “Yes the fuck you are! Boys are gross. You do realize you’re allowed to have more than one towel. Like you DON’T have to wipe your face with a towel that’s soaked up your ball juice.”

        “It’s economy.”

        “It’s disgusting! Also.” Y/N turned the camera to Harry who was climbing up the stairs with a cup of coffee in hand. “Say ‘Hi’ to gremlin number five. He’s stolen all of my nail polish.”

        He gave a cute wave with an adorable smile, muttering an unintelligible ‘Hello’ as his mouth was stuffed with a piece of bread and a very muffled ‘You don’t even use them.’

        “Yes, but that’s not the point. Anyway,” Y/N pointed the camera at herself. “Tune in for an update whenever, as long as I haven’t strangled anyone, and pray to the heavens you don’t see my face in the papers cause the next time you do, it’ll be my mugshot for a quintuple homicide.”

        “Is that a threat Y/L/N?” Harry smirked, as Y/N walked past him and took away his cup of coffee.

        “No, it’s a promise.” She threw him a wink, leaving the Brit with his mouth open at the woman’s audacity, as she stopped the recording of the TikTok.

        “That was my coffee!”

        “Not anymore!”

        He shook his head, turning back around and going to the kitchen, seeing Y/N perched on one of the stools, neck stretching over to where Ashton was watching a video on his phone, the black liquid in his cup now a creamy beige. Harry smiled. Maybe quarantine wasn’t going to be so bad.

***

        Y/N’s head popped from the side of the door, bringing all of their attention to her. “You guys need to record anything right now?”

        Luke shook his head, signifying the band was alright before turning to Harry who mimicked him, the tapping of his pen stopping. “Why?”

        “Just got a call from Laurence, he said something’s wrong with the ‘Candy Store’ audio from yesterday. Need to rerecord it and send it over. Something about a faulty export or whatever.”

        “ ‘S all yours.” Ashton motioned to the recording booth. “Oh, but can I be Heather Duke?”

        “And can I be Heather McNamara then?” Luke piped in.

        Y/N chuckled. “Not to burst your bubbles, but you do know you won’t be in the final version?”

        “No, but we could be in THIS version. It’d be for our private files. And it’d help you.”

        “That sounds so wrong.” She grimaced. “How would that help me?” Y/N plopped next to Harry on the floor. “You’re the biggest distractions I’ve ever met.”

        Luke scoffed. “How dare you! We offer you our services of being backup singers, and you… you’re such a meanie. You’re such a Heather Chandler!”

        “It’s 2020! If Leslie Odom Jr. can play Aaron Burr, then I can play one of the Heathers! Don’t be sexist, Y/N!”

        “I never said a dude can’t play a Heather, don’t put words in my mouth. I just said last time we tried to record anything together we ended up playing SIMS for like seven hours, but… come on you two divas, get your asses inside then. But I swear if Laurence or Kevin call because one of you whispered something dirty in the background of MY parts, I will strangle you in your sleep.”

        “How little trust do you have in us?”

        “Very,” Y/N deadpanned, showing the two men inside, leaving Calum, Harry and Michael to man the production table. “If you mess with anything, your asses will be grass.” She pointed at the three and all of them put their hands up in surrender. “ ‘S bad enough you ruined my single.”

        “It’s called giving it flavour,” Calum said through the microphone.

        Y/N just responded by sticking her tongue out.

        Michael lifted his fingers, counting down from five to one, giving her the cue to start.

        “Are we gonna have a problem?” Y/N cocked her head to the side, already immersed in the character of Heather Chandler. “You’ve got a bone to pick? You’ve come so far, why now are you pulling on my dick?”

        Harry swallowed hard. 

        “I’d normally slap your face off, and everyone here could watch,” she slightly motioned with her head to the audience behind the screen, a mockingly sweet smile on her lips. “But I’m feeling nice, here’s some advice, listen up biatch.”

        When her hips started moving from side to side to the rhythm of the song, Harry swore he’d never found someone being mean (even though it was mock mean) so hot.

        “I like,” Y/N raised her voice before dropping it. “Looking hot, buying stuff they cannot.”

        There was no sight of the sweet and bubbly girl Harry had met. This was Queen-B of Westerberg High in flesh. He was transfixed. 

“I like drinking hard, maxing dad’s credit card.”

She didn’t need anyone’s credit card to pay for her things, given how she was one of the top paid Broadway singers of their generation, and something in Harry skipped a beat at how confident she looked.

        “I like skipping gym, scaring her, screwing him,” Y/N rolled the ‘r’ deeply in her throat, and he had to collect himself before his thoughts went to an unsavoury place.

        “I like, killer clothes, kicking nerds in the nose!” With a smile, Y/N pointed at Luke who only rolled his eyes. “If you lack the balls, you can go play dolls, let yer mammy fix you a snack,” she emphasised the ‘K’ after having mockingly sung the bit before. “Or you could come smoke, pound some rum and coke, in ma Porche with the quarterback.”

        As weird as it was to have the two boys be her fellow Heathers, Y/N hated to admit it did help her. It reminded her more of what it was like to be on stage before the pandemic had started and the production had to be shut down. And she missed them. All her fellow actors just as much as she missed the rush of getting on stage and losing herself in the role and atmosphere. 

        “You can join the team –“

        “Or you can bitch and moan,” Y/N’s ‘Heathers’ sang in a nasally voice

        “You can live the dream.”

        “Or you can die alone.” 

        Harry snuck inside the recording booth, picking up a pair of headphones by the drum set.

        “You can fly with eagles,”

“Or if you’d prefer,”

        “Keep on testing me,”

        “And end up like her!”

        And that’s when Harry joined in, reciting the lines of both Veronica and Martha, and when he saw Y/N keeping a palm over her mouth as she tried to keep a mean face while inevitably hiding a smile. The whole of the song, despite how Ashton, Luke and Harry had tried to make Y/N break character (she came close a couple of times), the woman stayed on the line, not missing a beat, and especially enjoying the moment where she looked at Luke, who was about to hit the high note and screaming ‘shut up, Heather!’

        Harry couldn’t help the smile splitting apart his face. When Luke had first picked up his call, having known he and the gang were somewhere in the Utah region, he had thought he’d be living with just the guys, and when he found out it was actually Y/N Y/L/N renting the cabin, the girl he’d admired for so long for how brave and utterly unapologetic she was of being herself, Harry had just thought he’d gain a new friend, not have romantic feelings spring up.

        And all of it had happened in the span of two days, not even that much. He’d arrived the evening before, had met the woman, and now it was three PM on day two and was already in love. 

        It was an exhilarating and terrifying feeling all at once. Some studies said it takes men eight seconds to fall in love, which Harry now could pretty much confirm, while it takes women generally fifteen days to fall in love. And he could only hope Y/N might have some feelings for him as well, otherwise, he’d have to scold his heart for falling quickly once again. 

***

        It was the middle of the night, wind slamming against the windows when Harry got awoken by people talking behind his door. At first, he was ready to fight, thinking immediately that intruders had come into the house, but when he heard a ‘fuck off Michael’ and a ‘you fuck off, you’re gonna ruin this’, he understood everything was fine. And he was just about to lay back down on the soft pillows, but as the saying went – curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back, so he threw off the covers and lightly went to the door, where a bleary Harry appeared on the stairs making Y/N and Michael whip their heads towards him and freeze on the spot. 

        “What are you two do-“ but he didn’t get to finish the question as the two co-conspirators shushed him.

        “You’re either in,” Y/N whispered harshly, “or out. Choose Styles.”

        A beat. “What kind of trouble’re we getting’ into?”

        The smile which spread on her face was nothing short of wicked. “Revenge,” Y/N hissed.

        “Be quieter than a mouse,” she whispered to him, and now the trio moved downstairs.

        “Who are we getting revenge on?” Harry spoke as quietly as he could, as they rounded the corner and exited the cabin through the back door. It was colder than he thought, seeing how the wind wasn’t warm at all, and he was grateful he’d fallen asleep in his favourite rainbow cardigan. How Y/N and Michael didn’t even shiver in their barely-there pyjamas he didn’t understand. 

        “See, Luke here thought it was a good idea to not heed my warning about not messing with my recording.”

        Harry’s eyebrows scrunched up. “He didn’t.” He knew Luke hadn’t, he was there the whole time and listened back to what they’d sung with everyone together.

        “No, but he did rename a different file with the same name I had for the 'Heathers'' recording, on MY computer, mind you. And well, let’s just say, it was not what anyone wanted to hear.”

        Harry had to swallow, as his mind went to unsavoury places, and as Y/N shimmied open the lock of the window to the studio bathroom part of the house, she looked over her shoulder to see his expression. It would seem, despite him being in ‘Dunkirk’ and having been confirmed to play Eric in the live-action ‘The Little Mermaid’ he wasn’t as good of an actor as he thought.

        “Get your mind out of the gutter,” she snickered and pulled herself inside the house through the window, Michael handing her a black duffle bag Harry hadn’t first noticed. “It was a conversation I had with my friends while we were all drunk. Some tea, some very personal tea was spilt, and so.” She unzipped the bag slowly and took out a whipped cream can. “I’m going to spill something else.”

        Canned cheese was one of the most disgusting things ever created by a human in Y/N’s opinion. So, squeezing nine cans worth of the stuff inside all of Luke’s socks, jean pockets and everywhere else possible was good enough revenge for her.

        “Why are we in the studio though?” Harry asked as the trio crept towards the bathroom door and peeked through the open sliver. It was pitch black. 

        “Because Luke teds to forget his favourite things here,” Michael explained and motioned for them to follow as he checked that the hallway was clear. It was go-time. 

        Together they all snuck back inside the recording studio, and much like Michael had said – Luke’s favourite jean jacket, a woollen jumper, three pairs of boots and shoes were all scattered around the place. He hadn’t even noticed it while they’d hung out there, but now Harry understood what Y/N was talking about while whining about the boys being messy.

        She uncapped the can and squeezed, the artificial smell of cheese wafting through the air, making her almost gag. “That’s for being a bad friend,” she muttered while filling up one shoe. “That’s for making bad jokes.” She filled up another. “And that’s for saying ‘Dancing in the Moonlight’ is an overrated song.’

        It was hard for Harry to contain the giggles, as he uncapped his own can and started filling up wherever Y/N pointed to. Did he feel bad? Sure. But was it fun to feel like a teenager in a university dorm during a prank war? Abso-fucking-lutely. And it didn’t help that he was desperately falling in love with Y/N with every second they spent together. Like she could’ve asked him to hide Luke’s corpse, and he’d say he’d take the blame for the murder if it came to it.

        “Why did we have to sneak around the place like that?” he suddenly asked, brows furrowing in concentration as he squeezed the smelly contents inside the inside pocket of the jacket. “Why couldn’t we have just walked through the house?”

        “Because Luke always and I mean always comes to the studio at 3 AM,” Y/N stated. 

        Harry looked at the clock. It was 2:45 AM already. 

        “But before that, he goes into the kitchen, makes himself a double espresso, a sandwich and eats it before going into the storage where we keep all of the instruments, which is where he is in right now. Had we snuck through the normal way, he would’ve seen us and stopped this. And that just wouldn’t fly.”

       However, it was like Luke had a sixth sense as right at that moment the light flipped on, and like deer in headlights, the trio’s heads shot up and eyes widened.

        “What the fuck!” he whispered hand extended in the direction of the already six empty cans on the floor.

        Y/N snapped out of the adrenaline induced frozen state and shrugged. “I told you not to mess with the recording.” She put her finger back on the squeezable part. “And you. Didn’t. Listen.”

        The cheese squirted out with a splutter, and all of them stood still as the final bits dropped into Luke’s black boot. “And that’s payback.”

        With a sway in her hips, Y/N exited the room, leaving the three men to gawk after her. 

God was she a hurricane, Harry thought to himself. And he’d never been as happy to be caught right in the eye of it all.

***

        The next few days all of them spent lounging around the house, recording a few songs, most of them by Harry seeing as a huge wave of inspiration had hit him, making him write more than one love song. He even asked Y/N somewhat shyly if she could do some of the backing vocals, and he swore the song went from a 3 to a 100 the second he heard her voice weave his lyrics into a symphony. 

        By that point, they’d been quarantining for a week and a half together, and a heatwave was coming up. The cabin had both an inside and outside pool which they’d all had to learn how to maintain, seeing as no one could come and do it for them, and a jacuzzi tub on the terrace. As much as the boys tried to prove they knew how to keep the places clean, ultimately it was Y/N who saved all of them from chlorine poisoning and algae overgrowth. 

        So, it was right when she pulled out the pH indicator and said it was good for use when with a scream, Luke rushed forward Y/N, rugby tackling her by the waist and plunged both of them down to the water below. 

        “You asshole!” She splashed at him, laughing and choking out a bit of water as they resurfaced. “What the fuck is wrong with you!”

        “That’s payback for the cheese.”

        She went silent for a second, but then shrugged. “Can’t say I didn’t deserve it. But you did deserve the cheese.”

        “So,” Luke extended his hand for a shake. “Do we call this even?”

        Harry exited the cabin right as both of them completely soaked to the bone jumped out onto the wood floor. He stopped mid-walk if only to control where his eyes went seeing as Y/N’s white shirt clung to her body and well… didn’t leave much for the imagination anymore.

        “Do I wanna know what happened here?” He raised a brow.

        “Retribution.”

        “Though I do gotta say, you have a funny way of getting revenge.” Y/N smirked at  Luke, making him squint down at the girl. 

        “What do you mean?”

        “I mean,” she drawled out, a mischievous smile on her lips, “that when I filled your clothes with the cheese, my stuff didn’t get stinky. And yet, from your end… I’m not the only one wet.”

        A beat passed.

        “God fucking damn it.”

        “Hey!” She pointed a finger at him. “We called a truce!”

        Luke waved her off. “Yeah yeah, whatever,” but Y/N grabbed Luke’s hand right before he went inside and squeezed it. 

“We good?”

        He sighed and smiled. “We good, sweetheart.” He pressed a kiss to the top of her head, gave Harry a quick ‘see ya later’ as well and disappeared through the glass doors. 

        Harry didn’t know what’d happened to him. He’d always been a helpless romantic, falling in love, and maybe a bit too hard at that, but this time, even without Y/N knowing about his feelings, his heart felt safe. 

        Sure, the side of her he’d seen was a complete headcase, and she had more energy than a bull with a red flag in front of it, but the utter love exuding from the woman, even while she complained about her four, well five counting him, housemates was palpable in the air. The way she hugged and made sure everyone had whatever they needed, the way she let them know if anyone needed to have a chat, she’d be there to listen, and the small little things of how she always knew what preferences they’d have for their pancakes or breakfast in general, made his heart melt. 

        “Luke’s a lucky guy.” Harry swallowed before saying that. As much as seeing Y/N be affectionate with everyone, him included, made him feel all fuzzy, a little jealousy monster did bubble up in his stomach when he saw her snuggled next to the lead vocalist of the band. He didn’t have any right to, but no matter how much he tried to repress the green beast, it still lurked somewhere deep in his heart.

        “Hm?” Y/N lifted her head where she’d been looking at the water as she squeezed it out of her shirt and up at Harry.

        He motioned with his chin to where Luke had disappeared. “He’s a lucky guy to have someone like you.”

        “Oh, we’re not together if that’s what you’re implying.”

        “I –“ he stammered. “I didn’t mean to offend y-“

        But Y/N waved him off. “You’re not the first nor probably the last person to say that. I get it. They asked me one time to surprise their fans at a concert in Connecticut, I think, and when their photographer sent over the pictures, I kinda saw what everyone kept saying, but I’ve never looked at any of them as more than a friend. Best friends, brothers maybe, but nothing more.”

        “How’d ya get so close?” Harry enquired, his chest feeling a bit lighter.

        Y/N huffed and plopped down to the ground, patting the place beside her which Harry took. “When I first went solo, right after being on ‘Beetlejuice’ I was fucking terrified. Didn’t really know anyone in the music industry like that. Being on Broadway’s different.” She shrugged. “And the award shows are different as well. Like with ‘Tony’s’ or ‘Oliver’ awards it’s you know – musical and theatre geeks. My people. But the first time I went to VMAs I almost shat myself.” She chuckled, and Harry did the same. “Didn’t know anyone at all, was petrified to even find my seat because someone told me I’d have to sit between Lady Gaga and Rihanna, and my heart was not ready for that. Ashton saw me at the edge of the carpet, creeping around the entrance and kinda…” Y/N bit her lip looking for the right words. “I dunno. They kinda took me under their wing, in a sense – if you need a friend in the industry, we’re here, that sort of thing. And ever since then, we’ve been best friends. Luke and I just got the closest because we got stuck in an elevator once for like eight hours once, and well, boredom and thinking you’re gonna die in a four by four-foot box brings people closer.”

