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the-masked-ram · 7 months ago

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Falling for Frogs- Chapter Two

CW: NSFW, Slow burn, chubby!reader, fem reader, original female character (paired with Haley), side ships, mental illness, anxiety attacks, smoking, bdsm, loss of virginity, online bullying (not in anyway involving seb) A/N: I write Seb a little more confident but he is still brusque and anti-social. Also there will be something that really puts a hold on some of the development in the next chap... let's call it a misunderstanding so if that's not your jam well *shrugs* --- Chapter Two: Whiskey and Water

The bus was steady under your feet. The soft drone of the engine soothed the butterflies in your stomach. You never did this, you never visited other places for extended periods. There was reasons for that though. It disrupted your schedule; you needed a steady schedule to get things done. Usually. That hadn’t been working lately.

The breakdown at the convention last week had been a massive red flag that something needed to change. You’d been pushing yourself to the limits the last few months to try and get everything up to snuff on your game. Yet was it worth it? Was it worth destroying your mental state even more?

Your friend, Etta, or Henrietta to people who didn’t pass her vibe check, obviously thought so too. Since when you were trying to work up the courage to ask if you could visit— and honestly talking yourself out of it at the same time— she made the decision for you.

“Just come here. Stardew, will set you right,” she said with an irritated sigh.

She’d heard the same lines too many times. She’s heard you try and talk circles around this issue too many times.

“I don’t know, Etta,” you murmured into the phone.

“No. We aren’t doing this again just so you can call me again and sob in my ear. I’m tired of it,” Etta said.

You could practically see her pinching her nose in exasperation as she paced her house.

“Just get your ass here. You have a week before I come drag you here myself,” she said, worry lacing the threat.

You laughed, you couldn’t help it, and it was wet from the recent crying. You nodded even though she could see as you looked out of your window at the busy streets below your apartment.

“Do you have internet?” you asked.

The thoughts faded to the back of your mind as your stop began to approach. Your fingers twitched and you puffed out a breath between your lips, tapping your toes as you waited for the bus to slow. Butterflies gathered in your stomach until they grew into a near whirlwind. You schooled your expression though.

“Your stop miss,” the bus driver said, as the vehicle idled.

Your smile was painted on, frozen and awkward. The mask of someone who passed for normal when inside they were failing to tread water. It was only for a few months. You would be fine; Etta would make sure of that.

You stood and made your way down the steps. Your façade cracked a bit as you saw her familiar dark red waves pulled back into a ponytail, somehow pulling off a pair of dirtied overalls with perfection. Her soft features were harshened by a quirked eyebrow and crossed arms. Her blue eyes ripped apart every emotional defense you had, just like they always did, and you forced yourself not to release the grip that you had on your expression. You just pushed your smile to grow, and she pursed her perfectly shaped lips.

“Really?” she sighed, and her hand immediately snatched your wrist. “C’mon.”

“Wait my bags,” you said glancing back.

“Don’t worry about it, miss,” the bus driver waved you off. “It’s part of my job.”

You blinked and felt thrown off until an insistent tug on your arm reminded you that Etta was still there, and demanding you follow her. You shook your head and sighed, yet did as her impatience required.

“You could pretend to be a little more civil,” you hissed.

“Pretend to be nice to someone I may see like twice a month and never talk to? Why? That would waste so much fucking energy and I already expend enough on the town’s people,” she rolled her eyes.

You followed behind with a huff unable to fight the riptide that was Henrietta in all her glory.

“You need to get somewhere private anyway,” she said quietly, just loud enough for you to hear. “You look like you are about to start crying.”

Your heart squeezed, knowing that she was protecting you from exposing parts of yourself you so carefully hid from others. Love, affection, and gratitude swirled through you, batting away the anxiety with ease. Yoba, you’d missed her.

You shifted until you were walking in time with her quick strides and as her grip loosened on your hand, your hand slipped into hers, clasping it tightly. She shot you a soft smile, something secretive and curated just for you.

“You should have visited much sooner,” she said as you passed through the gate of her farm.

You froze in your spot, “I really should have.”

Your lungs stopped working for a moment as you took in all the work she’d been doing. The crops that were carefully and lovingly planted. The barn and the coop were filled with animal sounds. Then a black lab came bounding across the yard to greet the two of you.

“This is Atila,” she said, sweeping her hand at the dog.

You smiled, a real one this time and for the first time in a long time you felt that persistent knot of tension in your chest loosen. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad here.

---

Sebastian pulled his lower lip in between his teeth, flipping his tongue over the hoop on his lip. The pool cue was a welcome weight in his hand as he tried to find his next plan of attack. Sam stood across the table from him, practically vibrating. It was distracting tonight.

That wasn’t normally an issue for Sebastian. He usually could ignore Sam’s inability to sit still. Despite how it never stopped, ever. Yet tonight he wanted to slam his own head into the cue just to stop his eyes from tracking the movement of his friend pacing. Was he moving more than usual tonight? No… it was something wrong with Sebastian.

Maybe it was that he hadn’t heard anything new from his favorite game dev. No updates, no answers about why he hadn’t been at the con when people asked. The game was so close to being finished. It may have been a small indie team but the name, Perish, had grown large enough he could have easily gotten a booth. People had been excited; Sebastian was one of those people.

That game had been keeping him sane lately. He felt like he was still scraping his way toward his future in the city. His savings were only halfway there, especially with how much inflation was rising there. It was oddly inspiring to see such a small indie developer chipping away at a highly anticipated game. It gave him hope, something that was rare for him.

He groaned and stepped back.

“I need a drink,” he glared down at the cue ball that was giving him no answers, he really couldn’t let Sam win.

Sam pursed his lips, “You’re just stalling because I have you on ropes.”

Sebastian snorted out a laugh and waved over his shoulder as he walked out from the game room, “Sure whatever you want to think.”

He made his way to the bar, waiting for Emily to notice, yet she was currently helping two other customers. He narrowed his eyes at them. Henrietta, he recognized, even though it was rare for her to come to the Stardrop. The woman sitting next to her looked familiar but… he couldn’t remember why. The muted colors, the soft curves, and it was just on the tip of his tongue.

Where had he seen you before? He didn’t recognize you from around town. Had it been in Zuzu at some point? From what he could see of you, you were cute. It would be easy for him to remember you on that alone. Especially since your aesthetic wasn’t usually the type he often was drawn to.

He kept rifling through his memories and then you tilted your head, and your face became more visible. He swore his throat closed up and his heart skipped a beat. It was you! The one from the con. You had run and he’d never gotten a chance to get your name let alone your number. He didn’t know exactly why you’d panicked so badly, but he recognized the moment for what it was, sheer terror and anxiety.

You were the one from the café, the one he ran into again, and the one who’d slipped through his fingers twice. How? Why? Why were you here? His body was nearly shaking. He exhaled deeply and schooled his expression, he needed to chill out. He was staring like a creep.

Then your head turned more, and your gaze caught his and Sebastion swallowed when he saw the recognition flash in your pupils. His fingers found his thumb ring, immediately spinning it in the hope of controlling his nerves. He should just go say hi. No, that wasn’t what he did. That would be weird.

You blinked, seeming just as surprised as him. He closed his eyes for a beat, rolled his jaw and then stood. You seemed even more shocked as Sebastian made his way toward you. You weren’t alone, because honestly, he didn’t know why the fuck he was doing this other than he refused to let you disappear again.

His eyes flicked over your face, memorizing the features, the shy smile you gave him. He thought he might have stopped breathing at some point.

“Sebastian?” Henrietta asked. “Need something?”

His attention moved over to her, he didn’t necessarily not get along with her, but he didn’t seek her out. She was brash and sharp and a little too blunt for him to talk to regularly. Yet you seemed close to her. He took in the way you leaned closer to her, your pinky brushed hers as if seeking reassurance, were the two of you together? He hated how his stomach sank at the thought.

“Just coming to get a drink,” he sighed.

“Oh, I’m so sorry!” Emily gasped. “We got caught up in talking about our visitor!”

Emily motioned to you and smiled genuinely.

You ducked your head shyly, “Sebastian, hm?”

The way you said his name, soft and uncertain, had the hairs on his nape prickling. He cleared his throat and nodded to you.

“Good to see you again. I didn’t catch your name last time,” his gaze darted to the side, and he willed himself not to blush.

Your smile curled a little more, became a bit warmer as you introduced yourself, holding out your hand.

“Of all the places to visit, you choose Pelican Town?” he shook his head with a scoff and took your hand.

It was so small in his. No callouses, soft skin, and his mind tried to lead him somewhere it shouldn’t go on the first meeting.

“Well, Etta lives here, and I needed to get out of the city for a bit… clear my head,” you mumbled so quietly he almost didn’t hear you.

But he was so in tune to your answer he managed to pick up the gist. He frowned, so you lived in the city. Why would need to get out of there? What did you mean by clearing your head? There was a hidden meaning to it that you didn’t offer an explanation.

His hand left yours slowly, dragging his fingers down your palm and you shuddered. A slow, languid smirk rippled across his features. His eyes darted between you and Henrietta.

“Be nice to her Sebastian,” Henrietta said warningly. “She’s my best friend.”

Friend. That word echoed in his head, and he pressed his tongue piercing against the roof of his mouth in hopes to control his runaway thoughts.

“Of course,” he said coolly, his gaze dragging over you again.

You squirmed.

Emily looked between you and Sebastian a couple times before she finally said, “What will you have?”

“Whiskey and water. Still gotta beat Sam,” Sebastian shrugged.

He looked at you out of the corner of his eyes. You’d turned back to Henrietta and were chatting much more animatedly. Once the glass was set in front of him, he turned to leave before saying.

“Oh, hey, it was interesting seeing you again,” he said with a smirk before turning.

He’d never met someone who flustered easier than him, and it made something unfurl within him. Something dark and feral that wanted him to see just what he could do to pull out more reactions from you. See more of that bashfulness, see other sides, like the way you looked so comfortable with Henrietta.

His mom would be proud, he’d actually initiated a conversation and he’d said a halfway decent good-bye. ---Taglist--- @queenmimis

#sebastian sdv #stardew valley #sebastian x reader #sebastian x fem reader #fanfiction

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thisworldisablackhole · 10 months ago

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Top 25 Albums of 2023

These are not reviews, simply blurbs of my thoughts on each release. Some have more effort put into them than others. So without further ado...

25. Cursetheknife - There’s A Place I Can Rest

SOUNDS LIKE: HEAVY SOFT ALT ROCK FOR STARGAZING ENTHUSIASTS / LISTEN

Oklahoma rock group cursetheknife caught me by surprise with this release. This was one of those unplanned listens that I checked on a whim because I was intrigued by their 2000s emo "no spaces allowed" type band name paired with a black and white still life painting of an urn and some... cubes? I like it. This record is really great at being loud and quiet. Acoustic guitars and hushed, tired vocals are interrupted by a massive wall of crunchy guitars coloured by pretty harmonics and sustained tremolo bends. Reminds me of both the earth shattering gaze of Hum and the moody depressive folk of Pygmy Lush. A combo I never expected to hear but one that won me over without hesitation.

24. Militarie Gun - Life Under the Gun

SOUNDS LIKE: MELODIC POST-HARDCORE FOR GROOVERS / LISTEN

I wasn't a huge fan of the mix on Militarie Gun's earlier EP's. I liked what they were trying to do musically, but it sounded dry and flat, and vocalist Ian Shelton's strained pleas for love hardly changed their inflection enough to keep me waiting on stand by. My first impressions of this band were completely turned on their head and booted into outer space when I saw them live. Everything made sense. The mix from stage was loud and dynamic, with just enough room verb to slick up their sound. The songs were tight, catchy, and had enough punch to shake you to your core. Their performance that night left me awed, and I’m happy to say that version of the band I saw on the big stage is much better portrayed on this LP. What we get is 12 songs of 90s influenced, groove laden post hardcore that would make any fan of Fugazi, Lungfish or Self Defence Family happy.

23. PinkPantheress - Heaven Knows

SOUNDS LIKE: DRUM & BASS WITH SOUR KEY POP HOOKS / LISTEN

Where are you feat. WILLOW was the first song to draw me into the downtempo bubble gum world of PinkPantheress. Downtempo and bubble gum might sound like distant, thrice removed descriptions, but melancholic piano leads, ambient backing vocals and breakbeat drum samples are combined with PinkPantheress’ signature high pitched, sweet vocal delivery and highschool journal-esque lyrics in a way that hasn’t been done before. Things are generally more upbeat on this album, and it’s good that way. I actually think her style works better when the energy is high and the drums are quick. This album is almost flawless with the exception songs like Bury me, Internet baby and Feelings where the bass lines slow down into a warp, the drums become more sparse, and the lyrics become more repetitive. It’s these moments where the energy and charm are lacking and the result is just meh. Trim the fat, take out a few of these songs, and the album would be a 5/5.

22. Year of the Knife - No Love Lost

SOUNDS LIKE: HEAVY HARDCORE WITH LONG HAIR SENSIBILITIES / LISTEN

Woof, not only does this band have the grit and claws to survive and face real life tragedy, but their tough as nails resolve as individuals is fully apparent through the music they create as well. This album is punishing, frantically violent, but measured and controlled. This band absolutely smokes through powerviolence blast beats and nasty death metal riffage with a cool head, creating a record that teeters on the edge of deathcore at times without ever giving in to the cornball theatrics (which I love btw).

21. END - The Sin of Human Frailty

SOUNDS LIKE: CHAOS, PANIC, CAUSTIC BURNS, METALCORE / LISTEN

Face melting, pummeling madness, blah blah name your adjective, this band has it. Dissonant and chaotic metalcore that will make you feel like you’re being buried alive - face down in the dirt fighting for your life. The production on this thing is DENSE and begs to be played loudly. The layers of noise are packed together in a tight weave that really adds to the oppressive, suffocating nature of their music. Yet it all begins to break apart and show it’s intricate colours the more volume you pump into the speakers. If you’re not a fan by the time Hollow Urn hits you with that cinematic, theatre rumbling bass drop that sounds like a war horn from hell, then I don’t know what to tell you.

