#yes i know everything was not normal normal leading up to the interview but

[cabesswtaer]

i don’t think we realize how groundbreaking the kevin and jean interview is going to be. like. imagine if you’re the fan of literally the most famous collegiate exy team ever and everything is normal normal and then all of a sudden these two are like “yeah it was a cult and also. the yakuza” i feel like most raven fans would just drop dead.

[krazycat6167]

Say No

(written for @keferon’s Apocalyptic Ponyo AU. A bit of Jazz and Prowl set after most of the events of the au. Enjoy!)

-.-.-.-

Prowl watches from the sidelines as Jazz goes through yet another interview. He can’t shake the feeling that there is something off with Jazz. That there is something that isn’t right. 

Oh sure, Jazz looks happy, but Prowl doesn’t trust it. He doesn’t know why he doesn’t trust it though, so he’s scrutinizing Jazz and his behavior to try and figure it out. 

The other orca mer is smiling, talking as animated as he usually does (though notably trying to be polite by staying in one general area), using his hands as he speaks. Those are normal Jazz things to do, even if he seems a bit…more Jazz-y? He’s using a bit more inflection, slightly more exaggerated movements, a smidge extra charm behind the smile. The effect is entertaining, sure, but-.

But…he is…being entertaining. He is here, in an interview, answering questions both benign and personal, and he is putting on a show. 

Prowl’s gaze flicks around the room. Multiple cameras, stage lights, a dazzled audience. 

The interviewer, masterfully directing Jazz through the narrative with light and heavy topics and making sure to end on a high note. 

Jazz, big movements, big personality, put on display like a thing to be marveled at. 

A large grin that had been bothering Prowl the whole time because it is wrong. And now he knows it’s because it is fake. 

When the interview ends and Jazz swims offstage, Prowl takes his arm and leads him away. Away from the crowds, the lights, the cameras. Just away. From everything. Anyone who even thinks of approaching the two as they leave take one look at Prowl's hard expression and become too scared to even try. 

“While I enjoy swimming with you,” Jazz says when they are properly away from everyone, “is there a reason we left so quick?”

“You were uncomfortable.” Prowl answers. 

“Is that so?” Jazz says, amused. 

Prowl stops and turns to Jazz, stopping the other mer cold with a hard stare. “Yes, you were. You were putting on a show like it was still an obligation you owed for living somewhere when in reality you don’t owe anyone anything of yourself that you don’t want to give.”

The fact that Jazz looks shocked by this makes Prowl’s heart clench painfully. 

Prowl takes both of Jazz’s large hands in his. “I’m sorry,” he says while giving his hands a reassuring squeeze, “that I didn’t see it sooner. You did so many interviews and I didn’t see how similar they were to that tank until now.”

“Wha- hey, no,” Jazz brings their hands closer to his chest. “don’t apologize for this when it wasn’t even your fault. They asked to hear my story and-“

“And you could’ve told them no.” Prowl interrupts. “You don’t have to do these things anymore. You can say no. You can leave off you want. You aren’t confined to a small space anymore with no escape and no privacy. You can say no.”

“I- I can say no.” Jazz whispers like it’s revelation straight from the vents below. “I can leave.”

“You don’t have to do things you don’t want.”

Jazz floats there, clutching Prowls hands to his chest like they’re a lifeline, as his gaze drifts down in thought. “What I want…”

Slowly, Jazz looks up at Prowl. “I want you to show me that Crystal Reef you were talking about.”

Prowl smiles. “This way then.”

-.-.-.-

Two of the things Jazz loves about Mer society are the pouches that he can carry stuff—his stuff—in and the phones. After years of seeing humans use them (filming him, taking pictures of him), he now has one of his very own. An underwater phone, a fish phone, a fone (“It’s funny Prowler, trust me.”). It’s awesome!

Not very awesome right this second though. 

It’s vibrating, meaning someone is calling him. The screen only shows a frequency instead of a name, meaning it’s someone he doesn’t know. 

He sees Prowl look at him curiously from where he’s been sunbathing next to him as Jazz answers.

“Hello?”

“Hello! I am Undertow, a reporter with The Tuning Trident. Is this Jazz?”

Jazz sits up. “Yeah, I’m Jazz.”

“Excellent!” Undertow says, chipper. “We have been working on an article covering your story and the trials you went through. We here at The Tuning Trident are dedicated to bringing our readers the most accurate information that we can provide and we were wondering if you could come over sometime within the next few days to answer a few questions we have about your experience.”

Jazz freezes. He…doesn’t really want to talk about it with reporters anymore. He’ll just have to politely turn them down. 

Jazz opens his mouth, but no sound comes out. His throat is suddenly dry. He swallows his trepidation and tries again. “Uh…”

Is that it? Is that all he can bring himself to say that isn’t a fake and enthusiastic agreement?

The reporter on the phone starts talking again. “Of course, if coming in is an inconvenience, we can have a small team come to you to conduct the interview. We are very flexible here, so whatever may be best for you, we can certainly work with!”

That was even worse! He didn’t want nosy strangers coming to his favorite spots!

But he still can’t say no. 

His gaze flicks to Prowl, desperately and silently pleading for help. 

Prowl sits up and holds his hand open to Jazz. Jazz gives him the phone. 

“I regret to inform you,” Prowl says with no regret or remorse, “that Jazz won’t be doing any interviews for the time being.”

“It’ll just be a quick thing.” Undertow promises in a small tinny voice that Jazz can still hear. “Only a couple of questions to clarify a few facts.”

“No.”

“I- but- who is this? Who are you to speak for Jazz?”

“His manager.” Prowl's tone turns cold. “He is not available for an interview at this time.”

“Why not?”

“Jazz has his reasons and he doesn’t owe them to you. Good day.”

“Wait, if you could just tell us-“

“No.” Prowl hangs up. “The nerve of some Mer, it’s like they forgot that you're an apex- urk!”

Jazz hugs him, eyes shut tight, tucking his head into Prowl’s shoulder, and squeezes. “Thank you.” He whispers, voice wobbly. 

Prowl returns the hug, using one hand to cradle Jazz’s head. “Of course. You deserve some peace.”

“I tried.” Jazz says to Prowl’s shoulder. “I wanted to say no. I tried but I couldn’t. I couldn’t get that one word out and I tried.”

“I know.” Prowl pats Jazz’s head through his beanie. “It’s okay. You keep trying. And until you are able, I can say no for you whenever you need.”

“Promise?”

“I promise.”

[zyafics]

HIII!!! I love ur writing sm <3 If you're taking requests, I was wondering if you could do one about a reporter reader who used to date Rafe but they broke up and now she has to interview him??? Set in college if possible! Thank you so much! I hope you're having a good day 🥰

hi baby! yes, i do take requests and i absolutely love this one 🥰 i made reader work for a network company but she's still in college and he plays basketball! (but fair warning, i know absolutely nothing about basketball so if i got the terminologies wrong, look away!!) i hope you enjoy <3 this is angsty as fuck

ALL FOR THE GAME | Rafe Cameron

MASTERLIST (Oneshot)

Pairing — College Basketball Player!Rafe x Ex!Reporter!Female Reader

Content — college au, athlete/reporter, prior breakup, heavy angst, hurt/no comfort

Word Count — 4.2K

You couldn't believe it.

It's considered lucky. For someone in your position—having received this entry-level job a couple of weeks ago—to have the opportunity to interview an athlete. In fact, many people would call it a great honor.

And it is. Under normal circumstances, you would be more than happy to oblige—elated, even—because people at this stage in your career rarely get such an opening. Especially since you're in college, fully prepared for this internship to be nothing more than grunt work.

Yet, this? This would allow you to advance your career at an expedited rate only offered to nepotism. You should be thrilled, overcome with joy, jumping at your feet and thanking whatever deity you believed in for such a chance.

But you don't.

Because the person to interview is Rafe.

Rafe Cameron, the top prospect of the NBA draft picks.

Rafe Cameron, your ex-boyfriend.

Your boss waits for an answer. He proposed the question a few moments ago, about covering the press conference for the last game of the season. Because of a sick reporter who called out at the last minute, your objective is to build a profile on Rafe Cameron. Since he's the leading prospect, with scouts all over the country looking at him, many people want to know more about the rising all-star who's done nothing but dominate the court.

This proposal, however, was done more out of common courtesy. No one would be stupid enough to say no, and when your boss raises a brow, signifying his manifesting annoyance from your silence and lack of celebratory cheers—you stammer.

"Um, um," you say.

"Um, what?" He prompts. "Will you be doing it or not?"

You shouldn't. There are many reasons why you shouldn't attend Rafe's basketball games. There's resentment because when you step back into that arena, back onto that court, you're reminded of how Rafe picked it over you. There's lingering sadness, residing heavily against the back of your heart, dulled from the passage of time, but not completely forgotten. And lastly, there's anger, because sometimes, all you want to do is scream, cry, and yell at the man who shattered your heart into a billion different pieces.

But that doesn't matter, does it?

Romance has no place in a reporter's life because you're nothing more but a projection for the audience, a vessel for the readers to learn about something else. You don't have feelings; you're a prop. And, certainly, it doesn't matter to your boss, who's only asking you because you're the last choice.

"Well?"

Seconds away from retracting the offer, something in your chest tightens. Logically, you know the choice to make. But your heart doesn't agree. It still hurts, aches, and burns at all of the past memories. It wants nothing more than to bury itself in a hole and pretend that such a critical part of your history does not exist.

But you can't. Life only moves forward. So, all you do is move with it.

"I'll do it."

By the time you arrive at the stadium, all you want to do is run. Anxiety pricks at your spine and your palms grow clammy by your side. Everything inside you is blaring like a warning, cautioning that this is a mistake, that you aren't ready, and that you should turn back.

Despite the badge dangling around your neck, you almost listen. Put your career on hold for a man who hasn't given a single thought about you since the breakup. You can't let him win, and with that reminder, you move with the mob, flocking to their seats.

The atmosphere is charged with exhilaration, and you're reminded of everything before. It's automatic. How easy it is for you to return to old patterns, to follow them, and to find yourself trickling down the steps and towards the courtside seats reserved for family and friends of the team.

Until a hand is placed on your lower back, and a security guard guides you to the press box instead.

It's quieter. The enclosure of the room dulls the energy of the crowd, with a thick sheet of glass separating you from the rest of the people, and reminding you of your purpose.

You take a seat on a cushioned chair, reserved for your network, and look around the place. You're among the most seasoned reporters in their field, chatting with one another, familiarity engulfing the air that somewhat alienates you. They pay you little mind—saved for a curious-yet-judgmental glance at how you wore a jersey compared to their formal suits and pencil skirts. When you follow their line of vision, you realize it wasn't an ordinary merch of the UNC team but Rafe's.

"Fuck," you mumble. You hadn't realized you picked out his jersey; it was left in the back of your closet and you couldn't see yourself attending your college's game without a visual form of support. This probably appears to the rest of the journalists that you're nothing more than a superfan who managed to weasel their way into their network.

It makes your stomach flips with nausea. You want to separate Rafe from you as much as possible, and with a quick run to the bathroom, you change out of the merch and throw it over your tote, straightening out your blouse underneath. When you return, the players are slowly filling out to court.

The visitors' team enters first; UNC follows. You count each player that exits the locker room, watching their expressions as they grin and absorb the energy of their home stadium, as they walk down the length of the bench, as they talk among themselves and share playful jests and banter. You didn't even know you were holding your breath until Rafe stepped out last, to the loudest cheer of the crowd, with a solemn look on his face.

You watch as Rafe searches the stands. Not in the same manner as his teammates, where they're acknowledging fans, or sending flirtatious winks to pretty girls sitting front row. It's different— with purpose. He's searching for something—someone—and your heart clenches in your chest at the thought of Rafe having found your replacement.

But it's been months, hasn't it? It should be more than fair game for him to date whatever he wants. You can still act professionally with this developing news, but it's striking down at your armor.

However, whoever he's looking for, he doesn't find. Rafe goes to huddle with the rest of his team as their Coach gives a final motivational speech before releasing them.

The game starts with a tip-off, and once the referee throws the ball in the air, Rafe takes it into his possession.

He sprints across the court, slicing through the opponent players, and scoring points on the board. Rafe is powerful, knowing exactly when to exchange his hands and pass to his teammates, where exactly to cut through, and when to commit to a play. Commentary heard from the built-in speakers can attest to it, as their primary focus is on how Rafe is taking the last game of the season by storm.

But, while everyone's eyes are glued to the game, as much as you try not to, you can't do anything but stare at Rafe.

He's just as incredible as he was when you were dating him; if not, more. In some way, it makes your heart tighten, knowing that this validates his reason for the breakup. You just wish he felt some semblance of the pain you feel. But as much as you hate it, you're also proud. Rafe has come so far, and trained so hard, to make it to where he is. If he secures a win for the last game, it will be nothing but a guaranteed track to the NBA and luxuries and fame ahead.

All without you.

By the time the game ended, Rafe scored the last shot in a close game, delivering the end of the conference with a secured UNC victory. Everyone in the press box stands from their seats, heading to the media room where they'll be meeting a panel of UNC athletes for questions.

Yet, you linger. You step up to the glass, watching as the erupted cheers of the audience surround the entire stadium, much to the glee of the UNC team, while Rafe stands in the middle of the court for a few seconds, soaking everything in. His eyes pan across the bleachers again, in search for something, before his expression falls and he retreats to the locker room.

When you enter the room of journalists, you slip into a seat. It'll be a while before the players come shuffling in, and you take each second to rehearse and calm your nerves. In one hand, is a tape recorder, while the other is a notepad of the written questions you plan to ask.

UNC's Publicist steps out first to provide an official statement and give a brief overview of the conduct of this press conference. She'll be the moderator, giving everyone enough time to ask all of their questions, and she'll be selecting the networks to her own accord. After everyone comes to the general consensus, the door opens and the Coach steps out with his players.

You watch with bated breath as Rafe is the last to enter, freshly showered and changed into grey sweatpants with a matching UNC zip-up jacket. His headphones dangles around his neck, while his expression exudes nothing but boredom and reluctance. Rafe has always hated interviews, especially post-games, during your relationship. At least that's the one thing that hasn't changed.

You drop your gaze to your lap, swallowing hard as you calm your racing heartbeat. It's been months, yet you still feel the same emotions coursing through you as if no time has passed—longing, hurt, sadness. You whisper positive affirmations, reminding yourself that it's just a job, and that'll be short and simple. You won't even have to speak to Rafe, because your boss may have said to find out more about Rafe Cameron for your profile, nowhere did he say you have to ask him specifically.

When Rafe sits on his chair, he lazily scans the room, a habit of his to pass the time, before he spots you among the crowd. In the third row, second seat; your favorite choice to sit. You don't see it, but a corner smile lifts to his face, demeanor changing, and he straightens up in his seat.

Throughout the conference, the publicist hands the microphone off to whoever she selects. They often direct their questions at Rafe, to which he gives monosyllabic and deadpanned answers. Then, when they try to seek more clarification, Rafe gives them nothing, much to their grimness.