        Harry almost choked. “Eight hours?”

        “Yep.” Y/N popped the ‘p’ and gave him a sarcastic smile. “It was like soooo much fun,” she said sarcastically.  “I totally didn’t think the elevator was about to drop from where we were up on like the sixtieth floor, and both of us were gonna get our bones smashed to pieces, and I only had two protein bars, and you know how I get without food,” she stated. He nodded.

        “Cranky.”

        “Exactly. But.” Y/N chuckled. “We didn’t die. Which’s great, not complaining, and I gained one of my all-time best friends.”

        “Well, I’m glad you didn’t die.” Harry gave her a warm smile and nudged her foot with his. “Wouldn’t have gotten the chance to meet you otherwise.”

        She nudged his foot back. “ ‘M glad I didn’t die either. And I gotta say – you’ve made this whole quarantine bearable. Sometimes it’s like fighting with four toddlers, and that’s always a futile battle. Happy to have another wrangler with me. Also an accessory to my crimes.”

        He inched his hand towards hers, and when Y/N didn’t pull away instead liked her pinkie with his, a warm feeling rushed through him.

        “Happy to be of help.”

***

It was two nights later or full two weeks since the six of them had been together when things took a turn. 

Y/N’d always been a light sleeper, especially when her life was mainly placed in New York, but now, living in the middle of nowhere, she’d been able to catch up on some sleep. That was when the sound of her door being opened made Y/N shot up in her bed, sheets clutched at her chest in a panic. “What? What’s wrong? What did Calum set on fire?”

        “Nothing.” Harry’s eyebrows scrunched up, but he decided not to ask. There was the morning for that. “This might seem weird, but could I uh could I possibly sleep in your room?”

        She blinked a couple of times, because her brain was still processing his words and if they were even English, but once they registered, Y/N nodded, pulling back her blanket and scooting over. “C’mere.”

        “Again, I’m sorr-“

        Y/N shushed him, as Harry climbed in the bed, placing the duvet underneath his arm and twisting to see her, as she mumbled, “less talk, more sleep.”

        He hummed in agreement. His eyes were heavy, in fact, they’d become heavy the instant his head had hit Y/N’s pillow, but it was like his heart, the same poor heart that’d had to deal with the newfound emotions for the whole time he’d been there, the same poor heart that didn’t know better and always gave itself away to the person it deemed to be worthy, no matter if in the end it ended up broken, took over the control of his eyes and mouth, and while slamming against Harry’s ribcage, he whispered his confession. 

        “I really like you… As more than a friend.”

        A second passed. He felt Y/N stir as she turned towards him, brow furrowed. “Sorry?”

        “I said…” He let out a shaky exhale. “I like you. I fell for you pretty much the second I entered the house and you threatened to throw me out because I was a guy. And then I fell for you when I saw you let loose in the studio. And then once more when I witnessed what your wrath entails.”

        Y/N chuckled. “Cheese.”

        “Yeah…” He let out a little laugh. “Cheese.”

        A gentle palm went to brush away the hair stuck to Y/N’s face and he swore he could just melt as she leaned into his touch. “And then I fell for you when you said yes to singing my song… when you sang the lyrics, I dedicated to you… and every second I fall for you even more… I just… I thought you should know…”

        “Well, I can only hope that you’ll take this as a compliment then, when I say I kinda like you too, Styles,” she mumbled snuggling deeper into her pillow. “Though I didn’t think I was your type.”

        “What’s my type then?” he mumbled back, letting his arms wrap around Y/N’s waist when she shuffled closer. Not only was he now fully in heaven because he was covered by the softest duvet in the world, head resting against a literal cloud, but also because his nostrils were invaded by the gentlest of smells, and the body against his was the warmest of comforts. 

        “Well, not girls like me.”

        “You mean talented, beyond funny and absolutely breath-taking?”

        “Introverted, house hermits who don’t wash their hair unless they have to go somewhere with a perchance of self-destructive behaviour. Unintentional that is.”

        Harry’s eyebrows lifted. “Would’ve never taken you for an introvert.”

        “Mmmh,” Y/N sighed, feeling his fingers skim her skin. “That’s because I’ve known those guys for years, and they’re like my brothers. Couldn’t be uncomfortable even if I tried with them. We’ve seen too much of each other. But I’m definitely an introvert. Almost had a panic attack the first time I had to make my own doctor’s appointment.”

        “You didn’t seem shy with me.”

        “That’s because for some weird reason I… I didn’t feel awkward around you. And I mean, you did bring wine.”

        She could feel Harry’s chest rumble as he laughed. “Well, I hope it helped with inspiration.”

        “Ugh, don’t remind me,” she huffed, but opened her bleary eyes and were met by Harry’s green already staring back. She couldn’t contain the giggle, and it only grew in power as he chuckled himself, making her bury her head in his chest.

        “What?”

        “Nothing,” she shook her head. “Just never thought I’d date someone from 1D.”

        “Are we below you or something?” There was no trace of malice and hurt in his voice. He knew Y/N wasn’t like that.

        “No, ‘s just my boy band phase was ‘Good Charlotte’, ‘Panic at the D!sco,’ ‘My Chem’ and the sort.”

        “So, you weren’t fainting while listening to ‘You Don’t Know You’re Beautiful’?” Harry mumbled in Y/N’s hair, sleep slowly overtaking him.

        She shook her head. “Sorry, no. Panties definitely weren’t dropping then.”

        “Are they now?”

        “According to ‘Watermelon Sugar’ you’re the one pulling all of ‘em off.”

        “Damn. Guess it’ll have to be my new challenge.”

        Y/N’s eyebrows scrunched up as she looked at him before promptly falling asleep. “Making my panties drop?”

        “Yep. But this time because of me, not Gerard Way.”

        “Bold of you to assume it was just Gerard Way. I’m a slut for all of those wizard dads.”

        By the time she slurred out the last sentence both of them had drifted off into a peaceful slumber.

***

        “They were right!” Harry shouted jumping up in the bed, startling Y/N awake once more as if something was breaking down on their heads with how urgently he jolted. “It does take women two weeks to fall in love and men 8 seconds.”

        A pillow met his face. “Fall back asleep.” 

        He leaned over her still horizontal form, a smug smile on his face. “Are you gonna make a TikTok about it?”

        “Probably ‘bout how I murdered the boyfriend I was with for three hours if he doesn’t let me sleep.”

        He didn’t argue. With a smile on his face, Harry drifted off once more. Who knew that getting stuck in a hotel somewhere in Utah would lead him to the love of his life? 

Tags (crossed out wouldn’t take): 

Forever tags: @lumelgy @palaiasaurus64 @supernaturalbaesduh @breezy1415 @crazy--me @thatawkwardlittlefangirl @sea040561​ @staryeyedgirl @deathbyarabbit @s-c-a-r-e-d-po-t-t-e-r @reblogger-not-a-blogger @m-a-t-91​ @dalilx​ @i-need-a-hero-i-need-a-loki @maladaptive-ninja-returns​ @averyrogers83​ @in-the-end-im-still-trash​ @gallifreyansass​ @dewy-biitch​ @avxgers​ @unlikelygalaxygiver​ @magicwithaknife​ @ollyoxenfrees​ @bnhvrdy​ @tvwhoresblog​ @celebsimagines​ @thatkindofgurl @sj-thefan @teenwolflover28 @lestersglitterglue​ @im-squished​

A/N: So... I know I’ve been gone for quite a while, but that’s because I have a job now (I’m trying to get a different one that actually would involve my degree, because this one is absolutely killing me), so please be understanding with the spare posting. I still love writing fics, and as evident, I’m kina branching out into other fandoms :D

There’s a lot of things going on in my life, so if you wanna follow me you can do that on Instagram @dinnusa or @read_with_dee or on my blog dinnusa.wordpress.com :) I also have a TikTok @dinmasters

P.S. feedback is always appreciated :)

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[popculturebuffet]

Ducktales Reviews: The Phantom and the Sorceress

Ducktales returns! The Phantom Blot returns to animation after too damn long with a neat backstory, an infnity guantlet and a hate boner for anything magic related. And since Lena is magic related she’s forced to go to her worst enemy and local close up magician Magica De Spell for help. Also Gladstone is here because we missed him and for no other reason. But we missed him so it’s okay. Friendship Is Magic, under the cut. 

Woo-ooo! We’re back! Months later and in a new room, with new things to be depressed about because this year is groundhog day and everyone is bill murray, which isn’t as fun as it should be, Ducktales is finally back on screens and in my heart. And my galbladder.. he really likes ducktales.  But yeah with the recent cancelation of the venture bros, it’s nice to get it’s spirtual littlte brother back just a few weeks later to help fill the void, and while a comparison to it now I know frank’s a fan and noticed the simlarties between rusty and gyro thanks to a tumblr post, the same post for both things inf act, I might just do that one day. But tha’ts not what your here, for , iv’e had to rewrite this intro enough times, Pitter Patter, let’s get at er. 

This episodes opens with Scrooge sitting down for his morning tea when the kids pop out of the tv and hte bored way he figures it out is really hilarious. David Tennat is really good at selling just how Scrooge has both seen it all and has the deductive skills of Barbra Gordon. What eveyrone syaing “Of batman” gets old after a while and she’s just as smart as he is, especially as oracle. Point is it’s a good bit. As he correclty guesses the kids were playing Legends of Nerverquest or whatever that game Huey and Della played last season is called, one of them wished it was real, presumibly Dewey, and Lena’s magic accidently made it happen.  And since it’s her first spotlight episode of the season, and possibly only one since this season is kind of packed, it’s time to talk about Lena! Admitely I PLANNED to do at least her first episode and her two season 2 episodes before this, but life got in the way so here we are. Lena.. is easily one of my faviortes, the number of weblena chats have made that clear. She’sd got a compelling arc, the show tackles abuse well in her narrative, and she and webby have really sweet chemstiry. Plus she brought us Violet and i’ll always be greatful for that and she’s voiced by Kimiko Glenn in her first major voice acting role so that helps too. SHe’s a great addition to the cast and the canon. Same, as the previous comment made obvious, goes for Violet, and the three togther have a great dynamic and i’ts nice to finally see an episode with JUST the three of them post “Friendship Hates Magic.”. 

But yeah Lena’s magic’s been going haywire and I do feel the setups abit rushed.. hilarious but rushed. While Night on Kilmotor hill did establish her magic can run wild, it was also vauge if it was because of her, or it was because magica was messing with her head. IT’s still a plausable setup since we haven’t really SEEN her use her magic or have any intrest and doing so and she’s only done so either while working for magica, to undo something magica did, or to give her sister a mace so she could literally go midevil on some alien ass, it just feels a bit abrubt. And while Night on Kilmotor hill also set up a problem we hadn’t seen on screen, it felt like it gave us more time to ease into it and Lena’s issues, and made it clear SOMETHING was up instead of just telling us that. The rest of hte episode is still good i’ve just seen the show be way better at setup than this. 

But yeah Lena’s magic keeps runing their fun and she feels bad about it, while Scrooge ends up putting his foot and spats in his mouth by voicing his hatred of magic, with all his nephews giving him a “Grandpa no look” and Webby glaring at him.. and whiel I didn’t realize it while watching it.. whiel sh’es given him a disaporving look, the equilvent of shooting bambi in the face emtoinally, she’s only been THIS angry with him one other time.. and it was the time he said “Your not family”. Thankfully this time he’s not in defnstive arrogant bastard mode, so he meekly walks it back to exclude her and she shrugs it off: She hates magic too. And really.. it’s not hard to see WHY given that most times it’s enterted her life, it’s nearly got everyone she loves killed, and that the only spellcaster she knows personally is the absuive aunt whose gaslighted her on multiple occasions, most recently to try and renslave her.  Thankfully before Webby can make an old man bleed for his insesntivity, Della reveals some magical creature is there and Scrooge, while annoyed it’s more magic, is happy for another adventure and invites everyone along. And I jsut love that he dosen’t even show the slightest hesitation bringing Violet and Lena along. As far as he’s concerned probably their family too, maybe not as much as Webby but their still welcome. I mean granted i’m sure della and donald had an awkard conversation with Ty and Indy over all this to make sure it was cool, but still, it’s a nice gesture on his part and show’s his personality: He really dosen’t care who comes along as long as they can pull their weight and share his love for adventure, their welcome.  It’s also nice ot see him and Lena interact since the two really haven’t since the shadow war: Sure he’s been in the same room with her twice, btu they haven’t really spoken. Though my honest guess is they could’ve genuinely meant for Scrooge to adopt her into the family.. but when coming up with Violet found her family adopting her and them becoming sisters to be a better idea and went with that. And to be fair it is, and not just for  shipping purposes, I just wish we got some closure on that line, but i’m also aware the show has a LOT of ground to cover each season, so I understand it probably got squeezed out by all the other stuff going on and don’t really sweat it since we got something better anyway, her getting two gay dads and a sister, it just felt worth talking about.  And in universe.. I feel he didn’t simply because he didn’t either know she was back or have a chance to, though i’m also damn certain, at least in my own headcanon, he helped those men formally adopt her. I mean he owns most of the city, and they probably also had to make Lena legally exist in the first place since I doubt Magica bothered to put her on any offical records that weren’t signed in blood and written on paper made of avian flesh, which given SCrooge’s experince is probably not the first time he had to get a person into official records who came into being by way of magic or some other weirdness. 

Anyways, Lena opts out of the adventure because she’s worried about it going haywire and Webby opts out out of sympathy and while Violet is clearly keen to go, she gladly does so for her sister.. though this just makes Lena feel worse since now her girlfriend and her sister are missing out on stuff because of her, and suggests just going to sleep before she whoopsie daisy magics them to death.  The girls end up woken from their sleep however by a bang at the door. It’s Gladstone!

Yup it’s time to talk about another character I haven’t talked about yet. Gladstone is easily one of the show’s best overhauls. See in the comics while Gladstone is just as lucky and lazy.. he’s also just.. 

Okay i’m amazed it’s taken this long for me to refrence jean ralphio in one of these reviews but i’m glad it was for this.  Back on topic, while I know Gladstone in the comics has his fans, and is softend a bit in european comics, but in most stories i’ve read with him he’s an insufferably arrogant dick. Even BEFORE getting his luck, his first apperance, which I own in trade and read earlier this year, has him trying to take Donald’s house and kick him and the nephews out on the street over a drunken wager to take a polar dive, which Donald fials because life hates him and he’s a coward. Thankfully Daisy rushed in and saved the day because she’s great sometimes ,and turned things on him wiht his own drunken crap, but still, it says something when your first apperance is trying to force three ten year olds and your own cousin out into the cold. 

He .. did not get any better once his super luck came into play. Instead he just flautned it all the time and tried to constnatly win Daisy over from donald.. which had varying sucess based on how much of a shallow dick she was being that story, and in general was just unplesant. He really only works for me in comic in those aformetioned softer times: when a writer makes his luck ruin his love life or add actual depth instead of him just being the raincloud on donal’ds parade. The original ducktales and the going quackers game are the only places I can think of he showed up otherwise, prototype in the old disney shorts nonwithstanding, and Ducktales Classic made him a nice guy from what i’ve heard. Thankfully frank and crew knew exactly what to do to adapt him perfectly: He still retains some aspects from the comics: Donald and Scrooge still hate him, Donald for Gladstone always winning and always having it easy while Donald.. is donald and thus utterly miserable half the time and on fire the other half, and Scrooge because he’s a lazy asshole who gets whatever he wants with the least effort, which didn’t change. What did change was his attitude. While he still is proud of getting whatever he wants in life with no effort and being “the best at getting something for nothing” he dosen’t lord it over everyone else. Sure he’s proud of it but he dosen’t rub Donald’s nose in how much better off he is on purpose, and genuinely loves his family, something I really coudln’t say about most versions of comic Gladstone. While he’s self serving he’s perfectly happy to share his luck with whoever else: He can always get more money whenever he needs it because of course he will. The other factor helping is , as with this entire reboot, the voice acting, in this case the marvelous Paul F Thompkins of Bojack and so much other stuff fame, who really sells the “Sleazy vegas layabout” vibe this series gives him, updating his old aristocratic asshole vibe to something more fun to watch and really being a treat anytime gladstone comes up. Gladstone singing in season 2 was entirely something Paul Improvised during his first apperance they made sure to use eventually. He’s a delight any time he shows up and a total 180 from his utterly agrviating original version. 

