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#SOME OF US DONT HAVE THAT YET HAROLD
the-eyemunchies · 25 days
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A small discussion. We all know ghoatbusters is autisti media, but can we talk about how all the ghostbusters are definitely neuroatypical (except for Winston).
So this is my Thread(i will only be using the movies but i could add so much more with the Real ghostbusters):
So let's start with the easy one, Egon is Obviously Autistic, he is the steriotypical autistic person, blunt, which shows difficulty in communication, has a hard time with socialization and has repetitive and behaviour. (Yes, those are the main 3 traits to define autism according to the dms-5 ), but we can add in some other stuff like he restrictive eating and hyperfocus that arent defining traits but are also associated.
Now let's go for Ray, i see a lot of people mentioning of autistic behaviour related to Ray and well due to Dan himself being autistic. but i will throw a thing out here, Ray has ADHD Not autism, specifically the mixed adhd which brings in the lack of attention along with hyperactivity. (i know the spectrum shows differently in each person but this is my headcanon and what i observed) So lets start, he is very impulsive, and take actions sometimes without even thinking, plus very active, childish, and he lacks a lot of attention like they'd be talking about a thing and stantz would trail off or even start something without even considering causes, like with the proton packs, ray was the first one to offer himself even if it is a nuclear weapon. He could go overboard like when he is asked to scream to the mood slime and goes over the top, and now that's not necessarily a adhd characteristic, but it's common, he is very adoptive and quickly witted.
Now, for the one no one ever talks about when mentioning about neurodiversity in ghostbusters and my favourite Venkman.
Oh, how do i start with this one, thats the most AuDhD person, in the movies the phrases like "Good or bad is a bit fuzzy in my mind" or "dont stare at me you have the bug eyes, im sorry" both the situation, of not exactly understanding the morals or social effects and of not liking to be stared at, (he barely looks at people faces while talking to them) The lack of feel and being rather apathetic, being calm to react to stuff, like on the second on thr mocie when they were being judged and he was telling louis exactly what to say and yet extreme impulsive action, like the way he behaved with peck, his extreme sincerity and plus even tho he is very communicative his ways of communication are very directed as in the need to alrewdy have a theme or create a move. he needs a topic to communicate with people, like i found it so stupid that he used the experiment to hit on the girl on the first scene then he used jokes to die out his anxiety and he is not very expressive and to actually talk to dana he used the excuse of the ghost hunting, and the way he began to freak out about the ectoplasma (now obviously im over exagerating) could be seen as sensory issues, much like ray he also gets side tracked and distracted a lot. It's hard to have two voices in ya head telling the most logical and other one telling the impulsive intrusive thought, and he shows the mixture of the two perfectly. and if you want to push even farther in, we can discuss dislexia. The fact he has to ask Ray to read certain words for him and tell him what it says is already very interesting. (Adding in Bill murray is not openly autistic, but there were mentions about it in old interviews and some stuff in different people mentioning the possibility. but for the section of factuality, let's say no)
It could've been an accident or not, but here we have it. this is my belief that none of this is canon. im not Dan nor Harold remis im just a person who really likes those characters and is also Autistic.
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i love this picture of ernie hudson its so silly
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biolizardboils · 2 years
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its been 10 days since the movieversary but my CU hyperfixation's still going so heres another one of those Scattered Thoughts posts (minor movie spoilers!)
So i updated the playlist at treehouseblogsinc this week! Idek if Wikplayer still works for most people, but this streak’s five years long and i aint quittin yet! (Usually i just replace song links when they break, but this time i removed a song too cus the guy it references has been Bitch lately)
Speaking of, i did my semi-annual reread of the whole blog too and... man :’’’) Its still mind-blowing how many people played along (and got pissed at Melvin when he took over lmaooo). All the silly, sweet, and angry asks i got there still warm my heart to this day
You know what else i still do to this day? Draw things Pilkey-style! Sometimes i try to follow a rigid anatomy when i draw and feel stuck when it doesnt look right. When that happens, i step back and make a quick Pilk-ish sketch as a reminder to keep things loose. Works every time :)
Something i still love about the movie and the months leading up to it is how much of it felt like a grand... I dont wanna say joke, cus that kinda implies they didnt care when its obvious they truly did. Lets go with prank — it all felt like a grand prank! Like the decisions they made worked in the end, but were also super funny to read and hear about. Like oh my god, they rented Abbey Road Studios to record a choir playing kazoos and singing the word “underpants!” They got the biggest up-and-coming horror director to voice white-ass Melvin Sneedly. (Tho i guess now it can be argued that he’s white-passing in movie!verse, so thats cool)
My fave example of this is how they got Lil Yachty for the album. On one hand, whatever chunk of the limited budget they spent to get him probably could’ve been put to better use, like actually animating the Turbo Toilet fight or something? (While moving the Flip-O-Rama to another scene of course.) On the other hand, its hilarious that they got him to rap the word “cool” 15 times to a cover of Oh Yeah, and then didnt even put it in the movie. Its like George and Harold themselves wrote the stupidest lyrics possible just to see if he’d agree to them, and he did?? Thats comedy gold???
Why didnt i bookmark all the production stuff posted to Instagram. There was so much cool stuff i wanna see again but the search function there is still garbage and uuuughh
So i dont remember if it was production art or fanart but theres this one Instagram post i saw once thats lived in my head ever since. it looked like the cover of Action Comics #1, but with Captain carrying a school bus. If by some miracle somebody has it saved, please send it to me ill be forever in your debt
Im still scared of getting what’s coming to me when the Dog Man movie drops, but now im also wondering if theyll still have George and Harold as a framing device. Ngl i havent caught up with the new books in a hot minute, but ive heard that the boys have stopped appearing in them? if that’s true, that’s Dav’s choice and i have to respect that. ....but also i really wanna see them in CG again. pretty please dreamworks, i miss my sons so much
It mustve been a while since i last watched the movie, cus when i did on the 2nd, the Origin Issue sequence like... broke me all over again. i wrote about why its so great once for a thing that never got made actually, lemme dig that up and paste it in here
The score begins with chiptune and kazoos, two common motifs for childhood whimsy, and already a great fit for this sequence’s simple, handdrawn look. 
But it doesn’t stop there! It goes from what sounds like just two or three people playing kazoos… to a whole chorus of them… which gives way to a full-fledged orchestra. It’s as dramatic a transition as… oh, say, a one-man children’s book to an animated movie by one of the top studios in the industry.
And in turn, as the comic continues, we’re brought closer and closer to the panels until the white gutter between them vanishes, and they engulf the screen. The medium through which this story’s being told has faded from awareness; all that exists now is the story itself. 
But just as suddenly, we’re brought back to our true surroundings. The orchestral music ends, the chiptune returns for one last gentle sting, and we remember this epic tale’s humble origins: a comic book, written and drawn by two 4th graders. *sniff*
Another Score thing i love: you know how Captain is one big Superman parody? I think Shapiro mightve had that in mind when he composed his theme tune, because it starts with a triumphant first three notes (the “Underpaaaaants” part) — just like some of Superman’s! I dont know the right musical terms but cmon, theres a pattern there! And its so touching that they found Captain worthy of a song of that caliber!! Like yes, he IS a true superhero!! heres the epic theme song to prove it!!
Oh wow okay. So to dig up that Writing Thing, i had to open some folders i havent touched in years. And there were outlines for 10 different fanfics in there. I remember not really meaning to finish them ever, just writing them down cus the ideas wouldnt leave me alone. Hell i still dont have time to finish them now
But. Man now i feel bad for never doing anything with them. I have half a mind to post the outlines at least?? Cus someone out there might get a kick out of them?? You know what, if this hyperfixation doesnt peter out in another few days ill probably do it
Speaking of things i havent looked at in years, i listened to this song while typing all this and im tearing up now send post
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imbellarosa · 4 years
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Let’s Talk Calm-ly about Two Loves
OR: When you’re a grown man who writes stories for a living, you definitely wrote your own weird bedtime story, too. 
The TLDR here is that H has taken one specific listener around the globe, notably to Tokyo and Jamaica. He quotes an old Victorian Poet who was an awful human but who’s lasting legacy is the phrase “a love that dare not speak its name” which is - you guessed it - a reference to queer love. He also is super excited to spend what seems like the foreseeable future with this listener and has bought a little house with a garden of daisies with them and it’s very sweet and domestic. Anyways this is a wild time and it’s all under a cut because it’s...really a lot. 
Anyways I think the people I owe thank yous this times around to are @queenlokibeth​ who had to listen to me scream about this for a while, Astrid, who screamed with me when this came out, and “M” who convinced me to finally get to work in this fandom. And, of course, all of the lovely people tagged below who’s work I used to build my argument. 
1.) Who Wrote “Dream With Me”? 
Well, not H, or so the story goes. Two other people (Steve Cleverly and Sanj Sen) did! I mean, right, okay, for a while I was like...that seems like an odd choice for a man who didn’t want to hand Two Ghosts over to his own band because it seemed too personal. He wrote on every song in both albums’ he’s released thus far, because he seems to be passionate about telling the stories he wants to tell (even if he won’t tell you explicitly what they’re about). But for a while, I was totally going with the flow there, and the rest of this analysis would still stand: the writer of this story definitely referenced a poem by Lord Alfred Douglas and Harry’s own songs. 
However, I then read this fun quote from the Co-founder and CEO of Calm: 
“Well,” he said, “The the Harry Styles one is interesting because that came purely from Harry Styles himself...we took the approach of creating a sort of musical epic poem – he doesn’t sing, it’s spoken with poetry, but there’s a sort of musical sound bed to it and it’s pulling on things and themes that Harry’s fans really adore about him and associate with him. So his story was driven really by him – we really created a concept around him.” 
-  Chris Advansun, July 7th, 2020 via @hlupdate​
And I thought, hmmm. This does not sound like a project that he was not involved in creating. From this point on (July, 7th 2020), I began to think of it as a three way co-collaboration between him and the other two authors. But this confused me a bit, because there was largely a nonreaction from the fandom. I was waiting for an actual transcript, because I always fall asleep to these meditation stories, but it was being referenced to as some sort of Y/N fic, which was...honestly not what I expected, but also not implausible, thanks to the ~lovely~ image this man has had since the age of sixteen. But also, twitter seemed to be concerned by other things at the moment, and no one was analyzing the story. . 
In fact, I messaged a friend the day that this story dropped, because it had been kind of a shit show day on Twitter. Rumors were sort of flying about everyone and everything: had Liam shaved his head? Was he engaged? Had he and Maya broken up? Were Zayn and Gigi engaged? Had they broken up? Did Niall have a girlfriend? (this one was true lol). Were Elounor engaged? Were they pregnant? Had they broken up??? My personal fav was the bald Liam rumor, which he promptly put to rest in LP Act 1 by...having a huge mane of hair. 
So then I thought - huh. Why has today looked like this? I’m not saying that there aren’t days that twitter goes wild because of boredom, because there definitely is - the articles about secret meetings in Italy that are coming out this week (8/12/2020) are proof positive. So that definitely does happen, but it doesn’t usually happen on the days that there’s a lot of content. And maybe I’ve just been starved for content in this fandom, but I would consider a 40 minute video quite a bit of content. 
Then the transcript dropped. I’m using two as references - this one on Wattpad and also @carl-and-pearl ‘s version here (thank you so much for the transcript!!). We’re going to get into a more detailed description of what’s going on in the story, but the first thing I recognized immediately is that it was first person POV. I knew that going in, based on the number of Y/N jokes going around on twitter. Then I read it aloud, and I realized that it read like a letter. Like an experience specific to the writer and the reader. And while that’s not super uncommon to write about an experience from the author’s POV - I listen to a podcast called Nothing Much Happens: bedtime stories for adults which has a similar concept - I thought it was odd that they were trying to include both the author and the listener. I completely understood why the y/n jokes were pertinent. But at the same time, it felt like something had snagged in my mind - like a particularly annoying splinter. 
The conversations I was having around this story - completely based on the content, concept, and my own instinct - was that this story contained specific references to one person. I thought that it did read like a love letter, and that most identifying features would have been taken out, but the essence remained. Which, once I thought about it, was something that H excelled at doing. Think about Sunflower Vol 6 and Adore You and Canyon Moon and even Watermelon Sugar and Golden.  Ask yourself, What do I know about the person they are about? They have skin that browns, they have a secret, they have mesmerizing eyes, they’re willing to dance in the kitchen with him (to dancehall), they have a belly, they’ve been through hard times, they’re witty, they have an accent, and they have lips. I know - super specific right?
So the splinter grew into a thorn - what was I missing? And then - when I was looking for something completely different - I stumbled upon this old interview Harry did with Zach Sang and the Gang Show back in 2017.  For context, he was being asked about Sweet Creature. As you can imagine, it’s hard for people to believe he wrote such a beautiful love song when he hadn’t ever really had a long term relationship (two hearts in one home?? Who did you move in with, you can imagine them asking. When did you have time?). So what did he have to say about this?
"In my opinion,” he explained, “I think most songs are written for one listener. Maybe there's one thing in there that only they'll notice about them.... It's so much easier to say something in a song than it is to say it to someone and I think it's really amazing to be able to communicate through that and be able to wrap up everything that you want to say in three and a half minutes and say it in a song."
- HS, May 3 2017
By this time, please believe that I was screeching. Seeing this felt like he put into words the exact feeling I had about “Dream With Me”. It felt like a nod to someone that I didn’t know, which made the story hard to listen to, tbh. Although, I will say that when I did finally listen to it, it knocked me out and gave me odd dreams so. Once was enough for me haha! 
So my new operating theory is exactly what Advansun said: I think that H was the primary writer/the driving force behind the story. Because of the references I’m about to run through, because it feels like the way he tells stories, and because they admitted to him being more involved than they originally claimed. That’s going to be how I write the rest of the analysis - under the impression that H had a direct hand in the story that was being put forth. However, I think that the analysis itself would stand whether or not he wrote any of it. It would just be a more tenuous reflection of him than I believe it to be. 
2.) How Do I Love Thee? In Two Ways. 
Before I jump into the story, let’s talk a little about the poem that I want to compare it to: Two Loves, by Lord Alfred Douglas.  Let’s be clear this is not at all a defense of who Bosie was - he was a terrible person, particularly in his later years, when he’d converted to Catholicism and turned his back on his younger self, and his partner, Oscar Wilde. He was violently anti-Semitic, and turned his back on his own community. I want to get this out of the way because I very much believe that we should examine artists for who they are. That is, after all, what I am trying to do here. 
But his poem Two Loves has often been used - much to his disappointment, I’m sure - as an exploration of queer love in Victorian times. A line that I will be exploring more deeply in a second was in fact used against Oscar Wilde in his trail for indecency . He attempted - unsuccessfully - to explain it away, but it was too blatantly about their relationship for even the British Victorian society to ignore. I really, really recommend a read of this poem, because it is - despite it’s author - a good piece of work, which explores the themes of shame and love and longing between two men in that time. 
I’m going to start with my own background, as someone who’s analyzed fandoms before. I first came across this poem in the Sherlock fandom, with this analysis by @the-7-percent-solution​, when I was running in that fandom, and she explains the poem brilliantly in just a few lines. I’m going to take a little longer to run through it, but if you want a concise explanation and a brilliant meta, I encourage you to run to their blog and check it out. That fandom taught me most everything I know about catching symbols and recurring themes and “clueing for looks” and I love it desperately, still. 
But we’re here to talk about this fandom, so on with the poem! Essentially, the poem outlines a dream the speaker had: In his dream, he’s standing in a field with flowers - beautiful ones of all kind - and he meets this young man with clear blue eyes and bright red lips and they kiss a bit and have a picnic, and it’s all lovely. If you think I’m kidding, I’m really not. Please, read it for yourself. 
Anyways, after they did they did the whole picnic thing, the speaker and his date go on a walk in this field, where they come across two figures. The first is described as, 
“...fair and blooming, and a sweet refrain Came from his lips; he sang of pretty maids And joyous love of comely girl and boy, His eyes were bright, and 'mid the dancing blades Of golden grass his feet did trip for joy; And in his hand he held an ivory lute With strings of gold that were as maidens' hair, And sang with voice as tuneful as a flute, And round his neck three chains of roses were.” 
- Two Loves, 1894
The speaker, however, was drawn to the second figure: 
“He was full sad and sweet, and his large eyes Were strange with wondrous brightness, staring wide With gazing; and he sighed with many sighs That moved me, and his cheeks were wan and white Like pallid lilies, and his lips were red Like poppies, and his hands he clenched tight, And yet again unclenched, and his head Was wreathed with moon-flowers pale as lips of death. A purple robe he wore, o'erwrought in gold With the device of a great snake, whose breath Was fiery flame..”
- Two Loves, 1984
Of course, the speaker immediately asks the second man who he is. The second man says, “My name is Love”. The first man corrects him quickly: 
“ He lieth, for his name is Shame, But I am Love, and I was wont to be Alone in this fair garden, till he came Unasked by night; I am true Love, I fill The hearts of boy and girl with mutual flame.”
-Two Loves, 1984
The second man sighs and acquiesces, “Have thy will. I am the love that dare not speak its name.” 
It was, of course, this last line that really gave the meaning of the poem away. It was the line that was put to Oscar Wilde as proof of a romantic relationship, it was the line that went down in history as a way to refer to queer love, and it was the line that first stuck out to me when I was reading “Dream With Me”. 
The reading here is clearly that “Love” is the love that is acceptable to society - easy, sweet, and cherished. “Shame” is the love that happens in secret - beautiful, alluring to the speaker, passionate, anxious ( as can be seen in the clenching and unclenching of his hands), and proud. He refuses to call himself as anything but what he is. The first man may call him Shame, but he refuses the name, and instead, offers a qualifier to his own descriptor. He is still love, he is just the love that can’t be spoken about. 
3.) Walking in Golden Fields of Sunflowers
Now let’s talk about “Dream With Me”. I’m ignoring the first few stanzas (from the line “Have you ever wondered” to “What the two of us can find”.) because those are pretty standard introductory paragraphs to a guided meditation. So we start with the line “Let’s travel now to moonlit valleys...”. 
I’m going to do the same thing I did with “Two Loves” first. I am going to describe literally, in general terms, what happens in the story. Warning, I change pronouns from “they” to “you” because the whole thing confuses me, but note that I’m always talking about the speaker and the listener: 
So after doing the standard intro, the speaker and the listener take a walk through the woods enjoying nature, particularly the grass, the trees, and the blue sky above. You’re already clearly in love. Then you’re magically on a raft, with cherry blossoms all around you. If you want a good visual for that, here’s a site that has pictures from a boat rental in Tokyo where you can snuggle on a raft in the  Chidorigafuchi moat. And then suddenly it starts raining, and they (you) watch the rain for a hot second, and then the scene magically shifts again, and you’re under a porch (although I guess it could be the boat rental’s porch. They do usually have covered areas). 
Kind of furthering that theory, they then lounge by the shoreline, skipping stones and hanging out, looking at the snow capped mountains. In case you’re curious, because at this point I sure was, you can see mountains from certain areas in the city of Tokyo. 
Anyways, then it’s snowing, and you’re magically in a cabin, just chilling by the fire, and you fall asleep again. You wake up somewhere else.
Where are you now? Well, you’re on a tropical island filled with palm trees. As an American, my mind immediately jumps to the Caribbean, but I suppose it could absolutely be in the Mediterranean as well. The island has white beaches, mangroves, a turquoise ocean, and a gorgeous, peaceful atmosphere. 
If you’re curious as to what a mangrove looks like - and I certainly was - they are a group of trees and shrubs that live in the coastal intertidal zone and Jamaica is doing a massive restoration project involving primary school children to regrow this vital part of their ecosystem. More interestingly, there currently exist no mangrove forests in the Mediterranean, so my initial feeling that this scene would take place in the Caribbean was correct. On that note - again, because I was curious - Jamaica has gorgeous white sand beaches with turquoise oceans. 
But I’ve gone off topic again! After you’re minds are “in tune” once more (trying to find a heartbeat, anyone?), you reappear in a meadow, with beautiful flowers of all kind, where you are now walking hand in hand through a field of sunflowers, which give the feeling a “warm and golden hue”. Then you come across a little farmhouse with daisies poking out (clearly I have no way of locating this anywhere in the world, but I assume that the UK has both sunflowers and daisies). It’s an empty house which was loved and left because of the passage of time, which inspires my favorite line in the poem: “ The thought of passing time inspires/A feeling that grows stronger”. It’s just...really sweet to me. 
So, of course, they do what anyone would do when they come across an empty farmhouse, they go inside. And there, they begin to fall asleep, reflecting on all they have just seen, referencing other scenes of the poem: “ Moonlit valleys, Burdened forests, Gazing at the ocean. Summer meadows, Tranquil sunsets steeped in emotion”. 
The next few stanzas are just going to be copy-pasted, and then I’ll go into them a bit, but this is the end of the poem, so they’re the final reflections;
“The tenderness we feel When we are close Two minds as one Surrounds us and connects us But we’ve only just begun.
For now we dream together Of all there is to follow. And know that sleep will keep us safe From now until tomorrow.
Maybe all the memories That we’ve gathered here tonight Are all dreams now remembered Or wishes in plain sight.
No matter what They’re with us now. For this night and forever. And every time we close our eyes They’re yours and mine to treasure.” 
- HS, Dream With Me, via @carl-and-pearl​
And that’s it! The literal story, in short, is that you started in a forest, then went to Tokyo (maybe) and then Jamaica (perhaps) and then back to a field of sunflowers and daisies in the UK (which is also a guess, it could be Italy or France or Idaho for all I know, but let’s call it an educated guess). 
4.) My Dream Journal
So now that we know what happens in the story, how do we interpret this? Well, There are a few lines in the poem that I want to draw your attention to: the first takes place in the first part of this story, when you’re still in the forest. This is, I must say, the most direct reference to Two Loves in the whole poem/song/story. Both works are describing a walk in the woods with your loved one, and, in a fun reference in the middle of the story, Dream With Me says
The shimmering reflection Shows us smiling from above. But what we think But dare not speak is L-O-V-E love.
-Dream With Me, 2020
Remember that line I mentioned before? I am the love that dare not speak its name. Right, so that’s almost a direct quote. It also has a really fun nod to “I Would” (Would he say he’s in L-O-V-E?/Well if it was me then I would), but I digress. 
This first part of the narrative, I feel, really sets up what the rest of it will look and feel like, in the same way that “Golden” sets the tone for Fine Line. (You didn’t think I was going to make a post about Harry and NOT mention Golden, did you?? If you did, I’m disappointed!!). So  let’s take a look at what’s happening, and the language he’s using to describe it. 
One of the best things about this poem is how vivid it feels. Of course, I’m about to argue that it’s vivid because it was based in reality, but let’s talk about the sheer amount of detail he uses to describe the place he’s walking through. The valley (canyon lmao) is moonlit, the grass and the leaves make mosaics of green, you’re walking by the heather (the symbolism of heather is good luck, admiration, and protection), the sepia sunlight breaks through the trees. 
You know what it kind of sounds like? Sweet Creature. You’re about to roll your eyes at me! I can feel it! But listen, okay?  
“Sweet creature Running through the garden Oh, where nothing bothered us But we're still young I always think about you and how we don't speak enough”
Which, to be honest, sounds like what they’re doing. They’re walking through the garden in the sun, not daring to speak about the Love that he (they both) feel, and instead refering to it in veiled Victorian terms. 