You keep your head low, writing down notes, and drawing doodles on the edge of your notepad. Anything to avoid making accidental eye contact with Rafe. But, regardless, you feel him. The heat of his stare remains on you the entire time, especially when the publicist approach you and hands you the microphone.

It’s time.

With trembling hands, you stand from your seat. You turn your attention to the front of the panel, introducing yourself, your network, and your job. Smiles spread across Rafe's teammates as they recognize you, and you offer a polite one of your own.

Beginning at the furthest player at the end of the table, you ask, "How would you describe Mr. Cameron as a teammate?"

He grins as if he was prepared for this. "Rafe's an incredible teammate and captain. He's a capable leader, who's strong on the court, but also strong on having his teammates' back. You saw it back there—" That earns a small laugh from the reporters. "But, yeah. Rafe's one of my favorite teammates, if I'm being honest."

You tilt your head at that conclusion, because, if you remember correctly, in freshman year, he often rivaled with Rafe and got into fights over minor things. Regardless, you nod, thanking him for his response, and moving on to the next player with the next question.

"What do you think about Mr. Cameron's plays throughout the season?"

"Is that all you got for me, Mrs?" The second player teases playfully, causing heat to warm your cheeks. "Whatever, I got this. Well, let me think. Rafe's always had solid stats. He's one of the hardest-working players on and off the court, and he always keeps his head focused. Even when he had a bit of a bump a couple of months back, he adjusted his plays and bounced back. That’s his resilience."

Your breath hitches at the implication. You try your hardest not to sneak a glance at Rafe, but you can't help yourself. Turning to your side, you discover Rafe watching you, his expression grimacing at the confession of his teammate.

Months ago. The only thing that changed was your breakup. Does this mean he was as affected as you were?

You try not to think too much about that. Thanking the player again, you move to the next, asking more about Rafe's character—his prospects for the NBA, and his experience managing a student-athlete. You didn't ask just about Rafe, you asked about the games and conferences too, but most of the players always return their answers to Rafe. Positively. As if they had this unspoken agreement behind the scenes to hype Rafe up to his ex-girlfriend.

Time goes on, and you start to immerse yourself in the role. It wasn't as difficult as you expected, especially because you're entertaining a team who've known you all throughout their collegiate career. They answered the questions with enthusiasm and a playfulness that can only be recognized by years of familiarity. You can feel the energy from the reporters shift, stewed with envy, because of how the players are showing favoritism to a novice reporter who barely has her foot in the door.

Rafe watches you the entire time. How truly riveting you are in your role. How you command the room with your questions, how you captivate the players, and how you grow more comfortable as you talk to your teammates. He waits patiently as you make your way down the table, for his chance to talk to you.

But just as he's about to be next, you return the microphone to the moderator. You were going to leave him hanging. Before you can fully hand off the mic, a voice commands the room.

"What about me?"

It was Rafe. You lift your head to find him leaning against his own microphone propped on the table, his blue eyes pinned on you, his expression full of want. Your lips part, but no words fall through. The publicist doesn't take back the microphone.

You stammer. "What about you?"

"Don't you have any questions for me?" He questions, as the crowd murmurs with surprise. On any other day, Rafe would've gladly taken the lack of questions aimed at his face. You've done your research; you've seen his previous interviews.

"I..." You can't seem to answer him. All eyes—from the Coach, to the players (who are smiling their head off), to the reporters—turn to you. "I've asked all my questions."

"I'm sure you can think of one more," he declares, his eyes not once straying from your face. As if he's taking the time to memorize all of your features, to absorb any changes. "Come on, hit me."

Everyone waits. Eagerly. With jealousy. The media room stills with a palpable silence, and you can't do anything but retract your arm, holding the microphone back up to your lips.

You blink, racking your brain for any questions. You truly did ask all of them, and there's nothing appropriate enough to ask in front of a room full of people who are recording and monitoring your moves. So, you settle on something safe.

"How did you feel scoring that winning shot?"

Rafe takes a deliberate moment to consider his answer. His silence tells it all. Before he leans down against the mic, his lips centimeters from the pop filter, and he says, "Empty."

Flashes of the camera go off, and hushed whispers are heard throughout the room. But none of that matters to you. Your eyes remain on Rafe, your heart skipping beats from his confession, and you tame enough of your voice before asking a follow-up. "Can you explain why?"

He nods. "Basketball is great and all, and I'm grateful for everything that has happened, and all I have accomplished. Hell, I'm even grateful for this team right here that's been such a hardass on me since day one," he gestures to his teammates on the panel, and they all grin and laugh. One even blows him a kiss. "But, at the end of the day, it's just a game. Without the people you love by your side, it's meaningless."

You truly feel like all the air has been sucked out of your lungs and tears crowd your waterline. When his words finally deliver through, it's almost a straight shot to your chest. This was the admission you'd been waiting for, but it didn't feel satisfactory whatsoever. It's painful, all of the old wounds opening by their stitches, and grief comes crawling up your throat, demanding to be felt.

You don't answer him. You can't. Rafe watches you carefully, trying to gauge your reaction, trying to see if his words had any impact, but you hide them well. For now. With tears stinging your vision, and seconds from unraveling at the seams, you drop the microphone onto the chair and leave the room in a rush.

That's when he realizes he fucked up.

Rafe stands from his seat, ready to follow after you, but his Coach commands him to sit down. His gaze remains on you until you exit the room, but with direct orders, he can do nothing but slump back into his chair.

When Rafe finishes the rest of his interviews, with more reluctance than he had before, he wants nothing more than to go back to campus to search for you. But he doesn't know if that's such a good idea. Clearing out, Rafe steps out of the doors.

To where you were waiting.

"You had no right," you snap, as Rafe heads to the exit of the stadium. He whips around at the sound of your voice, finding you leaning against the wall. As much as he knows he fucked up, he can't explain the happiness he feels at seeing you still here.

"For what?" Rafe prompts with an easygoing smile, "Talking? I'm pretty sure that's what the press conference is about."

But you don't take it so easy.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about," you huff, "You used my words against me."

During the breakup, Rafe had said something along the lines of focusing on his basketball career. You had rebutted that basketball can't be the one thing in his life. At the time, he disagreed, prompting the necessity of the breakup further. It had hurt to hear your words twisted and used against you.

"It was friendly," he reassures. "Just like the rest of my teammates. Talking like we're friends."

"We're not friends and you know that."

He frowns. "We said we would be."

"No, you said that," you hiss, clenching your hands by your side, memories slapping you and prickling your skin. "To rid yourself of the guilt, or to make it seem like permanent. I don't know. But it doesn't work that way with me, Rafe. We aren't friends."

His brows pinch together, and agitation flares through his hard features. "So, that's what it's gonna be like? You come to my games and you interview my entire team but you ignore me because we broke up? That's unprofessional."

You falter. "That's not fair."

"It isn't?" He challenges, stepping closer into your space. "How do you think I felt when you were interviewing every single one of my teammates about me, but refusing to talk to me? To look at me? What does that suggest?"

"That I got everything I needed from your teammates."

"You could've gotten it directly from the source."

"I didn't need to,"

"You could've,"

"Why are you so adamant about me talking to you?"

"Because you're acting like a vindictive bitch."

You stagger back as if he struck you, and Rafe instantly regretted the words that left his mouth. But he can't take them back. Your lips part, and you stare at him in disbelief, but you come up with nothing to defend yourself.

With the hardest glare you can muster, you proclaim, "Fuck you, Rafe."

And you turn to leave.

Rafe quickly follows after you. "Wait—that's not—I didn't mean that."

"I don't want to talk to you anymore."

"Just like you didn't want to talk to me in the conference room?"

"You broke up with me!" You snap, stopping in your tracks with such abruptness, that Rafe almost ran into you. Turning back around to face him, you say, "You were the love of my life, and you left me, and you expect me to keep it professional?"

Rafe says nothing.

"I'm trying," you croak, tears crowding your vision again, and you hate how vulnerable and pathetic you feel in his presence. Like it was back to that night in the car, where Rafe said it was over. "I'm trying to do this right."

Rafe watches your face with anguish, but he can't say anything. You're trying hard to keep your composure, and regain some semblance of stability, you say with a even voice, "I'm glad everything is working out the way you want it to. I'm glad you get this bigshot career and you're about to make it in the NBA, and I'm glad you found it so easy to move on but that's not how it worked with me." Your voice cracks. "I loved you. I can't just forget about it like it's nothing."

His voice is small when he answers. "I didn't."

"You didn't?" You repeat with disbelief. "Rafe, you're thriving. You barely look like our breakup had any impact on you. You're about to secure one of the biggest deals in NBA history. What else could you possibly be missing?"

"You."

His dark eyes connect with yours in utmost vulnerability and it cripples you. All your aggression and anger, all your pent-up frustration—it makes you upset that Rafe manage to disarm you with one word.

"No," you step back, shaking your head, "You can't do that."

"It's the truth."

"It's too late."

Rafe looks pained at your declaration. "Don't say that."

"Don't say what?" You sniffle, your vision blurring with hot tears. "My truth? Did you expect me to wait around for you to come to your senses? To beg for you to take me back?"

"I didn't..." Rafe stammers, searching your face for any indication that it isn't too late. That he still had a chance. But he doesn't find any. "I was honest back there. Any win without you feels empty."

"Stop,"

"I made a mistake."

"Rafe—" You shake your head again, sucking in a deep breath, and needing him to listen and step back. "I'm not here to talk about that. I don't want to talk about that."

"But I do,"

"But I don't," you declare firmly. "I just... I need you to understand. You can't do that. I'm trying to move on with my life. And I understand that we're going to be seeing each other, no matter how I don't want to. But I'll get used to it. I'll numb that pain. But you can't do that. Here; back there. It wasn't fair to me."

Your words sound too permanent. Too real. Rafe can't stand it.

With desperation, he pleads, "Can we talk?"

"We're already talking."

"No, I'm talking about us," Rafe says, taking a step forward. Only for you to take one back. "Please."

"There's nothing to talk about it."

"There's so much to say."

"Name one."

"I miss you."

"Rafe," you cry, tears streaming down your face that you can no longer contain. He hates seeing you cry. He hates it more to be the reason. All he wants is to pull you into his arms and apologize, over and over, to soothe the pain, but it looks as if it would hurt worse if he tried to touch you. "Please stop. You're breaking my heart again."

He made a mistake. There are so many times he can say that. When he saw you in the media room, for the first time in months, it came rushing back to what he's missing. How much he's losing you. He wanted to ask you so much—about how you're doing, to learn how you got the job, to uncover more about how close you are to achieving your dreams.

But he was barricaded. By responsibilities, obligations, and duties. He couldn't ask you in a room full of people. He couldn't help you when his father pressured him to break up with you for his career. He couldn't do anything, then. But he wants to do better now.

He says your name, so defeated, in a last-ditch effort. But you shake your head.

You need to leave this place with whatever is left of your pride and dignity. So, you straighten your spine, take out his jersey from your tote, and hand him the last remnant of your relationship. "Congratulations on your win, Mr. Cameron. I wish you the best in your career."

And when you turn to leave this time, he doesn't stop you.

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[deymo0s]

Good article hunting (Oscar Piastri x Male Reader)

Hello guys! :) so this is my first fanfic in a looong time + english is not my first language so please bear with me. But since I had this idea lingering in my mind all day long I decided: why not? 

word count: 2119

warnings: +18 content! minors please dni!

You glaze to the ever growing crowd that entered the hall, if there was a place you never imagined being in, it was here, what would a rookie reporter like you be doing on a big formula one event like this? You look at your open notes app as a way to pass the time, and try not to freak out as more and more celebrities pass by. For the tenth time you repeat yourself what you came here to do

“just interview the Mclaren drivers, ask them about the last race and the problems with the car and go home, easy breezy”

A silent nod marks that you understood your game plan, a nervous laughter escapes your mouth when you remember what happened in said last race. It was all over social media, impossible to forget, the moment where Oscar Piastri bumped into you while you were announcing to the broadcast about the car problems that lead to them finishing P11 and P12. His eyes, fueled with anger, locked with yours and like a wave that breaks into the shore, they seemed to lose strength and soften. That moment that was only a couple seconds long seemed to last for eternity, then his eyes followed your body and you could see yourself starting to stutter, you didn’t know if you started an interview or if you ended your announcement, after all it was your first time as a reporter. Oscar snapped back and stormed off, leaving you and the general public with more questions than answers, the car problems took a second place in everyone’s mind.

“Who is this guy?”

“Lol I didn’t know Oscar was bissexual, good for him!!”

“I think yall are exaggerating really, not everything needs to be romance, and osc has a gf after all…”

Those were some of the comments that flooded social media after that day, and all you could do was read them and pray that they didn’t find your profiles and started calling you a man-whore. I mean, your opinion on Oscar was of anyone with a sane mind, he was a good driver, great even, not much more than that…right? 

“He is average looking”

That’s what you thought, even though you couldn’t shake off this funny emotion that you felt every time you remembered that ruinous moment. His eyes…his unreal gorgeous brown eyes left a mark on you that you really couldn’t ignore. But everything seemed ok, after the race you followed with your normal life as a reporter until one day, a couple of weeks ago, while scrolling through instagram you received that risky message. You stood up, couldn’t believe for a second what your eyes were telling you, was it really THE Oscar Piastri sending you a message? Yes, the screen wasn’t lying, the formula one driver really was trying to slide into your dms.

You shake your head trying to reenter reality. After that day you both stayed up long nights texting each other, it truly was something that seemed like a made up fantasy. Why would he be interested in your uninteresting reporter life? But he seemed…really interested, especially in the ‘you’ part. He complimented you a lot, on your beautiful hair, your beautiful eyes, your beautiful smile, you got flustered even remembering those charming but more than everything seductive messages.

“He probably doesn’t even mean it that way. After all, he is a straight guy, probably just trying to get a good article on him, typical self-centered celebrity behavior” 

You muttered to yourself as you saw the Mclaren drivers enter the hall. Making your way through the legion of reporters and magazine writers trying to get a piece of the drivers, you could only think that your wish was to get this over with, and finally stumbled into the view of both Oscar and Lando. After fixing your tiny microphone you elevated your gaze only to meet those same brow eyes that were taunting you weeks prior. The questions started flowing normally, but all you could think about was his eyes, and his lovely eyes and his cute bunny-like smile. He moved the weight of his body and you could feel his hand lightly brush yours, a side look and your eyes locked again. At that moment you could feel you breathing become shorter, raspier. He moved again, at that moment staring at Lando, who you didn’t even remember was answering one of your questions. What was that? You could feel your heart pounding like an earthquake as with your peripheral vision you could see Oscar’s side smirk. He knows, he knows the power that he has over people, he knows that he made you lose sleep when you had to work the next day, and he liked to know it.

“Alright, thank you for your answers”

You enunciate to the drivers, after deciding that their answers would give your enough material on your next article, in that second, you thank god for the invention of microphones and recorders, because you couldn’t remember a single word that Lando had said. Your telephone buzzes, and after making your way back to your starter point you pick it up just to see his name again, Oscar

“Can you meet me by the second floor stairs in 2 hours?”