20. Panopticon - The Rime of Memory

SOUNDS LIKE: UR LAST MOMENTS BEFORE YOU DIE IN THE WOODS ALONE LOL, ATMOSPHERIC BLACK METAL / LISTEN

This is it, this is gonna be the album that finally reignites my love for black metal. Beautiful, atmospheric, sad. The opening two tracks are full of gothic folk passages packed with orchestral strings, acoustic guitars and even a softly blown flute. By the time the blasting drums, guitars and tortured howls kick in 8 minutes into Winter’s Ghost, it feels like you just got snapped thru a speed run flash back of someone’s personal grief simulation. Your heart will sink through the fucking floor, but from that pain will rise immense beauty and the courage to trudge thru the brutal, frozen wasteland soundscapes of The Rime of Memory.

19. Silent Planet - SUPERBLOOM

SOUNDS LIKE: THE SOFTWARE CHIP IN YOUR BRAIN IS MALFUNCTIONING, METALCORE / LISTEN

I’ve been watching Silent Planet from the sidelines for a couple years now, first being introduced to them through their 2021 effort Iridescent, and then dabbling in some of their older catalog which oddly made me think of an alternate timeline where La Dispute was a metalcore band. I wasn’t a huge fan of hearing melodramatic slam poetry before my breakdowns, but they had a knack for songwriting which made them hard to discredit. Their earlier work just seemed like something I would have had to be there for on release to fully appreciate. Now was my chance. When singles started dropping for SUPERBLOOM, I was excited to finally be on board the hype train for one of their records. This record ended up showcasing a heavier, more modern and electronic influenced side of the band than we’ve seen before. Anecdotally, when this was released I was in the midst of a Cyberpunk 2077 playthrough, and found it to be a very fitting soundtrack to the game. Colourful and archaic. There are a lot of fun and creative ideas on this LP, some of which aren’t given ample room to breathe, but are nonetheless present. I found some of the tracks a little unmemorable at first but it honestly sounds better the more time I give it between listens. Only time will tell how it continues to age.

18. Polaris - Fatalism

SOUNDS LIKE: THE BOUNCY CASTLE AT UR PARTY IS DEFLATING, METALCORE / LISTEN

Polaris are good at what they do. Maybe too good. They are at the pinnacle of modern progressive metalcore alongside bands like Erra and Northlane, but whereas Erra excels in technical proficiency, and Northlane excels in synth pop metal integration, Polaris just brings down the emotional hammer. This band excels in the art of mixing heavy progressive riffs with soaring, passionate, radio ready choruses that just tug at your heart strings. I think Fatalism is overall heavier than their 2020 album The Death of Me, but they have doubled down on all the parts of their formula which make their songwriting so effective at simultaneously jerking tears and making your fists swing in a rage.

17. Night Verses - Every Sound Has A Color in the Valley of Night…

SOUNDS LIKE: SWIRLING, INTOXICATING INSTRUMENTAL PROG METAL / LISTEN

I was pretty adamantly opposed to instrumental music outside of electronic and ambient for a long time until I recently started reading books again. I wanted to see if I could get two birds stoned at once and listen to some tunes that I would usually avoid while I absorb words. I ended up enjoying this release so much that I started listening to it even when I wasn't reading books, but it does make every page you read play out like an intense action scene, so I'm inclined to continue listening in that fashion. Night Verses are an instrumental metal band, but don't go into this expecting full gas technical wankery. Night Verses are pro's at utilizing restraint and softer textures to weave a narrative with their instruments. Never have I encountered a band so skilled at telling a story without words.

16. Termina - Soul Elegy

SOUNDS LIKE: EMO ROBOTS FROM NEPTUNE DISCOVER TECHY DEATHCORE / LISTEN

I was first introduced to this outfit through their single Parasocial and was immediately sold. Sharp, twisting angular guitar leads over over deathcore inspired instruments and vocals. At one point the instruments drop out into an evil bass heavy hip hop beat with pitch shifted demon vocals before launching straight back into full auditory assault. It was just straight up one of the coolest switch ups I've heard in a metal song before and I was really hyped to hear what else they had in store. Ultimately I didn't enjoy the other singles on first listen as much as Parasocial, but the rest of the album really delivered upon release. There are points during this record where I feel like it was written by an AI; algorithmically engineered to release the right amounts of dopamine in my brain at specific intervals to keep me engaged. I don't mean that as an insult, as the result is a highly addicting LP that hits all the hallmarks of modern metal while still feeling innovative and fun.

15. Dying Wish - Symptoms of Survival

SOUNDS LIKE: THAT SHIT UR 40 YEAR OLD METALHEAD HOMIE PUTS ON THE AUX, TURN OF THE CENTURY MELODIC METALCORE / LISTEN

I was exposed to this band when they were on tour with Counterparts. The bill that night was supposed to be Counterparts, Dying Wish, Foreign Hands and SeeYouSpaceCowboy, but unfortunately Foreign Hands had their vehicle broken into in Washington and couldn't cross the border. I was still treated to a ménage à trois of metalcore excellence that night, but was especially blown away by Dying Wish as they were the only band on the bill I wasn't familiar with. My expectations were low and they spin kicked me in the teeth with their oldschool melodeath inspired riffs. From that moment on I was eagerly awaiting this album. The singles they drip fed us showed a marked improvement in their songwriting and especially in Emma's performance as a vocalist. The full album proved to be a worthy contender, bringing back a solid nostalgic sound to an arena packed to the brim of tiresome modernity. I still can't get the sound of those crash laden breakdowns out of my head.

14. fromjoy - fromjoy

SOUNDS LIKE: CHAOTIC GRINDIN MATHCORE MADE BY DEPRESSED ZOOMERS WHO PROBS GREW UP ON 4CHAN / LISTEN

This is a very recent addition to this list, but one that has swiftly earned it's place. There have been plenty of bands this year that have done this kind of chaotic, math influenced metalcore, but none that have blended the sound with electronic breakbeats and haunting choruses the same way fromjoy has. I can get kind of tired of albums that are just 100% speed and brutality front to back, but fromjoy have injected enough elements of other genres here to offer moments of respite from their brain melting, hellish soundscapes. Songs like of the shapes of hearts and humans, or the saxophone vaporwave of Helios, are much like a bench atop a canyon vista. A moment to regroup and recover before you continue pushing that boulder up hill.

13. Invent Animate - Heavener

SOUNDS LIKE: U JUST PISSED OFF SOME ANGELS BRUH, METALCORE / LISTEN

Invent Animate are a progressive, atmospheric metalcore band. Sounds pretty fuckin cool to me, but I have a strange relationship with this album. It's an album that I've always liked, but have really struggled to connect with on an individual track basis. It took months of casual listening before I could really differentiate one track from another. It all sort of blurred together, which is on one hand a testament to the atmosphere they have created with this record, but on the other hand it created a challenge to find specific moments to draw me back in. Despite that I still really enjoyed the general sound of what I was hearing; heavy polyrhythmic riffs backed by icy reverberated synthesizers which melted into breakdown ASMR in my headphones. It wasn't really a hard decision to continue giving it a chance to grow on me, and I'm glad I did.

12. TesseracT - War of Being

SOUNDS LIKE: IF DREAM THEATER WAS GOOD LOL, PROGRESSIVE METAL / LISTEN

I was a huge fan of TesseracT's album One back in the early 2010's. I decided to revisit that album earlier this year just out of curiosity to see if I would still enjoy that kind of music, and I was pleased to find that the album still sounded just as good to my 28 year old brain as it did to my 16 year old brain. It's always a nice feeling to realize that your younger self didn't have terrible taste in music. During this time of re-listening to One I had no idea that they were on the verge of releasing a new album. When the single War of Being dropped in July I was absolutely floored to find out that not only did their old material still hold up, but their newest material was absolutely on par with it. The groove, the heaviness, the atmosphere, Daniel Tompkins sultry sweet vocals and crushing screams. It was clear to me that TesseracT hadn't missed a single step in their newest endeavor. It was a full package that made the 16 year old in me gleam from ear to ear.

11. Mental Cruelty - Zwielicht

SOUNDS LIKE: LEGOLAS FUCKED UP AND TOSSED GIMLI STRAIGHT INTO THE ORCS, SYMPHONIC DEATHCORE / LISTEN

I didn't even really know what deathcore was until I saw Lorna Shore's Pain Remains plastered all over the front page of sputnikmusic and the users top albums of 2022 lists. I decided to give it a try out of morbid curiosity and discovered that I actually really loved the combination of heavy as fuck instrumentation, twisted pig squeal vocals and symphonic, fantasy soundtrack-esque passages. It was like nothing I had ever heard before and I loved the total absurdity of it. Discovering Mental Cruelty just cemented my newfound love for this genre. Zwielicht is epic, grandoise, brutal, disgusting and beautiful all at the same time. The symphonic breakdown on Pest makes me feel like I'm listening to a metal record while witnessing firsthand the battle of Helm's Deep in Peter Jackson's adaptation of Tolkein's The Two Towers. Dark and dramatic, this album perfectly conjoins my love for both extreme metal and fantasy.

10. The Republic of Wolves - Why Would Anyone Want To Live This Long?

SOUNDS LIKE: YOU JUST GAVE THE INDIE KID A NOOGIE, LOUD ALT ROCK / LISTEN

The Republic of Wolves completely blindsided us with a surprise EP in December, just two weeks before Christmas. I had listened to this band very briefly back in 2011 when they released The Cartographer, but it wouldn't be until discovering Shrine a couple years ago that I really fell head over heels for them. Their moody, dim lit and introspective brand of post hardcore tinged indie rock felt like it was tailor made for my tastes. To put it simply, this new EP is fantastic, but it comes with a caveat; the mix. It is raw and unpolished. Maybe a little thin and tinny sounding when compared to Shrine. This release is kind of like a haphazard demo tape thrown together just to remind the world that they still have the chops, and boy do they ever. Hidden below the rough edges of this recording is some of their most adventurous and rewarding song writing. Beautiful moments reveal themselves like treasure chests on the high seas, and the closer you get the more they glisten.

9. Koyo - Would You Miss It?

SOUNDS LIKE: I DONT HAVE ANYTHING FUNNY FOR THIS ONE, SAD POP PUNK IS ALREADY A JOKE / LISTEN

Pop punk! A genre that I always thought was kinda corny and lame until I started listening to The Story So Far and realized that it can actually be incredibly potent, emotionally charged and energetic form of catharsis. Koyo really fit the bill when I was searching for more bands that would satisfy my TSSF cravings. Although I'm not a huge fan of "gruff bearded IPA guy" vocals in punk music, Koyo's songs were so catchy and impactful that even the singer eventually won me over, and this record found itself in constant rotation.

8. Maruja - Knocknarea

SOUNDS LIKE: HARDCORE KIDS STARTED LISTENING TO JAZZ AND NICK CAVE, POST PUNK / LISTEN

My friend randomly sent me a song from this, saying that it auto played for him on spotify and he thought I would like it. I was enthralled by it immediately and it ended up being the best thing he has ever recommended to me. I am a huuge sucker for saxophone and firmly stand behind the opinion that horns can improve almost any genre of music, especially when that genre is moody post punk blasting straight out of the smoky stairwell exit of an underground english club. Maruja's use of the saxophone is much more than just a garnish though, it is woven into the structure of each song the same way a guitar would be. When paired with the anguished croons of vocalist Harry Wilkinson, the result is an atmosphere almost oppressive with it's heavy yet deeply moving temperament. This will undoubtedly be a band to pay close close attention to in the coming years.

7. Johnny Booth - Moments Elsewhere

SOUNDS LIKE: BOTCH TAPE IS IN THE STEREO AND UR BRAKES JUST STOPPED WORKING, METALCORE / LISTEN

I had never heard of this band before this album dropped, and I only checked it out because their name sounded weird as hell to me. I thought we left name-names like Billy Talent in the dust years ago. What I wasn't prepared for was the scourge of angry-fun math infused metalcore behind it's surreal cover art. One thing that made this album stand out to me was the pure variety of sounds and influences available. Everything from Botch worship, dreamy alt rock reminiscent of the softer cuts on Loathe's 2020 mammoth ILIIAITE, and Blood Brothers inspired "four on the floor" dance punk. This album portrays itself like a psych-ward colouring book, and the result is an album that never feels boring or out of touch.

6. Spiritbox - The Fear of Fear

SOUNDS LIKE: NEW AGE, EASY LISTENING, ALTERNATIVE METALCORE / LISTEN

Spiritbox have been a controversial band in the metal community, mainly criticized for their streamlined, "sterile" (not my words) take on pop infused metalcore. I for one love the fact that they are creating heavy music that is still accessible, smooth, and packs enough heart to caress the unwrinkled surface of my brain. This EP is extremely succinct, all killer no filler, and just a really great example of all the strong suits this band has to offer. Songs like Cellar Door and Angel Eyes are just heavy and intense, purely utilizing harsh vocals to convey the feeling of anxiety that comes with grappling your sense of self. Nothing has resonated with me this year more than Courtney screaming "I can't live in this world while I breathe in another one" right before the heaviest fucking breakdown. Too Close / Too Late, The Void, and Ultraviolet are all shimmering and beautiful alt-metal tracks with no harsh vocals present at all. Jaded sits firmly in between, open arms firmly grasping from all corners of Spiritbox's repertoire to create a perfect balance of screaming, frost bitten metallic riffs and a chorus so catchy it could rival some of the biggest pop R&B artists on the radio today.

5. Nothing,nowhere. - Void Eternal

SOUNDS LIKE: THE PICTURES IN YOUR HIGHSCHOOL LOCKER, NU METAL, METALCORE / LISTEN

Given the fact that this album features Pete Wentz, Shane Told, Buddy Nielsen, Underoath vocalists Spencer and Aaron, as well as some more contemporary artists such as Will Ramos, Connie Sgarbossa and Olli Appleyard, it confuses me to see how little it is talked about. I don't know if this album completely flew under the radar of post hardcore and metalcore fans, or if it was just written off as over produced studio nostalgia bait. Naysayers be damned as there are some seriously catchy, well written songs here. Even when the album ventures into Linkin Park nu-metal rap territory, Joe Mulherin is just such a talented vocalist and song writer that he always brings the songs back to earth with a bangin chorus or death defying breakdown.

