#zits headliners au

[that-bat]

ZITS Headliners au that had a very rapid tonal shift from comedy to horror. They are able to die in this au but through futuristic science bs can be brought back, though not without some lingering effects (mainly Skizz and Tango)

[sashaisready]

Chapter Seven - First time for everything

Bucky Barnes Mob AU x Femme Reader

You're hard at work in Pepper's Bakery when notorious mob boss James 'Bucky' Barnes darkens your doorway one typical afternoon, and life is never the same again.

18+ - see Masterlist for full list of warnings

Chapter 8

Series Masterlist

Back at your apartment that evening, you distractedly pick at your dinner with your fork as you scroll on your phone. The rest of your day had passed smoothly. Wanda had rushed back to the front after Bucky left, just as shocked as you were about how that had gone. You could tell she was concerned, worried about just what exactly you were letting yourself in for.

You were too.

There had been no accompanying SUVs on your journey home and you had decided to trust Bucky when he told you the trailing had stopped, but you couldn’t help the occasional peek over your shoulder to be sure.

You’d fallen down into a bit of a rabbit hole, scouring the web for anything and everything on James ‘Bucky’ Barnes. There were thousands of results. News articles, forum posts, photos, social media speculation, court transcripts. Violence, corruption, notoriety. It seemed he’d cleaned up his act in recent years, exploring more legitimate business options than mob activity – formal luncheons and galas rather than shoot outs and cement shoes. He had multiple companies in his name and owned a smattering of businesses throughout the city and along the east coast. Auto shops, nightclubs, construction. Still, there were suggestions that he wasn’t entirely on the straight and narrow – with accusations of fronts and money laundering littered across the web, although nothing proven. Occasionally his business rivals seemed to disappear into thin air, their digital trail coming to an abrupt end with a small news article about them going missing and police 'doing everything they can'.

You shuddered as you considered the implications.

But he also did a lot of good. He donated generous sums to philanthropic causes and charities. He ran fundraising events and sat on non-profit boards. He’d opened a centre for children in one of the city’s most deprived boroughs, and regularly paid college tuition for bright teens whose families couldn’t front the cash themselves.

He clearly enjoyed the finer things that his line of work provided. There were endless pictures of his sports cars, sprawling property and bespoke Italian suits. He was often photographed at the finest restaurants in the city, beautiful women on his arm basking in the paparazzi’s attention.

It was dizzying, intimidating. Worlds away from your rented modest one bed apartment and IKEA furniture, your simple job, your $30 hoodies and Target undies. A fancy night out for you was the local sushi restaurant, or vodka sodas at a dive bar with Wanda. You could barely afford a side salad at some of the places Bucky frequented.

One listicle that got your attention had the headline “The Dating History of  the Notorious James Barnes”. It was an endless inventory of photographs of gorgeous women – socialites, models, It girls…the occasional actress. Each more beautiful than the last, long legs and perfect bone structures, draped in expensive gowns and showing off flawless updos. The kind of women who never seemed to have a bad hair day or a hormonal zit outbreak, just relentlessly glamorous and immaculate. The article spoke about his known womanising, his playboy reputation cemented as he became linked to more and more beauties.

You felt foolish. Here you were shamelessly flirting with Bucky, fantasising about him, giddy with excitement that he’d asked for your phone number. You were nothing like these women, you couldn’t compete with them, or his chic lifestyle. You felt embarrassed for letting yourself get caught up, for briefly thinking you could fit into his world.

Your thoughts are interrupted by a buzzing on the table. Your phone is ringing, an unknown number. You sigh - probably a robot sales call but you answer it regardless.

“Hello?” 

“Evening, Doll” comes a low voice from the other end.

You jump to your feet, your chair squeaking on the floorboards as you feel yourself go rigid. You’re hyper alert, fleetingly guilty as if he is somehow aware of your web sleuthing. Not that he could be annoyed even if he knew, he’d done his homework on you – you could do yours on him.

“Oh…Bucky, hey” you respond timidly as you settle back down in your seat.