This can’t be real, you exhale and laugh while holding your phone. You turn towards the other side of the hall. First of all, how did he have time to text you mid interviews? But nevertheless, you answer, without thinking much about it.

“Ok”

Two long hours pass by. Since it was a charity event, after all the interviews were conducted in the entering hall all the drivers and the press were guided to their respective seats. The event begins, and the host conducted a long speech about the importance of their cause, except all you could think about was the driver seating five tables across from yours. His black tuxedo had a mate shine that exuded elegance and his beautiful hair was cut a little longer than normal, falling softly towards the end of his neck. Some words are exchanged with colleagues, they don’t even suspect that there is anything out of the ordinary, you excuse yourself and pretend to go to the bathroom, actually going towards the stairs and going up to the second floor. 

The second floor was empty, words could be faintly heard coming from the main hall, the moon shining from in between the big silk curtains that draped over the windows. You let out a big sigh, your hands tapping your suit in search of your pack of cigarettes. Since the windows were open, no one would really mind if you smoked here, right? As you light up a cigarette you feel two hands grasping your waist, a body approaching firmly yet somehow softly and a head resting lightly on your shoulder.

“You look even more handsome up close”

Oscar’s voice was indistinguishable, you turn around to face him, face to face, his perfume was strong and inebriated your senses. You stroke his arm, his actions spoke all the unspoken words. You could feel his tensed muscles, he knew how dangerous this was but all he wanted at that moment was at a palm’s reach, he wanted you. Since your eyes locked at that first day that’s all he wanted, you, and only you.

“What do you want…osc?” you ask, teasingly.

“All these messages, these past few weeks just trying to catch my attention, for what?”

You brush his lip lightly with your thumb, he was breathy and his eyes focused on your hand, your body, and then your eyes.

“You, I want you” he responds, eyes deep into your soul.

He presses you against the window, and kisses you lustfully, his tongue moving rapid in your mouth like his life depended on it. With one hand, Oscar pulls you closer, pressing his body against yours, a faint moan escapes your lips when you feel his boner pressing against your hips. Your mind rushed, what if someone saw you two? Both of your careers would be done, completely. You feel Oscar unbuttoning your shirt, his eyes sinfully focused on your exposed skin. He wraps his teeth on your skin leaving marks that would be terrible to explain. You pull him closer, hands running through his hair, his beautiful beautiful brown hair, you pull it, obliging Oscar to separate himself from you neck and look in your eyes. 

“This is insane”

You whisper with an expression that said “we should stop” but secretly begged for more. He pulls you deeper into the second floor, where light almost couldn’t reach. All you could discern were the shape of both of your bodies, merging against each other. You start to make out again, this time more aggressively than before. The kissing now was only interrupted by a few breaks to gasp for air. You could feel a single drop of sweat roll on your back from the heat between you two. All you could say is how much you wanted to feel him inside you. You push Oscar against the wall, changing positions, he lets out a shocked smirk and brushes his hand through your hair while you get down on your knees.

“Oh, so that’s what you like?”

He asks you while you take out his belt. All the time, your eyes are chained to each other, the same spark you felt when you first met seemed to engulf you two completely. He tilts his head back as you start to blow him, going up and down sloppily, while your hands hold his waist.

“fuck..” he murmurs “and you seemed so shy” he laughs with his mouth semi-open while you go deeper, feeling his cock against the back of your throat, he tilts his head again and bites his lips, failing to contain a moan. You could feel his core clenched, his waist moving against his will, his body begging for everything you could give him. He couldn’t contain his whimpers even if he tried, his breath cut short by soft moans that intercalated. He pulls your hair, making you hold direct eye contact with him, making you feel something that you never ever felt before, you beg him to fuck you, feeling ashamed by how much you needed him to fill you up.

Oscar puts you up against the wall, your back turned to him. He takes off his jacket and tosses it to the side, you could feel his warm breath against the back of your neck. He pushes your pants and your boxers down just enough to give him space to push inside you, you feel the warm spit lubricate you and his hands squeezed your waist hard as he pushed his cock deep into you

“you are so fucking tight” he says breathly while you grind against him, feeling him hit every spot inside you. His hand cover your mouth while he pushes faster and faster inside, and you feel jolts of pleasure go through your body while he bites your neck, marking you as his, and his only. His body finally collapses against yours while you feel his semen fill you up, both your weakened bodies trying to catch what is little left of strength just to go back to the main event you were ditching. He softens his grip while he gets off of you, and starts to softly kiss your neck, his hands going up your back, then down, stopping at your waist. After starting to dress up again, you turn around to face him, a little embarrassed thinking about what just had happened. 

He laughs, noticing your shy stare, then holds your face with both of his hands, kissing you lovingly for what seemed like one last time.

“Message me, ok?”

He said, staring deeply into your eyes, and you could feel that it was sincere. Maybe you were wrong about him, maybe he was entranced by your stare the same way you were by his, maybe the wish to see you up close wasn’t some try-to-get-a-good-article tactic, maybe he really wanted to see you.

“Ok” you agree, looking up towards him

He caresses your check, kissing it right after. When up close you could feel him trying to catch his breath, his perfume now mixed with yours. And then he left, as quickly as he appeared, and all you could do was smoke another cigarette.

[thezombieprostitute]

Tech Tuesday: Bucky Barnes

Summary: Things are going bad for you at work which leads to things going bad at home.

Warnings: Assault, Bad bosses, Caretaker stress, Mild violence, Work stress. Please let me know if I missed any.

Previous

Tech Tuesdays Masterlist

You wince as August shouts your name from his office. Taking a deep breath you walk to his office, mentally reminding yourself that Bucky's taking you to the interview at Mad Hatter's Tea that very night.

"Yes, Mr. Walker?"

"You were late this morning."

"Yes, Mr. Walker. I texted you that the bus was running late."

"You should've taken an earlier bus."

"Last time I did that you yelled at me for showing up too early, even though I didn't clock in and work until it was time to do so."

"Then get a damn car! They have Lyft and Uber now!"

"And they cost too much," you plead.

"Then you should be smarter with how you spend your money. You get paid too much to keep showing up late."

Clenching your hands, and closing your eyes you tell him, "I promise I'll try harder, sir." There's no winning with him. No amount of logic will cause him to back off. Just give him the meek submission he wants until you can leave.

With your eyes closed, you don't see him get up from his desk and approach. For a man of his size, August moves rather quietly. He touches your chin, startling your eyes open.

"You know, I can be a good boss. Kind even," he chastised. "But you have to work with me. You can't be questioning me like this all the time."

"Yes, Mr. Walker," you grimace. Just tell him what he wants to hear, you think. Don't give him reason to get angry.

"Good girl," he coos and you have to fight the urge to vomit. "Now get back to work."

Rushing to the relative safety of the public facing counter your brain is filled with thoughts, all of them scary.

"I really want to join up with the D&D group," Bucky tells Jake. "But Sweetie's schedule is all over the place and I can't promise to make most of the sessions." Jake nods in understanding, even if he's a little disappointment. "But we're hoping to get her a better, more stable job soon so maybe after that?"

"Well, we've already got 3 confirmed other players and Sunshine's gotta know how many people are playing for the challenge rating," Jake explains. "I know you know how to play and it would be nice to have you join the session zero, make sure we're all able to play as a team, but I'll talk to Sunshine. If she says we can have another player for session one, I'll let you know."

Bucky sighs in relief, "thanks so much! It's been forever since I played and I've been itching to get back at it."

"And good luck to Sweetie with the potential new job," Jake smiles.

Bucky's phone dings with a text. He sees it's from you and smiles, "she must know we're talking about her." Jake smiles and waves Bucky away to go answer your message.

As soon as he reads it, his smile drops.

Sweetie: Can you please pick me up from work tonight? Walker's scaring me.

Bucky: Do you want me to pick you up now?

He sets the phone on his desk and paces. The wait for your response feels interminable.

Steve returns from a visit with Newbie. Bucky can tell because he's got lipstick on his neck. Normally he'd poke fun but he's worried about you. Steve sees him pacing, and he gestures for Steve to read your message. When he does, he gives Bucky a nod, a silent agreement to drop everything and help Bucky come get you at any time.

The phone finally dings and reads your quick note saying to wait until after work. He sighs in frustration. He's going to be a mess until he knows you're safe.

By the time you're done with work, you can't stop shaking. August has been too close for comfort at pretty much every moment. Every time you try to make some space between you, he closes the gap, claiming to be watching your performance, evaluating your work "like a good manager does." But you know there's more to it.

Clocking out, you take off your work apron and jump when August grabs your arm.

"So now that you're off the clock, I was thinking we could get to know each other better."

"N-no, thank you sir," you shake your head. "I...my ride...boyfriend is waiting-"

"You told me you take the bus," he growls, his grip tightening. "It's why you kept coming in late."

"He...he can't always drive me."

"Then what good is he?" August snarls.

"No, sir, please." You shake your head, desperately looking behind the counter for someone, anyone else who can help you but it's just the two of you.

"I told you I can be a good boss. You just have to be good for me."

"Sir, please, you're my boss. I have a boyfriend. I don't want to!"

In a blink, August is punched away from you, letting go of your elbow in his surprise. You think you see a flash of blond hair going for another punch.

Before your brain can register what's going on, Bucky is holding your face so all you see is him. "Don't worry, Sweetie, we're here," he consoles. "We're getting you out of here. Just come with me, okay, Sweetie?"

Still in shock and unable to do anything else you let Bucky walk you outside, never leaving the safety of his arms. Your vision blurs as the tears start pouring. You're vaguely aware of getting into the back of a vehicle with Bucky. Someone else is there, you think you recognize her as Newbie, Steve's girlfriend. Steve gets into the driver's seat and gets you all away from August. You cry into Bucky's shirt the entire drive and he never lets you go.

Steve pulls up to his and Bucky's apartment building and the four of you head up to their place. Bucky holds your hand, only letting go to get his jacket off. He moves to sit with you on the couch and practically sit in his lap with how close you feel you need to be. You vaguely hear Newbie telling Steve he did good, limiting himself to one punch.

"I'm sorry I didn't show up sooner," Bucky whispers. "I wanted to get you out of there the moment you texted me."

You shake your head. "I'm the idiot who thought it'd be best to finish out my shift."

"You're not an idiot," Bucky quickly asserts. "You did what you thought was the best move. And you made sure ask for help and let me know you'd need help. Those aren't the moves of an idiot."

"I think I'm definitely fired," you sob. "No way am I going to be able to go back to that job and I don't even know I'll have another job tomorrow! How am I supposed to take care of two people on no income? Sounds idiotic to me."

"If anything, he's the idiot," Newbie interrupts. "He didn't even notice me recording him with my phone."

"What?"

"You were, understandably, looking for a fellow coworker behind the counter to help you, he was focused on you, so it gave me a good opportunity to record what was going on. Should give you plenty of evidence to sue his ass, especially when it goes viral," she explains.

"I wanted to just go in and kick his ass," Steve adds. "But she made a good point about needing evidence to make sure your name wasn't dragged through the mud or anything."

"Meanwhile my focus was on getting you out of there quickly," Bucky tells you. "I just wanted to get you out of there, get between you and him. I'm sorry I let it go on as long as it did."

"No, she's right," you comment. "If you'd intervened before you did, he might have gotten away with what he did, what he tried to do. And not just with me."

"Because you're in the video, I do want to ask your permission before making it viral," Newbie discloses. "We can just show the video to my brother-in-law, he's a lawyer who'll happily take your case. If it goes viral, it'll absolutely ruin your ex-boss. But, it is entirely your choice because you are in the video. Even if we blur your face, there's bound to be people who recognize the location, his face, and figure out it was you."

"Um...can we, can we wait until after I get a new job? I don't want it to hurt my employment chances."

"Of course," she nods.

"Still wish I could've just beaten him up," Steve grumbles.

"He definitely deserves it," Newbie nods, gently rubbing his arm. "But this is how we have to deal with bullies these days. We have to have the evidence or else they can claim we were bullying them." Steve huffs but nods.

"For now," Bucky interjects. "Do you want me to ask Jefferson to delay your interview? I'm sure he'd understand."

"No!" you sit up quickly. "I need that interview now more than ever!"

Bucky's eyes soften as he smiles at you, "you're so damn strong. I wish you didn't have to be, but I'm glad you are. We'll go ahead and help you get ready then, okay? Help you catch your breath, make sure you eat, go through any possible other prep you might need, okay?"

Looking at the others they both nod in agreement.

"Thank you, everyone," you smile. Despite the way the day started, you feel safer than you've felt in a very long time.

Next

Tech Tuesdays Masterlist

Tagging: @alicedopey; @darsynia; @delicatebarness; @ellethespaceunicorn; @icefrozendeadlyqueen; @jaqui-has-a-conspiracy-theory; @late-to-the-party-81; @lokislady82; @ozwriterchick; @ronearoundblindly; @stellar-solar-flare

[lemotmo]

I'm so tired for all of you who get questions like this everyday. But this is a good response to a question this person probably didn't want the actual answer to if I'm being honest. You all have to be so tired.

Q. I just think it's odd that you, and lots of other people, seem to be so sure of what is happening when we don't really have any indication from Ryan, Oliver, Tim or anyone really that it's going that way at all. Eddie is planning to move to Texas. Moving away is the big change that Ryan is talking about for Eddie. And Ryan flat out said he's not going to encourage people to believe something that's not happening. I'm not making that up??

A. I have a question for you that I think I already know the answer to but I'm going to ask it anyway. Were you around while the show was on Fox? Because Tim and the others involved in the decision making, mainly Kristen, had zero problem telling everyone that both Buck and Eddie were just straight and that people should stick to fanfiction if they wanted to see them as anything else. Kristen said Buck and Taylor were endgame as often as she could. These are not people who have ever been afraid to tell us it's not happening. Tim would, as politely as possible, tell us in interview after interview that they knew the audience shipped them but there weren't any plans to go down that road. And now these people are doing everything they can to avoid giving a direct answer to those very same questions. Also Buck is bisexual now therefore not in fact straight. The shooting arc was originally supposed to end with Buddie canon before Fox axed that storyline. Fox said no and they followed orders. If this wasn't true Tim would have corrected that narrative by now. Too many people, some supposedly involved with the show, have made the claim repeatedly now. Tim has defunct plenty of things. He reads and sees all of it. He would have corrected that narrative if it was false. Moving to ABC completely changed the landscape. It gave him the freedom to tell the story his way. They went from a network that really wouldn't allow Oliver and Ryan to even talk about them, basically wouldn't allow Ryan to talk at all (I'm not exaggerating Fox gave us absolutely nothing), to a network that appears to have fully embraced the idea of them. We're not making that up.

