#I’m not erasing Will’s crush on Mike! | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

liesyousoldme · 4 months

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like you've known me | rated T | word count ~25k

a @steddiebang fic coming february 29

featuring art by sharkscouts and @vesperalhemlock

Summary:

When the only way to beat the Upside Down is to erase it (and the last three years) from time, Steve Harrington is transported right back to the Fall of his junior year. His biggest problem? Everyone who had died in the last three years fighting inter-dimensional evils has no memory of the events. Suddenly, Steve finds himself with Tommy and Carol at his side and sitting mere feet away from Robin in class, and she has no idea who he is except the douchebag with the good hair that Tammy Thompson has a crush on.

With a little help from Nancy, Jonathan, Dustin, Lucas, and El, Steve will learn to navigate his life, The Right Way, this time. Which friends he wants to keep, who he wants to spend his time with, and if he wants to take notes in class this time around. If that means sometimes he needs a little weed to take the edge of stress off? Well, it's a good thing he knows a good dealer.

As things finally fall into place and Steve begins to re-form the most important relationship in his life, he thinks anything strange is over. Then, Robin starts mentioning weird dreams about ice cream and torture, and Max Mayfield shows up from California with an angry step-brother and a lot of questions. Maybe those memories aren't erased, after all.

Pairings: Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson, Steve Harrington & Robin Buckley, Steve Harrington & Dustin Henderson, Steve Harrington & Lucas Sinclair Characters: Steve Harrington, Eddie Munson, Robin Buckley, Dustin Henderson, Lucas Sinclair, Nancy Wheeler, Jonathan Byers, Eleven, Mike Wheeler, Will Byers, Tommy Hagan, Carol Perkins, Max Mayfield, Billy Hargrove Tags: Romance, Angst, Friends to Lovers, AU: Time Travel to Pre-Season 1, Post-Season 4, Impermanent Major Character Death, Fix-it, Falling In Love, Bisexual Steve Harrington, Gay Eddie Munson, Steve Harrington-Centric, First Kiss, Drug Use (Marijuana), Steve Harrington VS Junior Year (Again)

Excerpt (cont. under the cut):

It had been a few weeks in the new timeline when Steve jumped at the sound of the phone ringing through the empty house. He frowned, setting down his fork and walking to the phone. It was Wednesday, Steve was sure of it, and Dustin’s calls always came on Thursdays, so who the hell would be calling?

“Hello?”

“Hi, Steve.” Nancy’s voice was soft and sweet and surprising.

“Oh. Uh, hey, Nance, what’s up?” He asked, heart suddenly starting to race – not because he had feelings for Nancy but because if Nancy was calling then something was wrong. Had something happened? Had their plan not –

“Listen, I don’t have too much time, Mom’s making dinner and I just finished up my homework, but I really wanted to call you,” Nancy said. She wouldn’t start out so calm if something was happening, right? So this was just a social call?

“Um. Why?” He asked, then winced. Since when did he forget how to have a conversation?

He could hear Nancy’s sigh through the phone. “I’ve been keeping an eye on you at school lately, and –“

“Okay, creep,” he joked, lips curling at the corners when Nancy laughed.

“Shut up, I just mean I’ve – Look, I just wanted to make sure you’re okay. And like I said, I’ve been watching you in the halls and stuff, and I know you’re eating lunch in the library because Tommy told everyone in the cafeteria one day –“

He what?

“- and I know the whole thing with Robin is hard for you but…”

“But what?” He prompted when she trailed off.

“But you’re moping, Steve. You’re moping all over school, and probably all over your house.”

“I – wha- I mean, that’s not true,” Steve said, frowning.

“Steve, we beat the bad guys and everybody is fine. Everybody’s alive! And you’re moping.”

“Okay, now this just feels like you’re being mean.”

“I’m not trying to be mean, I’m trying to – “ She cut herself off with a frustrated groan. “Do you even know how El is doing?”

“I – what? Is she okay?”

“Yes, she’s okay, Steve, but also, no, she’s not okay, because Hopper is still trying to find Owens since he’s the one that will probably know best if it’s safe for Jane Hopper to suddenly show up in Hawkins and enroll in school. So, she spends her days alone, but everyone always goes to visit her, every Saturday, at the cabin. Everyone except you.”

Steve felt tears prick behind his eyes. “I didn’t know.”

“Yes, you did,” Nancy said, sounding tired. “Dustin said he asked you to come that first weekend, and you said no, so he didn’t ask you again.”

“I don’t – I don’t remember that,” he admitted, feeling dreadful disappointment spread through his veins. “Nancy, I hardly – that first week was –“

“But it wasn’t just the first week, Steve. We’re all trying to get back to our lives but you’re just going through the motions. Even Dustin knows something’s wrong.”

“What? I talk to Dustin every week!”

“Lucas wanted to invite you to the park to play basketball and Dustin told him you probably still weren’t ready.”

Steve’s jaw dropped.

“Dustin knows you, in this timeline probably better than anyone, and he knows something’s wrong but he’s still just a kid, Steve, he doesn’t know how to deal with this.”

“Did Dustin ask you to call me?”

“No, this was my idea,” Nancy said. “I’m just a kid, too, Steve. I don’t know what to do to fix it but I want to help you, and so does Jonathan.”

“Jonathan wants to help me?” He asked, incredulous.

Nancy chuckled. “Honestly, I was as surprised as you are. But he does because despite everything, he cares about you. We all care about you, and it’s way too easy for you to hole up in your house and ignore everyone at school and… mope.”

“I don’t think I like that word anymore,” Steve said, even though it was true. His stomach twisted in knots at the sudden guilt he felt.

“Well I didn’t think you’d like it very much if I accused you of being depressed,” Nancy stated boldly, and Steve winced. “Just meet me and Jonathan at that picnic table outside of school tomorrow morning, okay? Like, twenty minutes before first bell. Can you do that?”

Steve swallowed thickly and fought every instinct in him that wanted to say no.

“Yeah, Nance. I can do that.”

Steve woke with a sense of dread hanging over him. He really didn’t want to show up just for Nancy and Jonathan to chew him out for how selfish he’d been (he could beat himself up for that without their help). But he got in his car twenty-five minutes earlier than he usually would, just to make sure he wouldn’t be late, and laughed to himself when he got to the school. He pulled into the empty spot next to Jonathan’s car. Apparently, they had the same idea.

Steve got out of his car and shouldered his backpack. He looked around; there were a few people milling about, and more cars pulling into the lot than he expected this early.

“Do people always get to school this early?” He asked by way of introduction.

Jonathan laughed and walked over to him. Nancy stepped up behind him and gave him a pointed look. “I think you’ll find that you’re just always late.”

“Yeah, okay,” he conceded. “So, uh… Picnic table?” He suggested, already feeling the stares of their classmates from around them.

Nancy and Jonathan agreed and they made the walk together, quietly taking in each other’s presence. Nancy was in between the two boys but it wasn’t as awkward as Steve expected it to be.

Maybe he really was over Nancy Wheeler, after all.

He choked on a laugh when the picnic table came into view, and they were sighted almost immediately.

“Oh,” Eddie Munson said, grabbing his metal lunchbox and dropping it near his feet. Steve snorted. Eddie huffed. “What?”

“As if we don’t know what’s in your damn lunchbox, Munson,” he said, finding himself immediately falling back into the banter he’d developed with Eddie before –

“I don’t really know what’s going on here,” Eddie admitted with an awkward, nervous laugh. “You three might be the weirdest combination of buyers I’ve ever gotten.”

“Oh, we’re not –“ Nancy started, but Steve interrupted.

“I am,” he said, ignoring the looks from Nancy and Jonathan. He pulled out his wallet and made eye contact with Eddie. “I’ll –“ He paused, unsure of what to say. He’d never done this himself before. “I’ll take some weed. Uh – a joint? Uh. How much?”

Eddie looked at him with a furrowed brow and a frown on his lips. “Are you wearing a wire?”

Steve snorted a laugh. “Dude. What kind of operation do you think is being run in Nowhere fucking Indiana where a 17-year-old is wearing a wire for a drug bust on your tiny fucking lunchkit –“

“Okay! Okay,” Eddie conceded with a barely concealed laugh. Jonathan was openly laughing behind him, and Steve recognized the amused look on Nancy’s face.

Steve sighed when Eddie just kept looking at him like he didn’t believe him. “I’m being serious. If I’m not gonna have a social life anymore at least let me be high for it.”

“Amen,” Jonathan said quietly, and Steve choked down his laugh.

Finally, after a few more moments of silence where Eddie stared at his face, seemingly deciding whether or not to trust him, Eddie sighed and picked up his lunchbox. Steve let out a breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding.

“I’ll sell you a gram for twenty-five bucks. Do you want pre-rolled, or…” Eddie trailed off.

“Uh,” Steve said, unsure. “Yeah, that’ll probably be easier.”

Eddie opened his lunchbox and got to work rolling the joint. “Usually, it’s your friends I sell to,” he said conversationally.

“Not my friends,” Steve corrected, then awkwardly added, “I don’t have any of those.”

“We’re your friends, Steve,” Nancy said, and Steve could hear the pity that coated her voice.

“Didn’t you, like, dump him for him?” Eddie asked her, pointing first and Steve, then at Jonathan. Nancy huffed, took a breath to begin talking but Steve cut her off before she could begin.

"That's not what happened. Tommy and Carol told everyone that because they're pissed off that I don't wanna hang out with them anymore. Me and Nance are fine. Me and Jonathan are fine. Look. I know you're overcharging me so badly right now but I don't care enough to fight you on it. Can you please just sell me the weed?"

Eddie frowned. “Fifteen.”

Steve looked at him incredulously.

"What can I say? You guilt tripped me and I'm a sucker.” Eddie held out the joint. “Just. Take it."

"Thanks, Munson." Steve said, taking it and stuffing it in a zipper inside his backpack.

Eddie closed and shut his lunchbox, then stepped away from the table and gave a little bow. "King Steve."

"Just Steve."

Eddie looked at him through calculating eyes. "Just Steve, then."

The three of them waited until Eddie was far enough away before taking seats at the table.

Nancy started after a short awkward beat. "Look, start hanging out with us at school. I have mutual friends with Robin, somehow we'll get it through her head that you aren't a bad guy and then it's just a matter of winning her over again -"

"It really isn't like that; I’ve told you a million times, she's my best friend.” Steve said. “And I already just started fucking crying in front of her, I think the ship has sailed."

"Don’t say that, man," Jonathan said. "Just… give it time. Let the school get used to the new you. Maybe you can figure out if she's got a job and apply wherever she works and do whatever you did at Starcourt to make her like you."

Steve sighed. He already knew where Robin worked; she'd told him about the job she had before Scoops. "She's working at a hair salon as a receptionist right now."

"Sorry, they let Robin be in charge of answering phones and setting up appointments?" Nancy asked with an incredulous giggle.

"She doesn't last long," Steve admitted with a little laugh.

The bell rang, interrupting them and signaling the start of another day. Steve sighed to himself and stood, following Nancy and Jonathan into the school. At least he had somewhere to sit at lunch now.

And the chance to get high tonight.

#steddie #stranger things #steddie big bang #steddie bang #steddiebang23 #my fic #time travel fic

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thornyrose463 · 5 months

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Exposed (Cobra Kai story): Chapter 10

Hawk drove himself and Sarah to Applebee's. Hawk took a photo on his cell phone. When he got home, he posted the photo on Instagram, tagged Sarah, and added a caption. A few minutes later, he got a notification saying that Sarah had liked the photo.

At the prison, Kreese was talking to Emily. “This is it. End of the line.”

“I never took you for a defeatist.” Emily said.

“No, a realist.” Kreese said.

“Hm.”

“I know my time is almost up. And I'm going to spend my last days in here.” Kreese said.

“You don't know that. Not for sure.” Emily said.

“Come on, Doc. A guy like me, in a place like this? I'm just wasting away.” Kreese responded.

“That's a choice, though, isn't it? You can find meaning, purpose, even in here. If you want to.” Emily said.

“I've made a lot of mistakes in my life. But passing that knowledge on to my students so they wouldn't make the same mistakes…That gave me purpose. Everything I ever fought for is lost. Every mark I made, every memory of me, will be erased.” Kreese said.

“Says who?” Emily asked.

“The best student I ever had. He was like a son to me. And now I have lost him for good.” Kreese said.

Tears streamed down Kreese’s face. When Emily moved closer to him and tried to comfort him, he stole her keycard.

“Yes, John, you've made mistakes. But you still have time to try to make up for them. You told me you've been fighting all your life, so keep fighting, but with your heart and soul instead of your fists. Use your remaining time to write yourself an ending that you can be proud of.” Emily told Kreese.

Kreese appeared to take Emily’s words to heart, but as he tried to play peacemaker between two quarreling inmates, one of them produced a shiv and stabbed him repeatedly, leaving him unconscious and bleeding on the floor.

Two police officers wheeled a stretcher into a morgue.

“Crazy bastard tried stopping a fight. He got what he deserved.” The first officer said.

The second officer nodded in agreement.

The doctor examined Kreese. It turned out that Kreese had faked his death. The blood was actually melted Jell-O.

“This is melted Jell-O.” The doctor said.

Kreese got off the stretcher and knocked the officers out.

Kreese moved closer to the doctor.

The doctor whimpered.

“Please. I’m begging you,” the doctor mumbled.

“For what? Mercy?” Kreese asked evilly.

Kreese knocked the doctor out. He put the doctor’s lab coat on. He used Emily’s keycard to move through the prison. He exited the prison, smiling triumphantly as the alarms blared.

The limo came to a screeching halt. Daniel, Johnny, and Chozen got knocked down. Daniel’s champagne spilled everywhere. Some of Johnny’s beer got on Daniel’s shirt. Daniel, Johnny, and Chozen sat up, groaning. When Daniel tried to get out of the limo, he was confronted by a furious Mike, who grabbed the lapels of his jacket and threw him on the ground.

“You ruined my life, LaRusso!” Mike yelled.

Daniel was shocked. “Mike?”

“Come here,” Mike growled.

Mike grabbed Daniel’s jacket. He pulled Daniel towards him. Daniel looked at Mike in terror. Mike’s eyes were bloodshot, and his pupils were dilated.

“You took everything from me!” Mike yelled.

Chozen got out of the limo.

“Hey! Not Daniel-san's fault.” Chozen said.

“Then whose fault is it?” Mike asked angrily.

Two crushed beer cans fell out of the limo.

Johnny stumbled out of the limo and picked up one of the beer cans.

“Hey! Get your damn hands off him!” Johnny yelled.

Johnny threw the beer can in Mike’s direction. Due to Johnny being drunk, the beer can hit Daniel.

Mike let go of Daniel.

Daniel groaned, rubbing his forehead.

“Damn it, Johnny!” Daniel yelled.

Johnny tried to knock Mike down. Mike grabbed Johnny and flipped him. He landed a few feet away from Daniel.

Chozen rushed to Daniel’s side.

“Daniel-san, are you okay?” Chozen asked.

Daniel nodded.

Johnny stood up. He tried to kick Mike, but Mike blocked the kick. Mike reached for Johnny’s shirt, but before he could grab it, Johnny kicked him in the stomach. Mike grunted.

Mike raised his fists. “Come on!”

Johnny raised his fists.

Chozen and Daniel ran towards Johnny and Mike.

“Oi! Yamero!” Chozen yelled, pushing Johnny away from Mike.

“Yamero” was Japanese for “stop” or “stop it” when addressing a male, while “yamete” was used to address a female.

Daniel stood in between Johnny and Mike, holding his hands out in front of him. “Both of you, stop.”

“Who the hell is this guy?” Johnny asked.

“He used to fight for Silver. His name's Mike Barnes.” Daniel said.

“Bad boy of karate.” Chozen said.

Chozen bowed to Mike, but Mike didn’t notice because he was glaring at Johnny.

Johnny scoffed. “Doesn't look so bad to me.”

“Want to go again, chief? Come on.” Mike raised his fists.

“Mike, Mike! Look, I know you're pissed. You have every right to be.” Daniel said.

Mike lowered his fists and glanced at Daniel.

There was a cut on Daniel’s forehead.

“You're damn right I do. My-My life was fine before you showed up. Next thing I know, there's a pile of ashes where my store was. That place was leveraged to the hilt, Daniel. I'm broke!” Mike yelled.

Mike looked sad. “My wi...My wife...”

Daniel suspected that Mike’s wife left him. He gave Mike a sympathetic look.

“I understand, all right? Believe me. But Silver is the one who's responsible. He burned down your store. He has made all of our lives a living hell. I never meant for you to end up in his crosshairs. I will do anything I can, I promise, to help make you whole again. Okay?” Daniel asked.

Mike looked angry. “You say you want to make me whole? Then you help me tear him apart.”

“Believe me, he's going to get what's coming to him, sooner or later.” Daniel said.

“I say it's sooner. I say we go beat that ponytailed bastard's ass tonight!” Mike yelled.

Daniel spoke calmly. “Mike, come on.”

“Don't you get it? This guy just destroys peoples' lives bit by bit, and he never faces any consequences. You know what I see? I see four consequences right here!” Mike yelled.

Chozen and Johnny nodded in agreement.

Daniel could tell that Mike was not thinking clearly. He tried to talk some sense into him. “Mike, we can't just show up to his house and assault him.”

“This guy destroyed my world. What do you want me to do? Just sit here and take it like a bitch? I’m going to beat the living shit out of him!” Mike yelled.

“Yes!” Chozen yelled.

“I like the way this guy thinks.” Johnny said.

Daniel looked at Johnny in disapproval. “Johnny!”

“The bad boy's right, man. Silver has been screwing us for too long. He kicked your ass. He kicked my ass. It was a sucker kick in my case, but still, it's way past time for payback.” Johnny said.

Mike slapped Johnny’s back. “That's what I'm talking about!”

Daniel turned to Chozen. “All right. Chozen…Chozen, help me out. This is crazy.”

“I know Silver's address.” Chozen said.

Mike spoke excitedly. “Yes! I'm driving.”

“What? No, no, no! You guys! You're out of your fսcking minds!” Daniel yelled.

Chozen chuckled. “Four of us. One of him.”

Chozen slid his index finger across his throat. “Tonight, we cut off head of snake.”

Chozen laughed.

Mike and Chozen walked towards the limo.

Daniel looked at Chozen in disbelief. “Chozen!”

Mike and Chozen got in the limo.

Johnny was about to walk towards the limo. Daniel grabbed his shoulder in order to stop him from leaving.

“Johnny!” Daniel yelled. “Johnny, listen!”

Daniel lowered his voice. “We're all drunk. And judging by the size of his pupils, Barnes is on something even stronger. This is a terrible idea.”

Johnny looked eager for a fight. “Yeah, it is, which is why Silver's never going to see it coming. It's happening, LaRusso. Saddle up. It's time to put Pandora back in her box.”

Johnny continued walking towards the limo. When he reached the limo, he bumped into the door. He groaned, rubbing his forehead. He opened the door and got in the limo.

“No! We're not going to ride for justice like some party limo posse!” Daniel yelled.

Mike was sitting in the driver’s seat. “Suit yourself.”

Mike started the engine.

Daniel’s eyes widened. “Shit!”

The limo began driving down the road.

“Mike!” Daniel yelled.

Daniel started chasing the limo. He stopped what he was doing after realizing there was no way he could keep up with the limo.

Mike was driving erratically. Daniel started to panic.

“Mike!” Daniel yelled.

Daniel realized that Mike had no intention of stopping.

Daniel was frustrated. He waved his arms around and yelled, “Are you kidding me?!”

The limo was nowhere in sight.

“Mike!” Daniel yelled.

Daniel turned around, stumbling slightly. He took in his surroundings and tried to figure out what to do.

At Johnny, Sarah, Robby, and Miguel’s apartment complex, Robby, Miguel, Sarah, Hawk, and Demetri were waiting for Sam.

Demetri had brought a backpack with him. The backpack was full of electronic devices.

“So…Uh, what's the emergency? Why'd you have me bring all my gear?” Demetri asked.

“You know as much as we do. Sam told us to meet here.” Miguel said.

“At least she's talking to you. I can't get a response from...” Robby trailed off.

Sam arrived with Tory.

Hawk looked confused. “Tory?”

Miguel greeted Sam and Tory. “What's…Uh...What's up? Hi.”

Sam and Tory greeted Miguel with a nod.

Robby looked at Tory’s hand, which was wrapped in a black bandage.

“What happened to your hand?” Robby asked.

“Uh…Training accident. I'm okay.” Tory said.

“We think we have a way to prove Silver assaulted Stingray.” Sam said.

“If the attack happened at the old dojo, Silver installed security cameras.” Tory said.

“So maybe it’s all on tape.” Sarah said.

“But that place was cleaned out.” Robby said.

“That might not matter. The systems that we sell at Tech Town all save the footage to a central server. Silver probably took the whole system.” Demetri said.

“I think he did. There’s a server in his office at the flagship dojo.” Tory said.

“If we access it, we can find that footage. We could post that Stingray clip to their YouTube channel.” Hawk said.

“Get a hold of everyone else. Let them know that we're taking down Cobra Kai...Tonight.” Sam told Hawk.

At Terry’s mansion, Terry and Kim discussed how to handle Daniel and his entourage going forward. Johnny, Chozen, and Mike crashed through the front gate and confronted them in the living room. Terry called Johnny, Chozen, and Mike out for trespassing and told them that any violence inflicted upon them would be justified. Johnny, Chozen, and Mike were not intimidated. Sensei Min-Jun appeared. He and Mike fought. Mike defeated Sensei Min-Jun, but he was ambushed and knocked unconscious by Sensei Bacaria. When the rest of the Cobra Kai senseis entered the room, Johnny and Chozen prepared to defend themselves.

Amanda and Carmen were in the LaRusso family’s living room.

Amanda was wearing a bathrobe over her dress.

Amanda passed Carmen a mug of tea.

Carmen smiled. “Thank you.”

Amanda smiled.

Carmen took a sip of her tea.

“Remember the days when you'd end a night out with a big, fat, greasy two-dollar slice of pizza?” Carmen asked.

“Oh, remember them? I mourn them.” Amanda said.

“It was so nice to go out, though. With all that's going on, I haven't been able to let loose in...” Carmen paused. “I don't know how long.”

“Tell me about it. I can't wait to get back to normal. If there is such a thing.” Amanda said.