As for why he’s here.. said luck. is gone. After being hit by some weird energy, Gladstone suddenly, since he didn’t see it hit him, finds himself living normally: going to a restraunt offers no free meal for being 100th custmoer or anything, his wallet dosen’t magically have 20 dollars in it, and the atm gives him 20 dollars.. which would seem normal except it’s actually usually a sack of rubys.  Naturally Gladstone having coasted his entire life on his magical luck, has no idea how to function as a normal human being and is utterly hilarious as he breaks down. Admitely he’s not the biggest part of the plot, he’s mostly here for comic relief and COULD have been eaisly cut.. but he’s so hilarious and seeing him utterly fail at being a normal person and whine about things as simple as walking or going up stairs is just groovy.  As for what weird magical bolt took it, Violet being violet figures it out quick: The Phantom Blot! For those unfamiliar, he’s a charcter from the mickey mouse comics, though I know him from one episode of house and mouse that adapted those comics that I need to read more of, a master schemer and old school villian par excellence and Mickey’s greatest foe. I was ecastic to see him come here and in the capable hands of Giancarlo Espisto. While I haven’t watched brekaing bad i’ve heard nothing but good thigns and he does his best with what little he’s given. But here instead of a master schemer he’s an infamous magic theif and is obviously the one who drained gladstone.. and unforutntely for scrooge the boys and presumibly everyone else... we see him in action using his fancy infnity guantlet esque magic draining gauntlet to drain the portal they took. Ruh Roh.  It gets worse when he mistakes Lena for magica, and charges after her, though Webby is able to hold him off with the axe she grabbed on the way to the door earlier, and damages his gauntlet. he retreats.. but it’s obvious he’ll be back and both Webby and Violet come to the conclusion Lena needs to grasp her magic in order to survive.. and both have the same unfortunate relization: They only know one person who can do it and Lena, once she realizes what hteir thinking, wnats nothing to do with her, and neither do they. But they have no options: they have to go to magica.  So they journey to her house on Dagobah, with Gladstone tagging along because they need a wacky comedic sidekick to help lighten the mood what with the serious, grim hunter wanting to murder a teenage girl inf nront of her tweenage girlfriend and kid sister, and their only resort being going back to her abuser for help.  Magica however isn’t all that helpful at first. Being Magica her first move is to make a grab for the Amulet to get her power back, which her running crew thwart quickly but naturally Lena still wants nothing to do with her and Magica just insults her for not using magic and because she’s a terrible person. SHe does however end up changing her tune when she hears the blot’s involved. She whisks them inside while we get a cutaway to FOWL headquarters where blot is working on his guantlet more on him in a minute.  We soon get the Blot’s backstory which is actually really inttresting and invovled even if it’s not a lot like who he is in the comcis or house of mouse: A long ass time ago before meddling kids got in her way, Magica took over a small vililage with the threat of destroying it and eveyrone in it outright unless they gave her tributes.. and when those got boring she just did it anyway. Problem was, as happens a lot when evil sorecerers calously destroy hometowns, one of them survivied. It’s even lampshaded by Magica as she points out Blot wasn’t the first. The problem was.. he was persitant. The blot never gave up, coming up with better tech to fight her magic each time and coming back stronger and likely more determined. I like this verson: While he’s not the bwahahah mastermindk, he’s still an utter threat, a force with an unyielding hatred and a burning mission to take out the target of his hate and anything like her. He reminds me a lot of toffee from star vs but if htey actually gave his backstory on screen. A meancing, somehwat quite, or mostly silent in the blot’s case, immortal menace who’s deterimiend to wipe out those who wronged him and anything related to them and has warped from what was once probably a decen tperson into a human engine of destruction with one goal and one goal only. He’s a good enoguh villian for the episode, I just hope if he comes back they give him better lines. his dialouge is really what dosen’t work for me as whiel his backstory and aura of meance work, Giancarlo is given nothing to work with line wise. He dosen’t need to be a chatty cathy or anything, just give him one or too really cool lines. Sometimes tha’ts all you need. Watch how the pros do it. 

I do like this verison, I jsut think they could do more, but given the show has a good track record for only getting better with their villians with every use, I have no worries about that and he’s still a cool enough threat. I also wish we got more of fowl or why he’s working with them. just a small scene with one of them was all I asked, because we’ve barely gotten fowl this season. It’s really one of the season’s only real problems so far: 8 episodes in and while FOWL agents have shown up twice, adn one of the episodes did advance that plot by showing off heron and steelbeak, we really haven’t seen any progress on their plans to both take the missing mysteries or kill the Clan McDuck. HOpefully this changes as we go and again, it dosen’t ditract from the episode itself, jsut the season as a whole.  Anyways, Lena is still relucntant because Magica is terrible and keeps slipping in how much she wants to take the amulet every five minutes. I love the show and catherine tate’s take on magica: just as hammy and nuts as before but when she does have magic, she’s the utter threat she was before too times ten.  But yeah while Lena’s relunctant.. neither of htem really has a choice> Magica needs her amulet secure to get her magic back, and Lena needs to not die. So they relucntantly agree to work together among more hilarous sniping.  Cue a training montage set to a hell of an 80′s tune. The show really has a good habit of making good incdental music to use in bits like this. Lena trains, uses gladstone as the training dummy, and it’s funny as it is creative and we even get some karate kids bit and the obvious star wars refrences. Meanwhile the blot approaches ever closer..  We also find out something important from Magica as she chastises Lena for having fun with her friends while training after Lena uses blue magic instead of purple: Turns out much like spellcasters in say owl house or my little pony each caster has a specific color to their magic, a Colur of magic if you will. Magica’s, and lena using hers is purple while the blue magic we’ve seen from her is her own powered by friendship and love. It’s a nice advancement of what we’ve seen so far: We’ve seen her magic powered by webby is stronger than her other stuff, and we’ve seen it come out during times their bond, or in the case of kilmotor hill her bond with everyone, is strongest. We knew something was diffrent with the magics and it’s now given a though and clearly well thought out explination why: Magica’s magic is hers and Lena was just borrowing it.. the blue stuff is hers and hers alone.  Magica does try to get her to master it by having one of her friends shoot her.. Webby of course strongly objects so Violet takes it up since it is for study after all and her sister can take a hit. Lena also wonders how she can even do magic without the amulet, but as Magica makes clear, and as I outlined above, the amulet is just help. The blue magic is her. Lena fails to use it though to deflect in time.. and to make matters worse the blot shows up after plopping gladstone down and wants to kill them  both.  We then get easily the best laugh of the episode.. as Magica tries stage magic and the blot wonders what the hell he’s looknig at. I mean this is his mortal enemy, the monster who killed everyone he’d ever known or loved... pulling out a bunch of colored rags and asking him to pick a card. It’s amazing. Lena attacks from the side and Webby and Violet quickly asist, with Magica joining in to use the rope to bind him and Lena’s magic kicking in, turning the rope into chain and summoning a snake.. but in a show of badassery the blot easily shrugs it off: he absorbs the magic, escapes and knocks them around while Webby asks the snake for help.. can she speak snake? She hopes so. 

Then things get dire as The Blot starts absorbing the magic.. and killing lena as she starts to fade away. Magica of course can’t even feign dispaointment in anything but loosing her magic. And that’s also something I really love here: The show makes no attempt to make magica better or turn around because it just isn’t who she is and even if she did after all the abuse she did, Lena would have zero reason to forgive her. It’s nice that they DON’T try redemeing her or shoing a brighter side: she’s a bad person, a worse caregiver and they only came to her because they had no choice. 

But as the magic’s absorbed magica does tell her to find the source of the power and we get a great scene: She first thinks of all the abuse magica’s done to her and it’s a harrowing montage to watch. But webby, breaks through that, since that obviouslyf ails and reminds her of where HER magic comes from: Her and webby. and we get an adorable,a nd shiptastic montage as we see more clips from past episodes.. but this time we see their adorable fistbump from “Beagle BOy Birthday Massacre”, their hug from “Jaw$!” and Lena’s return to the world and hug with her lady and future sister from “Friendship hates magic”. IT’s her friends, her sister and the love of her life who are her real source of power, and her magic connects to htem as lena ccccchanges.  And I mean entirely, her outfit changes and she gets these.. weird bright blue eyes. Like I like the rest of her outfits, a white and blue attire to show her change with a badass cape, looks like a superhero so naturally I love it.. her eyes just look really off. Like when Milo Muprhy’s law tried to give characters colored irses. Because no one else in ducktales has them it just loosk.. weird.. Otherwise though I like it. We then get a beam struggle, but with adde dhelp from her friends and her new power, Lena eventually beats the blot, as her sheer power overloads the guantlet and sends him running. However in the confusion the amulet was lost.. and Magica gets it back. Lena whollops her easily, pointing out her magic’s purpose is to protect the world from people like her. It’s a nice development too: Lena realizes MAGIC isn’t inherently evil... it’s how it’s used. Star Vs could’ve maybe taken this lesson, but regardless, it’s a nice bit of character development realizing that magic is a part of her IS Her, and she shoudln’t have to give up something in her nature because of her abuser. Magica, while repowered, is force dto lookf or her staff while Lena gladly floats team magic home. Also with the guantlet broken gladstone is back, as a rain of 20 dolalr bills he uses as tissues confims, and the portal returns, and with Lena you know, havin ga whole superhero outfit, glowing blue eyes and her hair streak now blue, they know something clearly happend and the episode just kind of ends. Still a good one.  Final Thoughts: This was a good one as I just said. While I had my nitpicks here and there as I also said, Lena’s strong character, and the game performances of Espisito, Thompkins, and Tate really add to our usual trlo, and as I mentioned before it’s nice ot see team magic get their own episode now their a full team. IT’s just a good romp and a good way back. I”ve made my complaints clear but their drowned out by good jokes, good character stuff, and good worldbuilding that makes this an utter thrill and a great one to come back to and i’tll also be intresting to see where Lena goes from here.  But wherever she goes she’ll have webby. They can be whot hey are, independent together, if theyt ry. And yes that’s my shiping song for htem and yes I have one. 

Quick bit before I go I dind’t get to, Gladstone flirts with magica when she lands in his arms, a little something for the shippers and a nice gesture on frakn’s part. Whle she rejects him and he dumps her in the sludge with a shrug. I mean.. their probably going to bang at some point. Gladstone’s powers mean he’ll likely find her when sh’es super horny and more than willing, and he’ll be like “eh why not boobs”. I mean I thought about this: I figure his powers allow him to find a willing partner, any gender or none at all I see him as pansexual, who happens to probablyb e loaded and diseased free, whenever he happens to be into it who naturallyw orks out perfectly because if he gets money whenever he wants it, why not sex? It’s not even a concious thing as we’ve seen things just work out for him so of course he probably gets laid, and as we see here it’s only if the other person consets. Good for him. Hope to see him again sooner. I want to see more of him and della interacting and see what she thinks of him. Freshe eys andall that. 

But yeah this was great to come back to. If you liked this i’ve reviewed the rest of the season up to this point and will be reviewing each episdoe every monday till they stop again, so keep an eye out for that.  You can check the tabs on my blogs for more reviews, come back this weekend for regular loud house coverag,e follow for more reviews or shoot me a pm if you’d like to comission me to do an episode. For just 5 bucks i’ll review any episode of any animated show of your choosing, and as i’ve only covered one season 2 episode of ducktales, there’s over 40 left ot choose from if you have any you want to hear my thoughts on. Until then stay safe, quack hard, and Go Team Venture! Play us out Steg .. and Co. 

[iknowthekoolaidflavor]

Birthday Wishes

Another addition for Risha’s ( @wreakhavoconmacroissantdiggs ) birthday!

Pairing: Sugar Daddy!Thomas x reader

Word count: 1.5k

A/N: The ending is a little funky. My smut is a smidge bit rusty.

You woke up to feeling soft, wet kisses against the nape of you neck and hands wrapped around your waist. Thomas pressed himself against you, holding on for dear life. He loved moments like this. Waking up with you in his bed, in his arms. For a moment, he could pretend that you stayed here with him and didn’t have to leave and stay at your own place. You’ve been staying with him more often, but there were no problems on his part.

“You’re up already?”, you yawned

“Unfortunately,'' Thomas rasped, “I’m used to being up at this time. You should still be asleep baby”

“How can I sleep with you kissing my neck like that?”

Thomas grinned. It wasn’t his intention to have you up this early, especially on such a special day. He rubbed your back and kissed your cheek. You had no idea his intentions were to lull you back to sleep, but soon you were dozing off again in the very early hours of the morning.

When you awoke hours later, you jumped in the shower. As you got dressed, you could smell the food coming from downstairs. You followed the scents as your stomach growled, chastising you for not eating sooner. 

Thomas stood in the middle of the kitchen frying plantains. He jumped when he noticed you standing next to the island. 

“You’re up?”, he asked, sounding a little upset

“Did you not want me to be?”

“Yeah. I just wanted to bring you your breakfast while you were still in bed”

Thomas began to pout before you pulled him in for a kiss. He wrapped his arm around you and deepened it. As his tongue slid in your mouth, you pressed yourself against him, grinding against his cock.

“As much as I want to throw you on the counter and fuck you, I have to finish with breakfast. I figured the birthday girl wanted to have breakfast in bed”, he smirks as he hands you a mimosa

“You know me so well”, you purred, “I’ll go back upstairs then”

He kissed you once more, then slapped your ass as you walked away. Within ten minutes, you were in bed enjoying breakfast with Thomas. He fed you strawberries and whipped cream, and made you more mimosas..

Now, he was entertaining your idea of living on the countryside as he rubbed your feet. 

“You’re telling me you’ve never thought of leaving New York?”, you questioned

“Of course I have. Always wondered if I would get married, move back to Virginia, and raise our kids there”

You felt his hands freeze as you took in what he said. ‘Our kids’. For a moment, Thomas didn’t say anything. He stayed silent as he continued to rub your feet as music silently played in the background. 

“Soooo, are you ready for dinner tonight?”

Thomas asked, wanting to change the subject. He could have asked you his burning question right then and there, but now things felt a little awkward. It’s been almost a year since he told you he no longer wanted to be just your sugar daddy. He was hesitant because for all he knew, you felt the complete opposite. You proved him wrong time and time again. 

“I can’t wait”, you cheered, “I’ve wanted to go to that restaurant since it opened”

“If you told me sooner, I would have already taken you. You know I’ll always take care of you, right?”

He smiled at you as you nodded. His hands moved up to your calf, then your inner thigh. You carefully move the plates out the way before Thomas wraps his arms around your thighs and pulls you close. You can tell by the way he starts licking your core, he won’t let you stop after just one orgasm. 

Thomas wrapped his lips around your clit, bringing you to your first orgasm. He slips two fingers inside, admiring the way you squeeze around him as he strokes your g spot.

You grip the sheets and moan his name. Thomas’s teeth dig into your thigh.

“Fuck”

Thomas kissed his way up your torso with his fingers still in you. His body is pressed against yours as he kissed and sucked all over your neck. Your arms wrapped around him. 

“I know you’re close baby”, he whispered in your ear, “Go ahead and cum”

That was all it took for you to cum all over his fingers. He pulled his fingers out and sucked one of them clean. Thomas put the other fingers in front of you and you took your time copying him. He kissed you with fervor as  he rubbed his cock against your clit. 

“Thomas”, you groaned 

He slipped in the tip and pulled it out again. He kept going until you were a begging mess.

“Thomas please”

He bit your neck as he bottomed out. His hands squeezed your hips as he fucked you. Thomas kissed you from your neck to your cheek until he reached your lips. He moaned when he kissed you. You couldn’t grind against him as desperately as you wanted to, so you settled for tangling your fingers in his hair.

As he hit a new angle, he gasped and held on to him for dear life. You were too close to the edge. The moment you heard him moaning, you came all over his cock. He fucked you relentlessly until he came inside you.

                                           *******************************

“We still have a few hours before we go out. What does the birthday girl want to do until then?”

“Movies and snacks?”

