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nariism · 11 months

Text

i don’t dance!

pair. pro-player!ushijima x PR manager!reader

content: fluff, reader is his VERY TIRED PR manager who really deserves a raise, weak attempts at humour, no pronouns used for reader

synopsis. you need to teach ushijima how to waltz

wc: 2.2k

a/n: i eat the “teach me how to dance” trope up for breakfast, lunch and dinner. (also yes i absolutely did use a high school musical song as the title who’s gonna stop me)

ushijima wakatoshi is what people typically refer to as emotionally unavailable.

he just doesn’t have the time to worry about trivial things like romance or feelings or anything of the sort. not while he’s trying to keep up with his rigorous training schedule on top of countless interviews and photo shoots that you, his wonderful PR manager, generously offer to help him prepare for.

it’s no surprise that this man - 6 feet and almost 4 inches of pure heart throb material - has yet to find a partner worth keeping around. not that he hadn’t had one night stands, per say, but being emotionally available for a committed relationship isn’t something he has on his mind right now.

although he isn’t exactly the type to be nitpicky about this kind of stuff, he does come off as cold if you don’t know him well enough (unintentionally, of course). people who he welcomes into his life simply find him too busy or too severe in his mannerisms to form proper relationships. thus, his friend group is kept tight, extending almost exclusively to members of the japanese national team.

ushijima keeps to himself and minds his own business. he doesn’t speak until spoken to, unless he has some opinion about other volleyball players you have to thwart. he doesn’t make a fuss about insignificant things. he respects his elders and works hard in every aspect of his life that involves his career. words are kept short and to the point, never sugar coated and he certainly never lies.

he specifically remembers one scenario in which an adoring fan had come up to him after a game while you were distracted with the press, and they had confessed their undying love to him much to his horror.

“could you leave me alone?” he had told them bluntly when they asked if he could please dm them on twitter, and you nearly died on the spot when the cameras all turned to the pair behind you. it was a horribly busy week for you, playing the role of damage control all while ushijima remained completely indifferent to the storm that was brewing on social media around his name and how he was trending for two whole days after the fact.

thankfully, the fan had gratefully accepted a bouquet of flowers ‘courtesy of ushijima’ (which he also almost vehemently denied online before you smacked him upside the head), and all was forgiven. it even made him trend for a couple days longer, but this time with everyone singing his praises. he should give you more credit where it’s due, because being a PR manager for someone so terrible at smiling for the camera is like hell on earth.

you had told him once that it was important to keep a good rapport with his fans, even if they were more forward with their advances than he was used to back in high school. he looked at you funny until you continued: “i’m not saying you should go off and date anyone who confesses to you, but could you at least be a little nicer?!” sounding extremely exasperated.

he didn’t even end up agreeing with you, too distracted by the way your lips moved while you scolded him to pay you his full attention.

“tonight’s the gala. everyone will be there.”

“i know.”

“so why,” you hiss out the words through grit teeth, jaw tense as you pinch the bridge of your nose, “are you standing outside my house when you should be getting ready?”

he’s silent for a moment. you glance up to make sure he’s actually still standing there being stupidly handsome and that you’re not just dreaming he is. ushijima averts his gaze awkwardly, hands in his pockets as he contemplates whether or not he should say what’s on his mind and risk having you slam the door in his face in frustration.

(it’s happened before; once, when he told you he was the top reply on a post for asking what “smash” means and why everyone was commenting it under all his instagram photos. you slammed the door in his face then, too, but he could still hear you erupt into laughter from the other side much to his confusion.)

you’re looking at him expectantly, with a brow raised and your lips pursed as you wait for an explanation.

“it’s a gala.”

you close your eyes and take a deep breath, patience wearing thin. “i know, wakatoshi. i just said that.”

“it’s a gala, so...” he huffs, “i have to dance, don’t i?”

you look up again at his words, confusion written all over your face. you’re in the middle of getting ready yourself, dressed to the nines. not as his date, of course, though he’d asked you.

(“what did you just say?”

“why can’t you just come with me? it would save you the trouble of getting the extra ticket. it’s not like i’m taking anyone else.”

“i can’t- that’s-... it’s unprofessional.”

“oh. i see.”)

you take the opportunity to scrutinize his outfit, as your eyes always end up doing. you’re always observing him closely, hoping and praying he doesn’t do or say something that will get him cancelled. in his defense, he’s gotten better at keeping his mouth shut when he knows you’re sitting there stressed to all hell about what you’ll need to apologize for on his behalf that week.

not that he would ever admit it out loud, but he likes the attention a little bit. enjoys being fussed over, since he spends most of his time isolated save for the members of his team. and it’s not like you’re very secretive about your judgment of him. it’s your job, for one, but there’s an undeniable and genuine worry in your eyes every time he says something he shouldn’t. he thinks it’s fine that he indulges in your presence just a bit, especially since people have found him intimidating his whole life. it’s nice to talk to someone who isn’t afraid to stand up to him once in a while.

you sigh quietly. “yes, you’ll have to dance. why?” you open the door wider for him, a gesture he’s familiar with equating to come in. “you’re not planning on bailing ‘cause of that, are you?”

he watches as you retreat further into your house, probably to fix your hair one last time before you head out early. you always arrive to these sorts of events earlier than he does, and always in a separate car. you were insistent that he arrive either alone or with his own date, since it would reduce the risk of scandals questioning your seemingly close relationship with each other.

close is not the word either you nor ushijima would use to describe your feelings toward one another. sure, you were the one helping to manage his schedule even though the job description did not at all entail that, and you’re the one keeping him in line with the media. he even has you over sometimes for dinner after an especially long day. but no, you’re not close. work acquaintances at best.

“no, i’m not bailing,” he tells you as he trails behind, following you to the mirror in the hallway - the one hung up above a high table littered with trinkets from past events and some photos of you and your friends and family. you look at him with a quizzical expression through the mirror.

“then?”

he stands rigidly behind you. the thought that it feels strangely domestic with you getting ready in front of him like this crosses his mind, and makes him grossly warm and fuzzy inside.

“i don’t know how to dance.”

you pause in your ministrations, hair that you meant to pin up falling back over your eyes as you stare at him with bewilderment. “you what?”

“i don’t know how to dance,” he repeats, though you heard him perfectly fine the first time.

“you... don’t know how to... dance...” you sound out the sentence slowly, hoping that you possibly misheard him. to your horror, he only nods in confirmation.

in your one year, three months and twenty-two days of working with ushijima, how could it have never once dawned on you that this 6 foot monster of a volleyball player doesn’t know how to do something as elegant as a waltz?

it’d never been a problem before. most events don’t include anything of the sort, and all the events you do attend with ushijima are to give out awards or give esteemed recognition to MVPs. but for a christmas gala, there will definitely be booze and partying and absolutely dancing involved.

for a second, he thinks you’ll keel over and place your head into your hands on the table like you usually do in these situations, or that you’ll start muttering curse words to yourself, or maybe you’ll scold him some more for never learning. but much to his (pleasant) surprise, you just laugh. and laugh. and keep laughing, until there are tears in your eyes. his poor heart can’t take it.

“what?” he asks, almost sounding offended. but his expression is still stone cold as you look back up at him, turning to face him this time. his breath hitches when the action causes a whiff of your expensive body spray to waft in his direction.

“i just wasn’t expecting you to say that,” you muse. he knows what you really mean is that you’re surprised he isn’t here causing trouble for you before this event like he always does, complaining like a child that he doesn’t see the point of attending. “why didn’t you just say so? it’s easy. i’ll show you.”

he stares at you momentarily while you stand there, hand outstretched as an offer to take it. he half expects you to yank it back and laugh in his face, more cruelly this time, but you just smile at him with the slightest tilt of your head. you sound so genuine that any hesitation left in his body melts away, and he awkwardly accepts your hand and waits for your guidance.

he’s stiff as a board as you pull his hands where they need to go, one resting on your hip and the other hanging in the air for you to take. “i’ll teach you how to lead first, okay?” he can only nod in response. you step forward once with your left, urging him to step back with your timing. then you’re shuffling over, gliding along the floor with ushijima trying his damndest to follow along, and then your feet meet again in a different spot.

he grunts quietly in concentration, watching your movements carefully and clumsily trying to catch up. it’s a simple enough motion, but he’s too big and it feels clunky to do this for the first time. you seem deeply amused by his confusion, and he glares at you quickly before his eyes are back on the floor.

“now you try. we can go slow,” your voice is soft. encouraging. so unlike your usual stern demeanor with him. “step forward.”

ushijima does so obediently, sliding his left forward to the best of his memory.

“good. now your right goes to the side and the left follows.”

he listens to you again, but his gait is much larger than you anticipated, and your back hits the table behind you with a gentle thud. he mutters something along the lines of an apology, but he seems too focused to realize the compromising position he’s put you in. you smile at him anyways, rotating around 90 degrees to give you more space to move.

“now again in the opposite direction.”

“this is too complicated.”

“this is the easiest motion...”

“i don’t like it.”

“you gonna keep complaining or are you going to dance with me?”

he stops in his tracks, boring into you with intensity in his eyes. you watch his adam’s apple bob up and down as he swallows. “...what’s wrong?”

ushijima just shakes his head, and then his feet are moving again as he tugs you along clumsily. “nothing. but maybe you should be my dance partner for the rest of tonight.” you raise a brow at him in question, even though you can feel the heat rising in your face and all the way to the tips of your ears. he clears his throat, looking away. “wouldn’t want any bad press about my terrible dancing,” he quickly adds.

this gets a laugh out of you. “as your PR manager, i don’t think that’s the kind of negative press i’m supposed to be getting you out of.”

“and as a friend?”

another laugh, a little breathless. “yeah, yeah. fine. as your friend i’ll make sure no one knows how awful you are at this.”

he blinks down at you, unsure if he’s ever seen you so relaxed before. you’re always so high-strung about work and keeping his name clear. there’s a softness gracing your face right now and he doesn’t know how to handle himself or his racing heart.

okay, yeah. maybe he can try and be a little nicer to his fans to see you like this more often.

EXTRA:

#— whispers in the wind ✧#um yea idk what this is #but hope you enjoyed #haikyuu #haikyuu x you #haikyuu x reader #haikyuu x y/n #ushijima wakatoshi #ushijima wakatoshi x reader #ushijima wakatoshi x y/n #ushijima wakatoshi x you #haikyu x reader #haikyuu fluff

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sooshisamurai · 3 years

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Buck-Tick Interviews

音楽と人 - April 2010

Interview with Sakurai Atsushi

Text by Higuchi Yasuyuki

Translation: Lola

Sakurai-san, how does this latest single fit in with the rest of Buck-Tick's work?

Since it was meant to be a single from the beginning, Imai told me what the title of the song would be as usual. From there, I could use the range of my imagination but for the band and for myself I would say there was this feeling of wanting to 'break free'. What I mean by that is.....well to shrug off what came before perhaps *smiles*. In that way, I think this single relates to [memento mori].

How did you approach singing 'Dokudanjou Beauty'?

......I approached it first as a vocalist. Of course because I feel it's an Imai song, I'm not really sure where to put the most power unless he tells me in which parts to do so. They're not my words so there are parts I just can't get into.

Just by listening to the words of the song you can tell that you guys have come a long way but I guess that's part of being around as a band for such a long time.

Yes. That's why as a naturally flat vocalist I make a point to have presence when I sing. Since it's better if I participate as the vocalist without straining myself.

That's also part of being in a band.

That's the fun part of doing it with five people. Of course I think everyone has their own opinion of how they'd like to do things and once we began taking that into consideration, it felt like we had always been doing it that way.

Those are the words of a mature musician but it must be hard creating new music in this kind of band. Given that everyone has a different motivation, and even different desires. So how do you deal with that Sakurai-san?

Well I......am going to digress a little here but, no matter how self-conscious I am about sounding flat, of course I don't let it show and by doing that, I end up conflicted with myself *smiles*. So then there are times when I quickly get confused. But in the past, perhaps because I was young, I wasn't bothered by my self-consciousness. But now it's like the older I get, the more self-conscious I am......it's exhausting.

You're tired of being self-conscious.

Because there's never a time when I can think, 'Oh that was good, I did that well'. In those times, only music saves me. Because of that, it's like Imai's song shows me where to go because it redirects my feelings. In other words, it directs me where I want to go and then when my feelings change completely, I think that is what saves me.

So in other words, while you're self-conscious of sounding flat, there's that other part inside of you that actually feels the opposite and lets you be magnificent.

Yes *smiles*. Even if I think I'll do this or that, in the end it's like everything slips away from me and then I feel worthless.

But I mean, perhaps that's what keeps you motivated?

Perhaps you're right. In the end that is part of what drives me in the band....... That's what I try to remind myself of, when I'm being negative.

So this time, the single is paired with one of Hide-san's songs but you wrote the lyrics Sakurai-san. I think these lyrics certainly show your negative way of thinking and your self-consciousness.

*laughs dryly*

I wonder how did the full story of these lyrics take shape?

Since this time I knew the purpose of the song was to be on a single, I thought about that from the beginning as I was writing but at first I thought I would write one thing......but in the end what came out was something that didn't end up in the garbage that I had kept, something I wrote without consciously thinking of a single. Usually I purposefully change how I approach writing when it's a single......so at first I thought it would be one way but then wondered if I would be true to myself if I did it that way. That's nothing new for me but, so I use words that I'm the most convinced of. After when I listened to the song, I found it had a primitive image. The riff is monotonous......and when I say monotonous what I mean by that is, the riff seems to hold one's emotions in check, in that way it functions almost like some religious ceremony wherein you must contain yourself but then without thinking, your feelings end up coming through. At least that's how I can imagine it. In other words, I ended letting out my feelings in the song *smiles*.

Certainly you are unrivalled in this respect. As always I think that's something you cannot escape.

I always......well I've said this before but, of course I can't help the things I like. I've become good at doing the things I like so, if I think about doing it, that's what'll come out right away. Whatever is in my head in the end, is what comes out. Of course if I had thought to make it sound more pop by having the high point of the song in English and with lots of breaks in the rhythm, I would have done that but, this time I thought I would do something different. So I think people who listen to the song will think, "Wow this is a Buck-Tick song, it's very Sakurai Atsushi-like".

You're right.

I think as a band we should keep that image under control to some degree but, for me personally, I can't really help who I am and what I create.

Along those lines, did these lyrics come from Sakurai Atsushi of Buck-Tick or Sakurai Atsushi the individual?

There's no personal connection, no. There was in the past, for me and the band. If it weren't for the band, I couldn't do anything, it's like how could I live without their songs? Moreover, I do realize that being in the band is an escape for me *smiles*, it's not like I hate the darker side of reality. And you know......it lets me pay the bills every month, which is good *smiles*.

*smiles* Well, I hardly think you need worry about the bills Sakurai-san so surely, it cannot be the case that you're trying to escape your daily life?

True......

Perhaps that is why you place your hopes in things like dreams. And yet your escape from reality is to completely submerge yourself in darkness. I would think it must be hard to balance reality and your imagination in that case.

I see what you mean........ Well, in my teens and twenties I felt quite lost, I would say I was reckless even, I didn't see the point in living, didn't understand the meaning of anything so I think I lived rather wildly. Whether it was because of my age or due to my change of environment, I don't know but that's how it was...... and then suddenly out nowhere it was like I understood.

Yes, yes *smiles*.

It really was out of nowhere *smiles*. But that's what happened. But until that point........of course I had a very diluted sense of reality.

I think that's why in part in the past you were so caught up in singing about angels and demons right. Because you had a diluted sense of your actual existence.

Right.

But now Sakurai-san, you sing of hope like in last year's song 'GALAXY' as though you suddenly noticed there is hope in the world, there is merit and meaning in living. But then with this single you buried yourself back in darkness. Why do you think that is?

That's because.......that dark world hasn't disappeared for me at all. Of course, reality hasn't gone away either. Perhaps it's because unfortunately......that sort of dark world clings to me.

But by understanding the reality before you now, do you think you've become conscious of your personal darkness?

Yes. Originally what I liked was the fashion and the style of that kind of world. The only reason I got into Bauhaus was because I thought they were cool. But now......how can I say it, the real world, scares me.

Scares you?

By nature I'm the type of person to play in the realm of daydream and imagination but by doing so I'm also more afraid than most people. Especially recently there's so much about the real world that frightens me to the point where I feel like I'm thinking too much.

Could you be more specific?

......well now I'm afraid of losing what I have. I end up so seized with fear that it's like I can't leave my futon.

Ah, I get it. Like for me, when my child was born I felt that same fear. This world is too violent for an innocent child. But this is the kind of world my child has to live in isn't it.

.......you're a good father you know *smiles*.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha! So I understand why you don't want to leave your futon. So why do you still submerge yourself in the darkness of the world?

Since I'm afraid for reality, it's too much for me to handle in the end. I really can't take what's right in front me. It's like with [memento mori]. If I think of the world in that way then I can get out of bed.......

But in 'Voo Doo' there's a feeling of relief if you put yourself in the song.

Right. When night falls, I get up from my futon and wander. When it's night, it's my time, my world opens. So I'm at ease within that darkness of night. My fears can be swallowed by the dark and in that I find strength.

I see. So the stronger your fear of being unable to escape reality, the more you withdraw into your darkness *smiles*.

Yes. As I said recently, there's a real world even for me that I am overwhelmed by. Therefore I feel ruled by my anxiety. If it seems like my fear will crush me, then I submerge myself completely in the world of darkness and perhaps this happens more so than before.

#buck tick #interview #atsushi sakurai

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spacedikut · 4 years

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“i want to love someone and be loved” ; spencer reid - part 2

pairing: spencer reid (criminal minds) x f!reader

summary: spencer decides it’s time to tell you, but he needs some help. 3887 words. part 1

a/n: THIS is the longest fic ive ever written but im actually kinda proud of how it turned out? i hope this is a good sequel :)

Spencer chickens out of telling you the next day.

He avoids you all weekend, actually. You resisted texting him the day after Rossi’s because you assumed he’d be busy – with his big plan involving a girl that isn’t you. You’re not bitter – but Sunday comes around and you message him not long after you wake up and six hours later there’s no response.

Twelve hours later - there’s no response.

Monday, you don’t have time to say hello to anyone – there’s a case waiting for you, somewhere in Florida.

Reid avoids your eyes. His body language tells you something is wrong, so you assume whoever he confessed to didn’t reciprocate (they’re insane) and he’s dealing with it. So you don’t press.

Spencer pretends to sleep the entire jet ride. He’s avoiding everyone, not just you.

He spent the whole weekend beating himself up. He drove to your apartment on Saturday, sat outside for so long a neighbour knocked on his window and asked if he was lost, but couldn’t bring himself to step foot out of his car.

So he locked himself in his room, away from you and your loveliness and away from his phone because he knew you texted him and he knew you’d send some soft message about being there for him if he needs anything and he didn’t need to be reminded of how beautiful and out of reach you are.

Derek seemed to be waiting for him Monday morning, arms crossed as he held a cup of coffee. It was weird seeing him in before Spencer.

“How’d it go?” He immediately asked.

“How’d what go?” Spencer mumbles, flinging his bag on the floor by his desk. He slumps in his seat.

Derek raises a dark eyebrow, “You know what, pretty boy. You had a big thing? Big plan?”

“Didn’t work out.”

It doesn’t take a profiler to realise Spencer is very clearly saying leave me alone. Leave it alone.

Derek isn’t one to leave it alone. Especially when it comes to Spencer.

He sighs and moves a little closer to Spencer’s desk, just in case someone overhears them.

“What happened?”

“That’s exactly it,” Spencer slams open a file, “Nothing happened.”

“And why did nothing happen?”

“Because I’m an idiot that can’t even tell a girl how I feel.”

“Whoa- hey!”

Derek spins Spencer’s chair so they’re face to face. Derek takes one look in Spencer’s eyes and knows what’s going on – he got too into his head and backed out at the last minute.

“You’re not an idiot. Why didn’t you do it?”

Spencer shrugs, “I got to her apartment. I had flowers, too. I don’t know.”

Derek’s evidently concerned – Spencer’s beaten up over this, over whoever this girl is, and he deserves the chance to experience love. Spencer deserves a lot more than he himself thinks he does.

“You seemed really excited, man. You can still do it. Just cause you try once and it doesn’t work out doesn’t mean you can’t ever try again.”

Spencer stares off into the distance, accidentally ignoring Derek as his thoughts slip out of his mouth, “Yeah, it probably wouldn’t have worked anyway – I was stupid to think I could get someone like her.”

“Hey, no.” Derek nudges Spencer’s shoulder so he looks at him again, “Don’t talk like that. You’re one hell of a guy, Reid. All you gotta do is get that confidence that you had Friday night back, and you’re all set. Don’t be so hard on yourself.”

Spencer gives a feeble nod. Derek moves back to his desk, knowing he isn’t convinced, but he isn’t done yet.

+++

Later, in Florida, Spencer’s making a coffee in the precinct’s kitchen after waiting twenty minutes for you to leave. Luck’s on his side, for once, and you’ve been working non-stop with Prentiss going crime scene to crime scene so he hasn’t had to actively avoid you. You smile at him every chance you get, though, and it distracts him.

Someone clears their throat behind him. It’s Penelope, whom Spencer didn’t realise was invited on this case.

She looks guilty. Spencer recognises that face; the face she has when she’s done something she shouldn’t have or knows something she isn’t really supposed to. Given current circumstances, Spencer bets it’s the latter reason.

“Morgan told me something he shouldn’t have.”

Bingo.

He leans against the kitchen counter, stirring his coffee absentmindedly.

“What did he tell you?” He asks, feigning tranquillity. Inside he’s screaming non-stop.

She’s got her hands clasped together in front of her, almost innocently, and fiddles with her fingers, “He told me you needed assistance in the love department.” Before he can object, she continues, “And I am willing to do anything if it means our resident weirdo-slash-genius falls in love and gets to experience some much needed cuteness.”

There’s no point in lying to her. There’s also no point in being mad that Morgan told her about his situation – they’re kind of a package deal. And, who knows, Garcia might be able to help.

“So…” She sways, trying (and failing) to appear nonchalant, “Who’s the lucky lady?”

Spencer shuffles on the spot, scuffing his shoes against the floor. He debates whether he should tell her, since, you know, you’re in the next room over, but Spencer worries that Garcia is so good at her job she’d somehow find out through hacking Spencer’s phone, or maybe somehow hacking his dreams. His subconscious. He’s terrified of Garcia and her abilities.

“You can tell me.” She insists, “I’m much better at keeping secrets than Morgan.”

Spencer turns away from her, she steps closer, and he mumbles your name.

“What?”

“Y/N.”

“WHAT?!”

Spencer spins, hands coming up to tell Garcia to shut up and Garcia immediately covers her mouth in both shock and hopefully so she doesn’t shout again.

“Since when?!” She screeches. “How could I not have known?! Oh God, almighty Doctor Reid, I feel like I’ve failed you by not realising earlier.”

Her enthusiasm makes him smile, for the first time in far too long. Garcia has that power – this innate skill to comfort those around her and make them feel special, make them smile when the world feels like its collapsing.

“Let me help!” She requests.

Spencer’s clearly hesitant. He knows it’s a bad idea.

“Please!” She begs, “I just- I have so many ideas of how you can go about this. Let me brainstorm, get back to you, and if I’m too over-the-top you can tell me no and we’ll pretend it never happened!”

He takes a deep breath. Yes, Garcia is the definition of over-the-top, but that’s one of his favourite things about her. It’s your favourite thing, too. And he did tell Morgan he had big plans. Anything involving Garcia is a big plan with big payoff.

“This is between us.”