Amanda received a call from Daniel. He told her about Mike hijacking the limo and planning to go to Terry’s mansion with Johnny and Chozen. He begged her to come get him, dropping a pin to his location. Amanda saw a car pull into the driveway, which she identified as Cobra Kai. Just before the call dropped, Daniel told his wife to grab the kids and call the police.

Robby, Sarah, Hawk, Demetri, Sam, Tory, and Miguel arrived at Cobra Kai’s flagship dojo.

Robby spoke confidently. “If it's the same alarm system, I should be able to bypass it.”

Demetri looked warily at Robby. “Spoken like a man that has done this before.”

Robby shrugged. Demetri’s words didn’t bother him. “Yeah, well, karate wasn’t my first hobby. I fractured a law or two before we met.”

“Or we could just scan my keycard.” Tory held up her keycard. “So that those of us on probation keep from, you know, violating it.”

Robby and Tory looked at each other and smiled.

The rest of the Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang students arrived.

Hawk greeted Chris. “What's happening?”

Chris shook Hawk’s hand. “What's up, man? Sorry we're late.”

Chris gestured to Mitch. “Someone took forever to get ready.”

Mitch spoke defensively. “It's the middle of the night.”

Nathaniel looked at Tory and asked, “What is she doing here?”

“It's fine. She's with us. For what we're about to do at least.” Sam said.

“So, what are we doing? All your text says is that we're going to take down Cobra Kai. But how exactly?” Mitch asked.

“We’re going to show them who their sensei really is. We think we have proof he's a criminal.” Miguel said.

“We're going upstairs to Silver's office. We need you downstairs as lookout.” Sam said.

Everyone entered the dojo after Tory used her keycard to unlock the door.

Robby, Sarah, Hawk, Demetri, Sam, Tory, and Miguel walked upstairs. Everyone else walked downstairs.

Robby, Sarah, Hawk, Demetri, Sam, Tory, and Miguel entered Terry’s office.

“Pulling the clip off the server is first day of computer camp shit. Got it?” Hawk asked Demetri.

“Yeah.” Demetri said.

“We upload the clip to the YouTube channel, and Cobra Kai is out of business.” Hawk said.

Hawk and Demetri set up Demetri’s gear.

Demetri started typing. “Okay. Stingray's assault happened the morning after prom.”

Tory noticed a security camera.

“Any idea how to disconnect one of these?” Tory asked Robby.

“Yeah.” Robby said.

Robby grunted as he jumped up and kicked the camera. The camera fell on the floor and broke.

Robby, Sarah, Hawk, Sam, Tory, and Miguel stood behind Demetri.

Tory looked excited. “I can't believe it's happening. We're really going to take Silver down.”

Wanting to keep Tory’s spirits up, Robby did his best not to sound pessimistic. “Yeah. What could go wrong?”

Robby, Sarah, Hawk, Demetri, Sam, Tory, and Miguel failed to notice the security camera hidden within the Cobra Kai mural behind them.

As the battle raged on at Terry’s mansion, Terry and Kim observed Robby, Sarah, Hawk, Demetri, Sam, Tory, and Miguel via the security camera hidden within the Cobra Kai mural. Realizing they were being attacked on two fronts, Terry told Kim to take care of the dojo while he dealt with Chozen and Johnny. Having momentarily subdued Terry’s men, Johnny told Chozen to go after Terry.

After running several miles, Daniel saw a pickup truck. The driver was standing behind the truck and urinating.

Daniel panted as he approached the driver. “Hey.”

The driver turned around.

Daniel was grateful to see another person. “Hey. Thank God. Thank God. Listen. I need your help. I’ve got to get home. It's an emergency. Please. You’ve got to give me a ride.”

“I do, huh?” The driver leaned forward and sniffed Daniel’s blazer and shirt. Daniel’s blazer smelled like champagne, and his shirt smelled like beer.

The driver scowled at Daniel. “Maybe walk it off instead.”

“No, I'm not drunk, all right? I'm not...I mean, I'm not that drunk. The limo stopped short, and the champagne spilled everywhere, and it just...” Daniel trailed off.

The driver had no idea what Daniel was talking about.

The driver spoke sarcastically. “Oh, shit. I hate it when that happens.”

The driver walked to the truck. Daniel followed him.

Daniel pointed at the truck. “Hey! Look, you're the first person I've seen in miles. And I’ve got to get home now. And this truck is going to take me there, one way or the other.”

The driver smirked and pounded on the truck’s back door. Several other men emerged from the truck, glaring at Daniel and crossing their arms. Daniel took off his blazer and prepared to defend himself. A speeding car sent everyone scrambling for cover. The car was revealed to be Johnny's 2009 Dodge Challenger. Stingray was in the driver’s seat. Amanda and Carmen were in the backseat.

Stingray referenced the film franchise Terminator. “Mr. LaRusso, come with me if you want to live.”

Daniel was shocked. “What?”

“Get in the car. The kids are in trouble.” Amanda said.

“Kids? W-What kind of trouble?” Daniel asked.

“Just get in. We'll tell you on the way.” Stingray said.

Daniel walked to the car and got in the passenger’s seat.

Stingray began driving down the road.

A man threw a beer can at the back of the car and yelled, “Asshole!”

At Cobra Kai’s flagship dojo, Demetri accessed the video of Terry’s attack on Stingray. Robby, Sarah, Hawk, Demetri, Sam, Tory, and Miguel discovered that Terry erased the footage just before the assault took place. Tory revealed that there was another video they could use and inputted the date and time on Demetri's tablet. Robby, Sarah, Hawk, Demetri, Sam, Tory, and Miguel were alerted to a commotion downstairs. Robby, Sarah, Sam, Tory, and Miguel went to investigate. Hawk and Demetri stayed behind to download the footage.

The Cobra Kai students had unexpectedly arrived. Sam was horrified to see that Anthony had been knocked down. Anthony was looking at Kenny with fear in his eyes.

“Aits!” Kenny kicked Anthony.

Sam, Bert, and Nathaniel rushed to Anthony’s side. Kenny snickered as he watched them tend to Anthony.

Devon looked at Tory in shock. “So, you're with them now?”

Kenny glared at Robby.

Kenny turned to Tory. “You knew what would happen if him and his friends ever stepped into this dojo again.”

Sarah looked at Miguel and asked, “How'd they know we were here?”

“I don't know.” Miguel said.

Kyler and Kenny looked at each other and smiled.

“Mitch, come on. Get your ass over here where you belong.” Kyler ordered.

The Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang students looked at Mitch in surprise. Mitch looked sheepish before walking over to the Cobra Kai students and unzipping his hoodie to reveal a Cobra Kai t-shirt.

Bert frowned. “Penis Breath, how could you?”

“Gee, I don't know. Maybe 'cause they don't call me Penis Breath.” Mitch said.

The Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang students looked puzzled. Until now, Mitch didn’t seem to mind his nickname.

“You guys have been so dead set on taking down Cobra Kai. I didn't even want to leave in the first place. I mean, look around. They’ve got snacks, swag, smoothies. Our dojo doesn't even have a roof. Or, like, any chicks.” Mitch said.

Mitch looked at Sam and Sarah. “No offense.”

Sam and Sarah rolled their eyes.

“All right. Penis Breath, shut up.” Kyler told Mitch.

Mitch narrowed his eyes at Kyler.

“We’ve got a traitor, y'all got a traitor, so that cancels out. Are we going to throw down or what?” Kyler asked.

“I'm not a traitor. I'm just not buying what Silver is selling, and neither should any of you.” Tory said.

“Silver lied to all of us.” Robby said.

Kenny glared at Robby.

Kenny took a step closer to Robby. “Us? What “us”? The only person who lied to me is you!”

Miguel stood in between Kenny and Robby. “Hey. Robby’s right. You don’t want to do this.”

“Yeah, I do.” Kenny said.

Kenny tried to punch Miguel, but Miguel dodged the punch.

The Cobra Kai students started fighting the Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang students.

Stingray spoke to Daniel. “I am so, so sorry, Mr. LaRusso. All I wanted was to get back into Cobra Kai. I didn't think anybody was going to get hurt. I mean, besides me. That part of the deal was pretty clear.”

“Now you're doing the right thing. That's what's important.” Daniel said.

Daniel called Sam. She didn’t respond.

Amanda called Anthony. He didn’t respond.

Carmen called Miguel, Johnny, and Sarah. Neither of them responded.

“The moment I got that group text from the Cobra Kais saying they were going to ambush your students, I-I knew I had to warn you. Or, as it happened, Mrs. LaRusso.” Stingray said.

Daniel called Sam again. She didn’t respond.

Amanda called Anthony again. He didn’t respond.

Carmen called Miguel, Johnny, and Sarah again. Neither of them responded.

“Sam's still not responding.” Daniel said.

“It's the same with Anthony.” Amanda said.

“I can't get a hold of Miguel either. Or Johnny. Or Sarah.” Carmen said.

“I'm sure Johnny will be okay. He can take care of himself. He has Chozen and Barnes. We have to get to the kids before someone gets hurt.” Daniel said.

“Don't you worry, Mr. LaRusso. We will.” Stingray said.

Stingray put sunglasses on.

“What are you doing? It's pitch black.” Daniel said.

“Stingrays see better in the dark.” Stingray said.

Stingray started driving faster.

Chozen confronted Terry in Terry’s sword display room. After mocking Chozen's vow to make him beg for mercy, Terry started a fight. He quickly got the upper hand, kicking Chozen to the ground before taunting him again. Johnny started to lose the advantage against the other Cobra Kai senseis. Chozen struck Terry’s knee. Sensing that he might be outmatched in unarmed combat, Terry picked up a katana. Chozen pulled out his pair of sai. Chozen told Terry that he was not afraid to kill. Unfazed, Terry said that he was not afraid to die.

Chozen and Terry dueled on Terry’s patio. Chozen initially had the upper hand, but Terry soon gained control. He sliced Chozen’s arm and leg. Terry prepared to finish Chozen off. Chozen regained the advantage and swept Terry’s legs out from under him. Terry claimed that he was meant to die on the battlefield and told Chozen to finish him off. Chozen was about to finish Terry off, but he got distracted by Johnny’s cry of pain. Terry sliced Chozen’s back, causing him to fall into the pool.

At Cobra Kai’s flagship dojo, a male Cobra Kai student had knocked Sam down. Miguel came up behind the Cobra Kai student and swept his legs out from under him.

Miguel grabbed Sam’s hand and pulled her up.

“You good?” Miguel asked.

“Yeah. You?” Sam asked.

“Yeah.” Sam said.

Miguel and Sam ran off.

A female Cobra Kai student tried to punch Sarah, but Sarah dodged the punch. She swung her right leg sideways in a circular motion and kicked the Cobra Kai student in the face, causing them to fall.

Sarah ran off.

A male Cobra Kai student ran up to Tory. He tried to punch her, but she dodged the punch and swept his legs out from under him. She looked around. Her eyes landed on Devon.

Tory ran up to Devon and grabbed her arm. “Devon.”

Devon grunted, freeing herself from Tory’s grip.

Tory gave Devon a pleading look. “You don't want to be on their side, trust me.”

Devon scoffed. “Like you trusted me? You've been lying about whose side you were on this whole time.”

“I know. I'm sorry. I tried telling you...” Tory trailed off.

A male Cobra Kai student grabbed Tory’s shoulder from behind. Tory turned around. She kicked the Cobra Kai student in the chest. Tory glanced over her shoulder to check if Devon was still there. She wasn’t.

Tory ran off.

Hawk ran downstairs and saw the Miyagi-Do and Eagle Fang students fighting the Cobra Kai students.

Hawk ran upstairs.

Hawk entered Tery’s office.

“Dude, it's madness out there. How much longer?” Hawk asked.

“Almost done. Just a few more minutes. I need to log into their YouTube channel and upload the clip.” Demetri said.

“Yo, check upstairs!” Kyler yelled.

“Oh, shit,” Hawk muttered.

“They're coming. Be ready to go mobile.” Hawk told Demetri.

“Okay. We're going to have to upload and publish via Wi-Fi.” Demetri said.

Kyler and some other male Cobra Kai students entered Terry’s office.

Kyler laughed. “Yo, man. It's just Sarah and Yasmine’s bitches.”

One of the other male Cobra Kai students derisively pointed at Hawk and Demetri. “Bitches.”

Kyler looked at Hawk. “You heard Kenny when he dropped your ass. You’re just a Faux-Hawk now, boy.”

“You know what? That's life. You win some, you lose some, but you’ve got to move on. You never did. You're still pulling the same old bully act as always, even though everyone you've bullied has kicked your ass by now.” Hawk said.

“I haven’t.” Demetri said.

Hawk smirked. “You'll get your turn. Kyler's too stupid to ever learn his lesson.”

Kyler and the other Cobra Kai students attacked. Hawk was able to keep them at bay while Demetri worked to upload and publish the footage via Wi-Fi.

Downstairs, Kenny attacked Robby. Unwilling to harm his former protégé, Robby fought defensively. While Robby was distracted by the other Cobra Kai students, Kenny caught him off guard with the Silver Bullet.

At Terry’s mansion, Johnny took a vicious beating at the hands of the Cobra Kai senseis. When Terry walked into the mansion, he saw that Johnny was bleeding.

Some blood had gotten into Johnny’s mouth. He spat it out. “Well, you look like shit.”

Terry’s hair was slightly messy, his clothes were wet, and blood was trickling down his face.

Terry chuckled.

“Where’s the other one?” Sensei Odell asked Terry.

“Outside.” Terry said.

Terry looked at Johnny.

Terry spoke evilly. “And off the board.”

“I’m going to kill you,” Johnny growled.

Sensei Odell punched Johnny in the face. Johnny groaned. His head drooped.

“That seems unlikely. Kreese always told me you were his best student. I never saw it. You’ve got guts, Lawrence. I'll give you that.” Terry said.

Terry gestured to the side of his head. “But just not much upstairs.”

“Attacking me on my own turf? Come on. You never stood a chance.” Terry said.

Terry grabbed Johnny by the hair and lifted his head.

Johnny glared at Terry.

“But if it's any consolation, at least you won't be around to screw up another kid.” Terry said.

Johnny slapped Terry’s hand away.

Johnny’s head drooped again. Terry watched with disgust.

“I’ve got another mess to clean up at the dojo. Take care of this.” Terry told the Cobra Kai senseis.

Johnny managed to lift his head.

Terry spoke evilly. “Finish him.”

Impaired by the effects of the Silver Bullet, Robby was beaten down by Kenny and the other Cobra Kai students. Miguel and Sarah intervened, giving Robby a chance to recover.

Demetri joined the fight against Kyler. He was able to defeat his former bully.

Demetri smiled. “Man, that felt good!”

Kyler was on the floor.

Demetri looked down at Kyler. “Bitch!”

With the video now uploading to Cobra Kai's YouTube channel, Hawk and Demetri took the tablet and rushed out of the office. Tory was holding her ground in the melee, but she ran into a roadblock in the form of Kim Da-Eun.

Kim and Tory glared at each other.

“You disappoint me, Nichols.” Kim said.

“Yeah? Well, likewise.” Tory responded.

Kim took a step closer to Tory. “I warned Silver you could not be trusted. Let this be my final lesson to you. And a more painful one than the last.”

Hawk and Demetri reached the ground floor. Kyler struck Hawk from behind, sending the tablet sliding across the mat. Anthony picked the tablet up. With the Cobra Kai students determined to take the tablet from Anthony, Miguel told his teammates to protect the egg. They formed a defensive circle around Anthony, who continued to monitor the upload as the others fended off the Cobra Kai students from all sides.

Kim and Tory started fighting. Overmatched by her former sensei, Tory quickly found herself on the mat.

Kim sneered at Tory. “Such a tough façade. All to hide the fragile little girl underneath.”

Kim stepped on Tory’s injured hand. Tory groaned.

Seeing Tory in trouble, Sam came to her aid. Tory and Sam struggled to keep up with Kim. When Devon unexpectedly joined the fight, Kim told her not to throw away her chance to become a champion. Devon insisted that she would become a champion on her own terms and dismissed Sam to help defend Anthony. When Devon rejoined Tory, they picked up where they left off.

Stingray, Daniel, Amanda, and Carmen arrived at the dojo and found their path blocked by several Cobra Kai students. Daniel refused to fight a bunch of teenagers. Stingray had no such qualms. He decimated the Cobra Kai students. He, Daniel, Amanda, and Carmen walked into the dojo. With the video upload nearing completion, the Cobra Kai students redoubled their efforts to stop it. As Daniel attempted to break through the crowd of students to reach Anthony, the footage of Terry telling Tory that he bribed the referee at the All-Valley started to play on the dojo's main monitor. Faced with this new revelation, the Cobra Kai students could only watch in stunned silence.

Terry arrived at the dojo.

“That's it? That was your big plan, LaRusso? Breaking into my dojo to steal some footage that changes nothing?” Terry asked.

“It wasn't his plan. It was ours.” Tory said.

“And it changes everything.” Robby said.

“Our enemies think they can keep attacking us with no repercussions. And what does the enemy deserve?” Terry asked the Cobra Kai students.

Terry waited for the Cobra Kai students to say “no mercy.” They didn’t say anything.

Kyler had an emotionless expression on his face. Kenny was looking at the floor and frowning.

Terry looked angry. He gestured to the Miyagi-Do students and the Eagle Fang students. “You think I'm the only one willing to go to these lengths? Their senseis broke into my home tonight.”

Terry gestured to himself. “My home! Attacked me, unprovoked.”

Terry turned to Daniel.

Terry taunted Daniel. “But here I am. The only one left standing.”

Daniel, Amanda, and Carmen exchanged a worried look.

Terry looked at the Cobra Kai students. “They think they're entitled to victory because their way is right and our way is wrong. But that's not how it works. There are no morals to the story. No happy endings. Life isn't a fairytale. It's a competitive sport. Right and wrong? There's no such thing. There are only winners and losers. Cobra Kai builds winners, because we're willing to do whatever it takes to come out on top.”

At Terry’s mansion, the Cobra Kai senseis were about to finish Johnny off when the photo of the ultrasound fell out of his jacket pocket. Johnny flew into a rage and incapacitated all but two of his enemies, who managed to subdue him. Sensei Odell lost a pinkie to a poorly-aimed katana swipe in Johnny’s direction. Sensei Hyan-Woo prepared to run Johnny through with his katana. Mike came out of nowhere, taking Sensei Odell and Sensei Hyan-Woo down and saving Johnny’s life.

Mike and Johnny looked at each other. Johnny picked up the photo of the ultrasound and put it back in his jacket pocket.

Breathing heavily, Mike and Johnny looked at the fallen senseis.

“I did most of this.” Johnny said.

“Yeah, you did. Where’s Chozen?” Mike asked.

Terry was standing a few feet away from Daniel.

Kim, the Cobra Kai students, the Miyagi-Do students, the Eagle Fang students, Amanda, Carmen, and Stingray were gathered around Terry and Daniel.

Terry took a step closer to Daniel. “Everything you did to try to stop me amounted to nothing but pain.”

Terry spread his arms and smiled. “You got your ass kicked, Danny Boy.”

Terry pointed at Daniel. “Now, you can either accept that, or I can kick it again right now.”

Amanda looked at Daniel. “We're all with you, Daniel. Do what you have to do.”

Daniel stepped onto the mat and faced a leering Terry. Kim, the Cobra Kai students, the Miyagi-Do students, the Eagle Fang students, Amanda, Carmen, and Stingray took a step back, giving them room to fight.

Kyler appeared to be on the verge of laughter. Kenny was eyeing Terry with a look of betrayal. Anthony appeared to be excited about the fight. Amanda looked worried.

Terry and Daniel circled each other.

Terry spoke evilly. “First, I took care of Chozen. Now you. This is where Miyagi-Do ends.”

Daniel spoke confidently. “Miyagi-Do existed before any of us. It will be around long after we're gone. The roots are strong, so the tree will survive.”

The fight began. Following Chozen's advice to think like a serpent, Daniel turned Terry’s patented “Quick Silver” method against him, striking his knee before delivering a blow to his chest. In desperation, Terry grabbed a trophy from the wall and tried to use it as a weapon. Daniel executed a crane kick perfectly, sending Terry crashing into the glass Cobra Kai mural behind him. Daniel celebrated his victory with the Miyagi-Do students, the Eagle Fang students, Amanda, Carmen, and Stingray. Kenny discarded his Cobra Kai gear and left the dojo. The rest of the Cobra Kai students followed suit.

Outside of the dojo, Kyler was talking to some police officers. “I'm telling you, I'm the one that rescued everyone from this place. This place was becoming cultish. Some might call me a hero, but...”

One of the officers started writing something.

“Oh, it's spelled K-y-l-e-r.”

Stingray was talking to the detective who interviewed him at the hospital following Terry’s attack. “You know, I’ve got to say, originally, th-that testimony I gave…I was under great duress, as, uh, defined by Magna Carta.”

Big Red, a former Cobra Kai student, walked up to Little Red, a Miyagi-Do student.

Big Red and Little Red were brothers. Big Red was older than Little Red.

“Need a ride?” Big Red asked.

“Yeah. I told Mom I'd be home hours ago.” Little Red said.

Big Red put his hand on his brother’s shoulder. “Don't worry. I’ve got your back.”

Big Red and Little Red walked away.

Sarah was standing next to Hawk and Demetri.

“That was intense.” Sarah said.

Hawk and Demetri nodded in agreement.

Tory and Devon were sitting in the back of a fire truck. A police officer was talking to them.

Kenny was standing next to a police car.

Robby walked up to Kenny.

Kenny was upset.

“Hey. Kenny, listen, I…Um...” Robby trailed off.

“No, I just...” Kenny paused. “Just not right now, okay?”

Robby nodded in understanding.

Kenny walked away.

Tory approached Robby.

“Kenny will come around. Eventually.” Tory said.

“Listen, Tory, I-I owe you an apology.” Robby said.

“I know. I probably owe you one too. But I'm not in the mood for all that heartfelt shit, so…For now, maybe just kiss me,” Tory said.

Robby smiled.

Robby and Tory kissed.

Sam was standing next to some cars. A blue blanket was wrapped around her shoulders.

Miguel walked up to Sam.

Miguel gestured to a car. “Mind if I…Uh…”

Miguel and Sam sat on the hood of a car.

“You okay?” Miguel asked.

“Yeah, more or less. What about you? Any major damage?” Sam asked.

“Uh...Think I've had worse.” Miguel said.

Sam held up the octopus necklace. “Is this yours? I found it at Miyagi-Do.”

“That was…Uh...It was supposed to be yours, but…Uh...” Miguel trailed off.

