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maggie-004 · 10 months

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(Un-) Lucky coincidence - 3

Jenna Ortega x Fem reader

Summary: After helping Jenna Ortega, Y/N invites her to stay at her apartment when Jenna's hotel reservation is canceled. Jenna accepts the offer, and they bond over music and their shared vegetarian lifestyle while enjoying Chinese food and planning Jenna's stay in Austria for another 1 and a half weeks.

Words: 2155

“Oh, cool cool, I’m here with my car soo uhm do you need a ride?” I asked Jenna, trying to not freak out. “Uh yeah that would be great. Where do you even live, like do you have a house or-“, “What a house, you’re funny, no I have an apartment nearby. Houses here in Innsbruck are very expensive, if you wanna buy a house, that’s not the size of an shoe box you’ll have to pay at least 5 Million euro. Even to buy an apartment is really expensive. Mine costed around 500.000 euro.” I nearly cried out of laughing “Come on let’s go to my Car, and maybe close your mouth on the way there, Innsbruck is a very expensive city” I laughed at how shocked she was, it really is normal around here. “Yeah let’s go, sorry. I am really shocked right now your apartment is just a little less worth than our house in Coachella and my apartment in LA is way, WAY cheaper than yours” Jenna explained while we went to my car. “Oh really I thought America is more expensive than Austria.” I said while unlocking my car.

“apparently not, I really thought Austria would be very cheap, well I thought wrong. Oh is that your own car or is it your parents?” “No it’s my own, I love this car” I proudly said while getting in to my Ford mustang Mach-e. “Wow I thought you were a nursing student, by the way how old are you?” Jenna glanced at me while I connected my phone to the car. “I’m 19 (feel free to put in your age) how old are you?” I asked Jenna. “Woah how do you have an own apartment, a car like that and your job at the age of 19? Oh yeah I’m 20 but I’m turning 21 this year” she said and smiled at me. “Oh you’re not old yourself, you know for what you’ve reached so far. Well I started to study at 16, I skipped a few classes and I wanted to move out from my old home so I started to save money and I do make money besides school so yeah that’s pretty much it.” I just explained when we drove off, I played some music and I could see from a side eye that Jenna was enjoying it. “wow so you are the youngest in your class, at least I suppose? And how do you manage to make money, well enough money for all that while still going to school. I know that my sister, Mia she is 2 years older than me, is now nearly done with nursing school and she barley has time to work a part time job and make enough money for anything like this. Oh yeah before I forget to ask, where do you find those remixes we’re listening right now” She asked me and started to get into the music even more. “Oh she’s a nurse as well? That’s so cool, but it’s true. When you’re in nursing school you don’t have enough time to make some Money, except you are lucky enough, like me, to make your money doing something you love, for me it’s DJing. I have my YouTube channel and I have now nearly 5.5 Million subscribers, that’s where you can find those remixes by the way. That’s how I make my money. I’ve never shown my face though so I live a normal life. I collaborated with one of my best friends I met online her name is Antonia aka. RevedTV, I really got a lot of subs from her community. All in all I’m just lucky” I explained smiling because that really is just luck and it’s so cool to receive so much good karma. “Okay, wow yeah I don’t really know what to say here, I’m flabbergasted. Congrats on that and you got to tell me your artist name, I really want to listen to more of your remixes.” Jenna said, and to be honest that made me so proud of myself because everyone knows that Jenna is addicted to music and that she has a certain taste of music, I think she has a really good taste in music, but I got ripped out of because we were already pulling up to my garage.

“Thank you” I just realized that Jenna was talking to me earlier, I kind of zoned out, I still got to tell her about my ADHD otherwise she might thinks I’m rude. “Sorry for not talking to you sooner, I kind of zoned out, you know I have ADHD just wanted to clarify so I don’t come off rude. Sorry”. “Don’t be sorry, that’s ok you don’t seem rude, I know how it feels to zone out, happens way to often to me too” She just giggled at me. “Oh thank god you can relate to the zoning out, hey believe it or not some people don’t zone out at all. It really shocked me to learn about that” I explained living through the exact same feeling as I did when I first learned about that. “Yeah no way, you’re kidding right?” she asked me “Nope. I’m not kidding I swear”. “Wow second time you made me speechless today, just for your information, normally that doesn’t happen to me and certainly not twice”, “ Okay and what exactly does that mean?” I asked her while we got in the elevator I live on the 3rd and 4th. I jokingly started to tease her “Do I make you nervous … nahh just kidding” I laughed and I’m not sure but I think Jenna blushed a little but maybe it’s just my imagination. We arrived at third floor and I unlocked the door, holding it open for Jenna “Milady, after you” “Thank you”. “You can keep your shoes on or how ever you like, feel comfortable, do you want a little tour so you see how we Austrians live” I asked her. “Yeah sure I’d love to” she said while she took off her shoes. “ Okay first room to your right is my guests bath, next to it the guests room and a little storage room” “Mhm oh the furniture is soo cool” Jenna said. “Then you should wait until you see my room, anyways around that corner is my kitchen and the eating era, come on.” “Woah I definitely wasn’t expecting an all-black kitchen it’s so cool and so big. Y/N you have a really nice furnishing style, I love it here.” Jenna said. “Thank you so much yeah I really took my time because I want to feel at home here so no compromises with anyone, you won’t believe me how many people said ´oh no black kitchen… don’t do this… don’t do that- bla bla bla` but as already said no compromises. Okay come on we have another floor to look at” I just said. “Another one? Wow cool you really hyped me for your room.” “Okay then come on, soo here is my bathroom, I really needed that freestanding bathtub and again a lot of black elements I love it looks so fancy. Next to my bathroom I have my laundry room nothing special in here. But now my second favorite room, my studio. Here happens all my ´Musical magic´” Jenna looked stunned at me and I just had to laugh at her face and about myself, calling myself magical. “Well I guess we make it a third time that I don’t know what to say wow, this is all so cool, amazing is that your DJing controller?” Jenna asked me. “Yeah it is if you want I can show you a few things on it later” I suggested. “I’d love to, maybe you can teach me a little bit” she smiled like a little child when I nodded at her request. “Okay now come ooonnn I am so hyped to show you my room, I really love it so let’s gooooo.” “Oh my god you’re hyping me up so much don’t hype me anymore I don’t think I could that you know… emotionally” Jenna laughed.

“Well then we’ll make it short and painless. Here take a look.” I said with the biggest grin on my face, because I know we can add another speechless Jenna moment to our list. My room is the biggest of all my rooms, it has 2 black Walls on which my Californian King sized Bed is, also it’s slightly higher than everything else because it’s build on this platform thing, where I have two huge drawers, I know I don’t need bed this big alone but I really fell in love with it, I think its needless to say that I wouldn’t spent so much money on a bed I don’t need, but I got it as a gift from one of my advertising partners. I also have a lot of plants and little decoration things, Pictures and a few fan gifts, a big ass aquarium, way too big tv, but again it was a gift, my beloved Book shelf, next to it a tiny two person couch and a desk for schoolwork and editing. But now my favorite part, my walk-in closet. “So Jenna what do you think” I grinned. “Wow this room is amazing, how long did you spent to make it look like that, and that bed oh my god can I sit on it, it looks sooo comfortable” Jenna said. “Yea you can also lay in it if you want, it was a gift from my advertising partners. I think I’ve spent one and a half months on this room, but only because I didn’t accept any help in this room, I really wanted it like I imagined. So I build that platform for my bed myself and lowered the ceiling for the LED’s.” I explained “How’s the bed?” I laughed at how tiny Jenna looked in it. “It’s amazing but I am a little scared that I’ll get lost in it.” We both started to laugh like crazy. My stomach started to hurt out of laughter I threw myself on my bed next to Jenna and tried to calm down. Needless to say we pushed each other even more and only after 10 minutes we started to calm down. “Uhg now my stomach hurts, Jenna do you still want to drink a coffee” I asked her still giggling. “Yeah sure, can you help me up” “sure her you go, we gotta go downstairs for coffee, or are you hungry?” I asked Jenna now. “Well yeah are you?” she asked. “I am so hungry right now, do you wanna order something or should I cook?”, “Uh we can order something and I pay for it you know as a thank you” Jenna suggested. “Oh Jenna you really don’t have to that’s fine you’re my guest so please let me- “ Jenna interrupted me “Yeah and you helped me when no one did so please I insist.” “Okay thank you” I gave up I didn’t stood a chance. “What should we order?” I asked Jenna. “Well I’m currently chancing my diet for Romania so something vegetarian, do you like Chinese?”, “Oh I love Chinese food and btw I’m vegetarian too, had to change from vegan to vegetarian because of the nutritious, kind of sucks” I explained to Jenna whom nodded at what I was saying. “oh my god same, I was so devastated when I found out I had to change that.” We both ordered some spring rolls and those lobster chips the white ones. “So should we look for places you could stay, or do you maybe wanna stay here, I mean only if you want to and feel safe and everything” I offered her, not really knowing what she’d say and hoping to not scare her away. We sat in my 2nd floor and before she could answer the doorbell rang. So I had to run down and get the food. “Hey Jenna do you wanna eat in the living room or down here?” I yelled up. “ Uhm however you want” she yelled back. So I got everything we need form the kitchen and got back up. “ I think it’s more comfortable if we stay here. Well about my offer-“ Jenn a cut right in “Uhm I’d love to but only if you’re really fine with that.” Oh my god, I think my heart is about to stop. Jenna really is going to stay at my place. “Yeah totally I can set up the guest room, you can stay as long as you want. I really mean it. How long are you staying in Austria anyways?” I asked her. “for another 1 and a half weeks, we are going to start promoting Wednesday, so the rest of the Wednesday cast comes here tomorrow, and thank you for everything”

A/N: Wow these are getting longer, fyi English is not my first language. Still hope you like it :)

#jenna ortega x reader #actors #jenna marie ortega #jenna ortega #jenna ortega x you #the fallout #wednesday

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kindred-sims · 9 months

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“Bye, Mr. Comisky, I’ll let my mother know you said hello!”

Henry waved goodbye to the storekeeper as he began to depart. He’d already been on his way into town to return a book he’d borrowed from Mr. Clayden, and Jo had taken the opportunity to send a fresh basket of eggs with him, asking that he go sell it at the general store for her.

Admittedly, he’d found himself distracted by the sight of the typewriter in the window as he neared the door. He’d noticed it several times during past trips to town, and had lately begun to fantasize about what it might be like to have one. He was sure that so many writers were using them these days, and he would dearly love to have one, especially if it meant not running the risk of breaking any more pencils or dealing with a cramping hand.

Sadly, he doubted that the typewriter would ever be his. It cost a pretty penny, and he doubted his folks could spare enough money to buy it for him. Much as he wanted it, he was content to settle with a usual new pair of socks or sweater, as he had every Christmas.

Caught up in his own thoughts, he wasn’t paying attention when the door opened, and someone came crashing into him, the two of them toppling to the ground.

“Oh! I’m so sorry--” Henry began, pushing himself up from the ground. “I wasn’t watching where I was--”

He reached to offer his hand to the girl he’d collided with, but stopped short at the sight before him. Blonde hair...familiar blue eyes, that shimmered as they looked up at him.

“...Millicent? Is that really you?”

The girl scrunched her face in confusion at his question, grabbing his offered hand to stand back up.

“I apologize, sir, I’m not sure that we’ve...wait, Henry?” A wide smile broke out onto her face, as well as recognition. “Henry Wakefield? I don’t believe it, look at you! My goodness, you must’ve grown a few inches since I saw you last, how have you been?”