He chuckles. “Not quite the enthusiastic response I’d hoped for”.

“Sorry…I was expecting a robocall”.

“A what?”

“Oh you know…one of those automated spam calls you get? They always have a weird robot voice”.

He chuckles again, his laugh is syrupy and smooth and sends sparks through you. “Well, sorry to interrupt your big plans for the evening”.

You know he’s just teasing but in light of everything you’ve just read you cringe, it just further highlights how quiet your life is in contrast to his.

“What can I help you with, Bucky?” you ask tentatively, sitting back down in your chair.

“I’d like to put in a custom order” he says smoothly.

Your stomach drops slightly, disappointed this seems to be a business call rather than a personal one, but not surprised.

“Oh right, sure” you lean over the table to grab a pen and paper. 

“What are you looking for? We do 6-12 inch cakes in any flavour you want – we can write personalised messages in the icing too. Or we have cupcakes…”

“No...no Doll…not that” he protests.

You wriggle in your chair, moving your phone to your other ear. “Ah…um….wha-”

“I’d like a date with the store manager. Maybe Friday, at Gambino’s…say 8pm?” he purrs.

You flush as your heart soars, hardly believing what you’re hearing. A date? With you? You’ve never been to Gambino’s but it’s fancy. Fancy fancy.

“Oh!” you utter in surprise. “Um…are you sure?”

“I’m always sure, Doll” he fires back without missing a beat. You’re glad you’re already sitting down.

You pause for a moment, not quite believing this is happening and that he has asked you out. Those thoughts of him come flooding back. You imagine what his mouth feels like…what it would be like to be held in his arms…how his stubble might scratch against your cheek…

“You still with me?” he asks, breaking you out of your daydream.

You open your mouth to speak. Yes. Yes of course, Bucky!  You want to say. I’d love to! I can’t wait! 

But then you think about that article, all those beautiful women. Those expensive suits. The fancy cars. The paparazzi clamouring for shots of him. You imagine yourself on his arm, your modestly priced evening dress making you stick out like a sore thumb amongst the well-heeled clientele. You imagine the slick restaurant staff giving you a double take, surprised at Bucky’s choice of girl for the evening, raising an eyebrow at you. You imagine that you use the wrong fork, mistake the palate cleanser for dessert, stumble on your cheap heels on the way to the bathroom. You see Bucky, meticulous and assured Bucky who likes everything just so, embarrassed that his date doesn’t understand the unwritten rules of this scene. There’s practically an illuminated sign above your head – a big arrow pointing down to you – She doesn’t belong.

You want to stay in your small bubble with him, harmlessly flirting together in the bakery where the stakes are low and you’re in control. The prospect of the next step, venturing out into the world with him, dipping your toes into the pool of the mob and all that comes with it – is just too daunting.

“Uh…I’m sorry Bucky, I don’t think that would be a good idea” you finally reply, your voice meek and resigned. You don’t even sound like yourself.

There’s silence on the line and you briefly wonder if the call has disconnected until he clears his throat.

“No problem” he growls. 

You can hear the barely restrained anger in his voice. You realise Bucky Barnes must not be used to hearing “no”. Certainly not from women.

“I-” you try to respond, you want to tell him the truth – that you feel uncomfortable, that you don’t fit into his world – either of them, not the mob one and not the affluent businessman one either. Regardless of how much you might want to.

“It’s fine” he interrupts sternly. “Have a good evening”.

He hangs up. You stare at your phone in disbelief for a short while, willing him to call you back so you can tell him you’ve made a mistake.

*

Bucky slams his phone down onto the mahogany table so hard it cracks the screen. His anger swells, furious and embarrassed at your rejection. He was so sure that you were on the same page when the two of you had spoken earlier. You seemed to have forgiven him for the tracking and he must be getting rusty as he was sure he was picking up all the right signals from you. He was so looking forward to getting to know you better, away from the prying ears of his men and Wanda. He wanted to hear that laugh of yours again – outside of your workplace and unrestrained when you were off the clock. He wanted to treat you to a nice meal, make you feel special with the finest food New York had to offer. Maybe later take you home and get to know you even more intimately...