“But I broke up with you before you could give it to me.” Sam said.

“Something like that.” Miguel said.

“So, you weren't really fine with breaking up?” Sam asked.

“Well, it's not what I wanted, but…You said you weren't okay. You needed some time, and that seemed like it was more important.” Miguel said.

Sam smiled. “Thank you. That means a lot to me.”

“Of course. It's what you do when you love someone.” Miguel said.

Sam looked surprised. “You've never said that before.”

“Well…Uh...Well, I do,” Miguel said shyly.

“I love you too.” Sam said.

Miguel and Sam kissed.

The limo arrived.

Johnny got out of the limo.

Carmen approached Johnny.

“Hey.” Johnny greeted.

Johnny and Carmen hugged. A few seconds later, Carmen pulled away.

Carmen looked at Johnny in concern.

Johnny smiled. “I don't look that bad, do I?”

“You've never looked better. Not literally. We need to get you to a doctor.” Carmen said.

“Yeah, I know. We're on our way there. I wanted to see you first.” Johnny said.

“I thought I'd lost you.” Carmen said.

“You can't get rid of me that easily. The thought of losing you, Miguel, Sarah, Robby, and the baby kicked me into a gear I didn't know I had. I couldn’t stand the thought of missing the rest of our life together.” Johnny said.

Johnny and Carmen kissed.

Daniel and Amanda watched as Mike helped Chozen get out of the limo.

Mike spoke. “All right. Come on. I’ve got you. Easy, easy, easy.”

Chozen spoke. “Oh, thank you, Mike-san.”

Mike chuckled.

Chozen’s tank top was covered with bloody bandages.

Daniel looked at Chozen in concern. “Jesus, Chozen! We’ve got to get you to a hospital.”

Chozen brushed off Daniel’s concern. “Oh, just a flesh wound.”

“Yeah, but it's like all your flesh!” Daniel exclaimed.

Daniel gently took Chozen’s arm.

A medic was standing near an ambulance.

Daniel got the medic’s attention. “Hey. Help me.”

The medic approached Daniel.

“Yes, sir?” The medic asked.

The medic helped Daniel get Chozen into the back of the ambulance.

“Maybe should have had a Short Island Iced Tea.” Chozen joked.

“Uh, yeah.” Daniel said.

Mike was standing next to the limo. Daniel glanced at the back door and saw a Rembrandt painting.

“Is that a Rembrandt?” Daniel asked.

Mike smirked. “Yeah. It has to be worth at least as much as a furniture store, right?”

Daniel smiled and shook his head.

Terry scowled as he was escorted to a police car.

Daniel spoke to Amanda. “Never thought I'd see the day when Silver was finally in handcuffs.”

The detective who interviewed Stingray in the hospital walked up to Daniel and Amanda.

“Given Raymond Porter's revised statement, Mr. Silver is facing a litany of charges. That man's lawyers are going to be pretty busy.” The detective said.

Johnny approached Daniel.

Daniel and Johnny shook hands.

“All right, LaRusso! You finally took Silver out.” Johnny said.

Daniel and Johnny shared a brotherly hug.

Carmen approached Amanda.

Carmen showed Amanda the ring on her finger. The ring used to belong to Sensei Odell. It was gold and had a blue jewel in the middle.

Amanda suspected that Johnny had proposed to Carmen.

Amanda looked excited.

Terry glared at Daniel and Johnny before turning around and haughtily sticking his nose in the air.

“No more looking over our shoulders at every turn.” Daniel said.

“Here's hoping Silver and Kreese end up being cellmates.” Johnny said.

“You mean John Kreese? You didn't hear what happened?” The detective asked.

Daniel and Johnny exchanged a worried look.

THE END

#fanfiction

0 notes

montanababe7 · 9 months

Text

A post that I am writing ✍️ from pain to refreshing clarity and wholeness through Jesus: I might be 37 in natural years; but in reality, I’ve had to be an old soul all my life.

I know there are folks out there who have grown tired. Exhausted and irritated even of hearing me speaking about me going zero contact with the woman who birthed me, go ministries international, my high school experience, cross roads college, the list is endless.

I’ve faced more traumas, heartbreaks, heartaches 💔 than most people know.

I’ve come to the conclusion that I honestly don’t even care anymore. I’m done letting those painful moments define me. Define who I am.

I’m tired of being written off by those who don’t have the slightest clue of what it’s like to be in my shoes for even one day.

Most assume. That I don’t have a care in the world. That nothing ever bothers me. I have had to learn to turn my emotions on and off. some would say this is not healthy or a good thing. For me. It’s her survival.

I’m done crying about the fact that my birth mother f’ked up my life while growing up. I’m done grieving the fact that I can’t allow that woman to have any relationship with Mike and I’s, children.

I’m trying so hard to turn my 🧠 off and just let myself feel something for once other than pain.

I’m still grieving my brother Josh Farnam’s 💀 d e a t h. I miss him. So much.

I’m done hating my mom. Or the fact that she single-handedly ruined my wedding day. She didn’t allow me to attend my little sister Kelli’s bachelorette or even attend the one my sister

Had planned for me. Not to mention, she had a p I s s po o r. Seamstress desecrate the most perfect wedding dress. The sleeves that were sewn on were not even.

Lest I remind you. My b of a mother also told me that she was betting that my husband and I, wouldn’t last for more than six months after he and I, got married.

Or the fact that my birth mother and her friend sandy were cursing mike and I‘s marriage. She one of my sil in confidence that according yo her. that I was never supposed to get married, have children, or ever have a life of my own. That I was supposed to remain by her life and be her own personal s l a v e forever.

For those of who you have a healthy mother daughter relationship with your mother. Be grateful.

It’ll be 2024 soon. Starting now. I’m ready to live my life with instead of pain. I can’t go back and erase what happened to me when I was younger or as a newly married bride.

What I can do though. Is move forward with my best 🦶in front of me. Not looking back at the past.

Grateful my has been there for me. He and I, are

Both overcomer of

So much traumas and pain.

Michael Wolf 🐺. You are a champion. I want you to know that and see that. You’ve help me to withstand and accomplish so much. We’re both healing ❤️‍🩹. Little by little. Moment by moment. Day by day.

Mikey. Baby. I want you to know that I cherish you and that I love you. The love that I

Have for

You will always be here.

We’ve seen Jesus do more

Miracles

In our lifetime far more

Than we have ever dreamed of.

The best days are ahead of us. Not behind us.

I love you. I honor you. I champion you.

I might be spitfire and 💅 at times. I can have my 🦞 out a lot. But my. Heart 💜. That heart that has been through the 💍 of

🔥 is yours alone.

You brought me out of the shell I was in. My birth mother was not right about something.

I was a 🐚 of myself while growing up.

You helped me to really live. You gave me a reason for living and you do every single day.

You are the reason Mike and our girls that I go on each day.

You give me

Strength. You might not see it. On every moment. But. I adore you. I have

The biggest crush on you. I mean. Come on. When you wink 😉 at me. Oh baby. It takes my frickin breath away.

Yup. You are amazing.

This post was a rant that turned into a sappy love note 📝 and letter 🗒️ to you.

You are my happy place. I love you so much. Thank you for always having my back. Thank you for who you are.

I love love love love you 😘 💕 🥰 😍 Mike so very much.

Love,

Your Wife.

Jess

Jessica Wolf

0 notes

lgbtqforeverything · 2 years

Text

rewatching stargirl: episode 11

- ok wow everyone in this town is depressed

- does he steal the tractor???

- wow pat looks stupid i the stripesy shirt

- oh fuck it’s the dad

- i like these overhead shots

- how does he have their address???

- court in a flannel again!

- henry should have force ghost haunted the jsa for the rest of the show

- why the fuck did mike let him in

- ugh he’s wearing a v neck

- you were worried??? bitch shit the fuck up

- her necklace looks much better taken care of then his 👀

- it’s a very pretty flannel i kinda want it

- poor mike :(

- lmao the dog doesn’t like him

- i’m pretty sure that sam is lying

- the lighting of this closet is on point

- then why the fuck is your locket so dirty???

- rick and beth hanging together!!!

- he calls him pat!!!

- does rick only own the one sweatshirt?

- poor justin :(

- ah fuck why is he here

- barbara out here saving her whole family’s life just by being herself we love to see it

- the inherent gayness of offering to erase a women’s memory for you friend (crush)

- THE INHERENT ROMANTICISM OF TWO MEN CALLING EACH OTHER OLD FRIENDS

- girl do not let him pressure you into visiting

- giving rick a sword is a bad idea

- backstory babyyyyyy

- SEASON 1 EPISODE 11 THEY HAVE A GUEST BED

- OH FUCK I REMEMBER HE WANTS TO SELL THE LOCKETS

- courtney you fucking stupid jock

- pat i am giving you a dad award. you are a dad.

- oh ok so pat gets an act of violence every season. good for him

- court the staff works for you because you are pure of heart and dumb of ass

- barbara once again you are the real mvp

- ya lost your belief ya idiot

- ok that’s not how hacking works

- greta use of light as a symbolism

- rick/courtney sibling moment!

- ok so henry was also killed

- wait they know he’s dead? why

- well that was a chilling speech

- poor court :(

- BOOM. ITS ABOUT BELIEF BITCH

- oooh i’m getting chills

- court: what the fuck is my janitor doing here

#a. j. liveblogs

0 notes

yellowocaballero · 3 years

Text

The Crocodile's Dilemma: In Which Helen exploits Michael's Labor, Michael suffers an un-identity crisis, and unpaid internships should be illegal

It’s tough being a teenage embodiment of the Spiral. Your boss/wine aunt figure Helen’s a Tory, your inattentive cousin figure Mike Crew keeps attending philosophy classes and day drinking, and you’re pretty sure that this internship doesn’t have any dental. At least it’s good job experience for your future career in...being evil? But do you even want to be evil?

This small story is technically part of my Roleswap AU, but I specifically wrote it so that no knowledge is required. Still, if you’re wondering why Michael’s an eighteen(ish) year old, Mike Crew’s an Avatar of the Spiral, and everybody is obsessed with Melanie King, check it out. Still, no need. Rest under the cut.

Maybe Helen was right.

Not that Helen was ever strictly right, much as Helen was never wrong, but Michael just had to be doing this whole fear demon thing incorrectly. If someone had explained the whole fear demon thing to them two years ago (“Okay, so it’s like you’re the semi-sentient appendage of an extradimensional force of evil that has to consume trauma relentlessly in order to propagate its own debatable existence, also you’re nonbinary now, no those things are not strictly related, probably”), then they would have called them crazy. Which, of course, they were, but that wasn’t the point. So long as the point existed. So long as anything -

An essential theorem within quantum physics was the quantum Zeno effect.

Simply put, it was the fact that a quantum state would decay if left alone, but does not decay under continuous observation. Even observing the results after the photon is produced leads to collapsing the wave function and loading a back-history as shown by delayed choice quantum eraser. If something was seen, it no longer existed; if something persisted unperceived, it would exist as long as it liked.

So it was explained to Michael by the physics professor he was torturing that day. Michael had trapped the man in the physics building of his university, lured in by one too many late nights in his office and the persistent sense that his life was going nowhere meaningful. After a few classes spent sitting in on his Physics 101 class, maintaining constant and forever eye contact, Michael had eventually tricked the man into giving a persistent and ongoing physics lecture to an empty classroom, desperately trying to explain the inexplicable to a college freshman who did not care. Truly miserable, yet ultimately harmless - Michael’s favorite kind of trick.

But, despite themself, Michael grew interested. They didn’t understand any of what the man was talking about, but that was all of the fun. Understanding ruined the magic of things; broke down the beauty of the universe into cogs and gears. No thanks. They could tell that it bothered the professor, that he said so much and yet knew nothing. That there was so much he would never know, and that he wasn’t so smart after all. How would any of his colleagues respect him?

“So photons degrade if they’re observed?” Michael asked one day, after...some period of time. They had raised their hand and everything, they were so proud of themself. Uni was just like secondary school after all. “Is that true of people too?”

The professor had sweated, deeply uncomfortable with Michael as a person and as a non-euclidean concept. “No - no, not at all. Humans are much more than photons -”

Michael grinned. It wasn’t quite right. “Are you sure?”

The professor sweated harder. “I - no, I’m not. But humans are constantly observed by - by the universe, or something.”

Michael grinned sharper. “Are you sure? Are you being observed right now? Are you sure?”

And the professor was not sure, not anymore, and the fragment of this man’s reality collapsed.

Well, Michael thought to themself, slipping out of an improbable yellow door, that’s another Statement for the Magnus Institute. Not that they would read it.

****

“Now, remember this - the first step to being a successful Avatar is presentation!”

Michael squinted at Helen dubiously. “I thought we were fear demons?”

Helen sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose with two sharp knife fingers. It looked as if it hurt quite a bit, but Michael reasoned that they had probably gone through the fifth dimension. “This is the stupidest dimension - fine, fine! Fear demons, then. It is absolutely vital that we conduct our business with style, grace, and the slightest sprinkling of pizazz!”

Just for the flourish, Helen twirled her fingers, and a faint shower of confetti came raining down from the ceiling. Michael sneezed.

“I thought it was vital that we harvest fear and trauma from people to propagate our cursed existence,” Michael said.

Helen’s eyebrow twitched. “More than two things can be vital, Michael. Please pay attention. Now, as a demonstration, I’d like you to take a gander at that man over there.”

Obediently, Michael looked across the bar. They were sitting on barstools in a high-class pub, because Helen knew her worth and never settled for anything less, with glass counters and lots of private booths. But all pubs had their sad men drinking alone, and this one was no exception.

This man wasn’t sullen and slow like a lot of them. He was wearing a nice suit and thin tie, looking straight out of Canary Wharf. Michael silently agreed with Helen’s choice - they took eat the rich very seriously, and also literally. He also seemed a little jumped up on something, with shaking hands and erratic eyes.

“He looks happy,” Michael observed. “Think it’s his birthday?”

“He’s on cocaine, Michael,” Helen said flatly. “Cocaine. We are at a posh bar, and he is currently doing a line off his watch.”

Oh! Michael suddenly felt very uncool. They had never been one of those people in secondary school who did cocaine. They hadn’t been cool. “I knew that,” Michael bluffed. “What are we going to do to him?”

“Take the teenager as your intern, they said,” Helen groused, “it’s investing in the future, they said, it’ll stop them from eating you when they grow up, they said.” She sighed, jabbing a finger at the now very obviously coked up man who was staring at the bottles behind the bartender as if they were whispering secrets of the universe into his ear. Helen liked that one. “Use your intuition. Find a good angle to squeeze. What are his weaknesses to exploit?”

Oh, Michael knew how to do this. They shifted vibrations just a bit, dropping out of what Michael liked to call the ��mild’ spectrum into the ‘spicy’ spectrum. They were distantly aware of a patron’s glass shattering.

They squinted at the man, picking out his little fears and insecurities like Dionysus picking grapes. Maybe. Michael had gotten a C in English, but they were somewhat cognizant of the Spiral munching heavily on Bacchanalia. Sometimes they felt like some of those children who spoke in tongues and claimed to be from a past life. That had also been the Spiral.

“He owns a Nintendo NES,” Michael said confidently, absolutely sure that this was important. Helen groaned. “His house is painted white, and his girlfriend does tax fraud.”

“Something relevant?” Helen hinted desperately.

Michael just squinted at her. “Relevant to what?”

“...good point. But something useful, please.”

Picky. Michael scowled, but gave the man another good gander. “He only remembers faint details of his father’s face, and he worries that his recollections aren’t accurate,” Michael proclaimed finally.

Helen clapped, delighted, as Michael took a careful sip of their water, turning it into fizzy water. She took a sip of her own wine, turning it into champagne. Or maybe just sparkling unreality? “Wonderful. Now, how should we play this? Insert a false father into his life, completely separate from his recollections, or is that a bit too Stranger? I suppose we could do some good old-fashioned gaslighting, but sometimes that’s just a bit too Melanie, if you catch my drift -”

“Are you jealous that the Archive girls are better at gaslighting than you are?”

“Shut it, kid,” Helen hissed, before taking a long drag of her champagne. “My vote is that we convince him to top off his coke bender with some LSD. Then he hallucinates - oh, he hallucinates that he’s in a mental institution, that’s a good one -”

“Why don’t we shift everything thirty cm to the right?” Michael asked brightly.

Helen squinted at them. They beamed back.

“You are so bad at this,” Helen said.

Michael would have felt crushed if Helen didn’t express this sentiment roughly once per lunar cycle, contrariwise. As it was, they bore the criticism with a stiff upper lip. Helen had her way of harvesting fear from unsuspecting humans, and Michael had theirs. “Look, Helen, you’re being uncreative! We don’t have to traumatize people every single time.”

Helen squinted further. “We’re personifications of deceit. We eat trauma.”

“No, we eat confusion,” Michael pointed out patiently. “Look at it this way. If you give someone one really terrible experience, then they repress it for the rest of their lives and consider it a brush with Hell. One and done, see? But if you minorly inconvenience them for a really long time, then they’ll never be able to break out of it. They’ll feel as if something’s wrong, but they’ll never know it. You can keep the game going for years that way!”

The idea was very good. Michael had been working on it for a while. Truth be told, Michael felt bad traumatizing people outright and making them scream and cry and everything. They always felt as if they were doing something wrong by making other people’s existences a living nightmare. Michael much preferred rigging a corn maze so you were stuck in it for days inside the maze but only an hour outside. It was funner, and much more confusing.

But Helen just pursed her lips and stared Michael up and down, making them squirm awkwardly on their barstool. Finally, as if she was delivering a life sentence, she imperiously said, “Well, we all have our different styles, I suppose! It would be quite boring if we were both exactly the same.” Michael nodded vigorously at this, and Helen held up a scaly claw. “But! You’re my intern, which means that you’re learning from the master here. So shut up and let me teach you how to ruin lives.”

“Yes, boss,” Michael said miserably.

Helen tsked, but she patted them on the head anyway. It tasted like batteries. “Honestly, kid. A literal bleeding heart’s fun for the whole family, but a metaphorical bleeding heart will get you nowhere in life. You can’t exist as you are and feel bad for them. It ruins the point. It’s a paradox.”

“I thought we liked paradoxes, though?”

Helen shrugged, downing the rest of her wine. “Rules for thee but not for me, honey. But I’m a good boss and drunken aunt figure, so I’ll appease you today. Now come on, let’s convince this bar to vote for Brexit.”

They did. It was quite fun after all, tricking a roomful of people into doing something actively against their own interests. But something about the whole thing left a strange taste in Michael’s mouth: not the good kind of strange, or the bad kind of strange that was also good. Just strange, and undeniable, and something that couldn’t be exploited at all.

****

Maybe Helen was right.

Michael was a bad fear demon of the Spiral and Infinite Twisting and That Is Not What It Is and The Twisted Door, etc, etc, All Fear Its Name, etc etc all Hail, because they didn’t always like how their internal monologue could no longer be described through common language. Words and images and understandings were nothing but approximations for Michael now, and sometimes it was frustrating existing outside the boundaries of understanding. Which, of course, was the point, so long as the point existed, so long as anything existed -

It wasn’t always easy. Still, nobody ever got what they wanted if they weren’t willing to put the effort in. The adult world and labouring under capitalism wasn’t easy for anybody. That was what Mum had always said. Who was Michael to complain about their 9-5? Or 24/24? Or infinite/infinite? Or nothing/nothing? Or -

Was it too much to ask to have a linear thought once in a while?

Helen wouldn’t understand. There were only two other approximations of concepts that Michael knew, and Helen would hardly be any help. The other “person” would probably be a better sounding board, but there was the fact that he was kind of pretentious. Still, it was better than nothing. Well, it was nothing, but only in the sense that everything was - argh!

A yellow door appeared in a nondescript basement, and Michael appeared with it. They melted out of the “wood”, taking a second to check their outfit for this apparition - a nice vintage 50s dress with a painstaking stitch that reminded one of the oppressive nature of housewifery, nice. They elongated their curly blonde hair from a roguish mop into a nice little shag and melted into the crowd.

It must have been a passing period, because Michael was buffeted to and fro by tall white men wearing backpacks and shorter white girls hoisting strangely identical water bottles. Somewhere Northern, Michael decided, likely private and small. Not that it strictly mattered, but it helped to solidify their grip in reality a bit if they had some idea. They already knew geography was purposeless and a distraction from the real issues, like shrimp, but occasionally it could be useful. Helen had been careful to impart the central tenet of existence as a non-euclidean concept in undefinable space in the twenty seventh dimension: location, location, location!

It was obviously the Philosophy Department, because all philosophy classes were held in old basements built in the ‘60s in identical hallways. For kicks, Michael turned all of the school hallways inwards and sent them in a mobius strip, and changed all of the door numbers into a headache. The key to enjoying your job was to take initiative in the workplace environment and to just have fun with it!

Michael found themselves in front of a door identical to all of the others, with fake laminated wood, and they decided to go in. The universe had guided them to this door for a reason, and who were they to reject its call?

The small classroom was like most other small, private colleges in unpopular departments that nobody cared about. Lots of single person desks - Michael snapped their fingers and turned them all into left-handed desks - complete with a smartboard and a teacher’s podium. It was already half-full, so Michael carefully slid into a chair in the back and pretended that they had been there all along. A student wandered close, convinced that this was her seat, but Michael successfully convinced her that a different seat near the front was hers, prompting an impromptu game of musical chairs that sent ripples through the otherwise sedate classroom.

There was a blond student already sitting in the front, flipping through a spiral notebook and clicking a pen in no particular pattern. He was wearing a pea coat, jeans, and his hair was weirdly perfect. Michael wished they had a notebook. Was this what you did in university? They had never had the opportunity to go.

Actually, they had never quite graduated secondary - three months away from graduation, actually. It probably wasn’t all that important. You didn’t really need a diploma to become a trauma eating fear demon. Was there a university of eating fear? That would be funny. What would the classes be in, ‘Enforcing the Powerlessness of Capitalism 101’? What was the difference between that and a Business major?

Maybe Business majors were the real fear demons, Michael thought grandly. It was a good thought, they would have to remember to tell it to Melanie later. Melanie would approve. Hadn’t Tim been a business major? Yeah, in that case she would definitely approve.

The student sitting in the front seemed to have finally noticed the game of musical chairs, and as the professor started clearing their throat and announcing something unimportant to the class, he turned around to find Michael sitting in the back of the class. They waved cheerfully. The student scowled.

