#this is why i love tumblr. fans always help a pal out here

[crystal-lillies]

may the almighty CLAMP spirits bless you friend, thank you so much TT o TT)/

as the hours of our beloved CLAMP day wind down, I ask all the CLAMP fans on this hellsite...

does anyone know where I can watch the 2022 live action xxxHolic movie? I've been dying to see it since it was announced, even more so since it was released, but I haven't been able to find anything anywhere. I have a sinking suspicion that it might be locked behind Crunchyroll and its premium paywall if it is anywhere, but if it exists in a digital form there, then it must be somewhere else available on the internet.

please...I just want to see some silly live action Watanuki shenanigans and whatever interpretation of the later chapters of the manga it was able to cover..........

help a CLAMP girlie out

[anonziesssz]

Exclusive Scoop: Love on the Grid

✦- Authors Note: isaw this in my drafts and decided to post it, might also be my last fanfic on tumblr cuz i js dont rlly like tumblr anymore idk but i'll still be posting blue lock fanfics on ao3 ig...

✦- pairings: Carlos Sainx jr x Journalist!reader.

✦- summary: After interviewing him for so long, carlos dcides to take the reader for a date, finally confessing his feeling for the journalist.

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───

You had always felt that the interview was much more than asking questions; it was a dance of finding a balance between curiosity and rapport. It was your mantra as a motorsport journalist, and it worked quite well. From coverage of Formula 2 to interviews with world champions, you had carved yourself a little nook within the paddock.

Among the many faces you’d come to know in the sport, Carlos Sainz stood out. From your first interaction during his Toro Rosso days to now, as Ferrari’s pride, he’d always been gracious, witty, and effortlessly charming. Over the years, your interviews with him had evolved into something more. Something that felt personal.

But it was still work. That's what you kept telling yourself as you navigated your way toward the Ferrari hospitality area on a steamy Saturday in Singapore.

The paddock was alive with energy, the air alive with the purring of engines and the chatter of fans and teams. You spotted Carlos leaning against the railing, his red Ferrari cap slightly askew as he laughed at something said by an engineer. 

"Carlos," you called, stepping closer. He turned, his grin widening as he spotted you.

"Ah, mi periodista favorita!" he exclaimed, pushing off the railing. "Here to ask me why I'm so good around street circuits?"  

"Maybe I'm here to ask why you're so insufferable," you shot back, smirking as you adjusted the strap of your bag.  

He clutched his chest dramatically. "You wound me. I thought we were friends."

"Pals who pose the tough questions," you shot back, digging for your recorder.

The interview flowed as smoothly as ever, with Carlos giving thoughtful answers to your questions while sprinkling in his usual humor.

He spoke of strategy, his confidence in the car, and the challenges of Singapore's grueling track. But there were the moments his gaze would land on you, his tone softening as if this conversation meant more than just a headline.

You always ask good questions," he said out of the blue, and he caught you by surprise.  

"Thanks," you said, blinking at the sincerity in his voice. "I try to keep it interesting."  

"You do," he said, his lips curving into a small, almost shy smile.

It was one of those moments that just hung in the air, making you slightly flustered and scrambling to wrap up the interview. As you were about to leave, Carlos seemed to have hesitated. 

"Do you have plans tonight?" he asked casually, though looking uncharacteristically nervous. 

"Just editing this interview," you said with a tilt of your head. "Why?

Carlos shifted, scratching the back of his neck. "I was wondering if you'd like to have dinner with me. Not just as a journalist," he added hastily. "As you."  

Your heart skipped a beat. It wasn't every day that a Formula 1 driver- Carlos Sainz no less-asked you out.  

"I'd love to," you said, a smile spreading across your face.  

Back in the hotel room, one could not help but have the evening weigh upon their shoulders. Was this dinner? Or was this something entirely else? Carlos was being friendly, always, but this felt very different. A hesitant kind of nervousness in him all that evening betrayed something deeper.

You dismissed the thoughts and began to get ready. You put on an outfit that was just right-balanced between chic and casual enough to feel confident with but not overdone. 

Then, when Carlos texted to let you know he was downstairs, you grabbed your bag and began to head toward the lobby.

He stood waiting beside the car, his caramel skin set off by a crisp, white button-down shirt. He grinned when he caught your eye and opened the door with a flourish.  

"You look beautiful," he said, his voice husky.  

"Thank you," you said, your face warming. "You clean up pretty well yourself."  

The restaurant Carlos had selected, La Perla, was tucked away from busy thoroughfares in Singapore-a little jewel of a place. Darkened light and soft live guitar music playing made the setting intimate.

Carlos pulled out a chair for you; his hand brushed against yours as you sat down. "Hope you like Spanish," he said with a grin.

"I'd be worried if you didn't take me to a Spanish restaurant," you teased, drawing a laugh.  

The meal was a real culinary masterpiece: plates of jamón ibérico, perfectly cooked seafood, rich paella -all shared between you as conversation flowed effortlessly.  

"So," said Carlos, leaning back against the chair, "tell me something about yourself that I don't know."

An eyebrow had arched. "That's a tough one. You've asked me a lot of questions over the years." 

"Exactly," he said, eyes shining with play. "Now it's my turn to be the journalist." 

You'd considered for a minute before responding with, "Okay. I never actually planned on being a motorsport journalist. I went to school for literature." 

"Literature?" Carlos leaned forward, interest piqued. "How did you end up here?

It was a sideline, you continued, "Doing a few local races for this little magazine, and then I was hooked. The energy of it all just drew me in. The rest is history."  

Carlos nodded thoughtfully. "You're good at it. Really good."  

"Thank you," you said softly, feeling a blush creep up your cheeks.

He leaned across the table, his fingers brushing yours. "I mean it. You're more than just good-you're one of the best."  

After dinner, Carlos suggested a walk along the waterfront. The city's lights reflected from the water, making a shimmering backdrop as the two of you strolled side by side.

"Do you always sweet-talk your way through interviews?" You asked, looking up at him.  

"Only when the journalist happens to be someone special," he returned, smooth and low, sending your heart fluttering for cover.  

You rolled your eyes, though couldn't suppress the smile tugging at your lips. "Is this your way of saying I'm the favourite?"  

"Absolutamente," he replied deadpan, though with a naughty glint in his eye.

You laughed, shaking your head. "Careful, Carlos. People might start talking."  

"Let them," he said, stopping in his tracks.  

You turned to face him, your breath hitching as his gaze locked onto yours. "What is it?" you asked softly.

"I've been thinking about this for a long time," he admitted, his voice steady but quiet. "Every time I saw you in the paddock, I wanted to say something, but I didn't know how. Tonight, I realized I didn't want to wait anymore."

Your heart pounded as he stepped closer, his hands gently cradling your face. "Life's too short not to take a chance," he murmured, before leaning in.  

The kiss was soft and tentative at first, but as you responded, it deepened, filled with all the emotions words couldn't express.

When you finally pulled away, Carlos rested his head against yours, the tiniest of smiles on his lips. "This feels right," he whispered.  

"It does," you replied, your voice not much above a whisper.  

As you sat reviewing your interview notes the next morning, you just couldn't help but smile. The professional line you'd always maintained had blurred, and for the first time in your career, you didn't mind. 

It was as if Carlos had changed something inside you-he had reminded you that it wasn't just the stories you told, but those you lived.

And as your phone buzzed with the new message from him, that is when you realized this was only just the very beginning of your own inspiring story.  

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───

[archie-gray]

ben davies dream girl here again! no new dreams but I wanted to ask if you could share your fav ben moments :3

hiii ben davies dream girl, thank u for asking!!! i’ve got so many so this will be long, @erik-lamela helped me out with so many of them 🫶🏽

(links are all hyperlinks!)

i feel like there’s been such an influx of davieson all over twitter and tumblr recently, these are three of my recent fav posts of theirs:

x x x

the welsh (korean) mafia in general is just so dear to me, i love all of them so much but ben and joey’s relationship killsss me they’re so funny. this gifset of them messing around is so cute

somewhat related, ben speaking welsh & why it’s so important to him

also ben speaking in near perfect korean??? i shouldn’t be surprised because it’s ben but wow

EMILY. his wife is just as wonderful as he is and they are both so loving and sweet i love them so much. during covid he and emily were caring for one of their elderly neighbours during the lockdown

ben helping out this local bakery during covid to serve front line health workers 🥲🫶🏽

also ben with their dog (twiggy) is just too cute

and one that’s veeery important imo is ben having such an impact in the dressing room…i feel like some fans might not realize how important he is to the club so it’s nice to see it written out

some random videos that he’s in that i love are this embarrassing tweets one (might be biased because dele and chris are in it and i love them very much also), the quiplash video (i always come back to this one it’s sooo funny), and this ben and joey pals video (their bickering makes me laugh)

he’s so amazing and this post doesn’t even cover a fraction of his wonderfullness, but i hope you like it!!! i’m definitely a huge ben davies lover, but if you want to follow or look thru the tags of even bigger ben davies lovers then @jamesmaddisons @erik-lamela @heung-mins are your best bets 🫶🏽

[askteamhooligans]

Oh Bother here we go

"HELLOOO Users of tumblr! I'm Bean The Dynamite, Explosive expert extraordinaire and member of team hooligan!

....Yes Fang I know what I'm doing go away, AHEM One day while exploding some officers I had a thought, oh goodness I must have so many fans but none of them are able to ask me or my pals questions? why? because we're always on the move! so with the help of Bark convincing Fang and my BIG BRAIN KNOWLEDGE, I have created an ask blog so now you can ask us any question you desire!!! so come on! lay it on us! We're ready for anything!!!!

Or are we? MWAHAHAHAHAHA

Fang is giving me a look, uh well gotta go! WOOPIE"

Hooligans available for questions:

Fang - Available

Bark - Available

Bean - Available

The Marvelous Queen - Available

Corsen - Available

Current Guest: Demo Duck, Blockbuster Polarbear

RULES

1. Please be patient as I try to answer your questions <3

2. No NSFW questions! jokes are fine but we are PG+13 here folks!

3. Hug request should be kept at a minimum, we are an ask blog not a hug blog lol

4. questions should be nice! if they are very rude or such they won't be answered!

5. We are here to have fun and share our love to the hooligans! so enjoy yourselves here ya mooks!

6. if confused on the lore here check out my Hooligan Shenaningans Fanfic that follows the story of these hooligans and their wacky adventures! (Canon lore like Fang the Hunter miniseries stuff will be mentioned at times as well!)

7. Anon magic is available but only to dress up characters or spawn others! my drawing has its limits lol

thanks for reading! check out my main while you're at it to hear my shenanigans!

Or my other ask blog for the squeaks squad!

Thanks for taking the time to visit the blog! ^^

[yeojaa]

reported you to the copyright section on weverse for your concert stream, they’ll be in touch. i have bills to pay rent to pay food to buy but i do this thing called budgeting to ensure i can pay for bts content legally. and very simply yea if you don’t pay you don’t deserve it. you can’t walk into a shop and think oh i like this dress so i’m going to take it without paying that’s called theft and is illegal. this is the same thing. if you don’t pay you don’t get. why should i spend $80 for 2 concerts and you get them free, no that’s unfair. any real army will pay and if you don’t you don’t deserve the boys, their content or their hard work.

you're so fucking ugly (and i mean this as a person, on the inside. rotten like a fucking apple that's fallen off the tree). like. lmaaaaaaaaaaao i can't even. it's as if you don't have a brain. which is crazy, because you say you have rent to pay and food to buy but i'm pretty sure things without brains don't have responsibilities? y'know? *insert oprah's what is the truth? gif*

anyway. honestly, i don't have to reply to this. i know i probably shouldn't, because this is such a stupid ask it doesn't deserve an answer. but i've got time, babes, so here we go!

firstly, you're a shit army, because what's something that bts has always advocated for? acceptance, community, love. you're going to sit there on your high horse and bitch and complain like "weh weh weh it's not fair that i've got a stick shoved too far up my ass to consider other people's circumstances and have compassion!" get a life, pal. grow a heart. maybe it'll help take the strain off the nonexistent brain you've got.

secondly, you know that yoongi, during a vlive (i think?), searched for a stream for a soccer game, right? as in, an illegal stream? the man who you claim to support so much LITERALLY did what you're shitting on other people for? so do you think he doesn't have a right to watch that, either? that he's an illegal scumbag who doesn't really support korea? or does your asinine viewpoint only apply to fellow army?

lastly, jimin straight up answered an army on weverse telling them the following:

if jimin - and presumably the rest of the boys - don't hold it against their fans for watching content using an alternative method, why the fuck do you care? are you secretly bang pd? do you have some like, idk, dividends we need to know about? it's absolutely insane that you're licking the boots of a fucking entertainment company and coming here, into my inbox, to tear down the people who only want to enjoy content.

as much as we love bts, things are expensive. sorry that people have found a way to stream stuff without having to miss their rent. sorry they've maybe bought merchandise but just didn't have it in their expendable income to also buy tickets to muster. but actually, i'm not sorry at all and neither should any other army be.

anyway, you are an inexplicably sad person. i genuinely hope that you, at some point, can figure out wtf happened to make you this way and move on from it. because god knows you need it. toodles!

ps. reported me to weverse? using what? "hey, big hit. this fanfic author on tumblr streamed to people. can you do something about it?" you sound wack as hell.

[squeiky]

!!!List of papyrus things!!!

(Update 3! mini update.)

For anyone who needs more info on the guy! Since you usually dont see alot of info about him!

A list of stuff thats just papyrus's tid bits i've collected overtime!

(Disclaimer: some things can be taken off of memory, though I did search most of the stuff up, so you dont have to worry too much. But if your feeling unsure, search it up! And correct me while your at it.)

his room doesn't play/have music.

(If you have reunited playing at enter his room, it'll disappear forever. Untill you go back and let it play again. Even without reunited, a song that plays no matter what room your in, doesn't play any music.)

Never takes off his battle body.

(According to sans, he only takes it off if he has no other choice too. Otherwise he'll just put clothes ontop of it, or just repaints it if needed. He does how ever, change his pants but never takes off the top.)

the minute "royal gaurd " is out of the picture, he's got nothing.

(It was the one thing he worked up for. When the royal gaurd disbands He says he "working hard on doing absolutely nothing". Then again this can be interpreted as papyrus does say he is working on something, despite not being a royal gaurd yet.)

He lies. (And can manipulate)

(Though he is really bad at lying, he seems to manipulate just fine, though its usually not out of malice. He gets undyne to befreind you by mentioning "challenge", which is a weakness of hers, since she never can turn down a challenge. And has lied about floweys name to her to. Has lied to sans or atleast mislead him about the things he knows about. Pretended he didn't know what a lab was during a call in hotland, but if you call him when sans isn't there, papyrus mentions the lab as if it was common knowledge instead of saying "Labrador-y?" As if he had no idea.)

Changes up his attacks

( if you get captured a few times, you see variation in his attacks. If you do it right, you can get him too skip half of his entire attack.)

Calls his own puzzles "Awful"

(This happens after battling papyrus, he says "WHO KNEW THAT ALL I NEEDED TO MAKE PALS... WAS TO GIVE PEOPLE AWFUL PUZZLES AND THEN FIGHT THEM??" This could be interpreted in many ways.)

Spikes, fire, traps, fencless bridges: are all safe for children, according to papyrus.

("EACH AREA HAS TO HAVE A PRECARIOUS BRIDGE" -bridge likely to collapse, dangerous. "ITS MANDATED BY THE GOVERNMENT. OF COURSE KING FLUFFYBOY WANTS TO UNMANDATE IT SAFER." "WHY?! WONT HE THINK OF THE CHILDREN?!)

Has "talked" with asgore before.

(Sadly, asgore and papyrus has crossed paths. Asgore advises him not to but dangerous puzzles around town, for the children. Papyrus wants to put dangerous puzzles around town, for the children. This results in them bickering over saftey laws, with papyrus usually winning.)

Tried to start a flowey fan club

(On multiple occasions calls flowey "his best freind" and shows genuine love for the little guy. He even gave flowey a little red scarf to match his, during the 5th anniversary winter alarm clock.)

Has photo-graphic memory for phone calls.

-call in the room where undyne chased you. He seems nervous, or atleast stressed out during this call. I'll leave any and all interpretation to you.)

(Ps: papyrus has bad memory, but good photographic memory?)

His disliking for grease

(Says this during a call with undyne in grillby's place. Undyne says she loves grease, and he quickly dismisses his opinion in favor of hers. Of course, papyrus HAS visited grillbys before, as the dogamy and doggeressa mention him with sans. )

Calls alphys "great"

(During the first tile puzzle, he praises alphys by calling her "THE GREAT DR. ALPHYS" )

Knows about undynes crush on alphus

(He teases undyne a few times on this, leading to the "hot voice" and "audible wink" papyrus lines. He's not oblivious to the things around him, unless he chooses to be.)

Put limes in his eyes!

(Conversation in hotland! The guy thought limes where cucumbers and stuck them in his eyes. When. He thought it wasn't working he put more limes. It burned like hell but he says it was all to have "mettaton's bishoning eyes")

Knows about mtt's eyes

(Nobody seems to know that mettaton has eyes?! Undyne confirms this fact. Papyrus is the only one who outright mentions it.)

He got mettaton to do the tile puzzle thing

(FOR SOME UNEXPLAINED REASON- mettaton was the tile puzzle robot alphys built. The puzzle robot papyrus had during his own tile puzzle. Infact, during mettaton's tile puzzle in hotland, he says that you'd is this a few hundred rooms ago. If you call papyrus, he starts rambling on all the instructions again. Hehe.)

he likes dinosaur oatmeal

(According to the undertale tumblr, flowey response to "whats papyrus's favorite food?" Is DINOSAUR OATMEAL!! YAY!)

really enjoys mtt's show and mtt in general.

(and mtt even helped him with a tile puzzle)

enjoys cars

Owns a car bed

(Want to drive one)

really freaking artistic!

(Paints a whole bridge, makes a snowpapyrus, made his own costume/battle body, built a okay replica of a sentry station)

The red book on the table in the skelebro's house is infact his!

(For specifics, the quantum mechanics book with infinite books inside of it. It isn't specified who reads it, but both brothers should be capable as jokes and puns are not out of papyrus wardrobe.)

has his own shed and tools.

(Also known as "the punishment shed, doghouse, cpature zone, guest room, a garage" or undyne's pun which was "the coolshed". Ah, to be enriched by shed puns... Wonderful.)

tried to learn the "horoscope"

(Got "stumped" according to sans)

thinks junior jumble is harder than crossword

wants a 6 pairs of hot pants and 6 pairs of legs to wear those pants

has a dream of owning a shop where he just sells flames

(Call near in waterfall, near the turtle man shop.)