Do we have definitive proof? No. We do have the show though. We have the very clear narrative that the show has been telling since 7x4. The show making a point of having Buck and and Eddie's storylines run concurrently with one another, in the same episodes even, was intentional and very much the point. Their storylines are connected. The show has not made that difficult to see. People on Twitter distorting the point of those episodes doesn't change the point of those episodes. People on Twitter allowing people to rage bait them into believing the most ridiculous nonsense doesn't make that nonsense true. We also have the PR campaign that ABC is running for the show, and it's entirely centered around Buddie. No one else on the show is getting the focus they're getting, and you can't argue that is false because where is the stuff for literally anyone else? Even if you remove the Family Feud episode because it involved other actors, that still leaves all season 7 episodes being promoted and teased using Buddie content, the Instagram posts, Oliver playing in the NBA celebrity all star game, all the interviews that Oliver and Ryan have had, the Ryan photoshoots, the pop culture jeopardy question (this was legitimately a very big deal), even the very intentional New Year's Instagram post. These are not things that happen by accident. Angela and Peter are technically the leads, normally they would be getting this attention. Jennifer is a bigger name, it would make sense for ABC to learn into that but they're not. Their focus is on Buddie. You cannot pretend that's not happening.

Yes Eddie planning to move to Texas is absolutely part of the 'big changes' Ryan was talking about. And I'm not going to break down that interview with you because it's readily available for everyone to read, but if you read that interview in its entirety, especially the stuff he said about Eddie, and all you came away with was 'Eddie's moving to Texas and Ryan said he's not going to encourage people to believe something that's not happening' then you didn't read the interview at all, or you're Intentionally misunderstanding, because that's not at all what he said. Interviews are meant to tease upcoming storylines. They're not meant to act as spoilers. This isn't revolutionary news. Why do people act like they've never seen or read an interview before every time a new one comes out? They cannot tell us where it's going. His Buddie answer was all over the place. He didn't answer the question at all. It was not a hard to just say 'I see them as life long best friends. I see them as always being a part of each other's lives, they will always be family and they absolutely love one another but I don't see it as romantic love'. That's literally all he had to say. That was the question he was asked. And he wouldn't be forbidden from saying that. There's a reason why he and Oliver and Tim all dance around the question. They can't tell us the answer yet. I'm tired of trying to talk people out of being miserable doomers. If you want to hate everything all the time regardless of what the context surrounding it is then that's your problem. I frankly don't have the emotional bandwidth or patience to play the mental gymnastics you people have to perform every single day to force a negative narrative onto absolutely everything related to them. How are you not exhausted by yourselves? So many of us have answered ask after ask, made post after post offering up example after example, CANON EXAMPLES, to back up what we're saying and every single time you all come back to re argue the very same things we just took the time to explain. You're clearly not interested in actually having anything explained to you. You're clearly not interested in acknowledging what the show is actually very clearly telling us. You very clearly don't want anything other than to be negative. So go be negative together and leave the rest of us alone. We cannot help you see and acknowledge what you're intentionally making yourselves miss.

Thanks Nonny! Much appreciated.

Pffff, so immensely tired of these kinds of questions. I've had my fair share of them and I did answer a few the last couple of days, but I can't do it anymore. I won't.

The FOX era was tough y'all. I need all of you to fully grasp this. We had these insane scenes that were so incredibly romantically coded, but that never lead to anything concrete. We lived from Buddie scene to Buddie scene and in some seasons those were few and far between.

They went from relationship to relationship, but they still had more chemistry between each other than they ever had with their love interests. It was fun shipping them. The fanfics and fanart were stunning and the loooong meta was amazing. But I never really truly believed they would ever happen. I hoped of course, but only 1% of me believed it could ever happen. By the end of season 6 I had lost all hope.

But then they moved to ABC and season 7 pulled out all the Buddie stops. Look at us now. Today I'm 100% a believer. We are close now. Stop trying to kill our buzz. We are happy. We deserve this. Leave us be.

Heads up! For anyone who is giving me the shifty eyes for reposting Ali's updates instead of reblogging. Read this.

Remember, no hate in comments, reblogs or inboxes. Let's keep it civil and respectful. Thank you.

If you are interested in more of Ali’s posts, you can find all of her posts so far under the tag: anonymous blog I love.

[bearbunnycheetah]

🐆🐻✨CHAPTER 3: SUNNY SIDE OF THINGS✨🐻🐆

Note: Stuffs been going wild so I posted this WAYY later than I wanted, but I hope you guys still enjoy!

Percy reaches for her keys and opens the door, turning on the lights to her apartment. They flickered to life and illuminated the space. The sisters both looked inside, it was a pretty nice looking place all things considered. 

A small living room to the left with a tv, an open kitchen to the right, and what appears to be a mini hallway leading to three doors infront of them. Percy’s home had a nice dull blue wallpaper covering mostly everything. Molly looked at a clock on the wall, 10PM. Way past her bedtime at this point.

“You two need some rest, we can discuss the layout of my apartment and other things in the morning. Are you two sure you don’t wish to take my room for the night?”

“Sleeping in someone elses room is weird.” Lorelai said, crossing her arms as she looked around.

“Yeah, we can take the couch or the floor. We don’t really mind! I promise!” Molly smiled apologetically, Lori rolled her eyes.

Percy nods. “Alright, please go ahead and sit down. I will go ahead to get some pillows and blankets for you two.” She smiles at them, then leaves the room.

Molly waits for Percy to be completely gone, then lets out a breath she didn’t know she was holding. She sits down on the couch, then grabs her phone from her pocket. Molly opens the group chat she has with her friends, and starts typing.

—————

Molly: Hi guys, anyone still awake?

PHANTOM OF POTIONS PAST, GRIMLORD OF DARKNESS!: HIIII! Yes I am indeed awake >:]

Molly: Oh, hi Trixie! I’m assuming Feenie’s asleep cause it’s her bedtime?

PoPPGoD: Yeahh probably! Why are you up so late anyway? Did something happen?

Molly: Yeah, my dad got arrested.

PoPPGoD: WOOOOOOO! 

Molly: Trixie…

PoPPGoD: Oh whoops, sorry- what happened?

Molly: The cop that interviewed me a bit ago about the museum apparently found out about my situation and took me and Lori in. Currently in her apartment right now.

PoPPGoD: I dont trust them coppers… but as long as ur OK, im OK! >:D

Molly: Thanks Trixie… I’ll see if I can go more indepth on what happened tomorrow at school. I’m getting sleepy.

PoPPGoD: Oke, sweet dreams!

Molly: Night!

—————

Molly leans back into the sofa, then smiles. Hopefully she’ll be able to go to school tomorrow and talk to them.

“I’m back, apologies for the wait.” Percy walks in holding several pillows and blankets, all in mostly blues, yellows, and whites.

“Dibs on the couch!” Lorelai said, grabbing some pillows and immediately making herself comfortable. Her knight costume poofed out of existence in a flash of glitter into her normal outfit.

“But- aw, fine...” Molly sighed in defeat, standing up from the couch.

Oh well, the floor is probably fine. Considering it’s Percy she probably keeps it pretty clean. Theres a rug too so maybe it’s a bit comfier..? It takes a few minutes for Molly to finally get to a comfortable enough position to lay down.

“Goodnight, you two.”

“Goodnight, Percy!”

“…Night.”

And with that, Percy turns off the lights and goes to her room. Immediately falling asleep when she lays down in bed. The noise of the city melting together into a cacophany of sounds that were oddly comforting, she’s probably gonna take a few days off from work to help the two adjust. 

Percy should wake up early tomorrow, her usual breakfast was just toast and some water but these two probably needed more food than that. Maybe something like cereal? No, far too sugary. She wasn’t even sure if she had anything like that. Toast, water, orange juice, eggs-

Wait, eggs?

There was a smell of something being cooked from the kitchen, Percy stirred and opened her eyes. Oh dear, it was morning already? She looks at her alarm clock. 5:40 AM. How peculiar, she gets up from her bed and puts on her slippers to investigate.

Percy walked into the living room, the pillows and blankets were folded neatly and placed on the coffee table. While the couch where Lorelai was sleeping had an… iridescent bubble in its place.

It clipped into the floor and couch as if it was a bugged model in a video game. She stared in utter confusion for a bit before a voice from the kitchen piped up.

“Morning Percy!” Molly said, holding a pan. Why was she making breakfast?

Percy flinched, completely forgetting that she got up to see who was awake this early. “Ah! Good morning to you too, Molly.” Percy turns to her and gestures to the bubble. “May I ask why your sister has turnt into a sphere?”

“Oh, it’s just an epithet thing.” Molly puts the pan in the sink. “Lorelai can make these things called ‘dream bubbles’ where she makes these fantasy worlds, sometimes she just sleep-inscribes.”

“I see… Why are you up so early?”

“Oh! Well… I wanted to repay you for letting us stay here so I thought I should make breakfast!” Molly points at the table. There was buttered toast and eggs, either boiled or sunnyside up. “We should probably go get groceries and stuff, there wasn’t a lot in your fridge to work with…”

“Noted. But thank you for this, Molly.” Percy goes to sit down, then picks up a boiled egg and inspects it closely. “So, about your sister…”

“Don’t worry, I can go wake her up.” Molly looks at the bubble for a second, then walks over to the couch.

Percy watches in curiosity, she knew Molly and Lorelai had epithets from their files. “DUMB” and “AUGMENT” respectively, but she’s never seen it in action. Percy watched as Molly knocked on the bubble for a few seconds, calling Lorelais name repeatedly to wake her up. After a few minutes she rolled her eyes, reaching her hand out as a small green glow appeared. 

Molly moved her hand closer to the iridescent surface and a hole appeared like a rift in the air. Slowly the gap grew bigger until it was about the size of Molly herself. She entered the bubble and the hole dissapeared along with her.

Percy decided to go and make some coffee while she waited since she still felt a bit tired from last night, more and more time passes and… POOF!

The detective turnt around, alarmed at the sudden sound. Then there stood a groggy Lorelai and a mildly upset Molly.

“Good morning, Lorelai!” Percy said, grabbing her drink without looking and returning to the small dining table. Honestly you probably couldn’t even consider it a dining table, more like a table for one that crammed three chairs.

“Yeah, morning.” Lorelai wiped away the fog from her eyes, then quietly went over to the table grabbing a plate. Molly followed.

“I decided to go ahead and work from home while you two get settled here.” Percy takes a sip of coffee. “Since you two have school I will be responsible for your education for the time being.”

“Me and Lorelai usually change between having to work and having to go to school. I attend school on odd days and she attends school on even ones so that means-” 

“You have to go to school and I get to stay here and relax!” Lorelai interrupts her and grins, Molly scowls at her.

Percy thinks for a second, she never thought the situation was this bad. Who on earth would let a child work instead of attend school!? Oh wait, Martin would. “I… suppose we can still use this system, even for just a few days as you two adjust.” She smiles. “And since I’m not very well acquainted with Miss Lorelai, then perhaps we can use this as a bonding opportunity!”

The three of them continue talking. Percy explaining the layout of the house, the chores, and potentially getting the two of them a room to share, more and more time passes till they all finish and go do their own thing.

Lorelai made another bubble in the corner of the living room, Percy did the dishes, and Molly got ready for school.

Molly already had her schoolwork in her backpack, so she had no need to go back to the emporium to retrieve her things. That was nice! She sat at the couch waiting, when Percys voice piped up.

“Are you ready for school?” Percy asked, walking up to Molly.

“Uh, yeah! Are you gonna drive me there?” 

“No need, your public school is conveniently just a short jog away from my apartment! If you count 20 minutes short, I mean.” The detective held up a metal lunchbox, it had the SJPD logo on the center, so that probably meant it belonged to Percy. “I’ve also taken the time to go ahead and make you some lunch.”

“Really..?” Molly walked up to the lunch box and grabbed it from Percys hand, staring at it. “Theres… Really no need to do that, I usually just ask my friends or buy some stuff at the cafeteria.”

“I personally do not think the cafeteria food they serve is enough for a childs daily diet.” Percy explains. “You can just think of it as a thank-you for making breakfast.” She smiled.

Molly stopped staring at the lunchbox realizing that was probably weird, then turns to Percy to smile at her too.

“Well then, I’ll go ahead and drop you off at school. I’m assuming your sister will be fine if I leave her for a few minutes?”

“She can last in bubbles for hours, she’ll be fine.” Molly explains.

And then the two of them leave the apartment. The streets here were much, much louder than Molly expected. She covers her ears as she walked, which Percy took note of. More time passes and Percy drops off Molly at school. 

Molly waved goodbye at her as she walked away when a sudden jingling bell sound grew closer and closer until-

“MOLLY!!!”

Phoenica Fleecity and Trixie Roughhouse hugged Molly as tight as they could, which was less bone-crushing and more soft and fluffy due to Feenie. “Trixie told me everything! We’re so glad you’re okay!”

“She did?” Oh right, Molly sent a message to the group chat. 

“Really happy that dad of yours is outta the picture now!” Trixie said, grinning.

“Haha, yeah. I am too…” Molly hugged them both back, the hug lasted for a few seconds before the bell rang.

“…How about I tell you guys everything when lunch comes around?” Molly asked.

“Oh sure! Stay safe Molly!” Phoenica smiled even harder then let go of both of them, walking off to her class.

“You do too…” 

“…So did Lorelai get arrested too?” Trixie piped up.

“Trixie!” She playfully shoved them with an elbow. “Don’t be like that!”

“Yeah yeah, I know! Just checkin!”

Note: MAKING THESE CUSTOM BACKGROUNDS WERE SO TIME CONSUMING. IT LITERALLY TOOK LONGER THAN THE ACTUAL CHAPTER ITSELF AND DELAYED IT FOR LIKE TWO WEEKS DEAR GOD. Hopefully now that this is out I can go back to answering asks for the characters and posting art too! Super proud of this one!

~Cherry

1ST CHAPTER | << PREV | NEXT >>

[loanonlife]

i do think that a vital part of most nortmikes is that they can't stand each other at first <3

i just think their personalities would clash horribly and their biases would lead them to make assumptions about the other that would just compound the issue.

canonically mike dislikes 'rude people' and norton dislikes 'arrogant rich people' (although this has been removed from his official page for some reason? i don't think it's a retcon because this still lines up with the rest of his lore).

while mike probably isn't rich, i would absolutely describe him as arrogant. yes, his behaviour in closing night is heavily influenced by his distress regarding the fire, however, i do not believe it is a stretch to assume that some of his holier than thou/smug attitude from that story carries over into everyday life.

we know norton is an incredibly standoffish person (being described multiple times as 'reserved' and 'gloomy' after the mining incident, as well as his behaviour during his interview with alice, granted, it is likely he was more reserved than normal in order to avoid revealing his involvement in the cave in), he is also described as hot-tempered in his famitsu bio. he can also be incredibly direct in a way that may be considered rude, such as in the 2022 deduction star best performance quote where he says "let me be clear. i'm not paying." this leads me to believe that norton could absolutely be interpreted as rude, possibly even exceptionally so.

while we see in the call of the abyss 4/the great race video, that norton & mike get along extremely well and seem to be exceptionally fond of each other, i believe that their clashing personalities would lead to them getting off to a bad start in their relationship, and taking everything the other does in the worst possible way, before something causes them to realize they've been misunderstanding the other :]

i do think they should have explosive arguments lol, stageplay universe nortmike screwing with each other in matches, athletic games nortmike having very public beef and showing up to each other's games just to obnoxiously cheer for their downfall, coa4 nortmike sabotaging each other's cars. i love them.