This is why he shouldn’t flirt unless he knows for sure that it’s a done deal.

“That went well” mutters Steve from the desk across the room, not looking up from his paperwork.

Bucky ignores him, rolling his eyes and adjusting his shirt sleeve as he sits down.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen that happen before…” Steve smirks. “First time for everything, I guess”.

“Shut up” barks Bucky, tracing the big crack in his phone screen with his finger as he huffs in frustration.

Steve looks over at his best friend. Bucky is fidgeting awkwardly, he looks as if he’s physically trying to shake it off, cracking his neck and attempting to concentrate on his computer screen.

“Can you arrange for this to be fixed please?” Bucky says bluntly, gesturing to his broken phone as his eyes remain on the monitor.

“This girl has really done a number on you, hasn’t she?” Steve smirks.

Bucky meets his eye. His face is stony, livid.

“What did I just say…” he warns.

Steve holds up a hand in surrender. “Sorry. Just…I can’t remember the last time a woman got you this riled up, is all…”

Bucky ignores him again, sighing as he reaches for his whisky tumbler.

[that-bat]

ZITS headliners au comic where I put Tango through extreme mental stress :3

CW: blood, corpse, cannibalism, vomiting

Context

It's been years since I made an attempt at a proper comic with panels n all that so 👍 Slowly working to expand the lore of this world, specifically the parasite and how it permanently altered Tango's brain, but this idea has been haunting me since I first posted about it :)

[that-bat]

Tango can have some cannibalism. As a treat.

[that-bat]

I’ve been rewatching Tango’s Headliners vods, and I noticed that after Tango paused to fixed his stream in the ZITS one someone joked that they thought he was possessed, and I keep thinking about that with your Headliners au.

Just the accidental foreshadowing is crazy to me.

Ohhh imagining if that moment happened during the same mission that he was attacked

At the start of the mission he takes a moment to fix his gear, maybe his camera stopped working or smth, and he falls a bit behind the other guys. They go back for him, teasing him about getting distracted but because he’s frustrated with his camera not working he doesn’t respond right away. They joke that he’s been possessed and that’s why he’s stopped talking, Tango gets his camera working and they laugh about it, the idea that he got possessed is just a joke after all

But an hour or so later, partway through their mission, it’s not a joke anymore. Tango is really possessed, or technically, his brain has been hijacked by the bug-like parasite, and no one’s laughing anymore

[that-bat]

Never posted any writing before so I’m a lil nervous but uhhh here’s a blurb that’s a direct follow up to the headliners au comic

Cw for mentions of vomit/vomiting and allusions to cannibalism:

“Did you know?”

The silence that hung between the two was suffocating. The abandoned office building creaked around them, angry at the horrors taking place within its walls.

“Yes.”

Tango wanted to be angry. He wanted to shout, wanted to yell at Skizz, call him a liar and scream his rage for the world to hear, monsters in the halls be damned. But where rage would’ve been there was nothing, just an empty pit of despair.

His body felt wrong, too hot and too cold, bile burning in the back of his throat and the taste of vomit on his tongue. It was like he was suffocating in his own skin.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he wanted to ask.

But he didn’t. He knew the answer. The monster in the other room and the vomit pooling by his feet, that’s why he was never told. His actions, what he did, he would have been better off not knowing.

But now he does. And he hates it.

Tango feels sick. It’s taking every ounce of energy left in his tired body to resist the urge to double over and heave again. It wouldn’t do any good, it wasn’t as if there was any remnants of flesh left in his stomach that he could just spit up, all it would do is make him feel worse.

“Let’s go home.”

“We’re not done our job yet.” Tango forces himself to maintain eye contact.

“We can finish another day, let’s just pack it up for now. Alright?”

It’s not a suggestion, nor is it an order. It’s a plea, begging Tango to accept so they could leave this place behind. For now, at least.

“Let’s go home” so we can make things better.

Could things be made better? They certainly couldn’t get much worse. Nothing could let him go back to his ignorance but what other choice did he have?