“I’ll take it to the grave. Unless you realise how amazing my ideas are and use one to tell Y/N how you feel and then years later I get to commend myself during my maid of honour speech at your wedding.”

She looks ecstatic, hands now together under her jaw as her eyes twinkle. Spencer can’t help but laugh at her eagerness.

+++

The next day, the team returns to Quantico after a semi-successful case. The general mood is good and Morgan invites everyone out for drinks – Spencer declines, but you have your first full conversation since last Friday.

“C’mon, Spence,” Your head rests against the jet seat and you blink sleepily at him, “I feel like I haven’t spoken to you for years!”

Spencer gives you a small smile, “I promised my mom I’d call her tonight. Sorry, Y/N.”

You nod in understanding, “Will you tell her I say hi?”

“Of course. She loves you.”

You grin at eachother, immediately lost in your own world. You’ve missed him more than you realised, and you have no idea what’s going through his head, but you’re happy that you’ve had this – a Spencer Reid smile that makes you feel at home and on top of the world simultaneously.

Spencer has to tear his eyes away before he blurts something stupid, like she’s not the only one that loves you.

+++

“Spencer!” Garcia greets, Cheshire cat grin on her face. “I need to see you in my dungeon, please. Immediately.”

Spencer drops the file he’s holding. Unfortunately, Penelope’s request caught the attention of the whole team.

“What business do you have in the villain’s lair, Reid?” Derek asks. You’ve looked up from your computer, Emily smirking and leaning back in her chair in expectation.

“Uh…”

“Important nerd business. Go away.” Garcia says, eyes narrow as she tugs Spencer’s hand. He’s whisked away from any further questioning, leaving the befuddled team behind.

He isn’t sure what to expect when he stumbles into Penelope’s second home, but the display in front of him explains why he overheard a conversation about missing evidence boards earlier. Penelope’s obviously been using the new printer in her cave to her advantage – there’s at least twenty different pictures printed out on one board titled “date ideas”, then the board on the right has a picture of Spencer and you in the centre with a perfectly drawn heart around it. Under and around that is a mixture of love quotes, including song lyrics and quotes directly from romantic movies. He notices “The Parliament of Fowls” on there – Garcia remembers that he mentioned it’s considered the first Valentines poem?

“Whoa,” Is all he can say.

“I know it’s a little intense,” Garcia squirms, “But! I started scrolling through Pinterest and couldn’t stop. I don’t know what came over me, maybe some type of love deity, but I started thinking about you and Y/N in a classic love film in, like, black and white and I…”

She’s out of breath from animatedly explaining.

Spencer laughs through his nose, almost a scoff, but he’s impressed. He shouldn’t have expected anything else from the Penelope Garcia.

As Spencer wanders towards the first board, Garcia follows him like a shadow, “My personal favourite is-“ She points to a picture of chocolate fondue with faceless people in very little clothing, “-this one.”

Spencer awkwardly clears his throat when he begins to think of you and him like that.

“A little much for your declaration of love, though, I get it,” Garcia nods.

He scans the board – heart speeding up when he moves from idea to idea and picturing you and him in each one. He can’t help but think no, that one would be good for our anniversary – ah, she’d love to do that one for her birthday.

“What’re you thinking?” Garcia asks quietly. She knows his brain is whirring like her computer drive, so she approaches him gently.

“This one.” He says. “Where should we do it?”

Garcia grins behind him. The one he’s referring to shows a dinner table set up outside, brown wooded table with white wooden chairs opposite eachother. There’s flowers at the centre, a bottle of wine already poured in each glass in front of a basket of cookies, and the area around is shrouded by shrubbery, fairy lights hanging delicately from every-which-way.

It’s perfect. You love fairy lights, Spencer loves cookies, and the set-up looks private enough for Spencer to feel confident when he empties his heart and soul to you.

“The roof.” Garcia says wistfully.

“We have access to that?”

“Yes.” They both know they don’t. “Leave it to me. Oh… one more thing.” She adds, hesitantly, “Can Morgan help? I’m a lot of things, including emotionally strong and your love guru, but physically I’m gonna need some assistance.”

Spencer doesn’t even need to agree – Morgan’s gonna involve himself no matter what.

+++

Five o’clock is quickly approaching and you’re slumped over your desk, lost in your work. You need to be lost in it, because ever since Garcia released Spencer from her office right after lunch he’s been sneaking glances at you (he’s not sneaky) and has made several attempts to approach you but decided against it, sharply turning and pretending he meant to go another way instead.

You are beyond confused. You assume it’s to do with the girl he’s been trying to get over – you hope he’s been trying to build the confidence to tell you exactly what happened and maybe, you really hope, he’ll invite you over for the weekend so you can slip back into your old routine.

“Psst.”

You assume they’re not trying to get your attention, so you don’t move.

“Psst!”

You still don’t move.

“Y/N!”

Your head snaps up to Spencer leaning over the divider between your desks. He looks alarmed – which is odd, given he’s the one who called you – and he opens and closes his mouth a few times before he finally speaks.

“Are you busy tonight?” He sits back and, if he wasn’t so goddamn tall, all you’d be able to see would be his eyes. His added height means you can see his eyes and his nose. You wanna kiss it.

You smile – this is an olive branch, “I am completely available for whatever it is you might need.”

You sound incredibly eager, which you are. You miss him.

His cheeks move upwards, a smile, “Can I talk to you, later, on the roof? Uh-“ He clears his throat, “-I need to tell you something.”

You raise an eyebrow, “You’re not gonna push me off, right?”

“No,” He laughs.

“Promise me.”

Now he guffaws, “I would never, Y/N!”

“Promise me, Reid!”

“Alright, alright! I promise!” He’s jokingly raising his hands in a form of surrender.

You give him another smile and turn back to your work. You feel at ease, now, thinking he’s finally gonna tell you what happened on the weekend – finally you’ll be able to help him and go back to normal.

Spencer, on the other hand, is the exact opposite of ease. He’s about to pour his heart out to you.

He takes a deep breath and looks back to his computer, which is open on a tab titled “How to Tell Someone You Like Them.”

Step 3: Be Confident.

Spencer opens a new tab and searches, “How to be confident.”

+++

Garcia hacks into Spencer’s computer to open a document and type that the roof is ready. She wishes him luck, tells him she loves him, and calls dibs on being the godmother of your future children. As if she doesn’t have enough godchildren as it is.

He clears his throat and your head snaps towards him. You’ve been done for a while, playing Tetris on your phone, waiting for Spencer to take you to the roof where he swears he won’t kill you – you’re not entirely convinced.

“Um-“ He scratches his neck, “You ready to go?”

You nod and give him a weak smile in hopes it gives him some type of reassurance.

“Whatever happened, it’s okay, Spence.”

All he does is nod in return, gathering his coat and bag. He doesn’t really register what you say, or he would’ve been very confused.

You follow him up to the roof. The elevator ride is silent and Spencer is jittery; his hands twitch and tap against his legs, he’s bouncing on his toes and he keeps looking at you through the corner of his eye. You’ve taken several deep breaths to calm your racing heart – you hate heights, and this is the closest you’ve been to Spencer in a week. This will be the longest conversation you’ve had with him in a week, too.

The second the doors open, Spencer leaps in front of you.

“Wait!”

You jump back in surprise, “What? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Completely fine. Just… when we get there, let me explain first, okay? Before you say anything.” He’s pleading, as if you’ve already told him no. You look at him with furrowed brows and mumble an ‘okay’.

You’re visibly confused as you trek up the flight of stairs to the roof. Spencer pushes open the fire door and the first thing you notice is how bright the roof is – you always assumed it’d be dark, little light, especially at night like this.

Wait.

There’s fairy lights… everywhere. You’re pretty sure this isn’t the norm for the FBI roof.

Spencer is equally as awed at what he sees before him - it’s exactly the photo he saw in Garcia’s cave brought to life, but he’s too distracted by you to fully appreciate it. You look like a child on Christmas; eyes wide, pupils blown, mouth slightly agape. You’re gorgeous.

“What…is this, Spence?” You wonder, noticing the set table, fingers grazing the roses that sit in a vase in the middle. They’re fresh and smell wonderful.

He stands a little behind you, fiddling with his hands, and clears his throat, “Would you like to take a seat?”

You do. When he finally sits, he pours you a glass of wine and you immediately take an anxious sip. Although Rossi is a big fan of wine, you rarely take interest in it only when Spencer’s involved. You’ve come to associate wine with him – a smile peeks out from your glass as you stare at the man opposite you.

“I need to get something off my chest. But there’s cookies, if you want one,” He picks one up from his plate, breaking it in half and giving it to you. He’s stalling, but you seem to take the bait and bite into it.

“Are these from the bakery two blocks away?”

“Yeah,” He replies, but he isn’t really paying attention. He doesn’t know where to begin.

You wait patiently for him to open up. You’re still unsure of what to make of all of this – the beautiful setting, the wine, the flowers, the lights. God, the lights are dazzling in the Virginia night sky. You need context, and you need it now.

“Spence-“

“Listen.”

“Oh.”

“Sorry, I just…” He trails off, “I need to say what I need to say before I back out again.”

You fold your hands in your lap. You’re ready for whatever’s to come.

“Do you know how long we’ve known eachother?” He asks. His head tilts like a puppy.

“Nearly five years. Our friendaversary is coming up, you know.”

You realise, then, that this must be a celebration for that – that explains the… typically romantic setting. Before you can open your mouth to ask if that what’s this is, Spencer speaks.

“Four years, three-hundred and sixty days. That’s how long we’ve known eachother.”

“If we were dating, we would’ve been my longest relationship the second we passed a year.”

You don’t know why you said it, but it flusters him. He has to pause to take a breath and collect his thoughts.

“I’ve been in love with you for four years and three hundred and fifty-eight days, Y/N.”

It’s silent as you process and he figures out how to continue.

“I knew you were special when you were introduced to us. Hotch already had such a soft spot for you, and you had this way about you that made us all fall in love instantly. I remember Garcia did a background check the second she found out your name and she said you remind her of me and I… that freaked me out, to be honest. I thought you’d try to replace me.” He huffs a laugh, but can’t bring himself to look you in the eye, “I realised I was in love with you when you drunkenly defended me. Do you remember that?” His eyes flicker to yours for half a second – you’re wide-eyed, “You’d known me for two days at that point, but we’d already done a case together so we were celebrating. And these guys at the bar were whispering about me, acting like I couldn’t hear them, and the second you realised what was happening you stood up, stormed towards them and gave them a piece of your mind. It was incredible.

“You barely knew me, at least personally, but you thought so highly of me you scolded a group of drunk bodybuilders without a second thought. You made them apologise – it was hysterical watching someone half their size force them into submission like that – and when you were done you asked if I wanted to leave and go get ice cream. We couldn’t, cause you vomited on the way there, but I knew in that moment I loved you and I feel so hard, so quickly, I didn’t know what to do. And you never… you never indicated you thought of me as anything other than a friend so I didn’t try. Then you dated Greg who, in my opinion, sucked on his best days, and you encouraged me to date Abigail and I…”

He’s run out of breath and of things to say.

“I just love you, Y/N. I’m in love with you.” He adds, “I hope that’s okay.”

He finally looks at you, then. You’re just staring and he panics when he can’t make out what you’re feeling. He’s always been able to read you, you’ve always hated the saying that eyes are the windows to the soul because your eyes are always your tell, but now they’re… glassy.

You’re crying.

“Spencer…” You gasp, throat tight.

“It’s okay.” Spencer gives a tight-lipped smile. He knows what’s coming. He should’ve expected it. He has been expecting it.

“I love you too, Spence.”

Spencer chokes on air. He takes a gulp of wine.

You give him a teary smile in disbelief, “I’ve always loved you, Spence. I thought you knew that – I thought that big brain of yours knew exactly how I felt and… you didn’t do anything about it so I thought you didn’t feel the same. Spencer…”

He slowly moves a hand to place it palm-up on the table. Immediately you place your hand in his, your grip tight as you lovingly stare at him. This feels unreal.

“I’m in love with you too, you idiot.” You half laugh, half cry, “If you’ve really loved me this long, we’ve wasted so much time! God, we’re both idiots.”

Spencer’s crying too, now, and he starts laughing with you.

You’re two idiots in love, sitting opposite eachother on the roof of your place of work in a dream-like surrounding filled with fairy lights and flowers, and you could’ve been doing this for years.

Spencer sniffles, looking at you through his wet eyelashes, “Would you like to be my girlfriend?”

“If I say yes, will I get more dates like this?” You tease.

“Well, Garcia has a whole evidence board of date ideas she stole from Pinterest. We have enough ideas to last a lifetime.” He giggles.

“Penny was in on this?!”

Spencer gives a heh, “This is all thanks to her, so yeah.”

“She’s always had our backs.”

“She’s also now going to be convinced she’s cupid.”

You laugh again, and can’t help yourself when you lean across the table, still gripping Spencer’s hand, and letting your lips fall on his. Spencer leans into you, lips moving against yours as you both try to suppress grins.

You pull back slightly, Spencer’s lips following you, and whisper, “I would love to be your girlfriend.”

He kisses you again. And again. And again, just cause he can.

Big plan, big payoff. You’re worth every little stress and more.

#spencer reid x reader #spencer reid fanfic #criminal minds x reader #criminal minds fanfic #mine #garcia is watching everything through the security cameras btw #you think she'd do all this and NOT watch her hard work flourish?#think AGAIN

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romanceboys · 3 years

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(interview) gq korea february issue 2021 — shinee minho “i’m still as passionate as ever”

1. i heard that your schedule ran until dawn today. you still look energetic. no matter how exhausted i am, my condition improves once i wake up and take a shower. because it’s like the usual morning routine. 2. you take pride in the fact that your stamina is second to none, right? it reminded me of something you said long ago. i wouldn’t go as far as to say that it’s my pride, but i do know my stamina is stronger than most. my energetic appearance is my positive characteristic as well. 3. moreover, it hasn’t been long since you were discharged from the marines. well, it seems like my stamina has gotten better. hahaha. 4. there must be a lot that you want to do. what do you enjoy doing the most these days? since it’s not the kind of situation where i can roam about freely, i’ve been spending a lot of time with my family. i was with them on christmas and new year’s. i’d barely done this since debut so i think it was a good thing. even in the military, i missed my people the most. 5. that must be why on the day of your discharge you made a surprise appearance at taemin’s music broadcast waiting room. in your military uniform. i rushed straight from pohang. the shinee members were gathered to support taemin, and the staff that had been with us for over ten years was present too. when i looked back on shinee’s activities in the military, the very fun and enjoyable memories felt vague, but on that day they became clear to me right away. this is why we’ve continued together for so long. 6. what do you talk about with your members? since we’re currently preparing for our album, we’ve been talking about us as a team a lot. things like shinee’s (future) direction and what we ought to show. 7. did you figure something out? up till now shinee has often attempted unique and novel challenges, musically and stylistically. there were times when things were derived from what we did first, or even times when we had to question ourselves “is this okay?” before taking a bold step. but because we're an idol group, we folded under inevitable stereotypes and could not ignore them. however, we now collectively agree on preserving our artistic aspect well in order to show off a more distinct musical colour. 8. agreed. can you tell us which song represents shinee’s identity? the title track of the 4th album ‘view’ was shinee’s turning point. prior to this, the group was mostly known for its strength in performance, but through this song we were able to show the type of musical colour we pursued. we tried deep house at a time when the genre was unknown to k-pop and though it was not done without reservations, we got the response we expected. it’s basically what the entire (odd) album stands for. 9. besides music or performance, is there any other scene that can portray shinee well? having overcome many obstacles, we can’t define ourselves simply by saying ‘yes, this is us.’ rather, if there were to be a documentary made on shinee, i wonder how it’d be like to have the opening scene unveil the members’ perfectly human state instead of their moments of glory. for instance, saying whatever i want to without hesitation. without worrying, without walking on eggshells. 10. are you a quiet person? though i do joke around easily, i try to be careful with my words. i’m more of a listener than a talker. 11. you lived entirely as choi minho in the military. did you live true to yourself or were you able to discover a new side? it’s both. i had a lot of time for introspection. i reflected on the time spent and thought about what was good or disappointing, it unveiled a side of me that i hadn’t even considered while working as shinee minho. rather than saying it changed me, i was able to understand myself more definitively as a person. what i could be honest about and careful with with people became clear to me, i also realised that my strengths can become my weaknesses. 12. what made you think that? i thought i had an outgoing personality, but in retrospect i was more concerned about the people around me than myself. the other party can only be at ease if i’m comfortable... i was so busy being considerate that i ended up becoming stressed without realising. 13. an upright and serious image comes to mind when we say minho, turns out there was a complicated reason for it. it’s because i wasn’t even aware of it. i believe it’s something i need to work on to become a better person. this is also why i’m looking forward to my thirties. i’m curious about the areas i’ll mature in. 14. among the expressions that describe minho are passion and giving it your all. when do you think was your most passionate era? when i debuted as shinee, practicing blindly and then promoting made me feel like i was lacking a lot which affected my confidence. after our first concert, however, i became less anxious and worried. i realised that there were many fans who supported me. all i could think of was that i had to give it my best. my passion from back then is still the same as ever. it’s my understanding that i’ve come all the way to the present without cooling down. 15. what meaning does passion hold for you? does it mean that you’re very ambitious/greedy? i used to think passion and ambition meant the same thing. i was very certain that you could achieve anything if you were ambitious enough and worked hard. i hypnotized myself into believing that because i wanted it so badly, not because i was being reckless. as i started gaining more experience, i began to differentiate between the two. if passion means doing what you can to the best of your abilities, then greed is limiting yourself when you try something new because you wonder whether you can do it well. and that is why confidence is important. if you’re confident, then you can carry greed with a positive energy. 16. have you now gotten used to acting and promoting as shinee at the same time? at first i thought i could do it even if it was difficult. turns out that wasn’t the case. killing two birds with one stone wasn’t as easy as i thought. i don’t want to let either go. instead of saying yes it’s hard or i’m disappointed in the results, i believe this is a problem i need to solve. 17. your first activity after discharge was acting. you made a special appearance in the drama ‘lovestruck in the city,’ what was your first line? “please wear this.” i cannot forget it. 18. why not? one of my favourite words is ‘first.’ your first experiences are always unforgettable. seconds are usually a vague memory. that’s why firsts are extremely meaningful. standing before the camera for the first time after discharge felt like i was starting anew. the scene wasn’t even that hard, but i was very nervous. just like the first time i acted, i vividly remember the day’s situation, people, the atmosphere, and the weather. 19. do you remember your first scene as well? it’s been more than a decade. it was a one-episode short drama; the scene was filmed inside a tow truck. i don’t remember my line very well, but the actors, the hustle and bustle of the staff outside the window, the glaring sunlight, the tow truck i sat in for the first time are all still very vivid. i try not to forget it. 20. do you remember the first praise you received for your acting? hm, many people around me say nice things, but i’ve never considered those as compliments. it’s because i don’t think i’ve done anything praiseworthy yet. so let’s just say my first praise doesn’t exist for now. 21. that is a very objective yet cool answer. then what do you think is something you need courage to do? everyday things.... like cooking. i can’t bring myself to even think about it, but i should attempt it before it’s too late. 22. by the way, you started sns. you did say in an interview that you did not see the need for socials, so what changed your mind? i received so many letters from fans in the military. i read every single one of them, and in most of them fans asked me to share my daily life through sns. though i did joke around saying that i’d rather hold a personal photo exhibition than create socials, i got one as a present for fans who spent two years waiting for me. but i’m not sure if i can manage it well. 23. do you tend to record your personal life through pictures like others? haha. not at all. i’m working towards it these days. 24. when was your sns profile picture taken? when i was three or four years old. i racked my brain over this too. whether to upload a sefie or to go for a cool vibe.

translated by romanceboys — take out with full credit (source)

#shinee #minho #interview #210121 #translations #gq korea february issue 2021 #e:the story of light epilogue

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azems-familiar · 3 years

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hello! are there any songs you associate with any of the kotor characters? (totally not asking bc my brain is hungry for animatic ideas haha,,)

OH BOY DO I HAVE SONGS

first things first, i will direct you to my twelve hour Revan playlist that i use for writing vibes, it's a mixture of vocal and instrumental and it has both a bunch of Revan songs for different eras of Revan, plus revalek songs, plus some revastila songs, plus some songs that just vibe.... it's good and most of the songs i'm about to highlight, if not all of them, are on there already.

NOW. HERE WE GO.

first things first, i need to introduce you to the title song for my mandalorian wars fic, oblivion by the aviators! god, this song doesn't fit all Revans perfectly, but it fits mine so well it was like it'd been written for her specifically, i swear. listening to the song was what inspired me to write the fic to begin with (and now i have a whole series oops). i mean, come on, look at the chorus:

Let the broken heroes rise Let the victors take their prize No one wins when justice dies War has let this age begin It's where we've gone and where they've been What a state that we're in Here in oblivion

can't look at that and tell me that isn't Jedi Knight Revan and the war that broke them.

next up!! liar by the arcadian wild, my beloved. this song is currently my top all time on spotify, closely followed by the song i'm going to rec after it and then achilles come down - and the fact that anything unseated achilles for the top spot should tell you something. (and if you don't know what achilles come down is look it up that one's on my playlist too.) this is a really good one for Revan's slow fall down, the corruption arc - again, all of the songs i'm mentioning really fit my own versions of the characters best, but they're just good in general. some of the lyrics i enjoy from this one:

hnext up, we have it all by pim stones. this particular one feels very revalek to me, early in the Sith years when they still maybe had good intentions, maybe after the war but before becoming Darth. there's this softer, almost desperate tone to the way the singer sings it that just hits me hard - this is the song i'm using as the title for my Sith years interlude fic! a lyric snippet:

All my life I've been heading for hell But never had I thought I'd drag you down as well I just couldn't resist what he was trying to sell

There's glory ahead but our love will be forgotten If my heart was still mine I would go to the bottom And apologise to you until the day it went rotten

next up we have the balancer's eye by lord huron, which is the song i named my series after (have you noticed a trend yet?). it's a very Revan vibe in general, and while i'm not as much of a fan of the style, the lyrics are really excellent!

Nothing's waiting for us in the great sky Life is equal to dust in the balancer's eye Now I know that I can't lift an old curse Tell me, how does a man change the universe?

Will I ever be forgiven for the crime of my life? Will it haunt me 'til I die?

mmm let's see what next. OH! go to war by nothing more. this is just straight up a Sith years song for revalek, whether you ship them or not - they were important to each other either way! ..... i am not going to tangent into yelling about revalek. that is not what this is for. anyway, the song itself is a) a banger and b) talking about love corrupting and falling apart and it just. it hits, man

Do we censor? Do we flow? Are we drunk on the chemicals? Every feeling in my bones Tells me to lash out and tell you to fuck off You've got my heart and I've got your soul But are we better off alone? With every battle we lose a little more Remember everything that we'd die for You are everything that I'd die for

oooh NEXT we have the song i was going to use for my Jaw Scene before i decided to write a full sith years fic. saints by echos is the song, and again, we've got Sith years Revan and Malak here (yes yes i have a type), the vibes of losing faith and anger and it blends really well with how Revan basically played off being a legendary figure to the Republic to fuel their war against it!

You were standing there like an angry god Counting out my sins just to cross them off Saying that my tongue was too loud to trust And that my blood couldn't keep you

My dear, you're not so innocent You're fooling Heaven's gates So you won't have to change You're no saint, you're no savior

mmmm okay the discord has informed me that ten (10) songs is the maximum i should do in one post so. i will only do four more. chrysalis - the last breath by delain is yet another Sith Revan and Malak song and honestly you can read it as a response to the song above, if you think of saints from Malak's pov and chrysalis from Revan's, they mesh really well together.