[fanficwriters-posts]

Hiro hamada x spiderman! Reader

Nobody knew reader was spiderman until reader swoops in, in their spidersuit, and saves the main 6 from a villian they couldn't beat. But ends up getting super hurt and having to take their mask off.

That sounds interesting and inspiring! 😃

Hiro Hamada x Spiderman!reader

It was like any other day in a normal human life. I got out of bed, take a quick shower, brush my teeth, pick out my clothes, put on the clothes, grab my necessary items for school and my homework, go downstairs, eat my breakfast my mother prepared for me, kiss my parents' cheeks before i leave to go to Hiro's place.

I do it every single day, it's just the same routine. Until one day...

There was a school field trip to this campus in New York City and mostly it was because Professor Granville didn't want any of us to slack off while she's away so she decided to bring us with her and make us learn about Alchemax with Doctor Octavius being our tour guide.

I got a little bored and was sidetracked with this spider that has a 42 number on its back. I was sorta staring for a few seconds until Doctor Octavius caught my attention away from it and lead us into another room. I didn't even realize the spider escaped its closure. Not did i felt it crawling up my pants and to my hand.

When Doctor Octavius introduced us to one of their latest inventions, i was amazed and wanted to take a picture. That's when i saw the spider. It bit me and i nearly drop my phone from shock. I grab it from the back of my hand and i put it on a table so no one will notice.

Hiro came over to me, i think he saw me when the spider bit my hand. He checked to see what was wrong and I just told him that my hands were just shaking from excitement. He found that amusing and grab my good hand to bring me back to the rest of the group.

Thankfully, that was the end of the tour and we all got home. Me? I was sweating the whole way back so i went straight to my home. A lot of things happened.

I ran really fast like i don't usually do, I can jump really high, i can hear almost everything that's going on, I can even stick to anything. Walls, metal poles, etc. But what made me so shocked is that i can shoot spiderwebs from my wrists. I found that out when i put down my backpack and try to reach for the bathroom.

I decided to experiment on myself and turns out, i have super-strength. I've seen these in the Spider-Man comic books and i didn't think it would happen to me, too. I was so psyched about it but... i didn't tell any of my friends. I was scared that they might report this to professor Granville and have me change back to normal.

But, i wanted to be a hero. Like those Big Hero 6 guys. So, i trained myself in this old, abandoned factory that i can use as my training arena. Of course, i had to put everything together first before i can start.

I've been training myself for 3 months just so i can do everything perfect. Somehow, in the process, i didn't realize that i got myself sorta fit and tough. I even cut my hair a little shorter.

Once i know i'm ready, i started designing my suit while watching the news about the Big Hero 6. Sometimes, i write down the villains and their powers in my notebook that i keep to myself.

And if you're wondering, what about school? Yes, i still go to school and everything went on smoothly. Though, sometimes they ask during the first week about why i'm so happy but i just tell them that the Alchemax field trip made a whole new perspective in my life.

I did everything i could to keep my secret from everyone and it works so well. And now, i'm a new superhero of San Fransokyo. (Hero name)! Heck yeah! I saved a bunch of people, get interviewed by the press, even got my own superhero action figure. Everything went smoothly on my side but with all the homework that started piling up, i couldn't keep up and let everything to the Big Hero 6.

I wasn't aware of what the villains were up to behind my back.

Present time

I'm in Hiro's lab doing my homework per usual but this time he wasn't here or Baymax. I called him and he said he had to help around in the cafe with Baymax before he gets here. I just said, "Take your time." And "Love you." Before we hung up.

When i set down my pen, a notification appear on the screen of my phone while i was watching (Favorite Cartoon Series) and i press it.

"This just in, a group of robot has attacked downtown and with Big Hero 6 on the job- Wait, sorry." The news reporter spoke before he press the earpiece he has on. "Oh! It looks like the Big Hero 6 are down. Take it away, Carol." The screen switches to another news reporter and she's in a helicopter.

"Thank you, Bluff Dunder." Carol said to the microphone in her hand. "It seems like our heroes have been outnumbered by unknown robots and can't seem to find a way out of the corner. Our former lovable mascot, Noodle Burger Boy have gathered robot mascots from all around fast food restaurants into villainy. If only (Hero name) was here to aid them in their battle."

I couldn't believe my ears and immediately i texted Hiro that i needed to get home because my parents called me and change into my spider suit. I grab my things and my clothes into my backpack before i swing out of the campus and drop off my bag at my bedroom window.

I head straight to downtown and... Oh yeah! I can go camouflage mode but right now is not the best time to use it because these are robots we're fighting. They might have heat-signature visions, but it wouldn't hurt to try it out. I landed on the rooftop above the Big Hero 6 and i went camouflage mode as i slowly crawl down the building over the heroes and robots.

"There's no way of escaping, heroes! Give it up!" Noodle Burger Boy exclaims with this girl robot beside him and Hyper-Potamus on the other. There were a few other robots i've never seen before.

"What do you want with us, Noodle Burger Boy?" The guy in purple ask the robot, standing in front of his team.

"The whereabouts of the new superhero, (Hero name)." Noodle Burger Boy replied before the robot girl beside him speak up, "She can be of use as our ally."

"What? No way! She will never side with you! She doesn't even side with us! Because we never ask." Another hero spoke but he's wearing a blue monster suit.

"Then tell us where she is. 'Cause we'll make her." Noodle Burger Boy tells them before the rest of the robots got into stances, ready to attack.

"That's my cue." I muttered before i un-camouflaged myself and jump down between them.

"You wanted to see me, Noodle Burger Boy?" I ask him, my voice high and mighty.

"Oh! There she is!" Noodle Burger Boy tells his group of robots, clapping with joy.

"(Hero name), what are you doing here?" The guy in purple asks me, walking up to me. I look back to him and stop him.

"Stay back. This is gonna get a little ugly... For me." I tell him, my voice slightly deepen.

I turn back to the evil robots and i shot my web at one of them, swinging them to the others before i leap up and attack the rest. They fought back and of course, a hero such as myself cannot take on this many but i try to.

I took the fight elsewhere so that no one would get hurt, using my spiderwebs to swing me and let them chase after me. I landed on a dock and turn around to face them. Finally realizing how many there are.

"Oh, boy." I whisper in shock. They're made out of metal, i should've thought this through.

"No where left to run, (Hero name)!" The girl robot exclaim with a menacing grin before she shoots multiple rockets at my way.

I gasped and dodged it as my spider sense went off. I thought i was save for a couple of minutes until the robot, which i think is Crushroom, punched me so hard that it send me into a side of a boat.

I groaned and got myself out before i stick my feet and hand on the wall of a building. "Okay, this is a bit unfair, don't you think? I mean, there's literally some of you but you're made out of metal and i'm made out of flesh, myself."

I hear the Big Hero 6 coming from my right and i look up. When my eyes landed on the guy in purple, i feel a bit of familiarity to him. Like i knew him from somewhere. Obviously, behind that orange glass shield he has black hair but his face... Somehow...

And it's not right to be deep in thought when you're being chased by a bunch of robots is not highly recommended. My spider sense went off but i didn't have time to react before i was shot off of the wall and fall to the ground. I fell! A great 6 ft from the building and i think i got scratches on my suit because i was not full conscious.

I got up from the ground and i pant heavily from the great impact. I look up to the rest of the robots and i use this advantage to shoot my spiderwebs at their faces to blind their sights. The Big Hero 6 took care of them as soon as they arrived and i had to leave the scene but my limbs were aching with pain. And they're killing me!

Don't blame me. This is my first time getting actually hurt during a mission.

I hear the big red robot land behind me and help me stand up. "Are you alright, (Hero name)?" The robot asks, his voice calming.

"Yeah. I put my guard down for a second and they just shoot me." I replied, holding my side. I look up to the rest of the team and i think a quarter of my mask was torn.

"What were you thinking taking those crazy robots on your own?! You could've died!" The big guy in green exclaimed at me with worry.

"Not to mention putting your life at risk just to save ours." A girl in pink with long blond hair spoke softly.

"Super cool! But dangerous. But SUPER AWESOME!" The guy in blue yell with excitement.

"You could've asked us to help you." The guy in purple steps up, his height same as mine but i was sorta bend down from the pain.

"Yeah. I just... You guys were already in trouble. I just wanted to give you guys a break." I tell them.

I grunt in pain as my side aches even more and i nearly fall forward but the guy in purple caught me before i hit the ground.

"My boyfriend will not like this at all." I muttered under my breath as i let him support me.

"Your body cannot take anymore muscle use and you have a cut on your face. In order for me to heal you, you must take off your mask." The giant red robot said before he approaches me.

My eyes widen and i hold out my hand. "No, no, no! The hospital is fine! You don't have to heal me." I say quickly, holding the guy in purple's shoulder.

"Oh, come on. You can hardly stand up by yourself, let alone swing back to the hospital." Said the girl in yellow.

I groan in defeat and look up to them. "I know where you can heal me, but, you have to promise to keep it a secret." I tell them.

All six of them agreed and took me to my training arena because i have first aid kit and a bed there. Not plain. I decorated them so that it doesn't look so bland.

The red robot lay me down on the bed while the others look around at the training place i build.

"You built this place yourself?" The girl in yellow asks, standing in front of one of my deadly obstacles.

"I like to challenge myself and make it a whole lot more interesting." I replied to her as the robot place a pillow behind my head.

"Huh." She muttered. "Awesome."

"Alright. Let's take off this mask of yours." The robot said. I sigh heavily.

"It's a big no-no. But from one hero to another, i guess." I say to him before i take off my mask and set it aside.

"(Name)?!"

I was startled by the sound of my name and i look up to the guy in purple with wide eyes. "Y-you know me?" I ask him nervously.

He walk towards me and take off his helmet. My eyes widen even more and i stare at him in shock. "Hiro?!" I exclaim in surprise.

The two of us stare at each other for a solid 5 minutes while the red robot heal the wounds on my body.

The rest of the BH6 came and take off their helmets which made my heart nearly jump out of my chest. I look at each of them before i look up to Hiro again.

"Wait, wait! You lied to me about help Aunt Cass?" I tell him, going to sit up but he held my shoulder and keep me down.

"Y-you lied to me about hanging out with this whole new group of friends when it turns out you were here! Training yourself!" Hiro said back.

I frown a little and look down to my lap. "I..." I sighed heavily and lay down on the bed. "I didn't want to tell you because i was afraid that you guys might tell Professor Granville and that she might take me back to Alchemax and make my powers disappear."

Hiro sit down on the edge of the bed beside me and he hold my hand. "So, this whole time you lied just so you can be a hero?"

"In my defense," I quickly said. "You guys inspired me to become one. I thought that with this power, i might be able to help but i just didn't have the guts to say anything, yet."

Hiro frown at that and he brush my hair out of my face. "And yet, here you are, laying on your bed with Baymax healing your wounds."

"I'm sorry for not telling you. For not telling any of you." I apologized, looking up to them with sincerity. "I know i'm supposed to trust you with this but..."

"Hey, don't worry about it, (Name). I mean, we hid all this from you. We should be the ones to apologize for not telling you that we're heroes." Honey Lemon speak up, walking towards me with a warm smile.

"We could've told you but someone didn't want to because he didn't want to risk your life." Fred steps in, looking at me with a smile.

I look up to Hiro from him and he just look away sheepishly with a blush across his face. I chuckled and i hold his hand. "Aww, really? That's so thoughtful of you!"

He smiled back as he turn his head back to me and he lean down and peck my forehead. "If any of them knew that you were connected to us, i wouldn't know what i would do if something happens to you, (Name)."

"You're my boyfriend, Hiro. You have all the right to be worried but you have to trust me with protecting myself. I can handle anything." I tell him to reassure him, my smile never falter.

Hiro chuckled and nod his head. "You're right. I should've told you and i should've listened to my friends, too."

"I told you she'd be cool about it." Fred tells them which made us all chuckle.

And let's just say that from now own, we tell each other everything and we help each other. I'm not part of the BH6 but i still help around. Hiro and i's relationship became stronger also mine with our friends.

With great power, come great responsibility. And that responsibility is protecting everyone i love and this city.

[badass-queer-couples-battle]

Gay wrongs tournament, round one of the major bracket

Propaganda:

For Nandor and Guillermo:

I feel like accessory to murder and cause of the murder counts, right? 

Classic vampire/human who wants to be a vampire except there's an understanding in the show of how messed up that is, down to Guillermo helping chop up the bodies of Nandor's victims to hide them for him. Then there's the added wrinkle of Guillermo finding out he's a vampire hunter by blood and actually very good at killing vampires. There is more than one incredibly erotically charged scene with Guillermo holding a stake to Nandor's chest. Their dynamic is fantastically complex, from Guillermo starting as Nandor's somewhat disgruntled servant to him besting the vampire in combat and becoming his bodyguard, to Guillermo getting tired of waiting and getting another vampire to turn him leading to a long jealousy arc culminating in Nandor nearly killing him... there's just so much going on with these two. Nandor flew to space just to impress Guillermo. They do a number of heinous things to humans and vampires alike, but through it all they are so in love and so rich with pining. One of these days they'll kiss, I'm sure of it. It's just a monumental slow burn with many vampiric atrocities along the way.

They aren't romantically canon yet, but dear lord. Both are canon queer, Guillermo is specifically gay while nandor is mentioned to be pansexual in interviews. Yeah they are everything and nothing. They fought and can kill eachother but they literally can't do it emotionally. Also forbidden love trope, vampire x vampire slayer /familiar/ body gaurd / best man. They make me unwell.

For John and Jack:

So, they both are literal murders. One of them is a little bit more insane than the other. Okay, the little bit part is not right, totally insane that is John, yes. But gonna love him though. He had been in rehab for alcohol, drugs, sex and murder. Don't kiss him, he might be wearing poisoning lipstick. They are canon mlm. They had been stuck in a two week time loop for five years, which was like leading a married life for them. They didn't actually marry, but they were partners, both in business and sexually. They worked together for an time agency. Then Jack's memories of two years were erased and he left. He went into  independent self deployment, doing scams using his knowledge of future events. After that he build an alien hunting institute in Cardiff, Wales. When John and Jack see eachother again after years, you don't know whether they will they kiss or fight. They do both. Did I tell you that along this story Jack became an inmortal who can't stay dead? No matter how or how often he dies or is killed, he keeps coming back to life. This is all very scraping on the surface, but oh boy, would it be at least a novella to describe them.