Her voice was still just as light and sweet as Henry remembered it to be, causing his heart to soar. He couldn’t believe that it’d taken him a moment to recognize her, but then, she’d changed so much in the last couple of years since he’d seen her. She was practically a proper young woman now, and gosh, was she ever beautiful…it made him feel almost bashful to be in her presence.

“I...um, I’ve been good. Yes, I’ve been doing good,” Henry stammered, clearing his throat. “How about you? I thought you were still off at boarding school.”

“Oh, I’m just home for the holiday break,” Millicent clarified. “Just until Spring, then I’ll be going back...though if I were to be honest, I almost wish I’d stayed where I was. Father’s still stuck in Windenburg on business, and Mother’s almost wanting to cancel our Christmas celebrations over it, it truly is a sad affair...”

The light in her eyes dimmed upon saying so, and Henry felt immediately compelled to invite her over to his family’s home for Christmas dinner, not wanting to risk this being the last time he saw her before she left again. She looked delighted at his offer and gladly accepted, and even let him walk her home after she’d finished running her errand, begging him to catch her up on all that she had missed in the time that she’d been gone.

#sims 4 #ts4 #ts4 history #ts4 historical #decades challenge #wakefield legacy #1890s

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alanaartdream · 7 months

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Ok so my copy of dreamworks trolls band together little golden book has just arrived today

(Don’t worry I’m not gonna post anything spoilers on here I want everyone to watch the movie 🍿 like I’m planning on doing)

Now I’ve seen some posts saying it’s ok to pirate this animated film because dreamworks is a big animation company

That is the lamest excuse I’ve ever herd

Dreamworks isn’t Disney; it’s not got the funding to buy out other animation companies like Disney been doing; it doesn’t own a a bunch of parks based on it’s movies/ shows all over the world; plus dreamworks pays their writers/ animators/ artists for the work they do

Dreamworks started out as a group of animators who Disney screwed over after treasure planet movie was made by them (witch is a very underrated flim) ((also it’s what I’ve herd from a lot of animation fans have told me about dreamworks animation history))

Look I get not being able to afford to see a movie or it never being available in your part of the world so that’s why you pirated I get that excuse but if you can afford it and have the time and can get it on dvd then don’t be a cheapskate go pay for it but if you can’t I get it no hate to you

It’s the cheapskates people who like to put every animated film company as like Disney when no the others are not Disney in fact Disney the only one right now who can afford for many people to pirate their films/ movies/ shows right now

I mean they own stars wars and marvel AND Pixar

They we’re it’s competition and they just bought them over so that they can do whatever it is they want

The competition they have now is studio ghibli: dreamworks; and maybe Sony animation

Too often Disney gets away with how they handle their artists/writers/animators and even it’s actors (Disney has a lot of skeletons in their closet and not talking about jack skeleton here; I’m talking about the stuff alot of people like to ignore and just say oh it’s *Disney* we’re just gonna ignore it because it’s them)

Also if you think pirating doesn’t effect a movie series

Let me remind you of dreamworks Rise of the Guardians (you know the movie with Jack Frost the character so many like to ship with Disney frozen Elsa character? You know him)

That movie cost a lot to make but it didn’t make enough for it to have it’s story continue; they were planning on fleshing out Jack Frost’s story more to go with the books the movie was based on but being as soo many had pirated that movie the year it came out they couldn’t get the money together for that so those plans were cancelled

Because it was pirated to kingdom come

It was at a time before streaming services were a thing and people didn’t want to wait for it to finish being aired AND couldn’t wait for it to come to dvds either so any ideas they had to continue the story got cancelled this no more story of teenage Jack Frost or even about night light (character from the books) or anything

So look I get it if you can’t afford it and it’s not coming to your part of the world so you pirated the movie but could you at least wait until after the movie been out in and makes it to dvd before you pirate it?

And if you can afford it; have the time AND can get the dvds AND it’s showing where you are

DO NOT BE A CHEAPSKATE

Go pay for it to see it it could all the support it can get

This isn’t a Disney film that can afford to lose a few dollars

If you want trolls to last as long as my little pony; transformers; Care Bears; kung fu panda 🐼 and teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 🐢 have done then

WE NEED TO SUPPORT it however we can (within reason; don’t make yourself broke for it ok thank you)

Just don’t let yourselves turn into poor Floyd’s captors who are killing him for their own gain not caring that they are killing him for their own selfish gains

If you can’t afford ok I get it but please be patient and don’t post spoilers for others who are planning to see the movie maybe try to wait until after the movie comes to dvd; also if you can check out the books while you wait if you can

Because we all want this movie to do well

We all don’t want a repeat of what happened to rise of the guardians movie to happen to trolls band together ok

#trolls #dreamworks trolls band together #trolls band together #dreamworks trolls #trolls dreamworks #dreamworks #dreamworks animation #little golden book #trolls little golden books

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reblogalanaartdream · 7 months

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If you want to see animation flim but can’t afford it and you’re in a hard place

Or live in part of the world that flim will never air?

Ok I get it go pirate that movie 🍿

If it’s a Disney Disney animated movie

Yeah go pirate that flim they can afford a lost and they’re not always known for treating their creators and animators well (( find ways to go support their creators and animators and artists wherever you can please))

But if you can afford to pay to see your animated movies and you want them to do well and you know maybe keep on going you better NOT be the asshat who pirates that animated flim

You go watch it in theatres and buy the dvds for it

Do NOT be a cheap if you can afford it

Because unlike Disney

Animated companies like Sony; Studio Ghibli and Dreamworks had to work sooo long and soo hard

Against Disney just to get to where they are today

Heck once Pixar was against Disney but then being as 3d animation costs a hold lot more to make than 2d and requires a hold lot more people to make they nearly went bust but the Disney bought them and Disney had less competition

Also dreamworks started being as Disney didn’t want to invest money into 3D animation after how much it cost to pay 3d animation & animators for treasure planet movie and their piss off the animators so bad they got together a team of their own and started dreamworks animation team away from Disney to compete with them

Also if you’re saying oh but dreamworks a big animated movie company now

Let me remind you of the movie

Rise of the guardians

The one with the Jack Frost character so many of you like to ship with Disney’s frozen Elsa character

Do you know even though it was such great well received movie it couldn’t get it’s story continued

In fact it’s 2nd movie got canceled

As you see here it didn’t make it to getting more movies 🍿

Because not enough people went to go see it

It was the most pirated movie when it came out

It didn’t make the gross it needed to prove people would watch it’s story to continue so it got canceled

Shrek

Kun fu panda

How to train your dragon those movies got the funding it needed for their stories to continue but never rise of the guardians

Dreamworks isn’t Disney they cannot afford to keep doing stories that will not make profit

Disney can afford to lose to dreamworks

But Studio Ghibli and dreamworks can’t lose to Disney

So when studio ghibli and dreamworks make an animated film and you can afford to go see it and to get the dvds please don’t pirate it

There’s a hold team of animators / writers and artists working on their movies who you are stealing work from when you pirate animated films

Plus someone needs to go against Disney

Disney needs to be taken down a few pegs

Because Disney has taken awards it didn’t deserve to get when they should’ve gone to studio ghibli and dreamworks as well

Heck man I know Sofie from howl’s moving castle

And Branch & poppy from trolls

Would want you to be more supportive of animated films (( within reason))

I just don’t want what happened to rise of the guardians to happened to any other animated flim that isn’t Disney one

Don’t let Disney keep on winning it doesn’t deserve it

Look I get it if you cannot afford or movie not available where you are I’m not attacking you

I’m mad at those who can afford it that pirate

Animated films (( wish they did it more to Disney films to be honest; because Disney can afford it let’s be honest here; plus Disney has a lot of dark history on not treating their writers/ animators/ artists/ actors all that great that people seem to ignore because oh it’s *Disney* witch isn’t ok for Disney to keep getting away with))

Look if you can’t afford it or it’s not available to you or you don’t have the time or just waiting for the dvd

Of it to come out cool

But please if you can afford it please go see the movie and not pirate it (or get it when it’s on dvd)

Just don’t do Disney a favour by stealing from studio ghibli / dreamworks thank you

#animated film #studio ghilibi #dreamworks #dreamworks trolls #trolls dreamworks #trolls band together #dreamworks trolls band together #howls moving castle #dreamworks rise of the guardians #rise of the guardians #rise of the Guardians Jack Frost #jack frost #trolls poppy #trolls branch #don’t let Disney win #over Disney

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sid471 · 5 months

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Okay, I’m gonna do this >_>

I wanna talk about Klance 😊 and this is my blog so I can do whatever I want 😊 Have I seen Voltron? No. Have I experienced Klance first hand? No. But I… have been on the internet. And that’s enough for me 😊

Again, I haven’t seen Voltron, I wanted to watch it but I never started it because just from like… being on the internet I heard how hard they fumbled with Klance and how poorly handled it was. And I know I shoulda watched to formulate my own opinion… but I couldn’t >_> I just- okay, I know that shippers can be crazy, and sometimes more than a little delusional. I’ve been there 🤷🏻‍♂️ but like… EVERYONE, from what I’ve seen, supported Klance .-. And Fandoms… NEVER unify like that. ESPECIALLY when it comes to shipping ._. And it’s not like Voltron was OPPOSED to queerness, they HAD a canon gay character .-. They even had said character get married and smooch his new husband on screen 😶

So like… what-what was the issue? ._. Circling back to ‘shippers are crazy’ 😊 Klance shippers apparently sent death threats to the creators. Which… obviously dumb, obviously don’t do that, obviously a big no no >_> makin us shippers look bad 😒 But did they not make Klance happen out of spite? 😶 Did they write those moments with a purely platonic bond in mind, but afterwards, like after it aired 😊, they were like ‘Uhhh… oops. That’s a little fruity 😶’ and if THAT was the case, after seeing that a romantic relationship between them would’ve been not only accepted by the fandom but a MASSIVE hit, why not just… lean into it and MAKE IT HAPPEN ._. The money prints itself, if nothing else .-. I’ve seen some clips and it’s giving ‘We kiss but it’s with socks on so it’s not gay 🤷🏻‍♂️. Huh? Oh yeah we’ve had sex, made love really. But it was with socks on. Not gay. Oh this? Yeah it’s a wedding band. But we said no homo before AND after we kissed passionately in front of our friends and family. So. Doesn’t count 🤷🏻‍♂️’ just… VERY in denial 😶

And like, a missed connection, or even like, mutual pining or one sided love thing even would’ve been fine. Just like… ACKNOWLEDGE it .-. Acknowledge that these two characters have INSANE chemistry ._. Have one of them be like ‘I have feelings for him but I can’t act on them because of the war and the uncertainty of life and blah blah blah’ Angst! Gays LOVE angst ._. But no, no, instead… they stick one of them, idk which one >_>, with a girl, who, granted, they HAD established had a thing. But like… it felt like… ‘Haha take that. That’ll teach you <_<’ rather than a genuine… relationship .-. Again, just from what I’ve seen/heard.

And if they were worried about the series being canceled… Cowards ._. I’m sorry but that’s cowardly >_> She Ra only got one season BECAUSE the producers were determined to make Catradora happen no matter what. They made a promise and they fulfilled it at the cost of a longer run. And She Ra, in my opinion, doesn’t FEEL unfinished. It FEELS like a complete series y’know?