Hey, are you still mad? About the time We almost went too far I know your regrets In my defense; By now, it's just a scar That distracts you from Your broken heart Like you wanted it to do How do you feel? I don't... How do you know? You won't... To let go of you I will try Until my last breath How do you feel? I don't... How do you know? You won't... To let go I promise I will fight

next! for a complete change of pace, i have a revastila song for you - warrior by beth crowley. it somehow manages to capture exactly the dynamic i think of in my head when i think about Bastila, the uncertainty, the forbiddeness of it, but the way Revan ultimately strengthens her and she strengthens Revan

You fascinated me Cloaked in shadows and secrecy The beauty of a broken angel

I ventured carefully Afraid of what you thought I'd be But pretty soon, I was entangled

You take me by the hand I question who I am

uhhhhhh i am desperately trying to think of songs that aren't just about Revan but instead here i am with another Mandalorian Wars Revan song, what did we know by rachel rose mitchell! this song was introduced to me by the same friend who sent me oblivion, and it really captures the fall of the Mandalorian wars incredibly well imo - the way it started with righteousness but ended in pain (compassion leading to destruction and that's a ramble i'm not going on here either), and there's this line in there that i'm not including in my snippet that's what scares me more than anything / if we could choose the past / we'd probably choose the same and it's like. yes! that's it! i'm going to once again go insane over the scene in the Korriban tomb in kotor 2!!! knowing the price.... would you choose to do it all again........ aaaaaaaa

It's been so long since we began. It seems so long ago That in the name of loyalty We started on our own. Answering the call of a house we once called home, We knew that we were right. What did we know?

We swore that we understood this wasn't a game, But somehow we found ourselves fanning the flames. Those who cautioned and abandoned us, they were the same. I saw them turn away.

the final song i'm doing is the song i used when i wrote the Betrayal scene from Malak's pov, the little things give you away by linkin park. this one just. it vibes, it vibes hard, goes really into the actual grief of betrayal, and also has a super epic instrumental solo so there's that. as usual, lyric snippet:

Don't want to reach for me, do you? I mean nothing to you The little things give you away But now there will be no mistaking The levees are breaking

All you've ever wanted Was someone to truly look up to you And six feet under water, I do

All you've ever wanted Was someone to truly look up to you And six feet underground now I Now I do

god okay now that you're completely overwhelmed and never want to talk to me again....... i should've probably put this under a readmore but eh. thanks for the ask!

#asked and answered #my revan playlist #there is literally so much music on here #i make up animatics in my head so #you sent this ask in and i sent it to the discord like #what's up i'm about to overwhelm this poor person who just started following me #please don't regret interacting with me #oh i should probably tag this as #long post

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pastelsandpining · 3 years

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The Greatest Gift (Freebie)

The twelfth and FINAL prompt in 12 Days of Christmas by @zelink-prompts!! Thank you so much for all the support! Happy Holidays!

Prompt List

Words: 2917

Summary: Very fluffy. Link pops the question. Proposal fic. Can’t get any better than that folks

BotW Post Calamity Zelink

Zelink-mas 2020 l Masterlist

There were many words that could describe how it felt to have Zelda back by his side. He could call it wonderful, magical, amazing--just about every word in the book. None could fit better, however, than natural. Natural was how it felt when she’d appeared before him, glowing in a gold far richer than the ores beneath the surface could ever produce. Natural was how it felt when she smiled at him, striking his heart with an arrow of warmth he’d forgotten how to know. Natural was how it felt when he hugged her, holding onto her as if his life depended on it. And natural was how it felt to love her, like he’d done it a thousand times over and would do it a thousand times more.

It felt natural to celebrate every little thing with her, whether it be her new haircut, or a holiday, or an advancement in the reconstruction of Hyrule. It felt natural to follow her back into the heart of the kingdom, where he would spend the rest of his days as her knight attendant because the thought of not being with her made him feel empty. Everything he did with her, even if it meant to just exist within her presence, felt so incredibly familiar and natural, and perhaps that was why they fell into a rhythm so quickly.

Perhaps that was why most nights, Link only fell asleep after Zelda did. He liked to see her curled up underneath the covers, tucked into his arms, with the peaceful expression of a sleeping goddess visible in the silver moonlight. Perhaps that was why he found every reason to accompany her wherever she went, so that he could see the way she lit up and smiled when things were working out. Perhaps that was why he took his job so seriously, even now, simply because he liked to be around her.

Admittedly, it’d be problematic if he didn’t like to be around the very princess he was courting. That would never be an issue though, even in times like these, when she was trying to use him as a test subject for her new, trial-and-error elixirs.

“You know I trust you with my life,” he said, holding her wrists as gently as ever. “But I’m not putting that in my body.”

“I promise you’ll be okay,” she replied with a pout that almost swayed him. But Link stood his ground and shook his head, chuckling softly at her antics.

“You’re ridiculous, Zel.”

“I know what I’m doing, Link. I wouldn’t willingly feed you something that could harm you.”

“Uh huh. And what’s the elixir supposed to do?”

“Well, if all goes according to plan--which it should, it would boost the natural defense of a person against any sort of attack or condition.”

“You’re brilliant, but I’ll still have to pass.”

Zelda huffed, then uncapped the vial and brought it to her lips. Link was quick to snatch it from her hands and cap it again, shaking his head.

“Nope,” he said, “We’re not doing that either.”

“Then how are we supposed to know whether or not it’s effective?” she argued, crossing her arms over her chest.

“I’ll find you a volunteer,” he replied, which she knew was code for I’ll be your test subject later, and it was enough to satisfy her into smiling. “Can I make our dinner now?”

“It’s all yours, sir knight,” she answered, handing the slate over and lifting her hands up in defense.

“Thank you, Princess.”

It was far from the first time he called her that, and it was a proper title anyone could use. But Zelda still smiled with a pink on her cheeks, and Link could do nothing but watch her. Watch the way crinkles formed by her eyes when she smiled, and the way her freckles became more prominent in the sun, and the way her golden hair bounced when she moved, and the way she furrowed her eyebrows whenever she was confused.

“What?” she asked.

“You’re beautiful,” he said, like it was the simplest thing in the world. She ducked her head and laughed, and he smiled in return.

“So you’ve said, many times,” Zelda replied, giving his arm a gentle shove.

“And I’ll keep saying it until the end of time. You’re divine, ethereal, gor-“

He was fairly certain the kiss was solely to stop him from talking, but he was happy to return it nevertheless.

She tasted sweet, like the berries they’d eaten for a snack earlier in the afternoon, and if sunlight had a taste, he imagined it would also taste like her.

“If you don’t get to cooking, I’ll take the Slate back,” Zelda warned with a poke to his chest.

“Alright, alright,” he replied with a laugh. He truly enjoyed cooking, but not even that could keep his mind off of the girl besides him, who was busy scribbling away in a journal. His thoughts always drifted to her. Her, and his love for her, and just how much they’d survived together.

And without thinking about it—well, it’d been on his mind, but he didn’t think before speaking:

“Would you ever want to get married?”

“Yes,” Zelda replied, too quickly and too casually for him to think she’d really heard him. He looked over to her with furrowed eyebrows, but she was staring right back with wide eyes, like she couldn’t believe it either. It took Link a minute to find his voice.

“Are you serious?” he asked in a voice just barely above a whisper.

“Are you?” she asked.

“Yes,” Link said with a nod, reaching for one of her hands. “Of course I am.”

“I— you do mean us, right? You would want to marry me?”

“Yes. Without hesitation.”

“Is this..?”

Link shook his head quickly.

“No! I mean, no, I just— I kind of want to.. plan something..? I mean, the princess of Hyrule deserves a grand proposal.”

Zelda’s cheeks were as red as a rose. He could imagine he looked very similar, with the way his heart was racing.

“You better not,” she said with a smile.

But he did. He spent the next few weeks planning a perfect proposal. It didn’t have to be a surprise, but he did want it to be special. Zelda was special, in so many different ways. She was so very special to him, and he wanted to convey that, but he was stumped.

Link didn’t want to put her on the spot in front of their friends or a crowd of any sort. He didn’t want to pressure her with grand gestures or gifts, but what else could he do?

He’d written and scratched out so many ideas.

Should he bring her to the Sanctum and make it the place of a happy memory instead of what it had become? Should he take her on vacation to Hateno and ask in the privacy and comfort of his house? Should he be clever about it and slip the ring into a book, or a journal, or on a guardian piece? Should he have a friend help him?

He tried asking said friends on their opinions, but he had pretty limited options. Riju was a child, and she’d take pleasure in sending him straight to a Voe and You class that he did not want to participate in. Yunobo didn’t seem like the type to talk to anyone, much less do something as outgoing as propose. It didn’t feel right to ask Sidon, even if he would give good advice. His best bet was Teba and Kass, or any of the families he’d come to know in Hateno.

Kass had suggested a song, but Link didn’t think he had a musical bone in his body outside of an appreciation for it. It would be a decent last resort, if anything.

So the days came and went, and he remained clueless, but the ring, carefully crafted in Gerudo Desert with diamonds and sapphires and emeralds, stayed in his pockets. Just in case.

“Could you pass the sugar?” asked Zelda from beside him. Hylia’s Day had come around again and three years after their first celebration full of friends, they were spending the day in solitude. He was trying, key word, trying to help her bake a fruit cake. The kitchen staff were hesitant to let them, but he managed to convince them.

Link used it as an excuse to hug her from behind and place the sugar in front of her.

“You’re ridiculous,” she said, but turned her head to kiss his cheek anyway.

“Careful not to use too much,” he warned, giving her a gentle squeeze. “It’ll be too sweet.”

“If I can put up with you, then I think I can handle a little ‘too sweet’.”

“I can’t tell if that’s a compliment or an insult.”

Zelda snorted and dumped the measured sugar into the bowl. Link hid his grin in her shoulder. He loved the way she laughed, and the way her nose scrunched up when she did.

“There. Now I can stir them all together, right?” she asked.

“Clever girl,” he replied with a kiss into her shoulder. She threw some flour into his hair, and he shook it off all over her shirt.

“Oh, you just wait until this is in the oven.”

“Is that a threat, my princess?”

“Absolutely.”

Though she didn’t need help pouring the cake batter, Link set his hands over hers and did it anyway. It was nothing more than an excuse to touch her, but she clearly didn’t mind.

“See? You’re a professional,” he said as he took the trays and slid them into the oven. She’d burned herself once, years ago, and he never let her touch it since.

“I can give up the crown and turn the castle into a bakery instead,” she replied, leaning against the counter with crossed arms. He shut the oven and set his hands on either side of her, trapping her where she stood.

“We could be Hyrule’s most successful sweet shop. Specialty is fruit cake, made by and for the former princess herself.”

“Maybe we’ll just run a side business.”

“Ah, Princess and army general by day, bakers by night.”

“Exactly.”

Link laughed and pressed a kiss to her forehead. Zelda brought her flour covered hands up and stuck them onto his cheeks.

“Why do you insist on starting a food fight with me?” he asked with a sigh, before sticking his hand in flour and dragging a finger down her nose, leaving her with a flour streak of her own.

“You’re cute when you’re covered in flour,” she replied before ducking out from under his arms and darting away from him. When he turned to grab her again, she tossed a handful of flour in his face. “See?”

“Princess of Hyrule, Daughter of Hylia, spends her day assaulting her escort with flour,” he said with a huff, then turned back to the counter to scoop up some flour of his own.

“Are you seriously pouting over it?” she asked. Now that she’d moved closer, he spun around and dropped the handful onto her head.

“You know me better than that,” he replied with a grin. Zelda let out a sound somewhere between a gasp and a scream, and Link took the opportunity to make a mad dash across the kitchen and out of her reach.

Maybe they should’ve cleaned up the ingredients when they were done, because Zelda grabbed an egg and chucked it in his general direction. He ducked, then darted to one side of the table. She took the other and mirrored every move he made with a grin of her own.

“Your aim is getting better,” he teased, nodding towards the splatter of egg on the wall. “But I will again offer training-“

“If you hadn’t ducked, it would’ve hit you!” she defended.

“A lovely Hylia’s Day gift that would’ve been. Egged by my princess.”

“I think it’s fitting!”

“I got you an empty kitchen and a day to try whatever you want, and you egg me!”

“Because you’re an egghead!”

“Unbelievable. She’s the Daughter of Wisdom and the best she can come up with is egghead.”

Zelda sputtered a response, then made a break for him. Instead of running in the opposite direction, like any sensible person, Link jumped clean over the table and waved with a smile.

“Ugh! Show off.”

“I could teach you,” he offered.

“I’m perfectly capable of jumping over a table on my own!”

“Prove it.”

Zelda glared at him, but it was filled with a playful love that made it hard to stop smiling. She pulled herself up onto the table with all the grace of a goddess blood princess, then scooted across it to meet him.

“Very impressive,” he teased, grabbing her by the waist to pull her close. She only rolled her eyes and stuck her fingers into his hair, effectively spreading more flour.

“High praise coming from you,” she said. Link only hummed and tilted his head to meet her in a quick kiss.

“Come on, let’s clean up a bit,” he replied as he scooped her up off of the table in a bridal hold, and she leaned her head against his shoulder.

“Yeah, we probably should.” But she’d tilted her head up and was pressing kisses along his neck.

“Are you trying to distract me?” he asked, glancing towards her with a lifted eyebrow.

“Now why would I do that?”

The warmth of her breath tickled his neck and, well, it was certainly working. He almost wanted to forget about cleaning their mess and instead give his full attention to Zelda, but his foot hit a pile of flour on the floor.

The wind was knocked out of him immediately upon impact with the floor, but no harm had come to Zelda, and that’s what mattered. He tried to laugh through the pain.

“Are you okay?!” she asked as she scrambled off of him and helped him sit up. He nodded, but she checked him over anyway. Only when he could breathe again did she relax, then burst into a fit of giggles. “You’re an idiot.”

“I’m being bullied by the love of my life,” Link said with a hint of exasperation as he dropped onto his back. Zelda leaned over him with a smile as soft as a cloud.

“Am I really?” she asked, running her fingers through his hair again.

“Of course,” he replied with a smile, lifting a hand to rest on her cheek. “You’re my sunshine.”

Zelda scoffed and shook her head, but Link took her free hand and pressed a kiss to her fingertips. Even covered in flour, she was absolutely divine. And she looked so happy that his heart could burst. He decided there was no moment he loved her more than when she was smiling at him, with a warmth in her eyes and a sweetness in her smile that was reserved only for him. He loved her most when she was happy. He couldn’t keep the smile from his face and the words from his mouth.

“I love you,” he said as he sat up, cupping her face with both hands. “So much. You are everything to me and I want to do all I can to make you happy, for the rest of our lives.”

“Link,” she replied, her voice choked full of emotion.

“I want to marry you, Zelda.”

Even though they’d had this discussion before, there were tears building in her eyes. She looked like she didn’t know what to say, so Link took the opportunity to dig into his pocket and pull out the velvet box. And right there, on the floor of the castle kitchen, covered in flour, Link opened the lid and revealed the ring. Zelda burst into tears and, goddesses, when she nodded, he let out a watery laugh. She tackled him backwards, burying her face in his shoulder, and he hugged her close.

“I love you,” Zelda said, and repeated it probably a hundred times over.

“I love you,” he answered, pressing a kiss to her head.

“Can we have fruitcake at our wedding?” she asked in a wobbly voice. Link laughed again and if he could hold her closer, he would’ve.

“We can have whatever you want.”

And a few hours later, when the future queen and Hyrule’s army general stepped out of the (now clean) kitchen covered in flour, hand in hand and glowing with a happiness that suggested they’d seen Hylia herself, no one questioned it. But their engagement was no secret, because the ring on their princess’s finger had the castle staff whispering excitedly to one another mere minutes after the couple was gone.

That very night, as Link watched Zelda fall asleep in his arms, he could swear he felt King Rhoam smiling down on them, and he thought he could hear Urbosa’s laughter echoing on the wind.

They would celebrate tomorrow, he decided. For now, he would be grateful for how their solitary Hylia’s Day had gone.

He must’ve been the luckiest man in the entire world.

“I’ll take care of her,” Link whispered into the night air, a quiet promise to all those who cared about her. She didn’t need his protection, but goddesses, she’s all he could’ve ever wanted.

To have the pleasure of falling in love with her over and over again, perhaps that was the greatest gift of all.

#zelink #botw zelink #post calamity zelink #zelink prompts #christmas prompts #zelink proposal #proposal fic #link in love is my favorite thing to write #in case you couldn't tell

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okskz · 4 years

Text

The Real Truth.

Mia + Stray Kids

mia finally tells the rest of the group about her future plans and in the end mia finds out how chan truly feels with her doing activities outside of stray kids.

hope you guys enjoy! please feel free to leave some feedback because it is always appreciated!

[9th Member of Stray Kids]

Mia took a deep breath as she paced around in her room. In a couple of seconds she was going to go out in the living room and tell the rest of her members about her plans with Elsy. She didn’t know exactly how she was going to tell them and also how the others would react. Mia wanted them to know the news as soon as possible.

In the end, all she wanted was their full support because all of this was new to her.

“Okay.” Mia breathed out, coming out of her room and entering the living room.

Changbin and Felix were in the kitchen cooking while Minho and Hyunjin were sat on the table. Mia took one glance at them and they noticed she looked nervous. The both of them knew what Mia was going to do, so they each gave her a thumbs up in approval.

It slightly made her feel at ease, knowing that right now two of them were showing support in her. Without wasting another second, Mia began talking to catch their attention. “Um, can I talk to all of you?”

“What is it?” Changbin questioned as he walked closer to the girl.

They had all gathered in the living room, giving Mia their full attention as she stood in front of them. She bit her lip just a little as she tried gathering her thoughts. “I’m just gonna go out and say it. I am going to participate in a girl project the contains Elsy and I.”

Silence filled the room as all boys stared at Mia. Hyunjin and Minho were the only ones who were smiling, already knowing the news.

Chan was the first to say something as he looked at the girl confused. “You’re doing a what?”

“A girl project. With Elsy and I.” Mia said again.

“What does that it even mean, what exactly are you doing?”

“It’s going to be us making a song together and we’re going to promote it... together.”

Jisung looked at Chan then back at Mia. “Will it just be a song you’re doing?”

Mia shook her head, causing Chan to lift an eyebrow. He glanced at Changbin and made a face expression, signaling if he knew anything about this. Changbin was quick to shrug his shoulders as he shook his head no as well.

“No, well the song will be the title track-“

“Title track?” Chan questioned. “As in there’s more to this?”

“Yes.” Mia nodded. “There’s going to be an album and music video involved.”

Almost everyone’s eyes turned wide. “So you’re basically re-debuting, except with Elsy as a duo?” Changbin questioned.

“Basically, yeah.” Mia said softly. She brought her eyes to Chan, who was facing the other way, not even looking at Mia. Although she couldn’t see it, she could already telling he wasn’t taking the news so well.

“Listen, I’m not asking for much and I’ve been debating back and forth on how to tell you guys this because I was scared on how you guys would take it, but all I’m asking for is for your support.” Mia said. “This is all new to me and I’ve never done things without you guys but yeah, that’s just all I want-“

“How long have you known about this?” Chan then spoke up again.

“Um, around the first week of promotion.”

Chan’s eyes narrowed at Mia as he furrowed his eyebrows. “And you decide to tell us this now?”

“Well yeah, because at the time I didn’t know whether I wanted to do it or not-“

“And went ahead and decided yes, without talking to us?”

Changbin began hearing the way Chan’s tone in voice was changing in every word he spoke, causing Mia to become nervous. “Hey, tone it down will you?”

Chan simply ignored him and continued to stare at Mia. “I talked to Hyunjin and Minho about it-“

“And it didn’t cross your mind to talk to us as well?”

“Yes, of course, but I was nervous on how you guys would react which is why I went to them first. And I wanted to tell you guys when everything was settled for this project.”

“So you can’t get out of it?”

“No.” Mia shook her head. “Why would I even do that? We already had a meeting for all of this.”

“You already had a meeting?” Chan asked standing up. “So all this time while we’ve been promoting, you’ve been planning on something else aside from us?”

“N-no.” Mia stuttered. “Well, kind of, but we’re barely on the beginning of planning. Which is why I wanted to tell you guys now instead of keeping it a-“

“Secret.” Chan finished Mia’s sentence, crossing his arms. “You didn’t want to keep it a secret.”

The whole room became silent as Mia looked down at her feet. This was exactly what she had feared happening.

“That’s enough.” Changbin said, standing up as well. “I don’t get how you can act like that towards your own member.”

“I just find it odd how she promised no more secrets but when ahead and hid this one.”

“I wasn’t hiding anything!” Mia snapped. “I only kept this for myself for a little while because I know how you tend to get! Which is exactly what you’re doing right now!”

Minho sighed. “Here we go again.” He whispered to Hyunjin.

“Can we talk about this, in private?” Chan asked. The last thing he wanted was to cause a scene in front of the members.

“Fine.”

Chan was the first to move, walking until he was in his room.

“If it makes you feel any better, we’re definitely going to support you.” Jeongin smiled, trying to cheer Mia up. The rest of the group agreed with him.

“Thanks guys.” Mia softly smiled. She took one glance at Changbin, who smiled back at her, before walking into Chan’s room.

“Alright Bang, what is it that you want to talk about?”

“I just don’t know how to feel about this, I mean how do you expect me to support you when you’re still keeping secrets.”

Mia glared at Chan, her eyes were beginning to get teary as she got more irritated by him. “I was not keeping secrets, Chan! And honestly the only secret I have kept from you is Changbin and I dating! You’re acting as if I’m this horrible person that’s constantly lying. Which is exactly why I didn’t even come to you in the first place because I know how you get!”

“I just.” Chan sighed. “I just don’t want you to go through with this.”

Mia closed her eyes shut as a few tears slipped. She was both angry and upset. “Why?” She choked up. “Why can’t you just be happy for me? I’m actually really excited about this project and I want your support, Chan. Why do you have to act like this?”

“I... don’t know.”

“No, you do know!” Mia began talking louder again. “You constantly attack me when it comes to this type of stuff and I want to know why!”

Chan became silent which made Mia get more irritated by the second. “Why, Chan?!”

“Because I know you don’t need us!”

Mia was taken back by his sudden outburst, causing her to move back a bit. She furrowed her eyebrows. “What is that supposed to mean? Of course I need you guys, you guys are my team.”

Chan sighed, sitting on his bed and patted for Mia to take a sit next to him. He knew Mia had every right to know how he truly feels.

“Truth is, the reason why I get like this is because I know you don’t need us. You’re a very talented person who can literally do it all. With us, or if you were in another group or solo artist, you always shine because there’s just something special about you.” He swallowed. “Remember when I asked you to be in the group?”

Mia nodded. “Yeah, you looked like a stalker when you were peaking through the window before you asked me.”

The two let out a small laugh. “Beside the point.” Chan sighed as he gathered what he wanted to say. “I know you were a bit hesitant when saying yes to me which made me do everything I could to make you comfortable when joining the team because I didn’t want you and still don’t want you to have any regrets about your decision. Because I know you basically threw being in Itzy down the drain.

“Chan.” Mia spoke softly as more tears began to spill down her face. “I don’t have any regrets, I love being with you guys. You guys are literally everything to me and I couldn’t imagine my life without any of you in it. Saying yes to you was the best decision I ever made.”

The older boy let out a deep breath after hearing Mia’s words. “God, I feel horrible. I did it again.”

“I guess I’m just really insecure about this because what if you end up liking this more than when being with us? I don’t want you to leave us, you are so important to this group that we would be incomplete without you. I remember telling the others we were missing something and thank god I found you.”