“Whatever you want”

Thomas indulged you on your Disney marathon, pausing it to get up and get you snacks whenever you asked. He volunteered to feed them to you, but every time you fought back he ended up on top of you with a smile. He couldn’t stop smiling seeing that smile on your face.

His phone began to ring, ending your moment. 

“Give me two seconds”, he answered his phone, “Hello. Yes, this is Thomas. Oh, okay. No, I get it. Thank you. Bye.”

He hung up the phone with a sigh, “It looks like we don’t have a reservation tonight”

“What? Why?”, you whined

“The restaurant cancelled our reservation. Looks like we’ll have to try to find another place”

You pulled the phone out of his hand and sat in his lap. You played with the hair at the nape of his neck. He leaned into you, starting to relax.

“We don’t have to go out tonight. We can think of something else to do. Dining out can be saved for another time”

“What do you have in mind?”, he asked as he wrapped his arms around you, “I’m a fan of staying like this”

You thought for a moment. There was something that you wanted to do with him, but the fact that you didn’t live together made it difficult from time to time. Either you had to hurry home or Thomas already had dinner ready when you got there.

“We could make dinner together”

“Sure”, he smiled, eyes lighting up, “Whatever you want”

Thomas pulled out all the ingredients for dinner. He cut the potatoes while you seasoned vegetables. He watched you out the corner of his eye. You were dancing and humming to the music. He wanted you to stay longer than a couple nights at a time. He didn’t want to worry about you leaving and him going to bed lonely. He misses you every time you leave. 

“What are you up to next week?”

“Well after I leave tomorrow night, I have a paper finish and I have work and choir rehersal. The usual”

It was now or never.

“When you leave?”

“Yeah, I have my own place babe”

“I know. I know”, he stood behind and pulled your hands away from the food. He kissed you on the cheek, “Or you could just...make this your home...if that’s what you want”

Thomas’s heart was racing out his chest. This could go one way or the other. 

You turned to face him and Thomas stood there nervously with a red box. He opened the box to reveal a necklace with a gold music note pendant.

“Thomas, it’s beautiful. You want me to move in with you?”

“Yes. I want this to be our home. Every time you leave, this place doesn’t feel the same. You like it?”

“I love it. When can I move my stuff in?”

“Thank God”, he groaned as he buried his face in your shoulder and pulled you closer

You both embraced each other, but you were too happy to find the words to say anything. Thomas held you in the kitchen, smiling to himself. He didn’t have to worry about you leaving ever again. 

“How will you top the next birthday?”, you asked with a giggle

“Don’t worry baby. I already have an idea you won’t forget”

Thomas held you in his arms and for once he let his mind wonder about his the rest of his future with you. 

[carrotsofavonlea]

If it's possible to ask for a prompt: during season 3 Gilbert gets really jealous over a boy flirting with Anne (trying to court her). So jealous that he confronts her and ends up confessing his feelings for her. I just love passionate fights and happy endings so I'd be so happy if you could write this. Thank you very much and happy Valentine's Day!

(Thank you for waiting, I know this took a while! I went on holiday literally the day after valentine’s so I had no time to write, not to mention being stuck at the airport because my plane home was cancelled :/ but I’m glad to be back and writing!)

/////////

Gilbert wasn’t one to get jealous, he tried to be happy with the cards he was dealt - no matter how rough they had been in recent years. But lately he felt an odd sinking feeling in his chest whenever Charlie Sloane brought up Anne. 

It had started innocently enough, so innocently that Gilbert had barely registered Anne’s name in the conversation, smiling politely to his friend as he focused on his studies. All Charlie had said was, “Have you ever noticed Anne’s hair has gotten darker?”

Gilbert shrugged, glancing briefly at Anne before returning to his books. “It looks the same to me.”

But that was a lie. He certainly had noticed, although a part of him wished he hadn’t. He denied he ever did, but in the first few months of knowing her he had been drawn to her hair in class, always staring at it in awe of how it could capture the light so well it looked like she was on fire. Something he couldn’t touch but wanted to. Now he had “grown up” he wasn’t focused on silly school boy infatuations. He was focused on his studies, in denial that those same red braids would creep into the back of his mind when he was unawares.

Yet those innocent words from Charlie buried in him, deep down at first but slowly rising to the surface with every passing day.

Gilbert found more than once when he looked up from his studies, Charlie was glancing in the direction of Anne. He tried not to let it bother him. After all, why should he care who looked at Anne? But time after time this kept happening, and Gilbert found himself having to relax his jaw, not even realising he had clenched it in the first place.

***

The whole “take notice board” thing had never interested Gilbert. Being almost 2 years older than his other classmates never really felt different to Gilbert, but lately he was starting to feel it. He had better things to do than partake in these childish games. This bitterness certainly didn’t come from when Anne tried to get him to write about Ruby….not at all. As if he would ever write a note. If he was going to tell someone how he felt, he would want to tell her to her face. (He refused to acknowledge the brief moment of hope when Anne talked about the future.)

While his classmates hovered around the board, be preferred to spend time reading the papers with Miss Stacy. She’d recently just enlightened him on her doctor friend in Toronto, and lately Toronto sounded a lot better than Avonlea. He still found himself wondering at times why he even came back. A foolish part of him had said he missed his friends (but deep down he knew it had something to do with Anne whether or not he wanted to consciously admit it).

“A female doctor? How marvelous!” Anne’s voice came from behind him, clearly having eavesdropped on their conversation.

But he found himself relaxing around her, once again not realising he’d been tense before she appeared. Something about Anne’s presence just made him feel…safe. He didn’t feel like he had to pretend or be something he wasn’t. He could be just Gilbert. 

But before he could open his mouth Diana had burst through the door, “Anne! You’re on the board! The take notice board! Charlie! He noticed you!”

Gilbert’s eyes met Anne’s; he wasn’t sure what he was feeling inside, but his stomach dropped at the mention of Anne being noticed. She had an apologetic look on her face as Diana grabbed her arm and pulled her away.

Gilbert sighed, sitting down in the chair perhaps too aggressively as Miss Stacy seemed to notice.

“I don’t mean to pry where I don’t belong,” Miss Stacy glanced over the top of her paper, “but I don’t agree with this take notice board.”

“That makes two of us.” Gilbert’s forehead creased, trying not to think about what could possibly be written about Anne on that board.

“But,” Miss Stacy continued, “telling someone how you feel may not be the worst thing in the world.”

Gilbert shifted uncomfortably in his seat, “When I find the right person, I’ll know.”

Miss Stacy lowered her paper to look at Gilbert, “I hope so.”

****

He didn’t know what had come over him, but here Gilbert was hand in hand with Anne as they danced in a circle in the middle of the school house. Moments ago he had been opposite her, but his hands had a mind of their own and had grabbed hold of Anne’s pulling her to stand beside him. He felt giddy, the feel of her hand in his so natural, everything he had imagined it would be. (Not that he had ever imagined it before…nope, not at all…) 

Maybe he had been urged on by the words he had overheard yesterday:

“So Anne, are you going to dance with Charlie tomorrow?”

Something about the way the girls had giggled, as if dancing even meant anything romantic, had stuck in Gilbert’s mind all the way home. He’d been in a slightly sour mood at the thought of Anne dancing with Charlie, but once again he pushed the blame onto something else like merely feeling stressed about his studies and that was why he was in a bad mood. But when he got to school and saw how Charlie was calculating where to stand in order to dance with Anne (the only time he ever got a calculation correct), Gilbert had cringed. 

Charlie Sloane was far from the romance that Anne deserved. Gilbert knew her well enough to know that she deserves someone who was her equal, who could match her not overpower her. He also knew Charlie well enough to know he was certainly not looking for a wife as outspoken as Anne, he wouldn’t understand her. The whole match just wouldn’t work. 

He couldn’t help but laugh at how ridiculous his friend was acting, and somehow he turned that energy into playfulness. There was something about Anne and the music that made him forget who he was for a moment, stealing Anne away from Charlie before he even got the chance to dance with her properly.

When it was all over, Gilbert found himself unable to move from that place. Something had taken over him, reawoken some feelings he had tried to push deep down. Anne held his gaze, the same amused but also uncertain look on her face before she smiled and stepped back from him.

This was all wrong, Anne was his friend and he couldn’t have feelings for his friend. They wouldn’t work, they’d just argue. But lately they had been on such good terms, and any arguments had stemmed out of a place of passion for doing the right thing. Lately it hadn’t been Anne vs Gilbert, but rather Anne and Gilbert vs the world. They knew that whenever they fought it was because they cared, not because they wanted to hurt each other. 

All these confusing thoughts kept running around Gilbert’s mind. Was Anne truly the one for him? When he tried to picture the future he couldn’t imagine one where Anne didn’t play some role in his life. But what was that role? 

He’d been so deep in thought he had almost bumped into the girl in question, their eyes locked in a terrified gaze. She turned from him before he could even think of anything to say, running out the door.

He went to follow but then hung back, suddenly unsure. There was something he needed to say to her but he couldn’t figure out what, only that he knew he wanted to talk. Instead he paced up and down, stuck between the two paths: either follow Anne or return home alone.

With a deep breath he decided he would talk to her, just to say sorry for how he had acted during dance. Maybe he’d scared her off with his spontaneity, he had certainly scared himself a little, forgetting how he used to be before everything in his life had made him grow up far too fast. 

But as he started in her direction, he felt lighter, holding himself higher. It was in that moment he realised Anne made him feel different but in a good way. She made him feel free, made him feel like he could be himself, someone who understood him. No one else could make him feel this way. It was a way he always wanted to feel. 

His feet had picked up into a run, no clue what his mouth was supposed to say when he got there. But he never got the chance, his feet stopping himself just as quickly as they had started. 

Charlie. He was talking to Anne. Walking with her. So that was it. Whatever had happened between them during dance had obviously been unrequited. He thought maybe she had felt that tension between them, the jolt when their hands touched, how alive it made him feel. But here she was walking home with Charlie Sloane….

****

Gilbert had been avoiding Anne, trying not to look at her during class or responding to her questions in monosyllabic sentences. It felt like they’d gone back a step, everything they’d worked for in the past year just gone. Back to square one where they barely interacted. He told himself he was better off focusing on his studies, it had been foolish of him to get distracted anyway.

But Anne clearly didn’t see it that way.

“What is your problem?” She stormed up to him after class one day after he barely acknowledged her goodbye.

Diana and the other girls had slowly formed a group behind her, Gilbert awkwardly looking between them and Anne. 

“Uh, nothing?” He furrowed his brows, trying his best to act nonchalant but failing.

Anne turned to face her friends and a moment later they were slowly being led away by Diana, leaving just Anne and Gilbert.

“I just noticed you weren’t joining in with everyone as much this week. I thought… something had happened.”

Gilbert adjusted his bag strap, not making eye contact with Anne. He didn’t want her feeling bad about him. “All everyone seems to talk about anymore is who likes who and who walked who home. I have other things to worry about than courting that’s what everyone else seems to be occupied with…this waste of time.”

Anne scoffed, folding her arms. “Not everyone is talking about courting.”

Gilbert couldn’t help himself, “Oh please I’ve seen you and Charlie Sloane making eyes.”

“Making eyes? Is this what this is about? Why do you care anyway?”

“I don’t.” Gilbert shrugged and began to walk away, getting out before he said something else he’ll regret.

But Anne wasn’t leaving it alone. “What? Is it because someone is actually showing interest in me? I’m so repulsive that it’s a joke to you? That the whole idea is absurd?”

“What? Of course not.” Gilbert stopped walking, turning to face her again.

“Then what’s the problem?” Anne threw her hands in the air.

“I… forget it.” He shook his head.

“Are you….jealous?”

“No. I don’t care who you walk home with.”

Anne almost laughed, “You are! You’re jealous!” She pointed her finger at him, anger in her voice. “I can’t believe you.”

“Why would I be jealous?”

“I don’t know. One of your mind tricks to make me distracted so you can beat me in class?”

Gilbert’s shoulders deflated, “You think I’d stoop that low, mess with your feelings? Is that really what you think of me?”

She shrugged, “I don’t know…”

“Anne…” he whispered.

They held each other’s gaze for a while, and Gilbert couldn’t take it anymore, couldn’t take the silence. He had to do something or Anne would think he hates her when right now that’s the furthest thing from the truth. 

Without thinking his hand cupped her cheek, before he leaned in a kissed her.

But suddenly he pulled back, realising what he’d done. Anne stared up at him, eyes wide. He couldn’t tell what she was feeling, if he’d just ruined everything.

 "I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have done that. I understand if you never want to see me again-“

His words were interrupted by Anne pressing her lips against his in return, her hands linking around his neck. It took a moment to react, before he kissed her back again, holding on to her waist trying to pull her closer.

They finally broke apart, Gilbert lightly touching his forehead to Anne’s.

"Anne… I don’t know why it took me so long to realise. But it’s you. It always has been.”

“For the record, I don’t like Charlie Sloane like that.”

“No?” Gilbert smiled, feeling Anne touch their noses together as she shook her head.

“No. Did you know he told me women who think too much can’t have children?”

“That’s… scientifically inaccurate.” He laughed, but there was a sour feeling in his chest that someone had the audacity to say something like that to Anne.

“Turns out he’s not a prince charming type.”

“Am I?” Gilbert playfully raised an eyebrow, and Anne rolled her eyes.

“We’ll have to see.”

“I hope I am." 

"Me too.” She smiled, leaning in to kiss him once again.

[lovemesomesurveys]

● Name something you lost or gave away that can never be replaced. A lot of time wasted.  “I wasted my time...”   ● What 5 websites do you visit often, and why? Tumblr, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.  ● Name a totally useless possession and how you came to acquire it. Some would consider knickknacks and collectibles and stuff useless, and I mean yeah they just sit on a shelf, but I like stuff like that.  ● What music album would be used for a movie about your life? I don’t know. ● List your bad habits and/or addictions and what you have tried to rid yourself of them. I got a lot of bad habits. As for addictions, caffeine and my pain medicine. I don’t abuse it, I take it as prescribed, but after so long your body develops a dependency. I remember several years ago I tried to cut out caffeine. It lasted a couple days, I think. haha. The headaches are no joke.

● If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be, and what would you do if later on you changed your mind? There’s a long list of things I’d want to change, but I mean if I could have good health (mentally and physically) that would make a big difference. I think some other changes would follow. I can’t imagine I’d ever change my mind about that. ● What are your religious beliefs? Have they changed, or have they always stayed the same? I’m a Christian now. Up until 4 years ago I was atheist and then agnostic.  ● When was your last food craving, and what did you crave? I’ve been wanting Doritos tacos from Taco Bell lately. ● Who was your first crush and what made them special? This kid named Philip when I was in 3rd grade. He was a grade or two above me. He and I were turning the jump rope for people during this event my elementary school had every year called, Jump Rope for Heart. It was to get people active and raise awareness. Anyway, he was across from me holding the other end of the rope and I just thought he was cute haha.  ● Name your most cherished childhood memory. I have a lot of those. I loved my childhood. It wasn’t without struggle or obstacles, but for some reason those things aren’t what stand out the most. I was a strong, resilient kid. Kid me would be so ashamed of how weak I am now. ● Turn to an entry in your journal or diary from a year or more ago. What has changed and what has stayed the same since then? I don’t feel like looking back on old surveys right now. ● What is one thing nobody knows about you because nobody ever cared to ask? Hmm. ● Robert Frost write a poem titled The Road Not Taken. Name a road you’ve always wanted to travel. Where do you hope it takes you, and what might you see on the way? Wait, literally or metaphorically? I mean, metaphorically I’d like to take the road that takes me to working on myself and leading to some happiness and success. That’d be nice.  ● Name one thing you always wanted to do, but haven’t. What has prevented you from doing it? Uhh there’s a lot of things. I feel like I’ve wasted so much time in my life each passing year. I’m just wasting away. I want to just...live. Travel more. Do something with my life. My physical health has been a contributing factor, but ultimately it’s me. It’s my mental health. That affects me more than anything else. ● Write about your first kiss. Was it everything you wished or hoped it would be? It happened behind the drama department at my high school. It unexpected and awkward, but it was my first kiss so it was all I knew. I was so giddy about having had my first kiss it didn’t matter haha. ● What was the worst mistake or decision you have ever made in life? What could you have done differently? Oh jeez. I have a lot of regrets. One that weighs heavily on me in recent years relates to my health. I’m very stubborn. I should have taken better care of myself. I should have neglected certain things. Some things don’t just go away, they get worse. And here I am, still not taking care of myself like I should be. Each passing year... ● What song was stuck in your head recently, and what were you doing at the time that made you think of it? I Love Me by Demi Lovato. I just really like the song.