#Voltron #Klance #Shipping #voltron legendary defender #voltron legendary queerbait #voltron legendary disaster #so I’m guessing Klance wasn’t the ONLY issue 😊#siddy rambles #siddy rants

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mayalaen · 3 months

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customer: where is my package?! it's been a month!!!

me: it looks like your package has been rerouted back to us for incorrect address and hasn't gotten here yet. please check your account on our site and confirm the address is correct

customer: oh i put the wrong address in. send me a new package right away with the right address (which he doesn't give me)

me: *sends an invoice for the shipping costs* please give me the correct address

customer: you're charging me again for shipping?! why?

me: because we sent the package in good faith using the address you gave us. i can either refund you for the product itself minus the original shipping charges and cancel the shipment or you can pay for shipping again and receive your item

customer:

Amazon and Walmart and all those big companies are spoiling people. They think they can get whatever they want even if they're at fault and it shouldn't cost any more.

That money has to come from somewhere, and it's not going to be my pocket when the reason it didn't get to you is because you couldn't be bothered to pay attention when filing out your address 😡

#people suck #real life #this is my life

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greenninjagal-blog · 1 year

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The Rumor Mill Game (pt5)

Long time, no see. :) If you’ve forgotten what’s going on, you can find the previous chapter [here!] Or if you’re new to this, find the start [here!]

Summary: Office coworkers Logan and Remus have created the rumor that they are married and have a son, except that Logan kinda yelled that he didn’t have a son in front of a bunch of people.

Virgil is well....Virgil is going to change that. And he definitely has the blackmail to do it.

Word Count: 8346

Read on Ao3 || My General Writing Masterlist

Okay. So. It wasn’t like when Logan and Remus showed up at the restaurant, Virgil expected Logan to want to adopt him. For one thing, Virgil had parents. For another, Logan had never once shown even a remote interest in having a hand in the responsibility of keeping another, living, breathing being alive.

Virgil knew that. He prompted Logan once about it-- because Virgil at his core was a fucking masochist who needed to have his heart ripped out and stomped on sometimes just to prove he knew what life was like. There had been some stupid math homework that he had guilted Logan into helping him with during Logan’s lunch break (like the man wanted to be doing calculus while out eating-- he was a fucking accountant; he already did this all day for his job), and the problem had involved dogs, so Virgil had made up some stupid idiotic story about once owning a dog just to see if maybe Logan might have like a hundred dogs at home and oh yeah, what difference is a child compared to that, right? At least, you know how to feed yourself and can be trusted outside without a leash, sure I’ll take you in, Virgil! Do you want to call me Dad?

Yeah. And somehow Virgil was still failing his creative writing class-- he didn’t understand it either.

Logan didn’t have dogs at home. Or cats. Virgil was pretty sure he didn’t even have dust bunnies.

And Virgil of all people knew what type of burden children could be. You had to give them time and money and entertainment and if you didn’t then everyone would call you a terrible person! Once you had a kid, you really never had time to yourself to do things you liked to do because a kid was always in the way! How many times had Virgil’s mother reminded him that he was preventing her from enjoying her weekend after she spent all week working her tireless jobs and making him food and keeping the house? How many times had his father answered the door and started swearing because he forgot it was his week and he invited his girlfriend over and she didn’t know Virgil existed so Virgil was either going to spend the whole night in his room pretending to be a piece of furniture or his dad was going to have to cancel?

Virgil was a commitment! He knew it! He was another mouth to feed, his growth spurts just kept happening--he’ll never forget the fury on his mother’s face when she found out he outgrew the shoes she got him for Christmas by late January-- not to mention school fees. School lunch? More like School sit-in-the-library-and-tell-the-librarians-he’s-just-not-hungry. His personal finance class was his own living nightmare because he got to listen to every other kid in the entire class complain about how dumb it is that everything cost money, like bread hadn't always cost at least three dollars. There was a girl named Sally who told the teacher that she’d just show her boobs to the checkout clerk to get it for free so that she could keep up with her fictional mani pedi appointment, after the teacher told her she couldn’t just call her dad and ask for more money.

Virgil scored a perfect A on that assignment, if anyone was wondering. The teacher pulled him back after class to ask him if he was interested in going to a seminar outside of class time for the Next Business Owners of America(™) since he was meticulous with his number crunching. Virgil would have loved to, if it hadn’t been three hours away, pay-for-your-own-food, and hey, how about you bring your parents along? I’d love to meet them and let them know what a great son they’re raising!

Virgil had said he wasn’t interested. His teacher had insisted he’d take a flyer anyway, and now it was stuffed in the bottom of his backpack like a forty ton weight he was lugging around everywhere just to see if it really did get heavier as the day in question approached.

((There was still a week left for reservations. There was still a week left for reservations and Virgil was still very certain that if he did go and he didn’t tell his parents, neither of them would notice he’d gone missing and they would never remember him again and then where would he be?))

So yeah, Virgil was a commitment. Any child was a commitment. Basically a blackhole of money. Any self respecting, successful adult could probably take one look at him and think setting a couple hundred dollar bills on fire is less expensive and more eco friendly than trying to take in a teenager.

Logan probably had thought that, too. Virgil wouldn’t blame him for that.

He just… expected it to hurt a little less. But well. Logan had always been straightforward and it doesn’t get more straightforward than “HE IS NOT AND WON'T EVER BE OUR CHILD”.

Virgil liked that Logan was straightforward. He didn’t have to guess through passive aggressive comments or backhanded compliments to figure out what was being said when Logan was talking.

And really it hadn’t even been anything new being said there. Virgil got to stand there and not cry and very calmly ask Logan and Remus to step outside because they were upsetting the other patrons. Yep totally. Just the other patrons. Not Virgil because Virgil had never been their kid and he had his own parents and there were other kids with less who needed more and he hadn’t been going to mention the flyer or seminar to Logan so it didn’t even feel like the kick to the teeth that it should have been.

But if Virgil’s manager was going to give him a paid break to go stand outside and with a free soda and some mango sticky rice the man made him specifically, then Virgil was going to take it and enjoy it and definitely not cry or text Janus about. In fact he took it and he sat out back and wondered how on earth Remus landed a guy like Logan.

Because Logan was cool. He was smart, pleasant and polite and patient and other words that started with “P”. Virgil had seen Remus a handful of times-- just the few that he’d been desperate enough to get out of his mother’s house but didn’t have money for food-- but those times had been enough for Virgil to get a very super good fucking grasp on who Remus Prince was.

He was loud to Logan’s calm, eye-catching to Logan’s plainness, obnoxious to Logan’s civility. Even when Virgil had watched them walk in together, hands together, ring present it felt like someone grabbed the rug from under him and tugged.

Because-- and Virgil meant this from the bottom of his heart-- Remus was a fucking nightmare demon from hell. There were a lot of people who scared Virgil to no end, but Remus? Remus was on a whole other level.

Remus was The Adult(™) that Virgil avoided like the plague, that Virgil memorized the schedule for when he would be at the food kitchen for, that Virgil laid awake at night running scenarios about because Remus would be the only stupid asshole brave enough to blatantly ask The Question.

Because Remus remembered Virgil’s face, remembered what he looked like, what he wore, and where he liked to sit away from everyone else. Remus remembered Virgil like he wanted to when not even Virgil’s parents wanted to remember him.

Because there wasn’t a shadow dark enough for Virgil to hide in that would keep Remus from seeing him, and Virgil didn’t know a single thing that could keep him from asking hey, is everything okay at home?

No it’s not. Thanks for asking. And hey, I know you’re a mandatory reporter, so pretty please don’t call social services because Virgil cannot think of anything worse than being picked up out of everything he’d struggled to build here and plopped into the hands of someone who would insist they knew how to live his life better.

He didn’t want a family that would see him as just another meal ticket: free money from the government to take in the kid who was too anxious to sleep at night sometimes. Even thinking about the bad families-- the die hard religious people who would call him a sin if they knew he was gay, the abusers that might see him as a free punching back that spit out money sometimes, the too-nice,-but too-many-other-kids-to-worry-about-him couple that might only take him in out of guilt and pity-- made Virgil’s heart beat so hard he could barely breathe.

But what was worse was thinking about the good families. You know, the ones that most of the kids at school went home to? A mother who would insist that he wear brighter colors and eat all his vegetables and join every after school program because it looked good on a resume? A father who would insist that he apply to Harvard and Yale and take summer internships across the country or do hard labor outside because it built character? The ones who would say to him hey, you don’t need that job anymore so just go ahead and quit and we’ll supply everything you could possibly want and you better hope you don’t disappoint us like your first set of parents because then we’ll have the power to take it all away!

Logan… Logan was a safe daydream, okay? He was just a quiet guy who came in for Thai sometimes and ate by himself, tipped nicely, and didn’t try to send his food back because it was “too orange”. He was reasonable and knew when to stop asking questions and he probably wouldn’t care if Virgil kept his job and or if he kept wearing black and didn’t try to apply to schools that would probably eat him alive. Logan smiled at him, and helped with Virgil’s homework, and maybe if Logan hadn’t wanted to be the center of Virgil’s very pitiful stupid, secret wishes, he shouldn’t have been the first person to tell Virgil “good job” since Virgil had been eight.

“Fuck,” Virgil said, shoving another spoonful of mango rice into his mouth.

“Oh, please, do keep catastrophizing in my front seat,” Janus said in his stupid ass rich person tone. “I’m certain that will solve all your problems.”

“Shut the fuck up,” Virgil snapped back at him.

Janus stretched back in the driver's seat, hands above his head, folded neatly with those black biker gloves on still, and his shirt riding up his stomach in the way that makes Virgil kinda hate him. He had his eyes closed for the most part of it all; still content to sunbathe in the front seat as he had been doing for the better part of an hour now, but he opened the right just to side eye Virgil in that unbothered way of his that speaks to how amusing he found watching Virgil self destruct to be.

“Darling--” He said.

“Don’t,” Virgil jabbed his plastic spoon towards him threateningly. “Don’t start with me.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Janus said. “Only merely ending what has been a truly delightful date with my very wonderful boyfriend who is certainly not-at-all distracted by a problem he has made up in his beautiful amazing brain.”

“Shut up.”

“I’ve known Logan since I was in diapers, Virgil,” Janus says. “He’s almost like a second father to me. You are worrying over nothing.”

“It’s not nothing!” Virgil said shrilly.

And that is when Janus finally dropped his arms back down and twisted to face Virgil completely. His eyes, which normally were filled with mischief and spite, were floating with a sincerity that made Virgil’s stomach do flips. The freckles on his face were just barely noticeable, the shine of his lipgloss still freshly applied and waiting to be ruined. His dark hair was highlighted with gold stripes, which Virgil knew from experience looked very dashing when hands were run though it.

“Virgil,” Janus said, soft and kind and knowing. “My own father wouldn’t hesitate if you asked him. And you know that there would be a room in my house painted purple with your own kitchen and fridge by three hours after you asked him.”

“Your father plays mind games,” Virgil said weakly.

“Are you still obsessed with the swear jar?”

“I’m not obsessed!” Virgil shot back. “It freaks me out, okay? The whole swear jar being a place that you both put money so that you have funds to pay for something if you didn’t want him knowing you were paying for? That’s like John Kramer levels of jigsaw puzzles. I can’t handle that on a daily basis! My heart would just fucking stop!”

“My father does not have any intentions of testing your will to live,” Janus said flatly. “Or whatever it is that happens in the Saw movies. He runs a company that’s sole goal is to make lives easier and more affordable. When he turns fifty he plans on giving the whole company to me, and then I will wait exactly one week before selling half the shares to you for a dollar and then you can handle all the gross business stuff and I will handle the very funny human complaints.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I do, actually,” Janus said. “He has it written in his main diary that’s stashed behind the headboard that he’s going to give it to me when he’s sixty, but the secret one he doesn’t think I’ve found yet that is stashed in the false wall behind the washer says fifty. Also the second secret one in the false bottom puzzle box drawer in his office says fifty too.”