‘What are you doing here!’, the guy mouthed angrily.

‘Hi Mike!’ Michael mouthed back.

‘Go away!’ Mike mouthed back.

‘But I’m going to eat your teacher :(‘ Michael mouthed back. They didn’t actually frown.

‘ >:(!’, Mike Crew mouthed back, also without changing his facial expression.

This was probably why Mike wasn’t Michael’s biggest fan. Which was a pity, because Michael thought Mike was really cool. He had the coolest name, for one. But shorter, and snappier. Mike was the kind of name girls would call you at clubs. Michael was what, like, your Mum would say as she yelled at you to clean up your room before her book club girls came over. Why were they girls? They were, like, fifty.

Mike Crew was an Avatar of the Spiral completely unwillingly. Chosen as a child and chased throughout his life by an improbably long lasting Lichtenberg scar, he had eventually succumbed to the inevitable and transformed into an even more improbable man. Personally, Michael found it strange that ‘inevitable’ and ‘Spiral’ was in the same sentence, but - well, it had to be everything at one point. Even a melting clock was right once an endless twilight.

Strangest of all, Mike Crew was a philosophy major. The class, of course, was a high level philosophy course. Mike Crew had been in uni - well, a while - and he tended not to waste his time with the boring shit anymore. Michael listened with interest as the professor dived into the lecture.

Two minutes in, Mike subtly gathered his things and slipped into the conveniently empty chair next to Michael. He was still glaring at them, as Michael tried their best to look innocent and cute. The effect was a little ruined by the inherent maliciousness of Michael’s pores, but they liked to think it was the thought that counted.

“To continue our conversation on the topic of paradoxes,” the professor began, “I’d like to introduce a few thought experiments for your consideration as a class. I’ll mention the concept, and then allow you to break into pairs to discuss them.”

Mike leaned into Michael’s ear. “We were discussing Descartes!”

“But isn’t this more interesting?” Michael asked.

“If you give my professor a mental breakdown we’re going to fall behind on the syllabus!”

“The first paradox I’d like to bring to your attention is the Crocodile’s Dilemma.” The professor flipped to a new slide, which helpfully had a big crocodile on it. Michael admired it. They had seen a crocodile at the zoo once. “Similar to the liar’s paradox, the premise states that a crocodile, who has stolen a child, promises the parent that his or her child will be returned if and only if he or she correctly predicts what the crocodile will do next. The outcome is fairly obvious if the parent states that the crocodile will return the child, but the crocodile faces a dilemma if the parent states that the crocodile will not return the child. No matter the outcome, the crocodile is made a liar: if the crocodile decides to not give back the child then the statement proves to be true, and he ought to return the child, thereby making it false. Whatever the outcome, he still violates his terms.”

Michael raised their hand. Mike forcibly lowered their hand.

“If I give your professor a mental breakdown then you’ll have extra time for the test,” Michael whispered back. Mike seriously considered this notion.

“The next paradox is slightly related,” the professor continued. “The Infinite Hotel Paradox.” Michael’s face stretched into a grin as Mike Crew groaned. “It is demonstrated that a fully occupied hotel with infinitely many rooms may still accommodate additional guests, even infinitely many of them, and this process may be repeated infinitely often. This is what we call a veridical paradox: it leads to a counter-intuitive result that is provably true. Therefore -”

“Okay, yeah,” Mike Crew said, slumping in his seat. “You can eat him, this guy is just begging for it.”

“Yay!” Michael went in for the hug, before Mike pushed them away. Michael’s quest for a cool big brother failed yet again. “Do you want to call the -”

“They’re your hallways,” Mike said, persnickety as always. Maybe he was just jealous that he wasn’t a hallway?

Michael raised their hand, patiently waiting for the professor to call on them. He stumbled in the middle of his lecture, adjusting his thick glasses.

“Uh, yes, Miss -”

“You no longer understand gender,” Michael said pleasantly, as they always did whenever they were misgendered. It was an understandable mistake, so they didn’t do it maliciously. Frankly, they just thought it was healthy. Everyone should not understand false things. “Professor, I have a question about the Crocodile’s Dilemma.” They waited for the professor to nod, somewhat confused. “How do you know that didn’t really happen?”

The professor blinked lethargically at them. “It’s a thought experiment. It’s not real, it’s just an idea proposed by philosophers to represent -”

“What makes you so sure?” Michael asked cheerfully. “Crocodiles eat babies. Or dingoes. I think I read a story about this happening in Australia, didn’t you?”

“I - I suppose I did, yes -”

“We wouldn’t talk about it if it didn’t really happen.” Michael felt their voice fall into a rising lilt, like an attractive song that was played to a concert hall but heard only by you. They were distantly aware of Mike lulling the rest of the students into their own hazy daze: aware enough to be confused, but trapped in their seats and the fog of misunderstandings. “Fiction isn’t real. Reality is real. But a thought experiment is in between, isn’t it? Something that strains the boundaries of reality, that proves the fundamental concepts of life, told through a framework of an intrinsic lie. A paradox is a lie telling the truth. You are a truth speaker telling only lies. What you know isn’t so much as anything at all, is it? What do you really know, anyway?”

“One of us tells only the truth and the other tells only lies,” Mike Crew called out, bored. But his eyes were shining in endless refraction, infinite rooms holding infinite guests. “But is it really a lie if you had mistaken it for the truth? What lies are you living, Dr. Young?”

Dr. Young was stammering, eyes swimming, and Michael didn’t dare to break eye contact. It was a delicate spell they wove, but Michael wasn’t so bad at bringing this simmer to a boil. Cooking was about improvisation, and Michael had always been great at that.

“If your life is a lie,” Michael breathed, “then are you really alive?”

It was clear, when it happened: the professor started inhaling deep, deeper breaths, chest wracking with heaves. His eyes rolled up in his head, he clutched at his chest, and he finally slumped down on the floor. He twitched, jerking slightly, and he would continue jerking. At which point the students would become aware, and they’d call an ambulance for him, and he would be perfectly alright in the end. If a little mentally scarred.

“Damn,” Mike Crew said, almost impressed, as both he and Michael stood up. He shoved his pens in a backpack, glad to be free of his examination for another week. “What’d you do to him?”

“Made him think he was dead,” Michael said serenely. “He thought his heart had stopped beating so he had a panic attack. He’s going to have to make an appointment with a psychiatrist but he probably should anyway, work’s very stressful for him.”

“Guess I have the rest of the hour off,” Mike sighed, as he held the door open for Michael so they could slip out of the back of the classroom. It was yellow, and a little strange. “Want to grab a pint with me at the campus pub?” He paused a beat. “Wait, are you even old enough to drink?”

“I’m as old as eternity and reborn every second.” Michael paused a beat. “But I was eighteen last time I checked, and I’ll probably be eighteen for a while, so yes?”

“Great, let’s roll. I need a drink.”

****

Mike’s uni’s pub (Michael had asked the name of the uni but the information had, unfortunately, been lost in next Tuesday, so they’ll know then) was the exact opposite of the high class pub Helen had taken them to. Instead of glassy, shiny, and chromey, Mike’s pub looked strongly as if very many people had puked in it and the staff had tackled the problem somewhat half-heartedly. Michael enjoyed the sight of the puke existing in all points in time simultaneously, giving it a sort of weird yellow-ish shine. Actually, maybe all puke had that yellowish sheen?

When they asked Mike about it as they hopped up on the bar, he just sighed. He flagged the bartender down for a pint, and when the bartender squinted dubiously at Michael they revelled into the micro-confusion of ambiguous ages. Micro-feeding? Like mini muffins?

“Helen made a mistake hiring you. She’s stuck us with a perpetual teenager.”

“I’m as much a teenager as you are a uni student,” Michael said pointedly.

“I’m not an embodiment of the It Is What It Isn’t Is,” Mike said, oddly aggressively. “I’m just a normal Avatar.”

“Fear demon.”

“Melanie King isn’t always right and I don’t know why everyone thinks she is.” Big words from an honored Special Guest on her show. There were many in the fear demon community who would kill for the honor. It was a good thing she hated intruders in her Archives - otherwise they’d never leave. “But I’m no different from - that douche Peter Lukas or that stoner Elias Bouchard or that btich Annabelle, okay? I’m just a guy. Who eats trauma. Plenty of guys do that.”

“Very good denial of reality!” Michael approved. “Normally Helen tells me to go further into denying reality as a concept, though.”

“God, you hallway people are impossible to have a normal conversation with.” Mike huffed, clearly not as irritated as his words would imply. Michael also approved of the incongruity. “I’m assuming that you’re here for absolutely no reason and that you have no idea why or how you ended up at my uni.”

Michael shifted uncomfortably. “Actually, I am here for a reason.” At Mike’s extreme surprise, they hurriedly clarified, “Not with any goal, meaning, or intention in mind! But I just wanted to talk about something to someone who wasn’t technically another facet of my meaningless whole. Helen and I are as index and ring fingers on the same hand, but we don’t really get each other sometimes, you know?”

“Does that make you the pinky finger?”

“I actually had a hypothetical for you.” At Mike’s nod, Michael snagged a napkin from the stack on the sticky bar and began creasing it, somewhat anxiously. “Let’s say, hypothetically, you were a teenagerish nongendered sentient hallway intern who happens to eat trauma.”

“This isn’t much of a hypothetical,” Mike said flatly.

“I’m a hypothetical person. And I’m only a person hypothetically.” Michael started making little folds in the napkin, twisting it up into a strange origami. “So, let’s say, hypothetically, that this person - their name is Michael - enjoyed being them. It wasn’t always fun, and sometimes they kind of missed the world making sense, or at least not making sense in a familiar way. And sometimes Michael got tired of being a sentient hallway and wanted to finish secondary. And maybe even sometimes Michael grows sad that both their parents were eaten by their new boss, who is kind of a Tory! But that’s all fine. Michael’s probably happier like this than they ever were even when they did have parents.”

Mike Crew stared at them a little, slowly sipping his pint.

Michael hunched their shoulders, and folded up the napkin further and further. They had read somewhere that any piece of paper can only be folded seven times. They folded the napkin seven times, then eight, then nine, then ten. That was something nice about the way things were now, they supposed: no rules, absolute freedom. Only rules, no freedom. That was what Dr. Yung would call a paradox. “But maybe the worst part about this new job is that Michael doesn’t really like hurting people. Sometimes it’s fun to randomly make people very upset, and you always kind of end up doing it anyway, but after a while Michael feels kind of bad about it. Michael likes doing other things better, like making terrible roundabouts and rearranging the pages of books. Maybe they even like reading books. They like reading comic books backwards, from the last page to the first, so every panel is a surprise.”

“There’s lots of ways to be a fear demon,” Mike pointed out, almost gently. Maybe only because he could relate. “Look at me. I’m not feeding off anyone. Just myself.”

“But I like the way I do it,” Michael said, frustrated. “Helen keeps trying to get me to do it the way she does it, but the point is that we aren’t the same. What’s the point in having two of us if both our viewpoints are the same? We’re different in every way, but we’re the same being. I just want to be the Spiral the way I want. Not the way Helen wants.” Their voice lowered, almost unwilling to say what they were about to say. “Not the way the Spiral wants.”

Mike stared at them for a long time, slowly sipping his beer, and Michael focused their efforts on forcing this improbable napkin into something that could be beautiful. A lotus flower? A mobius strip? Or should they just let it happen as it happens, and see what form it decided to take?

Finally, Mike said, “You are the Spiral.”

“Then why am I always disagreeing with it?” Michael asked miserably.

“Why are you, Helen, and the Spiral always disagreeing?” Mike pointed out. “Maybe that’s the point. So much as anything’s a point. Isn’t it the most perfect paradox of all, to split yourself into portions that are always disagreeing and bickering? Maybe everything you’re feeling is on purpose. I mean, it’s kind of improbable that you’re feeling at all, right?”

“I retained a lot of humanity,” Michael said. “Maybe a bit too much, actually?”

“Right.” Mike nodded decisively. “Then that’s the appeal. A human mind will always strain against its confines. It will always want different, want the same, want the old and the new and the perpetual and the fleeting and the eternity and the moment. What’s more nonsensical than a human? What’s more contradictory than human nature?” A dark shadow passed over his face, just for a second. “The Spiral kidnaps us and turns us into it. One part of our minds is entrenched in its eternity, and another part is always screaming in agony. But predominantly we are the unholy mixture of human and Entity, oil forced into water. It’s so intrinsically horrifying and wrong that we just get used to it. We are both demon and human, and so we’re neither, and so we’re both. Isn’t it weird, Michael, that unlike so many other Avatars, none of us want to be here?”

“You’re a very philosophical person,” Michael said diplomatically.

“Thanks, I think too much about my lot in life.” Mike Crew sighed, slumping on his barstool and knocking back more of his pint. “I wish you and Helen would stop showing up in my life so often. When you aren’t around, I can almost pretend I’m a person.”

“That’s why we show up,” Michael felt obligated to point out.

“Yeah, I know,” Mike said glumly. “I always know. I can’t stop knowing.”

There was nothing Michael could say or do that fixed this, or that could make Mike feel better. They understood, just a little - that nostalgia for a kinder time. But maybe it was more that Mike never had those halcyon, innocent days. He had lived life since childhood in aching knowledge that his days were numbered. Maybe that’s why Mike was allowed to live life as a human even now: his human life was just as confusing and isolated as his afterlife, and that when fear stained every second of his life there was no point in ceasing it.

Maybe Michael couldn’t keep their human life because they had been happy. At the very least, they had been ignorant. That was one thing the Spiral could not abide: ignorance.

These days, Michael knew everything. They knew everything so, so much.

So, in lieu of comforting falsehoods, Michael offered Mike Crew a slightest sliver of truth. They passed Mike the little piece of origami that they had made, and let Mike cradle it in his large and smooth hands.

The origami had no shape. It wasn’t folded into anything. It was just a meaningless amalgamation of points, corners, and creased paper. It didn’t look like anything at all.

“See?” Michael pointed out. “It’s a bear.”

Mike Crew smiled weakly. “Looks like a sea goat to me.”

There was something beautiful in ambiguity. When something was nothing, it could be everything at once. That was rather Michael’s favorite thing about it.

“I think it’s a self-portrait,” Michael decided.

And that, at least, was as true as anything else.

***

Michael wandered their hallways.

On some level, they were pretty much perpetually doing that. Even as one facet of them talked with Michael in a campus pub, even as another helped Helen convince a high class pub into voting Brexit, even as they traumatized a physics professor, they wandered these hallways.

Make no mistake: everything in this story has/will/is happened/happening simultaneously.

Of course, on another level Michael was literally their hallways, and thus they were not so much wandering as existing. Pulsating, one could say. Even twisting, if one would be so bold.

There was a mirror, in the hallway. Not a funhouse mirror - although Michael did enjoy popping out from those and scaring Nikola - but just a mirror. Gilded around the edges, ornate with swirling curlicues. You could see yourself in it. You could see a lot of yourself in it. It wasn’t what you had always looked like, not really, but you just had the sense that this was what you really looked like. Maybe you had always looked like this, and everybody was just too polite to tell you. Were you really a brunette? This mirror had to be right. You had been a blonde all along. Nobody had told you. They were laughing at you. They were laughing -

But this was Michael, and Michael’s, and nothing in here could harm them. It was even comforting. They looked at themselves in the mirror, and saw themselves same as ever. Or not same as ever. They were still Michael, so far as Michael was Michael.

Shortish. Blondey. Raggedy hair. Curled as much as anything’s curled. Fun clothing that they really enjoyed. Tall shoes, because they liked feeling tall. Similar dimensions to the golden number. Non linear, but who’s counting? It was what they typically looked like.

But, just for a second, Michael even fooled themselves. They saw someone in the mirror that they were not, someone who they had never been, someone who they never will be. Someone different.

Michael, just like everyone else, couldn’t stop themselves from reaching out. Come back. Come back! Let me touch you, let me be you! Michael’s fingers brushed the shiny glass, and the world tilted sideways, and Michael fell into where the sidewalk ended.

They emerged, or maybe they had always been, inside a bedroom. It was a nice little suburban bedroom. It had a peaked ceiling and a window seat. The walls were a soft, navy blue. There was a young person, lying on the shag carpet, leafing through a book. Big headphones were over their ears, and they were bopping along to music. Disco.

Michael stood, an intruder into a familiar space, and watched the stranger. Their throat felt oddly tight, and their eyes felt strangely hot. The stranger was smiling faintly, flipping the pages of their book somewhat mindlessly. They were reading it for school. Flatland. It was just an assignment, but it was really fucking them up. It was making them think about all of these things that they didn’t normally, in new dimensions. It was really cool. All of their friends were just reading the Sparknotes, but they really wanted to talk about it with someone.

This, of course, had happened. It will happen in the future. It was happening now, as Michael watched the scene with an electric sadness. It would never happen, because the Spiral had never been here, and never would be, and always was.

A knock echoed on the door, several sharp raps. Michael didn’t notice, legs swinging to the music.

The knock on the door hit louder. “Michael!” A voice echoed from behind it. “Michael, are you ready to go?”

Michael reached up and slid off their headphones, without looking up from their book. “Coming!” They called back. “Be right there!”

The Spiral watched Michael, who hummed absentmindedly as the door knocked again. Dad was downstairs, making sure the gas was off and shutting off the lights. Mum was knocking, knocking, knocking, on a door that was and will always be wood.

“Have you packed yet?” Mum called.

“Sure I have!” Michael yelled back, glancing at the empty suitcase on the bed and the messy pile of clothes right next to it. They pushed themselves up, flipping the book shut and rising to their feet. “Be right out!”

“Hurry up,” Mum called, as the Spiral mouthed the words along with her. “We’re going to be late!”

The Bermudas aren’t going anywhere, Michael thought spitefully. They stuffed their clothes haphazardly in a suitcase, took far more care to pack their laptop and DS, and shoved Flatland in a side pocket of their backpack.

When Michael slung on his backpack, unfolded the handle from their suitcase, they were not even looking at the door they left through. They were entirely focused on managing the unruly suitcase, and walked straight through the crazed yellow door.

Of course, Michael walked out. Slightly stranger, a little better, a lot worse. Exactly the same. They were back in their hallways again, fresh from their little suburban bedroom and the child exiting one world and entering one quite different. Maybe one part of that child would always be in that bedroom, another part in these hallways, and another part always caught in that doorway and the transition.

Simultaneously, in all points in time, Mum knocked on that wood door, and Michael never let her inside. Simultaneously, at all points in time, Michael watched it all happen.

They hadn’t expected it to be so comforting. At all moments in time, in a little corner of their heart, Mum knocked on their door. If the Spiral lived in your soul and beat your heart, it was easy to find the beauty in it - the magnificence of eternity, and the joy in the moment. Mum was with them - literally, as he was pretty sure Helen was still digesting her. Maybe nothing was ever truly over - just over there.

Michael stuck their hands in their pockets, whistling a jaunty tune that highly resembled the Shepherd’s Tone. Their hallways pulsated comfortingly, and Michael carefully toed off their platform shoes and eyed down the infinite hallways. No rugs for a while.

Maybe Michael, Mike Crew, and Helen should get together more often. Just the three of them. They would drive each other batty. It would be a lot of fun.

Michael set off running down the hallway, and skidded on their socks down the hardwood floor, whooping in joy as they skidded endlessly towards eternity.

#my writing #the magnus archives #tma #the magnus archives fanfic #tma fanfic #michael the distortion #helen the distortion #michael #helen #michael shelley #helen richardson #mike crew #the distortion #the spiral #Michael views their life as an embodiment of terror and unreality as roughly equivelant to capitalism #Helen is kind of regretting hiring this kid but it's probably the only thing stopping them from eating her #Mike Crew really really really hates his fear cousins #i had to open a lot of wikipedia pages for this so you're welcome

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sonnet77 · 3 years

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Michael Cutter // Golden Blue

Deep blue, but you painted me golden

Summary: The D.A.’s office end of the year party made you realize something about Mike Cutter.

Warnings: enough unrequited angst to break your heart a tad

A/N: The L&O franchise has taken over my life this year, and I’m not mad about it. Thanks so much for reading. Here’s to 2021! Reader tag, if you do/don’t want to be tagged for future things, just let me know: @moon-river-drifter @tinkerbelldetective @hhroadgirl @thesilenceinthestorm @breakawayfromeveryday @justjaclin @krystalsthings @c-hangingtides @backburnsss & sorry, some usernames tumblr won’t let me tag, idk why :(

3,586 words

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It was a Friday evening, past normal working hours, but no one was complaining, for once. No one was actually working either. The D.A.’s office was in very good spirits mainly because of one certain kind found in the punch. It was nearing New Year’s Eve, and this party became the annual end of year way to celebrate the holidays and the trials (literally) and tribulations that went on working here. It just so happened that the last few high-profile cases yielded very good results. So even the District Attorney had erased his Adam Schiff inspired grumpiness-- Jack McCoy laughing at someone’s story in an animated conversation. Surprisingly, he couldn’t not stop and stay for a while either. Soft choruses of ‘you will get a sentimental feeling when you hear voices singing’ rang through the floor. The string lights flickered in company to desk lamps’ warm glow. The catered food was delicious. Even, the cynics had smiles as they danced, and sang, and spoke. It was a delightful party, you couldn’t deny that.

You couldn’t help but notice though, something was missing. Well, someone was. You wondered to yourself why you were so perceptive to Mike Cutter not being within the group of mingling people in front of you. The sea of dress shirts and blazers did blend together, bustling about in the dimmer lighting, but you knew you didn’t make a mistake. You had made a first round, filled your plate and cup, and felt some sliver of emptiness still eating at you. Unconsciously, always drifting your gaze, or consciously, turning your head amidst cordial conversations. It made no sense. Until, it finally did.

You found him, with her. The judge’s clerk, you’d seen around a few times before. The one that even McCoy gave an eye-roll to, in regards to the scheduling meetings the two had. You never asked about it. It wasn’t your concern. Yet, your stomach dropped, and you forgot to breathe behind your small crowd-appeasing smile. The sense you had found in that split-second made the emptiness divide into multiple impressions you now had to define. You never thought about it before, but in that moment, you wished it was you next to him. And because it wasn’t, it became an injury. How could you be wounded by someone who never did anything to you? You managed it, scowling as ‘all I want for Christmas is you’ played. The coincidence.