He's very influential

(If he's the only one killed in a neutral run, even without undyne, a revolution will still occur. Look into it yourself if need be.)

Called himself a genius

(During the instance, where he talks to you after turning the light on in sans's room.)

Can't really tell when someones mad

(He couldn't tell when undyne was mad at him during a call. He asks us too.)

Doesn't watch anime.

(He thinks its like cartoons for babies. Jokes around with undyne for awhile before taking it all back once he knew she watched anime.-during one of the calls.)

Brutal kind of guy

(He says this himself, i don't exactly know WHY he thinks this of himself, but he does.)

Bookworm

Owns a bookshelf

(He has a book Its where his vast dictionary comes from.

Knows about the time and space manipulation tactics sans uses.

(HE KNOWS- HE MENTIONS IT WHEN HE TURNS ON THE LIGHT IN SANS'S ROOM!!)

believes you can be a better person, if you just try.

(And he's right. Even if you kill him he still believes this, beacuse well.. Its true. Undyne wont forgive you and try to kill you, sans won't fight you, bht he's still right either way)

Knows about river person

(He asks about how river person is doing. No body seems to know about river person, and its unsure if undyne knows about their prescence.)

The days in his date scene (Monday, Tuesday, weekday, Thursday,e.c.t ) changes depending on your computer. Even though the date in undertale is always Monday.

(River person has a scheduled thing that matches up to your computer date as well, but this is about papyrus, not river person.)

Weird abilities

(Flying and super speedy twirling, flying backwards. He doesn't even hide it.)

He's pretty freaking tough!

(According to undyne, the person who defeated asgore.)

His "absolutely normal attack" is a giant cluster of bones.

(In theory, his attack could be the size of the entire area, including the giant bone at the end.)

Papyrus can lower the giant bone at the end of his "absolutely normal attack"

Has Collection of bones (or was planning to make one.)

(The room behind the sink was made for.. His attacks/bones. Before toby(dog)came in and made a shrine instead.)

Is annoying dog's favorite target.

Has a cannon, spears, fire thingy, and a dog at his disposal.

(Displayed during the bridge scene)

One persistent dude.

Likes to say "NYEHEHE!"

Has alot of MTT items.

Owns makeup!

(Mtt brand of course!)

Never dated anyone before.

(He says it himself.)

owns a dating manual

Not much of a sleeper.

(To the point where he just calls sleeping "naps" which aren't that long. He outright says he's always working, so he doesn't sleep.)

Dislikes hotland

dislikes hotland x2

Dislikes hotlands puzzles

Dislikes hotlands ethics.

Doesnt know much about hotland

(Says he knows it like the back of his hand!)

Says he never taken off his gloves, so he has no idea how his hands look like.

(He wears gloves or mittens on top of his gloves. And refuses to take it off, like his "battle body")

Calls hotland's steam puzzles garbage.

Dislikes hotlands conveyors

Thinks L1 and R2 stand for left and right

( Of course, it takes him awhile. He starts making puns, and tries to compare the words to pasta, and THEN comes to the conclusion that its left and right. Its Trail and error.-)

Knows about death.

(Said he wanted to meet death one time during a waterfall call.)

He pauses when speaking as a lost soul.

("I MUST CAPTURE A HUMAN! THEN EVERYONE WILL. ...." This is unusual as he is the only one that pauses. This can be interpreted, but it is rather interesting nonetheless)

Alright this is a bit more interpretive. Things may not be 100% facts down here.

Disclaimer: i will be putting "Interpretive" in red coloring for things that have may my interpretation or opinions in! Please do be mindful in your search, and take it with a grain of salt. It doesn't make it comepelty wrong, it has facts! Just muddled with oppinions.

Ready?

self-worth problems.

( can be called interpretive: He always feels very unimportant, as if he doesn't actually matter. During a call in waterfall, with the puddle hallway, papyrus talks about not letting it "get to you" or something along the lines of that. Since undyne speaks from her experience with the puddles, then i'd assume papyrus would too.)

(I think its just a sign of self doubt or insecurity. Someone once said its dysphoria, which is a cool headcannon for paps or something. What ever it is, he has some demons that he doesn't want to let out.)

Forgetable.

( according to the genocide description)

( Interpretive: Other than that, he's not even noticable. Though, there are a few people that appreciate him, most dont really acknowledge him. Unless you kill him of course!)

Sad/depressed?

( interpreitive as well:Before the human showed up, sans explains how his brother was feeling quite down lately. We see a.. Happier side of papyrus through out our journey.. He vents out to us, the player/human, about things he dislikes, or troubles he faces. Hes like a froggit. Life is hard for a froggit.)

Smiles through things.

("This is where I tried to capture you! What a bad memory." -quote he says as he smiles through it all. He does have a sad emote, but so far i have only seen it during a call in hotland, where the CORE was shown. As your adventure is coming close.. To an end.)

Uses his playful "OUCH!" emote when you straight up kill him. Instead of his hurting/in pain emote when flowey catches him off guard before absorbing everyonesones souls.

(The reason is unkown, but that emote is normally associated with more of "light taps." Examples are, toriel's fireballs at asgore and flowey. Unless... Cutting off his head was considered a "light tap" then, but flowey wrapping him in painful vines is considered more painful than getting his head chopped off and still having enough consciousness to joke about it.)

He knows his cooking sucks and that nobody likes it.

(He's not naive. He knows. He even says it. "Nobody has like my cooking before!" - QUOTE. This isn't some hidden fact. He's trying his best, "mabye next year, he might even make something edible." -sans quote.)

That was all the stuff i gathered for now.

Feel free to tell me anything i haven't added! :)

yeah, hes a pretty cool dude, ain't he?

(Edit: i've added some new things to the bunch, and fixed/deleted ome opinions or unrelated junk. Please, continue helping me add!)

[invisibleraven]

I think I wanna marry you

So @where-you-go_you_go posted a Rukebox headcanon on Tumblr and I kind of ran with it, and it became this.

A five plus one on Reggie's relationship with weddings and marriage.

Julie Molina/Luke Patterson/Reggie Peters from Julie and the Phantoms

Rating: G

AO3 link here

1. Age Six

The first time Reggie attends a wedding is at age six with his parents. A distant cousin is getting married, and for once, the Peters attend as a family. He didn’t really understand the concept until his mother had explained that a wedding was a ceremony where you promised to love someone forever.

“Oh, like you and daddy!” Reggie exclaimed, not missing the shadow that passed over her face before she agreed. But he had become entranced with the idea, of tying yourself with someone through the bonds of love, and making it so that you could always be together. He decided then and there that what he wanted most in life was to get married, when he found the person who he loved.

The wedding itself was a bit boring, but Reggie enjoyed the music, and the food afterwards, even if his cousin was more worried about getting it on her giant poofy dress than anything. Reggie decided he would just wear something he didn’t care about getting dirty when he got married, because food was made to be enjoyed, and clothes could always get washed. When he went to school that week he told his friends, Luke and Alex all about the wedding. Alex had seen one before, as his mom had video taped some royal wedding a few years back, and he agreed they looked very pretty. Luke didn’t see the point.

“I mean, do you need to have a church thingy to do it? Why not just say you love each other and go straight to the party?” he grumbled, not being a big fan of church, even at six. The boys agreed, and declared there must be different ways to do it, but how they didn’t know.

“Why can’t you just get married on the playground and go straight to the monkey bars?” Luke asked as they lay on their backs, busting clouds.

“I think only adults can get married.” Alex replied, pointing out the cloud resembling a bunny.

“Says who?” Reggie asked. “I mean, we all love each other, we will forever, why not do it now?”

“Recess is almost over.” Alex pointed out.

“Tomorrow then?” Luke proposed. They all nodded, and ran for the school when the bell rang.

The next day at recess the boys ran towards the field where they usually hung out, all smiling. “You ready?” asked Luke, holding out the ring pops he had gotten the afternoon prior when Reggie had called him exclaiming they needed rings.

“Don’t we need someone to do the wedding?” Alex asked.

“Meh, we just do it ourselves.” Luke said. He held the watermelon ring out to Alex. “Do you love us?” Alex nodded, his smile radiant. Luke handed the blue raspberry ring to Reggie, holding onto the strawberry one for himself to give his friend. “And we love you.”

“And each other!” Reggie exclaimed. The rings were put on the right hands, all three boys beginning to enjoy their snacks, smiling at one another. Reggie looked at his pals, and then almost smacked his forehead when he remembered the most important part. “We’re supposed to kiss!”

Luke looked at him a little strangely when Alex nodded. “Oh yeah, that’s how it ends. You’re not married until they say you can kiss, or whatever. Seems weird to me.”

Luke shrugged, then pressed a sticky kiss on both of their cheeks, Alex and Reggie copying him. “There, we’re married. Now let’s go on the monkey bars before the bell rings! Race ya!”

There was some shouting and giggling as the three boys ran off, rings still on their fingers, smiles on their faces. That evening, when Mrs. Peters entered the household, Reggie was sitting at the table, enjoying the supper his babysitter had left for him, waving as the teenager walked out of the door. “How was your day sweetie?” his mom asked, helping herself to the leftovers still on the stove.

“It was great, Luke and Alex and I got married!” Reggie said, brandishing the remnants of his ring, candy long gone, the sticky plastic base all that remained. His mother looked confused, but then sad, pulling him onto her lap.

“Oh honey, boys can’t get married to each other. And you can only marry one person at a time. I know you and your friends like each other, but that’s just how this works.” She pressed a kiss to his forehead, then put him back down, going off to the fridge for a drink. “You can play whatever else you want, but don’t tell your father.”

Reggie shuddered, not wanting to even think about how his father would react, if his mother was shaming him for pretending to marry his friends. His dad had been getting loud lately, throwing things and yelling. It was kind of scary, and though he didn’t think his dad would ever hurt him, he didn’t want to test it. That night when he took off the plastic ring to wash his hands, he debated throwing it in the trash can, but hesitated. So maybe he couldn’t marry his friends, but his parents couldn’t stop him from loving them. He put the ring in the shoebox he kept under his bed, filled with his treasures. He smiled, and hoped that one day, when Luke and Alex were standing for him at his real wedding, they could all have a good laugh over this one. Yet that night he fell asleep still thinking about sticky cheek kisses and monkey bar receptions.

~

2. Age Fifteen

Reggie is fifteen when he figures out he is probably not that straight. He knows there is no way he finds Chris Hemsworth that attractive and still be completely heterosexual. Also, he had been catching himself staring at boys at school as well as girls, so there was that. His new friend, Julie had caught him once checking out both the cheerleaders and the rugby players, and just smiled.

“It’s okay to like both you know.” she said with a smile one afternoon as they enjoyed lunch on the bleachers. “I mean, I do.”

“Really?” Reggie asked, wiping his head around to look at her, seeing her grin.

“Bisexual and proud baby. My mom explained it to me after I couldn’t decide who I liked better; Will or Elizabeth in the Pirates movies.” Julie replied. “She says it’s normal. You can like both, or one, or even no one. It’s just a big old spectrum.”

“Huh.” Reggie replied, looking off towards the field. “I think...bisexual, maybe that fits me. But I don’t think I wanna tell people yet, okay?”

Julie mimed zippering her lips. “It's cool, not my place to out you. You tell people when you’re ready. And know that my house is always a safe space, if you need it. My parents are cool. They’d probably love you.”

In the end, Alex comes out as gay first. His parents...don't take it well. They don't kick him out, but may as well have for how frosty they treat him. Reggie knows his parents will be worse, and decided he's fine being in the closet for now. Luke says he doesn’t really care about gender, just how a person feels about bands like Green Day and Rush, as if being pro both is enough criteria for Luke to be into them. He says he hasn’t really discussed it with his parents, but they’ve mentioned a few times he’s welcome to bring anyone home, boy or girl, so he figures they’re cool. They just want him to concentrate more on algebra rather than guitar.

From there on out, they hang out at Julie’s a lot more. Her parents are super nice, and when the boys off handily mention what their home lives are like, Ray jokes that he'd adopt them all if he could. Rose just laughs and dishes out more food, claiming all of them are all too skinny. Reggie probably is, given his parents fight more than feed him, and he hasn’t really mastered much more than pasta right now.

As time goes on though, it’s hard to ignore how skinny and pale Rose gets. How many doctor’s appointments she goes to. She still feeds them, still encourages them to noodle around with the instruments in her studio, supporting their idea to start a band. She even offers to let them play a few songs at Julie’s quinces. That night as they go over a set list, Julie lets the dreaded C word drop, but has a false look of confidence saying she’s sure the chemo will work soon and her mom will be tearing up the dance floor by the time she turns fifteen.

Yet at Julie’s party, Rose spends the night wrapped up in a heavy sweater in the corner, looking exhausted, but insisting she needs to be here. Reggie tries to distract Julie by doing silly dances with her, making her laugh. They’re fake waltzing, Reggie almost a foot away due to Julie’s voluminous dress when he is struck about how much was put into this party. His fifteenth birthday had been spent with his friends at the pizza parlour, the Molina’s making him a cake. His parents forgot, just as they had for the past three years.

“Man if this is what you do for you turning fifteen, I can’t wait to see what a wedding is like for you guys.” Reggie remarks to Julie, twirling her as much as he can, making her giggle then her face turns a little serious.

“I think they went all out because they’re not sure if mom will make it to my wedding.” Julie remarks, causing Reggie to crush her layers of crinoline to give her a tight hug.

“Have faith Jules. And if all else fails, we’ll get married, and then your mom will have to stick around just to make sure I’m treating you right.” he says, sticking his tongue out at her, making her laugh like she hadn’t in weeks.

“Thanks Reg. But I expect a better proposal than that.” Julie replies, kissing his cheek, and then going off to dance with Luke before they start playing a few songs. Reggie stays frozen on the dance floor, gently touching the place where her lips had been, his heart thumping the same as the bass in the current song. Oh. Oh no.

~

3. Age Seventeen

By seventeen, Reggie accepts that he is hopelessly in love with Julie Molina. Her house had become a home through his parents constant fighting, Alex's continuous frosty treatment from his, and the divide over the subject of music between Luke and his folks. She had been their constant support, sounding board, and giver of hugs.

They stayed at chez Molina for all but sleeping and showering, through Rose's rapid decline and eventual passing. Through Julie all but giving up music until she could play again with their love. They decided to start a band, using songs that Rose wrote, then eventually writing their own. Thus Julie and the Phantoms were born.

Thus, not wanting to screw up the band dynamic, or even worse, the family they had found in each other, Reggie said nothing about his feelings for Julie. Then there was the Luke of it all…

In the last two years Luke had blossomed into himself, still the sweet, kind friend he had always been. Still prone to grouchy moments and putting music above all else. But now that was all wrapped in biceps, and abs, and everything else. Reggie could admit that he found his best friend attractive, but it wasn't until the chemistry incident that Reggie would admit that he was attracted to Luke.

See, some thought Reggie was dumb, but honestly ADHD just made it hard to focus, and the meds were too expensive for his folks who just blamed each other instead of looking for other treatments. Yet even he could notice how into each other Luke and Julie were, and he knew he'd never have a chance with Julie compared to Luke, so he did what any broken hearted best friend would do...he teased the shit out of Luke.

Alex had been upset over a fight with his on again off again boyfriend Willie, and was taking it out on his drums. They had tried to cheer him up, but it didn't seem to help. Luke made some comment about not letting it get in the way of their music, when Reggie had to go and open his big mouth.

"Sometimes a little fire onstage helps. Like you and Julie. You two ooze chemistry."

Which led to Luke serenading him, grabbing him by the neck, and pressing a kiss to his fingers and then to Reggie's mouth. He was sure he looked like a fish, mouth agape, but the bi panic had well and truly set in. This was the first crush he'd had on a guy he knew, and it hit him like a baseball bat upside the head. His heart did that pounding thing, and crap, now he liked two of his friends, with no hope. He resigned himself to loneliness for now, trying to bury his feelings, even if they refused to stay buried.

Instead he spent more time around Ray, helping him in the kitchen, even helping him on some photo shoots. He tutored Carlos in math and battled him over Mario Kart. He went to every Little League game, and tried to teach Carlos basic bass chords, but they soon gave up when Carlos confessed he wasn’t all that musically inclined. Victoria took to him, and recruited him to intern at her office, giving him spending money and a way out of his house on those days when the others were in after school activities or their own jobs. This made it harder to find time to rehearse for the few gigs they got, but they managed to make it work.

One such Friday night, they were jamming out in Julie’s garage, putting the finishing touches on a new song when Carlos came running in to them, almost jumping on Reggie in his rush. Thankfully Reggie’s bass was on the stand so he was able to catch the boy without anyone getting hurt. “Hey little man, how was school?”

“I got an A on my math test! Thanks so much for helping me with the fractions!” Carlos exclaimed, Ray coming into the garage, holding the test up, a bright star sticker next to the grade. Reggie high fived Carlos, then beamed when Ray offered him one as well, thanking him again for helping his son. “It was nothing Ray, you know I don’t mind.”

Carlos was showing his test to Julie who fluffed his hair playfully, congratulating him on a job well done. She knew his grades had gone down since their mom passed, so it was nice to see him doing well in school again. “Maybe if you ask nicely, Reggie will make us some of his brownies to celebrate.” She said with a wink in the bassist’s direction, and he nodded, causing Carlos to gasp and scream out in happiness.

“Julie you totally need to marry Reggie so he can be my big brother!”

Julie went bright red at that, Luke got an offended look on his face, muttering about how he would totally be an excellent big brother, and Alex was howling with laughter from his drum kit. Reggie stood stock still, trying to keep his face blank, not letting the hurt show. Not until Ray piped up.

“Well mija, it would be easier to pay for a wedding than adopt Reggie here, so you have my blessing. He’s practically a Molina anyways.” Ray clamped Reggie on the shoulder, then taking Carlos to get his favourite dinner started, letting the band get back to practicing. He shot Julie a wink as he closed the door behind him.

Reggie picked up his bass again “So should we run through Stand Tall again?” When no one answered, he took them all in. Luke and Julie were refusing to look at him, and Alex was still stifling giggles from his spot. He sighed and went over to Julie, taking her hand, even if she still wasn’t looking at him. “Jules, I know you don’t...they’re just teasing. Because they know how much I’d love to be part of this family. Don’t take it seriously.”

“You know I don’t what?” Julie asked, holding tight to his hand.

Reggie glared at Alex who was still giggling. He regretted telling him about his crushes, and his face must have shown how much this was hurting him, as the drummer’s face stilled, and he nodded with understanding, getting up from his seat and wandering off to the loft, ear buds in before he reached the stairs. Reggie took in a breath before speaking. “I know I’m not the phantom you have feelings for.” He tried and failed to not look at Luke before looking at Julie once more. “You probably see me like Carlos does; as a brother.”