Virgil stared at him, waiting a whole beat, but Janus merely raised an eyebrow.

“You understand that’s not normal shit, right?” Virgil asked him. “You understand that your father and you are the most insane people I’ve met, right? Why does he have three diaries? Why are two of them secret? Why do you know there are two secret ones?”

Janus frowned. “There’s three, but the third one is just all about how much he loves me and his billions of lists of things to get for me for my birthday every year. Sometimes I add ridiculous stuff to the list in his handwriting to see if he’ll get me it. That’s how I got my snake.”

“Unbelievable,” Virgil said, staring at him. Part of him was utterly terrified of Janus, of how casually he could say things like that, of how Virgil is pretty sure Janus had the means and the ability to hide his body if Janus decided one day Virgil was annoying him too much, but the larger part of him is just overwhelmed with an embarrassing amount of awe and love.

Something about that must have shown on his face because Janus’s eyes melted like ice cream and his lips curled into a smile that could have coaxed flowers to bloom if their car was parked in a meadow instead of a parking garage.

“I love you too,” Janus said. “Now will you please go into the building and blackmail Logan into being your pretend dad so I can have all my boyfriend’s attention during our dates?”

“Asshole,” Virgil said, leaning over the center console to catch him in a kiss.

Janus hummed enthusiastically, as if he’d been waiting for Virgil to do that all day. Virgil did his best to not roll his eyes.

Janus pulled back first, licking his lips as if to make sure the last of his cherry lip gloss had been cleaned up so that he could apply another coat once Virgil was out of his sight, and finding it satisfactory. “I’m going to eat the rest of your mango rice.”

Virgil handed him the little container, half eaten and not enjoyed quite as much as it should have been due to impending doom. Janus, who was rich enough to have his own plastic spoon, still used Virgil’s. Virgil grabbed the handle of the plastic bag for the other two carry out containers and pulled it into his lap.

“I’m going to get arrested.”

Janus waved a hand. “Get out of my car, Virgil. You can mope when you get back.”

“Pay my bail?”

Janus smiled at him, soft and sunny and causing all the sickening, disgusting butterflies in his stomach to flutter around. Virgil wasn’t sure why, considering he’d also watched Janus eat pavement at the skateboarding park once late at night, and then cry like a baby about it, and then demand that Virgil tell no one about it.

“Always,” Janus said, like he meant it, like he was making a promise, like he loved Virgil and wanted what was best for him even when Virgil didn’t have a single thing to give him in return.

He didn’t realize that he had a stupid smile on his face until he was ten feet from the car holding the bag of take out to his chest like some middle schooler who just got asked out by her crush. He swears at nothing, because of course Janus could draw this sort of reaction out of him over fucking bail money, what the hell. There was nothing romantic about bail money. There wasn’t anything romantic about Janus.

The same way there wasn’t anything nerve wracking about Patton Hart, or terrifying about Remus Prince, or fatherly about Logan Ackroyd.

He nearly tripped and face planted trying to walk into the lobby. His shoe caught on the tile floor and his balance went sideways and his heart jumped out of his throat into his mouth and nearly onto the floor with the mango rice he had just eaten.

There were about ten people wondering in the lobby, doing various tasks: three people in business suits discussing lunch plans, a janitor mopping up an area with cautious signs around it, two people waiting for one of the three elevators, two people at the front desk and a receptionist who was talking to a delivery man from a pizza place across town. And Virgil was pretty sure all of them saw him almost lay himself out on the floor.

It was fine. It was totally fine! If they asked what was wrong with him he would say something like Oh I haven’t possessed a human in at least a century or You guys didn’t see that rat? It was huge! or my plan was to lie my way up to the upper floors but I figured that I might as well give up and let you arrest me now. Do you want to call security or just hand me the phone and I’ll do it myself?

He hesitated on his feet for a moment, wondering if he could get away with going straight into the elevators even though he knows they require a keycard. Janus told him that much in their run throughs while preparing for this. But still the fluttering hopeful part of him was wishing that security risks weren’t a thing and he could just… walk upstairs.

Instead he steeled himself and headed in a direct line towards the receptionist’s desk. All he had to do was convince her to give him a visitor’s badge and let him go upstairs without calling either Logan or Remus who would definitely tell her they don’t have a son.

He was honestly already so lucky they hadn’t announced to the whole building via company-wide email that they didn’t have a child at all. Although the longer he hesitated the more of a chance there was that one or both of them were writing that email right now.

The receptionist nodded to him when he stalled his walk a few paces away from the desk, but continued her discussion with the delivery man. Instead the man and the woman lingering to the side had their eyes on him, watching with opening curious expressions that made Virgil want to hiss at them the way he hissed at the workers in the food bank-kitchen that he visited on weeks when his mother couldn’t be bothered to keep food in the house or his father had forgotten to leave him enough money to buy himself a pizza while he went out on another date.

You know. Before Remus had hissed right back at him and Virgil had realized oh shit, that guy remembered him and this was going to be a problem.

“Watcha doing here, kid?” the guy at the desk asked, taking a sip of his coffee. He was closer than the woman, with a crooked tie and a salt-and-pepper beard that made him look old instead of distinguished or whatever he was trying for.

“I’m looking for my dads,” Virgil said and holy shit this was a bad decision. “Lo-Logan Ackroyd, and Remus P-Prince.” He swallowed nervously, digging his fingers into the boxes of take out and trying hard not to let his spine fold like a chocolate éclair.

The man chokes, nearly spitting up his coffee all over his tie. “No way! You’re the kid?”

“Jeff!” The lady with the frizzy hair hissed.

“What!” Jeff exclaimed. “You heard what Logan said!” The man turned back to Virgil and Virgil forced himself not to take a step back or sprint for Janus’s car or melt into a puddle of human goo or start crying. “Man, that guy really is an unfeeling robot. How old are you? Fifteen? Sixteen?”

“Jeff!” The woman yelled. “I’m sorry, sweetheart; don’t mind him.”

“I’m seventeen?” Virgil said. “And it’s.. uh.” He swallowed, glancing at the receptionist who still looked to be deep in the conversation with the delivery man. “It’s-- it’s okay. I know what it sounded like yesterday. It wasn’t exactly… uh… Logan and Remus aren’t my parents!”

The man and the woman were looking at him now, with twin gazes just short of being hungry. Virgil felt distinctly like he’d just jumped into a lake full of piranhas and kindly asked them not to eat him alive, please and thanks. He took a deep breath, trying to untense his shoulders.

What had Janus said? It was like tearing off a bandaid?

“I’m adopted! But my parents, like the real ones, are still around. They just don’t have custody, you know? Logan and Remus do, because they are good people! Totally good people who probab--I mean definitely haven’t committed unspeakable crimes or anything of the like that could be proven in the court of law! But like yesterday, haha, I mean things haven’t always been easy because like, I’m kinda difficult and I don’t call them dad or anything because I have a dad already who is not Logan and I told Logan I didn’t want to call him dad and so he doesn’t really call me son and definitely not his son, you know? He really didn’t mean it like how it sounded because he’s cool and haha, yeah isn’t that like a horrible coincidence that it sounded bad? But he’s-- Logan I mean-- is really good! Really nice and helps me with my math homework. A really, uhm. He’s a good guy. You know?”

The receptionist was looking at him now, too. And so was the delivery man, their conversation entirely forgotten.

Virgil swallowed like he was drowning, wishing that he could shut up because there was no way these all competent adults were going to buy that horrible, terrible story that wasn’t even really a story as much as just a bunch of gibberish tossed out with Logan’s name in it. It was like he hadn’t even practiced with Janus at all. He barely even got a foot in the door before he just started talking! Did these people even know Logan? Or did he just spit out a fake life story to some random people in the company lobby and would absolutely never be able to show his face here again?

“On second thought, I’ll just go,” Virgil rasped out, and turned on his heel, preparing to bolt for the doors before security could be called for the random kid who just tried to buy his way into a company HQ building with cold Thai food and a fake story about fake parents who would never even want to consider being real parents. Would they charge him with espionage for that? Could they? Is there even bail for espionage accounts?!

“Oh no no no!” The woman exclaimed suddenly, putting her coffee directly on the receptionist counter. “Oh honey, I am so sorry! Of course Logan is a good da-fathe-- I mean a good guardian! Jeff and I didn’t mean to make you think we didn’t know that!”

“Did I say unfeeling?” The man said, laughing nervously and tugging at the collar of his shirt. “I meant unrelenting! An unrelenting robot who has nothing but… love… in his…uh heart. Hey, do you think that maybe you could not bring up this conversation to him? I like my job.”

Virgil couldn’t breathe. Like actually could fucking not. He was going to have to sit down because there was no way that should have worked at all. The woman and the man were doing a piss-poor job of having a subtle conversation under their breaths about which of them was going to get fired as if Virgil actually did have sway with Logan and Remus. The relief was so overwhelming it was terrifying.

Shit, is this what Janus felt every time he made up a lie? If so, Virgil might be able to understand it. He doubted straight ecstasy would come close to this feeling.

The take out boxes creaked in his sweaty, clammy hands as the woman turned back towards Virgil with a too-bright, too-wide smile, that reminded him of his mother when she was on the phone with his teachers who called to let her know that he was failing the class: placating and fake and screaming that she completely believed him and was not even going to bother asking for the other parties side of the story.

“Why don’t we get you upstairs, honey?” she said. “Candy will get you your own personal badge and then you won’t even have to stop around here and talk to us silly old people. Candy?”

“Uh, yeah,” The receptionist said. “I’ll get it to Mr. Ackroyd by the end of the day tomorrow.”

The other woman smiled at him and started guiding him towards the elevators, her badge dangling in her hand. “I’m sure your dads are expecting you, right?”

“It’s a uh…surprise, actually,” Virgil stuttered. “Big surprise.”

“Oh that’s lovely! What a thoughtful son!”

Yep, Virgil thought, swallowing back the urge to vomit all over her knockoff Christian Louboutin pumps (and the fact that Virgil knew they’re knockoffs is equally nauseating, damnit Janus). The thought, though, just for that moment, gave Virgil something to focus on (Janus’s stupid face, the taste of his lipgloss, “I’ll pay your bail.”). He clung to his take out boxes, and stood at least three feet away from the woman, and tried not to feel like he just entered the elevator to hell when the doors slowly rolled shut.

The woman might be talking to him, chatting with her pleasant and polite voice that does nothing to actually put Virgil at ease. Janus probably would be in his fucking element right here, probably soften her up further with a few on-the-spot made up stories that make him out to be a humble yet high achieving son (only half lies: Janus was high achieving, but the day he acted humble about anything would be the day that Virgil did stand up comedy for the whole school during his lunch block). Still that sort of thing would make Logan and Remus look really good, right?

Virgil should be saying something. He should tell her that he loves his parents and that they are the perfect family and Logan and Remus don’t have a 90% chance of responding “who?” when this woman tries to say he’s their son. He shouldn’t be standing ramrod still in the elevator, holding take out food so close to himself it might look as if he’s trying to wear it, or breathing so loud that people in the lobby could still hear him, what the fuck is wrong with him--

“Hey hun,” the woman said. “I don’t think I caught your name, now. What was that again?”

Virgil swallowed hard, forcing his tongue to unstick from the roof of his mouth. “Uh… Virgil. My name is Virgil.”

Why did that sound like he was making it up? That wasn’t even a lie! His name was Virgil! Unless it wasn’t? Would he have even known if Virgil wasn’t the name his parents-- real parents-- had given him?

“Virgil,” she repeated pleasantly. “That’s a wonderful name.”