Maybe, your overly emotional reaction was the effect of the punch you just finished drinking. You observed how her eyes glimpsed at Cutter, and you wondered if that’s how you ever had looked at him without knowing it-- if it was that obvious. You took a shaky breath, crushing your cup into the trash nearby. You meandered in the opposite direction, down the hall, a grin plastered to you, to hold the growing tears back. You passed a few people having quiet conversations or dancing merrily. Not interested in talking, you wanted a moment to yourself, but needed to find a place away from everyone.

You saw the side-door to Cutter’s office was left cracked open. You went inside, shutting it, forgoing office limits. It was just going to be for a minute, or at least until the watery eyes passed and you were no longer at risk for unwarranted crying in public. It didn’t matter if you shut or didn’t shut your eyes, the scene would be imprinted there. Her arms wrapped in his, his whispers in her ear. Their shared smiles. That’s all you had to see before you knew you had to leave. But leaving did nothing, because there was proof it existed. Rumours are only ideas. Ideas you can rationalize away easily, keeping your expectations safe and alive. Because there’s still that chance-- the chance not yet taken by someone else. The open-endedness of it all. It was secure and comfortable, not knowing everything-- just knowing pieces allowed yours to remain there. Minutes ago, you learned two things at once and it was a lot to grip. You now had these feelings, but nowhere to put them down. Every memory of working in this office with Mike, and the details you started to reflect back on, made things worse. Your mind looked for signs at how you betrayed yourself.

You glanced out the window whose blinds weren’t shut-- the sight causing an involuntary smile. It was snowing. The best kind too, not a storm, not a flurry. The falling wintry dust in freefall calmed you, as you raised the blinds for a better view in the expansive glass. You leaned against Mike’s desk, drawn to the sight surrounded so perfectly in the night’s lights. Each snowflake to focus on, until the next floated down. Every tiny unique crystal mimicking the direction of your few silent tears. The tears lulled and began to dry, the longer you stared. Meanwhile, someone in the other room hadn’t overlooked that you were no longer around.

“Something wrong, Mike?”

He turned to the woman still beside him, “No, I’m fine,” he spoke with a forced smile, briefly glancing down to his dwindling punch. He thought he saw you, but maybe his aging eyes had failed him.

What was the sudden fixation on your presence, though? It was no concern to him, especially now. Someone else’s question distracted him into a conversation, which then had reminded him of a case. He excused himself briefly, assuring he’d be right back, despite the comments saying he should’ve let it go, and stopped working so much. He merely shrugged with a smirk, heading to his office, as work took back over his brain for a getaway.

Cutter was a few feet from his office door, when he saw a familiar shadow inside the room. He blinked, realizing you weren’t the ghost of Christmas past or a figment of his imagination.

“What are you doing?” Mike’s voice barely chided, by the time you reacted to the noise of the doorknob turning open.

You were embarrassed, seeing him, bringing back all the emotions you had just repressed, along with some new ones. You tried to hide it, turning away.

“Watching the snow. Your office had the best view,” you managed.

“I’ll be sure to note that. Along with remembering to lock my office,” Mike sarcastically quipped, reminding himself of the reason he was here.

“Work on closing the doors first,” you spat, trying to cover up you were, in fact, sadly upset.

Cutter silently went to his desk, which was coincidently much closer to where you were, looking for the memo, and a pen. His eyes drifted across your profile, which hadn’t moved. He noticed your pensive stare, your long eyelashes moving with each blink, how the light and shadows fell onto you elegantly, making you appear like some alluring muse out of a Caravaggio painting. It’s not like he needed the current sight to know you were a masterpiece. Mike never let the thought stay long, as it crossed his mind before. He shook his head, focusing back to what he was supposed to be doing. He, however, returned to you once more because of the smudged makeup in his periphery.

“Were you crying?” His voice asked softly, hesitance and worry replacing the past repartee, “Y/N, are you okay? Did something happen?”

You never heard Mike say your name like that before-- it was so insufferably gentle, each syllable tenderly echoed in his timbre. You couldn’t even lie, nevertheless you absentmindedly tried to wipe away what he’d seen,

“Yeah, I was. It’s uh, not anything really concerning. Holiday blues, I guess,” you crossed your arms, guarding what was already broken.

“Are you okay?” Mike asked again, knowing you avoided that question.

You turned to face him, those newfound feelings hitting you up-close like a spellbound train you wouldn’t get out of the way for. His blue eyes staring into yours, eyebrows slightly furrowed, nothing different from the past yet, now you showed yourself something you weren’t sure how to handle, the realization raw as an open wound.

“No, I’m not,” you felt the tears burn where they had evaporated, ducking your head aside, “but I will be, I think.”

He was close, like many conversations before, but now you couldn’t tolerate it. A teasing joke, like mementos tucked behind glass, untouchable to you, and unwanted to him. You shifted your weight away, unattractively sniffling your nose which had started to run again.

“Y/N,” Cutter’s voice echoed again. He was confused at what he could do to help, but still wanted to, “Something obviously is bothering you. You-- you can tell me, if you want. I’ve heard it helps,” he tilted his head, pulling his lips into a meek smile which went unnoticed by you.

You kept your stare on the dancing snow in the window, hoping the cold would spread into your heart. Mike crossed his arms, and looked to the window in silence.

“Weren’t you doing something? I should go. I shouldn’t have been in here in the first place.” You offered a distraction, set to run.

“Y/N...” A third time that soft melody of your name floated into your ears, you loved how it sounded from his lips, your chest hurting as you did, like you breathed in too chilled of air.

You took a quick breath and exhaled it from your mouth for honesty, preparing your voice, your eyes tentatively wandering back to his face, which hadn’t wavered from yours.

“I-- I like you, Cutter... I know it’s not,” you fell short, not having the right words to explain how you knew there were problems in that and it suddenly ruined what you’ve built working here and it wasn’t expected. You dropped your hands against the desk, as if instructions or strength were there for you to take, glancing down, “I know you don’t--”

His hand suddenly over yours, the simple action stopping you mid-sentence. You didn’t want any new memory of him to haunt you, your hand recoiling to your lap-- that moment already too much.

“I’m sorry,” Mike murmured.

You didn’t want to hear the opening statement for his rejection, knowing it was just part of his older wiser way of letting you down easy,

“Don’t say anything. You don’t have to say anything. I know.” You bit your lip, wishing your welled tears would freeze like the water outside, a few feet away.

The office door swung open. The judge’s clerk sauntering inside, “Mike, what happened to you? Did you make your case notes? What’s this?”

“Yeah, I was looking,” he said, stepping away to pretend to search for the file on his cluttered desk, “I ran into Y/N and she was helping me since it was her case,” he covered with ease while you wiped away your few tears, back to her still.

“Right,” she doubtfully agreed, “Did you find it?”

“No, we got distracted by the snow outside, hasn’t happened like this in a long time,” he said, pointing back to the window, Mike’s well-versed prosecutorial abilities, coolly saving him under pressure, “Y/N, could you give us a moment? And, I actually do need a copy of that ‘v. Linmore’ case, seems mine’s gone missing,” he nodded to you.

“Do you want that copy, now?” You asked, voice almost back to normal.

“If you could, thanks.” Cutter replied, before clearing his throat.

You crossed your arms again, leaving, wishing the judge’s clerk a happy holidays, out of innate politeness. You went back to your desk, the party growing louder nearby. Work now being your escape from reality.

“Y/N!” Connie’s voice called, “I was wondering where you went,” she paused, adjusting her Santa hat, “Wait, why are logged back onto the computer?”

“Mike said he needed a copy of a file to make notes on.”

“Wait, he’s working too?”

“It wasn’t my idea, I was gonna head out.”

“No, not yet? Even McCoy’s still here,” she defended, and took a sip of her drink, heading to Mike’s office. The judge’s clerk passing her in the hallway-- which Connie did a double-take to.

Mike waited for you to come back. He made it so you’d have to come back. He needed you to come back. He took the baseball and mitt in his edgy hands, trying to figure out what he was supposed to say, what he could say. His abilities to remain aloof and well-spoken faltering in his own emotions that flooded over him.

“Mike, is something going on here?”

Connie.

His heartbeat suddenly readjusting to the wrong assumption of who had just walked in.

“Nice hat,” he retorted, catching the ball again in his hand.

“Why is Y/N searching for case-law at night before a 3-day weekend?” she continued, “And you’re working still?”

“I had an idea and wanted to follow up on it. Justice never takes a holiday.”

“Neither do you, it seems. Is that why your date just walked out? Or was it another reason?” She hinted, eyeing Mike with arched eyebrows.

She always knew when to call his bluffs, and she had started to see a new one emerge towards you. Connie wasn’t sure if anything had gone on, was going on, or if it was only one-sided.

Mike just looked at her, before going back to his desk, dropping the mitt, but not giving in.

“You know parties aren’t really my thing, Connie.” He said, right as you opened the door, file in hand.

Connie glanced at you and then back to Mike, trying to figure it out.

“It was just Christmas, guys, and New Year’s is coming. Please, let’s lighten up a little. Mike, make your notes, and then let’s get back to the party,” Connie ordered, taking the mania folder from your hands, then handing it to him.

Mike’s eyes darted to yours briefly, before rolling them and then taking the folder from Connie. He sighed, and marked his notes, which he fought his short-term memory to remember again, feeling two sets of eyes on him as he wrote.

“Happy?” He asked, aggravated.

“Yes. I’ll get you another drink,” Connie stated to you both, opening the door, waiting for you two to walk out. She was persuasive when she wanted to be.

You went back to party reluctantly, putting on a brave unfazed face for Connie and also for Mike. Your evidence of tears gone. Maybe, if you pretended it never happened, it’d go away. It was only after a while, and another drink, you realized Mike was now unaccompanied and alone in the crowd, probably out of politeness to you, you figured. You faked niceties and filled in hollow discussions. The punch bowl was drained, the playlist started to repeat, and people began dwindling. They were going home to their loved ones, or planning their travels to get there.

You heard the lyrics clearly in Elvis’ renown twang, ‘And when those blue snowflakes start falling, that’s when those blue memories start calling, you’ll be doing all right...’ You decided to linger, cleaning up the mess left behind, as if that would give you clarity to your own. You collected the littered plates, and abandoned decorations, arguing you didn’t mind staying behind and to not worry about it, to those who asked. The music stopped playing suddenly, and you didn’t know why. Then you saw Mike taking his ipod stereo back into his office, the same expression on his face when he was anxious about a case. Your throat went dry, you thought he had left. You made a face to yourself, hiding out in the lobby.

“Can I talk to you?” you heard Mike ask, as you re-organized the bags of trash in another row. The last elevator chimed, taking the remaining co-workers down.

“Mike,” you warned, walking past him, “I’ll be fine. If you want to discuss work, or any changes, let’s do it next week.”

“No, this can’t wait,” Cutter ordered, his tone sterner, trailing behind you but then catching up.

“Please,” you heard his voice ask from behind you.

You stopped, seeing the snow still falling in the window at the end of the hallway by Mike and Jack’s offices. No one else around anymore. Everything empty, like that sliver still in your chest. You shut your eyes momentarily, dropping your shoulders, before reluctantly turning around to him. You didn’t say anything, waiting to listen.

“This isn’t easy for me,” Mike began and you immediately wanted to defend yourself, like your vulnerability was only some situation to be handled. You held your tongue, letting him continue, “I mean, it hasn’t been easy for me,” he paused, “to have someone work with you who’s... everything you realized you wanted, but not just as a colleague, or a friend.”

You made a confused face, letting the unanticipated words sink in, “But what about?”

Mike continued, “Y/N, I’m not interested in her. I never really was,” he sighed, “I didn’t want to put you in a compromising position. I know our jobs, and like anything else, how it can be. So, I tried to pretend it wasn’t there, to see if it would go away… and it hasn’t...” his eyes lifted up from where they fell to the floor, unsure of what else to say.

Earlier, Cutter tried, but after detecting your unwelcomeness, he quickly apologized over his push of your boundaries, despite his lungs full of air ready and willing to defy everything he said in how it was supposed to be, that you thought you knew, that he told himself he’d never admit to you.

“I’ve never been the best at this,” he apprised, insecurities vaguely showing like the pale edges of grey in his hair, as he watched for your response.

You let the invisible string, you imagined, pull you closer to him, as if fate gave an impatient but graceful tug. Your eager marionette hands held onto the sides of his face, on instinct, afraid he’d change his mind and leave. You knew, this was delicate. The awareness, both of you shared, heavy.

“Neither have I,” you whispered candidly, your mouth hovering near his, your eyes flickering up to gauge his reaction, before you cautiously closed the space between your pairs of lips.

Anxieties were fleeting, as you felt his one arm sling around your waist, while his other hand shifted to cradle your neck, fingers tracing over your skin, Mike selfishly wanting to be overwhelmed by every aspect of you. Your lovely hands he tried to hold hours ago, all over him now. Every faint detail he remembered, despite telling himself not to, merging into a new vividness. He craved all his own past holiday blues to fade further away, with every future kiss.

You giggled, your heart’s pure joy escaping, in this hazy dream turned reality. Not sure if you’d get this chance of a romantic scenario, or happiest of feelings again, you wanted another fairytale-like wish to be granted in magical December-- one you missed out on earlier tonight. You pulled away at the idea.

“Your stereo’s back in your office, right?” You asked, breathily.

“Yeah, why?”

“I wanna dance with you,” you grabbed his hand, instinctively, dragging him back to his office-- Mike not even having the time for reluctance. He abandoned it, too enthralled with you, his own heart melting, following you.

Suddenly, your entwined hands unraveled and your shoes skidded to a stop on the industrial floor, like two school kids caught cutting class by the principal. You and Mike swallowed the lumps in your throat, the flushes fresh on your cheeks, for you just ran into a surprised Jack McCoy.

“I forgot my hat.” Jack gestured, putting it on, with squinted kinder eyes. His glasses dangled off the bridge of his nose, coat already on.

“You two still here working?” McCoy presumed, not letting either of you butcher an answer, “We’re closed Monday, remember?”

You and Mike nodded, offering a “‘Night, Jack.”

“And, Happy New Year, you two,” he said, strolling out. He didn’t turn back, playing naive or wise, depending. The signs he knew well from past experience. He pretended he didn’t notice your held hands, or your shade of lipstick on Mike’s face. McCoy just smiled and shook his head, as the elevator doors closed. He’d keep your secret safe. That was his Christmas gift.

“You think he knows?” Mike asked in that low voice of his, glancing at you.

You ignored him and pulled him inside his office, dropping his hand to run and press play.

“This is a first,” Mike stood, eyebrows raised at you, hands in his pockets.

“And here’s to more,” you offered a kittenish smile, slinking your arms around his frame.

You rested your head against Mike’s shoulder, swaying to the old music.

‘Here we are as in olden days, happy golden days of yore, faithful friends who are dear to us, gather near to us once more…’

He held you preciously, and placed a kiss atop your head, as if he’d done it thousands of times before,

“Here’s to the New Year, Y/N. And whatever happens.”

You both gazed towards the snow still falling outside. The picture window framing you two, the scene as if you were blissfully trapped in your own snow globe, slow dancing in the golden light, an aura around you. A glimmering haze of contentment and hope in the air and around your silhouettes which flawlessly fit together.

#michael cutter #michael cutter x reader #mike cutter #law and order fanfiction #law and order #michael cutter imagines #michael cutter fanfiction #law and order imagine #mike cutter x you #mike cutter imagine #mike cutter x reader

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strangertheory · 3 years

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I saw a post a few weeks ago that had some fans describing "anti" tags as indicating that bloggers vehemently hate certain characters or ships. Some fans were upset that anti tags even exist and are used in the first place.

I know that some fans use anti tags when they want to rant about how much they hate something, but I want to mention that tags are ultimately meant to help Tumblr users find and filter content that they don't want to see and that they're meant to be a tool as much as they've become a way to express commentary.

I know that some fans use anti tags aggressively. I generally don't. I am not aggressively "anti" since I view the way that people relate to stories and characters as something very personal and sacred, but I do use tags (ex. #anti-harringrove, #anti-mileven) so that anyone that likes those ships can filter out my blogposts if they'd rather not hear my thoughts that are more critical of those ships.

I don't use tags to say "Ha! Don't ship this!" or to say "I hate X!" I use tags so that other Tumblr users can choose to avoid reading any of my content that isn't a wholly enthusiastic and glowingly positive analysis of certain ships or characters that they love. I use the tag "#anti-harringrove" so harringrove shippers can filter out any posts I write that are critical of the ship. It's for their benefit and truly not meant as a jab.

Ships and favorite characters are a personal thing and we all relate to stories differently.

This blog is strictly anti-pedophilia (ugh I hate that this is such a problem on tumblr that this even needs to be said) and I'll admit I'm not fond of fans erasing established lgbtqa+ identities of fictional characters (ex. shipping romantic Robin x Steve), but beyond that I'm really not out here telling anyone that they shouldn't appreciate stories and characters in their own way that they appreciate and relate to the most.

Yes I might express that I'm wary of how popular Billy and Harringrove are from a general "bigger picture" societal criticism of negative stereotypes and the celebration and fetishization of toxic masculinity etc, but I empathize with individual fans that want Billy to be a better person and want him to have a nicer storyline. I've seen Harringrove headcanons on Tumblr that are very cute.

Similarly, I might roll my eyes a teeny bit because I personally do not see Mileven as having the roots and foundations of a close relationship in itself and I believe that much of Mileven is narratively dependent on Mike's attachment and affection for Will and I think El deserves to be loved for who she is (plus in season 3 I read El as becoming notably less attached to Mike), but I completely respect that many fans find their own understanding of the dynamic between Mike and El to be very sweet and relatable and they want to ship them together. Fans see something that they appreciate and like and I'm not looking to spoil anyone's day. But I'm still going to write about my own interpretation of their character dynamic, and so when I describe El as realizing that there's a lot more to explore in the world and she's not particularly devoted to Mike and I agree with the characterization of their relationship as a "first first crush" (and point out the internal dialog "Mike? Mike who?" in the s3 script) then I'll tag my blogpost as "anti-mileven" so that anyone that only wants to see pro-mileven content can avoid my post and not have to read about why I see Mileven as (currently) superficial and underdeveloped intentionally.

I hope that makes sense to everyone!

My anti tags are not meant to imply that I want people to stop shipping whatever they ship and relate to. My anti tags are to help other people filter the content that they want to read when they are on Tumblr. 👍

#anti #anti harringrove #anti mileven #how I use anti tags #not personal and I respect all ships!#stranger things #tagging culture

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eretzyisrael · 3 years

Link

Interviews with volunteers from the Jewish community who are helping victims of the disaster in Florida.

On Thursday, June 24, 2021, tragedy struck Champlain Towers, a 12-story residential building in the Miami suburb of Surfside. Half of the complex suddenly collapsed in the early hours of the morning, burying entire families in the rubble. Days after the disaster, the remains of several people killed in the crush have been recovered and 150 people remain unaccounted for.

Champlain Towers is home to a diverse community that includes many Jews. In the days that followed this catastrophe, Jews and others around the world have come together to help search for victims and to comfort the families desperately waiting for word of their loved ones.

Searching Through the Rubble

Leon Roy Hausmann, a volunteer with the Mexican Jewish rescue organization Cadena, is on the scene in Surfside and spoke with Aish.com about the sense of solidarity he feels with the community and the many victims of the calamity.

Cadena volunteers help people “regardless of nationality, regardless of religion; we don’t discriminate,” he explains. After working around the world to help search for and rescue victims of over 1,000 natural disasters, helping search for residents of Champlain Towers feels close to home. “It just feels more immediate when it’s our people who are victimized by this event.”

When Cadena volunteers heard about the Chaplain Towers collapse, they sprang into action, dispatching seven Jewish search and rescue experts to Miami, and mobilizing local Cadena volunteers in the Miami area. “This is the highest technology in the market,” Hausmann notes of his team’s equipment, which includes sonar devices that can detect sounds underneath dozens of feet of rubble, search dogs trained to detect human scent, and x-ray machinery.

“We’re working with the Fire Department of Miami-Dade County," Hausmann notes, describing their work as round the clock and nonstop. Cadena volunteers have also dispatched psychologists and therapists who are working with family members who are still awaiting news.

Thousands of local residents have been volunteering to bring food and clothes and other items to the family members who are waiting and also to those families who made it out of Chaplain Towers alive and are currently homeless. “Thousands of volunteers have been bringing food and clothes and anything the families need. It has been very touching to see.”

One of Hausmann’s most moving moments during the past few days came on Shabbat, the day after the collapse. About 17 Cadena volunteers were at the site late on Friday night, providing support to the local fire department rescuers. “We made Kiddush for the whole team,” Hausmann recalls, “and also for all the Jewish people who are still trapped underneath the rubble.”

Diaspora Affairs Minister Nachman Shai at the site of a building collapse in Surfside, Florida, just outside Miami, on June 27, 2021

On Sunday, June 27, a group of ten Israeli Home Front Command soldiers arrived in Surfside. They went straight to the site of the building collapse and got to work alongside Cadena volunteers and local Miami-area first responders, searching in the rubble for survivors and also for the remains of victims of the collapse, bringing their unique search and rescue experience and expertise.

Rabbi Counselling the Bereaved and the Waiting

“The need right now is endless. You think of all these different families that have been erased in the blink of an eye,” explained Rabbi Dr. Fred Klein, one of the key responders in the area.

Rabbi Klein is the Executive Vice President of the Rabbinical Association of Greater Miami, Director of Mishkan Miami, and is board certified in clinical pastoral care. When Champlain Towers collapsed, the Jewish Federation of Greater Miami sent Rabbi Klein to help. He spoke with Aish.com during a busy day, filled with meetings and work coordinating the many elements of response to the disaster.

Right now, there are two main areas where Rabbi Klein and other volunteers are focusing their efforts. “One is actually the area where they’re doing search and rescue,” he explains. Throughout Sunday, June 27 – the Jewish fast day of the 17th of Tammuz, when Jews were fasting despite the extreme heat in Surfside – Rabbi Klein worked to take groups of family members to visit the site. “It’s extremely traumatic for them.”

A second area where Rabbi Klein is working is a local hotel where hundreds of family members of people who are still missing are gathered. “They came from around the country. They’re waiting for news and I think it’s a very difficult place to be psychologically.” He notes that many family members are praying “for a miracle” that their loved ones are found alive. “It’s hard to know what to do, or how to feel, or how to plan,” without knowing whether their loved ones are still alive. The hotel is offering kosher meals, all prepared by local volunteers. “So much good will has been flowing in from the Jewish community since the tragedy," Rabbi Klein explains, helping both Jewish and non-Jewish victims alike.