And then we head to Tokyo! I know that you’re about to ask me why I think it’s Tokyo versus...idk, anywhere else? Well, for one, he went to Tokyo (to let it go) publicly in 2019. He was there for a few months, and there are some great pictures of that time: 
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Look! Here he is with his club owner friend and his dog, and a fun red bandanna! But let’s be honest, the dog really steals the show here. But wait! there’s more! More dog content, too!
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This was on Jan 31st, 2019, and he’s taking the dog for a walk! Very cute! If nothing else, he spent a lot of time with dogs in Tokyo! And the city fits the description of the story. So I feel rather comfortable with my interpretation that this first date is a memory of this trip - or another - to Tokyo. 
So what did “you both”do in Tokyo? Well, chill on a raft while the cherry blossoms flutter around you, clearly. You also refocused your purpose. What did he do in Tokyo in 2019? Well, he took time to think about and write songs for the album he was about to go record. Kind of like refocusing on what’s next, right? And then, in the story when “you both” had time to think amongst the lake and the water and the rain and the moon, and you’d come to the conclusions you needed to, you left. What did he do when he did the things he needed to? Well, he left, too. 
And where did he go? Well, in real life, I suppose he went to do his job. But, in the story, you’re meant to be falling deeper and deeper into sleep, so it’s sort of like traveling backwards, you see? Like counting down to one. So you end up on this island with turquoise ocean and mangrove forests. I’m calling this Jamaica. Why? Well, the description fits, for one, down to the four types of mangroves that exists within its ecosystem. 
And - probably the biggest reason - I can place him there, too. Here’s him in 2017:
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I added this picture because the water around him....looks rather turquoise, doesn’t it? Kind of like he’s enjoying his time on a tropical island by the beach?? Oh, and here’s another one!: 
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The red bandanna makes a comeback! 
So what are you doing in Jamaica, according to the story? Well, you’re hanging out, basically. Enjoying the beach and each other, of course!  What else? To be exact, “[Your] thoughts dovetail and unify/ In tune two minds together”. I’m so glad that you’re tuned like an old guitar now! Congrats! Really happy for you! 
What was he doing in Jamaica three years ago? Why, he was recording his first album, or so the story goes. I’ll tell you something: finding press for that album was literally the most difficult part of this whole analysis. I got a fair bit of the tattoo roulette with Kendall Jenner, and some things about Carolina, but the interview with Zach Sang took me like an hour and a half to find again to link. The fact that a lot of it has been buried is...not great, for posterity purposes. He’s going to want that one day. 
But I’ve gotten off track again! We gotta go back and finish our story, right? What happens now? Well, this does: 
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hahahaha okay, I’m really sorry, but I had to. I’m not, actually, making it up though! According to the story: 
“ As minutes turn to hours We drift off somewhere new. And visualize a stairway To a door we now walk through”
- Dream With Me, 2020
So maybe Louis was just...demonstrating for you. 
Anyways! Where do you walk out to? A golden field full of sunflowers. You walk for a minute, then come across an old house with daisies popping up out of the garden. And that’s where the story ends. I guess you’ve made that farmhouse feel like home. 
Now to the little reflection he does on the outro. The lines I want to bring your attention are: “The tenderness we feel when we are close two minds as one surrounds us and connects us but we’ve only just begun” and “Maybe all the memories that we’ve gathered here tonight are all dreams now remembered or wishes in plain sight.”
Let’s talk about the first sentence first. In the context of finding a home that could be a shared home, and a future, this is very much an “end of the story, beginning of our lives” sort of thing. You’re back from all over, and it’s time to settle down, and see what’s next. 
And now the second sentence. I think this is the one that really drives my point about this story being a collection of memories he has - that’s what he calls it. The story is “gathered memories” that might also be called “remembered dreams” (think of how people say of vacations, “oh it was a dream!”) or you might call it “wishes in plain sight”. This feels in line with the rest of the story. In this stanza, he’s sort of letting you in a bit. If I’ve read this right - and I really think that I have - he’s giving the larger context for the story. It’s a collection of memories he’s had with someone he loves. 
5.) Cool! Can you prove it? 
I mean, I’d argue that if you read this far, I have proved it, but let’s make some more links, shall we? This was called a “muscial epic” that was “driven by him”. I’d argue that if I know my Victorian literature (thank you, Sherlock!), then he definitely does. Then there’s the fact that he quoted it, so. That did happen. And he knows what it means. And even if he didn’t, there were two other people on the story. Someone was more than capable of catching that one, and the fact that they didn’t speaks to intent. They want you to think of that phrase when you read this poem. They want you to think of that walk in the woods while you’re going on this one. 
And, as for my assumption that this is for and about one person, well. Think about it. He said that he writes his songs for a single listener. I’m not saying it’s the same listener each time, let’s get that right, but it is always just for one person. With that, and with the assumption that he’s been involved in the writing of this story, I’d say that the same rule applies. He went with someone to Japan and Jamaica (J^2 haha). And, if I had to guess, it was the same person. 
Why, you ask? Well, for one, if that weren’t the case, then this poem would no longer be for one listener, it would be for multiple. And, for another, imagine how awkward it would be to listen to it with his current partner and have to explain “oh, yeah that was the super romantic vacation I took with someone else” . And, I suppose that because I think that attitude of “refocusing” and “dovetailing” and “tuning” and getting excited about imagining all of the tomorrows with your partner speaks to a long term relationship breathing easily, you know? 
I’m also going to argue that describing the aura around the house as “golden” was intentional, especially when paired with the location - in the middle of a field of sunflowers. Those are both direct references to his songs. And those two songs are particularly linked by the number 28. The third song that features 28 is Fine Line the song, but that’s a different story. Anywho! “Golden”’s bridge just repeats the word ‘golden’ twenty eight times (if you go here , you can count the bridge) and “Sunflower Vol. 6″ ends the song with 28 “boops” (believe me, I wish I was making this up. I’m not.). So then, once again, you’ve linked a story to two already linked songs. 
And, even if you don’t buy the intentional repetition, they’re linked another way, aren’t they? The color scheme and the sun symbol. Sunflowers were named because of their sun-like appearance. They turn to face it. They symbolize loyalty and adoration. And then, of course, the sun is - say it with me - golden. And it - like the person in golden - waits in the sky, beautiful and dangerous and constant. And here that symbol is, in a farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. At home. 
This whole story feels like you’re taking the time to find that heartbeat that you think you might have lost, and sort of coming back to a space where you understand that this is what you want, now and forever. It feels like finding a home that could be yours forever, and it feels like walking through some of the moments that remind him of that. 
It really is rather lovely, if you think about it, especially since he has a tendency to attribute “home” to people rather than place, in his songs. So it’s like. Going all around the world and always being at home. 
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incarnateirony · 3 years
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Looks like another prequel series is being floated over at the see-w 👀😬
Which will be produced first? Jensen's or Harold's?
Maybe they'll have it back to back on Thursdays.
Jensen's. The Winchesters not only is in script form but has a script commitment. I've been posting about this on twitter but I checked back-end,
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It's optioned. Meaning they haven't actually purchased rights to the screenplay, but as much the right TO buy it if it's made at some point in the future, no financiers, directors, etc yet, no stakeholder deals, it's like copyright holding the Idea.
Basically, it means they have a hold on the idea so nobody "steals" it now that it's announced. The process can last ages and can end up in development hell, a stage even before production purgatory, and requires all tentative planning to fall into place to even START pre-prod.
When discussing "Optioned" and explaining, someone asked "so, is the Winchesters more of a sure thing than the Wanker prequel?" The simple answer: Yes. The Winchesters has a script commitment from CW, which basically means they still have to pay Jensen if they don't do it.
Per before, "Optioned" means "basically protected from idea theft if we DO move forward with it, we haven't talked to anyone meaningful about it, but a few vaguely interested noises have been made, scribbled in a notepad somewhere, no development."
The Winchesters isn't only in script, but had its script phase announced in June and entered, meaning it's probably made motion since that just hasn't been announced or updated, and that's not minding the script *commitment*. CW would literally have to pay Jensen even if they DON'T use it.
"Optioned" would be closer to what The Winchesters would have been in back before Jensen secured his deal with the WB that allowed him to move forward to begin with, when he wandered in like "hey so get this-- spn prequel, dean narrates" "OK tell us more"
For example, Winchesters was probably "Optioned" through the period Jensen was blasting his LGBTQ marketing and stuff everywhere for the studio to get treads and visibility, which is how you earn investors and financiers, basically.
I can ALSO promise you this Wanker development is EXCESSIVELY new, because I literally checked jpeg's production page 2 days ago to see what he and gen were working on, and the "optioned" listing wasn't even there yet.
This is furthermore funny, because Jensen kept his stuff under wraps for a year, didn't list it, the release was a leak when already in script mode with a commitment from CW, but jpeg's sketching out half formed ideas and updating to go I CAN DO PREQUELS TOO!!!!!!!!!!
Less than half a year ago harold had a mantrum over not having part in the spn prequel, he recently mumbled with gen about working on 3 ideas, and now he's rushing out imdb updates to try to pitch it going "LOOK!!! LOOK!!! ME TOO!!!!!"
This is literally "I DONT NEED YOUR STUPID PREQUEL I CAN MAKE A GOLD OF MY OWN!!!" and trying to chum the waters hoping people express enough interest to get cw to order it, and get financiers involved, which is funny because without Jared's face all over the screen even his most hardcore fans aren't gonna want it, it's not gonna have Lindsay. It's gonna be in a more racist reconstruction period than even today about white people again. I swear it's like he's putting out an acme box going "pspspsps Jensen what about THIS western, I made another rogue named Hoyt!!!!"
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littlemisslipbalm · 4 years
Text
“it’s not that important”
Summary: Y/N is in Harry’s band and one night they have a drunken hook up. One thing leads to another and they find themselves engaging in a friend’s with benefits type of situation. spoiler: it is important
AKA: A friends with benefits to lovers story :) with some angst in there
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This is for @stylesharrys fallinharry10k celebration so my trope is friends with benefits! prompt is “you have no goddamn idea what you do to me. when i’m around you, i have no control of my emotions or my thoughts” and the tenth picture ^ i kinda just used it in the beginning to descripe what he was wearing - i got really carried away with this story but the prompt is in there !! lol, not proofread tho but would love your feedback !!!! :) love y’all very much 
oh boy i’ve had this done for agesss but i hadn’t written the smut until today so now we’re here i dont even remember what happens - i vaguely remember not loving the end but I hope yall enjoy
Word Count: 15.4k (longest fic to date) | Warnings: smut, angst, fluff, alcohol consumption? i dont remember but i dont think theres anything too heavy in here.
-
“Hey Harold!” You smile as you easily hop over the side of the couch and settle beside your bandmate.
Harry groans, yet can’t keep the small smile off of his face when he sees it’s you. “How many times have I told you to never call me that?”
Your eyes narrow at his faux glare. “And how many times have I told you, I simply do not care?” 
You reach a hand out and tousle his already disheveled, unstyled brown hair. Despite his lack of styling, his hair still looked perfect. His chestnut hair fell into a middle part when he did nothing to it and you found it endearing. It made him look far younger than he truly was, like a boy you might have pursued when you were in your early days at college. The waves slightly framed his prominent cheekbones and chiseled jaw that was sporting a tiny amount of stubble.
He moves his arm from around the back of the couch to pat at his hair, trying to put it back in its nondescript position you had just messed with. After he’s satisfied, he uses the same hand to push up his glasses on the bridge of his nose. They’re chestnut brown Gucci frames that match the natural highlights in his hair. You can safely assume that’s why he bought them. The lenses are clear, but you know they don’t hold any prescription. He looks incredulously at you from behind them still.
“Nice glasses,” you mention offhandedly as you reach out to the coffee table to grab the drink you had left there earlier.
Before Harry had arrived, you had been taking up residence on the couch, in the spot he had actually taken up. You had ventured to the restroom for a moment and gotten held up in a conversation when asked your preference for the Beatles. Having to defend your staunch stance for the Beatles and against the Rolling Stones, you had gotten swept up into an argument with Adam. He believed that because the Rolling Stones toured for longer warranted them the title of best rock band. While you countered that despite their long touring and production of music, the Stones had a rotation of members. The Beatles maintained the four of them and held such a large impact even though they were barely together for a decade. They were one of a kind, or at least the first of their kind, you’d allow. You weren’t really in the mood for intellectual conversation tonight, so upon seeing Harry taking up your seat, you had told Adam you’d continue the discussion at a later date and returned to your spot.  
“Thanks,” Harry mumbles as his gaze flits around the room. He wasn’t sure if you were actually complimenting him, but he would take it as one either way.
The rest of your friends are all up and about, drinking, talking, dancing. It was the usual house party scene: a relatively intimate gathering, music you all actually liked, some friends of friends feeling slightly out of place. There was no pressure in this type of gathering but still Harry wasn’t necessarily in the party mood tonight. Usually, Harry was the one instigating these types of get-togethers with his friends and bandmates. He liked to be the life of the party, but as the tour loomed closer and closer, he felt some tinge of longing for quiet and solitude. He knew he wouldn’t have much quiet while on the road, which mostly didn’t scare him. He loved the stage and the high he received from performing and the gratification he felt from all the people in the room being there to see him. But there was also that other part of him that liked the quiet, the privacy. As the lack of alone time nudged itself around the corner, he had been hoping to enjoy solitude, or at the very least peace before he was on the road. Some sort of blissful state before technical chaos ensued. When Charlotte, the host of tonight’s soiree, had texted their group chat about tonight, Harry had politely declined. Then came the slew of private texts from Charlotte giving him all the reasons he should come tonight. He tried to say no again, but had shown up after the continued begging from her.
His appearance mirrored his expression, choosing a not perfectly fitted white t-shirt and random trousers rather than picking something he really loved, like usual. You could tell something was up and as his friend you were wondering what was wrong with him.
“Don’t sound so excited, Harry, someone might mistake you for somebody who’s happy to be here.” You stick your tongue into the side of your cheek, gauging his reaction.
“Has anyone ever told you you’re not very funny?” He quips, green eyes flashing to meet yours.
Your banter is probably how the pair of you communicated the best, never really falling into the whole serious side of friendship. You never shared those late night talks about the future or your fears. It was a fun friendship, so you didn’t fancy yourself one of his closest confidants. When it came to music, you and Harry were a bit more serious which formed a sort of paradox because the music you would share with each other gave a far greater insight into your souls than you probably realized. As a member of his band, you would discuss his music and what was going on with that sort of business part. But the sharing and discussion of other music that you did was part of your friendship, even if you didn’t see it like that. Because of the countless albums you had recommended to each other and the specific songs you had made note of, Harry and you knew each other much better than you thought you did. Music connects to something deep inside yourself and you have to like it enough and know the other person well enough to believe that they will also enjoy it to recommend it. As much tongue and cheek that you partook in with Harry, deep down, unbeknownst to either of you, you were that friend he shared his hopes and fears with, through the way he knew best, music.
“No, most people find me hilarious...”
You take a sip of your drink, trying to cover up the sting that his remark actually left. Most of the time you were great at keeping up with anyone’s banter, especially Harry’s, but tonight you weren’t feeling it. His tone had sounded so harsh it almost sounded like he meant it. His features soften when he sees the way your face falls, despite your sarcastic tone.
“‘M sorry. I’m just not in the best mood tonight. Didn’t want to come, but Charlotte…” He shifts to face you, arm retracting slightly around the couch, landing his hand at the edge of your shoulder. His fingers fiddle with themselves absentmindedly, he turns his rings around his fingers and they ever so slightly brush against your shoulder. You don’t mind, you know its his nervous tick that he did whenever he didn’t have something to clink them against.
“Yeah, same here, actually.” Your tuck an out of place hair behind your ear, returning your gaze to Harry, who’s tilting his head at you curiously. “But might as well make the most of it, though. After all, this is our last week before tour starts.” You raise your glass and tilt it towards him before taking a sip.
You really didn’t have a plan, you were just trying to make him feel a little better. It was seldom you saw him so solemn at this type of gathering. He usually was the one bouncing from group to group, entertaining everyone with his dazzling charm and quick wit. Sometimes he would bring a date and spend the night with them in the corner, but that was usually at bigger parties than this. At these types of gatherings you often found yourself talking with Charlotte for most of the night. You were both new additions in the band and you had clicked immediately. You would travel in a pair between different groups and talk with everyone. Sometimes you would tell a humorous anecdote about your life and everyone would laugh wholeheartedly. Your ability to retell a story and make it hilarious every time seemed to be your secret talent. You could make any experience into a ten-minute retelling and it always sounds like the funniest moment of your life. It ranged from your embarrassing audition for Grease as a tween to your supermarket run in with an old acquaintance or B-list celebrity the day before. It didn’t matter what it was, it just always had the entire circle of people laughing and wiping their eyes with joy. You’d laugh a little with themselves, but usually you just had a triumphant smile on your lips for the rest of the night.
He nods, sipping his own drink for the first time since you had settled down beside him. “Well, I’m all ears.”
“What?”
“Give me your suggestions on how to make the most of tonight.”
“Drinking, mostly, was my plan,” you laugh nervously as Harry continues to stare at you intently.
“Mostly?”
“I mean, what do you want me to say? I didn’t think to pack my bouncy castle, my bad.”
He bites back a laugh but lets some air escape his defined nose, before staring with a deadpan face at you.
You like to tease him. You simply liked him. Harry was different from other men you knew. You were pretty sure most people could say that though. Harry was just different. It seemed like no one could not have some sort of affection for him. With the playful friendship the pair of you had, you always skirted the edge of flirtation. But you also didn’t particularly ever want to cross any lines with him. He was the employer of you, technically. He had brought you into his backing band and you wouldn’t do anything to harm that position. As well, at the end of the day you knew Harry. His tendencies and the choices he made.
When you were around him at parties like this, you had to try really hard to keep him at an arm’s length. Because on one hand, you would drink and suddenly the boundaries you put up didn’t seem that important, instead his lips started to look rather inviting, but on the other, you knew that he was extremely emotionally closed off to any relationship that was more than either friendship or a one night stand.
Harry doesn’t give you a response, just swings back his drink. The pair of you sit and drink in silence. Before you know it, Harry and you are five drinks in, finally talking after the second. The pair of you decide to move to the balcony outside and continue your conversation there after the third. After the fourth, you're getting really handsy and by the end of the fifth, Harry’s arm is wrapped tightly around your waist and you're laughing breathlessly into his neck. It looks like he’s just shielding you from the cold night air, but both of you seemed to be enjoying each other’s embrace for other reasons.
Finally catching your breath, you lean back and pant softly as you meet eyes with Harry. His pupils have blown out from the alcohol and dark light. The emerald green barely surrounds the black and you swear there’s flecks of gold or maybe brown in them. Your brows scrunch at the revelation and Harry asks what you’re thinking. You don’t respond, too entranced and drunk to even hear him.
“Oi,” he bops your nose, “What is goin’ on in there, little lady?”
Your hand reaches up and widens Harry’s eye manually. His inebriated state has no qualms about you doing such an odd thing. “Why’s your green not actually green?”
“What?” He asks before moving your hand away from his face, it instead falls to his chest. The pair of you shift until your caged between his body and the balcony’s ledge. You pout as you stare up at him. His skin looks soft and taught over every inch of his face and neck. The urge to kiss him keeps nagging at the back of your mind. The idea keeps creeping up closer and closer and the drunker you are the less likely you are to suppress it.
“Do you want to fuck me?” You blurt out.
“Sure.” Harry isn’t taken aback. He had been thinking about asking for a while, so he was glad you had asked first, made it easier for him.
“Okay, let’s go.”
He takes you back to your place, the pair of you catching a cab the short distance between yours and Charlotte’s flats. No one blinks an eye at the pair of you leaving together. Everyone watched the pair of you sulk all night about being there and only enjoying the other’s company, so they weren’t keen on either of you staying. Charlotte was simply glad the pair of you had stayed for as long as you did.
The two of you walk casually until you’re inside your bedroom. Once inside, Harry throws you on the bed and fucks you. Hard. He’s got you spread out in more ways than you had ever thought possible. He’s got you saying things you had never even dreamed of saying. And he’s got you cumming and screaming more than you could have ever wanted. He enjoys himself as well. He loves the way you feel around him and the way your eyes look up at him while he fucks you straight into the bed. He loves the way you sound whispering dirty things and screaming his name. He loves the feel of your soft skin all over your body as he pushes deep inside you. He loves the way you’re able to rip a guttural moan from him every time he cums. And he cums three times that night. While it wasn’t quiet, he did find that blissful state he had been in desperate need of.
After the third round, Harry feels spent. He brings himself into a sitting position, legs hanging off the edge of your bed. You’re lying in your bed, completely overstimulated, cumming at least twice as many times as Harry. He scratches at the top of his head, his bicep bulging as he folds his arms around himself.
“That was fucking good, Y/N. Just what I needed.”
You can only hum in response.
Then he takes your blanket and lays it over you. After that he begins to stand up, getting ready to grab his things and go.
“You don’t have to go…” your voice raises when you realize what he’s doing.
“Yeah, I do. This was just a one time thing, yeah? I enjoyed it, but you know...”
“Erm, I guess?” You rolled to fully look at him, he was pulling his t-shirt back on now, his marked chest disappearing beneath the white fabric. “Do you really not stay over at your one night stands?”
He thinks about it as he begins with his shoes and his glasses at the same time. “Yes? Usually I don’t know the person and I don’t particularly want to sign an autograph when I leave in the morning. Best to leave immediately afterwards.”
“That was exactly why I wanted you to stay...Shit! No chance you’ll give me an autograph now? Could sign my tit, right next to your hickies.”
He laughs, automatically in a better mood after the catharsis of having sex. It was also a relief for him that you didn’t seem to be weird about the hook up. “Shut up!”
“You’re a twat, Harold.” He groans instinctively at the annoying nickname, not caring about the ‘twat’ part. “But be my guest, you can freeze your arse off while waiting for your cab outside at this hour.”
“Rude..” He mutters, standing in your doorway now. “You wouldn’t actually make your employer stand out in the cold at this time of night. I haven’t even got a jumper. Could get a cold and ruin my voice. ”
“You’re the one who says it’s best to leave immediately. Get on it, mister.”
Your hand makes a shooing movement, but he doesn’t budge. You sigh as he makes a puppy dog face - eyes wide and a puckered pout with his flushed cheeks and lips - playing into your actual kindness, that he knows is somewhere. Your sweetness that you were keeping hidden from Harry right now. Nothing was serious between you so it made sense that you were trying not to let your innate ability to care show as he’s about to walk out on you.
“Ugh, fine. Stop looking at me like that. Just grab one of my coats from the bottom right, they’re all oversized so one should fit.” He doesn’t relent on the face. “And you can stay inside until your cab comes.” You sigh and throw one of your pillows at him. He catches it easily and throws it back, much softer than your throw. “Also never pull the employer card on me again when I’m naked in the bed you just fucked me in,” you call as he looks through your closet.
Returning with a patchwork coat you had thrifted tight over his shoulders, he looks at you seriously, “Yeah sorry about that part. Definitely wasn’t trying to exert my power over you, it sounded better in my head. Meant more like you could ruin my voice and both of our jobs.”
You nod and chuckle slightly, finding how inarticulate Harry could be as an endearing trait. His explanation didn’t actually make it sound better. “The jacket fits.” You say, choosing to move forward from Harry’s weirdness, knowing he didn’t mean any harm from his initial statement.