“You loser, I’m not going anywhere. You guys are stuck with me forever.” Mia laughed, she went in for a side hug. “The second you put me in this group I made a commitment and have always tried to prove myself that I was worthy enough to be here.”

Now it was Chan who was taken back from Mia’s words. “You’ll always be worthy enough, Mia.”

Mia let out a sigh. “I don’t want to argue anymore, I hate when we do this. It’s pointless.”

“Me either. I will say we have gotten better at actually talking it out.”

“We have.” Mia smiled.

There was a comfortable silence between the two as they continued to hug each other before Chan spoke up again. “How did this project even come about?”

“It was Elsy’s idea. Jyp offered her a solo project but gave him the idea of us two working together instead and he loved the idea.”

Chan swallowed hard. “It was her idea?”

“Mhm.” Mia hummed.

“Hm, how great.” Chan said, slowly growing irritated.

Mia didn’t seem to notice the way Chan had said it sarcastically. “You should talk to her.” Mia said. “She misses you.”

“Yeah, I think I will.”

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irondad-not-ironsad · 3 years

Text

WandaVision Episode 1 Reaction

Spoilers below!!

I enjoy the music over the marvel logo

But also a 43 second logo feels kinda long for a 29 minute episode- is it just for the premier or is this gonna happen before each ep?

Also I’m pretty sure I’ve heard that there is a title sequence, which will probably be similar in length. Combine that with the lengthy credits people have been complaining about, it seems that the percentage of the thirty minutes that is actually the story is lower than it should be

not that I don’t love a good title sequence! But I’ll take a well fleshed out episode over fancy logos, title sequences and credits any day

now that I’ve got that of my chest, on to the actual show

I like how they have the frame shaped like that of an old timey tv, combined with the black and white it really adds to the old timey sit come vibe

I like these bells

Ok I know I complained about to much time being wasted with logos and such, but i LOVE how cheesy this theme song is and I love them showing vision and Wanda driving tp there house in wedding attire

“A regular husband and wife” 2 seconds late *vision disappears into a cloud of sparkles*.... 1 minute 8 seconds in and I love this

Even there acting is reminiscent of an old timey sit com this is amazing

feel like I should note he title sequence ends at the 1.36 mark approximately, which may not seem like a lot but again the show is less than thirty minutes so it adds up

Wanda talks with a fifties accent: I already love this show

Also I wish I had magic I could use to clean, I’m moving back into my dorm right now and Wanda’s powers would be SO helpful

Also I LOVE the laugh track

Also Wanda’s short curly hair is so cute

I love how neither of them knows what the heart means so they play it off by being like “yeah of course I know what it means, how could I forget? Do YOU remember what it means

Also Vision is literally part computer shouldn’t he have a photographic memory?

Also how old is Wanda? I could have sworn someone said she was 19 in civil war, which would make her like 21 here? I think?? Idk tho, as a 19 year old I don’t think she has ever looked 19 in the movies, even back in Ultron she looked at least in her mid twenties

The face Vision makes when he makes himself human is so funny

Also Vision blowing Wanda a kiss and her reaching back to grab it is the perfect amount of corny that makes it still cute

Also I wonder what vision’s job is

The backing music is so funny

I can already tell Agnes is going to be some great comic relief in a show that’s already hilarious

“I assure you, I’m married. To a man. A HUMAN one!” I know I’ve said before that I was never the biggest fan of Wanda or Vision but I love Wanda in this show

Obv there is something clearly off here, but I feel like I need to mention that it’s clear this is some warped reality. If I had never seen any of the MCU before, I may believe it was just witch and her robot husband living in the fifties, but the little details really make it clear to the audience (the majority of whom I am sure are familiar with the mcu) that something is off. This scene is one of those, where Wanda cannot seem to recall how long her and Vision have been together and plays it off by saying “It feels like we always have been together”

Is Agnes giving Wanda advice for the bedroom? is this really what I’m watching? Or have I wildly misinterpreted this?

Love the old timey lingo

Vision working a desk job is so funny

Love that vision doesn’t even know what they do at his job, I know it’s part of the false reality thing but also lowkey relatable

“you’re like a walking computer” “I most certainly am not! I’m a regular carbon-based employee made entirely of organic matter”

I started this like twenty minutes ago and have only gotten 7 minutes in because I keep stopping to type my reactions. I am going to try to shut up and watch, and stop screaming about every little detail for a bit 😂

Real quick though does Vision just go by Vision at work?

Ope apparently he does.

I wonder if Vision took Wanda’s last name

Or is he Vision Stark-Banner since it was Tony and Bruce who made him??

He probably isn’t called that but I think it would be funny if he was

Love that instead of writing “dinner with boss” or “Dinner w/ Harts” or even just “Harts” he drew a freaking heart like im dying

if my lack of emojis seems weird I’m typing this on a computer which I never normally do and I’m to lazy to pull up the emoji keyboard, so basically imagine there’s a cry laughing emoji after everything funny

“No skeletons in the closet?’ “I don’t have a skeleton sir.”

Yup I was right, Agnes is giving her sexy time advice

“you should stumble when you walk in a room so he can catch you. It’s romantic!” that is the only way I will be flirting from now on

Also I got to say, I'm guessing it’s a fifties thing but those pointy bras don’t look comfortable

So she answers the phone “Vision Residence” Is Vision also their last name now? Does he go by Vision Vision??

They make the best facial expressions

This phone conversation where Wanda think they’re having a date night whereas Vision is talking about his boss coming for dinner is comedy GOLD

also I love the fact that they’re giving us stereotypical sitcom drama while keeping it clear that there are bigger problems than dinner with the boss

Fake commercial break is at 9.56 (these time stamps are for myself I want to calculate how much of the episode is actually the story)

I do love the fake commercials tho! And I suppose in a way they ARE part of the show

They missed the chance to make it the toastmate three thousand and make every ironman fan cry

The beeping toaster sounds like a ticking bomb..... also the little red light is the only color we’ve seen this episode I think

Commercial ends at 10.46

Also love that it was an SI toaster, still wish they had made it 3000 instead of 2000

How did Wanda confuse Mr. Hart with her husband? Not that I’m complaining, her coming out in a robe and covering Vis’ Boss’ eyes is HILARIOUS

“This is the traditional Sokovian greeting? Didn’t I tell you my wife is from Europe?” “How exotic!” “We don’t break bread with Bolsheviks”

Visions pants are SO high waisted

“It’s our anniversary!” “Our anniversary of WHAT?” “WELL IF YOU DON”T KNOW I”M NOT GONNA TELL YOU”

Poor Vision is trying to figure out what kind of company he works for this is sooo funny

Agnes coming in clutch with a full meal

So Wanda needs the ingredients in order to magic a meal she can’t just make one appear

Vision breaking into song was amazing

How did one chicken turn into like 30 eggs

Vision is singing old McDonald with his bosses wife this is great

“Diane!” “That must be my wife summoning me!” “She calls you Diane?” “Yes... it’s her pet name for me” “I’m coming... Fred”

So many clichés in this show but it’s done in such a purposeful way that it’s still funny

Also we have only seen three rooms: the kitchen, the living room and Vision’s workplace

“Well I think tonight’s going SWIMMINGLY”

Mrs. Hart is SO NOSY

But I love that they don’t know the answers

Wanda looks SO disturbed when Mr. Hart is demanding her and visions story, you can tell her mind is fighting itself and it’s so sad

Mr. Hart is choking, is it bad that I think he deserves it?

Mrs. Hart keeps cheerily repeating stop it, and gone is the stereotypical sitcom camera angles and and the backing music is switched for something eery

This is lowkey scary, Mr. Hart Dying while his wife keeps cheerily saying Stop It and it just feels creepier the more she repeats

Wanda looks distressed and vision is just looking to her for what to do, her old timey accent is gone and she sounds nearly robotic as she tells Vision to help

Poor Wanda, she is so clearly going through it mentally right now

Laugh track is back, and just like that the Harts are leaving, despite only having one bite of food

And somehow Mr. Hart is impressed? Was Wanda rewriting reality to make them so?

I know that this is clearly some alternate reality and nothing is right, but wanda and vision deciding to choose that day as there anniversary and this little convo here is soooooo cute

Aw her making them rings and them both saying I do is soooo cute

And vision saying “and they lived happily ever after’ is so sweet but also so sad in context

What is that little remote vision is holding meant to be?

And love the hexagon closing in on them with the cute music playing to end the episode

Are the people in these credits real? Because it lists the start as Wanda Maximoff and Vision but are the rest actual people?

So there is some sketchy dude watching the maybe fake credits so there's something going on there

The actual credits start with 7.13 left and I’ve been told there's no mid or post credits scene. I’ll let them play while I finish this up anyways

8 minutes and 49 seconds of this show is the logo, title sequence and credits. Out of 29.36 total this means only 20 minutes and 47 seconds is the show, which I suppose is standard for a sitcom but I think I felt deceived by it showing as 29 minutes

Also 50 seconds of “commercial takes the show time down to 19.57 if anyone was wondering

I swear tho I’m not all that bothered by the length, just did the math in case anyone was curious like I am.

I thought I was going to really enjoy this going it, but it still really surpassed my expectations and I can’t wait for episode 2!

This is my raw reactions, but I’m sure that as I mull it over more I’ll be posting more about the show

This is somehow a perfect combo of lighthearted comedy and mild horror

I wanna let this episode stew for a while, so I prob won’t watch episode 2 for at least a day

Also what are your guys’ thoughts on this format of reaction? Did I write to much?

Also what did y’all think of this episode? Feel free to let me know what you think of my reaction, and whether you agree or disagree. I’d love to hear your thoughts!

#anna reacts to wandavision #anna reacts #wandavision #mcu #marvel #avengers #scarlet witch #vision #wanda maximoff #disney plus #wandavision spoilers #wv spoilers #mcu spoilers #marvel spoilers

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kakashi-tsukuyomi · 3 years

Text

Venus

A/N: I made this as a gift for @sparkleswritings for a Secret Santa event in a Discord server I’m part of, @konoblog-simps . I had so much fun writing this! I took into account some things she likes/dislikes and incorporated them in this one-shot story. This was also the first time I wrote for Gaara. It was pretty challenging but definitely fun.

Pairing: Gaara x My friend; Modern-day AU Warnings: None. Just pure fluff ahead

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Dusk fell, and the glow of the lights coming from the coffee shops lining on each side illuminated the street on a Saturday evening. Sidewalks were filled with people enjoying the weekend calm, grateful for the respite it brought after a week of toil as they catched up with friends and loved ones over a cup or two of coffee. It certainly was the case for Kira and her friends earlier that afternoon. Exams had just finished the day before, and what better way to celebrate their freedom than to spend the next day hanging out in their favorite café, discussing their favorite stories over cups of hot tea. They enjoyed each other's company so much that they did not realize that their afternoon rendezvous stretched towards the evening. After saying their goodbyes to each other and a few well wishes for the coming holidays, they left the café and parted ways.

Kira walked down the sidewalk, taking in the sights around her as she listened to Sleeping at Last playing on her phone. The sky was now getting blacker than a few minutes ago, and the lights shone brighter and prettier in the dark. She had always loved evenings better than any part of the day, and this evening of solitude surrounded by the beautiful sight of nightlife, with the evening breeze caressing her face, was no exception for her. She had decided she wanted to stay and enjoy a little bit of it more, and so instead of going straight home, she continued walking and wandered around the shops nearby.

After a while, she stopped by her favorite bookstore along the way. As she entered the shop, the song "Venus" started playing on her phone, and she pressed her earphones closer to her ears to listen to it. She hummed to the song as she wandered towards the "New Selections" aisle, browsing the shelves for promising titles. When none caught her interest, she gave up and wandered towards the other parts of the shop. The bookstore had two levels, and after having visited all of the aisles on the ground floor, she rode the escalator, bringing her to the second floor. She got off the escalator and walked towards the shelves in front of her. She reached the Hobbies Section, casually browsing the books on display, and when she reached the Gardening Section, something interesting caught her eye.

It was a figure of a young man of about her age, standing a few yards before her in front of a shelf full of different books on succulents. He had short, spiky auburn hair, and he had a fair complexion. His frame was slender, his height not too tall, and he was wearing a maroon long-sleeved shirt on top of jeans and sneakers, which fit his frame perfectly. From where she was standing, she could only see half of the features of the young man. Although even with this limited view, she could tell that the guy looked cute.

The young man was holding a book in each hand, glancing from one book to the other. His forehead creased as he stared intently on one book as if to scrutinize it before switching to the other, and then back again. He let out a small exasperated sigh as if in defeat, and when he looked up from the two books, he noticed Kira's presence and turned to look at her. Kira felt her breath hitched and she panicked internally, quickly averting her gaze and turning to leave.

"Wait!" The young man called out. "I, uhh… ummm…"

Kira silently debated whether she should turn around and face him or just ignore him. She just wasn't used to situations like this. Normally shy, she wasn't the type of person to strike up a conversation with a stranger out of the blue.

"Excuse me, but, umm…" The young man hesitated as if choosing his words carefully. "I, uhh… wonder if you could give me some help, please?"

He seemed to be as embarrassed as Kira was at that time as he looked down, avoiding her gaze as he asked her. She felt a little bit sorry for the guy and was almost tempted to give in, but her shyness still held her firmly in her place. After a few seconds of awkward silence, the boy backpedaled and apologized to her. "F-forgive me, " he stuttered, "I shouldn't have bothered you."

Pity and guilt took hold of Kira as she watched the young man retreat from her, still clutching the two books in both hands. A silent resolve took place in her heart, and she thought that maybe if she could be bold today, it wouldn't hurt to try. After all, the boy did seem helpless.

"S-sure, I can help you. What is it?"

The young man's eyes suddenly perked up, and he turned to her, bringing the two books to her. "Ahh, thank you. I'm looking for a good book on taking care of succulents. I just started growing succulents, and I don't know which of these books is better." He stopped in front of her, holding out both of his hands to show her the books, and as she removed her earphones from her ears, she leaned forward for a closer look. Up close, she could properly see the boy's face. He had green eyes, and the edges of his lids were outlined with black ink. She noted he had no eyebrows, and had an unusual tattoo marked on the left side of his forehead. Though these features seemed strange compared to the usual standards of male beauty, they worked quite well on him, and Kira thought he was actually quite attractive.

Upon inspecting the titles, she immediately recognized them, and with ease and a bit of excitement, explained to the boy what each book was about. She pointed to the book on his left hand, "This one has useful information on planting succulents -- plus I like the visuals -- although, I think it lacks the explanation and tips a first-time succulent enthusiast should know." She pointed to the other one, "As for this one, I like this better because it has more information, plus I like how simple yet organized that information is laid out. It's very easy for a beginner to understand. I recommend this one."

The young man's eyes lit up once more, and he looked at her with a quiet awe. "Wow, I'm amazed how easily you picked one over the other. I assume you've already read both books and that you're into succulents, as well. You seem to be really knowledgeable on it."

Kira raised both of her hands in front of her, smiling sheepishly, "Ahh! No, not really… it's just that I had a lot of them growing up. Although, I don't really have them anymore…" The young man smiled at her, and Kira noticed how kind and gentle his face looked. She felt her heart skip a beat.

"But because of your knowledge, you certainly were able help me. I can't thank you enough, Miss… umm…" He scratched the small part of his cheek with his finger. "Forgive me, I didn't get your name."

"It's Kira!" She blurted out too eagerly, but then caught herself afterwards, a tint of pink coloring her cheeks. The young man had noticed but didn't say anything and smiled in return as he held out his hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Kira. My name's Gaara."

Kira stared at the hand outstretched towards her and slowly took it. Her hand slipped into his, and it fit comfortably. His hand was a bit rough yet warm, she noted, and he shook her hand slowly, his grasp firm yet gentle at the same time. She liked how his hand felt against hers, familiar and safe, and when the movement stopped, his hand lingered on hers for a while. She felt her heart sink when he finally let go.

"Well, umm… it was really nice meeting you, Kira. Thank you again for your help," Gaara smiled softly to her.

"Yeah, it was nice meeting you, too, Gaara!" Kira smiled back, and then muttered, "Umm, well, uhhh… I guess I gotta go…"

Gaara watched her as she turned her back from him and started to walk away. What a kind and gentle soul, he thought. He watched her as her dark hair swayed along with her every move, and he noted how pretty she looked in her pastel green blouse, complimenting her skin tone. He felt a foreign tug in his heartstrings as he saw her walk farther from him, and before he knew it, he was already calling out to her.

"Kira -- wait!" Upon hearing him call out her name, Kira didn't hesitate and immediately turned around to face him. "Y-Yes?"

Gaara immediately approached her and stopped two feet away from her. "W-well, umm…" he stuttered, "You see, I, umm, signed up for a free succulent workshop tomorrow downstairs. I, uhh... it's my first time to join and I don't know anyone there. P-perhaps... you would like to join me?"

Kira's eyes widened, not quite sure if what she was hearing was true.

"Then uhh…," he continued, "Maybe, afterwards, we can talk about it over tea. I mean, well, I could really use your help. But that is, of course, if you're fine with it!" He seemed flustered as he said this, scratching the side of his cheek again with his finger.

Kira felt her heart warm up as a grin formed itself on her lips. This boy had just asked her out, and though she really couldn't believe it at first, she knew what she was going to answer him, anyway.

Her eyes lit up, and she smiled at him sweetly, her heart full of excitement and joy.

"Of course," she beamed. "I would love to."

The night sky once ruled my imagination Now I turn the dials with careful calculation After a while, I thought I'd never find you I convinced myself that I would never find you When suddenly I saw you

-“Venus”, Sleeping At Last

#gaara x reader #secret santa #konoha simps #konoblog-simps #kira #sparkleswritings #gaara #gaara fanfiction #gaara one-shot

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supimjustwriting · 4 years

Text

Not Another Copy

Jeanne d’Arc (Alter) x Reader

Trigger Warning: Light Gore, Death, light cursing

Summary: Created from the image of Jeanne d’Arc. Alter finds herself always compared to her ruler self. How the Dragon Witch should be kinder, softer, more like her original self. Even her own master paid more attention to the original. Having no history to call her own. Jalter puts it upon herself to create a singularity of her own. One where she is the ‘Jeanne d’Arc’. Not some copy with an unstable spirit origin. Finally she’ll have her own story.

Author’s Note: This was the piece that Tumblr mobile decided to eat. I know that flowers are edible but please don’t eat my works. I’d like to share their full bloom and not just the title.

Inspired by the song Victim ~ Mili Listen to the song here

“Then it dawned on me that all I wanted was An approval that you're never willing to give” Mili ~ Victim

“Little sister! Would you like to join Santa Lily and I to lunch? I believe it’d be a good bonding moment for the four of us since Master is coming along too,” cheered a woman who mirrored her looks in every way. No. That wasn’t right. It was her who was the copy. Not this bright sun before her.

“I’d rather pass. Besides I have better things to do,”

“Don’t be like that. Come on!” The blonde woman grabbed Jalter by the collar, dragging her double along with her as Lily followed behind obediently. Mouthing ‘I’m sorry,’ to her older self.

‘There’s no way I could be based off that woman,” thought the silver haired maiden as she boredly watched her ‘older sister’ feed Santa Lily while she absentmindedly poked her food around.

“You really are the sisterly type, huh Joan? It’s really cute seeing the three of you hang around together. It’s like watching a real family sometimes,” Y/N said with a cheerful grin. “What do you think Jalter?”

“It’s whatever as long as it keeps her happy. I guess I can tolerate it,” There goes that nickname again. Why couldn’t she be referred to as Joan? Then again the simple thought brought a bitter taste to her mouth. Maybe a different name would suit her. Yes, she has the title of The Dragon Witch but that was given to her by Caster Gilles. The one who created with his selfish wish.

There are many timelines are there not? Surely, she could create a place of her own. A country separate from the world where she could ‘be herself’. She wasn’t even sure what that meant anymore.

Finally, she had a place of her own. Tears pricked her eyes at the quaint village before her. She wiped her eyes, a light chuckle escaping her lips.

‘How pathetic,’ Jalter thought to herself, resting her head on her dining table. ‘I swiped one of master’s lesser grails just to create this. A countryside where everyone knows me and I know them. Just how more mundane could this wish be?’

Those were her final thoughts before heading out of her cottage, greeting those who passed her by with a genuine smile. The Avenger servant went along her day normally, buying groceries, playing with the village children before finally heading back home.

Would this have been the life they lead if they never became a saint? Shaking the thought from her head. She laid in her bed, closing her eyes as she wished this simple life to stay with her.

She awoke to the sound of screams. The scent of smoke and scorched flesh stung her nose. Throwing the front door open, her eyes were greeted by a familiar sight. Flames consumed the village she learned to love with Gilles in the middle of it all. That bastard.

“Come out. Come out wherever you are, my sweet Jeanne. Where is my beautiful Dragon Witch?”

“Lady Jeanne is not a witch! She’s my friend and older sister,” screamed a young child. Burn marks peppered her pure flesh, her tears only bringing more pain to the fresh wounds.

Gillies’ turned to look at the innocent little thing, a maniacal grin painting his lips.

“Ohh! How adorable of you to protect something you have no knowledge of. It just makes my whole body shiver with excitement!” He glanced over to his ‘beloved’. “Why don’t you show them oh great one! Show them what you can truly do!”

Flames licked Jalter’s fingertips. Her face contorting into an all too familiar scowl painting her features. The silver haired maiden stood in front of the frightened child, muttering a quick apology before reducing them into ash.

She truly was foolish to try to run away from fate. The flames that burned her will forever be a part of her. That pain, the people’s curses. All those things made Jeanne D'arc Alter.

“Jalter! Stop this at once!” Her master’s voice rang in her ears causing a sharp pain in her chest.

‘I’ve come this far, might as well continue the role of the villain,’ she thought to herself before laughter just spilled from her throat. No matter how much work she’d put into something it’ll all be reduced to ash in the end. She’ll never be able to leave behind these flames.

“I was wondering when you were going to show up. To think I was actually-” a lump caught in her throat as she watched the villagers cower behind her true self. Their blonde hair waving in the wind like a protective sunlight, a halo that she had no choice but to break. She never did stand a chance in the end, did she?

Soon enough she was surrounded by other servants. Gillies being easily defeated by a handful of riders, not even being able to summon any of his beasts from his grimoire.

Her mind went blank as she blindly burned each servant that went after her. Choked screams filled her head. Whether it came from her old comrades or herself. She didn’t know anymore. All she could do was swing her flag pole and reduce everything around her to ash once again.

Was her dream of having a simple village life impossible? Did she have no choice but to burn each bridge she came across? Was there even a chance for her to change?

With her spirit core weakening. Tears slipped from the dragon witch’s eyes.

“I just wanted something to call my own. I just wanted a life, a history of my own. Is that too much to ask for!”

Master smiled apologetically, running their fingers through Jalter’s hair before they disappeared back to the throne of heroes.

#Fate Grand Order #Fate Go #Servant x reader #Fate Grand Order Anemone #THIS IS WHY I USE DESKTOP

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plush-anon · 4 years

Text

Happy Halloween Scooby Doo! Review

Muahahhhahahhahahaha! Thanks to the Walmart tradition of stocking movies for sale weeks before the intended release date, I have myself a copy of what claims to be Scooby Doo’s FIRST Halloween adventure!

…in spite of movies like Witch’s Ghost and Goblin King, holiday specials like WNSD’s A Scooby Doo Halloween (which had a haunted Scarecrow too…), BCSD’s EL Bandito (for Dia de los Muertos - obvs not the same, but most companies act like it) and Halloween, The NSDM’s Halloween Hassle at Dracula’s Castle, and the DTV short film Scooby Doo and the Spooky Scarecrow (which, ironically enough, did NOT take the opportunity to feature Dr. Jonathan Crane).