They worked together in the Time Agency where they did horrible things to the extent where Jack had two years of his memory stolen so that he couldn’t know what he’d done. They were also in a time loop together for five years where they canonically thought of each other as the wife (John was a good wife :3), and were basically married. Then they had a divorce arc and they both separately went rogue from the Agency to become conmen, although they still worked together/clashed on occasions, always still with that spark of passion. “Frenemies with benefits” Jack called them once, although John preferred “my lover, my rival, my nemesis and destiny. And bane of my bloody life.” Canon finds us where Jack has tried to reform and be a better person, but John is still chasing cons, and all he wants to do is bring Jack back to the stars with him, back to the crime and the glitter of the galaxies (it doesn’t work and he shoves Jack off a building but Jack got himself immortal so he’s fine <3) anyway I am very normal about them xoxo

In John's introduction to the series he shows up on a roof where some guy is mugging someone, grabs him by the throat and dangles him over the edge of the building while this guy begs for his life before dropping him just because he felt like it. When John and Jack interact for the first time in the show there's a super cool guitar riff, very evil western vibes, they walk up to each other, look deeply into each other's eyes, make out, then start throwing punches to Blur's Song 2. In one of the audio dramas we're told about various times where these two conned people, stole a bunch of money and gold and gems and stuff, then had sex with whoever it is they conned before (sometimes) killing them. When Jack devided he was done and left John to die John escaped and married the queen of England (Victoria) then locked Jack up somewhere to take his life force and live forever, destroying the timeline in the process. John has tried to kill all of Jack's friends at least twice to have him all to himself. He found Jack's long lost brother and when the brother turned out to be a terrible person with a vendetta against Jack John did everything he could to save Jack. Their relationship is canon but very one-sided most of the time

just this video

[burkhxrts]

IMGONNAGETYOUBACK! [chapter three] | A. Judge

"you know there's many different ways that you can kill the one you love, the slowest way is never loving them enough." -taylor swift

summary: after a long first month, you find that aaron's been avoiding you. you decided to take matter into your own hands and confront him.

warning(s): ANGST GALORE!!! cursing, fight fight fight!!! they're honestly both in the wrong but who cares.

You feel useless. 

It's been too long of a month, in your opinion, and the fact that you have to spend every living breathing moment with your ex makes it ten times worse. Not to mention, the fact that he’s been avoiding you every chance he got. Every time you stepped into the Yankees locker room and made eye contact with him, he’d freeze, and claim that he had somewhere to be. The anger inside you bubbled up like boiling hot water. Who does he think he is? 

Today was the very same. After a late inning loss, you stepped into the clubhouse, watching as each player got surrounded by swarms of reporters. You spotted Meredith, the lead reporter for the YES Network, make her way towards Aaron. He was standing at his locker, the usual stoic expression on his face, as he answered a few questions. His gaze flickered briefly toward you, but the moment it landed, his shoulders stiffened and he quickly looked away, offering a polite but strained smile to the reporter in front of him. He never acknowledged you. Not a wave, not even the slightest nod. Just a wall of cold indifference.

You were sick of it. Sick of him pretending you didn't exist, sick of the games he was playing, and sick of the way he made you feel—like you were some afterthought in his life when you'd once been everything. You just wanted him to treat you like a normal person.

Taking a deep breath, you steadied yourself. This had gone on long enough. If he was going to act like this, you weren’t going to sit back and let him walk all over you. You were a professional now, a journalist for the Yankees. You had every right to be here, and you wouldn’t let him push you out of his life just because he was uncomfortable.

You walked toward him, trying to keep your steps calm and collected, but your heart was pounding in your chest. The closer you got, the more you could feel the tension in the air. It was like a force field—one he had built between you both, and you were done respecting it.

Meredith gave you a quick glance as you approached, then moved off to interview another player, leaving you standing in front of Aaron. He didn’t even look up from his locker at first.

“Can we talk?” you asked, your voice sharp and deliberate. The question came out colder than you intended, but you didn’t care anymore. “Now?”

He froze at the sound of your voice, his entire body stiffening as if you had thrown a bucket of ice water over him. Slowly, he turned toward you, but there was no warmth in his eyes. There never was anymore. Just that same look of avoidance that had been there for weeks now.

The clubhouse was dead now, the only remaining people you and Aaron.

“What’s up?” he said, his voice strained and overly casual, as if he didn’t already know what you were going to say.

You could barely stand the fake politeness in his tone, the detachment that practically oozed from him. Your patience snapped. You didn’t need him to pretend. You didn’t need him to act like everything was fine.

“Stop doing this, Aaron,” you said, your voice low but firm. “Stop acting like I’m some ghost that you can’t even acknowledge. You’re avoiding me at every turn, and it’s getting old.”

His expression flickered with something you couldn’t quite place, but it quickly melted into that same impassive mask. “I’m not avoiding you,” he said, though his words rang hollow.

“Bullshit,” you shot back, unable to hide the anger now spilling over. “Every time I walk into a room, you act like I’m invisible. I deserve better than that, Aaron. I’m not the one who walked away, remember?”

His jaw tightened, and for a brief moment, you saw a flicker of guilt in his eyes. But it was gone as quickly as it appeared. He exhaled, shifting slightly on his feet. “I’m not trying to hurt you, Y/n. I just… I don’t know what you want from me.”

Oh, you knew exactly what you wanted from him. But that wasn’t the issue here, was it?

“I want you to stop treating me less than the other journalists because of what we had. I want you to stop acting like you can just sweep me under the rug,” you snapped, taking a step closer to him, your pulse quickening. “I’m not a stranger to you, Aaron. And I’m tired of playing this game where you pretend I am.”

His eyes flickered to the ground, a moment of hesitation passing before he looked back up at you, and this time, his voice was quieter, laced with something you hadn’t expected. Something raw. “I’m married now,” he said, the words landing like a punch to your stomach.

The room seemed to close in on you as the weight of his confession pressed against your chest. You knew he was married, so why is he acting like it's a big hidden secret?

“I know,” you said, voice barely above a whisper. “I know you’re married. But that doesn’t mean you get to ignore me. That doesn’t mean I’m nothing to you. I’m still here, Aaron. I always have been. And you’re treating me like I’m just some fucking bystander in your life.”

He swallowed hard, his eyes betraying a flicker of guilt. “It’s not that simple, [Y/N]. I don’t know how to balance all of this. I don’t know how to be around you and not feel like I’m betraying my wife... or betraying you.”

You shook your head, fighting back the sting of angry tears. “I don’t give a shit about betrayal, i've already experienced it before, remember?”

“Don’t do that,” he said, his voice low and tight, like a warning. “Don’t try to make this about that. You know it’s not the same.”

You could feel your pulse pounding in your ears. “Then what is it, Aaron? Huh? What’s so different about me? “About us?”

You were right in front of him now, too close, the distance between you both almost nonexistent. The space in between was filled with all the things that had gone unsaid, all the things he had been avoiding—all the things you both hadn’t finished.

He exhaled sharply, pushing past you, his frustration rising to meet yours. His hand ran through his hair in a rare show of agitation. “You don’t get it, do you?” he said, his voice thick with emotion, something raw and vulnerable creeping through. “I can’t make you understand what this is like. I can’t explain to you how fucking hard it is to love someone and still feel like... like there’s something else pulling at you.”

You stiffened at his words, feeling an unexpected pang of something in your chest. Something akin to the grief you’d carried for so long. It’s hard, Aaron? You wanted to scream, to lash out at him for being so oblivious to how much harder it had been for you—how long you had struggled to make sense of the mess he left behind.

But you held it in. You had nothing left to lose now, no dignity to protect.

“Yeah,” you said, your voice trembling, “I get it. I get it all too well.” You couldn’t help but step back, the weight of the situation crashing down on you in waves. “I get it, Aaron, because I’m the one who’s been living with it. I’m the one who spent years waiting for you to come back. Hoping you’d figure it out. Hoping you’d choose me—choose us—over whatever the hell it was that pulled you away.”

Aaron's eyes softened for the briefest moment, and it was enough to make your heart skip in your chest. God, he still does care, doesn't he? But then the moment passed, and he straightened, swallowing hard as if trying to force down whatever feelings were threatening to surface.

“I didn’t leave because I didn’t care about you,” he said, his voice tight with emotion. “I left because I did care. Because I knew I wasn’t... I wasn’t the man you deserved. Not then. Not now.”

“Then why come back now, Aaron? Why come back into my life if all you’re going to do is hurt me again?” The question hung in the air, thick and painful, like the weight of the past pressing against both of you.

He didn’t answer right away. Instead, he stared at you, as though weighing every word he said. When he finally spoke, his voice was low, rough, like the confession he was about to make had been locked away for too long.

“Because I can’t stop thinking about you,” he admitted, his gaze steady on yours, the truth pouring out in a way he had never allowed before. “Because when I see you, when I hear your voice, it feels like I’ve never left. Like everything before—us—wasn’t just some lost dream. And it’s fucking killing me, [Y/N]. It’s killing me because I know I can’t have both.”

You felt your chest tighten, the weight of his words sinking in, pulling you under. The past rushed back like a flood, memories of days spent with him, your heart so full of love and hope. You had loved him. And in that moment, despite everything, a part of you still did.

But you couldn’t ignore the truth—he had made his choices, and you had made yours. He was married. He wasn’t the man you needed him to be anymore, even if you still craved the version of him that once was.

“You can’t have both,” you repeated, your voice cracking. “You can’t have me and expect me to be okay with it. I’m not going to be the other woman, Aaron. Not now. Not ever.”

He flinched, as if your words had hit him harder than anything you had said before. For a long time, neither of you said anything. The weight of the silence felt suffocating, thick with everything unspoken between you. Every moment of regret, every shared look, every kiss you’d stolen in the past—all of it hung in the air like a burden neither of you could escape.

Finally, Aaron spoke again, his voice barely audible. “I don’t know what to do anymore, [Y/N]. I don’t know how to make this right.”

You rubbed at your eyes, fighting back the tears that had begun to slip down your cheeks. You weren’t going to cry in front of him. Not like this. Not when everything was so complicated.

“You can’t make it right,” you said, voice trembling with the effort of holding it together. “You had your chance, Aaron. We had our chance.”

And with that, you turned on your heel and walked away.

[jokeroutsubs]

[ENG translation] Joker Out: We won't screw up

A radio interview with Bojan Cvjetićanin and Kris Guštin on the radio station called Radio Koper, from 01.01.2024. The interviewer and author is Iztok Novak Easy. You can read the translation below or listen to the audio in Slovene from the source.

~

['Carpe Diem' starts playing and continues to play in the background]

Interviewer: Hello, Bojan.

Bojan: Hello, dear friend.

Interviewer: And Kris.

Kris: Hi. It's good to see you here.

Interviewer: Thank you. How would you describe the year that just ended in a few sentences?

Bojan: In a few sentences? Yes, a year that changed our lives significantly and brought us closer to what we imagined our musical dreams to be.

Interviewer: What about you, Kris?

Kris: We have been using the word turbulent all day, today. In fact, it makes sense in at least two ways, because it has actually been very turbulent for us. Mentally and physically. We have also taken so many flights where we have experienced more turbulence than ever before.

['Carpe Diem' gets louder for a few seconds]

Interviewer: Moving on with this year. Eurovision, all the travelling that came before it, Stožice, the tour that followed, the recording in between, and so on. What would you put first? I'm asking you, Kris.

Kris: Even though we went to Eurovision this year, the main event for me was still the concert in Stožice. After all, we announced it a year before the event, which means half a year before we really even started to deal with Eurovision. For us, the whole year was split into before Stožice and after Stožice. Everything we were doing before Stožice was kind of leading up to it, so, once it happened, at least for me, it completely changed the shape of the year. So I have to say Stožice maybe even more than Eurovision.

Interviewer: What would you, Bojan, point out as the most valuable or what are the most valuable new pieces of knowledge or insights that you have gained this year?

Bojan: I would say the most valuable insight is that life on tour really requires a healthy rhythm. I would say that we very quickly realised that there is no room for hedonism or egocentrism on tour, and that it is an extremely complex machine that stops very quickly if the pieces start to fall apart. So the realisation that we, as a group, know how to work but also that we have to do so in harmony is the most valuable thing, I think.

Interviewer: I recently read that Eurovision fans awarded those who made an impact at this year's contest. You have become the kings of charisma. More than 50% of the votes. What is your comment?

Bojan: I mean, it's... not the kings of charisma, it's just the way this competition is, these titles in the end are more of a joke than for real. But it's absolutely wonderful that our name was even included in the five or six categories that were awarded. The fact that we won proves that this year we have been very much present in this Eurovision bubble. I would say that we were a very strong link among all the representatives of the countries at Eurovision. So there were a lot of good vibes and a lot of fun surrounding us. So it was nice that the listeners and the viewers picked that and, like you said, out of 80000 votes, more than 40000 were for us, so that is such a nice start to the New Year. And also, I would say, a very nice end to this Eurovision story.

['Carpe Diem' gets louder and it ends]

Interviewer: Your European tour is behind you. From Helsinki to Belgrade. A lot of sold-out concerts. I read a review of the Belgrade concert in Dom Omladine. All praises, Joker Out. A sociological phenomenon. The new Beatlmania* and so on. How do you manage to stay normal?

(*Beatlemania was the fanaticism surrounding the English rock band the Beatles in the 1960s.)

['Ne bi smel' starts playing in the background]

Bojan: I stand by the fact that all five of us are extremely down-to-earth and normal guys to begin with. That we have a very nice and safe community, waiting for us at home, watching over us and supporting us. That is, of course, our families, our friends and our team. So I would dare to say that we don't have a lot of room to screw up, because there are enough people around us who can grab us and hold us and bring us back down to Earth in an instant. So we don't have this tendency to suddenly become total jerks, but we are who we are and the moment we come back from the stage to the backstage, the gig is over and there is only genuineness left. I mean, on stage we're really totally genuine too, but still. We're on stage and it's a show. So yeah, I would say that we don't allow ourselves and others don't allow us to change who we are.

['Ne bi smel' gets louder for a few seconds]

Interviewer: Kris, Helsinki, The Hague, Wroclaw, Madrid, Barcelona, as I said Zagreb, Belgrade, Novi Sad, Rijeka too. Which would you say was the most emotional?

Kris: So I'll say this: it's really hard to pick one concert or one place that was really the best. Personally, I will say that Amsterdam was the most emotional experience for me, because it was the first time my Dutch family attending a concert of ours. Because before that, ok, they watched us at Eurovision, but after that performance, it's hard to really understand what we do besides that. They know that I do music, but they never really understood what I do until they came to the concert and saw their fellow Dutchies singing in Slovene for the whole concert, while they had never learned one song or a few words of Slovene in their whole life. And they were all enthusiastic until the end and it was a real honour to perform for them.

Interviewer: What about you, Bojan?

Bojan: I have to say that it was extremely emotional, in terms of the fact that we were totally shocked, that people were singing in Slovene in countries you wouldn't think of. I mean, let's say that the further north we went, the more and more it blew us away. As for me personally, perhaps the most heartfelt was in the countries of the region, so to say, the countries of the former Yugoslavia.

Interviewer: Your version of Đurđevdan in Belgrade went viral on tiktok. Was it spontaneous?

Bojan: Yes, totally spontaneous. When we went off stage Jure was feeling unwell and couldn't go back on stage for the encore and I took the acoustic guitar because people were screaming for the encore, and when I came on stage, I said, "Which one are we going to do?" and some of the fans in the front screamed "Đurđevdan" and I said "C'mon". And Đurđevdan was the final encore song. And it turned out to be a great moment.