“Yeah, thanks. I think my cab is here,” He glances at his phone, “So I’ll go...See you?”
“I’m sure.” You smile, “We do in fact work together and will soon be touring the world. Would be a bit weird if I didn’t see you.”
“Right.” He nods and adds a peace sign before he walks out of your sight. You know he’s gone when you hear the door click shut. What an interesting night.
-
Love on Tour had just started and Harry couldn’t lie. He couldn’t keep his mind off of you. You were both his most recent partner and the best he had had in a while. He found himself rubbing over the spots on his neck and clavicle that you had given particular attention to during the night you had shared together. When he went to bed it was your body he pictured to get himself off. So, after the first show he’s beelining to you at the beginning of the after party. He’s got an adrenaline high and he needs a release. You’re the solution. He’s whispering in your ear, asking if you’d like to meet him in his dressing room. Your eyes study his face when he pulls back and they widen slightly when the realization of what he’s implying dawns on you. Then you’re nodding and excusing yourself from a random conversation five minutes later.
Inside Harry’s dressing room, you find Harry already unbuttoning his shirt. He grabs your face and shoves his lips onto yours once you lock the door. As he kisses you he tries to make one thing very clear, “This doesn’t mean anything.”
“Got it.” You begin to finish Harry’s job of taking off his shirt.
He pulls back to look you in the eye, “Are you okay with that?”
“Jesus fuck, yes, Harry, just shut up and fuck me senseless again!”
He listens to you and begins to kiss down your jaw and neck. His open-mouth kisses leave a searing trail across your skin. He settles on a spot at the base of your neck and begins to suck and nip at it with vigor. You set to work on finishing his job of unbuttoning his shirt. Then you pull off your own shirt, reaching behind you to untie the bows at the back. The new skin exposed grabs Harry’s attention and he moves down to suck over the cleavage of your tits. He’s happy to be back with his ‘bosom friends’. You smack his head when he says it and he chuckles darkly, only sucking harder on them causing you to moan louder than you would like.
Once you’re both in only your underwear, you find your back pressed up against the mirror behind the dressing room counter. Harry’s body is nestled between your spread legs as he kisses down your skin. His fingers dance along the line of your thong as he looks up from beneath his lashes for position, you only push his head closer to your heat in response. He laughs mischievously before tugging them down off your hips.
“Missed this pretty little cunt...All I’ve been thinkin’ ‘bout,” He mutters as he begins to latch onto your dripping core.
Your brows shoot up at the thought that Harry’s mind has been stuck on you for the past week. You definitely had thought about your drunken hook up a bit, but hadn’t thought it had left a lasting impression on Harry, you assumed he had that lovely of a night with every person he chose to spend intimate time with. These thoughts are forgotten when Harry’s warm tongue is lapping at your swollen bud. You’re already panting for Harry and now you’re heaving with moans and whimpers leaving your mouth with every lick and nip of his expert mouth.
“Fuck Harry, feels so good,” you whine as his tongue travels down your folds and swirls and dips into your hole.
He moans at your words and the way your legs squeeze at his head. His hands move to spread you open wide to maintain his control and he smirks at the way your body rolls due to the friction of his voice against your pussy.
“Be a good girl f’me,” he growls still pressed against your wet heat.
Your body rolls again as you get closer and closer to your first release. Your bite your lip trying to contain all of the sounds that are trying to escape your mouth. Harry notices the new silence and glances up seeing how you’re trying to behave. As much as he likes you obeying his words, he also wanted to hear how he was pleasuring you.
“Tell me how you feel, princess,” he demands.
“So-so good,” you hiccup as his fingers caress over your folds now as he looks you in the eyes, his lips wet with your slick. He kisses you hard, his tongue diving into your mouth and you kiss back passionately, loving your taste on his tongue.
He pulls back and your hands trail down his chest, swirling around his familiar tattoos and hair that grace his lower torso as you move. He grins, enjoying the feeling of you on him and how he was affecting you.
Soon enough, his cock is finding its way back to your glistening folds, wet with your own liquids as well as his saliva. His mouth waters at the sight. He only pushes into you a few times like this. Then he catches sight of himself in the mirror in front of him and can’t resist. He pulls out and flips you over, your squeal leaving your mouth before you can stop yourself. His dick finds your entrance once again, not wanting to be without the wonderful warmth for any longer than he must.
“Ahhh,” Harry groans when he slips back inside.
Your head throws back on your neck, the feeling of him as well as the sight of him gripping your hair in one hand and your fleshy hip in the other. His rings dig into the skin as he’s able to slam more forcefully in this position. You gasp and whine at his motions. The sounds coming from between your legs are turning you on even more and they seem to make Harry happy too. He picks up the pace and drops the grasp of your hair for a second. Your head falls down as you try to keep yourself up on your elbows.
Gripping both of your hips, Harry growls, “Look at me while I fuck you. C’mon now.”
You moan in response and tear your eyes open to see your reflections in the mirror. One hand goes up to hold onto the mirror to give yourself more traction, causing your back to arch even more. The new position has Harry’s cock slamming into you deeper.
“Fuck!” Harry practically yells and can’t keep himself from landing a harsh slap on your ass. You jump forward at the sting but his other hand keeps the pace steady. He keeps burying himself into you all the way to his base, his balls slapping at your now slick spread thighs. He rubs over the red handprint he had just left on your ass. You whimper and bite your lip, truly enjoying the sensation.
Still staring into the mirror as Harry commanded, your eyes water slightly and Harry makes eye contact with you through the mirror. You smile widely and he grins back. “This feels so fucking good. Your pussy takes me so well. Fuck…” Harry babbles, still pistoning into you. You had noticed how vocal he was the first time you had fucked, but thought it had just been the alcohol. Apparently not. But you didn’t mind, you much preferred it to partners who barely spoke or didn’t even moan. Like how were you supposed to know what was going on in their minds? With Harry, you knew he was having a good time.
A few more heavy thrusts and you felt yourself nearing the edge. Your panting was getting faster, exceeding the speed of Harry’s thrusts and he could also feel you were close. Your cunt began squeezing him tighter so he hooked a hand under your knee and brought it onto the table. He hunched over you slightly and snaked his hand to your clit. “C’mon darling, I know you're close. Can feel that little cunt putting a choke hold on my cock.” He rubs at your clit with the vigor of strumming a quick paced song on the guitar. It’s enough to overtake your senses and the laugh that had bubbled from his words turns into your orgasm moan. You try to muffle it into the arm that is holding you against the mirror to avoid a full on scream because it feels that good. You felt like you were having your first ever orgasm, it felt that new to you.
A few more thrusts and you’ve come down from it, but Harry still hasn’t finished. It’s your turn to be the partner coaxing the other to get off. “Faster, Har. Want you to cum too.” He grunts, picking back up the pace. He had slowed to let you ride out your stay. “That’s it...want you to cum in me. Your cock feels so fucking good.” You whine, meaning every word. He smiles again at you and closes his eyes, focusing on chasing his high. You watch as his smile widens to that open mouth grin, “Fuck,” he almost whispers. And there it is. There’s a twitch in his hips that mirrors his expression and then he’s pulling out and cumming on your back. His voice is now even lower and raspier than before as he babbles how good that was and how tight your pussy was. It was sweet nothings, but extremely explicit and you sighed heavily, feeling a small orgasm wash over you again. His final thrusts and voice pushing you off the cliff again easily.
The two of you take a minute to bring your breathing back to normal and Harry goes to clean your back off.
“So..how do you feel about maybe doing this regularly?”  Harry asks sheepishly as he begins to pull his pants back on.
“Like a friends with benefits kind of thing? Or bandmates with benefits, rather.” You laugh breathlessly at your not really funny joke, but you’re now truly exhausted. From the show and the fuck, you felt thouroughly worked out.
“I guess that’s what it is, yeah.”
“Yeah, sure. Sounds good.”
“You’re honestly so chill, Y/N. It’s fuckin’ hot.”
You laugh and flip your hair dramatically. You’re only in your bra and panties right now and Harry licks his lips, finding your playfulness to be a turn on. “What can I say?” You laugh.
“But like I said before...it’s just sex.” He’s buttoning up his shirt and looking at your reflection through the mirror now. He watches you slip the pants you had been wearing back on.
“Oh, Harold, I know.” On cue, he groans and turns around to face you after fixing his mused hair in the mirror. Interrupting yourself, you turn your back to Harry, “Can you tie this, sorry it’s hard for me to get the -” Harry walks to you without any hesitation and begins tying the silk ribbons on the back of your shirt. “Thanks. Anyway,” you turn to face him when he’s finished and you place both of your palms on his chest. “Trust me, I know you’ve got your issues and I’m not looking to be the girl that tries to change you. I know what this is. I only ask that you let me know when you sleep with other people, because once you do, you won’t need me.” Harry nods and you pat your hands against him. You both smile and go your separate ways when you leave the dressing room.
-
Harry and you fucked almost every night on tour. Sometimes it was right after, on the counter in his dressing rooms. Sometimes it was later in the evening in his hotel room or yours. He stopped leaving immediately after your hook ups. He never kicked you out of his room so he decided it was fine for him to stay in yours. Especially because you weren’t a stranger who would be weird with him in the morning. He also didn’t like trekking through the hotel halls late at night.
The first few times you stayed in the same bed, the two of you stayed on opposite sides of the bed, not touching after you were finished engaging in your sexual endeavours. Rigid bodies against the edges of the mattress. Then one particularly long night, filled with multiple rounds, Harry was so exhausted from his performance on stage and off that he collapsed on top of you. He fell asleep there and you didn’t particularly mind. It felt nice to be slightly compressed and held. He shifted in his sleep and when he woke up he wasn’t upset to find you nestled into his side with his arms wrapped around you. After that, cuddling sort of became part of the routine. After you were done having sex, Harry or you would get up to clean up and bring back waters. Then you would settle in his arms. Sometimes in a spooning position and sometimes you cradled softly into his chest. You didn’t talk about it, it just happened.
One night it was your head directly on top of his butterfly tattoo, one leg thrown over his lower torso and your arm snuggly wrapped around his middle. He liked to pet your hair when you laid against his chest in that way. His fingers would fiddle with the strands and you liked it because he usually took off his rings before he would do it and his hands felt so soft and delicate against you. Harry liked the way he felt when he would hold you afterwards. It was calming to fall asleep against your soft skin and feel your fingertips trace lyrics to songs he wasn’t sure the name of against his own.
No one knew about how your friendship with Harry worked. To the rest of the world, you seemed to be someone who had become another close friend in the band. You were similar to Mitch in many respects. Except for when Harry winked at you during a show, it wasn’t a friendly wink, it was a ‘this song makes me horny and I can’t wait to relieve the pressure by fucking you later’ kind of wink. You knew this because Harry had gone over and whispered it in your ear during a quick break, when you had only looked at him weirdly after he did it.
Before the show tonight, you pulled Harry aside, “So what are we thinking tonight? I feel like I might want to ride you...Haven’t been on top in a while.” In the darkness of the backstage, you crane your neck to take Harry’s earlobe between your teeth. He groans softly and grips your hips to guide them against his for a second. “Sounds fuckin’ fantastic, love.” You twitch back, releasing him immediately at the word. You always told him not to call you that and he tried to reason with you, that it was just something he called people. But you disliked it a lot, adding it to the growing list of rules the pair of you had for the do’s and don'ts of being friends with benefits with each other.
“Harold,” you groan and he steps back at that pet name. While he hated this, you refused to let him put it on the list because it didn’t cross any lines with your physical arrangement. Not that there was any physical list to put it on, it was more of a theoretical list that the two of you would speak of occasionally.
“Sorry.” He says eventually, “Didn’t mean it.” You both laugh.
You think about how other relationships were sometimes desperate to hear their partner express their love for them and you believe you’re grateful for the simplicity of your arrangement. The term relationship regarding what you and Harry were doing was also in the ‘don’t’ category on the list. If either of you were being honest, there should be no need for a list and you should be questioning yourselves why you felt the need to set boundaries if one part of it was physical and the other part was your friendship and job. If it truly was just physical why were boundaries constantly needing to be set and followed? But right now honesty was not in the cards.
-
After the show Harry gets delayed with press or fans or something that you don’t really care about. You barely read the text that he sends, only caring about the ‘sorry got held up’ and the ‘be there in thirty’.
You let yourself into his room and wait on the bed, flipping through your phone, completely unbothered by the rest of the world. When you hear a knock on the door, you don’t think twice about getting up and opening the door. You only realize your terrible mistake when it’s Mitch and not Harry standing at what you’re also just realizing isn’t your door, but instead Harry’s.
“Shit!” you say under your breath as Mitch looks at you confused.
The room is dark behind you because Harry would have just entered and gotten down to business. He might turn on a side lamp, but you hadn’t felt the need to have light on while you waited. Forgetting all of that, you had just gone to the door and opened it.
Mitch tucks some of his hair behind his ear as he stares at you. “Is Harry here?”
“Er..No?” It comes out as a question. You rub the back of your ankle with your foot, feeling nervous.
“Is he actually not here or?” Mitch trails off, narrowing his eyes at you.
“No, no he’s really not here. I’m waiting for him, too.” You rush your words, but try to remain calm.
“You have a key to his room. And you’re waiting in the dark.” He says. They’re not questions and you’re not sure just how guilty you look.
“Yeah!” You try to come up with a non suspicious response, hoping there’s a way to still salvage your’s and Harry’s secret, “He gave me his key because he wanted to talk about something and I kept it dark because my eyes always hurt after shows. Kind of like a migraine.” You scratch at your head and smile, trying to convince Mitch. He seems to believe you as he nods slowly and opens his eyes more.
There’s a little bit of an awkward silence and Mitch shifts his weight between his feet, looking at you still. Just as you're about to invite Mitch to come wait inside with you, Harry steps out of the elevator and begins to walk down the hall. His key card is already in hand and your eyes widen. Harry’s expression mirrors yours when he realizes Mitch is standing outside of his door and that you are standing with him. “Mitch!” Harry says, placing his hand on Mitch’s shoulder and sliding his key card into his back pocket with the other. Mitch turns to Harry without seeing him put away the other key card and you look at the pair of them.
“I was just telling Mitch how you gave me your key card so we could talk about...that thing.” You interject, flicking the lights on in Harry’s room as casually as possible. Harry shoots you a look about how you couldn’t come up with an actual reason for being there. You shrug your shoulders helplessly.
Mitch looks between the two of you and feels some weird tension and he’s not sure if it's always there and he’s just noticing or if something is going on right now.
“Yeah, well, I came to stop by to talk about the riff in Canyon Moon. Something is wonky with it.”
“Oh! Sure,” Harry nods to Mitch and then glances at you, “Y/N, we can talk about that other thing later. It’s not that important anyway.” His tone is so casual and nonchalant. You stare at him, thinking he can’t be serious. You had been almost sure he would send Mitch away, but instead you were being kicked to the curb. When he doesn’t say sike or anything of the sort, you nod. “Okay,” then you mumble a ‘good luck’ with figuring out the problem with the song. Mitch walks in the door, but Harry’s eyes stay fixed on your figure retreating down the hallway. He watches you disappear and is only pulled from his thoughts when Mitch calls his name from the couch in the room.
After reaching your floor, you key into your room and get ready for bed. Just as you’re about to drift off to sleep, completely alone for once in a long time, there’s another knock. This time you check the peephole, a habit you realized you were going to have to get better at. It’s Harry. You open the door and walk away immediately once he’s entered the room.
“Why are you here?”
“Thought we could still...” He follows you into the room, trying to make out your face in the darkness.
“I’m not in the mood anymore.” Your tone gives away your annoyance. You couldn’t hide that you were mad at Harry for sending you away. It made you feel weird. The way he did it so easily made you feel like you were extremely disposable and unwanted.
“I’m sorry,” he sighs as he lays down beside you. You turn to face him when he places a hand on the small of your back. You’re face to face and your noses are almost brushing. It’s not really possible to see each other’s features, but after months of hooking up you knew each other’s faces pretty well. You could reach out and pinpoint all of Harry’s freckles and moles on his face and neck right now and be correct. He could likely do the same. The theory is proven correct when he reaches out and his hand dances down your cheek. “Just thought it would be less suspicious if I didn’t get rid of him. Couldn’t make him wait either…”
“I know,” your voice is small and soft, just above a whisper, “I forgive you.” You scoot closer to him and Harry instinctively wraps his arm around you, bringing you tightly into him. You sigh into his neck and he shivers at your warm breath on his slightly clammy skin. When you lick your lips, they brush lightly against his skin. He laughs at the feeling, so you decide to press an intentional kiss to the hollow in his neck. In response, he presses a kiss to your hairline, his lips slightly chapped after the concert.
The kisses are tender, filled with that thing neither of you dare attribute to anything the two of you did in the dark. The word you told him time and time again to not call you. So is just about every touch and word that has been exchanged in this room since Harry entered it. You fall asleep wrapped up in his arms, a soft smile resting on both of your faces. Neither of you seem to mind that you didn’t actually have sex tonight or anything even close to it.
-
When you wake up you feel especially well rested. You shift around and realize your bed is empty besides you. It depended on the day, but it was always a toss up between Harry being there when you woke up or not. However, lately, you had found it was usually the former. You would linger longer and so would Harry in each other’s rooms, lounging in each other’s embrace under the soft glow of the morning light peaking through whatever windows the room had. Today you were cold at his absence. Then you look up and realize you aren’t completely alone. Harry is standing at the end of your bed, staring down at his phone, smiling.
“Hey.”
You wait for his reply, but he doesn’t look up from his phone. “Hey, Harold,” you repeat. His head snaps up, a grimace on his face at the name. He slips his phone in his pocket and ruffles his hair. “Hey.” He finally responds. “I’m gonna head out.”
“Okay.”
Neither of you seem to find it necessary to talk about what happened last night. Harry definitely seemed a little off to you this morning, but you try to shake it from your thoughts. There was no reason to be upset with him being quiet. He didn’t owe you anything, you hadn’t even slept together last night, so if anything it was weird he stayed as long as he did.
It was the second night at the Forum in Los Angeles. This means no travelling necessary. No day off either, tomorrow you’d have a day off before the third and final show at the venue though.
Harry and you were talking normally at the venue, mostly about the setlist - him and Mitch had changed something for whatever reason last night, which was fine. Your banter was to a minimum, but you were trying to convince yourself that nothing was off. Even though it felt like something was different, you couldn’t place your finger on what it was, so you thought it was best to ignore it.
When Harry is about to go out on stage, you don’t pull him aside and when he introduces the members of the band to the audience, he doesn’t say anything fun or silly about you. He doesn’t wink or come up to you at any point in the performance. It’s so unusual the rest of your bandmates are giving you funny looks. Charlotte looks at you from across your keyboard in a way that she’s asking if you’re okay. You shake your head at everyone trying to signal that you’re fine.
Mitch goes over to Harry and whispers in his ear to check in with him, Harry looks at him with a bright smile on his face and says “of course, why wouldn’t I be?” Mitch looks between the pair of you, thinking back to last night and how weird the pair of you were being then. Maybe it dawns on him then what might be going on between the two of you, but if he did, he wouldn’t mention it for a long time.
You falter a bit on your back up vocals tonight. You’re trying to give it your all, like always, but for some reason your voice isn’t sounding the way you want it. About halfway through the show, when your voice comes out the exact opposite of how you would like, Harry finally gives you a second glance. His face practically emotionless, save for the single arched brow. He’s concerned, but not concerned enough where he would go over to you. He just doesn’t understand why you keep missing the right note tonight. You make a shake of your hand to say I don’t know either. He just shrugs and turns back around to continue the show, his lively smile returning while he turns his head.
After the show, Charlotte, Sarah, and you are all checking in, going over what had happened during the show in general. They’re both worried about your voice and you’re simply trying to tell them that it was just an off night. Nothing was wrong. As long as you told everyone else that, then it might turn out to be true.
“It’s fine, maybe I didn’t get enough sleep last night,” you fib, having gotten more sleep last night than most other nights on this tour. They both nod, seeming to take that as a reasonable answer.
Then Charlotte gets quieter as she whispers to the three of you, “Did you guys notice anything weird with Harry? He was super lively, but he barely interacted with you, Y/N, which is so unlike him...”
Sarah nods while you look skeptically on. Sarah adds, “He kept looking up to the boxes, too. More than usual at least. I don’t know though…” She trails off and you cross your arms over your chest, not really enjoying the conversation topic. “I mean, what do you think, Y/N?” Sarah adds.
Your eyes dance between the two women, your fellow bandmates, your friends. You sometimes wished you could share with them what you were doing with Harry. The secret was fun, but it’s also nice to be able to share with your girlfriends about the guy you’re seeing, even if it is a casual thing. The friendly gossip of it all is something fun to share, but sadly that was another thing you couldn’t do. You sigh, “You never really know what’s going on in his mind, y’know. He’s just Harry.” Your response is half-assed at best. You figure they’ll both give you shit for the non-answer you just supplied, but instead someone else speaks for them.
“I am in fact, just Harry.” He says and you swivel around to find yourself almost chest to chest with him. Charlotte laughs while Sarah simply smiles. Your eyes are huge as you stare up at him and you hope your blush doesn’t come out too strongly after being caught talking about Harry by himself. “Enlighten me on when I was being ‘just Harry’ though?” You bite your lip and take a step back from him, forming more of a line with the other women. He shrugs when no one offers a response, laughing lightly.
“Oh and Y/N, I can’t talk about that thing again tonight, I’ve got-”
“A date?” Charlotte asks, trying to understand why Harry was acting a little different tonight still. The part that Sarah had mentioned about him looking up into the boxes had given her the idea that he might have plans with someone after the show. Harry scratches his head, his hair slightly wet with sweat right after the show. He’s taken off his coat so he’s just in the almost completely unbuttoned, sweat soaked shirt he had been wearing underneath. It sticks tight to his skin and you can make out all the muscle lines that hide beneath the fabric that you usually get to caress. Your eyes flit from his body back to his face when he speaks again.
“Erm, I wasn’t going to phrase it like that...but yes, I suppose, it’s a date.” He says finally, he avoids your eye contact and you look at him very confused, trying to hide the hurt. He shoves his hands in his pockets trying to look and sound as casual as possible and ignore the strain he sees on your face. Is that what had held him up yesterday? Making plans with someone else? And he hadn’t told you until now? The past twenty four hours stung a little bit more now that you knew why Harry was being so distant. It simply felt icky finding out this way and it didn’t even seem like he was going to tell you it was a date.
“Okay,” you say simply and walk away. You hear Charlotte asking him details about his date, but you try actively not to hear any of it. Sarah watches you walk away and sees the way you wrap your arms around yourself to comfort you. She feels a twinge of sadness as she watches the scene unfold, seeing something she hadn’t realized was there before.
Harry doesn’t text or call you that night. You hang out with everyone else for a little while in Charlotte’s room before heading to bed, saying you think you need an early night tonight. Before you’re able to walk out of the door, Mitch stops you. “I heard Harry blew off whatever conversation the two of you have been trying to have again. Just wanted to tell you I’m sorry.” You try to smile but it comes out as more of a grimace. There is no conversation Harry is blowing off, it’s simply you. “It’s fine. Like he said yesterday, it’s not important.” Mitch nods, but still looks at you with concern. What he had seen last night, then on stage today, and what Sarah had told him about your interaction after the show it all strung together in his mind. It didn’t seem unimportant at all. But he didn’t know how he could tell you that. He felt like he should talk to Harry about the way you looked when you left Charlotte’s room tonight, but he didn’t know how to bring it up to him either.