4. Wednesday - Rat Saw God

SOUNDS LIKE: IF MBV WAS A COUNTRY BAND, TWANGY ALT ROCK / LISTEN

Kind of the oddball addition to this list, but god damn I love this album so much. Even though I come off as a metalcore fan first, a lot of my favourite artists are actually 90s indie rock bands of the slacker variety, and adjacent americana influenced singer songwriters. Wedneday checks all the boxes that I love about 90s alternative music. Rough around the edges but infectious with it's melody. Reminiscent of both the untuned honesty of David Berman and the super charged, off kilter charm of Swirlies.

3. Hail The Sun - Divine Inner Tension

SOUNDS LIKE: AN EDGIER, COOLER MARS VOLTA, PROGRESSIVE POST-HARDCORE / LISTEN

This was my most anticipated album of the year, and one that I made the unfortunate mistake of burning myself the fuck out on it's singles. I listened to Maladapted, Under the Floor, Chunker, and Mind Reader so many times in a row that when the full album was released, it just sounded WEIRD to me. Obviously I didn't let that get in the way of my enjoyment, but my brain had been wired to expect certain songs to be preceded by and followed by certain songs. Ya know what I mean. It threw me through a loop and it took a long time for the other songs to really click into place. Divine Inner Tension is one of Hail the Sun's strongest and most fun albums to date. These tracks are smart and witty, dazzling with it's technicality and playfulness. Math rock guitar harmonies, funky bass lines and spastic drum fills phase in and out of battle stances before breaking free into powerful choruses and descending back down their stairwell of madness. Vocalist Donovan Melero can be a bit of an acquired taste, but fans of The Mars Volta will feel right at home listening to the dramatic flair in the ceiling shattering range of his voice. Despite the fact that he can sometimes hold me back from recommending this band to people in my inner circle, I couldn't imagine a more perfect vocalist for the band. He knows how to command a room, and sometimes (if you close your eyes) the instruments feel like an extension of his voice, spreading from his open mouth like tendrils to do his bidding. Admittedly I still feel a stronger emotional connection to New Age Filth and Wake, but this band doesn't miss and I'm sure my emotional attachment to Divine Inner Tension will grow the more it marinates and the singles that I burnt myself on begin to simmer down into a stew on low boil.

2. Aviations - Luminara

SOUNDS LIKE: BEING EMBRACED BY THE SWEET WARMTH OF THE COSMOS, PROGRESSIVE ROCK, METAL / LISTEN

Beautiful melodies, progressive signatures, intricate harmonies, bright pianos and sweet, soaring vocals. This album engulfed me in it's gorgeous fiery glow and there was no looking back. Despite technically being a metal band, pure heaviness is merely a fork in the road on Aviations journey, a stormy mountain passage per se. In fact, I think one of the most impressive aspects of this band is their ability to utilize downtuned guitars and hard hitting polyrhythms in the softest way possible. Screams are sprinkled here and there on different tracks for emotional emphasis, but fourth track Legend is the only song on the album where the band goes all in on the heavy. They offer us a brief, deafening glimpse into their realm of madness before switching gears with La Jolla back into a band that sounds suspiciously like a modern church worship group, almost as if Legend was just an accidental slip of the mask that you were definitely not supposed to see. Watch your back. It doesn't matter which mask this band wears though, as everything they do is just beautiful and unique in it's ability to sound like a sunrise in motion. Adam Benjamin's vocals are just icing on top of an already sickingly sweet cake. His ability to dance between delicate falsetto and smooth, passionate wails makes me believe he has cherry blossoms and bleeding hearts in place of vocal chords. Luminara is a testament to what can be achieved when six technically proficient musicians come together with a central vision to create a a metal album that moves mountains with it's tenderness. The artistically explorative and emotionally impactful music they have laid down here make it an easy pick for second place.

1. Currents - The Death We Seek

SOUNDS LIKE: JUMPING IN THE BATH WITH A TOASTER OVEN, STICKING A FORK IN AN OUTLET, METALCORE / LISTEN

See below or click here for my full thoughts on the undisputed AOTY of 2023.

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toseeclearly · 2 years ago

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i deleted everything by accident

I deleted everything by accident, and now I am grieving.

It's not that these things were important, technically. I deleted a tumblr I barely used or looked at; a place where I would start to write a post, get cold feet, and then leave it in the drafts until I no longer wanted to do anything with it. That's all it was, a graveyard to things I was never going to complete, ideas I'd given up on, plans I never followed through with.

But still, the day they rip the memorial down is still sad, and you'll forever walk by that lamp post and remember that, at one point, there were flowers here.

So I guess I just... use this how I used to use the internet: like a diary. I was once a dedicated blogger, back in the days when being a "blogger" had some sort of caché (I think if you said that now, someone would assume you were using some sort of throwback term, like asking aloud if anyone knew of a video store they could check out. Are there any video stores left? I don't know, and I don't feel like googling right now). I wanted to be a writer, a blogger, I wanted to be like all the cool teens I followed who had custom webpages with sections where they'd post about their thoughts and other sections for cool things they did with their friends. I wanted to be their friend and be posted on their cool blog! But this was the early 2000s, where the only way to contact these people was to either stalk a forum they might be on, or email them directly, and both of those always felt unappealing. So instead, I wrote about my life and my friends, read my friends blogs, hoped to be cool enough to be included. Hundreds of posts, stories and essays and quiz results and absolutely atrocious poetry, we wrote so much, I wrote so much. And all of it is gone, now. Blogs long deleted, websites no longer active, everything lost to digital decay. Or, if you're me, you delete your tumblr by accident while massively tired and only realise too late what you've done. More decay, more insignificant pieces of the web burned away. I'm the only one who cares, but that's fine. I can... rebuild. Or just use this space for my own terrible navel gazing.

I write a lot. I have a fair amount of published work, but I also write a lot that never sees the light of day (and probably never should, mostly for quality control issues). I spent a lot of nights writing Parkdale Haunt, a lot of very late evenings hammering out page after page after page until my eyes hurt and my brain was trying to escape my skull, but it felt good. It was a good time. There's several episodes where I wrote the first draft in a complete haze, like when you're running a marathon (NOTE: I have never run a marathon, but like, stick with me here, I'm just extrapolating from my time as a long distance runner) (SECOND NOTE: I hated long distance running and quit to focus on sprinting and hurdling, which I loved, because sprinting is designed for people who want all their endorphins RIGHT NOW and hurdling is designed for masochists, and the 400m hurdles is the perfect race if you just want to punish yourself for any feeling of hubris that you've ever had in your entire curséd life) and you're just zoning out and pushing through any thought you might have that says hey man, what if you just - oh, I don't know - lied down on that patch of grass over there? Yeah, that would be sick as fuck. Writing feels like that for me sometimes, like hey, wouldn't it be nice to just go to bed? Yeah, bed is good. But then I would look down and there'd be 15 pages in front of me, and I'd feel... great. And also exhausted and vaguely headachy, but great. Then I would just spam Emily and/or Ian with screenshots of scenes at random times. Being in my vicinity means you're getting unhinged screenshots at some point.

So I've been writing again. I've got two scripts going for a new show, here's to hoping it works out. And I guess I can write here when I need/want to procrastinate. I don't have much of a footprint left after I threw my fucking shoes in the ocean.

All this has done is made me miss hurdling.

#blog post #parkdale haunt #sure

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ask-pico-and-friends-99 · 2 years ago

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*Pico turns on the camera again*

"Yo guys, it's me! Pico! And today I've got some more friends and family to introduce you all to!"

*Pico walks over and sees two men in black and white military uniforms just coming home*

"That's my dad and uncle!" *He runs up and hugs the two military men*

"Hey son, we missed you too! Didn't we, Steve?"

"We sure did, sir!" *Hugs Pico back with Tankman* "how are you doing my boy?"

"I'm doing great, Uncle Steve!"

*Pico smells smoke and walks outside to see a black man with his hair in a big purple spike, wearing a purple and yellow hoodie and holding a lighter as he's trying to light a bunch of old newspaper*

"That's my other best friend. His name is Darnell! He's a pyromaniac and loves fire! Ayo, Darnell! Get yo ass over here!"

*Darnell walks over irritated at his work being interrupted*

"What do you want, homie? Can't you see I'm busy making a massive wildfire here?! It's gonna be big enough to burn a whole city!"

"Nice to see you haven't changed in 24 years Darnell... Anyway... I want you to say hi to these people, they're going to ask us questions, have us do dares, all sorts of wacky stuff!"

"Hahahaha! Oh Pico, you crack me up! I ain't listening to any Internet people! Listen, imma pretty busy guy and need to create this fire ASAP! So I can set it on a forest and upset Smokey the Bear! See ya later homie!"

*Darnell walks away laughing as Pico is left annoyed*

"So much for that... Anyway guys, that's more of my family, let me know if you want to meet more. I have plenty more, until then. Peace out!"

#fnf rp #fnf ask blog #darnell #tankman

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danganronpasurvivoraskblog · 2 years ago

Note

(To mod) In your opinion, how would the cast of Brave Danganronpa Coward's Paradise react to someone like Kuripa and vice versa?

//Ok, let me try and break it down...

//Bare in mind, this is being posted before Chapter 1 of BDR:CP has been dropped. The only personality we know the characters for are what is shown in the prologue.

I've mentioned this before, but I honestly think Hiroto and Kuripa wouldn't get along. Their situation is very much a Batman VS Red Hood dynamic. Sure, Brave DR hasn't shown much to suggest that Hiroto has a creed against killing, but given his personality, and how he's embarrassed that he even has his Ultimate Talent in the first place, I'm guessing he's got his shit together. He's willing to get his hands dirty and beat people up in his pursuit of justice, but I doubt he'd go so far as to take a life. Kuripa on the other hand, has absolutely no qualms with doing so if it thinks it would be best in the long run. He's not inherantly sadistic and violent to small-fry thugs who are doing petty crimes, but for big criminals, they're fair game for the slaughterhouse. And I feel regardless of how bad a crime is, or how big the fish is, Hiroto would not accept Kuripa's methodology, and they'd butt heads often.

I feel like Kuripa would really fall for Hana, and would really want to get along with her, but Hana would be way too scared of Kuripa and the baggage he comes with to want to get close to him.

Kuripa and Daisuke would get along fine. They'd be far from besties, but Daisuke would be able to look past Kuripa's baggage and see him for his good qualities, which Kuripa would appreciate.

If Kuripa ever met Urara, I feel like he would be squealing with excitement once he finds out who she is. And not only that, but I feel like Urara would be doing the same back once she finds out who Kuripa is, and that he's also Takuto Mikizuki. I like the idea that they're both massive fans of each other's industry work, and would be begging one another for each other's autographs. Urara may even have been a member of the Kyojin's if she was canon to this timeline, though it would depend if she could handle any slight lewdness that comes up in conversation.

Hibiki would be terrified of Kuripa once he sees him get into an aggressive mindset, but I feel like other than that, they'd be fine with one another.

Rei would be extremely skeptical of Kuripa, and watch him judgmentally from a distance. Kuripa wouldn't have any interest in striking up a conversation with her, or being her friend. He'd probably just glare back and pull faces.

Kuripa and Kazuya would get along like two savage meerkats fighting for dominance. Which is to say the former would get easily pissed when trying to out-snark and out-douche the latter, and they wouldn't get along even remotely.

I genuinely think that Kuripa and Honoka would, both figuratively AND literally, get along like a house on fire. Given not only his obsession with social media and internet, but also his compressed lust for death and destruction, there wouldn't be anyone better to help him let loose that burning blaze within. Same vice versa.

I feel like Kuripa wouldn't particularly want to be friends with Yukio, but also wouldn't have any problems with him. All Yukio would really want to know about Kuripa is what his tastes in sweets and confectionary's are, and I'm sure Kuripa would willingly admit that Yukio deserves his title.

Kuripa may recognize Stella from one or two celebrity voice overs from animations he's watched, but since he tends to stay away from live action television, I doubt he'd really know who she is, much like Hiroto didn't in the game. I feel like they'd be fine around each other, and in a few ways, would relate due to how they're both firm in their thoughts and opinions.

Much like with Hiroto and Rei, I get the feeling that Goro would be skeptical of Kuripa, and keep a close eye on him while he's in his presence. All things considered, with Kuripa's ridiculous strength, he might even be a good challenger for Goro in the ring. Not that Kuripa is a trained Sumo Wrestler or anything, so maybe he wouldn't have much of a chance. After all, he's far more apt with bludgeoning people with his fists and cutting them apart with his place than just shoving them out of a circle.

I get the feeling that if Kuripa ever met Mitsuba, they would bully the shit out of each other. Mitsuba would make so many biting comments about Kuripa, only for him to bite back twice as hard, and the spat would just never end.

Kuripa seems like he would get annoyed very easily if he ever had to deal with someone like Ichirou. Slow types are not people he is comfortable dealing with. On top of that, the very fact that Ichirou has a medical talent, and is a trained doctor, is already enough to make Kuripa dislike him. As we know, Kuripa has an innate detest for medical practitioners and hospitals.

Kuripa would get along with Ume, and while that doesn't make a lot of sense, there is an in-universe lore reason why that we haven't got to yet. One of his classmates at Hope's Peak that he was very close to had a similar occult-based talent, and this will be elaborated on much later down the line. But the point is he would know how to deal with Ume's creepy and silly quirks, and would know how to relate to them.

While I don't know if I would call them friends, I feel like Kuripa would always be willing to scrap with Daigo. Suffice to say, Kuripa would MORE than earn Daigo's unbridled respect, since he's probably one of few opponents who could absolutely DEMOLISH Daigo in a no-holds barred fight, especially one with no limits and no rules. Not that Daigo would be an easy challenge, and that in turn, excites Kuripa as well. They'd be able to bond over their thrill and love for combat, and a good scrap.

Lastly, I think Kuripa would like Anko. Given that she shares a lot of personality traits and mannerisms as Kokichi, Kuripa would know how to deal with her, and how to handle her odd behavior.