He notes that donations have poured in from throughout the area and that some local synagogues have transformed themselves into distribution centers for donated goods. “It’s not just the families who are waiting for news of a loved one,” he notes: “There are also families who lived in Champlain Towers who escaped. They are in need too. They’re homeless right now and are going to have to rebuild their lives.”

“I’m an Orthodox rabbi,” he notes, “but you see rabbis from all different walks of life – men and women – they’re on the ground right now. They’re trying to help diverse groups of Jews.”

Vital Medical Support

Many of the volunteers supporting the first responders in Surfside and aiding families of missing people are members of Hatzalah of South Florida, a Jewish group that improves health and medical outcomes by “augmenting existing emergency medical services in South Florida with community-based state-certified EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) volunteer responders.”

Joseph Dahan is one of the Hatzalah volunteers working in Surfside. “We’re broken down into several different teams,” he explained to Aish.com – with each team focusing on a different area of need.

At the site of the building collapse itself, “we’re providing the triage and medical support for the search and rescue teams,” he notes. When rescuers become injured or dehydrated on the job, Hatzalah volunteers help tend to the first responders.

Hatzalah also operates units of volunteers at the hotel where hundreds of family members are waiting for news. They employ psychotherapists and also work with other organizations to help counsel people. Hatzalah provides support medically and emotionally during these trying times.

Running a Storehouse of Donated Goods

Rabbi Gidon Moskovitz currently lives in Houston, but he and his family are soon planning to move to Bal Harbor – a neighboring suburb near Surfside – when he becomes the rabbi of Young Israel of Bal Harbor later this summer. As soon as Rabbi Moskovitz heard about Champlain Towers disaster, he knew he had to be with his Florida congregants, and flew to the area to help.

What he found was a huge outpouring of chesed (acts of kindness and help). Local Jews were collecting food, toiletries and other items to donate to families who lost their homes and possessions in the collapse. Soon, the garage of Young Israel of Bal Harbor was filled with donated items to distribute. Many of his congregants have friends and relatives who are still missing, and they are doing all they can to help.

“We knew they had nothing.”

“As soon as we heard about things Thursday morning at the crack of dawn, we checked on our (congregational) families,” recalls Mike Baranek, the Director of Congregational Engagement of Temple Beth Shalom in Miami Beach, in an Aish.com interview. He soon found that two of his synagogue’s members lived in Champlain Towers. “Thank God, both families were alive,” he notes. “One family walked out (of the building) in their pajamas” – unable to return to the destroyed building, they cannot access any of their family possessions.

Baranek notes that local Jewish families immediately opened their homes, giving displaced residents places to stay. “It’s been an amazing response from the city and from the Jewish community.” His congregants have been working to gather donations and to help in any way they can. “We got to the point where announcements were made that no more physical supplies are needed.”

The day after the collapse, Temple Beth Shalom delivered Shabbat dinner to their congregants who’d lost their homes. In addition to food, the synagogue also delivered kippahs, tallitot (Jewish prayer shawls), siddurs (Jewish prayer books), wine and candles for Shabbat. “We knew they had nothing,” Baranek explains.

What we can do

With the search and rescue operation still underway, there are many ways that we around the world can also step up to help. “At this moment the most important thing is to pray for the lives of the people who perished and who may still be alive,” notes Cadena volunteer Leon Roy Hausmann. Rabbi Moskovitz has been emphasizing the “power of what prayer can do.” He wants people to understand that prayer is just as important as other types of actions.

During times of tragedy, it’s a Jewish custom to recite Psalms. Consider spending some time reciting one or more Psalms each day. Here is a link to English translations of these powerful, timeless Jewish prayers. https://tehillim-online.com/tehillim-translated-into-english

We can also donate funds to help sustain the volunteers working in Surfside and the families who are in dire need.

The Greater Miami Jewish Federation has set up a fund to help victims of the Champlain Towers collapse. https://jewishmiami.org/gift/surfsidebuildingcollapse/?fbclid=IwAR318kF3kFQzOJaVXD3mVG0Zedgd0-f1SGr-wWGCZGi5B0zUhMOKafbr4Rk

The Shul of Bal Harbour, which is near to Champlain Towers and has served as a center for receiving and sorting donations, has set up the 8777 Collins Avenue Relief Fund. This fund will “be dispersed as needed directly to the victims and families.” https://www.theshul.org/8777

Donations to Hatzalah of South Florida can be made at this site: https://www.hatzalahsouthflorida.org/donate

#Israel #USA #Florida #Surfside

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actuallylorelaigilmore · 2 years

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2022 movie of the week: masterlist

if you’ve known me for any time at all, you should know by now that i will not watch very many movies this year. i’ll aspire to, i’ll think it’s a good idea, but it’s just not that likely to happen. however, that shouldn’t stop me from the fun of trying! and this year i’m aiming for a slightly different type of goal.

my plan is to watch one movie a week. if i happen to watch more than that, great, but it’'ll be a bonus and won’t count for a following week. i’ll review my weekly movie same as i review all the movies i watch, and check them off my watchlist as i go. (my watchlist just gets longer every year. maybe 2022 is the year i finally make a dent!)

4th man out (2015)

892 (TBD)

12 years a slave (2013)

a family man (2016)

a man called otto (2023)

a room with a view (1985)

a simple favor (2018)

a single man (2009)

a wrinkle in time (2018)

about time (2013)

admission (2013)

after yang (TBD)

all the bright places (2020)

always be my maybe (2019)

ammonite (2020)

amsterdam (2022)

an education (2009)

ant man (2015)

ant man and the wasp (2018)

anything's possible (2022)

aquaman (2018)

arrival (2016)

atonement (2007)

august: osage county (2013)

babylon (2023)

bad education (2019)

be kind rewind (2008)

bedazzled (2000)

begin again (2013)

big eyes (2014)

billy elliot (2000)

black panther: wakanda forever (2022)

blockers (2018)

bohemian rhapsody (2018)

bowfinger (1999)

boy erased (2018)

brideshead revisited (2008)

bright young things (2003)

burn burn burn (2015)

cairo time (2009)

can you ever forgive me? (2018)

catherine called birdy (2022)

chef (2014)

clemency (2019)

coco (2017)

colette (2018)

crazy rich asians (2018)

crouching tiger, hidden dragon (2000)

crush (2022)

cyrano (2021)

demolition man (1993)

devil’s knot (2013)

die hard (1988)

disclosure (2020)

disenchanted (2022)

do revenge (2022)

dog day afternoon (1975)

downton abbey (2019)

downton abbey: a new era (2022)

dreamgirls (2006)

dual (TBD)

earth girls are easy (1988)

effie gray (2014)

eighty for brady (?)

encanto (2021)

enola holmes (2020)

enola holmes 2 (2022)

eurovision song contest: the story of fire saga (2020)

fantastic beasts: the crimes of grindelwald

fantastic beasts: the secrets of dumbledore

fast color (2018)

fighting with my family (2019)

fright night (2011)

galaxy quest (1999)

girls trip (2017)

glass onion: a knives out mystery (2022)

gone girl (2014)

good luck to you, leo grande (2022)

goodbye christopher robin (2017)

gosford park (2001)

gunpowder milkshake (2021)

happy death day (2017)

happy death day 2u (2019)

happy texas (1999)

her smell (2018)

hidden figures (2016)

high school musical (2006)

high school musical 2 (2007)

high school musical 3 (2008)

holes (2003)

honk for jesus. save your soul. (2022)

honor society (2022)

how to talk to girls at parties (2017)

how to train your dragon (2010)

hysteria (2011)

i am not your negro (2017)

i don’t feel at home in this world anymore (2017)

i, tonya (2017)

i wanna dance with somebody (2022)

if beale street could talk (2018)

inception (2010)

infinitely polar bear (2014)

jackie (2016)

jane got a gun (2015)

joyful noise (2012)

judas and the black messiah (2021)

junebug (2005)

jupiter ascending (2015)

jurassic world: dominion (2022)

just mercy (2019)

kajillionaire (2020)

keeping mum (2005)

knife fight (2012)

kubo and the two strings (2016)

laggies (2014)

last christmas (2019)

last holiday (2006)

late night (2019)

legally blonde (2001)

lemonade mouth (2011)

little (2019)

logan lucky (2017)

love guaranteed (2020)

love, simon (2018)

ma rainey’s black bottom (2020)

magic mike (2012)

magic mike xxl (2015)

mansfield park (1999)

marry me (2022)

mars attacks! (1996)

mary queen of scots (2018)

master (2022)

me and earl and the dying girl (2015)

meet the robinsons (2007)

megamind (2010)

men in black international (2019)

mermaids (1990)

miss peregrine’s home for peculiar children (2016)

miss pettigrew lives for a day (2008)

miss sloane (2016)

mixtape (2021)

monkey business (1952)

monuments men (2014)

moonlight (2016)

moonrise kingdom (2012)

moonshot (2022)

mr. magorium’s wonder emporium (2007)

mr. mom (1983)

much ado about nothing (2011)

nancy drew and the hidden staircase (2019)

nanny mcphee (2005)

nanny mcphee returns (2010)

never let me go (2010)

newsies (1992)

no time to die (2021)

nope (2022)

northanger abbey (2007)

not okay (2022)

obvious child (2014)

on the come up (2022)

other people (2016)

pacific rim (2013)

paddington (2014)

paddington 2 (2017)

palm springs (2020)

parasite (2019)

paris is burning (1990)

passing (2021)

penelope (2007)

pete’s dragon (2016)

phoenix rising (2022)

pirate radio (2009)

please stand by (2017)

pride (2014)

pride and prejudice and zombies (2016)

professor marston and the wonder women (2016)

return to oz (1985)

rise of the guardians (2012)

rita moreno: just a girl who decided to go for it (2021)

rocketman (2019)

roll bounce (2005)

rosaline (2022)

saving face (2004)

say anything (1989)

scream (2022)

see how they run (2022)

seeking a friend for the end of the world (2012)

shoplifters (2018)

short term 12 (2013)

sing street (2016)

sleeping with other people (2015)

someone great (2019)

soul (2020)

spiderman: far from home (2019)

spiderman: homecoming (2017)

spiderman: into the spiderverse (2018)

spiderman: no way home (2021)

spin me round (2022)

spotlight (2015)

spring awakening: those you’ve known (2022)

spy kids (2001)

stage fright (2014)

step up (2006)

suicide squad (2016)

teeth (2007)

the 355 (2022)

the anniversary party (2001)

the batman (2022)

the beguiled (2017)

the best exotic marigold hotel (2012)

the breadwinner (2017)

the children act (2017)

the craft: legacy (2020)

the disaster artist (2017)

the divine order (2017)

the emperor’s new groove (2000)

the eyes of tammy faye (2021)

the fall (2006)

the favourite (2018)

the fight (2020)

the fighting temptations (2003)

the five year engagement (2012)

the gentlemen (2020)

the godfather (1972)

the godfather part 2 (1974)

the godfather part 3 (1990)

the great gatsby (2013)

the guernsey literary and potato peel pie society (2018)

the hate u give (2018)

the hunchback of notre dame (1996)

the hunt (2020)

the iron lady (2011)

the legend of tarzan (2016)

the master (2012)

the matrix resurrections (2021)

the notebook (2004)

the old guard (2020)

the outfit (2022)

the photograph (2020)

the prince of egypt (1998)

the prom (2020)

the queen (2006)

the second best exotic marigold hotel (2016)

the secret garden (2020)

the skeleton twins (2014)

the spy who dumped me (2018)

the suicide squad (2021)

the trial of the chicago 7 (2020)

the truman show (1998)

the unbearable weight of massive talent (2022)

the united states vs. billie holiday (2021)

the velocipastor (2018)

the way he looks (2014)

the woman king (2022)

their finest (2016)

this means war (2012)

tootsie (1982)

treasure planet (2002)

troop zero (2019)

turning red (2022)

two lovers and a bear (2016)

us (2019)

valley girl (2020)

velvet goldmine (1998)

venom (2018)

venom: let there be carnage (2021)

victoria & abdul (2017)

walk the line (2005)

west side story (2021)

wet hot american summer (2001)

what we do in the shadows (2014)

where’d you go, bernadette (2019)

widows (2018)

wild target (2010)

wonder woman 1984 (2020)

yesterday (2019)

young adult (2011)

zombieland: double tap (2019)

#2022 motw #movies #2022 goals

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calpalirwin · 3 years

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Birds of a Feather

Request: Heey. I don't know if you're into MBTI but I really think ashton is an ENFJ and I know that I'm an ENFP and I would be incredibly happy if you could write something with that 💕

Word count: 2.8k

And away, and away we go!

I blew into my hands before rubbing them fiercely together as we walked along the crowded city sidewalk, my breath visible in the frigid air. I gave them a quick shake, flexing the numbness out of my fingers before shoving them in my jacket pockets and taking a few longer strides to keep up with my friends. Britt’s laugh was ringing off the buildings as she clung on to Luke’s arm, his own arm steady around her waist. A pace behind them was Michael and Crystal, their gloved pinkies interlocked as they walked. And bringing up the rear was Calum, and, of course, me. “So how long is this play?” Calum piped up loud enough for Britt to hear him.

“Uh… Y/N said it was like 2 hours I think? Plus the intermission. Why?” she asked, turning to look over her shoulder at the man.

“Just curious,” Calum grinned. When Britt turned back around, he glanced over at me and rolled his eyes. “Two fuckin’ hours? Seriously? Our one night off? In New fuckin’ York. And we’re spending it watching a play? Fuck…”

If he was looking for sympathy about basically being a fifth wheel on group date night, Calum had another thing coming. “It’s a musical, not a play, Cal,” I said, nudging his shoulder with mine.

“There’s a difference?”

“Yeah. Musicals have singing. That’s why they’re called musicals.”

Calum rolled his eyes again, letting out a small snort of laughter. “Genius, mate. MuSiCaLs HaVe SiNgInG,” he mocked.

I laughed with him. “Aw, c’mon Cal. It’s fuckin’ Broadway! Can’t go to New York, and not see a show.”

“Uh… yes we can. We do it all the time.”

“You fuckers gonna hurry up before or after I freeze to death?” Michael asked. Crystal was huddled into his side. Beside them, Britt and Luke were hugging each other with Britt’s arms looped through Luke’s jacket as he sheltered her from the cold.

I swallowed the pang of envy I felt at my friends’ relationships, and flashed a smile. “Yeah, let’s do this.”

“Wake me up at intermission,” Calum said, feigning a yawn and stretching his arms up over his head.

Luke punched him.

“Ow!” Calum winced, hitting Luke back. “The fuck was that for?”

Luke shot a glance over at Britt who had turned to get our tickets from will call, her shoulders slightly hunched. “Britt hasn’t seen Y/N in months, and she’s really excited about this. I guess it’s like a really big deal for her friend, plus she misses her. Don’t fuckin’ ruin this for me just cause you’d rather be at some club.”

“Plus, this musical is supposed to be really good,” Crystal put in.

“They made it a movie, yeah?” Michael asked.

“I think so,” I answered. “With… what’s her name…” I snapped my fingers and my mind fumbled for the name. “Anna Kendrick! That’s it. It’s a movie with Anna Kendrick in it.”

“That’s who Y/N’s playing!” Britt’s voice piped up as she started to hand us our tickets.

“She’s playing Anna Kendrick?” Calum asked stupidly.

“No, she’s playing Anna Kendrick’s character. Which happens to be the lead,” Britt explained, her pride in her old friend evident in how bright her voice was growing. “She’s so amazing, you guys are gonna love her. And the show!”

We all murmured in answer as we made our way inside the theater. Calum thumbed through the playbill ushers were handing out. “You said she’s the lead?” he asked.

“Yep!”

“Hmm… interesting,” he muttered under his breath, still looking at the page.

I thumbed through the little booklet myself, figuring out what was just so interesting about this to Calum. “There’s only 2 roles…” I murmured back.

“How great of an actress can Britt’s friend be to get a lead where it’s literally the only option?” Calum continued to whisper so only I heard him, still hopeful I’d take his side of being bitter about tonight’s activity, but I still wasn’t accepting his pity party invitation.

“Probably really fuckin’ good to get the only female role,” I whispered back with a grin.

The brown eyes rolled as he plopped down in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest. “Sometimes you’re too optimistic for your own good, you know that? Happy about playing fifth wheel…”

“We’re the fifth and sixth wheel regardless of what we do, Cal,” I told him, taking the seat next to him.

“Yeah, but at least at a club, I can get me a seventh wheel, if you know what I mean.”

“We go to clubs all the time, Cal. One night isn’t gonna kill us. Plus we’re being supportive of Britt’s friend, isn’t that right, guys?”

“Right!” they all chorused, Luke shooting Calum another sharp look.

Calum raised his hands in surrender. “Alright, alright. Hey, Mike, wanna hit the concession stand with me?”

Michael rocketed up from his seat. “Snacks?”

~~~

Whatever bitterness had taken over Calum was diminishing by intermission and was completely erased by the end of the show. “Damn, Britt, ya girl’s got some pipes.”

“See?!” Britt gloated, sticking her tongue out at him. “I told ya she’s amazing!”

“Yeah, she is,” I marveled in what I thought was just in my head. But based on how all my friends’ heads swiveled towards me with raised eyebrows had me thinking I’d actually said it out loud. “What?”

“Ooooo! Does someone have a little crush?” Michael teased, making kissy faces for dramatic effect.

“Damn, Ash. I knew you were a romantic type but I didn’t realize you fell that quick,” Calum snickered.

“Aw! Look at how red his cheeks are!” Crystal pointed out.

“I-“ I stammered, every part of my face warm, even the tips of my ears. “I was just agreeing with Britt and Cal. Y/N is uh… very talented. You know with the acting and the singing… she really draws in her audience. It’s uh… yeah…” Call it a sixth sense, but I had a good feeling about the girl. And she was Britt’s friend, and Britt and I got along fine. Who’s to say I couldn’t get along with her friend? Her stunning friend with the captivating voice that I was sure would find its way into my dreams? Okay… so I was a bit of an impulsive romantic. But so what? What was the point of having a good instinct if I didn’t listen to it?

“Well, c’mon!” Britt encouraged hurrying out of our row of seats. “She told me something about a stage door. Oh, she’ll probably want to go get food. Are you guys okay with that? If we go find a diner or something?” Her eyebrows pulled together and her teeth worried at her bottom lip as she looked up at Luke with big hopeful eyes. I smiled as Luke nodded at her before turning to us with a similar expression. They were like golden retriever puppies, the two of them. The same childlike glee with a dash of shyness that sometimes came out of nowhere. That was the thing I had noticed about my friends and their relationships. Both Luke and Michael had found someone like them. Someone who matched their energy. And maybe that was my problem. Maybe I just needed someone that matched mine rather than someone who counteracted it like I’d previously thought. Maybe opposites actually didn’t attract, and it was a lot more birds of a feather flock together sort of thing. Or maybe I was overthinking love dynamics way too much for my own good.

“I’m always down for food,” Michael shrugged.

“Of course you are,” we answered with eye rolls and friendly laughter.

By the time we got to the stage door, there was a small but decent sized crowd milling about. “Feels weird being on this side of things, huh?” Calum questioned as he drew up his hood, and I wondered if it had more to do with how cold it was outside, or out of years of instinct. Whatever it ended up being, the rest of us also pulled up our hoods to hide our faces, both from the people and the wind.

I was about to entertain Calum’s comment with a chuckle about how it was definitely a little weird to be the ones lying in wait rather than the ones about to be ambushed, but the door opened and everyone started clapping and whopping. A few girls even screamed that ear splitting scream as the male lead raised a hand in greeting, flashing a million dollar smile. But he was of little interest to me. My focus zeroed straight in on the woman of the hour who came out just behind her co-star. Eyeliner smudged in the corners of soft, bright eyes like she’d taken off her stage make up in a hurry, and she looked very comfortable in a hoodie, leggings, and a beanie pulled snugly down over her ears. A stark contrast from the costumes she donned on stage only moments again, but breathtaking all the same. Her eyes crinkled in the corners as she smiled and her mouth moved with words of gratitude and greeting.

Britt was practically jumping in place with her excitement to see her friend, but we waited for the crowd to thin before Britt let out a loud and excited “Y/N!” Then, she ran the short distance to crash into her friend.

“Britt! Oh my god! I didn’t know you were coming!” Y/N matched her friend’s excitement as she hugged Britt tight to her.

“I told you I would come!” Britt beamed.

“I know, but I didn’t think you meant like tonight. And you brought company!” Y/N’s attention turned to Luke first. “You must be Luke. Heard a lot about you. I’m a hugger, is that okay?”

“Nice to meet ya, darling,” Luke smiled, offering her a hug. “The show was amazing.”

“Aw, thanks! And let’s see…” She brought a finger to her lips as she studied us all. “You two,” the finger pointed at Michael and Crystal, “have to be Michael and Crystal, right? Michael, I hear you give amazing hugs.”

“That would be us,” Michael laughed before giving her a tight bear hug like they were long lost friends.

“Oh damn!” Y/N laughed, her face flushed. “Now that’s a fuckin’ hug! Crystal, you are one lucky lady.”

“Don’t I know it,” Crystal nodded, hugging the other woman. “So wonderful to meet you.”

“Oh, same! It’s amazing to put faces to the names Britt tells me about. I mean, not that it’s hard to put faces to your names cuz… well… it’s just really nice to actually meet you all finally. Which brings me to Ashton and Calum, yes?” she asked, her attention now fully on Calum and me.

“That would be us. I’m Cal,” Cal went first, giving her a quick hug in greeting like everyone else had.

“So that means you have to be Ashton,” she said.

“Yep,” I managed to get out before her arms were wrapping around my shoulders. My arms snaked around her back, reveling in the feeling of holding her against me.

“Don’t tell the others, but you’re the one I’ve been most excited to meet,” her voice whispered in my ear for only me to hear before she let go, and I let her step out of my grasp. I swear she even shot me a covert wink before clapping her hands together. “Oh this is great! I’m so glad y’all could come see the show. I’d love to continue to hang out with y’all, but I am starving. So if you guys had other plans you wanted to do to-“

“Food sounds great,” I interrupted. “Right, guys?”

“I could eat,” Michael agreed while Britt and Luke shot me a grateful look.

“Okay, awesome! There’s this great diner a couple blocks up. Walking distance really. Just um… let me run back inside real quick and grab the rest of my things. Oh, I’m so glad you’re here!” She gave Britt another quick squeeze before dashing back inside the theater.

The man she’d come out with snapped out of his own haze to realize that it was just him and us standing around. “Thanks for coming to the show,” he smiled politely as he took a few slow steps towards the door, giving us ample time to stop him and ask for autographs or pictures, but we didn’t stop him. No offense to him, but we weren’t here for him. But we gave a polite wave and muttered a congratulatory “great show,” as he walked inside.

A few minutes later, the door pushed open and out popped Y/N, laughing loudly as Mr. Broadway laughed with her just a step behind, his hand above hers on the door to help push it open. “I’ll see ya tomorrow, you goof,” she kept laughing, giving him a swift hug.

“Aw c’mon!” he flirted. “The club’s just a short walk down that way. I know the bouncer. Bound to be a good time.”

“I can’t,” she smiled, holding up her hands in apology. “I’m starving for 1, and look! My friends are in town.” One of her arms slung its way across my shoulders, the other across Britt’s. I tried not to smirk.

The man gave a small laugh as he nodded. “Alright. Well if you guys change your mind after you grab that bite to eat, you know how to reach me.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. Later, Dean.”

“Later, girlie.”

She blew out her breath as the man walked in the opposite direction from us. “That guy’s a character… C’mon! To food!”