You don’t realize you’re crying until you're in the elevator, and it’s slowly rising to your floor of the hotel. You’re only one level up, but it feels like an eternity in there. You already weren’t a fan of elevators, but this ride felt impossibly worse. The walls are all made up of mirrors and you see yourself in the reflection, but you don’t exactly recognize the girl in there. Your eyes are tired from the show, dark circles already formed. Your hands are aching, clenching and unclenching on their own accord. Your body is slumped against the back wall, likely leaving a slight imprint from the smoke residue and dust on your clothes. Worst of all are the tears running down your face, smudging at your makeup, the black mascara you had applied dripping down in sinister raindrops against your skin. The sad girl stares back at you as you sniffle slightly, confused at what you’re seeing. “Why are you crying?” you ask yourself, your voice creaking and then breaking at the end as you struggle to get out the word ‘crying’ before a sob wracks through you. You roll your eyes when your reflection offers no explanation for itself. You laugh at your own patheticness and try to shake the feelings you’re experiencing.
Inside your room now, you flop on the bed and stare straight up at the ceiling. Your arms spread to your sides and your legs lay limply below you. You think about every night before last, every night since the tour started. Every night where you weren’t alone, where you were with Harry. Your mind flits to last night, how Harry’s lips had ghosted over your skin after his apology. How you had told him you forgave him and it had felt so peaceful, so simple. It was all so easy. Thinking about him and the things the two of you did together brought a smile to your face, unbeknownst to you. When you realize it’s there, your face drops immediately, deciding not to think about Harry.
But trying to not think about Harry makes you only think about him more and what you think about him now most definitely doesn’t bring a smile to your face. You’re thinking about him out on his date with some person you chose to learn nothing about. Maybe out of fear of what is happening right now. By knowing nothing about the person, you can’t compare yourself to them. Can’t see what’s different about them that would make Harry go out on a date with them. But it doesn’t matter who they are or what they look like because at the end of it all you know one thing for certain. They’re not you. You correct yourself, you know two things actually, because you also know that Harry chose to be with them instead of you tonight.
You fall asleep with tear stained cheeks that night and absolutely nothing positive on your mind. You want to sleep but know it only brings whatever is bound to happen tomorrow, which doesn’t seem very promising.
-
It’s noon when you wake up and you wake to a knocking on your door. You grumble and throw a sweatshirt over your body to hide the underwear you slept in. Not remembering your new habit, you swing the door open without any hesitation to find Harry. He looks wide awake and happy, the way he almost always looks, a fresh beautiful flower of a man. You look at him groggily, “What are you doing here?”
“You weren’t answering your phone.”
“Because I was asleep?” You tilt your head and look at him incredulously. “What about this,” you gesture to your appearance, “looks like I just went for a 3 mile jog for fun and I love the morning?”
“Can I come in?” He ignores everything you just said and enters the room when you leave the door to get back in bed. You often did that with him, you don’t know why, but when he asked to come in the room it was just simpler to let him in then say anything. He knew what you meant.
He sits at the edge of the bed as you reclaim your spot in the middle of it, tucked slightly under the covers, but still sitting up. “How was your date?” You try to sound nonchalant and it seems to work. Harry doesn’t notice your tense figure, but you notice how he tenses up when you ask.
“Good…Her name was-” You don’t let him finish, you already know the answer to this next question and you don’t need her name in order to ask it, “Did you fuck her?”
He’s silent, green eyes staring straight at you. You meet his gaze, your eyes almost burning holes into him. His eyes are begging you to not make him answer the question, he doesn’t want this to end, even if he also didn’t want the commitment he had felt himself exhibiting the other night.
When he had come to your room the other night after Mitch had almost caught you, he knew he shouldn’t have stayed. He didn’t want you to feel bad so he had come to apologize, but when the pair of you didn’t have sex, he should have left. But he didn’t, he stayed and it wasn’t for you, it was for himself. It was for him to hold you in his arms because he liked to. But when he woke up the next morning he knew he needed to leave. Solely cuddling wasn’t part of your arrangement together. It’s probably on the list of don'ts that the pair of you had. So after he realized the line he had willingly crossed with you, he quickly sent a text to Jeff who had tried to set him up with a model they were acquaintances with the night before - the reason he had gotten held up. Harry had initially declined, not very interested in seeing anyone else but you. But looking back on that choice in the light of day seemed to solidify what this relationship was - a relationship - and Harry didn’t like that. The commitment wasn’t part of the plan, so he told Jeff to set that date up for after the second show at the Forum and give the woman a ticket. That’s why he was smiling at his phone the morning after only cuddling with you, that’s why he didn’t joke around with you during the show, and that’s why he wasn’t in your bed last night.
You watch him expectantly, silently waiting for his answer, your veins cold as ice. He finally starts his answer and he wants to make it clear that it wasn’t as good with the other woman, but he’s not sure how to work that part in. He’s not sure how to explain to you it meant nothing if your arrangement also apparently meant nothing. You barely even let him get in a sentence. “Yes, but it was just a one time-”
“Alright.”
“What?” He doesn’t understand what you mean when you nod your head and cut him off.
“I told you at the beginning, Harry. Tell me when you sleep with someone else because when you do this is over. It doesn’t matter if she’s the love of your life or a one night stand. I will not be a backup plan, so if you’re able to find other people to sleep with, you don’t need to be sleeping with me.”
He sits in silence for a moment, his jaw dropped open slightly. He’s unable to keep it shut as his mind races about what to say. “Are you mad with me?”
“No, I’m fine. This was just sex. Charlotte will be happy that I’ll be going out with her more.”
Harry’s brow furrows as you shift away from him on the bed, grabbing your phone and beginning to flick through it. You feel numb and you’d like to not think about why.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” He asks because he does care about you, worry is written all over his face. He just can’t commit, not now.
“What would I be mad about, Harry?” You look up and your eyes widen at him, silently asking him to truthfully say why you should be so upset about this revelation. You always knew it would eventually come to an end, you just hadn’t expected so soon. You hadn’t known the last time would be the last time and it broke your heart even if you knew it shouldn’t.
He shifts to reach his hand out to touch your exposed knee. You move away from him and he sighs, looking exasperated. “I- I don’t know. It just seems like we should talk about this.”
“You didn’t even think it was necessary to tell me you were going on a date last night, so I think it’s best if we just left it at ‘it’s fine, see you around’.”
He spreads his hands out across the sheets, examining his rings and painted nails thoroughly. You’re right, he doesn’t really want to talk about this. Well, more so, he’s conflicted. He would like to talk enough that you want to continue your arrangement but he doesn’t want to talk about feelings or emotions. Even if he has those feelings and emotions, they’re just not part of the things he’d like to talk about. “But-” You set your phone down at his first word, “Were you even going to tell me you fucked someone else today if Charlotte hadn’t asked you if it was a date last night? Would you just have come to my room tonight and acted like nothing had changed?”
“I would have told you.”
“Sure.”
“I swear I would’ve. I would never break a promise to you.”
“But you would make a decision that affects the both of us without telling me until afterwards?” Your voice breaks a little and you beg yourself not to cry right now.
“I thought you said this was just sex?”
You laugh humorlessly, in disbelief, “Of course it’s not, Harry! And it hasn’t been for a long time and that’s why you got scared and went and fucked someone else.” He looks at you blankly, unsure what to say, knowing you’re right. You continue, “But I also told you at the beginning of this, that I wasn’t going to try to change you. So this is me not trying to change you.” You sigh when he still says nothing, his expression completely unreadable, even to you. “Why couldn’t you have left it at ‘it’s fine’?” You say finally, barely above a whisper.
He blinks a few times after your final question. He flexes his hand one more time and then stands up from the bed. He adjusts his clothes and stares at you. You feel helpless, but you’re still trying to look pulled together, even after your outburst. You stare back. A thousand words floating through your heads, all the things you want to say and likely never will.
“I know, I’m…” he pauses, trying to get himself to say it, but he can’t. He can’t admit that he’s completely ruined whatever messed up paradise you had created together. “I’ll see you later.”
The apology or lack there of hangs in the air as he walks silently out your door. You don’t move, you barely even blink, still staring at the spot he had just occupied. Your breath finally escapes you, a large sigh. Then some nervous laughter. It was over...just like that. But things like this, left like this are never really over.
-
It’s awkward for a good amount of the rest of the tour. You hang out with your bandmates more and Harry rarely ever comes out with them after the shows. He either hangs out with Mitch on his own or is going out with random people he knows on the road. You and him speak, but it’s never a lot or about anything relatively meaningful. It’s not the fun back and forth of before or the fiery heat of sneaking around. You try to be normal with him, act like his casual friend and bandmate.
He does his best to do the same, but it’s difficult for him. He doesn’t know how to talk to you anymore. He misses being with you, but can’t bring himself to fix it. He doesn’t do much to right his wrongs with you. He also doesn’t even know what he would want if he did apologize. It scared him to think about the step that came after ‘sorry’ so he saved himself the trouble and never did that part either. One night he texts you: “I’m trying, it’s just hard.” and that’s it. You don’t give him a response, he doesn’t need one. You know he’s trying and he knows you know.
Near the end of the tour, he comes out with the rest of you for drinks one night. Only Mitch is between the two of you in the booth, so you feel closer to Harry than you’ve felt in a long time. The group of you are chatting and having a good time. You somehow get onto a story from when you were still in college. You explain how you had narrowly avoided getting Chlamydia right before your Christmas break junior year. You act out the conversations you imagined would have happened at all your Christmas events if you had indeed gotten it. Your impressions of your mother, father, and sister have everyone laughing the most. Harry is shaking with laughter from your story and you smile at him in appreciation when he says, “That is the funniest story I’ve heard in a long fucking time.”
The rest of the night goes really well, for the most part. No one bickers or is short with each other. Everyone is laughing and drinks are flowing. Eventually Mitch gets up to go to the bathroom and you feel Harry slide back into the booth closer to you after letting Mitch out. Your hand had taken up residence next to your thigh, resting on the vinyl of the booth. You sense something next to it now and notice Harry’s hand is resting close beside it. He shifts his hand closer when he sees that you’re looking down at it. He’s almost touching you and you look up to his eyes, wondering if he’ll close the distance. He makes an imperceptible shake of his head, but you know what he means. As you’re about to shift your hand so that your pinky connects with his, Mitch returns and your head shoots up to his figure. You instantly remove your hand from the vinyl and shift closer to Charlotte. Harry gets up, but doesn’t sit back down once Mitch is settled. He instead walks off to get another drink, risking one last look at the table where he makes eye contact with you, but he doesn’t come back. Mitch informs everyone that Harry went back to the hotel because “he was tired” after Harry doesn’t return and Mitch gets a text. You roll your eyes, sure that you saw him slip out of the side door with a woman he found at the bar after he had gotten his drink. If that’s what ‘tired’ looked like on Harry, it was fine.
You start to speak to Harry on a more regular basis after that night out. It’s not funny or lighthearted. It’s just ‘I saw this song the other day, thought you might like to listen’. It went back and forth, it wasn’t everyday but it was something. The last text between the two of you before you began sharing songs again was his ‘I’m trying it’s just hard’ text that he had sent randomly one night. Then after one of you would listen, you would see each other at sound check and mention the song and what you thought about it. It can be noted that it was Harry who sent the first song.
For Harryween, Adam couldn’t be there. He has some family emergency the day of and doesn’t come with the rest of you to Madison Square Garden or the hotel you were staying at. Thankfully, Charlotte also plays keys and you can play bass. The band had to shift around some things on stage and make minimal changes to the setlist since you weren’t rehearsed on the covers Harry was doing. You spent the whole day running through the chords of those songs with Mitch, trying to memorize them so you didn’t mess it up during the show.
It was weird because for Harryween the setlist was switched up a little from the regular set for Love On Tour. Harry was playing the entire new album as well as half of the first album, Medicine, some of his other unreleased stuff, and about six covers, including old One Direction songs. It was going to be a long show and a challenge for you.
Before the show, Harry pulls you aside, to a dark corner backstage, and your mind flits back to the last time you had been in this type of position. The last time he had called you ‘love’, the last time you bit his earlobe - which always drove him crazy, the last time he ground his hips against yours, those and more and you had no idea that it was the last. By then you had already had sex with Harry for the last time, kissed his lips for the last time. It made your heart race to be so close to him and so alone once again. But it’s nowhere near the same as it once was. You shake the memories from your mind and look up expectantly at him.
“Have you got this?” He asks seriously, tone concerned. Of course it’s a music question, nothing more. Like it always was now.
“Yeah, of course.” His stare is unwavering and you try not to falter from it.
“I can get someone else to cover tomorrow, it was just such a short notice today. You know bass really well too, it made sense.”
“I’ve got this. Seriously, don’t worry, Harold.” You pat his chest lightly and for once Harry smiles at the sound of your nickname for him. You had stopped using it after the end of your arrangement. It never felt right to use when you were talking about music, and that was about the only time you had been talking. In this moment though, it felt right. His warm, large hands held your upper arms as you stared up into his big eyes. You missed staring into them, the shimmering emerald of his irises were constantly intriguing. You instinctively reach up to move back a curl that has fallen onto his forehead. He doesn’t shy away from your touch and continues to smile down at you.
“Y’haven’t called me that in forever.” He grins, his lips a shiny pink from the lip balm he had on.
“No, I suppose I haven’t. But where was the groan? The whole point is to annoy you.” You smile coyly. He tips his head back and laughs, releasing your arms from his grasp as he laughs wholeheartedly.
Then he does a soft groan, a playful sound, “How was that?”
“Eh. I’ll give you a four out of ten. Not enough emotion behind it.” You slide from the area the two of you have been occupying and make your way onto the stage to start dealing with the bass you would be playing. You hear Harry call out to you, “I think I deserve at least a five, maybe even a six!” You turn back for a second to look at him with an unimpressed expression and shake your head no. He laughs again and you hear him even when you walk out onto the stage. You smile to yourself as you pick up the bass.
When he introduces the band, he waits to talk about you last. “And sadly this evening Mr. Adam Prentergest, our usual fabulous bassist, was unable to attend our fancy dress party! However! Our lovely Y/N L/N is also a superb bassist and was kind enough to step into his place. - Anything to add?” He saunters across the stage to you and you laugh kindly, feeling at ease in this part of the stage even though you were usually on the opposite side and further back from the crowd. You nod at Harry and he leans his portable mic towards your lips. You wet them quickly and eye Harry before turning out to the crowd. “Just please go easy on me if the bass sounds a bit wonky. It wasn’t on the job description that I’d be playing songs I didn’t know, with a few hours notice, on not my main instrument.” You say this in a kind of list format, holding up your fingers as you tick off all the ways that this was out of your comfort zone. You scratch your head dramatically after you’re finished and the whole crowd laughs and cheers. The rest of your bandmates chuckle along and Harry nods and smiles at you.
“You’ll do great, love.” He leans into your ear and says without the microphone. Then he winks and turns to go back to the center of the stage. You press your lips together to contain your smile, both happy and concerned about the flip your stomach just did.  
The show is going great. Harry is killing it with the crowd. Everything is electric. You’re entirely focussed on your bass playing, but Harry has been coming over every so often to do something fun or have you tell a joke.
“She’s truly the funniest person I know! And I know a fair amount of people I think.” Harry says as he walks over to you have you tell another joke. Mitch has been looking at you and Harry interacting all night and he’s sure that it isn’t your different position that has him coming over and talking to you so much tonight. Something has definitely changed once again. First the pair of you were always together and having fun, then it was silence and stolen glances that neither of you realized you were taking, now it was back to the beginning.
“That’s because you think puns are part of the top tier levels of comedy.” You say easily, “Here, I can guarantee Harry will love this and the rest of you will likely groan.” Then you stop and act as if you’re thinking for a little, everyone’s waiting expectantly. “Sorry, thinking...Well, I’ve got some skeleton puns I could do, they’re very humerus or y’know classic vampire ones..eh but those ones kind of suck. What do you think, Harry?” You look out at the crowd, face deadpan, as Harry laughs beside you. You roll your eyes playfully and push him back to the center of the stage. Leaning into your own mic now, you say, “I told you.” That’s when everyone laughs. Harry throws another look at you over his shoulder and laughs a little more, his smile wide and eyes bright.
A little over half way through the night, it’s time for ‘to be so lonely’. You already knew the bass chords for it before today and you were confident in yourself by now. It wasn’t as hard a song so you were happy for the little break. This song allowed you to not be looking down at the notes you had stuck to the floor in front of you. Harry’s voice comes in after Mitch’s intro and you watch the way his lips move against his mic. You laugh a little as you watch the crowd yell the first “arrogant son of a bitch” line. You used to not particularly like when people did that, but after it had ended with Harry you had started to enjoy it a bit more. Having those people yell the words you couldn’t, but truly felt about him sometimes, was cathartic. Tonight you weren’t angry with him, but you enjoyed the energy in the room when everyone said it. We’ve all got our own ‘arrogant son of a bitch’ that we want to scream at sometimes. Tonight yours wasn’t Harry for the first time in a long time. The song moves along and Harry takes the microphone off its stand, he walks towards your side of the stage. When the lyrics get to:
“I miss the shape of your lips, your wit, it’s just a trick, this is it so I’m sorry”
Harry isn’t looking at the crowd, he’s looking straight at you. You don’t understand the way he’s looking at you. Or maybe you don’t want to understand it. This song, its lyrics, explains Harry really well. You saw the relationship you had with him in the words. Maybe not precisely, but a part of it was in it. Harry had unknowingly foretold your lives with his words. You know he has trouble connecting and committing, you know his issues, and you accept them. But you knew what had happened between the two of you was far more serious than meaningless sex and you knew Harry couldn’t bring himself to be that serious. He ran off and that was fine, but the face that he couldn’t even apologize hurt you the most. But the song lays it all out for you, he’s not one to be able to apologize quickly. The fact that he looks at you and means the apology he sings in the song for you, it’s a big step, but it’s not enough. The banter, the technical apology, it was all a good start, but it’s just that - the beginning. If Harry wants to make things better with you, a lot more needs to be discussed. So when you sing backing vocals for the following chorus you mean the words for Harry completely.
“Don’t call me baby again, you got your reasons, I know that you’re trying to be friends. I know you mean it, but don’t call me baby again it’s hard for me to go home and be so lonely”
His eyes flick to you again and see your lips moving around the words as you play the bass. He sees the emotion in your face and understands what you’re saying. It’s hard for you to go to your room at night and be alone while he’s out with someone else. It’s hard for him to act like everything’s all fine and perfect, back to normal, because for you it isn’t really. He can’t call you ‘love’ and tell the world you’re funny and expect it to be enough. He can’t sing his sorry that was initially for someone else to you and expect you to accept it. And he knows it, too.
After the show everyone decides they’re exhausted and need to rest before tomorrow. You all planned to celebrate the whole day and you knew it was going to be a wicked Halloween. Knowing this, you’re surprised with the knock on your door after about an hour of being back at the hotel. You’ve given up the habit you had once hoped to cultivate and swing the door open haplessly. Truly having no idea who to expect, you are still surprised to find the man standing before you.
“Mitch.”
“We need to talk.” He stares down at you, his shoulders slumped from tiredness.
“Come in,” you usher him in when you hear the urgency of his voice. He saunters in before you and you close the door. You move to the small couch in the room and sit down. Your hands gesture for him to sit as well, but he shakes his head. He stays standing and brings a hand up to smooth his hair back on the right side. His eyes staying on the floor and flickering up to you every so often.
“What is going on with you and Harry?”
“What do you mean?”
“Oh come on Y/N. You’re seemingly best friends with him for a good portion of tour, then you’re barely on speaking terms for the second half, now you’re joking around again. What is going on?”
You sit there in a stunned silence, “I don’t know what to say.” Your arms go to hug your body, feeling anxious about being confronted about this topic.
“Were you seeing each other?” His voice is soft, eyes taking in your body language and knowing it’s a difficult topic.
“I wouldn’t put it like that…”
He holds back the ‘I knew it’ statement because of  how sullen you look, b..ut in his mind all of the pieces he had watched unfold came to fit in a perfect puzzle. He decides to sit beside you when you don’t say anything else.
“We were having sex,” it felt weird to say it out loud, no one but you and Harry had actually known, “But it ended. I don’t know what today was...but it felt different than how it’s been.”
“Why are you so sad if it was just sex?” He places a hand on your shoulder and your tear-filled eyes meet his. “Oh…” He knows why.
“I’m sorry, Y/N.” You sob at his apology because he’s not the one who should be at your door apologizing. You sniffle and lean your head into his chest. He takes you into his arms and holds you as your cries become muffled sounds in his shirt.
You cry without words for a few minutes, Mitch coos some soothing words, his voice soft and kind. He was always a good shoulder to cry on for all of your bandmates, he was extremely strong and you made a mental note to thank him thoroughly when you actually were capable of forming coherent thoughts. “I’ve never told anyone before. It feels so weird even saying it out loud,” you say as you pull back from Mitch’s embrace. You're thankful his shirt is black, no tear stains can be made out.
“Do you want to talk about it?” He asks gently, gauging your reaction. You wipe at your eyes and nod.
Taking a deep breath, you decide to start from the beginning. “Do you remember the party Charlotte had a week before we left for tour?”
Mitch nods and his eyes widen at what you’re saying as he remembers the night. “It started back then?” He’s unable to contain his incredulous question. He had suspected something, but hadn’t thought it had been going on for that long. He was truly astounded. You nod, “Well sort of,” then you go on to recount the last couple of months. All the way up until the Forum shows. “That night, when I opened Harry’s door and it was you standing there...Harry and I didn’t have anything to discuss. It was just…” Mitch nods again. He hadn’t spoken much since you had gotten into the story, wanting to let you be in charge of what you were saying and believing he could probably ask questions at the end. “Then the next night he blew me off for his date with that model and I cried in the elevator because I knew what was going to happen next.”
“So that’s when it ended?” Mitch asks when you don’t speak for a rather extended period of time.
“Yeah, the next morning he came over and I asked if they had sex and he said yes so I told him it was over.”
“But I don’t get why he went out with that model. He had told me she wasn’t his type the night before…” Your eyes shot up and looked at Mitch. His eyes widened when he realized what he said.
“What?”
“When we were talking about Canyon Moon, he mentioned that Jeff had tried to set him up with some woman but he had declined. Said he wasn’t interested. I don’t get what changed between then and the next morning.” He figured it was best to put all the cards out on the table right now. You’d be going your separate ways for a while, now that the tour was over and he had seen how unhappy both you and Harry had been over the last part of the tour.
You shift your leg to have it folded beneath you as you continue to stare at Mitch. “He came over after you and him had your meeting,”  you say quietly. Mitch hums, waiting for you to continue this time.
“He apologized for choosing you over me to talk to. Then we slept together, but we didn’t have sex...I think that’s what wigged him. It had felt too real, sleeping in the same bed with me without having sex beforehand made it feel like something more than just two people fulfilling needs.” Mitch nods and sighs heavily. He looks around the room and then back to you, taking in your full appearance. Again he feels terrible for you, how he had felt the second night at the Forum even though he hadn’t known the full story yet. “Now we’re here.”
“Tonight, it felt like he was trying,” Mitch finally said and you smiled sweetly, thinking back to Harry’s behavior. No matter how far from him you were, all those good feelings you associated with him never went away.