“Definitely not.” Julie replied, then slaps a hand over her mouth, Reggie’s eyes flying to her own. She sighs before continuing. “Reg...I care about you, and not in the same way I care about Carlos, or Alex. But I also…” she glanced off at Luke who was trying to drown out their conversation with the strumming of his guitar.

“Me too.” Reggie whispered. “Both of you. Been hell honestly. But I know he only...likes you. And I don’t want to get in the way of that.”

“I think you’re wrong there sunshine. He wrote you love songs long before he even met me, if Crooked Teeth is anything to go by. Plus I’ve seen him staring at you moony eyed as much as he does me. Boy has no chill.” Julie giggled.

“What do you think we should do about it?”

“Double team him into dating us both?”

“You think he will?”

“Against us? He doesn't stand a chance.”

~

4. Age Twenty Four

By the time they all turn twenty four, Alex and Willie decide to get married. Luke, Reggie and Julie have been together for almost seven years, and it seems to work for them. Sure, they’ve had to deal with some fallout for people who don’t get polyamory, and those who don’t agree with homosexuality in general. They don’t miss those people in their lives. Ray and Carlos support them thoroughly, Emily and Mitch a bit longer to adjust, but they eventually come around. The music thing takes a bit longer, but since their first LP goes gold, they’ve accepted that maybe their son can make it being a rock star. Reggie hasn’t seen or spoken to his parents since he moved out at eighteen, the three of them getting an apartment together not far from the Molina home. Alex and Willie lived in the same building, until all of them used the money from their second album to buy homes in a nice neighbourhood.

Willie was okay with them not having the whole ceremony thing, but Alex asked, got down on one knee and everything, so Willie agreed. They were also discussing kids, but Alex said they would cross that bridge after their first platinum album, which will hopefully be coming out next spring. Reggie and Luke had immediately called best man, but a fierce rock paper scissors battle ended up with Luke getting the honours, and Reggie was told he could be godfather to the first child by default.

“Do you want kids?” Reggie asked Julie one day, his head in her lap as she played with his hair. Luke was sitting under his feet, scribbling away at another song he was sure would finally earn them a Grammy.

Julie’s fingers stilled for a second, then resumed their combing. “I mean, not really? Or at least, I don’t think I want to give birth to any. I think, if we wanted kids I’d prefer we adopt or even foster kids who need a home.”

“Like you made a home for us.” Reggie nodded with understanding. “I like that.”

“As long as we get Reggie his dog, we can have all the kids you want.” Luke piped up. “Grammy first though.”

“Wedding first, because Tia will flip if I have kids without a ring.” Julie replied. “Though, I don’t think we can pull that off in LA...maybe Utah.”

“We can have some sort of ceremony. Doesn’t have to be legally binding, just that it has the same meaning.” Luke shrugs.

Reggie gave a little sigh of relief, it had weighed on his mind since Alex had gotten engaged, could he ever have that? He still wanted the whole shebang of being committed to someone...or well two someones for the rest of his life. The fact that his partners also wanted that, in whatever form they could made him happy. Kids could wait, or not happen at all, but the ‘wedding’ was kind of a necessity for him, even if it was not exactly what six year old him had wanted.

“You think we should tell Alex he needs to annul our playground ceremony beforehand or leave it for your best man speech?” Reggie asks. Luke laughs, then holds up a finger, running to root around in his bag, pulling out a chain with the remnants of a plastic ring pop ring dangling from the end. Reggie beams and roots his out from the treasure box in the closet, the both of them regaling Julie of the story. Turns out, Willie already knows about it, as he had found Alex’s ring, and made a joke about there already being enough people in the relationship as it is. Luke still brings it up during his speech at the rehearsal dinner, much to everyone’s delight.

The wedding was beautiful, the band playing a few songs, with Alex singing one just for his new husband, who beamed from the head table. Reggie was twirling Julie around the floor while Luke was chatting with Ray about filming their latest music video. “I like weddings.” Reggie said as they swayed.

“I never would have been able to tell given you proposed to me at my quinces.” Julie snarked, then smacked a kiss to his lips gently. “I figured you’d be turned off the institution with your folks.”

Reggie shrugged, “Eh, I mean it wasn’t fun to grow up in that environment. But it made me determined to NOT be them. To be the best husband and maybe one day, dad I could be. My mom once told me that marriage was a promise to be committed to and love someone forever. I want that, pledging my life to the people I care about, even if it’s technically just a ceremony because we know we’re it for each other. I don’t need a certificate or the officiant to say the words, I just kind of want the ceremony to make that vow, and to celebrate our love you know?’

Julie’s eyes were a little glassy as he looked at her, she kissed him again sweetly. “Still not a proposal. But you know my answer when it is.”

“Mind if I cut in?” Luke asked from their side, smiling though a bit concerned at Julie’s watery expression until she waved him off. He twirled her way, but not before kissing Reggie gently. Reggie went off to investigate the buffet, looked for Ray and the Pattersons, wondering how early he could ask them for his permission to propose.

He bought the rings two weeks later.

~

5. Age Twenty Four

When Reggie decided to go ring shopping, he didn’t think the options would be so overwhelming. He was sure both Ray and the Pattersons would offer advice, or even family heirlooms, but he wanted this decision to be just his, and pick things he knew would reflect both Luke and Julie. He also wanted to find something that would slightly match, and then something for himself as well, because they were a cohesive unit, might as well present as one.

The jewellery store had case after case of rings, and thankfully both he and Luke wore enough of them that the men’s choices weren’t as daunting. But the women’s...there were so many types of metal, stones, and sizes. He had tricked Flynn into getting Julie to disclose the basics, but that did little to narrow it down. He was sure the poor saleslady took one look at his overwhelmed face and took pity on him when she asked how she could help.

“I’m looking for a ring, well for three. But this one is the big one, and I’m kind of lost. All I know is that she likes any tone of metal but isn’t into diamonds, or at least not clear ones. My girl likes colour, especially purple. And music, if we can get it engraved on the inside, I think we could put in a music note or something? Honestly the other two I want should all be somewhat music themed, it’s kind of our thing.”

The woman tapped her lips for a moment then lit up. “Come with me. I think I know exactly what you want.” She brought him off to the side where a small display of rings were set. “These are all music themed and completely custom, so you may need to adjust your budget…”

“Money is not a problem here.” Reggie said, smiling. The band had done well, their latest album had a lot of Grammy buzz, their tour was sold out, he could afford to splurge on rings for the loves of his life.

“Perfect. So for the engagement ring, I was thinking this.” She pulled out a ring with a slightly wider band and a deep blue stone on top, but what caught Reggie’s attention was the music staff and notes surrounding the band. “The stone can be changed, and the notes are custom, if you want to use your own song.”

Reggie whimpered at the thought of using this ring for Julie, it was just a matter of picking which of the many love songs he’d written her to use. He’d probably get an amethyst as the stone, and maybe change the metal to gold to match her many necklaces, but this was it, this was the ring. He nodded at the woman frantically, still unable to speak.

“Now the other two, are they the wedding bands? Because we do have a men’s band that goes along with it perfectly, and we could customize it thinner for her to use as hers, maybe change up the music?” she asked, holding out the men’s version, which was identical to the ring he had picked out for Julie, only thicker and without a stone. It would be perfect for Luke. He already knew that ring would hold the notes for Edge of Great, a nod to the moment that made him realize his feelings for the guitarist.

“This one, definitely. But the third...is actually another men’s ring.”

“Oh, you want an engagement ring for you two? We have had a few men who do that. Not usually ones with a female fiancée, but it does happen.” Reggie didn’t correct the saleswoman, but glanced at the small selection of music themed rings, pointing at one that had a very familiar pattern.

“Can I see that one please?” She nodded and held up the ring, and the smile burst forth on Reggie’s face. “It has bass pickups.”

“I take it you play bass?” At Reggie’s nod, she beamed “Then this one is perfect for you, isn’t it?”

Reggie smiled and they sat down to discuss how to customize the rings, the price and the time frame. He walked away from the store, lighter in his bank account, but smiling from ear to ear. Now all he needed was a way to ask. For this he recruited Alex and Ray, the only people outside the Pattersons (and probably Willie) who knew that he planned to propose. Ray had chuckled when he had asked permission, but freely given it, bringing him in for a hug.

“Mijo I’ve been waiting for you to ask since you guys were 17, of course it’s a yes.”

Emily and Mitch had said much the same. Alex just snorted and made a comment about how it took him long enough, and promised to give the most embarrassing best man speech he could.

“Have you thought about proposing at the end of a show?” he asked, watching Reggie twist his fingers and play with his rings, a sure sign that he was nervous.

“Julie would hate that.” Reggie replied. “And I want to ask them both at the same time. Plus the fans…” Their relationship wasn’t a huge secret or anything, they went out in public together, he was sure there were pictures of them on dates. Yet it also wasn’t common knowledge, and Reggie wasn’t sure how their fans would react to know 3/4ths of the band were together, so they tried to not let them know. Sure, there were parts of their fandom that shipped all combinations, but they had always made sure not to confirm anything, wanting the focus to be on their music, not on their lives.

“Still surprised you’re not doing it through song though.” Ray piped up.

“More Luke’s way than mine.”

“Just promise me you won’t make a Star Wars joke.” Alex interjected. Reggie laughed, but nodded.

“I think...you just need to ask. No flowery speeches, no over the top productions. Just you, being your lovable, heartfelt self, asking them the question you’ve wanted to since you three finally figured yourselves out.” Ray said, laying a hand on Reggie’s shoulder.

“You’re right, you always are.” Reggie replied, smiling brightly.

“Comes with the territory of being the best dad ever. Even got the mug to prove it.” Ray quipped. The three of them laughed, and Reggie hugged them both with his thanks before running off to find Luke and Julie. Alex took one look at Ray and the two of them burst into hearty laughter.

“Do you think we should tell him Luke is planning some over the top flash mob proposal or not?” Alex asked, still giggling.

“Nah, Reggie’ll ask first. Plus he actually has the rings, Luke just has a hair brained scheme.” Ray replied.

“Poor Julie’ll never know what hit her. You sure you want those two dorks as your in-laws?”

“Pssh, you three have been family for a decade plus now, we all know what we’re getting into. Plus this will totally make my father of the bride speech.” Ray replied.

~

+1. Age Twenty Five

Ray smiled as his daughter was zipped into her wedding dress, looking every bit like her mother did all those decades ago when they had been wed. Radiant, and anxious to walk down the aisle. Victoria was adjusting her hair as Flynn began her make-up, Ray standing off to the side, just observing the whole process, wishing Rose was here to see this. Sure, maybe when they fantasized about Julie’s wedding she would be marrying one man in a church, not having a commitment ceremony to two in a garden, but looking at how happy his mija was right now, he knew this was how it was meant to be. Rose had known it too, calling Julie having feelings for both Luke and Reggie, she just never could say who their daughter would end up with, and Ray was sure she would have thought this arrangement obvious and inevitable.

He left the women to sort Julie and went looking for his boys. He found Alex, Willie and Carlos in their hotel room battling over a game controller, but not so loud as to wake the sleeping infant that lay in the bassinet besides the bed. Alex and Willie had just brought little Isla home a few months prior, and everyone doted on her, especially Carlos. It wasn’t surprising that she was closest to him while her fathers fought over who got to be what character in the game they were playing. Ray waved at them all, Carlos gesturing to the room next door when he gave him an inquisitive look.

Ray knew Luke was in his own room getting ready with Mitch and Emily, and decided not to disturb them. The three of them had come so far since the guitarist was a teen, and valued their family time, something Ray understood. Yet when he passed by, the door was open a crack, and when he peeked in, saw the family in a tight hug, watery smiles on all of their faces. He grinned and came to the last door in the hallway, tapping lightly and opening when a call came to let himself in.

Reggie was sitting on the bed, his phone in his hands, staring at it intently. He raised his head a little to see Ray and smiled before letting out a breath, and raised his phone to his ear. “Hey mom. It’s Reggie. I just wanted to let you know...I’m getting married today. To Julie...and to Luke. I know you don’t...well it doesn’t matter what you do and don’t, because I’ve been waiting for this day since I was seventeen. Actually, more like since I was six, before I really knew what it all meant. I just...wanted to let you know. You know how to find me if you want pictures or to talk, get to know them...me. Bye.”

Reggie ended the call, letting out another breath, and Ray sat next to him on the bed, one arm slung around his shoulders. “She say anything?”

“Left a message. Knew she wouldn’t pick up. Couldn’t even track down my father to let him know. It’s for the best. They aren’t really who I wanted to share the day with. Weddings are for family. They aren’t mine. Haven’t been for a long time.” Reggie replied. He reached behind him on the bed, grabbing a sheet of paper, turning it over in his hands before handing it to him. “I’m wondering...is that offer to be a Molina still on the table?”

Ray looks at the paper in his hands...a legal form to change someone’s last name, with Reggie’s information already neatly in every space, with the new last name being the same as his own. Luke had wanted to keep Patterson, and Julie hadn’t wanted to hyphenate, so they had said they were just keeping things as is. But Reggie hadn’t said a word, so Ray had assumed he'd still be a Peters. Yet, he had also always known that this was coming, somewhere deep down in his bones. “Mijo, you’ve practically been a Molina since you were 15. You boys have been my sons for years now. No ceremony or piece of paper is ever going to change that.”

Ray envelops Reggie in a hug. “Thanks Dad.” he whispers. He wipes his eyes as they separate. “Now, let’s go get me married already.”

“Sure thing son.” Ray replies, and leads the boy...no, man before him down to the garden where the ceremony is taking place. It’s a beautiful ceremony, full of laughter, love and music. So much music. Their family and friends surround them, with good food, and lots of silly dances. Ray’s colleagues take photos and videos for him, and he treasures each shot of the three of them, caught in an embrace, smiles beaming, eyes full of love. He’s watching Reggie sway Julie around the floor when Luke approaches him.

“Reg told me he’s a Molina now.”

Ray nods. “I’m okay that you’re not, you know. You’re still my son.” They share a warm look, a silent form of love, from father to son, and back again.

“Thanks...dad.” Luke says, running his fingers through his hair now that he’s not being forced to keep it immaculately styled. “Now I gotta see if I can get myself a dance.”

Luke approaches his partners, about to cut in when Carlos swoops in, grabbing Julie. “Too slow boy band.” Causing Luke to scowl, and Julie to laugh as they twirl away. Reggie grabs him in an exaggerated waltz until Luke smiles again. They know Carlos loves them, had been thrilled to be gaining two brothers today, and had said as much in the months leading up to the ceremony. Julie finds her way back to them eventually anyways.

The night ends with the three of them holding each other, barely moving as the last song rings out across the dance floor, most of their guests already gone to bed. Reggie smiles, taking in these two beautiful people he has chosen to spend his life with, and couldn’t be happier. They leave the dance floor, hand in hand, trading kisses as they go off to start their next adventure, with the promise of a life full of love ahead of them.

[luvdsc]

hi miss cat!!! i was wondering if you had any advice on asking mutuals to beta-read + making friendships here on tumblr? you and your mutuals always seem so close and like irl friends! i'm so sorry if this sounds out of the blue!

hi, honey bee!!! 💛 for asking mutuals to beta read, I just asked them shdjdjd I was like “hey do you wanna read my fic draft” and they were like “hell yeah” so then I just added them to my google doc! tk god (hyoseobie / eggyukhei) actually offered to read my drafts when I was having trouble and she gave me suggestions and whatnot, so she’s my go to for beta reading :’) I will throw every single ridiculous fic idea at her and she responds with 100% energy every time. the dumbing down of love and sweeter than honey wouldn’t have been completed without her !!!! for pussy blocked and august, I believe steph (aqiaquas), ti (m88n), lana (choerrypuffs), moon (wincore), and tk all had access to them. Except !!!! when I was debating on the ending for pussy blocked (aka jeno or jaemin), none of them knew who was endgame, except for moon 💓 she’s an absolute godsend and I heavily discussed everything with her for both august and pussy blocked, especially the ending 💕 so big shout out to her for really helping me out with both of them 🌸🌸

I made friends by either a) gushing about their writing in their ask box or dm’s because have you seen how talented they all are???? or b) they sent me a message! 🥰 I can go more into detail about my closest mutuals below:

tk god (hyoseobie / eggyukhei) — tk was my very first mutual on here and a big reason as to why I even started this blog :’) I found her nct blurbs and fell in love with them and I was like “I wanna write blurbs too!!” so I made this blog and then I sent her an ask and we just kept talking after that 💘 and we got close, and we were supposed to see nct together last june 🤧 nowadays, I just spam her with a lot of meme posts on insta and guilt trip her for dropping yukhei for jaemin and doyoung 😔 I’m sorry for clowning you so much tk

els (taeyongtime) — els is so freaking talented, and I read her tabula rasa fic way back in 2017 when I wasn’t even a fan of nct and didn’t know who each member was. All I knew was that this was the greatest fic I have ever read, and nothing will ever top it. anyway, someone asked me for fic recs, and I had tagged her in it because of course, I would recommend her superior fic 🤩 and then she reached out to me, and now we like to complain about work together lol and text everyday and I send her phyllis pictures and we even mail each other letters !! 💕 also !!!! She’s the closest to my age out of my close friends here, so I feel like it’s super easy to talk to her 💞

lana (choerrypuffs) — she reblogged my neptune’s atlantis fic, and I responded to her reblog and also her blog looked super aesthetic so I clicked on it and then read her fics and was like “wow god tier writing I need to send in some asks to scream about these fics because the TALENT 💓💓” and we talked but we didn’t get close until like a week later when I found this pjo meme and didn’t know who else liked pjo except for her so I randomly dm’ed it to her with some all caps screaming message LOL and now we enjoy shit talking about anything and everything because it’s a safe judge free zone for our unpopular opinions lmaooo and she bullies me for typing all my fics on my phone but it’s ok because at least I’m honest about my bias and I don’t burn toaster strudels in the oven

steph (aqiaquas) — I needed some jeno pictures to make his banner for my not clickbait series and posted a cry for help about it, and she responded !!! I believe she also left a comment earlier regarding my wips about bff renjun faking an aussie accent, but we didn’t talk to each other as much until the jeno pic thing! I dm’ed her for the help and we just continued to talk after that 💕 so thank you jeno I suppose lmaoo and we’re also pen pals now 🥰 big props to her for always giving the nicest advice and for always listening to me 🥺 i talk to her about work issues a lot and we text daily !! I tell her and ti more stuff about me than I do with any of my friends tbh 🤧 I also did a facetime with her and ti a few weeks ago and we got her to stay up past her early bedtime cndjjdjdjdjd she, ti, and i have a gc which she has named “JENO APPRECIATION SOCIETY” LMAO

ti (t-shrt / m88n) — ti left me the kindest words and most detailed asks regarding my fics, and I still cherish them so so much 🥺💗💗 from there, she sent me more asks and I started talking to her more until we began to dm each other! and my god, she just gets me 100% and I can talk to her about anything like even the scariest most personal stuff I don’t tell anyone else about myself, I feel comfy enough to tell her about it, and I hope she feels the same! We text each other everyday and are also pen pals, and I want to visit her and steph one day!!! 💖 honestly I don’t think I’ve ever met someone who has related to me so much before, and you know what? ti, if you’re reading this, I think this is the easy we were talking about before

moon (wincore) — can you believe that we’ve only been friends for 40 days??? I just checked and I am flabbergasted because it feels like so much longer than that. An anon messaged moon a cute ask about how she and I are both yunqis and write fics, and she had tagged me in it! So I sent her an ask, and we were also in the same almost collab, so I dm’ed her afterwards, and we started talking and now she sends me pictures of her doggos and I send pictures of phyllis and I can talk about anything with her and we like to bounce fic ideas off of each other (read: one of us tells the other about a wip and the other person screams and sends a bunch of capslock messages about it) jejdjdjd her only flaw is that she barks at her dogs and doesn’t see this as furry behavior 😔 also we have the same taste in men LOL legends only and I hope she’s having lots of fun in the club listening to t swift rn !!!!