~~~

I’m not sure how it happened, but one minute we were all in a diner, swapping stories with Y/N like we were all old friends catching up instead of just meeting for the first time, and the next it was just her and I walking through Central Park. I was too busy being captivated by the way her eyes sparkled, and her hands flew as she talked animatedly, a smear of ketchup in the corner of her mouth to listen to what my friends' excuses for leaving were, or even if they had tried to get me to follow. All I cared about was being in her presence. “You know, you’re really great, Ash,” she said as she stopped and leaned against the stone wall of the bridge we were crossing, a street lamp casting her in a soft glow. “Can I call you Ash? I heard them all calling you that, so I figured it was okay. But if it’s one of those ‘only my closest friends get to call me that’ then obviously I won’t.”

“Ash is fine,” I giggled. “You’re pretty great yourself. Which makes this next part a little narcissistic, but you kinda remind me of myself a bit.”

“I don’t think that makes you narcissistic. And yes, I’m a hundred percent saying that because I see it too, and don’t want to be a narcissist myself. We have very similar souls, I think.”

“I think we do too,” I told her as I rested my arms on the ledge of the bridge, looking out at the water. “So, um… What's the deal with that co-star of yours? Dean?” I tried to ask slyly.

“Great actor. Bright career. But actually a narcissist.” She gave a small chuckle before sighing. “I’m single. These actor types… well they know how to lay on the charm, let’s put it that way. I don’t want to date someone as a publicity stunt, ya know? I want it to be real. So I’m pretty selective about who I date.”

“Mmm, so that would be a no to coffee in the morning?”

“I didn’t say that.” She spun around so her back was no longer resting along the wall of the bridge. She propped her left elbow on the ledge, cupping her chin in her palm, and her right hand came to rest lightly on top of mine. “I really like you, Ashton. Britt… She tells me stories about you guys all the time. And I get how weird it is to only hear stories about a person and think you’d get on with them. And I also get that there’s only so much you can learn about someone in a few hours through even more stories. But-- and I could be wrong, but I don’t think I am-- I get the feeling that you really like me too. That we have a connection that somehow transcends needing to know more about each other for us to be certain about how we feel about each other. That…” She paused for a moment, looking for how to explain the unexplainable.

“That if I don’t kiss you, I might die,” I supplied, hopeful she meant something along those lines.

“Something like that,” she breathed before we both leaned in, our lips meeting in the middle.

Tag List

@aquarius-hood1996 @creator-appreciator @philthepegacorn @myfavfanficsever @cxddlyash @youngblood199456 @stormrider505 @tarltongrl96 @iknowyouthinkimbulletproof @hoodhoran @metalandboybands @maybeememez

#birds of a feather #ashton irwin #ashton irwin fic #ashton irwin x reader #5sos #calpal irwin

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1994sunflower · 4 years

Note

I know how possessive you’ve made Mikey in Heaven but a really cool idea from ‘why do you want him (Ashton) to join us?’ In Part 1 But you could do it where the boys are getting high and Ashton’s depressed because he can’t find anyone or he’s been dumped and talks about how he hasn’t had sex in a looooong time so Mike’s like ‘for fucks sake’ and suggests Y/N helping him out (only if she wants to) and Mikey sits and watches and dictates what happens and oh boy😰 JUST IMAGINE

uMM thank you for making me imagine this.....this was literally so hot to write. like i know michael would only let it happen if he knew for sure he would be 100% in charge even if he was just watching which makes it all the more hot to think about.

thank you so much for this prompt! hope you like it.

in which Michael shares you

Smoke billowed out throughout the small living room. The smell of marijuana was especially uncomfortable for you and you hadn’t been around it enough to fully get used to it. Michael didn’t smoke it often and when he did, you usually made excuses to not be around.

But this time, you’d been apart for a few weeks and you were willing to do pretty much anything to be by his side. And by his side, you were. Your small frame was snuggled into his side as his sitting form slouched back on the couch, his arm wrapped around you, his hand resting on your ass lazily.

He was wearing a white tank, his tattoos on his arms and shoulders on full view, and blue jeans, three silver chains dangled from his neck. He seemed relaxed and you bit your lip as you watched him smile down at you with hazy eyes. The fumes might’ve started getting to you because a pit of desire formed in you. But you pushed it away.

Michael put the blunt against his lips again and you could see his already far away look get even more distant. They were just slightly bloodshot, red lining the whites of his eyes. He had an idle smile on his face, amused at nothing.

Ashton, however, was anything but amused. He sat on the other side of the couch, on the curve so he was facing you two directly. He had to get up every so often to grab the joint from Michael. Right now, it was in his hands. After a particularly harsh exhale, his entire face was hidden in smoke.

“I’m telling you, I’m never going to find love.” He was droning on about his failed love life as he had been for the last hour or so. The one girl he had liked enough to actually stick around had just dumped him and he was crushed. Well, as crushed as a guy that only knew her for two months could be. But still, it was the closest thing he’s had to a girlfriend in a long time.

Ashton was a sweet guy but he was a lot like Michael in the sense that he’d prefer to smash and dash. Mostly because he couldn’t think of a girl who he genuinely would like to have around for anything more than to just get off. He wasn’t trying to be insensitive but he always believed in not looking for a girlfriend. If the right one came around, he would know. So far, the right one had not come around.

He thought she did, for a second there. The tall volleyball player that he had hooked up with a few months prior had made a good case for herself. She was funny, down to earth and seemed to be a perfect match for him. She didn’t try to leave immediately after having sex with him and that just proved to be a sign that she wanted more.

And she did, in her defense. For a while. Until she got tired of being monogamous and decided to break it off with him. Leaving Ashton in an undeniable funk. He’d been trying to get out, trying to find sex to distract him but he couldn’t even get that. His game was off, he was thinking to much of his ex, if you could even really call her that. Hell, he hadn’t even been playing his video games as much as he used to. It was getting bad.

“Is love even real?” Ashton waved the blunt around, taking one final drag before passing it back to Michael. He held the smoke in his mouth for a while, “Maybe I’m cursed or something. Haven’t even gotten laid for months, I’m talking literal months. Hell, maybe it’s been a year. I’m fucking blue balled.”

You had been listening with fake interest for a while, he was really letting out his heart and you didn’t want to be rude or hurt his feelings. You felt bad for the guy, he was such a good guy. You always found Ashton to be really cute so you didn’t really understand his lack of luck.

Michael, for his part, was just tired of hearing his friend talk. Even with the buzz, the giddiness and relaxation, the blunt in his hands gave him, it couldn’t completely erase Michael’s pension for anger.

It had to be the marijuana messing with his mind, putting thoughts there that would never have been there otherwise. But all Ashton needed to was to get laid in order to get his magic touch back. Then he would be back to his normal self, hooking up with multiple girls a week and being happy instead of moping around all the time. He wanted his friend to be back to his normal self. His high and the thought of the idea that had popped into his head, had him already getting hard.

“Oh, for fucks sake.” Michael groaned out, startling your eyes up to him. He had been silent until now. Michael nudged you, making you look up to him quizzically but his gaze was firm on Ashton’s, even as he spoke to you. “Why don’t you help him out, little one.”

You blinked, afraid that you misheard him. You must’ve, right? The Michael you knew would never share you with anyone. Even his best friend. He was deeply possessive and just the thought of you with someone else was often enough to set him off. But here he was, suggesting it.

Ashton too, stared at him with a slacked jaw. “What?”

Your eyes met Ashton’s and a heat spread through your body. You couldn’t deny he was hot and the thoughts the rushed through your brain of him were nothing short of dirty. You’d never thought about him in that way before, he was only ever just your friend, but it was surprisingly easy once you thought about it. He was kind, funny and someone you trusted, someone Michael trusted.

Michael shrugged easily. “Just once. If it’ll stop you from crying about not getting laid like a fucking pussy, why not? Might get you out of your rut. If Y/N’s up for it.”

It was weird logic but it strangely made sense. So you pushed yourself up to a sitting position, your legs swinging. You nodded, biting your lower lip in loosely concealed anticipation. You would just be helping him, it was for his sake more than it was for you. But it was hard to hide the way your rubbed your thighs together as you got wetter with just the thought of what was to come.

Ashton still seemed out of it, caught off guard when he nodded right along side you. “O-okay. I mean…if you’re saying we can…”

It was dangerous territory, when it came to you, Michael could be lethal. But Michael nodded slowly, pushing your back just enough for you to know to stand up.

Your steps were hesitant and small as you made your way over to a wide eyed Ashton. You weren’t inexperienced anymore when it came to sex, Michael had seen to it. But that didn’t stop the nerves that were building up inside you. Michael was still the only man you’d ever been with and you were worried it would be too different with anyone other than him.

But it seemed like, every step closer to Ashton, somehow raised your confidence just by a bit. Maybe it was the pure disbelief in his eyes, like he couldn’t believe he would actually be able to have you, even just for a day, or maybe it was his already hard dick, standing in alert in his basketball shorts. But by the time you sunk to your knees in front of him, you had a big smile on your face.

Michael watched you shiftlessly. He brought the joint to his lips again, knowing he’d be the only one to be using it from then on. Never did he think he would find pleasure of watching you with another man. But as he watched you slowly peel away Ashton’s shorts and boxers, saw the way Ashton fidgeted nervously and excitedly with his movements much more rapid than yours, he rubbed himself over his jeans. It turned him on to see Ashton throw his head back at just the sight and feeling of your small hands wrapping themselves around his hard dick and your innocent smile shooting up to him. A surge of pride swelled through him because it was his girl that was making Ashton so weak.

Your hands took a hold of Ashton’s cock delicately, looking up at him through your eyelashes. Hearing him groan already just as your face moved closer to his length, you shot up a cute smile. It really had been a while if he was reacting like that just by your touch, or maybe it was just the situation that amplified all the pleasure. You would understand that as you felt like your panties were stuck to you due to the pooling wetness between your legs.

Your heart was thumping in your chest as you leaned forward, taking your boyfriend’s best friend’s cock in your mouth. You felt Ashton’s hands go straight to your hair, groaning. He couldn’t believe this was happening and neither could you.

You licked the slit at the head of his cock, making his hips buck involuntarily. Bobbing your head up and down on his length, you moaned against him, knowing just what the vibrations would do to him. Your tongue was flat against him and every time you pulled your mouth away, your hands were right there, moving circularly as you stroked him. Just like Michael liked it.

“Oh my…fuck.” Ashton’s words were like music to your ears.

You mouth moved faster and you glanced up at him to already find him staring down at you, his mouth open. When your eyes met, his eyes shut at the pleasure of it all. He never considered himself to have the same tastes as Michael. But as he saw you there, leaning forward so that your ass was sticking out behind you, his dick in your mouth, but with still the most innocent eyes he had ever seen, he couldn’t help but understand what Michael had seen in you. It was hot, to see you still have that good girl appearance while simultaneously doing something so filthy. A sick desire to make you cry for him overtook him, to rid you of any semblance of purity as he did the dirtiest things he could imagine to you.

You pushed yourself deeper onto him, your mouth taking his entire length until the tip of his dick hit the back of your throat. You pulled away, breathless, watching his spit covered dick before you did it again. You repeated this until Ashton accidentally thrusted into your mouth, making you gag and pull your mouth off of him in a hurry.

“Watch it.” Michael growled from behind you, to which Ashton nodded rapidly.

“S-sorry.”

But it didn’t deter you. In fact, you went right back to put him in your mouth, like you craved it. Having his room right next to Michael meant he overheard a lot. One of the things he heard that he never quite understood was Michael calling you a whore. Before, he never understood why. You were a good girl. But as he watched you giggle as you sucked his dick like a lollipop, popping him out of your mouth, before going back to taking his entire length in your throat, he understood. You were a cock hungry slut.

Your ass was facing Michael directly. Michael, who had freed his cock from his jeans and was stroking it freely at the sight in front of him. At the sight of his girlfriend deepthroating his best friend. His hips bucked up to his hands. This was so much hotter than he could’ve imagined.

“Pull her hair.” He commanded Ashton, knowing exactly what you liked.

Ashton looked hesitant at first before following Michael’s guidance. His fingers gather your hair before pulling, gently at first and then harder when he heard (or felt, rather) your delighted moan.

The sight in front of him made Michael giddy. The way he felt in control as he watched his own personal porn video was a feeling he could get addicted to. His hand stroked his dick faster as you gagged deliciously around Ashton’s cock. He loved those sounds and he loved the view he had of your ass displayed so willingly to him.

“That’s enough, baby girl.” He called out and felt a sick satisfaction when you immediately obeyed him, pulling your mouth away to look back at him, your hand still stroking Ashton’s wet dick at an even pace. He saw the way Ashton’s face was contorted, how close he was to his finish but he wanted to show you off just a bit more before everything came to an end. “Let’s show him just how good your pussy is.”

Both he and Ashton watched as you stood up, letting your miniskirt (which wasn’t doing much to cover you anyway) and panties drop to the floor, your shirt and bra joined them not long after as your tits bounced when freed.

Ashton’s mouth hung open, his eyes trailing your perfect body. Michael groaned himself, feeling the primal need to go to you, to fuck you, to mark you as his. But he refrained. No, he wanted Ashton to experience you, to make him see what Michael had that he didn’t.

So, as Ashton pulled his own t-shirt over his head, you turned back to Michael, waiting for instructions like the obedient whore you were. Michael nodded in permission to you, “Go ahead, ride him.”

To which you smiled, nodding. The thought of you having sex with Ashton didn’t bother him nearly as much as it should have. Maybe it would if he was completely sober. Instead, the thought of seeing his girl show off her body and everything Michael had taught you made his already hard dick painfully harder.

Ashton slouched back on the couch, giving you room to set your legs on each side of his body. He was holding his breath, still in awe that this was actually happening. He was really going to fuck his best friend’s girl.

Slowly, you lowered yourself onto Ashton, moaning when you felt him enter you and gasping out entirely when you bottomed out, taking him in completely. Your hands were on his shoulders and your thighs touched his. He wasn’t as big as Michael was but it felt good nonetheless.

Ashton groaned, grabbing your hips as he felt your tightness. You were the tightest pussy he’s fucked, which was weird considering how many times he knew you and Michael had sex. But he didn’t think much on it, just enjoyed the feeling of your walls hugging him. His hold on your hips were more to help you move but you were the one who controlled the pace and he was happy to let you, knowing that he was lucky this was even happening in the first place.

He wasn’t going to press his luck by fucking up into you suddenly like he wanted. He knew everything that was happening was going to be dictated by Michael; his orders and his permission.

“Oh my God.” You moaned.

Your pace wasn’t slow or fast but as you got into it, as the thought of Michael, your boyfriend, watching you fuck Ashton really processed in your mind, you began to move faster. Your moans became quicker and more desperate. The feeling of Ashton’s cock going in and out of you and the taboo of the situation was making you feel frenzied.

“That’s right, go faster. Show him what a good girl you can be.” Michael’s voice was level but his hand was stroking himself quicker. “You like letting Ashton fuck you while your boyfriend watches?”

It was too much. Everything was too hot. You nodded, closing your eyes as your head was thrown back in ecstasy, “Yes…yes. Fuck, I do, daddy.”

It wasn’t directed to him. Ashton knew that. But it was so hot.

“Good, enjoy it because it won’t happen again.”

Your face completely overwhelmed with pleasure, the sound of skin slapping as his balls hit your ass with how deep his cock was driving into you. It was like an overload to his system and he couldn’t help but thrust up into you, fast and rough.

The way you screamed out when he did so indicated just how much you liked it. When you screamed out his name, he nearly came right then and there. His grip on your hips tightened as he watched your face when his thrusts became more punctuated. Moaning, he shifted his hips at an angle, to get to the one spot he knew would make you weak.

Michael watched intently at the two moaning figures in front of him. The way he was able to control the two of you did wonders for him. In fact, as he watched Ashton’s face contort in pleasure and watch the way you pussy stretched to engulf his dick, it was one of the most erotic things he’d ever seen. He joked about letting Ashton fuck you or join the two of you every so often but the real thing was better than he could possibly imagine. He was sure he wouldn’t last long as he watched you desperately hump his friend.

Michael spit on his palm before going back to work on his dick. He could hear the sound of your wetness as Ashton’s dick drove into you. He wasn’t sure what was doing it more for him: the actual visual of what was currently happening, the fact that all of you knew he was still in charge even if he was just watching or the sounds of your beautiful moans.

He watched your bare body move up and down expertly, your breasts bouncing with you temptingly. He felt his mouth start to water.

Ashton was entranced as well. His hands reached up but stopped just short of touching you. His eyes traveled to Michael quickly, just catching his singular nod before he took your tits in his hands, squeezing them as you closed your eyes at the feeling.

“Choke her.” Michael called out to Ashton. It was what he wanted to do himself, he wanted to get up and choke you, slap you and call you what you were: his bitch.

But he let Ashton have his moment. He wouldn’t let him do everything Michael would do, he couldn’t possibly let him degrade you in that form. But he could give a little to make his friend happy.

And boy did it make him happy. Ashton’s hands went up to your neck immediately, choking you enjoyably. You couldn’t appreciate his hands like you could Michael’s. They were bare, devoid of tattoos and it made it seem like it was missing something. But they did the job nevertheless. The pleasure of him fucking you was amplified tenfold when part of your oxygen was cut off. You felt it tingling your fingers, your head, your feet. In fact, you were almost shaking when he wrapped his free arm around your waist, holding you still.

Michael was moaning out loud, watching. His hips thrusted desperately against his own hand, watching you get pleasured. “Fuck her like she’s a toy. She likes that, don’t you? You dirty fucking slut.”

With Michael’s permission, he thrusted into you at his pace. It was a bruising pace, one where he only had one goal and that was to get himself off and find his release. Somehow, the knowledge that he saw you and was treating you like just a warm pussy he was using made you feverish with lust. It was so wrong but you’d never wanted Ashton as much as you did in that moment. You wanted to prove to him that you could get him to where he wanted and make Michael proud that his girl was the one to do it.

“Fuck, that’s good, Y/N.” Ashton grunted, his face hard as he focused entirely on you and the pleasure. He couldn’t believe just how good you were at this.

So when you clenched your walls around his cock and began moving yourself against him, stopping every so often to grind onto him, you were panting wildly, feverishly.

“You’re cock’s so good, Ash. Fuck me harder.” You leaned down so your face was directly next to his.

Ashton’s eyes widened, looking over your shoulder to watch Michael, who was still jacking off. You’d gotten your dirty mouth from Michael. And Michael’s grin was enough to prove it.

Ashton watched your face as his thrusts got rougher, “You like that?”

At your silent nod, Ashton’s hand pressed harder around your throat, his other going down to your inner thighs and slapping them roughly. But it just made your arch your back and moan louder. Making Ashton wonder just what Michael had done to you to make you go from a quiet virgin to this.

With your face so close, Ashton had instinctively moved to kiss you, to press his lips against your softer, fuller ones. But he was stopped cold by Michael’s warningly low voice.

“You can’t kiss her.” His eyes were glaring and Ashton didn’t dare to try to challenge him on it.

Ironically, it was too intimate. While Michael didn’t mind you having sex with Ashton, knowing it would mean nothing, knowing you would always come back to him, Michael knew kissing was something that signified more to you. And so, he was the only one that could kiss you. No one else.

Ashton’s hands let go of your neck and instead went up to gather your hair again. He pulled at your hair, harder and harder, watching your face with as it evolve further in pleasure.

When you came around him, he felt you shake against his arms, your pussy closing in around him at each spasm. It was an intense orgasm and he was sure it was because of lurid situation. Michael groaned behind you, hips stuttering against his hand, cumming all over his hands and stomach. The sight of the love of his life cumming around Ashton’s cock set him off. Even when apart, you both came together in unison, you were so in sync with each other.

You clenched around him one more time before he groaned out, “I’m gonna cum.” He looked up at you as you kept riding him as if you didn’t care that you were overstimulating yourself (which you didn’t, all you wanted was to please Ashton and make Michael proud) and then to Michael helplessly.

Michael shook his head, “Don’t cum inside her.” That was only for him.

So Ashton nodded, obediently, something Michael was surprised pleased him as much as it did; Even the man his who just finished fucking his girlfriend knew who was in charge.

Ashton picked your small frame up, off of his dick and next to him on the couch. Instead, he pumped himself a few times before the strings of his cum erupted onto the black couch he was sitting on. He creamed all over the seat and couch’s backboard, groaning loudly as he did so, “Shit, Y/N.”

You giggled delightedly next to him, your legs spread as you laid on your back, fucked out. You had no energy to stand up or even move much. Your cum was slowly trickling out of your used pussy.

Michael smirked, tucking himself back in his pants. “How did my girl feel?”

Ashton looked at him in wonder, “She was absolutely fucking amazing, holy fuck. She’s so tight.”

You felt a deep set happiness at the prideful glint in Michael’s eyes when he looked over your naked and glistening body next to his best friend.

“I know.”

You watched Ashton with sleepy eyes, “Feel better?”

Ashton had forgotten all about what he had been talking about before everything. So he laughed when he remembered. “Hell yeah I do. I can’t believe that just happened.”

Michael stood up to his towering height and handed Ashton the blunt that he had put out a while ago. He went to the fridge to get a beer, patting Ashton’s shoulder on his way.

“No problem dude, if it got you to stop whining.”