“Yeah, it’s been getting better. He texted me once saying he was trying. Then he came out with us one night and it almost seemed like that would be the night he’d apologize, but then he didn’t. Then we started sharing music with each other again. Then tonight… was tonight. It’s just confusing. He’s confusing.”
Mitch smiles sadly and brings you in for another hug and you’re actually so thankful he
showed up at your door. It was your first time telling anyone all of this, because Harry didn’t even know how you felt about some of these things. It felt amazing to be heard and to be told it was okay to be feeling like this.
Pulling back, Mitch says, “He’s definitely different. But his differences are what make him special and that’s why I think he clings to them even if they sometimes can hurt other people. The fact that he’s trying is a good sign. I hope he can find it in himself to make it right between you two because I had never seen either of you happier than when you were apparently together. Especially those few weeks leading up to Los Angeles. Sarah had kept asking me why Harry was so smiley back then. When I had asked him, he had just said “have you ever found something and realized you wanted to keep it with you forever?” I had no idea what he had meant, but I feel like he meant you now.”
Your awestruck at what Mitch has just told you. He was right about the first part about Harry trying to change, but the last bit, that’s what had left you speechless. You turn your body to face the rest of the room and put your chin against your hand as you think.
“Mitch...I have to go.”
He understands what you mean and you walk out of the door with him. He walks down the hall to his room and you walk quickly past the elevator and opt for the stairs. Before you know it you’re running up the stairs, taking two at a time even though you’re not the most athletically inclined. You can’t stand to wait for the elevator and your mind is racing.
You knock on the door that is Harry’s after reaching his floor. It swings open and reveals a confused and sleepy Harry. Thankfully he’s still fully dressed because that would have been a whole other problem you would have if he hadn’t been. You push past him and walk straight into his room without any invitation. He follows behind you, still unsure of why you’ve come here.
“Have you ever found something and realized you want to keep it forever?” You ask him, repeating the words Mitch had just told you.
“Pardon?”
“You told Mitch that about me before we ended things. If that’s how you felt, why didn’t you do what you said?”
Harry sighs as the words register in his mind. The memory of when he had smiled at Mitch so giddily and asked the vague question, his thoughts only of you as he asked it. The shit-eating grin he had plastered on his face after Mitch had looked at him confusedly flitted across his mind. As well as the way he had gone to his dressing room and had a quickie with you after that conversation.
“It’s not that simple…”
“It is, Harry! Why can’t you just be honest with me for once?”
“Okay, fine. You want me to be honest?” you nod at his harsh tone. The two of you standing only a few feet apart. “You have no goddamn idea what you do to me, when I’m around you, I have no control of my emotions or of my thoughts. I pushed you away because I didn’t like feeling out of control. I got out because what had started as a fun time had turned into me longing to be with you every waking hour. I found myself not caring what we did as long as I got to hold you and be around you, but that wasn’t part of the plan.”
“Plans can change, Harry.”
You step closer to him and he meets your eyes. He had left his music playing softly on his phone before he had opened the door so now as the two of you stared at each other, he must have been playing his Etta James playlist because her voice faded out of the song “I’d Rather Go Blind” and straight into “A Sunday Kind of Love”. Harry had shared her At Last album with you over the Christmas holiday of last year and you had decided to listen to her entire discography afterwards, so you knew the songs. The transition was a little too on the nose and you wondered if Spotify ever listened to your conversations.
His emerald eyes examine your face and take inventory of your features, measuring whether anything had changed since he had looked at you this close up. Your hand goes up to cup his cheek and he nuzzles into it, dropping his head closer to you ever so slightly and closing his eyes at the feeling of you.
“I am sorry,” he whispers earnestly as he reopens his eyes.
You can’t take your eyes off of him even if you tried. He looks so soft in the moment, so vulnerable in this light as the music swells in the corner of the room. Etta sings about how she needs a love that is going to last as the pair of you inch yourselves closer together.
“I forgive you, Harry,” you whisper back.
He nudges his head further down and your lips finally press together, slotting back together after months apart. Your lips are eager to press back against their favorite companion. You oblige them, but pull back for a second, just far enough to say, “I will always forgive you, so long as you tell me when you’re scared so we can work through it together.”
He nods, “I promise to never let you go again.” Before taking you back against his lips and gathering your body up in his arms. His lips missing yours just as much.
-
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selcouth // Levihan
Selcouth: unfamiliar, rare, strange, and yet so marvelous.
Takes place when Levi first joined the scouts and met Hange for the first time.
Words: 1,146
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What a pain in the ass 
He could practically feel a migraine forming over his eye. Listening to this four-eyed freak was about to send him over the edge.
A clap to the shoulders brought him back to his senses.
“Ease up a little, Levi. She’s the first person who hasn’t treated us like shit because we’re from the underground.”
Levi sighed, acknowledging Farlan’s statement, “Still fucking annoying.”
Farlan laughed, crinkling his eyes up as he turned towards Isabelle and the brunette eagerly talking to one another, radiating energy from each other.
“God, what’s her name? Harold? Hai--”
“Hange Zoe!” the brunette piped up, hands on her hips as she strode away from Isabelle to sling an arm over Levi’s shoulder.
He could swear his vein was about to pop.
“Get your filthy arm off of me--”
She laughed, not at all phased by his standoffish demeanor and rigid stance. He was apprehensive, of course he was. Levi was used to the way people were, pessimistic and out for blood. He had to protect his little family, himself-
“You’re an interesting one, Levi!” He watched as she waved goodbye at his trio. 
She was... odd to say the least. She hadn’t seemed the least bit off-put by their upbringing or where he was from. She was excited, positive, so....so
unfamiliar
In this world, everything was shit and everyone knew it. But, she... she seemed so hopeful, so critical, so i-dont-give-a-shit that Levi couldn’t help but wonder if the surface wasn’t so bad. Maybe the people weren’t awful....maybe.
“Alright there, Levi?”
He snapped back to Farlan, who was softly looking at him. “You spaced out there a bit.”
“She’s...optimistic,” Levi sighed once more as he looked in the direction she had practically pranced away.
Farlan set his chin in the palm of his hand, smiling slightly at the newfound Levi sitting before him. “Yeah, she is.”
___________________________________________________________
 His whole body felt numb, every nerve in his body shot from exhaustion. Legs dragging behind him, he carried himself to get cleaned up. He barely made it down the hall before he slammed against the wall, legs tingling and knees locking as he stumbled.
I couldn’t save them, I couldn’t do anything, I couldn’t save them, they’ll never see the world, their dreams
He gasped, pain wracking his body as the scene played out before him over and over. Their corpses staring back at him in the shadows, he could still see their lifeless eyes and mangled bodies in his mind, and nothing seemed to clear his head of it. His chest caved in as he felt his stomach plummet.
Im sorry, im so sorry, im sORRY--
“Levi?”
His breath hitched, gripping the wall with all the strength he had left. Turning, he was greeted to the sight of the kind soldier.
His eyes were wide, terror written all over them, one hand grabbing the wall so hard Hange could see the blood already forming on his fingers where he gripped the stone. The other hand, she noted, was clutching his chest, seemingly scratching at something he couldn’t find.
“What?” He croaked out, voice scratching and barely a whisper. 
Her face fell as she realized.
“Come on,” she murmured. “Let me take you to my room.”
She reached for his arm, but he flinched away and pushed off the wall to his own feet.
Satisfied, she led the way back to her private quarters, pointing to a chair she had placed near the corner. As she grabbed towels and some food, she felt tears prick her own eyes. She had liked Farlan and Isabel, she wanted the best for them, she truly did. But now.... she shook her head, determined to put on a brave face.
“Here,” she handed him the supplies. Her words fell on empty ears, Levi was buried with his head in his hands, refusing to look up at her. 
He felt so vulnerable, laid bare before someone he barely even knew. He could kick himself for letting his guard down. Shifting in his seat, he turned his steely eyes toward the woman in front of him. 
Baring his teeth, he moved towards the door; eager to escape this situation.
“No.”
Whirling to face her, she held her hand on the knob, blocking him from leaving.
He huffed, putting up a show of disinterest and apathy. In reality, he had no energy to fight anything. The pit in his chest wasn’t filling back in, it felt like a void was sucking him in, slowly sapping his last bits of energy.
“Sit, Levi.” He turned his gaze back to her, piercing his own eyes into hers. “Please.”
Reluctantly, he sat down on the seat. Hange flopped onto her bed, close enough but not so much so that he would be uncomfortable. 
“Tell me... about them.”
His eyes widened, he wasn’t much of a talker. He observed, usually he let Farlan do all the-
oh.
Practically delirious in grief and exhaustion, he opened the wound he kept scratching at in his chest.
“They were my family.”
_________________________________________________
Since the death of his dearest friends, Hange had made an attempt to poke and prod at him every second of the day. No matter where he went or strode off to, she found him and began to eagerly light up conversation about titans and how she would kill for a chance to experiment on them. 
“Listen, Levi... you’d never imagine the shapes, the sizes, the gestures of titans! It’s insane! Now hear me out--”
He sipped his tea, half listening to her ramblings. Oddly enough, he hadn’t ever met anyone like her before. No other comrade could stand her inquiries or persistent conversation, aside from Moblit but he didn’t count, Levi thought. The kid gets paid to listen to her bullshit. 
“Hey, are you listening to me?”
“Not with that stench, go take a bath, you smell like horseshit.”
She pouted before rolling her eyes and heading towards the door. She stopped, suddenly eyes widening as she looked towards the sky.
“It’s been almost two years now, hasn’t it?”
Levi grunted in response, clearly wanting to end the conversation there.
“Come eat with me tonight, I know you haven’t slept for shit.” With that, she continued on towards the showers. 
Alone now, Levi let himself close his eyes. He would always remember them, grieve their loss. However, he thought, without Hange there to piss him off and bring himself back to the here and now, he isn’t quite sure how he would have spiraled. 
She didn’t make it easier, she was just there. A constant presence that he found reassuring; albeit odd and weird as hell. Thinking about it, he remembered back to their first encounter, her positive and outgoing towards the inwards and standoffish kid from the underground.
Strange, yet so astounding at the same time.
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this is so niche but like. i just finished part 3 of disenchantment and need to spitball a total drama au even though the show isnt done yet. spoilers and rambling below the cut.
okay so like gwen is bean. like she just gives me bean vibes i honestly cant see her being any other character. 
i think noah is luci though alejandro is a strong contender noah just seems more luci yknow? 
elfo I think could go in two directions. we could go the typical route and have cody be elfo bc he simps for gwen and all that but i think changing elfo’s personality/role in this au could allow courtney to be elfo. 
like elves are more stereotypically snooty and classy in this au and have strict rules and courtney very much sticks to the rules but maybe lady elves or just elves in general aren’t allowed to be as aggressive and driven as she is so she leaves them to carve a path for herself. 
so shes not as much of a pushover asl elfo but she’s very much a stickler for the rules and has a bit of a holier than thou attitude and is a bit stuck up
maybe shes also a princess and never mentions it because she leaves her throne behind and doesnt want to be bound to princess duties that get in the way of her doing what she wants to do yknow? and thats something she can hide from gwen but as time goes on and the elves come to dreamland (which should be called wawanakwa) gwen learns more about courtney’s princess past and they bond over it. 
if we go the route with courtney then mora doesnt really exist in this au bc im gwourtney trash and that aint changing anytime soon. 
but it takes a while for gwen and courtney to like each other. courtney and noah also clash but noah and gwen get along pretty well. 
also noah looks like his usual self but can turn into pretty much what luci looks like when he wants to because magic demon powers and bc I love luci’s appearance so much (girl help i have gender envy for a fucking cartoon demon)
as for zog, derek, and oona, we’re gonna change them into sibling roles. lets say gwen’s dad, the king, had a lot of queens who all died after bearing him a child so gwen has a bunch of half siblings. and her dad is dead too. its the curse of zog or whatever it is in canon.
maybe cody could be derek (gwen does say he reminds her of an annoying little brother) and owen can be zog, and he rules with izzy as his queen, though it was an arranged marriage and izzy eventually divorces him to become a pirate queen like oona
and dagmar’s role can be gwen’s oldest sister, heather, who got turned to stone when gwen was younger and having only brothers and a crazy sister in law gwen idealizes heather as this great older sister despite barely remembering her. heather uses that to her advantage because she’s evil and once gwen finds that out they really dont get along (like dagmar and bean in canon)
owen is obsessed with the immortality pendant to bring his sister back to life after their drinks got switched not realizing that heather was trying to kill him so she could take the throne
i think chris should be odval bc he and bean have a hilarious dynamic that could totally be replicated with gwen and chris. and if chris has a gay wizard lover it HAS to be chef. chef is sorcerio
justin is merkimer. like really nobody else could be merkimer
trent is pendergast (my beloved) and turbish and mertz can be some hapless interns or maybe someone from a later cast, like spud and rock (that would actually be so funny spud can absolutely be turbish)
blaineley is the archdruidess of course
i dont know where alejandro fits in bc of course hes gonna be noah’s love interest but luci didn’t really have any love interests (except for kissy for a hot second but idc ab that) but i do think it would be funny if the usually unflappable demon noah suddenly has a crush on some handsome guy and is trying to hide it from his friends but hes terrible at it and gwen and courtney are teasing him 24/7 ab it. and noah is sad because alejandro would never want to date a demon if he knew what he really was but psych alejandro is a demon too. that’d be a great arc
i think beth would make a sweet bunty
and poor lindsay could be jerry! idk about becky and cloyd though… or the gunderson brothers… def need to know more about the last two before casting them
ok im crashing now but this is definitely gonna be something i revisit in the future. probably won’t post any fics until season 4 comes out so i know the full story before writing… 
harold as the jester though
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zontiky · 3 years
Text
okay so i tried to save this ask as a draft and it got deleted because tumblr is just such a functional website like that <3 but the prompt was “the hargreeves as ghosts in the apocalypse with five” or something like that i’m going to scream
this is SUPER long so i’m putting it under the cut hfkjsd
pre-five: the hargreeves siblings are dead. wait i feel a drabble coming on ooh
The Hargreeves siblings are dead.
Ben isn’t very aware of this at first. He’s been dead since 2006 -- he’s quite used to it, by now. What he is aware of, first, is light. Blinding white light. And Vanya, in the middle of it. He doesn’t close his eyes because he can’t feel pain, but if he could he thinks she would have made him blind. There’s light, and heat, and power, and then he closes his eyes anyway because the ceiling is collapsing around him and it’s instinctual.
When he opens them again he sees ash. Ash -- and Klaus.
He’s gotten used to Klaus, too. Klaus has a memorable sort of face; even if he didn’t, Ben has seen it every single day for almost twenty years. He doesn’t know if it’s actually been twenty years, for him. He doesn’t know how time moves for ghosts. Klaus has assured him it moves the same as it does for the living. Ben isn’t sure Klaus, stoned out of his mind, bleeding sluggishly from his arm, knew what he was talking about.
Anyway.
Klaus.
He’s wearing the coat he’s been flaunting around for the past week. His shirt is see-through, with little stars on it, like a pale imitation of the sky. Ben remembers his pants had laces on them, he’s sure they did not a minute ago, before the brightness that threatened to wipe out his very soul -- his soul is all he has left, really. His gaze drifts down anyway, to check.
Yes. Klaus’ pants have laces up the sides.
“No,” Ben says. Klaus is laying in a heap on the ground, his fingers curled like his tendons have been cut.
His lips feel numb because they always feel numb. Because Ben can’t feel at all. He takes a step. “No,” he says again, louder, surer. “No!”
Klaus looks up at him. His makeup is smudged, like it tends to be. His lips are bitten raw, like they tend to be. His hair is a mess, like it tends to be, and like it will be, always, because Klaus isn’t breathing.
Klaus is lying in a heap on the ground. Klaus is standing above his own body. Klaus is reaching for Ben like he’s hoping to touch him for the first time in years. Just when Klaus’ cold, dead, fingers brush his face, a voice from behind says, so quietly, dripping with disbelief: “Ben?”
Ben shuts his eyes and wishes desperately he could cry.
He feels a hand on his shoulder, for the first time in so, so long, but he also doesn’t feel it at all. He feels-but-doesn’t-feel someone turn him around, until they are saying, “Ben? Ben!” and he has no choice but to open his eyes and face the music.
Diego is gripping his shoulders like he is a dying man and Ben is the answer. Behind him, Luther and Allison watch them, stunned silent. Allison’s hands are pressed to her mouth. She looks like she wants to cry. 
And Vanya. Little Vanya, painted white. Her head is hung as her shoulders shake with the weight of the destruction she has so inevitably caused. (Ben would say he always knew she was destined for great things -- but he can’t, because he didn’t.) (Nobody ever said great things had to be good.)
The Hargreeves siblings are dead. Their bodies are strewn across what is left of their childhood home, smouldering and burning, and Ben is very aware of that fact.
righto anyway. so they have an emotional reunion but its also kind of bitter? id have to actually write this for it to make sense so lets skip it for now lol
five shows up
he cannot see them obviously bc theyre all ghosts
god if i did write this it would be such a monster of a fic and would take me like 2 years to finish i already know fhkjdsk
somehow ?? they manage to influence the world around them maybe? idk maybe now that klaus is dead hes sober
or maybe hes high for all eternity?
for the purposes of this au lets say he died sober or in the late stages of withdrawal, and bc ghosts cant feel pain in action hes sober
so EVENTUALLY they figure out how to corporealize bc klaus is like blam wham ghost powers
asdlfk that sounds so stupid im sorry
he would say that tho imho,,, it sounds like something hed say,,,
if i DID write this it would be alternating povs also,,,
ok so out of all of them klaus and ben have the most experience homeless
and while being stuck in an apocalypse is not at all the same thing as being homeless it does help to have some knowledge
five doesnt eat the twinkie!! good for him
dammit okay. theres 2 options we can take here. in the comics five couldnt get back bc he fucked up his math and spent 15 years doing the wrong thing, but if u apply that here, with 6 other ppl checking his work this could be avoided and they end up skipping the whole assassin shtick and just hopping straight back to 2019, ready to prevent the apocalypse
OR five still gets hired for the commission but the sibs are tagging along
i think bc five isnt completely alone in this au unfortunately dolores doesnt exist :((
for each other the 2 paths tho theres also options?? bc they (ghosts) can go back in time and inhabit their past selves bodies? OR they could just,,, cease to exist
IM JUST NOW REALIZING HOW MANY PATHS THIS COULD TAKE,, AAH FUCK
okay gonna split this into parts. this is gonna be so long brace yourselves.
1) they go back in time because math checking and the ghosts swap out for their past selves
after multiple years of being stuck in an apocalypse together i think they would learn to get along with each other. like at least a little bit
which would make it easier for them to prevent the apocalypse
bc theyd:
trust each other more
already know abt the apocalypse and not have to wait for five to grace them all with his knowledge
are working as a team from the very beginning
have open lines of communication
yeah uh. so there
vanya is also already aware of her powers so the whole harold goading her into turning against her family and snapping to wipe out all life on earth thing? yeah that doesnt happen
oh and harold wouldn’t know how to do that in the first place because klaus wouldn’t throw out reggie’s journal! this solves so many problems wtf
there’s still commission issues bc they (and by they i mean five) are on the commission’s radar
so there’s still dope fight scenes sdlkfd pinky promise
okay idk. they stop the apocalypse and everything is okay the end hfkjd
2) they fix the math but only five can go back and the ghosts cease to exist
this is just sad! it would be sad okay! im sad! lets move on
subset of the past one: ben CAN go back with five because he was already dead and time travel affects them differently or something idk
aaaaaa
five & ben dynamic duo would be dope as shit BUT five would not be able to see him... so they use klaus as a middleman fjsdsfd
is there 2 bens? is one ben deleted in favor of the time-traveling ben? i dont know! i dont know my brain is melting
either way shit is happening yall!! obviously klaus is clued in, directly or indirectly it doesnt matter but he is on board the ‘don’t let the entire world end in flames’ train
3) they join the commission and then when five goes back in time they all go back
this is fun because now five is a highly trained assassin who is also lowkey a complete marshmallow for his siblings and once again TEAMWORK WOO
basically the first path but now five has a gun fhsdjk
4) they join the commission but five has to leave them behind and they cease to exist
five with a gun but hes sad now
i didnt go into how much losing his siblings would suck in the prev path but like. it would suck so much. he’s already lost them once if you think about it when he time traveled the first time and yeah he found the adult ghost versions but,, its different
and now suddenly hes stuck with these strange adult versions of the people he knows and he KNOWS them but also he doesnt? at all? they dont have all the years of shared experiences together? and theyre all grown up from the first ‘set’ of siblings he had which for five was like 40+ years ago??
SCREAMS
i have losing my mind disease (self-diagnosed)
subset: five has to leave them behind but they still exist because the commission is out-of-time kind of? idk but they’re still floating around somewhere and come back to impact the plot later or something
yeah idk. literally just wrote them down bc i didnt want them to die^2 hfkjwehd
subset: they still exist but instead of being just Somewhere they’re specifically at the assassination of JFK onwards because thats where five left them and they either go on ghosting and make an appearance in s2 OR they cease because them-wise they havent died yet but that doesnt make sense because ghosts can time travel so nevermind
i dont have the brain energy left to explore this one aaaa
okay jesus christ i think that’s all
I DON’T KNOW. i don’t know. i might write some more of this because honestly it is a very fine flavor of angst + hurt/comfort <3
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xxdunc4nxx · 3 years
Text
Total Drama Best Friends: Chapter 4
Geoff came out of the bushes, and so did trent and tyler who were behind them. Harold said “You guys startled us, whats up?” and so Geoff said “Trent told us you guys were hanging, so we thought wed come join you guys and hang with you.” Duncan nodded and said “good call, were having a good time just talking.” Trent and tyler and geoff sat down under the big tree that was on the hill and duncan handed them all cigarettes so they could all smoke like duncan and harold were smoking. Geoff high fived the codester as they inhaled smoke air. Tyler unzipped my backpack that had spray paint bottles in it  and said “do you guys want to pull a prank on the girls cabin?” and duncan smiled at him and said “hell yeah, finally some action around here.” He got up and dusted his pants off from the ground he was sitting on and said “First, were going to need some beers.” Harold nodded, this is the day theyd been planning for.
Harold said to trent as geoff and tyler and the codester listened “We know where chef keeps his beers. Hes asleep now and so is chris so we can take his beers and he wont see us.”
“Awesome.” Geoff said and trent nodded. “So where is it?” Duncan said it was in the fridge, so they all got up from being sitting on the hill  and walked down to the cabin where chef works in the kitchen. they snuck in the door but chef was asleep so he didnt hear them or see them. They went in to the kitchen and opened the fridge and got the beer. Harold and duncan each grabbed a box of beers and got out of there. tyler and geoff also grabbed a box each and left too while the codester kept watch.
“So what is the prank guys?” Harold asked. Duncan put his hand on his shoulder and said. “Were going to graffiti on there cabin dude, you can write whatever you want.” duncan said. They all ran over to the cabin and began to spray there spray cans while drinking beer and getting drunk. Harold and duncan worked on a cool  skull and cross bones and geoff worked on a surfboard with tyler. Trent was painting a really cool car like a sports car and the codester was spray painting a middle finger which everyone thought was really funny. They were all laughing because the beers made them laugh and they were having fun.  The girls were all asleep so they didnt hear them or see them but they were definetly going to know who did it. They wont have any proof though so it didnt matter. They were starting to finish up there paintings but they werent out of beers yet so they all went back to the camp fire and lit the fire and started to hang out while drinking and smoking cigarettes. Harold looked at duncan and said “Hey duncan we should go and get the weed cigarettes so that everyone can smoke them and get high on drugs.” he said. Duncan nodded and they got up to go to the cabin to get the weed cigarettes and come back to the camp fire so they could all smoke the weed cigarettes as well as regular cigarettes and the beers.