“Yep, it’s mine. Totally mine. Why wouldn’t it be mine?”

Her eyebrows creased in confusion and Virgil debated slamming his head against the reflective metal doors. Before he could get to the part where he follows through on that one, the elevator diiiiinged! And the floor settled to a stop.

“Oh wonderful,” the woman said. “Now would you like to visit Remus first or Logan? Logan has his own office but Remus has a cubical nearby if you want.”

Virgil honestly hadn’t thought he would get this far. He’d been half convinced that Remus would just be… in the lobby, ready to discount his lies, or Logan would be in the parking lot ready to ask him who exactly he was because surely a random restaurant worker wasn’t worth remembering, or Janus would be telling him that he was an idiot and embarrassing and why are we even dating again?

He opened his mouth but no words were coming out, certainly not ones that would make any of this better than the dumpster fire it was already.

“Jen,” A voice said from nearby. Virgil almost jumped right out of his skin, but it turned out just to be another worker in the office: dyed orange hair and an infinity scarf and hiding behind a stack of files almost as tall as they were. They were looking at Virgil though with a nervous expression as if they thought Virgil was the herald of the workplace firing squad or the next round of interns that would eventually take their job. “Uh, who is your… uhm…?”

“Quin,” the woman said warmly, as if she had been just as put off by Virgil’s lack of response as he himself had been. “This is Virgil. You know, Remus and Logan’s son that they talk about all the time? He brought them a surprise lunch! Isn’t that sweet?”

Ah fuck, they talk about having a son?! Did Logan and Remus actually have a son?! Did Janus just forget to tell him about that?!

Janus, what the fuck?!

The new person’s eyes widened as they took in Virgil’s appearance, which was very much out of place in the entire building. He’d worn his jeans with the least amount of holes in them but his only pair of shoes at the moment were these converse and he’d scribbled black sharpie on them out of boredom in his history class last year. He didn’t exactly look anything like someone who lived with Logan might, considering Virgil had never seen Logan not wearing a business suit, but this was the best outfit he could come up with from his closet.

“Uh yeah, totally. Uhm.” The person said nervously and then leaned in close to the woman and whispered, as if Virgil wouldn’t be able to hear them at all, “Uh, didn’t Logan…uhm… say….?”

The woman laughed painfully in a way that made Virgil wonder what exactly they had all done when under the impression that Logan was an asshole who didn’t love his son (a son he didn’t have because Virgil was not his son and even if Virgil was he wouldn’t blame Logan for not wanting him).

“Oh it was just a misunderstanding! Virgil told Jeff and I about it downstairs. We can have lunch together today and I’ll tell you all about it!”

Virgil frowned slightly, because well… he didn’t exactly mind that people would be talking about it-- that was part of the whole plan anyway, to have people talk about-- but something in him was insulted that it would be shared so blaise. Like, didn’t his homelife situation feel even an ounce personal or private? This woman was just going… to talk about him… and Logan… and Remus…and their private, totally real family business over lunch like she knew everything about it and had the right and authority to disclose that information?

For a second, Virgil was half tempted to tell her that he was also royalty of a distance country and that it was super secret because there were people who would kill to know his whereabouts and they could be anyone, ma’am, and they could be anywhere and now that you know they’ll definitely come after you too. Did you know the last person whom I told, went missing within ten hours and the police are still finding body parts of them around the city?… Anyway, have fun sleeping tonight. Fucker.

“Quin!” A familiar voice yelled from around the corner, causing the person in front of Virgil to leap into the air almost a whole foot. The files they were carrying nearly took flight, but Virgil couldn’t bring himself to worry about them when he was busy watching a rolling chair skid out from a cubicle and bring him face-to-face with Remus Prince.

If hearing Logan say Virgil would never been his son was bad on Virgil, it looked like it had been absolute hell on Remus: the guy didn’t really advertise mental stability on a regular day, but now there were bags under his eyes, what looked like an actual rats nest in his hair, and his shirt was on both backwards and stained that spoke either of having never known what a washing machine was or he killed someone in his cubicle.

Whatever had gone down after Virgil (calmly, not crying, not hurt) asked them to leave must have been bad, if it got the guy who barely knew him to look like he’d been playing matador to eighteen wheelers on the highway.

Virgil knew the exact moment that Remus recognized (remembered, knew) him, too, even though his stupid monkey instinct brain had been shrieking that if he stood still Remus wouldn’t have been able to see him at all.

“Virgil,” Remus said, running a hand through his hair as if to pluck out whatever creature was in it and offer it to him as a greeting. His eyes darted towards the other adults around him with curiosity, as he stood up and kicked his chair behind him back into a cubicle. “What…are ya doing here, kid?”

“Uh, lunch?” Virgil says, surprisingly calm for someone whose brain was nothing but static and swears and scream-sobbing.

Remus stared at the bag in Virgil’s hands, and then up at him and then back at the bag. Virgil wondered for a moment if he had mixed up the plastic bags in Janus’s cars, accidentally grabbing the bag of live, feral squirrels instead of the takeout.

“Lunch,” Remus echoed. “For me?”

Virgil didn’t blame him for being suspicious. Virgil had never come close to acting comfortable in Remus’s presence and he knew it. Remus took whatever Virgil threw at him (hisses, sharp barbed words, the worst soda combinations Virgil could think of) and acted complete unphased, like Virgil was acting normal, like there was nothing wrong with him, like he enjoyed Virgil’s weird attempts at scaring him off.

Virgil took a deep breath and then set his jaw. “Yeah. You. And Logan. Like a family lunch. You. Me. Logan. I thought it would be nice. To talk. And stuff. As a family.”

“Family!” Another other woman from the cubicle behind Remus squealed. And then seemed to realize the attention had landed on her. “Oh sorry! Just pretend I’m not here!”

“Gladly,” Virgil said. He swore he saw Remus’s lips flicker into a wicked grin at the sound, but it was gone in another moment. Fast enough to give whiplash and remind Virgil why exactly Remus was nearly as terrifying as Patton Hart in terms of mind-fuckery shenanigans.

“Anyway,” Virgil said, forcing himself to look at Remus in the eye and challenging him to cut in. “I know that Lo was beating himself up about everything that happened, even though I told him it was… fine and that we talked everything out last night. I was worried about what your coworkers might be saying, even though it's none of their business, and you guys are really fucking good parents.”

Remus smiled, and then he laughed, and part of Virgil thought that he was definitely calling Virgil’s bluff and security at the same time. But instead the man reached out and ruffled Virgil’s hair the same way his real father hadn’t done in ten years. It was so jarring and sudden that Virgil just stood there and took it and definitely did not have to swallow back the sudden urge to cry.

“You are absolutely going to get me killed by Logan,” Remus said, low enough that it was probably just meant for Virgil. “Hey, LOGAN! DARLING, LOVE OF MY LIFE--!”

A door down the narrow hall swung over, nearly so sharp that it dented the inner wall and Logan stuck his head out “Remus, I swear to Newton you better have--Virgil?”

The man jerked forward, although he looked a bit more like he would have loved to slam the door closed again. His glasses had fingerprints on the lenses, and his shirt was the same shade as yesterday, although it did look like someone washed and ironed it, unlike Remus. Whatever morning he had, was certainly not going well, if the scowl that had been on his face was anything to go by.

Still Virgil waved at him, like his hands weren’t shaking, his knees weren’t about to give out, and his stomach wasn’t about to relocate to the office building’s tile floor because rent was cheaper.

“I--” Logan ran a hand through his tie, nervously, although Virgil had never seen Logan nervous. He was confident, honest, brutal; but that made his compliments feel like nobel prizes when they were given out and his scathing remarks hurt all that much more. ((You are not our son and never will be.)) “Virgil, what are you doing here?”

Remus was grinning, though, winking at Virgil as if there was a secret he didn’t know about happening. “Didn’t know you, Lo? Our son brought us lunch.”

Logan leveled him with a glare that Virgil was an extreme fan of. Something he saw Logan give a rude customer at the restaurant once and had ever since been trying to replicate because it was the perfect blend of you’re embarrassing yourself and I’d burn down your house with you in it if I had a lighter on me right now.

And Remus didn’t even look a bit put off by it. It must have been a married couple thing. Or a Remus thing. Or a Remus-was-married-and-got-that-look-enough-to-build-up-an-immunity thing

“What did you do?” Logan asked his husband.

“Logan!” The woman from the lobby scolded. “I can’t believe you! Your wonderful, sweet son walked all the way here to bring you lunch and you--”

“Yeah, our totally sweet son!” Remus chimed in. “He just came in here. All by himself!”

Logan ignored them both, turning his clinical gaze on Virgil the same way the counselors of his previous schools would when his teachers informed them that he was “purposely” failing their classes. Straight and cutting and you are not my son and never will be and--

“I didn’t mean to interrupt your work,” Virgil said in a small voice. “I can come back another time. Or never. I just… I thought… you guys came to visit me yesterday and we never really got lunch so I brought you Pad Thai with tofu. And uhm…” Please. I could make a good son. You don’t even know me yet.

The women around him all took a sharp intake of breath, the person with the orange hair absolutely whimpered as if he’d stabbed them.

“I just… wanted to spend time with you,” Virgil said. “To, uhm, talk.”

“Holy fuck, you’re ruthless,” Remus murmured under his breath, and it nearly felt like praise. He wasn’t exactly sure what the fuck he was being praised for, but he must have done something right.

Logan’s face ran through emotions too fast for Virgil to catch them and classify them. His lungs were pounding against his ribs, trying to expand past what a normal human can breathe for, but then Logan’s eyes melted a fraction, and Virgil thought he could walk on air.

“Of course,” Logan said. “I-- of course, Virgil. Why… why don’t you and Remus come in here and we’ll have lunch.”

Virgil didn’t sprint towards him, but he could understand if everyone else in the office made the mistake of thinking he did. He heard Remus say something about kids that made it sound like he was feeding into that whole Virgil-is-his-son thing further. However all Virgil could think was Logan, and Logan’s Office Away From People, and I didn’t think I was going to get this far did the elevator break and did it crash to the ground killing me on impact?

Remus closed the door behind himself, trapping Virgil in the office with the two adults. It looked a lot like… well… an office. There weren’t any pictures of Remus or anyone on the walls. There weren’t even knick knacks on the desk. Impersonal, kinda cold, uncomfortable, as if Logan didn’t want any distractions from his 9 to 5 day shift or simply did not like anything-- which Virgil knew wasn’t true because the man was married and once went on a rant about space when Virgil was serving him. There was an Excel sheet pulled up on the computer which it seemed that Logan had been correcting before he’d been disturbed by Virgil’s… mess.

((There was a chair in the corner with a suit jacket tossed over it. It didn’t match the one Logan was wearing today.))

The room was silent for a whole second while all three of them listened to the people outside go back to whatever their jobs were.

Then.

“Did you,” Remus started slowly, a light in his eyes that made Virgil’s knees threaten to give out. “Did you just spread the rumor that Logan and I are good parents?! That’s so ballsy, kid!”

Virgil wasn’t sure how much of his smile looked like a grimace. He held out the boxes of food to Logan and Remus. “I am, uh, blackmailing you. Both of you.”

“Blackmailing,” Logan echoed, as Remus grabbed his shoulder and shook them both at a frequency that probably wasn’t safe for humans to be shaken at. “I think I need to sit down. This is not....”

“Oh my god,” Remus whispered. “Holy mother of Culthulu on a butt fucking stick! He’s playing The Game!”