So let us take a look now at Happy Halloween Scooby Doo! and see whether this film will be a graveyard smash of a treat, or a black licorice bomb of disappointment.

Full review (and SPOILERS TO GO WITH IT) are below the cut in my new review format; if all goes smoothly, I’ll go with this for future Scooby films.

WARNING: This review is very long.

One minor note before we begin: the Special Features actually include BCSD’s Halloween, WNSD’s A Scooby Doo Halloween, and PNSD’s Ghost Who’s Coming to Dinner

...so they were AWARE this was not the first Halloween adventure of the Scooby gang, and yet still use that tag line. Hm.

Still, kudos for including them - this’ll help boost the reasons to keep this movie, if it turns out to be a real Milk Dud of a movie *ba-dum tish* :D

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The movie starts off rather abruptly, actually - no slow pan over the setting, just WB Animation credit and BOOM, we’ve cut to a Halloween parade and Elvira is talking.

I’m of a mixed opinion including Elvira on top of having Bill Nye and a Batman Rogue - while she most certainly fits the Scooby aesthetic, it doesn’t feel as grand an impact after her weird little cameo in Return to Zombie Island (ugh) and I’m not sure how well the movie will balance her in wait a minute

wait just a

WAIT A MINUTE

Did - did that parade float skeleton just sing Crystal Cove as the town’s name?

oh no.

Oh No.

....also their song is terrible and they should feel terrible.

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Fred: We got him! Banh Mi Shop, second floor!

me: the heck is a Banh Mi Shop? *mild googling noises*

So I guess Jonathan Crane really had a craving for a Vietnamese sandwich before he enacted his Halloween scheme.

...you think he’s a lemongrass chicken type of guy or a BBQ pork guy? It’s always hard to guess at these things, esp when coffee and pumpkin spice aren’t on the table (as per fanon, of course)

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Velma: We have a flawless track record!

So I guess WB is just gonna ignore the past few DTV retcons established in 13 Ghosts and Return to Zombie Island?

I mean that rather defeats the purpose of them existing at all, but fcuk YEAH I can get behind throwing that retcon garbage out of canon!

And STAY OUT!!

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Shaggy, talking about ghosts being real: I’m like the boy who cried wolf - I keep warning you but like, you won’t believe me until I finally get eaten!

Yet again, Warner Bros makes a wolf reference to Shaggy. Yet again, I am torn asunder between wanting werewolf!Shaggy in a new Scooby property, and fearing for the appearance of werewolf!Shaggy in a new Scooby property.

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Velma: Point is, being afraid is a waste of time!

Scarecrow, LITERALLY EXPLODING THROUGH A BRICK WALL three buildings away:

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He’s floating through the air and t-posing to assert his dominance 🤣🤣🤣

Gods bless animation 😁

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Daphne @ Shag and Scoob locking themselves in the van: Are you serial?

Me: wait, SERIAL? *re-reads captions* yup, that says “serial”.

Is this an editing mistake? I don’t think that works here…unless that’s supposed to be a joke on how they always do this. But then why would that be an irritating surprise, they literally do this EVERY episode 🙄

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Oh hey, Red Herring’s Party Screams truck has Red Herring running out of it

Could this be a hint to how the story goes? The villain appearing on a literal Red Herring?

Naaaaaah, WB’s not THAT smart

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So if we take @captainbaddecisions crack theory on Jonathan Crane being Shaggy’s uncle seriously, does this mean that Jonathan is using magic to fly, float fear toxin orbs around himself, and making things explode, a la the family trait of Crack Theory A?

Logically he’s probs using wires or magnets or some shit, but it’s a fun thought to entertain 😁

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Welp, we finally get the opening credits! … with Jonathan Crane smashing through the Mystery Machine’s windshield, set to a slow poppy song straight from the 60s, and spewing the title of the film out in glittery pink mist.

All the while Scooby and Shaggy throw candy at each other, deliberately obtuse to the cloud of fear toxin enveloping their friends and the townsfolk, the steady destruction of the Mystery Machine they’re laying in as multiple cars crash into it and send it spiraling, and the general mayhem and destruction that Scarecrow is causing

Never change, guys, never change

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I just choked on my lemonade

There’s an article plastered to the roof of the Mystery Machine titled “Talking Dog Confounds, Ignites Ethics Debate Over Dog Labor”

ahahahahaha

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Annnnnnnnd there goes the Mystery Machine, tumbling in the air and over the roads with Shaggy and Scooby still inside without seat belts. Will they perish in this horrible road accident? Will Death finally come to claim them at last?

Of course not. This is Shaggy and Scooby we’re talking about - I’m almost positive they can survive anything up to and including a nuclear bomb. This is child’s play to them.

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So they “capture” Scarecrow… by pinning his cape to a tree with crossbow bolts.

And they do not try to at least tie up his arms or his hands in ANY capacity.

JUST the cape.

...you know, Velma, for a team with a “flawless” track record, you guys are making a hecking TON of mistakes in facing against one of Batman’s ROGUES GALLERY, ESPECIALLY with no Batman in sight, good freakin’ grief. 😩

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Yaaaaaaaaas, this Scarecrow design is LUSH

He’s got the lank, the height, the BTAS costume colors, the elongated face with beaky nose and pointed chin and angular cheekbones, the eyebags like Gucci, the furrowed brow… honestly the only thing missing is the more reddish color hair, and even that isn’t mandatory. I love 😍

Not to mention the HOT DAYUM voice he has - low and velvet rough and so godsdamned particular in a way that could either tie in to obscuring a southern accent as in fanon or just as a stringent academic, oh my yes. He’s voiced by someone called Dwight Schultz, who’s most well known for playing Captain ‘Howling Mad’ Murdock in the OG A-Team show, and someone called Reginald Barclay in Star Trek TNG and Voyager, if any of y’all know that character in particular.

And of course, the first line he says is a delightfully wry “Oh, but I AM getting away with it,” with the sort of smirk that absolutely lends credence to why he’s a threat to Batman, and not some simpering wimp that can be defeated with some crossbow bolts in a tree.

I think I’m going to enjoy this movie at least somewhat, so long as we get to see him 🥰🥰🥰

(tho on a side note: Daphne why on EARTH are you trying to film Crane saying the meddling kids line? Do you have a video compilation of past villains who’ve done that, and you hope to add his to it? Was your phone damaged when you went up against the Riddler a few DTVs ago and you want a second shot at recording a Gotham Rogue saying it? Bc I don’t think a Gotham Rogue would be too pleased with seeing himself as a Mystery Meme on the Youtubes, you get what I’m saying?)

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Okay, so the floating orb things are explained away as fear toxin bomb drones somehow… despite looking nothing like the other drones and being much smaller with no visible propulsion, while also flying unassisted through and around objects to explode against places once flung…

(tho interesting note, none of them are aimed directly at the crowds, just behind them - odd, that)

But how did he heckin’ FLY at the beginning?

Yeah, they show him wearing wrist-mounted grappling hooks at the end of the intro song sequence, but they are NOWHERE IN SIGHT at the beginning - and I do mean in sight, since he emerges against a backdrop of flames. There was nothing there (see the T-pose above for further evidence), and nothing there when he FLEW THROUGH THE MYSTERY MACHINE’S WINDSHIELD AND FLEW BACK OUT AGAIN. And these things are pale silver, which stands out like crazy against the darker backgrounds, so no hand-wavy ‘they were always being used’ bullcrap we’ve seen in other movies.

Hmmm *scribbles in notepad* note to self, add notation concerning Crack Theory A on magic!Shaggy to “Uncle Crane” theory files - evidence denotes that Crane is able to fly (or at least hover in mid-air unassisted) for terrorization purposes. May boost strength of CTA by family association, lending credence to magic inheritance along the bloodline...

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“Avocado Toast Generation”? Crane, I honestly don’t know if you really mean that, or if you understand just how much that phrase gets under any Millennial/Gen Z kid’s skin. Having seen multiple variations of your character, it really could swing either way (tho kudos on the dead switch idea - very nice 👍🏻)

Although this does lead to an interesting stand-off: Fred, upon seeing the town threatened with 3 days worth of fear toxin, immediately moves to let Crane go, while Velma stops him and refuses to consider compromising if it means Crane escapes. They both look legitimately frustrated at the other for taking the stance they do.

Fascinating~

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Hmmm

Crane honey, I don’t know if your drones are made of flash paper and hope, or if Scooby and Shaggy are using the reeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaally old candy (the stuff made about ~3 years ago most neighborhoods give out to the teenagers that knock around midnight on Halloween) to shoot them down, but either way you may wish to speak with the manufacturer about this

Then again, this IS Shaggy and Scooby - they probably could’ve spat marshmallows at the drones and brought them down with equal success and explosions

(and good on them for shooting those down! Atta boy 👍🏻)

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Aw dang it

1. They still have Crane captured and now in handcuffs (despite having… you know… NOT been bound by anything except cross bolts in his curtain cape thing)

2. Dwight Schultz has decided to pitch his voice higher and more nasally than what he has. Hopefully this is more of an incredulous sort of pitch than something that sticks for the rest of the movie, ugh.

Also, I think they’re framing the movie to be more Velma-centric this time around - she’s the one explaining to Crane how they tracked him down, apparently through a piece of fan mail he sent Elvira (is that the only reason she’s there? Also why was Velma examining random pieces of fan mail for toxins, Elvira probs gets hundreds a week irl) and it looks like they’re framing something up on how fear isn’t something you can pretend isn’t there. neat!

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whajit

53rd?

53rd?!?!

ONLY 53rd?!?!?!?!

Boooo, Scarecrow’s WAY more popular than that! I call foul

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Okay why is Daphne’s schtick so far to spit laaaaaaame slang after every sentence Velma says

I would rather this not be her schtick

Actually could she go back to filming mystery stuff, bc at least I can pretend it’ll build into the OG Zombie Island Daphne

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Phew, his voice has returned to its low, raspy goodness

also, Crane needs to learn about personal space, good grief

(interesting clue brought up tho - Crane only steals tech that CAN’T leak his toxin, ergo it can’t be tracked until he releases it. Sensible use, given that Batman probs tracks it if it does.)

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Velma: I’m not afraid of you, Crane. Fear is an illogical reaction to an imagined threat.

Crane:

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Crane: Fearless, then. Intelligent. Proud and stubborn. You remind me very much of the one person in this world I care about.

uhhhhhh

Yourself? Harley? Edward Nygma? Ichabod the raven? Idk, I’m honestly curious as to where this thread will go 🤔🤔🤔

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Fred, leaning against the Mystery Machine: Guys, it’s gonna be okay. She told me!

O_o

Fred? Honey? Are you sure you weren’t supposed to join Crane in the transport vehicle back to Arkham?

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OH SWEET JESUS SHAGGY GREW YAOI HANDS

WHAT THE HECK

THAT’S WAY MORE UNNERVING THEN YOU GUYS NOT BEING AFRAID ANYMORE

(although the fact that they’re both unsettled by NOT constantly shaking or having their heart racing is honestly kind of heartbreaking. Y’all need therapy, good grief)

----

Shaggy and Scooby just chewed up candy (wrapper and all) to make themselves a Halloween costume of… what looks like barfed-up candy (ew)

Before then proceeding to dance so well that everyone around them also starts dancing in a 60s-70s era rainbow light show and giving them candy

I worry for these two sometimes - that kind of power seems to be getting to their head 😬😬😬

---

Oh hey, acid green toxic waste is spilling from an 18-wheeler onto the Fear Toxin drones and emitting a purple pink haze that envelops a pumpkin patch! That won’t do anything suspicious at all I bet!

(wait is Poison Ivy going to come into this at some point)

(also major kudos to the music here - very 80s horror synth, I like)

----

So the Pumpkins have grown faces, limbs, consciousness, the ability to fly and a lust for human flesh

And they appear to be led by the Pumpkin King of the Pumpkin Patch mentioned in the Charlie Brown Halloween special

He’s not as friendly as I pictured him being, sadly 😕

---

Why is this random ass cop coming up to FD&V to say that they’re in over their heads… AFTER the mystery’s been solved?

Like dude, you’re only making yourself suspicious at this point, go home

----

Huh, interesting - the gang are being interviewed for a tv news network while they’re considered the town heroes

Why am I getting bad vibes from this…

Eh, it’s probably nothing

----

Velma: {Shaggy and Scooby} are, um… REALLY into the Halloween spirit.

Shaggy: THIS ISN’T COSPLAY, VELMA!

I’m dying 😂

------

Holy Shit

Velma just snapped and went off on Shaggy and Scooby for acting scared and doing nothing to help wrap up the mystery

(even though these guys are the ONLY reason that the gang didn’t have to choose between setting Scarecrow free and poisoning the entire town for 3 days straight, but hey, what do I know - I’m just writing an in-depth reaction post to this movie and taking note of details like this, clearly I know nothing *eye roll*)

Last time I saw Velma critique the guys’ usual mystery solving shenanigans, it was much more low-key and without knowing they were nearby

But I’m sure that’s just a coincidence

------

What the

Bills?

Bills?!?!

Fred just mentioned that fixing the Mystery Machine was going to leave a hefty bill and that they may need to get dishwashing jobs to earn money

Which is more of a job you might expect a high schooler to get on the go and yet

They actually have to pay bills

How old are they here??!

------

wait a tic

THIS is how they introduce Bill Nye?

He just calls up Velma with no explanation other than Velma saying “Oh hey, it’s Bill Nye!”

I just - what?!?!

How do you know him so well that he can just pull up your number and call you, and then geT YOU A NEW FREAKING CAR LIKE

WHAT?!?!?!?

Was there a Scooby episode with him in the past two years where the fcuk did this come from

------

Also the car is dressed like Bill Nye

And he can talk to the gang directly as the car

So that he can solve mysteries with them whenever he wants

This… this was not what I was expecting to come about from the Bill Nye cameo

(alas, poor predictions of being Crane’s roommate, you will not come to pass this day) 😔

-------

Ooooo, purple haze throbbing on the horizon! That’s always a good sign of things to come! 😀

------

And now Daphne’s… asking Elvira to mentor her fashion wise. And Elvira’s taking her on as her unpaid intern/personal assistant.

Yooo, movie, can you pick a direction and stick with it for Daphne? You’ve gone from her spewing outdated slang to wanting a costume for trick-or-treating, and now this.

-------

Welp, now I can say I saw a giant pumpkin dog vore an old woman

I didn’t WANT to see that mind, but I guess I can say it now 😐

------

OH SHIT NO

IT TURNED HER INTO A FLYING PUMPKIN SHAPED LIKE HER FACE

ABSOLUTELY UNSETTLING, 0/10 WOULD NOT RECOMMEND

-------

At least we get a nice scene of Daphne kicking the pumpkins’ collective butt

Something normal

------

Elvira: WOW! You’re a regular Mary Sue!

*falls over cackling*

------

And now there’s a giant purple fissure opening up in the concrete to swallow the town of Crystal Cove whole

(good, i whisper softly into the darkness of my living room. Let it fall)

--------

Man, I feel so bad for this single father right now

He’s gotten wrapped up in all of this nonsense with his daughter, and he is just Distraught at being chased by Jackal Lanterns, having the town collapsing under his feet, and having to gorge jump in his sedan to get away from the worst of it

It’s okay, Mike Dad - we would feel the same way in your shoes

-------

Hologram Bill Nye is wearing Cat ears and cat whiskers/nose, and is cleaning his hands like a cat cleans its paws

Why was this the movie we found out Bill Nye was a furry

Why Warner Bros

Why would you inflict this upon us in a Scooby Doo-Scarecrow mystery

-------

Hey, can Jonathan Crane return now? The movie needs its dignity back.

------

A clue on the whys here - the town was built on top of a MASSIVE lithium deposit, with the talks to mine it being scrapped due to environmental concerns. That’s actually a decent lead in for why some

-------

Welp

The Jackal Lanterns just went full Mad Max with the Halloween Parade floats and cars

No, I don’t have any idea why either, just roll with it

-------

Nice, they confirmed that Fred’s full name is still Frederick Herman Jones XD

Also a great little action sequence with Daphne - while there’s not much movement, they frame the scene dynamically, with some good quick wordplay. Very nice.

--------

Velma has a mind palace

Aight

--------

Velma: Shaggy, I could kiss you!

Oh, to hear this as a child, when I still hardcore shipped Shelma *sigh*

------

Oh thank gods we’re going back to Scarecrow again

------

Shaggy ate some Scooby Snacks, leapt out of a moving vehicle, and onto the backs of two flying pumpkins that he promptly reined in to fly to Crane’s prison transport

...yet again, I am amazed at the sentences I am led to type for Scooby Doo DTVs

------

Ah, how very Hannibal Lector of you, Jon

Man, he actually looks very meek in normal clothes - red long-sleeved shirt and grey slacks

-----

Hmmm

So Crane ISN’T behind the Jackal Lanterns - in fact he’s outright befuddled by them. This means his whole spiel to Velma earlier about both of them being caught in the same trap was… metaphorical? The breakdown doesn’t actually go into WHY he thinks they’re in the same trap - Crane’s whole schtick is tied to accepting fear, not denying it, so why would they be the same?

Either way, someone is using both him and Mystery Inc to do something to Crystal Cove (please be Red Herring, please be Red Herring, please be Red Herring)

Actually, that reference at the beginning really WAS a red herring - they framed it as being Jon the whole time when it wasn’t. Kudos!

Additional kudos to having Jon be seen more out of mask than in - he is a looker, and I aim to look as much as I can ;)

-------

Annnnd Daphne’s now trying to convince Elvira to switch clothes with her

I don’t get it - how on earth did we get from Daphne trying to find a good costume for trick-or-treating to asking Elvira to switch oh there it is nevermind.

-----

There is literally a scene where a giant buzzsaw is slicing towards Crane

and he just

stares at it

going “huh, that’s different”

And I LOVE IT

------

And here we have another fascinating scene: Velma going to free Crane from his cell, as Daphne tells her to just leave him to die by pumpkin

I’m wondering if they meant to draw a parallel between the two here - Velma starts by reciting a nursery rhyme, then overcoming her fears in order to release madness to take control. It’s not done very cleanly - mainly bc we barely have any time with Crane in this movie - but I wonder if they meant to insinuate that Crane was like Velma once, where he refused to acknowledge he was afraid, which caused him to lose focus on his initial goals

Idk, ignore my ramblings

---

Crane, smirking: I’ll need my personal effects - extenuating circumstances.

Me, fanning myself: I’ll need you to remove yours first

(i am not even kidding, Crane is an absolute DILF in this movie and it flusters me. Stupid sexy animation)

---

YAAAAAAAAAAASSSSS

SCARECROW TO THE MOTHERFCUKING RESCUE BABY, SCYTHE AND FCUKING ALL!!!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

----

FCUK YEAH THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING

HE HAS A DANCE LIKE QUALITY WITH SOME OF HIS FIGHTING MOVES

VIOLENT DANCING BRINGS THE GIANT JACKAL LANTERN DOWN BABY

THEN HE BACKFLIPS AND GYMNASTIC SWINGS INTO THE VAN

ROCK IT SCARECROW FCUKING ROCK IT

(minor note here, but the subtitles show Dr. Crane instead of Scarecrow - unsure if that’s more that the movie calls him Dr Crane or if it indicates he’s acting more heroic than villainous)

---

GODDAMNIT

THE GIANT PUMPKIN SNUCK VINES INTO THE VAN AND STOLE HIM BACK

WHEN CRANE WAS... wearing a seatbelt before, but isn’t now.

...

BOOOOO

---

Yet again, we find a Scooby movie that attempts character development, but with Velma

Unlike Shaggy’s Showdown however, I’m mixed on how successful it is.

For starters, Velma hasn’t been this cocksure in other DTVs we’ve seen, so it’s a bit odd to see it now. While not 100% out of place - after all, the gang DID capture one of Batman’s Rogues Gallery on their own - it still feels a touch forced. Compare that to Shaggy’s Showdown, where Shaggy has ALWAYS been a coward (one that, in more recent years, writers have had willing to abandon his friends for safety), so the character development there feels more natural.

The progression of events with Velma actually work somewhat okay - but again, here’s where past DTVs come to bite them in the ass. The past handful have had the gang be wrong, have had them fail, or catch the wrong guy. This makes Velma’s attitude here at odds with the other films, something that sticks more due to a character that’s appeared in the past few films as a minor inconvenience - a Sheriff who keeps telling the gang not to interfere, they’re doing things wrong, etc. If this had been a character who was completely wrong in the past AND SHOWN TO BE WRONG FOR HIS OPINIONS, while the gang never guessed wrong, this would work much better. Unfortunately, it doesn’t, and here we are.

I think it would have flowed better if Velma’s cockiness came solely from catching Crane on their own. Have a random cop character or reporter or whatever (just not the recurring cop), insinuate that the gang is in too deep with Scarecrow, that he should be handled by the adults or professionals or whatever. Velma could bristle, overcompensate, and THEN fall from her pedestal like we see, reach out to the gang and commiserate over feeling scared, and grow. Again, it’s not too far to reach for, but they handle it poorly; as a result, the outcome feels a little more shoehorned in.

It’s an honest shame, bc we haven’t had a Velma centered story since Frankencreepy, and we all remember what a hideous fcuking mess THAT was *shudders*. Still, it somewhat gets its point across, I guess.

---

Fred why did you rip your shirt off

Actually better question why do you not have nipples

---

Awwwwwww

Velma just apologized to Shag and Scoob for snapping at them earlier, and admits how she doesn’t appreciate how much they make Mystery Inc what it is

Also she eats a Scooby Snack with them and admits they taste pretty good

----

Huh

Velma’s mind palace is the Mystery Machine driving through space

Also Shaggy and Scooby are able to telepathically follow her in and communicate with her

Literally, they actually followed her into her head telepathically, and show her their memories of things she hasn’t gotten to see tonight (while also possibly enhancing her ability to remember things, given how much DETAIL she captures perfectly of things that she would maybe have glimpsed in a millisecond AT MOST)

...another tally for Crack Theory A of magic! Shaggy and Scooby *scribbles*

-------

Fred, be very very thankful that there are no people operating those pumpkins in person cause uhhhh

Those traps would be spraying red instead of orange

------

Another weird music choice - the gang goes up to fight the Jackal Lanterns, but the music is the same 60s bubble we heard earlier

Not terribly atmospheric, really

(wouldn’t a Smashing Pumpkins cover of Scooby Doo be more appropriate, or did you guys spend all your money on hiring Elvira and Bill Nye?)

------

Dang

Velma just admitted her fears and jumped into the mouth of the Mega Pumpkin, before getting Fred to use the app from earlier to shut it down, revealing it to be a giant drone surrounded by smaller pumpkin drones

This feels… counterintuitive, but I’ll try to explain at the end

---

Okay

I’ll admit it

The Whodunnit is actually pretty decent in concept

There was a sprinkling of tidbits that could be assembled for the final conclusion and still make a decent amount of sense, all to find the sheriff doing it

Only he isn’t a sheriff

He’s a former Tech CEO who was also busted by the gang years ago in a case the Sheriff kept bringing up throughout the movie - due to his prison sentence, he lost more than half his wealth and the opportunity to expand it further with the Crystal Cove Lithium deposits

He was also someone who sold tech to Crane for his fear toxin distribution, where he got the idea to frame him for it

(tho on a side note, Crane is an absolute dork and a terrible liar - just look at the email he sent XD and that profile pic, my gods)

He deliberately picked at the gang for the past few DTVs (specifically 2: Return to Zombie Island and Curse of the 13th Ghost) to fracture their confidence, undermine them, etc - all so that in one fell swoop, he could retake his fortune, frighten everyone in town away from the mines so they couldn’t interfere, frighten away the gang (while also ruining their reputation as mystery solvers), and take Crane off the docket so he couldn’t identify the CEO when he pretended to be the sheriff

This… is actually a pretty damn good plan, for a Scooby villain. He was patient, manipulative, and clever, learning how best to tie up loose ends and win back what he lost. A clever revenge story that came so close to coming to fruition, and could have honestly been sold convincingly…

...if it hadn’t been done so much better in Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed.