april (dropofgoldensun) — april ilysm okay so she always left the loveliest comments under my fics, and one day, I had this fic idea and was like “I want someone else’s opinion on this” but I wanted a fresh perspective on it, so I decided to dm her out of the blue and ask what she thought of it! And from there, we began to talk more and we also sent each other letters !!! in fact, I got hers last week and it made me 🥺🥺🥺💗💗 I have it pinned up to the corkboard in my room along with drawings by steph 💘

so all in all, I made friends by regularly sending them asks or shooting them a dm, or they sent me asks and continued to have a conversation with me 🥰 as an extrovert, I always love making new friends and never shy away from meeting new people, but I understand that it can be scary for some to reach out and take the first step 🤧 but if you do decide to, you might meet the most wonderful people 💞 I honestly can’t imagine what my life would be like without the friends I made on here now 🤧💖 but also, be careful of stranger danger and talk to those appropriate to your age! quite frankly, for instance, it doesn’t make sense for a 25 year old to want to be friends with a 14 year old. I can understand if the 14 year old wants to ask for advice or something, but having an equal friendship is nearly impossible when you’re at different stages of your life / maturity. Please stay safe! 💛 and omg no need to apologize, lovebug, I hope my answer made sense for you! let me know if you have any other questions 💟

[they-call-me-megs]

Let It Be Me - MLQC - Gavin x MC

Well....hello there.  I’m new to Tumblr (or, new to being back--I was here for a while but fairly quite and then left for a bit, only to return once I realized I still was regularly checking some of my favorite pages/writers!).  I’ve been reading fan fiction for a looonnnggggg time, but have only ever been and enjoyer and not a contributor.  I don’t know if I will ever be a regular writer, but decided to give it a shot.  I saw some writing prompts posted by a writer I really enjoy, and as I was thinking through a request I would like to make and stories I would like to see, I got the bug to just give one a try myself!  So here we are.  I’d like to shout out @hifftn​ for taking the time to read my rough draft and give me some suggestions--this was my first time reaching out to her and she was so kind and amazing and I have been following her page for a good while now, so thank you! I love the MLQC and Voltage fandoms and I’m excited to actually be active now and to give kudos to some of my favorites writers where they are due (because I am convinced that some of the best writers out there are housed here!). 

So here’s my very first stab at writing.  I don’t expect it to be read by many (or maybe any) but I think it’s good for me to try new things every once in a while.  If you do happen to read it and want to give some tips/suggestions/encouragement/anything I’d love to have it!  Here’s hoping the format isn’t crazy--thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

Warnings: some language. No smut...yet ;) 

_______________ 

Gavin.

The boy who everyone seemed to fear when you were growing up—including you. 

Gavin.

The now man who took his job seriously to protect those around him…and as he regularly stated--to protect you.

Gavin.

The one who, after time, had been such a confidant and the one you could always rely on. Through job stresses, and heartbreak and messy break ups and all the ups and downs of life. A firm and steady rock when you felt like the waves—constantly raging. Constantly changing.

Gavin.

The one who you viewed as just a friend until more time went on. And the more you got to see who he truly is—the Gavin that only you seemed to get to see, the more you wondered “what if”.

But you.

You were too afraid of losing the person that meant the most to you, afraid he may not see you that way.  So you decided to keep those “what ifs” at bay and push them out of sight and out of mind, satisfied knowing that he really did mean it, that he would protect you and be there for you forever. There wasn’t a doubt in your mind that his words were true. And you were stuck chasing the wrong person and after the wrong person hoping maybe someday someone squash the “what ifs” away.

_______________ 

After a great finish on your latest project, Willow, Kiki, and Anna insisted on a night of drinks and dancing. You weren’t one to typically go for that, but you’d been working so hard and sometimes it really was nice to let loose with your friends. You agreed to at least one stop and you’d take it from there.  The four of you walked into a crowded bar with live music and found a small table towards the back as your home base for the evening. A couple of rounds in, you could feel yourself loosen up and were ready to see where the night would take you. 

“Next round is on me! I’m getting us shots!” you told the girls as you headed to the bar. 

You had been waiting at the bar for a couple of minutes when you “ahem” and a deep voice that exuded confidence. 

“My, my. I don’t think I’ve seen you around before and I know that I’d remember your face if I’d ever seen it. I’m Michael—and you would be?” 

You rolled your eyes as you turned his way, only to be pleasantly surprised.  The man talking to you had reason to have confidence in his voice.  He had dark hair that was just long enough to slick back with a small piece that hung just above his eye.  He was well-dressed--maroon slacks and a button-up shirt that had obviously been tailor to perfectly show that he was fit underneath it all. 

“MC”, you tried shouting back over the music and the crowd noise.

He slid right next to you and leaned in closer to your ear—a bit closer than you expected from a stranger you had never met, but you didn’t immediately blow him off. 

“I didn’t quite hear you, and I want to make sure I don’t miss the name of the most beautiful girl in the room”.

“I said my name is MC, and while I appreciate the compliment and you’re not too bad on the eyes yourself, I’ve really got to get going. I’m here with my friends—have a nice night”.

You gave him a wink and turned to walk away, but he grabbed your hand right before you were out of reach.

“At least consider saving a dance for me before the night is over. I’ll make it worth your time,” he said winking right back at you after pulling you closer.  

You couldn’t help but smirk—there was no lying to yourself. He was an extremely attractive guy with a smile that was dripping with charm. Not wanting to commit to anything while fully knowing you’d end up dancing, you left him with a flirty: “Maybe, if you’re lucky,” and turned to go back to your table.

“Who was that? He was cute.” Kiki couldn’t help herself--she had a radar for attractive men and she was always in favor when you considered chatting one up.

“His name was Michael—he very much so wants to dance with me tonight—I don’t know. He’s cute, I guess. I think he thinks he’s a real smooth talker…maybe a bit pushy, though.”

“Maybe pushy could be a good thing! You’ll get to find out if you actually go dance with him, if you know what I mean. He’s still got his eye on you”, Kiki said smiling at you and nudging your side with her elbow. 

She wasn’t wrong. He was looking your way. And his look seemed to follow your every move.

“He seems a little creepy to me,'' Anna said. “I’d steer clear”. It was from her expression that she was not Team New Guy.

“I’m with Anna,” Willow said. “Besides, I still don’t understand why you even give some of these guys you talk to the time of day when you have the perfect person for you right under your nose”.

They all saw the way you were around Gavin. You tried to play cool but every once in a while, there was a crack in your façade and your friends could recognize the change in your eyes and the way your shoulders seemed to relax in a way they normally didn’t when he was around.  You always got flustered when they brought Gavin in any way that involved you being more than friends--it was easy to push down any budding feelings when it wasn’t brought to your attention. 

“You guys need to give it up. I care about my friendship with Gavin way too much to risk it. And besides—if he was interested in being more than friends with me, he’s had a lot of opportunities to take a shot. He hasn’t, and that’s okay. I’ve come to terms with it. And I’ve also come to terms with the fact that one dance with Mister Following Eyes won’t hurt anyone”. You downed another shot and marched back to the bar to find Michael, confidence coming from you to rival the confidence he had earlier.  You insisted he’d buy you a drink before taking his hand, leading him to the dance floor.

And you danced. You closed your eyes and let his hands wander on your hips and you let your imagination wander into the idea that it was actually Gavin dancing with you, because no matter how many times you said you had come to terms with it, you really hadn’t and you wanted nothing more than for him to be the one touching you. 

 What you didn’t know was that Willow had called Gavin to come out and celebrate your success with you all. And that while you were grinding up on Mr. Smooth Talker, Gavin was walking in the door.

After losing yourself in the music and dancing, you finally “came to” when the house band took a break and lighter music began to play over the speaker. You started to turn back around towards Michael when you caught a sight of Gavin out of the corner of your eye. You didn’t know he was going to be here and you didn’t know how long he’d been there—or what he had seen. Gavin was always the one to let you cry on his shoulder when you’d go out with some guy you met at a bar or on Tinder after he’d stand you up or finally show you his true ugly and awful colors. And he was never critical. And he was always gentle. But that didn’t mean that you wanted him to see you dancing with someone else when you just wanted it to be him.

Michael pulled you out of your head when he grabbed your hand and pulled you back closer to him, this time face to face, moving in closer to whisper.  You could feel his breath on your ear.

“If you move like that with your clothes on, I can’t wait to see how good it is once they’re gone.”

That’s when you knew your time with this guy was over.  You couldn’t help but roll your eyes. Why must men always do this? You knew why—because an MC a few more drinks in would entertain the thought of it and might just go home with him. But you were a few shots short and had one set too many eyes on you to agree.  The freedom and fun you were feeling was put back in it’s box to make sure this guy knew you were serious.

“I think you might be moving a bit too fast pal. Thanks for the dance, but I think I’m going to go back to my friends now.”

You tried to push him away so you could leave when he decided to double down and grab your hips a bit tighter, this time in a way that caused the exact opposite of pleasure.

“Come on, MC. We’re just getting to know each other, and I’m not ready for the fun to be over” he said.  He tried nipping at your ear and you felt sick to your stomach.  You just wanted to get away from him.

“Stop it, Michael. You’re hurting me. I don’t know you and you obviously don’t know me if you think aggression is the way into my pants. So if you could kindly back the fuck up, I’d appreciate it,” you said, pushing him harder to get him off of you.  You were all for having a good time and had had your fair share of one night stands--but they were on your own terms and they didn’t start with a guy trying to suffocate you with a handful of red flags to get you to cave.

“Stop being such a bitch—I buy you a drink and show you a good time and this is how you repay me?”

A clearing of a throat came from behind you and you saw Michael’s face change as you felt a familiar hand on your shoulder.

“MC—is this guy bothering you?”

The sound of Gavin’s voice and the anger in his eyes was the encouragement Michael needed to finally ease us his grip on you.  Thank God he was stepping in to help you. But also, oh shit—because Gavin did not act kindly to asshole dudes who wouldn’t leave you alone.

“Hey buddy—why don’t fuck right off and mind your own damn business?” Michael said, annoyance clear in his voice and on his face.  He had no idea who he was talking to.

And then came the crack. And a howl. And an asshole falling to the ground after Gavin decked him for not giving up when you asked him to. Gavin grabbed your hand and started walking towards the door. Anna, Willow, and Kiki met you there.

“MC, are you okay?” Kiki asked.  She was worried about you, and you could tell she felt bad about encouraging you to talk to Michael after the initial introduction.

“I knew that guy was a creep,” Anna said with crossed arms. She always seemed to be right about these things.

“How about we all go outside and I’ll call us an Uber,” Willow said, pulling out her phone.

“You guys take care of getting yourselves home,” Gavin said, handing them some cash. “I’ll take care of her—my apartment isn’t far from here”.

You felt awful--what was supposed to be a night of fun had turned into a nightmare. “Sorry for ruining the night guys. Maybe next time I’ll learn to just dance with you guys,” you said with your head downcast, taking the helmet Gavin handed you before patting the back seat of Sparky. You knew the drill. You hopped on and wrapped your arms around Gavin’s waist as he told you to hold on tight.

_______________ 

“You’re soaked,” Gavin said. “Go hop in the shower before you catch a cold. I’ll never forgive myself if you get sick because I chose to drive Sparky instead of my car. I really didn’t know it would start raining. I’m sorry MC.”

“Why are you sorry?! You saved my ass back there when that guy wouldn’t leave me alone. You’re always saving my ass. I don’t mind waiting—you can go first.” 

“No—I insist. I’ll be fine. My hair will dry fast anyway. You can use the bathroom in my room. Feel free to use anything that you need. Once you’re in the bathroom I’ll just come in to grab something from my drawers and I’ll be out so you can have some space.” He spoke to you with gentleness and care in his voice. You could see from his face how concerned he was for you, even though he was the one that just punched a guy.  That was so typical Gavin. Always putting himself last. Always taking care of you first. Never showing any sign of frustration or anger at you.

A quick 5-minute shower to clear your head of the evening’s events and you were done.

“Shit—I thought I had some clothes in here.”

This wasn’t your first time at Gavin’s place—you had become a regular here for movie nights and after it led to you falling asleep on the couch a few times, Gavin suggested you just leave a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt at his house so you could always feel comfortable there. Apparently, you forgot to change out of them the last time and brought them home with you, leaving you scrambling for something to wear. You panicked for a moment before looking through his closet and found the biggest t-shirt you could find and threw it on before heading back into the living room.

Gavin was in the kitchen making you a hot tea (your favorite) when he heard you come out of his room.

“Listen, MC. I don’t want you to ever feel like I’m trying to tell you what to do or how to live your life…I’m just trying to understand what it is about some of these guys that you find…”

It was at that moment that he walked out of the kitchen and saw you standing there looking through his movie collection, reaching to grab a DVD from the top shelf, causing the shirt to ride high enough to hit just shy of your ass. His shirt practically cradling your ass.

“Ah...are you wearing my shirt?” There was a bit of hesitation in his question that made you give him a soft laugh. 

“Ha...yeah—I’m sorry. I thought I still had clothes here, but I guess I brought them home, so I had to borrow some of yours again. Just another thing you’re having to do for me. Clothe me. Pick me up at any hour of the day when I need it. Scare off the sleazy guys I always end up getting mixed up with. You’re the one thing I can always count on to be the same for me.”

“But what if I don’t want to stay the same?”

The hesitation he just had disappeared and he looked at you with a resolve in his eyes that he’s never seen before and you thought you saw his eyes go black for a moment. You wanted to think maybe he was messing with you, but Gavin wasn’t much of a joker and there was only seriousness in the way he was keeping eye contact with you.

“What?” You felt your breath catch in your throat. What was he trying to say? Was this moment where he had really had enough and didn’t want to deal with you anymore? You stood frozen and just looked at him as he slowly walked up to you…not quite touching but closer than he normally got outside of your rides on Sparky together. He reached out and lightly ran his thumb and his index finger across the hem of his shirt—the one you were wearing.

He kept his eyes down, watching his fingers on the shirt and you felt his grip on it tighten, pulling the shirt flush to your chest. 

“What if I don’t want to stay the same with you? What if I don’t want to be the guy that scares off the sleazy guys you dance with? What if I want to be the one dancing on you. The one touching you.  What if I don’t want to be the guy that just loans you clothes anymore when you come over? What if I want to be the one that takes them off of you?”

There was a moment of silence between the two of you. The only thing that could be heard was the rain falling on the window and low music playing from Gavin’s record player he must have turned on while you were in the shower. You saw his Adam’s apple move as he silently gulped, still too nervous to look up, continuously moving the hem of the shirt between his index finger and his thumb.  You couldn’t believe what you were hearing--you wished that you could stop time to give you a moment to process what was happening.  This was what you had wanted to happen for so long, resigning yourself to your wants believing it would never happen.  But it was. And it felt real. And you made the decision to not hesitate or ask questions or wonder what might happen next because you would be damned to do anything that might make him change his mind.

“Then do it.”

He finally looked up at you with his beautiful amber eyes that were full of wonder and surprise and a fiery lust that was thirsty to get out when you broke the silence. His gaze refused to leave yours when he opened his mouth to speak again.

“What did you say?”

You grabbed his free hand and guided it to the bottom of your shirt to join his other. Locking eyes with him and bringing your face as close as you could without touching, you slowly lifted your arms above your head.

“I said, if you want to be the one that takes my clothes off, then do it.”

[goron-king-darunia]

Annon-Guy: Hopefully someone will get Tumblr on it. BTW, I know you wanted to wait until you got the video on your page, but what did you think of the Emil X Marta video I made?

Sorry, mate, I know I kept you waiting on this one. =w= I'll link the video at the end because if it had gone through normally it would have posted with the ask anyway. I do very much like the image selection, but I do think (and this is just my opinion and NOT common practice with fanvids so it's not something you missed or forgot!) that even the official art should be sourced because it's always painful when you see cute art of your faves and then you can't find it online, especially because, with DotNW being part of a multilingual fandom, some of the results won't show up in Google images if you don't know what you're searching for (a lot of art I have of Richter, for example, is stuff I only found on the JP side of Google or after meticulously searching with reverse image search and SauceNao [a godsend since it even shows results for art that is no longer being hosted. {RIP all the JP artists having to take their art down for insane copyright reasons sometimes.}]) Again, that's just something I'd like to see done more often and not something I really expected you to do, and definitely not something you did wrong because you sourced your songs and that's more than some people do, honestly. Sourcing the fanart was a great move though, and I definitely appreciate that! 0w0 Nappo deserves all the love. The music selection is also great! Again, Emil/Marta isn't really something I actively ship and I mostly just admire art of it at a distance, but the song "Hero" definitely suits their dynamic. Or at least the dynamic the game probably intended for them, even if that isn't what all the players interpret from their experience with the game. As for individual images, and this is more just about the images than your use of them: 1. A lot of the images are from the post-game credits scene/gallery in the PAL version (god I'm jealous of the PAL version, they got a gallery and costumes and USA got the game and NOTHING else until the chronicles edition where we got... a mediocre novella [I appreciate the novella of course, but either the translation sucked or was deliberately dumbed-down for kids playing because it is written very blandly. XD]) One of the images is the picture of Emil and Marta riding on a Simurgh.