You took a hold of Ashton’s hand soothingly, “Anything for you, Ash.”

#5sos smut #michael clifford smut #ashton irwin smut #michael clifford x reader #ashton irwin x reader #bad boy smut #bad boy michael

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terrence-silver · 4 years

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please share any silver/daniel thoughts, ideas or head canons. as twisted as you like! i’m so starved for content.

Alright, I'm gonna drop some random headcanons, for starters - -

- Terry knew just how lonely Daniel was from the get-go of stumbling into his life. His mom wasn't around. No biological dad on sight. No siblings to advise or protect him. His girlfriend situation was very on and off. He wasn't the most popular kid in school even before this. He was practically homeless in a big city. His only actual friend was an elderly Japanese man and he was spending his collage fund (throwing away his future?) on opening up a store that might or might not bring in any profit. Really, the kid was ripe in vulnerability and guess Silver just sensed it from a mile away.

- Second of all, if only begrudgingly, Daniel vaguely reminded Terry of himself, at one point in time. Specifically when his parents died and left him nearly destitute at age seventeen and all alone to fend for himself before lying to join the army and entering a world full of shit in Vietnam. He was a nice kid too once. Honest, ambitious, athletic, sensitive and kind of a sweetie - just like the Larusso boy. Main reason why he knew exactly how to manipulate him so damn effectively. Because he knew exactly which signs to look for and which weaknesses to target and exploit. Because it was like looking straight at a mirror of his own past.

- In a very convoluted way, outside of revenge shenanigans in Kreese's name, Terry probably felt he was doing Daniel a huge favour. Breaking him the way Terry himself was broken and turning him stronger in the process. Preparing him for the real world, the way he saw it. A real world that's hardly as nice and forgiving and kindly. Erasing this nonsense about pacifism and respecting your opponent and all that crap Miyagi has thought him. Terry had to be thought his lesson in an actual war. Daniel's lesson would be much softer in the long run. Being harassed by Mike Barnes, Snake and Dennis is hardly as bad as running through a minefield in a jungle somewhere, right? Right. It's a twisted logic, but to Silver it made sense.

- He probably love-bombed him. It's possible that Daniel didn't receive the amount of flattery, praise, enabling, complements and just overall sucking-up as much as he did while Terry was briefly his teacher in his entire life. His goal was just to make this kid feel as good as he possibly could. Not just make him feel invincible as a combatant - but make him feel loved. Cared for. Like a student. Like a friend. Like an anything. It didn't really matter, so long as Daniel let him in. Relied on him. Your mom is rather off taking care of some sick relative? What a shame. Your would-be crush is suddenly seeing her old boyfriend? Unbelievable. Your old teacher wont teach you anymore? Well, I would never do that to you. I'm thus better then all of them combined.

- Also appealed to Daniel's financial situation and upbringing to further manipulate him. Yeah, he probably immediately knew Daniel's just some poor Jersey kid from a single parent household. His whole guise wasn't just to appear humble for the sake fooling someone. No. He wanted and needed Daniel to fundamentally relate to him and see him as a kindred spirit lost in a sea full of rich LA households lining the hills in this city he hated and didn't wanna move to from the get-go. You know, those large houses inhibiting those same kids that bullied him? That didn't really accept him in the first place? Terry wanted to be the exact opposite of that image. See, I'm just like you. I never fit in either. I've a broke-down car that sometimes doesn't start - just like your mom did. Don't I feel familiar to you? Yeah, sure, you can trust me. Why wouldn't you? I'm not like them. Except he's even worse then all of them combined.

- Probably felt a tinge of jealousy over the father / son relationship Daniel and Miyagi had. Because first of all - why cant he have that? Why cant someone respect him so much? In his own eyes, he's by far a superior fighter, so it would logically reason he'd garner the admiration and closeness these two have, right? Have someone look up to him the way Daniel looks up to that - that - ugh. His own actual father wasn't much of a figure to look up to either so it probably irked him doubly so - and he did literally have to pay Mike Barnes to be his student in this tournament. So, that was strictly transactional and a mutual business arrangement. Nothing more. But, Terry was rich, Terry was handsome, Terry was cool, he had all the traits necessary to be someone's role model yet he couldn't make that sheer, warm human connection Daniel and Miyagi had and he probably resented both of them for it. And if he cant have what they'll have, he'll just destroy it and destroy both of them in the process. And then possibly even usurp Daniel from Miyagi too if he can.

#terry silver #daniel larusso #karate kid #karate kid 3 #cobra kai #anon request #some nonsense that's been on my mind lately #regarding these two

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commodorecliche · 3 years

Note

Would you mind sharing some music recs? I love your taste in songs and share your love for glass animals so is there anything else u listen to that sounds like them? Thanks love ur blog ❤️

oh gosh oh gosh this is such a high pressure ask. i love music and i like a wide array of genres, and i don’t usually have “favorite” songs, but rather groups of songs i am super into at one time. i do have a few faves though. so i’ll tell you those, i’ll tell you some i’m vibing with right now, and i’ll rec some that are sort of similar to glass animals. i’ll also link to all these songs so you can just listen without having to search them.

Quick note: I like a lot of metal and heavy rock, so I’m just going to exclude those sort of songs/artists entirely since those don’t really vibe with Glass Animals (if you are interested in those songs and artists, feel free to message me again). I also won’t include Glass Animals songs I like, since you probably are familiar enough with them.

A Few Fave Bands/Artists (in no particular order):

Brand New

Alt-J

Lana Del Rey

The Decemberists

Fever Ray

Florence + the Machine

Garbage

Pink Floyd

Poe

Paper Route

Iron & Wine

Gorillaz

The Fratellis

Kill Hannah

Kyla La Grange

The Neighbourhood

A Few Fave Songs:

Don’t Worry, We’ll Be Watching You - Gotye

Taro - Alt-J

The Gospel of John Hurt - Alt-J

Lit Me Up - Brand New

Could Never Be Heaven - Brand New

Be Gone - Brand New

Daisy - Brand New

Blood Makes Noise - Suzanne Vega

Here I Dreamt I Was an Architect - The Decemberists

#1 Crush - Garbage

Lurk - The Neighbourhood

I Know Why - Marian Hill

To Your Health - Keaton Henson

Be Calm - Fun.

If I Had a Heart - Fever Ray

Hustler - Josef Salvat

Coming Down - Dear Euphoria

Wake - The Antlers

Passing Afternoon - Iron & Wine

In the Woods Somewhere - Hozier

We Have It All - Pim Stones

Stranger Things Have Happened - Foo Fighters

Moondust - Jaymes Young

Songs I’ve Been Vibing With Lately:

The Knife - Kyla La Grange

White Foxes - Susanne Sundfør

Closer - Kings of Leon

Dreams - ZHU, NERO

When I Was Older - Billie Eilish

Saw You in a Dream - The Japanese House

Buttercup - Jullian, Sophie Wood (Jack Stauber cover song)

Doin’ Time - Lana Del Rey (Sublime cover song)

Somebody Else - The 1975

The Moss - Cosmo Sheldrake

Jesse - Ivri Lider

Guillotine - Mansionair, NoMBe

Temple - Baauer, M.I.A., G-DRAGON

When the Party’s Over - Billie Eilish

Paint It Black - Ciara (Rolling Stones cover)

Something About Us - Daft Punk

Identity - Grandson

Rox in the Box - The Decemberists

I Took a Pill in Ibiza (Seeb Remix) - Mike Posner

Songs Similar-ish to Glass Animals (this is so hard though because Glass Animals has such a unique and singularly distinct sound, but I really tried!):

Taro - Alt-J

Tessellate - Alt-J

Nara - Alt-J

The Knife - Kyla La Grange

Gutter - Paper Route

I Lived on the Moon - Kwoon

Dinosaur Bones - Stop Light Observations

Genghis Khan - Miike Snow (the original and the Louis the Child Remix)

Erase/Rewind - The Cardigans

Gemini Feed - BANKS

Heart’s a Mess - Gotye

The Gold (Nick Waterhouse Remix) - Manchester Orchestra

Ghost of Mine - Kailee Morgue

Touch Me, I’m Going to Scream Pt 2 - My Morning Jacket

A Little Death - The Neighborhood

Atlas - Battles

Gold - Sir Sly

Open Season - Josef Salvat

Mercy Street - Fever Ray (Peter Gabriel cover song)

Keep the Streets Empty for Me - Fever Ray

Swimming in the Flood - Passion Pit

Good Luck - Broken Bells

Traveling at the Speed of Light - Joywave

West Coast - MISSIO (Lana Del Rey cover)

Fools - ufo ufo

Daddy Issues - The Neighbourhood

Wires - The Neighbourhood

you can also check out my tag “#commodore radio” for any of my music reblogs, or check out the “#playlist meme” tag, that’s from an old playlist meme i do sometimes, but there are LOTS of good recs in those posts.

god this was literally the hardest list of recs I’ve ever done. Glass Animals are so unique that nothing else is overly similar to them. but hey, I tried! I hope you like some of these.

#commodore radio #music #music recs #anonymous #asks #glass animals #my recs

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when-to-sit-in-silence · 3 years

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Okay, I promise I’m going to get to my inbox soon, but I wanted to write Jonathan’s reaction to Bob’s death first, so -

“What happened?” shouted Jonathan as Hopper threw open the door to his back seats. He held an unconscious Will in his arms, who was pale and dressed in nothing but a hospital gown. The sight made Jonathan’s stomach flip.

Hopper started to seat Will in the car as he called out to the two still running from the Hawkins Lab entryway. “Come on!”

In the passenger seat, Nancy adjusted to see out of Jonathan’s window, her gaze landing on Mike, who was very nearly having to drag Joyce along with him. Jonathan just barely caught sight of her face, white with horror, twisted in pain. Quickly, he searched her up and down for signs of an injury - a limp or a mark or a stain of blood on the scrubs she was wearing - and with the briefest flurry of relief through his lungs, he didn’t find anything. But he could hear the gravelly sobs ripping out of her chest. He would have launched himself out of the car to her side if not for Nancy’s hand on his back urging him to stay put.

Once he’d gotten Will in the seat, Hopper rushed for Joyce. He told Mike to get in the car as he wrapped his arm around her waist and hauled her the rest of the way. “Go, Joyce, go,” he murmured, helping her squeeze into the remaining space in the back. She clung to his scrubs, holding him like her life hinged on the strength of her grip, but as soon as she was fully seated, Hopper pried her fingers away.

“Hop-!”

“I’m following. I’ll be right behind you,” he said, half to Joyce, half to Jonathan. His own car wasn’t parked far off. “Go back to your house.”

“Got it,” Jonathan replied.

Hopper slammed the door shut and took off. Jonathan stepped on it, tires screeching as they flew out of the parking lot.

Nancy turned to the back seat. “What happened back there? What’s going on?” she demanded.

Joyce shuddered with another terrible sob. She had Will pulled against her now. His head hung limply as she carded her fingers through his hair. Jonathan stared at them in the rearview mirror, heart in his throat, dreading Mike’s answer.

“It’s…it’s the shadow monster,” Mike whispered.

“The what?”

“This - force from the Upside Down. It’s inside of him.”

“Is he -?” Jonathan couldn’t finish the question.

“He’s alive,” Mike said, glancing at Will. “He’s sedated. He can’t be awake. He’s…a spy. The shadow monster is using him to…”

He trailed off as Joyce cried out and folded forward, pressing Will’s head against her chest.

“Using him to hurt people,” Mike finished, almost inaudibly.

“Mom?” Jonathan said.

Joyce was shaking her head. “He’s gone,” she wailed. “He’s gone. He - he - he was almost -“

“Will?” asked Jonathan, suddenly chilled to the bone.

“Bob,” she cried. “Bob’s gone! They killed him! They - oh God.” Her arms tightened around her younger son and she dropped her face into his hair, her body wracked with more jolting sobs.

Jonathan went numb with shock. Quietly, too quietly for Joyce to hear, he echoed, “Bob’s gone?”

He felt Nancy’s touch on his arm. Several moments passed of silence among them all before Jonathan felt his heart sink, an empathetic agony stab through his gut as the truth began to settle. A hundred emotions swirled through him at the the same time, carried in the same plunging wave: this floaty disbelief that a guy like Bob, naïve and ordinary and almost frustratingly well-meaning could have even found himself so swiftly enveloped in his family’s otherworldly bullshit; this outrage that his mother, so desperate for a moment of solace and the luxury of normalcy should lose the person who made her feel closest to any of that; this dense guilt for the times Jonathan had wished his mother didn’t see something in guy, all for the selfish, stupid reason that he wasn’t perfect, that he wasn’t the answer to all their problems, that the best thing he could do was make Joyce happy, and somehow that wasn’t enough. Jonathan’s breath escaped him cool and unsteady. He quickly wiped his eyes, which, to his chagrin, were starting to water.

That last one might’ve been the worst of it. As if it would have made any difference, Jonathan wanted to erase all of those thoughts from his mind, all that history of stubborn mistrust, and replace it with gratitude. For all Bob would have done for his mother. For everything he had refused to acknowledge before this moment, when it was far too late to tell him.

Jonathan made a turn at a red lit intersection. He glanced at Will and Joyce through the mirror, his heart crushed for them.

“I’m sorry, Mom,” he murmured. “I’m so sorry.”

He held one of his hands back towards her, and she grabbed it with a squeeze of his fingers. Though her eyes continued to carry the gloom of intense anguish, the worst of her sobs started to ease up after a moment. And Jonathan didn’t let go until they reached the house.

#jonathan byers #joyce byers #bob newby #will byers #mike wheeler #nancy wheeler #jim hopper

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breanime · 4 years

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Dynamite (Part One)

Before we get into this, I’d like to sketch out a few things about this mini-series. It has six parts total, and each part was inspired by a different song. You don’t need to listen to the song while you read, but I’ll be linking them in case you want to check them out at some point. I’ll link the song to the chapter title (see below). Okay--here we go. Let me know what you think! :)

*cover by @moonlit-void-to-the-far-unknown*

Part One: 6, 8, 12

After Jakes left, Graceland hadn’t been the same.

The house hadn’t been burned, surprisingly, after Mike went to the agency about all of Briggs’ sketchy dealings, but there had been consequences. Johnny, Mike, Charlie, Paige, and Briggs were still in the house, but they were working under new restrictions. Namely: they had to report daily to their “Head Agent”, a suit who hadn’t been in the field for a good 30 plus years named Holden Ranker. Paige conned the name ‘Golden Wanker’ (in her best British accent) for him the day he moved into Graceland. He was a no-nonsense guy who didn’t seem to trust any of them to do their jobs correctly, so naturally, he wasn’t the most popular guy in the house…

…still better than Briggs, though.

The house was divided; Jakes left and never looked back, no one trusted Briggs, Paige and Mike’s relationship/friendship was strained at best, hostile at worst, Charlie was thinking of leaving Graceland and branching off, and Johnny.

Johnny was starting to rethink this whole concept of them being a “family”.

But still—they did good work, and Johnny was proud to be a part of that, even if he felt like he was living on autopilot most of the time.

Currently, he’d just gotten back from closing a case with Mike and Charlie, taking down a human trafficking ring, and he had a few days off until his next case, so he slept in. A year ago, Johnny would have been up and at the beach as soon as the sun came up, a board in his hands as he ran in the sand with Briggs and a reluctant Mike—but a lot had changed in a year, and now, all he wanted to do was have a deep, dreamless sleep and be left alone.

But instead… He dreamt of you.

You’d dated throughout high school and into college, and honestly, Johnny used to think he would marry you. But you broke before he went off to basic training, and when he got back—you had moved on. In his dream, Johnny was holding you, kissing you as you laid in his bed, and it was like he could still feel your skin, smooth and warm, under his fingertips. He could still feel the excitement, the gentle pounding of his heart whenever he was around you. He could see you, so beautiful, as you smiled over at him, wrapped up in his sheets and his love. Back when the two of you were together, Johnny had felt so loved, so warm… It was a feeling of overwhelming happiness, being with you, and when he was with you, lips on yours, bodies connected, his name falling from your pretty, perfect lips like a prayer, he felt so alive. When you were his, Johnny had been so sure of himself—he was going to get his citizenship, become something, and make you his wife. But when he went into training with the Navy SEALS, before he left, he knew that him leaving would be the beginning of the end for you two. He knew that was the end.

Johnny turned in his bed, awake now from his memory-dreams of you, his fingers itching to feel you under them, his body aching from the absence of you. What would life be like, he wondered, if he had stayed? Could he have made things work with you? Would you have stayed with him, despite his line of work? Could he even be with you as a Fed? Shit… Would you have a family? The thought of impregnating you and creating life with you made Johnny’s heart ache, and he clutched his chest. Restless, he jumped out of bed, grabbed his board, and headed to the beach.

On his way out, he ran into Charlie, Mike, and Paige in the kitchen.

“Hey, Johnny, good work on that last case,” Paige greeted him, “Way to kick some ass, Tuturro!”

“Yeah,” he reached past Charlie, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek, and grabbed a banana, “thanks… I’m gonna hit the beach…”

“Need company?” Mike asked, blue eyes eager.

Johnny gave him what he hoped was a convincing smile. “Nah, not today, Mikey. Be back in a few hours!” He called, leaving before they could see the unhappiness in his eyes.

But they did.

“He’s been really mopey lately,” Paige noted, sighing as she heard the door slam behind him, “I’m worried.”

“Yeah, you ain’t the only one,” Charlie said, leaning against the counter, “He’s been withdrawn, pensive… I don’t know what to do.”

Mike looked at his feet; he knew a part of Johnny’s pain was because of him. He was, after all, the one who had (almost) burned Graceland and exposed Briggs for what he was—a lying sneak. But in the process, he’d ripped Johnny’s family apart, and Mike, after all the things he’d been through since he first set foot in Graceland, had eaten an entire table of humble pie, and now… “I just want the Johnny I know back,” he said lowly.

Charlie wrapped him up in a hug. “I know, Mikey. Me too… Me too.” Sighing, she pulled back. “With everything that’s happened; Jakes leaving, Briggs,” she made a face, “Holden… Plus the shit we see every day in these streets… I’m afraid Johnny’s lost his faith in people, or even the belief that good people exist.”

“Mm,” Paige glanced over at Mike, “I know the feeling…”

Briggs walked into the kitchen then, clearing his throat so they knew he was coming. Mike and Paige greeted him with a cold stare, and Charlie sighed again. “Hey guys,” he waved a manila folder in the air, “Holden just handed me a new case, and, uh… It’s gonna be a tough one for JT…”

Johnny always loved the water. He’d been a swimmer since he was a baby, always wanting to test his limits, go deeper, go further, see how long he could hold his breath. As he rode on the waves, he let his mind wander, and unlike earlier, he leaned into it. He was safe, after all, when he was on the water. He couldn’t stop thinking about you. He thought about you from time to time before—you were his first love, how could he not?—but this was different. This was… His mind and heart, for once, were on the same page, focused in on you and asking himself “what ifs” and hypotheticals.

He wondered if you ever thought about him, or if you ever cried yourself to sleep thinking about him, like he did sometimes thinking about you. Did you ever reminisce on him? He moved against the waves, a natural surfer, and wondered if you ever asked about him. Did you wish, when your phone rang, that it was him calling you? Did you still feel the same way you used to about him?

Did he?

Johnny took a break, laying on his back on his board, staring at the sky. He did. He knew he shouldn’t; it had been around 6 years since you’d went away, but he swore, he could still feel your kiss—feather light and sweeter than anything he’d ever tasted—on his lips. Sighing, he flopped onto his stomach and padded back to shore. Johnny sat in the sand, staring out at the water, pissed and irritated at himself for letting his mind go down the you-shaped rabbit hole.

“I should be over her,” he whispered to himself, shaking his head at himself, “I should know better—after all the shit I’ve been through,” images of Lucia, Briggs, Mike, Jakes, a strung out Charlie, Paige’s bloody face flashed through his mind, “I should know better!” He dropped his head between his knees and closed his eyes—

—and all he could see was you.

Opening his eyes, Johnny stretched out and laid in the sand. He started counting the time he’d spent apart from you in the sand, breaking it down to about 6 years, 8 months, and at least 12 weeks since the last time he’d been with you, since he walked away from you and into the arms of the U.S government, too damn naïve and reckless to realize that—maybe—he could have had both. He stared at the tics in the sand, each representing the large chasm of separation between the two of you, and he wondered if you were okay—he hoped, with everything he had, that you were. He hoped that you were happy and safe and living a fulfilled life, he really did. Annoyed and depressed with his line of thinking, he hopped up, erasing the marks in the sand with his foot, and decided to go back to the house and get a head start on his next case. He knew Holden already had one set up for him—their new “boss” was determined to keep them busy so they “stayed out of trouble”. Johnny grabbed his board, and for the first time in a long time, he was actually eager to start a new case. He needed—welcomed—the distraction.

When he walked in the house, he heard soft, low voices in the living room. Tugging his hood half-way onto his head, Johnny walked towards the voices, recognizing them all easily: Briggs, Charlie, Paige, and Mike. Holden, apparently, was wherever the hell he was when he wasn’t breathing down their necks.

“Johnny,” Charlie said, almost breathless as she stood up.

He quirked an eyebrow at her, noting the files all over the room. He could see figures—huge amounts of cash, apparently—and a few Spanish sounding names on the papers, but it wasn’t until he looked all the way up, at the face plastered on the big screen TV mounted on the wall, that he realized why Charlie had said his name like that. On the screen, straight out of his dreams—

—was your face.

You were his next case.

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

Thanks for reading! Please let me know what you think! Part Two will be up in a few minutes, any and all comments would be appreciated! I love hearing from you guys, and you know how insecure I can be, haha!

Everything Taglist: @sweetybuzz25 @mrsjaxtellerfan @rhabakoli @encounterthepast @realduckvader @justvnash @knowles-morgan @ateliefloresdaprimavera @evanlys19 @nyxxnoxx @carlaangel86 @luminex3 @jigsawlover10 @gollyderek @otomefromtheheart @lexxierave @crushed-pink-petals @amethyst09 @falsehopesndreams @a-dorky-book-keeper @witchygagirl @glimmerglittergirl @nich0lasmatthews @ben-c-group-therapy @felicity-x0 @amirra88 @yourfellowangel @vibranium-soul @xserenax-13 @whoaitslucyy-blog @gemini0410 @ktiz90 @theoceanhathsolace @starrynite7114

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#johnny tuturro x reader #johnny tuturro imagine #johnny tuturro #manny montana #Johnny tuturro series #dynamite

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