Yeeeaaaah, this movie basically lifts the rough framework up from that one - past mystery villain comes back to attack the gang and ruin their reputation (tho this one decides to also make his fortune back and tie up loose ends with former criminal contacts, a la Crane). Gang is embarrassed in front of the news folk, another villain is framed for it (like Old Man Wickles of the Black Knight fame), and the gang must reconcile to foil the villain for good.

Although it also??? Merges elements of Frankencreepy in it?? The movie is focused on Velma, who is struggling to admit when she’s wrong (which ties into her fear, somehow… I’ll think on that point a little) and things purportedly go haywire when she won’t bend. This… isn’t illustrated as well here, since there’s very little direct cause-and-effect from Velma’s actions that would prove this point - that insisting her way is the right, best, and therefore only way to go ends up making things worse.

As much as I despised Frankencreepy (and I DESPISED IT), it did do that part well - showing that refusing to budge on something can lead to you hurting your friends (literally, in that one), and that admitting you were wrong and need help isn’t the end of the world.

(that movie also had former villains returning to gain vengeance upon the gang using psychological warfare, hm - may need to go over that one again, unfortunately).

It’s a shame, too - the basic elements for this plot are all here, they just need to be polished and reworked a bit to make a really fascinating movie.

------

Anyways, back to the asshat CEO who just… faked being a sheriff. Because white people can get away with that so long as they have the outfit and the car *throws up hands* (the sad part is this is probably something that actually happens)

As he drives away we see a familiar silhouette looming in the cornfields, watching him approach

Velma had Bill Nye on speaker, so he could record the entire confession for the federal officers nearby (who were taking Scarecrow back to Arkham), and track the phone signal to his exact location

And right as his holographic call cuts out, we see the shadow of a Scarecrow looming over him, causing him to scream.

When the feds arrive at his final location, both his body and the money have vanished. The car still sits, engine running, before the crows leering over him from the field vanish into the sky.

-------

Now that he’s dead, the gang walks and finds themselves at a Halloween party, with friendly faces and good food. The mystery is solved, though the culprit may never be found again.

Then Daphne admits to NOT trying to steal Elvira’s costume for Halloween, but instead trying to steal Elvira’s identity and replace her.

Something that she’s apparently nearly gotten away with on past mysteries working with Phillis Diller

*sighs* movie, why couldn’t you just stick to the costume schtick? This is just… so much worse.

-----

From there, Elvira walks off to wrap things up, reveal the monster face on the back of her head sans wig (which was also a monkey), and start the credits, where we see the gang working to bring the Mystery Machine back to its former glory a la Frankenstein pastiche.

This movie… this movie is a hot mess, but at least it’s an OKAY hot mess.

It really does feel like someone started writing a decent Velma-focused movie concerning the Scarecrow and a past Mystery Inc villain interfering, but was bogged down by notes from higher-ups: Wait! Write in Elvira! Also write in Bill Nye! Hey, let’s have a Mad Max car chase with the Jackal Lanterns! And have Daphne obsessed with literally becoming Elvira! Also make reference to things that we’ll insist be explained this way instead of a way that makes sense! Great!

(seriously tho, we never find out who Crane cares about most that reminds him of Velma, what the heck?)

It’s like two or three different scripts were smooshed together without being cleaned up - stuff is said that doesn’t get resolved, the celebrity guests don’t get to breathe much and feel squished together, and the build-up for the villain feels… less impactful, even knowing that he’s been in the past two films.

It might have worked if he’d been in… let’s say like 5 or 6 DTVs in a row, speaking roles for dissing the gang growing in each (ex start with “Good job kids! But maybe next time, leave it to the professionals, okay?” and growing more bitter from there), but only 2 feels kind of meh. Still, I do appreciate the clues we got to collect together, and they all work in the final breakdown of the scheme - some DTVs can feel like they pull stuff completely out of nowhere, so kudos there.

I appreciate what they wanted to do with Velma - give her a character development arc similar to Shaggy’s in Shaggy’s Showdown. Unfortunately, it wasn’t set up quite so neatly: they blended her ‘refusal to admit fear’ with her overconfidence that she was always right, and it led to a weird conclusion. To face her fears, she leapt into the Giant Pumpkin, which… proved that she was right all along about it being fake, and that solves things somehow. It doesn’t address how she can get something wrong sometimes, it doesn’t really address what she’s afraid of (which is honestly quite good: she’s afraid of failing in a way that allows bad guys to escape justice and in a way that hurts her friends), it’s just a bit of a mess. Points for aiming the focus the right way (and in a way that DOESN’T sexualize the underage teenage girl, unlike some DTVs cough cough Frankencreepy cough cough), but it’s very very messy how it goes about it.

The movie actually balanced pretty well for the whole gang - no excessive focus on one leaving the rest in the dust (too much at least - Fred was a touch underdeveloped, but nowhere near as annoying as past iterations have been. Shaggy and Scooby were kind of meh in some places but great in others, while Daphne was just odd. I think they were trying to recapture the BCSD Daphne characterization, but they failed. Still, she did spend some good time kicking ass with the pumpkins, so that was fun.

Now for the Rogue, Jonathan Crane. If you like Crane, this movie gives you: maniacal Scarecrow, calm and creepy Crane, a brief glimpse at fanboy!Crane (he admits in his own awkward way that he’s a fan of Elvira, and later tells her he loves her work - it’s fun), and (best of all for me) a heroic Crane - one who helps the protagonists and ends up kicking ass pretty damn well, brief as it was. And while DILF Crane is always a treat, he feels underutilized in this. In comparison, Scooby Doo/Batman Brave and the Bold really utilized a lot of different aspects of Riddler, to the point he actually does feel pretty menacing by the third act. It’s a shame we don’t quite get that with Crane, but I do love seeing him 1. More out of mask, and 2. Acting as a good guy (in his own way), so he’s enjoyable on the whole.

I kind of wish that the whole movie was spent more with Crane, but again, the script is a bit of a mess on this part - the fact that he’s not completely screwed over is a goddamn miracle.

Elvira was… okay. She didn’t have much of a purpose beyond getting the plot started and giving Daphne some hooks to play off of. Bill Nye (abrupt as his introduction was) did provide some necessary elements to the mystery, as well as the tech; he wasn’t too bad by the end. (still a touch bitter we didn’t get ex roommate Nye, but hey, what can you do)

Humor was… mixed. Some good, some meh, but very few long enough to feel painful. Some bits felt extraneous at times, but they did help to build to the conclusion, so points for effort.

At the end of the day though, I’m probably keeping this more for Jonathan Crane than anyone else. It does have a lot of fanfic potential tho 🤔🤔🤔

That’s all from me tonight, folks! Hope you enjoyed my own little breakdown of the movie.

#happy halloween scooby doo #plush reviews: final thoughts #jonathan crane #scarecrow #spoilers

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neowinestainedress · 4 years

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↬ title: the devil’s in the details, but you got a friend in me ↬ pairing: lee taeyong / kim doyoung ↬ summary: when Taeyong's world falls apart right before his eyes, he realizes that staying with him means that clouds will always hang around them. And he wonders if what he has to offer will be enough to make Doyoung stay, even if he will never be able to give him peace. ↬ genre: idol!taeyong (but not nct!taeyong, soloist!taeyong), song inspired - peace by taylor swift, angst (not really, doesn’t concern the couple, tho), hurt/comfort, still romantic/fluff, happy ending ↬ warnings: since is peace inspired there are references to a situation similar to the one taylor had to go through in 2016 and the aftermath of it, so taeyong is in a bad state of mind (mention of suicidal thoughts), homophobia (one explicit comment, but there are references to it during the whole story), implied sexual content at the end (nothing explicit) ↬ words count: 6.8k ↬ playlist ↬ ao3 link

Taeyong knew it, he knew everything since he was young and naive, too busy dreaming of filled stadiums and tears marked faces screaming his name. Taeyong always knew how fucked up the music industry was, how unfair, how fake and cynical it was. But Taeyong had always been a dreamer, a believer, and after all, he still was, even now. A grin made its way on his beautiful face, as he wiped a lonely tear on his rosy cheek away. Yes, he still believed in a miracle, he really hoped that the art he had been gifting to the world for all these years was enough for people to not stop supporting him. He really wished that all of his countless sleepless nights awake writing songs on his kitchen counter while his other half was sleeping in their bedroom were worth something. He wanted to think that the immense love he had been giving to his fans travelling around the world to perform with just four hours of sleep was appreciated. But deep down he knew that now everything was gone. His world crumbled apart into million pieces, and his love, his passion, his dedication, his art, weren’t enough to save it. He sighed, letting his head fall on the back of the chair in his home studio, he wanted to cry, scream maybe, destroy everything that was in that room, but he decided that it simply wasn’t worth it. Or simply that small sparkle of hope that was still burning inside of him stopped him from doing so. Except he knew what was about to come. “Tomorrow at 8, be careful nobody sees you entering the company, they’re not happy. We have to talk about the contract.” The manager's words were direct, strict and cold even through a text message. Lee Taeyong, the record-breaking artist from South Korea, with his incredible all-round personality full of charms and talents, was over, and there was nothing he could do to change that. When people fall out of love with you, there’s nothing you can do to change their mind. They simply don’t love you anymore.

✯✯✯

It wasn’t the first time Taeyong had to go through something like that. He had always been extremely controversial during his seven years career, whether it was for something he had seriously done or some crazy fake rumour spread around. People are fast at judging others without looking at the mirror even once, and he had experienced that on his skin more than once. He had to say sorry for things he had never done. He had to stay silent in front of the tremendous words people would throw at him, his agents never taking his side, even when they knew the truth, and some of his fans turning around on their backs.

Was he still famous? Did he still break records? Skyrocketed on the charts at every comeback? Yes, definitely. Probably somebody could say that after all these years he still had the world in the palm of his hands, but, honestly, he felt like he had nobody he could count on. All the people who used him just for clout, just to talk shit about him once they arrived where they wanted. All of the people who liked to call themselves tyongfs but never stayed when he needed them the most. His real friends all left the country, for different reasons, and the ones in the industry he felt to call like that, could be counted on one single hand. So when he met Doyoung and the other wasn’t totally disgusted by him or tried to work his way to the top, Taeyong was seriously surprised. A bittersweet forced laugh escaped from his lips as he put his coat on, and tried to take deep breaths in the mirror, trying to prepare himself to see the end of his career. He had been through so much shit since he was barely eighteen, but nothing ever hurt him more than seeing his dream disappear from his hands simply because he loved somebody, the only one who ever stood by his side. Nothing could ever come close to the pain that he was feeling at the moment, thinking that he had to choose between the people he loved the most, Doyoung and tyongfs. A choice that he never wanted to make, because his love and his heart were enough for them both. A choice that he wasn’t making, because apparently his fans, Korean netizens, and his agency decided that it wasn’t right, that something was twisted in him, and they simply couldn’t support somebody like him anymore. Taeyong had stopped being the perfect straight boy next door, and somebody decided for him that it was time to take him and throw him in the trash. And Taeyong had come close to that many times, but never like this, never he had seen such harsh words addressed at him, never he had felt so much hate and disgust. He knew that now, they were deleting him, acting as if he never existed.

✯✯✯

Doyoung had no idea what to do. It had been a week now since their kissing photo got spread around, one week since the internet exploded, seven days since he had to thank God he worked in his own place or else he would’ve been fired too. It had been five days since Taeyong’s company kicked him out, giving him no chance to fight for his art and his job, it had been five days since Taeyong got home and wandered around like a ghost, his favourite blanket over his head, his feet lazily dragging themselves on the cold floor, and drinking cups over cups of coffee in front of their big window which faced the whole city.

“Sitting there all day won’t change things.” The younger said, slowly making his way behind his boyfriend. He had kept quiet the whole week, not wanting to make him feel worse, and also because he didn’t want to let out his real emotions. Doyoung felt incredibly guilty. As soon as the news came out he already knew the ending, and all he could think was that maybe if they had been more careful, or simply if they had never met, if they had never fallen in love and started dating, maybe this wouldn’t have happened. And he felt that it was his fault because he was the one who couldn’t let Taeyong go, the one who had to persist and convince him that he deserved love, and he would’ve stayed with him till the end, no matter his reputation or the things Taeyong couldn’t give him.

Doyoung sighed when his boyfriend didn’t answer, he sat next to him on the large windowsill, his body facing Taeyong’s even though the other was turned toward Seoul at their feet.

Taeyong let out a barely audible huff, placed the hot cup in the cavity the blanket formed between his legs, and then turned around to face the older. His head was still resting on the wall at his side, and for a while, they simply stared at each other without saying a word. Somehow, that was enough. A silence that only two souls that knew each other that deeply could donate. An unspoken secret language they had taught each other through the years. They were like that, they never needed to say much out loud, it was a particular type of chemistry that flooded between them.

“I’m sorry,” Taeyong mumbled, breaking the eyes contact, too fearful and coward to look at him in the eyes. Doyoung furrowed his brow, his hand moving to grab his chin and lift his head up.

“For what?”

Taeyong sighed, he blinked repeatedly, trying to clear his eyes from the foggy views the tears he beforehand shed gave him. “For all the shit that I put you through, not only now, but since we know each other.”

Doyoung bit his lower lip and then moved closer to his boyfriend, his hands cupped his pretty face, and a smile crept on his own as he stared at the boy in front of him. No matter how tired and broken he was, to him, he was still the most beautiful man on the hearth.

“Don’t say sorry,” he whispered, moving the wild strands of his hair who fell messily on his eyes. “I’ll do it all over again for you, Tae. I knew what was coming when I started dating you, and I choose to stay. I’ve always been by your side, knowing that dating you meant waking up with nobody on the other side of the bed for months, and trusting you while you were on the other side of the world. I’ve chosen to stay, knowing that dating you meant going on the internet and read terrible things about your persona that weren’t true. I stayed, in your worst times, when everybody decided to stab you from behind and leave you bleeding. No, I fell for you there, when you were in pieces. I could’ve escaped, walk away like anybody else, take the distances from you, even foment people against you. But I didn’t.” Taeyong was trying to hold back his tears for the nth time of the day, or better, of the week. They loved each other, he was sure about that, but their love language wasn’t a spoken one. For most people it also appeared odd, their close friends and family sometimes still couldn’t believe that they were dating for three years now. Their dynamics appeared strange to many eyes, or at least considered the few people who knew about them. But they worked, better than with anyone else. Still, with all the love they had for each other, hearing things like this wasn’t something Taeyong was used to. He knew that Doyoung wouldn’t hesitate a second to jump off a cliff if it meant saving him, but hearing what he felt out loud made his heart skip a beat and flip in his chest.

“And you know why?” Doyoung asked as his thumb gently wiped away his rolling teardrops. “And you want to know why I would do it all over again?” His voice started to shake a little bit, Doyoung wasn’t an emotional type, not that he was distant, simply the occasion where he would let himself go in front of the others were rare. But now, with a completely shattered Taeyong standing in front of him, it was just impossible. He had seen Taeyong at his worst, when society wanted him dead, and decided to turn around for the first time, and honestly, he had thought that he would’ve never had to see that again. But he was so wrong because now Taeyong wasn’t even half as broken as he was back then, the oldest didn’t let out much in those days, but Doyoung could only imagine all the things that were running in his pretty little mind. And they weren’t positive. “Because you are a ravishing sweeping fire, the most enchanting one, you have no idea how many times I feared of getting burned by you, but I stayed anyway and learnt that your flames don’t do nothing but keep me warm and safe.”

Doyoung stopped for a second, taking his time and giving his boyfriend the time to absorb what he was telling him. “Remember what you once told me, the day you texted me we were over because you were terrified your life couldn’t fit mine, and how you didn’t want to hurt me?” Taeyong nodded, he remembered that day clearly. They had been dating for five months at the time, the worst rumours about him had just started to slow down, so he felt a little bit safer to go around Seoul when he had a break. All it took to ruin his day and destroy the pieces he had tried so hard to put back together was a rude comment yelled at him “What’s next? It'll come out that you’re gay?” And as he froze at the harsh words, looked at the ground and kept walking, his first thought flew at Doyoung. He couldn’t do that, he couldn’t put him in that situation. He didn’t think twice when he told him that things were over between them as soon as he arrived home. But honestly, he wasn’t expecting Doyoung banging at his door, screaming that he couldn’t care less what people thought about him, or them, trying to make him understand that they would’ve got this kind of remarks anyway, trying to reassure him that as long as nobody knew they would’ve been fine.

“Rain will always come if you’re standing with me,” Taeyong whispered, reminiscing the words he had told him through the tears that night. Doyoung nodded, softly smiling at him, and then kept talking.

“We got drenched with rain, we’ve been in the middle of storms, and look at us.” He smiled, holding his arms out in the air to point at them. “Our love was enough to keep us warm. Your beautiful, sparkling, mesmerizing flame is more than enough to keep us alive, warm and safe.” Taeyong didn’t say a thing, his emotions were all over him, he simply couldn’t find the strength to say anything, not already at least. So he simply let himself crush against Doyoung’s welcoming body, his face sunk in the cavity of his neck as he let the sobs roll out free, they weren’t sad tears, more likely the result of pent up stress of the terrible week he had been trough and the fears for their future who simply seemed faithless and tenebrous.

They sat there for a while, the only sounds they could hear were their breathing and Taeyong muffled cries. The sun was sinking at the horizon, lighting Seoul’s skyscraper of golden, wishing the town a good night, even if the city wasn’t going to sleep at all. Maybe on another occasion, they would’ve cared about that. As Doyoung lazily scrolled through Instagram while the national news channel was playing in the background as he waited for Taeyong to come home after a long day of practice, and then together they would’ve chosen what take out to order, half of the time ending up with Doyoung having to do all by himself because Taeyong was too tired even to make a choice. Or maybe they would’ve hit up some of their closest friends and hang out with them, at their place, without having to worry about getting caught. Maybe in another situation, the radio was on, keeping Doyoung company as he cooked for them, while humming and jamming to the songs the radio was passing, and then he would’ve laughed at Taeyong flustered expression when one of his songs would play. But now, it was totally different. If they turned on the TV they would’ve seen themselves, pictures of their broken privacy splashed on the front page of every journal and gossip show. If Taeyong turned on his phone they would’ve heard the frustrating ringing of persistent notification, missed calls from his mom, and his friends, just wanting to make sure he was still alive. Calls that Doyoung had to take for him during the whole week.

“You know what? We’re cooking together tonight, you definitely need to eat more than just coffee and cheap snacks and I need to distract your mind from all of this.” Doyoung broke the quite they were in, carefully moving Taeyong away from him to look at his eyes. He tried to suppress a sad smile as soon as he made contact with them, Taeyong’s usually big brown warm eyes were now swollen and red, deprived of their typical bright light. He just wanted him to be happy because Taeyong never deserved any of the hurt people had put him through all these years. And the more he looked at his boyfriend the more he questioned when everything would go back to normal, if it ever will. But Doyoung needed things to at least be good again, he needed his happy, goofy, bright, loud and passionate Taeyong back. Because he deserved to be happy.

Taeyong just nodded, not like he had a choice anyway, but not that he minded. He felt the need to spend some time together with Doyoung, just them, in their home, acting like the world didn’t exist. It was just an illusion, but he couldn’t care. And he was also pretty used to pretend, in his world, everything was an illusion, it needed to be like this to survive. Or else, there wouldn’t have been any other way to stand all of those masquerade revellers and their fake smiles, and unnecessarily loud laugh to hide emptiness and sadness. And for a split second, Taeyong thought that maybe, taking a break from all of that wasn’t even that bad.

✯✯✯

“Are you eating?” His mom’s voice ringing from the other side of the phone was muffled, her tone as worried as three weeks before when the mess first happened. Taeyong giggled and rolled his eyes in the back of his head, it was like the third time she had to make sure about that since she called.

“Yes, mom, I’m good. Doyo is feeding me well.” And even though he couldn’t see it, he perceived the genuine smile creeping on his mom’s tired face. She was so glad his son had someone like Doyoung by his side, especially now that she couldn’t be physically near him.

“Still can’t come by?” The woman tried to ask anyway. Taeyong shook his head and hummed in negation.

“You know why.” Honestly, Taeyong would’ve never forgiven himself if something happened to his mother. She wanted to pass by their house since the news broke out, but Taeyong was fast at forbidding her from doing so. Three weeks now, and the situation was still out of control. He simply couldn’t leave the house, the building was surrounded by angry, so-called, fans. Sometimes they were just standing there, breaking the merch, but two times things got out of hand and some neighbour had to intervene. Not that things changed. It was disgusting and scary, to the point he was just expecting from some of them to break in and kill him while he was distracted. Also, Doyoung still had to go to work. Being the owner of his small business he could take a week off to stay with Taeyong and also made up his mind, but they needed his job. Yes, Taeyong’s money were still there, he made pretty much a fortune during his career, but they needed to stay grounded, to have something that somehow reminded them of their everyday reality. Plus, what was Taeyong going to do now? Find another agency? Start one of his own? Cry himself to sleep every night because at this point it felt much more than just music and he couldn’t handle it anymore? Now the latter seemed to be the only thing he could think of. So he just stayed home, waiting for Doyoung to call him every time he made it out and in the house safe. He spent the days with a lump in his throat because of the girls down the house and the terrible things he read on the internet. The only things distracting him, his mom and his friend’s calls.

At least two minutes passed by in silence, just a light buzzing from the line could be heard, but Taeyong felt some sort of tranquillity in his mom’s breathing. He closed his eyes and imagined to be wrapped in her arms, his head on her chest, as it moved up and down, and her voice chanting a sweet song. Just like when he was a child, and everything was easier, and nobody had ever hurt him.

“Yongie,” her mom called his attention. The boy hummed, loud enough that she could hear. “You know that I love you and I’m so proud of you and everything you’ve done in your life, right?” His mom had never been too happy about his choice in the career path. She knew he was talented, she never doubted his capability of filling stadiums and captivate people. She simply hated the industry, their brainwashing, the way they produced robots and not people with feelings. She was aware of what being a celebrity meant and she never wished that life for his son. But when someone you love has a dream, what do you do? Do you clip their wings or let them fly? She let him go, and never stopped, even for a second, to be proud of her little man.

“I know,” Taeyong smiled, a sincere smile after lots of forced ones, “you’re always my number one fan, right?”

“First and last, nobody might stand your annoying self anymore but I’m going to still be here.” She exclaimed, making his son laugh. But he knew it was true, even if everyone left, she was always going to be there.

He talked with his mom some more, but when the phone call ended he fell back into the hole that was devouring him. He sighed, nervously running his fingers through his hair, pulling his bleached blonde locks.

He wanted to pick up the phone and call Johnny, have a chat with him up until Doyoung would've come home. Talking with his best friend would’ve definitely helped him to not think about his life. But they had already talked in the morning when Johnny called to make sure that he was okay and proposed him to spend some time with him and Ten in England. He didn’t want to bother him, but at the same time, he didn’t feel in the mood to talk with any other of his friends.