Do you think Emil is actually enjoying himself? Looks to me more like he's hanging on for dear life? I know the ending cards are supposed to be silly because there's also one with Emil getting chomped on by an Axe Beak and I think these are more to make the audience smile at the end of the game than actually be interpreted as canon but... if they are diegetic, do you think Emil actually chose to ride like this or did he just almost fall off and Marta hasn't noticed yet? 2. In the image with Emil, Marta and the Fenrir, do you think the Fenrir is accurate to scale or exaggerated? There is an implication that these are drawn by the characters rather than photographs, so if they are drawn, who do you think drew the Simurgh picture above? If they're meant to be stylized but not representative of drawings, do you think Fenrirs are that big because if so, Richter didn't stand a chance. Fighting with a wolf that big is unfair, Emil! XD

3. In the following picture, Tenebrae is stealing food that it seems Emil was trying to offer to Marta. Tenebrae himself said that he absorbs mana naturally so that he doesn't have to eat and seems to consider that more sophisticated than how Emil chooses to get his mana (it's implied Emil could also survive without eating if he wanted to.) Why do you think Tenebrae is suddenly interested in eating? Do you think he's doing it to pass himself off as a weird dog at the festival or do you think he's doing it to bother Emil? Or something else entirely? He is called spiteful by Aqua a lot, so I think he might just be doing it to harass Emil. XD

Anyway, I know that's a lot of questions for someone without an account here and a lot of them are more about the art than the actual video, but yeah! I'm just wondering if you have opinions on some of these! I think if you want to answer, the submit box would work better since I don't think it has a character limit and the ask box has a limit to how much you can type. If not, you can still answer and type it up in sections of asks and I can slap them all together in response. Other than that, I think it's a cute fan video. My only real critique is that the images from the JP novels look a little out of place since they're black and white, but I know you can't really help that because that's how they were printed and that's how they're shown wherever you can get them online, and if a color-version exists, it's probably in an unreleased master file for the novel production. Still, it's a very nice selection of art! Better than a lot of the unsourced fanart piles I've seen in fanvids/VGMVs.

[magnumdays]

Magnum PI 2x19 “May the Best One Win”review AKA Fangirling over my new favorite episode

Staring off we got the whole Magnum introducing Higgy as his partner...or TC’s fiancee and TC being all “we cool man?” and Magnum saying what us fans were all screaming last week (Magnum: IT MAKES SO MUCH MORE SENSE IF SHE MARRIES ME! I WANT TO BE HER KNIGHT IN SHINING ARMOUR DAMMIT!)

Then Higgy is all “If you are done fighting over me...” - I mean, just, yeah, throw that in there just to torment me some more.

We basically transitions right into Magnum suggesting a divorce lawyer for Higgy in case she and TC ever “hit a rough patch” and her being all “I’m marrying TC to make sure WHAT WE HAVE doesn't get FUCKED UP, can’t you see that?” (I’m paraphrasing but that was the gist of it) I just can’t with this. It’s like 2 minutes in and I’m like in shipper heaven.

Anyways, then we have the case! The let’s work both sides and make double the money and just the whole both spouses think the other is cheating but it’s all just a big misunderstanding and goodness, happiness and love wins in the end? It totally works for me. This is the kind of PI cases I WANT. Like not super serious people dying cases and shoot outs! People just being stupid and Magnum and Higgy helping uncover their secrets and then making everything better!

We also get the “May the Best PI win!” which I’ve been waiting for since we got the spoiler bit for this ages ago. 

So we got a side plot with Rick that I really- REALLY - like for once! Want to guess why? BECAUSE IT TIES INTO THE THEME! Like huh? They manged that for the first time since forever? 

Yeah, I’m shocked too. But someone really thought about this or they got really lucky by chance because;

First we got the married couple not communicating and about to lose their chance at a love and a happy future because of it. When all their secrets are out they can finally start to fix things and heal.

Secondly we got the woman whose dad dies and she tries not to care because they didn’t have contact for so long but when Rick goes looking he realizes her dad did care and he lost his chance at love because he didn’t communicate. Now she can hopefully heal from both the sadness of her dad leaving as a kid and being dead and be a little happier.

Then we maybe kind of have Higgy who by deciding to actually listing to what she’s feeling for once and deciding not to get married to TC for the wrong reason/ not wanting to live a lie (making it possible for her to find love and happiness with the right person in the future...)

I don’t know, maybe the Higgy one is reaching a bit but the main theme of we don’t know what we or other people are really feeling or thinking and we act anyway, that’s when we get in trouble pretty much work for everything.

Which is a really freaking great + it’s a good theme! It’s true but no so on the nose as something like ‘don’t lie’ or ‘love fixes everything’.

So yeah. Now back to the Miggy godness.

We got: 

married-not-married arguing

Kumu’s “The way you two bicker you might as well be married.”

I mean! Come on!

Then fun times with Higgy getting all the guys to do her bidding...and also actually paying for gas! I do hope this comes back in season 3 where Magnum realizes his pals actually deserves praise and compensation/ or them being all “we’re not helping unless you pay us like Higgy does”.

This could be a character growth kind of possibility arch, thingie, episode or whatever for next year.

The other arch for Thomas Magnum I really want to see in season 3 is the I’m FINE (but I’m not) one kind of lead to something (something bad). 

I know they’re going for a go-lucky kind of Magnum but fact is Magnum is a solider who spent time in a POW camp, he was betrayed by his ex-fiance, one of best friend got tortured and killed like not super long ago, his ex-fiance came back and shot him then came back again and died in his arms, his partner nearly drowned and he CPR her back to life, he thought he had a future with Abby but she dropped him like a hot potato and most recently he got swapped out of his (fake) wedding last minute, then fake wedding didn’t happen and he though he’d be separated from the love of his life his partner for an unknown amount of time and all he’s been saying is “I’m fine”. 

He’s got some baggage and having him always go I’M FINE isn’t really good or healthy because he isn’t fine. He doesn't have to be fine. Except when he acts like he’s not fine (like after Abby) everyone just tries to make him cheer-up when maybe he kind of needs to talk to someone about the kind of wacky stuff he’s been through. This is both something he and Higgy and even the guys need to work on. Basically it was only Gordon who was like, it’s rough, I’m here for you. I mean Higgy was there for him too, she just said “Staycation” a lot to make it not seem like she was because emotions, scary. 

Still I need like Magnum having nightmares about something and actually being all “I’m not fine” and for someone to go “okay. that’s fine. you don’t have to be okay all the time” (Oh this just screams at me to fanfic:it, but I just can’t start anymore of them without finishing a few. So bad thought, bad, go away.)

So, um where was I before I got sidetracked? Oh, right the general wonderfulness of the episode?

Gordon making Magnum say: I’m kinda useless without Higgins.

Then having Magnum take hacking lessons from like a 12 year old on Youtube and begging Kumu lie about having seen Higgins computer (how has he not gotten his own laptop yet???) 

I mean it’s almost not funny anymore (It is. It’s legit the most I’ve smiled in a while.)

“Maybe I’ll let the wife decide“ when buying pie and then bringing said pie back to Higgins. 

“There’s a hug and then there is a hug.”

(I needed this to be foreshadowing and IT WAS NOT! I still can’t hate it because she kind of agree there are different hugs and now I want all the hugs for them...or you know just one! ONE HUG!)

And winner of this round of random things I loved, might be: “You figure out I’d make a better fake husband than TC?”

Can you be more obvious Magnum?

Then Higgins saying “I do still need a maid of honor!” (which we know isn’t true because last week she said she’d asked Kumu but we’re assuming she’s saying it just to tease him). But this made me think of that move Made of Honor movie with Patrick Dempsey where the guy she asks to be her maid of honor is actually the guy she ends up really marrying... at some later point.

Also has anyone sounded more British than Higgy going; “Oh no not the pie.“ after Magnum was all; “I’m taking my pie with me!” 

Then we got my babies being sneaky and adorable and working together (because you know, even when they’re not on the same team, they are).

Then we got them kicking ass together (well more like getting their asses kicked) and only Higgy getting the gun saves them. But you know, that’s okay because I love it when she gets to be a bad-ass and knock people out. 

I do feel like we need to work a little more on the realism on how bruises work on pale people, especially girls. Because you know, Higgy got slammed into like a table and slapped and seriously has anyone been slammed into a table by a really big guy lately? Well, and let me tell you from experience, even being slammed into a table by a small guy leave a bruise. And no way would she not get a swollen eye or lip from a slap that spun her around and landed her on the floor. Do you know how hard you need to slap someone for that? I mean she’s tiny (she’s what 5′4? 1115 pounds soaking wet?) and the guy was big but, still in real life she wouldn’t even be getting up, she’d be out cold, but it’s TV-land so I’ll forgive it but still, wouldn’t a tiny bit of blood on her lip make sense?

It’s kind of strange because sometimes they seem to really like putting the blood and gooe make-up on both Perdita and Jay and other times it’s like, nope, nothing, we’re invincible vampires this episode.

For today I understand the why of it though. They wanted our babies to look pretty for the wedding. Well, the wedding that doesn't happen which we all knew but still... 

Before that though; TC planing on crying at his fake wedding? Adorable.

First of all how does she mange to look both stunning and terrified this whole scene? 

Look at her big eyes with the I’m about to cry shininess. Also the flower bits in her hair totally not her yet somehow totally works. 

I also love how when he first enters he stops and looks at her for a second, like Higgy in a wedding dress. I think I might have some feels. And come on Thomas, couldn’t you have told her she looks nice? You can clearly see she’s freaking. But no you go straight for the “fake nerves?” which I guess makes sense because maybe someone told you there was only 2.5 minutes left of the episode so there was no time for compliments...

Anyways, then comes the heartbreaking bit. Because she has changed her mind and isn’t going to marry TC (or him). She’s not going to marry anyone and she’ll have to leave him.

Leading us to the “Just fine.” moment I equally hate and love. 

Don’t they both kind of look like they’re about to cry here? I feel like that’s the general vibe, or maybe it was the fact that I was tearing up a bit when I first watched it that makes me feel like that...

And as always tumblr stole the stuff I wrote here! I wish I’d learn and could go one week without losing like a chunk of text.

So I was just basically saying I loved this but I’d much rather have had Magnum go “No, I won’t” (when she says he’ll be fine) and then have her be “yes you will” and then he could just be Shrug or go “I guess I’ll have to be” or something else dramatic to show it’s a big deal to him. Then next week we could have him be really trying hard to reach Robin instead of having it all just be fixed with one little phone call. Like maybe Robin is undercover for his new book so Magnum has to make some sort of deal with some shady person who works for Robin to get his undercover contact. Or something and that could come back in season 3 as an episode...

Wow, this got kind of long, but yeah, I just loved this episode and wanted to gush about it and probably I won’t gush (or even complain) as much about 2x20 so it’ll even out in length...

[flowerfan2]

Group Texts Are Ridiculous (Or, Five-0 Starts a Group Text)

Somehow I managed to post Chapter 2 on A03 a few days ago without posting on tumblr... I’m not sure how many people actually depend on tumblr for fic these days, but in case you do, here you go!

McDanno, T, A03

Summary:  After 10x22 when Steve leaves Oahu to go find himself, Five-0 starts a group text to keep in touch while Steve’s away.  Picks up after the end of Season 10. 

Chapter 2

May 20, 2020

SM:  Hey, where’s Danny?

LG:  With Tani, I think, heading to a crime scene on the north shore.  Sure glad to have him back.  Otherwise it would have been me getting up at the ass crack of dawn when Duke called.

SM:  Does Danny seem ready?

LG:  Ready to come back to work?  Sure.  Shirts are crisp, slacks nicely pressed, hair sprayed firmly in place.  Your boy looks great.

SM:  Ribs not hurting him anymore?

LG:  Maybe a little, but it’s not slowing him down much.

SM:  He hasn’t been answering my texts.

LG:  Did you do something to piss him off?

SM:  Probably.  I usually do. Not sure what this time, though.

TR:  Don’t stress, boss. Danny’s right here, looking sharp as always.  we’re in the car.

SM:  Tani, what have I said about no driving and texting?

TR:  I’m not - Danny’s driving.

SM:  Can I talk to him?  Put it on speaker.

TR:  That would require you to actually call him.  Maybe give it a few minutes though?  We’re a little busy right now.

SM:  What, he can’t drive and talk on the phone at the same time?

TR:  It’s the dodging of bullets that might make that challenging.  Not that Danny isn’t a great multi-tasker, but it seems like an unnecessary risk.

 SM:  Tani, what the hell is going on?

 LG:  Damn.  On my way.

 SM:  Tani, report, now.

 JR:  What just happened?

 SM:  Junior, why aren’t you with Danny?  And where’s Quinn?

 JR:  Day off, sorry sir.

 SM:  Someone call HPD, why don’t you have any back up?

 TR:  No worries, the perp’s not chasing us anymore.  His car flipped over and sort of slid down the dunes. Probably not good for the birds. But he definitely stopped shooting, so it’s all good.

 <i>DW has changed the name of the group text to</i> <b>My Camaro has another bullet hole and it’s Steve’s fault</b>

  <b>May 21, 2020 </b>

 SM:  We have to talk about yesterday.

 DW:  Everything’s fine, Steve.  

 SM:  It didn’t sound like it.  

 DW:  We had it under control.

 SM:  Why was Tani texting when people were shooting at you?  She should have been covering you, or calling for back up. She should have seen it coming. You should never have been in that position in the first place.

 DW:  One, Tani did nothing wrong, and two, mind your own beeswax.

 SM:  Mind my own – what’s that supposed to mean?

 DW:  Think about it for a minute, you’ll figure it out.

 SM:  Are you even recovered enough for active duty?

 DW:  Oh, now you’re interested in my health?

 SM:  Danny, Five-0 is still my team, my responsibility.

 DW:  Is it, now?  Funny, because I’m pretty sure the governor told me I’m in charge.

 SM:  Temporarily.

 DW:  Indefinitely.  Or have you booked a flight home that you haven’t told us about?

 SM:  Danny, we’ve been over this.

 DW:  Don’t I know it.

 SM:  I’m just concerned about all of you.  

 DW:  Great.  Come home and take your job back.  Otherwise keep your mouth shut.

 SM:  I’m not criticizing, it’s just that it doesn’t seem like yesterday went exactly according to plan.

 DW:  According to plan?  Since when have you ever done anything according to plan?  You are the head of not having a plan, the Czar of plan-less-ness, the President of who needs a fucking plan.

 LG:  You guys do remember this is a group text, right?

  <b>June 2, 2020</b>

 JR:  Do any of you know what was in the package Danny got today?

 TR:  You could just ask him.

 JR:  I would, but he opened it up and then locked himself in his office and he’s been on the phone for half an hour.

 QL:  Might be a sign that he wants some privacy.

 TR:  You think?

 JR:  So I shouldn’t ask him?

 TR:  No, you should definitely ask him.  But maybe bring him some malasadas when you barge into his office, it might soften the blow.

 LG:  Or distract him enough that he doesn’t hit your head when he throws something at you.

 DW:  It’s kind of late for malasadas, but I’d love a sandwich from Machete’s.  Turkey and salami, Italian dressing instead of mayo.

 JR:  Yes sir.

 LG:  You’re enjoying this boss thing, aren’t you, Danny?

 DW:  It’s good to be king.  At least where lunch is concerned.

 TR:  So are you going to tell us what was in the package?

 DW:  Will you do my paperwork for the week?

 TR:  Yesterday you said I was worse at paperwork than Steve.

 DW:  Good point.  Will you get Junior to do my paperwork?

 JR:  Hey, wait a minute, I’m getting the sandwiches.

 TR:  Deal.  Don’t worry Junes, I’ll make it worth your while.

 LG:  TMI, children.

 …

 LG:  Tani, spill.  What was in the package?

 DW:  A stuffed squirrel.  A stuffed animal.  Not, like, a once was alive squirrel, like a toy.  

 QL:  Who sent it to him?

 TR:  Apparently that piece of information wasn’t part of the deal.  

 JR:  It’s from Steve.

 TR:  Danny told you?

 JR:  No, I looked at the return address.  He put the package in the recycle bin in the break room.

 DW:  At least someone here has some detective skills.

 LG:  Okay, I’ll bite.  Danny, why did Steve send you a squirrel?  Is it for Charlie?

 DW:  Nope, it’s mine.  And anyone who touches it is dead.

 JR:  So… who’s gonna grab it?

 LG:  Junior, I’d think twice.  Danny’s got the power to assign you to walking the beat for the rest of the summer.  I think that squirrel looks great right there where it is on Danny’s desk.

 TR:  He can be our honorary Five-0 mascot.

 DW:  Exactly.  The very first Hawaiian squirrel.

 DW:  But let me reiterate, you may not touch him.  If I see a tiny aloha shirt or a lei on my squirrel, heads will roll.

 TR:  I like this side of you, Danny.  Very authoritative.

 DW:  The children do not respect me, Lou.

 LG:  Didn’t the governor say he needed extra security at that concert Saturday night?

 DW:  The heavy metal battle of the bands?  The one that lasts for five hours, and features not just professional bands, but appearances from some of the most popular amateur head-banging groups around?  Hm, I think he did.  I was going to check with HPD to make sure it was covered.  Do you think they need personal attention from Five-0?

 TR:  Danny, you might notice that a note has just been slipped under your door. It’s from me and Junior, attesting to our sincere understanding that the squirrel is off limits.  Just in case you were wondering.

 DW:  And all is right with the world again.

 LG:  Amen, brother.

 TR:  But just out of curiosity, what are you going to name your apology squirrel?  Pineapple?

 DW:  Thin ice, my friend, thin ice.

 <i>TR has changed the name of the group text to</i> <b>First Hawaiian Squirrel Fan Club</b>

  <b>June 20, 2020</b>

  JR:  Anyone want to come over and watch Jurassic Park with me and Charlie?  We went a little overboard with the snacks.

 LG:  What kind of snacks?

 JR:  Primarily pretzels.  For some reason I had never really looked that closely at the pretzel aisle at Foodland before.  We got chocolate covered pretzels, pretzels stuffed with peanut butter, honey garlic pretzels, and probably some others too.

 TR:  What brought on this pretzel craving?

 JR:  Actually Charlie wanted pineapple pretzels.

 LG:  There is no such thing.

 JR:  That’s what I thought too, but it turns out I was totally wrong. The ABC store on my block has them.

 LG:  You are shitting me.

 JR:  They’re called Pretz.  Pineapple flavor.  They’re actually pretty good.

 LG:  Okay, I’m coming over just to taste those.  Renee’s out tonight anyway.

 TR:  You’ll have to save me some.  I’m hanging with Koa tonight.

 LG:  And what does our fearless leader think about pineapple pretzels?

 JR:  He probably won’t like them, but he’s not home.  