They got up to go the guys cabin and started to talk “Duncan when was the first time you smoked a weed cigarette.” “The first time I smoked was in jail. my room mate had some of them and he offered to let me have one so I smoked it and it felt great. Smoking cigarettes and weed cigarettes made my time in juvie a lot less lame.”  “That’s so cool” Harold said and duncan nodded because it was really cool. They got to the guys cabin and went to duncans bed where Harold reached under his bed to get the weed cigarettes. He felt a pain in his finger and went “Ouch.” and pulled his hand out but also had the jar full of weed cigarettes. “Dude dont bleed on my weed cigarettes.” duncan said laughing. Harold s hand was bleeding because of the knife duncan kept under the bed. “Cmon Harold lets go to the medical tent and get you a band aid.” duncan said.  “Okay” Harold said  and they walked to the medical tent while still holding all the weed cigarettes in the jar. They got to the medical tent and opened the tent door and then...
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gaillol-13 · 3 years
Text
.....Astro boy AU. They both dont where pants, they both originated from other people (one died, the other hypnotized). And I'm thinking the al the kids would be adults for this too. So here's how its gonna go down.
Melvin = Tenma. after krupp dies, melvin would probably try to make a robot version (he wouldn't have knowledge of his previous life, but would still have the personality). However, someone (TWO someones) had inserted a peculiar chip. Turning the robot into C4ptain Astropants (sometimes called C4p A). Melvin gets annoyed and scolds him for not acting like he was supposed to, even going as far as calling him "a failed piece a scrap garbage". C4p runs away extremely upset.
George and Harold = Dr.Elfun. they are troublemaker scientists at the Jerome Horwitz Institute (J.H.I), after work they go to their skyhouse to play videogames. They also make computer chips that are like little movies called "Skyh0use comixs" using programming (what George did) and designing (what Harold did), they would install them and post them on the internet (they have 9999k subs). When Krupp died, they (as a surprise to them) felt devastated and hid in the basement for 4 months (where they found out Melvin was gonna make the robot to replace him). They then put the chip containing their greatest creation yet (you-know-who) into the robot, along with advanced "weapons" (aka just the powers the normal CU has). When C4p A ran away, they when after him, then some sort of monster comes up and C4p A fights it (learns that he's got butt-guns in the process). The boys told C4p A he wasn't a failure, and they decided to take him in as a "robo buddy".
Mr.Krupp = Tobio. He is the manager of J.H.I and is very strict about it. He pretty much dislikes everyone there, especially George and Harold. He hates their childish pranks, their comixs, and the fact that they slack off at work. The only person he likes is the blue-eyed cafeteria woman, Edith (who (unknown to Krupp) has feelings for him too). Sadly though, he was killed in a test (not so)accident, where a robed scientist professor S.P (who would prefer not to mention his his full name) who worked with him and was the only witness went missing. Though krupp was deseased, they say his ghost hid in our C4p A, and if things went out of hand he would possess the latter to......finish the job.
Edith is also secretly a cyborg with extendible arms
And last but not least for the protagonists...
C4ptain Astropants = Astro boy. He was created by Melvin with krupp's DNA. But then George and Harold inserted a comix containing CU's data, causing him to act exactly like the waistband warrior (including the stupidity). Melvin disowned him because of this, heartbroken C4p A runs away. George and Harold take him in, blah blah blah. Anyway, he really enjoys their company and if anyone hurts them...oh lawd. He has a good heart and really loves guac (hmm I wonder where he got that from...), he's also very silly and usually is found either in George and Harold's skyhouse, or in the institute. If you DO piss him off, he will actually lash out at you and will even make threats (this is caused by his krupp side glitching through). He looks the same as CU but more shiny.
CA's Powers:
Unlimited under wear
Strength
Incredible Durability
Laser fingers
The butt-guns I mentioned earlier
Flight
Retractable claws
This took me awhile to write so I hope you like it, and talk about it...I'll talk about the rest at some point.
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oswildin · 4 years
Text
Don’t You See? {Part One} ~ Dhawan!Master x F!Raeder
~ I KNOW IM BEING REALLY BAD AND WRITING IMAGINES THAT I HAVE STUCK IN MY HEAD BEFORE POSTING THE REQUESTS YA’LL HAVE MADE, I PROMISE ONE IS COMING TODAY! ~
Summary: You’ve known the Master for years. You’ve fought him with the Doctor time and time again, yet he always comes back.
Warnings: Some crude implications hahahaha
Part Two - https://oswildin.tumblr.com/post/610934402369880064/dont-you-see-part-two-dhawanmaster-x
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You had known the Doctor a long time. She was your best friend. You were always the one that stood by her. You watched her as she lost her companions one by one. You would feel her pain every time she showed up to your door, defeated once more. It was the curse of living such a long and reckless life.
You’d met her in her tenth form. She’d just lost Rose back then, and was quite withdrawn and lonely. You were there ensuring she was ok. Although you didn’t know it at the time, you would be one of the lucky ones that stuck around. Many died or left the Doctor. You on the other hand decided to keep a healthy balance between life on Earth and life with the Doctor. Maybe that’s how you survived for so long with her.
You also knew the Master. You’d met him when he was Harold Saxon, trying to destroy the Earth. He’d kept tabs on you, knowing you were on the Doctor’s loyalist friends. You were aboard the valiant as Martha travelled the planet below. You had hated the Master, hated what he had done. He was selfish, cruel and most of all cowardly, everything the Doctor taught you not to be.
Of course, he would never admit he was cowardly. But you saw behind the mask, the hard cold exterior. You knew deep down he was just a scared little boy who went mad. You saw what the Doctor could see. Not many humans were able to do that. It interested him, but most of all frustrated him endlessly.
You watched him die in the Doctor’s arms. You watched the Doctor burn his body as you stayed with the Doctor, comforting them as they mourned for their oldest friend. Life was never simple, and neither were the people in it.
You saw the Master again as Gallifrey tried to return into the universe, crushing Earth with it. You watched as the Master finally stood beside the Doctor, sending the Timelords back into the Timelock. You were also there when Missy showed up, trying to stand with the Doctor, but ending up being abandoned. You couldn’t help but somewhat feel for the Timelord. All that torment they had endured, and really all they wanted was their friend back, in their own twisted way of course.
When you were offered a job at MI6 due to your previous work with U.N.I.T, you were shocked, confused and wondered how on Earth they’d even considered you for a job. You weren’t an agent, nor a specialist in any field of any kind, you were a regular person, just with experience of alien life; not that MI6 even believed in any of that. You reluctantly took the position, deciding perhaps it was time for a change within the world of MI6. Perhaps this was a change to reform U.N.I.T or maybe even Torchwood.
Your first day was not what you had expected. You were sat behind a desk, filing paperwork and getting agents their coffees. One small step for mankind, you suppose. You sighed to yourself as you tapped your pen against the paperwork in front of you.
“Hey-“
You jumped slightly at the new voice as you peered up, pretending to look somewhat busy as you saw who the voice belonged to. It was a darker skinned man, with brown eyes and dark hair with slight stubble. He was quite attractive you noted as you gazed up at him. Not quite. Scrap that. Very attractive. What? You were allowed to look weren’t you?
“Sorry! Didn’t mean to make you jump.” He commented as you shrugged, slowly picking your jaw off the floor as you shook your head, waving him off.
“My fault. Daydreaming.” You told him, a small smile on your lips. “Bad habit of mine. I don’t always pay attention to my surroundings.” You muttered as you began to idly move the paper work in front of you about.
“Guessing you’re the newbie?” He asked as you noted he also had a file of paper work in his hands.
“I prefer the term sucker.” You teased as you realised how it had sounded, face palming. “I mean, sucker because I’m getting dumped with the paper work, not because I didn’t anything- You know- To get here.” You awkwardly cleared your throat as you mentally cursed yourself. The man wore a small smile as he stared down at you. “Sorry.” You coughed as you felt your cheeks warm up.
“I understood what you meant.” He laughed lightly, before handing you the file that he was holding. “Sorry. If it helps, I was you a few months ago.” He told you. “Fetching the drinks, doing the work no one wanted to do...” He trailed off as you took the file from him, standing from your desk.
“And now look at you.” You raised a brow. “Giving your unwanted paperwork to the new you.” You joked as he almost awkwardly began to apologise as you waved it off. “I’m joking. Don’t worry.” He instantly relaxed as you gave him a comforting smile. “I’m K.” You held out your free hand for him to shake.
“O.” He told you as he shook your hand.
“Unlucky.” You commented at his name. “So every time something goes wrong, and someone mutters ‘oh for gods sake’, do you think they’re talking to you?” You joked as he almost rolled his eyes at your comment. “Sorry, needed to get it out my system.”
“K.” He nodded sharply as you smirked at him.
“Nicely done.” You laughed lightly at his retort.
You didn’t know why, but something about this man felt oddly familiar, but you couldn’t place it. You would often find yourself glancing at him from across the office as you zoned out. You would have to snap yourself out of it as you tried to press on with your duties.
“K-“ You looked up seeing one of your colleagues staring down at you. Ugh, M. You hated M with a passion. He was cocky, arrogant and just downright irritating. How you wished you could wipe that smile off his face... “I need you to get me a coffee. Black, two sugars.” He went to turn away before turning back. “Oh, and be a doll and grab us a sandwich whilst you’re there. Preferably a BLT.” He added as you forced a tight smile. “Pronto.” You groaned to yourself as the man walked away. He was always sending you on stupid errands. The worst part was, he didn’t even do anything that important. He would just sit there and flirt with as many women around the office as possible, and there wasn’t many women around either, so it was a quick rotation every few hours of rejection.
O watched you closely as you grabbed your coat and bag, seeing the irritation on your features as you huffed to yourself. You’d been there a month and still hadn’t been given anything good to work on. Why bother hiring you if they just wanted a coffee girl? You missed O’s stare as you exited the office.
You returned as quickly as you could, almost out of breath by the time you had reached the office. You walked up to M’s desk as you placed down the coffee and sandwich on his desk. He peered up from his paper work as he looked down in front of him. He sighed as he picked up the sandwich packet.
“I said BLT.” He muttered out as you fought the urge to roll your eyes.
“They didn’t have any left. This was all they had.” You told him sternly as he went to grab the cup, feeling the luke warm coffee through the paper cup.
“Why isn’t this piping hot?” He raised a brow as you bit your tongue. By this point, O had peered up from his desk, watching the interaction.
“Because I had to walk 5 minutes back with it, then up the stairs because the lift is out of order. Plus it’s not exactly summer outside if you hadn’t noticed.” You told him, folding your arms over your chest. You turned away from him, feeling your anger rising.
“No wonder they haven’t given you any assignments yet. You can’t even get a lunch order correct.” M muttered as you stopped in your tracks. That was it. You had had enough. You turned back on your heel, marching up to his desk as you grabbed his coffee from off it, opening the lid as you threw it all over his expensive suit. You crushed the cup, slamming it down on his desk. He looked up in shock, swearing at you as you walked away. By this point, everyone in the room had been watching. The women were smirking as the others looked shocked. O tried to suppress his smile as you took your seat back down at your desk. He liked the fire inside of you.
After that, M never asked you for lunch orders again. You began getting real assignments, and was slowly making your way up the ranks. You hadn’t seen the Doctor for a while. You felt bad, but knew she was with the fam, as she liked to call them. You would occasionally get a WhatsApp message from the traveller, usually a very bad selfie with her wearing a stupid hat. You had to laugh at that. You and O had began to work on assignments together. You didn’t know why they paired you with him. He wasn’t exactly a very experienced agent, no offence to him. Either way, you were thankful. O was lovely. He was kind, funny and even a little bit sexy.
You weren’t field agents, but that was something you wanted to work up to. That adrenaline and adventure, the same things you experienced with the Doctor. You couldn’t stay away from that life forever, normal life was boring.
So when you received a voice note from the Doctor saying there was a crisis, you were happy to drop everything and help. But what you didn’t realise was, O had received a very similar voice note.
“Wait-“ You looked at him confused, hearing him play the voice memo aloud at his desk. “How did you get that?” You inquired, raising a brow.
“It’s from a friend.” He furrowed his brows, looking confused at you.
“Yeah I know. My friend.” You narrowed your eyes.
“What? You know the Doctor?!” He whisper shouted as you widened your eyes in surprise.
“You know the Doctor?!” You asked in return, pointing at him. He quickly stood from his desk as he took you into the corridor, away from all the prying eyes. “How do you know her?”
“I met her once years ago. Never mind that, how do you know her?” He asked, raising a brow. You sighed, rubbing your forehead with your hand.
“I travel with her.” You told him truthfully. No point in hiding it now.
“You what?!” He asked, excitement evident in his eyes as you hushed him, people walking past, giving you both strange looks.
“Yes! I travel with her in her blue box. Have done for years.” You folded your arms. “Why is she messaging you?”
“I don’t know. Something about a crisis and she needs my help?” He shrugged, seemingly as clueless as you. “All I know is, we need to go to Australia.” You furrowed your brows in confusion.
“How does that come into the equation?” You asked quietly.
“I’ve been doing some work on the side... C told me to drop it, but I knew there was something up with it!” You’d never seen him so ecstatic. “I knew it was alien.” He smiled widely as you couldn’t help but smile with him.
“Welcome to my life.” You breathed out. “Right. Come on then. Show me these findings of yours.”
The next thing you knew, you were in the outback. Good old Australia. Luckily O had more tricks up his sleeve. He had told you he’d been on the case for years, even living in the outback, taking trips there to further his research. You were impressed at his commitment to say the least. He was determined.
Then, before you knew it, the Doctor showed up, Graham following behind. The Doctor looked confused as she spotted you behind O, furrowing her brows and scrunching up her face in thought.
“Yeah, so... I kinda work for MI6 now.” You told her shortly as Graham whistled in shock.
“Not bad, eh Doc?” He commented as he grinned at you. “Hey, I bet the pays good ennit?” He joked as you smiled at him. It had been a while since you’d seen her and the fam. It was nice to see them again.
You sat at the computers, trying to trace the signal of the creatures somehow. After your close encounter with multiple of them, you wanted to get to the bottom of where they had come from. But nothing. There was no trace whatsoever. The Doctor was having the same trouble.
“How’s it going?” O asked as you peered up at him, looking somewhat defeated.
“Great. That’s why I’m bouncing off the walls with excitement.” You sarcastically commented as he gave you a small comforting smile.
“So... the Doctor...” He folded his arms, leaning against the table. “How much do you know about her?” He inquired as you raised a brow at his question.
“Enough.” You told him shortly. “More than what those guys do at least.” You nodded to the fam as they chatted with their alien friend. “And I don’t mean that in a ‘I was here first’ kind of way either.” You reassured him as he nodded.
“I may have lied to you... a little bit.” He told you as you looked confused. “See that shelf over there.” You turned to where he was pointing, seeing a shelf stacked full of files. “That’s information, all about the Doctor...” He told you. “Been collecting it for years.” He said as you slowly realised what he was getting at.
“You know who I am.” You told him quietly, turning back to him. “All along, you’ve known who I am.” You looked confused, and somewhat upset.
“It was just coincidence you joined MI6 after I did. You know what they say about a small world...” He told you as you slowly relaxed, laughing slightly.
“Yeah, I suppose.” You hummed. “Or something else is going on...” You thought aloud. “I’ve learnt that people don’t just meet each other without reason... Especially in the situation we met...” You trailed off as he watched you intently. “Oh well!” You exclaimed, getting up from your seat. “Guess we’ll find out eventually!” You forced a smile as you walked back towards the others, missing the dark expression that had made its way onto O’s face.
“Come on, son!” Graham exclaimed as O ran towards the plane that was about to take off. You were just in front as you managed to board the plane, holding your hand out for O. Luckily for you all, he made it in time, being helped up by you and Graham as the Doctor closed the door.
“Sorry. I've never been good at sprinting.” O breathed out, trying to regain his composure as the Doctor furrowed, looking confused.
“What?” She asked as everyone ignored her, trying to move away from the back end of the plane.
“Come on, Doctor. We're about to take off.” Ryan exclaimed as everyone tried to catch their breath.
“In the main cabin!” The Doctor told them all as they made their way through all the seats. You sighed as you threw yourself down on one of the front seats, feeling your chest hurt from your heavy breathing. God, you didn’t realise how long it had been since you had been running into danger.
“Never been good at sprinting?” The Doctor looked over at O as he leant on the seats. He shook his head.
“I was the last one in every race at school.” He huffed out, causing the Doctor to scrunch her face in confusion.
“No, no, no. I read your file. You were a champion sprinter.” She commented as you peered over at the pair, seeing O zone out for a brief moment, before a darker expression replaced his once soft features.
“Mmm. Got me. Well done.” He almost smirked, as his voice even changed, turning darker, more confident.
“What’s going on, Doc?” Graham asked, confused as everyone else. You narrowed your eyes, seeing the utter confusion on the Doctor’s face, something that often happened, but this time it was different. It was like she had a feeling about it all.
“You'd best take a look out of the window.” O said as you gazed at him, before turning towards the window on your left, looking out as you saw the shelter you had called home for the last month or so.
“How's your house out there?” Graham furrowed his brows, turning to look at O for an explantation. Yaz and Ryan stayed quiet as they tried to understand what was happening.
“Bit Wicked Witch of the West, but you get the gist. Maybe. Maybe not.” O said casually, placing a hand on his hip dramatically as he twirled back round to face the humans. You looked over at the Doctor as she shook her head. There it was again. That feeling of familiarity around the man in question. “Oh, come on, Doctor, catch up.” O encouraged, snapping his fingers. “You can do it. Come on.”
“Oh!” The Doctor gasped, her mouth agape as she held onto the seats beside her for balance.
“That's...that's my name, and that is why I chose it.” O grinned, taking a breath. “Oh, so satisfying.” He raised his brows. “Doctor, I did say look for the spymaster. Or should I say spy...” He paused, his smirk falling. “Master?” You felt fear creep up inside of you. It couldn’t be. Could it? “Hi.” He waved at the gang as you furrowed your brows. O was a lie. It was a mask... You had fallen for it... and him. You felt your heart shatter as you tried to clear your mind, but thoughts proceeded to race through it.
“You can't be.” The Doctor said quietly, looking almost annoyed at the fact he had come back into her life.
“Oh, I can be. I very much am.” The Master stepped forwards as you felt fear being in such close proximity of the Timelord. You almost shuffled further away, as far as you could.
“But I met O!” The Doctor exclaimed. “Years ago.” She narrowed her eyes, trying to wrap her head around everything.
“I know!” The Master cried, before manically laughing. There it was, that sound that had haunted you for years. You shivered are the sound. But it was all starting to make sense... Why you were employed by MI6... Assigned to cases with O... or the Master you should say. You held your head in your hands. “And I had so much fun playing O! So much!” He exclaimed, grinning. “Had a helping hand with (Y/N) getting her little job there.” He commented as the Doctor glanced over at you. “Playing the supportive friend.” He continued as you looked up at him, eyes sad. “The nerdy heartthrob.” He smirked, sending you a wink as you shook your head at him in disbelief.
“Why?” The Doctor narrowed her eyes. “You didn’t need to drag her into it!” She exclaimed, feeling protective over her friend.
“Oh but I did Doctor...” He stalked towards the fellow Timelord. “To get to you of course... The easiest way.”
“I need to warn Barton.” The Doctor realised, pushing her way past the Master as he balanced himself on the seats behind him. “He’s not here!” She called back to the others. “Where’s Barton?!” She exclaimed, popping her head back into the main cabin as the Master faked panic, twirling around as he muttered to himself, before throwing himself down next to you.
“Who’s flying the plane?!” Graham asked, furrowed brows.
“Wrong question.” The Master told him, as you looked at him as he sat beside you. “Check the seat.” He told the Doctor as she quickly turned, seeing the bomb that was sat once where Barton was. He looked over at you as you felt your body freeze under his intense stare.
“What have you done?” You asked him quietly, shaking your head. He smirked at you before pushing himself off the seat.
“Cockpit bomb. Short fuse. I can relate to that.” He smiled as the others watched from afar. The Doctor tried to sonic the bomb, much to the Master’s annoyance as he flipped instantly. “Now, do you really think that I would not make that sonic-proof, Doctor?” He exclaimed. “Come on!” He body shook as he shouted, causing your eyes to widen. “Deadlock sealed. And I made sure - no parachutes on board.” He smirked, leaning against the overhead storage.
“But where’s Barton?!” Yaz asked, growing impatient with the Master’s game.
“Called away before takeoff. By me!” He grinned, glancing over his shoulder at the girl. He then turned to look at you as you looked at him from around the seats. “Stick with me (Y/N), cos I control... everything.” He breathed out, relaxing his body. “Even these guys.” He whistled, clicking his fingers as he twirled around, two of the creatures appearing behind him as he smiled madly.
“I can't do it! Get away!” The Doctor’s voice called as she ran back into the main cabin, closing the door behind her as she used her body to shield as much of the blast as possible. She flew forward as it exploded, landing on the ground beside you as you also flew down, with the others.
“Ha!” The Master cried, the chaos around him thrilling him. He looked down at the Doctor, standing over her threateningly. “One last thing. Something you should know in the seconds before you die.” He leaned down to the Doctor, looking her in the eye. “Everything that you think you know... is a lie.” He breathed out, his expression looking tired and saddened for a second before returning to his hard gaze. “Got you, finally.” He smirked, before vanishing, the creatures rushing at the Doctor, leaving the four humans alone on the crashing plane.
~
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popculturebuffet · 4 years
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Loud House Reviews: The Purrfect Gig
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The Sam/Luna trilogy comes to an end here, as we get to the most recent of their now annual episodes, each so far produced and aired toward the end of the season. That being said like last season Sam had at least one apperance before this as I saw her in the thumbnail to “Deep Cuts”, the OTHER Lunacentric episode this season. And while it sounded bad to me at first looking into it.. no. The writers, for the most part, gave almost every kid two episodes a piece, and last season gave each 3, so to the writers credit they TRY to ballance out who gets episodes.  