● Write about something you now know that you wish you knew earlier in life. How could this knowledge have helped you? Just going back to the big thing that’s been weighing heavily on my mind these past few years that I talked about up there. ● Write about your greatest fear. Death, losing loved ones, never getting better/getting worse, and never doing anything with my life. ● Name one thing you feel brings out the good in people. Hmm. ● Describe a time in your life when everything turned out fine, despite the odds. I mean, there have been some times where things turned out to be not as bad as I thought they would be.  ● If you invented a device that could fix one problem you are facing right now, would you use it? What problem would you like to solve? I’ve talked about it enough.  ● Write about the last time you spoke to your best friend. What did you talk about? Last night when my mom got home from work. She was just telling me about stuff that happened at work and the latest Coronavirus news. It’s a wild time right now. All the cancellations of events, school campuses closing, and empty shelfs because people are stockpiling on hand sanitizer, face masks, and toilet paper. Italy is quarantined. I’ve never witnessed anything like this. ● Describe a time you felt alone. I feel that way a lot. I don’t spend a lot of time physically alone, but I still feel alone a lot. ● Name something you found; what was it and where did you find it? Uhh earlier I found a new ASMR channel on YouTube to watch haha. ● What’s on your calendar for tomorrow? I have a doctor appointment.  ● What is the most annoying sound you have ever heard? Eating sounds make my skin crawl.  ● Describe your first job. I’ve never had one.  ● What is the one thing you cannot live without? Besides oxygen, food, and water; my family. And coffee. That doesn’t get lumped into food or water, coffee gets its own honorable mention.  ● Quote the nicest thing anyone has ever said about you. Lane said I was strong, beautiful, brave, and rocked red hair like nobody’s business. :D ● Are you afraid of the dark? Why or why not? I can’t sleep if it’s completely dark or quiet, which is why I sleep with the TV on. I’d be scared if the electricity went out and it was dark if I was home alone. I wouldn’t go anywhere alone at night. Even with with someone I’m heightened alert. ● Describe the longest amount of time you have ever been away from home. A week. ● Write about a recent adventure or travels. I went to Disneyland for a few days last month. It was awesome. ● Who did you idolize growing up? My mom and grandma. And some celebrities at the time that were around my age like Hilary Duff. ● Name a celebrity or famous person you wish would take you out on a date. Alexander Skarsgard. ● Describe your daily routine when you get out of bed in the morning. Take my medicine, use the restroom, have coffee.  ● Name one thing you have always been good at doing. Jumping to the worst case scenarios. ● What is your favorite season, and why? Fall and winter. I love the weather, the clothes, the scents, the holidays, and just the coziness of it all. ● What was the title of the last book you read? I’m currently reading, “The Girl That Vanished” by A.J. Rivers. It’s the sequel to, “The Girl in Cabin 13.” ● List your biggest regrets. I talked about one of them already. That’s enough for today. ● Have you ever seen a ghost? No. ● Describe your note-taking style and habits. Bullet points, underlining, asterisks, and highlighting.  ● Do you believe that we are all here for a reason? What might the reason be? Yes. You have to figure that out for yourself, we all have a different purpose. I’m still trying to figure mine out. ● What comes to mind when someone uses the phrase prolonging the magic? I’ve never heard that phrase. ● Have you ever done something just to feel the danger, or to feel alive? Drinking, smoking weed, and taking a ride in a truck at night on a backroad at night near a levee. That was scary, but definitely an adrenaline rush.  ● What is your favorite cliché? Actions speak louder than words. ● What are all your thoughts on god? I believe in God.  ● How do rainy days make you feel? I love rainy days. I do the same things I do any other day, but it’s just cozy. The sound is relaxing. ● What is the most amount of money you have had at one time? A couple grand. ● Write a celebrity crush list. Alexander Skarsgard. ● What is the most amazing thing you have ever seen, heard, or experienced? I couldn’t pick just one thing. ● What effect does music have on you? It can perk me up, it can give me a little energy if I need to clean, it can make me sad, it can make me zone out, it can make me relax.  ● What did you learn today? What did you learn yesterday? Uhhh. ● What 5 traits do people first notice when they meet you for the first time? I’m sure the very first thing they notice is I’m in a wheelchair. Then probably how thin I am. Then perhaps my hair and my black rimmed glasses. Maybe my freckles. ● Have you ever carved your name or initials into a tree or stone? No. ● Does Never Never Land really exist? No, sadly.  “Cause Neverland is home, to lost boys like me...” ● Where is a great place to get breakfast? This local place that’s known more for their burgers, fries, and shakes, but actually have bomb breakfast, too. I love their country gravy. ● List 3 things that went right (or wrong) today. It’s only 2 in the morning, but so far I had ramen, I’m finishing up my Starbucks Doubleshot energy drink, and I’m watching/listening to an ASMR video. Not a bad start, but we’ll see how the rest of the day goes... I have a doctor appointment later that I’m not looking forward to. Afterwards my mom and I are going grocery shopping and I’ll probably pick up Wingstop on the way home. It’s been hot lately and I’ve had a nagging headache the past couple days, so I hope that isn’t the case today. ● What is the best method of travel, and in what ways have you traveled? Car and plane.  ● If you could give the world just one thing, what would it be? Peace. ● What were your best and worst subjects in school or college? English throughout school, with the addition of psychology in college. My worst was always math. I struggled with science, too. Philosophy was really fucking hard. ● Describe the most outrageous thing anyone has dared you to do. I haven't really been dared to do anything too outrageous.  ● Ice cream: chocolate, vanilla, or strawberry? Strawberry, but vanilla is good as well.  ● What historical events happened the year you were born? Ted Bundy was electrocuted.  ● Pick up a random object that has special meaning to you and describe it in as much detail as possible. I’m on my bed and there’s 2 giraffe stuffed animals, one is a big squishy one. I love all my giraffe stuffed animals, which there are a LOT of. ● Write about a recent visit to a museum or art gallery. I visited a Walt Disney museum a couple years ago. It was really cool. ● What food items do you consider staples in a well-balanced diet? I’m the wrong person to ask about well balanced diets. Well balanced for me is Wingstop, ramen, this pizza from my favorite local pizza place, scrambled eggs, and coffee. haha. ● Describe your feelings in regards to an issue in todays society, and what would be done to fix it. I talked about the coronavirus, which is a big issue and hot topic currently, and my feelings to it already. ● If you had only one wish, what would you wish for? Cures for all diseases. ● If you could tell the world just one thing, what would you say? Wash your hands!  ● Share a dirty little secret about yourself (or someone else). Nah. ● Have you ever gone skinny dipping? Noooo. ● Name something you would like to devote more time to seeing or doing. I need to devote time to taking care of myself and taking some necessary steps. ● What is the name of your favorite book, magazine, or publication? I have too many favorite books. ● Describe your first car. I’ve never had my own car. I don’t drive. ● Thunderstorms… Inspiring or scary? I love them.

[fandom-blerd-life]

Black Lightning 1.05: How Do You Feel About Latex?

Previously on Black Lightning, we met Tori, the alliterative addition to the Tobias & Tori evil duo, Anissa explored her new powers, and the kids in Freeland got hooked on a brand new drug called Green Light.

Hellooooooo (Mrs. Doubtfire Voice™) and welcome to another recap of Black Lightning! We’re 5 episodes into this season and there are no signs this show is slowing down. In fact, they’re still introducing new and exciting world-building elements that I 100% did not expect! But as usual, I’m getting ahead of myself.

Last week, Black Lightning got to test out some new electric vision and this week, Gambi hooked him up with some flying action! (Well, it’s closer to a hover than a fly, but the guy’s been gone for 9 years, he’s got to ease in.) During a test flight, Black Lightning notices a kid trying to evade police capture. It turns out, he was high on Green Light. I think the more important note about this scene though, is the fact that the officers were prepared to shoot the kid, even though he was unarmed. And Black Lightning--and in turn, the show--calls them on it. Sure, this kid was tweaking worse than me before my morning coffee, but if the officers felt as threatened as they claimed, they could have tased him first. Once again, small moment, HUGE statement being made by this show. Black Lightning subdues the kid with a lightning blast and uh oh, it looks like he’s having some head pain. Surely it’s just a fluke and won’t come up again.

I don’t know what kind of operation Gambi is running here, but while he’s down in the Lightning Lair, his shop is empty AF upstairs. Not an employee in sight! That can’t be good for business. However, that doesn’t deter Tobias and Henchlady (yay! She’s back!) from making their presence known. Tobias and Gambi trade insults and threats about Black Lightning’s identity, but before our villains leave, we find out that Tobias has some kind of anti-aging serum running through his veins. ::record scratch:: Say what, now?? Tobias doesn’t age? How old is he? Where did this serum come from? What kind of side effects does it have? Is it magic? We all know magic ALWAYS comes with a price! I have questions, show! One person who is not giving up any answers though, is Gambi. We’ve seen hints of his shadiness in previous episodes, but it’s clear that Gambi’s hair is filled secrets upon secrets, including some kind of deal between him and Tobias.

Meanwhile, at Pierce Palace, Anissa is deep into research about enhanced abilities. Like many superheroes before her, she turns to Generic Search Engine dot com. She’s basically one step away from an unstoppable WebMD spiral, when Jennifer barges in to borrow one of her sister’s jackets. I love the Pierce Sister banter in this scene soooo much. They give each other shirt like only sisters can. “Are you watching porn?” I mean, come on! The Pierce sisters are very important to me dot tumblr dot com. Anissa gets back to work, and discovers that 30 years ago in Freeland, 9 kids with enhanced abilities just disappeared.

There are a few things in this episode that are just so quintessentially Black and 2 of them happen at the roller rink. I don’t know about you, but the rink was a staple of my childhood. I had and went to countless birthday parties there. Not only that, roller skating has been a staple in the Black community for decades. It has roots in the Civil Rights era when rinks would have nights specifically for Black folks to come and skate to rhythm and soul music. It gave them a place of their own to have a good time and skate to their own music. We got to see a glimpse of that time in this episode, with the addition of smartphones and a good old-fashioned girl fight. While Jennifer is finding her perfect selfie light, two girls come at her after consuming a large amount of Haterade™. They throw several insults Jennifer’s way (including a low blow about Khalil), but Jennifer claps back with the Blackest of insults by calling out Lana’s crusty ash knees. Only on this show will the thing that sets a girl off be someone else saying they’re ashy. Amazing. Just so perfect. Anyway, Lana lunges toward Jennifer who fights BOTH Lana AND her friend without breaking a sweat! Could it be? Could there be three Pierces with abilities??

Back at the drugstore where Anissa threw a grown ash man across 3 aisles, Jefferson overhears a man pleading with the cashier over medicine he purchased for his sick daughter. Jefferson steps in to help and loses his temper when the cashier takes no responsibility for the situation. That pesky headache is back but this time, it comes with glowing eyes. Huh. Maybe this will be a big deal.

Anissa is still in her research rabbit hole, but learns that when those kids disappeared, there were a series of canceled articles that would have revealed a vaccine to be the source of those enhanced abilities. The editor of the Freeland Gazette who nixed the stories was David Poe, and the reporter who broke the stories? None other than Alvin Pierce, Anissa’s grandfather. DUN DUN DUN. Alvin was murdered and his murder was never solved. Anissa is 100% a Murderino and wants to get to the bottom of this.

Jeff hits the streets again as Black Lightning, but this time it’s to check out an address that could lead them to the Green Light supplier. One of my favorite things about this show is how gorgeous the camera work is. There is a shot of Black Lightning in this scene that damn near took my breath away. Clearly, not everyone in Freeland is excited that Black Lightning is back, because he is greeted by a racist white guy wielding a shotgun. This douchenugget threatens to shoot Black Lightning’s “Black ass” because he know he’ll be seen as a hero. Black Lightning doesn’t let that get to him and blasts douchenugget until he finally admits the chemicals at that address are to make Green Light, and the guy in charge of it? Joey Toledo: Tobias’ right-hand man.

Back in the Lightning Lair, Jeff is pissed at Gambi for hiding the fact that Joey Toledo was still around. In the middle of screaming at Gambi, Jefferson just...falls over. Down for the count. I guess maybe he should have paid a liiiiiittle bit closer attention to those headaches! The writers even had him taking headache meds the last two weeks! But Lynn comes to the rescue and after doing a workup on Jeff, determines that there doesn’t seem to be a medical cause for these headaches, but she wonders aloud of it could be Black Lightning. As if on cue, lightning surges through Jefferson’s body, the monitors go crazy, and he wakes up.

It’s been a bit since we’ve checked in with our villains. What are they up to? Well, Tobias is being arrogant AF and Tori is trying to talk some sense into him. Something tells me he shouldn’t be so cavalier about Lady Eve’s power, because later in the episode, we see Tobias open an envelope filled with dust in a wonderful callback to last week. But Tori isn’t all negativity; she’s also got good news. She found Eldridge and it’s flashblack (I meant to type flashback, but this typo is too hilarious to fix so I’m keeping it!) time! We see a young Tori and an exactly the same age Tobias being berated by their father Eldridge. Specifically, Eldridge can barely stand to look at Tobias’ “pale ass.” Now, I’m not saying Tobias’ #DaddyIssues justify his villainous journey, but Eldridge’s behavior toward his children was atrocious. Hey Tobias, might I suggest some therapy? Perhaps in lieu of, I don’t know, straight up murder?? Think about it.

Meanwhile, it’s time for a little Daddy/Daughter, Superhero-to-Superhero quality time! Anissa wants to talk to Jefferson about her grandpa, his father. At first, he’s hesitant to have this conversation and even snaps at her. But he softens, apologizes, and comments that Anissa has a lot of her grandfather in her. That no matter what, Alvin always did the right thing. That must have been exactly what Anissa needed to hear, because she marches right into the Freeland Gazette to meet with Mr. Poe. They have a cordial conversation and Poe speaks fondly of Alvin, until Anissa mentioned those missing kids. Mr. Poe promptly kicks her out of the office and Anissa is left frustrated and confused.

I wasn’t even going to mention this next seen with Black Lightning and Henderson, but Black Lightning referring to the burner phone he gives Henderson as the “Black signal” had me cracking up too hard for me not to call it out.

Back at the Pierces, Lynn is checking on Jeff when DING DONG, they have visitors and OMG IT’S LANA AND OMG DOES LANA HAVE TWO MOMS? These ladies are not pleased about their (?) daughter’s broken wrist, but Lynn and Jeff manage to talk them down and even end up chatting and laughing with them! At least, until Jennifer comes home. Lynn is ready to serve her daughter some punishment and even drops a “You really wanna play with me right now, little girl?” And y’all. When I tell you I got chills. I could HEAR my mom saying that exact same thing to me when I was younger. You can go ahead and add this to yet another thing that makes this show so damn Black. Jeff, on the other hand, can barely contain his pride when he finds out the Jennifer managed to hold off TWO girls without getting hurt herself. That move costs him though, because somehow both he and Jennifer are on the receiving end of a Lynn Verbal Takedown.

Anissa, our Persistent Polly over here, decides to go back to the paper to get some information out of Poe. He knew she would be back because he had pulled a box of files for her. That box came with a warning though. Alvin had tapped into something huge that Poe wanted nothing to do with. Whoever these people are, they’re still watching, and Poe warns that Anissa will get killed if they find out she’s looking into this. 

Tobias and Tori roll up to Eldridge’s place, and Tobias greets him with swift punch to the face. If you were hoping the years had softened Eldridge, well, you would be incorrect. He throws more insults at his children and even expects praise because he stayed when their mother left them. This is such an interesting story choice. There are so many stories where we hear about Black fathers just up and leaving their children, and rarer is the case where the mother leaves. It’s because of that, Eldridge wants credit for sticking around. He’s not like the other fathers. He stayed. What he fails to realize though, is that even though he stayed, the life he gave his children was no life at all. Tobias goes in for a hug, Eldridge takes the bait, and ends up with a broken back. He’s going to die and he’s going to die slowly.