//Hope that cleared some things up for you.

-Mod

#mod

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foreverindreamlandd · 2 years ago

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Awake My Soul • 3

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x F!Reader

WC: 3.8k

Summary: It’s been 5 years since zombies first began their invasion, and despite everything you’ve been through, you’ve managed to survive up until this point. Now it’s time to face your most dangerous challenge yet….the grumpy, untrusting, fiercely protective Bucky Barnes.

Chapter Warnings: Mentions of torture (in way more detail), scars, infection, blood, death. We get a better look into Readers past and hoooo boy. Time to meet some more of the squad! (Bucky still very angy)

Series Masterlist / Series Playlist

Brookfield Boarding School for Girls.

You kept your gaze on the tattered concrete sign that stood at the entrance of the grounds, trying to ignore the many, many eyes that tracked you as you followed Sarah down the brick path.

Once the sign was out of view, you diverted your attention to the other landmarks that made up camp. There were three large brick buildings structured in a triangle formation, the center one standing front and center.

To your left was a massive garden, a woman with strawberry blond hair and a young brunette gathering various food items. Well, they were collecting them, but once they saw you they stopped and joined the other sets of eyes in following your movements.

You turned away, focusing on the right side that had housed a group of pine trees. There were strange markings on each stump, positioned in a way that they almost looked intentional.

They looked like carvings of different letters…

“We kept the trees as an extra form of cover,” Sarah remarked, noticing your questioning gaze. “It’s also our way to remember those we’ve lost. Didn’t do that at our last camp because it was too depressing, but when we got here we realized that no matter what happens to us next, their memory lives on when they can’t.”

Your eyes burned as you turned your head away from the already covered pines, looking up at the solar paneling on the roofs.

“Do those things still work?” you asked, pointing up at them.

Sarah nodded. “We took them off of a farm a few miles away and Bruce was able to reconfigure them. We don’t have internet or anything but we can make the place warm during the winter without lighting a fire and exposing our location along with some other things.”

Bucky stormed toward the left building just as the entrance door opened, nearly knocking over the middle-aged man wearing a green sweater, his dark hair peppered with greys and glasses resting on his face. Once he recovered from the near collision, he looked over and gave you a small smile as the two of you approached.

“Ah, your friend made it,” the man said. “And Buck seems grumpy as always, so I’m glad everyone is okay.”

Sarah nodded. “Have a little bit of an issue that needs mending. Y/n, this is Bruce Banner. Bruce, this is Y/n, the one who found the boys.”

He bobbed his head to greet you, noticing the way you held your wounded arm. “Nice to meet you, Y/n. Let’s get you checked out, okay?”

You offered a closed lip smile and he turned, leading you inside and down a hallway until you reached a science classroom. A young teenage boy was tinkering around with a long black metal object.

“Peter,” Bruce said and the boy stood up, eyes wide as he quickly covered up his project with a sheet as he finally noticed your arrival.

“Oh! Sorry Bruce, didn’t see ya there.” He smiled as he met your eye, extending a hand out. “Hello! I’m Peter, nice to meet you.”

You smiled, though it looked more like a grimace as you looked between him and his hand.

“Sorry bud, she’s got a bum arm. No handshakes just yet.”

Sarah’s words caused him to focus on your body language and his jaw dropped, quickly pulling his hand back. “Shit, I’m sorry! I didn’t realize-”

“Why don’t you two go get things settled while I work on the arm,” Bruce interrupted, gesturing for you to sit on a stool by one of the long tables. “Sarah, we’ll meet up with you once she’s taken care of.”

Sarah rested a hand on Peter’s shoulder and escorted him out, giving you a reassuring nod as she left your side.

“You should find Bucky, Peter,” Sarah said as they walked out. “He got a gash to the side that needs patching.”

Peter nodded, quickly turning back to grab a nearby med kit before catching up with her.

Bruce went to one of the cabinets, pulling out a few medical supplies.

You sat on the stool, feet swaying in the air. “So, Bruce, I hear you’re the one who knows how to build super cool shit.”

One corner of his mouth curved up and he breathed out a small laugh. “I’m glad someone thinks it’s cool.” He gestured to one of the chairs. “And I hear you’re the one that everyone is extremely curious about.”

You grimaced, at both the pain in your shoulder and the dread of having to get grilled by a bunch of people you didn’t know, especially now that any semblance of trust you had earned with Bucky had been completely eviscerated.

Not that you could blame him after what happened.

“Boss misses ya-”

A shiver ran up your spine as the ghost of your attacker’s breath hit your neck.

So much for thinking you were safe. That could never happen.

And now your only chance at safety was compromised.

Bruce saw the panic flash in your eyes. “You okay?”

You gave him a weak smile. “Just nervous, I guess.”

He nodded, hands taking hold of your wrist and applying a small amount of pressure along your wounded arm. “You’ll be fine. I promise we’re harmless. Some are just a little more nervous after…..”

“After someone you thought you could trust betrayed you all and ruined your lives?” you finished.

He didn’t say anything for a moment, just gave you a yes, exactly look and continued examining your arm. You flinched when he started lifting the sleeve of your shirt, instinctively pulling away.

His brows furrowed. “Everything okay?”

You bit your bottom lip, taking a deep breath before relaxing back into his hold and nodding.

Bruce stared at you a moment longer before going back to the sleeve. He only got a couple inches up before you heard the sharp intake of breath and you winced.

“Holy shit,” he said on the exhale.

Your eyes stayed glued to the ground, tears welling in them as he looked at numerous scars that were already visible.

“Who the hell did this?”

You bit the inside of your cheek. Instead of sounding accusatory, Bruce’s voice was filled with nothing but concern, sympathy.

Pity.

“I- it was, I’m not…I don’t-” you stammered and he shook his head.

“Sorry, we don’t have to talk about it.” He inspected the visible marks and lifted the sleeve up a bit, revealing more of your hideously scarred body. “Some of these haven’t healed all the way, Y/n. They look old, but infection is starting to set in. Have you been feeling off lately? Dizzy, nauseated, more tired than usual?”

You shrugged. “I mean, maybe, but when you haven’t had a decent night’s sleep in five years nor a nutritious meal,” or been tortured for two years, “You kind of always feel that way.”

His lips pressed into a thin line and he nodded. “I’m probably going to have to wrap this arm to help with the broken shoulder. Will you let me tend to some of these?”

A pause, and then you slowly nodded. It was all he needed to get to work. Once he was able to work out that the scars ran all the way up your arm and with your permission, Bruce grabbed a pair of scissors and cut the sleeve from the wrist all the way up to the collar. He moved with gentle precision, disinfecting the gashes and bandaging them. Once that was done, he examined the shoulder, and said that luckily it seemed that it should be able to heal normally without requiring any type of surgery so all he would need to do was wrap it up into a brace.

He worked mostly in silence until he was almost done creating a sling when he murmured, “Your other arm, is it the same?”

The silence he was met with was answer enough, and he pulled out the scissors once more to make the same cut on the other sleeve which revealed an almost mirror image of the scars he just worked on.

A figure in your periphery made you look to the door, and you bit back a gasp as you saw Bucky standing there.

His eyes were glued to your mutilated arm.

In the short time you had known Bucky, you quickly determined that he was a hard person to read. He kept his emotions guarded, features stoic, only allowing anger to show through.

But sometimes, you would notice these flashes of…something. A crack in his armor that you would allow you to see that there was so much more than anger and rage inside him. You just didn’t know what that was. In those moments, you wished that you could break open a whole and peek through that wall he had built, and see what he was thinking, what he was feeling.

When you saw the crack this time, you had no interest in knowing what horrible thoughts he must have had racing through his mind as he saw how broken you truly were.

Even though he still hadn’t even seen the half of it. Some scars that could never be seen.

Bucky only had that look of something on his face for less than a second when you saw the rage return, the armor intact once more.

“Are there any other scars?” Bruce asked, pulling your attention back to him as he bandaged the final gash. “Legs, back, or stomach?”

Yes- “No,” you said curtly, turning back to the door.

No one was there.

Bruce nodded. “Okay, well, I’d like to keep an eye on those if possible. And I should take some blood to check-”

“No.” You fully pulled away from him this time, hissing in pain at the rogue movement of your right shoulder.

He held his hands out, eyes wide with concern. “Woah, calm down! I just want to make sure the infection hasn’t totally affected your bloodstream-”

You shook your head vehemently, body beginning to shake. “No, you can’t. Please,” you begged.

His gaze turned skeptical, wondering why you were so against him taking samples of your blood and you knew you needed to get your shit together.

Deep breath in, deep breath out.

Once the shaking settled a bit, you responded. “I…I can’t have more needles in me, Bruce. Not now. Please.”

It was enough, and you watched his shoulders sag as he understood what you were saying. You were tired of being poked and prodded.

Which was technically true..

“Alright,” he said finally. “That just means we’ll just have to monitor them over time. If the redness doesn’t go away within the next week you let me know, okay?”

You nodded. “Thanks, doc,” you responded meekly.

He huffed at the nickname, gathering his supplies. “We should get going. I’m sure everyone is already waiting for us.” His eyes shifted to your sliced sleeves. “Do you want me to get you a new shirt? I feel bad forcing you to change after just adjusting the sling but if you need help I can grab someone-”

“It’s fine,” you said, shaking your head. “You can just cut the sleeves off. I’m sure Bucky is already telling the group how messed up I am.”

Bruce sighed, working on cutting the sleeves. “I promise he’s not all bad. He wasn’t always-”

“Like this,” you cut off. “I know, Sarah told me. I get it.” You used your free hand to pick at some loose frays on your pants. “It’s hard enough to trust anyone these days, and I’m definitely not making it any easier on him.”

“Just give it time. He’ll come around.” He reached out a hand to help you stand up. “Baby steps, okay?”

You groaned, following him out of the room.

“Baby steps, he says,” you mutter. “Going into a room full of strangers where they’re going to determine whether I’m a threat or not during a zombie apocalypse.”

Bruce snorted. “Well, when you put it that way….”

The two of you walked into the center building, your heart beating faster and faster with each step.

“What’s the setup for this place?” you asked Bruce, trying to distract yourself. “Like, is there a map to know how to get around?”

He snorted. “We kind of had to go along with what was already here. Where we just were serves as the the science lab and library, and we keep some things stored upstairs. The other building is the dorms, that’s where everyone’s rooms are as well as the kitchen and cafeteria. This….well this one we developed a bit more creative freedom for.”

Before you could ask, you passed a room filled with guns, knives, bows, hatchets, any type of weapon possible.

An arsenal.

“Right through here,” Bruce said, pointing up the stairs, but he didn’t need to provide any more directions. You knew where to go based on the yelling ahead.

“I’m telling you, we can’t trust her! She wasn’t even in camp and she already almost compromised it!”

You walked into a large office-looking room where six people stood in a circle, which included Sarah and the two men who helped you during the attack, Sam and Clint.

The rest of the group looked at you as Bucky kept going, still unaware. “We either have to lock her up and never let her leave or drop her off somewhere far away that she can’t be a bother to us ever-”

He finally picked up on their discomfort and turned, mouth falling open when his blue eyes met yours as if instinctively gearing up to apologize.

But then it snapped shut and his jaw clenched, gaze hardening.

Bruce lifted a hand in greeting, smiling awkwardly. “We’re here…”

Sam stepped forward.

“Y/n,” he said and you nodded. “As you probably picked up during our less than ideal introduction, I’m Sam.” He pointed to the people along the line. “My sister, Sarah.” Sarah gave you a closed-mouth smile. “That’s Clint, his wife Laura, and that’s Pepper.”

The blond woman you saw before in the garden pressed her lips together and offered a tiny smile.

You mimicked her expression as your eyes swept across the room. “Hello.”

“How is your arm?” Laura asked.

“Hurts less like a bitch than before thanks to Bruce,” you said.

“Should be fully recovered in four to six weeks,” he added.

Sam nodded. “Where you from?”

“Boston,” you replied.

His eyebrows rose. “You’re quite a bit away from home.”

A shrug from your good shoulder. “Didn’t want to deal with shitty winters while fighting for my life-”

“Can we please stop fucking around with the bullshit smalltalk?” Bucky asked, pinching the bridge of his nose. “We need to know who the hell she is and why the fuck someone followed her all the way to camp.”

“Calm down, Buck,” Sam said sternly, then turned his attention back to you. “I hate to admit it, but he’s right, Y/n. Sarah told you about the shit we recently went through because we trusted the wrong person.” Bucky looked to the ground, fist clenched. “We gotta make sure you’re not putting the people we care about in danger.”

That was when Sam looked at your arms, and the scars and bandages that covered your skin..

Danger won’t seem to leave me alone.

You could lie to them, tell them that you didn’t know who that guy was. That there wouldn’t be more people looking for you. You could stay and be protected and maybe have a family again-

“He’s right,” you said, catching Bucky’s eyes as they flashed toward you. “I am a danger, as much as I hate to admit that.”

Sam’s chest rose as he took a deep breath. “Alright then. Talk to us.”

You closed your eyes, willing yourself to tell them the truth.

When you opened them, you stared into Bucky’s stormy blue irises, and began to speak.

“My parents and I were on our own the first two years. We moved from spot to spot, not making camp anywhere in order to avoid walkers, and honestly some humans. Eventually, we ran into a group who called themselves The Eternals.” Bucky rolled his eyes and you snorted. “I know, pompous right?”

The right corner of his lips definitely didn’t twitch. That was definitely just in your head.

You continued. “They were nice, though, and willing to help. We traveled with them for about a year, their leader Ajak guiding us to some unknown destination. They taught us how to fight, how to defend ourselves against the dead and the living.”

“Months went by, and suddenly we sort of stopped running into other people. It was weird, like we had walked into some wasteland. Then, John Walker showed up.” You paused as rage poured through you, working to regain your composure. Bruce lightly nudged your good arm with his elbow. You turned to him with a closed lip smile then returned your focus to the group.