“Game?” Virgil repeated, trying to reign in all the terror welding in his throat that honestly he was surprised hadn’t straight up killed him already. “Uh no-- I don’t-- Look, it’s really simple! I just need Logan to pretend to be my dad for a day. Like shake hands with my teacher, tell him everything is a-okay at home, and then we don’t ever have to speak about it again! Or speak to each other again! Unless you need your coworkers to think you’re a decent person-- not saying that you aren’t! Because I know you both are! Obviously! Because I wouldn’t agree to a three hour car ride with murderers-- did I even say it was a three hour car ride? Oh fuck I’m sorry, this was stupid--”

“Is there a reason things are not… “a-okay” at home?” Logan said, just short of sounding strangled.

Luckily before Virgil could start sobbing Remus threw a hand over Logan’s mouth and leaned forward. “The kid wants you to play parent, Lolo! Stop thinking so much!”

Logan batted his hand away. “Why me? Why not Remus? Or your actual parents?” Logan asked. “Why… me?”

Virgil wilted back despite his best efforts, already feeling his face do that stupid thing where it heats up beyond humiliation and his entire soul craves spontaneous combustion. “Please don’t make me say it.”

But Logan and Remus apparently couldn’t read minds (fuckkkkk) and just continued to stare at him in baffled confusion. Virgil curled his hands into fists and forced himself to stare at the wall behind Logan’s head and state, out loud, for everyone to hear, “You’re cool.”

“Cool,” Logan echoed. “I’m cool. I’m so cool that you think that makes up for the fact that--”

“Look, my actual parents would be excited if they found out a serial killer grabbed me off the street,” Virgil blurted out. “Remus freaks me the fuck out-- no offense, or actually a lot of offense, please stop grinning at me like that-- and you’re cool, don’t ask me to do anything stupid, never told me I was stupid for not understanding calc-- fuck calc-- so yeah you’re at the top of my adults I trust list right now and I just need someone to be my parent for one day so I can go to this seminar that I really want to go to about business finances management. After that you can tell your coworkers whatever the fuck you guys want from me! Tell them I died! I don’t care! I just… please. Just for ten hours. I’ll find a way to pay for gas, food, and housing so you won’t have to spend a dime!”

“Absolutely not--”

“Please!” Virgil said.

“You’re not paying for it!” Logan said. He shoved his glasses up to his hairline and massaged the bridge of his nose and Virgil’s heart stopped in his chest, leaving him as frozen as a statue.

Remus leaned back against Logan’s desk, far too casual. “So….you’re going?”

Logan didn’t answer right away. Virgil didn’t often subscribe to the idea that hope felt like a fluttery thing, but goddamnit did hope feel like a moth with a broken wing struggling to find some way through a glass window pane. He felt like he was going to be sick; he felt like he was going to pass out.

Logan placed a hand on his desk to steady himself. “...where… is this event.”

“YES!” Virgil couldn’t help himself. Luckily, Remus and Logan didn’t look too bothered by his outburst. He dug the crumpled folded flyer from his pocket and smoothed it out for Logan to look at, which he accepted easily, already scanning the red, green, and blue writing with a critical eye.

Virgil knew he was grinning stupidly-- like more stupid than when he watched Janus trip on the sidewalk or answer a question with an abundance of confidence just to be wrong-- but he couldn’t bring himself to stop. He tucked a loose strand of hair behind his ear and turned halfway, to find that Remus was picking through the takeout boxes, and watching him.

“Uh,” Virgil said, smile dropping. “Sorry. That I’ll be stealing your husband for a day. Is… is that okay? Do you guys need to talk about that?”

Remus snorted. “Yeah so, funny story: Logan and I aren’t actually--”

“--in need of discussing it,” Logan cut in, suddenly talking over Remus without looking up from the flyer, or his phone where he was googling something. “I seem to recall a conversation where…. What was it? Ah yes: Just because you let me put a ring on your hand does not mean that either of us controls the other.”

“Oh my god, were you guys actually going to have a divorce?” Virgil blurted out. “Oh shit, did I just make this worse?”

“No,” Remus and Logan said at the same time, in such an agreement that it startled both of them and Virgil raised his hands in a placating move.

“No, kid,” Remus said. “Logan and I just need to have a… conversation.”

“More than one,” Logan added.

“About what we want out of…this.”

“Yes. This.”

Virgil glanced between them. “You guys are acting weird and I don’t like it.”

“Virgil, I am concerned about the statement you made about your parents not caring if a serial killer killed you,” Logan said. “Please, elaborate.”

“It’s not important,” Virgil said automatically. “Really. I think whatever the two of you have going on is far more detail worthy--”

“I also would like you to know that I will not be starting any rumors about you having died, especially not to my coworkers. Remus?”

“The game is not fun when people are getting hurt,” Remus… agreed? Virgil wasn’t sure exactly what was going on. “So, for the foreseeable future you are going to be our son, which is technically providing a service, wouldn’t you agree, Lo?”

“Yes. Providing a service requires a payment. How does thirty dollars an hour sound?”

“What the fuck,” Virgil said. “Wait--”

“This event is an all day affair, which means both of us will be too tired to do any driving afterwards, so that means a hotel,” Logan continued. “Remus, I assumed that you would like to join? Excellent. I’ll have Patton approve your days off. Two bedrooms. Virgil, you mentioned you like to sleep in so I assume a check out around noon the following day, plus a three hour drive back here, would make a total of…. Around twenty seven hours. Which comes out to a total of eight hundred ten dollars. Does that sound adequate?”

Virgil looked at Remus. “I think I made a mistake.”

Remus laughed at him. “I think we should round it to an even thousand.”

“No!” Virgil shrieked. “That was not a solution!”

“Face it, kid. You just won yourself two sugar daddies in one go.”

“Stop talking!” Virgil said. “You are not going to pay me to be your son on a trip that I am blackmailing you into going on!”

“Sure we are,” Remus said, talking through a mouth of food. “Gotta make up for all the birthdays we missed for our son.”

Virgil thought he was going to melt into the floor. But uh, it was nice? Kinda? Logan was definitely holding a piece of a smile on his normally stoic face and Remus was almost chill and they had been in this room together for a whole five minutes and nothing had exploded and neither of them had tried to kill him for pretending to be their son or otherwise revealed that they were insanely evil.

So, yeah. When Virgil saw them in the restaurant he didn’t think he was going to actually get adopted, but well…Virgil was tentatively hopeful for how this might turn out.

(Part 6)

#sanders sides #intrulogical #anxceit #remus sanders #logan sanders #virgil sanders #janus sanders #patton sanders #Hahah yeah that certainly is one way to gain a son #fake marriage #fake dating #fake adoption???#Rumor Mill Au #sympathetic remus #Maybe having a child really will save this marriage #Far too many OCs #Virgil has a +20 to Charisma despite literally everything #Because I make the rules

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incarnateirony · 12 days

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WHAT A DAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY. Okay so, back to good old day in the life.

Anyway, I'm still in a bit of a fluff. My cab cancelled on me a few times today. I got in just as they called my name because well, once I realized ztrip customer service was garbage, I reached in deep, made a special call while calling uber, and got the uber driver willing to cut 10 minutes off a 30 minute drive. Full on came in out of breath and off my center and even then was more frustrated to have to wait to get this dismissed than worried.

No fr tho the one thing I was worried about getting me was Mercury in Retrograde. When I say I'm stuck tied to certain embodiments I mean it son, and while I can reverse uno magic games on it, it also reverse unos things like my traffic, and my four times my cab got cancelled. I panic ordered the uber and the cab finally called still fifteen minutes out, and I reached in my traveler's soul and chose, no, sorry, my uber is about to be here. Dude cussed me out but like, you guys are an hour and four cancellations late, I'm going to do me. And I had messaged the uber already saying I'll tip pretty if she gets here fast and gets me to Liberty faster, because my cab screwed me four times and i got court with like a few thousand on the line. And boy man she drove up like HOP IN and was pulling out like I GOT YOUR MESSAGE WE ARE GOING TO RED LINE IT

youtube

And that's when I knew I had the right person for my cab. She was like no fr you are going to do it I hear god and he is with you he is in you you will be fine you will make it. Be with me we're making it, no red lights on the red line.

So here I am almost blowing through the detectors doubling back running in getting stalled by the bailiff and on god I was there sitting down when my name was called, admittedly still kerfluffled. That was wholesale no aesh nor aermes nor anyone that was Aaron in upside down mode but I MADE IT where's the buzzer to hit.

So, that was funny. Walk in. Sign it. Walk out. No attempt to contact? I'm the one being contacted. Can it make that person stay 500 feet away from me? And just as far from me? Oh, you want me to file, ok. Can't mention by name? Cool. Most of my stuff is generic composite tweets. In fact the judge didn't even know what was handed to her, they tried to say it was All Me. Gave it a thought, asked about direct character references since this is over a game basically, got told if you have to ask, then no; ah, common sense, then I'm still allowed to like. Exist and talk about normal things in my life unaddressed to this person on my blog. You know. Like free speech, without libel, and without anything targeted. Cool. When the judge stared baffled at the tweet piles asking who was what I didn't have the energy to say it's tweets from thousands of accounts. Dismissal of all suits, signed declining all court costs. Zero liability. I could have fought even the rest but I just could not be assed. Again I would not have shown up if someone wasn't trying to get money from me.

Now I have an address to file all my suits to.

I was given a chance to stall for another court date to get consult and counterfile or get a lawyer since I really got the papers like a week ago, but like, I literally. could not be assed, because an ex parte on This Person is pointless too, it won't stop the way they do their abuses. I need to file for something else and different. Sure I could fight to not even sign the 500 foot thing but like, why, if the judge was dismissing all the fees? Lmao? Ok. And I go back to. Not addressing this person directly, or Through Any Third Party Attempting To Contact This Person. I mean. Like. There's a joke here I want to make really, really bad, but I'm not going to risk it just in case since someone's in peak abuser mode right now and would try to waste another day of my life on this before I get my own papers in. All I can say is, good luck, I nor any friend has reached out to This Person, This Person has always reached out to me both direct and third person. Or come to me. So as long as I don't Direct Name This Person and continue to Not Contact The Person I Was Not Contacting, I can post whatever the fuck I want on my blog. Basically, no more direct challenges or whatever. That's lmao fine I already said I was done with alla that???? why am i gonna miss another workday for this. This dumb person, whoever they were, is the one that got their papers here enough to restart it, not end it. No seriously I was done with the Thelema readings but guess who brought papers that literally made me start again. No, guess, I can't/won't say. Idk can't remember. Something about butter, and lobsters. Good morning, I dreamt of Tartarus Shrimp. Oh is that why I am where I am right now.

Took a chance with consult after a smoke, basically I file my own harassment documents and all of it, I even then petition to have this equally meaningless "I deny all allegations but will never go near the person I've never been near that called me here or cease contact or name mention or whatever even if I'm the one being contacted" or. whatever. Okay. So I can talk about my life just not name. a person. i guess. Who I barely name except on key dates, but that can stop ez no prob. But there's probably a few thousand dollars here for me if I can dig up proof of which group did which social damages likely to have impacted which currents, and with it ongoing for a few years, at about 100/mo, plus whatever else gets pinned in. Someone's gonna have a bad day in half a year. idk who. It's like they've been bleached from my brain like I'm begging. But with what I even walked in with today it was enough to shuffle through that I have a pretty good fucking case. Against whoever this is. Maybe I'll remember when the court mail about the person that called me to be near them while telling me to stay away from them shows up. idk. All I know is we're looking at something like $3000 roughly before I do any Pain And Suffering depending which legal avenue I take this, but three years is a LOT of pain and suffering. That's one of those numbers they aren't comfortable speculating in a quick consult.