So, pretty much unconsciously, he did the only thing he shouldn’t have done. He grabbed his phone and went on twitter. Socials were toxic, he knew that. He should’ve already deleted everything and don’t think about it, but somehow he always ended up there. He desperately needed to know what people thought about him, if one, even just one, of his fans stayed. And for some sort of strange reason, he felt like he also needed to know all the bad things. To make sure that it was real, that people really hated him. Or maybe because, by now, that words already crept into his brain and he felt like he was unlovable and unworthy and deserved to read what they had been calling him lately. And his heart took it, up until he saw a tweet against Doyoung, about how they didn’t even know him but to date somebody like him they had to be twice as bad. Or another one saying that Doyoung wasn’t even attractive and at least Taeyong could’ve had better taste if he really wanted to be like that. The more he scrolled on his name the worst things got. People saying that they had been waiting for this for ages, some others saying that Taeyong should’ve already been cancelled years ago when his first scandals broke out, or how he had probably fucked his way to the top. Thousands of tweets saying that they always hated him for his attitude, and they couldn’t stand seeing him feeling himself so much, and all of that was a lesson that he was finally paying. Laughs and jokes on how probably the strong, intimidating Lee Taeyong was now crying like a little bitch.

And they were right, because he was sobbing uncontrollably, curled up on himself as he laid on the couch, the phone abandoned on the floor after he slipped from his sweaty hands. He wanted to scream, and he did. An agonizing loud scream resonated through the walls as he tried to push out of his brain the painful and dark thoughts that were drawing him. He couldn’t take it, he couldn’t sleep at night knowing that he was dragging Doyoung in this hell with him when he deserved much better. But what was he supposed to do? Taeyong had already tried to break up with him, fully aware that their lifestyles were just too different. And Doyoung had spent a whole night up just listening to his nagging and crying, as he desperately tried to convince him that no matter how hard it was going to get, he wanted exactly what they had. But now everything was different. Back then Taeyong had snapped because of one single homophobic comment, they weren’t out, nobody knew about them. Now, everything was different. And he just had to make sure that Doyoung was strong enough to get through that. Because Taeyong wasn’t so sure that all that he could offer was enough for him to stay. And he also wasn’t so sure that he, himself, could make it out alive. He just couldn’t take it anymore. And he felt so fragile as perfectly known old thought came to his mind. It wasn’t the first time other people words made him believe that he simply wasn’t worth living. He disrupted the lives of all the people he loved, he was a tornado, not the nice little flame Doyoung loved to describe him as. But he didn’t want to be like this anymore, to hurt the good and trust the evil, even if unconsciously. Maybe it was a sign, that life didn’t suit him anymore. He was tired, he just wanted a normal life. He wanted to wake up in the morning and go to work, just to go back home to Doyoung preparing dinner. He wanted to spend lazy Sundays on the couch wrapped in Doyoung’s arms. He wanted to live somewhere where they could hold hand with a little less terror of being judged and beaten. He wanted to live, as a human being who made mistakes and not an automaton.

He wiped his tears with the back of Doyoung’ sweater he was currently wearing and got up from that spot in the living room. In less than twenty minutes Doyoung would’ve been home, and he didn’t want him to see him like that. He needed to distract himself, not let his mind travel in the wrong places, so maybe some music playing in the background as he cooked would’ve been helpful.

✯✯✯

The evening passed by quietly. Doyoung had come home safe, finding Taeyong busy at the cookers, humming and dancing to the rhythm of one of his favourite records. The younger didn’t see it coming and slightly jumped when Doyoung hugged him from behind, maybe, given the tense situation, that wasn’t the best idea Doyoung had ever had, but Taeyong couldn’t mind. He just wanted to feel him close, to make sure that he was there for real, and he wasn’t just one of the many mindless dreams he had. Taeyong had to make sure that Doyoung was his, he had to remind himself that he deserved the happiness he could bring him. And Doyoung felt that something was somehow wrong when Taeyong kissed him a little bit longer than the usual and then didn’t pull away but let his head rest on his shoulder. He didn’t say a word, tough, other than pointing that what was for dinner looked delicious.

Seoul's sky was particularly pretty that evening, coloured with soft shades of pink and purple, painting their living room with the same tones. And that dinner passed as one of their old romantic indoor dates, far away from the world, and strangely, for the first time after many, the exhausting sense of suffocation wasn’t there. Maybe Taeyong still felt it, but not as much as that afternoon, when he was all by himself.

Taeyong really didn’t want to ruin that perfect mood. The apparent calm they were surrounded with as they laid on their sofa, carelessly paying attention to the movie they had chosen to watch. They were more lost in each other's touch, Taeyong let himself relax as Doyoung spooned him, their hands intertwined, because they wanted and also because Taeyong had started to nervously bit his nails once again. In the years Doyoung learnt that telling him was useless, he would panic, his cheeks flushed, and then go back doing it once again. So the most efficient method was to grab his hands, play with them, hold them, caress them, anything that could divert Taeyong’s attention and also his nervousness. Not only he would stop bite them, but it would help his sense of anxiety, and Doyoung got to feel him closer, so everybody won with that.

But they needed to talk. This was a point of no return, and Taeyong had to know if they wanted to travel the same road together forever or not. They needed to start over. Their coming of age had come, they couldn’t just sit around and ignore the problems. Taeyong had never been firm on his choices, always walking on eggshells, with fear of crashing because the danger was near. But now, after all of these years in the industry, he had realized that he simply couldn’t get away from it. It was always around the corner, ready to attack, it lived in him. And he had to remind Doyoung that. He had to let him know all the feelings he had for him, and then let the decision in his hands.

“I could never give you peace,” the blond mumbled, his words barely more than a whisper. Doyoung furrowed his eyebrows, he had heard what his boyfriend had said, but he couldn’t understand his point.

“What do you mean?” he asked, moving a little so he could have a better look at the older’s face.

Taeyong took a deep breath while his eyes were focused on their fingers playing together. “With my life, with who I am. And then your life, and who you are.” Doyoung wanted to roll his eyes to the sky, thinking he was going to witness Taeyong trying to break them apart once again, but something in the tranquillity of the other’s voice told him that this conversation wasn’t going there.

“Sometimes I look at you, and just don’t feel enough. Not enough to cope for all the things that you had to stop doing for me, or the fears that I planted in your heart, or even the way I make your future so uncertain. I look at you and I see integrity, and it makes me feel small.”

Doyoung stayed silent, as much as he loved Taeyong, he couldn’t deny that he was right. Their lives were totally different and pretending it wasn’t true would've been. And yes, sometimes it was hard to keep it up with Taeyong’s busy rhythm, sometimes things got bigger than what he could handle. But Doyoung knew that. Taeyong had made it clear since the start, and he knew by himself that dating a celebrity like him would’ve brought along a lot of hard times. Still, he could totally get why Taeyong always felt like a burden; he was insecure, he always believed that he wasn’t deserving of love, especially a sincere one that lead to a healthy relationship.

“You think that I regret all these years together?” Doyoung asked when nothing else came out of Taeyong’s mouth.

The other shook his head. “I don’t know, but I want you to know that I’m fully aware of how hard it has been for you too. And I’m glad for all the things you’ve done for me.”

Doyoung smiled, then one of his hand travelled up to caress his hair. Yes, he knew Taeyong knew that. Taeyong had seen the most fragile and vulnerable sides of him, he had seen him fall apart in front of him so many times that sometimes he wondered why he never left. To strangers’ eyes, Doyoung was strong, always in control of everything, it looked like he always had his shit together, but it wasn’t like that at all. And Taeyong was the only one who ever seen him like that, the only one he had ever opened up to in such a real way. The times he cried because he was terrified of not being able to do well in his new business. The older wanted to spend more time next to him, but the worldwide tours didn’t give him the chance to be present in the way he really wanted. Or when jealousy and insecurity mixed up together, and Doyoung cried at night thinking that Taeyong could find somebody better than him every day; and some nights the blonde was there to roll around, hug him and love the insecurities away, but many others he wasn’t.

“I’m sorry if I couldn’t always be there for you, but God, Doyoung,” he exhaled, squeezing his eyes to hold back the tears that were threatening to roll down his cheeks, “everybody thinks love’s for sure, but I would die for you in secret, any day, without thinking twice.”

Doyoung’s heart skipped a beat, his head fell on top of his boyfriend’s shoulder as he held him tighter.

“You know, right?” Taeyong asked, lifting his body to sit up with his back and look at Doyoung in the eyes. And in a fragment, he could see all of his vulnerability. Taeyong had always thought that Doyoung was like glass. Beautiful, transparent, resistant, but so, so fragile, that one single needle could tear him into pieces. And he had seen him shattered many times. He just wanted to make sure that he knew he could always count on him, since most of the times it was always Doyoung worrying about everybody else, without taking care of himself.

The younger hummed, following his actions.

“You know that I’d swing with you for the fences, sit with you in the trenches. Give you my wild,” Taeyong stopped for a second, his hand moved to grab Doyoung’s one, and his head rolled back as he tried to hold back the tears, and then let out a giggle “I’d even give you a child if it was possible.”

Doyoung chuckled and smacked him playfully on the arm.

“You know what I feel for you, the way I never felt so at ease with anybody else. You know how deep under my skin you got, how deeply you know every single inch of my soul. You know how much I cherish the way we don’t need words to understand each other, a glance is enough, silence is enough. I see your family as mine, your brother is my brother, and I couldn’t ask for anything better than that.” His tone was sincere, not that Doyoung ever doubted that, but something in his voice and in the way he was looking at him, made him feel a certain kind of way. And in that moment realization hit him like a truck, what they had was just above everything and everyone else, a rare gem only them could understand. And he was so grateful that fate, God, his ancestors, or whoever people wanted to believe held the strings of life, let them together.

“I’d give you my sunshine, give you my best,” Taeyong said, now intertwining their fingers, and holding tighter.

“Would it be enough if I could never give you peace?” a tingle of fragility in his voice. He was scared, no, terrified, Doyoung would say no and run away from him without thinking twice and looking back. He was so scared that Doyoung would've slipped out of his fingers that he unconsciously held even more than before.

Doyoung didn’t answer, he threw himself in the other’s arms and kissed him, slowly at first, just to become more passionate. His hands running through his locks, pulling him closer.

“Yes, Taeyong. It will be enough. You are enough. You will always be enough.” He mumbled once he pulled away, tears marking both of their faces.

“I don’t regret one bit of what I had with you, I could never, Yongie,” he said, his hands still cupping the other’s face. “I want this, I want you, and all the mess you bring with you. I love you. I’m dating you, not them, and their poisoned words. I’m in this with you. Not with anybody else. I don’t care about what they say to you, they don’t even know a quarter of the amazing person that you are. I don’t care about what they say about me, their words don’t define me. Their hate doesn’t define our love and its validity.”

This time is was Taeyong’s turn to stay silent and just lean in to make their lips touch again.

And in the dawn of the night, they stayed like that for a while. Forehead to forehead as Seoul was busy outside; with her cars moving between traffic lights and her people getting drunk in downtown bars. They could feel the city’s vibration, but they couldn’t care much about the others. It was just them, lost in their own moment.

Taeyong leaned in to kiss him again, and again. He needed Doyoung like he was his vital lymph. And he couldn’t care if he looked desperate, greedy and messy like a teenage boy during his first love story. He just wanted to feel. To feel alive, to feel real, to feel love. He couldn’t quite remember the last time they made love to each other. The last months had been a hell for so many different reasons, always busy, life moving so fast that the only time they had together he was either too tired or a quick thing was all they could get at.

But now, the world had stopped. His castle crumbled overnight. They took the crown from him. He wasn’t sitting on his throne anymore. He had nowhere else to be, now.

Now they had all the time they wanted to take things slow. To get lost in the smallest details of the other. Taeyong could kiss every small portion of Doyoung’ skin. He wanted to burn in his flames, feel the heat on his skin, and deep down in his soul.

And right now that Doyoung’s hands were on him, modelling him like a sculptor, touching him like nobody else ever could, he was sure of one thing. He had made mistakes in his life, never learning much from them, but at least he had done one thing right.

Now that Doyoung’s starry eyes looked at him as if he was the most precious jewel in the world, he understood that just that was enough to light up his darkest night. No, Taeyong didn’t know how to call that, it was just more than love at this point. Maybe they were soulmates. No, definitely they were, there was no other way they could be described as. And a smile crept on his face, as he let himself be lulled by the strange wave of happiness and safeness that hit him.

Doyoung noticed that, and, stopping for a second, he raised his head to level his. “Why are you so happy, uh?” He asked with a smirk on his face.

Taeyong shrugged. “Nothing, I was just thinking that I won at life.”

“You won?” Doyoung raised an eyebrow, his left arm was resting at the side of Taeyong's face supporting his weight so he wouldn’t fall on his naked boyfriend.

Taeyong hummed, his "dumb" smile never leaving his face. And Doyoung was so glad that the same old Taeyong seemed to be back, at least for now. He knew that the road to healing would’ve been long, but now, Taeyong had stars in his eyes, and that was the only thing he wanted to see.

“If I tell you that I think we’re soulmates in the middle of a lovemaking session will you run away?” Taeyong giggled as soon as he saw Doyoung roll his eyes.

“I can’t believe I want to spend the rest of my life with you,” Doyoung responded, but his hands were once again busy working on the other’s body, somehow pulling him even closer to his.

“You want to spend the rest of your life with me?” Taeyong asked with a genuinely surprised look on his face, which disappeared as soon as Doyoung’s hands touched places that made him see stars. His lips opening, letting out beautiful moans that Doyoung suppressed with a kiss.

“Isn’t that what soulmates do?” Doyoung asked him, leaving a trail of kisses over his neck, down to his collarbone, and all over his chest.

And Taeyong wanted to say something rational, a small part of him even cry for the joy he was feeling after so many time, but he was already putty in Doyoung’s fingers, overwhelmed by too many emotions. But once again, words were superfluous between them.

And as they became one in the night, burning in the heat of their love, they both had the confirmation that it would’ve been enough. Because at the end of the day, even if the devil’s in the details, they had a friend in each other.

And somehow, that was the only thing that mattered.

part two: where all the poets went to die

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larryfanficwriter98 · 4 years

Text

Chapter Seventeen

**Have some supportive boyfriend Louis fluff**

"Did you have a favorite?" Louis frowned looking over at Harry, "song. Did you have a favorite song?"

"Oh…yeah of course I did. I have two tied at number one."

"Which ones?" Harry asked sitting on the edge of the full-size mattress that was tucked in the corner of the room on a small wooden frame.

"Dive and All of the Stars. I love them all, but those two made me cry and All of the Stars obviously was when we were long distance and applies to the future when you go on tour again. Then Dive tells me about your doubts and worries when we were dating but not labeling it." Louis said as he sat himself on Harry's lap wrapping an arm around the back of his neck, "I love them all though, but those two are incredibly open. Then obviously I'm biased with If I Could Fly. What about you? Which one is your favorite?"

"Who says I have one?"

"I do."

"In this album it's Strong because I wrote it when I was back here, and we had all these months together and you've...made me want to be me." Louis ran his fingers through Harry's hair

"You give me too much credit, you and your fans both do. I didn't do anything except love you." Louis said, "what's your favorite on the other album?"

"It's a song that I haven't decided if I want to keep yet or not. It's not on the CD, but it's on my phone."

"If it's your favorite then why not keep it?"

"Because it's not...me " Louis rolled his eyes grinning as he stood up

"Harry you have worn a large button up and loose pants, you have worn a pink tropical flamingo shirt with black skinnies, you have worn thigh hugging black velvet bell bottoms with a vertical striped black and white shirt, then you wore waist high white pants with a sunflower shirt tucked into them, and lastly today you wore all Gucci. So, tell me what image you're going for exactly." Harry blushed looking away but Louis made him look at him, "and for the record you have looked amazing in all of it, I just don't think you should limit yourself to one image when it's not you. I think you can be such an amazing role model of young people who stands out and breaks gender roles in clothing when you're ready to. I will hold your hand while you wear a suit and tie and while you wear a dress and heels. Whatever you want to wear I'll be the proudest boyfriend to hold your hand and whether that is tomorrow or in five years, I will be there for every messy step to every high wall we come across. If this song is something you can't let go of then don't, don't make yourself stick to one genre for the comfort of the world."

"I love you so much." Harry said staring at Louis

"And I love you." Louis said, "can I listen to it?"

"If you can find it you can listen to it. You'll know it when you hear it." Harry said as he stood them up and pulled the covers back. "Good luck."

"I'll find it when you least expect it." Louis said as Harry crawled into the bed with his back against the wall, louis followed him and laid down, so they were facing each other. "Goodnight darling."

"Goodnight."

*********

Louis scrolled through Harry's songs for the third time since he took the phone and hid inside the bedroom a few minutes ago. Louis thought it was Sweet Creature at first, but that turned out to be a sweet song about him and was considerably Harry. So, he continued his search for anything that struck out to him when he found it. It was a song with 'Kiwi' as the title and when he clicked on it was a new type of music and nothing like he had worked on before.

"Louis?" Louis jumped and turned to the closed door then looked down at the phone realizing thirty minutes had passed and he had been listening to the same song the whole time.

"Yeah? Yes? What?" Louis asked

"You alright?" Harry asked

"Yeah...yeah I'm great...I'm great. Why?"

"Because you've been in there for thirty minutes?" Louis opened the door just enough to pull Harry into the bathroom where he immediately pressed him against the door and kissed him passionately. Harry made a shocked hum sound before he moved them, so Louis was against the bathroom counter and Harry was pressing against him. Louis ram his fingers into Harry's short hair gripping it tightly.

"Wait...what did I do to get this." Harry asked pulling away

"You have to do something to get kissed?" Louis questioned

"No but you sort of did jump me and you were hard before we even started kissing. Wait were you wanking in here? Did I interrupt something?

"Oh you interrupted something but it wasn't my hand down my pants...yet. Now shut up and let's snog in a bathroom like teenagers and maybe get each other off without our families noticing our absence."

"What? No. Louis I can't do that to your mother not to mention that my mother would kill me."

"Fine." Louis said sighing as he gently pushed Harry away, "you're lucky this time." He said as he unbuttoned his jeans then shoved his hand down to adjust himself, so he was less obvious.

"Do you know where my phone is? I was looking for it earlier, but I couldn't find it." Louis grabbed the phone from his back pockets and handed it to him before looking down to button himself not noticing the frown that appear on Harry's face.

"There...alright... let's go." Louis opened the door and made sure no one was lurking before he left. Harry joined him outside but instead of joining Louis he headed to where Gemma was. The rest of the time leading up to the meal was tense. At the table Harry sat on the other side of the table and on the other end when there had been an empty seat beside Louis. It made everyone look between them and sense the tension suddenly there.

"You and Harry okay?" Harry's mother whispered to him questioningly

"I thought we were." Louis told her before he stabbed a few green beans with his fork and shoved them into his mouth. The dinner was strained but it did end eventually just not without a few looks between him and Harry and weird silence. After the dinner Louis got up and gathered the dishes then headed into the kitchen.

"Are we okay?" Harry asked setting the serving plates down on the counter beside the sink, "look if you found something then tell me and I swear to you I can explain because I'd never do anything to hurt you. I don't know what you could of possibly found but whatever it is-"

"What? Harry what are you talking about? Louis asked turning to look at him and ignoring the fact that their families are most likely listening in outside the doorway leading into the kitchen

"I'm talking about whatever I did to make feel so insecure in our relationships that you took my phone without talking to me first like we've always done whenever we had problems. I don't care that you took it I care that you didn't talk to me before and after the fact and I've been trying to think what you could have possibly found and I can't come up with anything because I haven't-"

"Harry no. I didn't go through your phone. I have no reason to go through your phone nor do I want to. The only time I've gone through was to find that picture when asshole and I were arguing on Twitter and it was only your cloud which you knew about. You told me where to look and I went to the month. That's it."

"Then what were you doing with my phone in the bathroom for thirty minutes because I'm not even on my phone for thirty minutes unless I'm doing something on my studio app."

"Well first I didn't tell you I had it because it was on the bed and I was going to give it to you but I just never did because we were both away from each other with our families. Secondly if I felt so insecure in our relationship that I had to take tour phone and lock myself in a different room to go through it I'd break up with you first. I don't want that type of relationship and neither do you. Thirdly I didn't tell you I was going to go through your phone because I didn't want you to be nervous the whole time it took me to find what I was looking for. Fourthly I went through your music I was in bathroom for thirty-eight minutes trying to find the song you weren't sure about. You were nervous the whole way up here when you knew I was listening to an album that you were proud of that you nearly missed the exit. So since you were nervous just mentioning this song I figured you not knowing I was going to look for it, which I told you I would last night and you told me good luck. I figured this way I could tell you after I found it. When you came, I was on my tenth repeat and the way that you found me should be some indication of what I thought of it."

"A song did that?"

"We both know he's an overachiever, he gets interested watching you stretch so yes listening to that song woke him up. Look I'm sorry Alright. If the roles were reversed and you were the one with my phone in the bathroom I'd think the same thing and I'd probably break up with you at the end if the day if it turned out you had been looking for something. It's not about trust to go through each other's phone it's about trust to not go through it and instead talk about it, which we always do."

"I figured we'd talk later, that we were waiting to not make this day weird."

"It became weird when you sat in the other end of the table."

"Phoebe asked if she could sit beside you and I said of course so I sat beside my sister. I didn't realize me sitting away from you for one meal would cause such a catastrophe, I'm be sure to never do it again and will elbow your sisters for the seat beside you next time. So, to be clear I didn't do anything?"

"I don't know, did you? Should I have went through it?"

"I don't think so. I mean I'm with you like all the time and most of the time-"

"I'm joking. No, you haven't done anything."

"So, we're okay?"

"Yeah we're fine."

"Well don't say fine...fine is what you say when you're still mad about something and-"

"Harry." Louis said laughing as he grabbed his face and made him look at him, "we're great. I didn't explain to you why I had your phone because I didn't think how the situation looked and you didn't ask because you assumed, we'd talk later when we were alone. We just didn't communicate that's all, but we're fine. I promise."

"Okay because the only think I could think of was Zayn's nude he sent on accident that I haven't deleted because I don't want to look at it again. But you were with me when I got it but I hadn't deleted it yet, so I don't maybe you were thinking-"

"Harry stop thinking." Louis said grinning as he looked at his boyfriend, "for the record I think the song is perfect and I think you should definitely consider adding it." Louis told him as he wrapped his arms around the back of his neck, "I love you."

"I love you too." Harry said kissing him sweetly, "I'm sorry."

"You have nothing to apologize for Harry. I honestly didn't even think how it would have looked especially considering how your past relationship was. We're okay though I promise. I'm not upset, you're not upset, we're fine. You think too much sometimes."

"I don't like leaving things unresolved."

"And it's not unresolved, we've resolved it. We talked about it and I don't know what else could be said about it honestly."

"Can we drive somewhere and talk about it?" Harry asked

"Harry, we have. We've talked." Louis told him confused

"But I don't feel like we have."

"Harry there is literally nothing else to talk about regarding this. It's been resolved." Louis said exasperated

"No, it hasn't Louis." Harry snapped taking Louis by surprise as during all their arguments or disagreements Harry was usually always very calm and controlled. Louis was usually the one that started to snap and yell first.

"Okay. We are not going to argue here if that's what is about to happen."

"Is there somewhere else you'd like to argue you at?"

"Use that tone with me Harold and you are sleeping in your car. Now let's go get a tub of ice cream or something and resolve whatever this is."

"Okay." Harry said quietly before walking out of the kitchen. Louis followed behind him noticing their families were still at the table.

"We'll be back in a few minutes." Louis told the group as he watched Harry head straight out the door after grabbing his keys.