 TR:  Babysitting, Junes?

 JR:  Charlie’s my pal, he’s not a baby.  But yeah.

 TR:  Where’s Danny?

 JR:  On a date.

 TR:  That seems unlikely.

 JR:  That’s kind of harsh, isn’t it?  Danny’s a good looking guy.

 TR:  Of course he is, that’s not what I meant.

 DW:  Thanks.

 TR:  Fuck I keep forgetting we’re all on this text.

 JR:  Danny, how’s your date going?

 DW:  It would probably be going better if I wasn’t texting you guys.  

 SM:  Learned that lesson finally, did you?

 DW:  Steve, isn’t it a little late where you are?

 SM:  Never too late to help out a friend.  Are you wearing the French blue button-down?

 DW:  No, it got ruined.  I’m just wearing a black polo.

 SM:  Too bad, that’s a great shirt.

 DW:  I’m going to the mall tomorrow, there’s a sale at Lord & Taylor, I need new shirts.  For some reason mine keep getting blood stains on them.

 SM:  Wish I could go with you, you do better with a wingman.

 DW:  It’s true, you talked me into buying two of those slim fit dark blue ones, and those are some of my favorites.

 SM:  Don’t be afraid to try darker shades, Danny.  You resist it but in the end you look great.

 DW:  I did like the dark gray one you made me try on.  But not the purple one.  It made me look like a gigolo.  Anyway blue’s still my favorite.

 SM:  It’s true, nothing makes your eyes sparkle like a blue shirt.

 DW:  And good company, of course.

 LG:  I feel like this thread has been hijacked by aliens.  

 TR:  Aliens who like menswear.  Danny, isn’t your date annoyed that you’re spending all this time texting?

 DW:  Oh, she left.  I’ll be home soon, I’m just picking up some ice cream for the Jurassic Park marathon.

 JR:  I’m so confused.

 SM:  Don’t overthink it.  But make sure Danny tries the pineapple pretzels.

[itsybitsylemonsqueezy]

Why Fanfiction?

Hey guys. Okay, so, a few weeks ago one of my coworkers asked me this question. And it has been bothering me ever since. 

Y’see, there’s this problem about explaining fanfiction, or fandom for that matter, to people who have never been a part of this culture. And, no, I don’t think that culture is too grandiose a term. The problem is everyone wants to rationalize fanfiction, justify its existence. Anyone who is not a part of fandom, literally any fandom, wants you to explain why you use your time this way, why you create this way, and why you feel entitled to do so. People struggle over basic things like creation existing outside of monetary gain or copyright, but even that’s not the intrinsic thing outside people don’t understand. 

I spent minutes trying to explain to my coworkers why as they pestered me with the same series of comments we’ve all been called to answer a hundred times before, “Why do you do that?” “But it’s not yours!””Who don’t you write your own work?” “That character wouldn’t do that!” etc, etc. And between trauma flashbacks to 2004 when I was 12 years old and we had the wars of What Is And Is Not In Character, I realized what the problem is: fanfiction is for fun. 

That’s it, plain and simple. I do it because it’s fun. You do it too! You draw or write or read or make or remix or whatever! You participate because it’s fun! That’s really all there is to it. And you and I don’t ask for more reason than that. But I was talking to outsiders. 

And here I should explain that I work in a college. I was talking to academics. Hell, I am an academic, I teach college English. And English professors, god help me, English professors are the absolute WORST at justifying fanfiction. You get two flavors of English professor when it comes to fandom: 1) that’s stealing or 2) that’s deconstruction. If the first, fuck you, I don’t have time for your precious proprietary sensibilities, learn what derivative means and then tell me if your near-and-dears are so goddamn original. If the second, I love ya, pal, and I know you’re trying, but you do too much. You do too much. 

For all of us in fandom, we understand that for every meta-critique, every genderqueer retelling, every better rewriting of a poorly articulated story, there are fifty hackneyed, hand-on-the-crotch, author-kink-specific "adult content” fics (Just in case tumblr got any ideas about censoring this post). And THAT’S NOT A BAD THING!

If you haven’t yet, you will meet people who will go out of their way to defend fanfiction’s literary qualities, but they Bowdlerize it! Sanitize! Clean! Purify. Intentional or not, and sometimes it is definitely intentional, many people feel that in order to justify and defend fanfiction, they must eliminate the porn, forego the smut, ignore the self-indulgent, half-crazed teenage lust that is the life’s blood of fanfiction. And that is some hypocritical, restrictive horseshit. Never mind the fan that chooses to throw the first stone, but what a fundamental misrepresentation on behalf of the authority! 

One of my favorite professors of all time offered fanfiction as an assignment option in every one of her classes. But she always did this with this fundamental misunderstanding of what fanfiction is and what it is for. Yes it CAN be incredible critical thought. Yes it CAN be a literary revolution. Yes, yes, yes. But it is not only this. And it always made me cringe to listen to her sing fanfiction’s praises without embracing all of the gutter trash that is my heritage, my home. I am by no means saying that fanfiction should not do all the meta-analysis and social critique that it can, will, and does do. But that is not all that fanficiton is nor should it be. Fanfiction is also the 18th coffeeshop AU you’ve read for the same ship. Fanfiction is also the soulmates AU for your rarepair. It’s the LOTR crossover. It’s the character death fic that serves no purpose but to make you sad. And it’s the OOC crack nightmare that you wrote at 4 am when you were 13 and don’t share with anyone, but it gave you joy to write. I will never defend fanfic without defending these also. 

And this is what my coworkers struggled with when I tried to explain. They could not accept this simple fact that fanfiction exists, primarily, for joy. And I would not treat fanfiction as high art existing only to hold a mirror up to media. Absolutely fuck that ivory tower bullshit. And they could not wrap their heads around enjoying this. 

One of them understood why I might write fic, but did not understand why I might want to read another’s. For this I can only cite his ego as the reason he would perhaps not like to read from someone else’s imagination. Another insisted that I ought to write my own work, rather than manipulate someone else’s characters. And this was someone who espoused death of the author and freedom from censorship! But still I could not convince her why it would be fun to play around in someone else’s sandbox. And the answer I gave at the time was not what I wanted it to be. I played it off as cowardice, fear of judgment about my own work. And, to be fair, that is one of the reasons I balk at original fiction, but again, fanfiction needs no justification! It is NOT second best! It is a full and legitimate art form in its own right, requiring new and different skills every bit as nuanced and delicate and time-consuming to acquire as those for any other kind of writing. Social acceptance does not make a creation good. Nor does profit or being studied by institutions. These things are accolades and easily recognized to mean value, but they themselves are not what make a creation good. You already know what does that.

And this is why it is so terribly hard to explain why fanfiction? You may as well ask why art?

[w-k-smith]

Once again, tumblr has hidden the version of this post that has links. (Clearly, weird fan fic where ghosts eat candy bars is just *too radical* for this website.) This story is also available on AO3, under the username w_k_smith.

Chapter Two is here of “Don’t Go to the Netherworld!”

In this chapter, Beetlejuice and Lydia make their way through Saturn, but are waylaid by Zagnuts, a boy band, and all the obstacles the desert otherworld has to offer.

Chapter One: “It’s a Wonderful Afterlife” (6/19/20) Chapter Two: “Worm Welcome” (07/03/20) Chapter Three: “Ghost to Ghost” (upcoming) Chapter Four: “To Beetle or not to Beetle?” (upcoming)

Warning:  This story contains depictions of, references to, and discussion of  topics like suicide, untimely death, abuse, and body horror - you know,  like the musical does (though this probably has more). Know your  boundaries, and stay safe.

New chapter under keep reading!

“I don’t understand,” Lydia said, as they crossed from the midnight  of the administrative area, toward the hot afternoon of Saturn, through  the twilight in between. “What’s Saturn? Are we going to the  planet…somehow?”

“Nope. Totally unrelated, and don’t ask me who  named it. Saturn is the part of the Netherworld that acts as a trap for  ghosts who get out of line, like if you try to leave the house you’re  haunting, or jump the line in processing like someone I could mention.  Going through processing would only take a couple steps, but Saturn is  an anti-shortcut from the feverish nightmares of M.C. Escher. It’s a  giant desert, and it’s full of sandworms. Those are snake monsters that  eat ghosts. Foreshadowing?” he muttered to himself.

“This is so weird,” Lydia muttered. “I love it.”

She didn’t seem like she was being sarcastic. Maybe hanging around her wasn’t going to be too terrible.

Unfortunately, he saw trouble ahead.

“Keep your head down,” he whispered to Lydia. “Look dead. Deader than that. And don’t sneeze! Dead people never sneeze!”

“What?”

“Hello, Beetlejuice,”  said five tenor voices in unison. A cluster of expressionless young  white men was drifting through the shadows toward him and Lydia. The  boys had died in their late teens and very early twenties, long enough  ago that two of them sported frosted tips. They were dressed just  differently enough to be distinguishable from one another, in dated  pants and t-shirts with no personality.

“Hey, Boy Inferno,” he grunted.

“What are you doing out here?” they asked. They all floated six inches off the ground, in a formation reminiscent of migrating ducks.

He rolled his eyes. “Just running an errand for Juno. Miss Argentina find that living intruder yet?”

“Not that we’ve heard. Who’s your friend?”

“New  hire. Juno wants her on border patrol. Her name’s Lydia, and she’s  boring. Kids these days, you know, they think eyeliner and TikTok counts  as personality. But them’s the rules: if you add to the work, you have  to help out.”

“Do you want to hear the introduction song, Lydia?”

Geez, they didn’t back off easy. “Save that for people who’ve committed genocide or worse.”

“We were talking to Lydia.”

At his elbow, Lydia scratched the end of her nose. Boy Inferno caught the gesture, and as one, cocked their heads.

“What did you die of…?” they asked her.

“Um,  I don’t want to talk about it,” Lydia said, which was the wrong thing.  All newlydeads ever wanted to do was blather on about how they’d bitten  it.

“OK, you got me!” He stepped between Lydia and the boys. “This  isn’t an approved mission to Saturn. We were actually trying to, ah,  hide out from Juno for a while. She is in a mood today, I tell ya. Just  impossible. She wants me to take a statement from all the recently  deceased who were in line when the alarm went off, and then pinch each  of them really, really hard to see if they still have nerve endings. I’d  rather swallow my own toenails. Remember that time Juno made me swallow  my own toenails? You were there for that, weren’t you? So be a  hive-minded pal and help me stay on the DL. This one already threatened to tattle if I didn’t show her my good hiding spot.” He jerked his head at Lydia.

Boy Inferno blinked.

“Alright, then,” they said, and each voice sounded suspicious. But they drifted back toward the administrative area.

Lydia stared as they went. “Who are those guys?”

“Boy  Inferno is a dead boy band. They didn’t have enough brains or  personality to be individuals when they were a living boy band, and when  their tour bus crashed, the situation got worse.”

“Yikes. And speaking of yikes, what were you saying about sandworms? Are they going to eat us?”

He  waggled one hand back and forth, and started walking. “Eh. It’s  probably OK. You’re alive, so they’ll leave you alone. I’m half-ghost,  half-demon, which confuses them more than anything. We’ll be fine if we  don’t run into a sandworm that’s pissed off or starving.” They were  crossing into Saturn proper. The terrain changed from dark gravel to  rolling sand dunes dotted with twisted rock formations. Wooden doors  hovered here and there, from three feet off the ground to 20 stories  high. There was the light and warmth of a yellow sun, but if you turned  in every direction, you would never see a sun or any other stars in the  royal blue sky.

“Huh. Now I kind of want to meet a sandworm...” Lydia said, looking around like one was going to pop out from behind a dune.

“Yup. That’s definitely foreshadowing.”

“So…what’s it like? Being half-demon? How does that, um, happen?”

He  waved his hands to turn them into sock puppets – one red and bearing a  vague resemblance to Juno, the other a grey blob and as good a  representation as he’d ever had of his father. “Hello, children!” he  said in a screechy voice. “Let’s talk about the occult birds and bees.  When a demon woman tolerates a living human male very much…”

She shoved him. “I know that, gross! I’m ace, but not completely ignorant. I just wondered if you were ever alive.”

He  put his hands back to normal. “Uh-huh. I was alive. Looooong time ago,  though. Long enough that we didn’t pay much attention to what year it  was, and only bathed twice a lifetime, and drank beer instead of water.  Hm. Or maybe that was all just me. Anyway, Juno only had me to see what  would happen if you mixed demon magic with ghost abilities. Turns out,  you get yours truly. She hated the result, and I never got any little  siblings to chase around. But it’s fine with the just the two of us; my  mom has this sweet thing she says to me every day: ‘I wish you had never  been born.’ I think it’s a Swedish pet name.”

“How did you die?” Lydia asked.

“I asked a bunch of annoying questions that weren’t any of my business and someone stabbed me.”

“Ha ha,” she deadpanned. “How far is it, anyway?” she asked, shading her eyes. “I don’t see anything…”

“Distance doesn’t really work like that here, and we could move way, way faster if we were both dead. But it’s pretty damn far.”

She sighed.

*

He  had to give Lydia Deetz this: she was a trooper. She was wearing a  dress, and boots that were very much not made for walking, but she kept  moving, eyes forward, not a single complaint. When her stomach growled  like an angry guard dog, she held her head high and acted like she  didn’t notice.

“OK, time for a break!” he said.

“No!” she said. “We have to keep going.”

“If  you keep going like this, you’re going to collapse, and then you’ll  die, and a sandworm will eat you, and that’s my whole day gone. Sit  down.”

“I don’t need to.”

She was going to give him grey  hairs, she really was. He shook one hand like he was shooing a fly, and  she stumbled backwards until she sat on the closest rock.

Lydia’s eyes bugged. “What am I – what are you –?”

“You’ve never been possessed before?”

She stood back up. He waved his hand again, and she sat.

“No, keep it up,” he said. “This is fun.”

He flicked his fingers, and her expression brightened.

“Beetlejuice, you’re my role model!” she said, in a tone much more chipper than any that had ever come out of her mouth, he was sure. He released her.

Lydia’s face soured like old milk mixed with lemon juice, and she made the fingers-down-the-throat gesture. “I’ll sit for five minutes. Don’t do that again.”

“I  always knew I’d make a great babysitter!” He settled on the other side  of the rock. He folded his hands over his stomach, figuring he’d take a  nap if she stayed quiet.

She didn’t. “My mom would love all this,”  Lydia said. “Her favorite holiday was Halloween. We’d make our own  haunted houses in the garage – but in the summer, when no one in the  neighborhood was expecting it. She liked the weird stuff in the world.  Or – she likes the weird stuff in the world. She doesn’t just avoid it, like most people do. Like my dad does. I think she’ll like you, even.”

He  wanted to make a face at the idea of a well-adjusted person liking him  (though it was a nice feeling, deep in his black heart), but Lydia  couldn’t see him, so it would be wasted effort.

She was quiet for a while, and he thought he was free to drift off to sleep.

“Um…do you have any food?” she asked.

He reached into his jacket and pulled out a handful of Zagnuts. He tossed the kid two. “Here ya go.”

“Why so many Zagnuts?” Lydia asked. “They’re good, but I didn’t think people ate these anymore.”

“It’s the only candy in the vending machines in the Netherworld.”

“Really? Why?”

“Because everything around here is at a baseline of low-grade crappiness. Haven’t you noticed?”

“Are  you really supposed to spend eternity here when you die?” she asked, in  a muffled way that told him she’d bitten off half a candy bar at once.  “It seems like it should either be a whole lot better or a whole lot  worse.”

“You aren’t supposed to spend eternity here; that’s the  point,” he said. He popped a Zagnut into his mouth, and swallowed it  wrapper and all. “You have to move on, eventually.”

“To what?”

“Do I look like a priest? Or a philosopher? Or a TV psychic?”

“The  last one, a little. A bad one. The kind who gets tricked by reporters  to help contact their dead kid, but it turns out the kid is really alive  and just in the next booth over in the Denny’s.”

“Touché. The  point is, nobody around here knows. You hang around the administrative  area until you’re ready to go into the miserable nothingness of the  Abyss, and then you swirl around in the Abyss until…I dunno, something  else happens. Maybe you just stay in the Abyss forever. I don’t plan on  finding out anytime soon.”

“Is that where my mom is?”

“Yup.  If she didn’t come running when you first came through the door, she’s  definitely gone through security. Don’t worry, though. You poke your  head into the Abyss and shout her name a few times, and she’ll come  right out.”

He lied easily. He always had.

“I’m just  surprised she hasn’t tried to contact us,” Lydia said. “I guess she must  be confused, because we moved and everything. My dad dragged me out to  Connecticut, away from New York and all our friends and family, to work  on this stupid gated community project he has in mind. And he took my  annoying life coach with us. She’s friendly and positive,  and keeps trying to make me fill out a star chart. I don’t know why he  thinks she’s helping me. It’s not like there aren’t actual therapists in  Connecticut. I don’t get it.”

He chewed another Zagnut for a  beat, waiting to see if she was making a joke. Then he broke the news.  “Your dad is boinking the life coach.”

“What?!” she said. She whirled around the rock to sit right next to him. “How can you know that?”

“Um, because I’m an adult with a brain.” He grabbed the top of his head and lifted his skull to show his grey matter.

“He isn’t…Dad’s not…” She slumped. “He’s totally sleeping with her.”

“Totally,” he agreed.

“How could he do that? Mom’s only been dead a few months. Well…when he sees Mom – if he just talks to her again – he’ll understand what an ass he’s been.”

“Uh-huh,” he said, non-committedly.

“How much farther do we have?” she asked.

“Long enough to aaaaaaalmost make you give up and collapse in despair.”

She groaned.

For  a second, he thought her groan was superhumanly long and loud, and he  prepared to be impressed. Then he noticed the ground was shaking.

“Looks like it’s our unlucky day!” he said. “Run!”

They  both got to their feet, and made it about five steps before the sand  exploded to their left. A sandworm rose from the earth, its  black-and-white stripes blurring into grey. At the peak of its jump, its  inner head came out of its mouth, eyes glaring, jaw snapping.

It dove back down toward them.

He  dodged one way, and Lydia dodged the other. The spray of sand blocked  out everything, and when it all cleared, the sandworm had risen from the  ground again, undulating in and out of the dunes. Lydia stood in place,  looking all around. But it was hard to know where to run when you were  being attacked by a sandworm.

The sandworm’s chomping heads came out of the ground an arm’s length from Lydia. She yelled, and punched it in the closest eye.

The  heads hissed and thrashed, knocking Lydia down. The sandworm dove down,  and the sand around them whirled and roiled, until he felt like he was  standing in boiling dirt.