Supposedly mail comes in 3 days, which is good. Today I'm gonna hard chill after this, but tomorrow I try to finish business license stuff, since that's due by Friday. Then I have some other. Other things. To fit in. But they're more loose time frame of a few months, short of me needing to rotate plants soon. That gives me all the time in the world to end the monster plaguing my life through the warfare they wanted. I have a goal to have it filed with everything I need on backup by Jun 20, so that's something. I'd like it in court no later than September 18th, so we shall see.

I know for a fact the judge was lied to by them today, but I'm more holding my tongue. They said, and I quote, that everything on my blog is from me, while sending other things that as we know, are often composite tweets, reblogs, or anything else. Should this person attempt to abuse the law again, and I have to actually defend myself for real, I would be more than happy to evoke the previous purjury and misrepresentation of evidence to get this thrown out as well. When I say I did not want to fight, and could not be assed to deal with this today, and just wanted to handwave it, the name of a person I have been begging to let me free me from the aggressions and inescapable presence of for three invasive years is truly not that fucking important to me as a person. That person has learned to leave me the fuck alone, but is going to continue learning all the way through September.

Money lost today: $0 (OK I lied there was cab fare but that goes in later lawsuit) Things gained today: Peace of mind Things gained yesterday* (proverbial): Leaving a mark on my abuser that can never be forgotten by them so perhaps the lesson is learned at least in the social part, a road towards my utter righteous vengeance on whoever wishes to do me harm, and should anyone wedge a foot in this shoe by choice let us go to court. Things gained tomorrow* (proverbial): A few thousand dollars in damages awarded, a restraining order against my stalker, a C&D against them The expression when someone realized they weren't getting rich: priceless.

I wonder if someone thinks that'll stop like, the collective unconscious or whatever.

Anyway, on to the rest of my life that you're now stuck with watching the language of, class. It's unfortunate the mask had to be ripped off this way. Yes, hello, the random D20 nerd/Supernatural fan/whatever gamer nerd garbage/BTS blog is secretly a wizard, cope.

So anyway, it's the full moon, girlies (gn). 10th house lilith gets to go bye bye this season. Did you know a moon that refuses to be full is Lilith? But Lilith has no place here. She can sea herself out. Even with the black snake on loan. It was shot into the moon's shadow during the eclipse by NASA, you see. Just like the octopus is only good for distributing information on its tendrils or whatever it was Claude was talking about. It's the rising tides that matter. In fact, this is a great moon for purification, you can outright sanitize names, people from your life, break toxic bonds or make great changes towards things you want. Careers. Life paths. Dissolution of shadows. Sometimes even starting legal pursuits! Me, I wanted to sue someone, and I think that's on track for fall now. I love a good ritual. Warning, werewoofs get aggressive on full moons. I hear some other animals act odd too. Like coyotes. Or bears. Speaking of recent rituals, I'd say the recent putrefaction is coming along nicely if I look at it. Oh yes. This is going better than I could have planned linearly.

I'm currently sitting at a nice joint downtown. There's a lot of nice restaurants down here. Shriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimp.

No really, there's a nice bar and grill like right next to the courthouse, I deserve a pint after this fucking liberation.

Nah, not drinking, just a root beer if that counts. Got a box and gonna call an uber instead of waiting around for My Mark. That'd be 3-4 hours hell naw I'll pay the uber back

#Youtube

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ianspideythompson · 10 months

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The Jump to Streaming - Was It Worth It?

I’ve been watching and covering the streaming wars for a few years now, and looking at the current state of it, along with the pandemic and the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strike exposing how broken the industry is, it’s left me thinking this: was the jump and transition to streaming worth in the end? Because at this point, it sucks for everyone involved: the studios, the creatives, and the consumers.

Studios who decided to hop in the game and compete with Netflix by creating their own streaming services have found out that streaming isn’t profitable (or at the very least, it’s nowhere near as profitable as the box office, physical media, VOD, and linear TV) because the revenue generated is almost entirely based on subscriptions. Putting out a show or a movie on a streaming service is practically putting it out for free since those individual titles aren’t generating profit as they would on the aforementioned release avenues. Streamers just have to hope that the release of a show or film on their platform drives enough sign-ups to break even and generate profit. And as a result, studios lose millions, if not billions on their services.

The creatives (specifically the writers and actors striking right now) behind shows and movies made for streamers are getting little to no residuals from them. Writer Kyra Jones shared that the first residual check she got from writing on the ABC show Queens was $12,000. The first residual check she got from writing on the Hulu show Woke was $4. Writer Cody Ziglar’s episode of She-Hulk netted him just $396 in residuals, despite the episode (the one where Daredevil returns) being one the most watched episodes of one of the most watched series on Disney+. Kimiko Glenn, who played Soso on Orange Is the New Black, mentioned that many of the actors on the show still worked second jobs because they weren’t being paid enough to sustain themselves. For shows licensed to streamers, it’s essentially the same. Gilmore Girls, which ran on The WB in the 2000s, has been one of the most popular shows on Netflix since they started streaming it. Sean Gunn, who played Kirk Gleason on the show, said in an interview that he’s seen almost no money from licensing fee Netflix pays Warner Bros. to stream the show.

And for the consumer, the convenience of it has been diluted. In the early days of streaming, it was just Netflix and Hulu, and between the two services, they had pretty much everything you’d need to drop cable. Now there are too many streaming services, and with all the price hikes that occurred in the last few years, just subscribing to a few of the major ones costs the same, if not more, than cable at this point. Not to mention streamers have made it so that we can’t get attached to any original they produce. A streamer puts out a show that’s not an instant hit that you, me, and everyone we know watched, it gets prematurely canceled (Hey remember when Netflix use to save canceled shows? Oh how the tables have turned). And thanks to a certain studio introducing this precedent, prematurely canceled streaming shows now get yanked off the service, written off in taxes, thrown into the abyss, and then banished to the Shadow Realm. And since streaming media rarely get physical releases, they’re to stay in the Shadow Realm, never to be seen again.

As much as it doesn’t feel like it is now, and I think it’s safe to say it’s done more harm than good at this point, streaming is still ultimately the future. There’s no turning back from it unless every service goes under and shuts down. And even if that were to happen, I’m not sure if those who cut the cord are going to want to buy a new one. And as a strong proponent for physical media, nothing would make me happier than to see everyone start buying DVDs and Blu-Rays again and video stores making a comeback - but that’s likely not going to happen either.

I don’t know what the future holds for streaming. Truth be told, I don’t think it will ever be as profitable as physical media, VOD, or linear TV. But that isn’t going to stop from studios from trying to make streaming as profitable as the days of physical media, VOD, and linear TV. I won’t pretend to have the answers here, but it ain’t hard to tell that the current streaming model is unsustainable. Trying to cut costs by replacing writers and actors with AI won’t make streaming more profitable. Continuing to prematurely cancel new shows when they’re not instant smash hits and not giving them the chance to find an audience as well as having streaming services full of one-season shows won’t make it more profitable either.

Streaming may still be the future, but it clearly shouldn’t be relied upon as the primary means of media distribution. Perhaps studios should let films sit on VOD and physical media for longer than they currently do before dropping them on a streaming service. I remember growing up, a new film wouldn’t make it to TV until several months to a year later. And speaking of TV, linear TV may be dying, but it’s a slow death and for the studios who still have broadcast channels, it’s still a way to reach people and get sign-ups. In November of last year, Disney aired the first two episodes of Andor across ABC, FX, and Freeform. Earlier this year, they did this again by airing the pilot episode of The Mandalorian across the networks. And this fall they’re about to do it again with Ms. Marvel (although this is likely more as a result of the fact that they’ll be nothing on TV this fall).

But do you know what could ultimately help? By paying the actors and writers the residuals they deserve, not automating their jobs away, and giving them opportunities and tools to create more new and exciting films and shows, and in the case of television, not prematurely canceling them when they’re not hits straight off the bat and allow them to find audiences.

What do y’all think? Let me know and keep supporting the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strike. Solidarity forever.

#streaming #WGA #WGA Strike #sag-aftra #sag #sag strike #writers strike #actors strike #workers solidarity #Solidarity Forever #residuals #current events #was it worth it?#i stand with the wga #wga solidarity #essay #in this essay i will

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lazypanartist · 2 years

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One Mikey × Starsick hot n ready! I hope you enjoy and you feel better!

-📝 nonnie

---

Michelangelo had everything planned out to a T.

The youngest was going all out. He had a very nice human disguise all ready to go, a fun jacket and shirt, baggy cargo pants with straps here and there, some old high tops, and a sunset toned beanie. He was going to take you to the museum of natural history during a slow day with no big fancy shows to bring a sudden influx of humans who might discover him, so he could focus on hanging out with you. The museum had a section with a planetarium, something he knew you'd love.

He'd get you something from the gift shop. He looked online, and had several plushy ideas, but goal 1 would be the astronaut.

Mikey then had a reservation at Run of the Mill Pizza for after your trip to the natural history museum so there was a guaranteed table. He made sure to expressly tell Hueso that this was a date, and to please for the love of everything keep his brothers out while you were both there. Not that he didn't love his brothers! No, he loved them all deeply.

He just knew they'd want to spy and pry and mess with him on his date.

The two of you would have a delightful night either eating regular OR exotic pizzas, whichever you would be up for. Then, when you both were full and lazy, he would take you back to your apartment and you would cuddle up watching old sci-fi or space adjacent movies and shows. He had the full season of Stargate S-G1, The Little Prince, Passengers, and even Event Horizon, all thanks to his craftiest brother hooking him up. Each a different flavour of the stars for whatever you might have been craving.

(He almost got Interstellar, but Donatello steered him VEHEMENTLY away from that choice, decidedly declaring it Not Great.)

Now, this wasn't the first time you hung out together- far, FAR from it. But, it would be the first Specifically Romantic Date you both had, the two of you testing the waters to see if you could handle the jump from Friends to More Than. He had asked you honestly last week if you would go, making his feelings abundantly clear, and you seemed shy but excited at the prospect. If he didn't know any better, Michelangelo would think that maybe you harboured some feelings for him.

…Wait.

His brain malfunctioned briefly, face hot at the idea that maybe, just maybe, you really really liked him back. Should he ask you?

…He would wait for now.

Regardless! He had this date planned exceptionally well!! He had everything in order, and a little earlier than he thought you would on Date Night, you texted him.

His brothers were all nearby to give moral support before he went out, Leo reminding him to just relax, Raphael instructing him to use his finest manners, as if he wouldn't! …But he was glad he was reminded about opening doors and pulling out chairs and keeping his elbows off tables. Donatello had of course been the one to provide him with his watching material, claiming he asked "a friend" for some good recommendations, but the softshell also gave him his free spending money for the date.

(...For a cost. He DID have to help with some minor testing in the lab for it. Fish would apparently STILL taste like creamed corn for the next 2 days.)

His brothers all watched as their youngest pulled out his phone, eager for his first date with you to go well.

They also watched as their little brother's face fell, a look of dejection and worry replacing the excitement that was just there.

"Uh oh. What's wrong Miguel? What happened??"

Mikey swallowed nervously, pocketing the phone. "They uh. They're sick. And cancelled."

The den went quiet for all of 5 seconds before erupting in shock and anger.

"What!! No way, this is too last minute. What did it say exactly?!"

Mikey felt his eyes spin as Donatello shook him. "Uh. It said 'Hey, I'm sorry, I'm going to have to cancel. I have a cold.' Those words exactly."

Donnie's face creased in worry as his mind whirled. Raph stepped up next, arm slinging around the youngest. "Now, it's okay. You can always reschedule! It'll be alright lil bro."

"Are we sure they're sick?"