Back at the house, Jefferson joins Jennifer as she watches track. Jenn is frustrated to be on punishment when all she did is defend herself. Jefferson responds with a quote, “The one thing you can’t take away from me, is the way I choose to respond to what you do to me.” He wants his daughter to realize that defending herself is about regulating her emotions and fighting only when necessary. And then, because they’re the cutest things ever, they throw around Star Wars references and they hug and I LOVE THEM OKAY.

While Anissa goes through her research, she comes across a bunch of articles about Tobias, and a key to a storage facility. Obviously this is a chance for her to suit up and test out those new skills of hers but OH NO, she has too much ass for her cosplay suit! LOL listen. I appreciate this so much. Too Much ass is a real thing and should be treated as such. Time for a new suit! Anissa heads to the store armed with a fake name (Monica) and almost as much sass as her stylist. Cut to a fashion show/montage that I watched...an unimportant number of times. (It was a lot. It was many times.)

She goes to the storage facility rocking her new suit, new hair, and a painted on gold mask. I love that the show is taking their time with an “official” reveal of Thunder. We get to see Anissa exploring her powers on her own and she’s even calling herself a superhero! Once she smashes into the storage unit, she finds a mysterious vial in a safe.

Henderson was able to contact one of Joey Toledo’s old girlfriend’s and even though Gambi tries to talk him out of it, Black Lightning goes to find him anyway. It turns out, Joey Toledo is the Tobias’ henchman from last week who used brass knuckles to kill the Medical Examiner! The two fight, but Black Lightning’s headache comes back just in time to give Toledo the upper hand. We end with Black Lightning on the ground struggling to get up. You might even say, that he could use a spark. (Credit to @CloneNic for that one because LOL)

So, what did you think of And Then the Devil Brought the Plague: The Book of Green Light? I know personally, I wish we got to see our girl Grace, BUT we did get our first taste of Jennifer kicking ass! As always, I’d love to hear from you! You can find me @njnic23 on Twitter. And huge thanks to @punkystarshine for all her advice and editing!

[kazosa]

Second Chances - Jeff x Reader: Chapter 15

Summary: Reader and Jeff work a project and become fast friends. The project ends and they go their separate ways, neither forgetting the other. With Hollywood being a small community, you two bump into one another either at events or projects, but there is always something keeping you apart. Will the obstacles ever end? Chapter 15 Summary: Reader is back in Philly and gets some news and an offer

Warnings: language (as usual), fluuufffff A/N: I have a few ideas to continue this, but it’s still developing. Please leave comments or let me know if you want to be tagged, etc Word count: 1950(ish) Catch up here: Masterlist

Tags: @jml509  @jasoncrouse  @yellatthetopofyourlungs  @bookchic20  @prettyepiic  @rizflo-blog  @curious-sub7  @backseat-negan

     It was only four months. You knew you could make it. If you just could get through each work week, it would be okay. You hadn’t been able to get back to LA this go around and Jeff had been busy, too. You were thinking you might have to go the whole shoot without seeing him. You talked on the phone a lot, at least once a day, but it wasn’t the same as looking next to you and seeing him with your own two eyes. Being with Jeff was bliss. Being away was torture. Thank God for work.

     “Hey kid, have a seat,” Bob told you. Bob Singer had unexpectedly called you into his office in the production building.      “Bob, you’re kinda freaking me out. Are you going to fire me?” you asked.      You and Bob had the kind of relationship where you didn’t pull punches, if something was on your mind, you said it. Sometimes it was harsh, but you appreciated that more than being lied to.      “No, not exactly. The studio is thinking that they won’t order any more shows after this season and they’re thinking of cutting a few off of this one, too,” he said, to the point.      “Shit,” you breathed, plopping into a chair.      “Tell me about it. I wanted to give you a heads up so you could get your ducks in a row before the axe fell. I don’t WANT play favorites… but you’re my favorite.” He flashed you a quick grin. “You shouldn’t have to struggle,” he said pulling a card out of his desk drawer. He slid it across the desk to you.       Picking it up, you flipped it over to find it was his business card.      He pointed at you, “You ever need a job, gimme a call. If I don’t have anything behind the scenes, I’ll put you in front of the camera.”      If you had been drinking anything, you would have spit your drink out at his comment.      “Are you kidding me? I don’t act, Bob. There’s a reason I don’t go to auditions, I’m better behind the scenes,” you couldn’t believe he’d said something so ludicrous to you.      “Well, maybe we can get you a little screen time before we wrap this show. If I’m wrong, I’m wrong. We won’t be out anything since the show is getting cancelled,” he said. “Besides, Andre said you were great with running lines for him, that you put a lot into it.”      You were pretty sure Andre Braugher wasn’t the type to bullshit, especially not to Bob. He was one of the more, if not most, respected actors in the business. The man can speak volumes with just his eyes. You were constantly in awe watching him work.      “Bob, I appreciate the offer, I really do, I’m just not sure it’s something I can do,” you said, very unsure of yourself, at least, when it came to acting. Every actress you’d ever met had been tiny and beautiful. You were neither of those things, let alone an actress.      “Never say never, kid. Next show I get, I’m calling you. I need a good production coordinator. Now get out of here,” he said shuffling papers and pulling out a folder.      You loved your job. You had the best of both worlds. You got to see the show being made, met all of the actors and made sure everything was running smooth with them. You got to go behind the scenes and work with the producer of the show and have a view of the inner workings. Getting up out of the chair, you leaned over the desk with your hand outstretched.      “Thanks, Bob, for everything,” you said.      “It ain’t over yet, kid. Lock it up, and get back out there,” he said, not unkindly. He did take your hand though and patted the top with his other hand, but only briefly.

     You’d stepped outside of Bob’s office and pulled out your phone. Jeff had called you three times in a row while you were in the office with Bob. You were about to call him back when Jeff called you again.      “Jeff? What’s wrong? Are you okay?” you were worried. He never called you four times in a row for anything. Not even when Bisou got stung by a wasp.      “Sweetheart, I think it’s finally going to happen. I just got notice that we’ve been assigned a trial date. It’s scheduled for about three weeks before you’re done in Philly,” he said, barely able to contain himself. “I could be divorced in a few months.”      “Holy shit, that’s good news,” you said.      “Fuckin-a right it is,” you thought he still sounded anxious. “We need to celebrate. What should we do?”      Of course, you’d hoped that Anya would be cool and let things move along, but you weren’t sure you really expected it to be so quickly.      “I don’t know, I’m kind of in shock. There’s some shit going down here,” you said.      “What’s up?” he asked.      You walked outside the production office and started toward your favorite spot. You found the only grassy area at the studio and practically collapsed on it, you didn’t even give a fuck.

     “Jeff, my show is ending,” you told him.

     Your brain suddenly kicked into overdrive and sent you reeling. If you weren’t already lying down, you might have passed out. In a matter of weeks, you would be out of a job, out of a home and no plan for the future. For the first time ever, you didn’t know what you were going to do.      “Woah, don’t panic. That sucks, um,” he thought for a moment.      You were trying not to start bawling. Your fingers rested on top of the necklace Jeff gave you that was tucked into your shirt.      “Sweetheart, ever since you went to back to Philly, Bisou has been a mess. All she does is mope, she misses you,” he said.      You took a deep breath and sighed. “Bisou misses me?”      “Yeah, she does. A lot. She barely eats. I think she would feel a lot better if you just lived here full-time,” he said.      You thought you heard some wind from his side of the phone.      “What? What are you doing? Are you outside?” you asked.      “Yeah, I’m looking for something. I feel lost without it,” he said.      “What are you looking for?” you asked.      “Something is missing from the house,” he said. “I kinda need it back. Hold on a sec, I think I found it.”      You weren’t sure but you thought you heard the phone disconnect.

     He’d gone to her apartment first, she wasn’t there of course, but he punched the code in and let himself into her building and apartment. Bisou ran around smelling everything.      “Yeah, you smell her don’t ya, Bisou,” he said to the dog.      Jeff had been sitting on the news for almost a week, but he needed to take care of a few things before he could fly out to Philly. When he arrived, he couldn’t wait to tell her. He figured she drove her POS Blazer to the studio, but he saw that the keys were still hanging on the peg by the door. He thought it was a little odd, but he grabbed the keys, and made sure Bisou did her business before he made her a blanket bed and headed out to the studio.      When he got to the security gate, he found that (Y|N) had left a standing security pass for him if he ever came to visit. He smiled as he looked at the pass, she always thought of everything. He got out his phone and tried calling her, no answer. He pulled onto the lot where security had told him to go and saw that there was a Harley Sportster sitting by the production office.      “That’s my girl,” he said.      He got out of the Blazer not really knowing where to go. She could be anywhere. He called her again, still no answer. He started walking toward where the people were walking. When he made it to the set, he called again, no answer. Jeff grabbed someone’s attention and asked where he could find (Y|N).      “Oh, she went to go talk to Bob. You know where the office is?” the person asked.      “Shit, yes, I was just there. Thanks,” he said and started walking back.      He called one more time and she picked up. He told her about his news and she was telling him about hers when he finally spotted her. She hadn’t noticed him walking up. He snickered at seeing her lying sprawled out on the grass. It was her thing, apparently. The first time he’d met her, she was sitting on the grass under a tree, trying to relax.      “Hold on a sec, I think I found it,” he said and closed his phone.      He quickly laid down on the grass next to her.

     “Holy shit!” you said, “You scared the hell out of me, what are you doing here?!”      “Don’t I get a ‘Hi, how are ya?’” he asked grinning.      You rolled over onto him and he squeezed the hell out of you. You both sat up after a moment and you kissed him with everything you had.      “Easy now,” he said after finally breaking apart, “Don’t be starting something out here you can’t finish. I mean, I know I’m irresistible, but we’re kinda out in the open… unless you’re into that.”      You turned your body so you could face him directly.      “Oh, stop it!,” you laughed. “Hi, how are ya?” you said, smiling at him. “What are you doing here?”      “Missed my girl,” he said seriously. “I was gonna ask you anyway, before you told me your news, but when you’re done out here, I want you to come live with me. I want my house to be OUR house.”      You looked in his eyes and you thought for a second that the man you knew to have such confidence might have looked more than a little nervous to ask you to live with him.      “It’s just not the same without you. I wasn’t kidding about Bisou, she misses you, too,” he paused a moment and you saw that swagger come back, “Besides, I need someone to make me dinner and wash my clothes and rub my feet after a long day.”      Your face must have given him the reaction he wanted because he couldn’t hold back his laughter.      “You are out of your damned mind if you think I’ll be some Suzie Homemaker!” you were trying to be outraged, but you just couldn’t hold onto the feeling.      “AAhhh!! You should have seen your face! It was worth it!” he laughed more.      “Are you serious about me living with you, like for real, no bullshit, committed to eachother, living together?” you asked, not quite sure if he was done joking.      When he composed himself, he said, “Yeah, of course I am, I need someone to tease unmercifully whenever I want to.”      “You have a dog,” you said wryly.      “She bites when I tease her,” he snickered.      “Shit, I might, too. Keep it up, Jeff,” you warned. “And if I do move in with you, you agree to all of my crazy that I bring with me?”      “Sweetheart, you’re my kind of crazy,” he said, looking incredibly handsome.      “Okay,” you said simply.      Jeff leaned over you and kissed you sweetly, a hint of what the evening held.      “Good. I was thinking, when we get a chance, let’s go up to Washington and I can show you around, see where I grew up… you could meet my mom,” he said.      “I’ll go anywhere with you,” you said.      “Don’t worry about the other stuff,” he said. “We’ll work that out as it comes. Besides, I bet you’ll have people jumping to hire you and your binder.”      “I love you, you know that, right?” you asked.      “I know,” he answered.

[lifeinahole27]

My Fics

And here we go! This is a compilation of every fic I’ve written for the OUAT fandom, starting from the very (shaky) beginnings. It’s wild to put this together two years after I first googled Captain Swan fanfiction. There’s so much growth in these links, and I’m anxious to see what progress will be made from this point forward.

Special thanks to everyone who reads what I write. Seriously, I cannot thank you all enough. I <3 you all.

And another special thanks to anyone who has done proofreading or beta reading for me, including but I’m sure not limited to: @oubliette14, @nothandlingit, @i-know-how-you-kiss, @sambethe, @phiralovesloki. (If you’ve done any kind of beta reading for me and I missed you, please let me know so I can add you to this list. You lovelies deserve fruit baskets and such for how amazing you’ve all been to this insecure, fidgety writer.)

(Note: All of the Tumblr and FFN links are already in here, however the Ao3 links are not. I’m still working on cross posting those, but I wanted to get this posted and linked up so it’s finally up! Will update as I go! Will probably add descriptions and ratings as I update this further, as well.)

Something Else | FFN | Ao3

Summary: Emma, one of many counselors at a summer camp, takes a moment to herself to enjoy the sunset and think about the blue eyes she’s grown rather fond of the last couple weeks. (T, au, one-shot, complete)

Til We’re Staring at the Same Stars  | FFN | Ao3

Summary: Emma takes time to think. (G, canon-verse, complete)

Stars Lined Up  | FFN | Ao3

Summary: The reunion between Emma and Killian after ‘Til We’re Staring at the Same Stars’ (M, canon-verse, complete)

It Isn’t Slow  | FFN | Ao3

Summary: When the town is in crisis, it’s hard to find the time for pleasurable endeavors. Sometimes a quickie is all they can manage. (E, canon-verse, complete)

Shower Courtship  | FFN | Ao3

Summary:  “you live in the apartment above me and everyday I can hear you singing in the shower but you’re really good and it makes my day” au (M, au, one-shot, complete)

Routines | FFN | Ao3 

Summary:  Summary: Emma’s daily routines are a matter of habit. When she wakes up late one morning, her routines all change for the better. Killian doesn’t care about routines, but he does care about Emma. (E, au, multi-chapter, complete)

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9

No Bunny’s Business  | FFN | Ao3

Summary:  “you’re dressed as the easter bunny at our town’s easter egg hunt and I take my younger sibling, but they're afraid of people in costumes and you accidentally make them cry and you take off the bunny head to apologize and hey you’re kinda cute” (PG, au, one-shot, complete)

There You Are  | FFN | Ao3

Summary: Season 4 finale, missing thoughts from Emma. (G, canon-verse, complete)

Pushing Deadlines  | FFN | Ao3

Summary:  “I have a paper due tomorrow and it’s three am, I need all your     coffee cause I ran out” college au (E, au, one-shot, complete)

Burning Off the Midnight Oil  | FFN | Ao3

Summary: Killian helps Emma with her nerves before an important day (E, au, one-shot, complete)

The Seduction of Deckhand Jones  | FFN | Ao3

Summary:  Emma pulls an I’ll-make-a-man-outta-you on deckhand Killian. (The title pretty much says it all…) (E, au, one-shot, complete)

I Can’t Let You Do That  | FFN | Ao3

Summary: Some CS jewel theives, inspired by sense8. (E, au, two-shot, complete)

1 | 2

Roots Like Ours  | FFN | Ao3

Summary:  I work at a bar and I don’t get home and to bed until nearly 4am and now it’s 7am and there’s a tree removal company working right next door and I know the bylaws say that any time after 7am you’re allowed to operate this devilish cacophony of machinery but I’ve only had 3 hours of sleep and as I stalk outside in my tweety bird pyjamas I swear to god I am going to murder you for waking me up and oh fuck you’re hot. (M, au, one-shot, complete)

At the Top of Our Lungs  | FFN | Ao3

Summary:  “We’re on the debate team yet we can’t argue about something without yelling.” CS as debate team members who may have recently done some bedroom battles. (M, au, one-shot, complete)

Between the Coffee Lines  | FFN | Ao3

Summary: ‘I write a bad pick up line on your cup every time I’m your barista’ AU (T, au, one-shot, complete)

Early to Rise  | FFN | Ao3

Summary:  ‘We slept in the same bed for space reasons but now we’re just waking up and there’s something about your bleary eyes and mussed hair.’ (E, au, one-shot, complete)

Ship It  | FFN | Ao3

Summary:  college professors au where the students ship them. (M, au, two-shot, complete-ish)

1 | 2 

Claws Out  | FFN | Ao3

Summary: Christmas is, by far, his least favorite time of the year for two reasons. One is the inquiries on adoption. The second is the inquiries on return. In which Killian is a the owner and operator of a cat sanctuary, and Emma happens to be a mother to make an inquiry on adopting a cat for her son. (T, au, one-shot, complete)