“John staggered into our temporary camp, appearing bloody and haggard, telling us that we were in danger and needed to leave. That he needed help. Some of us were cautious, not knowing if we could trust him. Things were moving so quickly, we didn’t have a chance to really read him. Ajak and Sersi said we couldn’t just leave him here to die. And that he might be able to lead us to safety. What he actually did was lead us straight into a lair of Hydra.”

All of the air had been sucked out of the room as the people around you gasped.

Hydra. The group who developed the virus to create an army of undead, starting the apocalypse all those years ago, their greed and hunger for power outweighing anything and everything else.

“It was a total ambush,” you said, fighting the lump in your throat as the scene played within your mind. “We tried to fight, but there were so many of them, with weapons we’d never seen before. Walkers on leashes that they were controlling. The fight was over in minutes.” A tear fell down your cheeks. “My parents were killed, along with everyone else, save for Druig, Sersi, and Thea. We were taken in for ‘testing.’ That’s where I’ve been for the past two years. As you can tell,” you extended your left arm out to show off the visible scars, “They had their fun.”

“What kind of testing?” Bucky asked, his tone less accusatory.

Distant screams buzzed in your ear, your own included in the horrific symphony.

“Trying out different weapons, drugs. Mixing our blood with whatever serum they were playing around with. That’s how they created Runners. And I’m sure there are other horrible things coming our way thanks to those sickos.”

“How did you get out?” Sarah asked.

Because you needed to, not for your sake, but the sake of whatever was left of humankind.

“There was an uprising,” you responded instead. “Someone managed to free a horde of undead within Hydra’s living quarters, causing enough distraction. Many of us were still killed, but a few escaped. We scattered, every person for themself to create more tracks for them to follow.”

“And why are they dead set on getting you back?” Bucky asked.

You clenched your jaw, eyes on the floor. “I don’t know.”

It was annoying how good he was at reading through your- “Bullshit,” he snarled.

“I don’t know,” you snapped back, looking up to glare at him with such ferocity that his eye twitched.

“Bucky…” Pepper interjected. When he looked over at her, she shook her head and you watched his shoulder sag.

“I get that I’m a risk,” you said, looking at Sam. “They might come back for me, I really don’t know. If you want me to leave, I get it. You’ve all been through enough, and built something new here to try to move on. I’m a liability for that.”

Bucky opened his mouth to say something but Sam spoke first.

“No,” was all he said, and both you and Bucky gave him the same confused expression. “All Hydra has done these past five years is break people apart, because they know that makes us weak. We need to stick together.”

“She also knows about their tech,” Clint added softly. “Maybe her and Bruce could work together to try and recreate some of the crazy shit they have.”

You looked to Bruce and his eyes seemed to light up ever so slightly, like he was excited to have a new project to work on.

“It’s up to you, Y/n,” Sam continued, slowly walking up to you. “If you go, we’ll let you go with the trust that you won’t share our location. But if you need help, you can still come and find us.” You bit your bottom lip to keep it from trembling at the kind notion. “If you stay, you’ll be expected to act as a member of camp. You’ll be one of us, put in an equal amount of work as the others. Obviously we’ll slowly ease into that as you heal, but we’ll need you to help with supply runs, camp upkeep, and taking watch shifts.”

Your eyes flickered to Bucky, feeling his piercing gaze. Instead of holding your stare as he usually had, he immediately looked to the ground, shifting uncomfortably as if there was a war waging inside him. Like he no longer knew if he wanted to fight to kick you out or beg you to stay.

Sam’s voice brought your attention back to him as he continued, “It’s a lot of work, but you’ll be part of our pack. Forever. We will be there for you when you need us, just as we’ll expect you to be there for us.”

You looked across the room once more, searching for validation that you were wanted by these people, and were met with either gentle nods or small smiles.

When you focused back on Bucky, he seemed to feel your gaze and looked up to meet your eyes once more.

There was no nod, nor smile from him. In fact, there almost seemed to be no expression on his face.

Almost.

But you caught the way his eyes softened, the rage gone from those crystalline irises, replaced with what appeared to be more like a resigned annoyance. When he pressed his lips together in a thin line, you knew that was the best answer you were going to get from the grumpy man.

Sam spoke again. “So, Y/n. What’ll it be?”

Bucky’s eyebrows jumped up for a split second, as if now challenging you. To silently ask if staying would be worth dealing with all of the shit you knew he was going to continue giving you.

Oh, it’s on.

When you turned back to Sam, you smiled.

Chapter 4

#bucky x reader #bucky x you #bucky x y/n #bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes x you #bucky barnes fanfic #bucky barnes #bucky barnes imagine #bucky barnes x y/n #bucky imagine #bucky angst #zombie au #zombie apocolypse au #awake my soul #ams

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grimespostarchive · 2 years ago

Text

the grimespostarchive mission statement

“mission statement” lol it sounds so serious but i wanted to talk briefly abt why i made this blog and the goals with it now that it’s not just me posting into the void

seems obvious, but im a big fan of grimes and her music. even with the controversy/”dIsCoUrSe” that surrounds her i find her to be a fascinating cultural figure. i’m also interested in lost media - how media can get lost, how it gets found, etc. etc. and if you know grimes you know she has a very fickle social media presence (no stranger to tweeting then quickly deleting, probably so her words don’t get taken out of context).

if you’re unaware, grimes purged most of her tumblr once in 2013 and again in 2018 for a few reasons - the main one being that she was tired of her random personal posts being taken and turned into headlines by music publications like pitchfork and such. understandable for her, but kinda the burning of the library of alexandria for fans because grimes’ tumblr is almost historical looking at the incremental rise to popularity she had. it was also very humanizing, to see this successful musician was just another nerd on tumblr posting about game of thrones and reblogging anime gifs. i see why it became such a liability when she got more mainstream.

so now some of her old posts are still accessible on her blog (@actuallygrimes) but it’s been reduced a signifcant amount, any post pre-2013 is *poof* gone. the things that stayed were: promo for her music, fanart she reblogged/reposted (w/ credit), sharing music/videos she enjoyed, and random reblogs of art and other stuff. it’s fun to look through but it’s much different from how it used to be. (as far as i know. i became a fan around 2019, i’m in no way an og lol).

but, when you delete something on tumblr it doesn’t exactly get wiped clean or become unrecoverable. with how tumblr works with reblogs, a deleted post that’s unavailable on op’s page can still be accessed on the active page of someone who reblogged it. (i panicked one time because i accidentally deleted a pretty popular post on my personal blog, but that post is still floating around in the ether getting likes and reblogs, i just don’t get notifications about it.)

i got inspired to make this blog after seeing that the blog @/worldheritageposts has some of grimes old deleted posts logged on their page, the actual post and not just a screenshot. i thought it would be fun to try and find these old deleted posts in the wild and compile them into one place - cuz there’s loads of screenshots of her deleted posts, but there isn’t really one place to find all of it. i have massive respect for orgs like Internet Archive and others who try to preserve internet content (preservation is sooo important esp in the internet age) so i wanted to do something like that on a smaller scale.

idk how popular this page is going to get (i just made it for myself, anyone who finds it and enjoys it is more than welcome to stay) but know that i probably will post some of her more controversial/unflattering deleted tweets relating to e*** m*** for preservation. with that, i DO NOT!!!! DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT want any discourse or fighting on this page. i want this blog to be an archive of grimes’ lost internet posts, nothing more than that. anyone who tries to hate on grimes or start fights gets blocked, please don’t bring that here. actually if there’s anything important to takeaway from this post it’s this.

most of all, i just want this to be fun! if you like grimes or lost media or both i hope you enjoy your stay. i’m still trying to figure out how sideblogs work actually (i’ve only had one personal blog since like 2015) but i want to follow some ppl back. also if you see me fuck up and accidentally post something to this blog that i meant to post to my personal, no u didn’t. have a good day yall stay grimey

#not deleted #should i pin this? im gonna pin it

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scarletspider2the2ndpower · 2 years ago

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So that resurrection scene kind of brings up something for the general Kaine vs Ben and Peter debate- it looks like the Jackal did enhance his powers/mutate them beyond what Peter could do? I know there's the argument over whether Kaine is meant to look exactly like Peter/have the exact same powers but this seems to support the idea that he was deliberately designed differently from Ben. And the Other would have resurrected him perfectly; so these secondary mutations he's initially resurrected with are implied to be part of his natural powerset? I've been trying to figure this out for years and no one can agree lmao

Oooooh, thank you so much for sending in an ask, because this is a topic I could talk about endlessly. :D

Disclaimer: the continuity surrounding Kaine and the Clone Saga as a whole is uniquely snarled even beyond typical comic book whackiness, so while I will do my best to back up my reasoning using comic book evidences, I am, at the end of the day, just a person on the internet and you should take everything I say with a grain of salt hahaha Oh, and another disclaimer is that I’ll mainly be drawing from the material I have read for this read-through so far. It has been a couple years since I last read Scarlet Spider vol. 2 or any of the more recent works Kaine has been in, so I may go back and add to this post in the future if I stumble upon any more interesting and relevant material. 👀

The shortest and most direct answer to your first question of if the Jackal specifically made Kaine differently from Ben with the aim of the former being “stronger” than Peter is from the “Echoes” story in Web of Spider-Man (Vol. 2/2009), #1 by J. M. DeMatteis.

Further supporting evidence in this vein can be found in the story I believe you’re referencing in your ask, “What I Did for Love,” Spider-Island: Deadly Foes (Vol. 1/2011), #1.

All of these can be editorially explained by the staff scrambling to answer the question of “wait, if we’re going to bring Kaine back in the year of our Lord 2009, how on earth are we going to explain how he, out of all the Parker clones (including Ben at this point), didn’t degenerate when degenerating was one of Kaine’s defining characteristics???” That’s where I believe the narrative of “the Jackal designed Kaine to be stronger” is most definitively explicated; however, I have further “evidences,” musings, and discussion of how The Other changes spider people beneath the cut if any one would like to read more. :D

There are other, even earlier indicators, however, that Kaine was built to be stronger than Peter. The first examples that come to mind are Kaine’s precognitive flashes and the infamous Mark of Kaine. The latter is a more easily defendable claim as, while Peter has demonstrated that in moments of extreme rage like in Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1/1963), #598 and #637 he is not above sticking to someone’s face, those instances seem to be more like examples of extreme adhesion as opposed to the unique burning/acidic quality of Kaine’s “Mark.”

Peter in Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1/1963), #598 vs. Kaine in Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1/1963), #631 and #636, respectively.

Now, Kaine’s precognitive flashes actually being Peter’s spider-sense amped up to 11 is a bit harder to defend, as that requires near-apocryphal material as evidence. Specifically, Marvel editor and writer Glenn Greenberg described Kaine’s pre-cog flashes as such in part nine of The Life of Reilly, a joint project with Andrew Goletz and various other Marvel insider interview subjects on the complicated editorial history surrounding The Clone Saga. Greenberg goes on to state in that same part that “it was well established in the stories that Kaine was physically stronger than Peter, and he was clearly much taller and more massive” (qualities we will get back too), but that all of Kaine’s abilities directly paralleling Peter was never actually explicitly stated in the text, much to all of the writers’ chagrin.

So, in light of that statement, I would like to throw my hat into the ring on the “is Kaine stronger/bigger than Peter” debate (what could possibly go wrong hahaha).

As early as when Kaine first revealed himself to be a Parker clone, he was described by multiple sources, including Kaine himself, the aforementioned Jackal, Ben, and Peter, as being stronger.

Spider-Man (Vol. 1/1990), #60 by Howard Mackie.

Spider-Man (Vol. 1/1990), #66 by Howard Mackie.

Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1/1963), #634 by Joe Kelly.

Now, whether Kaine is actually stronger or just more willing to cut loose and use his strength to its full lethal capabilities is an argument I am definitely willing to entertain, as there is no doubt that Peter is strong, but willfully holds himself back (I don’t think I’ll ever forget that time Peter held up the entire Daily Bugle building on his back in Spider-Man (Vol. 1/1990), #98 or the time he beat Firelord, a herald of Galactus, in Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1/1963), #270, and he is a self-proclaimed juggler of cars according to Peter Parker: Spectacular Spider-Man (Vol. 1/2017), #6). (…and then there’s that whole debacle with the “““superior””” Spider-Man and the Scorpion’s jaw).

As for if Kaine is physically larger, I stand by Greenberg’s statement that Kaine was consistently drawn as larger than Peter throughout the 1990’s and most of the 2000’s, with even the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Spider-Man (2005) listing Kaine as being 6’4” while Peter has reliably been 5’10” for ages (or as listed in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: A-Z (2009) if you want a specific source hahaha).

In fact, from what I have gathered, Kaine wasn’t portrayed as being physically similar in size to Peter until Slott’s Spider-Island event in 2011 (which,,,I feel like critics might be able to make a snide comment from that about how much Slott cares about the Spider-Man franchise, but that is WAY too far afield hahaha).

Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1/1963), #672.

Okay, so after all that, I also wanted to discuss what you brought up about the Other and resurrecting Kaine with his innate skill set. The facetious answer would be “yes, kind of???”, but considering Peter’s own experience with being connected to the Other, the powers Kaine developed post-resurrecting are not all actually as unique as, say, his precognitive flashes or his Mark.

Interestingly enough, a lot of the powers we associate with post-encountering-the-Other Kaine were actually explored with Peter in the early and mid-2000’s, with each power being unlocked after investigating Peter’s connection to the Spider-totem concept or other inherent spider-related matters.

Namely, Ezekial Sims first hints that by tapping into the totem Peter could communicate with spiders in Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 2/1999), #32 by J. Michael Straczynski.

That concept is further expounded upon and made to be a reality in Spectacular Spider-Man (Vol. 2/2003), #20 by Paul Jenkins, when the Spider-Queen enhanced existing spider-like qualities and DNA in Peter (in a rather horrific arc that solidified my hatred for the Spider-Queen but that’s just me hahaha)

During that same arc, Peter also got organic webbing.

Finally, Peter did briefly have a pair of Kaine’s infamous wrist bone blades (pictured here from Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (Vol. 1/2005), #3 by J. Michael Straczynski), but, being the kind of guy who typically tries to avoid disemboweling people (Morlun here is an exception since he broke MJ’s arm), Peter just didn’t use them all too often.