The exceptions are Lincoln, who has around 5 that don’t also feature the girls as a whole, and 2 of those are with Lana, Lori who has 4, 2 of them shared and justifed as she’s possibly leaving for College next season and thus her episodes outside of one focus ont hat, and Lana and Lola: Lana has 3, and Lola has 2, and both have one together. And really even with those imballances it’s really impressive the show juggles 14 leads, with the parents themselves getting 2 this year too, along with Clyde, not counting his ones with Lincoln. | And that’s WITH the baffling decision this season to have the first 5 episodes be “With THe Cassagrandes”, i.e. 5 episodes of the Casagrandes that are counted as loud house episode that weren’t produced over at the sister show for some reason. And I have nothing against the Cassagrandes, what i’ve seen it’s not a bad show: I already have gone on about how much I love bobby, and I also love CJ and new comer Sam. I love the fact it has plenty of representation and a diffrent kind of big family, I love the theme song and I love the fact Melissa Joan Heart is on it because she’s terrific and spent the last decade really not picking her roles well. She was the lead in Holiday in Handcuffs, aka the movie where she kidnaps Mario Lopez and holds him at gunpoint to pretend to be her fiance until he gets Stockholm syndrome for really flimsy reasons. But I dont’ feel i’ts fair to the show to wedge it into another show’s spot: The Cassagrande-Santiago clan has shown up in 2 half hour loud houses and 2 15 minute eps. The kids watching KNOW these characters, and reception of the loudest mission was positive enough to get a spinoff made. You don’t need to spend a huge amount of another show’s episode order to promote a show kids will likely watch because it has characters from a show that airs all the time and is uber popular and has a similar humor style, and fans of the Loud House will at least try becuase they like the mothership and have known was coming for years now. This show HAD an audience going in. I watched both American Dad and the Clevland Show because it was from the same crew as family guy which I liked at the time. Granted American Dad had a decent stretch and Clevland Show .. had David LYnch as a recurring cast member I guess? Seriously david, this and not gravity falls? The point is it feels insulting that they felt the need to try and promote the show more, and all they did was take up episodes of the loud house and confuse children, and possibly turn viewers off a show they would’ve watched anyways. And if your wondering why I took such a massive detour it’s simple: Other than noticing the fact they’ve been specifically making sure each sibling gets more than one spotlight episode, shared or not, and this dumb decision.. Season 4 isn’t THAT much diffrent than Season 3. It carries on plots started there  (Lori heading towards college, Luann and Luna’s relationship), but otherwise it’s basically just more shipping and shenanigans. But really. .that’s far from a bad thing, as I consider season 3 a highwater mark for the show, and it introduced a lot of neat new elements (Lynn’s Table, Stella, Leni having a job) that are still prevelant in season 4. It’s not bad and it’s even more understandable given that next season, every character is growing a year (thank you press releases), meaning they have tons of new plots to explore, and large status quo shifts with Lincoln going to middle school, which out of the four schools shown is so far the most underdeveloped and will need development, and Lori possibly moving out of the house and going to college, among many other things that have me chomping at the bit for next season. But that’s probably a few months away so for now, it’s time to get back on focus and with everything else out of the way, the actual review of this episode starts under the cut. 
We open with Luna sitting in bed sighing when her poster of Mick Swagger starts talking to her. Whatever she’s smoking I could really use some. Depression is a bitch. Anyways, her drug induced hallucination of her hero starts talking to her. I haven’t really talked about Mick yet since the show uses him sporadically but he’s exactly what you’d expect; The show’s version of Rolling Stones front man Mick Jagger, only slightly younger.. maybe. I dunno. Maybe he’s been around since the 60′s and is just a timelord. Or a groovy robot. Or has a dorian grey thing going on. We haven’t really gotten into Dino Spimoni situation yet where Luna helps her idol and has to help him reunite with a partner or convince him to stop faking his death. Just a reminder that Hey Arnold is great and that if you think it’s odd his crooner dean martin based idol got talked out of faking his death by a 12 year old, keep in mind he also tracked down the daughter his vitamise neighbor gave up so she could go to america and have a better life, helped convince his neighbors not divorce, and had to save his pig from being eaten in a revolutionary war reinactment. Hey Arnold was far weirder than I remembered and i’m here for it.  Anyways, Hallucination Mick asks if Luna is coming to his concert this weekend, and she HOPES so she just dosen’t have the money for  VIP pass to meet the actual version and do drugs with the actual mick swagger for a change. He says you never know when opportunity will come a knockin and it does in the form of the McBrides! Clyde’s dad’s Howard, the skinny one voiced by national treasure Micheal McDonald and Wayne Brady whose also great.. and i’m not just saying that because i’ve seen this. Don’t be absurddddd....
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Howard and Harold are Clyde’s dads... and while Clarence and Steven Universe beat them to having Gay parents in a children’s cartoon, their still the first interacial gay couple in a children’s cartoon, and on a nicktoon period, and even if they weren’t either of those it’d still be fucking great. Anyways the two are nice characters, while i haven’t seen EVERY ep with them their a loving couple, nice parents, and treat the loud kids as their own.. granted that goes too far in one episode, but still, thems good people.  Anyway Howards having a panic attack, respect, and as his husband calms him down, we find out why: the mcbrides are going to pick up nana for the annual family reunion, and their catsitter cancled. Hence Howard’s freakout and Harold worrying about the 20 pounds of amish potato salad in the trunk. So naturally their hoping someone can watch their cats, Cleopawtra and Nefurtiti for the day, and them going to the louds makes sense, both for the obvious of the Louds being their closest friends in the neighborhood, and the not so obvious of a previous episode I haven’t seen having established the older kids as the best babysitters in royal woods, meaning that in addition to knowing them they have skill and this likely isn’t the first time. Luna, not thinking about herself, admits Lori went to hit the golf course early and Leni is at work, a nice way to explaning why it’s Luna that gets the job: She was there and it was implied by the fact she was getting high and talking to her hallucination that Luann isn’t, so most of the other options they’d have without some reservations are gone with no contrivance necessary.  Anyways Luna’s Drug Fueld hallucination,  points out money can be exchanged for goods and services, such as VIP passes, and also mentions sam already has hers. Either Luna’s forgot or her hallucination can use her phone. Either is probable, and is backed up by Hallucination Sam, before both start playing their guitars and Luna air guitars with them. I”m unsuprsied by all of this. She offers and the McBrides take her up on it immeditley. I do like that it avoids the “I don’t know if your up to this” cliche that always happens in these types of scenarios, the McBrides have no reason not to trust her, so they just.. do. Hell Harold only sets out one rule: don’t invite anyone over.. and it’s not even because he dosen’t trust Luna to have anyone over or anything like that, he just knows the cats get anxious with a crowd, though their therapist is working with them on that. And of course the two rich men with a single child have a cat therapist. I would too if I were rich. Harold and Clyde throw and unconcious Howard into the car and their off, they’ll be back at 6. And TOTALLY won’t be home hours early for hyjinks. Totally.  Luna arrives to find a massive binder on feline care. Someone went to the Amy Santiago school of binders. It says to feed the cats at 10 sharp.. and it’s 10:02. Luna tries feeding them but the cats instead attack her in a full on psycotic rage and dump food all over her, so dinners on her. 
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Anyways, Luna then tries walking the cats which goes as well as you’d expect.. not because she had to put harneses on cats and expect them to do anything at a certain time, but because they pull hard. I can relate to that with my dog.. not my cat. He just goes wherever he wants because he’s old and kind of an asshole.  Anyways, with the cats now messy from running over a guy with a cake, because of course, Luna looks up what to do next which is.. give.. them a bath. 
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Who.. who does that. I know their messy, but use a rag or something. No animal likes being bathed but cats, esepcially one who this episodes shows aren’t declawed (And rightfully so but still), do not LIKE being bathed. Granted they wouldn’t like being cleaned off with a rag or something either, but it still feels less cruel to both them and any prospective babysitter to just hold one down and wipe it off then find the other and repeat. Look witht he walking thing I can see why someone would, in their case because their probably too skittish to let their cats wonder around, and in some cases because said cat is young. But this.. this even for a comedy contrivance is stupid. It’s not the worst uninetional cat abuse i’ve seen in media, Elmyra exists and the mother of the lead of get fuzzy tried putting her cat on a vegetarian diet, which Rob, said lead and a staunch vegetarian himself, not only found concerning but gave said cat the money for takeout.. keep in mind in this strip cats can talk and walk upright. Also I miss when Get Fuzzy was both daily and good. So Luna naturally ends up in the bathtub, soaked and depressed and not sure what to do when her friendly neighborhood sign that the drugs haven’t worn off yet comes by and tells her to shape up if she wants to go to the show with Sam. This gives Luna a great idea. LIke a Zack MOrris great idea it involves breaking the rules.. unlike a Zack Morris idea, it dosen’t involve sexual harassment or a zany scheme. She decides to call Sam, since she’s apparently great with cats and given we saw how she was with chickens last time, not a real stretch. She also pops Mick’s bubble which.. hurts him.. somehow. I dunno.  Anyway cut to Sam arriving. She arrived fast because she was picking a new character up from his gamer’s club meeting: Her brother Simon, who’d been mentioned in side materials but makes his first apperance here. I like him, he has a neat design and i’ts nice to give sam a family life of her own, and he’s a nice if glued to his not-nintendo switch kid. Frankly I hope he and LIncoln meet at some point. I mean he has an opening in his friend group starting next season there’s no way Rusty passes 5th grade. And even if he somehow does, it’s not like adding another member is too much of a stretch given, once they got past courting her, the rest of his group warmly welcomed stella in and it’d be an intresting dynamic having his sister’s girlfriend’s brother in the group. Also if your wondering if i’ll ever stop finding ways to bash rusty in these reviews even when he’s entirely absent..
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Anyways, Luna slams the door in the kids face, which he takes in stride , and explains the situation, and after fred fliintstonning him is taken off the table, go with “Sneak him past the cats”. It works because cats never look up at the backs of a gay teenage couple sneaking a small child inside. Luna decides to leave Simon in the entertainment room while she and Sam watch the cats and he finds Clyde’s VR gear and asks to try it on, with Luna reluctantly agreeing as long as he’s careful.. which as far as we see.. yeah he entirely is. The Sharpe’s are good people. 
Cue a montage! Sam helps luna scrub the cats, with brushes as they should’ve done minute one, put them through spa type pampering which is also a call back to the first time we saw the McBride’s house in the series, take selfies, and then sing the cats to sleep, in a really sweet and really well sung lullaby, notable for being the first time Sam’s sung on the show and Allyson Stoner, who I haven’t mentioned but should’ve before this shame on me, does a terrific job and has done a terrific job as Sam in general. Luna thianks her for the help, Sam says no sweat they get to see the show together, and Sam ducks out... before realizing she forgot something. Her wallet... no wait she has that.. OH SHIT HER BROTHER. And before she can get him DOUBLE OH SHIT THE MCBRIDES ARE BACK.  Harold is grumbling about the potato salad... apparenlty Aunt Brenda brought some and wasn’t supposed to. I do like how both McBride dads have their own quirks:While Harold IS the more rational one, he can slip up just like anyone can. Luna prepares to leave.. only to realize oh shit her girlfriend’s brothers in the house still. Her not all complex scheme! She fakes having left something behind to get him out, and once sam calls comes up with a plan: Sneak Simon around back. Sam sneaks around with the bush she ducked into, and we get one of my faviorite tropes: A scooby doo doors sequence! Also the dads speak in unison. Dawww. We also get an adorable bit of Sam gesturing for Luna to hand her the boy. I couldn’t find a gif of it sadly, and I would’ve credited it, but I did find 50 tons of creepy Sam X LIncoln fanart. Just.. why. Why exactly. Why do you do this to me tumblr. And to be clear I have ZERO issue with shipping a character whose sexuality isn’t fully confirmed as just gay in canon with a male character, Bi and Pan representation is important. It’s why I get annoyed at the people who throw a hissy fit any time Della Duck is shipped with Launchpad. Here though I do because it feels like this ship is ENTIRELY a troll, especially since LIncoln has 80 other options, not at all including the icky incest ones, and that I cut and dry have every problem with, and is being done soley to annoy people who ship sam and Luna and are finally enjoying some gay/bi representation on children’s television. If this is a troll then kindly 
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Thank you John. So anyways Sam does grab the boy and nearly gets him out the door.. only for the mcbrides to run into their bisexual catsitter shoving a small chubby child out their kitchen window only to have a lesbian fall out into their kitchen. Naturally Howard faints again and Harold is displeased... probably because his husband fainted again.. and you know the shenangians in his kitchen. The only time shenanigans are allowed in that kitchen are when Clyde is sleeping at a friends house for the night and only on the table dammit. They got reinforced oak for a reason.  We cut to the boys playing, which is a nice touch: Clyde being a nice kid dosen’t mind sharing, Simon has similar intrests, and the only time we’ve seen him be eh on sharing is letting Lincoln borrow his new console.. and he not only felt BAD for not wanting him to borrow it and having to try and get it back, but he only did so because the Loud house is insanley chaotic and understandbly he wasn’t sure it’d get back to him safetly. His dad’s rasied him well, he’s a good boy once he got past his ‘Stalking his friends older sister” phase and got into his “anything besides that “ phase.  Luna comes clean to the McBrides and.. Harold appricates the honesty. And both are impressed with how well they took them, with Sam and Luna giving each other credit. So instead of getting upset, especially since Luna was both honest and only called in Sam for help and Simon was an unexpected guest and they both did a fantastic job, they offer to split the money instead. Sam, in a really sweet gesture, then gives Luna her half with no hesitation or prompting from her girlfriend, Luna gives her a cheek smooch and they hug. Then Luna acciently wakes the cats, and we end on the girls singing the cats, Simon and the McBrides all to sleep. Also Luna’s hallucination is alsleep.. those drugs wore off hours ago after all.  Final Thoughts:  A really fantastic setup. Once again the show shows it’s slowly gained talent for taking stock plots (in this case a babysitting episode) and making them actually intresting, mostly by having the characters behave reasonably. While it didn’t really expand Sam’s character, it didn’t really need to , the previous ep with her having fleshed her out as a sweet, kind girl with a talent for animals, and Simon is a wonderful addition to the series massive cast of side characters that , unlike some additions , will hopefully show up again. Seriously half the reason I bitch about Rusty is that the show is great at making charcters, and improving them after a few bumpy episodes as seen with Clyde, Lori and Luann, but yet still uses him and dosen’t make him any funnier, while I can name handfuls of characters who either need more apperances (Girl Jordan) Or haven’t shown up again at all (Carol Pingery, Rocky, Maggie). And that’s not even all of them obviously, but my point stands. But given he’s the brother of one of the main characters girlfriend and would fit in with the main character well, I have a feeling we’ll see simon again at some point.  I also really liked seeing the McBrides, mostly because I haven’t seen many of their episodes, and found them to be delightful, helped by having wonderful va’s behind them as standard for the show and great chemsitry and it was a nice bonus to have the shows two main gay couples interact, without it feeling at all forced, and neither did Sam’s inclusion. And while we haven’t gotten a full on kiss with Sam and Luna, which really they should, CN beat them again on that, the cheek kiss and hug was still very sweet, as is the episode really. It’s funny, heartwarming, and really enjoyable. While itd osen’t have as much emotional weight as the last two eps, I like that it didn’t: For once the conflict was low key but understandable and now Sam and Luna are a full couple, they can just do cute couple shit and get into wacky shenanigans like any other couple on this show without any angst attached. It’s really nice. It also shows that no, a couple being together isn’t boring fuck off will they or won’t they, but i’ve ranted enough about stuff unrelated to this episode. I really liked it and hope to come back to these two someday.  For now as I sign off Pride Month is far from over... as next up I have multiple things planned, but one of the biggest is a FIVE PART series on Red Action and Enid from OK KO. Yes FIVE. All 3 of their romantic eps, and Red’s first two for proper context both for the finale, which uses both episodes as part of the plot, and for a proper view of her character arc and to ease readers into the series better. So be there for that, and a donald duck birthday celebration, and until then, later days! 
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is-anyone-home · 4 years
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hello friends!!!! i am here to give u the long awaited list of my squishmallows! unfortunately one of them is missing & his name is buzz, he’s a bee key chain and i think my sister stole him :( but anyways, here are my friends!!
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this is sherbert, she is the biggest size, and my first ever squishmallow!! she’s a pegasus (she has wings but you cant see them in this pic) and she loves rainbow sherbert from our local ice cream shop and she also loves going to the movie theater with me (our first date together was seeing frozen 2 and i accidentally got hot cheetos popcorn on her belly hehe) she is super sweet and i love her :)
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next is lynus the lion, also the biggest size, and he is very adventurous. he is best friends with sherbert and they like to watch movies together. he’s sneaky and he steals my snacks..but i dont blame him!
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this is bibble, named after that fuzzy fairy thing from barbie fairytopia, and she is super tiny. she’s very dumb (we don’t tell her that) and she doesn’t know how to use her wings yet. her favorite activity is following me around..she has seperation anxiety:(
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here’s blueberry the bunny, she’s kind and smart, very studious. she’s pretty serious and she’s the mom of the squishmallows. i usually leave her in charge when i’m not around. 10/10
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this is charlie the cowboy horse!! he is super super tiny, like the size of my hand and he loves everything cowboy. he likes to think that he’s big and strong even though he’s really not. he has a big heart and he loves cuddles. he also loves dogs!
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this is harold the duck..i actually adopted him from my sister who got him from her ex boyfriend (she didnt want him anymore cuz she had bad emotional feelings from it) so now he lives with me! he can be a lil noisy but he is funny and has a crush on bibble (which i dont support..shes just a baby!!)
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this handsome gentleman is ozzy the octopus, named after ozzy from survivor (cuz i went through a survivor phase over quaratine lmao) and he is really wild. he likes to party all night and is honestly kind of annoying but i still love him.
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this beautiful lady is petunia the peacock and she loves to show off her feathers!!! she loves reading and watching princess movies with me. her best friend is blueberry because theyre both blue.
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here is beef the squirrel, he’s named after this baby squirrel that i tried to save a few weeks ago, and he loves all types of nuts!! he likes board games and hot chocolate:)
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last but not least is the newest member to the family, bella the candy corn witch!! she is from the new halloween collection and while she is a witch, she is super sweet. she likes halloween, obviously, and scary movies. she is still a little shy since i got her yesterday but i know she’ll fit right in:)
so that’s all of my friends!!!! i showed them in the order that i bought them and i got all of them from walgreens except for beef and petunia which i ordered from the squishmallow website. they may seem stupid, espeically since im a 20 year old college student, but they make me hapoy espeically on my depressed days and they makes great pillows and sleeping buddies!! they’re also really affordable:) you might notice that some of them, i think bibble and ozzy, have some bite marks/rips and that’s from my brother’s dog who thought they were toys and that’s okay! anyways, i hope you enjoyed:)) bye!!
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larryfanficwriter98 · 4 years
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Chapter Three
Harry stared at the phone number that Louis had sent. They had been talking about moving to text and calls soon to make the time differences easier as Harry was 8 hours ahead of Manchester right now. They messaged still but the other one was usually sleeping or busy when they messaged so it wasn't actually communicating. Harry clicked on the number, hesitation in his movements before he bucked up the courage and pressed the call button. The call was answered almost immediately but there were other voices in the background.
"Hi, one moment while I leave these lads to their dance party." His accent was the first thing Harry noticed, as well as the higher pitch voice that Harry was already desperate to hear again.
"EVERYONE ELSE IN THE ROOM CAN SEE IT EVERYONE ELSE BUT YOUUUU! BABY, YOU LIGHT MY WORLD LIKE NOBODY ELSE THE WAY THAT YOU FLIP YOUR HAIR GETS ME OVERWHELMED BUT WHEN YOU SMILE AT THE GROUND IT AINT HARD TO TELL! YOU DONT KNOW OH OH!! YOU DONT YOUR BEAUTIFUL!" Male voices shouted in the background making Harry laugh
"Harry Styles?" Harry asked slightly pleased with himself
"Hey don't judge 3/4 of this household is gay and Niall is so secure in his sexuality that he's practically gay. He'd be gay for the right one I think."
"I mean we're all a little bit gay aren't we?"
"Try telling Niall that." Harry heard a door close making the voices and music not be as loud as it was earlier. "So hi." Harry grinned
"Hi. Was this alright to call?"
"Yeah definitely. I like calls. Feels more real. I know you've been mentioning needing to find a time where we're both free for a few minutes at the same time to talk." Louis felt nervous about this, usually the ''we need to talk'' line meant it was ending and Louis didn’t want him and Harold to end.
"Yeah, I just.. Every time I type it, it doesn't come out right so I wanted us to call at some point. I just wanted to clear up a few things is all."
"Yeah sure. What is it?"
"Well I know I told you I was in the public eye a lot and so I don't know if you thought much about that or not. I um... well first my name is sort of..untrue. Not like majorly. Some friends call me Harold for laughs and teasingly so it’s not like something I personally feel is a lie but I know you may. So my real name is Harry...umm..not Stones but I don't... I don’t want to get into that yet. I just.. I wanted to know if someone would see past my name and everything and like me for me you know? I um..-"
"Harold you do realize I figured that out on my own right? I have thought about your letter. In fact, it’s in my bedside drawer and I figured that meant you lied about your name. Figured you'd tell me when you were ready. You can reveal yourself as slow as you want to. I really like you, the you, I've gotten to know."
"Really?"
"Yeah. It's weird actually I was about to delete the app when you messaged me back."
"I was actually going to delete the app as well, but for a different reason. Another reason I wanted to talk to you. I didn't accept many people..maybe five I think not including you. And I guess it never got brought up in our conversations the past seven weeks, but um I am like really demi-sexual. I ummm.. I've actually never had sex before."
"Really?" Louis asked softly moving to sit up in his bed
"Yes and I'm sure you can guess that me not knowing when I will even want sex let alone feel comfortable enough to engage in it was a big no to the guys I did accept."
"Yeah, I'm sure it was. Guys are assholes. It's not a big deal to me Haz. I would wait until the wedding night for someone if that's what they wanted. Sex is great and fun, but honestly, the big reason I'm looking for such a strong commitment is because casual sex after a while isn't as enjoyable as you think. It gets boring."
"Really? You're the first one to say that."
"What that it gets boring or that it doesn't matter?"
"Both. I had a boyfriend when I was 18, we dated for a while, but he was really manipulative and he put a lot of pressure on everything. I was just 18 and still getting comfortable with my sexuality and he wanted to move fast. We went on one date then he wanted to be boyfriends and at the time I didn't know that's not how it was supposed to go. I've always been very affectionate and I like to spoil people as I'm sure you have figured out."
Louis' eyes went to the 30-inch tall stuffed panda bear with a baby panda bear that had been stuffed inside a box with a ton of fake flowers because real flowers would have died on the trip. Harry had a letter that explained it had been for a wildlife charity and that Louis could take it to the daycare or keep it he didn't care but it was too big for the bus he was on.
"I would never have guessed." Louis said sarcastically
"Yes alright. I'm not sorry. It was for a good cause."
"I need receipts Haz."
"Would you like my bank statements to prove it was for charity?"
"I guess I can trust you. How long are you free for?"
"Most of the day, not until 2 which is midnight in Manchester."
"Hey, Harry can you make me an omelet? Please." A male voice came from the background
"Make your own omelet."
"I tried that and it's runny."
"You are helpless. Absolutely helpless."
"I can't make an omelet either." Louis told Harry
"Please tell me someone in your house does?"
"Nope. Lads and I live off of frozen meals, cereal, take out, fast food, and pizza."
"Louis!" Louis laughed at Harry's cry, "that's not healthy! I'm getting you cookbooks. Beginners cookbooks."
"We have cookbooks. I use them as stepping stools for the higher cabinets."
"They make step ladders."
"I'm a grown man I don't need a step ladder." There was some shuffling on the other end
"The fact you use cookbooks for a stepping stool tells me you in fact do need a step ladder."
"Leave me alone. I'm big. I'm 5'10 I just have high cabinets."
"For some reason I think you're lying."
"I'm not. I'm 5'10.."
"Uh-huh sure."
***
Louis grinned as he walked into the daycare with the large panda bear in his arms. It was 2.5 feet tall and the kids were all in awe when Louis came in a few minutes late because packing and unpacking the best took a lot more time than he had thought.
"Louis! How much did this thing cost?" Elizabeth, an elderly woman who owned the daycare and the one who had hired Louis on the spot asked as she rounded the counter to look at the animal, "I told you if you wanted to buy them things them to use to the company card."