When the sandworm rose again, it  accidentally scooped up Lydia. She showed a little more survival  instinct than she had before, and clung to the sandworm’s back.

“Knock it off!”  he heard her say. She nudged the sandworm with her left boot, and the  sandworm turned to the right. But it had had enough of its passenger,  and whipped its body to throw Lydia like a beanbag.

She shrieked as she fell through the air. He stretched his legs, about 20 feet, and caught her.

As  he dragged her back to the ground, he braced himself for another attack  by the sandworm. Maybe if he transformed into something big and scary,  showed some lionfish spines or extra limbs, the worm would leave them  alone. Getting swallowed would be no good. Not only did he usually try  to avoid getting eaten, but sandworms’ digested prey just wound up back in processing…after a wait of at least a decade or so.

The  sandworm jumped over their heads, dove into the ground, and kept going.  Its writhing body upset every dune it plowed through, but it didn’t  double back.

He wasn’t going to look a gift worm in the mouth.

“And don’t come back!” he yelled. “G’on, git! Git!”

Lydia jumped out of his arms. “That was awesome! I thought I was going to die, but it was awesome.”

He  was more tired than he’d been in a while. He was tired like Juno had  been screaming at him for hours. Also, there was a lot of sand in his  shoes. “You did OK But why the hell did you try to punch it in the  face?”

She didn’t look ashamed in the slightest. “I thought it  would be like avoiding a shark attack. That’s what the Discovery guy  said during Shark Week: punch the shark hard in the eye so it leaves you alone.”

“Since when has punching something made it leave you alone?” he asked. “That has never worked when I’ve tried it with people.”

“Because then the shark – or the sandworm – thinks you’re too much of a threat and it ignores you. I made it go away, didn’t I?’

“I  seriously doubt you’re what made it leave, Karate Kid. If a sandworm  had its multiple hearts set on eating us, it would take more than your  mechanical bull riding skills to dissuade it. I don’t know – I’m not so  sure it was all that interested in us.”

“If it wasn’t going for us, why did it come over here?”

“I said I don’t know! I’m not a sandworm scientist.”

“Your hair is changing color,” she said, pointing at his head.

“Can you blame me? I’m pretty pissed off right now.”

She brightened. “It changes color with your mood?”

“Yeah.”

“Can I touch it?”

He  grunted, and tilted his head. She patted some strands on the right side  of his head, which were dark green at the tips, but probably working  their way to red. The cocoon the caterpillar had made behind his ear  popped open, and a death’s-head hawkmoth shot into the air and planted  itself on Lydia’s nose.

“Augh!” she yelped, and fell right on her ass. He doubled over laughing while she tried to get back up with dignity.

“You’ve taken things too far this time, Beetlejuice!”

Once, just once, he’d like to go 48 hours without hearing those words shouted at him.

He turned to see Miss Argentina stomping up a sand dune, clipboard in hand, sash askew, which meant she was really really really upset.

“What have I done this time?” he asked, resigned.

“What have you done this  time?” Miss Argentina pointed at Lydia. “Let’s start with child  endangerment! And the fact that your disappearance has about given Juno  apoplexy.”

“Ah, she loves me.”

“No! She just knows  that if she hasn’t heard from you in twelve hours, it means you’re up to  something! And that means the rest of us suffer! I’m just glad she gave  me clearance to go to Saturn to look for your sorry, sagging ass, so at  least I was able shoo a sandworm away from some newlydeads. I have a  sneaking suspicion you bear some responsibility for that, too?”

“OK,  that is both not fair and completely true,” he said. “And I’ll have you  know I’m doing a good deed. I’m guiding this one around the  Netherworld.” He jerked his head at Lydia.

“And why, in the name of all that is sacred, would you consider that a good idea?”

“Um…”  He faltered. He may have been able to fudge a few details with Lydia,  but Miss Argentina had been around long enough to know how the Abyss  worked.

“Newlydeads…” Lydia said. “That must have been what attracted the sandworm. It wasn’t coming for us after all.”

“Why  did you drag newlydeads with you?” he asked, happy to change the  subject. “What, did you need help shouting at me? Anger backup singers?”

“Of  course not.” Miss Argentina frowned. “But – that’s a good idea.” She  clicked her pen, and scribbled on her clipboard. “I am actually writing  that down. If Boy Inferno is free…”

“Excuse me!” came a woman’s voice from the bottom on the dune. “I’m so sorry – could you wait just a minute?”

“It’s very hard to walk on sand!” came a sexy, nasal male voice from the same direction.

“These  newlydeads have a problem, you see,” said Miss Argentina, her voice  icy. But something was wrong – she wasn’t looking at him. Her gaze was  fixed on Lydia. “Apparently, a living person used their Handbook without  permission.”

Lydia became interested in the horizon. “Huh. That’s weird.”

Miss Argentina jabbed a finger in Lydia’s face. “Oh, don’t even try that on me, living girl. I am not in the mood today.”

“Whoof! We made it.” The newlydead couple crested the dune…and he was smitten.

The  woman was white, a pretty blonde, in a green wrap dress and  suburban-mom-at-the-nice-grocery-store boots. Her companion was a  beautiful Desi man, with light brown skin and a lock of black hair  hanging over his forehead that he immediately wanted to run his fingers through.

“Oooooh…” he said. “Hello, sexy…”

Lydia looked at him with a scientific expression. “Which one?”

“The  Trader Joe’s guardian angels over here. Not that Miss A isn’t pretty  easy on the eyes herself, but she’s a friend of Ellen, know what I mean?  A patron of U-Haul. An adopter of shelter cats. Wrong tree, is what I’m  saying. But she loves me platonically.”

“She doesn’t,” Miss Argentina said.

The couple pushed past him and bent over Lydia.

“Oh, thank goodness!” the woman said.

“Lydia!” said the man. “I’m so glad we found you. We were worried sick!”

“Adam, Barbara?” Lydia said. “What…what are you doing here? You weren’t supposed to go to the Netherworld.”

[scgdoeswhat]

Unpacking The Elementalists Finale

I’d like to dedicate this to my dear Kane anon (and other TE anons) who have been hitting my ask box up for the last several months. I’m sorry this took forever to get out and I know it doesn’t ease the fact that they ixnayed Kane, but hopefully this makes a little more sense of TE’s abrupt ending.

Without further ado...

I’ve been wanting to make this post since Book 2 Chapter 10, but life has been hectic. TE’s finale finally forced my hand and so here I am, with a bunch of theories, points, and thoughts I've had noted since the book came back from its hiatus. First off, now that TE is officially over (😭) we now know that the hiatus was primarily used to tie up all the loose story lines and to give us a tidy ending. The writing in the second half of the book was more solid, concise, and had a clear cut vision of what the writers wanted and where the plot was headed. As much as I hate to say it, the first half of the book may have been overly ambitious. They introduced the Moral Compass, potentially two villains in Kane and Alma, and a plethora of different storylines. I had a number of people tell me through the first five/six chapters of Book 2 that they were confused with the plot because it became too convoluted and hard to follow along. I think they introduced too many elements into the story, which dragged down the arc. Let’s break down some of these individually: The Moral Compass was something we were all excited to see implemented, because it gave us the potential to be an evil MC. In the end, we know it didn’t make much of a difference, save for dialogue and/or violent options. I think this was originally something intended to be greater than what it amounted to, and part of it is the limitations of the medium that the app is and simply, resources. This also ties into…. The plot involving Kane and Alma. I don’t believe having Kane as the Big Bad was supposed to be as defined as it ended up being. The two Sources were written far more ambiguous in the beginning, with the chance that depending on your choices, you could side with either one by the end of the book and/or series. The hiatus streamlined the plot, discarding elements that were difficult to pull off, including multiple MC point of views that may have held the possibility of being evil or choosing Kane, therefore placing Alma as the antagonist. In a narrative story app such as Choices (as opposed to Lovestruck, where the routes have the same players but different stories altogether), I just don’t think this advanced storytelling would have been doable. These plots are primarily linear, and MC being evil/with Kane/etc, it would present a different set of problems, including the fact that this becomes an entirely different story while there is supposed to be one solid ending. (For what it's worth, I enjoy the MC customizability of Choices more.) Looking at the group of friends, obviously Beckett was incredibly fleshed out while the others were not as much. I wanted to delve further into our friends’ backgrounds a bit more, and I think at the beginning of the book, we were on that path. Aster and her wood nymph family was a perfect example of table setting. We had two or three scenes before the hiatus to go to the forest, and I thought the Wand Wars and their involvement against Kane was slated to be more prominent. I think the writers had something bigger planned, but how would it all tie in if players started choosing the evil choices? Again, having too many choices causes a domino effect that makes it nearly impossible to navigate when the story is supposed to end with a particular goal in mind. The chapter where we can receive the wand was a symptom of ending the book early and I think the execution of the actual Wand Wars scene was lacking the emotional punch the initial introduction of it warranted. This is unfortunate because the setup they had in Book 1 made it seem much more violent, disastrous, and full of hate compared to what was shown (i.e. Attuned just being greedy bastards). We were introduced to Shreya's Serene & Sublime business and the potential of family disapproval and lack of support in the beginning, but everything was tied up with the gala chapter. Looking back, I was curious why it was so easy to get so many financial backers this early into the series, but knowing that TE only went for two books makes much more sense why we knew whether S&S succeeded or failed. (Tangent - for anyone who didn't secure backing, is S&S successful at the end of the book?) I think Griffin, his scholarship, and his decision between Natural Sciences and Thief was also slated to be a bigger subplot. We never met his parents, despite them being brought up very early in Book 1. If TE had gone the originally planned three or four books, I have no doubt his family would've been introduced and MC would have needed to help sway his parents (and the committee for the scholarship) whether Griffin continued on the NS or professional Thief path. Doing the Griffin scenes (even as platonic friends) influenced his standing for the scholarship and not doing them made him lose out to Amy, if I'm not mistaken. Question for everyone regarding Zeph and the Thief captaincy: Does he get it in everyone's playthrough? I wonder if the writers always planned for Zeph to get the captaincy or if Griff would have kept it depending on your playthrough if they had all four books to use. Another big plot point that resolved itself out of nowhere was Atlas and MC butting heads over their Sun Source mother. I was not a fan of this storyline at all. I felt like the disagreements between the siblings was unnecessary drama that came off as forced. They tried to explain Atlas' position, and I understood where they were coming from, but Atlas was very unreasonable with their constant “who cares about mom” shtick.

I think this was something that could have been more impactful if there weren't so many plotlines happening and more focus could have been given to it instead of a few screens of Atlas saying they were pissed off before storming away from MC. This was also a plotline that was directly influenced by the Kane/Alma decisions. If MC sides with Kane, it makes much more sense for MC and Atlas to be against each other as opposed to MC being good/siding with Alma.

Five major subplots were opened, but how do you seamlessly weave these elements into a 17-19 chapter book? In my opinion, you can't. Each time something new was introduced, I felt things were glossed over, despite big chunks of chapters being focused on whichever subplot the chapter was about. Throw in the romance and I think it is nearly impossible to resolve each aspect in a complete manner.

What also hurt was the pacing of the series. This was also seen in Book 1, where sometimes a chapter would span one or two days, only for a huge time jump to occur in the next chapter.

So many ideas could have been explored through the course of four books (which is what I believe they had planned), but all the different elements should have been introduced at different times. Instead, Book 2 was an amalgamation of so many ideas but not enough time, space, or resources to thoroughly hash out and have a satisfactory resolution. For what it’s worth, I don’t think it was having too much Beckett that hurt the series. He obviously kept the series afloat and was one of PB's biggest moneymakers in recent history. Despite the constant complaints on tumblr, people fail to realize that the ENTIRE online fandom (FB, IG, Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit, Wiki) comprises maybe 0.5% - 2% of the ENTIRE player fan base. It only made sense that PB capitalized on him because their numbers dictated that the resources should be spent in that manner. The fallout from this was that Beckett was the only one who had his storyline relatively complete, and that was due to the spending power of everyone who romanced him. I think what hurt them the most was the multiple storylines and the indecision of which direction they wanted to go. They had a grand idea of the direction through Book 2 (and Book 3, let’s not lie here) but in-game mechanics and the type of game Choices is made it difficult to pull off. The app wasn’t the correct medium for what they envisioned. In my opinion, the overall story arc had the potential to be brilliant, but again, the app wasn't designed for the type of story the writers wanted to tell.

I also think the timing and having a very short turnaround hurt, as well. Players had high expectations and when you factor in the hype around the other books that were also released on Fridays, TE lost some of its sparkle. Most players didn’t get a chance to miss it for the regular 2-3 months we’ve been trained to wait for sequels. (I recognize that I’m an anomaly and the previous three sentences do not apply to me at all.)

Even with all this, I applaud the writing team for wanting to deliver a story that was worthy of a magical world. I love all the Pend Pals (‘Motley Crue’ for me), the familiars, the side characters, loved to hate the villains, and from someone who is not into Harry Potter lore at all, I was absolutely sucked into the magick universe that the writers built. (Metal Att for life ⚙!)

If TE does return in the future (and I REALLY hope it does), I think it will be even stronger than the first two books because the world building is complete. We know almost everything we need to know now. Instead of using a Book 3 to search for Sun Mama, the family is complete, MC and Atlas are attuned to all the elements, and there are so many open-ended questions that Book 2 left us.

If they implement a time jump where MC and the Pend Pals are all post grad/mid 20s, it also gives the writers a chance to move the story from the Young Adult genre to a more mature setting. We saw this in the later diamond scenes, where the writing appeared similar in their vividness (and coding in the final scene - THANK YOU, glorious writing team) to Open Heart, Bloodbound, and A Courtesan of Rome. This removes the restrictions placed on the group of being college kids, and therefore are almost fully developed with their magick, giving the possibility of moving the story out of a university setting.

If you've made it all the way here to the bottom, thank you for sticking with me and apologies for spelling/grammar since this has all been on my phone 😂 I think this comprises almost all my notes I've been keeping for the last 2 months. Feel free to agree or disagree; I just wanted to post my thoughts on this book and series that I love so much.

Now, I'm going to go back to my holiday (don't worry, I didn't write all of this while on vacay lol) and I'll try to answer asks when I have downtime.

[let-it-raines]

Catch Me If You Can (11/?)

298 days. That’s how long Killian Jones was away from a baseball field. It’s less than a year, only part of a season for him, but it might as well have lasted a decade as he alternated between physical therapy and spending an excessive amount of time sitting on his couch.

But then he came back and won the World Series.

It’s something no one saw coming, and it’s certainly not something anyone who knows about his arm would predict. Now it’s a new season with new possibilities, and anything could happen. On-field reporter Emma Swan will be there to cover it all even if she is not his biggest fan right now.

Asking her out live on-air will do that.

Rating: Mature

A/N: I’ve been really working on this behind the scenes and have about 80% of the story finished now. With that being said, if I start posting twice a week (hopefully), do you guys prefer a posting schedule or my usual surprise?

Anyways, this chapter picks up where the last one took off! Thanks for reading, pals ❤️ @resident-of-storybrooke you’re the real MVP ❤️

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-/-

Warmth radiates over Emma as her body starts to wake up, her senses slowly coming back to her while she thinks about how comfortable this bed is.

This bed.

That’s not her bed.

It’s a hotel bed.

And not her hotel bed either.

She tries to keep her body from going stiff, tries to keep herself from jumping and running away, but with the way that her heart is beating, it may very well power her into the hallway and up the elevator to her bedroom all on its own. Is she anxious or excited or every single feeling in the world all at once?

Probably that last one. Maybe exclude anger and grief and all of the emotions in whatever sector that is.

Right now, she’s got Killian’s body pressed into hers, cradling her really. She’s never known for people to actually sleep like this, most of them drifting apart to their own sides of the bed, but it seems like they’ve somehow drifted together.

(Her life is kind of resembling a romantic comedy right now, and she’s not sure how she feels about that continuously happening when she’s never been one to be a main character in her own story. Until these past few years, at least.)

A solid chest is molded into her back, a strong arm is wrapped around her stomach with its hand sitting under her sweater against the bare skin of her belly, and a leg that is very much not hers is stuck in between her thighs. That would be nothing if she couldn’t feel Killian’s erection pressing into the crease of her ass, and she can’t decide if that feels good or if she’s ready to get the hell out of Dodge.

(It feels really good.)

Woah. When did she start quoting things about Western movies? Has she ever even seen a Western movie? That’s probably completely beside the point. Her life is apparently a romantic comedy, not a Western.

And maybe a bit of a drama and horror film wrapped all up in one. A new genre altogether.

Killian’s breathing is so steady behind her, the warmth of his breath coming out onto her neck and making a shiver run down her spine, that she knows that he’s still asleep, that he doesn’t know what’s happening. It’s comfortable even if she’s still freaking out a bit, but she’s kind of coming into the idea of letting someone hold her, if only for a little while.

She likes him. They’re…dating, right? Sleeping over and spooning and sharing emotional backstories before making out is totally something that’s normal for people who are dating.

Emotional backstories.

Killian had an awful day yesterday. She thought maybe it was just his pitching, that he was simply having an off day out on the field, and while that was true, she had no idea he was harboring all of that about his parents, his father specifically. For as much information as there is out there on Killian, his family isn’t something many people know about. She didn’t. All she knew was that he had an older brother and these two adorable little nieces.

A dead mom and a deadbeat dad weren’t something she ever really considered.

She doesn’t…she doesn’t have parents, never had that support system, never knew what it was like to be loved by the two people who were supposed to love her more than anything, and as angry and upset and saddened as that makes her, at least she never had any other expectations other than to be let down by them.

With everything they failed at, they’ve always excelled in that particular category.

Suddenly, there’s movement behind her, fingers moving across her stomach and lips moving across her neck in such a soft way that she melts back into Killian so that she can be as physically close to him as possible. All of that fear and anxiousness dissipates, if only for a moment.

“I can practically hear you thinking,” he mumbles into her skin, his voice dark and gravely as heat curls between her thighs. “Do you always wake up and stiffen like a board?”

Do not make a morning wood joke, Emma. Do not.

“I am not stiff,” she weakly protests, trying to let some of the tenseness in her body release as she sinks down against Killian so that her foot runs over his calf. His hand is really warm. “I didn’t know that we fell asleep here last night.”

It’s Killian’s turn to stiffen, but only for a second, before he’s pulling back from her and encouraging her to roll over to face him with a tug of his hand on her stomach. She does, trying not to elbow him or do something else painful, and really hoping that her mascara didn’t run. Oh shit. She still has on her makeup from yesterday. Her skin is going to murder her.

Killian, of course, is unfairly attractive and sleep-rumpled, his hair sticking in several unnatural directions and his beard a little scruffier than usual, red pillow creases marking his face as he smiles at her, a soft little thing that doesn’t quite reach his squinted eyes.