So anyway, tl;dr, what happens with Kaine post-resurrection could definitely be described as “enhancing powers that were already there if perhaps inert,” but there is a compelling argument (if you take all comics from all eras as equally valid/canon), that those powers are buried within Peter’s DNA/totemic connection(???) as well and were thus passed onto his enhanced clone.

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ohmyeyesmyeyes · 3 years ago

Note

Idk if you do one shots inspired in songs, but if so, Would you mind doing one with a Taylor Swift's song which is called "The 1"? With Mason Mount please

< i love taylor so much and i really hope i didn’t completely butcher this, but thanks for the challenge :) >

MASON MOUNT ONESHOT

the 1

( WARNING: little bit of angst and fluff?, swearing )

word count: 1.8k

Things don’t often go as we expect them to, and it’s often incredibly difficult to replan your life around that massive change and adapt your lifestyle so you can — in reality — live again.

It’s like trying to find your feet when you’re in the air — it feels impossible but you know with time you’ll eventually meet the ground again.

That’s what it felt like when you and Mason broke up four years ago.

You were fresh out of uni and at the time, you really thought he’d be it for you, and honestly, so did he. A break up thrown into the mix of having to navigate adult life just seemed to put a huge stopper on all your plans; the holiday you two had both booked for a weekend away in Ireland, the meals out with friends that you had to cancel, and the house showings you were set to attend.

Looking back on your relationship now, you realise it wouldn’t have been the worst thing to end up with Mason. All the years and effort and time put into loving him were — without a doubt — some of the best years of your life (at that stage in life), and did you regret it?

Not one single bit.

But four years is the perfect amount of time to heal, remove the salt from the wound and finish grieving.

But he was here. In real life.

You’d imagined running into him in the supermarket or on a night out with your friends, but a bus stop?

That one was weird. Mainly because you both hated catching the bus with a burning passion.

But it lead to a catch up over coffee.

It was a quiet place, out of the way of the usual lunchtime hustle and bustle in the city, and for that you were grateful. You could hear your own thoughts.

It was awkward at first, you couldn’t keep your eyes from fixating on his figure, his features, because four years can really change a person. He was much broader, his hair a little shorter, but he was still that same Mason you once loved.

You knew that because the first thing he did when he sat down was offer you that cheeky, charming smile that had you hooked from the second you met.

He’d asked how you were, and you answered honestly: you were living well, your best life, and to the fullest. And you knew and he knew that it wasn’t a lie.

He could tell by the smile on your face and the new, sparkling band on your wedding finger. He half expected that blow to sting a little — that you’d found someone and he hadn’t, but he was never one to be bitter whatsoever, at least, not when it came to you.

Instead, he offered his congratulations and the only inkling of regret he held was not being there when it happened.

I guess you never know, never know,

And if you wanted me, you really should’ve showed,

And if you never bleed, you’re never gonna grow,

And it’s alright now.

There was silence after that.

You had one thing on your mind, and you knew by the way he was looking at you that he was also thinking the same thing.

You took a sip of your coffee.

He mirrored your actions, seemingly startled when you placed your mug onto your saucer, the chink of porcelain against porcelain echoing around the small shop cutting through the previous quietness.

“I think I hated you for a while.” You murmured, and if Mason wasn’t leant over the table slightly, he would’ve missed the statement completely.

He nodded in understanding, his brown eyes shining with the faintest hint of guilt.

“I think I was so frustrated with the idea that we just…didn’t work, and I blamed it on you.” You paused, fingers twisting your rings.

He paused, mulling over his words, “And now? Still hate me now?”

You bit back a small smile and met his eyes, “No…I think it’d take a whole load of bad shit to get me to hate you.”

He smiled.

“That’s good to know.”

“I mean, I think it was a long time coming anyway, that break up.”

“It didn’t feel right for a while.”

“No,” you agreed, “as much as it hurt to admit, I think we just failed…as a couple. There was a point where we were just together for the sake of not giving up on the relationship, but with no real reason to continue.”

But we were something, don't you think so?

Roaring twenties, tossing pennies in the pool,

And if my wishes came true,

It would've been you,

In my defense, I have none,

For never leaving well enough alone,

But it would've been fun,

If you would've been the one.

He seemed to ponder over your words, and although he never voiced it, he came to the conclusion that you’d just put into words — perfectly — the itch that had been tickling his brain for the past few years.

“Despite that, you can’t deny that we weren’t something…” he started, before breaking off and shaking his head, as if the mere thought was ridiculous.

“We were something special. I think, had things stayed like they were in the beginning, that…you and I…” you waved your hand, tilting your head, and he nodded in agreement, taking a sip of his coffee.

“Me too. I think…in another life we could have made each other happy. It would have been fun.”

The words ‘if you would’ve been the one’ echoed in your head, and despite the passive aggressiveness of your conscience, you found yourself holding back a smile.

“Water fights in winter and eggs with ketchup…perfect. I’d never have gotten tired of that.” You mused, and he spluttered slightly on his coffee, laughing along with you in what felt like a decade.

I have this dream you're doing cool shit,

Having adventures on your own,

You meet some woman on the internet and take her home,

We never painted by the numbers, baby,

But we were making it count,

You know the greatest loves of all time are over now.

“Then again, who knows? Maybe you’ll fall over in the airport and some lucky person will help you off the floor—”

“You’re about to say something cheesy, aren’t you?” Mason covered his mouth, scrunching his nose in anticipation as you nodded.

“All this nostalgic bullshit has me emotional! I swear, just this once…just this once, and I promise you can laugh about it afterwards.” You swore, holding out your pinkie for confirmation.

He didn’t hesitate, and linked your pinkie.

“You’ll find someone else. It’ll be love at first sight—hey, let me have this moment…maybe love at second sight, knowing you… you’ll go to some really magical place and have the most amount of fun you’re ever gonna have…hikes, skydiving, looking after animals I’m sanctuaries…you’re gonna have the time of your life — like Grey and Swayze.” You sniggered, unable to hold in your laughs at the ridiculous scenarios.

Mason pulled a face, unable to hide a smile.

“Okay, okay. End of story: they’ll be perfect. The Chandler to your Monica or the Robin to your Ted. But, you understand what I’m talking about, right?” You asked, sighing out of frustration.

“You’re saying I’ll find my person.” He concluded, sitting back in his chair.

“Yeah.”

We were something, don't you think so?

Rosé flowing with your chosen family,

And it would've been sweet,

If it could've been me,

In my defense, I have none,

For digging up the grave another time,

But it would've been fun,

If you would've been the one.

“Like…your grandma and grandad. I want what they have.” Mason smiled.

“They’ll be pleased to hear that,” you said, “I don’t think they’re quite over us yet. You were too…you at family meals. They fell in love with you too.”

This time Mason really laughed. Really laughed. He threw his head back and the people working at the counter turned to look at him, fighting their own smiles at his carefree nature.

What you’d said wasn’t even that funny.

“Too me? Thanks, I think?”

“Oh, that’s definitely a compliment. You’re too damn charming for your own good, it’s a problem. You should come with a warning label on your forehead: EASY TO LOVE.”

“That’ll solve a lot of problems.”

There was silence.

It was relieving to say the least.

“That whole conversation was about four years too late.” You said, pursing your lips.

“Better late than never.” Mason murmured, his eyes trained on you.

The pressure on your shoulders was lifted. All the things that needed to be said were said.

As time passes, the wound heals — sometimes, but in your case, that was true, as hard as it was to come to that conclusion — and it suddenly became easier to recall the loss of what might have been without bringing you back to wishing it would be again.

It was nice.

“Would it be totally inappropriate—”

“Not at all.” You interrupted, shrugging at his raised eyebrows.

“You didn’t know what I was going to say.” He chuckled.

“I’ll have you know that years of knowing you granted me the issue of knowing what you’re going to say,” You said, pointing an accusatory finger in his direction.

“What was I going to say?” He challenged, “If you get it right, I’ll get you tickets to the next game.”

You raised your brows.

“Confident, are we?”

He shrugged, a smug smirk on his lips.

“I don’t think it’s totally inappropriate to be friends.” At your words, he slumped in his chair, hands going to cover his face.

“No.” He groaned, repeating the word like a mantra as you pumped the air with your fist.

“Three tickets to the next game in the bag.” You bragged.

“Honestly.” He whined, peeling his hands away. “Why are you so difficult?”

“You offered the terms.”

“Why am I so dumb?” He rephrased.

“Ah, I'm afraid only you can answer that one.”

“The brain cells I have left don’t have enough energy to come up with an answer to a question as philosophical as that one—yes, it was philosophical to me, okay?”

“I wasn’t going to say anything.” You promised, putting your hands in the air in surrender.

“Just remember who’s going to give you those tickets, yeah?” He teased, sitting up.

“Abusing your power, nice move.”

“Oh…shut up.”

“Weak.” You coughed, trying to disguise the fact you said anything.

He looked straight at you, highly unimpressed by your tactics.

“Very original.” Was all he said.

“Is it supposed to be this easy?” You blurted out, spitting out the words before you could rethink the consequences of them being thrown into the abyss between you and Mason.

He knitted his brows together in thought.

“I don’t know,” he answered honestly, “but we were friends way before, it’s not hard to fall back into old habits. I think that’s why it’s so easy.”

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endorspeaches · 3 years ago

Text

Press Junket

Warnings: a bit of angst? mainly fluff

Pairings: Femme/ Female Reader x Pedro Pascal

Summary: Press junkets are a piece of cake for you. Until you get to interview your celebrity crush. What could go wrong?

Listen with: Un Beso - Aventura

A/N: I have no idea what goes on at press junkets luckily the internet helps so I tried my best to keep it as true as possible also this is a one-shot possibly my first series? let me know what you think! hope you all enjoy (:

This fic is for my sister. Happy Birthday, Sunshine<3

You had your normal lineup of interviews for your press junkets throughout the week. You go over your paperwork and at the bottom you see.

Pedro Pascal: The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent. also starring Nicolas Cage and Tiffany Haddish.

"Breathe Y/N let's not get ahead of ourselves." you look down at the list of the week as if his name was going to disappear.

Like always you begin your prep work for each actor or actress on your list. Researching their previous work, the work they are currently promoting, or future things that are in the works. You often check fandom accounts to see what burning questions the fan bases have. You couldn't focus, all you thought about was THE FREAKING INTERVIEW YOU HAD WITH PEDRO PASCAL! You pushed through your list and finally arrive at Pedro's name. All the excitement you had, all the questions you thought you had GONE. Your brain is wiped clean and anxiety is kicked into high gear.

You did your best to get your questions in order and submitted them for publicist approval. You got little to no sleep the entire week before the junket. You get an email of approval with an emoji! Normally you got a dry email saying "approved" only. You can imagine how many emails they go through beforehand, how many newbies they have to correct or remove, you are sure it's a tedious process. An emoji was new. A new kind of nervousness set it.

The week ran smooth, with minor hiccups but nothing you hadn't already experienced before. You felt pretty confident working junkets. The day you interview Pedro Pascal has arrived and you get to the hotel early making sure you are not stuck in journalist lobby hell. You get your badge and proceed to the hall and await your time slot. You were lucky enough to get an early slot, press junkets are tightly run ships and give little wiggle room.

You enter the curtains a bit early and sit in the chair and breathe trying to calm your nerves.

"Mr. Pascal will be down in a few minutes, we will be testing the lighting and sound I hope that's okay," a tech says.

"That's perfectly ok, can I listen to some music?" you ask.

"Sure as long as it's good music. Just jokin' but you're welcome to listen to music it'll actually help us with sound." they nod.

"Thank you, let me know if I need to turn it down." you smile.

"I'll be on the other side of the curtain, I'll give you a heads up before the talent arrives," they wink and disappear to the other side of the curtain.

You pull your phone out, and press play on your lock screen.

"Un Beso by Aventura" begins to play.

You begin flipping through your cards, rehearsing your questions a bit so you're not constantly looking at the cards during the entire interview. Just mumbling the words to yourself when you hear a voice.

"Hay una mujerrrrrr, Que domina mis sentidos con sólo tocar mi piellllll. Y como a mí tambiéeeeeeeen. A otro hombre esto le puede suceder..." a voice behind the curtain sings.

You lower the volume and blush a bit. "I didn't think you knew Spanish but I knew my song choice wouldn't disappoint." you joke. The curtain opens and Pedro smiles, "Of course! This song is the best!"

You feel your face turn bright red and wish you could melt and disappear into your seat. He is having his mic put on and he's doing a little dance. He raises his shirt allowing the audio tech to adjust his mic cable. You glace and see his Hugo Boss underwear and quickly look away as soon as he adjusts his shirt back down.

"I thought you were the tech person who came in here earlier, I apologize," you blush.

"No worries," he smiles brightly at you.

Did it suddenly get hot in here? You suddenly felt like you were sweating bullets. You take a hold of the armrest and try your best not to stutter over your own words.

"I'm normally not allowed near the aux." you try to joke as casually as possible for all you know you probably sound crazy.

"What?! I'd permanently put you on aux cord duty! Are you kidding me?" he says excitingly as he stands across from you.

"Thank you, I think our car rides would be loads of fun." you stand hoping your knees don't buckle under you. Thinking about not blushing made it harder to concentrate on your knees.

"I'm Pedro, and can I say we are already on a great start! I feel so energized so thank you." he claps his hands together then extends his hand out.

"It is so nice to meet you, My name is Y/N." lucky for you your hand isn't as sweaty as you feel the rest of your body is. You reach out and shake his hand.

You take a moment to acknowledge the handshake. His hands are soft but his grip is tight but not aggressive. You swear he'd give the best hugs. You look up from the handshake and see Pedro watching you with the sweetest smile.

"Fantastic handshake Y/N. Most journalists' hands are all moist and weird, I appreciate a great handshake." he brushes back his hair.

Honestly, are we near a furnace?

You sit in your seat and he follows your lead. "Thank you, I feel handshakes make a big first impression." you pull your phone out and pause the song.

"Your song made a great first impression and your handshake made it even greater, I was hoping we'd just hang out and listen to your music." he teases.