[an audio recording of 'Đurđevdan' from the concert plays]

Interviewer: Did you notice any particularity, perhaps a difference, between the British organisers, the Spanish, the Scandinavian and those from what you called our former country? Maybe how you were treated by the media?

['Vse kar vem' starts playing and it continues to play in the background]

Kris: If we just focus on the organiser. Before we started our tours abroad, I had never come into contact with organisers. Here, in Slovenia, we treat everything a little differently. Maybe in Slovenia you have such organisers at Kino Šiška* because they are used to a lot of foreign performers. But things are different and I have to say that we have been lucky that we have been less and less involved with them because we have had a bigger and more experienced team around us who have been trained for abroad from before. So, I would say that things are a little bit better abroad. Far from Slovenia being pure chaos and wild, I somehow felt safer and more confident when I was doing concerts abroad, in terms of the performance itself. As far as the media is concerned, of course in Slovenia we were one of the most talked about artists, so we got a lot of attention that we might not have received abroad. Abroad, we had Eurovision media, maybe some national television. So, as far as some commercial networks are concerned, we are still getting there. On the other hand, in the Balkans, all of a sudden it was "wow". All of a sudden the tabloids asked 'What's up with the girls, where are they, where's the party?' and things like that. It's a completely different scene than in Slovenia.

(*Kino Šiška has been the central Slovenian institution of the contemporary concert scene since 2009, complemented by activities in visual and performing arts.)

Interviewer: Do you have anything to add?

Bojan: Yes, I do. Like Kris said, when it comes to organising concerts, things tend to really... the biggest difference is that when you look at the plan and the timeline that you get before the concert, that timeline really makes sense and is accurate to the minute and it sticks to what is written. But I would say that in the Balkans, this is quite impartial, but in the Balkans we were really, I would say, treated like kings. In all aspects. As for the media... At least for me, it was the first time in the Balkans that a music journalist came and asked questions with 100% respect. At no point in the interview was there any hint of cynicism, which is practically in every interview here in Slovenia. Whenever there is some success or praise, there is a small 'but' in the next sentence. There is always something negative to point out, while someone who has a positive attitude also writes a really 100% positive article. And if someone is negative, they write it negatively. So that really really fascinated me. I have to say that the interviews in the Balkans this year were also heartwarming.

['Vse kar vem' plays louder for a few seconds]

Interviewer: Talking about positive things, have you ever had a negative experience? Maybe one... Have you ever had a hard time recently?

Bojan: Yes, absolutely. I'll say it like this, this year we gave our all, everything we had. We didn't have an ounce of energy left, that we could have saved just in case, but we went 800% with our heads through the wall. In every situation. And it left an impression on us, because we were tired and I was so tired that it started to show in certain stressful situations that we weren't used to before. For example, the stage was 1000% the safest place for me, but then by the end of summer, ['Padam' starts playing in the background] when I experienced a panic moment on the stage that then lasted for the whole concert, it left a mark on me and that stress and panic still lasts, for almost half a year from then. So, it's not a joke, when they say that you have to take time for yourself and slow down once in a while. But here we are, that moment has arrived, thank god. Next week we're going to London for two months, where us five are going to make music in peace. Well, in between we're going to fly to two concerts but almost two months in peace. So, yes, I'm very excited for that time.

['Padam' gets louder for a few seconds and continues to play in the background]

Interviewer: Maybe it's important in regards to this: when things start happening like in your case the task of choosing the people to surround yourself with, it's very hard. How do you manage situations like this? Where did you draw the line? How did you choose the people who help you? The people, like you say, who watch over you?

Kris: In the past it was always like this that we started working with people with whom we naturally developed a bond. With whom we have developed trust before we started the business collaboration or rather business relationship. And that basically functioned really well until Eurovision, then our presence suddenly broadened from Slovenia to the whole of Europe and the whole world, and here what we know how to do, and what the majority of people from Slovenia know, it's not enough to properly tackle the market. So we had to make a few quick decisions, we had to welcome a few people from abroad to our team that we might not have welcomed so quickly in Slovenia. But we said that this is the moment, when we have to trust certain people to help us. We established that trust in advance as much as it was possible. Now we have in our team, for example, people we got to know during Eurovision with whom we have already developed a relationship but we are still developing it and waiting. At the same time we had to say goodbye to certain people in Slovenia, even those who were a part of our team from the very start, because our situation is drastically changing, because our schedules no longer align, in regards to life, ambitions and business. So for me one of the hardest things this year was that we had to say goodbye to people who were with us from the start, because we're moving forward.

['Padam' gets louder for a few seconds]

Interviewer: In March and April you have a new concert tour. Before that, Bojan, you said there will be time for creating.

['Sunny Side of London' starts playing in the background]

Bojan: Yes, next year will be a little experimental from all aspects, so, not just the concert aspect but also from the creative aspect. We'll be creating music abroad for the first time. So, the next two months in London are devoted to writing, making the songs, rewiring our brains.

Interviewer: In English?

Bojan: In Slovene, English and Serbo-Croatian language. Maybe another one, but for now these three are planned. English will dominate for sure but all three languages will be on the album. In March and a little bit of April, we're going on this one month tour. Then we're going to a studio in Germany for one month, where we'll record the album. That is the studio where we recorded 'Carpe Diem' so we're already used to it. We're planning to put the March tour to good use with trying out what we will write and play in our rehearsal space in January and February. So the March tour will be the most playful tour until now, because at each concert we'll try out two, three songs from the new album, at the next concert we'll play another one. So each concert will be actually different and a different experience for the fans and for us. After the studio we are going on a festival tour that will probably also be quite extensive. Then we will return back home at the end of summer and slowly release the album in October, which means another tour for sure and then it's happy new year and merry Christmas and here we are.

['Sunny Side of London' gets louder for a few seconds and continues in the background]

Interviewer: Earlier I mentioned Finland, where you were already during the last tour. One of the concerts is already sold out, as far as I know, in Helsinki. Can you explain this phenomenon? Finland? Is this that story that developed from Eurovision?

Kris: Yes, for sure. I think Finland was the first country ever where we got a golden record and it was for Carpe Diem. We learned about that on tour, when we were in Finland. No one exactly knows the reason why Finland stands out the most. It's definitely the fact that they are big fans of Eurovision, so more of them came in contact with us. Besides that, we had a nice friendship, or rather, Bojan did, with their representative. That gave us additional exposure in this country. But there is clearly something with us and our music that resonates with their ethos and despite all the exposure they had something to hold on to, once they got to us.

Interviewer: You were talking about the golden record. If I mention a few numbers now. Your former PR representative, booking manager, I don't know what else he was responsible for, we're talking about Gregor, of course, he mentioned 45 million streams on Facebook. Now there are more, for sure. Your fee was raised 30 times and it's going up. In short, there are a lot of numbers. What does this bring?

Bojan: This brings a lot of things. Now, in the music business it's common that when you have a bigger fee you have to make a bigger and better production. In the end, it literally comes to proportionally the same fee you had in the beginning, but with a bigger show. In regards to that, our life absolutely hasn't changed. Maybe I could say that it could have if we had stayed in Slovenia... I can say that for sure. If we kept doing concerts in Slovenia we could get more out of it, in a financial sense. In regards to all the other aspects, in other words, how inspirational is it for a musician in how much it fills you, it's incomparable. We don't do music because of money, if we did we would probably either do a different kind of music or do it in a different way. But what drives us, is creating and that new faces in the crowd sing. Especially now, when we started going abroad, it's something incredible. To listen, to see the crowds queuing to come to your concert.

Interviewer: Can you also comment on my question?

Kris: Half of people will always resent you for changing and the other half for staying the same. No matter what you decide and because I personally know that a musician needs to grow in their career, so then I'd rather see that half of the people resent us for changing than for staying the same.

['Demoni' starts playing loudly for a few seconds]

Interviewer: Okay, our chat was recorded at the time that we on Radio Koper realised that Carpe Diem was the most played song in this past year. I told you earlier that the second one was 'Novi val', last year at this time, it was the most played song too. The song that now has an English version, with the great Elvis Costello in the main role. I still don't get it how you managed to pull that off.

Bojan: We don't get it either, honestly. Elvis Costello is someone who was musically connected with the band literally from the start. So, when we first drew the line under this shagadelic rock'n'roll and we called our music this made-up genre it coincided with Elvis Costello, who was acting and singing in the Austin Powers movie, where "shagadelic" came from. So it's an unbelievable common thread that came full circle in the end. Elvis has, in his own words, co-authored with very few people, Paul McCartney is one of them. So, when he told me that he co-signed this song with me, I wasn't really able to grasp that.

Interviewer: Okay. You are a part of the new wave. You're inviting us to the carneval. Generation of love and hope and so on. You are a part of some kind of a new wave that happened several years earlier, the so-called new wave 30 or 40 years ago. You know that there's this phrase that embodied musicians who had changed our story as well, and I dare to say that it was part of the reason why many things unraveled the way they did, for the better. I have a feeling, that you are also, please tell us for all five of you, a part of this new wave that wants things to lead in a better direction.

Kris: I definitely count on all five of us knowing and understanding and feeling that we are a part of the new wave and if I connect to the previous question about Elvis, I think he felt it too. Because this is the bond that we have with him, besides all the surface level things, shagadelic and I-don't-know what else. The bond we have with him is that we both started creating in a vacuum of new music and we made something out of it and I think he could feel it even without beeing present on the Slovene music scene. And if he could feel it, we have to trust ourselves that we are doing something right and we're leaving something meaningful behind us.

['New Wave' plays in the background]

Interviewer: Bojan.

Bojan: We are... the five of us, young people in 21st century, we grew up with the notion that from what we learned from books, everything will be better, all the mistakes have already been made and the world learned something, and now we can flourish. And unfortunately, it is becoming clearer by the day that not only have we not learned from our mistakes, but the mistakes have clearly been learned by those who want to, I would say, take these mistakes to a higher level for future generations who will learn about them in textbooks. So after all the musicians, all the songs that were encouraging peace and love, we are clearly just another wave who can do the same. I hope and believe that for those who want to hear it, we can change their world view and can make their everyday better to a degree that they don't feel a need to share their wrath and indignation with others. In reality, times are stressful and horrifying and we can only make them better by a tiny smidge, and we can appeal to people to be a part of the new wave. I think that the most we can do is that people might be able to recognise within themselves that "maybe I can do this better, I can do it more nicely, and if we share music, if we share love, this new wave can wave stronger."

Interviewer: Good luck.

Bojan: Thank you very much.

['New Wave' starts playing loudly]

~

Transcript by a member of JokerOutSubs, translation by @varianestoroff, marusapersic and another member of JokerOutSubs, proofread by a member of JokerOutSubs.

[review-anon]

So what did you think of that stream?

//And now its a day afterwards and I have my kitten pic up its time to talk about Tetro Pink Chapter 5 Daily Life Part 1.

//As always thoughts are below the cut due to spoilers and because it gets tense.

//So unlike previous streams for a good chunk I was more listening to it while working as I was neck deep in sprite resizing at the time. The good news, if you are wondering is I'm almost done since I'm on the very last character now and once she's done, I can then move onto my own characters. But rest assered that despite this I was paying attention and listening on what was going on.

//Like after every Class Trial, the mood is ill, but there's also some optisism in the air since its the very last round and once it concludes they all allegedly go home. I say allegedly because and this could be my permissim taking hold but I have huge doubts the survivors would be let go. I want to be wrong there but bad thoughts are bad.

//Chapter 5s are often marked being the final showdown between the class and the main antagonistic force within their group which for Tetro Pink is Hirokai as nobody liked how he behaved in the previous class trial. Yes they know not voting Hama means death but he didn't need to say it out loud and the way he's been acting, a serious target has been painted on Hirokai's back which is why under Ojima's insistence, he decides to apologise to the group. Some are suspecious but overall the group does seem to take it to heart and hope that Hirokai would be a better person moving forward.

//Mai and Yanagi also have a heart-to-heart well the closest to one when even though Yanagi knows that Mai is the kind of person who likes doing shit on her own, its in his nature to look out for members of the fairer sex and he really was torn up over when Mai got taken in Chapter 3 to be tortured by Biology Head. And Mai confesses for the first time she's actually proper scared and Yanagi tells her that its okay to be scared, nobody can act tough all the time, and yes being vulnerable is scary but sometimes required to get anywhere.

//Tamba is also someone grappling with some of her situation as she and Yanagi talk about Mai and how concerned they both are for her and agree to do what they can to help, even if she doesn't like it. Plus a lesson that the group is kinda relying on Mai a little bit too much and they need to stand on their two feet. After all this is the pitfall Tsuno fell into where she had to do everything and got hit hard with compassion fatigue, and while her death was unrelated to those factors I do believe she might have been sharper on her feet had she not been so stressed out all the time.

//The reason I say Tamba is grappling with some of it is because we have her interview and while some was hilarious like Tambaland and how much of a sugarbowl it would be, but also very upsetting since its very clear to anyone that Tamba has been abused by her parents but she's normalised it and thus doesn't see it as abuse which makes it even worse. Its the worst ones since with most abuse the abused wants to get out but here the conditioning is so strong that they cannot think of it as anything but normal which is deeply worrying indeed.

//Not everyone is coping well though and the ones who hit rock bottom are Wada and Ken. For Wada the fact all his friends keep dying and the fact he's literally starving is really getting to him. Yanagi did promise to make sure he was on a diet to eat well, but since he hit his head last chapter he got a concession which contray to what V3 tells you, can lead to lasting damage and Yanagi very likely forgot about it due to his head trauma. It makes me wonder if Kokichi's post Chapter 3 actions were spurn on by the concession he got during it.

//We also have the final room as best as anyone can make it up due to all the fire damage and its just one large hallway and a greenhouse...though to call it a greenhouse is a twisted joke since everything is in a state of decay with only Yuri being the sole living thing and even she is on her last leg. This is so much symbolism for this Killing Game that it shows how helpless the students really are even more so then most Fangans as while Chapter 5s is when the students normally start to gain some Ws against the Mastermind, I really don't see that being the case here.

//As for Ken, while he is trying to keep it together, its clear Kamimura's death has left some severe scars onto him and he even confesses something everyone in the Tetro Pink fanbase saw as far way as the scientists are to being good people; that Ken had romantic feelings for Kamimura. He did confirm he was gay in a previous chapter after all, but yikes and given that we know Yanagi is in love with Mai and Hiroaki and Ojima have something going on, I doubt Ken is gonna be the only heartbroken lover when this fangan ends.

//But hold on, Hirokai, the most antagonistic person in this cast has apologised for his behaviour and vows to become a better person, and normally Chapter 5 marks when the antagonism ranks up to eleven so does this mean we have a chill Chapter 5? Hahahahaaha NO as shortly afterwards Tamba finds a note addressed to her that in four days upon reading the note; someone is gonna kill her.