Oh boy is she in trouble with this one.

“Judging by the fact that I didn’t wake up alone, I’m guessing you’re okay with that?”

“I mean, I don’t think I could have gotten out of the strangle hold you put me in without waking you up so…”

She trails off, pulling her bottom lip between her teeth and trying to decide what to say. She’s never been good at this morning after stuff. Neal didn’t care for showing affection outside of sex, and with Walsh it always felt…unnatural. And it doesn’t help that the little red mark on Killian’s cheek makes her want to spill her own secrets about her not-so-great family life.

“Swan, what’s going on in that mind of yours this morning?”

“I was,” she starts, her heart practically a jackhammer in her chest at this point. Killian can probably feel it. “I was thinking about how honored I was to have you share your past with me last night, and I was thinking maybe I should tell you about mine too.”

“You don’t have to do that. I didn’t share for you to feel like you have to as well.”

“I know, I know. I just – I want to.”

He nods his head at the same time that his hand flexes against her hip, his thumb rubbing soothing circles into the skin above her leggings. “If you want to, love.”

“Yeah, yeah, I do.” She takes a deep breath, knowing that it’s not enough and starts. “Well, I told you about Ruth and David and how I love them, but they’re not my biological family or anything. That shouldn’t give me any hang ups, but it does because…because I have trouble thinking of Ruth as my mom when I spent my entire childhood thinking of someone woman I don’t even know that way, which is really fucked up because I do think of David as being my brother and Leo my nephew.”

His brow quirks, “What do you mean?”

“I – I never imagined having any siblings, but when I was in foster care, I always thought about my parents and what they were doing or what they were like. I used to have these crazy dreams about them, you know?”

“Yeah?” Killian reaches over and tucks her hair behind her ear, his fingers light to the touch as her eyes close for one second simply to give herself some time. “Like what?”

“I don’t know. It’s just…I would make up stories for why they had to give me up. Maybe they were superheroes saving the world, so they gave me up for the greater good. Maybe they were doctors or lawyers or something else, and it just wouldn’t work out for them to have a baby. I just don’t know. It’s hard to think of now because in reality, I probably know that they were teenagers who couldn’t raise a baby or maybe a mom in a bad situation that wouldn’t let her keep me. So, it’s probably stupid to have ever thought that they were heroes when all they’ve done is break my heart.”

“Hey,” he soothes, his brows furrowed together, before wiping away the tear that’s fallen onto her cheek. Great. Now she’s crying. She probably looks really sane right now, especially if her mascara is already messed up. “That wasn’t stupid. I would have done the exact same thing. Emma, darling, I can’t pretend to know how it was for you growing up just like you can’t do the same for me, but, if I may be so bold, it’s our parents’ loss for not being in our lives the way they should. I know that I struggle with accepting this myself, but it had nothing to do with us. It had nothing to do with you.”

“Yeah, because I’m a real catch all the time.”

She sniffles, blinking away the new tears that she’s refusing to let fall. This is not at all how this was supposed to go, but she couldn’t not tell him when he’d already shared. She has so much baggage, so many things that she’s going to have to tell him if they keep doing this, and her issues with her parents and the foster system in general are only scratching the surface.

How in the world do people do this? How do they trust someone else to carefully protect the intimacies of their heart and their life, every scar mapped out on a piece of paper handed over in a fragile glass case that is already filled with cracks?

How is she doing some of that right now when sometimes she can’t even talk to David or Ruby, the two people who have been there for her more than anyone else?

What a piece of work.

Or Ruth. The woman who helped change everything for her and who she still sometimes treats like a stranger.

Killian smiles at her, his thumb still tracing her cheekbone so that every touch electrifies her. The soft cocoon that they were in last night, the darkness and blankets surrounding them, has extended until this morning with sunlight filtering through the window, and maybe it can last a little bit longer.

“I know I may be a little biased because you are in my bed and all.” He stops here to waggle his eyebrows across his forehead as she gently pushes him, the smallest of chuckles escaping her. “But I think you are quite the catch. I like that you’re real, that you’re messy. It makes me feel a hell of a lot more normal.”

She scoffs, her chest heaving the slightest bit. “I don’t think you’ll ever be normal.”

“Good. Life is boring that way.” And then he’s leaning forward and slowly, softly, reverently gliding his lips over hers in a caress of a kiss that sends the butterflies in her stomach on a migration path all the way down to her toes. How can she keep doing that for the rest of the day? She’d sign up in a minute No, a second. “We make quite the team, don’t we, love?”

“A couple of real winners, twenty-nine.” All of the sudden, Killian groans, rolling away from her and onto his back as his arm stretches up so that he can pinch the bridge of his nose. “What?” she laughs, propping herself up on her elbow to look down at him as her other hand traces his biceps. She really likes his biceps.

“Don’t get me wrong. I’m really rather fond of the whole number nickname thing, but it just reminded me that we have to get our asses out of bed and go to work today.”

Work. She has work today. Killian has work today. Of course they do.

“Why you gotta bring me down like that?”

“Because the world sucks, and I’m evil.” His eyes flutter open, light blue contrasted against tan skin, and a smile stretches from the left side of his lips to the right. Here come those butterflies again. “But I do feel like we have a little bit of time left before I have to go meet the trainer and be at the fields.”

“I have less time than you do.”

“Pity that.”

In a swift movement, Killian twists to the side and moves around the bed until his knees are planted on either side of her thighs and his palms are splayed out next to her head. Every bit of their bodies are close to each other, heat still radiating off of Killian, and she tugs her bottom lip between her teeth, anticipation at what this position usually means humming through her body.

She definitely needs to get laid, but she’s not quite ready for that yet. It’s been a long damn time since sex for her involved feelings, and feelings would no doubt be involved here.

A lot of them.

So, making out like teenagers will have to do.

What a tragic life that she lives.

(And she’s definitely feeling a bit of whiplash for how quickly this situation flipped on its head.)

Killian drops his head down, his nose brushing against the dip in her collarbone before he’s biting down, hard, and then soothing his mark with his tongue all the while his scruff scratches against her skin. It took a while to get used to that, to not be irritated by the scratch of a beard instead of the smoothness of bare skin, but she can’t say she minds. Not at all.

What she does mind is that as her hips are arching up into Killian’s, he pulls back and removes his lips from her body.

(She also doesn’t love the whine that just passed through her lips, but that was feeling really damn good.)

“What are you doing?” she groans, looping her hands around the back of his neck and threading her fingers through his hair to pull his lips down closer to hers. “I was enjoying that.”

“As was I.” His voice is hoarse, a little darker than usual, and it reminds her so much of how it was when he woke up that heat curls between her thighs. But no, not ready. “I was simply thinking that maybe we should get breakfast.”

“I’m fine doing this.” Her stomach growls, rather loudly, and she wants to melt into the mattress, especially when Killian’s brow perks up. “Okay, maybe I’m a little hungry. I should probably also brush my teeth.”

“It is the most important meal of the day, and I do appreciate dental hygiene.”

“So, how can we get breakfast if it’s all a secret?”

“Room service, Swan.” He says it like it’s the most obvious statement in the world, and maybe it is, but then he’s lowering his head to briefly kiss her once more and thoughts fly out of her head. “Or we can get some more of your vending machine treats since Ariel pilfered some of them last night.”

“The thief.”

“Shameful.”

“I think I’m okay with room service.”

“Good.”

-/-

“Smile.” Emma holds up the camera to Will Scarlet’s face, a little alien covering his features even as he scowls. “Come on, you’ve got to smile. You guys are crushing it today, and we’re probably only going to be out here for another thirty minutes.”

“What filter do you have on me?”

“It’s an alien.” She snaps a picture and turns the phone around to show him. “See. It’s supposed to be fun, Scarlet. You’re twenty-seven, and you don’t use snapchat or Instagram filters? Are you secretly a grandpa? Come on. I know that Belle uses them.”

He raises a brow, and somehow, she swears it’s even more prominent than when Killian does it. “You follow Belle on Instagram?”

She shrugs her shoulders as there’s a ding of bat against ball and Forester hits a foul into the stands. That’s his third for the day. She should probably be focusing on that, but it’s the top of the ninth and 7-1. There likely aren’t going to be any big developments, and she’s currently trying to get some more fun behind the scenes stuff for her social media by hounding all of the guys in the dugout. Funny filters are a surprisingly big hit, especially when she can get the bigger names like Will and Robin or Eric to do it.

Robin made an adorable dog while Eric’s head went all twisty and his voice got high as she asked him questions about the game and how today differs from yesterday.

(The short answer: every day is different. The real answer: Robin was their starting pitcher instead of Killian.)

“Part of my job. I have to know what’s going on in your lives. Also, she followed me after that night we all hung out in California, and sometimes we comment on each other’s pictures. It’s obviously a true friendship in the making.”

“Obviously. What’s all this stuff for? I thought you just interviewed us and were, like, the super tough Emma Swan who doesn’t take shit from any of us.”

“Well, I am that,” she corrects, swiping through the filters with Will as several people walk by to get their cups of water. It smells horrible in here, and as much as she doesn’t want to admit it, she’s probably contributed to that with how much she’s sweating today. New York’s summer weather can be just awful (and the smell makes it so much worse), but they’re not quite there yet. Down here, though, May might as well be August. “Which is why I’m currently bugging you, but I’ve also been asked to do some of this stuff. You know, fun. You’re literally the funniest person on this team. I figured you’d be all for this. Come on. I’ll find Jones in the locker room afterwards and give him the most unflattering filter there is.”

Will smiles at that as a small bit of laughter passes through his lips. “Okay, but I want you to do the one that turns him into a baby.”

“Deal.”

-/-

“There is an entire plane full of people, and yet I find you sitting in the corner next to the bathroom all by yourself.”

She looks up from where she’s typing out all of her travel expenses (at least the ones she can charge to work anyways) in the form she fills out after every road series, only to see Killian standing above her with a cap pulled low on his forehead like that’s somehow going to disguise the fact that he’s over here talking to her. These guys see him wearing a hat more often than they see him without one, and they’re on a plane. There’s really no hiding away. She would know. That’s what she was trying to do to get some work done, and she’s been found.

“I had to fill out my travel expenses and then get some work done. They’re letting me help out with some of the intro clips for the next few home games.”

“Really? That’s great, love.”

“I know. I’m excited for it.”

He nods his head to the empty seat next to her. “Can I sit?”

Worry circles around in her stomach as she presses up in her seat to look around them. There’s no one for at least four rows, and most everyone seems to be sleeping or watching a movie.

Still. This likely isn’t the best idea. Sneaking away to his hotel room seems simple and innocent enough, but they almost got caught there when behind closed doors. This is right out in the open even if the lights are dimmed to almost blackness.

How in the world do people in all of those books and movies do this secret dating thing? It’s complicated.

Then again, when isn’t it? Ugh, she feels so much like Avril Lavigne right now.

“Is that a good idea?” she worries.

Killian raises his hands. “Just to sit and talk. There will be no funny business.”

“Well, that would require you to be funny to begin with.”

He rolls his eyes, but he’s smiling that million-dollar smile all at the same time. “I’ll have you know that I’m hysterical. Just today I did an entire interview with a filter on my face that made me look like I had a giant forehead and sound like an animated rodent.”

(She couldn’t find the baby filter Will wanted.)

“Just sit down, you weirdo.”

He does, picking up her carry-on bag and placing it in the empty row next to them, before settling down next to her and stretching his seatbelt across his stomach even though the light isn’t on. She bets he’s an insane stickler for rules. It would fit right in with everything she knows about him.

“So,” he murmurs, not-so-slyly looping his calf under hers so that she can feel the warmth of his calf against hers, “is work the only reason you’re hanging out back here alone?”

Does she hate that he already knows him so well, or does she secretly appreciate it?

Is there even an answer to that question?

“I just needed…I needed some time to do some work stuff and decompress. It’s been kind of a heavy few days, and believe it or not, I do have to spend a little time away from people every now and then.”

“What? No? You?” He taps his shoulder into hers, and she closes her laptop, knowing for a fact that she’s not going to get any work done like this. “I thought you were always a people person who always needed to be around others.”

“Ha ha,” she huffs, stretching her feet out as much as she can, “you’re so funny.”

“I thought you just said that I wasn’t funny.”

“Obviously that was sarcasm.”

“So I am funny?”

“No. Wait, what? How did I lose track of this conversation in so little words?”

“I find that my handsome face tends to make people lose their train of thought.”

She twists to the side and pinches the skin of his forearm, leaving it red and angry. The height of maturity. Always. Killian doesn’t even flinch.

“Honesty time?” she asks, leaning her head back and twisting it to the side so that she can look into Killian’s eyes. This is such a familiar sight, so similar to last night and this morning, but it’s all different now. Everything seems to be outside of the safe comfort of a hotel room.

“I like honesty. We seem to be very good at that.”

“Our track record is pretty good in the last twenty-four hours.”

“So,” he nudges, moving his foot underneath hers to move them the slightest bit closer to each other. Her hand itches to reach out for his, but she holds back. “Let’s talk about what’s on your mind.”

Why does the sound of his voice make her want to spill her secrets every single time? He’s like a freaking snake charmer, and she’s fully convinced that snakes should never be charmed. Everyone should stay far, far away from any and all snakes.

But not the charmers.

Not when they seem so genuine.

Her life doesn’t make sense anymore, but she doesn’t really care. Well, no, she does care. She cares a lot, and it’s why she’s about to spurt out some words that she would have never dared say in any other relationship. She never really had to.

“I, um,” she stutters, blinking at him several times as no features on Killian’s face change, his leg a heavy presence against hers, “what are we doing?”

“Talking, I think,” he laughs as a brow raises on his forehead and a smile stretches across his lips. “But I’m guessing you don’t mean at this current moment.”

“Perceptive.” “You’re an open book.”

“I’ve heard that one before. From you, actually.”

“It’s true. You’re a very fascinating book, though.”

“A regular Harry Potter.”

“Most definitely.” His hand finds hers, something she wanted to do earlier but didn’t, and her eyes do another scan around the plane to make sure no one is paying attention to them under the dimmed lights. She’d honestly be surprised if anyone could even see them, but she doesn’t want to take a lot of chances. “So, tell me, love. I’m all ears.”

“Yeah, little pointed ones.” His lips scowl at that, but she carries on with a sigh. “Okay, okay. I, um, I want to know what we’re doing relationship-wise. I know that seems dumb but I – ”

“It’s not dumb.”

“Can I just sprout all of this information out without you interrupting me because I am going to lose my courage?”

“Yeah, Swan, go.”

“I’m…I like you, okay? You obviously know that because I’ve said it before and I flirt with you and we have some pretty heavy make-out sessions, which are nice, by the way.” Killian nods his head in agreement, his lips twitching in the corners, but he doesn’t say anything. A man of his word. Or…non-word. “But there’s obviously an emotional connection too. We’re dating without anyone knowing, testing the waters or whatever, and we shared…a lot last night and this morning. A lot of stuff that I don’t talk about that often, and I have so much more shit in my life. I just – ”

How the hell does she say this?

“You want to know if we’re dating other people.”

“What a time to interrupt me.”

“You didn’t say anything for forty-seven seconds. And that’s only after I started counting.”

She chuckles, unable to help herself, and leans down to bury her face in his shoulder, breathing in the strong scent of his cologne and whatever detergent it is that he uses.

“I…trust you. I do, but I have to ask. I’ve been burned pretty badly in the past by other guys, and I know that you kind of have a…history of dating several women at once.”

She is an asshole for even bringing that up, but she had to. And he didn’t flinch away from her or untangle their fingers, so that has to be a good sign, right?

“I’m not that guy anymore, and I promise one day I’m going to explain it all to you. I need some time, though. As much as I love sharing all of this with you, we’re in the early stages of a relationship. I think we have all of the time in the world to get into the lives we’ve lived when all I’m really interested in is making you laugh or getting you on the big screen while you’re eating a hot dog.”

“No,” she groans, laughter bubbling up in her stomach. “Stop that. It’s not even funny. You’ve seen me eat. I’m not an attractive eater.”

“I think you’re pretty attractive when you’re eating a hot dog, if you catch my drift.”

“I hate you for making that joke.”

“Oh, come on, you don’t hate me for it. You’re probably hoping that my bedroom humor is a little bit better than that though.”

“Wasn’t even going to go there.”

“How could you not?”

“Good point,” she laughs, leaning her head against his shoulder and closing her eyes, the fatigue of the trip and the day finally starting to hit her. “I didn’t eat dinner, and a hot dog is actually sounding really good right now.”

“So many jokes I could make about that sentence.”

“I know. That’s why I said it.”

“I knew I liked you for a reason.” Killian sighs, and she can feel it in the movement of his chest. “I’ve got to move back to my spot up with the guys and Ariel, but I’ll talk to you later, okay?”

“Sounds good to me.”

There’s some shuffling around, the click of Killian’s seatbelt, and then warm lips against her temple as he gets up and she tries to calm the quick beat of her heart to fall asleep for the rest of the plane ride home.

-/-

It’s far past midnight when she gets back to her apartment, the wind howling and the rain coming down outside, and she very quietly tries to get inside so as not to wake up Graham and Ruby only to find Ruby sitting on the floor of their kitchen painting her toenails. What else would someone be doing on Sunday night…or really, Monday morning?

“Rubes? Why are you up?”

“I was waiting for you.”

“I’m a big girl. I can get home on my own.”

“I know, I know,” she sighs, twisting the cap on her red polish and standing up from the floor so that she can wrap her arms around Emma and completely and totally smothering her with her hug. “I have missed you. Do you know what it’s like to only live with a man?”

“Do you mean your boyfriend?”

“Yes,” Ruby groans, squeezing her more. “I love him so much and will probably marry him one day, but he does not enjoy my trashy TV shows or how much my period sucks.”

“You know for a fact that Graham loves your trashy TV shows. He always knows the latest gossip.”

“This is true. I’ve mostly just been bored at work.”

“There it is,” Emma laughs, pulling back from the hug and taking a step back so that she can breathe. “You want to catch me up on everything tonight or wait until we’re on the clock tomorrow?”

“Oh, on the clock. Who are you even kidding? Why talk for free when we can get paid for it?”

“My entire life philosophy.”

“So,” Ruby nudges, bending down to pick up her nail polish bottle, “anything interesting happen in Florida?”

Heat immediately rises to Emma’s cheeks, the red only hidden by the dim lighting in their kitchen (how was Ruby painting her nails in this?), and she has to get better at this whole blushing thing when Ruby doesn’t mean anything by her question. This is simply what they do when they’ve been apart. Texts can’t cover everything, not the way that an in-person conversation can.

“Nope. Not a thing.”

Everything, actually.