"Nice try, we gotta get a couple questions in if you don't mind." you shrug trying to play off his flirty vibe.

"We can go on only if we swap playlists at some point." he smiles and makes eye contact. It makes you weak. You want to blame your lack of sleep for feeling so frenzied.

"Your questions have been so good! I feel like a broken record most of the time answering the same thing over and over all day. You know it's actually really hard to rephrase the same answer." he says with a visible look of horror on his face as if he saw into his future.

"I'm so sorry about the rest of the day, I wish I could stay with you all day. I learned early to keep the interviewee on their toes. It makes things fun and just easy. I can only imagine your entire day being asked the same daytime tv bs. It gets old to watch I know I wouldn't be able to stand answering it." you play around with the note cards.

"Interviews like this make it better, I was jet-lagged, sleepy, and maybe a bit tired. Now I feel like I could possibly run a marathon. Don't quote me though." he laughs adjusting himself in his chair.

"Well I'm sorry to say but I believe our time is about up, I want to thank you for your time and the many laughs. Again I'm such a fan of your work and I'm truly excited to see this movie. You always understand the assignment and just really make the projects you are in that much better." you gush as you lock eyes with him.

"Oh thank you! I shouldn't take all the credit but I totally will!" he giggles in the cutest way possible.

You try your hardest not to blush, you think you've done pretty well so far.

"You know Y/N I'd like to take you up on that car ride you spoke about earlier. We don't have to swap playlists. Tell you what we can listen to them till they end. Who knows they might be on a loop and probably never end." he blushes and bites his lip and places his hand on the side of his face.

"Well..." you begin to say.

You can see him begin to get a bit nervous and also giddy at the same time. He nods at you as he moves his hand across his face over his mouth. He looks excited and nervous waiting for your answer.

"... as long as you tell me the truth about my playlist," you watch him light up at your response.

"I'll be honest always y/n," he stands and extends both arms.

A HUG? You literally feel as if the room is spinning. Did your blood pressure take a deep dive or did it skyrocket? You feel your heart about to beat out of your chest. You begin to stand and decide to give him a polite side hug. As you take a step over to him you trip on a cable and stumble right into his arms.

"Nice catch huh Y/N," he says as he looks down at you.

"OMG I- um oh my ... uh- sorry, I mean thank you!" you shake your head at yourself. WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE YOU DOING!?

"No need to be sorry, I always got you." he gushes.

You realize you're still in his arms, you stand up and don't know what to do with yourself. You do a slight shuffle making sure not to stumble again. You look at Pedro and he's admiring you lose yourself in nervousness.

Pedro rubs the back of his neck and shoves his other hand into his pocket, "So... about that date..."

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astaroth1357 · 4 years ago

Text

The Obey Me Cast on a Camping Trip (Part One: Brothers)

Hey guys, thank you sooo much for getting me to 2,000 followers!! I honestly don’t know what to say... I never dreamed that this little hobby of mine would reach so many eyes, and I can’t be more grateful. At a time in my life where things feel so chaotic and uncertain, being a part of this community and sharing my weird ideas has been what’s kept me going. It’s been such a rewarding experience all around, so thank you. From the bottom of my heart. 😊

I pulled out all the stops for this post. I even brought out one of my favorite songs of all time: Ao to Natsu by Mrs. GREEN APPLE to get the feel juuust right. I hope you all enjoy it!

This post is split in two due to length (I had too much fun again...) For the Undateables, please click HERE!

Intro:

Another day, another team building activity between the demons and the exchange students. It was Diavolo’s idea to go on a camping trip to the human world (because of course it was), and there were very… mixed responses. That sentiment wasn’t helped when he refused Lucifer’s insistent pleas to just purchase cabins for everyone to stay in. Oh no, the Demon Lord wanted to rough it out in the wilderness, and now everyone else was getting dragged along with him…

Wonder how that turned out?

Lucifer

Really, really, really tried to push Diavolo to just rent out cabins in but noooo, he wasn’t having it... So he ended up driving a van crammed with his brothers, the MC, and a butt-ton of camping equipment into the Alaskan wilderness…

The car ride itself was insufferable… We’re talking, “I SWEAR I WILL TURN THIS CAR AROUND!!” level of antics every 10 miles or so (mostly from Mammon)…

Setting up camp was even more of a nightmare because about half of his brothers were utterly useless. The other half (save Satan) were completely clueless… Had it not been for Barbatos and Satan he probably would have just resigned himself to the mercy of the river’s currents and let it take him away…

He couldn’t even wear his usual clothes because of the situation… For the first time in who knows how many centuries, he was stuck wearing jeans… Diavolo even bought him several plaid shirts... (which he was not happy with btw because his brother wouldn’t stop making fun of the “new” him)

He had his own tent of decent-size, enough to move around in but nothing to write home about. The very fact he didn’t have to share was a luxury in itself, so he took it for what it was worth...

He spent a good portion of the trip focused on two things: keeping Diavolo happy and everybody else alive. He rarely left camp unless forced to; he just wanted to get it all over with as soon as possible…

If he did leave, it was because Diavolo would drag him along to fish or hike. He was... less than pleased to be called out of his tent at the crack of dawn or well past dusk to sit on a little rented fishing boat with Diavolo… but he didn’t exactly pick his friends so...

He rates the trip Too Much Trouble/10. Let’s never do it again.

Mammon

Wasn’t a massive fan of being stuck out in the wild, but Satan told him some made-up bullshit about buried treasure out in the forest and got him HOOKED. He even borrowed stole a whole bunch of mining/digging equipment just for the occasion!

He spent most of the car ride asking, “Are we there yet??” like a child. The MC had to step in to keep Lucifer from leaving him on the side of the road at multiple points during the journey...

He was one of the utterly useless ones when it came to setting up camp. Someone charged him with putting up the twin’s tent, and he spent thirty minutes reading (then re-reading) the instructions while shouting expletives. Poor Simeon had to shield Luke from the vulgarity…

He has to share a tent with Levi, which neither of them liked. Mammon mainly because of Levi’s “old fish stink” and Levi because he feared catching “Mammon’s stupid.”

He was all jazzed up to go digging from Day One, though. He’d have breakfast, grab his shovel, then wander out into the middle of nowhere to go dig holes in the ground…

He also got completely lost on Day One, and it took the MC summoning him with their pact to return him to the group... By that time, he was filthy and somehow looked like he had been castaway for days (even though he was gone for like, three hours?)

When he stubbornly refused to stop digging, Lucifer resorted to just tying a rope around his ankle and letting him loose. It was up to Mammon to get back to camp before dinner, or else Lucifer would yank him back like he was on a leash.

Satan waited until the last day to finally tell Mammon the treasure was bullshit, and he was PISSED. He even threw Satan into the river, which resulted in the rest of the brothers joining in for a swim while the two tried to “playfully” drown each other.

He’d rate this trip 0/10 because he didn’t get any buried treasure. What a ripoff…

Leviathan

Hated the idea with a burning, seething passion. There’s no internet, cable, electricity, or phone signal out in the middle of nowhere! How the heck is an otaku supposed to survive?!

He clung to his electronics during the car ride until either they ran out of signal or their battery died, then he didn’t know what to do with himself… He resorted to reading several volumes of the manga he stuffed into his bag and clung to the MC for emotional support…

Yet another useless soul trying to put the camp together. He was in charge of his and Mammon’s tent but ended up almost crying in frustration… How the hell do humans do this all on their own?? Wasn’t he supposed to be the third strongest?! Why is he so pathetic?!? 😫

Hates sharing a tent with Mammon because he always wakes up to the second born encroaching on his space somehow… Poor baby is pretty much directly against the tent wall and STILL has to deal with legs and elbows in his side... 😰

Spends the majority of the trip moping in the tent... If he goes out there, he has to deal with the sun, bugs, and people… No thanks. He only leaves for meals and occasionally to go swimming.

When he found out part of the way through that Barbs brought portable solar panels and a battery pack for Diavolo and Lucifer’s phones, he was livid. He demanded access to the power source, which Lucifer refused because “It would defeat the purpose of this trip.”

He’d have summoned Lotan right then and there, deadass in the middle of the forest, if the MC hadn’t intervened. He then went back to moping, but now at the bottom of the lake and it took a lot of coaxing to get him back out…

On the final day, he was packing up the camp before anyone else even woke up. He wanted OUT and back to civilization ASAP. Bedroom here he comes!

Satan

You wouldn’t think of Satan as an outdoorsy guy. Still, he has shades of a survivalist in him (mostly because he’s read a lot of guides and was looking for an excuse to use them for a loooong time).

He read for the majority of the ride. He was squished between Asmo and Levi, which was reasonably peaceful. But he did end up shouting at Mammon quite a bit towards the end because “NO, we’re not there yet, peabrain!!”

He actually wasn’t a waste of space when setting up the camp, and between him, Barbs, and Lucifer, they were able to get a lot of stuff set up before sundown. He did have to bark a few orders to the others here and there, but overall competency won out in the end.

He shared a tent with Asmo, and the two made it work well enough… Except when Asmo did things like spraying his perfumes and dry shampoos, making it practically impossible to breathe in for a few minutes…

Spent a lot of the first few days reinforcing the camp to a ridiculous degree.

Did he have to collect large branches to build an exterior fence around the campsite? No. But he did.

Did he have to set up a water distillation system using some of the materials Barbs had lying around the “kitchen?” No. But he did.

Did he have to weave a series of fishing nets to catch them lunch from the lake and river? I think you get the point by now.

Only once he built pretty much every contraption or improvement he could think of, did he go back to just reading and relaxing by the fire.

By the time the group was ready to leave, Satan had somehow managed to craft them a veritable, self-sustaining fortress in the middle of the Alaskan wilds…

Overall he would rate the trip as… meh. Next time give him a challenge like a deserted island or an actual desert, and then he’ll really see what he can do.

Asmodeus

Was about as unhappy with the idea as Levi was… It wasn’t that he disliked the outdoors per se, it was just that no one, NO ONE, pulls off looking flawless after several days stuck in a tent!

He chatted the entire car ride from start to finish. He never stopped talking. It made for decent background noise at least…

Was one of the more clueless ones when trying to set up camp and pretty just did what he was ordered. The second he was left to try and figure something out on his own, he went to Lucifer or Satan for help because NOPE. Human equipment is needlessly complicated sometimes…

He had to share a tent with Satan, which in theory shouldn’t have been that bad, but Satan was out basically all day in the sun doing who knows what and would always come back sweaty and gross! At some points, he had to chase his brother out of the tent until he dunked himself in the river or something. No way was Asmo sleeping next to that. 😤

Asmo took the second-longest to get up and get ready in the morning. Sometimes he wouldn’t even leave the tent until well past breakfast just in an attempt to salvage his hair and skin… He only got grouchier about it as the trip went on… 😥

A more… earthy looking Asmo is kind of a bizarre sight. He’s still attractive, no doubt, but it’s less like polished glamour and more like Hollywood humble. He spent the majority of the trip looking like a somewhat dirtied movie-star (which he still insisted was the worst he’s ever looked in ages).

Aside from salvaging his looks, he actually enjoyed taking pictures of their surroundings or of the group (but not himself). He sometimes forgot how genuinely breathtaking the human world could be…

….but his patience for the place wore out quickly once he started noticing his hair getting greasy. He was right next to Levi, packing up the site once it was finally time to leave. At least those two finally found something they could agree on, let’s get the fuck out already!

Beelzebub

He was really curious about trying camping food and pretty excited that Barbatos was coming, too (because that meant great food in general).

Unfortunately, Lucifer had to stop the van at basically every gas station they passed for Beel could refill on snacks… Belphie ended up getting buried in wrappers pretty often, but he was asleep, so it didn’t matter much.

Beel did a lot of the heavy lifting when setting the camp up, but the finer details were left up to everybody else. He had his hands full getting stuff off the cars as is…

Of course, he shared a tent with Belphie, and there wasn’t much complaint between them. Honestly, there would have been more drama if they were split, so this was the better option.

After the MC told Beel about fishing and how it could net him more food, if he did it right, he knew exactly what he wanted to do during the trip.

… But no one told him how long and slow the process would be. There were points he’d get so hungry he’d consider eating the bait himself…

That was until about Day Three of the trip when they passed by a river full of grizzly bears… He was about to ask the MC why the bears were all standing in the water, but then he saw a fish practically leap directly into one’s mouth…

Beel had discovered his true calling.

Of course, the grizzlies didn’t take too kindly to a demon suddenly sprinting into the water with them. They tried to fight him off, but Beel just tossed most of them downstream without any issue until they realized who the apex predator really was…

After forming a shaky truce with the bears, Beel would stand in the water for hours then come back with whole baskets full of salmon… There were far more fish than Barbatos knew what to do with, so he’d just confiscate a few then let Beel eat the rest...

The MC shuddered to think about what Beel had done to the local salmon population… But he was full and happy for most of the trip, so he had a great time!

Belphegor

Sleep for him isn’t too contingent on location, so the idea of camping wasn’t terrible. It did sound like a lot of hassle for no good reason, though…

He spent the entire car ride asleep, head and cow pillow pressed up against the window and everything. It wasn’t the most comfortable experience, but he’d dealt with worse.

He was utterly useless when putting up the camp by choice, thank you. He had more than enough sense to get things put together; he just didn’t want to. If he wasn’t asked to do something by Beel or the MC, he’d just lay back in the grass and smugly watch everybody else struggle…

Again, he and Beel are in the same tent, and you wouldn’t hear any complaints out of him. He did start to have some second thoughts when Beel began getting a fishy smell, though, so he tried to bunk with the MC in their tent for a while.

Like Levi, Belphie didn’t leave the tent much during the daylight hours, but that was because he was still asleep… There was no good way to wake him with no alarms available, so he’d sleep in past lunch easily.

When he was awake, he didn’t leave camp very much except to walk with the MC or watch Beel fishing grizzly-style.

Eventually, Asmo and Diavolo got sick of him dodging their photos, so they’d started posing him Weekend at Bernie’s style around the camp (always conveniently propped up by something and with sunglasses on)

Something Belphie did like, however, was the nighttime. Since there were no lights around, he could practically see everything the sky had to offer. He could spend hours laying on his back long after everyone else had gone to bed just admiring the stars.