//This naturally calls for a meeting which devolves into hysteria since Tamba assumes that Hirokai was faking his confession earlier and wrote the note which just goes as well as you think. Tamba is many things but her biggest vice is that not only is she dumb as a brick, but she suffers from the Dunning-Kruger effect, where she thinks she can come up with good ideas and theories which nine times out of ten, are untrue. Do I need to remind everyone that in EVERY. SINGLE. CLASS. TRIAL. Tamba has ALWAYS assumed the culprit was poisoned.

//So Hirokai is 100% not the person who wrote the note, plus the fact it was typed or seems to be typed means seeing who wrote it is impossible, but what do I think it is. Well...I think its a toss up between Wada, Yanagi or Ojima sorta. For Yanagi he knows Tamba's schedule very well and would be thinking to take extreme actions so that the Killing Game ends and everyone gets out, even if it means he dies in the process. Wada is another option since he's not taking the Killing Game and might have finally snapped but the final one seems strange since Ojima seems to be the furthest from culprit material but here's the thing. You know when Ojima zones out? We all dismissed it as a ha ha funny thing he does or as a coping mechisim from when his uncle was....yeahhh....but in this chapter we see signs that Ojima can do more then just stand there when zoned out, like when he accidently hurt Ken, which makes me wonder if its not so much zoning out as it is sleepwalking. And bear in mind sleepwalkers could get very dangerous so this is why when I say its Ojima sorta since its not techincally him doing it but rather someone else.

//That's already drama enough but then we have even more worrying signs since Hirokai's drugs have resurfaced after Okazami took them and now they are in Hirokai's room as he tries to prevent himself from relapsing which yeahhh Hirokai on drugs is not a good sign and then Mai gets gasoline dunked on her which is also not fun since good thing she wasn't near fire or bye bye Mai. Clearly SOMEONE in the group has snapped big time and is now trying to be as antagonistic as possible but who is it since everyone seems calm.

//Monomoko is also acting strange again since she helped to get Yuri to safety and disabled her bug transmitter in the process, now we know the last time Monomeko developed a conucnious this was "corrected" by Biology Head and when talking to the sellout scientist they mention that Tetro Blue, the follow up Fangan to Tetro Pink, would take place in the same lab they were observing the students right now which of course raises the question how they are gonna observe to which I give no shits about since that's a problem for the Head Scientist not me? Would it be too much for Monomoko to revolt and help the students escape. Sure it won't end well for her but at the very least it would help to redeem her massively in the eyes of the fandom?

//So with Tamba getting a death note, her getting on Hirokai's case, Hirokai possibly doing drugs again, Ken and Wada being the big sads, Yanagi having concussion based issues, Mai getting gasoline dunked on her and Ojima's zoning out seem to be glitching, surely things can't get worse, right? ...right?

//Oh how foolish and naive for you to assume otherwise.

//For the quite literal first time, we have a motive for Chapter 5. This doesn't happen normally since Chapter 5 is normally when the rival character goes completely insane and does their own plan which takes over the plot, but with no obvious rival character a motive was needed to bring that tension in. Now the motives in Tetro Pink have been extremely cruel and sadistic and to recap we have had;

//Chapter 1: Nobody is allowed to sleep and every morning cruel and harmful games were played.

//Chapter 2: Adrealine Gas was pumped into the school building.

//Chapter 3: Heating was turned off and the temperature was dropped every day.

//Chapter 4: No light sources available.

//So what horrible horrible motive has been done this time? Well at first glance it doesn't seem bad as its that all power to medbay was disabled until a murder occurs. Okay that's not ideal but surely nothing bad could happen...

//And then you realise the cold lockers which is where all the bodies of the dead students were kept are in the medbay.

//Which means if the power is turned off, they are gonna start to rot.

//The hygiene would be a concern since aside from the bodies stinking like shit, there's also fears that rotting bodies could spread diseases and make everyone sick. No miasma but there are diseases associated with dead bodies.

//But of course the worst bit is the implication. Its assumed after every Killing Game, all the bodies were retrieved and given a proper burial by the survivors but here the Tetro Pink survivors might not be able to do that as if their friends literally rot away...it shows how little the scientists care that they see these students as not human at all but mere lab rats to throw away once they are done with the experiments.

//And you guys wonder why I have no empathy for them.

//While there was a bit after the motive, we had to stop here since TA went into a MASSIVE panic attack since descrecated and rotting corpses is a major phobia of hers, and the fact the Masterminds were willing to go THIS far just set off a fear response that nobody in any sane mind would want to go on. If you have a panic attack, you don't carry on, you stop. End of.

//I just know this is only gonna get worse as time goes on. And when the victim does occur, whenever that be Tamba or someone else, it won't be a pretty sight and I...I am very fearful what Chapter 5 has in store.

//Chapter 5 in a Danganronpa game usually gets extremely intense and for Tetro Pink, an already intense game...

//My blood is now frozen like the corpses once was for what is to come.

[allthishumanityforfree]

I'm the tangfastics at stage door lady (50 years old) and Paul Mescal is the first crush that I've had of this size on a celebrity since Cary Elwes in The Princess Bride. I've been examining it big time... Some of it is impulse control, diagnosed with ADHD and perimenopause and went through some trouble at work which evidently can lead to crushes as a way to deal with things. Happily married. But way way way way addicted and wasting way too much time on following him on social media. I was trying to cut down and found this account just googling his name because I had taken Instagram off of my phone. First saw him a year ago on Hulu and all of the strangers and thought he was Pedro Pascal for the first few minutes, then looked him up and started watching normal people which I had started before not realizing it and liked it more the second time. I think it might be just those two movies in a row that really created the attraction. I didn't even know what shipped meant until I got on Instagram just for paul. I totally had shipped him and Andrew quite some time so you properly identified me as a mescott but then I equally shipped him in Daisy just as hard. I have had some jealousy issues about Gracie, but he just wore another one of her sweatshirts last night at stage door. I do think the relationship is real. It will be interesting to see how his career grows and who end up being his long-term partner. I think his natural reaction to being given the Tangfastics was pure joy and he brought up vanya, so I don't think there's any awkward breakups I have a feeling they're just trying to keep their private lives private. Paul would hate all of these conversations we're having about his private life. But my self-control is seriously lacking these days! Curious how you became such a shipper and is it in jest or are you full on tinhat.

Hello. I hope you don't mind me posting this ask. Thank you for giving him those sweets, you certainly were a talk of the fandom and gave us all a little Mescott hope. I am so so relieved that he seemed happy and there was no awkwardness, although you have to admit that the lack of public appearances, even at professional events, is unusual. No reason Paul and Andrew can't attend opening events and promote each other's stuff.

Can you tell us what he said about vanya and more about meeting him?

I worrying am quite a tinhatter, I believe everything I write on here. I mean, I am not in peoples dms and like this in real life. This Tumblr is the only place I talk about Mescott, and I chose it because it's quiet and hidden. I would hate for people involved to read these thoughts, which is why I do not have a Twitter, TikTok or Instagram about Mescott. It's just here and the Discord, where I feel I can get feral, and no one will notice. Of course, I am aware that it's not totally hidden and people can still find me. (I am shocked I have this many followers).

But 80% of my thoughts when they drift are about Mescott. And yes, I do think they had a thing going on during the AOUS promo. I have always thought Paul was queer. I liked him as an actor since Aftersun, well actually I saw Carmen when it came out and thought he had huge potential as an actor. I just presumed he was queer, like a straight guy would not be engaged to Phoebe Bridgers.

How did I become a shipper? I watched Mescott on Graham Norton promoting AOUS and perceived. My TikTok fyp is generally celeb interviews and press tours, so I started seeing those purple cardigan/blue shirt interviews. I became low-key obsessed with were fucking. I perceive a lot about celebs hooking up (I could list a few I think have theories about) but thanks to some good gifmakers I really got into Mescott. For whatever reason, it itched my RPF brain. I just loved how happy and comfortable Paul was with Andrew compared to older interviews, I guess.

I also am not sold on P&G being real, but I am worried if I say some theories I could tempt fate.

[madalice31]

It’s annoying that I keep seeing articles talking about Aaron Taylor Johnson and his wife and how they’re so flabbergasted by everyone’s “fascination” with their age gap.

🙄

Like literally she was 42 and he was 18 when they met and started dating. Hell he might have been 17 going on 18 but i can’t remember. On one of his first movie projects I might add, like this was before Kickass. And she directed him in that first movie. In fact, by the time kick ass two rolled around I think they were already married. She married him before he even turned 21.

You can’t tell me he was not groomed. That’s just point blank. There has been a power dynamic imbalance since they got together. I mean seriously, he was a year older than her oldest kid.

The white media won’t drag her like the black media dragged Draya tho. They’ll just smile and nod and say it’s okay now that he’s in his 30s.

But let’s not sit here and act like this shit is normal. Notice how she’s had a grip on his career ever since? She’s literally a director and producer in the industry. She has weight. This man barely does anything with a romantic interest and I guarantee he would be in a lot more movies if he wasn’t married to her. And most likely he would have much larger parts in the films too. Like aside from bullet train, he’s had such a minute part in every other movie. My bf and I would get excited to see his name attached to a film, only to watch it and realize he has such a small role. It’s like they use his name for clout. Like I’m still trying to remember when he pops up in Tenant. And his name is never top billed when it should be.

I think Kraven will be the first movie he leads since the A Million Little Pieces movie, and he was directed by his wife in that as well! She overly involves herself in his career. She claims they “take turns” on projects so they’re not apart from each other for too long. But it seems his career suffers the most from that arrangement because again, it’s not like he’s off for months and months on a project. He’s not the lead! So he’s there for maybe a few weeks and he’s back home. Hell in a recent interview she was complaining about being away from him for 6 weeks (the longest they’ve been apart) and how they were “never doing that again.” This man is doing press tours for a project she has nothing to do with and and she’s coming with him to every interview. Like why? Ain’t you supposed to be home with the kids bitch? While he’s doing his own thing for a few weeks? Oh yes, that’s right, she needs to control everything he does. God forbid he’s away from her for long enough to realize maybe he’s not actually happy with her.

He likes to defend her by saying he pursued her but it’s like dude, you think so? You know what that sounds like? The 12 year old student who was raped by his teacher and defended her by saying he pursued and wanted a relationship with her. He grew up, married her, and got her pregnant all while she was in prison for being with him. Guess where they are now? Divorced. So just because Aaron thinks the relationship was his idea doesn’t make it right. She had the responsibility to say no, you’re entirely too young for me. Instead she decided to just “go with the flow” and let “a good thing happen” to her after two kids and a divorce 🙄.

Please. 8 or 10 years apart, I’ll give you that. But 20 to 30 years apart AND you met the person when they were still a teenager? I’m not tryna hear that age is just a number bullshit.

Smh. He’s so far gone tho, I doubt he’ll divorce her. He might pull a Hugh Jackman years from now, but at least Hugh was in his 20s when he got with his much older wife. I don’t think she was able to brainwash him the way Aaron’s wife has done. Plus Hugh and his ex never had kids. I’m sure kids being involved makes it harder for Aaron if he’s even thinking about or thought about leaving. So I guess we’ll just see how the cookie crumbles.

I like him as an actor, but I’ve always found their relationship disturbing. So I wish they would just shut up about it and be low key. Cause one thing they seem to steer clear of talking about is the actual beginning of their relationship and the fact that he was a vulnerable, 18 year old first time actor when they met, literally just as career was starting. And he’s never mentioned about how his family feels about him being with her. Never even made a passing comment saying that they love her or anything like that. Just saying, the signs are there.

The quiet on the set documentary clearly shows how young actors are not protected. In this case he was legal, so she got away with it. Smh. I wish him the best.

[merrybloomwrites]

Ian Hecox- Cafe Meet Cute

Summary: A rough morning gets a little better due to a run in with a stranger at a coffee shop.

Word Count: 700

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You couldn’t believe how this day was turning out. You really thought this interview would be leading to you getting your dream job.

Only to find out the whole company is a complete sham. You’d wasted your entire morning driving over an hour, waiting nearly another hour, only to speak with a representative for fifteen minutes. Finding out that they basically do the opposite of everything you’d seen online, and would actually be paying minimum wage, really puts you over the edge. 

So now you’re back on the job hunt, starting fresh when you thought it’d finally be over. But first, you need to drive yet another hour back home. Caffeine is definitely a must right now. 

You’d noticed a little cafe on your way in earlier and decide that seems like the perfect place to spend way too much money on a simple coffee. You’d had a rough morning, so you totally deserve a little treat. 

The coffee shop is just how you expected. Very modern, but with cute little decorations, and a menu full of words you don’t understand (but prices you unfortunately do). 

You’re looking at the menu trying to find a word you recognize, and must look very perplexed because another customer says, “Need help translating?”

“Excuse me?” You say, startled by his sudden appearance. 

“Sorry, you just looked confused. This place is a touch pretentious but the coffee is excellent so it’s worth it. But their menu is practically in another language,” he explains. 

You look at the random person and find an attractive man, roughly your age, and finally say, “Actually yea, I could use some help.”

He gives you a warm, reassuring smile before asking, “What is it you normally get?”

“Typically an iced latte.”

“Any flavor in it?” He asks. 

“I’ll often do mocha, or caramel, or vanilla. I like it pretty sweet,” you reply, suddenly self conscious of your own preference. 

“Don’t be embarrassed, it’s okay to have a wrong choice,” he says, laughing to show he’s just teasing. The light banter has you blushing even more. 

“How do you feel about lavender?” He asks next. 

“Can’t say I’ve ever had it in coffee before. Had it in a cocktail once, and I liked that.” 

“Okay, wait here a minute,” he says and promptly walks away. You’re confused as to what he’s doing, since he left without giving a recommendation, but you listen and wait for him. 

You’re shocked when he comes back carrying two drinks and hands one to you. 

“This is for you, hope ya like it,” he says cheerfully.

“Thank you! How much do I owe you?” 

“Nothing. It’s on me.”

“Are you sure? I don’t even know your name.”

“Oh! I’m Ian,” he says, gesturing to himself with his free hand. “And you are?”

“I’m Y/N,” you reply.

“Nice to meet you, Y/N. And yes I’m sure. Especially since I kind of guessed and you could still hate it.” You laugh at his statement, still slightly uncomfortable about the free drink, but you can tell he’s more than happy to get it for you.

He watches as you take a sip and seems relieved when your face lights up. 

“This is delicious! What is it?”

“Essentially it’s an iced vanilla latte with lavender.”

“I guess I really am a fan of lavender then.”

“Phew, I was nervous,” he says and you both laugh. “So, do you live around here?”

“Not really, I came for a job interview.”

“And I take it by your tone it didn’t go well?”

“You could definitely say that,” you answer.

He looks at you for a moment and says, “I was going to go for a walk along the beach. If you want to join me you can vent about how bad it was.” 

“I’d like that,” you say. 

The two of you spend the next hour walking together, getting to know each other before you start the drive back home.

Later that night you reflect on the day, happy that it wasn’t a total waste. You might not have gotten the job, but you did get Ian’s number, as well as a date scheduled for that Friday.

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AN: Hope you enjoyed! Another Damien story coming up next week!