"That I put back in your wallet five minutes after you gave it to me." He told her, "besides I didn't buy it Harry sent it over."
"Harry? A boyfriend? Really?"
"Not a boyfriend, we haven't had that talk yet, but we've been talking a lot and he knows how much I love the daycare and the kids. He's traveling right now and he's also the one who bought those wooden toys that haven't been broken yet. Anyway, he bought it after donating a certain amount to a wildlife charity in China. Sent it to me for either myself or the kids and I figured the kids would like it."
"They'll love it. He sounds like a good guy."
"From the past ten weeks of talking to him, I think he is. Been very thoughtful."
Louis was not blushing it was just hot in the building and he was overheating in his Norwegian sweater. He hurried to the room ignoring her knowing stare and was immediately called by different toddlers. Grinning he made his way to an empty corner and plopped the panda bear down leaning it against the wall. He pulled his coat off and hung it in the closet before he kneeled down by some of the toddlers who weren't distracted by the panda.
"Hello, little Annabelle."
"Lou Lou..hug?"
"Of course come here." Louis wrapped his arms around Annabelle gently, squeezing her softly before pulling away.
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Hi, i hope you are feeling good! Im better than yesterday so i can finally answer you. First of all: i am so happy that you shared your fanfiction! i had a great time reading it! Im always open for more recs. Maybe your all time favorites? Or if you know some good h/c these are always welcome :) And YESSS please send me a link to your fanvids. -- yeah 13rw was super cursed. haha i also watched season 1 but thankfully i was able to sto watching becaue i could feel it making me feel bad (1)
I agree the suicide scene was just cringe (but i think i remember reading somewhere that they cut it out? idk) and overall this show just gave me the feeling that there was no hope and things are always getting worse instead of better and i hated that. but enough of that cursed show. can i just say i really admire how open you are about your feelings (like being suicidal and that) i realy, really admire this about you. i have so much respect for you that you can just share your feelings here (2)
I have never heard of ace attorney but that story you described sounds really good. and i get reading sth that isnt good for you and still doing it (because im a dumb bitch too :D) -- okay i might accept that Root will never grow on you (but i thought so too and look at me now :D) but i havent fully given up yet :)-- yes thats the girl. i think it was really sweet when she said that to Shaw. and i think Shaw appreciated it that someone tried to figure her out instead of just writting her off (3)
Shaw is really cool and definately also a badass and in combination with John its just great! but you will have to suffer trough some Shoot.  but maybe, maybe you will end up not hating Root. hope dies last (idk how the saying goes in english, sorry). -- Did you ever ship Caresse (in a romantic way)? cause sometimes i do and sometimes i dont and i get so confused about it :) but i think most of the time i like them more as friends. anyway her death really sucked and you are right with (4)
her death and them losing the library it felt like a different show (i mean i guess it was a different show then). i kinda get your feelings about the destroyed library because i also really loved it (and im really bad with change) but i dont think it affected me as much as you. but yeah i still missed the library very much. and while the subway is a really cool new place its not the same. (also the subway is super dark cause its underground and idk it just makes the whole thing less homey) (5)
Yes he is everything! such a great, interesting character and i wish there were more John-centric episodes! (like ones that explored his character more). that was one of my biggest dislikes of the later seasons that John wasnt featured as much anymore. i think he chuckled a few times in the show but a real laugh? i cant remember one :(  -- He did promise Joss to talk to Tyler so @show were is that talk? -- if seen the vid its awesome! thehiddenmemory has some great poi vids! (6)
yes i think so too. Like Grace would probably be relived and thankful that Harold is still alive and maybe they would even try again but eventually she would figure out that she cant trust him after lying to him for so long or sth like that and Harold would ofc realize that he is in love with someone else now. And then he finds out that John is still alive but stayed away cause he didnt want to get in the way of Harold/Grace. But then Harold comes back. And when they meet again John is like (7)
you came back for the machine? what about Grace. But Harold tells him he came back for John not the machine and then they kiss and have a happy live with Bear (sorry i got a little carried away here :D). -- Yeah Zoe is really hot and she needed more screen time! -- i hope you have a good day and i hope i havent messed up the numbers on the asks! :)
Hi ! I'm finally free from the resits, I hope you're doing okay with your thesis 💛
Sorry for replying late, there was the exam resits, and I read a bunch of fics, then I fell into pokémon and started bingewatching it. (Also I had a breakdown during therapy today so I'm gonna finish writing my answer to distract myself - it's been sitting in my drafts for so long rip)
Thank you !! It was a very personal thing, I'm really happy you liked it !! Your support and your comment made me thrive 💛💛
Tbh I was surprised to see it get kudos given that the only intended audience was my self projecting ass 🤣
So, my fav fics (my fav fic ever is in French, rip to y'all bc it's so good):
I am, I am, I am by RavenWhitecastle
Actually check the entire series this work belongs to: The Sinner and the Saint. I haven't finished it yet but I love it (I just skipped the explicit fics bc I don't like smut or sub!John)
Breaking All The Rules by talkingtothesky
Outsider Perspective by Neery
A Really Private Person by astolat
Hamartia (the hero's fatal flaw) by astolat
If Only for Tonight by spacemutineer
From Here, Where? by AKMars
Stroll by TheaNishimori
and the world was gone by lunarcorvid
a light that never goes out by vindicatedtruth
Limitations. by Michaelssw0rd
Reel you in and spit you out by Michaelssw0rd
All I Want For Christmas Is You by richmahogany
By What Power I Am Made Bold by brinnanza
Aftershocks by darringtons
At Certain Hours It All Breaks Down by nogoaway
construction of a kingdom by the_ragnarok
You Take Me Higher Than I've Gone by talkingtothesky
All Together Now by beadedslipper
I'll Let the Waters Still by brinnanza
Birthday Tradition by talkingtothesky
Things My Father Taught Me by KRyn
Truth is in the Eye of the Beholder by infiniteeight
Better Luck This Time by Lisztful
Motivations by JenNova
What's On the Table by cortue
In Another Life by Della19
I Thought We Already Were by talkingtothesky
Misunderstandings by thisstarvingartist
This is already fucking long omg so for the h/c: my bookmarks filtered with Rinch and h/c
Here's my playlist, it's mostly Rinch, but there are a few not Rinch vids, plus some scenes I like
This is long enough already, so it's time for a read more. Also, warning, we be talking about suicide
The portrayal of suicide is cringe most of the time anyway. If my suicidal ass can find a list of suicide methods and their lethality in 2 mins on Google you'd think writers who are supposed to do some research would be able to find them too but no they're like "ah yes slicing wrists" even though it's literally the shittiest method 🙄 (I just don't understand why slicing wrists seems to be such a popular method in the collective imagination ? It's weird.) At least in 13rw she took aspirin and cut herself vertically instead of horizontally but still, no hesitation wounds, and she dies even though she only got 4 wounds iirc ? I know more about jumping off bridges than slicing wrists, but it kinda sounds like bullshit to me. Also Netflix once suggested "beyond the reasons" to me, it's a sort of discussion with the cast and crew of 13rw and the only thing I remember is a moment of intellectual masturbation abt how they "opened a discussion abt suicide" 😬😬😬
They may have cut it out it's not impossible, idk I didn't hear about it, but it's not like I look for info about this dumpster fire lol. Maybe they faced backlash ? Wouldn't be surprised given how shit the show was. And yeah it has a hopeless vibe, I mean that's how it be when you're suicidal, but I didn't like it either.
You're sweet 💜💜 it's interesting that you find it respectable or admirable, I don't have an external point of view, so I'm just like 🤷 it is what it is. I understand where you're coming from though, I guess it's still quite a taboo subject, and suicidal people don't always feel comfortable talking about it, so me throwing around that I jumped off a bridge must be surprising. I'm detached enough from my suicide attempt that I'm able to talk about it without much of a problem, and I'm not really suicidal anymore.
Dumb bitches unite 👏👏👏 we be out there reading shit we shouldn't read
Yeah I think it's nice how the show didn't portray Shaw as a bad person for not having "normal feelings". Well, hope makes one live as we say in French (idk the English saying either lol) but don't hold much hope about me liking Root lmao
I used to ship careese bc they kissed in the crossing, but then I read some Rinch fics and I just ended up falling into it to the point where I stopped caring about careese. Now I think their relationship works better as a friendship.
Yeah all that change really puts me off... It just gives me "bad spin-off" vibes. Especially since there is less John :( and less Rinch :((((
Lmao yeah I just have a lot of feelings about early poi hgkfglrk. Also :/ I'm sad about the subway being less homey pls I just want happiness ?? I swear this show destroys my heart on top of owning my last braincell (brb changing my blog title to this lmao)
Mood I need all the John-centric eps, give me m o r e characterization and development and backstory and feelings hhhhhhh. I love him so much I just wanna spend more time with him. And that's what fics are for ! Yeah thehiddenmemory is so talented ! Astolat made some good ones too, on top of writing really good fics ! (Our fandom has been blessed with the presence of one of the ao3 founders hell yeah)
Also, remember how we talked abt the poi subreddit ? The other day I left a comment on there, wild I know. It wasn't a discussion about the last seasons though, I'm not crazy, it was about the impact poi had in our lives so I said it literally taught me English. Who knows maybe sometimes I'll comment again lol. I just don't wanna meet one of those people who prefer late poi over early poi.
Allow me to uuuuh write something based on what you said. Don't ask me how John survived with no major injuries, my man got that Thick Plot Armor alright. Hope you appreciate me getting carried away sjdkdksk it's kinda rushed and the first part isn't that good bc idk how to write Grace I'm just here for that sweet sweet Rinch stuff
Harold is eating breakfast with Grace in her kitchen – he can't think of her home as his home – when his phone vibrates. It's a text from the machine. It's a surprise, she barely contacted him since... He blocks the thoughts and the images coming to his mind. The machine sent him a picture. When he opens it, his heart misses a beat. Right here on his screen is a silhouette he thought he would never see again. His phone vibrates again. Another picture, this time it's unmistakably John, wearing his signature suit, Bear next to him. Transfixed, he stares at his phone until he feels Grace gently touching his arm. She goes straight to the point.
"Is it John ?" He looks up in confusion, but before he can say anything, she adds, "I hear you call him in your sleep every night."
"It's him, yes." He doesn't want to explain. He only wants to see John, to touch him, to tell him how much he loves him.
"You should go back to him. I like you, Harold. I am deeply relieved to see you alive. But I've been thinking, and... It's not working. This, us... You aren't really the man I fell in love with, the man I grieved... I can't trust you anymore." She doesn't say 'You lied to me' but Harold hears it all the same.
~
Harold sits on their bench. The machine indicated John often comes here. Soon enough, his arms are full of Bear, and John is standing in front of him.
"John. How are you ?" he asks when Bear finally calms down.
"Busy. And you ?"
Harold eyes him suspiciously – John once said he was busy when he was bleeding and way too close to death – but he seems to be well.
"I'm fine." He doesn't have time for awkward small talk." I thought you were dead. Why didn't you contact me ?"
"The machine told me you were with Grace. I thought you wanted to come back to your previous life. I didn't want to crash into it and ruin what you had."
Harold wants to be angry at him, but he understands. He did the same with Grace.
"You would never ruin anything. Besides, my relationship with Grace... didn't survive my lies. She's very dear to my heart, but she's a part of my previous life, as you said."
"So you came back for the machine, and the numbers, like the good old times ?"
Harold gets up from the bench.
"I came back for you. You are an important part of my life. The most important part."
John smiles, finally. He takes a step towards Harold, they're so close they could kiss. Harold reaches out, grips his shirt and slowly inches closer. He's still afraid of being rejected but John wraps his arm around him and kisses him. The kiss is over too soon. John's smile is even wider when they part.
"You're the most important part of my life too," he says before kissing Harold again. "You will stay ?"
"Always."
Damn I live for sappy Rinch stuff.
Bitches decided that Harold saying "always" is peak Rinch. It's me I'm bitches.
Also ofc I had to make a reference to number crunch, who do you think I am
Anyway. I hope you have a good day ! 💛
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i-am-smol-narwhal · 4 years
Text
Truth Serum - Twelfth Doctor x Reader
By: Ineffable-Timelady
You wake up feeling dizzier than you ever have. Your head is throbbing as though theres an entire stampede running around in there and stomping all over your brain. You haven't even opened your (e/c) eyes yet and you already know that once you do, you'll feel nauseated. You try to lift a hand to your head only for it to be in vain as you quickly realize that you're chained to a chair. Your eyes instantly fly open and you ignore the intense throbbing as you take in the room.
You've never been here before, that's for sure. It looks sort of like a dungeon, making your stomach churn in concern. The walls of the room are made from what looks to be old cement blocks with large cracks and moss growing on them. Each wall is bare and you notice the wall that you are facing has a wooden door attached to it.
Although you want to scream and cry for help, you choose instead to analyze your situation. First question, what happened? Second, where are you? Third, how will you escape? Somewhere in between each of those questions are some minor sub-questions that you are certain you'll ask, but for now those are the main three.
You think back to the last memory you have before appearing in this dark murky dungeon. The smell of mildew and petrichor reach your nose as you try to focus, and petrichor immediately makes you remember. You were leaving the TARDIS to go home for a bit, needing a break from the Doctor. You love him, of course (and of course he doesn't know that), but sometimes he would just be so rude without realizing and it pissed you off.
What happened after you left? Why cant you remember? Oh, theres those sub-questions! You choose to worry about those questions later as they just make you dizzier.
You take another look around the room, taking more in since your vision isn't as blurry. The walls are bare, as you concluded before, but there are some... blood stains? Definitely blood. And tally marks. Someone had been here before you for a long time. You realize that not only are your hands chained down to a chair, but so is your head and feet. Whoever kidnapped you really wants to make sure you comply.
You let out a huff and cast your eyes as far down as you could. You're in completely different clothes than anything you own, but at least there are clothes instead of being stark naked. There's a needle in your arm that looks sort of like an IV needle, but it isn't hooked up to anything.
You look up as you hear the door unlocking and suck in a breath. Whoever your captors are, they're standing right beyond that door. The door creaks as it opens and you mentally prepare yourself for some type of dangerous alien. Daleks? No, they would just exterminate you. Cybermen? Doubt it, but possible since they have hands... Your mind runs quickly to think of what could be on the other side of the door until the thing on the other side takes one step in.
You sit in shock for a moment when you see someone who looks human. He smirks at you and eyes you a bit before he opens his mouth to speak.
"Do please continue to compare me to other aliens. It's quite amusing to see just how wrong you are."
His voice is familiar. Everything about this man is familiar. He's blond with menacing blue eyes, has a small goatee, hes wearing a hoodie and some slacks and his aura just screams dangerous.... but its also comforting. You just stare at him for a moment before responding in a very raspy voice.
"You heard me?" You ask, your voice cracking a bit. The man just chuckles and walks over to you with a glass of water. He places the glass at your lips and only gives you a sip.
"I'm slightly psychic," is his only response. He pulls a chair from behind you up to where it's in front of you. "Do you recognize me?"
You bite your tongue and shake your head. How daft would it be to say 'no but your aura is familiar'?
"Think of your past prime ministers."
Your head fills with images of Harold Saxon and you freeze. He cant be here. He cant. He died. So why is this bastard sitting here right in front of you?
"Now you recognize me. So you know what I'm capable of." You nod to your best ability, not trusting your voice right now. The Master was someone that the Doctor warned you about. You dont remember much from the day of the 'tochlafane' due to some slight amnesia, but from what the Doctor told you, hes highly dangerous.
You suddenly feel some foreign substance enter your body and look down, seeing the Master attached something to the needle. It burns in your veins and feels like fire is dancing around. You quickly feel it fill your body until suddenly you feel completely numb.
"Let's start easy first," he stands and walks around you, pocketing his syringe. "What is your name?"
You want so bad to tell him to fuck off. You want to tell him it's none of his business. You want to say that he should already know if he kidnapped you.
But instead, you say, "(Y/N). (Y/N) (L/N)." You tense in shock and he just smirks at you.
"Truth serum. You'll tell me everything I ask of you," he sits in the dingy metal chair again, making it slide back slightly. "Do you travel with the Doctor?"
"Yes."
"Where did you two go last?"
"The planet Henthe in the year four thousand and twenty-three."
"Why do you travel with him?"
You bite down on your tongue, willing yourself not to answer. Your heart is racing hard as the truth serum is trying to force you to speak. Your whole body trembles but you stand your ground until you suddenly feel a distracting pain in your temple.
"He's amazing and I love the adventures. I love travelling with him and running into the face of danger. I love the beauty of everything he shows me. I love the exhilaration I get from running from dangerous creatures," you can't stop yourself now. Your heart is slowing back to normal now that you've answered and you couldn't be more grateful for that.
You watch a guard slip in the room. You choose not to ask what he's doing in here anyways, possibly hoping that he isn't bad like the Master.
"Interesting. What's the Doctor's weakness?"
"You know the Doctor. Sometimes I think he doesn't have a weakness. Other times-" You bite your tongue again and glare at the Master. Doctor, please save me. The Master grabs your arm again, roughly this time, as he searches his pocket for another syringe. He injects the flaming red liquid into you again, making you scream in pain.
This time, the flame coursing your veins was different. It burned hotter, brighter. You can't help but to scream, screwing your eyes shut tight. You clench your fists, your nails digging into your palms hard enough to draw blood but it doesn't register. To you, that pain would be much more preferable over the flame licking your entire body.
You let out shallow breaths when the burning pain dissipates and open your eyes. You see blood coming out of your right hand but ignore it to glare at the Master.
"If you want to go through that again, I have all the time in the world," the Master practicaly snarls, an annoyed look crossing over his face. "I wonder how much truth serum it takes to kill a human?" He chuckles. "Nevermind that. Does he love you? The Doctor, does he?"
"No. He's a Time Lord, like yourself. He cant love a human like me," you flinch at how quickly you answered. There's a lot more of the serum running through you so it shouldn't be much of a surprise.
"Does the little human have a crush on the big bad Time Lord?"
You bite down hard on your tongue. You cant answer that question. You dont want to.
"Remember I'll torture you if you do not answer me," the Master growls, an evil look crossing his features again.
You feel tears falling from your eyes and a sob wracks your body. "Yes. Yes I love him. I love the Doctor," you can't stop the sobs that escape you. You just want to be in the Doctor's embrace right now more than anything.
The Master laughs. He sounds amused and like he is belittling you. "He could never love you."
"I know," You whisper. The guard behind the Master suddenly walks over to us and places a hand on his shoulder.
"The Doctor has been spotted in Wessex," The guard states, his voice null of emotion.
"You stay here," The Master barks at you, leaving the room nonchalantly. The guard keeps his eye on the Master until hes out of sight and then smiles a bit at you, making you flinch. He gets down beside you and starts undoing your restraints.
"W-What-"
"Dont ask questions," The guard demands, making you shut up.
He continues to untie you and then tries to hug you but you push him away.
"Keep your hands off me. I appreciate you freeing me, but I cant trust someone who works for that asshole. Now either you tie me back up or you let me leave and tell me exactly where the Doctor was spotted," You look around the room now that you can move and see a knife in the back.
"I dont work for him-" the guard takes another step towards you and you run over to the knife and pick it up, pointing it towards him. "What are you doing?"
"Arming myself?" It comes out as a question although it shouldn't have.
"For wh- oh," he chuckles, "sorry sometimes I forget to take this thing off," He suddenly pulls off his face, making you jump back in fright until you see the stormy grey-blue eyes of the Doctor and his fluffy grey curls.
"Doctor? Hold on wait no, this cant be right. It cant be you. You tried to hug me. If that's another face mask thing it's not fooling me this time. A-And your voice. Totally different from my Doctor's."
"Its me," His voice now sounds exactly like himself... you feel tears come to your eyes as you hear his voice but you don't take a step forward. "If it helps, before we went to Henthe, we went to Agfrole, or planet of the weird frogs as you call it."
You drop the knife you armed yourself with and walk over to him warily. You wrap your arms around him immediately though once you inspected him a bit more. "My Doctor."
He awkwardly wraps his arms around you and snaps his fingers, making you grin when you see the gorgeous blue of the TARDIS in the corner of the room.
"How'd you do that?" You ask.
"I made her invisible," the Doctor explains simply, "now quick. Into the TARDIS."
You comply and practically run in, the Doctor following on your tail. He shuts the doors quickly and before long, he's launching the two of you somewhere else. You smile at the familiar sound of the TARDIS.
"Did you mean what you said?" The Doctor suddenly asks, looking up at you with curiosity in his ancient eyes.
"W-What?"
"You love me?"
You freeze and realize the serum is still in your system so you can't hold it back. "Yes. I do."
"And you think that just because I'm a Time Lord, I cant love you back?" He asks, head tilted a little.
"Well yeah. That's kind of obvious, right? You're like... immortal. I'm not. I live maybe ninety years and then I'm gone. I don't regenerate," you sigh. "Look. If you're just going to send me home because of my feelings, go ahead and do it. Don't make me spill my heart out to you."
He walks over to you, his eyebrows scrunched in confusion. "Send you home? Now why would I do a stupid thing like that?" You open your mouth to answer and he places a hand over your mouth, a small smile on his face. "That was rhetorical. Don't answer it." You nod and he places his hand down near your waist, causing you to blush. "I do have feelings for you, (Y/N). Has that not been obvious?"
"Sometimes I think you do. But other times I think I'm not important to you," you respond, looking down at your feet.
He tilts your face up to look up at him and he smiles at you. This smile you've never seen. It isn't cruel like you expected. It isn't sarcastic. It isn't because he is boasting about how incredibly intelligent he is. No, this is love. He leans in close, both hands on your waist now, but he stops half way. You feel his breath fan over your face and blush a little. You stand on your tiptoes and press your lips to his, your hands resting on the nape of his neck to pull him closer.
The kiss was like fire, but instead of the blaze you still feel in your veins, this is welcomed. It's like being at a bonfire with the people you care about the most. You taste the tea and jelly babies he had eaten recently against his lips. Your lips part and he slips his tongue in your mouth a little before pulling away.
"Do you want to know what I feel for you?" He asks quietly as he rests his forehead on yours.
"Please..." you whisper. He lets out a nervous chuckle and gives you a lopsided grin.
"Keep your mind open for me." He brings his warm fingers up to your temples and hovers over them for a moment before pressing them against your skin.
You close your eyes as you feel the raw emotions. Happiness, trust, enjoyment, worry, and pure unadulterated love. Love so strong that it nearly knocks you back.
You smile and remember something Vastra did when the Doctor first regenerated into this man in front of you. You hope that although you're a smaller species than the Silurians, maybe you can reflect your feelings into him as well while this link is formed.
You smile a little as you try to push your feelings to him and hear a slight change in his breathing. Is he feeling it? Does he know just how much you love him? His fingers leave your temple and you can no longer feel his presence in your mind. You open your eyes and see him looking at you in confusion.
"How did you do that?" He asks, looking directly into your eyes.
"Well um... when you first regenerated, you wouldn't sleep. Vastra asked you to put the image of perfect sleep into her head and she somehow reflected it onto you. I know I'm not anything special. I'm a boring old human. But I had to see if I could do it. I wanted you to know how much I love you too," you smile, taking his hand in yours. Your smile falters a little though, "was... was it okay for me to do that?"
"Of course. It just surprised me, love." Your heart flutters a little at the nickname and you smile. "Now, Paris! 1813. What do you say?"
"I say... allons-y!" You grin and wink, hearing him groan a little at that.
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