Distractions  | FFN | Ao3

Summary:  Killian Jones, the deckhand of the pirate ship, the Jolly Roger, is tasked with distracting townspeople whilst the crew robs their homes. Instead, Killian ends up being distracted by a beautiful blonde interested in his drawings. (E, au, one-shot, complete)

The Faces of Kismet  | FFN | Ao3

Summary: No one expects to meet their soulmate in a chat room, and that’s certainly not what Emma was looking for when she went in to waste some time one night. Instead, she found someone, and he found her, and then they lost their connection. Fate likes to fuck with peoples’ lives sometimes, and this is no exception. (M, au, one-shot, complete)

Check In, Check Out  | FFN | Ao3

Summary:  The easiest rule Emma thought she would be able to keep as she worked night shift at the Storybrooke Inn & Suites was to not get romantically involved with any of the guests. Then came along Killian Jones, a job transfer with a sleep disorder, who’s bunking at the hotel until he can find a place of his own. (E, au, one-shot, complete)

At Your Convenience  | FFN | Ao3

Summary:  Emma may be the drummer of a famous band now, but before that, she was a girl making questionable choices with a guy she doesn’t expect to see on a stop to their singer’s hometown when they stop for a quick visit. (M, au, one-shot, complete)

Shake Your (Cotton) Tail  | FFN | Ao3

Summary: Killian has some questions about the logistics of egg hunts and mascots, but Emma convinces him to stop asking questions with the promise of an enjoyable evening. (E, canon-verse, complete)

We Got Us  | FFN | Ao3

Summary: How they got together is mostly a run-of-the-mill story. Boy meets girl. Girl meets boy. A strange and complicated courtship followed. All that really matters to either of them is that they’re happy. They’re in love. They’re miles away from anyone who cares if they are in a relationship or not. And that only matters because no one that knows either of them would ever expect them to be in a relationship in the first place. Perhaps it would be easier if their brothers weren’t best friends. It’s the easiest separation between family and relationship that either of them has ever had. Which means that it can’t last, of course. (E, au, one-shot, complete)

I Will Learn to Let You Go  | FFN | Ao3

Summary: Killian Jones, having lost his own soulmate years before, spends his free time finding the soulmates of other people. It’s what he’s good at, and he gets paid well to do it. Finding the soulmate of his latest client may prove to be the worst job he’s ever taken on, though. It’s not because Emma Swan is hard to find, but because he finds himself falling in love with her. (E, au, two-shot, complete)

1 | 2 

Lethologica  | FFN | Ao3

Summary:  Maybe if they could think of the perfect word to describe their friendship, everything else would fall into place. A slightly slow-burning friends-to-lovers au where Killian is a chef and Emma is in the Army Reserves. (E, au, multi-chapter, main story complete but more to come?)

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14

My Eyes, They Speak for Me  | FFN | Ao3

Summary:  Canon divergence from 3x13 onward, where Walsh never reveals himself and Storybrooke isn’t where it should be. Emma and Killian have to not only find a way back to Storybrooke and Emma’s family, but keep each other and Henry safe in the process. (E, canon-verse, multi-chapter, complete)

1 | 2 | 3

Knead Your Loving  | FFN | Ao3

Summary:  Prompt: My friend keeps lecturing me on the importance of self care and I booked a massage to shut them up.. But my masseuse is the anonymous stranger I fucked at Christmas. (M, au, one-shot, complete)

Sirens Howl (Sneak Peek)  | FFN | Ao3 (coming soon)

Love So Sweetly (Sneak Peek)  | FFN | Ao3 (coming soon)

See That Smile  | FFN | Ao3

Summary: Killian is the charismatic lead singer of a band known for making weddings unforgettable. That is, until his own wedding is cancelled and he vows to never sing at another one. Years later, he meets Emma, a bartender at the event hall and woman planning her own nuptials. But in the process of helping her plan her own wedding, he discovers that he does still have the capability to feel again, and it all starts with the way that Emma smiles at him. Of course this would be his luck. (E, au, one-shot, complete)

Wait for the Moonrise | FFN | Ao3

Summary:  Emma doesn’t remember who she was before she was found in the woods, but she knows that she has a few close friends, a good job, and a loyal cat that greets her every day when she gets home from work. What she doesn’t know, however, is that her past is about to catch up to her in the strangest of ways. She learns quickly that not everything is as it seems, not even her cat. (E, au, multi-chapter, complete)

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10

It’s All in the Name  | FFN | Ao3

Summary:  Beloved Tropes- Coffee Shop AU in which Emma is the angry barista who constantly gets Killian’s name wrong. (T, au, one-shot, complete)

You’re the Tune that Stuck  | FFN | Ao3

Summary: A soulmates au where you can have any number of things happen to reveal you have a soulmate. In this one, Emma suddenly hears the songs that her soulmate are either listening to or have stuck in their head. (M, au, one-shot, complete)

Smoke and Mirrors  | FFN | Ao3

Summary: Tweaked from the prompt “I was burning scented candles and fell asleep. You’re my neighbour who bashed the door down when my smoke alarm went off.” (T, au, one-shot, complete)

A Difficult Matter  | FFN | Ao3

Summary: Killian and Emma, in a moment of downtime, take a moment to discuss name possibilities for their soon-to-be-born. (T, canon verse, one-shot, complete)

The Art of Making (and Raising) a Pirate Princess | FFN | Ao3

Summary: It’s more than just a simple affair, making a baby with the woman he loves. It takes time and patience, and a lot of adjustment. Killian wouldn’t have it any other way, really, when it means living his happily ever after with his wife and daughter. (M, canon verse, part 2 to be written by @captainstudmuffin, incomplete)

On the Two | FFN | Ao3

Summary: He’s one bad trip from ending up in AA, and she’s one performance away from a solid job and moving closer to home. Their paths were unlikely to cross until Camp Hope brought them together. How and why they meet and intertwine is against the odds, and definitely against the rules, but will that really stand in their way? A Dirty Dancing inspired modern au. (E, au, multichapter, complete)

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9

Always You  | FFN | Ao3 (summaries and ratings coming soon)

Modern Swimwear | FFN | (Killian comes across a piece of modern swimwear. Be warned of the “Swim Sock” reference... canon verse, T, complete)

Going Back | FFN | (A very dark little ficlet in which S4 finale Emma goes back for Deckhand Killian’s cutlass. canon verse, T, complete)

V-Neck Shirts | FFN | (Itty bitty thing about how Killian appreciates Emma’s v-neck shirts. canon verse, M, complete)

Thoughts In Dreams | FFN | (Another angsty little bit from Killian’s perspective after Emma is taken by the darkness. Pom’s picture here kind of holds hands with this fic. canon verse, T, complete)

Leave Your Hat On | FFN | (A requested fic where Killian finds his naval uniform. It was supposed to be smutty, but it ended up much more serious than I thought it would. canon verse, T, complete)

Little Things | FFN | (In the olden days of LJ, we would’ve called this a vignette in which Emma’s bed-hogging status is explored. modern au, T, complete)

Can I Kiss You? | FFN | (First in the Dirty 30 ficlets. BFFs to lovers. modern au, T, complete)

You Came Back | FFN | (Killian moves into an apartment and keeps getting the old tenant’s mail. And her hair is always everywhere. modern au, T, complete)

Are You Drunk? | FFN | (Part 1 of a coworkers bit. modern au, M, complete)

It Wasn’t Supposed to Happen Like That | FFN | (Part 2 of the coworkers bit. modern au, M, complete)

How Long Has It Been? | FFN | (A short, childhood friends reunited ficlet, guest-starring Mary Margaret as Emma’s roommate and David as Killian’s friend. modern au, T, complete)

I Just Want This | FFN | (Secret friends w benefits becoming more. modern au, M, complete)

Come Home with Me | FFN | (Part 1 of the vacation series. modern au, M)

Please Don’t Argue | FFN | (Part 2 of the vacation series. modern au, M)

I Did a Pregnancy Test | FFN | (Part 3 of the vacation series. modern au, T)

You Know, It’s Okay to Cry | FFN | (Part 4 of the vacation series. modern au, T, complete)

In the Form of a Question | FFN | (Set in the little quiet moments, Emma discovers that Killian is spending all his free time reading and learning, and would be a ringer on Jeopardy. canon verse, T, complete)

Relationship Rules 1 | FFN | (There was one rule: If the phone rang and it was an important call, Killian was to stop doing whatever he was doing between Emma’s legs until the conclusion of the phone call. Mythical timeline where things are good. Part 1 of 2. canon verse, E, complete)

Relationship Rules 2 | FFN |  (There was one rule: If the phone rang and it was an important call, Killian was to stop doing whatever he was doing between Emma’s legs until the conclusion of the phone call. Mythical timeline where things are good. Part 2 of 2. canon verse, E, complete)

Evolution of an Oops | FFN | (Another vignette of the progression of a relationship. Includes accidental pregnancy. modern au, T, complete)

Wanna Bet? | FFN | (From the prompts “Wanna bet?” and “Wait a minute, are you jealous?” modern au, T, complete)

Truth or Dare? | FFN | (Emma and Killian play truth or dare while waiting for their friends to arrive for dinner. modern au, T, complete)

Q&A | FFN | (Written for @pompeiiablaze - how Emma kept Captain Hook distracted at the tavern in the CS Movie. Check out her adorable artwork here and here! canon verse, T, complete)

What Goes Last | FFN | (tw: death, The most painful thing I have ever written about a factoid I read somewhere about how the senses leave the body during death. canon verse, M for theme, complete)

Definitely Time | FFN | (A sadly Joss’d fic about CS attending OQ’s wedding, and deciding to set their own date. canon verse, T, complete)

Nevers | FFN | (Based off that commercial about how the couple will never do the thing, and then they do it? Yeah, that’s what this is. modern au, T, complete)

Don’t Marry Her | FFN | (Based on the prompts of “I love you. I’m completely and utterly in love with you. Please don’t get married. You were never just my friend.” Where Emma sees Killian and thinks he’s getting married to someone else. modern au, T, complete) 

Why Are You Bleeding? | FFN | (Based off the prompt in the title, Killian greets Emma with a newfound respect for life after a complicated incident. Very short itty bitty fic. modern au, T, complete)

A Different Kind of Team Building | FFN | (Emma and Killian, coworkers, are on their way to a work retreat when Killian stops at a creepy, abandoned house where they stay for the night. Mentions of smut but no descriptions. modern au, M to be safe, complete. BONUS: a couple years ago for my birthday, @sambethe wrote me a re-mix of this fic and I am beyond fucking in love with it. You can find it HERE and give her some love for the beautiful re-mix!!)

4 AM | FFN | (Neighbors au where Emma kinda maybe sort of breaks in to get at Killian’s ice cream supply. But in her defense, he offered it. modern au, T, complete)

Partners | FFN | (A very ridiculous little fic where Killian and Emma have been challenged to be on different teams for darts. modern au, T, complete)

Always You | FFN | (Killian participates on a dating show where he attempts to win Emma Swan’s heart. modern au, T, complete)

Pressure Point | FFN | (Previous partners, Killian ends up in the hospital after getting shot. Very itty bitty. modern au, T, complete)

Floral Fan

School of Loverboys

Coming On Home

Pickup Truck

Multiples

Midnight

Scratch

They Lived

Hold On | FFN | (Based off the prompt:  we promised to stay friends but we’re doing the same stuff we did when we were a couple and i don’t wanna point it out because i don’t want it to stop. modern au, M, complete)

To Trying

Wanted: New Furniture

Non-Captain Swan Fics/OTHER:

Extra Good (Scarlet Wolf itty bitty ficlet)

Turn Around, Turn Around (Daddy Charming angsty feels)

Artisanal (A Snowing ficlet that will hopefully make you laugh but also punch you in the feels. Based around 6x16.)

Christmas Card Fic Bits 2017 (A mishmash of CS fic bits, and a Frozen Jewel fic outline)

FFN Main Page | Ao3 Main Page

[bibliophileiz]

Review of Devil’s Bargain: Or, The Only Villain I like This Season is Sister Jo

Continuing my pattern of reviewing b*cklemming episodes as a coping mechanism, here are my thoughts on Supernatural’s latest episode “Devil’s Bargain.” 

Sister Jo

I admit, I got worried when I saw that first overly-sexual grace draining scene, but overall I liked Sister Jo/Anael -- if for no other reason than that it gives Season 13 an actual good villain. (Also apparently there’s a nine-year’s-long fandom theory Anna is the angel Anael? I had no idea.) Now if all those testosteroned bozos would clear the stage for her, we might have a cool showdown at the end of the season.

She’s kind of a Crowley 2.0 in that she understands the art of manipulation and surviving by her wits. I have no doubt she could play both sides easily. There’s still some cagey dialogue, no doubt -- Jo using the phrase “cost efficient” right after saying she’s a pretty good businesswoman made me roll my eyes. But given how badly b*cklemming ran Crowley’s character into the ground last season, I’m surprised Anael’s as well written as she is. I’d love to see her go toe to toe with a newly-powered-up Rowena

I’d also love to see a scene between Anael and Cas in which Anael’s “negotiating” the return of “the king of heaven’s son.” She’s reading it like a hostage situation and Cas is reading it like she’s betrayed heaven by propelling Lucifer to the throne. It will also be very interesting to see how Cas, in that circumstance, would react to learning of Lucifer’s promise to restore the angels’ wings.

Speaking of....

The angels

If those six angels kneeling before the throne at the end are the only angels left, then I’m actually all for the angels (sans Cas) getting their wings back. I’ve felt for a while the angels are kind of toothless now. Remember when Cas was so terrifying back in Season 4 that one demon wouldn't even say his name, just called him “the end?” It was chilling.

If you still have a whole host of angels left, bringing the wings back would feel kind of old hat. But if there are only a handful left and most of those have wings because they’re serving Lucifer, that makes them a threat again without just rehashing old plots. And I especially like the idea of Anael flashing her wings at Cas and his truck.

Ketch

Why, why, why is Ketch back? WHY?

Also, why does he keep bringing the same dumb deal to the Winchesters? “Let’s work together! Huzzah!” He actually says “huzzah!” Cas knocking him out was my favorite part of the episode. If only he had stayed in the trunk.

Asmodeus has more confusing powers

Did Asmodeus mind-whammy Donatello? I feel like maybe he did, but I’m not going to lie, I stopped paying attention to the scene as soon as I realized it was between Donatello and Asmodeus (read: immediately). I vaguely remember thinking he did something I’ve never seen a Prince of Hell do before but I was concentrating really hard on CandyCrush, so who knows?

Who’s on first?

I did not ... understand the motel scene.

So ... Sam, Dean, and Cas corner Anael outside the motel and she leads them back to her and Lucifer’s motel room. She knocks on the motel door and Lucifer answers, only for Dean and Sam to step into the room.

Lucifer then turns around and walks to the back of the room, only to have his way blocked ... by Cas.

Who just appeared. Magically.

Where did Cas come from? Is there a door in the back of the motel room? Where does it lead to? Did Lucifer and Anael get adjoining rooms? Why did they need two rooms? They don’t sleep, and they seemed to be having pillow talk on one shared bed anyway. Does the door lead to a balcony? Did Cas climb up the balcony? Why didn’t we get to see that?

But wait, there’s more. While Lucifer is distracted torturing Team Free Will, Ketch bursts in and throws ... something ... that flashes in a way that would be dramatic and impressive if this were Friends, but instead is kind of a letdown in a show where flashing stuff usually means someone’s about to die because the flashing thing doesn’t do anything. It doesn’t affect Lucifer or Anael, who fly away, but it also doesn’t seem to affect, you know, any of the other three people in the room.

What was it? What was it supposed to do? Kill Lucifer? Incapacitate Lucifer? In that case, why doesn’t it kill or incapacitate Sam and Dean? Does it only work on angels? If so, why doesn’t it kill or incapacitate Cas?

How did Ketch even get out of the trunk? This is the only question anyone in the episode thinks to ask, and the answer is: “I’m Ketch.”

Well ok then.

Roller Skate Girl and Cake Boy

The meet cute at the beginning gave me serious Charmed vibes, probably because my dad saw it and commented the woman looked like Phoebe Halliwell. Anyway, I kind of want to see b*cklemming try and write a Hallmark movie now. I’d drunk-watch the hell out of that movie.

Donatello

At least there’s a point to him being back this time even if he was the most forgettable part of the episode.