All in all, not a terrible trip. Anything that could give him that view like that was well worth it. 6/10, would sleep again.

Click HERE for Part Two. Check out my Masterlist for more!

#obey me #obey me shall we date #shall-we-date-obey-me #obey me lucifer #obey me mammon #obey me leviathan #obey me satan #obey me asmodeus #obey me beelzebub #obey me belphegor #obey me headcanons #obey me scenarios #thank y'all so so much #you're fantastic

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spookyfbi · 4 years ago

Note

what did cody said about klave?

Omg Anon okay so, twitter user umbrellaacademy invited Cody to do a twitter space with them which they did yesterday (8PM Friday EST) and Cody stayed for OVER TWO AND A HALF HOURS answering fan questions and saying SO MANY things about Dave and Klave and I am still so overwhelmed. I have recorded it and I’ve sent the video to the host and they’ve said they’ll release it soon (although the file is massive so I suspect they’ll have a bit of trouble wrangling it like I did so it might take longer). In the meantime, some highlights under the cut:

- Dave’s favourite thing about Klaus is his openness. He’s charismatic because he’s unafraid to be himself. Cody also finds it endearing that Klaus marches to the beat of his own drum.

- He likes the idea that the briefcase brought Klaus to Dave because of fate/destiny. Dave is the missing piece of Klaus, he fills a void in Klaus. He’s as interested as we are to find out if the timeline loops back in season 3

- Dave is soft spoken. There are qualities of Dave that have grounded and soothed Klaus but also Klaus has pulled Dave out of his shell. Klaus’ openness was like an invitation to Dave to open up and be goofy and strange, and this was a vibe Cody got from Robert as well in the bar scene, but then the dynamic shifted later and he felt that Dave was the one who was opening up first.

- Dave would go with Klaus to be with his family. He would want Klaus to take the reigns and would trust Klaus re- what kind of life they could have together post Vietnam. Although there would be no hesitation from Dave about his love for Klaus, there might be hesitation about planning a life together because of the time period they were in. There’s a sense of peace and wanting to settle from Klaus. Cody just basically being solidly on the Klaus bringing Dave back to 2019 to meet his family train.

- There is a sensitivity and self awareness to Dave, Cody thinks he accepted his sexuality but just was careful about advertising it because of the time period. He also says that his Dave in season 1 didn’t have the experience we saw in season 2 with his uncle and that might have made him more open (I am staring directly at my reverse George McFly theory).

- Dave’s love for Klaus is unconditional, he loves him for exactly who he is. Dave’s unconditional love is a foil for the conditional love Klaus gets from his family. Klaus doesn’t really know what love is and then he gets fired this laser beam of love from Dave.

- Cody that been in a play where his character was in a relationship with a guy but he thinks Rob hadn’t done that before. The director set the tone that the kiss scene was an intimate and tender scene. He feels like there was a reassurance from Dave to Klaus in that moment.

- Dave was holding 4 shot glasses in the scene where he’s holding them with both hands.

- Cody describing Dave in 4 words - kind, sensitive, empathetic, soft. Dave would describe Klaus as free spirited, open, unfiltered, unexpected (he also put forward chaotic but didn’t stick with it and replaced it with unexpected).

- Dave’s first thought when he woke up and saw Klaus was “Is this a dream... We’re not sleeping much so this could be a dream, I wouldn’t put it past my brain” Also “The dream coming to reality but maybe not necessarily looking like what he thought.”

- He thinks Klaus probably took the dogtags off Dave after he died as a way to remember him rather than them exchanging them

- He wants Klaus and Dave’s storyline to end with love prevailing. He also floats the idea of Dave taking a dark turn and Klaus has to be the redemptive person to bring Dave back.

In preparation for playing Dave he watched the Ken Burns Vietnam War documentary series on Netflix and also looked up online about the Vietnam war. He also listened to music he thought Dave would be into from 1965-1968: He mentions Motown and Stones (Cody said he himself likes Motown)

- Cody’s favourite thing about Dave is the quality of how he loves Klaus. He describes it as pure and unconditional and simple and he talks about he thinks people need to love each other fearlessly - not just romantically but in friendships as well, especially with what’s happening now (and this sort of clarifies to me why he was talking about love over fear so passionately in the clever klaus q&a and what he meant by that)

- Cody is a fantasy nerd

- He would love to see Dave giving Klaus some agency

- He thinks that Klaus has some guilt about Dave’s death

- He would like to play a Commission agent (Commission Dave rights!!)

- Robert is very open and unassuming and funny and it was easy to have an immediate rapport with him. Cody also talked with Tom Hopper (about their mutual friend Bradley James). He also briefly met Colm and Robin and he also remembered he met Aidan (who here had a theory about a deleted scene with Aidan in the attic?)

- He doesn’t know how time works in the afterlife or how Klaus’ power works but Dave would have waited 50 years for Klaus

- Calem joined the space and they said that they hadn't interacted before but they had a bit of a chat. Calem said that his filming in season 2 was 4 days but about 1 month apart. Calem’s internet kept cutting out and then he disappeared.

- If Dave was one of the 43 children his power could be the care bear love blast and he could fire hot beams of love out of the hole in his chest. He would give Dave a more passive power to round out the more active powers the other Hargreeves have, like a healer

- The scene in the tent was filmed at the studio. The scene on the bus was shot outside. The scene in the trench was partly shot outside but some of it was shot in the studio as well (I wonder if he’s confusing that trench scene with the hallucination at the Rave though?)

- He said the scenes were beautifully lit (I beg to differ, Cody!)

- Klaus helped unlock that part of him (I think he means Dave’s sexuality) and he also says that Klaus was a very specific target to Dave’s love. Klaus seems like one in a million. When you love someone there’s something specific about them that pulls that out of you.

- Calem returns! He was in his room where the internet crapped out on him but then he went downstairs. Cody asked what it was like for Calem to come in and play an established character. Calem said he purposely didn’t talk with Cody about the character before playing him because he’d done the audition without knowing anything about the character so he didn’t want to risk doing something too different from what he’d done in the audition, but he did watch season 1. He also said he was a bit anxious about what the audience would think of him playing the character, and Cody went into acting mentor mode and said that he doesn’t think the job is about appeasing the fans but about trying to be as true as possible. He also said that Calem did a good job and he shouldn’t be hard on himself but Calem then said that he quickly got over it and he wasn’t thinking about it on set, just afterwards. Calem mentioned that he creeped Cody’s IMDB and he said that his dad was a camera operator on Lizzie Borden Chronicles this Cody guest starred in an episode of.

- Dave loves music like Cody. He mentioned Four Tops as another band and then Motown again. He thinks the bar scene shows Dave’s love of music but he wasn’t thinking about that at the time.

- Dave would be overstimulated at first if he came to the future because we’re bombarded with a lot more stimulus than in the 60s. The internet and iPhones would blow his mind. He let’s a “we’ll see” slip, which he then quickly corrects to “we would see”

- The kiss in the bar was definitely the first kiss and he thinks it happened a couple months into the tour. He thinks the feelings were mutual quite early, but that it would have taken some time to act on them and to be able to gauge if each other were really giving off the signals that they like each other.

- He’s appreciative of the fan love and he tries to make a connection with everyone he can

- Dave is an optimistic force who thinks that love will prevail so he would have wanted to do something to make it work despite the obstacles they faced

- Cody doesn’t know how close to the vest Klaus kept the stuff about his powers and the time travel etc but he did see Klaus appear so he does know there’s something strange about him. Dave trusted Klaus and even if it wasn’t explicitly talked about there was enough trust to go “wherever you go I’ll follow, wherever that leads.” When Klaus conjures Dave, Dave is excited to see him but isn’t really surprised or put off by any of the circumstances that Klaus is in.

- He thinks that Dave is more the listener of the relationship, but he could certainly see Dave telling Klaus about Dune and Klaus indulging him.

- Rob is very genuine, very unassuming, very immediately open, very funny, definitely puts you at ease, incredibly thoughtful, very considerate, good dude (wow it’s the complimenting Rob speed run! 8 in a row!)

- The aspect of Dave that Cody connects to most is his non-judgemental quality

- Dave would connect with Vanya’s softness and Luther’s moral compass (he said Diego’s moral compass in the cleverklaus q&a so not sure if he just mixed them up). He thinks Dave might be a bit too sincere for Five and Ben would appreciate being able to unload Klaus on Dave.

- He thinks Dave is not a tattoo guy but Klaus is impulsive so getting a tattoo really aligns with his personality. He thinks that Dave’s actions speak louder than words written on him

- He connects to the fractured family theme of the show on a personal level

- Dave being jewish was something he only learned about through looking at the dogtags, it wasn’t in the script or anything

- Dave might have studied Philosophy if he’d gone to college instead of joining the military, he feels like there’s a dreamer quality to Dave

- Even though Dave was pressured into joining the military, he thinks that Dave believed he was going the right thing by enlisting

- Colm is a Canadian Hall of Fame actor and Reginald is such an intense character so Cody would love to do a scene with him. He would also love to do a scene with Elliot.

- Cody remembered waiting on set to film the scene in the club and he, Rob and Tom were in an 80s hotel with a heart shaped jacuzzi (??? oh was this the set with the Handler and Agnes maybe?)

#the umbrella academy #dave katz #klave #cody ray thompson

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ratretro · 3 years ago

Note

Hallo!✌

Do you have any bkdk fic recs? Please and thank you. 🤗

YOU BET I DO

These are a collection of recs from me and my fellow chaos server bkdks. I'm only doing AO3 links because that has a proper tagging system so you can look through them and decide on your own terms which ones you want to read. :) I highly recommend looking through the author's other works as well.

Some of these you may have already read if you've been in the bkdk fandom for a while. Recs under the cut!!

are u dating?? by ladyofsnails

This one is by far one of my favorites and I re-read it constantly. It's precious. Here's the summary:

Izuku's life is going amazingly well, with his Twitch channel where he streams himself playing video games and discussing the nerdiest things imaginable hitting 3 million followers, his best friend as his roommate, and his other close friends as tight-knit as they've been since high school. The only possible road bump is his viewer's continuous demands to know who "Kacchan" is - thanks to Katsuki often coming into his room during streams and Izuku's repeated attempts to pull him into video game competitions - and, more importantly, if they're dating. Which is crazy.

The Way You Used To Do by Edema-ruh

This one gives me physical and emotional pain but the pay off is so worth it. It also has a sequel, but I can't say anything on it, because I haven't had a chance to read it lol This is also available to read in multiple languages. Here's the summary:

"We're really sorry," his father says, in a teary-eyed, wobbly way. "But your friend, Izuku, he's... He's gone, son."

Katsuki can do nothing but blink up at them for moments that feel like an eternity, eyes darting between both his parents in obvious confusion, disbelief, and, more than anything, indignation.

"What the fuck are you two talking about? The damn nerd is standing right beside you!"

During a battle, Midoriya gets hit by a villain whose quirk detaches his soul from his body. Stuck in a ghost-like state, the boy enters a race against time in order to save himself from permanently dying. Much to his luck - or lack of it -, the only person who can see and talk to him in this state is no one other than Kacchan.

Alternatively: Deku and Kacchan are soulbound.

If It's You by lalazee

Okay so this one is fucking great because it's based off of one of my fave 90s movies this one is a rec courtesy of Ash. Also, it's a one shot. Here's the summary:

“You’ve gotta be fuckin’ kidding me,” Katsuki said. “You did not just ask me—me—to try and date your loser step-brother.”

He wasn’t even going to say Deku’s name out loud. Wasn’t giving him the time of day, even in a conversation about him. That weird awkward virgin was not worth his precious time, and certainly not what Kirishima was suggesting.

“But Bakugouuu,” Kirishima wailed, hanging off Katsuki’s arm with monster meathead jock strength. “My dad said I can’t date if Deku doesn’t date. Do you understand what that means?”

“Less chance of knocking someone up and creating more of you in the world?”

A Demolition Boy & his Cryptid BF by kewltie

I'm a massive sucker for streamer AUs lmfao but this one's really cute. The way it's written is unique and might take some getting used too but it's cute. This one is courtesy of Mis lol Here's the summary:

Bakugou of the Demolition Squad is famous for running one of the most popular Youtube channels on the web that regularly blow shit up and jumped off a perfectly good building for shit and giggles. He's also famous for his Cryptid BF™, never appearing on camera except for a few bodyshots and all information on him is kept locked up tighter than Fort Knox, therefore drawing all sort of attention and curiosity toward his mysterious boyfriend.

Deku from Deku Explains is a hopeless chatterbox who is known for uploading 20-30 minutes video that talked about his favorite shows and comics and have one of the most devoted following on Youtube. He also can't seem to shut up about his boyfriend Kacchan, who regularly make his presence on the channel as a disembodied voice.

They should theoretically have nothing in common except a shared platform to host their content and an army of fans with an endless curiosity and devotion to their Youtubers. Vidcon is where we lay our scene and the internet is about to get a rude wake up call.

(may the bridges i have burned) light my way back home by Chrome

Alternatively known as: my heart is broken and I love them your honor. It hurts my soul but its definitely hurt/comfort :') This one is incomplete, but def a good read. This one is courtesy of Klancey Here's the summary:

Since Bakugou Katsuki discovered the secret of One for All, he and Midoriya Izuku have been slowly repairing the friendship they once had. They still haven’t talked about it—but Izuku’s certain that it’s only a matter of time before they manage to lay the past to rest.

But when the League of Villains attack the Sports Festival and Bakugou takes a devastating blow meant for Izuku, the whole nation is suddenly paying attention to a relationship the two people involved barely understand. Izuku needs more than ever to figure out who he and Kacchan are to each other—preferably before the internet does.

or,

“Fuck you,” Bakugou said. “I don’t need a whole face to kick your ass.”

#this is a short list because im shit at keeping track of my fics #im that reader who just leaves all their browser tabs open and never saves anything lmfao #anyway here are a few recs #i also limited myself to ao3 only because of their tagging system but #hope you find something you like in here #bakudeku #katsuizu #fic recs #ratnon

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