Tango sighs. “Ok…”

[that-bat]

Love that what was supposed to be a zits au very quickly became Tango-centric because I play favorites and want him to suffer

Like yes give that man permanent changes to the way his brain works, give him a steadily increasing sense of alienation and anxiety over the fact that he can and will hurt his loved ones without ever wanting to

[that-bat]

As much as I love the zits headliners stream, this gigs one is just fueling my au idea that while zits is a set crew, sometimes they have to have sub-ins from other teams (especially when one of their members is incapacitated for an extended period of time)

[that-bat]

Is your headliners au an actual fic or is there somewhere I need to go to find more? I have no knowledge of anything surrounding this, but I would love to know more, please and thank you.

Currently it’s just the one art post and a couple text posts, I don’t consider myself much of a writer so I’ve never posted any proper fic despite having a few short blurbs written out

I have something else in the works currently though it may take awhile, but I am always open to answer questions! There’s nothing I’m considering spoilers rn since the plot is all over the place so I’ll pretty much answer anything

[that-bat]

Rotating your headliners au in my head and wondering does Tango remember anything from his week being bugged?

Currently I’m going with no, maybe sometimes he gets a vague sense of deja vu but for the most part, anything that happens when he’s under the bug parasite’s influence is completely blocked out from his memory

Afaik there’s no official lore on the headliners monsters so I’m kinda making up my own as I go, but Tango’s problems with the parasite don’t end once it’s removed. Let’s just say he might have acquired some permanent changes to his brain that mean he’s not entirely free from it and is at constant risk of slipping back under its control

[that-bat]

With the ask I answered earlier about Tango not being able to remember what happens when the parasite is in control that raises a question:

Does he know? He would have no memory of eating from humans so it would be up to someone else (his partners or one of the doctors treating him most likely) to tell him. Did they? Did they burden him with the knowledge that he’s eaten people or choose to let him live in ignorance to make things the tiniest bit less traumatic for him

But if they decide it’s better to spare Tango from the knowledge of what he did, how long is it until he witnesses another infected human eating from a dead body and makes the connection? Out in the field on a mission and being hit with the sudden realization of what happened when he was first under the parasite’s control

Tango can have some cannibalism. As a treat.

[that-bat]

I’m thinking about other moments from the streams that can be adapted into this au

One from the gigst stream where they entered a building and almost immediately one of the bugs jumped at Gem but Grian killed it before it got her and oughhh

Tango needing to take a minute to calm down from a panic attack because he’s fine, it’s fine, the parasite is dead and besides it didn’t even touch him, he’s fine. Gem was the one who got attacked and she wasn’t freaking out (much) so why was he panicking so much????

Skizz almost calls off the mission right then, who cares if they return with almost nothing when Tango is visibly shaking and very obviously trying not to cry. But Tango convinces him to let them stay, insisting that he really is ok and it would be a waste to leave so soon, though he spends the rest of the time there being almost too jumpy to get much done

Also because this has been mostly hurt, very little comfort so far: this is a poly zits au, and his boyfriends are very good about comforting him throughout all this. When he gets home he absolutely gets spoiled with cuddling and an impromptu movie night

I’ve been rewatching Tango’s Headliners vods, and I noticed that after Tango paused to fixed his stream in the ZITS one someone joked that they thought he was possessed, and I keep thinking about that with your Headliners au.

Just the accidental foreshadowing is crazy to me.

Ohhh imagining if that moment happened during the same mission that he was attacked

At the start of the mission he takes a moment to fix his gear, maybe his camera stopped working or smth, and he falls a bit behind the other guys. They go back for him, teasing him about getting distracted but because he’s frustrated with his camera not working he doesn’t respond right away. They joke that he’s been possessed and that’s why he’s stopped talking, Tango gets his camera working and they laugh about it, the idea that he got possessed is just a joke after all

But an hour or so later, partway through their mission, it’s not a joke anymore. Tango is really possessed, or technically, his brain has been hijacked by the bug-like parasite, and no one’s laughing anymore