"Are you two okay?" Anne asked

"Yeah I think Harry just doesn't want to say everything he obviously needs to say with so many ears around. We'll talk and get a tub of ice cream on our way back. Harry's been stressing about things he really doesn't need to be stressing about so I think it's getting to him. We'll be back in an hour. We're fine though, really."

"Okay dear." Louis left the house and got into the passenger seat looking over at Harry seeing tears in his eyes, "hey come on...let's just find a private spot and talk okay?" Harry nodded silently before starting the car and backing out of the driveway.

******

Louis followed Harry into the hotel room.

"I didn't want to risk us being overheard in the car or photos be taken." Harry explained

"I figured. Louis said sitting on the bed, "what's wrong?"

"I don't know. I feel like I broke your trust by assuming you went through my phone and making a big deal out of it."

"Harry you didn't make a high deal out of it and you didn't break my trust. I told you I understood considering how it looked. Come on say what you're avoiding."

"I'm not-"

"Yes, you are. You're not saying something." Harry closed his eyes and sat down on the other bed, "I don't know...I've been feeling frustrated for a few days now and I don't know why."

"Frustrated how?" Louis asked gently

"I don't know. I feel....trapped...stuck. I feel stuck and it's pissing me off and I can't get out." Harry said tears filling his eyes

"Is it us? Our relationship?" Harry immediately shook his head

"The only thing I'm sure of is that I love you and I don't want to lose you." Harry said

"Well maybe the only way to make sure of that is for us to step back a bit. Maybe you need to find yourself before you can be with me." Louis said

"You're the reason I'm finding myself. Louis trust me it's not us...it's my head or I don't know, but it's not us."

"Okay. Then tell me what makes you so frustrated...tell me even if it doesn't make sense. When did it begin?"

"This week I think, and it got worse as the days gone on. It's going to sound bad but it's you...you make me frustrated and I don't know why and I'm mad at myself for getting annoyed at you for literally putting the dishes away. But I'm not mad at you or anything I'm-"

"Frustrated." Louis said grinning now which made Harry glare

"What's so funny?"

"Harry you're frustrated."

"Yes, I know I told you this already and I don't know why."

"No Harry." Louis said standing up to straddle Harry's lap, "you're sexually frustrated...when someone doesn't orgasm for long periods of time, they get pissy and snappy. Single people masturbate or have one-night stands or have toys to satisfy urges. However, when someone is in a relationship with someone their partner usually pisses them off by doing normal things like putting the dishes away. Usually the pissy one just tackles the unsuspecting boyfriend on a friend and has their wicked way with them, however if it's their first time experiencing this frustration it can confuse. It confused me my first time."

"Wait people get angry because of that?" Harry asked

"Yeah both male and female and considering we haven't had any bedroom activity in 10 days I'm not surprised you're pissy." Louis said, "next time just tell me you want a blowjob."

"But I don't want a blowjob." Louis jerked his head back from where he was about to kiss Harry, "no I mean...I've been meaning to bring up the topic but its not really something you say over dinner."

"Okay well say it now."

"I want your honest answer, I'm already expecting it to be a no so just a honest answer."

"Of course. Harry I'd never lie to you especially about something as serious as sex. Now hurry up because I'm getting hard just form the anticipation." Harry leaned back on his elbows while Louis stayed straddled on his lap

"Would you ever consider bottoming? Like...just once?"

"I have bottomed, multiple times. My last boyfriend preferred topping so most times I bottomed. He'd bottom every now and again, but -"

"No, I know you've bottomed. I meant with me. Would you ever bottom with me topping?"

"Yeah of course." Louis said immediately still confused as to why this was even a question in the first place

"You would? Just like that...you're not even going to think about it?" Harry asked shocked

"Why would I have to think about it? Harry of course I would bottom for you. I mean I'd want to top eventually but it wouldn't have to be frequently if you didn't want it to be. I love to bottom, and I love to top. Why wouldn't- Dickhead said he'd never bottom for you didn't he."

"He mentioned it briefly. We didn't talk about it, but he mentioned my size being an issue for anyone." Harry said

"Well I would probably have to be on top the first few minutes so my body could adjust at its own pace, but after that it would get easier with time. The first few times will have to be careful, so I don't tear but once my body is used to you I won't need as much preparation. You're above average Harry, but you're not abnormally large. Your ex was just an insecure douchebag who probably had a smaller than average cock and was made fun of for it in school. You have nothing to feel weird about when it comes to penis sizes." Louis explained, "now is this something you want to do? Have sex? Or is it something you want to talk about now, so you know later?"

"I wanted to take you out to a nice dinner tonight before I cancelled the plans to come here. Then I was going to let you listen to the songs either in the studio or in a nice warm bath. I was going to get rose petals and just throw them all over our bedroom and whether it was just a really nice cuddle, or we just explored the other's bodies or whatever we did I would know that you knew I meant every word and that I love and trust you so much."

"I already know that."

"I know you do, but I wanted to show you, but I don't know how to do that or if you want to do thar or if I'm even ready to bottom. It's not that I don't trust you because I do, and I love you and I want to share that with you. I just don't know what to do. I mean obviously I know what to do I just-" Louis cupped Harry's face and kissed him

"First step is to talk to me." Louis told him watching as Harry rolled his eyes grinning

"Obviously, I was going to talk to you. I had a speech all planned for when you came into the bedroom. I was going to tell you how much I love you and you were going to make a joke about me proposing too soon and to hold off and I was going to tell you to shut up for five minutes so I could talk." Louis laughed nodding

"Sounds like us. What else was going to happen?"

"I was going to tell you how amazing you are and how much you've helped me find myself and how much I wanted to spend my life with you. Then you'd interrupt and tell me if I get down on one knee, you'd say no just to spite me. I would look at you...probably the way I'm looking at you now." Harry said softly as he stared at Louis with love and tears shining in his eyes.

"I like this look." Louis said swallowing heavily, "what would you tell me you wanted to do?"

"I want us to go further, but I don't know how far I was comfortable with. Maybe all the way or maybe half. I want us to go as far as I or the night allows." Louis didn't know why he had tears in his eyes or even when they got there, but he cupped Harry's face and kissed him pushing down on his back.

"And we will...next Saturday night. I will wine and dine you and I will throw petals all over the bedroom and we will find out where the night stops and I will bottom or top. Whatever feels right and you can stop anytime. I promise."

"I love you." Harry said looking at him

"I love you too." Louis said, "unfortunately if we are gone any longer our families will get suspicious. We'll leave tomorrow morning and spend all day in bed getting all of that frustration out of you. Come on."

#New Chapter #larries #Larry Stylinson #larry shippers #larry fanfiction #larry stylinson fanfiction #larry stylinson fluff #larry fluff #archive of our own #Wattpad

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sctisfctions · 3 years

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( emeraude toubia, 28, cis female, she/her ) Have you seen CARINA TORRERO around ? I hear they’re an ESCORT who can sometimes be GREEDY & IMPULSIVE. But I also heard they can be DETERMINED & ADAPTIVE if you catch them on a good day. They’re usually hanging around LA CASA DI MATEO in their spare time. I sure hope they’re alright ! ( mandy )

Hello all! I’m Mandy and this is my child, Carina Torrero She’s… a lot, so bless your soul for finding your way to this intro.

Full name: Carina Cecilia Torrero Nickname: Care, Cari, C.C. Age: 28 Nationality: Mexican and Lebanese Religion: N/A City of birth: Laredo, Texas The current place for living: Chicago, IL Job title: Eden Escort Married? No Spoken Languages: Spanish, English Birthday: October 30th Does she own a home? Yes

B A C K G R O U N D : ( updated Feb. 25th, 2021 )

Carina is the baby of her family and has always was spoiled as such; showered in gifts. In the small town of Laredo, Texas, the Torrero family was known as the richest family in town. While it was rumored that there were some underground dealings going on in the family business, none of those were true. In fact, The Torreros prided themselves on being the purest and most righteous family in the region. Rev. Torrero owned and pastored a Mega Church that made millions of dollars every week, on top of people throwing money at her parents for their “good work”. But it meant nothing to Carina because she always felt like the church always came before her. Every time they were absent from her biggest life events, a gift was sent to make up for it.

When Carina went to Drexel University to get her degree in fashion design and marketing, she planned on spending the first year goofing off and exploring what the world has to offer her. In a city like Philadelphia, it was easy to get lost in the hype of pre-game drinking sessions and post-game parties, getting sucked into hook-up culture and living as thought she’d never have a chance to touch this many people all at once.

Getting out of college and moving back in with her family in Laredo was odd, at first, leaving the sweet life of sin behind and pretending to be the angel the town was so used to. Kidding, of course, she couldn’t leave it behind. She started doing modeling on the side and ended up getting commissioned for a huge gig with a very risqué magazine. Before the photoshoot even happened, word reached her parents church and the rumors spread like wildfire across the town. Her parents looked down on her with shame and disgrace.

It felt all so overwhelming until she realized it’s all just Texas life. Outside of their region, no one even knows who her family is. She knew the only thing to do was to pack up her things, steal a couple million dollars from her parents ( which was barely a dent for them ), and move to Chicago where she could carry on a life of her own. Within a month of moving, she made friends with some people who worked at a club called Eden. They got her a job as an escort and, to this day, she’s been operating as a freelance designer by day and an escort by night.

Family:

Sisters or brothers: One older brother and sister Wife or husband: N/A. Children: None. Other important persons: Roommate(s)

Physical Characteristics:

Addictions: control, power Bad Habits: acting only for the good of herself Color of Eyes: brown The color of Hair: black The color of Skin: tan Dialect: american accent Does the character drink regularly? always Does the character have any disabilities? no Does the character prefer any proverbs? “the most important thing is to enjoy your life and be happy” - audrey hepburn Does the character smoke? sometimes Good Habits: open-minded, forward thinking, tidy. Height: 5′3″ Hobbies: reading, working out, instagram, binge watching, skin care routines, healthy eating Is she wearing Glasses? no Is the character healthy or does he have any diseases? she’s healthy What’s the style of the character? (modern, outmoded): sporty and sexy. is almost always wearing a sports bra, leggings, and sneakers.

Mental Characteristics

Education: Bachelor’s Degree in Fashion Design and Marketing Intelligent or not? smart enough. she picks things up quickly. Fears: being misunderstood, spiders Life Goals (next 5 years): get a mansion Life Goals (next 25 years): own a fashion empire Self-perception: idk she’s just trying to keep it all together Assumed external perception: she thinks people think she’s either great or a bitch, there is no in between. Self-Confidence: extremely confident Rational Or Emotional: rational How could you upset this character? compare her to her family

Wanted Connections ( all based on crazy ex-girlfriend/galavant songs )

any of these could be filled with gang affiliates of any kind !! It’d be fun to see how a gang affiliate would spice up these connections !!

PLATONIC

FRIENDTOPIA: Carina loves very few people on Earth. They’re the Joey/Chandler/Monica/Phoebe to her Rachel. They do practically everything together, as they spend pretty much every waking second together. They’re her roommates (they can work at Eden with her, but it’s not required).

LET’S GENERALIZE ABOUT MEN: a bitch-type group of friends that get together, sometimes drink, sometimes shop, or sometimes just share gossip and personal thoughts about what the hell is going on around them.

SECRET MISSION: They say the enemy of my enemy is my friend. These people mutually hate someone and often come up with different ways in which they can make this person suffer. But it’s all just in good fun…… or is it?

OFF WITH HIS SHIRT: Any of the men she’s been with exclusively through Eden. Her “regulars” or “visitors”, if you will. She gets paid quite heavily whether she offers sex or just her general company.

MAYBE YOU WON’T DIE ALONE: Carina is the self-proclaimed Hook Up Guru of Chicago, so she’ll definitely attempt to hook you up with that person you’ve had your eye on and it sometimes isn’t subtle. But sex makes her happy, so helping her friends get laid makes her happy too.

AFTER EVERYTHING I’VE DONE FOR YOU: This person has gone to hell and back for Carina, yet she shows little to no gratitude towards them. It’s only a matter of time before their lid pops right off.

FACE YOUR FEARS: These are her older friends who help her figure out her shit and she ACTUALLY listens to them because she just trusts them more than anyone else.

GREG’S DRINKING SONG: Drinking buddies!! A lot of the instances Greg mentions in the song can basically just be different scenarios they’ve gotten themselves in.

ROMANTIC/SEXUAL:

IT WAS A SHIT SHOW: A bittersweet ex-boyfriend. They really didn’t have any choice but to end things. He has some things going on in his life, Carina wasn’t anywhere near ready for a monogamous relationship. They both agree… it was a DISASTER.

SETTLE FOR ME: Someone who, stupidly, has a crush on Carina and he literally doesn’t have a single chance in hell. I just think this kind of energy would be hella hilarious.

STRIP AWAY MY CONSCIENCE: One of the guys that she regularly hooks up/hooked up with. Maybe even dated, but it wasn’t anything more than sex, really. They’re still friends to this day.

SEX WITH A STRANGER: This is pretty straight forward. All of her hookups. I’m just gonna list them here for data purposes. They coulda been friends before or barely know each other. Honestly, if she avoided everyone she’s ever had sex with, she’d never leave her house.

ENEMIES:

MAYBE YOU’RE NOT THE WORST THING EVER: Bitter, toxic exes. This was one of her first real and intense relationships that happened in a time when she was the most vulnerable and unprepared. It ended HORRIBLY when they lashed out at each other and it’s hard to let those feelings go. If they can get over their own pettiness, they can at least hope to be frenemies.

JACKASS IN A CAN: People who really just DON’T think she’s all that. They thinks he’s very stuck up and don’t fall for her charming, blunt persona in the slightest. I’d just love someone to call her out on her bullshit.

I DON’T LIKE YOU: General dislike and sworn mortal enemies kind of situation. We can talk over what happened between them, but honestly, it wouldn’t be that hard to find something that she did… or someone.

WHEW this was long, but go ahead and press some buttons if you like and wanna plot with her!!

#crimson.intro #💫 ( carina torrero )

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x0401x · 4 years

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Akiba Souken Interview with Jizue

On the original soundtrack of “Hoshiai no Sora”, which demonstrated the uniqueness of Jizue.

The ones who composed the soundtrack of the TV anime “Hoshiai no Sora” were the instrumental band Jizue, which is based in Kyoto and widely active both nationwide and overseas. It is said that they, who claim to have always wanted to work with video, encountered “Hoshiai no Sora” due to a certain coincidence. Their music, which is pleasant to hear despite being so technical, draws the youthful patterns of a soft tennis club, matching splendidly with the worldview of “Hoshiai no Sora” as it approaches the emotions of middle school students. We have asked members Inoue Norimasa-san and Katagi Kie-san about the soundtrack CD, released on December 25th 2019.

Raw || Index || Ko-fi/PayPal ( ╹◡╹)っ’･*

Being provided with an environment where they could unleash the uniqueness of Jizue.

——Jizue is a band with a long career, right?

Inoue: We used to be a song band at first, but it has been thirteen years that we became an instrumental one.

——Why did you decide to be an instrumental band?

Inoue: Counting with the drummer who has left the band by now, we, the three male members, were childhood friends from grade school. We had always been a song band, but we sensed limitations somewhere along the way, so we decided to create cool sounds with just our instruments. Then, we started wanting a pianist, so we added in (Katagi) Kie-chan, who was an acquaintance of our drummer.

Katagi: I was always alone, playing from classics and jazz to pop, so Jizue was the first band I ever joined. Since it is an instrumental band, so I could play the piano as much as I wanted, and it is really fun to build up strength by overlapping with the other instruments.

——Instrumental bands have an image of talent to them, so hasn’t this genre been on a rise in the past years?

Inoue: I do not know whether it has been on a rise or not, but many cool instrumental bands have been around since the time when we started ours, and in comparison to before, I think this genre has been receiving more recognition lately.

Katagi: Instrumental bands have been blending into regular rock festivals often, and costumers who got to know about the genre through soundtracks for doramas have been gathering up at live concerts.

——In these circumstances, Jizue started making music for animated works, right? How was it decided for you to be in charge of the “Hoshiai no Sora” soundtrack?

Inoue: This is something that we also only came to know about later, but the cue was that the director of the recording company happened to have listened to one of our songs, “March of Monkey”, by chance. Then, he looked up the band name and recommended us to the anime’s staff.

Katagi: We had made music for commercials before, but it was our first time working with a soundtrack, so we were happy.

Inoue: Like, “A soundtrack commission has finally come our way”. We were happy, but at the same time, we had no idea how to make it (laughs). At the first meeting, Director Akane said that he wanted us to create Jizue-like tracks without being too conscious of the anime’s worldview, so we were relieved.

——How was Director Akane’s first impression?

Inoue: There were no detailed orders like, “I want you to add a sound like this” or, “I want you to use a melody like that”, so I thought he was the kind of person who was going to let us create freely. The only thing that surprised me was when he told us to make forty or more short tracks, with one to two minutes of length for each. I wondered if people make that many tracks for an anime.

——I believe the specific orders for the tracks were made through a music menu. How was it?

Katagi: Yes, we received a menu. The emotions he wanted us to express through certain tracks were written there, together with their length and tempo, so it was a new way of ordering.

——Who wrote the compositions?

Inoue: I was mostly the one who did it. All the members of Jizue write tracks, but we thought had to bring out a sense of uniformity for the soundtrack, and that it was necessary to have someone take the initiative. So I allocated the members, asking Kie-chan to take care of the piano tracks.

Fast and clear melodies are one of the “flavors” of Jizue.

——How did you get into composing the tracks?

Inoue: There was an order from Director Akane for us to make a number of main songs, so we started from there. At first, we made three-minute tracks like usual and went on to consolidate their images. The initial tracks from the OST, “Ingenuity”, “W -Hoshiai no Sora-“, “slow and sure” and “heart rate”, were conceived like that.

——“W -Hoshiai no Sora” was also included in your latest album “gallery”, which you released July 2019, with the title “W”. Does that mean you already had this track from the very beginning?

Inoue: No, it is a song that we made from scratch for “Hoshiai no Sora” and we liked it a lot, so we asked permission to include it in our own album. “W” is a title we put on it with both the meaning “doubles” and of “versus”, as in fighting against an opponent, and it is a song that we made with the excitement and dizziness of a game match as its image.

——It is often used in the anime and is also the track that represents “Hoshiai no Sora”.

Katagi: When I watched it online, the comments would go, “Here it is~” in unison whenever “W -Hoshiai no Sora-“ started playing. That made me happy.

——Katagi-san’s high-speed piano is cool and I think everyone loves it.

Inoue: Melodies like that are one of Jizue’s quirks, so we thought we should use them in this soundtrack too, no matter what. Ever since the earlier stages, we have been adopting passages fast enough to make people go, “So they can play that much”. I believe that this gap of having clear melodies in-between is characteristic of Jizue, so for this time, I would write phrases that were, if anything, quick-paced, and would ask Kie-chan, “Can you play this?”.

Katagi: I played by practicing a lot (laughs). “W -Hoshiai no Sora-“ has a tense air to it and I think it is a cool track.

Inoue: The track is not just hard to play - there is a sense of liberation from the hook’s melody, so it resulted in a track that is easy to ride on. Not just the anime’s staff but also the people who watched the anime have liked these tracks that we made the way we wanted, so we have this feeling that we created good tunes.

——This time, when you were making the soundtrack, what did you have in mind?

Inoue: There are tracks in it that last less than a minute, so I had wondered for a moment if people would enjoy listening to such short ones, but when I listened to them in sequence when working on the mixing and mastering, they sounded amazingly good. If I had to tell you why, I would say it is the track’s feeling - there is this sensation that the feelings of the tracks we want people to listen to the most are lined up in rows. When I realized this, I found soundtracks to be fun.

——I believe there were tracks for depictions of everyday life that you would not normally make. How was it trying to produce these tracks?

Inoue: We made them enjoyably, without any resistance whatsoever. We had the desire to bring out the uniqueness of Jizue even in such tracks, so I think they turned out as slightly eccentric daily life tunes. For example, their tempo becomes irregular.

Katagi: Nori-chan is the genius type when it comes to songwriting. Just from him humming a tune that he came up with at random, the tempo becomes irregular, but you can listen to it without any sense of misplacement whatsoever, even when the time signature goes from seven to eight. He is also a recording engineer, so by the time he creates a melody, he already has an image of its sound as a whole in his head.

——So you have a clear vision of the final form from the initial phase of composition.

Inoue: I do. This specially applies to instrumental bands, but I believe that the coolness of a track changes greatly depending on its sound design.

——While Jizue’s compositions are complex music pieces backed by advanced techniques, I had the impression that they were easy for the ears to get familiar with.

Katagi: Normally, when we are creating them, we members have an unspoken consent to make the hook’s melody into something that people can sing to, no matter what. Beautiful things will definitely resound within people’s hearts, regardless of how difficult they might be, so we think it is good to put in such melodies.

Getting to create tracks that take a full swing on emotions due to being given a setting from the outside.

——I felt that the nature of Jizue’s music was a perfect fit for “Hoshiai no Sora”.

Inoue: It makes me happy when people who watched the anime think so. When making them, we wondered about how the sounds would go with the animation, but when we actually saw it on-air, they matched so well that even we were surprised. As expected of that anime’s staff, starting with the director. We made countless tracks for the games, but all of them were used in good ways, so since they match so well, I wanted to have made even more of them (laughs). As we made a soundtrack ourselves this time, I started paying attention to the soundtracks of other animes.

Katagi: We would look forward to every episode of “Hoshiai no Sora”. We were only told the story of the early stages, so we were curious about the continuation.

Inoue: We were told it would have not just a sense of youth but also pain, yet I had not imagined it would be this much of it (laughs).

Katagi: In the menu, there was a specification like “fear toward his father”. We made a dark song with just the piano, but when we watched the initial parts on-air, the dad turned out to be way worse than we had pictured.

Inoue: The episode about Itsuki-kun getting the burn marks on his back was a huge shock, and I was like, “You can’t do that to kids, no matter what!”. But the mother’s suffering was also conveyed and felt realistic. I got sad.

——This is a series where the amount of painful scenes is not small, so while making tracks for youthful scenes and heated-up tennis scenes, you also had to make sorrowful and disturbing ones.

Inoue: And make them we did. There are not such dark tracks amongst our usual ones, but I personally like melodies in minor a lot, so I made them without any resistance.

Katagi: We were able to shake off our emotions and create these tracks thanks to the setting being given to us from the outside, like how it went this time. We normally write tracks while picturing sceneries and stories that have moved our own hearts, but we had never made such worked-up feelings into the theme.

Inoue: It was interesting to make them by being granted a theme. And I was really happy to have a proper response and see them properly matching the animation.

——Who decided the track titles and order for the soundtrack CD?

Inoue: I decided on both. For the track order, firstly, I wanted to line up the tracks we made as the main themes of the series, going from the lighthearted tracks into the dark zone from that point on, and then make a beautiful flow toward the ending theme, “Kago no Naka no Bokura wa”. I really like the opening and ending themes of “Hoshiai no Sora”.

Katagi: I think coming up with titles for all thirty-four tracks was a hassle (laughs). You did a lot of research on English language when thinking about them, right?

Inoue: I thought they had to match the mood of the tracks no matter what. Also, there is a code hidden within the titles altogether.

Katagi: There is actually a meaning as to why there is upper case mixed with lower case.

Inoue: We hope people enjoy this too.

——Do you want to keep making anime soundtracks from now on too?

Inoue: We so do. If any anime’s staff calls to us, we want to do it right away (laughs). A discussion has been raised about us making a series by merging Jizue itself with animation, and there are many opportunities to deliver our music through video series collaborations with an apparently wide scope of people, so we would like to keep actively going at it in the future too.

#hoshiai no sora #hns #sportsanimedaily #fysportsanime #stars align #jizue #hoshisora #interview #my translation

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