Also, when Kevin gets to our world, what’s going to happen? Will he and Donatello both be prophets? Will their powers cancel each other out? Will one be The One and Only prophet and the other go back to being a normal nerd? The people demand answers!

Dean and Cas are married

Dean and Cas aggressively apologizing to each other is my jam. Also I loved the “We’re boned” “Epically” exchange, followed by Sam’s WTF face.

Magical Maguffin

Oh, we have an archangel blade now? Nice to have heard of that before. Who names these things?

I mean, we do already have a weapon that kills archangels. You know, the Lance of Michael, the one specifically created to kill an archangel, wielded by an archangel, and which is currently in the custody of our dashing heroes?There would have actually been a point to bringing Ketch back if he told Asmodeus about the lance, given Mary told him about it last season. And then there would have been a point to Asmodeus if he disguised himself as Cas or someting and snuck into the bunker to take it. But that would have been an effective use of the villains, and we can’t have that.

Of course, we all know why the archangel blade was really introduced....

The one we’ve been waiting for

The archangel Gabriel -- our world’s version of him -- is back.

So ... on the one hand, of all the “dead” characters to bring back, Gabriel is one of the ones who makes the most sense, given the way he died is a way we now know archangels don’t really die. (Unless I’m remembering wrong. Doesn’t Lucifer stab him with an angel blade?) On the other hand ....

Yeah, that’s too many characters back and too much plot twisting.

Admittedly, I was never personally invested in Gabriel. I like the character fine, and I think Richard Speight Jr. is a great director and actor and seems to be a sweet person. I was totally on board for an AU version of him hanging out with AU Cas or AU Michael. But I was happy for our version to stay dead.

Now, if it were Charlie who came back, I would be throwing confetti, doing back flips, and excusing whatever plot gymnastics it took to make that happen, so I understand the jubilation of Gabriel’s biggest fans, and if one of the two people reading this are in that number, I am happy for you guys, I really am.

But I am also very, very worried about where the season’s going because it’s more than halway over and we have the following to wrap up:

- Jack’s sinister (ish) powers and his attempts to control them. - AU Michael’s plan to invade. - Ketch’s unnecessary double agent plot. - Asmodeus’ attempts to seduce Jack to the Dark Side and take over Hell. - Lucifer’s takeover of Heaven and attempts to win over his son. - Possibly the angels’ wings coming back. - Possibly Rowena’s power-up. - Run-of-the-mill Monster of the Week episodes, like the Scooby Doo one we’ve got coming up.

And now the showrunners want to throw Gabriel and an assassination plot into the mix?

It’s just a lot. And it’s the fifth -- count ‘em, fifth -- “dead” character to come back this season. It’s starting to feel like Game of Thrones or a really weird soap opera.

I feel like the showrunners are just throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks and I don’t know how they plan to weave it all  together. I guess they could save Rowena’s plot (incidentally the only one I really care about) for Season 14 and/or Wayward Sisters (neither of which have been greenlit yet as far as I know) which narrows it down a little but ... only a little.

The only way I can see it coming together is if the three separate archangel camps -- Camp Michael (AU angels), Camp Lucifer (Anael and remaining angels), and Camp Gabriel (Asmodeus, Ketch, and the demons) -- all come for Jack at once, and the Winchesters have to scramble to protect Jack and help him wield his powers against all of them.

Which is a cool idea on paper, but still a lot to juggle. Here’s to hoping Dabb and Co. can pull it off.

[archivezosia]

Crimes Against Ourselves

This morning, she went into the store to get breakfast in last night’s clothes. Tired from talking instead of sleeping, kissing instead of talking, holding instead of kissing, and from loving in a non-existent kind of way. That was how it was, the nights in which Zosia kept company and let someone into her bed for the night. The time was spent pretending and feeling falsities just for that time, those hours, that bit of a long twenty-four hour day. Wishing it were him or even, him.

Last night her company asked her why she was sad. Zosia answered ambiguously and undetailed, no real explanation given because that was too hard, “I’d like to tell you except that I can’t explain the way it washes over me, for a thousand reasons, so many times a day, any more than I can explain how it feels when at every other interval the sunlight falls just right and happiness makes me into its well-loved rag doll again. I can only tell you that when I was a little girl I taught myself not to map out the details of a scenario in the way I wanted it to go because things never happened the way I imagined they would. I can tell you that being alive overwhelms me every hour on the hour and that is sometimes good, sometimes bad, sometimes nothing. Maybe instead of understanding why I’m sad you can know that the first time he put his hands in my hair I was scared of how normal it felt, and I have looked for the same comfort from a pair of hands ever since. It’s only my own heartbeat that I cannot stand to feel, but if I can curl up under your arm, beside your ribcage, that precious sound will be louder than my sadness and I will fall asleep just fine.” That night, the air smelled of honeysuckles as her bare feet fell on the pavement. She breathed in deeply to remember that she was alive. She poured a cold glass of wine and only looked at it until it adjusted itself to the temperature of the room and wasn’t what she wanted anymore, yet drank it anyway. Zosia filled hours of thoughts she didn’t want to have with conversation that she needed as much as she needed bare feet on pavement. This is what she did today instead of dying. If there was anything in the world that she wanted him to know, that was it right there.

There were more things she wanted him to know, and Zosia had her ways of talking to him, of trying to pull from the deep well of emotions. Sometimes she’d write to him: I am tired of everyone saying that things have to be neat and clean. It isn’t always possible and it isn’t fair to be a parent when you don’t have children, to be asked repeatedly to pour from an empty pitcher, or to fall asleep in the same manner, over and over until your body has conformed and then wake to the shock of something different. But often that is what life wants, to present to us a series of unfairnesses and ask us not to squirm because life isn’t fair, after all and we shouldn’t expect it to be so. Nonetheless, it feels wrong to unwittingly commit something that feels so bloated with intent, to blind our eyes in an effort to strengthen our remaining senses and then feel anger upon walking into a wall.

Sometimes she was still angry with him for what he did and the way he left, anger that came from intense pain that never seemed to ease, just as the images of the life dimming and leaving his eyes constantly haunted her. It was those times when the feeling, the emotions, were too much, and there wasn’t enough time or patience to get things down on paper. Zosia would put on his jacket or grab the blanket of his that she kept, wrap it around her shoulders and would shake her fist at the sky, speak as though he were in the room or something as grand as the ocean. “You know I’m taking that writing class, the creative writing one, and I hate that everything is about you or him. Or the one that never got a chance that I can barely think about for more than a few moments or I risk completely fracturing my heart permanently. You should know I am doing better, I’m trying to push myself to move on. I want to, and there are parts of me that are unable to let go of the past, I have to push and I have to force or I’ll never get anywhere. In class the other day I was supposed to work on my short story but instead I ended up writing to you...hold on, let me get it, I’ll read it to you.”

“Death rode gallantly in on his high-horse, arrogant in his claim that you were his to take. There I sat, foolishly writhing on the floor begging that he leave empty handed. He laughed coldly as he carried you away from me. I cross another day off the calendar and I silently whisper, “From here, what?” Every day during week one I wake with needles covering the landscape of my skin and I cannot move I can only lie there as my tears roll away from me. I tried sleeping harder, thinking eventually I’d wake from a dream, needle-less and walk down the hall into the kitchen to see you at the breakfast table. The first time I saw your empty chair I went back to bed and rolled over. The needles would stay for a while. It’s been thirty days and I still inhale sharply every time I open the front door and see that no one has brought the paper in. I put it in front of your chair on the table just in case. I eat only what I can stomach and go to school. You’d be surprised at how numb my body became that first week. I had no choice, I perform my duties in a series of disconnected, memorized motions. I act more than I think as feeling is most often a side effect of thinking but at the end of most days emotion usually washes over me as the tide might and I bury my tears in the drops of the shower and hide my heaving sobs in the blanket you bought for me because you know that I am always cold. Knew. Dammit, I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to the past-tense. Six months have passed and I cancelled the paper just yesterday. I never read it anyway, and it just felt like I was having daily reminders delivered to the front door. “Good morning. This will sit in front of an empty chair. No one will open it to find that the loved ones of at least sixty people in Syria will wake with needles tomorrow. The ghost you carry inside will never again perform such human tasks. Will never put its arms around you. Will never sing you to sleep.” Everyone is insisting that I must “get out of the house more often”, “It’s not good for you to be alone so much”, “Come to dinner. We miss you.” I want to scream at them. SHUT UP WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT MISSING SOMEONE! But they probably do know and I can’t diminish anyone else’s pain just because mine is more current. I go to dinners. I fake smiles. I still feel guilt every time I catch myself laughing; forgetting that you are gone. The weather is warm again. Just as it was the day you left. Summer was always my favorite but I knew that when it came again it would be bittersweet, a haunting reminder has made its home in the season I loved best. Saturday, and I don’t have to go to anywhere, I walk quietly but boldly past the place that the paper used to lie, bringing your blanket outside and spreading it in the sun. It makes me feel like you aren’t so far away. The barrier between life and death may be impenetrable but it is still fluid. A catch-22, I know you are alive because I keep you alive. Because I can finally look at your picture and smile. Because wrapping in this blanket has become comfort over pain. Because I refuse to take what is left of you and store it away in a box under my bed. Because I refuse to let the memory of you collect dust. I am sitting in the shade of a tree reading Lord Byron, “The heart will break, but broken live on”.”

“Because of you, I’m surviving as best as I can. Don’t judge me, encourage me only.”

[survivorniue]

Ep. 4: “Please Send Help” - Ned

KEVIN

honestly I'm kinda sad Jay went home i was looking forward to voting him out bc he voted me out one time and it was mean :/ he had it coming :/ anyways this tribe swap...yikes! i always flop at schoolyard pick swaps bc i'm asleep and i delay everything skdjdjssj so honestly just cancel this swap 

VAN

So I do the finishing touches on my Econ paper and I look back and see that we’re swapping tribes! Okay, that’s fine, I sorta expected that. Interacting with the other tribe will be fun and all, right? We’re all in this chat, and a few minutes later, I notice that I have a notification that I had joined the Iloa tribe! NED PICKED ME BECAUSE I DRAFTED HIM IN BANGLADESH I’M SCREAMING. I actually wanted to work with him in a game sometime in the future and I’m glad it’s worked out this way. I had to pick, and I wanted to pick Coffey, but I didn’t want to make it obvious that I want to work with him so I went with Ned’s suggestion to pick Sam. Hey, that’s all cool with me. Ned can make decisions for me and I’ll go with them…for now. :p And hey Coffey ended up on my tribe anyway so it all worked out in the end :D So for my new tribe impressions like I love this tribe. We seem so strong and I love everyone like Ned: Literally in love that he picked me first AHHH. I like him and I’d love to work with him if it’s possible but I literally want to work with everyone so idk how that’s gonna turn out Sam: She seems so nice like I love her too John Coffey: I already talked about much I love him. I’d love to work with him again but who knows what he wants. I’ll see how he’s feeling once we’re fully settled in Kait: I like Kait a lot of course and I’d still love to work with her if I can Forrest: I love Forrest too! Like!!! I know I’m sounding like a broken record but I do love Forrest And last but not least Billy: Our tribe “Ricky” seems very sweet and nice too. I’m still waiting on the twist that will bring him and Ricky into the game but we’ll see. Oh my gosh though hopefully this will be fun though! I was ready for a change.

ASHLEY

Well I fell asleep before tribal and got a self-vote, and Jay went he was in my alliance with me, him, John, and Sam but he seemed like he almost had too much power so I'm some-what glad he went. I said I didn't know he was leaving but I actually did, because Pat who I'm really close with had heard from Ned and Dan that they were voting Jay, so I knew that it was very possible he was going. And now it's a swap! It's 3 original Miti vs 3 original Iloa, I'm trying to stay Iloa strong, and Dan says he's pretty close with Amanda so she could be our 4th number to not force a tie, unless she has strong ties with original Miti.

NED

So the swap happened. I got Sam and John on my tribe, and we also have Van, Kait, and Forrest. I would be totally fine with this, except it was just revealed that Kait was a sockpuppet in my first "all newbies" season, and she teamed up with the other sock to vote me out. Now let me get things straight: Kait is a sneaky, vile person, and she's rude and I have nothing good to say about her. She acts friendly but is a completely horrible person if you actually try to have a genuine talk with her. This is like Francesca getting put on a tribe with Phillip in Caramoan. I'm with the person responsible for my downfall in the same situation twice in a row. If I'm the swap boot again because of her, I will not be surprised in the least. Please send help.

KEVIN

LISTEN OKAY I had to get my beauty sleep last night so people better not come for me for flopping at the challenge, and I'm sure there are plenty of others who were asleep at that time (did we get all the early sleepers or something on this tribe???) So either I'm gonna have to kick ass in the challenge and hopefully redeem myself or...I possibly have a kinda crazy plan that will save me, maybe, but only if I need it.

SAMANTHA

I JUST FOUND AN IDOL! I AM SO HAPPY! I really don't want to tell anyone, because I don't know who I want to work with. I'm going to keep this to myself for a while. And I don't want to play it yet. I want to save it for as long as possible. Omg I can't believe I found one. Now just one other to worry about. If it hasn't been found yet, it's either at the stream, the field, or the well. I'm definitely going to start looking every four hours now that I know about that rule. I thought it was just one freebie per round. But knowing I can look like 6 times a day and I have it narrowed down to 3 places. One of which I have some other peoples' guesses to start off with, hopefully I can find the other. This is just so exciting omg. Oh and I know he's not playing, but I love Billy so much <3

SAMANTHA

So pissed about immunity. I fucked up my part, which normally I wouldn't be as upset bc everyone is equal, but this one i was put at a higher level, meaning I should have down better. I only spent like 2 minutes on the maze but I spend fucking 5 minutes trying to figure out how to edit the thing. I put it on light shot and tried to edit but the maze was too small and the pencil was too thick, I finally gave up and had to download it and edit with paint. I'm pissed that I took so long. I hope my tribe doesn't try to blame me for taking a higher level than I actually am and blame me for if we lose. Ugh I hate this. 

AMANDA

TRIBE SWAP TRIBE SWAP CALLED IT CALLED IT! And i got to stay with Ricky so YAY hahaha Here's my new tribe assessment woo! Ashley- I'm pretty sure we've only talked once rip Dan- Um well ive known him since i was like 12 lmfao We went to school together so the ties have been here for a while. I'm not turning on him unless he gives me a reason to. and if he gives me a reason i'll give him hell for it haha Kevin- Like i said in my last confessional, we talk alot. I still wanna work together moving forward. Nicky- We've been talking more for sure. Pat- I LOVE PAT. Ive hosted Pat multiple times but we've never gotten to play together so when i saw him on the cast i was pumped. aka why i picked him first with the tribe swap lmaooo I really wanna work with Dan Pat and Kevin. Dan said he wants me him and Pat to stick together so im almost there with my goals lol I want Ashley to leave this week because she doesn't talk. Also Dan said she flops with challenges and came at him last week? so yeah thats not gonna fly. But Pat seems to want Nicky gone so I gotta figure this out. At the end of the day im not gonna put my neck out there to save either of them this week and then screw myself over in the process but id def rather see Ashley go. I can't wait for America to hate me for wanting another girl to leave! Yas America call me trash!  Sorry id rather work with guys and win! https://media.tenor.co/images/e8b7a7627e607872f02a69abcb6a2720/raw

KEVIN

the question is, do i want to go to rocks for these people??? would i be willing to flip on them??? we just don't know. i have no idea what the other tribes dynamics are, but i'm hoping miti is united enough from our two tribals to stand together this tribal 

KEVIN

Me having multiple number one alliances and trying to keep them all alive at once? More likely than you think Dan told me that it's between Ashley and Nicky, and praise God because he's going forward Nicky. Not only that but apparently Iloa (which i thought was named Ilda until today) was very divided after their last tribal. This is honestly my FAVORITE song and I'm gonna keep it on repeat as long as I can. Dan also said he has talked to me and likes me the most out of everyone else...don't know if that's true but I love the concept of it. I'm telling people I'm not super concerned with tribal affiliations which technically is true but um...it's mostly just a way for me to get information out of people. But yeah things seem like they're swinging our way unless Dan decides to make a #bigmove and blindside us, and in that case I'll still be in comfort because I know he will fail to reach any success in this game! :)

ASHLEY

Yikes tc tonight and my iconic comp skills are on point! So people want me out but pat told me nicky so I'm just going to write down Nicky and pray for a miracle!