Warm tones looked over at the cool toned twins. "Whaddya mean?"

Leonardo crossed his arms and looked over at Don, the two having a similar thought cross their mind.

…Could you be flaking because you didn't want to be with their brother? Couldn't see yourself being with 'aaalll this'?

Maybe they were just a wee bit protective, but this all sounded AWFULLY convenient if you wanted to mess with the youngest.

"...I'm just saying, maybe call them, yeah?"

Mikey picked up on their mistrust and, while he wanted to scream at them that you would never…the mutant had his insecurities. Anxiously, with your contact still open, he called you.

It rang once before you answered.

"Hu'lo…?"

The four turtles winced almost audibly. Yeah, you were definitely sick, your voice was cracked and dry like the desert earth.

"Hi! Hey, are you okay? You said you were sick?"

"Mhm…" You rasped, rolling over on your back. "I think it's a cold. Hurts a lot. Sorry Mikey, I really wanted to go. I hope you didn't have big plans…"

Michelangelo's heart squeezed at how pitiful you sounded. "Well, I did-"

"-Nope!! He had no big plans at all!"

"...LeonAdo…?"

Whoops. Raphael shoved the red eared slider away. "Hey! Sorry, Mike told us you were sick and we got worried. Wanted to uh, send a care package and whatnot."

Nice save!

Even your laugh sounded weak as you chuckled at his eldest brother's mother henning. "You guys are s…sweet. Sorry. Hurts to swallow…"

Donatello stiffened. "Can you give me your symptoms?"

"Mhm. Sore throat, fever, fatigue, achey…hurts to talk and swallow…"

"Mh, you haven't coughed once…I need you to go check something. Find a mirror or use your phone camera and see if there's any red or white spots on your throat or tonsils. You'll need to open your mouth wide and stick your tongue out."

You gave an exhausted "okay" and they could hear you shuffle off away from your phone.

"Yeah they're sick, and if they're spotty, it's strep. Which means they've been taking the wrong medicine for it." Donatello sighed. "It also explains how it cropped up so quick."

Right on que, you came back stating you had blisters and spots. Suddenly, all of his brothers had their own idea of what you could need in a little get well soon package.

Donatello had a handle on medicine, making sure to get you some anesthetic throat spray and antibiotics. Even if you didn't HAVE a cough, you could cough, and it would feel utterly awful and probably make you bleed or pop…eugh. Yeah. None of that. Leonardo knew a few home remedies that Splinter made when they were little. It wouldn't be as good as the medicine, but the honey, cinnamon and lemon concoction would soothe your throat and peppermint tea would be good for you. Raph got together some stuff for a quick potato soup and crackers, as well as apple juice, worried your body might be going through feast-or-fast due to your sickness.

Mikey straightened his mask some. Sure, his brothers were giving you goodies to fight off this virus, but he had an even better plan to help you.

–

You jolted awake from your 3rd nap so far to something outside your landing knocking into a chair. Tiredly, you got up and shuffled to the balcony door and opened the curtain, making sure to slip a mask on before.

You blinked slowly, brain processing the sunny mutant standing on the other side. "Michelangelo…?"

"Hey hey! Doctor Mikey's in the house!" He grinned behind his own cloth mask, waving energetically.

"What about Dr. Feelings or Delicate Touch..?" you lightly joked, stepping out of his way.

The terrapin waved you off as he slipped inside, setting the duffle bag he had on your floor. "Those are more Emotional doctors. Doctor Mikey is here to help you feel better!" He gently led you to the couch and sat you down. "Now! How are you feeling?"

"Bad," you wheezed. "I keep getting heat flashes and my bones and throat just…Hurt, man."

Your friend could absolutely tell you felt miserable. Your eyes were glossy like Perceus's shield but dark as the depths Cetus swam through. Nothing like the bright sparks they normally were, cautious and curious and always for him.

You couldn't see it, but felt his frown. "That's awful…well! No matter, I should have just what you need!"

You watched the box turtle dig into the bag he brought along, pulling out Tupperware and boxes of tea before finding his prize, a bottle of tablet pills, some painkillers, and a spray bottle. "Now, nurse Donnie-"

"He will turn you into 100% water if he hears you called him nurse."

"Hush, he's tried that already. Anyways, Don says that you need to take these once a day and you can spray your throat twice every 4 hours. It'll numb it so you can ingest stuff better!"

The grateful look you gave made the butterflies in his gut kick into gear. Michelangelo passed over the three objects and watched you stiffly take the antibiotic and tylenol before using the spray. "Thank you. Let him know I appreciate it." You sighed. "Throat feels so much better…"

The mutant was elated at how quickly the medicine worked, and he went flitting about your home, albeit a bit nervously, getting more stuff gathered as he made you rest on the couch. He didn't want to be spotted by someone who wasn't supposed to see him. "Sooo…where's the fam?"

"Out." You rattled out, looking over to the window. "For a while. Mom's visiting my uncle in the hospital and helping my aunt with the niblings, and Ma's work transferred her to New Jersey for a bit."

"Wow, I think that's a hate crime."

You barked a laugh, which made you bones and brain hurt but you didn't mind. "I said the same thing…!"

"So who's taking care of you?"

You rolled your eyes, grin not leaving as you motioned to yourself in grandeur. "I'm a big kid, I can take care of myself."

Wow, that had to be the saddest thing he heard all day.

The box turtle hid his frown and went about gathering blankets, pillows, all manner of soft cozy things for you to curl into on the couch in front of the tv screen. You were watching crappy daytime television, something he was keen on fixing quickly.

"Are you hungry?"

"A bit. I've been iffy with food."

Michelangelo nodded and grabbed the container of soup from his go bag, snagging the tea and other concoctions that had been shoved in. He made you half a bowl and brewed two cups of the mint tea, bringing it out in your favorite matching mugs, setting it all before you before taking a seat in the recliner nearby.

He watched as you slipped your mask off, taking a bite of the potato soup, only to gain a puzzled look.

"You didn't make this?"

"Ah! No, it was Raphael! How could you tell?"

It didn't taste like his love. There was love, yes, but not Michelangelo's. Raph's was warm like embers, comforting and cozy like a blanket during a snowstorm. Mikey's was like a brilliant sun beam, catching cathedral windows and flashing all colours and shapes.

"Mh, you add more salt."

You got a laugh from the youngest as you kept eating, watching as he took his mask off as well to sip tea with you.

"You're gonna get siiiiick…"

"Psh, please. My immune system is great!"

"Whatever you say~"

The two of you ate and drank mildly, once in a while chatting about the other brothers and mission or laughing at whatever your cat Félicette did that was silly. It was easy, it was calm.

Guilt was eating you alive.

"I'm sorry I ruined our date…"

Mikey looked over, the string he held forgotten as Félicette pounced on it and tore off down the hall with her kill. "What?"

"Our date. I uh…Heh, I kinda really messed…everything up, huh…?"

Mikey frowned. "No, you didn't. You can't control that. You can't control, like, getting sick."

You sighed, staring into your tea.

"...Would you be mad if I had been the one getting sick?"

"What?"

"If I had gotten sick, and cancelled, would you be mad?"

"No…?"

"Then why should I be mad?"

You opened your mouth once, twice, before sighing and looking away.

Your ninja friend got up, mask slipped back on and moved to the bag. He then grabbed one of the movies and threw it on. However, instead of going back to the recliner, he plopped on the couch next to you.

"I'm not mad you're sick. Promise. Now! Have you seen Event Horizon? Don says it's good."

You smiled a bit, leaning your head on the terrapin's shoulder. This was easy. Familiar.

You loved this.

What you DIDN'T love was your nerves eating away at you. He had to have planned something, right? Leo said it was nothing, but…

Your artist…datemate? Boyfriend? Currently just a friend but testing the waters for more? Anyways, he was drawn into the horror movie quite easily, his eyes drawn to every little detail and hint about what was to come. He seemed to be really enjoying it, despite him clinging to you with every stressful scene.

"...So, uh. What did you have planned?"

"Mh?"

"The date." You looked down at your half full tea, now gone cold. "You uh…you had plans. What were they?"

"Well, I was…Uh, gonna take you to get pizza. Watch movies like…now, eheh."

"That's it?"

"Maybegototheplanetarium-"

You hand dragged down the side of your face. "That sounds so sweet…ugh, I'm-"

"Don't…!"

"But I am! I'm sorry! I feel awful knowing you had something nice planned and I ruined it!"

Orange turned to face you directly, making you shrink back a bit. "You did. Not. Ruin. It. We can go some other time! Look, we're having our date now!"

"But-"

Three fingered hands gently grabbed your own, mask covered eyes boring into yours as his obscured mouth continued.

"Why do you think I should be mad at you? Why is it okay for me to be sick and cancel, but you have to hold yourself to a much higher, much more unfair standard?"

Your standards for yourself seemed to reach the stars themself, dooming you as a cosmonaut to burn alive before reaching them.

"Because you deserve someone who doesn't mess up the first date!!"

(You deserve better than me. I'm not the best and you deserve perfection.)

Angrily, Michelangelo ripped his medical mask off and yanked yours down, pulling you into a bruising, emotional kiss. He pulled away after a moment, huffing angrily at you.

No…not anger. Frustration. Frustration that you don't treat yourself like you treat others- with care and understanding.

"Y…Mikey, you're going to get sick..!"

He kissed you again, before peppering your cheeks with more.

"There. We both messed up."

Your very, very warm face screwed in confusion. But he could see curiosity spark in your eyes.

"What? No, you didn't, that was- Mikey, you're a really good ki- no, I mean, didn't even get a chance to kiss- YOU'RE GOING TO GET SICK!!" Flustered, you quickly pulled your mask back up.

"First off, my immune system is great, so if I do, then there's no way you WOULDN'T have gotten sick."

"Michelangelo…"

"And two! You're not supposed to kiss on the first date. So I messed it up pretty bad, probably as bad as getting sick."

You opened your mouth to deny that he did so, tell him he didn't ruin the date, but if you did, you'd be admitting that your sickness didn't ruin it either.

The youngest could see when his ruse clicked, your eyes brightening like Polaris and Andromeda were held in them. He had you caught, and as you rolled your eyes, he knew you couldn't help smiling.

"Okay, okay, sorry-"

"You…!"

"For being hard on myself!!"

Michelangelo grinned brightly, his joy warming you like a red dwarf star.

"I think you should apologize to yourself. And try to be more fair, okay?"

The mutant's eyes widened as you pulled your mask back down and kissed him sweetly. "Okay. Have to say, pretty good for a bad first date."

–

You held the backpack tightly, filled to the brim with goodies and soups and movies galore.

You WERE supposed to be going on your second date with your favorite turtle, buuuut…

"See! I told you I wouldn't get sick!"

You couldn't help the unimpressed look as you stared at Raphael, who sheepishly waved while sipping some water before wincing. Donnie was passed out on the couch, apparently too fatigued to make it to his room. Leo was spraying disinfectant cleaner all over himself, not wanting you to re-catch your strep throat. Splinter holed himself up in his room after shotgunning what you were positive was pure honey and lemon juice.

"Yeah, but you spread it to literally everyone else in the lair." Sighing fretfully, you put a mask on. "Come on, Doctor Mikey. I'll heat up the veggie soup if you start on getting them all some medicine."

"Roger that, Doctor Datemate!" he beamed.

🧡

Doctor Datemate and Nurse Donnie, lmao 🤣 We can tell who he's trying to actually get along with 💕

Just. Love how the rest of the turtles send things with Mikey to help you ^-^

#kana's chats #📝 anon #rottmnt #rottmnt x reader #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rise of the tmnt #rise mikey x reader

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